Strategy

"If we have any chance of surviving this survival test, it's by working together," Sakura lectured. "If separated, we'll be easy picklings!"

"He seemed strong," Sasuke agreed. The eraser hadn't landed on Kakashi's head, so none of them were underestimating him. They were more cautious than ever. "Tch, let's just go over what we can do."

"So we showoff?" Naruto deduced, and before they could stop him, he crossed his fingers. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Ten clones got in the way and Sakura punched one of them, dispelling it. "NARUTO! You dumbass!"

"Wait," Sasuke grabbed her hand before she could punch out another one, "We could use these."

She subsided. "You're right, they're better than training dummies. Naruto, you're a genius!"

"Huh? Hahahah," Naruto laughed awkwardly. "Thanks, Sakura-chan!" Even though that wasn't my intention.

"What else can you do?" Sasuke asked.

"Um..."

"He can do fuuinjutsu, and everything we learned together," she added for him. "I can do genjutsu, medical ninjutsu, and, well, I'm not really good at fighting." She slumped.

Sasuke waved her off. "That's good enough, we've already-" He trailed off and looked at her. "Hey, you're good at fighting. You've held your own in our 3-way spars."

"Oh that counts?" Sakura grinned sheepishly. "I thought we were all holding back and merely using each other as anger-release."

Naruto gulped. He really was putting his all in those skirmishes.

"Hn. None of us utilized any strategy. We were serious but we weren't taking the fights seriously. We only tried to get as many hits in."

"That won't work on Sensei," Sakura declared. "We need a plan."

Naruto nodded along. "So what can you do, Sasuke-teme?"

"The Uchiha Katon Gokakyu no Jutsu," he answered proudly, "It's about twenty meters wide."

Sakura knew that jutsu from the elders. She never attempted it but she knew how difficult it was. She was impressed.

"That's it?"

Sasuke's eye twitched. "Ninja wire, ninja weaponry, everything we've learned at the Academy, and fuuinjutsu."

"I can do that too!" Naruto exclaimed, and Sakura whopped his head.

"No, you can't, now here's the plan..." They huddled together in a triangle. "On the assumption that he's going to fight us until we die...You're going to use your shadow clones as the decoy, Sasuke will send a fireball behind our Sensei, and I will cloak genjutsu over it to make the fireball invisible."

"S-Sakura ya trying to get our sensei killed?" Naruto whispered loudly.

"That's just a possibility, and besides, you got any better ideas?"

"Hn. Officially, we've just graduated," he snorted. "Do you really think our Jounin-sensei is going to spar us to our brink-of-death? When we haven't been trained above Academy level?"

"Y-Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed. "He's jus' gonna give us a survival obstacle course to see if we really cheated at graduation!"

"I guess you're right," Sakura deferred. "But since you've already summoned them, let's practice our specialties on your shadow clones. We'll spar them and count it as our training for the day. We still have the rest of the day left since our sensei ditched us."

"YATTA!"

"Hn," his lip curled slightly into a smirk.

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"I'm testing another team this year, Obito," his head tilted down to gaze at the teal Memorial Stone. "Our sensei's son, and your little cousin."

His head tilted up, as he reached into his weapon pouch. "To be honest, I don't feel like passing them." He cracked his neck. "It's another burden to carry. But I know you wouldn't want that." He smirked underneath his mask. "You'll forgive me if the reason they fail is their lack of teamwork, right?"

He slowly pulled out an orange book, reminiscing on his words."Those who abandon their friends are worse than scum," His thoughts drifted to the only female of the team. It felt like something she would say. "She reminds me of you...and Rin." Yes, even her. "It seems all three were designed to mindfuck me," he said solemnly. It was too much.

"I feel you watching me," he whispered to no one in particular. Sometimes, on rare days, and only when he was at this particular Memorial, he felt his dead teammate's presence. It was nothing new, and he smiled when he could no longer feel it. "What was I thinking?"

Shaking his head, he pivoted, slowly walking off with his orange book in his face.

He was looking forward to tomorrow's bell test, to get it over with.

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