"Talking is like this."
'Thinking is like this.'
"Flash backs will be like this. You get the drift."
"Demonic Talking is like this. Other things may qualify."
'Demonic Thinking will be like this'
"Techniques like the Henge Jutsu will be said like that."
Jutsu may be given a name like this: Henge! (Transformation) if it is the first time it appears, has a complicated name, or is unique. Techniques like the Kage Bunshin will not be given that. If you're reading this story, you should know what Kage Bunshin is.
If you want a more in depth 'Jutsu Library' at some point, then tell me through reviews. If enough people say 'Yeah!' then I'll start adding them in... But I will never repeat a Jutsu.
Hey there. Same issue as last time, though this one took longer to come out, I guess. I just put all my writing aside to try making videos, but those aren't very popular... partly due to having no clue how to advertise myself!
But that isn't what this story is for. I decided to just go ahead and upload this chapter since everyone had been waiting and I was eager to hear what people think about the upcoming stuff! The reviews and re-reading my chapter for proof reading also might get me more interested in writing again... Meh!
Hope you enjoy!
"Suiton: Teppodama!" Hyuuga Hinata cried out, shooting a ball of water from her finger tip towards the approaching vine that was swinging towards her. The vine was very long, and its source was out of Hinata's vision, with a dark green color and red thorns coming off the sides. The pointed end of the vine, practically another thorn, was a light purple color and shined softly in the light as it flew towards Hinata's form.
As the water bullet hit it, the vine was sent only barely off its path, sliding slightly to the right but it was enough for Hinata to spin around it from the left without touching the sharp looking tip. Her hand shot up in an arc from below the vine, slicing through its body with a blade of chakra from her finger tips.
The vine fell to the ground lifelessly as it was sliced in half, but Hinata was given no time to celebrate her victory as another vine shot up from the body she had served the vine's tip from, causing her to gasp and jump away in alarm as the now two vines shot towards her, both of their purple tips dripping with green liquid along with the rest of the "new" body.
She slid across the forest's ground, twisting her body to the side to dodge the first vine's thrust, and then used the momentum of her twist to kick herself to the side, barely escaping the other vine's tip thrusting into her. Again, she slid her hand down and sliced through the body of the vines, causing the ends the tips were on to fall lifelessly to the ground.
But, as before, the flat exposed area she cut apart created two more vines each, resulting in four vines now turning to attack her. This time they struck true, but only on a log which temporarily kept the vines busy, due to each of them getting stuck in the log's wood. Hinata had actually used a thick branch that had fallen from the snake's charge from earlier, resulting in a much more durable piece of wood the vines were stuck in and leaving her with more breathing room as she jumped away.
Hinata panted and gasped for breath as she ran across the ground, gulping down air as she wondered what exactly Kurenai-Sensei had tossed at her. The woman had merely said their fight would be on the ground before jumping down and engaging Hinata in a brief Taijutsu spar. The 'spar' had been completely negated when a vine suddenly shot out of no where and began to chase Hinata, with Kurenai calling to her to just keep running if she wanted to get away from it. A tip Hinata was seriously regretting not taking, since attacking it seemed to have just raised the threat level.
'I've never really seen her use this kind of Jutsu before..! I … I know she has more than Genjutsu, but..!' Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the ground being torn apart behind her, and her Byakugan came to life to allow her sight without turning her head. Sight she slightly wished she had kept unaware of as she saw the four vines flying at her once more, each of them spinning slightly around each other.
She kicked to the right quickly, her eyes darting back and forth as she looked for any sign of the Genjutsu Mistress. With no luck on that end, Hinata tried to formulate a plan on dealing with the vines chasing her, while she turned another corner between two trees with the vines following quickly behind.
'I've got to lose them somehow.. o... Or I can't find Kurenai-Sensei. She... She's the source, so...' She turned another corner, darting around a tree and gulping as she saw the vines still chasing her. Without really noticing, the girl hopped over the vine's long bodies and then turned to the right, going around another tree. 'K... Kurenai-Sensei has to be around here somewhere..! They can't just be moving on their own.' She thought to herself, turning to the left instead of the right this time.
She continued to run and run, starting to pant from the energy she was spending and soon her legs began to throb in pain, but she kept herself going. She knew if she stopped then Kurenai would get on her case... or she'd be stabbed by those vines. Though she doubted Kurenai would actually hurt her...
Too much, at least.
It seemed that her constant running paid off, however, as Kurenai's voice suddenly echoed through the area. Hinata's Byakugan, which she temporarily turned off due to the chakra it was eating, came to life again just as the woman's voice entered her ears.
"Red is for love, the color of life. Lavender is faith, to forever be there. This Rose shall chase you, and only you, no matter how much pain you bring it. It shall follow you to the end of the Earth, and even inside it..." There was a pause and Hinata spotted the woman sitting on a low hanging branch ahead, smiling down at the girl. "A rose of any other name would not be as sweet."
Hinata blinked at the confusing words Kurenai was saying, but they were tossed out of her mind as she ran under the branch Kurenai was sitting on... and skidded to a stop in surprise as she saw the massive rose towering in front of her.
It wasn't quite as tall as any of the trees and its stem was only half as thick as the tree trunks, but there was a single dark green vine coming out of the base, just beside where the stem was stuck in the ground. The rose's stem itself was also covered in thorns and its large red petals shimmered in the light coming through the tree tops as Hinata stared up at it in alarm.
