Chapter 8, part 2 – Team 13: The Yondaime's Gambit, Part 2

It's about nine minutes later when Sho starts moving again. Kimiko and Nakahito exchange a quick glance, shrug, and then put their coins away. Without sitting back up, the medic silently raises a hand to heal his split lip. A few seconds later, he gets up.

"Sho, I'm..." Kimiko started to say.

Sho merely shook his head as he waves his hand. "You don't owe me an apology, Itou. For that matter, neither does Haruno. As soon as I confirmed that you and Nakahito have incompatible chakra, I knew exactly what was going to happen… Hell, the only question was who was going to be throwing the punch. That's why I tried to get Nakahito to look the other way; it would have taken at least five minutes for the infusion to take hold. You punching me wouldn't have laid me out for..." He pauses glancing at his attacker.

"Nine minutes." Haruno answered.

Inugami nodded. "I would have thought closer to eight, myself." He shrugged. "Anyways; how are you feeling now, Kimiko-san?"

"I only feel half dead now, so I'd say that's a definite improvement."

"I also feel a lot better, Sho." Nakahito said. "Thanks. Thanks for coming after us. I didn't realize you were that good a tracker."

"Tracker smacker…" Sho snorted derisively, confusing the other two. "I didn't come after you... I was following you the whole time."

"WHAT?!" His teammates shouted in shock.

"I happen to have gotten most of the tree-walking jutsu down - it's a prerequisite to learning Body Flicker. I haven't quite mastered it yet, but I didn't have the problems you had keeping my balance between jumps." A smile crossed his lips. "When I couldn't convince you to stay, I decided that it would be better to face a tongue-lashing from Miho-sensei for not obeying orders now rather than one after your funerals for not going to help."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Inugami..." Nakahito said with an annoyed growl. "I did manage to get the drop on my first opponent, after all."

"Baka..." Sho snorted again, causing more confusion. "Did you think it was COINCIDENCE that three leaves happened to break off in a sudden gust of wind to help you spot the first sex-obsessed kunoichi hiding behind the tree?" Nakahito's eyes widened as he remembered that's exactly what happened. "I noticed her and didn't want to let her get the drop on you. Hell, I wasn't sure you'd even see the leaves, but I couldn't say anything lest I gave away both my presence and position."

Nakahito's mouth dropped open as Sho described exactly how his fight with the first Cloud woman had begun. "If you were there, why didn't you help me?" Haruno asked.

Inugami grinned wider. "What, and lose out on the chance to see what you could actually do on your own?" He waggled a finger. "Besides, at that point I hadn't been able to locate the other two - they could have been waiting to ambush anyone who came to help you."

"That's impossible, Sho!" Kimiko objected. "I didn't see anyone lurking around when I double-backed after hearing the explosion and falling tree."

Sho smiled, making a slight gesture before rippling out of sight, startling Kimiko and Nakahito for a brief instant before he reappeared. "It's a simple camouflage Genjutsu technique that we of the medical core utilize on occasion. We call it the 'Hide in Plain Sight' technique and it's nearly impossible to detect since it's a defensive Genjutsu rather than an offensive one. It doesn't hide our chakra auras, so those who can sense those or have the Byakugan can spot someone using it easily."

Realization hit Nakahito at that point. "I noticed the trip wires set up by the second kunoichi because I could see sunlight glinting off them." He looked up; there were no holes in the trees to let sunlight in. "But there's no hole in the canopy over where they were…"

"Used my forehead protector as a mirror to reflect the light. Fortunately, the other kunoichi was too focused on you to see me."

Kimiko shook her head. "I still don't believe it."

Sho sighed. "Fine, fine…" He pointed at Nakahito. "Dragon Fire jutsu." Haruno blinked – he'd never told Sho the name of his technique. Gestured to Kimiko. "Water Bomb jutsu." She grimaced at the truth of his words. Pointed back to Haruno. "Copped a feel." Nakahito suddenly averted his eyes as Sho's finger turned back to Itou. "F..."

"OKAY, I BELIEVE YOU!" Kimiko interrupted as Sho began to repeat Nakahito's prior revelation, causing both of the Genin involved to break into another furious blush. "And you didn't come out after I finished off the other kunoichi because you hadn't spotted the man-eater over there, right?" Sho nodded. "How'd you kill him, anyways?"

