The Ultimate Test! Squad 2, Ready for Action!

[Kekeya Sasaki]

Kekeya was sitting on a rock in the background of the training field, drinking steaming hot tea. The morning was cold, and due to Kekeya's ever-radiating heat, there was a sort of mist coming off of him. It gave the field an eerie look as the sun was barely coming up. Kekeya didn't open his eyes as the team showed up. He drank the last of his tea and torched the cup, obviously still not happy. "Normally, a sensei would ask his squad questions before they begin training, but if this training is going to be really effective, I'm guessing the less I know how to read you, the better. Let me just give you all a warning. You have been assigned to me as a squad, but this is still a test. Your final test. And if you fail... you will be sent back to the academy. I know it may seem sudden that I am coming off this hard on you right off the bat, but I have reasons for that." Kekeya stood, crossed his arms, and opened his eyes half-way. "I can already tell... You're going to fail." Kekeya set his eyes on Shouichi, already picking up his distress. "But today, it is your job to prove me wrong." Kekeya opened the right side of his jacket and showed two paper tags sewn to the inside by one end, so they were flapping in the soft breeze. "I'm sure you all heard rumors of the infamous 'bell test'." Kekeya let go of his jacket. "I'm not that easy." Kekeya popped his neck and continued. "If you can take these two tags from me, you all pass. Once one of you takes a tag, the one who took it can relax. When the test is concluded, we may eat. As you see, I've taken the liberty of preparing food, since anyone smart would've skipped breakfast." There were three lunches next to an alarm bell where the rock that Kekeya was sitting on was. "One catch. The one who fails to get a tag, will go without eating, and will be chained to that tree." Kekeya pointed to a tree in the background "I don't know about the other two, but I, personally will eat in front of you. You will have until noon til' that alarm goes off. If it goes off and I still have one tag, you fail." Kekeya popped his knuckles and asked, "Any questions?"

[Misuke Yasuno]

As he listened, Misuke frowned slightly before yawning.

That's it? All I need to do is steal a tag? I've been stealing from jonin for the past five years, and he has to know that. Not like it matters...... either he knows it and chose to do it here in the forest to throw me off, or he's severaly underestimating me. His loss.

[Shouichi Sakamoto]

Shouichi stood still and let his eyes move over the landscape, then he turned his head to look back at Kekeya. A frown on his face, yes he was here even though Kekeya had said yesterday that if they weren't sure of themselves then they shouldn't bother showing up. Shouichi had thought about not coming, but then he thought of how unhappy his family would be, and how he'd feel disappointed in himself. He had to prove himself.

As if sensing his inner struggle, Takayuki leaned down and pinched Shouichi's ear gently with his beak. Shouichi turned his head slightly to peer at his hawk, "We'll do fine Takayuki." Shouichi said to the hawk, putting his hand up to run his fingers over the hawk's feathers.

He looked out of the corner of his eyes to Misuke, and instantly wished that he could be as sure of himself as Misuke was. "Good Luck," Shouichi said to Misuke, then he turned to Kimiko and said the same.

[Kimiko Sumera]

"Hnph," Kimiko said to Shouichi after he wished her good luck. She didn't need good luck, this was going to be a piece of cake for her. After all, she didn't think Kekeya was so tough.

She crossed her arms and glared at Kekeya, she didn't want to be here, and she most certainly didn't want to try to get a stupid tag. What was in this for her?

[Kekeya Sasaki]

Kekeya examined his students over one last time. The boy in the middle, with the bird. He was very underconfident. Kekeya would have to be kicking him alot to pull him out of that. He turned to the boy next to him. The Yasuno boy. Kekeya cared to remember his name. He remembered hearing about how he had been brought up. Well, not really how he was brought up, but how he lived. He was a theif. A master theif. This test was not only for the graduation of Team 2, but Kekeya chose this test as one to truely test how far this boy's ninja prowess went. He had spent a few days even reading over his recorded kekkei genkai; a doujutsu. Discovering it's prowess would definitely be interesting. Kekeya would obviously hold back severely, for he really shouldn't use lethal force on a bunch of graduates, but that Yasuno kid would be getting some... special attention. Then there was the special girl. The precious little flower. "Gack..." was what was crossing Kekeya's mind. she was anything but ninja material when she left the academy. Her abilities may have been interesting, but she seriously didn't get the concept, "ninja". She would recieve plenty of "kicking" of her own. And what's worse, Kekeya had to look after her, even outside of training. "Wonderful..." This escaped Kekeya's mouth by accident, but he didn't care. "Very well. Training starts..." Kekeya ran his foot backwards, hitting a pebble that flew over and landed atop the timer with a "ding!" "Now..."

