It was around 11 o clock and Aiko walked up the training field where she would meet up with Katsu. Dressed in her jounin garb, Aiko had don her hair in a ponytail with a few strands in front of her forehead. Carrying a small bag, she looked around but it seemed she was the first to arrive. A couple of genin and a what seemed their sensei just left the field. Wishing them a good day, Aiko would head to the middle of the training field. It was a grass plain with several big boulders on it. Perfect for the training she had in mind.
Katsu appeared in a poof of smoke as soon as the other team had disappeared from sight. "Good morning sensei," he announced his presence, smiling. The boy had a straight posture, his hands on top of one another behind him. There were some small rips on his shirt and a little dirt scattered on it.
''Good morning to you as well, Katsu.'' Aiko said, noticing he had used the Body Flicker technique. Not that important, but she somehow found it amusing that her student used that one. ''How are you today?'' Aiko asked, wanting to already apologize for not training or gathering the team for another mission, but she decided at the last moment to wait with that.
"I'm well," he responded with a sincerely cheerful tone. Lately, he was always like this. It would be rarer to see him either pouting or putting on a fake smile just to humour people like he usually would. "And yourself, sensei?" While Katsu answered her question, Aiko dropped the bag on the ground. There was some metalic sound as it landed on the ground. ''I am faring well today.'' For a moment she had almost start to throw out a sigh as she wouldn't have any important clan meeting today or such work. It was just now spending some time and train Katsu and then the rest of the day was her and hers alone. Ignoring her duties as a mother and wife, of course.
''May I ask what you have been up to lately? I am sorry that I wasn't able to spend that much time with you or any member of the team.'' Aiko asked and apologized, hoping Katsu had been able to amuse himself the last couple of days.
"Koike and I've been hanging out more lately," he said. "Though sometimes our meetings resulted in incindeary activity and collateral damage..." The boy chuckled, scratching the top of his head. "It was quite fun and we both got to get some much needed exercise."
That was something unexpected, yet something Aiko had hoped for. After the rather mission on her request, she had noticed that the two had grown closer together. For some odd reason, she couldn't yet imagine Koike and Katsu being really close together, but that was probably due the first team training of Team 8. That and how distant Koike could be. Though it was great to hear such a thing. ''I am very happy. But it is evident that I hope you both haven't caused any trouble. Right, Katsu?'' Faking a serious look, the smile gave it away. She was very happy about the progress.
Taken aback by the question, though the smile didn't fade from his face, a bemused look appeared on it. "Er... I don't think we have, sensei," he said, not sure if they had or hadn't. It wasn't like if they had, they were aware of it. "I mean... We didn't. I'm sure of it," he said, gulping. They hadn't. Right? Yeah...
''Good. Now then. Let's focus on today's training. If I have anything else to say, please remember that if you two train. Don't over do it and stay out of trouble.'' Aiko shook her lightly, but the smile was still present. She meant however her last words. If she would hear her students would cause troubles, she was the appointed one that would either have to pay or solve it. Such was one of the duties of a caring sensei. At least in her opinion and viewpoint. ''Today I want to teach you several small things as one new technique. With our last chakra control training, I wanted to teach you something with it.'' She explained. ''But first, let's do a warming up. You must decide what the warming up will be.''
Something with it...? The boy nodded. "I'll run a couple of laps around the field," he said. Without waiting, the enthusiastic boy started running towards the borders of the field, then continuin his route along the edges. He kept a jogging pace, aiming for a long run rather than a short and tiring one.
Nodding, Aiko would look for several moments before she turned her attention to the bag. Opening it, she pulled out several tools. A chain with a end that composed of a heavy ball. Then several folded big shuriken, which name she could never remember. Placing the items next to the bag, Aiko started to hum a tune while further unpacking the bag. A bag filled what seemed weapons and tools.
After having run several laps, at the point where he'd reached the border of the field to start running, he slowed down and turned himself towards Aiko. After a few slow steps, he picked up his jogging pace, running up to her quickly. "I'm all warmed up, sensei," he said, his little fatigue inaudible from his announcement. He was excited about something most people would just see as bothersome. His self-confidence was ameliorating rapidly.
''Good. The first thing I want to show you is how you can use tools in a rather unorthodox manner.'' Aiko said, deciding to pull out a kunai. The trick she had seen was used by a kunoichi who was admired by many, including Aiko. Lifting the kunai up, Aiko pointed to the loophole of the weapon. ''Can you please tell me for what reasons you can use this loophole for?''
"Er... Attaching tags or bombs, mostly," he said. "Though one could also pull the kunai from its place using the hole. I usually use it for the first reason." That hole had helped him out quite a bit in several fights and spars. He depended on tactics that didn't require chakra more than on his own jutsu, lacking an actual arsenal of offensive techniques.
