Hey all! Looks like it's the start of yet ANOTHER story by me. Joy, right? Yeeeeah. Sorry about kinda, you know, stopping in the middle of writing another one. I wrote myself into a corner with the chapter I had been writing so I don't know where to go with that.
But I know what I'm doing for this! I swear, I'm totally prepared for this.
*aside* Are they buying it? I think they're buying it.
*back to the intro* Sooooo yeah. Read this and enjoy it. It's pretty. It's full. And it has the first fight I've ever written! You should all look forward to that, since I feel like I did a passable job with it.
Anyway, I'm going to stop stalling now! I hope you enjoy the first chapter of Naruto: Redemption!
Disclaimer: Oh yeah, I have to do this. *flips a bunch of blank pages* Blah blah blah, I don't own Naruto or any of the characters/concepts/literally anything associated with it, blah blah blah. *flips more pages* Yeah, I agree that the price for writing this is only my immortal soul and that I will… Shit, not again! I sold my soul for the third time this week.
The Mizuki incident was finally over. Naruto had learned the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu) and saved Iruka's life as well as his own. After that night, he was allowed to pass because of his outstanding show of bravery (or stupidity, if you want to look at it like that), and the fact that he learned a B-Rank Kinjutsu in a couple of hours. The fact that a genin learned a technique that was created by the Nidaime Hokage (Second Fire Shadow) and could make upwards of one hundred clones at a time shocked the entire ninja populace, save for his trusty grandfather-figure the Sandaime Hokage (Third Fire Shadow).
On top of all that stress, he had also found out that he was the container for the deadliest demon in all the Elemental Nations, the Kyuubi no Kitsune (Nine-Tailed Demon Fox), or the Kyuubi no Yoko. The very same demon that, only twelve years ago had tried to destroy Konohagakure no Sato (The Village Hidden in the Leaves), and took the life of his hero the Yondaime Hokage (Fourth Fire Shadow).
Despite all of the hardship he had gone through, he still managed to keep his ever-cheerful demeanor and never stopped smiling and pranking. That week he felt like he needed to get rid of his angst, which was likely from him starting to hit puberty, and went on a week-long pranking spree. For months, the people of his village would be checking behind their backs and around corners before going anywhere. Such is the price of harboring the wildest prankster the shinobi world has ever known.
One week later and it was finally time to be assigned to teams. This was the moment he was waiting for, he would get to be on a team with his Sakura-chan, and within the month he would be promoted to Hokage and take the hat from Hiruzen, or Jiji as he liked to call him. He would show to everyone that he was the best, and then everyone would respect and acknowledge him. He wouldn't let Sasuke-teme take his spotlight ever again, and he'd have his own hoard of fangirls.
Oh how little that boy truly knew about being a ninja.
As his team was announced, his heart sank into his stomach. At first he had been excited because he was grouped with Sakura, but his prior elation disappeared the moment he heard the name Sasuke Uchiha when Team Seven was being announced.
Sakura, on the other hand, had at first been devastated that she was with the class 'dobe', the talentless hack known only as Naruto Uzumaki. As she was ready to front-flip out the class window though, she perked up incrementally when she found out that she would be with 'her' precious Sasuke-kun. It was her time to show up Ino Pig and prove that she could win Sasuke's heart once and for all.
And lastly, there's Sasuke Uchiha. This was the second worst day of his life, coming up just short behind a 'certain day'. He was not only grouped with the class failure Naruto (whom he secretly wished to befriend, but was afraid to because it would ruin his reputation), but also with his 'Number One Fangirl' Sakura Haruno. Although he would never admit it, he could see Naruto's potential in the way his muscles would coil when he went to strike, and the way that he would unconsciously feint and try to weave around blows. He could force Naruto to get better when they were on missions as a team, if only to guard his back while he improved. He also figured that Sakura, since she was the class's top kunoichi, wouldn't be totally useless.
"So you guys have Kakashi Hatake, eh?" Asked a bearded Jonin revealed to be Asuma Sarutobi, the son of the Hokage.
After getting blank stares and nods from the team, Asuma chuckled. "Well, be prepared to wait for a few hours. He's always late. C'mon you guys," He said to his team, "We've got to get going and get started."
