"Alright, I will now announce the team arrangements. I will not repeat myself, so pay attention and stay quiet until I have finished. Hara Sadao, Miyamoto Seki, Takagi Shin, you're team two. Nomura Suki, Sarutobi He-"
"Ishida Hana, Shiba Renji-"
"Team Elev-"
Why is this taking so long.
"Murata Emi, you're team six."
"Fuji-"
Oh my god what if they forgot to put me in a team.
"-eam Eighteen. Morita Sachi-"
"Takeuchi Ena, Mori Kaiya, Ishii Jiro, you're team twelve."
"Oh, thank god." I mumbled under my breath. Ena, Jiro and I all looked to each other.
I got along with them fine, besides at the start of this year when Ena was a dick. He's fine now though. Jiro's a bit rude and brutish but he'll probably grow into a powerhouse.
I hope we make a good team.
Lunch was a brief affair. Ena, Jiro and I shared curt greetings then simply ate our lunches in silence. At 12 o'clock we returned to the classroom, where everyone abandoned their usual seats to be with their new teammates.
"Okay students, your new sensei will soon arrive. As of then, I will no longer be your teacher. I must say I am very proud of you all and I wish you luck."
A round of 'Thank you, Kisho-sensei's filled the classroom. He was a decent teacher and personally I'd had him for three of my six years here. We thanked him and we meant it, despite the rigorous fitness tests and homework.
He gave a final bow and left the room.
The classroom exploded into chatter but was immediately cut off as three jōnin entered.
"Team Six, you're with me." Said a dark-haired man.
"Team Fifteen." Said a woman with purple eyes.
"I am here for Team Eleven! Let's go!" Said Maito Gai.
I felt my jaw fall open and I made a very undignified sound as I watched Konoha's Green Beast pose for the class. I wasn't expecting any canon jōnin today… I had thought about it before, but all it means is whoever gets someone like Gai as their new sensei, won't be passing their test, probably.
I felt a sadness wash over me, seeing Haruto, Katsu and Rin follow the man to their imminent failure.
After twenty minutes I began to worry. It was only us and one other team left. Why were they taking so long? Surely our new Sensei wasn't… him. No, it couldn't be, that would mean-
"Team Twelve, please come with me." Announced a large, tan man. We hopped up and followed him out of the classroom, leaving the last team to wait alone.
"Apologies for my tardiness, I got caught up in demonstrating for the first years." The man said sheepishly.
"You weren't the last person to come, so we forgive you." I wondered if Kakashi was going to claim the last three students. Those poor bastards.
"Well, that's good, punctuality is often key to a good first impression. Now, let's go to somewhere private where we can discuss our new situation."
Our new sensei escorted us further than I expected; all the way to training ground twelve. He walked us to the tree line where two fallen trees lay on either side of what had to be a firepit. He plonked himself on one log, and gestured for us to take the other.
"Okay, so, my name is Tamashiro Yasuo. You may call me Yasuo-sensei. I'm thirty-two years old, I've been a jōnin for six years and I specialise in bodyguarding. This is training ground twelve, the same number as our team unit. It'll be available to use most days, but previous members of team twelve will occasionally make use of it. Why don't you three introduce yourselves?"
"My name is Takeuchi Ena, I'm twelve years old and I enjoy reading. I'm honoured to have you as our teacher." Yasuo nodded in acknowledgement then turned to me.
"My name is Mori Kaiya, I'm twelve years old and I like animals. Thank you for taking care of us." Yasuo nodded again.
"I'm Ishii Jiro, I'll be twelve next month and I love training. Please take us on lots of missions!"
"Well, it's nice to meet you all. However, I'm afraid I can't promise to take you all of missions until you've passed the final stage of your graduation." Yasuo announced.
"Pardon?" Ena asked.
"I'm afraid there's another formality when joining a four-man squad, in that I must pose a test to determine compatibility of the team. I'll be holding this exam tomorrow, here at training ground twelve, where I expect all of you to show up in full mission gear by 8am. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Yasuo-sensei." We chimed.
