Mokuren

Team Temari: Teamwork

"You should attack, too." Mokuren told Tetsuko, frowning. She couldn't let her imagination distract her. He jumped slightly, giving her an alarmed look before stepping unsurely towards Temari, who had only moved a few inches to avoid Kentsu's sloppy moves. Pulling out a kunai, Tetsuko awkwardly tossed it. The handle smacked Kentsu's arm, and he yelped before turning angrily on the black-haired boy. Tetsuko, too busy hiding his blush, stumbled back several feet and fell when Kentsu hits him.

All in all, Mokuren can't help but be disgusted. She still moved to help Tetsuko up and stand between the two boys, however. "Bishou, you're not supposed to attack Ringo, you're supposed to attack Temari-sensei." Mokuren scolded Kentsu. Ignoring the confused look on his face, she continued to say in a quieter voice, "The two of you need to cooperate! And practice, too, definitely, but that's later. For now - Bishou, run at her again like you did before but keep an eye out for Ringo's weapons this time. Try to annoy her enough that she'll lower her guard and then I'll go in. Ready? Go."

"I - What?"

"Who are you even talking to?!"

"The two of you, of course." Mokuren replied, not understanding what their problem was.

"Then what's with the smiles and apples?"

Mokuren frowned momentarily. "Well, I can't seem to remember what your names are, so I decided to give you new ones. You are Bishou," she explained, pointing at Kentsu. "And you're Ringo." She told the other boy.

"Our real names are -" Tetsuko tried to offer helpfully.

"Anyway, let's go!" Mokuren intervened. "Bishou, get out there. Ringo, try not to hit him this time."

"Hell no! Shut up... ah... era-sou o sage!" The boy paused briefly to come up with the insult.

Mokuren thought on it for a moment. She couldn't really find it insulting, though - she knew she could be condescending and she did wear pigtails. "Do you have another plan, then?"

"Yeah!" He sneered. "You go out there and be the distraction! I'm not some warm-up act!"

"Maaa, you two aren't good enough to help me out anyway. It would be best if I tried alone." Dodging Kentu's sloppy fist and pulling his leg out from under him in the same movement, Mokuren then started towards their teacher, who had been tapping her foot and waiting up til then.

"You're finally going to do something?"

"Sort of." Mokuren shrugged, and then ran at Temari, pulling out a kunai. The older woman easily avoided the blade and girl, but looked a little less bored after Mokuren tried a taijutsu move her former tutor had shown her. Temari had dodged that as well, of course, but there were follow-up moves for that, leading up to the use of a minor illusion that almost tripped Temari up. She'd made the teacher move almost four feet from her original space, though, and Mokuren felt slightly proud of herself. Her angrier teammate, however, looked like he wanted to chop her to pieces.

"A girl is not better than me!" Kentsu barked, mostly to himself. Temari gave him a flat look, but he wasn't paying her any mind as he ran at Mokuren who, once again, knocked him down and kicked him back towards the other boy. Furious at the sight of blood on Kentsu's face, Tetsuko began throwing kunai and shuriken at Mokuren, a few coming close enough that Mokuren actually had to knock them away.

A huge gust of wind sent all three new genin flying, until they smashed into a cliff. Their teacher approached them slowly, each step loud in Mokuren's ears.

"That was dreadful." Temari declared, her eyes flashing angrily. "Unbelievably so. Mokuren - you at least realized that this is meant as an exercise of teamwork. However, you clearly need to work on your communication skills and make a real effort to work with your teammates. Kentsu, Tetsuko - unless you are sparring each other at the request of a higher-ranked ninja, teammates are never allowed to attack one another. I thought that was taught in the Academy, but evidently the two of you were unaware of this and so I'll let it go this time. The next time it happens, I will revoke your genin status."