Kiyomi tumbled through the messy autumn forest area of the training grounds. She wasn’t rushing, using her immense ninja speed to cover larger distance faster “ she wanted to remain vigilant. Nothing could’ve surprised her now or else she risked failure. Still, how on Earth were they to succeed now? Was the whole team not scattered across the entire battlefield faster than the nerve signals reached their brains, so fast that even their superhuman perceptions could not pick it up?
Then there was that talk that Hanasaku gave her. It was something that Meiko and Mana probably needed to hear, what if they did hear it? What if that insane woman was just instantaneously moving from one side of the battlefield to another without cracking sweat or leaving a single trace of her movement!? What if she’s tracking the future Yamanaka heiress right now without Kiyomi knowing it? The blonde grinded her teeth together in frustration, her anger was beginning to break out.
A hawk scream awakened Kiyomi from her pent up frustration and inability to achieve anything tangible in this hellish test. Still, it was nothing compared to the utter tragedy of the first test her team went through when they first met with Hanasaku but back then they were still genin. While they shouldn’t have been dropped from half the heights one of her teammate plummeted from and arms were not supposed to bend the way that Kiyomi’s did, they had little to no expectations on them as just out of Academy brats. By the time genin become skilled enough to take the Chuunin Exams they usually can pass elementary mentor tests and survival drills…
“Hawk…” the young lady uttered to herself before raising her hands up and trying to aim her technique perfectly. So far she’s been wandering around, trying to be careful as to not hit a metal fence signaling the end of the training ground or any ground hazard. This was her way out. If Mana and Meiko really did get the message they would’ve went towards the center of the training grounds. That’s simply the most logical place to meet, close to where they were when they were scattered, also there are some small resting structures meant to kick back and relax. It was a landmark of sorts…
“Mind Body Switch Jutsu!” Kiyomi chanted as her mind left her own body firing off and heading straight at the hawk at the speed of thought. If she missed it would be no big deal, a minor waste of chakra as well as moments when her body would be exposed to attacks while her mind wandered back into her body. Either way “ if Hanasaku wanted to eliminate her she’d have done it long ago. The mad woman wanted something out of the three. That was why they weren’t immediately eliminated!
*****
Mana peeked from over a bush and observed an old and overgrown with vegetation arbor. No one was there out in the open. Maybe the others have already reached this point and were waiting in hiding, afraid to come out? They had a time limit to this test. They had no time to waste on this. The magician quickly weaved a couple of hand seals and ran out into the open.
“You fail!” Hanasaku’s growl came from behind Mana and the magician felt overwhelmed by numerous copies of the woman attacking with all of her unbelievable speed from various angles from all around. Oddly enough it was like those copies just moved instantaneously, like time stopped around them and watching from aside all of them looked like they had incalculable number of arms for their punches were that fast. Still, Hanasaku pulled her punches, clearly, still, she didn’t go for elimination - she wanted to hurt Mana…
The magician’s shape burst into rose petals and scattered across the autumnal ground, the illusionary copy exploded from pressure of a dozen Hanasakus striking her an inconceivable number of times with her contained strength. Frantically the woman looked around seeking to locate the real Mana, realizing she’s been put into an illusion. As the real shape did not reveal itself the woman placed her hands together and concentrated, overflowing her body with chakra and placing her hands in a hand seal position.
“Dispel!” she chanted trying to dispel the illusion but nothing happened. The real Mana did not appear. Either those shapes were not illusionary replacements, with the real user who went completely invisible while the illusion is in use, untraceable by even her enhanced smell and hearing of Sage Mode, or the illusion was not yet dispelled. Must’ve been one of those brain center targeting illusions.
Hanasaku pulled out a kunai from her pouch and cut herself in the wrist shallowly. The pain needed to be burning enough to break the illusion but not enough to seriously injure her. Right after the initial fiery sensation of being cut ended Hanasaku smelled something, behind her!
