Taro walked forward, standing infront of the combined bunch of genin from his and Ebisu's bunch.
He pulled a red spray can and sprayed a line of red paint across the trail.
"Here is where you all will start and finish, regardless of your condition. The goal? You all are to sprint around the trail at top speed. If caught attempting to move slower than top speed, it will result in an immediate fail. Attempting to travel outside of the trail's radius it will also result in an immediate fail," taro explained.
The combined bunch started to murmur, but the instructor didn't stop them this time.
Ebisu stood silently next to Taro, lifting his glasses before speaking.
"Of course, Taro san and I will monitor your progress," he said.
Yuto's curiosity piqued hearing this, as he took a sip of coffee, before speaking.
"Through what means will you monitor us?" Yuto said, suspiciously squinting his eyes.
"Well, we wouldn't fail you because of suspicion alone, so we installed cameras," Ebisu said.
Yuto gave a nod as he started to look around for the cameras he claimed were up. While Yuto didn't see them anywhere, he was sure they were somewhere hidden. Some others did the same, but found nothing as well.
Yuto was brought out of his thoughts by the voice of the blond-haired teenager from before.
"Are we allowed to sabotage other participants?" Touji asked with a smirk.
Yuto glanced at Touji as he seemed a little too excited at the prospect, and Yuto took a step away from him, not going unnoticed by the rest.
Ebisu noticed this, his face twisting into a light smile.
"Hum, I was originally going to hold my tongue on this matter and let the first genius who tried it set the example for the rest, but since you asked, I'll tell you," Ebisu said, pushing his glasses up and smirking at the anticipating eyes of the genin.
Yuto rolled his eyes at the attempt to build suspense.
"While it's true the test is solely to examine the stamina of the participants, as shinobi, we also encourage the idea of sabotage and ploys. It's why in this test, not only are you allowed to sabotage other participants, but you can enter combat as long as your speed doesn't decrease," Ebisu explained.
Everyone went into an uproar, everyone taking steps away from each other, looking around warily. They didn't even trust their friends, as not a single group was formed. No one would form groups when points were on the line. Contribution points were more important than money in most cases, because it was how shinobi gained strength and techniques, especially those who didn't come from shinobi families.
They most likely were also able to read between the lines. Taro specified that they would only fail if they were caught cheating.
Yuto, on the other hand, also noticed this, but wouldn't risk the doubled contribution points for any reason. He also didn't trust anyone there. Yes, they were fellow Hidden Leaf genin, but they were shinobi, and they were trained to lie, steal, and deceive, unable to obtain information and gain advantages. In the ninja world, having an advantage was what decided not only the outcome of battles, but the outcome of war. For example, the fire country never declared war on another great nation, simply because it had all the advantages. The other nations wanted the fire country's rich soil and resources. The leaf wouldn't waste the lives of shinobi if they didn't have to. They waited and prepared, and then defended their lands with the geographical advantage and deployed forces to fight on the smaller nation's land.
Yuto's had no advantages. he was an inexperienced genin besides his sharp, intuitive mind and creativity. He was likely the weakest genin here when it came to actual combat power, but Yuto was cunning and slippery and looked weak enough to be underestimated.
Yuto remembered that there was a radius that the participants weren't allowed to leave a certain amount of distance from the trail. Though they weren't told the radius.
Yuto glanced at Touji Yamanaka, feeling Touji's eyes on him.
"Something on my face?" Yuto asked, taking a sip of coffee.
"Not at all, Suzuki," Touji said, that stupid grin still plastered on his face.
While Yuto appreciated Touji's interference with Nobutoshi's haggling, he didn't particularly like the guy. he was a smug asshole, and to make it worse, he hid it well, behind a fake smile. He was the complete opposite of Yuto, hiding his sardonic demeanor behind a nice guy act. Yuto saw it in his eyes. Touji was a sycopath, and to make it worse, he was a Yamanaka. Who knows what he did with those mind-raping abilities?
Yuto sighed and responded, "I might be mistaken, but were you just peaking into my mind just now, Yamanaka?" Yuto asked, squinting his eyes suspiciously.
"Of course not," Touji said with a filthy grin.
"I don't fucking like you," Yuto said, disinterested.
"Aw, why not? Haven't I been nice?" he said, a hint of sarcasm in his tone.
"That's exactly why I don't like you," Yuto said, glaring at him.
"Aw, you're tearing my little heart into pieces, little Yuto," Touji said, a hand on his heart, a fake expression of sorrow on his face.
Yuto rolled his eyes, took the last sip of coffee, and threw it in a bush. He changed his attention to the instructors, as they were both looking at a clipboard.
After a while, the instructors finally shushed the genin that were rambling on like their mouths would be sewn shut if they stopped.
"Okay, the test will start in five minutes. Are there any questions?" Taro asked.
One of the genin spoke. "Um, you mentioned testing stamiana, but what about speed?" they asked.
