Iroko POV

For the first few hours I've known Asami, I gotta admit:

I don't like her.

She's mean, she's got a mouth and she has no regard for her teammates whatsoever.

Sigh

But she was our best shot at passing this stupid test.

Third-Person POV

Hisao sat complacently in the branch of a tall tree, watching the sun gradually set.

For them to take this long to come after me, he thought. No doubt they're planning something extravagant. I would go after them, but then the test would be over in too short amount a time. Lord Sixth did state that it helps to let them come after you to see if they can work together.

Teamwork... he said again in his head.

"HEY, HISAO-SENSEEEEIIIIIII!!"

Hisao looked up, unsurprised, to see Iroko and Asami opposite of him. Iroko was waving at the android with a grinning smile while Asami had her arms crossed and was shaking her head.

He's still a loudmouth, she thought. And that's good in this case...

"WE'RE GONNA TAKE THOSE BELLS AWAY FROM YA RIGHT NOW!!" Iroko called.

Hisao sighed. Well at least their not about to do it alone.

Iroko leapt off his branch towards Hisao with a kunai in hand and delivered several kicks and blows but just as effortlessly as last time, Hisao had parried them all.

Hisao grinned. "This tactic didn't work last time, remember? Ugh!"

At that moment, Asami had crept up behind Hisao and formed the Wood Style: Cocoon, on his legs.

I see, Hisao thought. Iroko was just a distraction, of course.

"Now, Iroko!" Asami cried.

"Right!" Iroko broke off fighting with Hisao and the two of them made for the bells.

"Nice try, but you're not getting it that easily!" said Hisao, forming hand seals. "Earth Style: Mud Wall!

Two muddy walls were erected right in front of Iroko and Asami. The young ninja doubled back against the trees.

"Fire and Lightning Style: Chakra Needle." Hisao formed a small ray of light to cut himself out of the cocoons.

Then Asami came darting by where Hisao was left open and flung several kunai and shuriken. Hisao jumped into the air to dodge them but then he heard: "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" and turned around only to see Iroko having formed two shadow clones and threw them at Hisao.

Hisao was quick to analyze the situation and his system gave him a quick method of dealing with it.

He grabbed the first incoming clone by the shoulders and threw it at the second incoming who dodged it and flew headfirst at Hisao. The android-ninja blocked his head attack and somersaulted over a Fire Ball Jutsu Asami had sent coming his way. While aerial, Hisao kneed the clone in the face, effectively dispersing it. But he was slightly taken aback when the gas of the clone had faded to reveal the real Iroko right in front him about to deliver a sound punch. Hisao narrowly evaded the blow, then grabbed Iroko's arm and flipped him over his shoulder.

When Iroko's face made contact with the body of a tree he blew up in smoke.

Hisao gasped. "A clone?! Then where--"

"Wood Style: Jagged Wave!"

From behind Hisao, Asami had summoned a wave of jagged, wooden spikes, moving at incredible speeds towards Hisao.

Once again, Iroko was used as a distraction, Hisao realized with a hint of shame for not having known sooner.

He pulled back from the wooden spikes as they advanced on him, cornering himself to the end of the tree. Before they could come upon him he ran up the tree, the spikes still behind him, and jumped off the bark.

There in the thick greens of the leaves of the trees was a tripwire perfectly hidden away. If Hisao hadn't seen it in time he would have tripped it. He somersaulted over the wire, grinning passionately.

That Asam--

Almost before he had realized, there was a second wire not far from the first.

Hisao was about to closely dodge it, but then he began to wonder what would happen if he did trip it and what would the kids do next.

He gave an internal smirk before acting as though he hadn't seen the wire in time and fell on it.

Just like last time, two enormous pillars came in from either side of the forest and swung towards each other with Hisao at the centre.

Only this time, Hisao was airborne and couldn't react fast enough to an aerial dodge like before.

The world started moving in slow motion.

Holy crap! Asami's traps are crazy! How did she set this all up?! Iroko thought, then he remembered with a pang, Oh, that's right, where is that Yuura?! Isn't he ready by now? How much longer does he expect me and Asami to stall Hisao-sensei?

✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧Moments ago✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧

Yuura stopped midway in the heat of his run when he had heard from a distance Iroko's voice.

"HEY, HISAO-SENSEEEEIIIIIII!! WE'RE GONNA TAKE THOSE BELLS AWAY FROM YA RIGHT NOW!!"

"There's the signal," said Yuura. "Now it's time to begin."

He gave a very deep breath. Then he began to form hand seals.

Ox → Monkey → Hare → Rat →

***Flashback starts***

Iroko, Asami and Yuura stood in the forest ground, the boys listening to Asami's plan.

