"I still don't understand." Isao said and the wire holding his arm pulled tighter making him squeal in pain. More wires extend from the puppet and took a hold of their bodies looping around there hands and fingers. The thin threads of steel dug into their skin drawing blood and forcing screams from their young mouths. Kikyo screamed as the wires crushed her body against the tree cutting through her snow jacket. The silver strings disappeared into the severed fabric, seconds later the shredded jacket was stained red with blood. The pupped holding Kengo tightened its grip on the young boy bruising his shoulders.

"You say you want to become shinobi, why?" Kumo asked his hands glowing with chakra strings.

"It's what we were raised to do. What else would we want to be?" Kengo squealed his voice shaking with fear and pain.

"Not good enough." Kumo said making the puppet tighten its grip on the kid. The sound of cracking bones filled the air. "If your convictions are that simple then I have no need for you." Kumo turned to Kikyo and held his pipe in his mouth.

"Since you were young you've been feared for your Kekkei Genkai. You killed your classmates, even your own mother. Your classmates fear you, they hate you. So why do you want to become a shinobi?" Kikyo gritted her teeth and glared daggers at him.

"My reasons are my own." She growled at him trying to kill him with his gaze.

"Not anymore." He said tightening the wires even more causing her to shriek in agony. "Why do you want to become a shinobi?" he repeated to her.

"Leave her alone." Isao cried out to him struggling defiantly in his steel bonds cutting his flesh even worse than before.

"Silence." He said tugging on one of the threads. Isao's ring finger was bent back by a wire snapping the bone. Isao screamed in pain and rage. "Why do you want to become a Shinobi?" he repeated to Kikyo.

"That is none of your business brass eyes." She spat out ignoring the tight wires crushing her body and slicing into her skin.

Kumo turned to Kengo he kneeled down to meet the kid at face level his pipes soft orange glow illuminated his face in the dark forest. "Do you have an answer for me?"

Kengo turned his head away from him. "Go to hell!"

Kumo stepped on his foot making the kid cry out in agony. "That's not good enough. Until you three produce a satisfactory response you're going to stay here and take whatever kind of punishment I can think of. If I'm not given a satisfactory answer by the time the sun rises you will fail the test."

"Why do you want to know?" Isao asked.

"Does it matter?" Kumo asked blowing more smoke.

"Our reasons are our own." Kengo growled.

Kumo punched the kid in his face giving him a decent bruise on his cheek. "Your convictions are everything, you have proven you can handle yourself in the field but now I need to know what motivates you. I need to know why you want to put your lives on the line for the village."

"What does it matter?" Isao screamed. The sky was starting was getting lighter every moment they spoke. They were running out of time to give their answers.

Kikyo gritted her teeth through the pain. "If you wanted an answer from us you should have asked me when we were doing introductions."

Kumo turned around and smacked the girl in the mouth causing her lip to split open and bleed out. "So it's your intention to withhold your answers from me? Despite the consequences?"

Isao smirked. "Do whatever you want to us, torture us, fail us, kill us. But don't think that any of those will make us give you what you want. We've done everything you've asked us to tonight. But now you change the rules and ask us to tell you our reasons for becoming shinobi. You can go to hell because we don't want to be your students if you're going to do this to us."

"You can say that again." Kengo said in a groan.

Kikyo spat blood on the ground her split lip was making dark crimson streams down her chin making small red waterfalls down to the ground where it stained the snow. "Yeah." She agreed turning her face to the horizon where the sky turned lighter and lighter by the moment.

Kumo clenched his blood stained fist, quite a bit of blood had gotten on his grey jacket and clothes staining. Flecks of blood had specked his face and goggles giving him a fearsome look. Isao swallowed the lump in his throat. This will work. He told himself. It has to work. He swallowed his fear and hoped the sun would peak out soon. He didn't know how much longer he could keep his calm composure in the face of this fearsome man.

Kumo walked over to him and cracked him across the jaw. Kumo grabbed a fistful of his shit and pulled him in pummeling his face with his fist. Isao hoped he was right because these punches hurt. He tasted copper as blood filled his mouth and he went limp hoping that maybe he'd stop punching him and move on to someone else. The damn sun was moving too fast before, now it couldn't move fast enough and end this for him. Kumo released the scruff of his shirt and let him swing freely. Isao swallowed his blood hoping to appear unconious. Just a few more minutes and this would be over. If he was right that is. If he was wrong he didn't know what would happen. He didn't want to spend days in the village hospital.

"It's done." Kumo said as he swung by the wires. Isao opened his eyes and was saw the edges of the yellow sun peaking over the horizon. Isao looked up to the blooded ninja standing between them. "The test is over now."

Everything disappeared in a sudden flash. The wires, the pain and the blood all vanished in the blink of an eye. Isao looked over to Kikyo and Kengo who looked unharmed as well. The only thing that was still there was the rising sun. He had been right about the genjutsu, now what mattered was whether he was right about the final stage of the test.

Twigs snapped underfoot and they all turned to see the real Kumo stepping into the clearing, no blood stained his clothes and spattered his goggles.

"You pass." Kumo said sharply. "No more trials, your crucible is over and you have passed. If you will have me I will be your sensei."

Kengo was painting touching his face as if expecting the cuts and bruises to still be there. That had been one very convincing genjutsu. "What do you mean? We didn't tell you a thing."

"Exactly Kengo. You didn't tell me anything. You were willing to stand up against the possibility of failure and extreme pain in order to keep your personal secrets to yourself; you defied me and stood your ground no matter what I did."

Kumo pulled his pipe from his jacket and light it with a match. "I don't need to know why you possess the convictions to be a shinobi. I just need to know you have them and that there strong."

Kumo puffed drawing out smoke. "So then will you be my students?"

Isao looked at the man who had tested him to his limits. It might have been a genjutsu, but the pain he had experienced had felt very real. He was cold, tired, hungry and miserable. This single man had put him through so much in just a days' time. Now he wondered if he really wanted what this man was offering to him. Did he want to train under such a person that would make his young students experience the horrors of torcher? But then again his enemies would do the same thing to him and they wouldn't use a genjutsu, they wouldn't give flesh wounds and let them go after the sun had risen. What better way to prepare for such fearsome encounters than a no nonsense approach. Isao's muscles screamed in agony as he stood up and faced the Jōnin.

"I'm yours to instruct sensei."