Hide limped along, cursing under his breath with every step. Oh, it hurt! How had he gotten involved in such a stupid situation within a day after he'd become a ninja? Most genin didn't even have to fight any other shinobi until the freaking chuunin exams. He wasn't at all ready for what this was demanding from him.
Shitana gasped beside him, and Hide turned quickly to glance over at her. She was staring ahead of her, mouth slightly agape. The boy followed her gaze, and quickly took a step back in horror.
The green-robed shinobi was standing directly in front of them, a satisfied smirk firmly on his face. He was definitely looking a bit more roughed up than he had when he'd first appeared. Dust and blood were smeared across the emerald fabric, along with a good deal of sweat.
He was holding one hand out in front of him, and clenched in it was Suzunaka's body. The boy's neck was cut, and his skin pale and white.
"I dealt you a favour, you know," the ninja laughed, shaking the body a bit.
Neither of the genins replied, simply staring disbelieving in front of them. It didn't seem possible…
"It was obvious that neither of you wanted him around, what with how you both deserted him so readily…"
"What are you talking about?" Shitana finally managed to spit out, staring at the ninja.
"You," the ninja said, pointing at Hide, "left him as quickly as you could, and showed no real interest in him until you realised your own life was in danger. And you," he turned his eyeless gaze over to Shitana, "used whatever power you have to leave him high and dry with your body to protect, and didn't even come back to check on him once! You were too busy with your own petty battle."
"That's not true…" Hide muttered, uncertainly, "we had to fight you off…"
"And after I had left?" he asked, grin spreading wider.
"We came for him!" Shitana yelled, but there was still a tremor in her voice.
"At a nice and leisurely pace!" the ninja scoffed, shaking his head pityingly. "If you were truly concerned for him, you would have come with haste. As it is, however…"
With that, he unceremoniously gave the body a slight push, letting go of it. Suzunaka's form went through the air to land heavily in the dust. Neither of his team mates moved, simply staring.
"So," the green-robed shinobi said, his grin disappearing. "What will it be now?"
There was quiet for several minutes, with no sound but the wind whistling softly through the streets. The dust kicked up, getting more dirt on the body lying in the street.
"I'll kill you," Hide growled, and lunged.
Instantly, four kunai were flying towards him. Hide's chain whipped forward, smacking three out of the air. One end of the chain wrapped around the ring of the last kunai, and pulled it back. Hide reached out, and plucked the weapon out of the air with his free hand.
The boy kept running, approaching his opponent at a furious pace. He drew back his arm, then launched the kunai back at its owner with all of his force.
Before the weapon had even left his hand, however, the ninja was gone. Hide stopped abruptly, staring about in absolute confusion. How could he move so fast?
"I'm right here," said a voice from behind.
Hide began turning, and felt something cold and thin touching his throat.
It dragged across.
The genin fell to the ground, blood splattering across the dust.
"That's two…" the shinobi whispered. He turned around slowly to face Shitana, who was staring on in absolute disbelief.
"You killed him…"
"Part of my job, you see," he shrugged. "If you had survived to be a ninja, then you would have had to learn how to do it yourself. But now you won't have to worry about that?" He grinned. "Will you?"
Shitana looked up, and saw that he had disappeared. Realising that he was doing the same thing he'd done with Hide, she dived forward, rolling as she hit the ground. She spun as she came up to her feet, and cried out. The ninja was standing there, and he had already thrown a shuriken at her. Knowing she'd never be able to step out of the way of the blow, she simply let herself fall backwards.
She felt the displaced air as the shuriken passed just over her face, twirling its deadly blades. Then, it fell away from her, as she went down onto her back. The breath flew from her lungs as she hit the ground, and she began coughing to fill them again.
A foot caught her in the side of the ribs, and lifted her several feet into the air. She flew sideways, into the corner of a shop on the side of the street. Shitana didn't have the strength to scream as she fell to the ground.
She looked up from her position, crumpled on the ground, to the green-robed shinobi, standing before her with a shuriken in hand.
"I guess this means that you fail…" the shinobi said, his voice suddenly becoming several decibels higher.
Shitana stared at the ninja. "No way…"
The shuriken flew, and with it, it brought darkness to Shitana's battered form.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
"You fail," the voice repeated calmly.
Three sets of eyes opened at the same time, with three synonymous gasps going up. Suzunaka, Hide and Shitana all sat up abruptly. Each one quickly checked themselves for their wounds, but not a one was there. Finally, once they were sure that they were unhurt, they looked up, and around.
They were sitting under the shadow of the Southern Tower Entrance to Konoha village. Right where they'd been before the madness had begun. They looked at each other, and found the same wide eyed horror in each face.
"I said," the voice said, "you fail."
All three turned to the source of the voice, and found who it belonged to: Kari.
She was standing, looking at the three of them balefully. Her hands were held up before her, in the position used to channel and prepare chakra. Slowly, she lowered them down to her sides, and shook her head violently, as though clearing it of something.
"What was that?" Hide demanded.
"Genjutsu," she replied, glaring at them. "It was meant to place the three of you into a real crisis situation to see how you all reacted. And what can I say? You failed."
"How?" Hide yelled, taking a step toward her. He stopped as she pointed suddenly at him, fixing him with her gaze.
"You left both of your team-mates as soon as you could, and then recklessly attacked alone when support was being offered on two occasions. Fail."
She turned her gaze and her finger upon Shitana, who took a step back.
"You couldn't control your abilities, and abandoned an injured team mate with your body to watch over as a burden. This should've been incredibly easy for you to beat with your illusionary eyes. Fail."
Finally, she turned to Suzunaka.
"You couldn't care less what happened to either of your team mates so long as you were protected, and failed to muster up the strength to go after the one who was alone when he needed it. Fail."
She quickly turned on her heel, and said quietly, just loud enough to hear, "The three of you are the most pathetic team of genins I have ever seen. If you intend to become ninjas like that, then you have something completely different coming for you."
With that, she walked away.
All three simply sat there, staring as she walked away. Finally, long after she had disappeared from sight, Hide asked, very quietly, "What does this mean?"
"I think," Shitana whispered, not believing it herself, "that we just failed a test to become ninja…"
Suzunaka said not a word, not comprehending it.
"So…" Shitana muttered, looking over to the other two dully. "Is this the end, then?"
"I…" Hide stopped, shaking his head, then continued, "I guess it is."
"No it's not," Suzunaka whispered.
"What?"
Suzunaka rolled over, and placed his hands onto the ground. He pushed himself slowly up to his feet, stretching to get the cramps out of his muscles. Finally, he glanced back to the other two, and said, "It won't end here."
Shitana eyed him carefully, before whispering, "What are you thinking?"
Suzunaka simply asked in response, "What did she mean by illusionary eyes?"
The girl rolled her eyes as they shifted from pale blue to deep green. "It's the power of my clan. Whenever we're in genjutsu, we're supposed to be able to see through it, or at least manipulate it a bit from within. But I," she sighed in annoyance, "I haven't quite mastered it. Why?"
A sly grin crossed his face, and he said, very smugly, "Meet me here at midnight."
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Darkness flooded Konoha, filling it to the brim. Aside from the occasional streak of yellow or orange cast by a lamp lit in a house on the path, the only source of light was the thin crescent moon. It was another windy night, much like many over the past few days. The unseen force pushed through the streets like cords, weaving between the buildings and carrying up dust.
Suzunaka could feel all of it, each small thread of wind and each gust as they carried the scant noises of the town up to him. He stood perched atop the tower by the southern entrance, hands limp by his sides, eyes shut, and head tilted slightly upwards. He would occasionally sway with the wind, understanding its strength.
One breath came to him, and he tensed suddenly, his eyes cracking open a millimetre. Slowly, he turned his head slightly to the east, and waited. The breath returned, and he grinned, nodding.
There.
Without another moment's hesitation, the genin placed his foot on the side of the wall, and began walking calmly down the side of the tower.
Shitana and Hide looked up at him as he touched the earth, the two braids at the front of his hair swaying softly. To their questioning looks, he said, "She's by the north-eastern corner of the city. Moving pretty slowly. Let's go."
"Wait," Hide demanded, staring at him. "You could hear that?"
"Of course I can," he rolled his eyes. "I do this for fun."
"How?"
"How should I know?" he replied, shrugging. "I've always been able to. How do you use a chain like that?"
Hide stopped, and gave him a strange look. "A lot of work."
"So you don't just enjoy wasting time?" Shitana asked, grinning.
"Well," he said, flashing her a smirk, "not all the time."
"If we're done with question period," Suzunaka muttered, "could we get going?"
The other two nodded, and the three set out with Suzunaka in the lead. They were moving quickly, and as stealthily as their training allowed.
At one point, as they were passing through a back alley, Shitana inquired, "So, what is your plan?"
Suzunaka looked back at her, and stopped moving. The other two stumbled a bit as they also stopped behind him.
"She seemed most displeased today by the fact that we didn't work together."
"That," Hide interrupted, "and the fact that she managed to beat us into a pulp."
Suzunaka looked at him with an expression which said, 'Are you serious?', and replied, "Three just-genins against a jonin strong enough to be permitted to teach? Do you think we even had a chance?"
Hide opened his mouth to reply, then stopped. He nodded, conceding the point.
"So, I have decided that the three of us are going to attack her tonight and, possibly, defeat her."
The other two simply stared at him for possibly a full minute. Then, Hide said, "Aren't you the one who just told us that there's no chance of defeating her?"
"No, I said that it was impossible for us to win against her when we had just become genin. Now we've fought against her once, and know about her style. I've already got a strategy that we might be able to use to beat her."
The other two stared at him as he reached into his pack and pulled out a kunai. Slowly, he crouched down, and began etching a figure into the earth. They watched as his plan slowly took shape, and as he continued, they found themselves smiling.
This might just work.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Kari roamed along the great wall surrounding Konoha, glancing occasionally out into the night. Her mind was more distracted than usual, considering what to do with her upstart team. Always thinking, wandering from all the information she knew about one to another. To be fair, the three should have been one of the more powerful combat teams for this year. Suzunaka, naturally intelligent and quite skilled all-around, Hide with the coveted chain-wielding ability, and Shitana with the ability to see right through a genjutsu, or even better, manipulate it to her advantage. There was only one problem.
The three of them had worked terribly together. They didn't understand the fundamental parts of being a ninja. Sure, if any one of the three of them were to take on one of the other genins, it would, in her opinion, be no contest. They would win.
However, that meant nothing if they couldn't coordinate and learn to work as a team. One ninja working alone was an incredibly weak and overall useless cell. Three working together? There was very little they couldn't handle.
Her ears perked up suddenly as she heard something from the buildings nearest the wall. She continued walking along as normal, but kept her eyes checking over in that direction, just for safety.
That was when she saw it.
Quickly, she jumped backwards, landing easily on the wall's rampart. Without a moment's hesitation, she reached into her pack, and tossed three shurikens out at the darkness, even as a kunai stabbed into the wall where she'd been standing a moment before.
As the three shurikens homed in, their targets broke from the cover between buildings, and started running towards her.
Kari's eyes widened slightly in surprise. Suzunaka was coming in a dead run towards the wall, while Hide and Shitana were each heading towards two different staircases which were incorporated into the wall.
Well. Maybe they could work as a team. Or at least plan as one. Now to see if they could fight as a team.
Kari clamped her hands together into a seal, and felt the pull of chakra from her veins. She let it flow quickly out of her, filling the air.
All three genin suddenly saw kunais flying for them, a cloud heading for each. Suzunaka quickly slapped his foot slightly hard off to the side, pushing himself out of the way. As the kunais passed by the smaller boy, Hide was holding up his chain. He had his hands right next to each other, right at the center of the weapon. Both ends began twirling incredibly fast, and made a perfect shield against the oncoming missiles.
Shitana, however, had more trouble evading her attack. Knowing it was not an option to simply dodge, she closed her eyes, and bent all of her focus on her chakra stores and her eyes. It took everything to stop thinking of the painfully sharp weapons coming in at her.
When she opened her eyes, they were pure black.
The kunai passed through her, and she blinked once, then her eyes became their normal, shifting colour again. She winced slightly, and bit back a cry as she felt one kunai which hadn't quite passed all the way through cut into the skin of her arm. It lodged there, just below her right elbow.
However, the three continued running. Shitana and Hide each reached their staircases and began taking them two at a time. Suzunaka, however, reached the wall, and began running up its length.
Once again, Kari's eyes widened slightly. So, he could already do vertical runs. And, from how comfortable he looked, he could probably also stand static. Very impressive. And the fact that Shitana and Hide had managed to hone their abilities so well in such a short amount of time…
Sighing, she figured that she might as well try out giving them slightly more of a challenge.
All three slowed in their steps for a moment as the stones in the wall before each one began warping and bulging outwards. They watched as the bulges reared up, and suddenly bend back slightly.
Hide's eyes widened slightly as he realised what was coming. "Slingshot!" he yelled out to the other two.
The three rocky protrusions flew back forwards again suddenly, their tops detaching and coming towards them at a furious rate.
Shitana found this attack far easier to dodge. She quite simply jumped up and sideways, landing on the wall's battlement. Then, she leapt forward again as the rock closed with her, landing on top. Without the slightest difficulty, she flipped forward off the missile, and landed running towards her teacher again.
Hide was about to pull a similar manoeuvre, when he saw Suzunaka's situation out of the corner of his eye. The smaller genin couldn't get out of the way of his faster rock, and had had to simply let go of his chakra, plummeting backwards towards the earth.
Gritting his teeth, Hide jumped off of the edge of the wall, aiming himself towards the other genin. His left hand released the chain, as his right pulled it close down to the pouch on his right hip. Instantly, chain links began flowing out of the bag, and connecting on to the ends of the already substantially long chain.
As soon as it was long enough, Hide whipped the weapon at Suzunaka, still holding on with only one hand.
Suzunaka, saw the object coming, and understood. Reaching out, he plucked the end out of the air, and held on tight, as Hide strengthened his grip on the chain.
Then, Hide gave an extremely hard tug on the chain, whipping himself downwards far faster, and Suzunaka back up.
The two passed each other in the air, and a wink passed between them. Then, Hide gave a quick salute, and plummeted to the earth far below. Suzunaka, now far higher than he had been before and out of the way of danger, planted his feet back on the wall, and began running.
With only two genin left, Kari figured that she would just finish off one, and then deal with the last at close combat. She turned towards Shitana, and slapped her hands together in a complicated series of seals. Once again, the cloud of illusionary kunais appeared. This time, however, every single one was focused on the girl.
As they came towards her, Shitana realised she would never be able to most of them, let alone all. So, instead, she reached over to her arm, and ripped out the kunai embedded there. Without a second thought, she launched it at Suzunaka, then lowered her head, and took the attack.
Suzunaka caught the knife, twirling around his finger, just as Shitana hit the ground, punctured with dozens of wounds. However, he was already one step away from the edge of the wall.
He placed a foot on the corner which connected the side of the wall to the small lip along the edge, and pushed off, rocketing several metres into the air. His kunai stopped twirling, ending in a stabbing position, and he drew his hand back for a strike as he came down.
Metal ringed off of metal as his weapon and the matching one of his teacher met, holding each other for a moment. Then, Suzunaka pushed back with the weapon, and spun himself in a high kick at her head.
Kari, very lazily, leaned back and out of the way of the kick, then lunged forward with her other hand, stabbing the kunai into Suzunaka's chest.
The boy looked surprised for a moment. Then, smoke enshrouded him, and he disappeared.
The jonin's eyes widened in surprise. A bunshin? No way they had planned enough to have a bunshin enter the genjutsu and then have the real version…
She quickly pulled herself out of the genjutsu, and turned. She raised her hand just in time to block a punch aimed at her by the real genin. Moving faster than the genin could react, she uppercutted him in the stomach, and lifted him into the air. Turning, she pulled him along, and slammed him into the stone on the top of the wall.
Kari grinned down at him, and winked. "Not bad," she admitted. "You hid yourself outside of the city, and used your bunshin and your friends to distract me in the illusion while you snuck up behind me. Good plan."
Suzunaka grinned right back at her, wheezing out, "Who said they were the distractions?"
For a record forth time that evening, Kari felt her eyes widening in surprise. Before the boy could say another word, she'd jumped up, and spun around, lunging forward.
Shitana and Hide were both coming at her, legs outstretched for a kick.
Without the slightest difficulty, Kari, ducked down, then reached up with both hands. She placed one on each of their legs, then spun them around, slamming them onto the ground on either side of Suzunaka.
After she had finished that very quick dispatch, Kari took a step back, and breathed very heavily for several seconds. She leaned backwards against the wall's battlement, and suddenly, she broke out laughing.
The three genin, laying on the wall in a good deal of pain, all simply remained there, highly shocked by the jonin's behaviour. Why was she laughing? They'd just come at her as though they were going to kill her in hopes of becoming worthy in her eyes again, and then she completely tore them to pieces in no time flat. How did this amuse her?
Finally, the woman stopped laughing, and leaned forward into their vision again. She still looked highly amused, and there was a bit of a waver in her voice from barely suppressed laughter.
"That," she laughed, "was potentially the greatest plan I have ever seen a group of genin compose in a long time. A long time."
"But…" Hide started, but couldn't finish. He started again. "But it didn't work."
"So?" she demanded, laughing. "Very few jonin would have lost against you, simply due to having greater skill and experience. Another team of genin, however…?"
"So," Shitana asked, raising an eyebrow slightly, "you're saying?"
"I'm saying that I'd be honoured to teach you three," Kari affirmed, nodding down at the three of them.
"Are you serious!?"
"Yes." Her face became more serious all of a sudden. "This will, however, be an incredibly difficult and dangerous road. Unlike me, others won't hesitate to kill the three of you. And I'm not even a particularly powerful jonin, however…" her smile returned, "if you still wish to become ninjas, I'll be at training grounds thirteen waiting for you tomorrow morning at six o'clock. Show up ready to work."
With that, she disappeared.
All three genin stayed laying there for several moments, staring at the dark sky. A soft rustling ran through the trees outside, filling their ears. In between the other two, Suzunaka sighed, then rocked up onto his feet. He stood up very slowly, then leaned forward onto the battlement, drinking in the noise.
The other two quickly joined him, leaning beside him. They were quiet for some time, simply staring out. At last, Hide broke the silence, whispering, "My mom will be wondering where I am. I'll see the two of you tomorrow, right?"
"Oh yeah," Shitana whispered, a soft chuckle in her voice. "I should get going now too, but I'll be there."
"Me too," Suzunaka nodded, though he didn't look at them. His eyes were shut, and he seemed to be completely immersed in the noise.
"Aren't you going home?" Hide asked, slightly surprised.
"No," Suzunaka replied, and didn't say another word.
Shitana and Hide looked over at each other, and a strange look passed between them. Finally, however, they were forced to leave, heading back to their respective homes.
Suzunaka, however, simply remained, listening to the noise.