Sasuke put another piece of tomato into his mouth as he sat against the tree thinking of home. He knew he'd sent the messenger hawk to the hokage the day before so he had less than a week till he'd return. A time period to long to wait to be with his wife and daughter. He put aside his lunch and pulled a small picture out of his bag. A picture of himself, his beautiful wife Sakura, and his sweet daughter Sarada. The daughter he'd left alone for the majority of her childhood and only met her again when she came looking for looking for him. He didn't admit it at that time but he was ashamed of himself. He'd kept his precious little girl waiting so long that she took matters into her own hands. All that showed was how lonely he'd left her. However, despite the shame he felt for himself, he was happy that Sarada was willing to come that far for him, proud that she hadn't dismissed him as a deadbeat father otherwise she'd never have come looking.
As he exited of the forest, he came to a large valley in the earth. On each side was a statue; one of himself on the side he came out on, and on the other, Naruto Uzumaki: the seventh hokage. They were both performing the seal of confrontation to each other. Originally these statues were of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, the founders of the Leaf Village. As far as the majority of the ninja world was concerned this valley and the statues had been destroyed during the battle when most of the world was under the infinite Tsukuyomi. While that was more or less true, the details of the battle were something that Sasuke and Team Kakashi decided to keep between themselves as well as a few close friends. Sasuke stood atop his own statue, staring down the one across from him, the one of his friend and rival. It was a nostalgic and painful sight; the ninja villages made these statues to symbolize both the rivalry and reconciliation of the two heroes of the 4th great ninja war, but to Sasuke it served as a painful but necessary reminder of the mistakes of his youth; mistakes he knew he could never atone for. This thought made him clutch his stump of a left arm. The village offered him a prosthetic arm, but Sasuke figured that even though the world had pardoned him for his crimes, he could pardon himself, thus he refused. Naruto of course accepted the arm. Knowing that he had yet to become hokage at the time, Sasuke understood completely. Sasuke always knew Naruto would brighten the village hidden in the leaves with his radiance, and for that he needed both arms. The village needed a leader with faith in himself, and didn't wallow in self-pity. Sasuke didn't need both arms for his duties, for he was not a leader. He was simply a servant and guardian to the village and his family. That was the best attempt he could make at atonement.
6:00 AM was ridiculously early for Boruto, and he'd told his mother as much when she pulled him out of bed. But his mother gave the best response Boruto could expect from her.
"Think of it this way. The earlier the exam the earlier you become a ninja." That was all the encouragement Boruto needed. He did want to become a ninja, he did want it fast, and he wanted to show his father that the new generation was taking over. That was what allowed him to arrive five minutes. Only Sarada and Mitsuki had beaten him there and worse they didn't look tired. Would kill them to pretend to be tired. He supposed it would. Boruto was recognized as prodigy, but these other seemed to have a kind of dedication to timing that Boruto could never have.
"Finally made it, huh Boruto" Sarada said.
"Shut up will ya, at least I value sleep more than trying to kiss up to the sensei." That had earned Boruto a punch to the gut from Sarada. A punch with same inhuman strength her mother could muster up. The strength his father had told much about. As he rubbed his the spot that was assaulted, he realized something was something. Damn of course he's not here.
"Where the hell is Konohamaru-sensei? He thinks he can make us come here this early while he takes sweet time?!" Boruto said with the utmost frustration.
"Hn. First off Boruto it may best to keep your voice down since he's probably watching to see how will react to his tardiness." Mitsuki cautioned
"Who cares if he's- wait, what? He watching us? How do you know that?"
"That's what I'm wondering too" Sarada added respectfully to Boruto's outburst.
"It's exactly like when we met in the classroom. Jonin purposely lead their quarry to think that they are weak or at a disadvantage when rather their trying to observe their nature and see if their getting overconfident. Konohamaru-sensei likely wants us to think that he's just lazy so he can observe how we react to an enemy's movements."
"That makes sense. For a ninja deception is important, and by making us think he's lazy, he creates a situation in which he'll be able to see if we'll react annoyance, or wait like ninja to see what he's endgame is" said Sarada.
"Precisely Sarada. He's been testing us since we were assigned to him as a team." Mitsuki respectfully replied. I can't exactly argue with guy, rather I never can. But one thing still bugs me.
"So if he's just testing us to see how we'll react, and we've already figured out that there is some deeper meaning behind his action, one question remains: Why is he still hiding? As far I'm concerned we passed his little test so he should come out right now." Boruto stated. But before either Mitsuki or Sarada got a chance to say something a jovial voice spoke up right behind him.
"You're right you did pass my little test. You're also right too Mitsuki, I was testing you to see if you be patient and try to understand your enemy or if you'd simply grow impatient and give the enemy that chance to win." Boruto was surprised at how quickly he'd appeared behind him, and that he'd heard everything, Boruto couldn't even begin to imagine where he was hiding the whole time to know exactly how their conversation was going.
