Chapter 13: The Genin Test 2

"I am a bit disappointed. Falling for such an obvious trap, now the only person to save you is Hana. It doesn't look good for you three. Maybe another year at the academy wouldn't hurt," said Inoichi as he appeared in front of the two caught Genin. He really assumes that the Tekku inside the trap is the real one, as he isn't supposed to know any solid Clone Jutsu. He hadn't even a chance to come in contact with one.

Inoichi studied the profiles of the three Genin exactly. While he would hold his overall power back and not use any of his Clan Jutsu in this fight, he still would play on their weaknesses, giving them the challenge to overcome them in order to pass. That's why he targeted Haruto first, as his ill temper would be the easiest to exploit.

He was disappointed by Tekku; he thought the person falling for this trap would be Hana. Maybe all the praise got to him and he became arrogant, underestimating a Jonin of Konoha. He was aware of the Chakra Threads the boy learned to use, but in his mind, there was no way he would have built his own Puppet, a technique unique to Sunagakure. In his eyes, it may be best for Tekku to spend additional time in the Academy. The fate of child geniuses in this world was seldom kind; look at Kakashi. Even Itachi already experienced the loss of a team member in his Genin team.

Suddenly, the mouth of the captured Tekku moved as it said "Sensei," in the opened mouth, the Jonin could barely see some kind of seal before a big smoke cloud erupted from it. Inoichi's field of vision was completely clouded by the smoke as he only heard a loud female voice shouting, "Gatsūga!" followed by three barks. His instincts screamed danger as he felt his movement suddenly being restricted by Chakra Threads. He was strong enough to break through them, but it cost him precious moments.

As four swirling human shapes rotating in massive swirls drilled through the ground, cutting off almost all his escape routes, Hana suddenly appeared in front of him, stopping her swirl and stretching her hand out to grab him.

But he wasn't a Jonin for nothing. Years of honed combat instincts allowed him to react swiftly. He was fast enough to dodge backward into the only still open direction as Gatsuga only worked in a straight line, and from the direction they came, they couldn't cut his backside off, escaping the reach of Hana's hand. "Well, that was a good try. You almost got me. I am impressed. It would have worked with most Chunin and even some tokubetsu Jonin. But you are still years too early to catch a fully-fledged Jon-," only to be interrupted as he felt a hand suddenly hug him from behind.

"Gotcha, Sensei!" said the cut loose Haruto, grabbing their Sensei as he was no longer bound by the ropes against the tree.

'How?' wondered Inoichi as he saw a Kunai stuck in the tree, having cut the rope cleanly off. Following the trajectory of the Kunai, he saw hanging where Tekku was supposed to be, a wooden Shinobi Puppet with an open mouth aiming at the tree. 'A Puppet. There must be a Kunai mechanism in its mouth. So I never caught Tekku; he kept information about himself hidden and used them to catch me off guard while involving the whole team to beat me. The smoke bomb wasn't a distraction for Hana but for Haruto. Simple but brilliant.'

"Well, you caught me. Congratulations. You three pass; the four of us form Team 10 from now on!" announced Inoichi as he had gone over the battle in his mind. It was a well-crafted plan, outmaneuvering the weaknesses of their team.

- Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi -

"So where did you get a Ninja Puppet, Tekku?" asked Inoichi, interested as he led his new Genin team through the Village after the test.

"I built it myself. I felt the Jutsus in the Academy aren't enough for me. Every member of a clan has their own unique set of Jutsus, or even someone with a Ninja relative had a big advantage. As an orphan, I decided that I also needed some kind of trump card, an advantage of my own," explained Tekku without really lying, only not mentioning that he knew how to learn the Rasengan or had canon foresight and a good idea how to create elemental Jutsu. "While I experimented with Chakra while practicing my Chakra Control, I figured out how to create Chakra Threads. They give me a good advantage as a nice and simple trick, but they weren't enough. So I learned in one of the history books about Sunagakure and how they used Shinobi Puppets during the Second and Third Great War. I spent the whole last year building one myself."

"Impressive. I didn't think you were intelligent enough to create a Ninja Puppet by yourself already. To my knowledge, there was never a Puppet user in Konoha. So you are pretty much a pioneer in that field," nodded Inoichi, clearly impressed by the discovery of his student's hidden talents.

Even Hana and Haruto were impressed by what they heard from their teammate, as that Puppet clearly saved their hides during the test earlier today. All his jealousy aside, Haruto had to admit to himself that he wouldn't have been able to accomplish something like this. Simply said, Tekku had developed his own Jutsu at the age of eight. But at the same time, Haruto swore to himself that he wouldn't be left behind. He would work hard to surpass his genius teammate in the future.

"Here we are!" announced Inoichi after leading his students through the village for a while, while having a pleasant chat with them, learning more about them individually.

They stood in front of a building, a yellow building with an orange-red roof. In front of it stood an assortment of different potted plants and flowers. On a sign fixed on the roof stood in large letters 'Yamanaka Flowers.' This was the flower shop owned by the Yamanaka Clan. And also in the back of the store was the household of Inoichi's family.

In order to celebrate their success, Inoichi invited the team for dinner at his home. All three freshly graduated Genin followed him inside the store as a young voice greeted them, "You are home, Daddy! How did it go?" A seven-year-old Ino was tending to some plants inside the store as she spotted her father return. She had short platinum blond hair, with bangs framing the right side of her face. Her eyes were green and pupil-less like Inoichi's.

"Hello, Princess. It went well; they passed the test and performed beyond expectation," replied Inoichi enthusiastically as he spotted his daughter. "I even brought them with me. These are Hana, her three Ninken, Haruto, and, lastly, Tekku," introduced Inoichi as he pointed at each of them respectively.

After cooing at the three cute puppies, Ino observed each of them as she greeted them, until she stopped at Tekku. "But you are about the same age as me? How are you a Genin already?"

"Well, I am one year older than you. I graduated early; you can do so too. If you complete four electives when you are eight and are good enough for the regular graduation, the teachers will allow you to graduate," explained Tekku, without really lying, while smiling at the blond-haired girl.

"Huh, that works? You must be really strong to be able to do that," she said, impressed that someone her age was already a Genin.

"He is quite talented. Originally, I planned to let him graduate as long as they worked together and showed enough talent. But he managed to outsmart me by using what I knew about his abilities and managed to lead this team to catch me," added Inoichi with a smile.

Seeing how impressed her father was, Ino muttered absentmindedly, "Maybe I should try to graduate early too."

Having heard that, Inoichi took on a serious look. "Absolutely not. Although Tekku has the abilities of a Genin, I still believe he shouldn't have graduated and enjoyed his time in the Academy. I can somewhat understand his reasoning, but being with people his age would be better for him."

"Well, they aren't really my mental age, only the same age as my body," thought Tekku wryly, but he could clearly see where Inoichi was coming from.

After this short interruption, they were led into the home of the Yamanaka family and spent a nice dinner with them. They also met Inoichi's wife, Yumi Yamanaka, who prepared a nice meal for all of them. Ino spent a lot of time asking them a lot of questions, especially interested in Tekku.

When it became dark outside, they decided to go home. Tomorrow would be the first day where they would begin their training and missions.

- Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi -

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