Taibushi Modobo

Taibushi's attack hadn't but barely been released, and in a flash it was gone. He watched, in horror, at Mao-sensei's speed. He could just catch the flickers of his slight pauses, the sparks of deflected weapons. "The hell kind of game is he playing with us, he could have killed us both already if he honestly so desired," he thought. The final sparks disappeared, and there was a light touch on his head, and a familiar ruffling of his hair. He head turned slowly, his eyes slowly taking in what he expected and feared to see. There was Mao-sensei behind him, hand on his head like he'd expected. Except for his other hand, witch now had a set of metal claws upon it. He gritted his teeth in frustration, "It could have just as easily been that hand. Instead of messing up my hair, he could be scrambling my brain."

"Mao-sensei lecture number two and shinobi rule twenty five: a shinobi must never show their tears. All ninja experience pain in their life and the enemy will use that against you. You must never show your tears because you must never allow the enemy to see your weakness. You have to let your pain go and focus," he said taking his hand off of Taibushi's head and walking away. "Now. I know both of you are tired, upset, and perhaps hurting just a little bit. That's alright, that's the way this is intended to go. We get hurt here, get angry here, cry our tears dry here because this is training. When the training's over, when the tears stop, when the pain subsides. . . that's when you'll be ready for a real mission. Again, but this time come as a team," he said as he turned to face them.

He mulled the thought over for a moment, "When the pain stops? I don't think the pain will ever stop, some cuts are just too deep. Even if time truly could heal all wounds, how would one stop themselves from ever being hurt again?" He was astonished by His instructor's skills, that was for sure. He even admired his conviction, the certainty in what he said. But the idea itself just rubbed him the wrong way. People are not to be measured by their inability to fall. Instead the measure is how they respond after getting back up. Failure is acceptable, so long as it leads to future success. Others may not agree with this at all, but he didn't care. He wanted to become better, little by little everyday. Perfection was his goal, and though he admitted it was an unachievable goal, it was still worth striving towards. This is what drove him, this is what motivated him. Every day he made a mistake was a day he learned how to be one step closer to perfection, one step further along a road that never ends.

At this point his fellow pupil was approaching, he took a second to glance her over. He noticed the arm dangling limply by her side, "Well damn, that doesn't bode very well for us at all." He did notice that looking at her, calmed him. He didn't feel the need to draw Mao-sensei's blood any longer, though he truthfully doubted he could. He looked back at Mao-sensei as she finally walked up beside him, hand on the hilt of her sword, regardless of her injured arm. "Good, she's tough, I hope she's tough enough to cover for my frailty," He thought. "Hey, my name is Taibushi by the way," he said to her, though not looking away from their instructor. "I figured that may become pertinent information at some point," he said, turning his gaze to her, "And I'll probably be needing yours as well."

He returned his gaze to Mao-sensei, "Anyway, I think I got something that will do the trick, it's gonna need some setting up though. We need to buy time, which sadly is at a premium. Honestly, the traps are the biggest issue so far, and while you cleared out quite a few around here, I'd like to take this to the forest. In the mean time however, we need to keep him busy here." He said this low, hopefully so Mao-sensei couldn't hear it. With that he formed a rapid series of handsigns before inhaling deeply. He focus his chakra, molded it in his mouth. When he exhaled a burst of water came out, not much more than twelve gallons. After it splattered across the ground it began to conglomerate, slowly building upwards out of the small puddle he had made. It took on a roughly humanoid appearance, before it mimicked taibushi's perfectly. The newly made water clone took off into the forest and Taibushi panted a little, and wiped the leftover water from his lips.

Shingetsu nodded, running through Tao's plan in her mind.

"That would probably work... but Sensei isn't our prime target. She put the bells on Lee's collar, and that means we have to take him down. Nagisa-sensei will probably help him out, but we can't underestimate the cat."

She looked over the training field, focusing on the pond and its distance from everyone.

"His senses are far better than a human's. Getting the drop on him will be difficult, but I may have a plan. I can use Hydrification to enter the pond and launch a sneak attack." Of course, I can also trickle through the ground to get underneath. But I won't let him hear that. I can probably surround him with a wall of water, then you can use a firebolt to disable him, Tao. And once the steam blocks his senses, I'll reach out of the water and grab the bells. Ozuko, you can start things off by getting Lee off the ground. If he can't run or jump, we stand a much better chance of stopping him. Any questions?"

If this works, then all we have to worry about is Nagisa interfering... but I don't know how she will get involved, or even if she will. She might be doing this as some kind of prank on the cat, or more likely, one on us.

Several different ideas ran through Ozuko's mind as their sensei explained the task of getting the two bells off of the cat. The first and almost foremost thought was doing whatever he could to not get sent back to the academy. There was no way in all of hell that he would fail this test, he would break every bone in his own body before letting himself get held back. The advice from Lee was helpful for them as a team. Ozuko didn't have any water nature ninjutsu techniques, but Shingetsu did and that would come in handy. He listened to both of their suggestions and they both suggested him using Gravity Release in a way that he wasn't capable of effectively in this situation. He didn't want to show a weakness in his capability to pull this off, but this situation called for it.

"Eh guys, I can't use Gravity Release techniques that alter gravity without the use of a seal on the object yet, which means I have get up close and touch either of them to place the seal. I have a different plan in mind, one of you handles Nagisa sensei while me and other go after the cat. I have a technique that will get me over to Lee really quickly, so one of you pick who will be engaging our sensei and who will going with me. We need to do this quickly otherwise she'll get the upper hand since she has much more chakra and techniques then the three of us combined probably" Ozuko said quietly to the others as he prepared himself for the fight.

He chose to not respond to Tao's comment about them pretending to be best friends, yeah like sensei would ever believe that after that little outburst a moment ago, he thought to himself. The technique he planned to use to get at the cat and the bells would be his Whac-A-Mole technique. If it worked then he would be able to take Lee by surprise and try to get at the bells, and if couldn't get them then there would be a good chance he could at least place a seal upon the cat and put him under his Gravity Release technique.

"So does that sound like a plan?" he asked them as he became more tense as time passed and Ozuko wanted to get started quickly so that there sensei didn't have as much time to plan and counterattack.

As she slowly approached the two, Asuka continued to inhale and exhale, still trying to cool her head after the recent ordeal. She took her place next to the boy who's name she didn't know, her line of sight shifting towards him. Asuka lowered her stance by a few millimeters, still focused on the straw haired boy.

"Hey, my name is Taibushi by the way. I figured that may become pertinent information at some point," Taibushi muttered, his gaze now shifting towards her. Well, at least she had a name now. No need to have to go through the awkward process of using the words 'him' or 'the boy who's name she didn't know' anymore, and that raised her spirits a little.