Her Byakugan could see that the chakra coursing through it was Kurenai's own, but the length of the chakra was simply astounding. While it was a bit thin and didn't quite fill the flower up completely, it was notoriously hard to spread your own chakra that thinly, especially without causing any issue of control down the line. That was why Suna's puppet users were so feared and respected, due to how hard the nature of their technique was of controlling their tools with thin chakra wires.
Hinata gulped at the sight in front of her, turning her gaze back towards the smiling Kurenai who had turned to face her. "W... What is this, K... Kurenai-Sensei?" She questioned, earning a shrug from her long-time teacher.
"That is Doton: Benibara Haidora."(Earth Style: Rose Hydra)
Hinata blinked owlishly at the name, then turned back towards the large flower towering above her. She heard Kurenai chuckle a bit from behind her, saying, "You best do something about it quick, Hinata. Those vines you left behind are already untangling themselves... Good work on that, by the way. If I wasn't controlling them, they might have gotten stuck." Hinata blinked from the praise and kept it to herself that she hadn't intentionally tangled any of the vines up.
She was just completely focused on running, after all.
Knowing the vines were coming back was also alarming, but Hinata gulped down her fear and ran towards the towering plant. With a yell, the girl spun as she moved, sliding across the ground with her arms out stretched. To anyone who had seen a matured Hyuuga fight before, they would recognize the starting spiral of the Kaiten (Palm Rotation) technique, but Hinata's technique did not create a dome of chakra around her body as she moved.
Instead, the tips of her fingers lit up in chakra and created a circling blade in the air as she moved, like a large halo floating above her body. The front end of it, facing the plant, tilted downward as she swung her arms towards the ground, slicing towards the base of the large stem in front of her.
As the blade of chakra tore through the stem of the large plant, Hinata shouted out the name of her attack. "Hakkesho: Tsukiha!" (Eight Trigrams: Moon Blade). Her shout was met with the sound of the rose groaning in pain as it was attacked; the stem slowly beginning to fall backwards and bringing the rest of the rose with it as it fell down onto the forest floor. As the rose crashed down, Hinata allowed her chakra blade to fall apart as she stepped back, panting as the energy and chakra she had used began to catch up to her. With her opponent down, the girl allowed her self a moment to relax, turning her Byakugan off.
But the feeling of relaxation was very short lived as vines began to shoot out of the base of the stem that remained stuck in the ground. Hinata could only watch in shock as the rose's body that fell down began to melt, but the vines quickly blocked her vision of that event as they spread high into the air and began to spiral around each other. In just a few moments, the vines began to shake and squeeze tightly together, with ten purple ends forming two separate 'stems' from the base of what Hinata had just cut apart, putting five of the purple ends sticking outward in the shape of a flower.
Hinata stared at the Y shaped plant in front of her, openly gaping as the purple ends began to split apart, forming dark red rose petals and slowly taking the shape of the rose she had just cut down. Only this time there were now two heads of the rose, both towering above the panting Hyuuga, and one last vine suddenly grew out from the base of the stem, moving quickly towards Hinata's body.
The girl tried to turn to dodge it, but her body felt heavy and she felt herself starting to fall back instead. The vine continued towards her at a rapid speed, its tip shining as Hinata fell onto her rear with a poof. Hinata's eyes widened then closed tightly as she held her hands up defensively, trying to minimize the damage as the vine's sharp tip came towards her head.
… But the pain never came.
Instead, she felt a soft pat on the top of her head, prompting her to open her eyes. She instantly flinched at the sight of the sharp vine just inches away from her face, and she slowly looked up towards the source of the patting on her her.
Kurenai smiled as Hinata looked up at her and she ran her fingers through the girl's hair slightly, chuckling a bit at the terrified look in Hinata's eyes. "You did well, Hinata." Kurenai praised a bit, smiling at the way Hinata's face twisted into confusion.
"W... Well? I … I couldn't hurt it at all.. I would have..."
"Been stabbed or caught, yes." Kurenai nodded, shrugging slightly as she closed her eyes and waved her hand, making the vine in front of Hinata slowly move back towards its source. "There was never any intention of you actually beating this rose... and especially me." Her smile grew a bit as she held her hand down, helping Hinata up to her feet after the girl accepted it.
Moving towards the towering rose, after letting go of Hinata, Kurenai continued to speak. "This is a technique I developed with my knowledge of plants and area awareness. Combined with the way I can manipulate my chakra well enough to cast a large variety of Genjutsu, I'm able to make a plant that can endlessly create branching paths of itself, so long as it has a source." She placed her hand on the stem and Hinata watched in fascination as the rose began to wilt and melt in front of her from Kurenai's touch.
She smiled towards Hinata as her creation melted, not seeming put off by the scene."I used this Jutsu against you because I knew you couldn't do anything to it. Not as you are, at least." As the last bit of the flower disappeared, Kurenai moved back towards the still panting Hinata, stopping just a bit in front of her. "Cutting it or using small blunt attacks like your Teppodama aren't effective, since it can regenerate from those. The usual techniques it can't stand are fire attacks or very large crushing attacks. Neither of which are part of your resources." Hinata stared blankly, slowly blinking and taking a gulp of air to catch her breath.
After a few moments of recovering, with Kurenai patiently waiting, Hinata spoke. "T... Then why did..?" Her question, though unfinished as she panted, was met with a quick response.
"To teach you failure, firstly, and to make sure you're aware that you can't always rush into a situation if you don't feel like you can accomplish anything without proper planning." Kurenai's voice was stern, but not unkind, as she stared down at Hinata. "Now, tell me what you could have done differently and what could have happened if I put in more effort." Hinata frowned at the order, her brow furrowing in concentration.
