"I can't believe she stabbed me." Naruko was surprised that he was still going on about this. He had been upset yesterday as they left the hospital but she wasn't expecting him to still be so upset. Of course she guessed not having her injuries heal in minutes would make her more annoyed too. She decided to throw in her own thoughts on the subject.
"To be fair she did say she wouldn't hesitate to harm us in the fight, y'know after she broke my wrist." That had hurt a lot, but she had recovered quickly as always.
"I think our plan of trying to enrage a Jonin into chasing a single Genin was a little flawed."
"No shit Hinata, she stabbed me!" Naruko giggled a bit, it was sorta bizarre seeing Sasuke so talkative.
"Calm down Sasuke the medic nin already patched you up, there's not even a hole in your hand anymore"
"Yeah but there shouldn't have been a hole in my hand at all, and I still remember the pain. And you know you'd be madder if she had done the same to Naruko."
"Naruko is my girlfriend of course I'd be angrier. And she injured all of us so it's not like you're the only one who go attacked."
"Yeah breaking my wrist hurt a lot."
Sasuke looked down at her fully healed wrist. "You know I hadn't thought about it yesterday, but how did your wrist heal before we even made it to the hospital?" She figured this would come up at some point, it was a simple truth that he would learn about her fast healing.
Naruko looks down at her wrist and then shrugs, "I just heal really fast I guess." She wasn't sure if it was because she used the nature transformation or if it's the demon inside of her. Maybe both. She had always been a fast healer but that really didn't say much.
The three Genin were currently gathered in training ground 14 once more. Their sensei should arrive any minute now. With a puff of smoke the woman appears. Speak of the devil. "Good you three are here. Before we begin I wanted to congratulate you one more time on passing my test. You three need a lot of work, but you might just make it."
"Apologize."
"For what Sasuke?"
"For stabbing me!" Hinata lets out a sign of annoyance.
"Will you shut up about that."
"Not until she apologizes, what if I lost my hand because of her? How would you feel if you lost yours? Have some empathy Hinata."
"You didn't even lose your hand calm down."
"Not until I get justice for my injury. So apologize!" He said turning back to Kurenai-sensei.
"Would stabbing you again count as an apology, because that's the best you're going to get if you keep talking."
"Shutting up."
Naruko speaks up. "Hey sensei. I hadn't really thought about it yesterday but what was the purpose of the glass balls?" One breaking hadn't stopped them from passing the test so clearly that had been part of the lie. And maybe that's all it was, but Kurenai-sensei seemed like the type to hide lessons in everything she does.
"They represent an important package that you don't want to damage fighting another ninja. Be it battle plans, a hostage or official you're looking to rescue/capture, or just a jutsu scroll that we might not have in the village. In any of those situations you would fail your mission if you damaged those things. Obviously you didn't succeed perfectly, but that's what I'm here for. If you all could retrieve important packages from a near S-rank kunoichi as Genin then you wouldn't need a Jonin sensei. They were also meant to make you work against each other but you three didn't even consider it. A large part of the reason you passed."
Kurenai continues on seeing her redheaded student nod along, clearly accepting her answer."Now then as I said yesterday I'll be breaking down our training schedule. We'll meet here at 8am every weekday. Until 11am we'll be doing teamwork exercises. This will include practicing moving in formation along with combination attacks, and general training for teaching you to predict your teammates action. Then we'll have lunch and go to the mission office. We should generally be finished by 1pm. Then I'll have the three of you spar against each other in a free for all for either an hour or until there is a winner. At 2pm I will train the winner in a one on one session, then at 3pm I'll train the person who comes in second. Finally at 4pm I'll train the one who came in last. While you aren't required to stay and train while the one on ones are happening, I would encourage you to take the time to train with your other teammate." They would hopefully take that message to heart, the more familiar they become with each others skill sets the better off they'll be. She doubted it would be much of an issue with Naruko and Hinata, the two girls had been training together for years now, but hopefully Sasuke wouldn't have any issue training with his teammates. Although seeing as he was already bantering with the two girls she suspected it wouldn't be much of an issue.
Before they can ask any questions she continues. "On Saturday we'll meet here at 9am and will be doing mock battles. Sometimes it will be all three of you against me, other times it will be two of you against the other. And sometimes I will have other leaf ninja come act as your enemies. The ninja I bring in could range anywhere from an elite Jonin like myself to another team of Genin. We will do this for two hours. Then you'll be given a lunch break and We'll do more one on ones. This time it will be for two hours each. On these days the order is picked randomly. You will have Sundays off. I recommend avoiding training on those days to give your bodies a chance to rest. Constant work will only do harm in the long run. Lastly I encourage you to do your own physical conditioning as I will not be wasting our time by making you run laps." She saw no benefit in spending their time telling them how to exercise, this is further compounded by the fact that the three kids have different body types and fighting styles so certain exercises might benefit one but hinder the other. "However that being said, I wake up at 5am to begin my own work outs, if any of you are industrious enough to find me then I'll allow you to join me. Now any questions?"
"What will we be doing during the one on ones? And will there be a difference between the weekdays and Saturday?" It was the only male member of the team who asked.
"There will be differences between the two. On Tuesday, Thursday and an hour on Saturday I will be training you in the subject you chose for your self study. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday and the other hour on Saturday I will be training you in the core ninja arts along with one extra skill I think you would benefit from. The order of what we focus on will be different week to week." Sasuke nods seemingly satisfied with that answer. Hinata takes her turn and asks.
"What should we expect on these missions?"
"They're D-ranks. They're going to seem like chores at first but try and look for the hidden training in them."
The red head asks. "Are we not taking missions on weekends?"
"No, the weekends are for having a greater focus on training and relaxation. Everyone needs a break sometimes." Seeing as there are no more questions she continues. "Alright, we've wasted enough time talking about training let's actually start training. We're going to start real basic." She takes out three blindfolds and one of the glass balls. "I want you all to put these on, over your eyes. Hinata if you activate your Byakugan I will know and I will punish you." The three Genin each walk up and grab a blindfold putting it on and awaiting further orders. "Good, now I want you to pass the ball between each other. If the ball breaks then the person who wasn't supposed to be throwing or catching will have a small dose of poison injected into them. It will only subtly change their senses but each dose will increase the effect. Don't worry it won't cause any lasting damage and isn't lethal. The antidote is fast acting as well." Essentially the more they failed the easier it would be to fail again. She doubted they would do well today, but that would change with time.
