Chapter 2:

Three years prior…

Misaki was humming cheerfully as she skipped through the village, carrying a box of sweets from a new place that had opened in town. It had been an eventful few years after the famous Uchiha massacre. The morning after, no one had the heart to tell Sasuke, but judging from Sasuke's state no one had to, it was like he was just a sorry clone of the boy he once was.

Misaki tried her best to cheer him up, but he would just seclude himself even further away from her. It hurt her that this had to happen to him, what was worse was not matter how she recalled the event she couldn't even think of Itachi as a criminal. Yes he was a murderer that much is easy to accept, but Itachi thought differently, he was always seven, twelve steps ahead of everybody, and every movement he executed had been with reason for a better shot at peace for the entire world. Not ready to alienate herself from her fallen idol, Misaki turned her necklace into a ring bracelet chain, always hidden under fingerless gloves.

Sasuke alienated himself from Misaki to the point where he would merely just pass by her when they bump into each other, and it broke Misaki. On the other hand Naruto had grew to be his best friend, always cheering her up with a prank or two. Misaki sincerely enjoyed how Naruto would think of ways to prank her, all at the cost of making her smile, and Misaki felt guilty, Naruto had every reason to be melancholic, but there he was making her happy. She had made a lot of friends throughout the years, mostly in Naruto's class. After only a year of being in the same class as Naruto, she was advanced several classes, but still maintained friendship with the others. Naruto had been a partner in crime sort of thing at school, most of the time they got in trouble together, but nothing to harmful.

Naruto was especially close to her, the two of them couldn't begin to explain it, but being together, it felt right, like they were at the right place. It offered them the sense of security and confidence that they can accomplish anything and everything together. It made even more sense when they found out they were born on the same day. So every October 10th, she celebrated her birthday with Naruto and Kaede, just the three of them having fun. Weird enough, Kakashi always seemed to be absent on those days, but he always makes up with reading materials personally filtered by Kaede since there was a time that Kakashi had 'accidentally' mixed his own reading purchases that ended with Misaki asking to many questions to Kaede.

Kakashi was always around their house, sometimes facilitating her training when she chooses to train at home. Kaede had also been less stressed and her patience longer since Kakashi had been frequenting their house. Something Misaki was very grateful for, because whenever Kakashi was there, she didn't need to dodge flying objects as soon as she enters the house, she usually waits when Kakashi had already left, by then she had already escaped in her room.

As expected by her previous handlers, Misaki breezed through graduation exam without any problems, except for the proud parents who was glaring at her the moment she walked out the academy carrying a hitae ate. Some, came from the students of her graduation batch because all of them ranged from 12 to 14, Misaki was only 10.

"Congratulations on passing the exam-" Iruka-sensei drawled on as Misaki watched the student of her original class perform exercises outside of the classroom.

"Next Team 3-Namikaze Misaki, Sarutobi Kazuhiko and Kurama Akihiko" once the names were mentioned, Misaki furtively glanced at the people she would be forming a three man cell. Both were heir to their respective clans, as if the princely names were not obvious enough. Since they were from both prestigious and notable clans since the founding days, the two had been friends since their childhood, Misaki wondered how their parents would react once they found out that their child's teammate would be the daughter of the village whore.

Sarutobi Kazuhiko was a silent thirteen year old boy who acted as if he stood on top of the food chain, being the grandchild of the third hokage must have a lot to do with his attitude. Not that Misaki would blame him, if her mom had raised her like they were the mightiest then she would probably on the same page as him he always acted like everything was too good for him. For that reason he was friends with the only person he deemed worthy of his friendship.

Kurama Akihiko was a loud braggart. He bragged about how good he was and his family, often barkin way louder than he can bite, something that always got him into trouble. He was always grinning with nose in the skies like his ego. Despite that, he was very good at his clan's specialty; genjutsu.

A genjutsu and a fire user, that means she would be the on the close range offensive side, which was quite the racket, considering she was the lone female of the group, that would make for an interesting team, if they manage to put aside egos to actually be a team, Misaki mused.

