Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Legend of Explosive Youth! ❯ Team Eight: Get Up From the Falls ( Chapter 13 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

txy08_t8_waterfall.txt

2007-12-13 - initial file created, notes transferred from DWMB saves
2007-12-14 - watched Jump Festa 2004, took notes of how to sub Shino/Hinata/Kiba and found that it actually seems more in character with them than Sasuke/Sakura/Naruto once I bring in the kunoichi team member at the end instead of just having her watch while the guys double-team Stupid.
2007-12-25 - Hinata flashback/training scenified
2008-05-09 - part of the flashback moved to an earlier chapter when it happens live
2008-05-14 - integrated remaining flashback bit, battle finale
2008-05-23 - minor fixes, found the anime again to watch, again
2008-05-25 - Nagisa and Hiashi scenes
2008-06-09 - Zabuza scene, Ichiraku meeting, canon beginning to Shibuki's duel. I've written 30kb tonight and haven't gotten through the first two sentences of outline...
2008-06-10 - found gimmick to be less dully canon, knocked out the rest. Proofread.


Continuity Note: This too takes place mostly concurrently with the Wave Country mission. It'll be the last chapter before heading into the Chuunin Exam at last; Ino already got her moment and the guys are in better condition to begin with. Kiba and Shino's parts in this are pretty close to Naruto and Sasuke canon as well, but I couldn't cut any more and have the story make sense. Just be glad I dispensed with the poo 'jokes.'





Zabuza narrowed his eyes and resisted the urge to release some killing intent at the obnoxious shopkeeper. It couldn't be said that it was unexpected for a missing-nin as infamous as himself to face suspicion and hostility, even - espescially - when he'd renounced lawlessness and joined a different hidden village. The two countries might be officially at peace, but that didn't mean ninja from other villages were espescially liked, and knowing he couldn't retaliate without losing the suffrage to stay meant they had no need for fear.

He should have left shopping to Haku, as usual. No one could dislike the soft spoken boy for long, and he'd get better value for the ryo as well as having the patience to put up with the vendors' attitudes gracefully, but it didn't pay for a ninja to become dependent on anyone, no matter how reliable.

He paid and slung the grocery bag in an elbow, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably without Kubikiri Houcho's comforting weight at his back... The Hokage had graciously accepted his request to stay on after returning the Raijin no Ken, but the Council here was as hidebound as the old biddies in Mist and they'd kicked up a stink until he'd offered to leave his own blade with the Sandaime as well, as a gesture of goodwill.

He felt naked without his sword. And in a way, lonesome.

Dipping one hand into the bag he retrieved a small box and stripped off the wrapper, still grouching silently about his situation... but there was another reason to do this personally, he reminded himself. "Haku is too hung up on that healthy crap," he muttered, before poking a stick of choco-banana Pocky through a gap in the bandages over his mouth. "A man can only TAKE so much rabbit food!"




Legend of Explosive Youth part Eight

Team Eight: Get Up From the Falls


Mostly by ClassicDrogn except the better part at the end, which is by Greiver, with his cameo insert and crossover team who've grown to have more important roles than mere cameos.




Hinata still tended to walk huddled into her jacket and with her head half-bowed, but lately there was a certain something to her step that had been missing for too long. She'd risen and left early for the training grounds to get in some kata before meeting her team, and there was also another possibility never to be overlooked. Nearing the Ichiraku ramen stand to buy some breakfast, she could hear that her luck seemed good this morning.

"Oi, oi, old man Teuchi! Seconds please!" A cheerful voice rang out in the early morning stillness as she approached the spill of light from the small, booth-style shop. "Mmm, it smells delicious, dattebayo!"

Ducking under the curtain-like banner across the front, she greeted, "Good morning, Ichiraku-san, N-N-Naruto-kun." Upright again, she noticed the second customer siting beside the blond boy and her good mood vanished. "... Rikou-san," she continued, after an awkward pause.

"Hyuuga-san," the older kunoichi ground out. "I see you're not stuttering so much. It's important for a ninja to show confidence, isn't it?"

"H-hai..." the shy girl acknowledged, restrained from fleeing only by the utmost act of will. "As... as important as d-dressing w-well to im-impress clients..." her voice was barely audible, but Rikou still fliched at the hit, well aware of how some people saw her practical and stylish tight pink body suit. It was just.. -uniquely- stylish, rather than bowing to sheeplike trends, she assured herself.

Another awkward silence followed, if unnoticed by the happily slurping fox boy. Gathering her courage once more, the Hyuuga heiress placed her order. "I-I'd like a Morning Nin Special p-please, Ichiraku-san."

"An excellent choice, Hyuuga-sama," the chef replied happily, trying to lighten the atmosphere again. "Packed with everything to start your day right, my Morning Nin Special will get you going for whatever it may bring!"

Leaving off her glare at the younger girl, Rikou pointedly went back to eating her own bowl of noodles, chowing down with gusto before commenting, "Hey Naruto, isn't it lucky you have a team mate who loves ramen just as much as you do?"

After calling for another bowl, the boy agreed, "Yeah, yeah! Lee and Gai-sensei don't know what they're missing, dattebayo. Even Hinata loves it too, I see her here a lot in the mornings!"

Splitting her chopsticks perfectly, the lavender-eyed girl nodded agreeably and bowed her head as her meal arrived. "Ittedakimasu," she said quietly before giving the bowl a quick swirl, pulling out a bunch of noodles and toppings. She blew on them delicately, then popped them in her mouth and used the chopsticks to pull the rest of the long noodles out of the broth without a wasted drop or unladylike sound.

"Such a cool response!" Rikou lamented. "That attitude is elegant and dignified, and it kind of pisses me off..."

"Eh? Did you say something, Rikou?" her clueless team mate asked, looking up from his (empty, again) bowl. Not enlightened in the least by the wordless howl of frustration in reply, he turned back to Teuchi. "More please! I think... Beef this time! Dattebayo!"

[center]---=- + -=---[/center]

That had been nearly two weeks before, and Naruto's team had left on a mission later the same day that was still going on. Hinata walked quietly through the woods with her team and their client north of Fire Country, planning her diary entry for the evening since she'd missed a few during the trip.

*Team Eight is nearing the end of our first C-rank mission, bodyguarding the young leader of Hidden Waterfall as he returns after making arrangements to enter a team in the upcoming Chuunin Selection Exam, to be held in Konoha. He is Takino Shibuki-san, a bit younger than Kurenai-sensei, with dark hair and eyes. His father was a great man who was very respected by everyone in Hidden Waterfall...*

A bird took off from the trees overhead, squawking protest at the humans invading its territory, and the teenaged client yelped and hid behind her back. Hinata blushed at the idea that someone would think to ask her personally to protect them, Kiba rolled his eyes and even Shino and their sensei Yuuhi Kurenai sweatdropped at the scene. Trying to live up to the expectation, Hinata pushed chakra into her eyes to activate the Hyuuga dojutsu, and scanned the surrounding area with the Byakugan's penetrating perception. "A-ano, Shibuki-san... it was r-really just a bird..."

Still crouching behind her, the older boy gulped and looked around nervously but insisted, "I-I knew that!" He craned his head, scanning for anything out of place, before he finally climbed back to his feet and Hinata returned to planning her entry as the group moved on.

