Hi readers, back with another chapter.
Thoughts : 'hi.'
Speech : "jerk."
Jutsus : KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU (when used), Mizu bunshin no jutsu (when mentioned.)
Inner-Sakura : 'I am a jerk.'
4: Bell test and the team.
It was around 7 in the morning when Naruto reached to training ground 7. The Uchiha siblings were already present at the ground. Naruto greeted the two, to which was returned by Hitomi and Sasuke grunted. Naruto took a seat by a nearby tree. Sakura arrived about 15 minutes later and started to rant out apologies to everyone for her being late.
"Sakura stop apologizing, Kakashi-sensei hasn't arrived yet", said Naruto.
"Yes Sakura so you are not late", assured Hitomi to the Sakura. "By the way does anyone know anything about our sensei, it could help in whatever tests he give us."
"Well, I found a little information about him", said the blonde piping the interests of his other team mates.
"Care to share with us, dobe", said Sasuke.
"Indeed teme", earning a growl from Sasuke and a glare from Sakura.
"Kakashi-sensei is said to be one of the strongest of the current jonins. He is famed as copy-ninja Kakashi and has said to have copied over a thousand jutsus", said Naruto.
The other three were shocked to know that their sensei, whom they thought as a lazyass was one of the strongest jonin of Konoha. If what the blonde said was indeed true, then they couldn't imagine the test they would be taking now.
"Naruto, how do you know so much about sensei?" asked Sakura.
"Don't you remember, information is one of keys to shinobi success. What do you don't understand?" said naruto has it was a matter of fact.
"You know what she meant Uzumaki. Where did you find all the information?" asked Hitomi.
"Well you see, that's my little secret… Hi-to-mi-chan", said the blonde enraging the Uchiha.
(3 hours later.)
Currently the members of team 7 were busy doing their own stuffs. Sakura had given up on further asking Sasuke on a date after the test, after his 15th denial. She was currently lying by a nearby tree. Sasuke and Hitomi were talking with each other. The 4th member of the team, Naruto was currently sitting on a nearby rock with his eyes closed.
The team had a small discussion about the possible upcoming test after hearing about their sensei from Naruto. At first Sasuke didn't want to participate in the discussion, saying he could take care of himself. After his sister forced him to join the conversation, they went through a few plans to pass the test.
Currently Naruto was sitting on a rock and was trying to feel the wind around him. It was one of the exercises for fine tuning ones control over his element. Seeing that there were not many jutsus to learn in the scrolls at his parent's house, he had decided to start with elemental manipulation. Reading the training required to complete elemental manipulation seemed rather easy for Naruto. But as he stated on elemental manipulation training, he understood why it was considered a jonin level skill. It had taken him about 3 months to get a nice clean cut on a leaf and about 4 months to remove water from a leaf; and those were only the basic exercises in the elemental manipulation training. It was only thanks to his huge chakra reserves and amazing healing abilities, he was able to continue with exercises.
It had taken about a year each to complete the elemental manipulation of his wind and water nature chakra as per the book. Currently Naruto was doing a more advanced form of elemental manipulation training as he named it. He found how he could better improve his hold over his elemental from an old book he found in the library at the house. In case of wind and water elements one had to train to sense and use the wind and water in the air. One had to sense and manipulate the elements around him. By now he was able to create small tornados of wind and was and draw a little water out of thin air.
Suddenly Naruto felt a small disturbance in the win currents. He opened his yes and few seconds later Kakashi appeared with a smoke.
"YOU ARE LATE", screeched Sakura.
"Well, on my way here a black cat passed my road, so to not be cursed by bad luck I came here by traveling from the other side of the village", said Kakashi. The others had a big sweat drop at hearing their sensei's words. 'That's so lame', all 4 of them thought.
Kakashi removed two bells and an alarm clock from his pockets. "Now you are to come at me with all you get with the intention to kill. The ones who get the bells pass, while the others go back to the academy. You have up to noon to get the bells that is about 2 hours from now."
"That's unfair", said all four.
"Well who said being ninja is about being fair. Now START", said Kakashi.
On cue Sakura, Hitomi and Sasuke vanished from Kakashi's eye view. All they had planned for the tests was now useless. Now they had to fight for themselves. Sasuke and Hitomi hid in opposite side of the grounds, so they could work together to get the bells. Sakura hid close by Sasuke.
