Naruto: Trapped

By I.K.A. Valian

~ Chapter Two ~

The Genin Test

"Good afternoon," Ian called to the three Genin.

"You're late!" Sakura and Naruto shouted at him. Sasuke sneered and turned his nose up. Ian grinned and waved their anger off. He put the sack he was carrying down and took in the three.

"Not late," Ian said. "Sometimes, during a mission, you'll have to observe a target or wait for a target without any opportunity to eat or sleep without break for days."

Naruto's eyes lit up. "Oh," he shouted while he hopped up and down. "So this was the test? You were testing our ability to starve ourselves and get the mission done. Ha! Well consider his mission complete!"

Ian stayed silent as he watched the three Genin in front of him. Sakura and Naruto both looked at him with what appeared to be hope. Futile hope that the test was over and they could eat. Sasuke was glaring at him, but even he appeared to be waiting for Ian to respond.

"Not quite," Ian said. "That was just the first part of the test. Now it is time for the second." Ian pulled an alarm clock out of the bag he brought and set it on the ground. He set the timer for one hour and then activated the device. "You each have one hour to get these bells from me," he said as he held up two bells for the kids to see. "Those without a bell at the end of the hour get tied to a tree where you will watch me eat lunch in front of you."

Ian smiled as the three Genin looked at each other. One of their stomachs growled loud enough to make an echo in the empty clearing. He jingled the bells as he tied them to the belt around his waist.

"Additionally, because there are only two bells, at least one of you will end up tied to a tree." Ian crossed his arms as he watched two of the three Genin in front of him look like they wanted to run back to the academy. Sasuke clenched his fists and glared. "And the one who doesn't get a bell will fail and be sent back to the academy."

Naruto's face twisted up in annoyance as the nervousness fled him, or perhaps was repressed. Sakura looked to Sasuke and then dipped her head, but she was still visibly shaking. Sasuke continued to glare.

"If you want," Ian said, "you can use shuriken or kunai. In fact, you probably should. You won't succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill or die trying."

"But!" Sakura's head shot up and she said, "You'll be in danger! And we could die!"

Sasuke snorted, but remained silent. Naruto crossed his arms and grimaced in an attempt to intimidate the Jounin. Ian rolled his eyes and said, "You do realize that being a ninja means you'll be in life or death situations for the majority of the time, right?"

"Ah, um…" Sakura stuttered. "I… yes, yes I do. I just didn't…"

"Don't worry, Sakura," Naruto shouted and pounded his chest. "I'll protect you and we'll beat this guy into next Tuesday."

Before Sakura could respond, Ian said, "Yes, listen to the dead last. He'll protect you."

Naruto's eyes screwed open at the sideways insult. Before either Sasuke or Sakura realized what he was doing, Naruto had a kunai in his hand and was about to push himself into a headlong rush at Ian. And then Ian was behind Naruto. He held Naruto's hand at the blonde's throat where the kunai the boy had pulled to attack was pressing into the skin.

"Now now," Ian said. "Don't let the enemy get into your head like that. You could lose more than your pride."

Sakura and Naruto were both wide eyed in shock. Sasuke changed his glare into a piercing glare with a smirk. Apparently, he was pleased with what he saw.

"At least now you're ready to attack with the intent to kill," Ian said. "I'll be standing over there. You have one hour. Good luck."

Ian let go of Naruto's hand and vanished before the boy could react. He then re-appeared several yards away in the middle of an open clearing. The three Genin glanced at each other before they jumped.

Sakura leaped into the bushes where she tried to hide herself as best she could. Sasuke leaped into a tree and attempted to blend into the shade with the dark colored clothing he had on. Naruto jumped up and somersaulted only to land directly in front of Ian.

"You, fight me, now!" Naruto demanded.

Ian's shoulders slumped. "Man, Kakashi said this was the part where you all ran off for cover. What's wrong with you?"

"Me?! Nothing's wrong with me!" Naruto shouted as he dashed forward with his fist cocked back. "The only thing wrong here is your hair cut."

