Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its original characters.
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Tailed beast, summons, second concious speaking"
"Tailed beast, summons, second concious thinking"
'Jutsus'
Revised
CH6: Bell Test
It was the early morning and light was dim, the sun hadn't even begun to peak over the distant mountain range of the horizon, the air still held a cool feel to it and the morning breeze even more so. Everything was silent with only the light ruffle of leaves being pushed by the silent wind or the rare chirp of locals birds piecing through the still silence every once and while.
We find our two Genin hopefuls walking along the dusty dirt path leading into Training Ground Seven both feeling pretty tired thanks to having to get up extra early. Before leaving Naruto's the two best friends had managed to eat their breakfast but had to get up an hour earlier so that it would have effective time to settle and not put them at risk of cramp or puking it up later.
Anything else they might need was being held in sealing scrolls that Naruto had learned to make some time ago, after buying his own sealing scroll one time he was able to decipher it and mimicking the formula and later on even managed to improve upon its basic formula slightly. So now they carried more on their person than ever before, with more comfort and less weight weighing them down.
As they approached the training ground they noticed that Sakura was also coming, from the opposite direction looking many times more tired than her two male teammates. Sakura looked up and spotted the two boys through her still sleep ridden gaze "hhhhiiiiii" she groaned out with effort as she attempted a shadow of a wave as she slogged herself forward, each step feeling like it would be her last.
"Hey Sakura" greeted Naruto, not with as much vigour as he usually would while Sasuke just gave a curt nod and his usual grunt.
The trio stopped before each other while the boys took in Sakura's current state, noting how she looked ready to drift back off into sleep at any second and the frequent angry growls that were coming from her stomach region along with dark bags under eyes. The pinket didn't look to have much awareness of her current surroundings looking to be fighting to just stay awake making it all too clear that she definitely mustn't have had anything for breakfast.
"Hey Sakura" spoke up Naruto but got no response from the girl who was kinda just swaying slightly on her feet. Naruto reached forward and placed a hand on one of the girl's shoulders and shacked her lightly "Sakura!" he said a bit louder, this action seemed to shock the girl awake.
Sakura stared at her fellow pre-teens like she was surprised to see them or something "Nar-Naruto! S-Sasuke!" she spurted out taking a step back as she began finally fully taking in her surroundings and realizing where she was. "Oh I'm here, I must've just pretty much sleepwalked here" thought Sakura out loud as she turned back to her two teammates.
Naruto snickered at hearing this "yeah seems like it, you looked ready to kill over at any minute, so I take it you followed what Kakashi-Sensei said then huh?" asked Naruto already knowing the answer.
Sakura nodded and raised a bubble gum coloured eyebrow "what you didn't?" she asked to which they both shook their heads, she frowned at seeing this "but he said we should! you know you both could throw it all up right!?" she argued pointing at both of them.
Sasuke shrugged "yeah you're right we could've, but that's why we decided to eat earlier so that it wouldn't be possible to, and if we didn't eat anything at all that would put us at disadvantage with having no energy. I mean just look at you, for example, you look like you barely have the strength left to keep your eyes open let alone move around effectively" explained Sasuke.
Sakura thought on that for a minute and he did have a point she did feel like crap right now and just really wanted to go crawl back into to bed, now she was beginning to curse the fact that she refused to have any breakfast and was beginning to feel like she just let the team down big time.
"So Sakura you hungry?" asked Naruto suddenly bringing the girl out of her thoughts and seeing Naruto pulling out a small green scroll from one of his orange flak jackets many pockets. Sakura was about to say she was fine but her stomach betrayed her, making her cringe in embarrassment. Naruto grinned "heh heh seems you are" he commented before laying the scroll on the grass, rolling it out and showing a sealing formula, he placed his hand on the centre of the seal that instantly let loose a burst of smoke. When the smoke cleared it showed some breakfast bars and breakfast shakes "me and Sasuke guessed you'd properly follow Kakashi-Sensei's crap about skipping breakfast, we guessed figured he said all that so he could soften us up beforehand" explained the blonde as he handed the Haruno some of the bars and a shake.
She looked at the two speechless not knowing what to say, they'd been considerate enough to bring her some food just encase she failed to have any breakfast herself, even after all she'd done to them. Picking on Naruto back in the academy like all the other kids and recently finding out that Naruto was her crush's best friend, and yet still here they were looking out for her. "Um thank you, Naruto, Sasuke I promise you won't regret this!" she swore making Naruto smile brightly and getting a terse nod from Sasuke.
The pinket began to down the surprise breakfast as fast as possible before Kakashi-Sensei turns up, wanting to give it all as much time as possible to settle and ate until she felt satisfied but not overly full. "Aw man that felt great, screw the dieting if this is what it feels like to be on one, to hell with it!" thought Sakura after she was done eating her fill and getting a shout of agreement from her inner self and finally letting loose a relieved sigh.
Though the bubble gum haired girl didn't seem to have to worry about eating quickly at all because soon an hour had gone by and Kakashi was still nowhere to be seen. "Ok what the hell!...again!" voiced a certain blonde feeling a sudden case of Dejavu hitting him like a hammer. As the time passed the sun was starting to rise up over the mountains while the trio now just sat in a triangle all sharing some of the extra breakfast bars and shakes that Naruto's intuition told him to bring. All three began to wonder if Kakashi-Sensei had a bad habit of being late or if he was just doing it to piss them off if it was the latter he was doing a bang-up job of that.
