Kalopsia

“I’m going to beat Sasuke, believe it!” Naruto shouted.

“Ruto, it’s five in the morning. Can you use your indoor voice, please?” Akira lamented. The streets were fairly empty except for the few ninja and citizens walking. After ten minutes of walk, the Uzumaki twins finally arrived at the training ground at the same time that Sasuke and Sakura did.

Akira was the first to talk. “Please tell me that y’all ate breakfast?”

“I didn’t. Sensei told us not to.” Sakura answered.

“And you Sasuke? Don’t tell me that you didn’t eat either.” Akira sighed.

“I didn’t.” Sasuke grumbled as he sat down.

“Kakashi told us that if we ate breakfast we would puke. He didn’t forbid it and I would prefer throwing up rather than training on an empty stomach.” She explained. “Naruto and I already ate, but I had the feeling that you wouldn’t have, so I brought breakfast.”  She pulled out two dishes and tossed one at Sasuke and the other to Sakura. 

“But Kakashi is going to arrive soon, we’re not going to have the time to eat before then.” Sakura interjected.

“Did he arrive on time yesterday? No. So what makes you think he will today? And if I’m wrong, which isn’t the case, and he does arrive in time, you’ll have at least eaten a little.” 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Anyways, thank you.” A sweet smile shined bright on Sakura’s face. 

“Kira?” She turned around to look at her brother. “I’m still hungry..” Akira sighed before pulling out another dish from her bag.

“Thank you!” Naruto grinned sheepishly. 

As the three genins ate, Akira took the chance to walk around the training ground. As expected, she found several traps. She deactivated most of them but she left two of them intact so Kakashi wouldn’t notice at the second he arrived. Satisfied, Akira went back where her other teammates were.

“Where did you go?” Naruto demanded.

“I walk around.” She crouched down and picked up the empty bowls. She then put them away in her backpack. Akira looked up at the sky where the sun began to show the tip of his nose. She concluded that it was probably something like 6 or 6:30.

She clapped her hands to catch the attention of her comrades. “I think we should take the time while Kakashi isn’t there to sleep.” The three genins looked at her like she was a ghost. “Geez, just let me explain. I feel like he won’t be there until 11 a.m. or something like that. Since yesterday he made us wait almost 3 hours, I wouldn’t be surprised if today was doubled.” She laid on her back. “If you don’t want to sleep, well that’s fine with me, but try to take it slow. It’s useless to burn yourself out before the training even began.” She closed her eyes and turned her back to them.

“Oh and I forgot, at 10 a.m. we’ll start to warm up.” She added before slowly drifting off to sleep.

***

After four hours, Akira wasn’t able to sleep anymore. Since there was only one hour left until they would begin to warm up, she decided that meditation would be a good thing to do in the meantime.

She sat against a tree and closed her eyes. She focused on the sounds surrounding her, the wind in the leaves, and the birds chirping became a melody for her ears. Akira moved her focus on what she could smell. She took a deep inhale in and the odor of grass and flowers submerged her senses in a sweet and recomforting way. She then concentrated on what she felt. Like the subtle heat of the sun on her skin, the tingles on her legs from the grass underneath her, and the cold wind as it swayed in her red hair. When she felt truly and wholly relaxed, she climbed to her feet and clapped her hands. The sound made Naruto jerked awake while Sasuke and Sakura simply turned their head.

“Great! So we're going to start warming up.” Akira announced. With a grunt, Sasuke climbed to his feet and walked closer to Akira with Sakura and Naruto following close behind. “We’re going to start by stretching, then some cardio, and after weapon throwing until our sensei blesses us with his presence.” 

Surprisingly, her comrades didn’t complain about her plans. A little more than an hour had passed when she sensed someone getting closer to them.

“Guys, we have a guest.” Akira shared. Kakashi appeared on the training grounds.

“Hi fellows. Good morning!” He greeted.

“You’re late!” Naruto and Sakura cried out in unison.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “A black cat crossed my path, so…” At the sight of the angry expression his students had on their faces, he stopped talking.

“Let’s move on.” Kakashi placed a clock on a log. “Alarm set at noon. Today’s topic is to get one of these bells from me.” He explained as he held three bells in his hand. “Whoever can’t, will have no lunch. I’m going to tie you there-” He pointed to four logs. “-and eat lunch in front of you.”

Naruto scoffed. “We all ate breakfast! No big deal!”

Kakashi's eyebrow furrowed. “So what you’re telling me, is that you brats defied me?”

“It was Kira’s idea!” Naruto blamed his sister. Kakashi's glare shifted from the yellow-haired Uzumaki to the red-haired one. Akira smacked Naruto on the back of the head.

“You blockhead! We’re a team, you’re not supposed to throw your teammates under the bus.” She scolded him before looking back at her sensei. “Yeah, it’s my fault. But you never told us we couldn’t eat, you suggested we didn’t because we would puke. You should have been more clear in your explanation.” She shrugged.

“But wait, why are there only three bells?” Sakura pointed out, changing the subject.

“At first, since there were only three bells, at least one would have been tied to the log.” Kakashi admitted.

“At first?” Sakura echoed curiously.

“Yeah, since y’all eat, the consequence isn’t enough. The person who won’t be able to get a bell will be sent back to the Academy. So it means that it’s either one, or all four going back to the Academy.” Akira narrowed her eyes at her sensei.

“You can use weapons. You won’t be able to get this-'' He shook the bells. “-unless you have the will to kill me.”

“But that’s too dangerous, sensei!” Sakura opposed.

“Sakura, do you really think a jōnin wouldn’t be able to evade weapons thrown by a group of mere genins?” Akira asked.

“He couldn’t even dodge the eraser!” Naruto snickered. Before Akira couldn’t retort, her sensei spoke.

“In society, those who don’t have many abilities, tend to complain more. Just ignore the guy with the lowest score. We’re going to start after I said ‘Ready, start’.” Naruto pounced at Kakashi before he could announce the beginning of the test. In a fast motion, Kakashi held Naruto's arm, the one that held a kunai behind his head so he couldn’t move.

“Don’t get so hasty. I didn’t say ‘start’ yet.” Kakashi let go of Naruto. Akira hadn’t even moved half of an inch while the other three had backed away from the jōnin, they looked somewhat scared of him.

“But it looks like you have the will to kill me now. We’re going to start.  Ready, start! ” Akira was about to tell them to wait when her comrades went in different directions. With a sigh, Akira went in the direction Sakura went. Akira found the girl laying on the ground under a bush.

“Sakura.” She whispered almost unhearable. The pink-haired kunoichi flinched in surprise. 

“You scared me!” Sakura hissed back. 

“We need to team up with the boys. We won’t be able to get the bells if we don’t.” 

“But one of us won’t pass! It’s dumb to team up.” Sakura whispered.

“If it really comes to this, I’ll let the one who didn’t get a bell take mine. Now we need to go before Naruto-” Akira was interrupted by the shouting of her brother. He started rambling about having a fair fight. Akira grabbed Sakura’s hand and ran in the direction she felt a chakra signature that was probably Sasuke’s. When Akira found the boy, he was perched in a tree.

“Hey!” She said just loud enough for him to hear. “We need to team up. The four of us.” 

“I’m strong enough by myself.” He grumbled before turning their back to her.

“You won’t be able to get it by yourself. You saw what our sensei is capable of. I promise that you will have a bell at the end of the test.” After a moment of consideration, Sasuke finally climbed down the tree. 

“The loser just got caught in a trap.” Sasuke admitted.

“Ok, I have a plan.” After a few hand signs, two shadow clones appear. Akira then used the Transformation jutsu to change one of her clones in Sakura. “My clone will go and help Naruto while the fake Sakura will distract Kakashi. We’ll make a plan to take the bells after we help Naruto. Deal?” Her comrades nobbed and the two clones dispersed. 

A few minutes later, memories form the clone with Sakura's appearance reached her, meaning that the clone was dispelled. Almost at the same moment, her other clone and Naruto appeared in her field of view. Akira stopped the jutsu and the four genins formed a circle.

“We don’t have long before Kakashi finds us. I’ll explain my plan and if one of you has a suggestion, wait for me to finish before speaking.” The three genins nobbed and she continued her explanation.

on

“Sasuke, I want you to occupy his hands. In other words, ninjutsu or taijutsu is fine, you just need to have his two hands occupied so he can’t protect the bells.

"Naruto, you will create as many clones as you possibly can. Your job is to occupy sensei’s eyes. Kakashi will be concentrated on your clones as well as Sasuke which will most probably create an opening for me.

"Sasuke and Ruto, both of you should look mad at the other so sensei won’t suspect that you’re working together. Understood?” The boys nobbed.

“Sakura, do you know genjutsus that will play with someone's senses? It could be smell, sight, or whatever.” Akira looked at Sakura.

“Yeah, I know only 2 E-ranked and 1 D-ranked genjutsus though.” 

“That’ll do the job. You will need to cast them almost all at the same time. Kakashi should be under at least two genjutsus at all times. Think you could do that?”

“You can count on me.” Sakura answered proudly.

“Then I’ll wait for an opening and snatched the bells. Questions or comments to add?” Her comrades all shook their heads. “Great. Kakashi is at five o'clock, about a quarter of a mile. Scatter!” She ordered.

Akira and a clone of her hid in a bush as the boys started to attack. In a fraction of a second, Naruto’s clones were dispersed all around the clearing and Sasuke was already engaging Kakashi in close combat. Kakashi’s fighting style seemed less fluid than it usually was and every time that the jōnin joined his hand together to make the seal used to dispel the genjutsus, Sasuke forced him to block a punch or a kick.

Akira infused the bottom of her feet with chakra so her step will be quicker and silent. When she saw, the slight opening she pounced right on him. She covered herself in a genjutsu that made the person look away. In other words, the person will unconsciously want to look somewhere else.

Sasuke and Naruto didn’t even notice her as she sprinted closer. Just to be sure that Kakashi wouldn’t look in her direction, her clone - who stood at the complete opposite of her - threw a kunai at Kakashi. As expected, the kunai was easily blocked. Her hand closed around the bells and she clenched so she wouldn’t drop them.

Sasuke pulled away from the fight while Naruto clones disappeared all at the same time and Sakura got out of her hiding spot. Kakashi finally dispelled the genjutsus that Sakura put him under and looked back at the genins with a puzzled look. With a grin, Naruto pointed to Akira. 

“We did it, we did it, we did it!” Naruto chanted over and over. Akira threw one bell at Sasuke, one at Sakura, and the last one at Naruto.

“So, who’s the one with no bell?” Kakashi asked. Akira raised her hand as she walked closer to the group.

“Wait, Kira?! You didn’t keep a bell for yourself?!” Naruto panicked.

“Why? If you knew from the start that by doing that you wouldn’t pass, why didn’t you keep one for yourself?” Kakashi asked curiously.

“Well in between the four of us, Sasuke and I were the ones with the best scores. If one of us were to be sent back to the Academy, we would be out of there in less than a year. So for this reason, I gave Naruto and Sakura a bell so they wouldn’t have to go back to the Academy for an indefinite period of time. And I gave the last bell to Sasuke because I promised I would.” She explained.

“Sensei, you can’t send back Akira to the Academy! If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t have teamed up and gotten the bells!” Sakura pleaded.

“If you won't let her pass, I will give her my bell and I will be the one to go back to the Academy!” Naruto announced.

“Why would I listen to you?” Kakashi taunted.

“I’m out if you make her fail.” Sakura decided.

“Me too!” Her brother exclaimed. Sasuke huffed silently.

“The test today was based on teamwork. In the world of ninja, those who break the rules are scum, but those who wouldn’t abandon even one of their friends, are worse than scum. That’s why I wanted to test if you would be capable of overcoming your desire to become genins to work as a team. The training ends here. Everyone passes!”

Naruto's eyes began filling with tears. “He’s...He’s kind of cool.”

“The 7th group will start doing missions starting tomorrow!” Kakashi gave them a thumbs up and Akira cringed internally.

Akira didn’t miss the subtle smile attached to Sasuke's lips.

“Yes, sir!” Sakura said happily.

“I did it! I’m a ninja, ninja, ninja!” Naruto shouted.

Akira ruffled Naruto’s hair playfully. “Good job, I’m proud of you.” She told him with a sweet smile.

“Let’s go home.” Kakashi said. The three genins began walking away while Kakashi and Akira were walking behind them.

“Sensei?” She looked up to Kakashi. “It might seem like a weird question, but who are you to us?” As expected, the question seemed to surprise the man.

“What do you mean, Akira?” 

“Yesterday, when Naruto talked about himself, you seemed somewhat disturbed and, in all honesty, even if your test was based on teamwork, no teacher would have let Naruto pass. In a real mission, his decision would have been lethal. It’s almost as if you were obligated to make him pass or you were biased.” She took a deep breath in. “Are we related in some way?”

Kakashi stopped walking abruptly. “No. And for your information, I wasn’t forced to make you all pass or biased.” Kakashi was immediately on the defensive.

“Sorry for assuming.” She began to run to catch up with the others. 

Why was he so defensive? What is he hiding?  Akira wondered and when she turned around to look at her sensei, he was nowhere to be found.