Hello to you all, the best readers in the world. I am back, bringing you another chapter of The Fox, The Hound, and The Flower. I hope wherever you are and whatever you've got going on, that you are doing well and are having a wonderful day/night whenever you read this. So, I'm blown away with the response to this story. It's not even 3 chapters in, and its already gotten more reviews than my Shadows Apprentice story. Which don't get me wrong, even if your someone who never leaves reviews, I still love ya. I'm happy that anyone likes my writing period. I'm just even MORE grateful for anyone taking the time to send me their thoughts. I know it doesn't seem like much, but with everything going on, those little blurbs of people telling me that they enjoyed really does help get me over the hump when I'm stuck writing. So! Enough of the intro... let us begin.

Chapter 3: The Test Concludes

As it turned out, Ino's suggestion that Naruto make two clones rather than just the one was useful in another way. True, she didn't need one to mind transfer with if Naruto could just mimic her with a clone for the frontal attack on Kakashi-Sensei. But, giving it some more thought, this was the sort of thing that got them in trouble earlier. Ino being the solo act while Kiba and Naruto were off trying to fight. What good would it do to only fix half of their initial error? Naruto and Kiba, working in tandem with their Ino stand in would be an easier fight, relatively speaking, than the two trying to go it alone, but if Ino was alone, what's to stop Kakashi-Sensei from taking advantage of that like he did at the start of the test? Much as it chafed her ego, she had to admit she WAS the least capable in one-on-one situations. So, once they closed just enough distance to sense their teacher waiting, but still out of eyesight, Naruto quickly made the two shadow clones and then transformed the one to his right into a copy of Ino. After taking a moment to look the clone over to make sure Naruto didn't mess up her pretty face-her own words of coure and that got a major groan from Kiba and an eye roll from Naruto-she concluded it was good and they broke off into the assigned roles, the extra Naruto clone following close behind the real Ino as the fake went with Naruto and Kiba to begin the fight.

"Well now, you three are here a little earlier than I expected. Can I assume you managed to come up with a good plan so quick?"

"Hah! You know it, Kakashi-Sensei. Were going to get by you no problem! Believe it!" Naruto smirked.

"Certainly not lacking for confidence, that's for sure. Still, I think you'll find that even together, this won't be a walk in the park."

"We'll see. Ready guys?" Kiba said, glancing at Naruto and 'Ino' who both nodded, Akamaru also letting out a bark in the affirmative before hopping out of Kiba's jacket. Deciding to take the initiative, he and Akamaru formed their man-beast clones and charged forward, spinning at a rapid pace in their 'Fang Over Fang' jutsu while Naruto and 'Ino' took to the flanks. Kakashi, almost too casually, dodged Kiba and Akamaru's initial lunge and parried both Naruto and the fake Ino's attacks when they both jumped in to try and land a punch and a side kick respectively. It never did fail to amaze Naruto the smoothness that a trained jounin could fight with in the midst of a battle. No matter which angles they attempted to strike from, he was able to block, dodge to the sides, or just outright vanish out of the path of the attack. They hadn't managed to land a single hit, despite the pressure applied to him. Finally, after fifteen minutes of this, the three of them landed beside one another to try and come up with a plan. "Damn it all…. this is exactly what he did to me and Akamaru the first time we tried to fight him. He kept dodging our moves until we were tired and then he mopped us up."

"Look at him, I don't know if he's even breathing that hard. It's insane," Naruto muttered. Wracking his brain for some sort of idea, nothing outright presented itself to him. Kiba would burn through his chakra if he just kept throwing himself at Kakashi over and over without any sort of reward, and the longer the fight dragged, the more likely it was that the transformation jutsu on his clone would break and then Ino was sunl. Making more clones might be an option if he could be sure that Kakashi wouldn't just counter with some of his own, but considering he'd done so earlier, that was the likely outcome of that. And the thinner he spread his focus, the more unstable his other jutsu would become, so that had a similar drawback. He was already convinced that Kakashi was catching on to the fact that the Ino with them wasn't the actual one. He'd tried to vary his style up, but the truth was that because of the distance that most of the kids kept with him growing up, he didn't really know Ino's fighting style well outside of the brief glimpses he would get during sparring at the academy. And even then, it wasn't like he gave that much attention. Y'know sometimes, not often but it happened, he hated that he slacked off so much back then. "Kiba, any ideas?"

"Other than 'keep fighting and cross our fingers'? Nope." Naruto had to laugh a bit as they stood up and took their stances again. It was nice to know he wasn't the only one struggling to come up with some brilliant idea for once. "How long can you keep your clone transformed?" Kiba asked

.

"I don't know, I've never really timed it. Let's just keep going for now. We won't have to wait much longer, I'm sure. Ino knows what she's doing," Naruto said. Kiba gave him a nod and they resumed their attack.

