Chapter 6 : Go Home! You Suck! (Team Sora Survival Exercise.)

TU TU TU TU TU
Houtarou woke up. ''Yes, my alarm clock didn't fail me today!''
He quickly got dressed and performed his usual morning routine, which basically consisted of some relatively light exercise, doing his hair, and all of that stuff.
He'd walked home with Nomaru and Tenshi yesterday and after that had been discussing his entire day with his parents, who were happy for him.
Sora had told them not to eat, but he decided to get two slices of bread with some milk after all. That wouldn't make him puke but going without breakfast would make him faint, so this he found was a nice middle ground.
He packed a bag with some food/drinks for after the exercise, and some food/water bottles/cans to put that into for his dogs.
He went outside and entered a building almost as big as their house. It was their dog house. Since both of his parents were Hatake's too, they too had dogs, so they really were a dog family! Since so many dogs couldn't possibly fit into their house, his parents had built a pretty gigantic house for the dogs were they could sleep, eat and drink. They played in the garden. He and his parents took great care of their dogs, so they were both happy.
Alright guys, let's go!
As he called them all 8 of his own dogs ran towards him, jumping up to him. Haha, let's do this together!
Later guys! He said to the rest of the dogs (his parents'), as he went outside with his own.
He figured he should bring his dogs with him. All of them were unique in their own way, and they'd certainly be able to make a difference during this exercise, whatever it may be! Sora hadn't said he wasn't allowed to bring them along, so he guessed it was okay.

He looked up at the sky as his dogs and himself made their way to the training field. It seemed to be quiet a nice day!
People would look at him as he had 8 dogs with him, but they were his friends. He didn't mind.

Quite some walking later, he finally arrived at the training fields. ''Area 70 it was...''
He entered the area and made his way through some forest parts. He came across an open area and...- ''That's our sensei!''
Sora was standing in the middle of the field. He didn't see Torame and Nomaru, so he might actually be the first one. He!
As he was about to walk out of the tree part into the open field, his right foot got stuck between a tree branch on a ground, causing him to fall over again.
WAAAAAAH!
His head landed in the open part, making him partly exposed to the sunshine. That hurt a little... Damn clumsiness, always screwing him over... He'd suddenly feel something wet on his face. He opened his eyes, seeing Yuuka (one of his dogs) licking him in his face. Haha, cut it out Yuuka! I'm fine! Trying to laugh it off, he looked at Sora.
Good morning, Sensei!
He stood up and walked towards him.
I'm ready for this! Guess we'll just have to wait for Nomaru-san and Torame-san to come now, huh?
Remembering how Sora had acted in front of the Hokage yesterday, Houtarou showed a light smile.
He hoped Sora was in a good mood, but he'd try his best when this test started! ''Time to show what all the academy stuff has learned you Houtarou! IKUZOOOOOOO!''

Meanwhile his dogs started to lie down one by one, enjoying the sunshine. Houtarou had brought some dog food with him though, along with some water, both in his bag. He put both of them in some cans allowing his dogs to eat/drink if they wanted. They might need it for in a moment...

(Tenshi, I just kinda filled in the evening. I hope you don't mind. If you do: lemme know and I'll edit the stuff in or out you want to have in there or not. And since your training starts at 7 you'll be gone when Nomaru is awake, or at least that's what I figures. You do get goodies from her parents though. Just a bag with food and drinks and happy stuff. <3 Good luck!!)


When Nomaru was finnaly awaken after a good, long night of sleep the first thing she saw was the excited face of her father, pretty much way too close to her face. "Wakey time hime-chan! It's a very important day today!!!"
Nomaru simply pushed her dad aside and looked at her alarm with messy hair and half opened eyes. The sun was already shining outside and she heard some birds chirping. "Geez, are you mental? It's like... half 8. Fuck off." (so that's half past 8..). She put the blanket over her head and turned around, trying to remember what happened before she went to sleep and how she got in bed to begin with. Last thing she really did remember was watching a really happy girly movie with the Haruno. She must have fallen asleep on the couch. Next thing she figured Tenshi wasn't in her bed anymore. Tenshi had been sleeping in her bed when she went to the bathroom at around 3 AM. 

She felt her dad trying to pull her blanket off her and just let him, while she put her pillow over her head to protect her eyes from the sunlight. Knowing there was no point in refusing to get up, since her dad would find a way. 
  Nomaru moaned. "Go. And while you're at it, go fetch me some coffee and your instant death." Most of the evening and night came back to her as she slowly woke up. Nomaru heard her dad leave the room and grabbed her blanket again, covering her body, remembering her waking up that night because she needed to go to the bathroom.

~When Nomaru woke up she saw Tenshi next to her, sleeping. The alarmclock said something like 3:23, which was in no way a time to wake up. She went downstairs to the bathroom and did her thing, went back upstairs and the moment she wanted to go back to bed she heard a weird noise from the roof. 
  Nomaru opened her window and kinda saw a white haired, small framed girl, Nomaru's yellow eyes and face... even her way of dressing standing on top of it. "What the-" that was pretty much the moment she noticed something rather odd was going on. The girl had a person hanging over the side of the roof. An uncounsious fish-person. The Hokages fish (Kisame in non-Nomaru language). The white haired girl smiled at Nomaru, pressing her index finger against her lips. "Sssssshhht."
  The next coming thing looked like every slasher movie Nomaru had ever seen. The girl grabbed a kunai from out of nowhere, slicing Kisame's abdominal area open, dropping the kunai and grabbing his guts. She gave Nomaru a warm smile and let go of the fish' neck, dropping him down the roof. His insides where literally ripped outside of his body. 
  Nomaru looked at it with some short of shocked smile, climbed on the roof and looked down. Kisame was hanging on his insides, pretty much dead by the looks of it. The girl let go of the insides and smiled, dropping Kisame on the flowerbed Nomaru's mom was so fond of. 
  "Who are you?" Nomaru whispered pretty amused in a disgusted way. Payback time for the fucker who almost made her go mental.
  "Just a friend who happened to pass by," the girl whispered before jumping off the roof and running away in the dark.~


