Team 8. Myself, Hinata, Shino and Kurenai. We hadn't done anything yet but it felt good to have a team and our training was begining today, Kurenai-Sensei wanted us to get to know eachother and develop our skills somewhat before doing any missions as a boundary; to both get us to where she wants us to be in basic knowledge and to help us find some strengths and weakness to work on. We were to meet at Training ground 8, our appointed training field, at 10 am. I was the first one there at five thirty, I was anxious of what exactly to expect from this so I woke earlier than usual and got here quickly; better 3 hours early than one minuet late...
I had decided to practice my chakra sensory with the excessive amount of time I had to wait; with the help of one of the rare books that were about chakra sensory, they were restricted to gennin ninja and above in rank. Meaning that this was the first time I could accsess this material. The book referenced sensory techniques as the continious or pulsating exertion of chakra. Which meant I had to find out how I sensed chakra, did I send out waves of it to detect periodically, which was less effective but would equally use less chakra, or possibly I have my chakra sent out constantly to detect all movement of chakra, while being more effective as you would be able to sense all motion of: say an enemy ninja whereas the pulses would leave 'blind spots' so to speak.
I wanted to see if there were any way to tell what you were more natural at doing (both were possible, but the book said an affinity towards one is common place in sensors and should start with the one they work better with) and there wasn't just a 'How do you feel chakra, the more calm it feels the more likely you are to be in the first catagory' -the book had classed the continious style as the first- 'although if it is more spuradic then it is probably the second catagory.' With this new information I could already tell that I was certainly attuned to the first type, which was bad for me but not if I could increase my reserves substantially. Despite the stereotypical agreements with chakra and gender, I found myself to be an odd case. Most the time males would have better chakra reserves and worse control of that pool and the opposite was typically true with females. It didn't change much, I just had to increase my reserves more than others would, but I would have better mastery of that pool. I then tought about one of my earliest memories when I had sensed Naruto's chakra, which was huge. So it must be hard to not use too much of it. In fact that could be the reason he was bad at certain jutsu. Disregarding my thoughts I turned back to the field, I knew I couldn't sense in the way I wanted to, or more accuratly the way that I was better at. No matter how good naturally you were at something, if you don't have the capabilities to do it then it couldn't be done. With that in mind I thought that I should at least the the other form of sensing. It would be more useful to me at this point anyways.
Gathering myself standing in front of the tree I had to take the brute force approach to start with as I had no technique to work with just yet. I was planning to detect the nature around me, wildlife mainly, I would have to put my hands in a seal to help control my chakra. The book had referenced people doing these techniques without seals however that was more than advanced, showing mastery of chakra sensing, clearly the person stood trying to utilise chakra for sensing (on purpouse) for the first time was not a master. Having the seal aid me in molding my chakra to the forefront of my body ready to have it be sent out in a wave.
I didn't know how much chakra was required so estimating was all I could do and as such a wave of chakra exploded forth from myself and the chakra was visible for a few seconds before dissapearing. How disapointing. I thought I would be able to detect something, of course the possibility of something not being nearby was there but I knew that wasn't the case. I just didn't do it right.
I carried on doing this for the next few hours and broke it up with reading of my book to help me next time I tried to do it. Never being able to detect any chakra. It was only a few hours into this training that I realised that the chakra must be doing something. It just doesn't dissapear or vanish completely, nothing worked like that. Like when you burn some wood; the wood is turned into various gasses or ash. The chakra had to be somewhere or doing something. I checked the chakra sensory book to see if that would provide any insight to this problem I was having. Alas nothing, obviously I was just bad at this. At this point I was just experimenting and doing random things with my chakra to get this mystery solved.
With the progress at a stand still it wasn't long until someone jumped down and spoke to me "Hello Zuko, have you been here long?" Hearing this causes me to look up from the book I had been utilising this morning.
"Kurenai-Sensei, I haven't been here too long I don't think. I prefer getting places earlier is all." Standing up and walking closer to the new arrival I decided to get some insight to today's activites. But before I open my mouth Kurenai gets there first.
"That book you have is about chakra sensory? Is it something you can utilise, very useful to know if you can." Kurenai had seen my book before I pocketed it and her questions had not been what I was expecting, I could technichally use it, but not reliably or much with control. Though reflecting on the past few hours I had been stuck with this entire problem, Kurenai would more likely than not have some insight to this and thus be able to help.
