Naruto was upset, frustrated, and confused. The hell was this? Another test? To weed out those that passed? What was with that?
Naruto had already swore to himself that he wouldn't fail. Normally that would be enough. However, this time his curiosity was eating him up too much. He had to know why this was. So he went to the one person he was sure that could and would give him an answer.
He entered the Hokage's office but without all his usual bluster, instead knocking before entering… his mind was swirling far too much to be hyperly happy. "Hey Old man Hokage… I have a question."
He looked at his surrogate grandfather who had a curious expression. No doubt confused at his serious tone. "What is it my boy? Did you not pass your test?" Wait what? The blonde gave the old man a confused look which seemed to make something click. "Oh right, you have Kakashi. Never mind. What is Naruto?"
Wait.. he was SUPPOSE to have done the test already? Well it was only what? Two in the afternoon? That meant they had been… Oh that man was going to pay! "Besides wanting to complain about the waste of time I was forced to sit through I was hoping you could explain this test to me."
"Naruto." the Hokage said with a sigh. "What did I say about coming to me for all the answers? I'm not about to tell you how to pass test."
Well there goes THAT option. "Hey now Old man I didn't come for that. I was curious about why this test was even happening. I mean we all passed! And I did it awesomely. So why do I need to do ANOTHER test just to show reinstate what I already proved?"
"Its not so much that you need to prove your skill." The Hokage said, but he seemed to be choosing his words carefully… like he did when talking about Naruto's parents or why the village hated him. That didn't bode well. "Its to prove you have the skill and mindset to be on the team your teacher wants."
"What do you mean?" How was that suppose to make sense? They were ninjas. They kicked ass. What more was there to prove?
"I mean that each person has something they specialize in. And each team is specialized based on the components of that team. The components this time being the teacher and the three students. After all a stealth expert wouldn't want to have a loud and boisterous front line fighter. Nor would a long range specialist be able to work well leading a team of mostly hand-to-hand fighters. Not only would the ability to work well together be shot, but the teacher would have less to teach them." The Sandaime explained, and for once Naruto was listening.
"What would you say my specialty is?" He was now excited. Maybe it was badass. Because that's what he was.
"Do you want what they say? Or what you actually are?" There was a difference? At the blondes confused look the Hokage continued. "You are listed as a front line melee fighter. Even with your sloppy Taijutsu. This is mostly because of your healing and stamina. This will only be enforced with your shadow clones giving you an army to work with. Though your large reserves could also make you a ninjutsu specialist even with your even sloppier chakra control." Naruto frowned. It wasn't his fault. Neither of those things were. And what was wrong with being classed as such? "However I place you as a stealth expert with trapmaking being a second specialty. Based solely on your pranking skills. Keeping to that track you mean you'd be good at protecting an area, infiltrating, and possibly assassinations. Those jobs aren't flashy but they are very important." That.. didn't sound very good.
"But, but Old man! I'm awesome and i'm going to be Hokage! I can't be unseen! Besides aren't ninjas suppose to kick ass and beat up everyone?"
"Naruto, As ninjas we do a lot. And while my specialty is indeed Ninjutsu, if we didn't have stealth experts we wouldn't be able to function. We don't just fight. We do a wide variety of jobs. Flashy and strong is nice. However when someone can sneak into your bedroom and slit your throat in your sleep, it doesn't matter." The man that lead the village said in a very serious tone making Naruto gulp. "Someone who specializes in stealth and Traps can beat a whole army if they have the right tools and time."
"Alright… but… what kind of test would Kakashi do? What is he looking for? What's HIS specialty?"
THat got the grandfatherly smile back on the old man's face. "Oh no Naruto. I won't tell you all that. However I WILL tell you few of the tests that are POSSIBLE."
"Really?"
"Sure. I'll even do it over ramen. Come on."
"ALRIGHT!" Naruto cried and hurried out along with his village leader for delicious food and information.
