Chapter 7 - Splitting the difference
Regret ruled much of the life of Her Ladyship Senju Tsunade, sole, likely last inheritor of her clan. Not that long ago she used to drink, gamble, occasionally fight it all away, to some desolate corner of her mind, always moving from place to place, keeping life too transitory for anything to catch up. That had changed recently, and for the last month, she once more found herself in the grip of all things she wished she could have done differently. Faces she failed to save, duties she did not live up to, all came back to her and there was now nothing to it but dealing with it all.
It did not fit the Hokage to fear facing a couple of memories, now, did it?
She didn't let any of that interfere with her duties, and dealt with each one by one. She's made her mistakes, dealt the hand she was handed. She may not have always come out ahead, and too often it was not her paying the price, but she would no longer let that intimidate her. There was a job to do, and by the Sage, she was going to do it right - which brought up her one regret as of late, namely emboldening Shizune when the girl stepped up to her. Since that episode, Tsunade found her paperwork consistently arranged into perfectly sensible, but dull and ordinary stacks on her desk in place of the layered, chaotic mess of unknown mystery demands. The 'right' way of doing things, as she discovered, perhaps wasn't the most fun one. At least her stepping up meant more was getting done; these days she could almost see her actual desk.
Organisation creeping into her life was not the cause of regret, however. Rather, it was the curious disappearance of her reserves, stashes, hollowed out bricks and other hidey holes for beverages. Just by themselves they could buy your own private island, they were her last little refuge from the burdens of the job, and bam, they disappear! The faintest sounds of suspicion suggested that perhaps letting the little chit spend an afternoon working with Jiraiya, the hypocritical drunken bastard, resulted in some dangerous exchange of ideas.
One of these days there would be a reckoning.
She just needed to get done with a whole lot of other tasks first, where, she had to make a face as she admitted, not having distractions probably helped. Most events on the world stage needed her sober almost as badly as they made her want to get drunk. Her recent favourite: a trading port barely within the Land of Fire, yet crucial for the supply of both Konoha and the capital was pressured by pirates. Apparently the Hidden Mist just happened to slip up in its security arrangements and neglected to defend the town, failing to live up to the terms of their well-secured maritime authority, right when Konoha's survival was hanging on a fine balance. Funny how these things happened.
The result was of course Tsunade ending up sending people in, away from regular missions, bearing the brunt of a minor diplomatic incident and saving as many people as she could. Oh, and her efforts to butter up the Feudal Lord for a formal declaration of war against Orochimaru and the Lord sheltering him went up in flames just like the pompous little man's trade fleet, causing him to storm off with little more than the simplest of authorisations of shinobi action and no support. He had people to yell at, evidently.
Well, so did she, except she couldn't afford to. Not only was she stuck in a mire of rebounding and worrisome politics, she had to deal with the messes left behind by Jiraiya, who carried on just like old times. Incidentally T&I were still complaining about the smell of burnt spider everywhere, and nobody can whine quite like a professional torturer.
She stretched and rolled her shoulders. The technique keeping her body young let her forget the toll of time, but sitting in an office and slaving away most of the day bent over bits of paper was breaking the spell just a little bit. Most of the things she did weren't even important business, merely the paperwork needing her authority. Glorious examples included lifting trade embargoes against cleared traders, ending the emergency curfew for civilians (it had them annoyed for the last week or so) and drafting a proposal of amnesty against some enterprising villagers taking up short-lived smuggling operations for suddenly scarce luxury goods.
Where was the political manoeuvring, last desperate stands to save her home in a heroic struggle? If she was saddled with the burden of this much responsibility, the least to expect should have been the occasional bit of fun, right? Instead she became a bureaucrat of all things. Damn Jiraiya and damn the brat for getting her to accept the position!
And speaking of the devil, as she cleared away the latest round of policies, she found two files bearing the names of the village's newest chuunin. She hadn't, since promoting those two given them much thought unless a mission came up where she could have used one of the jounin taken up by the training exercises, her new responsibilities covered too much to follow up on their individual progress. The files at hand were a start on getting a picture.
Oned was decidedly neater than the other. It featured a young boy bearing the expression of a middle aged accountant woken up in the small hours of the morning with a question about cheese production. There was an in-depth description of his abilities, various test scores, analyses of personality flaws and long term development projections complete with a small appendix of a chronology of the Nara's development. For all his rebelliousness years ago, Asuma was his father's son.
Shikamaru seemed to be doing exceptionally well. Both jounin spoke highly of his deductive and planning capabilities as expected, and whatever they did with him seemed to improve most of his abilities across the board. He was now well within the range of what was expected of someone of that rank, and his unique attitude may have made him hard to motivate, but the attention did not get into his head. On paper at least, he seemed ready enough.
As for the other file, well it was Naruto. He could only be recognised by the sheer idiocy of taking a registry photo in a ridiculous make-up that was almost as bad as Jiraiya's own. Tsunade found herself smiling as she opened the folder and sent a note to Shizune to dig someone up to take a photo of the kid properly.
Kakashi's records on the brat were... less exemplary than those of Asuma. He did record the details of Naruto's past and present capabilities faithfully and well. He traced and discussed his advancement with control and jutsu, weapon handling and the number of subjects, even went into a detailed examination of the boy's best aptitudes, giving due praise where deserved and being merciless in pointing out weak areas.
The problem was that he seemed to refuse to make any projections or real conclusions, preferring instead to finish his updates with a big vague 'it's all up to him'.
It was nice to see some sentimentality from someone in the past known for his cold efficiency but right now Tsunade would have preferred to know something more solid.
And, she sighed, she knew damn well that even if Kakashi penned a clearer file, it wouldn't be enough.
The time she could give was up. Even Asuma's notes were just paper, and she needed to see for herself the progress made, know the result that could mean difference between life and death, failure or success. She adjusted a few plans, preferring a personal touch. The fact that it could also get her out of the dreary office for a day was purely coincidental.
She sent off another chuunin with two messages.
Kakashi and Asuma wouldn't be too happy this time either.
"Sir, yes, sir!" The rackety wooden walls of the building shook with the enthusiastic shout, their cracks shaking dusty beams of light. Naruto grimaced as he took the full brunt of the spirited bellowing of the genin in green.
Perhaps being locked in a shack with the genin he was to lead was less mundane a detail than he thought. Here he was, worrying what sort of test Granny had thought up for them to see if they are ready, but a simpler issue of handling someone's high spirits came up. And silly as it was, seeing the over-the-top genin perform a full salute as he entered, the kind no one really bothered with even for the jounin, brought home the reality of his promotion, the prospect of people possibly starting to treat him differently from now on - and it didn't even take half a second for him to make the decision he wouldn't stand for that.
He finally, finally has made some real bonds of friendship, and he would not let that change at the donning of a chuunin's vest.
"Y'know, you really don't need to do that, Eyebrows." He scratched his temple nervously, looking at the other members of the team. He wouldn't let things get weird, but he really was going to take these people out on a test, and soon enough, on missions.
"Sir, yes si-" Noticing nothing of Naruto's thoughts, Lee happily went on with the formal treatment for the recently promoted, surely youthful and excellent officer, the one who beat his rival and gave him too hope for doing so.
