Chapter Text
Yawning dramatically, Fubuki glances towards the sky, checking the sun's position. “Is it almost lunch time?” She purposefully pitches her voice to carry, to further get on her teammates nerves.
Another volley of senbon was the response she got from Nori’s puppet, but of course all of them bounced harmlessly off of her hardened skin.
“This is so unfair,” The whiny tone of voice is what did her in, causing a loud snort of laughter to escape her, the metallic black sheen on her skin fading as Nori stepped out from behind his puppet. “None of my attacks do anything, I might as well be fighting a wall.”
Fubuki shrugs, not knowing what to tell him. She had spent their week off lazing around her apartment, and training with Ruriko, during which she had primarily worked on her new technique, ‘Iron Skin’ as they had dubbed it.
“Fubuki probably isn’t the best opponent to judge your skills against.” Yugito says, stepping off of the sidelines and onto the field. “Her techniques would defend against most attacks at this point… And honestly you shouldn't even make being able to pierce her defences your current goal. The odds of encountering an actual opponent with similar skills is very unlikely…”
While their teacher trailed off in thought, Nori and Fubuki approached her as they assumed the spar was probably over now. Once they were grouped together, the woman finally spoke her thoughts aloud.
“I think you should try finding some different sparring partners. You already know each other's skills, and you’re not really learning anything new by fighting each other at this point.”
Fubuki grinned excitedly at the suggestion, already having ideas for sparring partners. “We could practise with Jin’s team!” At Yugito’s confused look, she explained. “The other genin team that got a Jonin sensei, they graduated alongside us.”
“Ah, right…” The blonde tilted her head for a moment, before nodding. “That’s not a bad idea. I’ll try to meet with their sensei today and arrange something. I believe his name was Daishi…” Her focus turned to Fubuki in consideration.
“I don’t know if fighting genin will do you much good anymore though, at least not without severely limiting yourself, which will only stunt your growth… From now on you’ll be sparring with me, and if Daishi-san agrees, him as well. Okay?”
An excited grin on her lips, Fubuki nodded eagerly. “Yeah, that works for me! It will be fun not having to hold back all the time.”
Yugito nodded, her mind apparently set. “Okay. I’ll see if I can arrange something for tomorrow, but for now just arrive back here as usual.”
“Will Ruriko be here tomorrow?” Nori asked curiously, grabbing Fubuki’s attention as well.
Ever since their rest time had ended, Ruriko had been made to spend portions of her time with the sealing department. The death of two of their sealing experts had apparently created a gap in the production of seals, and until they could fill it, Ruriko had to pitch in to keep supplies up.
“Yes she will be alternating her days between working with the sealing division, and training with us. So she will be here tomorrow. But until then, you two are free to take the rest of the day off, or work on your own techniques, I have my own training to tend to.”
Bidding their teacher farewell, Fubuki was ready to follow her in leaving, not having much else she needed to train, but Nori’s hesitant voice cut her off before she could get to the bridge leading away from their mountain training ground.
“Hey, wait!” Turning to her teammate with a questioning look, she came to a stop, waiting for him to continue. He had a nervous look on his face, and after moving a strand of brown hair out of his eyes he finally managed to meet her gaze. “How can I get stronger?”
Fubuki was silent for a moment, before sighing and walking over to join him. “You should be asking Yugito that, not me.”
“I know…” The boy glanced off to the side, his shoulders dropping. “And I have, but she always just says keep training, learn to use more puppets at once… But I feel like I’ll never catch up to you two if I do that. You’re both so far ahead of me…”
Glancing up at the sky, Fubuki considered the question seriously. Yugito was, of course, right. But at the same time, she really didn’t think Nori would ever be able to catch up with her just by training, and learning to use more puppets…
Suddenly, a stray thought entered her mind, and she looked down to meet his eyes. “Do you know… I think his name was Susari? Or something like that anyway, he’s a missing nin from Suna, a puppeteer.”
Nori’s face scrunched in thought for a moment, before shaking his head. “No… We left Suna when I was really young.” He shrugged casually. “I don’t really remember much.”
Fubuki nodded slowly, trying to recall the bingo book entry she had read months ago now. “I don’t remember everything… But apparently he was able to make puppets out of human bodies, and the puppets would keep their abilities, so they could use chakra, ninjutsu… They could even use their bloodlines.”
She pretended to ignore the boy’s face growing paler as she explained the idea. Personally she thought it seemed like a pretty good deal, and she didn’t really understand why Suna hadn’t tried to recreate the technique.
“Imagine if we would have been able to kill Kakuzu, and you could make a puppet out of his corpse? It would be able to use all five elements, have those weird… thread, things?” Fubuki gestured vaguely, trying to explain the concept. “You get the point, you’d become stronger almost instantly.”
