Transformation Confusion (Quest thread) (Training )

It was then that the fake transformed in a puff of smoke-- becoming one of their classmates. A boy with black hair and blue vest and long pants. "Why you--- "

There was a sudden interrupton as movement appeared behind him-- and they looked to find the two teachers who had been chasing Kyle up to now. "So it was YOU all this time, hm?" the teacher said. Slowly the student turned around, seeing them stare down at him angrily.

"Oh crap..." he groaned-- and was grabbed by the back of his shirt to be pulled up.

It was then that the surprise was enough to make Shao lose concentration to his Byakugan and his eyes reverted back to normal. The boy tried to get away, but the two teachers kept hold of him. "You're in big trouble, pal. First you are gonna return what you stole, then the Hokage has some words for you."

As the first of the teachers dragged off the student to be punished-- the second teacher turned to Shao. "You're Shao Hyuga, correct? We saw what you did from afar. You're detective skills are impressive," he commented.

Mildly unsure how to respond, Shao bowed his head to the instructor. "Um, thank you," he replied.

The teacher gave a smile and waved. "I look forward to see your performance on the graduation exam-- and Kyle, try to stay out of trouble for a change," he said to Kyle. Before anyone could reply... he too vanished in a blur of speed to catch up to his colleague and the student they apprehended.

Now that the imposter was gone, Mari let down her guard at last and allowed herself to relax-- as did Shao. However, Kyle blinked several times, and finally let out his more impulsive nature that had been bottling up all till now.

"WOULD SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?!" he shouted-- almost making Mari cringe by the sound.

"Jeez, Kyle... calm down," Mari grumbled at his outburst.

Curious, Kyle walked over towards Shao with an eager expression. "Come on, tell me! How did you figure it out?" he asked, "How were you able to tell he was the imposter and not me?"

Kyle's question was a reasonable one, and Shao knew it-- but he turned away lightly. He cast his gaze away. "I'm not sure you want to know..." he replied.

"Oh come on!" Kyle shouted, "Don't go all calm-cryptic-crap on me like always! How did you do it! Tell-me-tell-me! How did know he was the fake?"

Mari soon couldn't help but laugh at Kyle's overly eager responce, and soon answered for him. "Well if you want the truth..." Kyle turned to Mari, who just smiled at him. "... We didn't know."

It was the first time ever Kyle became quiet of his own accord as his face twisted to that of confusion. "Um... huh...?"

Moments earlier....

"What do we do? We can't tell them apart?" Mari whispered to Shao.

"That's right. The imposter has copied Kyle down the last detail. He is likely someone we know in school-- otherwise he wouldn't be able to mimic Kyle's mannerism so well either," SHao explained in whispers back to them. All the while, they kept a soft glance at both of them. "But this reminds me of something. Do you remember recon training in class?"

"Yes... but how will this help?"

"If the enemy has impersonated an ally, the trick is to use a code word or something unique to share between them. " he explained and kept a careful eye on them with his Byakugan.

"But we don't know Kyle that well to know..." Mari said,

"I know, but we know his behavior. Which brings me to my final point. If the enemy is mimicing an ally and using all those information, dedicated to uphold the act of faking an ally-- there is only thing an imposter cannot be prepared for." Shao's eyes narrowed on the one he would hit. "Spontaneous reaction."



"Spontaneous... reaction...?" Kyle asked, his eye twitching a bit.

Shao remained perfectly at ease as Kyle struggled to understand. "It was impossible for us to determine who was whom, so we knew we had to risk a gamble," he explained, replaying the events in his mind. "I knew if I struck one, and confront one with my Byakugan, I could convince the fake I was facing that I saw through his disguise-- but the reality was, I lied to make him reveal himself."

Kyle's mouth almost dropped the floor in surprise. "Y-you lied?" he exclaimed, unable to believe it.

"Shao really is smart about this," Mari agreed with her hands behind her back. "With his Byakugan, if he made a claim that there was a flaw in the culprit's transformation, who would he be to doubt it. Shao used it to his advantage and tricked him to reveal himself in some way."

However, with a flustered look on his face-- Kyle jumped over to Shao and glared at him in his face, inches away. "But that means you could of hit me! Right?"

Shao blinked, startled by Kyle's yell. It was clear he was angry-- but it was true. "That was a definite possibility. Yes..." he admitted, but then he looked back to Kyle with a strong resolve in his eye. "But it was as I said. Spontaneous reaction. If I had attacked you, I was confident you could of blocked it. You are much better at Taijutsu than I am..."

Kyle was quiet-- his eyes wide for a moment. For the first time, he was sincerely speechless as his two classmates used their skills from their training to actually help him. And that wasn't even all...

"A ninja must see through deception", Mari quoted word for word from their classroom. "Even with all our abilities and powers we gain-- a ninja's greatest weapon is his mind. Shao, you were great. Even the teacher praised you for this."

Shao took the complement with a modest nod. However it was then that Kyle spoke up. "H-hold on, what did you just say though?" he asked Shao.

Shao blinked and answered back. "I said you were probably better at Taijutsu than I was-- so I wasn't too worried a punch from me would really hurt you." he said but frowned as he understood how Kyle might feel and bowed a head to him. "I apologize if I had put you in a tough situation."

Again, Kyle said nothing. He was speechless on many fronts-- but he was clear about one thing. Shao and Mari had saved him and cleared his name from stealing from the Konoha store. "Um... no, its cool. Seriously... thanks," he said.