"Eyebrows!" Naruto, seeing he wasn't quite getting through to the genin, did his best to apply the tips passed on by Sensei for basic commanding discipline. Maybe behaving like a chuunin in a normal situation to get across the message not to treat him differently was a bit strange, but with Lee, there was little use trying anything else.
"Sorry, Naruto-kun!" Lee dropped the salute, but remained every bit as abuzz as before."To answer your question, yes I am all right. More than all right! Please, don't make us wait any longer, I want to know what trials are ahead for us!" The rest may not have shared his energy, but every one of them looked up with an expectation that made Naruto even more awkward than before.
"Eh, I don't actually know, guys." He admitted, to a mild groan from some of his troops. "Hey, don't look at me like that! I barely had time to meet with Shikamaru to sort out who gets who, and had to come here to be locked up, same as you."
"Hm. And how did you sort us out?" Sasuke spoke his first words since settling down, arms folded. There didn't seem to be that angry edge to his voice that Naruto spotted ever since the Exams, he seemed calmer, although with a guy like him that was pretty relative however you put it.
"We agreed we'd both have our original teams. The others, well..." He laughed again. It was hardly as if he knew what to pick people for, and didn't want to haggle with the genin after all. "... actually we picked names from a hat."
Yep, that ensured none of the others would try treating him like a super serious officer. So far, so good, and thinking about the team he got, he had to admit his usual luck was on his side. Team Seven was what it always was, a bit rocky, and both Sasuke and Sakura bore signs of heavy training, especially the pink haired kunoichi who looked like she hasn't had a good night sleep in ages. Despite such signs of being worn out, he knew he could trust his team to hold up in just about any situation, and the others were a great addition as well.
He hasn't had a chance to talk with Lee during the month of training, but it was nice to see him back on his feet, itching to get into action. He didn't know much about his teammate Tenten, but if someone can lob around that many weapons, they ought to be a good ninja. Finally he was also lucky to have pulled Hinata's name from the hat, he considered, while looking at the now familiar figure, the usual posture of the girl. After that much of an effort to train together, ending up in opposing teams would have been, well, wrong.
It was funny how much he'd come to rely on her help with the training. Several hours' worth of different subjects absorbed from each clone made a mess of his perception of time and especially early on was very difficult to organize and make sense of what he now knew in the cavalcade of memories. Sensei's explanations, once he got used to delivering ideas to him in the right way were actually interesting, but it was with her that the still puzzling and near-incomprehensible estimations and quick calculations of trajectories and movements, evidently obvious for someone like Kakashi-sensei, were translated into movements and gut feelings through practice.
Finishing each day off by training with her helped him coalesce what he learned into tangible and real, lived movements. He found somehow he could be honest with her, ask embarrassingly simple questions he wouldn't have dared from Kakashi, and if it was something she didn't know either, her help let him put it in a more coherent form. Despite her quiet temper, she was still an amazing martial artist and to go up against her one on one, without relying on clones or other techniques still took active integration of anything new he'd learned into his fighting style, reworking it day by day to become more fluid and connected, combat moves to general movement, or the basics of scouting she'd learned from her sensei.
Where would he have been without that help? He probably didn't want to know, which only made him more determined to find things he could repay her kindness with. It's hardly as if she had any obligation to him to keep on training, other than the weird, but fun friendship they struck up since the Exams. All he could do was work away on the Shadow Clones and the to her, evidently bizarre amount of chakra use, wrecking his brain to try and come up with explanations as fun, clear as simple as she'd offered when it came to less robust quantities.
The past month was one hell of an experience. The clones put him under a great strain - maybe if he just focused on a single subject it'd have been a different story, but spread out, it was a lot to absorb even with Hinata's help, and as he quickly discovered, there was much ground to cover. Unlike the Academy's uniform grey flurry going right past him and teachers preferring to pretend he wasn't even there, the jounin expected him to ask questions and placed demand after heavy demand, which Naruto, if he was honest with himself, was astounded that after a lot of hard work he could actually meet.
Okay, maybe most of the work he had to do was not earth-shattering new jutsu but making sure he had all it took to begin leading a team, and most of the instruction focused on the right use of what he had, not the hoarding of techniques. Even his joy at possessing the Rasengan dented a little as with the lessons he realised the technique was slow if he had to rely on a clone, leaving him almost without his biggest ace.
Well, with the elemental training and chakra control, plus ridiculous amounts of practice, there was that. And that. But would they be enough?
His musing was disturbed by his sensei's arrival. Perhaps a sign of how much time he spent with the man, Naruto did not find himself too surprised he entered without ever opening the door; for all his tendency to be late, he highly effective way to get about if he needed to. Without a single word spoken, he took out an hourglass from one of his pockets, turned it upside down and placed it on a shelf before turning to the junior ninja.
"Kakashi sensei! Please tell us what is in store!" Maybe it was to the surprise of the other two members of Team Seven, but the one to interrupt Kakashi before he had a chance to get into the explanation of their task was not Naruto, but Lee, once more eager to get on with it. Looking at his master's rival with stars in his eyes an bursting with energy, he went ahead of himself.
The jounin ignored the genin much the same way as he occasionally dismissed Gai, but instead placed an expectant look on Naruto. The chuunin understood the gesture, and grabbed Lee by his shoulders, dragged him back.
"Sorry 'bout that, Eyebrows, but we're supposed to be serious now." He said with a shrug, not noticing Tenten's expression at the relative ease he dragged back an exuberant taijutsu user. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the chuunin, who then added. "And you shouldn't be doing that sort of thing, it undermines missions."
"Ah. I understand, Naruto-kun." Lee bowed in apology. Before Naruto could let up, he looked up, however, once more with fire in his eyes. "So then, Naruto-kun, what is my penance?"
"Your penance?" Naruto found himself looking to Kakashi. There was no help coming from him, he clearly dropped his wish to get on with the briefing, and watched him with an air of amusement. "Oh, you mean for the disturbance! I've done much worse than that, Eyebrows, don't swea-" He trailed off, watching the genin's face crumple with dissatisfaction, then reconsidered. "... on the other hand, a lesson couldn't hurt?"
"Yes, sir!" Lee sprung back up, visibly relieved.
"Well then I guess you have to do fifty..." he kept an eye on the genin's expressions, trying to make sense of what he could tell from the boy's body language " ...I mean fifteen hundred push-ups?" He finally finished, happy to see the genin's face relax as Lee broke into a set of blurred, incredibly fast push-ups right there on the floor.
Sensei was right. He could learn all the jutsu he wanted, but actually being a unit leader took more than that. He couldn't be selfish and go with how he wanted things - although barring the odd exceptions like Lee, he was damned if he was going to play the ridiculous commander thing up too much. Not even that bastard Sasuke deserved that, fun as the prospect was, and the joke would get old quick.
"Sorry sens-, er, I mean jounin. You were saying?" Naruto looked at his teacher, trying to sound certain in what he was doing.
"I was about to give you all congratulations on the training, and encourage you to take our first steps as commander, Naruto. I am glad to see you made the first one on your own." He indicated the hourglass on the shelf, a small heap of sand already gathering in the time Naruto has been dealing with Lee. "And since time is of the essence, let me brief you quickly, then you can get on with planning."
