Chapter 5

[Karin]

"Wrong!" Kazuhiro all but shouted making her flinch and almost drop the delicate and ornamented porcelain cup with steaming hot, rare-blend tea on top of the table – which, if Karin's pattern recognition wasn't failing her, was also incredibly expensive – and that'd just have made things worse. Fortunately, she managed to catch herself just in time.

"W-what did I do wrong this time?!" she asked, placing the cup back down and placing her cup back down to calm her fast-beating heart. This kind of stress couldn't be good for her.

"The way you were holding it as you raised it to your mouth was incorrect. You are not a barbarian, or at least not as long as you are in a team I lead," Kazuhiro sniffed. "Now, from the beginning, once again. Demonstrate," he ordered the quiet bodyguard that sat next to him and opposite to her.

As usual, Karin was starting to realize, the woman didn't say a single word. Instead, she just nodded her head and grabbed her own cup, raising to her lips and taking a sip silently before placing it back down on the table.

In the exact same way, Karin had before…

"I... don't get it," the redhead admitted. Because she truly didn't, she was a kunoichi and she still couldn't find the difference. A part of her wondered if this was some kind of subtle detection training. If that were the case, she would rather go back to the regular grueling physical exercise, because this was just frustrating to another level.

She would have never thought she would miss Kazuhiro and Yota taking potshots at her while trying to regain her breath. But these "etiquette lessons" taught her otherwise.

Kazuhiro sighed and shook his head. The female bodyguard copied the action but her face remained neutral as stone.

"Show her," Kazuhiro said to the woman who raised the cup again to her lips but stopped just an inch before it reached them. Locking herself in place as if she were a statue. "See this?" Kazuhiro asked, pointing at the woman's pinkie finger. "It is never separated from the ring finger and only two-thirds of the last part of your middle finger should touch the base of the cup. It doesn't go past it like some kind of thirsty animal with locomotive problems!" the heir pointed out with his hand.

Karin tried her best. She truly did. But she still couldn't even spot the difference. Something that Kazuhiro sensed, given the way he sighed again.

"It would be… troublesome for me to showcase this lack of manners, especially after such glaring mistakes are being made. If someone with even the barest knowledge of tea ceremonies ever saw that, you, and by extension me, and by further extension Grass, would be a laughing stock," the rich boy pointed out as he massaged the side of his forehead, something which she had learned in the past few days also followed a certain set of motions.

Apparently, being born rich had a lot of rules. Karin wondered who came up with all those little things. From the way you slept to the way you walked, passing through the way you sat down. There were far too many rules for her, and her mind was already tired after long grueling hours of Fuinjutsu and physical training.

"We will try again. We still have a few days for you to get this right before we have to leave for the Land of Fire," Kazuhiro continued, interrupting her thoughts. "We need to get you to at least a passable standard before it is time if you are to accompany me to any reunion while at Konoha."

"Right, I will try my best. Just… Why me, again?" To that, the golden boy glared at her, making Karin hastily explain what she meant. "I-I mean, why me as in, there are certainly people more qualified for the job, right? Yota? Himari?" Thankfully, that was enough to placate Kazuhiro's ire. She had gotten used to their most… vocal teammate, but Karin still got scared when the heir got angry at her for whatever reason.

"For the latter," he said while waving a hand toward the open sliding door that led to the garden outside. Himari laid there taking a nap under the sun and snoring just slightly too loud to be natural while scratching her belly, crumbs of different pastries all over her uniform and face. "...How can someone born from one of the prestigious clans of our land be so… her, I will never understand," Kazuhiro muttered, a hint of irritation in his voice.

He had tried to kick her out earlier, but all he managed was to get into a chase across the whole mansion as the woman kept herself just out of his reach while continuing to eat her pastries, taunting Kazuhiro the whole time. After seeing the futility of it, the golden boy just sent the Jonin bodyguards after her and continued Karin's lessons. Himari had still come back fifteen minutes later, no worse for wear and still eating the pastries. The guards were nowhere in sight and hadn't returned since.

Karin was a bit scared to ask what had happened to them.

