ᴅᴇꜱᴛɪɴʏ ʀᴇʙɪʀᴛʜ|ⁿᵃʳᵘᵗᵒˣⁿᵃʳᵘᵏᵒ

The bell test p.3

". . . worse." Was the only reply.

Naruko blinked, before a brief memory from Naruto's childhood flashed in her mind, causing her to scratch her cheek with a nervous laugh. "I see your point, sorry."

"Nah, no big deal, besides," Naruto said with a smile, "With you by my side, there is no way we can be beaten! I'll fight even the Shinigami himself if that's what it takes!" he declared with conviction, mindful of the fact that he had placed down a silencing seal beforehand to minimize the risk of detection.

Naruko blushed crimson when Naruto said that and she smiled. "Hopefully it won't come to that," she giggled, "Now come on, let's go see if we can convince them to work with us." She suggested as she stood up, with Naruto following suit.

"Alright then, lead the way."

And with that, they both leaped away into the tree line, making a beeline towards their closest teammate: Sakura.

Meanwhile, Kakashi had just finished pulling Sasuke down into the ground with his Dōton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu (Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique) and was currently standing over his student, who was glaring at him with only his head above the ground. Frankly speaking, it was kind of hilarious.

Sasuke glared and growled as he tried to free himself from his position, which he found was rather difficult with his body movement restricted. He had been so close to getting the bells, a small caress to be exact, but he had come closer than anyone else in getting the bells, not even Naruko, and certainly not her dobe of a brother. He was quietly watching from the bushes when Naruko had engaged their sensei in taijutsu which he found impressive since Naruko matched the Jōnin blow for blow but even she was outmatched. Sasuke half expected Naruto to show up to challenge the silver haired man, but the dobe had been a no show. What a damn coward.

Kakashi smiled down at Sasuke. "Do you still think you can take these bells, Sasuke?" he asked, earning a growl from the raven head before Kakashi turned and walked into the forest, reading his book and leaving a fuming Sasuke behind. The boy held potential since he had forced Kakashi to put away his novel to fight him seriously, and the Uchiha had shocked him by performing a C-Rank Fire Release ninjutsu which almost left him burned, if not for his timed usage of his earth technique. Along with decent skill in trap-setting, tactical planning and taijutsu, the boy was going to be strong when he got older . . . if Kakashi managed to get him out of his power hungry mentality and focused more on protecting the village.

Kakashi sighed. He's still got a long way to go with Sasuke, and he hoped it would be enough for Sasuke to not betray Konoha for the sake of vengeance. He stopped walking when he felt something odd.

Since the beginning of the test, he had clearly sensed the chakra signatures of each of his students and had kept tracked of them when he went on the hunt for them. He had sensed Sakura's signature easy enough and had knocked her out, and Sasuke's signature was like a bonfire in the night, making him fairly easy to track.

But Naruto and Naruko's chakra signatures had quite simply, vanished from his senses.

Kakashi couldn't even detect a hint, not even a sliver of chakra radiating from those two, and he wondered briefly if they had left the training ground, but decided it was preposterous as Naruko had wanted to become Hokage when she got older, and was sure Naruto would never leave her side no matter what.

But the question remains: where are they?

As he made his way towards the direction of Sakura's chakra signature, he idly wondered if this team along with the blonde haired boy will finally pass his test, as so far the first two members he had encountered had shown little promise. Now his task was to find the Uzumakis before the time runs out, or he could just stand in the clearing and wait for it the end? Idly checking his wristwatch, and noted only fifty minutes had passed.

He shrugged before pivoting on his heels as he headed towards the clearing, intending to get some reading done since he was at the half-way point of the book. He was confident that within the time limit left, his four charges would have failed the test since they can't do too much in that time unless they worked together, which as highly unlikely in his opinion, and inevitably some of them would have to be punished.

Sakura groaned as she regained consciousness and pulled herself up into a sitting position, cradling her aching head to ward off the dizziness that threatened to take hold. She couldn't help but curse herself inwardly for her own weakness. The last thing she remembered was Kakashi sneaking up on her and apparently trapping her in some sort of genjutsu where she saw the broken and bloody form of Sasuke limping towards her, blood dripping from his mouth calling out for her to help him.

She had let out an ear-piercing scream at first, but somewhere in between her rational thought processes came back to her and she had immediately forced herself to calm down to assess the situation. Determining that it was a genjutsu, she disrupted her chakra flow by performing a ram seal, cancelling the genjutsu. Sakura had smirked in triumph then, before she felt a sharp pain at the back of her neck before her world was consumed by darkness. Obviously Kakashi-sensei had knocked her out.

Sakura sighed as she crossed her arms, hanging her head down dejectedly. "I didn't even saw him coming . . . maybe Naruko's right; I'm not cut out to be a kunoichi." She muttered sadly to herself.

"Admitting that you're not cut out for this shows just how far you have come, Sakura."

Yelping in surprise, Sakura turned to find the source of the voice, which turned out to be Naruko who was standing behind her with a small smile. Naruto landed right beside his sister in an instant, cerulean eyes twinkling in amusement. Sakura shook her head slightly before looking down, unsure of what she should say.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked quietly, but in the quiet forest she might as well have shouted.

Naruko knelt down in front of her before putting both hands on her shoulders gently, making the pink haired Haruno girl look up at the blonde in confusion, and a little surprise. From what she knew of their relationship, it was never more than an acquaintance, never a friend but bordering dangerously on becoming a foe. Sakura was a fangirl who took care of her appearance and book smarts, while Naruko focused on her training and other shinobi related skills and didn't even give a damn about her appearance. Plus, Naruko hated fangirls with an unyielding passion, and Sakura fitted the bill as the most annoying and useless fangirl to date. There was nothing in their previous encounters that suggested that they would be evenly remotely close to be calling friends . . .

So, why was Naruko suddenly acting so friendly with her?

Naruko just smiled gently at her. "It means that you admitted your own faults on your own volition . . ." she explained, "Acknowledging one's weakness is the hardest thing that anyone could have done, and that shows strength in your character that most people lack."

Sakura's eyes widened in shock, first at the praise but also the fact that Naruko; the most popular girl in the Academy and her; a useless fangirl, whom the former thought of as the bane of all existence, was the one praising her! It was too surreal for the pink haired that she had trouble putting her thoughts together before the blonde beauty spoke once more.

"I admit Sakura, that I'm surprised that you came around just after listening to my little pep talk earlier," Naruko confessed, smiling as she did, "I thought I was gonna drag you by your hair, kicking and screaming until I've got my point across to you. Glad it didn't come to that point yet . . ." Sakura gulped as she sweated bullets at Naruko's blunt way of veiling her threat, which was of course very scary to the pink haired girl. "But this is a conversation we'll have to continue at a later time, for now we need your help." Naruko said seriously.

Sakura frowned, "My help? For what?" she muttered before it suddenly clicked in her mind, "You want me to work together with you to get the bells." she said in realization.

Naruko nodded. "You catch on quick, looks like those books smarts of yours are good for something . . ." she said, earning a face fault from Sakura and a chuckle from Naruto.

"Now, now Naruko-chan, be nice." Chided Naruto lightly as he grinned, "We need her to work with us you know."

"You're no fun."

"Last night's training proved otherwise."