Coating his feet in chakra, an advanced skill, advanced for academy students that is, Kenshin take flight to the trees. The children, about run along the forest floor sees this and tries to imitate the feat, without chakra. As you can imagine, most didn't have the power to jump the height of 3-5 meters with sheer physical strength and landed rather ungracefully on branches in various positions. Some made rather remarkable substitutes for U's as their bodies bent 180 degrees, for those that had that extra power to jump that high? Well, it had rained the day before, so they should consider themselves lucky that they didn't sustain more damning injuries than they already did. Kenshin, noticing this chuckled at the spectacle before letting the forest consume him.
Back at the starting line, Hoshi places a hand over his eyes, as if to shield his eyes from the glaring stupidity before shaking his head lightly when he heard stifled laughter from the trees around.
A few seconds of embarrassed scrambling and some curses all the prospective ninjas of that year run into the forest with all their might, intent on finding the one responsible. If Kenshin knew what they were thinking he'd have tears streaming down his cheeks, shouting to himself melodramatically that the world is unfair and it was no fault of his own. Alas, he's not a psychic, at least not yet, so we're treated with an calm but amused MC. Moving on, we see Kenshin repeating the act from when he first arrived in this world, looking for a source of water. Kenshin, being vaguely traumatized from his experience, knew by now how to gain that precious few sips. He may lack the tools to achieve the most advanced of methods, but if it came down to it the knowledge laid bare for his perusal. But, before he began crushing trees and plants with a rock for his desperate search of water, he decided to perk his ears up to listen for alternative sources. Being well read, he knew there existed easier alternatives, like elemental manipulation, but that were a skill which eluded him to this day, lacking both the method of practice and the quantity of chakra necessary to practice it. Coming to a stop in a tree after a rather long and intense run, he stood still to listen with his enhanced senses.
Enhanced might not be the correct word for it, as they are merely trained to be better than average. Along with the enhancement that naturally comes with the unlocking of chakra, you could say his sense are superhuman, but that only applies in his old world. In this world, they're actually rather pathetic, especially in comparison to certain clans where they found ways to advance their senses beyond the human limit - Like the Inuzuka's. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Kenshin, not hearing any sound of water in his immediate surroundings begins to look for tracks of animal life. To do this he had to leave the treetops and come down to the much more vulnerable ground. He feels a chill down his back as he imagines one of the students using an Kunai to kill him from a shadowed place, trying to placate his irrational fears with cold hard logic, remembering the rules of this exercise.
Nodding to himself he tracks the ground for any kind of animal, leery of starting any kind of free -for all before he's found something to live off. Kenshin imagines that it will be much easier to beat down his opponents the next day, but with the goal of early graduation on the line, he cannot make such assumptions without reliable evidence.
Finding some kind of marks in the ground, but not proficient enough to understand which animal exactly, Kenshin test the soil for its composition, trying to make a futile attempt an learning experience for the future. Nodding to himself for absolutely no reason, Kenshin follows the trail. Still on guard after following the trail for quite some time, Kenshin dodges a fist to the face before quickly taking to the trees. The opponent, with a gauze around his face curses subtly before stamping his feet on the ground "Come down here and fight like a man!" He shouts, Kenshin, seeing an opportunity for an easy victory sneers down at the pretend ninja. "What? Scared of heights?" He says lazily, sitting down on the branch and swinging his legs. "Won't be much of an ninja if you can't even climb a tree, especially not a Konoha one" Kenshin glances down at the opponent, liking what he sees. On the ground the student with a gauze around his face, fumes like there is no tomorrow. He is not scared of heights, thought he was a bit discouraged after jumping face first into the branches earlier "You know nothing! Nothing! I've climbed trees in the forest of death! Bet you don't even dare walk into it!" The kid boasted "Pff, Prove it" Kenshin scoffed at him from his place, all high and mighty "You!" The kid began stamping his feet like a scorned princess, Kenshin couldn't help but laugh at the sight, almost falling off the branch in the process. Without knowing it, the kid had already unconsciously began climbing the tree to reach Kenshin, eager to prove himself. After a while there were two humans standing on the branch, with only one of them knowing how to stick to it. Kenshin had begun practicing the skill of sticking to branches long ago, and although his chakra capacity limited his practice, he still managed to get it down in two weeks, being a rather basic skill. Although his core muscles still screamed at him when standing sideways, feeling like his back is about to break after a while, it were still made possible with a bit of practice. Him being light in comparison to his actual strength didn't actually hurt either.
