"Pull yourself together. You are not Sakura." Karin's words entered her ears, and Shizuka separated from Enma's arms and ran by their side.
"Where is she?"
"Still at the Training Field," Enma said, and once they had travelled a considerable distance away, the three of them stopped.
"This is crazy. Why is this test so hard?" The Uzumaki Princess furrowed her brows.
"Doesn't matter. We now have to think of a way to get that bell before sunset..." Her brother stopped speaking and his expression suddenly tensed up. "She just used some Earth Style Jutsu and laid traps all over the Training Field."
Things were growing worse and worse for them, and they were all nervous now.
"She's strong too. Very strong. It will not be easy to get that bell from her, Nii-san. The test also wants to determine our battle prowess. She wants to force us to give our all," she said meaningfully.
"We need to get her to leave the Training Field." Enma pulled up the white sleeve of his shirt, revealing a seal on his left forearm.
He then traced it with his finger, lighting it up, and then grabbed the large sack that he pulled out of the seals.
Shizuka had never seen such use of Fuinjutsu before, and she was shocked. However, when she looked inside the sack, she was in disbelief.
There were thousands of Explosive Tags fixed on wire strings, and he carefully took them all out and started explaining the plan to them.
"You want to kill her?" The Nakagami nervously gulped.
"For a Shinobi, nothing matters more than the Mission. Those were her words, and she tried to kill us first." He smiled. "I would never be able to rest easy if I didn't return the favour to her."
Karin grinned at her brother's words and then created a dozen clones of herself.
Enma then did the same, and the two of them took out some more weapons and equipment from their seals before they got to work.
"How are your clones... real?"
"It was the Jutsu Naruto used earlier in the class. He found it in the Forbidden Scroll of Seals of Konoha, which Mizuki-sensei was trying to steal last night. We copied it after observing his chakra flow," Karin made an excuse. "It's very taxing though, as these clones consume a lot of chakra. But since we are Uzumaki, it is easy for us. We will teach you later, but remember, if you try to create more than two clones, you would likely die." She warned her teammate, who solemnly nodded her head.
"Mizuki-sensei..."
"Later, Shizuka." Enma cut her off. "We are on a mission."
She blushed at his words and nodded her head in embarrassment, focusing her mind on the task now.
"We are either failing this test together or passing it together. No one is going to get voted out," Karin strictly said, and her brother smiled.
"Of course."
Only Shizuka knew how relieved she was after hearing those words, and she promised herself not to hold them back or be a burden to them.
Half an hour later, in the Training Field, the Jonin smiled when the snakes hidden inside her coat informed her that her students had returned.
However, her heart suddenly jumped out of her throat when she saw dozens of wire strings shoot out of the woods.
Within seconds, she found herself in a field that was now littered with explosive tags, and her eyes dangerously narrowed when they were ignited without warning.
The chain of explosions was so massive that they were heard far into the Village, but the Jonin still managed to escape by using an Earth-style Jutsu to secretly tunnel through the ground.
Her heart was very restless for some reason. It was almost like she was the one being hunted now.
"Get ready," Karin told her teammates as she saw their Sensei's signature, who was about to come out of the ground, but then her eyes suddenly opened wide and she grabbed Shizuka and rushed back.
A massive serpent, made of mud, shot out of the ground, and then it exploded, sending the sticky mud all around.
They managed to take cover behind the tree, but then their Jonin, who had created two Shadow Clones, rushed right at them to return the favour they had just shown her.
Enma tried to pull the strings to activate the traps but found them foiled by that sticky mud blast.
The two Uzumaki quickly sent their Shadow Clones to intercept their Sensei, and then Karin did something that shocked Shizuka.
She created a hundred more clones and sent them all to attack the Jonin.
"I want you to trust me. It might hurt, but if it works, we can get the bell..."Enma caught up and informed them of a new plan.
This was not a fight with Genins, and it had become very apparent to the Jonin, who was shocked at the number of Shadow Clones that Karin could create.
She was forced to retreat out of the woods when the girl flooded the area by using her Water Jutsus, and then she had to create mud walls to protect herself from the weapons with explosive tags that were being hurled at her.
"You are lucky I am not allowed to kill you all." She grinned when her Shadow Clones exploded and she received the information and their remaining chakra.
And then she truly entered Hunter Mode.
For the next three hours, she fought hard against the three Genins, who made things very interesting for her with their sneaky tricks. She was truly impressed by their battle IQ. Given their skills and teamwork, it was embarrassing for them to be called Genins.
Once Karin started to tire, Enma focused on protecting the two girls, and their tricks seemed to be running out as well.
When the Jonin saw an opportunity, she took it and got past the boy's clones to rush at the raven-haired girl.
Shizuka was completely tired now, and desperation was visible in her eyes as she threw the Fuma Shuriken in her hands at her.