''Think outside the box. Lets try this out. You must use a kunai and only use the loophole. I will go for a jab with this kunai.'' Aiko said, grabbing the weapon by the handle as she would wait for Katsu to pull out a kunai and ready to defend himself. Though she was pondering on giving some hint, Aiko decided it would be fun to see how he would react. Defending yourself with just the loophole of a kunai against a jab? Aiko remembered the first time she had seen it happen.
His hand went to his pouch, pulling a kunai out by the loophole and raising it with speed to a slightly higher level than his head. Normally, he would use the momentum the kunai gained to quickly grasp its handle, but this time, he used it to make it spin even more on his finger, his other fingers flowing under it each time the blade spun over his knuckles. He kept it spinning as he took a defensive stance.
Waiting till he was ready, Aiko wouldn't step and move forward at her max speed. She wanted to show him something and not to hurt him in any kind of way. ''Remember, think out of the box.'' Aiko repeated as she aimed for Katsu's chest with the kunai. The sharp point went towards the boy's chest and for a moment Aiko was worried that she was going too fast for him to react like she hoped he would.
Finally, he grasped the outside of the hole with his index finger grasping from within it. As the blade's spin stopped, his hand lowered swiftly to meet the top of the blade with speed and strength, giving it a tough push downwards. Feeling that he was pushing downwards, Aiko was forced to let go of the kunai or else she would risk that it would give her an opening. ''Good work.'' Aiko said, taking a step back. ''Now, the next question. For what can you use the tip of the kunai?'' Aiko asked, hoping it was clear that she was hoping for an answer, that wouldn't be any orthodox manner. Like a stab or a jab.
The kunai in Katsu's hand was tossed upwards. He grabbed it by the edge, pouring very little of his wind chakra to make it blunt and pressing his thumb to its flat side. He grasped it with the rest of his hand after feeling a smooth turn around the edge. "Intercept, lock and retrieve an incoming kunai," he said, gesturing to the hole. "Most effective with direct jabs. Easier than parrying small weapons too."
Thinking about his answer, Aiko wanted to sum up another tactic she had in mind. ''What about using the tip of the blade to scuff a surface? In battle it is better to deal damage that quickly take out an enemy, but when on a mission where you need to capture a person, you need to be careful. Besides, if you would use the weapon to make some noise, like make it graze a hard material to create a thud, you can use it as a distraction.'' Thinking about what she would ask next, she decided to switch to another weapon. Turning around, her foot would kick up one of the folded shuriken. ''Forgive me, but I can't remember the name of this weapon. Not that it is important, but can you think of a tactic you can use with this one?''
"Using it as a spinning sword while it's folded and once the enemy tries to retreat, unfolding it and throwing it at them, possibly with some tags hidden in the blades between the two visible ones," he suggested it. "With its increased weight due to the multiple blades in it, it would deal quite heavy blows if it even lands on the enemy's sword, making an opening. At that moment, one could slash at them and flick the blades to move ahead of the visible one so that the enemy is taken by surprise."
Aiko smiled as she nodded. She had to give it to him, he was certainly a clever boy. ''Very good.'' It did leave her a bit thinking about the next. She had assumed that he wasn't that known with using all kind of weaponry. Other than swords, but she had avoided those weapons. Though she had used tanto's in the past, Aiko wasn't that skilled with such weaponry. ''Time for the next then.'' Placing the fuma shuriken down, Aiko picked up the metal chain with the heavy ball at the end. ''And what about this one?''
"Er... I've never used something like that," he said, holding out his hand. "Can I feel its weight, sensei?" He didn't want to give a wrong assessment of the use of a weapon without knowing its limits. Giving the chain to him, Aiko would take a step back and wait what he would give as answer. She wasn't also one that used a tool like the chain in combat, but she had considered it. It would be useful in some situations.
Lifting the ball from the ground, he slowly swung it, though he couldn't make it go a full turn over him. "Hm... For a strong user, it could be very useful but I still think it would be better to make the ball much lighter and perhaps add a blade attached sideways to the free end of this could make it much more useful. The way it is no, it could be used either disarm and opponent with the weight of the ball and wrapping the chain around it with a thrust or perhaps break the arm like that."
Finding his answer rather interesting, Aiko waited a moment. ''But that wasn't the question. Sometimes you need to use a weapon you managed to retrieve from a corpse or enemy. Certainly in missions where you're forced to go in a disguise without any hidden tool or weapon, you can find yourself relying on what you can find.'' Aiko explained. But she hoped he would never find himself in such a dire situations. They weren't that fun in her opinion.
