Yesterday
Konohamaru walked home, head down. Another failed assassination attempt on the Hokage. Another missed chance to stop being “Honorable Grandson.” Maybe he should practice his shuriken more.
A commotion around him made him look up. And he saw her. Just floating, no flying overhead. An absolute angel. She was…she was really pretty.
“The demon can fly now? Why doesn’t the Hokage do something about it?” someone nearby muttered.
It’s a well known fact that children hear everything and ignore everything they don’t understand. Konohamaru heard that this vision of beauty was more powerful than the Hokage he so desperately wanted to surpass. “I will learn her secrets and make her mine!” he declared.
“Aww, isn’t that cute?”
“Just what I’d expect from the Hokage’s grandson. Give her hell, lad!”
A young ANBU hidden nearby hung his head. “Nothing good can come from this.”
Today
Team Eight reconvened at Kurenai’s training ground. Naruto had sketched out a map of the traps and such he had found. “Hey girls,” he called as Hinata ran up. “We did great here. I think it’s an obstacle course.”
“It’s much worse than that,” Hinata said, twiddling her fingers. With Naruto crouched like that she had a wonderful view of his backside. Ack, nosebleed!
Naruko took a step forward and coughed lightly, attracting attention so Hinata could recover gracefully. “If what we found is accurate, these aren’t the obstacles we have to be worried about.” She explained the papers they read in detail.
Kiba looked shell-shocked. “You gotta be kidding me.”
Naruto hung his head. “Don’t teach them small stuff, teach them more by knocking them down in a mock battle. What is it with teachers and beating the crap out of students?”
“Test, sadistic complications, real test, more sadism, profit,” Naruko grumbled. “I think it’s a universal tradition.”
[Change rules, boss,] Gungnir said.
“Gungnir’s right,” Naruto said evilly. “I think it’s high time we pranked the hell out of Kurenai-sensei. Let’s move some traps.”
The Next Day
Kurenai looked over her genin. “I thought I told you to get a good rest,” she said.
All four looked tired, dirty, even exhausted. “You told us to prepare for anything,” Naruto pointed out. “That takes a long time.”
“Being prepared means being able to handle what is going to happen. You lot couldn’t handle an academy student half your size.” Kurenai didn’t know what was going on. They had found her plans, so why had they prepared for “anything?” And why was Naruko looking around in terror as if a badly disguised academy student was about to jump out from the underbrush to glomp her? Well, whatever. “Today you test for the right to be genin,” she announced in an official tone. “Behind me you see a forest. On the other side of the forest is a finish line. Anyone who crosses the line passes the test. The test doesn’t end until everyone has crossed the line. Anyone who hasn’t passed by noon fails. BEGIN!”
All four vanished into chakra smoke. Kurenai stared for a moment. “Bunshin? Kage bunshin? Naruto!”
Naruto held a hand to his head as the memories flooded his brain. Team Eight was crouched in the forest, under what was supposed to be one of the nastier mines. They were all clean, alert, and well-rested. “Ugh…they broke the jutsu too soon. She was looking right at them.”
“Well, we didn’t expect that part of the plan to work anyway,” Hinata whispered. “What did she say?”
“Nothing you didn’t find,” Naruto said. “But we don’t know where the finish line is.”
“We don’t?” Kiba whispered back.
“We don’t,” Naruko confirmed. Her own kage bunshin had played herself. Not that it looked much like her at the moment – it was so cramped in their foxhole she had changed to her animal form, a small red fox. “So she’s been here since we moved the traps around.”
“Which means she might know,” Kiba concluded. “That’s a problem.”
“We have three clear shots to the far side of the forest,” Naruto pointed out. “Only A was obvious. I think we should take B.”
“A was the straight line, right?” Naruko asked. “Yeah, A is out.”
“B it is,” Kiba said. “Hinata, what’s out there?”
“Byakugan! …oh no. We have to move!”
No one bothered to ask why. Naruto flipped a bit of chakra above them and detonated the wimpified mine over their heads, sending up clods of dirt and forest loam and smoke while giving them an immediate escape route. They launched themselves from the hole and scattered into the forest.
Well, tried to scatter. Kunai fell like rain and herded them back into the small clearing.
“They’re here,” Hinata said unnecessarily.
“Then I suppose we have to get serious about this,” Kiba said, cracking his knuckles.
“I agree, dog breath,” Naruto grinned. “Ready, Hinata?”
“Ready!” Hinata called.
“Set up!”
