Bells

Early in the morning, Boruto and Wasabi were walking together to the scheduled meetup spot for Team 11. It was outside in the open field where trees surrounded the area - a good spot for a picnic. There, they met Iwabee who was already there early.

"Woooah! You're Iwabee right? It's nice to meet you! You can call me Miss Wasabi." Wasabi went up to him and patted his shoulder.

"Ignore her. Just call her Wasabi, and I'm Boruto." he says, before noticing a few bandages on his face and arms. "How are you doing?" Boruto asks.

"I'm fine." Iwabee says with an emotionless face, as he stared down at Boruto, indirectly hinting him to mind his own business.

"Okay. Good to know." Boruto replies calmly, not backing away from the stare down at all.

Wasabi was standing awkwardly in-between them, not knowing why there was a certain tension coming from the two. With an uneasy smile on her face, she decided to back off and keep her distance.

And so, the three of them waited in the field for quite a while. Boruto and Wasabi were chatting away, while Iwabe was lost in his own thoughts. It took all the way until 1pm, three hours later, when the Jōnin, Kakashi Hatake, finally arrived.

"Ah… You three actually came in the morning? Sorry sorry, it's really hard to wake up early don't you think?" he says blatantly, scratching his head.

"Wah! But you told us to come at that hour!!" Wasabi puffed her cheeks angrily, lightly punching Kakashi's belly.

"Apologies…" he tells her, before looking at the three of them. "Now, how about we introduce ourselves. Your name, what you like, dislike, and dreams for the future…" He looks over at Boruto and points his finger. "We'll start with you."

"My name is Boruto Uzumaki. I like my little sister and dislike getting extra work. My dream for the future...? I'll be fine with whatever happens." Boruto utters out with a straight face.

'Hm… He seems unmotivated.' Kakashi thought in his head, before yelling out, "Next!".

"I'm Wasabi Izuno! I grew up with cats and really love them. I hate complicated thing a lot, and my dream is to become a reliable clan leader in the future!" Wasabi says confidently, with a wide smile on her face.

'She looks honest, but might be a bit of an airhead...' Kakashi thought in his head, before again yelling, "Next!"

"My name is…Iwabee Yuino. I can't really think of anything I like. What I hate the most is losing. My dream is to become the strongest shinobi in the world." Iwabe expresses this in a bitter but straightforward manner.

'Well well, a big dreamer… Though, he sounds a bit on edge.' Kakashi was collecting all his thoughts about the three, before saying, "Now, all of you followed my advice of not eating breakfast right?"

"That's right! I just remember how hungry I am right now!!" Wasabi exclaims.

Kakashi then pulls out two bells, as well as two lunchboxes. Wasabi face lit up seeing the lunchboxes.

"For today, we'll have a little test to evaluate you three. It's simple. All you have to do is get a bell from me, and you'll get a lunchbox. If you fail to do so, you won't be eating anything." Kakashi dangles the bells in front of us and placed the lunchboxes somewhere safe.

"Excuse me!" Wasabi raises her hand. "Why's there only two bells??" she exclaims, confused.

"That means one of us is bound to fail huh…" Iwabee speaks out.

"That's correct. Now then, you have until sunset, if we're all clear let's begin shall we?" Kakashi ties the string the bells are attached to, onto his waist.

A serious aura immediately filled up the entire area as the three readied themselves, staring at Kakashi with intense eyes.

"Three… Two… One….. Start!" Kakashi counts down then yells.

That very moment, they instantly dashed away to hide behind the trees, all except Iwabee. He stood right in front of Kakashi, face to face, body positioned, and ready to fight.

'Iwabee…?' Boruto thought silently, as he crouched on top of a tree branch, hiding away. During so, he begins thinking about the nature of the test. 'Only having two bells would normally mean that we have to compete against each other to not be the one left out… So acting on your own like Iwabee isn't out of the picture entirely.…but is it really that simple?'

Iwabee had a Jō in his hand, a short staff of sort, that he was using as a weapon. He begins by running towards Kakashi head on, preparing to attack. As he reached him, he began unleashing an onslaught of swings, all easily dodge by Kakashi.

When he found out that that wasn't working, he quickly jumped away and while in midair, he did some hand signs.

"Earth Style: Earth Flowing Spears!" he shouts.

The ground started shifting and conjuring into a barrage of large spikes as they got sent towards Kakashi. However, he wasn't afraid in the slightest and just threw some kunais with a certain piece of paper attached to them. They stabbed the incoming spikes and immediately after, the papers started burning and exploded, getting rid of the entire attack by Iwabee.

