A World Full of Monsters

by Fahad09

When I was first reincarnated I did the very first thing any self-respecting man in my place would do. Check to see if I still had my balls. I did. The next thing I did was try to get my hands on some power. True Power. I chose the Rinnegan. And if I had to kill a few people along the way to get it, well, there was a war going on. No one will notice an extra body or two turning up.

5. Chapter 5: Bell test

Chapter 5:

What bell test?

---

"Late-late-late, he's late!" Frustration oozed off Naruto like heat from an open flame as she paced in circles at the front of the classroom, walking from wall to wall like a caged animal. "I haven't even seen our new Sensei yet and I'm already beginning to hate him."

"I don't know." Shikamaru stretched and yawned from his perch on the window, bathing in the sun's rays like a cat. "I kinda like the guy already."

"That's only because he's turning out to be even lazier than you!" She snapped at the napping Nara.

"Exactly." Shikamaru nodded without a hint of shame. "He's literally the perfect Sensei for me. There is a lot I can learn from a guy who can be-" Shikamaru cracked open a single eye to peek at the clock, "-two hours late for work and get away with it."

Naruto muttered something rude under her breath before turning to me, "Hey Hikaru! Did you find him yet? What's taking this guy so long to get here?"

I was sitting behind my desk and I could feel my eyes twitching with irritation as I tracked Kakashi with my Byakugan, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Oh come on, how unbelievable could it be. Just tell me why he's late already."

"Fine," I sighed, "He's currently lost on the road of life."

Naruto actually stopped her pacing to stare at me blankly, "…huh?"

I couldn't blame her, even I was having trouble believing what I was seeing, "There is a road in Konoha that's literally called 'life' and he is lost on it. He has been for the last hour."

Silence descended on the room as everyone tried to picture what I had just said.

Shikamaru snickered from his perch. "Yeah, I'm definitely going to like this guy."

"You mean to tell me, that this guy can walk in here any second and tell us the reason he's late is because he got lost on the road of life, and he'd be telling the truth," Naruto spoke the words slowly as if she couldn't quite make herself believe what she was saying. A conflicted expression appeared on her face. "I'm…I'm not sure what I should be feeling right now. Should I respect the guy for a well-played pranked or be pissed at him for wasting our time?"

"Pissed," I answered, feeling no such conflict, "When it comes to Kakashi, the default response should always be pissed off." My head snapped up when I saw that Kakashi had finally begun to do something different. "Wait, he's finally off the road. Kakashi is no longer lost on the road of life."

It took me a second to process what I just said before I slap a hand over my face. Never in my life did I ever expect to string those words together in a single sentence.

Even after a full decade, my childlike wonder over the Byakugan never left me. It was something incredible. With it I could see every inch of Konoha, the entire village was laid out before my eyes. I don't even know where to begin to describe what I was seeing, what's it like to see everything.

To say I had a bird's eye view of Konoha would be incorrect because it implied that I was only looking in one direction. My Byakugan granted me the ability to see everything in my range of sight from every angle as if I had an entire 3-D model of Konoha imprinted in my head. The sheer scale of what I could see was almost overwhelming.

Just by focusing I could see my sister in the Academy's training room, two floors below this one, where she was in the middle of a taijutsu spar with Konohamaru – kick his ass Hanabi! Another shift of my focus allowed me to spot my mother, where she was tending her flowers in the garden, while my father was watching over her from the porch, a tender smile on his face.

Most Hyuuga could see for miles in every direction, their vision's range stretching from as little as 4 kilometres to as much as 16 kilometres. My eye's current range extended to a little under 12 kilometres, an unimpressive number when compared to the best the Hyuuga Clan had to offer but unprecedented for someone at my physical stage of development. Most Hyuuga could only break past the 10 kilometres limit when they were well into puberty.

Though I was still nowhere near my father's range of 21 kilometres, it was enough. I could still see everything I needed to. All of Konoha lay within the range of my sight.

Even the other teams were not beyond my limit. I could see team 10 celebrating in the Yakiniku Q restaurant. Choji was scarfing down strips of grilled meat as if he hadn't eaten for years, either not noticing or caring about the looks of disgusted Sakura was giving him. While Ino, having long gotten used to her teammates eating manners, was reprimanding Asuma instead on his smoking habits. Which, if the cigarette he had between his lips was anything to go by, was sliding off him like water off a duck's back.

Team 8 was still in their training field. Akamaru was scratching and biting his fur like crazy while Kiba yelled at a stoic Shino about keeping his bugs to himself. Kurenai was off to one side from the boys, where she was caught up in an in-depth discussion about the finer nuances of genjutsu to the third member of their group, a brown-haired girl by the name of Yakumo.

Thanks to my familiarity with their chakra signatures, it only took me a handful of seconds to spot them all. Had I not been as familiar with their signatures as I was it could have taken me hours to find them, as I would have been forced to look for them street by street instead of simply allowing myself to be pulled towards their chakra.

If I had to describe it, it was almost like picking out a familiar face from a crowd of strangers.

But the process wasn't perfect. While it was impossible to hide from the Byakugan, you could make it much harder for it to find you. If you suppressed your chakra well enough and hid yourself in a densely populated place like Konoha, it would take me time to pick out your chakra from the thousands of other signatures. It could take hours, even days if the city was large enough.

Which was why I knew Kakashi wanted me to find him. His chakra signature had been blazing full force all day, deliberately calling attention to himself.

When the rest of the Genin had been picked up by their Jonin-instructors and Kakashi still hadn't arrived yet, I naturally decided to use my Byakugan to find out what was taking him so long and spotted him almost immediately.

He had been at the Memorial Stone, quietly paying his respects to his fallen comrades. Deciding to give the guy some privacy, I lied and told Naruto that I couldn't find him. We could afford to wait for a bit, it's not like we were in any hurry.

When Kakashi had finished paying his respects about an hour later, he turned and waved at me. Well, technically he was waving at the general direction of the Academy but I had no doubt it was aimed at me. Which was why I knew that when he walked off and gotten himself lost on the road of life he was doing this to fuck with me.

"Really?" Naruto leaned over my desk, eager for information. "Where is he now? Is he finally on his way here?"

I held up a hand. "Give me a moment…Yes. Yes he's currently walking down the main road to the Academy and he should be reaching here any minute now…and…and…and his turning back around."

"What! Why?" Naruto screamed out in frustration.

"…because a black cat just crossed his path."

---

"Sorry I'm late," The silver-haired man rubbed the back of his head in faux embarrassment as he sat down on the railing. "I got lost on the road of life."

"We know." Naruto and I deadpanned as one.

Kakashi didn't seem to mind our unenthusiastic response because he carried on giving excuses. "Then a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way round because I didn't want to get unlucky."

"We know." We deadpanned again.

I didn't mention how convenient it was that a dog just happened to chase that cat in front of him. Or that said dog happened to be a familiar-looking, brown-coloured pug wearing a Konoha forehead protector on its head.

"Then I had to help a little old lady cross the street." Kakashi shamelessly carried on.

"WE KNOW ALREADY!" We snapped and yelled.

We were up on the Academy's rooftop. Naruto, Shikamaru and me were sitting on the steps of the staircase while Kakashi sat on the railing before us. It had been four hours since we were assigned our teams and Kakashi had picked us up from the classroom only a couple of minutes ago.

Right after the black cat incident, Kakashi had taken the long route around Konoha to reach the Academy, only to stop when he was less than ten minutes away to help a little old lady cross the street…twenty-seven times.

And I don't mean twenty-seven different old ladies but just the single one. He helped her cross the same street over and over again for an hour. I couldn't tell for certain if the lady was insane, bribed or if he had used a genjutsu on the poor thing but they kept it up for the entire hour.

"Well, since this is our first meeting and all," Kakashi shut his single eye and smiled, "let's use this chance to get to know each other bit more. Why don't you all tell me a little about yourselves?"

"What do you want to know?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi shrugged, "How about your likes, dislikes, your dreams of the future and such?"

"Then shouldn't you go first? We've all known each other for years, you're the only stranger here."

"Hmm, good point." He rubbed his chin and nodded, "Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi…I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes…Dream for the future…Hmm, and I have a lot of hobbies-"

"You are Hatake Kakashi, also known as the Copy Ninja Kakashi for learning over a thousand jutsu via your implanted Sharingan." Once it became clear that he was up to his usual antics I decided to interrupt him. I had originally planned to let him play his games but after all the crap he already put us through, I've had enough. "Graduated from the Academy at the age of five to become the youngest Genin since the founding of the Village, only to quickly advance through the ranks and become a Chuunin at six. Eventually, you reached the rank of Jonin and joined the Anbu where, again, you quickly rose up the ranks to become an Anbu captain at an age when most Shinobi were still Genin."

I took a moment to pause for breath before carrying on, "You were one of the prized students of the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, and the son of the fallen hero, Hatake Sakumo, Konoha's White Fang. Despite being well known for your tardiness and fondness for the Icha Icha series, you are still highly respected in Konoha and are considered to be the strongest A-Rank ninja it currently has. And while it's only rumours and hearsay, many in the Village believe that you, along with Jiraiya and Tsunade of the Sannin, are being considered as a possible successor to the Hokage."

As I spoke an incredulous look began to slowly grow on Naruto's face, replacing the glare that she had been giving Kakashi since his late appearance. Even Shikamaru straightened up from his slouch a bit when he realized how much of a big shot we were currently dealing with.

If Kakashi was in any way surprised or upset by my words, he didn't show it. On the contrary, he seemed almost amused, "Maa, maa, aren't you a knowledgeable one." He smiled at me through his mask, "Well, since you seem so eager at giving introductions, why don't you go next?"

"Is there a point?" I shrugged, "Like Naruto said, the three of us have known each other for years and you should have already read all of the reports they have on us."

"Indulge me anyway, think of this as more of an ice breaker than anything," Kakashi ordered.

I sighed. I was hoping we could have skipped the whole thing since it was…well, kind of lame, but by the looks of things he isn't going to change his mind. Better get it over with then.

"My name Hyuuga Hikaru. There are many things I like but if I had to pick only one, I'd choose chakra. Learning about it, using it, anything involving it really." Seriously, Chakra was freaking awesome. "And what I dislike, no, what I loathe the most in this world is Kishimoto."

Naruto gave me a bewilderment look, "Who?"

"Kishimoto is the name of a cruel god, the possible creator of this world and the source of all my suffering. He also has the habit of changing people's genders when you least expect." I ignored the crazy looks everyone was giving me. "Anyway, as for dreams." Rippling eyes flashed through my mind, "Well, there is no point in telling you right now. Just wait for a little while longer and you'll get to see it come true for yourself."

"I see," Kakashi gave me a thoughtful look before turning to Shikamaru, "you're up next."

The boy let out a tired sigh before speaking. "My name is Nara Shikamaru. I like to relax and cloud watch on peaceful days, and play Shogi or Go. I dislike women. My dreams-"

"Wait! Wait up a second." I leaned forward so that I could get a clear view of him from where he sat on the other side of Naruto. "Women? I was so sure that you disliked 'troublesome' things, not women."

Shikamaru just lazily blinked at me, "…there is a difference?"

Naruto raised a hand and smacked him on the back of the head.

"Ouch!" Shikamaru yelped and rubbed his head before he shot me a look and pointed at her. "See? Troublesome." He grumbled some more before sighing. "Anyway, my dream is to have a completely stress-free life."

"Boy, aren't you the daring one. You sure you aren't setting the bar too high?" Shikamaru just shrugged and Kakashi then turned to Naruto, "you next."

"Finally!" Naruto cheered and adjusted her forehead protector. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like pizza, well-played pranks and my Shadow Clones. I dislike waiting, either for food or tardy teachers." She shot Kakashi a quick glare before smiling again. "As for my dream…" her words slowed to a halt and her expression turned thoughtful.

"A dream, huh?" She leaned back a bit and looked up to the sky. "I wonder – I don't really know anymore." Her blue eyes seemed to gaze on something we could not see, as strands of blonde hair were pulled over her face by the wind. She drifted off in thought for a while before speaking up again. "I guess I pretty much already have everything I ever wanted, so maybe my dream is for things to continue to stay the same." She lowered her gaze and gave Kakashi an uncertain look. "Is that weird?"

"…No, no it's not." He crinkled his eye and gave her that eye-smile of his, looking oddly pleased for some reason. "Now that we all know each other a bit better, it's time to start your graduation exam."

"Exam?" Naruto sat up in surprise. "But we just finished our exams."

"No," I corrected her, "what we finished was the Academy exams. What he's talking about is his personal test." Seeing the confused look on her face, I asked. "You don't know about the apprenticeship laws?" She shook her head and I had to resist the urge to sigh, "Really, this is what you get for not reading anything outside of the absolute minimum."

I turned to Kakashi, "Sorry Sensei but Naruto is going to need an explanation about this."

Kakashi nodded in agreement. "You're right, she does." Then instead of beginning his explanations, he just placed an elbow on his knee and cupped his chin in his hand. I sat there, waiting for him to start, but he did nothing and kept looking at me while I stared back in turn.

It dawned on me.

"Would you like me to explain it to her?"

"Hmm? Oh if you really want to, sure, go ahead." He waved me on, clearly more than happy to let me do his job for him.

"Thank you," I forced out between my teeth. Note to self, add Kakashi to the list…Also, start making a list. Turning to Naruto I began explaining. "You know how the Hokage is the supreme leader of Konoha and has complete command over every one of its ninja?

"Of course." She nodded.

"Yeah, well, that's not completely true. While the Hokage is the leader of Konoha, he does not have complete command over its ninjas." I held up a hand to forestall her when she looked like she was about to interrupt. "While he does have full command over us during times of war or emergencies, during periods of peace the only ninjas that are under his complete control are the Anbu. The regular ninja forces are not forced to obey his every command. Think of it this way, you know how as ninjas we are allowed to pick our missions right?"

Naruto nodded again.

"Now, what happens if we are offered a mission we don't want? Let's say the mission was too dangerous, or we were too tired from our last job and want a break, what do we do then?"

"We…just say no?" her voice rose up towards the end, making it sound more of a question than an answer.

"Correct." I nodded, giving her an encouraging smile, "We just say no. It's as simple as that. The Hokage can't force us to accept a mission; it's not the way things work. While the Anbu have no right to decline a mission or a direct order from the Hokage, we do. That's not to say the Hokage doesn't have any authority over us, because he does, a lot of it. It just means that we as ninjas of Konoha have our own rights as well. Understand?"

"Yeah, I think I get it." Naruto slowly nodded her head, before tilting it to one side, "But what does this have to do with the exam?"

"Everything. Jonin like Kakashi here," I waved a hand towards him, "are not required to take on students. While it is traditional for Jonin to take apprentices eventually so that they can pass on their skills to the next generation, they are not required to do so and the Hokage certainly can't force them to. And for good reason. You can't just force people to part with their personal techniques and skills when they don't want to and expect it to work. Nothing good can come from that. Which is why Jonin or Chuunin instructors have to volunteer for the role.

"Now up to that point, there isn't a problem. The problem comes when deciding which students they have to train. If you let the Jonin choose their own students then they would all just end up picking the best of the year, like you and me, or someone from their own clan. Other students with only average potential or who don't come from powerful clans would be left behind.

"Naturally they couldn't let that happen, which is why the Hokage is the one who decides who gets to train who, not the Jonin. While they're allowed to petition the Hokage for certain students, the final decision will always lie with him. But this leaves us with an additional problem.

"What happens if a Jonin gets saddled with a group of students he doesn't like? Remember, no one can force them to train the students, and even if Hokage did try everyone would just revolt. These are their hard-won skills we're talking about, some of them are their clan's secret techniques, others are their own personal jutsu that they've developed themselves. You can't force them to give that knowledge away without consequences.

"But we can't allow the Jonin to decline the students from the get-go just because they didn't get the ones they wanted, nothing will ever get done then. So a compromise was made, an exam. Every Jonin would be obligated to test out the students, if they fail, don't meet their standards, or if he simply doesn't like the kids then he can walk away, no questions asked.

"The test gives the students an opportunity to prove themselves, a chance to show what they're made of and convince the Jonin that they're worth his time. If they succeed then good, the Jonin has his students, the students have a teacher, everyone is happy. If they fail then the students would either get handed over to the next Jonin available or even a Chuunin if there aren't any Jonin left. In the worst cases, they might end up having to wait for months until they get assigned one."

"So you mean we have to prove ourselves," she pointed sceptically at Kakashi, "to him? But look at him, he's a slob. He can't even make it to work on time. Can't we trade him in for someone better? I know Hokage-Jiji would listen to me if I asked him for an upgrade, maybe even switch up for a younger model." Naruto said while eyeing Kakashi's hair.

"I resent that," Kakashi rose a hand to his head, "I'll have you know my hair is silver, not grey. I'm still in my twenties." And I couldn't help but notice how he didn't deny being a slob.

"Naruto, there is no better model." I explained, "I am the rookie of the year and you are the top kunoichi, we're both the most highly sought after students from this year's lot which means we were assigned to the best Sensei that they had available. So no matter what he looks like," I pointed at Kakashi, "He's currently the best teacher Konoha has to offer, there is no one better. Anyone else we can get to replace him would only be worse."

"Bingo." Kakashi chimed in, "You see ducklings, it doesn't matter how special you think you are, it doesn't even matter how special the Hokage think you are, in the end, all that matters is what I think of you. I'm the one who gets to decide whether you pass and continue as Genin or fail and get sent back to the Academy."

I frowned as I noticed something wrong with his words, "Sent back to the Academy? Kakashi-Sensei, what are you talking about? Even if you do fail us, the worst that would happen is that we get passed along to the next Jonin in line. You don't have the authority to send us back to the Academy."

"Hmm, you would normally be right." The masked-man nodded as he scratched his chin, "Normally being the operative word here, and this is far from normal circumstances. Tell me, do you know what's been happening over the last four hours?"

"We've been waiting for you to show up, that's what," Naruto grumbled.

Kakashi rolled his eyes, "Other than that."

Naruto turned to look at me but I had no idea what he was talking about either and just shrugged.

"Let me give you a clue then," He snapped his finger and pointed at me, "You, bug eyes, can you check up on what the rest of your classmates are doing."

Confused, and more than a little bit suspicious, I decided to comply for now. Flashing open my Byakugan I began searching for my now-former classmates. It didn't take me long to find them all, as far as I can tell none of them were doing anything out of the ordinary.

Just as it had been with Kurenai's and Asuma's teams, all of the others were hanging out together with their new teammates and Sensei trying to get to know them better now that they all passed-

It hit me.

They all passed.

"Oh you son of a bitch," I glared at the one-eyed man while flipping off my Byakugan, who just smiled back in return. "You weren't just fucking with us for the hell of it, you were stalling!"

"Hikaru," Naruto looked at me, alarmed, "what's wrong?"

I turned to her, "The other teams, they've all passed. Every single last one of them."

I could tell by the blonde's reaction that she didn't understand why that upset me but Shikamaru seemed to get it right away.

"I see," Shikamaru turned his sights to the Jonin, "so that's what you meant. You've set things up so you'd be our only option." He tsked and scratched his head, "This is going to end up being such a drag."

"Correct," Kakashi clapped his hands, "Konoha has lost a lot of good ninjas during the Kyuubi attack twelve years ago, and while we are well onto the road of recovery we are still not quite there yet. We've been having a bit of a Jonin shortage problem for years now, so the Hokage has been having trouble finding enough Jonin-instructors to teach newly graduating Genin. As a matter of fact, he was barely able to pull in enough instructors for each group this year. And now that the rest of the Jonin have finished selecting their teams it means that the only Genin and Jonin that haven't paired up yet are you three," He pointed at us, then at himself, "and me."

Naruto just snorted, "So what? Why are you all making such a big deal out of this?" She flashed a cocky smirk at the man, "All we have to do is pass this exam of yours then we'll be good right? Then hurry up and give it to us so we'll ace it. If every other team was able to pass theirs then this should be easy."

Kakashi chuckled, "Well, aren't you the optimistic one? But I'm sorry to say I'm nowhere near as soft as the other Instructors," Kakashi raised his hand and held up three fingers. "Three times. I've been assigned three other groups before you and every one of them failed my exam, and from what I've seen of you ducklings, it doesn't seem like you're going to fare any better."

If he meant to scare her off then he failed because Naruto's grin just grew larger "Well of course they failed, they didn't have me on their team did they? Listen up Sensei, I am Uzumaki Naruto, and you have never met anyone like me before."

I had to repress a chuckle at that. Naruto was right. Despite Kakashi's attempt to scare us there was no way we were going to fail. Setting aside that I already knew what the test was and how to pass it, I knew that Kakashi would never fail Naruto and allow his Sensei's daughter to be trained by someone else, someone potentially less competent than himself.

And between Naruto, Shikamaru and me, this team was pretty much a well-rounded powerhouse. The odds of us failing were close to nil. That wasn't even counting the fact that I already knew the answer behind the bell test, so long as nothing had changed then there was no way we could lose.

Kakashi just yawned and shot Naruto an unimpressed look, "Hmm, well, I guess we'll see soon enough whether you're all talk or not. Listen up, I'm about to explain the rules to the exam." He reached into the pouch strapped to his side and pulled out a pair of bells. "Your objective is to simply get one of these two bells for yourselves."

I released a breath I didn't realize I was holding and allowed myself a tiny grin of victory. That settles it, this was our win.

"Tomorrow morning we'll be meeting up at the team's assigned training field at 08:00 sharp. The exam will commence only once all of us have arrived and will continue until noon, at which point the exam will come to a close. Your objective is to try and take a bell off of me and keep it safe until the end of the exam. To pass, you need to capture a bell and keep it on your person until the time limit runs out. If you do not have a bell on you by the end, you fail. It doesn't matter if you captured a bell at one point if you don't have one when the exam is over then you lose."

He looked at each of us one by one, "For the duration of the exam, I officially permit the use of lethal attacks, both on me and on each other. Once we start, anything goes, any tactics or jutsu you know are permitted. This is a test to determine your qualifications as ninjas, as soldiers, and I expect you all to fight with your life on the line."

"Wait," Naruto raised her hand, noticing the obvious flaw with the exam. "You said only those with a bell are allowed to pass, but you only have two of them and there are three of us. How are we supposed to all pass then?"

"Hmm, wasn't I being clear enough? Uzumaki Naruto, think on this," His eyes turned cold as they locked onto hers, "Why do you think I gave you permission to attack each other?"

Naruto head shot straight up when she got what he was implying, "But that's-!"

"This is the Ninja world brat, not some playground. In here, it's either kill or be killed. If an enemy has what you need to survive, you either take it from him or just sit down and let them slit your throat." He jingled the bells at her, "Besides, dragging around three kids with me is too much of a pain. If I cut you down to two, things will be much easier for me."

"…Bastard," Naruto growled out from clenched teeth, glaring furiously at the Jonin, looking as if she'd be more than happy to begin attacking him right now. "You're really planning on making us fight each other just to make your job easier?"

"Of course," Kakashi smiled at her, "But it's not like I'm going to force you to participate. If you are so opposed to my exam then you can just quit right now and try again next year, with another Sensei. Of course, you'd be doing it with another team too as I'll just take the other two here as my students and leave you behind. But I'm sure you don't mind being separated from friends if it means you don't have to get your hands dirty?"

Naruto looked startled at that and shot me a glance of pure panic. However, despite me wearing my best Hyuuga poker face, Naruto must have seen through my facade because she quickly calmed down and relaxed. She might have not known why I was so calm but trusted me enough to believe I must have had a good reason for it.

Really, this girl trusted me far too much.

I spared a quick glance at Naruto's opposite side to Shikamaru, who was coolly watching our Sensei. Despite the man's attempts to rile us up, the Nara was as calm as ever. He must have either figured out the true meaning behind the test already or was simply too lazy to get worked up over it.

He must have felt me watching him because he turned to look at me, his eyes jumping to Naruto for a second before returning back to mine. Then he rolled his eyes, snorted and let out a large yawn before closing eyes as if everything happening was too troublesome for him to bother with.

I felt a tiny smile brush on my lips. Good, everything is going well. With this, the exam is as good as won-

"Just kidding~" Kakashi called out in a sing-song voice, derailing my thoughts, before his hand blurred.

The concrete steps behind me shattered, kicking up a small cloud of white dust just as something whizzed past my head.

Huh?

I slowly turned around to look behind me, only to find myself staring in disbelief at the now deformed bell which was buried deep inside the concrete steps. When I turned to look back at the thrower in question, Kakashi just smiled cheerfully at me.

"Really, you guys just keep making things more difficult for me." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, "There's no point giving you an exam you're guaranteed to pass."

"What?" Naruto looked between the damage steps and Kakashi with wide eyes, confusion written all over her face. "What are you talking about? What's going on?"

Kakashi pointed at me and Shikamaru, "These two, they figured everything out. Well, I guess it is a pretty obvious test. The only people who can't figure the trick behind it are idiots..."

"But…but…but I haven't figured it out." Naruto whined, then stopped to think about what she just said. "HEY!"

"There's no point in carrying on." Kakashi just carried on as if Naruto hadn't spoken up. "I can already predict what's going to happen. You," he pointed at me, "already know about the bell test. Either you've stumbled upon the information when researching about me or overheard someone talking about it by chance. Well, it's not as if it was a big secret anyway, the tale of how the Third gave the Sannin the bell test used to be pretty popular back in the day." Then he pointed to Shikamaru, "You probably puzzled everything out and would have willingly dropped out and allowed the other two to get the bells without fighting, knowing that was the correct answer." Then at Naruto, "And you're so desperate to avoid fighting your friends that you would have followed any plans those two proposed if it meant there was even the smallest chance of all three of you passing."

Kakashi shrugged, "Like I said, this test is now pointless. Besides, even if none of you figured it out the results would have been obvious. The Nara is too lazy to bother fighting over the bell and would have happily dropped out of the running. The blonde is more loyal than a puppy and would never betray her teammates, and since she has her little pet Hyuuga completely whipped she would have no trouble convincing him not to fight."

"Hey!" I objected, sitting up, "Who the hell are you calling whipped?"

"You obviously." The man rolled his eyes – well, an eye - "To others, it might appear like Naruto is the one following you around, but to me, it looks like you're the one following her. Tell me, if I had been serious about the exam and she was the one out of the three of you to fail, what would you have done? Would you continue on without her or stayed back at the Academy for another year with her?"

"I…I…" I felt my cheeks colour slightly as I realized just how easy it was to answer that question. "That doesn't mean I'm whipped!"

"It doesn't, does it? Then tell me, do you cook for her?

"Of course I do, have you ever tried Naruto's cooking? The last time she tried boiling water she somehow managed to set it on fire."

"Clean up after her?"

"No! I force her to clean up any mess she makes after herself…I just tend to lend a hand sometimes …and end up doing most of it myself, but that's only because I enjoy cleaning."

"Help her with her shopping?"

"Have you seen what she wears? If I let her choose her own clothing she'd dress up like an orange, and I mean the fruit not-"

Kakashi didn't even bother waiting for me to finish. "Alright, maybe I was wrong. You're not just whipped, you're practically a housewife." He made a whipping motion, "A whipped one."

…

I will kill this man.

Shikamaru – the traitor - actually snickered at me while Naruto had this wide beaming grin plastered on her face.

"Ohh~~ don't worry Hikaru," She patted my head condescendingly, clearly not meaning a single word she said, "I don't think you're whipped …much." She added the last part quietly but just loud enough for me to hear it.

I levelled my best glare at her, trying and failing to banish my embarrassed blush. "You-are-dead."

"Sure I am." She snickered happily.

"Ok, enough of that ducklings." Kakashi clapped once to gather our attention. "Now that my original plan is ruined, I'm going to have to modify the rules a bit."

"What do we have to do?" Naruto asked, suddenly back to eyeing the man suspiciously.

"Simple." He held up the remaining bell and jiggled it. "You still have to get the bell off me but this time it's an all or nothing deal. If you succeed, you all pass. If you fail, then all of you will be sent back to the Academy."

"Great!" The blonde cheered, grinning fiercely, "That's just what I wanted."

I, on the other hand, was nowhere near as excited as she was. From what I remembered of the bell test we weren't supposed to actually succeed in stealing the bells. All we had to do was demonstrate some teamwork and we'd pass, but now it sounded like Kakashi actually wanted us to steal a bell. Which made this test so much worse. It was almost as...

A stray thought entered my mind.

"...Sensei, I just want to confirm something." I spoke up, eyeing the man-child with a growing sense of suspicion. "Are you sure you're not using this test as an excuse to beat us up just because you're sore we spoiled your original plans?"

Kakashi gave me an offended look, "Do you really think I am the kind of person who would do something as shallow as that?"

"Yes." All three of us nodded our head unanimously.

Kakashi just smiled, eye twinkling, "Well, that's all I have to say. Be sure to get some rest." He rose up from his seat and gave us one final warning before leaving, "Remember, be there at 08:00 sharp. The exam won't start until all of us arrive."

Then with a quick application of Shunshin, he flickered away.

The rooftop felt oddly empty now that he was gone. All of us that remained fell silent as we contemplated our new Sensei and what our new test would hold for us.

"Well, that was annoying." Shikamaru broke the silence, aptly summarizing what we all were probably feeling. Standing up, he dusted his pants off and gave us a quick wave over his shoulder as he walked towards the exit, "See ya."

He had barely managed to take a single step before he was yanked back as I snagged the back of his collar. He glanced over his shoulder, staring blandly back at my face.

"And where do you think you're going?" I asked.

Shikamaru gave me a bored look, "Home. Where else?"

I shook my head, "No, you're not. We got a test to prepare for remember? If we want even the slightest chance of passing then we need to start planning right now."

"Correction. You have a test to prepare for." Shikamaru shrugged my hand off him. "I, however, have some much-needed sleep to catch up on." He gave us another wave and started to walk away. "See ya."

"Don't take another step," Shikamaru paused mid-step, shooting me an annoyed look, "You are going to stay and help prepare, or else."

"Or else what?"

I smiled, "I'll make you."

"How?" Shikamaru snickered, "We're not students anymore and this is not the Academy. You heard Iruka, we're legally adults. That means you can't even touch me unless you want to get in legal trouble." He gave me a condescending look, "So what are you going to do? Tell my mum on me or something?"

The smile I gave him in return was something pure evil.

"As a matter of fact…"

---

"Oh, of course I wouldn't mind if Shikamaru stayed out late to train."

Nara Yoshino, Shikamaru's mom and a retired kunoichi seemed wholly delighted by my request. We were standing at the front door of her house and, going by the white apron she was wearing and the iron skillet held in her hand, she had been in the middle of preparing lunch when we rang the door.

"In fact, I wouldn't even mind if you took him away for an entire month. Really, that boy of mine needs to get out of the house more often anyway."

"Thank you so much Yoshino-san." I bowed respectfully to Shikamaru's mom before flashing her my best smile. "Don't worry, I'll be sure to keep a close eye on your son and I promise to let you know if he's causing any trouble."

Yoshino cupped her cheek as she smiled happily, "Oh what a wonderful child, if only my boy was a bit more like you." Then her smile seemed to freeze, "Speaking of my boy."

I swear it was like watching Dr Jekyll turn into Mr Hyde as right before my eyes the sweet middle-aged mom transformed into a raging she-devil. Yoshino turned to her son and pointed her iron skillet at him, yelling, "Did you hear me Shikamaru! I expect you to be on your best behaviour with your new teammates, and I don't want to hear so much as a single bad thing about you. Have I made myself clear?"

Off to one side, Naruto had to muffle her mouth with her hands to keep herself from breaking out in laughter. While Shikamaru, eyes twitching, just dumbly nodded to his mother before turning to look at me.

I just put on a big innocent smile, "You hear that Shika, you're mum said it was ok for you to stay and train."

Shikamaru gave a long thousand-mile stare for a long moment before he seemed to collapse into himself. Sighing, he lowered his head,"…Troubleso- NO!" His head shot up and he glared at me as something inside him snapped. "This has gone beyond being just troublesome. This is pure bullshit!"

"Shikamaru! Language!"

Naruto reached the end of her limits and let out a howl of laughter.

---

There comes a time, a single moment in your life when things simply start to make sense. You gain a certain sense of clarity and you look back at your life with wiser eyes as things that were once obscure and incomprehensible become painfully clear. Monks would refer to such a feeling as enlightenment and would dedicate their entire life in pursuit of it. Yet every now and then completely ordinary people going about their daily lives would stumble upon it by pure chance. Just like I did. And in my moment of enlightenment, when the world made infinitely more sense than it had just this morning and the truth was as clear to me as the sun blazing in the sky, I have come to a startling conclusion. I realized…

I was an idiot.

This fundamental truth has never been more clearer to me than it was now as I watched Naruto pace in circles, a constant stream of 'Late-late-late, he's late!' spilling from her lips and filling the air in what would have been a perfect re-enactment of yesterday's events were it not for our current surroundings.

It turned out that our training ground was located smack down in the middle of a large stretch of forested land, just on the outskirts of Konoha. Right now we were in one of the many clearings that dotted the place. I was sitting on top of one of the three training stumps while Shikamaru leaned on another from his place on the ground. Naruto, of course, was pacing the width of the clearing as she had been for the last hour.

It was the morning of our exam and we had stayed up most of the previous night scouting the area, finishing up the last bits of our preparation and double-checking our plans for any mistakes. When we were finished, it was well past midnight and we barely had enough time to sneak in a few hours worth of sleep before rushing over here.

We all had to be there at eight o'clock sharp if we didn't want to waste even a single minute of our exam time, which was why I had Naruto and Shikamaru crashed at my place. When it was time to wake up, I made sure to personally drag them out of their beds and all the way here, just in time for the start of the exam.

All in all, we should have started the exam nearly an hour ago were it not for one tiny little problem. You see, Kakashi… hasn't shown up yet… he was late… for the start of his own test…

Truly, I was an idiot.

'The exam won't begin until all of us arrive,' Kakashi warned us twice and yet at the time I still hadn't grasped that by us, he included himself. In my haste to make sure my teammates arrived on time, I had forgotten to drag the laziest member of our group.

And because of that mistake, we were now wasting precious time waiting for our instructor that we could have been using on the exam instead. And I had no one to blame but myself.

"What's taking that scarecrow so long to get here?" Naruto stopped her pacing and walked up to me, "Hey Hikaru, can't we start setting things up now? The scarecrow isn't here, he won't notice anything if we start early."

I shook my head, "It won't work," I had considered the option myself but after scanning the forest I had been forced to reconsider, "I've been spotting packs of dogs roaming the area. Not ordinary ones either, these have their own chakra networks so they must be nin-ken, ninja-dogs."

"Dogs?" Naruto frowned, "You mean like the Inuzuka's? How did the scarecrow ever manage to do that? Kiba doesn't even allow anyone to borrow Akamaru, he barely lets the puppy leave his sights, so how did the scarecrow manage to get a whole pack of their dogs?

"That's because they're not the Inuzuka's dogs but the summoned variety." I explained, "Kakashi is supposed to be the Dog Clan's head summoner, he's been working alongside them for years. Going by the looks of things he must have sent them on ahead, probably to scout the area for any traps we might have set up. They're keeping their distance but if we try anything unusual they'll notice, so we better stick to the plan. You and Shikamaru should stay hidden for now and wait until the fighting starts up before moving out."

Naruto looked away with a frown and crossed her arms, "I know, I know. It's just," she sighed, "I'm sick and tired of all this waiting. Why can't Kakashi get his ass over here so we can start already?"

From my perch on the log, I gave my blonde friend an amused smile, "You know, I never could understand that part about you." Naruto sent me a questioning look, "How can you wait so patiently during one of your traps but still be so impatient at any other time?"

Naruto had already been a prankster by the time we first met. Since her pranks had always been on the harmless side I never saw any reason to discourage her from continuing her hobby, other than making sure she avoided pranking my clan for obvious reasons. And it was a good thing I didn't because the skills she developed thanks to her pranks had ended up being invaluable.

Naruto has always excelled in three particular combat-related skills. The first was in taijutsu. She had a body that could soak up damage like you couldn't believe, an endurance that allowed her to run for hours without rest and phenomenal physical strength that could dish out damage with the best of them. Combined with years of experience from sparring with me, and you had one hell of a taijutsu fighter on your hands.

In a head-on fight, she was on par with the likes of Kiba, one of the top hand-to-hand fighters in our year, second only to me. The only reason why I had such a large lead on her in taijutsu was thanks to my skills in the Gentle Fist combined with my advantage in speed. The Hyuuga's fighting style was renowned as the strongest in Konoha for a very good reason after all.

Her second talent was in stealth. While her excessively large chakra signature made it impossible for her to hide from a sensor, against anyone else she was a ghost. I still had no idea how she did it but Naruto had a way of blending in with her surroundings that made her all but invisible. Whether it was in the middle of the village or the heart of a forest it didn't seem to make a difference, Naruto was equally skilled in hiding in both terrains. Even Iruka was stumped, he had no idea how she managed to get so good at it as it wasn't something that he taught her, no one did. Naruto just seemed to have picked it up on her own, she had a natural knack for it.

Her final skill lay in trap-making and it was here that her pranking experience came in handy, for what was a prank but a harmless trap? She took to it like a fish takes to water, and when she went to work on her traps it was like watching an entirely different person. The usual Naruto, the loudmouth with nigh endless energy was gone, replaced by someone with all the stillness and patience of stone. I had seen the girl remain perfectly still for hours as she watched over her traps, waiting for someone to spring it. She didn't move the entire time, didn't so much as twitch. It was almost scary to watch.

Once, a few years back when I was still a child – well, an even younger child - I had caught a cold, a bad one. I couldn't remember much of that time, just jumbled up fevered dreams and disjointed memories, but what I do clearly remember was waking up when my fever broke to find a half-exhausted, half-terrified Naruto standing vigil by my bedside.

She was standing so unnaturally still that I thought I was still dreaming. Later my mum told me she stayed by my side for the entire two days I was sick, refusing to budge no matter what, and didn't make so much as make a peep because she was afraid of disturbing me. But I only found out about that later, and at the time I was confused as hell when I found myself cradled by a crying Naruto who held me as if I was made from fragile glass.

And yet that very same girl would hop from foot to foot in impatience when waiting for a pizza to finish baking or would be driven up the walls whenever Kakashi was late as if she was a six-year-old on sugar high.

"That's because setting up a trap is different. This is this and that is that you can't compare the two."

"Why is it, Naruto, that I always seem to end up even more confused after your explanations than I ever was before? I swear it's like you're doing this on-", my head shot up as a chakra signature flared up not too far from here, moving towards us at an incredibly fast pace. "Well, guess who finally decided to show up." I pushed myself off the training post and landed softly on my feet. "Get ready, the test is about to begin."

Before Naruto had the chance to form a reply Kakashi appeared in the middle of the field with a flicker of Shunshin. He gave us a cheerful smile and waved when he caught sight of us. "Hey, kids." He began as he started walking towards us, "Good morning!"

"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto yelled out while levelling her best glare at the man but it didn't seem to bother Kakashi much and he shrugged it off.

"Well, it seems that I am." Kakashi reached into his jacket and pulled out an alarm clock "But now that we're all here we can finally begin unless you guys need more time?" Naruto just snorted at the question while I shook my head. He glanced towards the silent Shikamaru who also shook his head.

"Good," Kakashi walked up to one of the training logs and placed the clock on top of it, "The alarm is set to ring precisely at noon, at which point the exam will end. Your objective is to retrieve this bell off me," Kakashi held up a bell by its string and jingled it, "if none of you succeed in obtaining the bell within the time limit, you all fail and will be sent back to the Academy for another year. Succeed, then you all pass and we become a team. It is as simple as that."

Kakashi had been walking away from us while he spoke so when he finally stopped and turned to face us, there were over a dozen yards of space separating us. He brought the bell to his waist and tied it on his belt, giving it a light tug to make sure it was securely fastened. He gave each of us one final look, first to Naruto and me who were standing side by side before him, then to the oddly silent Shikamaru who hasn't risen from his seat by the post.

"There will be no retries; this will be your first and only chance. The range of the examination is this entire forest. I already cleared it with the other teams and the Hokage and had the place evacuated. So there is no need to worry about anyone getting caught up in the crossfire, you can fight to your heart's content. And one final thing," The air grew thick and heavy as Kakashi began leaking out killing intent, "fight to kill. All and any lethal attacks are permitted in this examination. I suggest you don't hesitate in using them."

"Trust me Sensei," Naruto cracked her knuckles and gave him a hungry grin, "you don't need to worry about me hesitating over hurting you."

Kakashi gave her one of his eye-smiles and the killing intent disappeared. "Good," He raised his hand up to the air. "The exam will officially begin-" He dropped his hand down, "-Now!"

…

…

…

"…Umm," Kakashi scratched his chin and looked around at the three of us who haven't moved a single step, "You know, this is the part where you're supposed to hide."

"But Sensei," Naruto purred out the words with relish, "we are hiding. You simply haven't realized it yet."

Kakashi narrowed his single eye at her as he pondered her words before it widened with comprehension. In a single fluent motion, Kakashi pulled out and threw a barrage of shuriken at us.

With a leap to my left, I avoided the attack, the others, however, didn't. Naruto just smirked as the missiles approached her, arms crossed confidently over her chest. Shikamaru too was grinning, and it was such a perfect mirror image of Naruto's that it looked unnatural on his face. The barrage of shuriken tore through them, digging into their flesh-

Then they both burst into puffs of smoke.

"…Shadow clones?" Kakashi muttered, "I see, so that's why Shikamaru wasn't moving."

"That's right. While Naruto is talented in the henge, she still hasn't quite gotten the knack of mimicking other people's body language pat down." I began to explain the set up in an attempt to stall for more time. Ninjas as a whole were a curious bunch, odds are if you began explaining the mechanics behind your plan or attack they would be willing to stop and listen, even if you were in a middle of a fight. "Or at least not well enough to fool you anyway. And it's not like Shikamaru could make a shadow clone himself so we had to make do. Luckily the guy had always been a rather lazy bastard so him being a layabout wasn't too much out of character."

Kakashi glanced around, "Hmm, so where are they?"

"Where else?" I shrugged, "They're somewhere in the forest setting up a trap of course." I didn't bother hiding the plan, it was obvious enough that he would have figured it out anyway. Besides, with this guy's personality, Kakashi would probably be all too happy to walk into the trap just so that he could rub it into our faces when he breaks out of it to prove how ineffective it was on him.

His single eye seemed to dance with amusement, "And you're here to stall me?"

"Well, that's the plan anyway. But personally, after all the shit you've been giving me over the years, I have no intention of following through with it," I dropped into the opening stance of the Gentle Fist, leading with my left foot. Both of my palms were open and facing Kakashi, my left hand straight before me while my right was pulled back to my waist. Flashing my Byakugan open, I smirked at the man, "I mean, why should I just settle for stalling you when I have the much better option of kicking your ass and taking the bell off you myself?"

In contrast to me, Kakashi didn't bother taking a stance, he just stood there in his usual relaxed pose. "Maa~ and you think that you, Mr Rookie of the year," His voice took on a mocking tone as he said the title, "have what it takes to pull it off? Well then, please, go ahead and give it your best shot."

"With pleasure."

Taking a deep breath, I slowly exhaled and shut my eyes to help me focus. My awareness of the world around me disappeared as I turned my entire attention inward.

From the very first day I had been reincarnated into this world, I had been struggling with a problem. A question that haunted me during the entirety of my early years.

How was I supposed to win?

I knew that to accomplish my goals I needed to grow strong. Strong enough to defeat the greatest ninjas in history, the ones who stood at the top of the Shinobi world, the monsters known as S-Class.

But how was I supposed to do that?

The Hyuuga were powerful in their own right, of that there can be no doubt. They had produced more A-rank ninja than any single Clan in Konoha. But that was just it, they only produced A-rank ninja. Never in the entire history of the Clan had it ever succeeded in producing an S-rank ninja.

Which meant I could not rely on the Hyuuga fighting style alone to get me there, I had to produce one of my own.

So I searched. From the very depth of my memories to every scroll in the Hyuuga Clan Library, I searched. I researched the fighting style of every S-rank ninja the Shinobi world ever produced, dissected their techniques and tried to figure out if they were compatible with my own. I spent years trying to find a solution.

And like with most things in life, I ended up stumbling over the answer by luck.

It was when I first learned of my affinity, when I stared at the crumpled strip of chakra paper in my hand, that an old half-forgotten memory began to surface.

It was of a dark-skinned man who wrapped himself in lightning, donning it as if it were a cloak.

A man who moved so fast that the eye could not track him.

A man who fought a Tailed-beast with nothing but his bare hands.

It was then that I knew what I must do.

Speed

That was my answer.

With my Gentle Fist, I had no need for strength. What meaning was there in a punch that could turn boulders to dust when I could kill a man with but a single tap of my fingers? No, strength was not something I had use for. It was speed which I needed. Speed so fast that I could reach out and touch an enemy before he knew I was there.

And who was the fastest man alive?

The Raikage – He who ran with lightning.

A scroll containing information on the Raikage's famed lightning armour, the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, did exist in the Library. It held all the instruction needed to learn the jutsu but when I began my first tentative attempts to learn the technique my father had outright forbidden me from even trying.

I said it before, jutsu were stupidly hard things to learn and the lightning release was on a completely different level of difficulty. In the forty years since my Clan gained possession of the scroll not a single Hyuuga ever came close to learning it. Many of our most promising ninjas had given it a try and all had failed, some had even died in their attempt.

Just to begin learning the Lightning Release, one had to meet two prerequisites.

The first was to obtain a high degree of chakra control along with a powerful lightning affinity. Both were something I had in abundance. Chakra control was my forte, even among the Hyuugas who are famed for it I was on another level. And ever since I discovered my lightning affinity I had been training it every chance I could. Even as I read my books during class, I would practice moulding my lightning chakra so that sparks of electric currents leapt between my fingers.

The second prerequisite was a solid understanding of how the human anatomy worked, in particular the nervous system. The Lightning Release uses electricity to stimulate the user's nervous system, which in turn results in a massive increase in reaction time and pushes the user's physical prowess to the absolute limit, allowing for tremendous raw speed.

You couldn't simply pour electricity through your nerves and expect them to work faster, if you tried something that stupid all you would end up doing was cooking yourself from the inside out. The nervous system was incredibly complex, made up of billions of neurons. And to make matters even harder, as if they weren't already hard enough as it was, there were hundreds of different kinds of neurons. This meant that each type of nerve had a different threshold for the amount of lightning chakra it could hold before burning out. The nerves in your brain for example were far more fragile than the ones in the muscles of your arm.

I had spent the last few years learning everything I could about the human nervous system. I read every medical textbook I could get my hands on, memorized every chart or technique that could help me. It took me thousands of hours of work and entire years but I managed to do it in the end.

And I had one major advantage that helped me along the way, my Byakugan.

With it I could see my own nervous system, see the electric impulses running through my nerves. I knew how much lightning chakra I could pour into myself because I could see the moment the nerve approached its breaking point and began to strain.

My father had told me that I would only be allowed to study the scroll when I succeeded in obtaining both of those prerequisites. It took a while but I finally managed to meet his requirements last year.

After several years of hard work, I finally obtained the right to begin learning the technique. See? I told you jutsu was stupidly hard to learn.

The Lightning Release Chakra Mode turned out to be not so much as a single technique but the combination of two techniques into one. One half of the jutsu taught you how to speed up your body, the other taught you how to speed up your mind.

What was the point of moving faster when you lacked the reflexes to match it? What good was moving at the speed of lightning when your thoughts could only move at a fraction of that speed? To completely master the Lightning Release you needed a mind that could think and react as fast as lightning itself. So I concentrated on mastering the mind half of the jutsu first.

Last month I succeeded.

And now I would finally get to test it.

I opened my eyes and what greeted me was a frozen world.

The leaves that drifted down from the trees hung suspended in the air as if held by invisible hands. A bird that was gliding down toward a branch now dangled unmoving, just an inch above its intended perch. Even Kakashi didn't move, didn't even breathe from where he stood across from me.

Yet I knew that the world was no different than it had been before I had shut my eyes. It was not the world that had changed but me. Or to be more precise, it was my perception of the world that had changed.

Right now the neurons in my brain were firing several dozen times faster than normal, allowing me to process my thoughts at an unbelievable speed, almost lightning fast. And that was exactly what I was seeing right now, this was what the world looked like through the eyes of lightning, a world that moved so slow that it practically stood still.

This was my answer to obtaining S-rank.

Pouring chakra into my muscles, I drew out the maximum amount of strength from them that I could before taking a fast step toward Kakashi. My right foot crawled forward, so slow I could barely perceive it moving, as if it was forcing its way through thick liquid concrete than air.

This was the major flaw with learning only one half of the technique. It was only my thoughts that had sped up, not my body. But even without mastering the Lightning Release I was fast, far faster than any Genin had the right to be, yet for all of my speed I was nothing compared to my thoughts. So now I appeared to be moving with all the speed of a snail.

But that was fine – I had already found a way to work around that particular problem.

Focusing on a patch of grass ahead of me, only a couple of feet in front of Kakashi, I began to mold my chakra into a jutsu before swiftly releasing it.

The world seemed to dash by me as my body flew forward, tearing through the air so quickly that it was fast even to my current perception, before I instantly came to a complete stop just in front of Kakashi.

Shunshin no Jutsu - a high-speed movement technique that needed a large amount of concentration and control to cast. Though for all of its uses it was deemed near worthless in combat due to the amount of time one needed to cast it.

The user of the Shunshin needed time to focus on a location to flicker to, time to get rid of the disorientation of appearing so fast in a new location, and time to assess his new surroundings. All in all it needed far too much time to be serviceable in combat.

But to me it was far from worthless, after all, I had all the time in the world.

My right foot was still only halfway through completing its first step by the time I had finished flickering. Kakashi himself still hasn't moved at all and was looking straight past me, over my head and at the spot I had been before I flickered in front of him.

That was understandable. From my point of view two whole seconds had already passed since I flickered away, but from Kakashi's perspective it had only been the smallest fraction of a second if that. Had Kakashi been ready, had even guessed I was capable of doing this then things might have been different, but as it was he simply had no time to react or even process that I had already moved.

Perfect.

The hand by my waist shot ahead, moving in time with my foot as I stepped forward, both limbs travelling as fast as I could push them. While my hand began to creep towards Kakashi I started moulding chakra into my palm in preparations for an attack.

Time crawled slowly by as my strike grew closer towards Kakashi's chest, moving almost painfully slow to my eyes. In any other circumstances, I could have landed over a dozen more strikes it took for this one to hit, but within my Lightning Release state, I needed what subjectively felt like four seconds to me to complete even a single strike.

When my palm had finally reached the optimum striking distance, a spot only inches away from his chest, and Kakashi still hadn't even begun to react to me, I released my technique.

Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!

A wave of chakra erupted from my palm just as it was about to touch Kakashi – a vacuum shell with enough raw force behind it to blow a full-grown man off his feet, and I made sure to hold nothing back. It shouldn't be anywhere near enough to kill Kakashi but even for a Jonin like him there was no way he was walking out of this without his share of fractured ribs, something that would give me more than enough of a handicap to snatch the bell off him.

In my mind ten seconds had passed since I entered my imperfect Lightning Release state, but in reality, everything that just happened occurred in barely a tenth of a second.

It was over. All I had to do was-

"Maa~ Aren't you the scary one?" A voice came from my right.

Huh?

My head reflexively turned towards the voice, infinitely slow, even though I didn't need to turn with my Byakugan open. There, just beside my right shoulder was Kakashi. He had crouched down a bit so that his head was level with mine, and he had one hand cupping his chin as he smiled at me.

What!? What the hell!

I swung my right arm toward him in an elbow strike, not an attack of the Gentle Fist but in a desperate attempt to force him away from me. My arm, like the rest of the world around me, moved sluggishly slow towards Kakashi's head. It felt like an entire lifetime had passed until -finally- my elbow landed on his cheek-

A hand reached out to pat me on my shoulder. "Really, kids these days are scary." Kakashi commented from behind me, somehow disappearing from right before my eyes only to appear at my back.

What the hell was going on!

This time I pushed my Lightning Release to the absolute limit. I put every last scrap of concentration I had to speed up my perception while I spun around to deliver another messy backhanded punch, more an attempt to just hit him than cause any real damage.

As my punch once again began to near his face, I made sure to keep my entire focus on him, and that was when I saw it.

Sparks of bluish-white light coated his entire body as electric current licked up and down his skin. Just as my strike was about to hit him, Kakashi dodged it. And I did not mean he slowly swayed out of its way at the same speed I was moving. I meant that he simply took a step back at his normal speed while I moved at a pace so slow that a turtle would have looked at me with pity.

In my eyes the entire world moved in super slow motion but not Kakashi, who moved with all of his usual speed. It was like he wasn't governed by the same limitation that everything around him was.

And when he next spoke, I could hear his words clearly, which was not supposed to even be possible. I was perceiving things at practically a hundred times my usual rate, even sound. Which meant that I would not be able to understand a single word anyone says to me, not as I was. Because all I would end up hearing would be gibberish nonsense as their words were stretched out and distorted.

But when Kakashi spoke, I had no trouble understanding him, which could have only meant one thing. Kakashi was speaking at the same speed I was thinking at, something he would only be able to pull off if…

SON OF A BITCH! That was the Raikage's Lightning Armor! Why the hell did Kakashi have the Lightning Release!?

"You know," Kakashi casually walked up to me after easily stepping out of the way of my blow, "It took me most of my life to learn this technique. I was nineteen when I finally figured out how to speed up my thoughts without frying my brain, and even now I still haven't gotten the hang of speeding up my body. Compared to the real deal, my Lightning Armor is nothing but a third rate copy."

Kakashi wasn't supposed to know this technique! He wasn't supposed to be anywhere near this strong without his Sharingan!

Kakashi squatted down, ducking under my follow up at attack with such casual ease that I would have been insulted under any other circumstance, and ended up crouching right in front of me. He smiled up from the ground, "But look at you! Barely even twelve and you already mastered half of it. I tell you, these days kids are scary." He shook his head mockingly.

This time, when he looked back up, his single eye was as cold as ice and his voice devoid of all humour, "But let me give you a piece of advice –"

Pain flared up from my chin and my head was sent reeling back as Kakashi struck me. The blow knocked me clear off my feet, the sky and ground switching places as I began to flip backwards.

"The problem with only speeding up your mind," When I next saw him, Kakashi was already behind me. I was still drifting in the air, hanging almost horizontally off the ground, so everything in my vision was inverted. "Is that while it does grant you the ability to see the attacks coming, it does nothing to help you avoid them. And when you find yourself in a position where you can neither block nor dodge, all you can do is watch as the attack draws closer to you infinitely slow, helpless and powerless to do anything to prevent it." He raised a hand about a meter above my head before clenching it into a fist. "Like this."

Then he swung down.

Yet even as I watched the fist come soaring down towards my face, I had one thought running through my mind, and it had nothing to do with the inevitable pain I was about to suffer. No, my thoughts were on the man responsible for getting me in this mess- Kishimoto.

You nerfed Kakashi didn't you?! You bastard! How much did you nerf the guy for him to be this strong?

I spent the next several seconds cursing Kishimoto in my mind, and still that punch hadn't reached me. Like Kakashi said, there was nothing I could do but watch as his fist came crashing down towards my face and…

…miss me?

Kakashi's fist changed course at the very last second, curving away from my face and into his side-pouch, only to appear a moment later gripping a very familiar orange book.

…

I am really beginning to hate this man.

I decided to turn off my Lightning Release. There was no point in using it against him, not when he could use it even better than I could, and keeping it on will only end up wasting more of my Chakra.

As soon as I dropped it the world began to speed up around me. I pulled my knees to my chest and held my hands above my head. The instant my fingers brushed the ground I pushed and backflipped onto my feet.

Kakashi ignored me, engrossed into his book. The man raised a hand to his mouth and let out a perverted giggle as he continued to read from the latest addition to the Icha Icha series: Icha Icha girls gone wild – lesbian edition.

Still, despite how unguarded he appeared to be, I wasn't fooled. Not anymore. I finally understood my mistake. When I began this fight I had been expecting to fight a different Kakashi, the anime version of himself. But I was wrong, and ended up getting my ass handed to me because of my mistake. That's because the person I ended up fighting with was someone entirely different than I thought he would be.

The man who stood before me was someone who had stepped into the battlefield in one of the bloodiest wars in history at the tender age of five and had not only survived, but flourished. This was the Anbu Captain, Konoha's strongest Jonin and the man who would become the Rokudaime Hokage.

He was the real thing, this was the real Hatake Kakashi.

I sighed even as I felt a smile bloom on my face. It was an odd feeling, knowing just how strong the man who stood before me was. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be feeling right now. Upset that he's that much stronger than me or happy that I'm going to be taught by someone this strong.

I barked out a laugh. Ha! I really should stop getting ahead of myself again. Until I got the bell off him I shouldn't presume that Kakashi becoming our Sensei was a sure thing. The last time I tried assuming something about Kakashi, I got my ass handed to me. For now, I should just ignore everything and just focus on getting the bell.

With a quick scan of my Byakugan, I checked up on the others. Good, looks like Naruto's almost done. While it hadn't turned out anywhere near as I hoped it would, I've somehow managed to stall Kakashi long enough.

All that's left is to bait the trap.

And I know just how to do it.

I sighed, "And I really was hoping to keep this hidden for a little while longer."

"Hmm?" Kakashi didn't bother to look up from his book, "Did you say something?"

"Not a thing," reaching up to my forehead protector, I yanked it down so that it covered my eyes. Yet even as I blindfolded myself, I didn't have any trouble seeing, not with my Byakugan. "But Kakashi, in exchange for the advice you've just given me, I'll give you one back in return. For the next minute or so, I suggest you don't take your eyes off of me even for a second or you'll end up regretting it."

When Kakashi just flipped a page and kept reading, I couldn't help but smirk. That's right you smug bastard, keep on ignoring. That'll just make things so much more satisfying when I finally got one over you.

Dropping to one knee, I held my left-hand face down on the ground before me, my right hand gripping my left wrist. As I began gathering chakra into my hand, I started explaining, "The tunnel vision was a real pain to get used to but nothing my Byakugan couldn't handle. And the brightness of the attack really hurt my eyes, luckily my forehead protector came in really handy to block out the light. And with my imperfect Lightning Release I could boost my reaction time enough to compensate for the speed," next I began moulding the chakra, changing both its form and nature, "It's still not quite perfect but it should be more than enough to wipe that smug look off your face."

The once peaceful clearing was filled with the screeching of a thousand birds.

Kakashi's head shot up from his book, his eye-widening as genuine surprise filled his features. "That's-!"

Flashes of blue and white light danced off my face as I smirked at him, "What? Did you honestly think that after all of these years you spent spying on me and Naruto, that I wouldn't try spying on you in turn? Or did you think that only you were allowed to steal other people's techniques, eh, Copy Ninja Kakashi?"

The earth gave way as the sphere of concentrated electricity came to life in my hand, it's chirping proving worthy of its namesake. Kakashi could not take his eyes off it, staring in disbelief, and that was when I knew that for the first time since the fight had started, Kakashi had finally lowered his guard.

Now!

Pouring chakra to my legs, I burst forward, shooting towards the still stunned Kakashi with every last drop of speed I could draw on, the Chidori cleaving a trench beside me. I covered the space dividing us in an instant, moving so fast that I would have been nothing but a blur to most people, to most ninja, and swung the Chidori towards the right side of his chest.

Yet once again I was proven to be the lesser of the two of us. By whatever standards you measured me by, I was fast. Faster than most Genin, even most Chuunin. There were even Jonin out there whose speed I was confident I could match. Yet for all my speed – Kakashi was simply faster.

With my Lightning Release reactivated, I could see every detail happen in the clarity of slow motion. Kakashi, even through his surprise, reacted flawlessly. He pulled his right shoulder back, pivoting on his left foot so that my Chidori just missed him, allowing him to dodge with the minimum amount of movement necessary. And yet even as he avoided the lethal attack, Kakashi never once took his eyes off the Chidori.

Perfect.

Now came the hard part. Carefully, so that I don't end up frying my own nerves, I began channelling lightning chakra into my right arm. The change was as instantaneous as it was remarkable - where once my arm moved as slow as everything else when I viewed the world in my imperfect Lightning Release, it now responded to my commands immediately.

My right hand shot forward towards Kakashi's belt, so much faster than before that they could not be compared. And for the first time in battle, I caught a glimpse of what it felt like to master the Lightning Armour.

Yet the technique was not perfect for a reason. Even as my hand moved towards its target, I felt my shoulder strain from bearing the pressure of its limb moving far faster than it was ever intended to. Then I felt something pop as my shoulder dislocated and pain flared in my head. But I was ready for it and didn't allow the pain to stop me, didn't allow my hand to waver as I fought through the pain.

Kakashi must have noticed something wrong because he turned away from the Chidori and glanced down towards my right hand, his eye-widening in alarm as he realized where it was headed. His own hand shot towards his belt as well, moving even faster than mine was, but I already had a substantial head start on him.

Then, it was over.

We split apart, my momentum carrying forward and past Kakashi while my Sensei remained where he stood. I stumbled for a couple of steps, bleeding my momentum off before I leapt and landed softly a good distance away, bending my knees into a slight crouch to absorb the impact. For a long while I stayed there, my back towards him even while he had his back towards my own.

The leaves rustled in their branches overhead in the now silent clearing.

"Not bad, I honestly didn't see that one coming," Kakashi admitted before turning to me and held up the bell. He jiggled it once as he flashed me a smile, "But you still missed."

"I didn't miss." Reaching across my chest, I gripped my right shoulder and pulled. Pain flared up in my skull like a bonfire as I felt the joint shift before popping back into place with a sickening 'pop' but I ignored it. Dealing with pain was one of the very first lessons we were taught as shinobi and everyone who ever walked out of the Academy knew how to ignore it.

Rising from my crouch, I turned to face Kakashi. Flashing him my most mischievous smile, I held up the item I had succeeded in stealing off him, "I'm not stupid enough to think I could steal the bell off of you that easily, so I aimed for the next best thing."

There was a brief instant of bewilderment before Kakashi's eye widened in genuine horror.

"I mean sure it's no bell, but I think it would do just as nicely." I waved the Icha Icha book mockingly at him before stowing it away into my side-pouch. I made sure to give him one last cheerful wave goodbye before turning away, "Well, I think I had my fill for now. See ya later Sensei."

Then I flickered away.

As soon as I was out of the clearing I leapt up onto a tree branch and began hopping from tree to tree as fast as my legs could take me. Glancing to my side, I yelled out to one of the Naruto's clones that I knew was hiding there. "Naruto, get your ass out here!"

No sooner had the words left my lips that I found myself with a blond companion by my side.

"So did you get it?" She asked as she leapt from a branch beside me, excitement clear in her voice.

"Yes, I did. Tell Shikamaru that I got him the bait he wanted, hurry!"

"Ok, Ok," She held up her hands, "sheesh, calm down Hikaru. Why are you panicking?"

A wave of Killing Intent slammed into us like a wave, so thick it felt like we were drowning in it. The day briefly went dark as the sky above us was filled with fluttering wings, every bird that called the forest home erupting from the trees as they fled to the skies in a cacophony of noise.

The world then flashed with the colour of blue lightning before a maddened howl, more beast than man, echoed through the woods.

"RAIKIRI!"

I gave Naruto a panicked glance, "That's why," before jabbing her in the arm, popping the clone so that the original could get the message.

Then I made a mistake.

I should have followed Shikamaru's instructions and ran. It would have been the smart thing to do. Instead I allowed my curiosity to get the better of me and made the mistake of glancing back at Kakashi with my Byakugan.

I regretted it immediately.

Had you ever seen a pissed off Elite Jounin, one angry enough that he genuinely wanted to kill you? Not for a mission or duty but because he honest-to-god wanted nothing more than to wrap his hands around your neck and squeeze until it snaps. I did, and I'm not ashamed to say it scared the living crap out of me.

His single eye shone with pure loathing as he came after me, his mouth twisted into a hate-filled snarl as foam dotted the edge of his lips. He didn't even bother tree hopping and just ran straight to me, cutting down anything that got in his way, leaving a path of destruction behind him.

Oh Shit! I stopped looking at the madman and began hightailing out of there as fast as I could. Legs, Run Faster! RUN BITCH RUN!

I couldn't tell you how much time passed until I broke out of the forest and leapt down into the large empty clearing that was my destination, all I could say that I had never moved faster in either of my lives.

Even as I landed on the grass I didn't dare stop moving, immediately leaping ahead in full sprint towards the centre of the clearing, barely slowing down to make sure I didn't step on anything I shouldn't. Spotting the patch of land I was supposed to stop at and hold my ground, I forced even more speed into my aching legs as dashed towards it.

Once I reached it I barely had time to stop and turn around when the trees I had just vacated blew up with a flash of lightning.

"GIVE ME BACK MY ICHA ICHA!"

The demon from hell burst out from the woods screeching like a madman. His eye immediately locked onto my form and he charged, the Raikiri thrust before him like a spear.

But the moment he took one step towards me-

*Boom*

-ground beneath his feet blew up in a small explosion.

Once more Kakashi demonstrated why he was a first-class ninja. Even enraged as he was, screaming like a demented bat, there was no drop in reaction time. His foot had barely brushed the group when he flipped direction and leapt back, escaping the worst of the blast. In the end, the only signs of damage he sustained was the slight scorch marks on the base of his pants.

"I wouldn't take another step forward if I were you," I spread my feet a bit wider, lowering my centre of gravity and took one of the more defensive stances of the Gentle Fist, "This clearing is filled with-"

Kakashi didn't even wait for me to finish explaining.

Dropping into a low crouch, Kakashi leapt up, soaring through the air to get to me, avoiding the ground completely. One moment he was on the other side of the clearing, the next he was almost on top of me, shooting through the air like a hawk.

Good thing we had already planned for this.

The air whistled with kunai that burst from the woods. Not one or a dozen but hundreds. They came from every direction, filling the air like a torrent of rain as they shot towards us like arrows from a bow.

By the time the kunai reached us, I was already moving. No, it was more accurate to say that I had already begun moving before the kunai were even fired. Without bothering to see how Kakashi fared against the rain of razor-sharp steel heading towards us, I prepared my own defence.

Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven – Kaiten

Chakra poured out from every single one of the 361 tenketsu points around my body as I spun in place, creating a rotating shield of chakra around me.

The pinging of rain hitting a tin roof began sounding around me as the kunai failed to find purchase on the Kaiten and were deflected away. Still, I didn't stop spinning. The technique drained my Chakra sharply as I maintained it for nearly five full seconds, stopping only once I was sure the bombardment of kunai ended.

When I ended my rotation, I found myself surrounded by a field littered by Kunai. There were literally hundreds of them. Some were scattered flat against the ground, hidden among the grass, while others were buried tip first into the soft soil. Thankfully, the explosive tags we used were triggered by proximity to chakra, not pressure, or else this whole place would have been blown sky-high.

I spotted Kakashi on the far end of the clearing, a few meters away from the edge of the woods. A log studded with Kunai sat on the ground only a few paces away from me, no doubt the result from a last-second Kawarimi. I tensed once I spotted him, only relaxing once I realised that he wasn't going to charge me again. It looked like he had managed to calm down a bit because he was actually examining his surroundings instead of simply attacking me.

"Do you finally feel like listening?" I called out, catching his attention, before making a show of shaking my head and sighing. "You know what? I don't really feel like explaining things to you anymore, so I'm going to tag out and leave it up to Shikamaru."

There was a short pause as I waited for Naruto to deliver the message to Shikamaru, before I began to convey his words. "Sigh - So damn troublesome. Fine, fine, I get it, I'll explain, just stop with your complaining woman. Sigh, why the hell did I get mixed up in such a troublesome team? Anyways.

"Listen carefully Kakashi, right now Hikaru is surrounded by a field of Grade 1 explosive tags. Three hundred and forty-two of them to be exact – three hundred and forty-three if you count the one you've already triggered. The force of their explosions shouldn't be enough to kill you but they still pack enough of a punch to blow your foot off if you're not careful.

"In addition, you're currently surrounded by Shadow Clones. Naruto has filled the woods with hundreds of them, most of which are currently circling you. They're ready to jump in and support Hikaru at a moment's notice should you try to attack him. I believe you have already witnessed how effective their long-range support can be."

The first few seconds of me speaking had Kakashi staring at me as if I had gone completely insane but as I continued to speak his expression slowly began to morph into shock, then comprehension.

"You're reading his lips." Kakashi breathed out in amazement.

"Bingo." I confirmed, interrupting Shikamaru's explanation, "You wouldn't believe the amount of things you can pull off with the Byakugan. It always amazes me how people keep underestimating its usefulness. It's almost as if they believed that if something didn't have a direct combat application then it'd be worthless in a fight. Well allow me clear that misconception up and tell you what I can really do with these eyes of mine.

"I can see everything Kakashi, and I mean everything. I can see all that's happening in these woods, and I have been for the entire time. Since the very start of our fight I had been keeping track of Shikamaru and Naruto, never letting them leave my sight. And for that entire time, we've been communicating with each other. With my eyes and lipreading I can listen to any commands Shikamaru gives, while Naruto can update him about our situation with her clones.

"Right now Shikamaru is hidden far away from you in a safe place, planning and strategizing on how to take you down. While the original Naruto is by his side, updating him on the status of our fight and marking the points on the map where she had finished setting up her traps. You see Kakashi since the very moment you set foot onto the training ground, Shikamaru had given me a single command: Stall.

"And while I was doing just that, Naruto has turned this entire forest into her death trap – just like she did with this field here. Even now as we speak, there are dozens of her clones roaming through the woods, setting up even more traps just for you. And the best part is, I won't have any trouble avoiding them because I know exactly where they all are.

"I told you, didn't I? I can see everything. This clearing might look like nothing more than an empty stretch of grassland to you but with my eyes, I can see every tag in this field as clearly as the stars in the night sky. Not just the ones here but every tag in the entire forest along with her other traps. So you see Kakashi from now on you're going to have to watch every step you take or risk losing a foot while I can roam freely without fear."

Shikamaru really was a genius. It hadn't been a full day since we've been put together as a team but he'd already managed to adapt to our unique abilities and developed several plans and formations that played on our strengths.

The current formation we're using was called Kakoi - named after some kind of defensive play from Shogi.

It can be summed up as this: Shikamaru remains hidden until he's needed while still delivering commands to the rest of us; me through my eyes and Naruto through her clones.

It was a simple but frighteningly effective tactic in Shikamaru's hands. With it he could focus completely on creating battle plans while allowing him to deliver commands in real-time without risking himself on the battlefield. And with Naruto's clones continuously giving him status updates he'll know everything that's going on. In a way it really was like playing a game of Shogi from his point of view; with Shikamaru as the player while Naruto and I were the pieces.

When I noticed Shikamaru started speaking again I stopped talking and began repeating his words. "Are you two done with your chit-chatting? Good because I want to get this whole mess over with already and get back to sleep. Kakashi, you're forbidden from leaving the clearing. Should you decide to ignore this condition then be warned that I've commanded Hikaru to set your book on fire."

Kakashi went very stilled, eye-widening slightly at the reminder of his precious book, before he adopted a look of feigned indifference. He shrugged, "I could always replace it, it's not as if it's a rare book. You kids probably don't know about it, being underaged and all, but the Icha Icha series is a best seller. There are thousands of copies in Konoha alone. "

Once more I had to wait for the few seconds it took for one of Naruto's clones to pop and deliver the message to Shikamaru, before continuing. "Quit bluffing. We already confirmed that the copy Hikaru's holding isn't available for sale yet. It's an early release of the newest addition to the series that's set to release next month. I don't know how many of them exist in Konoha but odds are if this one gets destroyed, you won't be able to get your hands on another copy until next month at the earliest."

Kakashi and Jiraiya never appeared to be particularly close in the series despite their shared connection via Minato but it looked they were close enough for Jiraya to send the grey-haired ninja a special edition of his work.

It was all thanks to that we could make all of this work in the first place.

When Shikamaru had first proposed this plan, Naruto brought up a very good point. Why couldn't we simply trade Kakashi the book for the bell? The answer it turned out was credibility. Shikamaru explained that in a hostage situation – with the book being the hostage in this case - the hostage-takers had to establish credibility before any of their demands could be taken seriously.

If we threatened to destroy the book if Kakashi didn't hand over the bell then what should we do if he refused? If we followed through with our threat and destroyed the book we'd end up losing our only leverage and have an enraged Jonin on our hands. And if we don't burn the book then Kakashi will never take our threats seriously, he'd think they were all bluffs and continue to ignore any of our demands.

The solution, Shikamaru explained, was to create reasonable demands. Something simple and easy for Kakashi to fulfil. Demands meant to distract him while we prepared for our real attack.

And Shikamaru had just given me the signal to spring it.

"You know what?" I glanced at the book in my hands before giving Kakashi an exaggerated shrug, "I don't want the stupid book anymore. Here, you can have it back. Catch." Pulling my arm back I threw the book at him, aiming for a spot just a little in front of him.

Suspicion warred with eagerness on Kakashi's face, knowing this was too good to be true but the prize was simply too much for him to risk losing, and in the end, his eagerness ended up winning.

Kakashi made sure not to shift his feet as he leaned forward to snatch the book out of the air, still mindful of the tags. Kakashi made sure to keep his one eye on me while he stretched his hand, never once lowering his guard or looking away, weary for any trick or attacks

That was his mistake.

It wasn't me that he should have been looking out for, I wasn't the one who was going to be attacking.

Kakashi's fingers had barely brushed the book's cover when the treetops burst into motion. There had been no warning, not so much as leaf steering that may have indicated that anyone had been hidden there when they suddenly leapt out from the trees as one and came raining down upon our heads like the rain.

Hundreds upon hundreds, they fell from up above, leaping from every surrounding tree the Shadow Clones filled the sky with their number, blotting out the sun and casting us in their shadow as they came charging down.

Their sheer number was the stuff of legend.

No one in the entire history of the Shinobi world had ever been able to produce so many, and for a mere twelve-year-old girl to achieve something that even the Kage of old could not was astonishing.

Yet that wasn't what had startled Kakashi. No, what Kakashi's single eye was riveted on were not the clones themselves but what they held in their hands.

Blue spheres of destruction - spiralling balls of revolving energy.

The personal jutsu of his former teacher, the Yondaime Hokage.

"RASENGAN!" A hundred and more voices called out as they thrust their arms forward as one, raining down death and destruction on our heads.

And still, Kakashi reacted.

Through the shock, through the sheer impossibility of what he was seeing, he moved, reacting to the danger. Even as he stared up at the hundreds of clones using a technique that they had no business knowing, his hands were already forming into the seals he needed to begin his counter attack-

"Shadow Possession Technique - Successful."

-just as Shikamaru predicted.

Kakashi's hands froze halfway through forming a seal, his entire body going rigid still. Genuine shock filled his expression before he glanced downwards, his single eyes widening, "What?"

It was then that he saw it –

The hundreds of shadows cast by the clones.

Kakashi's mistake was that while he was busy defending himself from the threat above, he failed to realize the threat that came from below.

All around us the Naruto clones landed softly on the ground, carefully placing their feet away from the traps they had planted earlier while the Rasengan dispelled from their hands.

"Someone, as experienced as you, is no doubt familiar with my Clan's jutsu," Shikamaru's voice echoed out of the forest from my right, where he laid hidden from sight in the foliage and shadows. "So you should already know that I can extend my jutsu's range by using other shadows."

I had lied when I told Kakashi that Shikamaru was hiding far away. He had been hidden alright but far closer than I ever let on. Waiting and ready to spring this trap when Kakashi would least expect it.

Kakashi's eye traced the shadow from his feet as it stretched from shadow to shadow of a dozen and more clones before it disappeared into the darkness of the forest, "But using other people's shadows would only increase the strain of the jutsu. You shouldn't have anywhere near enough skill or chakra needed to pull off capturing and restraining this many people."

"Normally that would be the case but only when my victims struggle. If they remain perfectly still like Naruto's clones are doing then I can use their shadows to help anchor you down. With their help then even someone like you won't be able to break out fast enough to matter. I'm afraid this is checkmate, Hatake Kakashi."

The entire Shikamaru spoke I hadn't just been standing idly by, I'd been racing towards Kakashi. Unfortunately with all the clones in the way, along with making sure not to accidentally trigger any of the traps, it took me far longer than I would have liked but I still managed to reach Kakashi's side just as Shikamaru finished speaking.

Kakashi was oddly silent as he watched me approach, not saying anything even as he saw me reach for the bell on his waist. It was only when I was about to grab it did he move.

He didn't attack, he didn't even say anything, he just smiled proudly down at me. Not mockingly like he was prone to do but a genuinely proud and honest expression on his face that I never seen the like of in all the years I've known him.

I instantly knew something was wrong.

I threw myself backwards, not even waiting to see what he had in mind as I leapt away, desperately trying to put as much distance between us as fast as I could. And it was a good thing I had for only a heartbeat later-

"Chidori Nagashi"

Electricity bloomed around his form, encasing his body in a cocoon of living lightning. The clones around him immediately erupted into smoke as lightning leapt from his form and struck the surrounding clones, dispelling them instantly – along with their shadows.

Momentarily freed from the Shadow possession, but still surrounded by the tags, Kakashi didn't hesitate to place his fingers between his lips and blow.

A sharp whistle rang through the clearing, so loud that I wouldn't be surprised if it could be heard for miles. And no sooner had the whistling died out that it was replaced by answering howls.

