Me: Naruto does not belong to mwah!

Naruto: Like yeah! I belong to myself, believe it!

Me:...so arrogant...

Naruto: What? That's not being arrogant! *sticks out his tongue*

Me: You're right.

Naruto: Ha!

Me: That's being childish.

Naruto: ...O.O

Sasuke: *pops out of thin air* Dobe.

Naruto: What did you say?!

Kasumi: Now, now boys. We have a storyline to get to.

Naruto and Sasuke: *glares at each other*

Kasumi: *sighs*

Hinata18809: Thank you, thank you, thank you for being to first to review! Hope it doesn't disappoint~

Rosy Fire: Probably because Sasuke had been a bit of a jerk. But don't worry! We'll get him on the straight and true path even if we have to kill him! Wait. It's probably not a good idea to kill one of the main characters...

Anyways, thanks for reviewing!


Late

Several hours later...

Naruto peeked out the doorway, eyes squinted.

Sasuke's 'cool' position on his desk hadn't changed and Kasumi turned a page in the book she had procured out of nowhere nonchalantly.

"Why is our Team 7 sensei," Naruto demanded, looking back at them, "so damn late?!"

"I've heard that most successful ninjas have some quirk or two..." Kasumi speculated, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I guess it's just our luck that we ended up with a sensei that's late. Hopefully, it isn't a habit."

She had no idea how right she was.

A noise caught her attention and she looked up. Blinked. "Naruto-san... what are you doing?" She asked, slowly. He wouldn't...

Sasuke glanced over and blinked as well.

"Hi hi hi hi," Naruto giggled mischievously as he reached up to jam an eraser into the door. He hopped off the chair, "That's what you get for being late!"

He would.

Kasumi sweatdropped and shook her head, but didn't bother scolding him. She had the feeling he wouldn't listen anyways. When it came to pranks, Naruto was as stubborn as a mule.

Sasuke scoffed. "Like a jounin would fall for such a stupid booty trap."

A gloved hand pulled at the door and all three of them went silent, holding their breaths in anticipation.

A tall man with silver, gravity defying hair stepped through the door and the eraser fell right on his hair, releasing a cloud of chalk dust to his 'surprise'.

Perfect hit. Err... prank.

"Whahahahaha," Naruto laughed, pointing at him. "You fell for it, you fell for it!"

'Is this really a jounin?' Sasuke thought doubtfully. 'He doesn't seem very reliable...'

Meanwhile, Kasumi frowned a bit after she had gotten over her shock. 'I think I've seen a picture of that man somewhere...' And that meant he was someone important. Well, she was on a team with Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto. She grimaced, her shoulders slumping slightly. She had expected her genin years to be relaxing, but somehow, she was doubting it.

"Hmmm... How can I say this...?" Kakashi contemplated, rubbing his chin. "My first impression is... I don't like you guys."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Introductions

"Well, let's begin with introducing yourselves." Their sensei said cheerfully.

"... What would you like to know?" Kasumi asked politely, sitting in the middle of Sasuke and Naruto. She had purposefully chosen that spot so there would hopefully be less hostility. She had her doubts as to whether it would work;the power of their 'friendly' rivalry was a thing to behold.

"How about your likes, dislikes... your dreams for the future and things like that." He shrugged disinterestedly.

"You first, sensei." Kasumi nodded at him.

"Yeah, why don't you introduce yourself to us first?!" Naruto snapped, rather abrasively. She withheld a wince, already foreseeing the headache she was going to be having when she got to the task of teaching the blonde manners. Which he would have to learn, of course, if he wanted to survive her brother.

Troublesome, indeed.

"Oh... me? Well... my name is Hatake Kakashi... I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes... Dreams for the future... hmmm... And I have lots of hobbies." He managed to keep a straight face.

'... all he told us... was his name.' Naruto and Sasuke thought, deadpanning.

Kasumi narrowed her eyes, having blocked out everything after hearing his name. 'That's it, I know I've heard that name before!' Now, she just had to figure out where. Easier said than done considering the amount of books she had read over the years...

"Well, it's your turn, let's start off on the right," He gestured to Naruto.

"Yosh! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, what I like is cup ramen, what I like even more is when Iruka-sensei pays for my ramen, what I dislike is waiting 3 minutes for the ramen to cook..." Naruto grinned sunnily. "And my dream..."

'Does he only think about ramen?' Kakashi thought incredulously to himself.

"... is to surpass the Hokage and then have the people of this village acknowledge my existence." Pure determination shone in his cerulean blue eyes.

Kakashi's eye widened. 'He's grown in an interesting way.'

Kasumi tilted her head thoughtfully, not particularly concerned with Naruto's introduction as she had been the blonde's classmate for years and his friend for almost the same amount of time. She had heard it all before, but the last one... 'So... he really is the...'

"Hobbies... pranks, I guess." Naruto finished lamely.

'I see.' Kakashi scratched at his hair. "Next." He directed his attention to his only female student. 'She's the one from that clan...' He also noticed that both Naruto and Sasuke quickly focused all of their attention on her. 'Interesting... both of the boys seem rather curious about her... Do they not know anything about her even though they're her classmates?' That spoke badly of their observation skills or well of her stealth skills. Possibly both.

"My name is Kasumi," She stated quietly, not bothering to offer a family name. "I like shogi. I dislike selfish people and cowards. My hobbies are reading and training. And my dream is to become a member of the intelligence division."

'Intelligence division, huh? At least she's not a fangirl.' Kakashi reflected.

'Kasumi-chan is so awesome...' Naruto thought in awe.

'Not bad...' Sasuke admitted grudgingly. Certainly better than one of the SUFA. He shuddered inwardly at the thought of the screeching banshees. To make it even worse, they were as worthless and weak as they were persistent and logic-defying.

"Okay and finally the broody one." Kakashi gestured to the Uchiha.

Sasuke shot a glare at him in response to the nickname that was happily ignored. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are lots of thing I dislike and I don't really like anything and... I can't really call it a dream... but I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and to kill a man."

'He better not mean me...' Naruto sweated nervously.

'...not again! Why can't they just-' Kasumi pushed down the flare of anger and distress and discretely took deep breaths. In, out. In, out. 'Don't think about it, don't think of it, don't think about it...'

'Like I thought...' Kakashi sighed.

"OK! So far for the introductions, tomorrow we'll start our duties as shinobi." Kakashi announced carefreely.

"Yeah! What kind of duties?!" Naruto saluted in excitement. "Duties! Duties!"

"First, we are going to do something with just the four of us..." He started.

"What is it? What is it?" Naruto was going to jump out of his skin if he kept on doing that, Kasumi thought absently.

"Survival training." He replied bluntly.

"Survival training...?" Naruto repeated questioningly.

"..." Kasumi and Sasuke kept quiet. Sasuke because it was habit, Kasumi because she preferred to listen rather than question.

"This won't being a normal training like the ones you had in the Academy." Kakashi explained. "This time, I'll be your opponent."

'...that's impossible.' Kasumi thought candidly. 'No three genins would ever be able to defeat a junin. Especially not ones fresh out of the Academy.' The brown-eyed girl despised those who could not face reality and was well aware of her own limitations.

"Then! Then! What is it?" Naruto was confused. Hilariously so.

"He he he," Kakashi lowered his head, laughing in a rather disturbing fashion.

'...Oh, dear.' Kasumi furrowed her brow. 'That's classically not a good sign.' It spoke of either a master evil plan or mental instability. She wasn't sure which one she wanted.

"What's so funny?" Naruto scowled.

"Uhm... well... it's just that what I tell you this, you guys are totally going to freak out." He eye-smiled happily.

"Freak out? Ha?" Naruto squinted.

"Of the 27 graduates, only 9 will be chosen to become genin. The rest will be sent back to the Academy. This training is a very difficult exam with a failure rate of over 66%." Kakashi gave them a creepy stare.

Naruto's eyes bulged out and his jaw dropped.

A bead of sweat rolled down Sasuke's cheek.

"Ha ha!" Kakashi laughed. "I knew you would freak out!"

But... Kasumi..."Only 66%?" She responded skeptically, not in the least frightened.

Both of her teammates whirled around to stare at her, 'Is she really not scared?'

The scarecrow stopped laughing to look intently at the girl. 'Why isn't she... ah. Right, she's from that place...'

"Yup! 66%" He eye-smiled at her.

"Oh. Alright, then." And she shrugged and leaned back against the steps. She had faith in her skills and abilities.

Naruto wasn't that unconcerned. "What? No way! But we worked so hard... what was the point of graduating?"

"Oh... that? That was just to select those who have a change at becoming genin." Kakashi replied casually.

"Uhh... what?!" Naruto shouted.

"...Anyway, tomorrow you have to show your real skills on the training ground. Bring all the shinobi tools you have.. oh.. and I suggest you skip breakfast, you might throw up."

Naruto was shaking, Kasumi noticed sympathetically. She supposed she should be frightened as well, but this really was nothing compared to her birth village.

"The details are on this paper and don't be late tomorrow!" Kakashi handed them each a piece of paper and a 'Ja ne!' and was gone.

"..."

"..."

"..."

