The sun rose, turning the village stones into a furnace. Yoichi stepped out of the quarters, his movements silent. Behind him, the others emerged, squinting against the harsh glare.
"I hate this place," Jiraiya grumbled, pulling at his sweat-soaked collar. "The air feels like a torch to the face. How does anyone live here without turning into a raisin?"
Tsunade exhaled, her skin already flushed. "Stop complaining. It is just sand. Though, I would give anything for a cold stream right now."
Orochimaru adjusted his protector, his expression indifferent. "The desert is honest, Tsunade. It kills the weak without bias. It is a perfect laboratory."
"It is a wasteland," Yoichi said quietly, scanning the horizon. "But it rewards those who read its patterns. The wind is picking up."
They reached the plaza where a Suna proctor pointed toward a jagged, sun-bleached ravine.
"The Sun's Shadow trial. Reach the tower at the end. If the light catches you or the guards spot you, you fail."
Jiraiya looked at the oven-like ravine. "Great. A giant furnace filled with people trying to stab us."
Yoichi didn't look back, moving towards the descent, his boots barely leaving a mark on the scorched earth.
As they neared the ravine's edge, three figures blocked the narrow path. The Kumo team stood with arms crossed, their leader's jagged scar twitching in the heat. The air between them grew heavy, saturated with the thick scent of malice and ill will.
"Going somewhere, Leaf brats?" the scarred leader spat. "We have a debt to settle from four years ago. This Uchiha belongs to Kumo."
Jiraiya shifted his stance, his playful grin vanishing. "The exams haven't even started yet. You really want to get disqualified before you hit the sand?"
"Accidents happen in the heat," a Kumo kunoichi hissed, her hand resting on the hilt of a short blade.
Yoichi stepped forward, his presence expanding like a cold shadow. His Indomitable Aura flared up, projecting a subtle, crushing weight that made the Kumo leader's breath hitch.
The desert wind seemed to die down around him, replaced by a suffocating stillness.
"You speak of debts you cannot afford to collect," Yoichi said, his voice flat and dangerous. "If you stand in my way, you will not live to see the valley."
The Kumo ninja flinched, his bravado wavering under the sheer pressure of Yoichi's intent.
Behind him, Orochimaru let out a dry, haunting chuckle, while Tsunade cracked her knuckles, the sound echoing like a stone breaking.
The standoff held for a heartbeat until a Suna proctor barked a command from the ridge above.
The Kumo team stepped aside, but their malice lingered. High above, a Suna proctor stood on a stone pillar. "Listen. You have until noon."
The official pointed toward the jagged ravine. "Mirrors and light-sensitive seals line these walls. Stepping into a beam triggers an explosion or alerts the guards. Move only through the shadows."
"The patches of dark will shrink as the sun rises," Orochimaru noted, tracking the light. "Speed and precision are the only ways to survive."
"Exactly," the proctor sneered. "Elite guards wait within. Detection means failure. Reach the tower, or stay in the sand forever."
Jiraiya eyed the diminishing shade. "Stay in the dark or blow up. Simple, if not for the hundred rivals trying to shove us into the sun."
Yoichi watched the Kumo team descend first.
These enemies would surely try to force the Leaf into the light. "Keep your center low," Yoichi advised his team. "The light is the enemy, but those mirrors are the weapon."
With a silent leap, Yoichi led the way down.
The Spirit Aperture mapped the mirror layout before his eyes could process them.
Heat mattered little.
Only the rhythm of the shadows remained.
The canyon floor was a labyrinth of heat and sharp angles. Yoichi moved at the front, his feet ghosting over the sand. He suddenly raised a hand, and the team froze. Just ahead, the narrow strip of shade was cut by a nearly invisible wire.
"Trap," Yoichi whispered. The wire connected to a series of angled mirrors hidden behind rock outcroppings. A single trip would pivot the glass, bathing this entire section of the path in blinding, concentrated sunlight.
"Kumo work," Orochimaru murmured, his eyes tracing the line back to a hidden seal. "They want the sun to do the execution for them."
Jiraiya wiped sweat from his brow, his hand hovering near a kunai. "One wrong step and we're a pile of ash. Can we disarm it?"
"No time," Yoichi replied. He saw the mirrors shifting slightly as the wind picked up. "The sun is moving too fast. We jump the gap, but the landing is narrow."
Yoichi coiled his muscles, his mind began to calculate the trajectory. He leaped, his body a dark streak across the sun-drenched gap. He landed silently on a sliver of shade no wider than a sword's blade, his balance perfect.
The others followed, their movements tense and frantic. Just as Tsunade cleared the wire, a distant stone struck the mirror frame.
The glass tilted.
A beam of white-hot light slashed across the sand where they had stood a second ago.
"They're watching us," Tsunade hissed, her eyes darting toward the ridges above. "That wasn't the wind."
Yoichi reached for his pouch, but Orochimaru's hand stayed his arm. "Allow me," the pale ninja whispered, golden eyes fixed on the ridge. "I prefer a more fluid solution."
