Disclaimer: I do not own naruto, duh, If I did, it really wouldn't be what it is today. The only people I do own are the new ino-shika-cho kids, Kaido, Anten, Hana, and myself, Haru, along with any random people that may or may not pop up yet. Keru is owned by my cousin, and Tenhime by my nee-chan. now on with the story!
Naruto - A New Path
Chapter 3 - And So It Begins
It was the day after they had met Tokka-sensei, and our three young genin were sitting at Ichiraku Noodle Shop, Haru having been cut down to three bowls for himself after yesterday's buying ramen for everyone, so this was the minimum. Atleast if he wanted to have some money left over. Once Ayame had finished making their ramen, she had gone to a corner of the shop, behind the counter, and was happily reading the book that Tenhime had autographed and given to her.
It was Keru who spoke up first. "I just realised something..." He muttered, gaining his friends attention. "nani?" Haru mumbled, his mouth stuffed with noodles. "We just left Tokka-sensei here last night, and he never told us where to meet up with him again..." He said, taking in a few more of his noodles and sighing. Tenhime nodded, before turning to Ayame. "ne, Ayame-chan, did Tokka-sensei leave us a note or anything?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. Ayame whined and sighed, pulling out a bookmark and putting it in her book, pouting. "I'm trying to reeeaaad!" she whined again, still pouting. "But if you really want to know, he did leave this for you." She pulled out a small note, handing it to Keru and sighing. "now hurry up and finish, I'm closing up shop for the day so I can read." she went to her tasks, shutting things off, and putting things away. Haru sighed. "see what you did tenhime-chan? now we wont be able to come back today for more ramen!" he whined now, pouting.
Tenhime ignored her 'brother' and looked at the note, sighing and reading it aloud. "Meet me back at the academy courtyard around 9:00 A.M." she read, looking between the other two, who had bolth finished their ramen, and were looking expectantly at her. she sighed and turned to her bowl, finishing off the last of the noodles and broth, before leaving change on the counter for Ayame, her friends doing the same.
They headed off to the courtyard, with a few minutes to spare, and used this time to go over their techniques, strategies, and combos.it had taken them a little bit to realise, that over an hour had elapsed since they were supposed to meet their sensei.. "You've gotta be kidding me!" Haru yelled, his eye twitching as he went to rip out his hair."late, TWO DAYS in a row! who dose this guy think he is?" his hands flew up into the air in exasperation as he collapsed onto his back, staring up at the clouds.
Tenhime was sitting in the old swing that hung from a tree, rocking back and forth lazily as she nodded, also staring up at the sky. Keru on the other hand was using this time to train, beating up the lone practice dummy that was set up, it being adorned by several cracks and chips, although noone had ever been able to break it completely.
a half hour later, all three of them stopped whatever it was they were doing as a figure walked into the clearing, and haru lept to his feet, along with Tenhime. "You're late!" they said in unison, pointing at the perpetrator, who was still hidden behind his new icha icha book. "sorry bout that" he said in his usual tone "a few black cats crossed my path, so I had to take some new ones." he smiled gently as two of his students cried out "liar!" keru nodded, sighing. "I have thirteen different black cats tokka-sensei, if they were bad luck, i'd know" he said, rolling his eyes. "It's true" his teammates said exasperatedly. "thirteen black cats, four tabby, a calico, and two with bright orange fur." tenhime listed off "oh, and one grey one." she added as an afterthought, remembering the small grey kitten she had seen a few days ago.
Tokka-sensei mearly chuckled, putting his book away and grinning. "ah well, we've got training today before we take on any missions, so, if you'd follow me..." he said, turning and leaving as the others followed, haru rubbing the bridge of his nose as he went.
After a long walk they reached an all-too-farmilliar training ground, three stumps sticking out of the ground at one end. Tokka-sensei walked over to these three stumps and wheeled around to his students, all of whom quickly took this as a sign to pay attention.
