March 17th?Bit by bit, Tobio could feel his own taijutsu prowess beginning to rise. Given that Ami and Hibachi had their own areas of focus that month, and full ptes, that meant that he was subjected to the entirety of Tekuno-sensei's attention. Whether that was good or not was a little subjective.

  On one hand, he was getting the stuffing beaten out of him, day in and day out. He was walking home with bruises and aches that he didn't even know someone could get. Oh, his sensei was a smart bastard, who always seemed to know just what limits Tobio had in terms of how much he could take.

  It would have been annoying, if it wasn't so goddamn true.

  On the other hand, it was good to be pushed to his limits. To be forced to engage muscles that he would have never thought to use, in his old life. Hour by hour, knowing that his full potential was being brought to the surface. With each drop of sweat and blood that hit the dirt, whatever weakness existed in him was being painstakingly removed.

  What was being forged and left behind was something harder, firmer, and far more dangerous. He wasn't at that invisible checkpoint where everything just clicked, though. Just like Tekuno had told him, his gains were beginning to slow down, bit by bit. The gulf between one stage and another was bigger than he would have expected, much to his chagrin.

  That was what he realized after the end of another training session with his sensei, hands on his knees as he let out ragged breaths. Sweat drenched his forehead, as Tobio gnced up at Tekuno…who was barely even winded. That bastard.

  For someone carrying around as much weight as he was, he shouldn't have been able to move that quickly. What made it worse was that Tobio knew that this wasn't even his sensei's specialty. If they'd gone at each other with weapons in hand, the defeat would have felt even worse.

  Painfully, it served as another reminder that he hadn't even begun to reach the true heights of this world. There were old monsters lurking out there that would have made Tekuno look like a joke, some of them in this very vilge. More than anything else, that might have been enough to drive him on even further.

  Knowing that until he'd reached that peak, he'd never really be safe.

  As self-destructive as the thought was, he knew he'd never be able to stop. An ignition didn't stop until it was out of fuel to burn, and he'd immote himself alive on the alter of his own ambitions. When the alternative was putting his fate in the hands of others, well…

  Anything else just wasn't acceptable.

  "You're making progress," Tekuno chimed in, inspecting his raggedly breathing student. "But it's slowed down. Not that we didn't expect that…"

  "After the strides I was making before, it's a little annoying," Tobio readily admitted.

  His sensei shrugged. "That's just how it goes sometimes. On the better news, I will have some training weights for you next month, if you're ready to start using them."

  One of the most iconic scenes in Naruto history was Rock Lee taking off his training weights. He didn't think he was quite on Lee's level yet, but he couldn't be that far off, and the weights would be good to help him close the gap. "Is there a catch?"

  "Well, they're gonna be sealed weights," Tekuno expined. "Not something you can take off that easily in the heat of battle, but the gains you'll receive will definitely be increased, the more weights you wear. It'll also be something that'll drag you down in a fight, if you end up fighting in them."

  So, unsurprisingly, there were drawbacks. Lee did basically have a big-ass lull in the fight that allowed him to take his own off, in the story. If Gaara hadn't been so utterly arrogant, he likely would have attacked Lee during that point.

  "I guess I'll make a decision on how much I'll be wearing closer to that point," he shrugged. "Cool-down exercises to finish up?"

  "You know it. I'm gonna go check on Hibachi and Ami. You're fine for now?"

  "Yeah." Or, at the very least, he would be, if given time. His progress physically had slowed, but he was still making headway in other regards. Hopefully, that was enough to see him through the challenges to come.

  March 21st?It was one of those rare days when Tekuno-sensei just didn't have time for the group. They didn't happen too often, but they weren't begrudging the fact that the man had other responsibilities that he did need to take care of, at times. If anything, it was probably for the best that the Genin did experience some time off to themselves.

  Though as usual, it did leave Tobio somewhere in the lurch.

  Ami was off doing her own thing, his sensei was gone, and that just meant that it left him and Hibachi standing there awkwardly, in the training grounds they usually monopolized. He hadn't spent a great deal of time around the beanie-wearing kid, though not for any real reason. Things had just…never really lined up for the two of them to hang out.

  "Got any pns for the day?" Tobio asked, shoving his hands into his pockets, as he gnced toward Hibachi.

  The boy tilted his head from side to side, a pensive expression coming over his face. "Not really. I was pnning on buying some gardening supplies."

  "Like trowels and stuff?"

  "Yeah," Hibachi confirmed. "But I also needed to get some specialty stuff for some of the pnts I've been growing."

  Tobio frowned. His knowledge of what you needed to grow pnts was, admittedly, limited to what the guy from before and the current Genin knew. Which to be frank, wasn't a whole lot.

  If he was deep in the wildernesses of the Land of Fire, he was semi-confident in his ability to maybe rely on Beniemiya to try and help him identify edible pnts, or prepare wild game. Outside of that, his knowledge was a lot hazier when it came to pnts.

  "Is there something you've been growing in particur?"

  "Right now, I've been managing a bit of a growing selection of poisonous pnts," Hibachi expined. "Eventually I'm hoping to refine antidotes and poisons from them, to coat my weapons in."

