Team Naruto: Bell Test

"Where is Naruto-sensei? She told us to be here at 0800. Well it's 0805 and she isn't here!" Mamoru yelled out indignantly.

"Mamoru-kun, I doubt that Sensei is late because she wants to be..." Aiko replied to her teammate quietly. She was honestly worried by this small turn of events. From what she had learned from some others, it was very unlike their sensei to be late, going so far as to say that she was always early.

"There's no need to be such a nuisance, baka. Naruto-sensei has been here for quite a while." Tadashi broke in with his usual cool demeanor.

Just as he finished his words, a yellow flash streaked into the clearing that the three Genin were waiting. When a glove covered hand landed on top of Mamoru's head, the Inuzuka let out an undignified squeak while jumping away from the foreign limb.

Naruto, for all she was worth, didn't laugh out loud, but wasn't quite good enough to hide the mirth dancing in her mis-matched eyes, "That is right, my cute little Genin. I was waiting in the tree line so that I could observe your patience from a distance. That being said," She looked at the child with wild orange locks with a shrewd gaze, "Tadashi. You seem to have acute sensory skills already. Has anyone taught it to you, or is it simply natural for you?"

Tadashi, for all he was often able to quell his features from showing his thoughts and emotions, blushed a light pink at the attention of his sensei, "It just comes naturally to me Naruto-sensei. When I was four I could sense other's chakra signatures and after asking one of the Anbu about how funny his mask was when he was in civilian attire they figured it out and Hokage-sama decided to put me in the academy when I came of age."

"That was you?" Naruto asked after laughing for a moment, "Kami, I remember when poor Humari told me about that! He ended up having to pass on his mask to someone else and take up the mask of one of the Anbu retiree's because of that. Kakashi-baka teased him about it for a month straight!" Naruto kept chortling.

Aiko couldn't help the frown that came upon her face, "Why would that be necessary sensei? Tadashi was just a child..."

"Because, Aiko-chan, being Anbu requires absolute secrecy. Anbu is the black-ops of the Shinobi. The job is highly demanding and no one besides those authorized are to ever know the face under the mask. Even one child knowing who is under the mask can completely jeopardize the safety of any mission that Shinobi goes on."

"I understand sensei."


Tadashi POV

This test was nothing like what I was expecting.

"This test is something called 'The Bell Test'. This test allows me to see what skills you have and what to concentrate on improving. There is also a secret category on which I will be judging you three. This category is what will determine whether you stay with me, or rejoin some of your fellow students at the academy. Now, the premise for this test is as follows: I have attached at my hip two bells. If you can get one of these bells, you pass the exercise, and if you do not get one, you fail. You will have to attack me with an intent to kill if you wish to get a hold of one of these bells. Do you understand?"

Immediately after, sensei had told us to disperse. I had watched Aiko hide in a rocky outcropping to the north, while Mamoru took to the treeline, much like myself.

Watching Naruto-sensei from a distance, I could easily tell that while she looked at ease with a small brown book, assumedly on Fuiinjutsu since I had seen her reading almost the same book at a ramen stand on my way home the day before, I could barely discern the tenseness in her stance. The way she cocked her head just barely to the side to listen to the world around her, the slight tightening in her shoulders when a tree shifted in a way that drew attention.

This was all not to mention that something seemed off about the test. She had given them a two hour time limit. And all three knew it would be impossible to get past her defenses together, even with the intent to kill, much less on their-

My eyes widened. That's it. We couldn't do it alone. It was quite literally impossible. There were few Jonin in the Elemental Nations capable of forcibly taking something from this woman, much less Genin. But if they all worked together, there was at least a chance.

With that thought lingering in my mind, I quietly made my way towards Mamoru. When I finally found him, he was crouched low to the ground, Kaname behind him, keeping watch for anything to his rear.

"Mamoru, I need to talk to you quickly. It's important." I murmured to him as quietly as possible, knowing undoubtedly that he would hear me.

"Shoot." He replied, only glancing at me for a moment before resuming his watch on Naruto-sensei.

"We need to work together with Aiko in order for us to pass this test. That's the trick."

"But there are only two bells..." Mamoru said, a crease to his brow the only sign of his attention being on the conversation.