And with that, he and the rest of Team Ten left Team Seven, minus a spiky-haired cyclops, to fend for themselves until said cyclops graced them with his presence.
Twenty minutes later, Naruto was jogging around the room just short of sprinting. All of that energy had to go somewhere, but nothing was helping him burn any of it.
"Sasuke-teme, let's fight." He said as he stopped abruptly.
"Hn." Was the only response he received.
"Naruto-baka, don't talk to Sasuke-kun like that. He needs to save his energy for when we start training." Sakura said, 'helpfully'.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto whined, "I'm just really bored! I've got all this energy and no way to spend it!" He then proceeded to actually sprint around the room in hopes of expunging some of his pent up energy.
"Is that really as fast as you can run, dobe?" Sasuke asked in his typical 'I'm-Too-Good-For-Caring' voice.
"No!" Naruto shouted defensively. "I can go so much faster, just watch you jerk!"
And with that, Naruto really began pushing himself. He started running faster and faster, actually starting to surprise his teammates, though Sasuke didn't let it show. Sakura was openly gaping at him as he became a blur as he ran about the room.
That was until an oppressive aura began to bathe the room.
At that moment, a masked ninja with spiky silver hair and a headband covering his left eye appeared in the room.
"I'm Kakashi Hatake, I'll be your instructor. Meet me on the roof in five minutes." He said calmly, while inside he was hoping that him distracting the team would get Naruto to stop tapping into his tennant's chakra. Whether they had known or not, Naruto included, Naruto still hadn't hit his top speed. One day he would be able to race the Yondaime Hokage, and likely win. (A/N: For all you people who know about theatre, that was a Brechtian moment).
Although he had been starting to tap into the Kyuubi's chakra, he hadn't actively drawn on any of it. Kakashi then made a mental note to help Naruto harness the Kyuubi's chakra safely, but for that he would need an old friend's help, as well as the Hokage's permission. But he could get both of those things at a later time.
Stopping in his tracks, Naruto had to wonder what had been happening. He had started to go faster and faster, but everything was just looking as clear as day. He had expected his surroundings to blur as he got faster, but it never did. Weird. He just figured it was because he was so awesome and decided to let it be with that.
Trudging up the stairs, their minds were all on different things and were working overtime.
Sakura was wondering just how Naruto had gotten that fast, and when he began being able to do that. Sasuke was wondering what that oppressive feeling he had felt when Naruto was reaching the peak of his speed. And lastly, Naruto was simply wondering about their mysterious sensei and how he managed to seem just so badass without looking like he tried. Hey, they didn't all have to be worrying about something important to be thinking hard.
As they reached the roof, they found their new sensei reading a little orange book, one that Naruto recognized well from the Hokage's desk. The other two members of his team were left wondering just what the book consisted of, but could safely guess it was Not-Safe-For-Work, considering the title and the giggles coming from their teacher. So much for mysteriousness and badassery.
As they sat down, he decided to put his book away, an act that would shock any of his colleagues.
"Alright," He said, "Why don't you introduce yourselves one at a time."
"Introduce ourselves?" Sakura asked intelligently (sarcasm). "Well, what are we supposed to say?"
"Things you like, things you hate. Dreams for the future, hobbies. Things like that." Was her only response from their jonin sensei.
"Why don't you go first sensei?" Naruto suggested. "I mean, none of us really know what to say, so shouldn't you give us an example?"
"Me?" Kakashi said. "I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like… Things I hate… I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future? Never really thought about it. As for my hobbies? I have lots of hobbies."
"That was totally useless." Sakura muttered. "All he really told us was his name."
"Alright, now you guys go. You in the ugly orange jumpsuit, you go first."
Sweat dropping, Naruto stood up.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen cups, and I love Ichiraku ramen! I hate the three minutes you have to wait for ramen cups to cook. My hobby is collecting different kinds of ramen and eating them. My dream for the future is to be the next Hokage, and have everyone look up to me! Dattebayo!"
"Alright, that… Makes sense. You, Pinky. You're next."
"Oh, okay. I'm Sakura Haruno" Sakura said, taking her turn to stand. "Uhh, things I like are." She said as she glanced at Sasuke and giggled. "I mean, who I like is." More giggling, of course. "Uh, my hobby is, uh…" More of her incessant giggling. Kami help that poor girl. "My dream for the future is!" *Insert typical girlish squeal, or any assortment of irritating sounds girls make*.
