Here we go! Now this is the meat of the episode...
txy08b_t8_falls
continued from part A
Now freed, Hinata watched from the shore nearby as the traitorous jounin screeched and batted futilely at the nin-bugs, his flaming aura beginning to die down. Determined to crush the annoying kids who'd appeared to ruin his moment of triumph, Suien pulled out the jug of Hero Water and took a second draught, a renewed flare of energy bursting up as the swarm reached the limits of their ability to absorb chakra and dropped off.
"Neji-niisan..." she whispered to herself, "I have n-not accepted... a destiny of failure."
The training sessions with her cousin would have been tediously repetitive if they hadn't been so brutal - at first she'd only been able to attend the extra training once a week in order to recover, and only pleading with Kurenai-sensei had kept the jounin from putting a stop to them - and that didn't even begin to go into Kiba's reaction to a 'packmate' getting handled so roughly! Neji would watch with his activated Byakugan while she performed a Jyuken kata, criticising the slightest error of angle or position immediately and vicously while going through his own routine to waste the least of his training time, then when she finished he would quickly and effectively destroy her defense through the holes provided by those errors, sealing tenketsu and knocking her off her feet.
By neccessity, she'd become adept at the Hyuuga medical technique that speeded the recovery of closed tenketsu, even as her Jyuuken skill grew... And she always, always kept returning to her feet somehow until the end of the scheduled time. Her unusually large chakra reserves - doubly so for a Hyuuga, most of whom were chronically low in potential through some bizarre quirk of genetics - had a large part in such resilience, of course, and as her control and recovery abilities improved their schedule increased to every third day, then every other day, then every day... And an ever more irritable Neji moved to more advanced forms as her performance of the basics of Jyuuken edged closer to flawless.
She simply would not quit, and her refusal to accept his idea of destiny even as he proved her weakness with his strength day after day drove him to distraction, to the point that she could occasionally land a telling strike or two of her own before being demolished.
It wouldn't be accurate to say Hinata was proud of her progress - pride in herself was still an all but unthinkable dream - but some inkling of self-respect had formed, the realization that though she might bow she -would not- break, that she could get up and stand even if she was knocked down again and again and again.
After Kiba had finally been talked down, he'd been far more impressed with the girl's sheer grit, commenting, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." The back handed compliment had still been enough to set the Hyuuga heiress blushing and stuttering, compounded further by Shino's gift of a large patch for her jacket a few days later featuring an intricate snarling wolf in front of an orange Hyuuga flame crest and the kanji for "big fight" in armor-grade kikai silk. It was roughly six inches square, oriented as a diamond and sewn in the center of her back at heart level... in large part because having it on the front would mean looking at it herself and getting embarrassed, but refusing the gift (an expensive one if Shino hadn't been an Aburame himself) would have been terribly rude.
The usually shy girl pictured that bold white wolf in her mind, imagined it was the one talking as she advanced across the water, activated her byakugan and declared, "A hero... is the one who will accept any pain for their im-important people. I w-won't let you look down on Shibuki-san... You a-are... within the field of my divination... Jyuuken: Rokujuuyonshou Hakke!"
"Two Hands!"
Concentrating with all her might, Hinata struck at the tiny points of light that marked Suien's tenketsu, targets she'd only barely begun to discern in training but which shone like a cloud of fireflies under the influence of the Hero Water.
"Four Hands!"
The raging sea of chakra that had always been her nemesis, making Hinata struggle for the merest fraction of the control that most Hyuuga were all but born with, was finally an advantage for once.
"Eight hands!"
For many Hyuuga, the incredible amounts of chakra the Hero Water forced out would have significantly decreased the effectiveness of the Gentle Fist, even in a form as advanced as the Sixty Four Divining Palms.
"Sixteen hands!"
It was actually liberating to let so much of it flow, to not have to hold back in fear of doing deadly harm to a training partner. Guided by that hard-won control, her own chakra erupted with a power that matched even that.
"Thirty two hands!"
Matched it, and overcame it, flashing painfully into Suien's already strained inner coils and forcing the primary tenketsu to close, shocking his muscles and organs with the surging backwash of foreign energy.
"Sixty four hands of Hakke!"
