Cursed Saint

19 - Family

Ino dashed in a way that got her closer to both one of the Asumas and Shikamaru at the same time. Once she was closer to Shikamaru, the young blonde spun on her heel with her hands making a triangle. Ino sagged to the ground while Asuma jerked into an upright position.

While she'd done this, Chouji had turned into a large, circular form of himself and rolled rapidly toward the other Asuma. The jutsu had a large range, but Asuma had been a bit farther away and used enough speed to avoid each bowling attack.

The chase came to a stop as Ino called out from the Asuma she possessed, "Stop right now or this guy gets it!"

The Asuma who hadn't been captured glanced toward the other Asuma, and then in Ryu's direction. Connecting the dots as to why his ally hadn't come to assist him, Asuma sighed and relaxed.

"It looks like you win then," Asuma declared, side stepping Chouji's last offensive roll.

Once he came to a stop, Chouji changed into his normal self with a poof of smoke. He swayed on his feet, a hand rubbing his stomach. A bit of green tinted his cheeks. Every time after Chouji used his jutsu, it left him quite vulnerable. The team was lucky he normally only stopped after the enemy had half their members under control.

Ino stirred as a small burst of smoke took the place of the second Asuma, signifying the shadow clone had vanished. With a shake of her head, Ino pushed off the ground and too her feet. A victorious grin spread across her face as she gave a small fist pump.

"Yeah! We finally actually got everything done right," she exclaimed.

Ryu was so focused on his two team-mates he missed Shikamaru releasing his own technique. His old position had left his muscled tensed forward, and losing the shadow's hold allowed his weight to continue its shift. The boy fell off the tree limb face first with a shout of surprise. Quickly regaining his composure, Ryu did a quick flip and landed on his feet.

A small snicker from Asuma brought heat raising to Ryu's cheeks. "A little warning next time, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru had walked so he was beside Ryu, enabling the Sarutobi to see his comrade shrug. "Whoops," he said before turning his attention to Asuma.

Following his lead, Ryu did as well.

Their sensei was examining his pulling his cigarette pack out of his pocket while looking at his students. By the time he had his cigarette lit, he was nodding. Ryu straightened up a bit when he noticed a glint in Asuma's eyes. It was a quick flash, and the others probably missed it, but after so long with Asuma he instantly recognized it.

Pride.

"You did quite well today," he said. "The Ino-Shika-Chou combination went by better than it ever has during our practices." Asuma glanced in Ryu's direction. "And you made a great practice dummy, Ryu."

The only hint that Asuma caught Ryu's glower was his lip twitched upward.

After exhaling a cloud of smoke, Asuma continued. "At this rate, you four should be pretty ready for the Chunin Exams."

A relaxed, easy going atmosphere had settled over the clearing ever since the training session came to an end. The team had relished its victory after such a long time practicing. It shattered the moment the Chunin Exams were mentioned. As far as Team Ten was aware, they shouldn't have any knowledge of them coming up quite yet. The information had slipped when Asuma had questioned Raido's reason for following them to Konoha.

Within the next few weeks the Chunin Exams would begin in Konoha.

"Well then," Ryu said, looking at each of his team-mates. "We'll just have to practice even harder so that we'll be more than pretty ready."