Team 13

Some days later, Ryo received a call to go to the ninja academy once again; the day for the team to be formed had arrived, and with that, he was already thinking about some possibilities of who his teammates would be since he didn't have many options if they were to be chosen among the classmates who graduated from the academy.

"Well, there's no point in dwelling on it too much; I'll find out soon enough," he said to himself as he appeared in front of the ninja academy after using the flickering technique to get there quickly. Looking around, Ryo saw other children in the area, but they were all still students in the early years of the academy.

Walking towards the training field, he could see two people near where they practiced taijutsu: a boy and a girl. Ryo knew that teams were usually formed with two boys and one girl, and both of them were Ryo's classmates from the academy.

"Look, Denji, it seems like the last member of our trio is Ryo; we got lucky," the girl said, only to be met with a 'humpf' from Sarutobi Denji, who looked at the girl next to him, retorting, "I can understand him being on my team, but you're not all that, Haruka!"

As always, Denji was very proud and didn't understand why he had been placed on a team like this. In the young Sarutobi's mind, he should be on a team with a Hyuga or another more prominent clan from Konoha. But in the end, his teammates were a girl without a clan, and Ryo, whom he still respected since he had been the top student in the class in almost everything in the last year.

So, Haruka and Denji resumed their heated discussion, which Ryo witnessed, not knowing exactly what to think, considering that he had to ensure that this team became eligible to participate in the Chunin Exams as soon as possible.

"Alright, guys. You can calm down. We still need to figure out who will be the leader of our team," Ryo said, sending three waves of tracking through the area. Denji and Haruka stopped arguing, looking at Ryo, genuinely curious about what he was doing.

As the waves returned to Ryo, he could perceive someone hidden behind a tree about 70 meters away from them. The person was wearing a Jonin outfit, seemingly in the posture of reading a small book in their hand. Ryo widened his eyes, thinking, "Oh no. Did Hiruzen send him to be the team leader?! Damn it, in the anime, it's said that he didn't let anyone pass until Naruto arrived."

However, this thought didn't demotivate Ryo, knowing that Kakashi was observing them. Ryo reached into his ninja pouch, dropping a smoke bomb to the ground and launching two kunais toward the tree where Kakashi was watching them. As the smoke slowly dissipated, Ryo and the other two reappeared.

But there was no one behind the tree anymore; there was a kunai embedded in the tree, and the others had gone straight towards Kakashi, who was no longer in sight. A chuckle was heard behind the three of them. "You have sharp senses, Ryo." Kakashi said as they turned to the direction of the voice, seeing Kakashi twirling a kunai on his finger, the legendary book tucked in his other hand.

Ryo remained calm, but the other two jumped back in surprise. Kakashi looked at them, analyzing all three of them from top to bottom. This would be the first team that Kakashi would lead after leaving the Anbu. Hiruzen said that this team had good potential, but Kakashi would still test them.

"Calm down. My name is Hatake Kakashi, I will be the new leader of Team 13, if you pass my test," he said calmly, looking at the three of them. "That's it, meet me here tomorrow." Tossing a paper to each of them with the location and time, he disappeared in a white cloud of smoke, leaving the two of them in shock, and Ryo.

"What?! What do you mean a test?" Denji exclaimed, throwing the paper on the ground indignantly; he didn't expect something like this. "I thought we were going to do some missions to improve teamwork or something, but a test?"

Ryo found Denji's reaction amusing but even Haruka seemed somewhat thoughtful about it. "Hatake Kakashi, he's a Jonin, if you didn't notice by his attire. All Jonins have some peculiarity; he must be no different. But we have a test tomorrow; I don't know what will happen, but you two better sort out this interaction between you; we have to pass the test and continue as a team for some time, so deal with it," Ryo said calmly, looking at the two of them.

Denji was about to speak when Haruka interjected, saying, "Yes, yes, we have to work as a team, but still, what happened just now wasn't cool." She seemed bothered by the situation but didn't comment further.

On the other hand, Denji had a strange smile on his face. "I hope it's a fight with him. Then I can show him how strong the Sarutobi combat is, and I'll beat him with my staff!" Ryo held back a laugh upon hearing this. Denji dreamed of hitting Kakashi in tomorrow's test.

Unfortunately, the boy didn't know that their team leader was someone very strong. So strong that not even the three of them together would be a match for him in a three-on-one fight that would happen tomorrow. As the heat calmed down, the three of them returned to their homes. Ryo was pensive, wondering if he could steal Kakashi's bell without using coins.

He had other means with his jutsus and techniques, but he knew he wasn't at the level of a Jonin yet, and he wasn't even close. Even with his larger chakra reserves and extra chakra, Ryo could only consider himself, based on chakra alone, a newly formed Chunin, but the difference in jutsu and real combat experiences made a huge difference.

[ Author here!

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