It has been but a few minutes later, and with everyone milling over the situation, Naruto found himself pacing with thought.
He knew what he had to achieve, and even a couple of ways of doing it. His own repertoire offered a few possibilities.
Rushing in with hundreds of clones could have have done the job, or, following the endless training and advice, demonstration and being chased around by a pack of ninja hounds for failed attempts, a summoning of his own came to mind. Thanks to his new training methods and a sense of scales involved, he was making progress, almost getting to a level where he could reliably summon toads large and experienced enough to be of use in a fight - but the technique hung in a very tight balance. Overloading didn't work either, as he learned on a training session where he'd had enough, and channelled more of his regular chakra into a single technique than he's ever done before. The results were, well, mixed. He had in mind calling forth Gama and maybe trying to get him to let him ride around on him for a bit like Jiraiya, but that wasn't quite what he got – he toad that did arrive was a giant the size of Gamabunta who dropped his equally huge sasumata pole-arm and ruined a large section of the hedge, muttered a booming apology about his clumsiness and scared the hell out of Asuma and Shikamaru in the other corner of the field.
Relying on masses of clones, or if he could do it again, solving his problem with a few hundred tons of amphibian would have been fun, but Naruto was annoyed to realise it wasn't really the right way of doing it. Winning was winning, but right now he was expected to show he was a chuunin, that he could lead, not just summon or make copies of himself.
He frowned, twiddled his thumbs, went back to planning. His opponent was a million times better at it, he knew well by now, and probably had him figured out. There were a few things he didn't know, and thanks to Sensei Naruto kept quiet about them, but when it came down to it he'd have to rely on the team he was commanding, just like the test demanded.
This was not a one-on-one fight, but a team match and a battle of wits. Naruto hated to admit it, but that placed the advantage squarely with his enemy. So how could he be beaten? By leading his people better than Shikamaru did his. The individual abilities of the captain did not matter nearly as much as ability to handle people, the team and the job they were here to do.
The mission was simple enough; after Hinata's quietly muttered but persistent and surprisingly effective insistence he's read some of the Academy's required material, he recognised it as a textbook case. One team was to carry a familiar looking scroll through the Forest of Death, from an entry point unknown to the other team, to a known destination. The other team was to prevent that, to find and hunt down the couriers, or deny them passage for long enough a time.
And sadly, the decision who was which team was not up to luck, but a simple decision of the jounin and Granny wanting to see how the new chuunin would act out of their element.
Had they been the hunter team, Naruto could have relied on Hinata to spot enemies and have Team Seven, aided by Lee and Tenten take them down. Instead, now it was up to him to get the team and the scroll through. Preferably without engagements, because the guy in charge of the enemy team would have twenty different plans for that.
Naruto groaned, turned in his pacing and finally spoke up towards the team. He knew it would take a lot of planning, and it did not take much to realise that endless lessons from Sensei or no, he'd be an even bigger idiot than people thought he was if he didn't rely on his team for ideas. He had to get them started, but... there was a familiar feel to the apprehension, a fear of things going wrong mixed with giddiness that he knew, but couldn't quite remember from where.
Still, it did not fit a Chuunin to fear facing a mission, now, did it?
"He's got time to prepare, and he knows where we are going, so we can't just sneak by. If his team catches ours, we'll be in a bad spot. Anyone feeling bright?"
"Fight them and show them our youthful vigo-" Lee being the first to speak up once more was hardly surprising.
"We could just run for it." Tenten suggested, and Naruto counted himself lucky not to see Lee's expression, busy pinning a map of the forest to the wall. "Get around them, and away without needing to fight at all."
Only paying half-attention to a back-and-forth that seemed almost routine, Naruto had a moment to think. Leadership, he was discovering, was a lot more complicated than the images that rushed to his head while trying on his flak vest for the first time. He remembered when he was the one to leave people, say, Kakashi-sensei with a shaking head by being excited, rushing into things like it was last month. Because it was last month. And damn it, he still wanted to just the same, but he had to get this right.
The last few weeks might as well have been an excerpt from some of the more modest fantasies Hinata has entertained over the years. They had been training together, he was determined to help her master the Shadow Clone technique, and perhaps more importantly, he seemed to enjoy her company almost as much as she did his. She could almost forget about her shortcomings, like the things she still wasn't ready to ask or say, or the time she fainted after a draining session and his offer to have some ramen together. But missteps like that aside, the past month has been one of the happiest she ever recalled.
Yet as she knew all too well, a blissful time like that couldn't last forever. Before she knew it the final days were up, and now here she was, lucky to just be on the same team as him. But she did not waste that precious gift of being at his side, even on borrowed time. They trained, really trained as hard as they could to make themselves and each other stronger, and she could feel that she was making the next steps ahead, faster than before, reforging herself both in body and spirit.
Sparring with Naruto-kun, someone so close to her heart without any of the negativity or the feeling of walls closing in on her made all the difference in the world. After their sessions, even as inevitably her stamina would give before he really started tiring himself out, for a wonderful few brief moments she felt like there was nothing in the world she couldn't do.
As she watched him take charge now, like always she admired the way his sheer energy lit the room and took hold of the entire discussion, more focused than she's ever seen him before, but she didn't stop at just that. She too needed to take hold, and if things went well, ask him to continue on training together as their missions allowed. She was no stranger to determination, and a short term goal, seemingly simple for anyone not as terrified of making a mess of things as she was,was just what she felt she needed.
But for now, she was simply enjoying the feeling of pride she took in Naruto as he commanded the planning, the grains of sand pouring down in the hourglass with their usual incredible speed at times like this.
In short, to others it might have seemed like Hinata was quietly observing like always, but now there was less of an inability to speak out, and more a wish to just observe. And in all fairness, she also really, really did not want to involve herself with the current discussion between the other kunoichi present.
"...I am telling you" Sakura-san seemed to have shed some of her usual manners, as well as most signs of her fatigue as she continued her disagreement with Tenten. "They will see us that way. We could be spotted, in which case we either go back to the forest anyway, or are stuck between the trees and the fence."
"It may sound risky, but you don't know how most people think. The mission is to take the scroll through the forest, so that is what they will be guarding." Confident, Tenten turned to her teammate. "Lee, remember that mission to Iwa, for that mining company? They never expected us to find another way in there either, even though they were shinobi, more experienced than any of us here."
"Yes! That day Gai-sensei truly demonstrated that a true warrior not just mighty, but indeed also wise!" Talk of evasion dampened Lee's spirits visibly, but all it took was a reminder of a lesson by his mentor to have him fired up again. Naruto, for his part, listened, more serious than Hinata has ever recalled him, with an air about him almost reminiscent of Kurenai-sensei when she briefed Team Eight on missions. Feeling the dreaded blush come up, Hinata again had to stop herself from slipping off into a fantasy of going on missions with just the two of them. That'd be worth every bit of making herself at ease with confrontation or combat... but right now she had better, or at least more immediately important things to worry about.
"My point is that people get a task, and they focus on it so much that the obvious gets by them. So what do they do? The place is too large and the groups are too small to effectively patrol it, so they will try to prepare traps for us to avoid and as we go, end up in some big ambush. We should just get around by the perimeter. They either won't think to defend it or will have to prioritize the other areas and it will be the easiest to breach." Tenten smiled with satisfaction at a successful lecture directed at the younger genin.