*... however, it seems that Shibuki-san also has dificulty with fulfilling the expectations of others. I am the heir of an important position as well, so I'll keep doing my best for Shibuki-san, and as always for Naruto-kun. I'm a little extra nervous about this mission myself, since Waterfall Country also borders on Lightning Country, whose Hidden Cloud village has made more than one attempt to obtain the Byakugan in the past...*

It wasn't long before the rumbling rush of a large waterfall made itself heard through the trees, and soon they passed into the clear area around its basin. "Damn, that's some big falls!" Kiba marveled with a whistle. It was easily as tall as the wall around Konoha and at least fifty feet wide without even counting the secondary streams. His small white nin-dog Akamaru yipped agreement from his place riding on the Inuzuka boy's head.

"So, this is Takigakure," Aburame Shino said calmly, as ever. The morning sunlight caught and gleamed on the frames of his little round sunglasses, but between them and the high collar of his coat any expression his voice would not betray was still hidden.

The group walked around toward the foot of the falls, taking in the scenery until a pair of children ran up shouting welcome to the returning leader, who stood with a suddenly confident seeming poise as he turned to return the greeting. "Hey, I'm totally leader of the village," he told them kindly. "I don't have time to play with you now."

"Eh? No, we're like, cleaning up around here," the little girl told him. "Mom told us to," her brother quickly added.

"Oh? For sure," Shibuki replied. He smiled warmly and volunteered, "How about some help then, from these awesome Hidden Leaf ninja?" Ignoring Kiba's indignant protests, he told Kurenai, "Don't worry, I'll pay - Like, consider it another mission."

The beautiful, wild-haired jounin smiled tolerantly as the two kids glomped onto Kiba and showered him with thanks, as the one who'd stood forward from the rest of the team. "You totally saved us!" The little boy told him. "The water moves way fast here, so we were shook!"

"We'll take it, Shibuki-san," she told the teenaged leader, "We'll expect a seperate payment later, of course." Kurenai's namesake deep red eyes sparkled with amusement at the Inuzuka's resigned look - of all the D-rank missions, garbage collection was always the one he hated the most, with his sensitive sense of smell.

"So, we are done protecting you?" the Aburame boy asked.

Still wearing his confident smile, Shibuki replied, "Sure dudes, this is far enough."

"Might as well get started on your new mission, then," Kurenai told the genin. Kiba grumbled, but Shino and Hinata simply headed for the water's edge without protest.

As her students moved off, the woman asked quietly, "What's up with the rumors of ninja movements in this area?"

"Like, rumors?" the Taki-nin asked serenely, trying to play it off.

Not buying it, she pressed, "It's said that shinobi from other countries are after Takigakure village."

Composure slipping a bit, the dark-eyed teen relied, "Oh... there's always bogus rumors like that..."

*That's right,* the Leaf jounin remembered, *his father was killed, defending Hidden Waterfall from outsiders...* Further discussion was preempted as a hawk swooped out of the sky with a screech, again prompting Shibuki to cower and shield his head. "Not to worry," she told the jumpy young man, "This is a messenger bird from the Leaf." She held out an arm for it to land, reinforcing it with chakra to its talons wouldn't break the skin.

The message was short and unencoded, and she wondered why they'd bothered to send it to her in the field at all when her team would be back in the village in just another day or two. Still, she was summoned, and there was no reason to fear for her students following later. "It's that time again already?" she muttered to herself. With Shibuki's visit to the leaf it was obviously near, but... "Hey everyone," she called to the genin. "I need to return to Konoha for an important jounin meeting. Finish up here, then come back, okay?"

Distaste for the mission forgotten with the rush of being trusted on their own, not just outside the village but in a foreign country, Kiba shouted back, "Yeah! Just leave everything to us, the best team in the Leaf!" Dropping her load of cans in a trash bag, Hinata twiddled her wet fingers but didn't gainsay her energetic team mate, and, well, Shino was still stoic.

[center]---=- + -=---[/center]

It didn't take too long before the shores of the waterfall basin were cleared of debris, and Kiba unzipped his fur-trimmed hoodie so it could hang open as he flopped down, unused to the northern heat. "Man, I'm beat," he complained. His stomach growled, answered by his animal partner's, and the dog-user suggested, "Hey, even though it's early, how about we check out Hidden Waterfall's food? I could go for some lunch about now."

Spinning away from the younger kids, who'd cajoled him into playing after all, Shibuki quashed that idea immediately. "No way!" he ordered. "If the job's done, like, scram!"

Kiba sputtered and Hinata flinched, but Shino just nodded respectfully and turned to leave. "Very well, we'll go," he agreed.

"WAIT A MINUTE! What do you mean, saying 'we'll go' just like that!?" the Inuzuka blustered. "Like we're gonna put up with this rude bastard--"

"Kiba," the taller boy interrupted, "he doesn't want us to know where the entrance to Hidden Waterfall is. Look behind you, it's obviously nearby."

"Um, but... aren't Konoha and T-Taki allies...?" Hinata asked, looking between Shino and and the Waterfall leader.

"How do I know that won't, like, change?" the older boy demanded harshly. Kiba of course protested that the Leaf would never betray an ally, but the kunoichi could see his side of it, too. *I suppose that's the sort of thing you have to think about, when other people rely on you,* she thought, with a poorly concealed shudder for her own future.

Kiba had given up his rant and was stomping away in a huff, though the effect was ruined by unfolding his arms to wave at the two youngsters' cheery farewells.

The Leaf-nins' leave taking was interrupted by the little boy's frightened call as his mother appeared, staggering and beaten as she stepped out of the trees. "Shibuki-sama..." she gasped. "Most heinous... Enemies..." Losing her fragile balance the woman collapsed, revealing a kunai still stuck in her back and blood soaking the fabric of her dark kimono.

Everyone rushed to her side, the Hyuuga girl putting her interest in medicine to use and checking over the wound. "The injury isn't s-serious," she pronounced after a few seconds, "She's just p-passed out from shock."

"Then, we should totally get her back to the village!" the children urged.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Shino disagreed.

"She did say there was an enemy attack, after all," Kiba added.

"But... but how did they get into that way hidden village?" Shibuki gasped fearfully.

After a moment's planning, Shino turned his bespectaclled gaze back to the shy kunoichi. "Hinata, you should hide with this woman and the children to protect them, and tend to her injury," he suggested, recieving a nod in reply.

"And like, then what!?" Shibuki demanded.

Pushing his little sunglasses up on his nose, the Aburame replied, "Show us the entrance to Hidden Waterfall, and we will continue our bodyguard mission while dealing with the invasion."

"Deal with...? Don't be defective!" An edge of panic had crept into the young leader's voice, again something Hinata could identify with all too well. "What do you dudes think you can do?"

Before anyone could answer, Akamaru barked a warning, his human partner springing from his crouch to knock the other two boys away from the anticipated attack. Ignoring the Taki-nin's protest he got back down, poised on his hands and the balls of his feet, after a quick seal and a call of "Ninpo: Shikyaku no jutsu!" His fingernails lengthened into claws and prominent fangs peeked out from the transformed boy's upper lip.

A quartet of adult ninja burst out form the foot of the waterfall then, throwing a barrage of kunai just in time to be met by the Inuzuka's next technique.

With a shout of "TSUUGA!" he leapt into the air, spinning at high speed as he hurled towards the attackers. Their thrown weapons clattered away and were deflected by the movement, and the horizontal tornado he'd become arced to brush three of them, rapidly spinning claws shredding their uniforms and gouging deep cuts in the enemy ninja as he passed.

