Chapter 6

The boy, now with a defeated expression walked with his sister, who skipped and hummed a tune. They were on their way to the academy, to hopefully reintegrate the dead amnesiac into the system.

“Big sis must’ve been an amazing medic nin if you look like this when you were on death’s door yesterday.”

“Err. That is not entirely her doing, it seems I got another secret. Remind me when we get home, ill tell you more.”

“Huh, I see. So are you excited to meet your classmates?” Asked the little girl with a lopsided ponytail.

So they chatted all the way to the academy, through the busy morning streets of Konoha. At the entrance of the academy, the little girl yelled.

“Iruka sensei!”

A scarred man popped up out of nothing but smoke. Looked at the pair at the entrance and asked.

“What’s this?”

The little girl replied.

“This one was lost looking for the academy.”

“Ah, yes. We were informed there was a new admission, all right you can take him to class 3-B, tell Mrs Adachi that he is the new admission and come back to class.”

The girl nodded and dragged the boy up to the third floor where his class was located and left. When he entered the class and immediately recognised three faces and another 17 he did not recognise. So he had 3 months to learn 6 years’ worth of academy content. He thought it shouldn’t be too much of an issue for a 60-year-old man like himself.

The interesting part of the curriculum for him was the subjects he had never studied before or heard of. There were regular sessions of taijutsu sparring. Cruel desensitisation training which included strangling cute animals. Behaviour training included disguises and noble etiquette and most interestingly theoretical workings of genjutsu, ninjutsu and fuinjutsu. It was shocking for the boy to see a class of kids nonchalantly hurting animals. He was taken back one morning walking into class like every other day so far, only to see cages of animals under the gaze of the instructors of his class. It was not training he needed with his history of being a military man, he had killed many people in his time, but what bothered him was the little crying girl in his arms was also doing this, his new sister that he had to protect now. It was better than freezing at a crucial moment in battle with an enemy shinobi, he did see the necessity of it.

He had gotten to a routine of getting up in the morning for his classes and with the help of his sister he was confident in graduating. Occasionally they visited Yuki the perverted woman, who was running a brothel in a far corner of Konoha. Graduation did arrive at flight speed and it was time for jounin sensei to be assigned a genin team.

“Team 1, with jounin sensei Anko Mitarashi is Ryoshi, Yui and Akari. You are all adults now so behave like adu-.” The teacher was interrupted by a woman with a long coat busting through the door and loudly proclaiming.

“That’s my team. Number one, of course, let’s go kids! We gotta get to know each right now! I am Anko!”

They quickly shuffled out of their seats and followed the scantily dressed young woman out of the room. There were a bunch of adults standing in the hallway and chatting. One of which was a tall man with a bowl cut and bushy eyebrows and next to him stood a man with silver gravity-defying hair and his Hitai-ate covered an eye. The boy glanced at them and noted Kakashi and Guy, and in turn they looked at the boy and Guy, to everyone’s pain yelled.

“Haha, Kakashi, this one is exactly like you! JUST WITH MORE YOUTHFUL FIRE!”

Part of the boy’s disguise was silver hair dye and an eyepatch instead of the bandages covering his Byakugan. Also much to his sister’s giddiness, his disguise included black nail polish, he had rejected the idea at the beginning but the puppy eyes and the nail polish being special ninja variety for protection had quickly convinced him.

After a few moments of walking the freshly minted team 1 found themselves in a more isolated backstreet, that afforded them some privacy and their new teacher spoke.

“First important bit of information, we will meet tomorrow at training ground 11, let’s say at noon, for your test, in which if you fail I can send you back to the academy.”

“But we already graduated! Why do we have to go through another test!?” Snapped the short girl with the long crimson hair.

“Cool it there, little spitfire. It is a simple test, all jounin instructors administer to their teams, to see if they have what it takes to be an actual ninja. As you know genin are considered adults, you technically are adults now, even if you fail this test, it is for me to decide if I want to teach you or not. All you gotta do is not piss me off.” Explained Anko while the students just listened without much movement, or were pretty good at pretending to listen.

