16 Bell Test/Tora's Upbringing

Tora was in the bushes, observing the three genin as they talked about their survival exercise.

"Urghh so hungry." Naruto was holding his stomach.

"Sigh... come on just deal with it Naruto. We just have to finish this exercise and then we can eat the food Mom made for us." Sasuke replied, referencing the unopened bentos in their bags.

"Yeah Naruto, just one exercise and we can eat. Though I'm getting worried, Kakashi-sensei's already an hour late." Sakura added.

"I think this might become a theme with him, judging with how Tora talked about him yesterday." Sasuke grumbled.

"Grrr..." All of the genins and their stomach's were growling.

"Anyway, I have a feeling that Kakashi-sensei may want to fight us to see our skills. If its alright with you guys, Naruto will stay in front and summon shadow clones, I'll be in the middle and support with my fire ninjutsu, and Sakura will stay behind to support with genjutsu." Sasuke said his thoughts on today's possible exercise and suggested a plan.

Naruto though still terrible in academics, was definitely battle smart and knew Sasuke had a good plan, so he agreed and nodded his head.

Sakura thought over it and also agreed. It was very likely in a spar that Kakashi would go after her first, so she got ready. She already experienced a few sessions of Tsunade's "evasion" training and had confidence in her abilities not to be captured easily.

Meanwhile, Tora looked over at the shinobi behind him who had just arrived.

"Took you long enough Kakashi-san. How's the reading going?" Tora was also hoping he could have time to observe the other genin teams today, and was somewhat exasperated by Kakashi's usual antics.

"Oh? Quite good actually, I'm rereading my favorite chapter. How are they doing?" Kakashi spoke while holding his book.

"Sigh... Hungry, angry, a bit of worry for the survival exercise. I think they'll work together though... Naruto with taijutusu, Sasuke with ninjutsu, and Sakura with genjutsu and medical ninjutsu." Tora said what he had gauged from the trio.

"Hmm... We'll see, are you planning to stay here?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah... Don't want them to get conscious of me being here. Try not to read too much Kakashi-san, they might surprise you." Tora then replied.

Kakashi nodded and flickered towards the genin squad.

Kakashi then explained the bell test similarly to the original story. He showed them the two bells, started reading his book with one hand, and avoided an illegal early-start sneak attack from a Naruto shadow clone.

"Easy Naruto, I didn't say start yet." Kakashi said before jumping some distance away.

"Okay go!" Kakashi then said.

The three genin first threw down smoke bombs to hinder Kakashi's vision. Once the smoke disappeared, it revealed that Naruto had summoned quite a number of shadow clones while the other two where nowhere to be seen. Naruto tried to swarm Kakashi with his shadow clones but was still getting beaten while Kakashi was reading.

'Hmm... Good, he doesn't exactly follow academy taijutsu but has instead followed his instincts while using the basic forms as a guideline. He's also fitted his Taijutsu to complement the amount of shadow clones he uses by disregarding defense, and focusing on coordinating all the clones' attacks to create and target openings. An annoying swarming fighting style if I had to describe it.'

As the numbers lessened, one of the further away clones suddeny transformed into Sasuke who immediately made the hand signs for fireball jutsu. Kakashi noticed this and inwardly smirked.

'It figures, this likely isn't the first time the two have fought together. Despite only learning about Naruto's shadow clones recently, Sasuke already found a way to be in synch with him when he attacks.'

As the fireball was about to engulf Kakashi, Kakashi got ready to substitute himself with a log. But before he was about to do so, he felt someone trying to disrupt his chakra flow with genjutsu. Kakashi immediately knew this was Sakura who was hiding in the edge of the field in some bushes.

'Nice control, subtle and smooth. She's fundamentally sound when it comes to genjutsu.' Was Kakashi's assessment.

Unfortunately, this was not enough to distract Kakashi for long. Once the fireball hit, he disappeared and was replaced by a log.

"Sakura, Naruto, RUN! Let's regroup later." Sasuke yelled, now that their initial surprise attack failed. It would be impossible to fight Kakashi in honest combat in an open field, they could now only try to ambush him in the forest later.

However, the time it took Sasuke to yell was enough for the ground to open up and a hand to drag him into the ground and leave him buried up to his neck.

Kakashi then popped out of the ground to chase the remaining two genin.

Naruto however had different plans and summoned even more shadow clones than he had originally done.

"Sakura! I'll try to buy time, try and get Sasuke out. We're not getting those bells with only two of us." Naruto yelled out.

Sakura nodded her head and left the forest, only to suddenly be rushed by Kakashi. Kakashi tried to grab her with a chunin-level of speed to gauge her evasion, and was surprised when Sakura was able to to reliably avoid it for a few seconds. This was enough for Naruto's swarm to catch-up to him while a few of the other clones decided to try and free Sasuke.

'Sakura's ability to dodge is above genin level, it looks like Tsunade-sama has been training her well.' Kakashi noted.

"It seems Tora was right, I won't be able to read if this continues...Sigh, their teamwork is good, I think we can move-on to the final part of the exercise." Kakashi decided to take this a bit more seriously and put-away his book.

Once he did, he immediately started kicking and punching the different shadow clones at a faster pace than before, while heading towards where Naruto was trying to rescue Sasuke. Once there, he easily dispatched the remaining clones, and was able to find the true Naruto hiding among them.

'Not the type to fight from afar and let his clones do all the work I see.' Was Kakashi's thoughts as he pulled Naruto into the ground in a similar fashion to Sasuke.

After that, it became a simple task to catch Sakura who was not meant to be a solo combatant. Kakashi simply appeared behind her a cast a quick genjutsu.

A few minutes later, Naruto was tied to a post for attacking without waiting for the proper start signal while Sasuke and Sakura were allowed to eat.

While Kakashi was waiting to see what they would do, Tora who was beside him, spoke with a smirk.

"It seems you weren't able to read a lot today Kakashi-san. What happened?" Tora said to him.

"Well, they have definitely exceeded my expectations. They will definitely make a good team in the future." Kakashi replied.

"Mhm, Hokage-sama will be glad to hear it... Oh? It looks like they passed." Tora commented on what was happening.

Sasuke and Sakura who had a short conversation, looked around, trying to detect the presence of Kakashi before trying to feed Naruto. Kakashi suddenly appeared behind them to scare them before congratulating them on passing his exam. Tora smiled at this and waited a few minutes.

As Tora was about to leave, he was suddenly called out by Kakashi.

"Tora-kun! Before you go! Everyone here would like to have a spar with you. Just like in the academy." Kakashi suddenly yelled out.

Tora rolled his eyes and took a deep breath before walking out of the forest and heading towards them.

"Sure Kakashi-sensei, but only for a while. I have to go see the other teams after this." Tora said.

Though he was annoyed, he was also curious how he would do against each of the three in solo combat. Subsequently, they drew a simple combat circle in the dirt like in the academy to represent the area they were not allowed to leave without being disqualified. He also decided to only rely on his Taijutsu and Kenjutsu for this session.

Tora first faced Naruto, who like before, summoned a good number of shadow clones that could still fit in the circle. Once they engaged, Tora confirmed that Naruto with his clone-spamming could easily take down a chunin and give trouble to a low-level jounin. Naruto was actually very slippery as he would substitute himself with another clone whenever his true body got hit. Eventually however, the spar ended a few minutes later, with Tora knocking away the real Naruto out of the circle with the blunt-end of his odachi.

"Nice job Naruto, I look forward to when you can add more moves to your arsenal." Tora commented as he and Naruto performed the friendship sign afterwards.

"Your skin is too tough dattebayo! My Kunai can only scratch you." Naruto then referenced how Tora ignored a majority of Naruto's attack and simply let himself get hit since Naruto wasn't able to pierce his skin and do much damage. Though he did end up with a few scratches here and there, which he immediately healed with medical ninjutsu after the match ended.

Next was Sasuke, who was more technically sound and used a variety of fire ninjutsu, and shuriken to face Tora. Unlike Naruto, instead of trying to overwhelm Tora with numbers, Sasuke tried a few quality attacks on Tora's vitals while evading him. In response, Tora calmly walked Sasuke down and tanked any hit that wasn't important and only dodged Sasuke's stronger and/or more targeted attacks. After some time of Sasuke doing his hit and run tactics, he eventually grew tired and was caught by Tora, who threw him out of the circle.

"Your a walking boulder." Sasuke remarked after they did the friendship sign. Tora chuckled as he then healed the nicks and burns he received from their match.

Finally came Sakura, who was excited to face Tora, who she saw as her senior disciple. She immediately charged up chakra in her hand which Kakashi and Tora both widened their eyes at. Tora who had a feeling what was coming raised his forearms to block as a fist landed on his guard.

THUD!

Sakura's chakra infused punch landed with a loud sound and actually managed to push Tora a few steps back. Sakura however was shocked and disappointed that that was all she could do to him.

'Geez, I should avoid making Sakura mad.' Was Naruto's thoughts, and Sasuke had a similar impression.

'Damn, this is getting to about a fifth of Tsunade's power without chakra strengthening.' Tora compared this punch to the one he received from Tsunade to become a genin.

Sakura repeatedly threw more haymakers, making louder and louder sounds on Tora's block, but to no avail.

Tora then grabbed her punching hand and threw her out of the ring. Doing the friendship sign, Tora saw the disappointment in Sakura's face and consoled her afterwards.

"Don't feel to bad, we we're trained in different things after all. Your "evasion" training was my "resilience" training." Tora said with a pained smile.

Sakura shuddered at this statement. She and Ino had experienced first hand the amount of boulders, kunai, and other dangerous objects that were thrown at them by Tsunade during their training. She could only imagine what it felt to have to actually purposefully get hit by all of them.

After healing the bruises in his forearms, Tora then excused himself and body flickered away.

Despite Tora encouragement and consolation, the three genin looked down in disappointment that they were easily handled by their batchmate.

Kakashi, who saw this, sighed and spoke to them.

"Do not look down on yourselves too much. You are all actually strong for genin, it's just that Tora's circumstances are special. He was pressured and raised from a young age to be strong. When he was five, he was already being trained regularly like an adult by people such as Tsunade-sama, Hiruzen-sama, Asuma, and Kurenai. Not to mention, the support he received from being the heir to his clan."

The three genin could only nod at this in thought. Naruto then looked up.

"Sensei, I was with Tora in some of these weekly sessions before the academy started. They were definitely hard but it doesn't explain how he got that far ahead of us." Naruto who was occasionally able to join Tora in his weekly sessions explained.

"...Naruto, those weekly sessions you talk about turned into almost daily sessions for Tora. Since you were far behind on your fundamentals and theoretical knowledge, you weren't able to join. Furthermore, this didn't stop once Tora entered the academy, he had night tutoring sessions frequently. Since he learnt it at a young age, he was only able to have free time by using a shadow clone to supplement his training or attend class for him while he trained harshly." Kakashi explained.

After hearing this, the three genin finally realized that Tora was very likely grinding himself to the bone everyday for his strength.

"This explains a Iot sensei, but what made him be able train for so long, it feels like you'd eventually give-up without a good reason." Sakura then commented.

Hearing this, Kakashi looked at Sasuke and Naruto who were just as curious.

"...Sigh, I see your family and Tora didn't tell you this, it was likely because they wanted to protect your innocence as children. However, since you are officially ninja now, I'll tell you. Tora's clan the Hoshi were not originally part of the village. They were originally their own ninja village that was allied to us; however, that village is no more. It was destroyed years ago by rogue ninja a few months after Tora and his family arrived here." Kakashi explained. He saw that all three genins' eyes were wide in surprise. He surmised that they truly were not told of this.

"Tora as you might know, has a special place in his clan as their prodigy and heir. He has unfair expectations placed on him and many among his clan are unfairly hoping that he can immediately rebuild their ninja village within one generation." Kakashi expounded.

Naruto, who had met Tora around the time he lost his village, realized that Tora was likely going through so many negative emotions when he first met him. Even then, Tora decided to be friendly to Naruto and befriend him. Never once through the years did Tora say or show anything about the hardships he was facing. He could only grit his teeth in frustration of not knowing his friend's plight.

Sasuke who heard this was also deep in thought. If something like this happened to him, what would he do? He likely would have thrown himself into training out of anger and rage was his conclusion. Sasuke who also had a good relationship with Tora, began to understand how this could cause him to grow up so strong. His respect and admiration towards Tora's dedication grew, he began to feel disappointment in himself for thinking that his current training was enough.

Sakura, who had always seen Tora as her friendly if somewhat mischievous classmate, thought about Tora's skill in medical ninjutsu. She speculated that this traumatic event of losing many of his clansmen may have been what led to Tora developing the skill so fast. Sakura felt that she would have been desperate to save and protect what she had left if she was in Tora's position; and learning medical ninjutsu may have been what she also would have turned to. She could only feel a deep amount of sympathy for Tora who never seemed particularly down whenever she saw him in the academy.

Kakashi seeing his students deep in thought about the sudden revelation regarding Tora, spoke up to motivate them.

"If you truly feel sorry or want to help Tora. I suggest you all get stronger, after observing that child, I learned that he is someone who will greedily try to carry everyone's burdens and overextend himself. The best thing you can do is get him to trust that you are strong enough to protect yourself." Kakashi spoke with conviction.

His three student heard this, froze and quietly nodded with determination. Seeing that Tora had grown so strong despite his personal tragedy, they were all motivated to get stronger. Kakashi could only smile and sincerely thank Tora in his heart for this.

Author's Corner!

Hey Guys!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

We had the bell test in this chapter as well as the main trio learning more about Tora. Tora as you have read is someone who is throwing himself into training to cope with his personal issues while putting a happy unaffected face in front of everyone else. I'm excited to see when this finally cracks.

Hoping to be able to post at least one chapter a week from now on!

Thanks for reading!