Time Travel for Dummies

Part 4

Yosh. The Bell Test. Can't mess this up. Incredibly important. Okay. Not stressful at all, nope—

"The rules are simple: You have until noon to get a bell from me, at which point a timer will go off. Anyone without a bell will be tied to a stump and forced to watch me eat their lunch in front of them. Since there are only two bells, one of you is guaranteed to fail—and whoever that is, will be sent back to the Academy in disgrace. Understood?"

The three preteens nodded. That was a bit of a...lackluster response.

"Did...did you not hear me? One of you is definitely going to fail." Shit, am I laying it on too thick now? Shit, shit, shit...

"Go at me with everything you've got—I'm talking intent to kill here. If you hold anything back, you're going to fail."

They nodded again, more determined this time. A little...too determined he would say. Ano...

Should he... just say go? Didn't Naruto jump the gun last time? What did he do this time around? Did he really mess up that much already?

No, no, no—this is far too different at this point, and there's no way this could be all caused by him. Clearly, there's only one explanation here:

He's in a parallel universe. Either that, or Madara succeeded...

Whatever. He's just going to have to go at it his best and hope it all goes well—alternate universes are surprisingly unpredictable.

---

Sasuke...has no idea how this went last time. Honestly, he wasn't really paying attention to anyone besides himself except to evaluate Kakashi.

He's really starting to get frustrated with his younger self.

---

Thank god for his healing factor or he would be a lot worse off.

Naruto really didn't think through the logic in giving himself tattoos the morning before he had to take the Bell Test.

His arms really itched.

To be honest, he wasn't really paying much attention at all to what Kakashi-sensei was saying. All he could think about was how much it itched. This really wasn't a good idea. He couldn't have waited one more day to have infinite pockets? It's not like he even used ninja tools much anyway—all of his favorite techniques only required hand seals and nothing more.

(Sage, it itches—)

---

Sakura wacked herself in the face a total of seven times this morning. Seven times is far too many times to slap yourself in the face with your own hair. Sakura has really gotta find a better solution to this hair problem. Maybe a different hairstyle? Or maybe she should just say "to hell with it" and cut it off already. But then how much? Ugh. Decisions, decisions...

Ah, wait, shit—

Kakashi was explaining the Bell Test, and judging by the look on his face (eye?) she really should've been paying more attention. Ah, hell...

She doesn't remember him acting like this last time so clearly this is her fault. Should she be swooning more? Did she swoon more last time? She can't imagine why she'd be fawning over Sasuke while the Test was being explained—she was infatuated, but not that infatuated.

Is...he didn't start the Test yet, did he? Oh, hell...

---

"Maa," Kakashi panicked, "enough stalling."

He took out his book, and averted his eyes from his extremely stress-inducing students.

"Ready, set...go."

They launched at him.

Fuck—

---

This time Sasuke didn't wait and thought to be the first one to get an attack in.

He didn't expect both Naruto and Sakura to have the same idea.

Oh, hell—

---

What the hell, he's supposed to be the one who rushes in headfirst without thinking, why the fuck are they—

---

Sakura had about a second to regret all her decisions in life before they collided.

---

Kakashi was going to kill them. They'd ruined his Icha Icha.

They'd gone too far this time.

No mercy for the children.

---

Oh, hell—

---

On instinct, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all chose to stick together when they madly sprinted away from their enraged and manic sensei.

Far away in the foliage, they huddled to discuss plans.

---

"Alright," Sakura said, automatically taking charge after years of habit. Also out of habit, Naruto and Sasuke listened attentively. "We've made him—very—mad. We can use this. Now that he's angry, he'll be more reckless and we'll have a better shot."

"Unfortunately," Sasuke added in, "he'll also be going all out. Before we might've been able to take advantage of him underestimating us, but now he's not going to go easy on us."

"No use in fussing about that now," Naruto grumbled, still slightly miffed that they'd stolen his 'knuckleheaded' shtick from him.

"Naruto's right," Sakura cut in, "what's done is done. Now we have to work with what we've got, and what we've got is an enraged and reckless Kakashi-sensei. Now...how can we monopolize on that?"

---

In the end, it wasn't that hard—Sasuke had nearly gotten a bell in the original timeline, afterall—and he was just a bullheaded and arrogant little dweeb then!

Kakashi was angry, but he was still expecting them to be weak little genin, but Sakura and Sasuke couldn't help secretly using abilities they shouldn't have...nothing big, just a root here and there to trip him up, and some pushes and pulls to move things to not-quite-where-they-were-before. Naruto was the only one to "behave" so to speak.

And in the end, they managed to snatch the two bells.

---

(Kakashi breathed a huge sigh of relief—with how different things were going he wasn't sure he was gonna be able to find an excuse to pass them. Luckily, they still managed to pass on their own, and so Team 7 perseveres.)