A Fortuitous Meeting

Senshi’s head cocked to the side at Komon’s words and also Reizo’s. He had not considered that everyone present here was not at least as far into the exams as he was. He bereted himself internally for not first ensuring that, that was so. Regardless it seemed as though everyone had started the exams at least. Or well that was how Senshi was taking it. He personally considered that both Max and Reizo must simply be waiting on confirmation of their status as Chuunin of the village. That the duties and responsibilities of being the leader of the village was the only thing holding it up currently. The other two boys looked as though they were also on Reizo and Max’s level.
 
Shrugging the thought off the boy responded. “The Chuunin Proctors informed that so long as another shinobi has completed the same exam then you may discuss it with them. However, it is not allowed to be discussed with those who have not completed that exam. Since we have both completed the second exam then we may discuss it Reizo-Sempai. Did you note any specific traps in yours?” It would be an unfortunate realization for Senshi when Reizo’s lie was found out and he would be greatly confused as to how he had surpassed his sempai’s. Regardless he would wait respectfully for the other boy to respond to him.
 
Senshi’s attention shifted to the Hozuki Genin listening to his words, he was greatly confused why the other boy was giving them so much information but he made several mental notes to research basic bloodline wielding clans and learn their skills. He did generally know that bloodline wielders had exceptional abilities but had yet to ever encounter any of them in his time as a shinobi thus far, and so had not dedicated time to studying them. Senshi’s eyes traveled to Max as the boy asked his own questions, before traversing back to the twins. He felt that they should not have revealed as much information about themselves as they had.
 
Though they were allies, it was always best to keep somethings under wraps. Shrugging it off Senshi finally decided to respond to the training ideas, as he had been planning things for quite awhile. His obsessive need to be early, mixed with his own training schedule meant that he had arrived at four am this morning. “I can teach you Chakra Suppression and Chakra Sensory fairly quickly. First we should hash out a training plan.” Senshi pointed towards the woods to the west, the opposite way of the village so that none of the other Genin had been here yet. “I emplaced traps earlier today for my own training. Their seeded throughout that entire area. I think to accomadate Max-sempais idea we play a game of capture the flag, so to speak.”
 
Senshi had never really played any games as a child and was thus turning this into what he knew to be a training exercise. But he did recall seeing children playing this game before. “As I have the most training in chakra suppression and chakra sensory I will be the flag. Max-sempai and Reizo-sempai will be one team and the two of you can be another team. This will ensure that you get further training in chakra suppression and chakra sensory while at the same time allows our team to work on further familiarizing ourselves with each others training style. The team who captures me and returns me to this clearing wins.” Senshi would wait for the others to respond to his idea to assist in all their training. It would also allow them as a group to further themselves as shinobi in a realistic training exercise.
 
Senshi knew where all the traps were thus he would be able to spring them on his potential captors. Meanwhile they would have the benefit of working together to set him into a trap. Though they would also have the competition of having to face off against each other to compete for who could capture him first. If he was captured then the two who managed to capture him would still have to worry about being ambushed by the others before they could get him to the clearing, which would be their safe zone. It would be three sides fighting against each other, simulating a true combat scenario with multiple levels for them all to learn from.
 
After they had hashed out the training plan Senshi would then launch into an explanation on Chakra Sensory. “So before we start our training exercise I can explain chakra sensory first. Chakra sensory is really relatively simple. All you need to do is gather your chakra then direct it outwards of your body, similar to a pulse. However you will need to focus on forcing it to act as a boomerang and return to you. When it does it will deliver a series of information to you, the difficulty in this technique is learning to interpret the data it gives back to you. For example I know that you, Komon-sempai, have the highest chakra levels of all of us. I also intuitively know the chakra signature of everyone here, except for you.” Senshi paused in his speaking, feeling as though he was droning on.
 
He didn’t particularly like talking, yet he seemed to always find himself giving a lot of explanations on how to do certain things to people. It seemed that the teaching profession may actually be calling to him, with how many people he had instructed lately. Shaking his thoughts off he gave an almost half shrug of his shoulder before speaking again. “As for chakra suppression imagine drawing all of your chakra into your center then compressing it until it becomes nothing. Turn it into a bal and shove it down into your navel and then practice compressing it into as small a size as possible.” Turning slightly he looked at Max, “Is there anything you can think to add to assist them Max-sempai?”
 

