Minato wakes early the next day, quite aware of the importance of the day's events. Also, if what he remembers about Kakashi is correct, he'll need to be there no later than the given time.
In fact, he'll need to be early.
He dresses in his standard ANBU uniform, black tight-fit pants, a black tight-fit shirt, chest, forearm, and shin guards, and his fox mask, and left for the training grounds.
Upon arrival, he sees the young Uchiha, alone, resting against the bark of a tree. He shunsins into the branches above him.
If he recalls correctly, the young man said something about reviving his clan and killing a certain someone. Had something happened to the Uchiha?
His thoughts were cut off when he notices the pink-haired kunoichi walk into the clearing. She smiles at the young Uchiha, but gains none of his attention or concern as he promptly ignores her.
Minato frowns somewhat at the exchange, disappointed in the Uchiha boy's manners. His attention is diverted once again as a loud voice sounds out. "Hey guys!" He sees Naruto run into the clearing.
The Uchiha sighs, and a growing irk mark can be seen on the pinkette's forehead. Why are they so displeased with my son? Minato knew Naruto was loud and obnoxious, but he was a nice kid; he meant well.
"You're late, Naruto." The pinkette scolds. Naruto rubs his neck bashfully. "Heh heh, sorry about that. I kinda slept through my alarm, and lost track of time looking for Kī-san. By the way, have either of you seen him?"
Minato feels guilty after Naruto asks the question. He had wanted to wake his son, but he wasn't exactly his "father" right now, and he couldn't afford to wait for his son to get ready because as an ANBU operative, you have to be punctual.
Speaking of punctuality. . .
Where is Kakashi?
- - - - -
Naruto huffs in annoyance at their sensei's tardiness. It's bad enough Kī left him hanging this morning and never showed up, and now he has to deal with his two annoyances alone with no interesting objective.
A poof is heard, and Naruto sees Kakashi standing before them. He isn't sure if his mind is playing tricks on him from all the blood that rushed to his head, or if Kakashi has finally shown up.
Sasuke stands from his spot at the base of the tree, Sakura following after him. Naruto removes his knees from the branch he hung on, and flips over, landing firmly on the ground.
He walks over to their sensei as Kakashi explains why he arrived so late. Just as Kakashi's excuse is done, the blurry figure of a person appears next to Kakashi and focuses to show Kī, their co-captain.
"Oi, I gotta bone to pick with you!" Naruto shouts as he points an accusing finger at Kī.
"That can wait until later, Naruto," Kakashi intervenes, attempting to avoid wasting anymore time and save Kī from an unnecessary earful, "right now, the three of you will focus on grabbing one of these."
Kakashi holds up two golden bells, each attached to a velvet string. "Take one of these from me by lunch, and you're a Genin. Fail to do so, and you go back to the Academy; plain and simple."
Naruto and Sasuke both stared hard at the bells, determined to become a shinobi, no matter what.
"Um, sensei," Sakura starts, noticing something, "there are only two bells and three of us." Kakashi nods to Sakura's assessment. "Indeed there are, Sakura. This is so one of you will fail inevitably."
The three Academy graduates gulp collectively as they realize the gravity of the situation.
Kakashi takes a few steps back. "Now," he tosses a bell to Kī, "you can fight me, or Kī here- it really doesn't matter. The first two of you to capture a bell before lunch become Genin. When I say start, we start. Ready?"
Naruto pulls out a kunai and charges at Kakashi, attempting to catch the Jōnin off guard. Kakashi stops Naruto easily, one of his hands grabbing the hand with the kunai in its grasp and twisting it behind Naruto's back, and the other atop Naruto's head.
The golden bell now at his hip, Kakashi gives Naruto a light glare. He shoves Naruto away with a firm foot to his butt. "I didn't say start."
Naruto glares back at Kakashi before getting into a battle stance. Kakashi gives one last glance to Kī before nodding in content. "Start."
All three Genin shunshin away and Kī does the same.
Naruto glares at Kakashi from afar, atop the branches of a tree. He then assesses the area and sees Sasuke on the far left side of the clearing, hidden behind some bushes. Sakura is hidden behind the trunk of a free to the far right of the field.
Naruto eyes Kakashi who stands in the middle of the field (reading a book, too). He notices Kī is not beside Kakashi anymore, and he's curious as to where Kī might be.