"But we are a team. Whether there are three bells or only one, we all share an objective when we are on a mission. Not only that, but if we chose to go one-on-one with Naruto-sensei, we are guaranteed to lose, even with the intent to kill. But together, we at least stand a chance of getting even just one bell. So are you and Kaname in?" I asked my teammate. I knew that I was far more likely to gain him to my way of thinking if I included his partner too.

"You know... I think this is the most I have ever heard you speak all at the same time. Congrats, you graduated from sentences and random grunts to actual conversation. I'm proud of you." I rolled my eyes as Mamoru sent me a wolfish grin that screamed of mischief, but I could tell by the way he was starting to prepare for movement that I had gotten him to see reason.

It took a lot of maneuvering and about 30 minutes of our time, but we managed to get to Aiko's hiding spot, which was rather precarious and overwatched a lot of the training ground, allowing us to watch Naruto-sensei's every move.

"Aiko, we need to work together." I said outright, choosing not to beat around the bush.

The girl looked at Mamoru, Kaname, then me, before answering, "Whatever convoluted plan of action you two came up with, I hope you know that if it fails and I don't get to become Naruto-sensei's pupil, that I'm going to wring both of your necks. I'm in."

I couldn't help the shiver of fear that ran down my back. Even to this day I can clearly remember when we first started classes together.

At the Academy, Tadashi's first day

I walked into the classroom, and the first thing I saw was the large chalkboard at the front of the room with the name "Henge" written on it. The first thing I heard, however, was a little girls voice over the murmur of other students, "Who the heck are you calling cute?! I don't care how popular you are! I swear that one day I'll be a strong kunoichi, and I'm not gonna let some silly little boy get in the way!" a little girl with bright amber eyes and long silver hair yelled out, obviously trying to reprimand some other kid for trying to flirt with her, if I had to guess anything.

"Whatever! My dad says that the only thing kunoichi's are good at is seduction missions and being worthless in a fight." the boy that the girl was apparently yelling at said in retaliation.

Before anyone else could say anything, a boy with shaggy brown hair and slited eyes wearing a black sleeveless shirt on top of a long sleeved mesh shirt was in front of him and gripping him by the collar, "Bullshit. Girls are just as qualified of Shinobi as boys, and your father sounds like a worthless piece of trash to say such disgraceful things about his comrades." the boy growled out, sounding more animal than human.

At that moment I felt a dark aura emitting from the girl who had kicked up the original fuss, "I dare you to say something like that to my face Iranu." Everyone in the room besides the boy holding Inaru's collar started to shiver from the look on her face as she got closer to Iranu.

With a slam, the man who had been in the office with me to accept me into this class came in and quickly got the classes attention, "Quiet! Mamoru, let go of Iranu and get to your seat! We have a new student and I don't want you lot to make him feel unwelcome already. Now, Tadashi, my name is Iruka Umino, and I'll be your sensei. Now, would you please introduce yourself to the class?" Iruka-sensei smiled down kindly at me.

I looked to the other students, and gathered my courage, as my nerves were going haywire. I took a breath to begin...***

"Cool your tits, Aiko. We were thinking that there was absolutely no way to get those bells by ourselves and Tadashi here figured out what the real test is. Go on, explain it to her." Mamoru said, looking at me expectantly.

Aiko moved her gaze to me and I began, "Teamwork. There's a reason that they put us in a three man squad. Have you ever seen a Genin team with less than three members and one Jonin? There's a reason for that." I pointed out to her quietly.

"Alright. Makes sense. So what's the plan?"


Third Person POV

Naruto was standing in a field, she had created three shadow clones before she had shown herself to her students and they all should have followed them when they all went to hide.

"Well, at least they know better than to face me head on. Heh. I've only just met them and they're already doing better than Menma's squad did. I remember laughing so hard along with mom when Kakashi-baka told us about what Menma did." she talked to herself.

Suddenly she felt the rush of memories as one of her clones dismissed itself.

"So Tadashi figured it out, huh? Should be interesting."

As She spent the next 20 or so minutes reading her book on fuuinjutsu, she made sure to keep careful watch of her surroundings. With no clone on Tadashi anymore, she had no clue as to whether he would come after her or if he would truly seek out his teammates. She honestly hoped for the latter, as it would mean that they were at least a step closer to passing.