Senshi would wait for the younger, yet in his mind, far more experienced Genin to give his own point. As the others would start their practicing he began to do a series of stretches to rewarm his body up for the impending training session. He wanted to give it his all and show his teammates that he would be the best asset that they could ask for on the team. Not only that but he wanted the new Genin that they had met to know that he and his team could be counted on to be strong for their village in the event of disaster striking. “Whenever you guys feel ready we can get started.”


WC:1119
TWC: 2974

Komon listened as the two teammates had a back and forth about their chuunin exams and carried on their conversation waiting patiently for the conversation to return back to a group topic, some time passed as they continued to speak and Komon began to zone off, of the many things Komon was gifted in attention span was not one of them. He was snapped back to reality however at the word teach. Apparently Senshi was offering to teach him both chakra sensory and Chakra suppression. Komon’s eye’s lit up at the thought of this, being able to hide his chakra sounded like an incredibly useful skill, however chakra sensory didn’t seem that intriguing to him. He kept this thought to himself as Senshi continued to speak.

Senshi then continued to talk about how they should train and mentioned that he had emplaced several traps throughout the training field, and then began to entertain Max’s earlier suggestion of a game, saying that the four of them should play capture the flag with senshi being the flag. Komon and Komori would be assigned to one team, and Max and Reizo would be assigned to the other team. The first team to return senshi to the clearing would win. Komon liked this idea, the last time he had been in a real fight both his shoulders had been dislocated, and he had been itching to redeem himself ever since.

Komon nodded showing his support towards Senshi’s training exercise idea. Before looking to his brother to see his reaction. Noting his brothers reaction he would then turn back to senshi and channel his focus on the rest of his words. Senshi began to describe the Chakra Sensory technique which Komon had been excited to learn at first, but upon hearing the description he came to the realization that his byakugan already granted him of the abilities that the technique allowed him, and it seemed to do it with a much better range too. He let senshi finish his instructions so that his brother Komori and the new kid Reizo could note the process and follow it before telling him

“Thank you for the explanation, but as a hyuuga I can see chakra including the strength of it by seeing how brightly it burns, it’s one of the many plus’s of inheriting the byakugan, and pretty much eliminates the need for me to learn such a technique, especially considering I also have a 360 degree range of vision, I’m sure it will be an essential skill for Komori and Reizo however” He would say before continuing feeling as if he had been almost boasting at that point and wanting to come across as more humble. “However that other technique you mentioned, Chakra suppression I would very much like to learn”.

Upon hearing this senshi began to explain the Chakra suppression technique and went so far as to give an almost visualization of the technique. He described it as drawing all of your chakra to the center of one’s chest and compressing it until it becomes nothing. Komon smiled at this, it sounded a lot like chakra control, simply directing and manipulating your chakra which Komon had done a lot of in the past. After explaining the technique Senshi dismissed the gennin and told them that they would start the training exercise when everyone had the technique down.

Komon used this time and almost instantly began getting to work, he first activated his byakugan and started to look at his chakra system, studying it for about 20 seconds he began to map out a path that he could use to circulate his chakra back to the center of his torso before deactivating it, after all using byakugan required chakra to sustain, and if his goal was to hide his chakra expelling it was not a good way to start. Now focused on actually utilizing the technique instead of planning it out Komon took a deep breath before exhaling slowly and began to direct his chakra flow inward through the path ways he had just mapped out. It seemed to be working at first but he was met with a rather surprising realization when the chakra began to clump in his chest, the chakra was dense and not wanting to stay there, in fact it was actively trying to push itself back to his limbs and head, this technique went against the natural flow of his chakra system and he could feel his body fighting back against it, to master this he was going to need to focus.

