Sleight Advantage [Naruto SI] (Old version)
- Thread starter RogueDruid
- Start date
RogueDruid
"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"
- Location
- Salt lake city
Just had time to go back and touch it up. Hopefully, it looks better now.
RichardWhereat
Feanor did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Australia
Those projects seem to be a mixture of propaganda to increase and shore up morale, as much as scientific research that might have bourne out fruit had the war gone their way.
RogueDruid: When you go back to edit, that mistake I mentioned with the they're/their, is still there. Heee.
RogueDruid: When you go back to edit, that mistake I mentioned with the they're/their, is still there. Heee.
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Interlude- Troublesome
RogueDruid
"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"
- Location
- Salt lake city
This... This was a pain. And before you say this is way too smoothly handled, the issues brought up in this will cause problems for quite some time. but all the members here are intelligent and levelheaded enough to find middle ground here.
I narrowed my eyes at the boy, my new teammate, who was nervously fiddling with a pen, the plastic and metal circling and spinning in his hand. I don't think he was even thinking about it, it was just reflexive. Measuring weight and speed and distance in his hands without looking. The pen did a flip, coming up half a foot and spinning erratically before he caught it and kept it spinning down and around as he twisted his hand, not breaking the movement.
This was fucking annoying. How the hell did I miss Toru's mind? I knew he was perceptive and sly, but this level of foresight, while not like that of my cousins and family, was still way more than I expected.
Fine, time to reevaluate.
Toru Shusho.
Physically? Tallest boy in class, but only by about two inches over Hyuuga Tsuru, and slim. Long limbs and thin torso and shoulders, sharp features though not aggressively so, though that may be the fact it's still blunted by a bit of baby fat, though even that is thin. Not particularly handsome by traditional measures. His hair is a pale brown color, feathered and stained by the sun, and maybe a forge? That would explain his strange tan, which seems to be focused on his front. Though that usually isn't noticeable. Dark blue eyes, which remind me of sodalite minerals, dark and streaked with pale shades that seem to radiate from his pupil.
His clothes are definitely ninja-grade gear, even if it's not quite standard. His long dark green jacket reaches to just above his knees and is split up to his waist on the sides, forming a sort of layered skirt around his hips, but giving easy access to his pouches. Beyond that, it has more pockets and seams then expected. I've counted a half dozen concealed pockets that he reaches into without thinking, often to pull some distraction or another free, but also senbon, or shuriken. His outfit under that is far less conspicuous. A dark blue shirt stretched almost skin tight and under that a long sleeved mesh shirt, that ran to his fingers. His pants could pass for standard shinobi cargo pants, but they are straight and clean cut, and if he didn't have his kunai holster and dual shuriken pouches strapped to his thighs I could almost consider them dress pants.
Mentally? I've heard him and Asako go at it. Both of them playing games of deflection and evasion. I have no doubt that he could lie and deceive me if he needed too. But I also know that the busy hands are a distraction. They only really come out when he is nervous. And when he lies? He's not nervous.
But what have I missed…
Let's find out. I look to see Kohaku has a similar line of thought, and so we both box in Shusho, her on his left me on his right. And we both give him the Look. He finches, hands almost stumbling as he keeps the pen spinning.
"So, Toru-kun. What was THAT." I start, voice sweet and kind, but instantly I see him pale and flinch. Huh, smart man.
"Yes, Toru-Kun. What was that?" Kohaku echoes from the other side, and I watch and can see him flicker through what looks suspiciously like the stages of grief, in miniature.
He sighs and fidgets, before, looking at the pen, and then sliding it into his pocket and stopping. Hands in his jacket pockets as he looks up, taking a breath. He looks… Really nervous, actually. Then he begins. "I'm… not good at making connections with people. I'm a bit awkward. I can run a con and lie with ease, but talking to people without some sort of goal is… hard. We're gonna be teammates. Possibly for years. So I wanted to try and… I guess to show you what I act like. That probably wasn't the best… option for it, Me and Kazuki have a lot of subtext between us. And the whole, 'Follow me' thing was badly done, but I needed to think. Sorry." he rubbed at the bridge of his nose.
