"Hey, Hinata, can you do the 'nobody sees us' thingy?" Naruto asked.
"Kleinhoffen," Hinata said quietly as she drew the sword. "Byakugan."
Ino watched the veins at the side of Hinata's eyes bulge, but that wasn't nearly as surprising as what came next.
[Bereit, mein Meister] the odd sword said, much to Ino's surprise.
"Hide us, please," Hinata said. "Just us."
[Gesichtsfeld]
Ino flinched again as a semi-circular rush of chakra washed past her encompassing her and the other two members of her team.
"Okay, so, we're like hidden from sight, right, Hinata?" Naruto asked.
"Yes, but it is...'noisy' chakra, Naruto-kun," the Hyuuga said timidly.
Both she and Naruto looked toward Ino curiously.
"Sooo," Naruto said. "What do you really look like?"
"What do you mean?" Ino asked nervously.
"Our friend, Terra has bright green scales normally, but she can look human too," Hinata said, actually, Terra was better at it. Ino still stood out. "So, we're...curious. Sorry about this."
Ino fidgeted a bit nervously, looking around.
"Hey, if you'd rather not we can get to these errands Kurenai-sensei set us," Naruto said.
Ino frowned briefly and looked about before relaxing her body with a brief sigh. The pupils of her blue eyes shifted into slits and the miniscule, almost microscopic scales grew to their normal size and color: a deep royal purple. The fuzzy appearance of the scales on her "braids" smoothed out and darkened as well back to a similar purple color.
"Well?" Ino asked nervously.
"Awesome!" Naruto said with a thumbs up. "You look great!"
"You look very lovely, Ino-chan," Hinata said.
Ino blinked and smiled then as she folded her arms slightly and preened.
"Well, if I have to be a monster, at least I'm pretty mon..." she paused. "Ino-chan??"
Hinata glanced over her shoulder, a mostly unnecessary gesture, though it did move the blindspot to a different location.
"Someone is coming," she noted quietly. "They seem curious about something here. I believe he probably noticed the chakra."
"Quick, change back!" Naruto told Ino, who quite swiftly shifted her scales and coloration back to her almost human appearance.
"Kleinhoffen, we're done now," Hinata said, putting the gladius back into her sheath as she let her byakugan fade.
[Natürlich, mein Meister,] the sword responded.
And the semi-circle of chakra hiding them from sight collapsed inward until the three kids were standing there in the wake of having talked to their jonin-instructor.
A frowning chunin came around a corner then and took the three kids in, narrowing his eyes as he tried to figure out where that odd chakra signature had gone.
"Was there anything strange here a moment ago?" the chunin asked.
"Umm, no, sir," Naruto said with a smile.
The chunin stared at Naruto a few more seconds and then looked toward the two girls.
"Right, I think I'm going to go check some things out," he said. "And if I find there's been some sort of prank..."
He left that hanging and then walked off.
"Anyway," Ino said. "If we're done looking at me, we've got things we need to do."
"Right," Hinata said, looking over the three notes. "I do not believe that these two will be a problem."
She glanced over at Naruto who smiled and went through a couple of hand signs before calling out "Shadow Clone" and suddenly there were two more Naruto's there in front of Ino and Hinata.
"I'll be done with this in a flash!" both Narutos declared as each took an envelope and leaped off into the village.
"All right, I hope I still know my way around this place," the real Naruto said as he turned to look to the two girls.
"Uh, Naruto-kun?" Hinata said, hoping he was joking.
"I'm just kidding, look, Ichiraku's is this way," he said. "Let's get something to eat and talk about this..."
"Somewhere other than a public restaurant?" Ino suggested. "Unless you have a 'nobody hears us' jutsu as well."
"That sounds like a good idea," Hinata noted.
It wasn't too much later that they found themselves sitting around in Naruto's apartment, discussing matters.
"Okay," Naruto said, taking a necklace from around his neck and holding it out, Ino saw that it looked like a little hammer with a jewel in the center. "This is Mjolnir on standby mode. Say hello, Mjolnir."
[Hello.]
"And this is Kleinhoffen," Hinata said, lying her sword out in front of where she was sitting. "Unfortunately, his standby mode seems to have broken as of last upgrade. They're not sure what the problem is."
