Technology Troubles

Chapter 3: Team 7 Pass or Fail

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

"blah"=Speaking

'blah'=Thinking

'blah'=Inner self

"blah"=Monster voice

"Yawn." Bill slowly got out of bed, though he didn't really want to, and began his morning routine. Starting with a breakfast of toast and milk then putting on his usual attire of plad shorts, red t-shirt and blue 'n' white tennis shoes and also decided to wear a brown jacket today. After styling his hair in the usual rooster tail he walked over to his night stand, picked up his headband and stood in front of the bathroom mirror trying to decide how to wear it.

'I could wear it like a belt… nah, maybe around my neck… but then I could be choked, hmm… around my head it is.' He tried it on around his head and he thought it looked pretty good.

"Well, time to go!" But just as he was about to walk out the door he made one last decision and grabbed his gun holster, slipped the 'stun' gun in there along with 2 extra ammo cartridges and slid his jacket over it. 'Just in case…'

Outside waiting for him were Naruto and Hinata both wearing their headbands on their head and neck respectively.

"Hey guys." Bill greeted.

"Hey Bill." They both said.

"Ready to go?"

"Yup." With that they set off towards the Academy being very careful to avoid any fangirls that might still be mad at them from the other day.

As the trio entered the class, a good number of girls fainted followed by sweat drops from all three of them.

"They'll faint at anything wont they?" said Bill. Naruto simply replied with a nod and Hinata the same. They took their seats.

"Naruto what are you doing here?" They turned to see Shikamaru Nara leaning over the desk. "This is for only the people that graduated."

"Don't you see the headband?" Naruto jabbed his thumb at the headband. "I'm a real ninja!"

"Whatever." He said and leaned back from them.

"Bill, Naruto, Hinata move!" They looked up to the source of the demanding voice. "Oh great, Sakura…" Bill said.

"What did you say?" Sakura gave him a menacing look.

Bill went pale and quickly replied, "Nothing…" If there's one thing in the world that scares Bill, it would be Sakura's temper.

"Well move I want to sit next to Sasuke!" They looked to their side and saw the silent Uchiha sitting next to them.

Sasuke looked up to see what the commotion was about and noticed Sakura. 'Not her!' He recalled that night a week ago when he found Ino, Sakura and some of his other fan-girls spying on him while he was in the tub and since then has kept as much distance as possible between him and them.

"Agh!" Bill and Naruto were tackled down by Sakura while Hinata had taken a seat in the back to keep a safe distance.

"Sasuke can I sit next to you?" She asked sweetly.

"Get off Bill you witch!" One of Bill's fan-girls knocked Sakura on the head.

'I never thought I'd be happy to see a fan-girl.' Bill thought. "Hey thanks. Think you could keep her away for a while?" He flashed a smile.

The fan-girl grinned. 'I have a bad feeling about this.'

"Oh sure I can… for a kiss."

"Hey I'll do it!"

"No me!"

"Me!"

Bill's other fan-girls started fighting. "Thank you competition!" He said quietly.

"Grr"

"Huh?"

Naruto was crouching on Sasuke's desk and the two seemed to be having a staring contest and Bill face faltered.

'Naruto what are you doing?' Bill thought. The fan-girls noticed the staring contest and started yelling cheers for Sasuke to kick his butt.

"Oops sorry!" Someone had bumped Naruto from behind and caused them to… kiss. The two broke away gagging.

"Ack! Naruto I'm gonna… Ack…. Kill you!" Sasuke gasped.

"My… throat…. is burning."

Not surprisingly Bill was laughing hysterically when he suddenly stopped. "There's a disturbance in the air." He looked behind him but wished he hadn't because Sakura was MAD!

"Naruto…" She growled.

"It-It was an accident!" Sakura cracked her fist.

'Ohh what to do? Run, fight, run, fight, ru- aww the heck with it.' Bill stepped in front of the advancing hoard of angry fan-girls. "If you want to get to him you have to go though me first!" Sakura swung her fist at him and Bill did the first thing he could think of.

