Tsu was moving through the trees quickly, or at least quickly for the new people. She could have turned into a blur through the trees, almost invisible, but instead allowed herself to slow down so her pupils could keep up. Finally she stopped in the middle of the only tree in the clearing, dangling upside down by her legs from a thick branch as she waited.
Hinji made his way through the woods to the center. His raven had hopped over onto his shoulder to allow him full use of his staff to move stray branches out of his way. Arriving at the tree, he waited for his fellow teammates to join them. The entire time he wondered exactly how he was going to be able to train, most of his skill required reading to learn more summons and calligraphy practice to be able to create more complicated summoning cards.
Kano caught up with them fairly easily. When he finally reached them he did have to catch his breath for a few seconds. "You're pretty quick, Sensei. Are you going to teach us how to do that?" He was extremely eager to learn whatever she could teach them.
El brought up the rear, huffing a little heavier than Kano since he had to lug his guitar and wait for the most un-ninja-like dog in all of existence.
"It's just training training training... and some chakra control"
Tsu said happily as she dangled up side down in front of her students by her legs "Now, I want to see what you're like, so we're going to do a very simple exercise. You all have to try and work together to try and touch my collar." Tsu unclipped her gold coin collar and jangled it out in front of them all, letting them see it before putting it back on.
"That's it? All we have to do is touch your collar?"
Kano asked incredulously. That seemed like an extremely simple task to prove themselves with.
"Don't let your confidence go wild. She isn't planning on sitting still."
Hinji explained.
"Well that
would make it a bit more difficult."
Kano deduced with a shrug. "But still."
"I will let you have the honor of going at it before me."
Hinji said hoping that Kano would quickly realize what he was saying once the training began. "It will give me more time to find the right summon."
Kano arched an eyebrow. "Oh I get it. You just want to watch me get the stuffing beat out of me first, don't you?" He replied as if he hadn't a clue what Hinji was implying. He looked over at El. "What about you? You gonna side with the other hat guy here? And say let's toss the no-hat in to the dogs first?"
"I will not use physical contact with you unless I feel it necessary."
Tsu sighed as she landed, doing a small flip as she plummeted from the tree branch only to land on her feet. She always landed on her feet "I will not beat you, if I wanted to incapacitate you I could have done it a hundred... and one times already. First lesson!" The small girlish figure pointed an accusatory hand at them "Stealth is the ninja's best weapon. You're all failing at it right now."
Hinji bowed slightly. "My apologize sensei, but my stealth does not work in the sunlight."
"THe bushes people! Create shadow, anything, just standing around talking to the target is not advisable. The moment I put forward the idea you should all have run away."
Tsu sighed "Since you're new..." She held up three fingers "Three..." She dropped one "Two..." one finger left.
El was small and very quick but his stamina wasn't compatible with how fast he could go. Nevertheless he darted into some bushes to try his hand at the whole sneaky sneaky thing. He'd snuck into a few bull fights in his time so he at least knew how to hide. He never thought it would do him any good in the real world though.
Kano slammed a smoke pellet down and in a POOF! of smoke vanished from sight. The leaves of a nearby tree rustled slightly after the POOF.
Hinji turned quickly and walked to the edge of the clearing. The second he hit the shadow he vanished, the only sign of his passing was the shadow swirling as if it was recently disturbed smoke.
"BETTER!"
Tsu called out to them as they dissapeared, then waiting for them to make their move she clambered up the tree and began to sway from it's branches, eyes closed nad humming a tune that could only be described as merry.
El circled around threw the bushes, one of the first things his father had taught him about the guitar was that the tuning keys on a ninja-guitar could easily double as shuriken. He'd spent countless hours perfecting his marksmanship so when he removed the tuning key from the guitar and let it fly, he hoped he didn't accidentally slice their Sensei's throat instead of slicing threw the string of her necklace.
Hinji reached up and plucked one of the cards from his hat, seemingly without thought. Reaching up he put his finger in front of his raven who promptly bit it, drawing blood. Smearing the blood on the summon card he quickly mumbled the summon causing the card to disintigrate and the shadows to solidify into a black wispy rope. He set the rope on the ground and then bobbed his hand up and down, the rope responded. With a smile he raised his hand up and then quickly threw it outward sending the rope soaring through the air with the intent of catching and tieing up or tieing down Tsu.
