„45 ... 46 ... 47..." I groaned. My arms were trembling with exertion. Pain spread through them. Destroyed them from the inside out, threatened to grow even stronger should I not give in, but I refused. I put all my will and strength against it, I had almost made it. Sweat ran down my cheeks and dripped onto my shirt. I was sweating like crazy. My short hair was wet with sweat. Not for ... much longer.

„Fifty." Relieved, I dropped into the softness of the grass, so seductive at the moment. My arms shook as if they were about to collapse, while my heart and breath raced madly in competition. Rattling and pounding, it escaped my lungs, aching with each time and feeling insanely liberating at the same time.

Fifty pull-ups in a row. And that was on the very first workout. It seemed like Kurenai didn't want to waste any time. The black-haired woman stood next to our miserably slumped figures and looked down at us scrutinizingly.

„Good, that was better than I expected once before. I'll give you five minutes and then it's the sprints. Let's see if your legs have as much stamina as your arms," she said, crossing her arms.

Sprints. That too. I was good at it, but because of my current physical condition, I wasn't sure if I could keep up this exercise, it all depended on what this task entailed.

Next to me, Kiba sat up with shaky arms and legs. He was just as exhausted as I was. Akamaru stood next to him and looked at his master with concern. I had to smile. The bond between the two of them was really strong. And it was nice to see Kiba paying attention to someone other than his own ego.

„There, I see you guys are doing better. The five minutes are up, too. Then we can continue," Kurenais voice rang out.

It hovered over our heads like a threatening knife, and I tensed. This would certainly not be a normal sprint in which we simply ran. No. Certainly she would set traps for us and the word teamwork should probably not be a foreign word to us.

She wanted to test us again, that much was certain. Concentrated I looked at my sensei, tried to recognize something in her facial emotions, but she showed nothing, put on a poker face. Her gaze wandered from one face to the other, when she reached mine, I smiled and a confused expression flitted across her features, which was then replaced by a sudden realization. She had understood.

We ran through the forest. In a highly unstructured formation. Kiba had the nose in front, of course, which I personally would call rather untactical. Because Kurenai would surely ambush us somewhere and Hinata's Byakugan would be of greater advantage than Kiba's nose.

My senses were completely concentrated on the environment. Because we did not know yet in which kind our Sensei could fight, let alone which Kekkei Genkai she possessed. And somehow this idea frightened me. Out of a fear, I would say that she knew about gen-jutsus, but as I said, it was only a guess.

My back tingled. Something was there behind us. In a flash, I turned around and deflected the approaching kunai, which was followed by a few more. The others had also stopped in the meantime and came to my aid. A hissing sound rang out and I didn't even have to look to know what was coming at us.

„Letter bomb!" shouted Kiba and we just barely fell to the side. There was a loud bang and a violent shaking followed. The strong branch on which we had just been standing had fallen to the ground.

But the bomb had come from a different direction than the kunai, which meant that our sensei was either very fast or...

„Clones. Watch your surroundings. She could be anywhere," Shino warned, adjusting his glasses. Back-to-back, the four of us stood there, covering every conceivable point of the compass.

„Watch out. She might be using gene jutsus," I said quietly, and the others nodded in sync. My muscles were tensed to the utmost. Concentrated, I focused on my surroundings. Every crack, or other suspicious sound had to be noticed.

„We have to stay together. Because if she separates us, we'll be easy to defeat," Kiba whispered. He was right. We didn't know about her abilities yet and that was one more reason to be twice as careful.

Cawing, a bird flew out of the bushes and over us. But something was strange. Quick as a flash I had thrown my kunai and the animal fizzled before our eyes. She had wanted to distract us, and she had succeeded.

I secretly created four invisible shadow clones and sent them into the undergrowth. They had to find Kurenai, before she appeared with us. Not even my teammates got wind of it. That was good, because she might already be here and then my secret weapon would be exposed.

Out of nowhere, vines shot out of the ground and crawled up our feet. In a flash, I jumped back, but more and more plants reached for me, following my steps.

A gene jutsu. It could not be otherwise. None of it helped. I had to use this ability, otherwise the fight would be decided.

„Jutsu of the invisible shield."

Immediately the tendrils jerked back, bouncing off the invisible protective wall that had built up around me.

Hectically, I looked around for the others. But they had disappeared. Was that one of Kurenais jutsus, too? Certainly. She wanted to intimidate me. Apparently knew my greatest weakness. Fear of loneliness.

„You are alone. No one will help you. On your own. You can't win against me."

I gritted my teeth. The others had to be here somewhere. I just had to find them. Or she had gotten me into the gen-jutsu on her own, because if that was the case, I had to be able to get out of it on my own.

„So what?", I called back. "You know me sensei. For years I was on my own. This is nothing new to me."

A laugh answered. So cold it ran down my spine. What was she trying to do? Was she testing the stability of our psyche? Possibly.

Maybe it was her goal to make us stronger. Basically, not a bad idea, but still I didn't want to think about the anxiety she would put poor Hinata into.

I had to get out of here and as fast as possible.

Hadn't Kakashi once mentioned in a training session that you had to be able to release all your chakra to escape a gen-jutsu or even through pain?

But if I was in a gen-jutsu here, then that meant that nothing here was real, and so I could theoretically...

My fingers tightly gripped the handle of a kunai. Slowly and surely, I pulled it out of my pocket and turned it so that the tip pointed at my stomach.

„What? What are you doing?" All at once, Kurenais voice was back, echoing in the trees. Almost panicked.

I smiled. Apparently, I had been right. My hand trembled slightly, but I tried to remember that all this wasn't real and so I couldn't die either. Then I thrust. The knife was bounced out of my hand and dug into the ground.

Kurenai stood before me, breathing heavily. In flesh and blood.

Finally, I got to see her. Well, that went well.

Quick as a flash, my shadow doubles had rushed out of the bushes and rushed toward the black-haired woman.

In an unnaturally fast movement, she had spun around and fought off all four of them at once. I could not help it, but my mouth remained open. That I had now from my overconfidence. To underestimate my sensei just like that.

A smile broke out on her face and I eyed her slightly suspiciously.

I wonder what would come now?

„Don't worry Tora. It's over."