Chapter 1:
Many years ago, shortly after the third great war devastated the Elemental countries, a nine tailed demon fox suddenly appeared in one of the ninja villages. It citizens were caught by surprise and there were many casualties.
Now, more than a decade later the village hidden in the Leaves is at peace.
"GET BACK HERE!"
"BITE ME!" A young boys' voice laughs as he runs
Well...so much for peaceful...
-You think you know this story right? The story of Uzumaki Naruto, who as a young boy loved to pull pranks? By now I'm sure you believe you know what's happening…
-This isn't that story…
Though this is also about one Uzumaki Naruto. Allow us to go back in time a bit so we can see the events that lead up to this…
*Penglium on a clock swinging back and forth as we go back a couple years in time to see the events leading up to the scene we just witnessed.*
As it was said before, by many people, Kakashi didn't have a normal childhood and thus needs a little help, only now it's more like a lot of help, in the interaction department. Especially now that he might end up teaching three pre-teen brats and 'Damn it Sandaime-sama they're a fucking mirror image of Team Minato. Between Naruto having his father's looks, Kushina nee-san's personality. Sasuke who reminds me of Obito in the fact that they both had huge expectations thrust upon them from their clan. The only difference being Sasuke is better at Shuriken jutsu then Obito and Sasuke is revenge obsessed. And finally Sakura who is just as cheerful and is the acting bridge of the team like Rin.'
Thoughts speed through Kakashi's head as he observes his possible team.
He watches as Naruto seems to twitch, as if deciding to prank him- it has been over an hour Kakashi notes. Only to shake his head and pull out a book causing Kakashi to do a double take. Naruto reading a book of all things, Sasuke is broding and Sakura is fangirling.
Kakashi sighs over how accurate the latter's files are. He didn't fully read them but he did look at the notes. Haruno Sakura, poor grades in endurance and sparing. Decent marks in weapons practice and genjutsu along with high marks for written exams. But that's it. She has excellent memorizational skills and decent skills in illusions. She has amazing skills in being disillusioned to the fact that she'll survive if she keeps fawning over the Uchiha instead of her studies. Kakashi thanks every god he knows by name that his team mate Rin wasn't like that.
He explains the objective of the test and watches as as soon as the signal to begin is given two of them hide perfectly… for green gennin. The third… well… he appears to have problems hiding, seeing as how he's standing right in front of Kakashi. A little sensing and it's clear that the real third member of the team is hiding and the one in front of him is a clone. Kakashi mentally nods impressed.
'Wise choice. When facing an unknown opponent, don't directly attack. It'll only tire you out and get you killed faster. Instead use a clone to scout the enemies abilities.' it's the same thing Kakashi does when against an opponent with unknown abilities.
The clone waits for him to move, a wise decision as should the clone, and by extension inexperienced genin, charge at an opponent it could quickly lead to the clone dispelling and the genins death. However it also carries risks. Should the enemy be fast enough the genin would be dead before they could even realize it. But in this case Kakashi will give him a pass seeing as how this is a genin exam, a friendly spar really, between two people of the same village.
Kakashi notes how the clone fights, a little too tight and rigidly as if he's trying to perform a style he's so unused to and so unsuited for. Kakashi wouldn't be surprised if the academy style tai-jutsu taught to the students was unfamiliar to Naruto. Even less surprised if the style wasn't suited for Naruto. Naruto's mother wasn't suited to them either. It was to structured for her to learn, and structured naturally meant boring in the Uzumaki language.
Kakashi is surprised that Naruto, even a clone of him, was trying to fight with the academy style. It was all too apparent however that Naruto wasn't accustomed to the style. It was as if he never really bothered learning about it until that morning, because of sabotage or Naruto being Naruto that is up in the air. While Kakashi knows that Naruto had a habit of sticking to what felt right during the academy spars instead of bothering to learn the full academy style. It isn't that Naruto is stupid. Quite the contrary, he is just his mother's son and a Uzumaki through and through. They just have too much chakra and it makes it damn near impossible for them to really focus on any one thing, not enough to be ADD or ADHD but enough to cause them to get twitchy if not kept entertained, or moving. There are only two ways that ever seems to hold an Uzumaki's attention, the first being the Uzumaki being determined to learn something. The second Sealing. Sealing is the one thing that ever seems to hold an Uzumakis attention without requiring that the Uzumaki have a squishy to help keep themselves semi-still. Possibly because of the sheer amount that one can do with it and the possibilities that open up because of it. 'Like a swiss-army knife that civilians use' Kakashi muses as he gets behind the clone.
"Ninja lesson number one, Tai-jutsu. Leaf Village secret taijutsu!"
"Naruto get out of there! He's going to destroy you!" Kakashi can hear Sakura call. While he gives her credit for caring about her teammate, she loses a point for giving away her position.
"A thousand years of death!" He finishes his technique, sending the clone flying into the water.
Kakashi decides to possibly start Naruto on some fuuin jutsu theory at a later date once he has all the information he needs on not only Naruto's performance level outside of the academy but Sasuke and Sakura as well. Not everyone is best in the academy, Kakashi knows this and understands it. While he did read all three of his prospective students files he isn't going to completely accept everything they said, Naruto went through a trauma before he met Kakashi. Kakashi can already see the change, he used to be one of the Anbu who guarded the kid and caught him after a prank after-all.
Though he would never admit to looking the other way a time or two... Or several.. When he saw Naruto walk through the village with a fox like grin and a gallon (or two) of paint or some other pranking supplies. But it did keep everyone on their toes and did help find where security was lax. The fact that it doubled as training for the boy or that Kakashi would sometimes figure whoever was on the receiving end of it probably deserved it- a few of those people coincidentally being on Kakashi's shit list too- helped. Kakashi never helped Naruto though, no way. He was a shinobi and thus did not look the other way. Or stare after him and smile proudly when the man who had given him a hard time about allowing his pack into the restaurant walked down the road one day sporting green hair. NOPE. Didn't happen.
He twists to avoid a kunai that he's almost positive the clone didn't throw. THat means he should be able to start attacking Naruto directly now. The kid has been doing well so far, despite Naruto clearly never really having learned academy katas, the kid was keeping him on his toes. Kakashi's breath hadn't picked up, why would it he was a badass ex-anbu jounin, he did have to keep double thinking where the fucking hell the kid might attack next. 'True Uzumaki style' Kakashi thinks fondly, remembering back to when Kushina-nee chan had decided to spar with him because she was getting extra twitchy because it had been raining all week and she ran out of fuuin jutsu supplies, and how the fuck that was possible enough to happen Minato-sensei and him never did find out. So they went to a room where sensei had enough sense a while back to plaster every available inch with seals to prevent all types of damage due to spar, or the rage of a pissed off wife when her idiotic-workaholic-husband forgot something important.
He disappears using a substitution jutsu and appears behind a Naruto crouching through in the bushes. Kakashi shakes his head, Naruto should have known better then to stay in one spot after attacking Kakashi like that. It gave away his position. Kakashi taps on Naruto's shoulder only for the blonde to disappear in a puff of smoke. Kakashi blinks impressed. 'Another clone huh? This is going to be fun.' Kakashi has to jump out of the way in order to keep from being skewered by a volley of kunai that the Naruto clone throws his way. Only to watch in shocked fascination as Naruto grows a fox like grin. The same one that the boy would get before and after a well executed prank. This grin wasn't the you-did-something-to-someone-I care-about type of fox-grin. Kakashi had seen that grin back in Anbu when he gave the kid a name or two of people who had aggravated him a few too many times. No, this was the You-just-fell-into-my-trap-I-did-it, type of fox grin that the kid would get when he just felt like pranking for attention. Naruto looks all too pleased as one of the kunai managed to cut a rope which activated a trap and 'When the fuck did he set that up?' a nice sized crater is formed when the ground gives away, revealing a pit trap lined with what looks like poison ivy leaves at the bottom.
