Couldn't completely do a final check for this for any errors or last-minute changes. Feeling a bit too tired to do so. I'll get back to that tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope y'all enjoy!
Chapter 8 - Genin
"Here."
Sky-blue eyes looked up from her desk to see ultramarine irises looking at her. Yamanaka Ino turned towards what Naruto was holding out to her and noted, "It's a scroll."
The girl could feel the blink in the pause before he answered.
"Yeah."
Ino accepted the thing and opened it, immediately recognizing the seal inside. You couldn't really hang around Namikaze Naruto for three years and not be able to identify a storage seal on-sight.
"What's inside it?"
Naruto grinned at her, eyes closed in that way that made him seem like some earnest civilian child instead of the heir he was.
"Open it."
She did. Ino felt like socking him in the face right after.
"The hell is wrong with you, Namikaze!"
Still, he kept his smile, but this time his eyes had opened. "They're a gift!"
"Explosive tags? Your gift is explosive tags, Namikaze Naruto!" She was sure that she was loud enough to be heard in the other classrooms, not that she expected too many people to be around yet.
The Azuchi children had all come in early the day after their graduation. Naruto had asked to meet them at the academy as he had some things to give them before they got assigned, and he didn't really want the other genin to feel left out. When Ino asked why he didn't give it to them during the party, he admitted to not having them packed yet.
So here the five of them were, sitting in their classroom far earlier than usual and certainly before anyone else of their classmates got in.
"I mean explosive tags are useful, In-chan!"
"That's not what I'm arguing about!" She raised her arms. "Are these charged, Naruto!?"
The younger boy almost looked offended. Ino refused to say that he actually was because this whole situation was ludicrous. "What kind of sealing master would I be if I made explosive seals that weren't charged?"
Ino looked down at the notably tall stack of active explosive seals in front of her. How many were in there? A hundred? Two hundred? Three? That was enough to send the whole academy sky high.
Ah shit, the Hokage was upstairs, wasn't he? Up on the tower?
They were dead. All of them were dead. Heirs and all, and it was the son of the Yondaime Hokage that was responsible for it, because he was too damn good at making his own home-made explosives.
"How many did you make?"
Naruto's chest puffed up in pride. In pride of all things. "About a hundred for each of you. This is your allocation for both Shikamaru-san and Chouji-san."
So it was three hundred tags.
Wait.
"What do you mean a hundred for each of us?"
Ino started to look around, her eyes meeting each of the others' in the room. Well, and Shino's sunglasses, of course. They all gave her nods, Shino holding up a scroll similar to the one she'd been given, Sakura and Sasuke doing the same.
"Seven hundred explosive tags!?"
"Nine hundred." Naruto's grin did not falter one bit. "Like yours, I got enough for Shi-kun's whole team."
Ino put her hands over her face. Deep breaths, deep breaths. Dad always said to take deep breaths if she was stressed.
Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, exhale.
Before her was a puff of smoke, and she opened her eyes to see Naruto storing the explosives back into the scroll and rolling it back up for her.
"I was practicing Skyscribing for almost all of last week." He finally clarified for her, his look finally softening into one she was more familiar with, clearly done with messing with her. "So I made lots and lots and lots of explosive tags for practice, and when I realized I was past five hundred, I figured I'd make enough for all of you." He shrugged. "Always useful to have, right?"
The girl rubbed her forehead, taking one last deep breath.
"Isn't this a bit much though, Naruto-kun?"
He shook his head.
"Think about it this way, Ino," Sakura cut in from a few rows down, "If you guys end up not needing it, then you're good on tags for the next few months. Better to have it and not need it, right?"
"Yeah, fine." She agreed with a defeated nod. Sakura giggled.
"You should've seen the look on your face, Piglet."
Ino felt her eyebrow twitch.
"Glad you found it entertaining, Forehead."
"I'm sure Sasuke-kun and Shi-kun did, too."
And looking at the smirk on Sasuke and the barely noticeable wrinkling of the skin around the sides of Shino's sunglasses, they very much did.
"So, does this mean you can easily make explosive seals now, Naruto-kun?" Ino decided to just get on with the subject, better than dwelling on that little show of theirs.
He lifted his hand and ink rushed out of the sleeves of his blue battle kimono to form the now-familiar sealing array mid-air. It took the boy almost the blink of an eye.
"Wow."
Naruto's grin showed teeth, but his eyes squinted but didn't close. He was proud.
"I probably had to give up Rookie of the Year to Sasuke-kun for it, but this was worth it."
"Excuses!" Sasuke called back. Ino could see the smirk on his face from there.
"Hah!" It was Sakura that cut-in this time. "I'm betting I got it!"
After that was a quick devolution to taunting between all five of the top-student contenders, even Shino getting the odd jab in.
Once they'd calmed down and Sasuke had passed them all the bread-related novelty of the day, tuna turnovers, they'd all relaxed and started to talk about possible team assignments while they waited for everyone else to arrive.
Ino had her own suspicions, of course. She even had a good basis for them on account of her daddy being more than willing to share his insights with her.
For example, she was, more likely than not, going to be put on a team with Shikamaru and Chouji. Granted, that was so expected, even Naruto had mentioned them when he'd given her the scroll filled with explosives.
Now the other team assignments were a little more interesting. From what she'd heard, the top two students were usually assigned the class's dead-last to sort of balance things out, and everyone else were usually assigned based on grades.
Shino mentioned to them that there was a non-zero chance he was getting put in a tracking team. Having an Aburame, an Inuzuka, and a Hyuuga would certainly make for a pretty good one on paper, but that would also over-specialize.