"Why is the person not involved getting punished?"
"Because more often than not it's not you who is punished for your mistakes, it's your teammates." Her tone was grim, there wasn't a single Jonin in Konoha who hadn't seen that principal first hand. She walks over and places the ball in Naruko's hand. The girl gets the message and speaks, "Incoming Hina-chan." She tosses the ball to where she last saw the other girl. The sound of a ball shattering rings through the air. Kurenai expected as much, Hinata and Sasuke are going to have an especially hard time with this, they've been trained to rely on their visual prowess. She walks over to the boy and gently pricks him with a poisoned senbon, she then takes out another ball and gives it to him.
And so it goes, by the end of the three hours the kids could barely toss the ball straight. Unsurprisingly Naruko had the easiest time catching the ball and working without her vision. She had a sneaking suspicion the girl had already started to develop an immunity to her poison, Kurenai would have to give her more potent dosages. Of course she would eventually become immune to that too, but making her immune to poisons was not a bad thing, it would just mean she'd have to get creative with making new poisons. In many ways she was actually looking forward to it.
That was another benefit of this exercise she didn't tell them, they'd all develop an immunity to basic sensory and paralytic poisons by the time they actually mastered the exercise. Seeing as they need to move on she quickly tosses three senbon into each of their necks, this one laced with the antidote. In less than a minute all three of the kids had stopped staggering and removed their blindfolds. "Alright let's go get lunch. Today we'll eat out, you can consider it a celebration for becoming my Genin, but starting tomorrow there will be a rotation of who brings lunch for everybody, Sasuke your first. Buy it or make it, it's up to you. Hinata your after Sasuke, followed by Naruko. I'll bring lunches for us last."
"What's the point?" She figured he wouldn't understand the value in eating together.
"You all might be teammates and it's fine if you can just work together, but things work better for everyone, well maybe not your enemies, if you three actually forge interpersonal bonds. It makes it harder for someone pretending to be you to slip in and it gives you a base to build morale." The boy nods, clearly content with that answer. She was beginning to think his psyche evaluations weren't accurate. Supposedly he's supposed to be arrogant and power hungry, but she can see a desire for knowledge for what mostly seemed to be for the sake of knowledge. Perhaps in another life he would have been a scholar. He at the very least seemed to be taking the concept of friendship with his teammates seriously. This was the what damned the report the most to her. It said the boy hated everyone his age and sought to bring them down, but he seemed to already be getting along with the two girls. Well enough to be complaining about being stabbed at the very least.
"Now then anywhere in particular you'd like to go?"
"Ichiraku Ramen."
"Yakiniku Q."
The two girls spoke at the same time and stare at each other. Hinata's expression is stern, Naruko's is challenging. Naruko's turns into a pout. Hinata sighs, "The Dumpling shop?" It was also known as the Dango shop. Naruko nods her head. Kurenai could only guess that this is an exchange that happens regularly if they could resolve it without even speaking. Still they had another teammate to consider.
Kurenai looks at the boy, "You fine with that Sasuke?"
"I don't mind."
Kurenai nods and says "Then let's go to the Dumpling shop." She wonders if a certain snake summoner will be there.
She was. She had also immediately made eye contact with her, well this was as good a time as any to introduce her team. "Hey Nai-chan, who're the kids?"
"Hello Anko, these are my Genin. Naruko, Hinata, Sasuke, meet Mitarashi Anko, my best friend. Anko meet my Genin." Kurenai sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as she saw Anko smiling wickedly at her students. Hinata and Sasuke were blushing as they stared at her open trench coat, Naruko looked completely baffled. It wasn't surprising, the whole get up was part of Anko's strength. It aided in seduction and also helped at times to sell the idea that she's a bit psychotic, T&I tended to work better when their prisoners were unsettled from the get go. Plus they needed to keep the image up at all times. If traitors or spies thought she was a softy before being captured then they would think much the same afterwords. T&I for this reason was one of the most strenuous jobs in the village. They were constantly on the job, even when they're with their loved ones. Any less and their carefully crafted facade would crumble.
"Ah look at them they're so embarrassed by a mature woman like myself. Well, do you like what you see?"
"Yes." Kurenai chuckled, leave it to Hinata to be blunt about her sexuality.
"Hey Hina-chan, would you like it if I dressed like that? You're blushing a lot."
"Only in private." Naruko nods, accepting the answer.
"Hina-chan do you like them big like hers?"
"No I actually prefer that yours are smaller."
"Oh my Nai-chan it looks to me like you've got a couple of little cuties on your team, send them to me in a few years. They might just end up being my type." Anko says slyly.
Kurenai snorts and says. "I'm going to tell Hana you said that."
"No don't do it Nai-chan! I was only kidding! You know I love Hana!" The tears were fake and they both knew it. Anko and Hana Inuzuka had been dating for a few years now and Anko had told Kurenai in private she wanted to put a ring on the other girls finger once the seal on her neck was removed. That was another aspect of Anko, she had a public persona to keep but Hana knew that, it was part of the job. They still liked to tease the snake summoner about it regardless.
Kurenai waved a waiter over, quickly selecting a few dishes for her and her students while the kids were focused on the Anko's fake tears.
"Do you mean Hana Inuzuka, Kiba's older sister?" It was Hinata who asked, from her expression she seemed mildly surprised.
"You know the little brat?"
"He was in our class."
"Well then yeah, I've been dating Hana-chan for about three years now."
"Does she knows her little brother called us," She gestures between herself and Naru-chan, "dykes before? When we came out. And on multiple other occasions." Ah that explains the surprise at least. Hinata likely thought Hana wouldn't be gay, given Kiba's apparent homophobia.
"Hina-chan be nice, we already made up with him."
"I was not trying to bring any harm to him, but given that he called us dykes despite his own sister being gay puts his actions in a much worse perspective, does it not? I almost feel as though we forgave him too easily now."
"I guess." The redhead looked confused, well Kurenai wouldn't fault her for it, it's easy to retroactively get upset over something that was once forgiven. The hurt doesn't go away just because apologies were made. People just weren't that simple, if they were the ninja villages wouldn't be constantly preparing for the next big war.
