"Yeah," said Naruto. "So you're my team-mates for the purposes of the exam?"
"Where's Anko, or Jiraiya for that matter?" asked Izumo Kamizuki.
"Drinking contest with locals," said Naruto, shaking his head at the antics of the adults. What WAS the ninja world coming to when the adults were less responsible than the ten-year old prankster in their midst? "Both groups trying to get information out of each other."
Kotetsu Hagane grimaced. "Let me guess. They're all incapacitated right now?"
"Yeah," repeated Naruto. "If Shikamaru won't charge me for using his catchphrase. 'This is SO tiresome.'"
Kotetsu and Izumo shrugged and slung their backpacks out of the way. "Okay. So we ought to practice teamwork or something, right?"
"Test starts tomorrow," pointed out Naruto. "You ought to try not to do much today. Just get used to the air here. Air's thinner, hardly any humidity, gets real damn hot in the day, but you'll freeze your toes off at night."
"Huh," said Kotetsu, scratching under the bandage that crossed his nose.
"Okay. Well, I'm Izumo Kamizuki," said the other genin. "Water element specialist. Which means I might be in a little difficulty here."
"Not a lot of water for you to tap into, you mean," said Naruto with a nod.
"I'm better at genjutsu but I've got some weapons to use," said Kotetsu, flopping down next to his backpack. "My kunai-swords, plus the conch-shell mace."
"I don't think you've ever managed to hit anyone with that thing yet," said Izumo.
"It's only for special battles anyway," said Kotetsu. "Anyway, both of us are pretty good at taijutsu. You're a ninjutsu specialist, right kid?"
"You could say that," admitted Naruto.
"What you got?" asked Izumo, sitting more carefully down.
"I got a few basics, a few advanced," admitted Naruto. "Mostly wind element or similar."
"Do you know 'Wind Release: Violent Wind Palm'?" asked Izumo.
"Yeah, learned that one awhile back," said Naruto. "I'm working on the kunai blade one - that one's tricky."
A knock at the door interrupted the discussion. Kotetsu and Izumo both had kunai in their hands immediately.
"I think it's Temari," said Naruto, going to the door. "She was going to show me a ninja supply place here. Gotta stock up for tomorrow, after all." The nicer I am to her, the easier it'll be to set her and Shikamaru up later.
Shikamaru frowned. This was troublesome. Very much so.
The "dead last" had managed to graduate early, which had thrown ripples throughout their little classroom balance-of-power.
What was worse was that his own mother was pressuring him to graduate early too.
Still, he was relatively sure he could just blow it off and let things slide by. Eventually the status quo would settle down again.
Why hurry to the life of a genin when it just meant that he'd have to (shudder) work?
Still, it was troublesome.
Kotetsu and Izumo exchanged a look. Ten year old boy and a twelve year old girl, both recently advanced to genin. Getting along remarkably well.
This was just plain weird.
"So I know the basic manuevers for Wind Release (Fuuton) techniques, but I don't know what I can do as far as an elemental change," admitted Naruto, as he browsed the rows of kunai in their case. "How do you figure out what your second element is?"
"That's kind of advanced," noted Kotetsu.
"Yeah, I know. You've got to be chuunin normally just to get taught that stuff," said Izumo. "It's pretty chakra intensive to force the change of element, I know that much."
"So neither of you can do it?" asked Temari, sitting near the counter with one leg crossed under her and the other swinging back and forth as she watched the shoppers move around the store.
"We've got a few surprises to unleash," admitted Izumo. "It's just that we want them to stay surprises."
"I'm not one of your opponents," said Temari, though acknowledging privately that they WERE of rival villages.
"We're ninja," said Izumo. "Keeping some stuff hidden is in the job description I think."
"Yeah, frankly I think chuunin is as far as either of us go," said Kotetsu. "Some of the stuff the jonin have to do is way too troublesome."
"You sound like Shikamaru," noted Naruto, now wondering about the ninja wire-spools. Seemed to be cheaper here than back in the Leaf.
"The Nara kid? He's got the right attitude," opined Kotetsu. "Why work harder than you need to?"
"You work with ninja-wire?" asked Temari as she noted what Naruto was looking at.
"Probably not on the exam, but it IS an area I need to work on," said Naruto. "I've also heard I'll need a weapon eventually. Jonin and such have to display weapon mastery here in Suna too, right?"
"Yeah," admitted Temari, not mentioning that the fan she was carrying was just such a weapon. If they didn't know already, then they weren't ready for chuunin.
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(Posted Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:01)
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