This story is based on a role-playing club I was once engaged in on Newgrounds dot com. The RP is currently on hiatus, many of the members began to tear the club apart through their own obnoxiousness and stubborness, as well as all the new, mindless members and flamers. I really thought the club was too big and durable for such an abrpt closing, so I decided to comprise what I found to be the most elective elements and posts in it into one big story, grammar-checked and context-sensitive. (If that makes any sense...).

Chapter One

"I'm here." the boy complied to his teacher, Kinta-sensei, a tall woman with brown hair.

Suriyu had been late again, he'd slept in until noon when his mom threw him out of bed and forced him out the door. His outfit was disheveled, a green shirt underneath a blue jacket with jeans, all ragged and pulled from the clothes hamper in his room. He scratched the back of his head, further messing the short crop of brown hair. The hazel disappeared behind his eyelids again and again as Kinta checked him off in the late crowd. He walked somberly to his seat on the fifth row, the seat he'd been sitting in for six days now, right next to Kotodama and Karima.

"Alright class, now that you've all been checked, please hand in your reports to the person in front of you." Kinta ordered, the papers shuffled from row to row, missed by only a few unlucky students.

Suriyu panicked as he searched through his backpack, only to find a textbook and his neatly-packed lunch box. As if the teacher had detected some illness in her student, she began to collect the reports from each student and stared evilly down at Suriyu, who glared upward along her body and into the mean, cold eyes towering above him. He grinned uneasily, yelling and whimpering as she snatched his hand and clutched the reports to her side with the other.

"B-but, wait, you see I ran into this guy this morning, and I-I droppe...AAh..." he squealed as Kinta-sensei lobbed him into the left corner of the room, right next to the open window with November air breezing through.

Kinta pointed out the two buckets behind Suriyu, "Stop making excuses and taking your punishment. I want you till fill these buckets up with water and stand by THAT window holding them up until I say so. Understand!"

Suriyu pouted, "Why do I always have to do this..."

Kinta picked up his words with a sonar ear range, she walked up and down the aisles and counted the other students who had also failed to complete their assignment. She turned to him for only a second, commenting, "Don't worry, as soon as I finish explaining today's lesson, you won't be so alone up there."

"Yes, ma'am." the boy grumbled, "Great...i..actually do my homework...and i get into trouble anyway..."

"As for the rest of you lazy students, I'll have you switch with Suriyu periodic-"

There was a knock at the classroom's door, Kinta went over to see who it was. When she opened the door, she was met with an unyielding expression from a strange man, dressed in a plain tunic style and obviously not a member of the Jonin instructors. He had a paper in his right hand, dirtied with dust and the staples slightly out of place, with the name SURIYU DOMIDO written at the top.

"It seems one of your students, that boy holding the buckets there I see, dropped his report crashing into me this morning. I didn't want him to get into trouble so I brought it here. Sorry I was a little too late lad..." he explained, his voice was sincere and he handed the instructor Suriyu's report, titled "Rope Escapes And You".

She studied the first two crumpled, stomped pages quickly and turned to Suriyu, already struggling as the buckets weighed on him, and then back to the man with an easier smile. She folded the paper's roughened edges, and added it to the pile of completed Rope Escape Technique reports on her desk. "Well, I'm shocked. But...the report is only half done-"

"Nnh!" Suriyu's face throbbed an embezzled red.

"-So Suriyu, you may drop ONE of the buckets. However, if you spill one drop on the floor you will not only have to clean it up during lunch, but you will have given yourself another half hour holding up those buckets."

The man seemed amazed as Kinta said his name, "Suriyu? Suriyu Domido?"

"In...pain...right now...." he mumbled sorely.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm interrupting your lesson. I'll just visit once your class is over." the man scooted himself out.

"Well, you were saved by a sympathetic person today Suriya, but if I've told you once I've told you twenty times, DON'T push your luck." she said, turning back toward the giggling class of thirteen year olds, "Alright class, we only have two more study units before we move onto the third course of academy preparation, get ready, the FINAL course before your graduation which will incorporate. These two final research units include two popular techniques that have probably made you all so exited to read ahead about them, they are: the Clone Technique, Bushin No Jutsu, and the Transformation Technique, Henge no Jutsu."

