"Okay," Kurenai said to her collected genin. "Since we've established you haven't forgotten how to be espionage experts, you're just somewhat...unpolished."
"Which means we stink," Ino supplied under her breath.
"We'll work on that," Kurenai said. "You're really just about genin level in that regard and that's not uncommon. The number of academy students who focus on the deception, information gathering and scouting aspects of being a ninja beyond raw stealth are rare. Most focus on inhibiting or attacking the enemy in someway. Whether through illusion or direct attack."
She looked toward Naruto and Hinata.
"Most of the documents we have on your operations for these other people," Kurenai said, "is disaster clean-up and search and rescue. With at least two 'incidents' of notable combat. The problem from our point of view being that none of what you were doing needed you to be unseen. So, you've clearly gotten sloppy."
"Yes, Kurenai-sensei," Hinata said.
"Heh, heh," Naruto laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head. "I guess if you don't use it, you lose it."
"Actually, from what I can tell, you've improved, Naruto," Kurenai said off-hand.
"Oh? That's...wait a minute, how bad was I before?" he asked.
"I assume they have something the equivalent of a ninja for espionage?" their sensei inquired without answering Naruto.
"Well, Teana and Fate-sensei are Enforcers," the blonde mage said. "Some of them could be ninja."
"We did ask about that," Hinata noted, "but it required...significant commitment."
"That makes sense," Kurenai noted with a nod.
She wouldn't want to let just anybody into the ANBU either. And if these Enforcers were like the ANBU, then they likely had something like...
Kurenai took her mind off that direction.
"Now, if our ranking system is equivalent to theirs," Kurenai said. "I'm likely still more dangerous than either of you in fight, possibly both of you. But it'll be hard to evaluate you on individual skills if I'm going full out."
That would likely only give her an general understanding and some handful of specific strengths and weaknesses.
"Does that include me?" Ino asked.
"We'll have to see," Kurenai said. "Have you figured anything else about what you're capable of?"
Ino thought of the amulet she was currently wearing under her tunic and her attempts to puzzle through it. For some sort of teaching tool it was really hard to use. Then again, she had to admit, coded and obtuse instructions requiring someone who actually had practical experience weren't uncommon with regard to family techniques. She should know.
"But these two are chunin level in combat, as such, I've gotten someone to come in and help me out with this so I can watch from the sidelines," she said, looking back over her shoulder.
Naruto looked back and saw four people coming up to the training area. The leader was a tall, broad-shouldered man dressed in some sort of green spandex with orange leg warmers with a bowl hair-cut. Of the others there was another guy in green, like a smaller version of the adult, someone that looked like he was from Hinata's family though he had a really bad look to his face and a girl with her hair in couple of buns and a slender build.
"Yosh! Let's celebrate in the power of youth!" the adult green-wearing ninja declared loudly.
"Right! Gai-sensei!" the smaller green guy said as the girl in the hair buns sighed expressively.
The Uzumaki glanced over toward Hinata and blinked as he noticed her shaking somewhat. She'd been a lot more nervous since they came back and that was saying quite a bit. This was the worse he'd seen yet though.
"Hinata, are you all right?" he asked.
Kurenai eyed Neji and frowned as she saw Hiashi and a bodyguard detail from the Hyuga also coming up the street. She was pretty sure that she knew why Hinata was so nervous and hoped that two years away would have dulled some of that, but then again, she might just have magnified the situation instead of lessened it.
"Ummm, I'm fine," Hinata said, though the way she swallowed seemed to belie that.
"All right," Kurenai said. "Let's start with Ino."
The girl in question straightened nervously and looked across toward the three older genin, one of them the famed Neji, last year's number one rookie. And she'd heard some stories about Might Gai from her father and his friends, well, overheard actually, but still.
"Tenten!" Gai called out loudly. "See where she stands."
"Right sensei," Tenten said as she walked out to the training ground.
"I'd like to see my daughter's performance first," Hiashi said as he came to the side of the site.
[Annoying]
A mechanical voice noted that Hiashi tracked toward that fox-kid's general location. A scowl at the boy was returned by one of Naruto's own, though it seemed clear that the Uzumaki boy wasn't sure why he was angry.
Hinata for her part was seeming, as usual from Hiashi's perspective, to shrink in on herself with the attention.
"My apologies, Hyuga-sama," Kurenai said politely but firmly. "But I am the one running this demonstration and assessment. Ino, are you ready?"
"What? Yeah, sure," Ino declared with a bravado that she wasn't sure she actually felt. "Let's get on with this."
The gorgon walked out onto the training field away from the onlookers and took up her stance against the smiling Tenten.
"I like the braids by the way," Tenten said approvingly. "But that much hair has to get in the way of things."
"Yeah, hair," Ino said, scratching at an itch in her shoulder absent mindedly. "That's what it is."
"Are you two ready?" Kurenai asked.
"Yeah," Ino responded.
"Very," Tenten added with a smile. "Don't worry, this isn't an all out thing."
"All right," Kurenai said. "Begin."
Ino flinched back as a trio of kunai slashed past her on either side and Tenten came in pulling a staff out of seemingly nowhere to swing out at her head. Frantically ducking, her "braids" reached up above her and several wrapped around the staff.
Tenten blinked and her attacked lost some of its power in the surprise, but even so she still powered through the other girl's odd attempt to trap her weapon. Ino herself winced as she was forcibly pulled to the side and it was a moment before she saw that Tenten was a little bit distracted.
