Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Team 7
My Life as Naruto Uzumaki - Harem Version
Chapter 17: Team 7
-----------------------------------------------------------
[MC POV]
I couldn't believe my eyes, Kakashi was a boss battle of the highest difficulty, but... there wasn't a difficulty ranking... I guess it's one of those weird objectives that leaves that part hidden.
I looked at my teammates and gave them a tip. "Regardless of how strong we are individually, fresh Genin cannot beat an experienced former ANBU Captain. Let's team up."
"... How do you know all of this...?" Sakura asked with more than just curiosity in her expression.
"I'm with Sakura on this one, Naruto. How do you know who Kakashi is?" Sasuke gave me a mean look.
"Hmph, unlike you, I actually pay attention to important figures in the village. Kakashi is the son of one of the Leaf's most prominent shinobi, disgraced for upholding the values of the village during wartime. He is the youngest Jonin ever, obtaining the rank at the ripe old age of 12, and he's the student of the strongest Hokage ever." I declared listing stuff on my fingers.
"How could I not try to find out as much info on him as I could? He's like a war hero!" I may have exaggerated that last part, but I was excitable at the moment.
"Hmph, fine, you bookworm. I get it. You get a hard-on for powerful ninja. Let's just get this over with." Sasuke huffed.
Sakura however looked star-struck. "That's so cool!!"
"Uh... thanks?" I was legit confused.
"Why are you so confused, Naruto? She's a bigger bookworm than you are, of course, she'd think a nerd like you is cool." Sasuke grumbled.
"Yeah, well, this nerd constantly kicks your rear without breaking a sweat, so..." I taunted her with a mocking gesture.
"Oi! Wanna run that by me again?!"
"Cut it out, you two!" Sakura bonked us both. A first, now that I think about it. She must've gotten very annoyed.
"You can fight about who's is bigger later. Aren't we supposed to team up for this? Also, being a nerd is cool, so take that. Bleh~" She stuck her tongue out at Sasuke.
Sasuke's eyebrow was twitching and she decided to continue this at a later time, by the looks of it. I chuckled and we got to forming a quick plan.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[Third Person POV]
"Hm... they certainly get along... but why does Sakura think Sasuke's a boy...? Well, guess I'll play along... if they pass my test of course..." Kakashi thought to himself as he observed the three genin candidates argue and come up with a plan to take the bells from him.
He continued to watch for a moment before taking out his book and getting comfortable on the tree branch he'd hidden in.
Naruto and his team then made sure to understand each other's roles in the plan and went into action.
Sasuke activated his Sharingan to search for chakra signatures and found Kakashi's up in a tree. He signaled for Naruto to flush him out and Sakura used an illusion to blend in with the surroundings.
Naruto summoned hundreds of clones and began to throw shuriken at Kakashi from different spots while timing his throws with the clone's movements. Kakashi used a substitution and began attacking the clones, believing them to be shadow clones. When his fists went through the illusory clones he put his book away and began to search the area for the real blonde.
Sasuke then came out of the foliage and began to attack Kakashi with a flurry of blows aimed at breaking Kakashi's balance. Kakashi was surprised to see the Sharingan since it had not been on Sasuke's file that he had obtained the powerful ability while at the academy.
He dominated the short exchange and kicked Sasuke away, gaining some distance. Naruto then jumped from behind Sasuke with several shadow clones and began to try and overpower Kakashi's skill with numbers. He failed but was able to lure Kakashi into position for Sakura to try to grab the bells.
Sakura managed to touch the bells but Kakashi substituted with Naruto and she ended up grabbing a different set of bells. She grew red from embarrassment and Naruto rolled up in a ball rocking himself. "Now I can't get married... I've been defiled..."
Kakashi sweatdropped but felt bad for causing that accident by mistake. Sasuke, however, took the chance to try and get the bells himself and managed to grab one before he was kicked towards a tree and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Kakashi grew confused. "I thought only Naruto could use Shadow Clones..."
Kakashi looked toward the still-traumatized Naruto and noticed that Sakura had disappeared. He sighed and walked over to the kid.
"Naruto, these kinds of things happen on the battlefield. Don't be too embarrassed-" As soon as Kakashi was going to grab Naruto the young shinobi exploded violently, removing a fat chunk of his DS.
"What the-? Exploding clones? This kid's got some nasty techniques." Kakashi thought to himself while trying to recover from the explosion in mid-air.
Then, just as he landed on the ground, Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto took the chance and did a three-pronged attack. Sasuke covered for Sakura's weaker strikes and defenses with violent counters and parries. Naruto pushed the attack and left Kakashi on the defensive with his non-traditional fighting style. Sakura probed his defenses and led him into Sasuke and Naruto's attacks with great coordination.
Kakashi was impressed at the degree of teamwork his students were pulling off and decided that they were worthy of becoming shinobi. So, before things got more heated, he substituted with a log and sounded the bell, signaling the end of their training session.
"A little longer and I might've had to get serious. These kids have talent." He thought to himself as the three slowly walked towards him, Sakura blushing and Naruto covering his package.
"Although... I may have done some unintentional damage..." He sweatdropped.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[MC POV]
Holy shit! She got a whole fistful of nut back there! I almost lost Mr. Trump prematurely to that iron grip. How is it that strong already?! Her stats do not reflect that!!
"N-Naruto... I'm... uh, I'm sorry... I thought..." Sakura tried to apologize but I just felt worse.
"Let's just... uh, forget it happened... that-uh... that was a strong grip..." I told her what the issue really was, other than the awkwardness I felt.
"Hm... okay... sorry..." She was wearing a full-body blush, so I knew she was embarrassed, but that didn't really alleviate the embarrassment I myself felt at the moment.
"Aren't you two, like, going out already? What's the big deal?" Sasuke huffed, a hint of pink on her face, likely from second-hand embarrassment.
"We haven't gotten there yet..." Sakura started in a shout but trailed off towards the end, her blush gaining another shade of intensity.
"How about we just forget about this and get on with today's training?!" I shouted; I was mortified.
"Alright, alright, you three. Let's not fester in our mistakes and move on, okay?" Kakashi said and I felt a vein pop in my head.
"It was your fault to begin with!!" Sakura screeched.
"... Uh... yeah... sorry about that..." He rubbed the back of his head.
"Forget it, sensei. I'm over it (not). Let's just talk about something else." I pleaded.
"Ahem! Yes, well. Firstly I have to say that I'm impressed with your range of skills. Your teamwork was passable, and you all made a good attempt at taking the bells. I think you three have what it takes to be an excellent team." He said with a clap.
"That said, I'm curious about a few things. Sasuke, when did you get the Sharingan?"
"I got it in a spar with Naruto a few days ago," Sasuke replied haughtily, letting her feminine side slip just a bit.
"You obtained the second stage in a spar?" Kakashi was incredulous.
"No, I got the second set during my spar with Lee. That guy... no chakra enhancement whatsoever and he still kicked mine and Naruto's ass all over the training field." Sasuke grumbled.
"Lee... you mean Rock Lee?" Kakashi asked to confirm his suspicions.
"Yeah, he gave Naruto a run for his money, too. Dude was insane. Do you think we could train with him? I want to see what he does for training and see if there's anything we could imitate." Sasuke showed off her smarts for once.
"Uh... I'd rather not... but... I won't say no if he ever comes by..." Kakashi started to sweat.
"*Clears his throat* Anyway, did you also learn the shadow clone with the Sharingan?" Kakashi further inquired.
"Actually, sensei, that was my clone doing a transformation. I knew that Iruka or the old man would have told you about my new technique so I wanted to confuse you. Guess I succeeded hehe." I gave him the peace sign version of the nice guy pose.
"... you seem more than just a little well-informed, Naruto." He said, his eye narrowing.
"Of course, I am. You'd be surprised just how much you learn by listening to people talk around the village. Besides, it's obvious that a sensei would at least get their student's files before meeting them." I waved him off.
He sighs. "Loose lips, huh?"
"Okay, so then, what skills do you possess? As I understand you have outstanding taijutsu for an academy graduate, substitutions and transformations are your specialty as I recall, but your clones have been a point of contention up until recently. What am I missing?" He asked, his arms crossed as he sat on the middle stump.
"Hm... I can use about 1000 shadow clones at once without much issue, last I checked, but I don't like to do that since it leaves me kind of woozy. I can tree-walk and... Oh! The Clone Super Explosion is my favorite technique and I can use the Shuriken Shadow Clone, the fūma shuriken variant, the kunai variant, and the Shuriken Giant Body technique." I listed off.
"I'm also learning about my wind element, but I haven't been able to dedicate much time to that just yet. I've got a scroll for all of these, though, see?" I took my scrolls out of my pouch and showed them to Kakashi.
He looked at the contents and seemed impressed. "This is rather comprehensive, where did you get these?"
"Uh... well... you know... the forest..." I looked away.
"I see... well, I think your teammates could benefit from these..."
"We already made copies. All of the rookies have one." Sakura interjected.
"That's good, I wasn't aware there were other wind-users in this batch." Kakashi probed.
"As far as we know, only Naruto has the Wind Element, so we didn't copy that one. Everyone has their own clan techniques they wanted to work on beforehand, too." Sasuke said off-handedly.
"What about Sakura?" Kakashi questioned.
"I'm trying to specialize in medical jutsu and illusions. I was hoping one of the sensei had some scrolls or advice... Naruto also keeps drilling me to get better at taijutsu and evasion... just in case I can't find anyone to help yet." Sakura supplied.
"I see... Come with me, all of you." Kakashi commanded and we walked to the memorial stone.
I hadn't been here yet, but I wanted to see for myself if their names were here and looked until I found them.
'Minato Namikaze' 'Kushina Uzumaki'
I ran my hand through their names as if it would bring me closer to them. Strange how I only knew them for a few moments but I'm just as attached as I would've been had they lived... that seal does more than one might think...
"....Those who abandon the rules are trash... but those who abandon their friends are worse than that... That's the lesson, the principle that I live my life, and this team.... seems to understand that more than any other I've seen in a long time..." I heard Kakashi but I couldn't keep my eyes off of the two names.
He placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently, reassuringly.
"I understand why that is now... let's take the rest of the day off. We'll meet back here tomorrow at five on the dot." Kakashi said before patting me on the shoulder gently and leaving, taking Sasuke and Sakura with him.
"Mom... Dad... " I felt the urge to cry and couldn't help but let myself.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[Third Person POV]
"I see..." Hiruzen Sarutobi thought forlornly while he looked at the young genin mourning the family he never had through his crystal ball. Kakashi and the other Jonin also in the room.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone