Not Really a Recruitment Test

At this, all the kids began to huddle around the centre of the ground where a man in a shinobi outfit suddenly appeared with a puff of smoke.

He stared around at the children with an arrogant look, making them hurry their pace up.

Kiyo helped Peko up and helped him walk as they joined Ryuuya and Haru. Upon seeing Peko, both the boys smiled as they helped Peko up and stared straight at the man.

As more and more children made their way towards the centre, Kiyoshi began to realise that something was slightly off.

He could only see one man in the centre. Pondering where the other people were, he turned around and stared across the field.

Seeing this, he was further confused as he saw the shinobi that were standing on the outskirts of the ground were now making their way towards them.

"Ryuuya," Kiyo called out. The moment that he got his attention, Kiyo told him, "I'm getting a very bad feeling. Be ready for anything to happen."

Ryuuya's expression became more vigilant and serious upon hearing Kiyo's warning. He turned to Haru and told him to pick up some stones, to which Haru smiled and picked them up.

"Welcome!" the man in the middle spoke out, "I am the person who is going to oversee today's recruitment test. Everyone stand in four equal lines!"

In that instant, all the children began to line up into four lines.

Seeing this, a smile appeared on the man's face as he then proclaimed, "Now, everyone will close their eyes. We are going to ask you some questions and depending on your answer, you will whether you have passed or not."

"Why do we have to keep our eyes closed?" Kiyo heard the child in front of him asked out loud.

The man's expression suddenly turned cold as he seemed to have been offended by that question, nevertheless, he took a deep breath in as he replied, "It is so that there is no element of cheating. Closing your eyes will let us know that your answer had come from your own thinking and not from you copying others."

Hearing this, the child went silent and nodded as it made sense.

And so following that reply, everyone quickly began to close their eyes.

The first question rang out, "Our Second Kazekage is a primarily taijutsu user. All who think this is true, remain standing. All that don't, take a seat. You have fifteen seconds to decide. Fifteen! Fourteen! Thirteen~"

At this, Kiyoshi almost immediately sat down. The instant the question rang out, he felt in his intuition that the question was immediately wrong. Upon pondering about where he got such a feeling from, his mind immediately flew towards hearing something about this during his time in the laboratory.

He sat down but as he was doing so, he made sure to make some noise.

Hearing Kiyo sit down, Peko, Ryuuya and Haru who were standing right behind him also followed suit as they all sat down.

As the man reached the five-second mark, Kiyo picked up on the faintest sound of a smoke pop, similar to the noise created when the man suddenly appeared, and then a clattering sound of things striking each other sounded.

"One! Zero!"

As the man got to zero, the sound of the clattering became even loud as it got closer to the kids and just as it got louder, the sound of something being sliced began to ring out and quickly sped past the rest of the kids in a few seconds.

And almost as soon as the slicing sound rang past them, a series of cries and screams of horrific pain could be heard from the kids.

Hearing this, all the kids almost instantly opened up their eyes.

Kiyo's eyes opened up and the instant that he did, his pupils widened like saucers as horror and fear filled his mind. The kid that had been in front of him clearly had not sat down, believing that the question was true.

However, now all he was able to see was the body of the child but there was something missing. The head of the child had suddenly disappeared and was instead replaced by a large spurt of blood that flew out of the area of impact.

Kiyo's head immediately turned towards his back and the tension in his head seemed to relax a little. Ryuuya and the two boys behind him were all fine.

His attention turned to the puppets and almost instantly, he saw five wooden puppets, standing at the very front of the lines that the children had made. Their hands were made of blades that were currently coated in blood from all the kids that they had killed.

Kiyo was also able to see a thin blue thread connected to different parts of the puppet and as he turned to the source of the bright blue threads, he saw that it had come from the shinobis that were standing around the field.

"AHH!!!" the other children who had opened their eyes began to scream as they saw the countless decapitated bodies while the heads rolled down on the floor.

"Silence!" the man shouted, and in that instant, the puppets all suddenly flew to one of the kids who had screamed particularly loudly and he was instantly stabbed in the chest by a series of blades from all the puppets.

This act immediately got all the kids to shut up and they all turned their heads to the man in complete fear and shock.

"Congratulations to all those that are alive," he spoke without a hint of remorse, "You have gotten that right. Our great Kazekage is not a taijutsu user. He is a puppeteer."

Saying this, the man then pointed towards the puppets, "These are what our great Kazekage uses and with them, he was able to emerge as the strongest in the village. There is nothing that can defeat him in the village. He is-"

Before he was able to finish speaking, Haru's angry voice suddenly sounded out, "WHY THE HELL DID YOU HAVE TO KILL THEM?"

The man's expression suddenly froze as his eyes turned cold once again as he stared at Haru.

