Chapter 7
Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews guys! Love them all! First order of business, Elder Sibling, sorry to disappoint but Naruto will remain on team 7 for the story to reach where I want it to go. Ky111, thank you for your words. Onto the main topic, I assume you have read the Dark Phoenix? If not, then please do! It's awesome! My point is, Naruto is looking like jonin level, but my standards are quite different. Naruto might seem jonin, but that doesn't mean Kakashi will be weak. Kakashi will be proportionately strong. Onto the story!
Naruto had a hard time sleeping that night, but he could hardly be blamed. He was officially a ninja! On top of that, he would meet his new teammates tomorrow, but he had a bad feeling about that. He tried to ignore it, which was easier done than said. The feeling was easily buried beneath the excitement he was feeling.
Over the years, his body had an internalized clock, which was very beneficial health wise, but unfortunately did not allow him to sleep more than seven hours, no matter how much he wanted to. At five in the morning, his eyes would snap open by themselves, his body having sufficiently rested itself and ready for the day. As was the case today.
Which is why he was so confused when he woke up at his regular time of five in the morning, not feeling any tiredness from the events of last night. While not complaining at the lack of tiredness, irritation slowly took hold of him, making him frown deeply. By all means, he should have easily slept till nine in the morning. One late arrival to class wouldn't hurt him at all.
'No use whining about it. Best start my day with the usual', he mentally grumbled and got out of bed. Quickly finishing his morning rituals and dressing up, he took two bananas and gobbled them up. He figured his irritation would be gone by the end of his morning run. Inside his mind, Kurama was trying to keep his sniggers from echoing in Naruto's mind. He had initially decided to let Naruto rest because of his late night, but his sense of mischief decided to manifest itself and he changed his decision. He let a larger amount of his chakra than usual in Naruto's body, just enough so Naruto would wake up at his usual time instead of his natural seven hours.
Stepping outside, Naruto felt the slightly chilly air of the morning. The sky was still dark, but it was perfect for him. A sudden thought struck to him, 'How about I run with my resistance seals off today? Get used to the normal speed. What do you say, Kurama?'
Kurama gave a yawn that reverberated through Naruto's mind. He forcefully clenched his jaw to prevent his own from happening. Kurama replied, 'It's a good idea. You should get used to running without seals every once in a while, Naruto. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to control your own speed. You would just speed past the place you intent to stop.'
Naruto nodded, agreeing with Kurama. He wondered if his father had the same problems, but pushed those thoughts aside. 'Best get used to it gradually', he thought. Making a ram seal, he lowered the resistance seal on his body from level 12 to six. The change was immediate; he felt really light and like the amount of energy in his body had doubled.
He started running and was surprised at his own speed. Kurama had been frighteningly accurate; he was currently running at a speed which children would call close to sprinting and the worrying part about the whole thing was, he wasn't even controlling it. 'At the end of this run, I will get used to this', he determinedly thought.
It took him almost five rounds of the village to get used to it and by the end of five rounds, he was comfortably running at the speed he usually ran, not having any feeling of being tired at all. 'I wonder if this feeling can be compared to freedom', he thought with a smile. 'Running without a care in the world, feeling as if nothing is holding you back.'
Eventually, he decided to sprint all out and once he started feeling tired, he would run without any resistance, getting used to running without it. After another one and a half lap of sprinting, he began panting and figured that the time was right to release the seal.
He was just about to do it when he saw something ahead of him. He was closing on a person wearing a, 'Oh god, is that a spandex jumpsuit?!' He was very much grossed out by the sight and figured overtaking the person was in his best interest.
Instantly releasing the seal, he shot forward once more, having not increased his pace by himself at all. He was soon running neck to neck with a kid probably his own age who had a shining, bowl cut hairstyle and huge eyebrows which looked more like caterpillars, bandages wrapped up his forearms and his hitai-ate wrapped as a belt. He also wore orange leg warmers.
The kid glanced towards him and flashed a brilliant smile of white teeth shining like metal. He spoke in a loud voice, "A very youthful morning to you! May I know who you are?"
Naruto rose an eyebrow at the loud voice. Perhaps this is his normal way of speaking, he mused. Somehow, a quiet voice did not suit this kid. And what is with the 'youthful morning'? Outward he said, "Good morning! It is nice to see someone else running at this time. My name is Naruto, by the way."
He expected the usual frown of disgust and hate, but he did not expect the kid to react, "My name is Rock Lee, Naruto-kun! You seem like a very youthful person, running at this speed in the early morning! You are clearly basking in the springtime of youth!"
Naruto stared at him as if he was speaking an entirely different language, which he probably was because he didn't understand a word of what he said. Inside his mind, Kurama had kept his eyes shut tightly. He had already scarred his mind by seeing Lee. He did not want to go insane from seeing him in motion.
Naruto did the only thing he could without upsetting the boy. "Hey, Lee! How about we talk later? I'm in a bit of hurry!" Saying that, he sprinted ahead at full speed, leaving Lee to taste his dust. He felt bad about leaving him like that because there was a chance that that boy would be his future comrade, but he wanted to get used to his mannerisms slowly. The 'youth' coming from Lee terrified him.
Lee stared at the dust with wide eyes. Stars seemed to twinkle around him, "What youth! To be faster than me with my weights off! Gai-sensei will be so surprised when he hears of this!" Shouting this, he ran off in his own cloud of dust.
