[X] Let him leave, then make plans with the others. (If not chosen, Zenza will still make plans with them, but they might not be the exact ones you would like.)
You close your eyes and look down at the ground, shaking your head. It. . . he wished he had a different sensei than his asshole, but at least he seemed like he knew what he was doing in combat. Maybe when they spent more time together, the man would soften up.
-[X] Make sure he frees you before he leaves, otherwise we'll tell the school that the broken floor was his fault and he'll have to pay to repair the damage.
The jounin lets out a long sigh, and he begins to exit the classroom. Your eyes flash open, and you call out quickly before you miss your chance:
"Wait! You need to help us out of the ground before you go!" Your concerns are quickly echoed by a "Yeah!" from Asa, who had returned to her struggles to get out of the ground.
He lets out a cough, then turns back from the door. "It's a shame that all of you would be genin these days are unable to get themselves out of even the most basic of situations." He lingers after he speaks, seeming to consider between leaving and helping you out of the ground.
You open your mouth to call out again, but before you can he is at Asa's side helping her out of the ground. You let out a light sigh of relief, happy that you didn't have to try and threaten your sensei. A moment passes after he helps get Asa out of the ground, before he approaches you and pulls you out of the ground.
"Thank you," Asa says to your sensei. You wait a moment, before saying the same: "Thank you, sensei."
He gives the pair of you an annoyed look, before turning and heading out of the room. Well. . . it wasn't the worst that could have went.
-[X] Plan Team Building Project Sleepover
You open your mouth to speak again, but Hana has already turned to the two of you and opened hers. Her face is still a clammy white, and her eyes are slightly wet. You. . . aren't really sure how to handle this, so you don't. Asa attempts to smile at Hana, but when it doesn't seem to change her mood, she merely lowers her head.
"We sucked," she says, her voice plain and tight. "Bad. We. . . I don't know what happened here. I thought we were doing the right things--my mom always told me that after the big exam, there'd be a soft exam about finding fellowship and coming to trust your team mates. Heh," she laughs, but the laugh is as fake as the smile she's forcing onto her face. "But. . . I trusted her over my senses, and over you two. I almost lost you two your chance to be all you want to be. Your chance to be a Sage, Zenza, and your chance to help bring out the Will of Fire in all of us. And Asa, I almost. . . I almost lost you your chance to be free. Almost got you stuck as one of the drop-out genins, assigned to doing menial tasks for the rest of your life. I. . . I'm sorry."
Her next breaths are ragged. You still don't know how to react, but Asa steps forward to hug Hana. Hana shakes her head, forcing her eyes shut for a moment. Maybe now, you could try and talk--
Hana keeps speaking. "But. . . I, I want to make it up to you guys. I know that we can be better. I know that. I know that if we put our efforts to it, n-nothing can stop us. And I, I know that you two know that too." She opens her eyes again, and wipes away a tear with the back of her hand. "My family. . . we're not the Uchihas, we're not the Hyuugas, but we're well off. We've got a few spare houses that one of the branches used to own, before they split off, and they're close to the training grounds."
She paused, taking another breath. Her face was clearing up slightly now, her breaths were becoming more controlled. "I, ahh. . . what I mean to say is, do you guys think you'd like to, s-stay over, for a few days? Clear it with your parents, obviously, but. It'd let us get through our routines together, bond as a team and become better ninjas. Or, even if it doesn't make us better ninjas. . ." She pauses, looking down for a moment. She lets out a pained noise--she's choking? You step forward to help her, but she forces it down and opens her mouth again.
"I think that. . . that no matter what he says about how bad we did, we did good. We. . . we learned about eachother, we learned about our dreams, and we started making plans to follow those dreams out. We should follow those plans, we, we should help eachothers dreams come true. So, I, we," she stumbles for a few words, before regaining herself. She forces a wide, almost-real smile for the pair of you. "Do you guys want to try it?"
You nod. Asa gives a large grin to Hana, before saying: "You better believe it! Don't worry, Hana. We'll be the best ninjas in the history of Konoha."
Hana cracks a genuine smile at Asa's enthusiasm, and you grin. Hana waits for a moment, before the trio of you start to make your way towards the Inuzaka houses.
--[X] Hana seems knowledgeable about ninja careers coming from a ninja clan, see if she is aware of any little surprises that we should know about, like what just happened.
