The member of the opposing team looked down at all the black smudges on his shirt from the tar on the blunted kunai and said something very impolite.
"You know," said one of the exam proctors. "You're supposed to use REAL attacks and weapons."
"This is only the second test," pointed out Izumo. "No reason for a lot of genin killing each other. Sure, it can happen. In fact - I expect those Rock genin are a bit bloodthirsty, but so far they've left us alone."
"Komugi," said the girl among the three other Leaf genin. "You couldn't dodge faster?"
"Hey, you got tagged too," pointed out Komugi.
"Well, we can always go on to the next chunin test," pointed out the third member of their group. "One that's in Konoha itself. We'll be ready then."
"Idiot," said the girl. "Hey, you three. Let me know how it goes when you get back. One of you BETTER make chunin if you're gonna kick US out."
Naruto grinned and gave her a thumb's up. "You betcha!"
The other fight was quickly done, simply because Naruto's team (Team 17) found itself having to face Team 9 (Rain genin) and teamed up with Team Six (Sand genin) who wanted the Team 9 tag.
While the proctors all complained about how Naruto's group was bending the rules and violating the spirit of the test, they all gave Team Seventeen extra points in the secret scoring because of those very reasons. After all, it was a very chunin thing to do.
This also ended up shortening the contest for everyone but four teams who then went out in the desert in 52 degree Celsius weather to kill each other.
Naruto raised a glass of some greenish drink that tinkled with ice in the direction of the desert. "To those brave genin who didn't want anyone to know what their numbers were and are gonna fight in the desert."
"Suffering will make them stronger," said Izumo, raising his own glass.
"Suffering when they don't have to just makes them idiots," said Kotetsu, but he raised his own glass.
"I gotta say," said Naruto, "this ice technique is a surprise. I thought you had to have a special bloodline for that."
"To do anything major - yes," admitted Izumo. "I just use a water technique to purify the water, and a wind technique to cool the water down to freezing. It takes awhile and is a little clumsy, but the results are good."
Temari just sipped on her own drink silently, but was thinking she really wanted to try this out more often herself.
Kankuro grumbled about how soft such practices were. Not that he'd say anything particularly loud to indicate that. They (particularly Temari) might take his drink away.
"Try crushing the ice into a powder and then adding some flavoring," Izumo advised Gaara. "It's called a 'snow cone' and they're fairly popular in some regions."
"Who'd have thought Gaara would have a sweet tooth?" asked Temari of no one in particular as her little brother started making a snow cone. When Gaara glanced at her, she hastened to add that there was certainly nothing WRONG with having a sweet tooth.
Okay, Gaara was sleeping and was somewhat more mellow than he'd been before the sealing expert had reinforced Shukaku's prison. That didn't mean he didn't have issues to resolve still.
"So what was going on with Jiraiya-sensei and Anko-sensei?" asked Naruto.
"That's, well, that is to say," evaded Izumo. "Not for you to learn about for a few years."
"Eh?" asked Naruto.
"They what?" asked Temari, getting it but then boggling at the unwanted images conjured forth by her own imagination.
"THOSE TWO?" asked Kotetsu, getting it but not wanting to.
"Ero-sennin?!" asked Naruto once the connection clicked.
"Orochimaru? Where?" asked Kotetsu.
"Uhm, no, the OTHER Ero-sennin," said Naruto, remembering now.
"So what are we going to do for a month?" asked Kotetsu, anxious for a change of subject. "Once this test wraps up, there's a month wait for the individual combat portion. We can stay in Suna, but it's frikking hot."
"Over the next week we're going to have haboob," said Temari. "We have them every year around this time."
"A 'haboob'?" asked Kotetsu, thinking that they were still on pervy subjects.
"It's a kind of sandstorm," explained Temari. "Here in Suna we tend to button everything up pretty tight when they come. It's either that or spend days trying to get the sand and dust out of everything."
"Actually, I've an idea," said Izumo.
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(Posted Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:11)
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