The formation of Team K (chapter one)

K's sunglasses let him watch the jutsu more carefully, the chakra around the kunai men didn't appear to be fire, rather the flames seemed to be only an effect, the true speed came from the electric current running though the kunai men yet just like her sister Hikari had spent so much of her chakra so easily and was now also to tired to fight, both of them seemed to rely so heavily on their constructs that neither could fend for themselves, worse yet Raynx had dropped out from the challenge all together, clearly they all needed a fair degree of training.

The eel began to flick its tail like a whip coupled with lightning to make itself slither along the watery ground faster, though the kunai men were catching up he proved slippery enugh to slither around their sharp points as they hit the ground and around them so that they were sure to bump in to each other timing a water blast to knock two of them together.

K was about to ask Raynx what was wrong when his lightning clairvoyance picked up on a new presence, a few, shorter figures in the distance watching them, with two students tired out, one to far away and all focus on the eel they were completely defenseless if thease figures were attackers, they had also approached quite fast which led him to believe they were powerfull. This could be trouble the newcomers took priority over the test due to the condition of his students K leapt with blistering speed almost appearing before the panthers forgetting that he had stopped his song, he checked the panthers for headbands but didnt see any symbol he knew, who were they, what were they and were had they come from? K spoke suddenly "can I help you?" he asked the panthers politely not knowing if they could speak or not

Their leader spoke in a almost horse tone "Are you K?" They continued to sit there waiting for a reply they didn't wish to wait long but if needed they would for now. The other three panthers eyes were on the students the leader was bigger then them by a bit but it couldn't be noticed unless they sat next to each other.

K looked at each of them more carefully, the big black cats seemed to be in a formation of some kind, thease were no ordinary trained beasts, they were intelligent and more over knew his name and where to find him "I am" he began simply "but might I ask who all of you might be?" he couldn't recall any village that used panthers, who could have sent them?

The leader spoke again "We are from a village lost to the past the letters which we have will explain it somewhat." The other three went to the younger ninja's and dropped a letter in front of them while their leader picked up his letter from his side and dropped it in front of K.

This is what the letter said

K read the letter quickly and put it in his robes "I'll have to bring this to my superiors, thank you for your time but now I will have to ask you to leave" what is this? some sort of threat? an invitation to treason? a declaration of war? he looked to his students and the eel who had also stopped what they were doing "as you can see we are busy"

Coughing a bit before saying "We we're only asked to deliver we shall be off then" nodding to the other panthers they exited the same in which they came down the building without breaking pace. Soon after they were out of site to return from where they came from.

K sighed "this does not bode well" he turned to his students "Since our game was cut short, lest call it a draw. After all I only started this game to get a feel for your ability" he looked to the two sweating, panting twins and the far off, uninvolved Raynx "and I think I have all I need to know, the two of you both work well with those chakra creatures but were lost a great deal of energy from them, if your constructs were detained you would be at a serious disadvantage, however you knew how to act quickly and make them fast enugh to keep up with him, those decisions dont come easily to everyone. All the same Ranyx you didnt do anything at all... if the three of you had worked together you probably could have caught him in time..." he hoped they wouldn't be offended "Im hoping I can train all of you overcome thease weaknesses and maybe teach you a few of my techniques" he knew he had to deliver the note to the kage so he called his summon over "would you mind delivering this to Raikage-sama? Explain that it was delivered to me by unknown ninja cats" he asked handing it to him as he slithered away. K was already turning over in his head some training he could give them.

Ranyx's lip twitched. He snatched the letter off of the ground with an undeserved amount of fury. They obviously misinterpreted what he intended to do. Well, sooooooorry that he couldn't do anything uuuuuuuseful. He had told his parents, 'No, no, I'll be horrible at it.' And did they care? Obviously not. At the moment, he couldn't care less about annoying his teacher. "Oh, I'm sorry K-sen. I just didn't think that it would be smart to begin firing lasers at the eel... So I apologize for being a useless sack of crap." Plus, he didn't have exactly a copious amount of speed or finesse, so that didn't help his case. He felt that he would be better of quitting and being disgraced than put up with shit like this. He was useless: why have him?

