Chapter 4: Vs. Kakashi!
The rules have been spoken. Naruto had been itching for a good fight. Now all he had to do was wait for the signal to advance. He didn't really care about the bells at this point. Naruto figured if he could show his strength, he'd be good enough to pass. He glanced over to his teammates and saw that while Sakura was anxious, Sasuke had a similar thought process as he did. Kakashi began to count down.
"3!"
Naruto tightened his headband.
"2!"
He then got into his taijutsu stance, one the resembled boxing.
"1!"
Sakura and Sasuke both looked at Naruto and saw his battle hardened expression. They didn't expect their new teammate to have such focus on this battle.
"Hajime!"
And with that, Naruto burst forward with such speed it left a crater in the groud, blowing dust and pebbles into the faces of the two left behind. Kakashi had barely enough time to bring his arms up to block the incoming punch. With years of combat experience, the jounin could tell whether a punch was strong or not, and this one. Was immensely powerful. He channeled all the chakra he could into his arms before realizing it was a feint. Naruto's fist stopped just centimeters away from his arms and just as quickly used his legs to jump into the air.
'What the-'
"GORILLA LEG DROP", yelled Naruto as he brought his 'in the air' axe kick down to the jounin.
'Shit!-'
The force of the kick that landed had so much pressure the ground beneath him split apart and shook, leaving a massive crater reaching even Sasuke and Sakura. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. This guy was extremely strong.
"FUCK! I should've seen the kawamiri coming.". Naruto was disappointed that he couldn't end the fight with one move.
"Kid, what do you expect. Your opponent is arguably one of the strongest jounin Konoha's ever produced."
'Oh Goku, you're awake?'
"Been kid. Seeing as the one and only Hatake Kakashi is the current target, you want my help or not?"
'No, I want to see how I fare against a jounin.'
"Suit yourself, I'll only be observing then"
Meanwhile with the other two members of Team 7, they were just staring at their red-eyed teammate. Naruto eventually noticed that the two were just standing there, shocked at his handiwork. "Oi, look alive! He's here somewhere!" This snapped his comrades back into reality.
"Naruto, how'd you get so strong?", asked a curious Sakura. He answered without even looking to her, looking only to the left, right, above, and behind of his current standpoint. "Doesn't matter. Just get to the trees now!". While confused, they listened.
The Uzumaki went through a string of handseals and slammed both palms into the ground. "If he's not anywhere else, he has to be below! Doton: Tochi o Funka! The earth below had erupted, forcing the jounin to reveal himself. Sparing no time, Naruto leapt into the air to engage the silver haired shinobi in a match of taijutsu.
'Damn, I can't block! If one of his hits lands, it's a guarantee bone break!'. Naruto was throwing a flurry of punches and kicks only to have the jounin skillfully use the momentum of the strikes to dodge. Then he had an idea. He threw a left hook and purposely left an opening on his cheek. Kakashi took that chance and threw a right punch towards his student's jawline.
'This is gonna hurt Naru-', Kakashi's eyes widened. 'Is he smirking?'. It was too late, the punch was already in motion. The boy grabbed his sensei's arm and threw him over his shoulder, hurling him towards the ground.
'Shit I was careless!'
"Ha! This is it!" Naruto went through another string of handseals. "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!". A massive fireball was flaming towards Kakashi who was on the ground. He stood up and went through his own seals.
"Sorry Naruto, it's not going to be that easy, Suiton: Suiryuheki!". Steam became the result as fire and water clashed together. It didn't matter to the young boy, he wanted to give his sensei no room to breath. With a strong punch to the ground, the impact generated enough wind to dispel the steam.
"I see you don't like to waste time when fighting"
Naruto looked to see where exactly his sensei's voice was coming from as his body was nowhere around him. While looking around, his mind began working. 'He wouldn't be underground, his voice didn't sound muffled. The only place to go is...SHIT. I forgot about them! Sasuke! Sakura! Just hold on!'. He then dashed for the trees.
