Author's Note
Not much to say, so we move right into the story and see how the survival test goes.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or High School DxD
Chapter 5: The Survival Test
"Hello." talking
'Hello.' thinking
"Hello." Kyuubi talking
'Hello.' Kyuubi thinking
*Knock* Sound effects
"Bunshin no Jutsu" Jutsu
Next Day
Naruto was currently running towards Training ground 3. He was already late for his survival test, and he didn't know what Kakashi would do with late people. He almost ran into several people, before taking to the roofs of Konoha. He soon came down though, but not on his own volition. He slipped and landed right onto the streets. Getting up quickly, he made a run for it again.
When he reached the training ground however, he only found his two teammates waiting. There was no sign of their sensei. It seemed that he really had a habit of being late. Naruto took a seat beside Misaki, and they quickly got into a heated discussion on which ramen flavor was the best. Sasuke on the other hand was sitting aside, brooding about Itachi.
When Kakashi got to the training ground four hours later, he found his team half asleep. He didn't mind, though. They were going to be wide awake pretty soon.
"Hello there." Kakashi chirped.
"You're late." stated all three members of his team, showing a rare moment of co-ordination.
"I got lost in the way of life." was what he used as his excuse. "Anyway, I hope you guys are ready, because you are now going to have to take the test to become active genin."
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Naruto, visibly confused.
"What it means is that unless you pass today's survival test, you will be sent back to the Academy." Kakashi explained.
"What the hell!" exclaimed Naruto. "Then what was the graduation exam for?"
"Oh, just to weed out the completely incompetent ones." clarified Kakashi. "So, let's get down to what to do, alright." Kakashi took out two bells from his pouch. "Your objective will be to get these bells from me within the next two hours. If you can get one bell before noon, you pass. If you don't… you fail."
"How come there are only two bells?" asked Misaki.
"Oh, so you noticed." said Kakashi, and he gave an eye smile to his team, making a chill go up their spine, "You see, this test has a 66.7% chance of failing. This is because only two of you are going to pass this test. So are you ready?" After getting a nod from Team 7, he said. "Remember, if you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you won't get the bells. Begin."
The moment Kakashi called the start to the test; both Sasuke and Misaki jumped away and hid themselves. Naruto on the other hand, had other ideas.
"Oh, you are not going to hide yourself?" asked a bemused Kakashi.
"Well, it's not like I could hide for long from a jounin of the village. I can outrun you, sure, but I don't think I could hide from you, Kakashi-sensei." replied Naruto, while taking a battle stance.
Naruto realized that the only time he could actually manage to get a bell off of Kakashi was when he was being underestimated. So he charged Kakashi, sticking to his idiot persona all the way. He went for a punch at Kakashi's head, which was easily swatted away. Using the momentum Naruto spun on the spot, and aimed a kick at Kakashi's midsection. Kakashi blocked the kick with his left hand, while making a grab for the leg with his right. Naruto used Kakashi's hand to boost himself away from Kakashi, before jumping right in.
Naruto this time went for left kick to the head, which Kakashi again blocked. He then used the Kakashi's hand as pivot to go for a right kick to the head, which was promptly blocked off. Kakashi then quickly jumped of the side, escaping a grab at the bells made from behind him, by a second Naruto.
Kakashi was astonished to say the least. First he was surprised that Naruto actually had good enough taijutsu to go hand to hand with him. Of course, that was the only test he passed straight up, so it wasn't that surprising. What was surprising was that it was actually a shadow clone that was fighting him, and that he almost got blindsided by the real one. It seemed Naruto never was among the three to begin with when he arrived. The fact that he made the shadow clone talk for him was enough misdirection to make people think it was the real one. The fact that it evaded the only attempt he had made at attacking was because it would have popped if it took a hit.
He didn't have much time to ponder though, as he was suddenly assaulted by a hail of shuriken from behind him.
Sasuke had watched Naruto clone engage Kakashi, and he had to say that he was impressed by how Naruto had handled himself. When Naruto missed his chance at taking the bells, Sasuke realized that there was an opening, and decided to rain Kakashi with shuriken. He was shocked when at first they hit Kakashi, before a puff of smoke revealed a log in Kakashi's place. Kakashi had replaced himself. Realizing that his position was compromised, Sasuke quickly began to move, trying to get away before Kakashi got to him. He was too late, though, as Kakashi quickly cornered him in another clearing, and engaged him.
Sasuke took out a kunai in his hand, and blocked Kakashi's attack. He then went for a swipe at Kakashi's kidney with his own kunai, only for it to be blocked. He twisted, going for a kick into Kakashi's midsection, which was blocked again. Keeping his right leg on Kakashi's arm (which was used to block the kick), Sasuke raised his left leg and aimed a kick at Kakashi's head. Kakashi managed to block this with his other arm. Sasuke was sent flying when he twisted in midair and made a grab at the bells.
Kakashi was now slightly impressed. These kids, without even understanding what the test was about, had already made him react twice in a way in which he had not planned to keep them away from those bells. And they seemed to use each other as bait to distract him before attacking themselves. He soon saw another fine example when once he sent Sasuke flying; he had to protect himself from a giant fireball that dwarfed him in size.