As you are walking, you address Hana: "Are things like this common, in the world of clans? Are there other surprises that we should be aware of?"
Hana shrugs. "Obviously, not everyone is as nice as you look. A lot of people are still suspicious about what happened with Lord Orochimaru. But. . . that was a first, even for me. Most ninja I've met, and the few ANBU I've seen, tend to be wonderfully kind people for their profession."
You consider her words carefully. Lord Orochimaru's exile surprised you too, somedays, but it wasn't what you had been hoping to get as a response. . . Hana's parents were probably able to shelter her from the darker elements of ninja life, explaining why she wouldn't have seen darker ninja like the ones you have.
"Thank you," you reply after your moment of consideration.
"No problem, Zenz," she tries, though a moment after the nickname she shakes her head. "Doesn't quite suit you, does it. Huh. I guess Zenza it is."
Asa lets out a light laugh, glancing between the two of you and shaking her head. You frown, for a moment, before shrugging. "Whatever name works for you, works for me."
The conversation slowly fades, and you eventually reach the Inuzaka family's mini-district. It's an early night for you; you go to bed with many things to consider and many things to dream of. Hana and Asa sleep in a different room of the house than you did, due to Hana's mother insisting on 'properity'. It didn't bother you much, though; she was kind enough to let you sleep in her own home, and on a nicer bed then the ones in the orphanage. Complaining about her rules would be more then silly, it'd go against your own beliefs.
--[X] Morning, noon, night, spend as much time in each other's company as possible. While this will exclude some things, such as bathroom time, we are going to possibly be putting our well being in the other's hands in the future, especially since our sensei comes from the school of hard knocks. We need to be close enough to trust the others to that degree when he gets around to teaching us.
Early to bed, early to rise. You find yourself awake before Hana and Asa awake, so you head down to the kitchen of the guest house and look around for supplies to make breakfast with. It's easy enough to find them, which surprises you; a pleasant surprise, but a surprise none the less. To be able to stock even their guest houses with such bounties of food. . . the clan must have been richer than you thought it was. You prepared a bowl of food for yourself, as well as for the others, before carefully cleaning up the kitchen and heading up to the room they had spent the night in.
You knocked a few times, but they were still asleep. You sat down outside their door and carefully ate your breakfast, carefully thinking about how you could best make use of the time between now and when you'd next see your sensei. . .
--[X] Create a completely original communication method for our team, no need to make it complex, but able to pass on some basic info and create a sense of comradery.
You don't know how to do this, and you're not sure it's worth investing the time it'd take to learn how to do it. It's something for a later time, however. . . you think you've heard of jutsus allowing for similar things, as well, and you know there are seals for private, long distance communication.
--[X] Make sure that no one is so far behind the other(s) in terms of ability as to slow them down at a crucial moment. If someone is, then those ahead teach that person.
You think about each of your positions, compared to eachother. You and Asa weren't bad, but. . . neither of you are anywhere near the level of Hana or the other clan kids in the class. It'll take a lot of work for you to get to that level. You frown and shake your head.
It's not going to make itself happen, though. You'll need to talk to Hana about her working with the two of you to catch up to her. . . she might not learn as much, but you don't doubt that she'll accept and help you two speed your catch up to her level.
--[X] Find out what we're supposed to learn during the first six months of genin training, and then cram it all into not only learning it within our next month, but becoming uncontested masters that would make people believe we are chuunin. We're team determination, we are all willing to put in the effort for this.
You'd like to do that, and it's a nice thought, but it's simply not possible to get from where you are to chuunin level within a month. Still, you'll certainly work your hardest at it. . . The door beside you creeks, and begins to open. Hana carefully steps out, yawning and looking around; she's still in her pajamas.
You offer her one of the breakfast plates you prepared, and she takes it with a smile. Asa exits soon after her, dressed in just a t-shirt and aaaaaaahh. You blush a little and turn away, but still offer her the plate of food you had prepared for her. She takes it too, before hurriedly heading back into the room.
Hana giggles. You cover your eyes for a moment, before cracking a grin and glancing up at the ceiling. It doesn't take long after that for the three of you to get into the spin of things and start training. . .
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You are not Zenza Raion. You are
Tatsuma Aburame. You are in the Academy, waiting carefully for Uroko-sensei to issue his statement on who you will be partners with this year.