She took it as a sign of hope that he didn’t instantly regret the suggestion. Despite his clear distaste for the idea, he was silent; thinking about it.
“How would I even do that though… Working on a human body versus a hunk of wood…” He trailed off, his discomfort with the idea seeming to slowly change over into professional curiosity.
“Beats me.” She shrugged casually. “Probably start by learning anatomy? Then you could ask Yugito to get access to some bodies, we should have a bunch of those lying around somewhere.”
That didn’t seem to help Nori’s hesitation towards the idea, but he at least still seemed to be considering it seriously.
“Well,” Fubuki cracked her neck, relaxing her body. “It’s up to you in the end. And even if you do decide to try it out, it will probably be years before you’re able to use the technique with any reliability… You should discuss it with Yugito first in either case.”
She was thankful when he nodded. Honestly concerned he might reject the idea out of some misplaced sense of morality. As if killing people was fine, but using their bodies to grow stronger was somehow crossing a line.
“Yeah… Okay, I’ll ask her.” Nori looked up at her, meeting her eyes finally, his determination firming somewhat. “Thanks for the advice… I’ll definitely look into it.”
Grinning, Fubuki offered him a thumbs up. “Glad to hear it, let me know what Yugito says once you talk to her. I doubt she’ll have a problem with it though.”
Starting to walk backwards, she waves her goodbye. “See you tomorrow then!” Nori nodding, and a brief wave was all she got for a response before she turned around to make her way home.
After Yugito and Jin’s sensei finished explaining the new training plan, Fubuki strolled over to her friend’s side, Ruriko trailing behind her. Nori meanwhile was making his way out to the middle of the field, Myoga Ren, Jin’s female teammate across from him.
“So…” She started, once within hearing range of Jin, a challenging grin on her face. “Wanna bet on who wins?”
Her friend side eyed her warily, before scoffing, but she could see she had his attention. “Why bother, this is just a friendly spar. Besides… It’s not exactly a fair match, Nori placed ninth or tenth or something in the academy didn’t he? Ren was fifth.”
“Well… How about this then,” She smirked, knowing she had him already. “There will be three matches right? Whoever’s team loses the most will have to pay for the winning team’s dinner.”
Finally Jin turned to her, an assessing look in his eye. She had no doubt he was considering that if Ren won her match, then he or Hiroki would still have to beat her or Ruriko. Odds which were probably much less enticing considering she kept him up to date with their training and progress.
“You know… I’ll be fighting your sensei. And I’m pretty sure they’re planning to put you and Hiroki together against Ruriko.” Dropping the final piece of bait, she watched his expression change from contemplation, to surprise, and then finally to self assured confidence.
“Deal,” He agreed, sticking his hand out which she quickly shook. They came to an agreement just in time for Nori’s second puppet to appear from a scroll, surprising Ren who had managed to get around his first wooden doll, and begin rushing towards the boy.
The second puppet, the one he, Ruriko, and herself had worked together to build, was more than able to meet the girl’s charge, seals lighting up on its palms as streams of fire shot forward.
Fubuki absently noted the girl wouldn’t be able to dodge in time, having over committed to her attack thinking she had gotten around his puppet. She knew she didn’t have to intervene though, and a second later, to prove her point, their team’s sensei was in the middle of the field, grabbing her to move her out of the line of fire… Literally.
There was a sly grin on her lips as she turned to face Jin. “One to zero.”
Jin had a surprised look on his face, but he quickly schooled his features, watching her with narrowed eyes. “Ruriko made those seals, didn't she?” Fubuki shrugged in response, casual. “That was pretty close, he could have hurt Ren…”
Shaking her head, she tried to reassure her friend before any resentment could be formed. “Yugito has him and Ruriko practice no holds barred, within reason. It’s just how they’re used to training, nothing personal. He knew one of us would intervene.”
Thankfully that seemed to calm him down, and he nodded his head in acceptance. “Just him and Ruriko?” His tone was curious, but it also already seemed like he knew the answer to the coming question. “Not you?”
“No,” She denied easily. “Yugito was worried she wouldn’t be able to intervene in time if something went wrong.” It was a morbid sort of pride she felt knowing her sensei didn’t think she would be able to stop her from accidentally killing one of her teammates. But it also meant she had to be extra careful during spars, because she really didn’t want that to happen.
Jin seemed to already anticipate that, just humming in response, turning his attention to the field as Yugito stepped forward, Nori already making his way towards them, his two puppets re-sealed.
“Ishii Jin, Hiroki, and Ruriko. You three are up next.” She looked ready to step away, but a confused call of “What?” Interrupted her, and she turned back around to face Hiroki, who was the only one not currently a part of their small group; Ren and Nori having joined them.
