"Hmm..." Naruto frowned as he leaned out through the open doorway of their classroom, looking for any signs of life.
"Naruto, stay still!!" Sakura scolded him. His fidgeting was starting to get on her nerves.
"But, why is the sensei of our Team 7... so damn late!!?" he asked impatiently. "All the other teams have gone off with their teachers. And Iruka-sensei also left..."
"How am I supposed to know?" Sakura said, crossing her arms.
"I wonder if he got assigned to a last minute mission, and they forgot to tell Iruka-sensei?" April mused aloud. "Or maybe..."
"Maybe?" Naruto asked.
"Maybe this is some sort of psychological test," she said with a serious gleam in her eye.
"Huh?" Sakura said as she and Naruto gave her almost identical looks of confusion and doubt.
"Just hear me out. One of my uncle's acquaintances was a professor of psychology, and something he used to do on the first day of class was to purposefully wait to see what the students would do if he didn't show up on time. That way, he would know right away who was serious and who wasn't by who was still left when he came in. And shinobi are supposed to endure, right? Maybe our sensei wants to see how well we endure being kept waiting," April explained.
"Aren't you just overthinking it?" Sakura said skeptically.
"No, that would make sense," Sasuke said thoughtfully. April was smarter than she looked. "He could be doing this on purpose."
"Sasuke-kun, you're so smart!" Sakura gushed.
'But it was my idea...' April thought, a little annoyed. "Ah, hey, Naruto... what are you doing?" she asked when she noticed that he was doing something he probably shouldn't.
"Hehehe!" Naruto laughed with a mischievous grin on his face as he rigged the door so that a dirty chalkboard eraser would fall on the next person who tried to enter. "That's what you get for being late!" he said, hopping off of the stool he had pulled over to give himself a boost.
"Hey, were you even listening just now?" April asked him, sweat-dropping. She said this could be some kind of test, and that was his reaction?
"Geez, it's your own fault if you get in trouble," Sakura told him, putting her hands on her hips. 'I actually like these types of things!!' Inner Sakura said excitedly.
"Hmph. A jōnin isn't going to fall for such a simple booby trap," Sasuke said coolly.
"I'm gonna have to agree with Sasuke on this one," April said frankly. There's no way someone qualified enough to take on A-rank missions was going to fall for that. Just as she finished speaking, a gloved hand reached in to slide the door open. The hand paused for a fraction of a second before opening it the rest of the way as the same silver-haired ninja, who was wearing a cloth mask covering the lower half of his face, that she had seen with the Hokage that morning poked his head in through the opening.
PLOP.
"!" he said, sweat-dropping when the eraser hit him square on the head, powdering his hair with a pouf of white chalk dust.
'No way...' April thought as she stared at him, stunned. Did he just...?
"Gyahahaha!!!" Naruto laughed loudly. Success!! "You fell for it!!!"
"I'm so sorry, Sensei," Sakura said, acting timid, "I tried to stop him, but Naruto-kun..." 'Okay!!' Inner Sakura cheered, giving two thumbs up. It was even better than she had imagined!
"I thought you would dodge..." April said. What a way to make a first impression on the guy who would basically be controlling their future from now on...
'... This is really a jōnin? He doesn't seem very reliable...' Sasuke thought dubiously.
"Hmm... How can I say this...?" their new sensei said thoughtfully with a smile as he held his chin. "My first impression is... I don't like you guys!!" he finished rather bluntly.
"..." they all stared at him, sweat-dropping, as they were filled with a sense of doom. Well, yeah... anyone would probably say that after what just happened, but it didn't inspire much confidence in the future...
"Okay, let's begin with some introductions," their new sensei said after a change of venue.
"What do you want to know?" Sakura asked.
"How about... your likes, dislikes... dreams for the future, hobbies. Stuff like that," he suggested nonchalantly with a shrug.
"Hey, hey, why don't you introduce yourself to us first!?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah, you look suspicious..." Sakura agreed.
'You didn't have to say that out loud, Sakura-chan...' April thought, sweat-dropping.
"Oh, me? I'm Kakashi Hatake," he replied easily. "I have no desire to tell you guys about my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future...? Hmm... Well, I have lots of hobbies."
"So, all we learned... is his name?" Sakura asked her teammates, chagrined.
"Yeah," Naruto said, sweat-dropping.
