Somewhere, in the depths of my mind (a scary place I assure you) there is a zone of pitch black. All is silent within this zone. At least it had been, until today.
Suddenly a bright spotlight shone down to reveal what appeared to be the corner of a boxing ring, with an empty stool sitting there.
I then enter the area wearing the same clothes as a boxer does (robes over top with boxing gloves and all).
"Greetings all, and welcome back for another chapter of 'KLTI'. Before this show gets going, I just wanted to thank all of you who sent reviews and PM's to me commenting about your opinions, and even in one particular Pmer's case (Dragoon-Zerox) really inspiring me by providing some knowledge about what he thinks caught all of your attentions to this story, that encourages me to keep going."
I look down at my attire before looking back towards you all.
"In case you're wondering what's up with this little scene, I'll just say this. I just really felt like showing you all that I've vamped myself up for a really productive chapter by going back over all of the reviews and PM's that I received to get my mind going. This is quite likely to be the longest chapter yet. Now please sit back, read, enjoy, and then review. Thank you."
I then exited back the way I came.
OoOoO
Konoha's Legendary Trickster Illusionist
A Naruto/Pokegirl crossover story that doesn't have sex as its main focus.
Chapter 4: Is this really your idea of Teamwork?
OoOoO
It had been a few days since Team Seven and Kakashi had met. Only minutes after the sun had begun to rise, Naruto now found himself staring at the ANBU that stood outside of his apartment with droopy eyes.
"It's six o'clock in the fucking morning." The ANBU was quite surprised at the boy's morning language.
"Uh, yes." The ANBU blinked behind his mask before continuing. "I've been sent to let the members of Team Seven know that Jounin Hatake Kakashi has just gotten out of the hospital and requires you to meet your teammates at training grounds seven at 0800 hours for survival excercises." By the time the ANBU was finished talking Naruto was starting to look more aware.
"Right, 0800 for survival exercises. Will that be all then?" Naruto said this while waving at the ANBU to step inside as he walked over to his fridge and began looking for food.
The ANBU took a step inside so that Naruto remained in his eyesight then continued.
"Hatake-san recommends that you don't eat breakfast if you don't want to be throwing up." Naruto had just taken his first bite of a bowl of cereal as the ANBU said this.
Naruto then stared up at the ANBU for a second again before he went right back to eating.
"Duly noted." He said between bites.
The ANBU couldn't help but chuckle when he heard Naruto's parting shot while he walked back out the door.
"What does Hatake-baka think I am, a stupid retard?"
OoOoO
"You've got to be kidding me." Naruto couldn't help but stare dumbfounded at the subject of his surprise.
The reason for this surprisingly didn't have anything to do with Kakashi's tardiness even though it was nearing ten o'clock am.
"What the hell are you staring at Naruto?" Sakura asked while glaring at Naruto. Sasuke was glaring right along side her.
"Did you two actually listen to Kaka-baka's recommendation?" He asked them with a raised eyebrow.
"You didn't?" Sakura's glare turned harsher as she spoke. Naruto could only palm his face and shake his head adding to his teammates ire's.
"If I brought any food with me I'd give it to you two right now." Naruto said with his face still covered by his palm. "Unfortunately for you two I didn't."
"We weren't supposed to eat Naruto-baka." Following her statement, Sakura tried to punch Naruto upside the head, but he moved it out of the way and stepped away from her.
Naruto finally uncovered his face and gave a disappointed look to Sakura and Sasuke.
"Think about it you two. This is a survival exercise that we are going to be doing. Energy is one of the most important things to have so that you can do everything else necessary to survive. You can't have that energy if you haven't eaten anything to fuel yourself with." Naruto shook his head again after explaining that to them.
"Just because he gives us a recommendation doesn't mean that we need to follow it. Hell, in cases like this a recommendation isn't always the ideal solution."
Sakura and Sasuke's stomachs growled in sync again.
"I guess I'll be taking point in this exercise then so that we can pass it."
It was another twenty minutes till Kakashi arrived.
OoOoO
"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura yelled the second that Kakashi came out of the shunshin that he used to arrive at the training field.
