The true Genin Exam!

It was almost sundown by the time we left the godforsaken training ground, my chakra was at an all-time low, overuse of Sharingan and jumping around all day following tracks had been brutal for us, followed by the sudden attacks that Sensei made during the tracking had my hands feeling like jerky.

Fortunately, Asano and Kione were quick on the uptake, after the first attack they had their kunai ready to throw at a moment's notice, I also realized that there was nothing we could do at the moment against Sensei, neither of us had anything to stop the attacks altogether, Asano suggested trying her mind-body transfer but then the idea was rejected purely because she won't be able to aim at a target that fast.

I knew she was feeling a little useless but it just wasn't time to think of anything complex, after finding the second piece of shirt, even the tracks left behind by chakra hops were gone, as Kione and I searched the place for anything, it was Asano who reminded us that the Sensei never told us to gather all three pieces, but the mission objective was to get out of the forest, a.k.a hostile territory by sundown.

And as we collapsed as a heap in front of a now grinning sensei, I cursed him a little, "You used too much power in your kicks... my arms feel like jelly."

"Well of course, now before I dismiss you for the day, who can tell me what you learned from today's exercise." Suzaku Sensei asked as he too sat in front of us.

I collected myself and sat down with my legs crossed, I heard scuffling beside me so I started, "That in hostile territory, there is no 2-hour rest limit, danger could come from anywhere and at any time..." my hands could attest to that.

"We learned the proper formation our team should take, every attack you performed was when we made a mistake, the first one because we were in the wrong formation, your second attack was when we were on site of where we found the first shirt, it was to simulate an alarm because we stayed too long looking for clues, your rest of attacks were because we were going too fast in enemy territory, revealing our tracks..." Kione spoke, his voice sounded a bit tired as he too tried to figure it out.

"And we learned that getting out of hostile territory with whatever information we have is more important and more valuable than searching for more, some information is better than none..." Asano finished, thank god she figured it out, I was a little obsessed with searching for tracks with my Sharingan at that time.

'And thank god Kione left a bug at the entrance so we could trail back towards it straight away, I would have been lost in that forest otherwise...'

Now that we have recovered a bit of our chakra we were sitting a bit straighter, Suzaku Sensei was looking with a blank face towards us before he nodded and said, "Team 7, passes the genin exams and will be an Infiltration and capture team under Suzaku Nara..."

'Wait...what??'

A puzzled expression appeared on our faces as Suzaku laughed, "You really thought that Konoha had so many spare Jounin that one of them would be allowed to play with a genin team during the time when are village appears weak after the nine tails attack?"

'I am starting to hate him...'

"You wanted to test if we were compatible?" Asano asked she seemed a little nervous.

"Yes and No, the test was if in a hostile environment, will you trust your teammate or not..." he finished and I thought back to his words last night, I groaned as stood up lightly, bending my waist and twisting my arms to make the fatigue go away quicker, I ignored the smug smile that Sensei was giving us.

'He doesn't act like a Nara, I haven't seen him laze around and waste time even once... even Asuma seemed more like a Nara than him...'

"You guys are dismissed for the day, tomorrow we will be meeting back at the training ground 7 at 7 in the morning..." with those words he was gone, I sighed and did a quick wave to my teammates, we didn't celebrate our victory or passing, too tired to talk about it I started walking back to the Uchiha district, two footsteps beside me told me all I needed to know as the three of us started our trek back to the village proper.

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--------3rd POV---------

Suzaku watched from the rooftop as the three kids started walking side by side, he stared at the Uchiha kid, he had a small smile on his face as he was looking at the stars. Suzaku was a little concerned about the kid, thankfully he wasn't as antisocial as he had predicted, he seemed okay with the team and there were no glaring flaws with them.

He watched them from a distance just outside Fujii's senses, before he vanished with shunshin towards the Hokage's office, the meeting was supposed to start at sundown and he was running a little late.

The Hokage's office was filled with a lot less Jounin this time than 3 days ago, the only people here were the Jounin who have been assigned a team.

"Good we're all here, let's start with team 1..." Hiruzen spoke upon noticing that all Jounin were in attendance.

Team 1, Seo Toshimichi, Kinto Hyuga, and Nami Kazuo, under Kouji Hyuga, passes..." Hiruzen noted down the team name and asked, "Final team description..."

"Search and Contain..." He noted the changed description with a raised eyebrow so Kouji explained, "the firepower isn't enough to form a search and rescue squad, but Seo toshimichi's efforts in learning Fuinjutsu could create a decent containment squad..." Hiruzen nodded and filled out some details before picking up a stamp and marking the team as approved. He then looked toward, Yūki Minazuk...

"Team 2, Itachi Uchiha, Tenma Izumo, and Shinko Inari, under Yūki Minazuki, passes... frontline force..." that got a raised eyebrow from Suzaku even though Hokage-sama approved the team, he knew the concerns Yuki had raised during his ANBU days, he was known for failing teams a lot, even those that had potential. So the fact that he passed the team was a little eyebrow-raising, but the fact he created a frontline team with 2 civilian ninjas was also a bit weird.

The meeting kept on going with most of the teams from advanced course passing except teams 4 and 5, it was finally Suzaku's turn, he stepped forwards and spoke, "Team 7, Fujii Uchiha, Asano Yamanaka, Kione Aburame, under Suzaku Nara passes... Infiltration and Capture..." he calmly collected the approved request and then walked back to his place.

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AN: So there it is Team 7 all ready and operational! We would go through the adventures of Asano, Kione, and Fujii soon, although it would take them 4-5 chapters before they go on their first C-Rank as a team. Anyway, the schedule for chapter release will stay the same, and I am going to increase my chapter length from 1.1-1.2k words to maybe 1.5-2k words soon, maybe after Chapter 20 cause I have already written them as drafts...

Plus a double release tomorrow!