Disclaimer: Me no own Naruto.
Dangit, the spaces didn't work either. Really, I don't know WHAT to do to mark sections… maybe I'll just do something like section marker or something.
Chapter 4
Training Hard: Another Bell Test!
"Here's the deal." said Kakashi, coming up to them, "I don't know enough about each of you to teach you new skills, or to refine them, and so on. The best thing to do at this point would be to train by experience: you three fight me for these bells."
Kakashi held up three bells.
"It will also help me know your individual strengths and weaknesses, and gives me a scope of your skills while you're at it. So don't hold back at all. Come at me like you're going to kill me, and that way you will get the most out of this training. Understand?"
Team 6 nodded.
"All right then… go!" Kakashi exclaimed, and the four of them disappeared.
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One of the bugs holding the target about the size of a pen point fell to the ground, dead.
"Please try to aim for the targets," Shino said, "I don't want any more of my bugs to die by accident."
Hinata was standing in the middle of a huge swarm of Shino's beetles, each of them holding a tiny target, as she was doing her Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. The chakra darts soared almost faster than the eye could see, causing targets to explode left and right. When a bug's target got destroyed, it moved back to Shino.
When the last target was finished and Hinata stood in the middle, panting, massaging her arms from all that work, Shino examined the ground.
"Three. You killed three of my bugs, and judging from the marks on the trees you missed even more." Shino said.
"I'm sorry, Shino." Hinata said, "Let's try again."
"No," said Shino, "Let's take a break."
They sat down on a bench nearby and Hinata drank some water from her canteen. Shino just sat there.
"Is Kurenai still training one-on-one with Kiba?" Hinata asked.
Shino nodded.
There was a loud noise as dust flew up and a tree fell over far away.
Kurenai bent down to examine the trunk of the fallen tree.
"Are you sure you can't control it anymore than that?" she asked.
Kiba shook his head.
"No. During Double Headed Wolf Fang, Akamaru and I are blind. Even with smell to guide us, the spinning makes it hard to go perfectly straight." he said.
"I see." Kurenai said, "Well, I think it's time to rejoin the others. They just took a break, we may as well make it lunch."
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"Hmm… this feels familiar… and again, they've hidden themselves well." Kakashi mused to himself as he stood in the clearing, reading his book, "Too bad we don't have a Naruto in this case to pop out and-"
He made a slight grabbing motion with his hand as he sidestepped. Tamaru had charged at him with a Katana, and Kakashi grabbed his arm and shoved him to the ground.
"I stand corrected." Kakashi said.
"You're going to regret that." said Tamaru, smiling.
Shuriken whizzed in the air behind him as Kakashi ducked. Two more Tamaru's had emerged, joined by two more from the sides.
"This really is too familiar… Clones now? How much more about this team is going to be like Team 7?" Kakashi wondered.
Each of the clones held two Katana in their hands, in a unique style Kakashi had never seen before.
"This is my Dual Katana style." said Tamaru, "Here I come!"
Several moments later, the real Tamaru stood, panting, as four Katana lay on the ground.
"Don't… underestimate me!" Tamaru shouted, throwing a handful of Shuriken at Kakashi, who easily dodged.
And then leapt out of the way again as the same Shuriken came at him again from behind.
"What the-?" Kakashi thought, eyes wide. The Shuriken were glowing with blue Chakra, curving back around from their miss to head back towards him.
Tamaru walked over to two of his Katanas, and picked them up. A bluish glow appeared from his hand as he infused his Chakra with the weapons, then threw the Katana at Kakashi too. He picked up his last two, and held them in case Kakashi came at him close-up.
Kakashi ran into the cover of trees, the weapons still following him.
"I see… he infuses his Chakra into the weapons, which gives him remote control over them. Clever." Kakashi thought, "I bet Hayate taught him that one."
One of Tamaru's Katanas suddenly pulled in front of Kakashi, slicing through a tree on the way. The tree fell over, blocking Kakashi's path.
"Apparently the Chakra gives them extra cutting power too…"
The weapons hurled forward and stabbed into him…
But, as revealed in a puff of smoke, that Kakashi was only a log.
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Bang! Clank!The sounds from Lee and Tenten's sparring could be heard even from this clearing. Lee was using his nunchaku and Tenten whatever weapon she wanted to at the moment, she had so many.
"Neji, what I'm about to teach you is originally one of my own and Lee's move. I think it would come in handy for you, and with your superb chakra control, you should be able to master it easily." Gai said.
