Chapter 10
At a very early hour of the morning we see Naruto heading to training ground three. As he got nearer he could see a figure standing in the clearing, as he got closer he recognized the figure as her teammate Sakura. After they exchanged greetings they waited for a while until Satsuki arrived. She said nothing and went to stand near a tree close to them
After that they waited… and waited… and waited…
"It's nine o' clock already… Sensei said to be here at seven didn't she?" –asked Sakura at which Naruto nodded. After a few moments only the groaning of Sakura's stomach was heard.
"Did you eat breakfast Sakura-chan?" –asked Naruto concerned about his teammate
"Sensei said not to so I didn't. Had I known she was going to be this late…" –said the girl looking a little depressed
"Don't worry Sakura-chan, here" –said Naruto putting a hand over his other gloved hand and after some sparks of light he had a apple on each hand he offered one to the girl who took it gratefully
"Satsuki-san did you had any breakfast?" –asked the boy extending his other hand with an apple to the other girl who just huffed and looked away as if offended by the fruit.
At that moment the stomach of the girl gave an angry groan letting Naruto know the answer of his question
The black haired girl with a face red from embarrassment walked towards Naruto refusing to meet his eyes, took the apple from his hand and returned to her position under the tree where she started eating it, looking downwards refusing to look at her teammates. Sakura giggled a little and Naruto just sweatdropped.
"Aren't you going to eat anything Naruto-kun?" –asked Sakura and Naruto gave a shake of his head
"Nope, I ate before coming. After a few hammers and a couple of kicks in the gut I found myself losing my breakfast a couple of times before, but after a while I managed to hold it pretty well so I figured I could do it today too" –said the boy and Sakura just nodded at him wondering what kind of training Naruto had.
It was not until another hour after that Kasumi showed up
"Hey! What's up?" –said the woman in a lazy tone raising a hand to greet them. The teens looked ready for murder
"YOU'RE LATE!" –was the scream of Naruto and Sakura. Satsuki looked ready to jump the woman and stab with a kunai
"I'm sorry, there was this cute little kitten that was hanging on a branch of a tree and I had to help it, but then I noticed it was a black cat so I had to turn around and take the long route so that I didn't have bad luck and then I got lost in the road of life" –explained Kasumi and the teens just looked at her wondering what the hell she just had said
"I may have to remember that one, that's the best excuse I've ever heard" –said Naruto and Sakura looked at him incredulously
"Naruto that has to be the lamest and the most fake excuse I've heard in my life" –Naruto just shrugged at her
"Well anyway I have to tell you first this test has a 33% success rate, do you still want to go ahead?" –asked Kasumi but none of the teens backed away
"Ok so this is the test" –said Kasumi and took something out of one of her pockets, two bells –"For this test you will need to take these bells from me" –she said while tying the bells on her hip –"after this timer rings whoever doesn't have a bell fails and must return to the academy" –she took out said timer from another pocket and set it on a cut log near the edge of the training ground
"But sensei, there's only two bells, we are three" –said Sakura and the woman just nodded at her
"That means one of you is going to go back to the academy" –said Kasumi surprising the three –"Now if you want a chance at passing you have to come at me with the intent to kill. Begin!"
Satsuki and Sakura immediately jumped at the trees hiding themselves. Naruto just stood in front of the woman who took out a pink book out from a pocket of her vest and started reading.
"Aren't you going to hide and make a plan Naruto-kun?" –asked the woman disinterested in the boy
"Well it doesn't make any sense to go hide if I'm going to reveal myself doing this Armor Change Tech: Power Armor!" –said Naruto with an echoing voice. He had arrived in his Casual Armor, but as the bright light that had surrounded him vanished his look changed completely.
The golden armor now covered his chest, legs and arms but Kasumi noticed some differences from the Assault Armor that the boy's sensei had used against her so much time ago. First the armor on the legs and hand of the boy looked much more bulky than the armor on his chest which looked like normal. The symbols that were all over the man's armor where located only on Naruto's forearms. Also Ragnell had no armor whatsoever on his head and the boy had some kind of weird forehead protector, it looked like a big tiara in Kasumi's opinion, he also had his orange cape still on him.
"Now I'm ready Kasumi-sensei" –said Naruto grabbing his golden shield with the Konoha symbol on his left and twirling his hammer on his right. The woman said nothing and kept reading her book. Not one to miss a chance Naruto jumped at her swinging his hammer
Kasumi just dodged the boy's attacks without even looking away from her book frustrating Naruto a bit. After a while of this Naruto extended his hammer pointing at the woman
"Stay Put!" –said Naruto with an echoing voice then he ran and tried to hit her with his hammer again. Kasumi had a sense of familiarity as she saw the she couldn't move her feet. Naruto started looking around seeing that he had hit a log with his hammer. Looking at his back he saw the woman standing there and threw his hammer at her which she dodged easily. A heavy feeling of Deja-Vu hit Kasumi
"Mjolnir's Blessing: Blink!" –yelled the boy and with a crack of thunder appeared standing over his hammer which he quickly picked up and used to swing at Kasumi. The woman had jumped away as soon as she heard sound of the Blink
"Very good Naruto-kun, had your sensei not used the very same technique against me some time ago you would have caught me off guard. Now I have other matters to attend" –said Kasumi going through handseals –"Futon: Daitoppa" –called the woman releasing a burst of wind catching Naruto off guard and sending him flying away from the clearing
"Now to find the girls" –said Kasumi casually walking away from the clearing
Kasumi found Sakura in one of the trees, she silently climbed the tree with her chakra and got on her back without the girl noticing
"Hey girl, whatcha doin'" –whispered Kasumi in the girl's ear causing her to scream and fall off the branch face planting on the ground. After Kasumi checked that the girl wasn't really hurt, she was just knocked out cold from the fall –"Well that was easy" –said the woman walking away looking for the remaining girl.
She found Satsuki in another clearing in the training ground seemingly waiting for the woman to come after her
"Hey Satsuki-chan, waiting for me?" –asked the woman in a lazy tone. The girl said nothing and took out three shurikens from her pouch and threw them at the woman who blocked the projectiles with a kunai. Taking the opportunity Satsuki launched herself engaging Kasumi in taijutsu. While she was fast it was nothing that the woman couldn't handle. Satsuki feinted a punch and when Kasumi went to dodge she tried to snatch one of the bells from the woman. Kasumi saw the move and dodged in time while Satsuki cursed at herself. She had been very close.
The girl then leaped away to get some distance and went through handseals
"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu" –called Satsuki releasing a big ball of fire from her mouth. Kasumi looked impressed at this and went through handseals. Satsuki looked at the place where her technique had impacted but found nothing but scorched dirt. She started looking around for her sensei and felt something pulling her leg
"Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu" –called a voice from under Satsuki, she looked at her feet and saw that an arm was wrapped around her leg. Next thing she knew was that her body was buried underground and only her head was above ground level
"I admit I'm somewhat impressed but it was very foolish of you to come at me alone Satsuki-chan" –said the woman walking away once again reading her little pink book
Naruto was walking around the training ground, a blue aura pulsing in the ground around him, trying to find someone when he found the unmoving body of Sakura on the ground. The boy concerned ran at her and checked if she was okay giving a sigh of relief after seeing she was only unconscious. After casting a Solar Blessing and giving her a couple of gentle slaps to wake her up the girl reacted
"Naruto-kun? What happened?" –asked the girl confused
"I don't know, after I fought Kasumi-sensei I started walking around to find you guys then I found you unconscious on the ground. Do you remember anything that happened to you?"