Once the academy sensei finished announcing the team distribution, jounin sensei filed the room one by one to pick up their new genin teams, each one Misaki watched secretly from her peripherals, some had already made a deduction on their students, and some have given the benefit of their doubts on what the students can do.

"Hey kid, I don't know what you did to pass, but don't drag us down with you, so you listen to what I have to say" Kurama Akihiko said slapping his palm on the front of her table, as Sarutobi Kazuhiko sat a level above her, a typical reaction that Misaki had already expected of them. Akihiko stood before her and Kazuhiko sat a level above her, which alone spoke volumes of who they are.

Misaki being herself merely smiled.

"I'll be in your care then" she simply said and just continued to watch the trees as they danced outside the window.

"Team three?" a gentle and calm voice said as he entered the room.

"Here" Akihiko being the loud one raised his hands as their new sensei entered. The three of them looked at the door to see a jounin with a lanky build, pale skin and bags under his eyes.

The two heirs didn't even bother to hide the distaste in their faces, they were probably expecting a Davidic looking sensei to teach them. Misaki stared at the jounin, her voice curious and excited, she was the only one to smile at their new sensei.

The moment Gekko Hayate entered the two male genin already sneered at him. The smallest and only girl merely stared at him with curiosity and a small smile. On the naked eye she's probably the weakest the submissive beside her bigger and older teammates, but Hayate knew better that looks can be very deceiving. Prior to meeting his students, he had a few word with the academy proctors and the hokage himself who facilitated the forming of the genin teams.

Sarutobi Kazuhiko was an average student, but he was already his clan's jutsus, particularly the the ninjutsu. Meanwhile Kurama Akihiko was very good with genjutsu for his age, however, he lacked in other shinobi traits, including taijutsu and ninjitsu. And lastly Namikaze Misaki, was a young prodigy this year's number one rookie, breezing through the academy and graduation at a ripe age of 10 way ahead of her age group, despite that all the proctors say that there is not a single egoistical fiber in her whole body, her whole persona, built on humility.

"I am your new sensei Gekko Hayate, nice to meet you" Hayate said.

"Tomorrow we will have a survival training to showcase what you can do, I'll meet you at the training grounds at 8 am tomorrow morning, dismissed" he said and left without a word.

Misaki stood quietly ready to go home, while Akihiko and Kazuhiko gossiped like fishermen's wives about their new sensei.

Misaki arrived at the training grounds earliest, so she decided to lay on the cool grass to watch the skies. Soon her two teammates arrived in unison, probably met up somewhere not wanting to be alone with her.

"Tche, what horrible manners for a girl" Kazuhiko looked menacingly at her, but she just decided to smile and ignore him.

Right on time, Hayate arrived at their rendezvous point, noting the distance the two male genins maintained away from the female kunoichi.

"The Survival Training would determine whether you are ready to become genins of Konoha, fail this test and you would be sent back to the academy."

"WHAAT?!" the two heirs exclaimed as Misaki silently got ready for whatever Hayate has up his sleeves.

"It's simple, all you have to do is land an attack on me. Even a single scratch is enough for me to pass the three of you" Hayate said lazily, as the Akihiko and Kazuhiko grinned.

"Tche, piece of cake" "That should be easy" they said in unison, already lunging, their limbs ready to jump their sensei at the given time.

"Good, we should get started then. Ready set. START" as soon as Hayate said the word start, he disappeared right before his students' eyes shocking them.

"Damn in" Akihiko muttered taking out a kunai and ferociously attacking where Hayate once stood, Kazuhiko following in suit. Misaki frowned, shinobi are supposed to be well versed with stealth, but to completely disappear is a whole new level of skill worthy of praise.

"Wow" Misaki wondered out loud, looking around her, it wasn't just a simple cloaking or camouflage technique.

"Tche, how could you praise a dirty trick like that?" Akihiko stopped his ministrations and yelled at Misaki.

