Another story in the style of Hero's Mask. One might think that chunin exams that did not involve an invasion should have been easy for Gaara and Kankuro, but one would be wrong. More plots against Konoha and Suna make things just as dangerous, and Gaara and Kankuro have an unexpected addition to their team. Rated at T for violence and swearing; I cannot write the puppet master without it. Most of Kankuro's audience and some of the bad guys are mine, the rest belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
One-Practice Makes Perfect
Karasu rose into the air, joints clacking and whirring. His upper arms extended forward to fire needles while his lower arms stretched outwards, gears shifting in preparation for separation. The puppet hovered a moment and then his arms jerked. Gears ground. Karasu's entire body twitched once and crashed to the ground.
Hajime stared at the puppet in dismay. It had been going so well. He tightened his shoulders, bracing himself for what would come next.
His sensei did not disappoint. "Damn it, Hajime! What are trying to do, strip all his gears?" Kankuro smacked himself between the eyes in frustration. "Damn!"
Hajime kept his eyes on Karasu's limp, tangled form and muttered an apology.
"Don't apologize. Just get it right, damn it! You're fighting with the chakra stream. Concentrate on guiding it instead of controlling it and it's easy."
Easy for you to say, Hajime thought, you're the puppet master. It's all easy for you.
He sighed and his eyes drifted across the room to where the others were practicing. One of Hajime's genin team mates and a chunin were sparring with Miri. As he watched, the tall swordswoman slipped inside the chunin's guard, bringing the butt of her sword hilt down squarely on his forehead protector. The chunin's eyes glazed over and his sword slipped from his fingers. Miri grabbed him by the front of his shirt, twisted, and the next thing Hajime knew, she had tossed him right at the genin. The younger shinobi had been launching an attack at Miri's back, but upon seeing the chunin flying at her upraised sword, she panicked. She dropped her sword and put her hands up, trying to catch the chunin. They both ended up tangled together on the floor.
Kankuro saw him look over. "And don't blame them for distracting you. Do you think it's going to be quiet in a battle?"
"No sensei," Hajime murmured.
"You're damn right it's not! Look!" Kankuro's index finger twitched and Karasu snapped upright. "The top arms fire first to distract the opponent, then detach the second set and send them in a flanking maneuver."
The puppet performed flawlessly, needles hitting the centre of the targets, all its motions crisp and precise. Hajime felt his spirits sink further.
One finger, he thought, he does it with just one. I'm never going to get it right. What was I thinking?
Maybe it would be better if he took up the sword instead. Miri was much easier on his team mate, Tara. He watched Tara get up, bloody nose pinched between her fingers. The chunin was getting up too, but he still looked all wobbly.
Well, maybe not easier, he thought, but she is nicer.
"Do you need a moment, Jo?" Miri asked the chunin.
"No." He pushed his fingers under his forehead protector and rubbed the rising lump. "I'll be fine. Are you okay Tara?"
She nodded. "Yeah. I'm sorry."
Jo shrugged. "Not your fault. I shouldn't have let her inside my guard."
"Quite correct," Miri said. "What else went wrong?"
Tara and Jo looked at each other and then shrugged. "We weren't good enough, I guess," Tara said.
Miri opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a loud snort.
"You two are idiots." Kankuro had been listening. "What went wrong was: you didn't think." He pointed at Jo. "You jumped in to take her on, one-on-one, the second you had an opening. And you," his finger swiveled to Tara. "What went through your mind when she turned her back on you?"
"Well…that I had an opening while she was distracted."
"Distracted? Do you think that someone with her skill would be distracted so easily?"
"It is a valid tactic," Miri said. "However…"
Kankuro snorted again. "Idiots! That's what she wanted you to do and you didn't even realize it. You weren't working together and look what happened. Next time, attack her flank, on your partner's weak side. That will put you two side by side at the end so you are ready for the next attack. And if you intend to distract her, then do so. Feint, make her move, get her off balance. That's how you distract someone. We put you guys in teams for a reason. Team. Work." He tapped his forehead. "This is your best weapon, use it first before you charge in like the idiots you are." Out of the corner of his eye he saw the smirk on Miri's face. "What?"
"Nothing." She brought her hand up to her mouth. "Sa-cough-sori."
