Gaining Experience 8

Another half an hour has passed when Kakashi came in a puff of smoke.

"Yo," he greeted them cheerfully. Sakura usually screamed that he is late and he gave the excuse of a black cat and they settled in.

"Are you ready for the survival exercise?" He asked and all nodded. He took out 2 bells from his pocket.

"Your task is simple. You should take these bells from me," he said and they stared at the 2 bells and Naruto questioned the obvious.

"But Sensei, there are only 2 bells and 3 of us,"

"Correct, my blonde student. That is the test here. Only 2 of you will pass this test and the one left will be sent back to the academy," he said with an eye smile and he got the expected shock from his 3 cute students.

"And oh, I forgot to tell. These tests have a 66% fail rate. That means out of 9 teams that graduated from the Academy, only 3 teams will pass and one of you will be sent back to the Academy either way.

You have until noon to take these and the person who gets the bell eats," Kakashi said, pulling out a clock and putting it on a rock and 2 lunch boxes with it.

"Don't forget to come at me with the intent to kill. Begin!" He said and vanished. Three of them dispersed in different directions.

'Hmm, they know at least the basics,' thought Kakashi as he took his favourite book and started reading, giggling perversely.

Naruto played things through his head and found his theory to be correct. '3 Genin, how hard they try can not take a bell from a Jounin. So he is testing our teamwork,' Naruto smirked internally at his perfect analysis.

He made a clone and sent it to distract Kakashi while he went to find his teammates. Activating Sharingan as he already had his contacts on, he saw a chakra signature in the bushes and went there while his clone distracted Kakashi.

"Well, we have an early participant," said Kakashi and started defending himself. He was reading his book while defending against all the punches, kicks and other basic Taijutsu moves he is making.

'He is doing good,' thought Kakashi, still reading his book, while the real Naruto reached Sasuke.

"Hey, Sasuke, down here," he called as he was lying on the ground below the bushes for cover.

"Naruto. What are doing here? Aren't you fighting Kakashi?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"Ya, that's a clone. I figured it out. As I told you, this is about our teamwork. Think Sasuke, 3 Genin who are fresh out of the academy can not defeat an experienced Jounin like Kakashi-sensei.

So, we should work together and impress him to pass us," he said. Though Sasuke got angry that he, the Uchiha elite couldn't figure it out, he didn't give it much thought as he has more important things than this team and agreed to join the blonde.

"We'll find Sakura and fight together and complete this stupid test," he said and Sasuke followed the intelligent blonde. He never thought a day that makes him follow the blonde of all people will come.

Upon reaching the pink-haired girl, Naruto nudged Sasuke to explain things as she doesn't listen to him. Sakura agreed thinking that her precious Sasuke-kun was genius and they formed a strategy.

"So what we do is attack as a team. No matter what he says, don't fall for him. We can pass this only if we do this as a team," Naruto explained confidently and got nods of acknowledgements from his teammates.

Though Sakura admired Sasuke's cool demeanour, she heard what the blonde said and agreed with it as her Sasuke-kun agreed as well.

Naruto was keenly observing Kakashi's every moment with his Sharingan searching for weaknesses. He saw Sasuke charging with a few of his clones and doing some hand signs and the clone dispelled, relaying everything it learned to the original.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu),"

"Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough),"

Shouted Sasuke and Naruto simultaneously. A large fireball fuelled by a strong gust of wind mixed and ended up increasing the speed and intensity of the flames of the fireball as it sped towards a surprised Kakashi, who quickly performed his own set of hand signs.

"Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Dragon Projectile Jutsu),"

A big water dragon rose from a nearby pond and clashed with the large wind fuelled fireball and steam rose from the clash blinding everyone with mist.

"Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough)," said Naruto and cleared the mist with another gust of wind. Everyone except Kakashi regained their vision. Kakashi was near Sakura performing hand signs.

Naruto saw the change in her chakra and knew it to be some kind of Genjutsu as she screamed. He went to her and released the Genjutsu pushing some of his chakra into her body, disrupting her chakra flow.

She regained her consciousness and started looking around frantically.

"Sasuke-kun?" She asked in hope.

"Sasuke is fine, Sakura. Now pick yourself and proceed with our plan," Naruto assured and saw her nod.