Solar Eclipse *Rewrite*

Chapter 14

Saturday. Every kid loves Saturdays. Waking up knowing that you don't need to go to school or do anything. It's a day when kids can be kids. However, when you are a shinobi child, Saturdays have the potential to be more... interesting. Lee waved at his friends as they approached him. They had agreed to meet up at the park for a quick playdate/training session. It was late into the morning, almost leaning into noon. Prime playdate time. "Hey!"

Koinu waved back, her excitement was noticeable from a mile away. "Hey! Are you ready?"

"Yes!" He had a small, raggy sack thrown over his shoulder. "I brought a few books and scrolls. Borrowed from the library. I thought it would be nice to go over them."

Her eyes lit up, her ribbons started to crawl up to her wrists. Squirming with the promise of new knowledge. She brushed them back into place. "Great! Come on!" And she took his empty hand, tugging him along.

They had chosen a small clearing deeper into the forest. At least deeper than they had dared venture into. Naruto pulled a kuni from his pocket, using it to draw a circle in the grass. "Okay... There are six of us, right?" He ran a line through half of the circle, it was slightly off-centered but that was fine. "We should split into two groups of three. It'll be fair. Plus, I'm pretty sure that we'll be put in four-person cells when we graduate. Three genin and a jounin sensei. Right?"

Koinu nodded, tucking her bag into the root of a giant tree. "Yeah, that's what Dog told me. Usually, teams are made up of two boys and one girl, which I find kinda stupid. Girls are just as capable of being dangerous and able shinobi as boys are." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I think... Lee, me, and Shikamaru, versus Naruto, Sasuke, and Choji. It should be fair... sorta." She stood on one side of the line while Naruto took the other. Their teams followed. "I think we should start with taijutsu. The last one standing earns a point for their team. Losers buy food."

"Wait. Time out. Why this order?" Sasuke tapped his foot to the group.

The girl shrugged. "There's no real way to make this even. We're kids and we know most of each other's strengths and weaknesses. For example, Choji is big and strong, but he's too gentle and would never purposely hurt a friend."

Naruto continued her string of thoughts. "Sasuke's the best in class, but has a superior complex so he doesn't work well with a team."

"Hey!"

"Or how Shikamaru is intelligent enough to think at least ten steps ahead but is really lazy."

"Lee's great at taijutsu but has no chakra and often struggles to counter a jutsu-based attack."

"Or how you both have the attention span of a goldfish but are really unnecessarily powerful." Shikamaru rolled his eyes at their back-and-forth exchange. "But she is right. We'll never find a real way to make our training teams even and truly fair."

"Thank you, Shikamaru... I think... Now. Where were we?"

"Taijutsu."

"Right! Taijutsu. Ready?"

"Ready!" The two teams faced each other head-on. Koinu took on Choji. As stated before, he was cautious in the way he moved. It was obvious that he didn't want to hurt anyone. Oh, lovable little lamb. Your friends aren't as fragile as they may seem. She agreed. Most of his moves were defensive, he'd push away. Okay... They could work with that. She jumped high into the air, to evade Sasuke's full-bodied attack. He almost always used the same sequence: first, he'd aim a punch to your upper body, then a kick that would throw you off balance, and finally another punch aimed lower, areas like your gut. Once the winds have been knocked out of you, he'd make sure to try and keep the upper hand on you.