Chapter IV- Bells
It was a bright, beautiful day in Konoha. The birds were chirping, the sky was a clear blue and the calm serenity of the Leaf Village was truly an event to be revered. The streets were filled with vendors selling their goods, and many citizens, ninja and non-ninja, walking around buying supplies, chatting with friends, or just enjoying a bowl of ramen at Ichiraku's.
"Oi! You! Slow down!" called out a stern brown-haired man at a blur of red that came streaking through the village streets and toward the training ground areas. She didn't even bother stopping, or heeding the man's words, as she continued to run, moving past traffic as gracefully as she could, surprisingly not running into everything that was in her path.
"Yes! I made it!"
She kept at her speed, but was ready to hop the fence that stood in between her and her destination, Training Ground #12. She closed her eyes for a bit as she pushed off, until she found herself making contact with something hard.
"Mmphm!" She uttered out as she fell back on her behind, rubbing her head as she looked up to see what she had run into. A mass of yellow hair greeted her as her eyes widened.
"Kushina-san!" exclaimed the blonde youth as he reached out his hand to help her get up. She took the assistance and stood up, dusting herself off and then proceeding to apologize profusely.
"Gomen, Minato! I'd stay and chat but I really have to go right now! My sensei's going to kill me for being late!"
She gave him a smile and a small salute, and then proceeded jumping over the fence and sprinting toward the training ground.
Minato stared at her back as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, shrugged and continued walking toward his destination, Training Ground #13.
"Kushina! You were ALMOST late!" Hizashi shouted as she approached, punching his arm slightly as she passed by him. Fugaku stood nearby with his arms crossed, leaning on the wooden training block that protruded from the ground.
Kushina gave off a look of confusion and looked at the young Hyuuga.
"Almost? What do you mean?"
"Sensei isn't here yet!"
As if on cue, their silver haired teacher appeared, sitting on top of the training stump Fugaku was leaning on in a cross-legged position, giving them a smile. Fugaku's eyes opened at the appearance of their sensei, and he proceed to get up and walk to line up with his team mates, as the three of them looked at their superior expectantly.
Sensing their attention, Sakumo Hatake began to speak.
"Alright, so today, we're going to be taking a little test to see where your abilities are at, and also to determine whether or not you're worthy of becoming a genin. Out of the people who graduated, only 9 will be continue on to become genin. The rest of them will be sent back to the academy."
The three of them gulped, but kept their cool as the silver haired man took out two bells from his pocket, and held them out in front of him.
"I have two bells. Your job is to try to get these from me. There are two bells, the one of you who does NOT get a bell is going to fail and be sent back to the Academy, understood!"
The children flinched at the possibility of being sent back to the Academy, and nodded in response.
"Now, BEGIN!"
He poofed away and left the three children there on their guard. The three of them jumped behind a bush as they figure out what to do.
"What are we going to do, guys? We all really REALLY want to become genin!" Kushina pleaded, looking at her team mates with a stressed expression.
"Yes, I realize that. That means we'll have to split up and compete against each other." Fugaku stated firmly, instilling a sense of dread into his team mates. Fugaku would surely get one, with his knowledge and ability, leaving only the two good friends to compete against each other. After a moment of silence, the white-eyed boy finally spoke.
"That's not RIGHT! HOW COULD THEY SPLIT US UP LIKE THIS? IT'S NOT FAIR. WE'RE A TEAM! EVEN SENSEI SAID-"
"HIZASHI! YOU'RE A GENIUS!" Kushina exclaimed, practically bouncing up and down in excitement as she motioned for the two males in her team to come closer to be able to tell them the secret.
Minato arrived at the training ground, looking around for any signs of his team mates. When the search came up fruitless, he decided to sit down and rest for a bit before the important "test."
Suddenly, a new chakra presence was arrived at the training ground. The blonde looked up to see the Aburame walking up and taking his spot a good distance away from him. Following him, a brown haired boy leisurely arrived, and once again, stayed a good distance away from the blonde as well, taking out a book to pass the time.
From a distance, a white haired man observed his team's notable lack of companionship, and sighed at the thought of having to somehow get these kids to grow close to each other.
"I have a prodigious blonde, a bookworm brunette, and an antisocial Aburame kid. Great."
He had finally decided that he had kept them waiting long enough, and poofed right onto the top of the middle training stump the three kids were near.