"U.. Um... I could have... thought about the … the vines regenerating... working more than once and I could have... u.. Uhm..." She paused, gathering her thoughts. "I … I could have realized the rose... would be the same." Kurenai nodded slightly, smiling gently to encourage Hinata, and it seemed to work as she became more focused on speaking her mind. "Then... I could have tried a different strategy instead of... Instead of just cutting it... I could have tried to crush it with a tree..."
"That would have been good, but only in a real combat situation. I would have stopped you since we'd have an issue if a bunch of trees started falling down in the village." The red-eyed sensei pointed out, causing Hinata to blush in embarrassment.
"R.. Right..." She muttered, shaking her head slightly. "Um... And... you could have … used Genjutsu on it, so I wouldn't know where it is exactly... Or attacked me head on and let the vines get me from behind."
Kurenai nodded, smiling proudly at her student. "Indeed. I could have also used a Genjutsu on the vines chasing you, keeping you from seeing them or seeing them from somewhere else." Suddenly, she frowned, placing her finger on Hinata's forehead and causing the girl to flinch slightly at the serious expression on the woman's face. "Another thing you could have done, Hinata, is retreat. It's never wrong to run from a fight you can't win."
Hinata gulped from the darker tone in her teacher's voice, glancing nervously to the side as a faint crash was heard in the distance. Steeling her resolve to speak up to her serious Sensei, Hinata glanced back up with a determined look on her face. "B... But I couldn't just abandon my team..!"
Her statement, determined or not, was met with a flick on the forehead that sent her stumbling back. The Hyuuga girl pouted slightly, rubbing at the red bruise while staring at the smiling Jounin that had struck her.
"Indeed, you couldn't have, but you didn't really need to fight me. I would have chased, or the rose would have, but if you can't beat me then one of your teammates possibly could... Although..." She paused, rubbing her chin thoughtfully with her right hand while her left arm was resting under her chest, holding the elbow of her right arm. "I don't think any of you know any Katon Jutsu... since Ino failed to learn hers. We'll have to fix that, even if two of you have Suiton as your main element."
Hinata nodded slowly in agreement, frowning a bit as another crash was heard in the distance. The crash attracted Kurenai's attention as well; her red eyes glancing over to her left at the source.
"I suppose I should go and stop Anko from accidentally hurting one of them..." She muttered to herself, shaking her head slightly and turning her gaze back to Hinata. "Go back to the training field by the posts and consider yourself 'captured' for now." The Genjutsu Mistress tried to not smile at the cute pout Hinata sent her way, but couldn't help it as she watched the girl turn and walk away.
Another crash caused that smile to fall as she turned towards its source, sighing slightly to herself.
'Anko can be the one to explain why so many of the trees were hurt today...'
Naruto panted slowly, though not from her stamina, but from fear as she felt another one of her clones pop out of existence. Thankfully the clone was far, far away from her true body, but it did nothing to elevate her mental state as she rested in a hole in the center of a large tree trunk. The closed walls didn't do much to help that either, but after running for a good twenty minutes or so, even Naruto needed a bit of a breather...
Especially with her panic making it feel like a lot more energy was wasted than it really was.
'Okay, calm down. Deep breath. It's just a snake.' She reasoned to herself, her tongue clicking in annoyance at her own thoughts. 'A snake that can spring itself forward without a sling shot and has killed me twenty times now.' She sighed in irritation, reaching into her pouch and palming the smooth blade of her tanto.
'Okay, what can I do here? Clones don't work. I can't actually kill the snake, or Anko-Sensei will kill me. I can't reason with it...' She paused, feeling like a light bulb went off in her head as she recalled the snake's interactions with Anko. 'Wait, it loves to eat. Anko-Sensei said something about spiders, too, so it probably likes meat... maybe? Do spiders have meat? Eh, doesn't matter... Anyways, it's not dumb, but childish, so it might be easy to trick...' She hummed softly, running her fingers down the blade of her tanto for a moment.
The blonde dug into her pouch past the tanto after a moment, pulling out one of the remaining sealing scrolls full of paint she had left over from her "prank."
'A medium sized one. Blue, white, gold.' She thought, eying the small colored tassels on the left side of the scroll, connected to its black colored body. 'Now what can I do with this...' Another death of a clone interrupted her thoughts, but she quickly dismissed it, feeling that it wasn't close to her still. Slowly, she made her way out of the tree she was hiding in, looking around at the surroundings. So far, the Snake had just sprung at her and attempted to crush her, despite Anko's "rule" to not kill her. Either it knew it was crushing clones, or thought it wouldn't be enough to kill the Jinchuuriki.
Which probably was true, but... It'd still hurt like hell.
Naruto hummed as she hopped out onto a branch, pulling her large pouch around her body and opening it up when it got to her front, letting her look right down into it. She dug through her belongings, smiling at the sight of a paintbrush, several tools like her screw driver, and her various kunai and shuriken. She pushed the scroll she took out into the pouch again, then smiled as she pulled out her shuriken and a bundle of ninja-wire Anko had got for her... and her own personal sealing scroll.
'I can't kill it, but... I can try to keep it down.' She grinned to her self, placing her fingers in her favorite seal.
"Kage Bunshin!"
Kimura flicked its tongue slightly as it slithered along the ground floor of the forest, glancing side to side for any sight of its target. It had already crunched several of the fakes, but had only seen the original once since their initial encounter. Something that slightly amused and bothered the large gray snake.