"Well, now that you've passed the graduation exam, I think its only fair to warn you that you still have one test to complete" he said, looking between the three. Tenhime spoke up "wait, but what dose this test do? if we passed why do we need to take any more tests?" she asked, blinking. Tokka mearly smiled, putting up a finger. "the first test at the end of the academy was to weed out the weaker students, leaving only the moderate and better of the students." he held up a second finger "this test is to weed out even more of those students, leaving only the students either between moderate, or the best of the best." this statement made haru shift slighlty, seeing as he had barely passed the exam in the first place. "the ones who dont pass this test will be sent back to the academy., and the ones who do will be put into new squads for missions and such." he put down his hand and reached up with his other one, pulling...a single, silver bell from his jacket, holding it infront of the others for all to see. "this bell will be your exam. the one who gets the bell, will pass. the other two will be tied to one of these stumps untill tomorrow, then let go and sent back to the academy for another year."
this news shocked the three, only ONE would go on? how was that fair? "you cant do that!" Haru yelled out, pointing at his sensei, who only chuckeld. "Actually, I can. I've administered this test to every genin squad i've been put in charge of. my father did also. infact, this was almost the exact same test he gave our beloved rokudaime hokage" he said, tying the bell to his waist and smiling. "You've got five hours to releive me of this bell, if you dont, none of you pass. So come at me with the intent to kill" he said, the last word rolling sharply off his tounge "when I say so, begin." he smiled as keru pulled out a kunai getting ready, haru nodded, his sleeve hiding the half of a handsign he had ready, and tenhime was going over what she could do when one of the others signalled her.
"Begin" he said and they all jumped away, Haru following tenhime to talk to her. they landed in a tree and balanced themselves, haru down and clinging to the branch like a cat, while tenhime rested against the trunk, thinking. "i'll fail and help you get the bell..." haru whispered suddenly, sighing. "Like I said, my parents wont mind if I fail another year, and your parents will have a hissy-fit if you fail again, or they'll just tell you to up and quit, and that wouldnt be good for anyone." he said "i'll just try again next year and hope to be able to cheer you on or help you out every now and then" He smiled widely, almost reassuring her. "but haru...are you sure?" haru nodded and she sighed, knowing he was too hard-headed to be talked out of this. "alright,...lets get this over with."
Tokka had taken to leaning against the stumps, reading his new book and waiting for something, anything to happen. So what if he had altered his father's test a bit? Creative licencing. And the pitting them against eachother? Competetive learning. "heh...bolth of those start with a "C" and an "L"...thats funny...huh? why is my hand wet?" he thought to himself as a drop of water landed on his hand. He quickly put away his book and looked twords the rapidly forming stormclouds above him in wonder. "Forcast didn't say anything about rain..."
Haru stood in a clump of short bushes, his hands locked into a bird seal. "Water style, heavy rainfall" he muttered as stormclouds gathered above, infused with chakra to quicken their growth. This was a jutsu his mother had brought from the rain country, and was glad she did, as it meant it would work perfectly with what tenhime had in mind as she walked into the clearing...
Tenhime grinned, looking over at her sensei, who, strangely enough, was looking up at the sky, even if he had noticed the splashes her sandals made in the wet ground. Starting through the short handsigns he finnally looked down as she finished her handsigns. "earth style! earth release!" she said, slamming her palms into the ground, causing all the little grains of dirt and sand to repel eachother breifly, allowing water to seep between them and saturate them, a rather large area turning to mud around her.
Tokka mearly raised an eyebrow at her, wondering why she had simply walked out when she had perfectly set herself up for getting stabbed with a kunai or shuriken. this was made clear as haru burst from the bushes, heading straight for tokka, sliding effortlessly across the mud as though it was ice. "Two palms style, endless mudstream!" he said, raising his un-sleeved fist, ready to punch his sensei as he flew across the watered down earth. Ah, so that was it? make the terrain easier to move across? well, two could play at that game...
Tokka simply ducked under haru's swing, tripping him and sending him face-first into the mud as he turned to face tenhime, who had also slid across the mud at him. However, what he had not been expecting, was for her to dive, headfirst, into the mud at his feet, being completely absorbed by the thick brown stubstance. "this is new..." he said, as the mud was less than a foot thick, and he had to use a small ammount of chakra to stay 'afloat' in it. From somewhere around him, a voice called out "mud style: mud wrestling jutsu - perspective strike" before a leg shot from the mud between his legs, striking him right where the sun definatly dose not shine.
