“It’s actually pretty simple. For one, I knew that you were listening on our plan yesterday, so I had to accommodate myself with a few differences in it. Me, Sasuke and Naruto spent all night planning this.”

 

“First, the seal I used wasn’t the first one I had planted on this training ground. I sort of played with fire as I was unsure if you were already here or not.”

 

“Secondly, the primary seal is actually a requirement to the second seal. The Four Pillars Restricting Seal only serves as a blockade of outside interference – unless I allow it – and each pillar can serve as a boost to a certain affinity, in this case those being Fire. Naturally the only way to boost fire is by using wind.”

 

“The primary seal is what caused you to lose this though.”

 

Ren pointed out while Sasuke stood up and patted away the dust from his clothes, a grim look on his face as he walked towards Ren with a limp which hadn’t been there a moment ago.

 

‘Did he break a bone from that short period of action?’ Kakashi frowned, he was pretty sure he hadn’t struck with enough strength to cause any damage of that level and he was even more confident the ground couldn’t have given him that wound.

 

“The primary seal, you could say is some sort of Genjutsu Formation.”

 

“Genjutsu? Then how come I never noticed it then?” Kakashi inquired with a curious tint to his face.

 

“Well that’s pretty simple, I just had Naruto take your focus off the seal as fast as possible. That was actually the hardest part, but our little troublemaker played his part quite well.”

 

‘So that’s why he insisted on with that shadow clone barrage…’

 

“However, that wasn’t enough to hinder you of course. So, I used one of Naruto’s shadow clones and switched with him and transformed into the same appearance as he.”

 

“Furthermore, knowing that you would notice the chakra spreading in the air, I had Sasuke act as swiftly as he could. Safe to say he did not disappoint me either. The rest was pretty easy.”

 

“The primary seal allows me to hide my presence to a degree, which you noticed almost immediately but did not pay attention to. I’m sure that the use of ninjutsu by a genin probably grabbed most of it away from the two of us.”

 

“I then had the true Naruto throw me straight at you. You thought that a chakra burst would be plenty enough to get rid of every shadow clone, but that’s not exactly true; shadow clones can last longer if given enough chakra.”

 

“Then I proceeded to use a simply wind chakra-based technique on you while you were too busy using Substitution on Sasuke. You see, that first seal I used is pretty overpowered. As long as the trapped one does not focus on the caster, he’s bound to have a lapse of judgement. Yours was believing I was out of the game… for no reason at all.”

 

“I’m not exactly sure how it works, but hey, I’m not complaining.” Ren chuckled as he finished his explanation. He then gave the bell to Sasuke who struggled to keep a straight composure.

 

“Oh yeah, since the primary seals operates on genjutsu mainly, it lied to you and made you use more strength than what you believed you did. That’s why Sasuke is injured, your body itself knew I was nearby, but it had no distinct way to tell you that. It’s just a raw response of the body.”

 

“I’d suggest checking up with a medical ninja, they might know one or two stuff more than I about your physiology since you’re the first one I tried this combination on. It might’ve disrupted your chakra flow for all I know.”

 

The seal master rubbed his temple with a finger and then preened himself, it had taken quite a lot of time to consider and reconsider what seal to use on their teacher, and a lot of more time to perfect their acting.

 

“Regardless, we passed right?”

 

Kakashi looked at the three of them and then began to laugh rather loudly much to their ire.

 

‘Those little minxes fooled me completely. The plan they described yesterday was completely different from this one, so this little one did indeed sense my presence somehow. I failed to look underneath the underneath heh.’

 

Deep inside, Kakashi knew how Ren had found him, but he refused to act accordingly. What sort of shinobi would he be if he let something as… common as desire influence his decision-making?

 

Besides reading a masterpiece such as Icha Icha Paradise made losing to three genins all the more worth it. He just had to keep the finer details a secret from his colleagues.

 

“Hmmm, I think the four of us are going to have a really good time together. Yes… I’ll make proper shinobis out of you three. But for now, I suggest all three of you go and have a relaxing day.” Kakashi smiled as he went to the alarm clock and turned it off.

 

“Also, Sasuke I’d also suggest you go check on that rib of yours, if what Ren says is to be believed then you might have a broken rib or two.”

 

The Uchiha just grunted in response, wincing from the pain, but he didn’t show it of course. He couldn’t, he had to stay strong.

 

He put it inside the seal scroll once again and asked for the two bells from his team and did the same.

 

“Team 7, you pass.”

 

A breeze hit team 7 and Ren had a small smile on his face.

 

‘Yes, we did pass, but you held back on us quite a lot. That is because we utilized the true meaning of this survival training…’

 

“Teamwork.”

 

Kakashi stated as if reading Ren’s thoughts.

 

“I definitely have to tell you well done for the amount of teamwork you showed. Using your teammate as distraction is shrewd, but even more shrewd is you planning Ren. It’s something rarely seen in shinobi. Sasuke’s showcase of ninjutsu was also brilliant, I’ve rarely seen such well-use of fire jutsus. You tried to block every way I could potentially escape – even though it didn’t work out as you left the finer details out – for genins that’s already incredible.”

 

“I won’t beat around the bush, the entire point of this exercise was teamwork, something you three also have in big amounts.”

 

“You worked as a team and did not do what many foolish shinobi do when on the battlefield – disregarding your teammates. If you work as a team you will stand a far better chance against your opponents than alone, that is simple logic. Unfortunately, many tend to disregard that.”

 

Kakashi’s eyes wandered around and he walked towards some sort of carved stone.

 

 A memorial perhaps? – Ren wondered.

 

“All the names carved here were once people who served out in the battlefield for Konoha, shinobi and kunoichi alike gave up their lives in the line of duty.”

 

Those words seemed to have affected Naruto who had been just about to open his mouth and speak out loudly.

 

“This memorial includes the names of people such as my best friend and teacher. Listen carefully to what I am about to say, as it might serve you for life.”

 

“In the world of shinobi, those who break the rules are scums, however those who do not care for their fellow comrades are lower than scums!”

 

XXX

 

The sun swiftly descended and allowed moonlight to take over and envelope the entire globe. It was quite apparent that it was nearing the time when everyone was supposed to be asleep.

 

It was also at this time that one certain person was out training with blood and sweat, giving it his all. That certain person was Ren.

 

Fuinjutsu was a long and tedious process, even the best of seal masters often made mistakes of the elementary level. So, one could not always rely on it, which was why Ren tried his best in improving his Taijutsu and Ninjutsu.

 

He could actually be said to be quite lucky in the latter, he had three chakra natures; Wind, Water and Fire.

 

He supposed water was related to his Uzumaki bloodline, as it was a well-known fact that most Uzumaki’s had this lone affinity as their main one. His Wind one might’ve come from his Senju bloodline even though he doubted that.

 

It was fire that made him feel weird.

 

Due to this, there was one fact he had hidden from his teacher, Kakashi. It was not merely the formation which had boosted Sasuke’s jutsu, it had been a mixture of the formation and his own wind chakra in small amounts.

 

But he supposed it was better to keep that part a secret for a while, as to put more airs to his fuinjutsu mastery. In reality, the Four Pillars Restricting Barrier was more of a ‘suppressing’ barrier than that of a boosting one.

 

If Kakashi had some adequate knowledge of fuinjutsu he would’ve realized that, since it was in the bloody name after all. If he had – Ren had no clue, at least he didn’t show it.

 

Wiping sweat from his forehead Ren returned to training.

 

He had yet to reach a point of no return, there was still time for that.