Published at 10th of May 2020 6:19 pm

Bell Test – Part 13

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

As we arrived at the training ground, I see Sasuke leaning against a tree while keeping his eyes closed.

“Morning Sasuke, slept well?~” I call out to him.

“Hn.” He nods, not opening his eyes to look at me. Though I could clearly see his ears redden slightly.

“Not going to look at me?~” I think, having a teasing smirk on my face.

I soundlessly close in on him and reach out to touch his cheek.

“Soft~” I think, just before having my wrist grabbed by the now highly alert Sasuke.

“How did I not hear or feel you approach?” He asked, heavily surprised and even slightly wary of me, though there was also a high amount of curiosity in his eyes.

“Does it matter~? You are finally looking at me now~.” I tease, while looking at him holding my wrist.

He looks at me questioningly, before also moving his eyesight to my wrist … only then realizing that he was still holding my wrist. Instantly he let go of it, coughing out a sorry while blushing heavily and looking the other way.

I fold my hands behind my waist and lean forward slightly, letting one of my twin tails fall loosely to my side and the other lying on my shoulder, before giggling: “Hehe~ you are too cute, it really makes me want to tease you~.”

He looks back at me, this time not blushing as much anymore, as he mumbles: “If you don’t stop teasing me, I’ll get the wrong idea about things!”

He sighs before jumping into the air and sitting down on a tree branch.

I look at him, dumbfounded.

Naruto leans down to my ear, whispering: “Naru, if you keep teasing him, he’ll lose himself. He really likes you, don’t leave him hanging much longer, okay? Your interactions are hilarious, but he’ll be at his limit soon. I saw his hands twitch, I’m sure he really wanted to hug you right now~.”

“Eh, really?” I ask.

“Really~.” Nii-chan says.

“Oh. Oh … well … I … I l-like him t-too, I think?” Why was it so damn hard to say this just now? I mean, I like teasing him and seeing him blush … but is this really true, genuine love? I mean … I also want to … hug … him and kiss him. Does that count as true love?

Nii-chan sighs next to me: “Just make sure to think about what you want the two of you to be. Otherwise, if you keep teasing him like this whenever he is looking at you, then he’s really going to be hurt by this. You really shouldn’t play with his emotions if you don’t really like him. Though, I’ll be with you no matter what you do~” He says while patting my head.

“O-Okay …” I stammer while thinking about Sasuke and what it would feel like if he hugged me tightly.

(A/N: This was actually kind of hard for me to write, I hope it turned out okay-ish? Let me know in the comments please.)

…

An hour later, Team 7’s sensei still hadn’t arrived, and the various members decided to make themselves comfortable by sitting on the ground or on tree branches, two of them also cursing their sensei for telling them not to eat anything.

“Uhm … Naruto-kun, why do you not look hungry at all?” Sakura asked, with a slightly timid voice. Sasuke also looked down to follow their conversation.

“Hmm, we decided to just eat breakfast, it seemed to us that sensei was trying to trick us, though we aren’t completely sure.” Naruto said.

“Even if we did puke it out, we would need the energy for the fighting anyway, so it wouldn’t make sense not to eat.” Naru added.

“Oh … y-you are right …” Sakura said while looking at the ground.

Sakura was feeling remorse for what she had said yesterday. She had thought about what she actually knew about the twins … and realized that she knew nothing.

She didn’t normally believe anything that others told her, but her own PARENTS had several times told her that the twins were evil, demons, monsters. How come it took Sasuke threatening to hurt her, for her to snap out of it and to finally use her damn head for once.

The twins had never done anything to warrant them being seen as something like “demons” … or them being called the fox’s incarnation.

Why were they even called that? The Kyuubi that attacked Konoha 12 years ago was defeated by lord fourth … why would two human children be the incarnations of the kyuubi, only because they were born around the time of the attack?

Sure … they had whisker marks on their face … but did that justify the hatred they received? She had seen the twins several times in her childhood and sometimes she had even seen them get beaten by the villagers.

As a child, she had always wondered why they were beaten … however, at some point she stopped questioning the why behind the hatred that the twins were looked at with. Now that she looked at them again … she couldn’t help but think that they were unjustly hated. They did not deserve to be hated.

Still … what Sasuke had said yesterday had hurt her. It really hurt her.

She realized that she might not have a chance at getting together with Sasuke, but she would still try. She couldn’t give him up so easily after loving him for so many years.

But … if he loved someone else … and they got together … then she would properly distance herself. She could never keep him from being happy, she loved him too much for that. She would even support them, even if it meant that she would get hurt.

And … she would also try to apologize to the twins … what she had said … if she were in their position … she would be hurt and angry as well. It was only natural.

What she had said yesterday … it was something that no human ever needed to hear! Especially not the twins! They had already suffered enough through the adults. She now despised the adults that beat the twins for no reason. How could they be so cruel? She only needed to imagine herself in their spot and she would start tearing up. It would be too painful. She would never be able to endure all that pain, all that hate. She was so, so glad that she wasn’t in their place. That she wasn’t hated. And because of that, she would try to apologize to them, she could not continue to hate them after coming to this realization.

And she would also try to find something that she could learn that would be of use to the team … but first, she needed to know what was missing. She didn’t know what kind of abilities the others had.

After getting to know them a bit more, she would apologize and maybe … just maybe she could even befriend them. A good team needed to have good teamwork, that’s the essence of the academy’s teachings … if she couldn’t even do that … then what kind of kunoichi was she? Trash?

…

[Half an hour later]

“What’s taking him so long?” Naru wondered, getting slightly annoyed for the sake of getting annoyed, but honestly not caring too much about it. She just laid down on the soft grass, enjoying the gentle wind and the morning sun. She would enjoy it even more if there were no insects threatening to crawl all over her at any moment.

Honestly, she did not like insects. Especially things like bees and wasps, they scare her.

Thus, when she was in the forest and lying on the ground, she always coated her body in a thin coat of chakra. It would keep the insects from crawling onto her body, as they were repelled upon contact. This coat would, however, never be strong enough for the use against humans and most elite sensor types would not be able to sense it. Humans, especially shinobi had chakra all around their body after all. Such a thin coat would be easily overlooked.

However, it served her well in keeping away all the insects that dared to come near her body. Only in this way was she able to fully relax in forests and other insect-rich places.

(A/N: OMG I kind of forgot about it all this time, but Naru is slightly scared of insects. Or, she at least dislikes them.)

When she moved around she was always on high alert and did not need such a coat, but when she wanted to relax, she couldn’t do so without a coat like this.

This might seem silly to some, but she felt relaxed and that was what was important.

Soon, she grew tired and sleepy. She closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep, not caring about her surroundings. She knew that her brother would protect her, if anything were to happen.

…

[Two and a half hours later]

“I think I’ve kept them waiting long enough.” Kakashi thought while getting up from his spot at the KIA memorial stone.

“Obito, Rin … I’m going to go see my Genin team now. Maybe they’ll pass the test? Sensei’s children are on the team and … honestly … it hurts.” Kakashi mumbled before disappearing into thin air.

(A/N: I’m gonna be honest with you, I don’t actually know whether Kakashi was there in canon while he let them wait for 4 hours, but I’m just going to say he was there, it would make sense and I’ve read about it in the past ->might have been a fanfic though. And he is always going to be either there or sleeping when he is late to some place.)

[At the training ground]

Naru had fallen asleep and she had not woken up for more than two hours now.

At some point, Sasuke decided to jump down from the tree to sit down next to her instead.

“Her sleeping face is so cute~. The way that her lips move when she breathes … and the way that her chest moves up and down looks so peaceful. I could watch her all day.” Sasuke thinks to himself while smirking at Naru’s sleeping form.

After some time, he decided to lie down on his side, putting one arm up to keep his head in place, his eyes never leaving Naru.

Of course, he never noticed that Sakura had teared up slightly, or that Naruto was smiling at his behavior.

Naruto wanted his sister to be happy … and he knew that she liked Sasuke, so he decided to just peacefully let him watch her while she slept.

When finally, 4 hours past the decided time, Kakashi shunshinned in front of them, he made lots of noise in the grass. Causing Sasuke to look at him angrily while moving his mouth to convey that he wanted Kakashi to be quieter … but, alas, it was too late. Naru had already woken up. Sasuke had wanted to watch her for a bit longer. This was a rare moment for him watch her without needing to hide his blush or be embarrassed.

Slowly her eyes fluttered open and she sat up.

She looked around, only to find 4 pairs of eyes looking at her. 3 held kindness within them and one was seemingly indifferent, but hiding a certain amount of pain looking at her.

“I actually really don’t feel like training the children of Minato-sensei …” Kakashi thought, remembering the smiling face of his blonde-haired sensei that he looked up to.

Slowly, the four teens arose from their seated positions, facing their 4-hours late sensei.

They, however, did not say a word regarding his late coming, instead choosing to wait for him to either start the training or give them an appropriate excuse.

“Alright … today we are doing a test to decide whether you four are actually Genin material or not.”

“Aren’t we already Genin?” Sakura asked

“No, you aren’t Genin yet.”

“Then why’d we need to do the academy’s test?” Naruto asked.

“Ah, the academy’s test was just to choose those of you that have the actual, raw, potential to become a Genin, we Jonin-sensei would then decide whether you have the potential to become actual Genin. Also, usually only 9 out of 27 Genin candidates pass this last test.” Kakashi said, looking at them without any apparent emotion on his face.

Sakura shivered at his gaze.

“So, what do we have to do?” Sasuke asked, slightly annoyed that he still had to do more tests.

“It’s simple, really. You have two hours to take these three bells from me. Every one of you that has one of these by the end of the time, passes the test and gets to eat lunch.” Said Kakashi while taking three small bells out of his pouch.

“Kakashi-sensei, why are there only 3 bells when there are four of us?” Sakura asked.

“Isn’t that obvious, him only having three bells means that only three people will pass, one of us will be going back to the academy …” Sasuke said with a slightly grave tone in his voice.

“Is that so?” Sakura asked.

“Yes.” Kakashi said bluntly.

Sakura looked at the ground.

Gradually … her expression grew more determined and she slapped herself on her cheeks. The others looked at her in bewilderment. They wondered, why would she slap herself on her cheeks?

“Okay … let’s work hard on getting those three bells okay. If we get them, then I’ll go back to the academy, okay?” She said with a smile, hiding her sadness. She wanted to do this. She needed to do this. She would use her actions to apologize to the twins.

Everyone else’s eyes widened in shock. They would have never expected that Sakura would make such a choice.

“Sakura, you don’t need to be the one that does this …” Naruto said, smiling at Naru who looked at him with shock apparent in her eyes. He would go back to the academy … sure he knew that he wouldn’t get to be on a team with Naru anymore … but … he wanted her to be happy. She was in love, he wanted her to get a chance at being in a team with the one that she loved. He would be lonely without his sister, but he would brave through it, for her, he would do it.

Naru’s eyes widened: “Nii-chan … no, you are the one that wants to become Hokage … you know that I’m only here to help you achieve that dream, right? If someone needs to go back, then I’ll just drop out. There’s no actual need for me to be a kunoichi.”

Though Naru would have liked to be with Sasuke … if that meant that her Nii-chan would need to repeat a year, or even drop out completely, then she would just give up her budding love for Sasuke. She could do that. For her Nii-chan, she could do almost anything.

Kakashi’s eyes froze at the scene in front of him: “If the Uchiha also offers to give up, then … what would be the reason for this test to continue? The whole reason for this test is to see if they are capable of teamwork and whether they can sacrifice themselves for others. Whether they know what it means to follow the rules, but still never abandon those that are precious to them. If they were already willing to sacrifice themselves for each other, then the teamwork part could be left alone for now. They would have time to properly train that later.”

Sasuke looked at the ground, clearly conflicted: “What do I do? I can’t repeat a year, not now! Itachi would only get farther and farther away from me … but … one more year … it’s not impossible … I’d just have to work harder than I do now! Yes … it’d be okay. If I can make her happy … then I can gladly delay my revenge for another year.”

Sasuke closed his eyes, his face emotionless.

Naru noticed that he was thinking about something and she guessed that he would probably also offer to go back … if he was the one that she thought he was.

After some time, Sasuke raised his head, he looked at Naru’s smiling face and said: “Me too. I could also go back. What’s one more year … I’ll just need to train harder.”

Kakashi couldn’t help but sigh, he mumbled to himself: “Well, now there’s no reason for this test anymore, is there, Minato-sensei?”

“No test?” Sakura asked, having overheard his mumbling.

“Yes, you all passed this test. In fact, you passed it with flying colors. Every single one of you was ready to fight as a team and every single one of you volunteered to go back to the academy if it meant that your teammates, or rather, friends, could pass. That’s admirable. Up until now, I’ve never had a team like yours. All the others always antagonized each other, trying to get a bell to pass all by themselves, but you four … you are different. Congratulations, you are Genin.” Kakashi said as he looked into the sky, clearly deep in thought.

While Kakashi spaced out, Naru looked at Sasuke: “I’m glad that you made this decision. I feared that I’d been wrong about you, that you’d choose to abandon one of us in order not to delay your revenge. I’m really glad …”

A tear formed at the corner of her eye, but it was quickly wiped way by Sasuke.

“Who do you take me for … as long as you are happy, I can delay my revenge for three years, not to mention one.” Sasuke smiled at her.

They locked eyes …

“Oh, having a moment~” Naruto chuckled standing next to Sakura.

Naru ran up to Sasuke and hugged him.

“Yes, they are having a moment and weirdly … though I’m slightly envious, I’m actually rather happy. I’m glad that Sasuke is happy. That makes me happy too, I’m not sure if I could have ever given him that happiness if I was in her place.” Sakura sighed, telling the blonde of her true feelings.

Naruto’s eyes widened: “I didn’t expect that from you and I also didn’t expect you to speak up like that earlier. I noticed that what Sasuke said hurt you quite a lot yesterday … but, I’m glad that you were able to change. Perhaps, that was exactly what you needed, sorry if that sounds rather harsh. But … from now on, I’m sure we can become great teammates. Concerning your training, let’s try to find something fitting for you, alright? I’m sure, seeing that you changed, Naru would be willing to help too, even if I need to ask her at first. Once she see’s that you truly changed, she will come around, I’m sure of it. Naru does not hate or dislike people easily if she see’s that they are at least trying.”

Sakura looked at him in shock, but soon tears started falling down her face: “Thank you and … I’m so sorry. All these years … I was blinded by the thoughts that my parents fed me … I just unconditionally believed them … I mean, they are my goddamn parents! But … that is not an excuse for me to have said all that yesterday … and all those times I did the exact same thing in the past. I’m sorry.”

Naruto looked at her sternly for a second, making her worry that he was not going to accept her apology, before his mouth curled up into a gentle smile: “Apology accepted. Don’t worry … we know. Children are told that we are monsters and adults hate us as an outlet for their loss and grief. But they ignore the fact that we are not the fox. We are not the Kyuubi (A/N: Hehe~). And I’m glad that we, as teammates, could at least clear up that misunderstanding, right?”

“Right. And, seeing that Sasuke is so happy with Naruko … I won’t interfere in their relationship anymore. I’ll hurt and I’ll cry … but if they, both, are happy … I’ll be okay. I’ll heal. And, thank your saying all these things, Naruto-kun.” Sakura wiped her tears away and smiled at him.

Meanwhile, Naru and Sasuke were still hugging each other, with the hug only getting tighter, almost making Naru lose her breath. She was a bit smaller than Sasuke, puberty having influenced his body for just a bit already.

Sure, she was quite big for her age at 4’9/150cm, but he was still half a head taller than her.

Thinking of it, her whole class was quite big for their age. Naruto was also as big as Naruko was, if not a big bigger and Sakura was just slightly smaller than her. Other kids their age could be a lot smaller than them, but Naru guessed that everyone grew up differently

A few seconds later, Sasuke let go, but still held her body close to him.

She looked up at him, slightly blushing when he moved his hands up to her face to make her raise her head slightly.

“Naru … may I kiss you?” Sasuke asked with a low whispery voice, looking for approval inside of her eyes.

“Mhm …” Naru nodded, not being able to say a word right now.

Sasuke slowly moved towards her mouth and when their lips finally touched, Naru and Sasuke couldn’t help but close their eyes in happiness.

One of them had waited for this for so long and the other had always wanted to try kissing someone, especially someone that she really, really liked.

“How are his lips this soft?” Naru wondered.

“Her lips are so soft … and she smells like flowers … I love her … I really, really love her!” Sasuke thought, kissing her gently.

The kiss lasted for a few seconds longer before they finally parted again, both of them heavily blushing at each other but not averting their eyes.

They looked at each other with various emotions filling their eyes.

“I like you …/I love you.” Naru and Sasuke said at the same time.

Both looked at each other in surprise, though that only lasted for a few seconds before they started smiling at each other. Naru then giggled while Sasuke laughed softly.

“Does that mean … we are together now?” Naru asked, still slightly unsure … this was her very first relationship after all. She had never … loved … anyone outside of her family before. She knew now that she had loved her past life’s family too … and she felt sorry for leaving them that early. She felt sorry for letting them need to bury their own child. That must be the hardest thing a parent could ever do … but … she would have never been happy in that life, that was something that she was sure of. She believed that they would live, they would get over it.

Her live was here now … with her Nii-chan, with Kurama-nii and now … with Sasuke.

“Yes … we are … that is, if you want that too?” Sasuke asked, while still holding her head with his hands. They had not looked away from each other for several minutes now and they did not have any plans of doing that any time soon.

“Mhm~, let’s try it, okay? I don’t know much about relationships … or … love … but I’m willing to try … with you, Sasuke-kun.” Naru whispered while smiling sweetly at Sasuke.

“I’m willing. I’m willing …” Sasuke said before once again locking lips with her.

As the two were totally ignoring their surroundings, three pairs of eyes looked at them and smiled.

“I’m glad that she decided to try.” Naruto sighed, feeling happy for his sister.

“Mhm~, I’m glad that they are happy.” Sakura said, still looking a bit sad. She had just seen the one that she had loved for years be happy with someone else, how could she not be sad?

Kakashi just looked at the pair of teens that were kissing and hugging each other with a small, close-eyed smile.

After some time, Naru and Sasuke stopped embracing each other and turned around to look towards the other three people at the training ground.

While holding hands with Naru, Sasuke asked: “Kakashi sensei, can we still do the fighting part of test? I mean, that’d give you a chance to see what we lack, right? You could help us in the places that need help in. I need to get a lot stronger!”

“Sure, we can do that. This team’s atmosphere is great, but I still don’t know how proficient you are at fighting in a team. I could guess that you two, Naruto and Naruko, are pretty good at fighting together and Sasuke could probably try to fit adapt to your fighting style, but Sakura will need our help. And if she strives to better herself, then we will give her that help she needs.” Kakashi said while sighing and smiling at the team of Genin before him. He had really lucked out this time. This team, with the children of his own sensei on it, was exceptional. These four, all of them, were special. And he would get to teach them.

Sakura blushed slightly and looked at the ground. Soon, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up to see who it was. It was Naruto. He looked at her with a smile that said: “Don’t worry, it’s okay.”

She smiled back at him and they laughed.

When they calmed down, Kakashi-sensei bound the bells to his belt and told them: “You already know this, but please listen … in the ninja world, those who don’t follow the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum. This was the essence of this test … and you all showed me that you already knew the meaning of sacrificing yourself for your friends. That was actually more important to me than you being able to fight as a team, or following the rules. That’s why you already passed even without fighting me. Since you wished to test yourself though, let’s see what you got~. But first, please eat your lunch, you will need the energy!~”

…

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