Tsu simply hummed to herself, with a sudden dramatic swing she was up among the branches of the tree, among the foliage and moving faster in the upper branches. The tuning key thudded uselessly into the tree trunk and the rope hit nothing; if it tried to follow her among the branches it would knot itself, she wove over her own path, this way and that, the only way of showing the movements were the swaying branches.
With her in the trees and his tuning key having missed
El took it upon himself to play a little tune. not giving much thought to actually melody he concentrated his chakra and hit the strings, sending a vibration of sound threw the tree with intent to shake her loose.
With a frustrated sigh
Hinji waved his hand and the rope dissipated. He thought for a second before pulling a new card from his hat, using the blood remaining from the first bite he summoned a net. Using his hands again he set the net out underneath the tree and readied it to snare the sensei if El's idea worked.
After observing his opponent and his allies for a little while.
Kano decided now would be the opportune time for him to act. He did the necessary hand signs and muttered the name of his favored jutsu. "Fire Style - Dragon Dance." With those words said and the signs made, his hands and feet were engulfed in flame. He ran straight to the tree, leaving burning footprints in his wake. He slammed his hands tot he tree's trunk and let the fires climb up with with incredulous speed.
Tsu hissed slightly and went to the top of the tree, on fire and shaking was not a good thing. She swung hard again, flipping out of the tree and landing several feet away from the net and the tree. She turned and tapped her foot at Kano "Please refrain from burning down the forest Kano!" she scratched her chin and sighed, they'd have to plant a new one tomorrow, perhaps for training too.
With her on the ground
El's fingers began to dance across the strings. He'd not exactly perfected what he liked to call Siesta El Musica, the sleep of music. But he tried his hardest not to screw up, if he got it right hopefully he'd put her to sleep, allowing them the chance to remove her necklace.
Quickly reacting to the sudden happenings,
Hinji dissipated the net and quickly summoned up a small, heavy cage. Summoning it above Tsu he let it go, planning on trapping her and letting El put her to sleep.
"My bad, Sensei."
Kano replied, seeing his teammates set to work, he took it upon himself to keep her distracted so that she wouldn't see the cage nor understand the purpose of the music. "You told us to get your necklace. I figured it would be easier if you weren't up the tree." He took a deep breath, cooling himself down. The fires upon his hands and feet slowly began to recede. "So I can get a hat when we're done this training right? I feel like I'm the weirdo in the group since I'm the only one without a hat. You know?" He started rambling, but he felt as though Tsu were the type of person who could ramble right back at you, so hopefully this was going to work.
"Alright!"
Tsu said happily... from right behind Kano as she dropped out of the tree; the Tsu trapped in the cage and where the music was heading disappeared in a puff of smoke and a small log landed where she'd been. "We'll go afterwards, but right now training" she nodded slightly, then with a blur of speed disappeared into the bushes where El and Hinji were hiding.
El's fingers got tangled together once he saw the log and in his frustration a sudden explosion of dirt spewed upwards at him having accidentally hit the cord for another attack. Sputtering and coughing he brushed the dirt from himself and shook it out of his guitar.
Kano cursed quietly as he was fooled by a substitution jutsu. He thought he was good at spotting those...appare
ntly the guys back home were just bad at making them though. He ran after her dust cloud, they needed to regroup seriously if they were going to finish this little test.
"Blahhh." El said trying to brush the dirt off his tongue, he spit several times to get rid of it. "This is loco." He said under his breath and set after Kano, shouting at Hinji as he passed "I'm out of ideas, you have any?"
Hinji cursed under his breath, which was unlike him. He turned to his raven and quickly whispered, "Don't loose her." With that the bird was off and in hot pursuit. Keeping an eye on it, he followed trying to think of a plan. He had already expended three of his cards and figured he was going to have to dip into his creature summons.
There was a loud yell of "OH MY GOD BIRD!" as Tsu dove backwards out of the bushes towards the flying shadow bird, small body arching over the three students. She really wanted an excuse just to make her way back to the clearing so the students could follow her back.
"This is getting ridiculous." Hinji said to no one in particular. Running his hand along his hat he found the card he was looking for and pulled it. As he ran back towards the clearing he reopened the cut, wiping it over the entire card then threw it forward. It landed and stuck in the ground in the clearing. There was a rumble from the ground as six shadowing vines burst from the ground. They immediatly darted towards Tsu.
