Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Day 342

"Okay, let's all calm down," I said.

"Dude... you were the one who shouted," Kenji replied.

"Yeah... my bad. So, does anyone have any idea what to do?" I asked.

"First, let's all climb up a tree to look around and try finding something we recognize," Kaori suggested.

Both Kenji and I nodded at that.

I picked the tallest tree I could find and ran to its top.

As I got above the dense tree leaves, the forest became visible. All I could see was just trees and more trees everywhere.

I looked up at the sun. It was still morning, so that direction must be east.

But... which direction should we go?

Was I really outside of Konoha?

"Kai!" Suddenly I heard a shout and turned around to see Kaori shouting.

"Kai!" Again and again, she shouted, but it didn't seem to work.

It was a good idea; we might have been in a Genjutsu. But if dispelling didn't work, that meant two things:

First, this was not a Genjutsu, and somehow yesterday we had traveled far enough from the village that it was no longer visible.

Second, we couldn't get out of this Genjutsu through normal means. If Fugaku had cast us into a Genjutsu through the Sharingan, then we were screwed.

I jumped down and met up with Kenji and Kaori.

Nobody said anything. They had heavy frowns on their faces.

This will not do. I loudly clapped my hands.

"Okay, let's assess all the facts. Yesterday, after leaving our training field, we traveled for 3-4 hours at a fast pace and arrived here. So, it must mean we can get back to the village in the same time frame."

Both of them nodded at that.

"But which direction should we go, Satoru?" Kenji asked.

"Let's go in all four directions," I declared.

I could see Kaori's face changing. She understood what I meant. I nodded at her, and she started explaining.

"We should divide and each head in a direction and run for three hours. If the direction is right, at the end of three hours the village should be visible. If it's not, then it's the wrong direction."

"Either way, we come back here and let each other know. It's 9 AM currently; let's meet back by 5 PM."

We marked our campsite by drawing circles with kunai on the trees, and then Kaori tied a red handkerchief at the top of the tallest tree near us.

We filled up our water bottles at the stream that Kenji found yesterday.

And then we were off. I had picked East, while Kenji and Kaori traveled North and South, respectively.

I could hear my stomach making noises, but I ignored it and continued moving. I ran for three hours, and by the end of it, all I saw were trees.

I used to like trees, but I was starting to hate them. Did Fugaku transport us to another world?

I knew Konoha was hidden in a forest, but this was ridiculous.

Frustrated, I looked around to notice anything that resembled civilization, but there was nothing but endless forest.

I sighed and dropped down.

If this is a damn Genjutsu, Fugaku will hear some words he might not have heard before.

After resting for half an hour, I turned back and headed back to camp. I moved slowly, trying to spot any animals to hunt.

But unfortunately, I didn't find any, and I arrived hungry and tired back at camp. Kenji was already there.

"Any luck?" he asked as I came near. I just shook my head.

"Damn, three out of three wrong. We are not having a good day," he said, frustrated.

"Is Kaori already back?" I asked, looking around.

"Yup, went hunting. She said, with her clan jutsu, it should be easier," he said.

I noticed he had already lit up the fire. It was 6 PM, and it was starting to darken everywhere.

"I will go look for food too, just in case," I said to Kenji and immediately headed in the direction of the stream.

Kaori shouldn't have trouble with hunting, but I had a nagging feeling like everything that can go wrong will go wrong. I was a pessimist, so that was not unusual, but it never hurt to be careful. I just hoped Kaori didn't take it as me doubting her.

I continued to move slowly, trying to listen for any sound or see any movement. But once again, I found nothing. I heard occasional movements but couldn't find any animals.

I went up to the water stream, hoping to find any thirsty animals, but again nothing. What type of haunting forest was this?

No animals in this big forest. How had Fugaku found anything yesterday?

Frustrated, I returned to camp, hoping Kaori found something.

"You got anything?" I asked as soon as I saw her.

"No, it's fuc... very weird. I saw some footprints and heard voices, but I couldn't find anything."

We all sat around the fire, hungry, tired, and frustrated.

"Let's bear it for today. I don't think exploring the forest at night will do us any good. Tomorrow, we move out at the first light. We have already checked three directions. The village must be towards the West," I said, hoping to raise some spirits.

I got a weak nod from them, and that would do for now.

"Okay, who wants to take the first shift?" I asked.

"I will. I am so hungry that even if I lie down, I will not be able to sleep," Kenji volunteered.

"Cool. I will take the second," I said.

"Satoru-kun, you need to sleep too," Kaori protested. The second shift was going to be tough as both the first and last shift persons could get at least 4 hours of continuous sleep.

"It's fine. Like Kenji said, I am so hungry that I doubt I will be able to sleep," I told her.

That was part of the reason. The other part was I wanted them to be able to at least rest a little; they looked dead tired.

So I was planning to volunteer for the second shift anyway. Kaori stared at me but didn't say anything further.

I waved goodnight and turned in for a quick sleep. I was asleep before I hit the bed.

Day 343

I woke up after hearing shouting.

"Satoru! Kaori! Come out, there is... there is a fucking tiger attacking us!" As soon as I understood what Kenji was hearing, I ran out.

I saw a white tiger hovering over Kenji.

The fuck? No tiger should be a match for a ninja, even a Genin.

I immediately threw a kunai at it, and it just jumped out of the way.

It looked at me and immediately rushed in. I didn't expect it to be so fast; I barely avoided it.

