Through My Eyes

Thanks to vnienhuis and Shini the megami for the review.

Shini I can understand what you mean by making my characters too strong and I did adjust this chapter a little to make the somewhat characters believable. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion I have taken it into account and after reading my first chapter again I did realise where I went wrong.

Anyway enough of that here's the next chapter.

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Chapter 2: Test Time

So we have learned of the test that we have to pass to actually become Genin. I was quite frightened about my experience but then again I was always the 'scaredy cat'. Not very good to be such a wimp and a kunoichi is it…? Over time I did become a little braver willing to take a few risks even if it meant my life. But that's another chapter of my life. Here's what happened for our test…

The three of us left the room shortly after Tamasine had explained his plan. We decided that seeing as this test could occur at anytime we should stick together. Also, Tamasine had a noticed something rather important. Just before Asa-sensei left he said, "See you soon." Whether this had any significants or not, we weren't sure. But a point that Tamasine had made was that Asa-sensei would have said something like, "See you tomorrow." So we now believed that the test could be sprung on us at anytime soon and before the next day. Truth be told we still were clueless on what was going to happen or when.

The afternoon soon turned to night and yet nothing had happened. If it was bad enough that we had to last the afternoon keeping an eye on our backs we now had to last the night. The three of us had decided to stay at my house seeing as my parents were away and that Haruko, my brother, wouldn't care. The night dragged on as we struggled to stay awake. Midnight came and went and yet nothing had happened. By two o'clock I really was finding it hard to keep my eyes open… But suddenly I saw something out the corner of my eye. I turned my head to look at Toshi and Tamasine and it looked as if they saw it too.

"Did you guys see that?" I asked getting up and grabbing my weapons.

"Yep," replied Toshi simply, also collecting his weapons.

"Let's go, we don't want to wake your brother," Tamasine said who was already at the front door.

Toshi and I quickly followed Tamasine to the front door and slipped out silently. Once I was outside I notice that the street lights were off and the only source of light was from the glowing blue moon high up in the sky.

"What now?" I asked unsure of what our next move should be.

"Time to put our plan into action," Toshi stated and started to move into a side street to the left.

"Remember to keep an eye on our backs, see you soon," Tamasine said running off into a side street to the right.

"Good luck guys," I said before jumping up and over buildings. Our plan was to split up and make our own way to the training grounds.

Toshi was to take the side streets to the left and Tamasine took the side streets to the right. This left me to go directly down the centre and keep an eye on both of them from behind. It just so happen that the two streets were parallel to one another making it a lot easier for me to keep an eye on both my team mates.

I could feel my heart beating against my chest as I continued to jump from building to building as silently as possible. I looked over to my left to see if anyone had been following Toshi. My eyes widened as a saw a shadowy figure come out of thin air. Still running and jumping to keep up with my team mates, I slipped one of my needles from the hem of my sky blue tank top. Taking a deep breath I looked at my target and aim for the back and base of person's neck. I could feel my heart rate increase dramatically, I had done many practice shots before and each time hitting the target but something within me had doubt on whether or not I would hit my target. I pushed those negative thoughts aside and refocused on paralysing this shadowy figure.

In a movement that came quite naturally to me I threw the needle at my target. The person was now only a metre or so away from Toshi now and as the needle flew through the air, practically unnoticeable. It hit the base of the person's neck and they fell to the ground and burst into a puff of smoke. Toshi quickly turned around when he heard the puff of smoke as the clone disappeared. He hesitated for a moment but then continued his way to the training ground. Damn it was a shadow clone, I thought and I quickly glanced to my left to see whether or not one was following Tamasine. Turns out there was so I pulled out another needle that was in the hem of my top.

This time I didn't hesitate, I found my target and aimed for the base of the person's neck once again. Once again I drew my arm back and quickly swung forward where I let go. It flew trough the air unnoticed and narrowly missed my target. But once again the figure stopped felt to their knees and went out into a puff of smoke.

