"Yeah." Ruka sighed, "That's how it's always been. Every year, some genin comes in thinking that they can get a leg up on the competition if they go around hurting people or taking them out of the competition."<br/><br/>She closed the doors of the doors on the truck and made her way back into the clinic, "But this time, we've got all kinds of surveillance methods and proctors ready to step in if anyone's in any serious danger. We live in a much more civilized age, you know? A lot of people think we shouldn't even be training ninjas to fight other ninjas."<br/><br/>The older woman closed her eyes and smiled, "World would be a lot better if more people helped each other. Hey, kinda like you, eh?" She gently nudged him in the arm with her knuckles. Though it hurt a little bit more than it should have after spending the better part of the week training on the Hell-stab...<br/><br/><hr/><br/>"Ha." Bakumi grinned, planting her foot and putting her hands on her waist, leaning forward confrontationally towards Yuki, "I'm not exactly the subtle type, in case you haven't noticed. Anyone spying on me risks catching an explosion!"<br/><br/>Her smile was wild, green eyes wide. Then the girl laughed as Yuki cracked his joke about Gorugon, breaking out of her intimidating pose and casually walking around. She had wild spiky brown hair under a red forehead protector, a poncho over a fishnet shirt that exposed her midriff, a brick-patterned red skirt, and stockings with sandals. Her stomach was flat and pleasing to the eye, and her skirt opened up tantalizingly in the front just shy of exposing anything.<br/><br/>"That's good to know!" Bakumi rubbed the back of her hand across her chin, "A girl that turns into water, huh?"<br/><br/>She laughed again, a sinister cackle, "Alright!" Whatever that was about... the explosive kunoichi seemed quite pleased with the prospect of a rival whose body could turn into a liquid form at will.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Hiro's eyes widened as he struggled to balance both Tara and Himawari on the bar after the latter sudden movements greeting Azuki. The newcomer's added weight certainly didn't help matters much. Even as petite as she was, three adult women was a bit much even for him. Hiro had short spiky brown hair, bearing much of a resemblance to his father. He was muscular, though lean and somewhat short for a man. "Huurk!" He collapsed his lips inwards, blowing out his cheeks as his arms stiffened.<br/><br/>Though he also politely tried to avert his eyes from the display Azuki had presented him. Less out of gentlemanly respect and more out of awareness of the<em>very</em>protective monkey girl who saw the snake-nin's interest in Himawari as a ruse to get closer to her beloved summoner.<br/><br/>Himawari beamed a smile back at Azuki, while Tara pouted and narrowed her eyes at the girl sitting between them. They all fell down about a foot as Hiro's arms bent, then back up as he stiffened them again. The movement made Himawari's considerable bosom bounce. "Oh, we left all that intelligence gathering stuff to Naomi. Lately we've just been training with Sarutobi-Sensei."<br/><br/>"Hrrrnn!" Hiro grunted, clearly annoyed at the mention of his father. Or maybe he was nearing his limit with the added weight, "Can't get away from him..."<br/><br/>Himawari closed her bright blue eyes and smiled, "Did you make any new friends, Azuki-chan? There's<em>so</em>many new people here, isn't there!?"