Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Summary: Tsunade tests Naruto's new skills, and Naruto's first intimate experience isn't as rewarding as he hoped.
Notes: I think I've got a few details wrong from canon like the training ground number, and I'm actually using a English to Romaji (Japanese in English Phonetic) translator for some of the Jutsu names. If you have any corrections let me know and I'll update it. As always enjoy!
Chapter 3 – Kakashi's Bells
Standing at training ground seven with Sakura sure did bring back memories, it was where Kakashi-sensei had put them through their first team exercise, the bells training. Of course there had been three of them back then…
Kakashi looked at what was left of his former team, both Naruto and Sakura seemed lost in thought, "Thinking about Sasuke I'll bet…"
"Well Sasuke may be gone, but you two seem much stronger." he started. Sakura immediately slumped her shoulders even more at the mention of her missing-nin ex-teammate.
"I see Sasuke is still a taboo word around her, but Naruto doesn't seem to be reacting at all, interesting…" Kakashi mused.
Naruto saw Sakura react to Sasuke's name, he sighed inwardly. She was still in love with him obviously, when would she ever learn? It hurt him too of course, but he was learning to control his emotions as a shinobi should. You still had to have them of course, and his Ninja way was still as unyielding as ever, but that didn't mean you had to wear every feeling on your sleeve.
As Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Shizune looked on, Kakashi took out two bells and tied them to his belt. "You know the rules, come at me like you're going to kill me, or you'll never get the bells."
Both Naruto and Sakura nodded. "What, no book this time?" Naruto asked sarcastically.
"No, not this time." Kakashi replied evenly. "In fact I think I'm going to have to take you two a bit more seriously this time." The mysterious jounin lifted is headband to reveal his seldom seen left eye. The tomoes surrounding his red Sharingan eye rotated slightly. "I think I'm going to need this…"
In the distance, another watched the training, but she was having trouble seeing…, "Byakugan!" she said, calling upon the birthright technique of her family. Hinata gasped, what was wrong with her eyes?
"Are you ready?" Kakashi asked.
Without a word Naruto charged first jumping high in the air, Kakashi flicked a couple of Kunai his direction to slow his advance and gauge his movements. Naruto formed his trademark seal and created a shadow clone next to himself in mid-air, the clone grabbed his shirt and flung the original sideways and out of danger.
"Very nice Naruto!" Kakashi thought, "but to slow…" As Naruto landed, his former teacher was already there, holding his head with one hand. "I didn't say start yet, still impatient eh Naru…." Kakashi's question was cut short as he sensed another presence behind him, there stood another Naruto, with a Kunai pressed into his back.
"So you created three clones not two? Clever… Are you ready to start for real this time?" Kakashi asked.
"If we haven't started yet then why am I talking to a clone?" Naruto replied. The question had the desired response.
"When did he see?" Kakashi's clone wondered as the Kunai plunged it's back, causing the it to vanish in a puff of smoke.
"Sakura, below!" Naruto shouted, she understood immediately. Sakura slammed her fist into the ground calling upon all her strength, and the terrain within a 10 meter radius shattered, revealing an underground and shocked Kakashi staring up at his former students. "What insane strength! Tsunade's crazy teaching that technique, looks like I'm going to have to take these two more than just a little seriously..."
Only slightly less shocked was Naruto, he was expecting her to take guard against an attack from below. "When did she learn that?!" he wondered. "Man I better not piss her off…"
Kakashi jumped up out of the crater onto a particularly large piece of rubble. "Well, I can see this is going to be more interesting then last time!" he called out. "Why don't we test your defenses?"
Kakashi's hands blurred as he threw together a series of complex hand signs, "Doryudan no jutsu !" The ground began rumbling as a massive earthen dragon raised up from the dirt next to Kakashi. Naruto and Sakura both tensed not knowing what to expect. Suddenly the mouth of the dragon glowed white and it spit several large projectiles towards them.
Sakura dodged the incoming fire with practiced grace, darting left then up she escaped unscathed. Her sensei Lady Tsunade had taught her if she had one responsibility as a medical ninja, it was not to get injured. She turned back to see if Naruto avoided the attack.
