Rejection

I ran without stopping from the Academy to the Training Ground, the traitors were still enjoying their payback, I did deserve something like that, after all the jokes and tease that I do to them, but I would never abandon them to their luck, that's unforgivable, that's why I suggested Guy-Sensei that instead of training, we should start with a quick sparring session to see how much we improved, he gladly accepted.

Needless to say, I didn't hold back, Genjutsu and Illusions are enough to keep Rock Lee paralyzed long enough for me to hurt him, both mentally and physically, as for Neji, his Chakra control is impressive, Genjutsu isn't the best weapon but a combination of two Gates and Storm Style, is more than enough to attack him with strength and speed to break his defenses, I don't mind a good joke, but I need to teach them respect, or they'll think that they can leave me alone in every embarrassing situation without consequences.

It took me less than ten minutes to beat them, when I use all my arsenal I become too powerful for them to handle me, that doesn't mean they won't surprise me or surpass me if I get too comfortable with my current strength, there are being that can crush me like an ant right now, that's why I need to keep improving every day.

With the vengeance, I mean sparring session out of the way, we continue with our new schedule, twice the amount of physical training for all of us, a new pair of weights for me and Lee, and orders for Neji to dive deeper in the river to practice his Rotating Palm, as for Ninjutsu training, it was more about learning how to do them without seals, and reducing the amount of time we needed to produce the desired effect, we decided to focus on Earth Style, mostly because Neji was tired of dealing with water by the end of his first session.

The sun disappeared in the horizon, the darkness soon engulfed the Training Ground, while the three of us lay in the ground, to the brink of passing away, due to the lack of Chakra in our systems, only Guy-Sensei is capable of devising such a Training Method, his justification was the YOUTH! Whatever he meant by that, what it meant to us was training until we are close to death, we just lay there, recovering for fifteen minutes.

"Guy-Sensei we have something to ask" I said struggling to stand, Guy-Sensei extended a hand and helped me to do it.

"What is it?" He said, lifting one of his giant eyebrows.

"Mizuki, gave us our form for the Chunin Exam" I replied using him as a support "We were wondering if you will sign them for us to take the Exam" I took out my form, that was in the inner pocket of my jacket, and gave it to him, he took a moment to read it, and returned it to me.

"I won't sign it" He said, Lee and Neji were shocked by his statement, I was expecting it, since I remember he did the same in the canon "the three are extremely talented, each in his own way, but the Chunin Exam is dangerous, you still lack experience, fail is almost guaranteed even after taking them for years, and those that are lucky will just fail while others will die during the test" he began his explanation in a serious tone, only used with the matters of importance.

"But Sensei, you said it yourself, we are talented, if we remain as Genin, we won't be helping the Village as much as we could" Neji said, to what Guy-Sensei just turned to face him, with a scolding look.

"You do far more for the Village as a Genin, than what you would do in death" He said bluntly, he took a deep breath and sighed, his face changing into a kinder one "one day, when all of you are ready, you will take the Exam, but not yet, use this time to improve your foundations when you are ready you won't even have to ask me, I'll give you the forms myself, but until that day comes, keep working hard, for this is the path of true YOUTH!" He added with his signature thumbs up

Neji was still bummed about Guy-Sensei decision, Rock Lee resolved into working harder to prove his value to the Team, as for me, I was already planning with this in mind, I will take the next 6 months, to learn and develop new combat techniques, from my Genjutsu to the Ninjutsu, and can't forget about the Gates, when the Chunin Exams come I want to be able to open at least five of them and be proficient enough to do it willingly in seconds.

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{Time skip}

Six months have passed since Guy-Sensei rejected our application to the Chunin Exam, during that time, we completed a twenty D-rank missions, and fifteen C-rank missions, breaking the previous record of a seventeen D-rank and five C-rank for Rookie Teams, most of our C-rank missions consisted on escorting merchants or killing bandits, lucky for us the incident from the first time didn't repeat itself, during this six months, I improved my Genjutsu to the point that being called a Master was short, my body was on par with Rock Lee, the Storm Style was really difficult to improve, there isn't information available in the Village, and Kumo wouldn't trade its secrets, so I've been improvising, creating my own Jutsus, reapplying the method aunt Kurenai taught me to develop original Genjutsu.

Like Guy-Sensei promised, he gave us our signed forms for the Chunin Exam, the extra special Chunin Exam, filled with dangerous individuals, traitors, a Sannin, and two Jinchurikis, this is the event that shapes the future, Saske leaving the Village, Jiraya training Naruto, Tsunade's arrival, everything I've been preparing for, was about to begin, but only time will tell me if I did enough.