Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Chapter Zero: Know Your Worth
When I convinced Naruto and Sasuke to work with me on these stories, they were reluctant at first. They felt ashamed and embarrassed about how we acted. We were ignorant, arrogant, selfish, and downright dumb some days. Then, they felt the joys of reliving all our accomplishments. Overall, we owe it to the people we swore to protect, our children, loved ones, and those who found strength in us, to show them that our level can be reached. No regrets, just progress.
-Jetsu-
It was 4 am, and Jetsu was up. Jetsu was usually up every morning as the sun peeked over the trees of Konoha. He did this whether he stayed up late training or went to bed in a timely manner after meditating. Today, he had to get to the training grounds before 5 am so that he could stalk his new teammates and sensei. Stalk is a strong word, but he merely wanted to see how they would conduct themselves from here on out.
After meeting Kakashi for the first time, Jetsu found him very strange, not that Jetsu didn't have his fair share of unique personality traits. Kakashi just tried really hard to come off like he doesn't care about anything. Jetsu grabbed some protein bars, because there was no way he was going to go out and train with nothing in his stomach. It's not that he was above the rules that Kakashi had put in place, he just didn't want to have zero energy for when things got exciting, and Kakashi did not seem the type to provide lunch for anyone. Kakashi was especially not bringing lunch for kids he did not like.
Jetsu went to his bedroom to make sure his genin outfit was ready. He had to admit that getting a whole new outfit for being a genin was kind of extra, but he was pretty excited about being a step away from life as a shinobi. Jetsu went to the Dark District in Konoha to get his Konoha headband stitched into the left leg of his black pants. He didn't want to put his headband around his head because he liked having his black solo braid that went down to his mid-back untouched. His pants were tapered to his calves with mesh finishing down to his standard shinobi boots. His mesh undershirt was long-sleeved down his left arm but didn't have a sleeve on his right arm. He wore a burnt red vest that revealed his dark mahogany skin tone. His black hair was shaved around his ears.
He looked in the mirror and admired his attire. He was ready to head out with notebook in hand, to start writing notes about his teammates.
The village had a little bit of stir early in the morning. Konoha, or the Hidden Leaf Village, was one of the top villages in the world. Konoha lead the Land of Fire, so it wasn't a surprise to see so many people getting ready for their daily work. Jetsu was close to the Third Training Ground when he noticed Sasuke Uchiha, one of his new teammates. He quickly leaped for a spot in a nearby tree and just observed.
Sasuke had an irritating scowl on his face. This dude never seemed pleased about anything. Sasuke did some stretching. Even the way he stretched twisted Jetsu's mouth in a frown. He was basically that "bitch with crackers".
Jetsu pulled out his notepad, and started scribbling, "Teammate is just always irritating." Jetsu had a satisfied look on his face and looked back to Sasuke.
Sasuke stopped moving. He looked around, observant. He was sensing something was around. Sasuke's irritating scowl turned into an irritating smirk. Sasuke walked up the lake connected to the training ground and ran through some hand signs. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke inhaled deeply and brought his hands to his mouth. In an exhale, a stream of fire exited his mouth, a large fireball released from the flames, and collided with the water.
Jetsu had a twitch in his left eye, and went back to his notebook, "Teammate shoots irritatingly good fireballs." Jetsu added some thoughts on when the fireball would be useful in a team fight. He couldn't tell if Sasuke did that because he knew Jetsu was there, or if he was seriously practicing. No matter, Sasuke sat down, and waited for the rest of the crew.
Soon, Naruto and his bright orange jumpsuit came through.
The cringe was strong on Jetsu's face, but he got used to Naruto's outfit over the past year of the academy. He turned the page and started writing a section on Naruto. Jetsu's first remarks, "Loud as-"
"Sasuke!" Naruto's voice boomed throughout the surrounding woods. His voice made people wonder if it was part of a voice enhancement jutsu. Naruto ran up to Sasuke and got in his face.
