Chapter 11

Kakashi was lost in thought as he finally decided to go to the academy and collect his team. On one hand, there was Sasuke. The last member of the Uchiha clan that was still loyal to the village. Kakashi brought his hand up to the covered left eye. It was his late best friend's, Uchiha Obito's last gift to him before he died. He felt a sort of obligation to his friend to train the last bearer of the Sharingan.

On the other hand, there was Naruto. His sensei's son and Kakashi's only remaining tie to his late teacher. The person he had failed to protect from the village's hatred. The Sandaime had made it very clear that Kakashi has until chunin exams to increase the number of bonds he has in this village. If he doesn't have any bonds, he may very well leave the village and Konoha can't afford to lose its only jinchuriki.

Walking up to the classroom door, he was caught off guard when he was suddenly doused in water. Perplexed, he looked up, hoping to find a bucket, but saw nothing but a seal.

Eyes narrowed, he looked around the classroom. Sasuke was looking at him with doubt, 'Is this guy really a jonin?'

Sakura looked apologetic as she bowed, "Sorry sensei, it is all Naruto's fault! I tried to stop him…"

Naruto was simply smirking at the jonin. With Kurama's help, he had identified the chakra signature as that of Dog, the ANBU who sometimes used to protect him. However, Naruto's I-know-something-you-don't smirk definitely put Kakashi on edge.

Kakashi was having his own thoughts about the three. Upon seeing Naruto's smirk, he concluded that Naruto most likely used a seal to play the prank. Turning to Sakura, he thought, 'Sakura tries to protect herself using excuses.'

Eyes turning to Sasuke, he saw the boy turn his face back towards the window. 'Sasuke minds his own business. Doesn't seem to accept the other two as comrades.'

He sighed internally, 'There is not a single shred of teamwork in this team at all.' Outside, he gripped his chin in a mock thinking pose and said in his lazy voice, "Hmmmmm, how do I put this? My first impression of you guys, well, you're a bunch of idiots", he finished with an eye smile. He could literally see the cloud of depression over Sakura and Sasuke's head, but Naruto kept smirking in that annoying manner, not at all fazed by Kakashi's insult. Deciding to move on, he said, "Meet me on the roof in five minutes."

Kakashi then disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Startled by the sudden exit, Sasuke and Sakura scrambled and rushed to the roof, the latter scampering after the former. Naruto sighed; it was a good thing that he didn't have to hide his skills anymore. Grabbing the edge of the window, he swung his feet onto the wall and leisurely walked up it.

Kakashi was as usual, buried nose-deep in his porn when he felt it. Looking down curiously, he contained his surprise on seeing Naruto walk up to him. The boy was displaying a skill that not many people showed before graduating.

"Yo sensei!" Naruto waved with a smile. Kakashi had nothing to say so he waved back, "Yo!" It really made him feel like an idiot.

Naruto walked past him and sat down on the steps in front of Kakashi. Just as he sat down, Sasuke and Sakura burst through the door, eyes widening when they saw Naruto had already reached ahead of them and was sitting nonchalantly.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, 'How did the dobe reach ahead of me? Now that I think about it, I didn't see him following me and Sakura. So how DID he get here?'

Sakura was in a similar state of surprise, but did not think much of it. She immediately sat down besides Sasuke, hearts in her eyes.

Kakashi closed his book with a snap and said in his ever lazy tone, "All right, why don't you introduce yourselves. You can start first, pinkerbell."

Sakura scowled at 'pinkerbell' and spoke up, "Why don't you go first and show us how it's done, sensei?"

Kakashi pointed a finger at himself, "Me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have many likes and dislikes. My dreams are none of your business, …. and you are too young to hear my hobbies." He finished and glanced at Sakura, motioning to continue.

All the three genin sweat dropped, 'All we learned was his name."

Sakura began speaking, "I am Haruno Sakura. I like…..", she glanced at Sasuke and blushed, "My hobbies are….", she blushed harder, "My dream is….", she squealed this team, making Naruto shake his head in disgust. Sasuke showed no reaction.