"Hmph, is that the best you can come up with?" Ian asked as he casually, almost lazily, dodged Naruto's punch and responded with a kick to Naruto's abdomen. The air in Naruto's lungs audibly rushed out. "Laugh it up, blondie," Ian said to the doubled over Naruto. "At least mine doesn't look like I stuck my head into a lawnmower."

"Why… you," Naruto spat between gasps for breath. He grit his teeth and pushed himself up. "I won't be… defeated… by you!" Faster than he'd ever pushed himself before, Naruto lashed out with a kick and immediately tried to follow up with a punch to Ian's face. Ian blocked Naruto's kick with the back of one hand and then grabbed Naruto's wrist with the other. With a strong grip, Ian threw Naruto up into the air and just as he was about to land, Ian buried his fist into Naruto's gut. This time Naruto passed out before he hit the ground.

"I suppose you will be defeated by me," Ian said as he pulled a rope out and began to tie Naruto up. Once Naruto had no way of escaping the tree Ian had tied him to, the Jounin turned and faced the tree where Sasuke had hidden. Sasuke's eyes widened slightly and he leaped from the branch. He leaped from one branch to another as silently as a whisper of wind until he was on the other side of the clearing.

When Sasuke looked out into the clearing, he saw that Ian was still standing in the same spot looking in the same direction, now away from Sasuke's position. The boy smirked and pulled a wire. Dozens of shuriken and kunai burst from the tree that he'd been standing in, launched directly for Ian.

Ian didn't even move and took the full brunt of the attack in the head and chest. Sasuke pushed chakra into his leg muscles and jumped high into the air. His hands were already going through the hand seals for his most prized jutsu as he reached the point right above Ian's weapon riddled body.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

Sasuke lifted his head back and, with a deep breath, spat out a fire ball the size of a house down toward the earth. The ball of flame lit up the clearing with heat intense enough to flash fry the grass closest to the epicenter of the attack and light the trees aflame. Sasuke flipped as he began to fall back to the ground and landed lightly on his feet on the far side of the crater he'd just created.

Taking deep lungfuls of air to combat the sudden onset of fatigue, Sasuke turned to inspect the charred body of Ian. He quickly noticed something was wrong. Instead of the blackened body of one former Jounin of Konoha, there was a smoldering pile of white stuff too small to have come from a body. Sasuke frowned as he tried to see where he'd gone wrong.

"I suspect it must have been the part where you took your eyes off of me to tree hop around to my defenseless back," Ian said from beside Sasuke. Sasuke repressed the urge to jump from his shock and immediately snatched a kunai into his hand from his side pocket. "Not so easily intimidated, I see. Still, if all you can do is blast burn a sack of flour, then I don't think I have much to fear from you."

"I'm not like those other two," Sasuke said. "I'm going to win this. I will get that bell."

"Then come and take it," Ian said. He turned to Sasuke and shifted his weight as he watched the Genin jump back and attempt to use the Grand Fireball again. "That's not going to wooork~" Ian sang.

Sasuke ignored Ian, shouted "Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!" and breathed in. As soon as he breathed in his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fainted. Ian shook his head and walked up to the unconscious boy.

"Sasuke!" Sakura shouted as she dashed from the bushes right next to Naruto, who was just now coming to, and toward the unconscious Sasuke. When she got to him, she hovered over him and wringed her hands as she fretted over his non-conscious state. "Oh, no, Sasuke! What's wrong? What did he do to you? Wake up!"

"He just used too much chakra, that's all," Ian said from behind Sakura. She stiffened and looked over her shoulder at the Jounin. "He'll wake up in a ten or so minutes, but he'll be completely exhausted for a couple of hours until his chakra builds up again. The Great Fireball isn't something a Genin usually has the reserves to do, much less one so large. That he could manage to do so much speaks well of his desire to win… not that it helped him much this time. But, there's always next year."

"So… we lose…" Sakura said. She looked at the ground and sniffled lightly. Ian rolled his eyes.

