Chapter 3
The Test
A little past noon, Hinata finally managed to drag herself from her bed. After a quick shower, she sat staring at her wardrobe. Other than some formal clothing, the tight clothing she normally wore wasn't exactly modest. She always wore her baggy jacket over it before though, unless she was alone with Naruto, so it was never an issue. Unfortunately, said jacket was ripped to shreds. She noticed that someone replaced her her normal fishnet undershirts with actual mesh armor. The rebuke involved was not lost on her.
With a sigh, she gave in to the inevitable. Taking off her towel, she winced at scars she saw in her mirror. At least most of them would be covered by her shirt. Putting the mesh armor on over her underwear, she put on her normal dark blue pants and one of her more modest shirts. It didn't have the plunging v-neck that most her other shirts did, but it was still a size too small, being one of her older shirts. It made her painfully aware just how developed she was for her age, and was probably going to draw quite a few looks.
Finally ready to get lunch, she found a branch member outside her room, waiting with a message for her. "Hinata-Sama. Hiashi-Sama wishes to speak with you at your earliest convenience. He is in the dojo." With her thanks and a polite dismissal, she sent the man on his way before heading for the dojo.
Hiashi himself was sparring with his other daughter, Hanabi, when she walked in. Standing at the side, she politely waited for them to finish, and enjoyed the match. Hanabi wasn't as good Hinata, but she was also a great deal younger. Hinata was honest enough to admit that Hanabi was the more naturally talented of the two when it comes to the family style. Not that a serious fight between the two wouldn't end in Hinata's favor almost as quickly as it could begin. Being almost half her age left Hanabi at a great disadvantage, one that would shrink with time.
"That's enough Hanabi." Dropping their combat stances, the two fighters bowed to each other. "I need to speak with your sister alone for a while. The rest of the day is yours, though after last nights events, I ask that you take a guard if you leave the compound." Having chased her out, Hiashi turned to his other daughter. "Hinata. We have much to speak about."
"Ano...Am I in trouble father?" She failed to keep the nervousness from her voice, a nervousness she has rarely felt the past two years since Naruto accepted her. She couldn't even keep eye contact, and ended up looking at the ground. Instead of a rebuke as she expected, she suddenly found herself enveloped in a hug from her father.
"No, you're not in trouble Hinata. I'm proud of you. You fought like a true shinobi last night. Ambushed and outnumbered, you fought bravely and killed two enemies of Konoha." Letting her go, Hiashi looked down at his daughter, who looked back up to him with tear filled eyes, still haunted from what happened. "I couldn't be more proud of you than I am now. You have advanced in Jyuuken, that it is time you learn some of our more powerful techniques. Techniques that would have allowed you victory unscathed last night."
xxxxx
All around Konoha, the remaining eight of the rookie 9 woke up to much similar experiences, except Sakura who had no clan to train her. That did little to stop her from training on her own, determined to not be useless next time.
The next two days passed by quickly, with everyone too busy training for much else. When the day came for team assignments, it was a much more subdued group in the classroom than Iruka was used to. The eight members of the Rookie 9, as they're already being called for their performance a few nights ago, were sitting in their own side of the room. They were getting a few looks from the rest of the freshly minted ninja, not sure why they seemed so much less excited than everyone else. Several of the girls were looking around for Sasuke as well. One even shrieked at him, saying he couldn't start assigning teams until Sasuke showed up.
"Sasuke will be assigned a team separately, so sit back down and let me get started here!" Iruka didn't want to admit it, but the attack even had him on edge, and it was starting to show. Having never been yelled at by Iruka like that before, the girl quickly sat back down. She, like the rest of Sasuke's fan club, took it to mean that he was getting some sort of covert assignment. The guys took it as an example of favoritism for the last Uchiha. The eight Rookie 9 looked even more downcast, with Sakura looking like she was about to cry.
"Ahem. Now then. As you know, teams are assigned in groups of three to a Jounin instructor who will take over your training." He could already see that the Rookie 9 picked up exactly what he was getting at. Only a few of the others picked up on it. "Without Sasuke here, the numbers are no longer even. There was some debate about how to assign teams as a result. Normally, the two bottom students would be held back, but the council has decided on a special exemption. It's not entirely without precedent, though I do believe this is the first time it's happened in times of peace. Two of the more proven ninja of the class will be on their own team." Ignoring the shocked looks from most the class, Iruka went on to start announcing the teams.
