Hakureisaiga: Thank you for your reviews and support, here is the next chapter!

Chapter 2- New Sensei, Kakashi Hatake

After Iruka recovered from his fight with Mizuki, Naruto changed a bit. The first change that he made was his choice of clothing. Yeah, he loved orange with a passion, but he realized that too much of a good thing was bad.

He discarded his orange jumpsuit to wear dark brown pants and burnt orange shirt along with a light brown hoodie that hugged his torso and arms. Naruto began to quickly practice with his new jutsu and the taijutsu that he was allowed to train in.

He appeared in the classroom early to talk to Iruka and opened it to find his favorite teacher alone. "Hey, Iruka-sensei…" he called out and Iruka looked up to see his favorite student with new attire along with his old headband on his head.

"Naruto? What is with the new get-up?"

"Well, I realized that too much of a good thing is bad, so I decided to take off the orange jumpsuit since I am a ninja now. It is like I am changing from a cocoon to a butterfly…I don't have any time to perform pranks anymore since I am a ninja."

Iruka smiled, but in his head, he was throwing a victory party over the fact that Naruto had finally discarded that eyesore of clothing and that he was stopping his pranks…mostly because he was usually the butt of it.

"So what do you need, Naruto? You never come this early ever…" his sensei asked.

"Well, since I started to dress like a ninja, I need to train like one too…can you explain the leaf exercise one more time?" Naruto asked and the kind sensei replied, "Sure, the leaf exercise is basically all about focus, you need your chakra to direct it to the leaf to keep it there. The purpose is to keep your mind from being distracted and hone your concentration."

Naruto smiled, "Thanks, Iruka-sensei…"

"No problem, Naruto."

The Jinchuuriki grabbed a leaf and started to do the exercise in silence just as more students came in the room. The leaf had fell off several times or burst off, but Naruto never quit doing the exercise. Instead he had a slight frown or let out a curse or two, then grabbed the leaf and started again.

He finally got it down just as Sakura and Ino burst into the doorway. "Ha! I got through the door first, Ino-pig!" Sakura shouted in triumph and Ino retorted hotly, "Hmph, I guess that big forehead of yours blocked your vision, it is clear that I came through the door first."

"Pig!"

"Billboard Brow!"

"PIG!"

"BILLBOARD BROW!"

"Will you two please be quiet? I am trying to concentrate and your incessant, loud screaming is not helping." Naruto finally said, thankfully saving everyone's ears along with his own. The two girls trained their menacing eyes on the bold guy and realized that it was Naruto.

"Naruto? What is up with the new threads? More importantly, I thought you failed the test…" Ino said and the Jinchuuriki replied, "It turns out that I was part of a plan to root out a traitor, so I failed on purpose to get close to the contact."

"Yeah, right…" Sakura said, "There is no way that Hokage-sama would rest that type of mission on you, you are way too loud." The Jinchuuriki said, "Then how do you explain how I can paint the whole Hokage Monument with graffiti in broad daylight, wearing a neon orange jumpsuit and not get caught by Jonin, but only Iruka-sensei is the only one that ever has."

Sakura opened her mouth to answer, but she couldn't find the words and Naruto continued, "Stealth is my element, I know Konoha inside and out since I had nothing better to do with my time. Now will you two, please take a seat next to Sasuke…both of his seats are open on either side."

Sakura and Ino silently did so and took glances at the calm male blond as he closed his eyes and began to the leaf concentration exercise once again. Iruka coughed into his hand and said, "Okay, Genin, today is your first day as shinobi. Soon you will have missions and be set on three-man squads with the exception of one and follow your Jonin sensei's orders."

"Great, I am a ninja and a step closer to him, but I got people that are going to slow me down." Sasuke thought.

"I hope that I am with Sasuke-kun…please let us be together." Sakura thought.

"This is going to be interesting on who I get paired up with." Naruto thought.