Anko cackles, "Oh Hana-chan's gonna love this, so will Tsume!"
"By the way, I've taken the liberty of ordering our food."
"Thanks sensei." The three kids chorus together.
"So Nai-chan what made you decide you wanted to take a team this year?" Kurenai had never told anyone about her arrangement with the Hokage, it was just a touch to personal. Of course Kurenai was prepared for the question and had an answer that wasn't entirely false.
"I heard Kushina-sensei's legacy was graduating." Kurenai had been a Genin under the red haired woman, along with Maito Gai and Uzuki Yugao.
"You knew my mom?" It was Naruko who spoke. Kurenai was a bit surprised, she hadn't realized that Naruko was aware of her mothers identity, but it was public information so perhaps she shouldn't be surprised. Did she know who her father was too then? Perhaps not, it was hard to say.
"Of course I knew her, she was my sensei when I was a Genin."
"Oh cool, can you tell me anything about her? I only really know her name."
"Why hasn't the Hokage or anyone else told you anything? It's not like he forbade people from telling you." It's true, he had only made information on the girls father classified. She couldn't help but wonder why the girl hadn't asked Hiashi or Teuchi about her. Hell she could have even gone to the Hokage and asked, he had no reason to keep it a secret.
"I've only ever asked the Hokage and all he says is, "Your parents were great heroes." or he'll just deflect the question. And then I guess I was never curious enough before now to ask Hiashi or Teuchi-ojisan."
Anko speaks up. "I'm surprised your little girlfriend never asked."
"Oh I've asked, but they both told me they wouldn't say anything until Naru-chan asks them herself. The most I've gotten was the name out of Otou-sama." Kurenai blinks, well that explains it.
"So can you tell me about my mom or not?"
"Sure, anything in particular you'd like to know?"
Naruko hesitates before asking quietly. "Did she want me?" Kurenai felt her heart wrench at the question. Naruko had never had a chance to meet Kushina-sensei or see the sheer joy she exuded whenever talking about her child. She clenched her fist, if she had been better those years ago then she would have been able to let Naruko know about her mother far earlier. How long had she struggled with these hidden doubts? She let out a breath and answered.
"More than you'll ever know. The day she found out she was pregnant with you she seemed to be practically glowing with happiness. It was almost like Konoha had a second sun for a few weeks. As time wore on it became a more muted happiness. When she found out you were going to be a girl all she did for months was talk about how she'd make you her little princess. In many ways I think she felt you were her greatest accomplishment. I have no doubt she'd be proud of the young woman you're growing into."
Hinata gently runs her hand up and down Naru-chan's back. She knew the other girl must be feeling pretty emotional at hearing she was in fact loved, for now this is the best she can do to soothe her. She hears the girl faintly whisper, "Kaa-chan." Hinata can't help but smile. She knew the girl appreciated the gifts connecting her to the extinct clan. Because even if the girl would deny it, she knew deep down that the girl wanted desperately to know her family. But she buried it under layers of apathy towards them thanks to the villagers abuse. "Was she strong?"
Kurenai grins, the woman was more than just strong, "She and Tsunade-sama are the strongest kunoichi I've ever met. She was easily a kage level shinobi with S-rank Kenjutsu, Taijutsu, and Fuinjutsu. When she used that in conjunction with her signature chakra chains she was almost unstoppable on the battlefield. She was also Jonin level in every other ninja art. She had actually been in contention for becoming the Yondaime. She's the reason that I'm Jonin level in Kenjutsu." Her Taijutsu style is also what Gai based the Goken on. He simply adapted it to better fit his body type and focus more on the pure force of it.
"What is her Taijutsu style like? Oh thank you." the latter half is stated as her food along with the others are brought to them. Kurenai eyes Hinata, the white eyed girl was staring down the waiter who had just been glaring at Naruko. The redhead likely wasn't even aware of it, or if she was she didn't acknowledge it.
"I think you'd like it, you already seem fond of kicks. However I never learned her style, but I know someone who knows every level of the style. If you want to stick around after we're done today I'll introduce you." Kurenai was happy to help her student. She turns to look at the other two, seeing as they had been left out of the conversation only to see Hinata glaring at her fiercely. She acknowledges it and mouths the words "Later." She wasn't going to make a scene in public, they'd deal with whatever this problem is during their one on one later. She genuinely isn't sure of why the white eyed girl shifted her anger towards her from the waiter. It was likely for a different reason, but she would need to find out soon.
The group settles into Idle chatter for a bit only for Anko to shout, "Hey Hana-chan! You'll never guess what I found out!" The woman with long brown hair tied into a ponytail had just stepped into the dumpling shop.
"Oh is there a discount on dango?" her voice has a teasing lilt to it.
"Don't even joke about that. No it's hilarious, well it will be for me. You'll be mad."
"What did Kiba do?" It was the only thing that really amused Anko that also made the brunette angry. Kurenai chuckled, of course Hana had figured it out instantly.
"Turns out he called these two a couple of dykes." She says jerking a thumb towards the Genin. Seeing the look on her girlfriends face she laughs. "You can kill him later, hopefully while I get to watch, for now come eat with us." Hana sighs and takes the seat next to Anko. Leaning on her shoulder.
"I've missed you."
"I've missed you more."
The Genin were all a little surprised, Anko had just been so boisterous. Now she was so, well, sweet.
"So Hana how did the mission go?"
"It was pretty easy just had to hunt down and capture a B-rank missing nin from Iwa. He was surprisingly weak for his rank."
The three Jonin fall into conversation, while it's happening Sasuke is staring hard at Hana clearly thinking about something. Finally he seems to give up on figuring whatever it is and asks. "Do I know you from somewhere?"
"You were pretty little so you probably don't remember, but I was on Itachi-kuns team. I briefly went to the academy with him, but he had been a Chunin at the time he was assigned to my team, thanks to him graduating early we had a missing space and he had just become Chunin so he was put on my team. Since his own team died in the exam." The boy was probably to young to even remember Itachi's first team. "So I used to hang out with Itachi-kun at your house after training."