"And I'll probably be needing yours as well."

The black-haired kunoichi nodded, smiling gently. Her eyes were now focused on her sensei, shining with some sort excitement in them. "Yes, of course. Please forgive me for not mentioning my name earlier. My name's Asuka Koizumi, Taibushi-san. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Returning his gaze to Mao, Taibushi leant in a bit closer, whispering his ideas to Asuka as quietly as he could. She decided to stoop down a little, bending her left knee slightly so she could hear the boy's tactics. Although she wasn't too conscious about her dastardly tall stature for the average fifteen-year-old girl, Asuka still felt a bit embarrassed by this notable characteristic. The height difference between Taibushi and herself wasn't too great, but it still made her feel a bit uncomfortable nevertheless.

Asuka listened carefully to Taibushi's plan, trying to memorise every single detail so she wouldn't miss anything important. After all, this boy seemed to be a bit more tactical and strategic than her, so it was best that she listened in on the his thoughts. Taking the fight into the forest seemed like a wise idea, even if Asuka had set off some of the traps in the wide clearing. It was obvious that the boy didn't want to risk anything out in the here, instead deciding to perform his own little tricks inside the thick barrier of trees.

"In the mean time however, we need to keep him busy here," Taibushi finished, his eyes flickering from Asuka to Mao continuously. The young Koizumi nodded, patting her mahogony sword sheath.

"Don't worry, Taibushi-san. Get to the forest as fast as you can and do what you need to do. I'll keep Mao-sensei at bay. As soon as you are ready, just-"

Asuka didn't even have any time to finish her sentence. Performing a series of swift hand movements, a large stream of water escaped Taibushi's mouth, splashing the dry earth and forming another short statured Taibushi. But, this wasn't any ordinary clone Asuka had come across before..

A water clone technique? I'm sure that's C-rank jutsu… Still, C-rank techniques do take some practise. Taibushi-san must have gone through quite a lot to have mastered a technique like that.

In the blink of an eye, the clone had already sprinted off into the forest, becoming a small dark spec as soon as it entered through the gate of thick trees. So Taibushi sent a clone into the forest to do the handiwork whilst he stayed and fought with Asuka. A clever strategy indeed.

In her head, the girl thought things were moving a bit too quickly. What was she supposed to do now? Slash at her teacher until the clone's task was completed? Or let the real Taibushi go first on the offensive? To be honest, the boy didn't seem as physically trained up in comparison to Asuka, so maybe letting him take the first strike wouldn't be too wise. Asuka took using one of her techniques into consideration, but with still a large amount of traps and bombs planted all over the place, the idea was immediately dropped. There was another technique she could use against Mao, but performing that jutsu would be pretty inconvenient. Her clan's fighting style was more centered towards weakening their opponent and pulling out the big guns once they were caught of guard. In the current state Mao was in, performing Crimson Spring Breeze wouldn't be all that useful. With his reflexes, she was sure he would be able to evade it some way or another. Letting go of her katana's hilt, Asuka relaxed her arms, leaving her injured arm dangling by her side.

It seems that the injury is worse than I had predicted… I can't fight with my sword in my current state. Before the pain subsides, it will just be my head and my legs doing the work for the time being. That clone needs as much time as it can to do whatever it needs to do. In the mean time, Taibushi and I are just going to have to keep Mao-sensei occupied.

"Taibushi-san," Asuka whispered, lowering herself down to his level. "If you can fling a few shurkien at Mao-sensei, then I might just be able to catch him off guard. In the state I'm in right now, I won't be able to do much with my sword, but I can fight with my chakra alone just as well. I probably won't be able to land a hit, but if he does happen to try and block my attack, see if you can swoop in behind him."

Staring back at Mao, Asuka focused some chakra into her feet, prepared to at least do some damage. Once Mao was weakened and his strength was watered down a little, Asuka and Taibushi could hopefully think of something to retrieve that single bell.

If what Mao-sensei wants is his pupils coming at him with an intent to kill, then that's exactly what we're going to give him!

Taibushi Modobo

"Yes, of course. Please forgive me for not mentioning my name earlier. My name's Asuka Koizumi, Taibushi-san. It's a pleasure to meet you," said the Kunoichi beside him. "Asuka? Hmmm, that's quite the pretty name, befitting I suppose," Taibushi said while keeping his eyes locked on Mao sensei. The last thing he needed was for him to go after the clone before it could make it out of the clearing. The kunoichi's arm one more hung by her side, "Well I guess she was a little more beat up that I had anticipated." This boded poorly for them, Taibushi was basically on his own against Mao-sensei. He would have to think, there would have to be some way to take him on. His biggest issue was not allowing Mao-sensei to know what all cards he had. He had to save at least a couple for the final gambit.

The predicament was quite bleak, further more, it was likely Mao-sensei had at least been informed of who his pupils were prior to the meeting in the classroom. Taibushi was put in a bit of a corner, he probably new far less about his opponent than his opponent knew of him. So far he could guess a bit of Mao-sensei's information. Clearly he knew by now this girl had demonstrated herself to be a lethal close combatant. Katana were somewhat of a rarity in the shinobi world. They were fairly large for ninja tools and difficult to conceal, that made carrying them a handicap as far as most shinobi were concerned. This is of coarse unless one can wield it so skillfully that the disadvantage of the opponent knowing what style of fighting your using is worth it. The tend to rely on speed and deft movements to open an opponent's guard before making a killing blow. This kunoichi demonstrated such skill, quite well. In fact, Taibushi reasoned, at least from what he saw, that she could very well be as fast as Mao-sensei. At least the speed at which he demonstrated dodging Taibushi's barrage. However, it was not readily clear that was his limit. For their sake Taibushi hoped it was. Besides her swordsmanship and speed, the kunoichi hadn't shown any other cards. Well, the shuriken barrage, but that was hardly skillful. It was a blind all out in an attempt to reduce some of the hidden threats in the area. He glanced at her quickly, praying desperately that those weren't all the cards in her hand.

Taibushi on the other hand hadn't revealed so much. At least he hoped not. He had just shown his Water clone jutsu. Besides his ability to use that jutsu, it showed his chakra to be water natured. Additionally he had shown the only item he actively carried around. A single storage scroll, but from that he had merely pulled shuriken and kunai, nothing out of the ordinary. The fuma shuriken might have been a surprise, but he didn't really think they had caught Mao-sensei off guard. Also, he didn't execute his technique properly. He needed to be faster. That may actually be good. Since Mao-Sensei was able to deal with the threats one after the other, they didn't come in simultaneously. They really did look like an idiot throwing rocks at someone. Good, Then Mao-sensei might not have a good gauge of just how intelligent he is. Perfect, that's good, playing dumb was still an option possibly. The only other thing he revealed were his chakra threads. If he had been discrete enough with them, then Mau-sensei would still have no idea. Weather or not he had noticed them, he gave no indication.