Now devoting all of his attention towards his chakra control and ignoring the surroundings around him he would pull inwards with all his might, compressing it into a ball and applying force until it became smaller and smaller before it seemingly disappeared, not quite knowing for sure what had just happened he released the manipulation of his chakra and felt it all rush back to its proper limbs and areas of the body. The sudden jolt of chakra caught him off guard, and he realized at that moment that he had succeeded in controlling the technique, now it was time to put it into action.

“I’m Ready” he would say.
CLAIMING CHAKRA SUPPRESSION TAUGHT BY SENSHI 1K WORDS
WC: 1766

Komori had looked over to Komon upon Max’s question regarding their surname, but when his brother did not reply, he began to answer him moments before Senshi and Reizo started to discuss the chuunin exams. He had no intent of listening anyways, as he had not yet finished the first preliminary, meanwhile Komon was close to being finished. As he so often did, he took a mental note to remind himself to finish that exam soon enough. Anyways, Komori spoke to Max regarding the different last names of the two twins. ”So,” he began before noticing a confused look on Senshi’s face, which the genin quickly hid. Komori raised an eyebrow but continued his original train of thought and turned his attention back towards Max, “When our dad met our mom, the Hyuugas were pretty strict about the whole ordeal and basically made him need to agree to some stuff in order to receive our grandfather’s blessing. One of those, would be that she kept her last name, as some kind of way to honor the clan. That way, people wouldn’t think that some Hozuki woman had managed to steal Byakugan, and tarnish the clan name. Or something like that. Mom told us about it when we were younger, so I might be leaving out some details.”


Afterwards, Komori began to listen intently to the way that Senshi had begun to describe chakra sensory as well as chakra suppression. He figured he should practice the sensory more during the game itself, however, so he noted what the other boy had said regarding sending one’s chakra outward into the environment and treating is as though it were a boomerang. While listening to his brother boast about his visual prowess, Komori realized how much of a douchebag he looked like praising himself and silently swore to himself to cut back on the narcissistic comments that he so frequently said as well. Back to the point, Komon talking about the sensory abilities of the Byakugan dojutsu reminded Komori that he already had another move up his sleeve which would let him sense another person’s chakra within a 100 meter radius of where he was currently positioned. Chakra sensory could come in handy when he wanted to sense other shinobi in a more secretive manner, however, as his method was rather noticeable to those who knew what signs to look for. Besides, Senshi the flag had already assigned which person would be group with whom, and since the twins had been teamed up together, they already knew what signs to look for regarding their own distinct jutsus, so surprise should be on their side at the very least.

It was at this point that Komori decided to take Senshi’s instructions regarding chakra suppression to heart and decided to try it for himself. He noticed that his twin brother had activated his dojutsu and began to check himself out. Wow, that guy is so full of himself, he thought to himself ironically. Komori changed his mind and decided to practice chakra sensory at that moment instead. He began to gather his chakra reserves inside of his body. Then, after thinking about it some more, Komori decided to direct it outwards of his body, similar to the pulsating manner in which Senshi had described, towards Komon’s body. He felt his body grow rather weakened at the loss of such a massive amount of chakra as he had just expelled, however, he kept his focus on steering his non visible chakra to his twin brother. He felt a sensation that could only be described as a large tug that nearly yanked him off of his feet. Although, it seemed as though the pull was diminishing. He must be trying out that chakra suppression technique. This went on until Komori imagined his chakra returning to his own body, not so much as a boomerang as Senshi had described, but rather a small game of tug of war. This would have to be developed for sure. His brother seemed to be using the chakra suppression technique, so instead Komori decided that he would try to sense Senshi’s chakra, in preparation for him being the flag and all. Komori once again expelled his chakra, this time in a 180 degree radius around him, as he did not feel as though he was ready to cover a 360 degree area. This time, he thought of his Rain Tiger at Will Technique, which instead of being a game of tug of war, simply allowed him to know at the sensation of a raindrop onto the person’s body. He imagined his expelled chakra acting in a similar manner, letting his chakra expand towards his target and dripping onto the person, so to say, instead of pulling on them. However, there was something… odd about Senshi’s chakra signature. The only reason he knew it was Senshi’s was due to Komori targeting him. He could not exactly place his finger on it, although he knew it was vastly different from Komon’s. Then it hit him. It’s colder, he thought to himself, unsure of what this truly meant in regards to Senshi Kobayashi.