"I just remember that I was hiding in that tree trying to come up with a plan and then i…" –trailed off the girl and Naruto looked as she got really red in the face
"I DON'T REMEMBER ANYTHING! ANYTHING! We should go and search for Satsuki-chan" –said the girl trying to change the topic, embarrassed at herself for letting her sensei scare her and knock herself out
After a while of walking Sakura looked at something on the ground in a clearing in front of her
"SATSUKI-CHAN!" –yelled the girl looking terrified at the disembodied head of her other teammate
"Don't worry Sakura-chan by the way she is glaring at me I say that she's okay, Hey Satsuki-chan rooting for someone?" –asked Naruto grinning at his own joke while Satsuki tried to make the boy burst into flames with her eyes
"Another word Namikaze and I will castrate you with a rusty kunai" –said the buried girl in a low tone making Naruto's grin wider
"Aww but Satsuki-chan you should smile a little, if you do you may turn into a pretty flower" –Naruto crouched in front of her and pinched her cheek making the girl growl in rage
"I will murder you when I get out of here!" –screamed Satsuki and Naruto just smiled innocently
"Now now Satsuki-chan we're here to help you as we need your help to fight sensei" –said Naruto making Satsuki huff annoyed
"I don't need the help of a man, I will get out of here and get those bells myself"
"Please think about it rationally Satsuki-chan, Ragnell-sensei always told me how the ninja squads works in teams of three and Kasumi-sensei wants to divide us by telling us that only two of us can pass. The only good chance we have at passing this test is to work together and if bad comes to worse I will take the shot and you and Sakura-chan will pass. Now please let us help you to help us" –said the boy and Satsuki just grunted but said nothing else. Taking the sound as approval Naruto and Sakura started digging out the buried Satsuki
It has been some time since Kasumi saw one of the kids and was wondering if they gave up. She was sitting near the timer and looked that their time was about to run out. Then she noticed that Naruto had entered the clearing and stood in front of her.
"Thought you could get rid of me so easily sensei?" –asked the boy in a challenging tone causing Kasumi to stand up and close her book. Naruto without missing time launched himself at the woman trying to hit her with his hammer. After trying a couple of times he leaped back and raised his hammer pointing at the sky
"Shine so bright!" –called Naruto with an echoing voice, Kasumi on guard not knowing what to expect from the attack. Naruto's armor took a bright glow and then a flash of light blinded Kasumi
"Sakura now!" –yelled Naruto at the girl hiding on the trees who launched a kunai at where Kasumi had the bells tied. Kasumi knew that some kind of attack was coming towards her so she went to dodge. At that moment Satsuki jumped from one of the bushes and went directly to snatch the bell off the woman. Kasumi had recovered some of her vision and saw a blurry black object come towards her and she backhanded it. The blow hit Satsuki in the face sending her away from the woman. The three teens got in position to try other attack but at that moment the timer went off signaling the end of the test.
"Well it seems like time's over guys" –said Kasumi looking at the three who looked a disappointed –"even if you failed to get the bells from me it looks like you figured the point of this exercise"
"It was meant to make us work together even when you tried to separate us" –said Sakura and Kasumi nodded happily
"Yes, the key to this test was to promote teamwork between you all and you guys could figure it out. There are times in a mission where it looks like you need to abandon a comrade to complete a mission but you must remember something. Those who break the rules are called trash by the people, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash" –said Kasumi giving a moment of silence to let what she had said seep into the three kids –"Well originally I had planned to tie one of you to a pole while i gave lunch to the others if you didn't managed to get the message, but it seems like it wouldn't be necessary. Congratulation Team Seven you pass" –said Kasumi to the three. Naruto and Sakura cheered loudly while Satsuki crossed her arms a satisfied expression in her face.
Kasumi looked happily at her team wondering what kind of adventures and challenges were ahead of them
AN: New chapter! It's shorter than previous ones but hopefully you have enjoyed it. Now I have to organize a little bit my ideas for the next ones but I happen to do that really fast so the next chapter will be up very soon. See you next time!