Kurenai stands and speaks. "Sorry to interrupt," Not really, it's better for everyone if she gets the boys mind off Itachi. "But we need to go get our mission if we're going to stick to my schedule. It was good seeing you two. Be sure not to be caught going at in public. Again." The three Genin look at them and raise an eyebrow at that, again?
As it turned out Kurenai-sensei hadn't been lying when she said D-ranks would be like chores. In fact they weren't just like chores they were chores. Oddly enough Naru-chan didn't seem to bothered by that. She actually seemed kind of happy. Maybe she had figured out the secret training in it. Hinata and Sasuke certainly hadn't. All they were doing was pulling weeds.
"How can you enjoy this Naruko?"
"Well it's a lot like what I have to do when I'm gardening, so it's not much different from what I do for fun." Well that explained it at least. Hinata couldn't bring herself to enjoy this. She had helped Naru-chan garden before but normally their was no old woman glaring at the redhead for the sin of being alive. Maybe that's the secret training, learning how to deal with clients who don't like them and who they, in turn, don't like. Hinata certainly had been holding back her annoyance, it would do no good to yell at their client while on the job.
They finished about an hour later, their hands dirty and their knees sore from squatting for so long. Kurenai-sensei hadn't helped them at all, instead just watching over them while relaxing. Maybe that is supposed to represent the fact that their Jonin-sensei won't always be there to help them. Hinata had to tell herself that there's really a meaning to this or she might have gone insane.
"Good job team, now we'll go report back to the Mission Desk. Then we'll get back to training." They only had to report directly to the Hokage for C-rank missions that end up involving combat or any higher ranked mission. Otherwise the Mission Desk would take care of things for them.
It was a simple affair, all they had to do was grab a form that was made specifically for D-ranks. Fill it out and then turn it in to the report box. The Mission Desk would do the rest.
They returned to training ground 14 and Kurenai spoke. "Alright as promised it's time for the free for all. Anything goes today, but know that in the future I will sometimes limit you to only two ninja arts of my choosing. Go at each other with the intent to kill, I will stop any killing blows so do not worry. If I have to stop a blow for you then you're out and have lost. Begin."
Naruko flies through a series of hand signs casting a genjutsu on her two teammates. "Demonic Illusion: Hell viewing technique." She doesn't wait to see if the Genjutsu worked or not, launching straight towards Hina-chan. She performs a spin kick only for her foot to meet chakra metal as Hina-chan raises her arm, Byakugan blazing.
"Naru-chan I've fought you enough times to know you always start with a genjutsu. It's why I always activate my Byakugan as soon as a fight starts." Naruko knew this fact well, her specialty is completed countered by Hina-chan and it would be by Sasuke as well once he unlocks his Sharingan. She'd have to ask Kurenai-sensei if she knew of a way around that. Naruko feels a heat quickly approaching from behind and dodges to the side. The fireball was now on a collision course with Hina-chan. The white eyed girl dodges out of the way only a second slower than herself. Naruko retreats as Hina-chan turns her focus to the Uchiha.
Hinata was met by the ocular prowess of the Uchiha. "When did you unlock your Sharingan?"
"Yesterday right before Kurenai-sensei stabbed me. Even with me being able to see everything in slow motion I couldn't react fast enough." He says lashing out with a punch that she deflects.
"Then do you realize you're in my range of divination?" She lashes forward with the Eight Trigrams Sixty Four Palms. But she knows it's failing as she can feel none of her hits connecting. She couldn't manage to complete it, as she feels her girlfriends foot launching her to the side. She flips and slides back, tossing a volley of kunai at the other two. She manages to nick them both, they had become distracted by each other. Good all her kunai were laced in her poison, nothing lethal, simply a paralytic. She never brought the lethally poisoned kunai to spars. She sees Sasuke lock up just on time to get ax kicked by Naruko. His head goes crashing into the ground. And then he is gone, replaced by a log. She whirls as she spots him behind her, her Jyuken strike connects with his shoulder.
He felt his arm go limp and cursed. He can't cast Jutsu like this. And his Taijutsu is severely limited as well. He sluggishly attempts to retreat only to be met by foot to his temple. Or he would have had Kurenai-sensei not blocked it. "Sasuke you're out, you get to hang back with me while the other two finish." With that she grabs him and a feeling of nausea washes over him. "That's the Shunshin no Jutsu taking effect, it's a little had to stomach at first. By the way congratulations on activating your blood line. It's a powerful tool but try not to end up becoming overly reliant on it. Also it's okay to copy your allies techniques but you should ask for permission before using them, unless it's life or death. It may not seem like much but it shows them you respect them and their hard work. Additionally anything you copy you should train with because while you'll learn the jutsu, mastery still takes effort."
Kurenai smiles, that was part of the reason she had hurt him as badly as she had. He had a tool and the sooner he learns to use it the better. She can't wait to force him to learn how to use Genjutsu. He's fortunate enough to be able to cast Genjutsu through eye contact and she's not letting that go to waste. Really she's going to make all of them learn. Just as how Kushina-sensei made her learn to use Kenjutsu.
Of course she would also help him train with what he copied, she had meant it when she said mastery still takes effort. It's why Hatake Kakashi was the premier Ninjutsu specialist in Konoha. The man had learned hundreds of jutsu, it was mere hyperbole when people said he knew over a thousand, and more importantly he had mastered each and every one of them. It's why he is currently one of three active duty S-rank nin in the service of Konoha. The other two were Gai and Jiraiya (the Hokage didn't count as he doesn't take missions). Kurenai was almost at that point herself, She just had to push her Kenjutsu a little farther and she'd be there. She'd likely make it within the next year. Of course that's just how it is with elite Jonin, they were all either S-rank or borderline S-rank.