Naruto ran full sprint until he reached his house. Climbing up the stairs, he thought about what he had observed while talking to Lee. While the bandages covered almost whole of his forearms, the fingertips were exposed. And they were scratched and bruised, heavily. That indicated that Lee trained his ass off every day. He also sensed Lee's chakra, which was so low that someone would mistake him for a civilian. Which probably indicated that Lee was running on pure speed, without any chakra.
That meant Lee was a pure Taijutsu type fighter. 'The amount of hard work it must have taken to achieve that speed..... Lee has my utmost respect for his hard work', he thought with admiration. Kurama agreed, 'A genius of hard work, he truly is.'
Taking a quick shower, he dressed in his clothes from yesterday and quickly ate a cup of instant ramen, justifying it as a good day and easily ignoring Kurama's exasperated shake of head and adjusted his hitai-ate beneath his left shoulder. Taking a final look in the mirror, he nodded to himself and left his apartment.
Hopping on the rooftops gave him a rare sense of thrill, which not many shinobi felt because of it being a usual for them. But many shinobi did not perform tricks on the rooftops as well. The flips and every sort of cartwheel he could think of were performed with the highest level of precision. His every landing, flip, roll was perfectly executed. The people below stared at him; some were the usual glares, while a few of them had expressions of awe. It was rare for them to see performing such tricks on rooftops with such expertise. Of course, Naruto was too lost in the thrill to notice.
Before long he had reached the academy. As he walked through the gates, a sense of apprehension gripped him. A familiar bad feeling from the last night gripped him again. With every step, the feeling seemed to intensify a little.
He shook his head a little, trying to shake the feeling off. Today will go well, he assured himself.
XXXXXXX
Hiruzen looked at the jonin assembled in his office. Each of them would be assigned a team of Genin. He had to choose carefully who received which team. The future of Konoha had to be handled extremely carefully.
He glanced at the jonin standing at the right hand side end of the line. Kakashi was sort of glaring at the old Hokage. Usually, he would be late to the meeting by a good three hours unless he was receiving a B-rank mission or higher, but the Hokage had threatened to burn his Icha Icha collection, even his hidden collection.
So he was forced to attend on time. But that did not prevent him from glaring at the Hokage.
Hiruzen distributed the first six teams and asked them to leave, before turning his attention to the more important teams.
"Team 7 would be led by you, Kakashi", he said, giving the jonin a nod. "Team 8's leader would be Kurenai. Since team 9 is still in circulation under Gai, team 10 would be led by Asuma. Kakashi, stay behind. I have to talk to you."
As the other jonin left, there was a noticeable change in Kakashi's posture. The lazy look was gone from his eye, replaced with seriousness. He stood straight with his hands behind his back and back straight, looking at the Hokage.
"What do you want from me, Hokage-sama?"
Hiruzen's seriousness of the topic was clear in his voice, "Kakashi, you have been given the most important team of all. Since Sasuke Uchiha is on this team, the council will probably force you to pay more attention to him, teach him the ways of Sharingan and all your jutsu. But you will not play any favorites. Is that understood?" His voice was like an army commander at the end.
Kakashi nodded, "Hai, Hokage-sama!"
Hiruzen then motioned for the ANBU to leave the room. Once the room was completely secure, he leaned forward on his desk, chin resting on his hands. He suddenly seemed to switch from a serious personality to a weary one.
"Kakashi, Naruto will be on this team as well." That single sentence seemed to bring out Kakashi's memories that he did not want to remember. Memories of his sensei, memories of how he failed to protect Naruto from the villagers.
'I will not fail this time. You can count on me, Minato-sensei', he thought with resolution.
Hiruzen continued in his grave tone, "The council will probably tell you to ignore him as much as you can. But you will not do that to the only person who is connected to Minato, would you?"
Kakashi shook his head and spoke with steel in his voice, "No, Hokage-sama. I am astounded that you would even say that!"
Hiruzen however, was unfazed by the outburst. "I had to check, Kakashi. I'm sorry for saying that."
Kakashi nodded absentmindedly, his mind already making plans on how to deal with his new team. A thought occurred to him and he asked Hiruzen, "Is there anything I should know about my team?"
Hiruzen lent back in his seat, taking a deep breath and blowing the smoke out. "I could give you the files of your students, but observing firsthand is a better way. Won't you agree, Kakashi?"
Kakashi seemed to be in thought for a moment and then eye smiled. Perhaps, this time he will be able to correct his mistakes.
XXXXXXX
Entering the classroom, he saw that only half of those who had graduated were there. Eyes roaming, he spotted his friends Shikamaru, Chouji, Shino, Hinata sitting in their usual places. Shikamaru was dozing off as usual, Chouji was eating potato chips, Shino was examining his bugs and Hinata had turned red as soon as she saw him. She began poking her index fingers together, avoiding eye contact.
He also saw other kids who had graduated, playfully shoving each other, talking about everything and nothing at the same time. He was about to go to his usual seat in the back when he sensed a familiar chakra approaching. Turning to the door, he narrowed his eyes.
Sasuke Uchiha had entered the classroom. He looked very different from yesterday, wearing a navy-blue high collared short sleeved shirt and white shorts with holster tied on his right thigh. He also wore white arm warmers and hitai-ate tied on his forehead. He still had his usual air of arrogance and smugness around him. His posture carried confidence, which was clouded by arrogance.
His coal black eyes roamed the classroom until they settled on him. Naruto saw some anger seep into them, 'Still sore about yesterday, Sasuke?' he thought.
Sasuke marched up to him, his hands in his pockets, implying that he had no intention of attacking Naruto. He stopped a feet away from him and looked in his eyes with almost a burning intensity, his narrowed eyes showing that he would be keeping an eye on him from now on.
Naruto narrowed his own azure eyes in return, the cold intensity of them as cold as ice in response to Sasuke's fire. His eyes conveyed his response very clearly, 'Bring it, Sasuke.'
They both were so lost in their glaring contest that Sasuke failed to notice one of the kids stumbling towards his back. He bumped into his back, shouting out a "Sorry!" before joining his friends back. He did not notice the consequences of his accidental bump.
Naruto's eyes had become as wide as saucers when Sasuke's lips crashed onto his own. He was so stunned from that that he just froze on his spot, as did Sasuke, looking into each other's eyes with disbelief. He did not even hear Kurama's loud belly laugh at his situation, so shocked he was having his first kiss stolen from Sasuke of all people. He was even more horrified at the amusement he was feeling. 'This feels so wrong, on so many levels', he thought with no small amount of panic.
Sasuke having thoughts along the same lines. He didn't imagine in his wildest dreams that his first kiss would be stolen by the dobe. Just what did he do to deserve this?! All he felt was disgust at feeling a boy's lips on his own. But the shock of the situation had frozen him to his place
This was the scene that Sasuke's most devoted fangirls, Sakura and Ino, along with other fangirls, were greeted to. They both blankly stared at them, not being able to form even full words "Wha-" "Ho-"
Naruto finally came to his senses and immediately stepped back from his spot, prompting Sasuke to do the same. Naruto rubbed his lips, slowly cleaning them off. Turning furious eyes on the dark haired boy, he hissed, "What the hell kuso yaro?! Just what gave you the indication that I liked you?! Unlike you, I happen to be an avid fan of the opposite sex!
Sasuke was taken aback by Naruto's rant for a moment, but was quick to recover. His voice turned downright menacing, not that Naruto was intimidated, "It was your fault, dobe!" He accused, rubbing his lips furiously.
Naruto was quick to snark back, "That's my line, teme! I'm not the one who suddenly decided to step forward and kiss me!" His first kiss went to Sasuke of all people! Oh, the shame...
Sasuke stormed to his seat and sat down, slipping back into his daily brooding routine. Naruto silently scoffed and turned away, 'Just what is so great about that guy?!'
He was about to go to his regular seat when he felt it. It was not killing intent, but it felt like he had done something grievously wrong. Turning around, he almost went pale. All the girls of the class were looking like dogs ready to pounce and kill.
"Baka-Naruto! How dare you steal Sasuke-kun's first kiss like that?!" Sakura and Ino were quick to blame him, with the others following.
Kurama was still snickering in his mind and Naruto resisted the urge to sigh. Seeing the kunoichis' take a threatening step forward, he slid his left leg back, ready to flash step out of here if necessary. He had to find a way to-
"Everyone settle down!" the loud voice of Iruka-sensei was heard in the classroom, but the girls didn't seem to hear it, ganging up on Naruto, who didn't look nervous at all.
Iruka saw his favorite student being ganged up on by the kunoichis' and put a hand on his face in resignation. 'Now what did you do Naruto?'
Feeling the need to save his little brother, he activated his big head no jutsu, "SETTLE DOWN, YOU BRATS!"
The effect was immediate. All the girls were seated so fast they almost looked like they were teleporting. However, Naruto was immune to Iruka's jutsu for a long time and so, he calmly walked up to his usual seat and sat down, looking out of the window with a bored look.
Iruka looked around the room and started his attendance.
"Aburame Shino." "Here."
"Akimichi Chouji." "Here sensei!"
The roll call continued but Naruto simply wasn't paying attention since his name was last anyways.
"Uzumaki Naruto." "Right here", he waved his hand lazily. His response sounded way cooler than any of his classmates and for this reason, it rattled Sasuke's fangirls.
"Baka!" Sakura stood up and pointed an accusing finger at him, "Stop trying to act cool like Sasuke-kun!"
"YEAH!" Her statement was supported by nearly all the fangirls in the room, except Hinata. Naruto, who was still looking outside, turned to face Sakura.
"Hm? Did you say something?" he asked in an absent-minded tone. Iruka suddenly wondered just where Naruto had met a one-eyed jonin who habitually said the same thing.
The girls shrieked and hurled various insults at him, which were easily ignored. Iruka coughed to get the class's attention and when he had it, he started speaking.
"You guys are now, officially, ninja of Konoha! But remember, you are simply a Genin. The road from here will only be uphill now. You will be now divided in groups of three, and a jonin sensei will be your teacher."
Everyone had different thoughts about this. Ino said to Sakura in a sly tone, "I wonder who will be on Sasuke-kun's team."
Sakura gave an annoyed glance to her, "Who knows?" However, inner Sakura shouted in her mind, 'Cha! I'm the one who will be on his team!'
Sasuke thought with a small amount of irritation, 'A team of three? Che! They will only burden me and hold me back.'
Iruka then began announcing the teams. It took a while but he finally announced Naruto's, "Uzumaki Naruto", Naruto payed close attention at that, "Haruno Sakura", causing a depressed cloud to appear on top of her, 'I'm on a team with Naruto? Why?'
Naruto had a more expressive reaction. A purple cloud seemed to form over his head and he banged his head on the table. 'Fuck my life...', he groaned. Many felt sorry for the poor bastard, despite not being his friends. No one deserved Sakura as a teammate. Even Kurama was whispering comforting words such as they could kill her and bury the body.
