A collaborative work between me and another writer who I never learned the name of. Unfortunately the other writer has since disappeared and it would feel weird to work on this without them, but I like the story enough that I figured I'd post it here for posterity. The characters of Hakuro and Shikuro were written by them, meanwhile I wrote Resuka and Kara's content, with others being passed back and forth to whoever it would be most convenient for.
Hakuro sat in the chair, feeling somewhat nervous as the results were listed out.
"That concludes Team 10. Team 11 is as follows. Hakuro Uchiha." There was a brief murmur there. Hakuro was the only other survivor of the Uchiha Massacre, and everyone had expected him to match up to Sasuke, the other survivor. However, he'd greatly dissapointed them. He still had Sasuke's somewhat cold demenor, but if asked nicely, he was almost always willing to give a hand if approached for help, or for training. His scores were...middle of the line. Almost exactly middle of the class in almost every aspect. He was also the only Ninja in this class to carry a sword. A Short sword, but it worked.
"Resuka Nomura, and lastly Kara Kukuri." He quickly glanced around, carefully eyeing his teamates with a curious expression. He knew OF them, but he hadn't spent very much time with them outside of class, so personalities and abilities were a mystery. Though...metal arms? Was Kara a Puppet style user?
He shrugged, and turned back to face Iruka. "Alright, the Shinobi who will be instructing you have left instructions on where you are to meet them." He glanced at the three, "Squad 11, your team's leader asked you to assemble at the Training Fields within 30 minutes. Failure to arrive in time will result in..." Iruka's voice trailed off, and in a quiet aftertone, said, "Punishment."
Hakuro stared at Iruka...Surely he was joking...He...had to be...right? Hakuro turned to look at his teamates, panic starting to set in. If they hurried, they MIGHT make it. MIGHT.
"We gotta go!" Hakuro turned, not bothering to go through the winding corridors of the school, and lept out the window itself, going up to the Rooftops, and traveling as quickly as he could, knowing altitude would let him move as quickly as possible.
He arrived at the training field panting and sweating, at about 28 minutes later.
Resuka's head perked up when she heard her name. Who was she with? Kara, apparently, who she always thought was somewhat creepy, but she wasn't paying enough attention to have heard who Iruka Sensei had stated first. She looked around and saw Hakuro jumping out the window. Was it him? Well, at least her other partner wasn't entirely bad... she sighed, relaxing for just a moment until a lizard on her shoulder knocked on the side of her head, "Hello? Anybody there?" the little guy tried to get her attention, "You heard what he said, right? You have to get the training grounds, pronto!" the response was delayed but there, with her quickly running out the door, "Chidi! Directions please!" a bird fluttered alongside her, "You still don't know how to get to the training grounds? Come on, girl, how many times have we been there already? You should know this by now", the bird chastised, "I know I should!" Resuka shouted, "I'm sorry! But please! This is kinda important!" The bird sighed, but cooperated, "Alright, alright, don't cry now. This way"
Resuka wasn't the most physically skilled ninja. In fact, she ranked pretty close to the bottom in most aspects, and had to be taught most things twice (or more) by her animal companions once a lesson was over. On one hand this was good early training to get her used to relying on her summoned allies. On the other hand, it was a little annoying for the animals she had pacts with, and she only barely scraped by her tests to become a genin. She was pretty close to the exact opposite of Kara, who was almost never seen with anybody and yet placed near the top in all physical and written exams. Some of the other students considered her mechanical arms cheating for the physical tests, but she'd proven many times that they weren't the only strong things about her. Resuka was sure that Kara was cheating in this race to the training grounds though, when the cybernetic girl managed to beat both Resuka and Hakuro there in spite of calmly walking out the door after the instructions were given. Meanwhile poor Resuka was five minutes late, having managed to get lost on her way there in spite of Chidi's guidance
"I'm here!" she announced, "I'm really sorry I'm late!" she took a few deep breaths, a cat by her side looking disappointed in her
To all three's surprise. Not a person was there. The training field was completely empty. While waiting, Hakuro kept quiet, focusing on trying to get his breath back under control, but...How had Kara managed to beat him. His Taijutsu skill wasn't all that bad, but she'd beaten him, who knows by how much. Still, when Resuka came in, Hakuro waved at her, black eyes examining her companion. A Summoner type user? "Your fine. Apparently the instructor didn't count on us actually making it here this fast. He never showed."
