It was the morning before the next generation of genin would be put into squads. Iruka was strolling to the academy slowly, still hurt from last night. Suddenly Kurenai sensei materialised out of thin air.
"Iruka, I have to talk to you about my squad." Kurenai exclaimed.
"Go ahead!" Iruka replied surprised, this had never happened to him before.
"I know you choose squads based on scores to create balanced teams but my team is made up entirely of trackers. I would like to swap one of my genin for one on another squad." Kurenai explained.
"Well, what would you suggest?" Iruka asked unsure of what to do.
"I believe swapping Kiba Inuzuka for Sasuke Uchiha would be the wisest choice. Kiba is loud and disruptive and I doubt he will work well with Hinata and Shino. Also, as Sasuke is an Uchiha I could teach him some of my own special genjutsu technique." Kurenai said matter of factly.
"Well, I'll see what I can do." Iruka sighed, imagining the paper work. However he knew the jonin was right.
"Team seven, Naruto Uzimaki, Sakura Haruno and Kiba Inuzuka." Iruka called out.
All three members of the team were annoyed. Naruto and Kiba argued about who was more idiot while Sakura wished she was with Sasuke. The next day after everyone else had met their sensei team 7 was still waiting. Naruto was balancing an eraser on the door so that it would fall off when their sensei walked in.
"Naruto you idiot he is a jonin that won't work." Sakura told him exhaustedly.
"Yeah, use that as a distraction." Kiba added before taking scattering marbles on the floor near the door. Sakura groaned, stuck with two mischievous team mates.
When Kakashi walked in he noticed both the marbles and the eraser. Hoping it was a collaborative effort he took the bait and grabbed the eraser only to slip upon the marbles. Naruto and Kiba burst out laughing while Sakura told him that she tried to stop them. "Well there was some teamwork involved." Kakashi thought to himself. Kakashi proceeded to tell the genin where to meet him tomorrow for their first test and instructed them not to have breakfast.
It was the next day and after waiting for over an hour the genin finally saw their sensei approaching. He was holding two bells in one hand and two lunches in the other.
"To become genin you have one final test. By noon you have to have one of these bells in your hand. If you do not get a bell not only will you have to return to the academy but you won't get any lunch." Kakashi explained simply to the genin after they had introduced themselves. Naruto Uzimaki charged in instantly and despite all his best efforts he could not get the bells from Kakashi who dodged his attempts without taking his eyes off the book he was reading.
"What's that Akamaru?" Kiba said confused to his dog. He then nodded in agreement with the series of barks which only he could understand.
"Sakura, since there are two bells and two of us why don't we work together. We don't need a guy like Naruto in our team anyway." Kiba said to the pink haired girl. Sakura agreed reluctantly, thinking to herself that Kiba was a slightly better choice than Naruto when it came to picking an ally.
Naruto leaped at Kakashi for the 31st time and the Jonin was about to dodge when he saw Kiba diving from the other direction. He used his hands to grab both of the genin, blocking their attacks simultaneously. Sakura saw an opportunity and leapt for the bells and Kakashi swiftly jumped into the air to avoid the third attempt at taking his bells. As he reached the climax of his leap he noticed that on the back of Sakura a small white dog lay. Akamaru bounced at Kakashi, trying to steal the bells. Kakashi couldn't think of a way to stop the dog without killing it and he didn't want to anger the Inuzuka clan and so Akamaru escaped with the bells and threw one to Kiba and one to Sakura.
"You can go now Naruto, better luck next time." Kiba smirked as he waved his bell infront of the genin's face. Naruto reached for the bells but Akamaru sank his teeth into the jinchuriki's ankle causing him to fall into a heap. Kiba howled with laughter while Sakura only sighed at the childish behaviour.
Kakashi himself was facing a dilemma. While Sakura and Kiba had worked together they had used Naruto as a distraction to achieve their goal and then sacrificed him afterwards. Finally he decided to pass them because they had technically completed the test, if only because Kakashi had a soft spot for dogs.
"Sakura, Kiba, you are now genin…" Kakashi began and a frown appeared on the face of Naruto, "Naruto, you will also pass. The point of the test is to get you to work as a team in a situation which intends to divide you. During this exercise I saw partial teamwork and while it was not as good as I hoped it is something you can work on. Next time make sure Naruto is a part of the plan, no team member is more important than any other." Kakashi lectured the genin.
The next day Kakashi took his team to do their first D-Rank mission. Hiruzen, after pretending to think deeply, suggested they tried to find the missing cat of one of the civilians.
"Easy!" Kiba cried and walked off, Akamaru trailing him enthusiastically.
"We're meant to do it as a team." Sakura cried after him face palming but the Inuzuka wasn't listening.
"Well, in that case you two can go help pick up trash near the river." The Hokage said, offering the squad a second mission.
"Boring!" Naruto yawned when Sakura punched him in the face.
"Show the hokage some respect." The girl shouted at her team mate, her face turning scarlet.
Kakashi just pretended he saw nothing and kept on reading his book.
Sakura started picking up trash when she saw Naruto trying to sneak off. "No one is going to pick up this trash for you." She shouted at Naruto.
"Shadow clone jutsu." Naruto muttered and 10 more Naruto's went to help Sakura with the tedious task.
"Clones can't do work. They're only illusions." Sakura began to rant when she saw the other Naruto's making considerable progress.
"They're shadow clones Sakura. They are physical beings held together by chakra but are destroyed really easily." Kakashi said before popping one of them with a kunai for demonstrative purposes. On the inside though he was thinking about how Naruto had managed to do such an advanced jutsu and yet still couldn't make regular clones.
"This idiot can create shadow clones. No way." Kiba exclaimed as he arrived on scene.
"I guess some of us are just more talented than others." Naruto teased. Kiba grunted before helping the other two pick up trash. By noon they had returned to the hokage to get a third mission.
For the next few weeks the squad continued to do D rank missions, earning small amounts of money. Their teamwork wasn't improving though with Naruto and Kiba fighting constantly and Sakura thinking herself above everyone else. Kakashi sighed, it wasn't going to be easy.