At this, Sakura pointed out that such a team would also have pretty good power at close and mid-range engagement. Kiba and Hinata could, theoretically, make for dangerous close-range attackers while Shino hung back and used his kikaichu to run interference. Actually, this sounded almost a bit like how Tenten's team worked, if she remembered, with Lee and Hinata's older cousin, Neji, upfront and Tenten using her weapons from range.
Ino would have to remember that.
They more or less continued in this vein till the rest of their class started coming in, Kiba being the earliest and Shikamaru among the last, barely making it to his seat before Iruka came in alongside people who Ino guessed were their jounin sensei.
Sasuke got rookie of the year. Well-earned as far as Ino was concerned. Her dad ended up having her push into more clan-related jutsu in the weeks leading up to graduation. Naruto looked like he did the same, and it was hard to miss the felled trees in the Namikaze training grounds when she came to visit, so Sakura was prioritizing something else, too. She didn't doubt the Shino was any different.
The Uchiha heir, meanwhile, didn't have much else to focus on. He'd already learned what fire jutsu he was permitted to learn prior to graduation, and most of the Uchiha-related techniques required either the Sharingan, or records of them had been destroyed in the fire from three years ago. So the dark-haired boy focused on the basics, and mastered them magnificently.
Sasuke took the praise with a grateful nod, and while he shot the rest of them smug grins, his look softened when they congratulated him in turn.
What? Ino could be a good sport about it. It was a friendly competition. Had she won it, she would have been a gracious victor.
Really. She promised.
Team assignments came, and it started with an anomaly.
Team Seven was Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Namikaze Naruto under Hatake Kakashi.
So none of the top two plus dead-last this year, it looked like, and it seemed that even the other students noticed it. Despite that, Iruka continued.
Team Eight was Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba under Yuuhi Kurenai.
A tracking team it was, then.
Team Ten was Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino under Sarutobi Asuma.
Completely expected.
Once the rest of the teams were assigned, the jounin were about to move to each of their teams when Iruka asked to have the floor one more time.
"I need you all to remember how dangerous of a world it is out there," the chuunin began, "I did my best to impart everything I know to you guys because I want you all to have the best possible shot at surviving."
Then, he grinned.
"But you're also one of the best classes to come out of the academy in the last decade. Even the people that are lagging behind here, have done better than the middle of the pack in previous years."
Iruka bowed to them. Ino's eyebrows skyrocketed up, and she was sure the rest of her class was surprised, too.
"I am immensely proud of all of you. I hope you all make Konoha proud as well."
~TtT~
Aburame Shino tried his best to recall what he could about his new teammates as they walked out of the academy following their new sensei.
Inuzuka Kiba generally enjoyed spending his free time with Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and the other boys that were either of civilian descent or from the smaller clans. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a good number of them took their queues from the Nara and tended to be more than a little laid back with regards to their training, usually focused more on roughhousing or laying about.
Granted, an argument could be made for roughhousing being a form of training. Shino had spent enough time running around after Naruto in the woodlands surrounding Azuchi to know that.
Still, there was little wrong with wanting to enjoy oneself. His father made it a point to impress upon Shino the importance of unwinding. In his case, it was in the form of spending relaxing time with his friends, usually over tea. Rin had introduced him to various teas from outside of the Land of Fire. This also became a good way for him to bond with his grandfather since the old man was a tea enthusiast himself.
Besides, Shino was self-aware enough to realize that the Azuchi children were somewhat of an anomaly. It wasn't really expected to push themselves as hard as they did, especially during peace-time. Their parents certainly didn't ask it of them even though they were encouraging when they started doing so. Shino just found it hard to not get motivated whenever he saw the friends he grew up with take such an interest in self-improvement.
And how couldn't you when you had legends you could learn from? How many other people in the village, or even their year for that matter, could speak with Jiraiya of the Sannin or Shimura Danzo on an almost weekly basis and have them be willing to offer critiques to their form, their execution, even if only just a little. Yes, Shino was mostly being trained in his clan techniques, but the basics he learned were the same across all Konoha ninja, and the basics were foundational for a reason.
So yes, Shino understood that not everyone else in their class was as motivated as he and his friends had been, and that was fine. Kiba was competent enough to graduate, and he'd pulled a decent enough showing to get himself somewhere in the middle of the class rankings.
Hyuuga Hinata was a little different.
Looking back, he had vague memories of the girl spending time with both Kiba and Sasuke in the early months of their stint at the academy. Hinata didn't seem all that close to the other girls in their class, though he couldn't recall Ino or Sakura ever trying to reach out to her, either.
Things sort of changed after the massacre, however.
For the first few weeks, Sasuke had withdrawn, focusing more on his classes than he had when they first started, but normally going home as soon as classes ended. The few times that Shino ever interacted with the boy outside of spars or group classwork was when Izumi would take him up to Azuchi on invitation.
Once that became a regular thing, Sasuke sort of got absorbed into their little group. He didn't think he really ever saw Hinata around anyone else after that, though Shino had caught her staring at Sasuke on occasion.
As far as her performance in classes went, however, Hinata could be described as middling at best. She was certainly knowledgeable in theory, and managed to contest himself and Ino while just being behind Sakura on that. Her practical skills were where she struggled. She was adept at her clan's taijutsu, but not to a degree that she was a real challenge.
Too much hesitation, from what he could recall from previous spars.
Maybe there was a story there, or maybe Hyuuga Hiashi wasn't properly training his eldest. Shino remembered his father telling him that the Hyuuga clan head was training both his daughters to possibly take on the role as successor.