"No, you still have about twenty minutes left," Ian said. "There's still time for you to try and get a bell… though from what I've seen, I highly doubt you'll succeed any better than these two on your own."

"Datebayo!" Naruto shouted as he jumped onto Ian from behind. Then five more Narutos jumped onto him. "Thought you could beat me, didn't ya?! Well too bad for you, I'm the king of getting out of being tied up and pranks!"

A seventh Naruto appeared in a puff of smoke and searched Ian's waist for the bells. "Hey, what gives! Where are the bells?!"

"You mean these bells?" Ian asked from behind the seventh Naruto. He held up a hand and jingled them in the clone's face. All the clones and the original Naruto, who was now alone at the bottom of the dog pile, cried out in anger as they tried to scramble at Ian. Ian just laughed as he dispelled the clone in front of him and then hopped back to watch the other clones and the original Naruto fight to get back to their feet.

Sakura watched all this from her seat on the ground. Sasuke blinked as he woke up to the sounds of loud popping noises, sobbing, and a chuckle he was beginning to despise with a cold burning hatred. He sat up and saw Naruto once again being tied to a tree, only this time he was kicking and screaming as it happened, but was nonetheless unable to stop the act. Sakura sat next to him, sobbing into her hands.

Sasuke grunted and pushed himself to his feet. He took a few steps forward before he the world tilted sideways and he fell over. Sakura gasped as he pushed himself back up once again.

"Sasuke!" Sakura shouted with a note of happiness. "You're alright!"

Sasuke sneered as he got back to his feet and started toward Ian again. The world was waving back and forth, but he refused to stop. He kept going until his leg just didn't fall correctly and he fell once again. Sakura rushed to his side and tried to help him stand, but he roughly shoved her away so that she fell onto the ground herself.

"Leave me alone!" he shouted at the hapless girl. "I don't need your help!" He pushed himself back to his feet and started walking again, only to fall again. Ian watched impassively from his spot next to Naruto, who was shouting obscenity that could turn any grandmother's hair a paler shade of white.

"Sasuke," Sakura croaked, fresh tears in her eyes. "Why… why don't you just give up! You can't even stand! You can't win!" Sasuke stopped, still wobbling on his feet, but turned to glare at Sakura. She caught her breath at the spiteful glare directed at her.

"I will never give up," he snarled. "Not for you! Not for him! Never! I will grow strong! I will defeat that man! And until I do, I won't let anything get in my way."

"Sasuke…" Sakura breathed as Sasuke turned and started toward Ian again. Then a sound filled the clearing. It was high pitched, making it easily recognizable as the ringing of an alarm bell.

"Stop," Ian said, holding a hand up. "The test is over. I've got good news. You three won't be going back to the Academy."

Naruto immediately stopped trying to get free. A giant grin split his face as he shouted with joy. "We passed! Awesome! I'm finally a ninja! I did it!" Sasuke never lost his glare, but as he fell to the ground a grin was on his face. Sakura looked back and forth between Ian and Sasuke.

"Yes," Ian said. "You three failed this test so badly that you won't be sent back to the Academy at all, but will be sent back to civilian life."

Naruto's gleeful cheers vanished as quickly as they appeared. In their place was a wide-eyed gawking punctuated by a sobbing choke ever few seconds. Sakura simply hung her head and let her long hair cover her face. Sasuke glared at Ian, as if such an act would cause the man to flinch and bow down to the boy's wishes.

"Clearly, you three aren't cut out for being ninja," Ian said. "Just what do you think ninja are? Do you really think we all run around like chickens with our heads cut off, screaming after our obsession, picking fights randomly, and focusing so hard on one target that you can be completely over taken by a civilian if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

Ian had his hands on his hips as he glared down at the three genin. Sasuke snarled, gripped his kunai tighter and jumped at Ian. Ian sniffed derisively and grabbed Sasuke's outstretched arm, twisted the boy around, and pinned Sasuke's arms behind his back as far as they would bend. He then pushed farther, eliciting a gasp of pain from the boy.

