Mission:

It was a wonderfully sunny day in Sunagakure no sato, and a chuunin was leading three genin to a spot in the middle of the village where they would be meeting their instructor for the day. They were all rather short, the tallest being five feet and four inches. Each one of them maybe twelve or thirteen, the oldest reaching the age of fourteen. The oldest could possibly be a late graduate, but other than that they seemed rather fresh faced and confused as to what their day would entail. They wondered why they would be called to the middle of the village for battle training exercises when doing so on the outskirts of the village was supposed to be the normal. It minimized damage to the buildings in the village and kept anyone from getting hurt. Normally.

Three genin, the tallest and oldest, Hiro, looked around for their sensei. The youngest, Ko, silently sat in the sand, playing around in it. The middle of the three, Chisei, simply studied the buidlings and people walking by, looking for the sensei they were to learn from for the day. He adjusted his glasses upon seeing a young shinobi about the age of twenty one approaching. The approaching shinobi wore his hitai-ate over his left eye, and normal black shinobi clothing even complete with a netted shinobi shirt. This was definitely the man that they were waiting for and Chisei hissed at the two to pay attention and stand straight. They all stood straight as the man approached, awaiting his orders.

"Chisei, Ko, and Hiro. My name is Syekren, special jounin of the village hidden in the sand. Today I'll be teaching you about battle tactics. One of the most important tactics for a ninja to possess is the art of stealth. I chose the village center for you to test your stealth out on me. You're going to be given two minutes. At the end of those two minutes I expect you to be well hidden, and difficult to track or find. It begins as a close my eye."

Finishing his speech rather quickly, Syekren closed his right eye, allowing them to hide. The three looked at each other, dumbfounded for a moment.  Was he really serious? Did he expect to be able to find them all in such a large place with so many people and buildings to hide with or in? There was no way that someone, even a special jounin could pull that off. They had this test in the bag, or so they thought. And so each one ran off, scattering to take up a hiding spot in different locations. Not being able to get too far with only two minutes to hide, but they did the best that they could, trying to hide away from Syekren using jutsu and cover to the best of their capabilities.

Once the count was over, syekren opened his eyes and smirked. The three had really taken it to heart and did their best to hide. They may make good shinobi yet, he thought. He looked around from the left to the right, scanning the faces of all who passed. This wouldn't be too hard, not for a special jounin and ANBU of the sand. He'd lived here nearly his entire life and knew this village better than anyone else. All he needed to do was keep a calm head and find them one by one, reading the environment for clues. This would be the easy part, as they all left foot prints detailing their movement in the sand. That's something that was their first mistake: not disguising or kicking the sand away to hide their foot steps.

Syekren first ventured off to the right, following the foot steps on the ground. Roughly thirty meters from his original position they went down into an alleyway, disappearing completely as if they just stopped. Syekren shrugged and looked around, noting any disturbances he saw. He stopped looking when he noticed a shadow on the ground, it was peculiar to see such a deformed mass. So he looked up to find the youngest of the three, Ko, using supernatural walking practice to keep himself on the wall. Shaking his head, Syekren motioned for him to come down. "One. Next time, work with the shadows to keep your own hidden from your enemy."

Syekren then returned to where he was originally, following the foot prints to his left while Ko waited for him. These steps were heavier, obviously being from the largest of the three he was tutoring for the day. And seemed to go straight to a crowd of people. Syekren looked around the crowd, scanning each face. Most of them looked jovial, and going about their business while one rather plump man was looking around as though he was trying to hide something. This would be suspicious if syekren didn't turn his head to see a woman staring straight at him but look away and try moving through the crowd to avoid him. After moving through the crowd to catch up to the woman, he noticed someone who looked exactly like her looking disturbed, trying to get her attention. Syekren placed a hand on the retreating woman's shoulder, whispering to her. "Two. Try to impersonate someone that isn't here next time. You also have to be natural when using transformation. These two points are key. You gave yourself away."

One more was left to find and he returned to his original spot, where Hiro had joined Ko, both looking rather sour. Following the last set of foot prints, Syekren came to a more open part of the village center, with stalls and people galore. The footprints stopped as he entered the area, being wiped away from there. It was only twenty meters from the starting point, so there was ample time to get rid of evidence. Tricky little guy here.. Tricky. He thought, at least. Until he saw Chisei sitting on a bench, waiting for him. Syekren moved over to the bench and sat next to the genin.

You listened to where we went and estimated the time it took for us to run, then calculated where we'd be. You weren't actually following the steps, so we were doomed from the start. If this were a real encounter we'd be dead."

Syekren chuckled and nodded. "Good on you, tell your teachers I said you did well enough, just work harder. You've got potential." Chisei nodded and Syekren stood, making his way back to the administration building to turn in the mission.

WC: 1,111/1,000
Mission Complete, Exit Thread
Discarded: 111 words