I would just like to say I do not own Naruto or any of the other things I pay homage too. If you like one of my ideas please feel free to use them in your own stories, though I would appreciate a PM so I can read them.

"Speech"

'Thought'

"Demon speech"

'Demon thought'

Jutsu

Swirling Blood Chapter 14

Sasuke was in his hole slowly shifting trying to free himself when Naruto came into the clearing dragging a worried looking Sakura. "There is your precious Uchiha," he stated.

"A little help," Sasuke said.

"Eeeyaagh, he's been decapitated," screamed Sakura before passing out.

Naruto just grabbed her before she could fall and slapped her hard waking her before saying, "He's just buried now let's get him out."

As they fell to digging Naruto started talking, "Okay obviously none of us is getting a bell by ourselves. He is a jonin so this should have been expected."

"I got close enough to touch one unlike you losers. Next time I will take them." Sasuke growled.

"Wow you're so amazing Sasuke-kun," Sakura gushed.

"Whatever you did he will be expecting it now, but if the three of us work together we might all pass," Naruto responded.

"How do you figure dobe?" Sasuke asked.

"Remember what Iruka-sensei said yesterday? We were put together because it was hoped our relative grades would hopefully make a balanced team," Naruto began explaining. "Why would Kakashi's test break up that team? Plus our goal is to get a bell. If we work together there is no obvious person who was the one who beat the others in getting the bells as it was a group effort and would have been impossible without any of us. The beauty is we only need one for all of us to pass if I'm right."

"Hnn, alright we'll try it. At least with you two distracting him I should have no trouble getting one," Sasuke grumbled.

Just as they got him out of the hole a massive explosion sounded. "Wow, I didn't expect an older tree to have that much of a greater explosive potential then that sapling I tried that trick on before. I hope I didn't kill sensei before we could even pass his test," Naruto said to the shocked looks on the faces of Sasuke and Sakura.

Arriving in the clearing they found Kakashi talking with an Anbu squad. "Naruto what did you do?" shouted a cat masked Anbu with purple hair.

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as he said, "Ah, sorry Neko-san I underestimated the destructive potential of that trick. It was only supposed to be a distraction while I gathered my teammates to try and steal Kakashi's bells as a team."

Suddenly a bell rang. "Kuso," Naruto cursed. "I guess we ran out of time too," he said grumpily.

"Before we get to that just what exactly did you do Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"Oh well I once read that a strong Suiton user could pull water from surrounding plants," He started explaining. "When I tried it, it wouldn't work for me but then I had the thought if I converted the water in the plant into my blood with Chiton: Junketsu that might change things. Unfortunately the sapling I tested it with proved too tough for me to pull the blood out of."

"Yes but how did you make it explode?" was Kakashi's next question.

"As I told Sasuke and Sakura I've been making a little money using my Chiton blood to make exploding tags for the Higurashi weapon shop," Naruto started. "At first I had to draw each by hand which made my production rate kinda slow so Higurashi-san taught me this jutsu called Suiton: Nagareru Inku that he used to copy exploding tags rapidly. I just changed it to Chiton: Nagereru Chi to mass produce my cheaper more powerful exploding tags."

"And this caused the tree to explode how?" a now frustrated Kakashi asked.

"Well I had the idea to copy the exploding seal onto every surface of my sapling and it made a rather impressive explosive. I never expected an older tree to be this much more powerful though," he said with an awed look into the crater.

"Naruto are you aware that trees grow in rings thus creating a new surface each year?" A tiger masked Anbu asked.

With a dawning look of comprehension Naruto said, "Oh so when my clone copied the seal to each square inch of the surface of the tree including the inside rings and each of the leaves this was the result. That will be useful info in the future. Thanks Tora-san. Not bad for an E-rank and D-rank jutsu combo though."

Everyone there just sweat dropped at this statement. "Well you certainly have your mother's talent for turning seemingly harmless jutsu into the most devastating jutsus known to man," Kakashi deadpanned.

"Really? That's so awesome of you to say sensei," Naruto cheered before a realization came to him. "Oh I guess you won't be our sensei since we failed to get a bell," he dispiritedly stated.