After another ten more minutes past Sakura turned to Naruto, a nagging question on her mind. "Hey, Naruto" said blonde turned to the sound of his name "that clone you left behind for me yesterday it was solid, how's that?" inquired the pinket, curious as she remembered the clone from yesterday that told her everything she missed while she was...self-reflecting.
Naruto was surprised to see Sakura taking an interest in well...anything about him while Sasuke was sitting right next to him, so it was becoming slightly uncomfortable for the long pink-haired while Naruto just kept looking at her wide-eyed as he was. Eventually, Naruto became aware that he was making the green-eyed teen uncomfortable "oh um sorry about that I'm just surprised to hear you ask that is all" he apologized as he lightly scratched the back of his spiky blonde head in an embarrassed gesture. Naruto coughed to recomposed himself "well you see the clone I left behind for you was a special type of clone know as a Shadow Clone, it's a solid clone made up of much more chakra than the normal clone jutsu that is taught at the academy, which I myself could not perform no matter how hard I tried to" explained the blonde.
Sakura was amazed to hear that one of her teammates could perform that sort of high-level technique, but was perplexed on why he was saying he couldn't perform the academy version and yet do a more higher version. "Wait, so if you can do a jutsu like this Shadow Clone Jutsu then, why can't you do the normal clone jutsu?" she inquired as she took another sip of her strawberry flavoured shake.
Naruto grinned at that question "well believe it or not they always failed due to chakra overload" he revealed seeing the emerald eyes of the girl widen greatly.
"So what your chakra control was so bad that you kept feeding them too much or something?" she asked but had this feeling that couldn't be the case if he could do these shadow clones.
Naruto shook his head, his blonde locks swaying slightly with him. "No you see I was born with naturally bigger and stronger reserves of chakra then most, so no matter what sort of chakra control techniques I practised the clone jutsu just required too little chakra, it was like trying to fill a glass under a waterfall without it overflowing" explained Naruto, finding it hard not to grin he really was proud of his chakra reserves.
Sakura was nearly slack-jawed at hearing this, someone her age had those kinds of reserves and so much so that no matter how much he held back he still overloaded a jutsu, it was hard to imagine "and he's supposed to be the dead last" she whispered out in disbelief.
Naruto sniggered at hearing her tone while Sasuke thought it was time that some things got cleared up. "Sakura" said girl turned to her crush, nearly blushing at being under his obsidian gaze "their something you better understand, Naruto wasn't the dead last because he was worse, he became the dead last because he decided to act like the worst to become the dead last" explained the young Sharingan user in a cool even tone.
Sakura was surprised to hear this and unable to comprehend why someone would do such a thing "why?" she asked as she turned to the blonde.
Naruto currently chewing on a cereal bar saw that the question was directed at him and quickly swallowed his mouth full of the crunchy bar. "Well a couple of years back I learned that the top boy, top girl and dead last all wind up on the same team together by default so I decided to become the dead last and Sasuke became the Rookie of the Year and that way we both got to be on the same team as one another" explained the blue-eyed teen simply.
It amazed Sakura just how far the two had gone to make sure they would be on the same team together, making it increasingly clear just how close the two must really be. "They weren't joking when they said they were best friends" she briefly thought. "So then if that's the case just how skilled are you really Naruto?" asked Sakura, curiosity thirsty for answers.
The blonde grinned and folded his arms "well if I wanted to I think I could've been Rookie of the Year just as much as Sasuke" he stated with vigour.
Sakura stared sceptically and turned to Sasuke who nodded confirming his words and surprising her, it was hard for her to believe that there was another student in their year or the world that could even begin to match him. She thought Sasuke was the best by default and that he had no equal and that he was the best, and now she just learned that Naruto the literal titled worst student in the history of Konoha and super idiot was in truth nothing like that, it was all just a title and a mega misleading one at that.
Sakura was brought back to reality by the sound of clicking fingers and looked up to see Naruto now waving his hand in front of her face "yoohoo anyone in their, you were spaced out for like a minute there" explained the blonde.
Sakura shook her head to get rid of the mist of thought running inside her head "yeah I"m fine just processing is all, its a lot to take in you know" she said to which her teammates nodded in understanding, suddenly learning the worst student in class is, in fact, one of the best around was a lot to take in.
"Well take as a much time as you need Sakura, hell it doesn't seem like Kakashi is gonna be here any time soon so you probably got plenty of time" suggested Sasuke as he decided to lie down on the grass. Naruto nodded in agreement with his black-haired friend, Sakura saw his point, if this Sensei of theirs first impression of time management was anything to go by he wasn't gonna be here for another couple of hours probably. So everyone remained mostly in silence with the occasional question or comment being made.
After another two hours passed Kakashi finally decided to show up carrying a backpack and giving everyone (who were scowling at him by the way) a cheerful wave. "Morning everyone" he said, casually eye smiling as he did.
"YOU'RE LATE!" shouted the angry blonde and pinket in sync, both pointing furiously at the white-haired Jonin, while Sasuke just continued to scowl with his arms folded neatly.
Kakashi held a snicker in at their reaction and pointed to the side "well on my way here a cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way here, what bad luck huh?" he lied smoothly, making everyone scowl at him harder while they held back their combined urges to pummel the lazy ass of a Jonin. The Hatake gave a brief cough which was really just him covering up his amused snicker "well let's begin shall we" he then walked over to a tree stump that was off to the side, and pulled out a sizeable alarm clock and set a time on it.