-With Ino-

"I don't know what the hell I'm doing!" Ino whined. "How the hell could I? I apparently didn't know how this was stupid to suggest doing!" She had found a side path up that mountain, just as she'd expected. And, again as she expected, the path was fraught with traps of all types. Really everything about this route was starting to make her wish she'd never suggested going with this plan. For one thing, the high walls on either side of her and Naruto made the path narrow. Not so narrow that you couldn't walk or anything, but it would be a massive pain in the neck if they were attacked. What's more, the hemmed in nature of their path made the traps Kakashi had waiting for them so simple, yet effective. Special chakra infused seals that made a wall so thin, Naruto had barreled into it without much of a thought and had gotten a little zap for his troubles. Undoing the seals wasn't hard, but it was time consuming and frustrating. They didn't know how long they had until the frontal attack distraction got sniffed out and then she'd really be up a creek, with only herself and a shadow clone to try and fend off their sensei's attempts to stop them from progressing.

The shadow clone of Naruto was just as frustrating in this whole ordeal as well. Clone jutsu didn't typically produce any copies of oneself that were 'aware' in the traditional sense. Often, they were only designed to serve as another form of distraction, in the same vein as the substitution jutsu. They could be used in a pinch, sure, but they didn't have a ton of use beyond that. Shadow clones like the ones Naruto used though? They were indeed full-blown copies of Naruto, right down to the way they spoke. It was as if her blonde teammate wasn't even away from her. Now whether that was a good thing depended on who you asked and when. Here? Right now? Ino was going to vote a big fat 'no'. "How much longer is this going to take, Ino? I'm starting to get hungry," Naruto muttered, rubbing his stomach to emphasize this.

"I don't know, okay? It'd sure go a lot faster if I didn't have to dispel all the damn barriers myself and you would chip in," she griped.

"That…wouldn't end well," Naruto said nervously. "I've never been great at undoing barrier ninjutsu like this. Remember when we tried something like that back in the academy during drills?" he asked. Oh yeah. How could she forget? Somehow, the dunce managed to not dispel the practice barrier he'd been given, it had instead backfired to where their entire class was stuck inside their classroom, literally, until another instructor came along and undid the seal from the other side. The verbal lashing Naruto had gotten that day from not just Iruka-Sensei, but the other students in their class had been one for the record books that day. "Besides, I think we're starting to reach the top right?" Ino glanced up and saw he was right. The path was starting to open up a bit further ahead, and that could only mean they were getting near the peak. They still had one last seal to get rid of first though. Ino huffed and grabbed Naruto's arm. "Uh, Ino? What're you- "

"Hush. Were going to unlock this last one together. Ah! Don't you dare argue with me," she warned when Naruto opened his mouth to protest. "If I'm going to be on a team with you, Naruto Uzumaki, I am not going to let you keep doubting yourself. That makes you perform worse in training, and that'll bleed over to the missions which will reflect badly on the rest of us. Now look, just because you screwed up before doesn't mean your incapable of working it out. I think you just get in your own head and psych yourself out. Take a couple deep breaths and just do what I do. Follow my lead, okay?" Naruto nodded reluctantly, sensing that he wasn't getting out of this one without doing what she wants. Ino was about like Sakura was when she was determined to get someone on board. She just had less of tendency to achieve that with a smack upside the head, which he was thankful for. He knelt beside her, making the same hand sign as she did. "Focus your chakra on the seal. They're not very strong so it's easier than you'd think. Picture it in your head like you're unlocking a door, it's what helps me." Naruto nodded and did as she said, imagining it as she said. It took a second, but the image slowly began to form in his mind and when he next opened his eyes, the barrier was gone, and they could proceed the last little ways up towards their goal. Ino smiled. "See? You should listen to me more often you know, I'm not just a pretty face," she grinned. Naruto rolled his eyes but smiled.

"How about you save the gloating for when were done with this?" He said. They hurried up the path and sure enough, it did open to a wider area…but all that enthusiasm and hope to bring a rapid end to the test was squashed when they saw Kakashi sitting with his legs folded on a rock, a small red book open as he casually turned the pages. He glanced up and smiled, standing up and tucking the book away into his back pocket. "Oh for fu-"

"Now, now. Let's watch our language, young man," Kakashi said. "I'm impressed with you two making it here. I mean granted, the seals I put in place weren't anything too crazy, but a lot of genin I've seen throughout the years struggle with even basics like that. So, points for that. I also see that you've brought along backup this time, Ino. Smart on your part, given how the initial encounters on this test went. And considering the feedback I've been getting from my clone currently dealing with your other teammates, I assume they were the diversion. All excellent marks. I wanted to see if I could finish this chapter before the test ended buuuuut, I suppose it can't be helped." He shrugged and slowly approached them, Ino and Naruto both getting into a fighting stance, but Kakashi showed no response. He slowly reached into his left pocket..and Naruto and Ino both fell over when they saw he still had the flags from yesterday. "Congratulations. You pass." Naruto was the first to his feet.

"WHAT?! Then what the hell was the point of all this then? Your telling me this whole time the test was a trick?!"

