Kakashi was slowly falling to the ground with blood dripping from his body.
‘That’s probably Kawarimi no jutsu…’
Just before Kakashi’s body could reach the ground it disappeared in a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared there was a long, instead of Kakashi, lying on the ground.
‘Just as I thought’
Sasuke’s eyes widened and he quickly jumped out of this tree to another.
‘Damn, that uchiha just gave out our hideout… I need to run now’
You sighed before jumping to another tree. After few minutes of running you stopped.
‘Greeeaaat…So…what am I going to do now? Uchiha didn’t want to team up, not like it surprised me or something…but now I have to try and get a bell all alone’
And then you heard a scream.
‘That sounded like a girl…so probably Kakashi got Sakura…unless oh so mighty Uchiha screams like a girl… Anyway, if I go where the scream came from I should find Kakashi.’
You started running and soon you saw a pink- haired girl lying on the ground unconscious. Kakashi seemed to be nowhere near. You turned your gaze to Sakura and grimaced.
‘Sakura. She’s pathetic. She has no wounds or injuries so most likely she fell for Kakashi’s genjutsu. I wonder what kind of illusion Kakashi showed her so it even made her faint. Well, doesn’t matter… might as well leave her here…’
So you slowly walked away leaving her. You closed your eyes trying to concentrate and fell Kakashi’s chakra. This time you focused pretty quickly but it was no use. He was hiding his chakra very well.
‘I’ve already lost so much time and I haven’t even found Kakashi yet. That’s so not good. I have to find him really quickly.’
Suddenly one more scream filled the air. Yep, it was Sakura again. Well, at least she had woken up rather quickly… you sighed but still ran where you heard the scream come from. And there you saw Sakura lying on the ground once again.
‘Gosh,sakura…not again…’
“Tori”
“Hm?”
You turned your head around. At first you saw nothing but when lowered you gaze to the ground and saw Sasuke’s head sticking from the ground with pretty much unhappy face. Few silent moments you just stood there blankly staring at him but then snickered.
“Uh…what a glorious view… Uchiha himself stuck in the ground with no bell…”
“Shut up and pull me out” Uchiha snapped. You raised your eyebrows.
“Not really nice, uchiha…” you chuckled softly looking at extremely irritated raven- haired boy.
He glared at you for few seconds causing you to smirk. Finally he sighed.
“O-okay…” he mumbled looking away from you. With amused expression you watched as he made himself to say words he probably had swore never say to you. “Will you…will you help me to get out of there..?”
“Please” he added through clenched teeth when you didn’t move.
“Well..No.” you answered turning around. Oh, what you wouldn’t give away in order to took a picture of his priceless look he gave you.
“Hn? WAIT! What do you mean ‘no’?”
“Didn’t you say you don’t need my help? I’d only slow you down. None of use wants that, right? So, I’ll leave you how you are… If you can get a bell so easily then you’re probably able to get out by yourself… One more chance to show how strong you truly are…”
You didn’t turn to look at him but you heard a grunt of annoyance and anger from him.
“Kaede, you should help your teammates, you know…”
Extremely fast you turned your head around and came face to face with no other that Kakashi. You did back flip and landed few yards away from him.
“He’s not worth it”
“So you think you’re better?”
“Yeah, I do. What about it?”
“”I guess we’ll see…”
“We sure will…” you smirked and disappeared.
‘Well, let’s give it a try’
You appeared in front of Kakashi bringing a punch in his stomach but he caught your hand pretty easily. You twisted your body pulling your hand free and directed kick in Kakashi’s back. He quickly turned around and blocked it as well.
“You’re quick” he commented. You didn’t answer instead you started punching and kicking him. Or at least you tried. He blocked every single one of your attacks; however his book now was on the ground, in the same place where you forced him to drop it.
‘I won’t win with only taijutsu. He’s much better than me at this. Yosh, time to get more serious.”
You jumped father away from him and stood up straight. Bringing your hands together you started forming hand signs. Kakashi’s eyes widened.
‘Katon: Ookami no jutsu!’ you yelled in your mind. Three wolves made from fire rose from the ground beside you.
“Ike (go)!”
The wolves jumped to Kakashi trying to bite him but he dodged them with some difficulty. The Jounin landed on the ground and formed some hand signs. He did it so quickly that you couldn’t see what kind of signs those exactly were.
“Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu!”
And he disappeared. You undid your Ookami no jutsu and wolves around you vanished. Keeping them there was using your chakra too quickly. After your wolves disappeared you looked around trying to spot Kakashi but he was nowhere to be found. You had to think quickly he definitely was planning some kind of surprise attack on you.
