Seth quickly jumped back before the Tendrils could make contact. He jumped up onto a tree branch before he nearly lost his footing when Akiro slammed into the ground. Holy shit got to remember not to get hit by that. Seth thought. He jumped down from the tree and smiled. He created a few hand signs before he threw a smoke bomb down at his feet. Puff of white smoke appeared around him. He suddenly ran out of the smoke, his smile still on his face. Let’s see you predict and counter this! Seth thought

“Communication huh? You actually think I care!” Seth yelled before he ran at Akiro again. He smile only grew before he added, “.If you trust your comrades to have your back no matter what, you don’t need communication.” The corniest thing I’ve ever said, but let’s hope the others see I’m trying to distract him so they can move in for the attack. Seth thought. He suddenly threw one of his Kunai at Akiro before following up by throwing the other right behind. Seth’s aim howeve,r was off as the two Kunai flew past Akiro. It seemed in his haste he didn’t think of actually aiming. Seth then ran at Akiro and slammed his foot on the ground as he pulled back his fist ready to strike. This is the last bit of chakra I can muster, so let’s hope this counts. Seth thought. Seth smiled as his gaze slowly drifted towards the Kunai.

One of the Kunai exploded in a puff of smoke before another Seth jumped out of the smoke and grabbed the other kunai. Seth’s plan flashed through his mind. Plant the smoke bomb, make a shadow clone before having the shadow clone transform into a kunai. Rush as Akiro and pretend to miss before having the shadow clone change back and attack from behind. His plan was working, but it soon fell through as his chakra seemed to give out as the shadow clone suddenly disappeared.

“Damn it, you couldn’t give me another few seconds, dumb chakra,” Seth yelled. No turning back now, let’s just hope the others can get the job done. This is going to hurt. Seth thought as he readied himself for Akiro’s counter. He knew with the advanced chakra it was going to hurt, a lot. He just knew this should give the others an opening to strike.

Arashi was almost surprised that he tricked them like that. This just made things even more interesting. While Akio started talking about their technique and him providing a handicap, Arashi was already planning on how to use this whole situation to his advantage. He cancelled both his scattering crow jutsu and henge jutsu. When the smoke cleared from the cancellation of the crows only one Arashi could be seen and that was the real Arashi. His clone was now gone and he was waiting for the perfect time to use him. He wanted this to be perfect and not a wasted effort. That's what their attacks seemed to be right now.

Arashi watched how the others reacted to Akio and took interest in the Kirigakure shinobi. This was his first time seeing a technique like his. He decided that this wouldn't be the best time to use himself or his clone without having knowledge of the slime spear. He didn't think that the mist shinobi would care about anyone getting in the way. He didn't seem to like the Uchiha clan and from the sounds of it he didn't like Konoha either. Yeah, this team exercise wasn't going the way it should have. That could all change. They still had the time to change, didn't they?

Akio then pointed out that they weren't communicating with each other. That was easier said than done. If they talked to each other they could risk him finding out their plan of action. They needed to be able to understand what each one was doing without talking. It was a deep level of a connection that they hadn't reached yet.

Seth was being hot headed again and charged in without thinking. He seemed to have a plan, but that plan seemed to fail due to lack of chakra. He was going to be in for a rude awakening if no one helped him out. Now was the time.

Arashi quickly formed a tiger seal and seemingly disappeared without a trace. He was using the technique that his father was known for and doing it almost as good as he did. He'd soon be visible where Seth was grabbing hold of him and disappearing again with him while leaving a surprise on the floor where they once were. Arashi fell to the ground a good bit of distance away from their sensei now. He was slowly panting before letting go of Seth. "Release," he barely whispered while waiting for the explosive tag to go off right in front of Akio. He knew that their sensei would be alright. An explosive tag wouldn't be enough to take him down. That however was only part of Arashi's plan.

His clone would appear behind Akio using the sound from the explosion as cover while reaching around to grab the bells.

The speed of Arashi caught Akio off guard, by the time he saw the explosive tag it had already blown up. The explosion had sent him skidding backwards on his heels, he had raised his arms in front of him in order to protect his eyes from the shards of the explosion. Due to it catching him completely off-guard, he released his focus on Sage Mode and his chakra enhanced strength--leaving him completely vulnerable. If the teenagers played their cards right, they could easily get the bells and end this training exercise right now.

