So sorry for the long wait...

DON'T EAT ME! *flinches and ducks*

NOTE!

"Normal Sakura"

'Inner Sakura'

Chapter Fourteen

With Squad Seven:

The silence was deafening. After Kakashi's attack, Naruto had body slammed rather painfully into the lake at the edge of the clearing, causing both Sakura and Mari to wince simultaneously. Kakashi had gone back to reading his book as though nothing had happened; seemingly oblivious to his surroundings though by now the three remaining genin knew that it was just a façade. Now all was quiet – so quiet, in fact, that Mari found it almost hard to breathe for fear that someone would hear and her cover would be blown.

Sakura was studying Kakashi meticulously from her new hiding place in a bush not too far from Mari. 'That must be against the rules. He's a jounin! We can't possibly match his strength,' she thought in disbelief, narrowing her eyes at the jounin critically.

Mari, however, was focused on the lake. 'Just what is Naruto doing down there?' Sakura's brunette teammate wondered with rough curiosity. Her ocean blue eyes narrowed as her gaze flickered between the lake and her dad. Should she attack? Should she sneak over to check on Naruto? Just as she was preparing to make her move towards the lake, two shuriken flew at lightning speed from the water, headed straight for Kakashi. Her eyes flew wide in shock and a gasp was ripped from her throat when her dad caught the shuriken without even looking up, the deadly little windmill blades rotating to a halt each around one of Kakashi's fingers.

'Wh-wha?!'

With Iruka and the Hokage:

"I-It can't be… This is even worse than the rumors!" Iruka professed, not liking what he was reading. His expression was akin to shocked disbelief – even a hint of fear for his ex-students. In his hands he held the blue-green book the Hokage had offered him only moments before. Each and every page was all but the same.

"Kakashi's test may be a bit more difficult than the others," The Hokage allowed with an understanding nod.

"A bit more difficult?! Not a single student has ever passed his test," the chunin asserted, growing increasingly worried about his former student's abilities to truly become genin.

"That's true," the Sandaime admitted seriously. "They all tried, but not one of them could live up to Kakashi's standards. So they were all… eliminated."

With Squad Seven:

'He's reading and laughing! He's just playing with Naruto!' Were the worried thoughts of the pink-haired kunoichi. 'If he's just going to toy with us, how can we ever hope to get those bells?'

Sasuke, Sakura, and Mari watched the shore of the lake apprehensively.

'There!' Emerging from the lake was none other than a coughing Naruto. He crawled onto the small, rocky lake shoreline practically hacking up his lungs.

"What are you doing now?" Kakashi asked, his deep voice tainted with tones of boredom. "You know you won't get lunch unless you take a bell by noon."

"I know! I know!" Naruto griped, squinting up at his sensei as the water continued to drip from his soaked blond hair into his face. "You told us already!"

"You look pretty wobbly for someone who's going to surpass the Hokage," Kakashi goaded him further. He held back an amused smirk beneath his mask when Naruto's stomach growled loudly enough for him to hear. The blond groaned and gripped his stomach as it ached with hunger pains.

"RRRRGGG! YOU TOLD US NOT TO EAT BREAKFAST! HOW CAN I FIGHT WHEN I'M STARVING TO DEATH?!"

'Breakfast?' Thought Sakura, pulling a pained expression as her stomach growled with hunger. 'I didn't even have dinner last night! A really bad idea to go on a diet…'

With a small smirk, the blue-eyed, brunette kunoichi raised her hands into the familiar seals to make clones. They wouldn't be solid, like Naruto's, but she had a pretty good feeling Naruto was working on some kind of distraction. If that was so, she would take advantage of it and act now. With soft puffs of white smoke, three clones appeared and immediately set out in different directions for a surprise attack. With one last glance at Naruto, Mari quickly took to the trees to reach her own position for the attack. Imagine her surprise when she leapt from a branch to see Sasuke perched on a branch a few feet below her.

'Stupid Uchiha; if it wasn't for him and bubblegum head, Naruto wouldn't be so hungry right now,' the brunette thought spitefully, resenting her other two teammates. Their stupidity and the Uchiha's stubborn nature in particular was threatening Naruto's success and she'd be pissed if Naruto failed and couldn't be on the team. 'Like hell I'd work well with those two. I'd probably end up doing all of the work – Sakura would be too busy fan-girl-ing and Sasuke would be too busy trying to look tough and cool.' Okay, so maybe that wasn't exactly true. Sasuke was the top male rookie of their class after all, but she had every right to be annoyed with them for how they treated Naruto and herself earlier.

Sasuke glanced up at her and she gave him a piercing look before continuing on her way, leaving him wondering just what she was up to.

"SO YOU CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD! BELIEVE IT!" Naruto was shouting after Kakashi from his place on the shore of the lake; the silver haired jounin had turned and had begun walking away at that point, proving Naruto's dramatic arm-waving to be pointless. "I WAS JUST A LITTLE CARELESS, THAT'S ALL!"

