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Poll update:
Genma – 57%
Kakashi – 24%
Itachi – 19%
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Thanks! And enjoy this massive chapter!
xx
SC
"Speaking."
'Thinking'
Jutsus
Chapter 13 - Training
After a visit to the hospital to take care of their injuries, team four waved each other goodbye and promised to catch up at least once or twice a week while they each prepared for the final round.
As she walked out of the hospital she was greeted by her father who had been leaning on the wall by the door, obviously waiting for her.
"You're in the finals. Well done." He took her backpack from her and ruffled her hair as they started walking home, "How was it?"
"The first test was easy, the second started off too good to be true and we got a nice beating for the last flag." She shrugged, her eyes darting to her wrapped wrist. "There is so much I need to do this month…"
Shikaku chuckled as his daughter slumped, reaching to ruffle her hair some more.
"Daichi is away on a mission but he should be back next week. I can train with you and probably get you some scrolls to start off."
"Thank you, To-san." Shizuka sighed and leaned her head on her father's shoulder as they walked the rest of the way home in silence.
Shizuka waved to some passing clansmen and her father nodded in greeting as they approached their house, announcing their arrival to whoever was home.
The family of four had dinner together, as usual, each talking about their past few days, including the fact that Shikamaru was now signed up to start the academy in two months. As her brother moved upstairs to sleep, Shizuka helped her mother do the dishes while her father enjoyed some tea.
"To-san, besides the wind and shadow jutsus I'll probably be doing this month, do you think I should add a third focus?"
"Splitting your focus might not be beneficial, however, we both know the advantages of having a trump card, so tell me how many of those do you currently have."
Shizuka thought back on what's happened so far. Hana's team knew of her dual tantōs, but no one else. She had wind jutsus which might already be known, sensing was again something only her team and Hana's team was aware of, so she had two maybe three trump cards.
"Two or three depending on others leaking information." She replied after a few minutes thinking.
"You would have three battles until the finals if you get that far. That's one per each round, you think that's enough?"
Her father had a way of teaching through questioning her. He would rarely give her an answer straight but instead make her work for it. Eventually, he might give her his opinion or a final answer but only after she thought it through herself.
"The battle themselves don't matter, right? It's about showing what you can do, so I could just show everything in the first round if I find myself in a losing situation."
"True, but a chūnin knows when to act and when to hold back, revealing all your secrets would cause problems for later rounds if you do pass."
"Fine, but I shouldn't really reveal more than one at a time, the least people expect a trump card the more impressive it is likely to seem."
Shikaku smirked at his daughter's reply but hid it with his teacup. And waited to see if she was going to continue.
"So, if I play my cards right, I can try to pass the first round with only revealing one or none, second round I can use two more and the last round, if I train enough, I can have two or three more, meaning the closer to the final the more serious I'd be investing in the fights."
"Which would mean you know that revealing things too early aren't ideal and you save your best moves for the arguably better opponent. Simple, right?" Shikaku watched as his daughter sat at the table and rubbed her eyes.
"But that means so much more training, not to mention I need to figure out my opponents and who I'm more likely to fight against in later rounds." She leaned her head on her hand and stared at her father as if assessing him, while he watched on amused at her expression.
"So how are you going to start?"
"New clan jutsu training with you. Maybe try out a new element, I know Kaito was planning on learning water jutsus eventually, I was thinking lightning to annoy Masaru and it would work well with Kaito eventually."
"I'll get some scrolls on lightning release, I know someone who might have a couple. I already have some clan techniques in mind for you. Say that makes one new trump card, our clan's techniques are something everyone expects from a Nara."
"Ah, well I had this idea during the second exam: when people make the handsigns they are focusing their chakra, gathering it before releasing. I can sort of tell how big or taxing the technique is depending on how much they gather, but also everyone's chakra reflects personality and style."
"You want to test if you can tell what type of elemental release they will be using." He deduced, to be honest, he was sceptical but not totally surprised. "That would be an incredible ability to have, but as you know you are well beyond my capabilities as a sensor when you actually try."