Naruto chuckled at Kakashi's bewildered look, and Sasuke just stared uninterestedly.
"Well, I got lost on the road of life." Kakashi said with an eyesmile."
"Then I should've paid a cab to pick you up along the way." Naruto muttered to himself under his breath.
Taking a glance at his watch Naruto saw that it was 10:30.
"Can we get started now Hatake-san?" Naruto asked.
Casting a look to Naruto and then over the other two Kakashi nodded to himself. "Let's."
"First, before we do anything else I'd like to have each of you introduce yourselves to give your teammates and I a better understanding of who it is we're working with today."
"Um, excuse me Sensei?" Sakura started looking nervous. "But could you introduce yourself first so that we know how you want it done?"
"Alright then." Kakashi said with a nod to her. "My name is Hatake Kakashi. What I like and dislike, you don't really need to know. My dreams for the future…. I really shouldn't tell you that, but I do have many hobbies." As he finished talking Kakashi went into another eyesmile. Everyone else just stared at him exasperated.
"Well that was informing." Naruto said with a snort.
"Alright Naruto, then why don't you show these two how it's done?" Kakashi said while giving Naruto an annoyed look.
Naruto smirked as he started talking.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. There are many things that I like with candy, pranks, and sushi amongst them, and many things I dislike which includes people who don't bother getting to know someone before judging them negatively."
"My dreams for the future are two-fold. First I want to become as strong as possible so that I can protect the people who are important to me, then I want to settle down with a harem of women who I will love, protect, and raise children alongside until my dying days." 'Curse you Kyu for turning me into such a pervert.' Naruto thought to himself at the end.
'You're welcome.' He heard her answer back.
Kakashi wasn't the only one who was staring at Naruto upon hearing the second of Naruto's dreams.
'I wonder if he reads Icha-icha Paradise?' Kakashi asked himself silently.
"You're next Sasuke." Kakashi said while pointing to the said boy.
"Hn, my name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are not many things I like, and many things that I dislike." He gave Naruto and Sakura a look here. "My dreams for the future, they are more ambitions, are to kill a certain man and to revive my clan."
"Aw, Sasuke-chan. I didn't know you cared." Naruto remarked snidely earning yet another glare from the Uchiha.
"Make that two people." Sasuke finished up earning a deadpan look from Kakashi. Sakura just looked back and forth between Naruto and Sasuke for a second before turning to defend Sasuke by hitting Naruto.
Kakashi decided to break that up before it got any further.
"Wrap it up Sakura." Kakashi said causing Sakura to reign herself in from attempting to punch Naruto in the face.
"Ok then, my name is Haruno Sakura. My likes, well…" Here she looked at Sasuke and giggled. Kakashi watched as Naruto lowered his head with a groan and rubbed his temples. "I hate Ino-pig and Naruto-baka. My dreams for the future…" Here she went back to looking at Sasuke as a blush spread across her face. This was followed by a fairly loud squeal.
Kakashi at that point had to refrain himself from turning away from the girl right then and going to demand from the council whose bright idea it was to put her on his team. He had a feeling that it was probably the girl's mother.
Naruto decided not to comment on this one since he didn't feel like having to dodge another attempt to attack him.
"Interesting bunch, all of you." Sakura was the only one who didn't recognize that Kakashi didn't mean a word he just said. "Now that that's out of the way, we can now get to your final gennin test."
'Shit, I should've known something like this would happen.' Naruto thought to himself.
"Aren't we already gennin, sensei?" Sakura asked with a confused stare.
"Oh, that last test was just the part that weeds out all of you who are incapable of being real ninja. It is up to us Jounin to make the decisions for the final cut."
Naruto was giving Kakashi a very calculating look at this point. 'Is he just out for revenge for that flash bang the other day?'
"For your final test. You must take one of these bells from me." Kakashi at this time pulled out two bells from his hip pouch and dangled them in front of the three teens. "No matter the outcome of this test, one of you is either going back to the academy, or you'll be expelled from the ninja program. That is up to how you each perform."
Naruto was immediately suspicious. 'What the hell is he going on about now?' He thought. 'Why the hell would they put us into teams of three if they were going to break us up immediately?'