A puff of smoke in the center of the field, and the following words made Hakuro Jump. "Actually not true. I've been here the whole time." The blond Ninja raised a salute in a casual manner. "My name is Shikuro Jenga. I am the ninja in charge of Team 11. I asked you to do what you did to evaluate how quickly you can move from place to place. You all did well." With a gentle voice, he did offer guidence, "Resuka, you did well, just remember, a good Kunoichi needs to keep her own sense of direction established. Help your summons help you." He smiled again, trying to convey that he wasn't criticizing her, or talking down to her, just offering advice. "Hakuro, you did well, but try not to let emotion take control. You could have helped Resuka get here on time." Again the quiet gentle voice of offering advice. Kara however, he simply nodded at. "Your Taijutsu skills are pretty high, well done on getting here as fast as you did."
He clapped his hands together. "So, that was the "speed" portion of the test. For the next section, we're going to do combat testing. Anyone want to go first?"
Shikuro smiled at Kara, nodding as he assumed a basic combat stance. "Alright. I promise you will not be hurt, no matter how "combat" capable you are. You can come at me as hard as you want, or go as easy as you want. This test is just so I know what level of missions you guys can handle together as a team."
She paused for a moment, then nodded, getting into her fighting stance. It was simple: crouched just slightly with her fists raised like a boxer, and her first move was similarly simple: leaping at her teacher with a lunging punch, though this was a feint; a doppleganger was the one that stepped forward in the first place, with the real Kara having been hidden until this moment, coming down from above behind Shikuro with a falling kick. Her mind was already fast at work coming up with back-up plans for if this didn't work. In fact, she'd be disappointed in her new sensei if it did. She would try to leap off of him if blocked, and throw a kunai at him. If caught... maybe throw a punch with her free hand. She didn't know what this ninja was capable of, so she couldn't formulate anything too advanced, but there were always reasonable assumptions one could make.
The response was...not one she might have expected. He didn't appear to move at all, either to dodge the faint, or the axe kick. Her heel made contact with...Something hard, much harder then what skin should have felt like, and more then that, instead of giving her something solid to rebound OF off, the kick slide to the side. He smiled as he watched her, spinning in place to send a snap kick (A quick forward kick) her way, aimed at her middle. IF it made contact, at worst it would leave a slight tingle, and knock her back a little ways. The attack is also slow enough for her to dodge.
Kara's eyes widened at the odd result of her attack. She lowered her arm quickly to block his own kick and let it push her back, wanting a bit of distance to analyze her opponent. Nothing looked off about him, and if it was a clone it wasn't the standard one that used a log. She tilted her head subconsciously as she tried to work things out. She remembered some of the things her family could do and cursed the fact that she hasn't been able to customize herself that much, though maybe she could work with what she had? She created two clones of herself, not bothering to disguise this fact, though it was still impossible to tell which one was real as she spread out and surrounded her teacher. One of the Kara's tried for standard melee strikes to keep him busy, doing her best to dodge any attacks while throwing out as many of her own as possible with her heavy metal arms, meanwhile another ran around behind him, pelting him with kunai as the last one waited for the perfect moment to throw a paper bomb
He grinned, having no intention of letting himself be surrounded, and crouched low, leaping HIGH into the air. He threw three Kunai, each with a rather small explosive tag wrapped around the handle, his goal to get them to land at the clones feet, and detonate, to knock her down
Given how he reacted with her first assault, Kara was almost surprised when Shikuro leaped into the air this time around, though this simply meant she had to cut her plan short. The one that was going to do melee was more or less forgotten about, and left to get blown up, the kunai clone flung as many as she could before going down, and the last, real Kara dodged away. A paper bomb wouldn't be very effective against an airborn target, but an airborn target also couldn't dodge. She leaped after him, mirroring how she started the bout, but this time there were no tricks behind it. Her goal at this point was just to land a single, solid hit.
The leap was perfect. The strike just as much so. He simply held his right hand up, and her fist made an audible THUNK, as it hit an invisible wall about 2 inches away from his body. The moment of contact only lasted a second, before he turned, and as the angle of his palm changed, her fist once again made a "slipping" as it SHOT past his palm, guided away. He landed a palm strike to her middle. Just hard enough to knock her backwards again, but not nearly hard enough to do any damage. "Hold Kara, very well done. You are an excellent fighter, you pass. You might be the best fighter out of that group so far." He smiled, and glanced at the other two students. "So, you two?"
In spite of the counter, Kara sill managed to land on her feet. Paused, looking her new teacher up and down as she once again tried to figure out what exactly he had done. She had figured out that he was making something invisible to block her attacks, but was at a loss for what exactly that invisible thing was. She would have to simply observe it more later. Kara straightened herself out and gave a bow.