The pink haired kunoichi's reply about Shikamaru expecting their move flew by Hinata's ears as she thought about the forest. She had long fought to shed, or at least control her meekness, but her efforts have always been dampened by a crippling fear of being seen as arrogant. Yet, she had to admit, she'd have to step forth now, because while all these people were excellent combatants, just like she wanted to be, they did not get the gruelling training on the poisons and the ways in which a good scout team could take advantage of their environment to take care of enemies for them.
"So, they will have the forest trapped, and likely expect us to get around, then?" Naruto summed up, stepping in while Sakura and Tenten caught their breath. "Maybe we would just dig our way under- ahaha, sorry, just kidding." He laughed, shooing away the two outspoken kunoichi's brief truce as they both glared at him, probably contemplating where insubordination began. "If he would expect us to go around, wouldn't it be a better idea to brave the traps after all?" He added, again more seriously, and Hinata, nervously twiddling her fingers, knew it was time for her to come in.
"Um, I don't think that would be such a good idea, Naruto-kun." She offered hesitantly, finally breaking her silence. "M-my team used traps in the second phase of the exams, and I think the other team might be using similar ones now. It was Shino's idea and Kiba set up most of it, so they will definitely suggest using them, I think. The traps we used had giant leeches... um, i-it would be very bad if anyone got caught in them." She shuddered. The memory of the traps, and far more seeing them in action, came with some nasty recollections.
"If we go that route, can you spot them?" Instinctively, perhaps getting more into the leadership role, Naruto felt like he had to cheer her up. Sometimes, he thought he had Hinata figured out, he could just look into her eyes and feel like he had an understanding of something, but on other occasions like now, she was every bit as much the dark, weird and incomprehensible person who offered to helped him in the Exams, who cheered him up with just the right words when it came to his fight with Neji. Even more weird was, he considered, that he didn't really mind that. It was fun, as was watching her brighten up when he spoke.
"I think so." She still pushed her fingers together, still quiet, but clearer than anyone who shared a class with her at the Academy remembered.
"Good. I'll be counting on you, Hinata!" Naruto announced with a grin that made Hinata blush, inspired two raised eyebrows from Sakura and Tenten and fanned Lee's Flames of Youth with assurance that his leader was one who knew the importance of camaraderie.
Then the moment passed and the disagreement re-surfaced, with Naruto's attention diverted for a bit.
"It'd still be better to get around in a way they didn't think of." Tenten's tone was patient but still sure of itself. "Or even if they did, one they would have to prioritize lower than any other routes we'd take. Think up all the plans you want, but making them happen is a different story, there's bound to be mistakes to exploit. Even if Neji warns him, he'd still need to prepare the paths and set up choke points." She turned around, facing the sole silent member of the team. "And speaking of Neji, I was under the impression that you were the best genin of your year. Neji would have come up with something by now, so you better stop brooding and say something too, Uchiha!"
Not even Sakura voiced an immediate reply. Still sitting all but motionless, Sasuke stared down the weapon user.
"I agree with Lee." He finally said. "If a confrontation is inevitable, let us fight and beat them. After we have eliminated the enemy, we can proceed unopposed."
"Sasuke-san! I knew that even you had the Flames of Youth in your heart! I will challenge you to a celebratory duel once this trial is done!" Lee's happy declaration finally broke Sasuke's stone face, with the smallest hint of a smile.
The tension gone with Lee and the girls again at it, Naruto couldn't help but have enjoy himself. Trying to fish out useful ideas, being in the middle of it all, trying to keep the talk going and on topic (well okay, that part was less fun), towards a solution was a bit alien to Naruto by nature, but he had to admit they'd need it.
He was not by any means a tactician, no matter how many lessons Kakashi-sensei gave him, nor would he ever become that. But being here in company, trying to figure out how to solve a problem together, debating ideas, negotiating between people and making sure they work alongside one another, there was a fulfilment in that that he hasn't really felt before, not with his team under Kakashi-sensei, not even when it was just him and someone else getting along. Those were personal experiences, something to treasure for himself, but now he was feeling a common purpose take them all in. This was something fun!
That simple joy also connected what this planning felt like. It had more people, more ideas flying about, but the same anticipation, the same energy and tension in the room as he felt when he was thinking up a way of sneaking past seasoned veterans and pulling off some prank that would have half the ANBU chase him around for hours afterwards. And if he could do that, he could pull a trick under the nose of one of his fellow rookies, never mind the rank, never mind the brains.
Just like that time he managed to get itching powder in the visiting Feudal Lord's kimono, it was all about diversion, timing and giving the enemy precisely what he wanted.
"Guys? I think I got it." He was sure, and instinctively made use of the lectures on a commander's tone an behaviour. The argument subsided as they all looked at him, with even Kakashi-sensei showing curiosity. For a fraction of a moment he savoured it, then continued with his explanation. "Shikamaru has probably thought up a bunch of ways how to use his team to take us out, right? He will get us to fight his team whatever we do. And whichever way we go, he probably has a plan for it. So let's give him what he wants!"
Naruto resumed his pace, followed by everyone's gaze, with new energy and excitement.
"But we'll do it our way. We'll split up. One group will go the long way around, by the fence..."
"They will notice them!" Sakura burst out.
"Yep, they sure will!" Naruto nodded in agreement, turning sharply with energy. " You can probably come up with something real smart and fool seasoned people, I mean that's what I did when I got past the- ahem. I mean it can work sometimes, but not against a guy like Shikamaru. We'll need to work out a signal of some sort, but it will work!" Naruto's glee was visible even on his back as he made his next pass. "We've had some spars, and I'm pretty sure by now Shikamaru knows how I fight better than I do. He will expect a trick at first. He can't not send someone, but he will have to keep his best shot for later. And that's why we gotta time it right. "
He didn't need to get anyone's attention as he made his next turn in the shed, practically wearing out the floor.
"'Cause that tells the other team to dash for it the other way around! It's not like that game he showed me, it's not turns but a bunch of stuff happening all at once, jumbled up! If we can get him to split up his own team too we beat him, and if he doesn't, at least one team will make it through." He rubbed his hands with anticipation, staring at the map. "And if he just goes half and half, I got an idea a the third team too!"
Naruto observed the following silence and four suspicious pairs of eyes looking at him. Hinata also seemed busy with that odd smile of hers that came out rarely during their spars, but at least that was something nice. As for the rest, he tried a small dressing down.
"Hey, don't look at me like that! Do you know how much Kakashi-sensei drilled me on the whole tactics thing? I still think it's stupid and you should just go in and smack the bad guys in the face, but I can do it, so there!"
Through some effort he prevented himself from sticking his tongue out at them. He was an officer now; there were things that were just not done.
"And how do we get the scroll to the other side?" Sakura, the most academically iclined in the group was the first to recover from the surprise and speak out, happier to think about the plan than speculate what the hell sort of training he must have gotten from Sensei. "There's only one, and you're splitting us up, so one team does have to be the key, right?"
An evil expression crept across Naruto's face.
"Oho, you see, that is where my genius lies."
