The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected
- Sun Tzu

Chapter 7: Vital Importance

Shikamaru stood outside the hospital with a dead look on his face. They had narrowed down their clue to being somewhere within the hospital, but he hadn't quite remembered one thing: the hospital was huge. He rubbed his forehead wearily as he looked at the building. The two story building loomed over the genin as they began their slow trek to the front doors. It didn't seem like they would be able to complete this mission soon.

The building bustled with hoards of nurses running to and fro, waving clipboards and the like. It was the picture of chaos. The three squeezed their way through the hubbub and towards the receptionist. The brunette was frantically typing upon her computer. Upon the trio's arrival she merely raised a hand and mumbled an apology. In a few moments she took a break and looked up at the three with a fake smile plastered on. "Yes? What do you want? You don't appear to be either dead or dying so if you have some bruise somewhere, man up."

"Not all injuries are superficial. What if he has a dormant version of cancer that is slowly taking over his body? Symptoms might not appear until it is too late to save him. That is why regular checkups occur. Unfortunately shinobi normally miss these checkups and it causes many of them to die prematurely. Shouldn't you be glad that we came? Or do you want us to die early so you can empty out the hospital? Oh dear, that's quite mean. I never knew you were quite so mean Kyoko-san. My opinion of you has entirely changed now. I never thought you wanted me to die. It seems like a lot of people want me to die. Maybe I should." Ryuu rambled on as the receptionist got paler and paler.

"A-ah... H-Hanagaki-kun I see. W-what do you want? Of course I don't think such awful things," the woman, Kyoko, stuttered slightly at the boy. Ryuu frequented the hospital quite often with stipulations that he had some sort of sleeper poison in his body was about to kill him. So far nothing had been found to even remotely suggest he was ill.

"We'd just like to know if there is a map of the hospital's layout," Sakura cut off Ryuu from speaking as she inquired after the map. After only knowing Ryuu for a short time she already knew that if they let him talk they would never go anywhere.

Kyoko flung open one of her drawers and slammed down the sheet in front of the trio. "May I suggest the psychiatric ward?" She circled the ward in bright red and gave the pinkette a hopeful look. One could only stand Ryuu so long before they started to go mad.

"A-ah. Thank you, Kyoko-san." Sakura daintily picked up the paper before scuttling off towards one of the few vacant chairs to study the map. Ryuu and Shikamaru leaned over her as they tried to decipher the clue.

There were four major components of the hospital: the psychiatric ward, the surgery ward, the rehabilitation ward, and the poison ward. Another section of the map was quartered off for general patients with cuts and bruises. But since most of the injuries that happened were to shinobi, the hospital was mainly used for more deadly sicknesses.

"Well I suppose any of the sections could fit the first part. I mean, when anyone gets cured or thinks they are getting cured they'll be happy. But I do suppose it would all hurt so it would be kind of sad," Sakura spoke softly to her two companions. It was so strange being stuck with such silent people. She had gotten used to staying in the background and allowing her comrades to do all of the talking, but this time it was the other way around.

"I don't think I've ever seen someone happy in the surgery ward. Most of the surgeries are either amputations or transplants. The latter of which is rarer considering Konoha's slightly primitive technology." Ryuu had visited the hospital often enough to know plenty about how it worked. The surgical ward was strategically placed in the far corner of the bottom floor to keep the sound insulated. He had peeked in one time to see one of their kindly patients. The man had just had his eye removed.

Ryuu felt a shiver run down his spine at the thought. He never wanted to meet that man again. "We should try the rehabilitation ward I think."

"No, I think the surgical ward," Shikamaru put in his own two cents. "You said Konoha offered transplants, correct? Happiness in sadness could refer to needing someone else to die to receive their organ. Is it true that shinobi on their deathbed can sign their organs off to donation before they die? If so, then the full clue is satisfied."

The blue haired boy blinked for a moment before nodding slowly. That was logical, but he would never have thought of it that way. But oh dear, he'd have to go back tothatplace. He gripped his arm tightly and tried to reassure himself. His Mama and Papa were both surgeons at the hospital, but if anything that made him more afraid of the place than most.

