The second day into the test was far more action packed than the first. And it was also far stranger.

Instead of the random tests, it almost felt like a repeat of the conditioning portion. Motoharu led us through the trees at breakneck speeds, only ever slowing when Sho, Seiji and Nobu couldn't keep pace. Even then, he seemed to get impatient, and actually began to carry them in shifts rather than taking rests. That in itself was strange, but I just assumed that we had to reach a certain place by a certain time, and that we were behind schedule.

Until I looked back and saw something truly alarming in the distance, in the direction we just came from.

"Isobe-san," I huffed, the day catching up to me. "What the fuck is that?"

"Your next test," he said, not looking back. He had likely spotted them long ago, or at least knew they were coming. "Pursuit evasion."

The rest of my team cursed in shock as they looked back and saw who was after us. They were barely specks in the distance, and it was hard to tell with trees in the way, but we had learned to estimate enemy numbers from far away with precision. There must have been at least thirty people, which was a veritable army by shinobi standards.

"We need to pick up the pace," our proctor said mildly, eliciting protest.

"I can't go any faster, Isobe-san," Nobu panted, and Sho didn't even have the energy to speak, merely grunting in agreement.

"You better," Isobe-san said mildly. "Unless you want to find out what the bottom rungs of the genin corps are like. Waking up, not knowing if you were to be subjected to hard, mind-numbing labor or sent off to the freezing north. Not seeing your family for months or even years. Wasting away. Would you rather go through all of that, or run a little bit faster now?"

…this place sucked. The Elemental Nations sucked. One day, I'll do something about it.

"Each of you take one of these," he said, holding out a handful of little brown orbs. I balked at the sight of them.

"Soldier pills?" I asked, incredulous. "Isn't that a little much for a test?"

Soldier pills were powerful little things that replenished chakra, resulting in stimulated healing and increased physical capabilities. However, there was no such thing as a free lunch, and the downsides to taking one were immense. They halted natural chakra regeneration for a far longer period than their effects persisted, leaving the user incredibly weak for days after use (how long exactly varied on a case by case basis). Also, like many other medications, they could cause permanent harm to your kidneys and liver, especially if left untreated by a medic.

"One little pill once in a blue moon won't hurt you," he said. "Let me remind you, this is the most important test you'll ever partake in. If there's any time to take one of these, it's now. Don't worry, their use has been authorized by the exam heads. They're expecting it from you."

This entire situation sent warning bells through my skull. But this was an exam, and I was supposed to be a ninja. To look underneath the underneath. And I could think of several explanations. Maybe they were testing my willingness to follow orders? Maybe they wanted us to experience the effects of soldier pills, so that if we were forced to use them in the field we could know what to expect?

The rest of my teammates had taken their pills, with immediate results. Their veins grew grotesquely pronounced, and I could all but feel the chakra released from their tenketsu. More noticeably, they were closing the gap between them and me.

"Imai-san," Isobe barked, and I took the pill. Immediately, my chakra reserves began to fill, and my chakra reserves overflowed. I felt bloated, like I was a month into high tide without bleeding off any of the excess. On top of that, it was like I was simultaneously exposed to something like a medical-grade caffeine high, mixed with another kind of high that I had only experienced once in my past life's teens. All that combined into a wildly disconcerting sensation, though one that I, unlike my teammates, was more familiar with. I could only imagine what my teammates were feeling, because they were under far too much mental strain to speak.

Despite all that, it soon became clear that the pursuit team was gaining on us. It must have consisted of chunin, with capabilities that outclassed ours even when we were doped up.

"Faster," Isobe barked, his own face blank. I noticed he hadn't even broken a sweat.

The sparse woods grew thinner, turning into the more lush grasslands that I had observed in our trek to the Gin-gawa river during our conditioning portion. But as our cover disappeared, I began to notice something overhead, gaining on us far more quickly than anyone on the ground.

"Eyes ahead, Imai," Isobe said, and I frowned as I turned back around.

Shouting emanated from behind us, unintelligible at first but climbing in volume. Then, Seiji cursed as there was a crash to his left of stone on dirt.