"Don't you think it is praise worthy? If you don't give your opponent the respect they deserve, that's when you begin to lose" Misaki said grabbing a handful of kunai and shurinken.

"Besides, sensei is being lenient, in a real life scenario, the three of us would have already been dead, but he is giving us that advantage of attacking with all we've got" Misaki finished her sentences as she sent a barricade of kunai in all directions, paying attention to the movement of the wind and the sound of the grass.

'There' Misaki thought as she felt the abnormal movement of the wind next to Kazuhiko, she punched that way, but Hayate managed to dodge.

'That was close,' Hayate thought as he moved away from the group keeping mind of the sound of his steps.

"Akihiko, Kazuhiko, please lend me your ears" Misako said the two of them doubting, but having nothing better to do, approached her as she discussed the plan.

"Well, why the hell not" Akihiko followed forming a few hand seals, creating a small hurricane of wind and leaves to attack rampantly without direction.

It was destructive, but without direction, Hayate easily evaded the hurricane, but groaned that it had been enough distraction to hide the three students.

He looked franticly around when he heard a yell, one of Kasukiko's voice.

"Shurinken Shadow Clone" followed by a rain of shurinken blades coming right at him, which he dodged and deflected with ease, until he was stripped and a kunai pointed at his neck, grazing the skin barely. Misaki stood triumphantly above him, as her teammates gathered around her, Hayate noted that they weren't keeping a distance anymore. Slowly, he broke the Transparent Escape Jutsu and smiled at his students.

"Congratulations on passing" he said with a smile, and the two boys jumped up and danced in glee as Misaki helped their sensei up.

"Oi Misaki let's go grab some barbeque to celebrate" Akihiko said placing an arm on the small girl's shoulders.

"Really?" Misaki said looking at Akihiko then towards Kazuhiko who nodded then smiled at her.

"We are a team after all" Misaki's heart swelled and she smiled, this time, wide and childish.

"To commemorate your official passing the survival training, it'll be my treat!" Hayate said taking his students to Konoha's famous barbeque restaurant.

After their dinner celebration, Misaki quickly ran excitedly through the Konoha streets, she wanted to just jump to the world and scream at the top of her lungs. As she got home, she heard a loud exploding noise making her duck, but instead of ghastly smell of burning smoke bombs, she was shocked to open her eyes to confetti and glitters. Her eyes soon landed to Naruto who was holding a cake and Kaede who was holding a new ninja sufficient outfit, the one she had been working on for years.

"Congratulations on officially becoming a genin" they said in unison Misaki felt tears started pouring down her eyes as she rushed to the two with a huge hug.

"WHAAAATTTTT?!" Kaede voice was loud enough that it cracked every window in the Namikaze household the moment Misaki turned her back at her to wash the dishes after Naruto had left. Misaki always on her feet quickly assumed a defensive position on whatever Kaede would send her way, only to find her crying.

"What's wrong?" Misaki rushed to her side, it was very rare that Kaede would cry, her annoying stubbornness refusing that something can actually force a tear out of its ducts; even chopping onions is a battle for one such as Kaede.

"Pe-pe-pe-pe" Kaede stuttered as she held Misaki' face in her hands, squishing the delicate face.

"Pepper? Pear? Peach? Pea? Peacock? Peanut?" Misaki asked already starting to lose of food starting with 'Pe', this alone irritated Kaede out of her reverie and bury one of her fist on Misaki's head.

"Damn brat do you think food is all I think about you little shrimp" Kaede scolded, and Misaki rubbed the tender area on top of her head.

'Could have fooled me' Misaki cried in lament for another bump on her head.

"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted is that you have blood on your backside" Kaede said pointing at the stain on Misaki's bum.

"What, an injury? What a weird place to have an injury, why didn't I feel a thing" Misaki pondered, recounting her day in her mind, too busy to notice another attack from Kaede.

