Sealing Salientia - Chapter 39: Exams - Author: PenSmoke

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor make any profit from writing this.

Previously on Sealing Salientia: He smiled and waved at the two women before opening and closing his door. While he wasn't intent on going to sleep just yet, he figured there was no better time to start on his various projects than the present.

Konoha
Monday, October 26th, Year 71

As sunlight streamed in through the small window in one of the Senju clan's guest bedrooms, it struck a tuft of brilliant white-hair, sending the rays of early morning energy scattering. The beams broke apart and lit up the walls, creating a cascade of colors to appear. The red and green hues of his few outfits mixed with the yellow and orange of early morning sunlight, the cerulean blue of the sky, and the darker greens and browns of the vegetation that lined the area.

Naruto opened his eyes, and popped up out of bed. All through the past week and a half, ever since he had started sleeping in this house, he felt rejuvenated. Tsunade had said something about the life energy of the Senju trees outside having something to do with it, but it really didn't matter to him where it came from. Each morning, he got ready for the day quickly, as there was always something new to learn.

Weekday mornings, he would dress hurriedly, grabbing something to eat and running out the door. A few mornings, he begged Jiraiya for enough coins to go get early morning ramen at Ichiraku's. To which the older man usually acquiesced. These early mornings were spent talking with Teuchi, learning about the man's past and getting some stories of his biological father to boot. After eating, he would head off to class.

However, this morning was one time when he didn't bother asking the gallant toad sage for coins, as he saw Tsunade hovering nearby in the kitchen. He had attempted to ask for Ichiraku breakfast money in front of her once before, and she had had none of it. The blonde insisted that ramen was not a healthy morning choice, and made everyone breakfast, all while mumbling something about how kids were too much like their parents sometimes. To be fair, the breakfast that Tsunade had cooked was still much better than the bug-filled meals of the toad plane. It was just that Ichiraku was so much better.

He greeted the medic-nin, to which she responded in kind. She offered a portion of the meal that she was preparing for the day, and he took it and ate it quickly, but politely. Another quickly learned lesson was not to make a huge mess while eating. Table manners were to be respected in this household, and the last living Senju made sure of it.

After finishing his morning meal, he bade the awake residents of the house a good morning, ignoring the snores that emanated from Jiraiya's room across the way. He walked out the door to find a chilly winter day greeting him. The cool air blew over his skin, raising a cadre of goosebumps across his neck and arms. As the air sucked away the energy from his skin, he quickly decided that it was a perfect time to practice some of the things he had been working on.

As he started turning his physical concentration towards what he wanted to practice, he left his thoughts drift for a few moments. He had made fast friends with several of the students at the Academy, Sakura, Shino, Kiba, Shikamaru. He had at least a familiarity with several of the others, and could greet most of the class by name. The one he interacted with the most though, was clearly Sasuke. Each day was filled with small contests where the two boys would exchange a glance and then attempt to thoroughly destroy the other at whatever it was they were doing. Whether it was demonstrations of skill, speed, endurance or knowledge, the two kept pushing each other to their absolute limits.

He wasn't sure yet if he liked Sasuke as a genuine friend, or hated the arrogant prick's guts. He was so frustrating! Whenever Sasuke won their little competitions, which was far more often than he would have liked, the boy always found a way to rub it in. A small insult here, a barbed word there, a thinly-veiled comment now and then, there was always some way that was found. Of course, he had to retaliate during his victories, which only made the overall situation worse, each now pushing each other on how much they could annoy the other.

As annoying as the boy was though, there was no denying the skill that he possessed. Or the work ethic. It seemed that as much as Naruto trained or learned, the raven-haired classmate of his was always doing just as much, if not more. Even on the weekends, when the toad-scented child spent time meditating and learning from Kurama, Sasuke got training directly from his chunin brother and the Hokage himself. While Jiraiya had told him not to worry, it felt like he simply would never catch the boy.