'Now that is just uncalled for. I know I was late to pick them up yesterday and I was late to the test today but that is just plain cruel punishment for a couple hour wait.' Kakashi heaves a sigh, wondering where Naruto managed to procure the poison ivy. No longer bothering to just dodge and evade Naruto's attacks or push him back; instead dispelling the clone. Just as the puff of smoke dissipates he has to dodge a ball of fire and 'How in the fucking hell does a genin have the capacity for a katon jutsu?' Kakashi wonders incredulously. He knows learning Uchiha Katon jutsu is a rite of passage for Uchiha but that was mostly supposed to be reserved for when the clan member became a genin. Not before they passed the final test. Though Kakashi probably should have seen it coming. This was Uchiha Fugaku's son, Itachi's little brother after all. It only made sense that after all that happened the boy would strive to learn jutsu and other techniques to help him catch up to Itachi's level. From what Kakashi read the boy also excelled at shuriken jutsu. Not exactly Itachi's forte even though the young, now rogue ninja, was no slouch in them. Kakashi knew from experience that Itachi preferred genjutsu, it was more subtle- more Itachi's style.
Kakashi can feel Sasuke's hand on his belt and teleports out of the way before Sasuke can completely grab a bell. Grabbing the bell isn't the full objective and Sasuke hasn't fulfilled the entire objective. He wonders what Sakura is up to and decides to try to find her. Performing a quick jutsu leaves Sasuke buried up to his neck in the dirt and Kakashi is off once more. He extends his senses trying to find the other two. He finds a sign of both. Naruto over by the bentos about twenty yards to his left and Sakura is heading the kids way. 'Could she perhaps have figured out the meaning of the test? Is she about to work with Naruto?' Kakashi knows she prefers her precious Sasuke, but could she possibly be setting that aside to work with his Sensei's hyperactive son?
He gets closer and listens in to what transpires.
Sakura walks towards Naruto, there is about thirty minutes left in the test and Sakura walks up to Naruto looking unsure of something.
"Naruto-kun? What are you doing?"
"Messing with the clock. He said when the timer goes off we'll be out of time. If he had been here on time we would have had another three hours."
"So you're cheating the test?" She asks, eyes wide and jaw slowly dropping "But Naruto you can't cheat. There's no way that will work. He's sure to have a good sense of time."
"Actually" Naruto drawls. "From what I understand, plenty of jonin, while having a good sense of time, that applies to things like when to eat or go someplace, things that they do in their day to day life to the point they can do it on autopilot. Not to something like a test which they don't do every day. Also. He set the timer on this thing to go off at one. Not twelve. Something tells me he is used to eating at different times." Kakashi mentally nods to himself from his hiding place in the trees, able to follow the kids logic. However he also sees a few problems with it. While Kakashi might not know the exact time, he can tell the rough estimation from the sun's location and is far too used to going without a clock while on missions. This is no different.
Sakura looks like she's about to protest but Naruto looks like he got the outcome he wanted. Sakura shakes her head and starts berating him on how it won't work and if Sensei finds out she is not going to help him out of any trouble he finds himself in.
'Well this won't do.' Kakashi decides. If this girl by some miracle passes he is going to take her aside and lecture her about how one does not just leave their teammates to face doom alone. That's not how the leaf operates and sure as shit isn't how Kakashi runs things.
'Sad part is if it was Sasuke she would probably gush over how smart he is and promise to help him should anything happen.' Kakashi shakes his head sadly. It was always sad when one teammate had to play fangirl and prefer one teammate over the other when it came to things like this. Kakashi could understand if one team mate had a better plan
But to just outright object to a plan, especially when she didn't have a better one and there was nothing to lose in just trying it… Kakashi has to fight the urge to pinch the bridge of is nose in frustration. How in the world did this girl graduate. He watches as she rants to Naruto about his plan being stupid and then comments about going off to look for Sasuke before heading off on her own. No mention of working together with Naruto, no asking Naruto how he planned on getting the bells and Kakashi can see Naruto looks a little upset by the girls words but the blond shakes it off and continues fiddling with something and makes clones. Spreading them out, no doubt to look for him. Kakashi takes off after Sakura and places her in a well placed genjutsu just ten metres into the woods from where she left Naruto to his own devices, the pink haired girl had no clue Kakashi was even there before the genjutsu hit. He made sure to make it the same level slightly more experienced genin would recognize as punishment for her treatment of a possible team mate. Yep, never let it be said Kakashi was incapable of being a vindictive jackass. Crossing the 'No leaving team mates behind' rule was just asking for Kakashi to be knocking on your door and knocking you down a peg or two. It was looking less likely that that girl would pass this test. Kakashi decides to head towards Sasuke since he can sense one of the Naruto clones near there. He watches as Naruto helps to dig Sasuke out of the hole and Sasuke, in true Uchiha fashion, nods and grunts his thanks. Kakashi decides to allow them a bit to plan since it looks like they are working together. 'No use spoiling all the fun.' He thinks as he shunshins back to their original meeting spot.
