11. The Four Tests of Skill -

The four teams stood in front of their school waiting for the jounins to appear. Tired and hungry, all twelve Genins waited for their Jonins. It was already close to ten in the morning. They've been waiting since eight. Shizu sighed loudly as she rested her head against the wall.

"I still can't believe I got up that earlier for this," she complained to her team and the others.

"Relax Shizu, our Jonins are bound to come soon anyways," replied Kakashi calmly, unfazed by how earlier it was.

"No! I don't want to. I'm losing valuable sleep right now. I should still be in bed for another two hours!" Shizu cried exasperatedly. Genta laughed at Shizu. She was being normal even though the incident in the Village Hidden in the Fruit wasn't so long ago...

"I'm truly amazed at how stupid you are..." Musashi commented. Shizu ignored his insult. Kakashi just sighed as he sat there with his head in his hands.

"Someone's coming!" Hayoto said brightly. Shizu stared at him in disbelief.

"I can't believe someone like you exist," she muttered as she closed her eyes, ready to sleep.

"HELLO!!!! WHERE IS MY ADORABLE TEAM ONE!?" screamed the most annoying voice any of them has ever heard. Shizu felt like crying as her two teammates stepped forward to greet their Jonin.

"NOOOO!!!," she yelled into Kakashi's ears. "WHY?!?!" Tears streamed down her face.

"I am Atsuya Kyuuka! I will be your Jonin! Now! Follow me!"

Shizu wiped her face and followed, grudgingly.

He shouted pointing to the sky and then the direction he came from. Kakashi and Tetsuma followed after him with a reluctant Shizu shuffling behind. They stopped in front of a river. "ALRIGHTY! We're gonna take a little test! And let's make things straight here... I'm not your friend okay? So don't take me lightly alright?" Atsuya gave them a toothy grin as he backed up closer to the path that had led them there. A quick flash quickly passed by and an "oomph" was heard. Shizu fell down onto the ground hard on her butt while Kakashi held out a kunai. Tetsuma was faced down on the ground with Atsuya's foot on his head and his arms tied together. Atsuya's stupid grin disappeared into a wicked smirk, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Shizu... I want you to kill Kakashi... Or Tetsuma dies." Shizu crawled backwards toward the river, shaking. "Go on kill him already... Kill him!" Atsuya shouted at her smashing Tetsuma's head more into the ground. "HURRY!" Shizu cried when she heard Tetsuma shout in pain. Atsuya smirked even more. "She has the weakest emotional strength in this group... I'm not surprised how she's reacting..." Atsuya thought to himself. Kakashi glared at Atsuya when he noticed the joy he was having seeing Shizu having trouble. Without thinking Kakashi quickly threw the kunai he pulled out earlier at Atsuya. Atsuya's smirk turned back to his stupid grin. He held Kakashi's kunai between his index and middle finger before throwing it back at Kakashi. Kakashi jumped out of the way, but then shielded his face as the kunai exploded once it touched the ground. Kakashi hopped back a few times having a good distant from Atsuya. Tetsuma tried getting up only to be stomped on even harder. Tetsuma grunted while Atsuya quickly threw kunai at Kakashi. Kakashi dodged those, but didn't know the explosive tags that hid in the shadows of the kunai. Kakashi didn't have time to react and shielded himself waiting for them to explode. When nothing came he opened his eye a bit. A watery shield was slowly dissolving onto the ground with the notes hissing softly as the burned out. Atsuya glanced lightly back to Shizu who was standing knee deep in the river.

"Thanks Shizu!" said Kakashi gratefully. (He wasn't gonna suffer from having scorched hair :D ahem... XD). Shizu smiled lightly at him before she glared at Atsuya. Shizu quickly started hand seals as the river water began to rise behind her. Before she could finish the last seal, Atsuya took his foot off of Tetsuma and unbind his arms. He walked toward the path they came from a bit before turning around. He threw confetti up into the sky before putting on a stupid grin.

"You all... PASS!" There was silent. "WHOO!! YAY!! ALRIGHT! Oh come on you guys. You're as boring as Chi-chan," complained Atsuya when there weren't any looks of joy. "Whatever. Screw you guys too. I'm gonna go home... I'll fill you guys later what we're gonna do tomorrow." Atsuya pulled out a magazine from his pocket which was magical because the magazine was obviously bigger than the pocket. Tetsuma glared at Atsuya's back noticing what magazine he had... Tetsuma's face fell into disgust before he pointed an accusing finger.

"PERVERT!!!" he screamed at him.