[Misuke Yasuno]

Nodding when Shouichi addressed him, Misuke disappeared with a flash step that almost instantly transported him into the treeline - while it was still slow, absurdly difficult to pull it off and his accuracy often sucked and landed him several feet away from his destination each time, it had been well worth getting Rena to teach him the trick over the last few weeks even if he still didn't quite understand the mechanism it worked by. Moving quickly and virtually without sound through the brush, Misuke quickly began making preparations for his next step.

[Shouichi Sakamoto]

Shouichi used a type of smoke bomb to hide where he was going, and went behind a couple of trees. He then did what he needed to in order to summon a larger hawk. He thought he'd be a little better at this test if he could see it from all sides.

A puff of smoke appeared, and Shouichi couldn't help but smile a small bit when he saw that he managed to summon the right hawk. After telling the hawk in a hushed voice what he needed to do, he and the hawk took to the skies, with Takayuki on his shoulder. Soon they flew over head, where Shouichi had Kekeya in sight.

Thanks to his advanced eyesight, he could see what he thought was the tips of the tags, however he knew that it wouldn't be that easy. The best chance that he had at getting one of the tags was to surprise Kekeya.

He had the hawk take him back to the ground where they had first took flight, and he thought a moment, and finally decided on his first action.

Shouichi created a clone and within seconds the clone was up in the air on the hawk. He kissed Takayuki on the top of his head and nodded for the small hawk to get to work.

Takayuki flew up in the air first, close to the larger hawk and the clone, then darted toward Kekeya with a very loud caw. He started flying around Kekeya extremely fast in a circular direction, the flapping of his wings caused gusts of wind.

When it looked like Kekeya was distracted enough, the larger hawk carrying the clone Shouichi darted for Kekeya. Seizing the moment that the larger hawk was close enough, Takayuki flew away, only to come back behind Kekeya and snatch a hold of his jacket.

[Kimiko Sumera]

Kimiko walked over to where a bush was, and was now sitting on a semi clean log behind the bush. She had decided that she would simply watch the boys attempt to get the tags. Being one of the first ones to attack just seemed too hard, and she didn't' want to take the chance on getting her clothes dirty. After all, if the boys did their job well, then maybe Kekeya would be too tired to fight too much when she decided to make the move for a tag.

She watched as Shouichi made the first move, and she was completely surprised, because she didn't think he would be the first to act. Actually she thought he'd be hiding somewhere too frightened to attack their sensei.

[Kekeya Sasaki]

Kekeya chuckled to himself, having been suprised at Shouichi's straight-fowardness, then quickly thought. "They must think I'm Kakashi..." Kekeya waved his right hand, and flicked his finger at Takayuki. It sent the bird stumbling through the air and got caught in a tree. Kekeya then used his free hand and thrusted his palm upwards, onto the large hawk's belly. This was enough to dispell it, causing Kekeya's hand to go through, still open palm, and strike Shouichi in the jaw, causing that clone to dispell. Once Kekeya was free of distraction, he couldn't help but wonder what they were thinking. To an untrained eye, the three assailants would have seemed to be deflected in an instant. Kekeya looked up. "I'm not gonna let you sit and hide..." Kekeya almost disappeared when he moved. He reappeared with his hand through the trunk of the tree Shouichi was behind. Kekeya had his hand holding onto Shouichi's skull, as if in a death grip, knowing not to press too hard so he may escape. "In a real live-fire battle, you will be in danger at every moment. You won't have the luxury of hiding back in the shadows after a first strike." Kekeya could feel Shouichi shaking from the position Kekeya had him in. If it were real, Shouichi would obviously be dead. Kekeya let go and pulled his hand through the hole he made. Then, quickly, with a mighty cross chop, Kekeya fell the whole tree, having the purpose of scaring the kids out of their wits.

[Misuke Yasuno]

There!

Now that Kekeya was in the forest, surrounded by brush and trees, Misuke made his move. As Kekeya chopped down the tree, Misuke performed another shoddy flash step, grinning as he actually managed to place himself less than a foot behind Kekeya, inside his guard and far too close for any organised counter, while kunai simultaneously rained down from the canopy above them.

