Previously:

"I'm going to punch you!" Naruto declared confidently as he took a swing at Kakashi-sensei. 'Yahoo!' He thought with a grin as his punch connected. Unfortunately, the one he hit wasn't Kakashi-sensei at all… It was one of his clones. "!?" Naruto's eyes widened in surprise when he realized what had just happened. 'Huh!?' Why was he looking himself when Kakashi had been trapped there only seconds ago!? 'Who'd I punch?'

'The one Naruto punched… was Naruto!?' Sakura thought, stunned.

'Ah, so it ended up failing, after all…' April thought, sweat-dropping. 'This is going to be a lot harder than I thought…'

Chapter 7: Pass or Fail?

"Ouch!!" Naruto's injured clone grunted in pain as the one holding it hit the ground.

"You're Kakashi-sensei, aren't you!!?" Naruto shouted at it accusingly. "You used a transformation jutsu to try to trick me!!"

"No, it's you!!" Another clone shouted.

"No, you are!!"

"It's you!!"

"It's not me!!"

'Why doesn't he just undo the clone jutsu?' April wondered, sweat-dropping as she watched Naruto's near victory devolve into a fight amongst him and his clones. Oh, well. While Naruto was causing a commotion, she decided to start enacting a plan of her own.

"You have Kakashi's old man smell!!"

"What are you talking about!?"

"Hey, you know… Why don't you release the jutsu?" One of the clones asked. "Then you'll know because there will be only two."

"Oh, you should have noticed that earlier, idiot!!" Another said.

"I'm you, moron!!" Naruto snapped, chagrined. He released the jutsu. Once the clones disappeared, Naruto was left standing out in the open all alone. Kakashi-sensei was never there to begin with… Naruto had just been beating himself up. A small tear rolled down the side of his swollen and bruised face.

'Naruto… looks so uncool…' Sakura thought, sweat-dropping.

'That was the substitution jutsu, idiot.' Sasuke thought, also sweat-dropping.

"I see, so Kakashi-sensei switched his body with one of the clones using the substitution jutsu…" April mused in a low voice, startling Sasuke when he suddenly realized she was perched right next to him.

"What are you doing!?" He whisper-yelled. When did she…!?

"Yo!" She whispered back cheerfully with a small wave. "I came to strategize." She said by way of explanation. "Since it's obvious we can't beat him on our own, I think we should all just team up and ambush him. If it keeps going like this, we're all going to fail. But if we work together, at least some of us might—"

"I don't need your help." Sasuke whispered sternly, cutting her off. "I'm different from the rest of you!!" April opened her mouth to tell him he was being an idiot, but their attention was abruptly drawn back to Naruto again when they heard him cry out in surprise.

"What the hell is this!!?" Naruto shouted incredulously as he hung upside down from a tree, swinging on the rope tied around his ankle. On the ground below him was a single silver bell.

'A trap… obviously…' She and Sasuke thought, sweat-dropping.

'But that jōnin… even when playing with Naruto, he showed no openings…' Sasuke thought. It was no wonder April wanted to team up, too bad he had no intention of doing so.

'Well, if Sasuke's out, I guess I might as well move on to Sakura-chan, next…' April thought as Kakashi came back out into the open to retrieve the bell, sparing him one last glance before silently moving on.

"Ah!!" Naruto yelled when Kakashi leaned down and picked the bell up.

"Think before using a jutsu, or it will get used against you." He advised the boy as he straightened up. "And also… don't fall for such obvious traps, idiot." He added, tossing the bell up and down in his hand.

"Goddammit!!!" Naruto cursed, grinding his teeth in annoyance frustration. This guy seriously pissed him off!!

"A ninja must be able to see through deception." Kakashi told him with a smile.

"I already know that!!!" Naruto snapped.

"Umm… I'm telling you because you don't." Kakashi deadpanned.

"Psst! Hey, Sakura-chan…" April whispered when she found the pink-haired girl, startling her so bad, that she had to clap a hand over her mouth to prevent her from shrieking in surprise and giving away their position while Kakashi continued to lecture Naruto. "Calm down, it's only me." She whispered, sweat-dropping, as she removed her hand. "Listen, I think we should all team up if we want to beat Kakashi-sensei."