Sasuke looked through Naruto, "What do you want, deadlast?"
Naruto only growled in response. Up to this point, Naruto has been mocked by Sasuke in every attempt to challenge him. Why wouldn't Sasuke fight him? Naruto could see the arrogance in Sasuke's posture, and it drove him mad, much like their teammate, Jetsu.
"You just think you are so cool. Well you won't be cool when I'm Hokage of this village!" said Naruto.
Sasuke gives Naruto a glance, and brushed passed him to take a seat under a different tree, coincidentally, the tree that Jetsu had been hiding in. Naruto just huffed and turned around.
Jetsu could hear vague murmurs of Naruto's frustration, and chuckled. He had to add that to his notes, "Naruto easily feels inferior to Sasuke, but will never admit it. Hasn't shown any notable traits for team combination yet."
The lot of them stayed quiet until their sensei finally strolled in, an hour and a half past time to be there. Jetsu's eyes snapped opened, Sasuke had a twitch in his eyes, and Naruto was growling.
Jetsu quickly jotted down in his notes, "Sensei may be late very often. Must get used to doing things with the team when he isn't on time."
"Hey! What took you so long," said Naruto.
Jetsu came down from his spot in the tree, catching Naruto off guard. Jetsu spoke up, "I thought you told us to be here by 5 am?"
The one-eyed, silver haired man looked at his brats, "A black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the other way."
Kakashi smiled, ignoring the growls of his students, and began his explanation of the exercises.
"What do you mean we aren't already ninja?" Jetsu asked.
"Yeah! We have our headbands! And headbands mean we are ninja," Naruto said.
Sasuke remained quiet, but his face didn't hide his frustration and confusion.
Kakashi continued his explanation, "You only got your headbands because you passed a preliminary portion. The jonin sensei's, myself included, have the last say in whether you guys become actual ninja. Out of the 27 students who graduated only 9 will actually become genin. We will fail the other 18 kids and send them back to the academy. You guys may be part of those 18, or maybe even everyone will fail." There was a level of enjoyment Kakashi received in seeing the despair on the kids' faces.
"Wait, that's not fair. We worked so hard to get here," Naruto said.
"Not like it matters," Jetsu said, receiving the attention from Naruto, "We will just pass this portion set by Kakashi-sensei, and become Team 7. A jonin sensei ain't gonna stop dark brooder from his vengeance, or a loud-mouth like you from becoming Hokage, am I correct?"
Sasuke responded with a huff, "What are we doing today?"
Jetsu received a look from Naruto. Naruto didn't know if Jetsu was mocking him or not. It wasn't Jetsu's intentions to rile Naruto up. Naruto wanted to become Hokage no matter what anyone said. He was just regurgitating Naruto's words.
Kakashi spoke again, "You guys have one objective. Come for these two bells. The two people who can get the bells continue to become genin. The third will get no lunch and will be forced to watch everyone else eats while tied to the post," There was a pause in Kakashi's explanation. "The person without a bell will be sent back to the academy."
The three kids just realized why it was that Kakashi told them not to eat breakfast this morning. Their stomachs rumbled, except for Jetsu, who snacked on a couple protein bars. What the other don't know won't hurt them. It did startle him and the other two that Kakashi was only going to keep two of the three kids. It was strange, every team in history he has ever heard of had three people minimum. Maybe it was part of a special program?
"If you want these bells, you are going to have to come at me like you want to kill me," Kakashi said. There was a cold moment after he said that. The idea of ending someone's life crossed their minds before, but it was totally different once you have to commit to do it.
"That'll be easy, piece of cake!" Naruto said.
"Leave it to the deadlast to be the loudest. A loser like you won't have a chance at being a ninja," Kakashi said.
No one was shocked to see Naruto rush at full speed after getting insulted like that. There was a serious flow of rage within Naruto as he pulled a kunai knife from his pouch. He thrusted his arm forward. When Naruto reached Kakashi a dust cloud surrounded them. Naruto found himself with his arm behind his back.