"It's set for noon" he started gaining everyone's focused attention to which he then pulled out a pair of bells tied to some red string, "the task is very simple, you just need to take these bells from me" he then gave the bells a small shake making them jingle. He then shifted his single-eyed gaze over to the three wooden posts off to the side "if you can't get them by then you'll go without launched, you will then be tied to those post and watch as I eat my launch in front of you" he explained and saw to his slight surprise the boys smirking in a smug kind of way and Sakura let a sigh of pure relief.
Kakashi shifted his gaze to behind the kids to which he saw some empty wrappers and milkshake bottles "hmmm it seems they were smart enough to go against my suggestion, the pink-haired one seems more relieved than the other two so maybe the others came prepared for her" assessed the white-haired Jonin.
"Oh thank god that Sasuke and Naruto brought that food, they were spot on about this guy's intentions, he really was trying to trick us into weakening ourselves," thought Sakura"and we bloody fell for it too!" roared inner Sakura feeling humiliated. Sakura then noticed something that didn't seem right "hey wait a second" everyone turned to her "there are only two bells" she looked to her two teammates then back to the Jonin "and their's three of us so why are there only two bells" she questioned.
Kakashi eye smiled at the question "well that way only one of you will at least wind up tied to a post and ultimately be disqualified, that one will also go back to the academy" he explained making the girl flinch, "but you could all also fail as well meaning no one passes" he finished calmly, giving the bells another little shake. The Jonins tone then turned serious as did the look in his single visible eye "you can use any weapons including kunai and shuriken, if you are not prepared to kill me you'll not be able to take these bells" stated the Sensei as he flicked the bells up to catch them in his grasp.
Sakura became concerned at the thought of using such deadly weapons on her Sensei "but Sensei those weapons are too dangerous we could end up hurting you...or worse" she said beginning to feel nervous now.
Naruto snickered "yeah your clone couldn't even dodge the eraser or my chalk launcher(as he dubbed it)" he stated with a big grin.
The Jonin turned to the blonde having an idea "class clowns are often the weakest links, you can ignore them as they show no real merit.." he said tonelessly before looking straight into the blondes now frowning electric blue eyes "losers" he finished with more emphasis.
Suddenly the blonde drew out a kunai and launched himself at the Jonin with it pointed straight out to hit the man straight in his gut. Before the blonde could even cover half that distance he found himself unable to move with his own knife still in his grasp pressed point first and dangerously close to his necks jugular, he could see a much bigger hand holding a tight grip on his own equipt hand and could feel another tight grip at the back of his neck that was ready push him forward onto the point of the kunai. "Now I didn't say start yet" came the voice of Kakashi as he held Naruto in a strong death grip which the blonde was trying to get out of but couldn't budge an inch.
Narutos others two teammates stared wide-eyed at seeing this, they couldn't follow the older man's movements, one second he was right in front of them the next he had Naruto pointing his own weapon at himself ready to open up his neck like a can. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at this "that speed, this guy is no joke he really is a Jonin after all" noted the raven head planning on not underestimating the man again.
Kakashi removed Naruto's armed hand safely away from his neck before letting him go from his grip "but at least you came at me with the full intention of killing me, heh I'm actually beginning to like you kids" he commented sounding a little truthful when he stared at the three teens before him, his single eye turning serious"aaannnnd.." as he said this the three pre-teens began crouching getting ready to move "begin!" with that they all jumped into hiding. Kakashi looked around from his spot in the open field seeing and feeling no signs of the children's presence. "Shinobi and Kunoichi alike must know how to move with silence and hide their presence" "hummm seems they know how to do that at least" commented the Jonin sounding somewhat impressed...so far.
Naruto was currently moving in on Sasuke's position, thinking over that pre-emptive strike he made on the Jonin using his fake anger on the man's comment in order to a least get a taste of what it was they were dealing with. "Hummm with that kinda speed he isn't gonna be easy even with Kurama's chakra backing me" noted the blonde as he spotted Sasuke hiding up in a tree. Naruto jumped up into the tree and rested on a branch next to him "hey" he greeted giving a quick wave.
The Uchiha turned to the blonde and nodded "hey" he greeted back then turned to look back at the snow white-haired Jonin who still hadn't moved from his spot in the middle of the field. "That Kakashi is fast, the way he got you in that hold I couldn't even follow his movements" commented Sasuke.
Naruto nodded "yeah it's a good thing I did that, at least we now know not to take him lightly" added the blonde to which Sasuke grunted in agreement.
"Does this test seem funny to you?" asked the raven head not taking his gaze off the Jonin even going as far as to turn his Sharingan on not wanting to miss a single movement the guy made.
The Uzumaki nodded "yeah, a team of two is what this will be by the end and that doesn't seem right to me, you yourself said yesterday that Konoha prides itself on its teamwork and this test seems more suited to turn us against each other". After Naruto finished the both of them seemed to realize something "you don't think?" asked the blonde to his friend.
Sasuke nodded "yeah I do" he turned back to the still unmoving Jonin "he wants that, he wants us to turn against each other or at least for us to attempt to get the bells for ourselves" his Sharingan eyes narrowed slightly. "It's a test inside of a test, I think he wants us to see if we are willing to put our own ambitions aside and work together in order to complete the mission despite one of us losing out in the end" explained the raven head.
Naruto whistled lightly so as not to attract any attention to their current position "man what a test, but that sounds right to me" said Naruto as he put his hands in a cross sigh and summoned ten clones focusing so that they would appear silently and without smoke. The blonde turned to the clone right next to him "okay you I want you to go and find Sakura and tell her about what we think the meaning of the test really is" ordered the real Naruto to which the clone nodded and began its search for the bubble gum girl. "Okay I'm gonna go out there and fight Kakashi, you 8 will make your move when I give my signal and we'll try and make an opening for Sasuke" ordered the real Naruto.