"And that's about it," Asami concluded. "I'm not sure it'll really work as we don't know the extent of how many jutsus he can perform but, regardless, the plan should stay more or less the same. Any questions?"

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Iroko had his arms crossed and his eyes closed in an angry manner. "No..." he fumed.

Yuura raised his hand.

"This isn't class, Yuura," Asami said, "there's no need to raise your hand."

"Oh, right," he put his hand down shyly. "Well, um- I was wondering if, maybe, um, I would be the one to unleash the final jutsu while the two of you distract Hisao-sensei.'"

Asami raised an eyebrow. Iroko's eyes opened wide in surprise.

"Go on," she urged.

"Oh, uh, so, well, there's this jutsu that I've been working on for a really long time now. I think it'll definitely be enough to defeat Hisao-sensei and take the bells. It's really powerful."

"Hang on," Iroko butted in. "How powerful are we talking here?"

"From my last experiments," Yuura replied, "I'd say it could very well destroy a good chunk of the trees here. That is if I've refined it enough."

Iroko stroked his chin as if he had a beard. "Hmmm." Then he struck his hand into his palm with resolve on his face. "Well, I say we give it a try!"

Yuura looked at Iroko with awe. Iroko...

Asami crossed her arms. "Well, if you what you say is true, and the jutsu is that powerful, then we might stand a chance." If it's what I think it is then we may very well win this. "But what's the drawback? With every jutsu there is at least one, no matter small it may be."

Yuura looked down at the ground. "It requires forty-four hand seals."

***Flashback ends***

Boar → Bird → Ox → Horse → Bird → Rat → Tiger → Dog →

Yet they still entrusted this task to me. Yuura gritted through his teeth, as he performed the hand seals faster.

I CAN'T FAIL THEM.

✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧Back to Iroko✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧

The world started moving in slow motion.

The two great logs veered in closer and closer, getting faster with every passing second.

Iroko and Asami watched with anticipation how Hisao would get out of the predicament.

The logs smashed together with Hisao in the middle of them, creating a fog of smoke.

Tiger → Snake → Ox → Ram → Snake → Boar → Ram →

When the thicket of smoke cleared they found Hisao on top of the logs without a scratch on him, flashing a smile with his shades shining.

How the heck did he come out of that untouched?! Iroko wondered. There was so much smoke I couldn't see anything.

He must have used the Body Flicker... Asami thought.

"I must say Asami," Hisao voiced, "for someone as young as you to be able to set traps so elaborate that they could rival a jōnin is truly impressive."

Unexpectedly, Asami sharply pulled on a string she had had in her hand. "AGAIN!"

Iroko pulled out from his pouch several shurikens and activated his Flash jutsu.

Snake → Boar → Ram → Rat → Yang Water → Monkey → Bird → Dragon →

From the string, she pulled at came from all directions several kunai and shuriken.

Hisao was amazed. Does she still have more tricks up her sleeve? He dodged as many as he could, his analysis system kicked into second gear, but he had almost forgotten about Iroko.

"My turn!!" said Iroko. With his Flash jutsu, he started to run circles around Hisao from the branches of the trees.

"Here goes! Chakra Flow!!" He flung the now chakra-filled shuriken he held towards Hisao while still running circles so that they came in all directions like Asami's trap.

Hisao just managed to narrowly avoid one shuriken that grazed his cheek. Chakra Flow, the weapon gets three times faster and sharper via imbuing lightning chakra into it. Quite an advanced technique.

Bird → Ox → Horse → Ram → Tiger → Snake → Rat → Monkey → Hare → Boar →

But why haven't they made any real attempt for the bells yet? Hisao wondered. I wonder, could they be stalling? But for what reason? And why haven't I seen Yuura for some time now?

Dragon → Ram → Rat → Ox → Monkey → Bird → Yang Water →

Iroko came sweeping round at great speed to right behind Hisao, but the android had seen that coming and grabbed and pinned him to the ground.

"Damn it!!" Iroko grumbled.

"That's enough, Asami," said Hisao. "If you try anything else you'll risk injuring your teammate."

Asami did not move and her expression was unreadable. The wind blew softly in the dead silence.

"Now," Hisao went on, "what will you try now, hm?"

Then she sprang right at him.

What? Hisao voiced his confusion. "What do think you're do--"

"WATER STYLE...!"

Hisao and Iroko looked up into the air to see Yuura performing the hand seals Rat → Boar → Bird.

He made it! Iroko thought.

Right on time... Asami thought, midway in her jump towards Hisao.

"WATER DRAGON JUTSU!!!" The boy shouted, creating a long, winding serpent made entirely out of water.