When they came home they would talk about their cases at the dinner table and he would have to listen. Talking about the dead became an everyday occurrence. Normally one within the ward would die per day, if they were unlucky there could be as many as five. It scared Ryuu. Death came far too easily.

"Alright, so it's settled then? Your parents are surgeons here, right? Do you think you could get us allowed into the ward, Ryuu? We'll all promise not to disrupt anything," Sakura offered helpfully. Her green eyes shone dimly as she looked at her companions. She felt that she could contribute for once. It was a great feeling.

"Fine..." Ryuu mumbled. He fumbled around in his pockets for a few moments before pulling out a small bronze key. He twirled the key around his fingers before clenching it in his fist. "This way." The boy navigated quickly down the hallways. His mind had already mapped out a route which bypassed most of the traffic.

From behind him, Shikamaru was looking over the boy. Ryuu had surpassed most of his original expectations. He was surprisingly good at getting into places if only by freaking out the guards. The boy also appeared to have some minor medical knowledge and had informants from within the hospital. It was a strategically good position to be in if you needed favors from a doctor.

The pinkette on the other hand was still barely passable in his book. Shikamaru looked towards the girl trailing behind him with a frown. She had no innovative nature or connections. She appeared to just be a box of texts with no clue how to apply them. Remotely, she was like Kei, but she simply couldn't compare. Shikamaru could imagine cultivating a relationship with Ryuu, but not the Haruno.

Shikamaru wasn't clueless to the way things worked. To get anything done you would need people on the inside to help you push things through. Favors were worth gold. If you could get a companion in a seat of power, life was infinitely easier. He recalled the time his father had begun playing shogi with him.

"Shikamaru, look at the board. Look at it closely. What do you see?"

The young boy scrunched his face as he stared at the small pieces. The way his father asked the question meant that it couldn't just be obvious. "I see tools to get to victory." Shikamaru looked up towards his elder with a calm look in his eyes.

Shikaku laughed softly and rubbed his son's head merrily. "Good. Each of these pieces is just a tool that we use to progress to eventually reach our goal. When we promote a piece, it only happens after careful cultivation." Shikaku fingered the gold general in his hand thoughtfully. "Life is like a shogi game, Shikamaru. If your enemy lets his pieces fall to you, use them. If you promote your piece, it can serve you all the more. You are the king and at all costs you must not let yourself be captured."

Shikaku tossed the tile up in the air and caught it on its descent. "Because if the king is captured, everything goes to waste. You always have to plan ten steps in advance to make sure you never face such situations. Don't let yourself fall into their traps, Shikamaru."

"Yes, father."

Ryuu would become another piece. Guilt welled inside of him. Shikamaru wasn't sure what he considered Kei and Naruto. A part of him felt bad whenever he considered them his pieces. They were too close to him for that. Maybe it was like how his father looked at him. Shikaku had once told him that though Shikamaru was in his life, he was not a piece on the board. Perhaps those two were players and not the played.

He shuffled through the doorway and into the surgical ward. The moment he passed through the door, the strong smell of antiseptic hit him. The boy swallowed hesitantly as he heard some moans come from the room next over. "Ignore them," Ryuu advised gloomily. The boy's head was hung slightly as he trudged ahead. He did not want to be here.

Sakura had a hand clamped firmly over her nose and mouth to keep out the smells. It was going to make her sick. She bolted after Ryuu with Shikamaru in pursuit. This was absolutely disgusting. "We have another one! You three, get out of the way!" A man shoved the genin towards the sides of the hallway as a bed was rolled through the corridor.

A kunoichi lay on the bed weakly protesting under the anesthesia she had been dosed with. The bloody stub that had once been her arm was cut off at the elbow. Blood poured easily out of the wound with only a bit of gauze to staunch the flow. The three watched in horror as the woman was wheeled past and towards the surgery room.

Sakura clutched at her own arm as if to reassure herself it was still there. Shikamaru paled as he stared at a small red droplet on the floor. This was what it was like to be a ninja. He bit his lip sharply to prevent himself from showing emotion. "Hanagaki-san, let's hurry." The black haired boy turned sharply and walked quickly passed his companion. Even the smell in the air disturbed him.

