Chapter 9: Team Training

A/N: It's been a while. This one was pretty fun to write. More action/plot/etc. coming soon.

-o X o-

The next morning, we met at the same training field at 8am for team training. I got there fifteen minutes early, and hoped Anko would show up on time. I mean, since Kakashi was known for being late, it kind of implied that everyone else tended to be on time, but it could just be a jounin-hazing-the-genin type of thing. Akiko, Sokudo, and even Naruto showed up a bit early as well.

"Ready for some team training?" I asked, mostly to avoid an awkward silence.

"You bet!" Naruto exclaimed in his usual excitement. "I can't wait to learn how to control snakes! They were so scary, but that will be so awesome when I can do it. I could have my clones ride snakes into battle like ninja calvary!"

I paused for a second at that imagery. I knew that Naruto should get the toad contract, but still… a hundred of Naruto riding into battle on fifteen-foot-long battle snakes? Completely impractical, sure, but it would be terrifying and effective against most opponents. And a thrilling concept to consider, even if I would shoot the idea down if he ever got serious about it. He needed the toads.

Akiko looked skeptical. "Summoning takes a lot of chakra. Anko sensei was pretty amazing yesterday, summoning so many. I don't think a genin would be able to do it."

Well, probably only one genin could, and he was standing in our midst. She did bring up a good point though; Anko had a lot of snakes yesterday. Did she summon them all during that battle? That would take a lot of chakra, but the alternative- that she somehow just carried several live snakes around on her person at all times- was perhaps even more terrifying. Something to check out later.

"Learning summoning would be useful, even if we can't summon an army like sensei yet," I said neutrally. "Akiko, do the Onikuma clan use summons? Is that what you did yesterday?"

She hesitated. "Uh, something like that."

I raised an eyebrow. What does that mean?

But then Anko sensei arrived, and right on time. "Sup, kiddos!" she announced, body flickering into our midst and posing in dramatic fashion. "Your sensei has arrived, and all is well in the world again!"

Naruto and Akiko stared at sensei's pose in a confused silence, and I used the opportunity to activate my Byakugan to look for snakes up her sleeves, the question from earlier still burning in my mind. But the instant I turned it on, Anko was directly in front of me, delivering an open palmed slap to my face. It had enough force to spin my whole body around in a comical 180-degree turn. I quickly deactivated my eyes as I was seeing stars in all directions.

"What the heck?" Naruto exclaimed at the sudden assault.

"Thought you could sneak a peek at your super sexy sensei?" Anko teased. "You wouldn't be the first Hyuuga boy to try it."

"W-what?" I spluttered, eyes going wide. My face burned red in embarrassment, especially as I noticed Naruto's and Akiko's horrified/disgusted looks. "No! I was… I just…"

"Mmhmm," Anko said flatly, arms crossed. But I could see the hint of a smirk. She was messing with me. She probably knew what I was really looking for. "Care to explain why you were using your x-ray vision on me, then? And don't make up something dumb. If you say 'I wanted to see if you kept snakes up your sleeves' or something stupid like that to try to get me to take off my clothes, I'll slap you again."

Naruto and Akiko continued to stare at me with a mixture of confusion and revulsion. "Not true, guys," I hastily defended myself, still feeling a burning heat in my cheeks. "You know how we were just talking about how many snakes she summoned? I wanted to see if she really summoned them, or had some other trick up her sleeve- er, no pun intended."

Anko just laughed, breaking the tension. "Listen, kid, if you're going to snoop on people to try to figure out their secret techniques, at least make sure you're sly about it. No ninja is just going to stand by and let you ogle them like that, not even me. Information is worth its weight in gold in our line of work. Gathering intel is a smart thing to do, but do it on the sly, got it?"

All three of us nodded. Look at that, not even two minutes in and we're already learning something.

"Along those lines," she continued, "since we are a team, we'll need to know about each other's fighting styles and techniques. That means you have to keep your teammates' secrets hidden for them. Don't go spouting off about what they can do. It could get them killed. It's a mark of utmost trust that we show each other our own techniques. Because I'm your sensei, I'll show you how I do my summoning, but don't go sharing it around with people, got it?"

We nodded again, taking her words seriously. Naruto especially looked awed, being trusted to keep someone else's secrets. I felt a slight pang of guilt; Naruto was a good friend, but I hadn't trusted him with several of my secrets, such as my secret fuinjutsu studies. Anko sensei may be the first person to entrust such sensitive information to him.