Resuka's gaze quickly bounced back and forth between the two fighters, still trying to comprehend everything. It looked like Kara hit him, didn't she? But at the same time Sensei didn't look like he had gotten hit. She looked nervously over to her companions. The Lizard sat back on his hind legs and shrugged, "I-I think I'd like to go last, if that's okay?"
He nodded at that, and glanced at Hakuro. "So, up to you." Hakuro sighed at that, and drew his sword, holding it cautiosly in front of him. He too had seen the invisible...Blocking thing, and decided to put it to the test. "Alright then, you handled power just fine, lets see how you handle speed!" He lept forward, throwing caution to the wind. He focused solely on attacking, his sword hitting high, low...
And it did NOTHING. Their sensei moved with serene grace and speed, easily blocking each and every attack with the invisible barrier. Usually using his hands, but a shin managed to stop one of his lower strikes...or rather the barrier stopped it from touching his shin. Hakuro kept it up until he finally dropped to one knee, sweaty and tired, while Shikuro seemed perfectly at ease, calm and relaxed. "Very good Hakuro, but again, don't just leap into things. Be calm, try to analyze."
The movement style would look familar, to those that knew it. He was using the Gentle Fist style. Or at least the movements from it. Anyone who had seen a Hyuuga fight would recognize it
And then there was one. Resuka just watched their teacher take punches, kicks, and even sword swings from two fighters much more capable than her to no effect. She rose shakily. What could she do that her team couldn't? She looked again at her summoned friends. Chidi wasn't meant for combat, instead being more like a scout. Nyanta, the cat, was a melee fighter but she doubted his claws were any sharper than the sword, which left Naju, her lizard, who had some earth-style jutsu. She tried to remember who else she could summon, "Umm..." she vocalized, "Do I have to fight? I mean, I don't think I have anybody that could get through your defense..."
He smiled gently, and nodded. "I'm not really trying to push you to fight. I just need to know you can defend yourself. If you don't want to attack, could I attack, and you use defensive skills?" He took up a combat stance, apparently not willing to take no for an answer. He gave her a minute, then lept forward into the attack. However, he moved much slower, and with less aggression, wanting to show her she had nothing to fear. He did several basic punches and kicks, moving slowly, and slowly, and steadily pressing her, wanting to see if she could handle the increased speed
"Umm..." she had to admit, her abilities as of now were more defensively oriented, "Yeah, just gimme a moment", she turned back towards the animals accompanying her, crouched down, and whispered, "Alright, Naju, I think you're going to be the key for most of this. Stay close to me. Nyanta, do your best to run distraction, I think? Chidi, were you able to figure anything out about Sensei? Any ideas on getting past his defense? We're going to be mainly defending ourselves for this one, but maybe we can throw him off guard if we get past that?" her hushed whispers didn't have anything special about them to keep out eavesdroppers or anybody with heightened senses, though she likely hadn't even considered that. Her bird responded, "his block seems to require effort on his part, rather than being something always up. He specifically made a movement when Kara attacked him in the air, and specifically didn't move when she attacked him on the ground. A back-attack while he's focused on attacking might go through", she offered, and Resuka nodded in turn, "Nice catch, let's go with that!", she hopped back up, a bit of pep in her step, "Ready!"
He nodded with a smile, and lept forward, attacking with a light kick. At first, he seemed to move faster, as he had just fought Hakuro, and was adjusted to that speed of combat. However, seeing how her animals were moving, and their speed, he slowed down to match them, giving her a fair fight. His first strike was a solid kick to the middle, light enough to knock her backwards if it connected, and if not, his hands were prepared to counter a counter attack.
Resuka saw the attack coming and took a half-step back, making room for Naju to erect a stone pillar between the two, blocking the kick. Nyanta made hit-and-run assaults on Shikuro with his claws whenever anything resembling an opening arose. The entire time, Resuka was muttering under her breath, doing what she should have done during the initial planning. It was a simple jutsu that created a link of sorts between ninja, so long as a line of sight remained constant, allowing them to communicate with the lightest of sounds. The kunoichi spoke to the bird, who relayed orders to the other animals while supplying tactical information from her high vantage point
The cat was fast, for sure, so he had to keep up a constant set of blocks to keep it from striking through. So, he began to use ninjutsu. Leaping back, he formed several hand seals, and said, "Water Style, Water Bomb Jutsu!" The result was a rather large orb of water that floated up from the ground, and launched itself at her with startling speed. It was perhaps 4 feet across, but not powered enough to do anything more then knock her down. He followed up with another. "Wind Style, Minicyclone jutsu!" The result was a small whirlwind, perhaps 3 feet high, that constantly circled him to pick off any physical attacks. He grinned, and pulled the same trick he had with Kara. An explosive Kunai aimed at her feet.
