Asami POV

I hung low from a branch, watching as Iroko engaged in a one-on-one fight with our sensei. At first, it seemed very one-sided, but then Iroko had used the Shadow Clone Technique and proceeded to surround Hisao-sensei with four clones.

Hisao-sensei seemed taken aback at first but he was quick to maintain his composure. The four clones attacked, each one inching closer and closer to one of the bells but never able to even touch them, and just as soon as they were there Hisao-sensei had made them all vanish.

However, the real Iroko was gone.

Clever, I thought. He kept Hisao-sensei busy with the clones and used them as a means to escape.

All Hisao-sensei did was give a smirk, then he said: "Come out, Asami, or I'll find you. I know you've been watching. I'm an android after all."

I flinched at the mentioning of the word 'android'. The very concept of him being nothing but a machine didn't sit well with me.

I guess that's probably because he's like me.

I didn't wait any longer, as Hisao-sensei would eventually figure out my location. As quietly as an ant, I pulled out a very long string from my satchel.

What I know so far: because he's an android he has access to all of our skill, even if they were held classified back in Anbu; second, as Iroko showed, even if we use a skill that he's not familiar with, he'll find a way to counter it in seconds, most likely he has some sort of analysis system as part of his function or something.

But there's something that's still missing...

Hisao-sensei was suddenly behind me, about to pounce.

In any case, there's only one way to beat that analysis system, and it's to move and act faster than it can process!

Before he could wrap his arms around me, I dove right under the branch I was on and passed right beneath him. At that moment I wrapped one end of the string I was holding around his ankles and the other tightly tied to the body of the tree. It seemed I had caught him by surprise as he was left dangling upside down from the branch.

NOW

I dashed right at him to grab the bells, but no more had two or three seconds passed when he slipped a kunai out of the sleeve of his trouser and cut the string with almost frightening speed.

I hauled myself and rebounded off a branch, but he was already on me with the kunai.

He won't give me a chance to disappear like he did Iroko.

I doubled back from him, dodging all his swings with the kunai, but even with my acute reflexes, he was able to nick me twice on the cheek and the left arm.

That was when he performed the Body Flicker Jutsu and had appeared above.

Horse --> Tiger --> Serpent --> Ram --> Monkey --> Boar --> Horse --> Tiger

As quickly as I could, I performed the Fire Ball Jutsu and shot several balls of fire at Hisao. While he dodged them all, I landed on a branch, used a branch as a kick-off and jumped at him while he was distracted.

But he had seen me coming.

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me along with him as he continued to dodge the fireballs.

I smiled.

I've got you.

That was when he had tripped on an incredibly thin wire and from either side of the forest came swinging into him two large logs.

He had to let go of me in order to dodge them, and that was when I seized the moment.

When we both landed upon the two smashed together logs I took hold of the opportunity and used my Wood Style Jutsu.

For as long as I can remember, I was raised in Anbu. Not as a member of a family-of-sorts, or even as a respected integral part of the division, but as a guinea pig.

Danzo Shimura and Orochimaru, who at the time the latter was close to the Anbu, had their fair share of test subjects but I was one of their favourites for a simple reason:

I had the blood of a Senju flowing through my veins. I was the perfect subject to probe.

Then after the experiments, I was officially enrolled in the Root division, where they trained me to hone the Wood Release they had unlocked inside me from Hashirama's cells. They trained me so vigorously that I could use the jutsu in my sleep.

I hated Anbu.

I hated Danzo.

I hated Orochimaru.

But, they were the only home I had, the only home I could go to.

I had no one else in my life.

But now here I am, on a team with an android, a coward and a brickhead.

Forming the Snake hand seal, I shouted "Wood Style: Cocoon!" and placed my hands on the branch of the tree.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

I had Hisao-sensei's arms and legs trapped in a thick wooden cocoon. He was virtually immobile.

"I'm sure you knew about my Wood Release Technique," I taunted, "but what, I deduced, you couldn't know about was how I would use it. That analysis system in your brain or whatever has three faults."

I could see Hisao-sensei tensing up.

"The first is that it takes approximately a second for your analysis system to, well, analyze the situation and then it takes you a second or more to act upon its results, which means if a shinobi was fast enough they could neutralize you faster than your system could process. Following up on that, the fact that your analysis system can't see into the future, as it makes it seem like your doing. It just makes incredibly quick calculations for you."

As I slowly approached him, I pulled out a kunai in case anything should happen.

"However, your data system only knows so much, which brings me to my third point: that should the user of the Technique make use of the jutsu in an entirely new way that is unfamiliar to you because it's not in your storage, your analysis system can't decide how to counter against it."

I stood right before him, holding the kunai to his throat. "Am I right?"

While his eyes were supposedly on me, I used my other hand to slowly reach for a bell. I'll be taking that.

And then he started smiling again.

"You've made some very interesting spot-on, observations and analysis, Asami," he said, "but you've also left out quite a few."

Then I started seeing two distinct glows come out though Hisao-sensei's shades. One was an ominous white glow on the right and on the left was an evil red.

What is this? I need to grab those bells now bef--

I barely saw it coming.

I had only touched the very surface of the bells when, before I knew it, I was engulfed in rays of light beams that shot out in all directions, frying everything they touched, and they seemed to be emitting out of his hands in the wooden cocoons.

What the hell?

