Chapter FOURTEEN

Aided by the smoke from the clones and a smoke bomb Naruto kept on him, the two males retreat back into the trees.

"So I guess he's more than a lazy asshole." Naruto mutters. They keep going, certain Kakashi wouldn't chase after them but still willing to be cautious. "I should just burn his stupid book."

"He was completely mocking us." Sasuke agrees, eyes dark.

Under Sasuke's instructions, Naruto sends out a clone to check on Kakashi's position. After a few seconds of observation, its memories came flying back to him. "He's heading in the opposite direction, 'ttebayo." He says. "Maybe that's where Sakura-chan is."

"But you couldn't see her?" Sasuke asks. He checks on the wire and kunai he has left.

"Nope." Naruto says. "And Kakashi was walking and still reading that stupid orange book."

"Hn." Sasuke straightens.

"So what now?" Naruto asks.

"We'll follow Kakashi." Sasuke decides. "If we watch him fight with Hyuuga, maybe we can pick up on something."

Naruto sighs. "Couldn't we have worked together?" He asks. "With Sakura-chan?"

Sasuke eyes. "There are only two bells." He said. "And only two of us can pass."

"I know that." Naruto says. "But, I dunno, I feel bad, I guess."

"Then why don't you give your bell to her."

"I-I can't-" Naruto lets out a groan. "Why are there only two bells to begin with?" He growls. "Besides, I've never seen a two man team anyway. How's that supposed to work out huh?"

Sasuke pauses, slowly looked up and stares at him.

Instantly, Naruto feels defensive. "It's true! Things would've been so much more easier if there were three bells. Then we could've all worked together." Sasuke is still staring at him. "What?" He snaps.

"No-I was..." Sasuke trails off, deep in thought. He finishes coining his wire and stands up slowly. "You're right."

"Huh?" Naruto frowns.

Sasuke glares at him. "Keep up, will you?"

"What'dya mean Teme." Naruto stands up too. "You've gotta tell me what to keep up with."

Sasuke sighs but speaks before Naruto can protest further. "I've never seen a two man Genin team either." He says. "I think there are some who work in pairs up in the elite but all the teams I know through my brother has three people, four including the teacher."

"But Kakashi said one of us will fail."

"We're not in times of war, but that doesn't mean we can start lowering our guard. New Genin are always welcome." Sasuke raised a hand to his face. "Also, Kakashi is a Jounin. Does he even have the authority to fail students?"

"I've heard he's failed all his previous teams." Naruto says. There's something there, just out of reach. His frown deepens.

"To begin with, we're all better than average in at least one aspect. We all come from renowned backgrounds too. I find it hard to believe Kakashi will be allowed to fail us, just like that."

"Maybe he's just being an asshole." Naruto says. All this thinking is beginning to hurt his head. Sasuke rolls his eyes and Naruto huffs. "I mean, why else would he only have two bells? All it did was pit us against each other-"

He hears Sasuke breath in sharply and turns to him. "What?" Just as Naruto is about to prob, Sasuke slowly opens his mouth, like he is piecing his words together.

"...It pit us against each other." Sasuke says. "Because there were only two bells and one of us had to fail."

"Yeah...?" Naruto says, just as slowly.

"But we would've worked together if there were three bells and all three of us could pass."

"Of course."

"Do you think that was his aim?" Sasuke asks.

"What aim?"

Sasuke rolls his eyes. "As expected from you, Dobe."

"Shut up Teme." Naruto huffs. "So he only had two bells so that we wouldn't work together. Why'd he do something like that?"

"To see if we were willing to work together despite the situation." Sasuke shrugs. "Besides, I thought it was strange. If every Jounin had their own way to test teams and one or more person fails from every team, how would that leave a fixed nine graduates from the original twenty seven?"

Naruto opens his mouth but Sasuke speaks over him. "Come on. Let's go see what the Hyuuga's got."

Kakashi would never admit it but this time, his attention was more on his surroundings than his book.

Sakura was probably watching from the distance and while she could no doubt see what exactly he was doing, he only had a general idea of where she was. He couldn't track her exact position from such a far distance away.

