Chapter 21: Genin Test 

—--

"What!" Arise and Tsume both blurted out. 

Orochimaru, who stood in front of them, sighed and shook his head."Your graduation doesn't mean you have officially become genin." 

Meanwhile, Akio stood there with an expectant faze, knowing this was going to happen. Their graduation exam didn't mean anything. 

"Judging by the academy's system, only 9 people in our class can graduate," Akio explained. 

The pair glanced at each other.

Arise's brows furrowed. "Why didn't our parents tell us?"  

Orochimaru smiled. "It's tradition heh." 

"Then how the hell does he know," Tsume said — pointing straight at Akio. 

"Well. If there were a lot of people in the class, mostly a lot of people would be genin. However, if you see the percentage between genin and civilians, it's at most 33%... This was most likely intentionally set up," Akio explained. 

Tsume and Arise just looked at him weirdly. They knew this guy was the smartest in his class. 

Orochimaru chuckled. "As expected of the smartest in his class. It was exactly as he said, so I'm going to test you; if you fail then bye to being a genin." 

All of them now had a determined gaze, ready for whatever was to come. They can't fail this and not become genin… impossible. 

Orochimaru beckoned them to follow, until they arrived at a wide area of space, with lots of trees and other things. He finally stopped and turned around, glancing at all of them as he was ready to speak.

"I'm going to test your skills," he paused. "Try defeating me with all you got." 

He stood a few metres in front of them and waved for them to come. Without hesitation, Tsume impulsively ran toward him. 

Following his teammate, Arise also dashed toward his direction — both of them meeting him head-on. Whilst they did this, Akio merely shook his head at their stupidity… and so did Orochimaru. But he entertained it. 

Only an arm's length away, Tsume raised her hand and tried punching Orochimaru but he merely arched his back, easily dodging it. 

With a surprise, Arise also from another angle lifted his leg up into the air, landing a high kick. However, he just backed away again, his reflexes too fast for the two genin. He could see everything. 

The two constantly tried pushing him back but to no avail did anything work. Realising this, they both shot a glance at each other. 

Arise moved a few steps back, doing hand seals whilst Tsume started to grow claws and have sharper teeth… she was now crouched down ready to pounce at Orochimaru. 

And she did… 

She swiped her hand at his head, blocking his vision before he felt a warm sensation and his vision turned orange. Looking up, he saw a fireball… the Uchiha's jutsu. 

Both Arise and Tsume's lips curled up into a smirk, thinking their plan had worked.

Orochimaru smiled as he was about to move back. Although, that quickly turned into a frown when he felt someone clasp his arms, holding him in place. 

Turning around, he saw Akio and beamed a smirk before using his force to send him crashing into a tree. 

This was the difference in strength. 

Then, he quickly flickered away from them. Looking straight at their gobsmacked faces as they were brimming with disappointment. 

Whilst Akio winced, standing up from just being tossed a few feet. He stretched his body from the discomfort and spoke. 

"Guys, come back," he said, shaking his head. 

This was why he never advanced first. He was just too strong, there was only one way to put him off guard. 

To his call, they both flickered toward him.

Arise gritting his teeth said, "He's too strong, we have no chance."  

"Yeah there's no way we can beat that monster," Tsume added. 

Akio shook his head at these two. "We're not trying to win. We should be showing off our skills and for that, we need a plan." 

"What are you proposing?" Arise asked.

"I propose we use our brains and try to catch him by surprise of course," Akio explained. 

"Both of you come closer—" 

Orochimaru stood in the distance, watching all this whilst he smirked with his arms folded. He saw the Akio kid hadn't advanced like them two and looked at the disappointment on his face. He guessed the only reason he came forward was because of chance. 

Now the ball was in his court, controlling the plan to show off their skills. Akio was definitely the tactician of the three, he thought that he was just book smart but that doesn't seem to be the case. 

A few moments passed and this time, the trio looked to be in a proper formation. 

Akio stood at the back, Tsume at the strong with Arise on her side, just two feet behind her. They advanced in proper formation, gaining distance into his proximity. 

Orochimaru suddenly saw Tsume using her two-legged technique, advancing in front. Whilst Akio ran beside her with two clones on his side. Arise stood a few feet back, preparing a hand seal… 

About an arm's length away, Tsume swiped her claw exactly the same as last time whilst Orochimaru just parried it. 

This time, Akio prepared his hand seals and slapped his palm into the ground as his clone ran forward. 

 

Directly above was a fireball that went past him, directed in Orochimaru's direction. 

Orochimaru, now fending off the attacks, backed away, seeing the fireball as Tsume chased after him… however this time, it was much different. 

Strangely, Tsume stopped her attacks which made him furrow his brows but he soon realised why. 

As he was just about to back away, he felt a prick under his leg which dug into his skin… a large array of spikes were under where he tried to dodge, tricking his sense of awareness. 

This pain wasn't much to him as he simply removed his leg. He limped, walking away from the spikes and glanced at the victorious trio — clapping whilst beaming a content smile at each of them. 

"Well done, you have passed the test with flying colours." 

Now he knew where they all stood. They were certainly all qualified to be genin and were content with such a team.

Judging by them listening to Akio straight away, Orochimaru guessed that he was definitely going to be the leader of the group.  

All of them celebrated, now officially becoming a genin. Both Tsume and Arise nodded in respect toward Akio, they couldn't have done it without him. 

** 

**

**