The fourth escaped with an incredible acrobatic maneuver, landing on a rock near the foot of the falls and cursing before leaping back through the curtain of water. "Che," Kiba complained, landing himself on another rock nearby. "He got away..." The other three swam painfully for the far side of the lake, trails of red swirling behind them. They'd probably make it, but the blood loss before they did would surely put them out of this battle.

"SHIBUKI-SAMA!" the little boy shouted, running over to where his village leader was curled up in a terrified ball. "Shibuki-sama! What's the damage? Are you hurt!?"

Realizing his position, the teenager quickly pulled himself into a sitting posture and pasted on a less frightened face. "No, it's, like, it's nothing. I'm totally shaking in excitement," he told the boy.

"Since we've come this far, we'll see it through to the end," Shino told him, still maddeningly calm.

"That's right, it's a mission," the dog-user said, catching Akamaru as the pup leapt from the grassy bank into his arms. "So let's get started!"

[center]---=- + -=---[/center]

"Hidden Waterfall has survived because of awesome natural barriers, and its hidden entrance," Shibuki told the two boys seriously. "Like, total 'invitation only,' got it?" They'd worked their way up perhaps a quarter of the hieght of the falls along the face of the cliff they ran down, and were proceeding along a ledge that led behind the curtain of water. "You won't be able to tell anyone about this entrance," he continued.

"Obviously!" Kiba butted in. "We know that, so let's get going already."

"That's like, not what I mean," the teenager replied. "By the time you come back, the path will be changed."

The three of them snuck from one rock formation to the next as they entered the tunnel behind the falls until reaching a room with numerous small pools, glowing gently green with bioluminescent algae. They crouched behind a final boulder for a few seconds until Shino reported, "There is no one here." The insects he'd deployed as scouts came crawling quickly back to vanish under his coat, since swimming was the obvious next stage and the hive would need to be sealed against the water.

With the all clear the older boy rose from his crouch and walked out into the larger cavern, picking one of the pools and ordering, "Well come on, dudes," before taking a deep breath and diving in.

[center]---=- + -=---[/center]

Among the roots of a large tree where she'd taken the children and her mother, Hinata packed up her medical supplies. "She sh-should be fine now," she assured the two frightened youngsters, clinging to their unconscious mother's hand. She'd laid the woman out on her side to avoid putting unneccesary pressure on the wound after dressing it and closing her clothes back up, and placed her own rolled blanket under her head as a pillow, since many people were discomfited by Shino's bugs and Kiba's smelled strongly of dog. It was scattered with itchy shed hair, too.

The little girl cried despite all Hinata said or did, however, and the Leaf kunoichi could only hope no enemies were actually nearby to hear since she'd been too busy concentrating on patching up her patient to scan the area with her special vision.

It seemed that hope was in vain; even as the boy fiercely asserted, "Shibuki-sama will, like, do something about it!" another enemy ninja appeared in a rush of displaced air. His face was masked, and spiky brown hair peeked out from under a slashed Hidden Rain hitae-ate worn bandanna style.

"Oh?" he gloated. "And what would that be?" Before the Hyuuga heiress could do more than gasp in shock, he hit a nerve cluster at the base of her neck to immediately knock her out.

[center]---=- + -=---[/center]

Surfacing at last from the submerged tunnel, the two Leaf genin climbed out onto the bank of the hidden lake. A truly enormous tree filled an island at its center while red-roofed, pagoda style houses nestled on the outer shore where they stood. Kiba was full of enthusiastic praise for the place's picturesque beauty.

More concerned about the lack of citizens or invaders appearing, Shino looked over the surroundings warily, waiting for his insect allies to unseal the openeins to the hive so they could spread out and gather information for him. A sudden flare of killing intent twinged his senses and he knocked the dog user back into the water where Shibuki had stayed.

"Shino!" the Inuzuka protested. "What the hell?"

"I'll distract them," was the quick explanation, "Protect the client." Then he was leaping away from another squad of enemies, who moved like ninja though their skills were so poor a single spread of shuriken was enough to put the lot of them down.

That small victory was counteracted by a pair of solidified water whips that wrapped around him from either side, the elegantly dressed kunoichi directing the one on his left commenting, "Oh? It seems you're a strong one."

From the other side, the leader of the squad who'd attacked outside the falls taunted, "You won't get me by surprise like your partner did this time... What do you say, shall we tear him apart?" he asked the woman. The two of them pulled their watery bindings tighter, squeezing the bug-user painfully in their confines.

"No," a third voice interrupted from behind. "We'll. like, use him as a hostage." Before the boy had time to consider that further he was hit by a lightning attack, stunning his nearly-free insect colony and knocking him out.

The Aburame awoke to find himself without his jacket, arms tied together behind his back and dangling from the tori in front of a small shrine. Clusters of people in civilian clothes were scattered around nearby, also bound and tied back to back in groups of four or five. He tugged experimentally at his bindings, but the poofy-haired male ninja who'd helped catch him warned, "I wouldn't try that if I were you... that's my specially made wire, if you struggle too much you'll wear through the coating and it'll cut your arms right off."

Not too worried about being immobilized in the first place, Shino relaxed and let himself hang peacefully. He could feel his allies stirring inside, overcoming the shock, and acting himself was unneccesary for the vast majority of his family's insect techniques. Behind his back but for once not hidden within a jacket, the webbing that had sealed the hive entrances on the backs of his wrists was eaten away by the weaver-bugs who'd deposited it, and soon destruction bugs would swarm out ready to do his bidding.

Off to one side, the masked shinobi and his squad appeared from above, Hinata and the civilians who'd been left in her care being reeled down from the tree with them in a large cargo net - undoubtedly the way goods too massive to be swum through the entrance they'd been shown were brought in. The pale-eyed girl held both children against her sides, trying to comfort them despite her own fears and depressing earlier failure to keep them safe.

Looking down on the scene from a knothole above, Shibuki recognised the leader of the invaders, sitting on the steps of the shrine. *So that's how they got in,* he thought fearfully. *Suien, you showed them the entrance?*

On the ground below, one of the bound Takigakure citizens was asking the same question he dearly wanted to know the answer to. "Suien!" the bearded young man demanded, "You were like, the best ninja in Hidden Waterfall. Why are you doing this? Are you trying to take over the village!?"

"Hah!" the trenchcoat-clad traitor scoffed. "I have no use for this bogus village. All I want is that crazy Hero Water."

"You numbnuts," the young man declared. "Shibuki-sama would totally not hand it over to you!"

"He's already destroyed it!" insisted another, with a bandanna and dark blue stripes painted around his eyes.

"If he was a real leader, he totally would," Suien acknowledged, "But... I was the one who taught him as a ninja. I, like, know everything about him. OI! SHIBUKI!" he shouted. "I know you're like, hiding out, dude. Bring that Hero Water here and no one else will have to get hurt."

"So, is that the Hero Water he's yapping about?" Kiba asked, pointing at the glass jug Shibuki was clutching.

"KYAAH!" the trembling teenager exclaimed, flipping away from his vantage point to huddle against a wall. "Like, how'd you get in here!?"

"How do you think, dumbass? We followed your scent," the dog user scoffed, Akamaru backing him up with an affirmative bark. "More importantly, what's so special about this 'Hero Water' anyway?"

Holding the jug in front of himself in both hands, the Takigakure leader explained, "It's a way holy water extracted from the great tree. To fill this bottle, it takes like, a hundred years. Just one sip and your chakra is gets totally pumped, like tenfold for a short time."

"No way... ten times?" Kiba protested. "Even using a soldier pill for my family techniques just doubles my chakra."

