AN: It's at the bottom for once.

Disclaimer: I'm a member in another manga group. Don't own Naruto.

Break

Child of the Earth

Chapter 3: Clones and Teamwork


"SENNEN GOROSHI!"

Sakura stepped back as Kakashi rammed his fingers into Naruto's ass, sending the boy into the air. Sasuke stared at them with the most appalled expression on his face that he could manage. That was taijutsu? That was an ass-poke! Now he knew for certain the old man was a pervert.

However, Naruto only got about ten feet in the air when turned into a puff of smoke with a pop. Sakura started, staring up at where the boy had been. 'That wasn't kawarimi… what was that?'

Sasuke looked around. "Where did that idiot go?"

Kakashi took a step back. "That was…" 'He knows kage bunshin… naturally Jiraiya would teach him a forbidden technique…'

There was a rustle nearby as Naruto, or another Naruto, jumped out of the trees. "Aww, man! You popped my bunshin!"

"That was a bunshin!" Sakura shouted incredulously. "It was solid!"

"Of course it was," Naruto replied, brow furrowing. "It was kage bunshin. It's a technique that creates solid clones via chakra and shadows."

Sakura stared back to where the clone disappeared then back to the other Naruto. "You've got to be kidding me."

Kakashi shook his head. This was the most interesting group he'd had in his entire career. "You'd better hurry. You're almost out of time."

Naruto frowned, glancing up at the sun. "Drat."

He put his hands together, looking over to Sakura. "Now you can go help Sasuke. I'll keep him busy while you do that."

Sakura nodded, backing up to move to where Sasuke was partially out of his hole.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

She stopped when ten clones appeared, all wielding kunai. "Charge!"

One clone appeared beside her. "Here, I'll help. He's probably going to be stubborn, like we talked about."

Sakura nodded numbly, trotting after the clone.

The other clones were attacking Kakashi, who was successfully parrying all their attacks, but they were getting close. With a poof, one clone disappeared after a punch from Kakashi. With two more punches, two more clones disappeared.

Sakura and the Naruto clone walked over to Sasuke, who scowled at them. "I don't need your help."

'Right. And you're conveniently buried in the dirt because it's good for your skin?' Inner Sakura replied dryly. Sakura nearly felt like voicing it as well. "So how do we get him out? He's stuck pretty well."

"I said I can get myself out on my own!" Sasuke growled, glaring at her. Sakura glared back, to the shock of Sasuke. Naruto Clone glanced back at the others, seeing Naruto was down to only three clones and himself.

"How good are you at molding chakra?" The clone inquired, looking at Sakura. She gave him an uncertain look. "I uh…"

"Never mind," Naruto replied, raising his fist before slamming it into the ground. The earth cracked around Sasuke, loosening enough that he could climb out. The boy was dirty and his pride was wounded but other than that, Sasuke was fine.

"You seriously cannot be that strong," Sakura commented, staring at him disbelievingly. Naruto clone rubbed the back of his head. "No, I'm not. I'm pressing chakra to my hand as I punch to put more force into it. Unfortunately, I don't have near enough the control for it to be effective. If one has excellent chakra control, they can destroy boulders with their bare fists."

"Their bare fists?" Sakura echoed, eyes widening.

Naruto clone nodded, grinning. "Seen it done. You do not wanna get that woman mad."

Sakura blinked as did Sasuke, but the subject was dropped.

The clone then looked over to the other clones, seeing there was just Naruto and one other clone. "Ugh. Oh, well. We'd better work together to get those bells."

"I already told you, dobe. I'm not going to work with you for those bells. One of us has to get kicked out."

The clone gave him an exasperated look. Sakura glared at him. "You know, for a genius, you're pretty slow, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke stared at her as she nodded. That felt… good. And hey, it was more of a reaction she got out of him than with her fawning.

She shrugged, nodding to the clone. "You figure it out. You can either work with us or on your own—but of course, we're not going to dig you out next time."

With that, she turned and ran back to Kakashi and the real Naruto. Sasuke was… stumped, to say the least. Sakura herself was grinning from ear to ear, not that he could see it. Oh yeah… Inner Sakura gave a thumbs-up as she drew more kunai, throwing them at Kakashi.

Kakashi turned around, using the last clone to block her attacks. The other clone sighed and ran from her side, charging at Kakashi. With a swift punch, it was gone, too.

That left the real Naruto and Sakura standing him down. "Saa… not enough, you two."

Naruto frowned; glancing at Sakura, then back at Kakashi. He didn't like using jutsus he wasn't familiar with but he was running out of options and he didn't want to use high-level attacks.

He raised his hands and raised them into a seal, shifting to another one. Then he blinked as Sasuke jumped from behind him, kunai in hand to strike Kakashi. Kakashi blocked, removing the kunai as he flipped Sasuke, the boy landing on his back. He grunted and Kakashi realized Naruto was behind him, fists raised to hit. He spun around, grabbed the boy's fist as he punched and used the momentum to throw him into the lake.

The boy skidded across the water some before going under. Sakura's eyes widened as Sasuke sat up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Kakashi's brow arched as the water bubbled some and Naruto surfaced. Then to his surprise, the boy didn't swim to shore, but began to climb on top of the water.

