Mukade, Amaya, Kazuo vs Souran

Kazuo sneered a little as he continued the arduous process of freeing himself. "These analogies are all things I've been told, in some form or another, before. Was my performance not acceptable when providing seals to these teammates? In fact, if my guess serves, you anticipated us not to mesh well together, having taken from our class two social outcasts and a social butterfly to participate, whose only common ground, is our lack of strong personal attachment to others regardless of their attachment to us." Through his entire speech, he seemed not to make eye contact, at best simply looking at the man's chest.

Amaya sighed as the puppet revealed itself... she had gotten a little too worked up in the frustration of being unable to even showcase her abilities properly. So here they were, being told that they had failed to pass this little test. Though before she could speak, it seemed that Kazuo had his own opinion on the subject. She found herself agreeing with him.

"Clearly you haven't done your research on our abilities... How am I supposed to form a proper distraction for my allies when my genjutsu has such limited range? Unless you expected me to just throw myself out in front of your attacks for them of course." she stared right back, those crimson eyes of hers burning a seething dislike for this man.

Even with the threat of death, she didn't seem to falter. She let her hands fall down to her sides, carefully sliding into the pouch. "I wasn't aware Sunagakure was so keen on throwing aside potential assets." while she knew that should Souran decide they were to die, there was little she could do about it, but she wasn't going to go without a fight.

Souran would just look at the two kids incredulous as they explained for themselves.. All they did were giving excuses One of them was so slow that a stoned snail moving backwards would still be quicker, the girl was so full of herself that he wanted to just knock her out.

Really, HEAT should have some in house training were kids would learn the meaning of respect and reverence to their peers. As the duo presented their case, a vein was about to pop on souran's face, the man was known to have a short temper and he had been given a free pass on what to do.
"Girl! You remind me of that Hina brat! Always flapping her mouth, thinking she is better. You'd be wise to think about what is coming out of it. And you boy!! What are you? Some sort of robot or something?! Geez!" Souran looked like he was about to explode.

"And you!" he looked at Mukade, "What have you got to say for yourself, do you value your life above those of your potential teammate as well?"

He looked the trio up and down then returned his death stare to Amaya. "Listen up and listen well young girl, as far as things are considered, Sunagakure as you knew it stopped at that door. You better get used to it, your lives do not matter to me, Sunagakure matters to me. You have not proven yourself to be more than a chain on Suna's feet, limitations. You talk about throwing away potential assets? But at the same time you complain about having to help defend those potential asset, whom is part of your team. Yes I expect you to put yourself in harms way for Suna, I expect you to help your teammates when they need help. And I expect you to die if it betters the cause of Sunagakure. They said you had potential... I only saw it for a split second... You are not even worth killing and bloodying my hands. You give me one damn reason why I should let you breath and send you to the survival, one big fucking damn reason..." He was in their faces like a drill sergeant, ready to cut them down any second. The energy raising from his body was one of killer intend, anyone his gaze would hit, would expect to die. For the three kids it would seem their life was over if they did not give the right answer.

"Think very careful about the next words coming out of your mouth, they might be your last..." The killing intent intensified, each one of the three would feel it through to their bones. They were little lambs and the wolf was just about to close its jaws around their necks.

Kazuo scowled, eyes boring into Souran's own. "You won't even acknowledge that we are right. All you do is pick us apart with angry words and insults. You are like the children in the academy who all lorded their ability over me. If..." Here, he stuttered, breaking eye contact for only a moment, seemingly lost in thought as to how to continue. "w-we are just chains, you are the peg driven into the ground that holds them in place!"

Kazuo's outburst settled, he had a moment to look somewhere else and think; to understand all of the implications of what he'd just said. He'd been angry, forgotten to read into what Souran was saying properly. If I'm a chain that drags Suna down, I just said he brings stagnation! He... he won't like that..." It was then that he wished he'd thought a little longer on a metaphor to bite back with.

Mukade stared in disbelief and watched Souran disintegrate before him. He almost instantly recognised the puppet transformation jutsu. He understood finally where the Fire Puppet was before its parts even became visible. He saw the strings floating in the air and followed them with his eyes to where he saw Souran standing at the edge of the room. As Gouzuu spoke Koe fell to the ground, Mukade no longer had the strength to lift it, but not because of lack of chakra.