On one hand, it meant that maybe she was worth playing with. On the other, it meant it'd have to wait even longer to get its promised meal.
But as Kimura had no hands, nor arms, both thoughts were tossed aside. Instead, it letting a hissing laugh at its own mental joke, and knew Mother would have enjoyed it. She always liked weird humor.
The amused look in Kimura's eyes didn't falter as it spied its target once more and its body began to coil up as it prepared itself for another launch through the trees to reach the retreating blonde. As it felt the tip of its tail dig into the ground, Kimura "released" the spring and flew through the air, its eyes closing as it enjoyed the rush of air across its thin scales.
After several loud crashes from the breaking branches around it, a satisfying gasp followed by a poof was heard as the gray snake's body hit home. With another one of the Genin's clones smashed to smoke, Kimura opened its eyes and raised its head, looking for another scent to go on. Scents of rabbits, dear, mice, Mother, snakes and other wild life filled its sensitive nose, until...
The large yellow eyes blinked, then blinked once more as a strange metallic smell entered its nose. It was mixed with the same fox-like scent the blonde gave off, but had an underlining of...
It sniffed again. Meat? The source was unknown, not quite smelling like any meat Kimura had smelled before, yet still had the same steamy scent of a cooked spider. The thought of a meaty spider to eat made Kimura's mouth water slightly, and it began to unconsciously slither towards the direction of the strong scent. However, before the snake could get close enough to see the source, it saw several blue and gold arrows painted onto the trees it was sliding past.
It gave each a curious glance, not quite understanding their meaning, though each arrow was just pointing in the direction of the scent's source. Kimura, not quite getting it, decided the meaty scent was more important than the arrows and slithered in that direction anyways, its eyes flicking around in case the blonde fox had something in store for it.
As Anko had said, Kimura was not dumb. While it didn't have enough brain power to preform Jutsu or communicate in human tongue, which was typically only a thing for the "Boss" summons, Kimura still understood a lot of things. Mother had drilled in various tips and tricks for Kimura when it was growing up, especially when it came to trickery and knowing when to not fight.
So the closer the snake got to the scent, the slower it began to move even as the smaller distance increased how much of it Kimura could feel going through its nose. The snake's efforts were met with a reward as it finally got to a small clearing that showed the source of the powerful meaty scent.
In the center of the clearing was the blonde fox herself, smiling with her hands behind her back. Kimura eyed her warily before glancing down at her feet, where a steaming bowl was resting. The bowl wasn't that big... But it wasn't the only bowl.
Around the entire field was a large amount of bowls, each steaming with the same scent. Around the field was also the gold and blue paint, creating a series of spirals of the two paints mixing together with each center of the spiral having a bowl resting on top of it.
The symbols meant nothing to Kimura, but the large snake still eyed the grinning fox warily as she gestured out towards the field of bowls. As she spoke, Kimura sniffed slightly, testing the air, but could only smell the metallic scent of the colored ground and the meaty smell, along with the faint whiff of the girl in front of it.
"All yours. Chicken ramen, made special by me for you. In return, you'll let me go. Deal?" Naruto held her hands up, her smile growing slightly, while watching Kimura simply stare at her and sniff. "Nothing in my hands, either, so I'm not going to do anything..."
Kimura continued to eye her, starting to weigh its options. On one hand, it could taste whatever it wanted...
Wait, that joke was already made.
Kimura flicked its tongue slightly, still weighing its options mentally. Going after the foxy blonde, which Kimura wasn't sure was the real one or not, was one option... But it would probably mean the bowls would be knocked aside by its attack. But if the snake didn't attack the blonde, then it could get all of the bowls and sate its appetite... possibly. The bowls were pretty small...
But then Mother would get upset, especially when Kimura already gave its word..
Kimura rolled the options around in its head before deciding on one option that wasn't directly given: Eat all the bowls of ramen, then continue hunting the foxy blonde. Kimura was a snake, after all, and couldn't give a verbal reply. A nod wouldn't suffice either, so instead it opted to simply slither forward, its forked tongue darting into the first bowl in its path. The sudden flood of the chicken flavoring and the thick noodles that slid down Kimura's tongue caused his mouth to water even more, and it wrapped its tongue around the bowl entirely before pulling it into its mouth.
With a seemingly practiced maneuver, the bowl was licked clean inside Kimura's large mouth before being spat out to the side, rolling across the grassy ground without so much of a scratch on it... Although it did have a few grass stains and pieces sticking to it from the saliva coating the entire thing.
The bowl was avoided as Kimura slithered to the next, and closest, bowl in Kimura's vision. The gray snake's body went right over the spiral the previous bowl had been on, resulting in a bit of the paint coming off and coating its body. This went completely unnoticed as Kimura pulled the second bowl into its mouth, slurping up the contents greedily.
Strangely, though a fact completely missed by the hungry snake, the closest bowl was to its right and slightly closer to the still smiling Genin in the center. Along with that, the spiral under the bowl itself was closer as well. To most people, the strange paint under the food being offered would be considered an oddity, and some would notice that the spirals were actually part of a much bigger spiral. One that went around the entire clearing... with Naruto herself at the center.
But Kimura, despite being a smart snake, had already dismissed the paint and strange symbols as something pointless. An artistic flair, if anything. The large snake continued to ignore the symbols even as it followed them along, slurping up bowl by bowl of the increasingly delicious ramen as its body slithered across the ground. The bottom half of the snake's normally gray form was a mix of blue and gold now from the wet paint it was sliding across, and its lower jaw was the same after resting its head for a moment after one of the bowls.
