Disclaimer: I am not Kishimoto Masashi, unfortunately. Thus, it is only reasonable to assume that I do not own Naruto. If you recognize a technique from another manga, or a character, I do not own them either. Frankly, I think the only character I own fully is Yoshida Tadao.
Author Note: Some review responses follow.
Rina K – To be honest, trapping is not really going to be Naruto's specialty; however, he will be better at it than anyone else on the team. I'm kinda stuck on missions at the moment, so if you have any decent ideas, I'd be happy to hear them.
This chapter was assembled over the course of two to three weeks with the last bit finished mere minutes before posting. *bows* I apologize for everything that sucks.
CHAPTER TWO:
WELCOME TO THE END OF YOUR LIFE!
Umino Iruka slammed down his pen, rubbing his face. Finally. Every year, the day before school started again, he was elected to put together the lesson plans. They always did it when he wasn't around to object either. He would make them pay for this...
Maybe assign all of them to teach counter-seduction? Or even seduction?
Iruka suppressed a grin. Then he yawned and stretched his arms high over his head, looking at the clock.
It was really late. The building was always locked down at sundown, more tightly secured than most bank vaults. He was going to have to find the janitor to let him out now; only Kenichi was authorized to open the locks at this second.
Naruto was probably asleep by now, back at his apartment. That was too bad; he wanted to find out who his team was. The next chance he was going to have to ask him was most likely going to be after he had failed the Final Test.
That was too bad. He would already know normally but he was not involved in team formation since he only had one student in the entire group. The most he had contributed was filling out a recommendation form. He didn't even know his Jōnin.
Getting up, he grabbed a hot cup of coffee and went searching through the building to find Kenichi.
He was ashamed to admit that he was shocked that Naruto passed the exam. Naruto was not the best student, or even an average student. He was so hyperactive with a goldfish's attention span. The only things he seemed to live for were pranking, ramen and becoming Hokage.
He paused to peek into his classroom, on the off-chance that Kenichi was in there, fixing up the room. It was empty.
Iruka was even more ashamed to admit that he had nearly accused Naruto of stealing the headband. Fortunately, he managed to stop himself. Once he thought about it, though, he couldn't help feeling proud of him.
From the first day, he had dismissed Naruto as a failure. He had looked at his past, his attitude and his grades. For years, he had figured Naruto was most likely to become a mangled corpse.
Another classroom. Another empty classroom.
His pranks, though... They were more than just pranks. They showed a level of insight that many Genin never gained. He attacked the source of a person's pride, not just their pride. He used them as tests; he watched how the target avoided them, or how they didn't.
Naruto showed a surprising grasp of history, as well. It honestly shouldn't have surprised him, though, not once he thought about it. From a kid who wouldn't shut up about being Hokage for longer than a bite of ramen, it was obvious that he would study them. He even spent at least three or four hours a week with the Sandaime.
The Endurance portion of the test had even helped him in the Ninjutsu exam, wasting enough chakra, he made a passable Bunshin. Naruto had been most shocked and excited about that, promising to practice his chakra control.
After that ramen dinner, he had taken Naruto back to his apartment, where Naruto was still staying to this day. For the next week, he had taken time off to teach Naruto a few extra tricks; even if he was going back to the Academy, he had earned them. However much he wanted Naruto to pass, he knew that was just wishful thinking. He wasn't going to pass, not this time.
Sighing, trying to banish that thought, he opened another door, peering inside, hoping to find the janitor.
What he found, instead, was three Genin lying around a board game, dead asleep. Their stomachs growled and grumbled in a strange sort of harmony.
Blinking, he stepped into the room, walking up to the trio. He thought all the teams had been collected by now.
Toeing one of them, he watched the boy snort and roll over. He toed him harder.
The boy waved him away.
He kicked the boy a bit harder than he should have.
The resulting shout woke up the other two.
Once they were awake, they looked up at him darkly. "You're late."
