Kunai test

[Otomeken]

Kakashi stood on the open field of the training ground awaiting his students' arival for this test. It would be fairly simple and strait-forward.

All they had to do was show up, and then the test would begin.

(Post your entrance to the test below. On Sunday, the actual test will begin. When you are called, you will have one day (24 hours from the time of Kakashi's post) to reply. This test will be done in three parts, make sure you're not late so you don't get skipped over. Do not be affraid to fail a test. There will be several more coming up.)

[Kaliri]

Kaliri, reminiscing about the last test she took, slumped tiredly onto the training field. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, shaking herself awake. though she'd already been up for hours today, she had taken a slight nap outside the entrance to this park, wanting to get here early, because the last few tests, she had shown up late, and was not allowed to take the test.

[Kataoka]

Kataoka had already been in the training grounds area when Kakashi shockingly appeared early. His body was drenched in sweat, and his arms were drearily sore. He had been practicing his handsigning once again, to no avail once again. It was merely by chance he had seen Kakashi at all, and as students began to fill the space about him Kataoka decided he might as well join the festivities, whatever they were.

[Otomeken]

"Alright," Kakashi said to the students who had amassed. "This will be your Kuani test. It will be done in three stages, each more difficult than the last." Kakashi surveyed his students with his single eye, looking tired and rather unenthusiastic. "To start off," he stomped on a switch by his feet and three bull's eye targets jumped into position, one twenty feet away, one thirty feet away, and one forty feet away. "It is simply accuracy. You have six kunai, two at each target. Show me what you've got. Kaliri, you're up first."

Having given the instructions, Kakashi took a small, orange-covered book from his own kunai pouch and leaned up against a near-by tree, seeming not to even be watching at all...

[Kaliri]

Kaliri blinked at the man. Was she supposed to do it from just one point, or was she supposed to like... run by? Unsure of what to do with herself, she picked a point parelell to where Kakashi was standing and looked at him again. Shrugging, she took her shoes and socks off, and set her bare feet to the ground. She stomped one foot on the ground, and sensed a vague perception of the targets. This, along with her blade work with Kumori, should both help.
She took out a kunai, and threw it at the first target. Two inches from center made her feel very good about herself. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard.
The Second kunai was a little closer to her normal, hitting at seven inches from center. She stole a glance at the teacher, and tried the third. Five inches from center made her breathe a sigh of relief.
She focused on the first target again, and stomped on the groun, immediately throwing the first, the second, the third in rapid sucession. .5 inches from center, 2.5 inches, 4 inches.
She looked up again at the teacher, and shrugged again, slipping back into her shoes and socks, and stepping aside.

[Otomeken]

Kakashi didn't even look up from his book. He didn't seem to be paying any attention what-so-ever. After a few seconds, he gave a nod as he flipped the page. "Ok, Kataoka, your turn," he proclaimed and continued to read...

[Kataoka]

Kataoka smiled as Kakashi stopped giving instructions. There were basically no rules to this test...He liked that. His skill with kunai was relatively advanced as it was, having skill comparable to most chuunins, do to his age. He couldn't blow this however. His hands clumsily fumbled together until they formed the correct hand seal. Then the fun began. He transformed his stamina into chakra...and then transformed that chakra into a guranteed passing grade. "Sword arm no-jutsu!" he shouted slightly, before drawing two kunai. He had seen flawless kunai skill before, and that skill was now his own. The first kunai was nearly too fast to see, but it landed flawlessly in the center of the target. He held the second kunai in his right hand, and whiped his arm outwards towards the target again. The blade pierced into the target with a sickening snap, as the kunai nearly stuck out of the back of the target. He scowled when he saw where the blade had ended up however...Two rings away from the center. Was there something he was doing wrong?

He frowned but pulled out two more kunai and moved to the next target. He couldn't change what had happened, and simply focused on not repeating whatever mistake he had made. He launched both kunai at the same time, each at a nearly perfect inverse angle. The blades pierced into the center of the target, and a smile flickered on Kataoka's face. At least the problem had taken care of itself.

The final two kunai...The final challenge. He drew one, leapt upwards and flung the kunai downwards toward the final target...A bullseye. His second kunai flickered from his hand mere seconds later. His smile turned to a frown and look of anguish. The first kunai had achieved a perfect bullseye...as had the second. Unfortunately, the laws of physics forbade Kataoka's perfect final throw. Two objects cannot share the same space...and now Kataoka looked like death as the final kunai ricocheted off of the first and landed clumsily on the ground.

Was he going to fail? The only test that didn't require a jutsu and he was about to fail. His head hung low in anguish as he returned to his seat...his arms were even more sore then they had been before the test, and all for nothing.

[Otomeken]

Kakashi flipped another page, and gave no visible signs of paying any attention at all.

