Saruto Hyuga: The Last Generation

37.) The Bell Test

The heart monitor starts beeping intensely and nurses enter the room.

The boy in the coma jumps up from his bed unexpectedly. The doctors remove the unnecessary tubes and the boy is in shock.

"Where am I?" He asks.

"Asuma, are you okay? Do you remember who you are? What was the last thing you remember?" The head doctor asks. Since Asuma didn't have a head-related injury, he shouldn't have had any memory issues but just for formality, they needed to make sure of anything.

"Saruto... Saruto tried to leave the village." Asuma started hyperventilating and his wound started to hurt intensely.

"Asuma breathe."

.

"How is my grandson, doctor?" Shikamaru looks into the window of the hospital door.

"He's fine but he's in shock so we had to sedate him for a while. Being in a coma makes one very week but it won't be long until he'll be himself again. It also won't be long until he can do anything shinobi related if that's what he wants to do." The doctor bows and makes her way into a different patient's hospital room. Technology sure has improved.

Shikadai enters the hallway in a huff. He had been very busy in the hokage's office and hearing the news of his son's condition made him jolt out of his seat and run quickly to the hospital.

"Father, how is he?"

"He's fine Shikadai. He's weak but the doctors said he should be fine."

"Shikadai!" Yodo, Shikadai's wife runs to the two men with Shikara trailing behind, worried for her younger brother. Yodo bows at her father-in-law and looks at the two frantically.

"He's fine is what the doctors said. He's been sedated and we can talk to him when he's awake." Shikamaru explains to his son, his son's wife and his granddaughter.

Yodo hugs her husband and they enter the room together.

Shikamaru smiles at the three entering the room and moves to make a phone call out of his cell.

———

Saruto flies in the air after Taichi Yuino's water dragon attempts to hit his legs. He smiles as Yuna Madoka's uncovered fire-style chakra became mixed with Jisedai Senju's wind chakra and made a fireball powered by strong wind that almost hit Saruto as he came down.

I guess I have to get a little bit serious here, huh?

Saruto, with no special hand movements this time, had disappeared. Unknown to his students, he had marked a nearby tree with his flying raijin symbol. The students, although surprised by the boy's disappearance, kept their fighting stance and prepared for the worst. Saruto pops up from behind a tree where his flying raijin mark was placed and Yuna decided to do her specialty: the thousand needles of death.

Now that Yuma's chakra was fully uncovered, she could summon hundred thousands to millions of metal needles at the same time. Saruto managed to dodge most of the incoming needles but one hit him square in the chest, making him blow up in dust and smoke.

The three looks at the remnants of the clone and with the sensory ability of his both of his clans, Jisedai senses Saruto.

"Below!" He says, jumping up in time for Saruto's hands to emerge from the ground to grab the boy's legs and pull him down.

.

The battle went like this for more than twenty-four hours with the group resting in the forest, hiding with cover.

Boruto had gone home and came back with lunch for the kids but the battle wasn't over. Hunger started to overpower their bodies and they continued to fight in a weakened state.

The battle was close to an end where Saruto formed two other shadow clones and with his clones, held a kunai to each of his students' necks.

"And that concludes it. You're ready." Saruto gets rid of his clones and almost starts to walk off, only to be disturbed by a familiar old man.

"You know, fighting is not the concept of those bells. As my sensei did to me and I did to my students, Konoha had focused on this method for its teaching of teamwork. Your students have learned that very clearly and perfectly." Kakashi says. Saruto stays silent and one of his students perks up.

"Has anyone actually taken the bells?" Jisedai asks.

"The thing about the bell test is that the bells don't actually matter. Many people, per say, have actually retrieved the bells but very little groups actually pass the test. Jisedai, your great grandfather, the third Hokage, had done this test with a group of children who soon became known as the legendary sannin. Two out of three had gotten the two bells. Do you know what happened to the third student who was unable to get the bell?"

"Did he fail? Did he go back to the academy?" Taichi asks. Kakashi smiles.

"At an older age he had turned down the position of Hokage to the fifth Hokage after his mentor died. He had taught the fourth Hokage when he was still a child and soon later, the fourth hokage's son, the seventh Hokage. This man known as Jiraiya, the frog sannin, was a hero and a hero to the hero. Losers can end up like heroes." Saruto, knowing that Kakashi wouldn't be able to see it, smiled. He liked the thought of his grandfather being young and happy. The stories he had been hearing from his father in the past few months were basically rants of how he would be a bad father most of the his childhood but this was different. The seventh Hokage was brilliant and powerful—overall awesome— in Saruto's eyes. "You should've seen the seventh Hokage when he was a child. Annoying, that one. For what this training is worth, I think you kids are ready for the next step of your shinobi lives: the Chunin Exams."