Chapter 4: Teamwork: Squad 7's Bell Test

It was really late in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Really, really late, and Uzumaki Naruto was on his way home.

Naruto loved the dark. The dark was his only real reprieve from hatred. While he didn't have perfect vision, he could see a lot better without light than most people, and so darkness became his ally in escaping when he needed to escape.

But most of that doesn't matter, not right now. Instead, we'll focus on the fact that he had better night vision than most. His ability to see in the dark was a true blessing that night, because, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a scroll. It was just sitting there, on top of a bush, like it was saying 'look at me, I'm on a bush, I must be important.' It seemed to Naruto that it had fallen out of the sky, or rather, that was until he looked up.

Weird...

The scroll's position aligned perfectly with the Hokage's window, and it was obvious that it was the one he had thrown out of said window during his temper tantrum. He thought it had looked familiar. I wonder what's in it, he thought to himself. Naruto being... well, Naruto, couldn't resist the chance to have a look at another one of the Hokage's scrolls.

"Tobidougu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Projectile Shadow Clone Jutsu)"

It sounded... strong. If the Shadow Clone Jutsu had helped him to pulverize that traitor, who was probably ten times stronger than him, who knows what this new one could do. He read on.

"This jutsu allows the user to multiply the amount of projectiles he has thrown in direct proportion to the amount of chakra placed into the technique."

"Huh?"

"Furthermore, this jutsu is most commonly used in conjunction with shuriken. So much so that the combination has been dubbed Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

So... I can multiply my shuriken? That would be awesome! Just then, Naruto noticed one last sentence before the instructions on the jutsu.

"This jutsu is a precursor to the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, and it is highly recommended that this technique be mastered before even attempting to create a human shadow clone."

Naruto found himself giddy, if the Shadow Clone Jutsu is supposed to be harder than this one, then this will be easy!

And you know what? He was right...

--

Too right.

It was the day after the graduation exams and Naruto had three days to kill before he had to report to the academy for Iruka's graduation speech. Why they couldn't have just had it at the graduation exam was beyond him, but then the little voice in his head had just said, 'because then you would have missed it.' He was inclined to agree. This was obviously a sign that the gods had meant for him to become genin, and then eventually Hokage.

With that riddle solved, it was time to return to the problem at hand: the Tobidougu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. He was in the training field of his home, the home that he and Auron had once shared, and he was trying out his newest jutsu. The first time he had attempted it, he had thrown one shuriken and and ended up creating two clones, which he discovered disappeared after they hit something. On the second try, Naruto had again thrown one shuriken, but had created four clones.

While he had actually done the jutsu, the boy had expected more from a scroll in the Hokage's office. Wait a minute, he thought, mentally smacking himself, the scroll said 'in proportion to the amount of chakra...' Gah! I'm an idiot, I just need to pump more chakra into the jutsu!

With this idea in mind, Naruto poured as much chakra as he could into the technique on his third try. Since he wasn't been as angry as he had been during the fight in the forest, his spiritual energy, and therefore his chakra output, wasn't as high, but it takes a lot less chakra to create a shuriken than it does to make an actual person. The result: he shredded trees. The force of Naruto's extra chakra had literally coated his shuriken in power, and that may have done most of the damage, but the shear amount of throwing stars he had produced was still incredible to see. To his eyes, they must have numbered in the thousands.

The only problem was that the boy was tired, dead tired. That would be cumbersome in the field, and would have to be fixed. On second thought, Naruto realized, having come out of his daze, I don't need that many shuriken to take someone down, I'll just use less chakra.

The blond would go on to spend the next two days training, trying to get a feel for both the Projectile Shadow Clone and the regular Shadow Clone Jutsus, until he had both techniques mastered to the point where he could control the amount of replications he got. He usually only missed the target amount by two or three, unless he was aiming really low, in which case he got it exactly right, or really high, where he totally messed up. All things considered, though, Naruto felt this to be sufficient, as it wasn't like he was going to be facing anyone that strong anyway.

The fact that he was on his back and unable to move also had something to do with it.

Naruto was actually quite surprised at the situation. Throughout the entire two days he had not had to deal with a single cynical thought. In fact, he felt more complete than ever. He finally understood why he was hated, and why he was shunned.

It was funny though, he always thought that he would be sickened by himself, that the severity of his crime would leave him with a deep sense of self-loathing. But he had done nothing wrong. He had been blamed for something that wasn't his fault, and so a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

And, to add to it all, Naruto had outwitted a Hokage, stolen a forbidden scroll, exposed a traitor and been made a genin. He was happy, which was a rarity in and of itself. For the first time in three years, Naruto felt like it was truly a beautiful day.

