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Classes had ended, but Bumu Hyuuga wasn't about to head home or go play with friends. She had something to do. She had to prove to her sensei that she was ready to take the graduation exam tomorrow and that meant that she had to get the jump on him and prove that she was a superior kunoichi.
Bumu sat outside the academy building staring off into the distance. She felt like she had been there for far more than just an hour as she waited to spring her trap, but soon it would all come together. She saw the instructor leave the building and set to work running from the tree branch she had posted on to the rooftops darting around as she followed him around the academy grounds. She tried to keep a little distance between them, lest he detect her presence, but always made sure to keep him in her sights.
She watched as he entered the courtyard, Bumu slid down a rooftop, her feet bumped and vibrated as she slid. She imagined how awesome it would be to learn to use her water chakra to make maneuvers like this go more smoothly … literally.
The instructor entered another building and Bumu activated her Byakugon, she saw his chakra mainframe talking with another instructor, she let the ability fade because she was too inexperienced to keep it up for long. She would check in again in a few minutes, but for now she needed to get to that building. Bumu looked around at her surroundings for a quicker way around the courtyard, but finding none she took off to take the long way around.
The long way meant circling the entire courtyard to the main building he went in to. The rounded rooftops were not as smooth as they lead on from a distance, in fact if she fell and skidded on them it would probably be rough enough to make her bleed something fierce. She was careful as she had to transfer buildings a few times, and despite a few very close calls she made it around pretty well.
Once she was halfway there she activated he Byakugon again, the instructor was moving upstairs now, leisurely, he definitely didn't know what she was up to. Bumu smiled and let out a victory laugh with a, “He he,” before continuing her rooftop labyrinth to the building holding her academy teacher.
After several moments she finally arrived at the building and activated her Byakugon again. She scanned the building for him and finally found him on the floor she was on. The instructor was in the room immediately to her left, and somewhat behind her, writing at a board. The room was dark, and there was an open window. It was the perfect setup.
Bumu climbed in through the window and stealthed up to the front of the room before shoving a pointed finger into the instructors lower back and saying, “You're dead! I got-” the clone fell away smoke, leaving a note behind that said, 'look behind you.' She turned around slowly and saw … nothing. What the heck was going on? She took a defensive stance as she looked around before a finger touched her back between her shoulder blades. [b]“You're dead. I got you.” The voice of her teacher said with a hint of sarcasm.
Bumu slouched defiantly and said, “But I did so good!” Her instructor explained that he had known she was there since he left the building she was staking out and that while she had been good for somebody of her skill she was outclassed.
“So … you're saying I should stalk my classmates instead?”
The instructors face blushed as he said, “No no no no, don't do that, thats not even close to what I said.” He went and turned on the lights before saying, “I just think that you've really embraced most of what the academy has to offer. You're ahead of your classmates, but below your instructors.”
Bumu held up her nose indignantly and said, “For now. But one day I am going to be the greatest ninja ever.” She winked and flashed him a smile and a thumbs up. “Greater than you at least.” She stuck her tongue out at her teacher and said, “So make me a genin already. Just fill out the paperwork and tell everyone how awesome I am. Then I'll actually get to do something interesting.”
Her instructor smiled through her silly poses and said, “Its not as easy as just filling out paperwork, we have to do a formal exam. Go get some sleep, I just put in the request for you to have your exam tomorrow and you are going to want to be well rested.”
Bumu shoved a fist into the air and said “ALRIGHT!” before running towards the window.
Her instructor shouted out, “Use the stairs.”
Bumu had just reached the window and lowered herself out of it before sighing with defeat. Then she walked to the stairs and headed back to her home.
On the way to her residence she thought about the various jutsu she had to learn in the academy and how she might be tested on them the following day. The clone technique that her instructor had used was one of the basics, as was the transformation technique. She had those down pact, and was fairly fluent in her hand seals. She ran through them as she walked, “Ox, tiger, dog, rat, boar, ram, dragon, snake, monkey, horse, hare, bird.” She did each hand sign as she said its name.
Bumu hadn't done exceptionally well with genjutsu class, and if she was being completely honest she was only average at ninjutsu, but when it came to taijutsu she was in the top tier of the school. Then there were also the kunoichi culture classes that the sexist people of the past had forced on the school, which she was okay with. She got a lot of the culture parts and information, but she didn't have the eye for flower arrangements and failed to see how they fit into the ninja world at all.
