Chapter 26: Are they ready?

A man dressed in a long black cloak with red clouds, is sitting on top of a boulder in a dark damp cave. His eyes are close and his hands are in the ram hand seal. He focus his chakra for the technique. When he open his eyes, he is on top of a stone finger of a demonic looking statue.

He stood up and look at his surroundings. He sees the other members of his secret organization. Everyone is wearing the same cloak as he and he is only able to clearly make out their eyes, no other defining features than that. He always hate coming here, despite not actually physically being in the location. The statue that he is on always creeps him out.

"Hello everyone," the man cheerful greeted.

"Scar," the man with purple eyes with a ripple pattern to them started, "how is the plan going?"

"Going well leader." Scar said with a nod. "Our spies has seen the Five-Tail Jinchūriki about two weeks away from the Hidden Stone Village. Just in time for the Chunin Exam."

A man with a fish like eyes chuckled. "I still can't believe you arrived four months early, thinking it was four weeks till the exam."

"Yeah, Scar, how did you even make that mistake anyways, hmm?" A man with only one eye showing asked.

Scar points at Zetsu, "blame his stupid orange masked spy of his," he looks at the one eyed man, "also, Deidara," he cross his arms, "didn't you missed a meeting because of the same spy?"

The one eyed man named Deidara muttered something underneath his breath. Probably another smartass comment.

"Leader," a man with the famous sharingan eyes started, "will this, Daichi you spoke of, still come after what happened with his students?" He asked, his voice even, almost void of all emotion.

"Yeah, Itachi has a point," Scar continue. "Our contacts said he is no longer in charge of his genin team and the Hokage has more of an eye on him since he came back from that mission in the Land of Bears. He might not be able to leave the village anymore."

The leader of the secret organization closes his eyes momentarily. His subordinates wait somewhat anxiously for his answer. Only the oldest members knows the relationship Daichi has with him. Even then they still wonder why this ninja is so special. The newer members wonders with great curiosity why the leader is taking interest in this specific ninja.

The leader of the Akatsuki open his eyes. He look at each and every one of his subordinates. They can see the shadowy figure's mouth open for him to say, "he will."

But the voice that came out of the leader was not from him. It was definitely feminine, with its pitch higher than the rest of the members can even naturally produce. No way that voice belonged to their leader.

"Daichi will complete the mission at any stake," all of them draw their attention to the only female of their organization. She stare straight into the leader's eyes. "I promise you all this." She said with confidence they never heard from her before.

The leader and the sole female of the Akatsuki continue to stare into each other eyes, till the leader concede and closes his own. He chuckles; he also has confidence in his former student in succeeding this mission. Or at the very least not wanting his new home to be destroyed so quickly.

He open his purple rippled eyes, "meeting adjourned."

Two genin teams are standing in the middle of a grassy area in Training Ground Five. The two teams of course, are Team Eight and Team Two. The same place they officially became ninjas. All six of the genins cannot believe five months has passed since that day. Though nature covered up most of it, they can still see evidences of when they took their test at the location. To Team Two it is still a fond memory, minus almost getting killed by a purple haired woman and her giant snake.

Unfortunately, the opposite can be said for Team Eight. Minus Ichigo, this training ground is a painful reminder of their previous Sensei. Tarou should had seen the signs then that he did not care for them like a teacher should. He placed them in a forest with a fucking psychopath with only a, she probably won't kill you, as last words of advice before he sent them off. It seems she still need to practice reading people.

Kenshin took a step forward, cracking his knuckles. "We're ready whenever you three are."

Kio chuckled, "We're ready. But," he points at Youta, "I don't know about Peeping Tom over there. He looks like he is about to run away with him shaking like that." He finished with a mocking grin.

Youta growl at the his opponent attempt of provoking him. He took a step forward, planning on replacing that grin with Kio's blood. Before he could do anything rash, Kenshin place a hand on his shoulder.

"Remember the plan." Kenshin stressed.

He has no idea what happened between Kio and Youta after that mission from Hidden Stars Village, but Youta gets either angry or upset whenever anyone mentions Kio or Tarou. Kenshin even asked the two himself and neither had a answer as to why Youta is acting in such a childish way.

