The Heart of the Demon
Chapter 4
The Demon's test
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters
Team seven glared at their sensei 'got lost on the road of life?' what a stupid excuse! How could this man be the feared Kakashi Hatake famed copy ninja of Konaha? Kakashi just ignored the looks and walked over to the posts motioning for them to follow. He leaned against the middle post, noting the smoldering mess of a tree at the edge of the clearing, and his team came and stood in front of him with Naruto standing as far away from Sakura as she could. Kakashi internally sighed this wasn't looking good for their team work; it only took an hour for them to be at each other's throats.
"Alright then, today you will have a test. This test will determine whether or not you actually become genin or are sent back to the academy." They all looked stunned by this
"but I thought we already became genin after the graduation test? What was that even for then?" Sakura asked clearly confused by his statement.
"That was just to weed out the hopeless cases. This is the real test, and there is a %66 failure rate."
Again they all looked stunned for a few seconds before Naruto suddenly cheered loudly and pumped her fist in the air "Hell yes now we can drop pinky and get on with our lives!" Yes this was really not looking well for their team work.
"Okay, moving on. The object of this test is to get these" Kakashi pulled out two bells on strings "away from me before lunch" he pulled out a timer and set it.
"But there are only two bells?"
"Very observant Sakura, as I said %66 failure rate." He smiled an innocent smile before saying "begin" and disappearing in a swirl of leaves.
The genin looked around "wait we have to find him too?" Sakura asked and Naruto just scoffed
"Yeah it's oh so surprising that we have to show are ability to find enemy ninja in a test." Naruto said as she walked off towards the edge of the clearing with Sasuke close behind and a very annoyed Sakura behind him.
Naruto stopped, clearly seeing that she wasn't going to just be able to walk away without Sakura coming along with them. Naruto sighed "alright lets come up with a plan" she said as she turned around to look at her team mates. They discussed possible courses of action before deciding on one. "Alright then here we go" Naruto said as she started to perform hand seals "summoning jutsu!" she said as she planted her and on the ground and with a puff of smoke a little fox was sitting in front of them.
"Hey Naruto whatcha need?" the little fox said in a high pitched voice, startling Sakura who was unaware summon animals could talk.
"Hey Kit, I need you find someone for me." Naruto said with a grin.
Kakashi was sitting in a tree reading his Icha-Icha book, waiting for his students to find him when he sensed something watching him. He looked up from his book and there was a little red fox sitting on the branch in front of him just staring at him. Kakashi lifted an eyebrow and suddenly the fox disappeared with a poof. His eyes widened for just a second before he jumped away from where he was sitting as Naruot shot out of a tree and tore where he as just sitting to pieces with her claws. He noticed that they were pulsating with wind chakra 'hm so she already knows how to use elemental chakra this might actually be interesting' he thought as he put his book away.
Naruto jumped at Kakashi again and again pulverizing where he was standing less than a second before over and over. Kakashi was impressed with her speed, she was forcing him somewhere, he might as well see what they had planned. They continued their game until Kakashi felt himself trip a wire and dozens of kunai and shuriken came flying at the two. Kakashi quickly substituted away while Naruto smirked and jumped away making hand seals "wind style: great breakthrough" she yelled shooting it right at where Kakashi was after the substitution.
"earth style: mud wall" Kakashi blocked the jutsu but at the same time he felt chakra being formed behind him and could sense shuriken coming from above him.
"Fire style: great fireball jutsu" Sasuke shouted from behind Kakashi sending the jutsu at his exposed back while Sakura threw shuriken from above him. Kakashi dove out of the way of the shuriken while making hand seals
"water style: water wall" a wall of water shot in front of Sasuke's fireball effectively dousing it.
Kakashi landed in a small clearing, so far he was very impressed with their teamwork, even Sakura was actively helping. After only a moment Sakura and Sasuke landed behind him while two Narutos landed in front of him. Both Narutos started to go through hand seals "wind style: great breakthrough" "fire style: fireball jutsu" they shouted in unison combing the two jutsu into massive fireball heading straight for him. Kakashi was stunned only for a second 'being able to use two types of elemental jutsu at her age is quite impressive' he jumped above it knowing trying to counter it would be a waste of chakra. Sasuke quickly followed him jumping above the massive combination jutsu and engaging Kakashi in some mid-air taijutsu. While Kakashi was busy with Sasuke, Sakura jumped up behind him grabbing at the bells. Kakashi's eyes widened as he spun and kicked Sakura away sending her flying toward the ground. One of the Naruto's jumped in the way of Sakura absorbing most of the force to keep Sakura from getting too hurt. The Naruto puffed away after they crashed into the ground and soon after Sakura stood up with a huge smile on her face. Kakashi saw and looked down only to see the bells were gone and when he looked back up Sakura had them in her outstretched hand.
The genin cheered as they saw their plan had actually succeeded. Kakashi hadn't expected them to be able to do it, he had held back a lot, but still it was impressive, now just one more test. "Very good, now who are going to give the other bell too?" Kakashi asked with a serious face and the three genin immediately stopped cheering as they realized their situation. Naruto and Sasuke looked at Sakura, Naruto was worried, she and Sakura didn't really get along and she knew how Sakura felt about Sasuke, the odds of her getting one of the bells didn't seem good. Sakura clutched the bells and held a solemn expression before looking at the ground.
After about a minute of them all staring at her Sakura finally sighed and looked at them with watery eyes, "You two should have them. You guys did most of the work you're the ones who really deserve to become genin." That really surprised Naruto and earned Sakura a lot of respect from her, they had done most of the work, but it didn't seem right, they all worked hard for this they all should become genin.
Naruto sighed and then looked at Kakashi "We all worked for this! We either all pass or we all fail!" this was met with nod from Sasuke and stunned look from Sakura.
Kakashi looked between them and after a few seconds smiled "you pass."
There was just one moment of silence before Naruto jumped up "Hell yes!" she yelled as she charged at Sasuke and tackled him into a hug "We finally did it! We're ninja!" Sasuke accepted the hug with a slight blush before Naruto pecked him on the lips and jumped off leaving Sasuke stunned and bright red on the ground "let's get Ichiraku's to celebrate!" she didn't wait for an answer and she shot out of the training ground leaving a smiling Kakashi a blushing Sasuke and a very angry beat red Sakura.
Kakashi stood in front of the Hokage in his office "Well how did it go?" Hiruzen asked Kakashi with a small smile.
"They passed." Kakashi said with his own smile "all in all they were very impressive, they worked as team quite well, even with the tension between Naruto and Sakura. They even managed to actually get the bells from me."
Hiruzen chuckled at that "I wouldn't expect anything less from Naruto"
Kakashi nodded "she was quite impressive, already having control over two elemental types at her age is no easy feat."
Hiruzen smiled proudly "yes I thought that might surprise you."
Kakashi then frowned slightly "did you know she can summon?"
Hiruzen was surprised by the information, where did Naruto get a summoning contract? "She can? What can she summon?"
Kakashi waited for a second before answering "foxes." This revelation brought a myriad of questions to Hiruzen's mind and he was sure Kakashi was thinking of just as many.
"Did she tell you where she learned it?"
Kakashi shook his head "I didn't get the chance to ask, but I think it is safe to say it was probably this Kurama who taught her." Hiruzen had the same suspicion and it worried him, there hadn't been a fox summoner for a very long time, how could this Kurama make Naruto a fox summoner? Who was he and where did he come from? It all had him very worried for her.