*next scene after snippage*
"Mouuuuu, that was sad," a bedraggled Mina complained, drenched waistcoat draped over one shoulder, revealing the criss-crossing straps and buckles over a rust colored bodysuit that covered her from her neck to just above her knees. The usual collection of weapons she tended to carry via those straps hung from the other shoulder, and her hands were busy with trying to bring the chain launcher/winch she'd discarded during the excercise back into working order.
Beside her, her teammates walked ... or rather, one was supporting the other, who was trying not to flinch.
Mizuno Ami's mother was one of the Mist's most talented medic nins, and the blue-haired gennin had picked up a thing or two by default. Especially since the other person living there sometimes came back in the sort of shape that made certain she no longer got queasy at the sight of blood.
Ami's hands were weaving chakra threads an inch or two from her teammate's bruised abdomen, helping her body with its already prodigal robustness to heal the bruising and dulling the worst of the pain in the meanwhile.
Hoshigaki Mako briefly considered telling her to ignore it, and that's she'd had worse growing up and had learned to deal without any medical jutsu. There were reasons beyond practicality for which she nearly constantly wore the neck to toe wetsuit. She weighed that against having to deal with a her friend (though the concept was a relatively new one to her) in a despondent mood. Then dropped the matter and let Ami do her thing.
And listened to Mina complain, though she'd been with the team long enough to know that it was little more than a token gesture on the blonde's part.
"Why is it that you complain at only having lasted twenty minutes at this excercise, and praise your teammates when they manage half that?" the voice came from the opposite side of one of the trees they'd just walked by, and, for the first time in a while, did not make them jump.
For someone who claimed to favor the direct approach whenever possible, their Jounin sensei was remarkably good at the whole sneaking-about-undetected thing.
Though maybe because they were all too tired to care. They'd been doing control drills all day, finishing up with what the person speaking had called 'evade and escape practice' but what they'd come to call 'the grind-run'. Each of them went through it once a week - having the two other kunoichi try and track and subdue her while not being allowed to use any jutsus other than the most basic ones, to simulate the chakra-exhaustion that was usually suffered during a retreat.
Mina was usually the one to last longest at this, though whether it was because her skill with the various weapons on her person and sheer luck, or just because she plain refused to 'die' was anyone's guess.
They walked the rest of the way to their usual rest area, a small glade where several of the huge trees that filled the forest had been toppled sometime in the past, in silence.
"You did well today," the Jounin called Katsu said, after they'd seated themselves on one of the fallen trees. Tallish, at an inch or two over six feet, and clad in grey fatigues and high collared jacket, hitai-ite sewn into the front of said high collar as part of the latch. What was visible of his skin - that being the face - was criss-crossed with scars. "Mina, you especially."
"Wha ...? Me? But I lost, sensei," the blonde frowned.
"Mako."
"Hai, sensei?"
"On those occasions when you and Ami lost against Mina, what was the reason?"
"Attrition," the shark-skinned girl responded almost instantly. "With most of my jutsus being so chakra intensive, and Ami's reserves being what they are ..." she trailed off, looking at her teammate. The blue-haired kunoichi shrugged in response, as if to say 'don't worry about it' and continued in lieu of Mako.
"Also, Mina's weapons and technique are versatile enough to deal with, or at least let her avoid, some of our ninjutsu," Ami waited a moment, saw the blonde preen, and smiled sweetly. "And Mina-chan's skull is just too thick for most genjutsu to affect."
"Yeah, and my head's just ... Oi!" the blonde flushed with what was partially anger and partially embarassment. Unusually for a kunoichi, she had no talent for anything but the most basic genjutsu, and even those went poorly most of the time. The flipside was that she seemed to have some form of natural resistence to them as well. Still, it was a bit of a sore spot with her.
"Thank you, _Mizuno-kun_," Mina huffed, turning her head away in mock irritation. Then she sighed, dropping the act. "Ami's wins were usually through traps, and Mako's ..."
The last Hoshigaki looked down, aware that she was the one with the least so called 'wins' in her account, most of them because she'd simply overpowered her teammates with brute strength.
