Chapter 6

We all get to the training grounds much faster than I thought we would. Sakura is almost out of breath, Naruto is completely fine, and I am taking slightly heavier breaths. I take a look at Sakura as I see her breathing heavily. "I'll need to up that stamina of her's. No way can she survive with such abysmal stamina."

Putting the thought to the side for now, I then grab their attention. "Ok guys, we have a little time before Kakashi-sensei gets here. In that time, I'ma teach you both a small jutsu for your elements." Smirking slightly at their beaming expressions, I dig into my pouch and search for what I need.

After a little while I manage to find what I want. Pulling out two separate scrolls, one labeled with a wind symbol and another with a red plus sign, I hold them in front of them. "These are the jutsus. The wind labeled one is for Naruto and the red plus sign labeled one is for Sakura. They'll tell you some basic chakra and elemental exercises to learn the jutsu inside. Naruto, don't skip right to the jutsu. All the steps will help you." Naruto grumbles to himself, but they both still nod.

I then shoo them away and turn to a tree. Before seeing what needs improvement, let's see what I have. "Alright. The Fireball Jutsu should be a good test." Going through the signs that I've gone through is so simple that I instinctively do it.

Tiger-Ram-Monkey-Boar-Horse-Tiger. "Firestyle: Fireball Jutsu!" I put my fingers up to my mouth in a ring shape and blow outwards. The size of the fireball should determine the size of my chakra pool and where my chakra control is out.

As I finish the signs and yell out the name, many familiar things happen at once. First, my chakra begins shaping. My chakra feels like a coolant within my body, something I can mentally direct in specific ways. Then, my chakra begins absorbing the heat within my stomach. Using the extreme heat of my body and stomach acid, my chakra becomes superheated. Finally is the best part. My chakra rushes to my throat, some unheated chakra protecting my insides from the superheated chakra. Then, a glorious spectacle happens.

The chakra reaches my mouth and is sent flying outwards. I keep sending the chakra out, spinning my breath so I can spin the superheated chakra flames. I continue spinning the flames until I find it at a level I would use in combat. I stop spinning my breath and blow, using some chakra to enhance the blowing. The result? My fireball blasts forwards in a huge burst of speed. And this all happened within one second. Crazy, right?

As I look on at my results, I am honestly impressed. The fireball came out to be the size of a small house, something that is quite impressive. Considering my body right now, I wonder why it was so much better than I thought it would be.

"Why, it would be because of me, of course."

My senses instantly switch into combat gear, my posture switching from relaxed to tense. I look around, wondering who said that. My answer comes in the form of a certain nine-tailed fox laughing within my head. Grumbling to myself, I say "What do you want Kurama-sama?"

Kurama continues laughing, but is still able to answer. "Well Uchiha, I wanted to say that you got some benefits of me being in here. Along with every jinchuriki's normally enhanced chakra reserves, you also have my healing, extreme fire affinity, and my heightened senses."

I tilt my head a bit, thinking about the explanation. An increased fire affinity? That seems like a good explanation for why the fireball came out so strong. My nose crinkles as I get a whiff of something unpleasant. I could do without the enhanced smell though.

I can still hear Kurama chuckling inside my head, so I redirect my attention to him. "Was there anything else you needed to say Kurama-sama?" Kurama chuckles a little more, but I can sense his negative response.

Once I can feel Kurama retreat from my mind, I look for the sun. It seemed to be a little ways above the horizon now, and since it is summer, it is probably around 8 am, two hours past what was scheduled by Kakashi.

Then a sudden puff of smoke appears in the middle of the training ground. Each of us looked at the smoke curiously, but also cautiously. I see that Naruto has a kunai out in a defensive position and Sakura is in the academy fighting stance. I myself have my hands in the tiger hand seal, ready to make a fireball if needed.

When the smoke clears away and we see who it is, we all ease up and relax. It was just Kakashi arriving, him giving us an eye smile and salute. And then Sakura seems to realise something. Once she takes a deep breath, my eyes widen in horror.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Everyone covers their ears in pain as Sakura screeches. Each of us have enhanced hearing for one reason or another, and Sakura is already unbearably loud. So in essence, each of us were on the verge of bleeding in both ears.

