Italics indicate thinking

Kale's POV

Once Kakashi gave us the go ahead to start we all split up to hide in various positions. I was all for hiding together but the others seemed keen on taking their own paths to hide. Sasuke and Sakura were in the bushes as was I but Naruto wasn't hiding at all.

"Come and fight me!" Naruto yelled.

Well he didn't say we couldn't take a head on approach.

"Fighting Technique #1." Kakashi said taking his hands out of his pockets "Taijutsu."

Hand to Hand Combat.

When Kakashi's hands came out he was holding a book.

"What's wrong." Sensei said "Come on attack."

"What's with the book?" Naruto asked.

"I wanna catch up on my reading." He said "Don't worry it won't make a difference to you."

Even with one hand in a book no matter how hard Naruto tried to attack Kakashi batted him away and avoided every strike.

He reads every attack like it's already written in that book of his…

"Sitting around does nothing!" Kakashi called out "I guess you all want to starve and fail. Naruto isn't the only person in this trial."

Naruto jumped out of the nearby lake with about eight Shadow Clones.

He can use a Jutsu like that?

Naruto managed to gang up on Kakashi-Sensei and even came close to grabbing one of the bells before he ended up punching himself in the face. Now the idiot was arguing with his clones to figure out which was Kakashi.

Can't he just dispel it and find out that way.

I guess I was a step ahead because that's exactly what Naruto did but when he broke the Jutsu he was all alone.

"Fooled by a body replicate." I sighed.

"I know how embarrassing for him."

"HA!" I flipped back and saw Kakashi was standing where I had been.

"Are you done observing, come on." I waved at me "I wanna see some of that Jutsu your family is know for."

"Fine, I'll get one of those bells."

With my skill I can only use the three main configurations right now…I only have three shots to grab a bell or I'm finished. First I'll try slowing him down.

I moved my hand "Invoke: Quas, Quas, Quas: Cold Snap!'

I was surrounded by three tongues of cool blue fire that I channeled into my attack. In my family we specialize in a Jutsu called Invoke it allows us to channel three different types of elemental energies into attacks, by using different combinations of orbs we can use different arts, right now though I'm not good enough to combine he orbs so I only know three arts based on having three of the same energy.

I snapped my fingers and shot a ball of icy blue energy at Kakashi.

"Freeze up." I smirked.

Cold Snap works by locking up my opponents joints at timed intervals, I can use this to time my next attack to hit while he's frozen.

"Invoke!" three orange orbs appeared "Exort, Exort, Exort: Sun Strike!"

I slapped my hands and smirked, Kakashi froze up from the Cold Snap and I saw the beam of light getting ready to burn down.

Once he's charred stealing the bell will be easy.

The light beam burned through the ground and when it cleared Kakashi was gone.

"Nice but no." he said popping up behind me, his joints still freezing every few seconds.

Incredible…he dodged the sunstrike in the few seconds that Cold Snap wasn't triggering.

He wacked the back of my neck and I fell forward to the ground, unable to move.

"Why don't you freeze up for a bit." He said dashing off to mess with the others for a bit.

Damn…if I had another person we could have riddled him with weapons while I froze his joints.

I took me a while to get feeling back in my legs and get back to the main training area. When I got back everyone else had gathered and the timer was already going off.

Damn…we all lost.

Naruto was tied to the stump and me and the other two sat near him.

"Man you guys look hungry." Kakashi commented "Now about the training, well…there's no need for all of you to go back to the academy."

"Really, then all of us-?"

"Yep, all four of you should quit being ninjas." He said like it was no big deal.

"Huh?!"

"We couldn't get the bells but why should we quit?!" Naruto yelled.

"Because you're a bunch of punks who don't deserve to be Ninjas."

"RAH!" Sasuke got up and charged right at Kakashi.

Sensei grabbed his arm and flipped the boy over before sitting on him to weigh him down.

"Don't step on him!" Sakura cried.

He's…really fast.

"You guys underestimate what it means to be a Ninja, why do you think it was that you got divided into teams?" Kakashi asked as he looked out our faces "See, you still ahven't found the answer to the test."

"Answer…?"

"Yep, what would have let you pass the test." He said.

"Are you going to tell us?" Sakura asked.

"Geez alright…" he blinked a few times "It's Teamwork."

"Of course." I sighed.

"Had the four of you worked together you could have easily gotten the bells from me."

"But there were only two!" Sakura said "Even if we worked together two of us would have failed."

"That's the point!" Kakashi groaned "It was set up to make you argue and fight but you idiots couldn't even get to that part. The point was to make you give up self-interest and work together as a team! Sakura instead of helping Naruto when he was tied up next to you, you only cared to help Sasuke, Naruto you only ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, Kale was too focused on his own Jutsu that he forgot his own plan of teamwork at the start and Sasuke you assumed that everyone else would be in your way and ran in alone."

Kakashi rubbed his hair "Jobs are done in teams, of course it's good to have great individual ability but teamwork is what's most important. Playing to only your own interests hurts the team, it'll get you killed…watch."

Sensei pulled out a kunai and held it to Sasuke's neck "Sakura! Kill Naruto right now or Sasuke dies!"

"Wha?!"

"You see, when a hostage is taken you have to make tough choices, you're banking on each other when you're out on a job, you can't be selfish." Kakashi got off of Sasuke and walked over to the nearby stones "You see this, this stone is carved with the names of ninjas who are called heroes."

"Well I'm gonna be a hero and get my name on that stone too!" Naruto yelled.

"These aren't normal heroes." Kakashi said with a softer tone.

"They're not?" Naruto said "Then what are they?"

"They're dead." Kakashi said sternly "They dies in the line of duty."

"…"

"This is a memorial to the fallen." He said looking at the stone "You know…my friend's name is on this stone."

We all got quiet for a bit.

"I'll give you guys one more shot after lunch." Kakashi said "but I won't go so easy next time. If you're up to the challenge you can eat lunch, but Naruto can't have any got it."

"Why not?!" the boy whined.

"That's your punishment for trying to eat alone." Kakashi said "If any of you gives him so much as I single crumb you fail instantly, clear?"

"Yes Sir."

Kakashi jumped off somewhere, leaving the four of us alone.

"It's fine I don't need any food." Naruto said as his stomach growls drowned out his voice.

Sasuke, Sakura and I all sat down to eat, I did feel bad for Naruto but…I don't really like to bend the rules, though eating was hard with his stomach growling so loud.

"Here." Sasuke said holding up his lunch for Naruto.

"But Sensei-." Sakura started.

"It's fine he's not here." Sasuke said "after lunch we can work together to get the bells. If he doesn't eat he'll be in the way."

Sakura blinked a few times before holding out her lunch for Naruto, she then shot me a glare "Well, come on."

"What you both fed him I don't think the glutton needs food from all three of us." I said.

Sasuke and Sakura gave me a look.

"Alright." I said holding out my lunch "Here, I'm not spoon feeding him though."

Naruto took about one bite from each of us before a smoke bomb went off.

"You four!" Kakashi yelled.

It's game over!

"You all pass." He smiled.

"But…huh?" Sakura said confused.

"Back up you lost me." I sighed "You said sharing would make us fail."

"You guys are the first ones…" he laughed "Everyone always does what I tell them, that's boring. Always look deeper, they say people who break rules and codes are trash, but I think people who don't care about their comrades are the real trash."

"You all passed my test." He said giving us a thumbs up "Starting tomorrow Team 7 gets to work."

AN

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Till Next Time!