"Ok..." Ryuu said softly. A bit of sympathy welled in him for his two group mates. He grabbed Sakura's hand and pulled her along down the white tiles. No color was allowed into the hallways, it was all sterile. The area seemed lifeless as they hurried along the path. In a few minutes they stopped outside a steel door.

"I assume that if Hatake-sensei wanted to put the item in a place where we could find it, it would be in here. This is the throwaway section. They're only keeping the leftovers in here until they can be properly disposed of," Ryuu murmured. "It'll be cold, but don't worry too much about it. We'll try to be quick." His pale hand gripped the handle of the door before he slid the barrier across.

A cold gust of air greeted them as they stepped into the fridge. The small room was filled with numerous shelves. Upon the shelves rested bottles of various sizes containing the organs of now dead shinobi. "We should just look around, I guess..." Shikamaru bit out.

The trio separated to begin looking through the canisters until Sakura let out a surprised squeak. The boys rushed over towards her. She stood quivering beside a large container. The glass thinly concealed the vat which contained a murky, purplish liquid. If one looked close, they would see an eyeball bobbing up and down.

"Those aren't proper containment chemicals. That has to be..." Ryuu picked up the canister from its rack and examined it carefully. Being a hardened veteran of the hospital, he didn't even bat an eye as he unscrewed the top of the bottle and poked his head inside. He gave it a small sniff and shook his head. "It's some type of sake. The cheap stuff I think. It's probably safe to assume this is what we were sent to get."

Shikamaru looked at the bottle skeptically. He couldn't imagine any sensei sending his students to get a body part, but then again, Shikamaru hadn't expected to be standing inside a fridge right now. "Right... Then let's go," Shikamaru drawled out.

Ryuu took charge of the bottle as neither of his companions wished to even touch the item. On their way out they checked the clock upon the wall. It was 4pm now. They still had another two hours to burn.

-TSUME-

"Ino, dear! What are you doing back so early?" The elder female Yamanaka came out from behind her counter to give her daughter a warm hug. The jolly lady ignored her little baby's squirms and continued to hug the girl. "And I assume you three are some of her genin teammates? Ino did say that she was having a group examination today. Welcome to our shop!"

The Yamanaka family had always been considered a strange clan. Most clans remained secluded in their compounds and conducted ninja operations for their primary income. On the other hand, the Yamanaka were scattered all around Konoha and ran various stores. Very rarely did one of them enter permanent field service, so they took up shop. They ran an information circle all on their own with informants not only in the flower shop, but in various diners and weapons shops.

The only reason they signed papers to become an official clan was for legal protection of their jutsu. Most Yamanaka went into T&I later in their careers because of their mind ninjutsu.

"Glad to see ya, ma'am! I'm Kimura Teru." Teru gave a mock salute to the lady before looking curiously about the store. He couldn't really recall ever being in this place before, but it was surprisingly cold. Supposedly it was good for the flowers, but Teru felt like an ice cube.

"Nice to meet you too, dearie. Pleasure to see you as well, Inuzuka-san and..."

"Shimizu Kei," Kei supplied for the lady. The sound came out slightly muffled as the girl had a hand over her face in a weak attempt to keep out the pollen. Yes, Kei was allergic to pollen. The golden eyed girl had absolutely no desire to stay in this shop any longer than necessary.

She scanned the room warily. Where was she supposed to start with this? Assuming that she wouldn't be overwhelmed with the sheer amount of flowers clustered in the room, Kei would have about fifteen minutes before her eyes started watering uncontrollably. Then after then there would probably be another fifteen minutes before she started sneezing.

"Oi, oi. Yamanaka-san, did Inoichi-senseileave anything weird around here? Like a letter, a box, or anything?" Kiba asked lazily. They had never said it was out of bounds to ask others if they knew what happened to the item. It would save so much effort if they did.