A high pitched buzzing-like sound issued followed by a streak of red light that hit Sakura square in the chest. "Arg!" She fell to the ground unconscious.

"I knew it was a good idea to bring this!" Bill was standing in front of an unconscious Sakura with his gum pointing at the remaining fan-girls.

"You brought that thing with you?" Naruto yelled.

"I thought if the fan-girls were still angry about the other day, this would come in handy. Now back off or I'll shoot the rest of ya!" The remaining fan-girls backed off not wanting to be shot and end up like Sakura, except for Ino.

"I don't care, let's kick this guy across the room!" She charged and with another buzzing and streak of light Ino was on the ground too.

"Naruto let's get somewhere safe." Naruto, glad to get away from the fan-girls and Sasuke, followed Bill to the back were Hinata had retreated to.

A few minutes later Sakura and Ino had woken up and a few girls were explaining to them what had happened. Meanwhile Bill, Naruto and Hinata were whispering to themselves.

"You brought that?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah, and good thing too. They would've killed Naruto." Naruto nodded.

"Did it hurt them?" Hinata asked.

"No it's a stun gun remember?" Bill reminded them.

"Oh right. I wonder what it felt like?" Naruto asked.

"Good question… Lemme check." Bill pulled out his gun and looked it over.

Hinata was about to ask. "What do you me-" When Bill shot himself square in the face.

"Urk!" He fell to the floor but arose moments later. "Whoa! That felt…"

"Weird?" Naruto guessed.

"If by weird you mean feeling like there's needles poking you everywhere and like you were just electrocuted, then yes, it felt very weird." Sweat drops.

A little while later Iruka walked into the classroom to begin the orientation. "All right settle down. Beginning today all of you are now ninja's, but this is only the first step. You are still rookie Genin. All of you will be assigned 3 man teams led by a Jounin sensei. You'll follow that sensei's instructions and will be assigned duties by the village." Iruka said. "Now I'll read the team assignments." Iruka picked up a clipboard. "Alright now Team 7 will be…" The three were silently hoping to end up as a team.

'Please put me with Naruto and Hinata,'

'Please put me with Hinata and Bill.'

'Please put me with Naruto and Bill."

"…Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuuga and Bill Dark." Iruka said.

They cheered at the news. Iruka read off the rest of the teams. "All right we'll take a break and you will be introduced to your sensei's this afternoon." Everyone slowly left the room.

Outside Bill, Naruto and Hinata were eating lunch in the shade of a tree.

"This is so cool! We're all on the same team!" Naruto yelled happily.

"Way to state the obvious." Bill said. "But your right, it is cool. Without you on the team things would get boring."

"What's that mean?" Naruto asked.

"Figure it out." Bill suddenly got an idea. He got up and stretched a little. "I'm gonna go take a little walk; I'll meet you at the classroom okay?"

"Okay." Naruto said.

But no sooner had Bill left that Naruto realized the situation he was in. He was sitting with Hinata, alone, under a shady tree, on a sunny day, in the park, with no one else around. It practically screamed romance! Naruto started blushing a deep red and Hinata seemed to have noticed this too and was also blushing. Naruto was frantically trying to think of something to say.

'Come on! She's sitting right next to you and your just staring straight ahead! Say something, anything!'

"Uhh… Erm… Nice weather today."

"Huh?" Naruto mentally slapped himself.

'The weather? Great idea genius! Let's talk about the weather! It's sunny with a few clouds and a 20% chance of rain. You might as well put a sticker on your head that says "Dork!"' While Naruto was mentally kicking himself Hinata trying to get his attention.

"Naruto?"

"Huh?"

"I said how have you been lately? You know since… Mizuki." She asked.

"Oh well I've been ok. I'm still not used to knowing there's a demon inside of me." Naruto answered.