Kenshin can only assume that Youta's confession to Tarou was not successful. He thought his comrade would be more mature than this

Youta took a deep breath to calm himself. Every since he caught Kio and Tarou together in that room alone, Kio has been flaunting the event to him whenever they see each other. It pisses him off. Like it is not enough that the girl he likes is with another man. The man has also have to be a dick.

He removes Kenshin's hand off his shoulder. "Don't worry. He won't get under my skin."

"Go-"

"Guys!"

Susume appear out of thin air in front of them, its arms forward and palms open. Three segments on both of the puppet's forearms propped up. It bring its arms together to finish constructing the shield. A thin film of chakra spread out from the segments. The kunais and senbons that was thrown at its controllers idiotic teammates were successfully blocked.

Usagi appear next to Youta. "Less talking and more fighting, you - duck!"

The human like puppet dash forward as Youta and Kenshin crouch below it. Its pearl gray poncho like cloak teared apart as the katanas in its forearms release from its forearm compartments. Usagi block the overhead strike to its controller's teammates by the hands of Ichigo. Knowing Ichigo, a hit from her umbrella will surely knock the both of them out.

Ichigo eyes widen as the offensive oriented puppet open its mouth compartment. She quickly focus her chakra into her new dependable weapon. Usagi fire upon a barrage of senbons at its opponent but it was for naught. Ichigo successfully block all the needles. She thank God the canopy of her umbrella is made of strong material. She is also thankful the canopy is big enough for her to hide behind. Knowing her opponent, the senbons is probably laced with poison.

Youta fish out a smoke pellet from his vest. "Scatter!" He yelled as he slam the ninja tool on the ground.

Three jounins watch from a distance as the two teams fight. Well, two jounins and one prisoner that was a jounin and now has their chakra suppressed of that of a civilian.

Jin watch her students with the ever observant eye. Looking on what to improve, what to applaud them for, and what atrocious habit they need to stop. Since taking over Daichi's genin team, she has been taking their training seriously. Though she is not that much of a perfectionist or a hell driver as her predecessor was, she still does not accept anything but the best from them.

"Your students are not bad." Jin glance at Tetsu at the corner of his eye. "I knew you would make a good sensei."

"Thank you," she said with a nod.

He graced her with a small smile before continuing watching their students spar. It has been awhile since the two teams did anything together. He believes it is since that mission. He has been training them a lot since that day. Not only in their teamwork, but also in their own personalized skills. Though he knows he can not do much. Like for example, he knows next to nothing about ninja puppets. Regardless, he tried his best. He will not make them unprepared again. He promise.

"Why am I here?" The third wheel finally asked. Saya has no idea why Tetsu dragged her out of their house just to watch six kids duke it out.

They acknowledge Saya's question by gracing her with a side glance before going back to what they were doing. She sigh; at least they listened to her. She really has no idea why Tetsu brought her here. She just want to relax at home and keep her nose clean. Though she doubts that the Hokage will ever remove the seal they placed on her, she still does not want to make her comfortable living situation any worse. She feels being around Tetsu and his friends is a sure fire way of her getting executed. She has no prove of such a fact, but her gut is telling her so. A ninja needs to trust in their instincts. That is how most of them survive.

Suddenly a explosion erupt nearby. The sound of the explosion from the training ground pique her interest. She knows that sound quite well. To most, the sound of a explosion is no different from each other. All are annoyingly loud, sometimes bursting eardrums. But the sound of this specific explosion is an unpleasant memory to her. The sound of her failure.

She walk in between the two Leaf jounins. She cross her arms as she watch the genin that was the main cause of her current situation. A low growl escaped her lips just looking at her.

Tetsu smirk when Saya walk next him and Jin. "Nice of you to jo-"

"What's your student's name?" She interrupted.

He look at her with a raised brow. She never cared about his students. In fact, she never asked anything about them when they returned from that mission. "Which o-"

"The puppet user."