Again, she felt a new rush of memories, this time from the clone that had been following Mamoru and Kaname.

"So they've banded together and they're going to try and find Aiko in the cliffs? Well, she chose semi-decently at least. Easy position to defend, however difficult to escape from in the case of necessary retreat. You'd have to have utmost confidence in your skills to take on a position like that."

Now that they were off to find the final teammate, she knew it was only a matter of time until they all came for her. She began to set about some small traps in the surrounding field to help catch them off guard and test their ability to cope with plans going awry. Then she took out some special kunai from a seal that she had drawn onto her left forearm.

Staring at the three pronged blades, she couldn't help but be reminded of her father. He had been so proud to give her her first one after her first day of the Ninja Academy. He had told her that if she ever needed him, he had put a special alerting seal on the blade and all she would have to do is push just a little bit of her chakra into the seal then throw the blade down and he would be there in an instant. That particular blade was the one she was holding at this very moment. She still sometimes pushed just a small amount of chakra into the seal when she missed him so much that it would hurt and would wonder if he could feel that in the Pure realm.

Chuckling and realizing that she was being ridiculous, she set about placing the Hiraishin kunai about the field, keeping in mind that she knew whether they were able to get the bells or not, if they worked together, she would pass them with flying colors.

It was an hour later that she finally got the memories from her final clone that had followed Aiko. She knew their entire plan now, but she had to admit it was a good one. Perhaps she'll even let it play out for a little while before she finally used the flying Raijin to escape them. Or maybe she would play with them? She hasn't had any good entertainment since yesterday when she messed with Kakashi after telling him to do his work. The look on his face had been priceless, but the completion of his paperwork was the only thing to calm her down, as her beloved ramen was safe for another day.

She felt four familiar chakra signatures come near as they all split up to surround the field. She continued to read her book however, ignoring the presence of her students.

From her left she heard a loud yell from one of her male students, "Naruto-sensei! I challenge you! I'm gonna get one of those bells from you no matter what!" It was Mamoru and Kaname.

I chuckled, playing into what I knew they were doing, "Do you really think challenging me with only you and Kaname is such a great idea, Mamoru?"

"Just you wait!" He yelled as he charged his sensei, trying to use his taijutsu to distract her. Naruto had to admit, he was fairly advanced for his age, but stood nearly no chance if he were to come across someone else like her, whose taijutsu was based on evasion and drawing out the battle to wear down on the stamina of their opponent.

As Naruto was fending off Mamoru, mostly by deflecting his blows and turning his momentum against him, Tadashi came out of the forest.

That was the moment that she knew her clones had been ousted following them, as this wasn't part of their original plan. She knew that either the clones had been found out, or the three had taken extra precautions and changed details of their plan right before the confrontation.

As Tadashi came up on his sensei's left flank she turned to meet him, but it was that moment that Mamoru and Kaname took to enact their own end of the plan: Mamoru would hold down her right leg and Kaname would bite into her corresponding arm, immobilizing it. Then in a burst of speed, Tadashi kicked the back of her left knee, forcing the Jonin into a kneel, while he twisted her left arm behind her back, forcing her hand up between her shoulder blades, "Now, Aiko!"

And that's when Naruto noticed Aiko had run forward from her position in the tree line behind them. She threw a kunai, aiming for the strings attached to the bells. There were only moments left to get them now.

Mamoru watched his sensei closely, looking for any indications that she was going to try something. Unfortunately he had no idea what 'trying something' was supposed to look like. Then, as Aiko was throwing the kunai to cut the bells away, his sensei smiled at him, and his stomach dropped, before activating the Hiraishin and teleporting away.

Naruto stood up to her feet, looking over at the little Genin with her hand that had been bitten on her hip. They all looked so exhausted, she almost felt bad for them. Almost.

Then, the alarm indicating the end of the test sounded through the clearing and there stood all three Genin, plus Kaname, empty handed.

After a long silence, Aiko was the first to speak, "No... We... We failed." Her eyes brimmed with tears. When her two teammates saw this, they both walked up to her, each grabbing one of her hands, even Kaname, who was back on Mamoru's head, hopped onto Aiko's shoulder to nuzzle the girl.