Their sensei, on the other hand, he'd heard of from his father. She was an exceptional clanless kunoichi and was one of the top students of her class, too. Shino wasn't familiar with her mission record, but achieving the rank of jounin and being permitted to take on a team was no small feat, and for that alone, she was deserving of respect.
From what he'd learned, she was also a genjutsu expert, so he wasn't sure exactly how that was supposed to translate to a tracking team, but he would try his best to suspend judgement until they actually got around to training.
Kiba was the first to break the silence, "You know, Hinata-chan, I never figured we'd end up on the same team as one of the Azuchi Children."
As the person bringing up the rear of their group with Kiba and Hinata in between him and their sensei, Shino could see Kiba sending him a wicked grin over his shoulder. Hinata looked to the brown-haired boy with furrowed brows after being startled at the sudden address.
"You don't mind being teamed up with us too much, do you, Shino-sama? I know we're not one of the top students of the academy, or were ever invited to come up Kinenhi-zan. I hope we'll make acceptable teammates even if we're not the son of the Yondaime, or the last Uchiha!"
Shino could almost appreciate the sarcasm. But at the same time, he couldn't say he was all that surprised. Kinenhi-zan had this tendency of feeling… separate from the rest of the village.
"Actually, we'd been talking about possible team assignments this morning before the rest of the class arrived." He adjusted his glasses. "You, Hyuuga-san, and myself being a team came up in discussion."
That actually got a reaction from both of his fellow genin and actually got their sensei to pause and turn to him. Everyone's eyebrows were raised.
He then related what they'd talked about earlier. And while he'd never tell them or let it show on his face, Shino relished their disbelief as he talked about how they'd make not only a good tracking team, but their combat abilities would compliment each other rather well.
By the time he was done, Kurenai was giving him an approving nod while Kiba and Hinata exchanged shocked glances with both having slightly pink-tinged cheeks at the praise.
"I look forward to working with both of you, Kiba-kun, Hinata-chan."
Minutes later they'd arrived at training ground thirty-one. The first thing they were asked to do was the same introductory spiel they had three years ago when they started the academy. Some things changed, some things didn't.
Hinata still liked the same sweet pastries she did before. Actually, Shino was quite sure that the bakery that Izumi ran had some very good cinnamon rolls.
Kiba still liked taking walks and steak and jerky. Surprisingly, the Inuzuka also admitted to wanting to become Hokage one day. Shino couldn't remember that being mentioned prior.
Shino still enjoyed entomology, but he shared his growing enjoyment of different teas. Hinata took interest in that, stating that her father also kept a collection of imported teas. She offered to have him try some of them, sometime. Shino accepted.
Kuranai's introduction caused Shino some mild amusement. Between her primary hobby consisting of going out for drinks and two of her mentioned favorite foods being two varieties of alcohol, he wondered if their sensei was a functioning alcoholic.
Granted, from what he's heard from Jiraiya, the lady Tsunade was one as well, and she was arguably one of the most powerful kunoichi in the world, so maybe there was something to that?
Afterwards, they had been informed that they were being given one more, jounin-issued, exam to see if they were truly fit to be genin, much to everyone's surprise.
Training ground thirty-one was heavily forested with just a small clearing around the 'entrance.'
"It is the closest approximation we have to the Forest of Death." Kurenai started explaining to them with a smile. "The trees are smaller, of course, and there aren't any creatures that are going to be out to kill you."
Red eyes met each of theirs. Whatever she was looking for, she probably found it because she gave them all a nod before grinning mischievously.
"Somewhere in this training ground, is my grandmother enjoying a lovely picnic. She's a retired kunoichi, you see, and likes to enjoy painting outdoors while having drinks. She brought lunch with her, but, knowing her, she'll be staying over till dinnertime."
She raised a basket that had been placed under the shade of one of the trees.
"This is dinner. Your objective is to get this basket to my grandmother by sunset."
Ah, but it wasn't that simple, was it? Kiba, of course, asked that question out loud.
"I'm a genjutsu expert," Their new sensei answered with her free hand on her hip. "You'll need to track my grandmother through any little surprises I have for you inside the forest." She took out a handkerchief from her pocket and gave it to Kiba. "This is hers. Consider this a freebie. Any questions?"
There weren't any.
"Good. See you three by sunset. Best of luck."
A shunshin later, she was gone.
~TtT~
Haruno Sakura would be lying if she said she was all that surprised that Hatake Kakashi was their jounin sensei.
Their group discussion had more or less come to the conclusion that Kakashi was the most likely person to be assigned to whatever team Sasuke was in. The man was the only other person that could really use the Sharingan in the village, after all, and even though Izumi had a fully matured version of the dojutsu, she was retired, and hadn't seen any action in five or so years.
So the moment she and Naruto were assigned to team seven with their Uchiha friend, this had been a possibility. There were no guarantees, of course, her grandfather always made it a point to teach her that, but the odds were good.
What surprised her was that their sensei arrived shortly after the teams started leaving with their own sensei. She'd heard from Rin and Anko that the man was chronically late. That, coupled with the accompanying horror stories of the man taking hours to arrive, Sakura had expected to spend the entirety of the day stuck in the classroom waiting.
Sakura had other things she wanted to do, thank you very much!
The man didn't really need to introduce himself, so he didn't. Didn't even bother with introductions. They all met him at Azuchi at some point in the past two years or so. He'd visit on occasion to see Naruto and speak with either Jiraiya or Rin. Every now and then, he'd join them for the Friday dinners, where he'd get grilled by Danzo or one of the other clan heads in attendance about how the transition from ANBU to jounin life was like for him.
Sakura still wasn't sure if that was supposed to be something she and her friends were supposed to know about, but if the adults wanted to assume they didn't overhear anything, that wasn't her problem.