It was at this point that a brief telepathic link established itself between Sasuke and Sakura.
There could have been a great many reasons for this. A few months of being on Team 7, the dangerous situations they have fought through together, and of course there was the matter of her very, very overt feelings for him as well as his grudging tolerance for her presence, admission of her skills and occasional protectiveness of her. This, however had nothing to do with any of that.
The bond was more primal and shared not feelings or ideas, merely an understanding encapsulated in barely a word.
It went 'Uh-oh.'
Some time later.
The forest was almost never quiet. Despite the dangers offered by this one compared to most other local woods, here too the more ordinary sort of life was the majority by a long shot. Birds sung, all manner of small rodents scurried about and occasionally one or two was caught by a bird of prey. Bugs buzzed and some of the less natural and more nightmare-inducing creatures active at daytime made their own noises and calls that made you really wish you never heard them. Trees creaked in the wind, their leaves brushing against each other and so on; to an active listener the quiet of the forest might as well have been an orchestra.
If anything, the small band of humans invading into this segment of the forest distinguished themselves by being much too quiet. Their steps too light for it to be a mere trick of physics and anatomy, they were soundless as they messed around with bits of metal and paper that any animals will have learned by now never to approach, with the sole exception being calls of their own directed at each other.
"So what was it that you were saying on the meeting again? 'Ooh, they won't think we'll have the genius of 'going around', not at all! It doesn't matter if I had a teammate who could suggest the same idea, my suggestion is so clever I can barely believe it'. It's almost as good an idea as when I kept using the same obviously useless attack against an opponent with the perfect defense against it." Vitriol flew in the air, from a person much too smug for someone squatting and trying to be quiet.
Tenten was typically a tolerant, patient, sensible girl. She had to be on her team. But she quickly found that it may have increased her resistance to the type of energetic shenanigans of her sensei, Lee or Naruto, but it did little to make it easier dealing with the pink-haired kunoichi's barbs for the last half hour. Not only did she have no clue what she did to earn her enmity, but she found her own patience slowly draining away, not the best thing to happen to you while dismantling explosive traps.
The squad of disguised Narutos following them seemed to have developed a sense of tact, diplomacy or self-preservation at least, because they contended themselves with keeping watch and remaining uninvolved in the argument. Since it was their original's decision that landed the girls in the same unit, they felt the need to lay low, for all the practical sense it made.
"As I recall you too were completely outplayed in your preliminaries match and barely managed a mutual KO. And you know damn well what I meant when I suggested going around. Did we run into resistance while working? No, because this is the least protected area, just like I told you. No one said it would be easy." She hissed back, hoping to remind her greenhorn companion that this was the supposedly stealthy segment of their mission.
"'We could just run for it', remember? Try running for it and see if you still have your legs in five minutes." The girl pointed at the hastily hidden contraptions on the path and all around them.
"You know damn well what we are doing and you could run through the whole section no trouble. Provided you are not greener than the forest, of course, and could make the most basic stealth precautions. Like not stepping on that twig back there or smelling like a flower shop to try and impress Uchiha. The perimeter, like I said, was mostly clear, and if you didn't smell like that, we wouldn't have had to worry about the wind changing direction OR get into the forest deeper!"
Sakura went red with anger, and Tenten, to her shame, had to admit it was nice to make her sweat a bit. She showed senior genin some proper respect in her first year and saw precisely what happened to those who did not. By comparison, she was being gentle as a lamb. And she certainly had her own lecture from Gai-sensei about fineries when she got an idea to her head.
"I didn't actually step on it, you know that! And you are one to talk about stealth, you are the one who sneezed!" Persistent and annoying if nothing else, the pink haired genin kept at it, as if they had differences greater than just a minor disagreement over what to do in a mock mission.
"I was handling the powders for the tag!" Tenten had to stop her eye from twitching slightly. "Maybe if your Sensei taught you beyond the basic Academy explosive tag handling I wouldn't have to do that whole task alone!"
"Well the basics were enough for all the rest! And bringing Sensei into this, are you?" The Sakura girl seemed to fire up. "Well fine, I did not start that. Kakashi-sensei might not be perfect, but at least he's not a weirdo who wears that … thing yours does. Plus, he's far stronger." She added, with smug satisfaction in her voice.
"Nonsense." Tenten gave up and bickered right back. They were getting into territory that was objectively wrong, for all her master's faults. "Gai-sensei may be a bit, well, erratic, but he is strong without needing any special gifts. Plus he is a better teacher."
"Really now? What did he teach you that was so huge?" Sakura went for the kill, dreading the suspicion lurking in the back of her mind that Tenten might just ask this very same question any moment. It was better to be on the offensive, she decided. "You've been studying under him a year longer than Kakashi-sensei had us, and even Naruto beat Neji, and neither of them are anywhere near Sasuke-kun's level." That was better, she thought as she delivered the blow that would surely end the argument.
While the clone squad briefly considered whether that comment was insubordination, Tenten broke into a smug smile of her own.
"Oh, you want to see something huge I picked up from Gai-sensei, do you? It's about time we flare up the signal, and with that I can certainly indulge you."
A few terrifying minutes later.
"There, that should do it. We got a few minutes to get out, but hurry if you don't want your backside roasted." Tenten stated happily, the work all but having taken the anger of the previous conversation.
Sakura on the other hand was finding it much harder to let go of their earlier disagreement, albeit not for spite. The reason had more to do with a dawning fear, not unlike that which comes after the brief fun of poking a hornets' nest.
She was convinced that she has seen the most ridiculous display of explosive enthusiasm for things that go 'boom' the day Sasuke-kun left the hospital and Naruto was promoted, but now she realised an update was in order. She still had her bone to pick with the tool user kunoichi and would not let a display like that thwart her ambitions of showing Tenten who she was messing with, but she did find herself intimidated. The warm, fulfilled and almost trance-like happiness on her face as Tenten worked away and primed exploding tag after exploding tag, all placed in some formation that she claimed would yield the best effectiveness possible, even going as far as manually overloading a few of them was some frightening stuff.
"Are you really sure we'll need it? I'm pretty certain all Naruto wanted was to have us set off a few traps to get the other team's attention and signal. I, uh, get it, Gai-sensei sure taught you something dangerous, but isn't that too dangerous? We could always try just sneaking around like you said, right?" She tried a sociable little laugh to ease the tension of her senior. She was reminded of Kurenai-sensei's lessons of making your move only you've correctly read your opponent, and realised the way she may have made a mistake or two in how she approached the kunoichi.
Tenten shrugged happily as the two of them set off as hastily as stealth allowed.
"Sure, but that would not be as much fun. He did say we should disable any traps we find and use them up. I'm taking some liberties with interpretation, but will you snitch on me about that? Didn't think so. And it's not my fault the guys who put these down did such a sloppy job of it and used too many. The least they deserve is a nice wake-up call made of their own stuff."
"I'm pretty sure you used up our supply as well, not just what we picked up." Slighly shaky in voice, Sakura couldn't resist talking back. At this point, did it make any difference? "And wouldn't it have been better to just use them to set up an ambush? This is just wasteful."
"Explosions are never wasteful! Besides they will be expecting an ambush, so they will be keeping an eye on everything, jumping at every noise. I get the full psychological benefit of an ambush without having to set one up, AND I get to have some neat fireworks."
