Teamwork and Trust
Sakura hit the ground hard. Her whole head jolted, and the world grew a bit darker. Her teeth ached. For a second, she was pretty sure her ankle had just been broken.
She was only "pretty sure" because while there was a nauseating flare of pain, there
wasn't the distinctive crack of bone.
She managed to scramble to her feet, doing her best to ignore her aching back and throbbing arm. She could move. Sprinting on it merely sent jolts of lightning up her leg, instead of filling the limb with cold fire. She hurtled through the forest, ignoring the pain that came with every step.
Where was he?
There was a rustling sound, and she jumped sideways, sure that he was back, that he was flinging himself towards her. At any moment-
It was just a twig. A twig had fallen from her hair. Nothing.
Nothing to worry about...
She didn't know where her sensei was anymore. She'd lost him after the last brief exchange: he'd melted back into the leaves, and now she was apparently alone again.
But that wasn't true, of course.
Obito was out there somewhere, watching, waiting, and she had to get as far away from here as possible before he decided that he'd had enough of it and came after her again. How long had it been? Five minutes? Ten?
How much longer was this going to last?
Her hand tightened around the bells in her left hand, feeling the warm metal reassuringly press into her palm. She'd kept them in her pouch until Obito had cut it off. Now, she was forced to carry them. But at least they were all still there: she still had a chance. Sakura kept running, kept thinking. Kept trying to figure out where she was, and what she was doing.
Her increasingly desperate and terrified thoughts were interrupted when she ran into something tall and unyielding and fell back, yelping in surprise and pain. Sakura hit the grass and sprawled, stunned. Had that been a wall? Whose idea was it to put a wall in the middle of the forest?
She finally looked up, and her eyes went wide. The trembling that had plagued her intensified.
'
Oh no.'
Obito stood over her, staring down with a complete lack of interest. His eyes were blank onyx, the Sharingan deactivated. His face was slack. There didn't seem to be a hint of life to him.
"
No no no no-'
Sakura scrambled backwards, before her hand bumped something. She turned her head.
Sasuke was lying insensible on the ground behind her, his clothes rumpled and his face marred by an obvious bruise shaped like her sensei's shoe.
Sakura didn't shriek, but only because she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.
She whipped her head back around, the movement of a startled animal. Obito began slowly walking forward, his stride unhurried. Sakura just watched him.
What could she do? She was just one genin.
'
Not even a genin yet, probably never will be.'
What could she do against one of the elite of the village?
Obito finally reached her and bent down, his knees sliding gracefully into a squat so his dead eyes lined up with hers. Sakura pressed herself farther back into Sasuke's unconscious body, hoping against hope that he would wake up and defend her.
She couldn't do this. She wasn't special. Why was she here? Why was
he doing this?
Obito chose that moment to speak.
"Sakura," he said quietly, looking into her eyes without actually
looking. "Give them up."
He extended one hand slowly, palm open and upward, obviously waiting for something to be dropped into it.
The bells. He still wanted the bells.
She stared at his hand, and then at him. He looked back patiently.
"Give me the bells," he said calmly. "Give up. You'll pass, and they'll fail. That's the way of things. They'll be disappointed, but they should have been prepared for something like this."
Sakura blinked.
She wasn't strong enough. She wasn't ready to be on this kind of team, with the Hokage's son and the Uchiha's heir. She couldn't fight Obito. She couldn't defend her teammates.
She should give up. Take the easy pass, and send her team back to the academy. Continue on herself. Her parents would be proud
And yet…
'
Who does he think I am?'
Did he think that she would just throw away Naruto and Sasuke's chances at being genin? That she would
betray them like that? Sakura blinked again, but it wasn't the bewildered, defeated one from earlier returning for another round.
Her bright green eyes sharpened. The hand holding her teammate's futures opened momentarily, three small balls of metal revealed momentarily, before tightening again into a white-knuckled fist.
What could she do, though? She couldn't fight Obito. The last couple minutes had proven that without a doubt. She couldn't throw the bells away. Obito was far faster than her: he'd definitely retrieve them before she could.
She had to get them out of hands.
…
There was a way.
Sakura felt stupid for even considering it, but at the moment, it seemed the best option.
"You… you want the bells, sensei?" she muttered angrily, barely able to get the words past her quivering lips. Her whole body was shaking. Partially in fear, partially in anger. There was something red filling up her soul, driving her forward.
Obito cocked his head.
"Give them up, Sakura. I would prefer not to-"
Sakura's hand shot up, stuffing all three bells in her mouth.
Obito blinked, and he looked down at her as she swallowed with a little hesitation, gagging as they slid down her throat. Sakura coughed heavily, once, twice, and then glared up at her teacher, her hands still curled into fists.
'
C'mon.'
The voice wasn't real, wasn't out loud, but she was sure the jonin could hear what she was thinking as surely as if she'd said it out loud.
'
Take them then.'
There was a moment of silence as Sakura panted and Obito stared. Then, the Uchiha laughed.
He stood up, unfolding out of his crouch, and scratched the back of his head.
"Well," he said, suppressing another laugh. "That works, I guess. I'll go get Naruto: give him the good news."
He turned and walked away, and left Sakura on the ground, staring at his back. She only had one thought in her head.
'
What?'
###
About twenty minutes earlier, Sakura stared down at the bell in her hand, and then back up at her teacher.
"Um…" she began to mutter, before Naruto cut her off.
"The bell test?" he asked, incredulous. He and Sasuke shared a glance. "Obito, we know this! What's the point of-"
He knew about this test? How-
His father was the Hokage. Of
course he knew something like this.