Instead, the four of them were taken to training ground three and informed that they were being given another test, one involving two bells and needing to snag them from their sensei in order to be considered genin.
"But it'll be one bell per person." Kakashi said with a smile in his eye.
So one of them would fail.
She turned to Naruto, who shrugged, and to Sasuke who just squinted at Kakashi. Well, if they weren't all that bothered, she wouldn't be either.
Their sensei blinked at them at the lack of any violent reaction, but shrugged, himself.
"Alright. So you have till… about three in the afternoon to get these from me. It's just before lunch, so you have till then. How about we get some tea once this is over, eh?"
Before anyone could respond, he signaled for the test to begin.
There was a burst of smoke and kunai flew at the ground in front of them and at their sensei.
All of them missed.
"I know that Sasuke-kun got Rookie of the Year, Naru-chan, but that was a bit too poor for my liking." Kakashi said.
Naruto just smiled, Sakura did the same.
There was a brief hiss, and smoke started to jet from the kunai handles. Smoke seals.
As soon as they were covered, Sakura took several steps forward and smashed her fist into the ground. She wondered if their sensei expected them to use the smoke to disengage or to use it as cover for an attack. Well, they'd find out in a few seconds, wouldn't they?
It was a grassy field with patches of open, hard-packed earth between them and their sensei and extending a ways past that. To their left was the forest that made up most of training ground three, and to their right was the slow moving river that ran through this part of the village. Sakura couldn't really recall the name of it right now. On the other side of that river, however, was more of the clearing followed by more of the trees.
With a punch, the packed earth was blasted into chunks, stones and rocks scattered about her from the force of her blow. She didn't feel any pain, the chakra she permanently had running through the course of her body reinforcing her skin and protecting her.
Naruto ran forward immediately putting explosive seals on some of the larger ones.
"Sasuke-san," the blonde asked as he handed Sakura the first of the rocks. "Can you tie ninja wire to some of the bigger rocks before Sa-chan uses them?"
"What's the plan?" was Sasuke's response.
"Limit sensei's movement," Naruto shrugged. "Besides, I'm sure we can use it as bait for a trap later or something. Maybe even blow it up."
"That doesn't sound like too concrete a plan, Namikaze."
"Eh, we'll wing it for a bit. We need to know how seriously sensei's planning to take this anyway, right? Besides, simple is usually good."
Gather information, huh? Sakura could work with that. Sasuke taking out his ninja wire without any more argument told her he agreed as well.
Taking the first of the explosive-covered stones, she sent it flying.
~TtT~
Hatake Kakashi knew that whatever his team was, it wasn't exactly going to be normal genin.
Sure, he didn't expect them to be absurdly powerful, or to be an actual threat to him, but they weren't going to be close to the rest of their peers, either. He'd seen them train at Azuchi a few times and knew how hard they pushed themselves.
There were expectations of them all, really. Even from those that had no first-hand idea of what they were up to outside of the academy. Their grades had already caught attention. Hells, Asuma and Kurenai were over the moon when they'd been told that they'd have Aburame and Yamanaka in their respective teams. Both also sent him glares when the Hokage informed that Kakashi was getting three of the five, and what amounted to half of the whole set, with Aikuchi being a year ahead and already with Gai.
So here he was, sitting in the smoke-kunai opener that Naruto had pulled out from the storage seals in his gloves. And no tags on the kunai, to boot!
Besides that, none of them really reacted all that badly to the idea of the bell test failing one person. Either they knew better, or they had insider information. Hard to tell at first glance, but he was pretty sure neither Rin nor Jiraiya mentioned the secrets of the test to them. They'd been recipients of it, after all. Only fair this generation gets to experience it, too.
Kakashi took out his book. Jiraiya had published two new volumes since Naruto was born. Seemed the old man managed to turn his more settled-life into a great way to get going on his writing. He wondered how Rin was handling the man's need for research. Maybe he'd ask her next time he dropped by.
They hadn't moved yet. He could still vaguely feel their chakra signatures in the place where they stood before the smoke came out.
He almost shook his head in disappointment. Smoke was usually there to cover an escape. There was no point in using it if you were just going to sit in it. But then he heard something. And after that, felt something.
Kakashi barely had a second to move before the fist-sized rock covered in explosive tags detonated just to his left. The rush of wind blasted the smoke around him away.
There was another rush overhead, another boom.
And then another, and then another. Rocks, dirt, and who knows what else kicked up and threatened to get into his eye. The air was becoming thick with leftover chakra from the tags.
Kakashi dashed to the woods. It was likely Sakura throwing the rocks, and those were probably Naruto's explosive tags. Jiraiya mentioned that he made those for practice.
Definitely not normal genin.
There was another rush of air ahead of him. Kakashi blinked as he saw much larger rocks get thrown towards the copse of trees he'd been heading for. Another explosion.
After that it was… was that an entire tree? Branches and all?
He heard a very Sakura-sounding yell as the tree broke through the cloud of smoke that it came from. It speared the ground just ahead of him, and Kakashi had been about to jump when he saw the faint twinkle above the trunk in the late morning sun.
Ninja wire.
Then a hiss.
Of course there would be explosives.
A blast, a puff of smoke, and wooden shards were sent everywhere. Kakashi thought he spotted some kunai and shuriken flying every which way, too. They even hid weapons in there? Really?
Kakashi showed up on the other side and behind a tree thanks to a substitution.
That… was a really good start, and some not-bad improvisation.
Now… How did they handle pressure?
~TtT~
"You alright, Sa-chan?"
