*This chapter will be updated, due to comments and my own personal belief that this one didn't feel right. This chapter will either be deleted or left up. If left up, this chapter will not be happening for the story. To see the official Test, head on over to the next chapter.*
*Next Day*
Suki could be seen laying down on top of a tree branch, except for one tiny detail that stood out about her laying position.
Her body was facing the ground.
She had decided to take the time it would take for Kakashi to arrive to get in some slight training. She is working on her chakra control once more.
Sure, she's mastered it, but doing this, she focused her chakra to her back, the back of her hands since they were behind her head, her palms to keep her head against her palms, her calves, the sides of her arms, and finally her heels to prevent any part of hers from hanging. This would help her chakra control a bit since most of the chakra points are found in the hands and feet. By focusing on places with less control, she would become better at controlling her chakra when there's not as much chakra to be found. And, overall, increase her control of her chakra even more.
The downsides to this type of technique is that it would take a lot of chakra over time if the user didn't have the amount of control needed similar to the water walking technique.
Luckily, Suki has chakra to spare. While she doesn't have as much as Naruto, compared to most, her chakra amount is on the level of a Tokubestu Jounin, a Chunin who possesses skills on a Jounin Level but lacks the experience a Jounin needed.
'I still want to use that purple fire. Unfortunately, the only time I have even seen it were two times. The first when Gai and I saw it, and the last being with Mizuki. The only problem is that I had no control of it with Mizuki. My chakra had been boosted by the fourth gate so much, that it appeared only by using so much chakra at once.' Suki thought. 'If I had used anymore chakra, my right hand would likely have had a second degree burn. I actually got lucky since the Flame Attack Jutsu sends the fire chakra outward instead of everywhere.'
"Where is he?" Naruto grumbled.
"I seriously hope that he doesn't make this a habit." Sasuke muttered.
"You can only hope." Suki muttered.
They have already been waiting for three hours, making the time about 11.
"Good morning!" Someone called out.
The three turned their heads towards the sound and saw Kakashi.
"You're late!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Sorry, I had to help an old lady cross the street. And when I started on my way here, I ran into a black cat. Seeing how that is bad luck, I decided to take the long way here, only to realize that I had forgotten something and had to head back." He explained.
Nobody said a word, in shock.
'That...is one heck of an excuse.' Suki thought.
He then placed an alarm clock on one of the three logs in front of them.
Suki cut her chakra flow and dropped down, landing in a crouch before standing back up and making her way over to them.
"I've set this clock to go off at noon." He then took out two silver bells. "I have these two bells. Your objective is to steal these from me before the alarm go off. Anyone who fails, won't get lunch. Instead, you'll be tied to these posts while I eat your lunch in front of you."
Two stomachs grumbled at that moment.
'I knew Naruto likely wouldn't have eaten, but I expected Sasuke to have had at least something. Not having breakfast just makes a ninja weaker the next day. However, I did only have a ninja bar.' She thought.
Ninja food bars are suppose to provide enough nutrients for the ninja to be able to fight at full capacity for the next six hours. However, it is not recommended to use this method for more than forty-eight hours.
There are also chakra pills that can restore a certain amount of chakra but it is not recommended to have more than six within a twenty-hour time span. The body is meant to only handle so much chakra and using chakra strains the chakra pathways based on how much chakra is used. That is the reason you don't see ninjas put almost all of their chakra into their attacks. Doing so can permanently damage your chakra pathways and can be compared to having limbs being pulled off.
By adding chakra to the pathways, the person is increasing the amount of stress the body can be put under.
"All you need is to get one of these bells, a piece. But since there's only two bells, at least one of you WILL be tied to the post. And whoever that is, will also be heading back to the academy." He dropped the bomb.
"You may use anything in this practice. Shuriken, jutsu, etc. Attack me as if you mean to kill me. That's the only way that you'll have a chance at getting a bell."
"You couldn't even dodge an eraser! You'll get killed." Naruto told.
"Only the weak speak loudly." Kakashi taunted. "Now, we will start on my signal."