After eating through fourteen separate bowls, the snake finally turned its head to the left, sliding a bit closer to the center of the clearing and slurping up the last bowl at Naruto's feet. This time, however, its eyes were focused on Naruto herself instead of its prize and in paused mid-lick on the bowl inside its mouth as the girl's face lit up in a foxy grin.
"I hope you enjoyed your meal, Kimura." She stated with a grin, making the large snake blink at having its name used by someone it didn't really know. Alarm bells suddenly went off in its head as she held her hand up, snapping her fingers, and Kimura hastily tried to pull itself away from the blonde in preparation for anything she had in store...
But stiffened in alarm as it found a majority of its body unable to move. Its large head twisted to look at what had happened, but could only make out lumps of blue and gold around both sides of its body at each spiral it had slithered past. A sudden cracking noise brought Kimura's attention upward, and it started in alarm at the sight of several thick branches falling down around its body, each stabbing the ground around Kimura's form, though thankfully not stabbing Kimura itself.
Despite none of the attacks landing on Kimura, the large snake could feel even more of its body being unable to move as if a large pressure was pushing down on it. It hissed in annoyance, its tongue spitting out the bowl towards the girl in front of it as it glared at her with its large yellow eyes, demanding answers. Naruto just grinned as she tilted her head, dodging the bowl as it flew past, and shrugged her shoulders slightly.
"I'm guessing you wanna know what's going on, huh? Well... I'm just making sure you keep your end of the deal. You ate my ramen, and now you're just going to sit here for awhile. Okay?" It was clear Kimura didn't agree with the order as it tried to thrash back and forth, its head twisting left and right, but it seemed nothing it did even slightly loosened the pressure holding its body down. Naruto chuckled at the sight, shaking her head slightly.
"I noticed you don't pull yourself back unless your neck isn't curved, meaning I don't have to worry about you jumping out of here." The blonde stated, grinning at the annoyed look in Kimura's eyes. Due to the bowls having been in a spiral-like shape, Kimura's entire body was twisted in a similar way with its tail resting at the very first spot it had eaten from. The unconscious need to go to the next closest bowl had been the snake's ultimate downfall... If the snake's body had been straight, it could spring itself forward, regardless of anything holding it down.
Naruto smiled, looking around at the field before nodding her head. "I'm glad this worked out, I wasn't really sure if it would, but I guess we're both gonna wait here for Anko-Sensei now, huh?" Kimura flicked its tongue slightly and Naruto chuckled, placing her hand slightly on the snake's large head. "Don't be upset, Kimmy, I'll explain what's holding you down if you'd like?" Kimura flicked its tongue at the nick name, but gave a very slight nod to indicate it wanted answers.
Naruto smiled further, nodding her own head. "Okay, well... First I got your position with my clones, then I used a few things I had to lay this trap. The first part of the trap, and major part, is the paint." She gestured to the spirals that Kimura had slithered over. "I knew if you were used to just seeing it around and smelling it, that you wouldn't pay much attention to it. So what I did was hide my clones underneath it after making sure you were at least slightly used to its scent." One of the large lumps that had appeared around Kimura held its arm up, waving, and the movement let the snake see that it actually was a blonde just sitting there... covered in blue and gold paint.
Naruto smiled, holding up a kunai to the snake's face and waving it around slightly. "With one on each side of the spiral, I had them toss a few of these over each other with wire in-between them then stab them into the ground to keep you still." Pocketing the kunai with her right, Naruto pointed upwards with the remaining hand. "Then I had clones up there drop prepared branches that had sharpened tips at exact points. The branches..." She stepped to the side, gesturing to the four branches that had been behind her around Kimura's large body. "have even more wire spread out between each set of four and each little bowl you ate... got four branches around it, excluding this last one." She grinned, shrugging her shoulders. "And like that, you're trapped. If you had arms, you could just push yourself up, I bet, but being a snake..." She rolled her hand a bit, shrugging.
Kimura blinked slowly at the blonde, not quite sure what it should be feeling from the girl's explanation of the trap. In part, it was aware that there was no real way it could escape without just de-summoning itself. But doing that would most likely upset Mother, especially if the snake did it without being told to or without lethal damage potentially being done. Plus doing so wouldn't actually put Kimura in a better position, since it would have to wait to be re-summoned in order to get back into the fight.
Kimura had to admit it was feeling a bit... impressed with the blonde's planning and execution, though also embarrassment for falling for a trap that seemed so obvious now. The snake mused that Mother would probably not stop making fun of it for quite awhile now...
Its thoughts were put aside as the blonde sat down in front of it, smiling up at Kimura's large eyes. "So! What did you think of the meal, though? Ramen is great, right?" The snake stared for a moment before slowly licking its lips, trying to get its message across. Seeming to understand, Naruto's smile grew in size as she nodded. "I'm glad you liked it! Even though we're kind of fighting right now, I want to be your friend, so I didn't want to use something you'd dislike!" Kimura blinked as the girl extended her hand out towards it, her blue eyes shining along with her teeth from her wide smile. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. It's nice to meet you, Kimura!" She paused, blinking rapidly as she stared down at her extended hand before smiling sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head with her other hand. "Aha... I guess we can't really shake hands, huh?"