[Shouichi Sakamoto]

As soon as Kekeya had let go of Shouichi's head, Shouichi quickly disappeared in the uproar that was caused by the tree being knocked down. He was now up in a tree not far from where Misuke and Kekeya were now standing.

He pulled out out a blow gun and loaded it with a dart that was laced with a small tranquilizer type poison that was only strong enough to paralyze Kekeya for about 10 minutes. He put the blow gun up to his lips and waited. He took the oppurtinity that was presented when the kunai started raining from above Kekeya and Misuke. The dart would be mixed in with the kunai and so it would be unlikely for Kekeya to spot the dart or to evade it.

He blew the dart and watched it as it hit Kekeya in the side of his neck. Thankfully, part of having eyes like a hawk also gave him perfect aim with his weapon. He wasn't sure what Misuke had in mind, but this would give him somewhat of an edge, not that he needed it. There was a one minute delay time for the tranquilizer poison to flow through Kekeya's blood, however it would slow his reflexes down quite a bit and even dampen his chakra usage during that delay time.

[Kekeya Sasaki]

Kekeya froze as the dart hit his neck, then was when the kunai hit him. He was riddled with kunai, and fell forward, dead. The look on his students face was priceless. That was when the puff of smoke happened to reveal a log sitting where the body was. Substitution. Classic. Kekeya fell from the sky and pushed Misuke out into the clearing. Meanwhile, Kekeya had made a clone up in the trees. This clone came after Shouichi. It heel-dropped the branch Shouichi was on, then pursued and threw him out into the south end of the same clearing Misuke was. The original Kekeya soon appeared in the middle of those two with his clone at his back. Kekeya dispersed his clone. "Good try. But no." Kekeya shot two little bullets of fire from his finger at Misuke. They were nowhere near intense enough to do any real damage, other than a very minor burn or set clothing on fire. However, they had enough force to knock someone down. They were travelling at extreme speeds and were too fast to dodge both. One made contact with Misuke, and Kekeya used this to grab hold of Misuke's foot. Kekeya threw Misuke into the lake nearby and thought. "They have incredible tag-teaming skills. Maybe I really do have some potential here..." Kekeya almost forgot about Shouichi, but was already aware he hadn't moved. Kekeya was very aware of Shouichi's position and made no effort to turn and face him. Kekeya would be able to detect any of his movements, it was Misuke he needed to be on guard for. He kept his eyes on the lake, even though he was aware that Misuke was likely already on the move.

[Misuke Yasuno]

As soon as he hit the water's surface Misuke disappeared in a cloud of white smoke, replaced by a log almost identical to Kekeya's and reappearing back in the brush a fair distance from Kekeya, grinning with the tag in his hand. Kekeya's mistake had been picking him up with his actual self, momentarily bringing him in close enough to grab the tag unnoticed before being thrown, and the fact that he could bring it with him via substitution proved it was the real thing. Producing several shadow clones and swapping the real tag with a clone's copy, Misuke sent the clones out in every direction before sprinting back towards the fight - with any luck Kekeya wouldn't have noticed the missing tag yet, and Misuke intended to get both of them by the time this ended.

[Shouichi Sakamoto]

Kekeya may have thought that Shouichi was standing there, but in reality it was a clone. Shouichi had used the time that Kekeya was focused on Misuke to give himself some distance. He was now crouching behind a bunch of bushes, debating on his next move. Just then he got nudged in the back.

He jumped slightly and turned to see Kimiko behind him.

"I'll distract him while you make your next move." Kimiko stated, obviously realizing that by not doing anything at all, she'd definitely fail.. and even though she couldn't care less, she was sure that her father would be very angry.

Shouichi nodded without saying anything.

[Kekeya Sasaki]

Kekeya put his hands in his pocket, trynig to put at ease slightly, but heard something off. Kekeya moved his arm and heard paper rustle, but an off rustle. Kekeya reached in his jacket and ripped out a paper. He looked at it for a moment, but then it dispersed into smoke. Kekeya made a noise with his mouth, but then smiled. He had made a wrong move. He underestimated that boy. Kekeya chuckled a bit. "Hey. Yasuno. Your food is the one with the yellow tie. Help yourself, you earned it." Kekeya called out, knowing Misuke could hear him. Kekeya turned to face Shouichi, but suddenly saw that Shouichi really was standing completely still. Even after first impressions, Kekeya was suprised that this was it. But then something crossed his mind. Where was Kimiko? She moved. And Shouichi wouldn't move. It was a clone. "Clever runts." Kekeya stood over in the center of the training field, now waiting for movement... any movement.