Hiruzen Sarutobi glanced at the other two genin in his office.
"Well, basically," said Sakura. "I don't remember it quite that way."
"He has the basics, but he left out that I am now powerful enough, and need to go kill That Man," said Sasuke.
The Hokage nodded. "Cat, Owl. Follow me. You three genin. I need to see this lair. When I have confirmed your story, we will then see about testing your capabilities and how ready you actually are."
The three had run at a fairly respectable pace to Training Ground 44, aka "The Forest Of Death", and had gone a short ways into the forest before all three had transformed.
The Hokage raised an eyebrow at that, but otherwise not reacted at all.
All three were about three meters in length. Sasuke was the largest, Sakura not far behind, and Naruto the smallest of the three. In terms of mass - Naruto had a thicker look to him than the other two.
Serpentine forms but not as long and thicker than common depictions of the Chinese Dragon. Framing their heads were the antler-like growths to the sides and a mane of hair that matched their original human form colors.
Naruto looked back at him, the neck twisting in a manner that looked uncomfortable. "Go ahead and get on, jiji. I'll fly us up."
The Hokage noted as he took a spot behind the shoulder muscles to sit on that Sakura and Sasuke had three "fingers" and a single opposing digit. Naruto had a full four claw-fingers and a thumb-like one. What this meant he was less sure of.
The flight was short and it was only a feeling of something not right to indicate the presence until they'd crossed the threshold.
"Bigger on the inside," noted the Hokage aloud as they entered the central chamber. To be expected really.
"Oh, good point," said Naruto.
The two ANBU took positions where they could look everywhere and were out of the way.
"Elder god, hm?" mused Hiruzen Sarutobi. He found a way to flick manually through various blocks of text on the slab and it briefly blurred as he went through things.
"I didn't know you could do that," noted Naruto aloud.
The text stopped at a particular page. "It says here that in order for there to be a sustainable genepool, that each of you can choose one person to change into a dragon of your breed. This ability manifests here and once per dragon 'age cycle'."
"That makes sense," admitted Sakura. "So each of us can do this once?"
"A potential lifespan of one thousand two hundred years," mused the Hokage. "I suspect that actually reaching such an age would be quite difficult."
"Huh?" asked Naruto.
"He means someone killing you long before that time," said Sasuke.
"Interesting," said Hiruzen Sarutobi. "We'll go to the Forest below us to test out your abilities. It's not that I don't trust random Elder Beings showing up, it's just that I don't really trust that terribly many individuals of any kind. Part of the job description of 'ninja' I believe."
"Yes sir, Ninja Rule #37," said Owl.
"Wasn't that the one outlawing Vorpal Rabbits?" asked the Hokage.
"No sir, the Ninja Secret Council rehashed the rules five months ago, and as Vorpal Rabbits are extinct - it was decided to eliminate that rule and move the priorities a bit." Owl shrugged. "And apparently it allowed them to sell off new edition Ninja Handbooks."
"There's a ninja handbook?" asked Sakura.
"Rule #14 indicates that as you aren't officially genin yet, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a secret Ninja Handbook, nor tell you that they can be gotten at any general store servicing the ninja community for 599 ryo," said Owl.
"Oh," said Sakura.
"Now," said Hiruzen Sarutobi. He eyed the child of Kushina and Minato and made several decisions he hoped he would not regret. "First we test. Then we'll see further. Which of you three volunteers to have your 'power' tested?"
Sasuke smirked. "Bring it."
Two ANBU stood near the gates for Training Ground 44 when a third appeared.
"Something going on?" asked Lizard.
The two ANBU regarded her silently for a few moments before Lark spoke. "Testing of some particularly promising genin from what I understand."
A pillar of flame briefly lanced up from within the forest.
"Must be very promising genin," drily commented Lizard.
The other two ANBU considered each other then Lizard.
"Fine, if you've got it, I'll go back to patrol," said Lizard. "The chakra feels weird though so I hope someone's going to give some sort of briefing on this soon."
"Oh?" asked Lark.
Boar regarded Lizard from behind his ANBU mask before asking. "What exactly does it feel like?"
