Chapter 16 Test Days
Naruto sighed as he waited at training ground seven impatiently. Training ground seven was a smaller train grounds that Minato often used with his old team seven. It had a river that ran through it that was helpful for water jutsu and practicing water walking. The distinct feature of the training ground was the three wooden pillars in the middle of it and the KIA memorial off to the side.
Kakashi was horribly late again. It had been four hours since the agreed upon meeting time. Kiba had long since given up on waiting for the man and was napping peacefully under a tree with Akamaru laying on top of him. Sasuke simply sat on the ground near Naruto brooding as usual.
In fact, Kakashi was so late that Minato had had time to visit the memorial stone and pay his respects to Kushina. He'd stared at his own name on the stone for a while, he had an impulse to add Naruto's name to it while crossing his own name out. But he had refrained as the village would most likely lynch him for the disrespect. No one would understand the meaning behind it anyways.
Minato sighed again, he finally felt Kakashi's signature in one of the trees. First he arrives late and then he hides to observe his students' reactions? The man had really grown to be slightly sadistic, especially since he had told them not to eat breakfast originally.
Minato sat and waited even longer with his friends as Kakashi casually observed them. Another hour passed before the man finally jumped down from the tree and showed himself.
"Yo!" Kakashi waved coolly.
Naruto just sighed and walked over to Kiba, nudging him with his foot to wake him up while Sasuke stood up huffily.
Kiba leapt to his feet and shouted, "You're late!" At Kakashi.
"Maa… Sorry about that. You see… A black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way around."
Minato sweat dropped, so Kakashi was even stealing Obito's excuses? It wasn't healthy for him to be dwelling on the past like that…
Kakashi then took out an alarm clock and set it on the middle stump.
"I've set this alarm to go off at noon." He said as he took out two small bells that Minato recognized immediately. "I have two bells here, your challenge is to steal these from me before the timer ends. Anyone who fails… Doesn't get any lunch. Instead you will be tied to that tree stump." Kakashi pointed at the stump he set the timer on, "So we can eat your lunch in front of you. Also, the one that fails will be the first to be sent back to the academy as a disgrace."
Minato smiled wryly as he once again thanked himself for telling the others to eat breakfast.
"You can use shuriken, attack with the intent to kill or you won't stand a chance." Kakashi continued.
"Heh. Be careful what you ask for or you might get seriously hurt!" Said Kiba cockily. "Isn't that right Akamaru?"
Akamaru yapped in agreement and growled at Kakashi in preparation.
"Only the weak speak loudly, Now lets forget the dobe and we'll start on my signal." Kakashi deadpanned.
Kiba grew a tick mark and charged with his claws out at Kakashi while growling.
In an instant Kakashi was behind Kiba with a hand at his neck.
"Not so fast. I didn't say to start yet…"
Sasuke and Akamaru leapt back from the Jounin, shocked at his speed while Naruto's smile broadened.
"Well at least one of you has the intent to kill. It seems you've begun to respect me. I might just come to like you guys…"
Kakashi released Kiba and let him stumble back. "And now… Ready… Steady… Go!"
Instantly all four Shinobi disappeared from the clearing.
Minato was rather conflicted. He wanted to test Kakashi and see how far his student had come, but he couldn't really explain where he'd learned some of his skills if he went full out. He was also conflicted because he knew the true meaning of the bell test since he had given Kakashi the same test in the past.
Kakashi's team had passed when Kakashi had used his teammates as distractions to nab a bell from him. But Minato had chosen to believe in Kakashi, he trusted that Kakashi would eventually understand the value of teamwork. It was clear that Kakashi had taken the lesson to heart if he was using the same old test on his own genin team.
Minato pondered. He could tell the others what they needed to do to pass, but then how would they grow on their own if he kept coddling them? Ah well… There were two hours for the test. Plenty of time for the others to work out that the test was impossible on their own. Also plenty of time to test Kakashi a bit.
Meanwhile Kakashi stood at the edge of the river rubbing the back of his neck. He looked around himself and considered his students hiding skills. All three were well hidden, in fact one of them had completely erased their presence. Kakashi yawned and covered his mouth, he wondered who would attack him first. Probably Kiba… That kid was the most hot headed out of the bunch.