'Jiraiya's been training him in chakra control for a while, it seems. No normal genin should be able to do that.' He gave a smirk under his mask. 'But he's not a normal genin…'

Naruto scowled, wringing the ends of his shirt out. "I hate wet clothes!" He whined before shaking his hair and body like a dog. Sakura was staring at Naruto, slack-jawed, face contorted into one of disbelief. What else could this kid do!

Sasuke was practically fuming. How was he able to do that? What did he have that Sasuke didn't? He was determined to find out. He got to his feet, watched as Naruto ran across the water to the lake's edge, jumping off and heading straight to him and Kakashi.

The timer went off.

He stopped, eyes widening.

It was over.


Kakashi smirked down at his three students. Naruto sat on his left, picking at his wet clothes. Sasuke sat in the middle fuming and Sakura was to his right, edging away from the boy who was emitting an aura so dangerous the grass was turning yellow where he sat.

"Saa…" Kakashi started, rubbing his chin. "There's good news and bad news."

The three looked up at him, waiting for him to continue. "The good news is, two of you figured out the objective of this mission—Teamwork. Congratulations Sakura, Naruto." Both looked at each other and grinned.

"The bad news is that all three of you were supposed to work together."

Had Sasuke been anyone else he would've shrunk under the looks he received from the other two. Instead, he opted to snort and look away.

Kakashi sighed. "To be blunt, Sasuke is keeping you two from passing."

All three froze. Naruto and Sakura looked at Sasuke again who was staring down at a dandelion that seemed to be wilting under his gaze.

Inner Sakura was throwing a rant a mile long about how Sasuke was such a prick. Sakura, herself, would never voice this but she had to admit she agreed with her inner self for once.

Naruto frowned before raising his hand. Kakashi looked over at him. "Yeah?"

"Um… where does that leave us now?"

"Good question, Naruto. Since I can't fail you two because you actually passed the test, I'm going to give you three one more chance to work together."

Sasuke's head shot up, though he didn't meet Kakashi's gaze.

Kakashi nodded to the lunches. "Sakura, Naruto, go ahead and eat lunch. But don't share the bentos with Sasuke—it's what he gets for not looking underneath the underneath."

The three gave him weird looks but he left it at that. "And remember, my word is law. You disobey me, you automatically fail. I'll be back shortly."

Kakashi disappeared, leaving the three to their own devices. He reappeared a distance away where he could watch them. 'They figured out the exercise's purpose… now let's see them apply what they know.'


Sakura frowned as she looked at Sasuke. He was still glaring at the ground. She glanced at Naruto who was munching in thought. "Ya know… it's strange. I get the feeling he's testing us again… but I don't sense him anywhere. So, oh well!" He chirped, setting his box down. The other two looked over at him, one directly, the other out of the corner of his eye. Naruto stuck out his tongue slightly as he shuffled around in his pouch. With a triumphant cry he pulled out an apple. Grinning, he tossed it to Sasuke.

Sasuke caught it and looked at it, then back at Naruto. "Dobe, do you want to fail this time?"

Naruto grinned mischievously. "But I didn't do anything wrong."

Sasuke's brow furrowed as Sakura looked around. Naruto waved to her. "Don't worry; I can't sense his presence. Besides, like I said, I didn't do anything wrong."

When both looked to him for a further explanation he repeated what Kakashi said. "'Don't share your bentos with Sasuke,' is what he said, but he said nothing about not sharing food with him! I remembered I had packed a snack last night in case I got hungry during the test. I didn't believe his 'don't eat breakfast' warning so I came prepared. Good thing, huh?"

Sasuke smirked, biting into his apple. "It's amazing how that airhead of yours has brains."

"Hey!"

Sakura giggled at the two before a roaring sound came from the near distance. All three froze and looked up as Kakashi came barreling towards them with enough speed to leave a dust trail. "You three…!"

He skidded to a stop in front of his terrified students. "Pass."

Sakura opened her eyes, Sasuke blinked at him and Naruto scrunched his face up. "How?"

As Kakashi explained the value of teamwork, Naruto managed to down his food in ten seconds flat. With a happy sigh, he set the box down on the grass and stared at the memorial stone Kakashi was looking down at. Before he could dwell on thoughts, Kakashi looked up and his eyes crinkled into what seemed to be a smile.

"So! Congratulations Team 7! You're officially genin!"

Cheers came from Sakura and Naruto as Sasuke smirked again, taking another bite from his apple.

Kakashi then rubbed his chin. "Naruto…"

The boy in question looked back up at him. "Yes?"

"At the beginning of the round, what did you mean by 'you gave me the answers I wanted to know'?"

Naruto thought back before he smiled. "I wanted to see if you had true depth perception or if you were using a self-cast genjutsu. I mean, you only have one eye visible so I wanted to know how you were managing to judge distances. I was hoping if it was a spell that I could dispel it and use it to my advantage. But it's not so… that didn't work out."

Kakashi nodded slowly. "Well, you're right. It's not. I just developed it over time. One more: Why did Jiraiya teach you the replication technique? It's a forbidden jounin-level jutsu."