Iruka looked at his roster and said, "Let's see, Teams One through Six are in circulation, so Team Seven will be Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. Also, note that the teams were made to balance them out based on your level of skill, now Team Eight will be Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame, Team Ten will be Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi….Team Eleven…"

Naruto tuned out the rest and then Iruka finished, "Now that you know your teammates, you will wait for your sensei after your lunch break is done." The classmates went to their respected teammates and Naruto stayed put.

Iruka said, "Naruto, aren't you going to meet your teammates?"

"I would, I think I know the outcome of that…Sasuke is just going to ignore me, like he pretty much does to everyone and Sakura is going to think that I am going to ask her out on a date. I highly doubt that the great Sasuke Uchiha is going to take time to talk to me since he believes that I am the same dead last like everyone thinks."

Later, the students came back and all sat down, waiting for their teachers to arrive. A bearded shinobi with a cigarette came in to pick up Team Ten along with a woman with wavy hair and red eyes came to pick up Team Eight. Several hours later, Team Seven was the ones left in the room and Sakura shouted, "Where is our sensei?"

"Calm down, Sakura…the man or woman will come." Naruto said calmly and Sakura rounded on him, "Shut up, Naruto, you don't know anything!" The Uzumaki replied without a beat, having four leaves on his body, "I happened to know that you took the scenic route to meet up with Ino to practically race to the Academy and you just spray on that Japanese Cherry Blossom perfume spray to further accent your namesake…"

Sakura blushed just as the door opened to reveal a lanky man with silver-grey hair standing straight up in the air and his Konoha headband was covered over his original eye. "You must be Team Seven, judging by the looks of all of you, I can come to say that I don't like you." The man said, making Sakura gasp out in anger, Sasuke let out the trademark 'Hn' and Naruto had his eye twitch a bit.

"Meet me on the roof now please." The Jonin said and he left the room to go on the roof. The Genin followed him and they sat down in front of him. "Ok, now let's introduce ourselves." The mysterious Jonin said to them.

Sakura replied, "What do you mean?"

"I think he means to tell him about ourselves, Sakura." Naruto said and the man said, "Right, for example, your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, etc." Sakura replied, "How about you start? You look quite suspicious."

"Fine, my name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes are nonexistent, my dislikes…I have a long list, my hobbies…I got lots of them and my dreams…I don't feel like telling you."

Every Genin's thought was "He only gave his name out"

"Ok, you…" Kakashi said, pointing at Naruto. "You can go first."

"Hai, my name is Naruto Uzumaki; my likes are the color orange, ramen, gardening and training. My dislikes are traitors, people who judge others without knowing them and slightly vegetables, my hobbies are training and formerly pranking…I have no time for that anymore and my dream…I am not so sure anymore."

Kakashi nodded and turns to Sakura, "Your turn, Miss Sakura."

"My name is Sakura Haruno, my likes are…" She pauses to blush and glance at Sasuke and continues on the same with her hobbies and dreams. "And your dislikes…" Kakashi asked. The Haruno replied hotly, "Ino and Naruto."

Kakashi glanced at Naruto, who didn't react to the barb and thought, "He has changed dramatically, was it because that he took off Mizuki's arm or was it just a mask to fool all of us?" The Jonin pushed the thought in the back of his mind and said, "Now the last one…"

"Sasuke Uchiha…I hardly have any likes and a lot of dislikes, I think hobbies are trivial. I don't have a dream, but an ambition to kill the man that has wronged me and caused the death of my clan."

Naruto and Sakura looked at Sasuke in silence while Kakashi thought, "So he still has the opened wound, I may need to break him out of it sooner or later." Then the man said, "Alright, now that we know each other, it is time to tell you about the real Genin Exam."

Naruto said, "The real Genin Exam? But I thought we passed it already…"

"You passed the Graduation exam, but that doesn't mean that you are automatically Genin. You see, every Jonin must evaluate their Genin that are assigned and that test is very hard to pass." Kakashi replied as he covered his face, chuckling a bit.