Suien's flaring aura had become irregular, the flame like swirl turning patchy as large sections of his inner coils no longer allowed it to flow. The unclosed lesser tenketsu remaining were physically torn wider, a faint mist of blood forming around the man as he screamed and collapsed. The water swirled angrily around his form as the escaping chakra pushed it away, and if he'd happened to fall in face first he'd surely have drowned.
Shuddering at the visible agony her hands had inflicted, Hinata wanted to back away, to undo it and apologize... But then, if Suien hadn't betrayed his village, hadn't come to take its treasures by force, she would not have needed to harm him.
If not for the effect of the water he'd stolen and drank, her special technique would have been disabling but only moderately painful; powerful as it was, it was only intended for removing the ability of an enemy to escape capture or defend against true killing blows.
If not...
"If you do not wish him to drown, it would be best to get Suien to the shore before he swallows the other half of the lake," Shino noted, standing calmly on the water beside her and watching with his usual detachment as the thrashing man gurgled and splashed more water over himself.
"Ah! You're right!" Shocked into action, the Hyuuga heiress grabbed one of the man's rag-doll arms, struggling to pull him up even as the Hero Water's effect finally tapered off and let him sink into merciful unconsciousness. Seeing her difficulty with the weight, Shino grabbed Suien's other arm to help and by the time they reached the bank Kiba had joined them as well, though his control kept wavering and dunking his feet.
Wiggling free of the cluster of tied villagers he'd hidden among, Akamaru was much amused by that last fact. He yipped brotherly insults and encouragement with equal abandon now that the battle was won.
As the Leaf-nin began to untie the groups of Takigakure citizens, the village's medic-nin made her way over to inspect Suien with a diagnostic jutsu. "He's alive, but his inner coils are like, totally destroyed," she pronounced. "He will never be able to use chakra again. If his body even recovers enough to run, he'll be mondo lucky."
Suien groaned and his eyes fluttered open. "I would have... got away with it too... if it wasn't for those... nosy kids and their dog..."
Akamaru growled and smacked the missing-nin with his tail, the small impact enough to send him spiraling back into unconsciousness. Victorious, the small white pup barked proudly. "Arf wa-wuff awoo!"
Zabuza narrowed his eyes and resisted the urge to release some killing intent at the obnoxious shopkeeper. It couldn't be said that it was unexpected for a missing-nin as infamous as himself to face suspicion and hostility, even - especially - when he'd renounced lawlessness and joined a different hidden village. The two countries might be officially at peace, but that didn't mean ninja from other villages were especially liked, and knowing he couldn't retaliate without losing the suffrage to stay meant they had no need for fear.
He should have left shopping to Haku, as usual. No one could dislike the soft spoken boy for long, and he'd get better value for the ryo as well as having the patience to put up with the vendors' attitudes gracefully, but it didn't pay for a ninja to become dependent on anyone, no matter how reliable.
He paid and slung the grocery bag in an elbow, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably without Kubikiri Houcho's comforting weight at his back... The Hokage had graciously accepted his request to stay on after returning the Raijin no Ken, but the Council here was as hidebound as the old biddies in Mist and they'd kicked up a stink until he'd offered to leave his own blade with the Sandaime as well, as a gesture of goodwill.
He felt naked without his sword. And in a way, lonesome.
Dipping one hand into the bag he retrieved a small box and stripped off the wrapper, still grouching silently about his situation... but there was another reason to do this personally, he reminded himself. "Haku is too hung up on that healthy crap," he muttered, before poking a stick of choco-banana Pocky through a gap in the bandages over his mouth. "A man can only TAKE so much rabbit food!"
Silence. It hung in the moisture heavy air like a heavy curtain, with not even the sounds of the forest interrupting. It was as if even the trees were holding their breath.
And it did little against the rising nervous tension.
The waiting was worst, to her anyway. Battle itself, even a losing one, with emotions riding the adrenal high, was preferable.
She ran through a short meditation excercise, which let at least some of the tension melt away into an alert preparedness, but the cold sweat on the back of her neck and ...
... very carefully, and taking great pains not to tense or startle, she stuck the tip of her tongue out to taste the air, noting the small cloud of fog as she breathed out ...
And _then_ she moved, leaping forward and down off the tree branch she'd been perched on, through the barely visible freeze of the modified basic Kirigakure.
The faint *thunkthunkthunk* of senbon needles piercing into wood only spurred her to move faster. She contorted her body into a spin, lashing out with one arm.
