Chapter 5: Knock Down or Fail (Meet Sage)
The three genins all came home that night, not really sure what to expect of this test tomorrow that will decide their future as ninjas.
Yin handled the pressure by training with a target dummy. He implemented regular taijutsu with the occasional use of a kunai and shurikens.
Tsuzuku was still tireless and had lot of energy to burn, so she jogged around the town while carry weights. "I won't lose! I'll kick ass tomorrow no matter what!" she motivated herself loudly as she was jogging.
While the other two genins were making sure that they would dominate in their test tomorrow, Xin, however, was too nervous to do anything. He just sat on his bed and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down.
The next day, they all arrived around the same time. The kids looked around the training grounds, and saw their jounin sensei sleeping on a hammock. They walked over to him.
"Should we wake him up?" Xin asked quietly to the others.
I guess…," Yin replied curtly. He looked at the jounin in disgust once he saw a little drool dripping from his face.
"Don't worry, I got it under control," Tsuzuku said with a mischievous grin. "SHIKAMARU-SENSEI! WAKE UP!"
There was still no budging from her very loud wake up call. Xin started analyzing the body and noticed something.
"Um, I think it is an illusion…"
He touched the body, and his hand went through it.
"Took you guys long enough," Shikamaru commented as he stepped out from hiding behind the trees.
"Eh?" Tsuzuku shouted out from shock. "That's a pretty good Buunshin no Jutsu. Mine never looks that real compared to myself. Wanna see?"
"No thanks... Xin, tell me how did you tell it was a genjutsu without touching it?"
"I noticed that it wasn't breathing..."
"Nice job analyzing the subject, but there are also other clues when it comes to a simple genjutsu technique such as this one. When the sun shines on it, the sun rays pass through it. It produces no shadow. There are also other stuff, but you guys will probably forget it five minutes later, so why bother go through this troublesomeness."
"Yeah, let's get on with our test already! Wait..., was that the test? No fair, Shikamaru-sensei! We weren't prepared yet. I demand a re-take. I..."
"No need to go all ballistic. That was just to see how much you remembered from academy school. That phase of your life may be over with, but you must never forget the teachings of the academy school. Some basic stuff that it teaches you can save your life one day... Anyways, (looks at watch) I might as well start the test now. Also, let me the one to tell you that if you fail, back to being academy students you will be."
"WHAT?" they all exclaimed in shock.
"Yeah, so prepare yourself," he warned.
Tsuzuku, Xin, and Yin got into their defensive stances as they look on at what will happen next.
Shikamaru bit his thumb and performed some hand seals. He smacked the floor once he finished, and some smoke was produced.
While the genins look on with awe, Shikamaru went over to the hammock and lied down on it. "Your objective is to simply knock him down, and you'll pass."
"Knock what down?" Tsuzuku turned to her sensei and asked. Xin tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned around and saw their objective of the test.
As the smoke cleared, a big, muscular shadow-like human appeared before them. "What the hell? Who are these little midgets, Shika?"
"No need for me to say much. Just fight them," he ordered carelessly.
"Hey, fuck you! Who in the blue hell do you think you are?"
"Your master..."
"Master..., hah you're real funny! The only reason I come out is because I want to. You have no control over me!"
Shikamaru sighed and muttered about the troublesomeness of his summon before speaking out loud again. "Meet Sage, kids! Now I officially start this test."
The kids just silently stared at the huge dark figure in front of them. They weren't sure how they could even hurt him, let alone knock him down!
Yin shook off his doubts and jumped back. He took out several shurikens out of his weapons pouch. He threw all of them forward, and all of them targeted at Sage.
Sage immediately pulled out an axe out of nowhere to guard himself from the weapons. The weapons just ricocheted and hit the ground.
"You brats want to play games..., let's roll then!" Sage stated. "I'll go easy, 'cuz I don't any of your parents coming at me and start bitching away."
"Oh yeah, we'll kick your ass so bad, we'll make sure you'll never sit down without crying out in extreme pain first! C'mon Xin!" Tsuzuku shouted.
She ran forward and started throwing punches and kicks. Sage, however, dodged and blocked her attacks pretty with ease. He finally knocked her back with his axe.