No, no she was not. Sakura clutched her knees and tried to catch her breath. Pelting the rocks hadn't been too much of an issue, but throwing an entire tree wrapped in explosives, ninja wire, and hidden weaponry was a bit more than she was ready for. Her chakra was fine. Her body, not so much.
"I… I'll manage." She huffed.
They were now inside the forest that had been on their left, the same one that their sensei had been running towards. Part of her had wanted to contest Naruto when he suggested they press for a more aggressive position and instead cross the river to let her and Sasuke engage their sensei from a distance. It was certainly used to great effect in the opening moments of the test, after all.
Naruto contested that the objective was to get the bells from their sensei, which meant they had to be the ones aggressing. Kakashi could afford to just wait them out instead of engaging them, they could not.
So here they were, in the same woods as their sensei was. Naruto already created a group of shadow clones and sent them around, saying that if their sensei decides to start dispelling them, he'll know exactly where it was happening. Sakura still wished she could learn that technique. Damn not having the reserves required for it. She'll work her way up if she has to!
Their Uchiha teammate moved to the trees, suggesting they do the same in case their sensei might know any earth-based jutsu that could screw with them. Naruto waited for Sakura to catch her breath before heading up.
"Anything?" She asked the blond.
He shook his head. "Nothing yet. Having this many clones out probably made it a bit obvious, eh?"
Hopefully, Kakashi wasn't all that keen on turning this into a tracking exam where the focus was instead on finding him. She didn't think any of them were going to excel at that, and they'd be in serious trouble. Very unlikely they'd be able to find a jounin that didn't want to be found. Granted, they theoretically also didn't have a shot at beating a jounin that didn't want to be beaten.
There was a jolt, a shudder, and then the sound of cracking wood. Sakura was all too familiar with the sensation and the sound.
Looking down, she caught sight of their sensei coming out of the dirt with the tree she and Naruto were standing on sinking into what looked like quicksand. Kakashi raised a foot and took a step into the listing tree.
"I'll try to buy us time." Naruto told her, readying a now-familiar seal. From the corner of her eye, she could see Sasuke readying weapons. "Make sure he can't get out of this area."
He'd also get her a bit more time to catch her breath without exerting herself as badly as a close-quarters engagement would. She'd make it up to him later.
Sakura nodded, leaping towards Sasuke just as Naruto dodged their sensei's first attack and summoned another group of clones to help keep their sensei busy. The close-quarters fight began, Naruto and his clones aiming to either incapacitate or grab at the bells, Kakashi dancing out of the way while trying to get to a better position on the sinking tree.
The Haruno immediately got to work setting explosives in all of the trees around them. Incendiary explosive seals this time.
Puffs of smoke and the periodic grunt of pain filled the air. Sakura tried to put it out of her mind that it was almost all coming from Naruto. Sometimes she'd hear kunai hitting wood and wire getting unspooled, and knew that Sasuke was running interference. Both her teammates would try to keep their sensei on that tree for as long as they could.
"Take your damn shot, Uchiha!"
There was a flash of heat and a cry from the upper reaches. "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique)"
Sakura saw the fireball come down just as she finished her round and waited for her opening from the mossy earth. Naruto disengaged with a very quick substitution with a falling clone. The clone that swapped with him dove in to try and catch their sensei in a grapple. Kakashi saw it coming and stabbed at the back of the clone with a kunai that Sakura hadn't seen being drawn before evading.
"Now!" She yelled, blasting off the forest floor with her reinforced legs. Above her, she could see Sasuke jump down with two kunai in his hands and ninja wire whipping in his teeth, the yellow-orange of the flames glinting in his eyes.
From the corner of her eye, Naruto held a hand up in a half-ram seal while throwing a kunai with his other. She felt the chakra pulse before she heard him say, "Kai!"
And then there was fire.
The fireball Sasuke shot just a moment ago was dwarfed by the thirty or so incendiary explosive tags going off at the same time. Every tree in the area around them was blasted down and set ablaze, creating a ring of burning wood that made a pillar of smoke that would be visible from outside the training ground.
Naruto's kunai was first to close the gap, Kakashi dodging it as he made to finally take the relief from immediate pressure from all three of his would-be students to get out of the very obvious three-pronged attack.
A puff of smoke later, the man's attempt at a jump was thwarted by another clone that managed to latch onto the man's leg.
Kakashi's exclamation explained it all. "The kunai!?"
Sakura's fist just barely managed to strike a glancing blow at the man's side with her chakra-charged fist. Kakashi spun with the attack, but Naruto tried to hold fast.
Kunai-driven ninja wire flew over her and Sasuke dove underneath them on the other side, pinning the jounin with three of the metal lines. Sakura landed and pivoted to her left to take the best opening for the bells they'd probably get.
Her world jolted, her head blooming in pain as darkness overcame her vision. But she committed, she could not stop now. She dove still, blindly, her hands grasping at the sound of ringing bells.
She couldn't feel the rest of the fall or her landing on the overgrown earth below. Sakura wouldn't even notice the heat.
But moments later, when she'd opened her eyes to see her two teammates and her sensei looking down at her with grins and eye-smiles as they were framed by the red, orange, yellow, and black of the fire and smoke.. She felt the sense of victory before she squeezed her right hand and felt both bells.
Hell yeah.
~TtT~
"You know, Kakashi-kun," Sarutobi Hiruzen looked over the smoke of his pipe to the jounin sensei that just walked through the doors of his office. "When I heard from Iruka that you actually showed up on time at the academy today, I didn't expect you to send the kids home immediately. You didn't decide to put off the exam until tomorrow, did you?"
The younger man sent him an eye-smile.