  That…was pretty smart. Poison wasn't something that even affected Tobio, unless it was something truly beyond the pale, but neither had it been something he'd looked into using. Not even as a strategy, even if he had a constitution uniquely suited to it.

  "Is this just something you use to rex, or…?"

  Gray eyes blinked, before he shrugged softly. "It's a mixture of practicality and rexation, I suppose. We're usually dead tired after training and missions, but it's useful for winding down at the end of the day. There's something decidedly soothing about seeing something growing from the earth, and knowing that it was a result of your own efforts."

  "Sounds more like a passion to me."

  "If I wasn't a shinobi, the life of a farmer would have had some appeal," Hibachi admitted. "Maybe that's what I'll go out and do when I retire, if any of us live long enough for that."

  Hibachi was closer to the truth than he knew. There were at least a half-dozen different events that could and may still get any of his team killed, over the next couple of years. Yet even so, he felt like it was something he had an obligation to prevent.

  It was one thing to see them just as a means to an end when all of this had began. Months of working alongside each other, training with each other, learning new skills…it bred familiarity and sentimentality into most people. He wasn't immune to that sort of slow, steady creeping of friendship either, until Tobio wasn't sure if he liked the idea of a future without Ami, Hibachi, or Tekuno in it.

  Bit by bit, they'd wormed their ways into his heart. And the part of him that was Oni was man enough to admit he'd fight tooth and nail to ensure that everyone made it through these next few years intact.

  And if not, he'd rain down bloody vengeance on anyone who managed to hurt them.

  "...Do you want company? For your shopping?" Tobio offered, gncing over at Hibachi. "I can't really do a whole lot of gardening right now, but I'd like to grow my own vegetables when I move into a bigger pce."

  So far he'd been buying groceries like they were going out of style. The other day, he'd even managed to make a medium-rare steak, tenderized and seasoned to completion. He wasn't driving himself to Food Wars-esque food-gasms, but it was closer than he'd be willing to admit. Growing his own vegetables would be more satisfying, though.

  For how part, Hibachi seemed more surprised than anything else. "Are you sure? Could be a little boring for you."

  "I'm capable of doing other things than training, bro," Tobio sighed. "C'mon, it'll be fun. Two bros, looking to grow a garden together."

  "..."

  "...Yeah, alright, I can see how that sounds," he grimaced. "Let's just say we're looking to grow poisonous pnts together. Tons more manly."

  "You can come if you don't bring up any of the shit you're talking about ever again," Hibach groused, rolling his eyes at Tobio's words.

  "Deal!"

  Just like that, the two of them were ambling into the city, and back into the markets proper. They had the hole day ahead of them, and indeed, they were specifically going to some of the florists and greenhouses that were present in Konoha. Not that there was a long list, and more surprising to Tobio was the fact that just about all of them seemed to know Hibachi.

  Seeing his friend's more pcid expression turn to genuinely friendly smiles threw him for a loop. It was even worse when they started to delve into the minutiae of raising pnts. Proper soil for different pnts, from different climates, that needed all sorts of additives or specific things to strive. Highly strict watering schedules, handling requirements, whether or not it was even possibly to grow next to other pnts in a given garden…

  Up until this point, he'd thought if you tossed a seed into a given hole, that was the end of it. Maybe he was showing his distinctly city-bred upbringing here, but it was eye-opening to learn how much actually went into nurturing pnts. Which made it even more surprising that this was the most engaged he'd ever seen Hibachi, as they walked between half a dozen locales.

  "What made you pick up gardening?" Tobio asked, after they came out of that st shop, den with items.

  Gncing back at Tobio, Hibachi arched a brow toward the boy. "Honestly? My father was the youngest son of a farmer before he came to Konoha, so he was always used to working with pnts and animals. He tended to our family's garden the most in the beginning, and when I got old enough, I ended up working alongside him and my older brothers."

  "...You have older brothers?"

  "Didn't I mention them before?"

  "Absolutely not," Tobio denied, shaking his head. "Are they ninja too?"

  "Nah, my oldest brother, Heihachi, works with my dad in the civil government. And my other brother, Jinpachi, comes in and out of the city. He makes charcoal."

  "What about your mom?"

  For a few seconds, Hibachi's steps stuttered, before he focused ahead of him and kept walking. "...I never knew my mom. She died a year after the Kyuubi attack….lingering complications from being injured during it."

  Oh. Well. That really changed the mood in a heartbeat.

  "Shit, I'm so-"

  "Don't. It's fine, I…" Hibachi sounded just…a little tired, from what he could tell, as the two of them walked through the winding streets of Konoha. "You didn't know. It's genuinely not your fault, and I'm over it."

  It didn't sound like he was over that mother-shaped baggage, but Tobio wisely kept his mouth shut. He was the st one to wave unresolved trauma in someone's face. After all, Tobio had been working hard to try and never think about whatever his life had been like before he'd been dumped into his current body.

  You couldn't have PTSD if the traumatic event never ended.