She turned her attention back to the two girls who had been fighting for the past minute. Neither were showing signs of fatigue, that's good. Fights made a bit of bell curve in terms of length and strength of the fighters. Genin, Elite Jonin and Kage (as rare as fights between Kage level ninja are) tended to have long fights, while Chunin, Tokubetsu, Jonin and regular Jonin tended to have short fights. For Genin it's because they are so sloppy that they make mistakes that drag the fight on, but their opponents also make mistakes that don't allow them to capitalize. As for Elite Jonin and Kage their fights are longer because by the time they reach that level they almost never make mistakes, of course almost never isn't never and the first to make such a mistake is the one who ends up dead. For Chunin fights are shorter Because they and their opponents are skilled enough to capitalize on mistakes and there are plenty being made. Finally for Tokubetsu Jonin and Jonin they don't make as many mistakes but they aren't quite good enough to make one once in several hours of fighting at their peak, but rather a few minutes and that is enough for the opponent to win, the boarder between low A-rank to high A rank and low S-rank is like night in day really. S-rank nin almost never made mistakes and neither did their opponents. Well all this is assuming they are fighting people of roughly equal skill Obviously a fight between a Genin and a Kage will always end with the Genin dying instantly. She had gotten seriously derailed, the point is it's important for them to have stamina to last long in fights, it would help them immensely in the long run.
Naru-chan leaps backwards out of the way of her Jyuken strike. Hinata couldn't give Naru-chan time to sit still, if she used her nature transformation then Hinata might just lose. It's not like she has problems losing to the redhead but she's been waiting for hours to talk to Kurenai-sensei and losing will only put it off more. She dashes forward and imitating her girlfriends favorite move she performs a spin kick. Naru-chan blocks with her hand. Hinata smirks in victory. The kick is blocked but Naru-chan's hand falls limp.
"Hina-chan when did you learn to use the Jyuken with something other than your fingers?"
"I've been practicing it for a while now, I've always thought it silly that we don't use our legs in combat at all."
The favor of the fight quickly goes to Hinata as now that Naru-chan can't use her hand she was having a harder time of deflecting the strikes she couldn't dodge. She lunges forward with a strike aimed at Naruko's chest only to feel a foot connecting with her chin. She falls over unconscious. When she awakens next it's to the sight of her concerned girlfriend. "Sorry Hina-chan didn't mean to kick you that hard."
"It's okay Naru-chan. But last I checked you weren't that fast." It's true, Naruko hadn't been moving that fast during the entirety of the fight.
"Ah well I figured if I intentionally moved slower after you saw me using the nature transformation so much in the past two days you might have forgotten my true speed. Guess it worked." Hinata hadn't been expecting that but the redhead was absolutely right. She'd have to work on keeping track of these things better. The loss was annoying but she wouldn't be mad, her girlfriend had used a strategy Hinata hadn't even considered and had won for it. It wouldn't work again.
Kurenai-sensei finally speaks, having walked up when she was knocked out. "So Naruko will get to go first. Hinata you have an hour break, Sasuke you have two. As stated earlier I recommend you two practice working together while I'm with Naruko." Naru-chan smiles at the white eyed girl.
"I'll talk to you later Hina-chan. Just you wait before you know it I'll be winning all our spars." Hinata could tell Naru-chan was happy. Her girlfriend hadn't won a single spar in the past month.
"Talk to you soon." Hinata gives her girlfriend a quick peck and walks off with Sasuke in tow. Before she can leave Kurenai calls out.
"If you two want to practice together I'd recommend heading to training ground 23 it's typically empty at this time of day." The two nod and walk off. She turns to Naruko and says. "Alright, you're in luck, because you have the same specialty as me you actually get to practice it 4 times a week instead of three. But we aren't going to work on your genjutsu today. I'm going to be focusing on your ninjutsu instead. Do you know your affinity?"
"No I couldn't find any chakra paper." Well it wasn't exactly something that is easily accessible to Genin so it didn't really come as a surprise to Kurenai. That was why she came prepared.
"That's okay, I have some with me today." She gets out a small square sheet of paper. "Just channel some chakra into it. If the paper crinkles then you have Raiton, if it's wet you have Suiton, if it burns you have Katon, if it crumbles you have Doton, and finally if it splits you have Futon." She wondered if the girl would have fuuton like her father or suiton like her mother. Or maybe something different, while chakra natures do tend to be hereditary they also drew some influence from environmental factors. It's why the five villages had majority affinities matching their countries.
Naruko takes hold of the paper and channels chakra into it. It split into two pieces, one half was wet but the other was seemingly normal. Odd, normally when someone has two affinities where one is fuuton it splits and then both sides turn. But for some reason only half did, that normally only happens in the event of three affinities. "Naruko can I see that normal piece?" Naruko shrugs and hands it to her.
Kurenai gasps as the paper grows wet and then crumbles. She hadn't been channeling chakra. It's like the piece just sucked it out of her! She gets out another sheet. "Do it again for me." Naruko looks at her in confusion but does so regardless. The same result as last time. "Alright hand me the plain one again." Kurenai was careful with her chakra this time, making sure absolutely none was leaking out. She carefully grabs it again and once more it gets wet and crumbles. She felt it for sure that time, it's really sucking out her chakra.
"Sensei why are you putting your chakra in that piece?"
"I'm not. Naruko, I think you have some kind of kekkei genkai." She had never heard of a kekkei genkai that lets someone suck chakra out of other people, or maybe even jutsu, before. But that's exactly what the paper was doing. She'd have to figure out a way to teach the girl to use this.
"Really, that's so cool, what do you think it does?"
"If I had to guess I'd say it sucks chakra out from others."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because the blank piece took my chakra without me channeling any, it even did so when I was holding it back."
"Oh, that's cool."
"So in light of our new discoveries we'll have you spend the first thirty minutes of today's one on one doing suiton training. Just grab a leaf off a tree." She was going to start with Suiton simply because it was the affinity they both shared. The girl runs to the nearest tree and snatches a leaf. "Your goal is two fold, first is to suck water out of the leave then to make it into a perfect sphere balanced on your finger. If you want to advance quickly in this you should probably do it outside of our regular training as well. Then for the latter half of the one on one we'll be trying to figure out ways for you to use your kekkei genkai, don't feel bad if you can't get it today or even in a few weeks." If they were going to try and figure this out from scratch then it would likely have many days or weeks of little to no progress.
Thirty minutes later Naruko had made practically no progress on drawing water out of the leaf, she was prepared to continue but Kurenai-sensei had alerted her it was time to switch focus.
