It was about 30 minutes later when my teammates arrived at the training grounds.

Yugi-sensei and I stood up, approaching the twins.  He stopped in front of them, and I continued to stand beside them.

Yugi-sensei pulled out a clock, and placed it on one of three stumps, and set it for noon.

He held out two bells.

"You have until noon to get these bells from me.  If you don't, you skip lunch and are tied to the post.  Also, there is the chance that you could go back to the Academy..."  Yugi-sensei stated bluntly.

We nodded in understanding.

"What about the third person?  There are only two bells."

He smirked.  "That’s for you guys to figure out."

Yugi-sensei grew serious again.  "But you must be serious about this exercise.  If you don't come at me to kill, you won't stand a chance."

We nodded again, determination shining in our eyes.  We crouched down, ready to take action, if need be.

Yugi-sensei tied the bells to one of his belt loops.

"Begin."

We shot off towards the trees, hiding in the bushes.  We stayed within a few yards of each other, and watched as our sensei sat down in the middle of the open meadow, and closed his eyes.

I glanced at my teammates, and they made eye contact with me.  I motioned for them to come to me.

Once close, I whispered what I thought of the situation.

"Those bells.  They are meant to pit us against each other."  They nodded.  "But, if this is the same test everyone is getting, and has gotten in the past, why are there always three people and a leader?  So we need to disregard the bells.  They are truly meant for us to demonstrate our ability.  So, we need to work together to get those bells, as a unit."  The twins nodded at me again.

"So, based on what you guys have told me, Ayana is strong in genjutsu, Yusuke is strong in taijutsu, and I'm strong in ninjutsu.  What if, we tried to do a three-way combo.  I try to use ninjutsu to distract him, and Ayana works on trying to catch him in a genjutsu.  When he falls for it, then Yusuke, you will need to be very fast in getting the bells, so that we have them before he breaks out of the genjutsu that Ayana casts."

Ayana looked impressed.  "It sounds like you already this planned."

I smirked.  "I did."  I looked back at Yugi-sensei, to see him still sitting with his eyes closed.

"OK.  Let's try it!  Go!"

We scattered, and I jumped out in front of Yugi-sensei.

I quickly formed the Ox, Snake, and then Ran hand seals, and released my Chakra.  Mist started to form in the meadow around us, and I used my Chakra-infused mist to see what was around me.  I was still a couple of yards in front of Yugi-sensei, but he had stood up now, taking on a fighting stance.  I could also feel the twins moving around in my mist.  I sent a pulse of Chakra towards Ayana, hoping that she would understand the signal to start preparing the genjutsu.  I pulled out a kunai, and threw it towards Yugi-sensei.  He dodged it, to my surprise, and landed on his feet.  I suddenly felt a pulse of Chakra coming back to me from Ayana's direction.  She finished her preparations, and was getting ready to cast it.  I felt Yugi-sensei freeze, and I sent a hurried pulse toward Yusuke, who then jumped into action.  He ran forward, covered by my mist, and stole the bells.  The clinking sound brought Yugi-sensei back into awareness, and he grabbed Yusuke.

Suddenly, my mist was dispersed.  We saw that Yugi-sensei had Yusuke, with a knife to his throat.  But he also had the bells in his hand.

"Well, what will you do now?  I have one of your teammates by the throat with a knife threatening his life.  What will you do?"

My gaze hardened as I thought about the possibility of losing a teammate.

I darted forward, drawing out some shuriken.  I launched towards Yugi-sensei, and quickly followed behind them.  Pulling a kunai, I parried the kunai in Yugi-sensei's hand after he deflected the shuriken. 

Pushing hard into the kunai, I forced him to release Yusuke.

"Get to Ayana!"  I commanded him.

He nodded, and ran to his sister.

I focused back on my sensei.

"My answer to your question is that I will NEVER abandon a teammate.  That's a lesson I learned through the stories of my great-grandfather, and it is one that I wish to stick by.  Yusuke is my teammate, and we got the bells through working together, and sticking with each other, no matter what!  I don't care if we fail our mission, as long as everyone gets home safe."  I pushed harder into my kunai, until there was nothing to push against.  I fell forward slightly, but caught myself.

I looked up at Yugi-sensei.  Pride shined in his eyes as he gazed down at me.  He turned to my teammates.

"Do you agree with his statement?"

The answer was instant, seeming to be spoken with one voice of two pitches.

"Definitely."

The smile on Yugi-sensei's fave was the biggest that I had ever seen on a person, including Naruto.

"Then I am proud to say that you all have passed!  And, if I'm not mistaken, in record time, as well."

We all grinned at each other.

"Congratulations.  You three are now officially genin!"