THIS, as far as she was concerned, was Art. There was something that just seemed to settle into place as soon as she started performing, audience or not.
As this was her duar, she fed chakra into it and the instrument responded to the music. Colored lights appeared in the clearing, gently swirling to the tune.
"I left my darling lying here,
a lying here, a lying here,
I left my darling lying here,
To go and gather blaeberries."
The light shifted, becoming gentle blue in various shades as she sang the 'Fairy Lullaby' - an old folk tune.
"What ARE you doing?" asked a familiar enough voice.
The lights faded as Naruko paused and looked up to answer the question. "Singing."
"How is that going to prepare you for whatever Kakashi-sensei has planned?!" asked Sakura, reacting to the presence of an attractive female in the presence of Sasuke. Besides, if she took Sasuke's side against this intruder - she'd be endearing herself to Sasuke - right?
"I have to practice constantly to keep my skills up," said Naruko, fingering the strings again and continuing the tune. "Also it's a chakra control exercise."
"Right," said a clearly-skeptical Sakura.
"I've found the wee brown otter's track,
the otter's track, the otter's track
I've found the wee brown otter's track
But ne'er a trace o' my baby, O!"
Sasuke frowned as he noticed the drifting dim blue lights, not seeing the point.
"Ah, since you're here," said Naruko, putting down the instrument and reaching inside her backpack to withdraw a scroll. She tossed it to Sasuke a moment later.
"What's that?" asked Sakura.
"Sasuke's agreed to help me with kunai and shuriken work," said Naruko, "in return that's a scroll for a Fire Dragon variant that allows you to control the speed and direction of the dragon after you've created it. It's a heavy drain on the chakra to make the dragon though, and maintaining for too long can be pretty exhausting."
Sasuke looked over the scroll after he caught it, then pocketed it.
"Oh," said Sakura. "Uhm. Well, it's probably something Sasuke had anyway."
Sasuke didn't comment.
Naruko sealed the duar away carefully, then straightened and stretched. "Okay. So, anyway. Which do you want to see first, kunai? Shuriken? Senbon? Throwing axes? Throwing daggers?"
Sasuke considered the girl for a moment, weighing the value of the scroll. As far as he could tell, it was exactly as advertised. "Whatever."
Naruko ground her teeth a bit before forcing herself to relax and smile. "Okay. I think I'm worse with shuriken. Let's start there."
Sasuke watched for a few moments. "Lousy accuracy."
Another twitch from the blonde. "That's why I was asking for help here."
Sakura smiled as she took a place not far from Naruko. Now's my chance to show off my skills in front of Sasuke! "This is how it's done."
After watching for a few minutes, Sasuke grunted and walked over to Naruko. "You've got some problems in your stance. Here."
The girls entered the forest, crept forward, and then stared in shock and outrage.
There was Sasuke - that part was all right.
There was Sakura off to the side. Not all right, but at least tolerable as she wasn't close to Sasuke.
There was Naruko, who had somehow managed to get Sasuke to put one hand on her hip and the other hand on her left arm.
"That... HUSSY!" hissed one fangirl.
"That TRAMP!" hissed a second fangirl.
"That shuriken! It's my little Antoinette!" chirped a third fangirl.
Various other muttered comments were slung.
Sasuke and the blonde bimbo stiffened a little bit, then slowly began considering the forest around them.
"GET THEM!" erupted from dozens of throats as girls began leaping out of foliage.
"Eep!" yelped Naruko as she ducked beneath a slashing dagger.
"WAH!" yelped Sakura as she dodged a VERY mis-aimed thrown cudgel.
"Hmph," hmphed Sasuke as he dodged a thrown net.
"Be mine Sasuke!" declared the netwielder, now twirling a collection of cords tied to weighted balls.
"Sasuke, this is for you!"
"Receive my love, Sasuke!"
"I can hurt you too, my love!"
"Sasuke!"
Sasuke found himself back to back with Naruko.
"This... doesn't happen very often does it?" asked Naruko while keeping some girl she didn't know from going after her eyes.
"No," answered Sasuke, casually disarming and then side-kicking some girl whose name completely escaped him.
"Well then," said Naruko, kicking the girl in the face and then twisting her around in order to punch her in the back of the head. "I've got an idea. Doton: Yomi Numa!"
There were screams of anguish as the girls started sliding and sinking into mud which was suddenly engulfing a large section of training ground.
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(Posted Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:14)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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