As more and more of the student teams were announced Naruto grabbed Hinata's hand under the table. Interlacing their fingers, they leaned into each other, hoping to be on the same team. "Team Seven, Jounin instructor Kakashi. Hyuuga Hinata and Uzumaki Naruto." Both couldn't help but give a small cheer at the announcement, with congratulations from the rest of their side of the room. Iruka had to wait a moment for the noise to die down "Team Eight, Jounin Instructor Kurenai, Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura, and Inuzuka Kiba. Team Ten, Jounin Instructor Sarutobi Asuma, Akamichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino. Your Jounin instructors will pick you up shortly. Congratulations on graduating, and good luck!"
As the instructors started filing in, the classroom emptied quickly, soon leaving Naruto and Hinata alone. They didn't mind having some more alone time, but couldn't help a bit of annoyance at how late their instructor was running. It was almost two hours before a head poked into the room. Most his face was covered with a mask and he had spiky white hair. "Naruto? Hinata?"
Glancing at the clock, Naruto and Hinata both raised an eyebrow. "You're here kind of late sensei..."
"Oh, I just got lost walking down the road of life..." The expressions on the two kids told him they weren't buying it. "Meet me on the roof in two minutes." With that, Kakashi left the two alone. Activating her Byakugan, Hinata looked around for him.
"He's waiting at the stair case. I say we take the window." Opening the window, Hinata ignored the drop from the third floor. Grabbing the side of the window, she swung out and stuck onto the wall, held on by her feet. Naruto was right behind her. All said, their trip took less than twenty seconds from sitting in the classroom to sitting on the roof. After another minute, Kakashi finally came up the stairs.
"Cheaters."
"Ninja" Naruto deadpanned in response, earning him a smile in response from Kakashi.
"...Yes, well, time for introductions. Tell me a little about yourselves. Likes, dislikes, hobbies and what your life goal is."
Naruto went first. "I like Hinata and ramen! I dislike people that want to hurt Hinata and ramen! My Hobbies are spending time with Hinata, eating ramen, training, and fuuinjutsu! My ambition is to become Hokage! I'm going to let the old man enjoy his retirement. Also, that IS a Nice Hat." Both Kakashi and Hinata facepalmed.
Hinata went second. "I Like Naruto and the Icha-Icha series by Jiraya! I dislike people that want to hurt Naruto or the Icha-Icha series! My hobbies are spending time with Naruto, training, and reading Icha-Icha My life goal is to star in an Icha-Icha movie with Naruto! Preferably with him wearing the hat. It IS a Nice Hat." Both Naruto and Kakashi facepalmed.
Kakashi went last. "My likes...I don't feel like telling you. My dislikes...I don't feel like telling you. My hobbies...I don't feel like telling you. My ambitions...I don't feel like telling you. But that IS a Nice Hat." Both Naruto and Hinata facepalmed.
"Alright. Meet me at training area seven tomorrow morning at five AM. Your real graduation exam begins then. Oh, and don't eat breakfast. If you do, you'll throw up." Hopping off the side of the building, he left the two alone. Neither Naruto nor Hinata were very worried at all. They knew they were ready for any test he could throw at them. Instead of worrying, Hinata just slid up to Naruto who put an arm around her.
"Naruto-kun...you remember that ANBU that was always reading an Icha-Icha book and giggling? That's him."
"How can you tell Hinata-chan?" Hinata just gave Naruto a deadpan expression. After a few moments she raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to figure it out.
"Did you really just ask that...?"
"Oh. Right. Byakugan." Blushing slightly, Naruto tried to laugh it off before Hinata dug an elbow into his ribs. "Hinata-chan, that gives me an idea. You're going to love this!" After a quick explanation, Hinata was giggling.
"Kit...you really need to grow up." The simple statement from the Kyuubi might have meant more to him, if the Kyuubi wasn't giggling madly herself.
xxxxx
"Kakashi. Are you really going to test them? You already know they're more than ready to be genin. You saw the aftermath of what that little group did. If you ever showed up on time, you'd know the Hokage already passed them."