"Oh!" Tsu called out as she landed, the vines moving towards her quickly "Handy!" She hissed slightly as they wound around her body, though stood completely still once they had seized her closely around the wrists and waist "Now comeon guys... all you big tall men against little old me... are you going to gang up?" She pocked out her bottom lip slightly and whimpered softly at them.
Kano skidded to a stop before the subdued Sensei. "I've got an idea. Why don't we just barbecue you and take the necklace from your chard remains?" He asked with a smirk. He was really itching to unleash his 'dragon's breath' jutsu, he'd been working on perfecting it for a while, but he didn't really want to use it on his Sensei, how would he learn from her if she were dead?
With a smile of unhidden satisfaction, Hinji reappeared from the shadows. With a gesture his bird flew over to him and landed on his finger. "Take the necklace from our good sensei, will you?" he said to the bird as it left his finger again and set off to the task.
El was just running up, his guitar heavy on his back he was panting a bit. He noticed Hinji "How did you beat me? Oh right, shadows." He rolled his eyes for not thinking of it before talking "I an so not good over long distances." He was holding his side.
Tsu cocked her head sideways, then grinned widely as her eyes suddenly grew wide, pupils swelling to unnatural sizes as her fingers flicked outwards suddenly. The vines around her were slashed to pieces without her even touching it, letting the dark plants just collapse around her. There was not a sound, not foot steps, not a hiss when Tsu suddenly dashed forward and smacked Kano playfully on the forehead with her bound hand. The sound came them, a clap of noise that seemed to slap at the ears of the pupils; and then Tsu was gone again, peeking out from behind a bush "Ohhhh you should play nice Kano."
"I think she's part robot." El told his little dog
"It's not like I would have barbecued you, Sensei!" Kano called out, pouting a little bit just from the sheer fact that she smacked his forehead. "But if you didn't want me to burn down the trees, maybe we should have taken the field instead?" He looked at his teammates and shrugged. "All my jutsus are fire style. If she doesn't want me to burn the trees, then I can't use 'em. We need to figure this out together."
"I concur, mainly cause my next idea is removing her legs." Hinji said seriously.
"Well that's one way to make sure we don't pass." El said "I could try putting her to sleep again." He looked at his finger from the last time, red and puffy if he continued playing like that he;d get blisters. They where worth it to pass the test though.
"Learn to control!" Tsu called out as she approached slowly from behind the bush "You have good stealth Kano, your blows can take out trees in one hit; don't burn down the forest cause I know you can control yourself not to." She huffed slightly and sighed "The sleepy shadow cage trap thingy almost worked... Don't give up."
Kano. thought for a second. "We need to consider what we know about her before we can effectively trap her."
"She is exceptionally fast and agile. She seems catlike in almost every way...maybe we should find some string." Hinji said.
"I have string!" El exclaimed and began digging in the pockets of his poncho. Unable to find it he turned around to take his hat off and pluck a package of guitar strings out of his hat. He secured it to his head before he turned around to show them. "Instruments in our village aren't made with wire strings." He explained "It's horse hair!"
"She sure seemed distracted by that bird of yours too Hinji." Kano said as he looked at El disbelievingly. "Horse hair?"
"We could maybe have the bird flying with the string to distract her." El handed Kano one of the guitar strings. There where several wound together and when pulled tight it was easy to see the guitar part of their functionality.
"I wasn't being serious." Hinji said with a slight hint of astonishment."But if you think it might work we could give it a try."
"Oh... well I've got a ton of it." El said pulling more out of his hat, making sure to hide his face. "Maybe we can make a secondary trap or something?"
"I think it's a good idea Hinji. That's about all we do know about her, how cat-like she can be." Kano explained, "Maybe we should be playing to that....hmmmm...." he thought, scratching his chin. "Do you have any dogs on those cards?"
"More like a hellhound, but yes." Hinji said. "I think I might see where you are going with this."
At the mention of dogs El reached down and grabbed his faithful companion. "I have a dog."
"I'm dying of old age!" Tsu called out as she waved her hands frantically in the air as she waited for her team to do something.
