"They couldn't have made it easy on me," Sakumo thought to himself as he rain from the school. "What a pain. Ok, new plan: First, I lose my chasers. Second, I run back to the academy as fast as possible. Third, I ace the test and become a shinobi. I'll lose them in Onoda Library."
With a destination now in mind, Sakumo took off towards the library like a bat out of hell. Sakumo darted between buildings, over fences, and past a group of young kids, on their way to school, before getting on Konoha's second main road, without once looking back. He took Konohas second main road west until he reached the library. He burst through the doors of the massive, three story building and immediately collided into a woman carrying about a dozen books. Books spilled everywhere, in front of the front desk, as they both fell to the ground. Sakumo was about to apologize when he looked back through the front doors and saw his pursuers. He scrambled back to his feet and ran towards the stairs at the back wall of the building, with an angry woman throwing obscene words at his back from the floor.
"Only three?" he muttered to himself in surprise. "Where are the other two?"
Sakumo watched the front door from the second floor, which was a balcony that overlooked the front half of the first floor. He saw Ukita, Roshi, and Toshinori burst through the doors, same as him, and knock over the same woman, just as she was picking up her last fallen book. The three teenagers recovered themselves fast. Roshi was the first to spot him.
"He's up there! On the second floor!" Roshi exclaimed, pointing at Sakumo's retreating back. " Toshi, go to the third floor, he may have gone up another flight of stairs. Ukita, stay here by-"
"Screw that!" Ukita said as he dashed towards the stairs. "That brat's mine!"
"Wait!" Roshi called after him.
"It doesn't matter." Toshinori said as he ran after Ukita to check the third floor.
"Ugh, whatever. Guess I'll guard the exit then."
Meanwhile, Sakumo was on the third floor and used the transformation technique to disguise himself as an old man. "Ok, I think I get what's going on," he thought to himself as he picked up a random book from a shelf and brought it back to a study table. "Ikkaku and Shouta are waiting back at the academy in case I lose these three. If I just sneak by, these three will assume I'm going back to the academy. They'll hurry back there and regroup with Shouta and Ikkaku, who are guarding the entrance." He glanced at the clock on the wall, 0545. "The final exam starts at 6:30. I have to make sure these three stay here, hurry back, and get passed the other two before then." Looking over his book, he watched Toshinori stide in through the stair doors. "They probably have one person at the entrance and the other two searching the second and third floors each. I have to make sure they don't meet back up." As Sakumo watched Toshinori scan the room, his eyes widened for a moment before his face adorned a subdued, devious smirk.
Toshinori searched the top floor with his eyes from the stair doors. He had been on this floor numerous times to study, himself, so he knew this floor consisted mostly of tables and chairs, with the only book shelves up against the walls. Besides maybe under the tables, there was nowhere for that kid to hide. There was maybe twenty people at the tables studying. "He's probably disguised as one of them." He approached the person closest the him. "Have you seen a kid run through here recently?" Toshinori asked the man, taking his attention away form his book. "He's that kid, by the way."
The man cringed slightly. "He's here? I wasn't really paying attention, sorry," the man answered as he got up to leave.
Toshinori grabbed the man by the shoulder. "Sorry, but-"ROOOAAARR!
A large tiger on the far end of the room let out another mighty roar, before locking it's eyes with toshinori's."What the hell? There's no way he was able to summon an actual tiger. I know that's just the transformation technique. you aren't actually a tiger, and you don't scare me." Toshinori thought to himself as the occupants of the room rushed passed him. they clearly thought an actual tiger somehow snuck up to the third floor. He pulled out his throwing knife as the tiger rushed at him. He threw it as hard as he could at the beast. The knife would have lodged itself right between the big cat's eyes if it hadn't gone through it like it was just an illusion. The image of the tiger dissolved. and everything went dark for Toshinori.
Sakumo stood over Toshinori's unconscious body with a particularly thick book in his hands. "One down, two to go," he said to himself. He looked down at his fallen enemy. "Didn't think that a clone could use the transformation technique, did you? Good thing I didn't need the illusion to last long. It takes a surprising amount of chakra to summon the image of something that not me and have it move. Tricky stuff." Sakumo walked to the center of the room, grabbed a chair, and sat in it, facing the stair doors. "Now for the next one."
It didn't take long for Ukita to rush through the doors at the top of the stairs. The first thing he saw was Toshinori on the ground. The second thing he saw was that smug kid lounging in a chair looking at him. "There you are. Not very good at hiding, are you?" he asked, giving little thought to his comrade.
"You still took your sweet time figuring out where I was." Sakumo retorted, shrugging. "Then again, you're nothing more than some stupid brute. Can't really expect much."
In a blind rage, Ukita rushed at Sakumo, who rushed toward Ukita with the chair in hand. Sakumo threw the chair at Ukita and weaved the hand signs for the clone technique. When Ukita swatted aside the thrown chair, he saw that there were now three Sakumos. They were right in front of him when he heard the footsteps of the one on his right. He lunged at the kid to grab him, but Sakumo was able to slip by. Ukita chased after him through the doors, down the stairs, and out the second story stair doors. Ukita was hot on his tail as he weaved through the book shelves. Ukita saw him turn a corner and heard him tumble to the ground. "Gotcha, you little brat," Ukita laughed to himself as he rounded the corner and saw that Sakumo had hit his head on the railing and balancing himself on the railing to get up, clearly dazed. fueled by his anger and ego, Ukita sprinted to and dove at Sakumo, intending to take him over the balcony. Unfortunately for Ukita, he passed through a clone instead, realizing too late that it was a trap. Ukita fell and landed flat on his back, knocking the wind out of him. The last thing he saw was Sakumo leaping from the balcony and delivering a devastating punch to the face as he landed on him.
Roshi saw the altercation and rushed at Sakumo. Sakumo was catching his breathe as Roshi tackled him to the ground. His small frame allowed him to escape and get to his feet, but Roshi kept the pressure on. He threw a flurry of punches and kicks at Sakumo, pushing him back, until he grabbed a chair a swung it at Roshi. Roshi dodged back and eyed Sakumo for openings as he tried to catch his breathe, holding the chair in between them, in a defensive manner.
"Come on huff, can't you let me go?" Sakumo asked between breathes, giving a weary smile. "Gotta buy some time," he thought.
"After what you did to my friends? Not a chance."
"Are you serious? After what I did to your friends? You're kidding me. You all came after me. I was defending myself. What's your problem with me anyway? What Ikkaku said might be true for him, but it isn't for the rest of you. There's something you all aren't telling me. What is it?" Sakumo hadn't intended the conversation to go this way, but his frustration and confusion welled up from inside him, out of nowhere. "And it's not just your possy either. almost every looks at me like I'm some mangy dog. What's with that?"
Roshi, tired of waiting for an opening, lunged at Sakumo. Startled Sakumo jumped back and tripped onto his back. Sakumo put the chair in bertween them and used it and Roshi's momentum to throw him over Sakumo, into a table. Roshi his his herad on the table's edge, and Sakumo used the opportunity to break the chair over Roshi's head, knocking him out. Sakumo let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Roshi wasn't getting up.
"What the hell are you doing!" a man shouted at Sakumo, as he ran up to him. "what the hell is wrong with you?'
Sakumo ignored the librarian and searched for a clock on the wall. 6:00. With little time to spare, Sakumo rushed out of the library, the librarian yelling at him about consequences.
Author's note: Hello. It's been a while, but I think I'm back. At least for a little while. haven't really thought about uploading anything for a long time. Lately I've had an itch to write, so here I am. Enjoy the new chapter. let me know what you think. Thank you very much for the read. More chapters to come.