Misaki had decided that it was her time to shine, and had launched a full power fireball at Kakashi in hopes to get him off guard. She succeeded when Kakashi was forced to dodge. She quickly hounded Kakashi the moment he had moved, and went for a punch to the gut. Kakashi quickly blocked it, and soon found a kick coming at his face. He put up his arm to block, only to get socked in the face with a punch. Before he was sent flying, he managed to see the red eyes of Misaki.
Before he hit the tree however, he replaced himself again. Misaki quickly tried to find him, but failed miserably. He wasn't behind her, or left or right of her. Nor was he above… she quickly looked down, only to find… nothing. She concentrated her sharingan, only to find that Kakashi had left the immediate vicinity and was going back towards the clearing where they had begun the test. Misaki turned around, and found that Sasuke had recovered. A vicious grin appeared on her face, as she began formulating the plan that would cause the downfall of Hatake Kakashi.
Kakashi shivered as he began to quickly get back to his base. He was mentally cursing his luck in picking a team of kids who actually were strong, unlike those usual teams of potentials. His first encounter with the 'dead last' of the class had left him bewildered. How the hell did the brat manage to fool all those instructors at the Academy into thinking he was the 'worst' of the class. His battle strategy showed that he was smarter than he let on, and he certainly could fight. His encounter with the Uchiha boy made him wonder what they were doing at the academy. There is no way he got all that strong just by Academy teaching. The boy most probably spent most of his free time training. Then there was the girl, Misaki. She had actually managed to hit him, and she had her sharingan activated to boot. If these three were to somehow work together, there was no way he could survive without resorting to that.
Once Kakashi reached the clearing, he sensed two people approaching fast. He soon found out who they were, as Sasuke and Misaki landed in the clearing.
"So, are you here for the bells? Maybe you want to leave Naruto back at the Academy?" Kakashi taunted.
"Are you sure you want to play that card?" asked Misaki, a ferocious grin on her face, "Maybe you should reveal your sharingan to make this fair." and for added emphasis, she activated her own.
"Tch. Don't blame me when you end up beaten to a pulp." Kakashi said, before raising his lopsided hitai-te, revealing his sharingan.
"We won't. Cause it's not gonna happen." and with that Misaki engaged Kakashi in close quarters.
Misaki went for a sweep at Kakashi's legs, which Kakashi jumped over very easily, only to dodge a fireball sent towards him by Sasuke. He was soon countering a flurry of punches and kicks by Misaki, until she suddenly retreated, and the ground suddenly glowed, before exploding. It took all his experience to replace himself with a log before he was blown to smithereens. He was then attacked by both Misaki and Sasuke in close combat. He was having a hard time keeping track of the Uchiha cousins, who were moving in and out pretty fast and were alternating randomly on who attacked. He was soon double-teamed, as both of them attacked him from both sides. He tried to keep up with them, but his concentration soon slipped when he suddenly sensed someone behind him.
Kakashi was unable to protect himself when Misaki punched him in the face for the second time in the day. He flew back, before somersaulting and landing neatly on his feet, before looking at the scene before him. Misaki still had her arm outstretched from the punch, whereas Sasuke hadn't dropped his battle stance yet. The surprising thing was that Naruto was crouching exactly where he was a little while ago, one arm stretched to the side, holding the bells which he had on his belt.
"Hm. You got the bells then, Naruto." said Kakashi, "What are going to do with them? You only need one."
Naruto looked thoughtfully at the bells, before tossing both of them to the Uchiha duo behind him. "I don't need that to pass. They never were the objective, were they?" he asked.
"So, you realized. I am actually surprised, considering you didn't team up with anyone throughout the test. I suppose it was planned before I even got here?" asked Kakashi, to which Naruto grinned.
"Of course it was planned. You see, I get around a lot, and I picked up a few skills from my pranking days. I did a little digging in the rumor mill, and do you know what I found out? That there was this one Jounin named Hatake Kakashi who had the record of never passing a team, because he had a habit of giving them the infamous bell test. I gathered all the details, and told them to Sasuke and Misaki here while you were waiting for you to arrive."
"We realized that it was a teamwork test, and that it required for us to work together. But even then, it would be sad if we never got those bells to begin with. So Misaki-chan here decided that she and Sasuke would show the teamwork, since it was hard to fit their actions with mine. All I had to do was set up traps when you followed them out of the clearing and wait. So I did just that. They managed to push you hard enough for an opening to appear, so I took it."
Kakashi was now completely bowled over. He was planning on tying them up against a log and withhold lunch in order to get them to work together. But they had exceeded all expectations. They had gathered information, exactly what a good team should do before a mission. Then they had managed to decipher the meaning of the test, and formulated a plan that would get all of them to pass.
Needless to say that Kakashi was the happiest man in the world at the moment.
Later, At the Hokage's office
All the Jounin sensei were gathered to give reports on which teams had managed to pass.
"Hatake Kakashi, what is your status." asked Sarutobi.
"Team 7… passes." Kakashi mentally grinned at the shocked looks that he received from his fellow Jounin. He had snagged the best team ever.
Alright, done. Though I would have preferred a bigger chapter, I believe this is a perfect cut off point. There is still lots of things that remain to be explained, but they don't fit here. Since this was done in just a day, I believe this will be enough compensation for being late with the last chapter.
Next Time on Blonde Haired Devil:
Team 7 get started with their missions.