"Dude, not to sound mean or anything, but he's not very intimidating...he's missing a leg for crying out loud." Kano said in the nicest way possible. "So we distract her, string, bird, or dog. Doesn't matter which as long as it works. RIght? Then we simply grab the necklace and quickly. Sound good?"
"Sounds good to me." Hinji said. "If we can keep her in the shadows then I can sneak up on her unseen." He added as he handed the string from El to his raven and sent it in Tsu's direction.
El sat Laki down on the ground since he wasn't going to be much use "I'll try putting her to sleep again, maybe it'll slow her down."
The chihuahua looked up at El as if he had something to say about not being of any use.
Kano looked down at the dog and thought for a few moments. "You said you've tried to train him to be a ninja dog and didn't work? We've got loads of ninja hounds in my village. I could try to show him a few things if you want later."
El nodded "Alright later then. So are we ready?"
Tsu groaned slightly and rolled her shoulders, jumping up and down slightly to keep blood flowing; this lot... stealthy yes, sneaky yes, but did they know how to think of their feet once making one little mistake? Nooooo.
Kano nodded and vanished in a Poof! of ninja smoke, this time there was no rustling leaves to reveal his location. He didn't really have a role in this particular plan, but distraction was a pretty good thing for him. To get her in the shadows where Hinji could get her though, his fire again would be useless.
"Lets hope this works." El said and broke away from Hinji, seemingly playing absent minded, trying to act nonchalant.
Hinji was less inconspicuous as he turned and walked into the shadows, becoming completely invisible. Sticking to the shadows he made his way to Tsu.
Tsu hummed softly to herself as she began to do dreamy cartwheels in the edges of the field, just within the reach of the bushes and trees. She wondered if Kano and Hinji would see just how well they could work together or if they hadn't made that connection yet... She looked up at the bird flying over head and sighed, only giving a small smile as she saw what they'd used to distract her... Well she was in a playful mood really. She began to bound after the bird, toying with it and missing by inches as she swatted at the string.
Kano couldn't believe his eyes when he saw her bound after the bird. The plan was working?? He didn't harbor any feelings about the plan failing or anything like that, but he couldn't believe it was going to be this simple. He focused his chakra and waited. If Hinji and El failed to subdue her, he had a good idea in mind, as long as she didn't get too unpredictable...
El's tune quickened as he noticed their sensei take the bate. It may not have worked as well earlier but if he could at least dull her reaction time then it might give the others a chance to take her doqn. He concentrated on the strings, if he built speed too fast he could end up with another dirt shower.
Hinji crept closer to Tsu as she bounded about after the bird and string. He couldn't believe that the plan was working. He heard El quicken his tune and set himself to act the second the song took affect.
There was a small "Hmmmm" from Tsu as she bounded along after the bird, making sure to land heavily and hesitate before bouncing after the bird again. Surely they must recognize that their distraction didn't truly work, but Tsu was allowing them this one time.
Hinji took the hesitation as the sign he was waiting for. He quickly pulled a card and did the usual ritual. The only difference is this one didn't call for the card to mark the spot, he only had to point. He waited only a few seconds, till Tsu was coming down from her bound, before he pointed at the ground underneath her. At that moment several shadowy skeletal hands shot up and grasped at Tsu's feet as she came down.
"Interesting" Tsu admitted, almost falling over as she'd been preparing to leap again "But half the battle..." She stood there, tugging her feet as if testing how strong the bonds were; of course it would be a sinche to break them but she wanted to give her team a moment.
Seeing her try and break free, Hinji didn't want to wait for the others to act for fear of Tsu getting free. He broke from the shadows and pointed at her necklace while looking at the raven. "Seize." Was all he said as the raven dove down to grab the necklace.
The raven spiraled away with a soft thud, Tsu's backhand threatening to break it's beak in half. "No good, arms are still free" she said, shuffling her legs a few times as if threatening to break free again, then in a much louder voice "IF ONLY SOMETHING WERE TO SLOW ME DOWN OR PUT ME TO SLEEP!"
Kano was beginning to get anxious. He could slow her down permanently, but he didn't want to cook her. His abilities really weren't suitable for this type of thing. He kept his focus and hoped that his teammates would be able to subdue her. It was all going way to easy in his opinion though. He could tell something was up. she'll probably just substitute out like the last time
El's fingers where gradually picking up speed and the sound of his tune was getting louder. The tips of his curls had become wet with sweat as a single been clung to the tip of his nose as he, so far played the most perfect sleep attack he'd ever played.
