The Legend of Konoha's Shooting Star

Pass or Fail?

"Ouch!!" Naruto's injured clone grunted in pain as the one holding it hit the ground.

"You're Kakashi-sensei, aren't you!!?" Naruto shouted at it accusingly. "You used a transformation jutsu to try to trick me!!"

"No, it's you!!" another clone shouted.

"No, you are!!"

"It's you!!"

"It's not me!!"

'Why doesn't he just undo the clone jutsu?' April wondered, sweat-dropping as she watched Naruto's near victory devolve into a fight amongst him and his clones. Oh well. While Naruto was causing a commotion, she decided to start enacting a plan of her own.

"You have Kakashi's old man smell!!"

"What are you talking about!?"

"Hey, you know... Why don't you release the jutsu?" one of the clones asked. "Then you'll know because there will be only two."

"Oh, you should have noticed that earlier, idiot!!" another said.

"I'm you, moron!!" Naruto snapped, chagrined. He released the jutsu. Once the clones disappeared, Naruto was left standing out in the open all alone. Kakashi-sensei was never there to begin with... Naruto had just been beating himself up. A small tear rolled down the side of his swollen and bruised face.

'Naruto... looks so uncool...' Sakura thought, sweat-dropping.

'That was the substitution jutsu, idiot,' Sasuke thought, also sweat-dropping.

"I see, so Kakashi-sensei switched his body with one of the clones using the substitution jutsu..." April mused in a low voice, startling Sasuke when he suddenly realized she was perched right next to him.

"What are you doing!?" he whisper-yelled. When did she...!?

"Yo!" she whispered back cheerfully with a small wave. "I came to strategize," she said by way of explanation. "Since it's obvious we can't beat him on our own, I think we should all just team up and ambush him. If it keeps going like this, we're all going to fail. But if we work together, at least some of us might—"

"I don't need your help," Sasuke whispered sternly, cutting her off. "I'm different from the rest of you!!" April opened her mouth to tell him he was being an idiot, but their attention was abruptly drawn back to Naruto again when they heard him cry out in surprise.

"What the hell is this!!?" Naruto shouted incredulously as he hung upside down from a tree, swinging on the rope tied around his ankle. On the ground below him was a single silver bell.

'A trap... obviously...' she and Sasuke thought, sweat-dropping.

'But that jōnin... even when playing with Naruto, he showed no openings...' Sasuke thought. It was no wonder April wanted to team up, too bad he had no intention of doing so.

'Well, if Sasuke's out, I guess I might as well move on to Sakura-chan, next...' April thought as Kakashi came back out into the open to retrieve the bell, sparing him one last glance before silently moving on.

"Ah!!" Naruto yelled when Kakashi leaned down and picked the bell up.

"Think before using a jutsu, or it will get used against you," he advised the boy as he straightened up. "And also... don't fall for such obvious traps, idiot," he added, tossing the bell up and down in his hand.

"Goddammit!!!" Naruto cursed, grinding his teeth in annoyance and frustration. This guy seriously pissed him off!!

"A ninja must be able to see through deception," Kakashi told him with a smile.