Naruto shrugs it off, focusing on his sensei with horrible punctuality. He throws some shuriken and watches as Kakashi lifts his free hand to catch them. Each of the shuriken slide into the spaces between his fingers.
He pockets Naruto's shuriken and continues to read his book. Naruto grumbles in frustration. That's it; no more screwing around.
Naruto, taking advantage of Kakashi's averted gaze, flings a kunai towards Kakashi's head. As expected, the seasoned Jōnin simply dodges the kunai with his eyes never leaving the pages of his book.
Naruto chuckles quietly to himself as his 'kunai' poofs and reveals its true form: a shadow clone. His shadow clone throws a barrage of shuriken at Kakashi and his sensei immediately takes evasive action.
Kakashi takes his eyes from his paper as he dodges Naruto's attack. He grabs the final shuriken and throws it at Naruto's shadow clone, making it poof away.
Kakashi turns back to his book only to see a tear in the bottom left corner of the left page. Huh. A soft wind passes by and conveniently flips his page for him.
With a final glance at the surrounding area, Kakashi deems Naruto defeated, and does not hesitate to continue reading his book.
- - - - -
Just a few meters away, Naruto snickers to himself quietly as he watches a clueless Kakashi with a bell in his hand. Baka.
- - - - -
Minato has to admit that Sasuke Uchiha is exactly what he had expected. A very talented young man with an unstoppable drive to be the best and achieve his dream, just like his son.
The only problem is that Sasuke is too much like what he had expected. The boy wants more than a dream, he wants blood, and he'll stop at nothing to get it.
Minato sighs as he watches the already chakra depleted Sasuke shakily stand up, dead set on retrieving the bell. At his struggle, Minato feel a twinge of guilt.
Maybe he was too hard on him?
The saddest part is that Sasuke doesn't understand-- in any way shape or form-- the true meaning of the test.
None of them do.
Sasuke weakly throws a few shuriken at him, and it takes little effort to evade them. He sighs again. "Sasuke. I advise retreating and regrouping with your teammates."
Sasuke glares at Minato, clearly offended and pissed off. "Your job is to fight me, not give me useless advice. Besides, regrouping with them would be a waste of my time." Minato blanches at his response.
When Sasuke charges at him, Minato avoids the punch aimed for his head and quickly uses two fingers to jab Sasuke's pressure point at the base of the neck.
A disgruntled cry escapes Sasuke's throat before he falls to the ground unconscious.
Minato lugs the boy over his shoulder and sighs another sigh, more lethargic this time. "You're nothing like Obito."
He shunshins to Kakashi's location. Kakashi says nothing, simply gives him a curious look and goes back to reading. Minato desposits Sasuke's body onto the ground.
"What is Sakura-san's condition?" he asks monotonously. "I left her in a genjutsu last. Naruto is the only one left, and quite surprisingly I might add."
Minato brushes off the indirect insult towards his son and nods his head in understanding. "I will observe." he said, shunshining into the trees.
- - - - -
Ring. Ring. Ring.
The timer Kakashi had set before introducing them to the exam goes off. Naruto and Sakura appear in the middle of the clearing where Kakashi and Ki are waiting for them.
Sasuke is nowhere to be seen, which confuses the blond and pinkette. Kakashi notices their wandering eyes and questioning stares. He beckons them forward with the movement of his hand.
"Follow me."
The duo followed Kakashi over to a stone platform with three large, thick poles about their height and used for target practice sticking up and out of the ground in front of it.
A bento sits atop each pole, and to Naruto and Sakura's great surprise, Sasuke is bound with rope to the pole in the middle.
"So, none of you managed to retrieve one of the bells-"
"We did, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaims indignantly, holding up his bell with Sakura doing the same beside him. Kakashi deflates. "How. . ?"
"With teamwork, dattebayo! I released Sakura from her genjutsu and we worked together to get the bells!" Naruto explains with pride.
Sakura flushes lightly as her happy smile falters a little. "N-Naruto did most of the work. . ." she mumbles shyly.
Kakashi, utterly confused about how they managed to get the bells, sighs in defeat and carries on. "Alright then, Naruto and Sakura: you pass," the genin jump with joy.
"however, Sasuke has failed." Sasuke, now awake, looks away from his team and glares at the ground in frustration. Sakura seems sad and Naruto rubs the back of his neck awkwardly.
