To the review about the pairing, I haven't considered it. I dislike most characters that would be eligible for her to even date (Not counting girls). And in my "Game Plan", no one comes to mind except Sasuke.
But I hate Sasuke.
So he won't be the pairing.
And I hate the NaruxSasuke pairing anyways.
So that won't be the pairing. Kay?
Disclaimer:I hate Sasuke. Obviously I'm not Kishimoto.
Please do not worry, however, Sasuke "Lovers" and "tolerators", I will not be bashing Sasuke. Kakashi might give him ( I said might! ) a stern talking to, same with Sakura, but there will be no bashing.
0-0-0-0-0 Academy Room 0-0-0-0
Everyone was now back at their seats, except for the Four who continued to play Shoji with each other, ignoring the eye-rolls and comments of the students who thought that was a dumb idea.
The Shoji players, however, did not believe the game was dumb and were currently marking down their wins and losses on a piece of paper between both boards. On the right side, from the teacher's desk, was Shino and Hinata. Shino had one win against Hinata, One loss against Hinata, and two loses against Shikamaru. He was currently playing against Naru, who had the upper hand with Shino's Queen piece being down and her Rook's taking down his Knight.
Hinata had one loss against Shino, one win against Naru, one loss against Naru, and was currently fighting Shikamaru. Of course the strategist had his piece carefully shielded but Hinata's strategy was beginning to wear them down.
Shikamaru had one loss, and three wins. He was carefully studying the board, planning his next move while making his movements seem casual and lazy to not let Hinata know he was thinking, although he was sure she knew.
Naru had one win, against Shikamaru, and one against Hinata. One loss against Shika and one against Hinata, she smiled as she made random movements, or so it seemed, but if one would look they would notice her positioning drew her opponents attention away from the Rook and Knight, making them focus on the Queen and Bishop that were always attempting to get close to the King without getting caught.
They were so entranced with their game that they hardly noticed the Jounin walking in. Several teams were called, up to Seven, before a voice spoke out. "Team 8?" No response was given however as the voice was missed, at Naru's shout of "Yes! I won!" as she stood up, a grin on her face at the slightly embarrassed Shino for losing to such an obvious trap.
"My trump card was flipped, and I was defeated." He stated, his voice barely over a whisper.
Naru just grinned down at him. "My Ace was better than your King." She let out a soft laugh before looking up towards Kurenai, who was just about to clear her throat to get their attention. "Oh, you're our teacher, ne?"
Kurenai nodded as Naru approached her, holding her hand out as she reached the red-eyed woman. Kurenai smiled and took her hand, shaking it friendly. "Alright" Kurenai said, letting go of Naru's hand. "Time to move out you three. Team Eight, Nara Shikamaru, Shino Aburame, and Naru Uzumaki. Come with me." She moved to walk out, only pausing for a moment as she watched the Shoji boards disappear in a poof of smoke. 'Summoning scrolls? No..There were not any seals there and no one here should have knowledge of sealing scrolls..' She left that thought for later as she walked out of the Academy, leading her team with her.
There was a soft sigh of "troublesome" as they reached one of the furthest Training fields away from the village, about twenty five minutes later of casual walking. Kurenai looked to her students as she sat down on a nearby log. The field was wide and barren of anything but grass, however it was surrounded by trees.
The Devil-Eye watched her students for any sign of exhaustion, but only Shikamaru seemed to show any on the outside with his slightly heavier breathing. Naru looked like she could probably walk around the village before becoming tired, which was about a hundred miles or so, and Shino seemed to be very slightly tired, although she suspected that was more of his bugs eating his chakra constantly than the walk.
She clapped her hands, drawing their attention. "Alright first, before we begin. I would like to know about you. Your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, ect. I will go first.."
She looked at them calmly before nodding. "I am Kurenai Yuuhi, as you know. I specialize in Genjutsu. I enjoy many things, such as flower arranging and Tea ceremony.." Shikamaru gave her a bored look, muttering something as she said this, while Shino looked indifferent (Big surprise), while Naru looked slightly interested and seemed to be scanning her with her eyes, as if assessing her as a challenger.
Kurenai paused before starting again. "I enjoy hanging with my friend Anko, I dislike perverts and lazy men.." With this she glared at Shikamaru, who paled very slightly. "My hobbies, as I said, are Tea ceremony and flower arranging. My dream is to allow future ninja of Konoha to become true legends, and for the Academy to get a better test." Shino nodded slightly, the other two just remained silent until Kurenai motioned towards Naru.
Naru smiled at her, although Kurenai admitted that the more Naru smiled, the less real it seemed to look. Naru began speaking after a brief pause. "I am Naru Uzumaki. I specialize in sword play." Everyone's eyebrows shot up at this, despite that the girl had a Nodachi on her back, they figured she couldn't do it very well. Naru, not noticing this, continued. "I like ramen and training. I dislike perverts, weaklings, and fan girls." She said the part with a small bit of venom in her voice, yet her smile did not faulter. "I have practiced in Tea ceremony and Flower arranging for years, as things like that helped greatly in keeping my sword balanced." Kurenai nodded in understanding, ignoring the look of confusion on Shikamaru's face. "My dream?" Naru paused before just shaking her head. "My dream is still a path I'm working towards. Right now, I just wish to be strong."
Kurenai frowned slightly at the end, but nodded and looked towards Shikamaru.
Shikamaru sighed, muttering troublesome, before starting. "I am Shikamaru Nara. I specialize in Shadow Techniques and Strategies. I like napping. I dislike nagging women." He didn't look towards either girl at this, but he could feel their eyes narrowing slightly towards him. "My hobby is cloud watching and I don't ask for much for my dream. I just want a normal wife, have two kids..One boy, one girl, and continue my Shinobi career before retiring when my son makes Chunin to carry on our family."
