Chapter Thirteen:

Compromised

"Hn...maybe.."

Naruto was a good distraction. That was a fact that no one could dispute, proven by the countless pranks the idiot pulled off during their time as academy students. And now with his ability to multiple himself there was a vast amount of potential. He might just really become Hokage if he uses it properly. However, Sakura was having a tough time putting two and two together, which irked her. It was unusual of her not to have an answer on something.

"If you want to join us, you have to listen to what I say dobe."

"No way! You have to-"

So she turned her scythe towards Naruto.

Both Sasuke and Naruto's eyes widened. The air turned deadly still as the blond ninja took a nervous gulp.

"S-Sakura-chan?"

"How'd you learn that jutsu?" Sakura asked point blank.

"You have to point that thing at the dobe just for that?" Sasuke scoffed making Sakura laugh.

"You're ruining my fun!" She lowered her weapon grinning at Naruto who nervously smiled back.

"You are... scary, Sakura-chan."

"Haruno is right though," Sasuke cut in. "How did a dead last like you learn that jutsu?"

Naruto looked between his two teammates, feeling stuck. What was he supposed to tell them? He got tricked into stealing from the Hokage by someone who hated him because of something he had no control nor choice over? How would they react? Would Sakura-chan stop being friends with him and tell the others? Then he'd have to go back to being lonely and friendless.

But on the other hand, Iruka-sensei didn't hate him. Iruka-sensei still looked at him the same. What if Sakura-chan accepted him too?

"Hey, what's wrong?" Kakashi's voice grabbed everyone's attention as he walked into the field again. Naruto felt oddly relieved. "If you don't get a bell before noon, you don't get lunch." His voice was mocking.

"WE DON'T EVEN NEED THAT MUCH TIME TO BEAT YOU!" Naruto yelled back.

"Naruto, shut up." Sasuke commanded. His words pissed Naruto off and the blond opened his mouth to snap a reply but was cut off. "Use your clones to distract him so we can go to a more secluded area."

Sakura sighed.

Why did Sasuke want to plan? It would be better to just attack Kakashi. Their uncoordinated attacks would be a good strategy. Besides, time was running up and she didn't yet get the chance to do anything.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms and looking at her.

Sakura sort of felt like Naruto was trying to mask a smile. The idiot sunshine did always get sentimental when being actively included in a group. It seemed like years after being actively included, he still felt happiness when acknowledged. On one hand it was endearing, on the other hand it made Naruto seem like a bit of an attention whore. No wonder he wanted to become Hokage.

Boring.

She'd rather be an attention whore to only one person.

One person who she really wanted to see again. To see them, she had to be able to go outside of the village. To do that, well, she had to pass this stupid test and become an official shinobi. That means...she focused her attention on Sasuke while ignoring a squawk sound Naruto made.

"Yeah, what's the plan?"

Sasuke seemed to perk up at being voted the leader. Well, as much as the brooding emo could.

"The bells are difficult to acquire since the objective is to keep us from stealing them from him."

Sakura nodded, placing her hand over Naruto's mouth before the blond could instigate another pissing match with the Uchiha.

"He is expecting us to focus on the bells. What if we focus on getting that stupid book instead?"

It actually wasn't a bad idea.

Sakura gave a contemplating hum as Naruto shoved her hand away. "Huh? But what's the point of that?"

"Think about it dobe," Sasuke stressed out. "What would you do if someone offered you to trade ramen for a bell?"

"Well, I would give them the bell duh. Ramen's way better." Naruto answered.

"Exactly."

"But how do you know if he likes that book as much as I like ramen?"

"A hunch."

Naruto stood in a clear field.

Naruto couldn't contain his smile. He was actually being included. Maybe he was even being acknowledged by Sakura. Don't get him wrong, he knew that Sakura had never put him down. She even took him seriously without mocking him such as earlier when he said he wanted to fight Kakashi first or whenever he said he wanted to become Hokage. However, maybe it had more to do with his pride. He wanted Sakura to verbally acknowledge him.

Then once the top kunoichi of their graduating class acknowledges him, even Sasuke would have no choice but to do so too. He would be on equal footing with both of them. He would earn his spot as a ninja.

Then he'll become Hokage.

"Hmm? What's got you looking stupider than usual?"

Naruto startled and looked up, finally noticing that Kakashi had been there for a while now. He was still reading that stupid book of his. The masked man's question sunk in, earning an angry face from the blond. "Just you wait! After I wipe the floor with you, you're the one who will be looking stupid!"