WC: 1635
CLAIMING CHAKRA SENSORY FROM SENSHI 1000/1000

Reizo would listen to Senshi as he explained the rules of the game, and then how to suppress and sense chakra. Reizo assumed he must have caught glimpses of chakra here and there, but he had always chalked it up to a kind of intuition. He had never really considered the fact that it was possible to sense chakra just like one could smell and distinguish unique odors. Sure there had been hints that people around him could do it, but he always felt they were really experienced in combat or something, or they could see or hear things he couldn't. It would be cool to have a sixth sense, so to speak.

The blonde haired Genin would first attempt to figure out how to sense other's chakras. At first, he thought Senshi had meant that he would need to flare up his chakra and expand it like a barrier to pick up anything in range, but he realized that wouldn't make all that much sense, seeing how both Senshi and Max had no chakra visible around them. He decided to take Senshi's advice and attempted to send out an infinitesimal pulse of chakra to check his surroundings, similar to a bat's sonar. To his surprise, Komon's chakra was much more easily detectable than everyone else's, to the point it was nearly impossible for Reizo to distinguish other chakra sources. It wasn't until Komon suppressed his chakra that Reizo was able to get a clearer sense of Komori's, Max's, and Senshi's chakras. Komori soon suppressed his own, leaving only Senshi's and Max's chakras. Senshi's was certainly next in potency behind Komon, but it definitely wasn't as overbearing. There was some kind of sharpness to it, however. Reizo couldn't quite pinpoint how he could tell, but much like he could in fighting someone, he was able to figure out certain personality quirks from just the chakra signatures he was feeling.

Komon's felt cheery, if not a bit overbearing. To Reizo, Komon seemed to act like the older brother of the two twins, despite them being the same age. Maybe a bit overprotective, but he probably held the best of intentions. Komori on the otherhand seemed like a freedom lover. His chakra was wild and unrestrained, even somewhat temperamental to Reizo. It was like his chakra was trying to boast strength it didn't have, and Reizo questioned whether something like that was intentional or not. Reizo then focused on the youngest member of their party, Max. His chakra was very peculiar. There was definitely an innocent feeling to it at the surface level, but the more Reizo focused on it, the less comfortable he felt. It felt like something odious or spiteful was lying just underneath the surface. It was like a facade. Reizo hearkened back to the team's first meeting where Max had made his intentions toward the Raikage clear, and he recalled a distinct motivation of revenge. Reizo wondered if such strong feelings could've actually manifested themselves in Max's chakra. Finally, Reizo would hone in on Senshi's chakra. His was felt solemn, stern, and steadfast. It was almost the opposite of Komori's. Senshi's chakra felt very restrained, as though Senshi himself were physically restraining it to either hide his abilities or to maintain discipline. It was a little cold, but it definitely felt more stiff than cold.

Reizo attempted to familiarize himself with each of their chakra signatures, but one by one they were being suppressed, so he didn't get a whole lot of time. At least he'd be able to distinguish them from one another in the short term for the upcoming game, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to pick them out of a crowd in the future just yet.

Next Reizo would move on to suppressing his chakra. He thought Senshi's analogy was intriguing. Balling up his chakra into his core seemed kind of difficult, though. The first time Reizo tried to suppress his chakra, he actually held his breath simultaneously. He could feel the chakra as it left his limbs, and gathered itself in his core, but it felt like it was going to all explode out at once. It was like trying to push two magnets together at like poles. Reizo couldn't quite relax while he was suppressing his chakra, but he made an effort to breathe whilst suppressing his chakra. He tried to bury his chakra under where his diaphragm was. Perhaps that was why he at first held his breath - he was seeing his chakra system and his bodily systems as one single organ structure, when he really needed to separate them from one another. After a couple of minutes, Reizo got the gist of it and managed to wrangle his chakra down to almost nothing but a single point at his core. He had figured out how to maintain it while breathing, although relaxing and suppressing it subconsciously remained difficult for the time being. Once he felt comfortable enough (about 5 minutes in silence), Reizo looked toward Senshi and nodded to indicate he was ready.