"Hum, to put it bluntly, you genin are as slow as sloths compared to full-fledged shinobi. It simply makes no sense to test your speed," he explained.
The crowd of genin didn't seem to appreciate the judgment of their skills, as they went into murmurs and took on disapproving frowns.
Suddenly, a swarm of mosquitoes swarmed around the clearing of genin on the trail.
The genin could be heard slapping the misiqtoues off of their skin. They went into an uproar, feeling the bits of the miquetoes.
The instructors gave each other a look before Taro decided to cut the wait short.
"Okay, since I'm feeling a bit generous, we'll start a bit early," Taro said.
"Alright... you can start now," he said, clicking the stopwatch in his hand.
Yuto was unaffected by the mosquitoes because of his half-sprayed bug spray, and didn't scurrie like the others.
He took off in a burst of speed, falling into the middle of the bunch. He unsheathed his blade as he ran and immediately deflected a flurry of shuriken.
This was what he hoped wouldn't have happened; he knew he was an easy target, but he had barely even moved a few yards before he was attacked. He had no intentions of waiting around for the next attack to come. He sped up, finally reaching his final octave of speed. He pushed chakra to his legs, attempting to go faster, but his current speed was as fast as his body would allow him to go. he didn't fret as he knew the test wasn't meant to measure speed.
Suddenly, the person right infront of him was slammed into by a blur, creating a dust cloud. Yuto's eyes became shocked as he could barely track the speed. Then, right after that, a teenager with long, straight black hair crawled out of the cloud of dust on all fours, before transitioning into a sprint. Yuto was confused as hell, unsure what just happened. he brushed it off, focusing on his own test. He simply couldnt afford to lose in this test, especially with doubled contribution points on the line.
He continued running his sword placed infront of him. he didn't receive any attacks after the first one, as not many were bold enough to attempt a surprise attack at full speed, as it could be easily tracked and countered, considering the linear path.
Yuto felt his breath start to hitch. The long trail reminded him of when he was on the B-rank mission with Gemma's team. Back then, he was tired and malnourished, just as he was right now. he knew he wouldn't last much longer, but he would make it count and achieve at least a fifth-place ranking. He needed those contribution points, and he would stress his little body until he had them. His face remained calm as he ran, but sweat pored down his shinobi combat uniform, and he breathed heavily out of his nose.
He felt his body start to slow down, as he knew this was all he could do. He hadn't even finished his first lap yet, and his body was already tired. He would have worked out more if he knew he'd be doing so much physical work. He had been convinced by watching the anime that shinobi just fought battles and gained glory. The anime and manga completely left out the days of travel and stops for supplies and food. He knew if he didn't find a way to get some energy in his body, he'd drop dead from exhaustion if he pushed it any further.
He reached into his ninja pouch, and his blade was still infront of him. he knew he was putting himself at risk for an attack, but he had no choice. He pulled out a rejuvenating bar, attempting to take a bite, but was instantly bombarded by a flurry of kunai and shuriken.
Yuto glanced back, his tanto still in his other hand, seeing two figures dashing at high speeds behind the projectiles.
He was forced to lift his pivot on his foot and pushed backwards, now facing the new enemies and the projectiles. He weaved threw a few in the air and blocked the rest with his stanto, but he missed one as it plunged into his side. He growled in pain.
"fucker!" he spat out, his calm face falling from his pain.
He pulled the shuriken out of his side, blood pouring out of the wound. The gravity released his weight, and he dropped back to the ground, quickly transitioning into a sprint, picking up his speed, despite his wound and his exhaustion.
He thought he had escaped the attack of the genin, with his slight speed increase, assuming they wouldn't waste their energy and ninja tools for one person. He was wrong, as he was forced to twist his body, barely dodging the straight-pathed kunai strike. He locked eyes with the genin who attacked, not surprised to see Nobutoshi.
He traced back, remembering there were two assailants after him, as he'd been attacked with a joint kunai and shuriken attack. His alarms went off, but he was too slow to realize as a kick was planted into his wounded side. Yuto was sent flying, but he didn't let his agonizing scream go to waste as he was sure to release a glob of spit before he left the radius, letting out a cry of pain. It sounded like a child underwater. The glob of spit connected with Nobutoshi's face, sending him flying, as he was caught off guard. Yuto caught a glimpse of the other asalent, noticing it was one of Nobutoshi's buds. Yuto flew backward into a roll as he refused to let his speed decrease, as it would mean an automatic failure.
He heard a whistle in the distance, as he assumed Nobutoshi's speed had faltered from his attack and was eliminated. He was surprised that the instructors were eliminating contestants personally, but he assumed it was most likely a shadow clone watching over the contestants from a concealed position. Chunin and above seemed to be quite fond of the technique.
The other assailant seemed to abandon targeting Yuto, despite Yuto already being injured. Yuto had held onto his rejuvenating bar for dear life as he knew that without it, he would drop from exhaustion and fail anyway.