Kankuro glared at her and hoped his blush did not show through his face paint. However, Miri appeared not to see the daggers he was glaring at her. Instead she was greeting a newcomer. It was Hajime's other team mate, Sano. He had been practicing with Gaara.
Hajime grimaced. Training with Kankuro could be rough, but he could not imagine having to train with the Kazekage. Sano was covered in sand and had fresh scrapes on his face and knuckles.
"Gaara-sama said to spend the mid-day rest period here with you guys. Is that okay?"
They had been practicing in the large hall on the edge of the village where Ebizo lived. The building was always cool, so it was a nice place to train and an even better place to go to escape the mid-day heat. It had once been the puppeteer's guild hall, and then Ebizo had lived there alone with his sister until she died saving Gaara. After Ebizo had taken Kankuro as his student, Kankuro had trained there and used it as a workshop for his larger puppets.
"Humph, yeah, might as well," Kankuro grumbled. He knew taking on students was part of being a jounin, but some days he almost wished that he could go back to being a chunin just to avoid having to deal with them.
Brats, he thought, and mostly useless. And they always seem to end up here, just hanging around.
When he had become Ebizo's student it had just been the two of them, until Miri had come along. Kankuro had to grin a little at the memory; he would train with Ebizo and spend time with her, exploring the numerous rooms in the former guild hall. He sat down and picked up a puppet limb, intending to tinker while they rested.
Sano sat down, Tara and Hajime joined him.
"What did you practice today?" she asked Sano.
"Digging my way out of sand," he replied. His shoulders slumped as he remembered. "What about you guys?"
"Oh, a little of this, a little of that." Tara waved a hand in the air. "Hajime has almost figured out how to detach Karasu's arms.
"Almost?" Sano cocked an eyebrow at his team mate.
"Yeah, right. Almost." Hajime slouched down too.
"Yeah! C'mon Hajime, you'll get it soon. I can tell."
Tara punched him in the shoulder and Hajime winced. She had taken some hand-to-hand training from Haruno Sakura and now even her playful punches hurt.
"We'll be awesome," she continued. "The best genin team ever, with me as your medic and short range specialist, Hajime at mid-range, and Sano at long range." Next she punched Sano. "You're the clever one, you should think of a name for us. We need a cool name so we can announce ourselves at the chunin exams."
"Ouch! Tara, cut that out! We need to qualify first, before we can think about silly stuff like that."
"That's damn right. And you three are a long way from qualifying, let alone passing," Kankuro said.
Hajime and Sano exchanged despairing glances, Kankuro was right. Tara, however, was not so easily discouraged.
"Oh, Kankuro-sensei, you know we're good, we've got the best teachers of everyone, after all. Our team beats the others all the time in practice matches and if we weren't good then you wouldn't have told Nara-san that we could kick the asses of any Konoha genin. Right?"
Kankuro scowled at the girl. He had told Shikamaru that and he believed it, but it was not something they should know about. The compliment would go straight to their idiot heads.
"Who the hell told you that?" He glared at Miri.
"Please stop making that face at me. When you told Shikamaru, you were talking so loudly that half the village heard. Little wonder it got back to them."
"Okay, that is what I think, but that is not going to be enough to get you through the chunin exams, you face more than just other genin, you know. Chunin testing grounds are unpredictable and dangerous, even for an experienced shinobi." Kankuro pointed at Tara. "You are too cocky and impatient. Sano, you still need to get your control fine-tuned, you're always on the verge of taking your own team mates out. And you," his finger swiveled to Hajime, "you still have to learn how to use a composite puppet like Karasu and you get distracted too easily."
"Yes, sensei," Hajime murmured. Kankuro was right; he was a very long way from being ready.
Tara grumbled something, not convinced.
"Patience Tara," Miri said. "You three are young, you have time."
"Young? I'm almost twelve and so's Hajime and Sano's almost thirteen. Sensei, you were a chunin by thirteen and you were younger than us the first time you went. And Temari-san passed when she was our age."
Sano nudged her. Tara could be so brainless sometimes. The subject of those chunin exams was a touchy one; the failed invasion, Gaara's defeat by Uzumaki Naruto, and worst of all, how an Aburame had beaten Kankuro. He could see that their sensei had that look on his face, the one he got when anyone mentioned those days. It was always best to drop the subject when he looked like that.
"Tara, just let it go," he murmured.
"Those were different times Tara," Jo said. "Now we can afford to take the time and make sure that our genin are ready. We just want to be sure you make it through alive."