Hisao looked on in utter surprise.

Ha! Nice one, Yuura! We've totally got him! Iroko thought happily, then he realized with horror: Wait, I'm gonna get caught up in the attack too!! But...

Slowly, Iroko's one free hand ventured to the bells tied to the distracted Hisao. ...this is also my chance to take the bells! I can't let it slip! I won't let it slip!! I WILL become a full-fledged ninja!!

Everything had suddenly happened in one second: Asami leaping towards Hisao, Hisao trying to evade the Water Dragon, Iroko reaching for the bells.

It all happened in the very second the Water Dragon hit home.

The entire team was engulfed in a flood of water that rushed right through the forest in a fast current that carried them all the way outside to the training field and then proceeded to dump them all there in a huge splash of water.

Iroko POV

When I came to I opened my eyes to see Asami and Yuura standing over Hisao-sensei. I immediately pulled myself up and ran towards them. We were all soaking wet from Yuura's attack.

"Yuura, that jutsu was ULTIMATE!!! Did we get him?" I asked desperately, 'cos I didn't know what else we would do if this hadn't worked. The sun was already beginning to set.

"Thanks, and yeah, we got him," he replied.

They turned around and as they did I heard jingling in their hands.

I looked down.

They had the bells in their hand, one for both.

No...

"Well, it seems you've finally understood," said Hisao-sensei. "Well done, this concludes the Bell Test."

I fell to my knees as the despair slowly took over me and closed my eyes. "I failed. I couldn't get the bells and now I can't become a ninja. Dammit. Godammit..."

"Um, Iroko--" Yuura started.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," I interrupted, standing up. "I guess it's back to the Academy with this failure."

"No, that's not..." his words trailed when I started to walk away.

With my back turned to them, I waved and called out: "Good luck on your missions, you guys."

Sorry, Mom, Dad. I came all this way only to fail and lose again. I'm such a worthless excuse for a son, for a ninja. You win, Kaz, I give u--

"Iroko," said Hisao-sensei, "all three of you passed."

I stopped, then turned around.

"Huh?"

I looked at Asami and Yuura. Neither one of them looked as surprised as I did, which made me even more dumbfounded.

"Wait, what do you mean we all passed?" I objected. "There are only two bells so one of us was gonna fail, right?"

"You really don't get it, you idiot?" said Asami. "It was never about the bells."

My face creased up in confusion. "Huh??"

Asami sighed in defeat. She held the bell up in front of her as she began to explain. "Hisao-sensei's orders from the beginning were to retrieve the bells before sunset. Naturally, it would be next to impossible for slackers to retrieve them because Hisao-sensei is, not only a jōnin, but an android who knows almost everything there is to know about us."

"If that's the case, then how come you didn't see Yuura's jutsu coming, huh?" I pointed at Hisao-sensei.

"Who said I didn't?" Hisao-sensei smirked.

"HUH???" Now I was even more confused. "But, but--"

"We had no chance of beating him, ever. That was the point he meant to make," Asami went on. "But we didn't need to."

"Because we had already passed," Yuura finished, jingling the bells. "While you were out, in the end, Hisao-sensei had willingly given us the bells."

"That doesn't make any sense! I-" I stopped dead in my tantrum when it hit me.

"Back then..." I started shakily. "When you told me..."

You are failing, Iroko.

"...The real reason we passed..."

All it took was for me to compare what I was doing then when he has said that to me versus what I- no, what we had done near the end.

"It was teamwork, right?"

Hisao-sensei gave a wide grin. "In this ninja world, those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum."

I stared at him, blinking, expecting a simple yes or no. He shook his head in disappointment. "Never mind."

"Hisao-sensei had data on all of our skills as a shinobi, but what he didn't have was foolproof information on whether the three of us could cooperate," Asami concluded. "So, yeah, the real objective of the Bell Test was if we could work together to get the bells."

Yuura rubbed the back of his head with a closed-eye smile as if he was embarrassed. "I have to admit, it took me until when I was in the middle of performing the hand seals to realize, and it dawned on me that for someone of your personality, Asami, you were ready to work together with the two of us."

"I was willing to do whatever it took to pass," Asami replied.

I gritted my teeth in annoyance. "You think you know everything, don't you?"

All she did was stare at me blankly. Forget Kaz, this girl's way more annoying, I thought.

Hisao-sensei's voice penetrated through our conversation. "Iroko Nakata, Asami Senju and Yuura Kairi."

We responded to him as he called out our names.

He put his hands to his waist and towered over us. "I hereby officially sanction the three of you as full-fledged shinobi. Welcome to the Ninja Course.