"And what do you hate?"
"Naruto!" Sakura shouted passionately.
"Hating a teammate isn't quite the way to be. Lastly, you go, short dark and emo."
"I'm Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have, is not a dream because I will make it a reality." Sasuke said, unknowingly exuding an aura of hatred and darkness. "I will restore my clan, and kill a certain someone." He said with finality.
"Alright, you're all unique and think differently. My first impression is... You're a bunch of idiots. But we can work through that, I suppose. Alright. We'll have our first training session tomorrow. It'll be survival training."
Before he could carry on, he was interrupted by a very perturbed Naruto.
"Survival training? We learned all of that boring stuff in the academy!"
"This isn't like anything you've experienced yet." Kakashi said, chuckling darkly. "If I explain much more, you really won't like it. Of the twenty-seven students who passed, only nine will actually become genin. The other eighteen will be weeded out and sent back to the academy. This means you have a sixty-six percent chance to fail this test, so this is make it or break it."
Judging by the looks on their faces, none of them (save Sasuke of course) were confident about the next test.
"I said you wouldn't like it, didn't I?" Kakashi asked rhetorically.
"That's so ridiculous! We worked so hard to get here, dattebayo! You can't just send us back to the academy to go through that all over again! What was any of that for then?" Naruto shouted.
"Oh, that? That was just to select some people who might be good enough to be genin. Or not. That's how it is, so get over it. I decide whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at five AM sharp, and bring your gear."
That was when they started panicking. They all began wondering if they were going to pass, but resolved themselves for succeeding one way or another.
"Oh, and you'll probably want to forgo breakfast. Unless you like throwing up, then by all means eat." on that note, their jonin sensei disappeared in a puff of smoke.
After that, they all headed home rather dejectedly. They were all scared, yes even Sasuke. They had no idea what to expect from their enigmatic teacher, and the things that they came up with weren't all too pleasant.
The next morning, they met up in Training Ground Number Seven at five in the morning, all of them except one without a moaning and groaning stomach.
"Naruto-baka, why isn't your stomach groaning like ours?" Sakura asked in an irritated fashion.
Scratching his head sheepishly, Naruto was hesitant to answer, as he knew that he was in for a punch in the head. "Well, you see Sakura-chan, I kinda forgot that we weren't supposed to eat, so I had some instant ramen for breakfast."
A moment later Naruto was on the ground cradling his head from the fury of a woman scorned. Sasuke seemed entertained, because he was chuckling at Naruto's misfortune. This of course drew Sakura's attention to him, thinking that he was impressed with what she did.
The next five hours consisted of Sakura fawning over Sasuke, Naruto shouting at Sasuke, Sakura punching Naruto in the head, and Naruto and Sasuke sparring (much to the reluctant acceptance of Sasuke). By the end of that time, Naruto and Sasuke were recovering their stamina when their sensei appeared out of nowhere, as he seemed to enjoy doing.
"I'm glad you're all here on time." Kakashi said with an eye smile.
At that a tick mark appeared on the heads of all of his students.
"Here on time?" Sakura fumed. "Kakashi-sensei, you said to be here hours ago! You're the one who's late!"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I got lost on the road of life, and a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way." Kakashi said, scratching his head sheepishly. Then he became all seriousness again. "I hope you all remembered what I said. Did any of you have breakfast?"
"Uh, Kakashi-sensei? I think I might have eaten just a bite before I came here." Naruto said warily.
"You think? Naruto, you either ate or didn't eat. Which was it?" Kakashi demanded of the frightened boy.
"I.. I ate." Was his tentative reply.
"Well, I'll have to keep that in mind for later." Kakashi said ominously. "Now let's get down to business. Like I said yesterday, this is a survival exercise." He then reached into his pocket and pulled out two bells. "You three must try and each take one of these bells from me by, say, noon."
"But Kakashi-sensei, there are only two bells there!" Sakura pointed out.
"Precisely. If none of you get a bell, you all fail. But if two get a bell and one doesn't, the person who didn't take a bell is failed and sent back to the academy." Kakashi said, staring at them with a straight face. Kami, he has a good poker face. "In addition, whoever doesn't get a bell will be tied to one of those posts over there, and will have to watch while the other two eat lunch."