--

It was my last day at the academy, and I couldn't have been any prouder. I sat in my seat for the final time and was enjoying my somewhat delirious happiness, when I was interrupted.

Damn that Shikamaru.

No, wait, that's not right. He was trying to be helpful. I guess my passing is a real shock to a lot of people, I did fail after all.

I had politely corrected Shikamaru and been about to returned to my seat when the door erupted in a flurry of sound. Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino. Uchiha Sasuke's number one fangirls, and self-proclaimed future Mrs. Uchiha-san's. Not that they'd share of course, it wasn't in their nature, and God's not that much of a dick.

Sakura rushed to Sasuke who was, as always, a seat away from me. For the record, I have no idea what Sakura sees in him, I am a much better choice. She rushed over and pushed me out of the way to get to Mr. I-was-touched-as-a-child Uchiha-san.(mental sigh) She'll come around someday.

--

Three hours, THREE DAMN HOURS!! OUR SENSEI KEPT US WAITING FOR THREE HOURS!! I'LL KICK HIS ASS!! CHA!

--

Whoever this idiot is, keeping an Uchiha waiting, he'll be sorry.

--

When Hatake Kakashi walked into the classroom, the sight that met his eyes was kinda unexpected. Pinky looked... giggly? The Dark Prince was amused, and Blondie seemed... smug. Kakashi tilted his head to the side, noticing he couldn't let go of the door. His glove was glued to it. He ripped a section of the door off effortlessly, causing the eyes of the soon-to-be-not genin to widen considerably. Kakashi slowly and meticulously ripped the plaster off his glove, leaving no evidence that anything had ever been glued there. He lifted the same hand to his chin and paused, he took a moment to watch his 'students,'

"How should I put this? My first impression of you guys is... I hate you."

No way...

No damn way, that was ninja glue...

No way...CHA!

--

"Let's see, why don't you introduce yourselves?"

Pinky interrupted, "Introduce ourselves? What should we say?"

Kakashi replied, "What you like, dislike, your dreams, your hobbies. Something like that."

This time Blondie spoke up,"Why don't you start, sensei? You know, show us how it's done."

The masked ninja faked surprise. "Me? Hmmmm... I'm Hatake Kakashi. I don't care to tell you my likes and dislikes. My dreams? Never really thought about it. My hobbies include partaking in things I like and trying to achieve my goal..."

"So all we learned was his name..." Sakura whispered, turning to her teammates.

"Your grasp of the obvious astounds me," Naruto deadpanned, staring at the girl. A moment later he gasped, realizing what he had just said to his crush. It was the kind of answer he would have given to anyone but Sakura. He winced.

"SHUT UP NARUTO!!" Sakura screamed.

"Pinky, since you're so eager, why don't you start?" Kakashi said, staring at the trio lazily.

Sakura didn't have the sense to look ashamed."Well(giggle), my name is Haruno Sakura. I like (giggle), my hobbies are (giggle), my dream is to (giggle)."

"And what do you hate?" Kakashi asked, dreading the reply.

"Naruto." She replied evenly.

Perfect, just what I needed. "Okay, Blondie, you're up."

Naruto had to think about his answer. Just days ago, it would have been easy to simply reply with a completely ramen and Hokage based answer, but now he had to reevaluate his priorities. He knew how this Kakashi probably felt about these introductions: They were unimportant, a simple formality, he wasn't expecting a full blown character analysis, just something to allow him into the head of the three pre-teens. But still, Naruto hoped to avoid any sort of mistrust between him and his sensei so early in their relationship, what with the revelation a few nights ago.

Naruto groaned in his head. It shouldn't be this difficult, he thought. The man was expecting a child's answer, so he should just give a child's answer.

Naruto blinked a few times to return to reality, where he discovered that he had been sitting there for about a minute. He scratched the back of his head and grinned. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto..." Naruto paused, "I like ramen and jutsu..." Here he stopped again thinking about what he was about to say, "My hobbies are eating ramen and learning new jutsu."

No pranks? Kakashi thought.

"My dream is to become Hokage. I hate..." Naruto stopped once again, this is what he was confused about. What did he hate? Hate was so powerful, he had to choose his answer very carefully. If he said that he hated the villagers, would it mean that he did in fact, hate the villagers? And therefore would he in turn, grow to actually hate the village? That wasn't a path that he wanted to go down. He would have to say something else, something that wouldn't bring harm to anyone. And who better for a scapegoat than the one who could not be touched, either in life, or, more importantly, in death.

Naruto nodded once and crossed his arms, "I hate the Fourth Hokage."

Kakashi narrowed his one visible eye.

--

Remember how Naruto said that all the ANBU were on his side? Well, that wasn't completely true. There was one man who managed to get away with hating him, simply because he was the best. Hatake Kakashi was nearly unbeatable, claiming the title third strongest of all the Leaf's active ninja. There were only a handful of people who could hope to go toe-to-toe with him, and most of them them were no longer in the village, so Hatake Kakashi was allowed, begrudgingly, but allowed, to keep his own opinion of the Kyuubi's container.

But the copy-cat was usually not the kind of guy to let preconceptions and prejudices get in the way of his work. He had intended to start off his test with complete neutrality towards all his charges. But insulting his sensei was on a list of things that got you killed. His Chidori could cut through almost anything, and Uzumaki Naruto was certainly no lightning bolt.

"What's wrong with you, you idiot?! The Fourth Hokage was a hero!" Sakura screeched. The Uchiha, on the other hand, chose to remain silent. There was something in the way that Naruto had said it, that intrigued him. He didn't know what, but something seemed... off.

"Next," Kakashi said, having brought himself under control.

Sasuke began to speak, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I hate a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality, I'm going to restore my clan and kill a certain someone."

As I thought... "Okay, you three all have unique personalities, I like that." Kakashi paused. "So guys, we're gonna go on a little mission tomorrow."

"What kind of mission, sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Something the four of us can do together," Kakashi replied.

No one said anything for a while, until Sasuke spoke up,"Well, what is it?"

"Survival training."

"But why?" this time it was Sakura who spoke first. "We had training at the academy."

"This is no ordinary training." Kakashi said.

"What kind of training is it then?" Naruto asked. Kakashi began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Sakura inquired.

"It's just that, when I say this, you guys are gonna be surprised." Naruto and Sakura looked confused, while Sasuke just seemed annoyed. "Out of the 27 graduates, only 9 of them will become genin. The other 18, will be sent back to the academy. So... in other words this test is very difficult, with a failure rate of 66."

The three graduates had varying looks of shock, from Sasuke's indifference to Naruto's full-blown, ''hell no!' face. Kakashi began to laugh again, "See? You guys are surprised!"

"Hey! What the hell was the final exam for, then?!" Naruto yelled, enraged that after everything he did, he still might not become a genin.

"That thing? It was used to weed out those who had no chance of making it as ninja."

"What?!"

"Anyway, I'm going to hold the test at the training ground tomorrow. Bring your ninja gear and meet me at 5 A.M.!" Kakashi turned around and began to walk away, when he stopped and added as an afterthought, "Oh yeah, and don't eat breakfast... you'll throw up if you do."

--

"Hi guys."

"You're late!"

"Well you see, as I was on my way here I saw this great, big glowing orb in the sky. As I stared at it, I began to go blind, so, fearing an enemy attack, I..." Kakashi stopped, noticing the look on the faces of the genin hopefuls. "Ahem, let's get started then." Kakashi took out an alarm clock. "Alarm set to noon. Alright kiddies, your goal is to get these bells," he said jingling them. "If you can't, no lunch, and I tie you up and eat yours right in front of you." They couldn't see it, but they could tell he had a psychotic grin under that mask.

"But wait," Sakura said, "Why are there only two bells?"

"Good observation, Sakura. Since there are only two bells, at least one of you will get tied to the log... and therefore fail. But at the same time, it could be all three of you. Quite an ingenious test, eh? Oh, and by the way, unless you come at me with the intent to kill, you'll never get a bell."

Sakura looked as if she wanted to say something, but Naruto said it first, "That's dangerous! You could get hurt!"

"Generally speaking," Kakashi replied, "those who have no skills, complain the most. I generally ignore the one with the lowest grades." Kakashi turned around, putting his back to the three graduates. "We will begin when I say start." Naruto didn't take too kindly to being insulted and then brushed off, it was usually one or the other. In a fit of rage, he threw a shuriken as hard as he could at Kakashi's back. The silver-haired shinobi disappeared, as did the shuriken. They both reappeared, Kakashi behind Naruto, holding the shuriken to the vessel's neck, which was kind of strange, seeing as the shuriken wasn't meant for close quarters.

"Don't be so hasty, I didn't say 'start'." Kakashi said calmly. He slipped the shuriken into Naruto's hand and let him go. "But you were trying to kill me, nice work." He hmm'ed and then chuckled, "It's funny, I think I'm actually starting to like you three." He began to walk away, "Let's begin, shall we?" He looked back, "Ready? Start!"

The three vanished into the woods.

--

Naruto sat in a tree observing the masked ninja from a distance. Okay, I can blitz him with the Tobidougu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu... No, he's too fast, no way I can catch him coming from only one direction. But if my shadow clones did it too... Can my clones do jutsu? Naruto created a clone. "Hey," he whispered, "transform." The clone nodded and used the Henge no Jutsu to change into Kakashi. Okay, that's a go.

Kakashi noticed the chakra spike, but remained at rest. He was curious of the blond-haired ninja's plan.

Alright then, I'll just surround him and hit him with more shuriken than he can count. But what if he still gets away? Arrgh, if only I had a bit more variety in my arsenal, this would be a piece of cake. C'mon Naruto think! No time for if only's, so if he gets away... I'll dogpile him with clones, then launch more shuriken once he's pin down. Alright! Let's do this.

With a single handsign, Naruto created about a hundred clones. They surrounded a clearing in the forest. One Naruto returned to the training grounds and threw four shuriken at Kakashi, who was by the river reading his book. Kakashi suspected a trap, but went along with it anyway. After all, Naruto was the only one actually doing anything and he was bored. He dodged the shuriken and gave chase to the ninja-to-be.

Naruto, the real Naruto, was sitting in a tree, waiting for his clone to return with his sensei. He was going over the "plan," if you could call it that, in his head, trying to come up with some kind of backup. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the voice in his head chose that exact moment to speak up. How crude..."

Naruto, unwilling to deal with his "little friend," told the voice to shut up.

"Well that's hardly a nice thing to say, and here I am, trying to help you out with your trap. I'm just saying, the Shadow Clone Jutsu is hardly genin-level."

A ninja must take advantage of everything he has at his disposal, Naruto lectured in his mind. He was quite irritated, the voice usually had something intelligent to say, if it didn't, he had no use for it.

Yeah, but you weren't expected to have this at your disposal.

Which is why I'll be able to catch him off-guard.

Idiot! Would you just think for once in your life?! You! You... You know what? Just listen up: Cyclops said that nine graduates would become genin, right? If two was the maximum amount of people who could pass a test, and the maximum amount passed every test, it would be impossible to get a total of nine. But if the entire team was able to pass, that means there would be three full squads.

So, for all of us to pass... there has to be a secondary objective! Something other than the bells!

Way to go dumbass. Now, you needed to play the numbers game in order to win, right. Naruto physically nodded. But you obviously weren't supposed to multiply yourself.

Yeah...

Weren't you were the one who said you wish you had more variety?

What are you getting a-

--Flashback--

I was sitting in the middle of the training ground. Auron was getting ready to go chase down some thugs who had been seen around the walls of the Leaf. He was going to be traveling with some ninja who were going to assist him. I was curious about that, so I asked him,"Why are you going with those guys? I bet you could take them all by yourself!"

"Only a fool rushes into battle without making all the necessary preparations to ensure a safe return. It is best to have allies whom you can count on." He looked up at the sky, then. He seemed to be remembering something.

"Imagine you are in a battle, and the one you are fighting possesses incredible speed, and great defenses as well."

"Okay..." I said uncertainly.

"You are the only one one who is strong enough to do any considerable damage to him."

"Well, obviously, I'm great!"

"But you are also too slow to land a hit on him."

"No way!"

Auron sighed then. "Generally, Naruto, if you are stronger than everyone else, you are going to be slower than them, too. Muscle weighs you down."

"That sucks!"

Another sigh. "How are you going to attack your opponent, if you are not fast enough?"

I remember scrunching my face up in concentration then, "I'll throw shuriken at him!"

"And if you do not have any shuriken?" Before I could think about it any more, he Auron went on, "You have someone else, an ally who is fast enough to hit him, slow him down. You let them damage the enemy enough so that you can move in for the finishing blow. They might even have a spe- jutsu, I mean, that can help you move faster."

"I guess..."

Auron stopped and picked up his coat from off the ground. He began to walk away. "Tidus, Yuna, Wakka, Lulu, Kimahri and Rikku," he said.

"What?"

"They were my... team."

--Flashback End--

Team... Sasuke and Sakura!!

Ding, ding, ding. Get the young lady a prize.

But they'll never work with me...

In order to pass, they don't have to help you. You just have to make the Cyclops think they're helping you.

Right...

Now go, idiot, you don't have time to waste.

Naruto quickly added a few extra steps to his plan. Kakashi appeared in the clearing and his clone disappeared in a puff of smoke, after which he gave the signal and his clones attacked.

