[closed thread] Testing Day 6 [Sachiko, Kureno, Asuka]

[redeyedavenger]

Day 6 of Kureno's genjutsu exam started as pretty typical for Sachiko. She rose, went through the usual morning routine with a bit of leisure as Asuka-taichou had been kind enough to work the team's training time around the 6-hour block the test required. Granted, team training usually took place immediately after when (depending on the genjutsu

Comments

Meanwhile...

[yuuhi_kureno]

Since tentatively starting an official relationship courtship of sorts with Asuka about a month ago, Kureno had to say that the progress was slow. However, it was still being made, and that was enough to keep him pushing forward, even when being so close and yet so...polite had begun to frustrate him in ways that were really best not to tell her. ...It probably hadn't been the best move to tell them to Aki either, but dang it, he needed to vent to someone and when it came right down to it, Aki was his best friend. (He'd thought about confiding in Kakami for all of two seconds before killing that notion. Kakami was a genius, and whenever she had too much time on her hands she loved teasing and making mischief for others. No way was he walking into that punishment. At least he could threaten trust Aki to keep his mouth shut if he got him to vow confidentiality.) It wasn't that Kureno was mad at Asuka for needing time, but he'd already been spending plenty of time sorting his feelings out. By now, he was well aware of where he stood and what he wanted, and she deserved to discover that clarity herself as well. It was just difficult holding back while waiting/hoping for her to decide on good news, being a constant bundle of nerves, wants and hopes all focused on keeping themselves well-contained.

Her birthday had been like permission to breathe again--a long, heavy sigh of relief and an intake of air somehow sweeter than before. And it had only just been kissing. But there was something gentler and more sincere about this time than their first date; something that made his heart less jittery afterward and more warm. Something good.

The best part was that when he'd talked to her the next day, she didn't avoid him like before. In fact, there wasn't even any tension except for the usual fluttering of nerves when they got close, but those didn't feel like the bad kind. In his excitement to keep this advantage, Kureno had asked her to lunch on a date premature to the ending of Sachiko's testing, meaning he was running the risk of crossing a delicate situation with a competitive one. After some reconsideration, he decided it would be a good opportunity for Sachiko to show if she could adapt to a situation that wasn't seen on the battlefield. As for Asuka, it was too important an opportunity to put aside. Things could always be explained later, and if Sachiko managed to create such a misunderstanding that placed him outside of Asuka's trust, he'd simply murder her and make it look like she deserved it. There were still enough people who believed that to back him up.

So now here he sat outside a soup & salad type of shop with Asuka on Day Six of Sachiko's testing, enjoying his company and waiting for the world to start warping. Somehow this felt like good practice for him too.

[asuka_sensei]

It counted as odd for Kureno to be suggesting a lunch date when she knew full well he was supposedly working on genjutsu testing/training with Sachiko. After all, she'd been asked to change her training schedule to accommodate this. Not that it was a bad thing - she'd been enjoying sleeping in late for the last few days - but still odd. He was very work oriented, after all. And this was almost like playing hooky.

As strange as it was, though, Asuka had decided to hesitantly consent. Half because her curiosity was piked (Yuuhi Kureno skipping training), half because she didn't feel like microwaved ramen for lunch again and half because.... well..... she wanted to. Sort of. She was still working out her interest levels and what precisely they lay in (soup and salads, or Kureno?), but she couldn't make any progress on that decision if she avoided him.

The fact that she still preferred to not make a decision - even if she was slowly getting used to the idea - certainly didn't help things any.

But lunch was going well so far. No one had said anything stupid or personal or embarrassing, no one else had come up and made cracks or innuendos about them dating, there were no flies in her soup, the weather was nippy but nice, and best of all she could smoke.

Life could be a lot worse.

[redeyedavenger]

Sachiko was walking down one of the village's main drags, hands comfortably in pockets as the when the wind blew it made things slightly nippy, scouting out more potential places of ambush when her eyes caught sight of Kureno sitting in the outdoor area of a food place. And he was with Asuka. Sachiko almost stopped short but didn't; she needed to remain nonchalant and not give away that she was having to rapidly rethink a few things. Asuka was susceptible to genjutsu--Sachiko had already tested that when trying an experiment with the team. She had put different minor illusions on all three of them as a self-test to see if she could affect more than one mind, each with their own illusion. It had worked, and not only that, but all three of them--Taichou, Moegi, and Konohako--hadn't even realized the had been genjutsu'd. The problem here was that Kureno would break anything she did regardless of who she did it on. And there was no saying if he'd get pissy over her getting Asuka, even if he'd already stated that anyone was fair game.