Gaping at their crazy sensei, Team Seven was left speechless. Not only would they fail if they didn't get a bell, but they would have to watch their teammates eat lunch in front of them, while tied to a post? That would almost literally be torture!
Taking their looks of shock as understanding, Kakashi tied the bells to his pants. He then pulled a timer out and set it to go off at noon.
"There's just one more thing that you need to understand. You have to come at me with the intent to kill, because you won't get a bell any other way. Are you all ready? Well this should be fun."
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone Jutsu!)" Naruto shouted, causing ten copies of himself to appear in puffs of smoke. He then proceeded to charge their teacher with reckless abandon.
Weaving between his attempts at strikes, Kakashi had to chuckle. "Now Naruto, I never actually said go." He then seemingly effortlessly dispelled all of Naruto's clones and sent the real Naruto flying into the pond nearby.
As Naruto pulled himself onto the shore, Kakashi once again took a laid-back stance. "Now go."
On that signal, they all scattered. Not quite what he had expected, especially from Naruto, but it was acceptable one way or another. Instead of making an attempt to find his students, he simply pulled his little orange book out of a pocket on his flak-jacket and began to read from where he had left off.
With Naruto
He didn't know what to do. He obviously couldn't take Kakashi on by himself, he had already known that. What he had been hoping for was to give his teammates a chance to get out of his line of sight and take Kakashi on with him. Admittedly, he hadn't expected Kakashi to count that as a cheating head start, but he knew that as a ninja you had to take any advantages you could. He had learned at least that during his time at the academy.
'I've got to find Sakura-chan and Sasuke, they'll be able to help me get a bell. I'm sure that we could take him on, it's not like he'd go all-out on a couple of kids, right? Okay, that's what I'll do.'
Taking off from his perch on a tree, he decided to find one of his teammates, and then find the other.
With Sasuke
Sasuke was honestly not surprised by the most recent turn of events. Naruto decided to be stupid and charged a jonin solo, and Sakura had stood there doing nothing at all. Nothing really changed in the time that they had become genin (that being a few days prior), big surprise.
Being a genin didn't give you any crazy power-ups in comparison to being an academy student. There were no perks aside from a paycheck for the missions you would do.
Naruto had of course failed at taking on Kakashi, having just become a shinobi and all, but he had provided Sasuke with some time to find a good spot to hide when they scattered.
From his hiding place in the bushes around the clearing, Sasuke had a perfect view to watch as Kakashi relaxed in the center and read. He read that damn book, while not caring that there were three genin who were all very eager to take him on and get one of the bells that were sparkling in the sunlight.
'I wonder what the dobe and Sakura are doing. Maybe they're just sitting, waiting like vultures. I mean, it's not like there's much else that either of them could do. Maybe I should go and test Kakashi myself. Yeah, that's a good idea.'
As he was preparing to leap into the clearing, a very soft rustle came from behind him. He turned around to a sight that actually kind of shocked him.
It was Naruto. Crouched there in his glorious orange jumpsuit, the bane of stealth, with a finger to his lips indicating to stay quiet. Yet despite that eyesore, he had managed to approach Sasuke without being spotted. Maybe he wasn't totally inept. No, that couldn't be it, could it? No, surely not.
"Sasuke," He whispered, almost silently, "We need to find Sakura. It's no use trying to take a bell alone, he's way too strong for any of us."
"What do you know, dobe? I'm not you or Sakura. I can handle this myself." Sasuke said haughtily. While he knew that Naruto was right, that comment about Kakashi being too strong really 'rustled his Jimmies', as the saying goes. That being said, he was somewhat hoping Naruto would call him on it. Turns out, surprisingly, he did.
"Sasuke, you may think I'm stupid, and I may be, but I know you're not. There's no way we can take him on, even just the two of us. We need Sakura, even if she's just a distraction so we can get a bell each." Naruto said, shocking Sasuke once again. Was he being ruthless? It seemed like he had his own agenda. He never thought he would see something like this from Naruto, but there must be a first for everything.
"Okay." Sasuke whispered reluctantly. "We'll get her as a distraction, then we'll get the bells for ourselves." If this is what the dobe was truly like, he felt as though he would warm up to him rather quickly.