"They're using ninjutsu?" he asked incredulously. I was more impressed than indignant; whoever shot that stone was incredibly accurate for such a long distance.

"You think a pursuit team is merely going to chase you on foot?" Isobe deadpanned, effortlessly sidestepping another incoming stone. "Or did you think that we were going to put on the kiddie gloves all of a sudden for this portion of the exam?"

That was…true. Every other portion had been as authentic as possible, so why would this one be any different?

"We don't know any defensive ninjutsu," I panted, recalling the proper response for this type of situation.

"Good thing I do," the proctor said. "Keep on a straight path. Dodge, but don't divert, no matter what. Understand?"

He didn't give me a chance to respond, adjusting his pace to cover our rear. He ran through hand signs and spun without fully stopping, spraying mud from his mouth. Out of the arc he drew, an earth wall rose out of the ground, catching the next few projectiles and cutting off the enemy's line of sight.

Most of the enemy. A moment later, a large shadow was cast on the ground, and I looked back up, knowing what I'd find.

I only caught a glimpse of my brother's face before I was thrown to the ground, along with my team. The wind jutsu, which I knew could be modified to tear flesh, disoriented and knocked the wind from me, and I wasn't sure what happened immediately after. But then darkness fell over me (not the knocky unconscious kind) and I realized that Isobe had put us under a dome of earth. Which lasted all of thirty seconds, as Kazuhiro did something to destabilize its composition, causing it to fall apart. I narrowly avoided bits of the top as it came down.

"What the hell, nii-san?" I shouted as I was pulled to my feet.

"Don't stop, keep running," Isobe growled, launching a fire jutsu at Kazuhiro. He couldn't use Doton in the air like that, and Futon was weak to Katon so he had no choice but to withdraw. I did as ordered, along with the rest of my team. Except for Nobu, who was pinned under the debris.

"Against a real enemy, that was a kill shot. He fails. Leave him," Isobe said coldly. "That's an order."

Holy moses. They're really giving us the full experience.

"Kasaiki, don't listen to him," Kazuhiro shouted from above, and I was taken aback by the use of my name. He almost always calls me imouto. "He's not who he says he is! Come back to the village!"

He's not who he says he is. Who, Motoharu?

"What is he talking about?" I asked the proctor, hesitating.

"He's trying to make you falter," Motoharu said, in a defensive stance. Meanwhile, the other pursuing shinobi was gaining on us, and my remaining two teammates were torn between helping their obviously injured friend and following orders.

"In the field, an enemy will do whatever it takes to create an opening," he continued. "Whether that be posing as a loved one, or targeting the weak links of your groups so that you may be forced to tend to them."

"But that's definitely Kazuhiro," I argued, which was a dumb thing to say in retrospect. What I meant was that, in this case, I was sure that it was my brother (because he could fly, and I didn't know of any enemy shinobi that could do that), so I should trust what he says. Plus, he was a jonin who outranked my chunin proctor.

Of course, that was only the reality. Obviously, for the purposes of the test, I was meant to view him as an enemy.

"What are you?" he retorted, blocking shuriken pelted at him. "A little sister? Or a shinobi or Iwagakure on a mission?"

He flipped through hand seals and shot off another fireball, which was much wider and more difficult to dodge. Kazuhiro still managed it.

"You have your orders. Retreat, or fail. Those are your choices."

Obviously, this was a turning point in the exam. My choice would massively impact my standing. It all came down to this; what did Iwa value more? A shinobi who trusted in their bonds enough to disregard orders that conflicted with them? Or a shinobi that blindly followed orders during a mission?

If this wasn't a test, obviously I would have followed my gut and gone with Kazuhiro. But since it was…

"Sorry, nii-san," I said. "I'm a shinobi."

"Stop being an idiot!" he shouted desperately as I barked orders at Seiji and Sho. He was such a great actor, it almost gave me pause. Almost. But seeing that I of all people had been convinced, my teammates followed much more readily.