"I'm not a Jōnin-sensei," Iruka said, hands in his pockets. "Are you telling me that you haven't met yours yet?"
The three just looked back, eyebrows raised.
"Do you know his or her name?"
"Kekkaishi... I think."
Iruka nodded understanding and confused. Hatake Kakashi was notoriously late for everything, but he had never been this late before.
Telling the Genin to follow him, he found Kenichi down the next hall. Once they were outside, he sent them home and headed straight to the Hokage tower. He needed to find out where the hell Kakashi was.
It was no use, was it?
Sayuri rested her chin against her knees, looking up at the stars. From the position of the moon, she had most of the night to come up with some genius-type of plan to pass the test with. She couldn't think of anything.
Immediately upon awakening, she had used the one healing jutsu she knew and eased her aches. However, it was only a temporary stop; it would return in the morning with a vengeance.
After that, she tried picking a few splinters out of her face. It still really hurt but she had managed to get the blood off.
As she worked, her mind raced, analyzing the 'fight' with Sensei, hoping to find some key to victory. Even now, an hour after she was done easing her pain, she was still trying to find that one misstep, just one little flaw that she could use to her advantage.
No matter how hard she tried though, nothing was coming to mind. There was literally nothing she could think of that would actually work.
The one thing she could do was land a punch, but he'd just switch away again, or worse. He'd catch it. She wasn't even sure that she could get close enough.
It didn't help that he wasn't playing around. He seemed to be going full-force against them. No doubt that he had smacked the others around as easily as he had done to her.
He wanted to kill them, that's all there was to it.
She could feel her hands shaking, tried to will them to be still. Stop it! Getting scared isn't going to help here; that's what got you hurt.
She knew she hadn't been a very good student back in school. Her jutsu were not as fine-tuned as they could be. She was lucky to have gotten that Kawarimi off at all. There was the possibility that she could switch with something nearby and hit him, but he would probably see that coming, making it useless.
Climbing to her feet, she looked around the clearing. She didn't even know where anyone was at the moment. Everyone had left her here so long ago, they could have even finished the test and just forgotten her.
Shoulders slumping, she stood there. She jumped when a twig snapped, spinning around, slamming her fist into a tree.
As the tree shattered and fell, Iyokan-san stood to the side, eyes wide, staring at her. Slowly, her eyes narrowed. "What the hell are you doing?" she sneered. "You could have killed me."
Sayuri bit her lip. "Sorry, I thought you were Sensei. He likes to pop up behind people, you know."
"He beat you, too?"
Looking at her now, Sayuri could tell that Iyokan-san had had gotten curb-stomped. She seemed to be favoring one leg and her arms were holding her stomach as she walked, hunched over. She was breathing strangely, a little too deeply and not quite regularly. Her face was heavily bruised and was that...?
"You look like shit, Matsushita," Iyokan-san stated matter-of-factly.
You too, Sayuri wanted to say. "Is that...?" Sayuri pointed at her hair.
"Not one word," was the growled reply. Iyokan-san's face lost what little good humor it had and she seemed to glare past Sayuri. After a while, she sighed and slumped down. "You took that medic seminar in the Academy, right?"
Nodding, she got to work easing some of her aches. While the bruising cleared up, and she could sit up straight, Sayuri was still worried about her breathing. After a brief time, she sat back. "That's all I can do. I only learned the one jutsu; it'll hurt in the morning.
Throughout all of this, Iyokan-san had remained silent, staring off into space.
To tell the truth, Sayuri had never understood her that well, even after five years in the same class. The two barely knew each other, really. Iyokan-san was so rough and aggressive. She always seemed to move to her own drum, finding her own solutions to the Academy exercises. She had once ended a night exercise by stealing the teacher's equipment and inciting a riot against him.
