Will of Fire-Full Marks

The cicadas in Konoha chirped so loudly they grated on the nerves. Beneath the desk, Qianyu silently formed Hand Seals, rubbing his fingertips together to mimic the faint sensation of chakra flowing through them.

At the front of the classroom, Iruka-sensei's explanation of Chakra Nature Transformation went in one ear and out the other.

His mind kept picking apart last night's failure: a thread of Yang Release Chakra had leaked away, producing only a few crooked blades of grass.

"Qianyu-kun—"

Someone gently nudged his arm. Ino had turned halfway toward him, her blond ponytail brushing the edge of his textbook and bringing with it a faint, unfamiliar fragrance.

She pushed an open lunchbox toward him. The rice balls inside had been shaped into clumsy rabbits, one corner of the rolled omelet was burnt, and a snack deliberately cut into the shape of a fish lay tucked in the corner.

"Mom insisted I bring this much." Her voice was low, but her eyes shone brightly. "Help me out, will you? You never eat lunch."

Qianyu's throat bobbed. "...Thanks." He picked up a rice ball and took a bite. The rice was a little hard, and the plum was over-pickled, so sour that he furrowed his brow.

Ino, though, looked as if she'd won a grand prize. The corners of her mouth lifted as she leaned closer, her warm breath almost brushing his ear. "Let's be partners for taijutsu practice this afternoon, okay? I saw your footwork when you dodged Shino's bugs last time. It was amazing. Teach me."

It wasn't a question. Qianyu lowered his eyes and took another bite of the rice ball, silently agreeing.

After school, Ino waited by the classroom door with her bag in her arms. The setting sun traced a fuzzy golden outline around her.

"Let's stop by my family's flower shop on the way! Dad got a shipment of late-summer gardenias. They're as white as snow, and their fragrance carries all the way down the street!"

They walked along a flagstone path. Naruto had already dashed off to Ichiraku Ramen, shouting all the way. Shikamaru dragged his feet and muttered about "what a troublesome summer," while Choji's crisp, constant chewing gradually disappeared beneath the clamor of the marketplace.

Ino's words flowed like a lively stream, jumping from the goldfish she kept to how she'd been scolded yesterday for secretly copying her mother's flower arrangements, then to her slight worry about next week's ninja tools class.

Most of the time, Qianyu simply listened, occasionally making a vague "mm" in his throat. His gaze, though, passed beyond her fluttering hair and settled on the indistinct outline of an abandoned training ground across the river. Abin had said yesterday that the soil in its southeast corner was fertile, and might stimulate Wood Release to grow.

When they reached the fork in the gravel path leading to his secluded little house, Ino stopped. She pulled something small from her pocket, carefully wrapped in wax paper, and pressed it into Qianyu's hand without giving him a chance to refuse.

"Dried chamomile and mint." She spoke a little quickly, a faint blush coloring her cheeks in the evening light. "Mom said drinking it steeped in water during summer makes heatstroke less likely.

"You..." She hesitated, her voice dropping. "Don't read scrolls by candlelight at night. It's bad for your eyes."

Before Qianyu could react, she turned and ran off, her bag bouncing against her back and her golden ponytail tracing a lively arc through the warm breeze.

Qianyu held the packet of herbs, still warm from her fingertips, and stood there for a while. A faint, slightly bitter fragrance rose from the dried plants in his palm. He turned toward the little house, his steps unconsciously a little quicker than usual.

The old training ground belonged to wild grass, insects, and moonlight at night. Qianyu trampled through the knee-high weeds, his footsteps rustling softly.

Abin oozed out from behind a rotting tree stump, its beady eyes glinting faintly in the shadows.

"How was the lunch?" Its voice was gummy, its tone full of amusement. "That little ice cube from the Uchiha Clan watched you more often today than he watched the target."

Qianyu didn't answer. His hands were already crossing in front of his chest. He sank his breath into his abdomen and focused his will, rousing the warmth lying dormant deep within his limbs. It slowly mingled with the chakra he had refined, surging along specific channels.

Hand Seals! Tiger—Rabbit—Snake—Horse—Ram! He focused fiercely on that point in his palm, imagining a seed bursting open in the dark, roots brutally piercing through the rock, and woody fibers roaring as they grew wildly—

"Wood Release: Great Forest Technique!"

The ground rumbled like muffled thunder. Seven or eight dark-brown trunks, thicker than an adult's thigh and covered in slick moss and jagged spikes, tore through the grass and hard soil, roaring skyward!

