Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Chronicles of Kakashi & the Kunoichi from Thunder Country ❯ The Bells Test ( Chapter 4 )

The Bells Test

 

Nearly an hour later, Kakashi stopped reading his book and started to wonder why no one had attacked. `What's going on? I didn't lose them did I? I didn't walk that far away. That would be too pathetic. What could they be planning? In the past all the other genin teams had attacked fairly quickly.'

 

Suddenly he heard a bloodcurdling scream, and a thump! `Probably a trap,' he analyzed, but he ran quickly towards the scream while stowing away his book in his hip pack.

 

Rikako was lying on the ground, seemingly unconscious, blood flowing freely from a gash in her forehead. Her clothes were torn and bloody. A large broken tree branch spotted with blood lay by her side

 

'Is this genjutsu?' was Kakashi's first thought, but then he saw that it was real blood, real cuts. He hurried over and picked up her limp body. Her breathing was shallow and he immediately became concerned. `Damn, I have to file an accident report on the first day.'

 

But there was no time to contemplate administrative forms. The wary jounin felt a tickle of chakra coming from behind him. Without turning his head, from the corner of his right eye, he saw a crouched figure behind a tree. The clothes did not seem to be those of his genin, but he quickly realized they were smeared with mud and dirt for camouflage. `Good thinking. They can't do the jutsu but that's not bad at all.'

 

A volley of shuriken whizzed through the air - but not all came from behind. More of the little spinning spiked wheels rained from above. The girl in his arms suddenly woke and slashed at him with her kunai. She was not joking around - she aimed for his arms which were not protected by his thick shinobi vest.

 

But all of this was mere child's play for the veteran shinobi. As soon as he felt the single crouched figure behind him, he realized their plan.

 

One second Rikako targeted a forearm, next she suddenly found herself slashing at a harmless log instead of her annoying sensei. She ungracefully hit the ground. But there was no time to react to the painful jolt. The shuriken were now coming at her rather than him and instead of Kakashi having to fend them off, she had to.

 

Meanwhile, the target was now well hidden amongst the many trees in Konoha's forest. He now knew the positions of each of his genin and decided to first take out the one who threw the shuriken from above. His single sharp eye focused in on the treetops. A large shadow flittered from tree to tree. His genin was on the move. `Now the hunted will become the hunter,' he laughed to himself while stealthily following the shadow.

 

The veteran shinobi did not bother to mute his chakra or use a camouflage jutsu or any other jutsu. He always wanted his teams to pass and was willing to even the playing field as much as possible, as long as they were working as a team. If they showed signs of selfishness, all bets were off. Still, he had his pride and he couldn't let them off that easily. Tying them to poles and watching them starve for a while was all part of the fun. Kakashi settled on a strong thick branch where he could see Kenji quite clearly now. Like the other genin boy, he too had smeared his clothes and face with mud and dirt. He waited for the boy to notice him, wondering if he would attack or run away. `

 

It was a very short wait. As soon as he had stopped to take a breath, he heard a slight buzz - shuriken from behind. He instinctively turned to block them with his kunai. The clink of metal against metal warned the boy in front of him. Kakashi turned back to follow but then the large branch under him suddenly cracked. He jumped up, just in time to avoid the blast. It was no small explosion either. This team was serious. They had just destroyed over two hundred square feet of forest.

 

Kakahi landed on another large tree branch, well away from ground zero. But no rest for the weary as more weaponry came at him - this time, kunai with explosive tags. They were stepping up the game. Kakashi leaped to the ground to avoid the many explosions above him. No rest for the weary or wary, rustling from above - a net of vines. `Gravity is too slow,' Kakashi thought as he easily tucked his body and rolled away.

 

But then another explosion. Sand obscured his vision. A very heavy voluminous cloud of sand and soil. The net was not meant to trap him after all. It was just another diversion. Kakashi had to close his single exposed eye against the tiny grains of dirt, but with his uncovered eye barely open, and his ability to sense chakra, he could make out a figure coming up from behind and another in the distant front.

