“You have just under three hours. You may begin…now!” announced Yamato Sensei.

“Sekka, wait!” Reito called out uselessly.

The girl had charged immediately, pulling a kunai from her thigh holster. Sekka skidded through the man’s legs at amazing speed, righted herself in an instant, and sunk her kunai into his back.

Reito couldn’t believe it. He didn’t believe it. “A substitution!” he warned, just before Yamato Sensei disappeared in a puff of white smoke, leaving a block of wood behind, equipped with a crackling Explosive Tag. “Look out!”

Sekka backflipped away from the ensuing blast, while the boys shielded their eyes.

“We should retreat and discuss our options,” Reito advised in a panicky voice.

“You two can do what you want,” Sekka called as she headed for the trees, “but there are only two bells, and one of them is going to be mine!”

“Sorry, Reito. I can’t fail,” said Daishi regretfully, but when Reito turned to reason with the boy, he was nowhere to be seen. Could he move as fast as Yamato Sensei?

Reito was frozen to the spot, staring at the little clock surrounded by splintered wood, watching its second hand ticking away. Compared to last time, he had all the time and Chakra in the world, so why was he just standing here, alone, his mind utterly blank?

***

Yamato quickly made his way to the highest branch of the tallest nearby tree to observe Team Five’s next move. Would they unite, or would they divide? After a short exchange, Sekka took off into the woods, while Daishi… Ah, yes, there it was, the Akamine Clan’s Jutsu. He would have to be on alert for that. Only Reito remained, unmoving, his head low. Feeling defeated, perhaps?

Yamato felt bad for the boy. Reito had remained true to his word. He hadn’t revealed the point of the final exam, but his attempts to get his teammates to cooperate had failed. The bell test had done its job. At this rate, they would probably fail.

That wouldn’t be a big disappointment to Yamato, or indeed to Lady Tsunade, but Kakashi wouldn’t be happy with him. He seemed to have an interest in Reito Tsu. Well, that would serve him right. Assigning Yamato this mission at the last minute was obviously an intentional decision on his part, despite assurances to the contrary.

That much became clear when Yamato reviewed Team Five’s files yesterday. From his surveillance assignment, he knew Reito was a person of interest, but teaming him with two other problem students had not been part of the plan. A Kiri Village defector, and a member of that clan…? There must have been another Jonin better suited for the role. Going straight from Root into Anbu, he had never led a Genin team, let alone one in need of a full-time babysitter.

Okay, Naruto had been a Genin when he was leading Team Kakashi, but there were special circumstances there, and Naruto, Sakura, and Sai were not fresh out of the academy. Far from it. On the unlikely chance that Team Five passed their test, they would need proper training as well as supervision.

Yamato pouted. Was he really the best man for the job, as Kakashi maintained? Or was he being taken for granted again? He supposed it was better than working on the rebuilding project, endlessly churning out raw material using his Bloodline Limit. Marginally. He was going to have a frank conversation with his old mentor once this was over.

From the center of the clearing, a sharp noise rang out. Yamato’s brows disappeared behind his head guard. Reito Tsu had slapped himself hard across the face and was finally heading for cover. Evidently, he wasn’t ready to throw in the towel just yet.

Yamato supposed it was time he got started too. “Wood Style (Mokuton): Wood Clone (Moku Bunshin no) Jutsu,” he uttered while performing the tiger, dog, and snake Hand Seals. Two masses of vegetation sprouted from his body. They separated from him, grew to his height, and mimicked his form. The three Yamatos then scattered in different directions.

***

Reito entered the woods with determination. He hadn’t failed yet. There was still a chance that he could bring his new teammates around. He had to find them before Yamato Sensei did. The problem now was that he hadn’t seen which way Daishi went, so his only choice was to try tracking Sekka.

He continued in the general direction she had headed, looking for telltale signs of her recent presence or spots she might have selected to take cover in. It wasn’t thirty seconds before he found something. Sadly, it wasn’t the kind of thing Reito was looking for.

The second he landed on the narrow but single usable branch of a large tree, it catapulted him head-first into its trunk. Reito smacked his head, saw stars, and dropped to the ground with a painful thud.

It was a while before he could move, slowly to ensure nothing was broken. He had been lucky, but he was going to have a nasty bruise come morning. He looked up, trying to discern what happened.

There was a piece of rope attached to the end of the branch he landed on. It was a trap. While rudimentary, it had been concealed well. Still, he should have realized. On closer inspection, there were signs of other branches being cut from the tree, to limit his landing options.

Reito got to his feet, rubbing his sore back. He was one thing, but did Sekka really think Yamato Sensei was going to fall for something like that? He returned to the trees, paying more attention to his footing. In doing so, he triggered and avoided two similar traps. His frustration growing, he decided to avoid the trees for now.