With a final leap they made it out of Sakura's best estimation of the blast radius. Besides having to worry about the wind, the small incursion into the forest proper let them make sure they did not accidentally blast the fence wide open as well as allowed Tenten to gather up more of the explosive type of traps their foes set. With quiet terror, Sakura was just happy Hinata quickly briefed them on the specifics of the nastier traps using... live ammunition, and how best to spot them. Thanks to a few close calls not even Tenten proved crazy enough to touch those - it's hardly as if they could add much of what she was looking for.
The final product would be quite something, Sakura had to admit. Would they get into trouble if they accidentally started a forest fire? It was probably too late to worry.
Tenten focused on the countdown under her breath and dropped their discussion, awaiting the explosion with gusto.
Sakura sought some cover behind a tree.
"…Aaand here we go! On three!"
"Two!"
"One!"
…
…
…
Sakura opened one eye.
"What's going on? Did you mess the timing up?"
"I don't make those sorts of mistakes." Tenten looked annoyed.
"Indeed. I can confirm that the charge was set up perfectly in the explosive tag formation."
The voice came from within a nearby tree trunk, its cracks now pouring out a swarm of bugs and a so far hidden occupant stepped out from a hollow, dusting himself off lightly.
"The detonation you have been expecting did not occur. Why? Because my allies could disable the tags and the chakra therein with ease. It was clear that such a signal was important for your plan of action, therefore its foiling desirable for our success."
Sakura was certain she did not blink. There did not seem to be any real transition between her temporary teammate anticipating the explosion with joy and the furious hurling of kunai, pins, shuriken, a sword or two, several scythes and a number of items she couldn't identify at the enemy, who after the first few impacts exploded into a small swarm again.
She could feel a few fragments of the tree she was leaning against a fraction of a second ago hit her as a swirling mess of human and canine slammed into it. More than ever she was grateful to Kurenai-sensei's alertness training and, she had to admit, for Gai-sensei's slave-driving during training sessions. She tried throwing a small incapacitating gas bomb at her attackers (Tenten had confiscated anything she had for the big boom that never happened) and swung to the side, kunai at hand.
Tenten was still emptying her shuriken holster at her foe who was now dancing around the vertical rain of metal, shooting back some of his own and trying to send his insect army around the kunoichi's defences.
Perhaps it was the best teamwork they could do at the moment, both girls considered, to split up. Tenten drove her opponent, guiding steps with ranged weaponry away from the other fight.
"You messed up my explosion! Do you know how hard it is to set one that size up properly?" If anything, Tenten was glad she could finally unload on someone.
"I do not. I can however estimate it as somewhat less difficult than attempting to fortify an entire forest. Finding the fruits of one's labour circumvented and disabled is a source of irritation that you might not have considered." The cool of Aburame Shino was undisturbed despite the battle and a continuous series of dodges, betraying nary a hint of emotion.
"Estimate THIS!" Tenten stopped with her ranged assault and moved in closer, a morningstar in one hand and a small dagger in another. She swung hard at the insect user, but he dodged out of the heavy mace's way and let it embed itself into the tree he stood on, barely managing to parry her dagger with a kunai as he hopped away. Swearing, Tenten abandoned the heavy weapon and threw the dagger after the Aburame in vain, if only to buy time and summon her best pole arm from its scroll.
She was in a tough spot and no mistake. The sudden rush to melee range, relying on a surprise factor was now gone and he was holding his own ranged. Not only was it devilishly difficult to hit him, every time she thought she's finally done it the body turned out to be a decoy formed by bugs, and every time she paid dearly for the mistake. Yet move in closer again, and he has a far easier time setting those bugs on her, and however she seemed to move, he was ready, turning her own movements against her. She could smell Gai-sensei's handiwork there, rough and unfinished, but present - but very different to how he moved at range. That discrepancy was a crack in his exoskeleton, and she hoped she go just the right tool to work it.
Naruto's clones moved in against Shino, figuring they would have more of a chance against someone focusing on range over a close combat specialist. Attempting to flank the constantly moving insect user was hard, however, with Tenten's onslaught resulting in plenty of stray weapons. To boot, she did not take well to their imposition.
"What are you doing? I can handle myself fine, go help Haruno! This fight is mine!" She did not seem particularly reasonable or receptive to commands in the midst of battle, and sharing a look and a sigh, the clones decided to let her have the fight.
That left Kiba. Akamaru and he, both in a familiar, feral human form, had Sakura on the defensive in a small clearing they've just de-trapped, she was backing away slowly but surely. Dodging their continuous attacks took much out of her, she was already panting slightly, using the clones' arrival and pelting of the dog user with shuriken to withdraw to a safer distance.
To gain a free breath or two and a moment to think, she engaged her enemy in conversation, recalling how even Naruto could get Kiba to take a break for a small gloat, hopefully revealing some useful information.
"So, Shino is busy with whatshername and you still attack me, even with backup? That's unusually stupid even for you, Kiba. Do you think you can last until your reinforcements get here?" She made her first venture, careful to hide her panting, trying to get the light shining in from the edge of the forest behind her back.
Two gruff humanoids exchanged a look. The one on the right shrugged, the other laughed briefly and spoke.
"What makes you think they are not here already, enjoying the show? And for the record, Naruto's transformations are useless if they all smell of instant ramen. If the real Naruto was here among them he'd have charged in already, so that means all we have to deal with is just you, that Tenten girl, and a few easily taken clones."
The two of them locked eyes. Sakura readied her shuriken holster, and was now glad she spent all that time trying to improve her skills. For all her disagreement of his pupil, under Gai-sensei's physical tutelage whenever she was not working with Kurenai-sensei she hasn't had a night over the past month that she didn't collapse into her bed dead tired, but she was very much feeling the results now.
Still, she was under no illusion as to who had the advantage here. Kiba got the same training from Gai and more of it, was faster than her, hit harder, had aptitude for sensory techniques and doubtless some clan secrets too.
The other Kiba on all fours fixed his eyes on her, much too comfortable in the position than any human ought to be. With the distance between the enemy duo, she knew the moment she tried an attack, she'd be rushed from two different angles. Not good. The way Tenten disappeared behind the trees, there'd be no help from there either.
Sakura bit her lip slightly and tried to assess the situation. Would the Narutos around the clearing make the difference of even just Akamaru? She was unsure. The chuunin of Team Seven has clearly gotten better, which reflected in his clones, but they were just clones. How about getting the clones to keep Kiba busy while she takes care of his help? If she did some damage to Akamaru while Kiba was busy, all she'd achieve would be a bruise or wound and a guilty conscience for having kicked a puppy regardless of form, but if the enemy hit a clone hard enough it would dissipate and the group would be deprived of its strength for the rest of the mission.
"Get back! Find Tenten, give her support!" She yelled at the Narutos, considering the chances of having just confirmed Kiba's suspicions on the rest of the team being clones. It didn't matter, she had an idea. "I can take care of you two no problem."
"But Tenten said-" They chorused.
"I don't care what she said, you lot are useless here! Do I have to do all the thinking? Go see if you can salvage some explosives from the pile or other traps!" Perhaps it was that they weren't real, or the chuunin tactical training had them agree with her, but reluctantly the clones withdrew, back to the forest.
