Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
It was a simple plan really, give them the old bell test, make them squirm, and then flunk them. Ha. HA. It used to be a laughing riot, but then THIS team came along. Didn't seem like anything special at first, besides being the only Uchiha left in Konoha, the Jinchuriki of the most powerful demon in existence, and a girl with pink hair, the team seemed rather... boring, to say the least. They looked like they hated each other, (sans the girl with the crush on the Uchiha); they always argued and fought amongst each other. Kakashi had no hope for this team, their teamwork must be terrible.
That is until he actually started the exam. THAT'S when he noticed a significant change in character from the small genin team. The blonde stopped in mid-argument with the Uchiha and turned his neck ever so slowly towards Kakashi. Once his neck was completely looking towards the general direction of his sensei a huge CRACK was heard. His frown turned into one of determination and anger. His eyes turned into a sickening black void. His breathing turned deep and ragged, he looked positively feral!
The Uchiha paid no attention to the blonde and started to pop his fingers, one... by... one. Kakashi could hear his mouth turning into a smirk. The smirk then turned into a sadistic grin, his eyes widened until he looked positively insane! He rolled his eyes backwards, exposing his sclera (white of the eye).
The girl was by far the creepiest. She stopped her daydreaming session about a certain Uchiha and began to giggle like a mad woman. Her fingers were twitching with spasms as she turned towards her sensei, once her eyes met with his she screamed like a banshee and began to mutter diabolical thoughts. She arched her back and fell on all fours; she looked as if she was ready to pounce.
Kakashi had seen a lot of things in his career as a shinobi; this was not one of them. Not even close. He flinched when they all looked at each other and began to nod. They weren't giving off KI, they were just plain creepy!
Kakashi tried to relax, breathe in breath out. Turns out it's really hard to do so with 3 pairs of eyes staring right into your soul. He then began to think 'Naruto is a prankster, everyone in the village knows this, he surely couldn't have convinced the other two to aid him in his prank right? Right?' His thoughts were interrupted by a clean punch to his stomach.
Kakashi immediately threw himself with the momentum of the punch and landed several yards away from his attacker. The punch didn't necessarily hurt that much, it had caught him by surprise and knocked the wind out of him sure, but no big damage done. He checked the bells and was relieved to find out that both of them were still in his possession. Turns out the attacker had been Sakura, but she obviously held back, but for what?
*SNAP*
His silent question was answered by a rope snapping in half, sending a tree trunk rolling right into his direction. He barely managed to jump out of the way only to get tackled by Naruto towards the barreling tree.
Kakashi did a quick kawarimi to a safe distance but manage to see Naruto getting crushed by the tree trunk. Before he could go and check on the blonde, a voice startled him from behind.
"HaVIng FUn kAKasHi-SeNSeI? bECauSe wE arE!"
Kakashi bolted out of his vantage point in the bushes before throwing a kunai behind him. A dull thud was heard before Sasuke ran Out of the bush towards Kakashi, but didn't stop there. He continued to run. And run. And run.
Three different voices yelled from the ends of the small training field. They all yelled the same thing "LEt thE GAmeS BeGIN!"
Kakashi was completely terrified on how Sasuke managed to sneak on him without getting caught. That was beyond explanation! Even if Sasuke was a "prodigy", he was still a genin; nothing could have made it possible for Sasuke to do such a thing!
Kakashi was broken out of his stupor by Naruto. The Jinchuriki stood in the center of the small clearing they were in with his head facing the ground. He looked as if nothing had happened with the tree trunk from earlier!
'So the rumors ARE true, he can use Kage Bunshin!' Kakashi thought as he tried to remain calm, this fight was actually affecting the jounin severely. There was excitement sure, this test was a hell of a lot more fun he could have ever asked for, but there was also fear. This team seemed so innocent and boring. The immediate change not only disturbed him, it completely caught him off guard.