Sho held up his hand, which glowed faintly blue for a few seconds. "I severed his spinal cord between the C2 and C3 Cervical vertebrae. I also cut his Carotid artery at the same time. The first immediately interrupted all neurological control of the body from the neck down. But since the others had shown signs of being electrical jutsu specialists, I didn't want to take the chance that he might have the ability to use his chakra to keep his body moving, so I severed the artery since it takes oxygen rich blood to the brain. Between the two, brain death was guaranteed in about three minutes."

He gave a malevolent grin. "During which, he couldn't move or talk, merely lie there and contemplate his impending death." He spat on the corpse. "It's probably better than he deserved."

Nakahito threw Kimiko a glance that said. 'Remind me to never REALLY piss Oni off.' She nodded in agreement.

Haruno then stood up slowly; weakly. "Well, Team 13, shall we go find our sensei?" Sho and Kimiko both nodded, rising to their feet.

"I'll handle overwatch." Sho said. "Follow on the ground and try not to overexert yourselves - there ARE limits to what I can fix and the two of you have come close to it." The other two nodded as Sho approached the nearest tree and walked up the trunk to the first branch large enough to support his weight.

"I really need to get Miho-sensei to teach me that one..." Kimiko said.

"You and me both, Kimi." Nakahito grumped as Sho jumped forward and out of sight. "I really don't like playing second fiddle to that guy... I don't care how many times he saves my life..."

* * *

It took about twenty five minutes to wind their way back through the forest to the clearing where they'd first encountered the Cloud ninjas. The terrain had been radically changed by the fight between Miho Hyuuga and the Jonin leader of the Cloud ninja team. Several trees had been split in two from what appeared to be lightning strikes and other Thunder element techniques and there were new hills where the terrain had been rearranged by Earth techniques.

"Holy shit!" Nakahito said as he surveyed the new layout. "Looks like it's a good thing we WEREN'T here."

Sho nodded as he dropped down from above to land by the other two. "Yeah, we probably would have just gotten in Miho-sensei's way. I wonder where she is... I couldn't see her from above."

"Let's spread out," Haruno suggested. "We can cover more ground."

"But what if Hyuuga-sensei hasn't killed or disabled the other Jonin yet?" Kimiko asked.

"Then I guess we're dead people walking." Inugami replied, refusing to try and sugar-coat the situation. "You and I are at about 50% and Nakahito's maybe at 65%; my earlier estimates were clearly optimistic."

Team 13 spread out, looking for their Jonin. They made sure they remained in line-of-sight with each other as they spread out across the new, uneven landscape. They searched for fifteen minutes before finally rounding a corner that opened into a box-like canyon. At the far end, barely within vision, was a splotch of purple.

Kimiko spotted it first, gesturing down the canyon. "Look, its Miho-sensei! I recognize that shade of purple; it's different from anything I've seen here in the village - she probably had the outfit made while she was out of the region or at least brought the fabric back with her."

Sho looked, cursed rather vividly, and dashed down the length of the canyon at a rather high speed; apparently Body Flickering to rapidly shrink the distance between him and the purple blotch.

"That seemed rather unnecessary… Wonder what that was all about?" Nakahito asked, memorizing Oni's swearing for future use - it was rare that one heard new curses and that one was a beauty.

Kimiko raised her hand to shade her eyes, looking down the canyon to see the fast moving white dot approaching the stationary purple one.

Stationary?

Kimiko grabbed Nakahito's left shoulder. "I think Miho-sensei must be hurt; she's not moving at all! Inugami must have noticed it first." Nakahito Haruno repeated Oni's curse as the two of them broke into the fastest run they were capable of.

* * *

Nothing that either Haruno or Itou had encountered today - or ever in their lives for that matter - had prepared them for the horrific scene that awaited them at the end of the canyon.

Arcs of sprayed blood covered the walls. The remains of the Cloud Village Jonin were impaled on a stalagmite that had spontaneously erupted from the ground. His arms and the sleeves of his outfit were split open, the fabric, skin, and even the exposed bones were charred from something that had, from the looks of it, had ripped itself out of his body. Most disturbing of all was that his face had experienced similar abuse - one eye was egg white, almost as if it had been cooked by the energy burst and the other was just a pulpy mess.

Miho Hyuuga was slumped against the opposing canyon wall. She had numerous burns that were similar to those that Nakahito had gotten from the second kunoichi's electrical attacks. She also had a deep cut on the right side of her belly region that was oozing blood. There was no pool of blood underneath her yet, which suggested this had happened just a few minutes before.

