Maito Gai's eyes narrowed. To his perception, the sword had begun clearing the scabbard before her fingers had quite reached it.
Tenten then began her sword practice.
"What is that, Tenten?" asked Rock Lee. "I do not recall seeing that particular weapon before."
"One of the benefits of the club I joined," said Tenten. "This is Fragarach, the Answerer. Dual-edged bastard sword with a large lozenge-shaped pommel. It's special abilities are that it can Detect Lies and Riposte. If I can parry an attack, Fragarach will then turn the force of that attack against my attacker."
"A legendary-class weapon?" asked Gai, much more suspicious. "What exactly is this club that you have joined?"
"Can I join this club?" asked Rock Lee.
"I really don't think that would go over well," said Tenten to Lee.
"Okay," said Kara, letting the other girl braid her hair. "You do understand that 'harem' has less innocent meanings, right?"
"Oh, the old use of the term? I am familiar with it, yes," admitted the snake-woman.
"Are you sure about this?" asked Kara. Not that she wasn't grateful to the boy who'd rescued her from non-existence. It was just that she didn't have THAT kind of interest in him either. Especially at their current age.
"About you joining? Of course," said Shiroko. "Ojo-sama has also showed interest in you as her rival."
"The dragon-girl with the purple hair?" asked Kara, frowning slightly. "She's a rival?"
"As of the last set of tests, you are the top all-around kunoichi," said Shiroko. "Ojo-sama feels you are more of a challenge than the past holder of that title. As we are surrounded by epic ninja - having a powerful rival to test oneself against is quite important."
"Oh, sort of a 'genre' thing is it?" asked Kara. When in Rome and all, I suppose.
"Indeed Ojo-sama has looked over the histories, as you no doubt have, and noticed that patterns develop. One of which is that all the major ninja have rivals, that help to push them forward on their paths," said Shiroko.
"There's also the various betrayers and love triangles gone wrong, as well as a lot of blank spots where the texts are clearly left incomplete on purpose," noted Kara.
"Which is all the more reason for an official rivalry," came a soft voice.
Kara watched the serpentine dragon-girl glide into the shrine office, looking every bit the aristocratic exotic sort. "Thank you, Shiroko. Kara Zor-El, will you accept a mostly friendly rivalry between you and myself?"
"Are you sure you can keep up?" asked Kara.
"You are the best suited for such a rivalry," said Ryuuko. "We are both stronger and more durable than normal humans, even many of those of ninja clans. I can fly, and I can sense something of that ability slumbering within you. Can you think of anyone better to be your rival?"
"I'm not convinced of the need for a 'rival', but I'm not particularly against it either," admitted Kara. "I'm also not too big on the name of this club, but from what I've seen and heard - I think Naruto could use help. Okay."
"Excellent," said Ryuuko, inclining her head as she reached into a sleeve and pulled out a square of paper. "This is chakra paper. Take it between two fingers and channel power into it. You know the basics from class two days ago. The paper's reaction will let us know what your chakra affinity is."
Kara took the paper, frowning at it. "What's yours?"
"Wind with lightning as secondary," said Ryuuko. "Shiroko has fire as her primary but is insufficiently trained at this point to be able to determine a secondary."
Kara remembered the lesson on molding chakra, reached within her and focussed. The paper rustled briefly before:
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(Posted Fri, 10 Aug 2012 20:53)
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