"And how many pass at all?" Sakura asked, but soon she began to regret asking it as Kakashi looked at her dead in the eyes, "Out of the thirty Genin that passed the Graduation exam, only nine will pass…our test has a 67% chance of failure."

Naruto said, grinning, "In other words, I guess we have to impress you with our skills then, Sensei." Kakashi turns to the resident Jinchuuriki, "You better hope that your skills are enough to take you three as a team. Meet me at Training Area number three by ten in the morning and don't eat or else you will throw up."

The Hatake disappeared with a Shunshin and the Genin went home. Naruto went to the place where he had his first major battle as a new graduate and trained there until night appeared on the horizon. He woke up this morning and thought to himself, "Should I come early and eat breakfast? I mean, it would show that I am being serious, but eating no breakfast means I have no energy to fight him at all. Wait…he wants me to be weakened, so it would be easier to kick my ass."

Naruto chose to eat his breakfast and show up early at the Training Area; slowly he became bored and started to warm up by practicing his newfound taijutsu. Soon Sasuke and Sakura came around, then two hours rolled away and Kakashi came to the training ground, "Yo!"

"You're late!" Sakura shouted and the Jonin rubbed the back of his head, "I'm sorry, I got lost on the road of life today, so I had to backtrack and retrace my steps. Ok, it is noon…now your objective is to get these bells from me."

Kakashi took out bells from his pocket and bounced them a bit to make them ring. "But sensei, there is only two bells, you are missing one." Sakura said, pointing it out and the Jonin said, "Very observant, Sakura, you see, the thing is that one who doesn't get a bell will be tied to one of those stumps, forced to watch the remaining eat and will be sent back to the Academy for further training."

Sakura gasped and Sasuke thought, "So that is why he told us not to eat." Naruto smirked while Sasuke and Sakura's stomach growled out in protest. Sakura said, "But, sensei, won't you get hurt?" Kakashi said, "Don't worry, Sakura, I will be fine…now are you all ready?"

The genin got into ready stances and Kakashi said, "Then let's be…" He was interrupted as Naruto came forward and attacked with a frontal kick. The Jonin caught Naruto by his ankle and threw him to the ground, but the Jinchuuriki moved his hands in front of him to use his other leg to kick him in the chest.

Kakashi used his forearm to block it and used his foot to kick him in the head only for Naruto to disappear in a white plume of smoke. "I didn't tell you to start, Naruto…" Kakashi said, looking over at the tree to his right.

Naruto cracked his knuckles and neck, "Sorry, I get a bit antsy when I get to fighting…I still haven't gotten rid of that yet. I don't like it when things stand still or talk too much…" The Hatake smirked, "Well, then let's get started."

The Genin moved away into the trees, leaving Kakashi alone within the clearing. "Hmm, well, that is interesting…very interesting, by now, I thought that Naruto would be the first to att…" He was rudely interrupted from his reading of the Icha Icha Paradise by a thrown kunai.

Kakashi glanced over to see Naruto in front of him with an outstretched hand. "Turns out that I was right…" the Jonin replied. The Jinchuuriki smirked, "Good…Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Five clones appeared and attacked the Jonin, but the man ducked and weaved a bit to avoid the hits.

"He has gotten better with his taijutsu over this week, but I can't believe how fast he gotten it down." Kakashi thought as he blocked their attacks. Naruto aimed a kick at Kakashi's head, who ducked under it and then the Jonin said, "Never let your opponent get behind you…Konoha Taijutsu Ougi: Sennen Goroshi!"

Kakashi used his two fingers to launch Naruto from his butt, but then Naruto disappeared into a white plume of smoke. "What?" Kakashi said in surprise and Naruto came from the earth with an uppercut, making the Jonin back up a bit.

Then a clone appeared on his back and Naruto said with a cocky smile, "Now what was that about not letting your opponent get behind you?" The real one moved to kick his sensei in the face, but then Kakashi used a Kawarimi with a log.