The kikaichuu bugs you have spread throughout the room are more excited then you are. You are merely annoyed, already having determined that you won't be on a team with any of the students in this class worth being on a team with. More years of suffering for the failures of your classmates surely await you.
The kikaichuu bug you had placed on Naori had stopped reporting to you a while ago, which is annoying, and the kikaichuu bug you had placed on Fuka has never really given you adequate information. Hana was too risky to put a kikaichuu bug on, but you knew her placements well enough that you didn't feel the need to have one monitoring her right now. The rest of the class seemed painfully unaware of the presence of your bugs, carefully monitoring their chakra and their mood for any sudden changes or fluctuations.
That was how it should be. Your confident, never smug, grin spread a little more on your lips, and you leaned back in your chair further. Would you be placed with Maruten and the girl, perhaps? You hoped not; although Maruten was a free thinker, and seemed willing to go against the normal and follow your more cunning plans, he did not have a powerset good for working with you. He would have been an annoyance in the field, something to work around rather then work with. The girl would be slightly better to work with, but that was merely because she was so vanilla that it hurt to look at her; she would almost certainly be hopelessly behind you and Maruten. Though, perhaps being so far behind would help let you convince her to become another storage cell for your kikaichuu. . . You shook your head. No, that was abhorrent; you would not convert another free thinker like Cho to be so little as a power cell for you.
Perhaps you'd be placed with Korigestu and Fuka? That would be an interesting pair, and not one particularly bad for you. Your kikaichuu were inadequate for tracking Fuka, however as a team mate you might be able to get her to agree on a seal to track her via. . . Korigestu was easy enough to track, and although you knew he had noticed the bug he had never acted against it. That alone was reason to respect the boy; if you were on a team with him, you don't think you would mind it at all. But. . . such a team would be bad for you, you knew. Korigetsu had no motivation to be a ninja, and Fuka's motivation to be a ninja was more flimsy than the girls who had joined the program hoping to seduce the eight-year old Itachi Uchiha. You frowned. Hopefully not either of them, then. . .
You were interrupted by your thoughts when Uroko-sensei finally spoke.
"Team Five. Tatsuma Aburame, Fuka Kurage and Moruka Neiru under Hoheto Hyuuga."
You had your kikaichuu on Moruka bite him at once, then hide back into the folds of his shirt. Her reports on his chakra data were par for the course--minor, controlled moderately well. In line with what you knew of him. You closed your eyes to think of what you knew about him, but nothing much came up. . . Infilitration specalist, maybe. He had. . .
Oh. You remember now--he killed a couple dozen of your bugs one day in a fit of rage, and had broken a table in the process. It. . . you had had the urge to break a couple dozen bones in his body on that day, but you had restrained yourself. Perhaps he would prove himself to be a free thinker, like yourself, Maruten and Maruten's girl friend.
He hadn't. . . working with him was going to be less than pleasurable. Holding in a sigh, you saw Uroko-sensei ending his speech and stood up to make your way to your first meeting with your sensei.
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It didn't take very long for you to reach the room you would meet your sensei in. You had recalled your kikaichuu from your other classmates, bar Moruka and Fuka, but it would take a while for them to find a suitable opportunity to report back to you unnoticed.
You recognize your sensei almost immediately once you enter the room. Hoheto Hyuuga, a leader of one of the many Hyuuga branch families, one of the former guards of Lord Orochimaru, one of Konoha's most loyal nin--your dad had spoken to you once about how Hoheto was on track to becoming the captain of the guard, if he played his cards right. He smiled, seeming to recognize you as well when you walked into the room.
"Having a nice day, Tatsuma? It's been a while since I've seen your brother--would you tell Muta I said hello?" His voice was soft and genial, and you gave him a nod.
"Yes, sensei. I'll try to tell him that you said hi, sir, but he's on mission out of town right now."
"Ahhh, is he?" Hoheto smiled, then shrugged. "When you see him next, then. Would you like some tea, Tatsuma?" You nodded and carefully reached out for the tea Hoheto offered you. Although he was young, Hoheto had an aura about him similar to that of your grandfather. . . you didn't particularly mind that, though, given you liked the free thinker that was your grandfather.