--

When I came up with the idea, I had expected a lot of shuriken, what I got, was a "Great Shuriken Barrage." From all directions, I saw the throwing stars all flying towards the general vicinity of one Hatake Kakashi. There was no way he could escape...

Strike that, there was one way he could escape, Kawarimi. Damn.

I had the clones rush out in an attempt to simply outnumber him. Two of them transformed into Sasuke and Sakura. They pelted shuriken and kunai at Kakashi, just enough so he knew they were there. When he did notice them, I thought his eyes were going to pop out of their sockets.

I had another clone, in disguise as Sasuke try and grab a bell. The jounin noticed him and backhanded him. The clone flew back and exploded in a puff of smoke.

I had previously ordered one clone to transform into a rock, then I had another clone drop him near Kakashi. So as Kakashi was preoccupied with the Sasuke Shadow Clone, I had the rock transform again, this time into Sakura. It grabbed the bells, but by the time Kakashi noticed, it was too late. I had the clones destroy themselves for a mass smokescreen. What I didn't expect, though, was the mass of memories from the clones, which led to me passing out.

--

When Naruto awoke, he was tied to a log, and Sasuke and Sakura were sitting next to him, to his right and left, respectively. Kakashi stood in front of them, "I really thought you guys had what it took. Only Naruto managed to get a bell, and he lost it. Pathetic."

"But sensei-" Sakura was cut off.

"No buts. Not one of you figured out, or acted according to, the true purpose of this test. It never even crossed your mind." Kakashi lectured.

Sakura spoke again, "What are you talking about?"

"Why do you think new genin are divided into teams of three?" Kakashi said, his temper rising. He always found himself angry at this part, it brought up painful memories. "Did you think about that for one moment? It's so simple, so basic, how could you-"

"Teamwork." This time it was Naruto who cut off Kakashi.

"What?" Kakashi's head swiveled around so fast it looked like it was going to fly off.

"The purpose of this test was to ascertain whether or not we could or would act as a team. You purposely pitted us against each other, to see if we would put the squad ahead of ourselves. " Naruto droned out monotonously.

I thought it was just a distraction technique. He really did figure it out... "Well, why didn't you try and actually get Sasuke's and Sakura's help?" Kakashi asked.

"Sasuke's too proud to accept my help, and Sakura wouldn't do anything Sasuke wouldn't. Asking them for help would have just been a waste of time, time I didn't have." Naruto took a deep breath, which was made difficult by his restraints. "I had hoped that if you saw us working together, we'd be able to pass." Sasuke and Sakura put their heads down, showing some embarrassment for once.

"You know, Naruto," Kakashi said grinning. He couldn't see it, but Naruto could tell he was grinning. This kid... "I was going to pass you all, until you dispelled all your clones. When I noticed that no one was left after you fainted, I realized what you did. Maybe you should have given your teammates a chance."

Kakashi suddenly became solemn. "After all, those who don't obey the rules are scum, but those that abandon their friends... are worse than scum." The jounin walked over to a stone with many words carved into it.

"Look at this," he said, "the names engraved upon this stone. All of these are names of people who are praised as heroes within our village." The three failures remained silent. "But these people, they're not normal heroes. They're all... KIA."

Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto grew increasingly silent, as if they dared not to disturb the memory of those ninja. KIA... Every true shinobi knew what that meant.

Kakashi continued, "This is a cenotaph, a memorial stone. The names of my closest friends are engraved here." Kakashi stopped, as if he was remembering something. He let his hand drift over the many names carved into the stone. He spoke up again, having come to a decision. "Alright, I'm going to give you guys one more chance. But it's going to be more difficult, you're going to have three hours. Eat lunch now, but Naruto doesn't get any because of that stunt he tried to pull. I'm the law here, got it?"

--

There was a giant explosion of smoke, Kakashi appeared from within it. "You three!" The three ninja wannabe's flinched at the exhibition of power. "You three broke the rules, you disobeyed my laws! Are you prepared for the consequences?!" The skies darkened and storm clouds began to gather. "Any last words?"

The three shinobi-to-be's stared up at him defiantly.

Sakura began," You said that the three of us,"

Sasuke continued," that the three of us were a team,"

Naruto added on," but you were wrong, we're more than a team,"

"The three of us are one!""Cha!" "Hn!" "HELL YEAH!"

"Ha! Ha ha ha!" Kakashi began to laugh uncontrollably.

"What's so funny!?" Naruto demanded.

"It's just that, when I say this, you guys are gonna be surprised."

"What!?" Sakura yelled.

"You... Pass!"

"See, you are surprised!"