[Chapter Size: 2100 Words.]
Third Person POV
Konoha, 43.
...
...
Rin was tied up and thrown in front of her other two teammates. Since she had prepared the traps, Minato went to her, and, for the second time, the entire team was defeated.
The three stood perplexed once again, in front of the logs.
"Damn…", Obito grumbled.
Kakashi said nothing. He remained silent, but clearly disappointed in himself.
Rin had her head lowered. She was discouraged.
"What kind of discouragement is this? Do you have to be like that?", Minato mocked.
Kakashi glared at him, indignant, but remained silent, as if to say that, being much more powerful than them, how could he complain about their reactions?
"Do you know why you're not achieving a good result?", Minato continued. "Because you lack teamwork. In the two or three times we fought, you simply acted individually. Kakashi, you took advantage while I was dealing with Obito to try to gain an opening. Smart on your part. At the same time, Obito, when you realized the danger, you charged forward without hesitation, even though you could have died because of it."
Minato spoke calmly, while observing the boys' reactions.
Kakashi seemed somewhat troubled by that. He certainly still remembered Obito running toward him, trying to pull him away from the bear filled with supposed paper bombs.
"This serves as a direct lesson for you, Kakashi. They are your teammates. No matter how much you may mock and underestimate them, Obito didn't think twice before running to you and trying to save you."
He then turned his gaze to Obito.
"And you, Obito, must become stronger and broaden your options. What you did there with Kakashi was noble, but at the same time a futile sacrifice. You weren't able to pull him away and would have died together with him if it had been a real situation on the battlefield. I don't think you should sacrifice yourself uselessly."
The two boys seemed to reflect on what had been said. There was no anger nor heated exclamations. Only silence.
"Let's do the following", Minato spoke again. "We'll try a third time. I will leave now only a shadow clone, which will be limited to taijutsu and will not have the same abilities as my original body. It will be your new challenge. But even so, at your current level, you won't stand a chance of facing it alone. That's why you will need to work as a team."
He made a brief pause, his gaze much more serious than usual.
"I will give you one more chance. And this will decide whether you will remain my students or not. It no longer depends solely on gaining some special jutsu from my vaults. This final challenge will put your ninja careers into question." Minato seemed to be cornering them against the wall. This was his ultimatum.
"Now you have ten minutes to organize yourselves and begin the test." With those words, Minato crossed his fingers and used the Shadow Clone Jutsu. A clone reappeared at his side.
He handed the bells to the clone, the clone then disappeared, moving toward the center of the training field, while Minato once again turned his attention back to them.
"Begin. Now I will be at a distance, observing", he said and, right after, disappeared like a ray of light, ascending into the sky. In that same instant, Minato appeared about eight hundred meters away, floating in the air while observing both the training field and the entire village. He could even sense Kushina's chakra, watching him from the village's monitoring room at that very moment.
On the ground, the three children looked at one another. They didn't seem to know exactly what to do at that moment.
"Well… it's a clone now, right? Shouldn't it be easy?", Obito was the first to break the silence, his tone hesitant.
"Don't underestimate even one of Minato's clones. Did you know I heard he massacred several Suna ninjas using only clones in Uzushiogakure?", Kakashi replied seriously.
"Are we really going to pass this?", Rin seemed far more downcast. All her traps had been easily undone by Minato.
"Look…" Kakashi thought for a moment before finally speaking. "I think the teacher made an effort to show us the difference between our strengths."
"The difference? We already know he's much stronger than us, and he wasn't even using jutsus", Obito said, discouraged.
"Wait, Obito, let Kakashi speak", Rin said, while Kakashi waited and Obito crossed his arms.
"Then just say it already, Kakashi. What do you think we have to do?", Obito asked, his pride wounded.
"I think sensei wants us to deal with the clone as a team. Even though it's just a clone, it must be extremely strong. And as much as I hate to admit it… when we work together, we're stronger. If we combine our strength, we'll have better chances."
The three looked at one another and, in the end, nodded.
Minato was listening to the entire conversation from above. He sighed before opening a small smile. There were many issues to work on, but finally even Kakashi was yielding. Obito was also setting aside his pride, while Rin tried to be useful.
Rin and Obito had already trained with jutsus at the academy. They were stronger; this could be used against the clone, with the two acting in sync.
After a while, they all nodded again and began to move, preparing to advance.
The clone stood still at a distance, a book in his right hand, while noticing the three moving slowly through the forest.
He didn't hear the plan, since he didn't possess observation haki like the original Minato, but he had good natural senses. He waited patiently as the children prepared themselves.
In the next moment, Obito ran toward the clone, just like in the previous attempt.
"Hey!" Quickly, he launched into a taijutsu attack, while the clone didn't even seem to consider him a challenge. He kept reading the book while dodging the blows, until he landed a punch on Obito's chest.
The boy's body turned into smoke and disappeared.
"A clone…", Minato's clone observed.
In the next instant, several kunai began flying in his direction. He jumped a few meters backward before they collided with the ground, and the paper bombs attached to them began to explode.
BOOOM!!