"Well," the older man smiled warmly. "First off, it's Obito-
sensei now." Despite the smile, he managed to inject just enough mirthful threat into his voice to make Naruto's eyes go widen. The blond boy took a half-step back.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. Sakura just watched the Hokage's son carefully. She was tired, and somewhat cold. It was too early in the morning to be doing this sort of thing.
After Obito had appeared in the classroom, they'd all made their way to the roof. Basking in the warmth of the sun and enjoying the slight breeze that swept over the Hokage monument and down onto the academy, Sakura had felt some of her anxiety melt away.
Even if her team was unlike any of the others, it was still a team, and she was part of it. That idea gave her a slight thrill.
Obito had gone around and asked everyone why they were there. Their likes and dislikes, their hobbies, their ambitions…
He'd been humoring her. She could tell: it was painfully obvious. Naruto and Sasuke were already close. They knew each other practically better than they knew themselves.
Naruto had loudly boasted that he was going to "steal my dad's hat if it's the last thing I do", at which Obito had given a wry smile, obviously enjoying a private joke. Did he mean the literal hat, or the Yondaime's position? Sakura hadn't asked, but for some reason she was sure it was the former.
Sasuke had been more subdued. And thinking back to his proclamation still made Sakura feel cold.
"I will restore the Uchiha to their former power," he'd said in a quiet voice, his hands crossed in front of his face. Obito had just watched him with careful eyes.
But then, the handsome boy's features has sharpened, and his teeth had shone white in the midday sun, and suddenly Sakura didn't find him so handsome anymore. That one moment of clarity put the rest of Sasuke in context. He was controlled, Sakura thought, because there was something ugly underneath.
"But before I do that," he'd gritted out, "I have something else to attend to."
Obito had simply given him a
look. Sakura knew that kind of looks. The kind that screamed, "We'll be talking later."
It was clear that there was something she didn't know about Sasuke. And that thought filled her with a curious combination of wariness and self-admonishment.
Of
course she didn't know everything about Sasuke.
But Sakura had thought she'd somewhat understood him, and that flash of sharp bitterness he'd shown unnerved her because she'd never caught a glance of it before. Sasuke had never exactly been warm, but he'd never seemed bitter.
Never seemed dangerous.
But Sakura hadn't had time to figure that bitterness out because then it had been her turn. Obito had turned to her expectantly. So had Naruto, swiveling in her direction with a beaming grin shining on his face. Sasuke had only shifted slightly, but it was clear he was listening, at least.
Sakura had stumbled. "I-I'm Sakura Haruno. I… I like umeboshi, and training, I guess," she'd said uncertainly. She had never especially enjoyed the more physical aspects of shinobi training. Running, sometimes, because she was convinced moving at speeds most people would never be able to dream of would never get old, but kata's were often
boring.
Genjutsu, though… she was glad that the Fourth had instituted genjutsu training in her second-to-last year. She and Ino had always been neck and neck in academics, but Ino had always gotten the better of her in physical stuff (though Hinata had consistently beaten the both of them there).
But with genjutsu training (both the most basic of basics, and dispelling), Sakura finally found something that had proved to her she
was good at something besides theory. It had made her decide to push herself harder. That maybe she
could be something more than average.
Her parents had supported her, and she'd graduated with the highest academic scores of any of the kunoichi, barely beating out Ino. But she'd never felt like she deserved that spot, and it didn't give her nearly enough confidence to be on a team like
this.
She had been so caught up in her thoughts, she'd barely noticed Obito's question.
"What?" she'd blurted, before blushing. Naruto had laughed. Not mean-spiritedly, but it had still made Sakura's blush only grow.
Obito had merely smiled. "I said," he said gently, "why do you want to be a ninja?"
That had brought Sakura up cold.
Why
did she want to be a ninja?
She'd started out because her friends had wanted to be ninja. When she had been younger, being a ninja sounded cool. The fact that both her parents were chunin had only contributed. She didn't know what she
wouldn't have done: being a ninja was what her family
was. Not defending the Leaf just didn't enter into her thoughts.
But she'd thought that she would end up like them. A career shinobi. A chunin by her late teens or early twenties, and then doing whatever she could to help the village till she either retired or…
Well, or until she died. But Sakura had never really considered the idea of dying in service to Konoha. She'd been too young. She still was, honestly. But the concept was no longer so completely alien, unable to be understood.
So, did she want to be a ninja because she wanted to serve the village? To die for it?
Sakura…
Didn't know.
The astonishment and shame she'd felt at that discovery must have shown on her face, because Obito had looked at her askance and leaned back onto the railing on the edge of the roof, waiting for her answer. Naruto had cocked his head, his bright blue eyes curious. Sasuke had just remained fixed, staring up at the sky.
"I don't know," Sakura had finally whispered.
"Eh?" Naruto had asked articulately.
Sakura had just shaken her head.
"I don't know."
Obito had nodded. Sakura had almost flinched at the tiny motion.
She'd practically been able to hear him say what she had been thinking.
'
So why are you here?'
There had been a moment of silence, which Obito had mercifully broken.
"You guys aren't out of the woods yet, you know," he'd said. "There's one test left."
Naruto had rolled his eyes grandly. "Yeah, yeah. What time?"
Obito had looked distinctly unimpressed. "Tomorrow. Six in the morning. Training field seven."
Sakura had wondered if they'd been assigned that field based on their team number, or if it was just a coincidence. The same could go for their meeting time.
Also:
six in the morning?
