"Team 7. Jonin Kakashi Hatake. Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Ino Yamanaka."
Sasuke blinked twice then looked up at the teacher. "Uhm. What?"
"It must be fate, Sasuke! Fate I tell you!" cheered Ino.
"Yes! We can be together for sure!" cheered Sakura at the same time.
"Waitaminute," said Sakura and Ino simultaneously.
"YOU TOO?!" yelled Sakura and Ino simultaneously.
"YOU KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY SASUKE-KUN!" yelled Sakura and Ino at each other as they likewise pointed an accusing finger at the other.
"Sensei? Are you sure that's what it says?" asked Sasuke, sounding a bit ill.
"Better him than me," said Shikamaru.
"Yeah, that'd be troublesome," agreed Choji.
"Team 8 under Kurenai Yuhi. Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga."
"Oh," said a clearly disappointed Hinata Hyuga.
"Is it true about your engagement?" asked Kiba.
Hinata nodded.
"Well, I'm sure you can get out of it," said Kiba as he flashed his practiced 'wild grin.'
"Troublesome," mumbled Shino to himself, though it was loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Team 10 under Asuma Sarutobi. Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Naruto Uzumaki."
"Now that's troublesome, he's not even here," said Kiba aloud.
"He'll meet with you later," said Iruka.
"I thought it was typical to put the 'dead last' with the 'rookie of the year' on teams?" asked Ami.
"Orders from the Hokage," said Iruka. "Seconded by practically everyone who met Naruto after that accident yesterday. Putting him on a team with anyone who has a hair-trigger temper might be 'troublesome'."
"Everyone stealing my tagline is getting troublesome," complained Shikamaru.
"Oh, touché," acknowledged Iruka before turning back to team selections.
The next day:
"ALL RIGHT!" said Ino and Sakura, who heard the terms of the Bell Test and immediately knew that This Was Fate. All they had to do was get a bell alongside Sasuke and the unwanted competition would be GONE - leaving a clear path to Sasuke's heart.
"So if I fail, I go back to the Academy and maybe get a better team next year?" asked Sasuke.
"I can see why the idea would have some appeal to you," admitted Kakashi. "So no - I'm not going to leave you that easy an out."
"YOU CUT THAT OUT!" yelled Sakura and Ino at each other.
"Pity," said Sasuke.
"I'm a ninja, I have to leave pity behind while I'm 'on the clock'," Kakashi informed him.
Sasuke paused and considered that. "Nice line. Mind if I use it sometime?"
"Not a problem," said Kakashi, apparently ignoring that Ino was trying to choke Sakura while Sakura was pulling on Ino's ponytail.
"PIG!"
"FOREHEAD!"
"You want to start the test?" asked Sasuke as he leapt over the two once they were rolling around on the ground, rather then let them crash into his legs. Which would possibly knock him over onto them. THAT would be troublesome.
(Elsewhere, Shikamaru frowned for no apparent reason.)
"Well," drawled out Kakashi as he eyed the two kunoichi wrestling on the ground.
"While we were waiting for you they started fighting like this three times," said Sasuke. "They used to be better than this, but ever since that fanclub started up - they've gotten a lot worse."
"Hey Ino-pig! Let me fix that snout of yours!"
"Hey, Sakura! The Konoha Ad Agency called, they want to rent your forehead!"
"Okay, fine, start," said Kakashi, then using a substitution jutsu to get away.
"Hey you two," said Sasuke as he dodged being rolled into by the two grappling girls AGAIN. "Test has started."
"Take this!"
"Oh yeah? Take THIS!"
Sasuke frowned, went over to his pack, got out a bucket, went to the lake, came back, and emptied the contents of the bucket over the two.
Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help.
"So, let me see if I've got this right," said Shikamaru Nara, ignoring the mystery of the Naruto Uzumaki who had so far responded to Choji's question with one-word answers and otherwise seemed to be focussed entirely on brooding about something.
"Okay," said Asuma.
"This is a simulated mission where you're playing the part of an enemy nin," said Shikamaru. "Inside your pack are three bags. Two contain explosive notes and are guaranteed fails of the test. The third is the 'Pass The Genin Test' slip. If we open a bag, the explosive note goes off unless it's the 'Pass' bag. We aren't allowed to kill the enemy nin, and we have to return the 'Pass' slip to the chunin over there."
"Kotetsu, yes," said Asuma.
"Only one will pass?" said Shikamaru.
"That's right," agreed Asuma.
"That's stupid," said Shikamaru. "That completely ignores that our village was founded on teamwork and cooperation and that it's a running theme stressed in the Academy. We're not from Kiri, you know."
"Oh?" asked Asuma. "You're saying I made a mistake?"
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. "No. I'm saying this is one of those tests where you're being deliberately misleading. Which is also stupid because you're supposed to be our instructor and that requires a certain degree of trust."
Naruto snorted.
"You have something to add, Naruto?" asked Shikamaru.
"Yeah. Let me show you," said Naruto. "You wanna start this thing?"
"Okay," said Asuma, wanting to see what Naruto could do.
"Mitternacht," said Naruto, abruptly holding a black crystal staff.
[Casting Mode. Disrobe.]
FWOMPF!
Asuma blinked, not having expected his clothing to suddenly teleport away, leaving him wearing his headband and a pair of boxer shorts decorated with little red hearts.
"Ugh. I didn't need to see that," said Shikamaru, who nonetheless used the moment of shock from his teacher to use a Shadow Bind on him.
"Cool," said Choji, going over to the pack. "So which is which and which of us graduates?"
Naruto walked past Choji, opened the pack, and took all three bags out. "One of these is the 'Pass' bag. Two are notes that will explode, right?"
"Yeah," said Choji, "but we can't just give him all three. That'd be a fail."
Naruto passed his staff over the three bags. "Except none of them contain explosive tags. So it's just one of them that has a pass while the other two either contain nothing or have a fail-slip in them."
"Or all three are 'pass' slips," pointed out Shikamaru. "Can you hurry? This is quite a drain on my chakra, you know."
"It's this one," said Naruto, opening the middle one. "Kage bunshin!"
Since the two shadow clones held a duplicated 'pass' slip, Naruto handed those off to Shikamaru and Choji.
Shikmaru raised an eyebrow and then looked at his sensei.
Choji grinned.
Naruto merely looked slightly less brooding as he and his two colleagues turned their slips in.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:24)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.