"And these things have those powers you're supposed to have?" Ino asked.
"No, they simply make it easier and more efficient to shape our chakra," Hinata said. "They use our chakra in order to pull off our techniques."
"Yeah, without a mage or knight," Naruto said. "Simple devices like this aren't able to do much."
"But everything would be much harder and burn a lot more power without them," Ino said. "I get it."
She nodded thoughtfully and then looked up as Hinata spoke.
"Now, how are we supposed to go about collecting these names?" Hinata asked. "That will surely be classified information."
"And if you use any of your other powers, then you're going to have a screaming amount of chakra alerting every sensor ninja in the area," Ino said.
"That is about the size of it, Ino-chan," Hinata said with a sigh.
"Umm, can you not call me Ino-chan please?" Ino said. "I mean you two might be two years older than me now, but still...please."
"Okay, this shouldn't be a problem," Naruto said. "I mean, I got that scroll, right? This should be cake. Just as soon as one of my clones..."
And his expression soured.
"That special-jonin with the scars popped one of my clones," he said. "And there goes the other one."
"So where were you going anyway?" Ino asked, arching an eyebrow. "And how do you know they got popped?"
"They sort of yelled," Hinata said quietly. "But Naruto-kun feels their memories regardless."
"They, what?" Ino asked.
"One of the basic techniques they teach in Mid-Childa is how to talk with your mind," Naruto said. "Like all of them can do it. It's really cool!"
Ino's eyes widened at that revelation. She wondered if that translated to the idea that all of her clan's techniques were also readily duplicated. That was something she had to figure out, quickly.
"I think perhaps we should teach that to Sensei and Ino-c...Ino as well," Hinata said quietly. "It would be very useful to be able to talk over distances between all of us, and that is a spell that does not require enough chakra to make a device matter."
"I'm willing," Ino said quickly, eager to get a feel for this version of the technique and see if it was anything like her family's.
"Okay," Naruto said quickly. "Let's see...how to describe it..."
"I think it would be best to first show, like Takamachi-sensei did," Hinata said. It really is very simple.
Ino blinked and arched an eyebrow as she felt what Hinata was doing. It was a very wide-open jutsu, it couldn't have been used to relay anything important. Ino thought that she could probably intercept such messages herself, and she was hardly the most effective or experienced telepath of the Yamanaka clan.
Yeah, gotta be careful though, Naruto's voice said. Other people that know how to do this can pick it up and listen in.
"So probably..." Ino paused. "Wait, let me try this out...I...think I can tell what you're doing." So, using it here when we can talk to each other face to face is probably useless.
"Well, unless someone's listening physically," Hinata noted quietly.
Ino nodded and concentrated briefly before reaching back to her father along a much tighter, more controlled channel of psychic thought.
Dad! These people teach telepathy like its an Academy skill! she told him. I mean, it sounds to me like Naruto and Hinata think anybody should be able to do it.
Really, her father returned. Do you think its a threat to the clan?
Not yet, Ino said. Their technique is majorly sloppy and they don't know how to 'switch channels' cause I'm talking to you in front of Hinata and Naruto and they haven't noticed a thing.
However, she was noticing the chakra drain. Hinata and Naruto's version might have been fine for conversation, this one wasn't.
Keep an eye on that for us, Inoichi noted. And stop the jutsu before you tire yourself out.
Ino resisted the urge to nod and took a deep breath as she turned her complete attention to the people in front of her.
"Anyway, getting that list of names," the gorgon said.
"Restaurants," Hinata said thoughtfully.
"Right!" Ino said. "They'll be wanting to reserve tables to entertain guests."
"Okay, so, what, we go to all the restaurants and ask to see their reservation lists?" Naruto asked.
"Of course not, idiot," Ino said. "This is a Hidden Village. They aren't just going to GIVE us that information. In case we're assassins or saboteurs or something."
Hinata nodded.
"But it should still be less secure," Hinata agreed.
"You know the complete list is going to be in the Hokage's office," Naruto said. "It's gotta be."