Their leaves weren't bright green. They were a deep, almost black green, so dark it seemed impossible to dilute. In the moonlight, they gleamed with a damp, eerie sheen.

He held the technique for a full six breaths. Only when Qianyu's face had gone pale and the veins at his temples began to bulge did he withdraw his chakra. The terrifying trees withered as though their bones had been pulled out, blackened, and crumbled into a shower of decaying fragments, leaving only a patch of ruined ground behind.

"Pwahahaha!" Abin slapped the ground. "You did it, you did it! They look like old coffin boards dug out of a graveyard, but they've got plenty of power! They could probably tie up a Genin!"

Qianyu sat cross-legged, panting, and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing. Each breath left his lungs feeling hot. Yet deep inside, a faint, burning excitement stirred.

He'd done it. These weren't childish vines anymore, but real trees with the potential to restrain and injure.

When his chakra had surged toward his eyes just now, that familiar warm throb had returned. The single Tomoe had turned faintly in the depths of his consciousness, seeming to help him catch a more subtle point of control amid the violent outpouring of Yang Release.

He memorized the chakra ratio he'd used this time. If he'd had someone to teach him, it wouldn't have taken him a whole year to gradually figure out how chakra flowed through his channels.

"Is the area clear?" he asked with his eyes closed.

"Clear as a plate that's been licked clean." Abin bobbed its head. "Not even a curious stray cat. Don't worry, little fish. With me keeping watch, those rats won't get into this forest."

He had to get faster, and steadier. Before the threads tightened, he needed to weave his own web.

Qianyu slowly exhaled a breath of stale air and turned back. Neither of them realized there was something like a little snake watching them from the nearby grass.

A crowd filled the space in front of the end-of-term rankings. Sasuke's name sat high at the top, followed by a string of glaring, entirely unsurprising "Excellent" grades. He stood outside the crowd with his arms crossed and little expression on his face. Only when his gaze passed over Qianyu's name did his jaw tighten almost imperceptibly for an instant.

Qianyu's grades were stably unremarkable: "Good" in theory, "Excellent-minus" in taijutsu, "Good-plus" in basic ninjutsu, and "Good" in Shuriken... His name fit perfectly into the cluster of students in the upper-middle ranks, without standing out at all.

Only the last line abruptly broke that steady pattern.

[Thought and Will Assessment (Understanding of the Will of Fire): Full Marks. Comment: Profound in its vision and deeply thought-provoking. Within the torch's legacy, it glimpses the brilliant light of new kindling.]

After a brief silence came a low murmur of astonishment. Everyone knew how things stood in the Will of Fire class. Getting a high "Good" was already a sign of a teacher's special favor; an "Excellent" was practically a legend, let alone full marks.

Iruka pushed his way through the crowd and clapped a big hand heavily on Qianyu's shoulder. The force was enough to make him sway.

The Chunin teacher's eyes were a little red, and his voice trembled with excitement. "That's it! That's my boy! I knew there was more to you than meets the eye! You never said a word, but you've got such a vast world in your heart!

"The Third Hokage read your paper, especially the part at the end about 'a single spark can start a prairie fire.' He said... he said he saw another possibility for Konoha's future!" He gave Qianyu's shoulder a firm squeeze. "Keep it up, Cangshu Qianyu!"

A blush rose on Qianyu's face at just the right moment, a mixture of embarrassment, uncertainty, and a hint of pride. His fingers fidgeted with the edge of his clothes.

"I... I just put together what you usually teach us, Iruka-sensei, with a few random thoughts of my own..." What he was really thinking was, Old man Hiruzen, let me show you what a true great man's will looks like.

Ino squeezed out of the crowd, her cheeks flushed with excitement and her eyes as bright as if they were filled with stars. "Qianyu-kun! Full marks! I knew you could do it!" She was practically pressed against him.

Naruto slung an arm around Qianyu's neck and shouted, "The Will of Fire? What's that? Anyway, Qianyu's awesome!"

Sasuke's gaze swept over the rankings again and landed on the "Full Marks" beside Qianyu's name. He lingered half a second longer than before. Then he turned and walked straight out of the crowd.

These "Full Marks" were a beautifully wrapped piece of candy. They'd bind him more tightly to the grand banner of the Will of Fire, perhaps calming certain doubts for the time being, but they would also inevitably push him into a more conspicuous position.

The commotion ebbed like a receding tide, and summer vacation officially began. Qianyu stood at the entrance to the suddenly empty schoolyard, holding his flimsy report card. The setting sun stretched his shadow long across the warm ground, leaving him all alone.

Before Qianyu could even dwell on it, Ino's voice rang out from the distance.