In fact just as Kakashi had that thought a grey blur dashed out of the bushes to his left and charged straight at him.
Kakashi just calmly rummaged in his pouch for a bit. Kiba backed off immediately from his head long charge, thinking that Kakashi was going to pull out a weapon.
He was sorely confused when Kakashi revealed that it was just a book.
"Let me teach you. Your first Shinobi skill. Taijutsu!" The man declared as he opened the book with a flourish.
Minato smacked himself in the face as he saw the brightly colored orange cover. His student was a fan of that series? How much had Kakashi changed since his death?
Kiba gaped at Kakashi, "Is that… Just a book?" He asked hesitantly.
"Is something wrong? I thought you were coming for me after all. And of course it's a book. I've been dying to figure out how this thing ends. Carry on. It shouldn't make any difference in the end." Kakashi said, turning a page as he ignored the boy standing in front of him.
Kiba twitched slightly. He dropped into a crouch. "I'm gonna kill you!" He yelled. "I might have been the dobe, but I was always one of the best at taijutsu!"
Kiba rushed at Kakashi and leapt into the air kicking out at Kakshi's head. Kakashi caught the boy's leg with one hand but Kiba rotated his body so that he could kick out at Kakashi again. Kakashi let go of the boy's leg and ducked underneath the second kick, all while still reading his book. Kiba landed on the ground and spun into a Gatsuga, rushing at Kakashi in a whirl of sharp claws. Kakashi sidestepped out of the way and turned a page in his book, dodging a small Akamaru that barreled out of the bushes as he went. Kiba crashed into the ground sending chunks of dirt flying everywhere. He quickly turned back to where Kakashi stood only to find the man missing.
Kakshi was crouched behind Kiba with his hands in a tiger seal.
Minato panicked for a bit before forcibly calming himself, Kakashi wouldn't use a fire jutsu on a genin.
Sasuke also froze in shock as he realized what Kakashi could possibly do to Kiba.
"You shouldn't let the enemy get behind you so easily, you know?" Kakashi said casually.
"Eh!?"
Kiba didn't turn quite quickly enough.
Kakashi lunged forwards, his eye shining with evil mischief.
"Konohagakure ultimate secret taijutsu technique! One thousand years of death!"
Kiba was sent screaming into the river holding his butt.
Minato covered his face in embarrassment. He never thought he would see Obito's dumb prank ressurected like this. Though he supposed it was a super effective move on silly genin like Kiba.
Sasuke was busy re-evaluating his opinion of his new teacher.
Kiba flipped and skidded on the water fuming, he wouldn't let it end like this!
Kakashi was shocked at the display of skill from the almost genin. They had learned water walking already? Well that was one less thing to teach…
Kiba threw a brace of kunai at Kakashi and charged at the man. Kakashi caught the first thrown kunai and used it to deflect the rest of the projectiles. He sidestepped Kiba's wild swing and swerved around Akamaru's lunge. Kiba pivoted in place and tossed a food pill at Akamaru. Akamaru chomped on the pill and abruptly transformed into a copy of Kiba. Both Kiba's simultaneously swung at Kakashi from different angles, Kakashi deflected both swings with casual swipes of his hand.
As the fight dragged on Kiba's actions got sloppier, his moves became extremely predictable and Akamaru was tiring quickly leading to less effective team ups. Soon enough Kiba was panting, exhausted on the ground with no bell. Kakashi patted the boy on the head condescendingly and smiled at him. Then he vanished in a poof of smoke to find Sasuke and Naruto.
Kakashi stumbled upon Sasuke first. The boy was prepared and waiting for him in a clearing.
"Oh ho. So confident Sasuke?" Kakashi asked, seeing Sasuke's stance.
"Hmph, I'm not like that dobe." Sasuke retorted.
"Save your boasts until you've gotten a bell, Sasuke. Second lesson of Shinobi tactics… Genjutsu."
