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[color=white].	Wednesday, 9:53 [right]Amegakure Border	.[/right][/color][/h3][/sub][/b][/color]

The fight progressed rapidly, with the shinobi eventually being forced apart precisely like Sakana wanted. For a brief moment, Sakana’s fight with the jonin was interrupted by the scroll-wielding shinobi, trying to stick to the formation, but ultimately he was forced away from the jonin by Gareki, who was doing a good job at proving his worth. Not that that changed Sakana’s opinion on the matter of a chunin exam… 

The jonin opposite Sakana gritted his teeth, staring at Sakana while his team was being chased around. For a brief moment the jonins eyes flashed towards Shogai – and his opponent – before he looked at Sakana again. Just in time to catch Sakana approaching, faster than he had expected of the black eyed shinobi. [i]“So fast!”[/i] he blurted out, crossing his arms in front of him, rock being pulled towards them from the ground. It was just enough to stop the full force of Sakana’s fist crashing against him, connecting with the rock momentarily before he pulled his fist back. But, in a showing of taijutsu skill, Sakana immediately followed up with a roundhouse kick, hitting the jonin in the side. The kick didn’t stop there – Sakana followed through with the momentum, jumped up a little, and then used his other leg to kick the jonin in the head once more. 

[color=black][b]“Hard to believe that Konohagakure has such unskilled jonin,”[/b][/color] Sakana stated matter of factly, the mention of which made the jonin’s face scrunch into an angered expression. 

While the rest of his team was getting taken out or driven away from him one by one, the jonin instead chose to bad mouth Sakana – if one could call it that – saying [i]“I’m definitely a jonin! You watch!”[/i] 

Telegraphed in the way only an overconfident moron could telegraph something, the jonin charged forwards, using his stone-clad arms like makeshift clubs, swinging them wildly around aiming roughly for Sakana. But, rather than hit him, Sakana merely dodged left and right, moving under the arms when needed. This wasn’t even a showing of skill anymore – Sakana was good, but barely needed to exert any effort for this type of attack. And, truthfully, even Gareki, being only a genin, would’ve been able to dodge these attacks with ease.

Finally Sakana broke the theatrical play, dodging to the left, grabbing the jonin’s left arm with his right hand when it was extended to the place Sakana had just been at, and firmly delivered a single strike with an open palm with his left hand, striking the only place of the arm that wasn’t covered by rock – the elbow. He even held back some of his power, so that the arm wouldn’t be broken – the healing of which could be a death sentence to any shinobi’s career – and instead was only severely hurt, but at least not permanently. 

Immediately Sakana followed that up, not even offering the jonin a chance to breathe or yell in pain, swiping him off his feet with a well placed axe-kick towards the man’s heels, forcing his feet forwards while he pushed the man’s arms backwards, forcing him onto his back. Sakana dove on top of him, his left hand moving swiftly to grab the man’s collar while his right reached back, then moved up high, spinning a shiny metal kunai in his hand.

Prepared to deliver the killing blow, the kunai stopped spinning, and the hand jutted forwards, headed directly for the spot between the eyes that would deliver the most efficient deathblow. 

[color=mediumspringgreen]“Doton: Delayed Burial! [b]Stop![/b]”[/color]

The appearance of the short girl with the two swords from the ground confirmed what Sakana had suspected, but had been unable to confirm. The ‘’body’’ in front of Shogai slowly turned to mud, sinking back into the ground. The real girl was a meter or so away from Sakana, stretching her arm towards Sakana, not in an attack, but in a plea for mercy.

[color=black][b]“I had a hunch,”[/b][/color] Sakana replied, his kunai lingering mere inches from the jonins face. 

But even when the boy was facing certain death at the sharp end of a kunai, he didn’t end his talking; [i]“Shina-sensei, what are yo—shit, I mean, Shina-san! What are you doing?”[/i] 

Slowly but surely Sakana lowered his kunai from the boys’ face, remaining on top of him to at least exert some control over the situation. Never the less, the fighting stopped all around the battlefield – the sudden change in mood was noticeable even to those who weren’t gifted in an empathical sense. [color=black][b]“The jig is up “jonin”, I know what you are.”[/b][/color]

[color=mediumspringgreen]“Tsk.. how did you..?”[/color] the woman replied – now having been outed as Shina-sensei, the [i]true[/i] jonin of the team. It was a smart strategy, Sakana had to admit, but her genin needed to work on their theatrics and skills. To be expected, however, of a fletchling shinobi team.