Nomaru's eyes went big, remembering all this stuff as she had seen that night. It was probably just a weird dream. Nomaru had weird dreams like that often and considering the weird stuff that Kisame had done to her her head probably just made a way to deal with it all. She decided to let it go and get back to trying to sleep again.
  A few minutes later her dad actually got back with a cup of coffee, forcing Nomaru to sit up straight and drink her coffee, which kinda made her wake up again. The next thing she did was get a cigarette and have her morning smoke. "Dad, how did I end up in bed?"
  "I carried you. You fell asleep on the couch watching that film."
  "Ah, fair enough," Nomaru inhaled the smoke and fell down on her bed again. "Uuurghh.. Can I just not go to that thing?"
  "No."
  "Well piss off then and let me get ready."
  She looked at her dad running out of the room as she smoked the rest of her cigarette, drank the rest of her coffee and stood up, walking taking a shower and grabbed the first thing from her floor she could find to dress herself with. Which actually happened to be the shortest dress with the most cleavage she owns. "Meh, good enough." Nomaru put her hair in a braid and even managed to put some make-up on her face as she would try to take as long as possible before before facing her parents. At least she was wearing combat boots, which made it alright in her opinion

At half past 10 she finally got downstairs, seeing her dad who was totally not agreeing with her choice of clothes. "You're wearing that?!?!!"
Nomaru ignored her dad and kissed her mom on the cheek. "Morning."
  "Oh, good morning sweetheart. I made some breakfast!"
Nomaru sat down at the dinner table and started to eat her breakfast in abnormal speed, pretty much devouring every single piece of food she could find on the table. 
  "Nomaru, why are you not wearing something functional?"
  "This is functional dad. And I'm wearing combat boots right?" She showed her dad the boots she was wearing and smiled. "Now go do dad stuff and leave me alone. Don't you have to walk the dog or something?"


By the time Nomaru had left the house her mom had pretty much given her a huge bag filled with food for at least three days and enough water for a lifetime. Also she found three packages of cigarettes and a kunai. "Good luck Nomaru-kun," Karin smiled at her daughter, kissing her forehead. "We'll both cheer for you and for Tenshi. She left quite early this morning though..."
  "NOMARU, MAKE ME PROUD!" Her dad yelled, pretty much suffocating her by the hug he gave her.
  "Daaaad," Nomaru shouted embarrassed, again pushing him aside and walking away. "Please be death when I'm back... Geez..."


Nomaru walked to the traininggrounds and arrived about one minute early, right on time. The Hatake was already there with all of his dogs. "Mother of god. Is this a fucking dog-show? Where are the pink ribbons?" She asked the Hatake, raising an eyebrow and lighting a cigarette. "Mornin' Sora."

 Torame would appear as well a little sleepy, displeased and nervous it seemed.
The boy didn't look quite as calm and content as he did the day before, whatever the Hokage had told him seemed to be quite heavy information. But then again, how could it not be heavy to know that you are marked by something or someone that even the Hokage knew little about or could do little about. And that this thing or person could use this mark to mess with him. Moreover, this being information worthy of killing for, as if he wasn't already enough of a target being a very young Uchiha Genin.
"Good Morning Houtarou-kun, Koui-san." He greeted his team mates softly with a light wave.
The boy seemed to be a bit out of his element today. He let out a deep sigh and looked around noticing Sora in the tree.
"Ahh...So you are here too, Sora-Sensei." He gave him a light respectful nod, not completely sincere, if at all. But he still did it to be polite.

The young Uchiha glanced over at all the Dogs Hotarou had with him and blinked a bit surprised.
"Wow! I never knew you had....that many....dogs..." He looked a bit confused and questioning at their Sensei.
"Is that even allowed?"



The Jounin sat in the tree and saw his first student arrive.
"Ohw great it's the peacekeeper....and he brought a whole community of like-minded individuals." The Uchiha shook his head and sighed his eyes glancing back to his book he was holding in front of his eyes with his free hand where he didn't have his cigarette. He was reading some kind of romantic novel, or perhaps something a bit naughtier.
When he heard the Hatake greet him right after Sora would keep his eyes on his book and give a short wave with the hand in which he was holding his cigarette replying with a tone that lacked any excitement.
"Hey..."

The Uchiha Jounin didn't notice the girl on his team arriving at first, well, he heard her but didn't bother to pay much attention until she greeted him.
Sora would arch a brow at the somewhat confusing greeting, she either had no respect for him, or felt this close to him already...he hoped the second, kinda , as she was attractive indeed, but he'd just assumed the first. Coughing a bit he would turn to look down and see Nomaru.
As his eyes would lock on the girl in that dress she was wearing and her make-up all done right the Uchiha would freeze for a moment as if time stood still for a few seconds his eyes taking in the form. The boy would even ponder a few seconds whether this might be Genjutsu.
"Aaah...ya...aaaahm.." He stammered out unable to say anything coherent before all of a sudden without warning the 15 year old Jounin would tip over backwards and fall into the bushes that were at the side of the tree he was in.

A second later the Jounin would somehow re-appear back in the tree without seemingly having climbed it at any point in between. He would rub the back of his head uncomfortably, clearly feeling a bit embarrassed about that, if not a lot.
"Uhm....Morning. Yeah.....uhhh....Nice...uhm...undre....I mean...nice dress." He coughed into his fist, the Jounin was glad he stopped himself from saying what his mind was thinking there luckily able to turn it around in time. He would point his index finger at her as he finished that phrase with a nod.

Then the Uchiha Genin would arrive seeming a bit off today. But Sora would just shrug a bit seeing his changed disposition.
"Good Morning...Torame-kun." He would greet the last one to arrive.

Then the three students would see Sora walking down the tree, literally walking as if it was the floor, step by step slowly coming down and walking up to them as he would put his book called "Come Come Paradise Revelations" back into his hip-pouch.

"Alright! Now that you are all here. We can finally begin." He would start his eyes tracing over his students, taking an extra long look at Nomaru, he just couldn't let it go it seemed. He would only stop looking at her about a split second before it would have become awkward.

"We will start this survival exercise by a light sparring session...just to warm us up. You three against me. The challenge is rather simple...whichever one of you manages to land a clean hit on me...wins. Whomever is the last one to not have done so...loses." The Uchiha shrugged.