Without waiting for a response, the blond used the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu. There were now forty of him in the field.

Kakashi didn't even look up from his book.

"At least look at me!" Naruto yelled, inciting his clones to attack. They all charged at him.

"What I'm looking at is more important than your little party trick."

As if to emphasize, he lowered his head deeper into the book while still dodging the clones. Naruto compelled himself to stay calm, since everything was still going according to plan despite the ego bruising he was enduring.

While his clones were attacking, Naruto's eyes didn't leave Kakashi.

'He's barely even paying attention to my attack...is he that strong?'

Naruto clenched his fists.

One by one, his clones were getting beaten. A feeling of dread crept up on him as Kakashi closed his book and smacked it on the last clone's head. Could they really take anything from Kakashi?

Naruto gulped as Kakashi eyed him. The blond raised his hands up once again and concentrated harder.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

"I wonder...is that the only jutsu you know?"

Naruto scowled as all his clones yelled at the man to shut up. That was it. He didn't care if the three of them were strong enough or not, he was going to knock a peg off of the cocky bastard even if took following the teme's idea.

"Transformation jutsu!"

All his clones transformed into Kakashi, with varying degrees of success.

"I am flattered, I will admit," Kakashi smiled. "But simply pretending to be me won't make you strong...especially when you can't even do it properly. I see why you stick to one jutsu." He once again opened his book. This time though he kept it open in one hand. That was a good sign.

His clones attacked again.

An advantage was that they were now the same height as Kakashi. The disadvantage was that they weren't used to being their current height, so the movement was a bit off.

Naruto used more clones and they also transformed into Kakashi. They actually looked better this time, Naruto noted in satisfaction. His new clones surrounded Kakashi and the only three old clones left. The new clones all had kunai and shuriken ready.

"Alright, playtime is over!" Naruto exclaimed and all his new clones threw their ninja tools. Naruto raised his hands up for a quick substitution jutsu as Kakashi and the three old clones ducked.

He messed up before he could execute the next part of the plan.

Images of Kakashi killing him popped into his mind and naturally, he released a bloodcurdling scream.

The plan was simple really. Naruto would send a first wave of clones to get Kakashi to think that it was the only technique they had up their sleeves. Then the second 'disguised' clones to distract him. No matter if you knew that they were clones, it would still be distracting to have to fend your look alike off. Three would need to survive so that him, Sakura and Naruto could use the substitute jutsu to get closer. More precisely, one of the three clones would also need to substitute with Kakashi's book so that Sasuke could substitute straight onto Kakashi.

Then Sakura would substitute with the book on the ground, which would leave her at Kakashi's back. Naruto would then be positioned where the last clone was, which would be closest to where Sakura was hiding and he would be able to run and get the book while Sasuke and Sakura would prevent Kakashi from reacting.

The plan was a bit more complicated than necessary, considering the transforming clones into Kakashi was Sakura's weird idea. However, Sasuke agreed to it precisely because it overcomplicated things enough to actually distract Kakashi.

In all honesty, the plan was going better than Sasuke had expected. So when the third wave of Naruto's clones threw their ninja weapons at each other, Sasuke made sure to substitute with the clone from the second wave just as all the third wave clones popped. He had to admit that Naruto's idea of using the smoke for camouflage was a good idea.

He was mid-air right in front of Kakashi, hands weaving through the Fireball Jutsu.

Kakashi's lone eye widened enough to make Sasuke smirk.

"AGHHHH NO KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Naruto's scream (so raw, so frightened) made Sasuke falter.

That split second was enough for Kakashi to elbow him and to jump back.

Sasuke gritted his teeth at the blow, but he finished his sequence. "Fire style: Fireball Jutsu!"

As soon as he finished his jutsu he turned around to see what was wrong with the blond. He saw Naruto knees on the ground, clutching his head in a silent scream. What happened?

Sakura did not turn around, she waited too long for this moment to have Naruto ruin it. Her face morphed into a grin as her scythe neared Kakashi's face.

The Jonin met her scythe with a kunai.

"So," his eyes darted from the boys and towards her. "Finally got tired of being the damsel in distress?"

Sakura's grin widened as she let go of her scythe and recklessly lunged towards Kakashi's neck. She barely registered the kunai piercing her arm as she chomped down on Kakashi's neck. Kakashi cursed.