"Tachibana-san, is her family name." He finally avert his attention from his students spar to his annoying roommate. "W-"

"Tetsuo Yamada, what is her full name?" Saya turn to face him. Her maroon eyes are cold, void of all emotions. Just as when they first met. "I need to know."

Tetsu needs more of an answer than that. Like he would divulge anything about his precious students to someone who used or still is his enemy. "Like I saying before I was rudely interrupted," he matches her cold expression with one of his own, "why?"

Saya glance at the students sparring each other. The puppet user and her team has managed to turned the table against their opponents. Just like when they fought against her, they are using their superior teamwork skills to their advantage. Their opponents are getting frustrated; just like she was. They are losing, yet had not realize it yet; just like she did.

She grind teeth in frustration. "Because I need to know who caused me to be here."

"Why not the other two?" Tetsu knows his whole team had a hand at her defeat. Why does she only want to know her name?

"Because." She snarled.

"Because why?" He snarled right back.

"Because she wants to know the name of the ninja who defeated her." Jin finally put her two cents in. "She wants to know the name of the ninja whom she respects. Misaki-san was training to be one of the seven swordsman of the Mist, after all."

Tetsu look over Saya to see Jin's face. "So?" He does not know what that have to do with her wanting to know Michi's name.

She finally look away from her students sparring. "They have a tendency of respecting someone with skill. It is pretty common for them. Misaki-san seem to see such skill in your student. It is a honor in a way, Tetsu."

She respects his student? Is that really it? Why Michi and not the rest? From what Tetsu was told from both Shu and his students, Michi did play a role in the fight but it was Kenshin who thought of the plans and Youta dealing the finishing blow. Not that Michi is not great ninja or anything, he just does not see how Michi gain such respect from a ninja on caliber as Saya from just one fight.

Tetsu look at the former Sound ninja. "Is that tru-"

"ARGH!"

Tetsu whip his head back to the ground. His eyes almost pop out of his head at the sight. "Kenshin!" He run as fast as he can to his student.

He arrived to see Kenshin on the ground, unconscious and bleeding. Michi and Tarou tending to him while Ichigo is holding back Youta with all her strength.

"You fucking bastard!" Youta barked. "I'll fucking kill you!"

Kio spread his arms wide, inviting him to do his worst. His cocky grin taunting Youta to do the unspeakable to him. "I'm right here, Peeping Tom."

"Kio, silence." Jin ordered. The grin he had vanished in an instant.

She quickly notice Kenshin's poor state of health. She rushes over, gently pushing Michi and Tarou away from the patient. Jin look over his body and it is not a pretty sight. It is like he was thrown in barbed wire and someone just watch him squirm his way out. But other than that it seems no other physical damage, but she is not a medical ninja, she only knows a little because of her clan.

Tetsu walk to her from behind. "How is he?"

"He will live, possibly another scar or two but I don't think anything major," she looks up at him. "I still suggest we take him to a hospital. You know I'm not a professional at this, I may have missed something."

"Right," he said with a nod. "Saya, take him to the hospital please."

She rub her bandaged arm. "I don't think I should. I won't reach the hospital till hours later. I'm technically a civilian with my chakra levels."

"That's why I about to do something that will get me in so much trouble." He said as he walk up to her.

He bit his thumb to draw blood then quickly went through hand seals. Once finished, he move her bangs away to smear his blood on her forehead. Saya suddenly feels like a huge weight has been taken off of her then huge rush of chakra coming back to her like water breaking through a dam.

"I removed the seal that we placed on you." He grab hold of her hand, looking deep in her maroon filled eyes. The sudden physical contact caused her to blush. "Now please take him to the hospital Sayaka, I beg of you."

She break free from his gently warm grasp. Saya speed walk to Kenshin, making sure no one can see her blushing furiously. "I'll make sure he gets there Yamada-san."

"Thank you." Saya disappeared out of thin air as he said those two words.

"Now," Jin walks past Tetsu to be in front of the genins, "line up, all of you."

Not wanting to be told twice, they quickly stand in line at attention, shortest to tallest of their respective teams.