"Hmm, can you tell me why you were going to work together to steal the bells?" Kakashi asked sounding curious.

"Well Iruka-sensei said we were put together to be a balanced team and as I thought about it I couldn't understand why you test would break up said team," Naruto was explaining. "Then I realized if the theft was a group effort all three of us would be involved in getting the bell and would probably pass. And if I was wrong I would just give both of them the bells. I mean what's one more year in the academy after being there six already.

Turning to the others the jonin then asked, "And you two just bought that without thinking maybe he was just using you to get a bell for himself?"

"Hnn, like the dobe could ever think of something that devious. Plus his reasoning seemed sound enough and he never mentioned the giving up the bells part," Sasuke finished in a defeated tone.

"Yeah and like Naruto said we are a team and have to be able to trust each other. He even gave us immunity to his pranks for as long as we are comrades," Sakura said wishing she weren't about to lose that protection.

"Hmm, well you didn't get the bells in time I'm afraid. You all…" Kakashi started saying sadly before shouting out, "Pass!" The eye smile he gave now easily readable.

"What?" came the three simultaneous cries of shock from his students.

"But… How? Why?" Sakura asked overcome with confusion.

"You three successfully looked underneath the underneath. You didn't take my words at face value and found the real meaning of the exercise, teamwork," the masked jonin responded to the questions.

Walking over to the memorial stone he continued saying, "You got past your need to show off as an individual, which in real combat will expose your comrades to unnecessary danger. "See this marker?" he then asked.

Seeing them nod an affirmative he continued saying, "On this stone are the names of those ninja who gave their lives to protect this village. My best friends' names are on here. One… perhaps both wouldn't be if I had gotten past my own issues as well as you have."

"In the shinobi world those who break the rules and fail to complete the mission are trash, but those who fail to support their fellows or violate their trust are lower than garbage," he said as he turned back to them. "Now Sasuke, Sakura you both may have a bento. Naruto, you're still getting tied to the post for destroying our training field."

"Aww, come on sensei. It's not like I did it intentionally," Naruto groused upon hearing this.

"Just be glad you didn't damage the monument," Kakashi said with a mild glare. "Although, it's too bad that your technique is so destructive. There will be little call for you to use it," he finished with a smirk.

The tiger masked Anbu stepped up to Kakashi and spoke quietly to him. After hearing his words Kakashi turned back to Naruto with a look of abject terror saying, "It seems Tora would like to offer you an S-class mission to place several such trees about the forest surrounding the village as a defense barrier."

"As well as a regular C-class mission to add to your two other weekly missions to produce explosive replacement logs for Anbu," he finally said reluctantly. "If you accept he will even repair our training field for free."

Turning to the tiger masked Anbu he asked, "You realize with your abilities you can make logs with paper thin rings right?" Receiving a nod of confirmation he went on with a slight shudder to say, "I suggest all prototypes you two come up with be tested well away from Konoha using clones."

Omake:

Shortly after his genin had left to do their own personal training Kakashi had tracked down the tiger masked Anbu saying, "Tenzo you may be the high priest of the log thanks to your abilities but this whole thing seems like a violation."

"Sempai, its Tora while I have the mask on. And the way I look at it the log has just shone us the way to bring more to his path thanks to Uzumaki," the man replied. "Now not only is the log a great protector of shinobi but by mixing Uzumaki's ability's with mine it shall righteously smite our foes as well."

"May the log have mercy upon you if you are wrong Tenzo," Kakashi said with a disappointed sigh.

"It's Tora sempai," came the reply but they were both gone.

AN: Ah another chapter. Hope you enjoy and reviews are appreciated.

To ddcj1990 – ask and you shall receive :P

Chiton: Nagereru Chi – Blood style: Flowing blood = The blood style version of Suiton: Nagareru Inku (Water style: flowing ink) this jutsu allows the user to create several small spheres of blood or ink in the original and have them follow the motions of a single one that the user manually commands. This jutsu can also be used to cause these spheres to follow the motions of a flow not controlled by the user allowing a ninja to copy text as it's being written by another. This usage was originally designed as a spying technique.