Surprisingly, it's Kohaku who spoke up. "You're a moron."
I watch with interest as I see the instant the mask goes up, the nerves being covered up with a flash of false sorrow. "I'm Offended!" he starts, with an overdramatic hand to the chest. "I'm no more an Idiot then you are! I am, however," he leans in, "A total smart-ass."
That actually gets a smirk out of both me and Kohaku, and I cut in. "I don't know, you look more like a dumbass, and you certainly aren't a wiseass."
He paused and gives me the most over the top look of betrayal that I've ever seen, making me chuckle, and then freeze.
"You just…" I turned and looked at him, suddenly feeling a chill as I realized that he had just disarmed my reactions, and made me far less focused on him. Kohaku noticed my reaction and then froze. I see the mask fracture and he flinched away and I barely hear him curse.
"Yeah, see? Put me on the defensive, give me a goal to work towards, and then I can talk my way through things. I can be sociable and calm. I know both of you well enough to know how to play your buttons, and I'm… I'm trying not to. Sorry." he sighed and pulled out his deck of cards. "Let's just… head back. Yeah?" he said, taking a step back towards the academy.
"No, wait," I said, grabbing him and spinning him so he faced both me and Kohaku. He fumbled a card, and he missed grabbing it, but Kohaku grabbed it. She looked at it and then turned it, and I saw that across the face of the card was a strange circular shape, full of angles. It looked like a series of overlapped triangles wrapped up in a braided circle. I shook my head and refocused, seeing him blink in annoyance, his lips in a slight scowl. he took the card back gently, and Kohaku let it slide from her fingers without a fight.
That was… weirdly honest looking.
"Listen. We don't know you that well. Neither do we know each other, very well." I gestured at me and Kohaku. "But we're stuck together. We're going to be a team."
I take a breath. "So Hi, My name is Nara Yumi, I'll be your teammate. I like games of chance and numbers and specialize in capture and tactics. I hate pickles and cabbage, but love carrots. My dream is to be an Anbu tactician and commander." I give a short bow, seeing the surprised look on Shusho's face.
He pauses and then slowly a smile, natural, unsteady, and obviously unpracticed, but definitely genuine, smile spreads across his lips. He fans his cards, and gives a deep bow, before starting. "Hello, Nara Yumi, I am Toru Shusho. I like misdirection and card tricks, and hate absolutely loathe cauliflower. I also dislike getting into a straight fight. I aim to be the best infiltrator and intelligence agent in Konoha. I specialize in misdirection, thrown weapons, and sleight of hand."
Kohaku looked between us before bowing her head slightly. "Ah, Greetings. I am Kohaku Shimo, second daughter of the head of the Kohaku clan. I appreciate both yakitori and good Drama's, both plays and books, and dislike perverts and fanatics. I aspire to grow to be a great ninja and serve my older sister and younger brother in running my clan. I specialize in my clan's fire techniques, focused more on form and function then power. I also have been trained and well versed in politics."
We all looked at each other then, and then, slowly, Toru chuckled. Before he skipped backward. "Come on, we're running late! Gotta go meet our Sensei!" Kohaku and I looked at each other, and smiled, before following.
"Oh, and one more thing," Toru said, as we all joined up, with him to my left and Kohaku to my right. "I nominate Yumi for the team leader." making me snap my head to the side and eyes widen, and behind me, I heard Kohaku's soft voice speak up.
"Agreed."
"But?" I muttered, looking back and forth at my teammates. "Tsk, Troublesome."
I narrowed my eyes at the boy, my new teammate, who was nervously fiddling with a pen, the plastic and metal circling and spinning in his hand. I don't think he was even thinking about it, it was just reflexive. Measuring weight and speed and distance in his hands without looking. The pen did a flip, coming up half a foot and spinning erratically before he caught it and kept it spinning down and around as he twisted his hand, not breaking the movement.
This was fucking annoying. How the hell did I miss Toru's mind? I knew he was perceptive and sly, but this level of foresight, while not like that of my cousins and family, was still way more than I expected.