"Three sources that don't feel quite right," said Lizard, pointing into the forest. She regarded herself as an exceptional sensor with decent range and good detail. "One dark and angry, one bright and confident, one depressed but also flicking from one emotion to another. All three of the unfamiliar chakra sources feel kind of off though. As if they're not quite human or something."
Boar and Lark were silent as Lizard went off on her patrol.
"She's actually pretty good at sensing, but way too talkative," said Lark later.
"Yeah," agreed Boar.
Sasuke was smirking, having switched back to human form after reaching the ground again. "Any time you want to start."
The ANBU had discarded the cloak and had just finished a couple of loosening up moves.
"Start," said Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Sasuke was still smirking up until an elbow spike slammed into the back of his head. He WAS considerably tougher than human, so it merely caused him to stagger forward. Then the ANBU was crouched down before him and kicking upward into Sasuke's solar plexus.
Sasuke was briefly airborne before he was struck again, and this time bounced off the ground.
"Halt," said the Hokage. "Analysis?"
"Considerably stronger, harder, and tougher than a new-ranked genin. Therefore I took the child as a serious opponent," said Owl.
Sasuke spat as he got back up. "I'm ready for you this time."
"Starting positions," said Hiruzen Sarutobi. "Sasuke - if this had been a serious battle, against your chosen enemy for example, you would already be dead. Owl - let him show his abilities this time. Begin!"
Sasuke started off with a fireball but Owl flickered to the side to avoid it. Kunai were thrown. Owl deflected them. Sasuke charged the ANBU.
Owl substituted and a log was pulverized. "Is that all you have, Uchiha-san?"
"You want more?" Sasuke shifted to dragon-form. "Let's try THIS!"
Red-yellow lightning stabbed out.
Owl flicked away, this time in and striking with a tonfa deep into the throat of the dragon.
It was sobering. One moment they were all confident in their power. The next moment Sasuke was being treated like an unruly dog. The ANBU flicked in and out at high speed and was utterly dominating Sasuke who just couldn't react fast enough.
"Sasuke-kun!" exclaimed Sakura, beginning to move forward and then stopping again as the other ANBU was suddenly in front of her.
The Cat-masked ANBU regarded Sakura briefly, shaking her head once, and then moving to the side again.
After several attempts of Sasuke to strike down the ANBU, with the ANBU slamming the tonfa (which had to be made of something a lot tougher than wood) into various points on the dragon.
"Stop," said the Hokage, stepping forward.
The ANBU flicked again, back towards the edge of the clearing near a set of trees that Sasuke had broken earlier.
Sasuke rushed forward, jaws wide. And was promptly slammed jaw-first into the ground.
"I am the Hokage, when I say 'stop', you stop," indicated Hiruzen Sarutobi, twirling a staff briefly before making it disappear somewhere.
The dragon lifted himself up and eyed the Hokage before nodding and shifting back to human. "Understood." There was a brief moment where the atmosphere grew heavy before Sasuke added another word. He spat a globbet of blood to the side. "Apologies."
The Hokage nodded. "Do you understand that Owl struck points which could have been fatal, even to your dragon shape?"
Sasuke considered. Throat. Kidneys. Solar plexus. Two major arteries. Huh.
"So, yes, your dragon forms are useful and powerful," noted the Hokage aloud for everyone's benefit. "I suspect the Hyuga's ability to see and strike tenketsu would be as effective against your dragon-form as against anyone else. Owl, you did not use any ninjutsu. Why?"
"Observation reveals that they are exceptionally strong and durable," said Owl. "Earth Release techniques would be less effective in direct attacks. Uchiha uses fire and so the use of Fire Release techniques would be contraindicated. Water Release is not my forte, nor is Wind Release. I suspect Water attacks that are not direct physical attacks would be effective, and cutting attacks using wind release would be somewhat less effective but likely to cause lasting injuries."
Sasuke hmphed once but sounded a good deal more thoughtful.
"We're young yet," said Naruto, surprising a few of those present. "As we age, we'll get stronger."
"I would like to see this transformation process firsthand," said the Hokage. "Can one of you suggest a suitable volunteer?"
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(Posted Tue, 05 May 2015 16:41)
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