"And Uchiha Sasuke", Iruka announced the last name. This time Sakura jumped in joy. Turning around, she flashed a superior smirk at the flabbergasted Ino, who was clenching her fists. Inner Sakura was shouting in joy, 'Cha! True love always prevails!'
Shikamaru simple muttered, "Troublesome."
Trying to divert his mind from his recent depression, Naruto listened closely for the other teams. Team 8 was Hinata, Kiba and Shino. Naruto raised an eyebrow at that. 'Taking in account that their special traits are not in fighting... If I'm not mistaken, this is a tracking and a back-up assault team."
Team 10 was announced to be Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji. 'The legendary Ino-Shika-Cho trio is being formed again. Their father's were a legendary team themselves, after all. This team has two purposes that I can think of. A battle purpose and an information gathering, taking in account Ino's mind techniques, Shikamaru's binding techniques and Chouji as a heavy hitter. Not bad at all', he thought with a smile, impressed with jiji's choices of team members.
That thought process led him to his own team. A tiny frown appeared on his forehead, 'Sakura doesn't possess any specialties, except her high level of chakra control. Sasuke could be considered a specialist in ninjutsu due to his Sharingan, but that depends on his chakra capacity. He is an expert in Shurikenjutsu, which is to be expected considering who his brother was. His Taijutsu will grow by leaps too, once he awakens his Sharingan. My specialty would primarily be Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu, followed by Taijutsu and trap-making.'
Naruto's frown disappeared as he realized something, 'So that's how it is! Our team is a primary, heavy-assault team. That old man really is something else', he smiled, shaking his head, impressed by the old Hokage.
Time passed and one by one, jonin sensei came to take their teams away. Team 8's sensei was a beautiful woman named Kurenai Yuhi and Team 10's sensei was a large man who looked like a bear and held strong resemblance to jiji. He introduced himself as Sarutobi Asuma and took his team away.
Many hours passed, but there was no sign of Team 7's sensei. Sasuke kept brooding the whole time, though he was starting to look irritated. Sakura looked close to exploding in anger. Naruto was calmly working on a new chakra suppressing seal that he could use without delay. He was also keeping his senses open, just in case he sensed their sensei.
Almost three hours of wait later, Naruto sensed a jonin level chakra signature heading their way. Sighing in relief, he sealed away his sealing supplies and got up, a revenge in mind for their tardy sensei. Walking up to the door, he made four hand signs and slapped his right palm on top of the door's ceiling. Snickering, he went back to his seat. That was a seal that had successfully worked on jiji. There was no reason it wouldn't work on their sensei.
Sakura and Sasuke were curiously watching Naruto. When Naruto applied his seal, they realized for the first time that Naruto was the tallest member of their team. Sakura asked him, "Naruto! What was that?!" in her usual tone of I'm-your-mother-Naruto.
Naruto gave her a blank gaze and said, "Something that you can't come close to understand, Sakura."
Sakura's temper flared and she moved to hit him out of habit, but the door to the classroom opened and all three Genin watched with shock as the man who opened it got drenched from head to toe in water.
Naruto smirked at that. That was a seal designed to activate when someone's chakra came in direct or indirect contact with it. He could store any element in it. Just because he was playing a prank, water was the best choice. Lightning or fire would be very painful. He turned towards the person who was most likely their jonin sensei.
XXXXXXX
Kakashi was lost in thought as he finally decided to go to the academy and collect his team. On one hand, there was Sasuke. The last member of the Uchiha clan that was still loyal to the village. Kakashi brought his hand up to the covered left eye. It was his late best friend's, Uchiha Obito's last gift to him before he died. He felt a sort of obligation to his friend to train the last bearer of the Sharingan.
On the other hand, there was Naruto. His sensei's son and Kakashi's only remaining tie to his late teacher. The person he had failed to protect from the village's hatred. The Sandaime had made it very clear that Kakashi has until chunin exams to increase the number of bonds he has in this village. If he doesn't have any bonds, he may very well leave the village and Konoha can't afford to lose its only jinchuriki.
Walking up to the classroom door, he was caught off guard when he was suddenly doused in water. Perplexed, he looked up, hoping to find a bucket, but saw nothing but a seal.
Eyes narrowed, he looked around the classroom. Sasuke was looking at him with doubt, 'Is this guy really a jonin?'
Sakura looked apologetic as she bowed, "Sorry sensei, it is all Naruto's fault! I tried to stop him..."
Naruto was simply smirking at the jonin. With Kurama's help, he had identified the chakra signature as that of Dog, the ANBU who sometimes used to protect him. However, Naruto's I-know-something-you-don't smirk definitely put Kakashi on edge.
Kakashi was having his own thoughts about the three. Upon seeing Naruto's smirk, he concluded that Naruto most likely used a seal to play the prank. Turning to Sakura, he thought, 'Sakura tries to protect herself using excuses.'
Eyes turning to Sasuke, he saw the boy turn his face back towards the window. 'Sasuke minds his own business. Doesn't seem to accept the other two as comrades.'
He sighed internally, 'There is not a single shred of teamwork in this team at all.' Outside, he gripped his chin in a mock thinking pose and said in his lazy voice, "Hmmmmm, how do I put this? My first impression of you guys, well, you're a bunch of idiots", he finished with an eye smile. He could literally see the cloud of depression over Sakura and Sasuke's head, but Naruto kept smirking in that annoying manner, not at all fazed by Kakashi's insult. Deciding to move on, he said, "Meet me on the roof in five minutes."