Fine, time to reevaluate.
Toru Shusho.
Physically? Tallest boy in class, but only by about two inches over Hyuuga Tsuru, and slim. Long limbs and thin torso and shoulders, sharp features though not aggressively so, though that may be the fact it's still blunted by a bit of baby fat, though even that is thin. Not particularly handsome by traditional measures. His hair is a pale brown color, feathered and stained by the sun, and maybe a forge? That would explain his strange tan, which seems to be focused on his front. Though that usually isn't noticeable. Dark blue eyes, which remind me of sodalite minerals, dark and streaked with pale shades that seem to radiate from his pupil.
His clothes are definitely ninja-grade gear, even if it's not quite standard. His long dark green jacket reaches to just above his knees and is split up to his waist on the sides, forming a sort of layered skirt around his hips, but giving easy access to his pouches. Beyond that, it has more pockets and seams then expected. I've counted a half dozen concealed pockets that he reaches into without thinking, often to pull some distraction or another free, but also senbon, or shuriken. His outfit under that is far less conspicuous. A dark blue shirt stretched almost skin tight and under that a long sleeved mesh shirt, that ran to his fingers. His pants could pass for standard shinobi cargo pants, but they are straight and clean cut, and if he didn't have his kunai holster and dual shuriken pouches strapped to his thighs I could almost consider them dress pants.
Mentally? I've heard him and Asako go at it. Both of them playing games of deflection and evasion. I have no doubt that he could lie and deceive me if he needed too. But I also know that the busy hands are a distraction. They only really come out when he is nervous. And when he lies? He's not nervous.
But what have I missed…
Let's find out. I look to see Kohaku has a similar line of thought, and so we both box in Shusho, her on his left me on his right. And we both give him the Look. He finches, hands almost stumbling as he keeps the pen spinning.
"So, Toru-kun. What was THAT." I start, voice sweet and kind, but instantly I see him pale and flinch. Huh, smart man.
"Yes, Toru-Kun. What was that?" Kohaku echoes from the other side, and I watch and can see him flicker through what looks suspiciously like the stages of grief, in miniature.
He sighs and fidgets, before, looking at the pen, and then sliding it into his pocket and stopping. Hands in his jacket pockets as he looks up, taking a breath. He looks… Really nervous, actually. Then he begins. "I'm… not good at making connections with people. I'm a bit awkward. I can run a con and lie with ease, but talking to people without some sort of goal is… hard. We're gonna be teammates. Possibly for years. So I wanted to try and… I guess to show you what I act like. That probably wasn't the best… option for it, Me and Kazuki have a lot of subtext between us. And the whole, 'Follow me' thing was badly done, but I needed to think. Sorry." he rubbed at the bridge of his nose.
Surprisingly, it's Kohaku who spoke up. "You're a moron."
I watch with interest as I see the instant the mask goes up, the nerves being covered up with a flash of false sorrow. "I'm Offended!" he starts, with an overdramatic hand to the chest. "I'm no more an Idiot then you are! I am, however," he leans in, "A total smart-ass."
That actually gets a smirk out of both me and Kohaku, and I cut in. "I don't know, you look more like a dumbass, and you certainly aren't a wiseass."
He paused and gives me the most over the top look of betrayal that I've ever seen, making me chuckle, and then freeze.
"You just…" I turned and looked at him, suddenly feeling a chill as I realized that he had just disarmed my reactions, and made me far less focused on him. Kohaku noticed my reaction and then froze. I see the mask fracture and he flinched away and I barely hear him curse.
"Yeah, see? Put me on the defensive, give me a goal to work towards, and then I can talk my way through things. I can be sociable and calm. I know both of you well enough to know how to play your buttons, and I'm… I'm trying not to. Sorry." he sighed and pulled out his deck of cards. "Let's just… head back. Yeah?" he said, taking a step back towards the academy.
"No, wait," I said, grabbing him and spinning him so he faced both me and Kohaku. He fumbled a card, and he missed grabbing it, but Kohaku grabbed it. She looked at it and then turned it, and I saw that across the face of the card was a strange circular shape, full of angles. It looked like a series of overlapped triangles wrapped up in a braided circle. I shook my head and refocused, seeing him blink in annoyance, his lips in a slight scowl. he took the card back gently, and Kohaku let it slide from her fingers without a fight.
That was… weirdly honest looking.
"Listen. We don't know you that well. Neither do we know each other, very well." I gestured at me and Kohaku. "But we're stuck together. We're going to be a team."
I take a breath. "So Hi, My name is Nara Yumi, I'll be your teammate. I like games of chance and numbers and specialize in capture and tactics. I hate pickles and cabbage, but love carrots. My dream is to be an Anbu tactician and commander." I give a short bow, seeing the surprised look on Shusho's face.
He pauses and then slowly a smile, natural, unsteady, and obviously unpracticed, but definitely genuine, smile spreads across his lips. He fans his cards, and gives a deep bow, before starting. "Hello, Nara Yumi, I am Toru Shusho. I like misdirection and card tricks, and hate absolutely loathe cauliflower. I also dislike getting into a straight fight. I aim to be the best infiltrator and intelligence agent in Konoha. I specialize in misdirection, thrown weapons, and sleight of hand."
Kohaku looked between us before bowing her head slightly. "Ah, Greetings. I am Kohaku Shimo, second daughter of the head of the Kohaku clan. I appreciate both yakitori and good Drama's, both plays and books, and dislike perverts and fanatics. I aspire to grow to be a great ninja and serve my older sister and younger brother in running my clan. I specialize in my clan's fire techniques, focused more on form and function then power. I also have been trained and well versed in politics."
We all looked at each other then, and then, slowly, Toru chuckled. Before he skipped backward. "Come on, we're running late! Gotta go meet our Sensei!" Kohaku and I looked at each other, and smiled, before following.
"Oh, and one more thing," Toru said, as we all joined up, with him to my left and Kohaku to my right. "I nominate Yumi for the team leader." making me snap my head to the side and eyes widen, and behind me, I heard Kohaku's soft voice speak up.
"Agreed."
"But?" I muttered, looking back and forth at my teammates. "Tsk, Troublesome."
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- Location
- New Jersey, USA
I think you're mixing the order of the names (first- and last-name)? Eastern, Western followed by Western.
nmWarden
Webcomic Glutton
- Location
- Texas
Nara Yumi. I've got a pretty good idea of what her default capture plan will be, even though she didn't mention her jutsu. We all remember the Nara's shadow manipulation. I can imagine her creating a shadow that her teammates will guide opponents into. Shikamaru's fights always required time for him to stretch his shadow out for attacks so Yumi would want to, in spite of the chakra cost, give her Shadow Possession an instantaneous effect by making people land on her stretched and shaped shadow while "holding" the jutsu. Of course there are a ton of non-jutsu methods, but there's a reason a guy as intelligent as Shikamaru used those techniques.
My main criticism for this chapter, however real the effects may be in the future, is the idea of Kohaku and Yumi just freezing up from Toru's manipulations. If they had to put on a mask for a mission or while reporting to a superior officer then I could understand it. They have no need to be on guard against Toru (though he'll give them plenty in the future) so why does his act get more than raised eyebrows? Maybe this is just a difference in what a genin should be trained to handle and what we saw in Naruto and co's behavior. One scenario that won't happen now is a strict parent correcting their genin child for falling for Toru's manipulations after learning how the first team meeting went. Someone like Hizashi Hyuuga would fill the role well.
Now that that's out of the way: I like her! I hope we get more
My main criticism for this chapter, however real the effects may be in the future, is the idea of Kohaku and Yumi just freezing up from Toru's manipulations. If they had to put on a mask for a mission or while reporting to a superior officer then I could understand it. They have no need to be on guard against Toru (though he'll give them plenty in the future) so why does his act get more than raised eyebrows? Maybe this is just a difference in what a genin should be trained to handle and what we saw in Naruto and co's behavior. One scenario that won't happen now is a strict parent correcting their genin child for falling for Toru's manipulations after learning how the first team meeting went. Someone like Hizashi Hyuuga would fill the role well.