Sasuke watched as Kakashi vanished in a flurry of leaves. He frantically looked around the clearing to find no signs of life. Suddenly he heard a rustling coming from the bushes on his right. Sasuke readied a kunai, preparing to throw, when suddenly Izumi stumbled out of the bushes. She was covered in gruesome wounds and bleeding profusely. It her left leg was twisted in the wrong direction and her right arm was cut off by the elbow. She reached for Sasuke with her remaining arm and croaked out a weak "Help me Sasuke…" before collapsing.
Sasuke shook. Completely frozen in place. He swung his kunai down wards and stabbed himself in the thigh. He panted harshly as he violently broke out of the terrible genjutsu. He glared venomously at Kakashi who was standing there with an awkward expression.
Sasuke threw a kunai that cut through a rope, unleashing a salvo of short knives upon Kakashi from his right side. Kakashi hurriedly kawarimied with a branch just as Sasuke rushed at him. Sasuke charged at Kakashi with a roar and swung his kunai at the man viciously. Kakashi frantically pulled out his own kunai and blocked the attack but Sasuke didn't let up and unleashed a furious salvo of thrusts and slashes, completely ignoring the bells. Kakashi was pushed back by the angry assault, he didn't even have time to pull out his book. Sasuke swept at Kakashi's legs with a low kick which Kakshi dodged by jumping into the air. Sasuke quickly took advantage of the fact that Kakashi couldn't dodge and threw his kunai into the air after the man. Without a single hand sign Kakashi smoothly kawarimied with a nearby log and disappeared into the forest.
Sasuke roared in frustration as Kakashi vanished and took out his anger on the log. He reduced the log into a couple of splinters and dashed after the man.
Kakashi realized he'd messed up big time using the hell viewing technique on a massacre survivor, but it meant that Sasuke would need further training on resisting and breaking genjutsu. He fled from Sasuke looking for Naruto as he dashed through the forest. He still hadn't sensed his third student and he was worried about potential surprise attacks. He was already impressed by the skills Sasuke and Kiba had showed but there had yet to be any actual teamwork. Now it was time to test his final student.
Hearing the faint whistle of kunai Kakashi leapt to the side, before Naruto greeted his face with a harsh kick from the opposite direction of the kunai.
Taken off guard by the trap Kakashi was off balance as Naruto unleashed a brutal taijutsu combo upon him. Blocking messily was all Kakashi could do to avoid being pummeled by a small yet ferocious blond.
Naruto flipped through hand signs and Kakashi's eyes widened as he recognized the Jutsu that Naruto was preparing to unleash. Naruto inhaled and released a great bullet of wind at Kakashi just as a gout of flame exploded from the forest behind Kakashi. Stuck between a rock and a hot place, Kakashi chose the less damaging of the two jutsu and took the wind bullet head on while avoiding Sasuke's flames. Kakashi crashed into a tree as Sasuke arrived on the scene with a panting Kiba and a wobbling Akamaru.
The three boys glanced at each other briefly before nodding at each other. They charged at Kakashi, who was still struggling to recover, from different directions and began their assault. Kiba and Akamaru went low as Sasuke went high and Kakashi was pressed back up against the tree. Naruto hung back to provide backup or take advantage of any openings that might happen.
It was time to end this test. Kakashi had become overly dependent on Obito's Sharingan, that much was clear to Minato. It seemed that Kakashi was slacking on his own training a bit now that he had the Sharingan at his disposal. Minato would beat it into Kakashi's head that he couldn't afford to stop training his non Sharingan related skills.
Both of the attacking boys were suddenly engulfed in a cloud of smoke as Kakashi threw down a smoke bomb to gain some breathing room. When the smoke had cleared Kakashi was nowhere to be found.
Paranoid, Kiba instantly turned and put his back to Sasuke's who was looking in all directions. Both boys were caught unprepared as Kakashi's hands burst out of the ground. Two strangled shouts came from them as they were pulled into the ground up to their necks.
"Whew" Kakashi said as he climbed out of the ground. "Shinobi lesson number three, ninjutsu." He turned to Naruto, who was standing awkwardly behind the two heads and asked, "Now, Naruto… What will you do now that I've taken down your two teammates?"
Naruto smiled cheekily at Kakashi, "Well normally I would do my best to get them out in order to continue the nice four versus one we had going…" He let the bells he had grabbed dangle from his fingers. "But in this instance I'm going to give them the bells since your test was all about teamwork."