Glancing between the three teens, Kakashi was surprised to see that Naruto was the only one who was suspicious about the situation.
"You three have until noon to obtain your objective. If none of you succeed, then none of you will become gennin. So come at me with the intent to kill. You have no chance of succeeding otherwise." With that Kakashi pulled out an alarm clock that showed that it was 10:50am and putting it on top of one of the training logs that were next to him.
"As soon as that alarm goes off the test ends." He looked at the three again to see that they each appeared ready. Nodding to himself, Kakashi didn't delay things further.
"Begin."
As soon as that last word left his lips, both Sakura and Sasuke disappeared as they jumped to hiding spots in the forest around the clearing.
"You're an odd one." Kakashi stated as he reached into his hip pouch and pulled out an orange book without taking his eye off of Naruto.
"The only strange thing I can sense here at the moment is this test. I will figure out what lies beneath the circumstances Hatake."
Kakashi was quite surprised when Naruto disappeared in a swirl of leaves once he finished speaking.
With a shrug of his shoulders Kakashi started reading as he continued to stand there.
OoOoO
'I see he is one to believe the stereotype of strength being according to rank.' Naruto thought to himself as he observed Kakashi reading his book. 'I guess since I don't know his capabilities though, I'll assume that he relies on an ability to sense chakra signatures in order to remain aware.'
Naruto then glanced around spotting the hiding places of his two teammates. Naruto snorted at the thought. 'Those two are as likely to work with me as two wolves working with a lion.'
Naruto continued to crouch in his hiding spot and observe his teacher. He continued to formulate plan after plan until along the course of one of his ideas a sudden thought hit him that sparked a realization in him. 'If only I could get those two to help me, then this would be easier… Oh shit, is this a test of teamwork?'
Around that time, Naruto started watching as Kakashi suddenly sidestepped from his previous spot dodging a flurry of shuriken that was immediately followed by Sasuke who was trying to move in for close quarter combat.
"That idiot." He hissed to himself. "No matter who he thinks he is, we're only fresh out of the academy while Hatake has had at least a decade of training. Better see if I could get Sakura to help me."
With that decision made Naruto disappeared into thin air without anything to show he was there previously.
OoOoO
"Katon: Goukakyu-no-jutsu." Sasuke intoned as he blew a large ball of fire at Kakashi.
As the raging inferno began to settle in front of him a few seconds later he realized that it was only a log that was burning in the flames.
"Where is he?" Sasuke asked himself as he began looking around. He then began looking around frantically trying to spot the Jounin. Sasuke was too surprised to properly react when Kakashi's voice suddenly spoke up.
"Beneath you." Kakashi's hands suddenly sprang up from underground by Sasuke's feet, but before they could close around Sasuke's ankles the Uchiha was knocked several feet to the side as Naruto tackled Sasuke away from where he stood before.
"WHAT THE HELL DOBE!" Sasuke yelled as he realized what happened and threw Naruto away from him. "What the hell do you think you were doing?" He demanded once Naruto was away from him.
"Saving your ass from being incapacitated Sasuke. We need to regroup with Sakura and come up with a plan of attack. None of us can defeat him alone." Kakashi was surprised again by Naruto's logical answer.
"Fuck you dobe." Sasuke stated in rage. "I don't need either of you helping me."
At that point Kakashi had had enough of that. Kakashi's hands suddenly burst from the ground again and proceeded to drag the Uchiha underground until he was buried up to his chin.
"You should've listened to your teammate." Kakashi said as he came out of the ground dusting himself off. "Now, while you work on getting out of the ground, I'm going to test Naruto here in combat technique."
Naruto cursed to himself under his breath. He was trying to avoid a situation like this one since he knew that Kakashi would be a very difficult foe.
'I doubt he will fall for another flash bang after my prank.' He thought as Kakashi was suddenly on the move.
Kakashi's dash forward was suddenly halted, and the Jounin was forced to dodge backwards in order to avoid being stabbed by the wakizashi that was now in Naruto's grip.
Naruto brandished the blade with his right hand towards his teacher as he held his stance with the blade's sheath in his left hand. His eyes darted around taking more details about the area they were in before Naruto suddenly blurred to Kakashi's eyes.