Sasuke and Sakura both froze, looking over at Naruto who was sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "Ahaha… see, Ero-sennin and I often had to run from villages to escape angry mobs of women who were after his head. He taught me the technique to buy us time. It comes in handy a lot…"

Kakashi nearly smacked his forehead. Of course it would be for some reason like that. "Should've known…" he muttered under his breath.

"Well! Now that that's said and done, you're free for the rest of the day! Show up here tomorrow at 8 AM sharp! Don't be late!"

He turned to walk off as Naruto cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted to his retreating form. "Practice what you preach!"

Sakura giggled, cleaning up their boxes as the three stood. "So, what are you guys going to do for the rest of the day? Would you like to walk me home, Sasuke-kun?"

"No."

Sakura looked a little crestfallen but put a smile on over it immediately. "Thank you for your help today, Naruto. I'm glad you're on our team."

Naruto smiled widely. "Me, too! I think we're going to be a great time. But!" He looked back toward the village. "I have to go. Ero-sennin told me he had something important to tell me after the exam. He sounded serious and that's not a common thing."

He turned and smiled at the two. "See you tomorrow? And, Sasuke! Walk Sakura-chan home! She can tell you about some of the ideas we came up with!"

He took off jogging toward the village, leaving a dumbfounded Sakura and a slightly shocked Sasuke. Sasuke looked at Sakura before contemplating on what Naruto said. As much as he hated to admit it, he wanted to know what the idiot and Sakura schemed together when he wasn't there. He was determined to reach the blond's level and then surpass him. He glanced at Sakura who was staring at him before giving a grunt and turning to walk toward the village. He stopped after a few steps and looked back at Sakura. "You coming?"

The girl's eyes widen, a pink blush staining her cheeks as she nodded, running to catch up with him. "S-sorry!" She apologized, staring down at the ground.

Being as Sasuke was, the walk home was quiet—but for Sakura, that was OK.


Naruto stepped inside the house, amazed that Jiraiya could have it furnished so quickly. The man had no taste, literally. Looking around, he spotted the man in the kitchen. "Ne! Ero-sennin! I passed!"

Jiraiya looked up, smirking at him. "Wow, you did something right for a change."

"Argh! What is it with everyone picking on me!" Naruto whined. Jiraiya chuckled and shook his head, finishing his sandwich.

"Let's take a walk, Naruto. It's time I told you about the reason we left Konoha and what the seal on your stomach means."

Naruto blinked. "My seal…? You said it was to help my chakra."

"It is. But there's more to it than that." Jiraiya sighed. He was dreading this talk but it had to be done. The boy had to know.

He just hoped the child took it well.

End chapter 3


AN: Well, I got it out sooner than I and most everyone else thought. I know it's pretty much half-assed but I feel like crap at the moment. But anyway, I realized that I needed to reply to a couple of questions/comments left by one or two reviewers so, here they are.

Wolvesmo0n: OK, you probably meant well but what you said really irked me and I'll tell you why. As a reader, you may think that I am obligated to update and write to please you. I'm not. I write for my enjoyment and share it with you because I think other people might like it and because I like to know what people think of my ideas and style. I listen to ideas others have to offer and take up challenges but that does not mean I have to do it. I'm not getting paid to do this. I take a long time to update because I have a life outside the internet, it's called being a college student, and I also have to have inspiration, which I have been sorely lacking in as of late for reasons I will not delve into today. Reviewers and readers may get sour but that's not my problem. You either take what you get and like it, or you can quit reading and go find something else to occupy your time. I'm sorry but people who don't have the courtesy to consider reasons why the author may not update offend me greatly. It's what resulted in me leaving a year ago.

SpiritsFlame: You have a good point. I actually forgot about the significance of the hitai-ate until you mentioned it in your review. I suppose I'll either have to work in an explanation or just give the lazy-ass excuse "It's my story; I'll do what I want." Haha.

Signalbox: Until you mentioned it, I didn't much think of how Naruto's character resembled anyone else's but you're right—he is a lot like Haku in a sense.

Thank you to the rest of you who reviewed! It's much appreciated.

Erm, I suppose that's all. Yeah, Naruto's really OOC, but that's the point of the story, to give you something different. I'm trying not to make him like, all-powerful, all-knowing, but I am trying to make it more Naruto-focused than the anime/manga actually was at the beginning. As my friends and I say, "The main character is Naruto, but the plot is Sasuke." It's so true. But, ah, no rants here. As for pairings, I'm not sure as of yet. There may be some, there may not be. I was possibly thinking some mild SasuSakuNaru but who knows? Just know it won't be something off-the-wall like LeeNarutoKibaOrochimaruKonohamaruPakkun. …Let's not think about that.

So, all in all, I hope you're satisfied or semi-satisfied with this chapter—at least you know how Naruto got out of Kakashi's attack. ;) Next we'll actually get a move-on with the plot. I got asked not to do the whole Wave Country arc with Zabuza and Haku—I don't wanna do that arc, but I would like to have them encounter the two nukenin. So, we'll see.

Thanks 'n all; reviews and comments appreciated and welcome.

Phoe-chan the lazy.