𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐇𝐘𝐔𝐆𝐀 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍

Pass or Fail?

A/N: So Hanara's affinities are Water and Wind and she prefers Wind, just because it's easier to use because it's all around her. She found this out when Neji was in the Academy and she was home by herself. And no, she cannot combine them to create Ice Release because she is not a Yuki and therefore Ice Release isn't her Kekkei Genkai although, she did try. I have other ideas though...

She also uses the fans above for her Wind ninjutsu like Temari does. The fans are small enough to fit in Hinata's Shippuden sweater pockets, just so you know.

---

Shikamaru and Hanara were laying in the grass with their eyes on the clouds, Asuma-sensei was sitting on a bench and smoking, while Ino, on the other hand, was sitting on a tree, glaring at the direction of Choji's home. Cloud watching, Hanara soon found out, was extremely relaxing. Just watching the clouds drift along with the breeze gave her a nice soothing sensation. She finally understood why Shikamaru liked it. Of course, when Ino Yamanaka is on your team, all relaxing moments will end, so when Ino jumped off of the tree she was sitting in and started yelling, Hanara wasn't surprised.

"UGH! WHERE IS CHOJI! HE'S ALWAYS THE LAST ONE TO EVERYTHING!" Ino yelled.

As if that had been his cue, Choji walked onto the training ground with a hand full of chips halfway towards his mouth.

"Hey guys, hope I'm not too late," Choji said through mouthfuls of chips.

Asuma-sensei let out a sigh and waved the children over to him, "Now that everyone's here, we can begin. I am going to test you through spars so try to get as many techniques you can use in them. There's no point in knowing 100 jutsus if you can't figure out an opportunity to use them. I will decide on whether or not you stay genin based on how you perform, got it?"

"Yes sensei!" they all chorused.

"Right. So the matches will be Shikamaru against Hanara and Ino against Choji. Shikamaru and Hanara will go first."

With that, Shikamaru and Hanara made their way to the middle of the training ground. The training ground was fairly simple, it was just a grassy area surrounded by some tall trees on every side, so they wouldn't disturb anyone too much.

"Okay, make the Seal of Confrontation..." Asuma paused and the two children made the seal, "begin!"

'Shit,' Hanara thought as she dodged Shikamaru's stretching shadow, 'Of course, I had to go against the one with that stupid Shadow Possession Jutsu when I specialize in taijutsu. Can't risk getting too close but I don't want to pull out my Liquid Bullets, Air Bullets, or Wind Scythe Jutsu when I've got nothing else to back them up... I got it! I need a distraction so that I can get close enough to use my 8 Trigrams while he focuses on something else.'

Hanara finally took her eyes off the ground and dropped a smoke bomb.

Using the smoke to her advantage, Hanara activated her Byakugan, found Shikamaru, and got into her Gentle Fist stance, dropping a few more smoke bombs.

'Man I really need to learn the Hidden Mist Jutsu... eh, can learn it later. Now, 64 Palms or 32 Palms? Which one will be enough? Hm.. if 32 isn't enough, I can always end the fight with an extremely fast and concentrated Air Bullet... it wouldn't take too much chakra so I won't collapse and I won't waste chakra trying to gather the air, unlike with water.' Hanara thought, once again dropping another smoke bomb, 'Okay, 32 Palms it is!'

"Gentle Fist Art: 8 Trigrams, 32 Palms!" Hanara said, running towards Shikamaru.

By now, that was muscle memory for Hanara. She didn't even have to think about where the strikes were going after doing 64 Palms against Neji for so long.