After hours of training, the genins were exhausted and were allowed to have a universal break, which gave the kids time to talk with each other.
"I'm surprised you're perfectly fine over there, bubble boy," Kiba chided as he breathed heavily from exhaustion from his continuous spars over the past three hours.
"I'm surprised you aren't, dog breath," Lu jokingly remarked, before standing up and stretching.
"You're gonna leave already? You haven't even told us about your spars with Shino yet," Ino asked, pouting as she looked up at the white-haired boy before her.
Lu looked down at her questioningly and remarked "Why don't you ask him? Are the bugs too freaky for you, or something?" before walking up to Kurenai with Hinata to ask her some questions.
"He knows just as well as we all do that Shino like- doesn't talk? Right? Am I confused or is that not his whole thing?" Ino asked aloud to nobody in particular.
"Who doesn't talk? I just find conversing with you guys to be a waste of time when there's nothing of use you ever say around me," Shino flatly responded, but if you were around the bug user enough, you'd hear an edge of irritation and defiance in his reply.
"Well… if you do talk… how were your matches with Lu?" Ino curiously inquired.
"For a lack of better words, frustrating. Lu is like a monster that continuously adapts to my every move. In our first few matches, he was reckless, or at least that's what he made it look like," Shino shuddered.
This physical gesture of discomfort from someone who breeds and houses bugs within his body made Shikamaru and Ino flinch slightly, glancing at each other with agreed pity for the bug user. There was no feasible way that Lu was truly that bothersome and had such a capability for adaptation. There was simply no way…. Right?
"So you mean to tell me this guy not only has been disassembling and absorbing chakra from YOUR chakra-draining bugs but has found a way to do so harmlessly and he began to outclass you in taijutsu after three or so matches?" Shikamaru accounted, stunned at what he was hearing from his fellow genius. What he was hearing only made him more uncomfortable when Shino mentioned that Lu was planning on sparring with Shikamaru and Hinata after their break ended, which they both surmised was what he was talking with Kurenai about.
Shikamaru and Shino assumed that Lu had already spoken with Asuma about his plans for sparring, which caused Shikamaru to sigh deeply as he didn't want to be a punching bag for what Shino could only describe as an "adaptive monster".
"Kurenai sensei, I would like to make a request," Lu approached the woman.
"No. I am not cutting down your sparring time, In-" she paused momentarily, looking down to see the genin before her, "o..? I'm sorry, Lu I didn't expect you to approach me with a request. Is Asuma too hard on you?" she apologized then teased.
"Asuma? Asuma sensei might think I'm too hard on him if anything. I've yet to be exhausted by my genin spars with Shino, even once. I was inquiring if I could borrow Hinata-san for my training?" Lu asked.
"I wouldn't mind, but did you ask Hinata first?" Kurenai agreed.
"Actually…" Lu stepped aside.
"Kurenai sensei, I would like to train with Lu myself. This was a request I asked of him personally," Hinata spoke up.
Kurenai agreed to let the pair spar and train together for a bit, as long as Hinata wasn't thrashed around the way she could hear the students speaking of Lu's spars with Shino. Lu shrugged and agreed with her terms and as soon as their thirty-minute period of rest ended, Lu and Hinata began training together. Shikamaru was relieved when an hour passed by and neither Lu, Hinata, nor Asuma mentioned the sparring matches Shino mentioned between himself, Lu, and the Hyuga.
"So you mean to tell me the juuken expels chakra directly into your opponent's chakra stream or directly to their tenketsu?" Lu questioned as he and Hinata were going over the gentle-fist style so that Lu could modify his bubble-style and taijutsu. Hinata, for her part, was a very good and kind teacher. Each time Lu failed a kata she reenacted what she expected of him to execute. Before long, he could accurately disrupt and open tenketsu, the latter being extremely painful if he used too much charka, forcing them open rather than calmly re-opening the pathway. It seemed that each time the girl did a kata, she gave off a more elegant, graceful aura, different from her usual timid self. Lu shelved this away for later, taking in that this is the girl who has a crush on his close friend, Naruto, and that Naruto would be wise to pay attention to her before it was too late. As they were practicing, the katas got progressively a bit more difficult and Lu was beginning to struggle with incorporating his chakra bubbles (or chakra for that matter) into his taijutsu, but he had gotten the basics down and thanked the girl nonetheless. This gesture caused Hinata to blush slightly, as she never really received praise from anyone aside from her squadmates, occasionally Naruto, and her Jonin instructor, and she still was yet to be able to face those compliments without blushing or becoming slightly embarrassed anywho. Shikamaru could sense an ominous force approaching him and shuddered when he was faced with his friend, Lu. The Awakatsu boy was starting to scare the Nara because he could tell the look of indifference on Lu's face was simply a show to make it seem like he made no progress with Hinata, but he could tell; the smile on the girl's reddened face was a dead giveaway that she received some praise for her efforts.
"I hope you didn't think I forgot, Shika," Lu smiled down at his sitting friend.
"I'd hoped you did," the Nara sighed, before standing up and readying himself in a sloppily and lazily formed taijutsu stance.
Lu looked at the Nara's feet, then back up at his chest, back to the Nara's feet, then to Shikamaru's face, and cocked an eyebrow up at the boy.
"You can't seriously hope to face me like that, right?" Lu asked Shikamaru, before waving away the boy's stance and asking to play shogi of all things with him.
Shikamaru's mind stopped for a second, realizing that Hinata was perfectly fine and had enough time to recover and go spar with Kurenai one-on-one again. Lu and Shikamaru asked Asuma if they could go to Shikamaru's compound and play shogi. Asuma eyed Lu, who just winked in response, and shrugged allowing the pair to go to Shikamaru's compound and play shogi. Once they got to Shikamaru's compound, they were met with Shikaku Nara, Shikamaru's father, and the man was already at the table where he and his son usually played shogi, waiting on his son.
"Dad, this is Lu, Lu, this is my father, Shikaku Nara, the Hokage's advisor and the chief of jonin in konaha," Shikamaru lazily introduced the two, before sitting down and awaiting Lu to follow in pursuit.
"A friend besides Choji? Shika, I must say, you've stepped up your game," Shikaku jived, before moving to the middle of the room to allow both Shikamaru and Lu to be parallel from each other for their match of shogi.
"You do know how to play shogi, right?" Shikamaru asked. To his dismay, Lu shrugged and as Shikamaru began setting up the pieces, he noticed Lu grab the cup at the end of the table and place five of his pawns in the cup, otherwise, he set up his end of the board perfectly: lance, knight, silver general, gold general, king, gold general, silver general, knight, and lance for his first row (far back), then he placed his rook and bishop in front of his knights, then set his pawns, save for five, in the third row. Lu yawned, adding insult to injury as he waited for the Nara to finish his side.
"We're playing furigoma, right?" Lu asked, awaiting Shikamaru's response.
"Sure, you clearly know what you're doing, go ahead," Shikamaru replied, feigning disinterest. Why or how his friend knew about shogi, and why Shikamaru never knew he did, was bothersome enough for Shikamaru to ponder so he dismissed the thought and took the game as casually as any other match with his father. Shikaku was beginning to gain interest in the boy across from his son, wondering whether or not the boy was acting disinterested in order to throw his son off. After the pieces were to come out, the only word you could say described Shikamaru's silent reaction was "eruptive" . The blood vessels in his head became visible and he grunted, snapped his eyes shut, and waited for Lu to make his move.
Elsewhere, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were getting their asses handed to them by Kakashi.
"I honestly can't believe this perverted cyclops," Sakura huffed.
"I agree. First he gives a mission to get that…" Sasuke shuddered before finishing his point, "thing for Madam Shijmi, then he made us clean up the bathouse," Sasuke continued listing things off
"And NOW he wants us to fight him for training. I don't even know what possessed him to get this annoying over night" Naruto cut in, ducking a kunai the man threw at him, then clumsuly formed the bird seal, built up chakra, and released a wind style: breakthrough jutsu, just in time for his partner, Sasuke to follow up with a great fireball jutsu. The combined result ended up exploding in the pair's face, making this the eleventh failure to pull off a combination jutsu in the past three hours of sparring against Kakashi. Sakura, for her part, already set up a trap surrounding the boys and substituted in to shunshin and move them out of the way.
"I will never find it abnormal that you learned this jutsu within thirty minutes of sparring," Sasuke shuddered, looking up at the pink-haired kunoichi.
"I find it abnormal you make it seem like you took longer," Sakura shrugged.
Clearly whatever issue in their group dynamic that set Naruto apart from Sasuke and blinded Sakura from being an actual kunoichi was set aside after being Naruto's squadmate for three days. She progressively stopped asking Sasuke out, which actually creeped the boys out because it made no sense for her to change so quickly. As for her ability, she's been taking mental notes around the pair to learn more about being a kunoichi. The teamwork exercises made it easier for her to coordinate her movements with the boys and despite her being behind on nature transformation jutsu, she was extremely adequate at what she did have.
Author's Note: I'm sorry for the inconsistency in chapters, the only reason 8 and 9 were pushed out so closely together is because I'd been procrastinating on 8 and had motive for 9. My schedule should still be every other week or month.