She had been the best of the girls in the class, in theory and practical. The only place she had not dominated was the Taijutsu field and she had been the really close second. Iyokan Hazuki had been one of the main contenders for Rookie of the Year, the first girl in the past thirty years.
Abruptly, she spoke. "How badly did he beat you?" She turned to look at Sayuri, a strange look in her eyes.
Sayuri opened her mouth to answer, feeling her cuts sting in protest. "I found that getting hit with a tree hurts," she answered simply, not wanting to admit to her cowardice.
"He threw one at you, too?"
Sayuri blinked. What? He threw trees at Iyokan-san? Suddenly, going home a student again seemed rather appealing.
"I couldn't get the bastard to hold still, even with all the things my dad taught me." Iyokan-san glared at the trees on the other side of the clearing.
"Well," she hesitated, not wanting her to get mad at her, "you are not exactly Jōnin-level, Iyokan-san, not yet."
Iyokan-san was silent for a second. "Call me Hazuki; Iyokan-san is just annoying."
Sayuri smiled, nodding. "Okay, I'm Sayuri."
Hazuki stared off again, seeming to focus on the tree she had snapped in half. "You're pretty strong. I forgot about that."
"I've been training since I was a little girl. My dad is a martial arts master. He says I take after my mother with my strength."
"I remember when you put Shihōin-sensei in the hospital. His stomach collapsed or something." Hazuki nodded to herself. "I have an idea, a way we can beat him."
Sayuri looked up hopefully, needing the reassurance that it was possible to win.
Hazuki leaned back against Sayuri's back, looking up at the stars. "We need to get you in close to him, so I can run distraction. I get him focused on me, and then at the last second, you come in and land a hit from nowhere. Nice and simple."
Too simple. Sayuri's head fell. "I can't do that, Hazuki-san. He'll see me coming over a mile away."
"So switch with something close to him. That should do it."
Slowly the girls stood up, Sayuri still felt nervous about the plan, which didn't seem very thoroughly thought-out. There was so much that could go wrong with this. "How will you get him focused on you? He must know everything you know by now."
Hazuki shrugged. "My dad has been teaching me to use a sword. He told me not to use it until he told me I was allowed, though. So, don't say anything."
"What if he doesn't have our headbands? It doesn't matter if he beat him, if we can't find them."
Hazuki went quiet, obviously thinking.
Sayuri waited for a few minutes before speaking again. "Maybe if we could find Uzumaki-kun? Maybe he knows something. If nothing else, it will give us another person to use, increases our chances of succeeding."
Pursing her lips, Hazuki shook her head. "We can't waste time searching for him. If he can't make it back here, then he doesn't deserve to be a ninja."
Sayuri sighed, unable to think of a way to change her mind.
"Glad to hear it."
The two girls looked up to see Naruto hobbling out of the forest. His hand was holding his chest as he walked out, slightly slumped over. His hair shadowed his eyes slightly. He had lost his jacket somewhere, so he was in a black shirt with an orange spiral on it.
He smiled, his face looking pained from that action. "So, I made it back."
Hazuki raised an eyebrow. "You're far too injured to be useful. So, we'll leave you here."
"Fuck that." Naruto seemed to force himself to stand up straight, glaring at Hazuki. "I didn't just force myself back here to sit back and do nothing. Let me help."
"You'll just screw everything up and get us all killed."
Naruto and Hazuki seemed to fall into a glaring contest.
Sayuri stood to the side, watching them. She didn't mind his help; to be honest, she figured it could only improve their chances, but she figured that Hazuki-san would overrule her.
"What the hell is your problem?" There went Naruto, angrier than he was before. "I've never met you before today."
Hazuki just sneered back. "You're here; isn't that enough?"
"Stop it," Sayuri said loudly, stepping between them. "This isn't helping any of us." Not sure what she was doing, she looked over at Hazuki. "We need to work together if we're going to beat Sensei, and find our headbands."
"He has nothing to offer." Hazuki seemed determined to keep Naruto out of it.