As they took in the scene, Kimiko fell to her knees, a look of stunned horror on her face, while Nakahito averted his gaze, a queasy look on his face. Sho, an experienced medic, had simply begun to try healing the wounded and was hard at work evaluating Miho-sensei's injuries.

As his hands moved over the bleeding wound, he stopped short, moving his hands away and then bringing them back before beginning to curse foully once again. He looked up at the other two. "Don't just stand there! I need you to move her over to the other one!" He shouted, bolting over to the clearly dead Jonin to scan his midsection.

"Oni, what the hell are you doing?!" Nakahito shouted. "Miho-sensei's hurt! And he's dead; we're not getting anything out of him."

Sho looked up, his eyes hard and very disconcerting; he'd forgotten to put his glasses back on. "Hyuuga-sensei isn't hurt; she's been critically wounded - this DAIBINCH here perforated her liver with a blade of some kind. I can't repair it and she doesn't have the time to send someone to run back for the medical teams. Miho-sensei critically injured him and as his last act, he unleashed all his chakra in a self-destruction jutsu to try and take her with him!

"Since we can't move her long distance & we can't wait for the medic squad, that means I have to see if this guy's organs are salvageable and try to perform an in-the-field transplant." He shook his head. "I just have to hope that the energy surge didn't fry his internal organs." He looks at the other two, clapping his hands imperiously. "Come on! Think and move, huh?! We don't have a lot of time here!"

Nakahito nodded, shaking Kimiko's shoulder to snap her out of her trance. "Do you think you can save her?" He asked as they moved over to Miho Hyuuga's unconscious form.

"I don't know, Haruno." Sho responded. "Theoretically… Maybe."

"What do you mean, maybe?" Kimiko asked as she took the bulk of the Jonin's weight – Nakahito's shoulder wouldn't be able to handle much…

"I mean I know what is required, but I've never attempted anything like this before…" He nodded to himself. "Okay, his liver's intact..." A frown appeared. "Surprisingly so..." He shook his head momentarily before pulling a scroll out of his pouch, which he rolled out on the ground between the corpse and Miho.

He then pulled out a kunai, poking the corpse's leg to make blood slowly weep from the cut. He collected some on the blade which he then dripped onto the scroll. He then extended his left hand and gets some of the blood from Miho-sensei's wound and repeated the process.

"What are you doing now, Sho?" Kimiko asked, holding Miho-sensei's hand, knowing that was the limit of what she could do at this point.

"Remember what I told you about mixing blood types together?" He asked as he starts a set of complex seals. She nodded hesitantly. "It's even worse with organ transplants; the tolerances are a lot tighter. Fortunately, the medical corps has a technique to minimize rejection. Now, I've seen it used and I can't forget anything ever…" Nakahito and Kimiko looked at each other in surprise at that. "…so I know how the seal sequence and how the end result is supposed to look, but I don't have a clue as to how it actually works... I'm hoping that I can at least make it work well enough that I can keep her stable while one of you runs back to the village for help." He finished the seal sequence and slammed his hands onto the scroll. "Initiate!"

"What are...?" Kimiko began.

Sho shook his head grimly. "2% and only if she's lucky." He shook his head again, much the same way he had when the mission had begun, but hadn't for the past hour or so. After a few moments, he looked at the scroll. He shook his head a second time and then leaned forward to look closer. "That's not..." He looked at Miho, then to the Cloud ninja, and finally back to the scroll. "It's impossible!"

Inugami fell silent as he was doing some rapid-fire analysis in his head. As he did so, the shakes of his head sped up until they resembled the muscle spasms of someone with palsy.

Then he began to laugh, first slowly but it quickly became rather hysterical. Nakahito and Kimiko threw each other startled glances, not seeing what could spark such a reaction from the unusual medic.

"Oh, oh, that is just too rich..." Sho wheezed in astonishment, more insane-seeming laughter coming from him. "The Yondaime Gambit?! You caught me in that?" His laughter increased as he pounded the ground with his fist.

"Oni! What the hell's going on?" Nakahito finally demanded. "I thought you said Miho-sensei didn't have a lot of time!"

The peals of Inugami's laughter finally subsided with a wistful sigh. "Oh, I was wrong... Miho-sensei has all the time in the world; she's not even injured." He had a Cheshire cat grin on his face as he looked at the red-clad teammate. "For that matter, neither are you, Haruno." He said, forming the Ram sign. "Release!"

"What do you mean, she's not hurt! She's bleeding!"