Finishing his reminiscence, he started to shiver in the chilly winter morning air. While most people would just walk back inside and grab a jacket, he wanted to try something a little more creative. Kurama had been going on and on about how the 'different types' of chakra that the Academy taught was a load of bullshit, and that it was all just energy manipulation. Any one element was just as easy to create and control as anything else, and that was all about everything interacted that made it work.

He started with his bug removal technique that he had practiced so many times. Using his chakra to push a thin layer of the nearly invisible energy over his skin, he could instantly feel the biting chill of the breeze dissipate. Jiraiya had said that a similar technique was often used by ninja on missions in hostile environments. The immediate need to shiver that walking outdoors had caused slowly faded, as the warmth was no longer being rapidly sucked from his body.

While this was helpful, the air itself was still cold on its own, even without the additional heat loss from the wind. Trapping cold air against his skin only stopped the breeze, but he was still quite chilly. He started to then incorporate the next bit of his plan. Pushing more and more energy into it, he attempted to keep in mind how the energy from a campfire felt. The radiative warmth spreading out from the fire, flicks of flame causing temporary heat bursts, the way the heat felt as it seeped into the deepest skin tissue. He kept this mental picture as he added the new energy into the system, foregoing hand signs in the place of just taking the time and effort to figure out how the chakra was being moved around.

This was another thing he had learned, this time from Kurama, Miss Mikoto and Jiraiya. Hand signs were a shortcut, not necessary. They helped to quickly and efficiently move the chakra around the body, but were by no means essential in order to accomplish any given task. Most ninja used them because speed was a huge factor in a battle, and getting a technique off a few seconds faster was essential. However, this had the drawback of many ninjas relying only on handsigns to perform any chakric techniques even outside of battle, something that the Academy said that they were trying to reform.

An additional benefit was that in learning how to mold the chakra the slow way, he was learning much more about how the energy moved through his system, and how it flowed out through each pore in his body. While he concentrated on keeping the feeling on warmth saturating his body, he could feel the chakra in his coils and veins warming up under his skin, eventually seeping out onto the exterior. As he warmed himself up, the energy faintly crackled around him, creating eddies of wind moving in convection currents away. The heat dissipation slightly distorted the air around him, giving off a shimmering, mirage-like effect. He noted that as something for potentially using later as a possible camouflage idea.

Frowning as he kept his concentration up on the technique to remain warm, he plodded through the early morning streets of Konoha. Most markets and shops had yet to open for the day, with only a few scattered open doors beckoning people to enter them. The districts between the clan compound and the Academy were only just beginning to come alive with people at this hour, so there was minimal traffic on the roads. He had plenty of time to get to the Academy at this rate, and so he did so while keeping his technique on the entire travel to his destination.

Upon arriving at his desired location, he looked around to find himself amongst the first to arrive. Waving at a couple of other students that he didn't know by name, he walked over to a soft patch of grass and sat down. Using the time before school to meditate, he went over the material he had learned recently within his mental library.

According to Miss Mikoto, there was to be a test today on overall ninja skills, abilities and knowledge. It was amongst the many new procedures designed to weed out the people who wouldn't cut it being a ninja. The Uchiha matriarch has described it as 'preventing senseless deaths', as every year in the past, there had been casualties of low-level ninja on their first solo missions. These were usually ninja who had just barely gotten through the Academy, and were regarded as those who were struggling.

The test today was to help remove those people from the program. If you failed, you were removed from the program for that year, able to join back only with written permission from at least a chunin-rank ninja who would be tutoring you in addition to normal studies. You could only fail once and still join back; two failures would lead to expulsion from the Academy. Miss Mikoto talked about how there were far fewer ninja of genin rank recently, but the quality of ninja had increased greatly. There had not been a single fatal casualty from a genin in two years. Naruto remembered having a conversation with Jiraiya on a similar topic.

