Chapter 4: Ringing in the New Era

The three genins were walking towards the three upright logs at the training grounds when Naruto appeared in front of them holding an alarm and three lunch boxes. "Excellent! You guys arrived right on time. I hope you all skipped breakfast. Now, today's training is going to be pretty straightforward, but probably the hardest work out you've ever had."

"What will we be doing exactly?" asked a nervous Isamu.

"Simple, all you have to do is take these bells from me," he replied holding up two shiny objects on little red strings. "You will have until noon to try and get these bells from me. Whichever one of you-"

His sentence was cut short as Hanabi lunged forward trying to grab the bells, but Naruto disappeared before her hand could grasp the bell.

"Now now, Hanabi, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I never said we were starting yet," he chided.

All three genin spun around in surprise to see Naruto standing right behind them.

"Oh. Sorry, Sensei," she said without any hint of apology, while thinking 'Dang it, I couldn't even see him move.'

'Man, how can we even compete with that speed?' Isamu's thoughts were running parallel to his teammate's.

Naruto had to chuckle at her guts, but he had expected as much from her. "Fast action can be a deciding factor in many battles. But it can also pay to be careful and make sure you know all the facts before making your move. Judging which of these situations you are in will come with experience, which is why I am here." He paused to make sure they recognized the lesson he was giving them before continuing. "Now, as I was saying, whoever doesn't manage to get a bell will be tied to one of these logs here and watch as the rest of us eat our lunch, and if no one gets a bell, then you will all be tied to the logs and watch as I eat all of the lunches."

The three genin paled realizing that this was the reason he had made them skip breakfast.

"Oh, and by the way, whoever fails to get a bell by the end of the day also goes back to the academy."

"There is no way this is legal!" shouted Isamu. "You are, like, uber powerful. There is no way we can beat you!"

"No one ever said being a shinobi was easy. Not everyone survives their missions. This test is designed so that at least one of you fails just to get you used to that fact. You are each going to have to come at me with serious intent to kill, anything goes. Use every trick you know, because I seriously doubt any of you can take me head-on. Good luck, now we are starting."

The three genins scattered to hide.

'Hmm. I guess they are smarter than I was back then,' Naruto chuckled to himself. 'How could I have ever thought I could take Kakashi head on like that? I guess I'll give them a few minutes before I go looking for them.'

Hanabi was up in a tree, watching everything with her Byakugan when a weird movement caught her eye. Akira was hiding in a bush holding up a scroll with, "Get Isamu and meet me" written on it. 'He wants to work together. I don't know why he wants all three of us. There are only two bells.' Scanning around, she found Isamu not too far away sniffing around, making sure no one would sneak up on him. She quickly made her way over to the dog trainer, trying to avoid being detected by Naruto.

"Psst. Isamu," whispered Hanabi, "I think Akira has a plan, come on."

Naruto was looking around for the Genin for a few minutes when he found them all sitting together talking. He snuck up, making sure to be downwind from the Inuzuka's nose and overhears the last bit of their conversation. 'Maybe they already understand the teamwork part?'

"Guys, forget about the bell thing, you saw how fast he was! There is no way to beat him one on one," argued Akira.

"Forget that. That is just a weakling's excuse. He will probably hold back. There is no way it would be fair otherwise. Besides, he thinks we are too weak. I'm gonna use that and prove that I can get him by myself," Isamu shot back.

"Come one guys," pleaded Hanabi, "I can't go back to the academy, my dad would kill me."

Naruto couldn't see her face, but judging from her tone, he knew Hanabi was probably close to tears at the thought of her father's disapproval. And from what Naruto knew about Hiashi, it probably wasn't far off the mark.

"I don't care about your dad," hissed Isamu as he stood. "I'm going to go get those bells without you." He jumped away with Takeo and Takeshi still in his hood.

Akira sighed, clearly frustrated with his teammate. "We can't pull this off without all of us. No point in even trying now. I'm going to go get some reading in. At least I might be able to learn something today. If you get him to change his mind, come find me." And with that, the black and purple genin jumped off in the opposite direction of Isamu.

'Man, I was sure they were going to get the teamwork thing down, I guess I spoke too soon. It's too bad, too. Akira was on the right track,' Naruto mused. 'Might as well see what he is reading, maybe I can have a little fun with him.' Naruto jumped away through the trees with a smirk.

Not long after, Naruto came across the spot Akira had settled down to read. It was a nice little clearing surrounded by bushes and shaded from the morning sun. The boy was leaning with his back against a tree reading from one of the many scrolls he carried with him. 'Now for some fun,' the long-time prankster smiled to himself. He shunshined into the clearing, directly in front of Akira, about to let the boy have it, when he suddenly couldn't move. The boy looked up and smiled at him.

'WHAT! He trapped me?! When did he set this up?'