The snake let out a low hissing laugh, its tongue extending out suddenly. Naruto stared in wonder as its tongue wrapped slowly around her arm, the forked tips going around her wrist before slowly moving her hand up and down. This caused Naruto's smile to return in full force and she moved her arm up and down slowly to match the tongue's movements, ignoring the slight slimy feeling it gave her.
"Let's get along from now on, Kimmy!"
Chapter End! But wait, there's more!
Tales of the Kunoichi Extra: Fireworks outside
Part 1: A Terrible Mistake?
"But you can find friends there. Friends you can trust."
These words echoed whenever they were remembered. To her, it was like the voice of a Goddess. The one person she loved above all else, even her own father, despite their past, told her to find friendship. Told her that there was a place where she could find the same connection her sister had found in others. Being of a noble house, having friends wasn't really something spoken about, and it seemed even her own father had little knowledge of the idea.
So she understood his shocked expression when she demanded to be put into the academy, despite being a year younger than when her sister had applied. It had taken a few puppy-dog eyes and annoyed pouts to actually get him to agree, but eventually, she found herself smiling at the large school building, watching various kids that were the same age or slightly older than her run inside.
Truly, this would be the best place to find her friends..!
"I've made a terrible mistake." Hanabi Hyuuga muttered to herself for the third time since "class" began, having been singled out the second she entered by everyone the instant after joining. Not only had she been forced, though she was glad to do it at first, to introduce herself to the whole class due to joining a week late; but she was also the only Hyuuga in the class.
This made her an instant celebrity and she had to nervously dismiss or outright ignore questions about her clan and especially about her eyes. The amount of boys complimenting her eyes, along with girls saying how jealous they were, flustered the normally stoic girl as well. This went widely unnoticed by everyone but the teacher as she struggled to keep her face completely neutral, but couldn't hide the emotions swimming in her famous eyes.
Suddenly, the teacher slammed a book down onto his desk, gathering everyone's attention to him and giving Hanabi a chance to breathe. "Hey! Class is starting everyone. Leave Hyuuga-San alone and get back to your seats." Iruka Umino yelled, giving the whining children a withering glare as they sulked back to their three-person desks. He turned a smile on Hanabi, however, gesturing towards the now seated class. "Why don't you pick your seat, Hyuuga-San? There's only three open, but you can pick whichever you want."
Hanabi had wished he took that "privilege" away from her and just picked her seat for her. Because he surely knew his class by now and would have known better than to put her where she was now. In fact, the slight grimace on his face she saw while sitting down proved that. The man knew exactly what would happen when she sat down.
If she had known choosing the far right seat on the already occupied desk in the center of the room would have been her doom, she wouldn't have ever tried to get into the academy.
A loud pffft rang through the air, followed by uproars of laughter as a plastic balloon expelled itself under her seat. Unlike most situations where the target would have just sat on it, the balloon had been placed under the legs, keeping it out of sight. The size of the balloon went under each leg and kept it level, though slightly higher than the rest of the chairs.
Thankfully the embarrassment of sitting on the balloon had more or less dissolved since no one could accuse her of making the noise herself. The size of the balloon made a very loud and deep noise as it expelled, which could never come from her small form.
This didn't stop the cause of such a thing from laughing and pointing at her, his scarf flapping behind his back as he turned towards her, his back now to the window that his own desk sat by while the two sitting with him, a girl with orange hair and a boy with a runny nose, were openly giggling behind him.
"Ha! Leave it to a noble Hyuuga to make the loudest entrance!" He joked, earning a few more laughs while Hanabi's head turning towards him slowly, her cheeks slightly pink and her eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth to chide him, but couldn't in time as Iruka intervened once more.
"Konohamaru! I told you to stop that nonsense!" The man snapped out towards the "Honorable Grandson" of the Hokage, getting only a nervous smile in return as the laughter started to die down, though now all amused eyes were turning towards Konohamaru instead.
"Ah, come on Iruka-Sensei. It's not like I knew she'd sit there." Konohamaru tried to reason, running his hand over his spiky brown hair. The glare sent his way only made the grin on his face grow wider, though more nervous as sweat began to beat down the side of his head.
"I think we both know the truth behind that Konohamaru. Now apologize to everyone, especially Hyuuga-San, and remove that from under her seat. If I catch you bringing it again, I'll be taking you to your grandfather myself." Konohamaru flinched from the "threat" of having to deal with his grandfather, the Hokage.
That man really knew how to lay it on thick when it came to that "disappointed stare" thing.
The brown haired prankster coughed into his hand as he stood up, bowing slightly towards Hanabi who was still glaring at him. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean anything bad." His apology received no response at first, but he got his answer after raising his head, only to be blinded by the large rubber toy falling on top of him.
A low pfft was heard from the toy striking him and he stumbled back, pulling it off himself as he fell back onto his chair with a grossed out expression on his face. "Bleck!" He cried out, flicking his tongue up and down a bit. "Some got in my mouuuth... What's the big idea?" The disgust on his face melted into anger as he glared at the Hyuuga, who was calmly sitting back down on her seat.
Hanabi only spared him a cold glance before turning her gaze forward towards the chalkboard. "Just returning your toy. I wouldn't want you to get lonely at night." Her poke at his pride made the boy bristle, while a few other children chuckled under their breaths, but a loud smack noise from Iruka kept him from making a retort.
"That's enough! Konohamaru, put that away and pay attention to class." The Teacher snapped, getting an annoyed "Yes, Sensei" from the Honorable Grandson as he shoved the balloon under the table he sat at. Within moments, the rest of the class began to forget the little incident and focus began to shift back towards Iruka once more as he began his lesson.
