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KIZUNA

Side Story 1: Bell Test

(This is an old chapter that I'm keeping for archive purposes. You can skip it. Chronologically, it would be before the "Introduction" chapter)

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Today was officially the worst day of Inuzuka Kiba's life.

Actually, the next few years were looking pretty gloomy too. It had all started that morning. At exactly 10:17:56, his fate had been sealed. Umino-sensei had said the words without so calmly…

"Team Seven: Inuzuka Kiba, Uzumaki Kizuna, Uchiha Sasuke."

Kiba had protested, of course. No doubt it was a great honor to be in the same cell as the great Uchiha Sasuke, but damnit, the guy was a jerk, first class. Worse than Aburame Shino, even. Shino was just silent. Uchiha smirked.

Umino-sensei had explained, in no uncertain terms, that "it is tradition to put the highest and lowest-scoring graduates on the same team." Uchiha had smirked. Uzumaki had smirked too, then remembered that this was her team too. She protested as well. Umino-sensei had told her that her scores weren't that much better than Kiba's and that they both could learn a lot from Uchiha.

"What! Who the hell would want to learn from that bastard!"

Well, that was the point Uzumaki had to run for her life. Jealousy and outrage made Uchiha's fan club more vicious than ever.

It was now 2:37. And there they were, sitting in an abandoned classroom, waiting for their jounin instructor, who was two hours late. After the first ten minutes, Uzumaki had set an eraser in the door. At that point, Kiba hadn't yet realized just how crappy this day was and thus protested. Uzumaki had yelled a bit and then they'd ended up fighting for a while.

Kiba had to admit, Uzumaki was pretty good. For a girl. Although, her form wasn't all that good, or even there at all. But she was certainly vicious and stubborn. And she hit hard, too.

At the end of the first hour, Uzumaki took down the eraser and set a kunai trap instead. By then, Kiba had gotten tired of waiting too. But still, a kunai trap? With live kunai? Was she trying to kill their teacher?

When he asked her that, Uzumaki had given him a very flat look, the kind that only girls can do.

"He's a jounin, right? So he'll be fine," the blonde replied, shrugging.

She was right. The trap went off perfectly, and their instructor dodged the kunai easily, leaving it to 'thump' into the opposite wall of the corridor. After a moment of silence, the jounin stuck his head into the classroom. The lower half of his face was covered with a mask, and his crooked hitai-ate obscured one eye. It would have been hard for anyone to judge his expression, and Kiba wasn't all that good at reading people to begin with. All the same, the dog-user tensed, trying to pick up some hint of how to act.

Just as the jounin was about to speak (or at least Kiba thought he was about to speak), an eraser flew with unerring accuracy across the room. It hit him square in the center of his crooked hitai-ate, letting off a small white cloud.

Kiba laughed. Jounin sensei or not, there must be something wrong with a guy who dodges a kunai but gets beamed with an eraser. Uchiha snorted quietly.

Uzumaki snorted, crossing her arms. "You're late."

The jounin blinked, and Kiba had a feeling that his day had just gotten even worse.

"Hm…" The jounin rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How can I say this? My first impression is… I don't like you guys."

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"OK… Let's begin with some introductions," Kakashi drawled, watching the three brats carefully. Despite what he'd said in the classroom, these three were at least more interesting than his last potential team.

The Inuzuka boy scratched at the back of his head, frowning. "What do ya wanna know?" he asked.

The introductions were actually a standard part of meeting a genin team. In the jounin instructor's handbook, there was a list of things that the instructor could ask. Some chose to ask all of them, some asked just one or two. Kakashi had always used the same four.

"How about… your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies, stuff like that…" he explained shrugging. The three brats were watching him with that special blank expression.

"How about you go first," the Uzumaki brat suggested. "You look suspicious."

Oh, but she was a blunt one. Good with traps too. None of his other 'students' had used live kunai.

Kakashi smiled at her, but the gesture seemed to annoy the blonde even more.

"Oh… me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you about my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future?.. Hm… Well, I have lots of hobbies…" About one in every three groups asked him about himself. Kakashi had decided on the exact wording of his answer a long time ago.

The Uzumaki brat scowled and stood abruptly.

"Tch! Fine, ladies first," she declared, and paused to kick the Inuzuka brat in the ribs when he muttered something about 'what lady?' "My name is Uzumaki Kizuna. I like the people that I care about. I dislike stuck-up bastards. My dream is to become Hokage."

