CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
THE BELL TEST
"Today you guys become a Genin team, 'ttebayo! Isn't that exciting," the blond haired boy shouted, clapping his hands.
Everyone, aside from Kim and Pakkun, was standing around in the clearing deep within the woods behind the shop. When the others made their way outside the missing two were arguing about sleeping arrangements and taking baths.
"Idiot," Sakura scolded as she brought her fist down on her blond friend's head. "They can't become a Genin team if they don't belong to a village."
"Actually, they can," Itachi stated. "Just like Orochimaru," almost every ninja present shuddered at the mention of the man, "founded the Sound Village, they can found their own village."
"What are you going to name your village," Naruto asked, more like shouted, curiously.
"You stupid mutt, look at what you did," they heard Kim shout as she made her way over to the clearing. Kakashi sighed. Pakkun would not leave the ebony haired girl alone, despite him asking... many times. The little dog even refused his bribes.
"You're the one who tripped," was the pug's gruff reply.
"I tripped over you!"
"Maybe you should start looking down when you walk."
"You did it on purpose! You even made me fall on a cactus! Why is there an abundance of cacti out here?!" They had finally reached the edge of the clearing. Pakkun just stood there examining his paws. Kim was having problems trying to balance herself on one leg with one hand placed on a tree for support, and simultaneously attempting to remove the little spikes from her leg.
"Cacti," Pakkun inquired, tilting his head slightly to the side in that adorable way all pugs did.
"We would sound pretty stupid if we went around saying cactuses," Kim answered without thinking even before she got a spike stuck in her finger, effectively reminding her of the situation. "Don't try to change the subject!"
"So close..."
"Cactus Village sounds kind of lame, and so does Land of Cacti," Jade said, testing out the names. She noted Kim's questioning look as she approached the others, and quickly brought her up to speed.
"Land of Sunburn," Sasuke grumbled his opinion. Despite the copious amounts of sunblock he applied before going outside to train, his pale skin was alway aggravated by the harsh Texas sun. Itachi and Hinata both managed to get a light tan after hours in the sun, but not him. He just ended up bright red and in pain. It also didn't help that his idiotic siblings recently took to slapping him on the back every chance they got.
"Teme you wouldn't have to worry about getting sunburned, if you hadn't lived in a cave with a pedophile for about two and a half years, dattebayo," Naruto said nonchalantly with a wave of his hand. Sasuke glared at him.
"He does have a point, Sasuke. Not even your brother has sunburn," Sakura imputed, pointing out the obvious. Sasuke turned his glare, which was really more of a pout, on her. He really missed the days when she always took his side.
"It's just the three of us, do we really need to create our own village," Ren asked, looking to the others. When everyone one nodded, and gave their reasons as to why they needed a village he sighed. "Fine, but I'll choose the name." He took a few minutes to think it over. It all seemed so unnecessary to him, but... whatever. "We'll be the Sun Village or Land of Sun. I'll be the king, lord, whatever of this thing."
"Alright, I'm a princess," Kim shouted, thrusting a triumphant fist in the air like she was punching the sky. Right after, she began doing a weird dance by moving her hands in a circular motion in front of her and moving her hips along with her hands.
"What does that make me," Jade asked, thoughts of being a duchess or even a countess flittering though her head as she wore a dreamy smile.
"Village Slut," Kim answered immediately and with a straight face, bursting her best friend's bubble in an instant.
"You BITCH," Jade shouted as she began chasing after her friend.
"Now that everyone has calmed down, we can give you all your first D-Ranked mission as Genin," Naruto said, taking the lead.
"What's a D- Rank mission? And what does Genin mean," Jade asked puzzled.
When she felt all eyes on her, Sakura took that as her queue to begin explaining. "In the village we get requests do to certain things for people, and then they get organized by difficulty into varying ranks. D-Rank is the lowest ranking mission you can receive, which is mainly like house chores, babysitting or finding lost pets. The next is C-Rank, basic protection against thieves and bandits and deliveries and so on." She gave a quick explanation of B and A ranked missions, but when it came to S-Ranked, she struggled to find the right words. "S-Ranks are... things that need to be kept confidential... like political assassinations and other things."
Seeing Sakura's struggle, Hinata decided to step in. "How you get chosen for a mission is dependent of your rank as a ninja. The ninja ranks start out as Academy students, Genin, Chunin, and then Jonin. Academy students are still learning and don't get missions. Genin receive D-Rank missions, Chunin get C and B-Ranked missions, Jonin get the A-Ranked ones, and the S-Ranked are left to the Hokage and his team."
