Testing Strength It was their first training session together as a team, and now they had all arrived, Kurenai felt her heart start to beat faster. She looks at the genin standing in front of her.
Her genin.
Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata.
They stare at her, heads raised to meed her gaze. She doesn't know what they're thinking, behind those stoic faces. They never seem to blink. She grips her hands tighter. Her pulse starts to hasten.
She takes a breath. She will keep calm, she will keep collected. She cannot allow them to see her fear. Fear shows weakness. Kurenai is not weak, she knows this.
She is strong.
"I will fight you all separately, to gain a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses in combat," she raises a hand to Kiba, "you first, Inuzuka-san, then you, Aburame-san, and finally you, Hyuuga-san. After that, training will be over for the day."
She speaks evenly and distantly, using honorifics. She uses a tone she thinks is polite, because she does not know how else she is supposed to talk to them. She has never spoken to children, and she has never commanded an Anbu team.
This is alien to her, they are alien to her, and Kurenai does not like it.
Hinata and Shino move off the edge of the training ground, and Kiba takes his stance, dog by his side.
Kurenai puts her weight on her back foot, "Don't hold back."
She speaks coolly and poitely, like she would talk to a stranger. She is their sensei. It is best to keep distant.
At least, that is what she hopes.
"You first," Kuranai-sensei says, pointing to Kiba.
He nods, and the dog jumps from his head to the floor, ears perked. Kiba cannot help but grin. Hinata quietly walks past, head down. Shino passes in front of him, and Kiba catches his eye. He scowls.
Just watch, he thinks, I'll show you.
He adopts his stance, and Akamaru jumps down, bearing his teeth. He waits for three seconds, then springs into action.
He comes at her with a punch, aiming for her gut; he misses as she darts to the left.
Akamaru lunges for her shins, but catches only air.
Kiba turns, teeth bared, and finds her behind him. He raises a foot and kicks, but her body becomes sludge. He swears as his foot is pulled further in, he feels his weight tipping. Akamaru grabs pant leg pulls with all his might.
"Let go, Akamaru! You'll be sucked in too!"
The dog shakes his head, and growls. Kiba is in as far as his knee now, it is climbing up his body, around his limbs, it is almost at his neck.
He cannot help it. He screams.
Suddenly, the woman vanishes, and a Kunai is at his throat. He glances behind, and he sees his teachers face.
Genjutsu…
"You cannot dispel Genjutsu, nor tell it from real life?" He shakes his head, and she frowns, then nods, "Well, that will be all, Kiba-san."
He can feel Shino's mocking eyes penetrating him, and his face goes red in shame. He is filled with a sudden, indescribable hatred.
I'll show you…
You're weak, dog-boy.
Shino does not take a stance when he fights Kuranai-sensei. He does not need too, his bugs will do his work for him.
She makes the first move.
Shino sends out a wave of singing, stinging insects. He watches as they come towards her, and her eyes open in alarm. They travel fast and furiously. She swings a kunai at them, to no avail. They crowd around her eyes and ears and nose and mouth, they find every possible opening and crowd into it.
Shino smirks, then, the kage-bushin disappears, and his bugs drop to the floor.
He frowns and glances around. He cannot detect her presence. He sends out his bugs to scout for her.
None return.
He sends out more, and more, and more.
He never gets an answer.
Shino begins to grow uneasy. He looks around himself, he can feel the eyes of his team…no…of the strangers boring into him, judging him, mocking him.
He turns around, and a foot is thrown hard into his abdomen. He falls, his bugs unable to catch him, and sees his teacher over him, face in shadow.
"You know no self defence." It was a statement, not a question. He sees slight disappointment in her eyes, "I did not even have to use genjutsu to defeat you."
He flushes and pulls himself off the ground. He walks off the fighting grounds. He catches Kiba's eye, and he is overcome with a terrible, unspeakable hate.
I'll show you he thinks.
Hinata starts to tremble; she cannot help it. Kiba had failed, Shino had failed. There was no chance she would be able to defeat Kurenai-sensei.
She takes the Hyuuga stance. Kurenai watches her for a moment, then springs at her. Hinata gives a small scream as a fist comes her way. She blocks it, and hits back, using the Hyuuga's fighting style.
Her fathers voice sounds in her head, you are a shame to the Hyuuga.
She does not hit with as much force as she could, she does not hit with precision.
She meets air.
She feels a presence behind her, and the world turns black.
She awakes to Kurenai-sensei's face. It is not worried, but placid, emotionless. Hinata, though, does not see that. She looks in her sensei's eyes, and sees only one thing.
Shame.
She gets to her feet. Kurenai looks at her, "You…" she trails off, and Hinata knows what she will say, 'You are weak, you are spineless, you can never be a proper shinobi."
"You lack confidence," is what she says instead.Hinata stares at her, and Kurenai bows, "that is all for today, Hyuuga-san."
Hinata bows back, and Kurenai turns and bounds off into the forest. Hinata stands there, thinking. She lacks confidence. She pictures his face in her head, and feels that special strength that only he can give her. She will find confidence, if that is what she needs to make him notice her.
She looks around, to see if her team mates had been watching her, to see if they had heard as well.
There is no one to see.
Hinata smiles, but she is not happy. She was the weakest link, the kink in the chain. Why would they wait for someone like her?
It's not like she's important.
She closes her eyes, and the sight of her sensei staring at her flashes into her mind, the red orbs seering into her, filled with such terrible things.
Hatred. Anger. Disappointment. Shame.
She stares at the eyes, and she watches as the face blurrs more and more, until she cannot tell who the eyes belong to, her sensei, or her father.
Review S2 I may change the story setting-out after this chapter -