"I know where our headbands are."
The girls turned to look at him. His face was serious, with faint remaining traces of anger, no sign of his normal cheerful humor. His eyes were still locked on Hazuki.
"Your headband is on an orange cloth, right? I saw it when he was slapping me around."
Hazuki nodded, face guarded. She looked at Sayuri, who stared back. "Fine." With an incredibly fake smile on her face, she turned to Naruto. "So, tell us where the headbands are, and you can help us."
Naruto smirked back, smugly. "Right, I'll show you."
The night was already half over.
Tadao stood on the edge of the cliff, looking out at the horizon, his arms crossed. His right hand looked red and angry, just like Uzumaki had claimed.
The Genin knelt behind the bushes, watching him.
Hazuki's mind raced as she sat there. She had not wanted to believe that Uzumaki had actually been able to mark him when she could not.
Damn little shit.
"Why hasn't he attacked us?" Sayuri asked, being cautious as she looked through the foliage. "He has to have sensed us here."
"He wants to see what we're up to," Uzumaki answered. "He wants to see if we're going to do anything interesting."
"If we were alone," Hazuki added, "he would have attacked us. Same old, same old. Since we're teaming up, he's going to hold off, try to guess our plan."
Sayuri nodded, doubtfully. "So, have we got any new ideas?"
Uzumaki looked around behind them, at a tiny clearing. There seemed a hell of a lot of those. "I've got an idea for a finisher, but not for getting the headbands themselves." He pulled several tags from his pouch, rubbing them between his fingers.
Hazuki ignored him, turning back to watch Tadao. She had no idea where her headband was, seeing as Uzumaki was remaining quiet on that. However, he did tell her that someone had to get behind him.
She wasn't allowed to carry a sword yet. Daddy had just started to teach her how to use a sword; all she had managed to cut so far was herself.
Slowly, a smirk formed on her face.
"I've got an idea."
Sitting down at the dingy table, Iruka tried to keep his glare level. He took a quick sip from his cup as he met Kakashi's eye. It hadn't taken long to find him, once he had reached the Hokage tower.
Kakashi, for his part, just sat there, leaning back in his chair. He was incredibly relaxed for facing an angry teacher. Kakashi had yet to speak or anything; he just put his book away as Iruka approached. "How can I help you?" he asked, his voice a weird mix of amused and apathetic.
"I'm Umino Iruka; I'm a teacher at the Academy," Iruka started. "I was working late today and found something curious as I was walking out."
Kakashi's eye closed in a smile. "You found my Genin team, sleeping in the classroom."
That stopped Iruka short. "You knew?"
Kakashi shrugged. "Suspected. Why else would a teacher, even the most uptight one, hunt down a Jōnin? Plus, you only had one student in the entire graduating group, so you only had one way of knowing to hunt me down."
This admission made Iruka glare harder, even as a blush spread across his face. He had given up pranking when he graduated from the Academy, but was he really so uptight? "So, where were you?"
Kakashi tilted his head, somehow even more amused. "There was this little girl being terrorized by a vicious cat. After I saved her, her mother wanted to show me how grateful she was."
Iruka sighed. "Bullshit."
Kakashi leaned further back. "I don't owe you anything, Iruka-san, so you can't be exactly be picky."
"As a teacher yourself, Kakashi-san, you are responsible for picking up your students, not just leave them lying around."
Kakashi sighed, spreading his hands to the side. "I sent word that they were to meet me at the dango stand. They failed to show up. Therefore, they failed. I was even on-time and waited for four hours." Taking a sip of his drink through his mask, Kakashi sighed. "So, how's Naruto been?"
Iruka furrowed his brow. "How do you know Naruto?"
Kakashi chuckled. "Who doesn't know Naruto? His pranks are infamous; he's given me a number of chases."
"He's fine. Happy to be a ninja, though that won't last long."
