A/N: 360 Degrees is moving!

Halloz, my faithful 360 Degrees followers/favouriters, 360 degrees will be moving to my (Crystal's) personal account, Crystal Renee Lee. I have posted a few chapters on that account so in case you haven't favourited/followed it, go do it! The story in this account will be officially deleted after the 6th chapter comes out :) (Or after all of you move…)

Sorry for the inconvenience caused! I was also hesitating to move it since it has so many followers and favourites for this story in this account...I was afraid I would lose my old favouriters and followers, which will really break my heart if I lost any just because I moved the story's ownership! So if you did favourited or followed the story, please do so in the other account! :D

And don't worry! The content of the story won't change.

Thank you! :)

P.S. This chapter has been betaread by The Sandslash Named Gaara. Enjoy!

Chapter 5: Going deeper into reality

Yagura stared at the plate of sushi in front of him. If this was just a way his sensei came up with to help regain his right mind, Yagura would've been glad to tell him from the very beginning that he was sure he wasn't ready for the chunin exams, but the plate of sushi he was dying to get since the trip to the hospital was cajoling him to come for it...indulge in it...but with two pairs of eyes watching him, he'd lost the appetite to eat anything.

He looked up at the chef standing behind the counter. She was calmly watching Yagura stare back at her as if it was a very common interacting gesture. Yagura knew she was worried about him, and so was the twenty year old jounin sitting beside him, looking from the plate to Yagura, wondering if he was going to take his food or not. Poor sensei. He was probably so puzzled on why the usually confident little Yagura suddenly seemed deflated today, but Yagura had his own reasons.

Unable to resist the hunger and temptation any longer, Yagura dug in for the food. His mother finally smiled.

"As I was saying, Saruki...for goodness' sake, Yagura is only nine. Can't he wait? He's growing too fast." his mother beseeched to him as she finally placed a plate of sushi she had been holding back in front of Saruki.

"Trust me, Mira-chan, he's skilled enough to take on any genin out there, both physically and intelligently, except..." Saruki glanced at Yagura. The poor kid was trying his best to look distracted by the food he was wolfing down. "...he suddenly dropped the bomb this morning that he wasn't mentally prepared."

"If he's not prepared then he's not prepared. He's only been a genin for four months."

"I understand that, but most of his peers are applying this round, so it's his time as well. The kids there will be older, I know, but age is just a number."

His old folk sighed. "I don't know a lot about shinobi, so I can't make a proper decision without my husband around anym- I mean, it's not really up to me. It's Yagura's decision."

"I know, it's just - he seemed fine after the mission."

Sensei was right. Yagura was fine after the mission. As usual, during the fight he felt fear, then retaliation, then calmness, then relief. What usually came after that train of emotions would be pride and a boost of confidence.

But not this time.

This time, it stopped after pride. It wasn't unusual for a nine year old to have his confidence deflated after fighting a kekkei genkai user for the first time. He still defeated him, but it still made Yagura doubt his path of career. Kekkei genkai users were different from commoners. You will never know what unique skills they have up their sleeves hidden from everyone's knowledge. And when you do find out, you would have already been caught.

"And it's not like you are going to see the other two again." Saruki turned to him and said.

Yagura shot up, gulping. "Wot?"

He chuckled. "The third war just broke out, so the exam is a strictly domestic affair. Right now every village is having their own chunin exams." He shoved another sushi into his mouth. "You really didn't think it was going to be an international event, didn't you?"

Yagura did. It had always been that way until the third war broke out, so now he blamed his sensei for not mentioning it earlier.

"So are you still going, Yagura?" his mother queried quizzically after staying silent for quite some time. Yagura nodded profusely. She sighed. "My son, you are growing up too fast." She casted a glance at his teacher who was happily chomping down his food.

"It's your fault!" his mother pointed an accusing finger at Saruki. Saruki raised his hands up.

"Hey, it's not me that forced him to graduate so fast!"

Yagura smiled at the exchange.

"And now if you could excuse me…I have things to do." Saruki sled out of the stool after finishing his lunch. "See you later, Yagura."

Yagura watched his sensei hastened down the streets before his mother could playfully accuse his sensei for Yagura's favour of reverence at a young age. His mother shook her head and resumed her work in the kitchen, leaving Yagura to deal with his lunch alone. Needless to say, he was released from his tenterhooks. Chunin exam, from what the older kids told him, was a form of war for the applicants. When it was an international affair, kids from different villages would try to bring each other down during the survival test, some brilliant talents from other villages were murdered, and spies were sent in on an espionage to assassinate the Kage. Being put out there to fight against hundreds of kids whose abilities are unknown and unsuspecting was beyond intimidating.