"Hardly. The test was designed to test your teamwork and problem-solving skills. I figured, given your reports from the academy's records, that the first attempt at the test would be an unmitigated disaster and, I was far from disappointed in that assumption,"

"Man, way to rub it in, sensei," Ino muttered

"But I also wanted to see if, when made aware of your failures, you would adapt to them and cover your blind spots that caused the disaster in the first place. One of the cardinal rules of being a shinobi is to be able to think on your feet when in the field. Battles can be a messy business even under ideal circumstances. You won't always have perfect information, your enemy could be ahead of you in their movements forcing you to be on the defensive, or your allies will sometimes cost you if you're not patient with them and willing to help cover their shortcomings in any given area. One of the hallmarks of a true shinobi lies in being able to accept these eventualities and plan accordingly. Not succumbing to frustration and turning on one another, which is why I mentioned the limited lunches as well just to really chance it but figuring out where you went wrong and making a new plan of attack. Ino's idea to take a clone of you into battle, Naruto, shows she adapted well to her weakness in a one-on-one fight. And the diversionary tactic of attacking me while you did this, even if you didn't know it was a clone of mine, was exactly the sort of call I would have made. I feel confident in passing you because of this. Now come on, let's head back down," he said walking by them.

"I…what…HOW DID WE FALL FOR THAT?!" Ino yelled before deflating as she and Naruto trudged after their sensei. Needless to say, Kiba took the news about as well as could've been asked of him. He wasn't a fan of being led on and wasting so much chakra fighting a fake while the real Kakashi sat around and waited while getting to read his book. But he was glad that they'd passed, and they could move on and hopefully start training for real. Though in the back of their minds, the genin all wondered if the NEXT lesson as also going to be some sort of trick. But for now, they dropped it. They'd officially passed fully into team status, and a celebration of some kind was in order "How about we go get some dango?" Ino offered.

"Nah, that stuff is lame. Let's go to that barbecue place," Kiba offered.

"Yuck, no way. That stuff is WAY too greasy."

"What, you worried about your figure princess?" Kiba said, this time rolling his eyes. "You know they have a salad option if you want to eat like a rabbit."

"I didn't say I wanted a vegetarian place, I just don't want to eat somewhere where you can feel your arteries clogging you fur-brained little-"Naruto waved his hands quickly, a bead of sweat rolling down his face as their argument again threatened to bubble up.

"Guys, Guys! Let's just go hit up Ichiraku's. I got some coupons left over, so it'd be cheaper, and they have vegetarian AND extra meat options," he said with a smirk. Ino wanted to ask how Naruto could've known that so well, but it didn't take much thought. The knucklehead practically lived at the ramen stand, so it stood to reason that he'd know their menu inside and out. Though she doubted he'd ever eaten whatever sort of vegetarian options there were. She glanced at Kiba who offered her a shrug, and they seemed to settle on it. Naruto went to ask if Kakashi wanted to join them, but the masked man had vanished already. Naruto didn't blame him. It was going to be a miracle if Kiba and Ino didn't strangle one another OR him at this rate. The newly christened team made their way to the ramen stand, Naruto grinning widely as the smells hit him. "Ahh…paradise," he said happily as they took their seats. Teuchi, the owner, smiled

"Well, this is certainly a happy surprise. Haven't seen you around in a day or so, Naruto, was starting to wonder if you got sick on me," he joked. Maybe it was an exaggeration to say that Naruto was in here every single day, but the funny thing was it wasn't THAT much of an exaggeration. "Ayame! We have customers!" he called to the back. Ayame, Teuchi's daughter, came from the back room and smiled as she came to wait on them, handing them menus, even though she knew Naruto didn't need it.

"Hey, Naruto! Good to see you again. And you brought friends along, that's nice. Branching out a bit, are we?" Naruto chuckled softly, scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah, kind of. These are my teammates. We just finished our final test to become a genin team and were looking to celebrate!" he said happily. Teuchi laughed.

"Well, I'll be! That's great news, Naruto. Tell you what, as a gift, whatever you and your teammates eat is on the house," he said with a smile.

"Wow, really? Are you sure?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"You bet! Anything to celebrate such a big day for my favorite customer," Teuchi smiled. Naruto and Kiba both let out a cheer and even Ino smiled at this. Naruto ordered an extra-large miso pork ramen, Kiba did the same broth but went with beef, and Ino got a medium chicken ramen with regular broth. She was tempted to just get a small, but hey she was hungrier than she figured she would be, and this was to celebrate something after all. A little treat now and then wouldn't hurt anyone right? Of course, this didn't mean she finished her bowl first. Naruto had inhaled his by the time she was halfway through and was already working on bowl two by the time she finished. Kiba wasn't far behind, though he seemed to fight with Akamaru over whether the pup got enough at one point even snatching the last piece off of Kiba's chopsticks, sending Naruto into a laughing fit. Ino chuckled watching these two and couldn't help but smile.

Maybe being on a team with them wouldn't be so bad after all.

I think that's where we'll leave things for the time being. I know the ending to the test was a bit anti-climactic, but really it seemed like such a Kakashi move to me to set it up so he could read in peace AND test his students. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. If you wouldn't mind taking a moment to leave a review, it would mean a lot. Either way though, I'll be back at you with another chapter of this before you know it!

Till next time,

-Elise