Naruto grabbed a kunai and almost ran towards him, only for Kakashi to appear behind him, moving Naruto's arm in a way that he couldn't move it out of his grip while also having the tip of his kunai pointing towards the back of his neck.
"Now, now. I haven't said start yet." Kakashi started.
"You did now!" Suki exclaimed, already moving her leg to do a roundhouse.
He vanished, leaving my leg to head towards Naruto's head. I stopped the momentum before turning towards the direction he moved.
"While interesting word play," He said with a large amount of sarcasm. "You should have been smart enough to know that wasn't the signal."
"Please, when will an opponent give us a signal of attack. We need to react as quick as we can to an enemy." She started. "And you had my teammate in a bind."
Although nobody could see it, Kakashi had a slight smile.
"Alright, both of you came at me with the intent to kill, Naruto more." He looked at the three of them, moving from one to the other.
"I may actually be starting to like the three of you. Now, go!" He exclaimed.
Suki and Sasuke dashed away.
"The basis of all shinobi arts is to become invisible. So, knowing that..." Kakashi was looking straight at Naruto. "Why are you still here?"
"Prepare yourself!" Naruto exclaimed, taking his stance.
He then bolted towards Kakashi before Kakashi put his hand in a bag on his side. Seeing this, Naruto stopped his momentum before jumping backwards.
"Let's begin the teachings with the first lesson: Taijutsu." Kakashi started.
Suki had a gleam in her eyes.
'Taijutsu is largely about hand to hand combat. Why is he reaching for a weapon if that's the case?' Naruto thought.
Kakashi then pulled out a book with the title of Icha Icha Paradise.
Suki had a sweat drop, realizing what that book series is categorized as.
'And he reads it in front of three thirteen year old children.' She thought.
"Hm? Is something wrong? Weren't you planning on attacking?" Kakashi asked.
"But...I...You...Why...That's a book!?" Naruto exclaimed, so confused that his mouth couldn't keep up with the several thoughts about the situation he had.
"Of course it's a book. I've been dying to find out how this story ends." He then looked down and started to read. "Carry on...it shouldn't make a difference in the outcome, considering who I'm up against."
'Damn, going straight for pride huh?' Suki couldn't help but think.
Naruto stood there with a blank face before blinking twice.
"AHH! I'm going to flatten you!" Naruto yelled, bolting towards him again.
Naruto swung the bottom of his fist towards him, intending to strike him in the face.
That didn't go as planned as Kakashi lazily moved his right hand and blocked it with his palm. Naruto then tried to kick him with his left leg, only for Kakashi to crouch down, allowing the kick to fly over him. Naruto tried to swing his left fist forward towards his face, only for him to vanish.
"What the...?" Naruto muttered.
"Showing your back so many times is very poor." Naruto tried to turn around and face him. "Too late."
Kakashi's visible eye seemed to gain a villainous gleam.
"One thousand years of death!" He exclaimed, shooting his hands forward.
Right into...
Suki winced. 'He's going to feel that for the rest of the day.' She thought, all while Naruto soared through the air and landed in the lake the training grounds had.
Kakashi stood there before two Shuriken flew out of the water towards him.
While they were spinning extremely fast, Kakashi proved his title as an Elite Jounin by catching both of them and allowing them to spin around on two fingers.
All the while laughing at his book.
'I really wanted to see if I could make him stop reading his book, but I'm not sure I can. I could definitely if I could use the Fourth Gate, but I was warned not to.' Suki thought.
'He's not taking Naruto even remotely seriously.' Sasuke thought.
A lot of Narutos suddenly jumped out from the water.
"Hm?" Kakashi barely acknowledge.
Suddenly, Kakashi had a Naruto behind him, with his arms holding onto Kakashi's arms before all but one Naruto fell fast and grabbed onto his legs, preventing him from moving.
"Here comes payback! This must be hard on you, so I'll go easy. One good hit is all I want!"
Suki shook her head. 'He became too confident.'
Naruto swung a fist forward and slammed it into...a clone.
"Huh?" Naruto let out, confused.