He continues to smile at you, and sips a few time at his own tea, until abrubtly Fuka and Moruka arrive together. He turns his attention to them, then, and raises an eyebrow, before letting out a soft chortle. "Ahhh! I'm glad that you could make it, miss Kurage, mister Neiru. Please, all of you, have a seat--would you like a drink?"
Fuka smiles at him and nods, accepting a drink. Moruka is more testy, shaking his head and refusing the drink. "Apologies for my lateness, sensei," Moruka quickly says, bowing his head before Hoheto; Hoheto merely chuckles and shakes his head.
"Ah, no, no worries, Moruka. You were not late. . . I was merely asking Tatsuma here about his brother, my old friend Muta." Hoheto continues to smile genialy at the trio for a moment, and Moruka and Fuka seem to relax a bit.
Fuka sips at her tea, for a moment, quite happy with the situation; before she sets down her tea and looks over to Hoheto. "Uroko-sensei mentioned something about a test, Hyuuga-sensei. Could we get any advice from you on what we need to do to pass it?"
"Ahhh, of course. It's a simple test. Just remember to ask eachother questions and to trust eachother, and I am sure that you will all manage to pass within minutes. But. . . you needn't worry about the test just yet, Fuka, we still have introductions to take care of."
Fuka and Moruka mull over these words carefully. Moruka itches at the back of his neck, before asking: "Sorry for refusing earlier, sensei. May I have a cup of tea?"
Hoheto reaches out and gives Moruka his own cup, before standing up. "Of course, Moruka. Now. . . please, give me a moment to introduce myself."
Moruka and Fuka give him their full attention. You focus on him as well, but continue to listen in to the signals of your kikaichuu that had begun to spread throughout the room.
"I am Hoheto Hyuuga. You may call me Hyuuga-sensei or Hoheto-sensei, or merely sensei if you would prefer. I come from the Hyuuga Clan, as you may have guessed, and I have been declared a master in taijutsu and genjutsu. Iryojutsu is not my strongpoint, but I will do what I can to teach you all of it. I believe very much in transparency--something that becomes very hard not to do when your eyes allow you to see through walls, I suppose--and I hope that you will all be as truthful with me as I am with you. When you pass your test today, the first thing I will do is the first thing my masters did for me: help you find your elemental affinities, and help you find a summon that can serve as a companion and support for you if you are ever separated from the team. In addition, I will be providing each of you with seal-papers that can be used as emergency communication signals." He paused for a moment and smiled at each of you. "Despite your prior histories, I honestly believe that each of you has the potential to become the very best of what Konoha has to offer. If you ever feel the need, or if you are ever worried or alone. . . please, come find me in the Hyuuga district, or signal me and I will come find you."
You frowned at prior histories, as did Moruka. Fuka simply nodded to it, though, and after Hoheto finished Moruka gave him a nod as well. Hoheto's eyes twinkled at you (which must have been some jutsu, eyes don't just twinkle at people, and who has enough chakra to waste it making their eyes twinkle. . .) and he gestured towards you. "Perhaps you'd like to introduce yourself next, Tatsuma? You needn't droan on for as long as I did. Just tell us your name, your favorite thing, your least favorite thing and what you hope to be when you grow up."
. . . it made sense for him to pick you first, given you were the best. Still, you hadn't thought on what to say. How do you introduce yourself?
[ ] Tatsuma Aburame. My favorite thing to do is. . . hn. My least favorite thing to do is. . . hn. My dream is that one day. . . hn.
[ ] Tatsuma. Train, waste my time, protect the free-thinkers of this world.
[ ] Write in?
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Sorry about how long that took. Got distracted a few days, didn't know what to write a few days, binge-watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica, binge-watched Yuki Yuuna is a Hero. . . just, uh, generally got off track.
Also, apologies about how the plan was interpreted. I know it's probably not how you guys meant/wanted it to be interpreted, but rest assured that the little blurbs I gave aren't all that the plan is doing. Zenza will still be spending most of his time following the plans, and he'll ask Hana about suspicious things again, but I hadn't meant for the entire month to be covered in one update (and, as you can see, it really isn't.)
First meeting with Tatsuma as a POV, and Fuka and Moruka's first real moments of note. He's not the nicest guy, at the start at least, but if you want to make him into a nice guy it won't be very difficult. Hoheto is a bit nicer of a guy than the other sensei as well.
