Battlecraft (Exam)

[Takahashi Aki]

"As ever you observational skills are astounding Tama, thank-you for seeing but not properly observing." Mako would say as she surveyed the whreckage. "My questionably useful grandson, whenever he makes thing ... of bloody course they're going to be made to fight alongside of. You're holding back. Hrmph. I'll have to consider that in your final grade." She could see that as it was painfully obvious. Mako stroked her chin with her one hand. "Hrrmm... " Her gaze shifted over to Okibi who too seemed to be holding back too. If both of them were to attack Mako, she would put both of them down. She could do so with her one hand tied behind her back. Mako had survived war, she had survived criminals, she had survived sickness and plague. Little children were not beyond her at all. "I should have considered that arm my grandson crafted you. It gave you an advantage, pity you were incapable of exploiting it enough. Exploitation of the foe must be relied upon if you're to win." The tone Mako had made what Keystone Prime had seem like a compliment. In fact everything Keystone had said seemed much more kinder.

When Amejitsuo spoke, Mako walked right up to her. She held her hand behind her back but then she approached the girl. She hooked her index finger and placed it under her chin and forced her to look up. "Sometimes going for the kill is necessary. My grandson and his allies were incapable of stopping the Hospital from before destroyed. He should have went all in. His foolish comrades some of them tried to reason with that monstrosity and failed. Although he destroyed that fiend, parts of it remained. You fought merely a piece of it." Mako let go off Amejisuto and walked back. "As it stands right now. You have all failed. Quite magnificently in fact. I expected each of you to finish your foe exactly three moves earlier in the case of the Djinn spawn. In the case of the Spider Convoy I expected you to finish it in two moves earlier, but Okibi proved incapable of truly exploiting the weakness due to the meteor metal in her arm. Furthermore you held back your answers. I expected more out of the future, but the future so far has proved to be grim." Mako's tone was acidic. She continued to make the walk back to whence she came. "Your mettle was tested. It has proven weak." Were her final words as the door closed.

*** Sometime Later in the Sietch Zensunna ***

Spoiler

Masashi Mako fumbled for her keys. Ultimately she found her keys in her back pocket. The old veteran opened the door. She was greeted at the door by a bulldog. "Hello Spike." She said as she patted him on the head. Her tone was alot warmer. She closed the door and removed her eye patch. To be expected she was truly missing an eye. A void remained as the fill it was a completely black orb. She passed by a photograph. A small grin would surface on her face. Graduating class of Battlecraft Four. Moments later she passed by another picture, one of people in it were a violet haired youth of some resemblance. Graduating class of Battlecraft Twelve. The next photo, more children, a small boy with spiky purple hair with dark eyes. Graduating class of Battlecraft Twenty-Nine.
Upon further inspection one would see that the wall was littered with photographs of various passing individuals. Battlecraft was at the heart of it a lie it would seem. There were some unsuccessful individuals, but they too would have come to pass. "What a day Spike. I met my ... great grand daughter? Well adopted one. I met her friend, and a fiery red head too. As expected they were quite mad at me. Mad at me because I pushed them beyond their limits, and forced them into situation that were beyond their usual power. A little push goes a long way. It makes good character." Mako would say as she attended her desk. More and more photographs were there. Old friends, dead friends, members of rival military groups. Mako searched her desk for a pen and paper. "How long do you think it is until they figured out that I lied to them?" She took a seat and began her report.

Ryuu Tama - Well tempered. Genius intellect. Proficient in defending his team. May do well in team leader position. Suggestion to apply for medical field.

(Takahashi) Okibi - Slight temperament. Can contain self. Proficient at hand to hand combat and dedication to allies. Recommended to maintain Origins Branch. Slight

Suchiru Amejisuto - Proficient in armed combat. Brave and shows innate knowledge of basic jutsu. Recommended to maintain Origins Branch, but may flourish from Keystone Prime opportunities.

"I think we can expect the future to be bright Spike. It just needs some tough love." Mako would say as a slight grin would appear on her face.

[Tama and Okibi to Chuunin, and Ameme to genin!]

 

[Toraono Michino]

The words the older woman spoke to the trio almost tore what little patience he had for this exam. Yet he stood there with an icy glare, never quite backing down, but then again never speaking up as well. His stance was one of violence and his bi-colored irises screamed wanton murder as they threw metaphorical daggers at Mako's good eye. Yet all in all he was still probably doing far better than Okibi was which he was sure he would have to restrain any second.

Tama was used to getting told how much of a failure he was. It was rather simple to upset his mother during his youth while they traveled from country to country. He knew now that it wasn't entirely her fault for being so rough on him during those years; at lot of it had been for the very sake of survival. Attempting to teach one's child the basics of reading and writing while trying to keep hidden from an immortal homicidal maniac had to put some serious stress on his mother's already frayed mental status. It wasn't until he had been entered into the academy and shown a great love for the art of studying and science that he ever got compliments from his mother - and even then they were short lived.
So while the insults didn't quite catch the patient minded scientist, he could only imagine what nine kinds of hell were going through Okibi's head.

If she attempted to lash out while still visible he would of course stop her before waiting for the cranky old bat to leave. Once she had he announced to the group,
"Well fook that, I think we did bloody well. We at least survived the stupid thing, right? That has to count for something. You know what?" Tama announced suddenly in his rant, raising his voice just a little as a bit of that pent up anger leaked out, "Screw that old bat, I'm going down to the bloody office and telling them that I'm a Chunnin rather she likes it or not. Who's with me!?<i></i>"

Tama pumped his fist in the air a little and began to walk in the direction of the nearest broken wall, hoping to Kami now he could find his way out without looking like a total jack-ass.

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[Okibi]

Okibi was seeing red by the time Mako was through talking. She launched herself at the woman's back when she turned to leave, but was caught by Tama's arm before she could lay into the old bat with her claws. Growling, she held onto the blonds arm tightly so she didnt try to get away from him; somewhere inside she knew she shouldnt seek to harm her packmates grandmother. That would not have been nice.

But GODS did she want to.

"Incapable!? That stupid spider wouldnt be down right now if it werent for me and my arm!" She barked angrily at Mako's retreating back. It wasnt that she was being prideful, but stating what she thought to be a fact. For all of her usefulness, Ame's initial attacks hadnt done enough damage to cut into the spiders armor. Okibi, on the other hand, had been the one to cut the thing open so the redhead could deliver a finishing blow. Incapable of exploiting her metal arm to the fullest? Oh, how she would have liked to prove the woman wrong by using it on her.

Okibi followed in Tama's footsteps, stomping along the way as he proclaimed that they had in fact passed the exam. "We didnt just survive, we beat the stupid thing! And that stupid blob too! I dont care what the crone says, we passed this stupid test."

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[Chiyo]

Amy held her ground as her chin was forced upward by the old woman. As Mako spoke to her, Amy's expression grew ever more fierce until Mako left and her eyes began to water slightly. In her eyes the trio had done well, and she was extremely proud of her own involvement in the fights, but apparently it wouldn't be good enough. Angrily wiping the build up of tears from her eyes, she turned to look at Tama and Okibi, seeing mirror images of her own anger reflected there. A little smile flickered across her lips as she pushed away the urge to cry, nodding and folding her arms over her chest. The anger she felt was too strong to risk speaking, she would just end up making herself more angry and she resolved to take out her feelings on her training dummy as soon as she returned home.

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