Chapter 6: Academy Day 1
Arashi sat in the back of the classroom with his new acquaintances. Yesterday, Fumuro had introduced him to Motomi and Kochi, the other two orphans in their class. While awkward at first, things quickly got more comfortable after Fumuro insisted they give him a tour of the village and then stop to get some food from a street stall.
Motomi, with her purple shoulder-length hair and purple eyes, was very friendly. Arashi could already see that she was the glue that held the three together, and she worked hard to make Arashi feel comfortable. She even scolded Fumuro a couple of times when it was obvious Arashi was getting tired of answering questions about Tekan and his past.
Kochi, on the other hand, was much more withdrawn. With her long black hair pulled into a ponytail and striking green eyes, she tended only to talk when she had something to add to the conversation. She was the most like himself in that way. While Arashi wouldn't classify himself as quiet or introverted, he certainly was slower to open up to others compared to Motomi and Fumuro. Nevertheless, he appreciated Kochi's quieter nature as it provided a welcomed break from all the talking.
It's not that Arashi didn't like Motomi or Fumuro. He just wasn't used to the constant interaction. He didn't have friends other than Ayame back in Tekan and couldn't remember if he'd ever done this much talking before.
After spending the entire day with the group exploring the village and getting to know each other, Arashi convinced Fumuro that it was time to retreat to the dorm and call it a night. They had a big day tomorrow, and Arashi wanted to be fully alert.
They arrived early and once they found their classroom, they quickly claimed one of the two back rows for themselves. All four of them squeezing into one row. A couple others also arrived early and had spread out throughout the room.
Fumuro and Motomi pointed out the symbols some of the other kids had on their clothing. They explained that these students were from ninja clans. Clans that had long histories of practicing the ninja way and that they had most likely already started training within their clans.
Arashi frowned. So, just like in Tekan some were born with advantages. He'd have to pay close attention to the clan students to see if he could learn anything from them.
As the class filled up, a woman wearing a green flack jacket and leaf headband walked in and sat on the desk in the room's font. She appeared to do a quick count and once the last of the stragglers walked in and took their seats; she nodded and stood up.
"Alright everyone quiet down quiet down." She paused for a moment to allow for the last bit of whispers to cease.
"My name is Ishino Magami. You will call me Ishino sensei, and I will be your academy instructor."
She turned around and walked to the chalkboard at the front of the classroom and wrote down her name. Not that it would matter to Arashi, he couldn't read.
Once finished, she turned again to continue addressing the class.
"I would like to set a couple of ground rules. Rule 1, when I am talking, you will not. Rule 2, you will show me, the other teachers, and staff the respect we deserve. If not, I will make your time here a living nightmare. Rule 3 and the most important one. You will take your studies here seriously. Many of you are from clans and know the dangers and responsibilities that come with being a ninja, but some of you are from civilian families or other backgrounds."
Her gaze shot up to Arashi and his table for a moment.
"To avoid injury to yourself or others in the village, you will heed my warnings and act with caution when training outside of these walls. Got it?"
"Yes sensei!" The class said back.
"Good. Then let's move on to today's plan. Today, we will be performing several tasks to set an initial benchmark on your abilities. Try your best, but do not worry about your initial performance. You all are from different backgrounds, and it is not expected for all of you to perform well in these initial tests. These tests will serve to highlight your weaknesses and help me to identify what each of you needs to work on improving. The first is a multiple-choice test. The goal of this test is to determine your problem-solving abilities."
With a stack of papers in her hand, she proceeded up the aisle, handing out papers to each row.
Crap.
Motomi turned to me and handed me a pencil. "Here, I noticed you didn't have a backpack or supplies other than your books. You can use some of mine."
"Thanks, Motomi." Arashi quietly said, trying his best to hide his rising discomfort at the first test.
When Motomi passed him his test, he stared blankly down at it. The majority of the questions were blobs of text, which made no sense to him. A couple had pictures, but without understanding the instructions above them, he couldn't make sense of them.
Well, Ishino sensei did say not to worry about your performance. He looked down at the paper and started randomly circling one of the choices for each question. Pausing at each question to act like he was in deep thought.
About an hour later, Ishino Sensei stopped the class and started collecting the papers.
Arashi looked over to his tablemates to see a mixed bag of expressions. Motomi looked calm, but Fumuro looked pained. Kochi's face was unreadable per usual, although she did seem to be tapping her pencil in thought.