Meanwhile-With Sasuke
'Fuck, and here I was thinking that I was strong. This guy's ninjutsu and taijutsu skills are off the charts!'. After witnessing the steam that had formed from Naruto and Kakashi's jutsu, Sasuke used that chance to escape from Kakashi's line of sight. He only regretted that he was with the useless pinkette.
"Sasuke-kun! Wait *huff* up!"
'Oh great, she's keeping up', deadpanned the Uchiha.
Little did they realize while they were running through the woods, they were being tailed by their sensei along the trees.
'I'll start picking them off one by one', and with that, he dropped to the ground and dove into it.
Sasuke was on the verge of stabbing Sakura with a kunai because of her obnoxious banter of 'surviving alone' with her Sasuke-kun when he felt his ankles being grabbed.
"Shit!"
"Sasuke-kun!"
Sasuke was about to be pulled underground when all of a sudden, Naruto came out of nowhere tackling the Uchiha out of the jounin's grasp.
"*cough*cough* That hurt teme."
"Quit your bitching, he's getting up."
Sasuke had been surprised at his teammates response, he expected a more sheepish tone but was met with a hardened voice that was focused on the fight present.
"Hey! You can't talk to Sasuke-kun like that!"
Completely disregarding her words, he asked her, "You're supposed to be smart, right?"
It was her turn to be confused. "Yes, I suppose so, I had the highest marks, why?"
"Think of a strategy on how we can beat him. I'm guessing that this test is supposed to be based on teamwork. No matter how much I've trained, the most I can do with our sensei is a stalemate. I need you two to help me out. Sasuke, I haven't seen you strength yet, but I can guess you're no pushover. Now Sakura, quick! He's not going to stand there waiting for us much longer."
"Hmph. Fine, I guess there's no other way.", replied Sasuke.
Sakura's mind immediately went to work. It took her about twenty seconds to think of a plan and then relay it to her comrades. Kakashi was impressed, they figured out the true meaning behind the test.
'Well, since they've technically passed, there's really no point in dragging this along, but I'm curious to see how well there teamwork is in action.'
The three genin were now ready. Sakura and Naruto were the first to move. With a single hand seal, the plan had begun.
"Doton: Iwa Bunshin no jutsu", Three carbon copies of Naruto formed out of rock and ran towards Kakashi with Sakura close behind. The clones sakura were running around in circles throwing kunai and shuriken at their target in the middle while the original engaged in a taijutsu match with him, strategically forcing Kakashi to dodge/block right into the incoming kunai.
'Impressive, their sealing my movements so I can't go anywhere. But it's a bit naive..', Kakashi then twirled out two kunai held in reverse grip and began deflecting them back towards their senders. After he realized the rock clones weren't going to dissipate after a few hits, he leaped into the air. The clones weren't following him and Sakura attached three explosive seals onto her kunai. Not good. While the jounin was still in the air, the explosive kunai was tossed into his direction. Before the explosion the clones went into action
A unison of, "Doton: Doryuheki!" was heard. Kakashi was faced with an explosion. On top of that, right before the explosion happened, the Uchiha prodigy leaped into the air above Kakashi and formed seals to throw a Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu straight at him. The fireball and explosion mixed together was not a good combination for the jounin. After the massive blast of fire passed, Kakashi's scarred body came falling down. Sakura started freaking out blurting out that they had killed their sensei. Sasuke remained calm but his eyes were widened as ran towards their fallen sensei. Naruto stayed back, grinning to himself.
"Yare Yare, Konoha's got some promising Genin this year", Kakashi's voice was heard as the ground underneath them split open with three Kakashis emerging. Everyone but Naruto was surprised at this action as they looked to the previously scarred body poofing into smoke. The three kakashi (two clones, one original) now had a kunai at the necks of his students, dispelling the Iwa bunshins in the process.
"Ka-Kage Bunshin?", asked an astonished Sasuke.