"Hey...isn't that guy with the scars, the Hokage's secretary or something?" Ino asked. "Because if he is, I've got the technique to get us in."
She smiled broadly and crossed her arms.
"Excuse me, I'm...here to check on the reservations that the Hokage has made," a person that looked like Raido Namiashi said in a painfully put upon voice.
Teuchi and Ayame arched an eyebrow and looked back at him.
"We don't really make reservations here," Teuchi said as he set down a bowl of ramen in front of the man.
And the ramen was instantly gone.
"Well then," Raido said, standing up. "I'll be on my way, put this on my tab. Because this I don't know if the money on me keeps existing or not. So I'll pay you back later, okay Old-Man Teuchi?"
"Isn't that like, the third time he's been here and asked that?" Ayame asked.
Teuchi just added it to the tab.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say that was Naruto," he noted. "But he can't pull off a henge that good..."
"And there he is," Ino said to Hinata quietly as she saw Raido Namaishi walking past the building that contained the Hokage's office. "Are you ready to watch my body, Hinata?"
"It won't be a problem," Hinata assured her quietly.
"Good because it doesn't sound like Naruto's having any luck," Ino said with a sigh.
Hinata frowned at the younger girl then and Ino had the good grace to cringe at least a little. She definitely needed to talk to the girl about getting her feelings for the guy across before the repression broke something.
Anyway, the trained telepath chuckled briefly as she formed a hand sign and sent the mind-switch jutsu to strike her target. Hinata caught her temamate's slumping body and quickly pulled it out of sight, as Ino's human facade began to fade almost as soon as she slumped forward.
"What the?" Naruto said, blinking. "That was funny."
Ino could barely contain her desire to chuckle as she walked Raido into the central building and past the various people there, keeping a cool, silent exterior as she did so.
Finally, she was at the door to the office, where all the recent information would be kept.
This was going to be so...
...and she opened the door to see Raido Namaishi dutifully looking through papers.
He glanced up as the door opened, but Ino was already plastered against the side of the wall outside, sweating.
Naruto! You idiot! I'm in one of your clones! Ino shouted telepathically.
What? returned.
Is that dangerous? Hinata asked.
How the hell should I know? I've never possessed a clone before! Ino returned.
There was a shuffling of sound from the office getting closer to the doorway driving Ino to get more than a little nervous.
"Henge, henge, henge!" she thought furiously as she moved through the hand signs.
As Raido came outside her turned around looked down to see a potted plant sitting there in the hallway against the wall. Arching his eyebrow suspiciously, he stepped forward to eye the plant carefully.
"You've got to be kidding me," he said, slowly reaching back a hand.
The plant that was an Ino-possessed henged-Naruto clone gave a quick "eep" and released the mind-switch just before the body-guard smacked his hand forward.
"What the hell where am I...oh hell!" the clone dodged out of the way of the first attack, popping out of its plant henge to appear as Raido.
The next next series of attacks pressed the confused and off balance clone until it finally tripped back and burst into smoke knocking against the edge of the wall.
"A clone...Naruto again," Raido said with a grumble. "Where the hell is he and what's he up to?"
Ino's body jerked upright and she clutched at her chest and breathed heavily.
"That was close!" she said. "Agg, I was right there, what was one of Naruto's clones doing over here anyway?"
Hinata pointed down the street and Ino caught sight of Ichiraku's Ramen.
"Oh," Ino said frustrated.
At which point, Raido, at least "a Raido" came out of the building and started looking up and down the street before walking resolutely in the direction of Ichiraku's Ramen.
Hinata and Ino exchanged looks.
"Henge!" they both said together.
Naruto, get your clones away from Ichiraku's, Ino sent.
Naruto-kun, Namaishi-san is coming to you, Hinata added.
Oh crap! several Narutos noted. How big is that tab now?
"All right," Santa Yamanaka said to Inoichi. "Your daughter's teammates are now officially the best telepathic entertainment money can't buy."
Inoichi sighed and shook his head.
"We're going to have to get them to narrow that field a bit," Inoichi said.
"I'm sorry, Namaishi-san," Teuchi said. "We don't do reservations."
"What?" Raido asked, his first question now set aside.