Our sensei half removed her over coat, revealing a complex seal running down her right arm, tattooed from her shoulder to elbow. "This is a special summoning seal for the snakes. Different summon creatures have different contracts, obviously, and the snakes require their summoner to permanently tattoo a copy of the contract on their body. Some may find it off putting, but honestly, it's damn convenient. It allows me to summon in the obvious traditional way of slamming my hand on the ground, or a sneakier way, where I summon them seemingly out of my sleeves. The downside is that showing too much skin reveals a secret technique, so I have to be careful about who I show my arms to."

"That's cool," Naruto said, excitedly. "Hey, Anko sensei, can I get the snake seal tattoo too? I was thinking that-"

"Nope," she cut him off with a bland smile. "Not my call, kiddo. You would have to convince the current chief summoner to let you sign your name on the scroll, and he's not a very accommodating fellow."

"What about your other seal?" I asked, tapping the back of my neck to indicate what I meant.

Her own hand brushed across the curse seal, perhaps on instinct. "A relic from the same bastard, funny enough. But don't worry about it. That's enough about me," she said with a casual air. "Your turn now. To work as a team, you need to know what the others can do. You don't always need to tell us everything you can do, but we need to learn how to fight together instead of just around each other. I use earth and fire style jutsu, senbon, and snakes, mostly. I have a few other tricks up my sleeve as well, but that should be enough to go with for now. How about you, Pervy Hyuuga? What can you do?"

I blushed again. Was that nickname a punishment for mentioning her curse seal? "Don't call me that, it's going to stick," I muttered, but Naruto was snickering and even Akiko cracked a smile. "I have the Byakugan, which gives me 360-degree x-ray vision, which I use for combat and information gathering purposes," I stated firmly. For some reason Anko just smiled wider and more deviously at that. "I like using shuriken jutsu and my staff in combat. I'm not bad at defensive taijutsu, though I can't use the Jyuuken because of my lightning affinity. I know a bit about poisons as well, and have built up some decent resistance to many plant-based toxins," I said with a shrug. "I would like to learn some lightning jutsu, but my clan doesn't have any, so no luck so far."

I decided not to mention my dabbling in fuinjutsu. If word of that got out… well, I didn't even want to consider the repercussions.

Anko sensei nodded. "Alright, not bad. Next up, the doofus in the orange."

"Hey!" Naruto protested, pointing a finger at her. "You're wearing orange too!"

Anko crossed her arms, looking serious. "I wear a sexy orange mini skirt. It's a stylish flair. You wear an ugly orange jumpsuit. Totally different. Now, what techniques can you do?"

Naruto mirrored her crossed arm position, looking petulant, but he also couldn't pass up an opportunity to boast about his abilities. "I just learned Shadow Clone Jutsu, the most awesome technique ever! I also have my Sexy Jutsu, and…" he thought for a few seconds. "Well… that's all I need to be awesome!"

Anko quirked her lips. "That's all you need, huh? Well, I guess I won't waste your time then. I'll just teach your teammates all my awesome, badass killer ninjutsu techniques, since you have all you need."

Naruto floundered, waving his arms in a panic. "W-wait! I mean, I can be more awesome if you teach me! Don't skip me, I want to learn more super awesome ninjutsu too!"

Anko just smirked. Riling him up was too easy. "Next. Alright lassie, what can you do?"

Akiko glanced at Naruto and I before meeting Anko's gaze with a defiant expression. "I can use the Onikuma Demon Summoning techniques," she said firmly. "I can enter a state of semi-possession with some of the lower-level contract spirits, primarily the spirit beasts right now. My current specialty is close range taijutsu, though my clan techniques will lead to greater versatility in the future."

Anko didn't look surprised, but Naruto and I stared at her dumbly. "You… summon demons and let them possess you?" I asked slowly.

"Semi-possession," she replied frostily, then softened a bit. "Usually. And 'Demon Summoning' is kind of misleading, I think we just call it that because it sounds scary. Basically, I summon a spirit into my body, and gain the instincts and impulses of that spirit, as well as some minor physical traits. It allows me to incorporate the spirit's influence into my own fighting style, kind of like a combat consultant giving advice directly to my brain."

"You- you let the demon, or ghost, or whatever, inside of you?" Naruto said weakly. "And it takes over?"