Izu cursed when Akio dodged his technique and leaped high into the air. The leaf shinobi was extremely mobile, which made his ranged Savage Slime attacks less effective since Akio seemed capable of dodging them. This meant that Izu would have to get more up close with his opponent and then go on the attack. When the jonin dropped back down at high speeds Izu noticed that he was trying to hit the ground hard enough to disbalence them. He recognized this since it was a common trait among earth technique users. He jumped back as quickly as possible to avoid being unbalanced by the attack and prepared him himself for another attack.

Izu chuckled when Akio talked about communication, he had just met these leaf ninja and only fools expected instant harmony between teammates who were rivals. But he did have a point, this senju shinobi was no push over and of a higher rank than all of them, which is why teamwork may be their only hope at winning. Izu laughed when Seth proclaimed that he didn't care about communicating with his comrades, was this boy really that idiotic? he thought himself as he watched the hot-headed shinobi go the attack and didn't see that Seth was trying to make himself a distraction for them to attack.

He did however figure it how when Arashi Uchiha used some sort of disappearing technique to get Seth out of the strike zone of Akio and leave an explosive tag in his place. Izu saw that there would be an opening once the tag went off and he made his move once it did. The explosive appeared to have made Akio lose focus and falter with his sage mode. Izu made the hand sign for his next technique and spoke the words of it.

"Earth Release: Earth Spear!" he said and his right arm became as hard as diamonds thanks to the supplementary ninjutsu technique. He leaped high into the air and as Akio was off guard thanks to the explosion, Izu came down on the leaf shinobi and was less than a second away from slamming his insanely hard fist into the jonin's chest and breaking ribs if the ninja didn't take any defensive measures.

Hayashi was resting, trying to catch his breath from the exhaustion. "Dammit, I should've known!" he muttered to himself. Under normal circumstances, the physical ability would be enough to tell a clone apart from the real deal, but he was too engrossed in the fight to tell. He quickly readjusted as he struggled to get up, he had expended so much chakra and continued to do so. Just as that happened, though, a ninja joined them, invited by Akio to help with the exercise. It was that ninja who cheered on Seth earlier.

Quickly, Seth and the ninja attacked Akio and it was no surprise that he dodged them all, but Seth was caught in a zone where Akio could hurt him. Luckily, Arashi went in with some jutsu that was from Shisui, no doubt, and saved Seth, leaving a tag behind. The tag triggered and blew up, throwing Akio off his balance and making his sage mode falter. This was the opening the ninja needed to complete the exercise and Hayashi would make use of it. Just when that happened, the new ninja used a jutsu to make his arm hard as rock, maybe even harder.

There was no doubt that his next move would be to try and hit Akio, so Hayashi used his "plan B". Before he charged Akio, a shadow clone of Hayashi was sent out away from the field in case things got ugly. This is what drained Hayashi so much, as it was already tiring enough to use all those jutsu but now he had to maintain a shadow clone alive. But it seemed that the effort had paid off, as he now could use his clone perfectly. The clone came out from behind Akio and jumped to grapple him and hold him in place so that the ninja could hit Akio.

Just as that happened, Hayashi himself dove at the bells Akio had, calculating his timing so that the ninja's impact with Akio would happen just a moment before Hayashi got to the bells. "Alright, I've wasted so much energy, this has to work!" Hayashi thought to himself as he had the bells in sight. Hayashi wasn't a rude guy, so he was trying to get all the bells for his teammates since this opportinuty probably wouldn't arise again.

Seth waited for the punch, but instead felt his body suddenly be jerked back and appeared a few feet away from Akio just as an explosion appeared. Seth was about to thank Arashi, but he felt the contents of his stomach rocket up his throat. He rushed over to a bush and vomited out the contents of what was in his stomach. When he was finally done Seth yelled, “Damn it Arashi, chocolate doesn’t taste good when it comes back up!” it was his way of thanking him, even though it didn’t sound like it.