Pulling a kunai from his pouch Kakashi just managed to block the blade strike that came from his left before Naruto suddenly blurred again.
What Kakashi failed to realize was that Naruto wasn't really maneuvering with speed but was actually using a minor illusion to disguise his teleports as high speed bursts.
Kakashi suddenly found himself sidestepping another swipe of the wakizashi that he turned into a spinning maneuver to get behind the blond in a crouch.
"Lesson one," Kakashi spoke up to Naruto quickly. "Never let your enemies get behind you."
Sakura from her hiding spot was suddenly horrified to see Kakashi's hands go into the tiger hand sign.
'Konoha's secret taijutsu technique; One Thousand Years of Pain!' Kakashi announced the technique mentally as he went to jam his interlaced fingers into Naruto's rectum.
In Naruto's panic to get away from the technique, he forgot to use an illusion to disguise the teleport that he used to move out of Kakashi's way.
'Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!' Naruto cursed himself mentally from his new hiding spot in the trees above Kakashi. 'Now he's going to be even more curious about my skills since I just pulled off an undisguised teleport.'
Naruto watched for a few seconds as Kakashi quickly recovers from his surprise and begins looking around for the blond.
'Fuck this. Sakura has already shot down my request for aid saying that I'd be useless to Sasuke. Now Sasuke too has shot down my offer of aid, so all I've got left to do is to finish the fight with Kakashi.' Naruto takes a few seconds to think and glance at his watch. 'Shit, 11:50am. This is my last chance to pull off the mission even if they're unwilling to aid me.'
Naruto then concentrated as he stared down at Kakashi. Smirking in satisfaction of the noise nullifying illusion that he just placed on Kakashi. Naruto then dropped from his tree branch towards his sensei.
Just before Naruto would've landed on Kakashi, said teacher looked up and spotted Naruto dropping towards him. Kakashi quickly leapt back away from his previous spot watching as Naruto landed right where he stood before in a stomp.
Naruto then suddenly reappeared right in front of Kakashi forcing him to block a strong kick that would've otherwise knocked the wind out of him.
'There's that weird shunshin of his again.' Naruto disappeared again at this point, in which Kakashi detected Naruto reappearing behind him. 'I'll have to get him to explain this technique of his. He isn't even using hand signs.'
While he was thinking, Kakashi found himself dodging an onslaught of taijutsu attacks that kept coming from literally every angle.
It was another minute and several of those weird shunshins later before Kakashi managed to land a palm strike to Naruto's chest making him roll backwards away from the Jounin. Naruto ended his forced roll on his hands and feet smirking at Kakashi.
'What the hell is he going to do now?' Kakashi asked himself preparing for anything.
He didn't expect to hear the sound of the bells jingling from Naruto's right hand. Naruto then confirmed what he thought by tossing the two bells up in the air and catching them again before disappearing from the Jounin's sight.
'Shit, the other Jounin will never let me hear the end of this.' He thought as he frantically looked around for the blond.
Kakashi turned around towards Sasuke to see the Uchiha moving to escape into the forest.
'Oh, no you don't.' Kakashi thought while he knocked Sasuke out with a chop to the back of the neck. 'Now to catch Sakura.'
OoOoO
Five minutes later the alarm went off. A few seconds later Naruto arrived at the posts to see Sakura and Sasuke tied to the posts while Kakashi leaned against the third one reading his book.
"Where the hell did you go, baka?" Sakura asked as soon as Naruto reappeared.
"I was going to go and find you, but Hatake beat me to it." Naruto answered her. "He didn't leave me any openings to get to either one of you for a rescue."
While Sakura and Sasuke tried to figure out the reason why Naruto would rescue them (if he was telling the truth that is) Kakashi mentally applauded Naruto.
"You completed the mission Naruto, so I find myself having to ask you why you decided that you needed your teammates?" Kakashi asked before Sakura and Sasuke had a chance to question Naruto themselves.
Naruto snorted at the question.