Kakashi asked, "Dislikes?"

Sakura was quick to scowl, "Ino-pig and baka-Naruto!"

Kakashi thought with a resigned sigh, 'I just HAD to get a fangirl.'

He motioned Sasuke to begin, "You next, emo."

Sasuke scowled like Sakura at the nickname, but spoke, "Uchiha Sasuke. I have few likes and many dislikes. I have a dream, no…..ambition to kill a certain man and restore my clan."

Sakura was looking at Sasuke with hearts in her eyes and thinking, 'Sasuke-kun is so cool!' Naruto was thinking, 'Doesn't he know that to restore his clan he needs girls and for girls he needs some personality?'

Kakashi had narrowed his eye a little, 'As I had thought…'

He motioned for Naruto to begin, "You next, blondie."

Naruto was not at all offended at his nickname and spoke with a small smile, "The name's Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen and spending time with Iruka-sensei. I dislike the three minutes it takes for ramen to cook. My hobbies are training and experimenting with Fuinjutsu. My dream", his smile became a full blown grin, "is to become the strongest Hokage ever!"

Kakashi smiled slightly, 'His hobbies are a bit unusual, but he has certainly grown up in an interesting way.'

He then said, "All right! All of you are unique and have your own ideals. We will start our duties from tomorrow! But there is something that the four of us have to do first." The deadpan in his voice was unmistakable.

Naruto tilted his head ever so slightly, "What would that be, sensei?"

"Survival exercise", Kakashi replied seriously.

"But we already did enough of it in the academy, sensei", Sakura said with a frown.

Kakashi chuckled, "This time, it's different because I'm your opponent."

"What's so funny?" Sasuke asked, a little irritated.

"It's your reaction you hear this; of the twenty seven graduates, only nine will be made genin. The rest will go back to the academy. As a matter of fact, the failure rate is over sixty-six percent!"

As Kakashi predicted, everyone's eyes went wide at that, Sakura going as far as to gaping. Kakashi laughed and said, "Told you you'd freak out!"

Naruto then deduced with narrowed eyes, "Then it is quite clear that the graduation test was just to select those who have the potential to become genin, isn't it?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, 'That was quite perceptive of him. Looks like you have a lot of secrets, Naruto-kun.' He easily ignored Sakura shouting at Naruto for trying to act cool like Sasuke.

"Anyways, meet me on training ground 7, tomorrow morning five o' clock. Skip breakfast if you don't want to throw up." He vanished in a leaf shunshin after that.

For a while, none of them moved, thinking of the man's advice. Naruto got up first, walking over to the railing. He prepared to leap over, but stopped, turning around and asking, "Hey, you want to come and have lunch, get to know each other since we are teammates now?"

Sasuke snorted in disdain and walked away, Sakura following him like a puppy. She followed Sasuke's lead and shouted, "Yeah right, like anyone would want to eat with you, LOSER!" She then engaged in her daily habit of asking Sasuke for a date.

Kurama was smirking, 'She's the one to talk about weak.' Naruto simply replied, 'It's not worth wasting our thoughts like that, Kurama. Besides, at least I tried. It's always the thought that counts."

He leaped over the railing and sprinted to his usual training ground to do his training for the day. Perhaps he could even find Anko and persuade her to spar with him…

XXXXXXX

Naruto laid on his bed, hands tucked behind his bed and eyes up at the ceiling. Anko was tough as usual, and she was even kind enough to let him know that he had some openings in his fighting. By that, he meant she used those openings to leave nice, big bruises. He was not worried about that though, because he had already closed those openings. Right now, he was mentally conversing with Kurama.

'How much do I let loose tomorrow, Kurama? The Hiraishin is not an option. That will only be revealed in the chunin exams and not before.'

'You can reveal three or four jutsus that you have, but not your red lightning. You can scare Kakashi-brat with your flash step though. A bit of fuinjutsu will do as well. Oh, and make sure to use the great fireball. I want to see the look on Uchiha's face.', Kurama replied after thinking for a bit, snickering in the end.