"Dear, dear. I can't say. I was busy cutting flowers all this morning and my husband left before I was awake." Eiko smiled innocently at the genin, but one of them knew better. Yamanaka Eiko had carefully managed to completely evade the question. She forced the assumption that Inoichi had only planted the item this morning, but in reality he could have placed it anytime over the past week. She also had chosen the words, 'I can't say', over alternatives such as 'I don't believe I know'.

"Alright, Mama. Then can we just look around the store for a bit? We won't disturb the customers." Eiko nodded her assent before gliding back to her place behind the service counter. Ino looked at her mother and sighed softly. So they'd be getting no more information out of her. What a nuisance this was turning out to be.

"So what do we do now?" Teru asked. "What if he was just asking for us to bring him back a type of flower? Heck, we have no clue what we're doing!" The exasperated boy was finally beginning to show his true colors. The boy was perfectly willing to talk for hours upon end, but physical exertion seemed to be beyond him. Kei let a frown crease her face. The boy didn't know the effect that his words had upon others.

"Just look for anything out of place. Mama and I normally clean the shop every day after closing so there shouldn't be anything around except scissors and flowers." Ino waved her hand flippantly and marched towards the back of the store. "I'll start in the refrigerated section. I'll see you guys in a bit." Ino was obviously in her element.

The platinum blonde seemed to snap into focus when anything serious popped up. Unfortunately, it seemed those cases were rare enough. Kei slipped out her notebook just long enough to jot in a few more notes about the girl before tucking the book away once more. She had gotten used to profiling people years ago in her father's merchant shop.

You could tell what kind of preferences a person had by the way they dressed, spoke, and moved. Shinobi conventionally wore things that were economical, practical, and flexible. Considering personalities, Shinobi had two types. There were the ones who found great entertainment in boasting about their deeds and the silent ones. The silent ones tended to be much more aware of their surroundings than their louder counterparts.

If you could profile a person before they even asked you a question, you could respond in an optimal manner. People would like you more and would return to do business later on. It was just how business worked. Profit was all that mattered.

Kei dug around amongst the flowers for a few more minutes until she started slight discrepancies in her vision. "Shoot," she mumbled softly. Her eyes were already beginning to blur up. Kei rubbed her hand across her face before rushing through the rest of the roses. She felt along the stems for any rounded lumps when suddenly she heard a crack. Her face twist in confusion and she pulled out the rose from its basin.

The orange petals glowed lightly before her eyes. Kei cleared her eyes again before studying the rose. "Is that..." She felt one of the petals before suddenly it clicked. She needed to find Ino.

The maroon haired girl dived through the store towards the back refrigerator. She pulled open the door and stuck her head in. Ino stood in the corner rummaging through a pile of lilies. The sound of the door shocked the blonde from her spot and she headed over towards her teammate. "Did you find it?"

"I think I have, but I can't see properly right now. Do you see a distortion on the outer right petal?" Ino peered down at the flower and stroked the orange material for a moment before her eyes widened. Ino snapped her hands together and mumbled, "Kai."

The genjutsu around the flower fell away revealing an origami rose. "We got it! Isn't this great, Shimizu-chan!" Ino hugged said girl tightly before swiping away the flower and examining it carefully. "Come on then, let's grab those two idiots." She flew merrily out of the cold room leaving Kei in the dust.

Kei sighed softly before following her companion. At least they would finally be able to get out of this place. She covered her mouth for a moment before sneezing. It was just in time. The girl marched quickly out of the store and took a seat beside the wall outside. The air was so much easier to breathe in now.

Kiba was the next to make it outside. "Thank Kami-sama we're finally outside. That place was pollen hell." Kei for once had to agree with the boy. Kiba rubbed a hand through his hair before sitting himself down by Kei. "So, do you have the clue or does Yamanaka-san?"

His question was answered by the loud arrival of Ino. The girl burst through the doors with Teru in tow. "Ah! There you two are! Now let's read the clue!" She hauled Teru to the two sitting on the ground before shoving him down and taking a seat herself. Ino quickly unfolded the flower and smoothed out the sheet.

If you're reading this I guess you found my clue, eh? Good job! I wonder how long it took you to find this. No matter, but I suggest you make your way back to the courtyard if you have this. It will do you no good if you have my clue unless you are in the courtyard. Hurry along now!