Some type of chakra animal? No way that was a normal animal. Suddenly, it stopped moving, and I saw a shadow extending back to Kaori.

"Finish it! It's struggling very hard; I will not be able to hold for long," she shouted.

I threw another kunai towards its head. It moved slightly, and the kunai barely made a mark on its body before dropping down.

Was its skin made of fucking vibranium? I was thinking of using Blue Fire Jutsu when Kenji interrupted.

"I got this."

He walked near it with a kunai in hand and got into a weird punching position that I recognized as his chakra-enhanced punch stance.

A few seconds later, he drove the kunai through the tiger's forehead, and the tiger stopped struggling immediately.

I walked up to Kenji and saw his left arm was bleeding and there were scratch marks.

"You good?" I asked, eyeing his injuries.

"Yeah, it just surprised me. I was not expecting him to move so fast," he said as he looked at the dead white tiger.

Kaori walked up to us.

"Interesting night," I said, and she smiled a little, but soon started frowning again.

"Kenji-kun, you are hurt."

"Yup, let's bandage you up," I said as I pulled out some disinfectant and bandages.

I started carrying medicines when I was learning Blue Fire Jutsu, and it just became a habit.

So I cleaned up the wounds and bandaged the one area where he had a deeper cut.

"You know, this might be a good thing," I said once I was done.

Both Kenji and Kaori eyed me weirdly, but I ignored them and walked up to the tiger.

"We got food," I said.

"Can we eat that?" Kaori asked, but I saw Kenji smiling at me.

So, at 3 AM in the night, we made a stew and finally had our dinner. Of course, we couldn't eat a whole tiger, so we buried what was left.

By the time we were finished, it was already starting to brighten. So, we packed everything up and started moving west.

It was three hours when Fugaku finally appeared before us.

"Good work, team. You have cleared the mission."

"Sensei, we are still in for..." Kenji stopped mid-sentence as the scenery changed before our eyes.

We were in an open field. In fact, we were in our training field.

"Yes, God, thank you!" I shouted before I could control myself.

A few more hours and I would have taken some drastic measures, like stabbing myself to get out of the Genjutsu.

"Sit down and here, take this." Fugaku said as he handed out sandwiches to us.

"You all really surprised me when you made dinner out of that tiger." He said as we sat down.

"Well, we were just so hungry." Kenji said embarrassingly.

"No, no. You did good. It was good thinking. Ahem... Let me explain just what I wanted to see from you all through this mission.

"I wanted to see how you react when you are frustrated, when you are tired, when you are hungry, when reaching your goal is not easy.

"You see, having good teamwork is easy when you are safe, your stomach is full, and you had a good night of sleep.

"But when you are tired, hungry, have not slept, and are frustrated, anxious even, that!... that is where your true nature comes out. I was very glad to see all of you doing your best and working with each other to achieve your goals.

"Kaori, good work keeping a cool head and coming up with actionable plans. Kenji, you trusted your team and handled that tiger situation well. Lastly, Satoru, you showed good leadership, you kept the morale high, asked for their opinions and kept the team going.

"I am really proud of all of you."

"Aww... Sensei you are making us blush, just look... just look at Satoru, his ears have turned all red." Kenji commented unnecessarily.

"Shut up." Was my most apt response.

"Umm... Sensei, I had a question." Kaori asked, and Fugaku nodded.

"So, were we in the Genjutsu all this time?"

"Yes, I placed it so that you couldn't see the village." Fugaku answered.

"But how? I mean, I tried dispelling jutsu, why didn't it work?" Kaori asked, a little frustration creeping into her voice.

"Yes, that was a brilliant move, but Genjutsu cast by Sharingan are harder to dispel as we have much better control over the Yin chakra due to our bloodline limit. Unless you have a massive amount of chakra, dispelling it is impossible by yourself." Fugaku explained.

"Sensei, would inflicting pain have worked?" I asked, curious.

But Fugaku narrowed his eyes as he looked at me.

"A serious wound might... help you get out of any Genjutsu as your whole chakra network is disturbed. But I hope this is just a recent curiosity and not something that you thought of doing while in the forest, because that would have been foolish. Right?" I was receiving glares now, from not only Fugaku but also from Kaori and Kenji.

"Yes, yes. Just a curiosity." I quickly replied, putting my hands up. They were acting weird.

"Also, how did you make all the animals disappear? We couldn't find anything to hunt," I asked, partially curious and partially wanting to change the topic.

He huffed before starting to explain all the intricacies of his Genjutsu that Kaori listened to attentively.

"Sensei, what was that 'Find W' thing in your story? I wanted to ask you the next day, but then you were gone." Kenji brought up the story from that night.

"Well... First of all, let me repeat myself: you all did very well." Fugaku began a bit hesitantly.

Why was he being like this?

"No way!" Suddenly Kaori shouted, standing up.

What was happening? Fugaku waved his hand to make Kaori sit back down. She did, with her hand over her face.

"That was the clue. You guys needed to find W to get out of the forest." Fugaku explained, but I stopped listening halfway.

Find W? Find We...st.

Damn it.

"Your plan was also good, but always evaluate the situation through various perspectives. Once you knew that I had left you all in the forest, you should have evaluated my every move from the previous day to search for clues. I hope you keep this in mind for the next time."

Finally, we were dismissed, and we all quickly rushed back to each of our homes.

I arrived at my house, took a long bath, and then promptly fell asleep.

A/N: Please comment/review, would love to hear from readers.

Also please visit pat^re^on / johnblack6826 for next three advanced chapters