"Hoshigaki-san," the Jounin said, making her look up. He almost never used their family names. "You specialize in ninjutsu, so this was always harder on you than on your teammates. Despite that, you managed to steadily improve in both taijutsu, armed and not, and stealth. This is a fact."
"Mina," he turned to the blonde, dropping back to speaking casually again. "You went through most of your twenty minutes today undetected, against people who _know_ you and what you can do. Compared to nearly all the times prior, when you were forced to use hit and fade tactics to wear down your pursuers? Your taijutsu was already very well rounded and polished when you started on this team, but your stealth skills _have_ improved greatly."
"Ami," he said. Paused. Frowned. Fidgeted slightly. Shrugged. Grinned. "Good job." And that seemed to be enough.
"Now, there is another thing we need to talk about," he said, once again composed. The change in mood, while not unprecedented, got their attention. "In a few weeks, the Chuunin exam is going to be held in the Fire Country, the Hidden Leaf Village. The Mizukage and the Elders want our team to take part."
Suddenly, an oppressive silence loomed over them. Mizuno Ami broke it.
"You were going to sign us up for it anyway, weren't you?" she asked.
"You're certainly at a level where it would do you good to spread your wings a little," Katsu nodded. "If nothing else, I believe you have what it takes to not _die_ in it."
"Sempai, you said the 'kage and the Council want us to go," Mako stated. Flatly.
Katsu looked at her, then at Mina, and finally at Ami. Then he nodded. "They want us to fail."
"_WHAT_?!"
"Mina!" the Jounin did not _quite_ shout.
"... eep ... um, what?" the blonde blushed. Beside her, Ami was paler than usual, and Mako's fingers were digging into the wood of the tree-trunk they were sitting on.
"A great many things that they would have rather seen dead and buried have been ... reminding them of their continued existence lately," Katsu started.
"Wave country," Mina said. There was no need to say anything more on that matter, since while it was far from official news, gossip traveled very fast. Gossip of things such as the reappearance of the Devil of the Hidden Mist was particularly quick to arrive at said village. Especially when said nukenin openly surrenders/cooperates with another Hidden Village.
"With me, it's that I'm a reminder of something they'd rather not have thrust in their face every time they see mine," Katsu's thumb ran across one of the white scar lines on his face. "Mako is in a similar situation, though perhaps less awkward since I managed to become Jounin."
The girl in question nodded.
"I'm clanless," Mina said bluntly.
"You're also profilic, and the best at taijutsu in your year," Katsu, clanless himself, replied. Mina nodded at that. This, in conjunction with the fact that she had little tolerance for people who seemed to think they were entitled to superior treatment because of blood ... made things awkward.
"And then there's Ami."
"Me?" the blue-haired kunoichi asked, blinking. "Well, mom's ... I mean, my father, he wasn't Mist, and abandoned my mother, but what else is there?"
"Ami," Katsu sighed. Deeply. "That isn't the sole reason for your mother being estranged from the rest of her family."
Mizuno Ami looked at him. Weighed her options.
"Tell me."
"Before your mother decided to become a medic-nin, before your father was killed," a look of pure disbelief adorned Ami's face. "Your mother was being groomed to be the Mizuno clan's next Mistress of Assassins."
"... well," she started, in a strangled tone of voice, her mind already putting the pieces together. "Well. That ... certain explains some things. Yes."
The clearing was quiet for the next half hour.
"So," Mina started.
"So?" Mako asked.
"So," Ami, still paler than usual, but with a determined look in her eyes. "Chuunin exam."
Katsu nodded.
"They want us to die," Mako stated.
Katsu nodded.
"Sensei?" Mina asked.
"What have I been training you for?" Katsu asked. "The first rule. Tell me."
Mina looked at Mako looked at Ami looked at Mina. Gazes met. They nodded.
"Survive to live. Live to survive."
"Good girls."
---
*sweatdrops* I didn't mean to! It just ... sort of happened. Damnit, CD, this is all your faul ... *looks back a few pages* *rereads* Damnit. Nobody to blame but myself. *sigh*
Oh well. Such is life. On with the show?