Fumuro noticed him looking and leaned over.
"Psst hey Arashi, that sucked big time. I could only make sense of a few of them. How did you do?"
Arashi nervously laughed and reddened a little.
"Uhhh, I guessed on all of them. I was never taught to read."
Motomi's eyes widened a little while Fumuro wheezed and covered his mouth in a failed attempt to hide his laughter.
Motomi quickly turned and smacked the back of Fumuro's head.
"Hey be nice! Tekan is a lot different from the Leaf."
Between giggles, Fumuro wheezed, "I know .. I know… It's just that Arashi seemed so put together. I was not expecting this."
Arashi couldn't ignore the situation and giggled as well. "Great start, am I right?"
Fumuro wheezed again, body shaking even more, "It couldn't possibly get any worse haha."
Motomi couldn't hide her smile either and after the short exchange, covered her mouth as well.
"Something funny up there?"
Arashi's face paled and immediately sat up straight, smile gone.
"Uhh no sensei. We are sorry Sensei." Fumuro and Motomi aggressively nodding in agreement.
"Good. I would hate to have to ask you to share your joke with the class."
Arashi gulped. That was close.
"Now that the first test is done, we will proceed to the training fields out back for the rest of the tests."
The students shuffled out behind the academy building, where they were greeted with warm sunlight. To the left was a small walled of section where Arashi saw some students from other classes throwing Kunai and shuriken against wooden posts.
To their right, he saw a jumbled mess of several wooden structures, ropes, and sand pits about 100 yards long. Students were running and climbing through it moving from one side to the next. It reminded him vaguely of the messy streets and the rope-filled docks of Tekan.
Straight ahead and where they were headed was a large oval track. Once next to it, Ishino Sensei stopped and turned around.
"This is where we will begin the physical part of the tests. The purpose of this test is to get a basic idea of your speed and endurance. To be a ninja, you must both be fast but also be able to endure a fast pace for a prolonged time. When you are responding to a crisis, you may be asked to run for hours. If you cannot keep pace, you will be a hindrance to your teams. Now then, in groups of five, I will call your names. You will line up on the track and when I say go, you will run two laps as fast as you can."
A simple race, Arashi thought. Something he knew he could do.
As Ishino Sensei called the first group of boys, Arashi turned to his tablemates.
Fumuro was bouncing from foot to foot excitedly while Motomi looked rather nervous. Kochi was stoic, as usual.
"Alright guys. Let's show these clan brats what's up." Fumuro said as he pulled the four of them into a group huddle.
Arashi sneaked a peek behind him, seeing some of the clan kids Fumuro had just mentioned give them some not so nice glances. Arashi sighed. He really wished Fumuro was a little quieter and hadn't just put a target of them.
"Fumuro, be quiet!" Motomi whispered with force.
"Ahh Motomi, don't worry. I know you hate running, but just do your best!" Fumuro said while patting the girl's back.
"Fumuro you really should be more observant of the situations you get us into." Kochi stated while giving Fumuro a pained expression.
Arashi nodded in agreement.
Fumuro stuck out his tongue. "Ugh you guys are no fun."
The girls were the first of the group to be called. There were paired up with three other girls. One having a red and white fan symbol on her back that Fumuro had quickly pointed out was the Uchiha clan crest. One of the others had pupilless eyes like Tokuma, the first ninja he had met back in Tekan. Arashi connected the dots himself that she must have been from the Hyūga clan. The last girl had no markings, so Arashi assumed she was from a civilian family.
When Ishino said go, the Uchiha and Hyūga raced ahead with Kochi in third place, and Motomi falling behind the other civilian in last place. Now Arashi understood why Motomi looked nervous before. She was definitely no runner and after completing two-thirds of the first lap, he also saw that she didn't have much stamina.
Arashi looked over to Fumuro to see him wincing. "Motomi is smart and super nice, but she's never been fast. Tag was never her game back at the orphanage. Kochi, on the other hand, has always been one of the fastest girls in the orphanage, but even she can't catch those two clan girls."
With the race concluding in the same order, Arashi and Fumuro welcomed a slightly winded Kochi and a wheezing Motomi.
"There there Motomi. You did great," Fumuro said as he patted her back.
Motomi, too tired to answer, sat down on the ground to catch her breath.
Arashi watched two more groups race and an obvious trend started to materialize. While the civilian kids tended to come in fourth or fifth, the students from the clans always rounded out the top 3 often with a large gap between them and the others.
Arashi looked over to Fumuro and it looked like he had noticed too. His previous bravado was gone, replaced with nerves and apprehension.
"Alright, last group you're up! Fumuro Yusunkei, Nasuda Inuzuka, Inoichi Yamanaka, Shibi Aburame, and Arashi, please get into position on the track."
"Go get them Inoichi!" A rather large boy yelled out when the blond Yamanaka stepped forward. The blonde's face getting a little red in obvious embarrassment at his friends' outburst.
"Great, three clan kids. Just our luck." Fumuro said next to him as they walked onto the track.
"What happened to all that boasting before?" the Inuzuka said, giving Fumuro a sneer.
"Yea yea dog boy. Let's see where you are at the finish line." Fumuro snapped back.
Arashi winced. He had a feeling Fumuro was going to regret those words by the end of today.
All five lined up on the track next to each other, Fumuro and the Inuzuka glaring daggers at each other.
"Alright. Ready….go!" Ishino sensei yelled.
Fumuro and the Inuzuka bolted ahead at full speed, immediately gaining a lead. Arashi and the blonde Inoichi tied for third and the Aburame boy with sunglasses bringing in the rear.
Relax, Arashi thought. The two ahead would tire out and the race would come to him. His real opponent would be the blonde next to him, who seemed to have the same idea. Arashi looked over at Inoichi. The boy barely breathing hard and easily keeping pace.
Arashi looked back ahead as they rounded the first corner. The Inuzuka was pulling ahead, still gaining distance on the rest and Fumuro was unable to keep up.
Arashi picked up his pace and the blonde next to him matched as they started to real in Fumuro, who was obviously regretting his early pace. The immediate sprint at the beginning had done its toll and before the end of the first lap, Arashi and the blonde had already caught Fumuro who was fading fast.
As Arashi passed his friend, he looked back and saw that if Fumuro continued to fade, he would be caught by the Aburame as well.
Fumuro made eye contact with him and mouthed out sorry to him as he tried to control his own breathing.
Arashi looked back ahead, focusing on his own race. Surprisingly, the Inuzuka had started to slow but still had a sizable lead and while Arashi was reducing the gap; he realized he wouldn't catch the Inuzuka.
He looked to his left and increased again, his lungs starting to burn, swinging his arms harder and pushing his legs to move faster. Inoichi was still right there, but pain on his face was apparent.
Arashi raised his pace yet again, gritting his teeth against the pain. His legs burning, Arashi remembered all those times running from the guards in the slums. All those times he had to run from the older kids to keep his lunch. He was not going to lose to this spoiled clan boy. A boy who never had to run to fill his stomach.
He pushed even harder. His lungs screaming, ragged gasps escaped from his mouth as he desperately tried to feed his body with more air. He was ahead now; the blonde dropping back, not able to keep pace as they rounded the final turn to the finish. Fifteen feet ahead, the Inuzuka was fading as Arashi reeled him in. Unfortunately, his early lead was enough and with Arashi five feet behind, the Inuzuka crossed the finish line with Arashi in tow.
Arashi and the Inuzuka slowly came to a stop, both leaning over hands on their knees as they sucked in huge breaths. He had beaten Inoichi by about ten feet and the calm Aburame about twenty feet further back. Unfortunately, as Arashi had predicted in last place, looking like he'd been punched in the gut, was Fumuro, who crossed the finish line about ten feet behind the Aburame.
Arashi walked over to his roommate and placed his hand on his back and between big breaths, "hey…you've got to pace yourself. You burned everything at the start. You'd have been close to Inoichi if you'd paced yourself."
Fumuro shrugged Arashi's hand from his back and looked up, "Yea yea I know. It's just that we used to play ninja at the park a lot and Nasuda would sometimes come with some other clan kids. He was always a dick! Picking on us orphans all the time." Fumuro looked down at his feet. "I just…really wanted to show him up for once."
"Next time, well get him Fumuro." Smiling at his roommate, trying to cheer him up.
Arashi and Fumuro walked back to Motomi and Kochi.
"Fumuro don't worry. You tried your best!" Motomi said as they got close.
Arashi sneaked a glance over at Inoichi. The blonde, his big friend, and a rather sleepy-looking boy with black hair in a ponytail were all looking at him. Arashi smiled a little and nodded his head to Inoichi, to which the boy smiled back and returned his gesture.
Glad to see in his desire to win, he hadn't made an enemy of Inoichi.
He turned back to his group just in time to catch Kochi staring at him with an eyebrow raised.
"That was impressive Arashi." She said.
"Haha thanks, I uh… like to run," he said while rubbing the back of his head in mild embarrassment.
"Impressive. That was amazing!" Motomi yelled, raising her hands in excitement. "You just kept speeding up. Every time I thought that was it, you kept going!"
"Yeah man, what the hell. You have been holding out on us!" Fumuro exclaimed.
"I've only known you guys for two days, and all we did was walk around the village and talk. It's not like I had opportunities to show you."
"I guess you're right. But after this, we are definitely training together!"
"Agreed," Arashi said back, glad to see Fumuro's previous disappointment had vanished.
With the track test complete, Ishino sensei led them to a water fountain next to some benches and let them rest and catch their breath. Most of the students, including Arashi's group, watched some of the other classes doing their tests and tried to guess what was next.
After a twenty-five-minute break, Ishino sensei gathered them all up and took them to the obstacle course.
"This is the academy obstacle course," Ishino said while gesturing to the structures behind her. "The obstacle course will test your agility. It will force you to jump, climb, and scramble your way to the finish line. As a ninja agility will not only help you maneuver during missions but will also keep you alive. Sometimes all you can do when faced with a stronger opponent is buy time. Learning how to move over, around and through obstacles is vital to life as a ninja. When I call your name, line up at the start and wait for my signal to start. You will notice some of the ground is grass and other parts are sand. You are permitted to touch the grass but not the sand parts. You will have to use the structures in the course to traverse over the sand sections. Questions?"
A girl who Arashi believed to be a civilian by her performance on the track raised her hand.
"Yes Nano?"
"What if we fall sensei? Some of those wooden structures and robe bridges look high."
Arashi noticed some of the other students nodding their heads in agreement. Arashi looked towards the course, trying to find what they were talking about. He didn't notice anything high. Sure, some of the sections were maybe fifteen or twenty feet, but that wasn't high. Arashi had jumped across rooftops and clothing lines much higher than that in Tekan.
"Well, it will most likely hurt, so I suggest you don't." He saw an evil glint in sensei's eyes when she noticed the girl's reaction to her comment. "But in the case that you do, the sand below those sections will help soften the fall and there is a medical ninja on standby to help in the case of injury. Now, if there aren't any more questions, let's get started. Nano, as you were the only one to ask a question, how about you go first."
Arashi winced. Poor girl. Judging by how the color drained from her face, he guessed this was going to be painful to watch.
It was.
Nano moved painstakingly slow over the higher sections, shaking the entire way, but surprisingly managed not to fall.
Others were not so lucky. His classmates from clans, as expected, performed much better than most of the civilian-born students, although the Inuzuka did fall flat on his face much to Fumuro's pleasure. Only one classmate fell hard enough for the medical ninja to be called. Rikino or Rinito Arashi couldn't remember her name had lost her footing on one of the horizontal log bridges and had fallen extending her hands to break the fall but ended up breaking her wrist. The medical ninja had appeared in a flash and held the girl's limp wrist as a light green glow emanated from his hands. After a minute or so, he picked her up and took her inside.
Motomi, Fumuro, and Koichi all did much better than Arashi expected. He guessed all that time playing ninja had helped with climbing and movement. Koichi again was the standout though. She was really quite agile, and her long legs and slender frame helped her move through the course well.
Arashi wasn't worried, even with the surprise he received on track with the impressive speed some students from clans showed. As soon as he had been able to slip away from the caretaker's watch, he had been climbing, jumping, and sliding his way through the streets of Tekan. None of the other orphans could ever keep up with him. Ayame used to joke that he spent more time on the roofs than on the ground.
"Arashi you're up next!" Ishino sensei yelled as an Uchiha boy was about halfway through the course.
"Good luck Arashi!" Motomi said. Arashi smiled at her and noticed the thumbs up from Fumuro and small nod from Kochi.
There were many paths through the course. Almost as soon as the task was explained, he had decided to dodge all rope bridges and ladders. They were too slow and required the use of both his hands and feet at once to traverse with legs often slipping through and getting caught. No, he would use the wooden logs and vertical poles as much as possible.
Arashi lined up at the start and looked at sensei.
"Three..two..one..go!"
Arashi bolted forward, not worried about pacing himself like on the track. This was a much shorter distance and would be over in a flash.
Arashi reached the first obstacle, a low wooden wall coming up to his lower belly button. Without missing a stride, he jumped swigging his legs slightly to his right and placing his left hand on top of the wall, giving a little push to help him over and keep his forward momentum. Within a couple of more strides, he reached another wall higher than the previous one.
Arashi dove over, tucking near the end to land and roll from his right shoulder to his left lower back, getting up in one smooth motion continuing his sprint.
A couple more obstacles and Arashi came up to the first sand section. Most of his classmates opted for the rope ladder to the left. Arashi veered right to a set of logs orientated like steps about 4 feet from each other and one foot up with a gap between them. Arashi launched with his left foot onto the first log, swinging his right leg and opposite arm to build momentum for the next log. In seconds, he was at the top. Without missing a step, he leaped from the top log and extended out, catching the hanging vertical rope and swinging across a gap, the sandy floor fifteen feet below.
Arashi pumped his legs, putting energy into the swing, and let go just before the apex of the arc, landing softly on a wood platform ten feet above the ground. Without slowing down, Arashi sprinted forward, stepping onto a thin single log about ten inches wide traversing between his platform and another one twenty feet away. As he ran across the bridge, he noticed two options. He could continue forward onto the other platform level with him and then climb down the cargo net, or slightly to his left and about 8 feet below him, there was another platform that was connected to the adjacent path he had opted out of before.
Making his decision, he opted for the second to avoid the slow climb down the cargo net, thus losing his forward momentum. A couple of strides before he reached the end of the bridge, he leaped diagonally to his left, falling with a rush onto the platform below and rolling forward to break his fall.
Pushing off the wooden platform, Arashi jumped onto the grass a couple of feet below and continued his sprint. Only one more grassy and elevated section left before the finish line.
Jumping and sliding through a couple of more obstacles, Arashi reached a wall fifteen feet tall with no way around. There were wooden pegs of different shapes and sizes jutting out from the wall, serving as handholds. Relying on muscle memory from his time using windowsills and balconies in the slums to scale buildings, Arashi made quick work of the wall and reached the top. He swung his legs over and dropped to a platform on the other side and a couple of feet below the top.
Again, he saw two paths before him. There was a rope strung taught traversing the 20-foot gap to his right. Or a long set of monkey bars to his left.
Monkey bars it is.
But instead of hanging from below, Arashi quickly jumped on top and ran across, carefully placing his feet as to not slip through the gap between bars. Reaching the other side much quicker than if he had used the monkey bars as intended, he jumped forward, dodging the platform altogether, aiming for the wooden slide descending down to the grassy floor at a 45-degree angle. Arashi landed on his right thigh and slid quickly down to the ground and sprinted to the finish line.
That was fun.
Taking a quick moment to catch his breath, Arashi noticed the stunned faces of his classmates and the contemplative look from Ishino sensei. Had he gone overboard? After coming second in the race, he had wanted to show what he was capable of on the obstacle course.
Arashi shrugged. Oh well. Might as well show Ishino sensei his strengths so she could better develop a learning plan for him.
Arashi jogged over to his tablemates, noticing some hushed conversations and glances from his other classmates.
"Bro! What…the…HELL!" Fumuro yelled! "What are they feeding you over there in Tekan?"
Not much, Arashi thought to himself. "I and a friend I had in my orphanage used to do a lot of climbing and running across rooftops. The city is packed much tighter than the Leaf. My daily routine pretty much included an obstacle course like this one."
"I'm so happy you're my roommate." Fumuro said as he patted Arashi's shoulder.
Motomi stepped forward. "You looked like a natural up there! I'm not afraid of heights but I'm definitely not as comfortable as you." She paused and frowned a little. " I moved too slow while on the elevated sections, but you never stopped. It was amazing to watch."
"uhh thanks, Motomi. I enjoy being high up. I honestly feel more comfortable high off the ground compared to ground level. There's something about being off the ground that makes me feel at ease."
"I believe it! You smiled more during this test than in the past two days combined." Motomi said, smiling at him. "You looked like you really enjoyed it up there."
Arashi gave Motomi a smile but still stepped back to get a little breathing room from all the praise. It made him uncomfortable. He defiantly didn't get much praise back in Tekan. He usually got yelled at or chased by grown-ups when he jumped through the city. Most likely because he had just stolen something, but that was beside the point.
After a couple more minutes of small talk and an in-depth conversation with Kochi where she had asked in detail why he chose the route he did on the course, Ishino sensei began herding them over to the kunai and shuriken throwing area and explained their test.