"So, it's good to know Sensei has an earth affinity. He's fast too, but that's expected of a jounin."
'Did the usuratonkachi actually just start talking about our opponents skills? Is he trying to strategize?' Sasuke starts taking in what information Naruto provides. He already knew it of course, he watched the other males fight with their sensei. He also noticed the solid clone and places that information in a file in his mind labeled 'Available resources to use against annoying jonin.'
"You used to run circles around the jonin after your pranks didn't you?" Sasuke asks, because he's noticed Naruto. He's noticed how there just seems to be something different in him and he knows the blonde might be the same idiot from the academy. But he's changed, between the night of graduation and when they showed up to the academy to get their teams a couple days later. Something happened, the teen has been more focused, like he has the aura around him that makes him seem like a true genin. Not the loud mouthed idiot he was a week ago. Sasuke wants to see exactly what Naruto can do when he isn't fooling around and knows about the blonds pranking history. He saw exactly what he did to the monument the morning before the graduation test. How he pulled it off in broad daylight in a NINJA village would remain a mystery but Sasuke held the feeling the security sucked.
Naruto nods his head. "I was able to figure out a whole bunch of shortcuts that only I could fit through and was able to lose them a few times. The only one who was able to always catch me was Iruka-sensei. Jounin are able to catch me, if I start slowing down or if I go the wrong direction. More often than not they didn't bother to figure out an actual plan on how to catch me after my pranks though. What do my pranks have to do with anything?"
"Not exactly your pranks but your speed. Sensei is fast, and there is no way I'll be able to match him in speed. As much as I hate to admit it, I can't beat him. I can't beat a jonin."
"Nothing wrong with that. He's jounin for a reason. I'm willing to bet there are quite a few chunin who couldn't beat Kakashi-sensei. Why should genin be able to take him so easily?"
Sasuke grunts. "Any ways, we're almost out of time. It's about twelve, the timer should be going off soon."
Naruto rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "About that. I may have set the clock back a couple hours. If you check the clock it's about eight right now."
Sasuke's eyebrow raises suspiciously wondering
'Did this usuratonkachi actually come up with a plan?'
"Well, he did say before the timer went off. So it was worth a shot. He never instructed us to not touch the clock. Anyways, where is Sakura? She was going to look for you when I saw her a while ago."
"You think she ran into Sensei?"
"Possibly. What way do you think she is?"
"Come on. Let's find the annoying fangirl." Sasuke sighs as if wondering why he's even suggesting this. Sakura is annoying, doesn't have anything to offer.
'But that Usuratonkachi, he didn't seem to care Sakura is on our team even though he's had a crush on her for years. And whereas before he would have ignored me and tried to finish this thing by himself, charging in head first and getting his ass handed to himself. Now he's talking about plans with me, he hasn't challenged me once. This usuratonkachi is interesting, I'm curious to know what changed him and how much.'
They find Sakura and Sasuke breaks her out of the genjutsu and she immediately tries to latch onto him, crying about how it was horrible and both he and Naruto were dead and she was about to drown in quicksand.
"Sakura?" Naruto calls to break her out of her tears. "It was a genjutsu. It wasn't real. Sasuke and I are adding our information about sensei. You had high marks in the academy for profiling. I'd estimate Sensei to be roughly 175 centimetres. About 60 kg in weight. No that's not right, the weight behind his punches doesn't feel right. 65 seems more accurate."
"He's got a lean build. He's able to turn quickly." Sakura adds slowly coming out of her genjutsu induced stupor. If Kakashi was there he wouldn't believe these genin were PROFILING HIM and would be a little nervous.
"He's fast but it's not all speed. His strength doesn't seem to slow him down. I saw him looking away from the fight he had with Naruto when this started."
"What direction would you say he was facing?" Naruto asks, Sasuke thinks on it. "About eight O'clock."
"That's where I was while setting up the traps for him. Looks like he's able to sense us."
"Which means he's a tracker." Sakura sighs.