"Boring...," he stated in fake tired voice. He let out a loud yawn afterwards.
"Damn, he's pretty swift for a big fellow," she said. "Xin, what are you doing standing there!"
"I..., I..., he's too strong. It's impossible for any of us to beat him!"
Tsuzuku just ignored his whining and ran forward again. "Well this is the life of the ninja!"
She went down low and tried to kick him in the legs, but Sage brought his axe down to guard from the attack. The kick hit the axe with great strength, vibrating the blade.
"Hmm... If she works on timing and patience, she can be a lethal taijutsu force on the field..." Shikamaru noticed.
Tsuzuku rolled back and jumped up. She spun her around and went for a kick to the neck, but Sage caught her leg. Then he lifted her body with one arm by the leg and tossed her aside hard to a tree.
He was about to make another comment, but Yin ran in close with a kunai in his hand. As he attempted to punch and slash the figure, the kunai swiftly switched hands. However, Sage was good enough to avoid the attacks. Suddenly, he caught Yin's hand with the kunai. He squeezed his wrist till the weapon dropped and kicked the boy back. Yin slid across the ground, until he hit a medium-sized rock. He remained there and didn't budge for a while.
While the two genins were getting thrashed, Xin was still too afraid to attempt to attack.
"Although he looks a lot like his father, he is definitely a whole different character. Hopefully field experience will help him out..." thought shikamaru.
Sage finally noticed the white-haired boy while he was waiting for the other two to recover.
"Maybe this will wake him up!" Sage spun his axe around quickly until it seemed like a vortex. "Kamaitachi!"
Blades of wind were produced and headed straight to Xin. He just stood there, still frozen from fear, and closed his eyes. As the blades were about to connect and cut him up, Yin pushed his teammate aside and received the wind-based attack.
The attack cut his skin up all over as he let out a cry of agonizing pain. Xin just stared in horror as Yin dropped to his knees.
"Yin! Are you okay?" he asked in a very concerned tone as he caught Yin from falling over.
The guy pushed him away as soon as his comrade caught him. "Don't stand there like a sitting duck! If you're not going to be no help of any kind, hide behind a tree then!" he shouted.
Then Yin stared forward at his opponent with eyes of determination. He slowly got back up to his feet. He reached into his pouch and threw down a smoke bomb.
The smoke immediately spread around the area, blinding everyone from bing able to clearly see each other's movements or their environment.
However, everybody used this chance to prepare. Sage stood beside his axe and grew very wary of any noise around him. Yin jumped tree to tree around the area, setting up a wire with many kunais attached to it. He hid behind a tree high up on a branch after he was done, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
"He sure arranged his traps quickly. He must've have lot of training prior to becoming a genin..." observed Shikamaru as he noticed a shadow in the thick smoke high up in the trees.
During this time, Tsuzuku slowly got back up from her last assault and waited to attack also.
Xin just took a couple of steps back, so he wouldn't get caught in the crossfire and mess it up for everybody.
As soon as the smoke cleared, Yin adjusted the wire so it could immediately hit Sage. As he was about to release the attack, Tsuzuku interfered. He immediately held the wire tight again so the projectiles wouldn't be hitting his comrade as Tsuzuku went up for her next confrontation with Sage.
She ran forward, clueless of how close she was going to end up on the floor with many kunais pierced through her, to attack. She jumped up and slammed her feet down toward Sage's head. Sage responded by taking a couple of steps back, so she would miss. Then he punched her in the guts as soon as she landed and uppercut her into the air.
He threw his axe very high up in the air and jumped up along with her. He immediately elbowed her across the face once he reached her level. Then he continued attacking her with many punches, making her bleed and bruise all over.
"I have to help her!" Xin said. He looked up at the beating in mid-air, and finally decided to jump in.
As soon as Sage axe-handled (combining two fists to slam her over the head) her straight down to the ground, Xin caught her. He also flipped over and kicked Sage right in the throat.
"That was a nice save and attack. Potential is bursting from him. Once he sees that himself, he will become a great addition to the Konoha shinobi." He analyzed as he looked on while lying on his hammock.