Once he landed, he accused the clone of being Kakashi.
Before he could start a full out rumble, Suki decided that she shouldn't let that happen.
"Release the clones!" She yelled out before dashing away from her spot, knowing that if Kakashi didn't know where she was, he did now.
She looked and saw the field with only Naruto seen.
The three of them noticed a bell next to a tree.
'That's a-' '-trap.' Suki and Sasuke thought.
Naruto quickly hurried over and tried to grab it, only to have rope grab onto his ankle and pull him into the air.
Kakashi walked over and picked the bell back up.
"You used your technique well, but so did I. And so, you were the one that got used. And to be caught in such an obvious trap...was stupid." Kakashi told him.
Seeing Kakashi lower his guard, Sasuke threw out five shuriken and a kunai.
The shuriken struck Kakashi's temple, beside his eye, one behind his ear, another in the neck, and the last one struck the side of the base of his neck. The kunai struck to the left of where his mouth would have been.
"Whoa, no way! That was overkill Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed.
The Kakashi that was struck suddenly poofed and turned into a log.
'Substitution Jutsu.' Suki thought.
Sasuke jumped away from his hiding spot, knowing that Kakashi likely found his position.
Suki jumped away from the area, aware that Kakashi has moved on from Naruto, making her a target.
"From what I've seen, he's quick and has lots of experience fighting based on how easily he blocked and evaded Naruto's attacks." She muttered.
"He's also right behind you." A voice whispered.
She sent chakra to her legs to increase the strength of her legs and jumped away and turned towards him with her ninjato in her right hand.
"Lesson number two: Genjutsu." He told while holding his hands together in a hand sign before he turned into leaves.
She made a hand sign. "Kai."
Like that, the area went back to normal and Kakashi could be seen on a branch further away from her.
She just felt the need to do it, so she placed a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow at him.
"Really? You tried Genjutsu on an Uchiha?" She couldn't help but say.
"Hm. So there's hope for at least one of you." He commented.
"Let's begin lesson number three, shall we?" Suki asked, already quickly going through hand signs.
"Very well." He commented.
Suki's hands up halfway to her elbow suddenly had reddish orange flames around them.
"Oh? Didn't even say the name of the jutsu? You must be proficient in that jutsu." He praised.
When ninja's form jutsus, the reason they exclaim the jutsu is because it helps with control. The best comparison would be that chakra is transporting the chakra to where the user needs it to go. Due to that, there is a small amount of chakra that the jutsu uses that isn't for the technique. In order to not have the chakra that transported it not gather in one area, the chakra system connects chakra to the user's vocal cords. So when they say the name of the technique, they are actually releasing the small amount of chakra leftover.
If a ninja doesn't say the name, that can indicate that the user has two things: they have practiced the jutsu so much that the chakra system is no longer needing to transport the chakra the technique needs to send. The second option is that their chakra control is extremely high to the point that the excess chakra can safely rejoin the system without throwing it off balance.
"Here I come!" She exclaimed, shooting towards him.
He quickly weaved through signs before placing his hands on the ground.
"Earth Style: Stone Wall."
A wall of dirt sprung up between the two of them.
Suki reared back a fist before slamming it into the wall, causing her fist to break the wall thanks to the added power the jutsu adds to hits.
She looked around and didn't see him.
'Left? Right? Behind? Above?' Were the several thoughts running through her head before reaching a conclusion and jumping straight up and looked down and canceling Flame Attack.
"Below!" She quickly made the needed signs before taking a deep breath. 'Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!' She thought.
A large ball of fire shot out of her mouth and slammed into the ground, creating an explosion and a very large cloud of smoke.
She threw one of her kunai that she had ninja wire attached to and threw it into a tree and pulled, sending her towards the tree and landed crouched.
"You almost got me there." A voice sounded to her right.
She looked and saw a kunai placed next to her neck.
"Keyword being almost."
She faced her left palm towards him.
'Wind Style: Gale Palm!'
A large amount of air shot out from her palm, sending Kakashi backwards as he jumped out of the way.
"So not only can you use Fire, but Wind as well?" He commented.