This would be a bit of a challenge.

Thankfully the idea and the execution of said idea formed quickly. Altering her course enough to head straight for them, she casually but with ninja-stealth knicked a plate from an empty table and set it down in front of her as she used her other hand to grab an empty chair to spin around so she could sit at the table with her two teachers. "Yo," she said in mimic of Kakami.

She leaned forward, arms hanging down so that her upper arms touched the table and her hands were hidden below their line of sight. Which she used to her advantage as her fingers moved through the seals for a genjutsu designed to simply block out the senses of sight/smell/touch to make the thievery of the origami bunny. They'd had their quick meeting of him telling her where the bunny was (front right of vest, middle pocket) an hour ago, and she was determined to get that bunny today.

Okay, genjutsu started; his vision should be darkening and his hearing lessening and---OW!!

She flinched as her ears exploded with a deafening ringing sensation that vibrated her entire skull (to include her teeth. Yeesh). This accompanied the kind of snap she'd associated with Kureno breaking her genjutsu, and she glared at him for the reprimand. Geez, if this was what he was starting with, she certainly didn't want to keep failing. She glanced at Asuka (who was watching without comment and obviously had expected something) before looking back at Kureno.

"So, sensei," she began, otherwise ignoring the reprimand as her ears still echoed with the slowly diminishing ringing, "question: boxers or briefs?"

Really, it was a bit hard to keep from snickering as coffee or whatever Asuka was drinking misted suddenly in a very large cloud as she choked hard on it. But Sachiko kept her eyes on Kureno, wanting his reaction and answer.

[yuuhi_kureno]

Amusing as it was to see Asuka react, Kureno kept his eyes on Sachiko. She'd obviously received his backlashing from the genjutsu she'd attempted to pull. Honestly, he was beginning to wonder if he'd put her on this test too early. He could understand her using her first couple of days to test the waters, play a little with her abilities and poke at his defenses even in not-serious ways, just for the sake of learning more about him and his abilities. But now she was well passed the halfway point, and only yesterday had she come at him without being fully serious. He wondered if she knew how serious this test was to her training, or if she thought she could float her way through it once since he was under orders to be her sensei. He had begun to slap her back with each failure to try and encourage her to be more serious. One would think that losing an entire day of training would be enough, but clearly...

His disappointment helped him keep a cool face in reaction to her question, only getting a calmly raised brow. "What business is that of yours? Or did someone else ask you to find out."

Using that humor of his that often made it hard for people to tell he was joking, Kureno's red eyes slid over to the woman sitting across from him. "Maybe a mission from your sensei, perhaps."

[asuka_sensei]

If Asuka heard his comment - which surely she must have, the flush on her cheeks only grew after he spoke - she didn't show it. She just wiped her mouth with her sleeve, pointed a finger as Sachiko, and in a voice only a few steps away from deadly, swore, "I'm going to kill you."

Asuka's line kills me dead XD

[redeyedavenger]

As tempting as it was to reply back with an untrue but quite amusing (to her) statement of But taichou, you never specified when I couldn't ask him, Sachiko really didn't think it worth incurring the wrath of Asuka. Especially because Sachiko planned on, y'know, actually passing the test and Asuka on the rampage would make that a wee bit hard.

"What?" she shot back instead. "He asked it, not me." Asuka returned a lethal glare, which Sachiko chose to ignore in favor of looking back at Kureno. "Your fanclub's enquiring minds want to know."

Me too. X3

[yuuhi_kureno]

It seemed rather suspicious to Kureno that Sachiko would lend herself out to the favors of such people as his fanclub, leading him to two possible conclusions. One, Sachiko had joined said fanclub and this was an initiation test or her own excuse--so not happening. Or the much more like Two, she was trying to distract him to execute another illusion.

'Nice try, but that's not going to work', he thought, keeping himself aware of any sudden abnormalities in his senses again, or in his surroundings.

"Why don't you just give them the answer they'll like hearing the most," he said coolly before taking a sip of his water. "That I don't wear either."

;laksdfj

[asuka_sensei]

...

