Raiu Clan wrote:The first test consists of gathering a group of five children and leaving them lost in the mountains, in charge of surviving on their own. The age range of the children range from eight years old to ten years old, the task was to survive for one week. Now-a-days such practices would be considered cruel and brutal, but the truth is: Raiu clan was looking for those with the strongest character, the type of people who will not kill a comrade for the sake of surviving. Those who kill their friends were immediately banished from the clan.

Markus remembers the night well. He was only in his ninth year of age, and had not yet started his trials in order to become a full member of the Raiu clan. The clan, which was much less known than it once was, still held special trials in which the weakest children were weeded out. To many this might seem barbaric. However, to the Raiu it was part of life. The clan needed to be strong, and as such needed to test their children. These trials were 3 part, and all were deadly, if one failed, and they survived, they were stripped of the clan’s name.

Markus had companions and friends who had already started their trials in the previous year, at the age of eight was the first year one could be accepted. He knew it wasn’t rare for children to be held back, even up to two years. However, it didn’t make Markus feel any better, he was certain he was stronger than many of his friends. Markus had been denied entry into the trials for the second time, Markus was nine years of age, and again the elders passed him by, he would only have one chance left. As such, he was starting to worry, with only one more chance to prove his worth, there was much riding on him, he knew his father would be disappointed… if he wasn’t drunk most nights. At the time Markus thought the elders deemed him too weak, and were giving him another chance to grow. However, that night Markus learned it was because his father kept him from the trials, his father, a once great shinobi, had lost himself in the past two years, after Markus’s mother had died on a job. His father could not stand to lose both him, and his mother, it was a constant argument between the father, and a family friend. Whether or not Markus should choose for himself to be part of the clan.
Markus had another problem, he was born with a birth condition. As far as the medical ninja could tell, it rendered his nervous system entirely useless. Markus felt no pain, no pleaser, no heat, nor cold. Physical stimuli was nonexistent for Markus. He didn’t see what the problem was, if anything it made him stronger. After all, a ninja who couldn’t feel pain could fight forever. Markus at the time had no idea how naive those thoughts were.

Up his seventh year of age Markus had been training hard to overcome his affliction, and become a great ninja. His mother, and father were both ninjas before him. His father had been a member of “The rangers of the cloud”, and his mother a medical ninja. Markus seemed to have strong affinity for the ninjutsu arts, and those combined with his fast reflexes gave his father hope for when he could truly join the clan. However, everything changed when his mother died. His father grew distant, stopped working as a ninja, and lost himself to the drink. He had all but stopped Markus’s training.

Markus was terrified he would lose his clans name, and find himself alone in such a dangerous world. That night, after learning the situation. Markus made his decision, and packed his bags.


[Word Count 553]
[Total WC 553]