This morning had seen a new mission and it was an important one!
"Hinata?" asked Kiba.
"On it," acknowledged Hinata. "Byakugan!"
Her sight flicked from one area to another, taking in all the details before going to the next point. "There! 500 meters to the North-Northwest."
"Are you sure?" asked Kiba. "I can't smell anything."
Shino quietly sent a group of bugs in that direction.
"That has to be it," said Hinata, her tone indicating she was pretty confident.
"If you say so," grumbled Kiba. "Let's go, Akamaru!"
"Watch for traps," cautioned Yuhi Kurenai-sensei to her charges. "Even if Orochimaru abandoned it, as one of his labs he may have taken precautions against people finding it."
The agent of Orochimaru smiled as the eventuality he'd waited for had finally come to pass. His job wasn't to get involved though. It was merely to watch and ascertain how well these ninja dealt with the guardian.
Then he had to get away and report to Orochimaru. Everything was in place.
"So, what do these things DO, again?" asked Naruto as he held his left arm up and eyed the odd bracer. Not to mention why he was in some sort of sports field.
"As I understand it," said Jiraiya, "it triggers a jutsu that puts a protective field up. So that if you were to face an attack from that direction, you could use that field to keep an attack from striking you."
"Well, what about THESE?" asked Naruto as he held up the odd things.
"Mirrored sunglasses," said Jiraiya. "They look cool."
"Oh, I thought maybe it was for use against the Sharingan," said Naruto, trying them on anyway.
"I doubt it would be that easy to find a defense against the Sharingan," said Jiraiya as he checked the device. "Particularly the Magenkyo - which is going to be a real problem for you."
"Then why go through this?" asked Naruto.
"The Uchiha clan don't always rely on the Sharingan, remember? They use Fire-style Jutsu a lot too," said Jiraiya. "Ready?"
"I guess," said Naruto. "I don't understand what -"
CHUNK! went a lever as Jiraiya brought it down.
PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO!
"WAGH! ACK! HEY!" said Naruto as tennis balls began bouncing off of him.
"The idea is to block the balls," pointed out Jiraiya as he walked over to where Nanoha was.
"ACK! OUCH! OOF! EEP!" said Naruto as he continued to get pummelled.
"This may take awhile," said Jiraiya to Nanoha. "On the other hand, this world has such opportunities for training!"
"This may leave bruises," pointed out Nanoha.
"You're supposed to block them with your shield," said Jiraiya to Naruto. "Blocking them with your head doesn't count."
"Poor big brother," opined Nanoha, covering her own eyes.
BOP! BOP! BOP! BOP! BOP! BOP! BOP! BOP!
"ARGH!" growled Naruto as he started dodging and running back and forth.
Jiraiya walked over to flick the switch to the 'off' position. "Naruto."
"HEY! I WASN'T READY!" pointed out Naruto.
"An actual enemy wouldn't wait for you to get ready, would they?" countered Jiraiya. "Nanoha? Can you show Naruto how it's done?"
"Unnnn!" said Nanoha, nodding and going to the area. "Raising Heart. Please."
Okay. Set Up.
"Round Shield!" said Nanoha as the first tennis balls began pelting her.
"Wait! STOP!" said Naruto, holding up his hands in a 'time-out' gesture until Jiraiya finally cut the machine off. "How is THIS helping? Pervy-sage, you gotta try blocking while I throw the switch!"
"How do you figure that?" asked Jiraiya.
"Because you're supposed to be the one teaching me stuff!" pointed out Naruto.
"That's why you should be the one learning to use a new tool available to you," said Jiraiya as he gathered up the tennis balls that had been shot. Of course, being a ninja, he returned them to the hopper by stomping down hard enough that the ball then bounced up and then launching them towards the hopper with a knee or elbow strike.
Nanoha ooohed at this evidence of mad ninja skillz. Which, of course, caused Jiraiya to show off a bit more.
Naruto growled instead. "Look, Pervy-sage, she can do that stuff without these bracer thingies. YOU'RE my teacher, so if anyone's gonna show me how it's done - it should be you, right?"
Jiraiya sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine. If that's what it'll take to get you to do it."
The guardian was made of metal and stone, and therefore had no scent to warn Shino or Kiba.
Hinata, on the other hand, was able to see the network of chakra animating it. "WATCH OUT!"
The ground shook as the massive thing stepped out and effectively sealed the entry to the lab.
"Arf?!" said Akamaru.
"Some kind of earth jutsu?" asked Kiba. "Akamaru, get ready."
"Interesting," said Shino. Something like THAT would be difficult for his bugs to attack directly. When he directed them to attack the chakra lines - they simply swirled around uncertainly.
"It's chakra lines are deeply buried," said Hinata as she edged to the side.
"You ready, Akamaru!" tried Kiba as Akamaru duplicated him and they then crouched preparatory to unleashing the technique.
"No, don't," called out their sensei, recognizing that 'Fang Over Fang' was coming. "If you do that, the lab itself may collapse."
"Eh?" asked Kiba. "What else have we got that can beat that?"
"It's not attacking," pointed out Yuhi. "It isn't leaving the tunnel. See if we can lure it out first."
Jiraiya watched as Naruto, in an apparent flash of mischief, turned the speed of the ball-launcher up. He took that moment to extend his awareness of his chakra and feed the assembly nestled against his skin under the bracer.
A yellowish hex shape flickered into existence, covering the area of the bracer. A little bit more power and the hex was surrounded itself by other identical hexes.
PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO!
Jiraiya let the first four bounce off his shield normally, then he angled it so that he could send the balls flying back at Naruto.
"HEY!" BONK! BONK! BONK!
Jiraiya smiled as he continued this exercise. This was actually kind of fun.
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(Posted Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:58)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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