Five: Changing the future, the strongest team 7

On the rooftop of the Ninja Academy, Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke read the handout provided by Kakashi.

Their teacher had already left, leaving them behind.

"This... A test to evaluate all the aspects of a shinobi?" Naruto asked in confusion. The more he read the small piece of paper in his hand, the more confused he felt.

"He will test the most fundamental topics we learned in the academy." Sasuke spoke confidently. "Trap making, taijutsu, ninjutsu, concealment and genjutsu."

At the side, Sakura nodded.

This is exactly what happened in the original, just that, wasn't he missing something?

"Hmph! So what?" A grumpy Naruto answered as he turned his head away in disgust. "I, Uzumaki Naruto, am the person who will surpass lord Hokage, we already did all of that in the academy, so I will definitely pass this test!"

"You guys, aren't you missing something? No matter what, we have already graduated. If our jounin sensei needs to test us, it definitely isn't something as simple as directly testing our skills. This kind of thing, we have been going through it for years now, there's no point in doing that."

Naruto and Sasuke were thoughtful after hearing her words.

Indeed, no matter what year it was, they are constantly tested and graded.

Even if their teacher is now a Jounin, it's a matter of fact that the one who set the graduation standards was the academy, if they didn't think they were ready, they wouldn't have let them graduate.

"What you're saying is..." Sasuke spoke in a cold tone. "Kakashi-sensei is distracting us from the true test by giving us these handouts?"

On the side, Naruto only had an interrogation sign on his forehead. How come he can understand every word, but when put together, it doesn't make any sense?

Ignoring this clueless teammate, Sakura smiled in admiration. She barely implied this and yet, Sasuke caught up with what she meant.

Looking at him, she felt a little shy. Huh? For some reason, she is beginning to understand why so many girls like him. This kind of temperament, outstanding performance and serious attitude... It's indeed a bit attractive. It feels very mature.

Shaking her thoughts away from her mind, she looked at them seriously. "That's exactly it. Think about it, what is something that we have been taught from the very first day since we entered the academy but that was never mentioned directly as something we had to study?"

Looking at their pondering looks, she continued. "On the day we joined, Lord Hokage spoke about the will of fire. On the first day we had sparring matches, Iruka-sensei taught us about the seal of reconciliation. Every time we had survival training, we were always placed in groups of three and asked to cooperate with our party members."

"You mean..." Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he grasped the secret.

"Yes, I think this test is very likely to be a teamwork test." Having said that, she thought for a moment and continued. "Have you noticed how three-man cells is the most standard team configuration for taking missions in the village? This is definitely an indication of what will happen tomorrow. It's very likely that out first mission, is to work together to fight against our teacher."

"Haha, is that all? Then what's there to be afraid? So long as Sasuke doesn't get in my way, I can easily defeat our teacher." Naruto laughed arrogantly.

"Idiot, you're dreaming if you think a Jounin is as weak as a bottom of the barrel student like you." Sasuke sneered.

"Hehe, you don't know anything Sasuke. But don't worry, I will show you how I defeat the teacher using my most powerful technique!"

"Sigh, alright guys, let's not fight among ourselves." Sakura intervened timely. "If anything, I have two suggestions for tomorrow. The first is that we don't skip any meal like he suggested. By the time the test starts we will definitely have digested the food. Also, do you remember how late Sensei was today? If that's any indication of something, it is that it will probably happen again tomorrow."

Sasuke nodded. "I agree with this point."

"Okay, I also agree." Naruto nodded twice.

"Well, my second suggestion is that we use today to practice working together. When the time comes tomorrow, we can pretend to be unorganized and catch Kakashi-sensei by surprise. Once he falls into our trap, we will strike using our most powerful attack together and overwhelm him."

Listening to this idea, both Naruto and Sasuke nodded in satisfaction. At this moment, the two gained a new understanding of their teammate, Sakura.

----

The next day.

A yawning Naruto and Sakura followed behind the expressionless Sasuke towards one of Konoha's training grounds.

After arriving, they sat by a nearby monument and waited all morning. While Naruto and Sasuke just sat down and did nothing, she didn't bother with them and directly slept with her head on her bag.

By the time she woke up, the sun was already hanging high in the sky.

"Yaaawn!" Stretching, she cleaned up some tears in her eyes and looked around in curiosity.

At her left, two tired boys were staring at the ground in annoyance.

"You guys didn't listen to me, now you are tired."

The corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched while Naruto scratched his head in frustration.

"Ahhhhhg! That bastard! Why is he so late?!"

Just as he finished speaking, he was suddenly covered by a big shadow. Stunned, he turned back to take a look only to be greeted by the sight of Kakashi staring directly at his eyes.

"Uuuh?! Aaaaa!" In that moment of carelessness, he was so frightened that he lost his balance and fell on his back.

Ignoring the brat while he whined, Kakashi coughed and greeted with a shameless smile. "Good morning class."

"You're late!!" x3

"Haha... You know, there was a black cat on the way, so I had to take a different path..."

Being glared at by his angry students, Kakashi felt a bit embarrassed and decided to focus on the test.

Further inside the woods, next to three tree stumps, Kakashi placed an alarm clock on one of them and explained. "I've set this alarm to go off at noon."

Raising his hand, he showed two small objects he was holding. "I have two small bells with me, your goal is to take them away from me before the timer sounds. If you fail, not only will you be tied to one of the tree stumps, you also won't be allowed to get your lunch."

Those words reminded Naruto and Sasuke of what Sakura told then yesterday.

'This bastard, so that's why he told us not to eat!'