She hadn't been the only one to blanch. Sasuke, as usual, had kept his cool, but Naruto had protested. Loudly. Obito hadn't cared.
And so now, she was here, it was too early in the morning, it was rather chilly despite the sun having risen about thirty minutes earlier, the forest surrounding the small clearing was buzzing with life, and her teacher had just handed her a small silver bell.
She stared down at it. Obito made his way over to Naruto, and dropped a bell in his hand as well.
"Well, you see Naruto," he was saying, sounding perfectly cheerful. "This is a bit different from the bell test your dad's told you about. I decided to switch it up a little."
"Eh?" Naruto asked wordlessly.
Obito's voice became drier than the average desert, moving somewhere into the realm of a sandstorm. "Well, first off, I'm handing the bells to
you," he said, plopping another one of the things in Sasuke's outstretched hand.
"Oh yeah." Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I just figured you were giving up, you know. Since we'd snatch them from you so quick and all."
Obito loudly snorted. Naruto grinned. Sakura just shrunk in on herself.
Apparently, she would have had to steal something from her teacher if he'd gone with the "normal" bell test. And unlike Naruto, she wasn't confident she could have managed that.
"Yes, well, your imminent victory aside, I've decided to take a different tack with this one," Obito said, stepping back.
"Which is?" Sasuke finally spoke up. He focused on his older relative, his eyes intense.
Obito spoke up, making sure that all of his students could hear him. Sakura especially.
"Listen, each of you has a bell," he said.
Naruto made to interrupt, and Obito glared at him.
Naruto didn't interrupt.
"That bell is your ticket to being a shinobi."
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked quietly.
What
did he mean? Did they have to turn the bells in somewhere?
No: this was a test. It wouldn't be that simple. Obito smiled. Unlike the last one, this one was rather grim.
"You have to hold on to that bell for the next twenty minutes. If you lose it, you'll be going right back to the academy," he said. A jolt of ice shot down Sakura's spine.
Her fist tightened around her bell. It was suddenly
much more important that she not accidentally drop it.
"Pfft. That's it?" Naruto gloated. "That's simple! Where's the-"
"I'll be trying to take them, of course," Obito said, and Naruto shut up, a stricken look on his face.
"I think I'll give you guys a head-start. How about… a minute," Obito continued.
Team Seven stared, and their new sensei cocked an eyebrow. "Get going," he said, and then he vanished.
"Hn," Sasuke made an indistinct noise to her left, and Sakura turned to him. He was smiling.
"This should be interesting," he said.
"I'll say!" Naruto piped in cheerfully. "We've got a minute: plenty of time for a couple traps. We gotta get ready!"
He turned to Sakura. "C'mon!" he grinned. And then he took off towards the edge of the clearing, Sasuke following him. They were headed for the forest.
Sakura blinked, and threw herself after them. She drew up next to Sasuke, her mind whirling.
"What… what are we doing?" she asked quietly. "Do we have a plan?"
Sasuke snorted. "Just stay on your toes. I doubt Obito will be going all out, but we still should be-"
At that moment a dark blue blur shot from the canopy and hit Sasuke so hard and so fast that he simply vanished. One moment he was next to her: the next, he wasn't.
The young Uchiha rocketed backwards, bouncing off the ground with an audible
thump and rolling several painful meters. Sakura slowly turned towards him and stared, nearly tripping over her own feet. Sasuke stumbled to his feet mid-roll, his expression somewhere between enraged and agonized. Sakura stood and watched him, before turning towards where he'd been a moment before.
Obito was standing there, a neutral expression on his face. Sakura yelped and jumped backwards, tightening her hand around her bell.
She could hear Naruto yelling as he ran back towards them.
"What the hell?!" he demanded, skidding to a stop next to Sakura and glaring at his teacher.
"That wasn't a minute!" he yelled. "That was barely twenty seconds! What do you think you're-!"
Obito slowly turned his head towards Naruto. The blond boy froze.
"No," the older Uchiha said, sounding amused. "That wasn't a minute."
He vanished again, and Naruto was left gaping. Sakura was too, but she recovered slightly sooner. She took off towards Sasuke, who stood stock still, shaking.
"Sasuke! Are you-"
"We're in trouble," he interrupted her.
He looked… almost scared. More annoyed than anything else, but Sakura could still see something in his eyes that she never had before.
"Huh?" Naruto jogged over, casting wary glances all around.
"He's not holding back." Sasuke grimaced, rubbing his chest. "That almost broke my ribs."
"Wuh? No way! No way Obito would do that!" Naruto shook his head. "It must have been an accident, right? I mean-"
No. No way that their sensei would try to break their ribs.
Right?
"Uchiha don't make mistakes," Sasuke said, and Naruto stopped. Sakura stiffened. "We have to get out of here. Stick together, too: if we're not careful, he'll pick us off."
Naruto stared. Then, he turned to Sakura.
"So… you wouldn't happen to have some sort of awesome sensing jutsu, would you?" he asked casually, almost betrayed by the slight tremor in his voice.
She shook her head wordlessly.
Naruto sighed shakily, but he kept grinning. "Damn."
'
Oh no.'
She was completely useless here. How long did they have to hold onto the bells? Twenty minutes?
That was too long. An eternity. Obito had almost taken Sasuke out in less than a second.
What chance did they have against
that?
Naruto must have noticed that she was trembling, because his smile just stretched wider. It looked all the more fake for it.
"Hey, don't worry," he said. "We got this." He turned back to Sasuke, leaving Sakura exactly as reassured as she'd been at the start of the conversation. Which wasn't very.