She broke the sentence abruptly, hoping that brought her a fraction a second and bolted to her right, she too backing towards the cover of trees. Kiba and Akamaru moved in synch as they leapt after her, meeting in mid-air and launching themselves in that odd way again, speeding up and going after her, slamming right into a tree trunk a half second behind her.
She kept an eye on them as Kiba and Akamaru disentangled themselves. They too were panting heavily, with one Kiba passing on a soldier pill to the other, which in an absurd way cheered Sakura on. She was facing a fellow genin without skills or reserves far out of her league, not a living legend, a Kage-level monster out to get Sasuke, or a bloodthirsty living weapon of the Sand possessed by a demon. It was human against human now.
Well, it was a lightly built girl who was beginning to study illusions but did not have any actual skills to show for it yet, against a heavier and taller boy focusing on physical combat who had more specialised training and his combat dog on his side. Those still were the best odds she's ever had in a fight so far, discounting the one against Ino.
The question was, with the roughly similar levels of skill whether she'd get too tired to evade, or he too tired to attack.
She made sure to be just slow, just predictable enough to keep Kiba's interest on her – and when he moved in to intercept her predictable moves, he was easy to predict too. An idea was forming in the back of her mind, but she had to do it right.
The cat-and-mouse game seemed to be working. Focusing on their movements, she could spot the odd hint as to which of her foes was which. The man-beast mimicry was flawlessly executed, but the way they moved, if you looked at them keenly enough did reveal which was the real humanoid. Kiba made more human expressions, and even when on all fours, had a small preference for his legs, using his hands more to coordinate, less to carry his weight. Akamaru on the other hand still moved, when you stripped away the surface and the obvious training, still like a dog in human form. Kiba was partial to punching and kicking, generally leading the attack, and Akamaru would follow with a leaping tackle she found harder and harder to avoid, needing to resort to more and more risky tricks to get away.
But as the three of them danced their little dance, she felt better than in any other fight before. It was just her and the enemy. She was not playing the guard at the ready, not relying on her sensei or teammates, but doing something of her own. She's made great declarations of determination and hard work before, and meant every word of them. But now, for the first time, she really felt like a shinobi, in charge of the fight and bearing the full brunt of it.
She decided she liked it.
She never really had a good sense of rhythm, but keeping an eye on who was who, she was slowly putting together the attack pattern. Maybe it was something rooted in how ninja dogs are trained, maybe it was simply an advanced set of strikes Kiba and Akamaru hadn't yet mastered enough to put in their own variations, but there was a certain repetition to it.
Sakura dropped the taunting act, and let the combat flow naturally, trying to puzzle it together.
One, Kiba punched, direct, fast, two she dodged, three Kiba made a feint, four, Akamaru tackled where she'd be if she avoided that attack.
She took Kiba's feint hit and parried, scampered away, a large rock next to her enduring the impact of man and dog.
One, Kiba kicked, direct, fast, two, she did a pirouette to the side, three Kiba went for a follow-up but missed, four, Akamaru moved to tackle, five, Sakura smacked him on the ear. And felt bad afterwards, until their special clan technique almost hit her.
One Kiba punched her, two she caught his fist, three he had no room to fight, four Akamaru closed in, five she kneed Kiba in the groin. Then she used his distraction and Akamaru's concern for his master to get away again and barely avoided their whirling attack and they threw themselves at her angrily as soon as she was clear of immediate cover.
The pattern went on and on. She grew tired, needed every advantage and the positioning of the sun, was taking more hits than the other two, but she was drawing them away and angering them. To their credit they were drilled well, despite their anger they did not depart from a tactic that seemed to be working. Their formation was good. They adapted to her using the trees as cover, avoided most of her own attacks, never separated from each other, kept in synch perfectly. With the way things were going, she felt she better finish this as soon as possible, or she might just drop from sheer exhaustion.
She spun around the last barrage of attacks and got away with just a small nick on her arm, and prepared to make her move. With as fast a dash as she dared she lured him to the right place, and prepared her weapon.
And there Kiba came, sticking with his method. He opened with a fast forward punch and Sakura knocked his arm away with some difficulty. She was not moving away, so his follow up was strong and he put his whole weight into it, moved his entire torso and body accordingly – the momentum of his head adding to the force of impact as Sakura smashed her bottle of perfume she smuggled into her other hand right into the middle of his face, with the glass breaking on his nose. He swore and tried to get the shards of glass, the incense and alcohol out of his eye and nose.
As he broke out in a furious scream she controlled her chakra as well as she could, straining her remaining reserves and leapt over him, surprising the still advancing Akamaru from above, landing on him hard, kicked him in the nose as hard as she could and bounced off. Wheezing tired, she considered just leaving the two there, but knew better; the question was only what she could do, having expended herself this much.
Akamaru could now barely keep up the transformation and his whimper and whine did little to make Sakura feel better about what she just did. Watching Kiba roll around wasn't exactly fun either, but she reminded herself that it was not her who opened the fight with the big techniques.
"Argh, my nose! And Akamaru! That's it, bitch, you're going down!." He grit his teeth and pulled his smashed nose back into a proper alignment. He spit some blood on the ground. He knew it would have been a better idea to let go of the fight, but that was the one thing an Izunuka never did.
His head was spinning, his eyes still teary, all he could smell was blood and the perfume, and looking at what she did to Akamaru made Kiba want nothing more than to pummel Sakura into a pink stain on the tree she was clinging to. He may have been badly, but the fight worn her out too. She clung to the tree with kunai, not chakra, she was bleeding and had some nasty bruises from earlier on, and looked she would pass out any second now.
Kiba wasn't gonna let that happen, he was not winning this by default after this. Nobody hurt Akamaru without getting some heavy ass-kicking right back.
He whistled sharply and Akamaru perked up. He may have been still wearing Kiba's features, but to the genin he would always be just Akamaru, whatever the form. The dog looked at him, then Sakura, and gave a short growl of determination.
They assumed the starting position, synched their movements and built up the chakra for the rush.
They tensed their bodies and locked their eyes on the victim.
She was squirming and tried to move, but couldn't will her shaking legs to jump, her injured arm to get her out of harm's way.
"Gatsuga!"
The world became a spinning blur. Losing the sense of smell to guide them was disorienting, but the stationary target was still about to learn her lesson and get a few weeks in the hospital for her trouble.
Like an arrow they shot through the air, and Kiba caught just a short flicker of her panicking face as they finally hit her.
And they cleaved right through the illusory body of a bunshin, lightly scraping the tree as they continued their flight unopposed, over the fence of the Forest of Death, unable to stop themselves.
With Kiba's control lost, the technique undid itself and as he fell, he could just about make out the figure of the real Sakura hiding against the trunk. He's been stumped by one of the most basic techniques the Academy offered, the Clone Jutsu.
"Haha! Take that!" Sakura yelled with some satisfaction. If she could choose what the first victory she earned on her own would be, the first choice would not be a ring-out against a fellow Leaf genin, but she happily took what she could get. "Uh, tell Akamaru I'm sorry about his nose! And your face too!"
She hopped away, leaving Kiba to lick his wounds, now safely outside the test.