This was apparently to be the second test this year, though he had not been around for the first one. While he was slightly nervous, he knew that he was easily capable in skills and abilities. He hoped that any lack of knowledge on his part would be eclipsed by his proficiencies in other areas. He continued meditating in his mental library, going through scrolls and notes that he had set aside for later, reviewing what he could. All the while attempting to keep enough focus on his warmth technique that it would not falter.

A short while later, he was rudely interrupted from his trance-like state by a rough poke on the shoulder, as well as a verbal barb tossed his way.

"Wake up, sleepyhead. Just because Shikamaru can practically sleep through everything doesn't mean that you get to as well."

Mentally grumbling, Naruto instantly recognized the voice of his partially annoying rival, partially good-natured friend. Opening his eyes, he confirmed the identity of the speaker. He also noted a few dozen other students of various ages scattered across the outdoor area. It seemed that it was getting close to the start of the school day. Sure enough, a few seconds later, as he was starting to extricate himself from his meditative pose, the ding of the bell sounded, signaling the beginning of the day.

"I'll meet you inside. Make sure you clean the cobwebs out of your ears." Sasuke's voice was full of mirth.

A few feet away, Kiba laughed as well, and apparently decided to join in at Naruto's expense. "Yeah, just make sure you don't hurt yourself getting up, old man!" Akamaru yipped from the fur-lined hood on the boys back before both he and Sasuke walked up the stairs and inside.

Throttling the urge to run in after them and attempt to beat them to a pulp, he got up slowly. Upon reaching his feet, he strode carefully, but confidently, into the Academy. He cancelled his warmth technique after entering, pleased that he had managed to keep it going the entire time. His paces ate up the path down the hall and into the classroom. Most seats were already full, but he could see Sakura sitting in the back row with a seat between her and Shikamaru. Upon noticing him enter, she began waving at him, beckoning him to come up.

He hopped up the steps to the top row as the Uchiha teacher wheeled through the pivoting doors. Taking his seat, he whispered a hushed "Thanks for saving the seat."

Sakura responded non-verbally with a nod of the head and a slight flushing of the cheeks. Naruto then turned to Shikamaru. Predictably the boy had his head down on the desk. Deciding to re-use the phrase that was just tossed at him moments ago, he poked Shikamaru in the shoulder. "Wake up, sleepyhead."

A grumble was heard, and then one eye cracked open. An exasperated sigh was then released upon Shikamaru realizing that Naruto had arrived.

"What do you want?" the irritated voice was just above a whisper.

"Just wanted to say good morning and good luck on the test today." Naruto beamed at the perennially sleepy pineapple-head, before turning to Sakura. "Good luck to you as well, Sakura."

While the black-haired child just grunted and turned away again, the pinkette flushed a little more and responded with a "Thanks! You too, Naruto. Good luck."

Naruto shot back a thumbs-up, in a similar manner to the pose he had seen Jiraiya pull countless times. He decided that conversation further was not going to happen as the voice of his teacher rang out loud and clear across the classroom.

"Good morning class. I hope you all studied well for your examination today. The first-year students will begin with the knowledge portion of the test, then proceed to the training rings and outdoors for the physical skills and abilities, respectively." She wheeled along the front row of students, handing out tests.

"Each of you will receive a unique test, no two tests have the same questions. This way there is no cheating of using any ninja technique to copy other students' answers. Please fill out as many questions as you can. If you cannot finish all of the question, do not worry."

The tests reached the back row, Sakura taking one and passing it to Naruto. The snow-haired child plucked a small chunk of stapled papers from the pack and set the rest on Shikamaru's head with a laugh. Sakura's giggle followed a moment later, which was subsequently followed by yet another exasperated sigh from Shikamaru. The rustle of papers as they slid from his head and were passed on was highly amusing to Naruto.

The smile faded from his face as he started to look over the test, as Mikoto had just given them the order to do so.

1: Calculate the trajectory needed to launch a kunai with an explosive tag tied on at the handle through an opening in a wall 10 meters high and 30 meters away, if the explosive tag is set for a 7 second delay. Determine the shortest timer that an explosive tag can be set for and still reach the target.

