Tag: externality

Plan A–the plan they’re currently enacting–was mostly Naruto Uzumaki’s idea. She tweaked some parts to make it less risky, but the core of it has more flair for the dramatic than she herself would produce.

Plan B–which she had hoped to use on the possibility that their disguises were seen through–relied on the facts that she could switch seamlessly between the henge disguises and that the idea of Neji Hyuuga ambushing someone would be so intimidating that no one would think to test her in a fight.

The henge is not the problem.

The problem is that she’s already been hit three times in this fight and even if she were to switch into the Neji Hyuuga disguise, no one would believe it now.

Gods, this did not go as well as she had hoped.

They have enough armbands, is the thing. They want the remaining token and she’s not even fighting the right person.

As seconds fly by, the smoke disperses more and more, and any advantage she had in this fight against that sensible son of a bitch Komadori is swiftly dispersing with it.

Naruto Uzumaki’s laughter sounds strained now, too, and she knows they’re in trouble.

She tries to trill a whistle–her signal for retreat–but Komadori gets in a hard jab to her sternum that leaves her breathless.

Her henge shatters.

Well, there goes the whole disguise strategy.

Her opponent hesitates–or perhaps, so used to class spars, allows her to catch her breath–but that’s just the opening she needs:

She replaces herself with Renji, their somehow still unconscious hostage, and gives herself some space and what little cover remains of the smoke.

There! Now due north of her, Naruto Uzumaki still in disguise, fighting another camper and losing. She lurches in that direction. Now that she has air again, she finally trills a whistle, reaching out and yanking Naruto Uzumaki out of the way of a punch.

“Let’s go!” she shouts, running and pulling him with her, even as he tries to twist himself away. Thankfully, he’s not trying to stay and fight, but even as he begins to run with his own momentum she keeps her hold on him.

She is vigilant all the way back to the camp, paranoid that someone–especially that sensible son of a bitch–might track them down. But after several feints and a set of bunshin as decoys, she finally lets them spiral back into their camp.

Naruto Uzumaki’s bruises already seem to be healing, or maybe they aren’t nearly as bad as hers which she can feel radiating pain and heat off her skin.

Was it worth it? Attacking the camp directly only got them an additional armband and token each.

But they’ve almost completed Naruto Uzumaki’s impossible objective; surely that’s work a few scrapes.

Still, “You’re getting first watch,” she says, before performing the minimal amount of basic first aid on herself and passing the fuck out.

The weird thing is, Tetsuki thinks–ducking under a blind flail and returning with a punch to someone’s nose, cartilage crunching under her fist–she doesn’t like taijutsu.

Sure, she can learn and perform kata well enough and, more often than not, she does win her spars during class… which would imply she’s decent at taijutsu.

But that’s only as compared to her fellow students.

As this particular situation can attest to–a camper grabs at her sleeve, how quaint, she grips their arm and tosses them over her shoulder–the majority of her classmates aren’t exactly impressive.

Naruto Uzumaki laughs and blows a raspberry and she whistles in response, their established back and forth to keep track of each other in the smoke. From the sound of it, he’s a little bit northwest of her and has gotten an armband. She thinks maybe the laughter is genuine, so at least he’s enjoying himself, but she’s also been hearing some grunts of pain from him. No doubt someone’s gotten a couple lucky hits on him, better make this quick:

She crouches down and pats at her fallen opponent, delivering a knock out blow beforehand just to make sure–there, in a pocket, metal body temperature, the now familiar feel of a token. They can check the color later.

She whistles again and clicks her tongue–one token down, one more to go.

Someone gets a hand in her hair and yanks. She stumbles, one arm barely catching her fall, this close she can actually see a vague outline of the other person. Hell, she can see the blue of his sandals.

Komadori, that sensible son of a bitch.

“You’re not Atsushi,” he says, somewhat redundantly. Her henge is still up, but her hair is far longer than her disguise.

“I’m not?” she asks in Atsushi’s voice–or a close enough approximation as she could make with what little of it she heard when they ambushed him earlier–an attempt to baffle him before punching hard at the side of his knee.

It’s not enough to dislocate his kneecap, unfortunately, but it does surprise him enough to make him let go of her hair, allowing her to scramble back to her feet.

He’s not so taken off guard that she can just disappear back into the cover of the smoke–they maybe only have another thirty seconds before it disperses into uselessness–and he attacks her immediately.

She barely dodges a kick and gets a punch to the jaw for her efforts. Frustratingly she recalls that this particular classmate is one of the few who consistently beat her in spars.

Gods damn this sensible son of a bitch.

The smoke bombs are one minute from detonating–that is, if they detonate at all, they were from the damaged box that Hikari-san let her have because of possible water exposure–when someone says,

“Should we try to find Mina?”

It’s hesitant enough that it almost gets drowned out by other voices, but still worryingly sensible.

“No way, she made her choice!”

“We don’t know if she did make a choice. For all we know, she’s out there unconscious, too, and we’re just blaming her for something she hasn’t done,” the same someone says, reasonable and far closer to the truth than Tetsuki likes.

Better kill that line of thinking.

“If you think that’s the case, go on ahead,” Tetsuki says, “Hell, if you’re that sure about it, I’ll even go with you. But it doesn’t feel right leaving the camp so unprotected, especially if Mina did sell us out.”

“That just means more of us should go!” this frustratingly sensible classmate says, “If Mina and Renji got ambushed just the two of them, then we might need bigger numbers.”

“And leave the camp less defended?” Tetsuki repeats, scrambling, trying to find a reason that isn’t, my fellow infiltrator and I would like to stay behind and continue our planned sabotage, if you please.

“Yeah, Komadori, if you want to go out there and look for that traitor, then go ahead. But don’t go dragging the rest of us into it.”

Oh, thank the gods, an aggressive, selfish classmate to the unknowing rescue.

And just in time, too.

She and Naruto Uzumaki exchange a quick, relieved glance with each other, before taking survey of where the campers are respective to themselves and each other.

Smoke starts to spew out of the fire pit, just a little at first, to draw attention, before erupting in huge billows of smoke.

Tetsuki kicks out at the camper nearest to her, catching him off guard and knocking the wind out of him, and Naruto Uzumaki laughs–disorienting to the campers, but encouraging for her.

This is going to be fun.