"You don't want to see my henge?" asked Naruto.
"No," said Iruka.
"Awwwwww," whined Naruto.
"After the past year? I've seen your henge enough," said Iruka. "Your kawarimi too. You've always had trouble with the bunshin though and you need to demonstrate you can do all three."
"I had a really good one to use," whined Naruto.
"I'm sure," Iruka said. "That's why I don't need to see it. Hurry up, Naruto, we've got a lot of students to go through."
"Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!"
Ba-domf!
Iruka paused and looked over at the five Naruto grinning at him. "Kage Bunshin?"
"Ryuuko-chan ran across the technique, neat huh?" said all five Naruto, giving each other high-fives and fist-bumps.
"Well, at least it's not..." began Iruka in a low voice.
"I'm still working on the explosive version," confided Naruto. "That one looks really neat!"
Iruka twitched. "More information than I really needed for the sake of my remaining nerves."
"Shiroko-chan tells me that there may be more uses for a kage bunshin but she tells me I've got to be older before I find out what she means. You have any idea, Iruka-sensei?"
Iruka twitched again. "Don't even want to consider going there. NEXT!"
"Or maybe what Ryuuko said about lamias and the full moon..."
"Next! NEXT! Move along Naruto."
Naruto, back to sulking, walked slowly off while mumbling about how awesome he thought his henge was.
"Why didn't you just have him henge into you?" asked Shikamaru, the next tester.
"Go ahead and do yours," said Iruka. "You don't want the details of the last time he did one."
"Troublesome?" asked Shikamaru, turning into a duplicate of Iruka.
"I'm told Mizuki had nightmares for days after Naruto demonstrated to him," said Iruka. "Still twitches every so often."
"So, something that might be effective against enemy nin?" asked Shikamaru, dropping the technique.
"I heard that Ibiki, over in Torture and Interrogation, is VERY interested," said Iruka, shuddering slightly. After all, if it interested Ibiki Morino - it really was for the better that he still didn't know the details of whatever it was.
The bright young students watched as Mizuki dove his hand into the bowl and pulled out two strips. Looks like the first match is Sasuke Uchiha versus Uzumaki Shiroko... waitaminute."
"Something wrong sensei?" asked Ryuuko, looking a bit bored about the proceedings.
"Shiroko's last name is NOT Uzumaki," said Ino Yamanaka. "Uhm, what is her last name anyway?"
"Just Shiroko," said the white snake lamia, careful to arch her serpentine length over the boundary of the circle rather than obliterate the line drawn there.
Sasuke took his place and smirked at her for some reason. "Just give me a good fight."
"I shall endeavor to oblige," said Shiroko softly, one hand coming up to make the proper sign.
Traditional taijutsu within the Leaf Village was a single style practiced by nearly everyone, the exceptions being specific clans who had their own style. The Hyuga had their style which used their superior chakra control and Byakugan's ability to see their opponent's chakra. The Akimichi used a style which was more along the lines of wrestling and overwhelming an opponent with superior strength and mass.
Neither style was suited for a mystically capable lamia. Just the fact that from her waist down she had a body more suited for a snake, made the idea of footwork ridiculous.
Sasuke knew this and had seen the various lamia fight before in similar situations. Which mainly meant he wasn't surprised when the snake-girl started to move far faster and more fluidly than might otherwise have been expected.
Shiroko would dart in, using her muscular serpent parts to change angle and brace herself, darting back out of range at high speed. Her height at any given point was another variable, but one also had to look out for that lower half - which could slap with the tail end or wrap around an opponent.
Fighting one of the lamia was completely different from fighting a human opponent in some respects. One of her strikes came in, he deflected it, at which point she used one of the other abilities of lamia - causing the limb to shift so that it acted more serpentine in nature - as if the human joints had been replaced by a snake's skeletal structure.
Still, Sasuke HAD seen the style before and knew the weaknesses of it. Her strength in that limb was actually less for striking. This was a taijutsu match, so she couldn't charge her hands with that odd fire as that had already been ruled a ninjutsu technique. She was a constrictor-style serpent, not a poison type, so that wasn't a particular concern.
Though she was mainly a ninjutsu specialist from what little he knew. The only reason he knew was because this was Naruto's group of associated girls and they had been known to gather after school and do heavy training. So that was another weakness - all the time she spent practicing and honing her skills with ninjutsu was time neglecting or at least not focussing on taijutsu.
So, all he had to do was wait, dodge, occasionally strike back and lead her on.