Almost immediately, the puppets began to run straight to Haru with their blades brandished as they prepared to stab him. But just as they were about to stab him.

"STOP!" the man shouted, causing all the puppets to freeze.

"We can't kill every kid that annoys us," he told the puppeteers with a magnanimous smile on his face.

"You asked why?" he spoke as he turned his attention to Haru, "If a citizen of Suna does not know about the strengths and greatness of our Kazekage, then they might as well no longer be a citizen of Sunagakure at all."

This answer only seemed to rile Haru up even more as he countered back, "Don't come at with that bullshit! We, kids, were not even given any form of education and are not even allowed in the central areas of the village where the Kazekage lives, how the hell did you expect us to know answers to questions like that? Citizen of Suna? You might as well kill everyone on this side of the village because no one knows the answer to that. The village doesn't even care about us!"

This time, anger could be seen on the man's face as Haru continued with his complaint. He let out a smile once again, but this time it was cold and filled with hate as he turned to the puppets.

However, just as he was about to give the signal, a voice was suddenly heard from behind the man, "Aren't you a loudmouth?"

Hearing this voice, the man's whole body stiffened as he turned around and immediately bowed, "Captain Honjo!"

The man who the man had just referred to as Captain Honjo quickly dismissed the bow as his gaze remained fixed on Haru.

"Come up," he spoke calmly.

Without hesitation, Haru began to walk forward but he felt a strong tug on his arms.

"Sigh..." Ryuuya let out a sigh as he also got up and spoke, "You think I'm letting you go into no man's land alone?"

At this, he also got up and the both of them began to make their way towards the Captain.

"We're all going to end up dying..." Kiyo groaned as he turned to Peko and told him, "I'm sorry, Peko. But you should prepare yourself to run. I don't think that this is a recruitment camp at all. There's something fishy about all this."

Kiyo then got up and hurriedly joined the other two.

"My my..." the Captain uttered in fake surprise, "It seems that you also have friends."

"We no longer want to participate in this sick test of yours," Haru declared as the trio arrived in front of the Captain.

"Hahahaha!" the Captain suddenly let out a fit of unruly laughter, confusing everyone. He then suddenly spoke, "You really have a terrible mouth. How about I close that mouth up for you?"

As soon as he said this, Haru's senses immediately began to scream at him that danger was close.

A puppet began charging towards Haru and he was shocked to see the speed at which the puppet was flying straight to him, he was not going to be able to dodge it in time.

He then felt a sudden pull on his back and his whole body suddenly fell backwards until he felt a hand stop his fall.

The puppet that had stabbed out had missed as it was aiming for Haru's throat. It had not expected Haru to suddenly dodge by throwing himself backwards.

Haru then jumped to the side and pulled out a stone from his pocket.

At this instant, Kiyo shouted out, "Everyone run! They are trying to kill us all!"

At the mention of their death, all the kids suddenly exploded in fear as they lost complete control. They all began to run in all directions, trying to escape from the grounds.

"GET THEM!" the Captain shouted to his lackey, the man that had originally led them.

At this, the man shouted for the puppeteers to start killing all the kids and a complete bloodbath started.

After giving the order, the captain then turned his attention towards Haru and the other two, "You are going to regret this so badly."

He immediately charged forward as he immediately pulled out a scroll and undid the seal. A puff of smoke appeared and a puppet could be seen with huge metal gauntlets as its arms.

Blue chakra thread began to appear from the man's hands and started connecting to the many limbs of the puppet.

Thwak!

As he was occupied with this, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head and he almost fell down.

He looked at the projectile that had just hit him and found that it was a small stone that had hit him right on the side of his head. He immediately turned around, enraged, as he tried to find out the attacker.

"Bullseye!" Haru could be heard speaking as his hand was stretched out in front of him, in the position of something that had just thrown something.

Thwak! Thwak!

In that instant, the sound of two more impacts could be heard and they were quickly followed by a scream of pain.

Kiyo and Ryuuya had also thrown their stones at the standing puppeteers who were preoccupied with controlling the puppets. They had not been able to pay attention to the incoming attack.

The rock seemed to have cut off their connection to the puppets temporarily as the puppets seemed to suddenly fall limp on the floor, giving much-needed time to the kids who were running away.

"RUN EVERYONE!" Haru shouted at the top of his voice as he began to throw another stone.

Seeing countless kids running away and the trio of boys prepare to throw their stones at the other puppeteers, the Captain shouted out, "Forget the kids who are running! Get those three first!"

In that instant, all the puppets that were still active and the other shinobi all began to charge towards the trio.

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Welcome to the longest chapter so far.

Let me know your thoughts!

The flow of writing is getting easier to get into these days which I am so thankful for.

The first taste of chakra usage and first battle eh? Not too shabby...

The next chapter is going to be a great chapter.