Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto Franchise, but I hear the Grinch was trying to steal Christmas.
Author's Note: As promised, here's the other Chapter. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
The next morning, Uta meets with her team in a slightly wooded area. "Welcome to your first day of training. Before you I have placed a chest, whomever opens the chest shall be rewarded with its contains. Somewhere, hidden on my person are multiple keys, but only one opens the lock. You have until sunset. Good luck!" She bows.
The three Genin tackle their Sensei, but in a puff of smoke she is gone. The three scuffle in a heap with their hands in each other's pockets and elsewhere. After a moment of realization and awkward silence, the three disperse with an unspoken agreement to never speak of this again.
Garuko takes off running through the treetops tracking Uta's scent. After a few minutes, she can hear her Sensei's voice to her left. She changes direction but, after a while, the voice starts coming from behind her. The voice becomes louder, now coming from multiple directions at once. Looking around franticly, Garuko quickly becomes disoriented. Suddenly from below, "Futon Wind Bullet." The wolf girl is launched above the trees then falls to the ground, breaking several branches on the way. She loses consciousness.
Elsewhere, Momo faces off with Uta head on. "Fiery fists of Curry!" Momo unleashes a volley of punches. "Tomato Tornado!" the Genin attacks with a roundhouse kick. Following through with a front flip into a cleaving axe kick, "Habanero Hurricane!" The redhead continues the assault for a while with the hits barely connecting.
Inhaling, Uta's speed and strength noticeably increase, "First Breathe!" She with a single palm strike to the chest Momo is thrown like a ragdoll, tumbling several meters.
On to Zato, who had been meditating in lotus position atop his staff. He seemed to be focusing on Uta's chakra because he leaped down the moment she entered his range. Staff in hand, Zato strikes Uta with amazing accuracy almost predicting—no—forcing her movements. "Sound won't work so…" Uta takes a deep breath, the air pressure in the vicinity decreases to almost zero. Zato's movements grow sluggish until he finally faints.
The three awaken in the late afternoon. Uta greets them lying where they had started. "The sun is setting soon, you better hurry up."
They climb to their feet. "That's much better. Now, shall we continue? Futon!" the Sensei blows at the ground causing an upheaval of sand. Throwing her voice, she says "Momo, I'm over here!" A fist flies out of the wall of wind and sand hitting Garuko in the jaw.
Spitting the blood for her cut lip, Garuko growls, "Oh, hell no! This time you're getting surrounded." She takes off running at top speed in a circle.
"Momo will give it all Momo's got!" Momo's fist slams on the ground shattering the earth beneath the Jounin. She stumbles. By now, Zato had pole vaulted over dust cloud and was striking from the sky sending the wind bullet back. "Tsuga!" Garuko collides with the wind projectile adding to her spin. The three continue their assaults, Zato on the left, Momo to the right and Garuko from various directions.
After a minute or so, three strange shaped keys are scattered on the ground. Noticing this, the Genin scramble to collect the keys. They fight over each key and who gets to try the chest first but none of the keys seem to work.
"My, that sun is setting fast and I'm all out of keys" Uta taunts. Garuko barks in reply, "You said one of these opens the box!" Uta just calmly says, "Yes, One Key opens the chest." Zato is fiddling with his key. As if realizing something, he snatches Momo's key and feels it in his hand.
"Hey, that's Momo's" the redhead retorts.
Garuko chimes in "It aint worth fighting they don't work anyway. Here take this one, too." She throws the key at Zato. He starts playing with the object that hit him in the face as well.
"Momo is puzzled."
"Wait, a puzzle! One key, get it?"
"Why does Momo hear crickets? Is it coming from here?" Momo picks up the chest.
Zato waves a Unified key in the air. "Alright, let's try it!" Garuko gets excited. When the key is turned there was a note with these words in print and braille:
"An ally is a Shinobi's greatest weapon, it has saved my life countless times. ~Uta"
Under paper they discover three chains with which they combine with the keys to create necklaces.
Later, Hinoishi and Uta are conversing over drinks. "So, what was in the box?" Hinoishi questioned.
"Oh, just some nonsense about teamwork and stuff," Uta shrugs hiding her blush with a glass of wine.