Sho rose to his feet, looking over at the wall behind the dead Jonin. "So do we pass, Miho-sensei?"

"Oh, great." Nakahito Haruno growls. "Now he's lost touch with reality."

"Actually..." Miho Hyuuga voice replies, causing both Kimiko and Nakahito to stare at the sensei's unmoving lips. "He's found it."

As she spoke, the canyon, Miho Hyuuga, and the dead cloud Jonin all melted away. The team found themselves standing in the original clearing where they had initially encountered the squad of Cloud Ninjas. Over where Sho had been facing a blank wall was Miho Hyuuga and another woman with long hair, reddish-brown eyes and a top that looked like it was made from individual bands that were bisected with a black strip that bore a thorn-like appearance.

Kimiko and Nakahito started looking around rapidly. "What the hell?" They asked in unison.

Miho-sensei gestured to the woman beside her. "Allow me to introduce you to Yuuhi Kurenai. She's the leader for Team 8, my cousin Hinata's team. She's a master of Genjutsu techniques. For the last 90 minutes, you've been in undergoing a test in an illusionary world that was overlaid in the real one. Everything that you've seen since we initially entered this glade has been half real, half false."

"So the Cloud ninjas..?" Kimiko asked, still not quite managing to wrap her head around the new situation.

"They never existed, Kimiko." Sho answered. "Kurenai-sensei and Hyuuga-sensei have been putting us through a test known as the Yondaime's Gambit."

"You said that just a few moments ago, too." Nakahito said. "What the heck is it?"

Sho Inugami glanced at Miho Hyuuga, who nodded. Sho cleared his throat. "The Yondaime's Gambit was a test created by the Fourth Hokage designed to put new Genin through a hyper-realistic training scenario by use of illusionary techniques. In the test, the ninja are opposed by something that has deep ties to their past, guaranteed to agitate them and keep them from thinking clearly, which makes the Genjutsu even more effective, since they directly influence the mind."

He looked over at Yuuhi Kurenai. "We've been under the thrall of Kurenai-sensei…" He paused in thought. "Probably from the instant the village gates opened." The other Jonin blinked in surprise and nodded confirmation. "She used the first two hours when we were collecting mushrooms to test how receptive our minds were to her illusions… That's why I was shaking my head every so often while we were walking; she would try something minor to see if we fell for it, but something about what I was seeing felt wrong somehow and I was trying to reject it." The Genjutsu specialist nodded again, clearly impressed by Sho's analysis of what had been happening.

"It's also why Miho-sensei asked if any of us had been beyond the wall before… With my photographic memory any illusion put up in an area that I've already seen would stand out like a black spot on a blank wall. But since I didn't know what to expect out here, I could fall for the illusion… Especially when the conflict started."

"Yeah, but why a fight?" Nakahito said, waving his arm around like a madman confirming it didn't hurt anymore.

"What brings together people faster than a mutual objective – like survival?" Sho pointed out. He looked at Kimiko. "Our foes were from the Cloud Village simply because of their history with the Itou clan." He looked at Nakahito. "They would deliberately goad us with both insult and entendre since your pride causes you to fly off the handle rather easily." He gestured with a thumb towards himself. "They were older than us to make me doubt we could face them on our own. That doubt created a chink in my resistance that Kurenai-sensei, who undoubtedly knows how to take maximum advantage of such opportunities, used to bypass my disbelief. That's why I stopped shaking my head - I got drawn into it as fully as you had… At least until the very end."

Miho Hyuuga looked at the young medic, curious. "So what gave it away?"

"The genetic analysis scroll's results…" Inugami explained. "You see, I had no clue as to what the results should be for you, let alone the dead Cloud leader. Because of that, Kurenai-sensei had to improvise as my mind didn't have the information to "fill in the blanks" she needed to give me a truly believable vision. I doubt you or she would have expected me to try such a radical procedure given my age… I assume the end game, if I hadn't figured it out, would have been the illusionary you dying despite my best efforts and us returning to the village with your 'body.'"

"So your radical thinking is what made you realize you were in an illusion?" Miho asked for clarification.

"Partially." Sho agreed. "The other part was that Kurenai-sensei here doesn't know genetics the way I do from living with my parents – specialization and what not."

"True," Yuuhi agreed, rubbing the side of her head. "I think I got a migraine from trying to follow your stream of thoughts at the end to try and keep you under the illusion once you began to actively doubt your senses."