"As for Yota… Well, he would certainly be better equipped to do this given that he would probably have gotten this down by now."

'Ouch.'

"However, I am afraid that his injury makes him unsuitable for this kind of gathering. A wound that impedes his speech would just be seen poorly between the social circles we will likely be visiting. Even if he were to force himself to talk during the whole event, it can't be discarded that it would lead to performance issues when we are out in the field."

"Uh... having injuries is not uncommon in a ninja career, right? How would that be poorly seen?" Karin asked, confused.

"True, our fellow shinobi would pay no mind to those kinds of problems. But they are not who we are trying to appeal to, after all," Kazuhiro pointed out. "Can you tell me what the reason for the Chuunin exams is? Why do we bother to visit foreign lands that might be hostile to us, instead of just keeping track of our progress and ascending our troops ourselves?"

Karin's shoulders dropped. This had become another lesson, apparently. Over the span of almost two weeks she had known both of her new companions, she had realized Kazuhiro loved to do those whenever he got the chance. Meaning that she had to answer, if she didn't want him to get annoyed with her thinking she wasn't paying attention.

"Because we showcase our strength to the other villages?" Karin asked more than answered. She felt that was the right answer. For all it was masqueraded as an event that showcased peace, it was more of a strength measuring contest. If the Genins of a village were strong, then it meant that new talents were sprouting from it, and that said village had the teachers and resources to make those talents flourish.

"Correct." Karin preened. "But also not the full reason." Karin sagged. Well, at least Kazuhiro hadn't been annoyed. She took that as a win. "You see, while it is true that it is mostly used as a showcase of strength to deter enemies, it is also made for the purpose of gaining clients. It won't just be Shinobi who will watch or hear about the Exams. It will also be the masses, the merchants, the nobles, and even the daimyos themselves if they happen to be interested. All of them are potential clients that a village with a good enough showing could gain. We are not just selling our strengths, we are also advertising our services as Shinobi."

"So we are not going to gatherings of Shinobi, but also civilian nobles?" Karin asked, starting to see the point as to why Yota's wound could be poorly seen. Most in their line of work would shrug and accept it as a wound from a mission before moving on. A noble who had never so much as raised a kunai in their lives, would probably not be able to empathize the same way. It might even send the wrong message and make them think their village is just scraping by if they had to send someone "crippled" to do a diplomatic job.

"You are catching on," Kazuhiro pointed out, a hint of pride in his voice as he nodded at her. It made her feel accomplished, for once. "It is important for every shinobi and kunoichi to remember that even with all our power, we are still part of a society. Even during the Warring Era, most battles were about who managed to secure a client or mission. That is one of the things that hasn't changed since then. Water chakra can't supplant real water minerals. For a similar reason, we need people who dedicate themselves to farming for food. The same way we need people to build our homes after all. Without resources, even shinobi society would collapse and descend into anarchy far worse than the Warring Eras ever was."

There was a proud crescendo in Kazuhiro's voice as he explained this to her. Karin had come to know this as one of his better moods. He was surprisingly… nice when he was in the right mood, she'd come to learn. It was just that it was difficult to get him in such a state. Especially for her, since she seemed to have a talent for annoying him… because she didn't have much talent for other things, mainly.

"Now, let's continue."

Karin resisted the urge to groan at that, if only because it'd just get her a scolding.

[}-o-{]

'Breath in. Breath out,' Karin repeated in her head, trying to keep her ragged breath under control. Her usually bright red hair was now matted with sweat and dirt. It also stuck uncomfortably against her forehead and back as she pressed herself against the bark of the tree she was using as a hiding spot.

She closed her eyes and pushed through the feeling of exhaustion that tried to overcome her. Her muscles were tense, ready to react to any threat. She couldn't allow herself to lower her guard, no matter how tired she felt.

Karin focused on the inside, on the feeling of chakra circulating both in her and the world around her. Her vision might be gone at the moment, but it allowed her to center herself and sense much more than her mere eyes could normally. Karin could feel her Chakra pulse rhythmically with both her heart and breathing. It flowed from her, from every pore on her body, like blue mist dispersing itself and being lost in a world that only she could see.

She could feel it, in every plant, in every animal. in every single insect around her. She could feel their energies, their chakra, and their very life energy come out of their bodies, merge into a picture she had only recently managed to start to truly see. She couldn't fathom why she'd ignored that skill of hers for so long, but she knew she could never let go of it now.

Karin's breathing evened out and with it, her heart followed. Her erratic chakra stopped mixing with their environment as she made sure to close every pore it was leaking from one by one, but she didn't suppress it. That would just leave her powerless, and it was not something that would benefit her right now.

It was time to move, the location was already not safe. Most of her traps had already been torn apart, so staying held no merit. She needed to do something or she'd fail again and that was the last thing she wanted. God knew what Kazuhiro would do to her if she did badly once more.

Her legs bent, her new senses allowing her to put just the right amount of chakra into them while leaking as little as possible into the world. Just the necessary amount and nothing else, she reminded herself. Her sensing skills didn't immediately mean she was perfect at controlling the chakra she sensed, but being able to feel with rather precise detail where her chakra was going and in what quantities certainly helped a lot. It was still a work in progress though.

That was precisely the reason she winced when the bark from the branch under her feet creaked just the barest amounts. She overextended and put too much chakra on the sole of her foot. It was the smallest of sounds, barely above a whisper or the sound of wind cruising through the canopy around her.

A second later, she felt the shift in her surroundings, as if the world warned her to move. Which is precisely what she did, just in time to get her body to roll away from the tree trunk. Three lightning senbon pierced right through it less than a second later, skewering through it as if it was just a piece of paper.

Karin stumbled into the ground then. The action gave her enough momentum to roll into position and gain her footing almost instantly. A kunai posed in front of her and firmly grabbed to make sure she didn't lose it in case of follow up attacks.

"I would say," Kazuhiro's voice rang through the forest as he made himself known, walking calmly through the lines of trees. His clothes and body were perfectly clean and pristine. In a way, it generated a rather funny contrast when paired with Karin's own disheveled appearance. "That ability of yours to sense chakra is proving to be increasingly tedious to deal with… Well done," The teen spared her one of his rather rare compliments before getting back to the spar. One of his hands rose in a tiger sign while the other pointed at her.

Karin didn't give the man an answer nor time to cast whatever jutsu he was planning to use. The redhead stepped on the almost invisible wire next to the position she had landed, activating the mechanism. The kunai launchers on top of the trees clicked and shot their sharp knives all over the small clearing.

Kazuhiro didn't even blink. The hand sign changed midway as the fire on his finger suddenly transformed itself and became a circular shield of fire that circled around the man. The kunai then stopped impossibly against it with a resounding metal scraping sound as if it was hitting a wall instead of something immaterial like fire.

Solid Jutsu Art: Flame Shield, if she was remembering right. She had gotten a proper list for her teammates' techniques and such, but it was difficult to tell some of them apart and she certainly hadn't had the time to memorize them. She already had enough on her plate practicing her taijutsu and Fuinjutsu on top of whatever else Yota and Kazuhiro felt like having her learn at times.

Karin didn't even stay to see her barrage finish firing. She knew the kunai were pointless, just a distraction, at best. However, that was good enough for her. It gave her enough time to activate the rest of the traps and retreat deeper into the forest.

"A full day to set up your traps and scout the area, and you are only using kunai shooters? I will start to believe you are underestimating me," Kazuhiro said from behind her, close in pursuit. A few logs she had prepared the night before fell, covering her retreat, only to be pierced by a javelin of fire. Then, a squeak escaped Karin's lips as the projectile rushed just past her, going through a few trees before exploding with enough force to make the ground shake.

'I prepared more than that! You are just breaking everything! Stop breaking everything!' Karin thought in a panic as she continued running. Trap after trap was blown away, but those were just meant to gain time. Even if it was just what it took Kazuhiro to weave a single hand sign, it was still time that wouldn't be used to aim at her.

'Field survival training, my ass. This is just hunting with me like prey!' Karin screamed internally. She knew that she didn't have a smidge of a chance. Even yesterday when she was just grabbed by her teammates and dropped here, she knew that. The two monsters were just too far above her for Karin to win that fight.

Yet, as she dodged a volley of exploding solid, fire kunais by the skin of her teeth, Karin couldn't help to smile. A wave of accomplishment washed over her body, her still-closed eyes let her see her very own chakra singing. It was funny how much one could progress in a meager two weeks when they gave it their all.

Another javelin shot past her and blew up the tree she was going to land on. A split decision saw her throw a kunai with ninja wire attached towards another tree to her left. A swift tug on it was enough to change her direction just before a barrage of lightning senbon flew by her. A glob of water shot from her mouth, intercepting a fireball – thankfully a normal one instead of the ones that were solid like iron – that was shot in her new direction. Her jutsu was still too weak to deal when faced with the one shot by a ninjutsu specialist, but it was enough to stop it for a moment so that she could get out of the way.

It also doubled down as an impromptu mist screen for her to try to hide again.

Feats and abilities that just a few weeks ago seemed almost impossible for someone with her abilities were now implemented without much thought. Karin could now fight. Granted, it was still quite behind when it came to Kazuhiro or Yota, but she could probably fight a regular genin and have more options than just running away and hoping for backup.

Speaking of her second teammate, she expanded her senses towards her right, just a scant few more meters. It was still hard to feel anything past the ten-meter mark, things became too murky, and the world energies blended too much for her to make heads or tails about what energy belonged to what thing unless they were too overpowering. Something that Yota was and was purposely not hiding for her sake.

The black-haired teen trailed just a few couple dozen meters to her right. He stood ready to stop any attacks that could prove lethal, just in case. Not that it had been a necessity so far, since, apparently, Kazuhiro was actually quite capable of containing his attacks. Not a characteristic she expected to find in him, but it was there nonetheless. Something along the lines of 'A leader must always know how to avoid friendly fire. A general that hits their own troops is no general at all'. Karin sort of remembered, but she wasn't really sure those were the exact words, her mind too foggy with sleepiness and confusion as she was carried into the forest after being kidnapped from her warm bed and thrown here.

Luckily, Kazuhiro was forbidden from using Yota as a way to spot Karin. And the black-haired teen had enough sense to stay away from her position when she was hiding.

She shook her head then, focusing back on the exercise. Her plan was almost over. Even if she didn't have a way to beat Kazuhiro just now, she could still win the exercise if she managed to leave the forest without getting caught. She had just what she needed to achieve that.

Landing hastily on the clearing she had prepared, Karin pulled a piece of paper from her sleeve, a seal. One that she had spent all night preparing.

It was just a few seconds later when Kazuhiro shot through the canopy, kunai posed for a strike against her. Without any trees in her immediate vicinity, the redhead had nowhere to run. She had the man just where she wanted him though.

Naturally, a single-sealing paper wouldn't be enough to stop a much stronger ninja than her, even with preparation. Seals, like most jutsu, were also dependent on the amount of chakra one poured into them, and even then there was a limit on how much you could do that without making the whole thing unstable. So, Karin came to another solution.

If one paper wasn't enough, she would use more than one.

Her hand shot to the ground, to the precise spot she had prepared and slapped the talisman-like paper down. The kanji in it glowed blue before it shot from her paper and spread toward the edges of it. From there, to the next connection that rapidly expanded through the ground. The dug earth united itself showing a whole array underground, covering most of the clearing and the seal in her hand acting as the activation key.

A big blue bubble instantly formed itself with Kazuhiro inside. Her teammate only had a moment to widen his eyes before landing on the clearing, the side that was surrounded by the barrier, and look around in confusion. She'd done it…

She'd done it.

"A barrier seal," she explained happily. She knew that she should be running right now and completing the objective. She knew that. She was just so happy that her seal had worked, that she couldn't contain herself. "I spent all night making that. It has enough chakra in it and is sturdy enough to hold most Chuunin there until it runs out. Maybe even a Jounin!"

Kazuhiro just looked around before a smirk grew on his face and he started clapping. There was something odd about that though, and Karin's guard heightened instantly. Did she mess up somewhere?