"In the meantime I'll study Kakashi with my Sharingan, try and find out his weakness" added the raven head who kept his blazing red eyes focused on the Jonin at all time.
The real Naruto nodded and grinned before leaping off back into the forest looking to exit out of a different area so as not to give his friends position away. After finding a good spot the spiky blonde leap out of the woods and into the air drawing five shuriken and throwing them smoothly to the Jonins turned back. To everyone's amazement, Kakashi swiftly turned around and smoothly plucked every throwing star out of the air with a single hand.
"Very good Naruto attacking while my back was turned and not holding back" complemented the white-haired man eye smiling as he did.
Naruto tisked at seeing his shuriken get picked out of the air so easily and looking like the man wasn't even trying.
"Taijutsu" said the man suddenly as he reached in his pouch making the blonde leap back to gain some extra distance and perplexing him on why he said Taijutsu and looked to be reaching for a weapon. In one quick movement, Kakashi drew out what he was reaching for from his pouch, leaving everyone dumbstruck when they recognized what it was.
"Really?" thought the blonde Uzumaki one of his eyebrows twitching at seeing the man now just casually reading his dirty book.
"Um Kakashi-Sensei why are you reading that book?" questioned the mystified blonde.
The Jonin lifted a lazy eye to the blonde "well to find out what happens next of course, it's a good read you should check it out" suggested the older man "hell it was even written by the great Jiraiya" he added.
Naruto became confounded at hearing this "LIAR!" accused the blonde startling everyone who heard, even the Jonin "Jiraiya wouldn't ever write such smut!" stated the blonde passionately.
Kakashi eye narrowed "oh wouldn't he? well it has the authors name in it".
Naruto folded his arms and stuck up his nose "well that could just be a fraud, someone just trying to promote his own work by calling himself Jiraiya" countered the Uzumaki.
Kakashi hummed at that "well I guess you have a point, but did you come here to argue about that or to get these" he said using one hand to flick the bells hanging at his waist.
That made Naruto focus back on the task at hand, pushing the thoughts that the author of his favourite book could ever write such vulgar crap. So not wasting any more time Naruto shot off at Kakashi faster than before and jumped to aim a roundhouse kick at his head which the Jonin smoothly ducked under and took a step back to avoid the following kick "hmmm not bad" thought Kakashi. Naruto jumped back up into the air and came down on Kakashi and began unleashing a barrage of punches aimed at his face, but the Jonin was simply blocking each attempt with his one free hand lazily before he moved out of the way, grabbed Naruto by his right wrist, swung and threw him away.
Everyone even Naruto's very clones where staring amazed at what this Sensei was doing "he dodged and blocked every one of Naruto's attacks so easily" thought Sasuke scanning everything to memory.
"I can't believe it, I could barely follow Naruto's movement let alone Kakashi-Sensei's" thought Sakura as she hid alone alongside one of the blondes clones, who had told her what he and Sasuke believed was the true meaning of the test as they were moving over to meet up with Sasuke.
Naruto looked at the Jonin who was currently just standing still and proceeding to continue reading his literature, the blonde may not like being underestimated like this but at least it gave him time to think of his next move. "Taijutsu seems like it won't be of any use against him like this, he's got too big of an advantage in both size, strength, speed, skill and whatever else" asset Naruto "Ninjutsu it is then". Naruto ran off to the right and around Kakashi who just stared at him lazily but was inwardly interested as to what the blonde was up to. The blonde stopped when he was in position with Kakashi facing him and not the forest, making the Nine-Tails holder grin. "If I was you I would put that book away or else it might get ruined" advised Naruto before he brought his hands to together and began weaving through some hand signs.
Kakashi's eyes somewhat widened when he saw Naruto going through hands signs for a ninjutsu "but he's only just graduated from the academy he shouldn't know any offensive ninjutsu" thought the Jonin who recognized the elemental type just from the signs being weaved together and quickly put his beloved erotica away for safety.
Naruto cheeks bulged as he thought 'Water Release: Gun Shot!'as he began spitting out bullets of high-speed chakra enhanced water at the Jonin who was nimbly evading them by jumping and moving his body out of the water bullets individual paths. The assault had pushed the man back closer to the forest which was exactly where Naruto wanted him to be.
Naruto grinned, looked up into the trees and whistled, suddenly eight more Narutos burst out of the treetops all descending down upon the shocked Jonin. "Shadow Clones!" he recalled, remembering the graduation report stating the blonde's use of the technique in order to pass the graduation exam.
The first clone aimed a stomp kick at the Jonin's head but he leaned back avoiding the strike then grabbed the clone by his ankle and spun him around and slung him into two of his brothers hard enough to disperse them, leaving him with five and one original. Kakashi not wasting a beat weaved through some hand signs 'Water Style: Water Bullet!' called out the Jonin as he unleashed a stream of high-pressure water from his mouth (somehow without removing his mask) at the clones managing to hit one after another as he adjusted his head to hit whatever clone was closet after the next, by the time his Jutsu was finished all but two where destroyed.
