Drool slobbered across the warm breath heated pillow of Naruto Uzumaki. The snores had grown cacophonous overnight and had woken the light sleeping copycat nin who decided to have a little payback.
Sasuke and Sakura were naturally early risers and had risen a few hours after Kakashi had finished his training, the two were having breakfast in the kitchen, since their Sensei had told them breakfast is the most important meal of the day and you're probably not going to eat anything else for at least a day and a half. So naturally, the kids dug in and ate as much as they could.
Meanwhile, Kakashi decided to wake Naruto.
He grabbed a pot and a ladle and headed toward the blonde's room, casually opening the door and walking in as he knew the boy was a heavy sleeper, judging from his personality. Though he didn't foresee the slight possibility that the young genin might sleep naked.
Kakashi's eyes widened before quickly averting his eyes and turning a bright shade of red. Without looking, he slowly advanced and threw a blanket over the boy, covering his lower body.
The older male finally looked over the, still drooling, boy who wore a dog beanie to bed and grinned evilly before raising the pot and ladle high above his head and smashing the hell out of it next to his eardrum.
Naruto screeched and swiftly sat up, grabbing air as he tried stopping the loud noise. Luckily his blanket still covered his lower area.
Kakashi chuckled at the boys panic "Time to get up" He sniggered and sauntered out the disorganized room.
Naruto glowered at his master. The man really knew how to push his buttons and waking him up from a deep sleep was definitely one of those buttons.
Grudgingly he got up and made himself ready for the day, joining Sakura and Sasuke in their breakfast feast Kakashi had prepared for them. The man had learned how to cook over the years, he needed healthier foods other than takeaways after all, especially with his intense training he had undergone.
"Right you're all here, shall we get going?" Their leader popped up from around the corner, startling the genin.
"Ready to go? It's not even seven in the morning" Naruto complained, banging his head on the table next to his hot ramen in a cup.
"Hmm? That's another lap around the Konoha lake from now on, anything else?" Kakashi taunted, waving his finger in the air.
Sasuke and Sakura glared daggers at the blonde who wore a pained and guilty expression "No sensei"
"Good, so let's get going." Kakashi responded over cheerfully before leading the group out of their clan home and toward the forest of death.
The kids walked beside their teacher, feeling their muscles ache from last nights late training session. They had learned their lesson, never drop training even on a day off. He'd surely make them regret it.
Team 7 arrived before the rusty iron fences of training ground forty-one. Aka. The Forest of Death.
Loud wailing from different beasts could clearly be heard from the outside, disfigured and large animals were slowly waking from their deep sleep within the dark shadows of the forest.
"Well, here we are" Kakashi casually stated and settled his hands in his pockets.
The trio gawked at their Sensei "Are you insane? We'll die in there!" Sakura screeched, grabbing her wrists to seek some security.
The boys nod their heads vigorously, agreeing with the pinkette.
"Well, you could always drop out now and quit being a ninja. Of course, you'll be dishonorably discharged and hated for being cowards...probably for the rest of your lives but I suppose that doesn't matter to you" Kakashi rumbled on whilst looking off into the distance with bored eyes.
The genin glanced at each other, feeling determined to continue even if they were massacred and looking at the scene before them, that was very possible.
"Hn, not a chance" Sasuke spoke up, speaking for his team, Kakashi concluded as he stared down at their certainty.
"Very well... In that case I wish you all the best of luck" He remarked before holding up one scroll "In this scroll are three Jutsu's, it'll be up to you as a team to decide who will learn which, you cannot learn more than the one you are assigned to, plus a Jutsu the whole team will learn and I will know if you try to learn the others. After deciding, you'll all split up and stray as far away as possible from each other before learning the Jutsu's yourself" The silver-haired wolf explained.
The kids seemed as though they understood it simply enough, though felt nervous. They hadn't ever been separated before so this would be an interesting experience for all of them.