Sensing an immediate threat behind him, he then ducked from a sudden barrage of shuriken. The deadly equipment continued to fly until they were suddenly plucked out of the air and tossed back by Naruto. Kakashi had no choice but to leave himself vulnerable by tossing himself towards the left, and just as he had suspected, Sasuke came back with an aerial assault of his own. He threw two kunai, each of them on the far side of Kakashi. The kunai moved quickly and Kakashi barely had time to notice the wire that connected them both together.
'They got me.' was all Kakashi could think of as the wire wrapped around his torso and effectively immobilized him.
Sasuke then started to look like his former self again; he didn't look like a child of hell anymore.
Naruto and Sakura regrouped with Sasuke several seconds later and just stared at their new sensei. He stared back. They stared harder. He glared. They tossed the bells at him.
Two small *poofs* were heard from Kakashi's' belt. They replaced the bells... Without even getting caught.
"When did you switch them?" Kakashi asked as he tried to cut the wire with a dagger, the wire wouldn't budge for some reason.
They smirked.
That hurt his pride a lot more than he thought it would have.
"Well, to enlighten you, sensei..." Naruto spoke; the word sensei was said slowly, as if he were enjoying a delicious treat. "We did a little research on you yesterday... We *ahem* borrowed, some files about you from the Hokage, and we decided to look up the teams you failed.
Kakashi went wide eyed at this.
"They really don't like you. Like seriously, they hate you." Sasuke announced as he open one of the lunch boxes that were there. Naruto and Sakura nodded in agreement. Kakashi sweat dropped.
"As I was saying, we asked them for details on your 'survival test'. After we figured out about the bells, we just picked the lock on your door and stole the bells that were in your nightstand. We then replaced the bells with my Kage Bunshin. Then we picked the lock in your window to get out of your house. Oh don't worry if you couldn't tell we were there, we sneak past ANBU members all the time, and it's like a hobby now." Naruto continued with his debriefing.
Kakashi twitched pretty violently. He sighed and inhaled again, trying to regain his composure. "Okay... First of all, why not just leave through the door you broke in from? Second of all, why did you all turn into demonic versions of yourselves?"
They all smiled sheepishly at the second question.
Sakura spoke now, "Well sensei, the door was already unlocked and the window... wasn't. It would have been too easy. We don't take the easy way out." All three of them grinned. "And for your second question..." She started.
Sasuke put the chopsticks down and stood next to Sakura.
Naruto stood up from the floor and joined them.
Their eyes turned into an upside down U as they announced simultaneously
"We're Team Uzu-Haru-Uchi! We believe that First impressions are the most important!"
Kakashi nearly flat lined at how outrageously stupid that sounded.
"But you hated each other yesterday!"
It was Sasuke's turn to talk now. "After you went to the roof and left us alone in the academy, we decided that the best approach would be an unexpected one. Truth is, we are the best of friends. We decided to fool you by acting like annoying brats who hated one another. The trick was perfect because you neglected to check our files in the academy, if you would have bothered to learn about us, you'd learned that we three are notorious pranksters who never leave each other's side. We even got here early to cover the training field with traps. It's a shame really, you only tripped one before we stopped you."
"All our hard work for nothing! Way to go sensei!" Naruto Whined. Although they didn't say it, Sakura and Sasuke agreed with Naruto, it was hard work. Getting tigers to fall into small holes was extremely difficult but eh, it was fun anyways.
Kakashi was stunned, these three genin managed to outsmart and out maneuver an ex-ANBU without getting caught... He really felt old. He closed his eyes as tried to recover the small remains of his dignity when he heard a small gust of wind.
Kakashi panicked when he noticed that his new genin team was gone without a trace besides a note that said -
"Dear Sensei, Went to go celebrate at Ichiraku's, try not to get lost on the road of life again. Hugs and Kisses. -Your new reason to wake up in the morning: Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke.
P.s Careful with the traps!
