1.8 Teamwork
Nearly an hour later, Kakashi stopped reading his book and started to wonder why no one had attacked. 'I wonder what's going on. I didn't lose them did I? I didn't walk that far away. That would be too pathetic. What could they be planning? All the other genin teams in the past had attacked fairly quickly...'
Suddenly he heard a bloodcurdling scream, and a thump! 'Probably a trap,' he thought, but he ran quickly towards the scream while putting away his book.
Rikako was lying on the ground, seemingly unconscious, blood flowing freely from a gash in her forehead. Her clothes were torn and bloody. A large broken tree branch spotted with blood lay by her side
'Is this genjutsu?' Was Kakashi's first thought, but then he saw that it was real blood, real cuts. He hurried over and picked up her limp body. Her breathing was shallow and he immediately became concerned, 'Damn, I have to file an accident report on the first day...'
A crouched figure came up from behind and threw a volley of shuriken at him. More shuriken rained from above. Rikako suddenly woke and slashed at him with her kunai. Kakashi quickly used the replacement technique and the log absorbed the shuriken and the kunai slash while the girl fell to the ground.
Kakashi was now among the trees and decided to go after the one who threw the shuriken from above. 'It'll probably be Kenji.' He saw Kenji's shadow and stealthily made his way toward him. Once Kakashi was on a nearby branch behind Kenji, he prepared to attack but more shuriken came at him from behind. Kakashi easily blocked them with his kunai, but Kenji had been warned and was now on the move. Then the branches under Kakashi suddenly gave way and the branches around him exploded. He leaped to the ground. A net of vines nearly dropped on top of him, but Kakashi sidestepped that as well.
However, two bags of sand with exploding tags attached came down with the vines. The bags blew open and sand dispersed everywhere. Kakashi had to close his single exposed eye. More sand was thrown in his face. With his uncovered eye barely open, and his ability to sense chakra, he could make out a figure coming up from behind, throwing kunai, more shuriken were thrown from above, and another figure crouching low coming at him from the front. Kakashi kicked back while blocking the shuriken from above with his kunai and moving to avoid the kunai from behind. The figure behind him jumped out of the way. The figure in front didn't attack, but rolled away instead.
All participants stopped, waiting for someone to make the next move. When the sand finally settled, Kakashi saw that the figure in front of him was the girl, holding the 2 bells triumphantly in her hands. She was smiling, not happily or enthusiastically as one would expect, but her usual calm complacent smile, as if the final result was just the anticipated outcome and they had done nothing special at all.
-...-...-
"Strengths and weakness…that's easy. I'm really strong and quite fast. Good at throwing kunia and shuriken. But…well…this is not a written test, so I don't have any weaknesses," Kenji smiled proudly.
"I'm good at making traps. I think I'm pretty fast when I need to be. My shuriken and kunai throwing are good, I think. But I'm not terribly strong," Takeo shrugged.
"What about ninjutsu? Do you guys know any special techniques?"
"I can do the basics, like henge, bunshin, and kawarimi, pretty well. I might even manage some camouflage techniques," Kenji added.
"Just the basics for me," Takeo offered.
Rikako nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I'm good at thinking, but I can barely hit the broadside of a barn with my abysmal shuriken or kunai throwing. Traps are always good. What kind of trap do you think you can put together?" She directed her attention to the smaller boy.
"Well, I don't have all my equipment with me…too heavy to carry…but I think I can make a net out of vines. We could try to lure him into a trap or ambush, but he's probably expecting that."
Kenji suggested, "Maybe we can create a distraction near where he is."
Rikako agreed, "We need a convincing distraction. I know what to do, just leave it to me when the time comes." She took out her notebook, outlined some scenarios and showed them to the boys. "Quiet he might be listening," she whispered.
Kenji and Rikako started to gather lots of vines, and filled the 2 bags (that had held the food) with sand. Takeo used the vines to fashion a crude net. Then they gathered together all their weapons: 60 shuriken, and 18 kunai. Rikako gave 40 shuriken and 2 kunai to Kenji. She gave 10 shuriken and 10 kunai to Takeo.
"We have about 10 minutes before the timer goes off. He should be nearby. Do we have everything ready?" asked Rikako. The two boys nodded.
"Kenji will be throwing these as distractions. Takeo will be throwing these to cut the bells. I only need a few shurikens and kunais for what I need to do. Let's go."
