Chapter 40: Team Nine Teamwork, Bell Test
Namikaze Minato led his two students to Konoha’s twelfth training ground. He coughed lightly, put on a serious face, and said, “Although you have passed the academy’s examination, you need to pass one more test before you can receive genin missions. If you fail this, you have to go back and repeat a year.”
This was a little trick Konoha’s team leaders used to frighten new genin and give them a little pressure in advance. But it was obvious that Minato hadn’t grasped its essence yet, because his kind and gentle face barely passed off as frightening. On the contrary, it looked like he was pretending to be a profound thinker.
“Got it,” Kakashi replied indifferently. And Tonan said with a serious look, “Kakashi and I will try our best to complete the test.”
Minato nodded, took out two bells, shook them in front of them, and explained, “I have two bells here. Each bell represents the qualification to become a genin. You two must snatch it from me within an hour.”
He hung the tiny bells on his waist and said with a bright smile, “If you two are ready, you can start now.”
Swish
Kakashi’s figure disappeared instantly, and it was not clear where he hid. As for Tonan, he adjusted his glasses, bowed towards Minato, and said, “Minato-sensei, I’ve offended you.”
In the next instant, the ground below Minato cracked, and Kakashi burst out with his hand reaching towards the bells. But the moment his finger touched the bell.
Bang!
Minato’s figure disappeared, and a substitution wood fell on the ground. On the big tree not far away, a smiling Minato, with his arms folded across his chest, appeared. He looked at Tonan, who was still standing in the same place, and said, “Tonan, you should both come together. Kakashi alone can’t snatch the bells.”
Dingling
Just as he finished speaking, he turned around to see Tonan right behind him. Moreover, the bells on his waist had already fallen into his hands. Tonan shook the bells and asked with a smile, “Sensei, is the test over?”
Minato was surprised for a fleeting moment, but he then smiled and said, “This genjutsu is very good.” The genjutsu was immediately unraveled, and Minato jumped, jumping from the ground to a big tree, dodging a surprise attack from Kakashi.
At this moment, Tonan had just put down his hand that had adjusted his glasses. And the three tomoe were slowly spinning. He bowed deeply to Minato and said, “Minato-sensei, I’ve offended you.”
Everything that happened just a moment ago was an illusion. The chase had begun just now. Minato stood on a tree and said with a smile, “Don’t worry about hurting me.”
“Minato-sensei, be careful,” Tonan warned as he made hand seals.
“Fire Style – Great Fireball Technique!”
A huge fireball flew towards Minato, and at the same time, Tonan threw several kunai. The kunai collided with each other in midair, constantly changing paths.
Ding, ding…
Minato jumped, dodging the fireball along with the kunai behind it.
Step.
But just as he touched the ground, he noticed the earth under him had turned into a swamp, and his body sank involuntarily.
“Earth Style – Dark Swamp.”
Not far away, Kakashi had released the ninjutsu. Seeing Minato already trapped, he leisurely walked over and lightly said, “Hand over the bells.”
Bang!
“Clone Technique, when did he do it?”
Kakashi narrowed his eyes and looked around, but Minato was already standing behind him at this time. He reached out and gently tapped Kakashi’s shoulder.
Bang!
Kakashi turned into a cloud of smoke. He too was a clone.
“It seems your partnership is very good,” Minato said to the empty surrounding, but intentionally or unintentionally, his eyes swept across two bushes.
Swish
Suddenly, four fuma shuriken flew out, and they came at Minato from four different directions.
“Using special ninja tools?”
Minato didn’t bat an eyelid. When the fuma shuriken reached in front of him, he jumped lightly, and just happened to step on the central part of the shuriken, perfectly dodging the attacks. But when he had begun to fall under the effect of gravity and reached closer to the shuriken, he was surprised to notice that they were each connected with chakra wires.
Moreover, these chakra wires were shrinking. If he kept falling like this, he would be entangled in those wires.
“Great tactics!”
Minato took out a kunai and swung it towards the chakra wires. Although the wires couldn’t be cut, he could borrow the kinetic energy to accelerate his fall. At this moment, in the Hokage office, Sarutobi Hiruzen was watching Minato’s test using his Crystal Ball Technique.
“It’s not surprising that Kakashi and Tonan’s strength is already at chunin level. For such a team, assigning D-ranked missions would be a waste of talent.”
Hiruzen blew out a mouthful of smoke and suddenly frowned as he thought of something.
“Did this kid also learn lightning style? It seems his ninjutsu talent is higher than what I thought.”
On the other side, Minato continuously slashed the chakra wires, escaping from the fate of being bound. But just when he was about to land, Kakashi broke out from the ground below once again with a serious look. He then thrust his tanto towards Minato’s arm with his right hand, and at the same time, extended his left hand to grab the bells hanging on his waist.
The corners of Minato’s mouth rose slightly as he swung down a kunai with his right hand.
Ding
As Kakashi’s tanto and a kunai collided, Kakashi put more strength into it, and Minato flew back into the sky again.
“Lightning Style – Ground Travel.”
Crackle
At this moment, Minato realized that the fuma shuriken had not fallen on the ground at all, but were stuck on the surrounding trees. Several kunai, also connected with chakra wires, were suspended from different points, forming a net.
There was a lightning net formed above Minato. Seeing that he was about to throw himself right into it, a smile appeared on Kakashi’s mouth behind his mask. Tonan’s Sharingan was spinning rapidly, observing Minato’s chakra fluctuations.
This was the real body. There was no sign of using the Substitution Technique so far. But Minato cannot be so weak. During the entire process, Tonan was just assisting Kakashi. He hadn’t revealed much of his strength.
Although this Minato was very young, his power should be higher than this level. Suddenly, Tonan’s eyes shrunk slightly.
“The test is over, both of you have qualified.”
Minato’s figure appeared on the fuma shuriken. He looked at two newly minted genin below with admiration and said, “This test focuses on testing your teamwork. But your performance far surpassed my expectation. If it weren’t for insufficient mission records, your strength is enough to become chunin.”
“He has mastered Flying Thunder God Technique already! Did he leave the technique’s mark on the shuriken while dodging just a moment ago?”
Tonan slightly narrowed his eyes, smiled, and bowed to Minato. He said, “Minato-sensei, you are flattering us. If this was a real battle, Kakashi and I would have been defeated long ago.”
Minato scratched his head and said, “I’m a jonin, after all. When you two reach my age, you might be much better than me. Alright, to celebrate the creation of Team Nine, how about we go eat some ramen?”
Kakashi put away his tanto and glanced at Tonan. He was not in the mood to eat ramen at all. Since he was unable to snatch the bell, he wanted to go back to train and improve his strength. However, Tonan squashed the plan and said, “Thank you sensei. Kakashi and I will be grateful.”
Seeing that Tonan had agreed, Kakashi also shrugged his shoulders.
“There is half an hour before lunchtime. Let’s go to the Ramen Ichiraku restaurant located in the shopping street. I’ll come after picking up someone.”
Without really waiting for a reply, Minato disappeared in front of the two of them.
