Takeshii's heart felt apology was met with laughter from his sensei, which prompted Kasfara to leer at him. Takeshii looked on confusedly until Kenji regained his composure.
[color=blue]"You wait till you meet his siblings, you will go back to your presumption quickly. Kasfara's siblings made many attempts on my life. They were and are ruthless. However, after becoming a lion sage, we did reach a mutual respect for each other." Kenji stated after he had caught his breath.
They departed, Kenji, Takeshii, Kasfara, and the Chuunin. Soon arriving at the Crash Grounds, a tall mountain with mist at the bottom and swarms of what looked from afar to be buzzing locusts or birds. The sunflowers in Takeshii's eyes took shape and his pupils dialated allowing him to get a closer look, indeed they were birds. Black birds with three eyes, Takeshii recognized them as Yatagarasu.
- Yatagarasu:
They were a rare bird only found in the Land of Lightning, they're third eye was said to have the power of foresight, but more than likely it merely evolved the ability to sense chakra flow or see heat. Something along these lines. Regardless, the breeding habits, and lack of food higher up in the mountains made the birds extremely aggressive. Takeshii's father once told him of a time he saw a small murder of Yatagarasu devour an entire mountain elk in less than a minute.
"HERE AT THE CRASH GROUNDS... YOU ARE THE PREY... YOU HAVE TO SURVIVE 3 MINUTES HERE."Kenji looked to Takeshii and spoke briefly,
"my uncle took me here when I was promoted to Chuunin. I was forced to last two days... not three minutes. I'm afraid this will get dangerous, I'll have you merge with Kasfara. You will be able to see what's going on but be safe as well. Kasfara is going to place his paw on your neck."Which the blue lion did, upon which a light enveloped Takeshii and he was transfered into a blue void. He could see two openings which he presumed were Kasfara's eyes. Out these windows he could see everything that was going on outside. He could also hear everything going on around him, and strangely enough he could feel sensations around his body. The breeze flowing through his hair, his hands on the ground. The whole thing took some time to get used to, but soon he settled in. Just soon enough for Kenji to point his sword to the sky and let loose a bolt of lightning that attracted the Yatagarasu, what others simply call crash birds.
"Let the Games begin!"The birds swarmed around the chuunin swooping in to swipe at them. They came in droves, and they clouded the sky. Some chuunin swatted at them, some hid under tree trunks, some tried to use jutsu which the birds simply flew around. It was like nothing Takeshii had ever seen before.
One chuunin was over taken by the cloud of birds, but was able to fend them off by using a jutsu that enveloped his whole body in electricity. However as the birds blasted off, Takeshii could see that large chunks of flesh was missing from him, his left cheek dangled from his face by only a thread of skin. Making his teeth perfectly visible through the gaping hole in his face. The whole cloud of birds targetted this one young boy and overpowered him, picking his bones clean within seconds. His screams of agony rattled Takeshii to his bones, and made him feel something he hadn't felt in a long time. Fear. He pushed this feeling down, and replaced it with something else. Acceptance. Acceptance that at any point in a shinobi's life, he might die. Death was just part of his life now, something that he couldn't allow to faze him.
A minute, scarcely had passed. The whole field was pandamonium, and Takeshii looked on to see what Kenji would do. As brave as he was, he knew he wouldn't have survived this at his current abilities.
'Kenji went 2 days in this? No wonder he's so strong!' Takeshii thought to himself, being merged with Kasfara, he figured that the lion would probably hear his thoughts, and feel his emotions as well.