The class cheered their teacher on for a moment, until she pulled a large stack of textbooks from under her desk and drawing a moan of disappointment from each of them. She silenced them, detailing the textbook's chapters and the following jutsus, weapon designs, and tactics implemented within its chapters. Karima, his heterochromic pupils dashing ever so absently over the paper handed to him by Saito, sighed into his arms as Kinta began the lesson. The words seemed to bounce off of his forehead until 12:21 when their lunch period arrived.

***

"Alright, everyone except for Suriyu, Karima, Saffron, and Kasume, please go enjoy your lunch. Suriyu, you may let go of the buckets." Kinta-sensai addressed, shutting her own minimized teacher handbook and watching her students file out to the courtyard. She faced Suriyu, who scurried to cover the water he'd spilled from both buckets as the three students she requested approached the desk, "Yes, the three of you, I have something very interesting you may want to pay attention to for the next couple of weeks."

"Throughout this course, you three have proven to be the most talented graduation candidates in my class. All of your academic scores on the previous E-Rank techniques have been perfect all the way through. As you remember, you three were individually sent pre-examination tests to record your knowledge on Transformations, Cloning, Chakra, and Advanced Substitutions. Due to the results of these individual tests, you have been selected to advance to a Graduation-level class and skip the examination section of the remaining units."

Karima, Saffron, and Kasume all gave shocked, yet joyful expressions. Suriyu snorted to himself, Karima was certainly no "prodigy", Saffron was a "killjoy with a pretty face", and Kasume....well, he didn't really know who he was. But he didn't like him anymore than he did the others, in fact, his ambiguity made Suriyu hate the kid even more. Kinta handed each of them a permission slip to be signed by their parents or guardians, requiring both their consent and the students. It was rare for an event like this to occur. They would be skipping the entire academic quarter and be forwarded to learning the E-Ranks themselves in a line of physical trials, guided by a Jonin Field Instructor who would help them master substitution and exploding pieces of paper.

Suriyu...just couldn't take it. He kicked over a bucket in rage, and pointed fiercely at Kinta, "This is so unfair! You give these guys promotions and COMPLETELY overlook me? Some teacher you are, I passed ALL of my exams an-"

"SURIYU, shut up." Karima shouted.

"YEAH, you didn't even pass the Disguise Jutsu test, liar!" Saffron added. Kasume nodded in agreement.

"Suriyu, your punishment is over." they gasped at Kinta-sensei's words, but she continued regardless, "Please send in Hirameku and Jai."

"Wha-" Suriyu's eyes widened.

"Unless you want me to lengthen your-"

"No-no, I'm going!" the boy sped out of the classroom, barreling through Kasume and almost knocking him down.

Kasume Kawariki may have been the youngest in the Academy, but he certainly had the intelligence and muscle to back it up. He didn't say anything as Suriyu collided with him, he barely even flinched and almost caused Suriyu to trip over him. Kinta-sensei sighed in disappointment, she requested the students depart for the lunchroom and they did. She sat at her desk silently, relaxing for a minute before, as promised, Hirameku and Jai, two out of four of the report-less students no luckier than Suriyu. She gave them equal punishment: Jai would balance himself on the wall until the end of lunch, and Hirameku would hang onto one of the rafters for fifteen minutes.

"Grr....THIS IS...CRUEL." Jai cried, blood pooling in his head.

"I.....t...felle....my arms.s...." mumbled Hirameku, arms pale and face smothered in sweat.

"Hmph." Kinta stood from her desk and crossed her arms, "Students like you two, Suriyu, and Karima always act big like you have this big energy generator inside of you, but whenever I make you focus that perpetual energy of yours into something self-beneficial, you cry like little three-year olds. How do you think you can be Genin if you can't sit still for more than two minutes, huh?"

Hirameku swallowed a dry flag of spit, his legs galloped and his lips crunched together, "I....hate..you..."

In the dash of an eye, Kinta was suddenly hanging upside down from the ceiling. She gazed down at the troublesome academy student who grimaced as she stretched her mouth out and wagged her tongue at him. Kinta gracefully descended, flipping onto the single, open rafter and walking towards Hirameku, whom was now upon his third minute.

"OOOOWOWOWO!!!" he screamed, Kinta's studded sandals stomping into his knuckles.

As expected, when she finally eased back the added torment, Hirameku released the rafter and plummeted to the ground. The shock from this made Jai collapse, face red and disoriented as his legs slumped against the wall. Kinta reappeared, staring them into the wooden floor with calculative pupils that measured them both.

***

Time passed, and the students returned to their seats after lunch ended. Suriyu sat back in the third row, ill-tempered at having missed lunch and still receiving a failing grade for the report he'd actually managed to hand in. Throw in that with the fact that he was beaten with fatigue, something none could have guessed while he was holding up the buckets, from having practiced building kunai to throwing them with a thirty percent accuracy ratio. He put most of his weight onto the desk, quiet as a fly as Kinta-sensei went on with her lesson on...he didn't know.

Three seats were vacant. Karima, Saffron, and Kasume had not returned. Their permission slips ordered them to return to their households immediately and essentially miss the lesson. Outside of the Academy, on the main street, Karima and Kasume wandered around the stores, neither had any money but they couldn't think of anything better to be doing. They weren't allowed to perform any jutsu outside of Academy Grounds until they became Genin, something that was half a year away. Then again, for their particular group, maybe six months could be reduced to a couple of weeks.

"Kasume, Karima." came Saffron's voice, she was standing by a fruit store holding a bag of apples and paper. When she ran towards them, Karima backed up slightly. "So are you two ready?"

Karima had to ask, "Ready? Ready for what?"

"Are you kidding? Did you even read your slip?" Karima shook his head, "We hand these to our new Instructor, and we can begin immediately if all three of us are up to it. Isn't it exciting?"

Kasume nodded in agreement, Karima folded his arms overhead and perked his lips, "Mmmnnn....I don't think so. I was kind of looking forward to a day off. I mean, I've already used-"

"We're going, and that's final." Saffron's face filled up with evil energy. Her voice changed too, to that of a darkened, knife-like commander of waves and typhoons. Her eyes grew to incredible proportions, almost to the degree that she didn't even seem human for a brief second, Karima fell onto his back in surprise, while Kasume stood their, somewhat unnerved judging from his now very open and twitching eyelids.

Karima brought himself to stand, and trembling he answered, "Yes...ma'am. What-ever you say."

Cowering in the wake of Saffron's sinister commands, the trio walked out of the village and into training grounds for SUPERIOR. The training exercise was scheduled for the evening. On further inspection, Karima discovered that their new Jonin instructor was a man named Naito Takamashii, a three-year Jonin known for his mastery over Genjutsu. Genjutsu was the art of illusions and deception, perfect for a coward who wanted to avoid fighting and run away. Karima wasn't a coward, no, he wanted someone with Taijutsu, the art of kicking another person's ass at ten times the strength they can kick yours. Genjutsu was nothing, this exercise wouldn't last a minute.

When they had traveled to the designated meters, two figures appeared from out of the green.

"What the-?" Karima gasped, backed by Saffron.

There was another boy, with a girl locked in his bulky, unforgiving arms. One of his hands was strewn around her neck unnaturally, a blade warm against her throat. The trio targeted him with sharp curiosity and fear, not even Karima was dumb enough to go charging in and have the young female's throat sliced open. Kasume took a step back, burying his hands in his jacket's pockets. Saffron made a grab for the kunai in her purse, but she spotted the man's hand begin to tighten and dropped the idea. Karima glanced at her and then back to the highway man, surprised that Saffron had gone to the extent of purchasing and carrying kunai with her.

It WAS just an exercise.

"Damn it bitch, you ARE good at this." the man, wearing a very black robe with a sword scabbard jutting outward from his back side, belched in an awkward way. He spat obscenity after obscenity in a manner quiet enough that the advanced academy students were unable to decipher him clearly, but the captured woman's frightened eyes gave them an image of his vocabulary as he muttered them to her. The highway man suddenly locked eyes with Karima, who was still as a stone, and spat even louder words at him, "Hey, kid, you're the Half-Ninja? Right!?"

Suddenly, a profound calm took the student over. He forced a grin from his lips, and nodded, "Oh, I see. Yeah, that's me."

"Half Ninja?" Saffron pulled on his shoulder, "What does he, what do you mean?"

