Disclaimer:
Dialogue
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 15: Team 7
Using his superior speed, Kakashi moved a good distance away and put the fire out, saving his beloved novel.
"Uff… that was close. I had only read this one three times…"
"Haa!" Kakashi spotted some pink hair before being forced to avoid a potentially dangerous punch to his groin.
"Sakura?" He had not expected to see this girl charging directly at him and attacking using taijutsu since that was her weakest point according to the profile he read.
Kakashi was using one hand to stop her attacks but was starting to feel the pressure. Sakura's attacks were not just fast but she was also accurately aiming for his blind spots.
Moments later, he also had to avoid several shurikens being thrown by Sasuke, who was now acting as support.
'This is a bit annoying… but wait… where is Naruto?' As Kakashi was wondering this… three kunai came flying towards his back while several more shurikens were thrown by Sasuke.
At the same time, Sakura threw a barrage of punches and kicks at him.
With no other choice, he had to put his book away and attack the girl with one hand while stopping the flying weapons with the other one.
He felt bad for having to hurt the young girl, but he was being pushed quite a bit by these genin.
He felt his punch connect with her stomach, but just then… she disappeared.
Kakashi felt a presence behind him.
'She used substitution?!... That's the same thing that he did… oh!' He quickly turned around and found Naruto's hand already going for one of the bells.
'That was not Sakura!, Naruto was using a transformation!' Had he been using his Sharingan, he would have easily found out, but since he wasn't taking this fight very seriously, he had completely underestimated what Naruto could do. His transformation had been perfect.
'But this is not enough to take the bell,' Kakashi thought. He was still many times faster than Naruto and could easily deflect this attempt.
But the blonde boy surprised him again.
When Kakashi tried to grab Naruto's hand as it was moving close to the bells… the hand disappeared as if it was never there in the first place.
A different hand appeared a few inches away and grabbed onto one of the bells, pulling it out while Kakashi was still trying to figure out what happened.
"Got one!" Naruto shouted with joy. This had been as difficult as he thought. He was forced to make use of a variation of the 'Illusionary Palm' technique. A low-rank martial art from his old world that is able to deceive the opponent by making him see a fake hand.
"Yes, we did it!" The real Sakura came running towards Kakashi and Naruto.
Sasuke was only a short distance behind. His usual impassive face was replaced by a satisfied smile.
Kakashi glanced down at his belt. There was only one bell remaining.
'They really got one… I can't believe this.'
Of course, if he had been taking this encounter a bit more seriously, the genin would have had zero chance of victory, but that would have been too unfair so he had held back quite a bit.
Even then… he did not predict this outcome at all. Kakashi thought he had a good grasp on their abilities based on what he had observed personally and what he had read from their files.
His assessment of Sasuke and Sakura had been mostly accurate. But he had been completely off the mark with Naruto… the boy was nothing like his file says.
Kakashi knew about his incident, followed by his loss of memories and change of attitude. But this was more than just having a different personality.
'Those taijutsu moves… where did he learn that? And that last technique he used… was that genjutsu?' Kakashi decided that he was going to have a good talk with Iruka after this. He was the one who knew Naruto the best so he may have some idea of what was happening here.
"So… did we pass?" Sakura asked with excitement.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
"Pass? You only got one bell… and the time is almost up." Kakashi glanced at Naruto.
"Should I congratulate you now?"
"Wait, you are only going to pass Naruto?" Sakura had trusted Naruto's plan because Sasuke had agreed to it, but now she was beginning to have doubts.
Naruto shrugged. "If you only want to pass the person with the bell…" he threw the bell to Sasuke.
"Pass him."
Sasuke caught the bell and stared at it for a moment. He seemed to be conflicted.
"Is that so? Should I pass only Sasuke then?" Kakashi asked.
"No… I don't deserve to be the only one who passes. We all worked together," Sasuke said while looking at Naruto. He could not accept to win like this. Not when he knew that Naruto had done most of the work.
Naruto was the one who came up with the strategy, plus was the one who ultimately got the bell from Kakashi. If he just took this bell like this… it would be too shameful.
Sasuke threw the bell at Kakashi's feet.
"You should pass us all. We all got that bell."
"Yeah, Sasuke is right!" Sakura exclaimed. "Wasn't that the point of this test? To see if we could work together? Well, we just showed you."
Kakashi stared at the pink-haired girl.
"Who told you that was the point of the test?"
"Eh?... well." She pointed at Naruto.
"I see…" He saw it now. Naruto had figured it out from the beginning and had been trying to get the other two to cooperate with him.
Kakashi sighed in defeat. 'It looks like I will be a teacher for a while.'
They all then heard the clock set up previously by Kakashi. The time was up…
Kakashi glanced at the three of them.
"From today on… you are officially recognized as Genin of Konoha. Welcome to Team 7."
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