The tides of change (Tales of a gutsy Ninja 1) - under revision

Chapter 8 : Mission troubles

"The role of information officer, or in your case, information agent, is to observe threat level, gather and report the required information to the squad leader so they can take the appropriate steps."

"So basically, Reconnaissance for Konoha means keeping an eye out for whatever could be a threat to the village and pass the information to the right people so they can efficiently and effectively take it out." Aira summarized.

"Yes, which is why someone like you, who can block their mind against genjutsu and other mind attacks is a sought after individual for the information team."

It is not impossible for the military to train people to give up their life than crumble under torture. But in this world where information could be extracted by the use of certain jutsus to break into a person's mind, Aira could be considered a more secure brain to keep information in...

'THAT explains why I got a Tier 1 scholarship.'

But since this was the type of life she signed up for as a ninja, Aira wasn't averse to it. It meant less dependency on pure strength, just that...

* * * * *

"S-Sensei...can I have some dango before I finally die?"

Aira lay on the floor, too tired to worry about her clothes being drenched in sweat. On the ground next to her was a training wood sword with splintered edges.

"I told you I don't have openings. That's why you need to-"

"Focus on defense? Every time I block, I feel like my arm will get blown off!" Aira shouted. 'Damn! It's too hot and exercise only flares my temper more!'

The training was hell.

Indeed, the perfect way to describe it was hell.

For six months since she got placed on Team Hayate, she followed a fixed schedule.

Wake up and get ready. 1 hour warming up. 3 hours of sword stances. Breakfast. 1 hour of Chakra control. 2 hours of ninjutsu practice with Akira. Lunch. 4 hours of studies and finally 3 hours sparring session with Hayate-sensei. This was done on travel as she accompanied Team Hayate on D rank missions.

It started off easy, being asked to practice hand signs so many times and so fast so that she could make them quickly as and when required. She had already learnt those signs back in the academy, it was merely about practicing to be able to do it as easy as breathing, able to do it even if she was half-asleep or distracted by pain. In the anime, the characters always created those complex hand signs at an insane speed, but if one finger goes wrong, the entire jutsu gets messed up.

Then it went to insane mode when Gekko Hayate began to drill kenjutsu in her.

"Who was it that wanted to learn bukijutsu?" Hayate-sensei asked sternly, but Aira couldn't feel anger or irritation from him.

He was way calmer than her. Especially the point where he allowed her to vent all her anger out, not taking her words seriously.

"Since our team is not offense-based, our first confrontation with the enemy will likely start as their attack. To even figure out what to do next, you need to be able to dodge and block attacks. Get time to step back and recalculate the course of action."

'If I wanted to take up the role of a tank, I would have chosen to be reborn as a buff middle-aged man!'

"Calm down...use your chakra" Aira whispered to herself. There was no point just swinging swords, learning how to use a sword takes a few years just to learn the basics. That included parrying attacks.