"Sasuke? You good?"
The Uchiha responded by pulling himself to his feet. His eyes narrowed slightly, and red bled into them.
His Sharingan swirled into existence, the two tomoe rotating lazily.
"Next time," he said steadily, "I'll see him coming."
Naruto's smile turned real, and Sakura calmed down slightly. Of course. Sasuke had a Sharingan as well. That would even the odds a little.
She ignored the niggling voice that pointed out that the difference between Sasuke and Obito was probably so great that his eyes wouldn't make much of a difference.
"All right then!" Naruto pounded his hand into his fist, and turned around.
"Obito!" he yelled. Sakura stared at him. What the hell was he doing?
"We're ready for you this time! That trick won't work twice!" Naruto shouted.
The forest didn't answer. Naruto's grin faded slightly.
He looked back at Sakura. "We gotta get going." He didn't sound as confident as he had a moment before. "So long as we're moving, we gotta better chance."
They took off once again, staying as close together as possible. Sakura watched the forest carefully, her senses straining.
There was nothing out there but the rustling of the wind and the screeches of the birds.
###
"Naruto… are you sure this will work?" Sakura murmured, lying prone on the high branch next to the blond. They were situated in a tree deeper in the forest, waiting patiently.
Or at least, Naruto was waiting patiently, though he occasionally fidgeted. Sakura was almost jittering in anticipation. He grinned back, ignoring her subtle trembling. "'Course I'm sure!" he whispered excitedly, before frowning. "Unless he just teleports out of there."
Sakura blinked. "He can
teleport?" Wait, was that a dumb question? He had shown up in the classroom out of nowhere. Did Naruto think she was stupid now?
"Oh, yeah!" Naruto had definitely regained his confidence. "It's his Sharingan, y'know. Crazy, right? Eyes that let you teleport?" He chuckled. "I wonder what Sasuke will end up with, huh?"
Sakura shook her head, staring back out into the clearing. She couldn't see the trap Naruto had laid down: the ink had already vanished. She couldn't spot Sasuke either: the Uchiha had vanished into the undergrowth. She felt something brush her back, but when she looked back, there was nothing there.
It must have just been the wind-
"Waiting for someone?"
The voice came from right above her, and she yelped, flipping over. Obito stood over her, staring down. His left eye was closed, but the right was open, the Sharingan active, and the sickle-sided triangle within the quadruple-bladed circle spun so slowly it almost seemed like it wasn't moving at all.
Sakura shrieked and kicked up with both feet, aiming for Obito's stomach.
He didn't even flinch as his hand came up, effortlessly stopping both of Sakura's legs at the apex of their kick. She spun, trying to work her foot around his hand, and he pushed forward, forcing her to roll backwards or have her leg broken.
She tumbled off the branch, flipping in the air. As she fell, she glimpsed Naruto tackling their teacher, carrying them both off of the tree.
Sakura hit the ground, continuing her roll backwards and quickly coming to her feet. She stumbled, a little dizzy, but none the worse for her twenty foot fall. She stopped staggering just in time to watch Sasuke come out of
nowhere and crash into Obito, knocking him right out from under Naruto.
The man was on his feet before he even touched the ground, and then he and Sasuke were instantly caught up in a fierce taijutsu match.
Sakura could barely follow it. Sasuke leapt into a handspring, kicking for their sensei's face, but the older man deflected the blow and spun around, kicking low at Sasuke's hand. The younger Uchiha popped into the air, clearing the kick easily, and attempted to grab Obito's leg.
Which was when Sakura's new sensei flipped into a brutal axe-kick with barely a hint of motion, catching Sasuke in the legs and spiking him into the ground.
The Uchiha
bounced, and Obito kicked out again as he landed, knocking Sasuke away. He tumbled out of the clearing, almost knocking over Sakura, who barely managed to catch him.
Naruto scrambled to his feet, his hands coming together in a simple sign. "Gotcha!" he shouted.
The clearing exploded.
The blast was overwhelming, blowing leaves off of trees for dozens of feet around. Sakura's hair flew back, and her face grew hot. The sound was almost a physical thing, followed by the pressure wave, which knocked her flat on her butt.
Sasuke came with her, and they both ended up prone, staring at the devastated clearing as Naruto made a noise that could only be described as cackling as burning leaves rained down around him.
"Ha! Haha! Didn't see that coming, did'ya?" he laughed, shaking with adrenaline. "You just gonna walk that one off, Obito!?"
"No need."
Sakura's eyes went wide as the Uchiha swirled into existence behind Naruto, who froze, slowly turning his head back.
"Ah… shi-" he managed to say, before the dark-blue man punched him so hard that Sakura didn't even see him hit the ground. One second Naruto was standing: the next he was flat on his face, completely still.
Obito casually turned around, staring at her and Sasuke. He shook his head, and muttered quietly.
"Language. I'll have to talk to Kushina about that."
Then, he spoke up, raising his voice.
"That was a decent attempt. But your teamwork needs work." He crossed his arms. "Try again."
He stepped down, reaching down and grabbing Naruto's ankle. The blond was completely insensible. He didn't even groan.
The boy twisted out of existence, vanishing without a sound, and Obito stood back up.
Sakura stared. Sasuke pulled himself to his feet, away from her.
"You say our teamwork needs work, and then you take him away?" he yelled, coughing and favoring his left leg. "How are we supposed to work together if he's stuck in Kamui? There's no way I can get in there-!"
"Wow, you're right." Obito sounded distinctly unimpressed: his left eye was still closed. "What a shame."