Sage moved his head back a bit from the unexpected kick, but was basically unharmed from it. As he was about to land back down on the ground to give a hell load of revenge for a genin managing to hit him, Yin finally released the wire, slinging many kunais toward him. Sage caught his axe at that exact moment and rotated very quickly. It looked like a round shield of armor was around him, deflecting all the weapons.
"Damn!" exclaimed Yin as he jumped out of the trees to dodge a kunai that was deflected right back at him.
Sage, with a big smile, landed on the ground and stared at the genins.
"Let me see which shithead I'll fuck up first. Hey, why not the white-haired punk? See how good he is when he's not attacking my by surprise!"
Xin's eyes widened in fear and started stepping backwards. He stopped when he saw two of his comrades stood in front of him to defend him.
"You have to get through us and let me tell you, we won't budge easy!" Tsuzuku shouted. Both she and Yin were exhausted, but they still didn't allow this monster to take them down easy.
Sage looked at them and then stared at his axe. Without warning, he tossed his weapon forward like a boomerang right at the kids. Both Tsuzuku and Yin ducked in time, but Xin didn't make it in time as the axe slashed straight through him. To much shock though, apparently the axe really did go STRAIGHT through.
"This kid played me for a fool. I'll make sure my beatdown will be extra rough for him!" Sage caught his axe again and got into a defensive stance.
Xin's illusion of himself faded away as Tsuzuku and Yin were still down low. The loud-mouthed girl got up and rushed forward to attack the big shadow monster.
He immediately picked her up and punched her in the face. Her forehead started gushing with blood. He tossed her aside and looked around for the next victim.
Yin must've gone back into long-range attacking, while Xin was still nowhere to be found. Suddenly, a kunai was thrown straight to Sage's chest. He caught it when it was inches away from making contact. Seconds later, a huge explosion came from the weapon.
Yin looked to see if Sage had at least fallen over from that life-threatening explosion. A dark shadow figure came out of the ground behind him. Still unnoticed, Sage lifted his axe and planned on slicing him in half. But before it came down on the genin, small balls of chakra came toward him.Yin ducked out of the way and Sage jumped out of the way. All of them hit a tree that was behind Yin, very softly. They barely left a mark. While Sage stared at what happened to the tree (questioning himself why he bothered dodging such a weak attack), Yin noticed the monster beside him and created distance between himself and him by running with very little of his energy remaining.
Sage shook it off and ran forward. Yin was still the closest to him, so he still planned to attack him. He went for another slash (this time a horizontal one), but Yin jumped up to dodge. Sage jumped up also and elbowed him in the back, knocking the weapon expert of the team to the ground.
As Yin lied there, Sage walked over and pressed his heavy foot down on his back. Yin yelled out in pain as the heavy force of the foot was increasing more and more. Eventually, he lost consciousness.
"I'm starting to think I overdid this test. How troublesome...," thought Shikamaru as he continued watching. His shadow was on high alert, just in case his summon went overboard.
Tsuzuku slowly lifted herself up as she was about to dash forward again. Xin appeared beside her out of nowhere and ran forward too. They both jumped on Sage, but he ripped them off of him and threw them down hard to the ground. Tsuzuku and Xin just lied there as Sage walked away.
"I guess I should call it break-time...," Shikamaru said loudly as he sat up from his hammock.
"Break-time? You and I both know that it's over..." Sage replied with an evil grin.
"Nope until the day is done or one of them decides to surrender, the test will continue..."
"I can always kill them to end this now..."
"You can try, but we both know I'll be a step ahead of you before you can even think about it...'
Sage just growled and walked away. Meanwhile, Xin slowly brought himself up. He looked at his two unconscious comrades and turned them over. "Guys, are you okay?"
Shikamaru threw over a bag of money and said "Tell them it is break-time. Come back within the day when you are ready to start the second half. There's a box of medical supplies by the hammock also." He was about to go for a walk, but Xin told him something.
"Shikamaru-sensei. Don't you think this test is impossible for us to complete? We're just genins! Rookie genins!"
"With a tough union and a good basic strategy, any opponent isn't as big or strong as he or she first seem."