Kakashi eyed them for a minute and pulled three whistles out of his weapons pouch, throwing one to each of them. The genin looked on in confusion "Blow this if you are having too much trouble learning your Jutsu. I'll only respond once so use it wisely and if you're in trouble from the creatures residing in there, then tough luck. You're a ninja. Figure out how to survive" He stated firmly. The trio seemed rather disheartened at the news but after a small assuring smile from their Sensei, they were set on completing their task.
"You'll have a month to complete the jutsu and survive. I wish you luck" he announced, surprising the kids with the time frame before he transported the trio in a random part of the forest, leaving them to survive for the next month.
Sasuke held the scroll in his hand and looked over to his teammates, they were taking in their surroundings as he should be doing.
Darkness filtered their eyesight anywhere they looked, bright red dotted eyes stared back at them, growls sounded from left and right.
Sakura was already shaking with fear and Naruto looked panicked, his head darting all over for any sign of attack.
Sasuke breathed out, he hadn't sensed anything out to get them or any kind of movement toward their position but still kept his guard up. Being an Uchiha had its perks, heightened senses for example.
He cleared his throat, catching the attention of his teammates and held up the scroll "Shall we?"
The three stooges promptly formed a sphere and squat down as Sasuke slowly tore open the rose-colored scroll revealing three Jutsu's and one compulsory Jutsu for all of them to learn.
The first Jutsu was a Shoshen jutsu (healing jutsu), a lighter version of an A-rank healing jutsu that used chakra to heal another individual's wounds upon touch. This would only be able to heal small cuts and bruises at this stage. Something the female member of their team had already been practicing.
The second jutsu was Magen: Kizu (Demonic Illusion: wounds), a victim would feel pain as though they had been injured as well as see the wounds associated with the pain. Though nonlife-threatening wounds would appear, the target would react as though a kunai had been lodged into their leg if the user made the illusion.
The third Jutsu was Mizu Tama (Aqua bullet), when using this attack, a small form of water is gathered in the user's mouth, being actual water or saliva, and is hardened and charged with chakra and then shot at incredibly high speeds towards the enemy. This jutsu is difficult for an enemy to see as the bullet is extremely small and semi-transparent.
The last and compulsory jutsu was the famous E-ranked Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Jutsu), this Jutsu allowed its user to switch places with an object. A simple academy jutsu that hadn't been taught to any of the genin's generation for some odd reason, Kakashi had found.
The trio stared over their options, they had to choose one jutsu for each person, the question is, who will learn what?
"Well I think it's obvious, I'll learn the medical jutsu. I already know some of it anyway" Sakura announced, she had been the one reading medical books all this time after all.
"Agreed" The boys sighed in relief, they had no clue about that kind of stuff and was grateful Sakura was their team's support and healer.
"Alright, I'll learn the genjutsu since my clan specializes in it." Sasuke stated, not leaving any room for discussion, though not that Naruto would want to learn genjutsu, it seemed like far too much effort.
"Okay, that leaves the Mizu Tama for me, it's not really in any of my specialties but it's better than the two you guys are learning" Naruto chuckled and beamed at his teammates, eager to start their training. The other two rolled their eyes at their knuckleheaded teammate.
"Alright before we split up, let's learn this team jutsu first, the instructions are written underneath so let's begin" Sasuke ordered, taking the role of team leader for now.
The group stood and parted to different areas so they could cut up logs and lay them on their temporary training ground.
They looked at the hand signs, Sakura and Sasuke memorizing it instantly before showing Naruto the correct hand signs, it took him a few tries but eventually, the knucklehead ninja had the hand signs down.
The team decided because Sakura had the best chakra control, she'd try the Jutsu first though the boys were concerned for her safety.
Sakura focused her chakra and performed the hand signs before a puff of smoke blasted outwards, her body disappearing as a moss filled log replaced it. The boys, frantically, looked around for their female friend "Oi!" A voice called from a few meters behind them. They turned to find their comrade standing straight in perfect condition.