Naruto and the other stared disbelieving at how the Jonin dispatched of nearly all of Naruto's clones in a matter of mere seconds; catching a brief glimpse of what their Sensei was really capable of. The two remaining clones along with the real Naruto weaved through hand signs and all together began unleashed gunshots of water at Kakashi who was now jumping and flipping out of the way with some effort. Kakashi was made to jump into the air and while up there he brandished a pair of shuriken in each hand and flicked them at the two remaining clones faster than they could react making them disappear in puffs of smoke.
While Kakashi was on his descent back to the ground and had has his back to the tree, Sasuke saw it as the right time to make his move. The Uchiha burst out of the leaves and swiftly made for the jingling bells attached to the Jonins waist, just a hairsbreadth away. Naruto grinned like a certain fox at Sasuke who was just behind the white-haired Jonin whose stare was focused right on him. Sakura was about to cheer at the sight of Sasuke reaching for the bells on Kakashi as was he.
He almost had them, just a few more inches and he'd have them. But what Sasuke grabbed in the next instant was not the cold metal or the red fabric of the bells strings, it was rough, dry and had a slightly moist texture to it. Everyone stared in shock as to what the Uchiha had grabbed, it was not the bells but was, in fact, a log that had just appeared where Kakashi once was "substitution!" was everyone's collected thoughts.
Thanks to the Sharingan giving Sasuke a slower perception of time he was able to quickly recover from his shock with plenty of time to spare in order to right himself in the air, flipping so that he was able to land on his feet next to his blonde comrade. The two boys began scanning around for the Jonin, left, right, front, back, up "below" came the voice of their amused sounding Sensei from right below them and before they knew it each of them felt a tight grip on one of their individual ankles.
"Shit!" swore Naruto and "oh crap!" exclaimed Sasuke before they were both pulled underground to just below the neck and unable to move next to nothing.
The Jonin emerged from the ground shortly after and crouched before the two, eye smiling smugly 'Earth Style: Double Suicide Decapitation' said Kakashi naming the jutsu he just used on the pair as they began struggling to free themselves. Kakashi removed his book from his pouch and began reading it again "well I must compliment you both on your teamwork, hell you almost even had the bells their for a second, but I'm afraid it just wasn't good enough" he said as he stood back up and began walking away. "I think I'll now go look for bubble gum" he stated and began humming a tune as he left.
Naruto let loose an irritated sigh "well damn, seems he really is no pushover after all" he commented as he continued trying to jerk his way out, he could feel the soil beginning to loosen up.
Sasuke nodded in agreement "and the way he substituted like that, my Sharingan couldn't see through it, it was done fast enough that I couldn't tell he did it" said the Uchiha greatly impressed by the Jonin. "And that speed" brought up the Uchiha remembering how his Sharingan were following the Jonin and how Naruto seemed like a slug in comparison.
The blonde turned to his friend "I know right!" exclaimed the boy with a big beaming grin and began snickering "man do we have a long ways to go" he said sounding excited. He was glad that they weren't near the top yet he felt it would steal away the journey if they where already so close to their own Sensei's level. The two prisoners began hearing light footsteps coming from behind them but couldn't turn to see who it was but they could guess.
"Sasuke! Naruto!" came the familiar voice of one Sakura Haruno as she came to their aid alongside Naruto's one remaining clone, stopping right in front of them.
Naruto beamed happily up at them "oh man am I glad to see you!" he also turned to the clone "and you too Dattebayo!" the clone grinned back and began unearthing his boss while Sakura despite not wanting to get her hands or dress dirty began unearthing Sasuke. After 5 minutes of this the pair of prisoners were finally able to get out by themselves while Naruto's clones dispersed to give his master its memories. "So Sakura you understand that their might be a deeper meaning to this test?" questioned the blonde his tone a bit more serious than normal, the girl nodded.
Sasuke stepped forward "that's good, I don't think it matters if either of us gets the bells on our own we need to acquire them with full teamwork" added Sasuke.
Naruto nodded, completely agreeing "well you and I have that down, buuuuut" he began turning to Sakura who was now fidgeting, nervous at being under both of their stares "what do we do with you? I mean we know everything about each other but um we really don't know what you can do Sakura, sorry" apologized the blonde who began sheepishly scratching the back of his head.
Sakura looked down, now feeling really useless after seeing what those two could do, their speed, strength and skill alone dwarfed hers, then there was their teamwork they worked together so well but she didn't know where she could begin to fit into that without being a burden to it. "Um I'm not bad with throwing weapons, I know the three academy jutsu's at least..." it was then an idea struck "I could transform myself into one of your clones Naruto!" proposed Sakura.
The two boys thought on that for a second but shook their heads in no, seeing a major flaw with that plan making Sakura wonder what was wrong with it. Sasuke was the one to explain "if you did that Kakashi might not hold back, you saw how he got rid of the last batch didn't you?" he asked rhetorically.
Sakura paled when she remembered and the thought of getting dealt with like that by a Jonin didn't appeal to her much, "he used jutsu and shuriken on them and that could be me if I make myself look like a Naruto clone" she mused gulping in fear"yeah yeah new plan!" ordered inner Sakura .
Nearby Kakashi was watching proudly as the three Genin hopefuls planned together, he saw Sakura and the Naruto clone dig out the two boys, hell he let them and was now watching as they planned against him. He was really beginning to like this team. He could see the girl was the weakest link amongst them and was really glad to see the boys weren't disregarding her and were searching to find a way that she could be of use. "Well what do you know I might just have a team this time after all" he thought, eye smiling brightly. He then left the area to let them plan in peace, it would be no fun if he knew all their plans now would it?
Sakura began thinking again and had another idea come to mind "okay how about this..." and so she went on to explain the new idea which actually impressed the boys and might prove more effective than the last one.