Kakashi nodded. "True, especially with Tadao as his teacher. He is not known for coddling his students. Never passed a team."
Iruka met Kakashi's eye. "Tadao? I've never heard of him."
"There are quite a few ninja you've never heard of. I mean, there are how many ninja, and civilians, in this village? It's almost impossible to know everyone," Kakashi lectured. "Not even the Hokage knows every ninja by name.
"Yoshida Tadao is one of the oldest ninja in the village. The only Konoha-trained ninja older than him are the Sandaime and his teammates, the Sannin, and Shimura Danzō. He's a Ninjutsu specialist, second only to the Sandaime and not by much." Kakashi shrugged. "That's all I know. I know he fought in the Second and Third Wars, but not what he did."
Iruka felt a chill run down his back. "You said he never sent a student back to the Academy. Why?"
Kakashi smiled grimly. "The ones who made it to the hospital haven't left the ICU yet."
Iruka blanched and ran out of the bar.
Kakashi chuckled. "Then again, the Sandaime would not tolerate that kind of conduct, so maybe not."
Hazuki took a deep breath and stepped out of the bushes. She gripped a plain jian tightly in her hand. This was going to be the hardest part of her entire plan.
Tadao was still standing by the edge of the waterfall. He had half-turned, smirking at her as he stood there, not moving. His arms were crossed over his chest, as he rocked back and forth slightly on his heels. "Are we going to try this again?"
"You got lucky last time," Hazuki growled. "I wasn't allowed to use everything." Praying that Uzumaki and Sayuri knew what they were doing, Hazuki hefted her sword and charged.
Tadao dodged the first slash with a tilt of his head, still smirking. "And yet, it changes nothing." He stepped to the side as she tried to stab him. "Basic jabs with a sword and halfhearted uses of a simple Suiton jutsu. Your abilities are disappointing, Iyokan. You haven't learned anything. Tell me, what is my specialty?"
Backing up, Hazuki glared at him. He was asking her such a basic question, like he was actually a teacher. Why? "Taijutsu, why?"
"Do your research before attacking." The Jōnin raised one hand and formed half of a snake seal.
Eyes widening, Hazuki jumped, helped along by the rising stone pillar beneath her. The added force sent her tumbling through the air, landing on her back on the edge of the cliff, barely stopping herself.
Tadao dropped his hands to his side, shifting his weight to his right foot. "I gave you a chance, Iyokan. That first time, you charged in, recklessly. You never questioned what I could do. You just assumed brute force would win the day.
"Just remember, not only am I more subtle than you are, I also have more brute force." Tadao's voice dropped to little more than a murmur.
Hazuki found her attention riveted to him, unable to focus on anything but his voice.
"I thought maybe having your best attempts would make you question yourself. Apparently not. Instead, you just come at me with the same shitty routine. I'll admit you had no chance of predicting that I was a Ninjutsu specialist, but you should know that, as a Jōnin, I am proficient in at least two elements.
"Only a retard attacks everything the exact same way."
Hazuki tried to sit up but found her arm trapped in the ground. She stopped to stare at it. She had not seen him make a seal.
"See, you even assume that I must not be doing anything just because I'm talking." Tadao's voice was laced with derision.
Reaching back, Hazuki grabbed the item that Uzumaki had given her. Snapping it into position, she threw the fūma shuriken as hard as she could.
Tadao swatted it away.
It was long enough for Hazuki to pull herself out of the dirt, charging Tadao again. She just had to get close enough.
She could feel Tadao's glare as he barely shifted to the side, before he grabbed her wrist and snapped it, taking her sword away. He punched her in the chest, knocking her back to the treeline.
As Tadao stopped, he felt the sword in his hand change. Instead of leather, he felt cloth.
Reacting immediately, he threw Naruto as hard as he could, sending him tumbling head over feet.