“Now let’s get to know each other a bit. I’ll go first, then you little spitfire then freckleface and lastly the eyepatch boy. My name is Anko Mitarashi, just Anko is fine. I was Orochimaru’s student hence I know a bit about poisons and assassination. I am also only a special jounin, meaning I have a particular skill at jounin level, but every other skill is subpar for jounin standards. I like dango and other sweets. I dislike annoying things.”

Then she nodded at the crimson-haired girl prompting her to go next.

“Humph! My name is Akari. I like cute things and medical training because I want to be like Tsunade-Sama! I dislike boys and doing chores.” Said the short girl with long crimson hair. She was a haughty teen, with small pretty facial features, and a round button-like nose. She glanced at the boy a few times as she spoke with her crystal-clear teal eyes. She was hiding her childish and underdeveloped body under a white sundress with ornate teal hemming and teal curvy vine-like patterns that matched her eyes’ colour.

“I am Yui. I like taking comfortable naps. I dislike being woken up.” Yui spoke in a low voice barely above a whisper. Compared to the high-pitched confident screeching that was Akari’s voice, Yui’s was a mesmerising lower voice. Under her black hood, she was hiding shoulder-length fire-red hair. Her almond-shaped eyes were emerald green, sitting perfectly on her oval face. Her casual attire was a black hoodie and grey cargo pants. She gazed at her new sensei without flinching but lazily as she spoke.

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“My name is Kobayashi Ryoshi, just Ryo is fine. I like girls, martial arts and my sister. I dislike being weak.” Said the only boy in the group. His hair was long enough to style and still be considered short, just not down to soldier standards. Now dyed silver for his disguise and a new silver eyepatch covered his Byakugan. Taller than most his age but still not as tall as an adult he stood with a straight army man posture.

“All right, kids don’t forget tomorrow at training ground 11 at noon. Cya!”

Just like that she disappeared and left three teens in a shady alleyway.

“Umm, I might know something about the test tomorrow.” The boy spoke, gaining the attention of the flabbergasted kunoichi.

“How would you know something like that? Asked Akari.

“My little sister is friends with clan children and still its not a secret that a bell test is administered to new genin.”

Yui quirked up at this info. “What is this bell test?” She asked calmly.

“We are told to grab two bells from our sensei and that the ones that can get em can pass.”

“Are you saying one of us has to fail?” It was Akari that spoke again.

“Well, maybe but the idea of the test is teamwork and to teach us that together we can overcome odds that we cannot if we are alone. Are you confident enough in your skills to beat a jounin in a one-on-one fight? I certainly am not.” The only male voice echoed in the alleyway and the girls put on thoughtful expressions.

“So even this was part of the test then? Anko sensei gave us some info about herself, maybe it was so we can prepare to fight her. She said poison, assassination, and student of Orochimaru, but he is a sannin…” Yui thought out loud

“I think the main takeaway from her hints was that she was a special jounin and not whole if she was not lying of course.” The boy interjected into the loud thoughts.

So team 1 continued to plan.

The next morning arrived soon enough. The boy now realised he had nothing to fill his morning with since he no longer had classes. He tried visiting Big Sis Yuki, but she was not around, a rarity for her it had not happened until now, which left the boy at a loss for how to use the few morning hours before the bell test. He trained his eye if only to get used to seeing all around and he had managed to sneak some information from Neji and Hinata. Only shallow parameters like distance and uptime understandably were very tight with info regarding the adult Hyugas, but they didn’t mind sharing their own limits. So the boy had compared his own to theirs. Strangely he had dwarfed them in uptime as no matter how much he pushed himself he never got tired or dizzy from keeping the Byakugan active. But perhaps because he had only one eye with it he could not match any Hyuga in distance. But now that he graduated he would train more. That is exactly what he did until it was time for the bell test.

“So here we are and everyone is on time.” Said Anko and then produced two bells tied by a string from her large trench coat’s pocket. “We are supposed to give you a bell test but that’s too boring. Especially since you already know.” She said and smirked. Three pairs of wide eyes stared at her. “So let’s get to know each other better. By fighting! The first person to draw blood from me gets a wish fulfilled. Go!” Said Anko as she held her hands in front of her in a ninjutsu sign and spewed a cloud of purple smoke directly at the shocked genin.

