Kurenai was having her team sparring against each other as she watched. There was the sound of rushing wind as Asuma appeared next to her. "Yo." He said simply as Kurenai jumped slightly.
"Asuma-san, what's the occasion?"
"I have a joint training proposition for you. I have Anko's brat for the day." Asuma said quietly, as to not distract the two dueling students.
Kurenai raised her eyebrows. "Oh? And what would that be?"
"It would appear." Asuma started, taking in a drag of smoke. Kurenai twitched her eyebrow, tempted to slap it out of his face. "That our dear Anko is training a rather skilled combat and scouting nin. He managed to evade my team for over ten minutes."
Kurenai nodded, impressed. "I'm not surprised. He has one on one training with Anko-chan, after all." She smiled, thinking about her close friend. "What is it that you're proposing?"
"Joint training mission. Find and capture Naruto after he has a bit of time to hide"
Kurenai nodded, thinking about it.
"Sure. Hinata, Shino, Kiba! Report to training ground 15, immediately. We're doing a joint exercise with team 10 and Uzumaki."
Kiba frowned at that. "Naruto? What he's doing there?"
Kurenai hopped to the ground, smiling. "I'm sure Asuma-san will tell us once we get there." she smiled as the squad went off out of the woods.
Asuma smiled when he saw four figures come into view. "Naruto, head to training ground 44 and set up. I'll stall them for a bit."
Naruto nodded, running off at max speed to his homeland woods. Holy crap, he is fast. Asuma thought as he watched the orange blur disappear into the distance.
Kiba squinted at the orange clad genin run. "Was that Naruto?"
"Yeah, he's going to prepare for this exercise, but before that, how are you guys? Kurenai working you hard?" Asuma laughed, rolling his cigarette in his mouth. Kurenai smiled at him, cocking her hips slightly. "I sure hope I'm working them hard. And I know I've been working them harder than You." she says, emphasizing the last word. Asuma raised his hands in mock surrender, jesting with his fellow Jonin.
Ino gave a small squeal to her ex classmates. "They are soo cute together! I hope they hook up!"
"Ino, you really shouldn't fangirl about Asuma-sensei's personal life." Choji said, reaching into his bag. After a couple minutes of Asuma catching up with Kurenai, Asuma started walking towards Anko's preferred training ground at a slower rate than the average Shinobi.
"Asuma-Sensei, why are we moving so slow? What are we waiting for?" Ino whined, leading the pack of genin. Asuma gave another chuckle. "Glad you finally noticed. Since the jig's up, I'll explain what we are doing today." that got the attention of the genin as the turned to him.
"Today we are doing a Find and Capture exercise. Naruto is acting as the target, a missing nin who is hiding away in his base. Your job is to find and Subdue him. Alive, as he has important information we need. There will be no back up for either side, as the Nin works alone. You have four hours."
Kiba smirked, confident in his natural ability. "Psh, this will be easy. Naruto's a dobe, and he wears bright orange! This will be easy as pie." The Inzuka boasted as Hinata took a small breath in. She was a timid and non violent person, but gods alive, Kiba made her want to hit him sometimes.
Choji shook his head. "I don't think it will be that easy, Kiba." he said between bites. Kurenai smiled, the boy had really grown into himself. His self confidence had grown and he had become a fine young man. "We had some trouble capturing him earlier today."
Kiba rolled his eyes. "Of course you did, but there's six of us now! And besides, you got him in the end, right? This should be easy."
Asuma leaned over to Kurenai. "You should try to curb Kiba's arrogance. It just might end up biting him in the ass."
"Lord knows i've tried." Kurenai sighed. "It's been a slow process. At least he doesn't hit on me and Hinata anymore." one intense spar of Gentle Fisting put an end to that.
The eight ninja arrived at the gated and fenced off Forest of Death. Asuma turned to his students. "This is Training ground 44, or the Forest of death. The sheer amount of dangerous Fauna and Flora there gives its name. Naruto is in this forest, your job is to both capture him and escort him to the edge of the forest for extraction." Asuma said, reaching into his pack. "Should any of you be severely injured, set one of these off and point the open end to the sky." The Jonin said, handing out six flares. The team nodded, walking up to the forest fence.
