Kumo ran his fingers through Ino's hair making her smile as she slowly was pulled awake by his touch. "What time is it?" she asked yawning. She peaked her head over to the alarm clock seeing the time for her, five AM. "You need to get up… you have to test those kids in an hour." she said. Kumo sighed.
"I've got time, besides I'll do those kids a favor if I'm late less time being tormented out in the cold." He reasoned folding his arms behind his head resting back with her head upon his chest.
"Don't tell me you're going to going to start arriving late everywhere like Kakashi." She chuckled closing her eyes again. She didn't need to wake up for a couple hours unlike him and found herself being overwhelmed by drowsiness. They had stayed up late together making their wedding arrangements, after they managed to finish signing their many invitations. Many of which were going to the various members of the Yamanaka clan and their friends in the Nara and Akamachi clan. Kumo's list of friends was much shorter and family was completely nonexistent. But once all the cards had been signed and envelopes sealed she was too tired to walk home, or maybe she just wanted to spend the night with him. It was hard to tell sometimes with her, not that he was complaining.
"Well if we live together and share a bed… then I might have trouble getting out while you're in it." He admitted ruffling her hair. Ino yawned again and raised her head off his chest and slipping out from under the blankets grabbing for her discarded shirt. "What are you doing?" he asked as she pulled her shirt on and stepping away from the bed.
"You're not going to be late on my account." She said taking a step away from him. "If I leave then you have no reason to stay." She said a smug grin on her face. Kumo waited for a few seconds before his fiancé shivered and rushed back into the warm comfort of the blankets. Kumo smirked a little feeling a small sense of triumph.
"Damn it's cold." She cursed shivering and pulling the blankets around herself Kumo hooked an arm around her and pulled her in kissing her he felt goose bumps rise on her skin. "Why don't you have the heat up higher?" she asked snuggling her face back into his chest.
"Well I keeps you here for one." He answered her, his voice carrying a slight tone of amusement in it. After years of being with Kumo she had learned to pick up the subtle changes in his tone able to find the hidden emotions in his voice. Ino sighed not eager to get out of his bed again. She rolled over and pressed her feet to him pushing him off the bed and onto the floor. "Go to work." She ordered. "I'm going to sleep."
Kumo stood off the floor and sighed moving to gather his equipment.
The sound of crunching snow was one of the only sounds in the air as Kumo led the three students through the forest on the outskirts of the village. Occasionally he caught the sound of Isao or Kengo's stomachs rumbling hungry from their missed breakfasts he had told them to skip. Kikyo seemed to be fine from his estimates she had been smart and defiant enough to eat despite his instructions. After meeting with the three kids he silently led them out of the village into the surrounding woods where he had chosen his testing ground. He had expected the kids to complain about the hike and the cold but was pleasantly surprised to find them stubbornly quiet about the harsh conditioning. The three of them were also smart enough to bring backpacks with them and from the look of them they weren't packed too heavy and didn't slow them down. So far they had spent the last three hours hiking in silence.
Kumo stopped deciding this small clearing would be sufficient.
"Here we are." He said turning around to face them. "Your mission is to escape the forest and find your way back to Konoha by sunrise tommarow. I will give you until noon to make it as far as you can then I will begin laying traps and hunting you. If you are not prepared to defend yourself against me you will be captured and will fail. This test is a failure unless all three of you return to the village. Any questions?"
"You lied about getting us breakfast didn't you." Said Kengo as a statement, not a question. Kumo notched an arrow on his bow and fired off the arrow hitting a small white rabbit and taking it down. "There's your breakfast, the test begins now."
Kumo turned his face upwards to the morning sun, about another hour before noon. Not that it mattered much at this point. With his Byakugan he could see the three of them now sitting around a small makeshift campfire. They had already failed before he had even started hunting them. He had killed that rabbit to test them and see if they'd do this. He had given them four hours to try and find their way back to Konoha, more than an hours' time than it had taken to hike here and more than an hour to hike back. But instead of taking advantage of the head start he had given them. They instead decided to build a fire and cook the rabbit he had killed taking the time he had given him to fill their bellies and rest their feet. Isao and Kengo had skinned the rabbit and prepared a fire to cook it on, Kikyo didn't bother to eat the improvised meal instead she sat down by the fire silently ignoring the two boys talking with quiet contempt.
They could be back to Konoha by now if they had simply decided to hike back with empty stomachs and sore feet. But now there time was almost up and there was no way for them to return to Konoha in time to avoid his collection of traps and puppets. He had hoped they would be disciplined enough to take the opportunity he had given them. But now he had little doubt they would fail his test. He knew if he failed them Tsunade wouldn't be happy, but she had agreed to respect the results of his test. He refused to waste his time training students who couldn't bother to think outside the parameters of his test. He refused to train students and later watch them die.
"If you're not able to survive training how do you plan on surviving a real fight? If you're going to fail now you might as well die now and save me the trouble of watching it later." Zabuza's words echoed through his head. He refused to watch students die; if they wanted to live they'd better survive training.
Kengo's leg sank into the snow with a crunch and then he screamed. Isao and Kikyo turned around as he pulled his bleeding leg out of icy pit. A small razor thin wire had looped around his ankle and cut past his snow boot and into his skin and tendons slicing his ankle and stopping at the bone. Blood soaked his pants and tattered remains of his boot and socks. The kid fell backwards on the snow screaming in pain. Kikyo ran over to him and opened her backpack pulling a spare shirt from it and pressing it against his bleeding leg to slow the bleeding. Isao stood back with his jaw hanging open in shock. Using a kunai Kikyo slipped the razor wire off his foot and slowly began to remove his boot inspecting the wound. Lucky for Kengo the thick snow boot hand slowed the wires path of destruction and had prevented the razors thread from severing his hamstring. Still hamstring or not he wouldn't be walking on this leg any time soon. She inwardly cursed as his blood soaked through her shit and stained her hands.
"Get your ass over here damnit." She screamed to Isao. "Stop gawking and help me stop the bleeding." She growled threateningly finally managing to make the stunned Genin move towards her trying to find the gauze he had packed away working to make up for lost time. Kikyo pressed the cloth in harder and Isao prepared to wrap it. She wondered how many more vicious traps would be waiting for them on the way back to Konoha. Then she wondered just how much blood Kumo was willing to spill in order to test them.
Sutōkā folded his arms and disengaged his Byakugan. "I can't say I'm not impressed." He commented turning to the foxed faced ANBU behind him. "I wasn't expecting him to injure his own students like that. He's certainly not making this test easy on them."
"Do you really think he'll hand the Kinzoku over to us?" the foxed faced man asked. "He managed to hold up against interrogation without giving him up. What makes you think he'll just hand the man over to us?"
"That interrogation was poorly handled by a fool who though an experienced interrogator would succumb to simple torcher techniques. We have the advantage this time my friend." Sutōkā said pulling on his cat faced ANBU mask. "This time we have leverage."