‘Doton…he used doton no jutsu…doton is ground techniques…which means…Oh no!’
Really fast you jumped high in the air when a hand shot from the ground, right above you. You sighed with relief and landed in a tree.
‘He won’t be able to reach me there…at least not with that jutsu. It must be the same technique he used to defeat Uchiha.’
Since you had no clue where exactly Kakashi was you had to patiently wait for him to show up. After what seemed like eternity he jumped out of the ground. You noticed him breathing a little hardly so you guessed that he have tried to test your patience with making you wait for him so long. Good thing was that he ran out of air and had to show up since you weren’t sure you could have taken it any longer. Patience wasn’t your strongest side.
“Pretty impressive…” Kakashi mumbled.
While waiting for his next move you remembered that Uchiha was there too. You shot a quick glance at him and saw him looking at you in disbelief. He definitely hadn’t expected you to be so strong. In academy you never showed your true strength. You smirked at him and looked back at Kakashi. He was just standing there looking at you boredly. Obviously he wasn’t going to do anything.
Your time was running out. How much time was left? Half an hour? Fifteen minutes? Ten minutes? You had to do something.
Kakashi’s eyes widen again as you formed new hand signs.
‘Katon: Karyuu Endan (Fire release; Fire Dragon Flame blast)!’
You opened your mouth and an enormous ball of fire shaped like dragon shot from your mouth to Kakashi. His outline disappeared in flames.
After few moments you stopped a little bit tired already. But there was no Kakashi. In a spot where your flames were directed you saw ashes. You narrowed your eyes.
‘He probably used Kawarimi no jutsu and replaced himself with log or somethintg. Then my fire must have burned it up.
“But where’s he then?” you asked out loud.
“Right behind you…”
Your eyes widened and you quickly jumped away. Kakashi stood there slightly smiling under the fabric of his mask.
“That was pretty good…” he complimented. How many times had he already said that?
You frowned trying to gather the remains of your chakra.
Your hands started forming hand signs once again surprising kakashi.
“She still has chakra to do this..?” he murmured pretty amased.
“Kanashibari no jutsu (body freeze technique)!” this time you yelled it out loud. Your attack was so quick that Kakashi didn’t have time to dodge it and he froze in his tracks, creating you a perfect opening for an attack. You made your body move and appeared behind Kakashi. Your hand shot to the bells hanging on Kakashi’s belt. But when you were almost getting it kakashi got back the advantage of movements. Your fingers brushed against cold metal at the same time as Kakashi jumped away.
You panted heavily. So many jutsus in such a short time had an effect on you.
“You can’t fight any longer.”
You raised your head. Kakashi was standing in front you, watching you. Finally he noticed his precious book lying on the ground and bended down to pick it up.
“Like I said before it was good but not good enough” he took a one more careless glance at you before fading in a cloud of smoke.
“Shamatta” you cursed silently. You could feel Uchiha staring at you but you completely ignored him. You forced yourself to stand up.
‘I need to find him’
You jumped and started running to the place where your test had began maybe an hour or so ago.
“Wait!” Sasuke yelled but you didn’t look back.
After few momentsof running when you were only few feets away from the clearing you heard that sound. The alarm clock went off.
“Oh no!” you cried furiously while stepping in the clearing. You saw that Naruto was already tied up to one of the posts
‘Already?’ -.-‘
Kakashi was standing next to him with his book in his hands.
You shot a hated glare at him and sat on Naruto’s right. You didn’t say a word. Surprisingly Naruto was silent too.maybe he was just too hungry to speak?
Soon Sasuke and Sakura came as well. You noticed that Sasuke looked really pissed- off. But who could have blamed him? He just failed an unbelievably important test after all…
Sasuke sat down pretty close to you. In fact too close for your comfort. But since your mood wasn’t the best you didn’t say anything not wanting to cause another fight to start. Sakura glanced at you and Sasuke. You suspected her to say something to you about you being so close to her Sasuke-kun but it didn’t happen. She sighed and sat down on the other side of Naruto. Kakashi lifted his face from the book to look at you all.
“None of you have to go back to the academy.”
This surprised you.
“Yeah!” Naruto and sakura cheered. Sasuke smirked. You didn’t react at this. Something wasn’t right.
“You four should quit being ninjas at all”
“What?!’ you yelled. Kakashi glanced at you. Sasuke’s smirk faded away along with Sakura’s and Naruto’s smiles.
“You all are nothing but brats who have no idea what it means to be a ninja and don’t deserve to be ones!”
At this Sasuke got really mad. He stood up and charged at Kakashi while letting out a deep battle scream. But your sensei calmly grabbed him avoiding the attack and pushed his face to the ground pining him down then stepped on his back.
“Don’t step on Sasuke-kun like that!” sakura cried. You were surprised to hear her yelling at teacher. Kakashi completely ignored her. You took your time staring at Uchiha trying to save in your mind every little detail of the sight of him being in such a pathetic position. You couldn’t help but smirk. Sasuke saw that and send you a hated look.
“Would you mind stepping on him a little..”[ his glare on you hardened]”...a lot harder, sensei?”
“KAEDE!!!” Sakura roared. You faked an innocent smile. Kakashi’s eye drifted to you. Sasuke grunted but Kakashi just stared at you for a while. You blinked several times trying to figure out why he was doing this. Finally, to your relief he turned his gaze away from you and looked at all team.
“Do you think being ninjas is simple? What do you think why were you put in a squad of four?”
“What do you mean?” Sakura asked in confusion.
“Geez… Are you brains empty? You don’t understand why you’re all in a group?” you could tell Kakashi was getting tired of this but you still didn’t understand. Maybe he meant that you should have worked together or something?
“So what about four people being in a group?” Naruto practically yelled.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes while others seemed dumbfounded and you were getting bored.
“Teamwork”
You bitted your lower lip.
‘Oh,crap. I didn’t show much teamwork. In fact, I didn’t show any teamwork.’
“You mean cooperate with each other?” Sakura asked.
“If you don’t know what word ‘teamwork’ means get a dictionary” you mumbled bitterly and somehow glanced down at Uchiha. Did he really smirked or were you seeing things? Probably the latter. Why would he smirk being in such a position..?
Kakashi chose to ignore your comment and looked at Sakura answering her question.
“That’s right” he nodded.” But it’s too late even if you understand now. If all four of you came at me at once you might have gotten a bell.” He narrowed his eyes again “but that’s too bad…”
“Why do we need to use teamwork when there are only three bells..? If four people work together to get it then one person will have to bite the bullet. A group conflict will occur instead of teamwork” Sakura asked as a matter-of-factly.
“Pff…” you snorted. Everyone including Kakashi looked at you. “First of all, that was the point of this test. Secondly, he’d never said that each of us needs a bell which means that even one bell for all four of us would have been enough to pass.”
Sakura’s eyes widened in realization and you guessed that Naruto didn’t have a clue on what you were talking about. Kakashi smiled under his mask.
“Really good, Kaede. This test tries to put you against each other. In this situation we chose those who can prioritize teamwork before themselves or…” he looked at you “those who are smart enough not to miss any details and come up with a trustworthy plan. Too bad it’s too late now. But I have to say that you would be a great leader, Kaede. Just like a Tori should be.”
You looked at him in complete confusion.
‘What does he mean by that?’
“Anyway..” Kakashi continued looking at you all “you were pathetic. Sakura! You only cared about Sasuke. Even though you didn’t know where he was and Naruto was right in front of you, you still were concerned only about Sasuke. A true shinobi has to care about all of his teammates. Naruto! All you did was working by yourself! And instead of using teamwork you decided to cheat in the end! Kaede! You thought too highly about yourself. You didn’t help Sasuke and Sakura when you found them in trouble. It’s truth that you asked Sasuke to work together but you didn’t ask Sakura and Naruto because you thought that you’re way better than they are. A true shinobi have to forget his pride and think about his teammates as equals to him!”
You were just sitting there with no emotion on your face but inside you were pretty annoyed.
‘Well, the longest part had to be about me. Greeeat…’
“And you” Kakashi pushed Sasuke’s face in the ground “you thought that everyone would only slow you down. You even refused to team up with Kaede when she asked you. And that was just because you thought she’s much weaker than you. To tell you one thing, Sasuke, her taijutsu and ninjutsu skills are as good as yours.”
Sasuke frowned when he glanced at your smirking face.
‘Haha, in your face, Uchiha’
“The duties are done by team. Of course superior individual ability is important to ninja but what’s even more important is teamwork. Individual play that disturbs the team can put your teammates in danger. For example…Kaede! Kill Sakura or Sasuke dies!” he suddenly yelled pressing a kunai to Sasuke’s throat.
“NANI?!” Sakura and Naruto cried out.
However you were cold to react.
“Go on, he’s all yours…” you smirked looking at Kakashi and earning a glare from Uchiha. Your sensei sweatdropped before clearing his throat. Then he stood up releasing Sasuke and stepped away. Sasuke stood up now glaring at him.
“You see, that’s what happens…” the jounin said some what disturbed.
Sakura sighed as he said that.
“Phew…you surprised me…”
Kakashi continued.
“If a hostage is taken you’ll have tough choices and then die. You will be risking your live in those missions…” he walked up to the big stone that looked just like some kind of memorial. ”Look at this… There’s many names carved in this stone. These are the ninjas that you could call heroes in this village.”
“Heroes?!” Naruto repeated. You could tell he was excited. “I want my name on it too! I want to become a hero as well!”
Something just told you that wouldn’t be a good idea.
Kakashi looked at the monument with sorrowful eyes. You curiously looked at him. Was his friend or relative’s name carved in there?
“They aren’t just normal heroes…”
“Really? What kind of heroes are they then?” Naruto questioned.
“This stone is called K.I.A. stone because all the heroes that have their name on it are…dead.”
Naruto expression changed. Now he didn’t look too happy anymore. He and Sakura now looked pretty sad. You glanced at Sasuke, he had this eyes narrowed but that was all.
“My best friend’s name is also carved here..” Kakashi spoke again. His voice was emotionless but you still could feel the sadness somehow.
You felt sorry for Kakashi. You knew what it was like to loose someone important to you and you understood how he felt.
Suddenly Kakashi spoke much louder than before and it started you a little.
“I’ll give you one more chance. But it will be even harder to get the bells. Now you can eat lunch but don’t give any to Naruto.”
“Why?” you asked.
“That’s his punishment for breaking the rules and trying to steal the lunch. If you try to give him any food you’ll fail immediately. I make rules here. Got it?”
No one moved except Sakura. She nodded slightly and you frowned at her. After that Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving a log on the ground to replace him.
You, Sakura and Sasuke sat down and picked up your lunch. Naruto watched helplessly as you opened your bento boxes.
Sakura and Sasuke started eating but you didn’t. You weren’t hungry. And even if you were you were pretty sure you couldn’t eat in front of a starving Naruto. You heard him sigh heavily as his stomach growled.
You looked at your lunch and grimaced. You just couldn’t eat. Looking at the sad blonde you remembered what Kakashi had said. ‘If you try to give him any food you’ll fail immediately. I make rules here. Got it?’
‘He makes the rules and I break those rules’ you thought as you smirked and stuck out your lunch to Naruto.
“Here” you said together with someone. With surprise in your eyes you glanced to your left only to see Sasuke holding out his lunch to Naruto. It was clear that you both did it at the same time.
‘Uh, that was weird’ you mused.
“Hey, Sasuke-kun, Kaede, sensei just said…” Sakura started but you cut her off.
“I don’t care what he said. Naruto needs food. He’ll be weak if he won’t eat.”
“Yeah”, Sasuke nodded “ Without food he’ll be just in the way and that will hurt us. Besides I don’t sense him near.” He said talking about Kakashi.
Sakura’s eyes widened as she looked at her lunch. It surprised you when she also held out her bento to Naruto.
“Sakura-chan…” Naruto whispered.
‘What a drama… I think I’m going to cry…’ you thought rolling your eyes. That was stupy.
“Sakura, Uchiha, you both need your food, so Naruto can eat my lunch.” You said and they looked at you surprised (well not Sasuke of course).
“You need your food as well” Sasuke argued.
“ I ate breakfast” you bluntly answered as you gave your lunch to Sakura. She gave you a look.
“Why are you giving me this?”
“Feed Naruto. He can’t eat by himself”
“WHAT?! No way! That’s not fair” she yelled. You sulked. ”Why can’t you do that?!”
“My lunch, your work. Fair enough?”
“Hurry up” Sasuke said looking around. After his words Sakura turned to Naruto.
“I’m doing it just this time” she mumbled when she showed some food in the blonde’s mouth. A dreamy expression appeared on Naruto’s face and Sakura pulled away from him with disturbed look on her face.
“Ew…I’m not doing this anymore!”
“Hurry up” Sasuke hissed again. You sighed and grabbed your lunch from Sakura’s hands. When Naruto opened his mouth to say something you stuck some rise in there.
“Shut up and eat” you demanded coldly. For some strange reason Sasuke glared at you…or maybe it was directed at Naruto… Well, it was hard to tell.
'What doesn't that idiot like now..?'
“YOU!”
You whirled your head around. Right behind you Kakashi was standing.
“What do you think you just did?!”
Sakura covered her eyes. She looked scared. Sasuke stood his ground determined. You stood up next to him as you calmly answered.
“Fed Naruto, what else did it look like”
“He’s our teammate.” Sasuke backed you up.
“The four of us are one!” Sakura finally shouted.
“The four of you are one..? Well..you did broke the rules and you four…FAIL!”
Sasuke frowned and Sakura gasped.
“What?! That’s not fair! They were trying to help me! We’re a team!” Naruto yelled.
“They broke the rules so they fail…there’s no exceptions.” Kakashi spoke emotionlessly.
You took a step to Kakashi. He looked at you interested what you would do next.
“Well, that’s not fair.” You stated. Kakashi raised his eyebrows along with your teammates.
“And how’s that not fair?”
“Why they all fail? I mean, I was the one who broke the rules and fed Naruto. They didn’t do anything so I think it’s unfair to fail them as well”
Your teammates looked shocked. They definitely didn’t expect you to do so.
“ I saw Sasuke offering his lunch to Naruto and Sakura feeding him a little.” Kakashi calmly stated.
'So he was watching us all this time..? That bastard...'
“Well, that’s true that Uchiha did offer the food to him but he didn’t give any after all. And what’s about Sakura… I think you were just seeing things ‘cause she didn’t feed Naruto at all.” You lied again.
“Ok then… You’re the only one to fail.”
‘Wow, he was quick to agree…’
“No.” a firm voice said.
You turned your head a little.You were surprised to see that Sasuke was the one who said it.
“Sasuke-kun…” Sakura whispered. Sasuke ignored her and took a step to stand on your side.
“If she fails I fail as well”
‘WHAT?!’
“No, you can’t…” you started but Kakashi didn’t let you to finish.
“Ok then, you both fail.”
‘No! Dammit! Why did he do that?!’
Sakura’s eyes widened and she sobbed.
“If Sasuke have to go back to the academy I’m going with him!”
“Very well, then you’re the third to fail” Kakashi nodded.
“No!’ you protested again but then again you were interrupted.
“We’re a team! And I can’t be without them!” Naruto yelled. “It’s unfair to make them fail just because they tried to help me! Didn’t you say we have to be a team and act like one?”
“So you want to fail as well?” Kakashi asked eyeing him. Naruto gulped.
“Yeah, I do. I won’t become a Hokage if I leave my friends!”
‘Friends…? I’m his friend? Since when?’
Kakashi smiled underneath his mask then chuckled.
‘Yeah, very funny -.-‘ ‘
“Ok, you four… YOU PASS!”
Sakura and Naruto blinked few times.
“Huh?”
Even Sasuke looked surprised. You looked at your sensei in disbelieve.
“Are you serious?”
“Hai” he nodded.
“So we really passed?” you asked again. He nodded for a second time.
“Why?”
“You still don’t understand?” Kakashi laughed as he looked at the sky. “ You guys are the first to pass.”
‘Wow’
“Everyone else would just do what I told them. They were all morons.”
“I agree” you mumbled and he looked at you with questioning look. “I mean, they were morons if they listened to you”
From beside you Sasuke smirked. Kakashi got a huge sweatdrop on his head.
“That’s not exactly what I mean… but anyway, ninja must see beneath the underneath.”
‘What a deep saying -.-‘ ‘
“Those who break the rules and the codes of ninja are called trash… but those who abandon their teammates are even lower than trash. And that how you all stood for your teammates… I didn’t expect you to do that. You all were ready to fail with others. You got the true meaning of teamwork. Yosh, that ends the training. All of you pass! Tomorrow team 7’ll have its first mission!”
“Yay! I did it! I’m a ninja!” Sakura and Naruto both cheered together. You thought it was creepy how they said the same thing at the same time.
You felt someone looking at you and your eyes met those cold onyx orbs. He smirked a little and your lips curved in a small smile. Now you were a true ninja! A prideful kunoichi of Konoha.
“Let’s go” Kakashi said and you and Sasuke started walking after him. Sakura was quick to catch up with you.
“God damn it! I knew this would happen! Untie me!”
Probably Naruto was always to left behind.Well,it's the end of chapter 3. Next one will be out soon. Oh, I almost forgot again -.-' That'swhat Tori clan's symbol looks like---------
I had to make this myself so it looks weird ^.^'
Anyway, the red is fire, the black means dark... nothing special. I'd like to know what you think so far ^^