"Got you," Ino said, straightening up and kicking out as she tried to pull the staff out of Tenten's hands with her tentacles.
Tenten almost casually twisted one end of the staff and pulled it free to reveal a chain and used the newly portioned off section of the staff to block Ino's kick. This was followed by her twisting another section and disconnecting the part Ino held completely at the same time as sweeping her leg out to send the gorgon tumbling away.
The older girl followed up almost casually twisted the two sections of her three-section staff like a nunchaku with over-sized rods. As Ino rolled to standing she backed away for a moment as Tenten smiled at her.
"Go ahead and come at me again," the girl said in a friendly manner. "It'd be a bad to just assess your defense and not your attack."
"Oh yeah?" Ino said, looking around frantically for a moment before grabbing a kunai from her holster and charging forward.
Tenten smiled pleasantly as she sent her rod to clatter against Ino's kunai, diverting it aside. And then she blinked as another kunai came in, one of Ino's braids apparently wrapped tightly around it. That was also easily deflected, though at the cost of two more tendrils grabbing hold of the rod in Tenten's hand and jerking it away.
On the sidelines Kurenai nodded as she watched, Ino's taijutsu was passable, but Tenten was just that much better than her. Though her apparent bloodline seemed to have potential. Right now she was under using those prehensile tentacles, but that could be helped with some tailored training. A look exchanged with Gai told her he was thinking the same thing.
However, if that was as far as the bloodline went, she wasn't sure it would be much of a game changer.
"Hey, what's the gathering over here?" a particularly loud voice asked as Anko Mitarashi made her presence known. "Oh, what's with the dreadlocks, are we hosting an exchange student from the Land of Lightning?"
"Mitarashi," Hiashi said irately. "Perhaps you should simply watch. And be quiet?"
"Tsh," Anko said. "It's just a couple of kids, not even the Chunin exam."
"I'm trying to focus," Kurenai noted to Anko turning away from the fight for a moment and then looking back.
Ino turned to look toward the currently unarmed Tenten and tried for another kick to the head, growling as she did so. The other girl easily ducked under it and, with a burst of smoke, drew forth a pair of kama with blade covers over the edges to keep them practice safe.
One of the kamas caught around Ino's left leg and pulled it along up into the air as the other cupped around underneath her right arm. Even Ino knew that was to limit how she fell in order to avoid accidently breaking her neck. Still, it left Ino painfully falling on her back with a cracking sound and burst of pain.
Tenten frowned in concern at both the characteristic sound of a broken bone and the expression on her opponent's face.
The Yamanaka, meanwhile felt a sudden burst of inspiration accompanied by a fast moving sequence of images. Or maybe it was instinct, she wasn't sure.
"Are you..." Tenten started to say.
And then she stopped as Ino's human facade faded away and her newly natural purple coloration swept over her. The scales reflected light in such away as to seem to be glowing vaguely and the tendrils, now impossible to mistake for hair rose up about her pointing toward Tenten, aside from one which simply seemed to be twitching. Finally Ino's eyes flashed with a brilliant purple.
"Ooo, interesting," Anko said with a smile.
"What is this girl?" Hiashi wondered darkly.
"Ah! What is that?" Lee demanded.
"Is this the potential her bloodline goes, or is it just the beginning?" Kurenai and Gai each wondered separately.
Tenten tried to flinch away from the state and found her muscles moving slowly at first and then stopping completely.
"I...I can't move?" Tenten thought, her mouth frozen in a caricature of surprise.
The display faded on Ino who herself blinked hesitantly before smiling and standing up.
"Did she paralyze her with a genjutsu?" Kurenai thought to herself.
"What is this?" Hiashi wondered carefully, quietly activating his byakugan. "The chakra is just barely flowing enough for survival, everything is completely paralyzed."
"Huh?" Naruto said. "She didn't change into a statue?"
"I suppose most gorgons just paralyze?" Hinata said quietly.
"Ha! You really shouldn't have underestimated me!" Ino said. "And now just for the icing on the cake. Mind Switch Jutsu."
Everybody watched Ino's body slump forward and waited for the paralyzed Tenten to start talking like the Yamanaka girl.
After about ten seconds, it became clear that the body was still paralyzed.
"Ino-chan's stuck in there too now," Hinata reasoned with a sigh.
"Not a genjutsu," Kurenai decided. "If it paralyzes regardless of the mind in charge."
And then Tenten was moving again weaving the release sign for the Mind Switch Jutsu.
"Oww! Oww!" both girls were quickly saying as they shook out their arms.
"Everything's cramped! Everything!" Tenten complained before shambling over toward Ino and whacking her on the head with the handle of one of her kama. "Don't do that again!"
"Oww! All...oww! All right!" Ino complained. "But you...stop bonking me on the head like a little kid...oww!...you broke one of my braids."
"Tenten," Gai said with a smirk. "That's enough."
"Right, sensei," Tenten said irritably before hooking her kamas to her belt and walking off.
"Okay, Ino, let's get tha..." Kurenai stopped as Anko walked past her and moved up to look the gorgon up and down.
"What do you want?" Ino asked as she held the broken tendril in question.
"Heh, mouthy kid," Anko noted as she took the girls chin and took a good look at her scaly face. "Interesting look girl, I might be taking an interest in you."
"The crazy snake-woman is taking an interest in me?" Ino repeated weakly.
"Let's see that broken tentacle," Anko said, grabbing the girl's shoulder and walking, almost dragging, her over toward where her teammates were sitting.
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(Posted Sat, 21 May 2011 00:54)
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