Kakashi was now standing in the open field where the 3 post where again reading his beloved book and waiting patiently for the three Genin hopefuls to make their move, and long he didn't have to wait. Kakashi's instincts told him to prepare for combat along with his intuition telling him that this was no time for pleasure reading, so he sheathed his erotica placing it back in his pouch and waited for the Genin to make their move. He could feel their eyes on him and feel the tension in the air grow thicker with every pacing second.
The Jonin ears began picking up the sound of roaring air and shifted his gaze to the direction of the sound and saw to his second, well third surprise today if he counts seeing Sasuke's fully matured Sharingan, a sizeable fireball approaching from out the treeline. Using his great speed and reflexes the Jonin jumped out of the fireball's path with plenty of time to spare "that was the Great Fireball Jutsu, must be the Uchiha's" guessed the Jonin. Kakashi picked up the sound of approaching footsteps coming from behind and spun around and lashed out with a fierce kick striking a Naruto clone right in the gut dispersing it on contact and dealt with the next much like it's brother from the beginning, and used it's body as a weapon and threw it into a pair that was coming in from his left side. Kakashi was soon done with the small group of shadow clones and soon discovered that the real Naruto was nowhere amongst them.
The white-haired man heard the familiar sound of crunching grass coming from behind him and swiftly spun around "rahhh!" came the famine battle cry of Sakura as she missed cutting the bells of off Kakashi's waist. The Jonin didn't waste any time and grabbed the girl putting her into a hold much like he did with Naruto before the test began, where he had her pointing her own kunai to her neck, right over the jugular "ahhh!" screamed the startled and frightened girl.
Sasuke and Naruto jumped out of their hiding spots scowling at the Jonin as he held Sakura hostage "so what are you going to do now boys? I have your teammate hostage are you willing to sacrifice her?" questioned the man with the gravity-defying hair. The two boys looked at each other before nodding, they both leapt into the air and began weaving through hand sighs ones that made the Jonin's eye widen in disbelieve and horror "they wouldn't?".
Suddenly the single-eyed man began to notice something wrong with the girl, she felt odd the clothing on her shoulders felt too rough, thick and solid almost like shoulder pads and not like that of a dress like she was wearing, what was even more strange was how the girl wasn't panicking or seeming scared or even seemed to be fighting back at him, then he realized what it must be. "SHE'S A FAKE!" he realized with a wide eye.
'Fire Style: Great Fire Ball Jutsu!' called out the Uchiha as he breathed out a fireball about the size of him down towards the greatly shocked Jonin but it didn't stop there.
'Wind Style: Gale Palm!' followed up the Uzumaki who placed his open palms together making a powerful gust of wind rush past him that began feeding and fanning the flames of the intense fireball making it speed up while also growing twice in both size and heat as it crashed down on the Jonin, scorching and burning away the grass only leaving a shallow smoking crater that was scorched a charcoal black.
The boys landed on the ground with Sasuke thanks to his Sharingan being the first to notice that Kakashi's body was not in the crater "Naruto it failed he's not there!".
Naruto nodded in understanding his ears began to pick up the sound of shifting earth from beneath him, acting on instinct he leapt back just in time to avoid being grabbed by Kakashi's gloved hand "he was beneath us again!" noted the blonde. Sasuke seeing this all happen was instantly shooting over to intercept the Jonin seeking to land a decisive blow while he was still busy getting out of the earth.
The young Uchiha's blazing eyes widened as he was just a few feet away from the Jonin when the ground burst open before him revealing a second Kakashi who was lining up to give the young Sharingan user an uppercut. It was all painfully slow to see from the raven heads perspective as the fist approached him at a snail's pace but his body unable to move fast enough to avoid it, the boy gritted his teeth and tried to raise his guard in time to at least lessen the impact. Strangely the Uchiha felt his body beginning to move, not of his own accord but like he was being pulled away and out of the path of the now surprised Jonin's fist, he could feel something around his back, it was a warm feeling and had a firm grip on him while at the same time felt light and moving.
The Uchiha kept on being pulled away from the Jonin until he was placed on the ground around 20 or so feet away and felt the grip on him be removed, he turned to his left and now understood how he got out of that "thanks for the save" said Sasuke to Naruto.
Naruto grinned down at the Sharingan user "no problem, it was a good job I was able to call upon Kurama's chakra just in time" he commented. Naruto now stood shrouded in a cloak of flame like orange and yellow chakra that was taking a shape similar to that of a fox, he had a single tail of chakra behind him with long ears sticking out the top of the shrouds head which could be mistaken for horns or rabbit ears even. Finally Naruto's eyes were no longer blue but where now sunny yellow with an orange hue around their rims.
Kakashi and his clone along with Sakura who was still hidden were looking at the blonde with wide eyes and slack jaws, not knowing what to make of what they were currently witnessing. Kakashi couldn't take his eyes of off Naruto, he was more than ready to deal with the Uchiha having his Sharingan active but this not so much. "For the love of god Lord Hokage! you could have given me a heads up on this one at least!" thought the shocked Jonin just knowing that somewhere the third Hokage was laughing at him, while also taking note on the odd colour of Naruto's cloak.
Sakura in the meantime had no clue on what was going on with her blonde teammate, one second he was perfectly normal next that golden stuff just burst forth from him then a long clawed arm made of the same stuff also shot off from his outstretched hand grabbed Sasuke and pulled him away from Kakashi in time to avoid getting hit. "The fuck!" "the fuck!" was the shared thoughts of both sides of the girl's continuousness.