Kakashi then disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Startled by the sudden exit, Sasuke and Sakura scrambled and rushed to the roof, the latter scampering after the former. Naruto sighed; it was a good thing that he didn't have to hide his skills anymore. Grabbing the edge of the window, he swung his feet onto the wall and leisurely walked up it.
Kakashi was as usual, buried nose-deep in his porn when he felt it. Looking down curiously, he contained his surprise on seeing Naruto walk up to him. The boy was displaying a skill that not many people showed before graduating.
"Yo sensei!" Naruto waved with a smile. Kakashi had nothing to say so he waved back, "Yo!" It really made him feel like an idiot.
Naruto walked past him and sat down on the steps in front of Kakashi. Just as he sat down, Sasuke and Sakura burst through the door, eyes widening when they saw Naruto had already reached ahead of them and was sitting nonchalantly.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed, 'How did the dobe reach ahead of me? Now that I think about it, I didn't see him following me and Sakura. So how DID he get here?'
Sakura was in a similar state of surprise, but did not think much of it. She immediately sat down besides Sasuke, hearts in her eyes.
Kakashi closed his book with a snap and said in his ever lazy tone, "All right, why don't you introduce yourselves. You can start first, pinkerbell."
Sakura scowled at 'pinkerbell' and spoke up, "Why don't you go first and show us how it's done, sensei?"
Kakashi pointed a finger at himself, "Me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have many likes and dislikes. My dreams are none of your business, .... and you are too young to hear my hobbies." He finished and glanced at Sakura, motioning to continue.
All the three genin sweat dropped, 'All we learned was his name."
Sakura began speaking, "I am Haruno Sakura. I like.....", she glanced at Sasuke and blushed, "My hobbies are....", she blushed harder, "My dream is....", she squealed this team, making Naruto shake his head in disgust. Sasuke showed no reaction.
Kakashi asked, "Dislikes?"
Sakura was quick to scowl, "Ino-pig and baka-Naruto!"
Kakashi thought with a resigned sigh, 'I just HAD to get a fangirl.'
He motioned Sasuke to begin, "You next, emo."
Sasuke scowled like Sakura at the nickname, but spoke, "Uchiha Sasuke. I have few likes and many dislikes. I have a dream, no.....ambition to kill a certain man and restore my clan."
Sakura was looking at Sasuke with hearts in her eyes and thinking, 'Sasuke-kun is so cool!' Naruto was thinking, 'Doesn't he know that to restore his clan he needs girls and for girls he needs some personality?'
Kakashi had narrowed his eye a little, 'As I had thought...'
He motioned for Naruto to begin, "You next, blondie."
Naruto was not at all offended at his nickname and spoke with a small smile, "The name's Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen and spending time with Iruka-sensei. I dislike the three minutes it takes for ramen to cook. My hobbies are training and experimenting with Fuinjutsu. My dream", his smile became a full blown grin, "is to become the strongest Hokage ever!"
Kakashi smiled slightly, 'His hobbies are a bit unusual, but he has certainly grown up in an interesting way.'
He then said, "All right! All of you are unique and have your own ideals. We will start our duties from tomorrow! But there is something that the four of us have to do first." The deadpan in his voice was unmistakable.
Naruto tilted his head ever so slightly, "What would that be, sensei?"
"Survival exercise", Kakashi replied seriously.
"But we already did enough of it in the academy, sensei", Sakura said with a frown.
Kakashi chuckled, "This time, it's different because I'm your opponent."
"What's so funny?" Sasuke asked, a little irritated.
"It's your reaction you hear this; of the twenty seven graduates, only nine will be made genin. The rest will go back to the academy. As a matter of fact, the failure rate is over sixty-six percent!"
As Kakashi predicted, everyone's eyes went wide at that, Sakura going as far as to gaping. Kakashi laughed and said, "Told you you'd freak out!"
Naruto then deduced with narrowed eyes, "Then it is quite clear that the graduation test was just to select those who have the potential to become genin, isn't it?"
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, 'That was quite perceptive of him. Looks like you have a lot of secrets, Naruto-kun.' He easily ignored Sakura shouting at Naruto for trying to act cool like Sasuke.
"Anyways, meet me on training ground 7, tomorrow morning five o' clock. Skip breakfast if you don't want to throw up." He vanished in a leaf shunshin after that.
For a while, none of them moved, thinking of the man's advice. Naruto got up first, walking over to the railing. He prepared to leap over, but stopped, turning around and asking, "Hey, you want to come and have lunch, get to know each other since we are teammates now?"
Sasuke snorted in disdain and walked away, Sakura following him like a puppy. She followed Sasuke's lead and shouted, "Yeah right, like anyone would want to eat with you, LOSER!" She then engaged in her daily habit of asking Sasuke for a date.
Kurama was smirking, 'She's the one to talk about weak.' Naruto simply replied, 'It's not worth wasting our thoughts like that, Kurama. Besides, at least I tried. It's always the thought that counts."
He leaped over the railing and sprinted to his usual training ground to do his training for the day. Perhaps he could even find Anko and persuade her to spar with him...
XXXXXXX
Naruto laid on his bed, hands tucked behind his bed and eyes up at the ceiling. Anko was tough as usual, and she was even kind enough to let him know that he had some openings in his fighting. By that, he meant she used those openings to leave nice, big bruises. He was not worried about that though, because he had already closed those openings. Right now, he was mentally conversing with Kurama.
'How much do I let loose tomorrow, Kurama? The Hiraishin is not an option. That will only be revealed in the chunin exams and not before.'
