Directing chakra towards his feet, Naruto silently leaped up a tree to gain some higher ground. Once secured on a branch, he checked for Kakashi's location. To his surprise, he appeared to still be standing where they'd left him; either the man really underestimated them, or it was a clone.
...
There had to be a reason behind this farce of a test. It seemed unlikely that Kakashi was simply a sadist and took pleasure in failing genins – the man had seemed a bit too bored for that. It was more likely that he was trying to teach them some sort of meaningful lesson. Yet the test was set up in a way that guaranteed that at least one of them would fail. Was this supposed to be a demonstration in self-sacrifice? Was one of them meant to patriotically sacrifice himself for the success of their mission?
From the corner of his eye, he saw a flock of bluebirds come flapping out of a tree about a hundred yards away – it was the signal.
Raising his arms back, Naruto flung several shuriken and kunai down at Kakashi's still figure. With grim eyes, he watched them strike their target – and with a burst of white smoke, Kakashi disappeared, revealing a tree log in his place.
It was a clone, then, meaning the real jōnin had hidden himself and was probably watching – which could only mean bad news for Naruto, who'd just given away his own location. Dropping back down on the ground, he began to run.
Before Naruto had gotten too far, he sensed the presence of an active pursuer who could only be Kakashi. Without making any visible signs of recognition, he began to slow down, as though growing weary. Then, without warning, he dropped to the ground and swung out several shuriken at the spot he sensed him to be in. A moment later, the presence flickered out. His pulse quickening as he saw something silver flicker right next to him, Naruto flipped out of the way.
Just as he landed, there was a cloud of dust, and when it cleared, Kakashi was standing behind him.
...
"Not bad," said Kakashi.
A beat passed where Naruto remained motionless, and he realized that something was wrong. Then with a burst of smoke, Naruto disappeared, and a log clattered on the ground. There was a hissing sound, and recognizing it in a heartbeat as the indicator of an exploding tag, Kakashi immediately leaped out of the way.
As he spun into the air, a redheaded figure bulleted out of the nearby bushes and barreled into him. Raising his arm just in time to block the kick, Kakashi reached out with his free hand to close off the boy's movements. But even as his hand settled around Naruto's ankle, the boy twisted around in midair, swinging the length of his other leg at Kakashi's neck. Forced to let go in order to avoid having his windpipe crushed, he watched as Naruto landed nimbly on his hands before flipping back upright.
Without a moment's pause, Naruto threw another exploding tag at him. As Kakashi leaped aside again, he saw that the genin had began to quickly make some seals. Before Kakashi could see what technique he was forming, the tag had combusted, momentarily distracting him. The next second, a sharp gust of wind burst into existence besides him, picking up a cloud of leaves and dust to create a miniature storm in the clearing.
Interesting...so Naruto had wind affinity just like his father. But Kakashi had to smile at the naivety of the genin's plan. If Naruto's aim had been to blind him, unluckily for him, Kakashi didn't need to rely on his vision to be able to sense where he was. And as expected, he sensed the boy running directly towards him. Bending his legs, he prepared to leap over Naruto – when suddenly, he sensed upwards of twenty kunai shooting straight towards him from above and behind.
Shit, thought Kakashi, as he was forced to roll to the side. In the excitement, he'd forgotten about the other two.
On his feet once more, Kakashi dodged another leg sweep from Naruto, scanning the area for Rai as he did so. Judging from how the kunai had been thrown, Rai was probably hiding in one of the trees and had waited for the opening Naruto had created. And if Rai was around, Mayu was sure to be close by. Marveling at how far this year's batch of genins were pushing him, he focused and searched for her chakra.
While Mayu may have been able to conceal herself from a chūnin...there was a world of difference between jōnin and chūnin.
Just as it seemed that Naruto's taijutsu and Rai's onslaught of projectile weaponry had him cornered, Kakashi sensed a small disturbance in the ground below. His eyes narrowed. A second later, Mayu came bursting out of the earth and with a look of rare triumph, she swiped at the two bells that hung tantalizingly from his waistband.
So they had still gone ahead with the plan. He had expected them to abandon all signs of teamwork once they were told only two of them could pass, but it seemed they had stuck to the plan. Naruto would first engage Kakashi, and Rai would provide further distraction. Mayu, as their most accomplished at hiding her presence, would creep up on him and take the two bells. It was a simple plan, but effective, and if he had been just an ordinary person, it would undoubtedly have worked on him.
It was child's play for Kakashi to replace himself with Naruto instead at the last moment. If he had been any less pushed by the pursuit, he would have enjoyed the look of utter shock that flashed across Mayu's face as she instead crashed straight into Naruto.
Two down, one to go. Kakashi began to look for Rai as he waited for Mayu and Naruto to disentangle themselves...when suddenly, Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke.
In the split second that it took for Kakashi to register what had happened, a flash of red came shooting out of the hole that Mayu had made. Watching in astonishment at the hand that reached out for the bells, he immediately leaped away, realizing his mistake. At some point, Naruto must have replaced himself with a shadow clone – a shadow clone! – the real Naruto had hidden underground, hiding his presence behind Mayu's.
A bell jangled.
Kakashi felt a single drop of sweat roll down his neck, as he and Naruto stared impassively at each other. A single bell dangled from between the boy's fingers. Judging from the look of shock still on Mayu's face, she had not been privy to this part of Naruto's plans either. Kakashi had to wonder whether it had been a spur of the moment thing, or whether he had thought of it all from the very beginning.
Whichever the case however, it didn't make much of a difference.
He had underestimated the genin – it was as simple as that. As similar as Naruto looked to the Fourth, it had been all too easy to simply dismiss him as the cute baby-faced son of the legend. He certainly hadn't expected him to know a jōnin-level technique such as the Shadow Clone technique, or thought it possible for a genin to have devised such a plan. But now, he knew better – and he would never so completely underestimate the son of Minato again.
No, Kakashi corrected himself. He would definitely not be underestimating Uzumaki Naruto again.
"Very well," he said, shaking his head ruefully. The remaining bell jingled from his pocket. "But since only Naruto got a bell...the two of you will have to be tied to the rock." For a few seconds, he let the two genin process the information, noting the look of disappointment on Mayu's face and the carefully blank one on Naruto's. Then he smiled behind his mask. "Just kidding. Everyone passes."
Letting out a big sigh, Mayu fell on her knees, and soon afterward, Rai dropped out of the trees to join them. With some amusement, Kakashi noted the wide, easy grin on his scarred face; it looked far more natural there than the scowl had. It seemed the boy didn't take too well to strangers, but was the type to quickly warm up to one.
As his genin began to ravenously dig into their lunches, Kakashi looked over them. He had somewhat mixed feelings about how things had turned out. Originally, he had fully expected them to work separately, and completely fail at capturing a bell. Then he would have tested them, as he had with all previous genin teams, by checking to see whether they would choose to ignore his orders and take care of each other.
This was the first time that he would pass a team for actually succeeding in their mission, and he didn't know whether to feel proud...or apprehensive.
After instructing everyone on Team 7 – now Team Kakashi, he supposed – to rest up in order to start missions the following day, Kakashi prepared to make his report to the Hokage.
But before leaving the training area, he stopped by the memorial where his best friend's name was inscribed. He lowered his head, and thought of his own sensei and team. It all seemed like a millennia ago, and now, he was the only one left. He wondered if he would be able to pass on what he had learned from them to his own genin team.
He sincerely prayed that it would not come for them at as high a cost as it had for himself.
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