The voluminous sleeves of her tiger-striped waistcoat billowed as one discharged a length of chain, terminating in a sickle. Its short, curved blade bit deeply into a tree behind and to the side of the one she'd been perched on, yanking her off her pervious trajectory just in time to get out of the way of another flurry of senbon.
She brought her legs around, arresting what would have been a potentially painful impact against another tree, and slamming a sickle that had sprung into her -other- hand from that sleeve into the wood.
Tension. It was up again, and there was no more sound audible, other than her breath and the blood thudding its way through her temples.
Her eyes scanned the trees, not neccessarily limiting their search area to the line above her previous perch, despite the fact that this was where the angle of the senbon's flight paths indicated her assailant had struck from.
After all, it was basic tactics for snipers to move after every unsuccessful attack.
She heard no movement, though ...
Alright, so maybe her opponent was trying to play with her mind and -hadn't- moved ...
There -was- a sound, though, on the edge of her consciousness ... nagging to be noticed.
The gentle lapping of barely disturbed water.
From below, where a small pond, into which the roots of that particular tree dipped, sat.
A whistling, just as the extended chain the sickle of which was buried into the tree a ways off shuddered with impact and weight, a slender form clad in intermingled hues of dark blue and green having landed on said chain.
*Speed!* her instincts screamed at her, and she shrugged and twisted the appropriate shoulder in just the right way, causing the straps of one of her chain launchers/winches to come undone with a snap, and the device to come shooting out of her sleeve. The other released its lock on the chain as her hand let go of its sickle, leaving her to drop down as a trio of kunai shot through where her head had been not a moment ago, and slammed into the tree beside where the sickle was lodged.
She momentarily spied the blue-and-green suited kunoichi, swinging towards some possible point of rebound on her own discarded chain, and flung a spread of manriki along the expected path of the swing. Not that she expected the 11 inch long throwing chains would hit, but they'd possibly slow her opponent down just a bit.
Her eyes widened when she remembered she was heading down ... towards the _pond_ ...
... which erupted as yet another kunoichi, this one in a sleek black bodysuit, launched herself upwards from between the submerged tree-roots, propelling herself upwards along the treetrunk by virtue of her shuko adorned hands.
They met with a clash, hastily drawn manriki managing to turn aside a handclaw assisted palm strike, before the explosion notes on the three kunai stuck in the tree around the sickle above obliterated a hefty chunk of bark and wood.
Thereby letting the sickle fall away, the chain slacken, and its wielder, already unbalanced by the bodysuit clad kunoichi, plummet and hit the surface of the pond.
Which was promptly hit by a raiton from the still airborne kunoichi.
"Gotcha!" Hoshigaki Mako cried, landing lightly at the edge of the pond, grinning in a way that had her look even more like a shark than she already did thanks to her heritage.
The weighted chain that shot from the water and slammed into her stomach with enough force to make her keel over, gasping, was not expected.
A bedraggled, somewhat frazzled blonde kunoichi dragged herself from the pond, trying to get back on her feet ... then froze.
It was the faintest of touches, but she knew the feeling of the point of a senbon needle at the nape of her neck well enough by now ...
"Sorry, Mina-chan. You lose this one," Mizuno Ami, Mist genin and medic-nin in training, said.
"Mouuuuu, that was sad," a bedraggled Mina complained, drenched waistcoat draped over one shoulder, revealing the criss-crossing straps and buckles over a rust colored bodysuit that covered her from her neck to just above her knees. The usual collection of weapons she tended to carry via those straps hung from the other shoulder, and her hands were busy with trying to bring the chain launcher/winch she'd discarded during the excercise back into working order.
Beside her, her teammates walked ... or rather, one was supporting the other, who was trying not to flinch.
Mizuno Ami's mother was one of the Mist's most talented medic nin, and the blue-haired genin had picked up a thing or two by default. Especially since the other person living there sometimes came back in the sort of shape that made certain she no longer got queasy at the sight of blood.
Ami's hands were weaving chakra threads an inch or two from her team mate's bruised abdomen, helping her body with its already prodigal robustness to heal the bruising and dulling the worst of the pain in the meanwhile.
Mako briefly considered telling her to ignore it, that she'd had worse growing up and had learned to deal without any medical jutsu. There were reasons beyond practicality for which she nearly constantly wore the neck to toe wetsuit. She weighed that against having to deal with a her friend (though the concept was a relatively new one to her) in a despondent mood... then dropped the matter and let Ami do her thing.
