Team Ten Unite! The First Meeting!

Kazue made her way slowly to Training Ground 44, or as many of the locals knew it, the 'Forest of Death'. This had been her home away from home for a long time, and she had managed to requisition it as her teams official training ground. That's right, she had been assigned a team of her own. She had received dossiers about them the previous day to go over them, but she didn't really care about that stuff. She had instead, asked that each member of her team be sent a letter. It read,

"Guest, you have bee assigned to Genin Team 10. You have your first meeting at 0700 in Training Ground 44. Sincerely, Shodai Hokage, Kosuke Uchiha."

The Genin would be arriving in less than an hour and as such, she needed to prepare. She had on dark clothing, which was uncommon for her. She usually was seen in pure white clothing with a bandanna type Hitai-ite. But, after the events of her brother's death, she had changed a bit from her old ways. She had agreed to take on this team, so long as it didn't interfere with her work in ANBU. She had been guaranteed that it wouldn't. She arrived at the first clearing one came to when entering the forest and stood in waiting for her team to arrive. They had the largest of all the training grounds, all the fenced in area of the forest was theirs to use. Though, it was still filled to the brim with giant animals who would cause harm to even experienced shinobi if you went too far in.

Hideo had received the letter sent by the Hokage saying he had been assigned to a team it didn't say who was in his team however, Genin Team 10. He had no idea about who his sensei would be or who his teammates were which left him a little curious. He made his way to the Forest of Death or you know, that other name no one ever called it which was Training Ground 44. The Uzumaki was wearing pretty standard clothing, with a dark top and pants on, it was the standard Konoha uniform without the flak jacket that chuunin and higher ranks wore. Pretty standard as an attire.

He had arrived with only a minor complication in the form of a large snake which he was able to disable with his Dance of the Shikigami, it was only 6 feet in length at most so he doubted it was the worst that this place could throw at him. He arrived pretty early and looked at the woman that was standing there, he was undoubtedly surprised. It was that Kazue woman, he had heard of the incident that involved the Hokage's son whom he had met previously alongside this woman and a wandering woman that he was pretty sure had resumed wandering around the place.

"You're... Kazue. You're the sensei?"

It wasn't a good impression but given their previous encounter the red-head was amazed they'd let this woman look after a bunch of ninja given her nature but there was the chance that had changed, no need to be so doubtful of the fact people could change and she had lost a brother recently.

"I'm.. sorry about you your loss"

He moved over to stand by a tree and look at the ground thoughtfully, he figured it was the least he could do to offer his condolences after making such a bad greeting and second impression.

The forest of death... For some reason, Moeru didn't like the sound of that. Truthfully, she didn't like anything with the word death in it, let alone a forest of it. There just had to be all sorts of dangers inside of it. Maybe some predators? Giant man-eating bugs? Or maybe a plant that would poison her in some way? All of it frightened her; all of it made her terrified, and she almost didn't come.

But then, how would she be a ninja if she allowed this to scare her? Moeru had already made it up in her mind to give it her all and become a kunoichi so that everyone would like her more. Of course, it was expecting too much for a girl with no natural talent or skill to be a shinobi. In fact, Moeru couldn't remember how she even passed the graduation exam. However, she wouldn't give up. She came this far, so she could continue forward and see where she went!

With that state of mind, she threw on a regular white T-shirt from her closet, as well as her signature beige jacket with an extended pink sleeve, and some spandex shorts that extended to her knees, then walked outside. She knew where the forest of death was, but the only problem for her was actually getting there. Her usual route involved avoiding as many people as she could, which meant taking a longer route. It was because of this that she was late to most meetings, and why she now left out early so that no one would yell at her for being late.

Needless to say, she woke up at 4 in the morning and left her home, then finally arrived at the training ground at 7. What was more baffling was the fact that she had broken a sweat and was breathless, as though she had just run a marathon.

Even still, she made it in time. When she came forward, she saw two people already there. One was a woman that looked very mature while the other was a boy that seemed just a bit older than her. However, he looked very experienced. These two, when compared to Moeru, seemed like incredible giants.