"Ohw yeah...and I brought you some weapons and such." The Jounin said before he'd toss out a scroll which upon opening would reveal 3 packages. Each package contained a pack of 10 x kunai, 10 x Shuriken, 1 explosive note, 1 pack of ninja wire and a pack of chakra seals x 5.

Sora smirked.
"Here! This is for you guys. After all...if you aren't prepared to go for the kill, you'd never even manage to hit me anyway. So don't hold back. Your job is hitting, my job is not getting hit. Got it?"

He tossed his cig to the ground stomping it out.
"Whomever loses has to do 10 laps around the traininground and 35 pushups."

He would take out his book again right afther and nod to them with a sarcastically serious face.
"Now then, come at me and show me what you've got...whenever you're ready that is."

Houtarou looked at Nomaru and Torame.
Dog show? Not allowed? Hmpf, my friends here might just help us towards that victory we need!
He turned to his dogs, and crouched before them.
They didn't mean that guys! We're going to do this and kick ass, and they'll see how awesome you guys are!

He looked at Sora as he was getting all emberassed about Nomaru and fell from the tree. Don't wory sensei, I can relate, haha!
He took a look at Nomaru and could see why Sora reacted like that. Were these her training clothes?! He wasn't sure or that was a good or bad thing...

Sora told them about a spar challenge. Landing one hit on him and they would win? Didn't sound to difficult... But then again, this was a 15 year old Uchiha Jounin. He wouldn't let his guard down...
Sora just stood there now. Ready to counter the first one to attack. Houtarou figured just attacking out of nowhere wouldn't do anything against Sora, so he had to think of a strategy... Working together to hit him probably was the best option now.

Pssst, Nomaru, Torame, come over here! He whispered.
They stood in a circle far enough from Sora for him not to hear what they were saying.
The only way we're going to be able to hit this guy is through our awesome team collaboration! Tell me, any of you guys got some real awesome tricks up your sleeves for this? I can cast a mist jutsu, but you guys won't be able to manouvre around so that might not be the best thing to do. I've got 8 dogs here and one of them can even create clones, so numbers aren't our problem. I've got some basic raiton and restraining suiton jutsu next to that... Nomaru-san, Torame-san, you've got any skills that will help us out here?

That's right. They'd just think of an awesome strategy like they did in the movies! He once saw a movie where a team of weaker fighters beat a professional kung-fu fighter after they finally decided to work together. Maybe that was the key of the assignment Sora wanted them to use? They would be able to land a hit on him! At least, that's what he hoped... Them knowing almost nothing about Sora's ability made this quite a bit harder. But this wasn't impossible, he wouldn't have assigned them to do this if it was. They would get there, and stick in there!

Why... Why do I have to be in a team with a dog and his superiors..? Nomaru thought as she heard him talk to the dog. She inhaled the smoke from her cigarette and looked at Sora, falling out of a tree. Nomaru started lauging at the reaction of Sora, without any embarrassment. She did like the attention. "Oh thank you Sora-sensei," she smiled with a girlish giggle, pulling her dress down a bit in case anyone would see her butt. Half of town had probably already seen it, since it was more of a long, strapless shirt than a dress anyway and she was wearing a push-up bra and both sides of the dress where zippers. Around her neck was her forehead protector quite loosely as if she had some kind of awesome teen swag. Nomaru was way too cool for wearing it around her head.

There was something wrong with the whole reappearance of Sora, but she didn't really know what. She had no idea what the boy was capable of, but still chuckled a small "Go Spiderboy."

 She kinda saw the Hatake looking a bit too long at her dress as well and then Sora started to tell the plan for today, looking a bit too long at her, just like the Hatake. Giving Sora a clean hit would probably be close to impossible. They kinda had to make a plan, but she wasn't really paying too much attention. There were even some goodies, but Nomaru chose the kunai her parents had given her, just because she liked the idea. There was no way she would go do a team-up thing with these guys. A toddler and a dog-lover that lived up to his nickname.

Next thing the Hatake started to go full mental about a battle plan. And you should never ever go full mental. Not ever. She raised an eyebrow as she was short of listening to him and decided she didn't want to go along with the whole teamwork thing for now.
 "Why would I tell what I can do if Sora's pretty much hearing every word we're saying, Hachiko?" The Uchiha was still making his battle ready pose and Nomaru raised her eyebrow. "Geez, he's such a poser." She put her cigarette out and walked away. "I'm going to have a beautyrest now. You boys have fun." Nomaru sat down against a tree and closed her eyes for a bit, grabbing a new cigarette from her package and lighting it. There was no way she would actually try to hit Sora, she'd probably rather run the 160 kilometers.

(I hope I'm doing this right, if I don't please correct me)
 As she was sitting down she she raise her chakra by molding 3 PE and 3 ME (=12 chakra in pool?). She also opened her eyes a little and investigated the area, Sora and her teammates.
(please roll me an investigation)

Torame

The Uchiha rubbed the back of his head and chuckled as the Hatake spoke to his dogs.
"Ohw I didn't mean it like that at all, in fact it's quite impressive that you've got that many. That's what I meant by....is this allowed?"
The boy pondered a bit and then began to talk to himself in a low and nervous tone as he picked up his part of the amunition.
"But what if he is prepared for this and has experience fighting a hatake? And can turn this advantage against us...then! The more dogs we have the more in trouble we are...but...but."

He dropped his arms and sighed trying to let go of his paranoia.

"Never mind that...let's show this guy what we've got, Houtarou-kun."
Torame said taking a kunai into his hand.

When Nomaru would just sat back. Torame would blink at her confused.
"nomaru-chaaaaan?! what are you doing??!! we...uhm...need you!!"
the uchiha boy exclaimed getting nervous again.
"if we fail this we'll be sent back to the academy...and and...he might hurt us pretty bad before then. and sitting there like that you're a sitting duck if he attacks you."

sora

the uchiha jounin laughed a little from behind his book.
"what do you mean if? i am gonna attack her, once we start."
he would lower his book and look his students over quickly.
"and speaking of that..you all seem as ready as you'll ever be so let's get down to buisiness shall we?!"Ready or not here I come!!"
The jounin exclaimed and suddenly he would dash to stand behind torame and hotarou, but as he was there he still had the book in his hands, still reading.

[=Battle Mode Initiated=]
(Battle thread will be set up soon in the battle section.)

Some 5 to 10 minutes would pass after Sora had left them there knocked out and/or trapped as Nomaru and Houtarou would start to regain consciousness. There they were then, in the open field, smack down in the middle of this heavily forested training ground. From what Sora had told Torame, all 3 had failed and had to go home. But little did they know at the moment, going home wouldn't be as easy as they might think.

[In fact it will be pretty hard, so don't you go posting something like...went home, bye. You exit the training ground when I say you do. ;P ...it's not over yet. In the words of Liquid Snake.]

Seven minutes after Sora had left Houtarou would vaguely see some grass as he opened his began to regain consciousness. He felt... packed. He felt like he could not move. A minute later he felt like he was actually awake again shook his head, and opened his eyes. But he was... STUCK!
He also felt like he had been hit pretty hard... Gosh, what happened? His body still kinda hurt.

WHAAAAAAAAAAT?! He shouted out, somewhat confused and like he just came out of his bed.
He slowly regained his memory of the battle that had just gone down not too long ago.
WHAAAAAA UCHIHA-SENSEI IS HERE! He said worried as he tried to move his body, which was... STUCK IN THE GROUND?!

''Alright Houtarou, think... What just happened...'' He thought. Then he suddenly regained all of his memories. He felt like he had really woken up now. ''OMG SORA WAS A CENTIMETER BEFORE ME AND THEN HE PUNCHED AND...'' He remembered. Sora had knocked him out... He wanted Torame and his dogs to be able to get out of here.
''What happened after that?! Did they get away?!'' He wanted to turn around but he couldn't even turn his head 90 degrees to the left.
''I can think and talk about what happened later, gotta get out of the friggin ground first!''

He kept wriggling but all that came out of the ground was his head. He noticed pretty big spider slowly crawling towards him.

AAAAAAAAH! TORAME-SAN, WHERE ARE YOU?! GET IT AWAY, GET IT AWAAAAAAAY! GET ME OUTTA HERE! SOMEBODYYYYY! He cried out, appearing to be way more afraid than during all of his battle with Sora.

[weird dream mode]

You guys are probably going to figure this one out some time in the future, it's not the full dream.

“It’s almost wakey wakey time for you.”
 “Well in that case,” Nomaru had pretty much figured she was dreaming by now, “It was nice talking to you, abnormal girl.”
“It was a real pleasure. I’ll be sticking around for a bit longer so we’ll probably meet again.” The girl stood up and made a move as if she was about to hug Nomaru goodbye but instead she grabbed the girl by her shoulders and planted her knee into Nomaru’s stomach with brutal force. Nomaru was caught by complete surprise, just as she had been with Sora’s attack. “Oh bye the way…” the girl whispered into Nomaru’s ear before Nomaru was about to faint for the second time that day, “my name is Abunomaru. I just figured that one out.”
[end of weird dream mode]

Nomaru had a headache. And SOMEONE was screaming as if it just had a bad case of retardation. She had not really much of an idea about what just had happened. She just felt like she did after a long night with too many beers, a bottle of Sake and possibly some Gin. The girl from her dream, that Abunomaru freak, what the hell was that all about? Probably just weird dreams, like she usually had. She was glad that - for a change - it wasn't about a pretty boy with white hair promising her he would stay with her until the end of time.
Urghh, Nomaru thought as the screaming voice kept yelling inside her head. She kept wondering why her stomach hurt and why she couldn't move properly. "COULD YOU PLEASE SHU-BSAFD!!" Nomaru yelled at the voice, it was definitely not her dad, then who could it be to begin with? Suddenly sand in her mouth, with should mean she was outside. On the beach? Impossible. She rolled on her side and lay there for a bit, trying to make sense of it all, once again. That and something about getting the sand out of her mouth as quickly as possible.  

Slowly everything seemed to come back, but it was all a bit messed up. The voice was still screaming and yelling, but Nomaru tried to sit up straight and opening her eyes, still all tied up. And there it suddenly was. Nausea. In some hyperspeed movement she tried to move her head aside and ended up eating her breakfast, twice... And not in a good way. But at least the sand was out of her mouth now. She kinda puked most of it aside from her and suddenly she noticed something. A head that was sticking out of the ground. A white haired boy. Unfortunately she was too busy throwing up her breakfast.
Nomaru at least remembered what she was doing. She was being powned by Sora and the girl in her dream had said she had fucked up her exam. But then again, that was a dream.
After being finished with the puking she sat up straight again and looked around. "Hachiko? Why the fuck are you stuck in the ground? AND WHY THE HELL AM I TIED UP?" Nomaru felt the nausea coming back again, puking up some more rice from her breakfast. Okay... no more screaming for a bit... Now how am I getting out of this shit?

Torame already un did the strings of himself and was just lying on the ground. he actualy failed the test... but why? he gave it his best shot.. he even made his sensei, a Jounin, use kawarimi. he knew it was a genjutsu but not what kind of it was. maybe because he did not avoid it? 'i need to get to know more about genjutsu" he thought, by this time he heard houtarou waking-up.
he ignored all his screaming and kept lying on the grass, "i hope mam will not be to dissapointed" after another minute he got irritated by the screaming of houtarou and he got up, removed the spider from his shoulder, focused some chakra, and pulled him out of the ground. without a word he walked up to his other teammate nomaru, not even caring about her, in his oppinion, way to short clothes. he took a  kunai out of the little pouch that was given to them by Sora and cut, a way through the wire.
when he finnished helping them both he stood up. and started walking in the direction where the exit of this training ground should be, he stopped: "Sora said we failed...." he turned around," that we should go home now, and that we did not impress him at all... i suggest we go home together" . he stood still awayting a reaction

When Nomaru finally got cut loose she stood up (avoiding her puke), noticing her legs were a bit shaky.  She leaned to the tree she had been laying next to and felt some more food from breakfast coming up, not even thinking about saying thanks to Torame she just ended up putting a finger in the back of her throat to empty her stomach some more, just to get rid of the nausea. She had no idea if it would work, but felt slightly better, even though most of her belly felt like it had an internal bleeding and stuff like that. She couldn't really stand straight without feeling pain go through most parts of her body and especially her stomach.