"I think the only one that really took in all of what you said, was Kim," Ren stated meekly, scratching at the back of his head as he worked to process the new information. Jade nodded in agreement, completely lost, then glared at the traitorous man when he added, "Though I got most of it."
"Kakashi is a Jonin, Itachi, Nagato, Konan, Deidara, Hana, Sakura and I are Chunin, and Naruto-kun and Sasuke are still Genin," Hinata stated. "Though Itachi and Deidara are considered Missing-Nin, and Kakashi and Itachi are ex-ANBU."
"What's ANBU," Ren asked.
"They're a group handpicked by the Hokage. There's no exam like when they become Chunin or promotion like for Jonin. He chooses them by their individual skill. The elite of the elite. There's no rank in the ANBU, so anyone has a chance at getting in; even an Academy student could get chosen. They're the ones that get sent on the S-Ranked missions," Kim said in a dull tone. Everyone stared at her, aside from Kakashi who was hiding his face behind his book. "Apparently Kakashi and Itachi are considered the geniuses of prodigies. Though Kakashi beats Itachi by three years and in experience, or something like that."
"Kaka-Sensei, I didn't know you were one to brag," Naruto said staring, along with everyone else, at the lazy man.
"No one beats the Pretty Boy," Ren said as he draped an arm over Kakashi's shoulders.
"I never said anything like that," Kakashi defended himself with his hands raised, beginning to sweat nervously.
"I know, Pakkun was the one who told me," Kim stated looking down at the little dog.
"Shouldn't they be getting their first mission," Pakkun expertly deflected their attention. "Don't they have a cat to catch or something."
"What that's not fair," Jade shouted. "All cats love The Bitch!"
"Hey! Why am I a bitch?!" Kim rounded on the blonde with a heated glare, eyes nearly turning red.
"Why am I a slut?!"
"Oh, like we don't see Deidara sneaking into your room at all hours of the night!"
"Oh, and you expect us to believe that you and Kakashi only train at night? You can't even see his face. He could be hideous for all we know!?"
At that everyone turned to stare at Kakashi, trying to see if the man would prove Jade otherwise.
"Don't even try," Kakashi said glaring at them. "Just get ready for your mission." He picked Pakkun up off the ground, and held him around his stomach under his front legs. "You have three hours to locate and capture Pakkun."
"Wait! Before they start the mission, they should take the bell test," Sakura suggested, a wicked gleam in her eyes. The others who had never heard of the bell test shot her questioning looks. Naruto started laughing while Sasuke smirked.
"I guess we could start with that," Kakashi said with a shrug of his shoulders. He formed a few hand seals, and three stone posts rose from the ground. He pulled out his phone to check the time. Making an alarm, he held up the phone. "It's 10:27. When was the last time you guys ate?"
"At five this morning," Ren said at the same time as Kim said, "Like thirty minutes ago." Apparently, Jade was the only one to eat at eight, like a normal person.
"Good. Skip lunch or you guys just might puke," he informed with a smile. Everyone, aside from his Genin team, gave him strange looks. He pulled out two bells from his pocket. "You all have until dinner to get a bell from me. There are two bells, meaning that, come dinner time, one of you will be tied to a post. You can use any ninja tools. You have to come at me with the intention to kill or you will never get a bell from me. Begin," he stated when the clock struck 10:30.
As soon as the words to start left his mouth, the three ran to take cover and plan their next move. Kim was hidden up in a tree, Jade was hidden underneath some bushes, and Ren was hiding in the shadows cast by the trees. The others sat together off to the side of the clearing. Kakashi scanned the area around him, knowing that they would not roam too far away.
Suddenly the white haired Jonin was met with a barrage of kunai. Pulling out a kunai of his own he deflected all but one. The one he missed grazed the inside of his thigh. His aim is good. Especially since he's never worked with kunai before a month ago, he thought. Ren charged out and aimed a punch at his face. He leaned backwards, catching Ren's fist in the palm of his hand. Moving his hand to grip the other man's wrist he threw him across the clearing. His legs shifted apart as he brought his arms up, taking a defensive stance.
"Shinobi lesson number one: Taijutsu," he announced, his voice carrying out across the entire clearing. Ren stood up wiping the dirt off of his face.
