The Jonin instructors got up and moved to their pupils, along with lady Tsunade. Mendari smiled and patted each of her pupils. She escorted them out of the forest, past the fence back to town. She brought them to the barbecue place near Ichiraku Ramen and offered them a full meal.
"You three did really well, I'm really proud of the way you made it through the exam so far. Now you three will be taken off of active duty and put into a strict training regimen. Kurenai and Kento you will be training under Amakeru Tsaidashi, Kento's father. He just returned from their mission and he is best suited to enhance your genjutsu. Kenji you'll be training with me, I'm going to teach you a new way to use your chakra."
"Yes Sensei!" The three of them say through bites of food. Tired as they were they should have gone home.
They continued their meal in silence, mostly because they were exhausted. They knew the next month was going to be a test to their strength. They paid for their meals and left the restaurant, departing ways to head on home. When Kenji arrived to his front door he saw that Shizune was waiting for him. He was slightly confused, but allowed her to come in.
"What's up Shizune?" He asked slightly confused.
"I wanted to let you know that milady Tsunade will be taking me travelling once the exams are done. I won't be seeing you again." She said, she seemed she was about to cry.
"For a long time right? We will see each other again sometime right? I mean you'll be back eventually right?" Kenji said, he obviously felt upset.
"I don't know Kenji, I just don't know. I'll find a way to keep in touch, if she'll allow. See you in a month at the third part of the exam." She said giving him a hug and she left.
Kenji sat on his bed and felt, for the first time in a while truly alone. He kicked off his shoes and stretched out on his bed. As he lay down thinking he heard a tap at his door. He rose from the bed and looked through the peep hole.
"Kenji open the door, I want to talk." Mendari Sensei yelled through the door. As she came in however she smiled at him. "I heard what Shizune said ok. Everything will be alright, I came to tell you to pack your gear we are leaving deep into the forest to start your training, we will be living out there for the entire month understood?"
"Yes Sensei!" Kenji said with a yawn.
She watched as he packed his gear, he was being very organized about it. After he was done packing she gave him some extra kunai just to make sure and then left the house. She let him know that they'd be leaving at four in the morning meet at the entrance to Konoha. He nodded, closed the door, and then climbed into bed. He set his alarm and closed his eyes to drift off to sleep.
The alarm went off exactly at three. He jumped up and got dressed in a hurry, grabbing a quick breakfast sandwich. He jumps out his window and ran to the entrance of Konoha. When he got there Mendari Sensei was already waiting. She was talking with the gate guards when he approached. She had a look of seriousness on her face and with a quiet, reserved smile she waved Kenji to follow her.
They left the village as the sun was rising. They walked along the road for a while before heading off to the woods. They travelled through the woods for a while and they had lunch at noon. While they walked Mendari sensei talked about how chakra flowed through the body. Kenji sighed, he had learned all that in the academy. Then she said something that was new.
"Some people have the ability to make their chakra show, revealing their elemental nature. Whereas I have a wood elemental affinity and can grow roots and plants, you are a water element. We will be going to a place that has no water, there you will learn how to pull your own chakra to make water as you need it. It will be small amounts and it will be rough, but that is why we are going to start slow. Hopefully you can learn the basics in this next month." She said as they stopped at a tree to rest for the night.
The next morning she had him running up trees again. Granted the trees here were taller than the ones back in the village. He had questioned it at first, all she said is that it would help with chakra control. He was progressively getting higher and higher on the tree, she knew that he wouldn't accept anything other than improvement. She sat on the ground meditating as he was training. He had to prove that he could do it, he had to improve on what he could already do.
After a couple of hours she looked up to check on him. He was walking up the tree and not just straight up, but spiraling past branches and going around obstacles. He's ready. She thought to herself. She yelled for him to come down and as she did he jumped off the tree. As he was coming down he through the blade of his Kyoketsu Shoge into a branch and swung around the tree. He reconnected his feet to the tree and began running down the tree, pulling his weapon from the branch as he did. After a little bit he made it to the bottom, Mendari shaking her head back and forth.
"Don't scare me like that again, I thought you had fallen." She said to him.
"I had control of it the entire time and even if I did fall, you would have caught me right Sensei?" He said with a grin on his face.