For the moment Tenten was making a push forward.
She turned a slash against her opponent's legs he barely jumped over into an eight-figure strike that would have finished the fight against anyone else, but once more she was surprised by the uses the boy had for his allies, he shot a small swarm of bugs out of his arm at great speeds, using them to launch himself backwards.
Tenten had to jump to the side or meet the swarm, which in turn would have finished the fight in Aburame's favour. Landing with a roll she ran forward again, knowing the moment she started playing on the defensive she'd lose this.
Strike after strike he either evaded or made her abandon her attack, he was unlike most other opponents Teten has ever faced. Sometimes people would be cool, arrogant or simply professional, but they tended to let on more as they fought, either with the style or moves they chose, gloating or through their expressions during a fight.
This guy, Tenten realised, possessed a poker face that would have Neji completely beaten and humiliated. The style of his fighting betrayed little about him besides the fact that he was indeed an Aburame, and by the looks of it, inventive. The most personal thing she could spot were some very well polished, shined and maintained sunglasses, which made it even harder to guess where he was looking or what he was thinking.
He may not have had the sensory capacities of Neji, but his insects must have fed him some information on his surroundings. He had no trouble constantly facing her and running or hopping from branch to branch backwards. And thinking of the braches, Tenten made a gambit. She swung the polearm in her hand down with some force, hoping to cut through the thick bough Aburame was standing on, messing with his balance just enough to get in a strike. It was a partial success. He gave a surprised almost-yelp as he suddenly fell down, but quickly drew a kunai and stuck it into a tree, controlling his descent enough to turn it into a run down on its trunk.
With a small sigh Tenten followed. At least she broke his continuous stare at her, which was beginning to get creepy. Tactically sound and understandable, but creepy nonetheless.
Tenten too ran down the trunk, taking care to remain on the other side. She sacrificed some speed but made sure she was as quiet as possible as she got down and went around to flank him.
She was not hugely surprised to find him facing her, already throwing shuriken at where she'd emerge; her attention was more claimed by a small detail. Shino was reabsorbing some of the swarms he let fly earlier. Maybe they could not tolerate too long a time out of his body, maybe he had a limited capacity to coordinate them outside of direct contact with his chakra, perhaps earlier on he used too many of them and was now reabsorbing some to make sure he would always have enough to fall back on.
Another bit of info about the Aburame: until he was in a position that it suited him, he was not one to let his enemy think through the situation. He sensed Tenten's slowing down and immediately pushed, hoping to gain back the offensive advantage and drive her out of the range where she could be dangerous.
He risked injury and went in for the close range. Unaccustomed to melee combat, he still delivered a solid punch and a straight kick, then tried to wrestle away her pole arm from Tenten. Once he had his hand on it he could set a few of his allies on it to reduce it to sawdust, and keeping up the pressure would allow him to deny her further opportunities to summon more weapons.
Unfortunately he quickly found out that a year under Jounin Gai does not tend to leave one easily outmatched physically. He almost got his hand on Tenten's weapon when she smacked him in the face with the haft, then spun around and delivered a full blow to his stomach with the blunt end.
Out of breath he staggered back and prepared another attack with his swarms, positioned his body to bolt away again, but suddenly relaxed, righted himself and put up his arms.
"You're giving up? Why?" Tenten asked panting, disbelief fuelled by adrenaline.
"Because my stamina is dangerously low, your last hit has injured one of my queens and your ally has returned, meaning Kiba has lost his bout." He pointed in one direction, and within seconds Sakura indeed emerged in the distance, with some bad bruises, wounded and out of breath, but with the self-satisfied grin of the victorious. "The clones that you have sent away are also returning, therefore I conclude that the probability of victory at this point is insufficiently high for me to continue the fight, given the risks and the non-existent stakes involved in this exercise." He pointed in another direction and by the time Sakura joined them three Naruto clones appeared on the far side of the clearing as well.
"Well that's nice, but what do I do with you now? Hey Sakura, do you have any rope or cuffs on you? Uchiha seems the type to like that sort of thing, eh?" She asked, too tired to care if she angered the rookie.
Sakura went red enough to put Hinata to shame at first, then something cracked and she started laughing. Better than the nose bleed coming at the mental image and some of the ideas that came to mind. By the time the three Naruto clones, now in their normal form, got to Shino's side, the girls were laughing themselves and each other silly.
"Don't you dare try anything, y'know." A more alert clone warned Shino, and unused to the position of being the serious one, posed the question. "So it's good that you gave up and all, but what are we to do with you? I don't think it's a good idea to just knock someone out around here."
"If I might offer a suggestion, I would not bring up the subject of ropes and restraining items if our positions were reversed. It appears to be … inflammatory." The genin's observation was, as always, bone dry.
Fortunately Sakura managed to wipe away her tears of laughter, and chirp in lightly.
"Don't you worry, Shino, I think I got the solution as to what to do with you. But first let me see what equipment you have, seeing as you ruined our little signal. Suddenly I too feel like an explosion."
OMAKE:
Kiba finished dressing Akamaru's wounds and let him lie on his chest. One of the better effects of the human-beast mimicry technique was that much of the damage was absorbed by the chakra construct body, but the kunoichi landing on him, given their relative weight, and that direct hit on the poor dog's nose inflicted some serious wounds on the puppy. His own weren't too nice either, and the mimicry was far closer to his real form. They'd heal fairly quickly and simply, but for the moment they hurt like hell.
"Ouch. Well, seems like we're out of the game, Akamaru." He laid in the grass, absent-mindedly scratching the dog behind his ear. Akamaru whined sadly and licked his face. "You and me both, pal. Suppose we ought to report back, but frankly I don't much feel like it. I'll have Shikamaru's hide too. Every idiot knows you don't just split up your pack, you need to be a Naruto league idiot to do something like that."
Akamaru whined again. How a small dog was capable of whining with such a condescending tone was beyond Kiba, but there it was nevertheless.
"Okay, okay, I made the same mistake."
Akamaru whined once more.
"Right, and I didn't smell the scroll on them either. And Shikamaru was right about the first group being a distraction too. A painful distraction that's a huge annoyance to deal with, though." He laid back, Akamaru on his chest and wagging his tail.
He was just about to doze off (to be officially blamed on battle damage) when a shadow fell on him. Kiba opened one eye.
"Don't tell me they tricked you too to rush over the fence?"
"I will not. Why? Because that is not what happened." Shino's voice, to anyone who has known him for a long time, was ragged with exhaustion.
"So what was it?" Kiba asked, stifling his own yawn after Akamaru's. His… stoic friend had a habit of unwittingly putting his dog to sleep. Kiba supposed it must have been the tone.
"I surrendered." The Aburame admitted without beating around the bush. "It was the sensible thing to do. Might I join?"
"Plenty of grass around." Kiba would have shrugged if it wasn't painful.
"Thank you. Considering the situation, I would hold that reporting should be done as the units our chuunin created, and if replenishment is called for, the best course of action is to see to it we are in a state fit to face our superior." He fished around in the pockets of his coat. "Incidentally, would you like some rice cakes? My mother prepared some, but I never had the opportunity to offer them up to the group."
"One of them has a shuriken stuck in it."
"Indeed."
