"Uhm, so, Tanizaki-sensei," said Tobio nervously, "you made jonin."
"Yeah, I made jonin," said Yukari Tanizaki. "What a pain. Okay, listen up. You have a test tomorrow."
"WHAT?!" asked all three.
"Hey, do I look like I care?" asked Yukari. "I was about ready to drink that sneaky snakegirl under the table when someone spiked my drink! No way she could beat me fair and square!"
"So... you have a hangover?" asked Tomo, a certain gleam appearing in her eye.
"Okay," said Minamo Kurosawa, greeting her team. "Welcome to Team Six, aka Team Nyamo! Except for one itsy bitsy teeny tiny little complication. There's a final test you have to get through."
"WHAT??!" demanded her three genin.
"It's a ninja thing, I'm sure in your cases it'll just be a formality," said Minamo. "So, uhm, you want to introduce yourselves just in case you pass tomorrow?"
"Kiba Inuzuka, and this is Akamaru," said Kiba, waiting until Akamaru did a single "yap" as a greeting. "My goal is to kick butt and otherwise distinguish myself as an outstanding member of my pack and clan!"
"Kagura," said the next genin. "I'm good at taijutsu. My goal is to beat Sakaki!"
"Sakaki," said the last genin. "Taijutsu specialist."
"Yeah," said Kagura. "And she wants to be a vegetarian like Kiba's older sister."
There was a brief pause before Kiba corrected her. "You mean veterinarian."
"Okay, well show up at Training Ground 15 tomorrow at dawn, and better bring your 'A game,'" advised Nyamo.
"My first impression," said Kakashi Hatake, "is that I don't like you. Especially you."
Osaka blinked at that.
"She's not always that bad," protested Chiyo-chan.
Kakashi fixed his eye on the little girl.
"Okay, maybe she is," said Chiyo, shrinking in on herself.
"You next, shorty," said Kakashi.
"Err, Chiyo Mihama. My family split with the Inuzuka about three generations ago. My goal is to become a medic-nin. My strengths are my ninjutsu with my partner - Mister Tadakichi."
"Woof," said the pony-sized dog.
"Well, tomorrow is this final test to see if you make genin or get sent back to the Academy," began Kakashi, going for an evil laugh.
"Very well," said Kurenai. "We'll meet in Training Ground Twelve tomorrow morning. Our team is to specialize in reconnaisance and information gathering missions when you are ready for C-Rank missions. So your second genin test will involve a simulated mission of that sort. Be ready for anything."
"Information gathering?" asked Ino.
"Each team will have general missions, particularly at the D-Rank level," said Kurenai. "More specialized missions will be given in the future though as they come along. If a war breaks out, we would primarily go through scouting missions."
"Oh," said Ino, glancing off towards the woods.
"Border patrol, for example," said Kurenai. "Okay, the rest of the day is your own. Remember - dawn tomorrow, Training Ground Twelve."
"Actually, I'm surprised they didn't stick us with Ino," said Shikamaru as he watched the clouds drift lazily overhead.
"Uhm, Asuma-sensei?" asked Sakura. "What role do I play in a 'general assault' team?"
"That is for you to determine yourself, Sakura," said Asuma. "You lack the hijutsu of the Akimichi clan, and the shadow techniques of the Nara clan. They are both empowered and limited by their clan techniques. You, not having a clan, are free to walk whatever path you find. Just find it before tomorrow morning at dawn."
There had once been a world of fantasy races living a fantasy life which had fantasy roles that they took. It had been a land of castles and dragons, of valiant knights and dark warriors, of evil priests fighting against their good-aligned counterparts.
That had come apart when a sorcerer-priest named Wagnard prepared the means for his transformation into a lich-king that would rule over all.
In many, even most, timelines where this took place - Wagnard failed. In one, he succeeded.
It was from THAT particular world that Toltiir took two elven spirits, reformatted them a bit, and stuck them in this particular setting.
That was what had happened. As far as the two were concerned, or everyone else in the village knew, Naruto had botched a summons and gotten them. One of the few things the two had in common was that they tended to be protective of Naruto.
Deedlit and Pirotess, despite both being elves, did NOT get along terribly well. No, that was a serious understatement.
Deedlit was a light elf. Pirotess was a dark elf. That difference extended to everything about them.
Deedlit was kind and good with animals. For example, Akamaru absolutely adored her. Pirotess was haughty and not so good with animals. Continuing the example, Akamaru tried to avoid her. Deedlit had a laugh that sounded musical. Pirotess, on the rare occasion she laughed, managed to sound as if she were contemplating wearing spike heels and walking over puppies.
"Whose bright idea was it to put Deedlit and Pirotess on the same team?" asked Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, who looked as if he had a major headache coming in.
"I believe it was the councillors," said Aoba, looking a little worse for wear. "Any chance we can transfer one or the other at this point?"
"If it becomes absolutely necessary, we can do that after all the tests are over," said the Hokage. "Otherwise it will invalidate the whole second test scenario. How bad was it?"
"When I arrived at the meeting place," said Aoba, "Pirotess and Deedlit were attempting to choke the life out of each other. Naruto Uzumaki looked to have attempted to intervene at some point and had been hit with a Forced Sleep jutsu."
"Probably Pirotess, she's been known to do that," said the Hokage. "How did you handle it?"
"I woke up Naruto," said Aoba, giving the Hokage a look that despite his glasses - managed to convey his thoughts about getting in between those two himself.
flashback:
"Huh, what?" asked Naruto, rubbing his head.
"How long have they been doing that?" asked Aoba, his head tilting towards where Pirotess was now trying to strangle Deedlit with a loop of her own hair.
Naruto waited until the sudden gale-force winds had finished ripping through the area to respond. "They managed to avoid fighting for about five minutes, then Pirotess snorted about something, insults began and things went downhill pretty rapidly."
"I see," said Aoba, watching as Deedlit finished choking as Pirotess climbed back to her feet. "You're familiar with the Twin Elves Of The Leaf. What do you suggest?"
"Uhm, first, don't ever use that nickname around them," suggested Naruto, ignoring Pirotess executing a flying kick at the apparently-helpless Deedlit.
"Okay," said Aoba, ignoring how Deedlit swerved to the side and punched. Though he DID raise an eyebrow at the two reacting the way they did when Deedlit's fist hit an area she clearly had NOT aimed at. Aoba DID appreciate that Deedlit looked horrified at her hand having come into contact with that part of her opponent's anatomy and Pirotess using a stream of cusswords that really should have turned the air blue.
"Second, stand back," said Naruto, biting one thumb and then slapping the ground with that hand. "Summoning Jutsu! Bahamut!"
Two circles appeared in the sky, which swirled nearby clouds into it. Out of that maelstrom appeared a dragon.
"Uhm," said Aoba, watching the streets empty very darn quickly as the people who'd been watching two hot elven chicks fighting abruptly found that they were late for various appointments.
The dragon looked for an opponent to destroy, looked down to see the two elves fighting and made a very understandable disgusted noise. He tail slapped Pirotess first, then back-handed Deedlit off a wall before vanishing.
"Thanks, Bahamut," said Naruto. "Okay, they should be calmed down some when they wake up."
Present evening:
"And were they?" asked the Hokage.
"Mostly, though I think each of them had some injuries that kept them from going straight to the fight again," said Aoba. "Testing them on teamwork might be premature. Just getting them to stop trying to kill each other might be a major task."
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(Posted Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:58)
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