Multiple copies of Kiyomi were all halfway in the air, winding up their punches and kicks and ready to beat the shit out of their sensei. Hanasaku did not move an inch, it was not yet too late for her to move, her student was fast but only for her own rank. To the Sannin she moved at a snail’s pace, she had to restrain her own perception in order to not get bored by the Yamanaka’s movement. The attacks completely phased through the Sannin. Just as Mana suspected the woman was still phasing, either that or the Yamanaka’s illusion did not produce tangible means of attacking the Fifth.
“Hmph… Not bad!” Hanasaku yelled out before she once again placed her hands together and cast a simple genjutsu dispelling technique that ended Kiyomi’s own illusion. It was a much fancier Clone Jutsu, creating a handful of false images of attacking Kiyomi while the real user slipped away. “But please do remember you’re the ones who are supposed to catch me, not the other way around!” the woman yelled out to taunt her students who still haven’t even come close to catching her.
*****
Mana, Meiko and Kiyomi were taking some quick but stealthy moves away from the central area where they so chaotically met up. Mana smiled at her friends, feeling proud and happy that they made it.
“I wondered if you guys would find your way here… How did you do it?” she asked trying to dumb her volume down a bit so that their attempts at a stealthy retreat would still be respectable.
“I surveyed the area by placing my mind into a hawk, traced my own location and then figured where I need to go from there to reach the center. Obviously the central area was the key landmark we all knew, the southern entrance was close but it made sense that one of us was placed at the farthest possible point from it “ the northern edge so it’d have been not too productive for one of us to get there. The central landmark made more sense…” Kiyomi explained her own thoughts.
“I found a creek and followed it to the southern point, then when I didn’t find anyone there I just headed from there to the center, after finding that point I knew where I was exactly so finding the center was no issue at all…” Meiko explained hers.
While Meiko blundered the most out of the three, wandering around to the southern point before scurrying for the central landmark, the fact that she managed to not get eliminated or get lost was impressive. The blacksmith was obviously the person Mana was the most worried about.
“I have to say, Meiko… I, for a moment, doubted you could follow our emergency scenario, having in mind we haven’t decided on it before we got scattered and pieced it together just from trying to figure out how each one of us thought.” Mana voiced her doubts, it was obviously meant as a compliment that the blacksmith scattered the magician’s ill thoughts of her intelligence somewhat. While Meiko was not the sharpest thinker, she was just resourceful enough where it counted.
“Yeah… My first instinct was just to wander around and hope to bump into someone. But then… I thought about getting on this team and how much it meant for me. Kiyomi was always a part of this team and Mana earned her place with that mission and the Fifth’s test following it. I was recommended by Mana, I was the odd one out… I just can’t let myself fail, I want to prove that I’m worth being here!” Meiko firmly declared with fiery determination in her eyes and seriousness that the blacksmith’s voice rarely had.
The other two couldn’t help but smile hopefully.
“So now that we know that sensei is still phasing… What will we do?” Meiko changed the subject as the three settled down in an unusually large pile of leaves where they hid in. It was pretty wet and smelled of dirt and rotting trashy leaves everywhere but it had to be persevered.
“Do we? Sensei knows my Mist Servant Jutsu quite well, she is likely to know that my illusionary attacks are just that “ illusionary. Have we really seen her phase?” Kiyomi scratched the top of her head still reluctant to admit of what she was facing.
“Either way, phasing or not, there was something unusual about her “ I assume all of you got her message, right after we were scattered?” Mana asked just for clarification.
“Yeah… You mean she told you that same thing at the same time?!” Meiko shouted out loud forcing Kiyomi to press her palm up to the blacksmith’s mouth and shut the overly expressive teammate up.
“That means she was in multiple places in one time. That was after she heard Meiko yell at her about her limits. She must’ve known that she was unable to move that fast.” Mana concluded with a firm whisper.
“You mean it’s that transformation that grants her that ability?” Kiyomi wondered.
“Truth be told? I don’t know…” Mana pushed a bunch of leaves out of her face before dashing out of the hiding spot and taking a different spot of concealment behind a very thick tree, choosing to relocate before dashing up that tree and hiding inside the frail yet still thick cover of leaves on the tree’s upper level.
