Chapter#After heading home they decided to go to sleep earlier than usual. Since they had to leave around 4 in the morning to reach the training grounds on time, Kibo woke up half an hour sooner than necessary, he then went ahead and prepared two bentos for him and Naruto, a simple rice and egg breakfast.
After waking Naruto up they headed towards the training ground with empty stomachs, it didn"t take long for everyone to show up, like him they had all brought their own breakfast, looking around Kibo laughed under his breath, because he knew Kakashi won"t show up for a long time. They all chatted and trained waiting for Kakashi to arrive. It wasn"t till 6 PM that he noticed Kakashi and Yamato arriving, they were sitting in a tree about ten yards away observing them, Kibo was thankful for his mental energy being for being able to detect them, without the two Jonin"s noticing.
Kibo sat down as he pulled out his breakfast and started to eat, "Weren"t we supposed to skip breakfast!?" Sakura asked, everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing, Kibo thought for a second, he wanted to say "If Kakashi, and Yamato asked you to jump off a bridge; would you?" but he realized that he was talking to a bunch of Shin.o.bi who could jump down one safely.
So he turned up the seriousness of his next saying, "If our team leaders told you to kill without reason would you? If this were a real life mission, and were we"re given orders that we knew were fishy, would you still follow them!? Shin.o.bi"s need to do more than follow order"s they need to see through deception."
"Then are they testing us!?" Sasuke asked as Naruto pulled out his Bento, sat next to Kibo and opened his lunch box while saying, "Who cares, Kibo"s right. If I ended up with mission order"s that swayed me the wrong way, you better bet I"ll raise a ruckus." Naruto didn"t say anything more and started to chow down, after seeing that Kakashi and Yamato weren"t showing up for a while longer they all started to eat their meals.
"Not bad, at least they"re thinking for themselves!" Yamato said, "We"re off to a good start. Let"s hope things continue this way." The two Jonin conversed as they watched from a distance.
After they finished their meals, they still had around an hour until the two team leader"s were going to show, so they had some time to work off their meal, Kibo sat everyone down and started to discuss a plan of action, "Listen to his words carefully, if anyone hears something out of the ordinary, speak up and notify the rest."
When suddenly Kakashi showed up with Yamato waving at the group, Naruto then jumped up and shouted, "Do you two know the meaning of being on time?!" Kakashi appeared apologetic as he said, "We got lost on the way of life!" Every one wore expressionless and empty faces. Kibo half expected a crow in the distance would fly past them cawing, "AHO! AHO!" to break the silence.
(A/N Aho is the Kansai dialect of j.a.panese, meaning idiot, or fool, it"s a common gag, where birds say it in anime and manga.)
"Ahem!" Yamato cleared his voice before saying "Both Kakashi and I have two bells each." Then Yamato pointed to the three wooden stumps in the distance, before saying "The two who fail will be tied to those posts over there, and will have to go without lunch."
Everyone now understood why they wanted them to go without breakfast, when Kakashi continued, "There are only 4 bells so 2 of you are definitely getting tied to those posts, whoever these two are, will be the first to fail and be sent back to the academy as a disgrace."
"Naruto something isn"t right!" Hinata said pulling on his sleeve. "If we were getting failed, why would he send us to be punished without lunch, why not just send us back right away?" After everyone heard this they knew something was up, when they heard Kakashi say, "You better come at us like you mean to kill, otherwise you"ll all be sent home."
Naruto flickered in right next to Kakashi surprising him; however Naruto wasn"t the only one to improve thanks to the changes Kibo made to the village. Kakashi silhouette dissipated and reappeared behind Naruto, however when Kakashi tried to lock up Naruto"s arm, a puff a smoke appeared in his grasp"s place.
"A shadow clone!?" Kakashi jumped back as Naruto"s real self leapt out of the ground, as he touched the bell Kakashi"s body disappeared leaving a log in his place. On the log was written, "I didn"t say start yet!" Then Yamato said so for him, as he turned into a wooden puppet he shouted "Begin!"
Everyone instead of breaking apart and hiding grouped together and started whispering. "So work together and get all the bells, then we"ll play rock, paper, scissors, to decide who"s getting tied up." Kibo nodded his head in acceptance confirming everyone"s plans. Everyone split up searching for their Senseis". Kibo was surprised by Kakashi"s strength, they had around 8 years of Chakra food nourishing them, and because they were Sarutobi"s Anbu, the two had access to the S rank skill that he gave the Hokage; this made these two Jonin entirely different beasts" when compared to the old time line.