"Good. Now that's out of the way, why don't we get to know each other? Tell me why you all entered the academy, what you expect from your genin missions, and what your plans are for the future of your career?" Yasuo smiled warmly, and the creases in his face made him seem even older than he was. Like a kind old man offering delicious food, he truly felt like a good teacher, someone I could trust.
Jackpot! I thought to myself. He seemed genuinely interested in learning about us, which, fair enough. We are going to spend at least a year at minimum together, training and completing missions. Teams are supposed to be your second family and, honestly, I thought I got dealt a pretty decent hand.
I waited for Jiro to wrap up his epic story of how he was going to become a taijutsu master and surpass 'even that Tsunade person'. I felt my stomach twist in anticipation of our futures.
After telling dad all about my team and Yasuo-sensei, I laid awake for hours, begging my brain to turn off. By morning, I had slept only a handful of hours, but my excitement and a healthy breakfast had me in tip top shape. I arrived at the training ground both nervous and confident, and by eight o'clock, everyone was there.
"Good morning, kids." Yasuo greeted.
"Good morning, Yasuo-sensei." We chimed.
"Alright, let's get right into it, shall we?" Yasuo cut right to the chase.
"Yeah, let's do this!" Jiro cheered, clearly full of pre-exam jitters.
I shook my hands out with a nervous smile, trying not to let anxiety take me over. No what-ifs, it's happening now, just go with it. Yasuo seemed to assess each of us in turn, then suddenly wiped the smile off of his face.
"You have six hours to prove yourselves. If you leave the training ground during this time, you will be immediately failed." He announced.
"Six hours?!" Jiro screeched. Ena, too, looked ready to complain, but sensei did not look willing to accept any criticism. We eyed each other warily, feeling the atmosphere shifting to something unsettling.
"How do you want us to prove ourselves?" I asked, attempting to swallow the lump in my throat. This was going to be a gruelling training session, but I absolutely had to pass. We all did.
"Your mission is to defeat me. Besides not leaving the grounds, there are no other rules. Do not hold back." The man crossed his arms and stared menacingly, his intensity bearing down on us.
What? That's… That's even worse than the bell test! We can't possibly defeat a jōnin, what the hell?! And just what happened to him? It's like he suddenly became a stiff, uncaring robot. Is this what all practiced shinobi are like?
"Jiro-san, Ena-san, come here." I ordered, and tried to put some space between us and Sensei. They looked reluctant to obey, but there wasn't much else to do. We got twenty meters away before Jiro complained.
"What are you doing, why are we going this way?" He pestered.
"I don't want him to hear our conversation."
"Why do we need to talk? Let's fight him!" Jiro insisted, but Ena cut him off before he could go on.
"No, we have a better chance at beating him if we work together and develop a plan of attack."
"Exactly." I agreed.
"To be honest I don't think the real mission is to defeat him, because a jōnin is supposed be worth a hundred genin, and there's only three of us, fresh from the academy. We haven't got a shot of beating him, but we'll look less pathetic working as a team."
"I agree with that, but do you really think there's a secret mission? I figure this is just a simulation to gauge our abilities." Ena said.
"I can't say for sure if it's true, but I've heard only three teams at maximum are formed every year. That gives weight to the possibility that each sensei has a standard or personal test to decide if genin are worth taking a jōnin off the mission roster." I couldn't say my prior knowledge was entirely accurate, but it certainly helped keep perspective. Looking underneath the underneath was a saying that might not ever leave my brain.
"That… Sounds reasonable. I've never considered the value of a jōnin taking high ranked mission rather than supervising genin taking low ranked missions. What can we do to ensure we pass his secret test?" Ena seemed determined to work together and I felt some weight lift from my shoulders.
"I say, for starters, we work together. Let's talk strategy. I've got really good aim with shuriken, but I'm pretty average with taijutsu. I can dispel genjutsu really well and I've already started learning tree walking. I over packed my pouch, even bought an explosive tag. How about you guys?" I turned to Ena whilst Jiro seemed to consider himself.
"I mastered bunshin, but I'm not so great at kawarimi. I know standard form taijutsu and another I learned from a book. My chakra reserves are above average. I know a handful of genin jutsu names and their hand signs that I could use to fake him out, but I can't actually perform them."