Karima whispered back to her, one eye still attached to the captured woman, "If you haven't noticed yet, I have heterochromia. One eye is colorless, the other is black. They both have two different powers, and he wants me to use either one. Anyone who calls me "Half" is expecting to witness the secret meeting of two clans and their bloodlines."

Karima met the highway man with a more leisured face, "But I don't think he knows what he's about to get himself into."

Kasume watched with intrigue as Karima winked one eye, the eye emerged with a red color. Karima abruptly gasped, pointing and yelling at something in the trees. Saffron looked up to no avail, she refocused on the bandit and his prisoner, but Kasume smiled as he realized it too.

"What, what is it?"

"Our Jonin Instructor is a master of Genjutsu, right?"

"Yeah." Saffron nodded.

"Well, Genjutsu is-for COWARDS WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO FIGHT!" Karima yelled, charging the highway man at full speed. His right eye hissed at the now featureless highway man, who released the colorless woman as Karima neared. Saffron called for him to stop, lest the hostage be harmed, but he kept running. Kasume watched on, Karima threw his arm in front of his body and punched the highway man.

"Call me...Exile..." he murmured, so that only Karima could hear.

***

The school day was over at evening's descent into the village.

Naito and Dami walked from the Academy pridefully, with Saffron and Kasume gone they had essentially become the smartest two in the class. To top that, Dami didn't have any chores to complete, meaning they could sit in his house all day and hang out, tomorrow their class would continue the study of Chakra Conversion. Naito's spiky blond hair was freed as he pulled his hat off and left it on the floor of his home, they took off their shoes and ran into the living room.

Across from Naito's house was Suriyu's. He stomped inside with his shoes on...

"Suriyu, take off your shoes!" his mom heard him.

He took off his shoes by the front door, and stomped up to his room. In his room, he pulled off his jacket and bolted for the single desk in his room where an empty glass resided, right by his mother's computer. The breeze from outside drew his eyes to the open window, where a figure was perched on the roof of a street stand, at least ten feet up to the second floor. He peered outside, the person sitting there was an older student from the academy, wearing a white-black pattern shirt with the signs, Yin and Yang, emblazoned on the front and back separately.

"Suriyu Domido, come here, I've got something to tell you."

"Buzz off, Sonshi. I'm already in trouble for getting a failing grade on the homework report." said Suriyu.

"Aren't you interested in becoming a Genin!?"

Suriyu turned back to him, eyes flaring with excitement and arms shaking at his sides, "What,are you kidding, only every day! But there's no way I can jump classes like Karima or Saffron, I don't have the work ethic."

"Word is, the three special academy students selected to participate in SUPERIOR, well, if you don't want to get in trou-gah!"

Suriyu's face leaned in his vision, he had rushed from his room and almost instantly reappeared on the same roof. "Alright, alright. You see, I hear that they're supposed to get a new private instructor who's going to teach them E-Rank and D-Rank Jutsu. SUPERIOR is a program designed by the Hidden Flower village to train students who, through clan or family history, likely to possess extreme potential toward the higher ranks of Jonin or Tokujo. This can be determined by the country's own Kage, by his permission this can surpass even the worst of academic scores. Its become so popular, its practiced everywhere in the Ninja World now. Its origins emerged during a brief peace when the Genin and Chuunin exams were viewed as "unsatisfactory" for developing a young shinobi's skills. They thought that because nobody died, no one honed any exemplary skill or intuition. All those academy students, your friends and enemies, only two of them will come out of the Genin exercises. That's how cruel it is. But SUPERIOR, that's your alternative."

"Well, its not like I even know where they are. How does this help anyone, we're just a random village in the Land of Fire."

"Fine, if I have to break it down for you. If you impress the Instructor better than any one of the selectees, you can replace one of them."

"...Why are you telling me this?" Suriyu asked, skeptical.

He shrugged. Sonshi Dorou was a very unpredictable person. So much, that during his training his instructors gave him the nickname "Sporadic Shinobi". His reasons were almost invisible, but he smiled at Suriyu and shut his eyes, "Every now and then, there comes an academy student with the ability to succeed like you, who just can't seem to catch a break. You're not a hard kid to figure out, you just want to breeze through school and hold a kunai like it means something. I can help you do that."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because I know what appeals to this village's leaders...and the directors of SUPERIOR..."

"What?" Suriyu asked, aggravated.

***

END OF CHAPTER ONE.