He shoved the bar in his mouth, chewing it fast and gargling it down as quickly as possible, as time was of the essence. He had stayed away from running with food in his mouth after choking when he was a child in his previous world, but he was in a different situation. It didn't take long before he felt the energy flowing into his body; not only were his chunin-level chakra reserves refilled, but he also felt his sore body from yesterday's boulder pushing start to recover.
He let a small smile grace his face as he passed a few genin who slowed down and were eliminated from the test with the blow of the instructor's whistle.
After a few hours of running, he felt his frail body start to give in to exhaustion again. His determined face became a frown as he dug into his pouch for some more rejuvenation bars, just to find out he was out. He honestly underestimated the potential test, so he didn't bring as much. he didn't take into account that he'd be moving at shinobi speed, and that he'd burn a lot more energy in doing so, because he wasn't aware that they'd be forced to move at top speed continuously.
He sighed while continuing his speed, despite his exhaustion. he suddenly raised his tanto, a frown plastered on his face, seeing a blur of yellow hair swoop in next to him.
"If it isn't, little Yuto," Touji said with his filthy grin.
Yuto's blood boiled as he just wanted to be left alone, but he couldnt even get that. he refrained from attacking Touji, as he suspected Touji was a lot stronger and more experienced than him, considering he was a lot older than Yuto, and he had an aura of confidence about him. He walked as if he couldnt be touched by any genin there, and for some reason, Yuto believed it to be true.
"How can I help you? You clearly aren't looking for a fight," Yuto suggested calmly, but the bead of sweat falling under his bangs told a different story.
Touji ignored Yuto's question as they ran side by side.
"I'm surprised you even made it this far. You know, after yesterday," Touji said, mildly surprised.
"Yes, that misconception of me," Yuto said, continuing the conversation to distract him from his exhaustion.
"You're suggesting that you were holding back intentionally?" Touji asked.
"Far from it, I'm simply physically weak, but my combat skills are far from shabby," Yuto said pompously, his blade still up as he didn't trust the smile lines on Touji's face for a bit.
"You hide it well, but I know you're exhausted, as we speak," Touji said with a sudistic smile.
Yuto glanced to his side as he ran, his soaked locks of hair refusing to be carried by the encroaching wind.
"What do you intend to do?" Yuto asked, as he knew that if Touji was to attack, he wouldn't do any better than an academy student in the state he was in.
Touji chuckled. "Calm down, man! There are about fifty contestants left out of the one hundred and eighty-eight that started. Attacking you would be meaningless; you won't reach the top five anyway," Touji said indifferently.
Yuto refrained from commenting, settling for a frown. He didn't want to give Touji a reason to attack him.
Touji then spoke again. "But those from instructor Ebisu's bunch, I can't say the same for them!" Touji said with a grin.
"What do you have against the other class?" Yuto asked, confused.
"I don't have anything against them, but if someone's going to get double contribution points, it'll be only those from my class," Touji said.
"It's only orientation, our classes aren't even in the system yet. The points are more like a welcome present and serve as some motivation," Yuto said, confused.
"I need to break a few spirits; ambition from a weakling enrages me. Our class time will come during the combat test!" he said with a grin, looking not even a bit winded from the constant running and talking.
Yuto, on the other hand, was barely concealing his exhaustion as his breathing was slightly heavy, despite his attempts to conceal his breathing with his chakra.
"I see," Yuto said calmly. he imagined that Touji wasn't in the genin reserves because of his lack of strength, and it was likely his sardonic personality. It was likely that he couldnt get along with other teams because of it, and it showed on mission reports constantly before he was transferred to the reserves.
"See, that's what I like about you, always easy going!" Touji said, placing an arm around Yuto, despite Yuto's blade in his hand. The power gap was so huge that it didn't matter if he was armed or full of energy; the result would remain the same: he was defenseless against the experienced Yamanaka.
"Anyway, I have some genin's to sabotage!" he said, removing his arm from around Yuto.
Touji took off in a burst of speed, and Yuto was surprised by this, as it was explicitly stated in the rules that decreasing speed would result in an automatic fail.
He traced back to when Touji was running, as his mind clicked, remembering Touji's legs moving faster than the rest of his body.
"He moved at his top speed, in a certain radius to prevent himself from exceeding my speed. He essentially moved at top speed and chose not to cover distance," Yuto thought.
Yuto looked ahead, hearing a few whistles being blown.
"That guy's crazy!" Yuto said. He looked around before taking a deep sigh. He was honestly nervous in the presence of Touji, especially when he was moving like Obito during the Uchiha massacre. He felt his body coming to exhaustion as he released another sigh and pulled out a small pill, looking at it hesitantly, as he considered the risks.
"Aw, what the hell, what do I have to lose?" Yuto said, throwing the pill into his mouth.
[Be sure to give me your powerstones]