"With, like, no one on the kage level, Takigakure's heroes drink this water to fight in times of war. With its mondo power, the Hidden Waterfall has been protected in the past. But... it's a gnarly blade. It way boosts your chakra, but it puts a heinous strain on the body. Many of our village shinobi, like, died after the battle was won, from that water. That's why it's kept sealed away, and it's totally the leader's job to safeguard it. A few years ago, these skeggy foreign dudes attacked... my father drank it, to protect the village. But he like, wasn't young enough to survive the effects of the water."

Shibuki had pulled out a photograph while he spoke, of his father with his younger self perched happily on one knee. "My father was a total fool," he told the Leaf-nin angrily. "Everyone said he was like, a hero, so he drank the water and died!" Fear overcoming the momentary burst of anger, he continued, "As the leader, it's my duty to protect this sacred water. If those dweebs get it, the village will like, be destroyed immediately!"

"SHIBUKI!" Suien was still calling him out by the shrine. "I know you won't bag that water... If there's a war in the future, you'll totally be too weak to defend the village without it! But if you think you can, like, keep hiding, you're wrong dude. Unless you man up, we'll kill everyone here one at a time until you appear!"

Some of the bound citizens tried to protest, not to plead for their own lives but yelling to their leader not to hand over the Waterfall's treasure, but the three Rain-nin lashed them into wordless screams with their water whips.

"So what the hell are you still doing here?" Kiba demanded. "Those kids, the people of Takigakure, they all believe you're really strong, that you're going to save them!"

"They, like, just think that the village leader is a hero," the older boy replied, on the verge of tears. "I just took over the shadow of my dad!"

Tired of waiting, Suien grabbed the little girl, now free of the
cargo net but bound seperately. He held a kunai to her throat and taunted, "I'll give you one more minute dude, then we'll start with this kid!"

".. I don't know all the details, but it seems like your father was a pretty great man to me," Kiba asserted, still looking down from above. "Giving your life to defend his village... not many can do that." As the traitor counted down the time before making good on his threat, the Inuzuka lifted his dog off his head and fished around in his equipment pouch.

"What are you going to to do?" the terror-striken Waterfall leader asked tremulously.

"Only the ones who could do that, are worthy of the name 'Hero,'" the Leaf-nin said in lieu of an answer. "Of course, that's also what it means to be a ninja, isn't it? To risk your life for the good of your village?" He tossed the soldier pill he'd retrieved to his pup, who crunched down on the medicine immediately. The small dog's hair began to bristle and turn red as his partner made some quick seals and called out, "Juujin bunshin! Come on, Akamaru!" Where a boy and his dog had stood two animalistic teens leapt out through the man-sized knothole.

"... Three... two... one! Like, time's up, Shibuki!" Suien hollered. His arm drew back for the stab, but before he could do more than that a rough voice rang out across the scene.

"Hold it, you jackass!" one of the Kiba posed dramatically on the great tree's lowest branch growled. "Don't you touch that kid!"

"What the... another bum appeared?" the traitor complained.

"It's that brat who took out my men," the missing-nin squad leader pointed out angrily.

"Whatever... I just want the Hero Water, not some wannabe hero," Suien grumbled. He resumed his interrupted motion, the little girl clutched in his free hand screaming and clenching her eyes shut in terror as the knife came down. Just before it could hit, a Kiba snatched her away from the traitor, his clone knocking the arm with the kunai away harmlessly. The first bounded away with his precious cargo into the tree again, but the second was too tangled up with the former Taki-nin to escape. Grabbing a second kunai with his other hand Suien jabbed it into the feral Leaf-nin, producing a pained howl and forcing the transformation to drop.

Falling at the traitor's feet with a yelp, Akamaru thrashed weakly and curled around the wound in his haunch.

"Like, this is the best hero you can produce!?" Suien scoffed, laughing cruelly. "A puppy?" He drew back his leg to kick the injured animal, but before he could the real Kiba had leapt back down, intercepting the blow and shoving his partner into the temporary safety of the center of a group of bound civilians.

"One dog or another, it's totally the same to me!" the trechcoat-clad man yelled, delivering a second, full power boot to the boy's ribs that threw him over beside the masked Rain-nin.

"What a pathetic hero," that one commented, delivering a few hefty stomps to Kiba's chest. "Spelled h-e-r-o but pronounced 'idiot!'"

"YOU SEE!" Suien thundered. "There are no heroes in Takigakure! There, like, haven't been any since your father died, Shibuki!"

Cowering in his hidden bolthole, Shibuki couldn't beleive the Leaf genin would go so far for a bunch of strangers, and could only tremble as the people - his people - insisted he was a great hero, who was still going to come and save the day.

"Shibuki, like, isn't that kind of guy," the traitor chuckled. "He's totally a weak coward, who always runs away."

"No way!" the little boy insisted, wiggling around in the ropes that bound him beside Hinata. "Shibuki-sama is our hero, and he's gonna give you a shellacking!"

Still chuckling, Suien walked over and pulled the child to his feet. "Then die, like, hating that hero," he said cruelly, bringing his kunai to the boy's throat as he had with his sister, "because it looks like your lives mean squat to Shibuki, after all."

Suddenly, a blue-white riptide curl of power touched down a few paces away, even as the three Rain missing-nin and their remaining goon squad simply keeled over unconscious. "Wha... what? Impossible..." the kunoichi muttered, still clinging to awareness. She lasted just long enough to see a few kikai bugs march across her shoulder and away toward the still helpless villagers before succumbing to the chakra depletion caused by having them feed on her energy. Still dangling from the arch over the shrine, Shino smirked fractionally, face visible for once without his high-collared jacket.

The cyclone dissipated to reveal Shibuki, surrounded by a burning aura of blue chakra.

"Long time no see, dude," the traitor sneered. "You haven't changed. Looks like you swigged that Hero Water... Where's the rest? You like, kept some, right?"

Firmly in his role as Brave Leader of Takigakure the teenager replied evenly, "There's no point in asking, since I'm totally going to school you."

"Dude, are you serious?" Suien scoffed. "You know like, better than anyone what happens if someone with your loserosity drinks it. Even with the Hero Water your chakra can't surpass mine, I have way more than your potential."

"Then I'll do my best," Shibuki stated, confident mask slipping slightly but still determined. "Takigakure ryu: Mizuki no Yaiba!" A streamer of water rose out fo the lake at his back, then took the form of a curved blade as his right hand closed around it. Suien mirored the ninjutsu in time to parry the teenager's charge, the collisions of their water swords as they crossed blades agin and again halfway between the thunk of wood and the musical clink of ice.

Unimpressed, Suien gloated, "Hmph, all that chakra doesn't help your lame form. I totally see through your movements, so like, I win!" An unexpected slash, and the tip of his blade smacked his one-time student's hand, dissipating the ninjutsu with a splash as the water collapsed. The traitor roared victoriously and ran his own blade through the younger man's lower chest, piercing the bottom lobe of his left lung and right out his back before letting his own technique end.

"Damn it, get up..." the fallen teen pleaded with his body. "I got to... everyone... the kids... protect them..."

"Heh, you will always be like that ... Totally, you'll always be a weak coward," the traitor scoffed. He reached into the chakra pocket he'd sensed in the front of Shibuki's shirt, the reason he hadn't gone for a heart strike. "Yeah, just as I thought. I FINALLY GOT THE HERO WATER! NOW I'LL BE TOTALLY KICK-ASS!!"

Coughing up blood from his punctured lung, Shibuki gasped weakly, "Dude... give it back..."