"Eek!" Resuka squealed and ducked behind a previously erected pillar. It blocked most of the attack, but crumbled under the full pressure, having been previously weakened already. The cat came back to Resuka when the wind jutsu was announced and she placed a palm on him, banishing him. She placed her hand on the ground and summoned a fresh creature: Another bird, this one a hawk, as opposed to the dove that was Chidi, "You can do something to stop winds, right Doro?" the hawk looked over at Shikuro, then to Chidi, and finally back at the girl, "I'll see what I can do" he flew up and maintained a distance from the teacher, launching blasts of wind in counter to Shikuro's whirlwind
It was a good strategy. However, the wind had only been summoned to deal with the cat, and with it gone...He smiled, and clapped his hands twice, loudly. "Alright. Very good Resuka, very good. You have shown that, if attacked you can defend yourself quite well."
He motioned to the other two to come closer. "So, everyone, I'd like us all to introduce ourselves, and share a little bit about ourselves for teammates. My name is Shikuro Jango. I use the Gentle Fist fighting style with a few tweaks of my own thrown in. I'm your teacher...and my goal is to help you become Chunnin. Lets...go in reverse order of the combat training, shall we? Resuka?" He smiled gently, and Hakuro turned studying eyes from their sensei, to her instead.
Resuka breathed a heavy sigh of relief, "Thanks guys" she told the ones who was fighting for her and swapped the hawk back out for the cat, quickly filling him in with what happened while she waited for the others to gather. She wondered what she'd learn about Kara, who had yet to say a word since they got here. First, though, she had to introduce herself, "Alright, so, My name's Resuka, though I guess you probably already knew that? I'm from the Nomura clan, and we..." she gathered up her companions, "Summon stuff! Right now I can only summon birds, cats, and lizards. I think I might try for turtles next, so I have something that can go under water. I like sweets, so if you wanna be my friend, that's how you do it", she giggled
Hakuro smiled faintly, which looked...Odd on him. He normally kept up a quiet coldness that kept the other kids away from him, for the most part. "My name is Hakuro Uchiha." He hesitated, and decided to just be honest. "I can do a little bit of everything, but I prefer swordplay over other jutsu." He hesitated, saying, "I'm kinda cold around other people, just give me a little time to warm up, I'll get better, promise." He gave the two girls a formal bow, suddenly reminding everyone of a certain Busy Brow Student. "My goal is..." He trailed off, looking upwards. "I guess my goal is to find out what my limits are. To see how far I can go..and see what it would take to break past them." He shrugged a little, feeling embarrassed as that was the most personal thing he'd ever shared in front of classmates before. "Alright then." Shikuro turned to Kara. "And Miss Kara?"
"Kara Kukuri", the short girl stated flatly, "Yes, my arms are mechanical. I hope to perfect them". Her expression was as emotionless as her speech, and she looked straight forward the entire time. It was almost enough to make one wonder if the girl herself was mechanical, instead of just her upper limbs
Shikuro blinked slightly, and nodded. "Aaallright then. Now you know a little bit about each other, and I hope our training has given you each a fair idea of what the other can do. As do I. I'm going to talk to the Hokage to see about getting us a mission lined up in the next couple of days. So until then, I want you to relax, and get ready, we may end up having to travel pretty far, so prepare." He smiled, and with another puff of smoke, he was gone.
Leaving the three kids in the training field. Hakuro ran his hands through his hair, glancing at either girl. "So...do we go home and prep, like he said, or get to know each other better?" With how cold Kara had been, he had no idea if she'd even want to take part honestly.
Resuka gave a friendly smile and nodded, "I think getting to know eachother is a good idea, and I'd like to think I'm pretty good at getting to know people. Especially with my clan's focus, I've been taught how important it is to know what everybody can do so you know how you can work together and make up for eachother's weaknesses, and boost eachother's strengths", she looked hopefully at Kara, who stared back at the pair for a few seconds, possibly considering her options, though she didn't show any signs that she was even listening to the pair. Eventually, however, she sat down, which was likely as close to "yes, let's stay together" as could be expected of the quiet girl
Hakuro was slightly confused by the "sit down yes" motion, but...He supposed that was assent. "Well, fair enough then. We can always do both as well, stock up on supplies we might need and get to know each other." He crossed his arms, thinking. "I know I'm going to need more ninja tools. Exploding tags and the like. A bag of sweets to bribe off certain questions about the clan..." He winked at Resuka, though honestly he was buying them because she was cute. He did hesitate though, saying, "I did hear a Puppet shop had just opened up recently in the Leaf. I don't know very much about your abilities yet Kara, but...they may have items that could be helpful? And can you think of anything you might need to pick up Resuka?"
