Naruto: Hour Of Darkness
Battle History In The Ninja World
Chapter Three: Of Genin, Chuunin, and Jounin
Clover Haruno was a jounin. This meant, among other things, that his pay grade was several steps above a chuunin's. Therefore, he could afford to keep a fairly large backyard attached to his house, which he and his daughters used as a personal training ground. Some of Sakura's fondest memories were the elaborate traps she and her father had set up in this yard.
Somehow, she doubted that what was currently happening would ever make her favorite memories list. That was the problem with Lily, Sakura reflected ruefully. She didn't believe in doing anything half-assed.
Sakura flopped onto the ground, panting wearily. Lily had just run her through some exercises designed to measure her chakra capacity and followed it up with a brisk five minute spar.
Lily easily sat down beside her, and Sakura tried to work up the energy to glare at her. She wasn't even sweating, dammit!
"Well, little sister, you're definitely a Haruno," Lily said, gazing down at Sakura bemusedly. "Top marks for control, but no stamina."
"You're not even breathing hard," Sakura pointed out sourly.
Lily shrugged affably. "Yeah, that's right. Genin."
Sakura winced at the reminder and reluctantly conceded the point.
"Laharl, are you sure this is okay?" Flonne asked.
The diminutive Overlord waved his hand dismissively. "The old man said there was no problem."
"That's not it, Laharl!" Flonne cried, shaking her head. "You left Etna in charge of my students!"
Laharl contemplated this, then shrugged. "Eh. If they're dead when we get back, I'll buy you the third season of Justice Taskforce Prism Rangers."
Flonne's eyes widened happily before she caught herself and shook her head. Just as she was about to say something, Laharl carelessly added, "The special collector's edition."
Flonne positively glowed with happiness. "Alright!" she cheered, throwing her arms around Laharl. "It's a deal!"
"Knock it off, you Love Freak!" exclaimed Laharl, struggling to escape from the fallen angel's embrace.
Looking closely, you could see that Laharl wasn't struggling too hard.
Orochimaru stared in shock. When Kabuto had passed on the information that something unusual had happened in Konoha, he hadn't dreamed of anything like this.
There was an entire castle flying above Konoha.
"I really must learn how to do that," said Orochimaru, licking his lips with a tongue that was just slightly too long. Reaching back, he tucked a loose flap of skin behind his ear and grimaced.
Really, this would be the last time he used someone so overweight for one of his masks.
Etna, rather than deal with the stress of teaching six newbie demons the ropes, had declared that they had the day off to wander around town. Joutarou and Elise had taken her up on the offer, and had headed off to find a good book store. Motoko had hunted Naruto down and dragged him off for a tour of the town. Kasumi had decided to find a training ground for her marksmanship.
Priss and Akane were sparring in the forest.
Akane came down on Priss from above with a fist glowing with chakra, creating a small crater when the other girl somersaulted away. Priss landed on the ground, gripped her sword in two hands and raised it overhead, focusing her chakra.
"Blade Rush!" she called out, bringing the sword down as she made a chakra-assisted dash forward. Akane threw up her arms in a cross block in front of her face, protecting her face from the blade.
The edge of the blade sliced through Akane's suit, leaving a shallow slash extending from just below the right side of her chest to just above the left side of her hip. A quick flare of demonic red chakra cauterized the wound, stopping the bleeding and leaving an impressive scar.
Acting quickly, Akane rushed at Priss, who had completed her follow-through, and grabbed the back of the belt the other girl wore over her chest. Leaning forward, Akane whispered into Priss' ear the words, "Lion's Roar."
Priss barely had time to register the words before she felt herself being dragged upwards, her belt constricting painfully across her chest. A great light shone behind her, casting her silhouette across the ground in sharp relief.
Priss made a whimpering noise in the back of her throat. This was gonna hurt.
"ACHOU!"
Sometimes Priss reflected, it really sucked being right all the time.
Sasuke viewed the smoldering remains of the tree with a certain amount of quiet satisfaction. The technique he had badgered Kakashi-sensei into teaching him wasn't an actual combat technique like his Katon techniques; rather, it increased the effectiveness of such techniques in direct proportion to how much chakra he put into it.
Maybe he would've been able to get out of those ice mirrors if he had known this…Of course, freaking Naruto broke through them without even any effort…
When did the dead last get so strong, anyway? And why the hell was he acting so damn weak? It was practically criminal not to use the strength you had available to you, and as far as Sasuke knew, that was exactly what Naruto was doing.