"Eh? Isn't that against the rules!?" She asked, taken aback. 'Cha!! That's an awesome plan!' Inner Sakura said.

"He never actually said we couldn't work together." April pointed out. "And if it's a joint effort, then just maybe we can convince him to pass us all on a technicality… either way, at least some of us will have a shot at actually passing, right?" She said reasonably.

"Or he might just disqualify all of us! What did Sasuke-kun say?" Sakura asked nervously.

"Well…" April said a bit hesitantly. "He said he'd rather do it alone, but—"

"Then, I won't do it either!" Sakura said determinedly. "If Sasuke-kun were with us that would be one thing, but I'm not risking my future for just you and Naruto!"

"…" April stared at her, unimpressed. 'I'm surrounded by a bunch of selfish brats…' She thought, chagrined. Didn't they get that they were supposed to be a team now?

"!!" Both girls gasped when several shuriken suddenly flew out from the trees where Sasuke had hidden, headed straight for Kakashi.

'He finally showed an opening!' Sasuke thought with a smirk.

"Geez," Kakashi said, still talking to Naruto, "you are—"

STAB! STAB! STAB!

April's eyes widened in shock when they all hit home and blood some blood spurted out of Kakashi's wounds as he started to fall.

"Aww!!! No way!!!" Naruto shouted in disbelief, beyond shocked. "Sasuke, you bastard!! You went too far!!"

POOF~

With a pouf of smoke, Kakashi's corpse turned into a log.

"!!!" Sasuke and Naruto gasped.

'Of course, another substitution…!!' April thought, furrowing her brow. She thought it was little weird for him to get hit so easily.

'So he's there…' Kakashi thought, watching from another tree.

'Damn!! Another substitution. From the shuriken, he knows where I am.' Sasuke thought, moving away quickly. "He showed an opening on purpose. Pathetic, I fell for his trap!!" He scolded himself.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura gasped, quickly jumping up and running off to go after him.

"Ah, Sakura—Oh, whatever!!" April said, giving up with a huff. While Sensei was running around chasing those two, she should use this chance to talk to Naruto…!

"Uaaaah!!" Sakura's voice echoed through the forest.

"!" April paused and glanced back. 'Don't tell me he got her already!?' She wondered.

"Hmph! 'A ninja has to see through deception'!!? What a moron!!!" Naruto grumbled.

"Want some help?" April asked as she cautiously approached him, careful not to get caught in any traps along the way.

"April!? What are you doing here?" He asked, surprised to see her. "Shouldn't you be trying to get a bell?"

"Yeah, about that… I was thinking we should team up and try to ambush him. What do you say to that?" She asked with a smile, hoping the two of them would be enough since the others were out.

"Hmm… No way!!" Naruto said after thinking it over for a moment, surprising her.

"Eh? Why not!?" She demanded. What was with everyone today!? Now even Naruto didn't want to work with her!?

"Because, how am I supposed to become Hokage someday if I can't even get a stupid little bell!!?" He retorted. "I have to do this on my own!!! I'm gonna beat that sensei and force him to acknowledge me!!"

"Ah, I see…" April said, sweat-dropping. He did sort of have a point there… "Well, I guess I'm really on my own, then… Let me know if you change your mind." She said as she turned and left, giving him a wave over her shoulder.

"Hey, wait!! Weren't you going to untie me!?" Naruto shouted at her, flinching in shock. "Damn it!!! I'm not going to fall for his stupid traps again!!" He said as he used a kunai to cut himself free, doing a flip before landing on the ground below.

TNG—FWIP!!

"Nooo!!!" Naruto cried out in frustration as he found himself hanging from the tree again. "Dammit!!! The exact same trap right underneath me!!"

"Kyaaaah!!"

"!" April slid to a halt when she heard a blood-curdling scream from Sakura. What the hell was he doing to make her scream like that…!!? '… I'd better go make sure she's okay!!' April decided, proceeding toward the origin of the scream with caution.

"That scream…" Sasuke said, also stopping for a moment. "Sakura…"

"Shinobi fighting lesson number two: genjutsu. Sakura easily fell for it…" Kakashi said, leaning against the tree behind him as he continued to read his book.

'Genjutsu… a form of hallucinatory hypnotism…' Sasuke thought. 'She'd fall for that, but…' "I'm not the same as them." He said aloud.