And listened to Mina complain, though she'd been with the team long enough to know that it was little more than a token gesture on the blonde's part.
"Why is it that you complain at only having lasted twenty minutes at this excercise, and praise your teammates when they manage half that?" the voice came from the opposite side of one of the trees they'd just walked by, and, for the first time in a while, did not make them jump.
For someone who claimed to favor the direct approach whenever possible, their Jounin sensei was remarkably good at the whole sneaking-about-undetected thing.
Though maybe because they were all too tired to care. They'd been doing control drills all day, finishing up with what the person speaking had called 'evade and escape practice' but what they'd come to call 'the grind-run'. Each of them went through it once a week - having the two other kunoichi try to track and subdue her while not being allowed to use any jutsus other than the most basic ones, to simulate the chakra-exhaustion that was usually suffered during a retreat.
Mina was usually the one to last longest at this, though whether it was because her skill with the various weapons on her person and sheer luck, or just because she plain refused to 'die' was anyone's guess.
They walked the rest of the way to their usual rest area, a small glade where several of the huge trees that filled the forest had been toppled sometime in the past, in silence.
"You did well today," the Jounin called Katsu said, after they'd seated themselves on one of the fallen trees. Tallish, at an inch or two over six feet, and clad in grey fatigues and high collared jacket, hitai-ite sewn into the front of said high collar as part of the latch. What was visible of his skin - that being the face - was criss-crossed with scars. "Mina, you especially."
"Wha ...? Me? But I lost, sensei," the blonde frowned.
"Mako."
"Hai, sensei?"
"On those occasions when you and Ami lost against Mina, what was the reason?"
"Attrition," the shark-skinned girl responded almost instantly. "With most of my jutsus being so chakra intensive, and Ami's reserves being what they are ..." she trailed off, looking at her teammate. The blue-haired kunoichi shrugged in response, as if to say 'don't worry about it' and continued in lieu of Mako.
"Also, Mina's weapons and technique are versatile enough to deal with, or at least let her avoid, some of our ninjutsu," Ami waited a moment, saw the blonde preen, and smiled sweetly. "And Mina-chan's skull is just too thick for most genjutsu to affect."
"Yeah, and my head's just ... Oi!" the blonde flushed with what was partially anger and partially embarassment. Unusually for a kunoichi, she had no talent for anything but the most basic genjutsu, and even those went poorly most of the time. The flipside was that she seemed to have some form of natural resistence to them as well. Still, it was a bit of a sore spot with her.
"Thank you, _Mizuno-kun_," Mina huffed, turning her head away in mock irritation. Then she sighed, dropping the act. "Ami's wins were usually through traps, and Mako's ..."
The last Hoshigaki looked down, aware that she was the one with the least so called 'wins' in her account, most of them because she'd simply overpowered her teammates with brute strength.
"Hoshigaki-san," the Jounin said, making her look up. He almost never used their family names. "You specialize in ninjutsu, so this was always harder on you than on your teammates. Despite that, you managed to steadily improve in both taijutsu, armed and not, and stealth. This is a fact."
"Mina," he turned to the blonde, dropping back to speaking casually again. "You went through most of your twenty minutes today undetected, against people who _know_ you and what you can do. Compared to nearly all the times prior, when you were forced to use hit and fade tactics to wear down your pursuers? Your taijutsu was already very well rounded and polished when you started on this team, but your stealth skills _have_ improved greatly."
"Ami," he said. Paused. Frowned. Fidgeted slightly. Shrugged. Grinned. "Good job." And that seemed to be enough.
"Now, there is another thing we need to talk about," he said, once again composed. The change in mood, while not unprecedented, got their attention. "In a few weeks, the Chuunin exam is going to be held in the Fire Country, the Hidden Leaf Village. The Mizukage and the Elders want our team to take part."
Suddenly, an oppressive silence loomed over them. Mizuno Ami broke it.
"You were going to sign us up for it anyway, weren't you?" she asked.
"You're certainly at a level where it would do you good to spread your wings a little," Katsu nodded. "If nothing else, I believe you have what it takes to not _die_ in it."
"Sempai, you said the 'kage and the Council want us to go," Mako stated. Flatly.
Katsu looked at her, then at Mina, and finally at Ami. Then he nodded. "They want us to fail."
