The young man stood outside the leaf gates. His friendly smile was as concealing as the mask it was. His brown hair stood out in neatly combed spikes, his cloud headband stood out on his forehead, partly covering one strap of his eye patch. He seemed to be no older than the two fifteen year old genin standing to either side of him. Their names were Sugoi and Aoi. Behind them stood Mirai, a tall woman with the clouded eyes of the blind. They walked through the gate, stopping for Mirai to present their papers to the gate guards. Once in the village, the young man gave his excuses and left the rest of his team behind. He could feel two jinchuuriki nearby. Since the leaf had only one Jinchuuriki, it must be that Gaara had already arrived from the sand. He reached the street to find Naruto and Gaara standing across from each other. The young man walked up and said “A welcome wagon for the sand, but none for the cloud?” His tone was humorous. All present turned to face him. He walked up to Gaara, and keeping the friendly light tone, he inquired “Why do you want to kill everyone here?” Gaara didn’t show surprise he simply answered “to prove my existence.” “That’s quite insane.” The young man showed no signs of any concern at all. Gaara looked at him; curiosity peeked by the lack of fear. The young man continued, now in a serious tone of voice. “There are three accepted reasons to kill: carrying out an execution, protecting one’s self or others, and on the battlefield; and the third often boils down to the second. There are also two unacceptable reasons to kill: for the thrill of a kill or be killed scenario, and because torturing and/or killing gives you pleasure in itself. But you don’t enjoy killing. You seem to believe it is required of you. I tell you it isn’t; I tell you that you are stronger than that thing inside you, and have no reason to take its orders. Give it orders instead. Why not? You have it at your mercy.” So saying, he turned and started to walk away. Kankuro yelled after him “Hey what’s your name?” The young man turned and, smiling, said “Kisuke Ugachi.” Kisuke waited just long enough to register the confusion on everyone’s faces and make sure that the scent of one of those present was firmly lodged in his memory before striding off, like someone who has somewhere to be.
When he arrived at the hotel, he found the rest of his team waiting for him. They all remained wordless until they got to one of the rooms, and had the door safely locked. Then Kisuke sat down in a chair and began speaking “so far everything is going well. You two are getting a free pass in the first phase of the exam because of the mission. The first phase is a written exam, but the first nine questions are meaningless. It is imperative that you both stay for the final question. I’m sure you’ll be able to answer it. After that, the second phase is to take down another team while also surviving your surroundings. The third phase is combat. Once the second phase begins, I’ll split off from you two.” Aoi asked “Where did you go when we got here?” Kisuke replied carefully “The jinchuuriki from the sand is unstable, and has ceded his will to the beast he carries. In this state, he could introduce un-guessable complexities into the mission, and could pose a serious threat to not only his own village, but all villages. So I started the process of de-fanging him. I’ve broken his willingness to cede control to the beast, which should make him less dangerous to us in the future.” Then he stood up and said “Let’s have dinner then.”
The cloud genin passed the first phase, and stood at a gate of the forest of death. After they had entered, and Kisuke had separated from the other two, he started moving toward the scent he’d memorized earlier. But on the way, he was diverted. A girl only a couple of years younger than him was backed up against a tree, an enormous bear approaching slowly. On a whim, he drew his sword and appeared in front of the bear, speared the beast through the eye. It roared in pain, and then collapsed dead. He turned to the girl, who had a grass headband. He noted the lack of a scroll and said “Where are your teammates?” She sniffed, making it plain she had been crying, then spoke hesitantly “me team ditched me” she was interrupted by a sob. “They said I was worthless, and would only slow them down.” Kisuke clenched a fist behind his back. He said “Those two are scum. Even if they had been correct in thinking you useless; to abandon you like this is unforgivable. What’s your name?” She adjusted her glasses and answered “Karin.”
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Chapter notes: don't have much to say, enjoy the story!