It did not take long for Arashi to realize throwing stones and throwing kunai and shuriken did not match. While he had plenty of power, his technique was way off. His kunai throwing was much worse than shuriken probably due to the shuriken being closer in shape and release to the flat stones he used to terrorize the streets of Tekan with. He mostly managed to hit the target and get the shuriken to stick, but everyone once in a while, he would miss wildly.
Kunai on the other hand, was very tough. He was not used to throwing things without rotation, and it felt very unnatural to him. Out of twenty throws, he managed to hit the target and get it to stick about 9 times. The rest had either bounced off or missed completely.
Overall, not a very good showing. He had performed about as well as Fumuro, Motomi, and Kochi. He saw lots of hours practicing with the three in his future.
"Alright everyone. Take a 45-minute lunch break." Ishino sensei yelled.
When Arashi had and Fumuro had called in an early day before, they had completely forgotten about lunch. Thankfully Motomi having experienced Fumuro's forgetful nature for years, had made lunch for everyone.
Running inside and grabbing her backpack, Motomi came out with 4 small bento boxes handing one to each. They then found a nice, secluded spot outside under a tree and began eating.
"What do you think will be next? Do you think that's it for the tests?" Fumuro said between mouthfuls.
"I hope so. I don't think I can take much more for the first day. I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn't think there was going to be as big a difference between us and others from clans." Motomi said sadly.
"Unfortunately, I believe a sparring test will be next," Kochi said quietly.
"Wait what! Already! They haven't even taught us any forms yet." Fumuro said in disbelief.
"Yes, but remember what the teacher said about getting an understanding of our baseline. They can't expect us to use any jutsu until we learn how to use chakra. But testing or fighting instincts is easy. But look on the bright side. You may get to break Nasuda's nose." Kochi said with a little smile.
"Hell yeah I will! Just watch. If that fleabag gets in the same ring as me, I'll send him running with his tail between his legs!" Fumuro said with his fist waving in the air.
Arashi smiled. While he wasn't sure that would happen, he sure would like to see it.
A fight would be next. Arashi was both excited and nervous. He had fought many times in the past. When there is only so much easy food around with a lot of competition, it's a given that fights between orphans would happen. He had lost many at the beginning, not being able to compete against the larger, more experienced boys. But as time went on, he got pretty good. Even able to take on some of the bigger kids. But those were orphans with no training, only acting on instinct. While there was a powerful drive to win, that being hunger. He wasn't sure how his usual tactics would match up against kids with formal training. He was confident that he could beat a civilian student. They were unlikely to have had any training and most likely very little experience with conflict and the threat of pain. But the clan students would be a problem.
Arashi had learned in the slums that half the conflicts could be won before they became physical. Sometimes Arashi only had to act or seem confidant that he would win and that would be enough to get the other to second guess. Once that happened, it didn't matter if they backed down or still pressed. As soon as they second guessed they had lost.
He had seen plenty of this hesitation in his civilian classmates. But the ones from clans didn't show it. He wasn't sure what their lives were like, but he was sure they had been pushed. They had gained valuable experience the others had not. Enough to quell the doubts in their heads before these tests.
Out of all the tests, this would be the one that showed how large the gap truly was between students. Strength, speed, agility, and technique can be easily trained through repetition. However, the instinct to fight, to win, and dominate your opponent can't be so easily taught.
He looked over at his new acquaintances. He thought Fumuro would do fine. While it wouldn't be pretty, heck, his own fight most likely wouldn't be pretty. Fumuro certainty wanted it and the way he got into it with the Inuzuka he was sure he had been in some fights.
Kochi would be fine as well. She had displayed a cold calmness in all the tests so far. Her aura alone would put the other on edge.
Motomi, on the other hand, he was worried about her. She was smart, loyal, and nice, but Arashi had seen no meanness in her. She had not shown selfishness to win at someone else's expense. While a quality Arashi would look for in a friend, he felt that you needed some selfishness in order to ensure victory. You had to be willing to take or steal it from the other. Especially if they had the upper hand in physicality.
Arashi looked up and noticed Ishino sensei walking out of the class building. It was time.
It didn't take long for sensei to gather them all up and move to the sparring rings, where she then explained the test.
They would each take part in two spars. Boys on boys and girls on girls.
"Arashi and Dodate Kagetane you're up first."
Here we go.