Seth was never good with teleportation Jutsus. When he was training, his father showed him how to teleport using Lightning nature based jutsu thinking Seth would have the same nature base techniques. The first time Seth’s father teleported him, was the last after Seth blew chunks all over the top of their house.

Seth sighed as he walked back over next to Arashi and asked, “Alright, what’s the plan boss? Should he rush in and attack or wait to see what our teammates do. Frankly I’m pretty much out of chakra and after my breakfast came up. My body feels crappy.” Seth was itching to get back into the fight, but even with his attack first ask questions later style of fighting. He knew something else needed to be done.

"Shit! Shit! Shiiiiiit!" Akio shouted repeatedly, completely shocked at what was unfolding. He was originally planning to weave out of the way of Izu's attack, but Hayashi had grappled him from behind. He prayed internally that the Hayashi grabbing him was the shadow clone, he preformed a front flip so Hayashi's clone would be the one taking the blunt of the hit from Izu's Earth Spear technique. While the clone took the blunt of the hit, it did still hurt Akio and sent him pummeling into the pond. He slowly stood on the surface, trembling in pain--the force of the hit caused his left shoulder to get knocked out of his socket.

But that wasn't the worst part for Akio, it was when he noticed that the bells had fallen off of him and were laying on the grass near the teenagers. He knew in his condition he wouldn't be able to get to them first... the teenagers had won. He let out a laugh, "Now that's what I call some teamwork. While it wasn't the best thing I've ever seen, you guys did some good work there." He said with a smile. Akio then forcefully but quickly popped his shoulder back in place while muttering his favorite swear, "Sshiiiiiit... that teamwork packed quite the punch."

After her Shuriken attack Rin landed on the ground before Akio could strike the ground as he had jumped so high up. She quickly evaded the shockwave from the Akio’s strike and took position in one of the trees.

As usual, she waited for the others to strike first. It immediately became clear to her that Seth was going for a distraction. She quickly reconsidered as Seth’s plan faltered. She was quite far away from them so she knew there was no time for her to use the Self Summoning technique on him. Thankfully, Arashi intervened in time and even managed to catch Akio off guard. The next thing she knew, the Kirigakure shinobi was about to punch him while both Arashi’s clone and Hyashi were going for the bells.

A body flicker technique later, Rin was standing next to Seth and the real Arashi. “He’ll probably still be able to counter those attempts at the bells, if so, quickly attack from both sides so he is limited to countering or moving parallel to you two in a straight line, that way he won’t be able to escape my jutsu.” She spoke her plan out as quickly as her lips allowed her since time was running short. She quickly made a shadow clone in the meantime to use later as part of her plan. The Jutsu she was about to perform was a rather difficult one and required quite a number of hand seals in Rin’s case, thus she began performing the hand seals immediately after explaining her plan and creating the shadow clone. As she did that she was still tracking the bells with her byakugan. Her Jutsu stopped right before the final hand seal as she realized the bells had fallen on the ground. That was it. She sighed with relief as Akio announced they had succeeded at the same time dispelling her shadow clone. "And I barely used up any chakra." she said with disappointment.

“Oh thank god,” Seth said before he fell backwards on his back and began to laugh, “Now that was a battle. It could have used less me up chucking my candy bars but none the less that was great." Seth took out his pack of cigarettes and found he was down to his final one.

“I’m going to have to get some more. Maybe try that general store near my house. They got good booze there too,” Seth said as he put the cigarette to his lips and lit it. He let out a white cloud of smoke before he added, “Who else needs a drink. I might be able to swipe a few bottles from the general store. The old guy at the counter is easily distracted.” Seth soon sat up and smiled as he looked at his team mates.

“Anyone else hungry?” Seth asked as his stomach growled. He had soon forgotten he had vomited the contents of his stomach which left it empty. I just hope nothing else happens today, I need to regain my chakra. Seth thought before he asked, “By the way Akio, didn’t think a shark could come out of the ground did you.” Seth smiled. Out of everything that happened, he was still satisfied that his Rock Biter Jutsu went off without a hitch. Even if it was attacking a clone.