The saboteurs above prepared to strike.
Orochimaru's sleeves fluttered as several mottled snakes darted out, vanishing into the gully's cracks. A moment later, a Kumo leader's shout turned into a gurgle. One serpent coiled around a mirror's support while another bit the man holding the lever.
The mechanism jerked, sending the heavy glass crashing forward. The polished silver tilted, reflecting concentrated beams of sunlight directly onto the Kumo position. Screams filled the air as the heat scorched skin and ignited cloth.
"Efficient," Yoichi noted, his heightened perception confirming the neutralized threat.
"The desert is more interesting when it bites back," Orochimaru replied, pulling his sleeves into place.
The team did not linger. Shadows continued to shrink, and the path ahead warped in the rising heat. Every second spent still allowed the sun to narrow their chances of survival.
Suddenly, a thunderous roar shook the canyon walls.
Down the path, an Iwa team stepped into a light-trigger. The resulting explosion sent a pillar of fire into the sky, vaporizing the ledge and the ninja upon it.
"First disqualifications," Jiraiya muttered, shielding his eyes from flying debris.
The heat intensified as the sun reached its zenith.
Screams erupted from multiple directions. One panicked team tried to sprint through a sun-drenched patch, only for wind-enhanced arrows to pin them to the scorched rock instantly.
"The weak are being culled," Orochimaru said, his voice cold.
Yoichi didn't blink as a charred forehead protector skipped across the sand. To his left, a Kiri shinobi collapsed from heatstroke and vanished in a flare of fire seals. The air smelled of burnt ozone and copper.
"Do not lose your rhythm," Yoichi commanded, eyes fixed on the distant tower. "Move."
They leaped over a smoking crater, the ground singeing their boots.
The trial was no longer a race.
It was a scramble to reach the exit before the shadows vanished entirely.
Into the final, sun-blasted gauntlet, Yoichi's group blurred past several wounded shinobi. A Kumo ninja slumped against a rock, clutching a shredded leg, while an Iwa pair crawled through the dust.
Jiraiya slowed, eyes lingering on the fallen. Yoichi didn't break stride. "Leave them. Finishing them is a waste of time. The sun won't wait."
The injured watched with hollow eyes. There was no mercy here, only the ticking clock. They ignored the groans and the stench of blood, focused entirely on the tower looming ahead.
Elite Suna guards stood in the open, fans and kunai glinting. They were the final gatekeepers. The heat distorted the air, making the men look like shimmering ghosts.
"The shadows are gone," Tsunade noted, her fist tightening. "No more hiding."
Orochimaru stepped forward, his eyes narrowing into golden slits. "Enough observation. Yoichi, take the center. Tsunade, crush the flank. Do not hesitate."
Yoichi adjusted his stance, his internal energy coiling. The Suna guards raised their weapons, but the Leaf team was already in motion.
"Break them," Orochimaru commanded, his voice a sharp hiss.
Tsunade launched herself upward, blotting out the sun. She coiled her Qi into a singular point, her body snapping into the Dragon-Elephant Prajna.
The guards looked up, faces paling as the air pressure plummeted.
"Get back!" a guard screamed.
Tsunade came down like a falling star. Her Dragon Elephant Drop detonated against the sand.
The earth shattered, sending a massive shockwave of stone and dust rippling through the canyon.
The guards were tossed like leaves. The rising dust provided a perfect veil against the mirrors above.
"Now!" Orochimaru hissed, blurring through the cloud.
Yoichi vanished into Phantom Steps.
His form flickered like a glitch in reality, appearing and disappearing across the battlefield.
He ghosted past a dazed guard, his movements so fast they left lingering afterimages in the grit.
The tower was meters away.
The sun hit its peak.
Shadows vanished.
The team sprinted across the burning sand, Yoichi's flickering form leading the way, just as the wall seals glowed with a deadly, white intensity.
The heavy iron doors groaned shut, sealing out the desert glare. Inside, the cool air smelled of damp stone.
The first phase was over.
On a balcony above, the Kumo leader leaned against the railing. He glared down with extreme malice, his eyes promising a violent debt for the broken mirrors.
Yoichi leaned against a pillar. He knew he could have finished this trial alone with ease, yet he had remained a shadow.
This was a team effort. Even without his help, he was confident the three would have passed easily.
"We made it," Jiraiya panted, sliding to the floor.
"I lost five pounds in sweat."
"Do not get comfortable," Orochimaru warned, his gaze flicking to the Kumo team. "The culling has only just begun."
Yoichi let his body settle. The canyon was just a filter for the weak. The real battle waited in the heart of the tower.
"They want a fight," Yoichi said, his voice flat as he looked at the Kumo ninja. "Let them try."
___________
Thanks again to doomslayer24, Snowwwww, DaoistTalion187, and Daemonic_Dragon for the Power Stones! Appreciate it!