Looking up from his book and letting out a sigh, Kakashi just raised an eyebrow. Kurenai was giving him a dirty look for reading his book again while Asuma stood next to her, smoking as usual. "You're not going to test yours? As you said, we all saw the aftermath. I'm more interested in seeing them actually fight. That will tell me more than seeing them in the hospital and seeing the collection of bodies they left behind. It's not like they're actually going to fail, so it doesn't hurt to make them sweat a bit."
Kurenai and Asuma both had to admit, the cyclopean ninja had a good point. It was a bit of an open secret with some of the higher ranking jounin that both Naruto and Hinata trained with Jiraya whenever he was in town, so they were a bit curious about their abilities themselves. Seeing the thoughts behind their eyes, Kakashi gave his trademarked 'Obviously I'm smiling even if you can't see most my face' smile. "It starts at ten, training area seven. In case you wanted to watch..."
xxxxx
Hinata's family training was still eating most of what would have been her free time. The old pervert was sitting in on yet another council meeting, and all his other friends were doing family training as well. The only one left to keep Naruto any company for most the evening was the Kyuubi. Currently, she was curled up next to up her head was in his lap while he scratched her behind the ear. Naruto still couldn't stop thinking about the other night, his thoughts always drifting to how close he came to getting his friends killed, as well as the events leading up to it.
Naruto knew he wasn't the villages favorite person. People have looked at him with hatred. They've looked at him with fear. They've done the best to pretend he doesn't exist. He's even been beaten a few times, but nothing too serious. No one has tried to kill him in quite a few years though. There were a great number of attempts on his life as a baby and toddler, but they stopped long ago. The Hokage made sure to investigate every attempt on his life fully, and the ANBU were quick to make sure someone never got to try twice. The past couple of years though, the looks have been less fearful, and more hateful. Naruto was at a loss to explain this.
"Whats on your mind kit? You're too tense."
"Kitsune-chan...why didn't you help me the other night until the last second? We almost let Hinata die."
"As a lesson Naruto-sama. You are the Jinchuuriki of the mighty Kyuubi, even if the seal on you is no longer my cage, but merely my home that I choose to live in. I will not tolerate a weak container for my power, and the surest way to make a weak Jinchuuriki is to make you dependent on me. If you can't fight without my power, or always rely on me, you'll never get stronger. The weaker you personally are, the less of my power you are able to use. The more powerful you are, the more of my power you can use. To become strong, you must fight your own battles without my power. Unless you are truly outmatched, my stepping in will only hurt you in the long run. If Hinata weren't too injured to defend herself, you would have done fine even without me. As she is important to you, she is important to me. Rest assured that I will not hold back my power if you need it to save those precious to you."
Naruto could see the logic clearly in what she said, but it didn't make the fear of losing Hinata, or anyone else he knew, lessen any. "You're right I guess. We would never improve if we always relied on you. I just have to be stronger, so I can protect my precious people. And trust in them enough to not let my fear for them distract me..."
What the Kyuubi didn't tell him though, was how much it hurt her to not help him and Hinata. She'd grown to love both of them, as though they were her own kits, and she wanted to make them as strong as she could. She couldn't explain how, or why, but she knew a great deal about the life of a shinobi. She knew that the sooner they were thrown into a life or death situation and had to rely on their own abilities, the stronger they would become...if they survived. She couldn't tell Naruto how close she came to to manifesting before they got control of the situation. She would rather deal with the awkward questions than let her precious kits die...
"What else is on your mind? You're thinking of more than just the fight."
"Yea. I'm wondering why they tried to kill us all. I'm wondering why the villagers seem to hate me more now than they used to. The past few months...it's almost like when I was still a young child. They used to be content to just belittle me, or ignore my existence, or just rip me off at the stores. Maybe break into my apartment and vandalize or steal my stuff. But it's getting worse, and I don't know why."