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845 + 1122 = 1967 words total

Max would listen, glad that another person thought that the idea of a less formal training session could prove useful. Max didn’t have a lot of friends and children his age to play with, and so he would be truly happy to “play” with his new friends. Napa never wanted to play, instead focusing on how Max needed to get stronger and such. Napa of course had Max’s best interests at heart, or at least he seemed to.
 
Capture the flag seemed like a fun way to practice our skills out. It would require many different aspects, not just combat or jutsu training. It wasn’t just theoretical training, but practical as well. Max would look over at Reizo, glad that he was paired with his teammate. It would promote team synergy on our part and theirs, and it would prevent any odd mishaps to occur because of lack of knowledge of the others capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses.
 
Komori would then tell Max about their last names. Listening with genuine curiosity, he would learn that they in fact had different family names. Max would assume that the name would be based off of what traits had been apparent, but that still raised the question of whether the other clans genes had been dormant in the opposing sibling. It would be a very interesting thing to figure out, but that would take time and study. Plus, most folks weren’t keen on someone doing a bunch of tests on them for what seemed like no reason. Perhaps a thought for another time…
 
Max would listen to Senshi describe what the others had to do to learn the Sensory and Suppresion techniques. Same method he had used to teach Max, it was simple and effective. When asked if he had anything to add, Max simply thought for a moment. “Well, you guys all look a lot stronger than me, but when suppressing my chakra it kinda felt weird. Like my body wasn’t used to the absence of the chakra pumping through it. Also, on another note, don’t use jutsu while trying to suppress your chakra. There will be a large surge of energy that you put out when performing a jutsu, so keep that in mind while using the technique. You might be able to suppress your chakra again, but by that point the enemy might have noticed you.” Max would add this in, not having much more since Senshi seemed to explain the idea behind it fairly well.
 
Watching the others, Max noticed the odd eyes of Komon. Those much have been his hyuuga eyes, the Byakugan that he was referring to. What a neat thing to behold. The abilities of those with clan bloodlines was incredibly intriguing. He seemed to get the idea down pretty quickly, and so did the others. Reizo had seemed to look around at each of the people standing there. Maybe he was attempting to associate people’s chakra signature to who they were. Reizo seemed to give Max an odd look, but that wasn’t something that truly stood out to him. Plenty of folks gave him odd looks over the past few years.
 

Max would see folks ready, and so he would just wait for instruction on when to start the game from Senshi.

Senshi watched as he others began practicing but it didn’t seem that anyone really needed any extra help from him, since none of them were asking any questions. Senshi assumed that the group before him was just exceptionally skilled at chakra manipulation. He knew from experience that Reizo was exceptionally talented so it wouldn’t be that far of a stretch to learn that Komon and Komori were as well. It gladdened Senshi’s heart to know that his village had such strong, dedicated shinobi in it as these Genin before him. It meant that they were a strong village and that he was doing his duty well by assisting them in these techniques.
 
It was after all always easier to learn when someone else took the time to assist you, especially if you were genius’s like his fellow Genin seemed to be. Senshi listened carefully as Komon explained about Hyuuga, it was something that he wasn’t familiar with and the intensity of his stare at Komon only reflected the amount of interest he had in the subject. He couldn’t blame the other Genin for not wanting to learn a technique that his bloodline allowed him to do naturally, but if he had been in the other boys shoes he would have learned it just in case. Senshi was a firm believer that relying on one skill to do something for you was a bad idea.
 
It left opponent capable of taking advantage of you. Based on how Komon had explained the bloodline Senshi surmised that a flash bang, or a technique that produced a large amount of light would be able to blind him. Thus when he was blind he would not be able to tell the amount of chakra someone had. Making Chakra Sensory an invaluable back up skill to use in the event his blood line, the Byakugan, was taken out of play. Still it was Komon’s decision and he may decide to learn the technique later on, if not Senshi would find a polite way to have a discussion with the other boy on it then. As it was, right now, he did not fully understand the Byakugan and for all he knew his theory was improbable.
 
