[table][row][cell][color=#A1B41B]Location: Training Ground 31[/color][/cell][cell][color=#A1B41B]Gorudo Hikigae[/color][/cell][/row][row][cell][center]
[color=#2E2C2C][sup]_______________________________________________[/sup][/color][img]https://i.imgur.com/HZtyD3V.png[/img]
[/center][/cell][cell]Quiet.......Nothingness.............[i][b][color=#A1B41B]Gasp![/color][/b][/i] The body reflexed and convulsed against his will, sending him forward onto his hands and knees; much like how he was when Koji let go of him. His last moments were still playing in his mind as if it was still happening to him in slow motion. He still felt cold steel on his neck, blood flowing out of his body, his brain still simulating the feeling of what he thought to be his neck being cut. Gorudo was heaving and gasping trying to breathe, his brain still certain that he couldn't. His entire body and senses being consumed by the pull of death [color=#A1B41B]"Na....Na...Naruko! I...I'm Sorry!!"[/color] 

Garudo cried out pathetically, his throat horse and rasp. His whole body felt cold, like the steel that was at his neck. His ears began to start ringing as the many sharp scrapes and clangs of Koji's kunai barrage from erlier began to pile on top of Garudo's weakened mental state. Things he was trying to block out... began to consume him. Desperately heaving air in and out of his body rapidly, tensing the muscles in his neck, combined with the stress and anxiety forced Garudo's body to vomit onto the ground near him, falling off his hands and knees. He opened his eyes briefly, seeing Naruko's face before falling unconscious a second time. 

But this time...there was space, there was peace, a peace he was attuned to. He felt the warm comfort of his bed. His mother's arms embracing him. There was no sound, no intrusive thoughts crowding his mindscape. A little Garudo began running around with their arms out pretending to fly with his new friend Naruko, which quickly turned into an impromptu game of tag. Then the world around him shifted to nighttime. Suddenly Garudo and Naruko were dressed in makeshift ninja outfits, now they were a few years older. [color=orange]"Okay! Garu, dis is a tawp seqwet mission, stwait from the Hokagy demselfs!"[/color] Little Naruko said to him as quietly as she could but wanted to emphasize the seriousness of the mission. Garudo said nothing and gave her a serious nod in return; appropriate to the level of serious seriousness that this mission required. [color=orange]"In your daddies room is a secret thingy that holds all de secrets in the entire woooooorld! I knows because I saws where he puts it. He didn't want anyone seeing where hehehe"[/color] 

Suddenly time seamlessly leaps forward. Garudo and Naruko were ninja crawling across the tatami mat floor of his dad's "meditation" room. Garudo and Naruko gently lifted a loose panel in the floor revealing a secret storage compartment! Garudo's face began to scrunch up in confusion at what he was looking at. Because it currently didn't look like something that had all the secrets in the world. Naruko giggled as she grabbed the magazine titled [i]Bare Kum♡ichi #17[/i] and just as she held it in her hands his dad burst into the room! 

Suddenly Gorudo awoke again just as his dad was about to lecture them. Gorudo was awake again, a smell filling his nose. He reflexively rose to a sitting position with his knees up. Opening his eyes he could see Naruko and Nijira awake and alive, this sight brought him instant comfort. But that was short-lived as the feelings of his recent traumatic experience began to flood back into his mind. Garudo clenched his hands around his head, trying to push the coldness of death away. But along with that coldness was a strange satisfaction that scared him even more, similar to the peace of his own dreams, the calm solitude of a normal mind. Garudo could now fight back against The Quiet, feeling his neck was closed made it seep back farther. Quickly he searched to check his other wounds, he found that they had been tended to, he continued to try and gain more ground against The Quiet. 

He felt something in his nose which he quickly pulled out and threw away. The mental fog began to clear, his personal torment started to drift to the back of his mind, Garudo tried to focus on the surrounding nature and people around him, trying to focus on something else, anything else, The Quiet became a pulse in the back of his mind, numb and subdued like the awareness of one's heartbeat after running past their limits, his head pounded like a migraine. It was just then that Koji announced the end of the test, and gave them a promise that they won't have to go through that again. Garudo had his own frustrations to announce but Nijira went first... Garudo had no idea Nijira felt so insecure about himself, Garudo wondered if Nijira felt like he was lucky, if he was really that weak, they wouldn't let him be shinobi... would they? Gorudo gave himself a research project for later but quickly tried not to ponder the implication of the results, as he was trying to keep death off his mind as much as possible. 

With Nijira done speaking Garudo added [color=#A1B41B]"And what kind of half-assed reasoning is that!?"[/color] Garudo said and then immediately mimicked Koji's stance and voice with a surprising amount of accuracy for a 13-year-old boy[i][color=#318CE7]"That was your last moment. My goal as your sensei is to make it so you will never experience that again."[/color][/i] Then he switched back to his own voice [color=#A1B41B]"Why not just knock us out! make us wake up thinking we died! [b]NOT ACTUALLY SIMULATING DEATH![/b] are you nuts! did your sensai hit you too hard in the head!? Because of [b]you![/b] I will experience it multiple times! Did you skip that part of my file? [b]I. cant. forget![/b] I will now have this experience permanently engraved into my brain! Mission accomplished Takuma Sensai! What's next!?"[/color] Garudo said, he was furious; he found his sensai's logic unsatisfactory [color=#318CE7]"I will pay for lunch, but first I will have to leave you in this desert with no food or water for 3 days."[/color] Garudo mimicked him again. But the thought of dying in the desert triggered The Quiet to send shivers through his body, feeling the cold steel press on his neck once more, causing him to cough again until he pushed The Quiet back. He then needed something to draw his focus so he looked at Naruko. He Remembered the things they had done together, he used those positive memories to push The Quiet back. 

[color=#A1B41B]"Are we done today?"[/color] Garudo said with a pained grimace, tears started to form in his eyes, he had never felt so angry before, he had never yelled at anyone like that before, he felt guilty about it, but he at the same time didn't regret saying how he felt. Today was a big day for him and it had not gone how he wanted it to go. his body was relatively uninjured, but the mental gymnastics he was doing combined with the emotional fatigue had him drained. He wants to be a part of this team because this had been Naruko & his dream for so long, so he was willing to continue no matter what. But he would really prefer to just go home, hug his mother, and sleep. [color=#A1B41B]"If there is more you need from us, let's just get it over with..."[/color] Garudo said, an uncharacteristic edge was in his voice. He wiped the tears from his eyes and stared at his sensai with a combative glare.[/cell][/row][/table][right][img]https://i.imgur.com/wkXHBzW.png[/img][/right]