“You and Jin will be fighting Hase Ruriko.” She explained slowly for him. “Chino Fubuki will be fighting your sensei. To keep things fair.”
Fubuki couldn’t help the co*cky grin on her lips as she watched a variety of emotions flash across his face, finally settling on simple annoyance. Apparently he was at least smart enough not to mouth off to a Jounin.
Ruriko and Jin made their way out to the centre of the mountain, Hiroki soon joining Jin on his side of the field. Fubuki couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her when she watched Jin try to convince his teammate to take the fight seriously; that Ruriko could actually match up to both of them.
“Good fight,” She said, absently to Nori, most of her focus on Ruriko, who was staring with boredom at Hiroki and Jin who were arguing quietly. “It was smart to keep your second puppet hidden until you could make the most out of it.”
Her teammate seemed surprised by the praise at first, before smiling at her. “Thanks!” He seemed to hesitate slightly before continuing. “I think fighting some new opponents will be good, I’m too used to fighting you and Ruriko, it’s made it hard to gauge my progress.”
Fubuki nodded in understanding. Nori was probably so used to losing all of his fights, that it would be difficult to tell how much he had improved since they’d started training under Yugito.
Before they continue their conversation, Jin’s sensei; Daishi something, finally stepped in, his face frustrated, and the slightest bit embarrassed. Probably due to the clear difference in his team’s behaviour and Ruriko’s.
“You two,” He grit out, clearly controlling his temper. “Quit arguing already.” Turning his head to Ruriko, he nodded slightly. “You can start.”
Fubuki snorted, amused. That was one way to handle the situation, they wouldn’t be able to keep arguing in the middle of the fight. A point which was proven true when Ruriko casually threw a kunai through the air, a paper tag fluttering behind it.
The two boy’s split apart, dodging to either side of the explosion that went off between them, before finally focusing in on their opponent, simultaneously rushing her from different angles.
Ruriko began to retreat, hopping backwards to maintain her distance from them. At the same time, she grabbed a scroll from a sash across her torso, unfurling it to reveal a seal already inked onto the parchment.
Fubuki still didn’t really understand how seals worked. The basic premise was that they were able to store things, and then later release them. But the way the stored objects, or energy were released was what made the difference.
For example, a large amount of chakra could be contained, before burning the seal, resulting in an explosive release of all of that chakra. Which was how explosive tags were made.
But then in a completely different vein, the stored chakra could be released slowly, and infused into an object, strengthening it. Which was how Ruriko had made the seals to reinforce Nori’s puppets.
That was about the extent of her sealing knowledge. So when the seal across the scroll lit up, and a giant fireball proceeded to swirl out of the seal, flying towards Jin and Hiroki, Fubuki didn’t question it, long since having given up figuring out how each separate seal worked.
The fireball was easily avoided, the boys splitting apart again to get out of it’s path. It was only because of her vantage point that she was able to see why that was a mistake. Ruriko was running behind the fireball, and when her opponents split apart, she went for Hiroki.
Completely caught off guard by her appearance, he was barely able to bring up his arms in time to block her attack, which was pointless, considering she wasn’t trying to strike him, and instead just placed a seal on his bare forearm.
The slip of paper lit up immediately, yellow sparks jumping around it as Hiroki collapsed to the ground in a spasm of pain, his body going stiff as he was electrocuted.
Ruriko was forced to jump away before she could finish him off, a pair of kunai cutting through her position as Jin jumped beside his teammate, a tanto in hand. He seemed conflicted about trying to remove the seal, probably worried about getting electrocuted himself, but eventually decided to just swiftly rip it off.
Fubuki could tell from his flinch that he definitely got shocked, but quickly dropping the seal prevented him from going down like Hiroki had. Standing defensively over his teammate, Jin kept his tanto held out in front of him, while Ruriko stood a good distance away, just watching them.
Eventually Hiroki was able to stand back up on shaky legs, his eyes narrowed in anger. Apparently he wasn’t angry enough to make any hasty moves though, taking his time to regain his bearings.
The entire time Ruriko just watched, despite it being a perfect time to attack, and Fubuki stared at her teammate suspiciously. She had fought Ruriko more than anyone else, apart from maybe Saito-
Shaking her head she focused back on the match as Hiroki and Jin finally made their move; Hiroki beginning to run through a string of hand seals while Jin rushed forward, his Tanto raised ready to strike.
Ruriko was forced on the defensive this time, only a kunai to fend off the blows from the sword. As they fought, Jin kept trying to circle behind her, forcing a situation where she was now pinned between him and his teammate.
With her back turned, Hiroki finally finished his hand seals, a net of electricity beginning to grow between his fingers as he spread them apart, before being launched through the air, continuing to expand as it flew towards Ruriko.