"Do you think we could test it a little? I'd need to have at least one person of each to get a feel for how each type feels before I can start using it in a fight."
"I'll get someone to help with it. Now, being a chūnin means leading missions, so I expect for us to play a game of shogi per day unless I am too busy with work, in which case I'm sure someone in the clan will be willing to play."
"Am I going to have any free time at all?" Judging by her father's raised eyebrows free time was unlikely to be something she would come by often in the following month.
The first week of her training was entirely dedicated to a new clan technique and reading on lightning jutsus. She had also spent some time scouting out the competition alongside Masaru and Kaito.
The boys were more than willing to split up some 'targets' and going off to see what was going on with them. The only ones that were pretty much immune to their spying was the other team from Konoha, one reason being they trained within their compounds so getting to them was complicated and another because they kind of already knew what to expect from them, they were after all in the same year.
Just as the first week came to a close, her uncle showed up from his mission and promised to stick around until the end of the finals unless an emergency mission came up. And so, the day after he arrived she started training some new wind jutsus with him.
"Shizuka, focus!" Her uncle tugged at the end of her braid as he walked around her observing as she gathered some chakra around her.
Shizuka frowned her concentration dropping even further. She opened her eyes and dropped the ram seal. She heard her uncle sigh and move to sit down on the steps to the back porch.
"Come and sit here for a moment." Daichi patted the spot next to him and passed her a canteen of water once she sat down, "What's on your mind, Zuka?"
"My group is rather odd, Shun has his bugs, which I can easily see becoming a problem, even with the wind to knock them off it won't be easy." Shizuka glanced at her uncle from the corner of her eyes, "The girl Cho, she's fast I don't think I'm fast enough she's also a wind user, from what Hana told me."
"You are collaborating with them?"
"She's the only one from Konoha in her group, and since my team scouted everyone we decided to share the info on the people with the other Konoha teams, they gave us info they had as well."
"Your father has more experience with the Aburame, I'm sure he has already imparted some wisdom on that front. If you're worried about the other girl's speed, train to become faster."
"I'll ask To-san to get me some adjustable weights…" Daichi groaned when he saw the look on his niece's face, it read 'I have an idea' and those never turned out how people expect them to.
"And here I thought we'd arrive to see you giving training your all…" A voice sounded from the door to the house.
"Chōza-Oji-san! Inoichi-Oji-san! Kouta-sensei!" Shizuka grinned up at the three men who were soon followed by her father onto the porch. "Not that I'm not happy to see you all, but why are you here?"
"We heard you had a little theory you wanted help with." Kouta spoke as he walked out to the field behind the house. "Your dad asked us to help out, so here we are."
"Ah, the elemental release theory." Shizuka hummed as she turned to Inoichi, "Inoichi-Oji, you're a sensor too, right?"
"Not as sensitive as you, but yes, I am. I have never noticed what you described to your father, so I'm rather curious about it."
"Alright, so how are we doing this?"
"We will perform jutsus and you get to just observe and see what you can tell from each." Her father guided her to the middle of the field and turned towards the others. "To make this fair, we won't tell you who is doing what, and you won't look at our handsigns either. So, close your eyes and get ready."
Shikaku then walked over to the adults who had lined up facing the young Nara.
"We'll aim the jutsus away from you, and we'll let you know on whose chakra to concentrate on." Chōza stated before turning to Shikaku and whispering so that only the adults were here, "Aren't we missing a lightning release?"
"It shouldn't come as a surprise he isn't here yet. He'll show up eventually." Kouta answered before he turned to his student who was already shifting on her feet anxious to get started, "Alright, Shizuka, I'm going first."
Shizuka narrowed her senses on her sensei's chakra signature as he gathered a small amount of chakra. She was vaguely aware of Inoichi's own senses brushing against hers, feeling for what she was trying to focus on. Her sensei had an earth affinity but she was aware he could use fire and water as well. It was kind of cheating to narrow it down that way knowing she was supposed to feel and not guess.
With that in mind, she focused on the regular, smoothly flowing chakra her sensei was gathering.
"Water." She opened her eyes to see her sensei release a small stream of water to her side.