Ignoring his pleas, the traitor put a foot on the younger man's chest to keep him from making trouble while he worked the cork out of the jug and drank. A huge flare of chakra sprang up around him like a bonfire, and a sickly crunch came from the boy trapped under his heel. "Dude! I broke your ribs just by stepping on you?" He laughed manaically. "Don't worry, be happy, Shibuki! You like, get to be the first prey of the new and improved, invincible me!" Unfortunately he wasn't too wrapped up in his gloating to dodge a kunai flying in from behind, and the traitor spun to see Kiba forcing his way to his feet despite the battering he'd taken.

"Unforgiveable!" the bruised Leaf-nin declared. He got another soldier pill out of his pouch, this time taking it himself. "There's no way I'll let you do as you like... I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"Dude..." Shibuki wore a smile despite the pain, hearing the young ninja's confidence. At the base of the great tree, Hinata had a similar expression until she closed her eyes to concentrate chakra to her hands and the wires still binding her.

"Shikyaku no jutsu!" the feral boy called, charging at the Taki-nin traitor. "Tsuuga!" Again he burst into motion too fast to properly see, a whirlwind with claws and fangs that hurtled to attack with breakneck speed.

All for nothing, it seemed. Suien brought his arms forward in a chakra-reinforced cross guard, the furious attack doing no more than to drive him a single step backward before the spin ended, leaving an incredulous Kiba straining his hands against the jounin's wrists. "No way!" He gasped. "He blocked the Piercing Fang!?"

"Way," Suien replied, with a vicious sneer. "Like, nice try, kid. Are you ready to die now?" He swatted Kiba away effortlessly. The dog-user flew in a straight line up and away for around seventy feet until he smashed into the tree, knocking a huge cloud of dust loose and getting stuck in a divot in the bark. Before he could do more than pry himself loose, the traitor had appeared beside him in a flare of power, smacking him down again with a shout to splash into the lake in a huge fountain of spray.

"K-Kiba-kun!" his kunoichi team mate gasped, echoed by the villagers and a frightened whine from Akamaru.

"Don't give up," Shino advised. "Until you give up, it isn't over!" As if to prove his words, a bolt of hard-edged water cut the thickly coated wire holding him up, letting the bug-user drop to his feet and, with the release of tension, free his arms. He quickly picked up and replaced his jacket from the shrine steps while rethinking the changed situation, uncomfortable without its concealing folds.

Holding himself up with one of the tori side posts, Shibuki spat out another mouthful of blood and told him, "Everyone will be like, killed... take the kids and run, dude..."

"Run?" the Aburame scion asked, light washing across his sunglasses as he looked at the older teen. "That will not be neccesary. I will fight him."

Still hanging at the side of the tree, Suien laughed again. "I so have awesome power..." he gloated. The splash had settled below him, but where he'd ewxpected a floating Leaf, unconscious or dead from the hit, no one was visible."Is that brat still alive?"

"Over here, Suien!" the normally quiet Aburame shouted, drawing the man's attention. He leapt and threw a handful of shuriken, which the powered up traitor easily dodged. Doing damage had not been Shino's intent, however, merely to distract his attention from the boy's team mate, readying an attack from above.

"TSUUGA!" The battle cry came too late for Suien to react, before a whirling piledriver came down on his head and knocked him in turn to splash down in the lake below.

"Probably, he is still fine," Shino warned as the two boys came to rest on a wide branch.

Sure enough, the traitor blasted right back up out of the water, a roundhouse punch sending Kiba flying all the way across the lake to crash into the roof of one of the village buildings. "I'll totally kill you both!" he raged.

"You may try," the remaining Leaf-nin stated, "but you will fail." A massive swarm of destruction bugs began to billow out of his coat sleeves as he spoke, hurtling toward the enemy when he snapped his hands forward.

Suien dropped down to the surface of the lake and kicked up a wave to shield himself from the creepy attack, but didn't anticipate a spread of kunai hidden inside the mass of bugs. They easily broke through the thin barrier but were scattered harmlessly by the flaring chakra produced by the Hero Water. "That was like, pitiful," the nuke-nin scoffed. "Don't get a big head!"

Dropping smoothly to land a few feet away on the surface of the lake, the Aburame pushed up his sunglasses and argued coldly, "You are the overconfident one... Anyone can gain strength from drinking the Hero Water. but that strength is a lie. just look at yourself, you're already becoming strained."

Panting but unwilling to admit the point, the traitor growled, "Dude... Shut up!" He aimed a vicious sweep kick at the genin, then fell back in shock as it broke right through the boy's chest with next to no resistance... just before Shino's form exploded in a mass of kikaimushi, that swarmed over Suien and began draining his chakra.

Now freed, Hinata watched from the shore nearby as the traitorous jounin screeched and batted futilely at the nin-bugs, his flaming aura beginning to die down. Determined to crush the annoying kids who'd appeared to ruin his moment of triumph, Suien pulled out the jug of Hero Water and took a second draught, a renewed flare of energy bursting up as the swarm reached the limits of their ability to absorb chakra and dropped off.

"Neji-niisan..." she whispered to herself, "I have n-not accepted... a destiny of failure."

The training sessions with her cousin would have been tediously repetitive if they hadn't been so brutal - at first she'd only been able to attend the extra training two days a week in order to recover, and only pleading with Kurenai-sensei had kept the jounin from putting a stop to them - and that didn't even begin to go into Kiba's reaction to a 'packmate' getting such treatment! Neji would watch with his activated Byakugan while she performed a Jyuken kata, criticising the slightest error of angle or position immediately and vicously while going through his own routine to waste the least of his training time, then when she finished he would quickly and effectively destroy her defense through the holes provided by those errors, sealing tenketsu and knocking her off her feet.

By neccessity, she'd become adept at the Hyuuga medical technique that speeded the recovery of closed tenketsu, even as her Jyuuken skill grew... And she always, always kept returning to her feet somehow until the end of the scheduled time. Her unusually large chakra reserves - doubly so for a Hyuuga, most of whom were chronically low in potential through some bizarre quirk of genetics - had a large part in such resilience, of course, and as her control and recovery abilities improved their schedule increased to every third day, then every other day, then every day... And an ever more irritable Neji moved to more advanced forms as her performance of the basics of Jyuuken edged closer to flawless.

She simply would not quit, and her refusal to accept his idea of destiny even as he proved her weakness with his strength day after day drove him to distraction, to the point that she could occasionally land a telling strike or two of her own before being demolished.

It wouldn't be accurate to say Hinata was proud of her progress - pride in herself was still an all but unthinkable dream - but some inkling of self-respect had formed, the realization that though she might bow she -would not- break, that she could get up and stand even if she was knocked down again and again and again.

After Kiba had finally been talked down, he'd been far more impressed with the girl's sheer grit, commenting, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." The back handed compliment had still been enough to set the Hyuuga heiress blushing and stuttering, compounded further by Shino's gift of a large patch for her jacket a few days later featuring an intricate snarling wolf in front of an orange Hyuuga flame crest and the kanji for "big fight" in armor-grade kikai silk. It was roughly six inches square, oriented as a diamond and sewn in the center of her back at heart level... in large part because having it on the front would mean looking at it herself and getting embarrassed, but refusing the gift (an expensive one if Shino hadn't been an Aburame himself) would have been terribly rude.

The usually shy girl pictured that bold white wolf in her mind, imagined it was the one talking as she advanced across the water, activated her byakugan and declared, "A hero... is the one who will accept any pain for their im-important people. I w-won't let you look down on Shibuki-san... You a-are... within the field of my divination!"