"Sakrua, if you want Sasuke to survive this, you will kill Naruto," Ian said, deathly serious.

"Wh-what!" Naruto shouted. Sakura gasped. "You can't mean that, sensei!" Naruto shouted.

Ian shook his head. "Of course not, but life as a ninja means you will run into situations like this, especially when you get careless. On top of that, the three of you failed to divine the true nature of this test. I really don't see why you should become Genin at all, if this is the depth of your ability."

"The true nature…" Naruto said.

"Of this test?" Sakura finished. Ian released Sasuke and stepped back. Sasuke stumbled forward a step before he caught himself and turned slowly around while he rubbed his shoulder.

"Yes," Ian said. "It's a ninja's job to see underneath the underneath. To read between the lines. Do you three honestly believe that Genin would be tested in a battle of strength against a Jounin? Individually, none of you are a match for a Jounin, and we know that."

"Then what the hell is the purpose of this test?" Naruto shouted. Ian shook his head.

"Why don't you try seeing underneath the underneath and figure it out for yourselves," Ian said. "I've already given you three the clues. Even for genin, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Naruto, what do you think it is?"

"How the hell should I know?" Naruto shouted from the tree. "You told us to get the bells. But there's only two of them so one of us is going back for sure. If we're not supposed to be able to fight you then how the hell are we supposed to get the bells. This test is rigged!"

"No," Ian said, "wrong answer. I can see your hopes of becoming Hokage diminishing." Naruto ground his teeth together and growled. "Sasuke, how about you? Does the famous Uchiha clan have the ability to figure this simple test out?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "It's a test of our ability to read between the lines and figure out the true nature of a mission. This mission was to get the two bells, but there are three of us. One of us will be going back to the academy if two of us could get the bells. This mission was designed to make us choose who to sacrifice on an impossible mission."

"Not so much," Ian said. Sasuke grimaced and glared. "Sakura, how about you?"

"Uhm…" Sakura looked back and forth between Ian and Sasuke. "To… to show… to show how well we can work as a team?" she asked, hesitantly.

Ian tilted his head. "Curious, how the weakest member of your group is the one to get the right answer." Sasuke and Naruto both looked at Sakura. "Yes… Fascinating. Care to explain your reasoning?"

"Um… well. You said that our goal was to get the two bells, but because there's only two of them, one of us will be going back to the academy. Additionally, you made us skip breakfast so that we'd be hungry enough to simulate a real world mission. All of these things seemed designed to drive us apart and thwart teamwork, which is what the true test is. The fact that you knew that we couldn't defeat you individually and that it should have been obvious only supports that maybe, if we all worked together, then we might have had a chance to get the bells."

"But… But what about there only being two bells?" Naruto asked. "He said one of us would be going back to the academy if we didn't get a bell!"

"Idiot," Sasuke snorted. His shoulder seemed to be sagging as the truth of the test became clear to him. "That was a trick to get us to fight with each other instead of work together."

"Don't call me an idiot, Bastard!"

"I think that illustrates Sakura's point well enough," Ian said. Sasuke was still grimacing, but now he was looking at the ground. Sakura was solemn as she too studied the ground. Naruto was wiggling fiercely as he tried to break free. "Well, here's how this is going to work. Since you've figured it out, I'll give you guys another chance to get the bells after lunch. You two can eat, but Naruto gets none."

"What?!" Naruto shouted, "why not!? I'm just as hungry as those two!"

"Because you're attached to that tree and because I said that whoever was attached to the tree, didn't get lunch. I'll give you two a half hour to eat and then I'll untie Naruto and let you go at it again. Do not feed Naruto!" Ian rounded on Naruto and glared at him. "You will starve because I said so, and since I make the rules, you will do as I say, got it?! Anyone who feeds him will automatically fail as well." Ian's expression instantly shifted into a happy-go-lucky grin. "See ya!" he said before popping into a cloud of smoke.

Naruto gulped loudly and made an indifferent face. "Eh, don't worry about me," he said as Sasuke and Sakura opened the boxed lunches they brought. "I'm not really that hungry anyway."