We looked to Jiro, who had looked intensely concentrated during the entire conversation.
"I'm a taijutsu God." He suddenly announced.
"My dad spars with me all the time, and he's a chūnin. Sensei even made me hold back during classes. I passed the bunshin, kawarimi and henge, but I'm pretty crap at all of them. I don't know how much chakra I have."
"Okay, that's fine." I considered our strengths. I'd never been the best with strategy, and fights can turn instantly. This training session was going to ask a lot of improvisation from all of us.
"Jiro, you should be our first line of defence and attack. Try not to tank his hits, I doubt you could handle them. I'll provide long ranged support and rush forward to distract when I can. I might try some risky stuff but I'm confident in my kawarimi. Ena, see if you can't distract him with clones to create openings, try to make it hard for him to focus on Jiro."
"I'll try. I think I can handle some hand to hand." Ena added.
"Sounds good enough to me. Let's do it." Jiro once again seemed eager to get started.
"Let's try not to get in each other's way, and call out if you see an underhanded attack coming for one of us." I tried not think of everything that could go wrong. If we work together well, I'm sure he'll pass us.
"There's not much else we can plan right now. I'm surprised he's let us discuss this long." Ena cut through my tension.
Peering back, Sensei hadn't moved an inch, simply watching us with that same tense expression.
"Let's go then. I'll throw my tagged kunai to start with to get him off balance, then when he escapes the explosion, Jiro, you jump in and start your attack. Start in close formation and after the explosion, separate and surround him." I doublechecked my weapons pouch and felt for the tag-attached kunai. As long as Jiro doesn't rush in before it blows, and Yasuo-sensei doesn't toss it back at us…
It wasn't much, but it was a plan. We stalked towards him and, hidden behind the other two, I retrieved my special kunai, activated the chakra seal and threw it with all my might at sensei's ankles.
BOOM!
He vanished in the cloud of dirt and we charged. Jiro met him head on and immediately began a flurry of kicks and punches. I flanked them and began a barraged of shuriken aimed at the man's head where they wouldn't hit Jiro if sensei dodged. Ena flashed through a series of complicated hand signs.
"Earth style! Clone jutsu!" He shouted, and a dozen clones appeared at his side and began charging into the fight.
Kaiya gasped lightly, before realising it was a trick, and they were normal clones. Was there a chance sensei wouldn't immediately see through it? I followed up to blend with the clones and add a solid attack to the mix. The man dodged every projectile and batted Jiro's attacks away with a single hand.
DODGE
On instinct, I used kawarimi and barely escaped a punch in the throat. I ignored the unadulterated panic inside me and continued my onslaught of projectile attacks.
Ena joined Jiro when he began looking exhausted. We fought with all our strength and knowledge, pulled out all the stops, and Sensei didn't look the slightest bit bothered. Kaiya could imagine him reading a book, as Kakashi had done.
After a nasty jab in the face, Jiro fell to a kneel, blood streaming from his nose. Ena ran to guard him, a roaring kiai escaping him as he tried to sweep sensei. In a sudden blur, Ena's right leg was trapped under sensei's left foot. He tried to push up and pull away but didn't budge, tried to stab a kunai at the offending foot but his wrist was caught. Sensei's foot pressed down and a sickening crunch met my ears. Ena wailed. I rushed into a desperate tackle, hoping to knock him off my teammate, when my face suddenly crashed into the ground.
Dazed and tasting blood, I pushed myself to my knees and peered at my fallen teammates, and Sensei standing over us.
"You have failed your mission. Your new mission is to escape me. You have a thirty second head start." He announced, and vanished.
Jiro and I quickly rose to our feet and assessed the damage. Ena's shin made a sharp turn in the middle, clearly broken.
"Jiro, can you carry him?" I breathed, my voice coming out quieter and shakier than I expected. Get your shit together!
"Yeah, on it." He nodded and picked up Ena in a bridal style carry. Ena bit his lip and stifled a cry, wincing at each movement Jiro made.
"Let's move, follow me."
Then we were dashing through the forest, making a beeline for the far corner of the training ground. Escape a jōnin? Impossible. We had no way to cover our chakra signature, our scent, our trail, and Ena couldn't even walk!
"Do you two know how to hide your chakra?" Ena asked between pained breaths.
"No?" Jiro answered.
"I know the theory, but I'm not very good at it. My chakra is already pretty small though." I called back to them. Dad had told me my chakra had been pretty lopsided since I was a baby, that I'd probably never be able to perform larger scale ninjutsu, but that it'd be easier to mask my chakra and perform genjutsu and iryojutsu. What a lie.
"Okay well, Jiro, you should try to imagin-" He cut himself off.
"Imagine what?" Jiro asked. Peeking back, Ena appeared to be dazed, staring into space.
"Hey, dude! What's wrong?" Jiro shook him, but Ena wouldn't speak.
"Keep moving!" I encouraged. If he was going into shock, we definitely couldn't risk running in Sensei now; he'd be a sitting duck.
"But he's, like, unconscious!"
Suddenly, a howling scream teared its way out of Ena, startling us both and causing Jiro to trip and tumble to the ground. I pivoted on my heel, ran back and stood over Ena, who hadn't stopped screeching.
"Shut up! He's giving us away!" Jiro yelled, and went to slap the boy in the face when I caught his hand.
"Stop! He- Hang on a second." I stalled, and tried to see if Ena could be released.
"Kai." I whispered, forming the hand sign with one hand and touching his temple with the other. Ena suddenly gasped for breath.
"Ni-san!" He yelled in my face, grasping my arm hard enough to bruise.
"Snap out of it!" Jiro yelled, and followed through this time, slapping him loudly. I didn't have time to scold him or argue.
"It was a genjutsu, Ena-san! Your brother isn't here. Yasuo-sensei definitely knows our location, let's go!" I commanded, and we quickly changed direction and began sprinting, Ena in Jiro's arms once again.
Ena was crying from pain, I was shaking from adrenaline, Jiro was angry and getting tired from carrying Ena, but we kept going. It felt like a lifetime of escaping Sensei, despite not having seen him once. Whether it was a shaking shrub, a burst of strange, angry chakra, or one of us getting hit with a genjutsu, something was always keeping us on our toes and setting us off to retreat again and again.
Eventually, we had run ourselves ragged and couldn't go on, not even for our lives. It was then that Yasuo-sensei revealed himself, stalking towards us from within the dense foliage. I couldn't even say anything because of how out of breath I was. Even as Sensei approached menacingly, all I could do was face him, fall into a fighting stance and try to breathe. He punched me in the gut and I crumbled pathetically to the ground.
"Disappointing. You still had an hour and a half to go." He leered at us like a predator and it was all I could do not to break down crying. This was so cruel! How could this be our test?
"You have failed your mission. Your new mission is to fight me, one on one."
It seemed not to matter at all to him that there was no way for us to win. We were exhausted, but the pummelling from his fists weren't what made us break.
It was the words.
Ena cried out and collapsed after a single sweep.
"Ena. Third best in your class in academics, average taijutsu, no speciality, no enthusiasm, no friends. How do you expect to make it far in this career without effort? Do you really think your snarky attitude and basic skills will keep you alive?"
Jiro lasted an entire ten seconds, throwing punches through his tears, until sensei gave him a roundhouse kick to the temple.
"Jiro. Borderline passing academic scores, abysmal aim, above average taijutsu but shows reckless, impulsive behaviour. Can't follow instructions, subpar mission reports to be expected. I didn't need to read your file to know what a disappointment you are."
I shook as I faced him, guard up but he broke through it instantly, an uppercut sending me flying. I barely heard his assessment of me.
"Kaiya. Second in the class in academics, bottom of the class in chakra control. Average taijutsu. Excessive detentions due to temper and desperate need to be a hero. Sees herself above her peers. You seriously expect me to believe you value your teammates when just yesterday you rambled for an hour to yourself about how you would have to share your 'superior knowledge' with your teammates and 'guide them how you see fit'. How unusual for such a tiny girl to think so much of herself."