"The test never was about obtaining the bells." Naruto said and continued before either of his teammates could interrupt him. "You used the bells to separate us. Hell, that's the sole purpose that the bells served. I must say too that it worked wonderfully." Naruto looked into Kakashi's eye here to make sure the Jounin saw how Naruto was going to be about his next statement.
"Just as you used the bells to separate us, I was going to use them to bring us together, even if I'd have to use them as bribes."
Naruto then tossed the two bells at his teammates feet much to Kakashi's surprise.
"Even if we aren't much of a team now Hatake-san, I'm hoping that the three of us can learn to at least work together decently in the future. It was in your own words before the test after all. You wanted us to introduce ourselves so that we would know more about whom we would be working with today."
Kakashi chuckled when Naruto finished talking.
"I'm glad that somebody caught onto my biggest hint that would help with the test." Kakashi stated afterwards. He then moved to where all three of them could see him and gave them an eyesmile. "I guess you all pass today's test thanks to Naruto."
That last statement caught Sakura and Sasuke by surprise.
"From here on out you three are a team under my leadership. That means that starting tomorrow, everyday except for Tuesday's you will all meet me at the bridge leading to this training field at 0900 hours for missions or training as I see fit."
"Will you be on time?" Naruto asked with a suspicious look.
"Maybe, maybe not." Kakashi answered with a chuckle. "I will see you all tomorrow." Kakashi gave a slight bow at the end and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
Naruto then walked towards his brooding teammates and cut their ropes with a kunai.
"I'll see you both tomorrow." Naruto said as he himself then disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
As he silently got up from the log he was just tied to, Sasuke glared at the spot that Naruto was last standing. He then walked away from the training ground with a new subject to brood about.
'How the hell was he able to take on Kakashi-sensei like that? I hate to admit it, but it was quite effective when he used it in battle unlike the normal shunshin.'
Sasuke then looked to the skies for a few seconds as he imagined himself using the skill to kill his brother.
'He will teach me that technique.' He then chuckled silently to himself. 'After all, an idiot like him will never be able to properly use that jutsu.'
OoOoO
"Hello, and welcome to Wazashi's Sushi bar. Will you be having the usual today Naruto-kun?" A tall brown-haired waitress greeted Naruto as he took his usual booth in the back corner of his favorite sushi bar.
"No thank you Kasumi-chan. I'm celebrating becoming a gennin today, so I'm treating myself to something special." Naruto said with a small blush on his face. He always had found her to be a beautiful woman.
"Congratulations are in order, Naruto-kun. What will it be then?" She asked as she brought out a notepad to write Naruto's order on.
"I'd like to start off with an order of Gyoza, followed by the Tako Sashimi with some Tendon on the side. Oh, and some green tea as well please." Naruto ordered from the menu.
(AN: For those of you who are wondering what all of that is, here you go. Gyoza's are Japanese Dumplings served as a dish of five, which are varying meats and vegetables wrapped in a sheet of flour. Tako Sashimi is raw octopus. Sashimi is traditionally served with steamed rice. Tendon's are a prawn and vegetable tempura served in soup. In most North American Sushi bars this meal would be worth just over twenty dollars.)
"Very well Naruto-kun." Kasumi said to him with another smile as she finished writing out his order. "I'll bring your order to you as soon as it's ready."
Naruto smiled at the eighteen year old waitress's retreating back. Kyu suddenly started to mutter about what they should do with Kasumi causing Naruto to blush an absolute crimson.
'Damn, Kyu. Quit filling my head with perverted fantasies like that. I'd probably see her as an older sister if it wasn't for you.'
'Nuh, uh. Not gonna happen Naru-chan.' She answered back causing Naruto to release a sigh.
'I learned a long time ago not to argue with you about these things since you're so set in your perverted ways.' Naruto couldn't help but to think at her.
'Damn straight.'
"Here's your order Naruto-kun." He was interrupted from his thoughts by Kasumi's return.
"Thanks Kasumi-chan." Naruto grinned as he spoke.
"Itadakimasu." He then said as he politely started to eat his meal. Naruto remembered how Kasumi had forced him to learn the proper way to eat the foods they served, saying how he wouldn't be allowed in their establishment if he couldn't follow the traditional ways to eat sushi at the least.