Naruto's eyes widen and he gains a fox-like grin. "Sasuke, remember what you said earlier about me being able to escape jonin after a prank?" Sasuke grunts in the positive.
"Do either of you remember sensei saying anything about staying in this field?"
Both of them just look at eachother.
Kakashi is in the clearing when he senses his possible team moving like a bat out of hell away from the field. Now Kakashi is by no means a cat. He is however a human, and humans can get curious. So, like any normal human Kakashi decides to go investigate figuring it's part of their plan to get the bells… somehow… What he doesn't figure is the paint bombs that bombard him almost as soon as he's out of the training field. Kakashi blinks and stands there for all of a minute before he feels a visible tick forming, and takes off in pursuit of the three that planned this. Ok, so he was really only after Naruto at this point because who else would have set a trap like this? But that's a minor detail.
He tracks the little shit all over the village- several traps activating including but not limited to eggs, feathers, paint bombs, smoke bombs, pencils, erasers, toilet paper, pudding and kami only knows what that green sludge is- till he catches their trail heading towards the academy? 'Makes sense. They know the territory better than I do.' After all what jonin spends time around an academy where there are several dozen pre-genin who are bound to ask you to show off or a billion questions about missions and what being a ninja is like when you could be training, or if you are coming back from a rough mission showering and sleeping- yes at the same time.
He manages to trip more than a few traps and wonders what is wrong with kids these days? Upon arriving he was bombarded with water balloons, the childish projectiles flying off of the roof of the academy? Doing a quick chakra check reveals Sasuke and Sakura helping to throw the balloons. Which only seems to set off another pit-trap. Huh. He was beginning to sense a theme with the kid. 'Note, Naruto loves pit traps.' He goes deeper into the back hills behind the academy and is shocked as shortly after his arrival he has to dodge log traps, smoke bombs, and is that a homemade stink bomb? Kami-sama that stinks. Kakashi finds himself cursing the Sandaime once again that day. Elsewhere the Sandaime sneezes.
'Where did he get the stuff for that and how did he come up with the idea of mixing it all together?' He wonders with a mixture of disbelief and revulsion. He avoids a few more attempts of Sasuke and Naruto trying to grab his belt, all the while dodging kunai Sakura sets off. They retreat, their chakra signatures fade from his range and follows them. The little devils arrive in the training field just as the timer goes off.
"Well, that's time. You three failed to get a bell but I'm willing to give you all a second chance." He ends up tying Sakura to a tree, seeing as how didn't even attempt to get a bell and was willing to throw Naruto in front of the proverbial kunai was still something that he could forget.
"If you want a second chance you are not to feed Sakura. I'll be back after lunch to check that you have obeyed my order."
With that he teleports out in a swirl of leaves and waits in the trees nearby. He watches with pride as they feed Sakura and appears, thunderous expression and storm clouds above his head asking why they fed her.
"She's our team mate." Sasuke answers. Well, he grunts but that's what that particular grunt means- Kakashi has enough experience to know.
Naruto shouts at Kakashi how "She'll need the energy to keep up with you Sensei. We're genin, how do you expect her to manage against you on a empty stomach. Dattebayo?"
The clouds dissipate and Kakashi eye smiles at them. "You pass." He passes on the most important lesson he possibly can to them. "Those that break the rules are scum but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum." He tells them to meet the next day at six o'clock and asks Naruto about those stink bombs and the traps in the back hills.
Naruto responds they are all left over from the other month. He created them when he was younger and just keeps resetting them when he goes on runs, "They came in handy when I was being chased by these three women from another village a couple years ago." and as for the smoke bombs "I was a prankster sensei. I experimented with stuff until I found something good enough." Kakashi nods, feeling a headache coming on and leaves to give his report to the Hokage that they passed- and to give him a few choice words about how he hates his genin- never knowing what the three of them do afterwards.
An: This chapter is 7 pages and 4,340 words long. As you can see I wanted to do a chapter showing more of what Kakashi noticed, and how the bell test would have changed. Sorry if the characters seem to be Out Of Character. But I'm working to change a lot, this is the ground work but I am trying to make it as believable as possible. I did this chapter as part of NANOWRIMO. I can not guarantee a chapter every day since I'm working on a few different stories as a part of it this month. What I update depends on what I feel like writing that day. Or maybe the day before since I'm working on a few stories and I work.