I reopen my eyes and can see Sakura with a single fist in front of her face. Now was it just me, or was that a red aura around her? My face pales when the aura doesn't go away, my mouth in a nervous smile. Note to self, don't anger Sakura.

Kakashi's lone eye is comically wide and pure white, steam rolling out of his ears. Naruto simply has his ears covered, a grimace on his face. Sakura's anger seems to lower slightly, due to that creepy aura disappearing, and she notices what each of us are doing. She blushes and gasps in embarrassment. She then chuckles sheepishly.

Kakashi gets out of his trance and rubs his ears, saying "Well now that Sakura got that out of her system, why don't we get this test underway?"

Regaining his cool composure, Kakashi whips out two familiar bells. They both ring as Kakashi shakes them around. He looks at each of us and says "Now we may be a team, but this test is still important. I can use it to learn a variety of things, and your results may determine where we start in training."

Sakura has a determined and focused face on, and Naruto looks serious for once. I don't know what I did, but something changed in the two of them. I look back to Kakashi as he continues explaining the test.

"Now you see these two bells." Kakashi jingles them some more for assurance. "I will have these on my belt. Your job is to get at least one from me. Anyone who doesn't get a bell will be strapped to a post while we eat lunch." Cue the eye smile.

Kakashi waits for a while, leading to an awkward silence. When nothing continues to happen, Kakashi's eye narrows and he says "You ate breakfast, didn't you?" Sakura and Naruto's eyes shift nervously, but I am able to take the initiative. "Why would we not eat breakfast? Any lost chance at food would only hurt us. Nothing can be gained from not eating and losing energy."

Kakashi's lone eye looks at me for a few moments, but then he nods in acceptance. "Good response. Take that as a lesson. Don't expect everything you hear to be true. If you know you can get by better with an alternative, don't be afraid to use it."

Kakashi then straps the bells to his belt and puts his hands in his pocket. Looking at us lazily, he says "Alright. The test begins… now." The second he says now, each of us disappear into the bushes with a burst of speed.

I myself went to Kakashi's left side, observing him from behind the cover. "I can't beat him one on one, no matter how much experience I have. I'll need to get Naruto and Sakura to help me. Besides, that's what the test is for, right?" I begin forming a plan in my head, when a sudden voice shouts out.

"HEY KAKASHI-SENSEI!" My gaze snaps to the left and I sigh in exasperation. Naruto is out in the open, pointing a finger at Kakashi challengingly. "Naruto, you idiot. Well, you got yourself into this mess. I ain't getting you out." I instead sit back and observe, seeing if Naruto can do anything differently this time.

Kakashi looks to be as exasperated as I am. I can see the sweat drop on his head, and he must be wondering what Naruto is doing. Wait, no, scratch that. He is just wondering how Naruto can be such an idiot.

I watch as Naruto boasts some more, laughing at Kakashi and daring him to attack him. Kakashi sighs to himself but still doesn't move. Naruto waits a few more moments, and then his patience gets the better of him.

Naruto puts his hands into the cross hand sign and summons an army of about 20 narutos. He then charges at Kakashi, each of his clones following behind. He tries to bombard Kakashi with pure numbers, but it doesn't work. Kakashi is able to take each clone out with ease, the real Naruto now far away. He must've gotten there in the confusion of the fight.

Naruto is looking at Kakashi with a calculating gaze, then scowls. Suddenly, Naruto jumps back into the bushes. I blink in surprise as Naruto moves in my direction. I watch him land next to me and I can't help but be surprised. I didn't expect Naruto to retreat like that.

Naruto then glances at me and says "Teme, I need your help. I can't beat him by myself." I blink a few more times in shock, my head nodding dumbly. Naruto seems to notice the odd reaction and waves a hand in front of my face. "Teme?"

I finally notice what is happening and snap back into reality. Shaking my head, I say "Sorry, I spaced out. But yeah, I can help. But I think we should get Sakura too." Naruto nods in agreement and we both take off to find her. I can't help but smile to myself as we travel. Things are moving smoothly between each of us. I am just certain that we can have a better future now.