Kei looked at the timepiece in the flower shop. One hour left and that was cutting it close in making it back to the courtyard. She sighed gloomily. Hopefully Shikamaru's team was faster than hers.

-TSUME-

"D-do you have another clue for us to look at, Nara-san?" Sakura asked wearily. She had been standing an awful lot today and she was fatiguing rapidly. It took all she had to force herself to be willing to take another clue.

"Mhmm." Shikamaru looked up from his one-sided conversation with the beetle on his hand. The beetle scurried away to make its transmission and Shikamaru pulled out the sheet Kei had given him. "Sarutobi-sensei's is the next one we work on: 'Is it an honor or is it a curse? That's all.' Let's sit down and think about it." Shikamaru motioned to a few of the now vacant hospital chairs before plopping down in one of them.

His acquaintances sat down beside him before taking turns holding the paper. Asuma's clue was it? Was it an honor or was it a curse... "The memorial stone," Ryuu mumbled softly. Shikamaru strained to hear the boy's voice, but when he did the light struck. That would probably work. Of course it could be countless other things as well, but they would have no time to waste. With any luck, it would be at the memorial stone.

"Let's try there. We should have just enough time to make it there and back to the courtyard." Shikamaru got up from the chair and motioned for his companions to follow him out of the hospital. He looked around the entrance before plotting out a path in his mind. Now would be a good time to use that energy he had been so carefully conserving all this time.

Shikamaru went into a sprint as he made his way through the corridors. All the civilians had been released from their daily work and now provided obstacles for him to cross. However, like all obstacles, there were ways around them. Shikamaru cut to the right and away from the commercial district. Most of them could have only left their jobs an hour or two ago and would stop for dinner before heading back home. Hopefully they would have enough time to make it to the stone and back before the civilians finished dining.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shikamaru spotted a dash of pink and blue and noted that his teammates were on his trail. That was good. He let out a burst of speed as he continued on his way. Minutes passed before he finally reached the memorial stone. The huge slab of stone stood proudly over the ground around it. Shikamaru bit his lip and slowed himself down to a walk.

There were times where running seemed wrong. Perhaps it was the ambiance of this place that made it seem so strange. It felt so cold to be here. Shikamaru stepped towards the stone and laid his pale hand on the cold rock. He shivered slightly at the feeling. Fingers traced the names etched into the granite for a moment longer before pulling away. The boy walked around the stone to see a bouquet of flowers laid on the ground with a small envelope beside it.

"Is it there?" Shikamaru turned to see the rosette and Ryuu come up beside him. The girl was panting heavily while the boy was struggling to maintain his composure. Ryuu had never liked being around cemeteries or the memorial stone no matter how much he talked of death.

"Mmhmm. We don't have time to read the letter now though." Shikamaru pocketed the envelope and began walking slowly away from the stone.

"Eh? Aren't you going to bring the flowers as well?" Sakura asked curiously.

"No. Those aren't meant for us. They're meant for them," Ryuu mumbled softly as he gestured towards the stone.

-TSUME-

The jounin sensei were bored. They had returned to the courtyard fifteen minutes ago only to find Shino still sitting there. After numerous attempts to figure out what the boy was doing, they still had gotten no response. A boy could only be so entertaining if he didn't even respond to prodding.

Kurenai ran a hand through her black hair and sighed. Hopefully the genin at least were able to keep time well enough. The woman didn't have much faith in her students at this point. Hinata was a nice enough child, but she was unknowingly driving the team apart. Shino obviously cared for the girl, but she bluntly ignored him most of the time in favor of Teru. Even some well placed hints didn't seem to help the girl understand what she was doing.

Kurenai had always wanted to be a good mother and when she got her genin, it seemed like it would be a good way to practice. She wasn't so sure she wanted to have kids anymore. They were pleasant enough until they reached the age of ten, but then they started acting self-centered. No wonder her colleagues looked like they aged more from stress when they had kids than when they were in ANBU.