She grabbed her bag, got a water bottle and drank some water to get rid of the horrible taste in her mouth and finally managed to lit a cigarette with shaky hands. She washed her face a bit and figured out her nose had been bleeding badly.
Oh gosh, I'm a hot mess...
When she inhaled the smoke she listened to Torames words and was really glad Hachiko had stopped screaming. She drank some more water and suddenly the words hit her.
 "Sora said we failed..." Sora said they had failed?! Did that mean the freakish white haired girl had been right? This was the best news of today, ever! She could just go home, fail some more exams, then suck some more at ninja school and focus on playing music, getting drunk and loving and living her own life!
 A big smile appeared on her face and Nomaru pretty much forgot about the pain in her stomach for a second, turning around with the biggest smile Torame and the Hatake would probably have ever seen her with. ""You mean we really failed? O my god! That's FANTASTIC!"She didn't even really notice how huskily her voice sound, as she started laughing almost hysterical, but also being reminded by her body in how much pain it was she toned down a bit. "We failed! Even you guys failed, how pathetic. Really, I kinda want to feel sorry for you boys, but I'm not. Suckers. And what's with the Uchiha unable to see through a simple Genjutsu? That's just hilarious!" Nomaru did not hear the other words Torame said and puffed some more on her cigarette as she slowly started walking into the direction of her house. Walking a lot slower than she originally wanted to, but the laughter explosion had kinda caused her stomach to hurt even more. Lucky for her smoking didn't hurt that much. "Seriously boys, we should go celebrate. That... and I could use a little help walking and stuff." The only thing really on Nomarus mind was getting back to bed, sleep for a long time and eat all the food in the world. Nomaru really wished she could run right now, get away from that toddler and that Hatake dog. But she kinda needed their help with walking, this way she would not get home within an hour. If she only could get her hands on some painkillers now.

i did see trough that genjutsu, i only used big techniques when i was sure he was present, only you were knocked-out from the start so you did not see any of that." he was not going to touch a girl, they got those girlbacteria, he did not want those for sure. so no help from his side

Nomaru raised an eyebrow as she looked at the Uchiha toddler with a mocking face. "Yeeaaah, I'm sure the little twat saved the day. And we passed our exam as well because because you did such an excellent job, right?" The grin reappeared on her face as she had the thought of failing her exam. The thought of getting home soon made the pain bearable and she would tell her grandmother about this when she got home and together they would laugh and make an appointment to drink Gin - her grandmothers favorite drink - and probably play some poker at poker night. Her life would be hers from here on. She would only have to survive for a few more exams and just get excused from school, like they did with her father. If Nomaru had to believe her grandmother on that subject they almost wanted to pay him money to leave ninja school.

Besides that, Nomaru didn't really understand why the Uchiha twat was explaining himself to her. He was such an easy victim for her bullying.
 "Hachiko, can I get a little help here?" she asked the Hatake impatiently as her stomach still was hurting like hell. "And does anyone have some painkillers... or booze?" She puffed some more on her cigarette, but most of the nausea had gone away since the last time she had puked, luckily enough for her. No more puking for today, that was all Nomaru could hope for. She had soon realized nobody would have painkillers or alcohol on them. She probably had to steal some later. As she waited for Hachiko's reply she figured she could get rid of her headband and put the thing in her bag. Nomaru would never wear that thing ever again.

The spider almost touched him. HE'S GONNA EAT ME! HEEEEEELP!! When the spider climbed on his shoulder Torame got rid of the thing and got him out of the damn ground. His body really kinda hurt!
Torame-san! Thanks!!
Torame was already slowly walking to Nomaru and didn't reply. He took a look around observing the area and spotted Nomaru, puking. Was she sick?!

He saw Daichi, Juunko, and Katashi lying down some space away, and got to them as fast as he could, although he wasn't too fast right now...
He reached the spot where the 3 dogs were, which was very close to the tree Nomaru had sat all the time. Dachi! Juunko! Katashi! Are you okay?!
The dogs slowly but surely regained consciousness.
Katashi and Juunko both slowly made some light sounds towards Daichi, who softly said to Houtarou.
They're saying they're kinda hurt and unable to battle any more. I could say the same of myself...
It's over, all three of you. It's over now. Thank you so much for your help! I was so careless... Can you stand up?
The three of them slowly stood up. Guess we can. And, we're a team, so don't sweat it! Daichi replied. Where are the others...?
I told them to leave. It was just too dangerous and by letting them fight all I would achieve is hurt them... I'm not really sure where they're now.
They'll find us soon enough... Let's go home ok? Daichi said.
Sure thing, although I'm geting really curious as to what happened after I passed out, so let's meet up with Nomaru and Torame first.

Meanwhile Torame was cutting loose Nomaru, so Houtarou and the three dogs went towards the two as well.
AAAAAAAAAH!
BAM!
And there he was again, lying on the ground... He fell in the mud with his face and that hurt. ''Damn tree branch...!!'' Juunko gave his face a lick.
Haha! Cut it out Juunko, that tickles!
Then Torame said they had failed the test.
Suddenly he felt defeated and humiliated. Lying there in the mud and having failed the test. He had tried so hard and did his best against Sora, yet there was nothing he could do against the genjutsu. Thinking about it, he was absolutely terrible with genjutsu... But then Torame appeared to have surprising talent. A huge fire ball, a perfectly focused kick, he felt like an amateur compared to this kid who was not 1, not 2, but 5 years younger than him and Nomaru. Torame was amazing and knew what he was doing, while he felt like he himself did terrible, even though he tried so hard...