This alone gave Sasuke and mostly Naruto the courage they needed to perform the mundane task. Though Sasuke felt slightly embarrassed as he let a girl go first because he hadn't been sure of himself but Kakashi Sensei had told him to be happy for his teammate's success so he put aside his petty jealousy and focused on his turn to perform the jutsu.
Sasuke made the hands signs, perfectly copying Sakura's and disappeared in a wave of smoke, leaving behind a large cut up log and appearing on the sidelines of his teammates. It had been a strange out of world experience when he felt the ground underneath his feet change and the wind pick up slightly but the feeling felt good as he acknowledged his accomplishment along with his teammate's cheers for him.
Naruto felt extremely excited seeing his friends success and knew for sure he could do it too.
Alas, it seemed the poor boy hadn't really paid attention to how much chakra needed to go into the small Jutsu.
The blonde performed the correct hand signs but his teammates could feel he'd delivered too much chakra and before Sakura and Sasuke could call out his name, yelling at him to stop. He vanished, leaving a screen of smoke and a dried up old log in his trail.
No sound, no movement and no sign of their friend were anywhere to be found.
Sasuke stiffened waiting for the knucklehead to pounce out whilst Sakura frantically searched high and low for the boy.
"Naruto?!" Sasuke called out, only receiving silence in return. Sakura looked worryingly over to Sasuke as he gave a concerned glance in return.
All of a sudden a distant sound came from the front of the two.
The sound became louder and louder, nearing them at a fast pace.
Sasuke stretched his senses out for danger, and dangerous it was.
Loud thumps smacked against the dirt patched ground, once distant but now clear and loud roars echoing throughout their ears. Roars weren't the only sound they could hear though, disoriented wailing and shrieking could be heard far louder than that of the roars.
That was when Sasuke and Sakura knew they had found their teammate, or rather, he had found them... Along with a beast of the forest.
Naruto was before his teammates one minute and the next, he was standing in the den of a bear cave. The boy instantly panicked and tried sneaking his way out but sadly, he was far too noisy and woke the hungry beast from its sleep.
The beast immediately gave chase after the blonde. Naruto yelped and dashed out of the cave, running in a random direction but luckily his gut was leading him to his teammates when he saw glimpses of them through the thorny bushes.
Sasuke was quick to react and threw lines of thread across the area in front of them, careful not to let any cross the path of his clumsy friend.
Sakura pulled out a few kunai and threw it in front of the large brown haired bear interrupting its sharp-toothed jaw from slamming down on her teammate.
The bear slowed its pace slightly but came to a complete halt as he lost sight of his prey and instead was surrounded by swarms of wires.
Sasuke smirked as it sniffed a line before he used Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu on the strings, lighting the rest of the lines and engulfing the surrounding area of the bear in fire, sending it into panic mode.
The blonde haired boy, who had been hiding in a nearby bush, saw the chance of attack and dashed forward, kunai in hand as he slid under the beast to its belly. The beast had been far too distracted by the fire to realize the ninja underneath him, only when a sharp gashing pain filled the monster, did it look down to see the genin's kunai lodged deep within its stomach, the boy still holding onto it as he tried stretching it up to kill the beast. Sakura was quick to divert its attention back to her as she swooped in and landed a hard kick to the Bears head, snapping it to the side and gaining its attention for a second before it sought out the cause of its pain in the belly once again. Looking down, the boy was gone and Sakura had landed yet another blow to his snout.
The bear roared loudly, slashing with its giant claws at anything, only grasping wires in its paws unfortunately as Sakura had already jumped away long before.
Sasuke took the opening and plunged a kunai deep into its hard massive skull, killing the best instantly.
The bear collapsed onto the ground, blood spilling freely from underneath it as Naruto and Sakura came to stand beside the young Uchiha.
"So I might need a bit of practice on that technique then?" Naruto sheepishly chuckled to his teammates, who in turn glowered at him and dragged him away from the dead corpse, spending the next hour teaching him the correct amount of chakra to use.