Resuka giggled and nodded, "I suppose I could be convinced to go shopping. Might even get you guys a little something since you did so well in the test", she told her entourage, earning a "Don't patronize me" from the lizard, but the cat seemed excited, "You might be able to do this now...", the bird offered, "But once you get stronger and your allies increase in size- that's both talking numbers and literal height- that's going to be a very expensive habit, you buying food for us", recollection flashed in Resuka's eyes, remembering the sight of her father riding a house-size tortoise, "Yeah... but, like, for now it's just us, so it should be fine"
Ever the talkative one, Kara simply sighed and stood back up, though at least she didn't show any intention of leaving
Hakuro nodded, listening with some amusement to the back and forth. He'd seen some of the Summon Animals, and how...Large they could be. Still, as she said, for right now, it was just them. The trip TO market was uneventful. At first, Hakuro had been content to just be part of the group, but after a few minutes, he warmed up, interacting more and more until he was surprisingly friendly, considering the Uchiha's reputation for being cold shouldered. At some point during the outing, Hakuro said, "Well, there is a sweet shop. Since we did well in the test, Resuka, did you want anything from there?" He blinked, remembering Kara hadn't actually said what she liked to eat. "Can I get you something to eat too Kara?"
Resuka bounced happily for a moment when the candy store came into view, then stopped herself, not wanting to make a scene, "Y-yeah. Maybe some yokan or something", she looked over to kara, who said nothing but just went straight into the store. Surprisingly enough, the shop-owner recognized her, "Ah, well hello there, Kara. And Resuka too", the friendly old man greeted them when they entered, "Celebrating your new headbands, I take it? Congratulations", Kara had already found what she was looking for and placed it on the counter: four different varieties of pocky, "The usual, eh? Very well then"
What happened next was an almost surreal sight. Kara opened her left forearm. Even knowing that the arm was mechanical, it was still odd. Her arms pretty much always stayed like normal arms during school, but here she was, in public, showing off the hidden compartments where she, apparently, stored sugary snacks. She loaded them in and closed her arm back up. With a flick of her wrist a strawberry flavored stick slid into her waiting palm. She gave a satisfied smile and began munching on it, happy and oblivious to the rest of the world
It took several seconds for Hakuro to pick his jaw off the floor. Kara loved Sweets of all things? Aside from the hidden compartments in her arm, which was Awesome, she just never really struck him as a sweet lover. He shook his head, staring wasn't polite, no matter how cute either girl was. He smiled, reaching up to rest a hand on the headband sitting around his neck, wrapped with a red cloth. "Something like that. Our Teacher just gave us a passing grade during a sparring match, and we're getting ready for our first mission. So I wanted to treat Kara and Resuka while we were out getting ready."
Sweets were not normally Hakuro's thing. Not that he didn't like them of course, but more he was not a fan of the sugar crash afterwards. "Hakuro Uchiha. I guess we'll be seeing a lot more of each other now us three are all in a squad together." He offered a hand to shake with the store-owner. Better to get on his good side now. He was probably going to spend a lot of time in here over the next year or so anyways.
He blinked, and then said, "Wait, I know what we can do." He paid for the first order, and then got a second order. "Here, I can do this for the mission." He quickly laid out a small piece of paper, which of course Resuka would recognize instantly. A scroll, with a sealing circle around it. Fairly basic, but it would work. A few hand seals, a small puff of smoke, and voila, the second serving of different pocky was now sealed into the paper, ready to be brought out as fresh as when they had bought it. "For when our mission tomorrow is a success." He smiled, rolling the scroll up, and flipping it into his back pouch. He paid for the second serving, and then glanced at the girls. "Well, any places you want to visit?"
"Well, as much as I like Sugary stuff, we should probably get some actual ninja tools and stuff. I don't generally use much... but I did see a shop showing off a fox summoning scroll on the way here. It's been a while since I signed the scroll for Lizards, so I think I'm ready for a new one", a reaffirming nod from Chidi, her dove, confirmed this. Kara also reminded the group of something brought up earlier, "Puppet shop", she told them surprisingly clearly considering the candy she still had in her mouth
Hakuro nodded. "We can easily do both. I don't really need to pick up all that many tools, I'm good with my sword, for the most part..." If it actually IS a low ranking mission..."Is the summoning scroll closer, or is the puppet shop? Or is one on the way to the other?"