Naruto held his ground until the last moment, "Shunshin no Jutsu!" He vanished as the balls of chakra laced mud exploded at his feet sending a wave of dirt and grass into the forest. Naruto reappeared three feet in front of Kakashi already throwing a quick jab towards his face. Kakashi reacted instantly, tilting his head out of the way and tapping the outside of Naruto's arm he forced the young ninja to overextend and grabbed him by the shoulder. Using Naruto's momentum against him Kakashi turned his hip into Naruto and tried to throw him away and to the left.
But Naruto anticipated the move, and had already rotated his hips in the direction of Kakashi's toss. This allowed him to keep his balance and counter the move altogether as he naturally rotated back to face his mentor and dug his feet into the ground. The momentum now his, Naruto grabbed Kakashi's arm and pulled back hard, throwing the jounin over his shoulder.
Keeping with his almost lazy style of taijutsu Kakashi decided to flow along with the maneuver and simply allow himself to be thrown, smoothly rotating in midair he released another series of Kunai at Naruto to stop him from capitalizing on his successful reversal. Naruto was about to surge forward after his midair opponent but was forced to hit the deck to avoid the kunai.
"Excellent Work Naruto!" Kakashi praised landing gently in the pasture near the water. "That was an excellent use of the Body Flicker technique. If your timing was any better you might have got me!"
"Actually his timing is superb, it's just his bad luck that the Sharingan defeats the speed and genjutsu of that technique. Without it he probably would have landed that blow. I've only known a handful of shinobi who've honed the body flicker to a point where it can be used effectively in battle, very impressive. He also managed to counter my throw, his taijutsu is improved as well. This could make his shadow clone technique very troublesome, the last thing I need is an army of Naruto's that can attack and defend well." He thought.
"Now I've got you!" Sakura yelled. She rocketed down towards him with her right leg extended and aimed at Kakashi's head.
Kakashi looked up and squinted trying to separate her from the noontime sun, "She's using the sun to blind me to her attack, I can't see well enough to counter, not that I'd want to against her…" He dove out of the way as she demolished the area he was standing in only a moment before.
His escape forced Kakashi onto the lake, taking up position on the water he stared down his two pupils as they regrouped and faced him. "I have to admit you two are getting to be quite the handful, I'm starting to miss the old days…"
"Really? We're just starting to have fun!" Naruto yelled.
"Oh really! All right then, have some fun with this…" Kakashi's hands blurred again as he formed his next attack.
"Oh my God! His hands are moving so fast I can't make out the signs!" Sakura yelled.
Naruto smiled to himself, "You're right Sakura, he is fast. You may not be able to read his hand signs but I can!" Naruto tapped his thumb against a small tack on his belt.
"Tsunami Kyokan Jutsu!" A massive wall of water raised up out of the lake in front of Kakashi and surged in the direction of Naruto and Sakura.
"Naruto! It's too wide to avoid!" Sakura called over the roar of the approaching tidal wave.
"I know, get next to me and hold on!" he yelled back.
Kakashi watched the wave break onto land and engulf the area in several tons of frothing water. Just as the wave broke and came crashing down on the ground where Naruto and Sakura had been he saw something flash straight up escaping the onslaught. With water and smoke streaming off the mysterious object he had trouble making out exactly what it was.
"Hmmm, it's too large to be either one of them, and not many shinobi could manage a 50 meter high jump. I don't know what form I'm looking at but this has to be one of Naruto's, leave it to Jiraiya to teach him techniques like this."
The large awkwardly shaped blob reached its crest and began falling back to earth straight down, splashing down hard into the remnants of Kakashi's artificial tidal wave. He widened his stance slightly to better react to the attack he suspected was coming.
Kakashi didn't have to wait long as a large pink tendril shot out from the water and raced straight at him. Throwing himself hard to the right he looked back as the fleshy pink monstrosity reach his previous location and turned 90 degrees again flying straight at him.
