She casually flicked her wrist.
Bang!
The kunai didn't hit the bullseye. It pierced straight through the wooden target and, without losing momentum, lodged in the wall behind it, half-buried.
The training ground fell silent.
Iruka's smile froze on his face. No student that age should have that kind of strength.
"Was that too much?" Kiyomi turned her head, her tone still flat.
"No... It's fine." Iruka wiped the sweat from his brow. "We're practicing accuracy, not destructive power. Try channeling Chakra through your fingers to guide its trajectory."
Kiyomi frowned. Guide it? In the Laboratory, all she had to do was release energy. After that, she just watched the enemy vaporize.
The rest of the lesson was torture for Kiyomi.
She sat among a group of children and listened to Iruka talk about ninja history and the Will of Fire. The concepts were too abstract for her.
"Kiyomi, why aren't you taking notes?" the little girl with twin ponytails beside her whispered.
"I can't remember it," Kiyomi said.
"Then you can borrow my notes." The girl pushed her notebook over.
Kiyomi stared at the densely packed writing and suddenly felt her heart skip a beat. Her vision blurred, and the black characters on the page began wriggling like little insects.
[Found you...]
A low voice echoed in her mind.
Kiyomi sprang to her feet. Her chair toppled over with a piercing screech.
"Kiyomi?" Iruka stopped teaching.
Kiyomi didn't answer. She stared fixedly out the window. At the edge of the forest behind the school, a black shadow darted past.
She would never forget that presence, even in death.
A remnant of the Kara Organization.
"Something came up." Kiyomi shoved her desk aside and jumped straight out of the second-floor window.
"Hey! School isn't over yet!" Iruka shouted.
Kiyomi landed