Seconds later, Naruto's stomach was singing an operetta that was loud enough to be heard across the clearing where Ian sat in a tree. He shook his head as he listened to the creshendo of growls and gurbles. Sasuke glanced up at Naruto, noted the boy's unnaturally downcast expression, and then back down at his food.

Sasuke sighed and held his box out toward Naruto. "Here," he said.

Sakura glanced over and then looked back down at her food. Then her head whipped back and her eyes bugged out as she started to choke on the food she was chewing. She coughed twice and then gasped out, "Sasuke! Sensei just said-"

"Don't worry," Sasuke said. "I don't sense his chakra near here. After lunch, we'll work together and get the bells." Sakura and Naruto both stared at Sasuke with wide open eyes. Naruto was about to protest when Sasuke growled and said, "Look, if you don't eat, you'll just be in the way and hurt the team."

Sakura looked back at her own meal in silent thought. Naruto was again about to protest when suddenly Sakura had shoved her food in front of him as well. "Sakura!" the blond said, surprise written all over his face.

"Naruto, you need your strength too," she said. "This is about teamwork right? What kind of team would we have if you can't keep up?"

"You guys," Naruto said. He hung his head as he opened his mouth and let Sasuke and Sakura stuff bits of food insides. Tears ran down his cheeks as he chewed and swallowed loudly.

They were all caught off guard at the sudden explosion behind them. Standing in the clearing was a tall, lanky man with silver hair. He had his forehead protector covering one eye and he was leaning in real close to them to look at them with his one good eye.

"Do you three realize what you have done?!" he asked in a deep and creepy disturbing voice.

"Who the heck are you?!" Naruto shouted. "And waddya mean do we realize-Of course we do! We're breaking the rules to keep the team together!"

"Kakashi," Ian said as he appeared behind the silver-haired man. "Why did you go and ruin the surprise? And you're late, too. Like always."

"Oh… sorry," Kakashi said, rubbing the back of his head while smiling with his only visible eye. "There was this old woman and… well you know. Anyway, this part of the test was always my favorite. Did they really break the rules?"

"Yes," Ian said looking over the three now very confused genin. "They passed."

"We what?!" Sakura and Naruto shouted at the same time. Sasuke's eyes widened, but then he shook his head and smirked with the satisfied grin of a predator that's caught his prey.

"Oh goodie," Kakashi said, "they passed. I suppose that means they're mine now?"

"No," Ian said slowly. His fists clenched slightly but he remained calm otherwise. "They're mine. Remember the Hokage's orders?"

"Maa, maa." Kakashi said, holding his hands in the air. He then loudly slapped Ian on the back. "Don't get all riled up. I'm just teasing. Now, did you tell them the moral of the story?"

"Eh," Ian said. He shrugged and the tension in him before left completely. "Why don't you, it's your saying."

"Right," Kakashi said. He turned to the three Genin and said, "The lesson of this training is not just teamwork," Kakashi said. "It's to get it through your cute little skulls that there are ninja out there who break the rules, and they are bad, trash even. But the ninja who abandon their comrades are lower than trash. Remember that in the future."

"Other than that, you guys are free to go," Ian said. "Meet tomorrow bright and early at seven AM in front of the Hokage Tower for your first mission as Team Seven."

"Yeah!" Naruto shouted. He tried to jump or do something, but he was still well tied to the tree. That didn't stop him from crowing futher. "We did it! We're ninja!"

"Okay, you guys, let's go," Ian said. Sasuke shook his head and stood.

"Hell yeah!" Sakura shouted as she joined Sasuke, blushing as she followed after him. Ian and Kakashi watched this and rolled their eyes before following. Naruto watched all this happen silently until they were gone.

"Oh, come on!" Naruto shouted at the evening sky of reds and oranges. "Really? You guys all suck!"

A/N: Trapped 2, delivered to you in High Definition! Notice all of the sharp lines and none of the blurriness! Also, a review box! Type stuff/praise/thoughts into it and hit send today!

~I.K.A. Valian