Kiyoko was not surprised by K-sen's observations. She knew it herself that she used too much chakra. At least her chakra pool would increase in time. She felt sorry for Ran, and decided to step-forward and defend him, which was probably more than he deserved, but maybe it would help to correct things between them. "I don't think your observation of Ran is fair. You said it yourself that you have no idea who we were. Maybe he doesn't have jutsu that could have helped. You obviously didn't want us to kill the little creature now did you?" She was praying that Ran wouldn't be angry with her. She wasn't really bothered about how K-sen might react.

She had picked up the letter, but had not yet bothered to read it.

K's jaw nearly dropped a little, how could someone who started out so happy and clingy become so depressed so quickly? It dawned on K then that he might not like being a ninja, perhaps he was being a bit like himself as a genin, but if so K had been much more accepting and positive about things. "using jutsu creatively is important, if Ranyx had fire for example he could have burned the grass to cut off his escape so that your constructs could close in, if he had medical techniques he could have revitalized your tired bodies, there are no techniques that can not be used in a situation, only the limits of the user's thinking, ninja can not afford to compromise a mission that they have not developed a technique for, I agree with you that its harsh, its a harsh line of work we do but I am trying to prepair you for it" he turned to Raynx "if you were really a useless sack of crap like you said, there is no way you could have passed the academy, that alone proves your worth, and Im going to get you to see just how great you can be, Im going to bring out the best in all of you if you'll let me"

Hikari was just watching. Thus far she had been unusually quiet. But she was like that when it came to new situations. She liked to know what she was getting in to. But, as soon as she figured it out or got more comfortable with the situation, she became as crazy and out-going as her sister. Hikari was starting to get comfortable with what was going on.

"I'll do my best, K-sensei." She said with a bright smile. Now it was time for her craziness to come out. She ran to Ranyx and hugged him from behind.

"Come on, Ran-kun! We'll get this and be the best team there ever was!" Her voice was enthusiastic as she spoke. It was time to connect their team, after all, they needed to work well together if they were ever going to be great.

Ranyx was upset. Everyone else was a capable ninja, but he was practically worthless. He couldn't even get the components of his family's alignment right. It almost sounded like K was insulting his imagination, but not quite. It was nice of Hikari and Kiyoko to side with him, even in the slightest. Ranyx didn't reply to Hikari's craziness and kindness with much enthusiasm. He just murmured, "Mkay... I suppose..." He didn't expect much from himself. Obviously.

K saw that things had goten just a little calmer for the moment so now seemed like a good time to get started "well then, lets jump right in, Raynx I can start by teaching you a technique that will allow you to capture and contain things, a prison technique; watch carefully" he said moving down to the ground around one of the kunai men and stabbing three of his own kunai in to the ground to make a triangle "its a little advanced but since you use storm release this level of lighting control should come much more easily to you, this starts by passing an electric current though and between each kunai" he said as the kunai began to spark and a current of electricity came between them like a little rope "this is the lightning prison in its most basic form, you'll find the electricity naturally wants to do this if you feed an even amount of raiton chakra in to each of them, now there is a more advanced version..." he said throwing down three hand seals, bird, ox, horse as three currents rose form the other ends of the kunai and converged above the kunai man's head becoming a visible electric field around it form all sides "in this version the target is completely detained, if anything tries to pass though the electric field Ive made it will be shocked back, the prison stays up as long as I stand by and feed it chakra, but this one requires more concentration and control" he canceled the technique with a final hand seal "would you mind starting your training by learning to feed the same amount of chakra in to each kunai to get a current going?" he asked him, he wanted to make sure Ranyx was okay before moving on to the twins training

Ranyx watched carefully as K explained the basics. Hm... shouldn't be too hard. Not like he needed to perform an actual release or anything. He placed both hands on either side of two parallel kunai and began feeding Raiton chakra into them. He was trying to get them to charge up so he could avoid a Raiton release.

