When Neji arrived at the 3rd training ground just after sunrise next morning, he found Rosa, Tsuzi and the ferret.
“Where is Abi?” he enquired.
“She’ll be here any second sensei,” answered Tsuzi, eyes wide and convincing.
“Ha, not likely,” said Rosa with a harsh laugh.
“She’s probably just helping her parents with something,” Tsuzi said firmly with a glare at Rosa.
Rosa ignored the glare and continued, “She always does this, you see she’s really indecisive and can never decide how to do her hair.”
At that second Neji turned towards the trees and Fuyu the ferret squeaked a warning.
Tsuzi muttered a quick, ‘Told you so,” as Abi dropped out of a nearby tree.
“Sorry I’m late sensei!” gasped Abi.
“Is there any particular reason why you failed to arrive at sunrise?” asked Neji politely.
Abi fidgeted under his pale eyed gaze and ran her fingers through her hair before shaking her head.
“Then I will ask you to be punctual in the future.”
“Er… yeah, sure.”
“Hey, Abi?” whispered Rosa. “Why’s your hair like that?”
Abi looked horrified and ran her hands over her hair, “What’s wrong with it?”
Rosa just laughed as Abi continued to fuss whilst Tsuzi rolled her eyes and Neji got more and more pissed off.
“Right, listen up brats! Seeing as I don’t have much time to get to know you we’re going to start with each of you fighting me one-on-one. Okay?” the three kunoichi nodded obediently. “So who wants to go first?”
Tsuzi's hand shot straight into the air, then she hesitated lowering it slightly trying to make it less obvious that she was dying to go first. Neji smirked a little.
"Okay, Tsuzi you're up first and you two are to stay right where you are, that means no trouble!" said Neji sternly, he knew he was going to have to take a very firm hand with these girls.
As he led Tsuzi away to the other end of the training ground she looked back at her team mates Abi gave her an encouraging smile whilst Rosa made kissing faces. The 3rd training ground was slightly more sheltered than the other grounds situated around Konoha and it curved so that the end at which they had met and the end where he planned to do this one-on-one skill assessment were completely cut off from each other.
Standing opposite his new pupil Neji took a fighting stance and indicated that she should do the same. He noted immediately that Tsuzi's stance was weak; that would need correcting.
"I want you to attack me with all have, okay? Do not hold back for it will do you no favours." he told her coldly.
Neji felt only slightly guilty as she gulped and nodded looking absolutely petrified. A second later he was sprinting towards her and she was struggling to guard his blows. He held back from using his juuken as he didn't want to cause his new pupil anymore damage than was necessary, but he was still a talented taijutsu user who had pitched his skills against that of Rock Lee many times. Tsuzi did her best to block his blows, her reactions were fast but he could tell she was tiring much too fast. A stronger blow sent her flying across the grass to land in a crumpled heap.He walked over to her slowly and stood before her.
"Is that really all you've got?"
As he waited for a reply he listened closely to her breathing, it was much too strained that was for sure. He could see her back shaking as she struggled to draw air.
"You will not survive real missions if this is the best you can manage."
He didn't expect an answer but this time he got one.
"I know." Tsuzi muttered from her position at his feet.
Her glasses made it difficult to see her eyes at that moment so Neji knelt beside her to look at her properly. Heavily lined eyes told him she knew exactly how much work she had to do but they also showed emptiness and self hatred. He looked away and his eyes fell on the ferret which stood in front of her and appeared to glare at Neji. He wondered what point the ferret served and whether it actually deserved a place on the team.
"Do you always just give up?"
She looked up at him in surprise then back at the floor. "I think I would, except... Abi and Rosa make me fight."
"So you fight for them?"
"I guess so..."
"Are you always this useless?" Neji asked harshly.
He knew it wasn't a nice thing to hear but he wasn't here to be nice. The question had half the desired effect; he didn't get the passionate glare he'd hoped for but he saw her stiffen.
"Sit up and look at me," he ordered. She immediately did as he said though her gaze was once again unsure. "Tell me your talents, I think we can ascertain that taijutsu is not your strong point." Tsuzi shook her head dejectedly. "So what are you good at? I heard you were the groups medical nin, am I correct?" He knew he was correct but thought it best to drop this pointer.
"Er... yeah I am. The Inka clan have always specialised in medical studies but you probably already know that..." she trailed off.
"Yes I do, but what about your own personal strengths?" Neji pressed her for answers.
"Well, I'm quite good with antidotes and... poisons." The way she said 'poisons' made Neji shiver internally.
"Right, now we're getting there. Now tell me a bit about what part you play on this team, when you all attack what is your role?"