"As I was just saying," Hisao-sensei continued, "you've left out quite a few things: one being that I myself can perform techniques. Fire and Lightning Style: Multi Chakra Needles!"

This jutsu, I realized, it's almost like Soku's!

The beams of the jutsu had burned parts of my skin in several places. I was in severe pain but I couldn't show it, not in the midst of battle. One of the rules of shinobi taught in Root was: 'A shinobi must never show any weakness'. I was forced to live by that rule.

Unfortunately, in the situation I was in I doubted I could take on the android. I failed to consider the possibility that he himself knew ninjutsu.

"You're failing, Asami," came his voice. He came at me with blinding speed, faster than I could react.

There's no way I can avoid this!!

"Water Style: Waterfall!"

As I prepared for the worst, Hisao suddenly got hit with a wave of water from above.

"Asami!"

I looked up to see the boy Yuura. He had a distressed look of anxiety on his face.

Hisao-sensei had got up and was running up the body of a tree, this time forming an Earth Styled jutsu.

He's prepared to counter Yuura's jutsu.

I wasted no time. I grabbed a smoke bomb from my satchel and detonated it.

In the thick of the smoke, I grabbed Yuura's arm and made a run for it, dodging traps wherever they were.

But it was almost futile.

From somewhere in the smoke I heard: "Earth Style: Mud Wall!"

Just like that, we were surrounded by four walls all around us.

"You're both failing," he called out from somewhere.

Tch! Just great.

"What do we do?!" Yuura cried. He was half-muttering, half-sobbing.

Then I had an idea. "Quick, if we combine our natures we can create a Boil Release! Do that jutsu you did before again."

As I performed the hand seals for the Fire Ball Jutsu he clumsily performed the hand seals for his.

Horse --> Tiger --> Serpent --> Ram --> Monkey --> Boar --> Horse --> Tiger

"Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!"

Monkey --> Bird --> Dragon --> Bird --> Ox --> Horse --> Ram --> Tiger

"Water Style: Waterfall!"

Together, we combined our jutsus together to create a large amount of steam that was powerful and hot enough to melt away at a side of the Mud Wall.

"Now you're getting it," he called out again.

And, suddenly, I knew exactly how we could get those bells off of him.

But first, we had to get away from him.

Once we were out of the Mud Wall, I drew out a string of kunai and threw them in every which direction around me. From there I was able to determine his location from where he moved in the gas to dodge the kunai.

"There!" I pointed behind us.

From there we created even more Boil Release to obstruct more of Hisao's vision. Even if he had a scanner or something like that, it could never find us in something this thick and hot.

Finally, we were able to make our escape.

When we had put as much distance between us and the fog/mist we stopped to catch our breath.

"What were you thinking, coming to where I was?" I asked Yuura.

"I could hear fighting and I knew it had to be either you, Iroko or both fighting Hisao-sensei," he replied. "Nevertheless, I'm glad you're alright, but how are we gonna get the bells from Hisao-sensei, and where's Iroko if he's not with you?"

I didn't directly reply. "I have an idea on how we can get the bells from him, but it's going to require all of us. That includes Iroko, so we should start looking for him."

An hour or so later, we had found him dangling from one of the traps helplessly. No one knows how long he had been there but it looked it had been a while.

"C'mon! C'mon!" he said through his teeth, trying to reach for the knot, again and again.

It's like he doesn't know when to give up. What an idiot. He hasn't changed at all...

I threw a kunai to the rope, easily slicing through it. The idiot fell to the ground, headfirst.

"OWWW! What was that?" he asked.

"Up here!" Yuura called out to him.

He looked up but didn't seem happy to have seen me. "You?"

Yuura and I landed in front of him.

"G- glad to see you're okay, Iroko," said Yuura.

Iroko gave a closed-eye smile, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, you too, uhhh---"

"It's Yuura," the boy deadpanned, clearly exasperated.

"Right! Right! Yuura! I was just gonna say that!"

"No, you weren't!

"Yes, I was! I totally was!"

"How do you still not know my name, after all this time?! Did I have that much of a lack of presence?"

"Whaddya mean? Of course, I know your name!"

"Please don't forget this time!"

"I never did to begin with! Honest!"

While the two of them continued squabbling, I kept both an eye and ear out for Hisao-sensei. The good news was we were still quite far from the mist, but there was no telling if he had escaped too, or if he knew where we were. Either way, we had to be quick about what we did from now on.

"Damn it!" Iroko cried. "I hate that Hisao-sensei had placed all these traps for us! It's like he's actually trying to kill his students. When did he even find the time to set 'em up?"

I turned to the idiot. "Those were my traps that I had set for Hisao-sensei which you had so casually walked into."

The idiot's face went red with anger. "Those were your traps?!"

He stomped over to me and grabbed me by the collar of my kimono.

"Did you have any regard for your teammates at all?!" he flared.

"It didn't occur to me that you would be incompetent enough to set them off," I replied.

Iroko angrily raised a fist to my face. "Why you --"

"G- guys! Guys! Guys!" Yuura came in. "Now isn't the time to fight! Please!"

We stared at each other for moments.

"He's right," I said. "Instead, we need to work together. It's the only way we can get the bells."

Iroko had let go of me, crossed his arms and put up a sour face. "Fine. I'm listening."

"Alright," I began, "here's the plan."