Hikari backed away as K-sensei began training with Ranyx. She briefly wondered when she would ge to her, but she wasn't in a hurry. Hikari knew that she needed to work on her chakra control and all that jazz, but she wasn't keen to start right away, but she would if that's what K wanted. Who was she to disobey such a great mentor?

K noticed her "dont worry, I know your chakra is drained Hikari but I think I can help" he picked up his kunai and turned to face her "you see, I have a technique lightning element users can use that actually 'charges' your chakra using lighting, and I noticed your a lighting user like me when you 'charged' your sister's constructs, correct me if Im wrong but I saw electricity in them" he put the kunai back in to a pouch on his belt "but before you can learn that you'd have to learn another technique, one called the electrical resistance skill, maybe you have heard of it in the academy? Its a technique in which you hold your own chakra against an electric current to make it so that the electricity can strike you with out doing damage or causing pain, its not an easy technique to learn but if you do learn it you can run electricity though your body or your weapons with out shocking yourself and you will be able to learn many more lightning based jutsu" he pulled out a special Kunai, one with a yellow handle and a box shaped end on it "I trained using thease, they're lighting rod Kunai, if you open the box on the end it will let out a small amount of electricity, not enugh to do any sort of damage but enugh to practice the electrical resistance skill with though it stings a little, the box opens when you stab the blade in to something, like the ground" he explained handing it to her "this wont require you to expand any more of your chakra, since the chakra used in this skill shouldn't leave your body, what do you think?" this sort of training should appeal to her, it was clear and simple with a direct goal in place, the sort of thing someone like her would take to based off of the short time K knew her.

Hikari nodded slowly before she reached out to grip the lightning-rod kunai. If she understood this correctly, she was supposed to purposefully stab this thing into the ground and she if she could block the electrical current. But what if she failed? It wouldn't hurt too bad, would it? Hikari was pretty pain tolerant...but electrical shock? She hoped she could do it and not disappoint her mentor. Sighing and closing her eyes, Hikari attempted to build up Ration Chakra in the hopes of creating the barrier that K-sensei had been talking about. When she thought she had it, the girl crouched down and gritted her teeth before lifting her arm and plunging the special kunai into the ground.

At first, nothing happened and Hikari opened her eyes and smiled joyfully. Had she gotten it? But when she thought that, her control over the chakra slipped and a small shock zipped through her arm and the teenager fell backwards. It wasn't painful, per se, but she had definitely felt the electrical current. Rubbing her arm Hikari sat up and concentrated once more before reaching for the kunai again. She tore it from the ground without feeling another shock. There! Had she gotten it?

Kiyoko was slightly disappointed that she had not received any attention, but she was sure K-sen would get to her. A moment of worry overcame her as Hikari fell back, but she was soon up and trying again. You show him sister! She didn't say it out loud, but she was thinking it. Its the thought that counts, right? She wondered what K-sen would teach her. She needed to work on her Taijutsu as well as work more on her fuuinjutsu cards. She was kind of tempted to use her ninja info cards on Ran and K-sen, but she thought that me too disrespectful...well...at least to K-sen. It might just aggravate Ran.

(Maybe you could work on her Fuuinjutsu for the barrier seals? I would like her to learn the five point seal as well as the four point exploding barrier. Are there any other barrier jutsu involving four seals? That would take up all the diamond cards.)

K smiled "your a natural at this, if you keep practicing you can learn to hold the current and deliver electrical attacks with your body and weapons" he said encouraging her "also, that kunai is a natural lightning magnet, if you throw it near lighting the current will follow it"

then he turned to Kiyoko "well I never learned any fuuninjutsu myself but I have had quite a few subordinates in the Kinkaku who had, I think I might have a few scrolls for you later on but in the mean time how would you feel about learning how to keep up with your constructs?" it became noticeable that his legs had bandaged structures on them "because taijutsu is something I do know"

Kiyoko nodded, thinking it was a smart idea. Taijutsu was a big weakness for her. "Sure!" She said cheerily. She also found the idea of being able to kick people to be very attractive. There were a lot of people in this world who needed a good ol' fashioned butt kicking. She give could it to them! Maybe she could help solve all the problems in the world by giving a kick. Oh that satisfaction!