Skill wise, Naruto and Sasuke had been more than he had first expected. Considering the fact that this team was the only team that had an outstanding total stat number way above the other teams, it is obvious that Sakura too would have more than one trick up her sleeve.

If there was one thing that he was certain of, it was that Sakura would have a trap laid down somewhere.

What other way to take advantage of knowing your opponent's position?

Sakura notices the moment the battle ends. From the way Naruto and Sasuke are pulling back and how Kakashi was now slowly moving in her direction, she can tell that the battle hadn't been concluded.

Or perhaps the two boys had gotten one bell and were planning another approach for the second.

Sakura shakes her head and checks her trap one more time before she moves out into the forest.

Naruto and Sasuke's ambush had started by waiting for Kakashi to approach. In this case, since Kakashi was supposed to be testing them, it was guaranteed that Kakashi would enter the trap. However, she didn't doubt that Kakashi knew what she was doing and it was possible that while even himself might not notice, his instincts might have put him on edge for laid out traps and ambushes regardless.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura conceals her chakra and moves onto the next branch. The sudden movement of a chakra signature warns her of Naruto and Sasuke moving after Kakashi as well and she considers the possibility of a three way fight.

She checks Kakashi's position again before she plots out a route of approach inside her head. She would drive Kakashi towards her trap as much as she could before switching to a defensive. Once within the area of her chakra strings, all she needed was a moment of distraction.

Then again, while she doubted someone like her could take on a Jounin alone and hope to distract him long enough to snag a bell, if she could touch him even a little, she could disable him.

It all came down to knowing her strengths and advantages and how she played them.

Sakura came at him from the sky.

It shouldn't have surprised him, really, because he had seen her walk up the wall of the Academy and her obvious confidence in her chakra control.

However, it most certainly wasn't a skill a recent Academy graduate was supposed to have the control to perform and therefore, was most certainly not taught and from the way Naruto and Sasuke had not once attempted to climb a tree, maybe it was okay to admit that that possibility had slipped his mind.

Then again, climbing up a stable surface and jumping down from a height so high that had he not been looking out for the flare of chakra that was sure to come before she attacked he wouldn't have noticed was two very different things.

Kakashi dodged the first attack because the momentum of a fall from such a height was not something he wanted to take on.

His second surprise came when Sakura flipped smoothly and landed with little to no visible strain. She spun gracefully and launched herself at him.

So she knew how to reinforce her limbs with chakra.

A flash of white caught his eye and he paused for a split second, surprised by the sight of Sakura's usual green eyes, which were currently the distinctive Hyuuga white. He dodged to side side when he realized that Sakura was a lot closer than he had thought. She managed to brush his shoulder with the tip of her fingers as she flew past and instantly, he lost all sense of it.

Sakura stumbled a little in surprise, no doubt not having expected for her to actually hit him.

Kakashi recalled that Obito had once called Sakura a 'Taboo among the clans' and decided not to question it. He put away his book with a sigh and engaged in a short Taijutsu match against the girl, noting that she had picked up her clan style better than most Hyuugas he knew.

As far as he could see, apart from her coloring, she was a Hyuuga through and through.

Kakashi slipped under her guard and aimed a kick for her aide. Sakura raised an arm in an effort to block and with a crack, she went flying into a tree. Kakashi watched her stagger to her feet and was both surprised and impressed when she pressed a pressure point on her injured arm, blocking the nervous system and in turn, the pain.

She glares at him through pearl white eyes before she looks at something only she can see. She then retreats back into the trees.

Kakashi checks Naruto and Sasuke's position, gives Sakura a few more seconds, then follows her.

Hanakotoba

Thistle:

Independence/Realization/Illusion

So, here's chapter fourteen!

Darque: I'm very tired.

Raven: Aren't you always?

Darque: No, not always.

Raven: Most of the time.

Darque: No. Usually, I'm tired. Right now, I'm very tired.

Raven: And what's the difference?

Darque: Are you blind? Of course, it's the word 'very'.

Raven:...And that makes a difference how?

Darque:...Tired and very tired are two very different things!

Raven: Er, right. One is...tired and the other is...

Darque: Very tired.

Raven: ...Right, my bad. How did I not see that...?

Darque: Glad to see we're finally on the same page.

Read and Review~