Now that that's out of the way: I like her! I hope we get more
RogueDruid
"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"
- Location
- Salt lake city
Nope. Toru Nara and Kohaku are family names. Toru goes by both freely, both and self reference and socially. Yum is from a major clan, and has a cousin in the class. They both prefer first names due to the confusion calling "Nara" in the classroom would cause. Kohaku asks to be referred to by family name, because noble mindset and habits. She doesn't ask to be called lady Kohaku or anything, especially among "collegues" but she hasn't gotten past that.
It's the fluidity of his act. They were aware of it, and could see it go up because of that, but Toru is a fucking master at putting on the act. He seems boen to play two lives at once and the sheer uncanny valley effect, as well as how easily it was for them to get drawn into the act, is what caused the stutter. It's like an average student standing up and writing down a complex math normally reserved for rocket science, and then sitting back down without acting like it. The sheer change that they saw is unnatutal. They will get use to it eventually, but at the moment it's still a 'wait, what the fuck?'
I believe the confusion came more from this:
Why, if Kohaku is her last name, is her clan name the same as her first name? I suppose it's technically possible, but seems strange, which is why the assumption was that you flipped the names. Did you mean to have it be second daughter of the head of the Kohaku clan?
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Shouldn't it be Kohaku clan then?
Edit:Ninja'd
RogueDruid
"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"
- Location
- Salt lake city
.... Fuck. Give me a sec.
Edited. thanks for catching that.
LordVile
There's thinking and thinking with explosives.
- Location
- INDIA
He did have the decency to warn her first.
Toru seems to fidget when nervous,literally what fidget spinners were made for.
Seeing that she wanted to become the ANBU commander, I thought she would accept it naturally.
Broovian
The Patriarch of Oblivion and all it contains.
- Location
- The cesspool of New York and Loving it!
And take the easy way out? As if.
Plenty of people, myself included, use the pens we already have on hand for that purpose. You don't need a $20 paperweight when you have other options _right there._
- Location
- Existance
Fidget spinners are the best. Instead of people playing with pens, cards, keys, or literally any free thing in reach like they have been for centuries, you can sell them a whole bunch of products. More importantly, 'specially designed' and/or 'precision engineered' and/or 'collectable', etc, etc.
Idiots are made to be taken advantage of.
...oddly enough, that kind of makes them fit this fic pretty good, because I can see Toru convincing people that whitewashing a fence is fun and they should pay him to let them do it.
- Location
- Logan, Queensland, australia
Bonus 'Old School awesome' beats 'teh Interwebs' points for catching that reference?
- Location
- Existance
"When I was your age our stories came on paper! And we had to walk 15 miles through the snow to get to the bookstore and it was uphill both ways! And we had to read them in the dark because we hadn't invented light yet! Damn kids."
Yes. Yes it does.
RogueDruid
"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"
- Location
- Salt lake city
He's nice that way.
True. But she has a feeling this team is going to be... Troublesome. Especially considering she as what seems to be a noble and a budding master conman as her teammates.
Possibly down the line, bu right now that's a little out of her ability range.
hmmm...
hmmn hmmm..
Or you know, shuriken.
Yeah, besides, this is great practice on hand-eye coordination he also knows exactly the shape and weight of his tools this way.
Yeah, its not like Toru has: Cards, Senbon, Kunai, Coins, Shuriken, Pens, knives, and wires to use.... oh, wait.
... And now I have Rush playing in my head...
...~Todays Tom Sawyer gets high on you...~
Oh, and D-ranks just got funny...
Seconded by the council...
Wow. See, I don;t know about you, but I live in Salt Lake Utah (Known for A- Snow B-
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- Location
- California
You forgot D - Fry sauce. Other than that you nailed it.
RogueDruid
"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"
- Location
- Salt lake city
Yeah, but you start bringing up food then we have to also include funeral potatoes and The jello salads, and I didn't want to open that can of worms.