“Practical exam?! “ask the 3 Genin surprised.
“Indeed. This is the real final test of your graduation, before you can operate officially as a Genin unit under me. Failing this will mean getting sent back to the academy” said Hakai, in a serious tone.
The Genin look visibly surprised by this concept, but somehow everything that was happening made sense, as the Ninja Academy told them to come in full ninja gear for their meeting with Hakai, after graduation, via letter.
“The purpose of this exam is to test everything you learned through one simple exercise - take away this clock from me, before the alarm rings. In order to achieve this goal you are free to use all the skills you have acquired during your time as students at the academy – but please use reasonable force at all times”.
After finishing his explanation, Hakai casually places the alarm clock on the table so the Genin can examine it, should they chose to do so. However, none of the Genin had any desire to inspect the clock in detail as they were shocked and taken aback by the fact that they still have one more exam to go through before they can finally be accepted as Genin by the village.
“How will this be a fair test – we clearly outnumber you?” asked a confused Dargon.
Hakai was obviously annoyed, by what he perceived to be an absolutely stupid question. With a smirk and an arrogant tone, Hakai replies that:
“That’s true, simply outnumbering me is not enough of an advantage for you three. So to make this fair, you are also given a 15 minute head start so you can hide from me and make a battle plan on how to defeat me and take away the clock”.
The Genin were taken aback by the arrogant claim that as a Chunin he could defeat all 3 of them on his own. Dargon was visibly upset by the statement and took it, as if Hakai is looking down on them, while Zato was starting to feel anxious as to whether or not they could win on their own. Alisa was displaying a facade of the accepting student eager to prove herself, while hiding darker thoughts.
Zone 4, where this exam is taking place is a forest area, devoid of any animals. There are a few deforested areas with specialized survival track obstacles which could be used to either party’s advantage - however, unlike Hakai, none of the other Genin have ever visited this area before and do not the terrain very well.
“The exam starts 5 minutes from now and will last for 120 minutes, please grab your gear and make your way to the exit as fast as possible” were Hakai’s final words to the Genin as he begins to tie up the alarm clock to his waist.
The Genin, with gear in tow, run off as a group, without a clear direction in which they should be heading.
‘Ok, so in this exam I outclass these 3 in skill and I also have knowledge of the terrain. My best of course of action will be to find and ambush them before they ambush me so I can get a grasp of how capable they are as ninja. Furthermore, through shock and awe, I can easily remove the number advantage from these kids, but if I fail to find them before they set up an ambush, I will probably be in trouble, because Zato with his Jagan can probably make illusions that are going to be hard to dispel’ thought Hakai to himself.
The 15 minutes allocated to the Genin have passed and Hakai, along with a Mirror Image of himself went in search of the 3 Genin.
The Mirror Image technique is a staple in a ninja’s arsenal and creates at least one illusory copy of the caster. Like many Chunin, Hakai has mastered this technique to the point where he can manipulate several mirror images to perform separate actions from himself, but due to his aversion for illusory techniques he can’t use as many mirror images as Chunin who lack both his aversion or an affinity toward illusory techniques.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Meanwhile, the 3 Genin have traveled 30 minutes away from their starting position at the resting area and found a peaceful meadow where they can stop and discuss strategy.
“Damn it all, we already wasted too much time in trying to find a place where we can stop and talk, without him overhearing us – we should have just waited near the resting area and attacked him as soon as the 15 minute head start wore out!” exclaimed Dargon in annoyance.
“Don’t be ridiculous – there was no point in talking strategy within earshot of him. We need to organize ourselves and figure out how to beat him” retorted Alisa, who was equally annoyed due to Dargon’s comment.
“You don’t get it! We made a mistake by traveling so far away from him in order to find a place to talk privately. The bastard probably has terrain advantage now and would be trying to lure us to an area he filled with traps” argued Dargon, who was becoming more and more frustrated.
“I’m surprised you are so pessimistic about this test Dargon, earlier you seemed worried that this test would be to easy to pass since we outnumber him?” remarked a confused Zato.
“Yeah, at first, it would have been easy to just have a straight up fight near the resting area, where we could have countered his terrain advantage – but you lot just kept running despite my repeat calls for you lot to stop!” said Dargon as he slapped his face with his hands.
“How the heck do you expect for 3 Genin to beat one Chunin? He clearly outclasses us in terms of skill and combat experience” said a visibly frustrated Alisa.
“Those were his claims, not facts!” shouted Dargon in a sudden outburst of anger.
After regaining some composure, Dargon continues his rant in a quieter, yet still aggressive tone:
“He has more experience than us, but he can’t fight 3 Genin at once, especially if we can take him by surprise. Sadly, we lost any hope of ambushing him now. Right now, we need to consider the worst case scenario, he actually has terrain advantage while we don’t.”
“I disagree with you here. We can’t make a proper ambush or battle strategy if we don’t know each other’s power” retorted Zato with confidence.
Dargon turns to Zato, ready to deliver a rebuttal, but no words were coming out of his mouth as he quickly realized, he is actually right. During this Alisa was nodding in approval.
Noticing that he was winning the approval of everyone, Zato continued on this upward trend by disclosing that he specializes in illusory techniques. Zato even bragged that he can entrap people in illusions, without disclosing the complexity of that process.
Dargon turns to Zato annoyed, after realizing he can use illusory techniques strong enough to entrap people inside their own minds.
“What’da hell! You had the power to trap people inside illusions all this time? Why the heck didn’t you stop, when I was telling everyone to stop and just entrap him first!”
Intrigued by this concept, Alisa interjects in order to help Zato calm down and explain illusory techniques which can be used to entrap opponents properly. Not wanting to start another pointless argument, Dargon backs off and lets Alisa take control of the conversation.
“Zato, could you explain to us what sort of preparations need to be done – I think if we can entrap him, we could score an easy win here” said Alisa in a hopeful tone.
Relieved he doesn’t have to deal with Dargon’s shouting, Zato begins to explain his short comings to Alisa:
“Most of the illusory techniques I know, require that you either catch your opponent off guard or you build up fatigue in both your opponent’s mind and body by using a mix of illusions and real life attacks until the technique will activate. If we can hide our presence for long enough, I could probably hasten the effects of my illusory techniques with enhancement techniques – but that’s not a thing I can pull off in actual combat due to chant and cast times.”
“I don’t think this information is going to be helpful to us since we have no idea what sort of techniques he can actually use” declared Dargon in a calmer tone.
“Then we failed before we started, because we let ourselves waste time with that pointless argument over Zato being corny and you being a jerk” declared Alisa angrily, as she looks at both Dargon and Zato.
“How does that have anything to do with us?!” shouted a visibly irritated Dargon.
“We lost the opportunity to get to know that guy – we only know his name and very little about his personality type, let alone actual clues about his abilities” retorted Alisa angrily.
Dargon’s face went pale as he realized the situation they are in.
Zato was also looking at the ground in defeat and breaks the silence by saying: “I’m sorry my corny declarations made all of us fail.”
Alisa and Dargon, were shocked by this sudden apology and with saddened faces looked at Zato, unsure of what to say. However their focus switched to the sound of a tree falling nearby. As they turn around, they notice the tree they heard, was just about to fall on top of them.
The 3 Genin panicked and just barely managed to dodge that falling tree. Hakai’s voice can then be heard echoing around them “You lot are so pathetic, I wanna fail you on the spot! Is this what passes for Ninja Academy Graduates !? Paathetiiic!!!”