"You weren't completely focused on that one." Inoichi pointed out, "I think I get what you said about the size of the jutsu though, his chakra didn't stir too much."
"It's odd. Sensei has an earth affinity, so when he uses water he has to convert it so it didn't feel like his usual chakra."
"So you kind of cheated." Daichi chuckled shaking his head, "Alright, at least you kind of know how and where to look for it. Eyes closed."
Shizuka obeyed and with another signal Chōza took a step forward, calling for Shizuka to concentrate on him. This time it was somewhat easier. Chōza's chakra was naturally warm and welcoming, identifying it was easy as he used to babysit her often when she was young, especially after he found out he would be a father himself.
"Fire. He's just gathering his chakra, no conversion, so its an affinity."
"Alright, let's make this a little harder. We won't tell you who will perform, you have to describe what it feels like and we will speed up the process on our end." Shikaku called out.
Once Shizuka nodded in acceptance of the new tasks she closed her eyes and focused on the five men in front of her. For a few moments nothing happened and then she felt her father's chakra shift. To her it felt odd, it was just him gathering chakra which left her confused for a moment before she realised what it was and jumped backwards, avoiding her father's shadow.
"Yin release. It doesn't feel like anything other than a disruption of the normal flow. I assume it's going to be the same for yang."
"You still dodged in time."
"I recognised the pattern, the path he made it take is the same for everyone." Shizuka shrugged before closing her eyes again and gesturing for the next person to go.
This time both Inoichi and Kouta gathered chakra. With her focus split, it took a lot more concentration to identify them. She could feel sweat building on her forehead as well as a headache starting right between her eyes.
She didn't open her eyes once the light was blocked by what she assumed was an earth wall but she did open her eyes to the sound of water hitting against the wall, 'Water bullet against an earth wall, such a familiar sound now.' Shizuka thought drily. She stood still waiting for her sensei to remove the wall so that she could see the adults.
"Two at a time too much? We should probably call it a day." Daichi threw her the canteen as she rubbed the middle of her forehead.
"Yeah, when I know what to expect its so obvious what the elements are, but my focus has to be on the exact flow. I can't split my focus two at a time to that extent yet, but I knew it was Inoichi-Oji and Kouta-sensei."
Inoichi walked over and placed his hand on her forehead, easing a bit of her headache, chuckling as she let out a sigh and slumped her shoulders.
"You have got to teach me that one of these days." Inoichi just hummed in agreement and the two walked towards the others who had sat down on the seats on the porch.
"So what have you learned?" Shikaku chuckled as she sat on the floor in front of him and dropped her head back, allowing him to run his fingers through her hair.
"The elemental releases do feel different, but to figure it out is to concentrate on a minuscule detail of their normal flow." Shizuka looked up to watch the other adults. "In close range, I can identify affinities, while long range I can only get a general feel for it."
"Which explains how you all avoided so many confrontations in the forest. Most people are betting on luck." Kouta-sensei spoke causing most of the men to scoff at the idea of Shizuka's team being lucky. "To anyone who knows you guys, it was obviously something else."
"We did just stumble across one of the flags while looking for shelter." Shizuka shrugged before turning to her sensei, "If I'm familiar with the chakra its especially easy to figure out when they are converting their chakra to something else, it feels odd. And when they use an affinity its most likely a purer version of whatever the element is. Inoichi-Oji's water smoother and flowed better than that of Kouta-sensei's."
"It's a good start." Daichi reached over to pat her shoulder, "The more you train this the easier it will come, at least you know where to look and you'll be able to identify affinities, which for the chūnin exams should be just enough."
"That's right, we don't expect most genin to know more than one type of elemental release, so knowing their affinities should be enough." Inoichi supplied, an amused smile on his face as he watched Shikaku twirl loose strands of his daughter's hair around his finger.
"We can help out again later on, but I'm sure you have a lot to train already." Chōza stood up and after giving her cheek a pinch.
The adults and Shizuka all moved inside, while Kouta stayed outside.
"You're late." He called before two legs appeared hanging from the porch's roof. "You still owe me one..."