Orange and lavender light shot through the fading dust, blasting it clear and revealing Kiba, Akamaru, Naruko in human form…and two mages.
[Barrier Jacket. Spear Form.]
The dulled colors of Naruto’s outfit after returning left some to think the loud ninja had learned some inconspicuous tastes. Any such thoughts were only supported by part his barrier jacket – cut along his usual lines of loose shirt and pants but all in a matte black. Then he added an open cloak, not unlike the longcoat he would have worn as a Sage, a brilliant electric blue around the shoulders and an orange so shiny it hurt to look at all the way down to his feet. The Konoha leaf was emblazoned solidly on his back in emerald green. His headband wasn’t spared, either, looking like it had gone through a wax and polish three times over.
Gungnir was different as well. The spade-shaped headpiece elongated, flattened, and sharpened into a proper spearhead. Metal barbs shot out the bottom, promising a painful extraction but also providing hooks for grabbing. Naruto held it in a loose two-handed grip.
[Barrier Jacket. Arc Form.]
Hinata wore a lavender outfit that hugged her blossoming curves like supple leather. She layered over that an open vest in deeper purple not unlike a Konoha flak jacket, but without the thick neck and shoulder protection. She wore a proper choker that resembled the leaf headband in miniature. Her hands were protected with thin gloves.
Renard bent, curving top and bottom and linking ends with a line of lavender chakra. The unusual staff was a short bow. Hinata placed one hand on the chakra bowstring and an arrow appeared, notched and ready.
Kiba whistled. “I wasn’t expecting that. Nice look, Hinata.”
The plan Kurenai had submitted called for them to be chased into the trapped forest by an older genin team. They didn’t know much about them – one liked to use taijutsu, another favored a long knife and kunai combo, and the last used Earth Style ninjutsu. Judging by the kunai around them, the weapon specialist was first up.
The genin appeared on a tree branch. He looked about 16. Brown hair, visible upper body strength, forest green clothes, and utterly bland features. He had a bit of stubble that suggested he was trying to grow a beard but wasn’t quite old enough to pull it off.
Naruto locked eyes with the genin. “He’s mine,” he called calmly. “Take B and get out of here.”
“Be careful, Naruto-kun,” Hinata whispered. Then they were running into the forest, and it was just Naruto and the genin.
The genin smiled and pulled a long knife from a sheathe on his belt, flipping a kunai in his other hand to hold as a main-gauche. “You’re fairly confidant, taking me on alone.”
Naruto smiled back. “It’s what I do.”
The older genin dropped from the tree with a shunshin and lunged at Naruto to skewer him on the knife blade. Naruto responded with a grace few of his classmates would have believed him possible of and smacked the blade down with Gungnir’s head. He took a step to the left and turned, putting himself at the ninja’s right flank and away from the kunai in his left hand. He continued Gungnir’s motion, turning the smack into a spin which brought the butt of the weapon cracking against the ninja’s legs. The ninja stumbled slightly and turned around to see Naruto with Gungnir’s blade pointing at his face. “I’m the ninja who’s going to be Hokage someday! Don’t underestimate me!”
The ninja used a substitution to get behind Naruto and press his attack.
[Trident Guard.]
Gungnir came around almost of its own accord. Orange prongs shot up and out from the spearhead, one of which caught the sword. Naruto twisted Gungnir to grab at the blade and pulled, bringing the ninja off-balance. Again he pulled Gungnir’s rear half into play, twisting Gungnir again to release the sword and spinning the spear end over end to whack the genin’s chin with the end of the spear.
“You’re better than I expected,” the older boy grumbled. He took a few steps back, out of quick striking range, and wiped blood from his lip. “That last move really hurt.” He assumed a more defensive stance.
Naruto nodded approvingly. “That’s what you should have done from the start. I have the heavier weapon; get me out of position with your kunai and then attack with your sword.”
“It’s a bad idea to give your opponent tips on how to defeat you.”
“You won’t be my opponent much longer.”
“Huh?”
[Ring Bind.] The female voice did not come from Gungnir. High above in the treetops, Hinata held one hand towards the sword-wielding genin, who suddenly found lavender circles around his wrists and ankles. Despite not being anchored to anything, the chakra constructs refused to let him move.
“TSUGA!” Kiba screamed, crashing into the genin’s flank in a spinning maelstrom of claws and fists. The ring bind vanished as he barreled the genin over, out of mercy rather than necessity. There was no need to dislocate his wrists by forcing him to remain rigid under the blow.