"Alright now let's see if you can pass the big test." Konohamaru exclaimed.
"Bring it on." Sarada and Boruto spoke in unison, whilst Mitsuki simply listened and watched.
"Well I like to call this test, the bell test." Konohamaru said.
"Boruto and I already know that one." Sarada explained.
"This one is special. Instead of two bells there are three. And instead them being small and with me. They're big and hidden throughout the forest around us. What you're aiming to do is to simply ring all three bells. You can do it however you want, but you have to only have until sundown to do it. Understood?"
All three examinees nodded in unison.
"Perfect. Begin!" With that Konohamaru sensei disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving Boruto and his team to their own devices.
"This seems more like scavenger hunt than ninja exam. The only thing remotely hard here would be finding the bells." Boruto said.
"Well judging how Konohamaru-sensei's been testing us at every turn, there's more to this bell test than meets the eye." Sarada replied.
"I agree." Mitsuki began. "The sensei is clearly far more cunning than he like to let on. This test was no doubt designed because you two are already aware of the old bell test, and he's also trying to see how well the three of us can work in unison and understand one another, so I suggest we split up here."
"What?" Boruto and Sarada exclaimed in unison.
"Why would we split if you already said the test is to see how well we work in unison and understand each other?" Sarada questioned.
"That's right, we ought to stick together. Boruto added in agreement.
"Hear me out guys." Mitsuki began again. "Just because sensei's the one running the exam doesn't mean he can be the only to do the testing. Let's see how he reacts with us split in much more vulnerable positions. Who knows? We may find a weakness in his moves, and trick him." Boruto was confused by Mitsuki's plan. Most of it made sense save for one thing. How are we supposed to trick a jonin, and Konohamaru-sensei no less? Though Boruto didn't speak his mind this time. He knew that whenever this silver-haired boy talked, everyone else had to shut up. Boruto looked over at Sarada and could tell that the raven-haired kunoichi was thinking the same thing.
"Alright, let's meet back here at midday, for lunch and to see what move Konohamaru-sensei pulls on us." Boruto said. The other two nodded in acknowledgment and the three prospective ninja went their own ways.
The forest itself was incredibly large for a ninja, and Mitsuki understood that the test was not to find the bells but to ring them. Thus, finding them would no doubt have to be the easy part. Splitting up seemed most logical considering that there were three bells and three of them. More so than that, they could gather more information on the true nature of this test by splitting up, especially since Mitsuki knew neither he nor his teammates were idiots (despite how they behaved).
The bell Mitsuki came to was along the river. it golden colored and or 7-ft tall. Mitsuki guessed Konohamaru-sensei used the summoning jutsu to bring the bell here since carrying it personally would've been a nightmare. Save for Mitsuki's formers classmate Metal Lee who prided himself on doing things by hand. There don't seem to be any traps but I shouldn't let guard down considering it's Konohamaru-sensei. I'll approach slowly.
As Mitsuki cautiously approached the bell, he heard rustling sound coming from the forest on his left and quickly ducked. Judging by the wind the projectile cut through, I must've barely dodged. In the river on right was floating a short thin log. Mitsuki smiled and turned to his left.
"A log sensei? I'm assuming you want to avoid seriously hurting me, hence why you didn't use a real weapon." Mitsuki called out. Sure enough Konohamaru-sensei stepped out into the open.
"Well this is all to test your skills after all not how well you can take blade to the head. Nice dodge by the way." the jonin answered back.
"I appreciate the compliment sensei. Now let me try making sense of this situation. You've appeared before so no doubt you're here to test my my skills personally, and that your testing Boruto and Sarada in the same manner. " Mitsuki said.
"Go on." Konohamaru-sensei replied with a curious smile.
"You can't focus all your energy on me without leaving Boruto and Sarada to ring their bells, on top of that you have to leave some sort fighting chance so I'll get to display all my skills. So I'm assuming that this is a shadow clone I'm facing, and you've have one at each of the other bells confronting Boruto and Sarada as we speak." Mitsuki finished. Konohamaru-sensei stared at him with what seemed like pride before speaking again: "well done Mitsuki, I didn't think someone fresh out of the academy would have been able to deduce all that on his own, save for someone from the Nara clan. Just because you've figured out part of my strategy doesn't mean you've passed the test. You still have to prove you can ring this bell." He was pointing the bell as he finished.
Mitsuki couldn't help but smile at the sensei's cunning and the new information he had worked out. Now may be the ideal time to return and discuss things with the others, but knowing those two, they'll probably stay to face the sensei's clones if for no other reason than to show their strength. And it isn't even close to midday yet. I suppose I'll cut loose and show what I can do too. Mitsuki got into a fighting stance and launched himself at the Konohamaru Sarutobi.