-
-3 days later-
That night when he got home from finishing up his chakra controll exercises, he noticed that someone left a book on his table. An orange book. Groaning about weirdo's breaking into peoples homes and leaving shit, he went to toss the book out when he caught the title of it. Explosive notes and you, a beginners guide to seals. Opening the front cover he noticed somthing that shocked him, the book was Anko-sensei's. He then saw the peice of paper that fell to the ground, folded like a note. Willing the note to his hand, he sat down on his couch and read it.
'Naruto, I hope this book will be as much use to you as it has been to me. We are a infiltration and demolition squad, and as such, explosives are a part of our trade. Now, I'm only loaning this to you, as I do want my book back and if anything happens to it... well, you get the idea. Anko-sensei.
P.S. I'd copy the book if I were you'
"Well, shit. Why do I get the impression that life is about to become much harder? Oh well, at least now I won't have to pay for them. I suppose I should thank her tommarow before training begins." the blond thaught out loud to himself. He then proceded to read the book with barely contained excitement, copying things as he went.
-Nara clan compound-
Shikamaru sat under a tree, staring at the clouds as his dinner digested, though they didnt bring him the same joy they usualy did. Thinking on it, it was probably the note left for him by his sensei that was causing him to be dissatisfied with his gazing.
'Damn it! This isn't relaxing me at all. extra training, troublesome.' with those thaughts he got up and headed inside to get something to drink before going to bed early.
-Hyuga clan compound-
Hinata sat in one of the many hot-tubs that made up the bathing area of her clans compound, deep in thaught. She was so deep in thaght that she didn't notice the branch member come in and leave a message on top of her clean clothes. After getting out of the bath, she went to put on her clothes and saw the note, Picking it up she began to read it.
'Hinata, starting tommarow we will begin an increased training regimine. in the seal at the bottom of this is a scroll on poison making, I sugest you read it. Being as this is one of my personal scrolls, I do want it back eventualy, so copy it in your spare time. Anko-sensei.'
"Crap." she muttered as she walked down the hall to her room, intent on a full night of sleep. Before laying down for the night she removed the scroll and burnt the note.
-Day 1, 7:00 am-
Three heads could be seen standing outside the fence of training area 44, waiting for thier sensei to show. A cloud of purple smoke marked her arrival to the training ground. The instant the smoke disapated, her hands went into the ram seal, causing the three teens' leg weights to tripple in density, thus also in weight. "I want 50 laps around Konoha, you have two hours, now get going!" Groaning, they took off on their assigned task.
three hours and seven-teen minutes later, the three of them managed to make it back to the clearing outside their training ground. Anko hopped off the roof of the gaurd shack they use during the chunin examination and sent them a mocking grin, amusement shining brightly in her eyes. "Not fast enough you little shit stains, but thats alright, because your going to do it again after lunch!" she exclaimed happily. "Now, I want you guys to climb those trees over there, and if you do it fast enough, lunch is on me. Now get to it!"
With the thaught of free dango, since she knew her sensei would go to her favorite shop, Hinata whiped out a kunai and dashed at the tree at full speed. Not to be out done, Naruto did the same, not caring what he had for lunch, but more the fact that it was free. the lazy ass of the team wasn't as enthusiastic, but decided he'd rather do the exercize than have to run from his troublesome sensei.
The moment all of them hit the trees surface she began to half heartedly toss kunai at them, telling them that they needed to learn to mould their chakra even in the most hectic of situations. That, and the simple fact that she could. After half an hour of this Anko took a small amount of pity on them and decided to break for lunch.
After taking five minutes to catch their breath, the tree genin silently followed their sensei, too tired for conversation at the moment. When the group arived at the dango stand, they were imidiately shown to a booth. The three of them looked at each other and shrugged, writing it off as familiarity with their mentor. Colapsing into their seats at the counter by their sensei, team 8 ordered their dango.
"Ok brats, listen up. After this lunch of delicious dango, were going back to our training feild. Only this time were going inside the gates." The three genin gasped at this. "And by we, I mean you. It'll be a 24 hour survival test. Once you go in, you dont come out untill tomarrow at the same time. Save your questions for when we get back. Now, enjoy your lunch while you still can." The genin of team 8 colectively shivered and began to slowly eat thier dango, savouring each bite, because they somehow got the impression that what they've been put through for training so far was nothing but the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
After paying thier respective bills they headed back to their training ground, only to arive far to soon for their tastes. Naruto, always being the inquisitive person he is, decided to ask their sensei what they would be doing when they entered the restricted section of the grounds. The answer he recived was a grin, the kind that makes your skin crawl as your imagination runs wild.
"Why, survival training of course. After all, you never know what you may come up against in your careers as shinobi. Though I could have sworn I told you you'd be doing this not to long ago, Naru-chan. As I said, 24 hours in the forest of death, no leaving and no admitance to the tower. Now, get in there and I want to see you alive tomarrow."
Turning their backs to their sensei they made thier way to one of the gates and then jumped over it, landing softly before taking off at a decent pace. Once they were about a hundred yards or so into the forest they stopped to take a small breather and do a quick equipment check.