Oh… five points for taking initiative, fifteen for good choice of "like," ten for interesting dream…

Inuzuka choked.

"You? Hokage?" he mimicked, snickering.

"Shut it, dog boy!" The girl kicked again, and Kakashi wondered if maybe she stood up just to be in a better position for retaliating. Five points for good planning. "Keep being sexist, and I'll tell your sister!"

Five more for good knowledge of teammate/opponent's inner workings.

Inuzuka cowered away, looking horrified and nursing his ribs. Uzumaki Kizuna scowled for a moment before shrugging and sitting down. "Hobbies?... Anything except flower arranging and tea ceremonies," she concluded, shrugging again.

Watching the three of them, Kakashi smiled. Well, she and the Inuzuka brat would get along fine. But Sasuke hadn't said anything the entire time, and that wasn't so good.

"Next."

Dog-boy (it wasn't good to call one's students by nicknames, but it was such a good one) scowled again and didn't move. Sifting slightly for the first time since sitting down, Sasuke began.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are many things I dislike but I don't really like anything." ("Surprise, surprise," Uzumaki muttered, rolling her eyes. Hm… minus five points for blatant and blunt dislike of teammate… maybe… Kiba snickered, then winced and massaged his ribs. Plus five for pure physical strength, something most kunoichi lacked.) "And… I don't want to use the word dream but… I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and… to kill a certain man."

It wasn't surprising, but hearing a twelve-year-old say it so calmly… In the back of his mind, Kakashi sighed. Really, more interesting were the reactions of the other two. Uzumaki looked at her teammate sideways, apparently neither really surprised nor terribly interested. Inuzuka, by contrast, looked uncomfortable. He definitely hadn't expected this.

"And lastly…" Kakashi almost said 'dog-boy' here, but stopped himself. That nickname was far too catchy.

"Oh…" Kiba started in surprise, forcefully tearing his eyes away from his dark-haired teammate. "I'm Inuzuka Kiba. I like my family and Akamaru, I guess. I dislike... dunno… jerks and annoying people. My dream… to become a good shinobi. Hobbies… taking walks with Akamaru."

Kiba shrugged, falling silent. Kakashi almost felt sorry for him, a decidedly normal shinobi, especially by the standards of his clan, with two decidedly abnormal teammates. He lacked the other two's distant goal and almost obsessive focus.

Well, he'd help to keep them grounded.

"OK! That's enough of that. We will start our duties tomorrow." Ah, the magic words. Three sets of young, gullible, eager eyes turned toward him. Kakashi felt positively evil, in a good way. "But first, we're going to do something with just the four of us." He was baiting them blatantly now.

"What?" Dog-boy took the bait without blinking.

"Survival training." 'Kukukuku…' Inner Kakashi cackled. "Well… no… It's just that… when I tell you this, you guys are going to flip."

Pregnant silence. Cue heavy, serious look.

"Of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine will be chosen as genin. The rest will be sent back to the Academy. This training is a super-difficult exam with a failure rate of over sixty-six percent!"

Shocked silence.

"Hah, I told you you'd flip."

He couldn't wait until tomorrow.

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Since she didn't know from which direction he'd be coming, Kizuna didn't set up a trap. Instead, when Kakashi-sensei appeared, she pitched a spare kunai at him.

Naturally, the one-eyed bastard dodged with ease. No matter how stupid he looked, she reminded herself, he was still a jounin. And as much as she hated to admit it, Kizuna hadn't even been able to beat any of the teachers in the academy, who were only chuunin. (She'd tried enough times to be certain.)

Watching Kakashi-sensei set up a timer, Kizuna suddenly felt very, very apprehensive. There was no way she was going back to the academy. Absolutely no way. Whatever the hell he wanted, she'd do it. Do it with two-hundred percent.

"OK, it's set for noon," the scarecrow bastard began. "Here are two bells. Your task is to take these from me before then. Those who cannot get a bell by noon get no lunch. I'll not only tie you to one of those stumps, but also eat right in front of you."

On cue, Inuzuka's stomach growled loudly.

"You only need to get one bell. Since there are only two bells, one of you is definitely not eating. Also, the person who doesn't get a bell fails. So one of you is definitely going back to the Academy."

And that was the point she'd had enough.

"What the hell kind of test is that!" Kizuna yelled, stepping forward. Even glaring at their teacher, she could see Inuzuka shift and Uchiha scowl. "If we're going to be split up anyway, why the hell did we have to be on the same team in the first place! And what the hell kind of system is it, putting the lowest and highest scores together, then?"