"Taibushi-san, if you can fling a few shurkien at Mao-sensei, then I might just be able to catch him off guard. In the state I'm in right now, I won't be able to do much with my sword, but I can fight with my chakra alone just as well. I probably won't be able to land a hit, but if he does happen to try and block my attack, see if you can swoop in behind him." Taibushi consider her plan. It had all the hallmarks typical of the bladed combat he mentioned earlier. She wanted him to use his thrown projectiles to make an opening, then she would use her speed to go in for the blow. But one thing rang off in his head, chakra. By the way she said it, he felt his stomach sink. She could match Mao-sensei in speed indeed, but that wasn't purely skill, training, and reflexes like their new mentors speed was. This was chakra enhanced speed. How could he have not realized that before! Of coarse there was no way some genin fresh out of the academy could just waltz out matching a jounin. That was bad, that meant using Asuka's speed to match Mao-sensei's was incredibly limited. Once she was out of chakra, she would be finished.

Taibushi sighed, as he picked up his scroll of the ground. "A plan for sure but not one I'm comfortable with. It's what we just did, more or less, and you're not in the same shape you were the first time," he said gesturing at her injured arm. "Now I'm no medical nin, but that doesn't appear to be broken. We're not in too terribly bad shape then. You, however, are gonna have to take it easy. At least for a few minutes, let that pain in your arm subside. Mao-sensei is probably far more observant than I am, so he's probably noticed also. He'll want to take advantage of it. Show no weakness, remember," he said Smiling at her lightly. He finally wiped the tear from his cheek, "You and Mao-sensei have helped me with discarding my own, so allow me to assist you with yours." He unrolled his scroll, almost completely, to reveal quite a large seal. Far larger than the tags concealing a myriad of other ninja tools. Placing his hand upon it, A large blast of smoke filled the area around them. While it was up, Taibushi rolled is scroll back up and place it in the holster on this thigh. When the smoke was cleared, A large wooden mannequin roughly seven feet tall stood before Taibushi and Asuka. Thin lines of chakra led from Taibushi's hands to various points in the puppet.

"Asuka-san, allow me to introduce you. This is Roza-kun, she is my most beloved possession," Taibushi said, grinning. "For the mean time until you can actually recuperate, allow me to take the fight to Mao-sensei. However, this does have a weakness, I'll need you to be ready to protect me," he said, his smile fading into a grim look, the murky look returning to his eyes. "Mao-sensei," Taibushi said, bowing as the mannequin mimicked his own actions. "I would like to show you how I truly fight," he righted himself," however, it would seem you forgot to mention one thing during this 'mission brief'. You said we failed if we didn't have the bells when the time ran out. How much time do we have exactly?" He waited only long enough for Mao-sensei to give him an answer. "Ah I see, very well," he would say to Mao-sensei's reply before raising his hands before him. "Roza, DANCE!" He shouted, his fingers seemed only to be moving lazily, however, the puppet took off at a dead sprint right at Mao-sensei.

---

Meanwhile with the water clone......

The clone had taken off towards the tree line, eager to get away from the threat of Mao-sensei before it could be destroyed. The short dash through the clearing was quick, and though there was talking going on behind the clone, it payed no heed to it. It had it's mission, it's job. Once though the first row of trees the clone slowed down. Now "out of immediate" danger the clone began the slow and arduous task of searching for traps. It would take a good look at the ground before it would continue forward, squinting in-between trees for tripwires.

Well, this made things a bit more difficult. After what Ozuko had bragged about, Tao expected him to be able to bring down the weight of a mountain on someone with the wave of his hand. Well, this made more sense, after all. "Alright..." The boy narrowed his eyes at their teacher still waiting for them to make a decision. The whole 'a ninja must always be prepared' rule was being thrown out the window here. Sure, they tried to work as a team but the amount o time they had spent just standing around talking about how to do this had left them open to any amount of attacks. Had Nagisa not simply stood there, the group would have been fried by now. "Ozuko's right. No matter what we do, one of us has to fight sensei. There are only two bells, but there are only two opponents as well. There are three of us, let's use that." Tao took a step forward, holding his left hand over his right and stretched the ball of embers into a small wave of fire now surrounding him. "Change of plans...you two go after the bells in any way that you can. Use teamwork, think about how to synergise your attacks. Move and act as one...alright?" He turned to look at his teammates for a second. "I'll fight sensei." He had to admit that the amount of adrenaline in his system was moving in overdrive due to the opponent in front of him. He had absolutely no chance against Nagisa but that didn't matter. All he needed to do was to keep her attention on him long enough for the others to get the bells from Lee.

"I was really fucking quick to sacrifice myself for the idiot and Shingetsu..." The thought made Tao laugh slightly, his eyes traveling to the the ground for a brief moment. Was he trying to be a hero? No, that wasn't it. He just wanted this task to succeed, no matter if he could move on or not. One of them would be left behind either way, there was no way around that and there was no reason to be stuck thinking about that. "Just complete the mission, Tao." If there was another way, he would probably have strived for it but they had gone through three different plans and they had been given more than enough time to come up with one that worked. This would have to do.

Putting Tao in front of their teacher was first of all his own choice, but out of the three, Tao had the most flashy attacks. They would force Nagisa to keep her eyes on him even if just a little. "Here I come, Sensei!" Swiping his hand through the air, a flat slashing wave of fire went straight for their teacher, moving in the same angle as his hand. Following the first wave, another two got launched as well. She would probably be able to dodge all of them, but as she did, the others had a chance to get the bells. "Now, work together and get those bells." He spoke quietly, hoping his teammates could hear him.

"A plan for sure but not one I'm comfortable with. It's what we just did, more or less, and you're not in the same shape you were the first time."

Taibushi was right. Thinking over the events that had occurred thus far, what Asuka had suddenly blurted out of the blue was pretty much a similar version to her previous plan. To be honest, Asuka was more of a physical fighter rather than a mental one… Although she tried, it just wasn't her type of thing. Even to this day, Asuka was still traumatised after receiving a 55% grade on one of her recent written exams. Simply recalling that big red 55 mark made her shudder.

