บท 8: The Bell Test Begins

"He's late!" Naruto complained for the thousandth time this morning. His mouth wasn't the only thing about him that was loud; the nonstop growling of his stomach was also distracting Sakura from her system panel.

"Would you quit pacing around?" Sakura snapped. "I'm trying to concentrate here."

"Hmph," Sasuke merely said.

The previous day, Kakashi-sensei had told them to show up the following morning at the training grounds for a test. He had also told them not to eat any breakfast, but that had just been to make the true test more difficult. The true test would be whether they'd be able to work together as a three-man team! And in case they failed this test, there would be another hidden test…

Sakura rubbed her tired eyes. She had stayed up late to play around with… Ahem, test out the academy's three basic Jutsu. Yeah, that's it.

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Name: Haruno Sakura

Species: 100% Human (with a 1% margin for error)

Age: 12

Bloodline Limit (Kekkei Genkai): Manyuu-Munamori Hybrid Physique

Chakra Capacity: 0.52 KK

Chakra Control: 0.98 S

System: Let's Aim to Become the Best Kunoichi, Kyuun~♥ Manyuu Chifusa Breast Flow System

Cup size: C

Template progress: 2%

Known Jutsu: Transformation, Substitution, Clone

Manyuu Hikenchou techniques: Manyuu Kenjutsu, Munamori massage

Chakra nature affinities: fire, yin, yang

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"My chakra control has decreased," Sakura muttered to herself. "Is it because my chakra volume has more than quadrupled within a single day?"

For reference, Kakashi in his current state can produce four Chidori in one day. Naruto has four times as much chakra as Kakashi, so he has 4 KK. Sasuke during the Chūnin exams can produce two Chidori, so let's say he's about 0.5 KK; which means that at this point, Sakura has about as much chakra as Sasuke.

Sakura sighed; she was already a C-cup; how large would she have to grow until she reached Kage-level capacity? As she aged, grew wiser and trained, her chakra would naturally increase by itself, but she wouldn't turn up her nose at free chakra… unless if it meant that the weight of her breasts would increase to the point of stopping her from getting out of the bed in the morning.

"Something happen to you, Sakura?" Naruto asked her out of the blue. "You look a bit different, today."

Sakura was looking rather red in the face; bras didn't exist in this world yet, so she had tightly bound a sarashi around her chest to keep it from bouncing all over the place. Sasuke and Kakashi hadn't revealed their Sharingan yet, so she only had a limited amount of time to increase her bust size before they used their ocular prowess to notice any discrepancies.

Her plan was to 'accidentally' reveal her 'true size' later on, so that they would think she had previously been minimizing her breasts out of shame. It was more believable than just growing huge boobs out of nowhere, wasn't it?

"I'm…" Sakura began, but she was interrupted by their Jōnin-sensei's arrival.

"Good morning, everyone!" Kakashi-sensei called out to them; fashionably late was Kakashi's middle name.

"You're late!" Naruto shouted in exasperation.

The Third Training Ground, where they were now standing, was where the Memorial Stone bearing Kakashi's fallen friend's name had been erected. It was a special place to him; it was where he had passed the same test that he was about to administer to Team Seven.

Kakashi ignored the complaint and launched into his explanation.

"See these two small bells?" said Kakashi-sensei, jingling the two bells in question to emphasize his point. "For today's test, you're going to have to try to steal these from me before noon."

…

"Anyone who fails… will have to go without lunch. Instead, I'll tie you to one of those three tree stumps over there, and I'll eat your lunch in front of you."

Inner Sakura sniggered; she had disobeyed Kakashi-sensei's instructions from the previous day and eaten a hearty breakfast. It had been more of a suggestion than an order anyway, so Sakura was fairly sure she wouldn't get punished for that. Probably.

In any case, she had dumped a lot of chili powder in her lunch. In her past life, she had liked to eat spicy, so if Kakashi dared to eat her lunch in front of her, he'd have a nasty surprise… And maybe she'd get to see what was hidden under his mask, if he took it off to drink some milk in order to soothe his tongue.

"However, as you can see, there are only two bells… which means that one of you is guaranteed to fail. That person will have to go back to the academy and start their training all over again. I would highly suggest that you treat this exercise veeery seriously; attack with killing intent or not at all; otherwise, you won't even stand a chance. Oh, and you can use shuriken, if you so choose."

"Are you sure, sensei?" Sakura ventured. "Aren't those dangerous?"

"They're sharp and pointy bits of metal," said Kakashi very seriously. "Of course they're dangerous."

"You couldn't even dodge a blackboard eraser," Naruto sniggered. "You're gonna get yourself killed!"

"You know what they say about the dogs who bark the loudest," Kakashi shrugged. "Well, let's forget about the loser over here, and we'll start on my signal! Remember, I've set an alarm for noon, so if you hear it and you haven't a bell yet, you lose!"

A vein popped on Naruto's forehead. Loser? LOSER!? He'd show him who the real loser was! Naruto instantly retrieved a kunai from his tool pouch and flipped it pointy side down.

Sakura's eyes narrowed, and time seemed to slow down. She saw Kakashi bend his knees ever so slightly; no doubt he was about to perform the Body Flicker Jutsu without hand signs and recreate the 'teleports behind you, nothing personnel kid' meme.

This was what having Minato's reaction speed meant; her sensory nerves and motor nerves transported signals many times faster than the average shinobi's, even without the power of chakra. But since her chakra wasn't quite on the Fourth Hokage's level yet, she still had some room to grow in that department.

Indeed, Sakura could react to Kakashi's Body Flicker, though she still wouldn't be able to see his movements during with her naked eyes; even Three Tomoe Sharingan would have been hard pressed to perceive every single detail of Kakashi's flicker.

For comparison's sake, Sakura could be compared to a CRT monitor on a computer with a 4000-series GPU!

It was probably a good thing that nobody could launch attacks in the middle of performing a Body Flicker, or shinobi would have wiped each other out ages ago. It just couldn't be done, because it was quite impossible to see what was going on around you while moving at such extreme speeds.

Unless your name was Uchiha Shisui, of course.

A fraction of an instant later, Kakashi reappeared behind Naruto, just as Sakura remembered from the show. He reached out to grab Naruto's hand holding the kunai, intending on redirecting it towards the back of his head, but Sakura immediately stepped in and batted Kakashi's hand away.

"You could have taken the bells, but you didn't," said Kakashi, immediately flickering away and reappearing on a tree branch over their heads. "Why?"

"You didn't say ready, set, go, yet, sensei," Sakura said innocently. "I didn't think it would count."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. He could have maybe reacted to Kakashi's attack if he had pre-emptively activated his Sharingan, but without it? There was just no way! A grim smile appeared on his lips; it seemed like he had underestimated the pink-haired annoyance. And Jōnin weren't pushovers, either…

"When did you get up there?" Naruto shouted.

But for some reason, Kakashi began chuckling to himself.