"Alright, I don't think either of us know how to activate your kekkei genkai, so for now I want you to try meditating. Maybe if you try to find your chakra like you did when you were in the academy it will work. Unfortunately Konoha only has Doujutsu so we're unfamiliar with how to activate elemental or enhancement kekkei genkai, which in case you're not aware elemental kekkei genkai are the combination of two elements together into a new one. And enhancement kekkei genkai come from being able to modify your own body in someway without using any jutsu to do so. We can assume for now yours is elemental since the chakra paper was able to find it. Although this could be proven wrong, but normally enhancement kekkei genkai don't show up with chakra paper and it's obviously not a Doujutsu."
Naruko can somewhat feel her heart racing. The last time she did this she saw the demon and it had terrified her. Well she thinks it's the demon, it had been a separate chakra core that had somehow become that awful eye but it logically makes sense to be the demon. Still she wants to know so despite her fears, she sits down in the lotus position and focuses on finding her chakra. It doesn't take long this time since she's grown so used to it. She opens her eyes and finds herself once more in the black space illuminated only by the two chakra sources. She sees her own blue one. It's grown bigger, and seems to have solidified, was that because she has better chakra control?
She looks at it for several moments, there doesn't seem to be anything special about it. She walks up to it and touches it. No she's certain, her chakra is normal. She turns around and looks towards the other source. It was still three different colors. Interestingly it seems like the red has receded a bit and it's more white and yellow now. With a great amount of hesitation she walks towards it. It doesn't seem to react this time. Against her better judgment she places her hand on the yellow part. It's familiar, this is made of the same thing as that nature energy. But it's not what she's looking for. She places her hand on the white part and with a yelp she finds herself being drawn in. She blacks out.
On the outside Kurenai was watching in concern. She knew the girl contained the demon and this could be dangerous. She had almost interrupted as the girl started pulsing chakra. But as quickly as it started, it stopped. And then things changed again. Now her hair was forming horns, or maybe ears, and she seemed to have red eyeliner as well. Then that stopped too.
Then she changed again. The girls hair had turned white, but that wasn't the change that surprised her. No what surprised her was the tattoo that appeared on her forehead. In the shape of a closed eye that ran vertical. What ever this was the appearance was different from her transformation the day before, it unsettled her far more however.. At least she never felt that evil chakra from the demon, but this only raised more questions. What is this form she's taking?
She watched in almost a trance as dark red magtama started to appear stretch across her skin from under her clothes. If she had to guess they were somehow connected to the seal, but in what way she didn't know. They continued to creep upwards until they swirled around the tattoo forming a ring around it.
When Naruko awoke she was in a temple of some sort. It was illuminated by candlelight and the walls were decorated in tapestries. They all had one thing in common. A woman with long hair and horns atop her head were present in every image. Along with her it showed imagery of a large tree bearing fruit that the woman ate, along with a monster bearing 10 tails. Naruko wasn't ignorant to the being in the images, although she was unsure of the woman's connection. Naruko slowly walks down the long chamber of the temple. It takes her a few minutes but finally she reaches the end. There are two statues standing next to each other at the altar, and a gap that seems like it would fit another between them. One is much larger than the other and seems to represent a great tree. The other showed a monstrous creature with ten waving tails. A figure seems to be sitting at the altar, surrounded by candles. Interestingly only two of the candles seem to be casting shadows. One onto each statue.
Slowly the figure stands and reveals itself to be a woman. She was the tallest woman Naruko had ever seen, If she had to guess she was just under seven feet tall. She had two long horns protruding from her head. Naruko realized this was the woman on the tapestries. Slowly the woman turns towards her and the redhead gasps when she sees the woman's eyes. Staring back at her is a pair of Byakugan eyes. The woman's eyes seem to widen. Her voice is soft like a fine silk, yet held a power that commanded ones attention. "Is that you Kagura?" Before Naruko can respond she shakes her head. "No. You seem to be of a similar spirit but you are not my granddaughter. So then you must be my current jailer."
"Are you the demon that attacked the village?"
The shadow on the monsters statue seemed to grow. "I am but I also am not. The Juubi is born from my power and I draw power from its origin, we were once two but now we are one."
"Is that it's proper name, Juubi?" The woman nods so Naruko continues. "So then who are you? And what do you mean about being one with it?"
"I've gone by many names. Some know me as the Rabbit Goddess, others know me as the Oni, and even still others know me as the Mother of Chakra. But the name I was given by my own parents is Otsutuski Kaguya. Now then child I have been unjustly sealed, won't you free me?" The woman didn't answer her other question, but Naruko chose not to push. She didn't want to anger this woman regardless of whether she is a demon or a god. Because whatever she is is irrelevant, there was one thing she was for sure. And that was powerful. More powerful than anything Naruko had ever seen before. It felt like nothing could come close to this woman's existence. Of course that begged the question of how anyone had managed to capture her and seal her away. Perhaps it had something to do with the Juubi, or maybe she had been tricked.
"What will happen if I let you out?"
"You will die, but know that your death will have allowed the world to achieve peace."
"Then I can't let you go, not now at least. I have people I have to keep on living for." Naruko still had a long life to live, and she doesn't care about world peace enough to die for it.
"I see, then I will merely have to wait a little while longer." The conversation dies at that, before Naruko remembers what she came here for in the first place.
"I seem to have an ability to suck out chakra, but I have no idea how to use it. Do you know about it?"
"My my, it seems you really are like Kagura, likely because you're my second jailer to be sealed as infant. Yes I know of that ability, it is mine." Who is this Kagura person, she had mentioned it's her granddaughter, but that doesn't really explain much.
"Then can you tell me how to use it?"
"Can you tell me how to breath? I cannot explain how to use instinct." Naruko guessed that made sense. It wasn't something she thought about then it was simply something she would have to do. Naruko watched as the two shadows slowly drifted towards one another.
"I see, thank you for the help Kaguya-san." The two shadows seem to merge into one on the empty wall between the statues. The center of the shadow turned red and took on the form of the eye from that day. Naruko felt her heart start thumping wildly as it stared at her. She couldn't take her eyes off of it.
She was saved from drowning in that awful feeling as the white haired woman spoke. The shadow slowly moved and connected with Kaguya.
"Of course child, perhaps we shall meet again." The candles all flicker out drowning Naruko in the darkness. The eye disappeared for an instant only to reappear where Kaguya was, right where her forehead would have been. The eye was still staring at her. Slowly it started to grow as the tapestries rattled on the walls. Naruko closed her eyes, hoping to escape this place.