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
"Mouuuuu, that was sad," a bedraggled Mina complained, drenched waistcoat draped over one shoulder, revealing the criss-crossing straps and buckles over a rust colored bodysuit that covered her from her neck to just above her knees. The usual collection of weapons she tended to carry via those straps hung from the other shoulder, and her hands were busy with trying to bring the chain launcher/winch she'd discarded during the excercise back into working order.
Beside her, her teammates walked ... or rather, one was supporting the other, who was trying not to flinch.
Mizuno Ami's mother was one of the Mist's most talented medic nins, and the blue-haired gennin had picked up a thing or two by default. Especially since the other person living there sometimes came back in the sort of shape that made certain she no longer got queasy at the sight of blood.
Ami's hands were weaving chakra threads an inch or two from her teammate's bruised abdomen, helping her body with its already prodigal robustness to heal the bruising and dulling the worst of the pain in the meanwhile.
Hoshigaki Mako briefly considered telling her to ignore it, and that's she'd had worse growing up and had learned to deal without any medical jutsu. There were reasons beyond practicality for which she nearly constantly wore the neck to toe wetsuit. She weighed that against having to deal with a her friend (though the concept was a relatively new one to her) in a despondent mood. Then dropped the matter and let Ami do her thing.
And listened to Mina complain, though she'd been with the team long enough to know that it was little more than a token gesture on the blonde's part.
"Why is it that you complain at only having lasted twenty minutes at this excercise, and praise your teammates when they manage half that?" the voice came from the opposite side of one of the trees they'd just walked by, and, for the first time in a while, did not make them jump.
For someone who claimed to favor the direct approach whenever possible, their Jounin sensei was remarkably good at the whole sneaking-about-undetected thing.
Though maybe because they were all too tired to care. They'd been doing control drills all day, finishing up with what the person speaking had called 'evade and escape practice' but what they'd come to call 'the grind-run'. Each of them went through it once a week - having the two other kunoichi try and track and subdue her while not being allowed to use any jutsus other than the most basic ones, to simulate the chakra-exhaustion that was usually suffered during a retreat.
Mina was usually the one to last longest at this, though whether it was because her skill with the various weapons on her person and sheer luck, or just because she plain refused to 'die' was anyone's guess.
They walked the rest of the way to their usual rest area, a small glade where several of the huge trees that filled the forest had been toppled sometime in the past, in silence.
"You did well today," the Jounin called Katsu said, after they'd seated themselves on one of the fallen trees. Tallish, at an inch or two over six feet, and clad in grey fatigues and high collared jacket, hitai-ite sewn into the front of said high collar as part of the latch. What was visible of his skin - that being the face - was criss-crossed with scars. "Mina, you especially."
"Wha ...? Me? But I lost, sensei," the blonde frowned.
"Mako."
"Hai, sensei?"
"On those occasions when you and Ami lost against Mina, what was the reason?"
"Attrition," the shark-skinned girl responded almost instantly. "With most of my jutsus being so chakra intensive, and Ami's reserves being what they are ..." she trailed off, looking at her teammate. The blue-haired kunoichi shrugged in response, as if to say 'don't worry about it' and continued in lieu of Mako.
"Also, Mina's weapons and technique are versatile enough to deal with, or at least let her avoid, some of our ninjutsu," Ami waited a moment, saw the blonde preen, and smiled sweetly. "And Mina-chan's skull is just too thick for most genjutsu to affect."
"Yeah, and my head's just ... Oi!" the blonde flushed with what was partially anger and partially embarassment. Unusually for a kunoichi, she had no talent for anything but the most basic genjutsu, and even those went poorly most of the time. The flipside was that she seemed to have some form of natural resistence to them as well. Still, it was a bit of a sore spot with her.
"Thank you, _Mizuno-kun_," Mina huffed, turning her head away in mock irritation. Then she sighed, dropping the act. "Ami's wins were usually through traps, and Mako's ..."
The last Hoshigaki looked down, aware that she was the one with the least so called 'wins' in her account, most of them because she'd simply overpowered her teammates with brute strength.