"It's not an injury you little dolt, it's a period you're a woman now.-" Kaede then paused her sentence.

'You're a woman now, Misaki is a woman now, a woman, a woman A WOMAN' were the thoughts that circulated her mind.

"WAAAHHHH my little baby is a woman now" Kaede then jumped and lunged at Misaki scaring her, but Kaede instead enveloped Misaki's whole body with a soul crushing hug as she ferociously rubbed her face against Misaki's face.

'Mom, are you serious about killing me right now?' Misaki thought as she squirmed and gasped for air as she was wrestled to the next life by her own mother.

"Why do you have to have your period at such a young age?! I had mine when I turned fifteen! Fifteen you tell me! No I am not allowing it, you are to stop growing up right this instant you hear me no more growing up for you. You are hence forth now and forever forbidden to grow up Misaki do you understand" Kaede scolded and wrestled the young kunoichi in her arms.

This continued on for a while until the front door of their house opened.

Kakashi just got back from a mission and heard that Misaki passed the graduation exam and decided to visit to Namikaze compound, not forgetting to buy an offering to the scary head of the household before he arrived at the front door.

When he opened the door, he dropped the sweets he was carrying to see that Kaede was killing Misaki with a wrestling hug on the floor. Misaki who was already turning colors from pale to purple to black from asphyxiation reached a lone hand to Kakashi.

"H-help me"

A few moments later, they found themselves around the table, Kaede now calmly sipping her tea, Misaki still shaking from the trauma with tears in her eyes muttering something about seeing her whole life flash before her eyes and Kakashi just laughed nervously at their antics.

"It's your fault for growing up way too fast" Kaede said and continued with her tea as she ate Kakashi's offering, it was shaken from being dropped, but it still tasted good.

Present Time

Misaki walked the streets of Konoha towards the hokage's office, she had just returned from another B ranked mission with Akihiko and Kazuhiko, escorting a rich man and his family's caravan from a village to another one. It was fairly easy, nothing both thugs and thieves along the way, it could have passed for a C rank mission, but he wasn't going to risk his family's lives just for the sake of spending less money. They had barely passed the gates of the village when she was summoned by to the hokage's office.

"Whoa! You haven't even had ten steps inside the Village from a mission and you are already summoned again" Akihiko complained, since he was the genjutsu expert, he was the one left to comfort the anxious family as Misaki and Kazuhiko worked their magic outside of the palanquins. Kazuhiko and Misaki merely laughed at Akihiko's childishness, despite being older than Misaki. Throughout their years together, the two young heirs staggered to be better shinobi, losing their childish arrogance especially after the chunin exams and their promotions. The chunin exams that thought her of many different things that made her a better Kunoichi and team Hayate a better team. It had been difficult, and almost cost the life of Akihiko, but they all managed to push through getting promoted to chunin on their first try at the exam.

"You'll eat your words when you are as busy as Misaki here. You sure you're going to be alright?" Kazuhiko asked, looking down at the small kunoichi.

"I'll be alright, besides, someone has to report how the mission went to the hokage" Misaki smiled. They parted halfway as the two continued their journey home and Misaki to the hokage's office. Now a chunin, Misaki was handed even more responsibilities, majority of it came from her assignment as an assistant proctor at the academy. Her assignment bore from a series of events that ended up with Hayate presenting her to the the hokage.

During her free time before she was promoted a chunin, she would scout the outskirts of Konoha and found herself three bladed kunai with a marked handle. Misaki collected these blades and studied the marks. Along the blades, she found an abandoned shack where she found several jutsu scrolls and formulations. The owner of the small space was probably the same owner of the weird blades. Using the materials and the place itself, she started teaching herself of using the marks as the basis of the time space jutsu.

When she first tested making her own mark, she asked her team to help her gather observations. As she executed the technique flawlessly, unbeknownst that Hayate was watching. When he approached Misaki about the jutsu, Misaki merely told him the details on how she learned it. Next thing she knew she was summoned to the hokage's office and given the proctor assignment.