Neji nodded respectfully, but didn't look too impressed. What could Gai teach him that would help a Hyuuga? Not that Gai wasn't powerful, but… the Hyuuga style was the Hyuuga style, and couldn't be mixed with anything else. What need did he have for brute force attacks?
"This attack," said Gai, "Is not in Gentle Fist style."
Neji knew that already. Gai and Lee didn't do anything in Gentle Fist style anyway.
"It should only be used to attack if your foe has put up a barrier or some sort, or if you're destroying an obstacle in your way. Close your fist." Gai instructed.
Neji sighed, closing his fists. His Hyuuga Gentle Fist stance just didn't feel right with closed fists, so he awkwardly held his fists in front of him, like a boxing fighter.
"It's simple enough to learn. Focus as much chakra as you can at one time to your fist, like so." Gai said.
Gai's fist began to radiate blue, and it looked like he was wearing a glove made of chakra.
"Then, when you're at your limit and feel like you can't hold it anymore… PUNCH!" Gai exclaimed, striking a nearby tree. He took a large portion out of the side of the trunk, enough so that the weight was lopsided and came down with a crash.
Neji sighed. Such a brute force attack was not his style, but he'd learn it anyway. Why not, right?
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"Let's see if the girl is as good as Tamaru…" Kakashi thought.
Rasha walked slowly into the clearing as leaves shot up around her, whirling about in a whirlwind. Groans came from behind the trees in front of her, and Tamaru and Raigra crawled out, impaled by Shuriken and Kunai and begging for help.
"Kakashi. You do know about my Kekkai Genkai, right?" she said.
"Heh. She's good." he thought, leaping down in front of her as she dispelled the Genjutsu.
"Like the Sharingan or Byakugan, my Seigan can see through and dispel Genjutsus easily." Rasha said, her eyes flashing an azure color.
"And my Sharingan protects me from being mind-read so easily." said Kakashi, pointing to his left eye, "So, show me what you can do."
Rasha took out two Kunai, throwing one and Kakashi. As he dodged to the side, he saw that with the same motion of the throw she had cut a string with the second Kunai. A flurry of projectiles came at him, and he was forced to reverse directions to avoid being hit.
"That Seigan of hers is pretty good," thought Kakashi, "Even without being able to puncture deep in my mind and use Genjutsus on me, she can read my surface thoughts enough to know my reactions to what she does before I do them. In fact, she's probably driving me towards a certain point for a reason…"
She threw a kunai at the tree he was about to land on, slightly above his head. It struck something disguised with the bark… an explosive tag!
Kakashi leapt off as quickly as possible. She threw three senbon at him. He deflected two with a kunai, and the third missed, passing close by his hip. He landed on the ground, then gasped when the ground gave way beneath him. He fell down the pitfall, landing at the bottom.
"That good enough for you?" she said, walking first to the pitfall, then over to the tree.
A bell with a senbon through its string hung on the tree.
"It must have been that third senbon that I thought had missed, but she was really aiming for the bell all along!" thought Kakashi, "Man, she really is good. But…"
"Your plan was a good one, but thankfully my Sharingan blocked enough of your Seigan to conceal the fact that I- and thus, the bell too- am a Shadow Clone!"
The Kakashi in the pit and the bell she was holding vanished in a puff of smoke.
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"Asuma, shouldn't we be training some more? I mean, the Chuunin Exams start tomorrow." Ino asked.
"No way! We worked our tails off this morning, now it's time to EAT!" Chouji exclaimed, excited as ever to be at the Korean Barbeque place. The waitress came by and put more meat on the stove fire, which Chouji watched carefully.
"Calm down, Chouji. But he is partially right. Shikamaru always said relaxing was just as important as working. And he was the one who passed last time, right?" Asuma said.
"Well… ok, yeah, but he was Shikamaru. Not to offend anyone here, but none of us here have 200 IQ. And he probably just said that because he was lazy." Ino commented.
"Hey, like you said, the Exams start tomorrow. You guys have been working hard over the past week, and I think you deserve some relaxing time. Rest up before the Exam. I mean, your mind and body have to be rested and ready for tomorrow. Especially your mind." Asuma said.
"Especially our minds? So does that mean the first test is going to be a written Exam again?" Sakura asked.
"Well… I don't know. But as tradition goes, the first test tends to be more mentally oriented to weed out as many as possible, and then the second is more combat-focused. And then, if too many survive the two tests, the preliminary rounds test each individual's combat skills. But the tests change a lot. None of us know what it's going to be from one year to the next, unless we get chosen to be a proctor." Asuma said.