And while they were walking to whichever destination, another question caught his mind. "Actually...Resuka, I noticed you have a lot of different summons. Are different animal summons usually better at different things? Or does each "Group" have some members that are better at certain things then others?"
None of the three knew quite where the puppet shop was, and had to ask around to find out it was on the very edge of the market district, way out of the way of anything else, so they backtracked to the place with the scroll, "Well... yes? Generally speaking different animals do different things. You're not going to find any poisonous dogs, for example, meanwhile pretty much all snakes have venom. Though each member of each species is still an individual with their own skillset and personalities. So like, back during the training with sensei, I brought out Doro- er, the hawk, right? Well he and Chidi here are both birds, signed to me under the same scroll, but Doro does actual combat-stuff, where Chidi is more of an adviser, I guess? And of course if I want somebody that can fly, it has to be some bird or another, you know?"
The place wasn't too far, and wasn't even really a shop, but rather a stand set up by one of the foxes themselves.
"Quite the group you got there, girly", it commented as they approached, "...you don't have any dogs with you, do ya?"
"Nope. I've been holding off for Nyanta's sake. He's not too fond of them either"
"Good on ya. You must be a Nomura, right? Not many others sign up with multiple species. How would you like to add foxes to your list? Only 5000 yen"
She gave a small pout. She didn't have to pay for any of her other contracts, other than the blood used to sign and summon... but different species do things in different ways.
"... Alright, fine, 4500. Put away that frown. Geez, I feel like I just bit a kit or something..."
"Yay~", she pulled out her moneypurse and paid, pulling out an ornate quill and pricking her thumb with it to sign. She started doing the motions to summon it as soon as the scroll was rolled back up, but stopped herself, "I used up most of my chakra already... Oh well. I'll have to meet my new fox tomorrow, I guess"
Hakuro nodded, listening to her explanation carefully, asking when she had just gotten the new scroll. "Hmm. So they DO do different things, sort of like how Shinobi have different skill sets." He blinked. "Wait, I remember the cat you summoned was doing a really good job of staying on Sensei with physical attacks. Do you know what your new fox will be skilled with ahead of time, or is it more of a "learn from summon" thing?"
"Well... it can be hard to tell what some will do. Birds you expect to fly, have good eyes, and do wind style stuff, but I had no idea what to expect with lizards. Naju does earth style stuff, but apparently there's also fire lizards, and taijutsu-oriented ones. As for foxes... maybe Genjutsu? I haven't really seen many hanging around my family, so they might be pretty specific"
They lead the way to the general location of where the puppet shop was, and instantly realized why no one was quite sure where it was. Apparently the owners of the shop had made the store not "obvious". Which of course made sense, considering Shinobi Puppet tools could be lethal just by touching them. After several minutes, Hakuro motioned to a sign. "Hey, this says "Follow the strings..." What do you think it means?" He wasn't sure, but to those used to looking, it would be obvious. The puppet Store was the source of the Chakra Strings, and they all lead to the roof of a larger building/warehouse, with no obvious entrance.
On the roof was a shabby door, locked, however, a knock caused a rattle, and a small keypad to flip out, with the image of a handprint on it. A sticker on the print said, "Place palm here, and release chakra to enter". Having never been here, Hakuro was fairly suspicous. "Uh...this on the up and up?" He asked Kara, figuring if anyone knew, Kara would. Resuka's gaze mimicked the Uchiha's, being at least as lost as the boy here
"Not everybody's a ninja, idiots, even here in Konoha", she placed her hand on the print. Apparently she had no problems sending chakra through her inorganic arms, "This keeps the civilians away from the poisonous, trap-loaded death-machines"
He blinked at that. "That makes...way too much sense." And, for good measure, facepalmed where Kara couldn't see. Of COURSE that's why they kept this place locked away.
When they came downstairs, a larger man, with a "poorly" constructed puppet arm motioned to them to stop. "Alright, I see from your headbands you're Ninja. Well and good, but from your age, I assume you lot are Genin as well. Yah lot need to be careful. Many of these tools can be poisoned, and some already are. If yah don't recognize somethin, don't Touch it. Ask me and I'll explain it." He hesitated, eyeing Kara. "Lass, You seem to know what your about. Let me know if yah need anything special."
"I don't really use puppets", she told the shopkeeper, "...but I am potentially looking to use one for parts to modify my mechanical arms. Specifically I'd like something to create a non-toxic smokescreen. Something like that should be enough to give me an edge in low-level missions", it seemed Kara actually was capable of forming full sentences, but only when she was talking about deadly contraptions.