And then he twisted out of existence just as Naruto had, and Sakura was left alone with Sasuke, who stared at the spot where their teacher had been a moment before, growling.
The both of them sat in silence for a moment. Sasuke's hands clenched and unclenched, and he ground his teeth. Sakura was lost inside her own head, and barely noticed. Naruto was just… gone.
Could Obito
do that?
And if he could, why hadn't he before? When he'd been standing right over her? Why hadn't he taken her?
"Umm… Sasuke?" she finally asked, edging closer to him.
He twisted his head towards her, frowning intensely.
"He's messing with us," he said, as if such a thing was the most personal insult he'd ever heard. "He's messing with
me."
Sakura blinked. "Sasuke, what should we
do? Naruto's gone: it's just the two of us. How are we supposed to-"
He held his hand up. "He doesn't want us to beat him. And…" He paused, and snapped his head back towards where Naruto had been, before breaking into a run, scrambling through the grass.
Sakura blinked, and jogged after him. He dropped to one knee when he reached the patch of matted grass where his friend had been a moment before. Something silver glinted in the dim light of the forest as Sasuke picked it up.
"He left it," he said quietly.
"What?" Sakura asked, barely able to hear him. She bent over his shoulder, looking at what he held in his hand.
Sasuke opened it, showing her what he held.
"Obito left Naruto's bell," he said clearly, before standing up, Sakura backing away to give him room. "That means he's not disqualified yet: so long as we hold onto it, he can make it through."
He reached out his hand. "You take it."
Sakura looked down at the bell in confusion, then back as Sasuke. She blushed, very slightly.
"Me?" she asked carefully. "Why-"
"I've got the best nin and taijutsu," Sasuke said matter-of-factly. "When Obito comes back again, I'll be the one fighting him. It's better for you to hang on to the bell, in that case: we can't afford to lose it."
Sakura gulped, and took the bell into her hand, staring at it. Funny to think that something so small could be so important. She literally held Naruto's future in her hands.
"Do you have a plan?" she asked, cradling the bell.
Sasuke looked away from her, out into the forest.
"I don't have any jutsu shiki like Naruto does," he mused, talking to himself just as much as he was to her. "I have some wire… but there's no way he wouldn't see it coming."
He looked back at her. "They'll be better than nothing, though. Maybe we can distract him, and then I can take him down."
"Umm… Sasuke…" Sakura said quietly. The young Uchiha stared at her, cocking an eyebrow. "We don't have to fight him, you know. We just have to hold onto our bells until the time limit is up. Wouldn't it be easier to-"
"Maybe," he cut her off casually, and Sakura stopped talking immediately. "But we can't just wait around for him. If we do nothing, we've good as lost."
Sakura paused, then sighed and dropped her head slightly. He was right, of course. Just waiting for Obito to show up wouldn't do them any good.
"Okay," she said, trying to sound calm. "So, where should we go from-"
"I feel like you aren't taking this seriously enough."
Sakura spun, looking around for the source of the baritone. Sasuke merely stiffened, and then looked straight up.
Sakura stopped, looked at him, and then followed his gaze.
Obito was hanging upside high above them, his feet stuck to a particularly large branch. He stared down at them, his arms crossed, frowning softly.
Sasuke hissed and backed up. Sakura dropped back as well, bringing herself closer to her teammate: she couldn't hope to fight Obito by herself.
"This isn't a game, you know," the older Uchiha said softly, his voice like water running over steel. "Do you think you can afford to just sit around in the forest, making plans?" He shook his head. "Your teammate is gone. Don't you think you should be figuring out how to deal with his absence?"
"Or save him," Sasuke shot back. Sakura glanced at him: hadn't he said earlier that saving Naruto would be impossible? Apparently, that didn't matter to him anymore.
Obito chuckled. "You saying things like that make me think that maybe this exercise isn't so pointless." He uncrossed his arms, bringing one to his sides, and the other just below his mouth. "Why don't you prove me right?"
His right hand, the one near his face, began running through signs. Sakura stared.
There was no way. Was their sensei really going to-?
"Katon," he said, sounding supremely bored. Beside her, Sasuke tensed, bending his knees. Sakura glanced at him in a panic, and then back at Obito. She felt cold.
"Hōsenka no Jutsu," Obito finished, bringing his hand to his mouth.
He spat dozens of tiny fireballs, turning the air above Sakura into a descending inferno.
Sakura yelped and jumped back, barely avoiding one of the flames as it crashed into the ground where she had been standing, reducing the grass to so much blackened mulch. She looked back up, and could see nothing but fire. There was a whisper of movement, and she jerked her head to the left.
Sasuke was there, glaring at her, his two-tomoe Sharingan spinning rapidly.
He was so
fast. How could he be that fast?
"Sakura,
move," he whispered, seemingly louder than any shout Sakura had ever heard, and then he shoved her as hard as he could, sending her flying backwards. There was a great boom as the fireballs struck a moment later, frying everything below Obito.
She hit the ground and tumbled, skidding across the grass and eventually coming to a stop flat on her back, covered in tiny scrapes. She looked back at where she'd come from, but Sasuke was nowhere to be seen: the forest was completely engulfed in flames over there, filling the air with smoke and heat and making it impossible to see anything.
"Sasuke!" she shouted, scrambling to her feet. There was no way he'd been taken out by something like that! There was no way their sensei would have done something so-
"
He's not the one you should worry about." The face came from directly to her right, and Sakura jumped away from it instinctively, falling into an academy taijutsu stance, her foot sliding out in front of her and her arms loosening themselves in anticipation of a punch.
