"I owe you my whole life and my very existence, girl! You are a very kind child! I...I.... how can I ever thank you? I apologise for ever suspecting you will attempt an assassination on me..." Jashin slapped his hand onto his face as his eyes were stained with grateful tears. Meanwhile, Sakura only stared at him, unamused.

Apparently, the three of them- Jashin, Naruto AND Kurama had overreacted to the situation. Kurama blamed his foolishness on Jashin and Naruto's stupidity, insisting that two stupid beings in one body would damage his brain too. Sakura was merely trying to free Naruto's arms from being tied up so he can free himself with his Shadow Clone Jutsu. "You are unfit to be a mere slave of mine, as you are a saviour of I. I shall name you an honorable knight when I enslave this world."

Sakura had no idea why Naruto was on with his slavery shit again, but she didn't really want to know that much. She thought back to her observations. Based on Naruto's and Sasuke's fight against Kakashi, she could confidently say that none of them stood a chance against Kakashi alone. Even though Sasuke did graze his fingertips over the surface of the bells, it was painfully obvious that Kakashi was holding back by a lot even at that point. So, they would be left with no options other than....

"Naruto."

Jashin's head perked up at the mention of Naruto boy's name. Sakura's gaze was filled with slight hesitation as she fixated her sight on him. She had to admit, being able to pull off clones - that could physically attack people- That was pretty impressive, and something she had never seen before. Perhaps she shouldn't be all that surprised, but this was the dead last they were talking about here. Even though he lacked the knowledge in the basics of fighting, having tons of clones targeted on one person was sure to be a distraction or even a little damage at least.

"Let's- no, we have to work together," Sakura spoke. "You experienced it yourself just now, we stand no chance at all. Let's go find Sasuke-kun and try to convince him... If it doesn't work, surely we could pull off something with just the two of us."

With just the two of us! Naruto jumped inside of his mindscape in excitement. He was terribly jealous of Jashin right now for being in his place. But every encounter of Jashin and Sakura had been going better than his own encounters with her so far, perhaps it was better to let Jashin handle this.

"Oh ho! You certainly are bright. Very well, I shall assist you in defeating this pathetic mortal! And I will make my name known across every nation again!" Jashin hopped up to his feet energetically. Sakura yet again, could only stare at him with an unamused expression.

Was it way too early to be already used to this idiots stupid shit?

Sasuke was frustrated- incredibly so. Being stuck in the ground wasn't really the best experience. He needed to get those bells. At this point, he'll do anything to get one of them, his journey can't stop here. He had yet to get his revenge!

He knew he was weak right now. Not weak compared to the rest of his team right now, but certainly weak compared to....him. Itachi Uchiha. He knew Kakashi had already acknowledged him as the strongest out of his current stupid Team 7, but he had to do more if it was to get Kakashi to start training him. He needed to get stronger, and he'll leech off whatever was needed to do so.

"Sasuke-kun!!"

Ah, here comes the annoying ones. He clicked his tongue as he turned to his left, watching as Sakura and Naruto ran towards his direction. What were they up to now? Surely they knew if they continued on being so damn loud, Kakashi could find them and catch all of them, then... Ugh, he can't believe he's going to get dragged down by these two! But then again, he's the one getting stuck in the ground right now....

"Oh boy! Sasuke Boy here seems to be stuck in mud. You must be very upset and uncomfortable, but fear not, for I will free you of your current suffering," Naruto reassured with a concerned tone. Sasuke was pissed off. Out of all the people who he can only reach out to help right now, it was the two of these useless boneheads. And what's with that concerned expression? Is this dead last trying to mock him!?

"If one day you remember my deeds once again, return to my side and I will accept you as my servant. Then, you will have no need to fear being stuck in the ground again," Naruto spoke as he dug the hole larger with a few of his other shadow clones, attempting to free the Uchiha. It proved to be working, as Sasuke was eventually able to pull his hands out and free himself from the hole. Giving a grunt of annoyance as he got out, he turned to leave only for Sakura to grab his hands.

"Wait, Sasuke-kun! Where are you going?" Sakura frowned. Sasuke glared at her, a look that screamed for her to leave him alone to do this by himelf. "You can't do this alone, neither of us can. You've seen how Kakashi put you in the ground, and he hung Naruto up by a tree too."

Uchiha narrowed his eyes. She's not implying that they should be working together, is she? In the end, there was only two bells, and only two of them would be able to pass. They'd still fall apart either way, so he should just grab the bells on his own before the timer goes off. But what Sakura said was true, none of them stood a chance against Kakashi.

Sakura's eyes lit up in hope as Sasuke seemed to contemplate about her idea. The Uchiha stared at Naruto and back at Sakura again before he grunted in approval, giving in. "We'll come up with a plan right now."

Kakashi smiled to himself as he sat down on the empty, peaceful grass field. From what his clone had seen, they seem to be grasping the idea of what this test was about, though most of that was Sakura herself. Naruto might just be following Sakura's idea, and Sasuke was just too desperate that he had no other choice. That didn't matter though, he was curious to see what these cute little genins could come up with.

A whizzing noise in the air was his cue as he casted a substitution jutsu upon himself, about five kunais pierced into a wooden log where he once was. He recovered from the sudden teleportation and headed back to the grass field, snapping his book shut. They're putting in the effort of teamwork this time, might as well give them some respect for that. Three clones of Naruto flew out of nowhere just as he placed his book in a pocket. Effortlessly, he kicked one into a tree, flinging the other two away with an explosion tag attached to them. The two clones panicked visibly, screaming and yelling as they tried to get it off, but to no avail as they exploded mid air.

