Argh! The original chapter title is "Pass or Fail? Kakashi's Conclusion", but the stupid chapter thingie won't let me type it out, so I had to substitue with "Pass or Fail? The Conclusion." This may not be a big deal to you, but it is to me! WAHHHH! MY CHAPTER!!!
Ahem.
I forgot to say it before, but with a heavy heart I shall say it now: Naruto does not belong to me, no matter HOW MUCH I want him too sigh.
Yumi, however, DOES belong to me, so keep your paws off her!
Shields Yumi like an overprotective mother "Don't worry, Yumi-chan! I won't let those perverts get you!"
Yumi: "WTF? 0o"
Anyway, the 4th chapter! Hope you like it!
Chapter IV: Pass or Fail? Kakashi's Conclusion
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN GIVE UP!" Naruto yelled. "GIVE ME A BREAK! Okay, so maybe none of us got our hands on one of you stupid bells, but why the hell should we quit over that?"
"Because not one of you three...HAS WHAT IT TAKES!" Kakashi emphasized. Sasuke, infuriated, grabbed a kunai and ran at him, only to find himself on his stomach with Kakashi on his back. "What you are is a trio of spoiled brats!"
"Don't step on Sasuke! GET OFF OF HIM!" Sakura yelled, glaring at Kakashi. Naruto looked at him questioningly.
"Kakashi-sensei...why did you say trio and three?" Naruto asked slowly, "Shouldn't it be four?"
"Because out of you four, Yumi was the only one who passed!" Kakashi explained angrily, "Now, back to what I was saying before I was rudely interrupted...are you trying to make fun of the shinobi with you behavior? Well, are you?" Kakashi glared at them menacingly. "Did you even stop to wonder for one minute why you were divided into teams?"
"Uhh...excuse me?" Sakura said idiotically. Yumi rolled her eyes.
"Obviously not," Kakashi continued. "So you missed the entire point of the exercise."
"It has a point...?" Naruto asked dumbly.
"Of course." Kakashi said, his patience starting to run thin, "And that point determines whether or not you would succeed. Yumi was the only one out of the entire squad to realize what that was."
"But you haven't explained what it is!" Sakura whined. Yumi looked at Sakura in disbelief.
"...I don't believe this," Kakashi mumbled, shaking his head.
"Aw, come on, already! TELL US!" Naruto demanded.
"It's...teamwork." Kakashi emphasized, "If the four of you had come at me together...you might've been able to take the bells."
"If we were expected to function as a team," Sakura asked angrily, "why did you only have two bells? Even if we'd worked together, two of us still would have had to go without lunch. You're preaching about teamwork, but you played us against each other!"
"Now you get it!" Yumi said, throwing up her hands. "Of course he was playing us against each other."
"Correct, Yumi."
"WHAT!" Naruto yelled.
"The situation was set up to reveal which of you would set aside your individual interests and propose to the other that you work together for the good of all," Kakashi lectured. "Instead of which...you, Sakura, ignored Naruto, who was right in front of you while you focused your attention on Sasuke, though you didn't know where he was." Sakura blushed furiously. "Naruto tried to do single-handedly what should've been the work of all four. Sasuke had already decided that the other three just got in the way, and he was better off playing solo! But Yumi tried to get Sasuke to help, and she helped all of you!" Kakashi paused and looked at all of them in disgust, "You are a team! Yes, it's necessary for ninja to have individual skills, but what's more important is teamwork!" Yumi snapped her head up, Where is he going with this? she wondered suspiciously. "Making a play as an individual is bad for the team and exposes your comrades to unnecessary danger," Kakashi continued, unaware of Yumi's suspicion as he reached back to his pouch for a kunai. "You might as well kill them yourself. Here's an example...Sakura! Yumi! Kill Naruto. Or Sasuke dies." Kakashi said, moving his kunai blade to Sasuke's neck.
Yumi moved so fast, no one could see her, not even Kakashi. She appeared in-between Sasuke and Kakashi, and in one strong punch, knocked him off Sasuke and sent him flying. She then disappeared again in a burst of speed and reappeared in front of him as he hit the ground.
"Never do that again," Yumi growled, glaring at a wide-eyed Kakashi. "Let's get some things straight." Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke watched, mouths agape. "One, you attempt to hurt my comrades, I'll do the same. Second, I'm on their team. If you fail them, you fail me, too." Yumi's face was now inches away from Kakashi's. "Third, you deserved that. Got it? Good."
Leaving behind a very stunned Kakashi, Yumi walked over to Sasuke and offered him a hand, and helped him up. Kakashi cleared his throat, and everyone's attention turned back to him.
"The day will come when one of you may be taken hostage, and you're forced to make a choice." he continued, like nothing had happened. "When you are on a mission, your lives will always be on the line. Look at the marker..." he gestured to the stone memorial behind him, "all of names carved in the stone. Heroes of our village. Ninja."
"That's it! I just made up my mind!" Naruto announced excitedly, "There's where I want my name to go! I'm not gonna throw my life away! I want to be like them—a hero!"
"...but the one listed there aren't just any heroes..." Kakashi said softly.
"Really? What kinda heroes are they? Come on! Come on!" he said eagerly.
"K.I.A." Yumi answered miserably.
"K.I.A..." Naruto said slowly. "That sounds cool!"
"It means 'killed in action,'" Sakura said quietly.
Naruto's enthusiasm disappeared as quickly as it came, and his face took on a rare expression of sadness.
"This is a memorial. It includes the names of my best friends…" Kakashi trailed off. "Pay attention! I'm giving you all one last chance, one that will be more difficult then our last little game with the bells. You'll have four hours instead of one to get the bells, and I won't go easy on you this time. If you're prepared to continue, you may eat one of the bento boxes." Kakashi threw a bento box at all of them except Naruto. "I forgot this was a four-man cell. No sharing with Naruto. He goes hungry."