The scarecrow bastard blinked. 'Hah,' her inner self crowed, 'a show of emotion!' While she paused to take a breath, Inuzuka caught on to what she was saying.

"Yeah, what's this about? Trying to make sure Uchiha passes? As if he didn't get enough privileges already!"

'Wow, dog-boy really looks crazy when he's mad,' Inner Kizuna noted. Fangs bared, short hair bristling, he really did look ferocious, but her mind wasn't on that anymore. For a moment, when Inuzuka had taken over their little bitch-fest, Kakashi-sensei had looked a little… disappointed? Because Inuzuka was jealous of Uchiha?

"Enough," Kakashi-sensei finally barked, shutting Kiba up. "This is how things are done. You may even use your shuriken. You won't succeed unless you come at me intending to kill." Here, his gaze shifted to her, silently adding, 'Not that you seem to have a problem with that.' Yeah, too bad he'd dodged that last one. The scarecrow bastard would have been a lot less annoying with a kunai through the heart.

"Start on my mark." His single eye slid shut, then snapped open as he barked, "Begin!"

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All three brats disappeared pretty quickly, Kakashi noted with mild cheerfulness as he pulled out Icha Icha Paradise. At least none of them were dumb enough to charge him straight on. He knew where they were, of course, but they weren't half-bad. Maybe they'd even figure it out…

Keeping his eye on the book, Kakashi mentally followed dog boy as, after a few moments, he began to move toward the Uzumaki brat. He'd almost expected that. Of the three, Inuzuka was the most likely to try to make an alliance, and he'd certainly pick Uzumaki over Sasuke. Kakashi hoped, distantly, that the kunoichi would put the clues together. None of the other ninja had, but kunoichi were generally better at perception and logic than their male counterparts, and she'd already taken the first step down the correct road of suspicion.

Well, Kakashi sort of hoped, but the chances really weren't that good. Most likely, it wouldn't even occur to those two to include Sasuke.

There was a confusion of movement, and three forms suddenly moved apart in the bushes. Ah, so dog boy knew his family's jutsu, the one that allowed him to turn his dog into a copy of himself. The dog-turned-human would undoubtedly attack while the real dog boy and Uzumaki set up a trap.

When the form of Inuzuka Kiba leapt out of the bushed, fangs bared, clawed hands reaching, Kakashi dodged it easily, without even looking up. The next two charges came no closer. Letting his opponent fly past for the fourth time, the jounin delivered a quick chop to the back of the neck. In a puff of smoke, the dog reverted back to its normal form and dropped to the ground.

The next attack came not from Uzumaki as Kakashi had expected, but from Sasuke, who unleashed a quick barrage of weapons with almost perfect timing. He'd seen Kakashi appear off guard as he looked at the dog in apparent surprise and had taken the chance to attack. Too bad all it did was put a few new holes in some poor wooden block and give away the dark-haired genin's position.

Well, he'd let the boy off this time, especially since things were definitely moving back in the clearing. It seemed his scheme of pretend-to-be-distracted-enough-to-drop-a-bell was drawing results. A certain blonde mouse (not that Uzumaki was quiet or shy in any way) had come to investigate the bait.

Too bad she disarmed his trap.

Just as the girl reached to grab the small bell, Kakashi made his re-entrance, swooping down on her spectacularly. The girl whipped around to face him and seemed to freeze in terror/surprise, but just as he was about to toss her into the nearest lake (that was all he'd do, really), dog boy charged out of the nearby bushes, moving in exactly the same way as his dog.

Well, at least he was already feeling protective of his teammate.

Kakashi dodged the charge easily, though it was a bit more troublesome when the blonde cheerfully tried to stab him in the back. Grabbing her arm as it swung past him by less than an inch, Kakashi twisted it behind her head, with the kunai pointing to the back of her neck. The blonde growled and nailed him in the shin.

Yeah, she definitely hit harder than the average kunoichi.

Kakashi didn't let go at the impact, like she'd intended, but he loosened his hold enough for her to duck down slightly. This, in turn, gave dog boy an opening to lunge for the jounin's head, jaws open wide. In the moment it took for Kakashi to weigh his options (he couldn't dodge while holding the girl, but he didn't really want to let her go while she still had the kunai), Uzumaki twisted her wrist in a way that really shouldn't have been possible, and suddenly the kunai was pointing straight at his mid-section. Just as the girl tensed and pushed threw her weight backward, apparently intent on gutting her poor instructor, Kakashi decided it was time to bail.

