Konoha's Chef (Gaara Love Story)

6: Daikoku Funeno Sensei

Author's POV

"Hello! I'm Daikoku Funeno, the Sensei of Team Three," a man called at the doorway.

"Hai!" Akimi and her two teammates stood from their seats.

"Let's see here, Akimi Maruboshi, Sora Nao, and Shigekazu Nao. Great, let's go!" He led the three Genin from the Academy building and to one of the many training fields located around the village.

The tour walked in silence until they reached the borderline forests. Akimi recognized the grounds as they traveled around, nearing a huge cliff. Daikoku-Sensei clapped his hands and faced his students.

"Okay, you three are going to climb this cliff and reach the top," he said cheerfully. "You have ten minutes, and all three of you have to the reach the top by then, got it? If you don't, you have to start over. You can drop down in the river if you want to start over, just don't get drowned! Also, if you guys don't get the top by noon, all of you fail and will repeat the Academy, okay?"

"Uh, what?" Akimi questioned.

"Well, this is your official graduation exam to see if you guys have what it takes to become Genin," Daikoku-Sensei explained. "That Clone technique is fairly easy, so we need to give you all another test."

"I wish you the best of luck, Cousin," Sora sneered at Shigekazu.

"I wouldn't worry about others, if I were you," Shigekazu smirked.

"But you aren't me, so hold your tongue," Sora shot back.

"Ready? Go!" Akimi dashed up at the steep cliff and using her upper body strength, she scaled the cliff as quickly as she could. Sora and Shigekazu glared at each other as they climbed, trying to compete against each other. Akimi was past the ten-meter mark when she realized a major problem.

I used up a lot of my stamina, and it's really hard to breathe normally up here. Not to mention since this cliff is so steep, I can't use my legs anymore. I can only use my hands.

The cousins were struggled to keep going, but after five minutes, none of them were getting any higher.

"We should just start over, guys," Akimi suggested to her comrades who agreed and let go. By seizing both of their hands, the three of them managed not to be carried away by the current of the gushing river.

"Oh hi! Glad to see you're alright," Daikoku-Sensei asked, seeing them drag themselves out of the river.

"Uh, yeah," Akimi admitted. Daikoku held back a chuckle and restarted the timer for them. "Let's go!"

However, before climbing, they figured that since Daikoku-Sensei never mentioned about not using jutsus or weapons, they decided to scale the cliff using the tools they had on hand.

"Second attempt! Kunais!" Akimi yelled, the three of them charging towards the cliff with a ninja knife in both hands. The knives brought her up much higher than before, but the timer ran out before she could continue. Also, the rock was much harder to dig the knife in the higher she climbed. Akimi glared at the last couple of meters right before she fell into the raging river.

During the third attempt, the boys gave Akimi a boost by stacking clones on one another. Surprisingly, Akimi was able to reach the top in just as the timer rang. However, all three of them had to reach the top as well.

Daikoku-Sensei smiled fondly at the three. At least they've recognized the fact that they need to work as a team in order to get to the top.

"What shall we do now?" Shigekazu asked no one in particular as he and his cousin watched their teammate fall again into the river.

"We change stations. I will climb next," Sora said firmly.