Boss... Arashi kind of liked the sound of that. He wouldn't let it get to his head, but he did like the sound of it. He tried to ignore the stench of Seth's puke while looking at him. "You should wait. You'd be a hindrance or dead in your current state if you jumped in. And why did you have chocolate for breakfast?" He looked over to the battle scene where the Mist Shinobi was using a jutsu that hardened his arm that he called Earth Spear.

The girl from the Hyuuga clan came up to them and tried to come up with a plan. It sounded like it could have worked, but Seth was still a liability. Though it now seemed that they didn't need the plan after all. The Earth Spear hit Hayashi's clone fortunately, but also knocked their sensei into the pond causing him to lose the bells on the ground. He had conceded battle to them.

He turned to Rin when she claimed that she had barely used up any chakra. Either she had Jinchuuriki levels of chakra or she was lying. Everything she used should have used up a pretty good amount of chakra. All of those body flickers, coating her shuriken in lightning chakra, and the shadow clones that took up about half of the reservoir each time they were made.

Arashi shook his head and walked over to the bells and reached to pick them up. "Looks like we really did it."

Hayashi fell flat on his face when Akio moved away, he still got hurt but wasn't down. The dodge had put Hayashi's clone in the way and it instantly dissipated in a puff of smoke. Luckily, it was thanks to the clone that Akio didn't dodge the hit entirely so Hayashi still felt useful. The boy turned so that he was laying on his back, when he noticed that the bells had fallen next to him on the ground. Just then, Akio conceded defeat and commended them for their teamwork in the exercise.

"Thanks sensei, any time" said Hayashi, sitting up and grabbing the bells. He dangled them a little in front of his eyes just to confirm that it was in fact over. Seth mentioned going some place to eat which sounded incredible to Hayashi, he really needed to regain his energy. He was pretty sure he expended the most chakra, or at least he felt like it after two clones, a trick transformation, an attempted genjutsu and a fireball, all of which he produced.

Then again, that Rin had used some jutsus but she didn't seem tired, it didn't matter anyway. Hayashi stood up, wobbling a little, and tossed the bells at Akio. He then walked towards the rest of the ninja, smiling about having succeeded in the exercise. He was satisfied with not only having been able to produce such a powerful fireball, but that he managed to stop Akio from making the exercise last longer than it did so it was a good day.

"Yeah I agree with Seth, I could use a good meal after all that" responded Hayashi, still a little tired from the training exercise "you wanna come?" he asked the Kirigakure ninja.

Akio let out a sigh of relief, "Well, you all are dismissed. And no Seth, I was honestly not expecting a shark to emerge from the ground. I'll give you an A for effort." He said with a chuckle. "Izu, is it? Yeah, you should stick around for the next few days. If you need anything, whether it be a place to stay or something of the sort--you'll be able to find me at the Hokage mansion. Then later tonight, I'll be at my residence. So feel free to stop by if you need anything." He walked over and picked up his flak jacket, dusting it off before proceeding to put it back on. "Great work today guys. Rin, I'll be sure to tell your sensei about how well you preformed today."

As he adjusted his flak jacket to his liking, he did a little salute towards a teenagers. "I'll see you all soon."

---

Later that night...

"Darn it, I'm really late... I can't believe I passed out filling out paperwork." Akio said with a heavy sigh. He slid open the door to his home and closed it as soon as he had entered. He walked into the living room where his wife, Miyuki Sarutobi, was asleep on the couch. She had fallen asleep waiting for her husband to come home, he smiled at the beautiful sight of his wife as she slept peacefully. Her waist-length raven colored curly hair--which was complimented by her beautiful mocha skin--was bunched up in a bubble bun to keep it off her face as she slept. Her closed eyes hid her alluring chocolate eyes and the fierce determination that always resided in them. Akio slowly approched the sleeping beauty and kissed her forehead whispering, "I'm home beloved." Her eyelids twitched for a brief moment before opening and smiling at her husband, attempting to hide the fact she was sleeping to no avail, "I... I knew that, stupid... I was waiting for you after all." Miyuki gracefully sat up and began adjusting herself so she was now sitting on the couch opposed to lying on it. Akio sat down next to her and leaned back into the couch, "Couldn't sleep again, huh?"