"No!" she contested adamantly. "I'm still in control. With stronger spirits, it can become a battle of wills for who controls my body after I summon them. That's why I only use the lesser demons right now. It's easier with brute beasts, like what I used before, though I'm working on using human spirits too. And I'm still in control of myself! It's just, like, I can tell what they think, what they would do, and I can incorporate it into my decision making and fighting style."

"Oh," Naruto said, looking a bit relieved. "Well, that's creepy as hell, but I'm glad you're on our side. Anko has snakes, you have ghosts, I have… uh, other stuff. Tedashi, you need some kind of creepy secret weapon too. Right now, you're too normal for this team," he said, smiling.

Akiko looked relieved, insulted, and a bit curious all at the same time. Anko was smirking. I was… kinda disappointed, actually. I wasn't used to being the normal one in any given circle, and for some reason I didn't want to be the only normal one here. "I'll see what I can do," I answered with a grin. "If you find any creepy techniques lying around, let me know. But what's up with Sokudo? I thought only Inuzuka used ninken?"

"Only official Inuzuka clan members are allowed to bring them to the academy," she replied, a bit bitterly. "Which is a stupid rule, by the way. Anyway, my father is the younger son of the previous Onikuma clan head, and my mother was an Inuzuka before she married him and joined the Onikuma clan. When an Inuzuka marries into another clan, they allow the first generation of offspring to use Inuzuka ninken also. Basically, my siblings and I are allowed to choose a partner, but our own children won't be. So, I got Sokudo here. She's the best."

Sokudo let out an affirmative bark. The little black puppy was vibrating with excitement, looking more energetic than what I remembered of Akamaru.

"That's awesome," Naruto replied, crouching down to pet Sokudo. She happily leaned into the touch, before hopping into his arms, to Naruto's delight.

"Do you know any of the Inuzuka ninjutsu techniques?" I asked.

"I know some of the beginner ones, but I'm not as good as Kiba, since I split my time learning how to control the Onikuma summoning technique as well. I'm learning their style of taijutsu as my base style, although the Onikuma usually just take on the style of our summoned spirit. I generally prefer the Onikuma style of combat, but I plan on having the Inuzuka style as a backup, in case a situation arises where I have to fight without a summoned spirit."

"Alright, now that you're more or less caught up with each other's styles, it's time for the fun stuff," Anko sensei said, reclaiming our attention. "Team training! We'll spar to see each other's techniques in action, the three of you against me, then go get a mission after lunch. Ready? Begin!"

-o X o-

"Mission! Mission! Mission!" Naruto chanted as we approached the Administration Tower. "Oh man, I can hardly wait! Will we storm an enemy castle? Rescue a princess? Oh! Let's rescue a princess from an enemy castle!" he cheered.

Anko wore an evil grin. I just sighed. She shot me a look that said don't spoil the surprise or I'll poison you again. I rolled my eyes.

We approached the Hokage's office, where two Anbu were standing guard at the entrance. I wondered if the Hokage personally handed out every genin's first mission, or if we got it special because Naruto was on the team. Anko stood and waited once we reached the entrance to the office, a polite distance from the guards. It must have been non-verbally communicated that we were there, because the Hokage called for us to enter a few seconds later.

He was looking at us over his desk when we entered, smiling fondly at our team as he smoked his pipe and took a break from his stacks of paperwork. "Ah, Team 6. I was delighted to hear you passed your sensei's exam. Well done."

"You better believe it, jiji!" Naruto declared proudly. "Nothing's going to stop me from becoming Hokage! And I'm ready for our first mission!"

The Hokage continued to smile, and pulled out three manilla folders from a desk compartment. "Well, I'm glad to see you're so eager. I have three options available to your team right now, all D-rank. Are you ready to hear what them?"

Naruto was on the balls of his feet, barely containing his excitement. Akiko must have known about D-ranks, because she looked resigned to our fate. I felt a little bad, actually. All this wind up, and it was only going to come crashing down on Naruto.

"Mission 1: Walk the Inuzuka dogs for two hours. Mission 2: Babysitting duty. Mission 3: A request from the Daimyo's wife."

Naruto looked crestfallen at the first two, but lit up at the third. No, no, no, no, no. I couldn't stop him.

"Yes! We want the third one! We'll rescue the Daimyo's wife!" Naruto shouted. Anko snickered. I facepalmed.

The Hokage looked quite amused. "Well, she doesn't need rescuing. But you see, she has this cat…"

-o X o-

"That was the worst mission ever!" Naruto declared, five hours later. We had finally caught and returned the demon cat. "What kind of mission was that? It scratched me, like, a hundred times as I was carrying it back."

