Naruto gave it a couple of trial swings.
"Why do I smell mint?" asked Tenten, ready to give Naruto another lesson in kenjutsu.
"I think it's the sword," said Naruto.
"I don't recognize the design," said Tenten, inspecting the sword in Naruto's hand. Longsword, similar to most of the others, but the design in white on the pommel WAS a leaf.
"I get the feeling this is one of those that's going to come up regularly," said Naruto, frowning.
"So a 'default' type," said Tenten with a nod, stepping close again and taking a stance. "Okay, here's the most basic stance for attack and defense. It's well-balanced for either role... that smell is kinda nice."
"Yeah," said Naruto, trying to copy the stance.
"Put the feet a little further apart. Better," said Tenten.
Naruto held the pose while Tenten circled him, only dropping it when she leaned close to sniff at him. "Wha?"
"Oh, nothing," said Tenten, frowning. "Don't stick your elbow out like that. You're just asking for someone to smack it. Or cut it."
"How do you know all about swords an' stuff anyway?" asked Naruto.
"My father owns a weapon shop and taught me," said Tenten. "Okay, from this stance you have three primary attacks. I'll show you."
Naruto was a little weirded out. The lesson had gone pretty much normally, except that at the end of it he'd gotten kissed.
Tenten had been pretty obviously surprised that she'd done that. Not mad, which Naruto had been expecting. He hadn't expected her to smack her lips and mumble something about not being able to decide if the taste was jiaozi or tangyuan.
Girls were weird.
"Oh no! Look out!"
Naruto stopped, looked up, and got a glimpse of a falling Hinata before the collision went from imminent to past-tense.
"Mfff?" asked Naruto, just glad that he'd gotten the sword off to the side. Yeah, it was in a sheath, but it still could have gotten painful. Oh. And why did he feel someone's lips on his own. Again?
"Cinammon buns with red bean?" asked Hinata as she disengaged liplock, realized what she had just done, and turned several different shades of red. Then collapsed.
Naruto wasn't sure that she'd let out a little steam cloud or what was up with that.
"Hinata-sama?" asked a Hyuga, landing nearby. "That was not the best landing you could have managed. Oh, she's unconscious."
"Not my fault!" insisted Naruto.
"No, I was watching," agreed the Hyuga, picking the unconscious girl up. "All you did was break her fall."
Naruto was just glad the guy didn't kiss him before walking away with Hinata. That would have been just too creepy.
"Well, Naruto is doing pretty good with two of the three, but he's hopeless at Clone." Tenten plopped down on the bench.
"So how's your team working out?" asked Hinata.
"Odd," admitted Tenten. "Neji's always had a stick up his butt, Lee is loud and doesn't seem to have any talent, and our sensei might just be insane. We've only been doing these D-Rank missions but I think we're ironing everything out."
"Ah," said Hinata.
"You know, I think I'm not supposed to talk about the test for genin or the whole 'hidden second test' thing," said Tenten. "On the other hand, ninja."
"I see," said Hinata.
"So," said Tenten. "How to get him past the first test and the genin test when he couldn't do a clone to save his life?"
"His chakra is too unstable," said Hinata, considering the problem. "Every so often there are red chakra bubbles. Then there are surges of his normal chakra."
"So maybe something where he could throw lots of chakra into it?" asked Tenten.
"Ah," said Hinata, straightening up. "I think that might work. There's a technique."
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(Posted Thu, 14 Mar 2013 18:25)
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