Chapter #7: Genin Exam – part VI

Time's Up!

Haruto and Daisuke were looking at Naruto as he stood still, smiling at them. Emi, who observed the whole situation from the distance, didn't move an inch.

"Uh…what are ya doing Daisuke, ready up those fists" Haruto whispered in his ear.

"I can't idiot!" Daisuke shot back, "Sensei shut down my chakra system…but I might be to…" Daisuke made several hand seals and chakra around his hands started to form into a small, sharp blades.

"Even with his chakra shut-down, he's able to cough up Chakra Scalpels…" Naruto smiled.

"Uhh…what are those…?" Haruto scratched his head, ridiculing Daisuke's technique.

"This is the best I can do for now, and we better make this quick, I'm running out of chakra."

Haruto nodded and then charged at their sensei with Daisuke following him. The sharp end of Daisuke's scalpel attacked the jonin from above. Naruto jumped back, causing the scalpel to stick in the ground, but he had no time to celebrate, as Haruto charged at him with his kunai ready.

The genin-to-be slashed the kunai several times, but the jonin was able to avoid all of them, even though the furious attacks of his student forced him to back up a little.

Just then Haruto moved aside and Naruto saw a shuriken coming right at him. He moved his head to the left and grabbed the shuriken that passed his face just by inches. But as soon as the attack failed, Haruto entered the battle once more, this time attacking the jonin's head with his fist.

The older blonde bent over in order to dodge the attack. Naruto then noticed more shuriken coming his way and without any, other possibility, Naruto jumped and avoided the blade, which flew right under his feet while he was still in midair. However, it was exactly what the genin wanted. Before the jonin was able to do anything, Daisuke appeared in front of him and the sharp end of Daisuke's chakra scalpel cut his belt in the place the bells were attached.

All four of the bells fell to the ground. The jonin was able to grab three of them, but the one that felt on the ground was immediately taken by Haruto, who returned to his teammate's side.

The Nine-Tails vessel landed on the ground and looked at his students with a stoic face.

"WooHoo!" yelled Haruto, throwing the hand in which he held the bell, to the sky. "We got you this time Naruto-sensei!"

"What are you so happy about?" interrupted Daisuke, sweat dropping. "We have one bell and there's two of us, moron! We need to take another one from him! And one for Kumiko!"

"Well… yeah" nodded Haruto, scratching the back of his head. "But so far, we rock and he sucks!"

-That time, a little further-

"Look, even Haruto and Daisuke got a bell" announced Kumiko, sweat dropping. "That was unexpected…"

"Well then, we should get to work as well" responded Takeru seriously. "Are you ready?"

"It was my plan, ya know…" she replied with a tired face, "Of course I'm ready!"

"Let's get going then…"

-Back to the clearing-

"Congratulations" said Naruto with a few claps. "It's quite impressive that you guys were able to get the bell. When took my genin exam, I never got close to even grabbing one…"

"TOLD YOU…" responded Haruto smirking, "I AM THE NUMBER ONE NINJA!"

"Shut up already!" Daisuke gave him a smack on the head. "How many times do I have to tell you, we need two more bells!"

"Fine, fine" replied Haruto, throwing the small object to his companion. "Just ready your … whatever that thing was."

Right after that Daisuke rose to the sky and aimed his scalpel down right where Naruto stood. The jonin jumped to the left, in order to avoid the attack. As soon as Daisuke's feet touched the ground, he noticed his scalped disappeared: "Dangit! I can't give out now…"

"Seems like you've reached your limit, Daisuke. Using chakra control in battle is great, but knowing how much to exert will decide your fate in battle—" Naruto was interrupted, as it was then that he saw Kumiko and Takeru heading right for him.

He reacted just in time to dodge Takeru's attack. Right after that, he found himself retreating from the storm of the boy's shuriken. Those that he wasn't able to dodge, he grabbed and threw them back at Takeru.

Then he noticed a fist coming right at his head from behind. He grabbed it, while turning around and saw the attacking him was Kumiko. Before he knew it, the girl's knee was already heading at his stomach.

"Now I get it" he thought to himself, barely holding back a smile. "Nice plan, Kumiko, but you should've thought ahead" and with that, he blocked the kunoichi's knee and attacked her leg.

She lost her balance and fell on the ground. Then Naruto charged right at Takeru but before he was able to reach him, a rock that flew out of nowhere blocked his way. Emi appeared on the battleground, preparing her hands.

"So… you were able to free yourself?" the jonin asked calmly. "I only know two people who've successfully escaped the Water Prison Jutsu. Plus I didn't expect that you'd be able to use your body so soon, Takeru" with those words he turned to Kumiko.

"You knew?!" the girl seemed amazed.

"Not at first" the older blond admitted. "But when you attacked me, the solution seemed rather obvious. No point in using genjutsu anymore, so would you mind dispelling it?"

Kumiko sighed and preformed a quick seal. In an instant, in the place where she and Takeru stood, the cloud of smoke appeared. When the illusion disappeared, the kunoichi and the boy seemed to switch places with each other.

"At first I thought the Transformation Jutsu was in play," noticed Emi, a bit surprised. "But, I knew that Takeru's movements were not like that…Kumiko made an illusion similar to the Transformation Jutsu to make herself looked like Takaru and he transformed into Kumiko. All of that wasting much chakra…"

"Well, it didn't work, so it wasn't clever enough" replied the Hagoromo clansmen, Kumiko frowned at his declaration.

Suddenly they all heard a loud rang. Naruto looked at the alarm clock and announced as calm as ever: "Well, ladies and gentlemen, looks like your time is up…"