To say he was expecting this would be a downright, cold-hearted lie. His face contorted in pain, confusion, and slight anger that she had used THAT tactic to render him temporarily imobile. haru stood, grinning and running twords him, jumping at tokka only to have him duck out of the way again, but not before tenhime burst from the mud, grabbing haru's hand and spinning, throwing him back "balistic missile!" they said in unison, as the brown-haired boy hurtled twords his sensei, a kunai glinting dangerously from the depths of his long sleeve. tokka fell to the ground, but not before a fist from below sent him bouncing upwards, straight into the path of the blade-weilding boy.
Thankfully, a quick kawarimi caused the him to collide with a large clump of mud, soaring through it and past keru, who was at the ready, grabbing haru's other hand and throwing him at his sensei, who had only enough time to get himself out of the line of fire, but not out of the battle. Keru threw haru in the same fassion, sending him straight at their sensei, who went to dodge, only to find two hands grabbing his feet.
"mud style, earth-swallowing technique" said tenhime, her face emerging from the mud as she slowly started to pull her sensei down, keeping him rooted to the spot untill he was up to his waist in the thick brown substance. she must have made the mud deeper while in it, or simply the rain had started to come down faster, but in any case, he was now up to his hips in thick, brown, dirt-soup., and a hyperactive, knife-weilding boy was quickly hurtling twords him.
Tokka braced for teh worst, but it never came, opening his eyes he saw keru standing above him, holding the bell that had been tied to his waist, before jumping away, leaving a mud-coated, and througly shocked pair of friends gaping at him as he left. "he..." "did he just..." "he did..." "what the..." they continued to stare in disbelief at what their friend had just done, before it snapped. "that double-crossing bastard!" tenhime yelled, her fists clenching infront of her as she charged forwards, completely ignoring her half-buried sensei. Haru bolted after her, muttering countless profanities at his friend, and leaving behind a shocked and thoroughly annoyed Tokka. when he finnally regained his composure, he looked down, sighing. "ewwww...i've got mud in my shorts..."
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Tenhime and haru bolted after their friend, vowing bloody murder at the boy that would cause them to be sent back to the academy, only to find they've gone full circle, and that he was sitting atop one of the stumps, swinging the bell back and forth lazily. "oi, guys, got you something." he said, holding out his hand. Blinking down at their friend they quietly made their way over to him. He opened his hands and revealed two small chunks of metal, each no larger than a pin-head. "and what are these?" tenhime asked, angrilly. to answer, keru held up the bell, which had been pried open with a kunai, revealing it to be empty. "the jingle from this bell. he said we had to have the bell, not what part afterall.
His two friends blinked, taking the small metal lump from his hands and scratching their heads. "sooo..." haru started "dose that mean we pass?" a voice spoke up from behind him. "as far as I can tell, only one of you has the bell...so my guess is no." said their sensei, who had managed to free himself from the mud. the three genin held up their respectfull peice of the bell, and tokak nearly choked. the bell he had received from his father upon his promotion to jounin was now split into three before him. He let out a muffled scream, taking the three pieces back from his students and trying to fix the bell, to small sucess. it held the metal lumps in, but unfortunately it didnt give off the same jingle as it had before...
"so..do we pass?" tenhime asked, scratching her cheek gently. regretfully, tokka nodded. "this exam was to test your teamwork, whih, you three used spectacularly..it wasn't really about the bell, but really working together..." he held up the mangled bell, sighing. "but seeing as you all did manage to get a part of the bell...you passed bolth portions...which according to my father shouldnt be possible...man he's going to have a fit..." he sighed, rubbing his temples. "we'll talk to hokage-sama about missions tomorow...and i'll praise you three more on your teamwork later. untill then, I need to see someone about trying to get this bell fixed.." he whined again, flickering off.
The three of them grinned, tenhime, with her mud-coated face, haru, with his dirtied shirt, and keru, with not a speck of mud on him, for now atleast, started walking back. on the way tenhime and haru thought it was only fair that he get a nice mud bath along the way, so they shoved him face-first into a rather sloppy looking puddle, only to run away laughing at his expression when he looked up. Things might not be that bad afterall...who knew? Afterall, this was only the beginning.
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Thanks for sticking through with me, we've got a bit of action, and some self-made jutsu. Tenhimes owner actually wanted her to use mud-style jutsu, rather than just earth or water, which usually combine into wood, she thought of mud. nice, sloppy, dirty, mud. as in mud wrestling. which she loves to see two girls going at it in. well, thats all for now, wish me luck on the next chapter!
ja ne!