Naruto's meal was going along peacefully for a while. That was at least until the time that he heard familiar voices speaking from the front.
"Come on you two. This is just a change of pace." Came a female voice Naruto knew belonged to Yamanaka Ino. "We eat at the barbeque place too much. I wanna try something different."
Looking around the corner of his booth confirmed his suspicions. Along with Ino, stood Chouji and Shikamaru.
"Troublesome." Shikamaru said as he glanced around and spotted Naruto. "Huh, I didn't know that Naruto ate here."
"Really?" Ino was quick to pick up on the statement and find Naruto. She then proceeded to grab her teammates' arms and drag them towards him.
"Hey Naruto." She greeted as soon as they reached his booth. "Mind if we join you?"
Naruto glanced up from his food and gave her a look for a few seconds. He then shrugged his shoulders. "Don't see why not."
"Great." She enthused as she took the spot next to him, leaving the other side of the table open for Chouji and Shikamaru. "Did your team make it Naruto?" She asked as she began scanning the menu.
After chewing and swallowing his current mouthful of tendon Naruto answered her. "Yeah. I find it suspicious since it was supposed to be a teamwork test, but we passed even though I was the only one who tried to work with the others."
Both Shikamaru's brow and curiosity rose at Naruto's statement.
Naruto then proceeded to explain what the test was and how it went. He carefully left out the exact way that he fought Kakashi, explaining that he used a shunshin to get away from the Jounin after he managed to grab the bells. While he was talking Chouji, Ino, and Shikamaru had already ordered and received their food and were quietly eating as he talked.
"So let me get this straight," Shikamaru said after wiping his mouth off with a napkin. "Even though Sakura and Sasuke showed openly that they were unwilling to work with you, your teacher passed the team?" At Naruto's nod he continued. "What is that man thinking?"
Naruto shrugged his shoulders again. "The optimist in me wants to think that he believes that I'll be able to pull the three of us into a working team, but the more realistic side of me believes that there's more to it than that. The council has been favoring Sasuke for a long time after all."
"That just might be it." Chouji cut in at this point. "As far as we know, Hatake-san might have received orders from the council to make sure that Sasuke passed the test."
"I can see that happening too." Ino added. "My father told me that the civilian side of the council has been trying to gain favor with 'The Last Loyal Uchiha'." She gave a snort after the last part. "I think they're just trying to find their ways into his pockets."
"Well, either way I'm still a member of Team Seven now. That means that until the time limit is up I'm stuck with the two of them." Naruto glanced at the clock and realized that he'd been talking to the other three for the last hour.
"I'm going to go home now guys, and gal." The last part was said with a nod to Ino as she moved to let him leave the booth. "I'll see ya around."
Shortly afterwards Naruto was gone in a swirl of leaves.
OoOoO
In the Hokage's office many Jounin were standing around waiting for the arrival of the tardiest of their ranks. With a swirl of leaves, Kakashi finally arrived… Two hours late.
"About time Kakashi." The cigarette smoking Asuma said. "It's bad enough that the meeting was delayed two days because a gennin managed to hospitalize you."
Many snickers went around the room from several of the other Jounin.
"That's enough Asuma." The third spoke up right after taking a puff from his pipe. "We can now finalize which of the hopefuls made rank. You can start Asuma."
"Alright, Team Ten consisting of Akamichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino passed the bell test with flying colors. Right from the very start they saw through the purpose of the bells and Shikamaru came up with a strategy that once put in use allowed them to get the bells from me within the first half hour."
Sarutobi nodded at that. He expected no less of those three. "Yuhi-san."
"Team Eight consisting of Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba also passed my test with flying colors. It took Hinata and Shino a short time to realize that they needed to work together using their independent talents to find the objective I laid out for them to find. After they convinced Kiba to work with them it took one hour to identify and track down the correct item."
Again, Sarutobi nodded to show his acknowledgment of Kurenai's decision. "Genma."
"Team Three failed miserably. They showed absolutely no capacity to work together, nor the inclination to even do so."
"Very well." Sarutobi said. "Will you be returning them to the academy or do you believe that they should be put into civil duties?"
"Only Akado Yoroi showed any real stealth and combat abilities so I believe that he should be sent back to the academy for remedial teamwork exercises. The other two should be put into civil duties."
Sarutobi nodded to Genma to show his agreement, having read the files on the three students for himself. "I have a feeling that you failed your team Kakashi, so I'm not even going to ask."
Asuma and Genma gave small smirks to the Hokage's statement. It didn't last long however as Kakashi was quick to take the opportunity and blow their socks off.
"Actually Hokage-sama. Team Seven consisting of Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto passed my bell test, even if just barely." All eyes were immediately on Kakashi who was giving the room an eyesmile.
"Haruno Sakura didn't get a chance to participate in battle with her teammates, but she showed a strong willingness to work together with Sasuke to beat me."
"Uchiha Sasuke even though he showed only the bare minimal inclination to work with his teammates has great ability and potential."
"Then there's Uzumaki Naruto." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head as he gathered his thoughts on how he wanted to describe Naruto. "He's actually the reason why I passed the team. Right off the start Naruto announced to his teammates and I that he suspected that there was more than the bells to the test. Following that he wound up saving Sasuke from being incapacitated by an inner-decapitation technique, though my follow-up one still got Sasuke in the end."
"I then proceeded to engage Naruto himself in battle and Naruto showed what I at first thought was an extremely skilled usage of the speed increasing technique to move around as he attacked me with a wakizashi. Then when I managed to counter him by getting behind him for an attack he seemed to panic and completely vanished from right in front of me. No motion blurs or anything." Kakashi gave a shrug showing that he wasn't sure what it was exactly that Naruto did.
"Shortly afterwards I found myself unable to hear anything as I was suddenly being attacked by Naruto. I believe he was using a genjutsu on me, though I was unsure as to why he chose to disable just the one sense when he started assaulting me with a combination of surprisingly skilled taijutsu and that weird movement technique of his."
"I only regained my sense of hearing when I managed to knock him away from me after a minute of defending myself. I was quite surprised when Naruto then showed me that he managed to get both bells from me during our scuffle, then he disappeared again until the end of the test."
Several chuckles went around the room at that. Kakashi rolled his eyes since he knew that it'd only be a matter of time before somebody decided to rib him about being outdone twice by the same gennin.
"After the alarm went off I questioned Naruto about his intentions towards the end of the test, and found his answers satisfying in that he did have the full intentions of upholding the spirit of helping his teammates if he hadn't have run out of time shortly after I'd have captured Sakura and Sasuke."
Everyone in the room stared at him again for a few seconds before the Hokage broke the silence.
"So you decided to pass this team because while two of the gennin showed only the barest minimum of being willing to work with the others, one showed willingness to work hard to make the team work and to help his teammates?" At Kakashi's nod he continued. "While I don't agree that only one person can make the team work, I will allow you to keep this team since this is the first one that you've passed. I will be expecting constant reports of each individual member's performance. If no signs of improved teamwork are shown within the first three months I will personally disband Team Seven."
Kakashi nodded his understanding while smiling smugly behind his mask.
"That concludes this meeting. You're all dismissed."
OoOoO
End Chapter.
OoOoO
AN: Phew, I'm glad that chapter was over with. I admit to having difficulties writing the post-test part of this chapter, otherwise this chapter would've been out two days ago the same night that I started writing it.
I hope the chapter was satisfactory in going in depth of certain matters, and in showing some of Naruto's combat capabilities. Keep in mind that he has only shown off a few of the things he can do.
Just the other day I received a review that made me frown. I guess I'll request this now so that hopefully I don't see these again. Please don't send me any reviews that just say 'PLZ UPDATE SOON'. I don't like those reviews since they are just wastes of space on the review board in my opinion. Now if someone were to send me a PM politely asking me when I intend on updating, then that is something completely different. I might actually consider answering one of those if I have an idea myself when I'd be finished the next chapter. I guess I'll mention now that I won't be answering any of those about the next chapter since at the moment I have no clue about when I'll be finished it.
Anyways, now that I have that small rant out of the way (I really am not trying to make a habit of them) I guess I'll just say Adios for now.
Written by:
Cloud1239999