Disclaimer: Standard stuff, Macdutton does not own Naruto or Bleach.
Uzu Tower, 5am
Torahime awoke with a groan. Again.
"Ugh. Fucking bastard dolphin boy," she grumbled, stumbling out of her room, colliding with Anko.
"What's up princess? Bad day at school?" The feigned care and sweetness irritated Torahime almost as much as the 'princess' comment.
"New sensei. He decided to spend the day testing us," the younger girl growled at her housemate.
"Why's that so bad?" Anko asked, honestly confused.
"Because he put me against weasel-chan and then said we were limited to the Academy Taijutsu."
"Ooh, harsh. I mean seriously, you don't even know the Academy's Taijutsu do you?" Anko felt slightly bad for her younger sister, even as she cackled, thinking about how bad it must have been.
"Fuck. You." Torahime ground out as she bolted into the bathroom.
"Oh for fuck sake bitch, I need a shower now or I'll be late for work!" Anko shouted as she realised what had happened.
"Guess you're gonna be late then!"
Anko swore quietly as she went to get breakfast first, grinning as she used the last of the milk. "Little victories," she sang to herself under her breath.
In the bathroom, Torahime stood under the spray from the shower, thinking about the previous day.
Flashback
"Alright kids, today we'll be testing you. The kunoichi next to me will be helping me with the evaluations of your skills, and will help cover parts of your training. Would you like to introduce yourself Kurenai-san?" Iruka inquired of the dark haired woman next to him.
She was medium height, wearing clothes that looked as though they were mostly composed of bandages, in various shades of white and red. Her long, dark hair cascaded around her, but the most captivating part of her was her eyes. They had crimson irises, and almost seemed to glow.
"Thank you, Iruka," she turned to address the gathered students. "My name is Yuuhi Kurenai, you may call me Kurenai-sensei. As Iruka-san said, I will be covering topics relating to tracking, Genjutsu and psychology, among other things. I look forward to training you all." She stepped back, looking to Iruka.
"Okay, here's the thing. The Academy has become very shoddy since I was last here, and I don't like it. So I'm going to try to rectify that, at least with your year," Iruka looked around, considering his charges. "Okay, I'm bored of talking, so get outside to the training fields where we'll be doing tests of your basics." The young man grinned evilly. "You'll be matched for sparring randomly. Now make sure to have fun."
Flashback End
"Eugh… This is going to suck," Torahime grumbled to herself. Stepping out of the shower and drying off, she moved to the kitchen, taking over from Anko making breakfast, while the elder girl took her place in the shower.
Finishing, she began to eat and drink slowly, particularly savouring the tea before she began another tiring day.
"You're taking your time aren't you?" The words broke Torahime from her reverie.
"Wha-? Oh, yeah, just trying to relax. How was T&I yesterday?" The redhead questioned her sister?
"Better than I expected. You were right, Ibiki didn't care about my past, just about whether I could do the job," the snake mistress grinned. "I think I may have scared him a bit though."
"How so?"
"Well, my first assignment was to break a confirmed spy from Iwa. I was given free reign, so I got him 'excited', then used a small constrictor to deprive him of something he cares about."
"Wow. That's fucking evil," Torahime was surprised. "I mean seriously, that's pretty grim, even for you. What did he do to deserve that?"
"Questioned why they were sending a little girl at him."
"Ah. Fair enough then."
As Anko sat down to eat, Torahime left to get dressed, determined to actually be on time today.
Leaving quickly, she ran across the rooftops, purposely avoiding the use of chakra to enhance her speed and agility, thinking back to what Iruka had said yesterday.
Flashback
"Something I plan to do this year is remedy some damage to the standards required of genin. Focus has become more on the theory and classroom work, such as mathematics. That is a crock of shit. I'll be drilling you to throw a kunai to hit a moving target, instead of teaching you how to do it theoretically. I will also be requiring a very high level of fitness from all of you. A shinobi's body is the most powerful weapon in their arsenal, as it is the basis for all skills. When you run, I want you to use only your own body, not chakra. If possible, get ankle and wrist weights to help the process," Iruka lectured the students as they moved towards the training fields.