And boy was there information. Some of the tests that had been used in the past had been intense. Infiltrating a house filled with traps, trying to catch the teacher while under genjutsu, cracking several puzzles or mind teasers. They were each varied and certainly covered various specialties. But.. there was something else that nagged at him. Sitting there devouring noodles and being given time to think… there was something off about each one. Mostly in the rules. They seemed to promoting individuals.. yet… they were enormous odds. Also when the old man gave examples he never stated how they passed or failed. Only that they did or didn't. there was something more to it.
"My own test that I gave to my team was the bell test." The Hokage continued on his story telling with gusto. "I tied bells to my belt and my team had to get them fro me with any means necessary." There, there was another example. Take bells off the Hokage's person? When he was younger, in his prime, and known for kicking ass?
"Did they pass?"
"Barely. they each made valiant and in some cases ingenious attempts. However they still almost failed. Their head weren't in the right place till the end." And there was another thing… Naruto noticed he never said got the bells. And that they each made attempts… It was like they weren't….
It clicked. Teamwork. Each and every test required the team to work together to pass. Pooling their resources. It was possible that they didn't even need to get their objective as long as they showed teamwork… But just in case… "Old man… how many bells were there? and how did they get them in the end?"
"Now that Naruto," He said with a large smile. "Would be telling." And that was all the answer he needed.
'Thanks old man. That was good. And.. thanks for the stories."
"Anytime Naruto. Good luck."
"Thanks." With that they parted ways. Naruto had a lot to think about.
God he was tired. He had been up since about four o'clock in the morning preparing the training field. He had somehow gotten to bed early the day before, but that didn't seem to help. Sure his teacher was probably going to be late like he had been yesterday, but he wanted ample time just incase. Though the several extra hours had been nice. Let him squeeze all his preparations in as well as a few extras. He had to cover every base. He had several test types that it could be, and wanted to get ready for them all. Having a small army of people that thought like you and could be summoned with a handsign made it all the easier.
He also ate light as he worked. Food was fuel and that having fuel would mean you couldn't work. Though just incase the puking threat was real he didn't want to have anything too heavy. So he only had a couple of cups of ramen with no milk. That should be okay. Right?
There wa a birdcall. One like any other. Except it called in a very specific way. Naruto and his workers stiffened. Kakashi was almost here finally. They scattered. Some dispelled, while others took their places. As he hurried back to the place where his team was suppose to meet he couldn't help but wonder why he had so many memories of his various projects and traps…. at various angles that he could have sworn he hadn't seen them at… Especially since some of those memories took place at the same time… That, that was a thought for another time perhaps.
As he burst from the undergrowth Sakura raised an angry fist at him. "You are late. As is our teacher. WHERE WERE YOU!" She screeched. Sasuke just looked at him all annoyed as usual.
"I've been here since four rigging the place." He said matter of factly in return. Neither one looked like they believed him. "Look it's true, and I need you guys to stick together with me no matter what the test is… I have a few ideas and I need to know which ones to use." They both looked at him like he grew a second head.
However before more could be said Kakashi showed up. He quickly put a hand up to delay another screech with an eye smile. "Good to see you all made it. Now we can begin. He pulled out an egg timer and a pair of bells and held them out. Naruto forced down any kind of excitement. He knew this one. This one was easy to win. "The rules are simple. You have two hours to get these two bells from me. Anyone holding a bell by the time the egg timer goes off passes and gets a bento. Anyone who doesn't doesn't get to eat, is tied to a log, and goes back to the academy." Oh, so those were the rule that the old man left out. Well okay maybe not all the same rules but…
"But Teacher, there are only two bells." Sakura pointed out.
"Why yes there are." he set down the timer and eye smiled again. "Begin."
Naruto quickly turned to his teammates to direct them to a good spot… but they were already gone. With a curse he sped away too. Though he made sure to give a tiny nod to some trees. His team had one strike. But maybe they just hurried off. He would give them the benefit of the doubt once. Only once.
Well… that had been interesting. For the most part it went as expected. Okay so he hadn't expected Sakura to straight up faint without even attempting to break the genjutsu. Sasuke had also been a little surprising. He almost won himself a bell going one-on-one. Which was impressive. However it had been Naruto that had been the biggest surprise.
