Puppets of the Leaf

AN: This story just keep gaining in popularity. Thans to everyone for the support. I'd like to take a minute to answer a few reviews.

david9999: thanks i'm glad you like my story, as for you're question, The thing is that Naruto and Sasuke alrady were best friends in the original storyline. That hasn't changed. However because naruto is his best friend, that means that Sasuke must kill him to obtain power, as he tried to do at the vally of the end. I'm still a little sunsure about what to do about that, so we'll just have to see what happens.

bailkatanas: Thanks, it kinda struck me as odd that Chiyo never came up as a teacher before in other fics like this. I seemed kinda obvious, even if it was only for the basics.

The Three Stoogies: Don't get me wrong, i enjoy reading the SUPER/DARK Naruto fics as much as the next guy. I just wanted to see a story where he was struggleing with his power like everyone else.

Chapter 5:

The following morning, Naruto was anxiously awaiting the arrival of his teacher, who was late…again. When the Jounin arrived, he explained the rules for the Bell Test, and set a timer on one of three posts in the center of the area. At his signal the three leapt into the trees.

Naruto had learned his lesson about attacking outright with his puppets after the damage Mizuke had done. This time he would try to be a little more subtle.

Kakashi was slightly impressed at how well the three were hiding themselves, though he could still pick them out by their chakra signatures, but this was to be expected of rookies. The only one he could see visually at all was Naruto. If they passed, and that was unlikely, He would have to talk to the boy about the dangers of wearing orange while trying to be stealthy.

He was about to go back to his book when a tall figure dropped down from the trees behind him. He turned to face the newcomer.

"I'm sorry, we're conducting a training exercise. You'll need to leave the area."

'Well it looks like Naruto's first. This is going to be interesting.'

When the figure remained silent, Kakashi addressed it again. "Not the talkative type huh? I'm afraid you'll have to identify yourself."

The figure slowly made its way towards him, seemingly gliding along the ground. When it was within a few feet, it lunged forward, one arm snakeing it's way out of the cloak and taking a swipe at Kakashi's head. The Jounin casually raised his hand and caught the blow on the metal plate of his glove.

He expected the puppet to back off and attack again, however the cloak flared around him as it's three other bladed limbs flew at him from different directions. Stepping to the side Kakshi dodged two of the attacks and blocked the third with a Kuni. This went on for another minute as he saw that the attacks came in a predictable pattern.

"Not bad Naruto, but…" at that moment the Jounin leapt up, away from the puppet and sent his kuni strait into the branch, only a hairs breath from Narutos head.

The boy took a steadying breath and dropped down from the tree he was hiding in.

With a wave of his hands the puppet came back to crouch down next to him.

"Heh, if you know where I am there's no use hiding now." The confidence he tried to project through his voice, did nothing to hide the blondes nervousness from Kakashi.

The Jounin, still reading his book, looked completely relaxed as Naruto thrust his hands out sending the blades on his Puppets limbs, through the man's chest, only to puff away into a log.

The boy froze in terror as a voice from behind him uttered the words that would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life. "Hidden Village of Konoha's Secret Master Taijutsu Art:"

Naruto looked over his shoulder at the crouching Jounin, His hands in the Tiger Seal.

"A THOUSDAND YEARS OF PAIN!!" Naruto was sent flying through the air as the jounin thrust his hands forward into his rear end. They boy fell into a nearby lake. The puppet fell lifelessly to the ground with it's blades still firmly stuck in the log.

Naruto climed out of the water looking very much like the drownd rat he felt like at that moment. "You should focus on other things besides using that puppet of yours. Without it you'll die." The smug jounin turned to walk away, however stopped in his tracks when several other Naruto's all leapt out of the water after him. He stared up at them in mild surprise. The file he read had only mentioned the child skill with puppets, there had been no mention that he could use the Kage Bunshin technique.

His musings were broken when something grabbed onto him from behind. "Heh, Puppetry isn't my only skill, Sensei." The silver haired Jounin, smiled beneath his mask. As the clones all came down on him, he quickly replaced himself with the original that was also coming at him. What resulted was pure and simple chaos. With such a simple move, he had caused the clones to turn on eachother. When the boy, finally dispelled the technique, he noticed a silver object on the floor next to him.

"Damn Sensei." Naruto thought to himself as he hung there by his foot. He had bent to pick up the bell that must have fallen free in the struggle, only to find himself the victim of snare trap.

He reaching into his Kuni pouch and used one of the throwing knives to cut himself free. He managed to get his feet under himself and land on his feet, and once again was lifted upwards as the second snare went off.

"Damn EVIL Sensei!" He looked down at the ground to see not only the Kuni he had used the first time, but also all of the others that where in his pouch. Naruto cursed himself and looked over to his puppet, which was still stuck in the log and would be useless to him. Shrugging to himself Naruto cast out a Chakra string at the pile of Kuni and pulled one up to his hand. Once he was free, again, He set about the task of freeing his puppet, a task that would be impossible until he could get some tools. For the time being, he sealed the puppet back up and ttried to think about what to do next. His stomach chose that moment to make itself known, and it was then he remembered the two lunches that Kakashi had brought for those who got the bells. As his stomach rumbled again a thought crossed his mind, and he grinned at the idea.

'Look underneath the underneith' he had said when Naruto was caught. Naruto quickly found the lunches and sat down with them behind the three stumps. He was about to take his first bite when, "What exactly do you think you're doing?"

Naruto was really beginning to hate ropes. Now he was tied to a stump and Kakashi was in the process of failing them all. Apparently neither of the others had any more luck than he did in getting a bell. That made him feel slightly better, knowing the Teme and the Harpy had failed as well, but not much. 'What would Chyo-Ba sensei think of me now?'

"Out of the kindness of my heart I'll give you three one more chance. You'll have just one hour to get the bells from me. First you two eat those lunches, but under NO circumstances are you to give any to Naruto. It's his punishment for trying to eat them both himself. I'll be back in twenty minutes then we'll see if you can work together long enough to pass."

Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke. The two picked up there lunches and began to eat. Naruto was determined to succeed this time. He kept his eyes closed to he wouldn't have to watch them eat. The thought of food was too much for his stomach and it erupted in a loud grumble that was heard by the other two as well.

"Here, eat this quickly." Naruto's eyes opened in a flash, and saw that Sasuke was holding out his food to him.

"Wh…what…"

"If you don't eat you'll be no good to us."

Sakura caught on to his line of thinking and saw his point. "Here have some of mine too if we share it all then we'll all get more to eat.

"Sakura…thanks. Um…I can't while I'm tied like this. You'll have to feed me."

A vein popped out of her forehead as she picked up a mouthful on her chopsticks.

Just as she got it to his mouth, an explosion erupted before them. Kakashi loomed out of the smoke.

"YOU! ALL THREE OF YOU…pass."