Kurenai rolled her eyes at the boy's sense of normal, but let it go and turned towards Shino who pushed his glasses up slightly.
"I am Shino Aburame." He said quietly, about to continue when Kurenai held her hand up.
"Speak up, Shino. A bug who isn't heard might get squished by those he trusts." Kurenai said to him, and Shino slowly nodded as he thought of her words.
"I am Shino Aburame." He said in a much louder voice, almost normal speaking tones. "I like finding new species of bugs and training. I dislike needless destruction of bugs and being underestimated. My hobbies is finding new bugs to add to my hive and I.." He frowned under his jacket's collar before clearing his throat slightly with a cough. "Enjoy gardening.." Kurenai gave him a small look of understanding while Shikamaru looked a little interested. Naru didn't seem to have any expression on her face, except the smile that seemed to be getting more strained to keep up as it didn't reach her eyes anymore.
Shino continued. "My dream is to be the best Aburame, possibly to out class our founder."
Kurenai nodded at her students before standing up, smirking. "Alright. Now we will begin the test."
They looked at her with a confused expression before Shikamaru spoke up. "What test, Sensei? One to see if we're ready to be Genin in the first place?"
Kurenai smirked at her smart student. "Yes, and here will be the test." With that, she put up a single seal and the three suddenly found themselves back-to-back with shackles connecting their feet to a different foot. They attempted to stand up, only for Shikamaru's slouch to throw them off balance and land on top of him. There was a grumbled "troublesome" as they got up again, with Shikamaru not slouching anymore.
"When did you do this, Sensei?" Shikamaru asked with slight interest, as he never saw her move.
Kurenai smiled. "I never did it, you did. I expected you'd sit there and so you all, literally, put your feet into the covered shackles. You should be more aware of your surroundings." She grinned at their slight disbelieving faces. In truth, she put a Genjutsu over them before she even asked them for their likes and dislikes to make them believe she was speaking to them, then put the Shackles on their feet while they were under her Genjutsu.
She pulled a thin piece of cloth and tied it around her left arm in a small bow-knot. "Your object is to get to me without even stumbling, you must predict each others movements and obtain teamwork. After that, you must move yourselves so that Shino may grab the ribbon on my arm." She pointed to it as they stared at her. "You have thirty minutes to get used to each other, any remaining time will be added to the ten minutes you have to get the ribbon from me."
She grinned as they started to slowly move around, Shikamaru telling them quietly to stop once and awhile so they could adjust their weight. Shino also did a good job, keeping himself up right for his teammates and even letting Naru lean on him, causing him to blush very slightly, as she stumbled.
Naru, however, was the most odd. She, literally, flung her sword out to catch herself by stabbing it in the ground and using it as a make-shift cane as she almost fell towards a rock and brought her teammates with her.
Kurenai was slightly impressed with their progress as, fifteen minutes later, they began to move as a unit back and forth. However, due to Anko rubbing off on her so much, she felt it was time to kick it up a notch. She pulled out several Kunai and flung them at the students, causing them to become startled and try to dodge by reflex.
This ended with them in a heap on top of each other, Shikamaru on the bottom again. They glared towards her for a moment, but did not comment as they made their way to their feet once more.
Kurenai grinned and continued to throw Kunai at them, and even used a few senbon. The senbon stuck Naru in the arm, although she made no noise to indicate she got hurt, but they managed to dodge the Kunai without becoming a crumbled mess again.
She continued to fling Kunai, Shuriken, senbon, and even an exploding tag once ("Troubl-AHH"), but her students were managing to dodge almost, if not all, of the projectiles as a unit. (Although Shikamaru now had a burnt mark on his left pants leg.)
At twenty five minutes, Naru held her hand up. "I think we got it Sensei. Please stop chucking stuff at us now?" Kurenai nodded and the three sighed in relief, before focusing on the task at hand.
"You have fifteen minutes to obtain the ribbon. Go." With that, the three began to move towards Kurenai slowly with Shikamaru starting to put his hands up in a seal while Naru had her hand rested on her Nodachi. Kurenai was slightly impressed as they thought she would move, and even more impressed that she could barely see Shino's form, as he was walking backwards, between the two.
She saw he was even stepping into their footprints they left to make the illusion that only two people, or perhaps one person walking back and forth, had come that way.
Kurenai stepped to the side to dodge the blade of Naru's Nodachi, only to be surprised when it poofed revealing the sheath was what she dodged! She twisted herself to the side as her ribbon was cut off her arm, landing in a pile of bugs which marched off quickly. Kurenai moved to stop them when she found herself unable to move as Shikamaru's shadow connected with hers.
The three grinned at her as Shino held the ribbon over Naru's and Shikamaru's head, showing their victory. "We win, Sensei." Shikamaru said calmly, although his smirk didn't go down any.
Kurenai smiled at her students, unsnapping the shackles and placing them in a sealing scroll.
"Yes, my students. Welcome to Team 8." Naru let out a cheer, pumping her fist into the air while Shino pushed his glasses up slightly and Shikamaru's smirk grew a bit. "Now, I'll treat you to some dinner for your victory today, after wards we'll be doing some Team Work again." They paled slightly but Kurenai just smiled at them. "Not like that, something to get us more acquainted with each other and our lives.."
She looked down at their confused looks before putting her hands on her hips, a smirk on her lips. "We'll be meeting your parents."
0-0-0-0 Chapter End
Yes, I know. No dark secret. That'll be next chapter, I wanted to not make you guys wait a more days for this chapter, so here it is! Team 8 is formed!