Behind the Mask

Chapter 6

Hello, readers! A long-awaited update! This chapter is dedicated almost exclusively to the Genin test. I hope that you're ready for some action! Long paragraphs and dialogues! Yay~

Happy reading!

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"Survive," and with a small puff of smoke, he vanished in a shunshin.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Wait, what? Does that mean we have to survive the wilderness? For how long? Dude... this sucks," Shouma rambled in shock.

"Shouma, come, we can do this." Shiki pulled the shorter boy closer to him and whispered, "Let's ditch this guy, nobody wanted to be on a team with him anyways. He's strange, doesn't that mask give you weird vibes? When he leaves, we meet up and go."

"Y-yeah."

"Let's scout the area and meet back here in twenty minutes."

Kuroko nodded blankly and went along with the plan. He didn't really want to say anything to get him on their bad side, so he just let them take the lead. He overheard their conversation and decided to leave them alone as they wished. He wouldn't be able to force them to like him anyway.

When he came back to the clearing, he waited, waited... and waited. He sighed and stood up. "I should have known..." At least he knew how to survive outside, even in the cold snow. He went to the cave he found and sat down, he cupped his hands over his mouth and breathed warm air on them. It was getting late, and the sun was almost past the horizon. He unsealed a few ration bars. They didn't taste that great, but they would give him the energy he would need. He couldn't just leave to eat what the Akimichi have planned for him. He was in the cave for a while, a few hours from the stars that were in the sky.

It was going to be a long night.

As soon as he finished that thought, he heard screams in the distance. They were faint, past the other side of the clearing and further into the trees. Instantly he stiffened, straining his ears for any sounds. He heard a footstep, and it was silent for a few seconds, but he knew better, then the footfalls continued to come closer.

Kuroko narrowed his eyes in suspicion. It's been oddly silent for too long.

His ears perked when he heard a whistling noise was drawing near, something was flying through the air towards him. From the tone of the whistle, he thought it was a kunai. When it came into view, he dodged and noticed a piece of paper at the end of it. An explosive tag. He bolted out of there and was confused when the tag didn't go off. He sighed lightly, it was a dud. Then, unexpectedly, he was almost blinded by a bright flash. If he didn't smell smoke beforehand, he wouldn't have been prepared to dive behind a tree.

He stayed on guard, waiting for the next move. No doubt it was his sensei that ambushed him. He had ordered them to survive, simple to underestimate the task, but that's precisely what the man wanted. From the screams he heard earlier, he assumed that his "teammates" have been the unfortunate first victims. Kuroko came to think that if he didn't hear those cries, he wouldn't have expected the ambush. In a twisted way, it was supposedly a good thing that they ditched him. Otherwise, he would have been finished, probably. He didn't like the thought of leaving them alone in the cold though.

The next assault was a wave of shuriken, and he had no choice other than to take one to the shoulder. It dug in pretty deep. He didn't rip it out because otherwise he would risk unblocking the wound and start to bleed out. He was glad that he read those strategy and tactic books that Shikamaru had. They had a whole bunch of nifty facts in them that were beneficial to him at the moment. Kuroko ran to an opening in the field, rather than being in the woods and not being able to keep track of the attacker, his sensei. He needed to figure out where the man was. He was good, of course he would be, the man was a Jounin. Kuroko didn't stand a chance and he knew it. He would somehow have to catch the man by surprise.