Well, I finally updated. I hope you like this next chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the series, Masashi Kishimoto does.
An hour later, Ino and Naruto met with Kakashi at Training Ground 7 where they were supposed to start their evaluation, so to speak.
"Training ground 7, this is where we first fought, of course Sasuke was still with us," Kakashi thought out loud.
"That's right; this is the place where we first fought with Kakashi-Sensei," Ino thought.
"That was when Sasuke was still in Team 7," Naruto thought as well.
Kakashi was still reading his book but when he looked up from it, he saw his two students slumped on the ground, depressed when Sasuke was mentioned.
Kakashi thought to himself exasperatedly, "Obviously, Sasuke's name is taboo with these two."
He closed his book and put it in his pouch before addressing his two students, "Now that we are here, I will tell you what we will do so I can test you."
He pulled out two small silver bells on red string as he continued, "I shall evaluate your skills by issuing the bell test. If both of you can successfully take a bell from me by dawn tomorrow, I can acknowledge that you have gotten stronger."
Ino and Naruto looked determinedly at their teacher as they listened to his instructions.
Then Naruto, as impatient as ever, tried to take a bell from Kakashi before he came up from behind him with a kunai at the base of his neck.
"Nice try Naruto, but I haven't said "go" yet." Kakashi amusedly told him.
"Don't be so sure, Sensei," Naruto smirked up at him.
Kakashi then felt a presence behind him and looked over his shoulder to see Naruto's shadow clone with a shuriken at his back.
"It appears that you have gotten better, well now it's best that we start. Ready, Go!" Kakashi shouted before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
"Oh, I could have gotten him already!" Naruto sulked.
"Well, if you weren't impatient, we could have caught him when he said to go," Ino retorted.
So then they proceeded to try to seek him out in the training ground and they were fully prepared this time.
Meanwhile in Suna…
After the meeting with the council, Gaara was in his office filling out paperwork and it all seemed quiet as he looked out the window to look at the sky. He had a contemplative look on his face as he watched a strange bird flying through the air.
Up above Suna…
"Well this village is very scenic, a work of art. But my art, is a bang," a blonde-haired man said silently to himself.
He put his hand in one of his bags and pulled out some clay figures made to look like spiders and sent them out to the guards that were guarding Gaara. By bang, he really meant it; as the small clay spiders exploded on the guards.
Then the man landed on the balcony of the Kazekage's office only to find Gaara waiting for him as if expecting him.
With a smirk, the young man addressed him, "How did you know I would come after you?"
Gaara stoically replied, "There are no such birds in this village. State your name and business for taking out my guards."
The young man replied, "I'm Deidara of the Akatsuki and I came to capture you for the one-tails."
"As long as I'm Kazekage, you will not threaten this village and I won't go down so easily if you plan to capture me."
"Have it your way, Kazekage-sama," Deidara replied mockingly.
Then they had engaged in an aerial battle; Gaara on a cloud of sand and Deidara on his clay bird just throwing his bombs at Gaara, trying to make him lose his momentum.
Outside of the village, a strange figure was watching as the battle was taking place in the sky.
"Deidara better had not waste my time he knows how I hate waiting," an eerie voice said to himself.
Back in Konoha…
Ino and Naruto were very exhausted and it was already late in the night. They had a great start by Ino sensing him out underground and they tried various tactics to get the upper hand but so far they couldn't get to him.
"I didn't think it would be this tough, but he must be exhausted since he used the sharingan a lot. We just need to try to find a way to get those bells, otherwise, we'll be here until dawn," Ino said to Naruto.
Naruto replied, "I know but you know how Kakashi-Sensei is; he is as smart as Shikamaru, has a better sense of smell than Kiba, and just as strong as Chouji."
"That's true but he must have a weakness, so we have to think what that might be," Ino replied.
So they sat there trying to figure out their teacher's weakness until Naruto realized, "Wait, I've got it, his weakness."
Naruto then whispered to Ino about his plan and Ino honestly exclaimed, "Nothing less from the most unpredictable ninja of Konoha."
Then they went out to find Kakashi who was hiding behind a tree with his hitai-ate adjusted to reveal his Sharingan eye.
He thought to himself, "It's been quiet; they might be trying to plan a sneak attack on me. They really wore me out that I had to use my Sharingan several times."
Then he suddenly heard rustling from behind and he saw as his students came to attack him, he said to them, "That won't work, you two."
But he was taken by surprise when he heard Naruto shout, "Hey Kakashi-Sensei, you know in the Icha Icha Paradise, what really happens in the end is…"
"No! Spoilers!" Kakashi shouted in his head as he covered his ears to block out Naruto's voice. But as he watched Naruto, he added, "No, I can still read his lips!"
To not read his lips, he shut his eyes tightly but then the next thing he knew, his two students were smiling at him, with one bell in their hands, leading him to check that the bells were missing from his waist.