'No'... his mind repeated the word. 'This isn't how it was meant to happen...' He was looking away from the other three, but he heard them speak, both Kazou and Amaya spoke out in the trio's defence, though Amaya was primarily just for her own. Mukade briefly found himself agreeing with them. How could they have protected each other when they could hardly protect themselves? And why did Souran even bother to replace himself with a puppet? what was that even for? Was he simply Mocking them???

Mukade took a deep breath in, he reached his hand up again and called Koe into his grasp, he span around to speak out to his Souran and... wait... It was for him... His father amongst everything else was testing to see is Mukade could see the deception, the deception which by all rights his upbringing should have allowed... BUT that didn't change anything... it... it...

Mukade had felt so much anger, and hate for Souran. But no...

He listened to his father's anger build as he spat back at the two other respective genin and threatened their lives. He knew this side of his father, and what filled his heart was not even more loathing, but respect, adoration... and for some reason, even love.

Weather it was true or not, all his defiance melted away, leaving only shame and guilt. His body wobbled before falling to his knees and bowing down to his father his breaths became stronger, his bend over chest heaved as he tried to find his thoughts. He wished to call out and speak but knew those words would not and could not come... so... he grasped Koe and sat the small puppet in front of him with his head still hung low.

"I. am. sorry. father." said the puppet, it spoke in a deceptively monotone voice that portrayed no emotion, at odds with the individual it spoke for. Mukade's was somewhat breathing was deep as Koe continued, "I. do. not... I. know. that. we. have. demonstrated. our lives. worthless. next. to. yours. most. of. all. my. own."

Mukade's breath shuddered before it continued, "I. can. only. imagine. your. shame. far. surpasses. my. guilt." there was another pause, "Please. I. may. not. deserve. it.... But. let. me... us. continue..."

His body was now completely still, "If. we. succeed.... then. you. will. be. proud...." Slowly his head began to raise up, and looked his farther in the eyes, "If. we. do. not... Then. I. shall. no. longer. be. your. burden."

"I don't think I'm better, I know I am" she looked to him, defiantly. Normally she wasn't so headstrong. This man was simply bringing out the worst in her. She mirrored his own death stare. It was only her rather well developed mental fortitude that was keeping her seeming so calm in such a dangerous situation. Regardless, the others seemed to be trying to make their cases... Mukade's eerie robotic voice with Kazuo's somewhat reasonable case as well, though they were doing about as much to keep them alive as she was.

"We will not be a burden. We were chosen to show up here instead of the others for a reason. I'm sure that reason wasn't to kill three of your top students I imagine." she just shook her head. "So do as your son says... send us to the trail and let us prove our worth" She had only once broken her eye contact but that fiery personalty continued to shine through as she stared at what could be her own personal reaper.

As soon as Kazuo ended his speech, he would find himself flying off into the distance. He couldn't even remember Souran lashing out, but what he would know that it would have shattered his bones if he did not have a few tags remaining. As he flies towards the far wall, he would see the trio he had left still standing, Souran's leg extended to the spot he had just vacant. Suddenly Souran was gone, but it did not take long for Kazuo to figure out where he had gone. He felt rather than saw him and he did not need to feel the force of the impact, nor see his face, to know the man's anger.
The last thing the boy would remember was the cold stone welcoming his body in a hard embrace. His final tag was spend and his lights slowly went out.

The last thing he would see was Souran walking back to the other two, snapping his fingers.

As if ready for this command, two HEAT would appear besides each of the other Genin, forcing them to their knees. Both had a sack trust over their heads, and their arms bound. If either struggled, the HEAT would allow little resistance, and why would they. These kids were barely out of the academy, most would say too soon.

By this time Kazuo would have lost consciousness, but the other two would still hear Souran's voice.
"Drug them, leave them in the testing grounds. If they do not return to Suna in 2 days time, fetch their corpses. I want them back here, dead or alive."

Suddenly the pair would hear Souran's voice very close to their heads. "And should you return alive, I hope you.." Amaya would feel a hard poke in her shoulder. "will have learned some respect. I am a jounin of this village and not your friend. You will say Sir when you address me and you will have a respectful tone. You are worth nothing, you are maggots. Remember that and life might become a lot easier for you. And YOU.." With that Mukade would feel a jab in his shoulder. "If you come back, I hope you will have grown a pair. Perhaps she can advice you how to. "

Souran would move away from the two and direct his speech to the HEAT again.
"Drug them, dump them and leave them with an easy mission... That's probably all they can handle..."
Soon after the duo that were still awake would feel a sharp jab in their necks and would quickly loose consciousness as well.

Please continue in Chapter 3: The second Wind