He knew he would have to learn how to deal with unsuspected sooner or later, but at the moment it was ranked nowhere near the top of his list of concerns.

Until Jinpachi showed up.

"Mira-san! I want a plate of maki too!" he called out loud before plopping onto the stool before Yagura. Ameyuri and Kushimaru came seconds later and plonked their cumbersome backpacks to the ground. Yagura looked on.

"Came back from a mission?" Yagura asked while biting onto his wooden chopsticks. Kushimaru grunted. Jinpachi nodded.

"Yes." Jinpachi said with an unusually cheerful tone despite the new large slash mark on his left arm. "Guess who we ran into."

Yagura looked at him, puzzled. There was no one he particularly knew outside the village that they may have known too, unless they ran into the same Konoha kekkei genkai users, but that was very unlikely. He or she had to be someone popular.

But he had no idea who.

"The Yellow Flash." Ameyuri ended his thoughts.

"Who is that?" Yagura questioned with a slight tone of disappointment that this apparently widely known figure was someone he has no knowledge of.

"You've never heard of him?" Ameyuri said, a little shocked. "Gosh Yagura, what have you been doing the past four months? Watching grass grow?"

"No!" he protested, not realising that Jinpachi had sneaked one of Yagura's sushi into his mouth.

"He's from Konoha, and he's really fast. He's like, the fastest guy I've ever met, even faster than Kushimaru."

Kushimaru snarled.

"And someone finally outsped Kushimaru." Jinpachi said, swallowing the remaining mirths of sushi in his mouth. "He's not happy."

"Shut up." Kushimaru growled. Jinpachi smirked to himself.

"I've never heard of him before." Yagura simply said after walloping his lunch, well aware that a piece of sushi was missing.

"Whatever it is, we ran into him when we were delivering letters to a base. Might sound crazy, but I've managed to stab him in the arm." Ameyuri proudly pointed to herself.

"Yeah, that was because he had sympathy for you since you are a girl. He hesitated midair. " Jinpachi sneered. "While Kushimaru and I fought him like a man."

Ameyuri guffawed. "Oh yeah? He took you two down with only one hand even before you could react. You didn't even get to hurt him. If it wasn't for Nobunaga-sensei, you two would have been dead meat. I didn't get pummelled, not even once."

Jinpachi exploded. "It's because you are a girl!"

"So! Even girls can become one of the seven swordsmen of the Mist! There's no difference between us." Ameyuri shot up and glared at Jinpachi over Yagura's head, totally oblivious of his presence. Yagura had the urge call peace between them, but shook the idea off instead. He was never a skilled mediator. He was more concerned about Kushimaru who had been staying silent, growing redder and trembling in rage as seconds ticked by. Never before have he seen him so scarred, suppressed and angry at something. He looked like he could explode any time.

The bickering between Ameyuri and Jinpachi wasn't aiding the situation either.

"In the history of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, there was never a girl, so dream on." Jinpachi still continued to argue as their plate of maki had arrived.

"Wait and see! I'll be the first female swordsman in the Mist and outspeed the both of you!"

The sound of a wooden stool crashing to the floor caught their attention. They averted their gazes from the fallen stool to their teammate who was already speeding away from their sight. Helplessly and wordlessly, they watch their enraged friend disappear into the mist. Deep inside, Yagura was quite relieved that he didn't burst or went on a rampage outside his mother's sushi stall, but he knew that suppressing emotion wasn't the best choice for one's mental health.

Especially for someone inexpressible like Kushimaru.

Nevertheless, Ameyuri was the first to recover from the event.

"Don't bother him. He's just upset he is not the fastest shinobi after all."

"Does that mean we get to have his share of sushi?" Jinpachi quizzed, poking at the plate of unagi roll with his chopsticks.

"Yeah. He won't have the appetite anyways." Ameyuri said joyfully as she broke her chopsticks apart. Yagura sighed inwardly. Even Kushimaru's teammates gave no heartfelt. He felt a little sorry for his tall friend.

"Hey Yagura." Jinpachi murmured while chewing his food, exposing all the contents in his mouth for Yagura to see. "If you have never heard of the Yellow Flash, then who the heck from Konoha have you met with?"