"_WHAT_?"
"Mina!" the Jounin did not _quite_ shout.
"... eep ... um, what?" the blonde blushed. Beside her, Ami was paler than usual, and Mako's fingers were digging into the wood of the tree-trunk they were sitting on.
"A great many things that they would have rather seen dead and buried have been ... reminding them of their continued existence lately," Katsu started.
"Wave country," Mina said. There was no need to say anything more on that matter, since while it was far from official news, gossip traveled very fast. Gossip of things such as the reappearance of the Devil of the Hidden Mist was particularly quick to arrive at said village. Especially when said nukenin openly surrenders and cooperates with another Hidden Village.
"With me, it's that I'm a reminder of something they'd rather not have thrust in their face every time they see mine," Katsu's thumb ran across one of the white scar lines on his face. "Mako is in a similar situation, though perhaps less awkward since I managed to become Jounin."
The girl in question nodded.
"I'm clanless," Mina said bluntly.
"You're also a prodigy, the best at taijutsu in your year," Katsu, clanless himself, replied. Mina nodded at that. This, in conjunction with the fact that she had little tolerance for people who seemed to think they were entitled to superior treatment because of blood ... made things awkward. "And then there's Ami."
"Me?" the blue-haired kunoichi asked, blinking. "Well, mom's ... I mean, my father, he wasn't Mist, and abandoned my mother, but what else is there?"
"Ami," Katsu sighed. Deeply. "That isn't the sole reason for your mother being estranged from the rest of her family."
Mizuno Ami looked at him. Weighed her options. "Tell me."
"Before your mother decided to become a medic-nin, before your father was killed," a look of pure disbelief adorned Ami's face. "Your mother was being groomed to be the Mizuno clan's next Mistress of Assassins."
"... well," she started, in a strangled tone of voice, her mind already putting the pieces together. "Well. That ... certainly explains some things. Yes."
The clearing was quiet for the next half hour.
"So," Mina started.
"So?" Mako asked.
"So," Ami, still paler than usual, but with a determined look in her eyes. "Chuunin exam."
Katsu nodded.
"They want us to die," Mako stated.
Katsu nodded.
"Sensei?" Mina asked.
"What have I been training you for?" Katsu asked. "The first rule. Tell me."
Mina looked at Mako looked at Ami looked at Mina. Gazes met. They nodded.
"Survive to live. Live to survive."
"Good girls."
Hinata had been shocked by the nomination of her team for the Chuunin Exam, but after the mission they'd just finished she could understand how a high expectation might have formed. Kiba had been so excited, and even Shino had little signs that she'd begun to be able to see...
The shy girl hung her head, thinking, *Though Kurenai-sensei didn't say it, the exam requires teams of three to enter... If I don't go, Kiba-san and Shino-san will also be forced to hold back.* She shifted in the hard chair of the desk in her room, pressing her fingers nervously, then stilled herself, remembering the way such actions always brought the slowly fading scorn in Neji's eyes back full force. *I have become stronger... just a little bit. It's a worse failure if I hold my team back... I think now I can hold on, at least long enough for them to get through the gate.*
Resolved, she slid the entry form closer and reached for her pen, but was interrupted by a knock outside her door. "Eh-? Enter," she called, not quite a stutter and not quite a call for identification before allowing the intrusion.
The screen slid open to reveal one of her younger Branch Family cousins, a girl who always made her think blushingly of her secret ambition, having inherited the byakugan of her mother but the red hair and cheerful disposition of her outsider father. "Ne, Hinata-sama, Hiashi-sama wants to see you in the dojo," the smiling girl said brightly. "He was kind of a bigger sourpuss than usual so you should probably hurry, but since when is that new?"
Just like her most special someone, Nagisa could always lift Hinata's mood, and she found herself smiling just slightly back despite the somewhat ominous content of the message. "Thank you, Nagisa-chan," she replied, before enquiring, "Did you recieve p-permission to begin k-kendo training like you'd wanted?" The use of any weapon or style besides their trademark Gentle Fist was generally considered irrelevant and an admission of weakness within the clan, the more so if an outside tutor had to be found. Even if he now bore the Hyuuga name, the younger girl's father was still hardly counted among their number for such purposes, so special permission had to be obtained from the Elders.
The bright smile widened and and her cousin bounced slightly with excitement. "Yup! I have to keep up normal Jyuuken training first, but I get to learn dad's sword style as well! It'll be awesome!"