"Not at all, Hokage-sama!"
At this, one of the old man's eyebrows rose. "Then what are you doing here?"
"I came to report on the status of my team."
There was a pause. Hiruzen shifted the pipe in his mouth from the left to the right as he considered what was said.
"You've finished administering their test." It wasn't a question.
"They did swimmingly." The smile on Kakashi's face remained. Sakumo's son was bloody chipper.
"It's been an hour and a half."
"They were very quick about it."
"And now you're here to deliver your report."
"That is correct, Hokage-sama."
"What test did you administer, Kakashi-kun?"
"The bell test."
The bell test. Hiruzen was quite intimate with that one. He also knew that it usually took up the better part of hours to complete. It was the case for his students, it was the case for Jiraiya's students, and it had been the case for Minato's students, too. Most genin just weren't ready to take on a jounin straight out of the academy while having their character tested in a way that created an even more difficult situation.
"Elaborate." This, he had to hear.
And so Kakashi did, and Hiruzen had half a mind to have Danzo called in to explain what on earth was being taught to the children up on that mountain.
The whole thing had taken maybe half an hour, if not less. Namikaze, Uchiha, and Haruno were not perfect by any means, but they had a decisiveness that few in their age group could boast about. Within the first minutes of the fight, they managed to get a rough idea of what their sensei was going to be allowing himself to use, and made a quick plan on it.
Unrefined was perhaps the best word to describe it. They managed to suppress their sensei but Sakura overexerted herself in the opening of the engagement. Naruto managed to get them cover, but they also didn't immediately reposition themselves. The plan they came up with was decent, but was dangerous since it involved lots of explosives set in a very tight circle, friendly fire, and a reckless three-pronged charge that left Sakura with a concussion.
Still, they passed. Naruto had volunteered to be tied to the post, and Sakura was waiting with him while Sasuke had gone to reserve their seats at the teahouse that Kakashi would be meeting them at later. Apparently, the original plan had been for him to treat them to dinner, but they finished early enough that some afternoon tea was a welcome replacement.
It was really biting him in the ass that he decided to be all hands-off about checking in on the status of their jinchuuriki. But why would he be worried? Azuchi seemed like such a safe and stable place. Few people lived on the mountain, it was distant from the village proper, and there was enough room for the child to grow. Besides, Naruto was primarily Danzo and Jiraiya's problem, anyway. While he certainly wanted the boy to be happy, he was a little too preoccupied with his duties and whatever was left of his own family to be able to set aside any more time for the boy outside of the occasional visit.
As for the others, well he'd heard good things about the children that frequented the Namikaze ancestral home, of course, but he tried to temper those expectations.
Hiruzen was also quite intimate with what such expectations could do to children.
And the parents hadn't pushed for early graduation or been overly excitable about their childrens' performances, or at least nothing he'd heard or been informed about.
Then this happened.
Hiruzen decided he was going to talk to Danzo later about it. Maybe even pay a visit to Azuchi himself to observe Naruto's training. He hadn't been to the palatial house since he'd visited for Naruto's last birthday dinner. Perhaps his old student could enlighten him.
In any case, this could only be a good thing. If Kakashi's team was any indication, the Azuchi children were either getting very good training, were very motivated, or both. Konoha's future would be in good hands. He was now looking forward to the reports the jounin sensei would be giving him.
"You realize," He told Kakashi, after thinking about all of this, "That I now fully expect you to be entering them for the coming chuunin exams, don't you?"
Kakashi's grin was so wide Hiruzen could see it from behind the younger man's mask. "I have every faith that they'll not disappoint you, Hokage-sama."
"Good." Hiruzen nodded. Then, he gave the younger man a conspiratorial grin. "So, do you still want to be here when the others give their reports?"
"You bet I do."
~TtT~
It was Kiba that was hit by the first illusion of their test. Shino suspected that while the handkerchief had been the first lead they'd been given, Kurenai also used the smell of it as the trigger for the genjutsu when Kiba decided to take another sniff of it to confirm their direction.
What was the illusion? It made his teammate get right and left mixed up.
They lost about ten minutes of time going in the wrong direction before Shino suspected that something was wrong as he spread his insects and asked HInata to turn on her Byakugan.
All three of them were hit by another illusion after that. This time, one that caused them to go in a wide circle around where they had been while still maintaining the resemblance of a trail they were following.
Shino considered himself fortunate that despite how clearly skilled their sensei was, either she wasn't skilled enough to capture all of his kikaichu, or she opted not to to give them a chance. His kikaichu woke him up before they could complete the first circle.
Kurenai followed that pattern for the hours that followed. She'd use a very subtle trigger, and one that Shino still couldn't quite place, assuming she was using the same sense every time. Their trails changed directions, landmarks would appear to be on their left instead of their right, or closer or further than they actually were, scents warped or simply disappeared.
Hinata decided to periodically check if they were under a genjutsu. It would also serve as a way for them to see if there were any chakra sources nearby to see if they were close enough to their objective for Hinata to sense them..
No luck with that so far.
Shino had started spreading his hive around the forest, leaving a number of them in trees they'd passed. It would permit him to not only start searching for signatures in a much wider range than Hinata could at the moment, it also cost him no chakra while allowing him to immediately identify sections they had already scouted.
Originally, he'd considered asking if he could allow a few of his kikaichu to be passed to his teammates since the insects could break them free of the genjutsu with a few skin-deep bites, but they were probably not comfortable enough with him to do that yet.
Kiba continued to be their primary tracker. Shino's insects could track scents, but nowhere near as good as the Inuzuka and his ninken could.