I had hoped the infamy of the Tora mission was exaggerated. It was not.

I had hoped having Sokudo, a ninken, on our team, would make the mission suck less. It did, actually, but it still sucked. That cat had some serious ninja evasion skills.

"I have some med supplies here that can help with that," I replied, pulling out a storage scroll. Naruto drew the short straw and had to carry the cat back to the mission office.

"Eh, that's ok, I heal pretty fast," Naruto said dismissively. "I can't even see the marks anymore."

I put the scroll away as Akiko looked him over. "Huh, that is fast," she commented. "It's not like they were deep wounds, but still. That's kinda weird."

"Alright, good work kiddies," Anko sensei interjected. "Congrats on your first mission being a success. We're done for the day. Meet up at the training field again tomorrow morning at 8. Later!"

And she disappeared in a body flicker.

"Huh. Well, I'm going to go visit Sasuke," I stated, getting a grunt out of Naruto. "I want to make sure that his team passed and all. Anyone else want to come?"

Naruto sighed. "Fine, I'll go with you to check on the teme. I wonder if he got to do a mission yet? It better not have been cooler than ours!"

Akiko shook her head. "I need to go home. I have some clan responsibilities to attend, and my brother offered to help me with some training this evening. Still working on controlling the human spirit possessions."

I nodded. "Alright, good luck. See you tomorrow. Let's go, Naruto."

We made our way across the village to the Uchiha district, and Naruto kept up a friendly stream of chatter the whole journey. He wasn't a great conversationalist, doing most of the talking himself without leaving much room for outside input, but it didn't bother me at the moment.

Most of the villagers tended to get out of the way when Naruto walked through town. I was considered an anomaly, the half-foreign Hyuuga with tan skin and green eyes, but most of the village considered me neutrally. Naruto, on the other hand, inspired fear, despite his best attempts to look friendly. It made me angry at first, but over time, I realized that people just didn't understand.

Sealing wasn't as common as ninjutsu and taijutsu, and was often not well understood, especially by civilians. And when the Kyuubi escaped its host twelve years ago, what explanation was given to the villagers? None. The emphasis was on the heroic sacrifice of the Fourth Hokage. All well and good, but it left people wondering. How did it get out? Did it just happen, randomly? Was the previous host not strong enough? What was to prevent it from happening again in the new container? All sensible questions to have, and all left unanswered by the Hokage. Hiruzen was a great man, but withholding information about the night of the Kyuubi attack was a large cause of the fear, distrust, and distaste most of the village held towards Naruto. They viewed him as a potential time bomb with a hidden timer. Naturally, no one wanted to be near him.

Naruto was mostly used to it by now, and didn't comment on it. We arrived at the Uchiha district a short time later, and I activated my Byakugan to look around. "Ah, there," I said, leading Naruto in Sasuke's direction. We found him in one of the training grounds, going through the kata of one of his taijutsu styles.

"Oi, Sasuke! Take a break from kicking the wind, we want to talk to you!" Naruto called as we walked into the training field. Sasuke looked over, only mildly annoyed.

"What are you doing here, moron?" he asked without any real heat, straightening up and rolling his shoulders. "It's private property."

"That doesn't apply to friends, teme," Naruto shot back, grinning. "Did you guys pass?"

"Duh," he said with a shrug. "Our sensei showed up late, then had us try to steal some bells from him. He seems… weird… but he's strong. We tried taking him on one at a time, and didn't stand a chance. The Hyuuga suggested we work together. She's… not bad, but Kobi is a dunce. He's even worse than you, dobe."

"Yeah, Hinata chan is the best- HEY!" Naruto shouted, belatedly parsing out that the last quip was an insult.

"But you got the bells?" I prompted.

"Hn. No, even together, we couldn't get them. But he said that at least we worked together to try, and he passed us anyway." He looked disgruntled about the failure.

"What's your sensei's name?" I asked, already reasonably sure of the answer.

"Kakashi Hatake. You heard of him?"

I feigned surprise. "You haven't? Maybe he plays it down, but he's one of the best in the village. He's known to wield over a thousand jutsu. He also has a certain… ability that puts him in a unique position to be your sensei."

He eyed me for a minute, but didn't question it. Then he smirked. "How did things go with your crazy sensei?"

We shivered, then tag teamed the reply.

"She injected me with a paralysis agent and nearly left me for dead."