"Alright, team! Are you ready to hear about your test?"
He looked at his students before seeing the previously unenthusiastic eyes fill with fervor—well, from Minato and Toshio, anyway—as they nodded.
He pulled out two jingling silver bells from his weapons holster and held them up in front of the three boys before continuing the speech.
"The goal is… to get these bells from me."
As Toshio opened his mouth to speak, Jiraiya cut him off, as if anticipating what the boy was about to ask, which he was.
"Yes, I realize there are only two bells, and there are three of you. The thing is, you three will fight me to get these bells, and the ones who ends up with a bell will end up moving on and becoming Genin, while the one that doesn't will be sent back to the Academy for another year. Come at me with all you've got or you won't get the bell."
On that note, he poofed away, and the three boys jumped away from each other and into their own respective corners of the training grounds, concealing themselves while planning their strategy.
"Ahh, so they split up so soon…this test will be a real reality slap for them then. The only one who would even have the chance of getting a bell alone would be Minato. That boy is just a genius, not that he'd admit it."
As he finished the thought, the sole of Toshio's sandals showed up in front of his face. He easily grabbed the boy's foot and hung him up, tossing him to the side carelessly. The sage yawned and put his arms behind his head, calling out casually to his students.
"If you guys want to become real ninja, you're going to have to do better than that!"
"Where are those kids?" a silver haired sensei thought, as he had been sitting out on his bench for a good twenty minutes waiting for those students of his to start attacking him.
At that moment, he heard a shuffling in the bushes, and smirked as he saw a young redhead charge him head on with fists clenched and prepared for a punch. He scoffed at her recklessness and prepared to grab her fist and throw her to the side, before he heard a
"Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu!"
Konoha's White Fang turned to meet a giant fireball heading in his direction. His eyes widened slightly, but he jumped out of the way to avoid the fireball. He turned to look for the redhead he was about to block to see the fireball hit her.
His eyes widened once again as he ran toward his student, cursing under his breath as he did not intend for any one to get killed this early under his teaching.
Due to this distraction, he didn't notice a young Hyuuga approach him from behind and shout, "Jyuuken!" as he proceeded to close off some of his sensei's chakra holes before the man poofed away to reveal himself to be a log.
From a distance, a silver-haired man stood, panting slightly as he looked down on his three students.
"They're…surprising me. I didn't know that Uzu girl could do a Kawarimii so fast."
Kushina jumped out from one of the trees to meet her team mates, laughing as her "burning" body turned into a burning log.
Sensing that they were getting too comfortable, their sensei took out multiple kunai and shuriken and proceeded to have them rain down on his students while jumping from tree branch to tree branch.
"Byakugan!" sounded through the training ground as Hizashi reactivated his bloodline, getting into a stance.
"Hakke Shou Kaiten!"
A blue orb of chakra covered both him and his team mates as the weapons that were thrown got repelled, thrown off to the side uselessly by the young boy's technique.
Suddenly, Sakumo was attacked from behind by a onyx haired boy, engaging him in taijutsu before flinging the boy off in front of him.
A low growl escaped from the throat of the Uchiha before he lunged at his sensei, who sidestepped in return. The boy somersaulted to soften his fall before standing up facing his sensei, smirking.
The man looked bewildered as he stared at his student, wondering what was happening.
"TOO BAD, SENSEI!" shouted the redhead as she extracted a silver bell from her pocket and held it out in front of her teacher, as he had done earlier that morning. He turned to hear another jingle as well, this time coming from the smirking Uchiha, backed with a stuck out tongue from the Hyuuga.
The man had a look of surprise and nodded in approval.
In unison, three stomachs grumbled loudly and the team mates looked at each other, embarrassed. Their sensei chuckled as he smiled at them.
"Come on, you guys did great today! Ramen! My treat!"
The three of their faces lit up as they grinned and raced each other, and their sensei, to Ichiraku's.
Tradition is tradition, after all.
Minato narrowed his eyes at the perverted sage below him as he quickly thought up a plan. Though he hated to manipulate people, or use other's disadvantages to his benefit, he realized that he had to in this case. So, he kept a close look out on the perverted sage, and finally saw his opening.
As Toshio had decided—once again—to attack Jiraiya head-on, and Minato used this to his advantage. Relying on Toshio's taijutsu ability to keep Jiraiya busy, Minato silently jumped down and hid inside a bush to see Toshio sparring with Jiraiya.