Feeling the bark under his rather thin sandals, Kenshin smiled to himself. The other kid, rather easy to identify as his classmate Hakam now that his gauze had fallen, to occupied with keeping his balance on the thin branch that Kenshin kept swaying deliberately. "Hey stop it!" Gulping and feeling like this was a really bad idea, his self preservation instincts kicked in and he jumped of the branch to get to the ground, Kenshin's eye glints as he sees the chance for what it is, kicking off the branch, making the bark explode on it as he overloaded the basic treewalk exercise, Kenshin shot forward at speed unimaginable in his old world. Hakam, being to occupied with getting to the ground and inexperienced in ninja combat never expected what came next. Feeling a heavy feeling on his back, he only had enough time to say "Sh-" before he plummeted to the ground from a kick provided free of charge by Kenshin.. Landing heavily on the ground and feeling his dwindling chakra reserves, Kenshin inspects Hakam. Seeing him groan an begin to pull up in what is most likely the preparation of round two, Kenshin immediately kicks him in the head to render his unconscious. Nodding to himself, Kenshin collects the talisman from his unconscious classmate. Putting a hand under his chin, he considers the situation for a moment before taking in the other miscellaneous items for safekeeping. Can't just leave them lying around, after all. Mentally giving himself a pat on the back and smiling in happiness, Kenshin leaves the crime scene around 200 ryo richer, with a few fruits and other survival gear the kids parents might have thought he would need during these 48 hours.
In the shadows of the treetops two muffled voices can be heard vaguely
"Rather ruthless, ain't he?" One says in bored monotone
"Nah, not really, though compared to these innocent lambs he's a force to be reckoned with" The other says in disagreement.
"Probably right, I'll write it down regardless" The first voice agrees.
"You do that, it's still an anomaly. Though, what stood out to me was his cunning, but then again, his opponent weren't the brightest star in the sky..."
Unaware of the opinions of his teachers, Kenshin continues to follow the animal trail from before.
A few hours later.
Kenshin arrives before a small stream of water. Knowing that there will be animals and humans alike along the river, Kenshin decides to mark it off on his mental map before setting up camp in a tree some hundreds of meters away. Nodding to himself, Kenshin sits down to meditate, wanting to recover some chakra. Some time later Kenshin opens his eyes slowly, looking around in clarity only meditation can bring, kenshin let's his body tilt backwards flipping around to land on a branch beneath him, then sets off to scout for the next victim. Some time later Kenshin hear the sounds of broken bushes as a group of students come into view. There being 3 of them together makes it almost impossible for any single student to take them out by him, or herself. That is, unless you're a supreme genius of your generation. This makes Kenshin think about the actual meaning behind this task 'Are we supposed to team up?'. He then shakes his head 'Although teaming up would be ideal, this isn't the ideal world' besides … he thinks as he watches another group come into sight from the opposite direction. 'This test is for young geniuses to distinguish themselves, they can't do that if they have to split up their gains'. With a cunning glint in his eye, kenshin moves to the middle of the two groups before shouting loudly with a muffled voice "Hahah! I got you now!", he quickly takes to the trees and moves some distance away to watch the spectacle unfold.