Naruto bounced off of his shoulder, barely catching his feet. He grimaced as he realized he twisted his ankle. Tadao had reacted a lot quicker than he thought he would, and had thrown him a whole lot harder. Taking a deep breath, he met Tadao's shadowed eyes.
"And the joker appears. What were you trying to do, change out my kunai for a rubber chicken? Stick a 'Kick Me' sign on my back?"
Naruto grinned. "That's all way too cliché." He lifted his hands, showing off Tadao's pouch. "But I did want to look at this."
Without warning, he found his back slamming into a tree again as Tadao reclaimed his pouch.
As soon as his hand touched the pouch, he felt it shift again. Sighing, he looked over to confirm.
Hanging in midair was Sayuri, fist drawn back for a hard punch. She threw it, giving him little time to react.
The log exploded.
Naruto and Hazuki swore as Sayuri hit the ground.
Tadao stood on the edge of the cliff applauding mockingly. "Practice any technique enough and it becomes instinct. I don't have to think about it, just notice the danger."
Behind Tadao, the three Genin saw the sky starting to lighten up. Time was running out.
Tadao's sleeve exploded.
The explosion ripped a chunk of the cliff off, the hot shock wave hitting all of them hard enough to knock them back.
Sayuri pushed herself up and turned to look at the others, giving a signal.
Hazuki and Naruto turned and ran into the forest promptly, moving as fast as possible.
Sayuri swallowed as she watched Hazuki-san and Uzumaki-kun rush through the forest. She had no idea why she had volunteered for this part but it was too late to turn back. Now, she just had to stall until they got back to the clearing.
So, now she just had to find him. Hopefully, he had not run off after the others.
As the smoke cleared, she saw a shards of wood. He had dodged again.
A rock shifted to the side.
Looking over, she saw Sensei putting out a small flame on his sleeve. He didn't look too concerned.
"So, the coward's turn, now?" He chuckled.
Sayuri narrowed her eyes. His mocking sounded exaggerated and fake; it was not at all like the disgusted shots he had fired during the first fight.
Sensei strode forward, fists at his side. Sayuri was reminded of the day she had spied on a pair of Akimichi training. His relentless motion reminded her of the Nikudan Sensha she had seen.
Lunging, she threw a jab; it had put a teacher in the hospital so she hoped it worked here. For the eighteenth time that night, she wished she was better at Ninjutsu.
He brought up his hand and caught her punch, but his hand remained open.
As she tried to back away, she found she could not pull her fist away. It was like it was sealed to his hand.
Putting all her weight on his hand, she jumped, turning into a midair roundhouse. She regretted that a second later when he threw her before her kick connected. As she slid along the ground, the only thing she could think was, He likes throwing us.
He put his hands in the Tiger seal, inhaling. As he exhaled, a giant flame shot towards her.
Sayuri skipped to the side, trying to breathe through the heat. She could feel the skin on her arm and face tighten and prickle. Reaching up to wipe the sweat out of her eyes, she missed Sensei coming in with a hard punch.
Naruto and Hazuki slid to a stop as they reached the rendezvous clearing, breathing heavily. They had put their headbands back on, needing the reassurance.
Looking to make sure everything was set, Naruto turned to Hazuki. "You know anything that can hide us?"
Instead of answering directly, Hazuki just made some hand seals and a thick mist covered the clearing.
Naruto could feel the moisture in the air as he looked around, surprised. It wasn't really his kind of technique but he could definitely see the value in it. "You're manipulating the water in the atmosphere?"
"Yeah, it's a camouflage jutsu, mostly used by Kiri-nin," Hazuki led him through the mist, not trusting him to walk straight. "Now, all we need to do is meet up with Sayuri and give her her headband."
Naruto nodded, still focused on the air. "This mist touches every side of the trees, right?"
She sighed, exasperated. "Yeah, so?"
Naruto grinned. "Perfect. I was worried they were too far apart but this covers that. We need to find a place that we can get out of this in a hurry."