Once they had this little system going, it became much easier, with either Shino or Hinata getting them out of any illusions they were placed under while Kiba led the way. While having Hinata's eyes active the entire time could have made it easier, Shino suggested that conserving her chakra on account of the test lasting several hours could be more prudent. Besides, it wasn't like they were actually pressured for time.
As this went on, however, their sensei to go for less subtlety and more disruption. His insects would be periodically hit with pulses of chakra that confused them into either flagging him with false leads, or knocking them out entirely. These same pulses could overload Hinata's Byakugan enough that she'd be unable to see for a brief period if she was hit by it while the dojutsu was active.
This coupled with Kurenai now using targeted illusions that caused Kiba to either lose the scent, or warped it into something different entirely. When this first happened, the Inuzuka had gone nauseous and they had to take a few minutes to let him collect himself after he was broken out of it.
By the fourth hour of their exam, Kurenai started attacking them with kunai and shuriken. He'd barely managed to dodge in time, and warn the team of the attack.
Kurenai started herding them after that, maintaining the same genjutsu attacks as before while mixing in physical attacks as well.
Shino had no illusions about being able to actually fend her off, and he was certain neither did his teammates. And so, they pushed faster, the group dashing through the forest floor while keeping within arms reach of each other in order to be able to easily address any genjutsu depending on whoever could get out of it first.
Eventually, they managed to find the clearing where their target had been.
Kurenai's grandmother was seated on a wooden folding stool next to a pond in a quiet corner of training ground thirty-one. Like their teacher had mentioned, she had been painting.
"Good job, all of you."
Behind them, their sensei walked out of the woods and into the light of the clearing. She sent them a smile.
"You pass."
Immediately, Shino had to grab Hinata as the girl started to collapse from what was likely chakra exhaustion. He could barely hold her up, however, but Kiba had managed to notice and took hold of the girl's other side.
Honestly, though, Shino wasn't sure how much longer he was going to hold out, himself. While Hinata certainly used her chakra the most out of the three of them, he'd still expended a good amount of his own spreading his hive out so thin. This had certainly pushed him to his limits on that front. He wagered Hinata was the same.
Their Sensei steadied all three of them and guided them to the large sheet that her grandmother had set the basket on after receiving it.
"You guys get some rest for now, and we can talk over an early dinner once you're good to move. It's just nearby, and we're close to one of the training ground exits, anyway." She sent them all a wink. "My treat."
~TtT~
Aikuchi Tenten savored the pleasant sizzle as the slice of beef was put atop the grill, savoring the smoky sweetness of the peanut sauce. That sound? That smell? Oh yeah, this was the good stuff.
To her left, she heard Ino seem to groan in pleasure, but the blonde's attempt at remaining polite by keeping her mouth shut made it come out muffled. Tenten sent her friend a grin.
"Told you wouldn't regret coming with me tonight."
To her right, Sakura justs put another slice into her mouth, not even bothering with rice anymore. And ahead of her, the redhead whose family owned the restaurant sent them smug rins and puffed out her chest.
"Best beef this side of the continent, that." Uzumaki Karin said as she put more food on the charcoal grill at the center of their table, playing the perfect hostess despite the attitude. "The cow that came from lived a better life than all four of us, and it's dead."
Finally, Ino seemed to have managed to swallow. "I can believe that. Spirits, that was good." She took a sip of the cold tea they'd been served. "This is so worth smelling like garlic on the way home."
"Hey," Sakura chimed in as she helped Karin flip some of the pieces on the grill after a check to make sure that the side was done. "At least we're getting to do this before all the rush. With food this good, this place is bound to get packed once it actually opens." She paused, eyeing a slice of soy-pork contemplatively before deciding it was done and moving it to her plate. "Chouji-kun likes barbeque, doesn't he? Think he'd like this place?"
"For sure. If he can stand to wait in the line that'd be outside by then." Ino answered with a laugh. "You said this place is serving booze, too, right, Karin-chan?"
The redhead nodded, opting to not open her mouth as she chewed on her own bit of that heavenly, perfectly marbled beef. Even Karin failed to suppress a moan, and her family owned this place! Tenten couldn't say she didn't when she took her first bite, either.
Uzumaki Megumi, Karin's mother, had moved to Konoha a few months back. The woman had been an old acquaintance of her mother's, and the former had been keen on opening this place to grow their business. The woman's husband was still in their hometown near the north-eastern border of the Land of Grass running their inn, according to Karin. She had come along with her mother since it would apparently be safer here than there, to which Tenten would wholeheartedly agree.
Megumi had taken the past few months to get the place setup. Tenten knew that her mother was assisting the older redhead since they were part of the Namikaze corporation. Tenten did not miss the circle and three lines crossing the inside of it that was marked on the kimono that Karin wore. Her mother had one, too, and they had it proudly displayed on the sign of their store.
This was a dry run before they planned to open. Her mom was invited to give the menu a test while the cooks played around in the kitchen to get used to how the setup worked. When Tenten was informed that she could invite a few of her friends, she decided to pull in Sakura and Ino to join them. Since it lined up with their team assignment day, too, she figured it would be a great time for her to see how their genin exams went.
Boy, was she not disappointed.
Apparently Sakura had lucked out and managed to land on a team with two others of their group of friends. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for the rest of them. Ino had been put in with the rest of the Ino-Shika-Cho ─ not at all unexpected, and apparently, the others had sort of figured it would happen earlier that morning while talking about the assignments. She and Shino had guessed something similar over breakfast., too.
And the Aburame had landed a tracking team with the Hyuuga heiress and the son of Inuzuka Tsume. Not great, not terrible.