Kakashi looked down at the blonde, spikey haired brat, and gave a light chuckle. "Don't be in such a rush. I didn't say "go" yet," said Kakashi. He pushed Naruto back to his original spot.
"But you came at me with the intent to destroy me. I think I am starting to like you guys," Kakashi said. He waited a moment to look at the smirks on their faces. He was ready to wipe every bit of hope of their faces, "Begin!"
Jetsu and Sasuke both dashed into the bushes. A good ninja knows to gain some distance, observe the enemy, and plan your attack while waiting for the right moment. Naruto must have been asleep for that lesson. Sasuke and Jetsu deadpanned. They watched Naruto take center stage.
Naruto stood proudly and demanded a one-on-one fight with Kakashi. His proclamation to take a jonin on by himself was cute, but Jetsu knew it was futile. Kakashi did not seem the type to even be beaten one-on-one with anyone. Jetsu was familiar with his type of aura and attitude. It was not uncommon to see Yakuza bosses with this attitude. This was a wasted effort, and a really dumb way to test if the kids were shinobi-ready or not.
Naruto charged at Kakashi.
"Idiot! Pull back! He is toying with us!" Jetsu screamed.
Jetsu didn't have an attachment to Naruto, not at all. Jetsu is the type to read a situation. Observing people, reading books, and studying history has all lead up to this ability of his; the ability to assess danger. He can almost feel the power emanating from Kakashi. He had to do something. Watching Naruto take steps closer to Kakashi made it harder for Jetsu to think, to think of something, to think of anything.
Naruto made contact with Kakashi. Naruto threw a sloppy punch aimed for Kakashi's face. It was blocked. Naruto crouched low to the ground and rose up for a high-kick. Kakashi ducked the swing, all while holding a book in his hand. While Kakashi was low, Naruto dashed forward for a punch directed at his face once more. It was clear he wanted to rip that facemask off Kakashi's face, and make the blood come out his nose like a waterfall. As the punch neared Kakashi's nose, the silver-haired jonin vanished. Naruto was unaware of Kakashi's whereabout.
Much to Jetsu and Sasuke's shock, Kakashi was behind Naruto, holding a tiger sign.
Jetsu thought to himself, "So fast. Naruto is finished if Kakashi does a point-blank fire jutsu."
Jetsu rushed forward, "Sasuke, help!" Jetsu reached into his pouch, launched 5 shuriken at Kakashi, and quickly pulled a kunai out of his battle pouch. Moments later, Sasuke launched a flurry of shuriken that had an impressive curve to them.
"Leaf Village Secret Finger Jutsu: One Thousand Years of-" Kakashi started, before he impaled by a flurry of shuriken.
Naruto looked behind himself in shock. Kakashi had moved behind him at a speed he didn't know was possible. Naruto saw a bloody Kakashi turn into a log with a bunch of shuriken lodged inside of it.
"Are you okay?" Jetsu asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," said Naruto. He stuttered his words as a sweat drop fell down his face. The surprise of being out maneuvered by a man with such skill made Naruto a little nervous.
Naruto and Jetsu heard rustling in the bushes behind them. They both readied their kunai to prepare themselves for combat.
Sasuke emerged from the trees with a scowl on his face.
"You forced me to give my position away," Sasuke said.
"We had to keep Naruto from losing his life," Jetsu said.
"Tch, that isn't my problem."
"But you helped anyway, so it seems you felt as if it was."
"I didn't ask you guys to save me! I had it handled by myself," Naruto joined in.
"How about a "thanks"?" Jetsu retorted.
"This is pointless, I need to get a bell before time is up. You two are in my way," Sasuke said.
"No way, I'm getting a bell! I need to become a ninja!" Naruto said.
"Could you guys stop, and think for a second?" Jetsu screamed.
Naruto and Sasuke looked toward their black-haired teammate. They both desired to not be bothered. Naruto was embarrassed to be saved, and Sasuke wanted to hurry up and fight Kakashi.