"I've noticed it as well. I'm not sure what caused this situation. I can only conclude that someone is actively pushing the people to resent you. I wouldn't worry too much about it tonight. You should get some sleep, you have an early morning."
xxxxx
The next morning found Naruto lounging around just outside the entrance of the Hyuuga compound, chewing on a small meal bar. Kakashi can say what he wants, but until he's a legendary Sannin, he was going to take Jiraya's advice over his. One of the lessons the Sannin pounded into his head was to never skip a meal if possible. A hungry ninja is more likely to make a mistake. A few minutes later, Hinata came back out, dressed to kill. Figuratively and literally. She was again wearing her old size-too-small shirt, and that definitely helped Naruto wake up a little. Without her jacket, her tanto's were in plain view as well. The weapon pouches on her right leg and back left hip definitely looked full too. She also had a small meal bar sticking out of her mouth, having learned many of the same lessons Naruto has.
They arrived at the training area ten minutes before they had to be there. Most of the training area was empty grass or woodland, but for three posts was stuck in the ground, a small river running through it, and off to the side was the Memorial Stone, a stone recording the name of every Konoha ninja that died in the line of duty. The sheer number of names on the stone showed just how short and violent ninja life was. This stone was one of the first things Jiraya showed him. Not very many lived to see twenty. The number of ninja in a hidden village that lived to fifty on active duty could probably be counted on one hand. Naruto couldn't think of a more fitting place to hold the true final exam for a ninja, than in sight of the memorial stone.
Waiting for Kakashi, ten minutes quickly turned into twenty which turned into an hour. "I bet he's doing it on purpose. I got something for him. Hinata, how many explosive tags do you have on you? I don't want to use all of mine if I can help it."
Hinata was quickly overcome with a blush. "Ano...Um...I have sixty of them Naruto-kun. I wanted to be prepared for anything." By the time she was done speaking, she was already looking at the ground and pushing her forefingers together, her usual nervous habit. Naruto wanted to break her of it, but it really was just too cute as far as he was concerned.
Laughing, Naruto quickly took her into his arms and gave her a quick kiss. "Hinata, I love you. Don't ever change. Can I borrow half? I only brought twenty with me..." Reaching into her weapon pouches, she produced a two stacks, one from each pouch. Handing one stack to Naruto, she halved the other stack and reformed two stacks. Putting them away, she was adjusting the contents of her pouches until she was satisfied everything was in easy reach.
After adding ten of his tags to the thirty Hinata gave him, Naruto wasted no time. He quickly made a group of clones. After priming each tag with a touch of chakra, he handed them off to a clone. It didn't take long for all the tags to be hidden. Kakashi couldn't see through the ground, so he'd never see them until it was too late. Hinata, with her Byakugan, could see them and would be able to avoid them. After placing the traps, he sent most of his clones to search the area for traps, just in case. He took two with himself to comb over the area, and quality check the traps. After about ten minutes, he was satisfied that any cursory inspection would fail to find any of the tags.
By this time, the sun was starting to rise. Not having anything else to do while waiting for Kakashi, Naruto took a seat, leaning against one of the training logs. Hinata took a seat herself in his lap, and the two sat there waiting. It wasn't until almost ten that Kakashi showed up. "Good morning Kakashi-Senei."
The completely polite greeting caught him somewhat off guard. Looking at how they were sitting, he could tell that they didn't mind him being five hours late nearly as much as they should have. "Good morning. A black cat crossed my path so..." As usual, both looked unimpressed with his excuse. "Alright, lets move on." Placing an alarm clock on one of the posts, "Alarm set at noon." Holding up a bell, "The test is to get this bell from me. Whoever doesn't get a bell will be tied up to the log, and won't get lunch. I'll eat lunch in front of you. If you fail to get a bell, you failed your mission, and you will have failed the test. You will be sent back to the academy. You have no chance of succeeding if you don't come at me with intent to kill."
Instead of the protests at the announcement he was expecting, Naruto and Hinata just turned to each other, staring at though they were sizing each other up for a fight. After almost a full minute of their stand off, they moved as one. Rock met rock, paper met paper, scissors met scissors. "What are you two doing?"
"Isn't it obvious Kakashi-sensei? I won't allow Hinata-chan to give up so I can go on, and Hinata-chan won't allow me to give up so she can go on. Yet, only one can go on. I can't bring myself to fight her for such a petty reason, and she can't bring herself to fight me for such a petty reason. This is the only way to settle who gets to keep the bell after we take it from you." Kakashi had to admit, he was impressed. Even in this situation, they chose to find a way to work together instead of against each other. Not that he expected anything differently from these two. It was almost a full three minutes before Hinata emerged victorious from the rock-paper-scissors fight. She looked crushed to have won, not wanting Naruto to go back to the academy. Naruto looked happy as can be, knowing that Hinata wouldn't be going back to the academy.