"Uhm, Kurenai-sensei…" Hinata started, looking at the locked fence with danger signs.
"Yes, Hinata?"
"H-how are we s-s-suposed to get in? T-the gate is l-locked." Hinata said. Kurenai shrugged.
"Break in, i guess."
Kiba smiled, taking a running start at the gate. With a swift movement, he had jumped over the fence.
The other five followed the Inuzuka quickly. The forest is a dark one, with gnarled oaks overgrown with moss. The six of them moved cautiously, as the entire forest put the genin on edge.
"Hinata-san, could you please use your Byakugan to locate our target?" Shino asked, a small swarm of bugs scattering from him. Hinata nodded, her eyes turning veiny. Her face shifted into surprise, but then to a small smile. "There are multiple Naruto's within the perimeter of the training ground, doing various things."
"Multiple Naruto's? How's that possible? He couldn't make a clone a week ago!" Kiba said as he sniffed around. "And what the hell, does Naruto live here? The whole place smells like him and snakes, among other things."
"Those are his Shadow Clones." Shikarmu said with a yawn. "They're troublesome."
Naruto himself sat at his favorite spot in the forest. Technically, his home was not part of the training ground, but was easily mistaken to be. His favorite spot was on a branch of a twisty oak that spiraled around itself.
A clone popped, one that was a spider. "Ahh, so Hinata is using her Byakugan, cool, Dattebayo." naruto said, looking down at the forest floor.
His poor friends, entering his domain.
He got a memory set of Kiba attacking a clone setting up a trap, only to get hit by the first of many already set.
Ino was not in a good mood, pulling chunks of green Jello out of her hair. "Just exactly how many traps are in this stinking forest?" She complained as Kiba and Shikamaru helped Choji out of a pit trap.
Hinata grabbed Shino by the wrist, pulling him back abruptly. "Trip wire." She said simply, tossing a stick onto the offending territory. From the tree branches fell several large rocks and branches.
A death trap. Crude, but it would kill any unfortunate soul that it caught.
"Thank you for your quick intervention, Hinata-san. I did not notice that trap was there." Shino said as he sent some bugs to scout ahead.
Kiba and Ameraku had taken the rear position with Shikamaru. The dog stepped forward, only to be swept up off the ground into the air.
"Ameraku!" Kiba yelled in reaction to his partner's yip of surprise. The poor pooch had stepped into a snare trap.
Kiba quickly brought his partner down. "Did naruto trap every square foot of this damn nasty forest?!" Ino yelled at no one in particular.
"HEY! This is my home you're talking about, dattebayo!" Came a voice from above. The six of them looked up to see Naruto kneeling on a tree branch. "I would very much appreciate it if you did not insult my house, I live here you know."
Ino was already going through the hand signs for her mind transfer Jutsu. Naruto fell backwards, using the chakra on his feet to simply rotate to the underside of the branch. Ino frowned as she canceled the jutsu. Choji threw a Kuni at Naruto, who was hit in the chest. The clone puffed into a cloud of smoke.
"Shadow clone." Choji said simply. Shika nodded in agreement.
"It would be both too foolish and too troublesome for Naruto to actually meet us. He's probably elsewhere, deeper into the forest. Hinata, can you give us locations of all the Naruto's you see?"
"Hai." Hinata said, and listed off the several dozen locations of the clones.
Shikamaru grumbled, thinking. Should the six of them go out and hunt one by one, totally securing an elimination on a clone? Or should they split up and cover more ground? Decisions, decisions, so many he could make. Only a couple would be the right ones, and he really could not plan ahead for the unpredictable boy.
He had stepped into a trap that squirted his face with lemon juice. Freaking lemons!
After taking a moment, Shikamaru had created a plan. "Alright everyone, I think I have a plan for this troublesome exercise."