Naruto smiled at this. They truly did have what it took to become great ninja.

"Team, look at me." she said to the four as she knelt in front of them.

They all looked at her with big eyes, fear and worry evident, "But we aren't a team. And you won't be our sensei. We failed." It was Tadashi to speak up that time.

Naruto's face was serious as she regarded her young team, "Actually, you are a team. And... I will be your sensei," The three gasped, holding each others hands tighter, "The point of the test wasn't to actually get the bells. It was to work together to do so. Failure in the Shinobi world is inevitable. It is also the strongest tool for learning. In fact, there's a little known secret to failure. Do you want to know it?"

All three looked at her with wide eyed rapture, as if memorizing every word she was saying, and nodded their heads vigorously.

"The secret is that failing is like falling down. You may fall down a million times, but that's okay, as long as you get back up a million and one."

She smiled at the three preteens before looking off to the side, while stuffing her hands in her pockets, "But honestly you shouldn't be so quick to judge yourselves. You didn't even fail." She said with a casual wave, as if shooing off a bug.

"WHAT?!" All three yelled at the same time, causing a flock of birds to take to the sky, squawking loudly, as the three Genin gave chase to their laughing sensei.

This was the scene that Kakashi and Menma walked into.

As they watched Kakashi couldn't help but let a small grin stretch his lips. The scene reminded him of her father and his team when they had first come together. Naruto was laughing loudly, her ponytail flowing behind her as she ran.

Then suddenly she took a sharp turn and was barreling towards him, and he had been so distracted with watching her that he didn't even have time to react, and the next thing he knew he was on his back, Naruto on top of him, his hands on her hips, her hands on the ground on either side of his head, thankfully holding her upper body off of him slightly, as he didn't think he could handle her being that pressed against him, and her wide blue eyes staring down into his two black ones.

Naruto wasn't expecting this little situation at all. One moment she's having a bit of fun with her new team, and the next she's quite literally on top of Kakashi.

She blushed.

A deep red that went from her chest to the roots of her blonde hair. And the real kicker? She liked where she was at. But that wouldn't stop her impending embarrassment. She scrabbled off of Kakashi as quickly as possible. When she felt a dark aura, she turned towards her brother, who she was only just realizing was there.

"Kakashi-sensei..." Menma growled out, already having a list composed in his mind of just how he was going to hurt the old pervert. No one got to touch his dear sister. He would be damned before he let someone dishonor his sister that way.

Kakashi got up swiftly, raising his hands in a placating gesture, knowing his student's temper, but most importantly trying to quell the reaction he was going to get from Naruto, "Maah, Maah, It was only an accident Menma. No need to get so upset."

"Kaka-baka!" This time it was Naruto who yelled, punching his arm, but not hard enough to actually cause damage, "Why didn't you move! You're the Hokage dammit! You should be able to at least move out of the way!"

'Little does she know...' Menma thought to himself. He had watched those two dance around each other for years and he was honestly starting to wonder if he would have to stop holding his mother back from putting those two in awkward situations to get them moving along. Don't get him wrong, he didn't like the thought of anyone being with his sister. She was his sister and the only person he didn't mind sharing her attention with was his mother, but he couldn't help it. His mother had always laughed at him whenever he said things like this, always telling him that when he was little he would glare at anyone who ever tried to take his sisters attention away from him. She had always doted on him though, especially during the time when their mother went on mission after mission trying to keep them safe.

"Maah, but Naru-chan~! I wanted to come see how my closest friend's team is doing! You did ask for them personally after all." Kakashi said with his typical eye smile.

Naruto huffed, crossing her arms and cocking her hip, "You mean you wanted to avoid paperwork and dragged my poor little brother with you!" She said, grabbing Menma and pulling his face into the crook of her neck in a protective manner. Not that Menma minded, he had the perfect opportunity to glare at his sensei who had been checking out his precious Onesan.

Suddenly there was an interruption from the three Genin of the group, "Um, Naruto-sensei, I didn't know you were so close with the Rokudaime..." Mamoru was the one to speak up.

"Eh?" Naruto said, looking at her pupil, "Yes, Kaka-baka and I were on a team together. In fact, he was my brothers sensei, and it was as his second-in-command that I joined his team."