Kakashi's summoned dogs leapt into the field.

Clones popped by the dozens, ringing the clearing with smoke while the sounds of explosions filled my ears as the dogs triggered the explosive tags. Not by accident either, the dogs seemed to be deliberately tripping the tags as they ran before leaping quickly away, their speed and weight allowing them to escape unharmed. A few were even knocking surprised clones onto the tags, setting them off and dispelling them using their own traps.

Only a few seconds later, it was over.

Twenty or so dogs encircled around the now freed Kakashi. They stood protectively by his side, ready to attack or defend in a moment's notice. Kakashi looked as composed as ever as he tucked the Icha Icha book into his pouch and smiled at us.

It happened so fast I could barely process it.

It couldn't have been more than ten seconds. In just ten seconds Kakashi had managed to flip things entirely around, going from being totally trapped by the shadows to having us on the back foot. Without Naruto's shadows to help him, Shikamaru knew he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop Kakashi and was forced to withdraw, slipping back into hiding.

Really, Kishimoto, how much did you nerf this guy?

"You know," Kakashi looked over me and the dozen or so remaining Naruto clones. "I'm really starting to like you kids."

"Well if you like us so damn much," one of the clones spoke up with a cheeky grin, "how about you give us that bell of yours as a reward."

"Hmm," Kakashi scratched his chin and actually seemed to consider it for a moment before shaking his head. "Nice try but no dice. I don't like you that much. Besides, you guys stole my book. I'm afraid I'm going to have to discipline you for that.""

The clone closest to me turned to flash me a grin, "So I guess that means we're going to stick with the Plan A then."

I was just about to nod in agreement when I paused, furrowing my brows at her in confusion. I asked, "Plan A? What the hell is plan A?"

"Ass kicking of course." Naruto cracked her knuckles before leering at Kakashi, "Looks like I'm gonna have to beat you black and blue and just take that bell off of you Sensei."

Shadows began to move in the woods around us before the figures of a hundred newly created clones emerged from the trees and walked onto the clearing, replacing their fallen brethren and looking eager to avenge them.

The dogs, seeing the new arrivals, bared their fangs at us. Kakashi said nothing, he simply pulled out a kunai and dropped into a combat stance, having decided to take us seriously.

I too took up a fighting pose and began moulding my chakra in preparation for the fight.

An unusual battle line began to form on the clearing. One half of the field was filled with clones who glared at their counterpart while the summoned dogs formed a line across from them.

Only Kakashi and I were the odd ones out from our respective armies.

I flashed Kakashi a cocky smirk as I received Shikamaru's new orders. "Now, let's begin round 2."

The dogs let loose a howl while the Narutos yelled out a battle cry of their own as they both charged at each other and clashed.

---

"Kakashi, why is there a booger sticking out of my nose?"

"…Well, it's not necessarily a booger. If you tilt your head to the side and squint a little it kind of looks like a nose hair-

"It's a booger Kakashi." Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage turned to look at the kneeling Jonin. He was wearing a genial look on his face that fooled no one. "I know what a booger looks like when I see one, and that" He pointed at the Hokage Monument, "is a booger sticking out of my nose. Now kindly explain to me why it's there."

The booger in question was the top half of an upside-down tree that somehow got lodged up the left nostril of Sarutobi's carved face. The leaves that hung out from the left half of his nose did look remarkably like a giant booger.

Though to be fair, Kakashi wasn't the one who lodged that thing up there, it was Naruto.

During the fight, Naruto had used one of the few ninjutsu that she had been able to learn, Futon: Great Breakthrough, a C-ranked wind technique that releases a sudden gust of wind. And as we discovered during training, the scale of the resulting gust of wind can vary greatly depending on how much chakra she poured into it and during the fight…well, let's just say things got a little heated and Naruto was forced to pour more chakra in that attack then she'd ever done before.

A huge patch of the forest was missing, simply gone as if it was wiped out of existence. The resulting winds were so strong that most of the trees just gave way to it, splintering so badly that nothing but splinters the size of my foot remained. But that particular tree must have been rather robust because it managed to fly all the way to the Hokage monument without breaking until it crashed into it.

In a rare stroke of good luck, Sarutobi didn't seem to believe we were to be blamed for the event. That Kakashi, being our Sensei, was the one responsible for its presence. So while Kakashi was forced to kneel like a misbehaving child in front of the Hokage we stood off to the side and silently watched all of this play out. Well, Shikamaru and I were watching silently, Naruto had her arms wrapped around her belly as she laughed at Kakashi.

When Kakashi stayed sullenly silent, Sarutobi pointed with his pipe to the rest of the forest, "And what about all of this, what happened here? You do realize that despite me loaning it to you for the morning this forest is not yours alone, correct? It belongs to all of the other teams as well. There were well over a hundred training grounds inside it when I handed it over to you but now look at it all, ruined. How did you manage to do so much damage to it in a single morning I have no idea."

The forest in question was roaming with Anbu, they were all over the place. Most were putting out the raging fires that threatened to burn what was left of it down, others were defusing the thousands of traps that Naruto had littered the place with, and more than a few were trying to free themselves from traps they had accidentally tripped.

Just that second a rather unfortunate Anbu was sent flying through the air as he triggered a trap, his foot slipping on a snarl that sent a bent tree whipping into the sky and catapulting him away. I watched, morbidly, as he vanished into the distance and I could only manage to keep track thanks to the Byakugan. Fortunately, he managed to right himself in the last second and land without getting hurt but not before breaking through a poor sob's bathroom window while he had been in the middle of bathing.

I just shook my head and turned back to the scene playing out before me.

As the fight kept getting dragged out and the deadline grew ever closer we became more than a little desperate and had begun taking drastic measures. We started using Grade 2 explosive tags instead of Grade 1, then when that didn't work we switched to Grade 3, then after that we simply tossed everything we had at the guy. At one point Naruto had to send a few clones back to the compound to resupply and they brought back an entire crate full of tags, which we ended up using every last one.

In one go.

I even had to resort to firing off a few Katon: Great Fireball Techniques, the only fire jutsu I knew and let's just say that it didn't do anything but help the forest burn down faster.

Now less than a third of the once-pristine forest was left standing. Most of it had either been burned down, was currently in the process of being burned down or had been blown up and turned to craters by the explosive tags.

After taking a moment to take it all in, Sarutobi gave Kakashi an incredulous look, "This was supposed to be a Genin exam Kakashi not a re-enactment of the Third Shinobi World War. What happened?"

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and gave the Hokage an awkward smile, "They…put up a far better fight than I was led to expect that they would."

"Then you pass them Kakashi." Sarutobi sounded as if he were explaining something simple to a particularly slow-witted child. "You don't let the fight deteriorate to-to-to-" He waved a hand to the wasteland that had once been a forest. "-I don't even know what to call this."

Sarutobi shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do you realize how close I was to having a heart attack when I looked out of my window to see a tree flying by? Just casually flying by in front of my office as if flying trees were an everyday occurrence before crashing into my face? As if that wasn't bad enough I almost believed we were being invaded when half the forest just blew up. One minute it was there then, poof, it was gone." The aged Hokage opened his eyes, "Did you pass them yet?"

Kakashi began to look incredibly awkward at the question and refused to look directly at the Hokage. "…Not exactly, no."

The Hokage just stared blankly at what was supposed to be one of the greatest Jonin his village had to offer. "After all of this, you still didn't pass them?"

"…They haven't gotten the bell yet."

Sarutobi started at Kakashi, looking down at him for a good long minute as if he were the biggest idiot he had ever seen before he whacked him in the head with his pipe. Twice.

The old man then kneeled down and snatched the bell off Kakashi's belt before lobbing it over his shoulder towards Naruto.

"There, they have it. Congratulations Jonin Hatake Kakashi, you are now the Sensei to these three Genin and squad leader of Team 7."

Kakashi tried to object, "But-"

*Whack*

The Hokage lifted his pipe off Kakashi's head and began walking away. "They pass Kakashi. Deal with it." Then he stopped and spared a glance at the fiery hell the training ground had become. "Oh and Kakashi. You are forbidden from administrating the bell test ever again. You clearly have no idea how it's supposed to work."

Then the Hokage left, leaving the newly minted Genin team behind him.

And that ladies and gentlemen was how the new team 7 was born…in a field of fire, ash and destruction where once bloomed life…Somehow I had the feeling that this wasn't going to be a one-time off thing for us either.

"Like I said…" a soot-covered Shikamaru coughed out as he glanced around himself, "…this is bullshit."

---

*Chapter End*

Author's Notes:

Dear god, I've planned out and written this entire chapter in less than 8 days and I am exhausted. Still, this is the first big fight of the story so I really hope you liked it. (sorry if the notes are a mess I'm running on fumes as I write this).

So how was the fight? I really wanted to convey the old Naruto feel in it, where instead of pure power ups and mountain destroying attacks of recent episodes I wanted to fill the fight full of tactics and strategy and I hope I manage to pull it off.

I always felt like Naruto wasted his shadow clones - they are an army and all he uses it to spam his enemies with attack, I mean they could act like scouts, turn an entire forest into an endless series of traps in a matter of seconds but all he does is spam rasengan on his enemies. such a waste of an army killing ability.

I remember a review asking how Naruto's character changed with Hikaru in her life - well I hope the part when she talks about her dreams answers that question a little bit.

Personally I always felt that Shikamaru's talents are wasted with Choji and Ino. This guy is a stratergist but those two gives him too little moves to play with (It feels like he use his intelligence to keep them alive more than anything). A guy like him can only show his true potential if you give him enough pieces to play with. With Naruto he has the equivalent of a one man army / human swiss army knife. And Hikaru is an assassin that can scout for him yet still listen to his commands from afar. Shikamaru's real weakness (other than combat ability) is his inability to convey the plans he thinks of to his teammates. With Hikaru's ability to read lips, all Shikamaru has to do is silently whisper them out and he will get the message no matter how far away.

Remember that this Shikamaru isn't the motivated person he will be later one – This Shikamaru didn't experience the defeat from the Sasuke retrieval arc or Asuma's death yet. This is still the guy who wants to be nothing more than average. He will grow of course but so far he is still the inexperienced kid from the beginning of the series.

Oh, and had any of you noticed how weird it is for Kurani - the Genjutsu expert - to have no one on her team to teach genjutsu to? Well, that's never made any sense to me so I gave her what I believed to be a more appropriate team.

Kakashi – has there ever been any character more shafted by plot than this guy? He was supposed to be a genius but in the series they just showed him as average. I mean Sasuke learned a dozen different kinds of the Chidori - Kakashi's personal Jutsu - in three years while Kakashi himself didn't in the ten years since he created the technique? Well, that ain't happening here. Kakashi is going to be as strong and talented as he was supposed to be.

Sorry if everything is coming out jumbled up, I'm tired as hell but I want to get this out for the weekend for all of you to enjoy.

So how was the chapter? How did the characters turn out (Kakashi is hard as hell to write, I don't think I've ever seen someone who is a perfect mix of smart-ass and just a plain ass yet still come out so damn likeable - plus now I know why Shikamaru doesn't show up in a lot of fics despite his popularity, writing a genius character is hard).

I put a lot of effort into it and I really hope you guys enjoyed it so please tell me what you think. And thanks for reading.