"Sorry, Sensei, but you were the one to say, 'Anything goes.'"

The boy moved forward to grab the bells.

'This isn't good, I can't let him get the bells!'

'I can't believe you got outsmarted by this upstart. It's disgraceful having to resort to using my power against such a rookie.'

'Oh can it, Kurama. You didn't see it coming either.' Naruto's clothes flashed into the glowing orange of his Kyuubi Chakra Mode for a second, unleashing a tremendous burst of chakra to break through whatever was trapping him there. Suddenly free, heaimed a kick at the boy to knock him away from the bells. The boy had no time to react, except instead of sending him flying, the kick went right through his chest, as though he didn't exist.

'A clone?'

The real Akira jumped out of the bushes to Naruto's left lunging for the bells at his belt. Naruto was still off balance from the lack of resistance his kick had met.

'Just what is this kid?' Once again, drawing upon Kurama's power, Naruto used the chakra to manifest an arm and punch Akira in the stomach, stopping him before he could grab the bells. As the punch connected, Akira disappeared in a puff of smoke, being replaced by a broken log.

'Substitution?'

In the next instant, he noticed the explosive tags attached to the log.

'Holy shi-!'

The explosion goes off, barely missing Naruto as he jumped into the air. His cloak was singed and he could still feel the sting of the shockwave. As he fell back towards the trees, a large cloud of smoke erupted around him, blocking off everything he could see, but he could still feel two incoming attacks, one from each side. He jumps back, dodging one of the attacks as it was too fast to adjust course, only to have to raise his arms to block a blow going for his head.

'Damn,' he cursed, dispelling his chakra cloak for a second time. 'I didn't think about who was attacking me. She was able to block some of the chakra points in my arm. It will throw off my jutsus. I need to get out of this smoke. Between Hanabi's Byakugan and Isamu's nose, I'm at a serious disadvantage.' Jumping backwards away from the two genins, he was able to finally get clear of the smoke. Sensing another person behind him, Naruto turned around to see Akira finishing his hand signs. Naruto looked into the boy's eyes to try and read them. 'What type of jutsu is he using?' All of a sudden, the world started to spin around Naruto. 'What? Genjutsu? Kurama, help me out!'

'I can't believe these kids are pushing you this hard,' the fox admitted as he released the genjutsu.

Naruto's vision cleared just in time to see a kunai appear out of the smoke heading right for him.

'Shit! I thought these guys didn't have any teamwork? I barely have time to dodge.' He was off balance with very little time. The only thing Naruto could manage was to lean to the side to avoid the path of the kunai as it flew past him. Except, it wasn't a kunai anymore, suddenly, with a puff of smoke, the kunai transformed and it was Hanabi that was flying by him, hands outstretched for the bells. The timing had been perfect and her hands closed around the bells.

'What the heck just happened? How did that just happen?'

The two genin were standing around him grinning while Hanabi wore a smug expression as she picked herself off the ground where she had fallen from her flight through the air. Clones of Isamu ground to a halt beside their master as they called off the attack that had been seconds away from hitting Naruto before Hanabi grabbed the bells. In a puff of smoke, the clones turned back into Takeshi and Takeo who promptly jumped back into Isamu's hood and fell back asleep.

"So, Sensei," began Akira, "can we eat our lunch now? Or do we still have to wait until noon?"

"Haha. I think we broke Sensei," giggled Hanabi. "He is completely frozen in shock."

"Can't blame the guy. Image his reputation when word gets out he was beaten by 3 rookie genin," joked Isamu. "He even had to use his jinchūriki power to get out of Akira's paralysis trap."

"Nah, he probably could have gotten out with his own power if he tried a little harder. I don't have enough chakra to keep a Jounin like him trapped for more than a second or two. But seriously, I still used a lot of chakra and I'm hungry. Should we just start eating without him, or what?"

Snapping out of his shock, Naruto finally looked at his three genin. 'Did they really pull all this off themselves? I don't even know if Shikamaru could find a flaw in that plan.' "You three did amazing." The astonishment on his face told the three how genuine his comment had been. "Tell me, can you guys tell me the purpose of this test?"

The other two turned toward Akira, who answered, "Teamwork, right? We had seen a few kids sent back to the academy when we were still there, but it was always in groups of three, meaning no one had failed individually. Besides, there is no way genin would be expected to take on a Jonin one on one."

"Exactly, teamwork." Naruto shook his head at the kid's logic. Shikamaru wasn't kidding, the kid is just like him. "Another lesson is this, real shinobi will be expected to put the good of the team and the mission above the good of themselves. By working together, despite the fact that one of you would be sent back to the academy demonstrated this. I'm proud of you three. You all pass!" He proclaimed with a thumbs up. "8am tomorrow, we meet here for our first mission as Team 7. Dismissed."

"So is that a yes on the lunch thing?" Akira asked.