Rika’s jade-green eyes swept over the gathered group slowly, deliberately, like she was cataloging items on a shelf she didn’t fully trust. One by one, she took them in, their posture, their stance, the way some of them avoided eye contact while others stared a little too hard. Weak. Hesitant. Most of them were small, with narrow shoulders, chakra signatures thin and unfocused. One looked like she ate well, at least, while the others looked like they were underweight. After spending time with Ryuni, it seemed that being starved was normal for her generation. One was obvious: she was older, kinda weird, and unfortunate. A different boy looked like he crawled out of a trash can and decided today was the day he was going to become a shinobi.
'The future of Suna looks pretty grim...'
Then she paused.
Her gaze paused on the other girl.
For a fraction of a second, the world tilted. The girl looked wrong—too familiar. Same build. Same face. Same irritatingly familiar outline, like someone had taken Rika, dragged her through a funhouse mirror, and put the result back together just well enough to be unsettling. Worse than that, Rika could feel it. Her senses brushed against the girl’s chakra, and it echoed her own in a way that made something sharp twist in her chest.
Rika’s jaw tightened. Annoyance flared, hot and immediate, but she shoved it down just as quickly. Not now. This wasn’t the time to spiral or start interrogating the universe. She was here to teach. She was here because she was moving up, and she wasn’t about to let some cosmic joke knock her off balance in front of a crowd of Academy washouts.
The Dome hummed faintly around them, its presence impossible to ignore once you noticed it. Rika could feel the subtle vibration through the soles of her boots, a constant reminder of the sealed sky overhead. No breeze. No real wind. Just recycled air and reinforced walls pretending to be freedom. It always felt like a cage if you thought about it too long.
Rika’s attention went back to the group. Doubt. Discomfort. A little awe. A lot of skepticism. It was all written across their faces, exactly as she’d expected.
A voice broke the quiet.
“You are also a student, yes? You seem young to be a teacher.”
Rika turned her head slowly toward the girl who spoke. She stared at her for half a beat… then-
“Hehehe.”
It slipped out before she could stop it. Soft at first. A little snort of disbelief. Then it built, bubbling up into a full laugh. Rika bent forward, clutching her side as it grew louder, sharper, completely unrestrained.
“Oh-wait-” she managed between breaths, straightening just long enough to gesture vaguely in the girl’s direction,
“that’s a serious question?” She doubled over again, slapping her knee.
“Hold on, hold on-lemme laugh harder!”
The sound echoed faintly against the Dome walls as she kept going, laughing like she’d just been handed the best joke of the week.
Several long moments passed before she finally wiped at the corners of her eyes, blinking away the tears. She inhaled, exhaled, tried to get herself under control, failed, and let out a few last giggles anyway.
“No,” she said at last, straightening fully.
“I’m not a student. I’m just better than all of you.”
She stepped back, boots scuffing against the ground, and flared her hands outward, palms open, like she was presenting herself as evidence.
“Name’s Sabaku Rika. Chuunin.” Her grin sharpened.
“No clan. None. Zip. Which means everything I have, I earned.”
She tilted her head slightly, eyes flicking across the group again.
“And if you’re wondering-yeah. I’ll be one of your Jounin soon.” Her smile turned smug.
Her gaze drifted briefly toward the towering curve of the Dome wall, and she let out an exaggerated sigh, like the weight of inevitability was already exhausting her.
“This class is about Ninjutsu,” she continued, waving one hand lazily.
“Chakra control. Theory. Fundamentals. Yadda yadda.” She rolled her wrist.
“You’ll get most of that garbage drilled into your skulls whether you like it or not. Trust me, I’ve memorized those textbooks. Cover to cover. Thrilling bedtime stories.”
She began pacing along the line now, hands moving as she talked, energy sharp and restless.
“There are big jutsu. Small jutsu. Flashy ones. Ones that save your life when everything’s gone to hell. Elements exist, and then, surprise, the elements have elements. Everyone’s born with a natural affinity for one, maybe two if they’re lucky, and with enough training, you can force the rest into submission.”
She shrugged.
“It’s a lot. You’ll figure it out.” A pause. A smirk.
“Probably. Maybe.” Her hand flicked dismissively through the air. Her gaze landed on the older girl just for a moment longer than necessary before she looked away.
“Anyway,” Rika said, clapping her hands once to refocus them.
“I’ll be demonstrating a few Ninjutsu from the elements I know.” She stopped pacing and planted her feet.
“I was born with a Non-Elemental affinity. But since I’ve been practicing Ninjutsu since I could walk, I can use Non-Elemental, Fire, Lightning, Water, Wind, Earth-” She ticked them off on her fingers.
“-Kinesis, Gravity, and Magnetic.” She waited, watching before she grinned wider.
“Yeah. You heard that right. Kinesis. Gravity. Magnetic. Those are elements inside other elements.” Her fingers wiggled theatrically.
“Get good enough with two base elements, and boom-advanced element unlocked. Congrats. You’re less useless now.”
She gestured outward.
“After I demonstrate, you’ll pick one jutsu to try. Spread out a bit first. Ninjutsu can be… touchy when you don’t know what you’re doing. And I don’t feel like scraping anyone off the ground today.” She raised a finger. She had a feeling most of these twerps had never molded chakra before. Only one way to learn, and that was by doing it.