"How old were you?"
"I was twelve the first time I went. It took me three tries to pass and I had to spend two weeks in the hospital after I did. Almost no one passes the first time around."
"I understand that three attempts are about average." Miri flopped down at the edge of the small reflective pool across from Ebizo.
The old man was sitting with his fishing pole, eyes closed, apparently oblivious to everything around him. Miri poked one finger into the water and flicked a little at the fishing line. Ebizo snorted, but did not open his eyes.
"There are some skilled shinobi out there who took even more than that," she continued. "Four attempts for Matsuri for example."
"Seven for Naruto, the written exam tripped him up a bunch of times." Kankuro shook his head and snorted. "Like I said, it takes brains as well as power."
"How many tries for you, Kankuro?" Miri asked.
Kankuro narrowed his eyes at her, not fooled by her innocent tone. "That was different, I was ordered to fail as part of a mission."
"Temari was on the same mission, was she not? And she passed."
Kankuro glowered and the puppet limb in his hands moved, the hand springing upright to show Miri its middle finger. Then the wrist twisted. Hajime heard the needles launch, but did not see them. He did not see Miri move either, but he heard her sword ring as it left its scabbard. The needles pinged off the blade, deflected back at Kankuro. Karasu's body sprang into the air and the needles hit his body in a tight group in the middle of his chest.
"Karasu makes an excellent pin cushion."
Kankuro snorted and got to his feet. Miri had resheathed her sword and was standing with her hands at her sides, but Kankuro knew that she was more than ready for anything he could throw at her.
"Disrespectful and careless, that is what you two are." Ebizo was awake. "You have disrupted my meditation with your foolishness. And…" he brandished his fishing pole at Miri. It had a needle sticking in it. "You have damaged my property with your tom foolery. It is my favorite." He paused to stare at it mournfully and then jabbed a bony finger at them. "What the Kazekage was thinking when he put you two in charge of their education, I'll never know."
"Oopsie. Sorry Ebizo-jii-sama."
"Hey, he asked you if you wanted to help and you said no," Kankuro said. "If you don't like my methods, then do something about it. Something other than whining."
They glared at each other for a few moments before a large and evil grin spread across Kankuro's face. "And how many times did you attempt the exam, Ebizo-jii-sama?"
"Well…I…never…" Ebizo sputtered. "Impudence! It never changes! Why I took you on as a student I will never know!"
"My amazing talent of course."
Ebizo's eyebrows continued to twitch in irritation for a few moments, and then he collected himself and sniffed. "There is no denying that, but as you pointed out, it takes more than power. Perhaps you could demonstrate that fact to your students by telling them of your next trip to the chunin exams."
"Oh, yeah, cool! Tell us Kankuro-sensei. I'll bet you won the whole thing, right?" Tara said.
Kankuro growled, "This is not some damn story time."
"But we're on our break," Tara said. "That's as good a time as any."
"No!"
"But…"
"Tara, cut it out!" Sano said.
"That is a splendid idea, Ebizo-jii-sama." Miri sat down beside the pool again. "It is fine Kankuro, do not tell them. I will."
"What? It was five whole years before you came along. How the hell do you know anything about it?"
"Sakura told me. Feel free to listen in. It will be interesting to see how her version of events compares with your own recollection."
"Don't. If you do, I'll…"
"You will what? Threaten me all you like, Kankuro." Miri nodded in the direction of the genin. "But just look at them, the seed of curiosity has been planted. If you do not tell them, they will just ask some one else. Baki-san perhaps…or maybe Temari."
"Don't give them fucking ideas!" Kankuro threw his arms out in exasperation. "Damn, Miri you're evil."
"Me? Not generally." She tapped her temple. "I do have this little voice in my head though and she does enjoy raising hell."
"Well, tell your little demon to shut the hell up and listen, because I'm only going to do this once." Kankuro sat down. He glared at his students and Jo. "And if I hear any snickers, snorts, or snide remarks someone is going to get an up close and personal view of Kuroari's inner workings. Is that clear?"
"Yes sensei!" Everyone said in chorus.
"Yeah, right." Kankuro ran his hand through his hair. "Right, so after that… Damn, where the hell should I start?"
"Try this: once upon a time there was a cute little genin and his puppets…"
"Don't call me cute! Just. Do. Not."