However, when Reito touched down on a wide patch of grass, he found his foothold give way. With the velocity at which he had dropped from his last position, he was waist-deep in mud before he knew it. “What the…?” he exclaimed, not understanding how the girl could have even made such a trap. “Argh! Sekka!”

“What do you think you are doing?” she hissed in reply, much to his surprise, appearing from behind the trunk of the closest tree with a kunai in hand.

“How did you make this?” Reito asked with a note of fascination. It wasn’t something their basic skills could achieve. On reflection, it occurred to him that the previous simple traps may have been part of a strategy. They had convinced him to switch to ground level, where a much better trap awaited him, with Sekka ready to pounce. She might be smarter than he had given her credit for.

Hearing the compliment in Reito’s voice, Sekka’s face relaxed for a moment before her frown lines returned with a vengeance. “It doesn’t matter, you ruined it!” she said, then turned away.

“Wait, aren’t you going to help me out?” Reito asked.

“If you can’t escape that on your own, you’re helpless,” Sekka derided.

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“I can, I was just asking for a hand,” Reito said snippily. “We’re teammates!”

Sekka shook her head. “I don’t need teammates, especially ones who are going to hold me back. If you get in my way again, I’ll remove you from this contest myself!”

With that, the girl took off, leaving Reito to pull himself out of her mud trap, which took a good five minutes of wiggling. When he finally escaped, he was a mess, and it was the result of friendly fire during a teamwork exercise. He wiped off the bigger clumps of mud, feeling his cheeks burn with mingled anger and embarrassment.

Why didn’t Sekka understand? This was not a contest! She might be able to deliver on her threat, though, which would ensure they all failed. Maybe he should focus on finding Daishi, after all.

Reito turned, wondering which direction to begin his search for the boy. Before his mind was made up, however, Yamato Sensei suddenly appeared in the distance. Reito ducked behind a bush, hoping he hadn’t been seen, but a few tense seconds later, a kunai landed near him, affixed with an Explosive Tag.

The explosion sounded behind him as Reito shot into the tree branches, fleeing the scene. Yamato Sensei was hot on his heels, occasionally throwing more tag-equipped kunais, which forced him to divert. Reito concentrated Chakra to his feet to increase his speed and maneuverability, but he was worried about his heading.

Thanks to the instructor’s interventions, he was getting further from the clearing now, not closer. Reito needed to shake the man and find cover until he could retrace his steps. Upon spotting a convenient hiding place—a hollow in the base of a tree—he came to a halt, settling on a plan. He would use the Substitution Jutsu when his pursuer got close enough and slip into the hollow unseen.

When Reito turned around, however, Yamato Sensei was no longer behind him. Suddenly, without a sound, amidst a swirling flurry of leaves, the man dropped from above and landed spryly on the branch Reito was standing on, his face just inches away, his dark eyes staring into his very soul.

Reito froze, his breath catching for a second before his limbs responded as instructed, and he began to run. Going for the bells right now was useless. If by some miracle, he was able to wrest one away from the teacher, it probably wouldn’t do him any good without demonstratable assistance from one of his teammates.

Chancing a glance behind him as he made his escape, Reito saw that Yamato Sensei was pursuing him again. He engaged his Chakra, picking up his pace, but the man easily matched his speed. Moreover, he wasn’t alone now. Two more men were chasing him from tree to tree. Two more Yamato Senseis!

Reito had to calm himself and think. Was it the Clone Jutsu? No, the copies weren’t mimicking his movements. They were acting independently, moving several paces apart. But how? Wracking his brain, Reito found an answer in something Iruka Sensei had once said. There were other types of cloning techniques, more advanced ones, which allowed the user to create copies with physical form or even sentience.

That had to be it. If that were the case, though, using such a technique would have taken a lot of Chakra. Maybe now was the time to strike? Even as Reito considered this, two more clones of the instructor appeared on either side of him. Five? No, six. There were six of them. They weren’t attacking, but he was surrounded.

Reito tried repeatedly to escape the ring of foes that now encircled him, using bursts of speed and acrobatic movements to shake them, but whenever he tried, they moved an equal distance, keeping him trapped at their center. Eventually, he came to a halt, as did his pursuers. He wasn’t sure what to do. He was just wasting Chakra like this.

The clones appeared to be perfect, so he couldn’t pinpoint which was the real Yamato Sensei by sight, and they weren’t communicating. Maybe they couldn’t speak? Something wasn’t right. Yamato Sensei was a Jonin; he could probably create a lot of standard clones, but to make this many special ones…? It didn’t make sense. There had to be a limit.