"Sasuke, do you really think you can handle him on by yourself?" Jetsu asked.
He looked into Sasuke's eye. Sasuke knew the answer. Jetsu knew the answer. Naruto found that answer out the hard way.
"I need to beat him. I need this training so that I can kill a certain someone," Sasuke said.
Jetsu wondered about Sasuke's goal. No doubt he was talking about the man that killed every Uchiha in the village, except for Sasuke. There is just no way Sasuke is powerful enough right now to kill a mass murderer.
"Well if you get beat here, or even worse, killed, you ain't avenging your clan," Jetsu said, trying to reason with the comrade-in-question.
"There are two bells, all three of us wouldn't be able to pass anyway, so unless you are letting dobby over a get bell," Sasuke said while ignoring Naruto's retort to being called a "dobby". Sasuke continued, "or letting us get the bells, why do you think we should work together?"
That was a good question. Jetsu pondered the question for a moment. Jetsu found his answer, "You two can pass."
Naruto and Sasuke both had incredulous looks on their faces. Jetsu saying that both of them could pass while he is left behind didn't make sense to them.
"You were the top student in class. Why would you give up your opportunity that you worked for go like that?" Naruto said. He stepped into Jetsu's face. Naruto was offended at Jetsu's declaration.
"I agree, you don't know us. From what I remember in the academy, you didn't like many of us. Why are you being like this?" Sasuke asked.
Jetsu backed up from Naruto's hot, stank breath and chuckled. He looked between the two of them. He didn't know exactly how to make sense of this feeling in the pit of his stomach. "I don't have the ambition behind becoming a ninja like you two do," he said.
"What do you know about my ambition?" Sasuke said.
"I know that the two of you would force yourselves in solo combat with Kakashi for what feels like no reason just to reach your goals. I wouldn't try to fight a jonin level shinobi for nothing, right now at least," Jetsu said.
Naruto still didn't get it, "Then why are you trying to become a shinobi? Why would you throw all of that away?"
Naruto and Sasuke both noticed the sadness in Jetsu's eyes. It was brief, but it was very clear that their teammate wasn't feeling confident. That burned Naruto up. Someone who has shown clear aptitude didn't have the right to give up unlike someone like Naruto who has been struggling since day one.
"We can talk about that after you two pass. We have maybe a few hours to grab the bells from Kakashi, and something tells me we just gave him a lot of time to set up a game plan."
Sasuke looked around. He couldn't see Kakashi at all. "So, does anyone have a plan?" Sasuke asked.
"Naruto, what jutsus do you know that we can use to possibly distract Kakashi?"
Naruto smirked, "I've got a little something."
Jetsu smiled at the Naruto's devious look, "Good. Sasuke, take Kakashi on solo, we need to throw him off. Make him think that you are going to go toe-to-toe. We will support you when the time is right."
Sasuke and Naruto both nodded their heads, and they dashed off to look for Kakashi.
When they finally found Kakashi, he was sitting on a tree in the middle of the forest reading that damn orange book. Naruto wanted to give him the one-two, but Jetsu glared at him.
Jetsu then turned to Sasuke and gave him the thumbs up. Sasuke dashed forward.
"Ahhh, I was wondering when I was going to find one of my adorable trainees. It looks like I got Mr. Avenger himself. How are you going to gain strength when you are back at the academy?" Kakashi said in a mocking joke.
"You won't find it adorable when I have those bells in my hand," Sasuke said. He flew into a flurry of taijutsu combinations.
Sasuke forced Kakashi to back up before launching a punch. Sasuke's punch was blocked and grabbed by Kakashi. Sasuke refused to end his assault and turned his body around for a downwards kick toward Kakashi's head.
Kakashi with his free hand grabbed Sasuke's leg. Kakashi had Sasuke upside-down in air, but Sasuke used his free arm to reach for the bells. Before Sasuke to fully touch a bell, Kakashi let go of the young Uchiha, and jumped backwards. He wasn't aware that he hit a tripwire on his retreat.