Unfortunately, formimg such strategies clearly aren't my thing… However, I'm sure that Taibushi knows what he's doing. Since I'm not too confident in my own strategic abilities, I'll rely on Taibushi's instead. Taking risks like that in a situation like this could fail us two immediately, and, of course, neither of us are willing to let that happen. Even though I've just met this boy, I'll have to trust him completely on the 'thinking' side of this test.

"Now I'm no medical nin, but that doesn't appear to be broken. We're not in too terribly bad shape then. You, however, are gonna have to take it easy. At least for a few minutes, let that pain in your arm subside. Mao-sensei is probably far more observant than I am, so he's probably noticed also. He'll want to take advantage of it. Show no weakness, remember."

Asuka nodded her head. This test was serious business, and if she messed up, it would all be over in an instant. It really was best to keep herself on the sidelines for the time being with her injured arm and all. As her teammate had said, the injured arm was going to be one of the key things Mao was going to take advantage off. Stay calm and show no weakness. That was what Asuka needed to do for now.

With a huge blast of smoke suddenly surrounding them, a tall wooden mannequin stood before Taibushi and Asuka, standing at around seven foot. Puppeteering… So that's how he was able to stop the incoming shuriken from earlier on. Ninja that specialize in techniques such as this are said to have amazing chakra control… From what this boy demonstrated earlier, he must be able to utilise his chakra strings to slow down projected weapons. Taibushi is no ordinary boy, that's for sure… Attempting feats such as this are extremely difficult for someone of his age. Unless…

"Asuka-san, allow me to introduce you. This is Roza-kun, she is my most beloved possession."

Asuka's eyebrow twitched. If Taibushi had claimed his puppet to be a female, he would've used the '-san' or even ,'-chan' honorific for it, rather than '-kun'. Even though it was a puppet, Asuka still considered this a misuse of proper honorifics.

I think I'm going to have to ferociously yell chat to Taibushi about this a bit later on… If we stumble across any noblemen or women in the future, I don't want mysel- the squad to be humiliated if he accidentally calls them 'so and so-chan' or whatever. Wait, why am I even thinking something like this through? I'm getting sidetracked again!

"For the mean time until you can actually recuperate, allow me to take the fight to Mao-sensei. However, this does have a weakness, I'll need you to be ready to protect me."

"Of course. After all, I can't just sit around whilst you do all the work, right? That would be extremely rude of me." Asuka replied, changing her stance slightly. Once Mao was on the move, she had to be ready to cover Taibushi at any time. She was aware of the immense natural speed the man had, so defending the boy would prove to be quite the challenge.

Asuka and Taibushi only had a few hours left until the entire thing was over. Before that time ended, the two were going to have to get that one bell once and for all. Asuka didn't want to be sent back to the Academy again, not after coming this far! All that harsh training she had to endure with her grandparents would not be wasted, not in the slightest. This wasn't just fun and games anymore. This was a proper scene that any of her teammates could find themselves somewhere in the near future, and they had to be fully prepared for it.

With a small flick of his fingers and a mighty yell, the bare puppet lashed out towards Mao, pouncing towards him in a supposed attempt to attack.

"Roza, DANCE!"

She stood in a bored silence as she waited for one of her students to make the first move. She imagined all of this being suddenly dumped on them was throwing them off, though that was part of the point of the test: to see how well they work under the worst kind of circumstances. Not only did they not know anything about what kind of skills Nagisa had, they didn't know whether or not Lee was just a simple cat or if he also possessed some kinds of skills too. To top it all off, the only thing they knew for sure was that one of them would be sacrificing their position as a Genin for the other two. Regardless, they'd have to approach carefully, which they seemed to understand. Though she was wondering exactly they were planning over there. She could probably hear if she strained, but she was too lazy for that. Instead, she watched as they talked quietly among themselves. Seemed as though they at least were not ones to jump right into action without first forming some sort of plan. They got points for that, though she'd start taking them away if they made her wait any longer.

"Hey, Lee. You really sleeping?" she mumbled loud enough for the ninneko to hear.

"Nah, I'm too excited to sleep." he replied to her, not lifting his head or opening his eyes.

"You know I got this, right?" she told him.

"You're the one who doesn't seem convinced. Don't worry about the water. You're more than your smoke release."

Nagisa nodded at that, though it didn't really make her feel better about the water in general. Her fear of it was irrational, but persistent, as well as something that could seriously distract her. The fact Lee had told them kind of put her on edge, though her expression would never reveal it. She hoped they wouldn't actually take his advice, but she didn't put any bets on that. They'd likely use any information they'd be given. After waiting a few more moments, Nagisa was about to complain about them taking too damn long, but Tao spoke up first, demanding her attention in his declaration of attack. Smirking, the pink haired woman cracked the knuckles of her hands.

"That's what I've been waiting to hear!" she said, taking of at a run towards the three Genin as Tao sent large waves of fire towards her. [i] Very interesting. He didn't weave a single hand sign. Hm... she thought to herself. As the flames approached her, she made two signs and waited for the right moment, allowing her chakra to combine and build up in her lungs before she released it all at once. Blowing out through her mouth was a thick, dark grey cloud of smoke that spread out around the area of the clearing, extinguishing the flames coming towards her. In an instant, all four of them would be surrounded by the thick cloud of gas, reducing visibility to almost zero unless they would get around, below, or above it. Though she could see clearly, the others would likely have a hard time until the smoke faded.

"What will you do now that I've got you right where I want you?" she would ask, appearing directly in front of Tao. In a quick movement, she would clap her hands together, activating her Gale Palm technique and blow the small Genin backwards, far enough to be freed from the black cloud of smoke. The other two, unless they'd already removed themselves from the cloud, would be her next targets. She had full intention to use her skills in Silent Killing to be utterly silent. They wouldn't know where she was coming from until it was too late, and had they regrouped outside the cloud of smoke, she had no intention of letting it dissipate so soon.

Standing still, she waited for someone to make another move.

While his students began their initial planning as to how they were going to overcome his defense, Mao, for his part, took a breather. Being a sealing specialist his usual role in a Jonin squad was some form of support and while he was entirely at ease fighting in close quarters it was never to his advantage to remain so for long periods. His proficiency in taijutsu was merely an extension of his sealing capabilities, an addition intended to emphasize his strengths. Having already been on the receiving end of Asuka's assault once the instructor was wary of engaging her in close quarters again, despite their differences in rank and Mao's superior skill in taijutsu overall it had become apparent to the older ninja that his student's raw agility was at a roughly similar level to his own: he wouldn't be able to do to her what he'd so recently done to Taibushi.

"Roza, DANCE!"