"She performed an unspeakable forbidden taijutsu technique on me that will leave me scarred for life."

"Physically?" Sasuke asked, looking Naruto over with sharper interest.

"Nope. Emotionally. But at least we got to do a mission for the Daimyo's wife this morning," Naruto replied airily.

Sasuke looked skeptical. "In just the past few hours? What kind of mission did you do?"

"Classified," I replied without missing a beat. "Hokage's eyes only. You know how it is."

-o X o-

The next morning, we were all gathered at the training field again when Anko sensei appeared in another dramatic pose. "Never fear, your fabulous Anko sensei is here!" she declared, one hand on her hip and the other pointing to the sky. For some reason I assumed the dramatics were just for first impressions, but I began to fear it might just be the norm for Sensei. "Now, let's get to training. One of the best ways to learn how your teammates fight is to fight them yourself. So, Tedashi, Akiko, you're up. Shortstack and Sokudo, come with me. We're going to watch."

"Hey! I'm taller than Akiko chan!"

We ignored Naruto's protests, and took the training field. "Alright, rules." Anko stated, hand under her chin in a thinking pose. "Let's see… First, don't kill each other. That's a good rule. Second, don't cause any major, lasting injuries to each other. Third… uh… don't be boring? I don't know. I didn't really think this out, but I'll let you know the third rule once I see one of you break it. Ready? Alright, go!"

I sighed and dropped into a ready stance while unsealing my bo staff. Akiko started making hand seals.

"Spirit Summoning Jutsu, Wolverine Possession!" She planted her palm against her chest, summoning on her own body. The seal on her glove spread across her body, then faded as she began to transform into her more feral form. Then she attacked.

She was fast, and her fingernails were now sharpened into claws. But having been trained to fight against Jyuuken users, they weren't much of an issue to avoid. I was able to parry or dodge every strike, and noticed that in her current form, she never kicked- maybe her current spirit of influence only used front appendages to fight?

After deflecting a swiping claw, I jabbed forward with my staff and just missed her head. Before I could pull my arm back, she turned her head and bit me, hard.

"Ow!" I yelled, and forcefully expelled chakra from the surrounding tenketsu, blasting her face off of my upper arm. Unfortunately, she took a chunk of flesh with her. Biting had to be a demon spirit thing, right? That was weird.

Akiko recovered quickly, and didn't hesitate to leap back into action. I again matched her blow for blow, spinning and weaving to dodge or parry each strike, ignoring the bloody and painful mess of my left forearm.

There wasn't much of a pattern to her attack; it was wild, nearly out of control. I began to figure out how she reacted to my own movements, and eventually baited her into throwing a haymaker and overextending when I dodged and spun around behind her. I planted my foot on her back and jumped, shoving her to the ground as I went airborne. I stuck my staff to my back with my left hand while drawing and throwing senbon with my right. She turned around just in time to block the weapons from piercing her chest, but all three stuck into her arm. She didn't know it yet, but the fight was essentially over now that my toxins had entered her bloodstream.

I landed on the ground and started throwing shuriken, my sole intention being to keep her at a distance until the sedative kicked in. To keep things interesting, I added a couple of explosive shuriken to the mix as well, which succeeded in keeping her off balance and frustrated until her eyelids started to droop and she collapsed to the ground.

"Woah, that was awesome!" Naruto yelled from the sidelines, as Anko and Sokudo walked over to check on Akiko. "How did you do that?"

"Poison," I answered. "The senbon were laced with sedatives. Since she's pretty small, that dose will probably knock her out for two hours if I don't give her an antidote."

"Cool. How come you only used regular senbon in our spars, and never the poisoned ones?"

I snorted. "I do use the poisoned ones. Your hyperactivity must give you immunity to sedatives, because they never seemed to affect you."

"Well, not bad kids," Anko said, cutting us off and getting our attention. "Tedashi, do you carry an antidote on you? Let's wake her up and we can discuss the fight."

Soon enough, Akiko was groggily muttering curses under her breath. She was awake, but I knew from experience that she was going to have a killer headache for the next hour or so.

"Let's start with Akiko," Anko said. "When the battle was close and personal, you held your own. But once Tedashi got some distance, the fight was over. Your taijutsu is decent, but frankly, you'll die an early death if what you showed today is the best you got in a real fight against any halfway decent shinobi. Any taijutsu specialist will straight up beat you, and anyone who doesn't specialize in it will have a way to get the distance needed to take you out by other means. You either have to get a lot better in close combat, particularly in closing the gap between you and the opponent, or find ways to fight at a distance. Preferably both."