"Um..." Moeru shyly walked up to the two, leaning her head to the ground and avoiding eye contact. She seemed like she wanted to say something, but she couldn't get it out. "Um... Um..."

You can do it... Just try Moeru... Just try... Moeru chanted to herself as she tried her hardest to speak. Already she had brought her sleeves to her mouth as if to hide, and she was feeling the excessive want to run away and not look back. But she had to do this if she wanted to accomplish her goal!

"Um... Um... M-my... M-my n-name... M-m-m-m-mm-my n-n-nn-name is Moru!"

Crap, she just said it wrong.

Suddenly, her face flushed red, and she began to shrink into the background. She soon hid herself behind a tree from the embarrassment.

Another hot day, huh? The sun's rays burst through Griffith's blinds, penetrating the meager fortress he made for himself every night before going to bed. He fumbled about his bed, stretching his arms and legs as far as they could go, gathering himself before groggily stepping out of bed. Out of the corner of his eye, Griffith noticed a thin white envelope near his doorstep that wasn't there before. In his spotless room, something out of place stuck out immediately.

The young Uchiha picked up the envelope and tore it open, quickly scanning it with his eyes. The Forest of Death, huh? He threw the letter onto his bedside table and quickly got changed before undergoing the rest of his morning routine and stepping out the door.

Before entering the Forest of Death, Griffith activated his Sharingan as to avoid any potential dangers that may lie in wait. Their training ground may be right near the entrance, but he had heard a plethora of rumors about shinobi dying to both the nature and to human enemies in the past, with enough evidence to make him wary. Now hyper alert of his surroundings, the young man plunged into the darkness of the forest and headed towards the designated location.

Shortly before his arrival, Griffith spotted three individuals -- no doubt members of his team. He deactivated his Sharingan and made himself known to them with a bright smile. "Hey. I'm Griffith," he said, his long, wavy, white hair finally coming to a rest from his running.

Nodding to Hideo for his thoughts, she would notice the second member of their team arrive. Moeru, the one she and other high ranking shinobi knew to be the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox. Kazue, of course, didn't give two shits about the fox, but she had read in the other girl's file that its presence had messed up her socialization growing up. This led to her obvious timid nature in groups. This nature she seemed to have would only serve to get her or her teammates injured or killed. That was one thing she would need to work on with the girl. The final member of the team arrived, his wavy white hair flowing behind him.

"Good, I'm glad you are all here. I suppose official introductions are in order. I will go first, and then we can go in order of arrival. My name is Kazue Uchiha, I have a few likes and too many dislikes to name. My goals for the future... Well, you're up Uzumaki."

She didn't give them much, but she was never god at these stupid games anyways. Her father had suggested she did it this way, so she figured that she would give it a shot. She looked to Hideo, waiting to hear his likes and dislikes, things he aspired for. These were important for a Sensei to know, especially the last thing. If she knew their goals for the future, it would better help her understand how to lead them in their training and things she could help them with in her time training them.

The red head was leaned against a tree when the timid girl arrived, looking at her curiously he swore there was more to her than she was letting on potential that she had but otherwise it was limited by her fear and timid nature. Seeing her basically wet herself from fear made him a feel a little bad for her, he decided he ought to lighten this situation since Kazue didn't seem like she was going to do anything.

"Now now, Moru, don't be afraid. It's just Kazue, she's a pretty scary woman so I am not surprised she has this effect on you. Come now, up you get and I am sure you'll be great"

He walked up and offered her a hand up before leading her over to stand near the two of them, while they waited for the the third and final member he finally saw the white haired male and tried to gauge his build, he had never heard of this guy and he looked a bit off. Regardless he was sure he would have something good to contribute, afterwards he looked up at the Uchiha woman.

"Am I your goal for the future Kazue? You lead that sentence on like you did. Regardless I'm Hideo Uzumaki, big surprise right? No one would've thought that. I'm a pretty relaxed guy and hate when people take things to seriously. Goals? Master Fuinjutsu. Your turn little one."