Seriously. Even if they roped my brother into participating, they couldn't actually expect me to believe that an enemy had actually infiltrated the exam to pose as my proctor. What would be the fucking odds? And how could/why would anyone go through all that trouble?

"We won't be able to shake this enemy above ground," Motoharu said. "Moguragakure, now!"

Well, at least I'd be able to prove yet again that I was proficient in the technique whilst taking this exam.

"KASAI—" was all I heard before the ground swallowed up my brother's call.

…he was a very good actor. But Motoharu urged me forward, using chakra pulses that acted as directional signals.

Of course, our pursuers were Iwa shinobi too. They could use earth release more proficiently than we could, and they knew better than anyone how to stop someone moving underground.

Everything around me began to shake, as if I were caught in an earthquake. It screwed up my senses, and I would have been separated from my group if Motoharu hadn't forcefully yanked me in the right direction. It was incredibly disorienting. And that was before the clones came.

Clones were strange things. They possessed limited sentience, which allowed them to sense chakra usage like a real person could. They couldn't use chakra, but they themselves were chakra. Chakra that followed their creator's directives whilst inhabiting a body that they created.

But one of our pursuers, perhaps Kazuhiro himself or another jonin, was really fucking good at making clones. So much so that the chakra forming the clone wasn't constrained to the body that was created for it.

The human shaped chakra body phased through the ground with even more ease than we could with the Moguragakure no Jutsu, dirt and rock briefly becoming part of the clone's body before it was left behind.

And thanks to the phenomenon referred to as the Subjugation Principle, we couldn't mold another person's chakra. So, even though the clones' bodies were made out of rocks, they couldn't be softened by the Moguragakure. They were physical obstacles at best, dangerous weapons at worst, and they weren't hampered by the tremors as we were. Though the vibrations traveled far underground, the chakra that powered this technique didn't penetrate as deep, so the Subjugation Principle didn't prevent the clones from accepting the displaced earth into themselves. Their chakra sense wasn't hampered by all the shaking either.

Meanwhile, directly above us were the actual shinobi, waiting for their clones to round us up like dogs herding sheep.

It didn't seem like a situation we could find a way out of. But still, Motoharu's chakra insistently urged us onward as he destroyed clone after clone after clone.

I was so focused on what was going on behind us that I didn't sense what Motoharu was directing us towards until it was almost too late. I hesitated.

GO! The proctor's chakra urged, and we breached into what was assuredly not more earth.

I imagine what I experienced the next moment was what it felt like to be sucked out of a breached craft into the vacuum of space. I was ripped mercilessly out of the dirt into what lay beyond. I had no control, I felt nothing past the numbing cold, and I certainly couldn't breath.

No, I didn't suddenly get teleported past the atmosphere, as much as it felt like I did. Instead, we had burrowed through the bank of a violent river, which I would realize was a different segment of the Gin-gawa once my mind could process anything other than sheer panic.

I would love to say that I clawed my way out of the current, effortlessly dodging sharp rocks and other obstacles to recompose myself effortlessly on the shore. But that wasn't what happened at all.

I was dragged powerlessly through the water for a long, long time. For over half an hour, I would later learn, and all I could do or think of was survival. Every breath was a fight, a quarter of which I lost. I really thought I was going to drown to death a second time.

But then the current slowed to the pace it was when I last ran atop it, and Motoharu dragged me out of the water. I either blinked or passed out, because a second later I saw Sho being resuscitated.

I tried to say something, but immediately choked on water. Quickly rolling over so it could spew back on the ground, rather than flow back where it came from, I retched onto the dirt.

"Where…where's Seiji?" I finally got out, too drained for politeness and honorifics.

"He hit his head shortly after we entered the river," Motoharu said blandly. "I dragged him out before he could suffer permanent harm. Medics in the pursuit party were already tending to him by the time he fell out of view."

Thank god.

"I…hate this…exam."

He chuckled. "Yeah. So did I. But it's a right of passage, and I still view it as an extremely valuable experience. Especially this part. I thought the survival portion was supposed to be like what they taught us in the academy. I didn't think they'd actually make surviving itself a challenge."