She did not use genjutsu. A jounin like Kakashi would easily see through it. To make it convincing she took a kunai and slashed at herself. She screamed as loudly as she could while breaking the tree branch and jumping down with it. She slowed her breathing to make it seem as if she were unconscious.
The strategy was multi-layered. First Kakashi would have his arms full with her. Takeo was to creep behind and try to cut the bells, Kenji would throw his shuriken as a distraction. If that failed, she would try to cut the bells or hurt Kakashi. Failing that, Kakashi would come after them. There would be 2 on the ground and 1 in the trees. He would probably escape to the trees and take out the one who was hiding. He would appear behind Kenji. They had sawed at the branches with their kunai to weaken them and attached exploding tags. Once Kakashi fell, Takeo threw the trap. It was expected that Kakashi would be able to avoid the net, but the sand was a different matter. The sand had to work or they would have no more chances. Takeo crept from behind again and threw this kunai at the bells while from above Kenji threw whatever he had left at the jounin. Rikako came from the front as a distraction and to grab the bells should Takeo succeed.
-...-...-
The gray haired jounin's uncovered eye was red and still tearing from the sand.
Takeo apologized, "I'm sorry about the sand. Are you okay?"
Kenji dropped out of the trees to see what was going on.
Rikako brushed her clothes off and said, "He's fine - he's a jounin. He let us win."
Kakashi thought, 'Yes, but I might have had to use a higher level jutsu against these guys.' Out loud he said, "I'm impressed. That took a lot of teamwork. You guys are the first to truly pass the test."
Kenji asked, "You mean we all passed?" Kakashi nodded in reply. Kenji started jumping around excitedly. "Hey, that was fun, can we do it again?"
Takeo smiled happily, "Rikako-chan's the smart one who came up with the plan. I was ready to go home."
Rikako blushed, she was always uncomfortable with compliments. "I just had the general idea, but I can't throw shuriken well or make trap."
Kakashi smiled through his mask at his new genin team.
Takeo tentatively cleared his throat, "Umm, what about lunch? There's only two?"
"Oh, well…I really didn't expect you all to pass…heh heh," Kakashi laughed nervously. 'Crap, now they expect me to buy lunch for everyone!'
"If we didn't work as a team, you would not have let any of us get a bell." It was a statement rather than a question coming from the girl.
Kakashi nodded and turned their attention to the shinobi memorial. "The most important thing about being a shinobi is team work. In the ninja world, those who don't follow the rules are called trash but those who don't take care of their comrades are worse than trash. The names on that memorial are all the shinobi who died in the line of duty. My best friend's name is engraved there."
'Now I'm depressed,' Takeo thought morosely, 'and I was feeling a bit better, too.'
But Kenji was unfazed by the solemn words. "So how did he die? How old was he? What kind of mission was it? Were you there when it happened?"
Lost in his memories, and perhaps annoyed by the inappropriate questions, Kakashi did not respond. Rikako shot her teammatea warning look and shook her head.
To avoid the awkward silence and change the subject she spoke. "Teamwork is very important in order to efficiently and effectively complete a mission," she said in her analytical tone. "The more you care about your team members, the more likely you'll protect each other and survive to see the mission through. Staying alive, keeping others alive, should always be considered first." Then she added to herself, 'However, being overly emotional can also negatively effect mission completion. Friendship, loyalty, determination, persistence, everything must be in balance and the goal itself must be weighed against the cost of lives.'
Kakashi woke up at her words. 'Who's the sensei here? Is she quoting her father?' Though her words echoed his sentiment, they were delivered as if she were reciting a passage from a book. 'She was the one who came up with the plan to get the bells. But was it really teamwork, or was she just using the two boys to advance herself? Did she care about them at aIl? She knew it was a test of teamwork - she read between the lines and passed the test. In a real life situation, would she work as a team, or abandon her team members to complete the mission, or to save herself? It seemed she would go to rather extreme lengths to accomplish her goals. The cuts, the wounds, the blood, there was a least half a pint, yet the way she continued to fight, and her focus...she really meant to hurt me!'
And there were other cuts. Once she washed off the blood in the river, Kakashi saw her arms exposed. There were scars, lots of them, some faded, some more recent. They looked as though they were made by some sharp edged instrument.
'What happened to her? Why all those scars? She hasn't been on any missions and academy students don't get injured like that in training.' Dark thoughts raced across Kakashi's mind.
…-…-…-…-…-
Author's Notes:
Hope the bells test strategy was reasonable, took a while to coordinate it on paper.
Next up, explanation of the cuts, but then another mystery.
