Kaze No Kokoro (Naruto fanfic)

Survival training. ~ part 1

Neither Sakura nor Naruto had noticed Midori when they arrived and she couldn't help but wonder if that was normal for genin. They kept whining about being hungry and wondering where in the world their sensei was.

"Midori isn't here yet either!" Naruto exclaimed. "She's right there in that tree you idiot, she's been there the whole time." Sasuke announced. Naruto looked at the tree dumbfounded he thought himself quite stupid for not noticing her. She was afterall not even hiding so he approached.

"Hey Midori, where is your brother?" The answer made them all fall back in frustration. "Asleep." Yes asleep, their sensei was still asleep while they were a tired hungry mess. Was he always going to be late?

"Why didn't you wake him?!" Midori didn't like Sakura's voice to begin with but found herself hating it even more in the morning. The fact that it was an accusation didn't help either.

"He said we had to meet here at 5, he never said he would be here himself by then. Couldn't you have known he would be late seeing as he wasn't exactly on time yesterday either." What she said made sense, albeit in a terribly annoying way.

They decided to drop the subject since they slowly started to feel Midori's annoyance which, given her tendency to hide her emotions, didn't seem like a good thing. So they waited and waited... and waited.

Until finally he arrived. "You're late!" Naruto and Sakura exclaimed. Kakashi decided to use a black cat as his excuse while Midori slowly walked over to the group. He set a clock on a wooden pillar and set it to 12 A.M. after which he started explaining the test. "Today's objective is to get one of these bells from me. Whoever can't will have no lunch. I will tie you to one of those posts over there and eat lunch in front of you."

'So that's why he said no breakfast.' Sasuke and Sakura thought. "But wait why are there only three bells?" Sakura asked. None of them liked the answer they got however, not even Midori, and although she was used to not eating a lot, she most definitely didn't want to be tied to a post. "Since there are only three bells one person will be tied to a post. Because that person failed the mission they will be sent back to the academy. It might be just one or all four of you. You can use weapons. You won't be able to get these unless you have the will to kill me."

This caused Sakura to voice her concern and Naruto to bring up the chalk eraser incident. "In society those who don't have many abilities tend to complain more. Just ignore the guy with the lowest score." Kakashi said. "We're going to start after I say ready, start." His comment had however angered Naruto, who charged at him with a kunai in his hand. In just a fraction of a second though, Kakashi had put him into a position which caused the kunai Naruto was holding, to be aimed at the back of his own head.

"Don't get so hasty." Kakashi said "I didn't say start yet." Everyone was impressed by their sensei's demonstration. "But it looks like you have the will to kill me now. I think I can finally start liking you three. We're going to start."

Midori stayed silent throughout the explanation but was happy when it was bells that they had to get. It did puzzle her that they were pitted against one another though, after all they were a team shouldn't they act like one? Maybe it was about selfsacrifice, working together until the end and then one of them giving up their dream.

That should be it she thought but none of her teammates had a personality that encouraged that kind of thought. Naruto would want to prove himself by doing it all by himself and would never work with Sasuke. Sakura would want to work with Sasuke but not with Naruto or Midori. And Sasuke, he was much to prideful to accept anyone's help. Believing that, atleast Naruto and Sakura, were inferior to him.

Midori knew that whatever she said they wouldn't listen so she decided to do her best to aid them when she could. Maybe if she got all the bells she could give them to her teammates. After all she had just arrived in Konoha and didn't want to swoop in and take their dreams away from them.

She doubted her plan for just a second however. Wouldn't Kakashi be going with them on missions then? She would have to be away from him for a long time. She didn't want that, he was her brother she couldn't lose him. She would have to make a decision after she got the bells. Besides she didn't even know if she would be able to in the first place.

By the time she snapped out of her thoughts Kakashi had already said ready and when he said start she immediately dissolved, scaring Naruto half to death. He had stayed in the field, directly challenging Kakashi out in the open. Although Kakashi had no idea where Midori was he was pleased that at least three of his team weren't stupid enough to attack him head on. "Let's have a match fair and square!" Naruto exclaimed. "Hey, aren't you a bit weird compared to the rest?" Kakashi said. "What's weird is your hairstyle." Naruto threw back.

Midori couldn't help but chuckle at this, well wouldn't if she could, air doesn't exactly chuckle. Naruto charged towards Kakashi once again but stopped short when he saw him reach into his pouch. "Ninja tactic know-how number 1, taijutsu. I'll teach you that first." This confused Naruto because taijutsu is hand-to-hand combat and he assumed Kakashi was reaching for a weapon. What he took out though, was a book.

"What's the matter? Come and get me." Kakashi said. Naruto however was much too puzzled as to why he took out a book so he asked and recieved an answer he wasn't expecting. "Why? I got curious as to how the story is going to develop. Don't worry about it. It's the same whether I read this or not." Once again Naruto was angered and charged this time punching and kicking, yet Kakashi kept blocking and kept reading until suddenly he had seemingly dissappeared from Naruto's point of view. "A ninja shouldn't let the enemy get behind him multiple times idiot."

The others saw his hands taking on the seal of the tiger and assumed he might use a high level ninjutsu on Naruto. Midori knew better, Kakashi wasn't focusing his chakra and wouldn't do something so cruel either way. Sakura tried a last attempt to warn the idiotic genin whom hadn't even turned yet. "You're too late. Hidden village of Konoha's secret taijutsu master art.... a thousand years of pain!" Kakashi had inserted his fingers into Naruto's ass sending him flying into the river nearby.

Midori couldn't take it anymore, she reappeared, her ability shutting off on its own and lay rolling on the grass laughing. They had never heard a sound so sweet. All of them looked at her in wonder of the soft sound coming out of her. Like wind chimes yet sweeter and none of them could stop a smile from appearing on their face. Kakashi grew, in that very instant, to love the little girl even more and the boys' heart could not help but skip a beat. Even Sakura couldn't help but love the sound.

Then suddenly it stopped just as quickly as it had started and they once again realised where they were and what they were doing. "I almost thought you were going to stay in hiding forever Midori." "Ah Kashi-ni, please don't insult me like that." As soon as she had said that however, she dissappeared once again. Kakashi thought nothing of it and went back to reading his book when 2 shurikens came flying at him. Naruto had thrown them hoping he might be distracted but Kakashi caught them easily, twirling them around on his fingers.

Suddenly a whole bunch of shadowclones jumped out of the water and charged towards Kakashi. "This is my best technique, the mass shadow replication!" One of the clones had managed to get behind Kakashi and held him there while the others shortly arrived to hold his legs. Naruto jumped into the air to deal the finishing blow however what he hit was one of his clones which caused all of them to start fighting about which one of them was a transformed Kakashi. Yet when he realised the best way to find out was to undo the replication only he remained, one beaten up Naruto.

Kakashi had used the replacement jutsu to get out of Naruto's grasp. Then all of a sudden Naruto saw one of the bells just lying there in the grass below a tree. Assuming Kakashi had dropped it he went to go grab it and got caught by a sling trap in the process. "Use your techniques after thinking carefully. That's why it was used to your disadvantage." Kakashi said while retrieving the bell. "And, don't fall for an obvious trap, stupid. Ninja's need to think beyond the normal." "I already know!" "I'm telling you this because you don't, get it? Your movements are filled with unnecessary motions."

Midori was simply watching amused at Naruto dangling in a tree.