Inugami nodded in agreement. "Makes sense…" He turns back to his teammates. "Anyways, for me to be willing to even risk the emergency transplant to buy the time needed to send Kimiko back to the village for help, I needed to see some very positive numbers from the test… The higher the better." Sho tilted his head slightly. "But Kurenai-sensei did it a bit TOO well; she showed me that there was a 55% compatibility match."

All four ninja looked at him blankly.

"I don't get it…" Haruno said. "Higher is better, isn't it?"

Inugami chuckled. "True, but let me put it in these terms: You, Nakahito Haruno, got roughly half your DNA from your mother, the other half from your father. That means you would have a 50% genetic match with either of them. By the same token, you would have a 25% match with your grandparents – half of your parents' 50%."

"Math isn't my strong suit, but I follow." Nakahito agreed.

"Now, let's say you had a sibling. Since you have the same parents, this sibling would also be 50-50 to your parents and something on the order from a 38 to 61% match to you, taking into account standard genetic deviations. Now, for the Cloud leader to have a 55% match, he would have to be not just a Hyuuga, but Miho-sensei's own brother!"

"I think I get it now." Kimiko said. "The odds of having that high a match and be neither Hyuuga or from the village..."

"I'd have better odds getting a kiss with you for reasons other than a chakra transfusion than that genetic match actually happening. And not getting decked by you or Haruno afterwards." Sho replied wryly. This caused his team members to chuckle in agreement.

"But if our foes weren't real, did that actually happen?" Nakahito asked, still trying to grasp the larger picture from another angle.

"Everything that the three of us did actually happened." Inugami pointed out. "You burnt real trees trying to kill the first kunoichi, but if you take off your jacket and look at closely, you won't find any cuts from the shurikens you caught to protect Kimiko." Itou looked at her friend's back and nodded confirmation. "You didn't actually break your collar bone, but we DID expend chakra trying to deal with our foes and the imaginary injuries they inflicted on us."

Miho nodded. "It's one of the reasons the Yondaime's Gambit is one of the best training exercises available… It gives the teacher an idea of what would happen if something similar was to happen in the real world and give him/her an idea as to which areas that the Genin needs the most help to improve."

"But I remember getting hit. The wounds really did hurt." Nakahito pointed out, confused still.

"I'll cover that one." Yuuhi Kurenai replied. "Genjutsu directly influences all the areas of the human mind. This means that if, while caught in an illusion, you get hit by a fake kunai, your mind reacts as you were hit by the real thing because the pain receptors are stimulated, but not to the extent it would if the kunai were real. It's psychological damage rather than physical. That's why there are three ways to escape Genjutsu: inflict real pain to yourself - at least enough to draw blood, attempt to purge the caster's chakra from your brain - which is what Sho did to break himself free, or hope you have a friend that wasn't caught by the technique who can then break you free from the outside.

"At the same time, however, if you take sufficient 'injury' during a Genjutsu attack, your body essentially shuts down because it thinks it's critically injured. Your body basically falls into a coma-like state until your mind recovers from the psychological trauma or a medical specialist versed in treating such injuries tends to you."

"So what precisely was the point of this whole Yondaime's Gambit thing?" Kimiko asked Miho.

Sho nodded. "I'd like to know that, too, if you'd be so kind."

Miho gives a faint smile. "Sho pointed out one of the primary reasons; I wanted to find out what each of you was really capable of. I must admit, I was rather surprised to see that two of you are already capable, at least to a limited extent, of Nature manipulation; that's what allows you to convert chakra into water and fire. And I knew from talking with Iruka Umino last night that Sho had been deliberately holding back, which in turn skewed the information that was in his ninja transcript, so I needed some idea of his limits."

Sho mock grimaced. "I guess my secret's out…"

'Some of them, at least...' He thought.

"Big time…" Hyuuga agreed. "It means I'll have to focus more of my efforts on Nakahito and Kimiko at first until we get them to an area where all three of you need work…"

Inugami shrugged. "No worries."

"How ARE you so damned good, anyways?" Nakahito demanded; this had been a sore spot for him the last few days.

"First, I'm a year older than you. Second, as I said before, I never forget anything…" Sho pointed out. "This means that once I learn a technique to perfection, I merely have to remember how I did it before and do it that way again. My mental recollection allows me to short-cut because I don't need my body to learn how to do it by repetition." He grimaced. "But it's also a special kind of hell… I remember every injury, every hurt feeling, and every nightmarish thought unless I focus my mind on something; that's why I always have a book with me… I'm not reading, I'm focusing on the knowledge in the book to distract myself."