“If you’re all ready, I’ll take a five minute head start. That way you can develop a plan of action as a team and I can ensure a good fight on my end.” Senshi would wait for all of the Genin present to give some form of agreement or objection before turning and setting off into the woods. He left on the south part of the clearing, his chakra not suppressed at all. He would travel for over fifty meters in this direction before he would form the hand signs to make two intangible clones. One of the clones would immediately stand in a tree branch, crouching and watching over the area. The other clone would head back down the path Senshi had made, obvious since he had not taken the time to conceal his tracks just yet.
 
Setting itself up about thirty meters away from the first clone, hiding itself in the bushes around it.  After creating the clones Senshi would quickly suppress his chakra and begin moving through the forest, this time careful to conceal his tracks as he moved. As he went he carefully checked on several traps he had set along the way, to ensure they were ready to spring. Occasionally he would break a tree branch or leave a single footprint in the snow so that the others could find him. Typically when he left these small tracks, they were meant as a way to force the Genin attempting to capture him to trigger a near by trap. He didn’t suspect that any of the traps he had lain would actually injure the other Genin, they were more meant to test someones reflexes and delay them.
 

Finally, when he was just over half a mile from the clearing, now far west of it instead of due south as he had started he noted that his five minutes were up. This meant that the two teams would be coming after him soon. Looking around carefully he remained crouched in the shadows. The genin, Komori, had arrived in a flood of water so Senshi knew he would need to be wary of that particular element. Especially since he could hear the running water of the nearby river. He debated for several moments if he should move closer to it before deciding to let things play out a bit. All of the traps were rather loud when set off so he would be able to track where his opponents were for parts of this battle. Senshi knew he also needed to be wary of Komori’s Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, as it allowed him to create solid clones. He wasn’t sure if Reizo, Max, or Komon could also create solid clones like that but it would be best if he assumed that they could.


WC: 834
TWC:  3808

Komon listened closely as the towering gennin said that he would take a five minute head start and ran off without suppressing his chakra for a while, Komon’s byakugan could of course track this but he felt it would be somewhat cheating and dishonest, so he allowed the boy to travel for his five minutes without the ever watchful hyuuga eyes tracking his movements. He would then turn to face his brother, who seemed to be rather distracted and walked over closely to him leaning over his shoulder and cupping his hand around his mouth so reizo and max couldn’t hear him.

“When the match starts we should get to the wood’s away from reizo and max, then we should use the clone jutsu to track and follow the two from a distance, that way if they find them first our clones can intercept senshi, and turn the tides in our favor, while our real selves will be covering another path in case senshi is somewhere else. Got it?” He would ask his brother before looking into his eyes.

His brother just gave a kind of blank stare like he had been focusing on something else, this obviously annoyed Komon but he simply explained the plan to the seemingly lost twin again, this time ensuring that he understood. “Alright, his five minutes are up! let’s go!” Komon would shout across the clearing to Reizo and Max as he used the body flicker technique to teleport himself from the middle of the clearing onto the tree branches in the woods above, knowing Komori would soon follow his lead.

WC: 2033

Having figured out how to both sense and suppress his chakra, Reizo was ready to proceed with the game of capture the flag. He nodded in agreement when Senshi suggested to have a 5 minute head start, and almost immediately after he left, Reizo pulled Max aside a good 15 meters away from the twins to conjure up a solid plan to find locate Senshi. Putting his hand over his mouth so that the two twins couldn't see his mouth, Reizo threw out some ideas to Max. "Knowing Senshi, he's going to try to make this as difficult as possible to challenge us. I expect there to be a ton of false leads and misdirections. I would venture to guess too that even though he has his chakra open now, he'll probably suppress it eventually to make it even harder. That means that our sensory stuff will probably prove to be useless, unfortunately. But, Komon seems to have an edge here. I think we might benefit from tailing them a bit, see what his Byakugan is all about. With any luck, he'll find Senshi first and trigger any traps along the way. It probably has at least as far a range as our sensory abilities, seeing that he declined to learn it. I am a bit worried that with 360 degree chakra vision we'll be spotted, but we'll have to try our best. If they do find Senshi first, then we can ambush them and capture Senshi. Oh, and I hope you don't mind, but I think it might be fastest if you hop on my back. That way we'll for sure keep pace with them and even be able to intercept them. Don't worry, I won't even notice you and Napa- you're both pretty small. Plus it'll be easiest if I keep track of the twins while you look out for Senshi and traps laid in the forest, or vice versa," Reizo elaborated. He wasn't sure that this plan would be accepted by Max, or if it would even work as he didn't have extensive knowledge of the Byakugan. Still, it wouldn't hurt to gather some intelligence as to what the capabilities of his peers were. Sure he could just ask, but where's the fun in that.