Hayate also began teaching her kenjutsu when he saw potential in her, performing basic the basic kenjutsu of what little Itachi had taught her. After a few years of Hayate's supervision, she was almost on par with her sensei. With ninjitsu she had also taken a liking to developing and exploring new techniques instead of learning existing once, when she was satisfied, she would ask Kakashi to test it with her, always ending up with himr muttering about her being exactly like her father.

It always left Misaki pondering, did Kakashi knew her father?

However, Misaki never gathered the courage to ask, because it was a very sore subject for Kaede. Kaede, much to Misaki's displeasure was not yet pregnant with Kakashi's child, it drives her insane. Misaki knew they weren't dating, they were just friends, but with their chemistry and Kakashi's affiliation to his perverted books they'd be at least an ounce honest with their feelings, but still Misaki wasn't past her implied jokes at her mother whenever she can.

Too soon, she had already reached the hokage's office at the administrative part of the academy wherein she found her old academy sensei Umino Iruka, together with the hokage.

"Am I in trouble for something?" jested as she approached the table of the hokage.

"Now that's a face I haven't seen in a long time" Iruka commented making Misaki rub the back of her head.

"Sorry sorry, I have been busy with mis-"

"Hey old man I challenge you to a battle!" a little boy entered the hokage's office and stood at in front of him, the boy closely resembling Kazuhiko, then it hit her.

"Ah, you're Konohamaru!" she wondered outloud. Kazuhiko had told her about his little brother who was loud, determined and determined at being loud, but despite that Kazuhiko praise him for not setting his head in the clouds like he had been as a child, instead this boy aimed to be the future Hokage by working hard for himself.

"Transform" he said and right there the child transformed into a naked and beautiful young woman, forcing blood out of the old hokage's nose.

"Is it healthy for him to be losing that much blood?" Misaki asked as Iruka panicked and aided the third hokage, Misaki instead focused on the child.

"Hello, my name is Namikaze Misaki, you must be Konohamaru, I'm a friend of your older brother Kazuhiko" Misaki smiled as she bent and ruffled the young child's head.

"Tell you what, Konohamaru-chan your Kazu-nii just got home from a mission and bought you something"

"Really?!" the boy asked and Misaki smiled and nodded. After that it didn't take long for the child to run out excitedly.

"Isn't that Naruto's sexy jutsu" Misaki asked as the boy was out of earshot.

"Yeah, Konohamaru met Naruto a few days ago and taught Konohamaru that blasted jutsu" the third said wiping his bloody nose with a towel.

"Come to think of it, Naruto's sexy jutsu looks a lot like Namikaze-san" Iruka pondered and Misaki sweat dropped. Kaede never knew of Naruto's sexy jutsu and she would rather choose death than to be the one to tell her that Naruto's perverted jutsu looks like her.

"Please don't tell mom, she's going to kill us all and every person who had seen or heard about the jutsu" Misaki said nervously.

"Back to business then" the third handed her the papers. In her free time she helped the administrative section with the graduates along with Iruka.

"Ah, Naruto graduated!" Misaki cheered as she saw Naruto's name on the list, together with her other friends from her batch.

"It had been such an interesting turn of events" the third said, and somehow Misaki felt like there was a deeper story than what he let on, but in anyway, knowing Naruto, she'll probably know it instantly.

'Naruto, he's a step closer to his dream, but the long bumpy road has just begun.' Misaki reveled as she stared at the paper. She kept her chunin promotion a secret so as not to dishearten Naruto, she'd keep that part a secret until Naruto graduates.

"Now it's our job to group them with people who are going to help them enhance their skills better in a three man cell under a sensei perfect for the set" Iruka explained the formation and the selection process of a genin team and their sensei.

"Misaki, you and Iruka are going to be in charge of this process this year, you have been with these students for a year, so you probably have a good gauge on how they work, and more importantly how they work together"

"Understood hokage-sama" Misaki bowed and left with Iruka to the classroom of the said genin graduates.

