AN: Bell test!
EDIT: beta'd as of 7/20
Even though they all knew Kakashi-sensei wouldn't arrive until late morning, all three members of team seven showed up at training ground 7 at six in the morning. They had all eaten breakfast, ignoring yesterday's suggestion against it. If they were going to pull this off, they would need all the strength they could get. Besides, Kakashi-sensei hadn't told them not to eat. He'd only suggested, so they weren't going to get into trouble.
"Hey Naruto," Sakura greeted him, rubbing her eyes. She hadn't slept well last night. In fact, none of them had, judging by the bags under their eyes. Maybe after they pulled this off they could take a nap. Maybe…
"Did you bring the stuff?"
Naruto smirked and tipped his backpack over, spilling the entire contents onto the ground. "You bet I did."
Out fell exploding tags, an excessive amount of ninja wire, smoke bombs, small paint cans, bags of glitter, rope, and anything else they might need for setting traps.
"Great," Sakura smiled. "Let's get to work."
At first their plan was to just simply let things happen as they had last time. It would be much easier, and they would still get the same results. But ultimately they had decided against, choosing in favor to fuck with Kakashi-sensei as much as possible. He deserved it after all, what with all tardiness and trolling. If he was going to be a little shit to them, then by God were they going to be little shits back.
Hence their revenge plans.
They would set up traps all around the training ground until the place was practically saturated, and one wouldn't even be able to take a step without setting something off. The next part was proving teamwork, because perhaps just simply getting the bells wouldn't be enough for their belligerent sensei. Naruto had suggested playing it out like one of Shikamaru's games of shogi, altering variables and changing tactics until they managed to make checkmate, retrieving the bells in this case. Sakura had completely stunned by the suggestion and had forgotten to respond for nearly a minute.
But it was a good plan, so they went with it.
Three hours later the trio had rigged the entire training ground with various traps, relying on Naruto's knowledge of panks to make them the best, and most annoying, traps possible. Not all of them were for show. They had to trigger a few specific traps for their plan to work, but they were confident that it would work out. Now they just had to wait for their sensei.
"Hey Sakura," Naruto said, hands behind his head as he sprawled across the grass.
"Yeah?"
"Do you wanna get ramen after this?"
"Why?" She asked.
"Well, I haven't had it in months," he admitted, thinking back to turtle island and the long ship ride to get there. "And I really miss it."
"Idiot," she sighed. "It wasn't even a month, don't exaggerate."
Naruto huffed loudly in displeasure, but didn't retort. They fell back into silence again, waiting for their perpetually late sensei to arrive.
After about thirty minutes, they finally heard a voice say, "Yo."
"YOU'RE LATE!" Both Sakura and Naruto cried, jumping up from the ground.
"Well you see," he started, about to begin a tirade of excuses. "A black cat crossed the road so I had to take the long way around, but then there was an old lady who needed help with her groceries. And I couldn't simply stand by and leave her to break a hip or something, so I had to help."
"For four hours?" Sakura deadpanned.
They were used to his bullshit, but his excuses were just pathetic. If they didn't know he'd actually spent that time talking to gravestones they'd be furious.
"Maa, that's just how things go."
All three genin had to work very hard to resist the urge to roll their eyes.
"Well, now that I'm here," their sensei began again. "How about I explain the survival exercise?"
"Please," Naruto groaned. "Let's get on with this."
"Well, you see these?" Their sensei asked, pulling out two bells. "Your objective is to get one of these bells from me by noon. If you fail to do so, you'll be sent back to the academy." His voice was mildly cheerful, but his eye promised pain.
"But sensei," Sakura piped up. "You only have two bells."
"That's right," he said, flashing them an eye-smile. "One of you will fail, and whoever does gets to sit and watch the rest of us eat our lunch."
Unlike the last time, the mention of lunch didn't make their stomachs growl in protest. Kakashi-sensei noticed this and raised a line eyebrow.
"You three all ate breakfast didn't you?" He accused, not used to having his orders ignored. His statement was met with nods from all three.
"You only suggested we didn't eat," Naruto pointed out. "Not that we couldn't eat."
Kakashi would have liked to have it known in that moment that he really wished Naruto had gotten a little less of his father's smart-ass personality. Damn Minato.
"Fine," he said. "We begin on my count. And remember, if you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you won't get a bell."
All three of the genins faces hardened.
"Ready," Kakashi drawled. "Go!"
They zipped off in a blur and Kakashi suddenly found he was alone in the large clearing.
"Hm, well hidden," Kakashi-sensei commented idly from the middle of the now empty clearing.
From the bush he was hiding in, Naruto caught Sakura's gaze from across the way and gave a small nod. Phase one was in motion.