'You can reveal three or four jutsus that you have, but not your red lightning. You can scare Kakashi-brat with your flash step though. A bit of fuinjutsu will do as well. Oh, and make sure to use the great fireball. I want to see the look on Uchiha's face.', Kurama replied after thinking for a bit, snickering in the end.
Naruto ignored that suggestion. 'Which means lightning jutsus are out. I can go all out in Taijutsu. If I don't, Sasuke will be quick to call me out on that and I don't need any of that. Besides, it was clever of Kakashi-sensei to purposely mislead us into fighting on an empty stomach, don't you think?' he smirked.
Kurama smirked in return, 'Don't make the mistake of underestimating him, Naruto. Kakashi is a very strong shinobi, strong enough to be feared across all shinobi nations in the third great war. He is not lacking in the mental department at all.'
Naruto mentally nodded, acknowledging Kurama's advice. Closing his eyes, he fell into a deep sleep. Tomorrow would be interesting.... again.
XXXXXXX
Glancing out of the apartment he lived in, Sasuke was thankful for the silence the night provided. 'I will pass the exercise myself. I won't allow those two to hold me back!' he thought.
Frowning in thought, he absently tapped the window, 'The dobe has been acting very differently as of late. His sudden show of skills in the graduation test, his clear familiarity with seals.....could it be that he was hiding his skills? If so, then why? He has always craved attention, so why would he do something like hiding his skills and personality? Just who are you.....Naruto?'
Sasuke had noticed that Naruto acted very different from his usual loud and idiotic personality in the graduation exam. He was calm and collected, more so than Sasuke usually was.
He was also understandably jealous of Naruto's newly-discovered skills. Sasuke had been training his ass off since the massacre in order to become strong enough. Strong enough to kill him. Not many people had the ability to see underneath, not even Sasuke, but he could tell that Naruto was hiding a lot of his abilities.
He would make Naruto tell him, because he deserved it more than anyone else, least of all the dobe.
XXXXXXX
Naruto's eyes opened at five o'clock, according to his body clock. 'This is the time by which I am supposed to be on the training field', he thought as he got up to do his morning rituals.
As he was brushing his teeth, he began thinking about Kakashi's behavior yesterday. 'Our sensei was late by over three hours to meet us and he didn't even look sorry about that. What's to say he won't do this today?', he thought as he wiped his mouth.
Going to the kitchen, he leisurely began preparing four omelets. As he cracked the eggs, he scoffed, 'Skip breakfast if we didn't want to throw up? He must be crazy if he thought that we would fight him on an empty stomach!' He slid the omelets onto his plate and sat down on the dining table.
A quick prayer later, he was gorging them down. He couldn't think about strategies because he didn't know what the exercise would be. Finishing his meal, he walked over to the sink and washed his plate. 'Only Sakura would be stupid enough to skip the most important meal of the day! That girl is so thin a simple breeze would be enough to blow her away!' he snickered.
He went to his room and took out the seal on which he was working on. He sat down on his table and worked on it until only half an hour was remaining till eight o' clock. He closed the scroll and began preparing for the day.
He dressed up and checked if he had all his supplies in his pouch and holster. Tying his hitai-ate beneath his left shoulder, he nodded to himself and exited his apartment after ensuring his trap-seals were in place.
He walked at a comfortable pace to the training grounds, eating two bananas and a backpack holding his lunch.
Reaching the training grounds, he had to hold his laugh at what he saw. Both his teammates were there, probably from five o' clock, and were looking as miserable. Well, as miserable as Sasuke could look. Sakura was sitting on the ground, probably regretting not eating breakfast.
As soon as she saw him, her face twisted into anger and she got up, yelling. "Naruto! You are late!"
Naruto looked around and sure enough, Kakashi wasn't here. Turning back to Sakura, he shrugged, "I don't how I can be late if sensei isn't even here, Sakura."
Sakura opened her mouth to yell more, but couldn't refute his statement. Her stomach decided to rumble at that moment, followed shortly by Sasuke's. Naruto raised a disbelieving eyebrow, 'They really are that stupid?!'
He spoke with disbelief, "You two didn't eat breakfast?!"
The mentioned two shook their head, but Sakura yelled again, "Sensei told us not to eat breakfast, baka! Why did YOU eat it?!"
Naruto glared at her, causing her to flinch, "I'm standing right here, Sakura. There's no need to yell. As for eating breakfast", he spoke as if speaking to four year old's, "It is the most important meal of the day, you know."
Sakura's temper got the better of her and she moved to hit Naruto. But Naruto decided to teach her a lesson and caught her fist easily, his cold eyes freezing her in her place.
"I suggest you stop doing that. Otherwise, I'll do more than just catch your fist next time", his voice was a whisper, but it was cold as ice, letting her know he was dead serious. He even enforced his threat with a little KI, making her sweat.
Sasuke had been watching the both of them and had to admit that their interactions were amusing. However, that amusement ended when he heard Naruto's threat. He was surprised at how serious and deadly his teammate could sound. Naruto released Sakura's fist and walked up to him, asking, "Why didn't you eat breakfast, emo?"
Sasuke glared at him, refusing to answer. Naruto shrugged and walked up to the posts, setting his backpack on top of one of them. He then sat down, legs crossed and eyes closed, waiting for their sensei to show up.
Turns out Kakashi was even more late than yesterday. He showed up at ten minutes to eleven, "Hi fellows. Good morning." He was sounding even more lazier than yesterday, if that was possible.