"But, since I'm feeling nice today, and Naruto and Sakura passed, I'll give you another shot, Sasuke." Sakura cheers and Naruto smiles.
"Really?" Sasuke asks, unbelieving. "Yes, the only catch is that you're not allowed to eat lunch. Naruto and Sakura on the other hand, may eat as much as they please-- even from the bento that was meant for you."
Naruto cheers this time, his stomach already grumbling, amd reaches for the bento atop the pole on the far left. Sakura retrives the bento atop the pole on the far right.
"Naruto, Sakura, try to leave as little food as possible. Sasuke will eat whatever is left if he passes, and if there's nothing left, great job!" Kakashi says with a thumbs up and a closed-eye smile.
Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke-- even Minato-- sweatdrop at Kakashi's brutality. "One more thing: Naruto and Sakura, if you help Sasuke during his test, you all fail."
Naruto is too busy eating his food to care about Kakashi's warning. Sakura, though, looks a bit nervous. Sasuke just continues to glare at the ground.
Ki shunshins away and Kakashi remains. Without warning, Kakashi launches a kunai towards Sasuke's head. Sasuke moves his head to the side just in time to avoid getting impaled.
Naruto watches with interest and Sakura watches with fear as Kakashi continues his barrage of attacks, throwing several shuriken and kunai towards Sasuke's head and legs.
Sasuke grabs the kunai embedded in the pole behind him and beside his head with his teeth. He drops it into his right hand and flicks it into the air. The kunai stops Kakashi's next wave of shuriken.
Kakashi never relents though, and Sasuke is faces with a challenge. He can't figure out how to get out of the ropes. . .
"Just say the word, Sasuke, and I'll do it." Naruto says knowingly. Sasuke scowls at what Naruto is implying. His inner protests, however, die as Kakashi lands several more blows to his legs and a kunai in his left arm. He grunts.
"Do it." he says with gritted teeth. Naruto flashes him a light smirk before slinging one of his own kunai towards the ropes that restrict Sasuke. The kunai whipped past the ropes, but nothing happens.
"You baka, yo-" suddenly the ropes split into two and fall to his sides. Sasuke leaps out of the way to evade another attack by Kakashi, a small fire jutsu.
He turns to look at Naruto, who has a serious expression. "I never miss." he says gruffly. Sasuke hears a sharp clshing by his ear and realizes Naruto deflected one of Kakashi's attacks for him.
He scowls. "Thanks." He turns towards Kakashi, removing the kunai from his arm and raising it defensively. "Come at me." Kakashi charges Sasuke and attempts a punch.
Surprisingly, Sakura appears before Sasuke and blocks the hit. Sasuke uses Kakashi's surprise to land a kick to his stomach. Kakashi poofs away and disappears.
The three fresh Genin stand back to back in a triangle, surveying the area for any signs of Kakashi. Out of nowhere, another kunai makes its way towards the students. "Scatter!" Natuto commands as the kunai embeds itself into the ground.
Sasuke's retaliation at taking orders from Naruto is immediately forgotten once he sees the bomb tag attached to the kunai. The tag explodes, and each student disappears into the trees.
Dammit. They're splitting us up. Naruto concludes after finding cover. I need to find Sakura first. He sets off towards her light chakra signature. He finds her behind some bushes.
"Hey, Sakura. We need to find Sasuke and regroup." Unexpectedly, Sakura nods with compliance and follows his lead. They zoom from branch to branch within the forestry around the clearing.
A few meters away, they hear the sound of metal clashing with metal. Naruto picks up speed. When they arrive at the scene, Sasuke is looking rather worn out and Ki stands before him, poised with a kunai in hand.
"Naruto, Sakura, you guys stay out of this!" Sasuke yells, breathing heavily. Naruto finally blows a fuse. "You baka! It's okay to get help from your teammates sometimes, that's what they're for! Just let us help you!" he shouts in frustration.
"Tch." Sasuke dodges another attack by Ki. He attempts to kick Ki in the face, but Ki grabs his ankle and holds it. Sasuke then goes for a punch to the gut, but Ki grabs his fist.
As a final attempt, Sasuke takes three kunai in the knuckles of his free hand and lauches them towards his captor. Ki releases Sasuke and jumps back to avoid the kunai. Sasuke falls on his back and wheezes from exhaustion.
"You'll die, teme!"