"Say that after you get a bell… Sasuke-kun." Kakashi said coolly as he stepped forth to face him.

'She's foaming at the mouth…' April thought, sweat-dropping, as she stared down at the unconscious Sakura. Apart from the look of terror frozen on her face, she looked completely unharmed. 'He must have used genjutsu on her… I'll have to be careful…' Genjutsu wasn't exactly her strong suit.

"Hah!!" Sasuke attacked Kakashi with a strong kick, but the jōnin quickly blocked it and grabbed his ankle, holding his leg in place. Sasuke then twisted around and threw a punch. Kakashi caught that with his other hand. "Yah!!" Sasuke yelled, aiming another kick at his head. That too was blocked as Kakashi quickly adjusted his arms to shield himself while still keeping hold of Sasuke's fist and ankle. The bells jingled at the jōnin's waist. Sasuke smirked. Just as planned!

"!" Kakashi said when he realized what the boy was up to. 'Damn!' He thought as Sasuke reached for the bell with his free arm while the jōnin's hands were full. Sasuke's fingertip touched one of the bells.

JINGLE~

Kakashi quickly released Sasuke as he shot back, retreating to a safe distance before the boy could get the bell.

'What a guy…' Kakashi thought as he watched Sasuke land on his feet. 'I didn't have time to read 'Makeout Paradise'.

"Hey, Sakura-chan… Sa-ku-ra-chan…" April said, holding the younger girl's nose shut to wake her up.

"!!?" Sakura opened her mouth and gasped for air as she shot upright into a sitting position, fully awake. "What the—huh!?" She said, looking around, confused. "What happened!?"

"You fainted, I think..." April said, sweat-dropping.

"!" Sakura gasped as it all came back to her and she remembered the illusion she saw of Sasuke near death. "Sasuke-kun!!!" She yelled, jumping to her feet. Don't die and leave me behind!! Where are you!?" She cried, running of to find him.

"… Thanks for not leaving me alone while I was unconscious, April. You're welcome, Sakura-chan." April mimed sarcastically.

"Hmm… helping your teammates even after they turned you down, huh?" Kakashi remarked from right behind her.

"!!" April gasped in alarmed, immediately striking out at him with a roundhouse kick. Once again, Kakashi easily blocked the blow with his arm and grabbed her ankle to hold her in place, only this time, the sharpness of the force of her blow left a cut, and while Kakashi was surprised about this, she twisted around to attack again.

'This'll be another punch.' Kakashi thought as he started to move his head to dodge instead of trying to catch it this time. She was trying to do the same thing as Sasuke, but he wasn't about to fall for that trick a—"!!?" His eyes widened when the punch turned out to be feint, and she tried to deliver a kick to his ribs at the same time her fist flew past his face. Kakashi managed to catch her foot in time, but then she arched her back and reached for the bell. 'Oh, no, you don't!' He thought, swinging her by her ankles and throwing her up into the air. As she was being thrown away, she formed a hand seal.

'Shadow clone jutsu!!' She thought, creating two shadow clones, who launched themselves forward at Kakashi as she flew back. He raised both hands to catch their fists as both clones tried to hit him with a straight jab. He expected them to stop and try to strike again, but instead they kept running and let their wrists get twisted as they used the momentum to sing around and wrapped their free arms and legs around him.

"!!" Kakashi's eyes widened slightly in surprise as they wrapped their bodies around him and linked together to hold him a full-body joint-lock so he couldn't run away. While all of this was happening, the real April came charging back at him. She reached out to grab one of the bells from his waist and almost touched it, but at the last minute, she pulled back, did a flip and kicked off of the tree stump she had almost slammed into, using it as a springboard to launch herself back in the direction she had just come from, aiming a rocket punch at the real Kakashi, who had been sneaking up on her from behind. Kakashi stepped to the side and dodged, but she landed in a crouch, and the moment she touched the ground, April spun around and struck out at him again, using a sweeping kick, while a clone aimed another kick at his head. Kakashi jumped and ducked to avoid the simultaneous attacks. 'Another troublesome one has arrived…' He thought. She wasn't giving him any time to read his book either. Her taijutsu was even better than Sasuke's, and even though they were weaker, she used her clones a lot more effectively than Naruto. "!" While he was still in the air, the other clone threw several shuriken at him. He instinctively countered by throwing some of his own back at her, with enough her to cancel out her attack, while a few extra kept going as part of a counter attack. 'Damn, I didn't mean to use that kind of move against a beginner!!' He thought, immediately regretting his actions. But the two clones rushed forth to shield the real April, and she jumped up onto their shoulders and pushed off of as they were taken out by his shurikens. April threw kunais at Kakashi's hands and feet as he landed. They hit their targets, but April didn't let her guard down. She immediately began scanning her surroundings before the log from the substitution jutsu even had time to finish falling over, watching for any signs that might give away Kakashi's position or indicate where he would attack from next.