Bumu opened the front door and was greeted by her mother with a, “Oh, you're back late. I left your dinner on the table, but its probably cold. Are you okay?”
She nodded contemplatively and said, “I've got the exams tomorrow. I need to rest.” She said this, but went to her food and began to eat the cold rice and beef. As she ate her food she began to think about the actual academic portion of the test as well and wondered what kinds of questions she would see on it. Was she really ready for this at all?
The young girl made her way to the kitchen to drop off her dishes before heading to bed. That night her dreams were plagued with nightmares of failure. She woke a few times, but overall she slept through them, living in a world of terror for the night. In some dreams she overslept in others she sealed her own tenketsu, and in others she failed the exam with a negative sixty points.
Regardless, she awoke shaken. She put her clothes on, ate breakfast, and left in relative silence. She got to the academy early, sat in her usual seat, and watched as the other student filed in, the ones that had qualified well before her. She was so nervous that she broke her first four pencils. Lucky number five made it all the way through question two. It went on like that, eventually she ran out of pencils and finished the quiz with the broken halves. She had most of the quiz done as the first person turned their test in. She tried to go back and fill in the ones that she had skipped, but began to get nervous as nearly half of the class had turned theirs in. All in all Bumu ended up being the third to last student to turn in her exam.
Next came the skill portion of the exam she watched as student after student performed the requisite jutsu. She laughed a little as she watched people transforming into the instructor with varying degrees of success. Seeing the instructor with giant eyes, elongated torso, and in various states of age, sex, and girth. Her morale was boosted as she watch the display, and she especially enjoyed the blonde kid who transformed into a version of their sensei with a nose the size of her arm. When her turn finally came she focused her chakra and allowed it to cloak her body shaping it into the image her sensei. She focused her eyes on her hand sign and hoped for the best before finally getting a “Pass” from the sensei. She was then asked to do the clone technique. She tightened the chakra cloak to his form and projected the cloak to be beside her, filling it with color. Her and her clone turned to face one another and smiled a dopey smile as they got another “Pass.”
Next test, genjutsu kai, her sensei gave her a warning that he was about to use a genjutsu on her as soon as she was ready.
“Ready.” Bumu said, but something was up, she couldn't put here finger on it at first, but soon she realized that there was no sound, then she noticed that nobody was moving. She wasn't moving. She couldn't move. She could think, but her arm would not move, her hand would not clench, her leg would not bend. She was paralyzed, and as she noticed this she began to freak out and lose her cool. As she panicked more and more her muscles tightened up on her, the world seemingly shattered like glass and fell apart. Everything turned black except for her.
As her brain obsessed over failing the genjustu kai test she remembered that she was in a genjutsu kai test. She focused her chakra to her spine, formed a bubble and popped it. The world flooded back into view as color came back to her. She fell to the ground as her sensei said, “Pass.”
Finally she had done it. She looked up at her sensei and asked, “How long did it take?” He responded, “twelve seconds.” Bumu shook her head and said, “It felt like eternity.” She got up and moved out of the way for the next student.
It took nearly a week for the results to come out, during that time she had to attend classes as per usual, but knowing that she passed the jutsu portion of the exam made her fairly confident. Things just seemed beneath her now. She did chakra control exercises and taijutsu practice with the other students, but many of them exchanged these secret smiles with each other, like they were in on some big secret or part of some elite club. And they were in an elite club, they were going to become genin of the Hidden Sand Village.
At the end of the school day her and her elite club were all called into the the main classroom while the other kids were dismissed. Their sensei gave a speech about how failure didn't necessarily mean the end of their journey and name dropped a few famous ninja from the past who failed two, three, even four times. He exclaimed that some ninja take longer to put together the basics than others, but that a good foundation was essential to keep your ninja career from sinking into the sands.
His speech filled Bumu with a sense of dread. Had she done so extremely bad on the exam portion that they were going to fail her? She could see them talking now, 'Oh that Bumu girl? Extremely talented, but also extremely stupid. Point her at the enemy and she'll do fine.' She blushed and sunk down in her seat at the very thought of it.
Then her sensei began to hand out envelopes with peoples results, she saw people both pass and fail, and her sensei had words of wisdom for each student that he spoke silently between them before they departed. He worked his way through the alphabet and eventually he made it to H. She took her letter, it said that she had passed. Her sensei leaned in and said, “Good job Bumu, I knew that you could do it. Now you just need to work on your self confidence a little. Hopefully this helps you realize that you can do anything you put your mind to.”

