The Soul of a Ninja

Chapter 4:Passed

Naruto gagged as he crawled out of the river Kakashi so kindly plunged him into, shaking violently to get the water out of his clothes and hair. Once he finished he looked around, confused as where Kakashi went. "Where'd he go off too?"

"Right here!"

"Ahh!" Naruto yelled, jumping backwards. He turned his head, catching a glimpse of Kakashi waving at before he fully turned towards the Jonin's direction. "Where'd you go off to? And-where's Sayuri and Kiba?" He asked

Kakashi raised his eyebrow. He looked at different places confused while scratching his face through mask. He looked back a Naruto and shrugged, "Don't know".

The blond haired ninja sighed and stood up, shuffling his feet and arms into a stance. Kakashi stared at the young genin, watching him closely seeing as the child was unusually fast.

As naruto was about to attack a familiar voice stopped him. 'Naruto wait' Naruto instantly stopped his cocked back fist confused. Kakashi was confused as well, wondering why he suddenly stopped.

'What? Why?'

'A team of genin is usually made up of 4 ninja, 3 genin and a jonin correct?'

'Yea so?'

His zanpakuto sighed 'think for a minute. If a full fledged genin team is always made up of 3 genin and a jonin, why would he send someone back to the academy?'

Naruto pondered on that. So much so that he didn't notice Kakashi waving his hand in front of him. "Hello?". Naruto quickly snapped out of his daze and jumped back, almost losing his footing as he was still thinking hard about what his zanpakuto said. "What was that about?" Kakashi asked him, stuffing his hands inside his pockets. Naruto narrowed eyes at him "what are you trying to do?" He asked

Kakashi raised his eyebrow again
"What?"

"It doesn't make sense, a team of genin is always 4 ninja, 3 genin and 1 jonin, yet your trying to send one of us back."

Underneath the mask Kakashi smiled. 'Starting to get it are you?' He thought internally. He shrugged again "who knows? Maybe I actually will send one of you back or I won't. It all depends on how you guys get along." He winked...or blinked? Don't know, all Naruto knew was that Kakashi was suggesting something. but what?

Naruto was to deep In thought to notice the round house kick directed at his face. "Wha-GACK!" He shouted in pain. His body hit the floor with force, knocking the air out of him. He tried to get up but was stopped by a foot crushing his hand. Holding back a pained yell, he desperately tried to squirm his hand out. "If Your thinking is as good as your fighting then I wouldn't be surprised if you got by now, but if you were to tell your friends before they understood then this test would be pointless, so I can't let you leave here" he took his Sandal off Naruto's hand and moved backwards. Naruto immediately clutched his hand into his chest and breathed heavily. Once the pain faded away he stood up, glaring at the silvered headed masked man. 'I need to tell them or else no ones going to make it. If we fail we're all going to be sent back, this isn't about getting one of the two bells and saying goodbye to the one who didn't, it's teamwork!' He thought. Naruto closed his eyes concentrating on finding the chakra signatures of both his team mates. "Got them" he muttered.