Training Ground Three. Yoshimaru stood facing his three students in the open clearing.
"Today is your squad formation test. If you can't meet my requirements, I'm sending whoever fails back to the academy. The borders aren't safe right now. Anyone without the ability to contribute doesn't belong on a battlefield. This is for your own good."
He formed a sequence of hand seals. A Summoning Technique produced a black iron staff, tall as a man. Sunlight caught the dark metal in a thin bright line, and the glare made Sora nervous. Not for himself. For Teju. What if this idiot got killed?
Ever since laying eyes on Kurenai that morning, Teju had been grinning nonstop, his already small eyes squeezed into slits. But the iron staff wiped the smile clean off his face. A reminder. Being a ninja wasn't about romance. It wasn't a dinner party. It was cold steel and blood.
"The test is simple. Come at me with everything you have. Touch my body, and you pass."
"Sensei, do we get prep time?" Sora asked.
"Five minutes."
The three of them bolted behind a cluster of trees at the far edge of the clearing.
Sora turned to Kurenai. "Kurenai, none of us have ever faced a Tokubetsu Jonin. My father and Teju's father were both retired Chunin. Do you know anything about what we're dealing with?"
"A Tokubetsu Jonin is an elite Chunin with a pronounced specialty, but not well-rounded enough to operate independently like a full Jonin. Konoha has around five hundred of them. From what I know, Akimichi-sensei is the physically tough type. My Genjutsu would be completely useless against him."
She was frowning, brow pinched tight with frustration at her own inadequacy.
"Don't worry about it, Kurenai. On a real battlefield, we're Genin. The odds of running into a Tokubetsu Jonin are slim. When we're up against enemy Genin, you'll be devastating." Teju, that hopeless fool. Now was not the time for consolation flirting.
"So," Sora said, "as the most handsome member of this squad, mind if I call the strategy?"
Gray hair pulled back in a ponytail. A thin, angular face. "Handsome" was doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Kurenai's abilities weren't suited for fighting above her rank. She didn't argue.
Teju had known Sora long enough to know the guy had strong opinions, and he wasn't about to contest them. He did, however, get a jab in: "If you're the most handsome, does that make me too ugly to show my face in public?"
"Teju, I'm glad you're self-aware."
Kurenai watched the two of them banter and felt a pang of isolation. They'd been best friends since their academy days. Now, placed on the same squad, she was the outsider. Not yet part of whatever this was.
Sora eyed the oversized pack on Teju's back. "Here's the plan. Two phases. Phase one: Kurenai and I engage Akimichi-sensei head-on, probe his fighting habits, gather as much intel as we can. Teju, you stay hidden and observe. Phase two: Teju sets traps. We lure Akimichi-sensei into them and look for an opening."
Teju nodded and sprang away to find his vantage point.
Kurenai and Sora headed back toward their sensei.
Yoshimaru stood leaning on his iron staff, watching the two of them emerge with mild curiosity. He scanned the treeline behind them, wondering what the absent third one was up to.
Kurenai couldn't help herself. She wove a Genjutsu at Yoshimaru, her hand seals slow and deliberate, the chakra fluctuation modest.
Yoshimaru registered the technique and briefly considered whether he should play along. Pretend to be caught, give the girl a confidence boost. But then a kunai came spinning at him from Sora's direction, and he abandoned the charitable thought. He swatted the kunai aside with a flick of his staff.
Kurenai saw her Genjutsu had done nothing. She and Sora split left and right, each gripping a kunai, and closed in.
Standard Taijutsu. Yoshimaru didn't move his feet. Not once. The iron staff drifted from side to side, blocking everything with casual ease. At this rate, Sora figured they could keep swinging until sunset and never touch him.
One difference stood out. When Yoshimaru deflected Kurenai's kunai, the force was gentle. When he blocked Sora's, the impact rattled his hand down to the bone.
You've shown your true colors, old man. One look at a cute girl with big eyes and your guard goes soft.
Kurenai's father, Yuhi Shinku, was a Jonin and a senior acquaintance of Yoshimaru's. This whole test was really aimed at Sora and Teju. Kurenai was always going to be handled with care.
Clang after clang, kunai ringing off iron. After a round of exchanges, Sora accepted the obvious: he and Kurenai couldn't do a thing.
He circled behind Yoshimaru, drew a kunai from his pouch, and flung it at the man's back. A few leaves fluttered loose from the pouch with it. Yoshimaru didn't even look. The staff swept backward and batted the kunai away.
No good from behind either.
Sora and Kurenai stood before their sensei, breathing hard.
"Kurenai, attack first!"
She raised her kunai and charged. Sora fell in directly behind her, tucking himself into Yoshimaru's blind spot, hands working at something out of sight.
Yoshimaru watched them come. These two. He was half a head taller than either of them and could see Sora clearly over Kurenai's shoulder, gathering chakra for a jutsu. Not exactly subtle.
A bang. White smoke billowed where Sora had been, and several leaves drifted to the ground. Then Sora appeared behind Yoshimaru, palms already pressed together, Wind Release firing point-blank.
His expression soured the instant the jutsu connected.
Yoshimaru had driven his iron staff into the earth, anchoring it several centimeters deep. The Gale Palm struck his broad back full force. His coat flapped. His sleeves rippled. He didn't budge.
Are you kidding me? That was real Wind Release. Actual wind chakra. And you won't even flinch? Being big doesn't mean you get to stand still in a gale!
The wind blasted past Yoshimaru's body and caught Kurenai instead, sending her tumbling.
Sora grit his teeth. He poured everything he had into a second Gale Palm, staking his dignity on it. This one took a fraction longer to build. Inside the compressed air, something whined, high and sharp.
Yoshimaru couldn't see behind him, but he heard it. He understood immediately: the kid had grasped wind's cutting property. Two small Wind Blades, threaded into the Gale Palm.
He turned. For the first time, he moved. One lateral step, smooth and unhurried, and the Gale Palm sailed past him.
The compressed wind tore into the treeline behind him. Two gashes split a tree trunk: thirty centimeters long, two centimeters deep at their worst.
Sora signaled Kurenai. The two of them darted into the forest and vanished.
Yoshimaru remained where he stood, still unhurried, still unruffled. But he was thinking.
This kid has something. Kurenai was a different matter. A Genjutsu specialist whose only real teacher could be her father. Nobody else in Konoha could guide her down that road.
But the boy's grasp of wind nature is remarkable. I figured I could play with these kids without moving my feet, and the little bastard forced me to take a step. Not bad at all. He glanced toward the trees where Teju had disappeared. Now what's the chubby one's angle? That huge pack on his back... it better not be full of snacks. Then again, if it is, today just got a whole lot better.