Flashback End
"It's been way too long since I did this…" Torahime mumbled to herself as she leapt from roof to roof.
Suddenly, a tube of paper was flying towards her, fizzling.
'That looks kinda like… an exploding… tag. Shit!'
Diving to the side, she evaded the small explosion that ensued, looking around for the one who threw it. It had to be one of the Demo Corps nutcases, but they were about as predictable as a squirrel with ADHD on speed.
From above she heard more fizzling, followed by a terrifying battle cry, "HELLO HIME-CHAN!"
'Oh goddess it's Renji.'
She turned, throwing one of her speciality bombs at her relative while jumping across the street to the next rooftop. The ensuing explosion blew tiles off the roof and left her ears ringing. Next thing she knew, a body hit the roof next to her and a weak voice reached her ears.
"What the fuck did you put in that one you crazy bitch?" Her second cousin asked, while coughing and retching.
"A special oxidiser. Trade secret," she grinned. "You like it?"
"Oh god yes." Dry heaving one last time, Renji recovered. "Now get a move on, you're late."
"Oh shit!" As she left, Torahime surreptitiously dropped 3 flash bombs.
As she reached the next rooftop, a bang and a bright flash illuminated the area, followed quickly by a scream. "YOU CRAZY BITCH!"
Cackling maniacally, she continued round the Hokage tower, fleeing from the disapproving looks of the ANBU guards.
Reaching the Academy and diving in through the open classroom window, Torahime looked over to the front desk, realising that, even with her shortcut, she was still late.
"Fuck."
"Yeah, you're late. AGAIN!" Iruka shouted at her, vein twitching in his forehead. Visibly calming himself, he said, "Okay, sit down. We'll get on with class." He looked over at his colleague, indicating he was done.
"Okay children, today we're doing the last assessment. Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. We'll be testing you on the three E-ranks and any others you're willing to show." The beautiful kunoichi then ordered the students to line up to display their bunshin, henge and kawarimi no jutsu.
Aburame Shike, Hyuuga Keiko, Uchiha Itachi and Uzuki Yuugao all performed the E-ranks acceptably, Yuugao and Itachi performing all three flawlessly, gaining nods from their senseis.
Yamanaka Inoi, and Hatake Kakumo both correctly performed bunshin and kawarimi, while Nara Shikaga showed herself competent with henge and bunshin. Inuzuka Hana was nodded at when she performed henge and kawarimi.
Sarutobi Hiruki was frowned at when he failed henge and kawarimi, the same happened for Hyuuga Misaki when he could only perform henge correctly. Arisawa Tatsuki performed kawarimi flawlessly, but her henge was sub standard, and she could only produce a single flawed bunshin.
The surprise for the two teachers came in when they asked Torahime to perform Bunshin no Jutsu. There was the characteristic puff of smoke, clearing to reveal 3 perfect copies of the orange haired girl. All seemed well until Itachi grunted.
"They are not bunshin."
Everyone looked at him, recognising the pinwheel of his matured Sharingan eyes. "They look like clones to me," argued Kurenai.
"They are not illusionary constructions. They have chakra. A large amount of it."
Both Hyuuga activated their bloodline and gasped. "They have chakra pathways!" Keiko was shocked.
Torahime sighed exasperatedly. "They're Kage Bunshin. I can't perform regular bunshin. Something to do with my chakra being too wild and having too much."
"Okay, I suppose it might be better actually. Different advantages and disadvantages. Now let's see Henge no Jutsu." Iruka mused.
Putting her hands into the correct seal, Torahime channelled her chakra, transforming into a double of her Inuzuka friend.
"Hmm. Not bad, but the hair colour's a bit off. You forgot to alter your height as well. If you pay better attention to details, you'd be fine. The execution of the jutsu itself is good, if a little wasteful," Kurenai critiqued, Genjutsu being her specialist area. "Now, let's see Kawarimi no Jutsu. Swap with Iruka-san."