Wearily, Kakashi admitted defeat by saying, "You got me."
He continued while pulling his book out, "I should have just read the whole book beforehand."
"You know Kakashi-Sensei, it's a wonder you like those books at all when I couldn't even get through the first ten pages," Naruto said to his bemused teacher.
Kakashi had a shocked look on his face as he said, "You mean that it was a…"
"Even though Naruto had never read the whole book, we figured that you would react to just the content of the book. It was a clever trick, don't you think, Sensei?" Ino asked cheerfully.
Kakashi had his head slumped but he admitted, "It was clever of Naruto, I'll give him that."
"You two have done well," a voice said from behind them.
They all turned around to see Lady Tsunade approaching them. Then she continued, "Do you have anything to say, Kakashi?"
"They worked well together and they got the bells from me," Kakashi admitted to her.
"Then it leads to tell you that since you got the bells from Kakashi and can work well together, you two and Kakashi shall be part of Team Kakashi," Tsunade explained.
She continued, "So tomorrow morning, report to the Hokage tower to receive your first mission as Team Kakashi."
After that, they had walked together mostly until they split up, Naruto went to get ramen and Ino was at a dango shop, having dango and tea.
"What are you doing out so late?" a voice said from behind her.
She looked up to see Shikamaru and she smiled as she retorted, "I could ask you the same thing, it's half past 11."
He shrugged as he sat next to her and replied, "Your mother asked me to look for you because she was worried when you didn't return home yet. I looked for over two hours until I found you here."
"She knows that I can take care of myself, she doesn't need to worry," Ino replied.
"She knows, but she is your mother, she'll worry anyway," Shikamaru reasoned.
Ino finished her dango while she shared some with him and she was about to pay but he insisted that he'll pay it.
"You didn't have to pay for something I ate, Shikamaru," Ino said to him after they got outside of the shop.
"I wanted to, so don't worry about it. I can walk you home or are you okay?" he asked.
Ino looked at Shikamaru while thinking of his offer, and then she answered, "Okay, you can walk me home."
So they set out to Ino's house at the flower shop, they were just walking and she did most of the talking of how they tricked Kakashi to get the bells. That earned a little chuckle from Shikamaru while he added his own thoughts in their conversation until they reached her house.
"Well, thanks for walking me home and… wait," Ino paused.
She continued, "You were out for two hours looking for me? If I know you and I do, you would have been asleep by now."
Shikamaru was a little unnerved by her reasoning and he had a light blush on his cheeks.
Ino then asked, "Shikamaru, were you looking for me because you were worried about me?"
Shikamaru's face grew redder as he scratched the back of his neck when he mumbled, "Can't a guy be concerned for one of his best friends?"
Ino smiled at him and before she knew what she was doing, she looked at him saying, "Shika?"
"What?" he asked.
As an answer, she cupped his face with one hand and she kissed his left cheek and whispered in his ear, "Thanks for worrying about me. Good night, Shika."
She then quickly went inside her house so that he wouldn't see her red face, thinking to herself, "I don't even know why I did that, but it felt nice." She had a small smile on her face as she went to her room.
Unknowingly to Ino, Shikamaru was just as red, stunned about what just happened. He touched where she kissed him and subconsciously had this smile on his face. He looked to see that she got in her room okay and he silently said, "Good night, Ino," before going home himself.
In Suna, things were looking bleak,
Gaara had just been using the last of his strength to move the sand barrier he created to protect the village from one of Deidara's bombs away from the village so it wouldn't get damaged. When he successfully moved the sand, he slipped into unconsciousness and was falling to the ground.
Kankurou shouted, "Gaara!" as he watched his little brother fall but then was surprised that Deidara caught him and was taking him out of the village.
Kankurou, getting upset, he took off after them while Baki was shouting, "Don't do anything rash, Kankurou!"
"Like I'll just let them take my brother, I have to get him back!" Kankurou shouted clearly angry as he pursued them.
Then he reached the village opening but noticed there was something wrong, that it was too quiet as he heard some other shinobi came to join in his pursuit. They went through the crevice only to find many of the patrol were killed but it seemed like one person was alive.
One shinobi tried to help him but Kankurou shouted, "No, don't move him!"
But it was too late, there was an explosive tag on the shinobi and it exploded, causing the walls of the crevice to cave in on them.
Then Baki and others had gone to help them but were shocked to see the rocks caving in the crevice but then were relieved to see Kankurou emerge from the rubble with two shinobi unconscious.
"I could only save two, get them medical treatment, I'm going after Gaara!" Kankurou said before he took off to track them.
As he went into the desert, he saw that Deidara and his partner were covering their tracks but Kankurou looked on the ground and took some of Gaara's sand that was leaving a trail.
Determined, he started sprinting after the trail of his brother's sand saying in his thoughts, "Hang on, Gaara."
That is it for this chapter. Please feel free to leave a review and let me know what you think.