"His taijutsu must be pretty impressive," mused Minato, "if he could make Jiraiya-sensei use both of his hands and engage him in a spar."
Minato quickly whipped out some kunai and joined in on the fight. He threw five, all aiming for different parts of Jiraiya's body. The white-haired sensei took out his own kunai and deflected four out of five of the kunai, and cocked an eyebrow at Minato as he felt one pass his leg, but miss it completely.
"Minato, you need more practice, your aim's getting off."
"I wasn't aiming to hurt you, Jiraiya-sensei." Called out the voice of a young blonde behind him.
Wide-eyed, Jiraiya turned around to see Minato with a small smirk on his face as he held out a bell.
"When did he—OH MY GOSH."
Jiraiya learned that day that Minato really did live up to his genius title.
He thought about what happened, and finally realized what Minato's plan was the whole time. It was simple, fast, and required almost no effort on his part except for good timing and precise aim.
As his time was being taken up by the impressive taijutsu of Toshio, Minato snuck up in front of him and threw the five kunai—four to divert his attention, and one to cut the bell free from his waist, where it was dangling. As soon as he had threw the kunai, he did a replacement jutsu to sneak up on the sage and get the bell as Jiraiya was still partially distracted by Toshio and in awe that someone like Minato could miss an easy shot like that.
Overall, a good plan, and impressive that such a young boy could actually get a bell single-handedly, even though his teammate's abilities were utilized without his knowledge.
As Jiraiya kept sparring with Toshio, he didn't notice the bugs that had crawled up on him and was now gnawing away the string that kept the bell dangling close to him.
In a few moments, it was free, and the bugs had formed a small bundle, surround the bell and carrying back to their master, Shibi Aburame.
A jingle sounded across the training ground as Toshio broke apart from the spar to catch his breath.
His eyes widened as he saw the tall, quiet boy hold out the last bell with a smirk.
Toshio's face fell as he realized what that meant, and looked at his sensei with a look of sadness.
Jiraiya sighed, looking at his students with a look a slight disappointment, even though their abilities are impressive.
"So you two got the bells, but all three of you lack what is truly necessary to become genin and in general, successful ninjas. I'm sorry, but I can not pass you three together. Minato and Shibi, I'll see you two tomorrow, you'll be assigned to new teams."
On that note, and with a sad smile, Jiraiya poof-ed away, leaving the boys there in awe, as they sat, dumbstruck, at what was just revealed to them.
"I'm sorry Toshio, for using you as a distraction that way." Minato said quietly, looking at the boy who was fighting back his tears.
"I-It's okay, Minato. You really deserve it, you're a real genius." The green-eyed boy gave a warm, genuine smile, turning away as he allowed a single tear to fall on his cheek, not even bothering to brush it away.
"Toshio."
The boy jumped at the sound of low voice of the Aburame, and turned to look at him and Minato, who had their hands outstretched with the bell lying on their palm, offering them the token of their success.
"You deserve it, because without your help, we wouldn't have been able to distract Jiraiya enough to actually go through with our plans." Minato explained, smiling as he put the bell into Toshio's hand.
"Your taijutsu is impressive. It was technically teamwork, although we did not plan it."
Toshio's eyes widened once again, for receiving praise from the Aburame was as surprising as him calling out someone's name.
"T-thank you, guys. But Jiraiya-sensei isn't here, I still didn't pass."
As if the realization just struck them, their faces fell, but not for long before the white-haired pervy sage himself popped up in front of them with a huge grin on his face.
"I knew you could do it! You all pass!"
His grin widened when he saw the incredulous looks on their faces as he continued to explain.
"The point of this 'test' was to show you guys the importance of teamwork. Without good teamwork, a team will never be able to succeed. Value your team above yourself, above the mission, and you will become a great shinobi."
The three boys nodded and smiled as Jiraiya cheered and shouted something about his team not being a failure after all, before ushering the three of them to the nearest bar to 'celebrate their success.'
Shaking their heads at the childish antics of their sensei, the boys couldn't help but grin as they realized that they are well on their way to become great ninja.
Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait for this chapter, a lot of crazy things have been happening lately with my personal life so I couldn't get around to finishing up this chapter. But now I am! Please enjoy and remember to review, review, review! It gives me inspiration to keep going!
I'll update the next one AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! School's starting in three days! D:
-Kishiko-Chan!