Sakura's Delicious Box

Ten minutes later, Sakura, her clone, Naruto and Sasuke had gathered in front of the three tree trunks where the test had first begun. Sakura noticed that Naruto wasn't tied to the trunk; her clone had likely warned him against cheating and eating his lunch in advance.

There was a small poof of smoke, and Kakashi appeared on top of the middle tree trunk.

"All of you fail, except for Sakura," said Kakashi flatly. "Frankly, none of you are fit to be shinobi, but Naruto and Sasuke? The two of you were especially atrocious."

Eh? It shouldn't be like this, right? Why was she the only one passing? What was Kakashi playing at?

"Huh!?" Naruto shouted. "How's that fair? She didn't get a bell either, didn't she?"

"Whether she'd figured it out or not," Kakashi explained, "Sakura is the only one of you who got the true meaning of the test. Naruto, Sasuke, are you two looking down on what it means to be a ninja? You went off on your own, even though you had a team to back you up! You are a team, so you've got to use teamwork, and really, Sakura's the only one who even tried."

Kakashi shrugged.

"Having individual strength is all well and good, but had all three of you combined your strengths, you might have won a bell from me!"

Having said his piece, Kakashi scooped up their bento boxes, and handed Sakura's back to her.

"I'm going to help myself to your lunches," he said nonchalantly. "Sakura, you're the only one who gets to keep your lunch, but I forbid you from sharing your food with Naruto and Sasuke. Now, I'll be back in half an hour after lunch break, and when I do, I'll be giving these two idiots one last chance to beat the test."

Kakashi then glared at Sakura, and a shiver ran down her spine.

"And if I find out you've given them even a single bite of food, bear in mind that you will be immediately disqualified and sent back to the academy," Kakashi said harshly. "Am I understood?"

"Y-yes!"

"Good, then I'm off to enjoy this."

And upon saying these words, he flickered away, leaving Sakura alone with her thoughts and the grumbling of Naruto's and Sasuke's stomachs. Sakura opened her bento box's lid and started eating her extra-extra-spicy curry, but after taking a few bites, she handed the container to Naruto.

"Eh?" said Naruto, who'd been watering at the mouth watching her eat. "Sakura-chan's homemade bento? Is… is this really for me? But you've already passed your test! Kakashi-sensei said he'd fail you if you shared your lunch with us, didn't he!?"

Naruto was torn between enjoying the dish that his beloved Sakura-chan had lovingly prepared, and getting her expelled from the team.

"I'm not sharing this with you, I'm giving this to the both of you," Sakura corrected him. "You know, I rather like this team, so I'd like you all to pass with me. You're going to need your strength in order to beat Kakashi's test, won't you?"

Naruto was so overcome with emotions that he began crying hot tears while eating…

…Tears of pain, that is.

"HOT!" he screamed. "What the hell did you put in this, Sakura-chan? This is way too spicy!"

Naruto was beginning to have second doubts about his future plans of marrying Sakura. In the future, would Sakura-chan force him to eat this kind of hellish curry every single day of his life? Maybe if it was spicy ramen instead of spicy curry, he would find a way to stomach it, but still…

Naruto passed Sakura's bento box to Sasuke, who accepted it without complaint.

"You have some, you're no use to me dying of hunger!" Naruto gasped. "Just take it, I beg you!"

He desperately blew air in a futile attempt to cool his lips, which were beginning to glow radioactive red. Naruto was obviously trying to come up with reasons to avoid finishing Sakura's death curry, but Sasuke still accepted the food; it was true that he needed to eat in order to recover his strength… and then his face immediately turned scarlet after taking a single bite.

Now, all Sakura had to do was prepare her heart for Kakashi's big show—

"SAKURA!"

Argh! Her heart wasn't ready yet!

With a deafening poof, Kakashi appeared out of nowhere in front of her, and she promptly forgot her pre-prepared speech about comradery and friendship. Kakashi was much less intimidating in the show, damn it! She wasn't scared at all!

"Diet!" Sakura managed to blurt out. "I'm on a diet! I wasn't hungry any more, so if I leave my lunch unattended, it really isn't my responsibility if something happens to it, right? You never said those two couldn't go out to look for food on their own, right!?"

"We're a team, just like you said, Kakashi-sensei," said Sasuke, who had understood the lesson. "Whether it's fighting or eating, we do it as one."

"That's right!" Naruto chimed in. "If you've gotta fail Sakura, you've gotta fail us all!"

"In that case…" Kakashi began.

Sakura held her breath.

"…you all pass!"

Sakura let out a sigh of relief.

"There were only two bells, despite there being three of you, which made you believe you were being pitted against each other. You see, from the very beginning, this test was designed to test whether or not you'd be able to put your differences aside in order to work together," Kakashi explained. "However, a good shinobi always knows how to read between the lines. So, you might have disobeyed my orders, but you did it as a team; though it did take you some time to get there..."

Sakura offered a silent thank you to the White Fang of Konoha's sacrifice, thanks to which they had passed an easy exam… relatively speaking. Sakumo would rest in peace when Orochimaru would kill the Third Hokage, and when Sasuke would kill Danzō… if she couldn't stop Sasuke from defecting.

"Those who break the rules and fail to follow orders are lower than rubbish," said Kakashi wisely. "But those who abandon their comrades are even lower than that, so…"

Kakashi gave them a thumbs up.

"I declare this exam over!" Kakashi exclaimed. "You've passed the test!"

Kakashi's thumb appeared gigantic in Sakura's field of view; he had thrust it right in her face, two centimetres away from her nose. Sakura crossed her eyes to focus her vision on it; she could see all of its whorls from her point of view…

"Well, that's it for today," Kakashi said, returning to his usual bored tone. "Team Seven, your official duties begin tomorrow."

"Shannaro!" Sakura cheered.

'Shannaro!' Inner Sakura shouted.

"Shannaro!" Sakura's clone cheered.

Naruto remained frozen for a moment, as the meaning of Kakashi's words slowly sunk into his brain.

"I… I did it? I did it!" Naruto exclaimed. "Of course I did it! I'm a ninja! Ninja! N-I-N-J-A, ninjaaaa!"

"Heh," Sasuke simply said, a vague smile on his lips, as if he had never doubted for a single second that he would pass.

--------------------------------------

After a fruitful trip to the bath house, Sakura returned home for dinner, and she recounted the day's events to her parents.

"Well done, Sakura!" her mother, Mebuki, told her happily once she was done listening to the story. "I knew you could do it! You know, your Kakashi-sensei came to visit with the Lord Hokage while you were at the academy yesterday morning; I just know he'll take great care of you!"

"That's right, he's one of the best, I hear!" said her father proudly. "He must have recognized your talent!"

Sakura had finally managed to find out that her father's name was Kizashi after looking through his wallet, which she had found in a discarded pair of pants abandoned on the sofa.

"Ha, ha…" Sakura laughed awkwardly.

If Kakashi dared to call her a Genjutsu-type in training later on, then proceeded to not teach her anything of worth at all, she would sock him hard in the Sharingan! She had already mastered Genjutsu Dispelling by herself, so he had better teach her useful, or else!