I coughed again, the sound wracking and wet.

"Did you pass?" I asked, because it kinda seemed like we were having a moment.

He barked out a laugh. "Nah. I didn't. They brought in my Uncle to tempt me. Just like they did with your brother."

I grimaced at the reminder and looked away.

"Don't worry," he assured. "I never agreed with that. So I'm not going to tell them you faltered. Alright?"

I was secure in my decisions up until that very point. However, at that, suspicion reared its ugly head. Motoharu…no. No Iwa shinobi who wasn't related to me ever gave me allowances. Even Fumio-shishō would have told the graders if I did something to deserve it.

Maybe I was being too mistrusting. Maybe Motoharu actually felt a kinship with me, and that's why he was offering to lie to the proctors.

But maybe he was lying. Maybe he was lying about everything.

Kazuhiro's desperate cries echoed through my skull. He was a jonin, and acting was a required skill for someone of that rank.

But I didn't know he was that good at it.

Sho came to violently, scrambling to his feet before his body realized it wasn't capable of standing. Motoharu stabilized him.

"Easy, easy," he said. "I'll carry you for a bit, while you recover."

My gaze sharpened. "The pursuit section isn't over?"

"The River gave us some time," he said as an answer. "But it also took us off course. All the more reason we can't squander the lead it gave us. You use chakra enhancement, right? Boost your recovery, and let's get going."

- - - { ワナビー } - - -

In the elemental nations, the equator crossed directly through the northern portion of the Land of Wind, almost directly through the center of the Land of Fire. That latitudinal line was considered the tropics. As such, the southern portion of the Land of Stone was actually quite nice most of the year around.

Iwagakure was just above that little strip of great weather, which always annoyed me around wintertime. Like, couldn't they have just built the village a little lower? I understand the mountains provided valuable cover, and made the Hidden Village a hidden village. But none of those places (except for Takigakure supposedly) even stayed hidden for long, so it was all for nothing anyway.

Now, it was winter, and Iwagakure's unfortunate placement meant sunlight was a rare commodity. It was still moderately close to the equator so it wasn't yet frigid—we'd had a couple snowfalls, but nothing stuck so far, and probably wouldn't for another month. But it was quite cool (low fifties to mid forties) and a thick layer of gray clouds blanketed the sky, which made the icy water soaking my clothes slow to dry.

But it did anyway, and much more quickly than it by all rights should have. That was due to the soldier pill I had consumed. Though my foray down the river had numbed my body of all sensation, the stimulant was still in its early stages, so I would still feel its influence for some time now. And a notable side effect was a substantial increase in body temperature, elevated far beyond what would have been considered safe in my first world.

Chakra made us far more resilient, but I still felt feverish. And high. And bloated. It made concentration a herculean task, which was quite unfortunate because the feeling of wrongness was only mounting with each step I took.

As we stopped for a short break, I noticed Motoharu make a clone and subtly hand it a scroll with a familiar binding.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"Just a precaution," he said casually. "In case there are any unfriendlies that happen to be in the area."

"You gave it an identification scroll," I noted. I could tell from the stylized band around it.

"Well, as I said, it's just a precaution. We're moving into Grass, you see. It wouldn't be a useful survival test if we stuck only to landscapes you are familiar with. Grass has graciously invited us to use their environment for your exam. I gave the clone that scroll in case we happen to run into any Kusa shinobi who haven't gotten that message."

It was a logical statement. It could very well be true. But what bothered me at that moment was this.

Shinobi didn't give important documents to clones. Correction, chunin didn't give important documents to clones. Higher rank shinobi produced more durable clones which possessed their elevated skill. At that rank, a mere clone could handle multiple lower-ranked shinobi, even in an open fight. If you couldn't make a clone with that potential, it was considered far too risky, and such a faux pas could yield serious disciplinary action from Iwagakure command.

If we were in friendly territory, like the Land of Grass, I could look past that. But Motoharu's claim was called into question in the late afternoon, when I saw, in the distance, a village.

"I see a town, Isobe-san," I stated. "Are we making a stop?"