That caught the clone off guard. He leapt backward in retreat, but more paper bombs began to fall over him as he continued dodging the explosions.
The paper bombs came from two sides. After a few seconds, the three of them were throwing explosives at the clone at the same time.
Up above, Minato watched, satisfied. Later, he would have to replace the paper bombs that Rin had saved up to buy and given to Kakashi and Obito to use with the intention of passing the test. Paper bombs weren't something any of them could produce, which made them especially expensive for Rin and Obito.
At a certain moment, they stopped throwing explosives, and Obito and Rin reappeared, forming several hand seals. Both joined together and expelled fire and water simultaneously. The contact between the two elements generated a steam explosion that engulfed the training field.
Minato's clone quickly formed hand seals and used substitution as the steam spread, along with splashes of water that even reached the three of them.
"Did we get him?", Obito said as he approached Rin in the middle of the mist.
The instant he did so, Rin suddenly moved and delivered a kick against Obito, who turned into smoke.
"How did you figure it out?", Minato opened a smile, lightly dragging himself across the ground. The bells still echoed at his waist.
He soon realized the reason: Rin, who was beside him, struck him — but she also turned into smoke. In her place, Kakashi appeared.
Kakashi had transformed into Rin and used a water-style jutsu to draw the clone's attention. When Minato used substitution, he ended up attacking the transformed Obito, repeating the transformation strategy that the original had used before.
Meanwhile, behind a tree, a rope snapped, freeing the real Obito with the help of the real Rin.
Minato saw Obito and Rin appear beside Kakashi.
"Well… you are working together", Minato's clone said, quite satisfied.
"But it's still far from over. You'll have to do more than that." He took a battle stance, and the three did the same.
The battlefield intensified. The children began using jutsus more frequently. They still had a good reserve of chakra, since Minato himself had secretly replenished part of their energy when he captured them earlier. Using his ability to draw in chakra and even donate it — not at Naruto's level with Kurama's chakra, but he had that capability as well.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to use so many jutsus.
Flames, water, earth-style jutsus, and sparks filled the field as the three fought together against the clone, who could only use the three basic jutsus and taijutsu.
At a certain moment, the clone found himself cornered and had to retreat upon noticing Obito and the real Rin once again launching their fire-and-water combination. As he retreated, forming hand seals, a wall of earth rose behind him, with several dog-shaped figures molded across its surface.
It was at that moment that the clone was finally caught. He collided against the earth wall and had no way to escape the combined attack.
The flames and water exploded against him, and his body turned into smoke, being destroyed.
"We did it!", Obito said. He was exhausted.
Rin knelt on the ground, breathing heavily. Kakashi also approached. He had several scratches across his body; he had spent a considerable amount of chakra, but he was visibly less exhausted than the other two.
"I think so…", Rin murmured.
Suddenly, a flash of light came from the sky and struck the ground forcefully. A gust of wind arose from that point, dispersing the mist created by the steam. The scattered fire and water quickly dissipated.
The original Minato was there. He walked toward the bells in the middle of the destroyed ground — the only thing left of the clone.
He picked them up and looked satisfied before approaching. "Well, this is already a start."
"We won! We won, Minato-sensei!", Obito exclaimed, almost unable to believe his own words.
"We defeated a clone of his that couldn't even use jutsus… Obito, don't be so happy. In fact, it's even embarrassing that we had so much trouble", Kakashi murmured, watching sensei approach with the two bells.
"You certainly learned the essence of the test. With that, you are approved", Minato said with a smile.
"And about the jutsus, sensei? You said only two would win", Kakashi asked before Obito and Rin could start celebrating loudly. The matter of the reward still remained.
"About that…" Minato seemed to think for a moment. "I will give one jutsu to each of you."
Everyone was surprised.
"I won't be stingy. After seeing you fight united and perform better than I expected, each of you deserves a scroll. All of you passed the test and now officially form Team Seven, led by me. Starting tomorrow, we will begin taking official missions."
Rin and Obito shouted happily.
Kakashi seemed satisfied as well, though more restrained. He watched the two celebrating, thoughtful. They had shown much more efficiency fighting together than he had expected.
Minato noticed that and felt pleased. Kakashi seemed more willing to remain with the team and trust his teammates.
It was a great start for the team. Now they could see their own potential when working together. At least they would have a few days to strengthen their coordination before Minato left for the mission to the Land of Iron with his wife.
"Well, since it's almost noon and you passed, how about we celebrate at Ichiraku Ramen? After that, I want to talk about your training before we start missions tomorrow."
Minato said this as they all nodded and left the training field.
They moved through the village toward the center, drawing the attention of ninjas and civilians, who whispered upon seeing them beside Minato, wondering if those children were truly the official team of the now sensei Minato Namikaze.
Something normal, considering someone as famous as him. From that moment on, his students would also be constantly observed and talked about by everyone around them.
In any case, he entered the restaurant and asked Teuchi to serve them while they enjoyed their ramen.
After that, they went to the Namikaze clan, where they would receive training before officially starting their missions the next day.
A week later, the children would have no idea that they would already receive an S-Rank mission the moment they left the village. But Minato would leave that for the last minute.
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