Oh no, Moeru could just die of embarrassment right now. Her first introduction and she already screwed it up. She was just lucky that she didn't bite her tongue like she did the last time she tried to introduce herself to someone.

However, when the kid with red hair suddenly called her Moru, that was the final straw, and Moeru really wanted to die at that point. She released a little cry that sounded like a hiccup and hid further behind the tree.

She was really bad at this, meeting new people, even though she tried to improve every day. Since graduating, she had been going out to get rid of her social anxiety. Of course, as witnessed today, it hadn't worked out for her yet.

So, when the boy suddenly walked up to her and offered his hand to her, it was only natural that she, instead of taking his hand, hurriedly scurried over to the next tree and hid behind that, and away from him.

Yep, it was going to take a long while for her to change.

"Me?" Moeru exclaimed in surprise when she realized that it was her turn to speak. The boy with red hair had already claimed his likes, dislikes, and goals, and now Moeru had to do the same.

"Um..." she began timidly. "My name is Moeru... Not Moru... Moeru Shōmetsu... I- Um... I like sweets and... I dislike too much sweets..." Oh no, that sounded stupid! Moeru hoped people didn't think she was stupid for only mentioning sweets!

"And... My goals are..." to have everyone be her friend. Of course, she couldn't say anything as embarrassing as that. Merely thinking about it was enough to make her cheeks red. Maybe she would go with her second answer?

She looked at everyone and gave a vibrant smile, trying to hide her nervousness. "To be a strong Kunoichi that everyone can rely on." With that, she finished speaking for likely the remainder of the day.

Griffith listened intently to his apparent sensei and new teammates, silently laying back against a tree. He ever so slightly nodded after every few seconds, as if approving of the words that came out of his teammates' mouths. His hair swayed along with the force of the wind, shining brightly as the shade from the trees dissipated to make room for the shining sun.

My turn, I guess. The young Uchiha crossed his arms and flashed his signature smile before introducing himself to his new partners. "I'm Griffith Uchiha. Likes and dislikes? Well, I guess I like company and I don't like rude people." A thickly concealed lie. He had practiced it many times. After all, he had fooled everyone into buying into his constant "nice guy" facade. "I'd like to be a strong person. Strong enough to protect my special people."

With that, his eyes fixated themselves onto the timid girl hidden behind a tree. He couldn't help but smile even harder at her embarrassed nature. She looked like a squirrel hidden behind the tree as she was. He could tell it would take a little extra before he could safely rely on her when the going got rough. He'd give her a little push.

"Hey, Shōmetsu-chan was it?" Griffith walked over to her location gingerly, peaking around the corner of the tree to spot the rest of her. "We'll have to work together from now on. Pleased to meet you." His smile could have split the sky in two at that moment. He outstretched his hand, waiting for her to accept his handshake.

It would seem that she had some rather ambitious Genin on her hands. This was good. She would need to test the three of them to see their strengths. She could already guess some for each of them, but guessing would get her nowhere, she needed to get an accurate estimate. So, she would call for their attention.

"Alright, now that introductions are out of the way, your training can begin! We are going to do a survival exercise. You all against me, so that I can get a reading on your strengths, weaknesses and how well you all can work together. You have five minutes to hide and formulate a strategy."

She would then begin to count to five minutes. If they vanished and hid themselves, she would begin her search after the five minutes is up. If not, she would simply stand and wait for them to do something. She, however, found it most likely that they would move to hide, then attack, as that was the protocol taught at the Academy.

Hideo's eyes looked at him closely at the mention of being an Uchiha, he had literally none of the characteristics of the clan with his white hair and lacking of a of the onyx eyes. He also seemed to nice, being nice was good but being too nice was off. Unlike someone like Rei or Makoto who were respectful but didn't seem to try to make themselves perfect especially the Uchiha clan. It was that name that was just attached with the stigma for him, Kazue herself wasn't a saint and he had never once met an Uchiha who was legitimately good-hearted. But it was probably just that bias opinion, maybe Griffith really was a good guy but Hideo had a healthy amount of paranoia - after all he still wasn't counting out the possibility he would get castrated by Kazue and was extra vigilant of her heck even Rei might still kill him.

