Gai and Kurenai sat across from one another in the woman's apartment. After several moments of silence Gai finally speaks up. "You know Asuma-san might get jealous if he found out you invited another man into your home, even if we are old friends."
"Depending on what happens in the near future I might break up with him."
"Oh, is that what's troubling you?" He didn't think that was the case, Kurenai always went to either Anko or Yugao if she was having relationship issues.
"No, not him specifically, but he could be part of the problem."
"So then what is the problem?"
"Someone has been stealing most of the money I've been sending to Haruka."
"What?"
"You heard me, someone has been making sure Haruka barely gets enough money to survive, while pocketing the rest of my money."
Gai couldn't believe it, He knew how much of Kurenai's money was being sent to the girl. The woman, as an elite jounin, could have afforded much more than the modest lifestyle she's living. She had instead chosen to live a spartan lifestyle so the redhead could live comfortably. This was most unyouthful.
"Do you have any idea who?"
"It's most likely someone in the process, so either Hokage-sama or whoever brings the money to Haruka."
"Remind me how does Asuma-san play into that?"
"Hokage-sama often has him drop off the money as he claims his son wouldn't mess with it because of our relationship." She couldn't choose who drops off the money as otherwise she would do it herself or have Anko, who had never been banned from the child but also never had a personal connection, do it.
"So we have two known suspects along with whoever Hokage-sama gets to do it when Asuma-san isn't here." His expression was grim, this was serious. Someone had been going out of their way to screw both Kurenai and Haruka over. "Next time you deliver the ryo to Hokage-sama I will watch for the package. What should I look for?"
"It will be a red envelope. I'll be delivering it directly to Hokage-sama on Monday. That's our time frame." Gai nods, they would catch whoever has been appropriating his friend's funds.
***
As it turned out Haruka's work in turning the academy style into something she preferred had now directly harmed her ability to learn her mothers style. She hadn't realized it but she had developed a lot of bad habits that needed to be removed first before she could even start on either the Uzuken or Uzuashi. She had also been told not to increase her weights anymore than she currently has. Apparently the type of strength gained from weights doesn't greatly benefit the style and it would be better if she used resistance seals. When she said she couldn't afford them Gai merely stated he would make them for her free of charge.
So Gai simply asked her for something she would be fine with him drawing the seals on. As long as the object with the seal was connected to her then her whole body would feel like she's wading through mud. She was told once it felt like she was walking around normally again she should put chakra into the seal until it felt like wading through mud once more. After much deliberation she decided to have him draw it on the spiral charm attached to her hair senbon. He had also recommended that because movement will noticeably change for her she should practice transitioning between the seal being active and inactive.
And so the rest of the week passed by relatively uneventfully. They kept doing D-ranks, which Haruka still found enjoyable. And as ordered they had taken turns bringing lunch for everyone. It had been weird feeling like she was wading through mud all the time. It still felt weird frankly, but at least she would get both faster and stronger from this. She had also learned how to do her hair on her own now so that was good.
When Saturday rolled around she was wondering just how Kurenai-sensei was going to have the two teams fight each other. She had met up with her girlfriend and Sasuke and they simply talked about how their mornings had been.
"I'm looking forward to our date tomorrow."
"Are you sure you're not just looking forward to my cooking?"
"I always look forward to your cooking. But in this case I'm looking forward to some time alone between the two us." Hinata meant it, the last time they had anything resembling truly private time was after graduating but that got interrupted by Mizuki defecting. Her thoughts turn a little dark as she thinks about something she found out recently, she'd have to tell her girlfriend tomorrow.
Before the two girls can continue discussing their date, Kurenai appears in the training ground with Gai. They don't say anything until a minute later when his genin arrive. Haruka notes with some amusement her teammates were as weirded out by Gai as she had been. Though she still seemed to be the only one put off by Tenten, that was the bland (yet not) girls name.
Kurenai speaks, "As I told you all before, on Saturdays we will be doing actual mock battles. Today you'll be up against another genin team. Meet last years Team 3 now simply known as Team Gai." She gestures from right to left. "This is Tenten, Rock Lee, and Hyuuga Neji. Today you will be fighting in a team battle. As per our usual rules for sparring fight to kill, unless your opponent is already incapacitated, Gai and I will interrupt any killing blows long before they can land. Any questions?"
"Is the objective just to incapacitate the other team?"
"Yes, for today there is no hidden goal. If there are no other questions then begin." With that the two jonin leap backward and out of the way.
Sasuke starts to fly through hand seals for the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu but he is unable to complete them as an orange leg warmer comes sailing toward his face. Before it can connect he finds his white eyed teammate blocking it with her arm guards. "You should activate your Sharingan sooner rather than later." She already had her Byakugan blazing. He nods and his eyes bleed red. Lee had jumped back, just on time to avoid a kick to the head by the Uzumaki.