"Kakashi-Sensei do that jutsu," Naruto shouted, his hands forming the tiger seal. Sakura smacked the blond on the back of the head, and Sasuke didn't even try to disguise his mirth. Everyone else was just plain confused; they were really out of the loop. Kakashi got a contemplative look on his face, and then he disappeared only to reappear behind Ren in a crouched position.
"What's he going to do? That's the tiger seal," Itachi asked, worry creeping up in his voice. Sasuke just smirked and motioned for him to watch and see.
"Konoha Hidden Art: A thousand Years of Pain! "
"What the hell! I'm not into this kinky crap," Ren cried, hands on his bottom as he flew through the air. Everyone, besides Team Seven, sweat in exasperation. He landed in the small lake Sakura had made during one of her training sessions, and Itachi had filled with water. He flipped midair, landing on his feet on the surface of the water before disappearing into the dense woods.
While Kakashi had his back turned, Jade decided to make her move. She jumped to her feet, and ran at him with a kunai in hand, only to have him sidestep her attack. She used it to her advantage and threw the kunai in his direction before darting back into the woods. She needed a new plan.
Kim threw her arms up to silently cheer for her best friend. When she did so she lost her balance and fell out of the tree.
"So that's where you were," Kakashi said as he appeared behind her. "Shinobi lesson number two: Genjutsu." He formed a seal, and there was a flurry of leaves. Kim nearly lost her balance and stumbled a bit as she made to stand, Kakashi briefly feeling her fingers brush against his torso in her struggled and moved out of the way. Once on her feet, she turned her head side to side, eyes slowly scanning her surroundings. Pulling out a couple senbon, she threw them in Kakashi's direction. His eyes widened. How did she see though it, he pondered as he dodged the senbon. When he looked back, she had ran deeper into the forest.
Jade took the chance at another attack. As she charged at him, he vanished. She was starting to get frustrated with all his disappearing acts. The next thing she knew, a hand sprouted from the ground and wrapped around her ankle. She felt it pull her down until her head was the only part of her body above ground level.
"Shinobi lesson number three: Ninjutsu," Kakashi said to her and the others, crouched down in front of her.
"I'm really starting to hate you," Jade spat at him. He gave her one of his famous crinkled eyed smiles and chuckled as he walked away from her. She started to wiggle in the ground. When she had gone under she had brought both her hands up to her chest. She formed the hand seals she and Deidara had spent countless hours working on. She took a deep breath and slowly released it. Soon there was a faint rose colored mist surrounding the clearing. It even had a faint scent of roses.
"Water Style: Rosy Sleep Mist Jutsu!"
Kakashi was starting to feel sleepy. The rose scent was soothing to the senses. His already droopy eyelids were on the verge of closing completely. Because of his heightened sense of smell, the jutsu was affecting him worse than what it would a normal person. He snapped out of it and held his breath. Though it didn't put him to sleep, it did make him slightly drowsy.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
His movements were slower than usual, but he had evaded it nonetheless. He back flipped out of the way of the fire jutsu Kim had sent in his direction, only to have to evade a roundhouse kick from Ren. Standing in the middle of the lake he looked at his three opponents. He watched as Ren pulled Jade out of the ground. Then he looked at Kim, meeting her dark eyes. She gave him a bright smile, her arms folded behind her back. He watched as Ren and Jade both took something from her. His eyes, or eye, widened when bells attached to red strings dropped from both Ren and Jade's hands. He looked down to his waist where the bells once resided to see nothing there.
When had she..? "You're the only one without a bell that means you failed. You were the one to get the bells yet you gave them away. Why did you do it if you knew you would fail," Kakashi asked directing his question at Kim who still stood with her arms behind her back.
"Well...," she trailed off, rocking on her feet. She pulled out an orange book from behind her back. She held it up showing him the cover as she drawled, "I would much rather find out what's so interesting about this damned thing." Kakashi's eyes widened even further, as he frantically searched his figure for his beloved book, hoping the one in her hands was a fake. It was not.
"You three pass," he muttered, clearing his throat. Kim had opened the book to the first page and was about to start reading when it was snatched out of her hands by a blushing Kakashi, even though no one could tell he was blushing. Kim just patted him on the chest, flashing him a cheeky grin.
"Wait what was the whole point of the test, un," Deidara shouted confused. He voiced the question that most of them were thinking.
"Teamwork," Team Seven said in unison, and a collective 'Ohh..." was heard.