XxXxXx
In all truth, it was quite... concerning, knowing full well that Sasuke, the last Uchiha, was friends with Naruto. It started off small actually; Sasuke was a loner in the first few days after the massacre, which was understandable. But somewhere along those days filled with depression, Naruto managed to befriend the young Uchiha. Naruto was too young to fully understand the pain that Sasuke must have been going through at that moment; He would see him alone in the park and would try to talk to him. Sasuke had no mood for talking and just stayed silent while Naruto sat next to him, blabbering about ramen or becoming Hokage. This continued for about five days before Sasuke finally asked him something.
"Why do you continue to talk to me when I don't even answer?"
Naruto, who was four at the time, tilted his head with a confused look. "You don't seem to mind... That's all."
The answer caught Sasuke off guard, firstly because it was straight to the point, and because it was true. It didn't bother him.
The village was filled with sympathy for Sasuke, yet no one tried to actually talk to him after the massacre happened. They just felt bad because of what happened to him, but no real reason to approach the last Uchiha.
Perhaps the last image of the Uchiha that the village remembered was that they didn't need help, they were too good for that, and that also included Sasuke. Or maybe because he was the brother of a traitor who murdered the most powerful clan that village ever knew. Either one of those two.
Sasuke smiled, the first one since the incident, and nodded.
Ever since that day, Sasuke and Naruto would always meet up at the park and talk. Naruto introduced Sasuke to Teuchi and Ayame over at Ichiraku's, and Sasuke introduced the basics of the Uchiha' fighting style to Naruto. They had become like brothers, and they might as well have been brothers. They had nobody else, they supported one another, and through that process Sasuke completely disregarded what Itachi told him before he left the village, vengeance wasn't the way to be powerful, just to be foolish.
Several weeks into their brotherhood they met up with someone who was going through what they had to.
The park was empty except for the little girl who was in the sandbox, crying her eyes out. Her pink hair covered her bloodshot eyes as more and more tears dropped to the soft sand. Her father passed away today, and she was alone. Her mother died when she was about two years of age. Her relatives were non-existent, nobody knew anything about them. She was the only Haruno left in the village; she couldn't remember how the day started and was glad for it. She didn't want to remember what happened whenever it happened, but her emotions couldn't forget and she cried and cried.
She heard footsteps approaching, and she looked up to see two unfamiliar faces. They were around her age and they were looking at her with sympathetic eyes, eyes that have gone through the same burden that she is going through.
They didn't say anything; they just approached her and thought about what to do. When she looked up at them they both looked back and saw her eyes. The pain that they went through was present in her eyes, and just like that they sat down one on each side of her and kept her company. They stayed quiet and waited. The sun had gone down before they got any verbal response from the small girl; her crying had gone down to sniffles and to the occasional sob.
"S-Sakura... M-My name is Sakura..." The words came out shaky and forced, but the boys didn't mind, they were glad now that she said something.
"I'm Sasuke Uchiha..." The last name made Sakura gasp a little; everyone knew what happened to that clan.
The other boy, a blonde mentioned his name as well. "Naruto Uzumaki... Nice to meet you Sakura-chan."
There was an awkward silence after the introductions before Sasuke stood up and gave a hand to Sakura. "It's going to get cold soon, come with us. You can come with us to my house, it's big and... better than an empty one."
Sakura looked at Sasuke with a confused look as she stared at his hand. She didn't know what to think of those two. They were strangers, they had nothing to with her, yet they kept her company. She didn't know what to do.
Naruto stood up and also gave his hand, he smiled as he said "We are like family, Sasuke and I; It'd be nice to have a third member with us."
She saw that they were serious and accepted each of their hands.
It was at that point that a new family formed, one that was destined for greatness... or better.
Authors Note: Hello everyone, TheRedGhillie here with a brand new story. This is going to be a sweet, short story about Team 7. The Uchiha Massacre happens earlier, Stronger Sakura, Not vengeful Sasuke, Smart Naruto. Several time skips so pay attention! I have NOT given up on Oblivious, just huge Authors Block. Have any ideas on this fic? Go ahead and leave them on the comments or message me.
I will NOT make any Naru/Saku, Sasu/Saku. Naru/Hina, etc Pairings. Those Annoy me. No Yaoi.