Miyuki giggled drowsily, a side effect from still waking up, "Actually sweetheart... there's something I've been meaning to tell you." She said, stretching as she said so. "What is it, beloved?" He asked curiously, slightly leaning towards her in interest. Miyuki broke eye contact and looked at the carpet for a moment, she appeared to be... scared.

"Beloved, what's wrong?" Akio asked again, noticing the fear that had crept upon Miyuki's face. She took a deep breath and reestablished eye-contact with her husband, "I'm pregnant." Akio's expression completely changed in an instant; instead of the always calm monotone Akio, the utter glee from the idea of a child overtook him. "What?! That's- that's great! Do we know if it's a boy or a girl?!" He asked excitedly like a puppy gazing upon a dog treat for the first time. Miyuki smiled and let out a sigh of relief, she wasn't sure how Akio would initially respond to the news--thankfully he responded well. "The doctor says it's a boy. Which means you get to name him." She said as Akio began hugging her in the glee of the moment. "I have the perfect name, Miyuki." He then looked at Miyuki's stomach and began talking to the baby that was growing inside of her, "You're going to be a strong powerful shinobi one day, so... that's why your name is..."

Miyuki giggled like a schoolgirl when she heard Akio name the child, "I think that's the perfect choice, we're going to be such a great family." She said with a giant smile as Akio and her hugged lovingly on the couch.

Izu hadn't expected to get help from the second Uchiha by holding down Akio and keeping him in place for Izu to land his blow, but unfortunately the jonin was able to yank Hayashi into Izu's oncoming attack. It was too late to stop it and Izu didn't worry too much, this was training and accidents happened. Luckily it turned out to have been a shadow clone and not the real Uchiha. Even though his fist impacted directly on the clone, the force was still powerful enough to do some damage to the jonin and knock the bells off of him. Izu gave a cheer when Akio admitted defeat, and then he felt fatigue hit his body as the use of the B rank technique drained him of a good deal of chakra, using advanced earth release techniques burned through his chakra more quickly than using his savage slime bloodline technique.

"Oh yeah! We won and you can all thank me the mist ninja who helped ya!" he said to them with a smile and didn't really care if they responded or not. The Hyuga girl talked about not using up too much chakra and Izu chuckled, talk about prideful, he thought to himself. He also noticed Seth's vomiting session and found it amusing as well as gross.

"You should toughen up your stomach Blondy, weak guts like that will get you killed in the field" Izu said to Seth with a grin. He was surprised that Akio offered him a place to stay for his time in Konoha, but he already had one and didn't want to move his things. But he did love it that the leaf shinobi was letting him continue to train with the others and that would give him more chances to upstage the Uchiha.

“Thanks, Akio sensei.” Rin said with excitement as he praised her. She was still rather disappointed that she didn’t even have the chance to use some of her high caliber Jutsu. But still, by the accounts of Akio she did well today and she had no reason not be proud about it.

As Akio left, Rin began a light jog towards Izu.
She passed Seth on her way and he was just mentioning getting booze and possibly food. “I’m with ya!” she waved at him. Seeing his hotheadedness in battle, Rin figured he might be a fun guy to hang out with. She didn’t really like boring people and Seth certainly didn't seem so.

As she got close to the Kirigakure shinobi she slowed her pace to a walk and put her hands behind. “Hey, I’m Rin.” She said in high pitched tone with closed eyes and a wide grin on her faces. “Savage slime is what you called that Jutsu, right? I like it. If I’d have to guess, I’d say it’s the combination of water and earth natured chakra.” She said and then stared at the Kirigakure shinobi expectantly, as if waiting on an answer whether her assumption was correct. She hadn’t seen any Jutsu like that and her almighty yet innocent curiosity was taking over, wanting to find out more about this rare technique.

Izu looked at the Hyuga clan shinobi and smiled, he liked having the chance to explain his bloodline technique.

"Savage Slime I guess you could say is a combination of earth and water chakra natures. It is very versatile and I can harden it to give it more physical power and also make it thicker for ensnaring opponents. One of the best aspects of it is that I can shape it into many different forms and it is has properties very similar to a jellyfish and will sting enemies who come into contact with it. I have also made weapons with it such as blades and hammers. The more advanced shinobi of my clan can make massive monstrosities with the Kekkai Genkai, there's a reason why other shinobi call members of my clan Monsters from The Deep. A proper user of the Savage Slime Kekkai Genkai will always use the technique for boosting his offense and defense" he explained to Rin, he didn't know it was smart idea to reveal this much about his clan's bloodline technique, but he liked explaining his clans capabilities to other shinobi.

