I groaned as I shook my head to clear it of any stray thoughts. "Ugghh..." I felt like there were about fifty Gai-senseis in my head and that they were all yelling at me to get up at the top of their collective lungs. "Okay, I'm marginally okay now, guys. You are cleared to talk. But so help me, if any one of you makes a loud and/or high-pitched noise right now, I will rip your larynx out and let you drown in your own blood."
They stayed quiet.
Zhen-chan was the first to speak. "Chessy-chan, did it work? Did you get the bells or not?" She sounded a bit too eager for her own good.
"I'm not going to tell you. Not for about five minutes anyway. You'd ambush me either way, either to get me out of your way or to steal the bells if I told you one way or the other. This way, I have collateral." I answered her with a twinge of grogginess clouding my voice. I was soft-spoken by nature, so she had to nearly lean in to hear me. "So back off."
She did, probably remembering the time I took a bite out of her arm when she tried to take some soda away from me at lunch. When I need space (or caffeine), I usually get it. When I don't, someone pays the consequences.
"Okay, guys, this test is all about teamwork. So here we go." Once I had recovered from my rodeo ride atop Gamabunta, I started to explain. "My part was getting the bells from the toad, you guys distracted him, and now...you guys get the bells."
"WHAT THE HELL?" yelled Zhen-chan.
"Why, Chessy?" howled Cat-chan.
I looked at her quizzically, waiting for her to explain.
"I want you to stay with ANBU training, not Zhen-chan." She looked over at the murderous whirlpool of rage that Zhen was becoming, and added, "No offense. She's my big ninja sister."
I watched for a moment as Zhen chased Cat around, then barked a laugh as the chased one tripped.
"You can always count on Cat to be the bait. Because she'll always do a face plant." I shook my head. "And that girl wants to be an ANBU Black Ops." I sighed. "But you got to love her enthusiasm. The one thing counting in her favor is that, like me, she goes totally kick ass when she gets pissed off enough." I stood up, finally centered and completely sober. "Okay, enough. Do you want a bell or not?"
They mobbed me.