The owner kept an eye on the other two, likely he'd had several cases of customer's not listening, and touched something they shouldn't. At her question, the owner nodded, devoting his full attention to her. "Low level mission, there are a couple of options here." He held up two small capsules, one in the shape of a sphere, and the other in the shape of a hollow point bullet. "The round ones are ranged smoke screens, either throw or fire, and they'll create a good sized screen around the point of impact equally. Colors signify the color of the smoke, the size is how wide the range is.. The more "shaped" ones are close range, if you have an exit nozzle in yer arms, the smoke will Pour out of there, and fill the space around you." His tone was much more business like now, speaking to Kara like an equal. "There are two different kinds'a smoke too. One will hang around longer, and the other will stick to whatever you hit. A lot of ninja prefer the close range one with the sticking one to blind enemies, but its up to you."
She took a moment to consider her options. The idea was to create an unfavorable field for enemies who weren't skilled at fighting without sight- something she made sure to practice. She had originally envisioned simply exuding the smoke directly from her arms, but a smoke-bomb launcher may have more utility, and provide a good test bed for future ballistic-themed modifications, "The 'exit nozzles' are part of why I'm here. There are many places I can buy smoke bombs from that aren't nearly so out of the way, but I'd like to be able to use or shoot them directly from my prosthesis, rather than just pulling them out and throwing them manually. I think I'd actually like both the close and long-range variants. Do you have any parts already designed for such things? I want to say I remember seeing a puppet with the scorpion brand that could breath poisonous gas; I could probably modify one of those if need be"
He hesitated slightly, thinking carefully, before getting up, and walking off, muttering to himself. He finally came back with a section of puppet gear that was surprisingly small, but rather straightfoward too. "The concept is simple. This would work with either close or long range. Yah see the short range is JUST too wide at the base to fit? When the chamber fires, it sends the thing firing forward TO the tube. It then compresses the dome, sending the smoke spraying out of the nozzle. How, the long range ones are just the right size to just launch straight THROUGH the cloud." He hesitated before saying. "I've never seen arms quite like yours before, but with the close range one, your going to have the "Shell" to remove before you can fire another one. It might be better if yah just used the long range types, and if you need to create one close to you, just fire it directly into the ground, though that won't help you in mid-air of course." He sighed. "Short term notice, this is the best I can offer yah. If you like, I can work on getting one of the poison launchers from the Crow Puppet for yeh to tinker with, or create a custom launcher later on." He hesitated, "When is your mission lass?"
She held up and arm to compare it to the launcher. one of the more awkward things about the Kukuri clan arms is how much it's dictated by the wielder's natural growth. Even if you didn't want to modify your arms, you'd still have to as you grow to keep your arms the proper size, meanwhile somebody with a lot of growing left to do who wants a lot of modifications and features will find they have to wait until they can fit bigger arms onto themselves to store more things into them. There were ways to fit deceptively large blades and contraptions in surprisingly small cases, but that only went so far, and Kara was already using up a fair amount of space for basic storage, "It's a clan thing. We have our own forge for a lot of custom designs, but basic things are sometimes better bought, and I'm not sure I'd have enough time to test something self-built at this point. We haven't actually gotten the mission yet but supposedly it's in a few days... I think I'll take that long range one for now. Hold off on dismantling your puppet"
He nodded, and at the mention of a clan, he nodded again. "Ah, so yer arms are part of your clan, and ye have a Forge. That makes sense now." He nodded, and instead of handing it over to her, instead put it back in the box, and kept rummaging around, finally pulling a good 5 or 6 boxes, laying them out. He flipped the lids on all of them, letting her see exactly what lay within. They were Extremely simple launchers, but they also worked Quite well. The long range bomb would sit nestled in the launcher, almost like a sling shot, with a spring at the base. Triggering the winding mechanism would cause the spring to pull in on itself, prepping for launch. The "Fire" mechanism would cause the spring to send the platform flying forward in the device, exiting at the nozzle. "There you are. Its a simple model, but each one has different sizes, and different strength as a result." He opened up a small box for her, "Small fake smoke bombs you can fire in the store safely. They only release a small amount of smoke, so you can get a feel for how far they fly. If you need to place and order again, just let me know, and we'll get it for yeh as quick as we can."