2: Determine the minimum speed needed to be maintained in order to reach the daimyo's castle in the Fire Capital if assigned a mission there that begins in 6 days, assuming pattern Delta patrol, factoring in sleep and shift watches.

3: You are pursuing an enemy through a heavy fog, and are unable to see them. You know that you can match their speed exactly, but you do not know the direction of travel that they are fleeing in, only that they seemed to be taking off in a straight line. What search pattern can you use to locate the enemy?

4: (Consult table 1) Which of the ingredients listed in the chart would be used for a paralytic poison? Which would be used for a hallucinogenic poison? Which would be used for a lethal poison? Name the active ingredients in each, and how they mix together to combine the desired effects.

5: (Consult diagram 1) Which spots within the building should you place explosive tags with a blast radius of 2 meters to guarantee demolition? What is the minimum number of tags needed to be used? At what number would excess explosives be wasted and cause no further damage?

The test went on and on. Flipping through the pages, he counted at least a hundred different questions. He stared at the test dumbfounded for a moment before looking at the rest of his class. They all seemed to be hard at work, as the scribbling noises that were sounding through the air were indication. Without another moment wasted to hesitation, he dove at the first problem, trying to figure it out as best as he could.

Three hours later, his brain feeling like a pile of mush, Miss Mikoto whistled loudly and instructed them to ensure their name was on the test, and then to all pass their papers back down to the front where she would collect them.

Naruto complied with the instructions, fervently hoping that he had done enough. Eventually, he had found a few questions that he felt confident enough to answer, though they were few and far between. While he had written at least something for a couple dozen, he was doubtful that he even got more than ten of them totally correct.

He breathed out, wiped a forearm across his forehead and attempted to unwind from the highly stressful experience. He turned to his side where Sakura looked nervous as well. As they were told they had a break for lunch and then would meet in the training halls downstairs in an hour, the class started to shuffle around and gather their belongings.

Naruto could see looks of panic and despair across the classroom. Apparently, a lot of people were distraught at how the test had gone. Turning to Sakura, he quietly asked, "So, how did you do?"

She turned to him, blinked and then looked nervously away. "Uh… I only answered about twenty of them or so."

"Really? I only got about ten correct, I think."

Shikamaru fell into step behind them. "Yeah, that's not surprising. I answered about thirty before I didn't bother to do any more."

"Why isn't that surprising?" Sakura asked curiously.

As they exited the door to the classroom, Shikamaru stepped the opposite direction of where the rest of the students were heading. Sakura, apparently intent on getting an answer followed along. Naruto was curious as well, and fell into step behind Sakura.

After walking several steps down the hallway and glancing about to make sure nobody else was obviously eavesdropping, Shikamaru spoke again, quieter this time. "Think about it. Miss Mikoto didn't even teach half of the subjects in that test. She even said to not worry if we didn't answer all the questions. That doesn't make sense. Unless it's not a test to see how well you are doing, but where any specialties or aptitudes you have are. I'd wager that they only care if you answer something, but don't care what. Some of the questions were geared towards a front-liner, someone who can carry the heavy combat side. Some were more for those who knew more about the support side. Others were phrased to lead towards different answers depending on how you thought about them, and those answers help them put you in the correct spot."

Shikamaru continued to surprise Naruto. It seemed that the boy thought everything to absolute overkill and was dangerously perceptive. As he spoke, Naruto had to agree with his points. It didn't make sense to have a student that only joined partway through the year be expected to know the same things as students who had been in class all year long. And this especially made sense if Shikamaru was right and Miss Mikoto had never taught any of them about certain topics.

The Nara clan heir kept speaking in hushed tones. "A ninja in the field does need to know these things, but only at a practical level. Knowing how to write out the formulas is useless in a battle. Helpful for planning, but not much else. So, it makes sense that they instead use a knowledge test to filter potential ninja into an area where they can be better used, rather than remove them from the program based on that. I just answered those that I felt would be essential for a strategic planning position, like what my father does. The rest I didn't bother with."