She panted, adrenaline coursing through her system and jittering her clenched fists, and glared at her sensei, one of her lips pulling back slightly.
Obito stopped, cocking his head. "Oh?" he said curiously. "You want to test your taijutsu, do you?"
His right eye, its strange Sharingan whirling unbelievably slowly, watched her intently. His left was still closed.
She paused, staring back. Slowly, Sakura began to realise exactly what she was doing.
Before she could
act on that realization and take back one of the stupidest decisions of her life, Obito shrugged, casually dropping into a relaxed pose. His Sharingan melted away, his eyes returning to the recognizable Uchiha black, and he opened his left one, revealing a perfectly ordinary eye there as well.
Sakura wondered, under the constant mental chant of,
'Idiot idiot idiot
', why he had closed that eye. Had it been a handicap for them?
"I'll make it a bit fairer for you, then," he said, grinning slightly, gesturing offhandedly at his face, and the sudden lack of pinwheel eyes to be found there. "Show me what you got."
Sakura gulped audibly, a drop of sweat running down her neck.
She glanced around, but Sasuke was still nowhere to be seen. Obito seemed to be the only thing left in the whole forest. She didn't want to look at him, so she looked down instead. Her breathing was unusually loud in her head.
She could run. She wouldn't make it very far, but she could run. But that would just lose her her bell, and Naruto's, which she had slipped into one of her many, many pockets, along with her own.
So what else could she do?
'
You fight, of course.'
Ah. It was that voice again.
The voice that always came to her whenever Ino showed her up, or Naruto did something stupid, and even though Ino was her friend and Naruto was the Hokage's son, something in Sakura just begged her, demanded of her, that she pound them into the dirt.
The voice that scared Sakura like nothing else, because other people didn't have voices in their head, did they? Didn't have voices that told them to hurt people, at least. But now…
Maybe the voice was right. The only thing she
could do now was fight. Anything else would get her disqualified.
'
Why do you want to be a shinobi?"
Sakura's hands stopped trembling, and her eyes hardened. She stared back at Obito, who was watching her patiently.
That didn't matter right now. She could figure out
why she was a ninja after she became one.
There was a gust of wind, rustling the grass around Sakura's sandals, and she took it as her cue to move.
She charged straight ahead, her hand flashing through handsigns. Obito just watched her, not shifting from his stance. It was a simple set. She wouldn't have left the academy without it.
For Sakura, it was effortless.
Tiger, boar, ox, dog. The most basic bunshin technique: intangible clones, good for nothing but distractions. But maybe distractions would be enough.
She jumped, high as she could, pumping chakra into her legs and soaring well over Obito's reach. There was a moment, just a second of surprise clear on his face, where his eyes didn't track her. She brought her hands together, and silently finished the technique.
Three Sakura's shifted into existence besides her in midair: two to her left, and one to her right. They all landed besides Obito, though there was only the sound of a single person hitting the grass: the clones weren't physical, after all.
As Obito turned to look at them, they all reached into a hip pouch and drew gleaming kunai: Sakura felt her hand brush the bells she carried. They were much warmer than the metal around them.
Then, Sakura and her duplicates rushed forward as one. The one on her right went low, diving for Obito's gut. The clone directly to her left went high, leaping into the air and kicking for her sensei's face: the one next to it darted farther to the left, circling the man and sending its illusionary kunai flying right at his kidneys.
Sakura herself ran straight ahead, her kunai held in front of her, aiming for her sensei's chest. She didn't want to kill him: she really didn't think she could, anyway.
Obito barely moved. He twitched his head slightly back, and the clone that had jumped missed completely, its foot striking nothing but air.
Obito's hair wasn't even ruffled, and his eyes narrowed.
He'd realized that one was a fake: its kick hadn't pushed the air aside.
He slid forward, allowing the thrown kunai coming from his left to barely scrape him, brushing along his jacket. The material wasn't ripped: the one on his left was an illusion as well.
Two Sakura's remained: one was a clone. One was diving forward, ready to gut him, and the other was sprinting, a kunai held in front of her. The Uchiha watched them for half a second, and both Sakura's stared back, glaring at him with scared green eyes.
Sakura knew, then and there, that Obito knew which one was her.
He proved her right a moment later by flipping sideways into the air, neatly clearing the diving clone, and coming right for her, his foot extended for a very painful kick.
Sakura came to a very sudden stop and raised her kunai, presenting the flat side to Obito and bracing her arm behind it. He hit like a falling tree, and she skidded backwards, her sandals digging a groove in the grass.
Her hand felt broken. But it was still moving, and there hadn't been a horrific snapping noise, so she'd gotten lucky, and it was only sprained. Obito didn't stop when he silently touched back down. He didn't wait for Sakura to shake out her hand.
He just came for her again, fast, so fast it made Sasuke's speed look like
hers, and Sakura brought her knife back up.
She took a deep breath.
Obito spun, sweeping his foot low. Sakura jumped over it, and he halted the motion in an instant, sending out a brutal straight-arm and hitting her dead in the chest. She was blown back, her entire body aching, and hit the ground once more, rolling to her feet in less than a second.
And then Obito charged again, his face expressionless.
Sakura brought her left hand up, the other maintaining an iron grip on the kunai, and focused her chakra, feeling it rush through her arms and eyes.
"Kai!" she murmured, and then rushed at her sensei, crouching low.
