Education and entertainment
The first time Lal saw his stupid smiling face again she punched him in the nose. It was very satisfying. Didn’t slow him down much of course. Nothing slowed that idiot down for long. Nothing except… well that was over now, tragedies of another life not worth dwelling on, and if she did pull his stupid grinning mouth into a kiss after she punched him, well, that was her decision wasn’t it. Colonello had died before they could resolve things in their previous lives, she was not going to let that happen again.
Their teacher had looked a bit surprised at the whole exchange though. After all it wasn’t every day that you saw five year olds resolving a lifetimes worth of romantic tension. It was just a shame the sexual tension had to wait for puberty.
She was happier than she’d ever admit to, to realise that all her fellow arcobaleno had been reincarnated with her. They were infuriating, and destructive, and violent, and life would be altogether too boring without them. That didn’t mean she didn’t start plotting revenge as soon as she spotted the others settling bets at her and Colonello’s wedding. Betting on someone’s relationship was one thing, everyone did it, she was willing to turn a blind eye, settling the bets at the actual wedding though was just tasteless. Maybe she should set Luce on the lot of them, Luce always did despise poor taste.
This new world was perfect for them, a gloriously entertaining second chance, she’d even found herself wondering if this was some sort of bizarre mafia specific heaven. There was something for all of them, war, and useless new recruits to amuse her and Colonello, research for Verde, very respectable pay scales for Viper, new and exciting ways to commit violence for Fon. Luce had taken over the whole administrative department, Skull had become a teacher of all things, and of course the sheer insanity of living in a world of magic ninja’s provided endless entertainment for Reborn.
She had of course joined Anbu. It had seemed like the thing to do. Colonello had followed her of course and it hadn’t taken long for them to take over training. Lal did so love driving new recruits until they threw up, and Colonello was an excellent co-instructor. All of Anbu feared her. Her training schemes were legend, wihispered about in the Anbu locker room by traumatised students. Possibly she was why her fellow arcobaleno were so studiously avoiding Anbu, but she doubted the sage himself would ever get them to admit it. Lal’s reign of terror was well established and it was good.
She missed her guns a bit, it had to be said. If she had any mojor complaints to make about this new world she’d been born into, there was in the end nothing like a well-placed bullet to make a lagging trainee pick up the pace. But throwing a kunai at them had a similar effect if slightly less satisfying, and access to katon jutsu was a fair trade-off for the lack of decent firearms. Reborn had worked out how to make air bullets because he was just extra that way, but Lal was quite happy just setting things on fire. It worked for the Uchiha after all, and if Colonello had Verde secretly at work trying to make a sniper rifle for their anniversary, well she knew nothing and would be suitably surprised when he gave it to her.
…
It hadn’t been easy abandoning her cute Anbu puppies in order to teach a genin team, but bets had been made, and challenges issued and there was no way Lal would be the one to back down, not when that idiot Colonello had already agreed. Besides, those girls had the potential to be utterly terrifying, and helping them reach their potential could be so much fun.
And they were flame active, as they hadn’t been last time around, at least they hadn’t before her death, and judging by the raw newness of their flames they probably hadn’t before their own deaths. Lal loved tort-teaching flame actives, they could take so much more punishment than regular recruits. She could grind them right down into the dirt and they’d still get up and ask for more. She compared a few lesson plans with Reborn before the final academy graduation. Their sadistic cackles had been heard echoing down the street. Colonello said it was creepy, but he shut up when she threw a handful of fire at him. There was nothing creepy about plotting to torture genin, all the other jounin sensei did it. It was practically their job.
…
Lal looked at her new team. Sky, Cloud, Mist, a volatile combination, but no-one had even wanted to try separating Hana from Kyouko, and at that point it seemed a little cruel to exclude Haru, so all kunoichi team it was. It had the added advantage of ensuring the whole team was flame bonded, so instant teamwork, take that Hatake. The traditional setup was overrated anyway. Tradition would have had an Inoshikacho team made up of Hana, Hayato, and Lambo, even Reborn had baulked at releasing that on the world.
No this way was better, and the girls really were delightfully motivated. Kyoko was learning strategy, and Haru was learning disguise, and Hana was learning politics alongside the kind of extreme violence Clouds were notorious for. Lal, left them to deal with their own specialisation in favour of beating the basics into all of them. After all, whatever their specialties might be it was always good to know just enough of everything to fuck shit up. That was Lal’s specialty. Explosives, weapons, hand to hand, Flames, the manipulation of information, the girls soaked it all up like sponges, and then took the initiative to improve on their own. Lal grinned with vicious satisfaction. Her team was going to beat Colonello’s team into the ground, when it came time to settle the bets at the Chuunin exams.