Naruto ignored that suggestion. 'Which means lightning jutsus are out. I can go all out in Taijutsu. If I don't, Sasuke will be quick to call me out on that and I don't need any of that. Besides, it was clever of Kakashi-sensei to purposely mislead us into fighting on an empty stomach, don't you think?' he smirked.

Kurama smirked in return, 'Don't make the mistake of underestimating him, Naruto. Kakashi is a very strong shinobi, strong enough to be feared across all shinobi nations in the third great war. He is not lacking in the mental department at all.'

Naruto mentally nodded, acknowledging Kurama's advice. Closing his eyes, he fell into a deep sleep. Tomorrow would be interesting…. again.

XXXXXXX

Glancing out of the apartment he lived in, Sasuke was thankful for the silence the night provided. 'I will pass the exercise myself. I won't allow those two to hold me back!' he thought.

Frowning in thought, he absently tapped the window, 'The dobe has been acting very differently as of late. His sudden show of skills in the graduation test, his clear familiarity with seals…..could it be that he was hiding his skills? If so, then why? He has always craved attention, so why would he do something like hiding his skills and personality? Just who are you…..Naruto?'

Sasuke had noticed that Naruto acted very different from his usual loud and idiotic personality in the graduation exam. He was calm and collected, more so than Sasuke usually was.

He was also understandably jealous of Naruto's newly-discovered skills. Sasuke had been training his ass off since the massacre in order to become strong enough. Strong enough to kill him. Not many people had the ability to see underneath, not even Sasuke, but he could tell that Naruto was hiding a lot of his abilities.

He would make Naruto tell him, because he deserved it more than anyone else, least of all the dobe.

XXXXXXX

Naruto's eyes opened at five o'clock, according to his body clock. 'This is the time by which I am supposed to be on the training field', he thought as he got up to do his morning rituals.

As he was brushing his teeth, he began thinking about Kakashi's behavior yesterday. 'Our sensei was late by over three hours to meet us and he didn't even look sorry about that. What's to say he won't do this today?', he thought as he wiped his mouth.

Going to the kitchen, he leisurely began preparing four omelets. As he cracked the eggs, he scoffed, 'Skip breakfast if we didn't want to throw up? He must be crazy if he thought that we would fight him on an empty stomach!' He slid the omelets onto his plate and sat down on the dining table.

A quick prayer later, he was gorging them down. He couldn't think about strategies because he didn't know what the exercise would be. Finishing his meal, he walked over to the sink and washed his plate. 'Only Sakura would be stupid enough to skip the most important meal of the day! That girl is so thin a simple breeze would be enough to blow her away!' he snickered.

He went to his room and took out the seal on which he was working on. He sat down on his table and worked on it until only half an hour was remaining till eight o' clock. He closed the scroll and began preparing for the day.

He dressed up and checked if he had all his supplies in his pouch and holster. Tying his hitai-ate beneath his left shoulder, he nodded to himself and exited his apartment after ensuring his trap-seals were in place.

He walked at a comfortable pace to the training grounds, eating two bananas and a backpack holding his lunch.

Reaching the training grounds, he had to hold his laugh at what he saw. Both his teammates were there, probably from five o' clock, and were looking as miserable. Well, as miserable as Sasuke could look. Sakura was sitting on the ground, probably regretting not eating breakfast.

As soon as she saw him, her face twisted into anger and she got up, yelling. "Naruto! You are late!"

Naruto looked around and sure enough, Kakashi wasn't here. Turning back to Sakura, he shrugged, "I don't how I can be late if sensei isn't even here, Sakura."

Sakura opened her mouth to yell more, but couldn't refute his statement. Her stomach decided to rumble at that moment, followed shortly by Sasuke's. Naruto raised a disbelieving eyebrow, 'They really are that stupid?!'

He spoke with disbelief, "You two didn't eat breakfast?!"

The mentioned two shook their head, but Sakura yelled again, "Sensei told us not to eat breakfast, baka! Why did YOU eat it?!"

Naruto glared at her, causing her to flinch, "I'm standing right here, Sakura. There's no need to yell. As for eating breakfast", he spoke as if speaking to four year old's, "It is the most important meal of the day, you know."