"Genins," Tetsu turn around and stare into each and every one of the young ninjas eyes, making sure they know he is no longer playing around. His light violet colored eyes, always so full of life and a tad glimmer of mischief in them; no longer. They are now a dull purple, waiting for perfect excuse to snap. "Tell us how Kenshin ended up in such a terrible state while in a friendly spar against fellow Leaf ninjas," he said coldly.

Youta points at Kio saying, "it was this fuc-"

"Youta." Tetsu started, "you shall tell me what happened with complete respect and dignity to yourself, myself and the accused. Am I understood?"

"Y-y-yes sir."Youta said nodding nervously. He never seen his sensei like this. He swallow down his nervousness before speaking again. "It was Kio's fault sensei. Just after I threw my smoke pellet onto the ground, we scattered like Kenshin planned."

"Scatter!" Youta yelled in the huge cloud of black smoke.

Team Eight cough and cover their teary eyes because of the sudden smoke bomb. Team Two took advantage of the situation and sprint out of the smoke cloud, each going in their own separate directions. They need to set up part two of their plan.

Once the smoke clear, Team Two is no where in sight. Tarou clicked her tongue in frustration. She knows she was not able to see where they went and she doubts the rest of her team did either.

"Triangle formation." She commanded.

Team Eight quickly went back to back, watching their surroundings for the slightest disturbance. At the moment their opponents have the advantage but that will not last long. They had dealt with worst.

Tarou took two senbons, holding them in a reverse grip while Kio do the same but with kunais.

"Saru," Ichigo glance at Tarou in the corner of her eye, "I need you to be a distraction."

"Why?"

"Cause I need to know where they are, you stupid monkey." Tarou threw a senbon at a bush she heard rustling to her left. She hears a small thud sound. She just wasted a senbon on a tree. Great. "We need to work as a team for this Saru, so just listen for once. Please." She rather not argue while in fight. Especially when they are in such disadvantage.

Ichigo said nothing but she nodded in agreement. She tighten the grip she has on her umbrella. If she has to be a distraction then she will be the best distraction.

The afro hair girl dashes forward, spinning her weapon as she did so.

Tarou curse under her breath. She did not mean to be a distraction right now. Ugh, damn monkey. "Kio, Gale Bomb, all sides."

"Gotcha."

Kio quickly put away his weapon while Tarou threw all her senbons around her. She quickly went through her jutsu hand seals.

"Ninja Art: Multi-Senbon Shadow Clone Jutsu," she said, finishing the jutsu with the Tiger hand seal.

A little something her sensei taught her. It is just like the Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu, just with senbons instead. It took her awhile to get the technique right since she is not proficient with ninjutsu but it was worth it at the end. The amount of doors of this new jutsu of hers that can be open is limitless. This little cooperation technique Kio and her thought of is just one of many.

Kio grasp his hands together, "Wind Style: Gale Palm."

A sudden burst of wind came out of nowhere. The wind increase the speed of the many projectiles by ten fold.

Tarou did the Tiger seal with her right hand. "Kai."

The explosive tags she placed on her weapon detonate. Because of the speed the weapons were traveling, and the chakra laced winds, the explosion of her weapons was astounding to say the least. They created a wall of every expanding fire that is about to burn everything surrounding the two. That unfortunately includes their monkey like teammate too.

Ichigo immediately felt the intense heat from behind. She stop spinning her weapon to open it then quickly crouch down, facing the wall of fire approaching her. The afro genin grit her teeth once the explosive wave finally hit her. She had no idea her teammates had such a devastating cooperation technique. Why did they not tell her about this when they train together? When was the last time they actually trained together she wondered for a brief moment.

The intense heat from the cooperation jutsu made her clothes stick to her because of her sweat and singed off a couple of her hairs. She close her umbrella and rest it on the holster on her back.

Ichigo spread her arms wide and stare at her teammates with an offended look. "Warning?"

Though it was just one word, they know what she meant. This got Tarou angry. She point an accusing finger at her. "Maybe if you didn't rush in like an idiot you are, you wouldn't almost died!" Or maybe if she actually spends time with her actually team rather than that traitor of former sensei of theirs, she would had been more prepare.

