"Jutsu?" asked Nanoha.
"'Eye Of The Tiger'?" read Naruto. "Hmmm. 'Cat Scratch Fever'? 'Catgirl Summon'? 'Nekomimi Transformation'? What kind of jutsu is that supposed to be?"
"Hmmm?" hmmmed Jiraiya as he came over behind Naruto and looked over the notes. "Spirit? There's no spirit element. Or wait, if you were to - huh. That might work."
"You're making sense of this?" asked Naruto.
"Naruto, it's going to take some MAJOR training for you to get to this," said Jiraiya. "In fact, if you hadn't pulled this out of a hat, I wouldn't have even tried training you in some of the things necessary for you to even understand this sort of thing. I guess I'll have to though."
Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Whatta you mean?"
Ignoring the listening technowizard, Jiraiya got out a piece of paper and started writing out something so that he could show both Nanoha AND Naruto simultaneously. "Look, just trying to get you to memorize this much is going to be a major problem. Ninjutsu is composed of five elements. Five Great Shinobi Nations. Five shinobi elements. Are you following me?"
"Well, yeah," said Naruto, "I guess."
"The problem is that you're NOT the bookish type, Naruto. You're the kind who has to learn something physically," said Jiraiya. "The problem is that some of this HAS to be learned through study. Nanoha, I'll ask for you to help in drilling him."
"Right!" said Nanoha, clenching a fist and giving a determined look.
"Uh, yeah," said Naruto, eyeing Nanoha - who seemed to be giving off an aura of youthful energy that would have given Guy-sensei cause for an impromptu speech.
Jiraiya pointed at the symbols he wrote down. "Okay, all ninjutsu comes down to these five elements. Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth, Water. In a simple element vs element battle - one element will always be superior to another element and weaker than the element on the other side."
"But what about Haku..." asked Naruto.
"GO!" said Kiba, leaping back. "What the heck is with this thing? As soon as we hit it with something, it starts rebuilding itself."
The roughly humanoid shape didn't have a head, but seemed to regard each of the ninja spread out around it.
Shino stayed quiet as his insects continued to spread over the earthen form, trying to find a weak spot to exploit.
"Its chakra network is buried along its center, it doesn't have chakra points I can reach," said Hinata to the others.
"Its not alive and can't be felled with genjutsu," noted Yuhi. "Explosive tags blow divots off but don't penetrate deeply enough."
The earthen form seemed to consider things, then began shrinking.
"It's merging with the ground?" asked Kiba, figuring out what it was doing. "It can do that?!"
"Arf," said Akamaru, who'd already "dynamic mark"-ed it.
The stone monster merged completely with the ground.
"Kiba, when it reappears, do another Fang Over Fang," commanded Yuhi.
"It'll just start rebuilding itself," pointed out Kiba.
"Hinata, be ready," said Yuhi. "When it's smashed open, it takes it a few seconds to reform. Hit every chakra point you can reach in that time."
"Right," said Hinata.
"We'll have to striiiiiiiiiiiiiiAK!" said Yuhi as she was pulled underground in mid-sentence.
"SENSEI?!" asked all three gennin.
"Okay, this is bad," assessed Kiba.
PTOOO! went the ground, spitting out a large sarcophogus whose lid was sculpted into a likeness of Yuhi Kurenai.
"Oh, that's just wrong," summed up Kiba. "Do you suppose she's really got a mole on her -"
"ARF!" interrupted Akamaru, whose nose could pick up some details. Besides, it was just a depiction of a naked human.
"Underneath SHINO?!" translated Kiba.
Shino heard that and immediately took to the trees.
"It's coming after you now," said Hinata, tracking a telltale glimmer that she thought was the stone-beast.
Kiba took to the trees, followed by Akamaru and Hinata.
"It's still there, waiting for us," said Hinata after a moment. "I don't think it can see us unless we're on the ground."
"Makes sense I suppose, it doesn't have any eyes or ears or FACE," said Kiba with a grimace. "Which means that we'll have to attack from the trees, and coordinate assaults right the first time."
"Hmmm," hmmmed Shino, sending his insects out.
"What's that 'hmmm' for?" asked Kiba.
"This guardian changed tactics abruptly," said Shino. "As if- It's probably nothing."
"Okay, on three," said Kiba, concentrating on the task at hand.
"I don't really get it," said Naruto eventually.
"That's why I didn't teach this to you earlier," pointed out Jiraiya. "Maybe if it were life or death for you to learn."
Abruptly remembering the toad-summoning exercise, Naruto waved his hands around quickly. "No! That's okay! I'll get it on my own."
"You can do it, big brother," cheered on Nanoha.
"In the meantime, let's see what else you can get," said Jiraiya, passing Naruto the fishing rod again.
The trail led here, to Gravitas Station, where the group had gone in different ways.
She considered that. The target had left Phase World, parts had been acquired at Bulova Station, then one of the group had left at Gravitas. Kowloon Station had been the most obvious one, with secure-cam footage of her target confirming what was needed.
The unit had been repaired. The unit was walking around. Whether full functionality had been restored or merely basic mobility was another question altogether.
She accessed records and found the indication on another secure-cam that it was the cat-eared repairer who had gone off by herself.
Which meant that the target was one that had left for the Sargasso.
Fate frowned as she considered likely destinations within that Sargasso, her hand shifting slightly on Bardiche. The pursuit phase was nearly over, subdual and retrieval would follow.
"Some kinda ninja costume, maybe?" asked Naruto as he put the odd glass package to the side.
"I'm not really sure WHAT it is," said Jiraiya. "Look at it now. When you put it down, it changed color to match the floor."
"How weird," said Naruto. Sure enough, the folded fabric(?) inside the glass had changed color. It even had the same wood-grain look as the floor. "Oh, maybe if you wore it - you'd blend into your surroundings? That'd be handy!"
"Yeah, I guess it would," mused Jiraiya, thinking there was something odd about it. It was like when he put his hand against the package, trying to get a feel for what was inside - it had drained something from him. But what? It wasn't chakra was it? No. In fact he seemed to be thinking more clearly than usual so it wasn't obvious.
"I'll send this to Sakura," said Naruto, tapping the glass. "She's studying medicine and stuff - and if she blends into the background that'll leave her able to help out the wounded on a battlefield!"
"Well, Naruto, that was actually well thought out," said Jiraiya, a little surprised.
"you don't have to act THAT surprised," grumbled Naruto as he sent the fishing line back into the top hat.
"AHHHH!" said Hinata as she was picked up and bodily thrown into the air, only her head and shoulders sticking out of the large stone coating that had formed around her.
"Hinata!" growled Kiba. "Okay, Akamaru. One more time. Shino, use your bugs to munch chakra when it crumbles again. FANG OVER FANG!"
"AAAAAAA!" continued Hinata as she passed tree-top height into way-too-darn high category. She struggled to try and move.
SNAG! only to have her downward plunge abruptly ended as something snagged on her sweatshirt's hood?
There was a brief period of bobbing, then she felt herself slowly pulled up further and further into the air.
She was still trying to make sense of this development when she noticed she was about to get pulled into an odd shimmering spot in the air.
"Almost there," grunted Naruto as he hauled on the line. "It's a heavy whatever-it-is. RRRRRRRRRAAA!"
POP!
Hinata blinked wildly around. "What? Where? Naruto?"
Naruto saw Hinata's head sticking out of the top hat and-
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(Posted Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:31)
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