'Where'd he go…!?' She wondered. It was like he had completely vanished…!

"Below you." He said as his hands burst up through the ground and grabbed her by the ankles. "Earth element: Suicidal Decapitation!"

"!!?" She cried out in shock and alarm as she was instantly pulled down into the earth until she was buried up to her neck.

"Your taijutsu is excellent, but it looks like you need to work more on ninja fighting lesson number 3: ninjutsu." Kakashi said thoughtfully as he reappeared before her. That fight was starting to get a little too dangerous... He hadn't intended to use actual weapons against any of them. "How is it? Can't move, can you? You have good instincts, but it looks like I was able to take you completely by surprise this time."

"Well, where I come from, such a thing would normally be considered impossible, even for a ninja…" April said, sweat-dropping. "Reality works a little differently there…" 'He really got me good…!!' She thought, chagrined. How was she going to get out of this?

"Even if that's true, you're in this world now." He said, squatting down to talk to her on her level. "You need to learn this world's rules, or it'll chew you up and spit you out."

"Tell me about it…" April said, hanging her head a little in shame. Wasn't she literally in that situation right now?

"Don't feel too bad. I got Sasuke-kun with that one, too." He said with a smile. "But putting that aside, care to tell me why you decided to come at me all alone? Weren't you trying to get your teammates to work together with you?"

'So he knew the whole time…?' She thought, sweat-dropping as she wondered when he the had time to spy on her. "Yeah, I thought our best chance of passing would be to work together, but they all turned me down." She confessed with a sigh. "But it's almost noon, and I want to eat lunch." She added with a serious gleam in her eye.

'So, refueling was actually of greater concern to her than the bell?' Kakashi thought, sweat-dropping. Well, it was true that the longer they tried to fight on an empty stomach, the harder it would be for them… "And what made you think it was okay to do that? I didn't say you could work together, and there are only two bells. Even if you did succeed in getting them, how were you going to dived them up amongst yourselves evenly?"

"Well, you never said we couldn't work together… and we're supposed to be a team, aren't we? It's strange for there to only be two bells in the first place. I was hoping maybe if we all worked together, we could convince you pass us all on some kind of technicality, since it would have been a joint effort, and if that didn't work, then… I guess we could've decided by rock, paper, scissors?" She said, furrowing her brow as she blushed slightly out of embarrassment and looked away. Now that she had heard herself say it out loud, it sounded kind of stupid. "But even if two people failed, I thought at least this way, two of us could pass. The two who failed could always try again next year, right? Even if I fail here, I'm not going to give up!!" She added determinedly.

"…" Kakashi stared at her. She started sweating a little nervously.

"W-What…?" She asked, wondering why he was staring so intensely at her all of sudden.

"I have just one more question… Why do you want to be a ninja?" He asked, surprising her.

"Huh? Well, don't laugh, but… I got inspired when I saw my first ninja movie shortly after my parents died." She said, blushing as she looked down. "No matter what kind of danger and other obstacles he encountered, the ninja never gave up. He said that shinobi were 'ones who endured', but watching him, it seemed to me that they did more than just endure… Shinobi 'overcome'." She said firmly raising her head to look up at him with eyes filled with steady strength and resolve.

"And what did you want to overcome?" He asked.

"The useless me that couldn't do anything to protect myself or the people I cared about."

Kakashi's eyes widened slightly for a moment. He smiled.

"I see." He said. "That is a good answer."

"?" April said, furrowing her brow slightly in confusion as he stood up and walked away. "Hey, wait a minute… How am I supposed to get out of this!?" She shouted after him, struggling uselessly against the weight of the earth.