She turned the launcher over and back, examining all parts of it, "Looks simple, but sturdy. Not bad", she fired a test shot. Creating a reloading mechanism for it would be almost laughably simple. Maybe... Five hours of work? Six? Though she still had to install the launcher itself, and working the reloading mechanism into it at that point might be a bit more complicated. Even if she was among the most talented of her graduating class, she was still just barely a genin, and such a basic modification was still liable to take up the entirety of her free time until the mission due to her relative inexperience. She opened her wallet revealing a surprisingly large amount of money to any who may have been peeking and paid for it, "Thank you, sir", she turned to the rest of her squad, who'd been largely silent due to being so far out of their element "Anything else you two want to do? If not I'd like to get started working on this"
The man surprised her though by refusing payment. "I have a rule here lass. I know you're a ninja for the Hidden Leaf. I also know it wouldn't take much to figure out exactly who yeh are. After your mission is done, then yeh can come back and pay for the tool." He smiled and said, 'After all, if after all that work, what if something goes wrong, or something gets tweaked the wrong way, and it ends up that yeh can't use your new tool?" He crossed his arms, nodding. "If yeh happen to die, no worries, payment will be considered void." He hesitated, saying in a somewhat...sad voice, "I don't want my tools failing teh be the reason you die..." He locked eyes with her, saying simple, "Pay me when yeh make it safe and sound."
Hakuro was staring at the exchange Almost the whole time. He shook out of it, saying, "Uh...I can't think of anything else really..." He glanced at Resuka. "I guess meet at the training fields tomorrow at noon?"
Shikuro was smiling and waiting for the group, tossing a scroll in his hand. One with a large C on its side. He waited until everyone was assembeled before actually answering any questions.
Once everyone was seated/arrived, He held the scroll up. "We have our first mission. Lord Hokage was somewhat...worried about letting us handle a C rank mission on our own, but after I told him how well each of you handled yourselves in the combat mission, he gave the go ahead." He opened the scroll, and began reading, "The Village of Dancing Mist"". He glanced at the group, "Not the actual Hidden in the Mist village mind. This is a small Village, allied with Konoha." He coughed, and continued reading, "The Dancing Mist has had an issue with bandits attacking their trade convoys. However, the convoy's with all their high level ninja are being completely avoided. The bandits likely have a Shinobi with them that's a sensor. Luckily, our group should be able to guard one of the convoy's, and not register as too much of a threat. I'm something of a Sensor type myself, so I can conceal some of my presence." He rolled up the scroll, and glanced at his group. "So, This is going to be a traveling mission, and there's a good chance we'll be in combat. I want everyone's thoughts on this."
Hakuro was first to chime in, saying, "If you think we can handle it, we'll have to try. It'll be a good chance to put what we learned into practice, but I'm also concerned. If the enemy Has a Shinobi on their group, this could be deadly for Genin to try to take on." He glanced at the two girls, before saying, "I'll go with whatever the group decides though."
Resuka and Kara sat next to eachother, the former hugging a small yellow fox and the latter absentmindedly polishing her right arm. Resuka spoke first, "Our first mission is gonna be C rank? Are you sure about this? I mean... I know all of you are really good, but I don't know if I've been with everybody long enough to really know how well we'll be able to work together. We've only ever fought one-on-one after all", she looked between her human companions, reminding herself of what their fighting styles were even like. Kara took the opportunity to give her two cents, "Sensei is Jonin, is he not? He could probably handle this on his own if need be, though I doubt it would come to that"
"True...", Resuka looked towards Chidi for guidance partially out of habit, still unconvinced of her own skill, "This is your mission, girl, not mine. You have to learn to make decisions on your own... though if you do take it, know I will give you all the support I can", the summoner took another moment to think everything through before finally nodding, "I'll do it!"
Shikuro smiled, and knelt in front of Resuka. "I'm not quite the strongest Jounin out there, but against C-Rank enemies, even with a Shinobi out there, I should be able to handle this no problem by myself. But I also want the two of you, Kara and Hakuro, to have an experience of what it is like to fight opponents at your skill level, if not stronger. And you Resuka..." He smiled, "I want you to see that you are not as weak as you might think you are. Your summon's are skilled, and varied. You can be a strong fighter, or fill a Lot of other roles with your summon's. You already earned their trust, which is really impressive for your age."
He smiled, standing again, "Alright, we have our mission. The journey is about a day's travel, less if we go faster. Everyone ready to head out?"
Does ending the chapter here make this a 1.25-shot? There's a bit more, but this is a really good place to mark a chapter. Be warned that continuing on ahead will take you to the cliffhanger, so if you particularly hate such things, maybe stop here and imagine everybody just riding off into the sunset, taking the first steps on their journey to become a group of ninja held in high regard. Perhaps they helped beat Orochimaru, maybe they were even involved in all those shenanigans with the akatsuki and pain and madara. You could even imagine Hakuro having a showdown with his much edgier clan-mate Sasuke and probably losing... or you could read the snippet of a mission that ended up being written and left with a single, more specific scene to wonder about. It's up to you