"OhhhOOohhhHHHhoooOOhhh..." Tsu mumbled as she swayed back and forth slowly on her feet "Tha's.... what shoul' happen!" She shooks her head a few times, stumbling down onto all fours as the jutsu began to take hold.
El was finding it hard to keep his rhythm, he dropped to his knees and played like the wind as the sweat began to pore and a blister opened on his finger. "I'm loosing it! Someone do something now!"
Hinji shook himself out of the state of shock he had fallen into when his bird was unceremoniously slapped down. He quickly fell back to shadows and used his invisibility to get around behind her. He crept up and, with his staff infront of him to help deflect any sudden blows he grasped the necklace and began to remove it.
The only a soft mumble of "Better..." from Tsu, her eyes barely open as she held herself up on all fours. She was letting them take the necklace, at least for the purpose of the training; she wanted it back afterwards.
Seeing Hinji grab the necklace El stopped abruptly. The sour note his blistered fingers made caused a backlash of sound to give him another dirt shower, thankfully most of it was caught by his sombrero this time. He didn't bother knocking it off cause he was too busy trying to catch his breath, looking at his throbbing fingers.
Kano made the hand symbols and readied himself, focusing his chakra to a point just beyond his lips. He could feel the heat rising within his body. If she managed to pull out of El's musical spell, then hew as more than ready to strike for success
Hearing the music end, and not wanting to see how quick the effects wore off,Hinji slid the necklace over her head and held it in his hands for a few seconds before dropping it to the ground infront of her. He then moved over and gently picked up his raven and made sure it was alright.
Tsu seemed to move so fast their eyes couldn't keep up, her hand scrapping across the ground to snatch her necklace. Her entire body arched back and she rolled backwards away from Hinji, the bones shattering as she broke them with quick but powerful blows. She stood up, grinning slightly and shaking her head to get rid of the sleepiness "Better guys... better."
El was still on his knees, his fingers felt like they where on fire. He had ointment but he needed his fingers to get it out of his poncho. "That was the first time anyone ever actualy drifted off while I was playing." He said finally catching his breath "Usualy the best I can hope for is a stumbel."
"You were trying more this time" Tsu chuckled softly, moving over to El as she noticed he was in trouble. She smiled slightly and patted him gently on the sombrero "I think that's enough training for today guys... you did alright for the first time."
Kano was a little disappointed that he didn't get a chance to unleash his Dragon Breath jutsu. He looked upwards and let his held breath out, a small flame erupting forth as he released his stored chakra and undid the jutsu before it could start.
El managed to move his guitar around to his back so he could find and apply his ointment. "Oh that feels better." He sighed as he slipped a pair of gloves on to protect his fingers.
"H'OKAY!" Tsu called out loudly "EVERYONE BACK TO-" she checked "THE REMAINS OF THE TREE! ASSESSMENTS NOW!" With a slight zipping noise she dissapeared from in front of El and stood in front of what basically was really tall charcoal right now.
With a poof of ninja smoke, Kano vanished from his hiding place and reappeared in the same manner before the charred tree. "Sorry about the tree, Sensei."
Hinji placed his, newly revived raven on his shoulder and joined the line-up under the tree's remains.
El followed by his little three legged dog made it to the tree, last as usual.
"Ok guys! Going to be brutaly honest" Tsu said, sticking her chin out as much as she could as she looked up at the three in front of her "You're not that good. You're ok, I'll admit, and we can work on it. The problem is that you have no idea how you can work together." She pointed at Hinji, then at Kano "You two, you could work perfectly together, could have ended this quicker if you'd given it a bit of thought. Any ideas what I'm talking about?"
"I'm afraid that I do not know what you are talking about sensei." Hinji said plainly, "I'm afraid I do not see how fire compliments summoning."
"Except to summon extra fiery things maybe?" El asked "could you could pull out a bellows and give Kano more heat perhaps?
With a small sigh Tsu tapped her foot "Kano generates light, we are in a crowded forest area and I was just outside the tree line. If Kano had kept a plume of fire low and bright behind the trees it would have extended the shadows to the point in which they covered me without me having to actually step into one to help you. Kano throws the shadows on the ground, Hinji steps out of them and snatches my necklace."