Kakashi eventually came out of his stupor of amazement and all round shock "well I must say this is a surprise, I was prepared for Sasuke to have his Sharingan active buuut this not so much" commented the Jonin on the new situation, viewing this as quite the game changer.
Naruto and Sasuke stood side beside, Sharingan blazing ruby red with tomoe spinning and chakra cloak flowing golden with wisps of orange both of the boys eyes staring hard at the Jonin. Kakashi seeing the two standing together like that, facing him down with such resolve and determination he made up his mind there and then; this would be his team, his first team. It was clear to him the girl was gonna need some special attention in order to catch up but he could manage that.
For now though he was curious to see what would happen now "okay you two bring it o-" the Jonin words died in his throat when he heard the subtle sound of something cutting. He turned around and to his shock and disbelieve standing behind him panting but smiling proudly was the missing member of team seven, and in one hand was a kunai and in the other were both of his silver bells. Kakashi couldn't believe his eye he must have been too focused on the recent development that he didn't hear her approach, but wait! What about his clone? why didn't he stop her.
He turned and saw to his self-disappointment that his Shadow Clone was currently still staring at the cloaked Naruto, the white-haired man sighed in annoyance at his clone and dispelled it before turning to Sakura. "Okay bubble gum" he got a healthy scowl for calling her that again "what are you gonna do now with those bells you acquired from me?" he inquired smoothly.
Sakura said nothing and walked over to her two teammates, who had both turned off their respective special abilities and handed them both a bell each. Kakashi eye smiled at that "oh and why'd you do that Sakura?" the girl turned to him and smiled.
"Well in terms of safety, the bells would be best kept with these two since they are the strongest out of the three of us" after that her smile dropped and she started looking at the ground so she didn't have to look her Sensei in the eye, "and well their stronger than me so if anyone should pass it should be them" she finished sounding sad as she did.
The Jonin looked at the two boys "do you two agree with this?" he asked.
Sasuke nodded "yes" Kakashi felt a little disappointment at hearing that be said flat out "but only on the first part" he added surprising Sakura "she may not be the strongest out of the three of us, buuut I don't think she should fail in order for us to pass, without her help we would not have acquired the bell as fast or as efficiently as we just did" explained the Uchiha sounding completely neutral.
Kakashi then turned to the second boy of the team "do you agree with him Naruto?" he asked.
The spiky blonde nodded with vigour "yep! She isn't a half bad teammate once you get past the short temper and the fangirl tendencies, then when she puts her mind to it she can think up some pretty sweet plans like the one where you thought you had the real Sakura but it was really just one of my clones in disguise" explained Naruto giving praise. Kakashi was slightly surprised to hear that, he wouldn't have thought the girl had it in her to come up with such a sly plan and make such good use of Naruto's ability to make so many shadow clones; hell if the Jonin wasn't as fast as he was that plan could've had him.
Kakashi Hatake was beyond happy now he was overjoyed! the team got it! the true meaning of this test, out of all the teams before them they succeeded in getting it, they didn't work solo or against each other like those in the past. They didn't need the second chance like he gave the others where he would tie one of them to a post and see if the others would think for themselves and actually help their starving teammate, hell they pretty much did that before the test even god damn started! if the currently still awake and not starving pinket was any indication. Yeah Kakashi, the Elite Jonin, really had just struck gold here, he may just have found his dream team and all he had to do was weed out the weak and be patient fooor "five maybe six years and nine maybe ten teams" he guessed, he kinda lost count of how many teams failed his tests.
Kakashi coughed lightly into his hand "now before we go any further I would like you three to look over there" he pointed off to the right, as all three of them did they saw about a dozen or so feet away some bushes and trees. As they looked past the foliage they spotted a magnificent pitch black kunai shape stone protruding out of a stand that seemed embedded into the ground, the whole thing seemed to be finished off with a glistening shine.
The teens followed their Sensei as he approached the clearly man-made stone and stood before it, with everything about him now becoming solemn even the air around him seemed to reflect this change in him. "Tell me do you all know what this is?" he asked turning his head around to look at them getting shakes of the head from all of them.
The Jonin looked back at the stone, if the children could see what was visible of his face they would see the look of remorse in his one visible eye as he stared at that smooth ebony stone with the names of people he once knew chiselled into it. "This stone has all the names of the Shinobi who fought valiantly for Konoha" he started the children all beginning to think it must be an honour or something to have ones name on theirs. Those thoughts though where cut short when Kakashi continued on "but don't be fooled this stone isn't here for the purpose of just naming hero's, it's here as a memorial to all these Shinobi, because they all died in battle it's especially here for those whose bodies couldn't be brought back here to Konoha to have a proper burial" he finished, sadness making it's way into his voice. The image of a wild black-haired boy with a goofy grin appeared in his thoughts.
The teens all became saddened at hearing this, the thought of maybe not being buried in Konoha didn't appeal to them. Sasuke desired to one day be buried alongside all the other Uchiha when he finally passed. Naruto wanted to at least be buried within Konoha his home. Sakura wanted to be buried alongside the love of her life whoever that may be. They didn't want their bodies to be just left to rot in some unknown part of the world far away from home.
The Jonin turned back around to face the teens who now had their own solemn expressions. "Shortly after I became a Jonin a friend told me something that has stuck with me to this very day, a code if you will, after his passing I resolved to uphold that code" he began his words quickly gaining the Genins attention. "He said to me 'those who abandon the mission are scum'" Kakashi paused as he then gazed up at the blue sky "but he also said 'those who abandon their friends are worse than scum'" finished the Jonin.
