Hikaru bounced up and down while her nin-dog did the same thing. "I made tea, sensei!"
Jiraiya blinked bleary eyes and saw the teapot suspended over the campfire. "Okay, maybe this won't be so bad."
Hikari yipped.
Jiraiya blinked at the dog. "Uhmmm."
"My family branched off from the Inuzuka family a couple of generations ago," said Hikaru. "We're not very big, so we have to be kind of self-sufficient."
"So you don't use the Inuzuka techniques, right?" asked Jiraiya as he settled with a groan into a seat on one stone.
"That's right," said Hikaru. "We have our own techniques, right Hikari?"
Hikari yipped and nodded, then spat a little stream of flame into the firepit.
"Okay," said Jiraiya, thinking he'd have to work in cooperative training between the girl and her puppy. Because the dog WAS a puppy still, with oversized paws for the little body. Probably be as huge as any of the Inuzuka dogs when he got older though, especially if the split was relatively recent.
"So your dog is fire element too," said Jiraiya in mid-stretch with a few popping and cracking noises.
"Right!" said Hikaru enthusiastically.
Taking a long sip of tea and sighing as the caffeine did its work, Jiraiya was silent for a few moments. When he did turn his attention to the little redhead, he was back to business. "Okay, show me the techniques you know."
"Well, I know HOW to do the technique for a fire arrow, but I can't do it yet," confessed Hikaru.
"Okay, that gives me a place to start," said Jiraiya, pointing a hand at the nearby stream. Water began to bubble, then form three streams which shot to specific places in the campsite.
Three screams responded.
"When everyone's awake, we're going to start your exercises," said Jiraiya after the screams had turned to complaints and then run out. "First thing to do is build up stamina and then chakra reserves. So you'll be starting the day with a nice invigorating run, meditation later. Today I'll give you a full assessment so I know where your skills are."
Jiraiya watched the kids, continuing his assessment. They were, in his admittedly limited experience regarding brats, good kids. The tsundere was a bit full of herself, but warming some under the constant barrage of friendly from Hikaru. It was obvious that the three girls were a bit put off by the inclusion of the blonde boy in their midst, but that wasn't able to withstand Hikaru's assault.
He'd decided on a game of Tag between the four of them. It kept them busy and allowed him to assess several of their skills at the same time.
Since Naruto had started off as "it" - the game had started with him trying to use force-projectiles to tag one of the others. Which had ended up with Jiraiya introducing New Rule One: tagging had to be physically touching the other individual and not by ninja dog proxy or ninjutsu.
Hikaru's expression had indicated that he HAD figured out her eventual plan ahead of time.
So there was much running, dodging, yelling, squealing, yapping, and the occasional INdirect use of Force techniques.
He was still evaluating when:
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(Posted Tue, 31 May 2011 17:14)
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