In the Forrest of Death
We ran after our sensei's in the Forrest. Raorin ran in front, Yakumo after him, and myself in the rear. I kept my senses open to make sure nothing would sneak upon us. After forty minutes, I saw Raorin start to slow down. Curious, I spoke. "Why are we slowing down?"
Raorin didn't speak. He merely pointed at something. Yakumo moved forward and started to shake.
Moving forward, I saw two large animals fighting. One was a very large spider that was protecting its eggs from a larger tiger-like animal.
Tired of wasting time, I moved my arms forward, the earth and fire following my command. I sent the two elements to the two animals. The fire toward the spider intends to burn the spider and its eggs, and the earth toward the tigerlike animal, in hopes to crush it like an ant. I wrapped the earth around the second animal like a snake would when eating. I closed my fist, the earth relenting to my command crushed the second animal like it was nothing. The fire burned the spider and its eggs to ash.
"Come on, we are wasting time," I commanded.
My teammates nodded numbly. We continued onwards following the faint marks left behind by our senseis.
As we ran the trees blurred into greys, browns, and greens floating past us. The breeze blew leaves across our path as we ran along the tree branches. The occasional chirp of a bird gives off a peaceful vibe to our journey to our sensei.
After another hour or two of tracking our sensei's, we had finally found them. They sat on opposite sides of a small clearing. A small stream separates them. Trees of all kinds surround them. Birds chirping wildly, insects crawling on the ground in the grass next to them. A large rock was next to Yamato-sensei.
I slowly whispered to Yakumo and Raorin. "Sit here and do not do anything. I will handle it. We will have a higher chance of success if we aren't detected."
Raorin and Yakumo nodded. I slowly moved behind them. I commanded the plantlife around Yamato-sensei and Yugao-sensei. I commanded the plants to steal a kunai, a shuriken, and a picture from Yamato. The plantlife delivered the objects to me. I gave Raorin the kunai, the shuriken to Yakumo, and the picture for myself. I motioned for Yakumo to set up a genjutsu as we made our escape.
After a few minutes, Yamato-sensei could tell something was wrong. Yugao-sensei also detected something was different. They stood and searched their belongings. Soon I could feel them behind us on our trail closing fast.
"Their coming," I spoke.
"Already!?" Raorin half yelled.
"Shut up Baka!"Yakumo said.
Placing a hand on their shoulders, I shunsinned us forward into another clearing. Where we hid under a large root system. The clearing was rather grassy. I put to work on commanding sharp poisoned thorns to grow in place of the grass. The trees surrounding the clearing were tall and wide. I commanded the water and earth to plug up the holes of the root system, guarding us against attacks. I commanded the plant life to grow on the earth that plugged the wholes so as to disguise our hiding hole. I commanded the wind to make small holes in the wood for air pockets.
Outside the Root System
Yamato and Yugao stumbled upon a clearing completely covered in thorned plants. In a couple of spots, large animals had stumbled over and died, some were decomposing.
"Yamato, is there another species of carnivorous thorned plantlife in training ground 44?" Yugao asked.
"Not to my knowledge no. Although, do any of our students have control over plant life?" Yamato responded.
"I don't think so. Although I faintly recall Lord Third talking about a child that nature protected long ago. However, I doubt that child is one of our students." Yugao spoke.
They moved on toward the fence to await their student's arrival.
Inside the root system
"They're gone," I spoke.
"How do you know?" Raorin asked.
"I can hear them leaving. Sleep, we will need our energy for a beeline to the fence."
Raorin and Yakumo were going to argue, but they gave up after I glared at them. They slept on one side of our chamber, myself on the other.
Flashback
I stood next to our weapons stache. I was on guard duty today, as no one else volunteered. I was about to go insane from boredom. Fortunately, my squad captain came up to me.
"Reaper. You have a new task. You are to go east fourteen clicks, and aid one of our squads. They are under ambush and need aid. Hurry and save our brethren." He spoke in a frantic tone.
"Yes sir." Was my hasteful response.
Grabbing my weapons quickly, I hurried to my destination. The landscape blurring by me. Mountains turned into hills, then flat land. Fields of grain spread out for miles and miles. I followed my trail and eventually came up to my destination.
Four of our newer initiates were under attack. They were doing their best to defend their trainer.
They faced eight Iwagakure shinobi. I watched for a moment to assess the attacking forces' skills. Disappointed I jumped into the mix of bodies with my Naginata held in my arms.
As I fell to the ground I raised my weapon to hit the ground. A shockwave of dust and rocks spread outward in a full range of 360 degrees. It knocked the initiates back to a defensive position, and pushed the attacking shinobi back, and focused their attention on me.
"Iwa chose the wrong day to f#!&*%# do this." I spoke.
I charged the blade of my weapon with fire and wind chakra. I flooded my body with lightning chakra. I slowly changed my stance and prepared to move quickly. Two Iwa shinobi moved forward to attack me. I dodged their attacks, and moved around them, and attacked the slower third shinobi. Who promptly received a decapitating blow to the neck. I followed the momentum of the swing and dodged a kunai thrown from behind.
I kicked the second shinobi back and struck the first shinobi with the blunt end of my naginata. I jumped over the charging fourth shinobi, and ax kicked the fifth. The fourth proceeded to barrel into the first and second shinobi. I landed and swung my weapon toward the seventh and eighth, where flames shot out the blade empowered by the wind, which incinerated the two shinobi. I sheathed the naginata on my back and continued to fight. I dodged an attack from the sixth. I grabbed my kusarigama and started to swing both ends. I slung the weight at the 1st and stabbed him perfectly through the throat.