"What happened to your team though sensei?" Tadashi asked quietly, fearing that he already knew the answer.

Naruto's face darkened slightly, before a small smile took over, "There are a lot of tragic things that happen in the Shinobi world, Tadashi. And I promise you three that I'll tell you all about my own team one day, but that's a bit too heavy for this bright occasion. So why don't I keep my promise of food, eh? What do you guys want to eat?"

"Wow Onesan, you're giving them a choice? I figured you'd just drag them off to Ichiraku's." Menma said, both impressed and slightly put off.

Naruto however was a bit miffed at the statement, "Well, they're the ones who passed, not me, so why wouldn't they choose? And just for saying that, they also get to choose whether you two bakas get to join us."

"Yakiniku! Yakiniku!" Mamoru yelled, obviously giving his vote.

Tadashi simply nodded his agreement with the other boy.

Aiko obviously wasn't so enthusiastic about Yakiniku Q, she wanted to see Naruto-sensei's favorite restaurant, but decided to concede to her teammates, "Yakiniku Q sounds good, but Naruto sensei..." Aiko paused, playing with the end of her battle kimono, "Um, would it be okay if I went with you... to your favorite restaurant... one day?"

The Jonin was taken aback by this, but she realized that Aiko just wanted to be closer to her so she let her hand fall on top of Aiko's hair, ruffling the locks a bit, "Of course Aiko-chan. I would be glad to show you Ichiraku's sometime."

Kakashi himself was very happy for this. It seemed that Naruto had gotten lucky with this particular Kunoichi. He knew that many were fangirls at this age, and it didn't help that her brother was the object of many of their desires. This particular kunoichi however seemed to only care about succeeding in her career and protecting her comrades.

"Now you three. I told you you would get to decide if those two bakas over there came with us. So what will it be?" Naruto said abruptly, causing both Menma and Kakashi to face fault.

Aiko this time was the first to speak, "Hell yeah! Eating lunch with the Hokage would be so cool! Almost as cool as eating with you sensei!" Aiko squealed, stars shining in her eyes with excitement, making Naruto and surprisingly Tadashi laugh out loud.

"I don't know Sensei. I don't mind your brother, but Hokage-jiji was looking at you funny and he smells funny too." Mamoru said, loudly sniffing the air, Kaname yipping on top of his head.

Kakashi felt his eyebrow twitch at that. he reached out and grabbed the little Inuzuka by the back of his jacket and picked him up. Obviously the kid didn't know about his own heightened sense of smell, nor had his clan taught him the proper manners of having a heightened sense of smell, "You know kid, I can smell you too and it smells like you need to use more deodorant and stop letting Kaname use your washcloth."

Mamoru, for all he was worth, was absolutely not scared! He just knew when to recognize that he was out classed. That's all.

"Kaka-baka. Put my student down. Now." Naruto said, a bored look on her face, but a sharp edge to her tone. One that he recognized quite easily as her mother hen mode. Setting the boy down, he turned to the woman who had had his attention for nearly the past decade.

"Maah, I was just saying. Having a good nose means having manners. I never mention other peoples smells to them, now do I?" He said, leaning into her how she always did to him when she was teasing him relentlessly.

"I would like for them both to join us sensei. If you trust someone then I will trust them too." Tadashi said quietly.

Naruto flashed a bright grin before flashing around the clearing, picking up her kunai quickly so that she and the others could make their way to Yakiniku Q.


Alright All, that is Chapter two. It's a bit shorter that the first, but once things start progressing, the chapter will get longer. I'm pretty excited for this story, as well as a few of my others. I'm kinda nervous that I have too much on my plate but I'm doing my absolute best and being able to share stories and make someone laugh or smile with them makes me so so happy. So I really hope you guys enjoyed. Also I noticed some stuff in my last chapter that were kind of ambiguous so I'll clear that up really fast. Naruto doesn't have the Kyuubi inside of her. Menma and Kushina do. Kushina retained the Yin chakra and Menma received the Yang. I have a few more surprises up my sleeve for this story and I am very excited about it! Thank you all for reading, and please review! I always love getting constructive criticism and others views on my writing, I feel like it makes me a better writer for it! Thank you again, and I hope all have a good day!