"Hoshigaki-san," the Jounin said, making her look up. He almost never used their family names. "You specialize in ninjutsu, so this was always harder on you than on your teammates. Despite that, you managed to steadily improve in both taijutsu, armed and not, and stealth. This is a fact."
"Mina," he turned to the blonde, dropping back to speaking casually again. "You went through most of your twenty minutes today undetected, against people who _know_ you and what you can do. Compared to nearly all the times prior, when you were forced to use hit and fade tactics to wear down your pursuers? Your taijutsu was already very well rounded and polished when you started on this team, but your stealth skills _have_ improved greatly."
"Ami," he said. Paused. Frowned. Fidgeted slightly. Shrugged. Grinned. "Good job." And that seemed to be enough.
"Now, there is another thing we need to talk about," he said, once again composed. The change in mood, while not unprecedented, got their attention. "In a few weeks, the Chuunin exam is going to be held in the Fire Country, the Hidden Leaf Village. The Mizukage and the Elders want our team to take part."
Suddenly, an oppressive silence loomed over them. Mizuno Ami broke it.
"You were going to sign us up for it anyway, weren't you?" she asked.
"You're certainly at a level where it would do you good to spread your wings a little," Katsu nodded. "If nothing else, I believe you have what it takes to not _die_ in it."
"Sempai, you said the 'kage and the Council want us to go," Mako stated. Flatly.
Katsu looked at her, then at Mina, and finally at Ami. Then he nodded. "They want us to fail."
"_WHAT_?!"
"Mina!" the Jounin did not _quite_ shout.
"... eep ... um, what?" the blonde blushed. Beside her, Ami was paler than usual, and Mako's fingers were digging into the wood of the tree-trunk they were sitting on.
"A great many things that they would have rather seen dead and buried have been ... reminding them of their continued existence lately," Katsu started.
"Wave country," Mina said. There was no need to say anything more on that matter, since while it was far from official news, gossip traveled very fast. Gossip of things such as the reappearance of the Devil of the Hidden Mist was particularly quick to arrive at said village. Especially when said nukenin openly surrenders/cooperates with another Hidden Village.
"With me, it's that I'm a reminder of something they'd rather not have thrust in their face every time they see mine," Katsu's thumb ran across one of the white scar lines on his face. "Mako is in a similar situation, though perhaps less awkward since I managed to become Jounin."
The girl in question nodded.
"I'm clanless," Mina said bluntly.
"You're also profilic, and the best at taijutsu in your year," Katsu, clanless himself, replied. Mina nodded at that. This, in conjunction with the fact that she had little tolerance for people who seemed to think they were entitled to superior treatment because of blood ... made things awkward.
"And then there's Ami."
"Me?" the blue-haired kunoichi asked, blinking. "Well, mom's ... I mean, my father, he wasn't Mist, and abandoned my mother, but what else is there?"
"Ami," Katsu sighed. Deeply. "That isn't the sole reason for your mother being estranged from the rest of her family."
Mizuno Ami looked at him. Weighed her options.
"Tell me."
"Before your mother decided to become a medic-nin, before your father was killed," a look of pure disbelief adorned Ami's face. "Your mother was being groomed to be the Mizuno clan's next Mistress of Assassins."
"... well," she started, in a strangled tone of voice, her mind already putting the pieces together. "Well. That ... certain explains some things. Yes."
The clearing was quiet for the next half hour.
"So," Mina started.
"So?" Mako asked.
"So," Ami, still paler than usual, but with a determined look in her eyes. "Chuunin exam."
Katsu nodded.
"They want us to die," Mako stated.
Katsu nodded.
"Sensei?" Mina asked.
"What have I been training you for?" Katsu asked. "The first rule. Tell me."
Mina looked at Mako looked at Ami looked at Mina. Gazes met. They nodded.
"Survive to live. Live to survive."
"Good girls."
---
*sweatdrops* I didn't mean to! It just ... sort of happened. Damnit, CD, this is all your faul ... *looks back a few pages* *rereads* Damnit. Nobody to blame but myself. *sigh*
Oh well. Such is life. On with the show?
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm