Part 4: Bell Test

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Kakashi was calmly reading his book in the clearing, in the middle of the training grounds, when he heard footsteps running up behind him. Turning around he found himself face-to-face with Sakura. Her hand pulled back. Ready to throw a nasty punch. Jumping up to avoid getting his face punched in, Kakashi noticed an orange blob just barely in his sight. Turning to get a better view he noticed Naruto creating multiple shadow clones and hengeing them into his teammates. The jonin found himself facing off against about a dozen copies of his team. Placing his book away, he turned his focus on the clones as Sakura pulled back into the tree line. Dodging kunai after kunai. Blocking fists and kicks. Countering everything. Trading blows. Slowly decimating the clones thrown at him, Kakashi easily got rid of all. He didn't even need a kunai for it.

Just as he was about to relax, he heard footsteps coming his way from his right. Sasuke rushed him. His hand filled with shuriken, ready to be unleashed. Quickly reaching for a kunai, Kakashi deflected the weapons thrown his way. Jumping to engage Sasuke in taijutsu. Pushing the boy away from the trees, where Kakashi could feel the other two's chakra. Making sure to keep all three of them in front of him and yet expertly separating them. Sasuke adjusted to his smaller body incredibly. Kakashi had to admit. Of course, the younger often missed his hits, messed up a step or overestimated the gap between the two of them. But he still fought better than he would have if he was actually twelve.

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He is never going to be the distraction ever again. A few more hits and Sasuke would not be able to continue from exhaustion. Kakashi was pushing his limits. He had to get back to the others. As much as he tried tho, he could not get away from his teacher. The man was relentless. He needed to trust his teammates would come to his rescue.

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Naruto placed down the last seal. The trap was ready. "I'm done, Sakura-Chan."

"Great. Then let's go and help Sasuke. He looks ready to pass out." Naruto joined Sakura on the tree where she kept an eye on the fight.

"Damn. Sensei's not going easy at all, dattebayo." With that, the two jumped down into the clearing. Rushing to help their teammate.

Naruto created a few dozen shadow clones to overwhelm Kakashi while the three of them regrouped.

"What took you so long."Sasuke panted.

"Sorry, Teme. I had to make more than we originally planned."

"It's fine. Let's just finish this." Suddenly all of naruto's clones exploded as Kakashi destroyed them with a katon jutsu.

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Looking around Kakashi found his genin standing on a tree branch. Uncovering his left eye, he heard a surprised yelp. Probably Naruto.

Smirking Kakashi pushed chakra into his eyes to bring out a pair of swirling sharingan. Looking around this time with the aid of Obito's sharingan Kakashi noticed a seal a bit further off from his kids. "So they are trying to trap me. Good idea." Looking for more seals and traces of the trap, Kakashi found the kids were standing over a circle of explosive tags that would push him towards their trap if he were to activate it. "Good try but it won't work against me." Deciding to wait out the kids' next move Kakashi moved back into the middle of the clearing. If the kids wanted to trap him they'll have to try harder. Looking at the timer, he realised there were only 30 minutes left of the test.

He waited for around 10 minutes when he heard movement from his right. "So one of them is coming here. Judging from the sound of the footsteps it's Sakura." Stepping backwards, Kakashi dodged Sakura's fist just in time. The girl landed right in front of him in an almost perfect battle stand. Her hands were in tight fists up in front of her.

"Hi. Your trap was good, but you'll have to hide it better."

"Well we didn't exactly have time for it, did we?" Sakura breathed. " And since when did you have two sharingan?"

"Oh, you know." Kakashi pulled a kunai and got ready in a defensive stance. He won't let either of them close to the bells.

"Well, I hope you had a backup plan because you only have less than 20 minutes left."

"WHAT!" Twisting around, Sakura caught a glimpse of the timer, and indeed they only had 19 minutes left. The second the pinkette turned, Kakashi jumped. He'd take a chance like the one presented to him right now. His movement was intercepted by Sasuke who seemed to be still affected by their fight not that long ago.

"Hello, Sasuke. How are you holding up?" Deciding on stalling for the time to run out, Kakashi threw in a question. "You're breathing quite heavily. Are you sure you can keep up?" Knowing Sasuke he started to pester him.

"You seem awfully chatty, Kakashi." Sasuke wheezed.

"And here I thought you'd start calling me sensei." The Hatake tossed back the metaphorical ball. They traded blows for a few seconds when Kakashi's ears picked up the familiar sound of shadow clones puffing into existence. A moment later he was yet again bombarded by a dozen Narutos. Taking care to defend his position and the bells by his waist Kakashi turned his attention to the Narutos. Rushing through the hand sings the man summoned a lightning dragon to destroy the bunshins.

"Huh. It's been a while since I used that one." And with that thought, Kakashi turned his eyes off to look at his three students in front of him. They were standing in a loose stance Sasuke in the middle flanked by his two teammates. The now genin were staring at him. All of them were a bit out of breath. The timer behind them showed there were less than 15 minutes left. All this registered in Kakashi's brain in under a millisecond, still used to the tempo war dictates.

"So are you going to tell us how you have the extra sharingan?" Asked Sakura, forever curious.

"What, you don't want to get the bells?"

"Well we have, what 14 minutes to get them and we're already exhausted. We aren't used to our weakened bodies but you have that privilege."Sasuke spoke up, taking care to slow his breathing so the others could understand.

"So, you give up?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow at them. His kids would hardly ever give up.

"Yeah. A ninja should know when it's time to fall back. Right?" It was Naruto this time. The kid looked down, a bit saddened at the fact that they lost.

"That is true. But no matter you three did great considering the situation. And now we know what we all have to work on." Kakashi tried to cheer up his team, he didn't like the look of sadness that fell on their faces. Pulling down his headband to cover his left eye once again he walked over to his students and looked them in the eye." Alright now you three sit down and I'll explain how I got my sharingan.

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Somewhere in Iwa, in a dark cave, a black-haired man woke in a cold sweat with memories that did not belong to him.

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