"Well, at least we know what to call him now..." April said, trying to look on the bright side.
"Now it's your turn, starting from the right," Kakashi told them.
"Me!! Me!! My name is Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto said excitedly, playing with his forehead protector. "I like cup ramen!! What I like even more is the Ichiraku Ramen Iruka-sensei buys me. What I dislike is having to wait three minutes for the cup ramen to cook."
'Does he think about anything besides ramen?' Kakashi wondered.
"My dream... is to surpass the Hokage!!! And then, have all the people in this village acknowledge my existence!!" Naruto declared proudly. April smiled. Kakashi's eyes widened slightly for a moment.
'He's grown in an interesting way...' he thought.
"Hobbies... pranks I guess," Naruto finished.
'I see...' Kakashi thought, running a hand through his hair. No wonder... "Next."
"I'm April Starr," April said with a pleasant smile. "I like lots of things, but I guess I'll go with sweets, manga, games, and the smell after rain. My dislikes are when the ice in a drink attacks my face all at once, and when people make fun of my name."
'When the ice 'attacks her face'?' Kakashi thought, sweat-dropping. That was an interesting way of putting it...
"Huh? Why would people make fun of your name?" Naruto asked, furrowing his brow.
"Because my name is 'April', but I was born in February," she explained. "You see, my mom thought she was something of a poet. April means 'to open', as in the blooming flowers of spring, right? And my family name 'Starr' literally means 'star'. So the rough meaning of my name is 'opening/blooming star'. My parents put a lot of thought into my name, so it pisses me off when people make fun of it, because it feels like they're making fun of them, too."
"Oh..." Naruto said, not really sure what else to say. That was a lot deeper than he had been expecting. "I like your name."
"Thanks!" she said brightly. "I do, too. Hmm... as for my dream for the future... to keep improving and getting stronger without compromising myself, and to be happy, I guess. My hobbies are... listening to music, singing, dancing, cooking, playing games, reading, practicing ninja skills, and collecting free prizes from snacks and special promotions."
'Hmm... This one is also pretty interesting,' Kakashi thought. 'She seems pretty happy-go-lucky, but she's actually rather mature and responsible for her age.' "Next."
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha," Sasuke introduced himself coolly. "There are tons of things I dislike, but I don't really like anything. And... I don't want to use the word 'dream', but... I have an ambition," he stated gravely with a dark and dangerous look in his eyes. "The resurrection of my clan and... to kill a certain man." A moment of absolute silence followed his heavy words as the others all stared at him.
'Dude...' April thought, sweat-dropping. Talk about intense...
'He better not mean me...' Naruto thought, sweating nervously.
'Cool~!' Sakura thought, blushing slightly, while she stared at him in awe.
'... As I thought...' Kakashi thought seriously, furrowing his brow slightly. "Okay... and lastly..." he said aloud, glancing at Sakura.
"I'm Sakura Haruno," she introduced herself with a smile. "The thing I like is... Well the person I like is... Umm... should I say my dream for the future...?" she said, blushing as she kept glancing at Sasuke. "Kya!!" she squealed at the thought of being Sasuke's bride.
"..." Kakashi and April sweat-dropped.
"The thing I dislike... is Naruto," Sakura stated adamantly, causing poor Naruto to flinch in shock. "My hobby is..." she said, glancing at Sasuke again with a dreamy expression on her face.
'Stalking...?' April thought, sweat-dropping. She wouldn't be surprised if it really was.
'That's right... girls around her age are more interested in love than ninjutsu...' Kakashi thought with an internal sigh, glancing between Sakura and April. Was it the difference of two years? No, probably not. After all, April wasn't exactly a normal girl. The Hokage had said she was a little different. "Okay! That's enough of that," he said. "We will start our duties tomorrow."
"Yay!! Duties!! Duties!! What kinds of duties!!?" Naruto asked excitedly.
"First we are going to do something with just the five of us," Kakashi said.
"What!? What!?" Naruto asked, on the edge of his seat.
"Survival training," Kakashi answered.
"Survival training?" Naruto asked, looking disappointed.
'Is this some kind of teamwork building exercise?' April wondered. If so, that was probably a good idea, because their group's dynamic could really use some work before accepting any actual mission.
"..." Sasuke said, brooding.
"Why is our duty training?" Sakura asked. "We did enough training at the ninja academy."