"Why?" Sakura asked.
"He brought it on himself when he tried to sneak lunch for himself. If either of you feeds him, you fail the test right then and there," Kakashi said sternly. He stared intensely at them. "My word is law. Understand?" Kakashi disappeared once again, leaving nothing but a smoky cloud.
"Hey, this'll be a breeze!" Naruto shouted at the vanishing cloud as if Kakashi was still there. "I can go without lunch! No problem!" As soon as he finished, his stomach rumbled with hunger.
Yumi sensed Kakashi's presence just a short distance away, concealed behind a tree. So he's watching us, seeing what we'll do, she thought, scoffing. Yumi opened her bento box, and broke apart the chopsticks, and stood up. Picking the food up with the chopsticks, she stood in front of Naruto.
"Say, 'ahhh,'" Yumi ordered, holding up the chopsticks near his face.
"Wh—" Naruto was cut off when Yumi, seizing the opportunity, shoved the food in his mouth. Naruto tried to speak, but Yumi kept his mouth closed.
"Now, Naruto," Yumi said slowly, talking to him as if he was a child, "Chew...and swallow. Good boy!" After Naruto gulped the food down, he opened his mouth again to speak, but Yumi wouldn't let him, and she stuck more food in his mouth. "Don't complain. Just eat." She continued to feed him until the box was empty.
"Thanks," Naruto said gratefully, his hungry stomach now content.
"No problem," Yumi assured lazily, and she resumed her seat, leaning against the stump Naruto was tied to. She closed her eyes, enjoying the soft breeze tickling her face. After a few minutes passed, she slowly opened her eyes and looked at Sakura. "Say it, Sakura. You too, Sasuke,"
"Here," Sasuke said, holding out his food to her.
"Don't need it," Yumi said, her face raised towards the sky, eyes closed. Sasuke got up and sat next to her, blocking the warm sunlight. She opened her mouth to protest, only to find food being shoved in forcefully. Her eyes snapped open in surprise, and she quickly sat up, staring at Sasuke warily as she chewed the food and swallowed.
"Bu...but Sasuke," Sakura protested worriedly, "Master Kakashi told us—!"
"I'm not worried." Sasuke cut in calmly, "He's probably miles away by now. And we'll all need our strength if we're going to work together to get those bells. You're no good to me if you're just going to be a liability."
Sakura looked at her bento box and, after much inner struggling, reluctantly shoved it toward Yumi.
Yumi shook her head, "I really don't need it. I don't need to eat much, and that big breakfast will hold me until dinner. Plus…" she added, smiling, "You're the hungriest of us aren't you? Are you on a diet or something?"
"How did you..." Sakura trailed off, gaping once again at Yumi.
"Heh," Yumi chuckled, "Your stomach was the loudest. I though an earthquake had struck! Anyways, you really don't need it." When Sakura continued staring at Yumi in confusion, she explained, "A diet, I mean. You're quite pretty as it is, but get any skinnier and you'll be a skeleton, which is useless to us in battle."
Sakura looked at Yumi in disbelief. Did she just compliment me? she wondered.
"Eat." Yumi said to her team. "And eat quickly, because Kakashi will probably be here soon."
Sure enough, in about ten seconds, Kakashi appeared out of nowhere, glaring down at Team Seven menacingly. "You disobeyed me!" he yelled. "Now you have to suffer the consequences." Kakashi pressed his fingers together, forming several seals as dark storm clouds rolled in, lighting flashing.
"We did it because we are a team," Sasuke told Kakashi hurriedly, moving protectively in front of Yumi. Reluctantly, Yumi admitted, although she was quite capable of protecting herself.
"That's right!" Naruto yelled, agreeing with Sasuke for once, "We are a team, so we're one!"
"Naruto's right! We are one!" Sakura squeaked, terrified by Kakashi's threatening glare.
"YOU..." Kakashi's face was now inches away from Naruto's. Sasuke pushed Yumi back further away from Kakashi. "Pass!" he finished cheerfully.
Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura stared at him.
"We pass! But… why!" Sakura asked, confused.
"You three have taken a giant step forward."
"Umm…how?" Sakura asked again, even more baffled.
"Up until now, all any of you have done is listen unquestioningly to everything I say like mindless, little drones," Kakashi lectured again, "A true shinobi seeks for the hidden meanings within the hidden meanings. In a ninja's world, those who violate the rules and fail to follow orders are lower then garbage. However, those who do not care for and support their fellows…are even lower than that!"
"Oh!" Sakura said smiling, finally understanding.
"This exercise is now concluded. You all pass! That's all for today, Team Seven. Your duties will commence tomorrow!"
"I… I DID IT! I DID IT! I'M A NINJA! NINJA! NINJA! NINJA!" Naruto screamed, as if he couldn't believe it.
Sakura, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Yumi all strolled away from the field, when Yumi, suddenly realizing that Naruto was still tied to the stump, whipped around, and threw her metal fan towards him at an astonishing speed, cleaning slicing the ropes. As Naruto looked at her, dumbfounded, Yumi smiled, and the fan sailed easily back into her outstretched hand. She waited patiently as Naruto scrambled to keep up, and walked alongside him as Team Seven walked into the sunset.
AAAAAAAAANNNNNDDDD! Once again, I ask you to reveiw, because reviwes are good for the soul. Tell me what bad and I shall listen! You shall be heard!
Yumi: Um, Nymphadorena?
Me: Moment of glory
Yumi: "Whaaaaateevvvveeer ;)