Chapter 183: The Simulation Begins

"Didn't we graduate?"

Naruto stood at Training Ground 91 with his hands behind his head. His classmates were gathered around him, apparently as confused as he was.

"Shouldn't we be meeting our team leaders? Why are we back at a training ground?"

He adjusted his new forehead protector, taking care that Shikamaru could see it.

"You actually became a genin," Shikamaru said. "Did the Third pull some strings?"

Naruto's written marks had been bad enough, and everyone had seen what happened when he attempted an ordinary clone. His presence among the graduates required some explanation.

"Didn't you hear? I'm the Fourth Hokage's son. Of course I've got talent."

Shikamaru stared at him. That explained nothing about the examination. If anything, it made his suspicion sound more reasonable.

Chōji crunched a potato chip. "The Hokage approved it. Don't worry about it."

"I'm not worried. I just don't want him on my team."

"I don't want to be on yours either," Naruto retorted. "I want to be with Sakura."

He looked toward her, blushing. Sakura was looking at Sasuke. Naruto silently added another request: whoever chose the teams, please keep him away from Sasuke.

Someone called out from the front of the group. The chatter faltered as shinobi arrived at the edge of the field.

Hiruzen was among them, with Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, Iruka, and several other jōnin. Tonbo stood at their center. The graduates recognized enough of the faces to realize that this was more than another Academy exercise.

"Even the Hokage?"

"I thought they said we were getting a reward."

"What's Captain Tobitake doing here?"

Hiruzen glanced from the students to Tonbo. "You're certain this is reliable? It won't harm them?"

"It's a large barrier genjutsu, not a forbidden technique. I've spent a long time refining it." Tonbo sounded entirely confident. "I gave you the method when I proposed the session. Surely the Professor can judge for himself."

Hiruzen coughed. "Of course. Let's begin. We shouldn't keep the children waiting."

He had studied the method. That was the difficulty. Tonbo's description made sense, yet learning to perform it was another matter altogether. Hiruzen had mastered forbidden techniques less demanding than this one.

Kakashi was watching the field with unusual interest. Guy had told him what the simulation had done for his team. A technique developed specifically to teach combat experience was a remarkable departure from the ordinary pursuit of stronger attacks.

"He's going to show off again," Asuma muttered.

Kurenai folded her arms. "I'd need more than a decade to study this properly. Who's going to devote that much time to a genjutsu used only for teaching?"

The technical difficulty was only part of it. A user would also need a vast store of remembered combat, enough to supply the encounters. Unless another talent like Tonbo appeared, the village would have to train someone for the task from the beginning.

"The Hokage may need a department just for this," she said.

Tonbo looked over the graduates. They were twelve, most of them. At their age, he had already spent a considerable time on the battlefield.

"Let's begin."

He formed the seals. Before the students could prepare themselves, the barrier laid around the training ground rose and enclosed them all. It was larger than the one he had used before, and its revised structure made the work easier. Other shinobi assisted around its perimeter, taking part of the burden from him.

There were advantages to holding a senior position in the village. If Konoha wanted an entire class trained at once, Konoha could provide the help.

"Genjutsu: Battlefield Simulation."

Tonbo placed his hand on the ground. Nerve filaments extended toward the graduates too swiftly and subtly for them to notice. Their surroundings twisted. Branching patterns spread across their foreheads, each bearing a small projection of the scene its wearer was experiencing.

The jōnin moved to observe the students Hiruzen had assigned to them. Tonbo had warned them that a secret technique would reduce the strain upon him, so the patterns caused no alarm.

Only Hiruzen looked faintly uneasy. Something about the method troubled him, though he could not have said what. He had no reason to imagine that human nerves could leave their owner's body, enter another, and serve as a means of gathering information.

Sakura opened her eyes in a valley.

A dark forest rose on either side. Somewhere among the trees a crow called, and frogs answered from water she could not see. The sun had nearly set. Cold air slipped beneath her clothes.

"Where am I?"

A moment earlier she had been standing with her classmates. Now there was no one in sight. She pinched her hand hard enough to leave a red mark. It hurt.

Something moved in the trees.

"Who's there?"

Another sound, from a different direction. She turned toward it.

The kunai struck from behind. There was a brief, terrible pain in her head, and then darkness.

Sakura found herself standing where she had begun.

She reached shakily behind her head. No wound. No blood. Yet she remembered the blade, and for an instant she had somehow seen what it had done to her.

"Genjutsu?"

She tried the release she had learned at the Academy. The trees did not change. The last light of evening still lay between their branches, and the cold still pressed against her skin.

The sound came again.

This time she turned quickly enough. A kunai passed her cheek and severed a few strands of pink hair. Sakura dropped into a guarded stance, staring toward the place it had come from.

An enemy. There was an enemy in the trees.

"That was only a feint."

A figure in black dropped from above. Sakura saw a Rain forehead protector and a kunai raised for the downward thrust. She knew she had to move. Her legs would not obey her.

 

Fear held her still until the blade fell.