The three had unfortunately ended up grouping up perfectly for Tenten to unleash a hail of kunai and shuriken at them. The three dodge easy enough and Haruka calls, "Just defend me for three seconds." The other two nod and deflect the kunai being aimed at Haruka. Hinata turns and deflects a Jyuken strike aimed at her heart. She had seen her cousin moving into position a while ago. She fires back with one of her own that he also deflects. Hinata quickly finds herself pressed against a wall as she blocks both kunai and Jyuken strikes at the same time.
"Sasuke, Lee is trying to move past you."
"On it!" He turns and dashes toward the older boy. Blocking his strike that was aimed at Haruka's temple. "Wow you pack a punch." His block comes just on time too as she finishes her hand seals.
"Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu." Lee and Tenten stop moving at the same time both falling prey to the Genjutsu. Sasuke holds a kunai up to Lee's throat. Gai appears and takes him, knowing that his student wouldn't be able to break the Genjutsu.
"Haruka why are you taking longer to cast Jutsu now? You cast that almost instantly before."
"It's the new resistance seals, they make my whole body have to work harder to move properly and that includes my hands." Sasuke nods, that made sense and things worked out for now. "Now, do you think you can handle Tenten while I help Hina-chan with Neji?" The raven haired boy nods and rushes off towards the girl who had just broken the Genjutsu.
"It's no use Hinata-sama, even in a two on three, a team comprised of two failures will never be able to match me, it is fated for you to lose. And you are in my range of Divination." Of course he was also in hers and she easily blocked each of his strikes.
"Neji-niisan, you do realize I could activate your seal at any time and win this instantly correct? If I truly cared about winning this fight it would already be over." It was the truth, she had already learned how to activate the caged bird seal, she just never did so because she thought it an unnecessarily cruelty.
"You refuse to activate the seal because you are too weak to do so. To be a real ninja." The boy was delusional, she had graduated Rookie of the Year just as he had and she had already started to learn the Kaiten. If he thought she was weak then he was surely mistaken. The boy turns on a dime and blocks Haruka's kick. Just as Hinata had seen him earlier he had seen her. "You cannot even fight me alone."
"It's not that I cannot, it's that we are ninja and ninja do not fight fair. That is what a real ninja would do. The only reason I don't activate your seal is because I have no interest in ruining your career." The boy sneers as he hears her throw his words back at him. He quickly finds he can't handle the two on one fight. And if his eyes are right, and they always are, then Tenten is being pushed back by the lone Uchiha.
Well if he can't get the heiress then maybe he can harm the failure. He lashes out with a Jyuken strike aimed at her neck as fast as he can. It likely wouldn't connect normally but he had heard her say she is still sluggish due to the resistance seal. He finds himself being pulled back by Gai-sensei. "You lost Neji." What?! He looks back and sees that in his haste to eliminate the redhead he had allowed the heiress to nearly land a strike on his heart. "You got frustrated and stopped paying attention to your enemies. More than that you underestimated them. It was most unyouthful of you."
Tenten was fairly sure she couldn't win from this position. She was ill suited to three on ones. She had been fending the Uchiha off with a sword but the boy was surprisingly fast. Interestingly he did seem weirdly focused on keeping it away from his right hand. Then something strange happens. The field seems to be over come in a whirl of flower petals and she can only barely see the Uchiha through it. She never saw the Jyuken strikes that cut her connection to her arms and legs.
"Alright Team 7 wins. That was excellent work you three, it's not easy to defeat someone older and more experienced than you. But don't let this go to your head. You would have been in a lot more trouble if Lee hadn't fallen to Haruka's Genjutsu." She wasn't going to lectures Gai's genin on what they did right and wrong, she'd leave that to the man himself. He is more familiar with their strengths and weaknesses anyways. "Thanks for agreeing to coming here today Gai, I think this has helped my genin greatly." The man nods and gathers up his own team. They'd discuss it more at their own training ground.
"Now you three, before I explain what you did wrong during the fight I want to know if any of you can tell me."
"We shouldn't have grouped up in the beginning. That would have been much more deadly had we been against a team with an area of effect attack. The closest they had to that was Tenten's kunai storm and that was only barely an AOE." Kurenai nods, her redheaded student was completely right.
"We also shouldn't have vocalized our plan about Haruka's Genjutsu or should have used a code word for protect her. They could hear her ask for time so they knew they needed to target her."
"Very true Sasuke, that's an issue we'll be working on when we do team training on Monday. It's important for you guys to essentially develop your own code between each other so that enemy nin will have a harder time knowing how to infiltrate the group. My team and I still have code we use to this day. Even though all of us have long since made Jonin." Of course Yugao wasn't in the public eye anymore, most the time, she was an Anbu captain for a reason.
"When Haru-chan and I were both fighting Neji-niisan we stood side by side rather than going to either side of him. While the Byakugan would have let him see both of us he still would have had to work harder to actually block both of us."
"Another good point, unless you are doing a combination Jutsu or something similar you three should always be opposite each other with an enemy in the middle, assuming you're fighting only one. It will make fighting much harder and much more tiring for your opponent. And when that happens they are more likely to make mistakes. We'll discuss individual problems during your one-on-one, that being said, Sasuke , you're up first today."