Her eyes snapped open and she found herself in the real world once more. Kurenai-sensei was looking at her in concern, about what? She didn't know.
"So what happened, did you figure anything out?"
"I think I just need to use my instinct and it will happen." She didn't want to tell anyone but Hina-chan about what she saw yet. Who knew how the Hokage would react if he found out. "How long was I out?"
"It just hit the thirty minute mark, Hinata should be arriving for her lesson soon. We'll talk about this more later, okay? I don't want you trying to use your kekkei genkai until we know you can control it." Naruko understood why, if her kekkei genkai forcefully drained chakra then she had the potential to kill an ally by using it accidentally. "Go check training ground 23 to see if Sasuke is there, if he is you can decide if you want to take my advice or go home." Naruko nods and heads out. She smiles as she sees her girlfriend entering the training ground.
Hinata smiles as she walks by Naru-chan. She playfully bumps her shoulder and continues on, once she passes her face turns serious. She walks right up to Kurenai-sensei and stands there silently. After several minutes of silence Kurenai-sensei speaks first. "Alright what's the problem."
"If you knew who Naru-chan was, if you knew her mother and became our sensei just to teach her. Why were you not there for her as a child? Why did she have to grow up being abused when you should have been there to take care of her?"
"I was there for her."
"Don't you lie to me! She was in the orphanage for years before being given an apartment, and the fact that she and I have never seen you even on even her birthdays means you weren't there!" Hinata was glaring fiercely at her.
"I was afraid of that, she really doesn't remember me then." Kurenai's tone was one of sorrow. "I raised Naruko until she was three years old."
"Then why was she in the orphanage?"
"The Hokage ordered that I stop taking care of her."
"And you followed that order?" Hinata would never follow an order like that, if the Hokage ordered her to stop dating Naru-chan she would become a missing-nin sooner than that.
"Not at first, I was just sixteen at the time when I started to care for Naruko. But there was a condition for it. I was one of the leafs most promising Chunin at the time and he didn't want raising a child to interfere with my growth, so he said that if I failed a single mission then he would place her in an orphanage."
"And you put your career ahead of her?!" Hinata was only growing more upset.
"Of course not, it had been fine for the first few years, I had been successful and had still found time to be with her and care for her. But as I grew more skillful it was harder. I was away from the village for longer stretches of time, I had friends to help while I was gone but it was never enough, they were equally busy. That same year things started to go wrong, Rin, one of the people helping me had been made the hospitals director and she suddenly found herself unable to help, and Kakashi had been made an Anbu captain so I had to start relying on other people."
"That still doesn't explain why."
"It was around that time I started seeing my boyfriend, he had been good with Naruko and seemed perfectly capable of caring for her when I couldn't be there. But he wasn't a baby sitter or a friend of Kushina-sensei or Naruko's father. He helped because he cared for me, not for her. So I tried to take our relationship seriously." Kurenai-sensei paused for a few moments. "That was a mistake. I couldn't split my time three ways and things fell apart. It only took a year before I slipped up on a mission and Hokage-sama took her away. I didn't fight it at the time because I had noticed Naruko had started to seem agitated at home, likely because she wasn't getting enough care, even with Asuma's help. So before things got worse and she had a chance to be neglected I let Hokage-sama take her away. But he promised me that I could take care of her again if I reached the rank of Elite Jonin. Of course by that time I made it she was just about to graduate and I didn't think she would accept some stranger offering her a home. So I asked him to change our agreement and now here I am, as her sensei."
"You didn't think things would go so poorly did you? Why did you not visit her at all? Was that also part of the agreement?"
"No I had no idea the orphanage would treat her so poorly, I had thought Hokage-sama would ensure she was treated well. And yes I was forbidden from visiting her, but I did at least support her. You probably don't know the village laws surrounding orphans, but there is no stipend from the village once they move out of the orphanage nor are they provided apartments. Because normally by the time they move out they're adults be it as new Genin or eighteen year old civilians. I've been paying all of her expenses out of pocket for several years now."
"If you were giving her financial support then why would you only barely give her enough to live off of?"
"What do you mean "barely"? I was sending her more than half of my pay from each mission. For a child that should have been enough to live with some extravagance." Kurenai-sensei's expression had darkened. "Oh. Someone has been stealing from Naruko's cut." There was a gleam in the woman's eye, clearly she was plotting the destruction of whoever had been making Naru-chan live in squalor. Hinata would gladly join in on that. The woman seemed to snap out of her thoughts and asked, "Do you know the Lullaby of Takeda? Because if you're still not convinced that I raised her try singing it to her, I bet she can still sing along. It always was her favorite lullaby."
Hinata nods, she was familiar with it. In fact the first time she heard it was from that music box Naru-chan had received from a. . . stranger. Kurenai-sensei was telling the truth, or at least seemed to be. Of course she was no longer boiling in anger at Kurenai-sensei. Instead it was directed at her Hokage and whoever else was in on harming the love of her life.
"You mentioned Asuma, are you referring to Sarutobi Asuma? The Hokage's son?" He was a prominent member of the Hokage's clan so it went without saying that she would know the name as the Hyuuga heiress.
"That's the one."
"How did you two meet?"
"We had been classmates in the Academy, we had always sort of had a thing for each other but it wasn't until he asked me out when I was eighteen that we started seeing each other. Why are you suddenly curious about him?"
"I don't trust anyone connected to the Hokage." How could she? The man was directly responsible for the treatment Naru-chan received from the village. She wouldn't put it past the man to have used his own son as a means to separate Naru-chan and Kurenai-sensei. "It seems suspicious to me that at the same time missions became a problem he asked you out."
"It seems I have some things to look into." If Kurenai-sensei was shaken from the information she hid it well. "Now then why don't we get started on training you. We'll be working on Ninjutsu today."
The two girls met up again after Hinata was finished with her training, they decided to train combinations together for an extra hour like Kurenai-sensei recommended.
"Hey Hina-chan, I interacted with the demon today, well sort of."
"What do you mean sort of?" Hinata was curious, she hadn't felt the foul chakra so Naru-chan probably didn't use it.
"Well I met a woman inside the seal, she claimed that she and the monster draw power from each other. It was sort of confusing."
