Daeka rose up from his bed the same way a vampire from old horror movies would rise from a coffin. After yawning and stretching, he let his eyes adjust to the light now shining in his room. As he looked around, he saw Yikone looking out his window, his face showing no emotion.
"Sleep good?" Yikone asked.
"Yeah…I would ask you the same thing if I didn't know that you never sleep." Daeka got out of his bed and began to get dressed.
"Hey, Yikone, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while."
"Hm?" Yikone said, not looking away from the window.
"How is it that you don't have huge bags under your eyes? You should have rings around your eyes to match Gaara's!"
"Simple medical jutsu I learned…clears my face."
"When'd you learn it?" Daeka grabbed his toothbrush and headed to their bathroom.
"Oh, a little while after we first got here."
"Broke into the Hokage tower, didn't you?"
"…Yeah, so what if I did?"
"You're going to be put in jail before you become a chuunin…"
"At least I'll have taken a shower before I do. Are you even gonna put a bar of soap against your body?"
"I showered last night. Besides, we both have to meet our teams for our test this morning. We're not gonna have enough time to shower."
"Good point…I'll go warm up some leftover pancakes…"
"Don't. When we pass the test, we're going to be treated by our new instructors. We'd be stuffed…and I don't like training on an overfilled stomach."
"Daeka, you could fit a ton of food into that black hole you call a stomach…" Yikone said as he grabbed his jacket and headband from the chair he was sitting on.
"See you on the training fields…" Yikone jumped out of the window he was previously sitting on and began walking to the field his instructor told them to meet at. Daeka followed suit after grabbing his trenchcoat and headband.
"You're late." Kakashi said as Daeka finally showed up, munching on an apple.
"Now you know how it feels." Daeka took one more bite of the apple and tossed it away. Kakashi shot a side glance at Daeka before taking three bells out of his pocket.
"The goal of this test is to…"
"Get the bells. The one who doesn't get a bell gets tied up to a log and has to starve while his teammates eat right in front of him. We have until noon. Can we get on with this?" Daeka said. Kakashi sighed. He liked this kid, but was annoyed a bit by him.
"Right. Start." Kakashi set the bells on the pouch on his right thigh and began reading his book. Daeka, Sasuke, and Sakura quickly hid in random places, Sakura staying close to Sasuke. Naruto jumped onto a tree branch behind Kakashi and frowned down at him.
'Good…they've all hidden themselves…' Kakashi thought, examining the area with his eye.
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei! Fight me head on!" Naruto yelled, making Kakashi sweatdrop.
"That baka…" Sasuke whispered. Daeka smiled as Naruto attacked Kakashi furiously, buying them time. He grabbed a twig next to him on the ground and threw it at Sasuke, signaling them he was about to make his move.
"I'll beat you to a pulp!" Naruto bellowed as he attempted to kick and punch Kakashi, but it worked to no avail. Naruto attempted a savage haymaker punch, but his fist connected with nothing as Kakashi disappeared.
"A ninja isn't supposed to get caught from behind, idiot." Kakashi said with his book closed and his fingers…
'Waah! Is that the seal of the Tiger?' Sakura thought. 'Is he going to use Ninjutsu on Naruto?'
'That's the seal of Fire…that idiot isn't just going to run around?' Sasuke thought.
"A Thousand Years of Pain!" Kakashi said, thrusting his fingers into Naruto's backside.
"Gaaaaahhhh!" Naruto screamed as he flew through the air into the nearby river. Sasuke felt something hit his leg and looked over, seeing Daeka swiftly moving towards their instructor. He let out an earsplitting cry as he jumped into the air and came down driving his foot into the ground where Kakashi once stood. Kakashi's eyes widened as he saw a small crater underneath Daeka's foot.
"I thought you would've been a bit more quiet…I saw that move coming from a mile away." Daeka said nothing, but continued his full frontal assault on Kakashi. He attempted a sweep kick, which Kakashi jumped over. He continued with a backflip kick, which Kakashi was forced to block, sending him higher into the air. He jumped up to stay on level with him and brought his foot down upon Kakashi's head, which was blocked like his other blows.
He leaned forward, and attempted to punch Kakashi in the small of his back. Kakashi merely spun around and kicked Daeka in the face. He expected Daeka to fall to the ground and discontinue because of his injury. What he didn't expect was for him to crumble into a pile of dirt, expand, and wrap around his body. He then felt a foot connect with his back and fell to the ground.
"Alright, I'll admit, you caught me off guard with that one." Kakashi said, freeing himself of the dirt.
"Doton Bunshin Trap." Daeka said simply, dropping into his fighting stance.
"So you got me once…I doubt any of you four could do that again." Kakashi wiped some dirt off of his book and resumed reading it.
"WANNA BET?" Fifteen Narutos yelled as they emerged from the river. Kakashi eye widened as they charged at him.