I sighed to myself and continued running at full speed to get to the training grounds the around the same time as my team mates. But somewhere in the back of my head I could feel that I had forgotten something. Something rather important. Shaking my head I checked both my team mate. No, they were fine and no one was following them.

Suddenly I heard footsteps. They were quiet but they were there. Pulling out my tessen (iron fold-up fan) I looked either side. Toshi and Tamasine were fine. Then it hit me. I figured out what I had forgotten. "Damn it!" I side just above a whisper. I then turned around to see a shadowy figure launch at me, a kunai in his left hand. I had only just managed to dodge it and as proof a few stands on hair fell to the ground. But I had no more time to figure anything out I had to do with what I had. I flipped backwards to keep the distance between us and pulled out a kunai. This was one of the very rare times I used a kunai. Anyway, the person had stopped running and now they stopped ready for a fight. We stood there for a few moments; I was waiting for that person to do the first move, while they waited for me. Deciding we were getting no where by just standing here, I tried my best to slip the last needle out of the hem of my top unnoticed. Whether or not it was successful, I'm not really sure…

Still holding the kunai in the same hand as the one I was holding onto the needle I made a swift movement and threw both the kunai and needle at the same time. My reasoning behind this was that I made sure the needle was just that little bit under the kunai. This way the light from the moon wouldn't reflect off my needle and because the kunai was black it was difficult to see. So the needle was flying threw the air hidden by the shadow of the kunai. However, my throw was way off due to the difference in weight of the kunai. Training endless hours with the needles meant I was use to its weight and anything heavier meant I would always be off target, the main reason why I wouldn't use kunai or shuriken.

I don't know whether he, yes now that I saw his face up close I realised it was a guy, actually saw the kunai or the needle or both… But either way he dodged both with ease and I was left standing there trying to think of something to do. Taking a quick look behind, I saw that the training grounds were so close… And yet to me they were so far… If I could just make it to the training grounds than at least I would have Toshi and Tamasine to back me up. But I had to think of a way to get there without turning my back to the enemy. I saw I slight movement it was very quick and next thing I knew I saw two kunai flying my way.

With my left hand I quickly flicked the tessen open and moved it in front of myself just before the kunai could hit me. If my heart wasn't racing before it was defiantly now. Trying to calm myself to think straight I took in a deep breath. I folded up the fan and held it by my side as I looked at the shinobi in front of me. I was scared, very scared. I never knew what it was like to come up against anyone like this and at this time of day, or maybe night… Well anyway, I swallowed clearing my thoughts of fear. If I wanted to make it as an ANBU I would need to prove that I could face death in the face. Though I knew this wasn't a life or death situation, it sure felt like it, and if you were in my shoes you'd feel the same way.

I took half a step back, and he didn't seem to move. I took another half a step back and he didn't seem to notice. I raised an eyebrow. Before he had observed my moves very closely and now he was just standing there. Deciding to make the best of the situation I placed the tessen in one of my back pockets. I then placed my hands in a seal and yelled. "Bunshin no Jutsu!" With that there was a puff of smoke and four clones appeared.

If you were the shinobi trying to attack me, I was the one on the far right but he didn't know that. So I and the three clones closer to the outer side ran forward at the shinobi, while the one that was in the centre ran back and jumped off the edge of the building. The clones and I were now all running towards the shinobi with a needle drawn. While still running my clones and I pulled out the tessen from our back pocket and flicked it open.

My plan seemed to of worked, or he could have done that on purpose… I don't really know. But anyway the shinobi simply jumped and did a flip over us and went on to pursue the clone that was now just within the training grounds. Once my clone had gone behind the first tree in the training grounds I deactivated the jutsu to make sure Toshi and Tamasine didn't get confused. I then jumped off the side of the building and landed on the ground safely. Looking to my left I saw that the shinobi had just made it within the gate and was still continuing to run.