"Indeed. While your strategy was sound, it was immature. You failed to consider the possibility that the version of me that emerged from the ground earlier was the actual original. You failed to consider that I had left myself underground to only pop up when your plan came to an end. Nevertheless, I'm impressed you guys really understood the-" he was cut short when Naruto had "dispelled" into a pile of rocks.
'Another Bunshin?', now Kakashi was confused. Sakura and Sasuke were confused as well as the clones holding a kunai to their necks were dispelled when they were struck with kunais from an unknown location straight to the heart.
After leaving Kakashi confused as to why his clones and Naruto were gone they heard a small laugh coming from the trees. It was...Naruto.
"Yo.". Naruto had his arms crossed and was standing on a tree branch looking down at his team. What was most shocking was that behind and to the sides of Naruto were at least a dozen, huge, lava encased meteors.
"It would be impossible to beat a former ANBU captain with an on the spot strategy like that, especially one from a freshly made genin like Sakura. She comically fell at this comment. "So I used her strategy as distraction for you to let your guard down. I knew you had something up your sleeve. So now that I have you here, I'm asking you to hand over the two bells to my teammates over there. If not, I'll be glad to demonstrate my Yoton: Shakugaryugan (Lava Release: Scorching Steam Rock) on you", Naruto said with a wicked smile plastered on his face.
"I guess I have no choice. You all pass.", he said while giving the bells to his other two students.
After dodging a few questions about why Naruto had a Lava release, they went back to the clearing where the clock was just about to ring for noon.
"Well team, as you've already guessed, this test was not about the bells itself, but the principle. As you grow older and partake in more dangerous missions, the value between life and death will increase tenfold. You'll be in charge of many other lives and it will be hard on you if you do not understand this", Kakashi paused as if he were reminiscing about a tragic event.,"In the shinobi world, those who break the rules are considered scum. But, those who abandon their comrades are even worse than scum. Always remember that throught your shinobi life."
Those words hit Team 7 like a truck. They hadn't expected their sensei to be so deep.
"As of today, we are Team 7. Report tomorrow at 9am at the bridge for your missions. You are free to rest for the remainder of today.". With that being said, Sasuke and Sakura headed home. Well Sasuke did while trying to ignore Sakura's requests for a date.
As Kakashi turned to leave, his arm was grabbed by his remaining student.
"I-I know you said we can talk, but I don't like being all deep and sensitive. I just want ask you one thing", Naruto said while looking directly into his sensei's eye. "Why'd you save me that one night?"
Kakashi just stared at his student, recalling the events from that horrible night. With a heavily sigh, Kakashi replied, "They chased you to the outskirts of the village. I was an ANBU captain at that time and was the only one who was given the mission to watch out for you. I was under strict orders never to interfere unless it was life or death. Hokage-sama was under a lot of heat from the elders back then about you, it was the best he could do. So that is why I happened to be there to catch that flaming torch from killing you."
Naruto had predicted everything his sensei was saying, though it did make him happier knowing that Kakashi could've abandoned the mission at any time of his choosing, but stayed.
With nod of farewell, Kakashi turned around and left. While his back was still towards Naruto, he spoke again. "Your father was my former sensei."
Naruto grew wide eyes at this information. He honestly never would've suspected. As the jounin eventually was gone from eyesight, Naruto threw his hands behind the back of his head and grinned with slight tears in his eyes. Within Naruto's mindscape, Son Goku could feel nothing but joy for his host. The boy now had somewhat a decent experience of closure with his past.
"C'mon kid, let's go home. We've got training to do. Your taijutsu was sloppy today."
"Sure thing...partner."
AN: THANKS FOR READING AND STUFF. Wave arc will begin next chapter, as well as the start of the pairing of naruto and haku!
Oh yeah, just want to explain a few things. Naruto is super strong and "beat" Kakashi for today, but Kakashi wasn't even using half of his real strength. Naruto will not be smashin on everybody. He will take losses here and there. I use craters as an indicator on Naruto's physical power. I know Sasuke and Sakura haven't been relevant so far, but I will make them main characters and have them go through stages of development. Review Please! If you liked it, thanks, if you don't, please let me know why!