Flashback

Houtarou was about 9 and he was talking to his father about becoming a shinobi and his dreams while his father was feeding the dogs. It was a nice sunny day.
So, are you really sure you want to dedicate your life to becoming a shinobi? I want you to think this through very, very carefully, as this will determine the future of your entire life. But it's your life, so it's up to you to decide... Just think this through very carefully, please. His father wasn't sure whether he wanted his son to become a shinobi or not... So his own decision was the decisive factor.
Yes dad... I'll make the world a better place! He said, with a bright smile full of hope.
Son, remember, you're not always going to have fun with comrades like you might think, you're not always going to win like you often do in small sparring matches now, you're not always going to have fun like life is now, and you're not always going to be the strongest. But remember this, you have something else. Perseverance. Don't give up on that, as it's one of your greatest strengths.
Houtarou's father looked him in the eyes.
So don't give up on your goals. They're noble goals. Shinobi live is hard, but you're not alone in wanting to fulfill these goals. Many of your comrades will fight alongside you to achieve the same goals!
He smiled hoping to motivate his son, as he made his decision. His cheeful, clumsy, and still naïve son. But also his brave and persistant son.
If this is truly your dream, go for it, and don't give up on them!

End

No. he said, wiping the mud of his face, and standing up. Thanks dad. He whispered.

Meanwhile Nomaru had been talking about how happy she was they failed, and now Nomaru and Torame were arguing.
Torame seemed quite unmotivated and dissapointed, unlike Nomaru, who was basically the complete opposite.

You two, stop arguing about nothing! He said, with a voice that could be heard. This isn't Nomaru's fault. Nor is it Torame's. It's not even my fault. We did what we could, and if Uchiha-sensei isn't happy with that than that's how it is. He couldn't expect us to know how some crazy complicated genjutsu works anyway. That said, I should definitely learn more about genjutsu... He said a little more slowly.
But that isn't the point! Torame, don't you give up here! Lift your chin amigo! You're only 9 so there are still more than enough chances for you. Also, for what I've seen of you, I'm more than sure you're not underaverage! Don't give up like that! He said.

I know I'm not gonna give up! There's no way I'd back down from achieving the things I want to achieve. He gave them a thumb up and smiled brightly, suddenly noticing he was tasting something disgusting. Was that... Blood? He whiped his mouth and it appeared his nose had started to bleed after falling over that damn three branch. That must've been the most terrible looking motivational speech ever... He tried to clean himself but kinda gave up on it as he was one big mess, and went over to Nomaru as she had asked him for help. He put his arm around her and started walking quite slow-paced, while moving his head to Torame, winking, and pointing to the direction they were walking to with his head. Juunko, Daichi, and Katashi walked next to him. He hoped he had motivated the talented young boy to keep on going, even though it probably was a terrible speech. Oh, and by the way, I'm curious. What happened after I passed out? AND HOW DID I SUDDENLY GET STUCK IN THE FRIGGIN GROUND?!

Nomaru also was quite a mess. She didn't actually want any of this yet she had taken quite a beating, so he felt kinda bad for her. Are you ok? He asked.
If you truly don't want this, quit. If you really don't want to do this... how can he force you?
He didn't really look at her, as he felt like he might've gone too far again. He really did think though that Nomaru should quit if she didn't want to, but then again, it was family business he had nothing to do with. He wondered what kind of abilities she had though, not having seen any of it yet.

They continued walking the pathway out of the area, although it was still a little while.
He hoped both of them wouldn't be angry at him for the things he just quickly did. He interrupted Torame and told him that he should keep going, and told Nomaru she should do what she wants even though it obviously wasn't that easy, because then she'd probably already quit a long time ago.

Juunko, Daichi, and Katashi walked with him in a slow pace. They seemed completely broken...
When we get home, I'll definitely get you guys something nice. I'm sorry for pulling you through all of this...

As the group would travel towards where they remembered the gates of the training ground to be they wouldn't at first notice anything being wrong, probably due to just having had the battle and being too preoccupied with their own thoughts. They wouldn't notice it was taking a bit longer for the gate to appear in their sights.
(all failed rolls including dogs)
But the fact that something wasn't right would hit all of them in the face when they would find themselves again stepping up to the open area where they had fought against their sensei about 20 minutes ago, but they were entering it from a diffrent side, as if they had just traveled in a circle. However there Houtarou would find his remaining dogs looking around nervous and confused, seemingly likewise unable to find and exit or Houtrou and the others, but upon seeing them would approach them, happy to at least have found them it seems, but still there was a vibe of distress about them despite this.
It would become more clear as to why when the dogs would explain that they had been looking for either the exit or their team for the past half an hour and seem to be constantly walking in circles with the exit not even ever being in sight.
(I'll let Houtarou play his own dogs out telling this his way. But this is the info you get.)

From the darkness two eyes would be watching the group. Just the eyes...and a sly devilish smirk underneath them, lacking a face. The expression seemed rather amused.

"Actually... The Genjutsu was not that hard, it just had some layers which made it seem a bit difficult... If I had to guess one on the area, one on Sora and one on some of us." Nomaru smiled a bit awkward as if she was saying something nasty. Stuff she had learned in Ninja school. "I could see that in about ten seconds. I already told you guys it was genjutsu, but noooo, you didn't listen. All we had to do was a Kai on the ground and that would probably have ended most of the Genjutsu."

When the Hatake finally helped her with the walking things went a bit more easy. She did give him a fierce look when he told her to stop arguing, but it didn't matter.  Walking certainly had gotten better and he didn't seem to have any trouble with helping Nomaru. Then again, she was really small and a light weight as well. Hachiko almost seemed twice her size. Her stomach still felt upset, but at least she didn't have to do all the walking by herself. And then he did it again. He was asking questions.
"Are you ok?" He asked. "If you truly don't want this, quit. If you really don't want to do this... how can he force you?"
But what the hell did he know about her? Another Hatake had asked her kind of the same question once and it had ruined her mood back then as well.

~~~
That one time her parents were on a holiday to visit her aunt and she had been home alone for two weeks. Two weeks with her boyfriend in her parents house, just them laying in bed all day. Nomaru was wearing the boys sunglasses and smoked a cigarette covering her body with a tin blanket. She kinda wanted to open a window, but didn't feel like standing up at that point.
 "My parents would freak out if they found me in bed like this," she grinned.
 The boy didn't say a thing. He just smiled and was smoking his cigarette as well. He was usually like that and Nomaru liked that about him.
 "Say Nomaru..." the boy began after a moment of silence.
 "Hm?"
 "Why'd you suddenly get all motivated in school?"
 Nomaru raised an eyebrow and sat up. "What do you mean?"
 "You know, wanting to learn jutsu all of a sudden... Since that Nabe guy died in that fight... you keep telling me how much you hate school and your dad and how you want to quit. All we've been doing this week is getting you to master that damn Jibashiri..."
Nomaru suddenly felt a bit angry as she would smoke some more of her cigarette, put it out in the ashtray and got up. "Why do you care? Everyone around me just seems to die! It's just so unfair... First Yukari, then Nabe and that's just two of the people who died in this shitty war..." she sat down on the bed again and looked at the boy. She loved him, she was pretty sure of that "You're not going to die right?"
 The boy grinned at her, got up and kissed her forehead, simply saying something like: "Nah!"
~~~

