Hey third chapter here, I do not own Naruto in any way it belongs to good Masashi Kishimoto,
So please enjoy the fic and send me reviews even if it is just to point out my mistakes, remember, I'm a new writer and eager to learn.
Chapter 3: Together we rise
Mikoto was running through the trees after Daisuke waiting for him to explain himself, but since it seemed to not be among his plans she decided to ask about it herself "So what is that all about, I mean wasn't Sai sensei pretty clear about the goal of this test?"
He look back at her without stopping as he answered "Yeah during the start of it I thought it to but as the whole thing went on, the creatures begun showing up and I saw how bad you and Minato were having your asses handed to you…"
"Hey I was not having my ass handed to me, I had everthing under control!" she said defensively to which Daisuke snorted.
"Yeah sure you had a great plan with the wolves jumping over you and all, but as I was saying truth is he never told us outright the goal of our test, remember what he said about the test"
Flashback
"Your exam during the academy was to determine if you had the basic skills to be a shinobi, in my test though has the objective to determine if you are fit to be a shinobi."
End f flashback
"But you explained to us what Sai sensei was talking about, Sai sensei said you did himself and what does it have to do with anything?" Mikoto asked still confused with what he was trying to say.
"It has everything to do with the test, he never really told if I was right, now that I think I understand I see got a half correct answer at best, he did everything he could to destabilize our concentration from the things he said yesterday up to this morning, it was all to distract us to one fact which should be the most important to the three of us." He said to her.
Mikoto still perplexed asked him "What fact is that?"
"The simple fact that we are a team, no matter the mission we are in this together, I think this is what Sai sensei wanted from us all the time." He said with a small smile as he finished his trail of thoughts.
Mikoto was taken aback by this, she still didn't understand his idea, but as she looked at his face and that smile on his lips, it made her believe in him, fell confidence in him and as he turned away from her and she realized she was still staring, she blushed averting her gaze from him.
"Stay away you freak of nature!" she was able to hear as they approached the location in which Minato was fighting the snakes, but as they finaly spotted him Mikoto's eyes widened as she saw that now it was a single snake fighting Minato and it seemed as big as some of her father's own summon snakes.
Minato was full of scraps and a few small superficial cuts around his arms but seemed to still be in the fight, rolling to his left as the snake collided with the ground where he was seconds ago, he quickly took out two shuriken throwing it at the creature's eyes, but it had no effect and the creature gave a swing of its tail hitting Minato making him hit a tree really hard. Mikoto prepared to use her fire jutsu, as the creature quickly crawled toward Minato's unconscious body, but was stopped by Daisuke.
"Don't spend your chakra for this I got an explosive tag here" With that said he raised a kunai with an explosive kunai tied to the end of it, he threw it hitting the creature right into its head and making it explode over Minato covering him ink, before it could reform itself though, Mikoto had with some difficulty gotten hold of Minato and she and Daisuke ran away from the area as fast as they could.
Minato slowly opened his eyes, the first thing he could register was a huge pain in his head, he tried to make small movements to test his body and see his condition, after a few movements he declared himself okay to stand up. When he got up, he noticed Mikoto and Daisuke watching from a distance what he recognized was the tree he had saw, the one that contained the scrolls, there were a couple of wolves but now that he knew what kind of things were waiting for them, his byakugan could see much more, he got closer to them and said simply "There seem to be another layer of ink 20 meters away from the wolves". His voice surprised his squad mates as they turned to him.
"Hey Minato, you took your sweet time waking up." she said but despite the apparently cold words, he saw a small smile on the corner of her mouth.
"She meant we are glad you're okay bro, you had us worried for a moment there." Daisuke said smiling at his friend.
"Thanks guys I thought I was a goner for sure." he said to them and then asked "But hey why did you guys come back for me, you could have each taken a scroll and passed."
Mikoto only shrugged smiling "We couldn't leave you behind right Daisuke."
"What she means is that I wouldn't leave you behind, she is here because she can't get the scroll alone" Daisuke said with a small smile which made Mikoto send a glare toward him but besides the glare didn't interrupt as he proceeded to explain to Minato his theory of what was the real goal of the test .
Minato smiled "Wow man you're really smart bro, so what do we do now?"
Daisuke looked to be in deep thought "Well the sun will rise in about half an hour, we need to act now, but those creatures are tough and I think Mikoto only activated the first line of defense of the tree." He sighed "I really don't know the best plan of action this time, everything we do will be risky."
Mikoto smiled "Whatever the risk is, we can face it, if we fail, we will fail together." With that she extended her arm.
Minato smirked "and if we succeed, it will be together as well." With that he stretched his arm putting his hand over Mikoto's.
Both looked at Daisuke who smirked "You guys would be lost without me anyway." And with that he put his hand over the other two; they all shared a look of confidence as they broke away.
The three of them begun walking, slowly their walk became a jog which became a full sprint "Mikoto, you go first, use your fire jutsu to open the way through the wolves, Minato you with me get ready for any surprise attacks."
Mikoto nodded in agreement to his command and jumped quickly performing the hand seals and before the wolves could even notice what was happening, they were struck from above by a fireball which created a cloud of smoke, Minato and Daisuke went right through the cloud with Minato using his byakugan to navigate through the smoke making sure to pay attention to the second trap; as soon as Mikoto landed on the ground she was attacked by the remaining wolves, who jumped at her, Mikoto got her arms to the ground lifting her legs in the air making both her feet collide against their faces .