Those words seem to strike a chord within the Uchiha, because his eyes squeeze shut in frustration. "Tch." He appears beside Naruto and Sakura, sweating and still breathing heavily.
He steadies his breathing some. "Let's do this, Naruto, Sakura!" Sasuke shouts as he makes a beeline for Ki. He dodges the projectiles sent his way and launches several kunai of his own.
While Ki focuses on stopping the oncoming attack, Sakura appears behind him and sweeps his feet from under him. Naruto slings a shuriken into cloth of Ki's clothing, affectively trapping him against the tree behind him for the moment.
Ki removes the shuriken. He tries to move, but he can't. Looking closely at his chest, he can see a thin line glint in the sunlight. Chakra wire.
"Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu!"
Flames are released from Sasuke's mouth as he holds the ends of the wire to it. The flames travel down the wire and wrap around the trapped Ki. Ki poofs away just as the flames come in contact with his skin.
Sasuke sighs in relief. He slumps over and kneels down on one knee, completely exhausted and very hungry. Naruto comes over and helps him up, putting one of Sasuke's arms over his shoulder and holding him up with his free arm.
The three genin move to the open expanse of the clearing to give Sasuke some time to breath. Kakashi and Ki appear suddenly, and Sakura and Naruto pull out their kunai, Sakura standing defensively in front of the boys.
"You!!!" Kakashi exclaims, his face intimidatingly close to theirs, lightning seems to flash in the background, emphasizing their doom, "passed." A sweatdrop from Ki, and three very confused looks leads him to explain.
"Sasuke, the point of this exercise was not to defeat one of us, or to get a bell, it was teamwork, and from the beginning, Naruto and Sakura did a good job of achieving that.
"Even though I told Naruto and Sakura not to help you, Sasuke, they did despite the consequences, and that is an exemplary quality in a teammate.
"You passed because, even though you didn't want to, you put your differences with your teammates aside and approached the problem with them.
"Congradulations to all of you, now if you would please come with me." Kakashi begins walking down a trodden dirt road hidden within the shrubbery.
Sasuke, now breathing normally, releases himself from Naruto's support and begins to follow, but not before retrieving his bento.
When he arrived at the pole he was previously bound to, the space on it's top is empty. He turns to glare at Naruto.
"Oh, yeah," Naruto rubs the back of his neck sheepishly and chuckles lightly, "I may have sorta taken the oppurtunity to eat your lunch."
"Tch. Dobe, learn how to control your apetite."
"Hey! I'm a growing boy!"
"So am I."
"But I'm growing more!"
"I'm taller than you."
"What!?!"
Their argument continues that way, all the way into the forest and even when they catch up with Kakashi. Sakura follows meekly behind.
- - - - -
Minato wasn't expecting Kakashi to bring them here. He hadn't expected anything his student had presented so far, actually. This Kakashi is completely different from the Kakashi he knew.
What happened?
In any case, it must've been huge, because Kakashi used to swear he would never be this way.
"Do you know what this place is?" Kakashi asks his new students. Sakura's voice comes first. "This is the KIA stone; a memorial. It's for shinobi who died in battle."
"That's right." Kakashi says. It's silent for a brief moment, and Minato suspects he knows what Kakashi will say next. "My friend's names are on here. They were my teammates."
The air around the genin and their sensei grows a little heavy, and the students know to stay quiet. They wait for Kakashi to continue talking. "Their deaths were my fault. I wasn't a good team player, and that's what came of that."
Kakashi never takes his eyes from the stone. "That's why your exam was designed the way it was. I won't have a team that won't work like one."
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura let the information sink in. Minato was busy fighting his emotions. He is happy Kakashi learned something, but. . the memory. . .
Kakashi turns back to his team. "Be sure to keep that in mind." Each of the kids, even Minato, stay deathly quiet, afraid to disturb the serious silence.
"Well, that's all for today! Meet me at the bridge tomorrow around eight, we'll begin training then. Ja ne!" Kakashi says joyfully before walking off into the foliage surrounding the area and disappearing from sight.
The rest of the team sweatdrops at his exit.
"Alright guys!" Naruto cheers, holding the hitai-ate wrapped around his forehead between his thumb and forefinger, "we're officially ninja!"
A huge, blinding grin is set on his face and he's smiling so brightly, the other members of the team can't help but smile with him.
That's my son.