"Two Hands!"

Concentrating with all her might, Hinata struck at the tiny points of light that marked Suien's tenketsu, targets she'd only barely begun to discern in training but which shone like a cloud of fireflies under the influence of the Hero Water.

"Four Hands!"

The raging sea of chakra that had always been her nemesis, making Hinata struggle for the merest fraction of the control that most Hyuuga were all but born with, was finally an advantage for once.

"Eight hands!"

For many Hyuuga, the incredible amounts of chakra the Hero Water forced out would have significantly decreased the effectiveness of the Gentle Fist, even in a form as advanced as the Sixty Four Divining Palms.

"Sixteen hands!"

It was actually liberating to let so much of it flow, to not have to hold back in fear of doing deadly harm to a training partner. Guided by that hard-won control, her own chakra erupted with a power that matched even that.

"Thirty two hands!"

Matched it, and overcame it, flashing painfully into Suien's already strained inner coils and forcing the primary tenketsu to close, shocking his muscles and organs with the surging backwash of foreign energy.

"Sixty four hands of Hakke!"

Suien's flaring aura had become irregular, the flame like swirl turning patchy as large sections of his inner coils no longer allowed it to flow. The unclosed lesser tenketsu remaining were physically torn wider, a faint mist of blood forming around the man as he screamed and collapsed. The water swirled angrily around his form as the escaping chakra pushed it away, and if he'd happened to fall in face first he'd surely have drowned.

Shuddering at the visible agony her hands had inflicted, Hinata wanted to back away, to undo it and apologize... But then, if Suien hadn't betrayed his village, hadn't come to take its treasures by force, she would not have needed to harm him.

If not for the effect of the water he'd stolen and drank, her special technique would have been disabling but only moderately painful; powerful as it was, it was only intended for removing the ability of an enemy to escape capture or defend against true killing blows.

If not...

"If you do not wish him to drown, it would be best to get Suien to the shore before he swallows the other half of the lake," Shino noted, standing calmly on the water beside her and watching with his usual detachment as the thrashing man gurgled and splashed more water over himself.

"Ah! You're right!" Shocked into action, the Hyuuga heiress grabbed one of the man's rag-doll arms, struggling to pull him up even as the Hero Water's effect finally tapered off and let him sink into merciful unconsciousness. Seeing her difficulty with the weight, Shino grabbed Suien's other arm to help and by the time they reached the bank Kiba had joined them as well, though his control kept wavering and dunking his feet.

Wiggling free of the cluster of tied villagers he'd hidden among, Akamaru was much amused by that last fact. He yipped brotherly insults and encouragement with equal abandon now that the battle was won.

As the Leaf-nin began to untie the groups of Takigakure citizens, the village's medic-nin made her way over to inspect Suien with a diagnostic jutsu. "He's alive, but his inner coils are like, totally destroyed," she pronounced. "He will never be able to use chakra again. If his body even recovers enough to run, he'll be mondo lucky."

Suien groaned and his eyes fluttered open. "I would have... got away with it too... if it wasn't for those... nosy kids and their dog..."

Akamaru growled and smacked the missing-nin with his tail, the small impact enough to send him spiraling back into unconsciousness. Victorious, the small white pup barked proudly. "Arf wa-wuff awoo!"

[center]---=- + -=---[/center]

Silence. It hung in the moisture heavy air like a heavy curtain, with not even the sounds of the forest interrupting. It was as if even the trees were holding their breath.

And it did little against the rising nervous tension.

The waiting was worst, to her anyway. Battle itself, even a losing one, with emotions riding the adrenal high, was preferable.

She ran through a short meditation excercise, which let at least some of the tension melt away into an alert preparedness, but the cold sweat on the back of her neck and ...

... very carefully, and taking great pains not to tense or startle, she stuck the tip of her tongue out to taste the air, noting the small cloud of fog as she breathed out ...

And _then_ she moved, leaping forward and down off the tree branch she'd been perched on, through the barely visible freeze of the modified basic Kirigakure.

The faint *thunkthunkthunk* of senbon needles piercing into wood only spurred her to move faster. She contorted her body into a spin, lashing out with one arm.

The voluminous sleeves of her tiger-striped waistcoat billowed as one discharged a length of chain, terminating in a sickle. Its short, curved blade bit deeply into a tree behind and to the side of the one she'd been perched on, yanking her off her pervious trajectory just in time to get out of the way of another flurry of senbon.

She brought her legs around, arresting what would have been a potentially painful impact against another tree, and slamming a sickle that had sprung into her -other- hand from that sleeve into the wood.

Tension. It was up again, and there was no more sound audible, other than her breath and the blood thudding its way through her temples.

Her eyes scanned the trees, not neccessarily limiting their search area to the line above her previous perch, despite the fact that this was where the angle of the senbon's flight paths indicated her assailant had struck from.

After all, it was basic tactics for snipers to move after every unsuccessful attack.

She heard no movement, though ...

Alright, so maybe her opponent was trying to play with her mind and -hadn't- moved ...

There -was- a sound, though, on the edge of her consciousness ... nagging to be noticed.

The gentle lapping of barely disturbed water.

From below, where a small pond, into which the roots of that particular tree dipped, sat.

A whistling, just as the extended chain the sickle of which was buried into the tree a ways off shuddered with impact and weight, a slender form clad in intermingled hues of dark blue and green having landed on said chain.

*Speed!* her instincts screamed at her, and she shrugged and twisted the appropriate shoulder in just the right way, causing the straps of one of her chain launchers/winches to come undone with a snap, and the device to come shooting out of her sleeve. The other released its lock on the chain as her hand let go of its sickle, leaving her to drop down as a trio of kunai shot through where her head had been not a moment ago, and slammed into the tree beside where the sickle was lodged.

She momentarily spied the blue-and-green suited kunoichi, swinging towards some possible point of rebound on her own discarded chain, and flung a spread of manriki along the expected path of the swing. Not that she expected the 11 inch long throwing chains would hit, but they'd possibly slow her opponent down just a bit.

Her eyes widened when she remembered she was heading down ... towards the _pond_ ...

... which erupted as yet another kunoichi, this one in a sleek black bodysuit, launched herself upwards from between the submerged tree-roots, propelling herself upwards along the treetrunk by virtue of her shuko adorned hands.

They met with a clash, hastily drawn manriki managing to turn aside a handclaw assisted palm strike, before the explosion notes on the three kunai stuck in the tree around the sickle above obliterated a hefty chunk of bark and wood.

Thereby letting the sickle fall away, the chain slacken, and its wielder, already unbalanced by the bodysuit clad kunoichi, plummet and hit the surface of the pond.

Which was promptly hit by a raiton from the still airborne kunoichi.

"Gotcha!" Hoshigaki Mako cried, landing lightly at the edge of the pond, grinning in a way that had her look even more like a shark than she already did thanks to her heritage.

The weighted chain that shot from the water and slammed into her stomach with enough force to make her keel over, gasping, was not expected.

A bedraggled, somewhat frazzled blonde kunoichi dragged herself from the pond, trying to get back on her feet ... then froze.

It was the faintest of touches, but she knew the feeling of the point of a senbon needle at the nape of her neck well enough by now ...

"Sorry, Mina-chan. You lose this one," Mizuno Ami, Mist genin and medic-nin in training, said.

[center]--=- + -=--[/center]

"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 nin, and the blue-haired genin 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 team mate'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.