"Damn, I missed…" Naruto cursed as he quickly took in his surroundings, "Where is he?" Suddenly a sinking feeling came in his stomach and he instinctively jumped in the air to avoid Kakashi's hand grabbing his ankle.

"That was so close…" The Jinchuuriki thought, "Way too close." But then he was broken out of his thoughts as Kakashi came in front of him and threw him towards the tree. The blond slammed into it and Kakashi sent a punch to his stomach, making Naruto gasp for air.

Kakashi moved to knock him out only for Naruto to reveal that he was a clone. "Damn clones…" Kakashi muttered, "Oh, well, on to the next one, I suppose." With that, the Jonin leapt off to find his next victim.

The Haruno ran through the forest with two things in mind. The number one priority was to find Sasuke and you have a sure guarantee to be safe from Kakashi. Being with Naruto or Ishide meant trouble, especially Ishide and number two was avoid Kakashi-sensei until Sasuke takes him out.

"Where is Sasuke-kun? Could Kakashi-sensei have…no, he couldn't have! Sasuke-kun is more…" She thought until she stopped abruptly and let out a small gasp. A few meters away, Kakashi was standing, reading his ever-present book.

"Whew, he almost saw me…"she thought as she let out a breath of relief until… "Sakura, behind you." A voice said. Sakura turned to see Kakashi make the Ram seal and said, "Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu!" Sakura was plunged into a world of hidden meaning as the leaves scattered around her in the wind across her vision for a few minutes.

"Huh? What happened? Where is sensei? Something is definitely wrong here." She said, confused. "S-Sakura…." A voice said. Sakura instantly recognized it and turned around quickly, "Sasuke-kun…" The Haruno turned to see that her crush was severely infused with kunai and shuriken embedded in his body and one of his legs was twisted all the way around.

"H-Help me… S-Sakura." Sasuke gasped out in pain. The pink-haired girl did one thing…well, two things actually. The first thing that she did was scream for dear life and the next thing she did was faint. "Maybe I was a bit too hard on her." Kakashi thought to himself, "Nah…"

The Uchiha attack a seemingly unsuspecting Kakashi with a mix of kunai and shuriken, which all of them hit their designated target only for the Jonin to reveal that he used the Kawarimi no Jutsu. Sasuke thought as he ran, "Damn it, he knows where I am now! I have to move!"

He jumped through the trees until he came into a clearing. Using his honed senses, he found out fairly quickly that he was not alone. "I am not like any of those losers…" he stated calmly. Kakashi was leaning against the tree with his book in his hand, "Say that after you get a bell, Sasuke."

The Uchiha sent a kunai at his teacher, who dodged it by springing to another tree, but Kakashi looked to see that Sasuke has a wide smirk plastered on his face. "Damn, a trap!" The Jonin cursed in his head as knives were launched at the tree he was previously at.

Kakashi skidded on the ground to get his bearings and looked up to see that Sasuke charge and came in with a flying kick. The Jonin quickly tucked his book away and caught Sasuke's leg. Next, Sasuke threw a punch with his right arm, but Kakashi was able to catch that too, occupying all of his free hands.

Sasuke tried to use this advantage by twisting to use his free leg to aim at Kakashi's head. The white-haired Jonin used his forearm to block it only to realize that Sasuke was planning to use his free arm to get the bells.

Quickly, Kakashi tossed Sasuke away from his persona just as the Uchiha touched the bells. Then Sasuke began to do hand signs that Kakashi recognized instantly, "What? That is impossible; a mere Genin shouldn't have that much chakra to perform that jutsu!"

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Sasuke shouted and then he blew a fireball at his teacher. The Jutsu engulfed the man and when it finally dissipated, Sasuke frowned in disappointment as he saw that there was no body or the smell of burnt flesh.