Akiko grumbled. "Well, I didn't have Sokudo with me."

Anko shrugged. "True. Admittedly, I didn't expect Tedashi to fight as well as he did, or I would have let Sokudo fight with you; from the academy reports, I was led to believe that he was better academically, while you and Naruto were superior in practical combat, even without Sokudo. Next time, you can fight with your ninkin and go all out."

Anko then turned to me. "That being said, Tedashi, your close combat kinda sucks too. You rely on distance attacks to end fights, but that doesn't excuse the fact that you pose little threat at close quarters. Your defense is decent, but you may have to fight opponents who prevent you from getting the distance you want for your little shuriken and senbon tricks. We'll work on adding some offensive skills to your melee repertoire later. Oh, and wrap up your arm," she licked her lips, an evil glint in her eye. "Blood gets me excited."

I paled, and quickly unsealed some bandages while Anko chuckled at our horrified expressions.

"Alright, if you're still good to fight, Tedashi, you get Naruto next," Anko said, while our other teammate sat down and scooped up Sokudo into her lap. "I think Akiko needs a bit more of a breather."

"Yes, I can continue," I agreed, and prepared for round two. This time, I drew a kunai in one hand and a brace of shuriken in the other, leaving my staff stuck to my back with chakra.

"Let's go! Time to show what I can do!" Naruto declared, getting into his own ready stance.

"Ready, begin!"

Naruto instantly burst into a dozen of himself, and I let the shuriken fly, dispelling a few of them. The rest closed the distance, and I began bobbing, weaving, and deflecting, scoring hits with my kunai whenever one presented an opening. I could see his clones regardless of where they were coming from, but they just kept coming.

I knew where the real one was, though. He had a little more chakra, was being a little more cautious, and he was steadily getting closer, moving amongst his clones while looking for a good angle. When he was within five feet of me, a clone landed a solid punch to my face. Oof.

I dropped my kunai as the impact sent me tumbling backwards. "Yatta!" Naruto cheered, delighted at landing a solid blow.

Lying on the ground a good distance away, I made a single hand seal. "Boom."

The tag wrapped around the kunai I dropped exploded, dispelling all the nearby clones and sending the real Naruto flying through the air. I got up and watched as he rolled around in the grass, trying to put out the lingering cinders. "What was that!" he yelled, finally recovering. "You had an exploding tag on the kunai you were using the whole time? You're crazy!"

Well, it was good to see he wasn't seriously injured. That would have broken the rules. "You had at least twenty eyes in there, and you didn't notice?" I teased. "You have to mind your surroundings, young padawan." I gave him a sagely nod.

"I don't even know what that means, but it's on now," Naruto called in response, as twenty more clones popped into existence, and this time they all drew kunai and shuriken. He did a better job distributing his chakra this time; I couldn't tell which one was the original. "Time to get serious!"

Again, I drew a kunai in one hand and a brace of shuriken in the other. The Naruto clones began to encircle me, throwing weapons as they did so. I could see each one of them coming, but I wasn't going to stand around and just let him pepper me with pointy objects. I targeted one of the Narutos at random and sprinted towards it, deflecting and dodging as I went. At one point I had to jump to avoid them all, twisting through the air and throwing shuriken of my own as I went. Two of them intercepted incoming kunai, knocking them off course, while the other two struck and dispelled clones. I landed in front of my target, and delivered a blow to his gut with the blunt end of my kunai, just in case I got the real one.

I didn't.

It popped in a puff of smoke, and I whirled around to deflect two more shuriken. I decided to be more conservative with the weapons I threw; I had a finite number remaining, and needed to save them for when I knew I could make them count. The five remaining Naruto's stood huddled together, before one stepped forward, a look of grim determination on his face. "Alright, Tedashi, it's time to end this," he said, then created even more clones, about thirty in total. They slowly and purposefully circled around me again, and I gripped my kunai a bit harder. The Naruto clones all took a deep breath.

"Sexy Jutsu!" one shouted.

Smoke flooded the clearing, and instinctively I looked right through it with the Byakugan. My breath hitched.

Most of the smoke dispersed, save for a few strategically placed lingering puffs. The kunai dropped from my hand, falling uselessly into the dirt. Something wet trickled from my nose. I could distantly hear Anko's howling laughter, and Akiko's shriek of outrage. But my brain was overloaded by Naruto's thirty transformations. His thirty very attractive and anatomically correct female transformations. I could tell, as the lingering smoke did nothing to hinder my eyes.

