3 : The survival test

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They were at the meeting spot the next morning at 5am. Dana still had her ears ringing with Naruto's complaints and screams from the day before, and she was happy to have the few hours Kakashi would take to finally arrive to listen to the silence still closing Konoha on his claws at this hour of the morning and in the middle of a training field. The three others ended up sitting backs against each others, half-sleeping, while she wandered silently around, looking at the nature awakening. It was a beautiful day. A voice stopped her in her thoughts:

"Hi everyone!" Kakashi said cheerily.

"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura screamed at him, jumping on their feet and pointing accusing fingers at him. He tried to justify himself with the worst excuses they ever heard, and quickly got back to being serious. He put an alarm clock on a tree stump nearby and explained the exercise, taking out of his pocket two little bells.

"It's quite simple, you have until noon to take these from me. You can use whatever technique or weapon you wish. If you succeed, you'll have a nice lunch. If you don't, you'll be attached to those poles there, looking at me eating my delicious meal." So that's why he told them not to eat before the exercise they thought. Naruto was now happy his sister had forced him to eat, saying that puke or not, the breakfast always was the most important meal of the day. Sakura and Sasuke's stomachs growled next to him.

"But Kakashi-senseï..." The pinkette began. "They are only two bells, and we are four..." Kakashi smiled to her.

"Yes, Sakura. Only two of you will be able to pass this test. The two who don't... Well, they will simply go back to the academy."

This provoked quite a reaction on the three gênin, as to be expected. Dana smiled widely beneath her mask.

"Of course..." She murmured, clearly enough to be heard. But the senseï didn't answer. Instead, he put his hand on the top button of the alarm clock.

"Well, let's begin!"

Everyone spread out, Naruto taken by his collar by his sister to go and find a place to hide. He tried to protest but she covered his mouth and made him understand that he had to be quiet.

"We have to find Sakura and Sasuke." She murmured. "We have to discuss about a plan. Kakashi is way too strong for three – four – gênin like you – us – I'm sure he has something in mind, something else than what he told us."

Naruto simply nodded. His sister was always right about people's behaviors and thoughts. She was an empath after all. And something in his impatient mind – which always prohibited him to be smarter than he seemed – told him that there was something strange in his senseï's plan too.

"You find Sakura and I find Sasuke, while we distract our good Kakashi with some ruse..."

And both of them made three shadow clones that they sent directly attacking their teacher, who, taken aback by this sudden apparition, stopped being careful about everybody else hideout.

Naruto and Dana formed an excellent team. After all, they often trained together since the blond boy was in age of screaming to everyone's face that he wanted to be an Hokage. It had happened when Dana had told him the story of the Fourth Hokage – still, not saying that he was his father – as a bedtime story. She had told him about other heroes too, from Konoha and Kiri, every night he wouldn't sleep and ask for a new story. She had told him about Sakumo, the White Fang, Kakashi's father – even if she omitted that detail too. The young boy had then developed a wonderful admiration for those heroes of the past and had decided that he wanted people to admire and remember him as they did of those legendary ninjas. Even the worst parts of their stories – which she had told him much later, when he was older – didn't discouraged him, it was, in fact, quite the contrary. She smiled, thinking about it, going towards Sasuke of whom she felt the boiling chakra since they had began the test. He looked at her without a word as she sat silently next to him.

"We have to work together." She declared in a whisper.

"And let those two idiots by themselves, you mean?" The dark-haired boy asked. "Good plan."

"Of course not, they must be included." Sasuke looked surprised, but she explained. "I already heard a lot about Kakashi-san, you know. And I made some researches since yesterday." She lied. "He his one of the best ninjas in the village right now. He was the youngest ninja promoted gênin of all time – at six years old!" Her comrade's eyes widened. "We must take him seriously."

They observed their senseï fighting Naruto's clones, a book in his hand, not breaking a sweat. Dana's clones had to save Naruto's ones often for their ruse not to be discovered too soon. She fought the senseï a little too, but not even at one percent of her true force.

"Okay, what's the plan then?" Sasuke questioned, convinced.

"We find the other two, and we talk about it."

The dark-haired shinobi nodded silently and followed her a little deeper into the bushes, where they met the rest of the team, waiting for them.

"Right, now we are all together!" Naruto murmured with enthusiasm.

"Yes. That's a good beginning." Dana sighed

"But what are we going to do?" Sakura asked, puzzled. "If they are only two bells, we can't all succeed. We can't work together if it means two of us will fail. It wouldn't be fair. Or two of us should be ready to go back to the academy."

"Sakura" The brunette said softly. "Don't you think this test is a little strange? Isn't there something that bothers you about it?"

The pinkette wondered for a moment and they approved. Definitely, there was something wrong in all of this.

"What is one of the most important rules a ninja has to learn?" Dana asked.

"To always be prepared for anything?" Naruto tried.

"Never to show his emotions?" Sakura wondered.

"To always put the mission first." Sasuke replied.

"The point is to Sasuke." The young woman told them before continuing in her idea. "So, if we must put the mission first and forget our personal selves, what is the best way to accomplish that mission?"

"To work as a team!" Her brother exclaimed.

"Exactly!" She congratulated him. "Why put us in a team if they expect us to work alone? There's no point."

"Of course!" The pinkette shrieked quietly. "And anyway, a team must always count four people in it. Ayane doesn't really count as she is a special member, but we should always be three gênin and one senseï."

The young girl blushed under Sasuke's approving stare and Naruto admiring look.

"So, what do we do now?" Dana asked with a big smile they couldn't see but guessed.

 "So, what do we do now?" Dana asked with a big smile they couldn't see but guessed

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(Dana cape down.)

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