Kakashi wasn't going to lie to himself. He had been quite sure that Naruto would try to out do Sasuke and go head first into confrontation after confrontation. However he never ONCE tried to take a bell himself. He DID however set up quite the array of traps. He was sure it had been the blonde since he saw flickers of orange moving across the trees whenever one was set off. Not to mention Sakura was unconscious most of the test and Sasuke had almost ran into several of the traps himself. Of course that meant that Naruto hadn't warned them about his set up. Then again he had seen the blonde go to and from where he knew the other two had hidden themselves. Perhaps he HAD tried.
Oh well, didn't matter. The egg timer had gone off, he had both bells, and the team didn't work together. They fail. He waited for his team to appear before him at the starting area. When they did he did his best to look disappointed… when there was a poof sound and smoke rose from his hip.
A glance gown told him that the bells were gone. A light tinkling sound told him where they were. He turned to Naruto who was standing away from the others with small smile on his lips. "Looking for these?"
Kakashi blinked. Okay so the bells on his belt had been shadow clones. But shadow clones still weighed more than the bells and the transformation jutsu only changed appearances not weight. How had he pulled that off? And on top of that how did he replace them? "How long?"
"Since you tied them to your belt."
The jonin nodded. "Alright you now have the fate of your team on your hands what will you do?"
"First a question or two." The blonde answered before turning to his squadmates. "Sasuke what did I ask you to do?"
"What are you talking about dobe?"
"I sent a clone to tell you about part of my plan to capture Kakshi. What did I tell you and why didn't you do it?"
"Pfft. I didn't need your plan. And I told you that. Clone? It was you who came to some fake image."
The blonde only turned to the pinkette. But Kakashi wasn't liking where this was going. "Sakura, I told you about some traps that you could man. What was their purpose?"
Sakura blinked then put on a thinking face. "To capture?"
Naruto frowned deeply. As did Kakashi but his mask hid that. "No, they were to distract. I had several traps laid out throughout the forest. Sasuke was suppose to help herd Kakashi to certain areas of the forest where you would trigger several that were meant to disorient and hinder him. I, and several clones would then trigger more that were meant to incapacitate. Sasuke's FINAL role was to get the bells. It was a simple plan that I could have done on my own but with Sakura's brains and Sasuke's skill it would worked better. However neither of you even TRIED to listen to me or my clones."
Kakashi was now really frowning. Another team torn apart by this… He wouldn't be able to do the make up at this rate.
"So I am going to ask one last question to both of you. If you were in my shoes who would you give the bell to?"
"Sasuke? He is the only only that deserves to pass with me."
"Why would I give a bell to anyone? I work best alone. You both would just hinder me and hold me back." That got Sakura to look at him with a hurt expression.
"You are both idiots. Think about it. This was a TEAM exercise. Three genin vs a jonin? With each one attacking him on their own? Sasuke even YOU failed at that. Touching the bell or no, you still couldn't do it. We needed to work together. Use our strengths to outmatch him. But neither of you saw that. Neither of you tried to. So we will each spend another year in the academy. Hopefully while we do you will ask yourselves a question. What would it have hurt to work together, and what could we have achieved?" With that he turned into a cloud of smoke and the bells went with him.
The two remaining kids just stared at where the blonde had once stood. Their faces were a mixture of anger and confusion. Well. Nothing for it then. This for once was NOT his fault.
"he is right you know." He finally said getting all the attention back on him. "You were suppose to work together. Admittedly I made it harder what with anger, hunger, and sleep deprivation. However, even then it should have been obvious something was off. You didn't even think twice to leave a comrade, even a possible comrade, in the dust. Those who disobey the rules are trash. But those that abandon their comrades are worse than trash. Team 7 fails the test. Go home and prepare to reenter the academy for another year." With that he walked away, leaving two stunned and speechless students. Now.. what was he going to do about Naruto? The Hokage will know.
God no one was going to let him live this down. Unless he got an apprentice out of this. That wouldn't be too bad.