"Oh, well maybe you'll get used to it eventually." She said.

"Yeah maybe. But there's one thing I don't understand."

"What's that?"

"Why me? Why did the Fourth Hokage choose me? Couldn't he have sealed it in himself and taken it with him when he died?" Naruto asked.

"Maybe he couldn't." Hinata guessed.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I mean what if the Kyuubi can come back to life? Then what the Fourth did would be for nothing."

"I… I never thought of that. But still, why did he choose me?"

"I… I don't know." They sat in silence for a while until Naruto spoke up again.

"Hinata…"

"Yes?"

"…Thanks."

"For what?" Hinata was puzzled.

"Everything. I kinda thought that after you heard about the… well, you would hate me." Naruto stared at his feet.

"Naruto, if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I will never hate you." She assured him.

Naruto stared at her and he slowly broke into a smile. "Thanks again."

"You're welcome." Hinata said smiling back.

Bill, Naruto and Hinata were waiting in the classroom. Everyone's sensei's had come except for theirs.

"Man why in our sensei so late!" Naruto complained.

"Well since he's late, I think he deserves a punishment." A mischievous grin spread across Bill's face.

"What do ya have in mind?" Naruto asked.

The three were taking a nap while they waited for their sensei. But it was cut short when they heard the sound of screaming. Boing! Bwa! "Ahh!" A pale faced, white haired, masked Jounin walked into the room.

"That's what you get for being late!" Naruto laughed.

'These kids.' "Whatever, just meet me up on the roof." The Jounin said and walked off.

"Well I think it would be best to start with some introductions." The man said.

"Like what?" Hinata asked.

"Oh your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future, stuff like that." He said.

"Well you go first. We should know a little about our sensei." Naruto said.

"Me? Hmm… Well my name is Kakashi Hatake. I don't have any desire to tell you my likes and dislikes. Hobbies, well I have many. Dreams for the future…"

"All you told us was your name!" Naruto yelled. Kakashi ignored the comment.

"Alright let's start with you then." He pointed at Bill.

"Ok. My name is Bill Dark. My likes are pizza, hanging out with Naruto and Hinata and pulling pranks. My dislikes are people like Kiba, and fan-girls. My hobbies are… well I really don't have any. Dreams for the future, well I have one but I won't mention it."

"Okay." 'I was almost expecting him to be like Sasuke, what with his story.' Kakashi thought.

"Me next!" Naruto yelled. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I like instant ramen in a cup but I like the restaurant ramen Iruka-sensei buys me. My dislikes are waiting 3 minutes for the ramen to cook and my dream is, to surpass the Hokage then everyone in the village will acknowledge me!"

"Okay… next." Kakashi said.

"My name in Hinata Hyuuga. My likes are hanging out with my friends. My dislikes are people who look down on others. I don't really have hobbies and my dream for the future is, to become stronger and change myself for the better." She said.

"That's great Hinata we know you can do it!" Hinata blushed.

"Naruto you go way beyond believe." Bill chuckled.

"Huh?" Hinata blushed even more.

"Ok that's enough of that." Kakashi said. "Tomorrow we start out duties."

"What kind of duties?" Naruto asked.

"Survival training." Kakashi answered.

"Training? Why is our duty training? We did that back at the Academy!" Naruto yelled.

"This is no ordinary training." Kakashi said seriously.

"Why?" Bill asked.

"Because you'll be fighting me." He stated.

"Ha! After you fell for that prank beating you will be a snap!" Naruto said.

"But there's more and you guys will flip out when you hear it." Bill was sure Kakashi was smirking under that mask of his.

"Why, what is it?" Hinata said.

"This is a test to see who becomes Genin. Out of all the graduates only some of them will be chosen. This test has a failure rate of over 66%." All three looked shocked and none spoke until Bill flipped out.

"What the freaking hell? Then what was the point of graduating at all!" Bill yelled.

