Whip-thunk! Whip-thunk!
"WAGHHH!" yelped Naruto, trying to stay ahead of the kunai.
"Really ought to have wolves for this," complained Orchid. "Wolves nipping at your heels add a classic element. Unfortunately, the Inuzuka kennels have expanded and wolves don't come anywhere near that scent. Well, maybe they'll loan me a couple of dogs for your training?"
Whip-thunk!
"I'm hurrying! I'm hurrying!"
"Good," said Orchid. "You did a pathetic job on Makurodonoshu's farm yesterday. Have to completely redo the field. Remember - you can only use your hands to plow the field."
"I thought you said I was in for a treat today," said Naruto as he swapped a full milk bottle with an empty one before dashing to the next delivery.
"Yes, when we go to your playhouse, I found you a little friend to train with," said Orchid.
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!" yelled Naruto.
"GRARRRRRRR!" yelled the tyrannosaur.
"That's the way," said Orchid as the two ran by. "That's the sort of speed you need in our line of work! You'll get faster with practice!"
The tyrannosaur veered off, approaching the stationary morsel.
"Don't. Even. Try." Orchid looked back at the beast.
The tyrannosaur paused as there was absolutely no prey reaction being given off. Those black eyes glittering like that seemed oddly threatening. In fact, the vibe was definitely predator here. Ambush predator? Likely. Best to avoid.
"GRARRRRR!"
"Aw shit! Why's it coming after me again?!"
"Chakra control," said Orchid. "Make as many shadow clones as you can for this."
"For some reason I'm having trouble moving my legs," said Naruto.
"Yes, I know. That tumble off the cliff into the pirahna-infested river wasn't exactly planned," said Orchid. "That's another reason we have to work on your environmental awareness. This exercise requires you to use up a lot of your chakra and can be done while sitting down. It's one of the exercises I want you to practice every chance you get."
"Huh. Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" Bi-domf!
"Good," said Orchid with a nod as she started handing out leaves. "The basic version is to get the leaf to stick to your forehead. What I want you to do is put one on a fingertip like so. Then make it do this."
Naruto watched a mint leaf whirl around on his sensei's extended fingertip. "What does this do?"
"If you can learn this, you can learn to project your chakra outside your body in a controlled fashion," said Orchid, somewhat placated by the number of clones already doing that. "There are quite a few techniques you can use with that as the base."
Orchid let out a sigh. "Kid. You got any friends that might be checking up on you?"
"AGHHHH!" WHAM!
Orchid waited until Naruto had slid down to the ground. "Friends?"
"Not that I know of," said Naruto as he eyed the boulder.
"Go to the leaf-dancing exercise while I deal with something then," said Orchid. She was abruptly not there.
"Okay," said Naruto, shrugging. He startled a little when he heard a girl shriek, but didn't pay much attention to that. After all, he still hadn't gotten that boulder out of the way.
Orchid tossed the little girl down and loomed over her. "YOU."
"Eeep!"
Shadows gathered and crawled up her form until she seemed eighteen feet tall with burning coals for eyes. "Do you know what I do to spies?"
"Gakkk," managed the little girl before she went down.
Orchid dropped the killing intent and genjutsu, then picked the unconscious girl up by her collar as she would something smelly and offensive. "First. I make sure they're not an actual spy."
"Lord Hiashi. There is an elderly shinobi here to see you."
Hiashi Hyuga frowned at the branch member. "I did not wish to be disturbed."
"Oh can it Hiashi. How you can sit seiza with a stick that big up your butt is beyond me."
Hiashi Hyuga, lord of the Hyuga clan, paled. "Aren't you... dead?"
Orchid walked past the branch member, unceremoniously dumping her burden on the floor of the dojo. "I found this. I believe it belongs to you."
"You might say that," said Hiashi, scowling at the girl.
"She was spying on the training of my genin. When she recovers, tell her that the next time I find her there - she's volunteering to be a training dummy."
"She was spying on you?" asked Hiashi, privately thinking that to spy on Death Orchid was an indication that his eldest daughter might have developed a death wish.
"She's an unmarked Hyuga, so I thought she might be your heir. Was I wrong?" asked Orchid.
"She is worthless," said Hiashi.
"Whatever," said Orchid dismissively. "I thought you might have sent her to spy on things, as unlikely as that seemed. You know I have little patience for children poking their noses into things they shouldn't."
"I remember," said Hiashi with a wince he couldn't quite suppress.
"Pity, you're still training," said Orchid. "I had some lovely punishments all planned out."