The kids couldn’t even curse as they would be poisoned. They jumped out of the smoke in different directions and converged from three different sides towards Anko for a pincer attack as they had planned yesterday. The boy lunged straight at his sensei in an attempt to grapple her and hold her down for his teammates, at the same time the girls closed in on Anko from left and right. Effectively leaving only one way to retreat, or so was their plan. Ms Mitarashi had other plans though, as she simply sidestepped the boy’s lunge, ducking under Yui’s high kick. Now in a prime position. She swept Ryoshi’s feet from under him with her own. Grabbed Yui’s ankle and pushed up making her tumble onto her butt. The medic wannabe’s punch was redirected by tripping the already unstable girl Anko made her faceplant and said.

“Feisty aren’t cha?”

“I didn’t think Ninja were built this differently, damn the show wasn’t kidding around those first episodes showing the kids versus their teacher. This is absurd. We can’t bridge the gap without some kind of Jutsu or making her fall into a trap.”

The girls took a step away from their sensei and closer together so they could group and not be in the line of fire for their shuriken barrage. Anko on the other hand easily caught them out of the air and tossed them back. Drawing blood with small cuts on all three genin and casually walked into the purple poison cloud behind her. The group of three just stood at a loss as they didn’t know how to react to the situation until the haughty girl screamed.

“This is unfair, sensei! We don’t know any wind jutsu to clear the poison! We can’t fight if you just sit in there.”

Meanwhile, the boy pulled ninja wires and pointed down at the ground and started laying tripwire traps around the dense poison cloud as it was thick enough to obscure vision. Unless one had a way to sense through it as he did with his Byakugan.

“What? Really? What do they teach you brats at the academy then?” Question Anko sensei from within the smoke.

“Theory and stuff.” The long-haired girl responded.

“Well, tough shit.” And that was that. The conversation concluded.

When the trapping concluded the boy whispered to the girls. “I will go in and try to push her out. I think I have an advantage since I can sense her and she should be blind in there. I want you to throw a singular shuriken from these spots at increasing intervals towards the centre of the smoke cloud.”

“What do you mean! We can’t see into the smoke, what if we hit you?” Whisper yelled Akari.

“You won’t. I have a plan.” Said the boy and walked towards the smoke.

“Sensei I am coming in. If I bump into you in there and happen to touch somewhere inappropriate, I apologise.” Yelled the eyepatch boy and leapt in.

“What!? You little perv! I bet that’s the whole reason you are walking into the poisonous cloud, so you could touch me when I am defenceless.”

He could see her because of his Byakugan. So he snuck behind her. This was his last gambit, as walking into poison put a timer on how long he would last and without him, the team wouldn’t be whole so that could be considered as a failure of this exercise. He struck right before the volley of the shuriken from the outside. A stab at the lower back, just in case it actually worked. Anko dodged without looking at him at all. He didn’t even let go of the breath he was holding. He overextended from the strike but the shuriken flew in to save him from the commitment of the attack. Anko flipped backwards over the shuriken, kicking him too with one move. She landed on a single hand and sprung off of it landing outside the poisonous cloud. The boy followed letting himself breathe once more since he was clear of the cloud now. What followed was a whirlwind of limbs from the three kids. Desperately trying to get a hit and if not at least direct their sensei towards the traps they set. Anko easily dodged and twirled around the kicks and punches of her genin team. With hands in her pockets, she kicked a tripwire sending Kunai flying a few inches away from her face, causing Yui to step back and halt her attacks lest she is impaled by the traps they set. With each sidestep Anko took, she intentionally triggered more tripwires sending Kunai hurling in the air, towards an incoming attack. Suddenly she just stopped and smirked at the students their breaths ragged.

“Should be about time.” She said smiling even wider.

Each breath taken worsened their condition, making them unable to stand as their legs turned to jelly and vertigo set in. Throwing them all off balance. Only the boy stepped forward on unsure legs. He had been in worse conditions before and won fights.

“You still got fight in ya? Isn’t that interesting? You seem to be in better condition than the other two even though you got the most poison in ya. Hmm. Anyway, here take these.” Anko said as she flicked tiny pellets straight into their mouths.

“So did we pass?” Asked Akari as soon as she swallowed the antidote.