Now there were a ton of smoke around them and Boruto noticed that Kakashi was about to use it to his advantage. While Iwabee was attacking mindlessly in the smoke, Kakashi was creeping behind him. Boruto didn't see this but could tell Iwabee was about to be in big trouble.

'Should I go help…?' Boruto wondered. 'But if Iwabee get disqualified, both me and Wasabi will have a better chance of getting a bell each.'

However, while Boruto was still thinking he got caught off guard by Wasabi leaving her hiding spot to help Iwabee. She had jumped out from a tree branch and was now far up in the air, directly above the pile of smoke.

"Wind Style: Imploding Wind Balloon!" she shouts, after a few hand signs.

A huge ball of air flows out of her mouth and drops to the ground before popping into a gust of wind getting sent in all directions. This resulted in all the smoke dispersing away. All that was left was Iwabee, and Kakashi from behind about to attack him.

Iwabee noticed in time and did an earth jutsu, where a mud wall formed in-between him and Kakashi, protecting him from his fist. Then from above, Wasabi who was still falling down, unleashed a water jutsu.

"Water Style: Violent Waterfall!" she shouts.

With her fingers from both hands, she formed a circle as an intense amount of water started gushing out from it. The large quantity of water fell down intensely as it headed straight for Kakashi.

Iwabee quickly noticed this and used an earth jutsu that surrounded Kakashi with mud walls, not allowing him to move anywhere but up where the raging water jutsu was coming from.

However, Kakashi wasn't intending on moving anywhere to begin with as he did some hand signs in less than a second, before puffing in a large quantity air.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

An enormous ball of flames came out of Kakashi's mouth as it started evaporating the falling water. Even after colliding with most of the water, there was still a huge amount of fire coming straight at Wasabi.

She noticed this and braced herself for impact by shielding her face with her arms and looking away. But as the flames burned away the last water droplet and would soon impact Wasabi, she got grabbed and was pulled out from the attack's vicinity.

"You guys are so damn troublesome, ya know?!" Boruto shouts out loud.

He was in the air with Wasabi as he let go of her arm he had grabbed, and without delay, sent out a series of shurikens towards Kakashi.

While Kakashi was deflecting all the shurikens with his kunai, Iwabee was again running towards him. This time he stabbed his Jō into the ground, and as he pulled it out, along with it came a solid rectangular rock attached to it, making his weapon look like a long hammer.

Now, as Kakashi was striking away the shurikens, from behind came Iwabee who swung his weapon right at him. He dodged it by squatting down, before lunging his leg against Iwabee's stomach, sending him far away into the forest.

By now, Boruto and Wasabi had made it back to the ground. Boruto wasted no time as he began his hand signs. Wasabi was behind him doing the same.

"Lightning style: Iron Storm." Boruto mutters.

His hands started discharging electricity as it passes onto the several kunais he was holding with his fingers. He then started throwing them towards Kakashi, all of them moving in the air with rapid speed coated in electricity, making them much faster than normal.

However, no matter how fast they seemed, Kakashi was still able to dodge them, but Boruto already knew this would happen. From behind, Wasabi had finished her hand signs.

"Monster Cat Cloak!" she shouts.

Boruto have known Wasabi for a long time. He was one of the few that knew her potential. A green chakra started coating around her hands and feet, forming the shape of claws. The chakra also took the shape of cat ears and a tail on her body. Not just that, her eyes now looked like that of a feline, as well as, making her teeth sharp.

With this form, the ground underneath her got sent away as she used her full speed. Shortly after, she was already right in front of Kakashi as she swings her arm to claw him. This took him off guard, as he couldn't dodge and had to use his kunai as defense.

However, she was not only quick but could maneuver her flexible body with haste. After attacking Kakashi from the front, she could swiftly get to his back to slash at him.

Kakashi was now using two kunais, one in each hand, as he counters her fast attacks. Boruto smirked seeing her be able to shock Kakashi. He knew her potential, that she was an insanely speedy taijutsu ninja. Being the so-called princess of the Izuno Clan, she was passed down special jutsus only usable by her.

So while Wasabi was keeping Kakashi busy, Boruto finally caught up with them as he jumped in, ready to use a jutsu of his own.

"Lightning style: Tempest Clap!" he shouts.

Jumping right at Kakashi's face, his palms were surging with electricity. Meanwhile, Wasabi quickly got out of the way. Boruto swung both his arms to give a huge clap with his palms. Kakashi tried to get away too but it was too late.

As his palms met, a loud clap was heard. This was followed by Boruto's body suddenly shining bright yellow, with intense light coming out of his eyes, mouth and ears. Boruto looked straight into Kakashi's eyes and smiled widely before… Boom! It was an explosion of lightning as Boruto's body exploded bringing Kakashi along with him.