They took off without another word to look for their third and final teammate.
With Sakura
Sakura was totally unsure what to do in this situation. So she did what she usually did when she didn't know what to do. She walked. She wandered around in the forest just around the clearing, trying to think of how she could help their team succeed, but how they could all pass together.
But nothing was coming to her. Metaphorically of course, there were a few somethings that were literally coming to her.
Two of these somethings were her teammates Naruto and Sasuke. The other something was a quite potent genjutsu in the form of Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu (Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique).
As she stepped into another clearing, she saw a sight that chilled her to the bone. On the ground, laying bloodied and bruised was Sasuke. Her Sasuke-kun was injured and needed her help!
She couldn't do much other than scream.
The sight was horrifying. He had shuriken imbedded in him, and he had burns and cuts all over.
This took all of her attention until an unsightly orange blur (some would say it was more unsightly than the genjutsu) tackled her to the ground, breaking the genjutsu. The shock of smacking her elbow, uncovered by her clothing and left bare due to her lack of sufficient muscle-mass, actually kind of hurt.
"Sakura-chan, are you okay?" Her Orange Saviour asked, concerned for her.
"N-Naruto? What happened? Where did Sasuke-kun go? He needs help, he's badly hurt!" She shouted in a panic, until Naruto covered her mouth.
"I don't know what you're talking about Sakura-chan. Sasuke's fine, he's looking around for Kakashi. He wasn't in the other clearing when we went to check if he was still there."
"But Naruto, Sasuke-kun is right-" She said before trailing off. This is because as she looked over to where Sasuke had been, bleeding out, his body began to dissipate. He shimmered out of view, as if he had never been there in the first place. "Uh, never mind. It must have been a genjutsu. I can't believe I fell for that! Kakashi-sensei actually trapped me in a genjutsu! I'm so pissed off right now!"
Letting go of Sakura, Naruto stood up and backed away. "Sakura-chan, do you think you can hold back until we regroup with Sasuke?" Naruto asked tentatively. He knew what it was like to be on her bad side. Two words describe it perfectly: Not. Fun. "We have a plan, but it's going to be pretty tough."
"What is it?" Sakura asked dangerously, an angry glow in her eyes.
"Well, it's really simple." Naruto said placatingly. "We're going to work together to take on Kakashi-sensei."
A flash of her FKI (the female version of KI, or killing intent, which is a natural female response to situations that anger them) was his only response.
As Naruto began backing away, Sasuke hopped into their clearing.
"Looks like he went back to the original clearing." Sasuke said. "We need to go there now, we're running out of time pretty quickly."
"Alright Sasuke, Sakura-chan. I'll enter first and divert him, leading Kakashi-sensei to the pond. Then Sakura-chan, you'll capture his attention while Sasuke jumps from the bushes and then we'll work together to get the bells."
Nodding, the three of them departed their little clearing together, with Naruto in the lead. Once they got near the clearing Kakashi was in, they split up. Sasuke began heading to his position, and Sakura dropped back a little bit further behind Naruto.
Naruto then burst into the clearing and made a dozen clones to try and help him herd Kakashi to the pond, with high hopes for his plan.
It was time to show that he knew what he was doing.
With Kakashi
Kakashi was more than surprised to see Naruto burst into the clearing and make several clones. He was even more surprised that he engaged him head on, once again, and actually began pushing him back. The success was more due to the desperation of the attack, and the fact that Kakashi was surprised, than any real skill, but catching Kakashi unawares was something nobody really expected from Naruto.
Kakashi knew when he was being led on, but he continued to let Naruto do so in the hopes that they had figured the test out. In all likelihood they hadn't, but one never knows.
Much to his surprise, once again, it was Sakura that burst out of the foliage while Naruto harassed him (pitifully), and began to do the brunt of the legwork. Sakura, for her lack of strength, did know what she was doing unlike Naruto. Her punches were aimed more from calculation and knowledge than from instinct and the heat of the moment. It seemed as though she had planned for throwing all of her punches, and planned accordingly for any counter that could be put up by her teacher. Suffice it to say, this surprised all of her observers.
Naruto then broke off and gave the affor-planned signal of making three more clones.