"Never mind that. For now we are going to work on the next part of your training. Try focusing your chakra, focusing on a single point. Let me know when you feel it." She said having been calmer.
He focused on a single point, projecting his chakra there. He sat in silence as he did, trying to pull it into a bowl shaped indentation in the ground. She sat and watched him, as she did she noticed his eyes would begin to travel and shift. Without saying a word she grabbed a kunai and drew a circle with a triangle in the center all three points on the edge of the circle, with one of the points pointing to him. She then put a single point into the center of the triangle. Maybe, even though he doesn't recognize it, seeing his family crest will cause him to focus easier. The point in the center should make it easier. She though while smiling, she turned her back for a second.
When she started to walk away she heard him exclaim, "Sensei, I think I've got it!"
She turned and looked and sure enough the small indentation was moist. Granted it wasn't full of water, but it was damper then it was before. She smiled and patted his shoulder.
As they were celebrating over this small success, Mendari shifted her weight and threw a kunai through the air. It was quickly deflected and soon they were surrounded by three shinobi from the Mist Village.
"Kenji, time for some real training apparently!" She said pulling out another kunai.
Kenji had already pulled out his weapon and was twirling it in his hand. He hadn't gotten far enough to make water yet so he was going to have to rely on Taijutsu for these guys. Luckily he had enough skill in that department. The first one did a couple of hand signs and soon a clone was next to him. Kenji turned his eyes towards the guy and they locked eyes. Soon the guy was looking all over for Kenji. Mendari was fighting off the other two, soon she realized that these were Chunin. That meant that Kenji was fighting the Jonin, all on his own. She recognized him too.
"Kenji, get out of here! That is Tai Suki, he is in my bingo book, he is a master of Taijutsu he is going to kill you." She yelled out for Kenji to hear.
"Clever trick boy, I only knew one man that knew that jutsu. Too bad I had to kill him, he was a great sensei." Tai said laughing, "Release!"
Kenji suddenly reappeared and was looking frantic. He had to do something, he racked his brain, thinking on a strategy. Deception was a shinobi's greatest tool, maybe if I could find out what they wanted I could lead them into a trap. He thought to himself as he looked up to the man in front of him.
"What do you even want? Maybe I can help?" Kenji said feigning a smile.
"Kenji what are you doing? They are the enemy you can't help them." Mendari said, honestly concerned that he was betraying Konoha.
"Nice try kid, let me guess, you help me while your sensei makes a trap further ahead, catching us by surprise?" Tai laughed, "Foolish boy, I'm a Jonin of Mist Village, I won't be fooled so easily."
"No seriously, my clan name is Waninoumi, that's from the Mist Village, I was sent here as a spy to infiltrate the Leaf Village. You can trust me." He turned his head slightly to Mendari and winked.
He is trying to deceive the enemy, this boy really is Chunin material. He's going to lead them into a trap, using real information about himself to lure them in to a false sense of security. She thought to herself, while still fighting the other two.
"I know that clan, boy. Fine lead us into Leaf Village safely, maybe then we will believe you." He said motioning for the other two to stop fighting Mendari.
"Okay first things first. We will have to disguise you as civilians. The gate guards are specialized in seeing through transformation Jutsu's. So give me your weapons and armor." Kenji said, looking serious.
"Fine boy, but we are going to keep a kunai hidden away so that we aren't completely unarmed." Tai said, storing a kunai in his boot as he took off his armor.
As he directed the others to do the same, Mendari lunged at Kenji, all part of the plan to make him look like he was honestly betraying Konoha. He pivoted on his feet and placed a firm thump on the back of her neck, which "knocked her out". He walked them toward the main road and walked down a ways. Mendari figured it was a good time to get up and get ahead of them. She took to the trees and soon she saw them on the road. She past ahead of them and got to a good area at the bottom of a hill. There she laid a paper bomb trap, she just hoped that Kenji would notice it.
Kenji, with his keen sense of smell, noticed when she passed him. He smiled and turned to the Mist Shinobi. He informed them that it was going to be another day of travel before they got to the Village and that they might as well rest here for the night. Tai told them to keep going and they progressed on. He was hoping that Mendari could get the traps placed in time. As he was thinking he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Ok this is far enough. You go on ahead and make sure that it's safe." Tai said pointing to one of the others.