At the end of his small speech, Naruto and Sakura both nodded and were taken aback by the strategy. Purposely ignoring questions on a test that they were told was deciding their future was risky. But, if he was correct, it wasn't really risky at all.

His thoughts on the matter spoken, Shikamaru turned back into the quiet boy they were familiar with. He stalked off down the corridor without another word, only stopping once to glance back. As he looked back and saw that his companions were still standing where he had left him, he let loose an exasperated sigh, as becoming of his normal attitude. "Come on. Let's eat."

Naruto shook free of his encompassing thoughts at the thought of food. According to Miss Mikoto, they had an hour for lunch. Ichiraku was a couple minutes away if he ran at top speed, easily enough time to go and grab some delicious ramen. He reached towards his pockets to check for money. Pulling out his small toad wallet, his smile faltered. Opening it up gave a small poof of dust, with two dirty coins laying in the bottom. Nowhere near enough to pay for ramen. And he had left without asking Jiraiya for any lunch money either.

His stomach growled, and he grumbled lightly in resignation. He would have to either beg someone for enough money to go and eat, or run as fast as he could back to the Senju compound, which would take up nearly all of his lunchtime. He supposed that he could also chance it and beg Teuchi for a bowl now with promise of payment later.

Turning to run back home, he had only taken two steps when a voice called out to him. "Naruto? Where are you going?" The pinkette next to him must have spotted his attempt to leave their group.

"Oh! Uh…" Naruto fumbled for words, not really sure what to say. Eventually, he settled on the truth. "I don't have any lunch or money to get some. I was going to run home."

Cheeks turning shades to try and match the hair, Sakura smiled at him and held up a small metal box with clasps on it. "You could share with me if you wanted? My mom always packs more than enough."

Naruto frowned at first. "You sure? I don't want to leave you to be hungry."

Sakura responded in kind. "Yes, I'm sure. I don't want you to be hungry either."

The snow-haired child smiled at that. Yes, he was certainly happy with his new-found friends. He turned back to the original direction, following Sakura and Shikamaru down the hallway towards the common room, where many students ate their lunches.

As he entered the room, it was abuzz with conversation, children laughing and gossiping and eating. He spied the faces of his classmates amongst the strangers from the years above him. Shikamaru had already walked towards the least crowded spot, sitting down as far away from any single person as he could find room for. Sakura walked over and sat down next to him, Naruto following behind. As it happened, the nearest person was Sasuke, who sat diagonally across from him a few feet away.

Sakura opened up her bento box and the scents that wafted out through the air and into his nose were delicious. A savory blend of meats and rice, some sweet hints from fruit, and a bitter tang from something that reminded him of the swamp and the water. Sakura divided the different portions in half and bade him to dig in.

Naruto practically inhaled the delicious food, and while it wasn't quite as filling as Ichiraku, it was still quite enjoyable. After devouring the meal, he quickly thanked Sakura. "That was delicious, thank you for sharing. Did your mom make that?"

The girl nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, she packs me lunch every day, as well as making one for herself and my dad."

"That's cool. Pops doesn't really cook that much. He will every once in a rare while, but not often."

Naruto looked around, noting that Shikamaru had practically fallen asleep in the middle of the crowded dining room. Sakura took her time to finish, during which they made idle chit-chat about the test and what questions they knew or didn't know. Sakura seemed to have been able to answer the equations and mathematics of things better than he had, whereas Naruto was still holding out hope for the practical demonstrations being his best part.

After the lunch crowd started to clear up, Sakura and Naruto both stood up and started to walk out, white and pink hair both poking Shikamaru as they walked by, hard enough to ensure that he was actually awake and would get back to the training areas in time.

