Ibiki Morino sat back in his chair and regarded the latest "rescuee" to arrive. He was, as befitted his position, very good at reading individuals. He was also pretty good at reading groups.
This particular girl was "off" in some ways. Not that this was unusual in the ones who had been the benefactors of Naruto Uzumaki's "rescue friendly girls no jutsu" that the boy had somehow worked out. He had, after all, had to interview several girls and groups of girls who had ranged from human but from completely different cultural backgrounds - to girls who were not human but only fairly close in some respects. The dark elves for example - came from a similar society to that of Kiri at its worst and had a mostly human physiology but in other respects were completely different.
"Can you drop the henge?" asked Ibiki as he made notes. Normally he'd just remain silent, scratching out little notes on the paper in front of him for a little while. Let the silence drag on, and the subject would become more unnerved on their own. However, with the nonhumans especially - that tactic didn't seem to work the way it would on some humans. This one was "off" enough that he was guessing she fit into the nonhuman category.
"The room is too small," said the girl, her dark eyes flicking around the room. "I cannot assume my third form."
"What about your second form?" asked Ibiki, making a note to ask her again in a larger room.
Coloration shifted. The night-black hair shifted to a silvery color, her dark eyes lightening to gold, her skin fading to a pearly sort of white. Ibiki noted that her fingernails turned to an appearance like the surface of a pearl. Her ears were slightly pointed. When she spoke he noted also that her canine teeth had elongated slightly and that the inside of her mouth was paler than was strictly normal for humans.
"How's this?" said the girl.
"Better," said Ibiki, just glancing up from his notes for a moment then returning to them. "Why the disguise?"
"It's," began the girl, hesitating as a few emotions passed quickly over her face. "All three are natural. My father was human. My brother was also human, though our mother was not. My sister is similar to myself."
"State your name for the record," said Ibiki, which was the official start of the interrogation.
"Long Fang. Long is the family name - from my mother's lineage. Fang is a girl's name from my father's homeland. It means 'aromatic flower' if you wish to know."
"Your race?" asked Ibiki.
"Half-human," said Fang.
"The other half?" asked Ibiki, noting the reluctance to speak.
"Celestial dragon."
"Interesting," noted Ibiki.
"Mother could take human form, but apparently father was initially quite reluctant," said Fang. "They had three children, so my father's reluctance was eventually overcome."
"Why were you tortured?" asked Ibiki, looking up as several of the 'cues' clicked together for him.
Golden vertically-slitted eyes regarded him from across the table before she replied. "That would require telling you of my world."
"Go ahead," said Ibiki, knowing others were observing in detail. Anything that he, as unlikely as that was, missed - they'd get.
"My world was once like your own, as far as I can tell," said Fang. "In the period known as the 'Dark Ages' - the human majority and the nonhuman minority were not close but we were also not at each other's throats. Then came a group that had decided that humans were cattle, and best kept ignorant of their status as prey. Heroes arose, as in the tales told in later ages. They assembled in two groups - one entirely human and by all accounts great champions of their particular fields. Another group was of the nonhuman races who sought a less confrontational path despite the human tendency to multiply. The human group could not trust the nonhuman, and many among the nonhuman group did not trust the humans. They sought out their common enemy and both groups failed."
"So humans are 'cattle' on your world?" asked Ibiki.
"Humans are taught from an early age to rely on their technology and that neither magic nor nonhumans exist," said Fang. "Those nonhumans who do not prey on humans remain in hiding lest the Masters seek them out. My mother was forced out of hiding by a neighbor who came peeping."
"So these 'Masters' tortured you?" asked Ibiki.
"Yes, for four months after they killed my parents," said Fang, her mask of control cracking just a bit - revealing anguish and a cold fury to Ibiki's eyes. "They starved me, tortured me, used illusions and mind-affecting magic upon me."
"Why?" asked Ibiki.
"Why? Because to them I was a mongrel that should never have been born, but what they wanted was for me to eat my brother!" Fang practically hissed at the end of that, shaking some at the memory. "All I had to do was consume him and they would free me, they told me so many times."
"Did you?" asked Ibiki.
"No. Naruto-sama rescued me before it came to that," said Fang, getting control over herself again. "It was close though."
Ibiki felt a moment of satisfaction as the girl's body language, chakra, and facial expressions converged. There was no attempt at hidden agendas and the like, the girl who was hugging herself and glaring at him with tears streaking down her face was quickly getting control of herself again but had revealed exactly what he was dealing with. Physically he already knew part and they would determine more about her capabilities. At least as far as psychology was concerned. Judging from the higher humidity in the air, puffs of vapor - water chakra primarily.
So, it was just a matter of observation and training and they had an excellent chance of getting a truly exceptional kunoichi out of this girl. Half-dragon, eh?
"Long Fang?"
"Terra," said the girl doing tai chi exercises.
"I have seen you around," said Terra. "You don't mix with others much, do you?"
"The others have not seen the level of pain and suffering that I have," said Fang, her eyes flicking to Terra for a moment. "Not that you are a complete stranger to such things yourself."
"What do you see your role on the team as?" asked Terra.
Fang whirled and lashed out. A rock became rubble. She wove quick hand-signs and spat water bullets that deflected pieces of the rubble before they could land.
"You could just tell me," pointed out Terra.
"Taijutsu expert and water-ninjutsu specialist," said Fang. "You?"
"Fire-ninjutsu specialist and medic," said Terra. "Naruto is a fuuinjutsu specialist and melee skirmisher."
"Short range, medium range, and long range then," said Fang, picking up a fist-sized piece of rock and considering it. "Sounds workable. Who is our sensei?"
"Well, Iruka explained that," said Terra. "We get a chunin who will actually oversee day-to-day stuff and the jonin only gets involved for brief periods each day. We just have too many genin-candidates for jonin to be our sensei except on special missions and brief overviews."
"I was awake during the lecture," said Fang, using a nail to dig into the stone and begin whittling it.
Terra nodded. "So we'll do most of our training and D-Rank work under a chunin's supervision, and our chunin is:"
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(Posted Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:22)
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