Well that was not what Hinata was expecting at all. "Did she say anything else?"
"Well she asked me to free her and die in the process. I told her no." Hinata certainly hoped so, she couldn't bare the thought of her redheaded love dying.
"Hey Naruko are you familiar with the Lullaby of Takeda?" Her conversation with Kurenai-sensei was still on her mind.
"That's the lullaby for the music box right? I've never heard the actual lullaby lyrics before but you know I love the tune." So for sure she didn't know the lyrics. Well she had to test just to be sure, Kurenai-sensei had manipulated them yesterday and she could have done it again today.
"Just try singing along with me if you think you know the words okay?"
"Sure" And with that Hinata begins.
It only took until the second verse of the song for Naru-chan to start singing along, her voice matching the tune of the song perfectly. She looks at her girlfriend bewildered. "Hey how'd you know I somehow knew that song."
"I think you should ask Kurenai-sensei to sing it to you. She might have better answers for you." Hinata wanted to tell the girl, but felt it would be better for both her sensei and her girlfriend to work this out together. With that the two girls fall into a comfortable silence and finish their training together. Once hours past Naruko says.
"I've gotta go meet Kurenai-sensei so she can show me to that friend that knows Kaa-chan's Taijutsu."
"Alright, I'll talk to you tomorrow." As Naruko starts to walk off she thinks of something. "Hey Naru-chan, this Sunday let's go have a picnic. We haven't been on a real date in a while." Naruko turns and smiles at her.
"You just want me to cook for you. But alright, I love going on dates with you Hina-chan."
Kurenai dropped to the ground with a sigh. She had a few minutes before Naruko arrived and she planned on using it. Had the Hokage really tricked her, had he done something like convincing Asuma to ask her out because he wanted Naruko in the orphanage, which was more directly under his influence, now that she thought of it.
The man put on a kind grandfatherly facade but he was a shinobi through and through. She sighed again. Even if he had there was nothing she could do. Plotting against the Hokage would just get her killed and that didn't do anybody any good.
Of course the question still remained, who was taking funds from Naruko? Was it the Hokage? A greedy banker? Her thoughts turned to Hinata's words. Asuma was a potential candidate. But he had always been so good to Naruko when she was little, it couldn't be him. Of course her heart may just break if it was. Seeing red out of the corner of her eye she stood and dusted herself off.
"Let's go introduce you to my teammate. He's a bit strange, but he's the best Taijutsu expert in Konoha and he knows your mothers style better than any living person."
Naruko smiled at her and Kurenai forced herself to return it. "Let's go Kurenai-sensei!"
It came as a surprise to many but he hated the dark. He wasn't afraid of it, but he had always enjoyed the warm embrace of the sun. Perhaps people were shocked by this fact because of his unnaturally pale skin. Or perhaps it had simply been because in the past several years he had spent much of his life underground. It was hard to say.
The only people he was sure wouldn't be surprised by his preference were his two teammates. They had been through much together fighting through two wars together. He had been there when his blonde teammate lost her brother, and he had failed to protect her fiance. He had never truly rid himself of that guilt. He had never cared for the man, but he had cared for her like a sister and he had let that mans death tear her apart. People liked to think that his team fell apart the moment that he took an interest in science and researching Jutsu, but it wasn't. It was the moment he and his white haired teammate failed to save her fiance.
Of course where he had failed to protect the man because of his own ineptitude his white haired teammate had hesitated. He had been in love with the woman and must have had a truly traitorous thought in the moment he had to save the man. If the man died then the blonde could be his. The white haired man had confessed as much to him after the ordeal. Neither man had told the blonde woman. His teammate had left the village after that, became the spymaster Konoha needed. He couldn't bare to face her. The man hadn't even returned until Tsunade-hime had left. Orochimaru on the other hand had turned to the horribly wonderful science that had become his obsession.
It had started with a little bit of advice from his sensei, but it had turned into his own passion. Of course this obsession let him neglect his teammate, who in the after math of her fiances death had no one and ran from the village. She was retroactively given leave from their sensei and had taken to running around fire country in search of alcohol and gambling. Anything to numb the pain. More guilt for him.
Of course if there was anything he was guilty for it was his creation. He had only had two survivors of his experiments. One had been a success but only barely. The other had yet to bare fruit. He regretted his actions. It wasn't right to treat his own student like that. He had abducted her, taken her out of the village and performed horrible experiments on her. And then he wiped her memory. All she knew was that she disappeared for some time.
He hadn't done it out of malice. He had been told it was critical for the village to perform the experiments. He had done so, he hadn't expected for his previous experiments to be found while he was conducting his current one. The blame had been pinned solely on him and he had to flee. He didn't even get a chance to see if his student survived. Even if she did there was a chance the true subject of the experiment wouldn't. He hoped it did, he didn't want to force that tragedy on his student. She deserved to be happy, she had already lost her best friend only a few months prior.
Well he would find out, he still needed to pay his sensei back for his betrayal, he would take the chance to visit if he could. He hoped she didn't hate him. She never would find out just how much she meant to him. He often saw her like the daughter he didn't have. Perhaps in another universe things would have gone better. But he had made his mistakes. He would live with them and he would die by them.
A/N So I actually finished this chapter before I even uploaded chapter 5 so yay for being ahead of schedule. In fact I've finished writing chapter 7 and just need to edit it. If everything goes according to plan then chapter 7 will be out on friday and chapter 8 will be out next Wednesday, but that will only happen if I've finished editing 7 and writing 8 by friday, so that remains to be seen. So anyways a lot happened this chapter. Naruko learned a bit more about Kushina, met Kaguya, and Hinata found out about Kurenai's connection to Naruko. If you read the original you might notice that the scene with the chakra paper has been made pretty different, the main thing being that Naruko now only has Suiton and Futon, rather than all five like I originally had written. I don't quite remember why I had chosen I think it had something to do with the Juubi or Kaguya but I didn't end up using that fact and have no plans to do so moving forward so I changed away from the overdone trope.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, thanks a lot to everyone for reading and I'll see you all in the next one.
Also as an FYI I respond to reviews via PM so if you've left a review and feel like I never address the things you talk about consider checking you inbox on FFN, there are good odds that a response is there.
So now for real, I'll see you in the next one.
CM 02/12/2020