Mako briefly considered telling her to ignore it, that 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 a prodigy, 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 ... certainly 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."

[center]--=- + -=--[/center]

Hinata had been shocked by the nomination of her team for the Chuunin Exam, but after the mission they'd just finished she could understand how a high expectation might have formed. Kiba had been so excited, and even Shino had little signs that she'd begun to be able to see...

The shy girl hung her head, thinking, *Though Kurenai-sensei didn't say it, the exam requires teams of three to enter... If I don't go, Kiba-san and Shino-san will also be forced to hold back.* She shifted in the hard chair of the desk in her room, pressing her fingers nervously, then stilled herself, remembering the way such actions always brought the slowly fading scorn in Neji's eyes back full force. *I have become stronger... just a little bit. It's a worse failure if I hold my team back... I think now I can hold on, at least long enough for them to get through the gate.*

Resolved, she slid the entry form closer and reached for her pen, but was interrupted by a knock outside her door. "Eh-? Enter," she called, not quite a stutter and not quite a call for identification before allowing the intrusion.

The screen slid open to reveal one of her younger Branch Family cousins, a girl who always made her think blushingly of her secret ambition, having inherited the byakugan of her mother but the red hair and cheerful disposition of her outsider father. "Ne, Hinata-sama, Hiashi-sama wants to see you in the dojo," the smiling girl said brightly. "He was kind of a bigger sourpuss than usual so you should probably hurry, but since when is that new?"

Just like her most special someone, Nagisa could always lift Hinata's mood, and she found herself smiling just slightly back despite the somewhat ominous content of the message. "Thank you, Nagisa-chan," she replied, before enquiring, "Did you recieve p-permission to begin k-kendo training like you'd wanted?" The use of any weapon or style besides their trademark Gentle Fist was generally considered irrelevant and an admission of weakness within the clan, the more so if an outside tutor had to be found. Even if he now bore the Hyuuga name, the younger girl's father was still hardly counted among their number for such purposes, so special permission had to be obtained from the Elders.

The bright smile widened and and her cousin bounced slightly with excitement. "Yup! I have to keep up normal Jyuuken training first, but I get to learn dad's sword style as well! It'll be awesome!"

"I'm g-glad, Nagisa-chan," Hinata congratulated, before rising gracefully from her seat. "Ano, I s-should go see Father now... um, if... if that's all."

"Nope, that's everything," the redhead chirped, sliding the shoji shut again behind them and walking with her until their paths split at an intersecting hallway. "Don't worry Hinata-sama," she advised her quiet cousin. "Dad said you did one of the advanced techniques on your last mission, so Hiashi-sama's got to be proud of that, right? I'm sure he's just constipated or something and that caused the look on his face."

"Nagisa-chan!" the older girl gasped, scandalized. "You shouldn't say such things... if a Main House member heard you..."

A mischievous grin flashed as the other girl clapped her companionably on the shoulder. "Hinata-sama... YOU'RE a Main House member, the heir in fact. Are ya gonna use my seal on me?" Pale white eyes with just the faintest tinge of amber twinkled silent laughter that somehow wasn't mocking at all, while a thumb quirked at the angular, dark green marking carried openly on her forehead only partly obscured by short bangs. Then Nagisa hurried off with the usual spring in her step before Hinata could even begin to think of a reply, let alone stammer it out.

After a few seconds of stunned immobility the shy girl resumed her trek to the training hall that was maintained for the exclusive use of Main Family members to study the restricted techniques of advanced Jyuuken forms.

As expected, she found her father and younger sister Hanabi there, the seven year old's instruction in the family style having progressed much more satisfactorily than her own, at least until she'd begun training with Neji. She waited quietly to be acknowledged near the doors.

"Hinata," the man said evenly, when his youngest had finished her kata. "According to the report from your last mission, you exectuted one of the advanced techniques of the Gentle Fist. Why did you not inform me of this in person?"

Desperately clinging to the mental image of her patch, the older girl did her best not to fidget and stutter as she replied. "An-... I wanted to p-perfect the skill be... fore I told you... Neji-neesan's assistance has greatly helped, b-but I still cannot see tenketsu rel... reliably." The mere dream of becoming a reliable person was still something she could only dare to think in private.

"LIAR!" Hiashi accused, rounding on the girl with a furious expression. "The enemy's tenketsu were sealed, and his inner coils destroyed by high levels of chakra!" He slapped her, shouting, "Do you presume to try to hide your ability, to continue to allow the noble Hyuuga clan to look weak!?"

Hinata stilled her hands, pressing them against her sides to avoid folding back the third and fourth fingers in the classic Jyuuken form, an act that would be taken as disrespect. It had become ingrained in her, training with her harsh cousin - get knocked down, stand back up and fight. Straightening her head from where the blow had turned it, she set her shoulders as well. The bold white wolf rose in her thoughts and took control of her mouth. "Because of the Hero Water, his tenketsu were unusually bright and easy to make out. Neji-neesan, Kiba-san, Shino-san, Kurenai-sensei, all of them I can only see the tenketsu occasionally. I have not intentionally hidden my ability, from you or from the clan, Otousama."

The burning anger faded from Hiashi's face, replaced by the calm and proper mask of a Hyuuga. He held her in a long, calculating look, then turned away again. "So instead of the appearance of weakness, the reality of weakness remains. You will demonstrate your improvement with Hanabi."

Momentary confidence wilting like a spring violet under a fire ninjutsu, Hinata shot a pitiful look at her younger sister, who remained unmoved and scornful. By habit and not wanting to chance the increasingly uncommon failure to work without it, she quickly formed the hand seal to activate her Byakugan. If only she could... but no. *Failure, again,* she thought despairingly.

"I cannot see Hanabi-neechan's tenketsu," she admitted, "or even yours, Father." Though she remained in a ready stance, Hinata's shoulders drooped and her head fell from the accepted position. The byakugan's nearly full-sphere vision made it all but irrelevant in practical terms, but the proper Jyuuken stance was also a psychological weapon to tell the enemy that they were already defeated, where hers gave more than a hint that Hanabi had already won.

She had to wait until late evening before her arms had recovered enough to have legible penmanship, so she could fill out the Chuunin Exam registration form. The wolf on the back of her jacket seemed to wink in the dancing shadows of her desk lamp as she did so.

If you get knocked down, then get back up and fight harder. After so much time watching Naruto, she'd finally really learned his secret for herself, and it just made her admire him even more.

[center]--=- + -=--

(Would you like to know more? This chapter's omake is actually canonical, but didn't fit in.)[/center]

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Naruto characters and setting created by Kishimoto Masahi, and the adapted Sailor Moon characters are Takeuchi Naoko's, while Katsu is Griever's property as cameo-insert. How that came about is a bit funny on its own - I was originally going to have had Zabuza succeed in his coup without his sister in the Mizukage's office to cause a critical second's hesitation, but then Griever suggested the whole "uncle Zabu" angle and it was too funny to pass up. Since he saved the Mizukage's life, I promoted him to Jounin of Hidden Mist on the spot, and Katsu was the character profile he came back with. Note that Katsu's backstory is not at all like this, though he'd probably be quite happy to thwart Zabuza in any way possible.

So there you have it, the least original chapter of Legend of Explosive Youth. Shibuki was too good a parallel to Hinata to pass up, but there was so little I could do to change the story besides changing how the final blows are landed. At least the speech about the Hero Water not giving real power fits believably in Shino's mouth, the original had Sasuke of all people giving it - such a thing was never in character for him to say at any point in canon, and still wouldn't be for mine yet... Hell, canon Sasuke would probably have tried to steal some Hero Water himself.