"Uh...a group of way older kids...some formation clan I think..."

Ameyuri looked at him sharply. "Ino-shika-cho?"

Yagura was puzzled once again. "Huh?"

"Holy shit. And you escaped them?" Jinpachi nearly fell off his seat.

"We had homefield advantage..." Yagura trailed off, not knowing what to say. He didn't even know if they were talking about the same group of people.

"But you and Saruki against the three of them?"

"Four, actually. Plus their sensei." Yagura corrected. Confusion decorated his friends' faces, and soon it reached his too. Yes. They were definitely not talking about the same group of people.

"Oh. You met with their kids." Ameyuri said, retreating back into her unimpressed tone. It disappointed Yagura a little too. Just then he was receiving respect and adoration, and now it had all dissipated.

"But still. Holy shit. Their kids are five years older than you." Jinpachi said as he tongued sushi in piece after piece.

He shrugged. Although that was the closest he had ever gotten to death, their strength wasn't much of a big deal. As long as you knew their weakness, the fight would be yours for the taking. Despite the thick mist that Saruki and him had taken advantage of, his opponent was not much different from a mere genin - which he may had been just one then - even though he was half a decade older, and Yagura was only nine.

Shame on Inoichi.

"Their kids are no big deal." Ameyuri said after taking the last piece of sushi. "But run into the adults and it is over."

"Luckily we had Nobunaga-sensei. No one can outspeed sensei." Jinpachi proudly spoke up. "Next time I'll become a swordsman and take over his blade."

"His blade?" Yagura asked. "More like a giant needle and a long string."

Jinpachi frowned. "Whatever! I just want to surpass him! I'll take the Kiba!"

Ameyuri glared at him. "I'm taking the Kiba. It's a tradition for the Kiba wielders to have lightning natured chakra. You don't have the lighting element."

"Whatever! I'll take anything that's there!"

"Take your brother's sword. It's pretty cool." Ameyuri sat up, getting ready to leave. "But before that you're going to have to pass the chunin exams next week. I'm going to train. See you there too, Yagura-kun." She said as she left the store.

"Hey! I'm not paying for your food!" Jinpachi yelled at her out of earshot. She ignored him. Furiously, he flipped her the finger and cussed inwardly as he dug into his coin pouch.

"That bitch...I'll teach her in the exams..."

Yagura felt a lump in his heart. Confidence starting to flow out of him again. Facing the feisty trio in the exams as well?

He won't stand a chance.

A week later, roughly a hundred genin congregated at the hall of their old academy. Nothing about it has changed, obviously, for the past five months. Outdated sheets of notices were pasted on the front wall. The high, wide ceiling hung over the heads of candidates who loitered about in the halls, anxiously waiting for their first examiner to arrive. A majority of them were already there since morning, practising their taijutsu skills with teammates as others started to arrive, glancing at their surreal speed in dodging and kicking before making a beeline for the row of cushioned chairs provided for waiting applicants. Some came with their own furnished blades on their shoulder, brandishing maliciously at people, bragging how they were going to pass the exam.

This year, just like every other year when Kirigakure held its own exams, was going to be tough. Every other genin who wasn't swinging their blades about or showing off their taijutsu in the waiting hall were probably already thinking of dropping out. Fiddling in their seats in trepidation, they began to count with their eyes on the people they may want to avoid.

There's one.

"Raiga, hey, long time no see." Jinpachi casually greeted the older brawny genin who had his own blade belted on his back as Yagura and the others watched from their seats in a sequestered corner. Some genin who were watching the exchange gulped and winced at the sight of Kirigakure's two strongest blade-wielding genin. "Nice blade."

Raiga smirked. "Yours looks puny."

Before Jinpachi could explode, Ao interjected. "Did anyone see Kushimaru?"

"You mean that punk who is as tall as I am? Why would he bother coming? He won't stand a chance against me anyways." Raiga snorted.

"At least he's lighter than you are..." Jinpachi murmured under his breath.

Before an obese blade could connect solidly with his skull, Ameyuri intercepted with her own blade, inches away from Jinpachi's head. The tiny commotion attracted much attention despite the flurry of activities buzzing about in every corner of the room. Oblivious to the attention they were attracting as always, the trio remained in that stance for a few long seconds before Ameyuri withdrew her blade after making sure Raiga's strength in his blade was sapped back into him.