That was, of course, until Konohamaru grew restless.
Small spit wads of paper bounced off Hanabi's table and rolled across to the other two sitting with her after about five minutes of Iruka's lecture. Every time Iruka turned his back, another would join the growing wall starting to form. The man himself seemed to feel like something was happening, but he continued to give a lecture while glancing at Konohamaru whenever he was done writing something on the board, which all the students, sans Konohamaru, were trying to copy. Sadly, the heads of the children in front of Hanabi's desk were blocking the spitballs from sight.
It was when a large ball hit the desk, about twice the size of the rest, and began to roll out into a straight line that the three students actually reacted. All three student gave each other a shared glance before coming to a mutual understanding, despite having exchanged no words beforehand.
The boy had to be dealt with.
That was about the third time Hanabi muttered that she made a mistake when another large ball hit the desk, rolling across and forming a second "wall" behind the first. Though this one had the added "bonus" of hitting the top of Hanabi's notebook, a tiny thing with a rabbit resting in the sun on each page given to her by her sister. The slightly wet paper touching the notebook made one of the little rabbits grow a bit damp, which caused Hanabi to quickly yank her notebook back with an annoyed expression growing on her face.
She finally began to turn towards Konohamaru when a hand rested on her shoulder, drawing her attention to one of the girls sitting beside her. She had medium length brown hair, just a bit shorter than Hanabi's own but not going over her shoulders at all, and pale green eyes that were staring at her with mischief. Silently, she held a finger up to her mouth, making a 'Shhh' gesture that caused Hanabi's growing rage to melt into visible confusion as her head tilted slightly.
The girl gestured down slightly with that finger, causing Hanabi to look at the blue shorts and black tank top the girl wore, along with the opened toed blue sandals covering her feet. Her tank top also pushed out slightly thanks to her growing chest, though not by much, and her right leg also had a standard Kunai Pouch strapped to it. But what really caught Hanabi's attention was the thin blue glow around the girl's left index finger that slowly began to extend downward.
Out of instinct, Hanabi's Byakugan snapped to attention, allowing her to see the thin line of chakra that was slithering across the ground now towards the annoying boy that was packing another spit wad under the desk into a small blow pipe. Konohamaru, having no talent in sensing or seeing chakra, didn't even react as the chakra slithered up his chair and around his arm while Hanabi watched silently, though her eyes remained focused on the other student's hand.
After making sure Iruka was properly distracted with his lecture; Konohamaru began to lift his arm up and aim another spitball at the front of Hanabi's desk, not caring that she didn't seem to be looking. But just as he was about to blow the spitball out, his hand was roughly jerked to the side by the string around his wrist, making his whole head turn and face Iruka. The added shock made him add even more force behind his "attack", causing the spitball to easily clear the distance and smack the Chunin on the back of the head.
The whole class gasped while Iruka was forced to pause in the middle of his lecture, his head slowly turning to look at the wide eyed Konohamaru who's blow pipe began to slip from his fingers onto the desk. The scar-faced teacher's eye twitched as his teeth clenched together, staring at the stunned student for a long moment before he finally began to speak.
"Konohamaru... What... did you just do?" His question pulled the boy out of his shock and he looked around rapidly with a nervous expression.
"U.. Uh, it was an accident, I swear. I was just m..making sure it was clean, that's all! I didn't think there was something in there!" The Honorable Grandson rambled out, waving his hands a bit in front of his face. His words were clearly not believed by Iruka, but as if to make sure his coffin was completely sealed, the last member of Hanabi's desk held their hand up.
"Sensei! There's a lot of spitballs under Konohamaru's chair. I think he was going to try and spit them at Hanabi-San." The student called out, causing Hanabi to glance at them a bit in surprise as her Byakugan fell off. The student was a young looking girl with dark blonde hair that had a swoop that went down to cover her right eye, and both eyes seemed to lack and iris, but was a pitch black color, somewhat similar to Hanabi's Byakugan.
Unlike the other girl that had moved Konohamaru's arm with her chakra string, this one was wearing a pale yellow shirt that ended at her shoulders, but had smaller gray sleeves coming out that went to her elbows and ended with an orange hem. The shorts she wore were a dark red and the sandals were a dark gray as well, but still opened toed. There was no visible pouch on her arm and she had a slightly bulkier appearance on her arms and legs than the brown-haired girl did. Her voice had a slightly high pitch, yet it was still gentle and commanding, grabbing everyone's attention the second it became audible.
Her claim, however, had everyone looking over at Konohamaru's chair, including the boy himself who could only stare with wide eyes at the pile of spitballs under his chair. The very same ones he had spat onto Hanabi's desk awhile ago. Including the large ones which still remained unrolled, allowing even Iruka to see them from his position due to the gap between each desk.
Konohamaru quickly jumped to his feet, ready to make plenty of excuses when Iruka simply appeared in front of him, grabbing the boy's ear and causing him to gasp in pain as he struggled. "A.. Ah, that hurts! Let go Iruka-Sensei!" He cried out, earning just a shake of the head from the man.
"And let you run away again? I won't be making that mistake again, Konohamaru. You're coming with me to see your grandfather." There was a loud whine from the small boy, but Iruka ignored it as he addressed the rest of the class. "You all do some self study until I get back and be sure to take what I said into consideration. We'll resume class once I deal with this." With that, he began to pull the boy away, who could only whine and glance towards the collection of spitballs under his seat with confusion. It was clear he had no idea how they got there.
