Strolling Amongst Stalactites

Trial and Error

Last Time:

Jade knew it was probably meant to be mean, but instead it made everyone gush over the cute little blonde. The suspended ninja sighed in relief and left as the teacher regained control of the class ...

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"Next up ... Naruko!" The young woman with light brown hair pulled back in a ponytail wearing a blue Chinese battle uniform. "Please display long-range, mid-range, short-range just like the others. You can use your threads and instead of checking your drawing speed for your weapons I'll test how quickly you unseal them. Just like with the others the time stops when you're hit with a weapon ... circle targets first, ready?" She asked as she signaled to the rest of the students to stay on the grass.

The medic on the sidelines got ready to jump in just in case the little blonde needed it help. Of course, no real weapons are used with the five year olds. The 'weapons' to dodge are genjutsus that have a little pricking effect when they hit, but there is no such thing as being too prepared. Besides, girls cut themselves because they hold the weapon wrong proving that even practice weapons can be dangerous.

Practice makes perfect ...

"Yes, Minami-sensei." Naruko said as she eagerly trotted over to the center of the clearing where ten circular targets hung in various spots around her and ten test dummies. As she waited for the instructor to start the test she started feeling nervous.

A raven haired girl on the sidelines waved, "You'll do great, Naruko!" She yelled, effectively calming the little blonde down.

The raven was Sana Yuki, the daughter of the lovely Mary Yuki who was a breeder. Mary managed to infiltrate Konoha once before and the mission bore fruit ... so to speak. Sana is the child of an Uchiha and not just any Uchiha either. She came from none other than the clan head Fugaku Uchiha. Jade had to go to Konoha again a few years later to get updated information as well as check out the other clans. Sana was also the one who cast the genjutsu on Naruko the first day of school two months ago. After that prank backfired they actually became friends.

Minami chuckled at the girls cheering from the sidelines and set her hand on the switch that will activate the test dummies. She wasn't going to hit it yet, but soon, "3 ... 2 ... 1 GO!" She flicked the switch and everything started moving.

The test was the students' first Motion Test of the year and it does an excellent job of helping the children get used to real fights and hitting moving targets. The goal is simple ...

All the targets move. Five circular targets will hide behind a tree and suddenly appear again in a different spot thanks to special rigged wires. The five other circular targets either move quickly back and forth or spins revealing a blank side and back again. You must try to hit the targets, but at the slow setting for the younger girls it's not too difficult. It will get faster each time they use it and get used to motion and speed ... your enemy won't just stand there after all. These things are necessary to learn and it's best to start young.

Then there were the wooden training dummies ...

Five of those dummies jump into the trees surrounding the training grounds, while the other five jump back and forth in the treetops or walk towards them. After a couple seconds the hidden dummies emerge at random times and toss a genjutsu weapon at the future ninjas, which they must try to dodge as they take out the dummies. The dummies didn't have red target signs on them, but the girls were told to aim for the chest in this level until they cover the fatal points of the human body in a couple years.

There are variations of the test that will be used too. For example different speeds are used or different dummies made of synthetic flesh. The dummies will at some point throw real weapons and some circular targets will explode.