He raised his eyebrows as more clones of Naruto pounced towards his direction. Is this all they were going to do? Drain Naruto's chakra reserves in a sorry attempt to restrain him? Hm. Hopefully they'll come up with something more interesting. He grabbed one Naruto by the collar and flung him into another Naruto, the two dispelling right after the harsh force.

The other Naruto clones continued to charge at him. His eyes narrowed. He could recognize one of the clone's chakra as Sasuke's, though he could only vaguely tell which it was, with all the Naruto clones swarming him with bad attacks. If he passed them, he'd have to work on Naruto's taijutsu a bit. Some of the moves made sense, and the way he moved wasn't a fighting style known to Kakashi. They were fighting moves planned and made with care and lots of effort, but Naruto lacked the ability to use them well.

Now he can't really just kill all of the clones at once if his students' actual bodies were among one of them. It might really kill them if he'd gone too careless with handling the clones. With that in mind, he coudn't help but get distracted, only for his eyes to widen as he felt strings pressing onto his torso.

One of the Naruto clones started the hand signs to a fireball jutsu, which Kakashi took note of. Ah, so that's the Sasuke among the clones. He didn't really do well on acting as Naruto, since it would've been pretty obvious that was Sasuke with the way his face always kept a glare. The fireball jutsu was cast, and the wires Kakashi was tied up by, too, was set ablaze.

With this chance, Sakura appeared, plunging towards her sensei with a kunai before stopping right at his throat. "Kakashi-sensei, do you surrender?"

Kakashi stared at his students with his eye-smile before disappearing into a cloud of smoke, another wooden log now in his place. The alarm clock rang as his students' eyes widened in shock and disbelief. Now, he's just abusing the use of substitution jutsu. To be fair, there weren't any rules set for their sensei himself.

"Come on now, you three. Don't look so disappointed," Kakashi smiled at the three of them as he picked up the alarm clock. He looked completely unscathed and unharmed, which led them to the conclusion that it was a clone that was substituted with the log just now. Kakashi himself had just been watching all along. "After tall, your teammate has the bells."

Sasuke and Sakura turned to Naruto immediately after, knowing that they themselves don't have the bells. Naruto raised the two bells that he'd snatch from Kakashi before he cast the substitution jutsu up with a grin on his face. "Haha! I got em here, believe it!"

The Naruto currently was actually Naruto himself, instead of Jashin. They'd taken the chance to let Kakashi knock him out as one of his own clones, and they swapped again. Sasuke glared at the blonde boy, thinking about his next move. Sakura frowned, unsure of what to do. They all did this together, and she really didn't want to leave anyone out. Kakashi only watched them with amusement tinkling in his eyes. "Well, Naruto. Who's getting the bells?"

Naruto blinked for a few moments before realising- ah. Only two people with the bells could pass. But....That's so unfair! He wanted to become Hokage and all and he needed to become a proper ninja first to get to that stage. He knew Sasuke wanted to become a ninja as well, for whatever reason, and he liked Sakura, so naturally he'd go for her first, but....

Sasuke's hand trailed to his kunai pouch, ready to attack the blonde if deemed needed. Still, he was hesitant, as Naruto did put in a lot of help for this too. They all did their fair share of help. If Sakura didn't pull them together, they wouldn't have tried to plan together. If Naruto wasn't here with his clones, they wouldn't have gotten the bells either. Sasuke himself wasn't useless either, they've all contributed to some extent, so if he must...

"I....I think you guys should take the bells," Sakura muttered as she fiddled with her fingers. If she thinks about it, she's the one that needs to be a ninja the least. Sasuke was hell bent on killing someone, and Naruto wanted to be Hokage. But Sakura...she was just there for Sasuke. She wasn't sure about that now, but she knew one thing for sure and that was that the boys needed the bells more than she did.

"Haah!? Hell no, Sakura! I'm not going to let you go back to the academy by yourself! We did this together!" Naruto yelled in protest. Although Naruto was tempted to take the bells and become a ninja right away, there was no way he was going to leave anyone behind. Sasuke frowned mildly as well. Goddang it. The two of them are making him go back on his decisions. If only they were worse teammates, then Sasuke wouldn't feel the slight bit of guilt to just snatch a bell to become a genin.

"So be it, then," Sasuke spoke up, surprisingly. He stared at Naruto, gesturing for the boy to hand the bells over. Naruto obliged in confusion as he placed the bells within Sasuke's palm, only for the Uchiha to throw them back at Kakashi. "None of us are passing. We'll all go back to the academy, if it's all that it takes."

Kakashi beamed, almost proud at all of them. He picked up the bells as he smiled. Ah, he was so glad he was assigned to this team. But... "You guys do realise that these bells are just a substitution, right? None of you passed. The original bells are right here with me."

The three unofficial genins gawked as Kakashi pulled up two other bells, the ones that Sasuke once held transforming into two rocks tied up by ropes. Well, all that was for nothing. They're all going back to the academy, as Sasuke said. It was just another year, surely it'd be nothing. Naruto clenched his fists, staring at the grass beneath him.

"However." The three of them looked back at him, with hopeful glints in their eyes. Kakashi could only smile beneath his mask at his students. "You guys have realised the true meaning to this test- teamwork. You still suck at your fighting, but all of you are willing to not only give up yourself for your teammates- you are also willing to go down with them."

Sakura tried her best not to look too excited at her sensei's comments, but she couldn't help but let out a grin almost as wide as Naruto's. A faint blush appeared on Sasuke's cheeks as he denied the fact that he'd go so far for his teammates. "I'm very happy with what I've seen from you guys. Improvement is needed, but Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke." The mention of their names made them perk their head up. "Congratulations, you all pass."