There was a split second pause, and she realised she was looking at a dazed Iruka.
"What?" Iruka asked the room at large.
"Would this happen to be another jutsu variation?" Kurenai asked the redhead who was now in Iruka's previous position.
"Kage Kawarimi no Jutsu."
"A kawarimi that is seal-less and doesn't require saying the name? I thought you said before you had bad control?" Iruka asked, plainly confused.
"What can I say, it just comes naturally. And it's impossible to copy, right, weasel-chan?" She finished sweetly, looking at Itachi.
The blank look she got in return told her all she needed to know.
"Well, this has been fun. Is it time to go yet?" Torahime asked as she started walking to the window.
"Err, yeah. You can all go now," Iruka said uncertainly, looking at Kurenai.
The room emptied, with Torahime leaving via the window with Hana, while everyone else left the normal way. Iruka and Kurenai shared a significant look, before departing together for the nearest bar. Once ensconced at a booth with sake in front of them they began to discuss the results of their tests.
"This is going to be a long fucking year," Iruka tiredly complained.
"True, but it should be interesting. A large number of skilled students, several of them with bloodlines, two students who are already mid genin level. I don't think there's been a genin class this promising since my own," mused the red eyed beauty, sipping at her drink.
Iruka looked up at her sadly, "You realise that the Kazama kid's going to be a major problem, right?"
"I don't see why she would be. She's a little wild, but seems no worse than the average Inuzuka. Speaking of Inuzuka, Hana seems remarkably calm for the members of her clan."
Sighing, Iruka downed several cups of sake before he spoke again. "You've never worked with Uzu-nin have you?"
"No, I was due for a border patrol with a Namikaze, but he was withdrawn from active service just before the mission. Are they really that bad?"
The sad look continued. "You've no clue. I worked a lot with Torahime's father, and I live on the edge of the Uzu Quarter. More than half the crime in the village takes place in the Akasen around KazamaTower. The rest of the area isn't as bad, but it's still crazy the things they get up to.
"Importantly, the girl will only get more powerful as she gets older. And those shadow jutsu… I heard about how the Uzu clans had a link with nature, that it was what caused them to leave Uzu no Kuni in the first place." He leaned forward at this point, looking around surreptitiously. "What I'm about to tell you should be kept quiet. The Uzu clans were famous for two things. Nature chakra and a bloodline. Rare, wild and incredibly powerful. Those are the three traits of the clans, especially the Kazama. The bloodline is called Uzuton."
"Spiral release? What does that mean?" Kurenai asked, unsure of where this was going.
"I never knew, I never met someone who had it. As far as I know, only the old Uzumaki leader and a few others have shown it. But Arashi-sensei said his daughter would have it." By this point, Iruka had almost finished his first bottle of sake and was flushed.
"So she has a mysterious and powerful bloodline? I'd suppose that could be why the Sharingan couldn't copy her technique then…"
"No," Iruka slurred, obviously drunk. "I remember her dad… said something about shadowsh… their youkai wash what let them use them." Slumping forward onto the table he continued to mumble, "Shaid the shadowsh belong to the tigersh. Shomething like that. Dancersh in Barbed Shadowsh were dangeroush." The mumbling continued, becoming difficult to decipher, "He wash a Wind Dancer. Shaid she was Goddesh of Barbed Shadowsh, shomething he'd never been able to learn."
Beyond this, the words dissolved into snoring. Kurenai snorted. "Lightweight. But this information about Shadow Dancers and Uzuton… should be an interesting year."
A/N: Righty-ho then, another shite chapter for any of you readers. Not sure where this is going to be going but… it is what it is. As usual, please tell me what you thought and how I could improve my writing. Beyond not writing on huge amounts of caffeine at stupid times of night, obviously.
29/07/13: Okay, basically, I'm looking for a Beta reader, someone who can look over my crazy ramblings and help turn it into something worth reading. I'd be looking for someone with very good grammar, spelling and understanding of British English. Any takers, please PM me.