Naruto grinned at hearing this, he liked it, he felt it was something he himself could live by easily "he sounds like a pretty cool guy, this friend of yours I mean" commented Naruto.
Kakashi smiled under his mask at hearing this "yeah he was" he said with reminiscence in his voice as he recalled his old friend. Kakashi lightly grunted as he brought himself out of his reminiscing "okay so I'm proud to say that we are now officially Team Seven!" he declared as he gave them all a big stylish thumbs up. Naruto and Sakura started cheering happily as Sasuke just gave his typical I'm too cool to do that smirk. "Now you all can have the rest of the day off but meet me here tomorrow at 7 and we will start training and begin missions okay?" he got nods and 'yes Senseis' from everyone making him eye smile "good, bye" he said before he flickered away.
"Good job kids I knew you could do it" praised Hirofumi who had, for the most part, remained silent since the early morning where he had to forcibly wake the two up so they could get some breakfast before heading out.
The boys were glad to hear this it always felt good when he praised them like this"thanks gramps" saidSasuke "thanks, spirit gramps" said Naruto both dawning sudden smiles, that made the pinket wonder where it was coming from but just guessed it has to do with now being an official team and Genin too.
Looking around then back at the two boys Sakura was about to speak but paused when all of the day events began tolling on her and she began feeling tired, yawning as she did. "Man I'm more tired than I thought I would be, I think I'm gonna head home guys and catch up on both sleep and all my skipped meals" she said before she picked up her beg and began walking tiredly away.
"Okay see ya tomorrow Sakura!" shouted Naruto waving her goodbye alongside Sasuke. The two boys weren't really that tired they were used to getting up early plus all their training had really helped give them more energy than most Genin their ages and that goes triple or even quadruple for our blonde Uzumaki. "Hey Sasuke lets go celebrate!" proposed Naruto suddenly.
Sasuke shrugged "sure, how so?" he asked but felt he already knew what was coming.
Naruto began putting on an expression of deep thought "um oh we could go get some Dango or Raman ooh or barbeque or Raman, ohhh I know we could get Ichiraku Raman or Raman!" listed Naruto his mouth now kinda watering.
The Uchiha got an irritated vien now pulsing on his forehead "those last two are the same thing Naruto!" pointed out Sasuke deadpanning at his friend's behaviour.
Naruto suddenly scowled at him and instinctively went into his one-tailed state "you take that back!" he threatened, making Sasuke take a step back surprised at his friend's sudden shift.
"Man he loves Raman way too much!" the Uchiha quickly composed himself and began walking off "turn that thing off will you, let's just go and have Raman if we don't you'll just whine about it later anyway" Naruto grinned at that, happy that he was gonna have what he saw as heaven put in a bowl.
So the two made off leaving Training Ground Seven behind to go and celebrate "Dattebayo!" cheered the blonde as they left.
Hirofumi was sitting before the pond and was currently conversing with Kurama "so the brats past huh?" asked the fox with his deep rough voice as he looked uncaringly at the wavy-haired man.
Hirofumi nodded smiling "yep I knew they would, after all, I trained them well not just in body but in mind too" said Hiro with pride as he smirked at the fox who huffed.
"Yeah, yeah but simple training won't just cut it in the long run, their gonna need to learn through real combat with real stakes, training can only prepare one so much for battles of life and death, if they don't have the experience and the mindset to go with it they will surely die out there" averred the fox, his tone deadly serious as he did.
Hiro stared at the fox for a second before sighing in agreement "you are right, but serious combat is something I cannot teach them, life or death, kill or be killed that something I cannot do because at heart I am not their enemy. That is something they'll have to learn out there outside the safety of this Hidden Village" Hiro's solemn expression shifted into a confident smile "but Im sure they'll both learn in time, after all, their still growing and still have such great potential yet to be realized" he finished.
Kurama grinned as he looked at the ghost "and here I was beginning to think you know something I didn't Hirofumi" said the fox in an amused but suspicious way. He and the boys knew very little about the man, he had told them next to nothing about himself but despite all that it was easy to trust him even Kurama couldn't find any deceit or darkness in the man's heart, but there was the odd burst of sadness that would appear. Hiro just smirked all knowingly at the fox which Kurama scoffed at "fine keep silent, let's just pray they those two numb skulls don't get themselves killed before they 'realize their full potential'" said Kurama giving mock quotation marks with his clawed hands.
Hiro laughed heartily at the foxes amusing behaviour "yes lets hope, I really don't want those two meeting their ancestors in the afterlife before their 20" joked the spirit but on the inside, he really was worried for the two. Soon they would be going out there into the dangerous Shinobi world a place where death could be lurking within every shadow and around every corner.
Kurama grunted in agreement "well if you don't mind I'm tired so I think I'll take a little nap" he announced.
Hiro deadpan at him "he just woke up only 15 minutes ago" the spirit thought before the orange beast's image rippled away from the pond's surface. Hiro huffed at the fox's laziness but decided to just let it go, after all, there wasn't much for the tailed beast to do behind those bars except sleep or when he felt like it hum a tune; he had a surprisingly nice singing voice.
Hiro stood up from his spot before the pond and summoned up a hammer and chisel then looked over to the near complete statue of Shukaku "well if I get started now I can have him complete before sunset" stated Hiro as he began his walk to the near complete life-sized statue of the sand spirit; one of eight more soon to follow.
End of Chapter