“I do have an idea though… Meiko’s speech is delivered through sound waves, just like everyone else’s. That means that Hokage-sensei would’ve been just as able to outrace those sound waves or allow her body to phase through them. She may not have heard those words. Back when I met her in the forest I tried hitting her with a sound channeled illusion and she simply retreated faster than sound before my illusion reached her…” Mana explained still looking back and worrying that sensei’s interference could’ve broken all of them off once again.
“It makes sense. Meiko can’t be the only person to ever stumble onto Hanasaku’s gimmick. It’s too simple a weakness to have no countermeasures against. While in her Super-Dog-Mode she has to phase through sound waves informing her of her weaknesses and limits…” Kiyomi nodded. She looked a little bit more relieved at the very least to have figured out the point of that transformation.
“Phasing, huh? So she can filter what reaches her and what doesn’t, kinda like a fancy human-transistor.” Meiko smiled before she head off to another hiding spot. Mana and Meiko soon followed.
“Transistor?” Mana asked for a clarification, she felt embarrassed that in this case Meiko was visibly smarter and more in control intellectually. Usually the opposite was the case, her intelligence and perception allowed Mana to feel worthy of being in a team that surpassed her physically so much.
“Wait, you don’t know what a transistor is?” Kiyomi cringed before breaking out in laughter.
“Shut up!” Mana whispered out embarrassed, struggling with herself to keep her whisper from breaking into a shout. Meiko joined in on the laughing tirade.
“Wind Style Collaboration: Rain Song!” two synced up voices sounding just like Hanasaku sung out as one as they blurred through hand seals. One of them blew out a powerful wind current that blasted all of the girls back, Mana and Meiko slammed against a tree before being violently thrown down and buried in the mud and fallen leaves. It was immensely wide and strong, like an actual storm current strong enough to send people flying. The other one spat out a built up mass of water from her lungs right into the storm gust which made a rain-like pelting water affect.
Mana grunted as she picked herself off the ground, she saw Kiyomi and Meiko already up on theirs and ready to answer. The two Hanasaku copies soon became four, then eight and twelve. They were no clones, they couldn’t have been. There was actual sound from where their feet touched with wood and they weren’t just Shadow Clones as there was no actual jutsu being performed. The clones just appeared out of thin air.
“That’s right… It just doesn’t make sense. So much that it actually does…” Mana looked at her bruised knees and torn up clothes when she realized something. The magician weaved a pair of hand seals. Then her body just froze, her eyes rapidly raced around but nowhere near as quick as her mind tried to sum up what she had just realized.
“Retreat!” she issued out an order for her team. Her hands went through a pair of hand seals again.
“Enough! This test is over!” Hanasaku barked out before her canine shape changed into a more human shape yet her numbers still remained the same.
“Huh?” Meiko scratched her head confused, looking at Mana and then back at their mentor. “Did we win?” she ask.
“No, you failed… Because of Mana.” Hanasaku pointed at the magician.
“Oh, come on! Enough of this subjective bullshit!” Kiyomi growled out seemingly believing that her mentor’s decision was because of how she disliked Mana’s behavior during the whole Yamanaka wedding plot.
“Would you just let me explain?” Hanasaku asked her student for a chance. Kiyomi pouted and looked away just in case her angry stares could kill Hanasaku, the girl’s arms firmly locked on her chest betrayed how angry the Yamanaka was.
“You see, Mana found me out, just now. Those hand seals she made were Transformation Jutsu, the basic Academy Technique. My enhanced dog-like ears allowed me to hear what she said to herself just now too allowing me to put it all together.” Hanasaku pointed at Mana who just nodded. “Go on, tell your friends everything, if you won’t, I will and I won’t be subtle about it.” The woman demanded.
“I read this thing… In a history book once, this theory from a scientist in Iwagakure who discovered a way to mine especially tough minerals. He discovered this theory in physics where nothing particles do at a certain level makes sense “ things can be in multiple places at once, things can phase through electric waves and other particles. This thing Hokage-sensei did, these techniques made no sense, they couldn’t have been explained by any logic so I figured it was that. My plan was to transform into a small object and catch her unprepared, maybe transform into an animal or a plant. I figured that the animal would have the message transcribed on its back…” Mana began explaining, she was beginning to finally understand where she had failed. Her body just froze during those moments right before the transformation and she made the wrong call, she knew where and she knew what it would’ve cost.