From the trees where Sakura was perched came a barrage of shuriken, all aimed in Kakashi-sensei's general direction. He watched them lazily and didn't even bother side stepping any as they all the dirt around his feet.
"You might need to work on your aim, there," he drawled, utterly unimpressed.
"Wasn't aiming for you," Sakura chirped before jumping to another hiding spot. Kakashi-sensei didn't even have a moment to think over what that meant before the ground beneath his feet exploded as their buried exploding tags were activated.
Kakashi had to jump away quickly and retreat to the top of one of the training posts in order to avoid the blast. While he had been distracted, Sakura had managed to find a new hiding spot.
"Not bad," he noted, eyeing the training grounds, which were torn apart from the explosions. There went any earth jutsu he might have wanted to use. "But that doesn't help you get the bells."
"Helps distract you!" A sudden voice from behind him cried. He only had a moment to duck a leg that came sweeping across before sending a harsh kick to the offending party. The Naruto clone that had attacked him burst into a cloud of smoke at the connection, only for a kunai to come flying through it.
Damn, he thought as he jumped out of the way. This kid is better than I thought.
Another two clones ran up to him, pressing him back into the woods with another round of kunai and shuriken. He took another bound back-
Only to suddenly find his foot caught in a snare as he was hoisted up into a tree. Wasting no time, he cut himself down as another orange clad assailant threw himself at him. He popped the clone easily, watching with mild alarm as the other was caught in a similar trap.
Did they rig the entire forest? He thought, bewildered. The more alarming part of that thought was that they could have rigged it so much that they had forgotten where all the traps were placed. Shooting a quick glance around, he did indeed spot barely hidden ninja wire, rope, and even a bag of, was the glitter? Kakashi didn't even want to know what that trap was supposed to do.
Either way, if he intended to stay in the forest, half his attention would have to be on those traps. And if the brats decided to gang up on him as a unit, it would be over for him. Clearing it was then, he thought begrudgingly. This was what they wanted, he knew, but he still had a better chance at fight out there than he did in here with all these traps.
Damn these brats were evil.
There were no more clones around to attack him, Kakashi noted, but that didn't mean any weren't lying in wait. Wearily, he stood up and jumped up onto a tree branch, surveying the ground below. No Narutos. Not here at least. Narrowing his eye, he hopped to the next branch and on towards the clearing. If those brats wanted him there, by god was he going to show them just who they were dealing with.
"Did he take the bait?" Sasuke asked, crouched on the tree branch beside Naruto. Naruto nodded, having received his clones' memories.
"He's headed to the clearing now. And he looks pissed." He'd most likely figured out they wanted him in the clearing and was coming full force. Which could end very badly for them.
Sasuke smiled darkly. "Good."
Naruto scowled and shot the Uchiha a look. "Just stick to the plan," he hissed. Even though he knew Sasuke was back on their side for the most part, the image of him almost killing Sakura still played in his head. He didn't want to relive that right now, thanks.
The boy just waved him off. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."
Naruto bit his lip to keep from retorting.
"There!" Sasuke suddenly hissed, pointing towards the training posts. "He's back."
Naruto picked himself up from his crouch and dusted off his pants, looking towards his friend as he did the same. "Then let's finish this thing."
They jumped off the branch and were in the clearing.
"No cherry blossom? How disappointing," Kakashi-sensei sighed once he spotted them, referring to their other teammate.
"Well you get us, so deal with it, y'know!" Naruto shouted back, jabbing a thumb at himself for emphasis.
Kakashi-sensei looked as unimpressed as always, but Naruto could see the slight edge to his stance as he readied himself for their assault.
In a flash, the two boys jumped towards their teacher, kunai and shuriken at the ready. Sasuke went first, throwing his deadly accuracy. Naruto followed, aiming for all the places Kakashi-sensei would escape to, forcing him back.
"Naruto!" Sasuke shouted in warning as he watched their sensei fly through hands signs.
"Got it!" Before Kakashi-sensei could strike the ground with a chidori and fry them, Naruto unleashed a strong wind jutsu, combining the force element of rasengan and his own wind nature to disrupt their sensei's jutsu in its entirety. The look of surprise on Kakashi-sensei's face was almost comical, but it was swept quickly under the rug as they began their assault again.
Sasuke jumped behind him, readying a fire style jutsu while Naruto stayed in front, attacked with taijutsu. He swung a hard kick towards Kakashi-sensei, which was easily blocked by him simply grabbing his leg. Suddenly Naruto was being thrown behind him and straight into Sasuke line of fire. He stopped his jutsu and the two collided hard and toppled to the ground in a heap of limbs.
"Not bad," Kakashi-sensei drawled, dusting off his hands smugly. "But still not good enough."
A growl of frustration escaped Sasuke as they picked themselves up.
"Good thing we're just getting started," he shot back. Kakashi merely raised an amused eyebrow in response.
The two were off again, this time going for duel combat. Sasuke went low, sweeping with a leg while Naruto went high, first ready to collide with that stupid mask of his. Kakashi jumped deftly over the swipe and caught the oncoming fist in his hand, kicking Sasuke on the back on his way down.
They would be doing so much better right now if they had let themselves use their actual skills, Naruto thought bitterly to himself.
He was thrown to the ground again, rolling some ways until skidding to a stop in the dirt. He looked up, spotting Sasuke in a similar position near him. But that wasn't who he was looking for.
Far off in the trees he spotted a familiar set of green eyes and pink hair. They exchanged a quick look and the other person nodded. It was go time.
"On my signal!" Naruto hissed to Sasuke, jumping back to keep distance between him and the jōnin. Following suit, Sasuke didn't even have to ask as he saw the boy take a ready stance. The Uchiha flew through hand sign and built up hot chakra in his chest, ready to go.
"Now!" Naruto shouted. A burst of wind came roaring out of his hand, rushing toward their sensei. "Wind style; gale palm!"
Sasuke took that moment to release his own jutsu, spewing forth an inferno from his mouth. "Fire style; fireball jutsu!"
The jutsus clashed and the wind helped to accelerate the fire, pushing it hot and fast towards their sensei in a blistering storm.
"Shit," was all they heard from their sensei.
They had him cornered, just as they'd planned. The forest to his left was covered in traps, to dangerous to make an escape in. The ground below him was cracked from Sakura's multiple exploding tags, so no escaping through there. And they'd aimed the blast from their jutsu upwards, so that route was also not viable. That only left backwards and to the right. And, just as they'd calculated, he went right.
The man jumped to the side, quick as a flash, but Sakura was waiting. Nimbly, she grabbed at the bells hanging from his vest whilst also aiming a strong roundhouse kick right into his solar plexus. He went flying back, hitting a tree hard enough for them to hear it crack.
Then the tinkle of bells sounded, and it was all over.
When the smoke cleared, they were faced with scorched earth and a bewildered sensei leaning up against a tree. His eye was almost as wide as one of Naruto's ramen bowls as he eyed the three of them.
Chuckling to himself, Naruto dusted off his hands nonchalant and folded them behind his head, grinning like a maniac.
"How, in the hell…" Kakashi-sensei managed, dumbfounded. He only received laughter in response.
"We had it all planned out since yesterday, sensei," Naruto announced cheerfully. "We even made a three step plan!"
Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, step one of plan Beat Kakashi-sensei was to set off a lot of exploding tags buried in the dirt. It would break up the ground and make it so he wouldn't be able to use any earth style jutsu very effectively, y'know," Naruto said. "Because we asked around and found out what your preferred fighting style was and thought of ways to avoid them to give us the advantage." That was a lie. But it was plausible enough to be the truth. In reality Sasuke just didn't want to to be buried up to his neck again, as it was very embarrassing the last time. Of course they could have had Sakura straight up punching the ground again, but they didn't have that luxury this time as they had covers to keep.
"Step two of the plan was keep you out of the woods," Naruto continued. "If this was going to work, we needed you out in the open. So we rigged the entire forest, y'know, and even had one of my clones trip one to make you think not even we knew where they all were, because there were so many." Naruto suddenly paused to think. "Which there are."
"Yeah," Sakura sighed next to him. "Might have gone a bit overboard there." Naruto could only chuckle, rubbing the back of his head nervously.
"Anyway, once we had you out in the open, Sasuke and I would attack you while Sakura hid. Once we had you distracted, she would swoop in and get the bells, y'know. Pretty neat plan, huh?"
"And we got the bells, sensei," Sakura smiled sweetly, holding up both bells for emphasis. They tinkled merrily in her grasp, a great juxtaposition to their current surroundings. "Does that mean we pass?"
Naruto saw their sensei's eye harden in annoyance before he replied. "No, only one of you got the bells. And I said whoever doesn't get one goes back to the academy."
Even though they knew it was utter bullshit, they decided to play along.
"Oh, well, okay." Deftly, Sakura handed a bell to each of the boys. "There, we all got a bell!"
Naruto was sure that under his mask, Kakashi-sensei was beet red.
"So did we pass?" Naruto piped up.
There was a long moment of silence from their sensei, in which the man was contemplating treason by smiting all three of the brats where they stood. But he eventually decided against it, as it would be in poor taste.
"Yes," he finally ground out. "You all pass."