Since escape was no longer an option, Reito decided to fight, taking out four of his shurikens and one of his kunai. Perhaps taking out a clone or two, if he could manage it, would help his team in the long run. He knew the teacher would be able to dodge a typical throw with no problem, but he could pull off a pretty good trick shot. He just hoped Haru’s cheap shurikens were up to the task.

Directing as much Chakra as he could muster to his legs, Reito surged upward with all his might. As he twisted in the air, he saw, as he had hoped, that his opponents had followed. With his first movement, he hurled the kunai at one of the Yamatos, who dodged, and it sunk into a tree trunk as planned. He then threw his four shurikens one after the other, each with a slightly different angle but the same target—the kunai’s handle.

His pursuers didn’t react to them because they weren’t in danger from such wild throws, not until each shuriken ricocheted off the kunai’s handle in four different directions. Two went wide, but the other two were going to hit their respective targets.

However, Reito’s heart sank when they both missed, flying off into the woods. It had been a long shot, but he was so sure those two had been on target, and Yamato Sensei wouldn’t have had time to dodge. Was the man just that good? Or was there some other reason?

That was when it occurred to Reito. They may not be typical clones, but he didn’t know for sure that they had physical form. He had just assumed. What if the shurikens had passed right through them? Was that why they hadn’t attacked? Was that why they weren’t speaking?

He had to confirm his theory. If he was right, there was a chance that hitting the real Yamato Sensei would disrupt his technique and make the clones vanish. Either way, the problem was that he needed to land a hit on at least one of them, and that wouldn’t be easy, especially now that the man was aware of his shuriken skills.

Reito needed to try something the man couldn’t predict. He led the pack away for a while before heading back the way they came. They trailed him from all sides just as before. When he reached the last point of engagement, he dropped down from the canopy, grabbing his used kunai on the way. On reaching the ground, he threw it straight up, along with three more shurikens from his pocket, then immediately started molding Chakra.

The descending Yamato clones dodged the attacks easily, but once they did, Reito thrust his arms into the air, reaching out with his mind to grab his skyward weapons. He felt his Chakra connect with the kunai and two of the shurikens and mentally yanked them downward.

It worked. Kind of. The three ninja tools reversed direction and assaulted the clones from behind. They passed right through the incorporeal bodies. Reito concentrated, changing their trajectories and managing to hit two more of the clones. Only the real Yamato Sensei remained. With a mighty effort, Reito crossed his outstretched arms over his chest, adjusting the tools’ path once more to target the sixth man from different angles.

As he landed, Yamato Sensei dodged the two shurikens, but the kunai sunk into his thigh. No, it passed right through. Reito frowned in confusion as he tried to catch his breath. He didn’t understand it. What kind of crazy Jutsu was this? Were they all clones? Was there a seventh main body hiding somewhere, directing the replications? Wouldn’t he have detected him? Wouldn’t he have noticed…?

All of a sudden, Reito let out a burst of laughter and slapped a hand to his forehead. How could he have been so stupid? There was a reason they hadn’t spoken or, now that he thought about it, made any sound. This wasn’t some advanced Jutsu at all. It was a very basic one, activated through eye contact back when Yamato Sensei surprised him. There were no clones. This was a Genjutsu.

Reito brought his hands together to make the tiger Hand Seal. He closed his eyes, calmed his heavy breathing, and focused on his Chakra circulation. He successfully ceased the flow to his head, then forcefully resumed it. “Kai!” he uttered. Upon opening his eyes, he watched as the Yamato Sensei images, all six of them, began to fade from view.

After cursing loudly, Reito shook his head. He was really off his game. It hadn’t even been a debilitating Genjutsu that ceased the target’s movements. It was a low-level type that only affected his visual perception. Yamato Sensei had implanted it at point-blank range for goodness’ sake! How much Chakra had he wasted running from imaginary enemies? How much time had he wasted?

***

After locating a few but not all of his used ninja tools, still furious with himself, Reito set about finding his way to the clearing, if only to check the clock. This took some time since he had gone much deeper into the woods than he had realized in his attempt to shake off his illusory instructor and hadn’t brought a compass.

When he finally reached the clearing, he took cover and watched for signs of the others, trying to ignore his growling stomach. The way he saw it, the only real hope they had of passing this test now was if Yamato Sensei planned to return to the clearing for a final showdown of sorts, to give them some semblance of a chance. He certainly wasn’t going to be able to track the man, not if he didn’t want to be found.

Thankfully, Reito’s supposition proved correct about ten minutes later. Yamato Sensei appeared at the center of the clearing and checked his clock briefly before folding his arms over his chest. Another ten minutes later, Reito noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. Sekka was emerging from the tree line. He gathered himself and did the same. It was now or never.