"Kurenai-sensei!" Kurenai swirled around to see Hinata hopping over to her with a crutch under her arm. The jounin's red eyes widened as she rushed over to her genin. "Hinata-chan, what happened to you? Wait..." A dangerous looked flashed in her eyes, "Anko did this didn't she?" She had expressly told the woman not to do anything too rash with the genin! Well, this was Anko and rash meant something entirely different to that woman.

"Mmm." Hinata nodded warily. "But she helped bring me to the hospital afterwards so I'm fine. Choji-kun will be there for a bit longer though. I don't think he's woken up yet." At the mention of his genin, Asuma joined the duo.

"What happened to Akimichi-san?" He asked worriedly. He may not have liked his genin too much, but Choji was definitely the kindest of the lot. That, and Asuma wasn't particularly cold hearted. Anything that got him locked up in a hospital must have been pretty dreadful. A hospital was a shinobi's worst nightmare after all.

"He got bitten by one of Mitarashi-san's summons. He'll be fine, but the viper paralyzed him and he got knocked out. They told us he'd be up in a few hours." Hinata said.

"Us?" Kurenai blinked slowly. She hadn't noticed another genin come back with Hinata. She looked around to see Naruto talking with Kakashi.

"I'm telling you, we have no idea what happened to Uchiha-san. We split off from him at the Dangoya. Please, he got lucky. He didn't have to get chased by the snakes so stop crabbing! If he ever got in trouble he could just romance a lady and he'd do just fine," Naruto sighed, exasperated. Out of all the outcomes of splitting off from Sasuke, the one he didn't expect was for him to be glared down by Kakashi.

Kakashi was letting of a small wave of killer intent as he stared down at the boy. "Uzumaki-san, if Sasuke was in your group then you were supposed to look after him. What do you think you were doing by abandoning him? You were teammates and you have to act like such. Got it?" What on earth was Inoichi teaching the demon brat ifitwas willing to just abandon Sasuke? It would have to be pounded into the boy's head that he was worth just a fraction of what Sasuke was.

Kakashi didn't particularly believe the crap the council was feeding him about Sasuke's breeding, but any human was worth more than the demon. He knew his logic was messed up. That Naruto was just the container and not the actual demon, but he just wasn't able to change how he felt. He still remembered the day when the Kyuubi attacked. The chilling fear that he felt as he was forced to the sidelines to watch, just watch, as the Kyuubi crushed everything that was his home. If that wasn't enough, the Kyuubi had to take one last thing from him, Namikaze Minato.

And that boy, he looked so much like his former sensei. Sarutobi Hiruzen had told him that Minato had sealed a portion of himself into the boy to keep the Kyuubi at bay. That portion had also changed the child's physical appearance so he would grow up looking up like Minato. It was just cruel to be forced to watch that thing turn into his sensei whenever he stood a certain way. Kakashi hated it.

"Funny thing, Hatake-sensei." Naruto's voice was laced with sarcasm. Yet again, another person was looking at him as if he was a worm. It was annoying after a while. If he hated them and they hated him, why couldn't they split away? If only, if only. "Uchiha-san was actually our leader for a while. That is, before he told us to get out of his way because we were justnuisances. I suppose you are of the same opinion then? That's really a pity."

Kakashi glared at the boy icily. The blonde had absolutely no respect and it disgusted him. "You had better hope Sasuke is alright, Uzumaki-san." Kakashi turned away from Naruto and stalked off to another one of the incoming genin groups.

"You'll have to forgive him, Naruto-kun," Inoichi said softly, placing his hand on his protégé's shoulder. "Some old dogs can't learn new tricks, and other dogs just refuse to."

Naruto bobbed his head up and down slightly before entering a staring contest with the ground. He could deny it all he liked, but rejection would still hurt.

-TSUME-

Team Tsume sat in the barbeque shop. The sizzling of the pork was music to their ears after a long day of traipsing around Konoha. "So tell me, what did you learn about your comrades?" Inoichi poked one of the slices of meat as it cooked. Hopefully they remembered their sub-mission; it was the only reason Inoichi had put them in that test anyways.