I couldn't even react when one Naruto dropped the henge, rushed forward, and clocked me in the jaw with enough power to lift me from my feet. I didn't even feel it. My brain was too stimulated to process anything else, pain included. I absently noted that I was flying through the air, staring at the sky, before my body fell to the ground. The world faded to black.

-o X o-

"…despicable…foul…stupid…moron…scum…disgusting…perverse…idiot…"

I woke up to the muttered frustrations of my female teammate, then snapped to attention and sat up. Naruto was fighting Anko now, who looked bored as she picked off more and more of his clones. Akiko, Sokudo, and I were sitting in the shade of a tree on the sidelines, observing.

"So, you're awake again, Pervy Hyuuga?" Akiko asked, not deigning to look at me.

I groaned. "It was his jutsu, not mine. What are you angry with me for?"

She ground her teeth. "It seemed like you were highly susceptible to the effect of said jutsu."

"Yeah, well, how many males wouldn't be?" I muttered defensively, though I felt a blush return anyway. "What do you want me to do, train my resistance to that kind of technique? I think a real pervert would be the only type of guy who wouldn't react like I did."

Luckily for me, she seemed slightly mollified at that. "Whatever. I'm still going to beat the hell out of Naruto for coming up with a jutsu like that." She paused for a moment, watching as another wave of Naruto spontaneously manifested on the field, only to be wiped out again. "You were friends with that idiot in the academy, right? Where did he learn to make solid shadow clones like that? And so many… He couldn't even make a single illusory clone to pass the exam."

"He failed the Bunshin because has too much chakra," I explained. "I can see it with the Byakugan. It's hard to compare him to, say, Anko sensei, because higher level ninjas tend to suppress their chakra. But it's more than anyone at the academy had, by a lot. My guess is that it is like someone with jounin level chakra trying to perform the Bunshin with genin level control. But once he learned the more chakra intensive variant…"

"…control wasn't so important, and he took to it like a fish to water," Akiko finished, looking thoughtful.

Anko finally grabbed the real Naruto by the collar, slammed him to the ground, and proceeded to hog tie his hands and legs behind his back. "Damn brat…" she complained with a huff, standing over the immobilized genin. "Where's your clone army now?"

"Ack! Untie me, you psycho! This is child abuse! Torture! Tedashi, Akiko, Sokudo, help!"

"You deserve it, moron," Akiko replied, adopting her icy tone again. "In fact…"

She got up and walked over to where Naruto was squirming in place, and delivered a firm kick right between his legs. Anko laughed again as Naruto wheezed and floundered in pain. "And I'll sic Sokudo on you the next time you use that stupid pervert jutsu in front of me, you got it?"

Naruto was in too much pain to respond, but Anko sensei spoke up. "I like you, girl. Too many fresh kunoichi are too demure to give their teammates a piece of their mind. Sometimes you gotta kick some sense into them; literally so, in this case. That being said, I'm not going to forbid that technique in actual combat. Today was a sufficient demonstration of its potential effectiveness. Naruto, no more using it in friendly spars, though. That's enough sparring today anyway, so let's move on to the next lesson." She cut Naruto free from his binds, and he quickly positioned himself a safe distance from Akiko. "How many of you know how to tree walk?"

All three raised our hands. Apparently, Akiko had learned from her clan, and I had taught Naruto how to do it earlier this year.

"Good," she said. "Water walking?"

I raised my hand again, but this time I was the only one.

"Alright, congratulations. Tedashi is hereby promoted to ninja toddler. You two are still ninja babies until you figure out how to do it. Head over to the pond to practice, and I'll check in on you in a bit," she ordered, gesturing towards it with her head. "C'mon, Tedashi. While your teammates are busy, we get to have a special one on one training session, lucky boy," she said, waggling her eyebrows.

My teammates shot me pitying glances, then started walking towards the nearby body of water. I didn't know who was more nervous- Naruto, having to train with Akiko, or myself, having to train with Anko. Once they reached the water's edge, Anko turned to me.

"I know that the Third Hokage wields the bo staff like a god incarnate, but you looked more like a toddler stick-fighting in a playground. We need to get you a tutor or something."

"Tch. I'm not that bad. Akiko only hit me once- and that was because she bit me. Not to mention, I'm self-taught. Who even uses these things other than the Hokage?" I asked. I had put a lot of time into bo staff practice on my own, and the implication that it was all for nothing left me feeling bitter and defensive. "I doubt he'll spare the time to teach me his ways."