"You see..."
"Nope. She's trying to learn lightning jutsus so that's on you. Have fun."
"So mean, Kouta..."
She should not have told her uncle she wanted to increase her speed. Big mistake on her part. Her father got her the weights she asked for and warned her about not pushing her limit with just under two weeks left to train.
So now her mother had also decided to join her training regime and she gleefully would throw projectiles at her while her father would relentlessly go after her with his shadow.
A nightmare.
And her sweet little brother was apparently enjoying seeing her running around like a headless chicken dodging projectiles and shadows all over their backyard. 'When he starts training for his chūnin exams he will regret it.' She thought to herself, eyeing her brother who was snoozing under the shade of a tree nearby but still out of range of her training.
'I wish I could be there, under the shade instead of trying to dodge all of this.' She thought bitterly as she ducked under another barrage of shuriken only to have to roll sideways and jump out of range of her father's shadow again.
She turned her focus towards her father who was staring at her with an unamused expression on his face, likely from noticing her lack of concentration, a recurring theme she found 'Maybe that's part of the reason people underestimate me all the time.'
"Shizuka!" Her father barks, bringing her focus back to him as she smiled sheepishly. He sent his wife a look and she nodded, jumping out of range before walking inside. "You need to focus more, stop letting your thoughts drift away, on a mission that will cost you your life and those of your comrades."
Shizuka lowered her head and nodded solemnly before focusing on him again, waiting for him to make the first move and resume their spar. Once he was sure she was focused enough he went through the handsigns for shadow possession. He was vaguely amused his daughter hadn't thought of a way to counter his shadows.
As a Nara, she could use her own shadow as a barrier against his, and while he could overpower her, she could still hold him off for a few moments enough to move out of the way and even trick him to latch on to someone else.
He launches his shadows in her direction while sneaking one behind him and around the trees towards her. He watched as she made the rat handsign and momentarily he thought she had figured it out, but instead of forming a shield around her she stretched hers out towards the forest.
Before he could question her on it, she came close enough to the trees for him to launch his other shadow towards her, and just as he felt it make contact he felt her chakra shift and she went dark. His eyes widened as she was apparently consumed by the shadow and immediately released his jutsu darting forward to see what happened.
'She's gone? Disappeared just in front of my eyes? What was that?" His thoughts were going on a mile a minute and he called out to Yoshino, who came running.
"What happened? Where's Shizuka?" By the hardening look in her eyes, she must have understood his expression because she immediately ran inside, probably to wake his brother.
Shikaku turned around to call Shikamaru inside when he noticed the slumped form of his daughter beside his sleeping son. He immediately ran over and turned her around, taking note of her shivering form and bluish lips.
Shaking Shikamaru awake he urged him to inside while he cradled his daughter to his chest and ran inside, grabbing the blanket they usually left on the couch and wrapped her just in time for Yoshino and Daichi to come into the living room through a different door.
"What happened?" Daichi moved closer only to frown as he noticed his niece's form.
"Hypothermia. We need to go to the hospital now. I'll explain when she's been taken care of." Shikaku pulled her against his chest and ran out the door.
His wife and brother on his heels, Shikamaru tried to run after them, but Daichi picked him up so that they could move faster.
They ran into the emergency area and Shizuka was quickly moved off on a stretcher, while the Naras were taken to the waiting room. Daichi set Shikamaru on a chair and sat down next to him, Yoshino taking a seat on his other side, while Shikaku remained standing.
Mentally, Shikaku was running through the events immediately before Shizuka disappeared. She stretched her shadows out and he had her cornered with his own. Then the tugging sensation from her chakra and then she disappeared.
He hadn't realized but he had been pacing around trying to figure out what his daughter had done.
"Shikaku, please…" His wife's voice brought him out of his thoughts, he met her eyes and sighed, moving to stand directly in front of his family.
"I had her cornered, I thought she had figured out that she could hold off my shadows with her own, but when my connected her chakra shifted and then she was gone." He ran a hand down his face, "It's almost like she used the body flicker, but it was different."