Speaking of Taibushi, the genin in question proceeded with his next phase of the assault. Drawing out what appeared to be some form of massive puppet the genin's intentions were instantly clear, especially as his squadmate assumed a defensive position. "Well, I hadn't planned on this." His words were calm and decisive despite the underlying conclusions which could be drawn from such a situation. If Taibushi was indeed capable of manipulating this puppet things could quickly get out of hand. Puppetry as an art required an immense amount of dedication and control for an equally devastating pay-out. The traps alone that the puppet could be hiding would mean he'd have to remain on his toes.

Summoning out his scroll once again Mao repeated his previous jutsu. Unsealing Technique. In a puff of smoke the scroll produced around Mao's torso two interlocking threads of steel wire with a number of canisters attached to them at various points. The canister's seemed to number roughly eight in total. Although it was unlikely that his students would know what was contained there-in, the rough of it was that each canister contained a number of poison-gas pellets and steel shot which could be released by igniting the explosive tags wrapped around the outside of each container. They provided a decent amount of battlefield coverage, though their main purpose was to provide concealment for the barrage of sealing tags that would be released as a follow-up attack. If he could land enough tags on the puppet to sever Taibushi's control over it the object would become useless.

"Well then, let's see what your teamwork can do!"

Tao didn't weigh much and his biggest weakness was a lack of physical prowess. He was easily pushed away by Nagisa's gale palm and found himself falling to the grass a distance from where it was used. "Ouch..." He muttered for himself, struggling to get up from the ground. "That hurt..." She pushed him out of the cloud, but that act was one of mercy. She could have offed him at any time if she wanted. Of course, she wouldn't actually kill a genin but she could have declared his participation in this a loss and told him to go back to the academy. This was another chance, though he was unsure if he deserved it.

Getting up to his knees, Tao tried to analyse the situation with little luck. He couldn't at all see what was happening within the clouded area and his allies would meet the same fate he had just moments later unless something was done from either his or their end. Being a ranged warrior, Tao preferred to actually be a distance from his opponent so this worked out but to what end? He couldn't see into the cloud and his allies probably didn't even know that he had been pushed out of it. Damn, that was a strong technique. Even though Tao could utilise his flames in a yet limited but bountiful amount of ways, none of them would truly affect the situation. If he conjured an area of effect attack, he could manage to strike their enemy in the cloud as her sight was probably damaged by it as well. However, in the process his allies would be hurt as well.

A long ranged 'spear' attack with his flames wouldn't have any effect because he had no idea where he was aiming. In this case, a heavy gale of wind would be highly effective. Could any of them use that? Water could work too, couldn't it? Perhaps Shingetsu could use her water transformation and hide until it was time to attack, simply waiting their sensei out. That would however leave Ozuko completely alone against her and that wasn't acceptable. "Damn it, I can't see a solution to this..." The boy clenched his teeth and ascended to his feet. There had to be one, there had to be a solution somewhere. There was one, but Tao didn't want to have to rely on that. If he conjured Azhul the spirit would be able to help because he wasn't limited by the same physical senses as a human and thus the cloud would have less effects on him and wouldn't render him entirely blind. However, while Azhul was a part of Tao's arsenal, the boy wanted to be able to deal with this without bringing in help. He had a team already, he wanted them to manage on their own.

"Alright..." He gulped, moving around the cloud in hopes of seeing something but it was completely futile. "Wait..." Shingetsu had a way out, she could transform into water and Ozuko could go under ground, literally! "Guys! Disappear! She has the beat on us but you're not trapped yet, get out of there!" He didn't want to reveal their attacks to Nagisa so a simple get out would have to suffice. They probably knew how to do this, that they had the skills needed to get out of it. When they did, Tao would muster a large amount of chakra into a cone of flames that he would aim at the cloud and fill it with fiery wrath. The attack would leave him tired and almost out of chakra but if it worked, it would be worth it. The others just needed to get out for that to be possible.

By the time Tao called out to her, Shingetsu was already sinking into the ground.

Looks like Sensei jumped into the fight much faster than I expected. I don't think I have a choice but to take advantage of her fear of water... one that seems justified, since she used a Fire-based release first. That means as far as elements go, I have the upper hand.

While in liquid form beneath the soft ground, she tunneled toward the pond, leaving a mud-coated passage behind her.

There's no way she won't be expecting an attack from that direction. I could use enough water to make it impossible to dodge, but that would consume so much chakra that I couldn't follow it up. But if I redirect the water through the channel I'm making now, I can spray the entire area from underneath.

When she arrived at the pond, Shingetsu chanced poking her head above the water, trying to get a look at Nagisa or her teammates as her water trap filled the underground channel.

The smoke is still there... Hopefully this will clear it so we have a chance against her.

Ah shit! Ozuko cursed to himself as their sensei countered Tao's attack with what was basically a smokescreen and he found himself unable to see where their mentor was now. This wasn't how he pictured the plan starting off and now he had to worry about getting beat by his sensei before he could even do anything of note. Ozuko was shocked at the speed of which she appeared in front Tao and knocked the boy away with a palm technique. He had to do something to get out of this smoke before he was attacked next and cursed again.

"Screw this! Time to wing it" he said to himself and he quickly made the appropriate hand signs for a technique. There was only one way he could out of this smoke without being seriously roughed up by their sensei and he was using it.

"Ninja Art: Whac-A-Mole technique!" he shouted and almost immediately dropped into the ground beneath him. Ozuko knew where he would reappear and planned to try and grab the bells off of the cat so that the fight didn't last for too long. He suddenly came out of the ground in front of Lee and quickly reached out with his hand in an attempt to grab the bells on the cat at fast speed. What the cat wouldn't know is that if he managed to avoid his grab, Ozuko would try to make some kind of contact with Lee in order to place a seal on the creature.

Come on all I need is to make contact and he'll be under my Gravity Release technique, he thought himself and hoped that his plan would work. Ozuko also hoped that his teammates weren't defeated while he made his attempt to swipe the bells from the cat. If it did come down to just him and his sensei then he would give the fight all that he had to try and win.

Faced with his first test, Seiji tried to focus as the pace of events began to speed up. Kyoko-Sensei led Squad 13 to a training field and Seiji immediately took in his surroundings. It was a large open field that was surrounded by trees on one side and large boulders on the other side. Kyoko announced that this test could be the difference between becoming a genin or going back to the Academy and this caught Seiji's attention. There was no way in hell he was going to go back to that place, he had come too far and tried too hard to become a genin.

Once Kyoko explained the test Seiji was already forming a plan in his head, he was a lot smarter than he let on. He preferred to fight tactically instead of winging it and rushing in head on. In fact he despised people who acted so stupidly, acting that way could not only get you but your whole squad killed. Then, ironically, Nori went off and attacked Kyoko head on.