A part of my soul whimpered but hoped that somehow, it was misdirection, that he would still pass us once he finished talking.
"None of you are fit to be part of a four-man team. You all fail. Go back to the academy." He announced and vanished.
I was broken. I couldn't go back to the academy! I'd been waiting years to be considered an adult! I had been so patient and it wasn't fair!
"Let's go, then." Ena announced, sighing in resignation after they had sat there for a solid half hour, catching their breath and crying a little. He tested his bad leg and winced.
"God- Ugh! I don't want to be at academy for another year!" I couldn't help tearing up again. Frustration is a difficult emotion to control. Jiro looked just as upset.
"Huh? Why would we have to do that?" Ena asked, unbothered by our states.
"Didn't you fucking hear what he said? We don't pass, we don't get to be a team, we have to go back to being academy students!"
"He never said that. He just said to go back to the academy."
"Oh." He was right. That was all he said.
I never gave it much thought. I figured students who failed just had to try again next year. Perhaps there was another option waiting for us at the academy. Overwhelmed, crushed but hoping, Ena led the way, limping but unwilling to be carried, as Jiro and I lagged behind. We stepped into our classroom where Kisho-sensei was reading at his desk. He looked up at us and smiled sadly.
"Ah, you three did not pass, then?"
"No, we fucked it up." Jiro piped up.
"I... see. Well, first of all, let me see your leg, Ena-kun. That looks rather painful." Ena approached and hissed when Kisho-sensei prodded the dark surfacing blood. The man smiled apologetically and lent a glowing green hand against it. It took a few minutes, but Ena's leg soon looked a lot better.
"There, that should do you for now. You should all stop by a medical centre before going home today." We nodded in agreement and Ena tested putting weight on his bad leg. Looks like he wouldn't be limping home.
"So, I better explain your options. You can either stay at the academy for another term, brush up on your skills, and try again. Or, you can join the Genin Corps."
The Genin Corps? I never even considered it an option. The four-man team was what I had always aspired to. I never thought it would be so easy to fail. So hard to pass. We looked at each other, considering. Ena stepped up first.
"I'll go with the Genin Corps." He announced.
We were never going to make a good team.
"Very well, come to the academy gates tomorrow. A genin will be there to escort you at 6am. Please dress mission ready."
"Yes, Sensei."
"And you two?" Kisho-sensei turned to us.
"Uh, what happens if we fail again?" Jiro asked.
"That will be your last chance, I'm afraid. You'll be moved to the Corps."
Oh god, only one more try? What if we get put with bad teammates? It's not our fault how they're arranged. Actually, what about the teachers too! Because Yasuo was clearly a sociopath with ungodly standards. For being academy fresh I think we did a really good job! He was such a dick about it!
Jeez, I don't even know anything about the Genin Corps. I need to consider my options.
"All I ever heard was how good four-man squads have it. What benefits would I get from starting the Corps a few months early, should I fail again?"
"For starters, you'll start on missions immediately. You'll have complete freedom of when and where you train, who you train with. You'll have a weekly quota to meet, but otherwise, you're your own master." Shit. That sounded good. I am so tired of having to get permission to go to the bathroom.
"But what you'd get out of starting earlier? Nothing, besides not falling behind your former classmates."
So, freedom, work and money. Fuck, I really like the sound of two of those things. And work's not so bad either. Besides, now that I have a headband, I can start training myself in tree walking without people eyeing me suspiciously.
"Wait, so, besides from experience on missions, how are we expected to improve, and learn new techniques?"
"Well, as Genin, you have access to a large section of the shinobi library that should supply you with enough jutsu and fighting styles to keep you busy for a lifetime. You also have the option of asking your fellow shinobi for help."
Fuck, fuck, fuck. I'm buying into this, oh no. I thought I wanted a team!
"I want to try for a team again." Jiro announced.
"Okay. Please come prepared with all your things after the two-week break. You'll be put in an advanced class. Please make the most of it."
"Yes, Sensei."
"And what will it be for you, Kaiya-san?"
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, sh-
"The Genin Corps, please."