Shikamaru's plan was ready by the end of the scholar year. They told Iruka and Anori that there was a plan and the objective of said plan. However, no one knew the content of the plan, well with the exception of Shikamaru of course, as the plan was revealed depending on the phase they were in. As it was phase one, the orders are : do not reveal what you are capable of, especially the abilities learned from your clan and train more rigorously. Of course, Iruka would give them harder exercises and they would have rigorous homework.
During the holidays Anori went to guide Hinata on her path, as Naruto came to tell them there was issues with her progression. Yahiro guessed correctly that Hiashi was against the new training for his daughter, well until it showed a tremendous improvement on her fighting ability. Now, the heir of the Hyuga clan had a stance more agile and more light, less anchored in the floor and as such more adapted for a woman musculature.
Yahiro had to forgo his training for a while after the placement of his seal as an error would have resulted in blindness, he then got back to it with his usual fierceness. Well, without bothering the others as that would have made the adults aware that something was happening. He thus only trained with Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto as they still came to his home.
The holidays seemed too short for him as the three weeks flew by. He stretched his arms while going to the academy, surprised that he did not see Sakura this morning. He adjusted the scarf he now had to hide his neck, the size of it was long enough to improvise a hood if he needed to use his eyes. As he had nothing better to do, he began remembering the advises of his father to not using hand signs while doing jutsus. The example used was the overused main fire technique, the Katon : Gokakyuu no Jutsu1Fire Release : Great Fireball. The tiger was mobilizing the fire Chakra, the dog used to sculpt the shape, the Boar to define a canalization2the jutsu continue to be cast until you stop giving it chakra type Jutsu, the horse to regulate the power and finally the tiger to release the fire jutsu. The hand signs are only there to guide the molding of Chakra, explaining the variations of the hand signs of one jutsu, depending on the skill of the caster you could use more hand signs for a technique or less even none sometimes. He trained to be able to cast the ones he knew well without any.
He looked up, as he was looking at his feet, and rose an eyebrow when he saw all his classmates in front of Iruka. He had a bad feeling about the event that would occur. Especially as his Sensei had a joyful smile.
"Why, hello to our last student. We now are gonna have a little test to see the progress you made during the holidays. As Yahiro-kun skipped a lot of classes last year and still is the King of evasion, he'll be volunteer for our little game." (Iruka)
"Army's volunteering... it's objectivity is doubtful."
He smiled while putting his hands in his pockets as Iruka did not comment on his retort.
"Here are the rules. Yahiro-kun must flee and you have to catch him. If or more likely when he'll get away, then he'll have the right to counter attack. The player will only be the volunteer, the others will have a standard PE class. If you catch Yahiro-kun, he lose, the same if he lose consciousness. If he neutralize you, you are out." (Iruka)
Yahiro smile, he was amused as the idea seemed genuinely fun. The students from minor clans preferred to not participate as did Shino as the Anteiryoku had the ability to make a Chakra cloak with the nature of their choosing.
"Good, then the exercise can now begin." (Iruka)
"Nope, sorry Sensei but I'll need a diversion to escape as otherwise it would be too easy for the others."
"Right." (Iruka)
"A diversion ? Like for example if I were to say that I'm the most fabulous individual of this class !?" (Akita)
The students laughed out loud at the absurd and exaggerated movements. Yahiro flickered to gain distance, enjoying the time gained by the attention grabbing action of Akita, who simply stand gobsmacked at the fact that his friend took action with this short of a diversion.
He felt some air movement from the corner of the first house, causing him to take a step back and lean back to dodge a punch from Sakura. He quickly fled back to avoid more hits. Naruto and Sasuke threw some kunai at him, he dodged them with a back hand jump which put him in a perfect position to go through the alleys, pursued by Kiba. Ino appeared suddenly and he avoided her swipe by jumping and continued running before ending in front of Irina in a Iai stance. He could not go further, lest he be injured nor could he go back lest he end up facing Kiba and Ino.
He began molding his Chakra and coated his feet with it, it was a useless jutsu in a fight as it was an utilitarian one. He slides close to the ground on more than ten meters, his feet flooded with water allowing him to ignore friction as if he was on ice. Thus avoiding the blade by sliding under it and passing right by Irina. Suiton : Yokosuberi3Water release : unrestrained slide. He then jumped on his feet at the instant the slide was over and ran once again.
"Wh-WHAT !?" (Irina)
He completely ignored the surprise of Irina and fled through the alleys hoping to shake them. He heard them running after him and he chose the alleys seemingly at random to escape their sight even for a second. It was logic, he had to flee enough to exchange the roles. He turned a corner and saw Choji who was smiling at him. Yahiro simply gave him a packet of crisps and Choji quickly opened it as he changed places. He then saw Kiba that was navigating through the crowd of a main street. He went over a fence and ended up in front of Hinata, to whom he signaled to keep her silence while winking to which she giggled. He took some distance to climb on the roofs as the others were searching for him down on the streets. Moving high up he ended up finding Shikamaru who was lying down, cloud gazing.
"You aren't participating ?"
"No, it gave me an excuse to gaze at the clouds." (Shikamaru)
"Now that I think about it, I did no see Akita, why is that ?"
"This one's obvious. Akita know that he cannot catch you, so he'll wait for the hunt part. They'll most probably regroup to get you starting now." (Shikamaru)
"Oh ? Can't wait to see that. Time to start Phase two then."
He took some steps forward, feeling the sight of Shikamaru on him, he then closed his eyes while doing the Dragon hand sign. Rikougan : Kami no me4Rikougan : God's Sight. He still had trouble with using his Dojutsu without hand sign. He then looked through all the different streets and alley, searching for everyone. Naruto teaming with Hinata being the closest. He then saw Kiba who suddenly shuddered and was accompanied by Ino. He noted the position of everyone. Yahiro then took a scroll from his pocket and opened it to take a rope then another to have an Ushigatana5 one of the standard blade for Japanese swordsmen, the other being the wakizashi.
"Now. The hunt begin."