If the genjutsu worked, then Obito would see her charging at her full height, the kunai pulled back for an unprofessional downward sweep. It was a good thing he'd deactivated his Sharingan. If he hadn't, she would have already lost, without a doubt.
Obito's elbow darted out over her head, knocking an imaginary Sakura into next week. Sakura saw the opening and took it, stabbing up at the joint.
Her sensei shook his head at the same moment, snapping his focus down to her. His eyes went wide. Sakura grinned.
'
Gotcha!'
She was completely unprepared for him to leap, bringing his knee up and knocking the knife clean out of her hands, sending it twirling into the forest.
There was a moment of silence as Sakura rocked back, shocked by the sheer speed of her sensei, thrown off her guard by the force of his knee. Obito landed, coming to a stop a foot in front of her and standing up straight, staring down at her with narrowed eyes.
"Nice one," he said after a pause, grinning slightly. Sakura stared in disbelief. Her teacher frowned. "Though it would have worked much better if-"
Sasuke, as usual, came out of nowhere at that exact moment, trailing steel wire, his Sharingan whirling, and his face set in an anticipatory grimace. Sakura barely saw any of that. To her, it just seemed like a black blur with two glinting red highlights smashed into her sensei's side, carrying him away from her.
Obito rolled to his feet, kicking Sasuke off of him as he did so.
The younger Uchiha barely minded, falling into a ready position, his arms stretched at his sides, wires wrapped around his fingers shining in the dim light of the forest.
"Sasuke," Obito said quietly. "You wouldn't have happened to have used Sakura as
bait, would you?"
What? There was no way. Sasuke wouldn't have done something like that. Sasuke just snorted, turning his head very slightly to look at his teammate.
"Sakura," he said curtly. "Back up. I don't want you getting caught in this."
Sakura obliged without thinking, leaping backwards and gaining distance from both her teammate and her teacher.
"What exactly have you cooked up, Sasuke?" Obito crossed his arms, closing his eyes. "What'd you use the time your teammate bought you for, huh?"
"The thing that'll win us this test." Sasuke smirked.
"That's all?" Obito said quietly.
He shook his head. "Than you should have
done it, Sasuke, instead of telling me about it."
The younger Uchiha's eyes went wide as the older one rushed him with unbelievable speed. Sakura only caught a glimpse of movement before her new teammate was lifted into the air by his throat, his legs kicking futilely
"Guess you'll be joining Naruto, then," the man holding him sighed.
Sakura watched incredulously as her teammate began to swirl out of existence, just as Naruto had. He hadn't even had a chance to try whatever he had planned!
She pulled another kunai from one of her pouches, pulling back for a toss. Maybe it would distract Obito enough for Sasuke to break free and- But then, she paused.
Beneath Obito's hand, Sasuke was grinning: baring his teeth in a vicious smile.
What did he have to be smiling about?
Just before Sasuke disappeared entirely, he popped in a puff of smoke. Sakura caught a flash of something small and colorful attached to a log in his place, before it disappeared.
Obito snapped his head towards the forest. "Substitution is useless against the Sharingan, Sasuke. You know this."
Sasuke stepped out from behind a tree just to Sakura's right, his arm held up, his hand holding something barely visible in the shadow of the canopy.
A piece of ninja wire. It extended back into the forest, lost among the trees.
Sakura blinked.
That had been unbelievably quick. There was no way she would have been able to pull off a substitution on such short notice, and with such precision. And with Obito sucking Sasuke into whatever his eye created, fighting the draw on his chakra…
Sasuke was even more skilled than she'd thought.
"Pretty useless, yeah," Sasuke admitted. "Unless, you know, I want you to use Kamui."
Obito stiffened, before relaxing, his arms falling to his sides. "Hmm." He shifted his gaze back and forth between Sakura and Sasuke. "What was in the scroll, Sasuke?"
Sasuke chuckled. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Sakura shuffled sideways, keeping an eye on Obito. "Err, Sasuke," she murmured. "What
was in that scroll?"
He glanced sideways at her. "Just give me a sec," he said with a small smile. Sakura felt something flutter at the look. "You'll see."
Obito stepped forward.
"Don't move, Sakura," Sasuke muttered, and then he pulled hard on the wire he held in his hand.
There was a hissing noise, and suddenly the forest was full of steel. Kunai and senbon, each trailing their own shining steel string, flew from seemingly every direction, piercing Obito dozens of times.
None of it touched him, of course, but it was impressive nonetheless.
Obito didn't even flinch. He just cocked his head, uncaring of all the wires passing through him, acting as if he hadn't just effortlessly survived a hail of metal that had left the surrounding trees speckled with metal. The whole stretch of grass he stood in was utterly filled with the wires slicing the air and making movement impossible.
Obito stood in the center of it, his arms crossed once more.
"That was your plan?" he asked calmly. "Sasuke, did you really think-"
He stiffened, and looked down, dropping his hands to his side. Sakura narrowed her eyes, trying to catch sight of whatever had gotten his attention. Wires were wrapping themselves around Obito's abdomen, appearing from absolutely nowhere. A tag or two joined them, adorned with simple kanji.
Sakura stared in confusion, and Obito in annoyance. He grunted.
"Clever."
Then, he was yanked back by an invisible force, falling to the ground. Sasuke rushed forward, dancing his way through the wires effortlessly, and seized the one wrapped around Obito's stomach, while Sakura watched, apprehensive and confused.
Obito, watching her carefully, just sighed. The tags on his stomach began to hiss.
"Enough."
And then he swirled out of existence, disappearing entirely, and Sasuke was left clutching at air.