"Wait you idiot!" Seiji called out to his teammate in an attempt to bring him back into formation with Daichi and himself but it was too late. The only good thing that could come out of this was learning how Kyoko fought. He'd wait for Nori to get his ass handed to him and then he would tell them his plan.

As Nori went head-to-head with a jounin Seiji observed quietly, analyzing how Kyoko fought. She used Lightning Style Techniques, and used chakra to enhance her strength, and she also seemed to be a close range fighter. He had yet to see any long ranged jutsu aimed at himself or Daichi. After Nori's second attempt to get the bells he finally stopped.

Now was the time to make a move.

Seiji produced three pellets from one of his pouches and threw them in front of Nori and Mame. Smoke began pouring out, obscuring everything in front of Kyoko. Before he went to grab Nori he turned to Daichi and said, "Find cover behind a boulder, we need to make a plan." Then, in a flash Seiji took off, trying to get this done as fast as possible. He grabbed Nori and pushed him to his feet and prayed that stupid mutt would follow. "Move quickly, we need to find cover in the rocks and make a plan fast."

Once they had made it to cover Seiji would go over his plan with them. Hopefully Kyoko wouldn't rush them or they would have to split up and wing it. If Kyoko doesn't do that then Seiji would say, "okay I have a plan. Nori, you and I will take on Kyoko at close range while Daichi stays back. We'll keep her occupied while you wait for an opening. Use one of your long ranged jutsu and we'll get out your way and hopefully it hits. If it does I'll go in for the bells. There's no way she can handle all three of us at the same time. Sound good?"

Hopefully this works, Seiji thought to himself.

Nori rubbed on the bruise that formed on his cheek as he eyed down Kyoko-Sensei. "If I knew you hit that hard Sensei, I would've thought up a better plan!" Nori smiled at Kyoko-Sensei before looking back at his fellow squad mates. Seiji seemed to grab something out of his pouch, after a couple seconds Seiji threw what was in his hands towards the gap that separated Nori and Kyoko. When the objects hit the ground, they exploded in a giant ball of smoke. 'Sm-.. Smoke Pellets?' Nori thought for a second, 'Why would h-..' Nori's thoughts were cut off by someone pulling him to his feet. "Move quickly, we need to find cover in the rocks and make a plan fast."

Nori turned to see Seiji swiftly run behind one of the many boulders located on the one side of the training ground. Nori picked Mame up off the ground and quickly followed Seiji towards the meeting point. When Nori got around the boulder, he got on one knee and set Mame on the ground. Nori leaned back against the boulder, as he stated his analysis of Kyoko. "She is not human. Tha-... That one punch I took from her was one hundred times harder than any punch I took at the academy." Nori chuckled to himself slightly as he looked around, "If you have any good ideas, I'm all ears."

"Okay I have a plan. Nori, you and I will take on Kyoko at close range while Daichi stays back. We'll keep her occupied while you wait for an opening. Use one of your long ranged jutsu and we'll get out your way and hopefully it hits. If it does I'll go in for the bells. There's no way she can handle all three of us at the same time. Sound good?" Nori listened to the plan closely, and almost face palmed on the spot. 'Why couldn't I think of that, There is no way she can handle all three of us.' Nori nodded in agreement to the plan, "Seeing as there isn't another option, I'm down. Can't go any worse than the one on one I tried with her." Nori gave out another small smile before he undid his pouch and pulled out a single Kunai. "Ready when you are."

Upon hearing Tao warning the others to get out of the smoke cloud she'd created, Nagisa casually pulled out another cigarette and lit it, bored out of her mind that someone wasn't making a move. This kids... she thought with a sighs none of them seemed to be doing anything yet. She could see them, even through the thick cloud of smoke, and they all seemed to be waiting for something. It wasn't like she was moving around or anything. All she was doing was standing there, and still they hesitated. She'd needed to surely teach these three not to be afraid.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Shingetsu slowly melt into the ground, an odd sight indeed, but at least it was something. No later did Ozuko suddenly shout out a technique and also drop into the ground. She rolled her eyes then and crossed her arm. "You three are seriously boring me." she said, her tone quite irritated. As Ozuko would appear in front of what he thought was Lee, the small ninneko would suddenly change shape in a small poof, revealing a clone of Nagisa's. "Silly of you to think once a smokescreen was put up, Lee would just stay in the same spot. Come on. Use your head." the clone would say, giving the orange haired boy a light chop on his head before vanishing. The real Nagisa, standing at the center of the clearing, spoke up then.

"Right now, none of you are impressing me enough to want to teach you anymore. Come on, else I'll send all of you back to the Academy. Either one of you make a move, or I will."

Shingetsu melted back into the water and followed her trail back underneath Nagisa's position. She arrived just in time to hear the words, "make a move."

That was all she needed.

In another moment, she shot forth from the ground, still in liquid form and bringing several torrents of water shooting from the ground with her. As she reached the apex of her jump, she looked down at Nagisa and brought the main column of water crashing down toward her.

If this works, it should disable her Fire Release, at the very least. Hopefully it'll take her out of the fight for a bit. If not, I should still have her on the run.

She looked back at Tao, who was a safe distance away from the surging waters.

Hopefully the other two can handle this... I don't think I can hold off a jonin for long, even with my advantages.

[Battle Music]

Ozuko cursed as he watched the feline turn into a clone of their sensei and he realized that he had been tricked. Goddamn it! This is getting nowhere and I'll look like a fool if this keeps up like this, Ozuko thought to himself and he was rather embarrassed when Nagisa sensei's clone gave him a light chop to the head as she was toying with him and then disappeared. This wasn't how he had expected for his first test as a genin to go and he had to get his head in the game. Then their sensei told them about how they were boring her and how unimpressed she was with them.

This sparked an angry frustration within Ozuko and he watched Shingetsu go on the offense with her surging water technique. He was ready to push himself as far he possible could and he made the hand signs for a gravity release technique after he had placed a seal upon the ground at his feet. It's time to go all out and win this game!

"Gravity Release: King of Force!" he shouted and then altered the flow of gravity inside the ground. A large chunk of earth broke off of the ground and began to rise into the air. Ozuko needed to concentrate in order to pull this off right and by focusing where he wanted the chunk of earth to fly, Ozuko made the large slab of dirt and rock shoot straights towards Nagisa sensei. It was moving very fast and was intending to hit with a large amount of force.

