First Impressions
The door to Team 10’s assigned dorms crashed open, and a short mask-clad figure rushed in. Ayuka did a one-handed shuffle of a card deck, and called out to the seemingly empty room. “Hey, Egao. Check this out.”
From the corner, a vague blue shape emerged from the top of a barrel. It slowly resolved into an orb of ooze, two bright eyes floating in the fluid. Gradually they focused on the recent arrival.
Yawning, the ooze replied. “What’s so important? I was asleep.”
Ayuka put the deck on a table, and flipped the top card.
“Info cards...?" The slime's voice suddenly picked up just a little. “That's useful! Where did you get these?"
"Stole half a deck from a genin when she wasn't paying attention."
“T-that's... That's not going to get us in trouble?"
"It'll be fine. Now we can study the other genin teams."
"Yeah! So, 'D' has the Sharingan, and uses the sword. He seems a little scary."
"He's completed a B-rank, too. That's rare." Ayuka took a drink from her bottle of cheap drink as she stared into D's beady little eyes. "He might be the ace of this tournament."
Like everyone else on the planet, Ayuka's heard stories of the Sharingan. "E-Rank Genjutsu" would be exactly what a Uchiha would tell you right before he turns your brain into a cumsock. But this D isn't an Uchiha - did Konoha really let one of the three great dojutsu escape into the wild? Sloppy stuff.
“Another B-rank mission? And his stats are just better than the first one. That should be really rare, right?"
"Ah, I get it."
“Get what?"
"D and Kazen aren't stand-outs. This tournament is just going to be full of monsters."
The room is silent for a long moment.
“Oh no."
Ayuka doesn't know what Adamantine Chains are, but feels relatively confident in being able to squeeze out of binding techniques. Dealing with a grizzled survivor of Uzushiogakure, that's a different question. He does have pretty hair, so there's that.
“An A-rank mission!?"
"Sneaky, with an elemental bloodline. No B-ranks though, hm. Might've just been luck?"
“But what if it wasn't? Run on sight, but we won't be able to see her?"
"Do you want to go home? No? Then we might have to fight."
Ayuka thinks the bandage look is pretty cool, but masks are still way cooler. Masu's eyes are also very pretty. Everything else is super worrying.
"Five B-ranks?"
“It keeps getting worse."
"So, what's a homunculi?"
Bewildering number of high rank missions aside, Ayuka's not particularly worried about Ghidora. Poison seems to be his gimmick, and the plan of "Hide behind Oishi" should work well against him. Whatever a 'homunculi' is, it probably doesn't matter much.
“'Raging drunkard', 'Resilient Regeneration', sounds familiar."
"You know somebody like that?"
“Uh, no."
Her two bloodlines are impressive - a powerful Earth variant, and some sort of healing ability. Ayuka would wonder whether Nodao could survive a heart extraction, and what the consequences of that would be. Then she would bury that thought very deep. Still, Nodao would probably stick in her head for a while, even if the oni doesn't seem like some super dangerous master ninja. Just one of those things.
"Ame bastard. No, wait. 12 years and looking like that? Naked?"
"Do you think he's like sensei?"
"Sensei is all natural weird. Ame hackery turned this boy into a rock."
The Taki-Ame rivalry in maximized freakshow production took a heavy blow when Ame lost most of their scientists, but it will remain so long as their technological abominations still walk the Elemental Countries. Ayuka has no investment in it (absolutely none at all), but like any good Takigakure ninja, TAKI SCIENCE BEST IN THE WORLD. Pointing and laughing at Amegakure's inferior efforts is practically in the job description.
"Oh, another medic ninja?"
"With a B-Rank and a bloodline limit. Want to ask her for tips?"
Targeting the medic-nin is a no-no. Otherwise, she seems like a normal ninja in a tournament of geniuses. Of course, those are the ones that surprise you.
"This must be a joke card, right?"
"Maybe? But a completed A-rank, and a Mangekyo... We'd have to run."
"Can't that eye steal souls and summon demons?"
"Yeah. Powerful."
The card is clearly biased. Anyone with a Mangekyo, even just one, couldn't possibly be that weak, and the note just proves the author was clowned too hard and is now just talking shit. Sure, an eye injury would stop one eye from working, but the other would still keep it's powers. The possibility of an eye transplant doesn't even cross Ayuka's mind.
Also, obligatory 'oh no she's hot'
Ayuka glugged on her alcohol thoughtfully.
"If Konoha has genin like this, we've lost already."
"That's a jonin."
"...Knew that."
