Fugaku had been standing a few meters away from Naruto when he suddenly heard the ground breaking underneath him, which quickly turned his head downwards, and he saw two hands trying to grab his legs.
Fugaku quickly jumps to avoid the hands before enhancing his own legs with chakra to strike the ground and hit the person who is hiding in the ground.
Fugaku kicks quickly, creating cracks in the ground as well as a small dent and a sound of puffing and a cloud of smoke.
Fugaku quickly realized that the one who is hiding below the ground is a shadow clone, and which shadow clone it is was easy to guess, and just as his eyes were about to lock in to the person who performed the shadow clone, Fugaku saw nobody in the training ground.
'Interesting,' Fugaku thought, and a small smile appeared on his face.
Fugaku didn't chase down the three but instead thought of the previous event, especially the action between Hinata and Satsuki.
It was easy to guess that the two started to team up with each other after they hid in the forest earlier. He had to guess which person was the one who made such a proposal it would be Hinata as Satsuki clearly wasn't the one to ask someone to team up, especially with her pride.
While the two teenage girls show remarkable abilities, especially Hinata, who manages to easily get close to him due to her innate presence being low, which she uses to her advantage.
While he had some problems with the way Hinata uses her clan's famous Gentle Fist, that can be corrected in the future.
What really caught his attention was the prowess behind Naruto, which was shocking to say the least. Fugaku had a feeling that out of anyone that graduated from the ninja academy, he is the strongest one without a doubt.
The problem was the fact that Naruto hides such strength, which is going to be a bigger problem in the future.
Fugaku knows that there are many problems he has to take care of after accepting the three as his students, but first they need to pass the test in front of them, which, in Fugaku's feelings, they will.
While Fugaku is currently in his deep thoughts, Naruto is jumping through the trees while carrying both Hinata and Satsuki in his arms.
Once Naruto figures they are far enough from Fugaku, he quickly jumps down on the forest floor, and Satsuki pushes herself out from his arm.
"Let go of me!" Satsuki yelled out with blushes in her cheeks.
Naruto complied since they were already far from their opponent and didn't see any use in carrying Satsuki and Hinata.
"Why did you pull me away?" Satsuki asks angrily.
When she saw her father and Naruto fighting each other, Satsuki realized that she could use it to her advantage by using Naruto as a distraction to snatch the bells, which she would share with Hinata.
While one might think that Satsuki should give Naruto one of the bells after she successfully steals it since he was the one distracting Fugaku, to Satsuki, Hinata is the one who brought up the idea of forming a team against her father.
Satsuki also sees the effort Hinata takes in order to distract Fugaku after her first defeat, which originally wasn't the plan.
So the fact that Naruto dares to grab her and Hinata without caring about their feelings, as well as losing such a wasted opportunity to steal the bells, makes her angry.
"Do you want to experience another defeat?" Naruto retorts, which makes Satsuki's anger rise.
"Um... Guys, this is not the time to fight each other," Hinata said in a soft tone as she tried to defuse the conflict between the two.
Naruto and Satsuki stared at each other for a few moments before looking at Hinata and nodding, much to Hinata's relief.
"Naruto, we've got a proposal for you," Hinata added calmly but inwardly started to worry, especially after seeing Naruto fight with Fugaku.
"What is it?" Naruto asks, his voice tinted with curiosity.
"We propose we team up with each other to steal the bells from Fugaku Sensei. If we team up, we have a higher chance of stealing the bells compared to individually planning to steal the bells, which will be chaotic and interfere with each other, which will likely cause us to be unable to steal the bells," Hinata said.
Satsuki wasn't sure if Naruto accepted the proposal, especially with the capabilities he showed earlier. It was clear to Satsuki that Naruto had higher chances of stealing the bells compared to the two of them, which made her even angrier at the fact that Naruto disturbed her earlier plan of stealing the bells under Fugaku's nose.
Naruto smiled a little after hearing the proposal. Naruto long realized the real way to pass the test thanks to the information he gathered when he was younger.
Throughout the times he observes the Genin alongside their respective Jonin sensei, he always sees the same pattern, which is three Genin and one Jonin.
It was clear to Naruto that the threat of returning back to the academy if one failed the test was one big fat lie.
'It's surprising that one of them manages to realize the real test,' Naruto thought to himself after staring at the two girls.
Naruto was clearly aware of who the person was who made such a proposal, and it was none other than Hinata.
From what Naruto observes, Satsuki wouldn't have arrived at such a conclusion due to her pride as well as the fact that she was mentally pressured to face her father, the Uchiha Clan Head.
It wasn't a secret to anyone in the leaf that the Uchiha Clan members respect strength first and foremost. It was clear to Naruto that after hearing the test, the one thing that appeared in Satsuki's mind was to steal the bell with her own two hands to prove to her father her capabilities and that it was enough for her to be an official ninja.
'The one who thought about this would be...' Naruto stared at Hinata, and a hint of interest started to flash in his eyes at this moment.
Naruto sees a great potential hidden within Hinata, but right now he knows what he has to do.
"How will you solve the problem that there are only two bells?" Naruto asks.
"We decide to solve that after we steal the bells," Hinata responds.
Naruto's interest in Hinata grows more at this moment. It was clear to Naruto that Hinata reached the correct conclusion, unlike Satsuki.
The fact that Hinata didn't create a plan on how to divide the bells just shows, in Naruto's eyes, that Hinata knows the correct way to pass the test.
"I accept such proposal," Naruto said, shocking both Hinata and Satsuki.
Both of them were already thinking there was a low chance they would accept the proposal since they did see Naruto's capabilities, and with his abilities alone, he was enough to steal the bell from Fugaku.
"Do you have any plans on how to steal the bells?" Naruto asks, snapping both Hinata and Satsuki back into reality.
"No," Satsuki said.
"We thought that all of us should discuss how to create the plan for stealing the bells from Fugaku-sensei," Hinata added.
"Not a bad idea," Naruto nodded.
The three quickly started to discuss the plan of action they should take against Fugaku to steal the bells and pass the test.
The plan they created is simple: Naruto, who is undoubtedly the strongest of the three, will fight Fugaku head-on and distract him while Satsuki and Hinata sneak in and steal the bells when the opportunity presents itself.
There were multiple reasons why they reached this plan. First, it was due to Satsuki being the one who had the greatest disadvantages in the fight because Fugaku knew everything in her arsenal, not to mention Fugaku had higher proficiency compared to Satsuki.
Second, Hinata, while her arsenal wasn't well known, had her clan's taijutsu as her main offensive option, which was clearly known by the likes of Fugaku, as well as the fact that Hinata herself didn't have any ninjutsu to use, which put her at a disadvantage, but compared to Satsuki, Hinata was still slightly better.
The third and final reason was the fact that Naruto had his capabilities hidden, which definitely caught Fugaku off guard. The fact that Fugaku was shocked when they only exchanged taijutsu already showed everyone Naruto's high proficiency in his martial arts.
The problem they currently have right now is they are running out of time. Naruto, without a doubt, can distract Fugaku, but the question is, can he create a perfect opening for both Satsuki and Hinata to use to steal the bells or not?
Fugaku was standing in the training ground, patiently waiting for the three to make their entrances. He knows that they definitely appear once again if they wish to pass the test.
Fugaku didn't wait any longer as Naruto suddenly appeared a few dozen meters in front of him.