A/N: Not much action in this chapter either, sorry bout that folks, but you can't just jump right into the action. A good story has a bit of buildup first, whet your appetites and so forth.
Girin's POV-
We squinted against the sunlight, trying to look at the man in front of us as he lectured us, but we couldn't quite manage. Old Shinuhi was trying to prove a point, but I wasn't getting it, and to be honest I was fed up. I stood up sharply, angling my head at the glass pillar the man was standing on, wadding up spit and chakra in my mouth.
I could hear Kokoro gasp in shock, realizing what I was doing, as Seika busied himself watching a butterfly float by. Idiot. "Explosion Release: Spit Grenade!" I spat at the pillar, the glob of spit landing on the dead center of the pillar, a loud explosion followed by a shattering sound echoing out as a result. Old man Shinuhi stumbled as the pillar began to crumble, before jumping forward. "Glass Release: Transparent Wall!"
A large window shaped wall of glass appeared in front of me and the other two, the glass pillar fragmenting into shards which imbedded themselves in the wall… Ok, so maybe my plan hadn't been perfect. Still, I managed to destroy the man's precious glass.
I smiled, perfectly pleased with the jutsu I myself had invented, until the old man gave me a slap upside the head, and I glared up at him. "Hey ya old geezer, quit hitting me!" Shinuhi merely shook his head, slapping me again, as he reprimanded me, his voice low and gruff. "You will call me Shinuhi-san, or Shinuhi-sensei, not old geezer. And next time you want to get yourself killed, do it where it won't kill your teammates in the process. I'm not wasting my time mentoring idiots, so use your brain before you use a jutsu. The Explosion Release has the potential to damage allies as well as enemies, so you need to be especially careful when fighting!"
I frowned lightly, as I rubbed the spot where he'd slapped me. I'd expected him to congratulate me, none of us had ever gotten past the glass before, so what I had just done was a turning point for us….. The old geezer was just upset that we'd destroyed his glass, that was all. Big bully… Shinuhi gestured for me to go sit down, and I walked to my seat, grumbling under my breath as I did.
Kokoro nudged me from the side, pointing at Seika and giggling. I turned to the grey haired child that never frowned for any reason, raising my eye as I saw how he chose to entertain himself on this particular occasion.
Seika was letting a caterpillar crawl on his hand, and moving his hands in a way that the caterpillar kept climbing along each hand without gaining any altitude…. The kid was so weird, he'd entertain himself with a blade of grass if that was all he had. Of course, it let old man Shinuhi know when we were bored, so we didn't try to stop him.
Instead I turned back to Kokoro, shrugging my shoulders, almost as if to ask him what I was supposed to do about it. The red headed Uzumaki merely shrugged his shoulders, returning to cleaning his swords, which was always an hour long affair. In all the time we'd spent together as gennin, Kokoro'd never explained to me why he had so many swords, he had at least two dozen, but he only had two hands… Oh well, with any luck I'd find out when we fought the other Gennin team.
The thought of the others made me smile, as I imagined what it'd be like to fight like that… Three on three, gennin team versus gennin team…. Should be fun, as long as I got to show off my jutsu a bit, then I had absolutely no problem with it. Then again, if I lost it'd be pretty embarrassing…. Hmmm.
There were three soft whacking sounds, followed by a sharp pain in my shoulder. Kokoro and Seika let out shouts of protest, telling me that they too had been reprimanded. We looked up at Shinuhi, who had created another glass prison, which he now sat in, wielding a staff. It was presumably the same staff that he'd just wacked us with, which admittedly upset me, but there was nothing I could do about it. Tokama-san had specifically told Shinuhi to wack me if I didn't pay attention. Kokoro and Seika's parents had agreed to it as well, or so I'd assume.
The man smiled as he noticed he had our attention once more, and he cleared his throat. "That's better… Now, as I was demonstrating earlier, a shinobi's greatest tool is his environment. With a strong mind, and the right environment, a Gennin could wipe out an entire division of Jonin. As you just saw, when attacking an enemy it's best to do so with the sun at your back, so as to blind your opponents."
The man gestured at the trees around us, and even the rocks, smirking. "And it's not just the sun we can use. You can hang poison smoke bombs down from branches, or explosive tags behind rocks. A well placed explosive tag could create an avalanche, or cause the walls of a ravine to explode. When you're facing off with Team Tokama tomorrow, I want you to use the environment to your advantage. Each of you will need to do this at least once."
I was tempted to ask what would happen if we didn't, but thought better of it. The old man still had that staff of his, and I wasn't looking for another hit from it. I turned to Kokoro, who shrugged, before turning back to Seika, who was tracing the seams of his jeans in disinterest. I repeat… Idiot. Deciding that it'd be best not to upset the man with a whacking stick, we all nodded our heads quickly, even Seika, which surprised me immensely.
Shinuhi nodded his head slowly, staring at us. I wondered what he was thinking, but couldn't even begin to guess… Oh well. Shinuhi smirked at us, making a quick handseal. "Alright then boys, sleep well, get some rest, I'll see you tomorrow and we'll see if you can't beat Team Tokama." We all bowed to the older man, wishing him a good day as Seika wandered off somewhere… God knows where, I sure wasn't following the kid around to chase every butterfly or koi fish he found.
I instead turned to Kokoro, poking his shoulder as I decided to get to the end of the mystery that surrounded my best friend. "Hey Kokoro, what's with all the swords man? You got more than I can count. How can you possibly use them all at the same time?"
Kokoro looked up at me, giving me a knowing smile as he shook his head, resuming the long task of cleaning his swords. "I've been working on a jutsu my father taught me Girin-san, and I'll have it finished by the end of tonight. You'll get to see it in our fight tomorrow, just be patient."
Oh how I hated hearing those words. Why would I need to be patient, if he'd almost completed it he could just tell me now? Shrugging, I waved as I began to walk backwards, heading home. "Fine then Kokoro-san, keep your secrets. I'll see you in the morning Kokoro-san."