The Uchiha made an annoyed noise and straightened up, careful not to cut himself on any of the wires around him.
"Damn," he grunted, sounding eerily like Obito himself, before turning back to Sakura. "Thanks for distracting him, Sakura. I almost had him."
He began to gingerly remove himself from the field of wires. Sakura spoke up, trying not to sound too confused. "What did you do? Where did those wires come from?"
Sasuke didn't look at her while he answered, focused on clearing his own wire trap. "Obito's intangibility technique places him in another place, somewhere only he can access. When he took Naruto, he put him there as well."
With one last leap, he alighted in front of Sakura, clear of the wires. "Basically, I sent Naruto a scroll full of wires and explosive tags when I substituted away from Obito. I was hoping that idiot would be able to keep him busy while I forced a surrender…"
He shrugged. "Didn't work, I guess."
Sakura twisted her hands. "So, what do we do now?"
Sakura looked past her, his Sharingan still spinning idly. He reached into his pocket, pulling out his bell. "Now? I guess we just-"
The Uchiha vanished.
Sakura stumbled backwards, startled, and fell to the grass. Sasuke's bell hit the grass without a sound.
Sakura whipped her head around, searching desperately. It was no use. Sasuke was just
gone.
Slowly she pulled herself to her feet, inching forwards and bending down to pick up Sasuke's bell. It gleamed in her hand, warm against her palm. She stared at it for a moment, entranced, before jerking her head up.
"Sasuke!" she yelled, looking around once more, hoping that for some reason, maybe this time he would appear.
He didn't.
She paused. "Naruto?" Sakura's voice was quieter, as the reality of her situation sunk in. She was alone, holding both of her teammates bells. Her hand tightened around Sasuke's.
"Sakura."
She spun, scanning the trees, her eyes wide. It was Obito. His voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.
"I would suggest you run."
And then, the forest was silent once more. Sakura looked around one last time, and then tucked Sasuke's bell into her pouch. She took off into the forest, sprinting as fast as she could.
She'd pass this test. She had to, now.
Sasuke and Naruto were counting on her.
###
"Do you know what you did wrong?" Obito asked them, as they lay in the grass, nursing their injuries.
Sasuke didn't say anything, rubbing the bruise on his face instead: he appeared to be sulking, though Sakura didn't think she'd ever seen him do anything quite like that before.
Naruto spoke up. "We went up against you?" he grinned, rubbing the back of his head.
Obito chuckled. "Nice try." He shook his head, turning to Sakura, who was twisting her ankle, testing its range of motion.
"Sakura?" he said calmly. She jerked her head up towards him. "What do you think?"
Sakura stared at her teacher. "Umm…" she said, wracking her brain.
What had they done wrong? They'd done the best they could: Obito was just too fast and too strong for them. Even if they'd worked together, he would have overwhelmed them no matter what.
"We… didn't…" she said slowly. Obito watched her carefully.
Sakura gave up under the piercing gaze. "I don't know."
She lowered her head into her legs.
'
I never know.'
"Hmm," Obito intoned. "Well."
He sat down on the grass, crossing his legs under him, "You didn't watch out for each other."
"What?!" Naruto shot to his feet, pointing an accusing finger at his teacher. "That's a load of crap and you know it! Sasuke and I-"
"Yes." Obito cut him off effortlessly. "
Sasuke and you." He glanced meaningfully at the other Uchiha. "And what did Sakura do?"
Sakura frowned, leaning forward. "I fought you," she said somewhat indignantly. "I gave Sasuke time to set up his trap!"
'
And they wouldn't have passed unless I'd-'
Sakura gulped unconsciously, touching a hand to her stomach. Her throat still felt raw.
Obito nodded. "And all that was very brave of you."
Sakura blushed, falling back and losing her voice, while he continued.
"But you two didn't
plan that. Sasuke just took advantage of your courage. An admirable trait in a shinobi…"
Obito pulled himself to his feet. "But not in a teammate," he declared, his voice heavy.
He looked down at all of them. Sasuke just stared up, his expression unreadable. Naruto's eyes were narrowed, his lips pursed: it was the kind of face he made when he knew he was wrong, but didn't want to admit it.
Sakura was still looking at the grass, her head locked between her legs.
Obito sighed. "If it weren't for Sakura, neither of you would have passed, even if her method was… unorthodox" he said, vaguely gesturing at Sasuke and Naruto. The blond glanced at Sakura, a questioning look on his face.
Obito continued. "As it is, I'm hesitant to do it in the first place."
"
However," he held up a hand, cutting off Naruto's inevitable cry of indignation before it could be born. "I
know there's a lot of potential with you guys. And I hope that you'll grow into that."
The Uchiha smiled. "So, congratulations. Today, you are all officially shinobi of the Leaf."
Naruto cheered, Sasuke grinned, and Sakura looked up at her teacher with thankful, but uncertain eyes.
Obito grinned at her and tapped two fingers to his forehead. "So, for now: brand new Team Seven, dismissed."
Then, he flickered out of existence, and Sakura was left alone with her new team. Naruto turned to her, his smile blinding.
"Sakura!" he said.
"How did you keep the bells away from Obito, huh?" He pounded his fists together enthusiastically. "He kicked the crap out of the both of us: how'd you stop him?"
Sakura, not sure whether she should feel proud or stupid, told him.
Naruto laughed.
###
AN: A double feature, because frankly, the first chapter is too short, and the second is too long, lol. The Bell Test is such a cliche, but it's always fun to put your own spins on it, especially unorthodox (but effective!) tactics. 