"I'll bet," said Naruto drily, gesturing towards the boulder with one hand. Unfortunately, when he lost concentration on it - the leaf on one finger exploded.
The genin spy already dismissed as unimportant, Orchid nodded as she handed her student another leaf. "Continue."
"Will the Lady Hinata be punished?" asked Ko.
"For spying on another genin team?" asked Hiashi. "No. Spying is an important part of being a ninja. For being caught by the Gardener of Konohagakure? No. That one could catch three-quarters of the jonin here before they got close enough to see her. For fainting when confronted with Death Orchid? Again, no. That could simply be considered perceptive."
"I see, Lord Hiashi," said Ko.
"Get a bucket of water, awaken her," said Hiashi, getting up. "Then explain to her that she is to go nowhere near Death Orchid again."
It was odd, Naruto noted to himself, how the days of training seemed to blur together.
If Orchid had been asked about this, she would have pointed out that the human mind tended to avoid lingering on traumatic events over much as a mechanism of coping. She would also have been quite pleased as this meant that her training was being effective.
Some things DID stand out. Such as the point where he ceased being chased by a lot of the predators and ended up chasing them himself.
There were freshwater sharks. Those never seemed to learn.
Then there were the rather singular beasts found. One of the chunin had to be replaced, but things progressed fairly well after that. These Beast Kings tended to avoid Naruto anyway, possibly because he was the Lord of this territory.
"WHAT do you call that?" asked one of the existing chunin, a guy named Izumo. "I mean. THAT."
Fzzzaaak!
It rose from the water, the lens of one organic laser emitter gleaming with what Izumo considered an evil light.
Death Orchid sat calmly on a branch, considering. "Obviously one of these 'Beast Kings' - this one the King of the Lake. I wonder if he has any spawn who would consider relocating to the Forest Of Death. Such would make a fine addition."
The pixie that had accompanied them, a male named Shiroe, nodded. "That would be King Rezaikasame. Notice the tentacles, some of which end in pincers, others in rotating blades of painful death."
"Tell me I'm not wrestling it, fighting it, trying to race it, or anything like that," pleaded Naruto.
"Don't be silly, Naruto," said Orchid, shaking her head. "You're just a genin. You'd have to be at least chunin level before I'd have you fight that."
"Oh," said Naruto, showing considerable relief.
"On the other hand, if we need to get rid of any major criminal ninja, it might be entertaining," said Orchid.
"Requests for certain fauna and flora to be transplanted to the Forest Of Death?" asked the Hokage.
"Easier access without quite the layers of security we have now," explained the chunin.
"Interesting, I'll need further information though," said the Hokage. "What of Naruto's progress?"
"Orchid has indicated that he should take a C-Rank mission with another genin team," said the chunin. "She feels that he needs to see some sign of his progress, as well as meet other people from the village lest his darkness strengthen as well."
"Eh? She's become philosophical at her age?" asked the Hokage.
"Am I the only one in the village, besides that Yuhi girl, to read anything about psychology?" asked Orchid.
"This is relevant?" asked the Hokage.
"Treat someone as a monster, and they become one," said Orchid. "Not that the ninja life doesn't produce our share of monsters, but he already carries THAT."
"And you believe that this complicates the situation?" asked the Hokage.
"Yes," said Orchid. "Look at Mito and Kushina - oh don't bother giving me that look. If I wasn't any good at gathering information, I'd have died in the First Village War."
"First Ninja War, you mean," corrected the Hokage.
"No, ninja were at war long before that one," said Orchid. "We're not so old we can't remember that. Anyway, look at those two. Never the slightest problem in containing theirs - and they made friends and became active members of the shinobi community. Contrast that to the four-tails."
"Roshi of Iwagakure? A missing-nin nowadays, isn't he?" asked the Hokage.
Orchid snorted. "As if you didn't know. My training is tough and will get tougher. Giving the child the occasion to reconnect with people of this village may keep things from getting worse later on."
"Hmmm," hmmed the Hokage. "What have you had him working on these past three months?"
"Everything," said Orchid. "Boy was a mess. Speaking of which, regarding my request?"
"No," said the Hokage. "You may not stalk, trap, or strangle any of the Academy teachers. We have enough staffing problems as it is. I'm still considering having you personally evaluate their combat readiness and threat evaluation skills."
"Well, that's something at least," said Orchid, sounding quite disappointed.
"Well, I suppose we can agree to this," said the Hokage. "Let's see-"
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