Kakashi recovered his composure rather quickly after the explosion but he was clearly harmed by it. It was right after that both Wasabi and Boruto came out of the smoke created by the explosion.

For some reason, Boruto wasn't damaged in the slightest which shocked Kakashi. But he didn't have time to think for long since Wasabi was coming in from behind while Boruto was in front of him again, about to use the same explosion jutsu with his palms.

But this time he was ready, as he got serious and quickly grabbed Boruto and kicked him away before he could do anything.

However, right before Boruto got kicked away, he did a strange gesture with his fingers. Then afterwards, Wasabi rushed towards Kakashi but instead of attacking him, she just ducks down to his feet and ran past him.

Kakashi was now confused but then shortly realized. He looked towards Wasabi who was now holding onto the two bells.

"Huh…?" Kakashi was baffled.

"Hooooray!!!" Wasabi started jumping up and down, cheering joyfully.

After a while, Boruto came back and patted Wasabi on the head. "Good job." he tells her.

"…It was your kunai wasn't it?" Kakashi asks him.

"Correct. You see, I never intended to beat you in the first place. That's impossible with our level. My main objective was always the bells."

Boruto then picked up one of his kunais. It was hard to see but there was a thin string attached to it.

"I knew my kunais would be ineffective against you. But I made sure to throw one of them at the perfect position."

Boruto starts doing some hand signs and a shadow clone popped up. It started doing hand signs of its own and soon, electricity was seen in his palms.

"Hm.. I thought as much." Kakashi comments.

"It's exactly what you think. I came up with a jutsu that self-destructs oneself. It was highly destructive but harmed the user more than the receiving end. That's why I figured… why not have my shadow clones use the jutsu instead?"

And just like so, the shadow clone used the jutsu far from the group, creating an electric explosion, leaving Boruto's original body unharmed.

"But that jutsu was just a large distraction for you to start focusing more on my present attack and forget about the kunais I had threw earlier. When you countered my jutsu and kicked me away, attached to my fingers was a thin string that was also attached to a kunai that was threw perfectly behind you beforehand. Right before I got sent away, I pulled the kunai which perfectly cut off the string that the bells were tied to without your notice." Boruto shows the quick gesture he made to pull the kunai.

"Then then! Right before the bells hit the ground and made noise, I quickly grabbed them! They already dropped near your feet by then so you wouldn't think I was going for your bells that should be at your waist!" Wasabi adds, with an expression on her face as she tries to look smart.

Wasabi threw one of the bells towards Boruto which he swiftly catches. Meanwhile Kakashi sighs looking at them both. He was clearly going easy on them and wasn't trying his best, but he had to admit, these two Genin had outsmarted him.

This wouldn't have happened if he paid more attention to the bells but he got worked up by Boruto's dangerous self-destruct jutsu and focused too much on that. Kakashi thought about it in his head.

"Well good job you two. You both pass." Kakashi pats them on the shoulders and looks over at each of them.

'Boruto… He showed great teamwork by not only rescuing Wasabi but also had no trouble synergising with her attacks to complement his own.' Kakashi thinks while looking at Boruto. He then turns his head over to Wasabi.

'Wasabi definitely surprised me by her speed. Very few genin or even chūnin have her level of quickness. In terms of teamwork, not hesitating to help out Iwabee was all I really needed to see.'

A short while later, they were all of a sudden interrupted by a huge boulder coming towards the three of them. It was from Iwabee. Kakashi quickly set up a huge mud wall that blocked the boulder and placed Iwabee in a genjutsu which resulted in him falling over, passed out.

He soon woke up and was told the situation. Obviously he didn't take it well and kicked the ground, expressing his anger. Kakashi then walks over and stared down at him.

'Iwabee… It was a good display of teamwork to surround me with his mud wall jutsu to try and get Wasabi's attack to hit me. But aside from that… He seem interested in only acting alone, and just now, he was going to use the boulder to take me out along with his own teammates. Completely unacceptable behavior…' Kakashi had an angered expression but just before he could open his mouth, Boruto interrupted him.

"Kakashi-sensei, before you say anything, it was because he kept you busy earlier that me and Wasabi were able to get back on the ground safely, and also have time to tell her my plan. I solely believe he is essential to this team." Boruto states sternly, with his eyes locked on Kakashi's.

The two stared at each other for a while until Kakashi eventually gave in. He then patted Boruto on the head.

"Don't worry. I'm not planning anything… But Iwabee, you aren't allowed any food okay? And anyone who feeds him will also be punished!"

With that he tied Iwabee up to a tree, and told the group that he would be back after handling a small errand.