Yagura could only watch in amusement.

He could already see his death.

"Who's this chick?" Raiga sneered, earning a fierce glare from Ameyuri. Yagura felt a little happy for her as she'd finally gained a little recognition, just like what she'd always wanted. But getting marked by Raiga, especially before an exam, is not something everyone can afford to be proud of. As if his figure wasn't intimidating enough, the sight his blade was already efficient to send a chunin scurrying away with their tail between their legs.

He had to agree with Jinpachi. He had a nice blade. Probably the biggest one he had ever seen.

"Next time, don't expect me to save your ass." Ameyuri said, eyes narrowing at Jinpachi. He rolled his eyes.

"I didn't ask you to."

Ameyuri took one more glimpse at Raiga before casing back her razor sharp blade. Although it had just blocked Raiga's incredible strength and equally incredible sword, not a single blunt spot was seen on its edge. Yagura could tell that she had sharpened her blade for hours the night before, specially for today. Some fresh sharpening marks were noticed by his sharp eyes. He knew because he has a knife himself.

Instinctively, he glanced at his cased dagger in his grip. Initially he didn't feel one bit excited to see it again, but gradually the feels started coming back to him. Apart from sterilising it, his sensei even took the effort to sharpen it and gave him a fitted cover to prevent him from getting hurt by it when it is in his pocket. All in all, he was glad that it was finally back in his hands again after five months. Holding it felt so strange yet familiar at the same time.

He removed the case and admired it for the eleventh time that morning. Its metallic features was glimmering clearer compared to that day five months ago. The tip was as sharp as a needle's point, making Yagura a little scared and worried that it might someday grow legs and stab his eyes. Little kids with vivid imagination.

But the feature that captured him the most this time was the same watermark resembling a red dolphin. He rubbed the outlines with the pad of his thumb. The texture of the watermark and the dagger's steely smooth surface was completely the same, a trait he never noticed until now. He didn't know much about knives and swords, let alone like to be associated with it, but he was genuinely interested in how the bladesmith managed to panned the red coloured logo with the same materials and made it into one piece.

"Nice dagger." Ao, who was sitting next to Yagura the whole time, complimented. Yagura look up from his dagger abruptly. Ao leaned towards the dagger and scrutinised it. Just like Yagura, his attention was caught by the watermark, but the comments he made about it were nothing like his.

"Isn't this the same logo on Raiga's blade?" he questioned, pointing towards the teen who was now waving his blade at Ameyuri and Jinpachi. It wasn't hard at all to spot the exact same watermark on the heel of Raiga's blade despite him swinging the thing around.

"Same maker, maybe?" Yagura suggested, not as surprised as Ao looked. At nine, he had already acknowledged the existence of something called "mass production", unlike most kids his age who make a big fuss over meeting someone who wore the same shirt as them.

Before Ao could produce another word, a stern voice of a jounin coming from the front of the hall reeled their attention.

"Listen up!" a man with a long black cloak and a grumpy face roared across the place, causing a few genin to flinch. "The first phase of the test will be a test of knowledge and skills. Only half of you will pass this test and move onto the next stage. A group of ten of you will enter a classroom with an examiner. No questions asked!"

All of the genin hurriedly ascended towards the jounin, mind wondering what exactly the test was. Cluelessly, Yagura and nine others were led away to the first classroom in the hall. Moving into the bright room, he squinted his eyes before accustoming his eyes to the bright lights. The seats where students usually sat in class were removed, revealing a spacious classroom. The only other candidates he recognized in the room were Ameyuri and Raiga. Ameyuri, who was standing in front of him, looked at him over her shoulders and gave him a thumbs up. He swallowed his saliva. He dearly hoped that this wouldn't be another slay-each-other test.

Two jounin stood in front of the ten of them and gestured for the ones standing behind the group to come forward. Just as they took down their names, the same female kunoichi from Yagura's academy graduation test cleared her throat.

"I need all of you to stand far from each other. We are going to enter you into a genjutsu scene. Your goal is to finish whatever task is given to you. The five of you who complete the task first will pass. Dispel the genjutsu and you fail. Any questions?"

They shook their heads. Raiga only smirked.

"Okay. Then good luck." She said before performing a few hand seals Yagura had never seen before. In an instant, the classroom and the people in it started to disappear, replaced by a typical traditional Japanese room. Recovering from his dizziness, Yagura looked at the room before him. Behind him was a sliding door shut close, indicating that turning back was not an option now.