  Was that a healthy way to look at the world? No, but shinobi were not precisely famed for their mental health. I'd be in good company in my active and overt decision to ignore anything that horrified me and go about my day.

  By the time they stopped in front of a home, there was a rge, vibrant garden in the front yard. It took up most of the space, and was packed full of all sorts of different vegetables and other pnts. Most of them Tobio couldn't recognize, beyond the ones they'd just got through shopping that day.

  "Need help with the actual bor?"

  "I won't say no, but you'll have to listen to me about the exact instructions," Hibachi warned. "If you screw up our pnts, I'm gonna be furious."

  He scoffed, crossing his arms at his teammate. "How hard could it be?"

  "Yeah, I said much the same to my father when we got started here…" There was a rueful chuckle that rolled out of Hibachi. "Then I learned."

  The answer to that question? Kind of hard. It was easier said than done to drag through the long and specific process of putting on gloves for handling some of the more poisonous, dangerous pnts, even if Tobio didn't think he'd need them.

  Then they were working through the little odds and ends that just the superificial knowledge he possessed didn't cover. Where to prune certain unhealthy branches and stems, what was near ripe and what wasn't, and other simir considerations. Over the next hour, that academic knowledge he'd absorbed from shopping alongside Hibachi was hammered into specific, particur shape.

  By the end, he was dirty, sweaty, and a little tired…but more satisfied than he'd have thought possible, as the two boys took a step back from their bors. Just as Hibachi had mentioned earlier, there was a singur satisfaction in maintaining a plot of nd.

  "This wasn't that bad! Kind of dirty, but not that bad!" Tobio excimed, looking out at the work they'd done.

  "Tobio, we're only halfway done."

  "…Well, I'm happy you've had my help for so long, but unfortunately, I do have prior commitments I have to attend to, honorable teammate, so…"

  Hibachi snorted, rolling his eyes at Tobio's words. "It's fine. I didn't expect you to help me the whole time. Thanks for pitching in all the same, though."

  "S'not quite the bro-hang I was expecting, if I'm being honest. Still kind of fun."

  "I'll be sure to keep that in mind for the next time I have gardening work to complete."

  With that, Tobio left, but with a much better understanding of his other teammate. Much like Ami, it felt like Hibachi had hidden depths he was just beginning to understand.

  Now, if he could track down his sensei for a hangout, that'd be perfect. Even if he wasn't sure how interested Tekuno would be in hanging out with a twelve-year-old off hours. In his shoes, Tobio didn't think he'd be leaping at the opportunity either.

  He'd take his victories where he could get them.

  March 25th?It was going to be a good day. Tobio didn't know why he felt that way, just that some ephemeral sensation in the air told him that the day would be a nice one. Waking up bright and early in the morning, cooking himself a hearty breakfast, and heading out to meet up with his team, he had a little bit of a pep in his step.

  Enough so that even his teammates could tell.

  "What's got you so happy?" Ami asked, squinting at him suspiciously.

  "He must have gotten a date," Hibachi chipped in, smirking over at Ami.

  She flushed, gncing between them. "W-What? That Oni-brained idiot? Getting a date?!"

  "Kami no," Tobio denied, shaking his head and frowning at the thought. Maybe when he was a little older, he'd consider dating them outright. For now, he wasn't all that interested in it. "I'm just feeling happy today, y'know? Like everything's coming up Milhouse."

  Both Ami and Hibachi looked at each other in confusion, mouthing the word "Milhouse" to each other, before shrugging.

  "Don't you think you're tempting fate a little? Saying that?" Hibachi asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

  Tobio rolled his eyes at that notion. "What? No. What's the worst that could happen?"

  If only he knew.

  Almost right on time, Tekuno showed up, with a mood just as bright and cheery as their own. Obviously, whatever was in the water was resulting in upbeat positivity across the board.

  "Good morning, my little Genin! I have some good news!"

  "You got a girlfriend?" Hibachi guessed.

  Ami turned and grunted at him in mild irritation. "Why is that always your first guess? Are you projecting what you want on other people?"

  "No, but my brothers were always over the moon when they got their first girlfriends. Figured it might be the same for these two."

  Tekuno shook his head at the guess, but didn't stop smiling. "Not quite. Instead, I think I have even better news. Over the st few months, the three of you have made truly incredible strides in your training. Day in, and day out, until you're shinobi I can see being ready…for your first C-rank mission."

  The three Genin stiffened, all of them with expressions of shock on their faces. Ami was the first to recover, though, her features brightening up and a broad grin spreading across her face. "Really?!"

  Hibachi was next, smirking and rubbing his nose, looking impossibly, supremely arrogant in that next motion. "Well, we have been getting pretty far along with our training…"

  However, Tobio was very much the odd one out. As that happy, buoyed mood of his began to fell, as he swallowed thickly. "Are you sure we're ready, sensei?"

  "Tobio, this is a C-rank," Tekuno insisted, voice gentle. "I'm fairly sure you could beat off the dangers on this type of mission by yourself. With the three of you together, I can't see what could possibly go wrong."

  And in that moment, Tobio knew that Hibachi might have been onto something when he brought up the dangerous act of tempting fate…