As they got through the smoke both saw as ink emerged from the ground forming two creatures like lions, Daisuke and Minato jumped over them, but one of them proved to be faster than Daisuke anticipated as it was already mere inches away from him. He made a move to block but before he could the creature stopped due to Minato's palm hitting it right in the neck, he was now using the Hyuga taijutsu technique, the gentle fist, his eyes turned to Daisuke as he said simply "Go get the scrolls!" as he finished saying it the creature recuperated and tried to slash at Minato with it sharp claws but he jumped over it sending a kick toward the second beast which was trying to get to Daisuke, despite his best efforts both the genin could see that he wasn't going to hold for much time against such creatures.
Daisuke was close, but he could hear something above him, how had Minato not seen that giant bird, Daisuke knew he would reach the scroll about the same time as the bird so in a last effort to get to the scroll first he jumped stretching his arms, his fingers getting hold of the scrolls. He braced himself for the bird's attack; he closed his eyes expecting for the pain, a few seconds went by and no pain came, in fact the whole battlefield seemed to be in complete silence right now.
"My, my Hideo you can open your eyes now." Said a voice which made Daisuke open his eyes in disbelief, but there smiling at him just in front of a panting Mikoto and Minato, was Sai sensei, all the ink that was splattered around the ground had disappeared, Well congratulations You passed, but there is still one decision for you to make Hideo san."
"What do you mean sensei?" asked a tired Daisuke between deep breaths.
"Well you hold the two scrolls, one is yours but who will you give the other one to?" Sai asked his smile unsettling but this time the whole attention was on Daisuke and not on his smile.
The boy's eyes were wide in shock "But sensei I thought that was the point of your test, for us to work as a team no matter the consequences."
"Well you thought wrong, a good guess but still only a half answer, now chose or I will chose for you." Sai said, his smile had disappeared and in its place there was a frown.
Minato took a step forward "Look Daisuke, keep this one and give the other to Mikoto, if it wasn't for the two of you I would have been snake food by now."
But before Daisuke opened his mouth to talk Mikoto jumped to it "No Minato, you found the scrolls, if it wasn't for you we wouldn't have even got this far and if it wasn't for Daisuke we would never have united as a team to accomplish the mission, sensei send me back to the academy!" she said to her squad mates shock.
"Mikoto what are you doing, you don't want to do that…" Minato was saying but she interrupted him.
"Of course I don't, but as long as you guys don't have to go back to the academy I don't care, I'm an Uchiha after all, I will be out of there in no time." She said with a weak smile.
"No look guys, both of you have your names to carry on, you both from important ninja families, I was only able to figure it all out because of watching your experiences and I would have never gotten close to this tree if it wasn't for you two, sensei I give them both the scrolls." he said as he stretched his arms with both the scrolls toward Mikoto and Minato.
"You refuse to choose, what if I decide you three are lacking in discipline for not following my rules and because of this you should all should be sent back to the academy?" he asked them with a serious face, but despite this threat none of the three genin made a move to claim the scroll.
Sai broke into a smile, this one they were pretty sure it was a real smile as he said "Okay congratulations, you all passed."
The three of them stared at their sensei with mouths open, it was Daisuke who finally spoke "But sensei I thought you said I was wrong."
Sai turned toward him "You are a clever boy Daisuke, but hanging out with Minato is apparently making you lose your edge" and there he was again with a praise hidden behind two insults "I said you were half correct, getting the scrolls was half of my test, this was the final part of it."
Minato looked at him confused "Wait, so you made a test inside a test, what was the second test for?"
Sai looked at them with a smile "To see if you were ready to put everything into the line for each other, sacrifice is a part of the duty of a shinobi." As he said that all of his genins stayed in complete silence, shocked by this lesson, so he took the opportunity and kept talking "There will be missions when maybe, working together won't be enough, you will need to be ready to die not just for the sake of the mission, but also for the sake of your comrades and sometimes it will mean even acting against the rules of your village, someone once told me that in the shinobi world those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum"
The silence was broken by Minato once again "Wow that is deep Sai sensei you did everything to stop us from thinking straight, you even talked with my sister to make sure neither me or Daisuke would eat breakfast."
Mikoto's mouth opened in shock "Wait my brother said the same thing the sensei said about breakfast as well, when did you talk with them Sai sensei?"
Sai had a confused look in his eyes "I never did…I think your siblings were just having fun at your expenses." As soon as he finished saying it he had to block his ears as Minato and Mikoto both shouted at the same time.
"WHAT!" and both were soon engulfed in a discussion about plans of revenge against their siblings, which made Sai smile, that is until Daisuke with an evil smirk looked at him.
"So sensei, I remember you talking about treating us for dinner ain't that right?" with that Sai's smile disappeared as he saw the three hungry genin in front of him staring at him hungrily and maliciously.
"Daisuke I said before, you are too clever for your own good." He said with a small smile, and he wasn't surprised as he heard Minato break the silence once again.
"Get ready shinobi world, because team 9 is here now and we will take you by storm!" he yelled pumping his fist in the air.
