Disclaimer – Kishimoto owns Naruto and the characters therein.

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Memories Of Others

Chapter 6

Testing Of A New Genin

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"You're late!" Sakura growled as Naruto strolled onto the training field. Naruto glanced round even as he felt the memories of one of the clones he had sent to give him warning should Kakashi not show up late flow into his mind.

"Sakura, just how late was Kakashi yesterday?" Naruto queried. "What made you think he wouldn't be late today?"

"That's not the point!" Sakura snarled.

"I knew he would be late, so I've done some extra training to get ready." Naruto commented as he moved to one of the three posts in the middle of the training field and leaned against it. "Have either of you done anything to prepare in the last couple of hours? Lay traps? Scout out the area to learn where things are such as the best hiding places? Check your kunai and shuriken to make sure that none of them are about to break?"

Sasuke looked up from where he was sitting, his expression startled. "Who are you and what have you done with Naruto?"

"I am Naruto." Naruto shot back. "I just received some good advice on how to be a proper ninja, advice that no-one bothered to give me before. So, I've checked all my weapons, explored the area last night and done some research into our sensei. Who's interested?"

Sakura sniffed. "Stop making things up, baka."

"If that's how you want it." Naruto shrugged. "Since we have another half hour before he's going to arrive, I'm going to try and meditate."

"You, meditate?" Sakura snorted and Naruto nodded as he sat down cross-legged, his hands on his knees.

"Hinata-hime showed me how. And Sakura, she isn't a timid little mouse. If she hadn't been holding back, she would be on this team, not you."

Sakura stared at him, then started to stalk over and Naruto gave a covert hand signal.

"Stop lying, baka!" Sakura shouted as she swung her fist at his head…

…only to fall over as Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke.

"I think I'll leave a clone and meditate somewhere else." Naruto said from the side of the clearing, where his clone had Kawarimi'd with him.

"Nice trick." Sasuke admitted, causing Sakura to stare at him in shock.

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"YOU'RE LATE!"

Naruto didn't need the inflow of memories from the watch-clone to inform him that their tardy sensei-to-be had arrived and with a sigh, he pulled himself to his feet and stepped out from behind the tree.

"Well, I had to help an old lady with her shopping, then I got lost on the road of life." Kakashi said.

"LIAR!"

"Sakura, it's not a good idea to accuse someone of lying unless you have proof." Naruto commented. "Kakashi, showing up late twice raises certain questions about your competance… or worse. If not for Jiji vouching for you, I'd lump you in with Mizuki and simply walk away right now."

Kakashi stared at him for a long moment before shrugging and walking over to the three stumps. Pulling out an alarm clock, he placed it on the middle stump, then held up two small bells.

"Now, I don't know if you've been told this, but passing the Academy tests doesn't mean that you're full genin yet. You still need to pass the test set by your prospective Jonin-sensei who is, in this case, me.
"As you can see, I have two bells. You have to try and take a bell from me by noon."

"But… there are only two bells." Sakura pointed out and Kakashi nodded.

"Correct. Only two of you will manage to get the bells. In order to get a bell, you'll have to come at me with the intent to kill, otherwise you won't stand a chance. If you don't have a bell by the end of the test, you will return to the Academy!" Kakashi finished and Naruto glanced at his so-called team-mates, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, the latter of whom was still rather disconcerted by his sudden change from trying to pursue her at every opportunity to a cool disinterest.

"Let me get this straight." He said slowly. "We are to try to engage you in hand-to-hand combat, without a chance to prepare, to get one of the two bells and if we do somehow manage to get one before the alarm goes off, we'll have to defend ourselves against our so-called team-mates since they'll see whoever has the bell as an easier target than you. Is my understanding of the situation… wrong?"

Kakashi shook his head slowly. "Not really, but you're not completely right either. So, do you think that you understand the purpose of the test, then?"

"I understand perfectly." Naruto said, drawing on the many conversations he had had with Hinata, Kurenai and several members of Hinata's family over the last week. "This is primarily a taijutsu test and we all know that I suck at it. Therefore, this test is aimed at getting rid of me so you can train the Last Uchiha and his fan-girl without the baggage of the Dead Last."

Sakura winced at the venom with which Naruto injected into his description of her.

"You two win." Naruto said to Sasuke and Sakura. "I'll see you around."

Smirking at the shocked silence, Naruto turned and walked out of the training field.

If he hurried, he could join Team 8 to take up Kurenai-sensei's earlier request to provide them with an op-force to practice against and still have time to find out what missions he could take as a lone genin.

And Hinata would almost certainly continue to help him relearn how to read which was very nice of her. And she was so clever, she had worked out that by using his cloning ability on her, he could both get the experience of learning how to read and the experience of knowing how to read.

His vocabulary and ability to use it was expanding faster than he had ever dreamed possible. His old textbooks were already much easier to understand now that he knew what the longer words actually meant.

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"And now that Kakashi has shown up, only fifteen minutes late, we can begin." Hiruzen said. "In order of team numbers, pass or fail with overview if necessary."

"Team one, total fail. None of them are suitable to be shinobi."

"Team two, partial fail. Two of them have what it takes to be genin but not elite, I recommend transferring them to the Genin Pool."

"Team three, fail. Only one salvagable, although he does qualify for elite, meaning he can be reassigned if need be."

"Team four… fail doesn't even begin to describe it. Suggest that student Ami be expelled for being a disruptive influence."