'They at least are good at hiding. They would probably try a sneak attack, other than', thought Kakashi and spoke, "aren't you an odd one", to Naruto who was standing in the clearing.
"Well you know the test seems a bit odd", said Naruto.
"What do you mean by odd, Naruto?" asked Kakashi.
"Our team in a first place is already odd, but I never heard of a team with 2 genins and a jonin", said Naruto.
"I see, so what do you intend to do?" asked Kakashi.
"Well would you mind giving me a bell?" asked Naruto.
"Well that's a new approach, but sorry I won't", said Kakashi.
"Well it was worth a try", said Naruto and charged at Kakashi at speeds which surprised the older ninja.
Naruto attacked Kakashi with his improvised version of academic taijutsu. Kakashi was surprised at the blonde's taijutsu skills, even though it was easy for him to dodge and block the attacks. The taijutsu seemed to have a good balance and was focused on attacks. Kakashi decided to see how it was in defense, so he threw a few punches at the blonde, to which the blonde would blocked or dodged and quickly went into attack.
The blonde tried to go with down sweep with the legs which he would follow by an uppercut. But all his attempts were either blocked or dodged; he did come close in hitting his sensei. That was an accomplishment in itself to the blonde, so he decided to get some distance between him and his sensei.
The 3 hiding were amazed by the blonde skills at taijutsu. They knew the blonde was good at taijutsu, but not this good.
"Well your taijutsu is better than what I had heard. It seems you have modified the academic version to something that suits you…" said Kakashi wit an eye smile, "but it still needs some work."
"Thanks Sensei. And yes I am still working on it", said the blonde, "Now lets continue."
The blonde started doing handseals stopping on the dragon seal. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at what the blonde was up to now. As on cue he heard the blonde say SUITON – JA NO KUCHI (WATER RELEASE – SNAKE'S MOUTH). A spiraling column of water rose from the nearby water stream and took form of a snake with gapping jaws and headed towards Kakashi and hit him dead on.
'What is that jutsu? Where did the dobe learn it from?' thought Sasuke with a frown.
'Amazing Uzumaki… how much were you hiding your skills at the academy?' wondered Hitomi.
'Naruto…' was all Sakura could think seeing Naruto's performance.
Naruto was able to see that what he hit was not Kakashi but a log. He tried to search for Kakashi, when he felt a presence behind him.
"That was a good one, but Naruto never let your enemy get behind you", said Kakashi crouched behind Naruto and holding a tiger seal.
Only one thought ran through the minds of other three, 'RUN NARUTO.' When Kakashi said KONOHAGAKURE HIDEN TAIJUTSU OUGI – SENNEN GOROSHI and shoved his fingers into Naruto's ass and send him flying. All deadpanned at what their sensei just did but were surprised when Naruto disappeared in smoke. The 3 couldn't understand what just happened.
'He substituted himself with a kage bunshin at the last moment. I had heard from Hokage-sama of him learning the jutsu, but when did he make one?' thought Kakashi.
In the woods, hidden behind the bushes, 'I was lucky to have already made a kage bunshin before hand, even if it was through memory that is one of the most dangerous jutsu', Naruto shivered even at the thought.
Kakashi decided to go check what the others were doing. Sakura was a disappointment in his eyes, she had easily fallen for a low level genjutsus magen – narakumi no jutsu (demonic illusion – hell viewing technique) (you know what happened). According to academy reports she was smart and had a knack for genjutsus. The two Uchiha siblings had decided to attack in a unit, which came as no surprise to Kakashi. Hitomi had trapped him in a magen – kokoni arazu no jutsu (demonic illusion – false surrounding technique) which was followed by volley of projectiles from the traps they set. Kakashi was easily able to get out of all of it. The siblings then came at Kakashi with their taijutsu combinations. They seemed to work well as a team, they were even able to touch the bells. Sasuke used his distance the two formed to fire a katon – gokakyu no jutsu (fire release – great fireball technique). Kakashi used this to his advantage and used doton – shinju zanshu no jutsu (earth release – double suicide decapitation technique) on the two.
When Sakura found the Uchiha siblings whose only head were visible above the ground, she screamed aloud and fainted. Naruto heard the scream and left to see what was up. When he found Sakura fainted and especially the two Uchiha's buried inside the ground with only their head above, he couldn't hold his laughter. After a few minutes he stopped and created two kage bunshins and made them use kawirami with the siblings and woke up Sakura.