Sasuke shook his head. No use thinking about that now.
…Stupid dead last.
Ibiki Morino, Special Jounin, was sitting in a small café, quietly enjoying a cup of tea.
At least, that was his original plan.
"So, what's under the bandanna, scar-face?" inquired the red-haired girl, her tail waving back and forth lazily.
Ibiki very firmly repressed his desire to twitch.
"What's that place, Naruto-kun?" Mokoto asked, pointing at a nearby building.
The blonde ninja glanced over and dismissed the building from his notice. "Just some restaurant, that's all."
Naruto's motto when it came to food was 'If it's not ramen, it's CRAP!'. Naruto ate at the Ichiraku every chance he got, but other restaurants were so far beneath his notice they might as well not exist.
Motoko looked at the restaurant and came to a decision. As Naruto turned to walk off, she stretched out one arm and caught him by the collar of his loud orange jacket. Naruto managed to get out a strangled gasp before he was jerked to a halt, his arms wind milling furiously.
"I'm hungry," Motoko said. "Buy me lunch here."
"But-but-but I was gonna buy you ramen!" Naruto whined.
"I'm not gonna walk another step until I get some food," Motoko said, releasing Naruto and crossing her arms.
Naruto recognized the look in her eyes as being perilously close to the one Sakura used right before she was about to smack him one. With a resigned sigh, he escorted Motoko inside the restaurant.
Afterwards, upon further reflection, Naruto decided he liked teriyaki.
Still wasn't ramen, though.
Kasumi was standing in the middle of a ring of practice targets, facing towards one and slowly breathing through her nose, her eyes closed as she focused her chakra. Her blonde curls slowly swayed in a phantom wind. Snapping her eyes open, she was outlined in a smooth yellow glow. Drawing the bow up so her arrow was level with her eye, she carefully pulled back the bowstring. The yellow glow around her body flowed down her arms, through her hands, and started collecting around the head of the arrow.
"Poison Blast!"
Released from the bow, the arrow glowed brightly and split apart, turning into multiple streaks of pure chakra that each described a semi-circular arc before converging on the practice target with a soundless flare of light.
Viewing the results of the technique, Kasumi decided she was satisfied. The target had great holes in it that looked almost like something had melted the wooden bulls eye and straw beneath it. A sharp nod set her blonde curls swaying as she drew out a bundle of arrows, holding them loosely between her fingers.
Kasumi channeled chakra to her legs and leapt. At the height of her jump, some thirty or forty feet in the air, she spun her body so she was looking down and started firing.
When she landed, each of the remaining targets had a single arrow pierced directly through the bullseye.
Joutarou and Elise had actually managed to find a decent bookstore. Currently, they were comfortably sitting down, leafing through some cheap paperback novels. Because they were ninja, however, they had managed to turn even this into a training exercise.
The owner of the bookstore was fairly unnerved by the fact that the two ninja browsing his wares were sitting on the actual walls while doing so, but they were quiet and respectful, so he pushed down his misgivings and basically ignored them.
Not looking up from his book, Joutarou addressed Elise, his voice faintly muffled by his ever-present mask. "Elise."
The orange-haired Star Mage made an inquisitive sound, also not tearing her attention from the novel she was reading.
"Hair band's slipping." Joutarou said.
Elise absently reached up and secured it.
No further sound was made.
To Be Continued…Sakura: Slipping out of the night, a pink shadow strikes!
Naruto: Ehh…What're you doing, Sakura-chan?
Sakura: Beautiful, stealthy, fabulous! Phantom Thief Sakura!
Naruto: Eeeeehhhh?
Etna: Quick, somebody get me a pen! I need to make some notes!
Sakura: Phantom Thief Sakura has set her sights on the fabulously expensive Mirror-Wheel Gem! Can she sneak through the security guarding it and make it hers?
Naruto: Eh…wha…huh? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!
Sakura: Nothing is safe from the legendary Phantom Thief! That gem will be mine!
Etna: Bravo! I'm impressed!
Naruto: I'm confused.
Sakura: Next time, on Phantom Thief Sakura! Episode Four: The Mysterious Secret of The Mirror-Wheel Gem!
Sakura: I'll steal your heart!