"I can... But I can not do it consciously. I had been reading the book in hopes to progress this skill." I contemplated telling her the pulsing of chakra that should have worked but didn't. Sensing some hesitastion Kurenai-sensei spoke up.
"It seems you want to say more. Zuko if there is something I should know you can say it." With her reassurance I carried on.
"Well there are two ways to sense chakra, one requires more chakra, so I tried the less costly method. However when I pulsed my chakra it didn't work. Referencing the book had no extra insight to this problem. It's somewhat ironic; if I could sense what was happening to the chakra when I do that I could figure it out, yet if I could do that I wouldn't need to do this originally..." I finished my tellings with a light chuckle at what I found to be an annoying situation. Once finished My face fell. I realised that I wasn't the only one who could sense chakra. I see Kurenai's confusion as the expressions of my face drastically change but before she can ask about it I voice my thoughts. "Kurenai-sensei? Can you detect chakra yourself? I realise that if I need to see what happens when I do this but can't then someone who can would be able to assist me here." I peer up at my sensei as she gives a small smile in recognisation.
"Well I can't detect chakra in the way you're asking me to however we know someone who does." I had started to ask who but before I spoke without thinking I had heard the remaning members of our team close in on the location Kurenai and myself were stood in. I looked over and before they got too close I gained recognisation over my features.
Turning towards Kurenai I speak our teamates name "Hinata." To this I recieve an affirmation in the form af a nod.
The named person accompinied by Shino walk up towards us, him, speaking first "I hope we are not late. Because I planned to leave at an appropriate time to avoid that." Hinata stayed quiet after this, leaving Kurenai to reassure them that they were on time. More specifically five minuets prior to being on time. Seems we all have a habit, albeit a good one.
Once pleasantries had been exchanged Kurenai-sensei had gave us tasks to test our capabilites as individuals before anything else. It felt like a more developed version of some physical tests we had done during the academy. Shino was the best of us when it came to pure strength and Hinata domminated when it came to any precision tasks such as throwing items. I was not too far behind them however it was noticable that they were better. When it came to unique abilites that kurenai had asked us about; Shino had used his clan's famous insects and Hinata her buyakugan. When she activated it she had a slight look of confusion and asked why there were a few clusters of chakra not too far away from us. This had all of us look over to were she said the chakra was located, when I looked I remebered this morning and had asked Hinata a question. "Hinata-chan, these clusters... How many are there?"
Her response took a few seconds to come back, she must have been counting them. "There are a-a-approximatly fifteen. It seems t-that some are joining up.." I began to think, these had to be what I released earlier and despite this they were there and hadn't gone away. With this in mind, I wondered if they could be absorbed in any capacity. Kurenai-sensei spoke up after this.
"Well Zuko-kun, is that what you wanted to see?" I nod before turning to Shino.
"Shino-san, is it possible for your alies to absorb the chakra in anyway?" I couldn't gauge his response due to his outfit but he did respond regardless.
"They can. My kikaichuu eat chakra to live, they would be able to take chakra away from inside the body or outside."
I hummed. "Useful..." I still wasn't too sure what this meant. My chakra that was supposed to detect, was instead just waiting around. Our sensei had decided that it was time to get back to our analysis and asked if I had any abilites, since the other two had showed off theirs. Thinking of nothing at all I just shook my head. It was slightly embarrising, the only one in this team who couldn't add anything in terms of unique abilites and being worse than the other two in most aspects.
Sensing my feelings Kurenai put her hand on my shoulder, "there is nothing wrong with that. It means you can fit in anywhere you want, being versitile is potentially more useful than anything else. While Shino's Kikaichuu have huge advantages, he also has less chakra he can use himself, limiting his chakra and jutu pool. Hinata's Buyakugan is very useful but limits her to being very close range to use it affectively and her taijutsu will not develop too much because of this." I get what she was trying to do but I felt it didn't help much.
"Kurenai-sensei, you said you specialize in genjutsu, so what are the pros and cons of that?" I couldn't help but think that if Kurenai wasn't from some hugely known clan and therefore specialised in one of the main three techniques of a ninja then was that as good?
"Well the plus is that I am one of the best in the field of genjutsu and only a few people could out-do my jutsu or put me in one. Also my abilities are somewhat underestimated as quite a few people think that genjutsu is very weak compared to the other forms of techniques, this gives me an edge over those opponents. The downside to only focusing on one field like this is that once someone can counter my genjutsu I will not be as affective and that sometimes Jounin are well known in the elemental nations and because of this they will know me from a glance and expect what I will do, leaving my choices limited to what I haven't practiced as much. Though there are pros and cons to thoes who just utilise one of the techniques, and the same for someone who is equally balanced. Being a ninja isn't always about being flawless but being adaptable to your flaws, if you identify them you can plan for the situations that they will be explotied."
I nodded to this, it made sense but if so what would I do. I wasn't bad at any of the things I did but I wasn't the best. I sighed before I thought too much about it, it seemed most people already knew what they would do. I would think about it another time, I would just fill in what was needed right now.
We carried on practice for a while and started to focus on our weaknesses. For Hinata it was her offensive attacks, she would parry and deflect our hits but rarely takes advantage of that. For Shino it was his speed and movement, Shino kept blocking or using his strength to keep you unable to hit him or pressured from attacking but if you got in his guard or manuvered from his barage then he would be open. I was told to assist them with their improvements, Kurenai said that I had no glaring weaknesses, perhaps increasing stamina and then general physical improvments but nothing to focus on. Kurenai wanted to test us all. However she wasn't getting involved. She wanted to see the improvments that they had been working on and my adaptability, stamina and to see if I could get through their improvments. Unfairly Kurenai decided to have Hinata and Shino fight against me.
I had checked the area we were in before hand and it was mostly flat with a few inconsistancies that are natural in the earth. The trees were a while away, especially in this instance where I wouldn't be able to manuver properly if they co-ordinated attacks well enough. But the pond was close enough that if I could get them close to it then I would have a slight advantage; getting one of them in there would allow a few seconds of offensive on the remaining one. The rules that Kurenai had in place was supposed to put it on a more level playing field. I was the only one allowed to use jutsu. Otherwise only taijutsu. That was the only restriction, also no trying to maim or kill.
I started with my back towards the pond, gladly in my favour too. Shino was slightly slower than Hinata in the burst they took to rush me, It was only by a few seconds that they would be alone in this fight, it would be bad to have Hinata go on the defensive so I allow her to start the assault, I would poke in her guard if she let me and change when Shino got involved.
Once Hinata had reached me Shino was a total of six seconds away. Hinata wasted no time in starting her jabbing, her style of taijutsu would mean I shouldn't just block but mix up the blocks and deflections of her attacks. She tried to strike my abdomen which was bold, It allowed me to swivle away and give a palm to her neck which was exposed due to the lunge she did. I used the counter-strike to back off towards my objective (the pond) and waited for the next move. It was just enough time for Hinata to start moving when Shino caught up and both came at me, Hinata prepared to do the opening attack. I suppose that is so I'll move and then Shino can get me. Agreeing that their plan was what I thought I sprung towards them, the slight shock on Hinata's features told me everything as I lunged towards her, before I got too close I slid under her taking our her legs, It put me away from the pond but I had time to get them there later. I swiftly pick myself up and throw a shuriken at Shino, who thought he could start his assault.
The weapon made him halt and move. Mistake. He was told to use his movement, and now he was stationary, Hinata hadn't gotten up yet so I rushed Shino and vaulted him grabbing his large collar and use the momentem and gravity to take us down to the floor, he couldn't get up as quick as I could leaving me with a breif grace period.
I see Hinata look to where she thought I was and took the opening of disorientation she presented. A palm strike to her back let her fall once more and with this time I use a clone jutsu to create a copy that ran to the pond, while I substituted with a mediocre rock nearer the treelines and hid moving towards the pond as well.
By the time Shino had re-orintated himself Hinata had seen 'me' run towards the pond and persued. Her partner shortly behind. The stuck up a small conversation which I couldn't detect from my actual location. I was all ready and my clone was too. He waited for the two opponents to arrive and then stayed on the defensive. Their attacks consisted of Shino attempting to break the guard and Hinata to input the damage when avaliable. When the clone had dodged enough attacks he jumped in the pond confusing the two. I snuck up on them while they looked away and put a smoke bomb on the floor and pushed Hinata into the pond. Confused Shino turned to me and I landed a quick sucsessive punch to his face before throwing a contact smoke bomb at his feet and continuing my assault. I would alternate my attacks and then roll behind or to his side and continue. Once he grew accustomed to this and started to anticipate and block I moved over to my bomb I had placed before. I was covering it with my body and with the last of the smoke dissipating Hinata dragged herself up from the pond. With their first step towards me I moved my foot behind the bomb and stomped on it to have another plume of smoke cover us. Hinata was prepared to be pushed in again and Shino expected this too, looking at her. To his surprise I tackled Shino's legs and dumped him into the pond. I didn't stop my movements and kept moving towards Hinata who was confused at the lack of contact she expected. I opened up with an axe kick that she couldn't dodge and recoiled from the damage, stepping towards her I kept jabbing at her. The smoke had gone once more yet Shino was taking longer to return. Hinata couldn't take much more of the barrage of jabs and shortly fell from a strike to her throat. Shino had come up by this point but was too late to stop the final attack.
By now it was a one on one and I had just realised how much stamina it had taken, the most being used on tackling Shino but otherwise it was due to quick moves and rapid attacks. "I hadn't expected these tactics from you Zuko-san. Your style keeps changing... But I am not yet defeated." With that he bounds towards me, speed definitely increased. His attacks had to be dodged, parried or deflected blocking would damage me more than it would help me at this point. Shino didn't slow down and I wasn't too sure how long I could keep this up for, I could try head for the treelines now but I might not be able to do so without getting hit. Weighing my options quickly I parried his blow and pushed some distance between us and bolted towards the trees, He was probably near my speed but this distance should give me more than enough to be certain of my succsess. Almost entering the shade of the trees I stumble on a dip in the ground, I rebalance and continue, the stumble allowed me to see that Shino wasn't chasing me as I thought. It was the whisiling of air that caught my attention and I had to roll out of a kunai which would have implanted itself into my chest otherwise. Shino was already in the trees, the kunai came from a branch; I launch one back though it misses and Shino decends the tree he climbed and comes at me from the shade. He must have dashed to the treeline slightly away from my periphial and set up a quick attack. I was now forced to engage in a taijutsu spar with Shino who tanked my hits and used that to hit me, I learned that quickly and it became a wait to look for an opening but Shino was keeping a tight guard and letting speedy punches fly, I would have to anticipate the attack if I wanted to fully finish this fight.
The punch I anticipated came; I grabbed it and tried to jump away letting my legs extend to his chest, while I was airborne Shino shifted slightly and wrapped his ar maround my legs leading me to believe I had hit him, I released his arm and he swung my body down faster than anticipated, leading to my body smashing into the ground and falling limp.
I awoke a short while later and noted that Hinata was gone, but Shino and Kurenai had remained. Noticing my awakening Kurenai speaks up from her location next to me, "Do you feel okay Zuko-kun?" I nodded to answer. "You did well but I see an opportunity to tell you this important lesson I have learnt the hard way; you may think that it was a close match, and it was, but no matter what if it was a real battle and you had lost you would be dead instead of waking up right now. I know that you are both genin and won't be getting into any serious combat for awhile but please try and keep this in mind. Though that said: if you think about it too much then you become unbalanced and paranoid. I have known commrades who have done this, too paralyzed to move, and dead in an instance - I tell you this because I know you two are mature enough to understand this."
I get what Kurenai-sensei is telling us. Though it's clear she isn't certain she knows what she is doing. Slowly getting up I look up at my sensei "I do understand sensei. I didn't want to be a shinobi for an easy life. Also I know people will have it worse than me, but I am not the perfect shinobi either. It's clear to me what being a genin is too there's a reason for genin squads with a jounin leader. Kurenai-sensei you should know that I am willing to train to be able to protect the village with everything I have." By the time I finish Kurenai is smiling and Shino has his gaze studing me.
"That's good to hear Zuko I think you will go far if you're willing to push yourself, and it is my job to help you achieve that." Kurenai-sensei then looks to Shino and adds "You too Shino, the two of you have large amounts of potential dorment within you and even if shinobi life is not as long as other lifestyles you can still become the best at what you want to do." It seems that Kurenai-sensei was made a Jounin instructor for a good reason, she had made me more determined than I had ever been before, and with thoes final words she told us to head home and get ready for more practice tomorrow. No more words were spoken even when Shino and myself walked in the same direction towards our houses until we had to part; reflecting on today and psyched for tomorrow.