Monster

Kurami hadn’t slept a wink after Sayumi woke her up at five in the morning. She waited anxiously for her cousin before it was noon but Sayumi still hadn’t made it back yet. So she trudged all the way to where her team was supposed to meet up at. Considering that her uncle wasn’t home when she left, she didn’t find him being there already very surprising.

“Well now that we’re all here, we can get started.” Takashi announced.

Akio yawned loudly, “What exactly are we doing?”

Takashi motioned with his hands towards two flags that were on opposite sides and far from each other, one was red and the other was blue. “Capture the flag.” Their sensei began, “You three have to use the skills you’ve learned from the academy to make sure that I don’t take your red flag, and that you do take my blue flag. A simple game that today will be used as your test.”

Akio stretched out his arms and neck, “Sounds easy!”

Takashi smiled, “Yes. And if I do capture your flag then you all fail.” Face palm. “And if you don’t capture my flag by sun down, you also fail.”

There was a moment of silence that passed through all of them as they took in what their sensei had just said. Kurami gulped nervously.

“Ready?” They all prepared themselves. Kurami would jump towards the flag and into a tree that surrounded it.

“Go.”

As Kurami did exactly what she thought of, she saw that Shin was also doing the same thing. It seemed they were all on the same wave length.

“Hyaa!” Akio shouted as he jumped in the air, throwing shurikens, forcing Kurami’s uncle to move out of the way of the blue flag. At that moment Akio greedily ran towards the flag, he was just a foot away when Takashi-sensei came out of nowhere and grabbed at his collar.

“You seemed to have not followed your ninja technique.” Takashi said, shaking his head. “Ninja must know how to conceal their movements and hide effectively.”

Akio grunted, “Yeah well it worked out better this way than I thought it would!”

Takashi shook his head again, and slowly let go of Kenta, “Well maybe you’ll be better at taijutsu, the physical shinobi battle technique.”

Akio smirked, “I can take you!”

Kurami groaned, annoyed by her teammate. She glanced around the tree she was in, ‘I have to find Shin! We all have to stick together!’ She stood up, ready to leap.

“No.”

A hand reached out, grabbing onto her shoulder. She shrieked a little inside but stayed calm and silent as she turned around to face the boy she was about to start looking for.

“Don’t move, you have to stay here to guard the flag.” He commanded in his cool voice.

Kurami stared at him confused, “But…Akio. He’s making a fool of himself out there. We have to stick together!”

Shin shook his head, he ran his hand through his dark hair, “Kenta may be dumb but he’s not a complete idiot. This is the perfect distraction. I’ll go get the flag, you guard ours.”

“Wouldn’t it be more effective if we all get the flag together?”

Shin got up, readying himself to jump through the trees, “Then who’s going to guard ours?” With that, he took off.

Kurami sighed and looked over to where Akio was, he was fighting Takashi, but it looked more like Akio was just wasting his own energy.

‘I should help him!’ Kurami cried out in her head, ‘But I can’t. I need to stay put!’

SWOOSH

Out of nowhere, shurikens flew towards Takashi and Akio, forcing the two apart and Takashi to get thrown out of the way, several of them piercing his side.

Kurami screamed inside her head. She stayed frozen in a state of shock.

POOF

A log fell to the floor, replacing her uncles’ body.

“What?! Replacement jutsu?!” Akio shouted aggravated.

Kurami leaped down onto another branch to get a better look towards the blue flag. A couple of minutes passed as Akio looked around confused. Shin was nowhere to be seen.

“Kurami.”

Kurami jumped at the whisper but her head quickly snapped to the side of her. Shin was on another tree about a foot away. He leaped beside her.

“He used genjutsu on me; I was so close to getting that flag.” Shin glowered down towards the direction of the blue flag.

“Genjutstu?” She said with her eyes grown wide.

“The illusion jutsu.” Shin retorted. Kurami rolled her eyes.

“I know what it is! It’s just I didn’t think this test would go to such extremes.”

Shin shook his head, “He’s trying to show us the main battle techniques.”

“Yeah well, let’s try and skip these textual reminders and go for actually capturing that flag.” Shin looked at Kurami with new eyes. Kurami was never this upfront with other people.

“How do you suppose we do that?”

Kurami thought for a while. How would she do it? She was never one to take up being a leader and she couldn’t harm her uncle.

“Just follow my lead.”

Shin looked at her suspiciously, “That’s your plan?!”

“What plan?”

The two jumped at the voice and noticed its source was none other than their sensei. Shin acted faster than Kurami and kicked at him. Kurami was forced to jump off the branch and right next to the red flag.

‘I’ve got to act quickly.’ She glanced up to where Shin and Takashi were. They were gone.

“Looking for someone?”

Takashi appeared right in front of her, he was inches from the flag.

“No!” Kurami did several hand signals from memory and as she blew into her right hand, and sand storm burst out causing Takashi to fly several feet from her and the flag. He regained himself quickly.

“Well I’m glad you’re showing your strength Kurami. I’m very proud of you.”

Kurami smirked, “Sorry uncle.” Akio came up from behind their sensei and grabbed hold of him.

Takashi looked truly surprised. Without another second to pass Kurami made a sand barrier around the flag. At the same time, their sensei’s body had poofed into yet another log.

“Get to the flag!” She shouted to Akio, Shin had leaped right to his side and they both began to run.

Kurami’s body felt weak but she ran as fast as she could. Takashi was definitely faster.

He was already in a hand to hand combat with Akio and Shin. He showed amazing speed, but they were so close, right in front of the flag!

“Move him!” Shin shouted to Akio. Akio kicked at his sensei and so Takashi would avoid the impact he jumped up and on the other side of him.

‘This is my chance!’ Kurami ran even faster, she rounded off of Shin’s back, since he crouched down for her to get through, and back hand springed right next to the blue flag.

“Yeah!” Akio shouted just as there was a loud crash sound. Everyone looked over to where the red flag was and there was Takashi, breaking the sand barrier.

Akio ran as fast as he could towards his sensei but Shin acted even faster. In one swift movement he had done several hand signs and was blowing a fiery blaze towards Kurami’s uncle, forcing Takashi to leap away from the flag.

Her two teammates looked to Kurami who grabbed at the blue flag triumphantly. She called out to her unharmed uncle, “Does this mean we pass?”

----------

Takashi had willingly and proudly passed the three Genin and as a reward, he paid for their dinner at the ramen shop.

As Akio scarfed down his second bowl, he turned to Kurami and Shin. “How is it that you two know so many high level jutstus?!”

Shin answered as if the question didn’t faze him, “We’re ninja in training. How do you not know?”

Akio looked at him baffled.

Takashi shook his head smiling, “It seems I have quite a powerful team on my hands.”

Akio ignored his sensei and turned his attention onto Kurami, “No seriously, how do you know so much?”

Kurami took a sip of her ramen and shrugged. “It just came to me.”