BSWS CH-10 Chime of the Bells

Kakashi had not gone to search for the trio after they ran away. He stayed in the clearing, reading his book. He was waiting to see what plan they would come up with. He didn't have to wait for long as he felt his surrounding stir soon. He was being slowly but steadily surrounded.

He lazily but meticulously glanced at all the locations that his attackers were hidden at and turned the page of his book with his thumb while his other hand stayed in his pocket.

Suddenly, he saw a few leaves float down to the very page he was reading and land at crucial paragraphs. He frowned and shook the book slightly to get the leaf off. But in the middle of the actions he realized what was up and dodged.

His instincts were right on time as he managed to evade the orange bullet that ran towards him while throwing Multiple Kunai at him. He half smiled that Sakura had managed to put him in a Genjutsu for even half a moment, even if he had not activated Sharingan and let his guard down intentionally.

Genjutsu was not a simple art which just laid illusions on top of things. Genjutsu used the medium of at least one of the five senses to invade the target's body with the caster's chakra.

This chakra then influenced the target's chakra to feed certain information to the target's brain. The target's brain then perceives this information as true and overwrites the true information transmitted by the senses.

The problem with Genjutsu was that, the more powerful a Ninja got, the more his chakra density and will power grew. Which meant in turn that it was harder to influence their chakra, especially if they are on guard.

For beings with extremely dense and powerful chakra, like the Kage, or Shinobi that are beyond S Rank, or entities like Tailed Beasts, it was easy to simply ignore lower class Genjutsu. Weak Genjutsu users will not be able to influence their chakra for even a bit.

The strength of Genjutsu needed to influence such beings was of phenomenal power. For eg: Madara Uchiha and the Second Mizukage were the only ones known publicly for being able to influence Tailed Beasts. Tailed Beasts tore through normal Genjutsu as if it was paper, and that was even without trying consciously.

Back to the current situation, the fact that Sakura was able to put him in a Genjutsu for even half a moment to give her teammate a chance to hit him was impressive. He calmly dodged the Kunai Naruto threw, making them land around him effortlessly without even touching him.

Just as he was about to attack Naruto, he felt a big source of heat behind him. He glanced from the corner of his eyes and saw a big fireball jutsu being sent towards him. He took a mental note of Sasuke's development with the signature Uchiha style jutsu.

He was prepared to dodge the fireball, but right at that moment, the Kunai all around him puffed into smoke and out came a dozen Naruto. They didn't even waste a second and immediately threw Shuriken at Kakashi.

Kakashi was initially going to dodge the Shuriken the same way he had done with the Kunai, but realized that the Shuriken were attached to Ninja wire that prevented regular dodging techniques. Kakashi was again pleasantly surprised because using this type of weapon was an Uchiha speciality, as they used it for their Shuriken manipulation technique.

So far he was pleased with the coordination they had shown. At least one of them knew the importance of teamwork and had guided the team on this path. Which was an achievement considering how recent the team had been formed and its problematic members.

Seeing that there was no other way, Kakashi finally put away his book and concentrated. He used substitution jutsu combined with shadow clone to confuse the Naruto clones. He had already realized that every Naruto there was a clone, and hence he let them get pulverized by the Fireball.

As he was about to escape the clearing he blocked a powerful kick from Sasuke who suddenly appeared before him. The force of the kick sent him back a few feet and prevented him from escaping the clearing.

"Alright then kids, you have got my attention now." Kakashi muttered as he went into Taijutsu battle with Sasuke.

-x-x-x-x-

Sakura watched the battle between Kakashi and Sasuke closely, her hand gripping her sword with the transformed blade. She had already used up around 50% of her chakra in the process to get Kakashi distracted at the start of the fight. Since then she had been directing Sasuke and Naruto swiftly and precisely while keeping a watch on the battle.

They were already in stage 3 of her plan and they had to get the bells by the stage 4 or else they wont have a chance. She knew that this test was not about the bells but about teamwork, but she still wanted to challenge this team's limits and see if they could do it.

Right at that moment, she saw that Kakashi and Sasuke were locked together. Kakashi was gripping Sasuke's right leg and left fist, while Sasuke had used Ninja wire to bind them together by making it wrap around their interlocked limbs.

Seeing the chance, Sakura rushed forth at incredible speed. Kakashi noticed her out of the corner of his eye and his eyes widened slightly. Sakura thrust forth with her sword, taking complete advantage of her speed to execute this stab perfectly.

However, her target was not Kakashi himself, rather it was the metal loop on his waist that the bells were tied to. Thanks to the timing, her speed and Kakashi's current situation, the sword had almost reached the bells.

Right at this moment Kakashi moved with twice the speed as before. He had somehow freed himself from the wires and at the same time threw Sasuke away with a palm strike. Within the same breath of time, he was also moving backwards at angle that within half a second would get him away from the sword's reach.

But Kakashi failed to notice the smirk that came to Sakura's face at that moment. Right when the sword missed due to Kakashi managing to dodge to the side, the sword was dispelled in a puff of smoke. Out came Naruto, with his leg being held by Sakura and his fingers hooked around the metal loop that held the bells.

Kakashi realized this within microseconds, and tried to strike Naruto's palm away and move back. However he underestimated Sakura once again. Right as Kakashi was about to strike away Naruto's palm, Sakura used all her remaining chakra to do a powerful body flicker technique. However it was her first time, so she ended up getting launched forth like a rocket while holding Naruto.

Sakura and Naruto crashed and rolled on the ground a few dozen times before they hit a tree, which finally stopped their momentum. Sakura groggily shook her head and wiped away the blood flowing from abrasion to her forehead. She glanced around, looking for Naruto anxiously.

She saw him lying on the ground a few feet away from her, groaning in pain. Seeing that he had not suffered anything major, she relaxed. Bruises and other minor stuff was something he would easily heal from, given his Jinchuriki status.

Naruto sat up slowly, holding the right side of his waist, which got bruised badly in the stunt they pulled. Seeing Sakura looking at him questioningly, he hid his pain and gave a wide grin.

He raised his right hand and showed the metal loop that was held between his finger. The two bells hung from it, chiming softly in the wind.

"We won!!!" Naruto said cheerfully