"Shinobi don't interact with civilization unless it is either the destination of a mission, or we are in need of supplies. You know that, don't you Imai-san?"

"Of course. I just wondered if it played a role in our mission."

"No. Not this time."

We were far away, but there were still details I could make out. Ninja were expected to be able to collect a great deal of data from their surroundings, and that especially held true when said surroundings featured civilization. My class had gone through several architectural classes, which included units on geographical variations.

What I noticed were white walls, partitioned by beams of wood. Every building bore those features. It was unusual to see consistency and cleanliness in such a small village, and it immediately drew my attention.

So I looked closer. It was hard to tell from this distance, but the buildings, aside from the exposed beams, seemed to utilize stucco for their walls. Not unusual for a semi-tropical region like Grass. But I happened to know that a particular daimyo decreed such a construction for every building in his land (outside of the hidden village at least) because he thought it looked nice. That stuck with me, because I remember marveling on how out of touch the nation's leader was.

That particular Daimyo wasn't of Grass. He ruled Waterfall. An enemy nation, and one who certainly wouldn't agree to host an exam for Iwa academy students. I'm also pretty damn sure that my village wouldn't sneak us past its borders just for an exam.

I looked back at Motoharu, remembering the clone thing.

He's not who he says he is. That's what Kazuhiro had said. If that was true, then the real Motoharu must have been replaced—I'm pretty sure the man we left with was the real deal. That first day we spent together, he displayed chunin level skill.

But ever since that first night…

He looked the same. He had the same voice, and speech patterns. He moved the same, almost.

But he didn't leave footprints. Not at all. During the tracking portion, we relied on said prints, subtle as they were, to find him. Once we found the campsite, he claimed he was trying to disguise his presence to his utmost ability, and while he could have been lying, I believed him. Which would insinuate that, if the person leading us wasn't, in fact, Motoharu, then they were someone of a higher skill level. The nature of the situation itself would imply that the infiltrator was a stealth specialist, and their ability to disguise their footprints would only corroborate that notion.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Slowly, the neutral speculation drained away, only to be replaced with utter dread. All my flimsy arguments against the possibility of infiltration dropped away one by one, until only a single point remained.

This was an exam. Isn't this exactly the kind of simulation the proctors would want to run? They'd try to make it as convincing as possible. Iwagakure had the resources and knowledge to stage everything.

And there was no reason for an enemy ninja to infiltrate my exam. That I could think of.

But while I could think of a lot, I couldn't think of everything. What if infiltrating my exam wasn't actually the point? Maybe they just wanted to take a promising member of the next generation of Iwagakure shinobi hostage? I did have ties to a couple prominent members of the Iwagakure forces, through Kazuhiro, Fumio and Atsuchi. He could even be a defector or a foreign spy, using this as a means to escape the village with hostages to use against anyone who might be sent after him. Or maybe this whole thing was just a diversion? Obviously, a significant force was sent out to retrieve me.

And I just…followed. Blindly. Into enemy territory.

Despite what Maybe-Motoharu said, that huge group of Iwa shinobi couldn't have followed us. Not into Takigakure. That could trigger war.

My eyes slid to Sho, who was once again perched on Maybe-Motoharu's back, and looking all the more uncomfortable for it. I wasn't completely alone here, but I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I couldn't see myself relying on Sho—if anything, to me, he was a liability. Maybe that's why he was still around.

I needed to verify where we were, and I needed to do it without making Maybe-Motoharu suspicious.

- - - { ワナビー } - - -

AN: Hey Y'all! I have a two-fer today, which I'm sure will make a lot of people happy. It was actually meant to be one chapter, but it got quite long, so I decided to split it up. But, at the same time, I didn't feel like the story progressed far enough in the first half, so I still decided to release both today after all.

I'm sure I'll see a bunch of comments like, wow, Kasaiki is so stupid. I would have never fallen for this. Stfu. Yes you would have. I don't believe you for a second. Given the context, you wouldn't have even given it a second thought.

Anyway. Keep on reading! I have an important author's note at the end of the next chapter.