"I wonder if you're good at chess Griffith, you play games like that right?"

He slipped that comment in while he was trying to soothe the mind of the shy member of their team and instead looked towards Kazue after the comment. He turned towards the forest and started casually walking away indicating for the other two to come along once he was sure they were out of earshot Hideo pulled out a large stack of paper seemingly from his pocket and tossed it into the air around the group which would form a small dome around them and hide them from Kazue's gaze and perception.

"Right. Now if we are surviving against Kazue, let's discuss a strategy, what's everyone bringing to the table? My Fuinjutsu is useless since I am sure someone that strong can break my bindings so we need to defeat a Sharingan Griffith tell us about it since you should at least know of it if not have it as an Uchiha. Moeru you must have something as well that you can do promise I won't tell people your secrets but being found by her and beaten doesn't sound very fun after the last time I saw her that is."

Griffith Uchiha, Hideo Uzumaki, and Kazue Uchiha. These were hard names to remember, but Moeru would do her best to try! Everyone here, except her, seemed to be from a respective clan, which meant they probably had amazing abilities too. A part of Moeru was excited to see what they could do, while another was anxious with merely being around them.

The one with white hair... Griffith, walked towards Moeru and offered his hand after he had finished speaking. Moeru wanted to run away and hide once again, but there was something about this guy that made her want to actually shake too.

Very warily, she moved further behind the tree and away from Griffith, but slowly extended her hand out to him. She gave his palm a little tap of her index finger, acting as though she was testing to see if a bear trap still worked, then slowly lowered her hand a little more to shake.

"N-... Nice to meet you too," she said with a light smile as she stared at their handshake.

I did it... she inwardly told herself. I shook someone's hand!

To someone else who was probably used to something like that, they wouldn't make such a deal like Moeru did. However, it had always been her dream to shake someone's hand. Now, she was completely brimming with happiness. Her smile was so large that it was making her cheek hurt.

She kept on her idle smile until she heard what her new sensei suddenly said next.

"Huh...?" she released automatically, completely taken aback by the words. Were they to fight against Kazue-sensei? But Moeru wasn't ready at all! She didn't have any special jutsu she knew or her weapons with her to help her. She would be completely defenseless in a fight.

One of her teammates, Hideo-San, started calling for Moeru and Griffith to follow him in the forest.

Warily, she walked with him- or far behind him rather, then sat on the ground as Hideo started speaking strategy.

Out of nervousness, she began digging her fingers into the ground and pulling up dirt.

"I can... Be used as a shield?" was what she said to Hideo when he asked her his question.

That was about all she had to offer to them at this moment in time. She hated having her teammates think from the very beginning that she was useless, but she really had no other good qualities, other than meat shield, at this time.

At least she would be the greatest meat shield they would have on their team!

The small girl's shyness and indecisiveness was endearing to Griffith. He looked intently as Shōmetsu-chan racked her brain, mulling over the thought of accepting his hand shake. After much deliberation on her part, she offered her shaky hand and gently embraced Griffith's hand inch by inch before finally completing the hand shake. Her smile glistened on her otherwise petrified face and he could tell that it wasn't in her nature to force emotions or interaction. Quite the contrary -- she was likely the most genuine person in the area.

Griffith listened intently to the words of his new sensei. She spoke of wanting to measure their strengths and weakness -- of which there were plenty of the latter. After all, they were all essentially rookies. He himself had little battle ability other than the initial abilities of the Sharingan and some knowledge of Genjutsu. Still, he wouldn't bare his weakness so easily in front of others. Instead, he waited for someone else to take the lead, succumbing to the role of subordinate for now.

"Chess? I've actually never played it." He looked at his new teammate Hideo who was absolutely fixated on the words of their sensei. Griffith didn't really grasp the nature of Hideo's question, but he wouldn't have much time to ponder it as he seemed to snap out of his focus and immediately jump into action, leading the group deeper into the forest before tossing a few papers into the air. The papers became the base for a small dome that hid the three of them from view.