Ichigo grunted as a response. Which cause Tarou to fight back the urge to lash at her once more, which in turn also cause Kio to laugh. He loves it when they fight. It is the most humorous past time for him. It is like watching a comedic duo from a Saturday morning cartoon.

Taking them out of their little world, all of a sudden Tarou got drag into the Earth, leaving only her head out in the open. Kio took a step backwards from the sudden attack. He bump into something as he did so and was placed in a choke-hold.

Ichigo was about to rush to help her teammates till she heard cackling. She remembers that sound from their test all so long ago. She turn around to see four puppets coming straight for her like a speeding kunai. She knows that Michi is currently only able to control two puppets at a time. So that means two of these four are fake and she has no means to figure out which is which.

Troublesome. "Fuck it." she muttered.

Ichigo sprint towards the enemy puppets, her right hand on her umbrella ready to draw it. The four puppets continue with their cackling. Their job is simple; keep Ichigo busy so that the others can finish their part of the plan. Being a tad bit over-dramatic, Ichigo skid to a stop, taking her weapon out of her holster as she did so. She point her trusty umbrella at the targets.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" She yelled as she opens her umbrella.

A giant torrent of wind came towards the puppets. One was able to dodge the ninjutsu in time while the rest were destroyed. The sole surviving puppet continue to rush at Ichigo. The umbrella wielding genin curse under her breath. She was hoping her jutsu would take out all of them.

The puppet grab hold of her, wrapping itself around her arm and umbrella. Ichigo proceed to punch the living shit out of the puppet. Once the cackling of the puppet cease, Ichigo heart sunk. She knows what that means. In one last ditch effort, she focus her chakra into her arm and slam the puppet on the ground with a roar. It release its deadly grasp on the genin.

Ichigo jump backwards just in time before the puppet explode to pieces. She released a breath of relief. Remembering what she was doing, she quickly rush to her teammates. She can see Kio trying to break out of the choke-hold Youta place him in.

She increase her speed when she saw Kenshin pop out of the ground like a mole. Kio broke free from Youta grasp by hitting him in the nose with the back of his head. He was going for a punch when Kenshin did a weird hand seal she never saw before.

The punch never made contact though. Kenshin drop to the ground lack a sack of potatos while Kio drop to his knees and grab his head, grunting in the excruciating pain. This cause all of them to stop the spar. Ichigo slow to a walk towards Tarou. She help her out of the hole that their fellow Leaf ninjas placed her in.

They look at Youta with worry eyes which he shrugs as a response. "I don't know what's going on. This never happened before when we test out our strategies on Tetsu-sensei."

Michi and her puppets finally show up. Susume hover over the unconscious Kenshin. "Did the jutsu work?"

Tarou look at Michi, "What jutsu did he use?"

Just as she asked the question, Kio's cries of pain cease. Tarou and Ichigo rushes over to their teammate. They were ready to help him till he signal for them to stop as he rose. He narrow his eyes at the one eyed ninja with a frown. Although he is technically part of the Yamanaka clan, Kio did not expect for him to use a jutsu of theirs. Kenshin always said he prefer following the Inuzuka way more so than the latter.

Kenshin groan when getting out of his unconscious state. Susume and Usagi slowly help their teammate to sit up from the ground. "Are you okay, mutt?" Usagi asked.

But Kenshin ignored the puppet. He stare straight into Kio's almond brown eyes. "What are you?" He muttered.

Damn it. He must not tell anyone about me. I'm not going back. Kio growl in frustration and grasp his hands together. "Wind Style: Gale Palm!" The sudden wind push everyone away from him. He then quickly went through the hand seals of a special jutsu of his clan. "String Bean Binding Illusion."

Several bean vines start growing underneath Kenshin, wrapping the still daze ninja in its grasp. Kenshin grunts in pain from the genjutsu. Kio did the Bird hand seal, causing the vines to sprout thorns. Kio drown out the sounds of the genins telling him to stop, instead focusing on the sound Kenshin screaming in agony.

"Die." Kio said with a grin and a bloodlust look in his eyes.

