"...Eh?"

"Say what now?"

She barely noticed the existence of the other two people beside Gai. In fact, she couldn't even remember their faces after a brief glance, so occupied as she was with Gai's response. Her brain had just caught up with what she had blurted out impulsively, and while a small part of her was facepalming hard enough to get a concussion, another was waiting with bated breath and building anticipation practically buzzing in excitement, even while half expecting the inevitable denial.

However the laughter and blunt denial or even confused shock she was waiting for never came. When she looked towards his face she only saw quiet contemplation and a confident smile, and within his deep eyes, she saw a phantom image of the incredible man this currently 16-17-year-old boy would become. Judging by his vest and what she vaguely knew about the timeline, he should've been at least Chunin by now, possibly even Jounin.

"What's your name, little miss?" He heaved her up as if she weighed nothing to him, but considering he was a guy who could probably punch a Biju to submission, that probably wasn't too far from the truth.

"J-Julia Rose." She mentally cursed for her stutter and a slight lisp. How embarrassing, thankfully she had enough presence of mind to remember that middle names weren't a thing in the Elemental Nations. That sure would've been awkward. She even considering changing her name for a while but decided to keep them as a reminder of her previous world and her parents. It didn't help her blend in with the locals much, but she wouldn't trade the memories of their love and care for something as cheap as her convenience.

"Well, Julia, why do you wish to be my student..? You appear pretty young, isn't the academy enough?"

"I'm not in academy, I only 5." She raised her hand and made a show of her fingers, and made a mental note to spend more time learning Japanese because being 24 and only being able to speak on the level of a toddler was starting to prove absolutely mortifying.

"Then why not wait for your next birthday where you can learn at a proper school? Haha, it brings my heart great joy to see such passion for learning in our Youth! but there is no need to rush things."

Gai was all for striving to improve yourself, it was one of the tenants he lived by even, however, the Third Shinobi War just ended recently last year. The tension was still high so Konoha did indeed still need to keep up its guard and pump out more Shinobis, but he felt it wrong to force it upon such young kids. His friend, Kakashi of the Sharingan they called him, was an incredibly powerful and accomplished Ninja. He graduated at 5, was Genin within the year, Chunin by 6, and Jounin by 12.

A spotless record by all means, however, he knew all too well that the toll it took on him was incredibly high. All the blood and death, including his two teammates and most recently his beloved sensei, Minato Namikaze the 4th Hokage. Gai has tried his best to help his friend, and yet even after all this time, the other boy had never seemed to fully recover.

No, he knew all too well the cost of forcing children to grow up too early, which is why he didn't want to rob this young girl of her childhood like so many others before her.

"I wants ta be strong! Plz help me! I no time, orphan, no clan, need help to be great ninja."

She stared into his eyes before bowed deeply, hoping to show her conviction. It was as if the world had suddenly become muted, the only sound Julia could hear was the rapid beating of her own heart, as she waited in tense silence with her back bent. Gai opened his mouth for a moment, but whatever he was about to say seemed to die, instead, he simply gave a large smile that was all shining teeth.

"Yosh! Very well. It's clear your Flames of Youth are burning brightly, and I shall gladly help you fan them into a roaring inferno! You can call me Gai Sensei, as long as you are willing to put in the effort, I will help you become the greatest Kunoichi you can be!"

His voice was incredibly loud and boisterous as he went into his signature "Nice guy" pose with arm extended and a thumbs up.

It was the single greatest thing she had ever seen in this new world, and it felt as if a large weight had unknowingly lifted off her shoulder as she hugged his leg and cried muffling his name and thanks. She had a chance now. Before she only had vague ideas and half baked plans but deep down in a part she didn't want to admit event to herself...

She always felt like she would fail and die in a small ditch forgotten somewhere. The anxiety eating up her inside was wretched.

After all, she was just a simple woman from modern society, she didn't delude herself into thinking she had the talent or know-how to do ninja magic, nor could she compare to any of the geniuses roaming around or the monsters hiding in the dark. All her knowledge meta knowledge amounted to jackshit. These people have been training their entire lives, generation upon generations of people studying the best way to become stronger, the most efficient way to destroy someone, and carefully breed children over generations for the best genetic results. How could her half-assed info from wiki and fanfics compare?

But that's fine now, wasn't it? She didn't need some secret clan Jutsu, some op Dojutsu, some giant Chakra beast within her stomach. No, all she needed was to put in hard work and effort for the Strong Fist. It is ok if others were prodigies, it's ok if they learned things 5 or even 10 times faster. She'd just put in more hours and effort. She'll work 20, 50, 100 times more than them.

She'll be a Genius of Hardwork.