Within moments the haze dissipated, allowing the Jonin a clear view of the whole field.
As he expected, both Naruto and Sasuke were gone, having left in the chaos brought on by the jinchuriki. This had the silver haired man scratch his head and breathe a sigh of exhaustion.
"Boy, I didn't expect for the test to go this far… or for them to do this well. I'm surprised," he exclaimed in an amazed tone of voice. "Clearly the most competent ones have shown a lot of skill and grit… but it'll take more than brute force to overwhelm me." Slipping his hands into his pockets, the Jonin then looked off to the side with a careless expression. "Now let's see… where would they have gone?"
OOO
Sasuke wasn't sure if he'd ever run that fast in his life. But as soon as Naruto popped that massive smoke screen, whatever the hell it was, both of them had high-tailed it out of there before their instructor could even get a bead on them. It had helped a lot that the blonde's technique produced such strong winds it gave them a boost out of the area, but the jutsu was supposed to be a stalling one, and apparently an effective one.
Nevertheless, after several minutes of hard sprinting and, by the Uchiha's estimate, after putting several miles distance between them and their teacher, the pair soon found themselves reunited with Sakura and standing in some patch of grass somewhere in the middle of the forest.
Reunited, they all stood around in the one area doing their own things. While Sasuke was catching his breath, Sakura was fussing over him and Naruto was standing by a tree glaring out into the woods. His ears and eyes were twitching to every sight and sound, but not sensing their teacher anywhere near there, he was quick to calm.
Managing to recover, the Uchiha looked up at the jinchuriki with a glare, "Why the hell did you jump in like that you idiot? I nearly had him!"
"Yeah, I'm sure you did," Naruto replied, glancing back at the boy with a glare of his own. "You were a second away from being pulled straight into the ground and potentially killed. Believe it. I was watching you the entire time."
Jaw tightening, Sasuke wanted so badly to have an argument with his class rival. However, with them now back in hiding and with the events of his battle with Kakashi still fresh in his mind, the raven haired boy managed to quell any debatable tendencies and looked away. Sakura watched the teen calm himself and step away, hands in his pockets and appearing frustrated.
After a few moments of silence, the kunoichi smiled towards the Uchiha and spoke up, "L-Listen Sasuke-kun, there's no need to push ourselves. We can always try again. Let's just rest for a moment and take things slowly. I'm sure that you want to have another shot at those bells before the time runs out."
"Don't worry about me. I'm far beyond giving up at this point," Sasuke replied, still looking away with his usual cold demeanor in play. "When I fought him I was able to touch it. Next time, for sure, I'll get one…"
"No you won't," Naruto shot back immediately.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he quickly turned on the jinchuriki. "How do you know?"
The blonde rounded on him just as he did, "Because I know. On your own, as you are now, you don't have a hope in hell of getting one of those bells." He approached the Uchiha, his expression all serious as he fell into full tirade mode. "He's faster than you are, stronger than you are, has better reflexes, his timing is better, and if his age and ninja-know-how means anything he's also smarter than you. I've been watching him closely the entire time, how he held the center field, how he baited you, chased after you, and cornered you. Hell, he nearly caught Sakura-chan just from chasing after you." Naruto pointed towards the girl who shrunk away when she was placed under the spotlight. "Not even I'm stupid enough to challenge someone like that."
Sasuke turned to face the boy fully. "It's not like you weren't thinking about going after him too, dobe."
The jinchuriki smirked and gave him a nod. "I'm not going to lie; I was tempted to," he replied with a deep frown. "But he's a Jonin. Get it? Jonin! That's one step down from Kage and that means he's super tough."
Sakura, looking between both the irate Sasuke and the equally irate Naruto nervously, gulped and panned back towards the jinchuriki anxiously. Though she had expected her blonde teammate to be one of the boys from their graduating group who would've been more than willing to take their instructor on one on one, apparently he wasn't. In fact, Naruto was vehemently jousting against the idea of fighting their teacher, and that was saying something that even the normally solitary Sasuke was willing to listen to.
Something about the energetic boy's instincts was telling her that the man that was testing their group had even the notorious prankster of their village who wasn't afraid to mess with anyone shaking in his boots. This was something to take to heart.
"H-He's really that strong?" the kunoichi asked.
"You saw him yourself, Sakura-chan," Naruto murmured, looking back at her gravely. "How he reacted, how he played, and how he came after us. I've never seen anyone in the village move like that before. I'm pretty sure not even Iruka-sensei can touch the level this guy's at."
This had both Sasuke and Sakura look at the jinchuriki incredulously, before turning away to reconsider their chances.
From that point onwards, it seemed that the more they thought about the exercise given to them, the more impossible the challenge of getting the bells became. Sasuke admitted he'd been tricked, baited, lured out, and nearly beaten had it not been for Naruto's timely intervention. Even Sakura had to thank Naruto for the save.
The fact was she had been so focused on finding Sasuke that she jumped out without thinking and inadvertently nearly ended up as the Jonin's first kill. That thought gave the girl a sickly feeling that had her look down at the floor grimly.
After several minutes of silence in which all members of the team meditated on the details of the challenge, they then looked towards each other quietly with varying looks of doubt drawn across each of their respective faces.
"This is impossible… isn't it?" Sakura asked, glancing hopefully towards the Uchiha.
Sasuke, having been the first one most adamant about acquiring a bell and passing this absurd test, stepped forward. With a battle hardened expression in play, he confronted the other two and looked between them considerately. First looking towards the kunoichi, he then looked towards Naruto who had just as serious a look in play and was staring back at him with a telltale glint in his eyes.
Seconds into the silence, the Uchiha then furrowed his brow and smiled, "Not unless we work together."
Sakura turned with a start while a smirk crossed Naruto's face. The kunoichi gazed across at the raven haired boy fearfully, "W-Work together? But… what about the bells?"
"What about them?"
"Th-There are only two of them? Aren't you worried about not getting one?"
"It doesn't matter," Sasuke replied before panning towards his class rival, "What matters is getting the bells. That's our goal. But we're not going to do it on our own, right dobe?"
The blonde chuckled, "Now you're talking, teme." The jinchuriki smirked at the confused Sakura with an expression conveying a restored confidence, one which seemed to have been lost when the three of them reunited not too long ago. "The three of us are going to get the bells together. On our own we don't stand a chance, but if we work together…"
"I-It just… might… work," Sakura mumbled to herself. Her eyes shifted wearily as she thought about what the team was saying. When she ran the idea several times in her head and considered their numbers, as well as their collective skills and abilities, the girl then clenched her fist and looked back up. A smile appeared on her face, "Yeah. W-We can do it! We can absolutely do it, CHA!"
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