Chapter 2
AN:I will try to update every Sunday but I have one intense year of studying to do so, I only write in my free time. Hope you all will understand if I miss an update
Kakashi made his way to training ground 3, where he had his maybe future genin team waiting for... quite a while.
He knew that he should at least try being on time... or at least try coming up with believable lies. He just shrugged the issue again as he shrugged off the furious pink head shouting at him and accusing him of being lazy and what not.
The Uchiha just stood there but his face made it clear as day that he wasn't on his side.
Interestingly, Naruto wasn't present.
"Before accusing me, you should worry about your own team. Where is your third member?", Kakashi asked.
" He has been here as long as we have been", Sakura continued to shout at him.
"NARUTO! ", Sakura's volume increased multiple folds so much that he wanted to cut his ears to save them from the girly pubescent screech.
Naruto came out from behind a tree, running.
" Did he come? ", Naruto asked but he got the answer himself when he saw him wave a lazy hand at him.
" What were you doing? ", Kakashi asked him.
" Nothing", Naruto said grinning.
Kakashi wanted to dig deeper but hesitated looking the dumb smile on his face.
"So, about the test. Get one of these", Kakashi said taking out two bells, " And you pass"
"But there are three of us", Sakura asked.
" One fails", Kakashi told them.
"Whaddya mean one fails? ", Naruto asked frowning.
" That one of you fails and goes back to academy", Kakashi smiled dumbly at him.
"What?! ", shouted all of them. Well two of them and the other conveyed his emotions by glaring with a frown.
" Better get these if you don't want to go back then", Kakashi eye smiled.
"Get into positions when I say start", Kakashi told them jumping away a few feet.
" Start! ", Kakashi said and all of them vanished.
He saw the direction that Sasuke and Sakura headed to but Naruto was too fast to see in the ruckus. All he could see was the orange dash. But he could sense all of them. Especially Naruto with his reserves.They hadn't learn to supress their chakra so he could not blame them. If he hadn't felt Naruto's chakra before he would have thought it was a jonin. It was a disadvantage for the team with him sticking out like that but an advantage if they needed to bluff their way out of a situation.
The first to make move was Naruto as he had expected. Naruto lunged at him from a branch high up with a kunai in hand.
He blocked it with his own but something that caught him off gaurd was that Naruto had his eyes closed. Naruto used that to dash away with still his eyes closed. Naruto had told him about his senses sharpening when he closed his eyes but this was a little unbelievable. Naruto was coherently jumping away, backwards with his eyes closed and landed on a branch in crouched position.
Sasuke approached him from behind and threw out a fireball, which Kakashi dodged easily.
Sakura still stayed in hiding, which was the smarter option. They did not have anything to attack him with, Sasuke had his clan scrolls to learn advanced stuff from, but Naruto and Sakura only knew academy basic three and none of them could be used in battling a enemy much stronger than them or any battle in general.
Naruto got into action again, he still had his eyes closed. He got into Kakashi's reach and blew an giant fireball as well.
"I think, I know the difference between the hand signs of a genjutsu and a nin jutsu. That too an Uchiha jutsu which you could never get your hands on", Kakashi spoke casually, just standing in the flames. He released it quickly and found Naruto creeping up on him quietly. He was soon replaced by a log to get some distance between.
" But still not between the substitution and henge", Naruto said popping back from the log and going for the bells.
Kakashi barely managed to catch him before he got away with the bells. Naruto moved through hand signs again and this time hand signs for the substitution, he made sure. Naruto was replaced by a log, real one this time. But this wasn't a regular wooden trunk, it was laced with paper bombs. He moved before they could explode but they exploded.
Kakashi patted his vest to extinguish the flames caught on it. It was far too close than he would like. Those paper bombs were different. It wasn't the standard issued one. They exploded faster, it almost skipped the time after the tag is activated. It appeared that Naruto wasn't all talk about him wanting to become a fuinjutsu master after all. He had already began his journey with small steps.
Konoha, well the entire shinobi world was always in need of seal masters. If Naruto could become a proficient one, matching the reputation of the Uzumaki then he would be one of the most formidable shinobi to exist in the present day.
He didn't have the knowledge required to train Naruto in the art, well to be blunt he was clueless when it came to seals and so was most of the world, which made seal master even more dangerous. He would have to pull a lot of strings if he wanted to help Naruto reach there.
Sasuke took advantage of him being caught off guard and plunged at the sight of his weakness.
Sasuke wasn't hard to deal with at all, he wasn't supposed to be. They should have gotten that by now and started working together.