"We are going to divide into pairs to hunt down the various Narutos, as Hinata can't tell which one is real from this range. Ino, you're with Kiba. your mind transfer Jutsu will be useful for his offensive power. Choji and Shino will be a pair, and lastly Hinata and I." The five of them nodded and took off in different directions.
"We are going to split into pairs. One from the capture team, one member from the tracking team and one from the capture team. Ino, you're with Kiba. Your mind Jutsu will be useful for his offensive power. Hinata, you're with me. Choji and Shino will be our final pair."
Everyone nodded, but Ino as always complained.
"Oh, come on, why do I have to be with dog breath! He's going to get stuck in a tree after chasing a squirrel or something!" She whined
Kiba snarled at the blonde. "Hey! That is not true!" he retorted.
Shikamaru prayed that the Kami gave his strength to deal with troublesome blondes and Inuzuka.
Kurenai and Asuma watched their genin hidden from the tops of trees. An invisibility cloak genjutsu hid them from sight and sensing.
"You were right." Kurenai said to her partner fellow Jonin. "He is good. That's what, the tenth trap Hinata's fallen into?" Hinata had found most the traps with her eyes, but there were still a few that caught her. The other members of team ten, Kiba in particular, triggered at least three times as much. Each.
Asuma looked at the sky, calculating how much time the six genin had left. "Hrmm, they might not even find the real Naruto, despite how close they are getting." the Sarutobi said. Kurenai hummed before flash stepping to Shino's location. He and Choji were having less luck than Shikamaru and Hinata. Shino was currently pulling Choji out of a tree with his bugs, which distrubed the obese boy. He did not like the feeling of crawling bugs on his skin at all.
"How close are we to our target?" Choji asked, forcing his mind away from the feeling of thousands of bugs touching him.
Shino took a moment to focus and sense his bugs. "This way. Naruto is not far."
The two went off into the woods, not making it ten feet before Shino fell ten feet into the ground, and Choji was bombarded with water balloons. Naruto had, for the sake of his friends, not made any of the traps particularly dangerous. It was clear though, that a simple change, like trading water balloons for acid or poison, would change that. Shino worried for anyone that dared fight Naruto on his home turf, for they would have a bad time.
"Naruto is truly a difficult opponent when on his choice of battlefield." Shino said as the two of them walked deeper into the forest.
Choji's stomach grumbled. "Man, all these traps are making me hungry. I wish there was some food in this forest." he complained to Shino, who did not respond with more than a hum.
Ino and Kiba were straight up not having a good time. The two (Three, Kiba would argue vehemently) of them were running from a rather large swarm of killer wasps. "This is all your fault!" Ino snarled as she jumped over a tumbling log. Kiba glared at her. "My fault?! How the hell is this my fault! You're the person who missed the kunai throw!" The Inuzuka retorted.
"Yeah, well you missed that stupid smoke trap!"
This went on for some bit until they made it to a deep stream, jumping in to swim away from the bees.
"Oh, thank Kami." Kiba said as they breached the surface, gasping for air. Ino was right behind him, looking behind the two for the swarm. They drifted for a while until they were stopped by something. Kiba looked at what had halted their lazy descent down the river. "Huh? A fishing net?"
"Oi!" Said a clone, drawing their attention. "Get out of my net! You ain't supposed to be there,ya know!" The clone said, holding a bamboo fishing rod. He had a straw hat and a reed in his mouth
Ino rolled her eyes, placing her hands on her hips as she stood. "Well excuse us for trying to survive killer bees!" she snarled.
"No need to get fiesty, Ino." Naruto said in mock surrender. "Why don't we get you out of there and somewhere you two can dry off, ehh?" the clone offered.
Ameraku and Kiba got out of the river, thanking naruto for his offer. "Really, thanks, man. You might not be half bad after all." Kiba smiled as he and his partner shook dry.
"Kiba! Ew! Stop shaking like a damn dog!" ino shrieked.
Naruto took a deep breath in, hefting his basket with a few fish in it. "Can we just get going? I would hate for you all to die of hypothermia."
Clone 46 just hoped that the clones doing the exercise where having a better time than him.