"I wonder how the Kage summit will go, people in my village have talking about war happening soon. My parents had been the last shinobi war and I never thought that I'd be in one myself. But with war comes glory and the legends of heroes are born, a glorious death might await me in this coming war" he said to others as his mind imagined himself being in a huge battle against enemy shinobi.

Rin was rather surprised how open the Kirigakure shnobi was about his clan’s technique. She didn't think he'd reveal this much, and her curiosity was certainly satisfied.
“Wow, that’s awesome. I’ve been practicing similar techniques with my wind natured chakra. . . well the weapons bit, not the monstrosities part.” she giggled as she said the last part. The Kirigakure shinobi then continued talking about the shinobi wars. She knew there had to be something going on for them convene the five kage summit. But never did the thought occur to her that this might lead to a war.
“You really think it might be the prelude to the fourth shinobi war?” she asked as she rested her index finger on her chin while tilting her head upwards. “And if so, who will we fight? There hasn’t been any notable tension between the five great nations, has there?”
Rin now wondered what the others were making of this five kage summit and she glanced at them while she thought of this.

Izu's friendly response when questioned about his jutsu certainly put him on good terms with Rin.
Definitely good material for hanging out with, Rin thought and mentally giggled at herself and how she described their relationship.
“Well in any case, we might pick up some food and . . . other stuff in a bit. We as in me and that blonde guy, Seth, so far. Don't know about the others yet. Regardless, want to join us?”

Seth sighed as he lay on the ground and listen to everyone. He was tired; there was no doubt about that but as everyone talked about food and the possibility of drinks. His energy started to come back more frequently. In a split second Seth jumped up and yelled, “Alright! Party Time! I got dibs on cooking!” Seth suddenly ran off.

Seconds later Seth walked back looking embarrassed as he said, “sorry, forgot to mention the place. There’s this open grill shake near the park with a bunch of tables. That’s where the party is, so bring your appetites because I’m making my specialty.” He then ran off to get the ingredients for the party.

Hayashi watched as Akio walked away and waved goodbye. Rin then began talking to the Kirigakure shinobi about his jutsu and what not. Hayashi paid almost no attention, he was thinking hard about what jutsu he could learn to better himself as a ninja. It was, however, interesting to note that his jutsu were from some kekkei genkai exclusive to his clan. Speaking of clans, Hayashi's mind was on the Uchiha, on who he could get jutsus to learn from.

This thought didn't last long, since Rin mentioned going to eat something and he realized he was very hungry once again. It would also be nice to rest for a while after all of the effort put in the exercise. His chakra also needed to be regained if he wanted any sort of new jutsu. Food also sounded like the best thing for tired ninja right now. The sound of it alone was enough to make him anxious for eating a good meal.

Seth then came up and mentioned where they could eat, an open grill place. Meat sounded absolutely perfect for Hayashi, it was almost as if he couldn't live without it. Hayashi saw Seth run away, probably for ingredients since he wanted to cook, and he decided to make his way to the place. "I don't know about you guys, but I really want to eat" he said as he took off for the grill place.

Partying wasn't the first thing that ever really came to Izu's mind when it came to completing training exorcises, his sensei would normally have them do several dozen push ups and sprints as reward for succeeding at training. Konoha ninja were happy go luck and didn't have the serious and super trough training that Mist shinobi had to go through. But since his master wasn't here, Izu saw no problem in a little partying as long as there was meat and fish to be had. It also would help him recover chakra and he did feel his stomach growl from hunger

"Sure I'll join, I hope there's meat I'm pretty hungry" he replied to Rin. When he heard Seth talk about making something for the party, Izu's mind thought about really hard liqueur and people becoming incredibly drunk. This made him chuckle to himself at the thought. Izu didn't know how to get to the grill so he had to follow the Uchiha, which was annoying because it felt like taking the lead ahead of the ninja, but he had no choice but to follow.