A log swung from a tree and threatened to splatter Kakashi. He jumped in the air forced to block a kick from Jetsu who had been waiting for Kakashi to avoid the trap. The power from the kick forced Kakashi into a swarm of Naruto shadow clones.
Kakashi looked at the clones in shock. 'He has this much chakra to make that many clones,' Kakashi thought to himself.
Kakashi dodged and parried the attacks from the clones. For every attack Kakashi moved from, there was another clone following up. Kakashi started to fight back. He knocked clone after clone out of existence. There seemed to be no end to these clones. The situation increased in difficulty when he found himself dodging shurikens from the side lines.
Kakashi used some clones to act as meat shields to protect him from some of the shurikens tossed by Sasuke. Kakashi was interested in this plan of attack. This was some serious accuracy from Sasuke, and Naruto seemed to have the clones attacking in coordination, allowing Sasuke the space and visual to aim for him. There was one person missing.
One of the Naruto clone poofed into smoke and revealed itself to be Jetsu. Jetsu dashed forward, but he was seen by Kakashi. Jetsu saw that Kakashi was about to engage him, but Naruto and clones had restricted his movements by holding onto Kakashi's legs, arms, and jumping onto his back.
Kakashi saw that Jetsu's focus was the bells. He laughed at the genin. "This is what you guys thought was going to work?" Kakashi asked.
He shrugged off one of the Narutos that was on his leg and threw him at Jetsu. He then pulled the Naruto that was on his back and forced him onto the ground.
Sasuke rushed out of the bushes. 'This is bad,' he thought to himself.
Sasuke went through a few hand seals, ending on tiger, stopped in place, took a deep breath, and unleashed a fierce plum of fire, "Fire style: Great Fire Ball Jutsu!"
"What? Genin aren't supposed to know fire jutsus!" Kakashi said before he was engulfed in flames.
Jetsu and Naruto appeared next to Sasuke.
"Do you think we got him?" Naruto asked.
When the three boys went to inspect the damage, they saw a charred log, and ashes that appeared to be the bells.
"So, does it count even if the bells are gone entirely?" Naruto asked.
They got closer, and before they realized what was going on, Naruto's feet were enclosed with a rope, and it lifted him into the air.
Sasuke and Jetsu both found themselves pulled underground with their heads barely above the surface.
"Earth Style: Double Headhunter Jutsu," Kakashi said.
The jonin ignored the cries by Naruto to be let down. He chuckled at the look of rage on Sasuke's face. Then, he looked at Jetsu, who appeared to be pretty calm. Maybe, he didn't embarrass him enough.
"Are you not mad that all three of you guys are caught in a trap?" Kakashi asked.
"Why would I be?" Jetsu said.
"Because, you cannot pass if no one has the bells."
"But we do have the bells."
Kakashi paused for a brief moment and looked down by his side. He didn't realize the charred bells on the ground weren't the bells at all. He looked at the kids. None of them seemed to have it at first glance.
"There is no way for you to know for sure unless you pull Sasuke and me out. Besides, we are starving, and would love to eat," Jetsu said.
Kakashi looked at the kids and obliged to their request.
They went to the posts that Kakashi had originally planned to tie the kids to. Jetsu had both bells in hand, and Kakashi was looking at the kids as if each of them had two heads.
"You don't have to keep looking at us like we are unicorns. We will explain to you how we obtained the bells," Jetsu said.
Kakashi saw the pride the boys were wearing, so he didn't want to get onto them for their confidence. It was a clean victory. He was prepared to listen to how these kids had outwitted him.
Naruto jumped in excitement, "Ooo! Can I explain how we did it?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes, but he did have a slight smile on his face. Jetsu nodded to give Naruto the go-ahead.