"She couldn't have escaped your shadows with the body flicker." Daichi leaned back into his seat and crossed his arms behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. "The hypothermia is a severe consequence of some our abilities, but you haven't been teaching her those abilities yet."
"For a moment that went through my mind, but I haven't even mentioned those to her yet, and it was different, she disappeared, from the middle of the field."
"I guess we have to wait until she wakes up to help us figure out what happened." Yoshino wrapped her arms around Shikamaru who seemed he was about to protest for a moment but sensing the atmosphere allowed her to pull him closer.
"Your daughter is the bane of the Nara, brother. Attracts way too much trouble that one…"
When Shizuka woke, she quickly took stock of her body and satisfied that it only seemed tense and a bit sore she turned her head to look around her room. The curtains were partially closed but she could faintly see the light sky, which told her it was the next day and she had been out for several hours.
"Shizuka." Her head turned to the other side to see her father on a chair by her bedside.
"To-san, why am I in the hospital?" She turned onto her side, burrowing further into the blanket that would usually be on the couch of her house but had been draped over the standard hospital blanket.
"Hypothermia." He leaned forward, brushing a strand of her hair out of her face. "What do you remember?"
"I remember getting trapped, but my shadow was connected to the trees, I think I pulled, something, I'm not sure what, and then I remember falling and then nothing."
"I'm going to tell you a little bit about very dangerous consequences to some of our clan's more advanced techniques." He gave her a warning look so that she wouldn't interrupt him. "There are some techniques that allow us to shroud ourselves in shadows, make it into an armour and more. These are all A-Rank techniques that lower our core temperature the longer we hold them. I need you to tell me step by step of what you were thinking."
"A couple weeks ago when I said I wanted to get faster, I had an idea to learn the body flicker, I even convinced Uchiha Shisui to help out, so he taught it to me last week." She looked up from her clasped hands to meet her father's eyes, "Then during our practice, I thought about how I wanted a nap under the shade of a tree, so when I noticed your attack I stretched my shadows and aimed at another shadow, kind of like a slingshot."
"You teleported between shadows?" She didn't know if her father's voice was amused, sceptical or a little angry.
"More like travelled through them… I could feel this cold air pass me, but I couldn't see where I was going so I just released. All the shadows were connected, so I was dragged from one to another." Shizuka looked thoughtful for a moment but her father sighed and used a hand to make her meet his eyes.
"I need you to promise me you will not use it in the exams. It is a technique that could be lethal to any target you choose to attack with it as well as yourself if you're not careful with it." He held her chin in place until he was satisfied that the message had gone through, "I won't stop you from training it, but you need to promise me you'll have Daichi or myself with you if you do."
"This is one of those things that if people find out I'd be requested for specific missions, right?"
Shikaku didn't reply, but to Shizuka that was enough to answer her question. She knew her uncle had quite the reputation as an assassin, blame it on Kouta-sensei for leaving a bingo book out during one of their missions. And with how he was constantly out of the village, it wasn't hard to put two and two together.
"I need to get to work, I'll send in your guests." Shikaku lent down and kissed her forehead before exiting the room, holding the door open for the younger generation of Ino-Shika-Chō to walk in.
"Shizuka-nee-san!" Ino greeted as she jumped on the bed to sit at her side, while Shikamaru and Chōji pulled a chair closer.
"Ka-san told me to bring you this, she made your favourite." Chōji shyly put a bento box by her side, which she gladly took, taking a moment to give Chōji a kiss on his cheek causing the little boy to blush.
"Thank you, Chōji-kun for bringing this. Could you thank your mother for me? I'll try to stop by to thank her myself later."
"So, training gone bad?" Shikamaru asked sending his sister an annoyed look, "I was only asleep for what half an hour and you get yourself admitted to the hospital?"
"Oh, come on. Now my little brother is going to lecture me too?" Shizuka exaggeratedly moaned giving Ino a wide-eyed look, "You believe it wasn't my fault, right, Ino-chan?"
Ino giggled at the older girl and shrugged, before starting to question the girl on academy subjects. With the date for them to start closing in, they wanted to know everything they should expect when classes started.