At that signal, Sasuke burst out of the underbrush and the battle began anew.
Charging ahead of both the original Naruto and Sasuke, the clones began to combat Kakashi and assist Sakura. They split off to flank the jonin, and then launched a simultaneous attack, coming from both sides.
To solve this issue, Kakashi did the simple action and ducked, but was confronted by the toe of Sasuke's ninja sandals. Catching Sasuke's foot, Kakashi stood and twisted, swinging the boy around to smack into the two clones that had engaged him ahead of the two boys.
The other remaining clones picked up a nearly exhausted Sakura and leapt away with her, surrounding her protectively in case their sensei decided to prioritize the tired girl.
"Just rest up a bit, Sakura-chan." One of the clones said with a big smile. "The boss will handle this with Sasuke and everything will be fine. Believe it!" That brought out a small smile from the winded girl, despite the difficult situation that they were faced with.
Back with Kakashi, he was being harried rather well by the two boys on his team. Despite all of the punches that were being thrown his way, and the kicks that followed up, Kakashi was smiling like a child beneath his mask. A team finally understood the point of the test they were faced with. They finally knew that the test was to make them work together to take on a foe that would be otherwise unbeatable.
Dodging a quick kick from Sasuke, Kakashi was about to call the test off and tell them that they passed the true test when he felt a sudden lightening around his pants. It seemed that Naruto had been opportunistic enough to get on of the two bells. That cause Kakashi to continue. Why you ask? Because he now felt slighted. He had actually lost one of the bells to a genin. Blocking the punch from Naruto, with the fist that likely held the stolen bell, Kakashi kicked the boy away when he felt another hand near the final bell. Thinking quickly, Kakashi substituted with a nearby log only to be confronted by a sight that caught him off-guard, for what felt like the thousandth time that morning. It was Sasuke, already back to standing straight with his hands flashing through handsigns that he knew well from his childhood. They were the signs for Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu).
Flashing through the signs himself, he tried to match the chakra Sasuke was putting into the technique. Honestly, he was put off by the fact that a genin was able to use an elemental release, despite the fact that he was a certain murdering prodigy's brother.
The two jutsus clashed in a bright explosion of flames and chakra, meeting each other head on and essentially cancelling each other out.
In the wake of the fireball, Naruto leapt through the remaining flames that were obscuring Kakashi's field of vision while Sasuke skirted around and engaged from the side.
Blow after blow was blocked and countered, when a sight surprised Kakashi.
Naruto pulled a pair of goggles out from his jacket and put them on his face. With those on his head, he looked astonishingly similar to an old friend of his, the same friend who used the jutsu he had just used, and who had given him a very important gift that had let him perfect his own unique technique. That gift had also earned him his most notable moniker.
Taking advantage of this brief pause, Naruto pulled out a package from another pocket in his jacket and shouted, "Sasuke! Cover your eyes!" He then proceeded to blow a pile of dust into Kakashi's unprotected eye. The dust was much more abundant than it had seemed at first, and it filled the immediate area with thick cover of dust that got in Kakashi's eye, and all over him. Naruto decided to capitalise on this lapse of function by kicking his teacher in the head, hard enough to make him keel over.
Sasuke, being as opportunistic as ever, took this chance to dart in, cut off the last bell, and run out knowing that Kakashi wouldn't be disoriented for long.
Slowly getting up, Kakashi cleared his eye. He knew what had just happened. He had lost the test. His students had taken the bells. As his vision cleared, he saw Sakura standing with tears almost falling from her eyes. He knew something was being said, but he couldn't quite hear what it was. Maybe that's from being kicked in the head, rather hard.
With the Students of Team Seven
"Sakura-chan, I'm so sorry. Sasuke got the other bell." Naruto said sadly.
Sakura stood frozen. Naruto and Sasuke got the bells. She would have to watch them eat lunch while tied to a post, but more importantly she would have to go back to the academy. This was the worst day ever.
She didn't even respond when Naruto took her into a tight embrace. She didn't even notice when Naruto tied the first bell to her belt right away.
"Now I have to leave you with him. It's going to be tough on you, especially with a pervert as a teacher."
That's when the tears began to fall.