Letting go of her hand and simultaneously pushing her away, he dodged to the right, avoiding dog boy by a disturbingly small margin. Inuzuka hit the ground hard, but turned almost instantly and attacked again. Dodging him and the kunai Uzumaki threw at him, Kakashi almost missed the tell-tale 'twang' of sliced wire behind him. Half a second later, half a dozen knives drove deep into the tree that had been behind him.

Well, well, well. Some not-half-bad teamwork, some nice escape maneuvers, and a nice trap… Slicing a single wire with a kunai was actually very hard, Kakashi noted. So she had good aim too.

Then, the tree exploded.

The only warning Kakashi had was Inuzuka ducking at the last second before at least one of the knives handle-deep in the tree exploded. As chunks of wood went flying past him, the jounin noted that Uzumaki had simply used Kawarimi to make a quick, well-timed exist. Why hadn't dog boy done the same? Come to think of it, his attack patterns were entirely too simple…

That was the point that something hit him from behind. Except that Inuzuka was still crouched a little to the right, Uzumaki was in the woods two dozen feet away, and Sasuke was even further off. The something reached for the bells, almost grabbing them before Kakashi grabbed a fistful of fabric and threw the something away.

It was Inuzuka Kiba. Who had just spent the last seven minutes in Henge as his own dog.

Oh, but they weren't half-bad.

With a 'poof,' Akamaru changed back into dog form, panting heavily. Inuzuka seemed almost out of chakra as well. It must have been their limit to hold the forms as long as they did.

When the next volley of sharp-pointing objects flew toward him, courtesy of a very angry Uzumaki (she threw even harder when she was pissed), Kakashi disappeared into the woods to look for his last 'student.'

Sasuke was obliging enough to face Kakashi head-on. The Uchiha was certainly better than his teammates, with more fluid taijutsu form and better speed. His trap was good and his jutsu better. But a little subterranean decapitation left him helpless. By the time the dark-haired genin dug himself out, it would already be past noon.

Predictably, neither Uzumaki nor Inuzuka helped their teammate. In fact, they didn't even look for him. And when the timer rang, Kakashi collected the still half-buried Sasuke and unceremonialy tied him to the middle post.

The other two trudged in slowly, wearily and stared. Kakashi motioned for them to sit down, and they obeyed without question, moving to either side of their teammate.

"Well," he began in a deceptively mild tone, "there's no need for you to worry about going back to the Academy…"

Three surprised, hopeful looks…

"Because none of you will ever become shinobi."

"What!" The Uzumaki brat jumped to her feet, gesturing desperately. "You can't just… just…" She clenched her fists, shaking silently for a moment.

"I won't!" she declared, charging at the jounin. He'd expected that from one of them. In a movement too fast for any of the genin to catch, he had the girl pinned to ground without even an inch of leverage. She wouldn't be getting out of this, no matter how flexible.

"All of you are just brats," Kakashi continued calmly. "Are you trying to make fun of the shinobi with your behavior? Did you wonder even for a moment what the point of this exercise was?"

"It's to see who's good enough to be a genin!" Kiba growled, eyes flicking from the jounin to the girl. "You told us that!"

"Yes, I did. This was a test, like I said. But what do you think I was testing you for? Your ninjutsu? Your taijutsu? All those things were already tested in the Academy. That's how your rankings were assigned."

"So then what? Just tell us already!" Dog boy was bristling, shaking with the tension.

Kakashi sighed, in the back of his mind. "It's teamwork." That shut them up. All three were silent and still. "If the three of you had come at me together, you might have been able to take the bells."

"But there's only two!"

Ah, the inevitable complaint.

"Of course. This task was designed to divide you. The whole point was to see which of you would set aside your personal interests for the sake of the group. Instead…"

He turned to dog boy first. "… You, Kiba, took the easy way, charging into the task and getting the help of the teammate you found more tolerable and cooperative instead of considering the bigger picture."

Next, the girl. "… You, Kizuna, didn't follow up on the discrepancies you noticed, rendering those observations meaningless."

And finally, "You, Sasuke, didn't even try to work with the others, already judging them to be excess baggage."

Uzumaki looked appropriately chastised. No doubt kicking herself for not connecting the dots sooner. Inuzuka scowled, anger and annoyance bubbling underneath. And Sasuke… he looked more angry than anything.