Shizuka told them about different senseis and their subjects, she sighed dramatically for the ones she disliked and then talked animatedly about the ones she held a particular interest in. She told them funny stories and the best ways to impress their senseis so that they wouldn't get in too much trouble for arriving late and some minor offences.
That was the scene Daichi and Chōza walked into when they dropped by to visit the curious Nara.
"Good to see you're feeling better, Shizuka." Chōza smiled and ruffled her hair, "Alright kids, I'll be walking you home. Let's get going."
"Bye Shizuka-nee!" The three soon to be academy students waved her goodbye and followed Chōza out of the room.
"So, what are you calling this little technique?" Daichi sat on the chair her brother had been sitting on.
"Shadow travel? Do I have to name it?" Shizuka leaned into her uncle's hand as he ran his fingers through her hair.
"You'll come up with something. I'm rather curious about how you did it, so please if you ever want to work on it, let me know."
"I'm not allowed to work on it without you or To-san anyways. I can say though, it's really hard to aim where you are going."
"You can go to any shadow its connected to?" She could tell her uncle was also genuinely curious about the whole thing.
"Kind of. It's kind of like throwing a hook somewhere and pulling yourself to that location. But everything is dark and cold and so finding where you want to go is hard."
"Do you think you'd be able to go to any shadow without them being connected?"
"The only way to find out is to try it out."
"Why did the most troublesome Nara have to be the one to discover such a thing?" Daichi shook his head.
Shizuka rolled her eyes at her uncle and extended her hand touching her hand to her uncle's bicep and with a twitch of her fingers her uncle jumped away from her.
"Ouch!" He rubbed his arm narrowing his eyes at his niece who smirked up at him, "Was that a lightning release?"
"It's only a zap, you big baby, it wasn't even that strong." She rolled her eyes as he feigned hurt. "And yes, I learned about this in one of the scrolls To-san got me."
"It'll be useful, especially use it to threaten people who annoy you."
"Now that's a good idea." Daichi paled as she seemed to actually take his suggestion seriously.
'Note to self: Do not annoy Shizuka.'
Days later Shizuka met up with Itachi at their regular meeting place. They had trained at least once a week together and this would be their last training before the finals. It was also the first meeting since she had ended up in the hospital.
"Itachi-senpai, I have a favour to ask." She smiled up at the branch he was sitting on. "I've been developing a new jutsu but I'm having some trouble making progress with it. I was wondering if you could have a look."
"You're developing your own jutsu?" Itachi may normally keep a poker face but the twitch of his eyebrows gave his surprise away.
"It's related to the clan jutsu, I'm not entirely sure if I'm allowed to show anyone else this, but it kind of works like the body flicker." Shizuka took a step back to stand in the shade of one of the trees. "I can kind of travel between shadows, I've been working on it with my uncle and father, but we haven't made much progress."
"How does it work in theory? Explain it and we go from there."
"Well, my shadow needs to be connected to it somehow, then I merge, I think, with the shadow and pull myself to another point."
"Vague."
"Think of the second and fourth Hokage's Hiraishin, it's like that but I can't see where I'm going and if I stay there for too long I can get hypothermia." Shizuka rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "I was in the hospital for it when I kind of stumbled across the jutsu."
"Stumbled across it?"
"I was sparring and then I just pulled myself away. Hypothermia sucks, by the way."
Itachi ignored her and activated the Sharingan instead gesturing for her to try it out. She knew she promised not to try it without her uncle or father, but they had hit a dead end and she figured Itachi would help if she ended up in a bad situation.
"The closer the point the easier it is, so I won't go far, also the closer the less dangerous."
Shizuka formed the rat seal and focused on her shadow, her chakra pulling it as if wrapping it around her like a cloak before she tugged herself to a place just two meters away. She felt the cold biting into her skin and then she released it, her eyes squeezing shut as to not blind herself with the sudden light.
She slowly blinked her eyes open only to see she had ended up much further than what she intended, but Itachi's eyes were still trained on her. He asked her to do it once more before he gave a thoughtful hum.