Katsu thought for a few moments. "I'd use it to sweep someone off their feet by throwing the ball or as I said earlier, use the empty side of the chain as a weapon to disarm the opponent and perhaps steal their weapon which could be easier to wield. I'm just not strong enough yet to use something as heavy as this."
After Katsu's answer, Aiko was certain the boy was capable of thinking outside the box with weapons. Though she had several other weapons to question him about, Aiko decided to switch the next part. ''Then let's now use the surroundings as a weapon against our enemies. You see that there are several boulders. The question now is that you need to plan an approach on how to use this surrounding to ambush a potential enemy group.''
"Depends on where they're coming from, of course," he said. "If they're coming through the plains, it could be useful to disguise oneself as a commoner or an old man or woman passing through the area. In that case, as we near, the lone attacker could, to capture, drop a smoke bomb or to kill, a poison bomb or explosive tag. If they're coming from between the rocks, it's best to prepare some explosive tags hidden under leaves or such, something that won't muffle the explosion too much."
His plan was good, but Aiko thought about it. ''But wouldn't it be a bit strange to notice a sudden commoner or old person? Nothing wrong with it, but it is a very old trick.'' Aiko responded, glancing at the field. The idea to hide tags under leaves was most certainly a good plan. But it would require some time to set it up and time wasn't never on anybody's side. At least it was never in her advantage, Aiko thought almost sighing out loud. ''But how will you coordinate such a plan in case something goes wrong?''
"It'd depend on what happens to disturb the plan," he said. "If I were attacked while still disguised, I'd try to retreat and subtly drop explosives for when they come after me. In any case, if someone can see through a disguise, they could probably sense someone hiding behind a boulder so hiding instead of that wouldn't really work. I usually carry a bunch of strung tags in a separate pocket that can just be dropped. The back is a rather darkish colour that doesn't stand out too much so they wouldn't notice it while going after me."
Crossing her arms, her left hand went her mouth. It was easy to formulate questions that could undermine a plan. To bring in factors that could bring ruin to his whole strategy, but he had been able to keep giving answers that weren't bad. Aiko had to admit that he was brighter than he had shown before. Covering her mouth with her left hand, she looked around the field. ''Good.'' She mumbled. Slowly she lowered her hand a bit and pointed out front of them. ''Let's give it a different approach. I will come from that direction. My goal will be to cross over the field. You have ten minutes to prepare for my arrival. And your objective is simple.'' Aiko glanced at Katsu. ''You need to stall me from reaching the place for five minutes. The scenario is that you're fighting against an enemy of a higher rank and need to wait for reinforcements that will arive around five minutes.''
"Ah... Alright," he said, looking towards the direction she was pointing at. He scratched his chin, glancing around at the field. This would be much better if I could use genjutsu but... I can't just do this with explosives. Katsu quickly rushed towards one edge of the field and planted a kunai by the blade where only dirt was, concealing the dark coloured hole which was on the surface. He quickly tied a piece of string to the hole with several tags attached to it, some only flash tags and some explosive. He ran towards the other corner and did the same, attaching the other tip of the string onto the kunai's hole. Once he had done the same with the other two corners, he had created an X on the field, though it looked like there was nothing, since the string and tags were hidden under the dirt. Most of the area was concealed by rocks anyway. A-ha! Towards the center, if one made an imaginary line between the rocks, a circle would appear. Noticing this, Katsu ran to the center of said imaginary circle and pulled out the bell he always carried that Koike had given him during their training with Aiko and shook it a bit to make sure its sound was heard, then glancing back at Aiko. Pocketing it once more, he dropped a smoke bomb onto the ground which had the same shape and size, even a small string attached to it, in the middle of the circle. With one last fail-safe plan, he ran to the backs of each rock and placed one explosive tag on the ground just beneath them, concealed well in their shadows.
Aiko had walked into the direction she would approach the field from. Of course the temptation to peek and see what Katsu would do to prepare was big, but she managed to ressist. Taking a considerable walking distance between them, Aiko would wait patiently until ten minutes had passed. But she wouldn't just go and walk back in her current form. No, she would pull a little twist to it.
Slowly walking, a young man, that was wearing the typical garb of a Konoha shinobi, was heading to the field. He was whistling a cheerful tune as he carried a shoulderbag. He came from the direction that Aiko had said she would come from. But he had nothing alike with her. Trying to head to the center of the field, the man stopped as he almost arrived at the border of the training field. His eyes squinted and soon, a moment later, he sneezed. Mumbling something, he would then enter the field.