The two ended up crouching next to one tree, as they listened for Tadao to show up.
Hazuki tapped Naruto on the shoulder as Tadao entered the mist. They could hear him chuckling.
"Are we trying this again, Iyokan? It didn't work before." He stopped, close to the center of the mist. "It's after sunrise, you know; I know you two have your headbands. Good job on that; too bad about Matsushita. Guess she just couldn't handle it."
Naruto motioned for Hazuki to leave the mist, following behind her. He formed a hand seal.
With a rising crackle, he watched as arches of lighting jumped between the four trees, racing through the mist.
They could hear Tadao swearing as he was trapped in the mist with it, leaving them chuckling.
Sayuri came upon them, as they sat down.
When Tadao tore his way out of the mist, he found the trio, sitting by the tree, watching him. All of them wore their headbands. "Cute. So, you think you pass?"
Hazuki looked up, smugly. "We had possession of the headbands at sunrise, as the rules said."
"And yet, Matsushita did not have access to hers, nor do I remember her touching the pouch."
Naruto shrugged. "She switched with it to hit you; aren't you supposed to be smart?"
He looked to the girl in question. He could see she was still trembling; he'd have to break her of that. But she was meeting his gaze, trying to hide her nervousness.
Tadao inhaled; he exhaled. Unfortunately, he knew that he couldn't fail them legitimately anymore. They had taken the test and passed, even if he had to let them get in a few hits. He hated that electric prison, though. But, they had a lot of nerve and there were some good kernels in them.
He grinned savagely. "Report back to the clearing, tomorrow at three in the morning. If you are late, you will be punished."
Naruto trudged into the apartment, way too sore to jump the way he wanted to. He was finally a ninja. There were no more tests, no more surprise exams. Now he could head out and be a kick-ass ninja.
Walking into the living room, he found Iruka-sensei camped out on the couch. It looked like he had just fallen asleep.
Smiling, Naruto lied down next to the couch, falling asleep immediately.
Hazuki limped through the back door of her home into the kitchen. She had been hoping to avoid everyone; she just wanted to go quietly hide in her room until she could stop whimpering with every step.
Instead, she found her parents eating in the kitchen.
She had forgotten that it was still breakfast time.
Her father, a thin man with a short black ponytail and big brown eyes, looked up from his meal. "Look who finally decided to show up. What happened?"
Hazuki winced. She had been hoping to avoid this. "Tadao-sensei wanted to test us. He made us fight him to prove we deserved to be ninja."
Iyokan Tenchi took a bite of his meal before smiling. "I'll bet you passed with flying colors. These Konoha-nin always seemed on the pansy side of weak to me. No way my baby girl couldn't win against any of them easily."
Hazuki smiled weakly. "Yeah, easily."
Sayuri flopped onto her bed, relieved to find most of her aches disappearing after that bath.
The house had been empty when she had come home, meaning her dad was at the dojo. She was happy to avoid the argument that was coming once he found out she had passed and was an honest ninja now.
Tadao stood in front of the Hokage's desk. It was already sunset. The first thing he had done after dismissing the Genin had been to go home and sleep. After that, he had cleaned up and reported to the Hokage.
The old man steepled his fingers. "And?"
Tadao shrugged. "They have potential, I guess. But I see a lot of problems with them, too. It's going to be a long time before they're ready for anything decent."
"You seemed willing to fail them outright."
"I was. I probably should have, but I gave them that chance you asked me to. In the end, I even went a bit easy on them. I just hope that doesn't come back to bite us."
I have given this chapter a lot of thought. My main problem was figuring out how to get them to pass the test. Obviously, I know the answer and I had to bypass what Tadao wanted a bit. I had written myself a problem since I couldn't see how to really get them out of it on their own.
Team 7 never actually passed their test, outside of a technicality. I was trying to give Team 4 more of a struggle, to the point that I had to struggle.
If this was a disappointing chapter, I apologize.