Griffith listened intently to the words of the Uzumaki. He was a boy of many words, no doubt. He spoke of how his Fuuinjutsu would be useless in this situation and how he wanted knowledge on the Sharingan before settling into requesting aid from Shōmetsu-chan, who would no doubt be of little use in her current state of insecurity. Shōmetsu-chan responded by confirming Griffith's assumption -- she would be little more than a third body.

"Mmm... The Sharingan, huh? Well, I only really have --" He activated his Sharingan, showing his crimson eyes with the signature tomoe circling it -- "this. I can't say much other than everything seems to slow down for me a bit when I have it on." If Griffith had to guess, their chance of even impressing their sensei was almost nothing. Still, they had to try.

"I think our chances would rise if we split up. What do you guys think?"

Kazue would finally have reached the five minute mark with her counting. Immediately, she would spread her senses out in search of her precious little genin. She found them after only a second and began to make her way to their little tent. Stopping outside of it, she had already made her mind for how she would go into training them. She would take a moment to gather her chakra before executing her plan. She would tear through the paper moving directly behind Hideo forming the tiger hand seal and moving at her full speed, she would shove her fingers into his asshole. Leaning forwards to whisper in his ear she would say, "This is what you get for trying to flirt with me, U-zu-ma-ki-Kun~." After that she would look to Moeru and activate the Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique. It would force her to see whatever her greatest fear was. She would finally fix her gaze on Griffith, her eyes morphing into her fully matured Sharingan, three tomoe swirling gently, waiting for him to make a move.

If her attack failed in some way, she would simply retreat to a safe distance away and wait patiently for the Genin to come at her with some form of attack.

545/600

Jutsu Used:

Unfortunately for Kazue her plan was flawed, they were in a tent yes. A tent of Hideo's paper, in fact it was the perfect arrangement for him to move directly into another technique which he would activate as she arrived and tried to attack. Dance of the Shikigami: Exploding Lotus, one of Hideo's more original uses of the technique. The paper would burst outwards in an explosion which would probably at least knock Kazue back it probably wouldn't hurt her to much or cause to much worry but it provided the perfect opportunity to escape.

"Alright, we split up!"

He grabbed Moeru and basically flung her over his shoulder before using the body flicker technique to vault them both away and further into the forest, Griffith should've been able to take the cue to leave at that point and the red head stood behind a nearby tree while trying to formulate a strategy against the woman that was superior to them in every aspect of combat.

"God, just my luck. Stuck out in the forest with a psycho jounin, and in an environment where everything will want to kill me. Great morning, you alright Moeru?"

Putting the girl down he would contemplate using his Black Ink techniques to try and bind her but ultimately it was likely to fail. He wondered if Griffith and him could work together in some way to combine their abilities but what could they do together. It was clearly Kazue just having her sadistic playtime with her new team, he supposed he best just try to survive instead of wasting his trump cards and aces in a purely sparring situation - he had already revealed the Dance of the Shikigami. What else would she force out of him before this game was over.

Chakra: 260/350

Moeru didn't have a lot to go for in regards to power, but she could still try her best to support.

However, when the fighting actually started, she found herself freezing up.

Mostly, she was just startled as their sensei suddenly broke through the papers to attack Hideo. However, Hideo was wise and made a precaution in case that happened. Then suddenly, he grabbed Moeru and flung her over his shoulder.

The girl released a meek "Eeep" before she was carried off and away by her comrade, splitting up from Griffith.

When they finally seemed safe, Hideo placed her down and asked if she was alright. However, she was too red in the face and dizzy to respond.

Eventually, she gave a slight nod, then sighed.

"Kazue-sensei is scary..." she said in a weak tone. "B-but it's not good to split from Griffith... kun... Maybe we should go and help him, and probably use me as bait?"

Moeru wasn't good at fighting, but she could still be useful. Yes, she believed firmly that she had a use, whatever it was!