"Wow this takes me back" Misaki said as Iruka closed the door behind her.

"Ah, that's right, it you didn't accelerate a few classes, you'd be graduating with Naruto and the others" Iruka said, it had been very hard to keep track of Misaki's age especially when she's accelerating towards maturity very quickly. Misaki merely smiled, and that's all it took for Iruka to see that she had a good idea where his thoughts was trailing. He blushed with embarrassment at being too easy to read and proceeded to lay out the student's profiles.

"This year we have 27 academy graduates, so we'll have nine genin teams plus a jonin sensei each"

"Who the we have on the sensei?" Misaki leaned on the table to review the list.

"Ah, Kakashi? Isn't he renowned for being such a genin crusher?" Misaki said and Iruka just looked at her in question.

"Never mind"

Soon they began working tirelessly, having more than a lot of trial and errors for dividing a single class with 27 populace to a nine team with three members each, each member placed to compliment the rest.

This was harder than Misaki thought, but it ended up quite well.

"Why don't we have some ramen to congratulate ourselves?" Iruka offered as he collected the profiles ready to be dropped off by the hokage's office on their way to get some food.

"Now you're talking" Misaki said, collecting her katana that she placed next to her.

"Say do you really think it's smart to place Sasuke and Naruto in a single team?" Iruka asked as they walked through the streets on the way to their favorite ramen stall. Misaki looked at Iruka and then the night sky, trying to think of ways how she could answer. Then she stared at the moon and thought of the sun; the sun and the moon.

"Well how do I put this, they complement each other" Misaki smiled at Iruka as she told him.

"You mean grade wise? Come to think of it Sasuke graduated as this year's number one rookie, meanwhile Naruto was a rice grain tip of the scale from not making it" Iruka said as they sat down and ordered ramen.

It wasn't what Misaki had in mind but she just nodded her head in agreement, it's nice to listen to other people's opinions, it tells you how they think, and the principles behind their thinking. For Iruka, he was a teacher through and through.

"Mom I'm home" Misaki announced as she walked through the door after dinner with Iruka. The whole house was devoid of any light, which rarely happened. Even if there was no one home, the compound always had at least one light on.

"That's weird, did she leave the village without even a word again," Misaki wondered out loud as she placed her katana by her shoes as she entered their home. Then she heard a loud crash followed by a groan, she knew Kaede or a wild animal could produce.

"Mom, is that you?"

"Yeah, I just tripped over a chair" Kaede answered back.

"Is that chair alright?" Misaki asked followed by more crashing and a loud growl that sounded like 'you damned brat'.

"Hey mom, did you know Kakashi is signed up for another genin team this year?" Misaki said as she began making tea to match with the box of sweets she bought for Kaede.

"Really, who is she going to crush again this year?" Kaede asked walking down the stair looking pristine, as if she didn't hurdle a hurricane just a little while back.

"Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto" at the mention of the following names, Kaede was so shocked, she tripped over her own kimono. Misaki frowned, Kaede is usually very dexterous, yes she was prone to breaking things, but that's because she broke them on purpose, not because she was clumsy.

"Mom, can you tell me the truth" Misaki sat down next to Kaede, as she placed the teas and sweets on the table.

Kaede froze, every fiber of her being standing at an attention as Misaki stared at her eyes, her face unreadable as she read her own.

"Are you pregnant?" Misaki blurted out and nerve popped in Kaede's temple.

"You brat!" she yelled burying her fist on Misaki's head. _

Misaki was browsing through the bookstore looking for new reading materials whether it be for training and improvement or simply just for leisure. She thought of going to the library, but then it's difficult to part with a book once she had gotten attached to it. Misaki was craning her neck trying to look up at the books on top of the shelf when she saw a familiar gravity defying white hair.

"Kakashi!" she exclaimed as she peeked through the isle to see him standing there looking for books.

"Ah, Misaki" he greeted as the young kunoichi approached him.

