(A/N) Bell Test! This is from mostly Taroko's head, so when her speaking has normal quotations, "" as opposed to '', It does mean she is speaking in raptor. It will only happen when addressing Danromi, who will reply in kind.
Two hours later, Taroko left the rest of the team where they'd fallen asleep, and went to hunt down Kakashi. She tracked him to the memorial stone, standing at the entrance to the place and watching him. She knew he could sense her there, she hadn't exactly been sneaky as she approached.
"Taroko," Kakashi said finally, not bothering to look at her.
'Kakashi,' she tapped. 'Coming? I am not waiting another hour for you to show up.'
"And your teammates?" Kakashi asked, amusement coloring his tone.
'Are sleeping,' Taroko admitted. 'But the fact remains. You are already two hours late. I will come look for you earlier next time. If you want more time with your memorial stone, wake up earlier.'
"You'll have to find me, I am not so predictable," Kakashi warned.
'Whatever, just give us our test,' Taroko tapped, staring at him until he relented, and stood up, standing up and following her back to the training ground.
Naruto appeared to have woken up, and was currently poking Sasuke in hopes of waking him up.
Taroko chirped loudly in greeting, Sasuke and Naruto both jumping about a foot in the air. Sakura startled so badly she dropped her book.
"Good morning my cute little students!" Kakashi said, eye smiling at them. Taroko rolled her eyes and stood next to Naruto, tail swinging ever so slightly.
Naruto glared at Kakashi. "You're late."
'Would've been later,' Taroko replied, wrinkling her snout at Kakashi.
Kakashi didn't reply, just held up two bells, placing an alarm clock on the nearest stump. "Get one of these bells from me by the time this alarm clock goes off, and you will become a proper genin. Fail to get one, and you get sent back to the academy."
Taroko narrowed her eyes, already planning to smash the clock. It would give them more time, if nothing else.
"Ready?" Kakashi asked, attaching both bells to his waist. Taroko shifted so her tail was across Naruto's chest, holding him back from attacking Kakashi until it was time. Danromi abandoned Sasuke's duck hair, where she'd perched at some time earlier, and perched on Taroko's back instead, settling down and wriggling her wings under two of the straps on Taroko's harness. Conveniently, this also gave her perfect access to the pouch with the jerky in it.
"Begin!" Kakashi said, eye smiling like he expected someone to rush forward and attack him. Which no one did. Kakashi opened his eye to find that everyone had disappeared.
Taroko could easily find Sasuke and Sakura, not only by tracing their scents, but she could see them as well. They weren't the most well hidden. Sasuke was up in that tree over there, to Kakashi's left, and Sakura was on the ground over there in those bushes. By the glint in Kakashi's eye, she figured they'd been spotted.
She knew where Naruto was, couldn't really see him though. He wasn't trying to keep in the vision range of Kakashi, instead relying on his sharp senses of smell and hearing. Which was probably a good idea, keep Kakashi guessing.
She was, in fact, not hidden very well, but her natural camouflage did a lot, breaking up her shape and making her more difficult to find by shape recognition. Also, she was trying to keep an eye on the other two people on this team. Iruka had told them that genin teams were made up of four people, three genin, one jounin sensei.
Either Kakashi wanted them to work together to futilely try for the bells, or he actually wanted two of them to get the bells and the third to fail. If that was the option, he'd probably have to pick up a genin that had lost their team, or they'd wait a year for the graduating class and select one from there.
The second two were unlikely, given the amount of effort it would require. Kakashi didn't seem like the type that wanted to go to any extra effort. … Dang, she'd probably have to teach herself and Naruto, given Kakashi didn't seem like he'd teach them at all.
Maybe they could trade him in for another teacher later. One that would actually teach them. But that would have to wait for later. For now, she had to actually collect everyone else and explain. Either they'd believe her, or they wouldn't.
"Danromi, he doesn't seem the type to go through extra work, right?" Taroko barked quietly to her companion.
"Not really," Danromi replied. "Seems pretty lazy to me."
Taroko nodded to herself. Second opinion gotten, even if from a day old hatchling, now time to find, well, get to the others. She knew where they were, it was the getting to them that was the problem.
And Kakashi was off, heading towards Sakura, it looked like.
With Kakashi gone from the clearing, Taroko raced out from cover, crossing the field in a matter of seconds, and plunging back into the undergrowth. She would explain to Sakura after her backend was thoroughly kicked by Kakashi.
Taroko paused when she came across an unconscious Sakura. A sniff of the air later, and nope, she wasn't bleeding, so why was she unconscious. It didn't look like she had been forcefully knocked out, the way she was lying didn't suggest that, so what had happened?
Taroko nudged Sakura with her snout, but the girl didn't stir. "Danromi, stay here and keep an eye on her. I'll go after Sasuke. You can find me again, right?"
Danromi hopped off of Taroko's back. "Yeah, you're easy to find among the tall pale things."
"Humans," Taroko reminded.
Danromi wrinkled her snout. "Whatever."
Taroko rolled her eyes and ran off into the undergrowth again, tracking Kakashi's scent to where he was fighting Sasuke.
Taroko watched as Sasuke got a few good hits in before darting out and making a grab for the bells with her teeth. Kakashi turned into a log and got away, Taroko's jaws snapping shut on thin air.
Taroko stopped, digging her claws into the ground to stop her momentum. She shook herself, turning to Sasuke. 'Come on, I know what he's doing. Listen, and we'll pass this test, don't, and we'll all fail.'
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her, but nodded, following her back into the undergrowth.
Taroko poked Sakura with one of her claws this time. 'Still out? Really?'
"Really," Danromi noted dryly.
'When did you pick up morse code?' Taroko asked, staring at the small dragon. She also spoke it out loud.
"Lucky guess," Danromi replied, shrugging.
"What did you want to say?" Sasuke asked impatiently.
Taroko leveled him with a flat stare. 'When Naruto gets here.' With that, she let out a piercing screeching chirp, designed to be heard for miles. Naruto would hear, and come.
Sure enough, two minutes later, Naruto materialized next to Sasuke, startling the Uchiha. "Where did you come from dobe?"
Naruto shrugged. "The bushes?"
Taroko shook her head. 'One of you two will have to explain it to Sakura when she wakes up. I'm not doing it twice. Alright, you know that neither of you have a chance against a jounin, right?'
"Yeah, I'm not that stupid," Naruto said.
Sasuke didn't say anything, so Taroko took that as a sign to continue. 'And you know a genin team is supposed to be three genin and a jounin sensei, right?'
"Iruka did say that in class," Sasuke agreed reluctantly.
Taroko bobbed her head. 'Right. Anyway, with this test, he has two options. Pass all three of us, or pass only one or two, and find other people to fill the remaining spaces.'
"Or pass none of us," Naruto added.
'Or that,' Taroko agreed. 'You can agree that Kakashi seems like he really wouldn't bother doing the extra work, right?'
"Yeah, he barely moved while fighting me." Sasuke sounded sour, so Taroko left that alone.
'Either way this goes, he won't do that second option, he's too lazy to bother applying for another genin or two to join the team, or wait an entire year for the next graduating class.'
"I'm not waiting a year for a full genin team." Naruto deadpanned.
"I don't want to either," Sasuke agreed.
'So you think you can work together?' Taroko asked. 'I'm pretty sure that's the key to passing this test. Now, one of you please wake up Sakura and explain it quickly, we're running out of time. Figure out a plan, I'm going to smash the alarm clock. You attack when you can.'
Naruto nodded, kneeling next to Sakura and beginning to shake her.
"Danromi, you stay here, come tell me when they're ready," Taroko told the tiny dragon. Danromi nodded, flapping up to rest on Sasuke's head.
Taroko slid into the clearing, looking around for Kakashi. He didn't seem to be there, so she carefully snuck closer to the alarm clock.
"Doing something?" Kakashi asked, appearing next to the alarm clock with a puff of smoke.
Taroko shrugged, dashing right for him, and by extension, the clock.
She tried a taijutsu exchange, swinging her tail towards the clock when she could, trying to knock it off of its stump. Unfortunately, Kakashi managed to counter her at every turn. He was playing with her. That wasn't annoying at all…
Danromi came flapping out a moment before Sasuke and Naruto crashed through the undergrowth, engaging Kakashi. Taroko leaped back, snatching the alarm clock in her jaws. A terribly aimed kunai from the undergrowth bounced off her hide, and she sent a deadpan glare at Sakura.
"My alarm clock!" Kakashi cried, probably more dramatically then was warranted. "Release it!"
"Give us the bells and she will!" Naruto said proudly, leaping back to stand next to her.
Kakashi sighed as the alarm went off. "Fiine, you pass. Is that what you were looking for?"
"Yep!" Naruto chirped. Sasuke just nodded happily.
(A/N) There we go! All done! Wanna see D-ranks, or right to Wave? Also, poll!