She frowned in confusion. The mask shouldn't be that hard to bite through.

'Huh? Two masks?'

Kakashi kicked her away.

"Are you crazy?!" He exclaimed, apparently finally losing a little cool because of the accumulation of events. He raised a hand up to cup the area where Sakura had tried to munch off a piece of skin. She might have been successful if the two masks hadn't distract her.

"Tsk," Sakura's grin died down as she ripped the kunai out of her arm. "I will make you bleed."

Kakashi did not reply.

Though it seemed she had his attention enough so that he wasn't trying to peek behind her towards Naruto or Sasuke. He didn't even seem to notice that he didn't have his book.

She launched towards him with a kick.

He grabbed her leg which was exactly what she was hoping for as she twisted her body, ignoring the way it audibly protested at being manipulated in an unnatural way for her to grab her scythe. The sound was enough to distract Kakashi again as she swung towards him.

'I got you!'

Yet he effortlessly swung her away while avoiding her slash.

In order to avoid landing on her currently twisted leg, she pushed her scythe towards the ground and did a one handed stand on the weapon. With her good leg, she pushed the bad one down towards her hand. Another unnatural crunch filled the air as she forced the bad leg back into a good position. Satisfied, she let herself back on ground with a cartwheel.

Once her feet touched the ground she felt a lot of pain.

"Fuck, this shit fucking hurts!" she exclaimed. Despite her proclamation, a wide grin was forming as she pointed her scythe again towards a disturbed looking Kakashi. "Shall we continue?"

"You are too fixated with using your weapon even when pure taijutsu is a good option," Kakashi started lecturing while weaving through some seals.

The area around them began shifting.

Sakura did a quick body flicker towards Kakashi.

But Kakashi wasn't there anymore. He had already disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Instead, there was someone else.

"Hidan?"

Kakashi breathed out a sigh of relief as Sakura sunk down on her knees with a dazed look. He was expecting the girl to be yelling by now, as this was often the norm when he performed the Hell Viewing Technique on inexperienced ninja.

He wasn't relieved because he thought Sakura would be tough to beat or anything, no. While she might have had him work out a sweat if he didn't use the genjutsu on her, Kakashi really just needed ten seconds to get his thoughts in order. Too many things were happening at once.

He had a borderline suicidal, mostly reckless kunoichi that seemed to enjoy mutilating herself while attempting to mutilate her opponents actually attempting to kill him judging by the way she tried to munch off his neck. Despite this, her ninjutsu and the minimum amount of taijutsu she showed so far was excellent for her age. Not to mention, the way she effortlessly performed a hand stand on a damned scythe spoke volumes over the mastery she possessed of said weapon.

Then there was the last Uchiha who was probably the one calling shots in their very random (yet effective) plan. There was no doubt that he was also skilled, solely based on the Fireball he had used earlier. Though, surprisingly, the Uchiha didn't show much of his abilities even though he orchestrated the whole plan. What was more surprising was that he almost compromised said plan by being worried about Naruto.

That's what he was. Worried. Kakashi would never mistake that look. It was too real to be part of some elaborate plan. Though the masked man knew that if he were to ask, the Uchiha would deny being worried about the dead-last. Sasuke would claim to have been distracted, just like him.

And Naruto...

That reckless fool. Did no one tell him how dangerous that technique was to use recklessly? How he would get the memories of the clones? If Kakashi had to guess, the blond's reaction was due to being 'killed' by the image of his sensei over and over. His foolishness outshone the respect Kakashi was starting to gather for him when he suggested teamwork and when he managed to use both the shadow clone jutsu and the transformation jutsu one after the other.

Speaking of, the fool was now charging towards him again.

"What did you do to Sakura-chan!"

His worry almost made Kakashi smile.

"Wait dobe," Sasuke called out. The Uchiha was holding up an orange coloured book. "We have our bargaining chip."

Kakashi blinked, the missing piece of their plan clicking in his head. So instead of focusing on the bell, they decided to go after his book in the hopes of trading. He had to admit, this was the first time any team has ever thought of that. Heck, he had also never thought of it when he was their age. What could he have used against Minato-sensei to attempt to bargain with?

The sound of Sakura howling in laughter broke his musings.

"Release!" The girl yelled out. She immediately turned her attention towards him. "That was so fucked up! Can you do it again?" There were practically stars in her eyes.

Thankfully, the sound of an alarm ringing saved him from having to answer that question.