"Damn it...We're failing big time here..." Tao clenched his teeth and thought to himself. Getting the bells was a complete failure, they weren't getting close to the cat and their sensei was kicking their asses. "Okay..." Tao breathed, seeing how Ozuko used his ninjutsu to raise a large chunk of the earth into the air. With slightly wide eyes, Tao eventually just grinned and stretched his hand out, fire surrounding it viciously. "Guys, screw the bells. We're taking sensei down and then we're going for cat! Focus all of your energy on Nagisa Sensei, show her that we're anything but boring!" Using his powers, Tao engulfed the large rock that Ozuko had conjured, essentially creating a miniature meteor together. "Let's see what your 'awesome and amazing' Kekkei Genkai can do, Ozuko!" Surrounding something that large with an intense whirl of fire took a tremendous amount of chakra and it was nothing he could have done on his own, without his teammate to first create the earth elemental aspect of the attack. This was it, a real team combination attack. Finally, they were adding some synergy to this fight.

Would Nagisa dodge all of the water, she was up for a small meteor going straight for her, a large rock engulfed in blindingly white fire. "Excuse our enthusiasm, Sensei! But this day won't pass before we take you down!" The boy felt how he wanted to fall to his knees but he kept upright, his grin wide as he watched their teacher. "We're still able to fight..." He continued, conjuring several small shuriken sized embers of flames around him. "We might lose...but..." He wiped his forehead. "We're NOT fucking boring!!" Waving his hand in a fast motion, the flame shurikens burst out and flew towards their sensei, each one moving in a different direction towards their target.

Falling down to his knee, Tao breathed heavily and placed his hand on the ground as to not fall over. Was he truly this prideful? He was almost as bad as Ozuko, but then, Tao had always been driven by a sense of pride and self assurance. He wasn't going to fail this, none of them were. Fuck the bells, they were taking down Nagisa before anything else was going to happen. In a real mission, you take out the threat before you get the sealed documents. Nagisa was the threat, and she was going to be taken out if it so ended up in all of the genin fainting from exhaustion.

Squad 15, bell test complete, genin victorious.

As the two genin commenced with the assault, Mao-sensei eyed the puppet warily. It would appear that this was far from what he expected out of one of his pupils. He produced a scroll once more, unsealing another device from it. Even in the midst of his attack, Taibushi cocked an eyebrow. This ninja tool was unlike any he’d ever seen. The steel threads now wrapped around his body appeared to have pods on them here and there. Whatever the device’s purpose was, it was unknown to Taibushi. Asuka had adopted a defensive stance before him, ready to repel a counter attack from their mentor.

“Well then, let’s see what your teamwork can do!” Exclaimed Mao-sensei as he adopted a defensive stance. It would seem he was making the puppet his primary target for the time being. “Asuka-san, it seems Mao-sensei is not reacting to this as I had anticipated, allow me to reveal whatever this device does, pay close attention, you’re going to follow up the assault,” Taibushi said calmly. Asuka responded by picking up a nearby kunai, one the Taibushi had deflected from her previous attack. “What about the remaining traps Taibushi-san? There must be more in the clearing, even if the clone is clearing out the surrounding forest,” Askuka responded. It was a good question, she had already fallen pray to one, it wasn’t something Taibushi took much into consideration for himself. He hadn’t even hardly moved from his location since the test started, his particular style of fighing seldom required it. Askua on the other hand had quite a bit of ground to cover. Her only approaches would have no doubt been noticed by Mao-sensei, and he would be on guard.

“The kunai! Asuka-san, use the kunai as stepping stones,” Taibushi said, a grin forming on his face. “Of coarse, wherever the kunai have landed, there aren’t any traps,” Asuka responded. She adopted a more offensive posture as the puppet finally made it to Mao-sensei. Leaping into the air, the puppet struck from above. The genin watched with anticipation waiting to see what this device Mao-sensei had could do. The puppets arm cocked back as Taibushi’s finger flexed. With a quick flick Taibushi sent the punch rocketing at Mao-sensei. Their mentor stood, calm, ready. As the blow was about to impact, there was a blast of smoke. It wasn’t fully white as one would expect of a smoke screen, it had a light discoloration to it as thought it was tainted with something. A pattering could be heard as the puppets hard wooden body was pelted with shrapnel. Then a crash, the puppets hit landed, but on the ground where Mao-sensei had stood.

Mao-sensei had detonated one of the pods, on his right shoulder. As the pod detonated he leapt back slightly, enough to avoid the blow but remain in the cloud, his breath held to protect against the inhalation poison contained in the pod. Reaching back behind him, he used his free hand to produce a pair of sealing tags. With a deft movement, slapped both tags on the puppet, one on each shoulder, and leapt back out of the smoke. The genin watched as their mentor shot back out of the smoke, thin wisps of it, trailing after him. He landed, sliding a little and peered into the smoke. Now that they could both see Mao-sensei, they noticed a pod was missing.

“It’s a deterrent,” said Taibushi, ”when someone gets close he can detonated a pod, the smoke covers him, and the pattering we heard was likely some form of shrapnel, quite ingenious.” He began to manipulate the puppet, but it’s actions seemed sluggish, like there was some form of delay. “Mao-sensei did something to Roza-kun while the inside the smoke screen. I don’t have complete control of her. You’ll have to tackle Mao-sensei, I’ll use Roza-kun to shield you.”

“That won’t be necessary Taibushi-san,” Askua said leaping forward, she planted a foot on the ring of a kunai. Her weight resting on it pushed it further into the ground before leaping from it to the next. As she began to close the distance, Taibushi wondered how exactly it was she intended to get around the defense Mao-sensei now had, but trusted she knew what she was doing. He began the now somewhat arduous task of bringing his puppet to bear again. His gestures became somewhat grander as he tugged harder on the chakra threads to try to compensate for Roza’s reluctance to move. Mao-sensei seemed slightly surprised as the puppet charged out of the smoke at him. He smiled slightly and raised his arms before him to brace for what was about to happen. As the puppet planted its next step, the exploding tag went off. The smoke was a thick black, the bang resonating though the surrounding woods. Taibushi grimaced, it wasn’t that a single exploding tag wound would put Roza out of commission that easily, but she was no doubt damaged, and he was gonna have to put in more than just a few hours fixing her.

The puppet tumbled out of the cloud, it’s momentum carrying it the rest of the way to Mao-sensei. Fortunately for him his already raised arms blocked the puppets charge into him, but the force of it off balance him. He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. Quickly looking over he saw Asuka charging straight at him. He didn’t want to hurt the kunoichi, but sometimes lessons had to be learned the hard way. He sighed as she got close enough, and detonated the pod. But there was nothing. No scream, no sound if shrapnel impacting flesh, just a puff of smoke. Mao’s eyes went wide. He didn’t know how she did it, he clearly saw her, and she was there. Even with her speed there should be no way she could outrun or evade all the shrapnel. It couldn’t have been any kind of genjutsu, he should be immune to any these two genin could throw at him.