But Hanabi did.
It was thanks to the Byakugan alone that she saw the thin veil seem to wrap around the collection of wet paper on their desk, making all of it take a strange clear shade with a blue aura covering it. Then the same blue strings came from the first girl again, sliding up the desk and silently placing all of the wads below Konohamaru's chair. Despite all eyes being on Konohamaru, the strings brought the pieces down rather obviously and she had no doubt Iruka should have been able to see it, but...
It was almost like they were invisible to the man.
The young Hyuuga turned her gaze towards the two sitting beside her as they grinned, both holding up V-ictory signs with their hands once Iruka was out the door. The action got a small smile from the girl and she bowed her head slightly in return.
"Thank you for that... I believe you kept me from aggressively attacking him. It would have been bad for my first day." Her words brought a laugh out of the blonde one and the brown-haired one just grinned, scratching her cheek.
"Don't worry about it. I should be saying sorry for not warning you about his trick in the first place. I think it was meant for me, but I decided to sit in the middle today. I didn't notice until it was too late." Hanabi just shrugged slightly, dismissing the girl's words with a wave of her hand.
"Don't worry. You were not the one that placed it there, or anything."
The girl shook her head a bit from Hanabi's words, holding her hand out with a smile a moment later. "The name's Mia Amore, by the by. I know we just met, but I hope we can be friends... and keep that jerk from messing with us." Hanabi's heart jumped at the Mia's words, but she hesitantly grabbed the girl's hand, shaking it slowly.
But before she could fully respond, the blonde leaned over from behind Mia, grinning and gripping Hanabi's hand as well. "And I'm Horo Yamanaka. It's a pleasure." The girl wore a large grin as she leaned forward, her black eyes some how sparkling with amusement. "And I'm a guy, by the way."
Hanabi's eyes widened before she could fully mask her emotions and she hastily glanced to the side, coughing a bit. "Ah... I knew you were, of course. Don't look down on my eyes." Both Mia and Horo grinned at that, but were both taken back by the small smile Hanabi sent their way as she moved her arm up and down to officially shake their hands.
"And it's a pleasure to meet you... I would like to be friends." The bright smile on their faces, and the looks of envy on the rest of the class, made Hanabi's heart jump with joy. She glanced down at the rabbit on her notebook, her eyes growing soft at the memory before she turned her gaze back towards her new friends.
'Maybe this wasn't a terrible mistake after all.'
Extra... End!
There we have it! The latest addition not only to the main story, but the extras as well! Will that Extra come into play later?
Bet your butt it will.
Anyways, for a few little notes about this chapter... This was to kind of show off that there's more to Kurenai than just Genjutsu. Something I feel was really missing from her kit as a Jounin. Those flower themes really come into play with her fighting style, so expect that to be explored once they get into more intense situations.
As for Kimura vs Naruto... Kimura could have won, if it really wanted to. Kimura is/was strong enough to push itself up with its jaw if it wanted to, but only with a lot of effort after the branches came down. That being said... Naruto could have either tried to hold it down, or just escape and reset Kimura to having to deal with hunting down clones. A big thing it wanted to avoid. In a straight and serious fight where Kimura was allowed to kill, though... Well, Naruto may have escaped, but she wouldn't have beat it.
Kimura's body works a lot like a spring, though. It has to pull itself back with its muscles to launch itself, although it can also push itself up rather easily with its jaw alone. To compare it to a Canon snake... Let's go with Manda; Orochimaru's boss summon. He's about 60 to 80% as strong as that one, if he's fighting seriously. Intelligence wise he falls behind, but he also has way less of an ego and can't preform any Jutsu. Shedding his skin is still a thing, though, but he's got a much odder body than Manda does.
Now for the extra! That one was kind of just a burst of "I have this planned later, but I've got no build up to it!" So I decided to write an extra to give Hanabi some limelight and just give more flavor to the world of Konoha in general. You can probably expect another thing about these Fireworks later on, but nothing too major like this one was.
As for "Prankster?" Konohamaru, the guy decided to try his hand at the same stuff he heard about his new crush: Naruto. She may have not been ever proven to be a prankster, but she was wildly considered one and Ebisu told him all of her old tricks. While he was forced to swear to never do anything like flooding the Hokage tower with chocolate, he never promised to keep away from mischief entirely. He did it to adapt her mindset to his own: Everything is training.
As for the other new characters!
Horo is actually based on a Canon, or at least in the anime, character! At least appearance wise. See if you can find it. The only real difference is his shirt... and possibly his gender. I couldn't find anything on the canon kid, so I made up the rest of his personality, powers, and family. His full name means "Hollow in the middle of the mountain." He was also originally a girl in the draft I drew up for this, about five seconds before I actually started writing it, but I decided I made too many 3 girl groups and tossed Horo in as a guy. Just a girly one, since he looks like his cousin Ino.
Mia Amore is actually a de-aged version of a character from my previous story: Hope is something to work for! All of her powers overall are going to be the same as well, and I guess you could consider her one of my more consistent OCs now. For those worried about that given where that story went with her...
… Well, cross your fingers. I know I had one person actually rave at me in a review/comment on that story when it happened to the last Mia. It was honestly surprising, given how minor she was, but don't worry too much. She's younger now and has to grow up with Hanabi!
Anyways! That's it for now. You might not see another chapter for quite awhile since I've been really busy on my videos, but I will try to get stuff out whenever I have free time. Real issue is inspiration to get writing again, but meh. It'll come with time!
Hope you enjoyed!