"Well, first thing's first... Focus your chakra like you do with your wires. It might hurt a little bit, at first."<br/><br/>She walked over to him, holding his hand up and holding his wrist much in the same way that she held her own.<br/><br/>They continued to train for a few hours when Tarui suddenly said, "It's time for a break. Keep working so hard and you'll just burn out."<br/><br/>Indeed, all the exertion had worked up quite a sweat. The tropical heat of Kirigakure certainly didn't improve matters much. A half hour in and Tarui begged Jin-Ryu lose some of his clothes, just the baggy outer layers. She threw him a water bottle and sat down.<br/><br/>"By the way..." She began, looking unethused as always, "You were pretty late coming back last night. Kurai was worried someone got to you."<br/><br/><hr/><br/>"Is that so?" Makoto thoughtfully hummed within her machine.<br/><br/>"That's pretty good advice!" A voice called out from behind them. From within the lake, there waded a girl with white hair in hime-cut, bangs that framed her cheeks, and a bun with chopsticks sticking out of it. It all clung wetly to her skin. She had purple eyes, a cute face, and an incorrigible grin.<br/><br/>From what he could tell, that part of the lake was only a foot or two deep... and yet she swam all the way up to it undetected. The girl braced herself on the bottom of the lake floor and sat up, slipping out of the calm waters and showing off quite a bit of her figure. She was in a navy blue striped bikini, was pretty busty, and<em>quite</em>lean. Her abs were quite defined and her shoulders broad and thick with muscle. From the neck up, she was a princess... from the neck down, a warrior to be sure.<br/><br/>"Quite a display. I'd heard there was some kind of puppeteer genius here but you held your own pretty well there, Yuki-kun~"<br/><br/>Makoto's puppet seized up a bit. It wasn't anger at the overly familiar way with which the stranger addressed her team mate, but the implication that her skills as a puppeteer weren't quite up to snuff... Though, how did the girl<em>hear</em>what they were saying underwater?