Sakura pointed at him accusingly at him, "You're late!"
Kakashi's eye curved up in a sort of smile, "Well, you see, a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take a long cut to avoid bad luck."
"Liar!" Sakura shouted. Naruto sweat dropped, 'Tardiness and lame excuses? Just what's wrong with this guy?'
The silence became awkward and Kakashi coughed to break it, "Well, let's begin."
He placed his backpack down and pulled out an alarm clock, which he set for twelve o' clock. He put it on one of the posts. He then took out two tied bells, "Your task is to take theses bells from me before the alarm rings. Those who don't get the bells get no lunch. Not only that, I will tie you to the posts and eat lunch in front of you."
Sakura's hungry, devastated face was exactly what he wanted. Sasuke tried to hide his hunger, but his stomach betrayed him. Only Naruto looked calm among them. "Naruto, why did you eat breakfast when I told you not to?"
Sakura smiled, expecting Naruto to get punished, but Naruto simply replied, "You only suggested not to, sensei. You never said it as an order. Also, I'm not an idiot who forgets to eat the most important meal of the day."
Sasuke and Sakura glared at him for implying they were idiots, while Kakashi just 'hmmm'ed. 'He is turning out to be very interesting. Maybe he would figure out the purpose of this test as well?' he wondered.
"You only have to get one bell. Since there are only two, one of you will get tied to the stump. The one who doesn't get a bell fails and goes back to the academy", he said, smirking at the horror on their faces. He continued, "If you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you will fail. Any questions?"
Sakura spoke up, a confused look on her face, "But sensei, what if you get hurt?" Naruto snorted at that. Kakashi was a freaking jonin! They would be hard pressed just to harm a hair on him!
Kakashi almost laughed out loud but managed to reign it in, "Don't worry, I won't. Alright.....begin!"
The three of them jumped out of sight. Kakashi then tied the bells to him and took out his 'Icha Icha' book. 'They've hidden well. A shinobi should be able to hide from his enemies. Now to wait for one of them to attack', Kakashi thought as he kept his eyes on the book.
XXXXXXX
'He's got to be kidding! I've only ever seen four-man cells! There's no cell with only two genin and a jonin. There's a different purpose to this test', Naruto furiously thought.
His eyes then widened, 'He knows we won't be able to get the bells single-handedly. He wants us to work together! That is the purpose of this test!'
He smirked in victory, but that smirk turned into a frown, 'Those two will never work with me. Maybe I can convince them....after I get beat up from sensei.'
With that, he released his seals and shunpoed from his spot.
Kakashi looked up in surprise as Naruto seemedto shimmer before him, landing in a crouch. 'What was that? He appeared really fast! His speed was too high for a genin!'
"Rather stupid of you to come at me head on, isn't it?"
"I don't see what's stupid about testing your opponent", Naruto replied, eyes narrowed.
Kakashi had to hold back the memories from seeing those eyes. So much like sensei.....
He was almost caught off-guard when Naruto disappeared, reappearing in front of him, leg extended in a kick. 'That was easily low jonin-level speed! And how the hell does he move that fast?!' he frantically thought as he blocked the kick. He winced, 'He hits hard as well.'
Kakashi was forced to put away his book as Naruto's movements were too fast. But Kakashi wasn't a jonin for nothing. He easily began countering Naruto's attacks, mentally admiring his fighting style.
'His movements are fast, not giving the opposition enough time to think. The strength in his attacks might even reach mid-chunin level. Not many openings to exploit too. His attacks are also quite unorthodox. Very interesting style, like he almost seems to know where the attacks are coming from', he applauded mentally as he ducked and blocked a three roundhouse-kick combo that he knew wasn't a part of any style he knew, and he knew a lot of them.
"You're good kid, but not good enough!" he grunted as he used the momentum of the spin kick coming towards his face. He caught Naruto by the ankle and threw him into the pond. He missed Naruto's smirk as he entered the water.
'He threw me into the water! Perfect!', Naruto thought as he made a half ram seal with his left hand and slowly released his breath. The air surrounded his body like a sort of bubble. He floated up until he was just underneath the surface. He then threw two shuriken at the jonin.
Kakashi didn't even need to look to catch them. But he was unprepared for what came next.
'Suiton: Suikusari no jutsu!' (Water style: Water chain jutsu). Five chains of water erupted from the water and wrapped around him with surprising speed. Requiring only one seal due to his high water affinity, this jutsu was very easy to use.
'Suiton ninjutsu?! How does he know that?!' shock filled his whole being. Naruto jumped out, spinning once mid-air to increase the momentum behind his punch, which only connected with a log. 'Kawarimi huh?'
Kakashi walked out from behind a tree hundred feet away, eye smiling. "Nice try. You are definitely chunin material Naruto, but you will have to try harder to get the bell."
Naruto made three hand seals, 'Fuuton: Toppa!' (Wind style: Breakthrough)A strong gust of wind blew towards Kakashi, who simply leapt to the side to avoid it. 'Wind manipulation?! How does Naruto know all these jutsus?!'
"A strong jutsu, but useless if I can avoid it", Kakashi rebuked. His eyebrow rose up in confusion when Naruto threw a single kunai at him. "Is that supposed to hit me?" he lazily asked as he just tilted his head to avoid it.
He was not prepared for Naruto to appear behind him, replacing himself with the thrown kunai. Kakashi turned around, but it was too late. "Wha-" Naruto slashed at the bells with a kunai in his right hand, eyes widening in surprise when one of them separated. 'Now's the chance!' he allowed his body to spin clockwise, his left hand grabbing the separated bell and right foot kicking out to Kakashi, who blocked it with his hands.
