Title: Stop…Restart It – Naruto
Fandom: Naruto
Characters: Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi
Chapter: 15
Word Count: 1532
Warnings: Language and bullshittery
AN: I have been busy preparing for Game of Tomes and NaNo so I can stream it on twitch so if you wanna join, check me out. I'm SunnyL on there.
True to Naruto's prediction, Kakashi was two hours late, arriving in the field with a soft puff, interrupting Sasuke going through his personal katas while Sakura watched with hearts in her eyes and Naruto ignoring both of them as he read over a scroll with narrowed eyes.
"You're late!" screeched Sakura, Kakashi staring at her over his book, raising one eyebrow as he snorted, shaking his head.
"I had to help a cat cross the road," Kakashi drawled, closing the book and tucking away it away into his vest, instead placing his hands into his pants pockets. Rocking on his feet, he smirked behind his mask, eye sweeping over the three genin before him. "So, are you all ready for your test?" he asked, watching as Naruto rolled up his scroll and tucked it away, Sasuke dropping out of his stances and coming to stand near them.
"I guess so," Naruto standing up and brushing off the back of his pants before tapping the toe of one of his shoes against the ground to set it in place firmly. "What's the test?" he asked, staring at his hopefully soon to be sensei.
Kakashi smiled, his eye closing as he pulled one hand out and wiggled a pair of bells that he held between two fingers. "I will need you to get these bells to pass on to being a genin," he drawled. He was unsurprised by Sasuke's eye narrowing, but he was surprised by Naruto's eyes narrowing in thought.
"But...sir? There's only two bells," Sakura said, blinking up at him in surprise. Kakashi's smile widened. "Shouldn't their be more?" she asked.
"Nope. Only two," Kakashi chuckled, making them bounce up and down in his hands, making them jingle. "Now, let's see. It's now ten. You have until twelve to somehow get the bells off of me. Two of you will pass and one of you will end up back at the academy once more to enjoy another year under their tender mercies," he drawled.
Naruto narrowed his eyes, wondering about the blatant bullshit lie that came from the man before them, mind whirling with thoughts. His tutor had told him that all genin teams are set in three but didn't tell him why, wanting him to figure out the why on his own. Tucking his hands into his pockets, he fiddled with a stone in one pocket, feeling the smooth surface and rubbing at it as he thought. "So, we have two hours to get the bells?" he asked, Kakashi nodding his head. "Got a timer? I'm really not trusting your sense of time,"he teased, sticking his tongue out at the dry look.
"Of course I have a timer," Kakashi chuckled as he placed the bells onto his kunai holder on his waist, making sure that they were firmly there before pulling out a small timer out of the pouch. Setting, he placed it onto the ground and smiled brightly at the three before him. He wasn't going to call them a team. They were far from a team. Pressing the button, he smirked at them. "Starting now, we are on the test. Good luck," he chirped.
He blinked when the three disappeared from the field, looking around a few times as he tilted his head to the side. Humming softly, he pulled out his book and found a perch on one of the poles, waiting for the first attack.
As he read, Naruto perched in his own tree, watching his companions, who weren't as hidden as they would think, but well enough considering that they were fresh out of the academy. He himself wasn't even all that well hidden but he knew that, and he knew that he could easily find a much better hiding place since it was one of the first things that his tutor had drilled into his head. Outside of not rushing into things, and why being able to read and write well was important.
Sighing softly, he pulled up one leg and wrapped his arm around it, eyes narrowed as he thought about why Kakashi was running the test the way he was before he jumped slightly when Sasuke dashed forward, apparently getting impatient with just waiting. He sighed, unsurprised when the Uchiha's kick was easily dodged, the man just tilting his head to the side and shifting on the post, making him fall into a crouch on the ground.
Humming, he watched the way Sasuke moved, his foot work solid, but he made sound with each shift of his feet on the ground. Naruto wrinkled and nose and idly wondered if he had been as bad as that when Sparrow first got his hands on him. Pausing, he huffed in amusement and decided that he was probably worse since he hadn't known shit. He had to admit that Sasuke could move, twisting to land or to swing a punch towards the bored looking Kakashi.
He watched as Kakashi finally just grabbed Sasuke's ankle when a kick came at him again, his entire body twisting, using the Uchiha's own momentum to toss him towards the woods, cursing heavily as he flew through the air. "Well, that was amusing," Naruto snorted softly to himself, shifting to perch on the balls of his feet as Sakura gasped and, smartly, used the trees around them to run to where she saw Sasuke falling.
Shaking his head, he took off after them, thinking about what it was that he was missing, frowning heavily before he came to a stand still, looking out towards the field and finding Kakashi not there. "Well, fuck," he muttered before taking off once more. He had missed the most obvious.
The test wasn't to just test them, themselves, but to test their ability to work with others. Kakashi wanted to see if they could work as a team, despite the fact that they had three barely liked each other, as seen by their introductions the day before. He wanted to see if they could put their problems aside and go for a common goal: to get the bells. It didn't matter if there were only two bells, because as Sparrow had told him, all genin teams were put into a three man team so that they could be come accustomed to working within a team.
It was something all nins dealt with. He arrived at the clearing where Sasuke was once more dealing with Kakashi. And once more, Sasuke was attacking while Kakashi was just dodging, waiting for the right moment.
When Sasuke growled and just outright pounced at him, Kakashi took the chance to disappear down into the dirt, Naruto blinking as the young Uchiha came to a stop and blinked several times at the field. "What is he going to do?" he breathed, perching once more on a branch and waiting for Kakashi to make his next move. He was surprised and made a note to talk with Sparrow about what he was seeing as Kakashi's gloved hands came up through the ground and wrapped around Sasuke's ankles.
Black eyes looked down and widened as he was fully pulled down into the ground up to his neck, yelping loudly as he found himself well and truly trapped. Naruto sighed as Kakashi came up out of the ground, the air around him rippling, another detail for him to remember to talk with Sparrow about. He frowned at not being able to hear Kakashi's words, he shifted as the man ambled off, reading his book and looking bored with it all.
"Sasuke-kun!" came echoing through the woods, making Naruto jerk as he stood and moved to talk with Sasuke while the dark male looked, well Naruto wasn't sure how he looked truly. He just looked unhappy as he tried to wiggle out of his dirt prison.
"Damn does she have a really loud screech on her," Naruto snorted as he jumped down from the tree and meandered over to the trapped nin. "I know why we're doing this," he sang, smirking slightly as he squatted down, elbows resting on his knees and hands faced outwards. "So, the question is, are you going to listen to me, or are you going to ignore me and go about your day?" he asked.
Sasuke snarled and jerked some more, trying to get out of the dirt. "Forget it. You're the dead-last and like hell am I listening to you," he growled, Naruto sighing softly.
"I figured as much, but I had to try," he said, standing straight before infusing chakra into his hands like he had been taught and shoving them down into the dirt, grasping Sasuke's shirt and yanking him up with a jerk. "And here I was hoping you had your head out of your ass enough for me to get you to help with Sakura. But nope, had to be an ass about this," he complained once the other male was free and could stand on his own. "You good? Yes? Great, awesome. I'm done wasting breath now."
Sasuke stared at him, blinking several times before scowling. "Wait a minute!" he called, moving to go after Naruto, stopping him with a tug on his wrist.