"Let's sit in the sun while you tell me if you noticed anything." Doing as she said, she collapsed onto the small circle of sunlight in the middle of the small clearing.
She stretched out to bask in the sun coming in through the gap in the trees as she waited for Itachi to talk.
"Your chakra signature moves through the shadows, I could track your moving chakra, but most opponents wouldn't be able to." He remains standing, watching the slightly younger girl as she relaxed. "But it spread, it was like your chakra filled all of the shaded areas, my theory is that you need to narrow it down, a single thread from one point to the other."
Shizuka hummed in acknowledgement to his theory. 'Most of the clans' techniques are connecting our chakra to the shadows entirely, which is why I've been doing it."
"Alright let me give it a go." Shizuka stood up and walked over to the shade of the tree.
Standing in the shaded area made it easier since she didn't have to stretch her own out. Once again forming the rat seal she pooled her chakra into her shadow. This time instead of reaching out with her chakra she concentrated on making it into a small stream and guiding it towards her destination.
Once she had chosen the place she pulled, and the same sensations as always bit into her skin. She opened her eyes to see that she had indeed arrived closer to where she wanted, though still a step or two away.
"Much closer than what I expected." She looked at the ground between where she was and where she had intended. "But it's hard to get my chakra into a thin thread, it takes a lot of concentration and time."
"You're fighting your instincts, so that's normal. But the thread is apparently the way to go."
"You're right. Thank you." She smiled at him before tilting her head towards the targets. "The usual?"
Itachi nodded and pulled out a handful of shuriken while she brought out both her tantōs. They returned to their usual routine of throwing and deflecting projectiles for a couple hours, taking small breaks for water.
As they gathered the weapons from the clearing Itachi's voice startled her out of her thoughts.
"We won't be able to meet for a while, I will be busy for a couple of weeks. I will inform you when I become available again."
"No worries. Thank you for all your help so far." She gave him his weapons which he put into his pouch. "See you, Itachi."
Shizuka was on her way to a team four meeting, the last one before the first round of fights the next day. As the month for training came to a close, Shizuka took two days off to simply relax and go over planning for her fights.
They were meeting up in a dango shop as it was Kaito's turn to pick a location. She easily spotted her team in a booth towards the back of the restaurant and sat down in the booth next to Kaito facing her sensei and Masaru.
"We're all here, good." Kouta clasped his hands on the table and gave each of his genin a long look, "I'm proud you all made it to the last stage, and you've all improved immensely from those first days as genin to now. So, I want you all to know that you've been a fantastic team and no matter what I'll be there if you still have any need of me."
"It goes both ways, sensei." Kaito gave a small smile as his teammates nodded, "Now, since we might be going against each other in the finals we agreed to keep the 'new' things secret, but how about the 'old' stuff, any improvements?"
"I've caught up to your level of kenjutsu. I might not be as experienced in a proper fight, but I can hold my own." Masaru smirked at them, "Everyone on team four can use a katana now, though Shizuka prefers her shorter tantōs. We should start calling the team-"
"If you suggest team katana, team blade or whatever it is that you were thinking about it I will ignore you for a year." Shizuka deadpanned, her warning glare stopping Masaru from finishing the sentence. "In any case, I focused on ninjutsu outside of my trump cards, so nothing new since our last meeting."
"Ah much the same for me, except I split it between kenjutsu and ninjutsu, so a couple new things on those two fronts."
"As a neutral party here, I'd like to say you all improved in the last month, and that although you would know what to expect from each other, don't underestimate each other just because you've known each other for long."
"Hai, sensei." The three chorused, something that both amused and annoyed their sensei, depending on when they did it.
"Tomorrow is the three-way fight, you all got information on your groups and on the others to help you predict the people to move on to the next rounds, and hopefully planned accordingly."
"Yes, we are prepared to counter most of what our opponents could throw at us." Shizuka leaned back into her seat eyeing the other two genin, "For the unknown, it will be up to us to analyze and plan on the spot, which is an important skill chūnin need."
"Alright, so let's go over your groups. Group A, people and known abilities…"