"Whoa, you finished yet another one of your perverted books. Do you keep a mask on so when the scene gets steamy no one has to see you blush?" Misaki asked, her face held no trace of the malice of her question, instead she shined with innocence despite her mischief.

Kakashi just sweat dropped and finished his purchase real quick.

"So you mean to tell me you like how the mask makes you look mysterious and edgy, but you blatantly read a perverted book in public" Misaki dead panned as they hung around each other for lunch at the barbeque place. Well, mostly Misaki ate and Kakashi watched her eat, something that she had already gotten use to a long time ago.

They talked for what felt like ages, moving from shop to shop, until she bumped into someone.

"Oh, hey it's you Misaki" Shikamaru said wondering who he had bumped into this time.

"Ah, Shikamaru, how are you?" Misaki said greeting her old friend.

"Not much, we just got back from meeting our sensei, all he said is his name and that we'll have a survival training tomorrow, if we fail, we'll get sent back to the academy, man what a drag" Shikamaru explained and she just laughed. After their short conversation, he just left to prepare for their test tomorrow.

'Shikamaru hasn't changed a bit, he is even lazy after becoming a genin and meeting his sensei, he should-' Misaki's eyes widened as she grasped it.

"KAKASHI! You were supposed to be at the academy after lunch" Misaki panicked and quickly dragged Kakashi by the wrist going towards the academy.

"Now be good Kakashi!" Misaki smiled sweetly one last time before leaving him outside the classroom.

The following day, Misaki arrived at the training grounds at eight in the morning, she wanted to see how her friends were going to do with today's survival training, but she wanted to do it in secret, so she activated the Transparent Escape Jutsu and sat herself on a tree.

Misaki had seen Kakashi conduct this survival training of his and she's quite impressed of the turn outs, even though he had yet to take a student under his wing, he had already taught a lot of students just by failing them.

It was already past ten when Kakashi arrived, and Misaki had to stifle her laugh when he made some random excuse about a black cat and having to take the long way.

Misaki quietly observed them from where she was hiding. Realistically, they still have a long way to go, but optimistically, they had grown quite well since she graduated and left the academy, and in life what's important is that no matter how many times you fail, you stand up determined to never back down.

Noon was fast approaching and the three newly graduated ninjas still have not grasped the concept of Kakashi's test. Misaki didn't want them to fail, but she also didn't want them on the field when Kakashi deems them unworthy of the field yet. Misaki was half tempted to slam her forehead on the tree when Naruto attempted to eat ahead of time without getting himself a bell.

Keyword attempted, before he was tied on the log, almost half his body restrained with ropes. For Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura, Naruto being tied down spelled a hundred and ten certainty of failing despite Kakashi mentioning that they would resume later, however to those who knew the nature of this test, a person being tied up is a pre-requisite for a second shot at the real purpose of the test.

Kakashi then disappeared from his students' sights and beside Misaki.

"You know, you're not doing a good job at hiding if you're not concealing your presence" he said opening his book to resume reading.

"I wasn't hiding from you, I was hiding from them" Misaki shrugged as she deactivated the jutsu.

'She knew I was going to find her, she wanted me to know that she was watching' Kakashi thought as he observed Misaki through the peripheral view of his only exposed eye. Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura were talented yes, but Misaki was beyond them already.

She was a prodigy.

"Hey Kakashi, it's really weird to see you act so sensei like, but it kinda suits you" Misaki jested him, lightly elbowing his arms.

It only took a few moments more for Sasuke and Sakura to take pity on their hungry tied up teammate and began feeding him, under the false sense of security that Kakashi wasn't watching.

"Congratulations, you are now officially a jounin sensei" Misaki said before Kakashi disappeared and reappeared before his terrified students. Smiling, Misaki jumped down from her place and leaned by a tree trunk silently watching and congratulating their victory from afar, before walking away, content with the turnout of the events.

No one from the oblivious and victorious genin squad noticed a lone figure walking away from them, no one but him, the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan.