Konoha's Red Dragon

Bells sound funny

Aki was the last to get to the training ground. They had barely seen her, and when they did, besides an ear piercing shriek of surprise or shock that she had come out of nowhere, they had not interacted with her.

She was.... She didn't know what to think of that anymore, actually. They were supposed to be a team, and from what she observed from the older, more experienced ninja, teams talked, bonded. It made her feel like the odd one out.
(She knew she was, it just kind of stung for it to be pointed out like that.)
Like they wouldn't make the effort to talk to her, even if she didn't respond back. She still gave them her attention when they had talked about their interests. She didn't know what she was doing wrong.

"They are just nervous, Little one. Nervous they will fail, get hurt, nervous around you. You are a specific type of person, it does not make you weird in a bad way. It is almost time, trust in me."

And Aki did, with her whole heart and being. She always would, always have, she will always be the first Aki would trust.

That odd, but quickly becoming familiar, scent came into her nose, and she scrunched it. Rubbing at it before her ears picked up on the steady heart rate, the calm breathing, and she looked up and to her left. Amethyst caught smokey grey and she tilted her head. 'Why is he in the tree?' She thought.

She heard a sigh, somewhat put out, "Good morning!" He called cheerfully once he popped up in front of the would-be genins, getting a surprised sputter and gasp from the two loudest teammates, a narrow eyed look from the broodiest, and Aki looked at the ground. Not wanting to meet his eyes a second time now that he was closer. She didn't know if he liked eye contact or not, better to be safe than sorry.

"Sensei!" Sakura called, recovered from the brief scare and she smiled up at him sweetly, an eyebrow twitch gave away her annoyance and Kakashi huffed in amusement.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road," he said, forcing a chipper attitude to his voice, pulling an alarm clock from his pouch and putting it on a tree stump.

"You'll have until.. let's say 9-" he set the alarm clock to nine and turned to face them- "to get these three bells from me."

He finished by spinning the bells around his finger and tying them to the waist of his pants. A small, mischievous smile came onto his lips as Sakura's eyes narrowed, then Sasuke's eyes followed. Aki stared at the bells and blinked slowly, the sound they admitted were strange, like they were an older set of bells, one newer than the others. A furrow to her brows, and Naruto stayed oblivious.

"But, sensei, there's only three bells? There's four of us!" Sakura pointed out, gesturing to the four kids, and Aki tilted her head in agreement. She could feel an amused rumble in her chest that was not her own.

"Very good, Sakura. That's because one of you will inevitably fail, or all of you could fail, it all depends on how many bells you get, and how seriously you'll take this test." He explained, Aki raised her head to look at his eyes momentarily and she looked incredibly confused. More than Naruto.

"But-But, oh come on!" Naruto whined and Aki inches away from him half a step. His whine was shrill and loud and cracky. She didn't like it.

"I'll give you a little hint to pass the test," he waited until most of them had leaned in to listen to him, "come at me with the intent to kill, and you'll do better!" He eye-smiled at them and when Aki huffed in nervous surprise, he spared a glance at her.

Naruto was going to open his mouth, before the timer suddenly went off, startling them and Aki actually jumped in place. The sound ringing in her ears and reverberating in her head like a gong. "Test starts now!" He chirped cheerily, and Sasuke and Sakura jumped away to hide.
Aki made to move away, but paused when she didn't see Naruto do the same.