After travelling for several hours without rest they finally reached the campsite where they will rest and be deployed from, and the place where they will be staying through their entire deployment.
The leader that accompanied them here went directly to the command tent to report while they were led in groups to the barracks they will be staying in.
Along the way, dead bodies and the injured lay on the ground everywhere the passed.
Screams of pain and agony could constantly be heard, some people had burnt skin, some were cut all over their body, some were missing limbs and some even had half their bodies missing, the latter ones won't be able live for much longer.
After walking for a while they stopped in front of a large tent almost as big as the command one, a loud voice shouted coming from the one who brought them here, it was a middle-aged man with a hardened look on his face, "HALT". Immediately after the voice shouted as if they were a signal organism they all stopped moving.
"LINE UP." After shouting again he got inside the tent while they lined up in a formation and stood stright just like a trained army, in a while the guy came out of the tent walking behind a short old woman with grey hair, hunched back, and wearing normal civilian clothing which was very odd in this place, in her hand she held a wooden cane that she used for walking.
Eying them one by one she finally turned behind her to the man from earlier and nodded, at her signal the man stepped forward and yelled, "DUE TO THE RECENT BATTLES AND OUR FORCES BEING SPREAD ON SO MANY BATTLEFIELDS WE HAVE A SHORTAGE IN PEOPLE WHO ARE PROFICIENT ENOUGH IN FUINJUTSU, SO ANYBODY WHO CAN MAKE AT LEAST AN EXPLOSIVE TAG STEP FORWARD."
After he said that it was all silent for a while before someone stepped forward, and as if it were some sort of signal about 60 others people stepped forward from the army of a thousand.
'No matter what the situation is, it's always like this, it only takes that one person to stand up and make the first move, others who have a similar point of view will naturally follow.' thought aizen as he remembered some memories of his past life.
Just as the middle-aged man was about to speak again, Aizen stepped forward lining up with the other people from before.
Immediately after he did that hushed whispers and mocking sounds could be heard as they looked at him, and one couldn't really blame them, aizen was only 5 years old how did he have enough time to learn fuinjutsu, and even if he did have time, how could a mere kid comprehend it.
"SILENCE." shouted the middle-aged man silencing everyone in there.
Looking towards Aizen he spoke, this time with a softer tone of voice, "kid am sure you know this already but this is no game, are you really proficient in fuinjutsu?, you will have your moment in the future, it's not too wring back off now."
"I understand sir, but I stand by it, my parents were fuinjutsu masters and I picked that up from them before they died." said aizen standing up straight and only telling him half the truth, he can't go around saying he learned it on his own in only two months or else he'll give some people heart attacks.
Hearing him say that the people there couldn't help but sympathize with him, some have been like him years ago when they have lost everyone, either parents, kids or loved ones and had to tackle the world alone, and some are kids like him now who have also lost their parents or siblings and friends not long ago, they even felt bad for mocking him earlier.
Hearing him say that, the middle-aged man could only sigh and turn to the old lady as he didn't know what to do, "lady chinaba what's your order."
The old lady now known as chinaba looked at Aizen before sizing him up and down and saying, "As long as he can make functional explosive tags that we can use, age doesn't matter." saying so she stepped inside the big tent.
Seeing her go the middle-aged man shouted, "THOSE OF YOU WHO VOLUNTEERED FOLLOW LADY CHINABA INTO THE TENT, AS FOR THE REST OF YOU FOLLOW ME." as he said that he turned and started walking in another direction.
Aizen with his ears ringing from all the shouting entered the tent along with his 60 other fellow shinobi.
The others left behind looked enviously at them as they didn't have to fight for the next few days before following the middle-aged man.
The inside of the tent was really spacious enough to fit hundreds of people with dozens of tables everywhere, placed on them were ink and paper.
The odd thing is that even with how big the tent is and with how many tables there are, the total number of people inside didn't even add up to 10.
'I knew there was a shortage but damn.' thought aizen shocked as he continued following the old lady until they reached a table bigger than the others in the centre, there was ink and paper all around it.
"all of you spread out and stand near the table edge." said the old woman in a very low voice but being the trained ninjas they are they all heard her.
After spreading out and standing where they were told she spoke again, "Good, now I want all of you to make three types of explosive seals, the standard one that's activated with chakra, one that's sensitive to movement and pressure and the last one that is sensitive to body heat, anyone who don't meet those requirements will be kicked from here and sent to the battlefield like all the others, the countdown starts now."
Instantly a big commotion took place.
"What!?, I thought we were meant to make the standard one."
"I didn't even know there was an explosive tag that's sensitive to body heat."
….
….
A lot of them started sweating and trying to talk things through but old lady chinaba just closed her eyes and stood there ignoring their existence altogether.
'I guess the problem of man shortage isn't the only reason there are so few people here, this lady requirements being too high also played a factor.' thought aizen as he took a paper and a brush from in front of him and started writing, the others followed soon after.
After five minutes the first person was done, he was a man of about 27 years old, and right after him, one by one people stopped writing indicating that they were finished.
Fifteen minutes passed quickly and by the end of it only 20 people completed all 3 types of tags, some only managed to finish one and some only managed 2.
The Weird thing is that some didn't even draw one there wasn't even any ink on their papers or at best there were some crudely drawn runes.
'They probably thought there wasn't going to be any test and they'll just rely on their friends in the future to do their work for them in exchange for money, that way they can avoid going to the battlefield for a while.' thought aizen and he was completely correct.
And in a last-ditch effort, some of them tried to copy what the others beside them were drawing, but if fuinjutsu was as easy as that everyone would be able to learn it.
"For those of you who didn't pass please see yourself outside." said old lady chinaba as she observed the finished tags on the table, her eyes lingering on Aizen's for a while longer before moving on.
After the ones who failed all excited the tent with their heads down and with dejected expressions on their faces she moved forward and observed the work of the ones still inside one by one.
"Failure," she said to the 27-year-old guy who finished first shocking him and everyone around as he seemed really confident before, not even sparing him a second glance she moved to the one after him.
He opened and closed his mouth like he was trying to say something but in the end he just sighed, turned around and headed towards the door.
"You, get out"
" You, pass"
.
.
.
"You, good job," she said as she reached Aizen, turning all eyes towards him as he was the only one who got a good comment amongst all present here.
But seeing it was just the kid from before they thought the old woman had a soft sport for kids and was just trying to encourage him, they were impressed that he actually passed but they didn't really think much of it.
Only two people inside the tent knew that she actually meant what she said, herself and aizen.
After she completed her checks five other people were eliminated leaving them with only 15.
(The stones 😡😡😡😡🔫🔫🔫)
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