Fucking dog loving Hatakes, Nomaru thought as she suddenly had to memorize her first boyfriend asking her that same question. This sucked so hard. This was the one person she usually avoided thinking about.
She seemed pretty far away with her mind, just mumbling a simple "I guess I'm fine," just not answering the other question. She had her reasons why she couldn't quit and even the girl in her dream had asked her about why she really did want to become a Genin. She didn't, but all her life she had tried to get enough points to make it to the end of every year. Just enough, not one point more. She just didn't think it would come to this.
Nabe was her first friend in a long time, an older shinobi, 17 when she met him. They had so many drunk nights together Nomaru lost count. Yukari was another one, the first girl she ever kissed. She was friends with Nabe and in the same team. A pretty girl with blue eyes. Once again she told the Hatake to shut up and stop asking her stupid questions. She just wanted to get home, but by the looks of it that would take a while.

(I'm just leaving admins post up to you guys. Nomaru is not noticing it yet, her mind is far away right now)

torame got suspicious, he was pritty sure that they walked to the gate all the time, but when they got on the same area where they had battled Sora he understood that there was something wrong, a little flame of hope started rising inside him, "guys!..., i think its not over yet!".
its a genjutsu it must be, he cant force us walking circles in any other way, but what kind of genjutsu, area or target... " Nomaru?, have you ever heard of a genjutsu that lets the targets get back to a place every time no matter how they walk while thinking they walk away from it?".
first thing that we should do is undo the genjutsu. Secondly check if Sora is anywhere near us. if he is we maybe have to fight him again.... but in this condition?? we all got worn out, nomaru cant even walk and houtarou.... yeah.... Anyhow, first, undo the genjutsu.

Nomaru reacted surprisingly calm to what he had said. He was rather glad to be honest.

They suddenly got back to the training area. What the f-? He was sure they were heading towards the exit!
Suddenly he'd see Daichi, Yuuko, Yuuka, Katsu and Kenta before him, appearing rather confused. After rejoicing with the dogs and having a quick conversation with Daichi about the battle, Daichi told him that they weren't able to leave the area, and they just kept coming back to this place.

He nodded as he heard Torame comment on it. Definitely a genjutsu. He isn't done with us yet.
A slight smile appeared on his face.
If we truly failed, why would he continue doing stuff like this though...? Alright, let's see how we're going to solve this teammates!
Torame asked Nomaru whether she knew anything about it. He knew she wanted to get out of here no matter what, so she'd probably cooperative on this issue!

This is probably not the kind of genjutsu we can just get rid of with a 'kai', right? Any of you two got an idea how to combat this? Unfortunately this problem will take genjutsu knowledge. Basically the thing I fail at the most... Houtarou said.

Nomaru suddenly woke up from her daydreaming about a certain pretty Hatake from a previous life as Hachiko and Torame stopped walking.
The last thought that entered her mind was something like: I hate you, bloody dog loving pretty boy freakmonster that was absolutely perfect in every way.
She didn't quite catch what they where saying, but all Nomaru saw was how they ended up at the same spot.
"What the fuck guys? Seriously? My mind wanders of for a split second and you two get lost?" She looked around and leaned slightly to Hachiko to not have to carry her weight all by herself. She kinda short of noticed something was wrong, but she just wanted to blame it all on the boys. But she knew she couldn't. She had payed at least enough attention. She had seen the gate and then her mind drifted off some more and suddenly they where here again.
"This can't be a genju..- oh wait, it's that other Uchiha twat we're talking about. Well, feel free to try the Kai if you like, I'm not doing it." Suddenly the realization got into her head that Sora might have tricked them and the survival thing wasn't over yet. So that shitty girl from her dream earlier was lying after all.
That horrible bitch, getting me excited about nothing...
"Oooh, don't mention it."
What the fuck? There the girl stood, behind a bush, waving with a friendly smile on her face. The same girl that slaughtered that Hokage's fish in a dream and kicked her in the stomach in another dream. Nomaru kinda wanted to point at the girl, but seeing her run away she kinda didn't want to mention it, since nobody else seemed to see her.

"Worst...day...ever..." Nomaru said with her teeth gritted together and hate in her eyes. Her mood already had changed from kind of happy (and in pain) to angry (and in pain). And suddenly she remembered something about the Genjutsu Sora had used earlier on.  "That Genjutsu, it was just made to wear us out... This... I think this.. fuck, I really don't want to say it. This is the real test." Nomaru frowned and let go of Hachiko, sitting down, grabbing a new cigarette from her bag. "FOR FUCKS SAKE, FUCK THAT UCHIHA!" she busted out, her face was as if she was about to cry. She smoked a bit more of her cigarette and some more. She hated this. She didn't want to get stuck in another genjutsu.
Nomaru made a fist and just smashed the ground. "Seriously, fuck you, fuck you all!" The anger made her kinda forget the pain. She just looked at Hachiko and Torame, suddenly getting a bit of a grin on her face, just figuring out how good this could get. "Well, since I'm the only one with a bit of knowledge on the Genjutsu thing here..." a sinister smile, a really sinister smile appeared on her face. "you guys will have to follow my lead..."

Nomaru had the best plan building up in her head. Just fucking around long enough for Sora to get bored. Giving wrong orders, making sure they had to fail, failing more exams after that and just keep up the lie to herself she didn't need to have any guilt because she simply was just not "good enough." This could actually work, if she played the cards right.
 She kinda checked the food in her bag her mom had given her, which was enough to last for three days. At least Sora didn't take her food. She grabbed one of the rice balls from her bag and started eating it, hoping her food would stay in her stomach.
 "So, now tell me... What did you guys learn in school? Is anyone good at survival or anything? Anything that might be usefull?"