“And it would’ve worked. I couldn’t have avoided something I see in front of me, something I subconsciously read instead of a spoken sentence.” Hanasaku nodded seriously, then her eyes flared back up and looked at Mana like trying to transfer that flame at her, incinerate the girl with a glare. “Keep going. Tell your team what you did.”
“I froze…” Mana cried out, she was becoming embarrassed. “I… I don’t want to use techniques that I didn’t invent myself, I don’t like it. I wondered if I should use Transformation Jutsu at all “ it’s a basic Academy technique. I’ve used unoriginal jutsu before but those were moments of life and death, this was a survival drill, a game…” Mana stopped talking, she realized that she was just making excuses at this point so she just sat down on a rock nearby and stopped talking.
Hanasaku sighed. “You see, Mana had the option of transforming and stepping over herself, removing my new techniques from me, my limitless potential to function like those laws of physics that don’t make sense. She didn’t, instead she cried out to retreat, without a doubt, intending to explain herself to you and asking that someone else transformed in her place.”
“So?” Kiyomi glared at Hanasaku.
“So… If I was fighting with the intent to kill you “ I’d have killed you then and there. Mana faltered, I would’ve simply attacked you two because I knew that she’d have used some tricky illusion to slip away like she did before. You two were wide open, caught in surprise. I would’ve moved you outside the training grounds, or killed you in real life, and you wouldn’t have possibly seen it coming. You’d all be dead because Mana decided to back out instead of stepping over her stupid principles.” The Fifth finally explained why she flunked the team.
Without uttering a word Mana stood up and began walking off. Her head hurt again, her chest hurt from the pressure of just having flunked her team. Hanasaku was right, had she defied her own principles and stepped over her principles for this stupid survival drill she could’ve helped her team pass. Her decision to back out without thinking it all through was selfish. It was stupid and it was undoubtedly wrong. Mana’s hand grabbed her collar and gripped it as hard as she could while her body tensed up from the stress and uncontrollable weeping. She couldn’t hold it inside her anymore. She failed everyone again. Even more, it was exactly mirroring the last training with Shimo and Sugemi “ she dragged her team down, her principles did.
Just like the last time her mentor belittled her for her principles, obviously this time it wasn’t her refusal to kill, it was her entertainer originality principle. One that she sometimes ignored if lives were at stake or she deemed it important but the very fact that she stopped to consider that principle at all cost them this test. Even if Mana did transform, even if she did step over herself… She’d have faltered fighting an opponent who was fast enough to kill her team. Because of her faltering she’d have seen Meiko and Kiyomi die before transforming…
Kiyomi and Meiko caught up to Mana. The magician couldn’t look at them at that moment. Meiko softly wrapped her hand around the magician’s neck and friendlily teased her. “So you know about some stupid impossible theoretical laws of physics but you’ve no idea what a transistor is?!” the blacksmith laughed out.
Kiyomi’s eyes were strange, she didn’t look angry, she didn’t look like she’d detested the magician or what Mana did but it was impossible to tell what she really thought. She certainly didn’t look happy.
“Hey, don’t feel bad, if I figured it out and tried transforming I’d have failed too “ remember how bad I am at ninjutsu!?” Meiko tried lightening the mood and then comically acted out a malformed animal she’d have likely transformed into making Kiyomi crack a grin from how ridiculous the blacksmith looked.
Mana dashed ahead, augmenting her abilities to try and get away from her team. She didn’t say a word or react in any way. Deep inside she knew that both Meiko and Kiyomi could’ve caught her if they went after her, they were both faster than she was. Neither of them did. Meiko just stood around looking at the hand that Mana rudely escaped from under before looking in the distance where the magician went off to.
“Wanna go get something to eat?” Kiyomi coldly suggested.
“In the name of blazing caramel hellfire, YES!” Meiko shouted out jumping up with her fist in the air like she’d have just passed the Chuunin Exams already. While the blacksmith still felt bad for her friend, she was quite easily distracted…
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