Katsu had the string that passed through the first two kunai the string of which would pass under the other. He took a peek at the person entering the field from the reflection of the headband he'd taken off. Seeing it, he put it back on and readied himself, a kunai with a tag in one hand and the string in the other.
Entering the field, the man kept whistling a rather cheerful tune. Then somebody else ran to the field. It was a young looking girl. Her headband made it clear she was probably a genin. Turning around, the man smiled as he waved at the girl. Waving back, the girl would head towards the man. Considering the distance they were at with Katsu, it wasn't possible for him to hear them. But from the looks they were discussing something about the field. The man pointed to the rocks to which the girl nodded. She had a serious expression on her face. Then another young person came running towards the two.
This is rather uncanny... The clock is ticking, I guess, he said, some sweat sweat forming on his face. He kept an eye on them as well as on the border Aiko had said she would come from. He formed the rat handsignal and disappeared in a puff of smoke, reappearing behind a rock near them. Without wasting any time, he performed three more hand seals and where the young shinobi stood was now a sizable rock.
''Always pay attention to your surrounding.'' It was a faint whisper. Aiko sat just behind Katsu, her arms resting on her knees as she had lowered herself. A smile was present as she would wait for his reaction. The three people would walk towards the middle of the field as the man would search his bag for something. Slowly, Aiko's right hand went to her pouch as she wanted to be cautious to what Katsu would do with her sudden surprise.
Upon hearing the voice, there was a puff of smoke where the stone was, Katsu returning to his form. Without wasting any time, he used the cover of the smoke to quickly swipe his feet, spinning with his wrists. His hands were both clutching the dirt tightly when he made a quick flick of the hand and spun his body, his legs spinning rapidly one after another towards Aiko's. He knew he probably wouldn't hit but that wasn't much of an issue in his case.
Smiling as Katsu poofed back in his normal form, the left hand went out of her pouch as she grabbed a shuriken. With Katsu using the cover of the smoke, Aiko wanted to compliment him but she would need the time to react back. Narrowing her eyes, the woman quickly moved backwards to avoid getting hit by the legs of Katsu. Using the three gathered people at the center of the field was out of question. Her idea was to use them to keep Katsu from doing anything bold or big. Skidding to a halt, she would aim the shuriken, but not yet throw it.
A small chuckle left Katsu's lips as he noticed Aiko move away. With one hand still gripping the dirt tight, he pushed himself up from the ground. Along with his grasping hand came something, pushing up a small amount of earth in a line that would go past Aiko. Along with them were the tags. At the end of the line, one could see the kunai, now more noticable as some more of it was pulled out of the ground with the tug. Katsu had his eyes closed after one of the tags ignited, sending a pillar of light from the markings on it rather than an explosion.
The eyes of Aiko widened. The shuriken hadn't left her hand or she was caught by surprise. She had noticed the line with the tags and out of reflex, she bent through her legs to jump away as crossing her arms in front of her body to try to shield it from any possible explosion that she was expecting. Clever kid. She thought to herself, wondering if she would be fast enough to not get caught by any explosive.
As he landed on his side, Katsu kept his eyes shut tight. The light intensified, diminishing any shadow in its line of sight. To the naked eye, it would be quite a sore for some time as well as give the person almost pure white sight for several seconds before they could regain their full sight. Upon the impact with the ground, Katsu jumped to his feet and pulled out a shuriken.
A flash tag? No, a whole lot of them! Though she attempted, her eyes were blinded by the light. Landing on the ground, Aiko was close of losing her balance by the blinding light. Raising her free hand to rub her eyes, she remembered why she didn't like it when somebody used those against her. Her left hand lashed out, throwing the shuriken towards Katsu, using her silent killing to attempt to buy some time as she was troubled by the effects of his surprise.
Just as Katsu was about to throw the shuriken, with his other hand going to his pouch to get another one, the one Aiko had thrown flew towards his hand that had the shuriken. Though it only grazed the hand, it still made a wound and knocked out the throwing star from his hand. He recoiled in pain and after a second, he thrust the other shuriken with his left hand aimed at Aiko's Achilles' Heel, giving it a strong curve.
Frowning, Aiko gave up on using her eyes for now. It was still aching with pain, but she could do without sight. Relying on sound and scent, she would try to hold out until she could use her eyes again. Hearing something approaching her, Aiko pulled out a kunai and waited for the right moment. Throwing the weapon, it would pin down the shuriken that was suppose to approach her heel, while she ducked which made it clear she was about to do something.
Katsu gave another tug at the string. Though the tags on that side were all used, he still seemed to be using it. The kunai at the edge was lifted from the ground. With a strong pull the kunai would follow the string in a straight line, moving towards Aiko with speed, though only with the back pointing towards her.