It came, as he knew it would, that she grew impatient and darted forward with a bit too much force to be able to instantly swing back. Once she did that, he could shift his footwork faster than she could adjust her serpentine length.
She had a momentary look of surprise as she tried to shift back out of the way and then his fist was slamming into her face and she was momentarily dazed.
"Win, Sasuke," declared Mizuki. "Unison sign."
Sasuke frowned a bit at making the empty gesture, but complied. In an actual fight, compared to a taijutsu match, things would have been different. He'd have to try and arrange that somehow, to see how well he'd progressed.
"Next," said Mizuki, drawing another pair of slips. "Ryuuko versus... Ami."
"Oh," said someone in the crowd. "This is going to be painful."
Sasuke settled into place to watch this. Ryuuko was the dragon girl, who had several natural abilities to bring to bear. One of which was her impressive amount of strength and chakra. She was also quite tough, one of the few able to stand up to Kara's strength and take the blonde's punches.
Sasuke nodded as the two took their places. It was obvious to him why they would actively not put the two rivals against each other, as the taijutsu test would then have to be moved due to the extensive damage the immediate environment would be subjected to.
Ami though - Sasuke dredged up what he could remember about the girl. Other than being loud, opinionated, and in the top half of the class as far as throwing skills were concerned - nothing special came to mind.
"You may begin," said Mizuki.
WHAM!
"Next," said Mizuki as Ryuuko slithered off and the tail-slapped Ami slid down a wall that she'd been twelve feet away from at the start of the match.
Sasuke nodded. Quick, precise, and the dragon-girl showed no hair out of place or sign of exertion.
"You're not going to call for the unison sign?" asked Tobio.
Mizuki jerked his thumb in the direction of where Ami was trying to get to her feet and not doing a very good job of it. "Give her a few minutes to recover. Anyway, next up is Kara versus Fuki."
"Uhm, are you sure about that?" asked Tobio. "I mean, is this really random?"
"Pfeh," said Fuki, taking her position in the ring. "I get to beat on the freak? That's fine with me. There'll be no tricks to save you now."
Sasuke tried to remember this girl. Wasn't she usually kind of pouty and sullen? Usually was with Ami. Typical of those who had denoted themselves his fanclub, they spent most of their time talking or getting involved in trading insults with other factions.
Sasuke's eyes flicked to the other girl in the ring. Kara. Bloodline abilities gave her enhanced strength and stamina, exceptional speed, and sensory acuity. Her taijutsu skills were not that developed yet, but she showed signs of being a quick learner.
"Begin," said Mizuki, stepping back.
Sasuke watched the match, which was a bit longer than Ryuuko's only because Kara waited for Fuki to make the first move.
The next match, Naruto versus Kasumi, was only slightly more interesting. That was all three of Ami's clique dealt with in as many matches. Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly at the thought of the matches NOT being random. But who would be the manipulator?
"How could Naruto Uzumaki have aced the test?!" demanded Mizuki. "He must have cheated!"
"That's extra points because nobody caught him," said Iruka.
Mizuki passed the test to Suzume.
"Hmmm, some of these answers look familiar," noted Suzume. After going through the tests for a few moments, a faint smile creased her face. "So that's it."
"What's it?" asked Iruka, Mizuki occupied by sulking or something.
"He had help from various members of his 'fanclub'," said Suzume, ignoring the gagging noise from Mizuki as he reacted to that term, explained. Really, he used to be much more subtle about his dislike for Naruto. "Some of these answers are duplicated word for word on their tests. I thought there was something going on when I noticed that the answer to the 'two apples' question was so similar on so many test papers."
"That many wrote 'applesauce'?" asked Iruka.
"With at least seven writing two alternative methods for dealing with the problem," said Suzume.
"That many managed to cheat while I was hidden and watching, and you were openly watching?" asked Iruka, his surprise flowing into a pleased expression.
"Yes," said Suzume, her usual sour expression marred by the faint smile until she noticed and wiped it away. "I think we truly have some outstanding potential in this year's class."
Mizuki frowned at the answer on one test. "What? 'Cut each apple into three equal portions, give two to each'? What kind of nonsense is this?"
"Well, that's two points for each question he got right," said Iruka, a note of amazement creeping into his voice. "That's one point for the answer plus one point for cheating without us knowing how or catching him."
"Who'd have thought that Naruto Uzumaki would be a candidate for 'Rookie Of The Year'?" asked Suzume, ignoring the way Mizuki twitched. Or she was actively enjoying it. With Suzume it could be hard to tell sometimes.
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(Posted Mon, 08 Oct 2012 05:12)
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