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.

Kakashi was ready and the two started with taijutsu. Naruto tried to confuse Kakashi with his speed, but the experienced jonin blocked all his attempts to land hits.

"That will be hard to work against me. After all, my sensei used the same style of taijutsu, Naruto." Kakashi said.

Naruto knew that, but he had some surprises in his style. He finally got close enough for a grazing hit on Kakashi's lower thigh. He used his chakra in his hands to damage a muscle slightly.

Kakashi jumped back.

"I see, not completely your father's style then. You included elements of your own." He pondered.

Naruto followed Kakashi, trying to press a slight advantage. But Kakashi decided it was time to include ninjutsu in the fight. He changed positions with a log, which was hit by Naruto's overhead kick. Naruto was on guard. He knew Kakashi could attack from everywhere. Then he jumped up and grabbed the branch of the tree when Kakashi shot out of the ground. Naruto circled the branch and used the momentum to attack again. He unsealed his bo staff from his glove and started attacking. The greater reach of the staff enabled him to press Kakashi into defence. But Kakashi decided he needed to up his game.

"Fire release: phoenix flower." He said and shot some fire balls at Naruto.

Naruto reacted immediately, putting the staff on his back while jumping back and flying through his own handseals.

"Water release: water bullet." He shouted and shot a water-bullet from his mouth against the fire jutsu.

The water overpowered the fire. Naruto shot a flurry of senbon at Kakashi, which only hit another log.

In the bushes Sasuke was fuming from envy. Naruto was giving Kakashi a hard time in the fight. It seemed like Naruto was a lot better than he had thought.

"Are you now willing to listen?" The Naruto clone behind him asked.

"What do you want?" Sasuke jeered.

"The whole damn test is about teamwork. We pass if we work together. I don't like you anymore than you like me and we both detest the banshee. I only want you to push that aside and show Kakashi that we can work together if the situation requires it. The whole getting a bell is setting us up against each other. That's why he told us to look underneath the underneath. You see my original fighting out there. Kakashi is one of the strongest ninja we have in the village, a former ANBU captain. Do you really think we have a chance against him alone? If you really want to reach your goal you need his training, so we need to play by his rules. Nobody demands that we like each other, we only need to reach the mission goal." Naruto said.

Sasuke thought about what the clone had said. He hated to admit it, but it was true. He couldn't get a bell from Kakashi, he had tried. And now it seemed that his sensei had even held back. He would have to push his pride aside until he could go after Itachi.

"Okay, we do it. Do you have a plan?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes, you order Sakura to distract him with thrown weapons, then attack him with your fire jutsu. I will increase the strength of your jutsu with my own and hide a few weapons in it." Naruto said relieved that Sasuke had finally seen sense.

"You can use fire jutsus?" Sasuke asked surprised. He had thought Naruto to be a water element.

"No, but a wind jutsu. The water jutsu you saw is my defence against fire users. Wind is weak against fire, but can also be used to increase the strength of a fire jutsu." Naruto told him.

Sasuke nodded. They didn't have time to discuss this.

"Where is Sakura?" Sasuke asked.

"About five hundred metres away at two hundred forty five degrees." Naruto answered.

"Be ready in five." Sasuke said and went to order Sakura to do her part. The clone made another clone and dispelled it to inform the original.

The real Naruto was now on defence and tried to avoid Kakashi's attacks. Damn, his sensei was really good. He replaced himself with a log when Kakashi shot another fire attack at him. He then got the message from his clone. Thank god Sasuke's ambition was strong enough to override his pride for short periods of time. Naruto went to hide again and waited for the signal.

Then several kunai were thrown from the bushes. They were not very fast, but they were on target. Kakashi deflected them without problems. Then Sasuke shot his fireball and the Naruto clone strengthened it with a wind jutsu. The real Naruto waited at the side, expecting Kakashi to replace himself with a log. He knew which log he would probably use, so he aimed a bunch of coated senbon at the place. Kakashi managed to deflect all but one of them and quickly pulled it out of his arm. Kakashi attacked Naruto's position with a flurry of shuriken, forcing Naruto to move. Kakashi made a shadow clone of himself that got him out of danger.

Naruto followed, but had to fight the shadow clone.

"Sasuke, get the bells, you have two and a half minutes." Naruto shouted.

The shadow clone of Kakashi managed to keep his original safe for one and a half minutes. Then Sasuke closed in on their position and tried to grab the bells only to be stopped by a weakened Kakashi. Kakashi still defended the bells and then the alarm rang.

"Damn." Naruto said. "We were so close."

Kakashi ordered the three genin to the starting point. He tied Sakura to the post.

"Nice try, but you all didn't get the bells." Kakashi said.

"No, but that wasn't the intention of the test, wasn't it, Kakashi sensei?" Sasuke asked.

He had realized while they fought together, that their chance to get the bells had increased, so Naruto was probably right.

"So you also understood it. Sakura, do you also know the true meaning of the test? The secret to pass?" Kakashi asked.

'Huh? A true meaning?' She wondered.