"Huh....that would've been a whole lot quicker..." Kano agreed, looking over at Hinji curiously. "Could we have done that?"
Hinji sighed a sigh of disappointment. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of that. "Yes Kano, we could have done that. We could have been done awhile ago too if we had."
Tsu puffed out her cheeks slightly and put her hands defiantly on her hips "Now, that's the one thing I noticed for you lot. You find it hard to think on your feet. I had to practically hand you the opportunity to catch me, I mean seriously, a bird? I like them but..." She just swayed her hips slowly to end the sentence "Kano could also keep me in place with a ring of fire while El puts me to sleep with a song. Hinji and El could work together as well, a flock of shadow birds flying at me and a song that'd disorientate me only slightly would send most people to the floor. This is why I chose this exercise, with one goal for you all to try and achieve; your team work skills are minimal right now but at least you're not fighting each other." She sighed, pushing up her little lucky cat hat; it looked so strange, three large ninjas being lectured by what was basically a little girl in a cat costume "I think... I should set homework."
"I was prepared to do just that if the bird and song plan failed." Kano told her with a smile. His face however had turned a little grim, "But I haven't quite perfected the jutsu, so I had hoped it would work so I wouldn't have to use mine. It would have been bad if I barbecued our teacher during our first training session."
"You guys don't expel people for that sort of thing do you?" El asked pulling his hat off in front of his face so he could knock the rest of the dirt off of it without showing himself.
"I am your teacher, I can handle anything you guys can possibly thing of throwing at me." Tsu giggled "I look small but I'm a very dangerous little girl."
"Is that your way of saying you're fireproof?" Kano asked her curiously
"I'm saying that I've had a lot of people overlook me, and they were all proven wrong!" Tsu said, crossing her arms defiantly "NOW! Homework! You are all to learn two of your team mates moves! Sound like enough? Course it isn't. You are also to think of how you are able to HELP them to accomplish what this move is attempting to do."
"Does that mean I have to teach Hinji and Kano how to play my guitar?" El asked, his fingers gripped tightly around the neck as images of scorch marks along polished wood flashed into his mind.
"No, unless you want to. It is simply the attacks I am interested in, like the way you put people to sleep. They learn that, then they must be able to back this up. How can they help you put someone to sleep. That sort of thing" Tsu said, nodding to herself.
"I get it. So like I explain how I do my stuff and then they do the same?" Kano asked, making sure that he got it right. He'd hate to go and assume and then make an ass out of himself and his teammates by having the assignment wrong.
Hinji stood silently, listening to his sensei speak. He was still upset over how the session went and how he didn't think at all during the fight.
"More of less, you explain what you can do and they've got to find a way for them to be able to help you. Say if Kano had a devestating firey punch, but it was rather slow and people could dodge it, you've got to help make up for that weakness" Tsu explained, smiling up at the group "Look, you'll get better at this. You're in a new place, new people, of course your first attempt's not going to be your best."
El understood but he had no idea how he was going to explain how he preformed his attacks without showing them how to play his guitar. He'd never even tried a chakra based attack without playing it first.
"Is there more that you wish to say sensei or are we dismissed?" Hinji asked politely. The sun was bright today and, dispite his coverings and precautions, it was causing him a good amount of discomfort.
"That's all, run along now if you want. I said I'd buy Kano a hat but I don't know how serious he is about it" Tsu chuckled slightly as she looked up at Kano.
After a quick bow Hinji left the clearing, but instead of going back to town he just found himself a nice shaded spot and made himself comfortable against a tree.
Kano looked at Tsu with a wide smile. "Come on! I'm like the only person without one. I need a hat or I'll look like an idiot."
"Alright then! Lets head off back to the village!" Tsu said happily, grinning up at Kano before turning and heading back to the inc village
"Should we follow them or work on our homework?" El asked Hinji.
Kano followed her eagerly, wondering if she was going to pick up the tab for his new hat or if he was going to have to buy it himself.
Finishing up the last of his summoning cards, Hinji put the caligraphy supplies away into his pack and stood up. Looking around while stretching he found the path out and left to the inc village.
Stumble!