Naruto looked down at the collapsed genin. “Like I said.”
Hinata and Naruko hurried out of the underbrush. “That won’t work twice,” Hinata worried.
“It won’t have to,” Kiba said confidently. “Now it’s five on two, and this was the only one good with kunai. No more surprise attacks.”
Naruko scowled at the downed genin. “The they found our foxhole already, they know how we’ve moved the traps. I think we should switch to C.”
Team eight had spent half the night moving some of the traps Kurenai had set, and the rest of the night hiding in their foxhole close to the ‘far end’ of the forest. They had made three routes from the foxhole to the closest edge. A was a straight line, direct and simple, without any traps. B was a wide arc, longer but less obvious and just as clear. C was a different beast entirely. Shorter than B, it had active traps on it. Traps that could be avoided if you knew which tree was safe to climb and which branches were safe to jump on. Akamaru and Naruko had worked it out.
“C?” Naruto asked, worried. “Um, that’s the third tree on the left, right?”
“Maybe you should just fly cover,” Hinata suggested gently.
“Fly?” Kiba asked.
“Later,” Naruko advised. “Come on, into the trees. Idiot boy just don’t touch anything.”
Naruto sighed. [Flight Mode.] Gungnir’s announcement wasn’t matched with any fantastic visual, but Naruto shot up into the tree canopy in a way genin really shouldn’t be able to.
“He’s not a good flier,” Hinata told Kiba as they ran for the safe tree (fourth tree on the right). “Not compared to some of the people we know, anyway.”
“Or you,” Naruko pointed out as she launched herself up the tree, looking more like a gymnast than a ninja as she did.
“I’m not that good!” Hinata protested.
“I’d say false modesty doesn’t suit you, but it really, really does,” Naruko taunted.
Hinata felt her face burn from the force of her blush.
With Naruto safely not touching anything, Team Eight made excellent time through path C. As expected the two remaining “enemy” genin made an appearance, but the battle was over before it started as Team Eight’s genin simply attacked head on, forcing the enemy to jump to a different branch in face of the onslaught…and then the kunai flew and explosives boomed and wire tightened and the genin had more important things to worry about than catching up with Team Eight. By the time they did disentangle themselves, Team Eight’s lead was decisive.
Kurenai waited just outside the forest. She smiled openly as her team burst out of the trees, the opposing genin on their heels and gaining. “Well done!” she called. “This exercise is done!”
The ‘enemy’ genin slowed their frantic pace and jumped to the open ground. Team Eight was less graceful and collapsed on eachother, plainly exhausted.
Kurenai walked over. “Where’s Jarun?” she asked mildly.
“They took him down by the foxhole,” one of the other genin said.
“Interesting. Well, get him to the hospital.” She looked to her team. “You didn’t go at him too hard, did you?”
Kiba looked up. “Well, he might be out for an hour. Maybe two.” He dropped his head and went back to breathing heavily.
Kurenai nodded. “So. You reconned the training ground, read sealed reports on your test, rebuilt the traps to give you three routes, and camped in the training ground while using clones to make everyone think you were playing by the rules.”
Naruto nodded. “Sounds about right.”
“You then fought a more experienced genin to a standstill and defeated him, then took one of your routes that let you delay pursuit by strategically using traps. And apparently ran full out to stay ahead of them. Another ten yards and they would have caught up.”
Hinata nodded. “It did not go as well as we hoped.”
“Considering that most rookies are taken out in the forest, you did exceptionally,” Kurenai said quietly. She waited for that to sink in. “You worked as a team. You divided tasks, accounted for individual strengths and weaknesses, and completed the mission. There was only one hitch. Naruto, why did you take Jarun on alone?”
Naruto frowned. “I could take him. It gave Hinata and Kiba time to get into position to finish him off.”
“What about Naruko?”
Naruto looked over at his familiar. “She’s strong, but I’m the one with the spear. Gungnir is built to stop weapons and jutsu. If he had come at me with pure taijutsu, that’s not my thing. But this guy was in the worst match against me.”
“If I had stayed as a target, that would mean Naruto would worry about protecting me,” Naruko explained.
Kurenai considered for a moment. “Ninja lead dangerous lives. You can’t always protect your team.”
“I know,” Naruto said. “But if I can, shouldn’t I?”
Kurenai smiled slightly. “Maybe. Team Eight passes. You are now officially genin of Konohagakure.”
The three genin cheered. Kiba stopped first. “Now can I get the full story on my teammates?”
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(Posted Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:19)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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