"After we had all decided that fighting a jonin one-on-one wasn't going to get us the bells, Jetsu came up with the idea to attack you one after the other. We figured that you expected us to keep trying to come after you one by one. So, we had Sasuke start, to lure you into a trap, then, I would continue to push you back. When you saw Jetsu come for you, you noticed that he was going to grab the bells. What you didn't notice though, was that my clone transformed into Jetsu. We didn't want you guessing where he was. Jetsu had transformed into me and put a genjutsu on you while he was on your back. The Naruto you thought was me was actually him. We had replaced the bells with twigs transformed into the bells, so that you wouldn't notice after the genjutsu ended. Sasuke using his fire ball jutsu was a cover to burn the bells, so that you would think we had toasted them. Believe it!"
Kakashi looked at the three boys that were in front of him. They were true ninja. They came together, despite their differences, and were able to use taijutsu, genjutsu, and ninjutsu in combination to obtain the bells. They played the game of "plan and deceit" well. Maybe they were good enough to take on as students.
"So, which two are staying, and which one is going to the academy?" Kakashi asked.
There was a silence among the boys. It was time to decide. Two bells mean that two people pass.
"Well, I already said I didn't need to stay. Dumby and Broody have greater ambitions than I do. Kakashi-sensei, send me back," Jetsu said.
"Wait a minute!" Naruto screamed, "Don't leave me stuck here with Sasuke. There is no way I want to be with his smug ass and having a scarecrow for a teacher. I'll go back to the academy, and just pass again!"
"Don't think that I am staying. We got the bells using a simple strategy. He is not the type of jonin sensei that will train me hard enough to become the avenger I need to be. I am better off going back, and getting placed with a different sensei, and not with deadlast and Mr. Pretentious," Sasuke said.
Kakashi's jaw dropped. They all managed to find a reason to be the one sent back, despite being obnoxious about it. He took a deep breath, and a long look at the bickering kids. Even though they are making up excuses, Kakashi could tell that they were actually showing gratitude for one another. This is the type of team he had been waiting for. With these three kids, he would be able to forge a team that would lead Konoha into a better future.
"You all pass," Kakashi said with an eye-smile. The mask over his face made it hard to see an actual smile.
Naruto's grin couldn't get any bigger. "Yatta! We did it! I'm a real ninja now, believe it!"
Sasuke's shoulders relaxed as he heard the good news. He didn't really want to go back to the academy, but he would have felt guilty for staying if one of the others, who had helped, had to stay back.
Jetsu chuckled. He wasn't entirely sure if he believed it himself. Having to go back to the academy only would have meant he would be top of the class again. No serious changes would happen. Well, he would have had to put his badass pants back in the closet for another season.
"The point of this test is to see whether you guys were willing to work together or not. I tried to pit you all against each other, but it seems that one of you caught on fast to the reality of the situation. There will be times where sacrifices are necessary. The mission is important. Ninja who don't complete their missions are scum. Ninja who leave their friends behind are worse than scum." Kakashi said.
He wanted to burn that into their minds as he gave each student deep eye contact. He walked over to Jetsu and patted him on his head.
"You were able to grasp the situation, and lead your teammates to a successful mission," Kakashi said.
Jetsu looked at the ground. He wasn't expecting such direct praise. He felt a pride well up in his stomach. That is, until Kakashi picked him up, and tied him to the post.
"How would you like to tell everyone that you had breakfast, which probably helped your critical thinking skills," Kakashi said.
"Wait, wait," Jetsu attempted. His teammates glared at him as if he tried to steal the village secrets.
"No food for you!" Naruto said.
"Oh, come on! Remember, don't leave teammates behind! Don't be scummy!" Jetsu said.
Sasuke and Naruto went to enjoy their lunch in front of Jetsu, as his punishment for not following the rules. Besides, someone had to not get lunch.
Kakashi laughed with the kids and ate his own lunch as well.
Team 7 was official.
Becoming Team Seven was a little thanks to me. It's possible that everyone would have worked together eventually, but Kakashi failed every kid before. There was a high chance that they would all have been sent back. That day also changed their way of thinking, at least a little a bit.