It was fast, but not to her, and she simply ducked at the last moment to get past it.
With her arms, she sent out dozens of Shadow Snakes at Enma, who was trying to intercept her, but then something unexpected happened.
The Fuma Shuriken above her suddenly popped. If it was a death match, she could have still done something, but not right now, and not against them.
Besides, the Hokage had forbidden her from going all out.
An instant later, her limbs were caught in Chakra Chains, and Enma was hugging her waist as his right hand searched her and grabbed the bell.
He checked if it was real, and then threw it into the hands of his sister.
"Don't move. The one behind you is a Shadow Clone, an Explosive Shadow Clone, and I will detonate it if I don't hear the result of our test within the next five seconds."
The Jonin heard Enma's voice, who was standing next to Shizuka, and she sighed at how terrifying these youngsters were.
"You pass."
"All three of us, right?" Karin grinned, and when she nodded her head, the two girls jumped up and shared a high-five before they excitedly laughed.
Enma then dispelled his clones, freeing her in the process, and she lazily stretched her arms before smiling at her students.
"My name is Mitarashi Anko, and from this day onwards, I am your Sensei. We are going to have a lot of fun, Team 5." She grinned, and her students grinned right back at her.
The four of them reached the central street when the sky had completely turned dark, and Karin and Shizuka dragged their Sensei to their favourite Yakiniku Restaurant.
"Choji, Ino, Shikamaru!" The Uzumaki Princess was even more excited when she saw their friends sitting with their Sensei inside the restaurant, and the four were shocked when they saw how beat they looked.
They too looked beat up, but it was the difference between a street fight and a war.
"What happened to you guys?"
"Oh, we were hunting a troublesome snake." Enma suddenly said something that froze Anko, but then she grinned and wrapped her arm around his neck, pulling him close to her.
"Behave yourself, kid. I let you win."
"Yeah, right." Karin and Shizuka rolled their eyes and quickly greeted Team 10's Sensei.
Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji greeted Anko as well, and then the two groups sat down and initiated an eating contest, which only pleased the restaurant owner since Asuma was sweating hard now.
His pride would not let him make the Genins pay, and he was hoping Anko would share the bill with him, but the lady just laughed and informed him that she had already spent all her salary for this month on dangos.
Everyone sweated at her words, and even Choji weirdly looked at her, but Enma could tell that she was lying and having fun, forcing Sarutobi Asuma to pay for everything.
"I will cover our share," he said to the man, who laughed, even though he wanted to cry inside.
"Oh, don't worry about it, Uzumaki-san. I have it covered."
Since the Jonin insisted on keeping his pride, Enma accepted his decision and expressed his gratitude for the meal.
When they separated from their students, the two Jonins then flickered away to give their report to the Hokage.
Asuma was a little surprised when he found Kakashi present there with Kurenei, and it only meant that his team had passed his test.
"Asuma, Anko. I take it that Team 10 and Team 5 have also passed the test?"
"Yes."
"Yes."
Finally, after listening to the reports of the other three Jonins, the Hokage looked at Anko.
"How did they pass?"
She felt a little embarrassed at his words and then nervously laughed.
"They defeated me."
The three Jonins turned to look at her in shock, and the Hokage took a puff from his pipe.
"How?"
"The kids are not Genins, Hokage-sama. If it's about strength and smarts, I would say that Uzumaki Karin and Uzumaki Enma can even take out some of the Jonins of our village in single combat," she honestly said, shocking her fellow Jonins even more. "Also, they figured out how to use Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu after watching Uzumaki Naruto perform it last night and this morning in the class."
"Tell me everything in detail."
"Yes..."
Half an hour later, when she finished reporting every detail of the test, glossing over some of her secrets, Kurenei and Asuma were feeling dizzy.
"I see." The Hokage smiled. "So, I suppose you will be recommending them for the Chunin Exams at the end of June?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama. It's a waste to keep them as Genins for another half a year or a year when they are fully capable of helping the village with more important missions. I will focus on training Nakagami Shizuka and help her catch up with her teammates or, at least, make her strong enough to not drag the siblings down."
"Good." The Hokage then looked at all of them. "The next Chunin Exams are going to be held at our village. Iwa and Kumo have refused to participate in it. The latter only participates in the exams at the end of every year, and Iwa does not want to come to our village. Our performance in the Chunin Exams that concluded two days ago in Kumo was very poor, so, I hope we can remedy it in the next session." He took a deep puff and exhaled. "Sunagakure, Otogakure, Takigakure, Kusagakure, and Amegakure will be participating in the coming session, and our reports tell us that Kazekage's children will be taking this exam..."
The four Jonins attentively listened to all that the Hokage had to share with them.
"You don't have to force your teams to enter the exams if they are not ready. They are valuable assets of the village, and losing them would hurt us a lot."
"We understand, Hokage-sama." Kurenei nodded her head.
"Dismissed."