"In that case, I can see why we'd want to rest." Sakura said.
"Eh… I won't deny I could use it." Ino commented.
"THE FOOD'S READY!" Chouji exclaimed, starting to stuff meat into his mouth. The other three sighed in exasperation and tried to claim what food they could before Chouji the eating machine got to it.
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"He's just… reading." Raigar thought, "Now's my chance!"
He leapt out of the tree into the clearing, throwing a handful of Kunai at Kakashi, who blocked them all one handed with his own Kunai. When he landed, Raigar ran at Kakashi and began to do a onslaught of Taijutsu blows on Kakashi, who was still reading and fighting with one hand.
"He's fighting with one hand too…" Kakashi thought, surprised, lowering his book, "What the- his right hand is missing!"
Indeed, Raigar was fighting only with his left hand, for his right hand was gone. Raigar's stump of a right arm hung useless at his side.
Jingle!
Kakashi looked down in surprise at a hand grabbing at the bells at his hip. He recoiled in revulsion as he twisted away from the hand and Raigar, leaping back.
"This is my Kekkai Genkai." said Raigar as his right hand reattached seamlessly to his right arm, "With it, I can do things like… this!"
Raigar pulled out two Kunai and threw his arms forward… but didn't throw the Kunai. Instead, his hands launched off at Kakashi. He dodged to the side, only to find the hands following him around.
"That may be so…" he said, fending off the hands, "But while they're attacking, you're leaving yourself defenseless!"
Kakashi disappeared and reappeared behind Raigar, slashing with his Kunai. Metal struck metal.
"Oh, really?" said Raigar, having to talk around the Kunai in his mouth.
"Hmm. Very interesting indeed." Kakashi said, leaping backwards again. He activated his Sharingan as the hands dropped their Kunai and rushed forward at him again, forming hand signs, even though they were away from each other.
"Amazing… even though each hand is only doing half of the hand sign, it's achieving the same effect. So… not only does Raigar's Kekkai Genkai to detach and reattach his limbs, but the chakra flow remains the same the whole time, as if the hands were on his arms and forming hand signs together. That means…"
The hands were now on either side of Kakashi. Raigar's hands stopped forming hand signs.
"Fire Style: Fire Burst!" Raigar exclaimed, as fire burst forth from each hand, forming a raging pyroclasm in the middle.
When the smoke cleared, Raigar saw nothing. His hands reattached to his arms.
He felt a sudden pressure on his ankle as a hand shot up from the ground. Within seconds he was in the ground, with Kakashi standing over him.
"Good, but not good enough." he said.
"Oh really?" asked Raigar, "Earth Style, Earth Burst!" he yelled, and the ground in front of him rumbled and began to rupture. Kakashi leapt off of it, but it gave Raigar enough space to get out.
"I think we've had enough fun for now." said Kakashi, as Tamaru and Rasha ran into the clearing.
"Where is he? I had him, I had him!" Tamaru exclaimed, then saw him in the middle of the three, "There he is! I'm going to get you good this time, Kakashi!"
"Is this the real one this time?" asked Rasha, turning on her Seigan, "It is. Let's get him!"
"Sounds good to me." said Raigar.
"Well, looks like you're going to have to wait till next time, because it's nearly sunset now and you need your rest for the Exam tomorrow. I didn't really expect you all to get the bells anyway." Kakashi shrugged.
"What are you talking about? We're not done yet!" said Tamaru.
"Oh yes, we are." said Kakashi, "It takes and hour to get back to the village, and you want supper, don't you?"
As if to respond, Tamaru's stomach rumbled.
"But if you didn't think we'd actually get the bells, what was the point of them?" asked Raigar.
Kakashi shrugged again.
"To motivate you to come at me for real. I had to see what you were capable of, and I can say for sure I'm impressed with what I saw."
"But now you won't be able to help us improve, since it's tomorrow." said Rasha.
"I think you'll do just fine." said Kakashi, "Well, see you at the Preliminaries, if you make it that far."
With that, Kakashi disappeared.
"He really is something else." said Rasha.
"He wasn't as cool as Hayate…" Tamaru grumbled.
"Let's face it, Tamaru, in your eyes, nobody is as good as Hayate." Raigar said.
Mentioning Hayate got everybody in a contemplative mood. Tamaru seemed sad and angry as he walked off, Rasha respectful of the dead, and Raigar… well, maybe he felt ashamed for mentioning the forbidden subject.