"NO problem," Mari piped in joining the two of them. "We are classmates. We are piratically allies, so its only natural that we help out one another when it matters. "

Shao nodded. "Anyway, I should be getting home . See you guys in class, okay?" Shao said and began to walk home.

Shao had turned and began to walk away-- but soon KYle's voice stopped him. "Hold on a second!" Kyle boomed, causing him to turn around again. Shao looked to Kyle, his expression now serious. "After all that I did-- I mean... Shao... I..."

He wiped an arm in front of his eyes, as if to wipe away some tears. "I... Thank you, SHao. Mari I would of been expelled if you guys. And after I..." With a sniff, Kyle rose his head high and stepped up in front of Shao. "Hit me-- right in the face, right now!"

Mari looked baffled all of a sudden. "Um... this is the real Kyle right?" she asked, realizing him saying sorry and asking to be hit was very out of character. SHao looked to Mari-- but resisted the urge to laugh at it too.

Kyle was not laughting and just pointed a thumb at his face. "No. I want you to hit me, for reals!" he said, "You let me hit you before-- and I won't feel like I can really say sorry till you did the same to me! So come on! Let's do this!"

Shao sighed and shook his head. "Kyle... I'm not gonna hit you. Fighting won't solve anything here," he said.

"But had I-- I mean the whole reason I wanted to fight you was cause I thought you Hyuga clan guys were the strongest Taijutsu users of all," he said, his tone sullen, "And I really screwed up in how I provoked you-- so do it. Give me a good punch to the face and then we can finally be even. "

"No, Kyle," Shao replied again calmly. "I have no desire to punch you."

"Come on! Don't make me beg!" Kyle now groaned, his tone more pleading. "You'll feel better, I'll feel better-- and I know you want to! I can see it in your eyes!" he added, this time trying to egg Shao on again.

Shao glanced at Mari, his unease clear to her as he tried to avoid needing to punch Kyle. Mari giggled and got between them and gave Shao a wink. Catching on, Shao smiled. "Well how about this... Why don't you treat us to Ice Cream, and call it even for now? Okay? " Shao offered.

Kyle looked up and gave it some thought. Till finally, he nodded his head. "Alright... that sounds fair." he agreed, "Alright... I'll steal some for us easily."

Mari and Shao suddenly went wide eyed by this and looked concerned at Kyle. The boy just had his arms behind his head casually and looked to them. "Dude... I'm kidding."

After the minor scolding at Kyle for his thief-joke. Mari and Shao sat at the top of the city view park-- which sat adjacent to the large cliff where the Hokage's heads. The park had several layers built onto one another-- and allowed a perfect view of the sunset in the distance. Shao had wanted to go home-- but all that was there for him was his grumpy father. He could wait a bit. He was among company he really preferred.

"Wow... I always love this view," Mari said in wonder, and looked up from the sunset to the Hokage's faces looking out at the sunset too. "It really makes you wonder about how far our village has come. "

"Yeah... It does..." Shao replied.

"HEY! I'M here," Kyle shouted as he came hopping up to them. Finding a spot right in between the two, he flopped down on his rear and in each hand he carried Ice cream pops-- wrapped up from the shop. "Here you go." He said and handed them to Mari and Shao.

"WOw, Thanks Kyle!" Mari said and took her's.

SHao nodded and held his own. "Thank you."

As Kyle sat down and opened his ice cream, he didn't hesitate to taste it. "These are good-- It's sea salt flavor."

"Sea salt flavor?" Shao asked.

Mari slowly unwrapped hers and took a taste. She paused as it went down her tongue. "Hmm... It's salty-- but sweet too."

"Yep! Good stuff, huh?" Kyle said and took another bite of his.

Shao slowly took a bite out of his, and was pleasantly surprised how good it tasted. The three of them sat there, eating ice cream as they watched the sunset. Kyle, mischievious as ever, looked up to the first head above them and smirked. "How badly do you wanna draw a mustash on the first Hokage. Hehe... he would look funny with that." Kyle joked.

Mari, however, jumped and glared at Kyle. "Hey! Don't go disrespecting my--" Mari stopped herself and shook her head. "You better be joking cause it isn't funny. "

SHao looked curiously to Mari but Kyle just shook his hand. "Sorry. Sorry... but yah I''m just playing. " he said "But yeah... the Hokage sure can be funny. I hear some of them were not half as scary as they were made out to be. " he said.

"No, but they were the strongest of all the leaf. They are great examples to live up to," Shao said, taking the final bite of his ice cream bar.

Kyle soon laid out on the stone ground. "Yeah, you bet, Shao... cause one day," Kyle said in a dreamy tone as he looked up to the clouds. "I'm gonna be Hokage one day. Just you wait..."

This was new for Shao. He knew many students wished to be Hokage, but Kyle was the first one to say it. Even so, he found it hard to imagine Kyle being Hokage.. by how he behaved. But stranger things had happened.

Mari smirked at this. "Well, I think we all have a ways to go before we even think about becoming Hokage, don't you think, Kyle? Shao?" she asked.

"On that, I agree..." Shao said and smiled to them.

It was then the three became far more closer. Though they had no clue what was in store for them.. it was the beginning of a true friendship between the three children of Konoha.

Thread End.

Training of Byakugan-- 70 meters range right now.