"It's to select those that have a chance to become ninja."Kakashi said. "Report to the training field tomorrow at 6:00 am. Oh and don't eat breakfast, or else you'll throw up." His one visible eye turned up in a smile.

Hinata was lying in bed thinking about the test tomorrow, the Jounin's words repeating themselves in her head. "Don't eat breakfast or else you'll throw up."

'Will it really be that hard?' She thought and then rolled over to try and get some sleep.

Naruto was spending his night differently. He was visualizing what he would do to Kakashi once they started fighting and imitating his moves as he went.

Bill was up for a while attaching pieces of leather to the back of his coat. When he was done it formed a sort of sling for something. Satisfied with his work he went to bed.

Bill work up to the sound of his alarm clock and slowly, reluctantly climbed out of bed. After about 15mins of getting ready he put on his gun holster, slipped the gun in along with 3 ammo cartridges this time. Then he slipped on his newly modified jacket with the straps of leather attached to it. He strode over to a small block of metal, placed his hand on top of it and in a flash of blue light the block expanded and formed into his hammer. He slid the hammer into the straps on his coat with the head facing diagonally downwards. Bill went outside and found his two friends waiting.

"Whoa!" Naruto remarked. "You're bringing that with you?"

"We're fighting a Jounin; I'm not taking any chances." Bill responded.

"So you have the gun too?" He asked.

"Yup." Bill lifted his jacket to show them the holster with the gun and ammo cartridges. "Let's go!"

(6:00 am training grounds)

Bill, Naruto and Hinata arrive.

(7:00 am)

Waiting.

(8:00 am)

Still waiting and stomachs growling.

(9:00 am)

"I swear if Kakashi is always this late, he'll never hear 'sensei' from me." Bill grumbled.

Kakashi 'poofed' into the clearing. "Good morning guys." He said casually.

"You're late!" Naruto said.

"Sorry about that, I got lost on the path of life."

"Whatever." Naruto said.

Kakashi pulled out a clock, set it on one of the nearby logs and took out two bells. "That clock is set for noon; your task is to take these bells. If you don't get a bell by noon you get no lunch. I'll not only tie you to a stump but I'll also eat right in front of you. Did any of you skip breakfast?" Grrrrrrr. "I'll take that as a yes." He eye smiled. "You only need one bell to pass so one of you will be sent back to the Academy."

'Hmm… Ahh so that's the point of this.' Bill thought.

"You can even use shuriken, but you'll never pass without coming at me with a killing intent."

"But isn't that dangerous?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah you couldn't even dodge our prank! We'll kill you!" Naruto shouted.

"This coming from Mr. Dead Last." At those words Naruto snapped and charged at Kakashi with a kunai in his hand. Suddenly Kakashi was behind Naruto holding his kunai to his head.

'Hm pretty fast.' Bill thought.

"Slow down, I haven't started yet." Kakashi said.

"Grr. Let go of me!" Naruto yelled.

"Well it seems you're coming at me with a killing intent. I'm beginning to like you guys. Ok let's get started. Ready… Start." Kakashi released Naruto and Bill grabbed his friends and jumped into the bushes. "Hmm, has he figured it out already?"

Bill tossed Naruto down. "Hey what ar-" Bill quickly covered his mouth.

"Listen I know how to pass us all." Bill said.

"How?" Hinata asked.

"We work as a team."

"That's it?" Naruto said.

"Think about it. The teams are always three Genin but the test has only two bells" Bill said.

"Then why the bells?" Hinata asked.

"Exactly. They think we'll turn against each other and fight for the bells."

"How do you know this stuff?" Naruto asked.

"I'm mega smart." Bill said.

"So what's the plan?" He asked.

"Keep him within about 10 meters of where he's standing…" Crystal covered his right hand and formed in the shape of a drill. "…I'll set a trap. When I signal you, get to a safe distance."

"What's the signal?" Hinata asked.