Regardless of if they went with his plan or if Max devised his own plan that they went along with, Reizo would offer to carry Max and Napa. Whether they accepted or not by the time the 5 minutes were up, Reizo would form the Ram sign and body flicker into the woods slightly after the twins had, suppressing his chakra once he had hit his max body flicker distance, assuming Max would do the same.

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453 + 1967 = 2420 words

Max was ready for this. It should prove to be a fun and informative exercise. He watches as Senshi darts into the woods. His eyes follow the speedy Genin until he splits into three different bodies. It would make it hard to know for sure which one was real from this distance.
 
Max would watch as the two teams would move to a respectable distance between one another and seem to start planning their strategy. Komori and Komon seemed to be plotting. Well, Komon had been it seemed. Komori looked as though he might have been spacing out. Hopefully he was okay. As a fellow Kumo ninja Max wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to any of his comrades. Then he thought about how they had all just learned the basics of Chakra Sensory from Senshi. Most of them had only the basics down, and their being unused to it might work in his teams favor. Of course, Komon had also described the Byakugan as being very similar in nature to what Sensory could do. Max would immediately suppress his own chakra, almost effortlessly now at this point.
 
Reizo would approach, coming up with a plan for how to go about this. “So you want to follow them? They probably will be just as aimless as us going into this, maybe even more so…” Max says as he looks over at Komori as he continues to space out while his twin silently speaks to him. “Just remember, those traps that Senshi had put out will likely prove little issue for my puppets. They are a bit sturdier than we are. Of course, I doubt that he put anything in that could do serious harm to us in the woods.” May would say, hoping this to be true. He understood that he had been a great deal frailer than his comrades had been, but his puppets were sturdy enough for most minor hits, and the fact that they didn’t feel pain prevented them from caring about minor cuts and bruises. In fact, they were almost ideal soldiers in this regard.
 
Max looked puzzled at the words that just came forth from Reizo’s mouth. He wanted Max to hop on his back, and the increased weight of both him and his puppets would be inconsequential to him? Max would barely be able to lift up Reizo or Senshi, on a good day. His puppets that he carried around felt as though they had weighed a ton. And Reizo didn’t think that the added weight would have any impact on his speed and performance? “Just how strong are you, Reizo? I might be small, but my puppets weigh quite a bit.” This of course was really only referring to Stein. His size and the fact that he had still been “fleshy” had made him surprisingly heavy to the small boy. In fact, he probably wouldn’t be strong enough to carry all of his puppet pals if the other two had been any heavier. They don’t weigh much since they are basically just bones.
 
Well, Max would just accept the fact that Reizo was strong enough to do as he said. Who was Max to question his capabilities? Surely he knew what he was capable of. Besides, Max hadn’t had a piggy-back ride in many years. The boy was clearly excited.
 

“Hey, my puppet pals can be used for distraction as well. Just keep in mind they don’t likely move as quickly as you do. Or I can keep them hidden until needed, if they are able to catch on to the plan, we might need some surprises up our sleeves. Still, this will prove a very interesting way to see just what they are capable of, and especially that Byakugan.” Max would say this with enthusiasm, happy to aid however he can. 

“So, which one of them do you think is stronger?” Max asks, referring to the other team. “Actually, let me clarify. Which one of them do you think is more physically capable? My guess is Komon, but that is because he has a feeling of… well he just feels strong. I’d like a second opinion though in case we must combat them during the exercise." 

Right as he was asking this, the other two dashed into the forest at incredibly speeds. Max would hop on Reizo's back and they would be off as well.


WC: 733