Naruto : A Fool's Errand.

Rushing out of the woods was Sasuke, who started the attack with a kick.

Yamato casually intercepted the kick and deflected it but Sasuke kept at it. He assaulted Yamato with a bunch of kicks and punches that were mixed with well-timed feints to keep Yamato's attention trained on him.

"Are you guys seriously planning to take me down with such a straightforward tactic?" Yamato asked nonchalantly as he caught Sasuke's leg and pushed him back to create some distance between them.

As soon as Yamato tried tossing him back, Sasuke threw two shurikens attached to wires to bind Yamato.

Yamato dodged them using the body flicker and substitution jutsu since as soon as the wires wrapped around his substitute Naruto emerged from behind and bodied the substitute.

But with Yamato having already escaped Naruto hit nothing but a simple log and their plan failed-

Yamato blinked unconsciously and when upon opening his eyes he watched Naruto's body explode into a puff of smoke from which a flurry of shuriken and kunai emerged.

Yamato deflected them using his own kunai but after a few clashes, he found something odd about them.

'A shadow clone?'

'No. This is a genjutsu!'

"Kai!" Forming a simple seal, Yamato exploded his chakra to break the genjutsu. But Sakura had already completed the job.

A kunai with an explosive seal was flying rapidly towards Yamato, at the same time, four of Naruto's shadow clones had grabbed his legs to delay him long enough for the explosive seal to explode.

Being a Jonin and a former ANBU member, Yamato's body was strong enough that he lifted Naruto's shadow clones by pulling on their collars. He then tossed the clones at the Kunai with the explosive tags causing the Kunai to slow down and explode before it reached him.

*BBBBOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM*

Just as Yamato was about to pull off the last Naruto clone on his body an instinctual feeling of danger arose within him. And he was right because as soon as he looked down at his legs he found the last Naruto clone performing the hand seals to the fireball jutsu.

"Fire Release: Fire Ball Jutsu!"

The 'Naruto' clone opened its mouth and a fireball exploded out of its mouth.

'They transformed their appearances to be that of each other? Nice plan. Too bad I'm a Jonin and not a chunin.'

Yamato's expression turned a little serious and he slapped his hands together before spitting out a jet stream of water that was aimed right at the fireball that was being spit out from the mouth of the 'Naruto' clone.

The water sizzled under the heat from the fireball and exploded into mist, but Yamato's instincts warned him.

'No! This is another genjutsu! No way is Sasuke's fireball hot enough to turn a Jonin's water into steam!'

Yamato exploded his chakra again to break out of the genjutsu and as soon as he did he opened his eyes to Sasuke about to stab his leg with a kunai. His one tomoe sharingan was active indicating that the most recent genjutsu was his attempt at distracting Yamato.

As soon as Yamato saw that, he formed hand seals at a blistering pace before Sasuke suddenly felt like his entire body had become heavy as he was forced to the ground.

Yamato explained, "Earth Release: Added Weight Rock Technique!"

Before Yamato could say anything else however he found himself assaulted by Tachibana and Naruto who attacked him while aiming a kunai right at his neck.

"Haha~ Why are you trying to kill me!? This is just a spar!!"

"We're taking this seriously Yamato-sensei!!! Don't make fun of us!!" Naruto shouted.

Yamato nodded with a smile, "Alright. I'll take this a little seriously too then.". He grabbed both Naruto and Tachibana's wrists before twisting them and pulling them at each other making their heads bump together.

However, it was at this moment that Sakura made his blinding entry.

"SASUKE-KUN!!!!!!"

'Hmm? Sasuke? Is she worried why he's on the gro-'

Yamato's thoughts froze as he looked down.

In his hands were Naruto and Tachibana's dead bodies.

Their chests were pierced with the other's kunai, blood dripping as they fell without strength onto Yamato. Blood dripped out of their chests, and fell on Sasuke who lay at Yamato's feet where his head was cracked open with blood and brain matter leaking.

'Genjutsu!?' Yamato cursed. 'Sakura's ability to use genjutsu is getting annoying. How is her chakra control so good anyway? And the genjutsu so real!?'

He flared his chakra while shouting, "KAI!"-

-but nothing happened.

Yamato's breathing hitched as Sakura reached him and with her kunai drawn shouted, "Yamato-sensei! What have you done!? You've killed them!!"

Yamato's eyes widened and he looked around himself with shock.

"I controlled myself...I didn't use this much force…No way…"

That was when Yamato felt a cool pointed sensation on the back of his neck and although the sensation felt like a kunai that signified his defeat it helped relieve his mental stress immensely.

"You lost sensei!" Tachibana proclaimed as Naruto and Sasuke joined in with their kunai. Sakura joined them in the end too.

But Yamato's face darkened.

He looked at the four genin around him with a slight sense of injustice.

'I wanted to be the cool sensei…'

'I didn't even get to display my Wood Release!!!'

"Whose stupid plan was this…?"

The trio of Team Seven all looked at Tachibana who gave them an indignant look, "Why are you looking at me like that? You all agreed to this too! And more than anything, Naruto was the one that made the clones so realistic! Who would've thought that he'd make them so realistic!?"

"Hehehehehe~ I just wanted to win…" Naruto laughed while rubbing the back of his head and Yamato cursed all of them in his mind.

'Calm down Yamato!'

'Remember you are the cool sensei!!'

'Remember you are much stronger than them…'

"By the way Sensei, I didn't think you'd be so weak-" Naruto started speaking but then he happened to see the maddened look in Yamato's eyes so his words fizzled out.

"Weak? Me?" Yamato asked with a soft smile that sent shudders down all the genin's spines.

"I mean, you lost to four genin…soo…" Naruto dug his grave deeper.

Sakura, Sasuke and Tachibana distanced themselves from Naruto immediately as Tachibana spoke calmly, "Sensei we don't know who that is. We passed the test, right? We're leaving. See you tomorrow!"

Just as Tachibana turned around to leave Yamato extended his hand and caught him.

"Where do you think all of you are going, huh? If you really were scared of the outcome, you shouldn't have done such a stupid thing in the first place!" Yamato grumbled but then ruffled Tachibana and Naruto's hair as he spoke with a well-meaning smile.

"Let's go to Yakiniku Q~! It's my treat for you guys passing my test today."

Everyone's eyes widened and they nodded eagerly.

"Yossssshhhhhaaaaa!!!" Naruto shouted, "Let's celebrate the defeat of our sensei!!!"

Yamato nearly cried at that but then shook his head pitifully as he was dragged by the team who wanted to treat him like an ATM to pay for their expensive meal.

Meanwhile, as they all walked towards the restaurant, Tachibana noticed something in his system, 'Oh? My potion only digested by five per cent? Is it because I gained no 'applause' which acknowledged my performance?'

'How confusing.'

'I need to be able to use my abilities more freely to and set up a persona as a magician...'

'I sort of have a plan...I'll tell Yamato once we're finished with our party.'

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A/N: What does Tachibana want to tell Yamato?