Upon entering the training area, Naruto could immediately see that it was set up much differently than before. Where there had previously been lots of targets set up for target practice, now there were dozens of dummies, each with a number written on them. There were also a few other ninja stationed around the area. He could see Mikoto in the middle of the room, along with a couple of the other sensei he had seen leading other classes, though he didn't know their names.

Mikoto was looking around, and seemed to be counting heads to make sure everyone was there. The green and red clad boy pulled along Sakura quickly, making sure that their teacher saw them. As she glanced by them and acknowledged their presence, he could see the Nara clan heir slump through the doorway. As soon as their teacher noticed him, she exclaimed, "And that makes everyone. Please make haste children and gather up. I am going to go over what will happen here, and I would prefer to only have to do so once."

Once all the kids present were gathered within hearing range and quiet, the female Uchiha continued. "This is the physical skills portion of the exam. As this is a physical skills examination, there will be no ninjutsu allowed. The only chakra usage permitted is to enhance muscle abilities. No other techniques will be allowed, including any bloodline limits."

At the last comment, Naruto noticed Sasuke's face twitch downward in a frown, while he smiled. The jerk couldn't use his Sharingan to outdo him this time.

Mikoto pressed on. "The rules are as follows: Your mission objective is to eliminate the given targets without being captured. You must physically complete an attack against a dummy for it to be counted. No ninjutsu techniques will be allowed. Be warned, there will be enemy ninja trying to stop and capture you. Your pursuers will start chasing you as soon as you leave the circle."

She gestured to the ninja that were scattered across the room, a couple of whom waved at the gathering of kids, with an evil smile on their face. "You are not to attack the other ninja, only accomplish your mission of taking down your own targets. They are not allowed to block your attacks against the targets, but only to capture you. Your time will begin on my signal and end as you return to the circle. If you are captured and unable to return to the circle, the mission will be judged as a failure. You will be scored on how many dummies you successfully attack while able to return safely. As you can see, the targets are each worth a certain number of points. The combined point values of the dummies you have attacked successfully will be your score."

Mikoto finished up with the final statement of, "All students will wait outside until they are called in order not to give information away to those yet to take the test."

Naruto looked around, and took a more careful observation of the arena. As this was going to be a physical-skills only test, he would not be able to use any of his sealing techniques. That meant he only had strategy, endurance and speed to work with. Endurance was easily his strongest category, but as this was more about who could finish the fastest, and not last the longest, that meant that endurance was not really the skillset needed.

There were 18 dummies that he could see, each with a number one through ten written on them, with the numbers growing larger as the distance from the original circle increased. He tried to quickly memorize the pattern they were in, and which numbers were on which. He started working on a strategy that could carry him from attack to attack without much time wasted, when he heard Mikoto call out, "Ami, please come up to the starting line."

The voice from the purple haired girl replied with "Why me? Why do I have to go first?"

The reply was a simple "Alphabetical one test, reverse-alphabetical on the next." Mikoto did not elaborate any further, but this gave Naruto some time to plan. There were at least 9 other students ahead of him in name in his class alone, this would give him plenty of time to watch and plan. The girl was grumbling as she took her place in the starting area.

Naruto, along with the rest of the students were ushered out while Ami stood pouting in the starting circle. As the last of the children left the arena and the door closed, he could faintly hear the "Go" shouted from Mikoto to start the exhibition.

Deciding quickly that he wouldn't get any useful information staring at the door at listening, he made his way over to his friends. Shikamaru was sitting in a corner, in his so-called 'thinking pose'. Naruto knew that meant that the genius was coming up with a strategy to accomplish the task with as minimal effort as possible, and not be amongst the fastest to do so. Knowing that attempting to disturb the boy from that would be pointless, he instead just sat down next to him and decided to think of his own strategy.

His first thought was a straight-line approach, attack everything close first, work his way out and sprint back. He started thinking about what he saw, and tried to get a line that would carry him through as many targets as possible, as quickly as possible. After thinking for a couple of minutes, and hearing two more names called in the meanwhile, he realized a problem.