"You'll know it when you see it." Both of them nodded and ran off and Bill started drilling.

Kakashi was still standing in the middle of the field. "They sure are taking their time."

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Instantly two dozen Naruto's appear above him and rain down.

"So he can create shadow clones." Said Kakashi then he felt something grab onto him and hold him in place. "Huh?"

"I've got you now!" Kakashi shook Naruto off and got rid of the rest of them.

"That was close." He turned around and saw Hinata about to strike him with her palms. Kakashi turned into a log as she struck him and kicked her from behind. "That's two out of three, where's Bill?"

Whirrrrrrrrrr… The drills hummed away as Bill dug through the ground. He could hear the battle going on above and made stops to poke a hole to the surface to see what was going on every several feet or so. He reached his destination which was where Kakashi was standing at first and had almost finished digging a hollow in the ground. Bill used one of his abilities to create pillars of dense earth to hold up the ceiling and put paper bombs on them. He was almost done; just a few more paper bombs and he'd be ready to go on with the next part.

Kakashi dodged a wave of kunai thrown by the Naruto clones and another ambush by Hinata when he landed away from where the kunai landed. During the battle Kakashi had noticed two things. One: they seemed to want to keep him in the clearing. Two: Bill still hadn't appeared yet and he was sure that's not a good sign. Naruto charged at him with another wave of clones and he could see Hinata in the mix too. "It's just wave after wave of clones and the ambush after that. What are they up to?" Then suddenly the clones and Hinata stopped in their tracks. "Huh?"

Bill had shot up a small lightning bolt as the signal and they stopped in their tracks. Bill had finished setting up the bombs and Kakashi was in the perfect spot. It was now time for part two. He started charging electricity in his hands and mixed his chakra with it.

"One Paralyzing Chakra Pulse comin' up!" Bill pressed his hands to the ceiling and the pulse shot through Kakashi's body. Bill lit the fuses for the bombs and quickly went back to the surface.

Kakashi felt an electric shock course through his body and suddenly he couldn't move or manipulate chakra either.

"What's… happening?" Then for the first time since the battle started Bill walked out of the bushes and on to the field. He walked up to the paralyzed Kakashi and grinned. "What… did…you do?' He struggled to say.

"Oh you'll find out soon." He stepped back next to Naruto and Hinata. "What… do y-"

"Bombs away!" Explosions rocked the field and the place where Kakashi was standing collapsed. Kakashi fell with the rubble and knocked his head on a piece of hard dirt and passed out.

Kakashi awoke later to find everyone holding bells except Bill. "So we pass right?" Bill asked.

Kakashi smirked and said, "Yes, you pass."

"Remind me why we're doing this again?"

"Because your other two teammates played a more active role in the plan than you and to show I wasn't kidding about the stump thing." Kakashi said eye smiling.

"Damn you and your logic to hell." Bill said tied to a stump.

"I'm guessing it was Bill who figured it out?" Kakashi said.

"We all did." Naruto said.

Kakashi had to give him points for covering his teammate. "It's good that you're not revealing information easily but I don't think so. Bill was the one that grabbed you two. I could tell right then he knew. You guys are the first to pass this test."

"Huh?" Naruto and Hinata said.

"All the other teams I tested did whatever I said they couldn't think for themselves." Kakashi started. "A ninja must see underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules of the Shinobi are trash, but! Those that don't take care of their comrades are lower than trash." Everyone nodded in agreement. "This ends the training you all pass. Squad 7 starts its first duties tomorrow." A chorus of cheers rose from the new team. "The first of which will be filling in this hole." That brought some groans.

"I can do that now." Bill said. His spikes shot from his back, through the log, sliced the ropes and retracted. Bill got up walked over to the rubble in the field, placed both his hands on the edge of it and in a bright flash of blue light the field was as good as new.

"How…?" Naruto asked surprised.

"I'd explain, but I don't think you'd understand. Now let's go." The four walked off eager for the next day.