Fox In The Leaf

The Challenge

~Saturday afternoon~

Tsunade stood at the top of the Hokage tower gazing at the crowd that stood below. She had sent out a message to all of her shinobi forces, sans the ones guarding the wall, that they were to gather here so they could hear what she had to say to them. Many citizens have also gathered as they noticed the shinobi forces gathered and wanted to know what it was that their Hokage wanted to say

Shizune stood behind the blonde woman as she nervously asked "Lady Tsunade, are you sure this is wise? This could very well cause problems for both parties."

Tsunade looked over her shoulder with a wide shit-eating grin "either way, I win in this little challenge." looking back to her forces she channeled chakra into her voice so that they could all hear her "I thank you all for coming! I have called you here so that we may all participate in a training exercise!"

This caused them to all look at each other in confusion and began chatting

A random kunoichi shouted out something that came to their minds "Lady Hokage, why are we doing this training exercise!?"

Tsunade looked at the woman before addressing the crowd "this was something that my predecessor Hiruzen had considered doing as it was brought to his attention that some among our ranks have become lenient in their training and have been doing the bare minimum to maintain their rank! This exercise is to see if you should remain within our ranks or be removed until proven strong enough to meet certain standards! Although he had never executed it, I feel that now we should see where we stack up in terms of skill, especially as we have come out of an invasion from an enemy village as well as an allied one."

Many of the shinobi began to see the value of such an exercise. Some of them felt a bit nervous as they themselves knew that they were getting very lax in their training. A few of them were excited for the challenge…..one in particular

"What a youthful idea! What is this youthful challenge our youthful Hokage!"

Tsunade felt both flattered and annoyed about that "youthful" comment for several different reasons. One of which was the fact that she, begrudgingly, had to admit that she wasn't in her "youth" anymore. Though the fact that she was called that made her feel much better. Sure, she was taking it out of the context that was used, but she didn't really care, she was youthful, in her own vain way. She waited a few seconds before she continued "starting Monday till the end of Friday, from 5 AM to 10 PM, a stealth specialist will be sent out into the village, with the task of obtaining something of value from each of you. That means for the next five days you are to be on full alert at those times. The longer you last the better your chances are in staying within our forces. For those who are not able to keep your item of value will be evaluated before considered if you stay in our forces or you are to go through intense training to re-enter them!" seeing that more of them were getting more nervous, she slammed her fist into the railing "ARE YOU NOT SHINOBI OF KONOHA!? DO YOU COWER WHEN YOU KNOW THE ENEMY IS COMING TO TAKE SOMETHING FROM YOU?! IF YOU ARE PROUD SOLDIERS OF OUR VILLAGE TO RISE UP TO THE CHALLENGE AND PROTECT WHAT YOU CARE ABOUT. IF YOU CAN'T PROTECT A MEASLY ITEM THAN HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO PROTECT OUR HOME FROM THE ENEMY BEYOND THOSE WALLS!" she gestured to the walls of Konoha to empathize her point "ARE YOU SHINOBI?!"

"Yeah!"

"THAN PROVE IT BY RISING TO THE CHALLENGE!"

"YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" the shinobi cheered out as they all were now psyched about the challenge now

Tsunade waited for the cheer to end before she finished "that's more like it. Now you know the time frame, so be prepped, for come Monday morning…... Naruto Uzumaki shall be unleashed onto the shinobi forces."