Shuffling his feet under the tatami flooring, he inched his way towards a note on the low table in the middle of the empty room. With the sunlight shining through the translucent door as his only source of light, he read the note.

Assassinate the master of the residence in his bed room, situated in the last house.

Joy.

No matter how normal it is supposed to be for a Kirigakure shinobi to assassinate someone, to Yagura, it gave him creeps. Right after he picked up the note, two doors appeared on both sides of the room with a note plastered on it. The note on the right door read: "Enter and you will die with regrets" whereas the note on the left door read: "Enter and you'll live with guilt".

Yagura shivered. What's with the melodramatic grammar?

There was no other way out of the room so he considered the two doors. After a long time, his mind nagged at him and reminded him to make up his mind before the other five genin pass the task. Restlessly, he grabbed the note on the right door and walked in. His sight plunged into darkness before a flower garden revealed itself in front of his eyes. The aroma of fresh pollen penetrated his nostrils. He blinked. He turned around to see if the door was still there.

Nothing was there except for an arse of bandits.

Swiftly, he dodged the first immediate incoming attack and leaped backwards from the second. Instinctively, he carried out a few hand seals. Water in shapes of razor blades flew right towards them-

-and pass through them.

Yagura stared in horror. The men were completely unaffected by his ninjutsu. Yagura tried again as they advanced forward. He sent the razor-shaped water towards them. They materialized again. As if totally oblivious to his technique, they continued to swing their katana at him. Yagura fished out some kunai and threw it at them. Same thing. Dodging the blows, Yagura's mind raced. Ninjutsu didn't work against them, kenjutsu probably wouldn't work as well, how about taijutsu? No, that would be worse.

A sharp pain on his arm jolted him back to the situation. He inaudibly screamed. The pain was worse than what the new scar looked like and the smell of his blood was stronger than ever. Calm down, he reminded himself. It's just genjuts-

Not watching his steps, he fell into the flower bushes. He had fallen onto prickly roses out of pure dumb luck. He quickly stood up and regained his balance before getting pricked by another rose thorn, only to meet with the gang of bandits still advancing towards him. Panicking, he turned and ran to the opposite direction they were heading to, trampling over pretty flowers and plants he mentally apologized to.

Then he froze.

It was a brick wall. He was cornered.

He turned around again, facing the bandits. Their masked faces gave him no clue at all for what to do. Their swords gleamed under the sun ray. It's just a genjutsu, it's just a genjutsu, it's just a genjuts-

But it didn't help him.

"Dispel the genjutsu and you fail." The examiner's words echoed through his mind again. He shook his head. He couldn't afford to give up now. What would Jinpachi and the others say if he did? What would Saruki-sensei say if he did? He would be so humiliated. He would be looked down on. He would let his teacher down.

There had to be a way. The jounin mentioned that it was a test of knowledge and skills. He had tried skills but nothing worked. Maybe it was knowledge? Intelligence?

Yagura looked around him. Apart from roses, he recognized some other plants that his mother also planted in their backyard. Lillies, Daisies, Aconitum flowers…nothing that could help him. Not that he knew of anyways. He picked out a purple flower that was prickling him on his back. He was about to toss it to the ground when the bandits started slashing at him again after seconds of making sure he was thoroughly cornered. Wincing, he dug out his dagger and blocked the incoming attacks, dodging under them. In a lucky split second, he spotted a loophole between two bandits and wasted no time rushing pass them to a safer area.

Ignoring their yells as he ran, he spotted several other bandits jumping from roof to roof on top of houses. He slotted himself through the gap of an empty house and hid his chakra signs to prevent from being noticed. He waited. The footsteps of the previous group of bandits who were chasing after him trampled past the house. His heart leaped with relief. Taking on the whole gang of them was clearly a disadvantage to him since none of the types of jutsu would work. They could inflict damage on him, but he couldn't hurt them.

Maybe that was the whole point?

He scanned the room to make sure that it was vacant before taking a further step in. The room was similar to the first room he entered, but instead of a note and a low table, there was nothing. He sat on the floor and started to think. Nothing here could aid him. His ninjutsu, taijutsu, ninja tools and maybe even kenjutsu had no effect on the enemies.

How was he going to kill the master? There had to be a way.

Then he felt something moist.