บท 13: Naruto : Chapter 13
Bell Test
The next morning saw Sasuke and Sakura waiting for their sensei with empty stomachs. Naruto sat a bit away from his team, dozing under a tree with a full stomach.
He knew that if you had the chance, you always ate before you had to fight to have enough energy to last through the fight.
And if you didn't have much time, that's what energy bars had been made for. Being a ninja took energy, so following Kakashi sensei's suggestion or not seemed to be another test.
They had to wait for two hours until Kakashi came. Now Naruto was doubly glad he had ignored the advice. Sasuke and Sakura were obviously really hungry now.
"Good morning, team." Kakashi greeted.
"You're late!" Sakura screeched.
"You see, on my way here I saw an old lady that had to carry a heavy bag with her groceries, so I had to help her and carry her things home." Kakashi said.
"Liar!" Sakura shouted.
Naruto just shook his head. She let him rile her up even before the test started. Not a good way to show your skill. But then again, she didn't have real skill.
"Well, you know why you are here. Your genin test. To pass this test you have to get these two bells from me." Kakashi explained, showing them two little silver bells, which were chiming in his hands.
"But, Kakashi sensei, there are only two bells for the three of us." Sakura said.
"Correct. That means one of you won't get a bell. The one that doesn't get a bell will be tied to the post and I will eat lunch before his eyes." Kakashi said,
Two stomachs grumbled. Kakashi looked at Naruto.
"You seem to have eaten breakfast, Naruto; care to tell your team-mates why?" Kakashi asked.
"Yes, you idiot. Didn't Sasuke tell us yesterday that ninjas have to follow their superior's orders?" Sakura yelled at him.
"A ninja needs to detect hidden meanings and tests. You only said we better not eat because we would only throw up. That isn't an order the way your worded it. It's more a bit of advice.
But against a jonin like you we would never have a decent chance to pass any test if we didn't eat. Therefore I didn't take your advice." Naruto calmly said.
"A ninja has to be able to decide which information is relevant for his mission and which is not."
"That is correct, Naruto, it wasn't an order. How would you have solved the problem if I had ordered not to eat before coming here?" Kakashi asked.
"I would have brought an energy bar to eat once I am here." Naruto answered.
Kakashi nodded appreciatively. That was the way a ninja should think.
"Good thinking, Naruto. You should all think how you can interpret orders so you get the best possible result for you and your team.
Orders are not always set in stone, they allow us flexibility to fulfil our missions, otherwise there would be no need for ninjas to think and each mission can be compromised by bad information.
That is one lesson you should always remember. A ninja needs to see underneath the underneath. Never take things at face value." Kakashi lectured.
Sasuke nodded. It made sense to him. He should have expected another test after the traps yesterday. He would be better prepared in the future. And obviously he needed to newly evaluate Naruto.
He was in no way as stupid as he had seemed in the academy. Perhaps he wouldn't be only dead weight slowing him down. But first he needed to see how strong Naruto was to accept him as a team-mate.
"Additionally to not getting to eat, the one or ones who don't get a bell will be sent back to the academy for retraining." Kakashi announced.
This shocked Sasuke and Sakura. Going back to the academy? Naruto stayed calm. He had expected something like that. He would see what he could deduct once he wasn't under Kakashi's scrutiny. Then Kakashi took out an alarm clock, which brought a tick mark on Sakura's forehead.
"You have until noon to get the bells. You can use all your equipment. If you really want to get a bell, you will have to come at me with the intent to kill." Kakashi said.
"But, Kakashi sensei, you could be hurt if we did that." Sakura stated.
'As if.' Naruto thought.
"Don't worry about me. Ready, set, go." He said and the three jumped away to hide.
'At least they know how to hide.' Kakashi thought.
...
Naruto made a shadow clone to keep an eye on Kakashi and jumped through the tree tops to a point he knew his sensei wouldn't be able to see. He then started thinking about the test. There was something really fishy about it.
No genin would be able to beat a jonin, especially not an elite jonin like Kakashi in a one-on-one situation. So there was more to this. Look underneath the underneath, Kakashi had said. What was the hidden intent of the test?
After he had disposed of Sakura by using a weak genjutsu, really and the teachers at the academy had written she had an aptitude for genjutsu, Kakashi was confronted with Sasuke who stated he was different from the other two.
"Well, we will see if that is true." Kakashi calmly said.
First Sasuke tried to engage Kakashi in taijutsu. Kakashi had to admit, Sasuke was good for a student fresh out of the academy; he even managed to touch the bells with the tips of his fingers. That was impressive even if he was holding back against his genin.
He threw Sasuke at a distance. Sasuke shot a great fireball jutsu at Kakashi, who was surprised, because no normal genin should have so much chakra. When the fireball ran out of energy, Sasuke looked around. Where was Kakashi?
'Left, no; right, no; above, no.' He thought.
"Below." He then heard and was pulled underground by his feet.
"Not bad Sasuke, really not bad. But you still didn't get a bell. Perhaps the Uchiha aren't all what they are said to be." Kakashi said and left his student to ponder.
Sasuke was fuming, how did Kakashi dare to insult his clan?
...
Naruto meanwhile had the answer and it gave him a headache. Teamwork. How the hell should he achieve that? None of his two so-called team-mates would be willing to work with him. He had his shadow clone that was trailing and observing Kakashi dispel to get the information about the jonin's fighting style.
He processed the memories of the clone and then went to have his turn. He made two shadow clones to get his downed team-mates and to explain them the test's meaning.
He reached Kakashi's position and went through some handseals.
"Illusion Art: Cloak of Invisibility." Naruto whispered and vanished from sight.
He silently closed in on Kakashi's position, trying to use his high level of stealth to steal the bells without Kakashi noticing him. He didn't really want to show his true abilities when Sasuke and Sakura were possibly watching.
The genjutsu was a B-Rank one, but they would never really know that. If those two found out too early what he could really do they would bitch to the council and try to have him forced to teach the emo all his techniques; so not going to happen.
Naruto was now directly below the bells on the ground. Kakashi seemed to not notice him. He reached for the bells when his hand was caught. He kicked out at Kakashi and jumped back. How had he known?
He let his genjutsu on trying to figure out what had gone wrong.
"You are really good, Naruto. I wouldn't have thought you to use a genjutsu that hid you that perfectly, but I have been confronted with a similar one in the third shinobi war against Iwa." Kakashi said and lowered his book. Naruto saw he had uncovered his left eye.
"Sharingan? That's totally unfair in a genin test, Kakashi sensei." Naruto complained and let the genjutsu go.
"That might be true, but then again, you are no real genin, right?" Kakashi replied.
"So you were told." Naruto said.
"Of course. As your sensei I need to know which level you are at to properly train you. Hokage Sama told me of your test. I have to say I am impressed. So I decided when I felt the little chakra disruption from your shadow clone dispelling, that I would be prepared to take you serious." Kakashi answered.
"How far do you want to go?"
"I don't want to show all I can do, or I fear the bastard and the banshee will run to the council to try and get me to give up my techniques to him. That won't happen with the Hokage in charge, but I don't really want to have to see the council at all." Naruto explained.
Kakashi covered his sharingan again and put his book back in his pouch.
"Understandable. So how about you restrict yourself to jutsus a chunin could know?" Kakashi asked.
"Sure. It will give me something to do until my clones tell me if they managed to get the two idiots to work with me."
"So you know what my test is about?" Kakashi asked.
"Yes, teamwork. I just have problems to see them listening to me." Naruto said and went into the cheetah style opening position.
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