Naruto: Pride - chapter 8 (Patreon)

I watched with mild amusement how Kakashi dodged Mori and Yuki with ease, he was clearly confident on his power, but it would not be enough to stop me from achieving my goals, power lead to information, information lead to discovery, and discovery lead to answers, and what I wanted right now, was answers, and for that, I had to climb the ranks in this world hierarchy.

“Lesson one,” Kakashi sighed, “Taijutsu,” flipping over Mori, Kakashi kicked Yuki on her back, and punched Mori with the back of his hand, swatting them both a few meters away.

“Hm,” I chuckled, this was fun to watch.

“You find that funny?” Kakashi hummed, behind me, how had he… no one gets behind me!

Before I could do anything or command my shadows, Kakashi sighed in a disappointed manner before kicking me off the tree with great strength, the bastard had managed to sneak up to me and attack me , “You don’t stop surprising me,” I growled, as I landed on the ground, my shadows expanding around me.

“I am indeed very surprising,” Kakashi nodded, he was mocking me, how dare… he!?!

“Out of the way brat! Those bells are mine!” Yuki screamed running past me.

I eyed the girl holding my urge to kill her, as I looked back a Mori, who was laying on the ground unconscious, pathetic, all it took was one hit for him to go down, and I was supposed to work with one of these two, a waste of my time.

“Lesson two, ninjutsu,” Kakashi smiled, flickering behind me with a poof of smoke, immediately my shadows twirled to attack him, as his hands moved faster than I could see, “Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!” From his mouth a massive orb of roaring flame came to life, wrecking everything on its wake.

He was serious, he wasn’t kidding or playing mind games when he said it was best if we fought with the intent to kill, and this was the proof he was aiming to kill me, “It will take more than that to kill me!” I stated, cutting the the massive orb of fire with my shadows.

“Good to know,” Kakashi replied, as I shot forward my shadows at him.

“Don’t get in my way brat!” Yuki shouted, throwing a bunch of shurikens at me, which I easily deflected with my shadows, “This is my! Moment to shine!”

“Your moment to shine?” I chuckled, “You are a waste of oxygen, how can the epitome of uselessness shine?”

“What happened…” Mori muttered, as he groggily stood up from the ground, “Did I pass?”

“Well, enough chit chat, lesson three… genjutsu,” Kakashi sighed, and the world around me changed, wasn’t the idea behind an illusion to make so the target doesn't notice.

“Help… please,” Yuki begged, her body covered in cuts, well now this brought a smile to my face, “Help… please,”

“Kai,” I chuckled, breaking out of the genjutsu, to find Kakashi reading a book in front of me.

“You broke from the genjutsu, good job,” Kakashi commented his gaze averting from his book from a brief second, “Now what?”

I eyed Yuki and Mori, noticing they were on the floor, still under the effects of the genjutsu he had casted, “Now I fight you without their interruptions,”

“Dejavú…” Kakashi chuckled humorlessly, “Very well, show me what you can do brat,”

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No matter how fast I moved my shadows Kakashi seemed to effortlessly dodge my every attempt to get the bells, he was playing with me… the strongest Homunculus… and he was running circles around without a care for the world.

“You know, you are very talented,” Kakashi commented, dodging one of my attacks, “But, even with all that shocking talent, you are trash, worse than trash in fact,”

“I will pass, no matter what you insufferable idiot!” I growled, trying to attack him once again, only for him to flicker in front of me, his eye glaring at me.

“No, you will not…” Kakashi stated, and the next thing I know, is that I can’t keep my eyes open, I didn’t feel pain, or anything… I didn’t even see how he knocked me out.

—————————————————————————-

By the time I woke up, I was tied to a log, as were Yuki and Mori, “So you three finally wake up,”

I groaned, my neck felt like someone had… that bastard.

“You all failed,” Kakashi stated, in a cold tone, “You three don’t have what it takes to be a shinobi of the leaf,”

“What?! I got the best marks in my class!” Yuki growled, struggling with her bindings, “I am the best of the best!”

“Insecure,” Kakashi said looking at Yuki, “Weak,” this time his eyes were directed at Mori, “And prideful,” that one was directed at me, “You all fail, none of you understood the meaning behind this test,”

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After Kakashi failed me, he flickered out of the training ground leaving me, and the other two tied up, “I… I don’t fail, I never fail,” I growled, cutting the bindings with ease.

“This is all your fault!” Yuki screamed, thrashing like a worm on her bindings, “If it weren’t for you I would’ve gotten the bells! I would’ve passed!” she seethed with anger.

“My fault?” I laughed, “If I didn’t get close to get them, you had no hopes to begin with,”

“I failed… no,” Mori started to cry.

“I will kill you brat, as soon as I get out of this—” I smiled at her threat, and did her a favor cutting her free, “what…?”

“Go ahead,” I dared, “I am in a terrible mood, so go ahead,” my shadows covered the ground where she stood, red eyes glaring at me, mouths salivating, “Help me release some of this anger I have…”

“I.. I..” Yuki shivered, “You… I-I am n-not s-scared of y-you!”

“You could’ve fooled me,” I grinned, retracting my shadows as I noticed she had peed herself.

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[Kakashi Hatake POV]

It was more than obvious this team was going to fail, which confirmed some of my suspicions. Shikaku had assigned the team to me, pretending it was the Hokage, why? Well, I had a few theories.

It was no secret any other teacher would’ve passed Hokori, his talent was shockingly scary, his cold and calculative demeanor, his immense intelligence to grasp jutsus, and his adaptability were beyond anything we had seen since Itachi, in fact the only skill he had on Genin level was his Taijutsu.

But even with all his talent he had a massive flaw, his inability to work with others, something I despised, and Shikaku knew that, he wanted his son to fail, and knowing I was the only teacher that would fail such a talent, he picked me.

Now the question was, why? Why would he want his prodigious son to fail? I had a few theories about that, one, he wanted his son to rise the ranks a bit slower, two he wanted to keep Danzo and his influence away, and it was easier for him if Hokori was within his reach, and three, maybe he wanted his son to learn the importance of teamwork before moving forward.

Perhaps it was all three, “Kakashi,” the hokage greeted as I entered the office.

“He failed right?” Shikaku chuckled.

“Father of the year,” I deadpanned.

“I had my reasons,” Shikaku sighed.

“You do know when I fail a team they go to the Genin reserves, forever…. right?” I asked and the Hokage sighed.

“Normally this would be the case, but… the council won’t permit you to fail him like that, he will remain Genin, but not within the Genin reserves,” The Hokage spoke, “And besides, in the Genin many have gotten promotions, it’s just not a very common occurrence,”

“I expected as much, the council won’t let their newest prodigy go to waste,” I sighed and Shikaku nodded.

“I want Hokori to learn the importance of having comrades before they start using him… otherwise he will end like that man,” Shikaku muttered.

“You should really explain to him then,” I sighed, “The kid looked at his teammates like garbage, you should’ve seen his face, he was happy to see them being humiliated by me,”