Sakura's temper got the better of her and she moved to hit Naruto. But Naruto decided to teach her a lesson and caught her fist easily, his cold eyes freezing her in her place.

"I suggest you stop doing that. Otherwise, I'll do more than just catch your fist next time", his voice was a whisper, but it was cold as ice, letting her know he was dead serious. He even enforced his threat with a little KI, making her sweat.

Sasuke had been watching the both of them and had to admit that their interactions were amusing. However, that amusement ended when he heard Naruto's threat. He was surprised at how serious and deadly his teammate could sound. Naruto released Sakura's fist and walked up to him, asking, "Why didn't you eat breakfast, emo?"

Sasuke glared at him, refusing to answer. Naruto shrugged and walked up to the posts, setting his backpack on top of one of them. He then sat down, legs crossed and eyes closed, waiting for their sensei to show up.

Turns out Kakashi was even more late than yesterday. He showed up at ten minutes to eleven, "Hi fellows. Good morning." He was sounding even more lazier than yesterday, if that was possible.

Sakura pointed at him accusingly at him, "You're late!"

Kakashi's eye curved up in a sort of smile, "Well, you see, a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take a long cut to avoid bad luck."

"Liar!" Sakura shouted. Naruto sweat dropped, 'Tardiness and lame excuses? Just what's wrong with this guy?'

The silence became awkward and Kakashi coughed to break it, "Well, let's begin."

He placed his backpack down and pulled out an alarm clock, which he set for twelve o' clock. He put it on one of the posts. He then took out two tied bells, "Your task is to take theses bells from me before the alarm rings. Those who don't get the bells get no lunch. Not only that, I will tie you to the posts and eat lunch in front of you."

Sakura's hungry, devastated face was exactly what he wanted. Sasuke tried to hide his hunger, but his stomach betrayed him. Only Naruto looked calm among them. "Naruto, why did you eat breakfast when I told you not to?"

Sakura smiled, expecting Naruto to get punished, but Naruto simply replied, "You only suggested not to, sensei. You never said it as an order. Also, I'm not an idiot who forgets to eat the most important meal of the day."

Sasuke and Sakura glared at him for implying they were idiots, while Kakashi just 'hmmm'ed. 'He is turning out to be very interesting. Maybe he would figure out the purpose of this test as well?' he wondered.

"You only have to get one bell. Since there are only two, one of you will get tied to the stump. The one who doesn't get a bell fails and goes back to the academy", he said, smirking at the horror on their faces. He continued, "If you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you will fail. Any questions?"

Sakura spoke up, a confused look on her face, "But sensei, what if you get hurt?" Naruto snorted at that. Kakashi was a freaking jonin! They would be hard pressed just to harm a hair on him!

Kakashi almost laughed out loud but managed to reign it in, "Don't worry, I won't. Alright…..begin!"

The three of them jumped out of sight. Kakashi then tied the bells to him and took out his 'Icha Icha' book. 'They've hidden well. A shinobi should be able to hide from his enemies. Now to wait for one of them to attack', Kakashi thought as he kept his eyes on the book.

XXXXXXX

'He's got to be kidding! I've only ever seen four-man cells! There's no cell with only two genin and a jonin. There's a different purpose to this test', Naruto furiously thought.

His eyes then widened, 'He knows we won't be able to get the bells single-handedly. He wants us to work together! That is the purpose of this test!'

He smirked in victory, but that smirk turned into a frown, 'Those two will never work with me. Maybe I can convince them….after I get beat up from sensei.'

With that, he released his seals and shunpoed from his spot.

Kakashi looked up in surprise as Naruto seemedto shimmer before him, landing in a crouch. 'What was that? He appeared really fast! His speed was too high for a genin!'

"Rather stupid of you to come at me head on, isn't it?"

"I don't see what's stupid about testing your opponent", Naruto replied, eyes narrowed.

Kakashi had to hold back the memories from seeing those eyes. So much like sensei…..