Mendari saw that he was making his way to the trap area. She sighed in fear when she saw them stop and only one continued on. She rushed back to near Kenji so she could react the moment the bombs went off. Soon she was right in line with Kenji, Tai, and the other Chunin.
Soon the bombs went off, the moment they did Tai pulled his kunai to attack Kenji. As he lunged at Kenji, Mendari lunged at him. Which left Kenji with the other Chunin, which were better odds in Kenji's mind. They fought for several minutes before Tai raised a smoke bomb and tossed it to the ground. The smoke billowed out and Kenji and Mendari were blinded.
When the smoke cleared, the Mist Shinobi were gone. They walked down to the trap site. Even that body was gone, if there even was a body. They decided it was best if they kept on training. They went back to their training site and went back to focusing on training.
Mendari stayed on high alert the entire time, while Kenji practiced forming water. Soon night fell and Mendari stood to check on his progress. Still no better, which was unfortunate, but expected. Kenji was obviously getting frustrated, but he wanted to keep at it. She told him to get some sleep while she stayed on guard. He nodded and climbed into his sleeping bag, soon drifting off to sleep.
She watched him sleep a while. She felt bad for him, he felt nothing but pain most of his life. Even now, he has a really close friend and she'll be leaving as soon as the Chunin exams are over. Every time he is given something it is taken away. If she could tell him the truth, maybe he could have some peace in his life, but she was ordered by the Hokage no to tell him.
The next morning and for the weeks that followed, Kenji was making steady progress. Two weeks after they started he was able to fill an area about the size of a small bath tub. Three weeks he would have been able to flood a large apartment. She decided it was time to come back to the village and take the last week to rest up and recuperate after the training.
When they got back to the village everything was pretty much the same as it always was. They smiled at the gate guards and waved. Kenji followed after Mendari as she headed up to the Hokage's office. She told him to wait outside as she debriefed him about the attack from Tai. He sat outside the door listening in.
"Lord Hokage, I'd like to report that Tai Suki is in the area. He attacked my pupil and me while we were training. Kenji was instrumental in driving him off however, I think that he'll show up again soon, he has this big thing about doing missions on certain phases of the moon. Meaning he'll make his move during or right after the final examination of the Chunin Exam. His specialty is assassination and I think he will be coming for you." She said, hearing Kenji lean against the door.
"Thank you Mendari for bringing this to my attention. You should have told me as soon as it happened though, you have been gone for almost a month already. However, I understand that you were training your pupil and needed to stay out there to finish the training. So how did he do, learning the second's jutsu I mean? Did he do well?" The Hokage asked wrapping everything up.
"He is remarkable, Lord Hokage. I am quite proud of him I am sure that he will do wonderful things for the village." She said, she knew full well that he was listening in. She knew that the Hokage knew too.
"Come in Kenji, I'd like to talk to you a moment." The Hokage called out.
Kenji opened the door and bowed as he came in. He stood next to Mendari and had a look of confusion. I was learning the Second Hokage's Jutsu? He thought the entire time. He turned his attention to the Hokage and was real attentive, hoping that he hadn't done something wrong.
"Kenji, your sensei has been telling me some great things about your improvement. Keep up the good work, you'll do great things." The Hokage sent him out of the room.
"Kenji, go home get some rest, be at the Chunin exam area at the end of the week understood?" Mendari stated.
"Yes Sensei!" He yelled as he ran on home.
The Hokage pulled something from his desk and handed it to Mendari. "This is the scroll you confiscated from Tsuki Waninoumi, his mother as you are well aware. In it contains his families secret Jutsu's she had written down. Regardless of the outcome of the exam, I think it's time you gave it to him. He has chosen the Village over betraying it, it's time." As he said this Tai Suki came in along with the other two, which they quickly changed into Kento, Kurenai, and Amakeru. "He passed the test and should be rewarded."
"I still believe the only reason he didn't actually betray the village is that Mendari was there. I believe that further testing is required." Amakeru stated.
"He has been tested enough. Have I made myself clear Amakeru?" The Hokage said with a glare.
"Yes Lord Hokage." He said bowing.
"Good, you all are dismissed." He said, to which they immediately left.