Seemed that he was full of surprises today, Aiko thought to herself. She opened her eyes, but her vision was still blurry. Though she had noticed the incoming kunai, Aiko didn't do anything to catch or protect herself from it. The object would hit her straight against the head, causing her to stumble back and then disperse in water. There would be a loud whistle from the other side of the field, as Aiko would stand there, waiting for Katsu. The three people from before weren't sighted anywhere as one of them was Aiko and the others were simple disguised Academy clones.
Katsu looked at the water, confused and surprised at the phenomenon. He turned around upon hearing the whistle, seeing only Aiko. B...But... He looked back at where the water had fallen, sighing. With his head lowered, he walk towards his sensei. Even when he reached the other side of the field, he still had his head lowered, expecting a weak blow to the top of his head for not attacking the genin.
Instead, her hand would ruffle his hair. ''Don't look like that. I bet you don't want me to feel bad for managing to occupy you with my tactic?'' Aiko asked, half laughing. Her plan had been to use Academy clones, disguised. With a water clone in wait, she had let two clones enter the field and looking like they were just some regular people. The third, the young girl, was Aiko in disguise. As long Katsu wouldn't approach or attack the three, her water clone could try to track Katsu with silent killing. Then it was simply to keep him occupied as she would run to the end she had to reach before her time was up. ''You managed to beat a water clone of me. That was very cool.''
The boy raised his head, his hair now messier than ever (not like it was tidy before). A childish smile lit up his face. "Hehe... Thank you, sensei," he said with a voice that matched his expression. ''Now, I suggest we remove the traps from the field. Don't want to accidently harm some really innocent people.'' Aiko said, removing her hand as she looked at the field. ''But there is also a lesson to this, Katsu. Always be wary of what might happen around you. But don't worry.'' Aiko pointed to herself as she smiled. ''I am going to train you into Silent Killing. That way you will become able to be more wary of what happens around you.''
"Right away," he said firmly, straightening his back. Turning around, the boy quickly rushed to the first corner to start dismantling the second string as well as the kunai. Once he was done taking the tags from the stones and the smoke bomb from the center, he walked up to Aiko once more, waiting for instructions. ''Now that is done, what would you do next time when I would attempt to use such a tactic like before?'' Aiko asked in a polite fashion.
"There would still be the risk of them being passerbys so I would most likely attack non vital points by surprise. Clones disperse after taking direct hits and gauging by the reaction, I would try to see if it was you, sensei," he answered. "I thought of doing it but I decided to listen in first, ignoring the fact that you were most likely already in the field by then."
''That would be a good approach. But why not try to keep a position more at the center? I could try to sneak past with ease, but that isn't the point. The idea was to see how a plan works in the field. It is very easy to discuss a plan like we are doing now. Only fact remains that a lot of things can go like we don't expect. If you were able to set up some traps that would trigger an alert, then you would have forced me to adjust. Which could have caused me to make a mistake.'' Aiko answered. She was still very proud of how Katsu had performed and reacted today. He had shown to her that he wasn't maybe able to keep up with her in the field, but his intellect and knowledge was above what she had read in his profile. ''I am still very proud of you Katsu. Really.'' Patting his shoulder, Aiko smiled.
Katsu's cheeks were coloured a light tint of red as he grinned widely. Though he would always put himself down, it was pleasant hearing praise from his sensei. It prepared him mentally for what would come in the following days. Though there were some obvious flaws in his preparation, seeing how it was for someone like Aiko, he was glad he could perform at least at the level he was expected to.
''Now, shall we get some lunch? I don't know about you, but I would love some strawberry tea. Maybe with a nice bowl of noodles.'' Aiko suggested. ''I did hear something yesterday, you know. About that it is a sign of respect that somebody treats his or her superior.'' She would say, already turning around to start walking. After her second sentence she would however smile and wink at Katsu.
"O...Oh... Yes, sensei," he said, following her quickly. After having caught up he bit his lower lip. Money... He had some of the money from the mission in his wallet for emergencies but that was about it. "Er... Sensei, are we going to a specific place...?"
''Hey, you're buying. You may pick.'' Aiko laughed out loud as she felt a little bit bad about it. But it was fun and she really meant her words from before. Glancing at the field they were leaving, Aiko had a good feeling of what would come. While walking with Katsu, she was convinced that the boy was going to become a capable shinobi. With the coming exams, she hoped that he would keep improving as he was doing now.
"Ah... Haha..." The boy's head lowered after he'd fallen a little behind. Sighing he caught up again. "Uh... I think I know a good place..."
Nightwing95