I yanked the chain and caught the handle of the weight. I then dodged an onslaught of combined attacks from the second, fourth, fifth, and sixth shinobi. I swung the kusarigama at the second and fourth shinobi. The sickening crunch was deafening as the blad and handle burst through the two shinobis skulls'. I stood and faced the fifth and sixth shinobi.
"You have two options. The first to die. The second, to leave and tell the world of the Shinobi by the name of Reaper. Which do you choose? Life or Death?" I ask in a slow voice.
The two shinobi looked at each other, then at the initiates. The sixth started running, while the fifth stood still. A moment later he drew two kunai.
"So be it," I yelled.
Making a few hand signs I raised my hands to my mouth and exhaled a large ball of flames. It traveled toward the Iwa shinobi, who just stood in a defensive stance. The ball of flames rested just above the shinobi, when suddenly it expanded a meter in all directions, into the shape of a burning column. It engulfed the shinobi in a matter of seconds. The shinobi's screams would forever be engrained in the minds of the initiates.
After determining that the shinobi was dead. I shunsinned back to base, leaving the initiates to get back themselves. Our code of conduct was simple. Strike first. Strike hard. Help your brethren. Never do the hard work for others. Never betray the force.
Flashback end
I woke to find Raorin, and Yakumo staring at me slightly scared.
"What?" I asked.
"W-what was that?" Raorin asked.
"Yeah, was that real?" Yakumo hesitantly asked.
I sighed. "Yes, it was real. A memory of my past. I left the leaf village when I was seven. I trained with a nuke-nin for one year. For the next two years, I trained with seven more nuke-nin before I killed them. Four months in suna under a poisons specialist. Eight months hunting nuke-nin. Then the fifth year I spent in Kumogakures special forces unit called the Kinkaku force. Then I turned traitor to the kinkaku force after that year and killed them all. However, that's in the past. We need to hurry to the fence." I spoke.
Raorin and Yakumo looked in awe, surprise, and fear. But they still gathered their stuff. I commanded the earth to crumble our hideout so we can leave. I placed my hands on Raorin and Yakumo's shoulders and shunsinned out of the clearing.
We then started running full tilt toward the fence. The trees blurred past us. The ground seemed to melt out of existence. The sounds of nature were distorted as we ran.
Soon the metal chainlink fence was visible from our position. I sent out a chakra pulse to check for genjutsu. Finding none, we continued running. We finally got to the fence where we jumped the fence and moved to find our sensei's.
A few moments later, Yamato-sensei and Yugao-sensei were in front of us. Waiting expectedly.
Raorin handed Yamato-sensei his kunai.
"Well done Raorin," Yamato spoke.
Yakumo handed the shuriken to Yugao.
"Well done Yakumo." Yugao spoke.
Finally, It was my turn. I walked to Yamato and handed him the photo. Yamato straightened stiffly with a bright blush on his face.
"Here you go, sensei."
"T-thank you, Shenlo," Yamato spoke slowly. Yugao raised an eyebrow but left it for later.
"Team, You have exceeded our expectations. You have followed our instructions in the letter. If you were worried about failing for not disarming any traps, you didn't need to, as there weren't any traps to begin with. I am happy to say that you passed." Yugao spoke.
Raorin and Yakumo cheered, while I stood there silently.
"Be here tomorrow for training. Within the week, we will have a C-rank mission. Dismissed." Yamato spoke professionally.
I watched as Raorin and Yakumo left. After making sure they were out of hearing distance I spoke.
"Sensei's, may I speak openly with you both?"
They looked at each other briefly and nodded in the affirmative.
"I would like to tell you about my past, and my personal opinion on my teammates. I left the leaf village when I was seven. I trained with a nuke-nin for one year. For the next two years, I trained with seven more nuke-nin before I killed them. Four months in Suna under a poisonous specialist. Eight months hunting nuke-nin. Then the fifth year I spent in Kumogakure's special forces unit called the Kinkaku force. Then I turned traitor to the kinkaku force after that year, and killed them all." Before I could continue Yugao interrupted me.
"Wait, you're the Reaper? You're a legend among us anbu around the world. Your bingo book name is the elemental reaper of death. You've killed almost two thousand people in the five years you've been gone." Yugao spoke excitedly.
"Who were the nuke nin, you trained with for the first three years?" Yamato spoke.
Sighing, I said, "I trained with Itachi Uchiha for the first year. The second and third year I trained with the seven swordsmen of the mist, I took their blades and formed a new blade. Which is my sword on my left hip, named Ryuujin Jakka."
Yamato and Yugao looked surprised at both remarks.
"Very well, continue," Yugao spoke.
"Thank you. Anyway, personally, I do not think Raorin and Yakumo are fit to be shinobi. Yakumo is physically unfit. Now it is not as weak or as slow as another fangirlish kunoichi. However, still she can not run large distances without getting worn out. Her other skills are lacking. Same with Raorin, except his physical abilities are slightly higher. Both Yakumo and Raorin were average students. I stole all three objects, with my abilities with plant life. I disguised us in a root system using earth and water elements. I killed two large animals using fire and earth elements. In my opinion, they barely pass the standard for academy students let alone genin." I spoke with slight annoyance.
"That may be so, but to be fair you are not in charge of this team. Also, what do you mean by element, rather than chakra?" Yamato asked.
"Have you heard of magnet release? The kekkei genkai originated out of Sunagakure. Well, my mother had a similar kekkei Genkai or something related to it, but rather than only attracting sand or gold dust. Mine allows me to command all the elements and plant life at will." I spoke solemnly, reminded by the death of my mother twelve years ago.
"I see. Thank you for your information about your past. Some of your abilities, and your opinion on your squadmates. Be here tomorrow for training." Yugao spoke slowly.
With that, I made my way home to my apartment.