"I'm g-glad, Nagisa-chan," Hinata congratulated, before rising gracefully from her seat. "Ano, I s-should go see Father now... um, if... if that's all."
"Nope, that's everything," the redhead chirped, sliding the shoji shut again behind them and walking with her until their paths split at an intersecting hallway. "Don't worry Hinata-sama," she advised her quiet cousin. "Dad said you did one of the advanced techniques on your last mission, so Hiashi-sama's got to be proud of that, right? I'm sure he's just constipated or something and that caused the look on his face."
"Nagisa-chan!" the older girl gasped, scandalized. "You shouldn't say such things... if a Main House member heard you..."
A mischievous grin flashed as the other girl clapped her companionably on the shoulder. "Hinata-sama... YOU'RE a Main House member, the heir in fact. Are ya gonna use my seal on me?" Pale white eyes with just the faintest tinge of amber twinkled silent laughter that somehow wasn't mocking at all, while a thumb quirked at the angular, dark green marking carried openly on her forehead only partly obscured by short bangs. Then Nagisa hurried off with the usual spring in her step before Hinata could even begin to think of a reply, let alone stammer it out.
After a few seconds of stunned immobility the shy girl resumed her trek to the training hall that was maintained for the exclusive use of Main Family members to study the restricted techniques of advanced Jyuuken forms.
As expected, she found her father and younger sister Hanabi there, the seven year old's instruction in the family style having progressed much more satisfactorily than her own, at least until she'd begun training with Neji. She waited quietly to be acknowledged near the doors.
"Hinata," the man said evenly, when his youngest had finished her kata. "According to the report from your last mission, you exectuted one of the advanced techniques of the Gentle Fist. Why did you not inform me of this in person?"
Desperately clinging to the mental image of her patch, the older girl did her best not to fidget and stutter as she replied. "An-... I wanted to p-perfect the skill be... fore I told you... Neji-neesan's assistance has greatly helped, b-but I still cannot see tenketsu rel... reliably." The dream of becoming a reliable person was still something she could only dare to think in private.
"LIAR!" Hiashi accused, rounding on the girl with a furious expression. "The enemy's tenketsu were sealed, and his inner coils destroyed by high levels of chakra!" He slapped her, shouting, "Do you presume to try to hide your ability, to continue to allow the noble Hyuuga clan to look weak!"
Hinata stilled her hands, pressing them against her sides to avoid folding back the third and fourth fingers in the classic Jyuuken form, an act that would be taken as disrespect. It had become ingrained in her, training with her harsh cousin - get knocked down, stand back up and fight. Straightening her head from where the blow had turned it, she set her shoulders as well. The bold white wolf rose in her thoughts and took control of her mouth. "Because of the Hero Water, his tenketsu were unusually bright and easy to make out. Neji-neesan, Kiba-san, Shino-san, Kurenai-sensei, all of them I can only see the tenketsu occasionally. I have not intentionally hidden my ability, from you or from the clan, Otousama."
The burning anger faded from Hiashi's face, replaced by the calm and proper mask of a Hyuuga. He held her in a long, calculating look, then turned away again. "So instead of the appearance of weakness, the reality of weakness remains. You will demonstrate your improvement with Hanabi."
Momentary confidence wilting like a spring violet under a fire ninjutsu, Hinata shot a pitiful look at her younger sister, who remained unmoved and scornful. By habit and not wanting to chance the increasingly uncommon failure to work without it, she quickly formed the hand seal to activate her Byakugan. If only she could... but no. *Failure, again,* she thought despairingly.
"I cannot see Hanabi-neechan's tenketsu," she admitted, "or even yours, Father." Though she remained in a ready stance, Hinata's shoulders drooped and her head fell from the accepted position. The byakugan's nearly full-sphere vision made it all but irrelevant in practical terms, but the proper Jyuuken stance was also a psychological weapon to tell the enemy that they were already defeated, where hers gave more than a hint that Hanabi had already won.
She had to wait until late evening before her arms had recovered enough to have legible penmanship, so she could fill out the Chuunin Exam registration form. The wolf on the back of her jacket seemed to wink in the dancing shadows of her desk lamp as she did so.
If you get knocked down, then get back up and fight harder. After so much time watching Naruto, she'd finally really learned his secret for herself, and it just made her admire him even more.