2105/2000

Hiro awoke to the familiar sounds of the shrieking winds and whipping sands of a sandstorm raging outside the dormitory where he slept. "Huh... Going to be a rough day tomorrow if that keeps up today." The hour was early enough that most of the other boys in the dorm were still asleep, however, Hiro knew from experience that if he went back to sleep at this point he would feel off for the rest of the day. "It's only a little bit earlier than I had planned. Gives me time to get breakfast, I guess, since I'd normally skip and go straight to class." Hiro forced himself out of bed and got dressed for the day, being sure to include goggles and a face covering. Packing up his homework from the day before, Hiro grabbed his bag and headed out into the storm, donning his goggles and bandanna and making his way towards the mess hall.

The wind was stronger outside than Hiro had anticipated, and Hiro had to struggle against it to make any progress forwards. After a few minutes fighting the wind and sand, Hiro came to the cafeteria. As the sand storms were common enough in the village, the mess hall had doors facing each cardinal direction so there was always at least one on the lee side of the building from the wind, and the doors in the direction of the wind would be secured against the storms. Unfortunately for Hiro, the open doors this morning were on the other side of the building, causing him to spend a few more moments in the stinging barrage before he could enter in to the shelter of the building.

Once inside the building, the aroma of the morning's breakfast cooking away in the kitchens caused his mouth to begin watering. "Man, I didn't think I was that hungry, but the smells from the kitchen always set my appetite afire." Hiro made a beeline for the empty food line, loading a plate with scrambled eggs and other light breakfast fare. "Just in case there's some kind of practical exercise in class today." Being so early, many of the tables in the dining area were empty, so Hiro retreated to one to eat his meal.

After finishing his food and returning his dishes to the proper area, Hiro spent some time reviewing the homework he had completed the night before before gathering his things to head out through the storm and to the building where his class would meet.

Talwin was zoning out sitting in the back corner of his class he had one of those "approach me and die" looks on his face. He was having a particularly bad day after only just hearing the passing of his mother the day before and the sudden realization that he was not only an orphan but possibly homeless for the foreseeable futurre..Well the homeless bit is not entirely true but he can not bring himself enter the home that once housed the only human being he felt accepted him for who he was. Now, now he is just a monster and honestly he is quite content with that. He has no aspirations for a social life an introverted life-style suits him. Besides he knows he is different, Something inside him poking into his malevolence and picking away at any benevolent. It was a constant battle between causing harm and simply doing nothing at all, These urges of murder at times were hard to control and balance but for the most part he has done pretty well, considering he had not fought or tried to hurt anyone intentionally since his start of the academy. Mostly for the sake of passing the academy and not working well with others would be bad when it came for him to become a squad member in his mind at least not working well with others would logically be a valid reason not to pass the academy.

A voice called out to him from across the room "Yes, sensei" he hissed in annoyance. The teacher did not flinch, clearly not afriad of the young man "Have you not realized your alone in class? It is time to spar. Get outside" He blinked a few times and muttered under his breath before detaching himself from his desk and walked with sensei to the schools sparring ground. The rest of the students in his class already eagerly waiting one of them stood out among the rest, His father is a well respected jounin and it seems his daughter was just as gifted, besides him she also seemed well trained before she ever came into the academy. Both of them had a natural prowess for combat. Her blue eyes met him and he saw the ferocity in her eyes. She was ready to spar again, last time sensei stopped the match before it came to it's conclusion but only allowed them the use of Taijutsu. This will be our last spar before graduation basically show-off everything you can do or what you learned in the classrooms.
"As you know. You have taken your written exams and those that have passed well. Congratulations here you are. We had a mock spar also last week but today. There will be no restrictions, Your goal is to beat your opponent until they can not get up. Show no mercy, show us you deserve to be among the ninja ranks!" Everyone cheered and even Talwin could not help but smirk in glee. He could already feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins.