Judging by the expression on Asuka's face, she didn't want to be here anymore. Really. Like she'd just bitten into something sour or caught a whiff of something very distasteful. It didn't take a genius to realize it was Sachiko's addition to the afternoon that did it. But it was Kureno's words, this time, that made her slap a hand over her eyes in exasperation and perhaps also embarrassment. No, definitely embarrassment; that flush definitely wasn't leftover from choking on her tea.

Sachiko: Pfft, as /if/ I'd ever join /your/ fanclub.

[redeyedavenger]

"Y'know, sensei," Sachiko began as a waiter set down a small cloth-lined basket of buttery crescent rolls, "I can't say it's wise, encouraging your fanclub to get more rabid." She reached for a roll and shook her head when the waiter asked if she wanted to order anything. "Roll's fine." The waiter nodded and slipped away, and Sachiko continued: "But, if that's what you want me to tell them, then fine. Just don't get upset if they get worse."

She took a bite of the bread. Mmm, fresh buttery rolls.

Kureno: Maybe not in /this/ universe.

[yuuhi_kureno]

Frankly Kureno wasn't concerned with his fanclub getting worse. Actually, he'd already entertained the idea, wondering if maybe such a thing couldn't stir up a little jealousy in Asuka that would encourage more possessive behavior. At the very least he'd like to see her in action again, knocking them all down a peg or three. But ultimately that likely wasn't the smartest plan of action.

...No harm doing a little stirring though, especially when it couldn't look like most of his fault. Not really.

"I rather doubt you're going to be off telling them anything since I know that isn't the real reason you walked up here." They were both aware of where her first genjutsu attempt of the day had gotten her. He was still waiting for her second, and would be until six this evening. Kureno leaned a cheek on his hand. "So is there any other inane talk you want to entertain us with or are you just going to eat now. Because if it's the latter, there are other tables here you'd be more welcome to sit down at than this one."

Sachiko: Any universe.

[redeyedavenger]

Sachiko resisted the urge to smirk at him. "Looking underneath the underneath, sensei?" she queried blandly before biting off another third of the crescent roll while he snorted faintly at Kaka-sensei's catchphrase. "Not that it's very hard right now.

"And as good as the crescent rolls are here, I've got places to go and minds to boggle." She ate the last of the crescent roll and stood. "Sensei. Taichou." She picked up her borrowed plate, put that and her borrowed chair back at the other table, then disappeared in a blur of motion.

Re: Sachiko: Any universe.

[asuka_sensei]

Asuka didn't lift her head from her hand until Sachiko dismissed herself, glaring after the girl with undisguised irritation. Man, was she ever glad to see that brat go. No matter how much she worked with her, Asuka was never going to get over the pissiness of dealing with a (frankly) spoiled brat.

Even Nejiko was less full of herself.

"I swear to god," she stated, once the younger ninja had vanished from sight, "if I see her with her Sharingan on one more time without my permission, I'm going to beat the snot out of her."

Just then, their waiter came by and set down a small cloth-lined basket of buttery crescent rolls.

Kureno: That's not what fandom says.

[yuuhi_kureno]

Kureno was still frowning at the spot Sachiko had last been visibly occupying when Asuka's mumbling caught his immediate attention.

"...She didn't have her Sharingan on," he said, the gears in his head speeding up. "Is that what you saw?"

He glanced at the bread basket.

Asuka: I'm eating lunch, guys.

[asuka_sensei]

"Hey, I didn't know we got rolls with lunch. Sweet." She pulled one from the basket and took a bite. "And she did too. If you missed that, we seriously need to get you some glasses, man."

Kureno: She started it.

[yuuhi_kureno]

...She didn't.

Almost with a look of alarm Kureno sat up straight, a hand coming up to clutch over his right breast pocket. With clear haste he unlatched it and dug his fingers inside looking for...something that wasn't there any more. It was gone, and there wasn't any doubt in Kureno's mind Sachiko had the origami in hand.

"Son of a..."

She must have layered her genjutsu, and probably used her doujutsu to boot. But the execution had been flawless and this time extremely subtle. He'd stopped expecting something that subtle, which at this moment he didn't doubt had been part of her plan. Tricky, clever, little...

Kureno sat back again, arms folded across his chest and shaking his head at Asuka's obvious curiosity to his sudden change in behavior. It was taking him a lot of effort not to smile. (Alright, so maybe he was grinning. A little.)

"You can train Sachiko as long and hard as you want tomorrow," he told Asuka. "Our testing is done now. And now that it is, I can tell you those details if you want..."