[color=black][b]“Your “jonin’s” personality kept changing, only being confident after sharing looks with you. You also had the tiger seal prepared before we even started fighting, hidden by your sleeve, so there was some jutsu going on. I think it was telepathy,”[/b][/color] Sakana said, slowly getting off the tall guy’s body, letting him get to his feet. His hands wrapped around his hurt elbow, an injury that would put him out of the fight for at least a few weeks. Despite the pain he must have been in, he looked angry more than anything, his brows furrowed at Sakana, a fire burning inside of his eyes. Angry at the man that saw through their tactic. And he had the guts to blame him? [color=black][b]“Plus, you all looked at each other, and they all nodded at you, not at the tall guy here. Plus, he fights like a genin – an expert at defense, perfect for his role as the one taking all the attention from the enemy, but easily taunted and separated from his team.”[/b][/color]

Perhaps looking back at their own fights, the rest of team 3 would also realize that something had been off – while the guy with the scroll and the greatsword were clearly fighting at the level of a genin, the woman with the two swords had been a measure above the rest, holding back her punches and strikes a little. It turned out that the ‘’real’’ Shina-sensei had disappeared underground at some point, waiting for the perfect moment to appear and assassinate the targets while her little genin kept the enemy busy. For Shogai, perhaps, a revelation that made sense… he had already seen her do it once mid-fight. Otherwise, the fight had been much too short to really ground through their strategy – even for Sakana, who had to think tactically at the level of a jonin. It was purely the fact that they were stronger than the Konoha nin that allowed them to end the fight and reveal the true nature of the shinobi.

[color=mediumspringgreen]“Hmm.. it seems we need to work on our team formation a little more. So.. what happens now? Will you kill us?”[/color]

[color=black][b]“You leave Amegakure, and forfeit your mission. Tell the Hokage that trespassers will not be tolerated in Amegakure.”[/b][/color]

[color=mediumspringgreen]“I guess there’s no chance you’ll escort us to the other side of Amegakure instead, huh…?”[/color]

[color=black][b]“It’s against the protocol of Amegakure shinobi to aid and abet foreign shinobi unless the Amekage allows it. Getting permission would take a few days.”[/b][/color]

Shina-sensei’s eyes turned to the rest of the team – only one of them was still up and running, the decoy jonin’s arm was badly hurt, and the bruiser of the team was currently unconscious against a tree – the hit from Unagi’s futon jutsu having sent him crashing against it and cracking the trunk in half. There was no way they could continue this fight.

[color=black][b]“If it helps you decide, the official Bodagado will be here shortly to assist us, and they will probably be a lot more ruthless in encouraging you to leave.”[/b][/color]

[color=mediumspringgreen]“Tsk, you Amegakure nin are something else… but I understand the situation. Mina! Grab Gai, and—”[/color]

[color=black][b]“Like my sister said, 45 minutes north there’s an inn. Rest up there, and return home.”[/b][/color] Sakana interjected, his tone being deadpan and serious, despite the fact that he was offering them a modicum of assistance. Had any other team responded to this alert, then perhaps the situation would’ve turned out differently – deadlier, even – but while Sakana and his “students” were cutthroat, they were not above maintaining a shred of shinobi honor when it was fitting. These shinobi were trespassers, but not their enemy.

[color=mediumspringgreen]“We’ll head there. Thank you,”[/color] Shina responded, bowing deeply before Sakana and the rest of team 3. She shared a brief glance with Shogai, who had been her opponent, grinning a little at him. Whatever it meant was up to him to interpret. 

The bee-shinobi, who was revealed to be Mina – looked coolly at his equally cool counterpart in the Amegakure team, Gareki. [I]“No graves today, gravedigger,”[/i] he said, pulling on a set of goggles on his forehead, before letting them slap down directly over his eyes. The goggles were blacked out completely, allowing nobody to look inside of them. [i]“your sensei saved your ass… I was gonna deliver the sting of a hundred ages on you.”[/i] He turned around on his heels, walking off towards their unconscious buddy, slumped over against a tree. With the ease that only a shinobi that had made the same movement a hundred times could muster, he swung the big scroll around his body to the front, opening it up while it hung from his stomach, and unsealed it. A medical set that was equivalent to a shinobi hospital ER room‘s worth of tools poofed into existence on top of the paper, and he began tending to his ally, giving him a sip of a tincture that woke the boy up immediately, immediately going into a coughing fit.

[i]“Did we do it?!”[/i] he yelled as soon as his coughing subsided, before his eyes caught the scene in front of him. Unagi, Gareki, Shogai and Sakana standing there while his sensei was looking at their “jonin’s” arm. [i]“Aw, dookies..”[/i] the young boy mumbled.

It had been a mistake to take three young genin for a stroll in the rich and lush Amegakure forests. But with a strategy this bold, it could have worked. Maybe.

While team 3 was left waiting for the Konohagakure team to clear out, Sakana turned to his allies. [color=black][b]“Good work. After this, I’ll declare our mission a success. We’ll go back to being on standby after that, so make sure to refill your tools and eat some food to fill up on chakra again.”[/b][/color]

After about ten minutes of tending to the two wounded shinobi, the Konohagakure team said their goodbyes, offered a synchronized bow to team 3, and then jumped away, indeed heading towards the border in the north. Sakana directed his own team home, where they received confirmation that the trespassers were felt passing the border barrier only a few minutes prior. 

[color=black][b]“Let’s debrief at Shigeki,”[/b][/color] Sakana said, [color=black][b]“I’ll deliver the brief of the mission we just completed to the Amekage. You guys aren’t allowed into the tower, so I’ll meet you back at Shigeki.”[/b][/color]

And just like that, without a goodbye, he jumped off through the rainy streets of neon-covered Amegakure, leaving team 3 on their own to make their way to Shigeki.