"Will be adding this bowl to your tab as well?" the restaurant owner asked.
"My what?!"
Kotetsu and Izumo arched an eye as they saw what seemed to be the Third Hokage and Raido Namaishi standing outside the Hokage's office and trying the door.
"Gah! It's locked!" the apparent old man said with all the character of an annoyed twelve-year old girl.
"Give me a moment, please," "Raido" added in a voice that was technically the right one, but sounded more like he was a rather shy little girl rather than the grim bodyguard they knew him to be.
He performed a hand sign and said something quietly as the Third Hokage cast about, keeping watch.
"I think I found...oh dear," Hinata said, glancing up the hall toward the two chunin.
"Ummm...time to go," the "Hokage" said before bursting into smoke to reveal a pink-haired girl.
"Raido" blinked briefly before following and also bursting into smoke to reveal a dark-haired young man most people were familiar with.
And both took off running.
"Sooo, are you buying that?" Kotetsu asked.
"Be serious," Izumo said.
"So, should we chase them or something?" the first one asked.
"Why the hell did you imitate Sasuke?!" Ino shouted. "He's going to get in trouble now!"
"He was the first one I thought of on Sakura's team," Hinata noted.
"Yeah, I guess Kiba's forgettable," the gorgon agreed.
"So did you get it?" Naruto asked as they rendezvoused in his apartment. "Because, I've got some reservations and numbers of seats and stuff, but no names."
"I got it," Hinata said quietly.
"So then all we have to do is..." Ino stopped as she was interrupted by someone clearing their throat.
The three genin turned to watch several people walk into the room from the apartment window and the now open door.
Coming out from behind them, mouth twitching, though whether from amusement or irritation, it was hard to tell, Kurenai came up to the three.
"I think that could have gone better," she said.
"All in all," Kurenai reported to Ibiki and Sarutobi. "Even just using basic ninjutsu, they got way too close to the information. And with what Naruto found from canvasing the area, they could have nailed it down to a vulnerable location, possible even guessed as to which inns to check."
"I agree," Ibiki noted. "Security needs to be heavily stepped up. And their infiltration technique needs to be worked on, they could have performed much better than they did...which is also worrisome for our security."
"Get to it," the Hokage said. "And the Ichiraku tab?"
"Naruto paid it," Kurenai said. "I think he always was planning on it."
"Which is an operational error," the interrogator noted. "He should have set the blame once and left it that way. To do so many times and then to actually go back and pay up, it undoes the point of making someone appear to have been somewhere else."
"It sounds like they're being creative," Sarutobi said. "And they did not use these spells or Ino's bloodline?"
"It doesn't seem so," Kurenai said. "They've described the 'magic' used by the TSAB as 'noisy' chakra, must have decided not to risk being sensed."
"So, to review," Kurenai told her team. "You impersonated a higher-ranking ninja, left evidence of him having been somewhere, acquired seating information from half the restaurants in town for every Konoha Village government sponsored event, got to look at an entire room of classified information via Hinata's byakugan and attempted to lay the blame on Team 7."
The three hung their heads in shame.
"Now, if you'd gotten away with it..." Kurenai said. "It would have been impressive. However..."
"Please don't tell me I have to go back to the Academy," Ino said with a shiver.
"No, I don't think so," Kurenai said. "I still need you three to come up with the gift list for some of these dignitaries. And I mean the real list, not the one we set for you."
"Real..." Naruto frowned.
"That was the test?" Hinata asked.
"That was the test," Kurenai confirmed.
"So who are these 'digintaries' and why should we be the ones to figure out a gift list for them?" Naruto asked as he was handed the list. "Oh...well...yeah."
"Who is it, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked.
"Hayate..."
Hinata arms crossed.
"...Subaru..."
And the Hyuga's arms tightened.
"...Sein..."
Hinata's head slumped forward in defeat as Naruto winced in sympathy.
"Nanoha and Fate," Naruto finished.
"Hayate, Subaru and Sein are all perverted guys, aren't they?" Ino asked.
"No, they're all women..." Hinata said. "Very nice, friendly, kind, grabby women."
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(Posted Fri, 20 May 2011 04:41)
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