Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Naruto of the Mirage ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Nightblade888
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 12.07.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.6K | Visits: 1.8K | Status: Work In Progress

Sakura was very VERY angry. It was nine o'clock in the morning, and neither her teammates nor sensei was at the training grounds. Sure Kakashi had shown up late yesterday, but surely he wouldn't do the same thing twice, right? WRONG! Not only was he late, he was even later than yesterday. Not to mention the fact that Naruto and Sasuke weren't there yet either. Just as she was about to storm out of the area and find her tardy teammates, the two boys in question appeared on the edge of the area, chatting and walking at a relaxed pace. Seeing the two walk in so casually made Sakura's already boiling blood bubble over.
 
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?” She screamed at the boys when they came in range of her voice. “YOU'RE TWO HOURS LATE! Oh, Sasuke-kun, did that baka slow you down, I know you wouldn't be late if he didn't.” She gushed at her crush.
 
The pair was saved from answering her by the arrival of their grey-haired sensei.
 
“Yo!” Kakashi greeted the team with his standard introduction.
 
“YOU'RE LATE!” Sakura bellowed at the jounin.
 
“Well, you see, there was this dog attacking a mime, and he couldn't call for help, so I had to spend the next hour trying to decipher his gestures. He wasn't very good. Then when I took him to the hospital, he still refused to talk, even to give his name and other information, so that took a while.” Kakashi explained.
 
“You're lying!” Sakura accused bitterly.
 
“Any way, your test is to get these from me, before this timer goes off.” Kakashi explained, showing the three two silver bells. “If you don't, I'll send you back to the academy.” He drawled lazily.
 
“But sensei, there are only two bells.” Sakura dumbly stated.
 
“Yes, well, this exam does have a high rate of failure.” Their sensei explained. “Well, the timer is set for noon, so you've got about three hours to get a bell. BEGIN!”
 
With that, the three gennin-hopefuls disappeared into the surrounding forest.
 
`Well, Naruto and Sasuke are well hidden; they might actually be able to pass this time…if they can get Sakura to work with them.' Kakashi thought, while taking note of the surroundings. All three gennin were hidden well, although he could still see them, but then again, he wasn't a jounin for nothing.
 
Meanwhile, Sakura was watching Kakashi impatiently. She was sure that Naruto would jump the gun and attack their sensei first, but it seemed like he had more sense than she gave him credit for.
 
`I must try and find Sasuke-kun, and then we can come up with a plan to get those bells.' She thought as she searched the area for her crush; however she couldn't find him or Naruto. She quietly moved around the shrubs and bushes trying to find the Uchiha heir but she failed. As time began to tick away, she became more and more worried. If she didn't get a bell soon, she would never be on the same team as her beloved Sasuke-kun.
 
As she was searching, Kakashi found himself occupied with a two sided attack from the boys. Naruto attacked from the left and Sasuke the right. The boys targeted his feet, which the jounin easily dodged by jumping in the air, only to meet a pair of kunai thrown from the boys on his way up. He was taken by their thoroughness, the kunai didn't leave him room to dodge them, and so he quickly blocked them.
 
Before he could be too proud of himself, he was knocked back towards earth by the boys, this time from above.
 
`One set must be clones of some sort.' Kakashi concluded. `But damn, that stung.'
 
He was met once again by two fists, courtesy of Naruto and Sasuke, his own weight increasing the force of the blow. However, his body was quickly replaced by a section of log.
 
`Shit, Kawarimi!' (Replacement technique) The boys thought, before scattering back into the woods to hide.
 
Meanwhile, Kakashi was nursing an aching back and thanking his lucky stars that the boys were slower coming up than going down. If the attack had been coordinated and struck at the same time, they might have very well gotten the bells.
 
Sakura saw the display of taijutsu from the tag team with mouth agape and eyes wide. Who knew that Naruto and Sasuke could fight so well together? This time she was able to keep her eyes trained on the boys and she quickly made her way towards the two before she was interrupted.
 
“Yo.” Kakashi's voice traveled to her ears from behind and slightly above her and she quickly whirled around, kunai in her hand in a defensive stance. But when her eyes caught up to her body, she didn't find her teacher. In fact, she didn't find anything. What she did find, was a big black emptiness that engulfed her. Suddenly out of the darkness a weak voice emerged, calling for her assistance.
 
“S-sakura. Y-you need to…Kakashi h-he…” Sasuke's broken voice was quickly followed up by his equally broken body, kunai puncturing his arms like a pin cushion and he was showing signs of obvious blood loss.
 
Upon seeing her crush's deformed features, Sakura proceeded to promptly faint at the genjutsu she had been ensnared in. Kakashi was watching the kunoichi and sweat-dropped at her inability to recognize the obvious mental attack.
 