 

Kunai and shuriken struck from above and behind. Kakashi kicked back with his right leg at the figure, while blocking the thrown weapons with his kunai and glove plates, and twisting his body to avoid being hit. It was no simple taijutsu move even for a jounin. The figure behind him jumped backed, avoiding the kick by a fraction of an inch. Meanwhile the figure in front, which had come in low and close, didn't attack, although it had the opportunity as Kakashi's limbs were all occupied. Instead, it simply rolled away.

 

All participants stopped, waiting for someone to make the next move. When the sand finally settled, Kakashi saw that the figure in front of him was the girl, holding the two bells triumphantly in her hands. She was smiling, not happily or enthusiastically as one would expect, but her usual calm complacent smile, as if the final result was just the anticipated outcome and they had done nothing special at all.

 

-…-…-…-…-…-

 

“Strengths and weakness - that's easy. I'm really strong and pretty fast. Good at throwing kunia and shuriken. But…well…this is not a written test, so I don't have any weaknesses.” Kenji smiled proudly.

 

“I'm good at making traps. I think I'm pretty fast when I need to be. My shuriken and kunai throwing are okay, I think. But I'm not terribly strong.” Takeo shrugged.

 

“What about ninjutsu? Do you guys know any special techniques?”

 

“I can do the basics, like henge, bunshin, and kawarimi, pretty well. I might even manage a camouflage technique that I've been working on,” Kenji added.

 

“Just the basics for me,” Takeo offered.

 

Rikako nodded thoughtfully. “Well, I'm good at thinking, but I can barely hit the broadside of the Hokage building with my abysmal shuriken and kunai throwing. Traps are always good. What kind of trap do you think you can put together?” She directed her attention to the smaller boy.

 

“Well, I don't have all my equipment with me, too heavy to carry, but I think I can make a net out of vines. We could try to lure him into a trap or ambush, but he's probably expecting that.”

 

“Maybe we can create a distraction so he won't know it's a trap,” Kenji suggested.

 

Rikako agreed. “We need a convincing distraction. I know what to do, just leave that to me when the time comes. You guys concentrate on the ambush.” She took out her notebook, outlined some scenarios and showed them to the boys. “Quiet, he might be listening,” she whispered, warning them before they could discuss which plan to implement.

 

Kenji and Takeo scattered to search for vines while Rikako filled the bags, that had held her snack, with sand from the rockier outlying parts of the Konoha forest. Takeo used the vines to fashion a crude net. Then they gathered together all their weapons. Rikako counted each one of each type and then redistributed them as necessary.

 

“We have about ten minutes before the timer goes off. He should be nearby. Do we have everything ready?” she asked. The two boys nodded. The explosive tags were in place as well as the net with the bags of sand attached.

 

“Kenji will be throwing these as distractions. Takeo will be throwing these to cut the bells. I only need a few shuriken and kunai for what I need to do. Let's go.”

 

Rikako did not use genjutsu. A jounin like Kakashi would easily see through that. To make the distraction convincing, she took a kunai and slashed at herself, heedless of the pain and scars. She screamed as loudly as she could while breaking the tree branch and jumping down with it. Then she lay on the ground and slowed her breathing to make it seem as if she were unconscious.

 

The strategy was multi-layered. First Kakashi would have his arms full with her. Takeo was to creep behind and try to cut the bells as Kenji threw his shuriken as another distraction. If that failed, she would try to cut the bells or hurt Kakashi. Failing that, Kakashi would come after them. They knew that he would know that there were two on the ground and one in the trees. He would probably escape to the trees and take out the one who was hiding there. He was likely to appear behind Kenji for a sneak attack; after all, that's what ninja do. The genin sawed at the branches with their kunai to weaken them and attached exploding tags all around the area of the trap. Once Kakashi left the hazardous trees, Kenji released the net. It was expected that Kakashi would be able to avoid the net, but the sand was a different matter. The sand had to work or they would have no more chances.

 

A ninja uses all five senses in defense and offense. But the most important one was arguably sight. If they could just reduce his field of vision for a few seconds, they could have the advantage. Takeo crept from behind again and threw the rest of his kunai and shuriken at the bells while from above Kenji threw whatever he had left. Rikako crept in from the front to grab the bells should Takeo finally succeed.

 

-…-…-…-…-

 

Kakashi's uncovered eye was red and still tearing from a grain of sand that had not been filtered out by his eyelashes.

 

“I'm sorry about the sand. Are you okay?” Takeo honestly did feel bad about ruining the poor guy's sole eye. What if he went blind? They could have no sensei at all.

 

Rustling from above preceded a flurry of leaves and the other member of the team. Kenji dropped out of the trees to see what was going on.

 

Rikako had not spread mud and dirt over her clothes and face as the boys did, but she looked almost as dirty, especially with the dried blood. She brushed her clothes futilely with her hands, while saying, “He's fine - he's a jounin. He let us win.”

 

'Yes, but I might have had to use a higher level jutsu against these guys,' Kakashi thought. Out loud he said, “I'm impressed. That took a lot of teamwork. You guys are the first to truly pass the test.”

 

Kenji automatically asked, “You mean we all passed?” Kakashi nodded in reply. The genin jumped around excitedly. “Hey, that was fun, can we do it again?” Kenji asked once he had settled down. He did not seem to mind all the scratches on his arms and face from having to traverse the trees.

 

Takeo smiled happily, since he didn't get hurt at all. “Rikako-chan's the smart one who came up with the plan. I was ready to go home.”

 

The girl blushed; she was always uncomfortable with compliments. “I just had the general idea, but I can't throw shuriken well or make traps.”

 

Kakashi smiled proudly through his mask at his new genin team.

 

A rumble from his stomach reminded Takeo that they had yet to have lunch. He tentatively cleared his throat. “Umm, what about lunch? There's only two?”

 

“Oh, well…I really didn't expect you all to pass…heh heh,” Kakashi laughed nervously. `Crap, now they expect me to buy lunch for everyone!'

 

“If we didn't work as a team, you would not have let any of us get a bell.” It was a statement rather than a question coming from the girl.

 

Kakashi nodded and turned their attention to the shinobi memorial. “The most important thing about being a shinobi is team work. In the ninja world, those who don't follow the rules are called trash but those who don't take care of their comrades are worse than trash. The names on that memorial are all the shinobi who died in the line of duty. My best friend's name is engraved there.”

 

'Now I'm depressed,' Takeo thought morosely, `and I was feeling a bit better about finally getting some food.'

 

But Kenji was unfazed by the solemn words. “So how did he die? How old was he? What kind of mission was it? Were you there when it happened?”

 

Lost in his memories, and perhaps annoyed by the inappropriate questions, Kakashi did not respond. Rikako shot Kenji a warning look and shook her head.

 

To avoid the awkward silence and change the subject she spoke. “Teamwork is very important in order to efficiently and effectively complete a mission,” she said in her analytical tone. “The more you care about your team members, the more likely you'll protect each other and survive to see the mission through. Staying alive, keeping others alive, should always be considered first.” Then she added to herself, `However, being overly emotional can also negatively effect mission completion. Friendship, loyalty, courage, determination, everything must be in balance and the goal itself must be weighed against the cost of lives.'

 

Kakashi woke up at her words. `Who's the sensei here? Is she quoting her father?' Though her words echoed his sentiment, they were delivered as if she were reciting a passage from a book. It did not have the tone of one who had lost someone important. She was the one who came up with the plan to get the bells. But was it really teamwork, or was she just using the two boys to advance herself? Did she care about them at aIl? She knew it was a test of teamwork; she read between the lines and passed the test. In a real life situation, would she work as a team, or abandon her team members to complete the mission or to save herself? It seemed she would go to rather extreme lengths to accomplish her goals. `The cuts, the wounds, the blood, there was a least half a pint, yet the way she continued to fight, and her focus...she really meant to hurt me!'

 

And there were other cuts. Once she washed off the blood in the river, Kakashi saw her arms exposed. There were scars, lots of them, some faded, some more recent. They looked as though they were made by a thin sharp edged instrument.

 

'What happened to her? Why all those scars? She hasn't been on any missions and Academy students don't get injured like that in training.' Dark possibilities raced across Kakashi's mind.

 

-…-…-…-…-…-