"Team five, partial fail. Two probably salvagable as elite genin with another six months at the Academy."

"Team six. Fail. Just… fail."

"Team seven… long story." Kakashi sighed, attracting the attention of the other Jonin. "I'll explain after the others have reported."

"Team eight passed." Kurenai said after a long pause. "I also tested them against an op-force today to get a good idea of their strengths and weaknesses. I'll have the write-up done by seven."

"You'll have to tell me who you hired for that." Asuma said. "I may try that on my team… which passed, by the way. Team ten."

"So, Kakashi?" Hiruzen prompted and the Copy-nin sighed.

"The test was a non-starter. Naruto chose to walk after I explained the rules, stating that the test was an attempt to get rid of him so that I could concentrate on training the other two."

"What was the test?" Asuma asked.

"The Bell Test." Kakashi replied. "I was testing their teamwork. Naruto failed instantly and vanished before I could give him another chance."

"From what I can tell and given what he went through at the Academy, it was a perfectly logical conclusion that he drew." Hiruzen said, hiding his amusement at Kakashi's exasperation. "And since he got his promotion in the field rather than via the Academy, he can continue as a ninja and take missions. He's already signed up for the morning shift of wall patrol."

"But… but…" Kakashi stuttered, only for Kurenai, who was amongst the assembled Jonin watching with amusement, to interrupt.

"Naruto provided my team with the opposing force I mentioned earlier to train against today. With the number of clones he can create, he really gave them a workout."

"Yosh!" Gai shouted from the corner where he was observing. "I shall have to ask him to do the same for my youthful genin!"

"His taijutsu was sabotaged in the Academy." Kurenai warned the exuberant Jonin. "You may need to train him in a new style first. On the plus side, he has a certain… technique that might help."

"But he was meant to be on my team!" Kakashi protested. "I asked for him!"

"He obviously disagrees." Hiruzen shrugged. "But since we need the Uchiha on a team due to political reasons, I can find another genin for your team from the general pool or the salvagable genin. If you don't think you can take a team without Naruto, I'll appoint another Jonin-sensei for the Uchiha's team."

Kakashi seemed to wilt. "…I'll take the third genin."

"Wait. Lord Hokage, what did you mean by we need the Uchiha for political reasons?" Kurenai asked.

"The other villages all know that the Last Uchiha is now of an age to become a Genin. Should we fail to field him as a shinobi, our reputation will suffer since they will assume that the Uchiha Massacre was done by my command and that Sasuke is nothing more than a breeding stallion for the next generation." Hiruzen supplied. "It's also why I assigned him to Kakashi, his Sharingan means that when Sasuke activates his dojutsu, Kakashi will be able to train him in its usage."

"Ah." Kurenai nodded. "Political reasons. Of course. My apologies, I thought for a moment that it was Konoha politics, not international ones."

"An easy mistake to make." Hiruzen said soothingly. "Kakashi, please stay. Everyone else, thank you for coming."

As the Jonin filed out, Kurenai used her smaller frame to slide through the crowd until she was walking beside Maito Gai. As they exited the tower, the taller Jonin looked down at her.

"You wish to discuss young Naruto, I presume, Kurenai-san?"

Kurenai blinked at the reminder that although Gai was bombastic, overly cheerful, insanely devoted to training and tended to be as blunt as a tetsubo to the skull, this in no way equated to stupid.

Kurenai briefly allowed herself to wonder just how intelligent the spandex-wearing Jonin really was, then she refocused on the conversation.

"Naruto has learned the Kage Bunshin, and I took it upon myself to help him learn about the memory-transfer effect of it…"

"Aha! So I can ask him to make many clones and have each one practice a different part of the Kata while his true self works on stoking his flames of youth!" Gai exclaimed and Kurenai blinked.

Gai really was intelligent, despite appearances.

"It's more than that." She said, weaving a subtle genjutsu around them to prevent their conversation from being overheard. "He has discovered another way of using it. Hinata has been helping him to learn how to read properly, by letting him clone her and then her clone teaches his. When her clone dispels, they both receive the memories."

Gai froze.

"Gai?"

"Alas! That would have been such an incredible way to teach my own students the ways of Youth, but none of them yet have the ability to use the Kage Bunshin, and I fear that Lee-kun never will."

"Ummm, right." Kurenai slowly said. "Anyway, since he can learn techniques that way, you may be able to teach him by letting him clone you, doing one kata and dispelling the clone."

"An excellent, although now that I actually consider it, slightly flawed, thought." Gai said, earning a confused frown. "You see, should I give him the memories of one of the basic Katas, irrespective of the style I will help him select, the memories will be more hindrance than help. I am a different size to him, the ratio of my torso to my limbs is different, as is my center of gravity. The memories attained that way would prove almost unusable, it would take longer for him to adapt them to his own body form than it would to learn them through the traditional katas themselves."

"I… hadn't considered that." Kurenai admitted.

"Nevertheless, it is a good thought for the future." Gai continued. "With the right training, he will be able to adapt new moves into his own fighting style and it is then that he shall be able to learn as you have suggested."

Kurenai mentally revised her estimate of Gai's intelligence upwards once again. Why did he go to such lengths to hide it?

"I shall look forwards to meeting Naruto-kun tomorrow," Gai said,"But for now, I sense that my team is ready to have their fires of youth transformed into a true blazing inferno. For YOOOOUUUUUTH!"

Gai blurred away and Kurenai shook her head in amused disbelief.

Why was she thinking he was intelligent, again?