Kakashi went and dealt with them quickly so that they could get on with the test and see if they would work as a team in the next phase of the test. He rounded up Sasuke easily who was out in the open, defenseless. He planted a very angry Uchiha that day.
Naruto blended into the forest to hide his presence, smartly but futile.
He decided to take out Sakura first with genjutsu and brought her sagged over his shoulder and tied her to the post.
He turned to see Naruto directly into his hiding place, which surprised Naruto that he yelped and made him confirm his location with the crack of the twig.
Kakashi chased after him, but only to get blasted again. This time when he jumped away, he was caught in another blast. Naruto had traps layed out everywhere. Well that's what he deserved to be late, he guessed. Battlefield laden with traps and disadvantages. It took him longer than he thought it would to get a hold of Naruto. He just kept using substitution until every tree that he put paper bombs on were exhausted and even after that to get away from him.
He ended up with Naruto after hours of him slipping away.
He plopped him down and uprooted the planted Sasuke.
He handed them two lunch boxes, "You cannot share with Sakura. Regain your energy and we will go at it again and if this time you fail to get the bells, you fail".
Saying that he walked away and vanished, he stayed to keep an eye on them, though they didn't seem to notice that.
He couldn't hear what they were talking about but Sasuke started, and after a while offered Sakura his lunch. He smiled at that. Naruto did the same too, following Sasuke but Sakura was too busy eating from Sasuke's hands to notice Naruto.
He appeared in front of them and took infinite delight in seeing their frightened faces.
"All of you pass", Kakashi said eye smiling.
" WHAT?!", chorused the new genins.
He proceeded to lecture them about teamwork and value of team mates above all else, missions.
"Bullshit", Naruto spat.
Kakashi was about to retort saying that if he felt that team work was what he insinuated, then he wasn't ready to become a genin but Naruto continued.
" You expect teamwork from us by day one? ", Naruto crossed his arms," We barely know each other"
"Didn't you go to the academy together? ", Kakashi asked.
" That doesn't mean that we became best friends. I haven't even talked to them directly yet", Naruto said.
Kakashi raised a questioning eyebrow on that.
"Like you ever talk", Sakura said, " We passed didn't we? Why are you upset? "
"I'm just saying that the test is unfair", Naruto said.
" Well, I will voice your concerns in my report, then", Kakashi told him.
"One more thing, what specifications have you made to the paper bombs? ", Kakashi asked Naruto.
Naruto beamed at that, " Instead of one side, I draw them on both sides"
As simple as that?
"It takes much less time to activate, twice as fast", Naruto told him.
" But then you wouldn't be able to stick that onto any surface with chakra", Kakashi stated, "It would burst as soon as you try to.
"Yes, I cut the bark of the trees to make a pocket like shape and kept a bunch tucked in there", Naruto told him.
" Creative ", Kakashi remarked.
"Meet me here next week at 7 in the morning for your first mission", Kakashi told them and then bid his goodbye with a wave and vanishing in a swirl of leaves.
--break--
Kakashi made his way to the Hokage tower to hand in his report. He was getting weird stares because of his state. Naruto really pulled his reputation down.
He entered the room after being prompted by the assistant to do so.
He bowed his head to the Hokage and noticed Asuma and Kurenei already sitting there. It seems like they were the only other teams that passed.
"Ah. I assumed you were late for your own tardiness. Seems like I was proved wrong", Hiruzen said looking at his tattered clothes and burn marks on his clothes.
There wasn't mock in the tone but there definitely was mirth. He for a fact knew that the hokage wouldn't have missed to see Naruto's test with the crystal ball.
But he knew the other two in the room were dying to ask about it and their repressed snorts and giggles were indication enough.
" Report? ", the hokage asked.
"Uzumaki Naruto should be given access to the sealing techniques, especially Uzumaki archives", Kakashi began...
" Oh and he has a fetish to keep his eyes closed, maybe an obsession even"
AN: Heya! I hope, I didn't portray Kakashi to be too weak. He was caught off guard. I always felt like Kawarimi(Substitution) was never given the limelight. It is such an OP jutsu! Like so many plot holes.
It's the greatest escape technique!
Let me know if you all want Naruto's Pov only. I used Kakashi's just for the element of surprise to be felt by the readers. So no Kurama this chapter:(
I'll agree, not the most interesting chapter but I couldn't skip this and there isn't anything that I could do to make it better without changing the powerscale drastically. Hope next chapter will be more pleasing.