"Kaliri, your turn again," Kakashi said, but failed to provide any further instructions. Stamping his foot down again where he now was, the first two targets folded down, and two more popped up beside the furthest. These three started shifting back and forth and in front of one another...

[Kaliri]

Klairi gently patted Kataoka's arm, then stepped up to the line marked in her head by Kakashi's position. Looking questioningly again at the teacher, she kicked off her shoes and socks, figuring it was likely she should just keep them off. She stood with her feet in the dirt for a moment, eyes closed, sensing the movements of the targets. She kept her eyes closed, and drew a kunai. She held it as she tracked the movement. One target passed in front of another. She kept her focus. The next target passed the face of the one she tracked. In five seconds, they would cross each other.... three, ....... two....... one!
Kaliri let three Kunai fly in rapid sucession, each hitting a target. She didn't stop to check her results yet. She waited. Three seconds, two, one...
Three kunai, again, and three thuds.
She opened her eyes, and again absorbed her results with mixed feelings. While every kunai had hit a target, not every one was close to center. the target in the middle of the track had two dead center hits. But the front and back targets had one kunai on each side, two bands from center. Two bands, three inches, and only two dead-center hits. She looked up once again at Kakashi, and then went back to stand beside where Kataoka sat, though only sitting, he was 3/4 her height. She plopped down, prefering to save herself at least that.

[Otomeken]

Kakashi durring all the times anyone spoke or reguarded him was just as interested in his book as he'd priviously been and paid no attention once again...

He was just sitting there this time, and almost when it would seem someone was going to have to nudge him or something to see if he were going to continue the test, he flipped his page and said "Oi, Kataoka, go ahead..."

[Otomeken]

(Sorry Kataoka, but it's been well over a day. Don't worry though, there will be at least four more tests before the exam and you only need to pass three).

Kakashi didn't even look as the other student left, apparently the pain in his hands too great to continue with this test.

Kakashi finished the page he was on and then got up, putting the book back into his pouch. He nodded to Kaliri to follow.

He led the girl to a small tree lined grove. In the center of it, was a small boulder. "Using any jutsus you have to, hit all ten targets in one jump off of that rock," Kakashi instructed. There were twenty kunai all laid out and waiting for her to pick up as many as she would need. There were targets scattered all over the outskirts of the clearing, and one elusive one at the base of the stone....

[Kaliri]

Kaliri took ten kunai, and before she took her running jump, she pulled a pillar of earth to stand beside the rock. Taking her running jump, she walked her hands up the pillar as she ascended. Each time her hand hit the pillar, a tube sprung from the end of it, with a funnell like opening on the Pillar end, and the other end coming out poised above a different target. Ten in all sprung at her ascent, and in the infinite space, when she was weigthless for that eternal moment, she spread the kunai into one each of the waiting funnells at the tops of the tubes.
Suddenly, gravity kicked in, and she was falling again. She turned her head to start her body twisting, and dragged her hand down the earth, molding a slide, which she rode down to skid to a stop at the bottom. She panted once or twice quickly, and then took a deep breath and retreived her shoes and socks, but didn't yet put them on. She looked around at the targets, and noticed with a flash of annoyance, that she'd accidentally put two kunai into one tube, and so had ended with two kunai in one target. Otherwise, though, she was able to hit dead center, or as near to as makes no difference. she waited to see what Kakashi would have to say next.

[Otomeken]

Kakashi stood there in front of his chosen leaning tree for a moment, and then nodded to Kaliri. "Very well... One more thing." He nodded to the remaining kunai on the ground... "See if you can hit me with one of those," he said, standing perfectly still...

[Kaliri]

Kaliri regarded the remaining few kunai, and knew in a moment she could never hit him. She remembered his antics during her kawarimi test, and knew that she wasn't advanced enough to do him any harm.
She supposed the point was to be creative, so her course was decided. She picked up the kunai, and placed them under her right foot, points-down. She formed a seal, and stomped her foot, opening up a small space through which to propel them, and dragging a few rocks beneath the surface to deflect them along the ground towards where Kakashi stood.
Moving a second set of rocks in the way, she deflected two of the kunai back up into the space kakashi had been standing above, bringing them straight up underneath him. The third Kunai missed the rock beneath the surface, and she closed down the jutsu to keep it from sending the kunai too far.
Without waiting to see what the result was, she pulled the kunai back towards her, up out of the earth, and picked it up, holding it in her hand, and looked to see what she'd managed to accomplish...
If he'd been just anyone, the blow would have hit him, but with his reflexes....

[Otomeken]

When the kunai landed, it was in a small cloud of smoke revealing that of course, Kakashi was not there. The kunai did, however, stick a note of paper to a tree. On closer examination, Kaliri would read one word in Kakashi's quick scrawling hand writing. 'Congrad---tions. The center of the word cut by the blade of her kuani, but it was easy enough to figure the rest out from there....