Noburi looked up at the ceiling of the tent as he riffled through his mental files. "Moving on to the next option: Kayano Aya. Sixteen. Pretty much the exact opposite of Yamamoto; shy, retiring, doesn't have a problem with anyone. Sweet kid, apparently. Her grades at the Academy weren't that good but, based on some of the notations in her file, I'm pretty sure it was because she wasn't putting herself forward enough to get the instruction she needed. She trains hard on her own; if she was bold enough to ask for help she'd do better.
"They tried to set her up as a support spec. She learned one or two genjutsu—I couldn't get details—but she prefers CQC. She fights with a pair of bladed chain whips." He shook his head admiringly. "A pair of the damn things. Not like my Water Whip, which is mostly a physical object but also somewhat influenced by my chakra control. Hers are purely physical and she moves them like crazy. I watched her do a multiple-attacker spar, three on one. The attackers were younger, but it was still three on one. She absolutely destroyed them, and she had safed the blades on her whips. If she'd been using live steel those kids would have been cut to ribbons on the first pass.
"Surprisingly for someone with that personality, she seems to have pretty big chakra reserves. During that sparring session I watched her Substitute at least six times and she was still boosting at the end.
"She's an orphan, so there's no family to act as either a pro or a con. Grew up in an orphanage but hasn't been back since she joined the Academy, so no ties there. No close relationships that I could find, so no one to hold her back from joining. No boyfriends, certainly. Poor, since she's clanless and isn't pushy enough to grab opportunities she could have had. Still, she's resourceful; her clothes are always perfectly turned out and cared for, but not showy. No traces of vanity that I could see, just self-respect. She's highly literate; she reads a lot, in a variety of subjects including poetry, tactics, shogi, children's stories, and three different schools of painting."
Hazō raised an eyebrow. "You seem to know a lot about her. Have you been following her?"
Noburi blushed. "I mean...it was my job. I needed to do a thorough evaluation, right?"
Hazō grinned. "And just how...thorough was your evaluation? Did you touch...on all relevant subjects?"
Noburi's blush got deeper. "Cut it out, you perv. Anyway, I think she'd be a good choice. Socially, she'd be easy to integrate. The real problem would be getting her out of her shell. She would contribute meaningfully to our combat power. She has at least one genjutsu, which is something that our generation of Gōketsu lacks."
"Plus, she's pretty." Hazō was guessing, but Noburi's steadily-crimsoning face suggested a hit.
Noburi grumbled. "Fine, yes. She's pretty. Mari could probably work with her to take advantage of that, help her beat the shyness, and give us someone who could work in both the infiltration and front-line role."
[...]
"Her name is Noda Kaiyo; she's twenty. Her Academy record basically reads like a piece of pro-Yagura propaganda. She made chūnin in only three years. The parts of her service record that I was able to see are full of words like 'exemplary' and 'above and beyond', and she did a lot of missions. Four years ago, she got apprenticed to Morita Makaira and started learning—tada!—jutsu creation."
Hazō sat up straight. He'd been wanting access to a jutsu creator for years.
"Not just technique hacking, either," Noburi added. "Full-on creation from scratch. She's got at least one original jutsu to her name, although I couldn't get details aside from the fact that it's Water nature."
"Jutsu creation, but she's a drunk?"
Noburi shrugged. "The 'drunk' part is fairly new. About two years ago she had a glitch in something she was working on. It ate Morita and severely injured Noda. Her mom was a druggie, died of a dreampowder overdose when Noda was a second-year. She hates drugs with a passion and refused to let the medics give her any, even during surgery. She started drinking during recovery—probably to manage the pain and the grief—and went into a bit of a tailspin. Physically she's good as new, but she hasn't taken a mission since the accident and she's eating through her savings. I'm pretty sure she's running on loans at this point and she's going to have a real problem soon. If we promised to clear her debts and help her get off the booze, she'd probably join in a heartbeat."