Was he getting through to these kids at all?

"You're a team! Act like one! Yes, it's necessary for ninja to have individual skills, but what is even more important now is teamwork!"

No, they weren't listening. The girl might get it. Maybe, if only because he was pretty much sitting on her. But the boys… Dog boy was thinking 'Teamwork with him? I draw the line at arrogant bastards.' And Sasuke… well, teamwork just didn't fit into his view of things.

"Acting as an individual is bad for the team and exposes your comrades to unnecessary danger. You might as well kill them yourself." Time for drastic measures. "For example… Kiba! Kill Sasuke! Or Kizuna dies." For a moment, looking at the glinting kunai in his hand, they actually believed him.

Well, that was all he could do.

"The day could come when one of you may be taken hostage, and you're forced to make such a choice. Even if your individual performance is perfect, you may end up loosing a teammate during a mission."

Walking to the memorial, Kakashi traced the familiar names in his mind. He was getting off topic. This was about working together not about accepting loss… they'd get to that part later, maybe, if he passed them anyway.

"Look at this marker. All the names carved in the stone are heroes of our village. Ninja. All of them… died in the line of duty." Already, Kakashi had a feeling that this would mean nothing to them. Inuzuka was uncomfortable, but his entire family was shinobi. His life was shinobi. Uzumaki's stare was heavy, but she was too set in her goal to stop. And Sasuke… didn't really care, did he?

But he had to say the next part. "This memorial… includes the names of my closest friends." Turning around, Kakashi studied the three stupid brats. Kizuna had paled suddenly, seeing something only her mind knew. Kiba swallowed heavily, looking away. And Sasuke… had the oddest expression…

Maybe he was getting through to them after all, Kakashi thought.

"…Pay attention… I'm giving you one last chance. This'll be far more difficult that our last little game with the bells. You may eat one of the bento boxes, but no sharing with Sasuke, since he fell shortest of the goal." Neither Inuzuka nor Uzumaki looked terribly upset at that, and Kakashi felt any hope for them begin to slip away. "If either of you feeds him, you fail the test right there. My word is law. Do you understand?"

Without waiting for response, the jounin 'disappeared,' relocating to the nearest clump of trees. On whim, he turned around to watch them.

Sasuke was pointedly ignoring the other two as they settled down with their lunch. Kiba set his on the ground, letting Akamaru share his food. Kizuna watched him for a moment.

"Oi, Inuzuka!" she called abruptly, and her teammated turned to her in surprise. "Give me your chopsticks."

"What? Why?"

"It's not like you need them," she reasoned, reaching into her weapons pouch. "And Uchiha's using mine since I haven't gotten them all slobbery yet."

With a short flick of her kunai, the ropes tying Sasuke to the stump fell away. Kiba stared while the girl waved her lunch in Sasuke's general direction.

"We'll split it half and half, so all the members'll get the same amount," she explained.

Akamaru barked in agreement.

"But what about…" Kiba gestured vaguely, apparently unable to form a complete sentence.

"Oh, him." Kizuna shrugged. "Whatever. All this underneath the underneath stuff's giving me a headache. In any case, I've weighed the pros and cons, you know. Uchiha's fan club already hates me, and it'll be nice to see their expressions when I tell them I had lunch with their precious Sasuke-kun." She grinned maliciously, looking sideways at the young heartthrob as he slid onto the ground next to her. "And besides, now I can say Uchiha owes me."

It wasn't what he would have hoped for, but it was better than nothing.

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end chapter the first

Bio Note 1: Kizuna (read key-z-nah) means "bond between people." Personally I think it's a much better choice than Naruko or something. Naruto is actually a type of fish cracker (I think) added to ramen, so changing only one syllable makes the name meaningless.

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Oh yuck. I don't know anything about Kiba… But I didn't know who else to use. Naruto, Kiba, Chouji and Shikamaru were apparently the idiots of their class, but Kizuna is a kunoichi, so she's ranked differently, and Chouji and Shikamaru have to go with Ino into Team Eight because of their parents.

So yeah, Kiba's going to suffer. But I was too lazy to download his fight with Sakon/Ukon (the freaky Sound guy/girl whatever his/her name is) or to look up his fight with Naruto again, so I just… winged his fighting. I'm really no good at fighting.

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Next Chapter: First mission… Babysitting! The boy with the lucky name!

Konohamaru, Sandaime, Kiba's older sister (what's her name, can anyone tell me?), and maybe Hinata.

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