But Naruto simply used the force of the kick to jump back onto a tree, using shunpo to retreat into the woods.
XXXXXXX
Sasuke and Sakura were shell shocked. They were not expecting Naruto's taijutsu to be this good. He was matching their sensei strike for strike, even adding his own attacks. The speed of his movements was something not even Sasuke could match. His form of movement was also noticed by the duo, inducing jaw dropping shock. The show of ninjutsu and snatch of a bell was the last straw for Sasuke.
'How does dobe know a style such as that? How did he achieve that level of speed? How does he know those jutsu?! I should be the one to have those, not him!' he raged in his mind, fists clenched.
Sakura had still not recovered from the shock that was Naruto. 'Naruto was never this good at the academy. How did e manage to get a bell?' It was then her fangirlish ways took over, 'If Naruto can get a bell, then Sasuke-kun can definitely do it!' Not once did she think about herself.
Kakashi stood in shock over what happened. An academy graduate, who was said to be the dead last of his class, not only managed to catch him off guard, but also managed to get a bell. Not to mention the said dead last knew fuuton and suiton ninjutsu, high-chunin level taijutsu with low jonin-level speeds. He, Hatake Kakashi, Copy ninja, caught off guard by a simple kawarimi.
Naruto himself was shocked at his success. Even he didn't expect to get a bell this way. Then again, Kakashi most probably wouldn't expect an academy graduate to pull of a seal less kawarimi.
'That was nothing more than a stroke of luck. In a straight fight, I would be dead already. But since when do shinobi fight fair?', he thought, the excitement slowly leaving him, allowing cognitive thoughts to take place.
'I should probably seek out Sasuke and Sakura, maybe convince them to work together. But my plan was to get beat up, not to get a bell. Sasuke would never listen to me now, which by extension, also includes Sakura. Dammit, dammit, dammit!' he cursed.
'It never hurts to try. The worst that will happen is that you will fail to convince them', Kurama encouraged him. Naruto thought about it a bit and reluctantly agreed with him. He easily sensed the chakras of the two and cursed when he felt that Sasuke was furious by the agitation of his chakra. He quickly made his waytowards him, hoping he wouldn't be too late.
XXXXXXX
He was too late. Sasuke was already furious at Naruto's achievement and when Naruto tried to convince him, he harshly shot his proposal to work together down and went to confront Kakashi alone.
Long story short, he got his ass handed to him and got himself buried head deep into the ground. On the bright side, Naruto successfully copied the Doton jutsu Kakashi used to bury Sasuke. He sensed Kakashi casting a genjutsu on Sakura, who easily succumbed to it. He sent twenty shadow clones to fight Kakashi and defend Sakura, but the time was already up.
Sakura hung her head in shame as she was the one tied to the post while Naruto and Sasuke sat beside her. Sasuke was angrily glaring at Naruto, who was watching his sensei.
Kakashi looked at the kids, shaking his head in disappointment, "Only Naruto managed to get a bell. But that doesn't mean that you passed Naruto. You all failed to grasp the real purpose of this test!"
"Teamwork."
The response came from Naruto. Sasuke and Sakura looked away from him, in anger and shame. Naruto tried to convince them to work together, but they didn't listen to him, because who did?
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "A little late to realize, don't you think?"
Naruto gestured towards his teammates, "They knew it. You can ask them that I tried to convince them to work together. But I already knew from the start that I would be shot down."
Kakashi thought, 'He figured it out, and even tried to execute it, but knew he would be shot down. Sorry Naruto, but this group fails.'
Naruto's voice interrupted him, "Besides, teamwork is something that is established in the long run, sensei. You can't expect it out of people who have never worked together!"
Kakashi nodded, "Point, but it is also born out of necessity, which was this case. Unfortunately, you all failed to act on it."
Silence reigned for a while as Kakashi let them think about it. Then he spoke, "I'll give you all one more chance after an hour. If you fail even then, quit being shinobi!" he harshly told them. "The world of shinobi is not a playground for children! Be ready, and no one feeds Sakura lunch!"
He walked away after that, presumably to run an errand. Naruto easily sensed him hiding behind a tree, even though he was suppressing his chakra. He shook his head and turned to offer his lunch to Sakura, who blinked in surprise.
"Naruto, sensei said-" "It's fine. I don't sense him anyways", Sasuke said as he too, offered Sakura his lunch. She gratefully nodded at him and ate, ignoring Naruto completely.
Naruto shook his head and was about to dig in when he felt a sudden surge of chakra. Kakashi appeared before them, furious as hell. "I told you not to feed her. Are you ready to face the consequences?" The clouds suddenly seemed to gather and sounds of thunder could be heard.
Sasuke spoke up, surprising Naruto, "We are a team, aren't we? We will face the consequences together!"
"Is that your choice?" Kakashi asked, still radiating fury.
The group nodded as one, resolution and determination in their eyes. Like a switch, Kakashi changed personalities, "You pass!" he eye smiled at them.
Naruto still stayed wary, "Is that it?"
Eye smile disappearing, Kakashi said in a serious tone, "Yeah. I wanted to be sure you three would act as one. My best friend always used to say, Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. I wanted you all to accept each other as comrades. This is actually the first group I have passed. The previous ones were blockheads who couldn't get it."
He gave them an eye smile and a thumbs up, "Team 7 will start its missions from tomorrow!"