The ninja that they were told that they had to flee were not on the opposite side of the room. They were largely around the starting area. This meant that if he left the starting area, they would be in a perfect defensive position to try and block him from getting back in. And if he went out, they didn't have to move far to accomplish their goal.

He realized that there was little way he could get through several higher-level ninja that were actively attempting to stop him from progressing through the arena. Eventually he might get around them, but it would take a lot of time most likely.

The white-haired boy screwed up his face in concentration, thinking of plan after plan, discarding them almost as soon as he thought of them. Every single one ended up in the same problem. To physically attack the dummies, he had to leave the circle, and once he left the circle, it was going to be nigh impossible to get back in.

As the call of "Mibuna, please come to the starting line." Reached his ears, he realized that he was going to likely be the next one called, unless there was a kid from another class whose name fell between the two of theirs. He frantically tried to think of a plan. Judging by the frequency at which the names were called, he had maybe three minutes tops before he was up.

Discarding a thought of just attacking the nearest target and sprinting back in, he realized what was the key to the whole endeavor. A bright smile broke out on his face as his eyes popped open. Leaping to his feet, he noted a startled Shikamaru no longer in his thinking pose twitch away from his sudden motion. He quickly popped open his supplies pouch and unsealed a scroll, releasing the contents within into a hand and stuffing that into a pants pocket. Repeating the process, he had just opened the fourth scroll when the voice returned.

"Naruto, please come to the starting line."

Wearing an absolute shit-eating grin on his face, he gave a quick thumbs-up to his friends on the way in. He saw a dejected girl walking away from the circle, hardly even glancing at him. Apparently Mibuna had not done very well. He would have felt sorry for her, but he was too excited about his own plan.

Reaching the circle, he looked at Mikoto. She looked him in the eyes to verify he was ready and paying attention. She raised her hand, and dropped it suddenly on the command of "Go!"

Naruto had tensed his muscles, awaiting the signal. Kicking up a cloud of dust from under his feet, he dashed three steps towards the edge of the starting circle. Immediately, and just as expected, he could see the shapes of the 'enemy' ninja closing in to work on surrounding the starting area to prevent his return.

He took the moment to put his plan into action, removing his hands from their previous location of being shoved into their pockets. This revealed a large mass of shiny metal objects held within. Taking his fifth step just inside the edge of the circle he used it as a stopping block and shot straight upwards into the air. His hands were up and behind him as he launched, muscles taut and ready to explode into action.

At the top of his arc, he whipped his arms around in front of him. Releasing as many as he could, he chucked the senbon at the targets in a spray of metal. Both hands gave birth to a cloud of silvered slivers, raining down on the straw-stuffed dummies in a hail of deadly spikes. The release of the metal forward was enough to push him back slightly in mid-air, causing his trajectory to now plummet safely back within the circle.

He was pleased to note that two of the ninja approaching from the sides dove back from the attacks, dodging the projectiles. Several needles sunk deep into the burlap covered dummies, dozens more clattering across the floor in a cacophony of metal on stone. He landed a split-second later, feet still within the circle.

Straightening up, he turned to Miss Mikoto and waved, still wearing the largest grin he had ever shown. His words rang out as the clamor of the senbon skittering over the rocky floor died down.

"All done!"

AN: Oh yes, that felt much better. To be honest, the last few chapters were getting difficult to write. I had to set-up some events for later things, but I couldn't figure out how to tie them in very well, and it left me not really happy with how it turned out, and thus shorter chapters that (I felt) didn't flow as well. This chapter was planned out for a while though, and much easier to write. Returning back to normal chapter length is much easier when writing something that is fun.

Constructive criticism is welcomed, and please let me know what you think! I try to respond to all reviews, and I'd love to talk to you!

Lastly, this chapter makes 200k words! (I know that there is enough in author's notes that the story itself isn't, but that's besides the point) Can't believe I actually managed to write that much. Or that people would actually want to read my ramblings for that long. Thank you everyone for reading this far!