"Listen guys lets attack sensei together", said Naruto.
"I don't need your help dobe…" said Sasuke but was interrupted by Naruto.
"Come on teme, we have to work together. I tried on my own and failed. I know you guys tried and failed, since none of you have a bell. I know one thing Kakashi-sensei is way out of our league", said the blonde.
Sakura was embarrassed after hearing what Naruto said. She had done nothing and had fainted twice. So she decided to go with Naruto's idea. "I am in."
Hitomi knew she and Sasuke had given their best and failed. It was as Naruto said Kakashi was out of their league. "Well I am in too."
Sasuke was thinking along the same line as Hitomi, and seeing Hitomi join he too decided to go with it. "Fine. But who gets the bells?"
"Lets worry about it when we get them", said Naruto.
"So what is the plan?" asked Hitomi.
"We hardly have time left, so we ambush him with full force", said Naruto to which the others agreed.
The 4 of them went to the clearing where Kakashi was and went to make an assault on him. Kakashi was surprised to see all come at him at once, this was something he least expected.
By the time they reached to attack him, the alarm sounded.
"Seems like times up…" said Kakashi, to which all 4 had a dejected look on their faces. Kakashi continued, "none of you were able to get the bells from me. But you understood that I was above your league and decided to attack me as a team. So did you try to find the meaning of the test?"
The genins looked confused, after a few minutes Naruto and Hitomi said together, "teamwork", with a look saying it was so obvious but also ashamed that they couldn't get the meaning early.
Kakashi eye smiled at hearing what the two said, "Yes, it was teamwork. You were supposed to work as a team to get the bells."
"But sensei you only had two bells on you", said Sakura.
"Yes it was to see if you could put your teammates above you…" Kakashi walked to a stone which had names engraved on it and spoke, "this is a memorial were names of shinobi are engraved who were killed in action protecting Konoha and their friends. My best friends name is also engraved here. Always remember this; in the ninja world those who break the codes and rules are thrash… but those who ignore their comrades are lower than thrash."
All the genins were awed by what they hear from Kakashi.
"Now about the test, from what I saw at the end… you all pass", said Kakashi and the genins rejoiced at being passed. "Tomorrow you have a day off. We start as a team the next day. Meet at this ground by nine." With that said he disappeared.
(Hokage's office.)
A lot of shinobis were currently present at the Hokage's office. Everyone was eagerly waiting to hear who of the fresh academy graduates had passed and was now a true shinobi of Konoha. Especially the current batch had a lot of shinobis take an interest in it. Few of the graduates of the batch are son/daughter of clan heads of the major clan of Konoha and also the last 2 loyal Uchiha. Everyone was waiting for Kakashi Hatake – jonin instructor of team 7 to arrive. Finally Kakashi arrived and the meeting started.
"Now that the all jonin sensei are present, I would want a report of which teams pass/fail and for reason?" said the sandaime hokage to everyone.
It started with jonin sensei of team 1 giving the account of what happened in the test he gave, this reports went till team 6. All team senseis had failed their teams. Some couldn't work as a team, while some lacked abilities enough to fight for real. Now it was time for Kakashi to give his reports, but was stopped by the hokage.
"Kakashi since you were last to arrive, you will be last to give your report. Kurenai and then Asuma go on with your reports", said the hokage. All shinobi's were now very interested; the 3 teams had the heirs of the major clans.
"Team 8 passed, Hokage-sama", said Kurenai and recounted the test to the others. She had given a test o them to track and capture her within a space of two hours. The 3 genins had used their abilities to the fullest and had shown good team work and cooperation. She also believed the 3 had great potential as a team for tracking and espionage.
"Team 10 passes too", said Asuma. He had given the genins a test to tag him. The 3 as expected had shown good team work and with help of Shikamaru's plan were able to tag him. He said that if given the proper training would carry on the legacy of their fathers and could be the new generation of ino-shika-cho.
The shinobis present were awed by the praises of the two jonin senseis. The children of the clan heads had not only passed but showed great potential for the future. The only left to give his report was Kakashi, whose team compromised of the Uchiha siblings.
"Team 7 … also passed", said Kakashi surprising all present, since every team he was given until now had failed. Few shinobi started saying how it must be the Uchiha siblings must have been the main reason team 7 passed.
Kakashi want on to tell the others of what happened during the bell test. Of how Naruto was the fist to attack, before voicing his opinion of something of the test didn't feel right. He described how Naruto attacked with his modified version of academic taijutsu and then followed with a water jutsu and replacing himself with a kage bunshin at the last moment before being hit by a sennen goroshi. He told of how easily Sakura had fallen for a simple genjutsus. Then he went on to explain how the Uchiha siblings attacked him together with their taijutsu and Hitomi with her genjutsu and Sasuke with his fire jutsu. He told how Naruto had convinced them to work together seeing how he was out of the 4 genins league.
The shinobis were happy at the performance of the two Uchihas; they also showed great potential something expected of the Uchiha clan. They were a bit disappointed in how Sakura had fallen for a simple genjutsu. But the biggest surprise to them was Naruto (the kyuubi brat, the village pariah) to perform this good and clearly had shown great potential. The sandaime Hokage, Iruka and few others present were although happy for the boy.
(2 months later.)
Being a genin for the past 2 months had shown Naruto and his team what it was to be a genin of Konoha. The life of a genin was far different from the life of an academy student. A genin was not only supposed to train to grow stronger to protect the village, but were also entitled to complete missions which help the village's finance.
As of now team 7 was on a special capture and retrieval mission assigned to them by the Hokage. The team was now scattered in the forest of Konoha in search of their target. Finally Sakura found someone who resembled their target; she alerted the others over the communicators. The other 3 members of team 7 soon reached the location and hid in the shadows of the trees so as to not alert the target.
"What is the distance to the taget?" inquired Kakashi through the communicators.
"5 meters. I am ready anytime", said Naruto.
"I am ready as well", said Sasuke.
"So am I", said Hitomi.
"Me too", said Sakura.
"GO!" commanded Kakashi's voice from the communicators.
The genins jumped on to catch the target that seemed rather used to escapes. After 10 minutes of struggle, the target was now resting in Sakura's arms. After confirming the identity of the target as lost pet Tora with Kakashi the team headed for the Hokage tower.
NARUTO'S P.O.V.
'I still don't understand why Kami is punishing me in such a cruel way', thought Naruto.
When he gathered information on the jonin sensei of his team his hopes had grown. Hatake Kakashi was hailed as one of Konoha's strongest: a man with over a 1000 jutsus. The man even seemed to carry no hatred for the blonde for what he carried. Finally a shinobi other than Iruka who was willing to teach him, but also could teach him far more than Iruka can ever. But of all Kakashi was the student of Yondaime Hokage. Finally he could learn of his father though stories of Kakashi's past, without letting anyone know he knew about his parents which were supposed to be a secret.
But through the 2 months as a genin his hopes had already been washed away. For the past two months he had leaned nothing from the man. Kakashi was always late; the team then went to carry out their usual D-rank missions (chores) and would leave as soon as the day's chores were over. When confronted to talk about his days as a genin, Kakashi would quickly change the subject.
As for his team mates, according to him they were completely mismatched as a team. Only the Uchiha siblings worked as a team.
Sasuke had the biggest ego he had ever come across. Other than his sister he would never listen to him and Sakura. Sasuke considered himself superior to the others as he was an Uchiha.
Hitomi also seemed to have 'I am an Uchiha the elite' attitude. But was reasonable enough to listen to the plans and ideas of the others on the team.
As for Sakura, she worshipped every word that came out of Sasuke's mouth. She would also agree with Hitomi, seeing as how she was the sister of her Kami (Sasuke). On the other hand she would try to belittle him at every possible mission.
Aside from his team, he came to know team 9 led by jonin Maito Gai. The team consisted of Tenten, Rock Lee and Hyuga Neji who had graduated the academy a year before him. He had come across Tenten few more times during training, she was impressed by his training regime and had taken to meet him her team. (I am not going to describe to readers about the team members.)
He had made fast friends with Lee and the two would often test their skills with each other. Tenten had also become a good friend and had helped him understand the use of various weapons. As for Neji, the boy was deluded greatly by the concept of fate shaping one's destiny. But the boy was dangerous in combat with his use of juken (gentle fist) the special taijutsu of the Hyuga clan.
But meeting Gai-sensei had helped him a lot. Gai-sensei had asked him about his training regime after hearing a bit about it from his female student. After hearing his training regime Gai and Lee went on to declare of how he flowed with the 'Power of Youth'. Gai was helping him to improvise his taijutsu, which he was trying to learn from one of the scrolls he had found in his parent's house.
As for the other teams from his batch of graduates, team 8 and 10 were the only other teams to pass.
The jonin sensei of team 10 Sarutobi Asuma was also a lazy person according to Ino. He had yet to teach them any new individual skills, but at least had had helped them in their original skills along with team work exercises.
Kurenai Yuuhi the jonin sensei of team 8 was the only rookie team's sensei to teach their team. She not only trained her team on their teamwork and sharpening their original skills, but also thought her team a lot of useful stuffs required for a shinobi.
NORMAL P.O.V.
Naruto was brought out of his thoughts at the sight of Tora being hugged to death by its owner.
'Gyahahahaha! In your face stupid cat', thought Naruto.
'No wonder it ran away', thought Sakura.
'I pity Tora', thought Hitomi.
'Hn!' thought Sasuke.
"Now for your next mission team 7… babysits an elder's grandson, shopping or potato digging", said Sandaime Hokage looking in the mission list.
"NO! NO! NO! No thank you", called out Naruto putting his hands in cross shape in the front to emphasize the point. "Give us some better mission Hokage-jiji. The missions we have done so far are nothing but some stupid chores."
'Geez… How annoying…' thought Sakura.
"I agree", said Sasuke.
"These are indeed not ninja missions, Hokage-sama", said Hitomi.
'Sigh… I thought it was about time… but even Hitomi and Sasuke', thought Kakashi.
"Naruto! It seems I have to explain to you what these duties are all about", said the Hokage and went on to explain about various missions and who are they assigned to. (A.N. if you don't know what he says, you haven't read the manga yet, so what the heck are you doing reading this.)
"I understand all that stuff you said, but at least give us a better mission", said Naruto.
The old Hokage thought over it o a few seconds and then said, "Ok! I am giving your team a C-rank mission. It is a protection mission of a certain individual." He then asked his secretary to bring in the said person.
Tazuna walked in the mission office. Seeing him the Hokage said, "Team 7 this is the client you will be protecting. Tazuna-san this is team 7, the one who would be in charge with your protection."
"What the hell! It's just a bunch of snot nosed gaki's!" The man exclaimed in annoyance, taking the bottle he had in his hand and chugging down several gulps.
'He's certainly not what I expected', Naruto thought to himself, his left eye twitching erratically.
"The two girls look like they care more about their looks then ninja duties. The guy with black hair in the shape of a ducks ass looks like he is practicing for some brooding contest. And of all, does any ninja wear orange like the blonde midget and also a Cyclops", said Tazuna taking another gulp of sake.
"Hnn…" scowled Sasuke and went on to pose a new brooding pose.
"Indeed Tazuna-san I do take care of my looks, but I also take my ninja duties and training seriously", said Hitomi.
"Y… Yes", said Sakura. She wanted to respond to Tazuna just the way Hitomi had, but what the man had said was indeed the truth in her case.
'CHA! We have to look good for Sasuke-kun', said Sakura's inner voice. 'You are right, the old man would never understand.' This made Sakura feel better.
"Who said ninjas can not wear orange? I love orange, so I wear it. Get your knowledge right old man Tazuna, ninjas are not known for what they wear but are known for their skills", said the blonde shocking the people in the room. "And who are you calling a midget. I am going to kill you." He jumped forward to attack Tazuna but was stopped by Kakashi.
"Now it isn't nice to kill the client before the mission starts", said Kakashi with a eye smile.
"U-u-uh… right…" Tazuna stuttered a bit as he heard the words of the blonde. "Anyways, my name is Tazuna, and I am a master bridge builder. You will escort me back home to Nami No Kuni, where I am building my next bridge." Somehow, despite his drunken stupor, Tazuna managed to straighten himself, "I expect all of you to protect me, even it costs you your lives."
"Right then", Kakashi said as he tried to the cool off the tension between his students and client. "Let's all meet at the east gate tomorrow at 8 in the morning. Pack for about a week's worth mission."
Team 7 left the tower to meet tomorrow for their first C-rank mission.
END CHAPTER…