Ayuka doesn't believe the mission numbers. 32 S-rank, 301 A-rank? Bluff rank, more like.
"Huh?"
The card seems like a trick or parody or something. The Wood release alone should have let him become a chunin long ago, everybody knows how powerful it is, but somehow this fossil still can't pass? He must be slumming it, or a secret proctor or something. And what's a Great Crown of the Insect Sage? Some kind of armor technique? Worrying stuff.
"A Byakugan on the same team as a Sharingan."
"And he's a prodigy? That's just unfair."
"They would have genjutsu and taijutsu mastery on their side. Ninjutsu might be their weakness."
Jin has the other one of Konoha's great dojutsu, which makes him a serious threat automatically. That he's a taijutsu genius is a little intimidating - Ayuka is the hand to hand fighter of her team, and she's decidedly not a prodigy at it. Trading punches with a once-in-a-generation Hyuga talent sounds like a quick way to get all of your tenketsu cracked. Sure, Ayuka has twice as many as normal, but that just means more cracking.
"No, that team has ninjutsu covered too."
"Another bloodline limit. But what's Character Bind?"
"I don't know. Maybe a magnetic ability?"
The presence of a monk on the battlefield is odd. That he rounds out his team so well is annoying, too. However, monks are sworn to non-violence or something, so he shouldn't be that big of a problem.
"Somebody spilled ink on the card. This is useless."
"We don't need to worry about the jonin, do we?"
Don't look a stolen horse in the mouth, or something?
"Blood element, with the Blood Dragon Eye? A-Rank's believable."
"She has to be the biggest threat, right?"
"...There might be worse."
Blood Release with a kekkei genkai related to blood control? A dojutsu considered a rival to the three great eyes? It'd be like a byakugan user with a faster-movement release, or a sharingan user with an unfairness release. Some people just have all the luck in the world.
"He's deaf? Shouldn't be too dangerous."
"I think his strategy rank is the best one we've seen so far, though."
"Yeah, but he can't hear. Just jump him."
"I guess..."
As one of the few ninja who's spent a significant time with missing body parts, Ayuka'd know how big the difference is between having a sense and lacking it is. A deaf ninja is a dead ninja. That this Hanagi guy is still kicking shows he's skilled despite it, but that's a giant, glaring weakness. One that any joker with Lightning Release could exploit.
"Oh, she'd be targeting you."
"H-haha, sure."
With the limited information included on these cards Choko mostly stands out as one of the few 'normal' genin. She may have a dojutsu, but it's not a famous one, so while it might do anything, it probably isn't that powerful. Her missions list being blotted out makes her strength hard to estimate, but she doesn't seem like a combat monster or tactical genius, so it's probably just normal. Or rather, "a B-rank mission plus change", as everybody in the exams seems to be taking chunin+ jobs at regular rates.
"...Another medic."
"That's what you notice first?"
"Do you want detailed commentary on her huge rack or something?"
"Maybe I do."
"Another Wood release user?"
"He even has Dark Wood style."
"Pervert priest of the Dark Wood. Sounds like a horror story."
Anybody with a bloodline limit that famous needs to be taken seriously. Ayuka doesn't know what 'Dark Element" is going to add, but Wood Release is already the sort of power that survivors weave legends around. Considering how Wood counters Water fairly effectively, Ayuka isn't going to be looking forward to that confrontation.
"She's not a very modest genius."
"Eidetic Memory? That means, uh... she doesn't forget anything!"
"Sounds right. Full genjutsu, full strategy? That's dangerous. We can't deal with that, can we?"
Team 10 lacks a strategist, or sensor, or just generally smart person. Sure, Ayuka wouldn't trade her team away, but they're lacking a good way to counter a team with a force multiplier like that. Well, besides "throw lots of jutsu downrange and hope it works". Thankfully, the tactician doesn't seem too strong in a straight up fight.
"Just noticed that's Junki. Hm, so this is where you ran off to."
"Who's Junki?"
"Nobody important, just-"
A knocking at the door interrupted the study session, and an aged voice broke the silence that followed, audible even through the door. "I believe you have something belonging to my genin."
"-damn."
Both of the genin turned towards the door. Egao stretched out, leaning up close to Ayuka's ear.
“I-if we're quiet do you think she'll leave?"
"I will not."
Ayuka walked up to the door, and swung it open. She had to look way up to look Tsugumi in the face, and the mask somewhat ruined the effect, but their eyes still met.
"Go away, hag."
“That wasn't so bad after all." Egao said, digesting some of the candy that had been shoved into his goey body.
Ayuka didn't reply, still completely mummified by a set of scrolls.