"Man, this sucks, and here I thaught dodging kunai while tree climbing sucked, but no, she's got to make us spend the night in this creepy hell hole. What. A. Fuckin'. Drag." Bitched the Nara teen as the other two shook their heads in silent agreement. "First things first though I guess. We need a camp, preferably one we can fend off all of who knows what that lives in here that may try to eat us or whatever. After that, dinner and gaurd rotations. Hinata, scan for a place to make camp, please."
Activating her byakugan, she pointed to a small depresion in a clearing about 700 yards away. "Found one, its a depresion, we could make it look like a boulder to avoid detection." Nodding thier heads in agreement, the three of them quickly made thier way to the chosen spot.
-outside the fence-
Anko was laughing as she watched her genin scurry off to try and a good hiding spot. sighing when she was done, she began to turn around when she felt a familiar prescence land not that far away.
"Training or torture?" the voice asked as it dodged a half-hertedly thrown kunai.
"Torture of course. They're not ready for training yet, maybe a in a few years though..." she responded with a perverted grin. All this got her was a snort followed quickly by a few giggles. "So, Kurenai-chan, we still going out on the town tonight?"
"Unless you can think of something better, yea." nodding her acceptance, Anko started walking back twords town, chatting with her long time friend. "So, you going to let them know you left?"
"Nope, they're big kids, they can handle themselves."
-team 8-
The three teens landed in the clearing and began taking it in. The first thing they noticed was that it was quiet. Too quiet. No bugs, no birds, no animals, nothing. And it was starting to creep them out. shrugging it off for the moment, they began to set up a trap perimiter and the 3 person dome tent. Once done, they sat down to wait till they were allowed out.
As they were quietly chatting amongst them selves, a dark shape moved about just inside the tree line, watching. Its slender, feline-esqe body, gliding through the foliage as it circled the unaware genin. As it crept closer to the group it could almost taste its soon to be 3-course meal. Just as it was about to leap into the clearing it tripped a thin, nearly invisible wire, releasing a kunai directly into its skull.
Hearing the trap trip, Hinata activated her byakugan and saw a tiger the size of a horse with a kunai burried in its skull, right between the eyes. Releasing a breath she didn't know she held, she told them what she saw.
After several hours of traps slowly going off they decided that a night gaurd would be a good idea, aside from it being standard procedure. Drawing lots, it was decided that Hinata would take first watch.
-day 2-
Breakfast was a quiet affair, since nobody wanted to atract the resident creatures. Though they did realize that would be imposible since their verry presence was doing exactly that. After breakfast they broke the campsite down and decided to train a bit on their chakra control, though shikamaru bitched about it the entire time.
Several hours of chakra training later, it was decided that next would be taijutsu. To acomplish this they had a three way spar, of which Hinata won due to closing vital tenketsu on both of naruto's and shikamarus arms and hips, causing them to be as effective in fighting as a wet noodle. She then unsealed the tnketsu points, a process much more painfull then closing them. They then decided to take a break.
"So, Naruto-kun," Hinata started "I heard you ran into Ino the other day. how'd that go?"
"Painfully. I literaly ran into her. She has a prety hard head. Why do you ask?" Shikamaru started to snicker as Naruto finished replying to Hinata's question. "What's so funny?" the blonde asked.
"Man, you got a hard head too Naruto. I'm surprised neither of you knocked the other out. Thats just too funny."
"Screw you yiou lazy bastard." The two boys heard small giggles coming from hinata and sent rather half-hearted glares at her, causing her to giggle more.
"You two done gossiping yet? 'Cause ya know, this place is full of deadly stuff and I realy dont feel like being a snack." Hinata said as the two boys gave her a mock salute. Rolling her eyes she told them to get to work on their ninjutsu. About an hour later they decided it was about the time that they entered and began to head back twords the fence seperating the forest of death from the rest of the world.
Naruto pulled out the book on explosive notes and began to read as they walked, doing an uncany impersonation of kahonas copy nin. 45 minutes or so later they hopped over the fence and was greeted by the sight of their grinning sensei.
"So, ya have fun last night brats?" She asked, causing the three genin to grimace. "Ah, so you did have fun! I knew ya would!" Anko exclaimed cheerfully. "So, dango sound good? You can tell me all about your camping trip while we eat. Come on." She then bagan to lead them to her favorite dango shop. when the arived at the shop they proceded to order copius amounts of dango, though most of it was for Hinata and Anko. They then proceded to give their 'report' to their sensei. Everything from arival to the horse sized tiger-esque creature, all the way up till the point that they exited the forest that they hoped to never see again. Anko then informed them that today they were going to work on genjutsu, causing Naruto to sweat a bit, which didn't go unnoticed by their sensei.
When they arived at their training grounds just outside the forest of death, Anko went about eplaining in detail the use and creation of genjutsu, going farther into it than the academy ever would. She then explained that her best friend Kurenai was a genjutsu specialist and that she would be the one helping them with this part of thier training. With all that said and done she introduced them to Kurenai.