Checking my surroundings quickly, when I saw noting or no one coming, so I placed my tessen in my back pocket and I ran for the gate. Hope they kept their guards up, I thought as I sprinted the last few metres to the gate. Slowing down just before I got there I peeked through the brushes to make sure the coast was clear. And indeed it was. Once inside I jumped into the closest tree and made as little sound as possible. I then jumped from tree to tree to see where the shinobi and my team mates were. Training ground one, empty, training ground two, empty, training ground three. I narrowly missed being hit by a kunai as it flew into the tree. Sighing in relief I continued to move so I could get a better view of what was going on.

Crouching down on the tree branch I slowly walked over to where the leaves hung and moved them aside. I froze in my spot at the site that I saw. There wasn't one shinobi there were two. The one that I was fighting with before was there and the other one was a female… I thought for a moment there could be a reasonable expansion for all this. He could create shadow clones so he could have just transformed one. Yeah, that was right it's probably just a clone, I thought to myself. It had made enough sense, so I was sticking with that idea. Pulling out a needle from my kunai holster, I moved a few more leaves out of the way and took aim. This time I decided to aim for the right arm of the kunoichi, seeing as I couldn't see the back of her neck. Ok, here we go, I said to myself. Concentrating on a pressure point on her right wrist I took a deep breath before I threw the needle. And… I waited for what seemed like hours to see whether or not it was a clone. In reality it was only a few seconds and the needle missed where I had been aiming but as luck hit another point just above the one I had been aiming for. The kunoichi reacted the exact way I thought she would. She lost the grip of her kunai and dropped it to the ground and gave Toshi, who was fighting her, a chance to attacker her. But something that I had realised now was it fact that she wasn't a clone she was very much real. Caught up in my own thought I didn't see the kunoichi look in my direction and throw a kunai with her left hand.

I saw it just moments before it could hit me and I moved away just in time but also slightly losing my balance. I sighed in relief as I regained my balance. Now that the kunoichi had spotted me she yelled to the shinobi that I had been fighting off only moments before.

"There's the other one up in the tree," she yelled pointing at the tree I was still crouching in.

Pulling the tessen out once again and quickly placing three needles into the hem of my top I looked around for the shinobi. He disappeared, he was no longer on the ground just in front of me, he was gone.

"You should remember to keep an eye on your back," I heard a very familiar voice say.

Turning my head slowly I looked to see the shinobi right behind me kunai in hand. It was defiantly the same person a kunai was once again in his left hand. I thought for a moment wondering why the voice was so familiar but I guess that was the wrong thing to do. He pretended to attack me with the kunai and forgetting that I was on the very edge of a branch on a tree I fell backwards and landed flat on my back on the ground.

"Ouch…" I said rubbing my back and trying to keep an eye on the shinobi and get to my team mates.

The shinobi now jumped from the tree and down to the ground with much more grace than me. Flicking my tessen open I looked at my team mates. Toshi seemed a little tired but nothing serious and Tamasine looked… Normal, it looked like he didn't even do anything.

"So the team is now whole," the shinobi said bringing me back to reality. That voice it was so familiar but I still couldn't figure out who it was.

"Stop hiding behind that transformation jutsu and just face us normally, Asa-sensei," Tamasine stated rather confidently.

I whacked my forehead, it was obvious it was Asa-sensei and yet I couldn't figure it out. But then if that was Asa-sensei, who was the kunoichi? Yes, if you haven't figured it out when I was that age I got sidetracked really easily and some of the time I did forget what was more important. But now that's all changed, hopefully… Anyway, we stood there for a few moments just looking at each other… Toshi was now on my right side and Tamasine on my left. Asa-sensei and the kunoichi were side by side about two metres in front of us.

"I see you finally made it, Kagami," Toshi said quietly into my ear. "I was worried for a second." He added in the last part as a joke and even though I couldn't see his face I could tell he was smiling.

"So you figured that it was me," Asa-sensei stated and released the jutsu and in a puff of smoke we saw the dark grey, almost black hair, and grey eyes that belonged to the Asa-sensei we met just a few hours back. "Well anyway this is your test…"

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So that's the second chapter. I just had to have some sort of cliff hanger. So leave a review and I try to get the next chapter to you as fast as possible.

Hope to see a review from you

Liteflame