Atsuya turned around with an innocent look as if there was nothing wrong with looking at a dirty magazine. Shizu looked over at Atsuya and saw the magazine. It read, "Our Dirty Secrets" with a lady in a skimpy bikini on the cover winking. Shizu's face fell into disgust as well and pointed an accusing finger at him while the other hand started forming a water sphere. Kakashi too had noticed the dirty magazine. Shizu threw the ball at Atsuya as he began to run away with the three Genin following close behind screaming pervert.

Teams two, three, and four looked up when the saw a smoke of dust come by with shouts of pervert.

It was silent for a while till a mysterious looking Jonin appeared out of no where. Something was clinging to his back that was wrapped up in a black cloth. His pale green eyes quickly gazed over the nine Genins that stood and sat before him. He saw his students and stared at them for a while.

He stared at team 2. "I'm going to be your Jonin... Now follow me," he said in a calm tone before walking off. He abruptly stopped when a giant cloud of dust came running by. He looked straight annoyed by the person in front of the cloud. It was Atsuya Kyuuka... It quickly passed by him. He then continued his walk.

"That dust cloud sounded like Kakashi, Shizu, and Tetsuma," noted Marumi idly. Team two quickly followed after their Jonin. They stopped at the outskirts of the village where their Jonin took off the black covering that concealed the puppets that were on his back.

"I'm Tadohiro Aki. This are my puppet if you were wondering. I want you to show me how strong you are as an individual and as a team. Now... show me what you kids got!" Tadohiro quickly began to maneuver his fingers that were enlaced with chakra threads controlling the puppet. The puppet attacked the three with an incredible speed. Musashi quickly threw fire at it hoping the puppet would catch on fire. "Don't think something like that would destroy this work of art," said Tadohiro with a chuckle. "Something like that makes Ta here offended!" As if on cue Ta hurried off at Musashi with claws raise. Reiko did a few hand seals and shoved Ta away with a strong force of wind. Ta's head turned a 360 degree staring at Reiko with empty eye sockets. Ta's arm detached aiming for Reiko. She dodged but the force had made her crash into a tree, giving Ta a chance. His detached arm clawed her left shoulder, causing her to flinch in pain. Maasaki quickly ran to her aide

"Mystical Palm Technique!" Maasaki yelled, engulfing his hands with radiating blue light. He placed his hand on her shoulder.

Musashi ran at Ta and said "Fire Release: Small Flame". Tadohiro smirked lightly as he moved his fingers moving the limbs of the puppet. While Maasaki and Reiko were out on the side lines Musashi and Ta were fighting.

"Dammit," Musashi swore under his breath as he jumped back. Chakra was quickly disappearing from him. Musashi looked over to where Maasaki was healing up Reiko's wounds. Musashi continued jumping back as Ta attacked him consecutively. Musashi soon tripped himself falling backwards on the ground. Musashi swore profanity as Ta came closer at him. Ta suddenly stopped as something blasted through his head. Musashi looked over and saw that Maasaki had used his White Laser technique and that Reiko had used her wind abilities to strengthen the speed. Ta went limp and fell to the ground. Tadohiro smiled as she went over to his puppet.

"You guys pass. Now meet me here tomorrow for our mission," Tadohiro merely said as he picked up Ta. He then walked off.

A female Jonin appeared that had her headband concealing her eyes. She pointed at team three before quickly disappearing into the distant. Without hesitation, team three ran after her. They stopped once they noticed she was leaning against a monument with her head facing the sky.

"So are you gonna tell us your name?" ask Hayoto smiling as Daichi clung onto his shoulder catching his breath. The Jonin thought about it before replying.

"Chisato... Fuyu..." Her voice was serene and soft. She quickly did hand seals before the Genins could react, trapping them in an illusion.

"Oh man... not again," whined Daichi loudly as he stood in the surrounding white mist.

"Chose a path... both lead to destruction..." called out a quiet voice." The path to your left leads to the death of your male companion the other leads to the death of your female companion." Daichi sneered at the choices before looking up at the white sky.

"I won't choose! I'll make my own path!" Though he felt stupid yelling at nothing, he continued doing it anyway. He ran in the opposite directions of the paths. He never seemed to get any further from the paths as he ran. He stopped, trying to catch his breath. He wasn't going to look back. "I'm not gonna chose your stupid paths! So leave me alone already!"

While Daichi was running in place Hayoto was in a different illusion. His remembrance from the illusion Kuro made.

"Don't worry, child... This is nothing like the one you went through last time... This one holds your destiny..." went the voice. A huge sphere of the world appeared in front of Hayoto. It began to move. "Life is a never ending cycle... So don't worry about the mistakes you make now... because you have multiple chances to learn from them... So... make as many as you can. Do you wish to start this life you have over...? Or do you wish to continue it?" Hayoto looked at the sphere of the world as it rotated.

"Start my life over...?" Hayoto repeated out loud... "Can you... really do that?"