`Ok, maybe Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu (Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique) was a little much.' Kakashi thought, `Nah, it isn't a high level genjutsu or anything, she should have been able to detect it, the report said she'd make a great genjutsu specialist, like Kurenai, now there's a thought, how come she wasn't put with her?'
Kakashi was unable to think too long, he still had two gennin to humiliate…or test, how ever he felt like seeing it.
Much to his dismay, however, the two siblings were very difficult to find, causing the jounin to consider using his dogs once or twice. But such tricks shouldn't be wasted on gennin, and he decided to follow the sparse clues they left about for him. Twice he thought he had corned the duo, only to find them to be shadow clones using henge, or mizu bunshin.
`These two would be very interesting to teach.' The grey haired man mused.
Eventually, he was able to find them, his excellent tracking abilities and above average speed helped him locate the boys. They were in a clearing, taking stock of their kunai and other gear. They had shown great skill at trap setting and recognition. They had picked through the double layered traps he had laid with ease and it was unlikely that they would encounter more than two layers of traps.
Before he could even greet them, he was forced to dodge a set of kunai courtesy of Naruto and a swift taijutsu attack from Sasuke. Kakashi was able to block the right jab from the Uchiha, and the ensuing left round house kick. He even managed to grab the boy's left hand as it flew towards his face, but it was during this period of fighting that Naruto snuck up from behind to grab the bells. With both of his hands occupied grappling with Sasuke, Kakashi couldn't use any techniques to stop the younger boy. But he was an elite ninja after all, and he had the perfect solution to this problem. He tripped the attacking boy. Yep, Mr. `I'll be the next Hokage' was tripped and thus missed his chance to grab the silver bells that were so critical to their success.
Quickly, Kakashi threw Sasuke into his brother, giving him the space to perform a quick counter attack. As the boys picked themselves up from the ground they noticed the glaring absence of their sensei. However, they remembered a pearl of wisdom their mother had implanted with them.
`If you can't see your enemy, go to a place where you have a good defensive and observational position.'
The two scattered into the tree branches, just as Kakashi exploded from the ground. The two quickly flashed through the hand seals for Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire type: Mythical Phoenix Flower) and peppered the surrounding area with the miniature fire balls. Kakashi was forced to dodge them and in doing so, moved him back towards a thick grove of trees.
`These two will be interesting. Now if they could just figure out the true purpose of this test.' The jounin mused to himself, dodging the joint attack from the boys once more.
Sasuke quickly flashed through the seals for Housenka no Jutsu once more, forcing the jounin to dodge to his right and confront Naruto who flashed through the seals for Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire type: Grand Fire ball) and inhaled deeply before launching a large ball of flame from his mouth. As the fire settled down, the duo was able to make out the form of a tree section, once more the victim of a Kawarimi no jutsu, courtesy of the masked jounin.
Said Jounin was currently cursing the two for actually making him work so hard to put them down. Their tandem style of attacking was very good, and both boys were better fighters than either of their profiles had indicated. Sasuke had much more chakra than his profile stated and a greater level of control as well. Naruto was simply faster and stronger than indicated. Together the two made an excellent team and in the coming years would prove to be invaluable to the leaf. As he was mulling this over in his mind, he heard the ring of the timer, indicating that the three had run out of time.
“Well, I guess that it's Sakura I'll be tying to the tree this time.” Kakashi stated more to himself than to the boys who were stewing over their inability to retrieve the bells.
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Sakura opened her eyes and found herself staring at her sensei. Well actually she was staring at his legs and when she tried to stand up, she found herself tied to a large wooden stump. To her right were the boys who still seemed angry that they hadn't retrieved the bells.
 
“Well, that was…informative.” The voice of her tardy sensei drifted towards her ears.
 
“Sakura…your profile stated that you were excellent at recognizing genjutsu, but you fell for a fairly simple one. If you can't focus under pressure, then you will not survive your first battle between ninja. Sasuke and Naruto…your planning was excellent…your execution was nearly flawless…and you both showed great potential, but you lost track of time, which is one of the more important things a shinobi must keep track of, especially in the field. Although you all failed, Naruto and Sasuke showed that the records of this village are a bit out dated, so I will give you another chance. But it will be much harder than before.” He tossed two bentos towards the boys. “You two can eat…but don't give any to Sakura. Be ready to come at me with the intent to kill me after lunch.”
 
With that he, poofed away in a cloud of white smoke leaving the threesome alone. The boys began to eat their lunches, but stopped about half way through. Sakura was inwardly fuming over the fact that it was her own uselessness that nearly cost them their opportunity to become gennin. Her stomach was growling, already having digested her light breakfast, and wishing that she could eat the food the boys had left over. It came as a great surprise to her when the two boys offered their remaining food to the pink haired girl.
 
“Here, eat up.” Sasuke directed.
 
“But…but…Kakashi-sensei told you guys not to give me any food.” She dumbly stated.
 
“Yeah, but he isn't here right now, and besides, we're pretty sure the idea of the test is to exhibit team work. I mean, why else would teams be made of three people, he can't send one of us back to the academy, it's either all or nothing.” Naruto explained, filling her in on the conversation he and Sasuke had earlier as Sasuke cut through the ropes tying her to the stump. Sakura quickly rubbed the feeling back into her wrists and was about to take the first bite of food, when Kakashi reappeared in another cloud of smoke.
 
“YOU…YOU…pass.” His voice changing from unbridled fury to a complementary tone in mere seconds.
 
He was greeted by two smirks and a look of surprise from his students.
 
“Naruto and Sasuke were right, you are a in a three man team for a reason. I can't fail just one or two of you, its all or nothing. Sasuke and Naruto showed that they could work together very well, but to be a team, the three of you must be willing to cooperate and work as a team. Do you see that monument over there? That is the monument for fallen heroes. They have all died in the name of this village. Some of them should be here right now, walking around…but they aren't because they either couldn't…or didn't work as a team. Remember, the three of you are a team, but you are more than just three names on a piece of paper in some filing cabinet. To become a complete team, you must trust each other to do what you alone cannot. From this point forth, you are team 7, but you must become comrades and friends if you truly wish to become a team. Remember, in this world of shinobi, those who break the rules are considered trash… none of the other `teams' I have `instructed' shared their food with the other member, they were foolish enough to listen to my instructions, but those who would abandon their friends…they are worse than trash.”
 
The three gennin sat, listening to Kakashi's explanation; they were all thinking the same thing. `It seems like he knows this from personal experience. Come to think of it…he probably does.'
 
“Well, anyway, meet me at the Hokage tower tomorrow for your first mission.” With that, Kakashi poofed away in a cloud of smoke to the chorus of curses coming from the two boys.
 
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That night there was a celebration in the Mitarashi household. Anko took the boys out to dinner for their accomplishments. She told the boys that no one had ever passed Kakashi's test before, so she was really proud of them. She bought each of her sons a new set of kunai as well as an imitation of her own trademark trench coat. Sasuke's was a dark dark blue that almost seemed black and had the Uchiha crest on the back. It had many hidden pockets for carrying weapons as well as other supplies. Naruto's was a dark grey and the only markings on it, was the hybrid Uchiha fan and Uzumaki swirl design he had created. It was proudly worn on the collar of his coat. It was a great surprise when the Sandaime also gave them some gifts. Sasuke received a very old manual from the Hokage, that was supposedly from his ancestors. It was all about how to manipulate fire for different techniques and is thought to have lead to the creation of many of the newer fire jutsu. Naruto received different books and scrolls that taught the basics of sealing. The Sandaime explained that while the Yondaime didn't have a bloodline limit in the traditional sense, he did create many different seals that could only be used by people of his blood.
 
Sarutobi had learned, in his many dealings with Naruto, that if any information was written down, the boy would pick it up very quickly. It was when information was simply shown to him, or during oral examinations that the boys struggled. In truth, Sarutobi knew the two types of clone he had mentioned to the boy, but he couldn't teach them to Naruto. He knew that sooner or later, the boys would probably copy the Mizu bunshin from Kakashi, or an opponent, as for the tsuchi bunshin…Sarutobi him self had learned the technique as a gift when he first became Hokage, with the understanding that he never write it down or teach it to anyone. He wasn't going to break the trust of the elderly Tsuchikage over a matter as trivial as a technique. As he watched the family finish dinner and joke around, he couldn't help but be proud. The will of fire was clearly evident in this young generation, and it shone on a bright future for Konoha.
 
Anko was exceptionally proud of her sons; however, she also was a bit weary for them. Naruto had never been outside of the village, both for his own safety; there was talk of an organization which was interested in the demon vessels, and because of what he might possibly represent to the village. A weapon of great power. She shuddered every time she thought of her son that way. She had heard rumors of another vessel, from the Wind country, who had a taste for blood and was about her son's age. She only hoped that they didn't come to the next chunin exam, or there might be a fight of catastrophic size. Sasuke hadn't been outside the village since the massacre. Since he represented the last of a bloodline, his survival was key to the village, letting him go away would be a golden opportunity for assassins from other villages. When they left the village on a mission…she didn't know how they would react. Naruto would probably like it, a chance to see something new, learn new techniques, or just meet new people. Sasuke…she didn't know how he would take it. In the almost three years since he had been living with her, he had changed remarkably. He was lively and energetic, he was obsessive with his training, but Naruto was able to reach him, and she was glad. If he had turned into an avenger, she didn't know what she would have done. `Probably beat him into a pulp.' She mused to herself. It was then that she decided to be a part of her son's first mission outside of the village. That way, they would have a familiar face if something were to go wrong. `What am I thinking?' she mentally berated herself, `They have to do a bunch of crappy D-rank missions first. I wonder who will take it the worst? Naruto? Or Sasuke?' She couldn't help but smile and snicker at the mental images of her sons faces when they found out that their first twenty or so missions would probably involve weeding some lazy civilian's garden.
 
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