Kakashi patted his pocket. Sure enough, the bells were gone.
"What? When did- How did you?"
"When you threw that smoke bomb, Sensei." Said Minato, placing a bell on each of the two heads stuck up from the ground.
Kakashi placed a hand on his face, of course. He should have been more wary of Naruto who had a full view of the battle field.
"Well then, let's reconvene at the three training posts." Kakashi said cheerfully. The he disappeared leaving Naruto to dig out both Kiba and Sasuke.
Naruto stared in silence at the two head for a bit, debating on leaving them there to dig themselves out, before he finally sighed and said, "You two owe me for this okay?"
Both grounded boys nodded sullenly as Minato began digging them out with a kunai. Akamaru provided encouragement from the sidelines.
Back at the training posts no one was tied up at the stump since they had all technically earned a bell.
"I have an announcement about this exercise." Said Kakshi as the boys stared at him expectantly. "None of you will be going back to the academy since thanks to Naruto you all earned a bell. Now say, 'Thank you Naruto' you two."
Sasuke and Kiba both mumbled their thanks quietly. Naruto beamed at them.
Kakashi continued with his speech after the thanks had been given, "Like Naruto said, this test was about teamwork, it was only when the three of you came at me as one that you had a chance of taking the bells. This situation was designed to cause dissection and make you fight amongst yourselves but you overcame that partially due to a shared animosity of me. This test was about seeing which of you was willing to give up their chance to become a Shinobi and propose the idea of working together to one another. You are a team and you must learn to act like one just as you did in those last moments. Your individual skills are important but what is even more important to you as genin is teamwork!" Kakashi walked up to the trio and patted them on the heads, "Making a play as an individual is bad for the team and exposes your comrades to unnecessary danger." Kakashi then gestured to the memorial stone behind the wooden pillars. "Look at this marker. All the names carved here are heroes who have died in action for the sake of our village. It includes the names of my best friends." Kakashi paused for a moment as he and Minato mourned Rin and Obito silently. "I want you three to understand. Ninja are those who must see through deception. Also, in the ninja world, those who break the rules are regarded as garbage, but… Those who abandon their friends are worse than garbage.
Minato smiled at hearing Obito's words once more. Kakashi had obviously been heavily affected by Obito's death and was using it to inspire and better himself.
Kiba had watery eyes, this lazy looking guy ended up being kinda cool after all…
Sasuke merely grunted. He could accept the Jounin's words for what they were. He wouldn't be forgiving him for that genjutsu anytime soon though.
"This exercise is now over! You all pass! Thats all for today, team seven, your missions will commence tomorrow!" Kakashi then produced three lunch boxes and handed them to the freshly minted genin. "Here! For all your hard work. Now eat up." He said.
Kiba cheered wildly as Akamaru barked happily around him. Sasuke had a small smirk on and Naruto was grinning broadly. The trio dug into their lunch with gusto as Kakashi watched with an eye curved up in happiness.
The boys chatted happily as they ate. Well, Kiba and Naruto chatted while Sasuke listened.
Kiba invited both boys over to the Inuzuka compound for dinner to celebrate becoming genin. Naruto gratefully accepted and prodded Sasuke into coming.
Kakashi was pleased that his team was coming together so quickly. He'd been worried initially over being assigned three stubborn boys but both Kiba and Naruto seemed to understand the importance of working together. Kiba had an inherent understanding of pack. Naruto was naturally helpful and liked assisting others. Sasuke would come around in no time.
All three boys were also very skilled at taijutsu and just needed to further their training with Jutsu and begin to find specialties. Kakashi would begin tracking lessons with Naruto and Kiba soon, he could give Sasuke Jutsu to practice while he trained the other two's senses. He would have to find a way to apologize to Sasuke and bring up the issue of enemies potentially using the massacre against him. He could probably also get away with only a few teamwork exercises and then begin training the genin individually. Ah. He would have to introduce his pack summons to the children soon.
Ahhh…There was just so much to do and plan now that he had a team… In fact, Kakashi was already beginning to regret passing them.