"Haruno-san is shy and doubts herself constantly. She can retain information when it is given to her, but puzzling things out on her own takes her too much time. She also is easily disgusted by things such as wounds and blood. Too much time is spent worrying about what others think about her and that is what is making her ineffective at the moment. A bit of flattery and she puffs up happily," Shikamaru drawled out lazily. The end part spoke volumes: she's easy to manipulate if you just say the right words.

"Hanagaki-san is the son of two surgeons. He has no problems dealing with organs or other such things. He is good at persuading people merely because they feel awkward talking to him for too long. He isn't as athletic as most shinobi though. He'd be better off joining the medic corps. Hanagaki-san isn't much of a leader, though. He'd rather stay in the background." Shikamaru snatched a well-cooked piece of pork off the grill and chewed on it thoughtfully.

"Good job, Shikamaru-kun," Inoichi said with a smile. It seemed that Shikamaru had gotten the sub-context of their mission: figure out how each person could be manipulated. Genin were commonly thought of as the weakest link in a shinobi village. If the genin could be patched up then it would be twice as hard for anyone to gather intel from them.

"Err... Hinata-chan is a nice person, but is really easy to get close to. She clings to anyone who gives her attention, like Haruno-chan. She's a Hyuuga and has unlocked her Byakugan and is fairly good at running away." Naruto scrunched up his face in thought. Was there much else to say about her? He didn't think so and continued on, "Uchiha-san has a superiority complex and it was really easy to turn people against him. No one seems to like him very much. He was really unused to people challenging his authority and kind of spazzed when we took the beetle from him."

"Choji-kun is probably the smartest out of the three of them. He wasn't willing to place himself as clearly being on my side or risk the consequences if the takeover failed. He's the neutral ground that seems to get stomped on all the time. Plus," Naruto shrugged, "He's just a nice guy."

"Hmm. Ok Naruto-kun." Inoichi was silently stuffing away all the information his students gave him into the back of his mind. He'd been told to report to the Hokage on the real personality types of the genin. The Hokage was fairly sure that most of the files that he had on his shinobi were incorrect. After all, the data portrayed them as perfect little soldiers with no faults, especially the Uchiha. This information would be enlightening.

"The Inuzuka is loud and had very little use. Kimura-san is all talk, but refuses to work when it gets right down to it. He'd rather talk to someone about working than work. Ino-san is tolerable. She broke the genjutsu you put on the flower, Inoichi-sensei." Kei snapped her chopsticks at her sensei for emphasis before snatching away a piece of meat. It was obvious they would get no more from the quiet girl.

"Good job you three." Inoichi smiled. They really were good kids. "I wasn't idle while you three were out and about you know." His comment was meant by blatant skepticism on the part of his students. "A-ah, did you really not believe in me? What I told you earlier was that I'd be getting you all tutors for your affinities. What I say, I will do. I'll introduce them to you tomorrow."

OMAKE: Shino's boredom

"Mama? What's that person doing over there? He's really weird. I think I saw him talking to himself." A little boy tugged on his mother's dress and pointed towards the man in the beige overcoat. The woman looked up towards the aforementioned boy and laughed slightly.

"He's an Aburame, dearie. You don't have to worry about them. Come along now, Mum has work to do."

Shino twitched an eyebrow. When he was volunteered for this position he hadn't quite figured it to be so boring, or so attention gathering. That was the fifteenth person that had stopped to talk about him since the other genin left, two hours ago. Was he really that interesting? Maybe it was a bit strange for everyone to see someone in a heavy overcoat when it was so warm out. Especially when he hadn't moved from that spot for two hours...

Shino sighed gloomily. Four hours left. Hopefully they would come back soon. "Oi? What's that kid in the overcoat doing over there? He's creepy!" Make it sixteen people.

Hoorah! I actually wrote enough to finish an update! Good thing to since I leave tomorrow. /phew
I won't be able to update for a bit, but I'll be writing in the car as long as I have enough charge in my laptop.

I know a lot of you want the pace of the story to hurry up a bit and I'll try and make things exciting soon. The next chapter with the affinity sensei will be the last chapter of their pre-mission training. You can hold me to it. /nods

Thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriteing, alerting, etc. xD. And special thanks to Pokepikachu1 for betaing for me! Ja ne~