ᴅᴇꜱᴛɪɴʏ ʀᴇʙɪʀᴛʜ|ⁿᵃʳᵘᵗᵒˣⁿᵃʳᵘᵏᵒ

The bell test p.2

And with that, all four Genin jumped back and disappeared from sight, earning a hum of appreciation from Kakashi.

They know how to hide themselves at least, He mentally thought as he dug into his hip pouch, before stopping suddenly as he sighed.

"You know, compared to the others in your team, you're a little . . . weird." He deadpanned as he turned to face a blonde haired girl, who was smiling at him gracefully.

"I'm hurt Kakashi-sensei, why would you even suggest that?" Naruko said with a giggle, causing Kakashi to arch an eyebrow at her behavior. "I just want to get to know my sensei more, that's all." She finished with a cute smile.

Kakashi sweat dropped a little. ". . . Aren't you worried that you'll fail the test?" he asked, confusion lacing his tone, "Or are you so confident in your own abilities that you could take these bells from me head on?" he all but mocked, attempting to rile up the blonde's famous Uzumaki temper.

But to his surprise, Naruko just shook her head. "No, nothing like that; I know my own strength Kakashi-sensei . . ." she said, making Kakashi inwardly praise her modesty, "I can't beat you at the level I am now, so I'll just do this!" she yelled when she suddenly whipped out a kunai and threw it at him.

Kakashi reacted on instinct as he twisted his body slightly, not even moving from his spot to let the kunai harmlessly sail through. He could tell that the throw was sloppier than it looked, as it lacked the usual speed and accuracy which her Academy report mentioned. The report stated that she excelled in shurikenjutsu and was considered a natural. The Jōnin doubted that Naruko's sloppy throw had been a coincidence.

And sure enough, as the kunai was about to sail past him, he spotted two spherical sacks attached to them, making his eyes widen in surprise.

Flash Bomb! He mentally said before quickly shutting his eyes lest he be blinded by the aforementioned bombs. The bomb exploded in a blinding flash of bright light as Kakashi, having been temporarily blinded, relied on his hearing to predict Naruko's movements and not a moment later he heard the distinct whistling sounds of thrown weapons, probably more kunai. Pulling out his own kunai, he blocked all the kunais easily and when he had regained his eyesight, he was greeted with the sight of another kunai that embedded itself in front on him, but his eyes were drawn towards the sizzling tag attached to it.

He cursed as he jumped backwards before the tag exploded, managing to singe his clothes in multiple places but otherwise left him unharmed. As he landed, Kakashi couldn't help but shake his head in amazement. Naruko was taking this test very seriously when she would even resort to paper bombs to fight him.

Kakashi looked up when he had regained his bearings, only to see Naruko charging at him as they both proceeded to engage in a flurry of taijutsu combat. Kakashi didn't even have the time to pull out his favorite book as he had underestimated the blonde girl's proficiency in taijutsu, and he was forced to use both hands to block and deflect her strikes. Naruko's strikes were swift, like fighting a serpent, as she wasted no time to take advantage of any openings or weaknesses she found in his defense, which were very few. Naruko's style of taijutsu greatly resembles the snake style taijutsu with one major difference: she hits hard.

The short bout came to an end when Kakashi caught one of Naruko's jabs, redirecting it while using her momentum to throw her away to the side, adding a light jab to her back for good measure as Kakashi watched her stumble forward before the most unexpected thing happened.

Naruko disappeared in a plume of smoke.

Kakashi narrowed his lone eye. Kage Bunshin? He mentally thought. Does she already know the secondary abilities of the Kage Bunshin?

The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique) wasn't just used as a distraction or was it primarily a combat technique; it was a deep scouting technique developed by the Nidaime Hokage during his reign to minimize scouting casualties in deep strike missions. The clone's 'memories' or experiences so to speak during their existence, when dispelled, are sent back to the original. Therefore, shinobi who knew this technique can safely send a clone to scout out ahead without fear of enemy retaliation and the memory transfer makes it as if the user was there in person.

Kakashi chuckled lowly to himself as he straightened up while dusting his clothes, greatly impressed by the way Naruko used her clones to probe his defenses and analyze his moves. He couldn't help but feel proud of his sensei's child.

"Now . . ." he said as he turned in the direction of the forest, eyes crinkling in mirth. "Who should I go for next?" he asked no one in particular as he took off into the trees, heading to his next victim.

Naruko stiffened as she opened her beautiful violet eyes when the memories of her clone came back to her, causing Naruto, who was right beside her to look at her expectantly.

"So, how did it go?" Naruto asked.

Naruko shook her head in amazement. "You're not kidding when you said we couldn't beat him head on, he wasn't even trying when he fought my shadow clone . . ." she said in awe and also a little worry. Naruto had given her a tip about her shadow clones transferring their memories to the original, and so she had come up a plan to send her own clones to analyze Kakashi's fighting style, which were very advanced.

Naruto chuckled as he smiled. "He may be lazy and a bit of a pervert, but he's one of the strongest shinobi in Konoha; not many people can compare to that." He explained sagely, comforting his slightly miffed sister, "Did he read his smut while you're fighting him?" he asked.

A small frown made its way onto Naruko's face at the thought of Kakashi's favorite pastime. "As if I'll let him, my tolerance has limits along with my patience, dattebane . . ." she said, blushing slightly at her slip of using her verbal tic.

Naruto just patted her head as he smiled, rubbing the back of his sheepishly. "That means you're already doing great!" Naruko smiled at his encouragement, warmth filling her heart as she tilted her head asking him to elaborate further. "When Kakashi-sensei pulls out his smut while you're fighting him, that means you're not worth his time and he'll beat you easily, like what happened to me the first time . . ." he admitted, embarrassment coloring his tone as he flushed.

Naruko giggled as she smiled brightly, "Thank you, Onii-chan! That makes me feel a whole lot better."

Naruto grinned. "No problem."

The Uzumaki twins were currently sitting on one of the thick branches of the tree they were on which was in the middle of the great forest surrounding Training Ground Seven, their backs to the tree trunk while keeping their eyes sharp for any movement. They had regrouped at one of their predetermined meeting points and were trying to find where Sasuke and Sakura had run off to, only to discard that idea as Naruko had sensed Kakashi moving in on them when Naruko's clone dispelled. Their own chakra signatures were suppressed thanks to Kurama's intervention and were currently planning their next move.

Naruko closed her eyes as she stretched out with her chakra, "Hmm . . . Sakura's chakra is agitated; must be under a genjutsu . . ." as soon as she said that a loud, ear-splitting feminine scream of horror echoed throughout the forest, making both Naruto and Naruko sigh in exasperation at the obvious weak link of Team Seven. That girl really needed work if she were to become a decent kunoichi.

"I guess Sakura's out . . ." Naruto commented lightly with a grin.

Naruko shook her head. "And knowing Sasuke, he'll probably think he's strong enough to take sensei head on and attack recklessly." She summarized, and as soon as she said that, multiple explosions were heard echoing throughout the forest, causing Naruto to hang his head in embarrassment; embarrassed not at Naruko or himself, but at Sasuke and Sakura. By Kami-sama above, were they really that bad during the first time around?

Naruto thought for a moment, pondering over his last thoughts before slumping down in defeat as he couldn't find any evidence in his memories to suggest that they were not that pathetic during their test back in his time . . .

"Onii-chan, was it this bad during your test in your dimension?" Naruko asked, making Naruto flush further in embarrassment as he hung his head down lower.