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Chapter 9

Team work against the odds

"Ok, your first test is simple," Kotetsu started to say. Everyone had their fill of lunches and decided to start earlier than most teams to do something. The air had that clingy feeling so it felt like it was going to rain soon. They were on the edges of a clearing with the river running along the sides. The plain was a dull color, like it was fall. In the far middle of the field, there was a series of huge boulders.

"Test?" Jin asked. Rei cocked her head to the side while Kako sat there, seemingly admiring the surrounding.

"Oh yeah, I haven't told you guys yet. This may come to a shock to you, but only about four or five of the teams pass each year. Yes, only them out of the whole academy will pass," Kotetsu said, still smiling as if this was just casual talk. Both Rei and Jin almost choked at this.

"But, Kotetsu-sensei! What happens to those who fail?" Kako asked.

"Oh, easy, they go back to the academy for another year until they figure out what a true shinobi is!" Kotetsu said and laughed. For that split second he laughed, it felt as if everything turned dark and the three students slumped over depressingly. To make things worse, it started raining. Rei ignored the rain, but fell over on her back. Jin covered his head with his arms and Kako looked up. "Oh, looks like it's raining. Perfect!"

"What kind of twisted thing do you have in mind?" Jin said, slant-eyed. As he said this, Kotetsu started making hand seals. Slowly the three were engulfed in a swirling mist, as it cleared up, they saw that everything seemed to be a mix of two colors: Black and purple.

"Uh, guys, I have no problem saying I'm a bit freaked out, ok?" Rei said as she looked around and on instincts flung out a kunai. The other two stood up, also taking out kunai.

"Kotetsu-sensei, what are you doing?" Kako called out.

"You three will have to figure out how to get out of my genjutsu, but only stay in this training ground. The first one to figure out my genjutsu gets to pass!" came a voice that seemed to come from all directions.

"What do you mean the first one?" Kako called out again.

"That means that the other two are sent back to the academy. You see, out of the people in the teams that pass are put into a new team that's basically the top person on each first assigned team. Do you get it?" Kotetsu's voice rang out. The three exchanged glances at each other. Only one of them would truly become a genin. They all nodded at each other and took off in separate directions.

"Whoever figures out first?" Rei thought out loud. She took off towards the other end of the training area. This area was heavily shaded and contained a few fallen over logs. Rei was sitting on the top of one of the trees, over looking the forest. "Well, let's see, what do I know about most genjutsu? Well, in most of them, the creator usually takes the form of a living creature in the illusion. So I guess all I need to do is search the forest for a squirrel or something!" Rei's face lightened up as she began her search on the ground.

Kako had no idea what to do. He just hopped over the river and went down the stream as he walked. What to do? Genjutsu never really interested me, so I never really studied on how to get out of one. Well, sometimes they direct their focus into pain to be brought out of it. Though that is only used when they are being used in a genjutsu that is when there is almost immediate pain. This illusion is different. Maybe there are clues to how to get out layed around the forest. Well, I don't see much other option, must get started. This may be my only chance to get my… Kako smiled and started noticing everything around him.

Jin layed flat with his arms behind his head in the middle of the field. He was on top of a flat boulder. Jin stared at the demented swirling sky. He hated this place. Well, I can't really think when it's like there's evil around me. No matter, so what should I try first? There's a list of possibilities. First is the fact where the creator might change into a living creature so it could monitor us. The second could be that there's a riddle that is supposed to be figured out. Another is that maybe there's traps all around this place and we just have to survive. There are some other choices that would take some time. I need time. Well, I could always try and knock them out until I figure it out. That would give me enough time. Then Jin set off.

"Ugh," Rei said, "I didn't know it would take this much work! It's going to take forever to find him!" She complained as she looked into another tree burrow. She heard some rustling and threw out a kunai at the bush. It seemed to keep still, so Rei very carefully went forward. She pushed away to see her kunai and nothing more. Before she could react, something leapt at her from behind and hit her hard on the head. Rei fell over and looked at the figure that attacked her. "Jin? What the hell do you think your doing?"

"Sorry Rei, I really want to become a genin today. Rei didn't expect a reply and thought of a million things to do at that moment, but she let her eyes fall and her breathing relax again. There was nothing she could do to harm him right now, so why not give in?

Kako looked out over the field. There were the rock boulders. Why didn't he think of it before? Kako started running toward the rocks as he realized that there was a good chance that if there were any clues, it'd be there. When he reached the clump of boulders, he scanned over it with his hands. He didn't see anything unusual. Wait, where'd that shadow come from? Before Kako was knocked out, he felt a sudden throb at the back of his head.

A flock of crows that sat on the trees watched as Jin whacked Kako on the back of the head, and obviously dragged his other team mate to the place. He now stashed them in the little area of boulders. It seemed that this was now his little headquarters. After he did that, the boy set off toward the stream. He was probably going to see if Kako had discovered anything there. How pointless.