"Obviously not. But you still helped your team-mates in the last attempt to get the bells. Why?" Kakashi asked.

"Sasuke said I should." She answered.

Naruto shook his head. The girl was so stupid and was praised as the smartest kunoichi in their class.

"Naruto, tell her." Kakashi said.

"The true test was if we could work together as a team. Alone none of us would have had a chance against an elite jonin like Kakashi sensei. Together we had a chance, like you saw in the end." Naruto said.

"Correct. I wanted to test if you could put your own interest aside and work for the overall goal of the mission, getting the two bells. I am happy that you in the end did it, even if not all of you understood the meaning of the test. Therefore you all pass."

All of the genins' faces lit up, even Naruto's a little bit.

"In our line of work, teamwork is the most important factor for the success of a mission. You have to always remember that rules and guidelines are not absolute. If you followed the rules and fought on your own to get a bell you would have overall lost, even if you would have managed to get one. Those that break the rules are trash in the ninja world, but those that abandon their comrades, are lower than trash. Always remember that. Konoha became the strongest of the five great shinobi villages by following this mentality. We fought in three wars and came out victorious because we cherished our comrades. Individual strength of a ninja is important, but without teamwork even the strongest can be brought down. Believe me, I have experienced it. Look at this stone." Kakashi pointed at the memorial stone.

"On this stone the names of those we call heroes in Konoha are engraved. All those ninja died in the line of duty. They are never forgotten because their comrades keep their memories alive. Right, we are done for today. Tomorrow we will start our training. Be at this training ground at six in the morning for physical training." Kakashi ordered.

Naruto nodded and walked away after hitting Sakura's binds with a shuriken to free her.

In the Hokage's office the jonin were assembling to report the results of their genin tests. Even Kakashi was only fifteen minutes late, which wondered the others.

After the first six teams had been reported to have failed, it was Kakashi's term.

"Team seven passed." He said.

The others stared at him unbelievingly. It was well-known that Kakashi never passed a team.

Kurenai then got out of her shock and reported.

"Team eight passed." She said.

Asuma was last.

"Team ten passed." He said.

"Okay, that means we have three new teams under Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma. Very good. The ones who failed their teams can go, the other three stay." The Hokage said.

When the others left the room, the Hokage turned to the new senseis.

"I would like a short overview over the things you think you need to work on with your teams." He told the three.

"Ladies first." Kakashi said to Kurenai who rolled her eyes.

"Okay, Kiba Inuzuka has a good base in his clan's techniques, but he is very brash. I will have to work with him to not just rush into a fight but assess his opponents' strengths and weaknesses. He could also use training in chakra control and genjutsu detection. Shino Aburame needs to increase his chakra reserves to better assess his combination attacks with his bugs and to work on his taijutsu as he can't use many ninjutsu without his bugs like all Aburame. But he has a very firm grip on strategy and knows how to work on a team. It was his planning that got my team to pass my test. Hinata Hyuga needs to overcome the belief that she will always fail that has been instilled into her by her clan. If she could do that she would be a lot stronger than she already is. She can use her byakugan at an acceptable level for somebody her age, but I have the feeling something is off with her taijutsu. It just doesn't seem to suit her fully. She has a good grasp on dispelling genjutsu and tries to get along with her team-mates." Kurenai said.

"I see. I want you to not only concentrate on training them as a tracking team, get them to be flexible. You have a team that consists of three clan heirs who all have had additional training in their clans' techniques. Be creative in how you train them. If possible, get them ready for the chunin exams in six months. It would look good for Konoha if we could present some clan heirs in the exams. Next." The Hokage said.

"Okay, I guess Kakashi wants to go last as he had the most difficult team of us." Asuma said. "Shikamaru Nara is your typical lazy Nara. He worked well together with Ino and Choji, but that was to be expected of an Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Shikamaru needs to get motivated. His techniques are okay; he used one of his clan's special jutsu to capture me. I didn't see any taijutsu from him, but considering his built he needs more physical training. Choji was following Shikamaru's plan to get the mission done with the least possible amount of work. He was in a supportive role. He needs to work on ninjutsu, genjutsu and speed. His power is above average, like you normally expect from an Akimichi. Ino is a problem. While she worked with her team-mates she was complaining that she wasn't on a team with Sasuke Uchiha all the time and about the lack of motivation in her team-mates. She is physically weak and has no stamina. The only way she could help with the test was that Shikamaru caught me and she could take over my body with a mind control jutsu. She didn't seem to have abilities above the academy jutsu, which she didn't really utilize as well." Asuma reported.

"Okay. Asuma, get your team in gear. You have the same directions as Kurenai, which also holds true for Kakashi. The chunin exams. Don't let your team slack in their training. If necessary put them through the grinder. Get their individual skills up. You have worked with Naras and Akimichis in the past, so you know how to handle them. I want both of your teams to be the face for the new genin teams in the village. You will take at least one D-rank mission a day from next week on. Train your teams to be coherent units. This generation we have a lot of strong individuals and we will need them in the future. Okay, Kakashi, your report." The Hokage said leaving the two jonin who had already reported wondering what was going to happen that they were given such orders. Something was up.

"I will start with Sakura. It seems like only Kurenai didn't get a fangirl in her team. But your fangirl, Asuma, does at least seem to accept her team-mates somewhat. Sakura is weak. There is no other way to say it. She doesn't have any individual skills above what the academy teaches and she didn't show anything impressive during the test. She only ran after Sasuke like a sick puppy, completely disregarding stealth. The only thing she did in the test was throwing some weapons to help with Naruto's plan on Sasuke's orders. I will have to put her through harsh physical training. The reports of the academy told she was skilled in genjutsu yet she fell for a simple D-rank one and fainted."

"Which one?" Kurenai interrupted.

"Demonic illusion: Hell viewing technique." Kakashi answered.

"But that is a standard one that should be used at the academy to train them in detecting and breaking out of genjutsu." Kurenai said disbelievingly.

"I know, that was the reason I used it. I wanted to see if the reports were correct. I have the impression they are not. I would advise you to check up the teaching the academy did in this year. The only ones that passed are the clan heirs and Sakura because her team-mates pulled her through. I have a suspicion that the teachers in their attempts to sabotage Naruto did more damage than we already thought."

The Hokage nodded. That was a problem. Normally at least a handful of students from civilian background passed.

"Next is Sasuke. He is skilled for a genin fresh out of the academy, but he has a serious attitude problem. His obsession with Itachi makes him completely disregard his team-mates. He tried to get the bells from me on his own and argued a long time with Naruto after he had lost his one-on-one with me that he didn't need help because he was an Uchiha. It took Naruto telling him what the meaning of the test was and using his weakness, Itachi, to get Sasuke to cooperate. Naruto more or less told him if he wanted to pass he needed to work with him and Sakura and that he would be stupid to let his pride get in the way of getting the best possible training from me, as I am a former ANBU captain." Kakashi said.

"How does Naruto know that?" Kurenai asked.

"I guess he recognized me by my voice or has more information on the ninja in the village than I thought. I have had a lot of contact with Naruto when he was little as one of his guards. Naruto performed exceptionally well. He saw through the test and got his team-mates to work with him. He also displayed great skills in all areas we test genin in, genjutsu, ninjutsu and taijutsu. His academy report is only good for burning. Nothing in there is true. As you told me, Naruto dislikes both his team-mates immensely, but is willing to treat them neutrally to get a mission done. My team will never last past the chunin exams, but I think I can make it a workable unit." Kakashi said.

"We thought as much when the team was built. Okay, you already have your orders how to work with your team, Kakashi." The Hokage said.

"Erm, why does Kakashi already have orders, Hokage Sama? After all he never passed a team before." Kurenai asked.

"Because I had to pass this team. The civilian council ordered me to pass them, but with their performance I would have done it either way. I have special orders for the next six months to smooth out mistakes that were made in the past with both Naruto and Sasuke. And you know I am the only one who can teach Sasuke in using his sharingan as I have one myself, that is once he awakens it." Kakashi said.

"The problem is the council has put Sasuke on a pedestal in the village. Especially the civilians, but also some of the clans, see him as a potential source of power for them in the future. He is the only one who can bring back the Uchiha clan in Konoha and with them the sharingan, one of the strongest bloodline limits. The problem is that their attitude didn't help with keeping Sasuke grounded. He's already fixated on his revenge, I fear with the littlest information on Itachi he will go after him, ignoring his duty to the village. That's the reason Kakashi got special orders to keep his team away from missions that bring them in close contact with the villagers. I want to isolate Sasuke from the villagers as much as possible.

"Naruto was sabotaged all the time at the academy. The only teacher that treated him normal was Iruka because he didn't let his feelings of dislike cloud his professional attitude. But Naruto hid his true level of skill and intentionally passed as the dead last of his class. He wanted to be teamed up with Sasuke as he knew the council would pull the strings to pass Sasuke for sure. Naruto is a flight risk as well. With the hatred he was shown all his life he has built a strong resent for the village and only a few things hold him here. Naruto can be a strong asset to the village, if we handle him right now, but he could also become its worst enemy. I want to prevent this." The Hokage said.

Kurenai and Asuma nodded. They didn't want to imagine what Naruto could do if he let loose with Kyubi's power.

"Is there a risk he would use that power?" Asuma asked.

"He wouldn't need to. He has other ways. And he doesn't know yet how to use it. But the fox could use his negative emotions if they get too strong for Naruto to deal with them." The Hokage said seriously.

He didn't want to have to kill Naruto to protect the village. At the moment the boy was still loyal and there was a good chance to keep him that way if Kakashi succeeded. And Kakashi needed to get ready to take over the Hokage position if necessary. If Kakashi managed to bond with Naruto and became his successor, Naruto would still stay loyal after he retired or died. He had already written down his intention to make Kakashi his successor. He wanted to discuss it with Jiraiya first, but he didn't really see any way that his student would take the position. He would support Kakashi though.

TO BE CONTINUED...