"Remember, there are only two, which means that one of you are bound to fail. You will be sent back to the academy as a disgrace and fail to fully graduate! Also, you may use kunais for this challenge. Try come at me with the intent to kill, otherwise, you got no chance."

The three Genin nodded, and stared at Kakashi.

Seeing the seriousness in their eyes, Kakashi nodded in appreciation. "Alright, on my mark. Ready, steady, go!"

The moment the words fell, three smoke bombs exploded around Kakashi covering his line of sight.

Stunned, he barely had time to react as a rain of Shuriken fell through the smoke spinning towards him.

He dunked under the first wave, channelled Chakra at his legs and jumped over the second one.

In the air, Kakashi looked down, searching for his targets and was greeted with the final wave of Shuriken!

"Really, I never expected such a thing from the start." Sighing with distress, he spoke casually. His hands reached into his pockets and he threw a set of Shuriken, deflecting the incoming wave.

At this moment, he felt warm sweat dripping from the back of his head. His eyes widened and the moment he looked back, what he saw as a big fireball coming right at him!

Hidden in the bushes, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke looked in surprise.

"Damn! Don't tell me you really hit Kakashi-sensei with that?! Sasuke, you killed him!"

Hearing the panic in Naruto's voice, even Sasuke was feeling heavy. He never thought that a Jounin would be so weak! He couldn't even evade a single Fireball jutsu?

"You guys, don't believe what you see so much, look!"

At the place where the fireball exploded there weren't even ashes. On the contrary, before they could react, an intact Kakashi appeared on the branch of a tree right above them.

"Traps set beforehand, blocking my line of sight, forcing me to move towards a favorable position to fall for your attack. That's great, really great. If I were a Chunin and got caught by surprise in a trap of this level, I would have definitely died. Unfortunately, it's not enough."

Astonished the trio looked back and paled at the sight of Kakashi, however...

"Haha, you fool! Did you really believe our acting?" x 30

From the canopy of the trees, a bunch of Shadow clones of Naruto disguised came out and launched themselves at Kakashi.

"Shadow clone? Although the number is commendable, it's really a low level strategy, after what you all did at the beginning, this is quite lackluster." Kakashi commented while not caring too much.

However, Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto all ignored this and ran away from the area.

Just as Kakashi rose his eyebrow in confusion, each of the clones approaching him smiled wickedly and weaved a single hand seal. "Explode!"

On the back of each clone, an explosive tag set off launching a wave of flames and kinetic energy that made even the ground shake.

Puffing, the trio took deep breaths as they looked behind them.

"How is it? Did we defeat him?"

"Yeah, after all those tricks, there's no way Kakashi-sensei could've predicted us, right? I mean, Sakura made so many traps! He couldn't possibly escape, right?"

Gulping, Sakura shook her head. Just as she was about to voice her opinion, they all saw a disembodied head fly over and roll over their feet.

The head turned slight, revealing the masked face of their teacher, Kakashi!

"U-uuuhh w-what!?" A shocked Naruto trembled all over and fell on his back as he tried to crawl away from the head!

"This...!!" Sasuke's pupils dilated as he stared in shock at the head that was still spilling jets of blood on the ground and on him. The touch of the blood spilling on his face made him freeze as he fell to his knees.

On the side, Sakura was also in a state of shock, however, no matter what they did, she simply couldn't believe that they had the ability to do any of that.

'Didn't Kakashi also use genjutsu in the original?' Considering this possibly, she began looking around for clues and the more she looked, the more confident she became!

'This, where are the tree stumps? They were just a few meters away before! I'm sure of it!' Having grasped a saving straw, she brought her hands together, waved a seal and shouted. "Genjutsu Kai!"

As soon as her words fell, the surrounding environment changed, revealing a lot of clues that, had Sakura been more observant of the battlefield, she could have used to free herself from the illusion. Feeling a little embarrassed, she put this matter on the back of her head, since she has meta knowledge, why not use it to her advantage? In any case, if she can do something better than her original counterpart, she will definitely do it!

Staring at her dumbfounded companions who were staring blankly at nothing, she rushed towards them and slapped their shoulders while casting the Genjutsu dissipation technique.

Suddenly awake, both Naruto and Sasuke looked around in confusion.

"What the hell?! Where is Kakashi-sensei's head! It was right there a second ago!"

Although Sasuke didn't say anything he was also in a state of confusion.

"You guys, it's not time for this! Kakashi put us in a genjutsu, let's separate!"

Nodding with a flash of disappointment in their eyes, the three left in separate directions, trying to confuse Kakashi.

According to their previously agreed tactic, now they would use each other to try and take advantage of Kakashi if he gets distracted while fighting one of them.

"I don't believe we can't take at least one of the bells!" Sakura muttered in her heart, because if that was the case, wouldn't all of her plans so far be for nothing?

Watching all of this with scrutiny was Kakashi on top of a tree. Seeing them separating and hiding in the forest, the solemn look on his face dissapeared. Raising his left hand, he stared at the burnt sleeve and scratches on his arm and muttered under his breath in admiration. "I'm really liking you guys more and more. At this rate, you might become the strongest team 7 formed by the village."

Lost in his nostalgia, he took a deep breath. In his mind, the faces of his old team members flashed one by one. "Minato-sensei, I won't disappoint you."

Nodding to himself, he created two more clones, one for Sakura and the other for Naruto, as for his real body? He set off in Sasuke's direction. In any case, they have already passed the test, now he needs a comprehensive evaluation of their strength, this will be the basis of his tutoring in the future.