Kako flickered his eyes open to be facing the sky. He felt his head and looked around. Kako reached into his pouch to bandage his head and saw Rei was lying beside him. It still looks like she'd knocked out. This must be Jin's doing. He looked around to discover that Jin was no where in sight of the clutch of boulders. Kako stood up and went midway towards the river and stopped, looking around. He glanced back at the boulders. Maybe I should go wake up Rei before I go kick the shit out of Jin.

As he thought this, he barely dodged a kunai flung past his head. He flung his head behind him and threw one of his own kunai. Jin easily deflected it and ran towards Kako. One of his hands were covering the front side of him with a kunai and the other was held low and clenched on a fist. When he was close enough, he swung at Kako's head. Kako stepped aside and held Jin's right arms, then twisted it behind him with a kunai at Jin's neck.

"What are you doing Jin?" Kako whispered into Jin's ear. There was a sudden chill that rose from Jin's spine up, causing the hair on the back of his neck to stand up. Suddenly, Jin used his left leg and turned it to where he tripped Kako, even though causing him to scar on his neck as Kako fell. Jin ran a couple feet off and turned around again to see Kako slowly try to get up.

Jin started running at him, again with his hand in a fist, about to knock the boy out again. Kako stood up, still limping over the ground and his stance was leaving him open to a complete attack.

"Why?" Kako asked, as Jin swung his arm. Jin briefly paused to explain, still holding his arm up.

"Because, I still need time," and Jin swung again at Kako's head. Kako looked behind him and saw someone running up behind Jin.

"Sorry Jin, attacking your team mates just doesn't seem right," Rei said as she held Jin's arm right before the blow to Kako's head.

"What? When did you wake up? I hit you hard enough for hours!" Jin said, whipping his head around at Rei.

"Oh, that's an easy one! By how a fell and how motionless I was, it seemed I was knocked out for a while if I was undisturbed, right?" Rei said, Jin slowly nodded and glared. "Well, I ran down a list of things to do when you hit me. I couldn't pick one in time so I did the usual thing that would buy me some time to think of what to do: I played possum!" Rei said, sticking her tongue out happily. Kako stood to full height, cocked his head, crossed his arms, and smirked.

"I never would've suspected that! Nice plan,"

"Why thank you!" Rei said, "Now, what to do with Jin here!" Rei said.

"Well, Jin, we'll let you free again if you don't try anything so dangerous again, ok? We might actually try to stick together," Kako said, looking straight into Jin's eyes. Jin sighed and puffed up his cheeks.

"Fine, I think I ran across some traps out there earlier anyway," Jin then rose both eyebrows and changed his attitude to a more playful one, "Besides, you guys will need all the help you can get!" Rei let go while Kako put him in a head lock, and rubbing his head with a fist.

"You know, maybe we should kick you back into the woods!" Kako said, also playfully. Rei laughed. One of the crows squawked in delight. It was truly a sight to see three pre-teens, set against each other, to suddenly get along so well. It saw that things became suddenly a little more serious as the kunouchi suggested and then explained something.

"So, our sensei may actually be an animal. What do you think we should do? Go look for him?" Rei finished her explanation. Rei and Jin looked at Kako, as if he was the leader. Kako looked like he was thinking very deeply about the situation.

"Well, if he is one, I think he might be a bird, so he could fly and keep a monitor on us. Though, I can't see anything in the sky because of this darkness," Kako came to a conclusion, "Can you two see anything?" Rei shook her head. Jin looked about the trees, and pointed to a tree on the edge of the forest.

"Uh, what about a crow?" He asked. The other two traced his finger to see a flock of crows.

Seeing that he was discovered, Kotetsu made the rest of the flock fly away. He flew up and towards them. They had done a magnificent job at finding him so quickly. As he flew in front of them, he resumed his normal shape as the genjutsu slowly faded away. Everything suddenly became lighter as the sky was seen again, obviously then rain had cleared up, leaving puddle of water through out the field.

"You guys passed the genjutsu! Normally, you'd have to hunt them down, but eventually you would've anyway. There's one th-" Kotetsu started but was cut off.

"Oh, I think Jin should go on to become a ninja! I had a lot of time to cope with the idea," Rei said, gesturing at Jin. Jin slowly blushed as he waved his hand in front of him.

"No no! Kako should! He's the one that decided what to do, and figured out Kotetsu-sensei was a bird!" Jin said. Kako rose an eyebrow to his name being mentioned.

"Wait! You have the wrong idea!" Kotetsu said, now he was putting his hands in front of him, and sweat-dropped, "You ALL pass!" They all looked at him in disbelief.

"What?"

"See, the most important thing to a shinobi is team work! Even though the situation made you set against each other, you finally pulled through to get the task complete."

"You mean," Rei said, "that you just said all that stuff to set us up? To see if we'd figure out what the most important thing was?" Kotetsu nodded. "I can't BELIEVE you! I looked through that forest for HOURS for nothing!" Rei started complaining. Kako smiled nervously and slowly started patting Rei on the back. Jin nudged Kotetsu.

"You know, that was kind of sly! To force us together, since Rei had the idea, Kako knew what to do with it, and I had the ability to do it!" Kotetsu looked down at Jin smiling at him. Kotetsu smiled back.

"Exactly the idea."