"Aww, the poor little Hyuuga doesn't know any bo staff users to teach him. That must mean there aren't any in all of Konoha!" Anko teased. Then scoffed. "What, you think you know everything kid? What do you think they stuck you with me for? I happen to know quite a few wielders of big wooden poles," she said with a wink and dramatic pause, then continued, "And some of them can competently use a bo staff too. I'll ask around, see if any are willing to teach you their techniques."

I gagged and blushed again, and Anko just smirked. "I knew I was right about you, pervy Hyuuga boy. Don't try to deny the nickname now, and get your mind out of the gutter. It's time for the next lesson, my adorable little ninja toddler. Taijutsu practice, bare handed. Until we get you an actual expert, I hereby forbid you from using your staff during practice.

"Are you sure? If you think my threat level is low even with the staff-"

"Yeah, I know, you think that you'll never win a fight empty handed. That's no excuse to skip taijutsu practice; it's the foundation of the ninja, and everyone needs to practice it. It's fine for you to just focus on defense for now. Get good enough that you can survive until your enemy screws up, or help arrives for you. It's not ideal, but better than nothing. I'm going to fight you at about 50% of my usual strength and speed, and let's see if you can keep up."

50%? I know she's a jounin, but c'mon, I'm not-

An instant later, I was flat on my back staring at clouds, seeing stars despite the fact it was only midmorning. "What in the world…"

"Ok, 50% is too much. Let's try about 30%. C'mon, back on your feet now. Look alive, soldier."

I groaned, then kipped up to my feet and focused. "I wasn't ready," I muttered defensively, but I knew it wouldn't have mattered. I didn't even react until she was popping me in the jaw. That was half speed?

"Oh, sorry, you're right. All those enemy ninjas you'll face in the future will always give you time to get good and ready before attacking, and to have a warm up stretch and write a quick note to your clan about your impending demise. You're a genin now, kid. You need to always be-"

This time, I blocked when she blurred forward mid-sentance. My wrist stung at the point of contact; she hit way harder than Kiba, or Sasuke, or Naruto, or even my mother. She just grinned at my wince of pain. "…ready. Not bad. How long do you think you can keep it up?"

-o X o-

"Damn, Tedashi, she beat the crap out of you," Akiko said with a wince. My forearms were tender and bruised, and would probably turn purple by tomorrow morning if left untreated. Anko had left us to eat lunch at Ichiraku's while she went to pick up our team's next D-rank mission for the afternoon.

I shrugged. "Yeah, and she wasn't even fighting at half strength. She's pretty scary when she wants to be."

"Which is, like, always," Naruto complained, already attacking his third bowl of noodles. He paused to look over my arms as well, where the vast majority of the blows had landed. "But I wish we could have been there with you. I'll get this water walking down in no time, I don't want you to suffer taijutsu practice from hell on your own."

I smiled at the sentiment. "Thanks, Naruto. I'm sure you'll both get it down quickly. What do you guys think our mission will be today?"

"I hope it's not dog walking for the Inuzuka's," Akiko said with a frown. "Normally, I'd be all for it, but Tedashi's arms might not be able to withstand the strain."

"Nothing can be worse than that stupid Tora cat mission," Naruto grumbled.

"My guess is a courier mission," I added. "Delivering a bunch of mail around the village and stuff. I won't have to use my arms, other than carry a few letters, and if Naruto is allowed to use kage bunshin, we'll be done in record time."

"Ding ding ding! We have a winner!" called Anko sensei, who suddenly dropped into the seat next to me. "At least, sort of it. It is a courier mission. But it's only one scroll. And we're retrieving, not delivering. And it's not in Konoha. And it's a C-rank mission."

I spat out my noodles. "What? You got a C-rank mission already? Why? We've only done one D-rank!"

"Ugh, all the other D-ranks are boring," Anko whined. "Watching you guys chase Tora is the only one that's any fun to watch, and since you did that yesterday, my only options were to either help the demon cat escape again, or pick up something more interesting. Hence, the C-rank."

"Yes! This is awesome! A real mission!" Naruto cheered.

"When are we leaving?" Akiko asked. She glanced towards me, briefly. "I'm not sure we are all mission ready for something taking us out of the village."

Anko shrugged. "I'll bring him to a healer after lunch. We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning. Don't be late!"