"Alright, now that that's settled..." The two squared off against Kakashi. Meeting the gaze of his one eye. All three hunched over slightly, getting ready to move.
"Shinobi tactic one...Taijutsu. I'll teach you that first." Hinata activated her Byakugan as Kakashi began reaching to his weapon pouch. A slight smile played across her lips. Catching Naruto's eye, she made a hand sign that Kakashi didn't recognize. So, they even have their own signs. This should prove interesting. Naruto returned the smile and nodded. As one, they both reached for the weapon pouch on their back left hip. As one, all three pulled out their weapon of choice. An orange book...?
Someone fell out of a nearby tree, but all three ignored it. The standoff lasted for nearly a minute before Hinata's perverted giggle escaped and she flipped a page. Kakashi's perverted giggle followed shortly after. Kurenai is going to kill me. No. Hiashi is going to kill me...I can't believe she was serious about liking Icha-Icha...
"Ooh. The hot spring scene is my favorite part!" I could almost swear you're in heat when I read these. Perverted fox!
"Like I haven't seen what you and Hinata do. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black..."Hey! No one is more qualified than the pot to call the kettle black. After all, you can't truly identify a pervert without being one yourself.
After a few more minutes of the occasional perverted giggle, Kurenai couldn't take it anymore. "KAKASHI! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!" With a round of dejected sighs all around, everyone looked up from their books. Putting the books away, all three looked at Kurenai like she just kicked their puppy. "Oh, you three can't be serious. We're here to watch you fight, not read porn!"
"Kurenai-sensei, since teams eight and ten are here, do we get to watch them test as well when we're done?" Blushing at being called out by a genin, Kurenai made a stammer excuse before jumping back to the wood line. "I'll take that as a no."
"Think of it as an exhibition match Naruto-kun. Kakashi-sensei, did you at least charge for tickets?" Once again, all Kakashi could do was facepalm. These kids have issues. What the hell did you do to them Jiraya? "Eh, no matter Kakashi-sensei. We'll just make them treat me and Naruto-kun to lunch."
"You can fight this one to your full ability kit. You would have to channel enough of my chakra to break your body to have a hope of defeating him head on. So use your head." Giving a silent thanks for her advice, Naruto made a hand sign to Hinata. At her quick nod, their plan was set. Both created a pair of shadow clones.
"Just to make sure Kakashi-sensei, you want us to come at you with full intent to kill?" As soon as Kakashi nodded, all four clones split off, one Naruto and Hinata heading each way, throwing a small array of kunai and shuriken. Naruto's clones took it a step further, making kage bunshins of the thrown weapons. The real Naruto and Hinata threw their own spreads of kunai and shuriken as well, once again the real Naruto making kage bunshins of his shuriken and kunai.
Not taking the time to be impressed, Kakashi kawarimi'd with the Hinata clone to his right, and immediately smashed the Naruto clone he appeared next to with a spinning backhand. The Hinata clone stood no chance under the withering hail of projectiles, but that didn't stop it from throwing it's tanto before being dispelled. Kakashi just caught the projectile, letting it dispel harmlessly in his hand.
Hinata and Naruto both immediately backed off, opening up the distance, while the two remaining clones moved in, this time going straight for Taijutsu. Effortlessly, Kakashi evaded the attacks through a variety of ducking, dodging, and parrying before dispelling both clones in a single strike. Naruto and Hinata were head and shoulders above what is expected of an academy graduate. Enough so that even their shadow clones made for passable genin. "It's going to take more than that to get this bell."
Smirking, Naruto and Hinata made more shadow clones. Three each this time. Once again, they split into Naru/Hina teams. This time ready for it, they prepared themselves to resist being used for a kawarimi. One set stayed back to provide fire support while the other two moved to engage. The mass of shuriken hit a log this time. "Kakashi-sensei is really good at that. I'm kinda impressed Hinata-chan." She could only nod while look for Kakashi.
"He's underground."
"Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu!" A pair of hands reached out of the ground, grabbing the support pair of clones by the ankles and pulling them into the ground to their necks. Smiling, the Naruto clone glowed for a moment before exploding. By the time the smoke cleared, there was no sign of Kakashi.
"He escaped. BEHIND US!" Naruto and Hinata both dodged to the side as a hail of Kunai impacted where they were just standing. A pair of quick Kawarimi's with their clones, and they were safely in the back again, letting the clones deal with Kakashi. The last set was moving to the side to flank him. As soon as the first group engaged Kakashi, Naruto detonated the nearest tag. Hearing the sizzling tag, Kakashi dived to the side in time to take nothing more than minor bruising from flying rocks. By the time he rolled back to his feet, the last set of clones were already upon him.
Hinata's Jyuuken isn't as good as I was expecting...Playing with the clones for a moment, he also noticed that Naruto never seemed to stick to one style of taijutsu. He was always changing it. It made him less predictable, but it also kept him from excelling. After a few more seconds, he ended the fight by redirecting a kick into the Hinata clone before slamming the Naruto clone into the ground. "You'll have to do better than that."
Again the ground exploded, Kakashi narrowly evading any serious injuries. This is what I get for letting them set the field for five hours before showing up...The fight quickly turned into a game of dodge-the-explosion for Kakashi, earning him a few more bruises and light nicks. Ok. I'm the Jounin. Why am I the only one bleeding?I'm holding back too much, these aren't your average genin. Looking back, Kakashi had to try to keep his jaw from dropping. There were ten clones of Naruto and ten clones of , a massed volley of kunai and shuriken were thrown. Only this time, the kunai thrown by the Naruto clones had exploding tags. SHIT! He can clone exploding tags! Making a pair of his own shadow clones, all three Kakashi's launched a flurry of shuriken before making shadow clones of the shuriken. It proved enough to deflect the incoming volley of exploding tags.
Moments later, he realized he just got played. Not a single one of the tags exploded. Deciding to step it up a notch, all three Kakashi clones moved in for the kill, moving far too fast for the clones to track. Even Hinata couldn't track their movements with any accuracy as they decimated the clones. This time, there were twenty Naruto and twenty Hinata clones. This is getting unreal Again, moving in teams, they tried to cover each other, each Naru/Hina pair working as a single unit, and each unit working with another unit. It was an amazing display of teamwork...and it didn't help them at all. Kakashi and his two clones tore through the small army of Naru/Hina clones. How are they not even sweating...?
With all the clones down, Naruto gave another one of his smirks before detonating more tags. "Ok. I've detonated twenty freaking tags, and I've SCRATCHED the guy. Hinata, we might have to get serious to get that bell. He doesn't want to cooperate." By the time the tags were done exploding, Kakashi could barely recognize the training field. And it seems Naruto wasn't joking about Fuuinjutsu being a hobby...Both his clones were destroyed in the explosions, leaving Kakashi alone.
Hinata flashed another hand sign to Naruto, getting a nod. Once again, masses of clones erupted. Thirty of Hinata and thirty of Naruto. Instead of splitting into their usual pairs, the Hinata's charged. By the time Kakashi was done, he could effortlessly predict exactly how Hinata was going to move and attack. He had her entire style down. Again, Kakashi was disappointed in how poor her Jyuuken was.
"He isn't stupid. Since he hasn't figured it out yet, he must really have a high opinion of you two. Or maybe I'm wrong and he is stupid. He's not even close to serious yet though." Ignoring the voice in the back of his head, Naruto kept his attention on the fight. This time, his clones charged. They charged with one goal in mind. Suicide. Exploding clones takes a great deal of chakra. Making shadow clones with working exploding tags? Not quite as much if you're the one who made the tags originally.
The first exploding Naruto caught Kakashi off-guard. The only thing that saved him was how much weaker cloned exploding tags are compared to the real thing. Coming back to his balance, parts of his jacket shredded from the point blank explosion, he quickly managed to dodge most the incoming Naruto's. Once he opened the range, Kakashi took most out with a fireball. Turning in time, he managed to turn away Naruto's ninja-to by smashing the flat of the blade with his palm. The real Naruto and Hinata just joined the fight.