Wait, why wasn't his clapping making any sound-

"Impressive," she heard a voice say from behind her. The hairs at the back of her neck stood up as she felt the sharp edge of a kunai rest right against her skin. Karin let out a sigh of disappointment.

She lost.

'A clone then?' No, she couldn't feel any chakra in it, there wasn't any big congregation of human-shaped chakra like with clone techniques. Actually, now that Karin was paying attention, there was no chakra at all coming from the clapping Kazuhiro inside the barrier, just the same weird mixture of energies of the world muddled together. 'A genjutsu?' Her sensing was good, but at the same time, it wasn't omniscient. If she wasn't looking for it, then she wouldn't notice if she was placed inside one, after all. Something to fix in the future, she supposed.

'Kai!' she chanted inside her head with a burst of chakra as she raised her hands in surrender. She had already lost, even if the genjutsu dispelled… itself.

The smirking Kazuhiro inside the barrier didn't disappear.

'What?' she thought to herself. Looking back to see the same person behind her with his kunai posed the same smirk on his face. Her gaze went back to the one inside the barrier, but there was nothing there.

'What just happened?' Karin wondered.

"I would say that your results were adequate," the Kazuhiro behind her remarked, putting the kunai away. "The tactics were crude, and barely an annoyance for the likes of me, but I suppose it would suffice as an alarm in case we are under attack," he remarked, flipping his head back. Karin felt a bit dejected at that, she had done her best with those, but she hadn't been taught much about the subject to make anything too complicated.

At the very least, he wasn't shouting at her. That had to count for something, right?

"As for the Fuinjutsu barrier," Kazuhiro continued as gazed at her creation. "...Good job, I can certainly give it some use during our mission," he said before turning and walking in the direction of the forest.

Joining them in the clearing, Yota gave her a thumbs up and she could almost see the smile under his mask.

Loss aside, Karin couldn't be more happy. For the first time in her life, she felt like something more than just a healing doll fated to be bitten until she died like her mother did. She had done this, all of this. Turning towards the barrier, still standing, she could only feel pride.

"Now what?" she asked, eager to get better.

"Now, you all little ducklings are going to rest," their Sense- their Not-Sensei said as she landed a little off to the side. Karin hadn't even known she had been present. "You need to prepare your bags and lunch boxes! So take the rest of the day and tomorrow easy. We depart the day after!" the woman said with some cheer.

Kazuhiro scoffed but didn't dispute. He didn't like taking orders from her, but she was still their superior for this mission so there was nothing he could do. Yota just tilted his head and gave her a mock salute to acknowledge the command.

For her part, Karin looked at her creation once again.

In just two weeks…

"Well, Red Duckling, are you coming or not? You just won me a bet on how long you'd survive, so we are going to eat at a fancy restaurant to celebrate… Gold Duckling is paying," Himari called for her as they all waited at the edge of the clearing.

"I will pay for my subordinates' rations, just as any leader should on these occasions. As for you, get your own food. I don't make a habit of feeding strays," Kazuhiro harrumpted, which in turn devolved into a discussion about who should pay for the whole thing.

Karin looked at them at the other side of the clearing. They were all so far away from her that she didn't know if she would ever catch up…

Her feet moved forward, taking a step in their direction.

… But for the first time in her life, she felt that she had the will to try.

[} Chapter End {]

Arc: And with that, we are reaching the end of the first arc of this story. They aren't quite united and buddy-buddy like Konoha teams, but I like to believe they are all making progress in that direction. What do you think, Karin?

Karin: I am just glad the etiquette lessons are over, to be honest. I don't understand why rich people can't just drink tea in peace without having fifteen different rules on how to hold a cup!

Adrian: They have too much time in their hands, that's why they have to overcomplicate normal things, I'm sure.

Arc: The perils of a feudal-like society. Grass still needs the money coming from their purses, however. By the way, congratulations on your barrier seal. You even got Kazuhiro to congratulate you for it.

Karin: *blushes* Thanks… I worked hard all night to make it just right. A shame it didn't work though.

Adrian: You did great! You might even survive the Exams!

Karin: Thanks ag- Wait, what?

Adrian: On that note, we hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Karin: What was that about-?

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