"Damn… That… that sucks, Sho…" Haruno said, feeling genuine sympathy for the other for the first time.

Sho shrugged. "We all have our burdens to carry. I'll admit mine's made me bitter and sarcastic most of the time… It's because I envy how…" He paused looking for a word. "Simple… Your minds and lives seem in comparison. I realize they really aren't but it LOOKS that way in comparison."

Kimiko placed a hand on his shoulder. "But if this had been real, we needed your complex life to get us out of this situation… I…" She put her other hand on Nakahito's "bad" shoulder, which was no longer injured. "I'm GLAD Hokage-sama put us together…"

"Me, too." Nakahito agreed. "I know now my wounds were in my head, but despite how I've treated you, you tried to help me. We're a team, now."

Inugami looked between the two of them with what looked like hope in the back of his eyes.

And then the moment passed.

"Yeah, well…" He said, putting his glasses back on to hide the disparity between his eyes. "We're a team. Maybe even in time we'll be friends, but I've got half a decade of annoyance at you both to work through first; so don't expect the snark and sarcasm to stop overnight because of some mind-whammy, okay?"

Haruno and Itou stared at him and then began to laugh. After a few seconds, Inugami joined in.

'So many surprises in this team…' Miho thought to herself. 'But that Water Dragon that Kimiko summoned is worrisome… The Mizugan was supposed to be an eye of insight, not allow novices to use a B rank technique without even realizing she was using it… I'll have to try and ask Uncle Hiashi more about the Itou clan. He'll probably stonewall me, but I'll have to try.'

"As I said," Miho said, resuming her explanation, "evaluating your skills was only part of this test. The other part was to see if you could form a cohesive team; that means learning to be able to trust one another. Being able to say that you trust your teammates with your life is one of the fundamental requirements of being a Leaf shinobi. This is the other reason I chose the Yondaime's Gambit instead of the standard bell test."

Nakahito gives Miho a confused look. "I thought we did trust each other."

Miho shook her head, looking first at him and then Kimiko. "Can you two tell me, in all honesty, that you would have trusted Sho with your lives at the start of this exercise? That if he advised against a course of action that you would have either reconsidered or modified your plans based on his suggestions?"

Kimiko shook her head. "I think our actions at the start of the test proved that we didn't. We went chasing blindly after the Cloud ninja." Nakahito nodded in glum agreement, feeling phantom pain from the shoulder that just minutes before he was certain had been just recently broken. "I belittled him when he advised caution and proceeded on my own assuming that I couldn't count on him." She turned and gave Inugami a warm smile. "His actions afterwards showed me... No, showed us otherwise." Haruno nodded again, but not glumly this time.

Miho nodded acceptingly before looking at Sho Inugami. "Sho, same question with regards to Nakahito and Kimiko."

"This will sound like a cop out, but like Kimiko said, our initial actions revealed our true opinions of each other." Sho answered. "I considered Itou and Haruno to be little better than children, making impetuous decisions from emotion instead of thought. I had been sufficiently convinced, solely by the fact that the Cloud ninja were older than us, that it would be better to let them go with whatever little information they had likely managed to gather than to try confronting them.

"If I had trusted my teammates, perhaps I could have formulated a plan of attack that allowed the three of us to work cohesively so that our weaknesses were covered by the strengths of the others. Instead I merely followed them out of enlightened self-interest; let them get hurt to make sure they learned the folly of acting on emotion, only stepping in to keep them from suffering a fatal blow.

"Before, I judged that they were weaker than me based on their actions; now their actions have shown me that they are my equals in some areas and my superiors in others. If Emotion is not quite right and Thought isn't enough, then maybe tempering Emotion WITH Thought is the solution."

Then he cocked his head for a moment in thought. "Wait, if the sole purpose of this so-called 'mission' was to put us through the Yondaime's Gambit, why on EARTH were we collecting Shitake mushrooms? We've got nearly twenty pounds of the things in our packs!" Kimiko and Nakahito paused in surprise; they'd forgotten about the mushrooms as well.

Miho Hyuuga gave them an overly-wide grin. "I just happen to like Shitake mushrooms... They're actually for me." The looks that the three Genin members of Team 13 directed towards their teacher were so priceless that they caused her to start laughing.

After a few moments, they joined in. Team 13 was now certified for service.