Takigakure - waterfall + hidden within

Yuuhi Kurenai - flying leap/a great accomplishment + deep red

Ninpo: Shikyaku no jutsu - Ninja magic: Four Legs skill

Tsuuga - piercing + fang

At the end of the scene with the first enemies at the waterfall in the anime there's a japanese pun I really wanted to include, but doing so would require in-line translation and broke things up too much. Naruto says, "Let's start the mission! The monkey usually cries and climbs up when he sees a tree, ne?" In romanji this is "Ki wo mita saru wo yoku nakiagaru," to which Sakura replies "Don't you mean 'Gi wo mite sezaru wa ya nakinaru?'" which means "To see what is right and not do it proves the lack of courage." As you can see by comparing the two sentences they have a very similar sound, and even what Naruto says could apply in a "Why climb the mountain?" "Because it's there." sort of way. Unfortunately I couldn't come up with an english spoonerism of anywhere near the same caliber for Kiba, and as I said including the japanese and translations in the main text is far too disruptive.

tori - a wooden entryway with two upper bars, the larger top one sometimes curved to be higher at the ends than the middle. Usually painted red. (more detail possible if I remember to look it up, may or may not share spelling with or have significant relation to the 'tori' that means 'bird')

suien - (1) mist over a body of water; spray; (2) four metal plates joined at right angles forming part of a pagoda finial

Takigakure Ryu: Mizuki no Yaiba - Hidden Waterfall Style: Sword of Water (not as literal as my usual provided translation, taken from the subtitles and my own ear for the japanese)

"Heh, you will always be like that ... Totally, you'll always be a weak coward." And here you have the canon line responsible for the Waterfall Country speech patterns. I had to do something to punch it up when most of the story was just regurgitating canon. Like totally, for sure.

Armor-grade kikai silk - essentially, the biologically produced equivalent of a kevlar/spectra weave, in the case of a patch like Hinata's created over a tight metal mesh to spread impacts and for extra resistance to stabbing and slashing weapons, so that by drawing the eye with an obvious target it can serve as a useful piece of armor despite the relatively small coverage. Because the pattern is created by the weaver-bugs themselves changing the color of their silk at their partner's direction designs can be created with details at the limit of naked-eye human observation, although the cost of such skilled creations rises sharply of course. Making such pieces is Shino's least insect-related hobby, in that bugs are only involved in the creation stage, while the final result and 'use' is aesthetic.

"And I would have got away with it, too..." - if you don't recognise this line, you are obviously horribly deprived and need to watch more classic cartoons. In this case, Scooby Doo, where nearly every episode ended with the villain saying that or a variation on it. Suien would have fit right in with them, at least in terms of (lack of) intelligence. Seriously, a ninja medicine that gives great power but will probably kill you, and not only is he willing to go to such lengths to get it, the first thing he does is drink some. If I was the leader of Takigakure, I'd make sure to have a small amount of the stuff around all the time, maybe with added powder of soldier pill for extra effect and a tasteless poison just for backups. If some fool comes looking for it, I'd give it to them immediately and let them kill themselves like the idiot they'd have to be.

Hyuuga Nagisa is lifted from the anime "Pretty Cure," an action-heavy magical girls show that's far more tolerable to the average teenage boy than Sailor Moon ever was. The only change I've made in her character design is adding the Hyuuga's characteristic chakra channeling membrane between the iris and lens of her eyes that gives them the all but blank white look... unless you count having confused the names of the main PuriKyua characters accidentally when I was originally writing the scene. The redhead is supposed to be named Misumi Nagisa, while Yukashiro Honoka has the name theme for the clan, Hyuuga standard long black hair and dark blue-purple eyes that would come out the usual pale violet through the byakugan membrane... oops.

Though I'm not sure of her age in the anime, Nagisa is nine in this story. There have to be some Branch members who aren't all doom and woe, ne? Of course the Main House Elders are constantly irritated by having a tiger lily in their garden of orchids, and she's frequently held as the example of why love matches are a foolish indulgence compared to arrangements made by properly thinking senior family members, but what else can you expect from the lower house? Not that poor Nagisa has to worry about it, the only love letters she gets are from the other girls, admiring her confidence and athleticism.

I reccomend at least checking out the show, the opening theme is the fun kind of J-pop (as opposed to the sickeningly saccarine kind) and the few first episodes alone are a hoot, what with Nagisa's side comments and the David-Bowie-as-the-Goblin-King style dark general. Pretty Cure Max Heart is a continuation of the first season with a more rocking version of the OP, but it used up all the awesome-sauce and left Splash Star as a reboot with 1000% formulaic little-girly fluff, only to be attempted if you -really- like the earlier seasons and don't mind such things. Frex, if by some chance you're an actual girl, which rumor holds can be found on the internet from time to time. Unfortunately since I can't read Japanese the only part of the titles I can make out is "ABC" and "ADK," one or the other of which may be a company that owns the series in Japan. In any case, it's not me, and without regular internet access it's not something I can look up easily.

Poor Hinata - it's always one step forward, two steps back with her family, it seems. The dojo scene actually ended up harsher than I intended it, but it still fits with what we've seen of the Hyuuga at this stage in continuity.

Griever's notes on 'his' girls: I'm imagining Mina in a black/rust colored bodystocking, long sleeved, but only down to just above the knees. Kneepads (armored). Low heeled ankle boots. Loose waistcoat/short kimono w/wide sleeves with twin chain launchers/winches - something like what I remember those two Mist nin at the beginning of the Wave country arc having - with a variety of attachments (a weight at the end, a sickle/kama, a short double edged blade, etc.). For thrown weapons, she uses kunai and manriki. The waistcoat/kimono thingy is tiger-striped orange. The 'lots-and-lots-of-weapons' thing I have her pulling can be attributed to a Blade of the Immortal OD on my part.

Mako - go with the bodysuit/wetsuit, then, and a variety of garments to wear over that. Shades of green. For some reason, I see her with a collapsible Yari. (spear)

Ami - actually, I was thinking more along the lines of an outfit resembling Katsu's plain functionality-over-looks fatigues, only trimmed with shades of blue and (less so) green over the plain grey. Maybe with either shorts or a short sleeved vest. (She has a small backpack for medicines and tools instead of the standard little butt pouch)


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Omake: A special hell for delinquent and abusive fathers...



"Konoha's Handsome Green Beast! Maito Gai!"

"The Proud Green Beast! Rock Lee!"

"The Blazing Orange Wildfire! Uzumaki Naruto!"

"The Bold White Wolf! Hyuuga Hinata!"

"TEAM EXPLOSIVE YOUTH! HASSHIN!!"



Jerking upright with a strangled gasp, Hiashi wiped at the sweat beading his face. "No more takodango when I get the midnight munchies," he ordered himself firmly. Lying back, he used a certain mental technique to quickly return to sleep.



"You could call it, an absolute defense... Kaiten! EEEK!!" (thud)



Enough was enough, the Hyuuga Clan Head decided, after starting awake again at the image of his eldest accidentally blasting all her clothes off with the pressure of her chakra and fainting from embarrassment in the middle of a public tournement. He obviously wasn't going to get any rest tonight... rolling smoothly upright he slipped on a robe, before lighting the candles on his wife's shrine to pray for guidance and forgiveness with the matter of their first daughter, whose very face was a stab in his heart every time he saw her.




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