Kakashi's eyes widened slightly, "Well this isn't good." The tentacle caught up with him a moment later and wrapped itself around him squeezing the breath from his body. The massive pink tentacle lifted the helpless jounin high into the air and then brought him down hard smashing him into the ground head first.
"I got him that time!" Naruto yelled. He was sitting on top of an eight foot tall armored frog, with Sakura right behind him holding on for dear life. The massive frog's tongue released Kakashi's body and whipped back into its mouth. "You wouldn't believe how handy these summonings can some in Sakura-chan!"
"Yea I can see that." She responded, trying to imagine that the thing she had her legs wrapped around was anything but a wet slimy frog. Ignoring the disgustingly warm and slick feeling of the frog's skin against her thighs she slid off it's back and fought off the urge to throw up. "Where's Kakashi-sensei?" she asked unevenly. "You don't think you really hurt him do you?"
"Geeez I hope not. Are you OK? You're walking funny…" Naruto dismounted and the frog vanished in a puff of smoke on his silent command.
"I'm fine, it's not like I'm covered in slime or anything!" she shot back. "Let's just get back to the task at hand shall we?"
Naruto giggled as they ran over to the last place they had seen their old sensei to find a shattered tree log where he should have been.
"Man I should have known, replacement! Getting to Kakashi-sensi is impossible!" Naruto sighed. "Now we have to be on guard, you can bet he's watching us right now."
"That kid's dangerous!" Kakashi thought. He was observing them from the forest contemplating his next move. "Every technique he's used thus far is something I didn't even know he could do. To say that he's grown is an understatement. And Sakura's no slouch either, she may not have his range of attacks but with her strength one mistake and I'll be in the infirmary for a month."
Sakura scanned the forest looking for any sign of Kakashi. "So what are we going to do?" she asked.
Naruto looked thoughtful, "Well, there is one more thing we can try, I've been holding it back in case I didn't need to use it. Think you can get his attention?"
From their perch at the edge of the training grounds Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Shizune watched the match.
Tsunade shook her head, "Jiraiya, how did you teach Naruto so much? It's like he's a totally different person! Kakashi actually had to retreat!"
"Yea, he's full of surprises that one." Jiraiya replied. "Just wait until he gets serious."
"Serious? You mean to tell me he's not trying?" she asked surprised.
"Oh he's trying alright, but he's not showing all his abilities yet. I'd expect him to stop holding back soon though, he's obviously figuring out that he's not going to get those bells without really surprising Kakashi." He replied.
Kakashi stood with his back up against a tree. "Hmmm, I'm sensing a lot of chakra signatures now, they're all entering the forest. Naruto must be using the Shadow Clone Jutsu to try and flood the forest to flush me out."
Before he could formulate a strategy three kunai flew from a nearby tree and raced towards him. Kakashi ducked and sped away looking for the attacker and whatever else might lie ahead. His senses told him to look up, and two Naruto's dropped down to meet him. Kakashi was ready and sent shurikin flying at both, but to his surprise the twins both deflected his attack with a smooth stroke of their kunai. Kakashi halted as they landed in front him cutting off his escape.
"I knew it, these clones are going to be troublesome. They're so much more capable now! But, that's the true advantage of the Shadow Clone Technique. It multiplies the users effectiveness on the battlefield. Naruto may only be twice as good as he once was, but now that improvement is multiplied by each and every clone making him ten times harder to deal with."
The Naruto twins stared at Kakashi but didn't move. "Well? Are you just going to sit there?" he asked them. Suddenly, they looked at each other with a grin and vanished, leaving Kakashi in the clearing alone.
"Uh oh, this can't be good…" he said under his breath.
"Oh no!" an overly girly voice rang out to his right. "This stupid uniform is always giving me so many problems! Now I can't even get this top to stay buttoned and I'm totally exposed!" Sakura complained. She turned to face Kakashi, her shirt was unbuttoned exposing her soft white stomach and lacey pink bra. Biting her lower lip and giving her best puppy dog eyes she pleaded, "Kakashi-sensei? Could you help me pleeeease, everyone can see my perky breasts!"