He lept upwards out of the smoke. He had to reacquire Asuka’s location. From the air he spotted her, once more charging right at him, but this time from the complete opposite direction of the first time. Once more he detonated his pod, but this time, he strained his eyes to see what was happening. And he caught it, the shrapnel went right through her, and she didn’t seem to move the smoke around her. It was an after image of her, and it passed right through him. In the air there wasn’t any real option for him except to fall back to the earth below, into the smoke screen that hadn’t fully dissipated from Asuka’s first use of Grace.

This was an opportunity that Taibushi had been waiting for. Once more he cocked Roza’s arm back, and as Mao-Sensei fall into the smoke screen he launched the blow. However, without direct line of sight, the attack was blind, hopefully as blind as Mao-sensei would be to defend. The attack landed, but not center of mass like Taibushi had intended, but rather landed square on his right bicep. As Mao-sensei felt the blow land he was twisted off balance, but still landed fine, if ungracefully. He took off out of the smoke screen toward the surrounding woods, the tighter confines would make it harder for the two to coordinate properly. As he darted out of the smoke screen, both his pupils gave chase, Asuka with her kunai at the ready, he other arm simply hanging behind her, and Taibushi manipulating Roza out of the almost dissipated cloud, one leg scorched and cracked, and appearing as though it were limping.

Just on the edge of the woods, Mao-sensei twisted, his free arm grabbing a few smoke pellets from his obi. Before he could throw them to cover his escape into the woods, he heard the crack of a twig. With a glace from the corner of his eye he caught the sight of the Water clone, directly in his path, arms spread to grab hold of him. It was too late to change course, and he wasn’t facing him to counter attack, but then again, that exactly why he had his fancy contraption. He collided with the clone, as he did he detonated two of the pods. However there was one small thing he hadn’t accounted for, the tamping effect of water with explosives. As the charged detonated, the shrapnel was pushed clear through the clone, the water it was composed of trapping the smoke, and forcing the explosive force behind them back into Mao-sensei.

Mao-sensei was thrown back into the clearing by his own explosives, his cloths torn and smoldering slightly around where the pods had been. As he opened his eyes to recover from his unknown blunder, he smacked straight into the chakra threads extending from Taibushi’s fingertips to Roza. The threads seemed to jump to life, Taibushi’s arms flying; he had to be quick, for he may not get another chance to restrain him. The threads coiled around Mao-sensei, who lashed out with his claw severing several, but not all of them. Taibushi yanked his arms back, pulling the threads taunt binding Mao-sensi’s arms to his sides and holding him in place. At once Asuka was there soaring past behind Mao-sensei, the kunai flashed, the cord between the arrow and the bell severed. Asuka caught it and took off, retreating to Taibushi’s location as he wound his chakra threads around the kunai sticking out of the ground around him.

As Asuka finally neared him she spoke, “Taibushi-san, we got the bell! But it seems a little unfair that we would have to work together to get them but one of us still has to be sent back to the academy.” “It’s all right, actually, I think I have a solution to our problem,” Taibushi said as he plucked the small bell out of Asuka’s hand. “Let’s see just how good you are with that sword, think you can hit it?” Asuka looked slightly confused, until the realization dawned on her. She smiled and drew her katana. Her arm still ached, but a single swing outside of combat, she could easily manage. Taibushi tossed the ball straight into the air. It reached its apex and began to descend once more. Not more than a foot above his open palm, he bell split in two, directly in its center. He felt a light gust and eyed Asuka. Even this close he hadn’t seen her swing, but rather, she just seemed to suddenly be sheathing her blade. He handed half the bell to Asuka, thanking her before turning to Mao-Sensei.

“Sensei, it would appear that we both have the bell. So, do we pass, or do we have to wait out the time limit?” He said. Fortunately for all parties involved, Mao-sensei’s laziness had taken firm hold, he chuckled slightly, “All right, you both pass, honestly I didn’t even want to do this, proctoring a test is boring as far as I’m concerned. Anyway, you mind letting me go? I have your next assignment for you,” he said. Taibushi nodded and retracted the chakra threads. “All right then, we’re going to dinner as a squad to celebrate your success, go ahead and pick up your belongings here, get home and clean up. After that meet up at the sushi bar on Fourth Street, be there by six. I take it you both know where that is,” he said, not even seeming that interested in their response. The both nodded and set about clearing up all the various kunai and shuriken they had used. Mao-sensei on the other hand simply pulled out a storage scroll, and resealed his claw and wire contraption back in it before heading back into the village.

---

Later that day…

Asuka walked into the sushi bar, alone. It was only five forty-five, so she was early as usual. Taibushi didn’t show up for another ten minutes, and when he did he found a seat next to Asuka. The two started up a light conversation, which Asuka was relieved with, no one wants to be waiting by their self at a restaurant. The conversation was slow and didn’t talk about anything very important, though it did carry on for fifteen minutes while they waited for Mao-sensei, who showed up late. “I must apologize, I laid down to take a nap and overslept,” he said, taking a seat opposite of Taibushi next to Askua.

“I must apologize, I laid down to take a nap and overslept,” Mao's flimsy excuse left his mouth without even a second thought, the lie spoken as easily as any truth he'd ever uttered. Although he would have preferred to spend the rest of the day after their little training mission resting he had instead received an urgent summons from the interrogation corps asking him to come in and assist with a particularly resistant subject. Still his students didn't need to know all that, it was almost better for them to remain ignorant of those sorts of troubles for the time being.

Still, even as Asuka and Taibushi went about their small talk the elder ninja couldn't help but allow his mind to travel. The memory of the interrogation was still fresh in his mind, as was the information they'd managed to obtain. From what he and the interrogation team had parsed out, and this was not set in stone, a mysterious dissenter group calling themselves Nichibotsu had begun operations all throughout the Land of Fire. As of now information regarding their where-abouts and objectives remained unclear but it stood to reason that such a powerful group would logically stand as a potential risk for the Leaf Village. So great was this threat that, although his squad was not yet aware, they had already received their first mission, a mission tied directly to the appearance of the mystery group.

Any mission which entailed any sort of direct confrontation with the enemy was currently above the skill level of his team so their mission instead pertained to information recovery. Another piece of information the interrogation team had pried from the prisoner was the location of an unmanned Nichibotsu outpost which was most likely used for resupplying their shinobi between operations. Mai and his team were to conduct reconnaissance of this facility and report back, preferably without engaging the enemy proper.