End of Survival Training, Respect

In a restaurant somewhere Iruka and Hiruzen sat down in their chairs facing each other.

"Lord Hokage!"

"Yes Iruka?"

"I was wondering what kind of jonin teacher did Naruto get?"

The third Hokage smiled as he handed over a book

"His name his Hatake Kakashi" The fourth said, noticing a change in Iruka's expression

"What happened?"

"No, its just that I heard some disturbing rumours….." Iruka said as he opened the book

He swiped through the pages before he finally came across Kakshi's page. He started reading through the information with his expression turning grimmer every 5 seconds.

"This is..." Iruka's hands shivered as he stood up and shouted

"Hokage-sama, not a single Genin has passed his test…." Iruka complained looking at Hokage as if he had committed a mistake by assigning Naruto to Kakashi.

"Iruka, I understand your concerns, Even I don't know if it is right for those kids to become genins immediately, but I also believe in Kakashi's judgement, All the genins he sent back did not truly understand what Kakashi wanted"

"But Ho….." Iruka was interrupted by the Hokage

"Iruka, no matter what the result is…. Don't hold anything against Kakashi"

….

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.…

.…

After the explosion, something flew up into the air,

It was a burnt tree log

"Damn it, Substitution" Naruto Cursed

("It is getting really hard to fight them... are they really part of the nine rookies? More like well seasoned team that have faced real ninjas,..... tsk….I can't believe they forced me to use my Sharingan. I can stop the practice match now, but that would be no different from straight out declaring them as winners, they are certainly lacking something…..")

"Sakura" Kakashi murmured as he appeared right behind her, He unleashed a gen-jutsu onto her,

Sakura felt dazed for a moment before coming back to her senses again, she searched for Kakashi's figure at the spot where the blast happened, But there was no one there.

"Sakura…." A boy riddled with kunai appeared below a tree further away,

"Sasuke….." "AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Sakura screamed and fainted upon seeing Sasuke with injuries all over his body.

Meanwhile

Naruto and Sasuke searched for Kakashi frantically. They froze at the same time as they realised

"Sakura is back over there" Naruto commented weakly.

"Let's go…." Sasuke took the lead.

The duo stopped upon encountering Kakashi in the way.

Sasuke noticed Sakura siting in a daze at the bottom of a tree, and went over to release her from the gen-jutsu.

"Sasuke...." Sakura glanced around for a moment.

"You are all right!" She shouted merrily as she jumped into his arms.

"Not now Sakura, we have to grab the bells….."

"Mmm" Sakura nodded as they prepared to face Kakashi.

…..

…..

…..

"Tajuuu…..Kage-bunshin-no-jutsu"

(Poof)

(Poof)

(Poof)

(Poof)

5 clones appeared as they positioned themselves in a formation around Kakashi.

"Hmmm….. is this formation just a coincidence?" Kakashi murmured as he saw the clones running towards him.

(boom) punches were blocked

(boom) kicks were diverted

(clang) Kunais were blocked

(Boom!) Kakashi retreated one again, sweating profusely,

("This is no mere coincidence, that is one of the ambush formations the ANBU is currently working on but his own is more complete…..How is this possible?....")

"Naruto, where did you learn this attack formation from?" Kakashi asked curiously as he looked into Naruto's eyes.

"I came up with it" Naruto said with a straight face as he charged once again repeatedly trying to draw Kakashi to a particular location.

Naturally Kakashi was aware, and would not be fooled a second time, so he scanned around and saw a wire trap.

He turned around and asked Naruto with a smile, "Are you taking me to the wire trap?"

"Shit…." Naruto blurted out, while Kakashi jumped into mid-air avoiding the wire trap.

(a while back Naruto set up a signal word while he was working on the trap with the duo)

"That's the signal…" Sasuke and Sakura jumped from the bushes towards Kakashi.

"Hmph" Kakashi snorted with a mocking gaze as he turned mid-air to face them.

(Tic!) A sound was heard, Kakashi realised at this point that he had messed up.

It was a multiple stage trap with the actual wire being hidden out of sight, such that even Kakashi failed to notice with his Sharingan activated.

(Whoosh!) A rope was deployed as it pulled Kakashi up by his feet while Sasuke and Sakura cleanly swiped Kakashi off his bells as he went up.

The Trio assembled with Sasuke and Naruto holding the bell while Sakura had a finger on the rope holding them.

(Trrrriiiiiinnnnnnggggg!!) The lunch alarm went off as the trio jumped together and shouted

"Mission Complete!"

While Kakashi was hanging upside down, sulking over how he lost to a bunch of juniors.

Meanwhile about 500 metres away an ANBU agent was spying on the match. "That formation….. How did the kid do it?"

….

….

….

"A development stage ambush formation in a complete form?….. Its no mere coincidence at this point, that kid knows something..." Danzou thought aloud after hearing his subordinate's report.

"We have to call off the watch, now that the jinchuuriki has a teacher, the third has given specific instructions to not monitor him anymore." Danzou told his subordinate as he turned around to leave.

(Whoosh!) the subordinate also left quietly…..

….

….

….

Back in the training field,

Kakashi stood near the memorial tablet as he watched the trio eat their lunch.

"Looks like this bunch already honours your words Obito….."

Kakashi stared at the blue sky going back the to the memory from the battle of the Kanabi bridge in the second great ninja world war, where he lost Rin to an enemy group, and did not spare a thought to save her, while Obito went against Kakashi who was the temporary leader of the team.

"I believe the White Fang was a hero..., Those who break the rules are scums...…..But…Those who abandon their comrades are worse than SCUM."

Kakashi closed his eyes as he relived the memory again,

The trio, notice Kakashi's actions.

Naruto knew the reason as the stone was a precious monument, the stone had the names of heroes who were Killed.In.Action. He also thought back to how pained Obito felt as he started the war, How he had changed for the greater good in the final moments, but still died fighting.

Naruto stands up and walks over, Sasuke and Sakura follow behind him. Upon arriving near the stone monument, Naruto bowed with respect to the stone, causing Kakashi to be surprised, followed by a sense of respect towards Naruto's action, while the duo stared at the stone.

Kakashi turned towards Sasuke and Sakura and said "The stone contains the name of many of my close friends who were K.I.A".

At that moment Sasuke and Sakura understood, Naruto's gesture and also bowed towards the stone.

Kakashi then turns towards Naruto and says "In the beginning , the teachers in the academy were confused and wanted to decide against having you and Sasuke in one team after the academy results as the team would be very powerful and unbalanced, but seeing as the other students were already arranged in a balanced group, they wanted me to test you all through the survival training. As you would have noticed, there were only two bells, meaning that there was only possibility for two of you to succeed, but after seeing your groups teamwork, I had truly been shocked. Never had I ever used the Sharingan for a battle against juniors. The previous teams I had faced had all been sent back to the academy as they all lacked one thing you guys had."

"What is it sensei?" Sakura inquired.

"TEAMWORK"

Sasuke and Sakura immediately turned towards Naruto at the same time. With a sense of reverence rising for Naruto in their heart.

"I am glad to announce that you all have more than passed this survival test, you have completely defeated me to my fullest extent before lunch time. In-fact you guys are already powerful enough to apply for chuunin exam as a team"

"With this I conclude that the survival test is over and Team 7 can officially start doing missions from tomorrow onwards....."

"Yeah!" Sakura shouted while Sasuke and Naruto smiled by the side. Ending things on a happy note.