Birds singing in the sky, it was already past 12 and the day was well on it's way. They would realize that Sora chose a heavily forested area for this very reason, in an open area such an illusion would be easily seen through with a bit of cleverness, however the bushes surrounding the open field all the way to the gate were thick and obscured most of their sight as they passed through it, allowing the illusion to take effect much easier, fooling their minds and vision and messing with their sense of direction. Torame and Houtarou had no idea how this jutsu function, only the obvious, it was a Genjutsu. (Nomaru has received what she knows in PM.)
They would remember that they didn't see the gate at all while walking it almost seemed as if they teleported from one end of the field to the other one just going through those deep bushes and trees.

''Why do I suck so much at genjutsu knowledge?!'' Houtarou thought. He remembered the moment where they were introduced to their sensei, and he said he already knew everything about them except for... their favourite food. But he probably knew this too. He knew that, especially Torame and himself, did not posses much knowledge on genjutsu.
''And so it shows, that even if you don't like a subject, you should pay attention anyway... I'm such an idiot for not paying attention during genjutsu classes! Thinking I wasn't gonna use it anyway...''
(I'm gonna apply the dimwit flaw to Houtarou's low-level knowledge on genjutsu, giving the flaw a reason for being there.)

He listened to what Nomaru had to say. This was the real test?! The fight before was just to wear them out?! Damn... Houtarou was indeed physically tired and Sora's attack was still a bit hurtful...

He looked at Nomaru as her mood changed from some serious swearing to, at least looking like, wanting to get out of here. Since she was indeed the only one with genjutsu knowledge, she'd hopefully know something to get them out of here. That's what she wanted to, so... She asked about being good at survivalling. Yeah, he was pretty good at that!

I paid attention in class to basically every subject except genjutsu talk. Figured it wasn't really my style anyway, but looking back at it, it was stupid of me not to do so... Of course Uchiha-sensei knows this, and is using it against us now... On survivalling, I know a thing or two about that. Used to go camping with my dogs in the woods just because I felt like it and thought it might train me at the same time. He looked at Nomaru's bag which contained a surprising amount of food. Guess finding food isn't going to be a problem for now! Got drinks in there too?! He said that a bit too enthusiastically, and desperately hoped Nomaru would share some with him, Torame, and his dogs.
Anyway, before going all survival mode, we should probably try to figure out how we can get out of here. Before starting to think of other things, you mentioned a kai may work, right? I'll give that a shot first then!

That said, Houtarou charged some chakra.
3-1= 2 AP left
1 PE + 1 ME = (3+1)*1= 4 chakra points
Well, here goes nothing!
2-1= 1 AP left
KAI!
Houtarou's chakra dissapeared again.

(Really, good luck you boys. ^^")

Nomaru rolled with her eyes at the Hatakes stupidity. This was a way more complex genjutsu than the other one, she knew that from the start. And possibly something with seals. She kinda tried to figure out everything she knew about it. She didn't go to an awful lot of classes, but she always liked the Genjutsu thing and this time it actually might work in her advantage to know more about one subject than her classmates did. Hachiko was believing her already, which was definitely a good thing. That Torame toddler would have no other choice but to cooperate. Unless he wanted to go walk around on his own. He would never figure this one out, Nomaru already had trouble. She needed time to think. Slowly eating some more of her riceball she reminded herself about all the things on area genjutsu she had ever learned.

Nomaru raised an eyebrow as her stream of thoughts was broken by another stupid thing Hachiko said.
"You're a moron Hachiko. This is my food," she said, taking another bite from her riceball. She slowly felt a bit better, more able to ignore the pain. And her stomach didn't feel as upset as it did a little while ago. "And you've got that dogshow to take care of. That's like.. eight more mouths to feed! My food would be gone within a MINUTE! I don't expect they've got dogfood hidden in their furs..." She looked at the dogs as she put the rest of the riceball in her mouth and sighed, grabbing her bottle of water. "I'm really glad you know about survival. Can you kill bunnies and squirrels with your pacifism? Or are animals no problem?" She let herself fell down on her back and looked at the sky for a bit. This was just absolutely ridiculous. And then the Hatake did it again.

"Anyway, before going all survival mode, we should probably try to figure out how we can get out of here. Before starting to think of other things, you mentioned a kai may work, right? I'll give that a shot first then! Well, here goes nothing! KAI!
How much idiocracy can one person have in it's body? REALLY NOW? (I'm just assuming this doesn't work, based on the info I got)
"Idiot, I did not say it might work, I just said you should feel free to use it if you wanted to... Stop wasting your energy. I need time to think, to figure this fucking thing out. What I suggest is that we make a plan for whatever happens. Torame, what can you do? And Hachiko, anything else that could be useful?" She sat up straight again as she looked around a bit, vaguely listening to the words they would say.

RAWL ME AN INVESTIGATION ON THE AREA

[Houtarou's chakra goes to 0 as a result of his Kai. Sadly enough that's all that happens, because performing Kai on yourself without charging up a reasonable amount of chakra afterwards doesn't stop a Genjutsu cast on you, it only disperses the chakra you have and instantly stops any Jutsu you performed that was still in action. Also like Nomaru rightfully claimed this approach wouldn't work on an area Genjutsu since it is not cast on you, but the area. But you IC do not know this so you did nothing wrong technically. But just so that you OOC (Out of Character) can pick this up and learn. ]

[Investigation rolled for Nomaru: 2 success, info will be PM'ed]

Some time passes but no sight of Sora, or sound, or smell for that matter. What if he just left them there as a final prank and this wasn't a test at all? A punishment for failing maybe? But whatever it was, one thing was obvious, the Kai that the Hatake had performed did nothing to change their problem.

"i know a bit about survivaling, we used to go with a group of uchiha pupils every summer break, so i could be usefull". Torame remembered all the things he learned at the survivals he did back then, he knew the basic stuf and even some extra's but he was far from an expert.