He was almost caught off-guard when Naruto disappeared, reappearing in front of him, leg extended in a kick. 'That was easily low jonin-level speed! And how the hell does he move that fast?!' he frantically thought as he blocked the kick. He winced, 'He hits hard as well.'

Kakashi was forced to put away his book as Naruto's movements were too fast. But Kakashi wasn't a jonin for nothing. He easily began countering Naruto's attacks, mentally admiring his fighting style.

'His movements are fast, not giving the opposition enough time to think. The strength in his attacks might even reach mid-chunin level. Not many openings to exploit too. His attacks are also quite unorthodox. Very interesting style, like he almost seems to know where the attacks are coming from', he applauded mentally as he ducked and blocked a three roundhouse-kick combo that he knew wasn't a part of any style he knew, and he knew a lot of them.

"You're good kid, but not good enough!" he grunted as he used the momentum of the spin kick coming towards his face. He caught Naruto by the ankle and threw him into the pond. He missed Naruto's smirk as he entered the water.

'He threw me into the water! Perfect!', Naruto thought as he made a half ram seal with his left hand and slowly released his breath. The air surrounded his body like a sort of bubble. He floated up until he was just underneath the surface. He then threw two shuriken at the jonin.

Kakashi didn't even need to look to catch them. But he was unprepared for what came next.

'Suiton: Suikusari no jutsu!' (Water style: Water chain jutsu). Five chains of water erupted from the water and wrapped around him with surprising speed. Requiring only one seal due to his high water affinity, this jutsu was very easy to use.

'Suiton ninjutsu?! How does he know that?!' shock filled his whole being. Naruto jumped out, spinning once mid-air to increase the momentum behind his punch, which only connected with a log. 'Kawarimi huh?'

Kakashi walked out from behind a tree hundred feet away, eye smiling. "Nice try. You are definitely chunin material Naruto, but you will have to try harder to get the bell."

Naruto made three hand seals, 'Fuuton: Toppa!' (Wind style: Breakthrough)A strong gust of wind blew towards Kakashi, who simply leapt to the side to avoid it. 'Wind manipulation?! How does Naruto know all these jutsus?!'

"A strong jutsu, but useless if I can avoid it", Kakashi rebuked. His eyebrow rose up in confusion when Naruto threw a single kunai at him. "Is that supposed to hit me?" he lazily asked as he just tilted his head to avoid it.

He was not prepared for Naruto to appear behind him, replacing himself with the thrown kunai. Kakashi turned around, but it was too late. "Wha-" Naruto slashed at the bells with a kunai in his right hand, eyes widening in surprise when one of them separated. 'Now's the chance!' he allowed his body to spin clockwise, his left hand grabbing the separated bell and right foot kicking out to Kakashi, who blocked it with his hands.

But Naruto simply used the force of the kick to jump back onto a tree, using shunpo to retreat into the woods.

XXXXXXX

Sasuke and Sakura were shell shocked. They were not expecting Naruto's taijutsu to be this good. He was matching their sensei strike for strike, even adding his own attacks. The speed of his movements was something not even Sasuke could match. His form of movement was also noticed by the duo, inducing jaw dropping shock. The show of ninjutsu and snatch of a bell was the last straw for Sasuke.

'How does dobe know a style such as that? How did he achieve that level of speed? How does he know those jutsu?! I should be the one to have those, not him!' he raged in his mind, fists clenched.

Sakura had still not recovered from the shock that was Naruto. 'Naruto was never this good at the academy. How did e manage to get a bell?' It was then her fangirlish ways took over, 'If Naruto can get a bell, then Sasuke-kun can definitely do it!' Not once did she think about herself.

Kakashi stood in shock over what happened. An academy graduate, who was said to be the dead last of his class, not only managed to catch him off guard, but also managed to get a bell. Not to mention the said dead last knew fuuton and suiton ninjutsu, high-chunin level taijutsu with low jonin-level speeds. He, Hatake Kakashi, Copy ninja, caught off guard by a simple kawarimi.

Naruto himself was shocked at his success. Even he didn't expect to get a bell this way. Then again, Kakashi most probably wouldn't expect an academy graduate to pull of a seal less kawarimi.

'That was nothing more than a stroke of luck. In a straight fight, I would be dead already. But since when do shinobi fight fair?', he thought, the excitement slowly leaving him, allowing cognitive thoughts to take place.

'I should probably seek out Sasuke and Sakura, maybe convince them to work together. But my plan was to get beat up, not to get a bell. Sasuke would never listen to me now, which by extension, also includes Sakura. Dammit, dammit, dammit!' he cursed.

'It never hurts to try. The worst that will happen is that you will fail to convince them', Kurama encouraged him. Naruto thought about it a bit and reluctantly agreed with him. He easily sensed the chakras of the two and cursed when he felt that Sasuke was furious by the agitation of his chakra. He quickly made his waytowards him, hoping he wouldn't be too late.

XXXXXXX

He was too late. Sasuke was already furious at Naruto's achievement and when Naruto tried to convince him, he harshly shot his proposal to work together down and went to confront Kakashi alone.

Long story short, he got his ass handed to him and got himself buried head deep into the ground. On the bright side, Naruto successfully copied the Doton jutsu Kakashi used to bury Sasuke. He sensed Kakashi casting a genjutsu on Sakura, who easily succumbed to it. He sent twenty shadow clones to fight Kakashi and defend Sakura, but the time was already up.

Sakura hung her head in shame as she was the one tied to the post while Naruto and Sasuke sat beside her. Sasuke was angrily glaring at Naruto, who was watching his sensei.

Kakashi looked at the kids, shaking his head in disappointment, "Only Naruto managed to get a bell. But that doesn't mean that you passed Naruto. You all failed to grasp the real purpose of this test!"

"Teamwork."

The response came from Naruto. Sasuke and Sakura looked away from him, in anger and shame. Naruto tried to convince them to work together, but they didn't listen to him, because who did?

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "A little late to realize, don't you think?"

Naruto gestured towards his teammates, "They knew it. You can ask them that I tried to convince them to work together. But I already knew from the start that I would be shot down."

Kakashi thought, 'He figured it out, and even tried to execute it, but knew he would be shot down. Sorry Naruto, but this group fails.'

Naruto's voice interrupted him, "Besides, teamwork is something that is established in the long run, sensei. You can't expect it out of people who have never worked together!"

Kakashi nodded, "Point, but it is also born out of necessity, which was this case. Unfortunately, you all failed to act on it."

Silence reigned for a while as Kakashi let them think about it. Then he spoke, "I'll give you all one more chance after an hour. If you fail even then, quit being shinobi!" he harshly told them. "The world of shinobi is not a playground for children! Be ready, and no one feeds Sakura lunch!"

He walked away after that, presumably to run an errand. Naruto easily sensed him hiding behind a tree, even though he was suppressing his chakra. He shook his head and turned to offer his lunch to Sakura, who blinked in surprise.

"Naruto, sensei said-" "It's fine. I don't sense him anyways", Sasuke said as he too, offered Sakura his lunch. She gratefully nodded at him and ate, ignoring Naruto completely.

Naruto shook his head and was about to dig in when he felt a sudden surge of chakra. Kakashi appeared before them, furious as hell. "I told you not to feed her. Are you ready to face the consequences?" The clouds suddenly seemed to gather and sounds of thunder could be heard.

Sasuke spoke up, surprising Naruto, "We are a team, aren't we? We will face the consequences together!"

"Is that your choice?" Kakashi asked, still radiating fury.

The group nodded as one, resolution and determination in their eyes. Like a switch, Kakashi changed personalities, "You pass!" he eye smiled at them.

Naruto still stayed wary, "Is that it?"

Eye smile disappearing, Kakashi said in a serious tone, "Yeah. I wanted to be sure you three would act as one. My best friend always used to say, Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. I wanted you all to accept each other as comrades. This is actually the first group I have passed. The previous ones were blockheads who couldn't get it."

He gave them an eye smile and a thumbs up, "Team 7 will start its missions from tomorrow!"