Spars were fought one at a time to make sure no flying kunai hit the nieghbors spars. Eventually his name and the blue eyed champion as well.
they both walked to their corners of the sparring grounds. Finally, he would be able to let loose, no more limitations "Spar!" blue hair dashed towards leaping into the air and greeting him with a downwards somersault the heel off her boot aimed at his forehead. He dashed back a yard and her heel landed on the ground the earth cracked and she was already forming a sign in mid-air. He did not see it. The earth rose up and began to wrap around his legs stopping at his knees "Tsk" he said under his breath she dashed her shoulder into his chest at incredible speeds. The earth holding him in place shattered and he landed hard on his back feeling blood spatter inside his mouth. He growled but she was already in the air with another downward somersault. The heel aiming for his chest, at least he was no longer rooted in the spot, he could move freely again. He rolled to his side before she made impact. He saw the seal "Not twice" she was going to root him again. He formed a seal of his own and the air around seemed to rapidly gather at his back before launching him forward , he extended his arm and caught her with a clothesline to the throat. She landed hard on the ground and he landed right next to her on his feet looming over his defeated opponent. He wanted to cause her some form of harm and he could feel the hearbeat pounding. He balled his fist as the chanting of the heartbeat twisted his thoughts but before it could completely take over he heard the sensie call out "Spar over! Winner Talwin"
[821]

Talwin was given a fine bill of health after a day or two but really he felt he was being stalled. He was having a series of interviews with a man he only knows as face. It was hard to place his intentions but he was very vested in his chakra. In his heart he knew something was off about this character but thanks to him the decision to have him held back another year was thrown off the table. Luckily he would be graduating.He gathered his few belongings and took off to his empty home. He walked over to the fridge and found some left over ramen. With a light shrug he coooked his dinner and sat down and took off to class. He was already considered an odd character but this time he could feel every eye on the way to the academy trained on him. It seems gossip runs rampart he herd a few insulting remarks as he zoomed by. When he finally made it to the academy he was a celebrity as people stopped what they were doing to acknowledge his presence. He bee lined it to his room and took a deep breath before walking in. Unlke the rest of the village his class mates had an opposite effect. He was never acknowledged in fact he may as well have been invincible. They might have thought this was offensive to him but he was thankful not to be stared at in class, He walked over to his seat and the professor gave a formal speech to congratulate everyone on passing the physical examination and we would be moving on to the final written examination at this moment.

The exam was three pages compromised of battle tactics including physical combat moves, genjutsu defense and offensive, tactical awareness in the heat of battle. Chakra conservation, survival tactics on the run. It covered as many scenerios as ninja tend to find themselves in. Talwin was one of the few born with a photographic memory and it cut his study time to virtually zero and focused more on enhancing himself physically and spiritually. He wanted to be as prepared as he could before he got into his first live combat situation.A few hours later the written part was over and students were dismissed. Over the weekend they would be graduating and shortly after be dispersed into squads of there own. The next few days seem flew by in the anticipation of graduation day on that morning he stopped by the village cemetary to visit his parents grave. He tried to speak but no words formed, he closed his eyes tears escaped running down his check and onto his jacket. Now that he was a ninja he will not forget his promise. He would leave his mark on this world before he departs from it. He removed his bandanna and buried it over his fathers grave "I will come back for this when I become a chunnin. Soon.I promise"he wiped his tears and regained his comprosure. It was time to graduate. He walked hastily to the open fields were all the graduating students were attending.He joined his classmates, papers and official headbands were being given out and he could feel the butterflies in his stomach. When the attending Jounin handed him his headband he took it carefully before tying it around his arm. There was a small celebration but most of it consisted on speeches of warning and the trials of becoming a full fledged ninja.

586+1414=200