"I said, stop it!" Youta punch Kio on the back of his head.

Kio stumble forward and landed on his knees. The genjutsu of his cease once he was force to release his hand seal. Kio got back on his feet with a yell then turn around and backhanded the dark browned hair ninja. Youta recoil from the blow. When he recovered he snarled at the young Kurama member. They both launch at each other, wanting to tear the others head clean off.

The females of the two teams immediately sprung into action. Susume dash between the two ninjas raising its hand to stop the two in their tracks. The sudden appearance of the puppet confuse the two males, giving Tarou and Ichigo the opportunity to grab hold of them and pull them further away from each other.

Tetsu glance at Jin. They both nodded in agreement. "You all are dismissed." Tetsu ordered.

Youta took a step forward, "but-"

"Dismissed, genin." Jin ordered with no room of reasoning to be allowed..

The genins look at each other then at their sensei. They are not budging from their stance. With a sigh from some, they begrudgingly left the area. Once they left Tetsu ran his hand through his red hair. "Fuck man," he started, "fuck!"

"Tetsu." Jin look at her fellow sensei with a sad expression. He turn to see her bowed in a perfect 90 degree. "I am complete sorry about my student actions. Trust me when I say, he will be punished severally for this."

"Jin, stand up. It's fine." He pinched the bridge of nose with his eyes close. "Actually its not fine. It is a bloody distater. I just..." A big sigh escape his lips. "I just don't get it." Jin stand up and look at him with a quizzical look, "Kio has never acted this way before. Maybe it's because of that mission, I don't know."

"Really?" Jin never met Kio till that mission but now that he mentioned it. "Kio has been acting somewhat different from what Daichi and Mizore had told me."

Tetsu snort with a sarcastic laugh. "Daichi actually paid attention to his students. Colored me impressed."

Jin sigh; she knew should not had mention her friend in front of him. They still have yet to make up from that mission months ago. "Regardless, it seems my students are not ready for Chunin Exams."

"And Kenshin might not healed in time for the exam." Tetsu shook his head in disappointment. He was ready for putting his team forward for the exam. They all were ready for it. "There's always next year, right?"

"Yeah." Jin start making her way to the village. "We must inform the Hokage about this. Hopefully, he would let us deal with it as we seem fit."

"Yeah, me too." They sprint towards the Hokage office to tell him the news.

Kenshin woke up gasping for air. He is covered in sweat and bandages. He whips head left to right to quickly survey the area. The one eyed ninja calmed down sightly from seeing he is not in any danger. He is currently in a white room with some medical equipment inside and some of them are attached to him. Kenshin look at the window of the room to see the dark cloudless sky and few stars glimmering brightly in the night.

He look at the medical equipment that is attach to him. "What happened?" He close his eyes to try to remember how ended up in this state.

If he recalled correctly, he was middle of a spar with his brother team. He had a planned he was working on if they fought against a stronger opponent like Sayaka again. He wanted to test it out in a real battle situation. Everything was going as planned until he used-

Stop him.

Kenshin snap his eyes open. "Kio!" During the spar, he placed Kio in a Yamanaka clan favorite; Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu. It was then he met him. The impostor trying to be Kio. Kenshin has no idea what he even is. He just knows that Kio; the real Kio, is not in control.

Please stop him at any cost, Kenshin.

"Don't worry Kio, I don't leave a fellow Leaf ninja behind." Kenshin promised himself. But to complete such a feat, he needs help. Luckily for him, he knows the perfect group to ask for assistance.

A\N: Things are starting to pick back up again. I hope you like this chapter as much as I enjoy writing it. It was a real challenge for me to think where I and how I want this story to go for the next arc. As you probably guessed, it was originally going to be the Chunin Exam arc but not anymore. Next chapter should start the, Rescue Kio Arc.

Please a review telling me what you think about this and the characters. The Jounins are mostly going to take step back in this arc, so its going to be all about the genins. One more arc after this one and then the story should be finish unless I think of something else.

Also, sorry for the wait. School in the Navy has been a real pain. Never was good at school.

Anyways, Till Next Time.