'Kage Bunshin? That's a Jounin level move!' Daeka, Sasuke, and Sakura grinned as Daeka yelled out,
"Alpha-3!" At that, Kakashi turned around to see Sakura charging at him, throwing many shuriken at him. He jumped over it and blocked kunai from Sasuke with the metal plates in his gloves.
"Now!" Sasuke yelled. Naruto and his clones charged forward, jumping forward and rearing back their fists. As Kakashi prepared to dodge it, Sasuke jumped on Daeka's shoulders and higher than Kakashi.
"Katon! Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" He roared, unleashing a large fireball. Kakashi barely got away from it with minor burns. As he fell, Naruto's clones jumped on him. In mere seconds, they were beaten down by Kakashi who looked at his team lazily.
"Nice hustle, but you didn't manage to get the…what the hell?!" Kakashi had just patted his pouch, hoping that the bells would be there. He looked up in horror as Daeka, Sakura, and Sasuke all held out there bells at him.
"Nihihi…Not our strongest formation, but it's good for distracting the opponent." Naruto said cockily.
"How did you manage to grab the bells?" Kakashi asked them.
"Combination of Henge and Kawarimi no Jutsu." Sasuke said.
"I see…well, we'll continue discussing this over there." Kakashi said, pointing at the three logs behind them.
"Wait, but, we got the bells!" Naruto shouted.
"Yes, but I said that the one who didn't get a bell gets tied up and doesn't get to eat." Kakashi pulled out a rope and dragged a kicking and screaming Naruto over to the middle log, where he was tied up.
"No freakin' fair…" Naruto complained.
"Ah, shut it, dobe." Sasuke said as he ate right in front of a starving Naruto.
"Remind me to kick your ass later, teme." Naruto growled. Kakashi stood in front of them, reading his book.
"So, when did you grab the bells?" He asked.
"As soon as you fell away from Sasuke-kun's technique." Sakura said.
"After some careful planning, Sakura and I disguised ourselves as another one of Naruto's clones while they disguised themselves as us. We performed a quick Kawarimi, grabbed a bell each and Kawarimi-ed back to our original places, dispelling the Henges almost instantly after."
"But that doesn't explain how Daeka had one."
"Basic Doton Jutsu. Earth Grab. I simply had the ground move up, lightly snatch a bell from your pouch, and quickly move it over to me. Why do you think I stayed in a kneeling position for so long after Sasuke jumped on my shoulders?"
"Then I assume Naruto didn't grab one because his job in that plan was to distract me?"
"Yeah…" Said Naruto.
"Amazing…you all work together so well, yet, how far would you go for each other?"
"What do you mean, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. Kakashi slowly closed his book, took a kunai from his holster and moved in an instant to Sasuke, holding the kunai to his neck.
"Sakura, kill Naruto and Daeka or Sasuke dies!" He said. Sakura looked, wide-eyed as Kakashi pressed his kunai harder and harder against Sasuke's neck. She took out a kunai of her own and stared at Naruto.
"S-Sakura-chan…you wouldn't really kill me, would you?" He asked.
"Do it!" Kakashi ordered. Sakura took one last look at Naruto before aiming the kunai at his neck, then throwing it at Kakashi. Kakashi jumped away and landed in the middle of the four.
"That's it!" He said, fury emanating from what little of his face they could see. They braced themselves for what he would say.
"You all…pass." He gave them a one-eyed smile as they stared at him incredulously.
"What? But…how?"
"This test was purposely set up to make you fight amongst yourselves for the three bells. You somehow managed to figure out that you needed teamwork to grab the bells, even though one person would end up tied to a log, starving."
"What did you think we would do?" Naruto asked.
"Naruto, I thought you would run around by yourself instead of working with your team. Sasuke, I thought you would try to do everything by yourself."
"That was my first choice…" Sasuke mumbled.
"Sakura, I thought you would ignore Naruto and Daeka and stay beside Sasuke ."
"I would've liked to." Sakura said.
"Daeka…I had no idea as to what you would do." Kakashi confessed. After hearing no response from Daeka, he decided to continue.
"Superior individual ability is important to a ninja, but even more important is teamwork." He gave one examining look to the four before continuing.
"So, congratulations. You four are the first to ever pass my test…" Kakashi turned his head and stared at the sky, a faraway look in his eye.
"A ninja must see underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash. But you know what? Those who don't take care of their comrades…are lower than trash." Kakashi almost sighed, as he had to learn that lesson the hard way.
'He's so cool.' Naruto thought.
"So, like I said, you all pass. Starting tomorrow, Team #7 will begin it's duties."
"YAY! I DID IT! I DID IT! NINJA! NINJA! NINJA!" The tied up blonde exclaimed.
"Shut up, dobe." Sasuke said, although he could not help but smirk as he thought that he was finally a ninja, too. Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, and Daeka began walking off as Kakashi went to treat his new team.
"Damn it, I knew this would happen! Untie me!!"
"You guys going back for him?" Daeka asked.
"Nah." Sasuke said. Daeka sighed as he made an inverted cross sign and created a Doton Bunshin. This would be a long adventure…and yet, he was looking forward to it.