"Where is he? Left...Right…Above…Behind…then he must be…"

"That's right, I am below you…Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu!" Kakashi said as his hand burst out of the earth to latch on to Sasuke's ankle tightly. Suddenly the Uchiha was yanked down to the earth and Kakashi burst out of the ground before Sasuke's head. "Better luck next time, Sasuke…now let me see if I can find your teammates to play with." Kakashi said before he rushed off into the woods in search for one of his students.

"Damn it! I can't move at all!" Sasuke thought angrily. Soon Sakura came out of the forest and screamed as she saw Sasuke's head staring at her. Naruto, in the meantime, fought against Kakashi one last time and got knocked out just as the time ran out.

"Damn it…" he thought and when he woke up, Kakashi said, "Well, since you three didn't get the bells, I guess I have to fail you." Sasuke got up in a rage and attacked Kakashi only for the Jonin to put his arm behind his back in an uncomfortable position and sat on him.

Sakura shouted, "Hey, get off Sasuke-kun right now!" Kakashi looked at each of them, "You think this is a game? Grow up! You three don't have what it takes to be a ninja…you don't realize what the point of this exercise was."

Naruto said, "It was teamwork, sensei…"

The Jonin looked at Naruto, "If you knew that, why didn't you ask for help?" The Jinchuuriki answered back calmly, "Let's start with Sakura, she mentioned that her dislike was me, so what makes you think that she was going to ask me or let alone let me ask her for help. As for Sasuke, he has the 'lone wolf' attitude, basically doing everything himself and won't admit that he would need help. Considering that his target is his own brother, who happened to be an ex-ANBU Captain as well as a master of his bloodline, you think he would realize that he needs help with that as well."

Sakura looked down in shame at the realization and Sasuke merely glared up between Naruto and Kakashi. "Excellent observation, Naruto…" Kakashi said, "But like I was saying before, because of teamwork, you wouldn't have to face situations like this…"

Kakashi gave an example by simply putting a kunai near Sasuke's neck, "Naruto, kill Sakura or Sasuke dies." Sakura gasped in surprise and Naruto didn't even twitch. Kakashi put the kunai away and said, "That is what usually happens on a mission…"

Kakashi shuffled over to the stone slab, "Look at these markers with all the heroes of our village, but the ones here died in the line of duty…my best friends' names are on here." Naruto and Sakura had looks of sympathy on his face while Sasuke looked impassive.

Kakashi said, "Okay, I'm giving you one more chance. If you are prepared to continue, eat your bento and no sharing with Sakura. Either one of you feeds her, you fail. My word is law, got it?" Kakashi then poofed away, using the Body Flicker Jutsu.

Sasuke ate the bento silently until Sakura's stomach growled with a loud rumble. Then Naruto rose up to untie Sakura and shoved the bento in front of her, saying, "Here, eat it!" Sasuke said, "You idiot, you are going to fail us if you…"

Naruto looked at him, "Kakashi is giving us another chance to beat him, you nor Sakura could keep up with him really good because you listened to his advice in eating. Don't you know that if you don't eat, you can hardly work at all."

Sasuke stayed silent and Naruto turned to Sakura, "Eat the damn bento, I already ate this morning…" Sakura bowed her head for a moment, "Thank you, Naruto…" She began to eat the bento and suddenly smoke billowed out from in front of them.

"What the fuck I just say?" Kakashi shouted as his head peered out of the smoke. "We gotta stick together, we are a team now." Sakura stammered. Kakashi said, "You…pass!"

Naruto said, quirking an eyebrow, "Say what?" Kakashi replied, "Most of you have been following my orders like little robots except Naruto. A shinobi must look underneath the underneath. Those who fall to follow orders are trash, but those who abandon their teammates are worse than trash."

Naruto smirked, "You got to admit, that was kinda cool." He thought to himself. Kakashi said, "Team 7, your duties will commence tomorrow." Naruto grinned, "This is going to be fun...I am finally a ninja now.