Kakashi, now approaching, heard that last sentence and had noticed Naruto give her the bell he had earned. He was touched that his student, even one he hadn't had time to grow to understand, was willing to sacrifice the beginning of his career for his teammate. He truly knew that self-sacrifice was a shinobi's duty. But most importantly, he knew that a shinobi without compassion was just a tool.
"Well Naruto, it looks like you… All pass." He said, ending the sentence with an eye-smile.
"W-What?" His students all stammered.
"The true point of this test was to see if you could work together as a team to take down an enemy that you had no hope of beating alone. You all worked together and even managed to get the bells. Naruto, if this had been a real battle, you would have been able to kill me with that dust trick of yours. Good job. Sasuke, you came up with a brilliant strategy to distract me and use everyone's talent to their best. And Sakura, your use of even the basics of combat, and the planning you put into each of your strikes was astounding. You really know how to handle yourself, but you lack the strength to put behind your attacks. I'm proud to say that you all pass, and are now officially shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato! I look forward to having you three as students for the foreseeable future."
"Kakashi-sensei." Sasuke said tentatively. "I'm actually not the one who came up with that strategy. Naruto did." Sasuke was almost grinding the last part out, but he knew it had to be said anyway.
"Really now? Naruto, you came up with that?"
A slow nod was his only response from the boy that looked as shocked as Kakashi felt.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that, though I am kind of surprised. You really came up with something that worked really well. Your grades definitely belied your skills."
Scratching his head, Naruto was unsure how to respond, but did so to the best of his abilities anyway. "Well Kakashi-sensei, it really wasn't that hard to figure out. It was obvious that we wouldn't be able to beat you if you knew where we all were and what we were doing, so the best option was to lead you somewhere that we could control the situation."
Hearing this shocked his teammates, and made his teacher swell with pride.
"Nevertheless Naruto, it was very efficient and smart. Also, it was good that you ate. In a way, you didn't blindly follow orders. But you should have brought something for your teammates, just in case. You see, a shinobi who breaks the rules is trash, but a shinobi for forsakes their comrades is worse than trash. And that that dust trick you pulled was pretty good. But don't let that get to your head, I was going easy on you all so I hadn't been expecting something like that. I guess being the prankster that the village fears leads you to some ingenious ideas, doesn't it?"
"Well… Yeah, I guess it kind of does." Naruto said oh so modestly.
"Anyway, I'm going to head out and report to the Hokage that you all passed. We'll meet at the Hokage Tower in one week to go on our first real mission as a team." With that, their enigmatic teacher disappeared in a puff of smoke.
After some more heartfelt words, the members of Team Seven headed to their separate homes, all content with the day's events.
Once they got home, both Sasuke and Sakura realised that they still had the bells. They decided to keep them though, as a reminder of what they could do if they worked together.
Hokage's Office
Hiruzen Sarutobi was quite pleased with the results from Team Seven. He knew that Kakashi was on his way, but he couldn't help but smile gleefully into his crystal ball as the members of Team Seven made idle conversation and then left to rest.
He couldn't be more proud of his Naruto-kun.
Hey guys! Well, that was the first chapter of my new story Redemption. I know, it's a cheesey title, but what more can you expect from a seventeen year old? Something creative? Gosh, lower your expectations people.
But in all seriousness, I hope you enjoyed. Leave a review saying what you thought of the combat scene, and what I could change to make scenes in the future more intense.
There's going to be some filler between my next large goal, the Wave Arc, but I hope to make it enjoyable.
Sorry to cut this outro short, but it's two in the morning and I'm tired after having written the most that I've ever put into a single chapter.
Take note of the fact that I'm writing the outro before even the into/disclaimer. That's a product of writing at two in the morning.
So I bid you all a good night/morning/afternoon/whenever you happen to read this! Once again, I hope you all enjoyed and look forward to future chapters. Review please, it really helps me out and kinda builds my confidence. I'm going to start writing the next chapter at some point after I wake up, but god knows that's not happening right now. Goodness gracious, I'm tired!
RahvinsCage, out!
P.S. I know this is the third story I've started, but I actually know where I want to go with this story (the title should be a big giveaway), so I'm more inspired to write this than my other stories which only had the very basest ideas of what would happen in the far future.
Oh god, it's the cops! Looks like I've got to cheese it! Bye people!