She formed more signs before finishing. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" She shot out a large amount of air from her mouth that he dodged as well.
The tree, however, didn't.
When the jutsu struck the tree, it peeled away the back and tore off a good 35% of the tree trunk.
She tried to find him again, only for him to disappear again.
She about left before seeing a bell next to a tree.
'I'm so tempted.' She thought before having an idea.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu."
A second Suki appeared before heading down towards the bell.
It bent down to pick it up, only for the real Suki to jump away, feeling a chakra flare.
The clone, however couldn't.
All it could do was watch as the ground under it started glowing.
'Ah. Paper bombs.'
Paper bombs were part of a branch of Ninjutsu called Fuinjutsu-the art of sealing. By using Fuinjutsu, ninjas can create a tag with seals made from chakra and ink to act a certain way based on what the seals can make it do. Paper bombs are tags with the sole purpose of blowing up when someone sends a chakra flare outward, activating the seal and causing it to detonate.
The more chakra infused with the ink of the seal, the stronger the explosion.
The ground under the clone exploded, causing the clone to dispel.
Suki began dashing around through the forest before hearing combat.
She headed in that direction before reaching the area where combat must have just ended.
She stood at the edge of a clearing before seeing a sight that caused her to let out a slight chuckle.
"It's not funny Suki." Sasuke groaned.
"It is from my angle." She commented with a smile.
The situation being that Sasuke was trapped in the ground from the neck down.
"Soooo, tell me. Did you happen to get..." She started.
"No, don't you dare."
"A hea-Ah!" She exclaimed as she was suddenly dragged underground up to her neck.
All the while causing Sasuke and her to be forced to be looking at each other.
They stayed there in silence for a moment.
"What was that saying again? Karma's-"
"-a Bitch. Yeah, yeah." Suki finished his statement.
"So, do Uchihas just like being stuck in the ground?" Kakashi asked.
Sasuke glared at him before an explosion happened, blasting Sasuke backward and out of the ground.
As he rolled to a stop, he looked over towards the direction he came from and saw Suki walking out of a crater with her hands covered in bright orange fire.
"Wrong thing to say Sensei." Suki commented. "Now, help me release this burning feeling I have." As her eyes shifted into her Sharingan.
"Something I said?" He muttered before thinking on what he said before realizing how that may have sounded.
Suki about charged at him before a ringing sounded throughout the forest.
"Sounds like time's up." Kakashi told.
Suki gritted her teeth before walking over to a tree and punching it, breaking it and sending it back a few feet before it crashed to the ground.
She took a few breaths before releasing the jutsu.
"Better." She commented before walking back to the three posts that they saw in the clearing they began at.
She sat down next to a tied up Naruto.
A minute later, Sasuke and Kakashi joined them.
Sasuke and Naruto's stomach grumbled.
Kakashi looked at Suki, now acknowledging that he knows that she ate before arriving.
"Listen to those stomachs growl. By the way, I have an announcement about this exercise." He started. "None of you need to worry any more about being sent back to the ninja academy."
"That means that all three of us..." Naruto exclaimed.
"Are hopeless." Those words ended the excitement from Naruto. "More schooling would be pointless. None of you will ever be shinobi. Give it up."
"What do you mean give up! Give me a break! Okay so maybe none of us got our hands on one of your stupid bells, but why the hell should we quit over that!?" Naruto yelled.
"Because not one of you has what it takes." Kakashi told.
Hearing that, Sasuke dashed towards Kakashi before Kakashi quickly got him to the ground, holding Sasuke's left hand behind his back, and sitting on his back while having his right foot placed on Sasuke's head.
"What you are is a trio of spoiled brats." Kakashi looked at Suki and Naruto with a glare. "Are you trying to make fun of shinobi with your behavior? Did you ever stop to wonder for one minute why you were divided into teams?"
"How are we supposed to know that?! You never explained it!" Naruto exclaimed.
"It's teamwork, isn't it?" Suki muttered.
Kakashi glared at her. "You make it sound like you already knew."
"Not fully. The thought occurred near the end of the test but by that point, Sasuke was in the ground, Naruto was likely tied up, and not too long after, I was in the ground." She told. "I figured out that our best chance of getting the bells would have been together too late."
He kept his glare up. "Naruto tried to do everything single handedly. Sasuke already decided to try and fight me by himself. And Suki..." He trailed off.
"Suki demonstrated that she could do the same jutsu as Naruto but chose to conserve her strength in the case of a fight. If she did use it, she could have freed Naruto and tracked down Sasuke and worked as a team."
"You are a team! Learn to act like one! Yes, it's necessary for ninja to have individual skills, but what is even more important now is teamwork! Making a play as an individual is bad for the team and exposes your comrades to unnecessary danger. You might as well kill them yourself."
Kakashi pulled out a kunai and placed it to Sasuke's neck. "Suki! Kill Naruto or Sasuke dies."
"What!?" Naruto exclaimed before looking over at her.
Kakashi got off of Sasuke and placed the kunai back into his bag.
"The day could come when one of you may be taken hostage and you're forced to make such a choice. When you are on a mission, your lives will always be on the line."
As he talked, he made his way to a marker with several names on it.
"Look at this marker...all the names carved in the stone. Heroes of our village."
"That's it! That's where I want my name to go! I'm not gonna throw my life away! I want to be like them, a hero!" Naruto exclaimed.
Suki narrowed her eyes and looked at the marker closer, seeing several names she didn't recognize.
"Those....those aren't just any ninja, are they?" She asked.
'Why do I swear I should know what that is?' She thought.
"Correct. These heroes...are the dead kind. They died in the line of duty." Kakashi told.
Naruto's face changed to smiles to shock, to unsettling, to upset.
"This includes the names of my best friends."
A moment of silence hung in the air before Kakashi looked back at them.
"Pay attention. I'm giving you all one last chance. One that will be far more difficult than our last little game with the bells. If you're prepared to continue, you may eat one of the bento boxes. However, you will not share any with Naruto." Kakashi told.
"Why?" Sasuke asked.
"He brought it on himself when he tried to sneak lunch for himself. If either of you feed him, you fail the test right there. My word is law. Do you understand?"
Kakashi shunshined away.
"Hey, this'll be a breeze. I can go without lunch no problem!"
A few minutes later...
As Sasuke and Suki were eating, Naruto's stomach rumbled.
Almost as one, Suki and Sasuke held their bento boxes out for him.
"Huh?"
"You're no good to us if your hungry. You'll just be a liability. If we are to have any chance at passing this last test of his, we all need to be in top condition." Sasuke told.
"Besides, I've been thinking of a few plans for us to try. The better plans involve you Naruto. As he said, we all need to be at our best if we even want a slight chance of passing." Suki explained.
Before either could feed it to him since he was still tied up, a large explosion of white smoke appeared.
Suddenly Kakashi's face appeared and it looked murderous.
"YOOOOOOUUUUUUU..."
Sasuke started moving to defend while Suki quickly stood up and about activated Flame Attack once more.
"Pass." He told with his little visible facial features suggesting he was smiling.
"We pass?!" Naruto exclaimed.
"You three have just taken a giant step forward. Up until now, all any of you have done is listen unquestioningly to everything I say, like mindless, little drones. A true shinobi seeks for the hidden meanings within hidden meanings. Or they must look underneath the underneath. In a ninja's world, those who violate the rules and fail to follow orders are lower than trash." Kakashi looked straight at them. "However, those who do not care for and support their comrades are even less than that!"
Taking a moment, he continued with a thumbs up. "This exercise is now concluded. You all pass. That's all for today, Team Seven. Your duties will commence tomorrow!"
"I...I did it! I'm a ninja!" Naruto exclaimed.
Suki untied Naruto as they all headed home.
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Team Seven has now been formed! However, their journey has only just begun. What lays ahead of them now that they are official ninja? Well, you'll just have to find out.
After some comments and going back through it, instead of posting another chapter next week, I'll go back through this. This time, fixing things to make sense.