This is not the village you remember, and this is not the village that you have been defending for these last few years. There is something off that you cannot put your finger on, and the lack of information is galling, but what’s worse is that the exams have continued without a hitch in spite of it, this farce of knowledge that you are expected to know. All of the proctors have known you, but what do you know of them? What do you know about what waits at the end of the trials - unlike anything else, said the daimyo on repeat, and you can’t help but think that he’s right. And that makes you nervous.
The world around you shimmers. You aren’t sure when that began, the delicate way the air misted, staticky and flickering with every step down the mountain path and through the woods to return to the village whence you had come. Are you tired? The day has been long, longer than you could count, because deep down you aren’t sure if it has been a day, or longer, a week, weeks, exactly how many hours that you had lost in that lonely wilderness, in the dark and empty halls of the academy, in the presence of something beyond this world’s ken.
You yawn, stifled or exaggerated, and it’s in that moment that you find yourself distracted from the stuttering glass crack in the forest at your flank. But then it happens again, a flicker of light reflected out of the corner of your eye.
Where is the light coming from?
The sun still has not risen.
You turn, and the darkness warps, fractures, splits the treeline and the very air, a clean line that scatters the landscape into an abstract of millions of shapes. After a moment, the space straightens, corrects itself.
You have one final choice to make.
>>Select one:
>The watchful’s job is never complete. Investigate the anomaly in the woods…
or
>Your mind is playing tricks on you. Return to the village, and get some much needed rest.
"This forest just keeps getting weirder. I really ought to meet up with others and figure out the nature of this place. Running around blind doesn't sit well with me," she signs, resigning her self to her station. Though, as always, the moment you think everything is over, the fight drags on.
In the distance, another anomaly appears, shattering the fabric of what seems to be real once more. A face of tired annoyance dawns on Tsunade's face as another sigh escapes her lips, "Jobs really is not done huh." Before she can realize it herself, her feet carry her forth, bounding on the trees.