Dras moved quickly with his friends through the unforgiving wilds. From the moment this test began Dras had the genius idea of teaming up, making it easier to win against individuals, not to mention the protection provided by going as a group. "Hha, go- ou now!" Dras heard a voice coming from the forest, with a grin he shouted out to his teammates who matched his grin "Let's go!" Sprinting off in the direction of the noise they came face to face with another group of two. Dras happily watches them for a second before shouting loudly and running at the unlucky pair. The two students seeing themselves at an disadvantage try run away, but find that no matter how much they weave or otherwise speed up the enemy stays at their heels. One of them gain an determined glint in his eyes, knowing himself to be the faster one, before running of in the opposite direction, intent on trying his luck. Dras sees this and becomes uncertain for a second, then remember how bad the other one is in Taijutsu and makes a decision. "Tory, Maikan, take the guy on the left. I'll go after the one on the right. Meet up here afterwards" They nod "Yeah" "Aye mate" before running off.
Kenshin sees this and smiles happily, now more certain that ever about his plan. Even he didn't expect it to go so smoothly. His thought process was that some chance were better than no chance at all, but them splitting up is a golden opportunity for him. Following Tory and Maikan, Kenshin has already planned out how to next proceed.
A few minutes later of much stumbling, one time Tory almost hit a tree and other miscellaneous mishappenings, the student stops, gasping for breath.
"Give it up Reiden, you won't get away" Tory says, panting just as much.
"Yeah.. yeah.. Just give us the talisman and we'll let you go" Maikan were almost dead on her feet, making gagging noises from time to time.
Reiden looks uncertain for some time before slowly saying "Alri…."
Just at that time a figure comes from above, landing on Maikan's head and burying it in the ground. Making an exaggerated show of yawning loudly upon Maikan's twitching form, Kenshin smiles cockily at Reiden. "Giving up so soon, Reiden? What do you say we team up?" He says while glancing at Tory on the side. Reiden smiles slyly "Good timing, Kenshin" He says while cracking his knuckles demonically. Tory looks stupefied from Reiden to Kenshin screaming inside his head 'Why does this always happen to me?'. Smiling nervously, Tory tries negotiations "Hehe, no need to get viole.." But, at that time Kenshin had already attacked in full force, Reiden hot on his heels. It didn't take long before Tory lied unconscious besides Maiken. Reiden, panting and generally completely exhausted, grins widely "Hey, we make a pretty good te.." At that time Kenshin spin kicks him in the head, and he knows only darkness, his next words left unknown. "Sorry bout that, buddy. Maybe next time" He says before grinning to himself and picking up all the talismans. They all had one each, with the exception to Raiden who had two. 'Hmm, maybe dras has some more' Kenshin thinks to himself before looting them for 50 ryu, they were orphans, just like Kenshin, so they didn't have much of valuables. They did, however, have some survival gear with them. "Were I the only one unaware of the test today?" He grumbles to himself.
Whistling loudly for a few seconds, Kenshin takes to the trees 'I better not whistle and attract attention', intent on finding Dras and take his talismans.
Arriving at the intended meeting place where they split off, Kenshin stops and waits for Dras to show up, not daring to use his mediocre tracking skills and risk being noticed, at that time he would have to fight him head on, a fight he's uncertain if he would be able to win. Kenshin considers to not try at all, seeing as Dras is a much better fighter than him. Kenshin then gets a glint in his eye, 'would that work?' he considers Dras personality and comes to the conclusion that yes, yes, it would. Kenshin then sets off to work.
A few minutes later Dras arrives at where they originally split up, a little bruised, but still alright. It seems like Reiden's partner didn't give up without a fight, then again, the odds weren't two to one for her. 'Hmm? They haven't arrived yet? I wonder what's taki…' His eyes shines as he spots a talisman lying on the ground "A talisman? Lucky me!" He grins in glee before jumping to get it, immediately springing a trap laid by kenshin. Kenshin gloates in front of his face for a bit, enjoying the utter rage in Dras face before knocking him unconscious. "I hope traps aren't considered weapons, but if poisons are fine, traps should be too, right?" He muses aloud while searching Dras for his talismans, finding a whopping 3, doing some mental math to count the amount of talismans currently in his possession, Kenshin count up to 9 'There is only 25 people in the class, that means I will soon have half of all the talismans in this… game' His eyes becomes crescents as he happily undoes the trap. Uncaring of the slouched form of his classmate, Kenshin feels his stomach rumbling and happily runs off in pursuit of some food.