Tsuzi thought carefully before she spoke, "My job is to stay concealed as Rosa and Abi engage the enemy. Then I have to sneak around them and search for any possible way to help those two out. I usually use basic genjutsu to give Rosa and Abi the advantage; if the enemy doesn't suspect I'm nearby then they concentrate on the battle at hand and give me openings. I also carry an assortment of useful substances with me many of which can be shot at an enemy via darts in a blowgun." She looked away again as soon as she'd finished speaking as though she felt she had said too much.
Neji was silent for a minute or two as he mulled over what she had told him. He was starting to get an idea of how Team 13 functioned now.
"You each have very set functions, don't you?" he asked.
"I suppose so..." she replied, uncertain as to where he was taking this.
"So you are the medic nin who specialises in poisonous substances, stealth and genjutsu." she nodded slowly. "Then I'd like you to give me an overview like that for your team members, start with Rosa."
Tsuzi took a moment to collect her thoughts before she began. "Rosa is fast and good at taijutsu but she has a real affinity with weapons. She always says she can't understand why I like such flimsy weapons as blow darts and senbon needles, she prefers swords and hefty projectiles the kind of things that cause a lot of damage and a great deal of mess.
"Abi is our tracker and traps expert, she likes to use exploding tags in her traps to blow up half the forest and often uses wires when fighting. Even though she's from the Yamanaka clan she's always a had bit of trouble mastering their mind techniques but she insists she doesn't need them anyway." Tsuzi fell silent, hoping her information had satisfied Neji sensei.
Again Neji took a moment to store this new information away. As expected, talking to a member of the team was much more effective than reading their files. He nodded to himself, "And which of you is the team leader?"
Tsuzi hesitated again, "Technically it's Rosa, but it doesn't always work like that."
"Why not?"
"Because Abi always argues with her decisions and Rosa refuses to listen to us even when she's wrong."
Neji nodded and they sat in silence for a minute whilst he stored all this information away and half-formed a dozen or so plans to get the girls working as a team.
"Right then," Neji said, jumping easily to his feet. "Enough talking, maybe we are a bad match when it comes to sparring partners but you can show me your other skills." Tsuzi jumped to her feet too and waited for instructions. "I want to see your most convincing genjutsu. Show me something that would significantly distract me during a fight."
Tsuzi stood back a little and clapped her hands together. Neji watched through byakugan eyes as a black ferret scurried across the clearing, and then another and then another until torrents of squeaking ferrets were running around him clawing up his legs. Neji stood still though he imagined that had he not been able to see past the illusion with his byakugan, he would have recoiled. His bloodline eyes studied her technique on a level few could achieve. The genjutsu itself was weak and therefore easy to break but he could imagine that something like this would work very well indeed on an unsuspecting and preoccupied enemy.
"Satisfactory, but how about something that would distract me personally."
She nodded and the ferrets disappeared. Neji waited expecting something huge and obnoxious but was surprised when Hinata stumbled into the clearing. Of course he could see it was not the real Hinata but it was her face in a genjutsu that surprised him. She was bleeding from several wounds and her clothes were torn. He watched as the illusion of his cousin backed away from the person who advanced. With a shock he recognised Kiba, but it was not Kiba as Neji knew him, then young man had an animalistic expression on his face as he approached Hinata raising a hand to strike her.
"Stop." said Neji abruptly.
The genjutsu faltered and then faded leaving the training ground in an eerie silence.
"What was that?! How do you know those people?" he asked turning on his student who looked terrified at his expression.
"I-I met them at last years summer f-festival," choked out Tsuzi taking another step away from her sensei. "When I was filling in for Abi on one of the stands. I saw you there as well, she's you're cousin isn't she? Hyuuga Hinata, Head of the Hyuuga Clan and that man, well I don't know him but you didn't seem to like him. So I thought I'd use a shocking image to distract you... I'm sorry!" she spoke quickly, the pleading look never leaving her eyes.
Neji sighed, of course; he had seen her at the stand where Hinata had had her fortune told. Tsuzi's unconvincing expression at that time when she told Hinata to watch out for falling animals had had Kiba in hysterics.
"Hn, I suppose I should be congratulating you... you did as I instructed I suppose. I think we should leave it there for now, I still have those two to assess today."
Neji mentally groaned at the thought of training the other two kunoichi as well, this was going to be a long day.
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Chapter notes: [disclaimer: naruto belongs to masashi kishimoto] finally got around to writing another chapter for this story (i've been really busy with my other stories) This chapter is Tsuzi's test.
Chapter end notes: Review? Please? Rosa compells you to! xx