Naruto's follow up attacks where somewhat harder to dodge, being more fluid and faster than what his clones were doing, giving Kakashi some slight difficulty. Hinata came in as well. Her first strike managed to actually land, hitting a tenketsu point on his forearm. I don't believe I fell for that... Quickly throwing what he knows of their fighting ability out of his mind, Kakashi moved it up another notch. I'm not going to be the only person bleeding.
Ducking under Naruto's next slash, Kakashi came back up, catching Naruto in the chin with a rising palm strike followed with an elbow to the ribs while spinning around Hinata's next attack, catching her in the back of the head with round kick. Before he could press his advantage, he heard a sound he was quickly growing to detest. Another tag about to explode. When did she...?
Quickly replacing himself with another log just in time, the tag on his back ended up taking out the log instead. "Too close. She's damn sneaky with those." Seeing Naruto struggling to get back to his feet, and Hinata out cold, Kakashi dropped his guard. "That's enough you two. You both pass." At that announcement, Naruto collapsed back to the ground.
"Ah...oops?" Walking over, Kakashi tried not to cringe at the sight. The boys jaw was definitely broken. His entire mouth was a bloody mess and his nose was covered in blood too. He could see the broken ribs from his elbow even with the boys shirt on. Fortunately, he'd heal.
Looking over at Hinata, she was definitely out cold, her nose broken from the impact her face made with the ground and she had some minor scrapes along her face from the forward momentum. She was nearly twenty feet from where she was standing when he kicked her after all. That was when he noticed she held a bell in her hand and had a slight smile on her face. They were excellent for genin. Definitely better than most experienced genin. But they couldn't took a full force hit from a Jounin. "Ahh...Asuma? Kurenai? Can one of you help me carry these two to the hospital? I think I went too far."
xxxxx
Team Eight and Team Ten were all sitting in the same tree watching the action unfold. As usual, it was Ino that broke the silence. "Hey, how can they make so many shadow clones? Aren't those supposed to take a lot of Chakra?" Kurenai and Asuma knew how Naruto could do it, but were at a loss to explain how Hinata could, and couldn't really answer Ino's question. That left Shikamaru to answer for her.
"Naruto's always had a great deal of chakra. I'm not surprised that he can do that. Hinata though? She shouldn't be able to make more than one or two without sweating. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't make a single one of those clones." Both Asuma and Kurenai looked at the boy in surprise. The other five fresh genin just took his answer with a ready acceptance that showed they trusted him implicitly.
Asuma and Kurenai shared a quick glance at each other, and got their message across. How the hell did he figure that out before we did?
They had to admit, it was impressive how well they were making the Jounin run around. Once it looked like they had him cornered, Kakashi ended the fight in less than a second. Despite hitting Naruto first, Hinata's hit the ground first. None of the genin watching the fight could track what just happened. Kurenai spoke up first. "That irresponsible fool!"
Asuma could only shake his head. "That really was a lot more force than he needed..."
"Ahh...Asuma? Kurenai? Can one of you help me carry these two to the hospital? I think I went too far."
"You think? Are they still alive?" Kurenai's question was less sarcastic and more serious than anyone would have preferred. All the genin were starting to look sick.
"They'll be alright...I hope..."Hiashi and Jiraya are going to kill me...
xxxxx
A/N: Thanks for the reviews :) Once again, feel free to leave a review telling me what I did well/what I did poorly. If my writing is flawed and no one tells me, I can't fix it. If my writing is awesome, well, who doesn't like getting their ego stroked?
A few notes: Don't worry, this won't be a brutally overpowered Naruto and Hinata effortlessly crushing all resistance. Except on occasions where it's done for a laugh.
I find that most ninja in the Naruto Universe are mentally retarded. There will be a great deal less of that in this fic. Push come to shove, trained shinobi will fight smart. People above genin are going to display more than just a single trick in combat, and instead of curling up in the fetal position when their tricks don't work, they'll improvise, adapt, and die valiantly...err...overcome. Totally meant overcome.
Don't bother asking about whether or not Sasuke/Sakura are going to be evil. Events will unfold quite differently from both canon and this own fics crapsack future. So there's plenty of room for ambiguity before irrevocable decisions are made.
Lastly, hope you enjoyed the story so far!