K smiled, he couldn't help his confidence in kicking, after all it alowed you to use your hands for hand seals to cast jutsu while you fought and leg strength meant faster running and higher pumping as well, as far as K was concerned it really was the ultimate taijutsu style for a ninja to use “well, for a start, lets see how confidant you are with kicks already” … As time passed they spent an afternoon training together before finally leaving for the day, though K had other matters to attend to he left them with the simple instruction to “keep training and meet me again the day after tomorrow at the outskirts of the village by an old fountain.”

The Raikage’s office had been packed since the delivery of the letter K had received, by the time he entered K had waited outside for quite a bit “Yoshimori…” the Raikage began “though you might not have realized it this letter holds a greater significance than you could have thought, though it was not widely believed until now a great number of years ago a loose organization of high ranking ninja, namely beast users gathered around a powerful demon and were, ultimately sealed there. It seems the seal is beginning to lose its power and that some individuals, like the ninja beasts you saw, are beginning to break from the sealed site and are now referring to themselves as the village hidden in the past, from this we can infer that they have become organized during their time in the sealed site and have formed an organization, a means to an end we do not yet know of. We can also infer that other such letters were delivered to note worthy shinobi from all villages, that they are still attempting to form allegiances, some of the elders suspect that this points to war” K attended the briefing carefully “A war? Serious business indeed but what could they possibly be wagering a war for?” The raikage remained pensive “The demon they were sealed with remains just as powerful, if they succeed in drawing in powerful enough allies they could easily free it, such a power would trigger our own allegiances and raise tensions over night, war would likely be declared as a preemptive measure, perhaps they would be understandably angry after spending so many generations sealed away, perhaps they have some new vision for how they would like to rule the world, their goals at this time are less important that their gathering influence, is their anything you can tell me about these messengers?” K began his report “at around noon today four black ninja panthers each with paw prints on their headbands, one very large one leading three smaller ones arrived while I was getting to know my new students, they explained that they had been ordered to come here and deliver those four identical messages to us, how they knew where to find us or got past security is so far unknown, after receiving their message I asked them to leave and they departed swiftly” The raikage looked at him quizzically “you just let them go, with out so much as a question?” K smiled “That would be very unlike me” he said drawing a wire from his index finger as it suddenly swung to a different direction “I covertly left a wire tracer on the leader, its still active so it must not have been found out or touched yet, all I can offer is the direction that panther is in now” An aide near the raikage took up a map and marked the direction as I canceled his jutsu “excellent work K, we will use this as a basis for resonance missions in the future as well as share this information with our trusted allies, however we can not rule out the possibility that some of our number may answer this invitation and turn treacherous, or worse yet remain among us as spies, they may already have allies outside their village, perhaps even in others like our own; just stay alert Kodai and do not underestimate the resourcefulness of these agitators” K bowed respectfully “yes Raikage-sama” K was dismissed shortly after “oh and K, how were your students?” asked the Raikage in passing, K smiled “they’ve scraped by so far, their exactly like I was in many ways, but I think my test for them tomorrow will show me just what they can really do as ninja, since most of their abilities are combat based I thought Id call in a friend” the raikage knew exactly who he was referring to “don’t tell me, your calling in her already?” K smiled again “yes, if that’s alright” The raikage seemed tentative “I’ll allow it, but make sure you know what your getting in to, and I wont have them get seriously hurt” K turned to go “of course Raikage-sama, there wont be any serious danger, yet”

Later that night K sat up at his desk working on a few things, left to right their were four green scrolls, the makings of a glove with a yellow spherical stone in the palm, and pouch full of small blue and yellow spheres. K was working on these items for his students when a very peculiar bird flew in his window carrying a small scroll which K took from it and read “right on time” he said with a grin as the bird shattered and crumbled away “tomorrow should be very interesting alright, old friend”

-end of part one-