Fubuki watched in mild interest as her teammate threw an explosive tag towards Jin, forcing him to back off, before spinning around, grabbing another scroll from the sash across her chest and ripping it open to meet the ninjutsu.
Instead of the electrical net simply wrapping around her, along with the scroll, or a barrier forming, the ninjutsu was sucked into the seal as it made contact with it.
As soon as it was absorbed, she spun around once again, facing Jin, who was trying to rush her from behind with his tanto. The scroll still held out, the ninjutsu she had just absorbed, was just as easily re-released. The net catching her opponent off guard as he was unable to react in time.
The jutsu wrapped around the boy, his eyes widening in surprise and pain, but he wasn’t able to cry out, as the electricity travelled through his body, causing it to lock up and him to collapse, spasming just as his teammate’s had earlier.
Hiroki was already rushing across the field, with Fubuki able to make out soft curses coming from under his breath. But instead of going to meet his attack, Ruriko instead just took out a kunai, and kneeled down, hovering it over Jin’s neck as he was still being electrocuted.
“Come any closer, and I slit his throat.” She called out coldly, causing her only standing opponent to grind to a halt, his eyes widening in surprise and confusion.
“W-what?” He stuttered out, still trying to appear tough, but failing. “This is a spar? What are you on about?” He turned to stare across the field at Yugito and Daishi, neither of whom were moving.
“It’s a spar, but it’s meant to simulate real combat.” His sensei calls out casually. “In real combat teammates can get captured. How you respond is up to you.”
That didn’t seem to make the boy any happier, turning to glare at Ruriko again. Fubuki could practically see the thoughts running through his head. About how this was a spar, and he knew Jin wouldn’t actually be killed. But at the same time, he had two Jonin and five genin watching him, two of them his teammates. Judging his decision.
“Surrender,” Ruriko calls out simply, her tone even. “Throw your kunai down.”
Hiroki continued to glare at her, before scoffing and tossing his kunai aside. “f*cking coward.” Fubuki could hear him mutter the words under his breath, even from her position at the edge of the field.
In response, Ruriko tapped the Kunai against Jin's throat, signifying a kill shot, despite leaving him unharmed. The electrical net having dissipated by now made it so that she didn’t get shocked due to the contact.
While Hiroki sputtered in anger and surprise, she threw an array of kunai at him, all lined with explosive tags. It was clear he wouldn’t be able to respond in time, unarmed and caught off guard.
In a display similar to the first fight, Yugito blurred onto the field, scooping him up before moving him out of harm's way as the seals exploded where he once was.
“What the f*ck was that!” He yelled once he was set down, stomping towards Ruriko who was putting her weapons away. “I surrendered!”
The red head looked up at him with a bemused expression, and Fubuki snorted in amusem*nt as well. Clearly their sensei hadn’t been teaching them the same lessons Yugito had taught her team.
“Do you really think an enemy shinobi is going to let you, or your teammate live? Just because you throw a kunai down?”
Before an argument could ensue, Daishi appeared, placing a hand on his students shoulder, stopping his advance. “She’s right.” His voice is hard, going into what she recognised as sensei mode. “Standard procedure is to assume if a teammate is captured; they’re dead. You never stop fighting, or drop your weapons, that will just make you more likely to die as well.”
That seemed to cause everyone on their team to shift uncomfortably, Jin as well, who had recovered from his electrocution and was now standing on shaky legs, Ruriko helping to support him.
“So… I should have just kept rushing towards them?” Hiroki’s voice is hesitant, clearly uncertain about the instructions being given.
“Yes.” Daishi’s response is cold, and Fubuki wonders if he’s ever had to make that choice himself before. “It would have possibly saved your life, and depending on what techniques you have, you may still be able to save your teammate if you catch your opponent off guard.”
Sighing, the adult shakes his head, suddenly looking weary. “We can discuss it more later…” Straightening his shoulders, he turns to face Fubuki. “For now, I believe it’s time for our fight.”
Nodding eagerly, she begins stretching, a grin on her face as she starts walking towards the field, the serious speech already forgotten. “Yup! Don’t go easy on me okay? You’ll regret it!”
The Jonin scoffs, but nods, as if humouring a child. “Of course, I’ll take the fight seriously. Quite a few rumours have been going around about your skills. I’m interested in seeing what’s true.”
Fubuki just continues to grin confidently, walking towards the field. Before she can reach the centre however, Jin grabs her arm. “Double or nothing.” He mutters, eyes narrowed.
That just makes her grin wider. “So what… Two team dinners?”
He nods his head in confirmation, his body twitching somewhat, probably something to do with his prolonged electrocution she imagined. “If you win.” He affirms, his tone firm.
“If I win.” Fubuki agrees easily, walking past him towards the field. A confident smirk on her lips.