Kakashi completely forgot where he was, his Sharingan began spinning wildly trying to take everything in while a voice somewhere in the back of his head screamed at him for being a dirty old man. "You trained her as a child you sick bastard! Why in world would… Wait! Trap!"
His paralyzed mind caught the ruse too late, the half naked Sakura vanished in cloud of smoke as he felt someone approaching from behind. Without any time to think Kakashi jumped straight up to escape, glancing over his shoulder he saw the ground disintegrate as the real Sakura just missed with another monstrous punch. "So you like looking at underage girls do you, you old Pervert!"
Naruto was hiding in the brush nearby and saw Kakashi in midair, he wasn't where Naruto was hoping he'd be however, and now Sakura was going to get in the way but it would have to do. "Ok Naruto, " he whispered to himself, "nothing but speed, pure speed…" Gathering as much chakra as he could muster Naruto launched himself full speed at the legendary Copy Ninja hoping to catch him off guard. Naruto blurred out of the brush and flew towards Sakura and Kakashi, at the last second he jumped over Sakura and flicked a kunai into his hand.
As Sakura watched Kakashi escape into the air she suddenly saw him twist and raise a kunai for no reason. Before she could figure out what was going on she felt a massive surge of chakra behind her and something moved past her head at an incredible speed, the gale of wind following whatever it was actually threw her to the ground. She threw her hands out reflexively and caught herself from face planting into the cracked earth and pushed off hard with her left arm she spun over trying desperately to get a look at what was happening above her. Staring up she saw Naruto was there, his kunai pressed up against Kakashi's. Sakura gasped, was that thing Naruto? "That's not possible! Naruto can't move like that can he? … What did he just do?"
If it hadn't been for the Sharingan, he would have missed it. "Holy Shit he's fast! I'm not gonna make it!" Kakashi thought, spinning in mid-air to meet Naruto's Kunai. He managed the counter with nothing to spare but the move had forced him off balance and in mid-air that was deadly. Naruto saw the opening and grabbed Kakashi's other arm, with both of them occupied he wouldn't be able to make seals and perform complex ninjutsu. Now if only Sakura would stop gawking and help…
Sakura saw the two locked together and shook off her shock. She launched herself into the air reaching for the bells… "Almost there…, 3 meters…, 2 meters…, 1 meter…!" Kakashi vanished in puff of smoke, replaced with another large tree branch. "Shit!" Naruto and Sakura collided and came crashing towards the ground in a jumble of arms and legs. With a last second flip, Naruto landed on his feet and caught his upside down teammate against his body just before her head impacted the hard ground below. Belly to belly and inverted, Naruto looked down, Sakura looked up, and four eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
This was easily the closest Naruto had ever been to this particular region of woman, and while his mind screamed at his eyes not to look in the name of decency, his eyes responded with the biological equivalent of "Piss Off!"
"Oh my God! I can't believe I'm staring at her … Is Sakura-chan wearing underwear? Oh shit that pervy sage is starting to rub off on me! If I don't say something quick Sakura's going to kill me!"
"Um, Sakura?... Are you OK?" he asked her pelvis.
Sakura was still trying to come to terms with being within six inches of Naruto's crotch when she realized with startling clarity where his face was, "Put me down you PERVERT!" she screamed. Naruto immediately complied and dropped her on her head.
"Oh my God I'm sooooo sorry Sakura-chan!"
"You're a dead pervert walking, you hear me Naruto?!"
"Kakashi-sensei! Help me PLEASE!"
Jiraiya and Shizune collapsed in laughter as the forest was filled with the sounds of Naruto's screams, but Tsunade wasn't paying attention anymore. She was just staring at the young blond genin. "How did he move like that? There was no technique, it was just speed! He nearly got the drop on Kakashi even with the Sharingan!"
Hinata leaned up against a nearby tree and released her Byakugan, her large white eyes returned to their natural lavender. What had she just seen? It couldn't be her, everyone else looked the same, but not Naruto. Naruto was like some kind of blur, a golden blur. And when the fight started he shined with a brilliance she had never seen before, he was almost difficult to look at. What could it mean?