“We’re starting with Non-Elemental.” Rika squared her shoulders.
“There are a lot of techniques you should learn. The one I’m showing you today is Body Switch.” She brought her hands up, moving deliberately into the ram seal, then boar, ox, dog, slowing her motions just enough for the class to follow, before finishing with snake.
Chakra snapped into place.
Poof.
Rika vanished in a burst of smoke, and where she had been standing, a log hit the ground with a dull thud.
“With this technique, you can dodge attacks,” Rika said casually as her voice suddenly came from behind the group instead of in front of them. Hands planted on her hips, posture relaxed.
“This one’s basic,” she added, tilting her head slightly.
“Useful. Boring. Effective. Which, yeah, I know, sounds like I’m insulting it, but trust me, boring keeps you alive.”
She glanced toward the far end of the field, lips curling into a knowing grin.
“On the far end… heh.”
Chakra surged into her palm, fast and controlled. It didn’t flare wildly or crackle out of control; it compressed. Tight. Dense. The air around her hand warped as the chakra began to spin, spiraling in on itself like a miniature typhoon trapped in her grip. The sphere grew, smooth and violently contained, humming with rotational force. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Ninjutsu would recognize it instantly.
A
Perfected Rasengan.
Rika took several deliberate steps back, giving herself and everyone else plenty of room. Then she drove the Rasengan straight into the ground.
The impact was immediate and brutal. A thunderous bang ripped through the training area as the earth detonated beneath her. Dust and shattered rock exploded upward, debris flung outward in a violent ring. When the dust began to settle, a crater nearly five meters wide cracked where solid ground had been moments before, plunging down roughly three meters deep.
Rika flexed her arm once inside the settling haze, feeling the sharp sting crawl up from her wrist to her shoulder. She hissed quietly, then rolled her shoulder and shook it off like it was nothing worth acknowledging.
“Now that,” she called out, clearly pleased,
“was an A-rank technique!”
A short, sharp laugh escaped her as she hopped out of the crater, brushing dust from her pants like she hadn’t just casually rearranged the landscape.
“Probably best we don’t show off too many of those,” she muttered to herself, just loud enough to be heard, eyes flicking briefly over the area. She didn’t linger.
“Alright,” Rika continued, already moving on,
“next up, we’re doing Earth.”
She turned back toward the group, expression sharpening into something more instructive, though the smug edge never quite left her voice.
“I’ll show you Gravel Shift. Not flashy. No explosions. No dramatic entrances. But it can give you an upper edge in battle.”
Her hands snapped into a short sequence of earth-based seals, clean and efficient. The ground beneath the group responded instantly, dirt and gravel shifting and rolling like loose waves underfoot. The terrain became unstable, uneven, and unpredictable.
“Next, Fire,” she announced, already forming new seals.
“Very popular element. My second favorite. Maybe third. Depends on my mood.”
Chakra gathered in her chest, heat blooming outward as she exhaled. A controlled puff of flame rolled from her mouth, not a full blast, but enough to spike the temperature of the area, the air shimmering slightly as warmth spread outward.
“Thermal Maw,” she said.
“Subtle version. Don’t get excited.” Then her grin widened.
“Now,” she continued, eyes lighting up,
“my personal favorite-Lightning.” She shifted her stance, hands moving into a sharper, more precise sequence of seals.
“It connects to two of my advanced elements, which I won’t explain yet because spoilers.”
Rika extended her arm and snapped her fingers toward a dead tree at the edge of the field.
Lightning erupted from her fingertips in a crackling arc, slamming into the tree with a violent crack. The impact blasted chunks of charred wood outward in a small explosion. Not nearly as destructive as the Rasengan, but clean. Fast. Efficient.
“Storm Bolt,” she said proudly.
“Gets the point across.” Without pause, she flowed into the next demonstration.
“Water,” Rika went on, rolling her wrist as her hands formed new seals.
“Yes, we’re in the desert. Yes, that’s exactly why this matters. No, I don’t recommend drinking chakra water- don’t ask.”
Moisture condensed rapidly in her palm, forming into a dense, spinning mass of liquid. She raised her arm straight up and fired it skyward, a concentrated stream slicing through the air. Mist rained back down briefly, cool against the heat, before evaporating almost instantly.
“Water Gun,” she said.
“Simple. Reliable.” Finally, she straightened, eyes gleaming.
“And last but definitely not least- Wind. Another common affinity for Wind Country. Shocking, I know.” Her hands moved again, seals crisp and fluid, chakra humming as she swept her arm through the air. A blade-thin slash of wind chakra tore forward, screaming as it crossed the distance toward the same unfortunate dead tree. The remaining trunk split cleanly, sliced straight through as if it had never been solid at all.
“Wind Slash, I do not suggest using that on a person,” Rika added with a laugh,
“yet.”
She stepped back, crossing her arms once more, head tilting as she looked over the group with an assessing gaze, sharp, confident, and just a little too amused.
“So,” she said, grin widening,
“questions?”
She gestured vaguely toward the field.
“Pick the element that feels right to you and try the technique I just showed. You should be able to manage at least one of them. Probably not the A-rank one - but hey i’m up for surprises.” Rika said, shifting her weight to one side.