"Of course," the voice responded. It didn't waver at all. Hayoto stared at the world. He was having doubts... maybe he should start his life over that way he could prevent the things that happened in his past... he could stop it all.

"I choose..." he couldn't finish his sentence... the faces of all the people he met appeared... the faces of his friends...

"You wouldn't forget now would you?" It began to echo through his head.

"No, I wouldn't forget... Of course I wouldn't..." Confidence began to grow inside him as he looked back up at the world smiling. "I choose to continue my life as it is."

"I see..." Hayoto smiled as he watched the world rotate in front of him...

Chouko stood in the darkness, the abyss of nothingness. She stared idly at nothing for the longest time. No voice appeared, no light, nothing. She stood there before sitting down.

"So this is what it's like... to lose sight of the light... to be alone..." Chouko whispered slowly to herself. She could feel her life slowly disappear from her as she sat there... "I wonder... is this death..?" She looked up at the supposed sky. "Hm..." She lifted up her hand and couldn't see anything. She sat there knowing... no one was going to help her... no one was going to suddenly appear out of no where like the fairytales she remembered her mother telling her... No one... Suddenly the memory of that one Christmas, the one that appeared when she was trapped in Kuro's illusion... "Tetsuma... He'll come and help me... Because then... he'd have no one to compete with over useless things..." She smiled lightly to herself as the darkness disappeared. All three genins appeared back where they had been right when Chisato introduced herself.

"Go home..." was the only response they got from Chisato before she disappeared. The three stood there dumbstruck before shrugging it off and heading home...

Team three walked back to their home, still questioning what just happened. Forty-five minutes passed.

"Why does our stupid Jonin have to take all day to get here?!?!" complained Marumi. "It's been over an hour!"

"Just be patient," Jin said calmly as he leaned against the nearby giant rock.

A puff of smoke appeared.

"Finally!" yelled Genta with glee.

"HELLO EVERYONE!!!" the girl yelled.

"Oh…my…god," said Marumi depressingly.

"You all look so much cooler in real life!" yelled Tatsumi.

"Nee-chan," Marumi said as she slowly lifted her finger and pointed at Tatsumi. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT WE WERE THE TEAM THAT YOU WERE ASSIGNED TO THIS MORNING?!?!"

"I wanted it to be a surprise!" she said with a smile. "Okay now, follow me!"

The four walked to a nearby cave. "Everyone walk inside!" The cave was only about as big as a small bedroom. Tatsumi performed some hand seals and a rainbow-colored barrier rose from the ground, covering the cave's entrance and exit.

"You job is to stay inside the cave for six hours!" Tatsumi yelled. "You get no food, water, or entertainment!" But you have each other which is lots of entertainment! If you step outside I will know! If you leave the barrier will tell me so, so don't leave! Don't try to escape by destroying the cave and restoring the hole you make to come back later either because this video camera will record everything!" She pulled a video camera out of her pocket. "Bye-Bye! I will be back in six hours!" She disappeared in a puff of smoke. The three of them had looks of disbelief on their faces.

Twenty minutes later…

Marumi's stomach growled. "I'm so hungry," she said. "I had no dinner last night and no breakfast today." She stared at Genta, who was playing with a branch from a tree, and her eyes widened. "If Jin and I team up, we could eat Genta." She thought about what she just said and realized that would not end up good.

"Don't complain," said Jin.

"Why do you always have to tell me what to do!" she yelled.

"It's because you're doing dumb things!" he yelled back.

"Being hungry is not dumb!"

"Yes it is!"
"I don't choose to be hungry!"

"You could have eaten!"

"Well I'm sorry I don't prepare myself in case my sister seals me up in a cave!"Shut up you two," Genta said. "Don't waste your energy."

The two crossed their arms and looked in opposite directions.

Another twenty minutes later…

A puff of smoke appeared and Tatsumi started to say, "You guys pass!"

"But it's only been forty minutes," said Genta.

"What!?!?" yelled Tatsumi. "It was only supposed to be a half-hour." She stared at her watch. "Hehe…my watch stopped working," she said. "The test was supposed to test your will power and patience." Tatsumi grabbed her video camera and shoved it back in her pocket. "Bye-Bye! Come back to the meeting spot tomorrow!"

"I'm going to kill her when I get home!" Marumi yelled.

Marumi sprinted into the direction of her house, leaving Genta and Jin staring.

Meanwhile, Chuugo was standing in his backyard talking to a man wearing a black cloak that was standing in the shadows.

"So what is your decision?" the shadowed man asked.

"I would like to join," he replied.

"Excellent," the man replied. He disappeared.

The front door opened and a girl stepped through. "Nii-san!" she yelled. The door to the backyard opened. "What are you doing our here?"

"Nothing Shizu," he said. He walked back into the house.