Naruto and Hinata joined together with Naruto, and Karin went along with Sakura and Sasuke, Kibo told them he"d use his own body as bait to lure them out of hiding, he needed sensors to go with their heavy hitters, so that they can ready for their teacher"s surprise attacks. Kibo sat down and secretly started spreading his Chakra Wires through the ground, he then had them spread out into the forest slowly so as not to alert the two.
Kakashi and Yamato were discussing their actions with great interest, "Incredible! They acting together and planning out a course of action, it"s not a bad one either." Yamato said rubbing his chin, when Kakashi scratched his head while saying "There acting like a team, and not like a rookies that were just thrown together."
That"s when the two heard something that made them jump; a piece of thread made from Chakra had Kibo"s voice coming out of it. "Yea we"ve been a training team, for around 8 years or so. Itachi and I made sure to pound teamwork into the very basics of their core." Kakashi jumped back as did Yamato, when the string quickly started to tie up their ankles. It started to climb towards the bells, when the bodies dissipated and turned into wood.
Meanwhile almost 20 yards from where Kibo destroyed Kakashi and Yamato clones, the two received the information pertaining to their loss. "Wow! Gotta be careful around Kibo." Kakashi said thinking of how dangerous and unknown Kibo"s technique really are, "It"s hard to believe that that little kid has grown so quickly." Yamato said remembering his fist meeting with Kibo.
"Yamato look out!" Kakashi kicked him over to a tree as a hail of Shuriken and fire b.a.l.l.s charged their way. The attacks all ran into Kakashi that was replace by a log, via subst.i.tution Jutsu. Yamato grabbed the real Kakashi and traveled through the ground using a Tunneling Jutsu."d.a.m.n it, he got away!" Sasuke yelled, when Karin said, "They escaped underground, they"re already outside my range."
While Kakashi and Yamato were running away, Yamato started speaking "Why does it feel like we"re the ones being hunted." Kakashi smiled and replied "I think we can skip the second half of this test. They"ve already proven themselves worthy as Shin.o.bi of the Leaf."
"So do you want to stop the test now?" Yamato asked, Kakashi shook his head left and right before whispering "No; we can"t just let these juniors show up the Adults quite yet. Take care of Kibo and the two guarding him, I take care of the rest."
Kibo was sitting in the lotus position when large wood bridge suddenly charged out at him; Kibo opened his eyes and jumped on top the growing cubed block of wood before shouting "Great Yang Fire Ball!" The entire wooden block was scorched into ash, before Kibo could land vines and branches started growing rapidly from the remaining wood log he was standing on, as it began wrapping around his body Yamato expected Kibo to be at least a little freaked out. However Kibo didn"t panic, quickly drawing Fujin from its sheath, he unleashed a flurry of attacks so fast even Yamato had trouble seeing them.
"Hiten Mugen Zan!" (Flying Heaven Infinity Slash) dozens of bright light reflections on Kibo"s sword appeared and instantly faded as he sheathed his sword, all the shrubbery that was coiling around him was diced into pieces and fell apart.
"Your Ken-Jutsu is impressive!" Yamato appeared as a wood clone, and applauded, Kibo took the Batto Jutsu stance and sent shivers down Yamato"s spine, "You should watch out, I"m not alone!" Kibo warned as a series of Kunai flew out of the forest slamming into Yamato"s clone and shattering it. Naruto clicked his teeth, as Hinata shouted "He"s 15 feet underground, approximately 13 feet east of Kibo"s position, he"s surrounded by large wooden sphere that"s around 10 feet in diameter." Her Byakugan stared through the earth and glared directly a crouching Yamato.
Doryūsen (Land Dragon Flash) Kibo leaned close to the ground and drew his sword into the earth, a huge chunk of the ground was sent flying into the air, Yamato"s defensive sphere of wood along with it. Kibo then jumped after it while quickly sheathing his sword. When he appeared on top of a large piece of debris that was flying directly above the wooden globe, he initiated by a powerful jump and using the momentum of the fall to strengthen his attack, drew his sword. With a powerful two-handed sword swing he cut through his target. "Ryūtsuisen" (Dragon Hammer Flash)
The ball flung into the ground, as it landed the impact shot up a huge puff of dust high into the air, and as the smoke cleared revealing a small crater with the wooden globe in the center, split open in a perfect line. However captain Yamato was nowhere to be seen.
"Kibo activated his Tengan and managed to see Yamato had fused with a tree and was had hid his Chakra by aligning it with the tree"s, even Hinata would have a bit of trouble finding him now, to bad this couldn"t work on his Karma signature. From inside the tree, Yamato used a Jutsu and launched a series of large spiked wooden projectiles that grew out of the tree"s branches.
The sound of the air cracking was heard as the wooden stakes whistled towards Kibo at a frightening speed; Kibo placed his hands in a series of signs that made the Lieutenant"s eye"s bulged. "Wood Release; Great Forest Technique!" The exact attack blocked Yamato"s technique, the wood bullets slammed into each other sending splinters across the battle field like hot shrapnel "Kibo can use Wood element!" While Yamato was stunned, Naruto appeared and made dozens of shadow clones around the tree he had fused with, then they all worked together to uproot the tree and toss it into the air. Kibo jumped over and inhaled a large breath of air. "Starfire Release; Great Yang Fire Ball!"
The tree began burning as Yamato shouted "Water Release; Tearing Torrent!" A wave of water doused his flame when the Lieutenant saw Hinata being launched into the air by Naruto"s clones. She charged towards the bells and reached out her hand to grab them. Yamato instantly threw a bunch of wooden shuriken from the still burning tree. As the projectiles made their way towards Hinata, Kibo appeared underneath her, Hinata"s feet landed on the side of Fujin"s scabbard, Kibo flexed as he shot her up ward even further by using the sheath to swing her up like a launching ramp.
Yamato who was completely taken by surprise as he watched Hinata deflect the burning Shuriken without so much as getting a scratch, "So this is the Hyuga Clan"s gentle fist technique!" He thought as she blazed pa.s.s him grabbing the bells.
"Man how am I going to explain this to Kakashi Senpai?" Yamato said as he watched the trio celebrate. They then performed a game of rock, paper, and scissors, leaving Kibo as the odd man out.
Meanwhile Kakashi had his hands full, Karin time after time; she was able to track him down. Sakura stayed up close constantly, however since she was trained in Gen-Jutsu resistance techniques whenever Kakashi managed to hit her with one, she would quickly dispel it. Sasuke laid down a powerful Nin-Jutsu a.s.sault that left Kakashi breathless, "So much Chakra, why didn"t Itachi mention thisss . . ." Kakashi thought back to what Kibo said earlier. "Ooh; that little weasel set me up." Kakashi could almost make out Itachi"s figure in the scenery holding up his fingers, in victory.
Kakashi then started to go the a.s.sault; they were still kids, so he didn"t go full force. However he was now using Nin-Jutsu to fight back. Kakashi performed 3 different Jutsus almost instantaneously. The ground turned soft as a wave of water and lightning charged towards them. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and mimicked Kakashi"s hand signs sending the same Jutsus back at him, "His Sharingan already has 3 tomoe!?" Kakashi didn"t stop there, he leapt towards them and used a Great Fire Ball Jutsu, Sasuke in turn did the same, however Sakura and Karin suddenly unleashed their first Nin-Jutsu since they started chasing Kakashi.
A water bullet formed by Sakura and a small metal chain shot out of Karin, Kakashi tried to escape but when he went to move away, Sasuke jumped in front of Kakashi and instead of using Tai-Jutsu like Kakashi thought he was, Sasuke used a simple Gen-Jutsu on Kakashi.
Kakashi felt himself being pulled into the Gen-Jutsu only for a second, before immediately escaping it. However that one second was all it took for Sakura to grab on to Karin"s chain and ride along it to s.n.a.t.c.h the bells from Kakashi"s hip. "We did it Sasuke!" Sakura said holding on to the bells while jumping into Sasuke"s embrace. Karin gave a lecherous "thumbs up" to Sakura, Sasuke seeing this then picked Sakura off of him and placed her down while saying, "Sakura there are people watching."
"Yea, something about these kids definitely annoys me!" Kakashi thought as he watched the scene in front of him.