"My JDK instructor used to say there was no such thing as too much training. The more you sweat during training, the less blood you lose in battle," April said sagely.
'Sounds like she had a good teacher...' Kakashi thought. He had read about the info she gave on Jeet Kune Do in her file. Although the description was just a brief summary, it had sounded like a very practical fighting style. He might have to watch out for that. "I'm your opponent, but this isn't normal training," he told them.
"?" April raised an eyebrow at that.
"Then! Then! What is it!!?" Naruto asked.
"... Heheheh," Kakashi laughed.
'I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this...' April thought, sweat-dropping.
"Hey, what's so funny, Sensei?" Sakura asked, feeling a little annoyed. Was he making fun of them?
"No, well... It's just that... when I tell you this, you guys are definitely going to flip," he said with a grin.
"Flip?" April asked. She didn't like the sound of that.
"Ha?" Naruto said skeptically. What was he talking about?
"Of the 28 graduates, only about 9 or 10 will be chosen as genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy," Kakashi stated seriously. "This training is a super difficult exam with a failure rate of over 66% percent!!" The looks on all of their faces were absolutely priceless, especially Naruto's. "Haha. See, I told you you'd flip."
"...." Sasuke, Sakura and April said, sweat-dropping.
"What the hell!!?" Naruto shouted incredulously. "But we worked so hard... then what was the point of graduating!?"
"Oh, that? That's just to select those that have the chance to become genin," Kakashi said a bit carelessly.
"Uhh... What!!?" Naruto asked.
"In other words, our 'final exam' was really just a preliminary?" April asked.
"Right," Kakashi said. "Anyway, tomorrow you'll be graded on the training field. Bring all your shinobi tools. Oh, and skip breakfast. You'll throw up."
'I can't fail here...' Naruto thought, shaking, as he swallowed a nervous lump in his throat. 'I'll have to kick Kakashi-sensei's ass and have him recognize my strength, believe it. No, no, seriously, believe it!!!'
'I'm not going to get dropped by a thing like this...!' April thought determinedly, hugging her knees when they started to tremble from nerves and excitement. 'Hit me with your best shot, Kakashi-sensei!!'
"Throw up!!?" Sakura asked, flinching in shock. "Is it that tough!?" 'But... If I fail this, I'll be separated from Sasuke-kun. This is a test of love!!!' she thought determinedly as Kakashi pulled out some paper handouts to give them.
"The details can be read on this printout," he told them, making sure they all had one. "Don't be late tomorrow."
"..." Sasuke read the handout and clenched the paper tightly in his hand.
"Ugh..." Naruto groaned as he tried to read it. There were too many kanji. April glanced between him and her own print out and raised her hand.
"Sensei, I'm not so good with Kanji. Can you explain what some of these characters mean?" she asked calmly.
'Huh? She can't even read something so simple?' Sakura thought dubiously, feeling a little superior. 'Cha! That's what you get for acting so great all the time!!' Inner Sakura said with a smirk.
"Oh, that's right. I heard the language where you're originally from is a little different," Kakashi said, nonplussed. "Alright, stay behind and Sensei will correct the kanji with something easier for you to read. The rest of you are dismissed."
'Nice one, April!' Naruto thought, shooting her a grateful look. He hadn't wanted to admit he couldn't understand it either in front of the others, but now he could just get the information from her.
That night, Naruto was absorbed in image-training with a motionless Kakashi doll.
"When he comes at me, I'll do this!" Naruto said, punching the stuffed bear that he had put his forehead protector on so that it was covering one eye, like Kakashi-sensei's. "I'll throw a punch here... But he'll kick with his right leg... Then I'll kick him in the jewels!" he shouted.
BAM!
Naruto was startled when April suddenly banged on the other side of the wall.
"It's late, Naruto! Settle down!!" she scolded him, shouting through the thin wall. "Stop image-training and get some rest, or you'll be too worn out tomorrow!!"
"Eh!? How did she know I was image training!?" he exclaimed, flinching in shock.
"Because I can hear you, dummy!!" she told him. "Now cut it out! I can't sleep with you making all that noise!! The best thing we can do to prepare for tomorrow is to make sure we're well rested so we'll have plenty of energy to fight!"
"Hmph... Well, I guess she's got a point..." Naruto said reluctantly, deciding to quit before she came over there and made him.