AN: I do not own Naruto in any way shape or form, it all belongs to Kishimoto-dono
Chapter 3
At seven AM, the morning fog lifted revealing three figures standing at the training ground awaiting their sensei who as predicted, was running late. One hour and a lesson in how to play shogi later, the one-eyed Jonin Kakashi appeared with his usual greeting of "Yo" with his eye-smile.
"Where have you been Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked even though he realized that his new teacher would be late.
"A black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around to avoid bad luck" was the friendly reply.
'I have given lame excuses before but that was horrid' Naruto thought reminiscing about his stories of where he was while pulling pranks.
'Troublesome' Shikamaru thought while putting away the shogi board, surprised at how well Naruto had taken to the game.
'Remember to ask Kurenai-sensei if his excuses are always like this' Hinata thought with a sweat drop on her head.
"Now, on to the exercise for today, I have two bells here (jingle) and your goal is to get them before the timer goes off at noon. Use any means possible with the intent to kill." Kakashi informed his students.
Expecting Naruto to just jump into action, he was surprised that Naruto stayed back with his teammates, none of them shouting at the unusual stipulations of the exercise which put the Jonin even more on his guard than he is used to with the teams he is assigned.
"Alright then if there are no questions, Begin!" At that, the three Genin hopefuls dashed into different areas not staying in one spot for long, concealing the fact that they were in any spot at all until they meet at the appointed location. Kakashi wandered around impressed with how well his students were at stealth.
That was until he heard a shout of "THOSE BELLS ARE MINE ONE-EYE! DATTEBAYO!" Of course that could only be one of his students. Kakashi thought with a sigh 'He was doing so well until he blew his cover.'
"Naruto, you don't announce your presence to the world when trying to attack an opponent who is stronger. You need the element of surprise, such as this; Ninpo: Sennin Goroshi (Ninja Arts: A Thousand Years of Death)."
Kakashi stated coolly while instantly appearing behind Naruto and forming the hand seal tiger and forcing it into Naruto's posterior. That was until the audible puff revealing that he had fallen for a kage bushin leaving himself wide open from an attack from the rear, to which Naruto replied with a kunai held to Kakashi's back "Like this you mean sensei?"
"Not bad except for one thing; you need to remember: kawarimi no jutsu (substitution technique)."
With that Kakashi was replaced with a log leaving Naruto who seemed to be frustrated with what happened. Kakashi had landed in the tree from his jutsu and decided to watch Naruto expecting him to throw a fit and yell, instead finding Naruto run off in another direction trying to find the missing Sensei. Kakashi decided to leave Naruto to his searching and that it was time to find the others before dealing with the boy once again.
As Kakashi made to leave, he discovered something was wrong, very wrong. He could not move any part of his body. All he could barely hear was a lazy voice softly exclaiming "Kage Mane is a success, your turn Hinata." With the go ahead from Shikamaru, Hinata walked up behind Kakashi and used her family's special ability, closing off the points of the body where chakra (a ninja's energy) escaped thereby numbing and rendering the area useless.
This could only be done with the use of two things one was a style of fighting called Jyuuken or Gentle Fist and the closing of the chakra points could only be identified through intensive study or using a bloodline trait available to only the Hyuuga Clan, the Byakugan or All-Seeing Eye. "Byakugan" Hinata softly called forth her family's gift and proceeded to close of Kakashi's chakra points on his arms and ankles allowing him to stand yet unable to defend himself or escape.
"I believe I said that I would get those bells" Naruto exclaimed taking the bells and giving one to Hinata and the other to Shikamaru.
"Why did you give up the bells Naruto?" Kakashi asked wondering how they figured out the secret to the test, one that no team since his Sensei's had been able to figure out.
"It was actually Shikamaru who figured it out. He gave us these little radios when you were late so we could plan something out since he realized just by fighting you individually we would not stand a chance." Naruto replied.
Shikamaru then added "It would be too troublesome to have a group of two instead of three, making more work than necessary so I knew that the bells were to divide us. Then I explained my plan to share the bells with each other."
Hinata picked up, "We then were able to think up a plan thanks to Shikamaru who thought to utilize our strengths, family techniques, and strategy abilities."
"If his shadow possession failed then I would be able to render you useless by ransoming your Icha Icha Paradise book, what is it about anyway?" Naruto stated proudly holding up the adult oriented book, which also happened to be one of Kakashi's prized possessions since it happened to by an autographed copy from the author personally sent to him.
With the revelation of his precious book stolen from him, Kakashi only could stare in horror "When did you steal that and what would you have done?" the startled Jonin asked not certain if he wanted to know what the potential fate of his book was.
"Naruto was to place an exploding tag on the troublesome book if you weren't to give us the bells. I saw that you brought it with you so you cherish it thus revealing one of your weaknesses to us."
"That and I would have told Kurenai-sensei about your crush on her." Hinata continued on with a smug tone in her voice which was unusual for the young girl.
"Very well, you guys are the first to pass my test because you realized that only teamwork could save you. The biggest lesson that you can learn from this is to rely constantly on your teammates. As my sensei once said, 'those who don't follow the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.' Excellent work. Tomorrow we begin our first missions as Team 7." Kakashi said leading the new Genin team away from the training ground. "Oh and one more thing, Naruto give me the book back or I will use Sennin Goroshi on you." Kakashi stated with an eye-smile mixed with a slight amount of Killer Intent.