"Ok kids, listen up, I'm going to put you each in a genjutsu and I want you to break out of it using the genjutsu release method. After that im going to show you each a genjutsu that I want you to learn today. Keep in mind that if you dont have the control to do genjutsu that it will be harder and take longer to learn. You ready?" She recieved three nods as a reply.
Kurenai began to go threw a short set of handseals before whispering "Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu" forcing all three genin to see thier worst fears. The first two to break out was Hinata and Shikamaru, Hinata because of the control needed for her familys taijutsu style and Shikamaru because of his familys ninjutsu style. The control for both needing to be rather precice. Naruto on the other hand was having some difficulty, not because of his chakra control but because of his fear.
-inside narutos head-
Every whare he turned naruto ran into sauske, who was chasing him around naked, trying to get a hold of him in order to have his way with the blonde. There was no hiding, no getting away. Every whare he went, sauske was there. Just as sauske was about to grab ahold of him, the whole world disolved back to reality.
-outside, training ground #44-
Naruto had been screaming his head off and running around in circles for the last couple minutes when kurinai realized he couldnt get himself out of it. She realeased him from the illusion and the first thing he did was run over to Hinata and kiss her on the lips, shocking everyone and causing the lavender haired beauty to faint with a small amount of blood coming from her nose; a shit eating grin splitting her face. Naruto quickly caught her before she hit the ground and placed her sitting against the trunk of a nearby tree before scratching the back of his head in embarassment with a weak laugh. "Oops."
"Right, moving on, I want you two to practice using and releasing this genjutsu on each other. Naruto, to release a genjutsu all you have to do is either send out a large enough chakra pulse to disrupt it or cause your self pain. usualy its easier to use a chakra pulse." Kurenai explained. "To do this, you build up your chakra for about seven seconds and then let yourself loose control of it, releasing it." The blonde nodded his head as Shikamaru muttered about this exercise being troublesome. Kurenai then went through the hand seals slowly, shoing them the proper seal order. "this genjutsu is called 'Mangen: osorege no jutsu' and it basicly causes the person under it to see you as the thing they fear the most. now, go practice."
The two boys then walked off a good distance away before standing in front of each other, trapping each other in the genjutsu and breaking it in turns. Five minutes later they were joined by the now concious Hinata and continued to practice for another 90 minutes.
Anko and kurenai sat on one of the few benches that were around the perimiter of the forest, watching the three genin practice the genjutsu. "So, Anko-chan, why'd you want me to teach them genjutsu?"
"Easy, I'm not that good with them. Sure I know a couple, but I want them to be prepared for the upcoming chunin exams. What I'm still curious about is why you didn't put in for a genin team this year." eplained Anko.
"Well, to be honest, I dont feel like I'm ready for that quite yet." Anko nodded her head in understanding. "Besides, not many want to learn the subtle art of genjutsu. It's not as flashy."
"True, but flashy isn't always better, it can get you killed."
"Verry true Anko, verry true." They both looked over to the genin when they heard Naruto scream like a little girl. "Sounds like one of them got it to work..." The two jounin then broke into laughter over the genins mental pain.
After a long day full of mental anguish for the three genin of team 8 they were dismissed and told to arive at 8:00 am sharp.
-day 3, 8:00 am-
Naruto, Shikamaru and Hinata all stood at the clearing that marked their training grounds.
"Ok my little chickadees, today, were learning ninjutsu. To better teach you, I'm going to need you to place chakra in the card I'm going to give you," She then gave a gard to each of them. "Push your chakra into the card. If it splits it's wind, gets wet; water. Crumbles it'll be earth and if it crumples its lightning, if it catches fire, well its fire. So what're 'ya waitin' for, get to it!"
The three genin looked at each other and nodded, each pushing thier respective chakras into thier cards at the same time. Hinata's turned wet with slight crumpling around the edges, Shikamaru's turned to dust and Narutos split in half before crumpling.
'Water and lightning? How the hell'd that happen? I knew that girl was screwy. Earth, I can do earth easily, and once again another how the fuck, wind and lightning. Just great.'
"Congradulations on being a pain in my ass you two", she said pointing at Hinata and Naruto. "I guess it's a jutsu training day. I'm going to give each of you a jutsu and I expect you to have it mastered today. If you finish with enough time left I'll teach ya another."
(
A/n #2: and thats a cliffie. I know, thats rotten. but its an update and is definately more than what it was before.
jutsu list:
Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu (demonic illusion: hell viewing technique. This jutsu causes the target to see a horrifying vision. First, an imaginary circle of leaves will spin around and envelop the target, falling away shortly after. After a short period, the illusion will begin. This is to make the illusion more convincing, since the user will likely have moved before the illusion sets in. D-rank, Supplementary, Short range (0-5m))
Mangen: osorege no jutsu (demonic illusion: appearance of fear technique. turns the user into a persons absolute worst fear/embodiment of their absolute worst fear. D-rank, suplementry, short range (0-5m), created.)