"Ever hear that carelessness can be your worst enemy?" Kakashi replied nonchalantly, nose buried in his book.

Naruto slumped forward slightly, holding his stomach as it churned uneasily, begging for food. "I'm so hungry I don't have any strength," grrrrrooooowwwwlllll, "but I can't let that stop me! I've got to get one of those bells no matter what. I'll find the strength somehow – dattebayo! I'm gonna pass this test, and I'm NOT going back to the Academy!" He glared at his sensei's back with determination – a fire blazing in his eyes that no one could put out. 'I'm going to make him… ACKNOWLEDGE ME!"

"I WILL become a ninja!" Mari heard Naruto assert. A smile found its way to her lips as she communicated with her clones to get ready for the attack. At that very moment, Naruto's own clones leapt from the water.

"Haha! You're overconfident, sensei!" One of the seven Naruto clones exclaimed. "That's why you weren't ready for a Shadow Clone attack! My specialty, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! You better not get careless! There's more than one of me now!"

'Seven clones, huh?' Mari grinned. She was still holding him to teaching her that jutsu some time – it was way beyond cool! Seeing their sensei distracted by Naruto's own distraction, Mari and her clones moved in, silently creeping closer to Kakashi – a great contrast to Naruto's noisy, straightforward charge.

"It looks like the stories are true," the silver-haired jounin mused. "He can create Shadow Clones – clones that are not just illusions, but multiple real bodies. It's a forbidden skill… and he defeated Mizuki with it." The clones came to an abrupt halt, half-circling Kakashi.

"Great technique, but I don't think you can maintain it for very long. You talk like you're the best, Naruto, but you're still the worst student. You can't beat me with this jutsu," he sighed, knowing his words were likely in vain if Naruto's stubborn nature was as consistent as it had so far been proven to be. What he didn't expect, though, was a clone to have snuck up behind him – three to be exact. Two clones of his daughter tackled his legs while the real Naruto clung to their sensei's back.

'What?! He got me from behind!'

Naruto laughed victoriously. "Didn't you say 'don't let your enemies get behind you?' Good advice, sensei! Dattebayo!" Naruto's other clones joined in helping to hold Kakashi down. "I had one of my clones come out of the river and then sneak up behind you super quiet." Kakashi struggled against the vice grips of nine Academy graduates, jostling the bells around so they slipped past Mari's fingers as she reached up to grab for them. She reached father and nearly had them when –

"NOW THIS IS FOR NAILING ME IN THE BUTT EARLIER!" One of Naruto's clones came rushing in for the final blow.

'Hey… Naruto's pretty good! When did he get so cool?' Sakura cheered inwardly. Even Sasuke admitted to himself that it was a good plan. 'A diversionary tactic… nice.'

Suddenly Kakashi disappeared, causing both Mari's and Naruto's clones to stumble to the ground, but the real Naruto was suddenly holding… Naruto? A loud thwack was heard as the clone ended up punching Naruto… wait… which one was the real one again?

Frowning, Mari's clone looked around discreetly for any signs of their sensei.

'He's probably used the Kawarimi no Jutsu,' she deduced. 'The Body-Replacement Technique.'

"ITAI!" (Ouch!)

"It's you!" the clone that had done the punching accused the clone he'd punched. "YOU'RE KAKASHI-SENSEI, AREN'T YOU?! YOU TRANSFORMED INTO ME USING HENGE NO JUTSU!"

"Naru-kun!" Mari tried getting his attention – or rather, her clone did. The real Mari was still off in the trees, keeping a lookout for her father – no, her sensei. If she was going to pass this test, she'd have to start thinking more like a ninja. This wasn't some everyday training exercise with her dad, it was the real deal. When her teammate started beating himself up she growled, the two ordinary clones trying to talk some sense into him before they dug themselves deeper into whatever Kakashi-sensei might have in store for them. She was uncomfortable being out in the open like this, especially with Naruto making such a ruckus. He was shouting all sorts of weird things.

"You are!"

"No, it's you!"

"It's not me!"

"You have Kakashi's old man smell!"

"What are you talking about?!"

"NARUTO! JUST UNDO THE JUTSU!" She shouted in one of his faces. He blinked, mid-swing, and then grinned, shouting to the others.

"HEY! LET'S UNDO THE JUTSU!"

"YEAH! THAT'S IT!" another exclaimed in response.

"THEN THERE'LL BE JUST TWO OF US SO WE'LL KNOW WHO'S WHO!"

"Should have thought of that sooner, fool," a rather bruised-looking clone grunted.

"YOU'RE THE JERK! WHY DIDN'T YOU THINK OF IT?!"

"YEAH! I'M YOU, MORON!"

"OKAMI-SAMA, NARUTO! JUST UNDO THE JUTSU ALREADY!" Mari roared loudly, sorely wishing she was a real clone instead of just an illusion so she could slap him upside the head. Within seconds the jutsu was undone, leaving Naruto and two of Mari's clones standing all alone. One of the two brunettes suddenly dispersed, sensing the original's instructions and releasing the jutsu. If Naruto needed help, Mari wouldn't be of any assistance being in trouble as well, and she could smell trouble thick in the air. It was a basic tactics principle – always have backup.

'Naruto, you are so NOT cool,' disparaged Sakura.

'He got you with a Replacement Jutsu, loser," Sasuke put into thought a harsher version of Mari's own. 'With the Kawarimi no Jutsu, you quickly switch your own body with an object so your enemy thinks he's attacking you when he's really attacking a log, a rock, a plant or animal, leaving him open to a counter attack. In this case, the Jounin let himself get caught, and switched bodies with one of the Naruto clones, so Naruto thought he was holding Kakashi down when actually he was just attacking and dealing damage to himself. And that Jounin was so smooth he made Naruto look like a total moron.'

Naruto stood out in the clearing, nursing his sore pride more than his physical wounds. He had done quite the number on himself, his face marred with scratches and bruises. He hadn't known that the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu could have such a downside – when it was released, not only did the experiences and memories of the other clones join his mind, but the collective wounds appeared on his body as well.

The young shinobi had been staring idly at the ground when a silver glint caught his eye amongst the verdant green of the grass beneath the only tree that stood out from the edge of the clearing.

"A bell?!" He couldn't believe his luck! "Heheheh! I must have gotten to him with my attack – he must have been desperate to escape! He dropped a bell!"

"Oh please, Naruto," Mari begged, "don't buy into it! It's a trap!" One that she, no doubt, would get him out of.

Just as Mari had thought, as soon as Naruto reached down to claim the silver trinket a rope tightened around his ankles and pulled, suspending him upside-down in mid-air from a tree branch. 'Oh, a snare. I've never actually used one before,' she sighed as Naruto cried out for help, swinging about as he struggled.

'Of course it was a trap,' Sasuke expounded. 'That Jounin doesn't let down his guard even when he's fighting a fool like Naruto. He has no openings…'

"Oh common! Let me down!" Naruto grunted as he fruitlessly struggled against his bonds in an attempt to reach the bell on the ground a good five feet or so out of his range. Just as Mari was about to pull out a kunai to cut him down, Kakashi strolled into sight and casually picked up the object of his student's attention, reattaching it to his belt. The Jounin sighed in exasperation, beginning to sound rather tired of Naruto's failed attacks.

"Think before you use a jutsu or else your opponent might use it against you," the silver-haired man instructed dutifully, ignoring Naruto's whines. "Oh, and also, if the bait is obvious," he continued with more humor, his eye curving as he smiled a small smile of amusement, "don't take it." Naruto growled in frustration, his teeth grinding at the insult. "A ninja must see through deception and read underneath the underneath."

"I – GET – IT!" The blonde ground out as he continued to struggle. "I know that stuff!"

"I'm telling you because you don't 'get it'," Kakashi refuted, a firm undertone to his voice that revealed that he meant business. "You think you get it, which is not the same as actually getting it. Get it?"

Sasuke, seeing that their sensei was distracted once more stood on his branch and pulled out several shuriken from his weapons pouch. His eyes were narrowed and brow furrowed in concentrated determination. 'This is my chance! He finally dropped his guard.'

Mari watched impatiently from the sidelines for a chance to get in between the two, get Naruto, and get out. They needed to formulate a plan, not attack blindly – such a thing would never work with Kashi-tou. Just as she was thinking this, however, six shuriken speeded from spot in the trees a dozen-or-so yards away and were headed straight for her dad! 'Sasuke-san! I can't believe he'd use shuriken like that… or… maybe I can believe it. I would too, though I don't think it would do much good.' It was obviously not Sakura. She wouldn't have had the guts to really pick up a weapon against their sensei which made Mari question whether she'd have the nerve to do so against their enemies on a mission. 'If she passes, that is,' she thought ruefully.

"Won't you ever learn?" Kakashi was saying to Naruto. He'd barely finished the sentence when the shuriken hit him full-on, digging into his flesh with such force that it toppled him over…

"AHH! HE JUST GOT BLASTED BY SHURIKEN! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND, SASUKE?! YOU WENT TOO FAR!" Naruto exclaimed. Sakura's cry of shock could be heard well across the clearing.

"CRAP! DAMNIT, SASUKE-SAN! DON'T KILL HIM!" Mari cried, preparing to leap forward and give her father medical aid.

She was going to kill that boy if her father was as hurt as he seemed to be. The emo teme had better watch his back after this…