Tenten wondered what it would have been like had she not started a year ahead and all six of them had been put on teams together. All six of the Azuchi children split across two teams. It sounded like the stuff some of the old epics were made of.
Even the exams were really cool for the most part. Sakura's team had managed to put together some rough strategy to catch their sensei off-guard and pass their test in under an hour. It actually ended up being the reason that her friend could make it today, since, apparently, Hatake had been planning to keep them till dinnertime.
Ino's was, to use her own words, a thought exercise. Sarutobi Asuma wanted his team to be able to think like each other. Better improve teamwork, Ino said she'd been told.
The girl, however, felt it was a bit of a cop-out.
"I mean seriously! If I wanted mind games, I'd talk to my daddy about it!" She said between bites of the rich-tasting beef that had been the highlight of the dinner so far. "Forehead here managed to get a really cool fight with a sensei that was going easy on them, and Shino-kun got to go on a tracking and evasion thing from what you told me." The girl paused, considering something. "What was your exam from last year, Tenten-chan?"
And that was really why she wanted to know what the exam was like for her friends. She wanted to compare them to her own.
"Gai-sensei beat us up till we could barely stand and passed us after we got up, anyway, and tried to punch his face."
"A test of character!" Ino raised her hand in a gesture and a yell. Tenten was sure her and Karin's mothers could hear them from the manager's room where they'd been talking about the restaurant's finances for the past hour. "See, that one was cool! You should have seen Shika. He was asleep for most of it, and Chouji was in the woods with Asuma-sensei! I was left to my own devices for almost three hours while trying to puzzle out the trick to the stone pillar.
She then explained what happened during her exam, mostly for Karin's benefit, since the blonde had ranted about the whole thing on their way to the restaurant earlier.
Ino had been led towards a tall stone pillar that their sensei had created with the aid of ninjutsu and tasked with retrieving a kunai stuck to the top. Of course, there was a catch. Ino was to use no chakra and was to have a large metal weight tied to each of her arms.
Shikamaru was tasked with moving a large rock without the aid of chakra and only by touching it directly once. No other tools were to be used.
Chouji was led to the forest by their teacher. Neither came out until both Ino and Shikamaru were done completing their own tests. Apparently, his job had been to observe the both of them and identify to their sensei the exact moment when either she or Shikamaru were going to complete their respective trials. He was permitted to get three incorrect callouts for each of them.
"And of course Shika's was the easiest!" Tenten could feel Ino's indignance to be thick enough to physically touch. The older girl had to suppress a laugh. "He just had to actually touch the rock to move it! Just touch it! It wasn't even actually a rock!"
Sometimes, the simplest and most obvious solution was the right one. Even Ino acknowledged it was a useful lesson to be taught.
It didn't mean she wasn't still annoyed about it, though.
After that, Ino continued, "No way was I gonna be able to climb that post with those weights!" Then she leaned in and fake-whispered to them, "But I figured out that I could tie the two weights together around the post and use that to climb. You know, pull myself up using them."
Think outside the box, that had been the lesson for her. See what other solutions there were if the most obvious one didn't work.
Chouji's was probably the most important. It tied the whole thing together. Because knowing which solution would work at a glance was probably what could save your life, or at least save you the time and effort.
It was a good lesson, Tenten figured. Maybe there could have been a more interesting way of teaching it for the exam, but it probably did the job. Ino certainly remembered it enough to be able to complain about how the exam played out.
Still, it was worth remembering.
"I'm just happy I was able to head home and shower." the Yamanaka heiress chimed in as she finished the glass of her iced tea. One of the staff came out to give her a refill as the girl continued, "I was all sweaty after all the failed tries at straight-up climbing the pillar." She sniffed her clothes and cringed. "Though I guess I need to shower again, anyway."
Yeah, even if the food was to die for, Tenten was sure none of them wanted to sleep smelling of garlic, or peanut sauce, or soy, or whatever else they'd had. Oh, but it did smell good on food, though. So very good.
Actually, she'd have to check if Karin still had that thing where she could order ready-made meat for grilling at home. She was sure Shibi and Haruka would love it. Shino, too, but she already had every intention of dragging him here next time. All of the boys in their group, really. This place was worth sharing.
Eventually, though, dinner died down and the girls ate their fill. Tenten teased the two younger genin about starting on D-ranks later that week to their groans at the reminder. Karin joined in on the teasing, proclaiming she was so happy she wasn't a shinobi.
"I am thinking of enrolling in the med-nin course at the hospital, though." The red-head said, "Mom says she and I have a bit of a knack for it, and I'm interested in working part-time at the hospital if it works out."
"Oh!" Sakura exclaimed, jade eyes brightening "Actually, Kabuto-kun, the guy that helps out with house work on Azuchi, also works part-time at the hospital. Maybe he can help you get setup there? I think his mom's the director, too, actually. Yakushi Nono."
Karin accepted, the two working out a time where Sakura could introduce the Uzumaki to Rin's apprentice.
Minutes later Tenten spotted her mom walking out from the back office, Uzumaki Megumi trailing behind her.
"You girls have a good time? Food was good, right" Cheers of agreement filled the booth they were in. Nana grinned while Megumi beamed at the praise. "That's good. We have to get going now, though. Megumi-chan needs to start closing up to get ready for their opening next weekend. Make sure all of you are there, along with your teams" Winking at them, the dark-haired woman added, "If you're lucky, you'll be able to sneak in a few drinks, too."
Oh, Tenten could imagine. That'd be fun.
She'd have to keep an eye on her team, though. Lee… really wasn't good with his alcohol.
Wait, she wasn't going to have to babysit all night if that happened, would she?
She would.
Dammit.