(Would you like to know more? This chapter's omake is actually canonical, but didn't fit in.)
Naruto characters and setting created by Kishimoto Masahi, and the adapted Sailor Moon characters are Takeuchi Naoko's, while Katsu is Griever's property as cameo-insert. How that came about is a bit funny on its own - I was originally going to have had Zabuza succeed in his coup without his sister in the Mizukage's office to cause a critical second's hesitation, but then Griever suggested the whole "uncle Zabu" angle and it was too funny to pass up. Since he saved the Mizukage's life, I promoted him to Jounin of Hidden Mist on the spot, and Katsu was the character profile he came back with. Note that Katsu's backstory is not at all like this, though he'd probably be quite happy to thwart Zabuza in any way possible.
So there you have it, the least original chapter of Legend of Explosive Youth. Shibuki was too good a parallel to Hinata to pass up, but there was so little I could do to change the story besides changing how the final blows are landed. At least the speech about the Hero Water not giving real power fits believably in Shino's mouth, the original had Sasuke of all people giving it - such a thing was never in character for him to say at any point in canon, and still wouldn't be for mine yet... Hell, canon Sasuke would probably have tried to steal some Hero Water himself.
Takigakure - waterfall + hidden within
Yuuhi Kurenai - flying leap/a great accomplishment + deep red
Ninpo: Shikyaku no jutsu - Ninja magic: Four Legs skill
Tsuuga - piercing + fang
At the end of the scene with the first enemies at the waterfall in the anime there's a japanese pun I really wanted to include, but doing so would require in-line translation and broke things up too much. Naruto says, "Let's start the mission! The monkey usually cries and climbs up when he sees a tree, ne?" In romanji this is "Ki wo mita saru wo yoku nakiagaru," to which Sakura replies "Don't you mean 'Gi wo mite sezaru wa ya nakinaru?'" which means "To see what is right and not do it proves the lack of courage." As you can see by comparing the two sentences they have a very similar sound, and even what Naruto says could apply in a "Why climb the mountain?" "Because it's there." sort of way. Unfortunately I couldn't come up with an english spoonerism of anywhere near the same caliber for Kiba, and as I said including the japanese and translations in the main text is far too disruptive.
tori - a wooden entryway with two upper bars, the larger top one sometimes curved to be higher at the ends than the middle. Usually painted red. (more detail possible if I remember to look it up, may or may not share spelling with or have significant relation to the 'tori' that means 'bird')
suien - (1) mist over a body of water; spray; (2) four metal plates joined at right angles forming part of a pagoda finial
Takigakure Ryu: Mizuki no Yaiba - Hidden Waterfall Style: Sword of Water (not as literal as my usual provided translation, taken from the subtitles and my own ear for the japanese)
"Heh, you will always be like that ... Totally, you'll always be a weak coward." And here you have the canon line responsible for the Waterfall Country speech patterns. I had to do something to punch it up when most of the story was just regurgitating canon. Like totally, for sure.
Armor-grade kikai silk - essentially, the biologically produced equivalent of a kevlar/spectra weave, in the case of a patch like Hinata's created over a tight metal mesh to spread impacts and for extra resistance to stabbing and slashing weapons, so that by drawing the eye with an obvious target it can serve as a useful piece of armor despite the relatively small coverage. Because the pattern is created by the weaver-bugs themselves changing the color of their silk at their partner's direction designs can be created with details at the limit of naked-eye human observation, although the cost of such skilled creations rises sharply of course. Making such pieces is Shino's least insect-related hobby, in that bugs are only involved in the creation stage, while the final result and 'use' is aesthetic.
"And I would have got away with it, too..." - if you don't recognise this line, you are obviously horribly deprived and need to watch more classic cartoons. In this case, Scooby Doo, where nearly every episode ended with the villain saying that or a variation on it. Suien would have fit right in with them, at least in terms of (lack of) intelligence. Seriously, a ninja medicine that gives great power but will probably kill you, and not only is he willing to go to such lengths to get it, the first thing he does is drink some. If I was the leader of Takigakure, I'd make sure to have a small amount of the stuff around all the time, maybe with added powder of soldier pill for extra effect and a tasteless poison just for backups. If some fool comes looking for it, I'd give it to them immediately and let them kill themselves like the idiot they'd have to be.
