Mend my Mind {Kakashi Hatake}

58 | back to the bells

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"So I know you three are probably wondering why I called you out here-"

"I already know," Damaru interrupted, head resting in his hand and looking utterly bored out of his mind. "You're being let off all your duties because of your health so Kakashi's taking over as our teacher for a while. It's pretty obvious what's going on here."

Miyoshi brought her fist down on Damaru's head, and he yelped.

"Ow! Sensei, that hurt! What was that for?"

"That was for interrupting me while I was speaking." Miyoshi glared at her student, arms crossed over her chest. "You need to show more respect for your seniors, especially now that the team is going to be led by someone different for a while. I know it's only Kakashi for now, and you all know him already, but this is by no means a fixed arrangement. If Kakashi needs to prioritise his duties as a Hokage, then you might have someone else taking over. You can't just be blindly rude to someone who's giving you orders."

I elected not to address the irony of Miyoshi having to give that lecture when I stepped forward to speak to the kids. "I'll do everything I can not to let that happen," I said. "I know it's probably throwing a wrench in your training plans having a change in the team so early in your career before most of you have even worked out what you want to do with yourselves yet, so I'll avoid letting it happen more than once."

"You all still have a few days left of rest before you'll be sent back out on your usual missions, but Kakashi will be running a test with you all today."

"What kinda test?" Iko asked.

I held up two silver bells. "You three did the bell test when you first graduated, right? I'm going to be doing the same thing with you today so I can get to know your skills and abilities better."

"Kakashi-sensei I have a question!" Iko's hand shot into the air.

I pointed at him. "Shoot."

"What happens if we fail the test?"

"During your first bell test that would be a concern, but this time around, there's not really any consequences if you fail. Like I said, I'm just using this test to get to know all of your fighting capabilities better. You're already Genin, you won't get sent back to the Academy now."

"We won't fail." Damaru put his hands behind his head. "We passed the test when we were fresh out the Academy. All of us are stronger now than we were then, and we have experience working together."

"You passed against Miyoshi." I locked eyes with him. "I won't be going so easy on you today. You guys can start whenever."

Iko drew a kunai from his weapon pouch. "Let's finish this quickly! I wanna hurry up and learn some new stuff."

He and Damaru both launched their attacks at the same time, coming at me from two different angles. It took no effort to simply duck out of the way, forcing Damaru to roll over my back and crash into Iko.

"Watch where you're falling, Icy!" Iko yelled, kicking Damaru away.

"Don't kick your own teammate, idiot!" Damaru retorted.

"You kids are going to need to try a little harder than that," I said, calmly pulling my book from my pocket and starting to walk away. The initial joint attack showed that the two of them were able to work well together when they had the same goal, but it was clearly very easy for that teamwork to collapse into meaningless squabbles as soon as they faced even a minor setback.

I laid a few traps while I waited for the kids to catch up to me. I knew that Damaru could use water style ninjutsu, and based on what I saw in the rescue mission, he could do that to quite an advanced level. I also knew from what Miyoshi had told me about their training that Iko's taijutsu was improving rapidly. They were only kids, but I made sure I wouldn't underestimate them. The only variable was Shizuka. She hadn't made a move at me yet, at least as far as I could tell, and I didn't know much about her abilities at all aside from the fact that she was proficient in genjutsu and had trained a little with Kurenai.

I sensed movement behind me and was able to duck just in time to avoid a Water Bullet Jutsu that exploded right where my head had been a moment ago. I tried using a Mud Wall Jutsu to trap him, but Damaru's form flickered and appeared just outside of the area I'd enclosed with my jutsu.

"You learned the Body Flicker already? I'm impressed." I marked the page I was reading and closed my book. Damaru was being serious now, so I'd have to be on my toes. Now that I was paying attention, though, I could tell that his Water Bullet didn't have as much force behind it as the one he'd used against the fire trap, and he was breathing too heavily to be worn out from just this exercise. He'd been working very hard to get that Body Flicker down in just a few days, and all that effort was taking its toll on him.

He flung a handful of shuriken at me and rather than dodging out of the way, I let them hit me to set off the Substitution Jutsu I'd prepared earlier. Damaru groaned loudly when he saw the shuriken-peppered log fall to the floor where I had been standing just a moment ago, and while his guard was down I attacked upwards from underground and caught him neatly in an Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu.

I squatted down next to Damaru's head where it was just poking out of the earth and ruffled his hair, making his scowl deepen. "You need to take more breaks while you're training. If you're constantly worn out, there's no point in training at all."

"Don't worry Damaru I'll save you!"

Even without the yelling giving his position away, I was easily able to counter the flying kick that came from behind me and grabbed Iko by the ankle before he could make contact. He tried to swing his other leg around but I twisted around and slammed him into the ground. I thought he'd stay down after that, but to my surprise he was very quick to roll backwards and land on his feet again. He launched a quick flurry of punches which I decided to block rather than counter strike. I noticed a few moments in which he left himself open but didn't take advantage of it so that I could extend the fight a little longer and get a better idea of what he could do.

I aimed a swinging kick at his side, and to my surprise he dodged by jumping cleanly over my head and aimed a kunai right at my back. I Body Flickered behind him before he could land the hit and pushed him away. He stumbled at the sudden push and his foot landed in one of my traps, which strung him up by the ankle and left him dangling from a tree branch.

"I underestimated you." I put my hands in my pockets. "That was pretty good. Still room for improvement, but pretty good."

I tuned out Iko's yelling and squirming as he tried to free himself and pulled out my book, heading calmly back to where we'd started. I hadn't seen Shizuka anywhere, but there was no Genjutsu over me right now - I'd checked a few times already.

To my surprise, Shizuka was still waiting with Miyoshi. The two of them were sitting together on a bench engaged in conversation. Sensing my approach, Miyoshi looked up and waved to me, but Shizuka just glanced up at me briefly and then stared down at her hands. Figuring I'd need to give her my attention for a while, I tucked my book away again. I had hoped to be able to read a little more than this today, but it couldn't be helped. I sat down next to Shizuka and put one hand lightly on her shoulder.

"Hey. Are you feeling okay? The others had to start without you."

"Where are they?" she asked rather than answering my question.

"Caught in some traps. They might be able to get themselves out, but if not, I'll go and get them in a bit. They're not hurt at all, don't worry."

Shizuka pulled her feet up onto the bench and rested her forehead against her knees. "I don't feel very well."

"That's okay. I won't make you do anything you don't want to do. If you're not feeling up to it you can just take a break for a while."

Shizuka didn't say anything else. She just stayed curled up between me and Miyoshi. I glanced over at my wife, but the furrow of her brow and slight shake of her head told me that she didn't know what was going on, either. I put my hand on the top of Shizuka's head and gently ruffled her hair, but she didn't react.

"I'll go get the others. We'll just have to do a different test some other time."