Hyuuga Nagisa is lifted from the anime "Pretty Cure," an action-heavy magical girls show that's far more tolerable to the average teenage boy than Sailor Moon ever was. The only change I've made in her character design is adding the Hyuuga's characteristic chakra channeling membrane between the iris and lens of her eyes that gives them the all but blank white look... unless you count having confused the names of the main PuriKyua characters accidentally when I was originally writing the scene. The redhead is supposed to be named Misumi Nagisa, while Yukashiro Honoka has the name theme for the clan, Hyuuga standard long black hair and dark blue-purple eyes that would come out the usual pale violet through the byakugan membrane... oops.
Though I'm not sure of her age in the anime, Nagisa is ten in this story, two years behind Hinata and Naruto and two ahead of Konohamaru. There have to be some Branch members who aren't all doom and woe, ne? Of course the Main House Elders are constantly irritated by having a tiger lily in their garden of orchids, and she's frequently held as the example of why love matches are a foolish indulgence compared to arrangements made by properly thinking senior family members, but what else can you expect from the lower house? Not that poor Nagisa has to worry about it, the only love letters she gets are from the other girls, admiring her confidence and athleticism.
I reccomend at least checking out the show, the opening theme is the fun kind of J-pop (as opposed to the sickeningly saccharine kind) and the few first episodes alone are a hoot, what with Nagisa's side comments and the David-Bowie-as-the-Goblin-King style dark general. Pretty Cure Max Heart is a continuation of the first season with a more rocking version of the OP, but it used up all the awesome-sauce and left Splash Star as a reboot with 1000% formulaic little-girly fluff, only to be attempted if you -really- like the earlier seasons and don't mind such things. Frex, if by some chance you're an actual girl, which rumor holds can be found on the internet from time to time. Unfortunately since I can't read Japanese the only part of the titles I can make out is "ABC" and "ADK," one or the other of which may be a company that owns the series in Japan. In any case, it's not me, and without regular internet access it's not something I can look up easily.
Poor Hinata - it's always one step forward, two steps back with her family, it seems. The dojo scene actually ended up harsher than I intended it, but it still fits with what we've seen of the Hyuuga at this stage in continuity.
Griever's notes on 'his' girls: I'm imagining Mina in a black/rust colored bodystocking, long sleeved, but only down to just above the knees. Kneepads (armored). Low heeled ankle boots. Loose waistcoat/short kimono w/wide sleeves with twin chain launchers/winches - something like what I remember those two Mist nin at the beginning of the Wave country arc having - with a variety of attachments (a weight at the end, a sickle/kama, a short double edged blade, etc.). For thrown weapons, she uses kunai and manriki. The waistcoat/kimono thingy is tiger-striped orange. The 'lots-and-lots-of-weapons' thing I have her pulling can be attributed to a Blade of the Immortal OD on my part.
Mako - go with the bodysuit/wetsuit, then, and a variety of garments to wear over that. Shades of green. For some reason, I see her with a collapsible Yari. (spear)
Ami - actually, I was thinking more along the lines of an outfit resembling Katsu's plain functionality-over-looks fatigues, only trimmed with shades of blue and (less so) green over the plain grey. Maybe with either shorts or a short sleeved vest. (She has a small backpack for medicines and tools instead of the standard little butt pouch)
Omake: A special hell for delinquent and abusive fathers...
"Konoha's Handsome Green Beast! Maito Gai!"
"The Proud Green Beast! Rock Lee!"
"The Blazing Orange Wildfire! Uzumaki Naruto!"
"The Bold White Wolf! Hyuuga Hinata!"
"TEAM EXPLOSIVE YOUTH! HASSHIN!"
Jerking upright with a strangled gasp, Hiashi wiped at the sweat beading his face. "No more takodango when I get the midnight munchies," he ordered himself firmly. Lying back, he used a certain mental technique to quickly return to sleep.
"You could call it, an absolute defense... Kaiten! EEEK!" (thud)
Enough was enough, the Hyuuga Clan Head decided, after starting awake again at the image of his eldest accidentally blasting all her clothes off with the pressure of her chakra and fainting from embarrassment in the middle of a public tournement. He obviously wasn't going to get any rest tonight... rolling smoothly upright he slipped on a robe, before lighting the candles on his wife's shrine to pray for guidance and forgiveness with the matter of their first daughter, whose very face was a stab in his heart every time he saw her.
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