They stared after him blankly. The silence was broken when Sasuke hmphed and got up to leave.

"Sasuke-san, wait." Kasumi called out politely. Sasuke paused to give her a cold look. She smiled sweetly back, not disturbed at all. "How would you like some information on our new sensei before tomorrow's test?"

He narrowed his dark eyes.

Persuasion

"Ehh? You want to know stuff about Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto scratched his head in confusion.

Kasumi had led the three to a calming park a few minutes away from the bustling streets. Somehow, she had gotten the three of them to sit in a circle as well.

She nodded. "If we're going to be participating in a fight against him tomorrow, it's best if we know as much about him as we can."

"But, Kasumi-chan! Why?! It'll be the same anyways!" Naruto whined. He would much rather be training or counting his shinobi tools right now! Reluctantly, Sasuke was in agreement, not that he would admit it.

The girl smiled patiently at him. After all these years, she knew how to handle the hyperactive boy. "It does make a difference, Naruto-san. Say you're faced with an opponent. What would you do?"

"Attack him!" Naruto replied immediately, mimicking throwing a punch.

Kasumi nodded approvingly. "Yes, but what if you knew that his dominant side was his right side and not his left?"

"... I would attack him from the left." Naruto said slowly, a light bulb flaring over his head.

She smiled coyly. "So you see, information does make a difference."

"Yosh!" Without warning, Naruto enthusiastically pumped a fist in the air. "You're right! Let's figure out all Kakashi-sensei's dirty secrets!"

She sweatdropped, but decided that would be all the progress she could get today. Naruto tended to have limitations when it came to academics.

"Hn. I don't see why I have to bother. He fell for Naruto's idiotic trick." Sasuke spoke up condescendingly. Naruto bristled, but Kasumi held up a hand before he could retort.

Kasumi looked at her dark-haired teammate with genuine curiosity. "Do you really believe that, Sasuke-san?"

He frowned at her. "Why wouldn't I?"

"...you are the last Uchiha in Konoha." She pointed out shrewdly. "Even if the Hokage doesn't want favoritism, the Council would never assign you a dead-beat sensei. You are the shiny toy they want to show off as soon as possible."

Naruto couldn't take it. "That's not fair! Why does he get special treatment?!"

Kasumi patted his arm in comfort. "Don't worry about it, Naruto-san. Think about it this way: as his teammates, that means we automatically get special treatment, too."

Naruto thought about that, decided he liked it. He had never gotten special treatment before. Well... not the good kind.

Sasuke considered her argument for a moment. "But, by that train of thought, I will definitely pass this test."

Kasumi thought about that. "True." She admitted easily.

Sasuke smirked and got up. There was no more reason for him to stay with the worthless losers.

"But, Kasumi-chan!" Naruto protested, upset that his friend had given up without a true fight.

"It's okay, Naruto-san." She assured the blonde boy, her voice purposefully loud enough that the Uchiha walking away from them could hear. "We don't need his help. Besides, if Sasuke-san wants to spend his time as a genin with one of his fangirls, that's his choice."

Sasuke stopped dead.

Pretending not to notice, Kasumi went on, winking conspiratorially at Naruto. "After all, if we don't pass... well, he does have a lot of girls entirely willing to be put on a team with him. I'm sure they'll be ecstatic to know Sasuke Uchiha has two open spots on his team."

Sasuke twitched.

Catching on, Naruto smiled a foxy smile. "You're totally right, Kasumi-chan. They'll probably be really happy to know they can stalk him even more!"

Sasuke's eyes widened in horror. More stalking?

"And I'm sure there will be a lot of hugging." Kasumi added on slyly. "And... perhaps, some kissing. Maybe some kidnapp-"

Sasuke whirled right around and took back his seat, glaring murderously. "What's your damn plan?!" He all but growled.

Kasumi smiled serenely.

Bingo

"So, it's this building?" Naruto asked.

"Mm-hm." Kasumi confirmed.

The three newly made genins were crouching on a rooftop, staring at a small inconspicuous shop suspiciously close to the Jounin Standby Station.

"This store sells is the one that sells Bingo Books." She murmured to her teammates.

"What's that again?" Naruto smiled embarrassingly.

"Hn. Dobe. She's already explained two times." Sasuke scorned.

"Why you...!" Naruto started, glaring at the Uchiha.

"Boys!" Kasumi intervened sharply, frowning at the two. "We cannot attract attention here." Hords of jounins would be on them in seconds.

"Sorry, Kasumi-chan." Naruto apologized sheepishly.

Sasuke just curled his lip and turned away.

Ignoring her teammate's behavior, Kasumi looked at Naruto. "Bingo Books are black books that contain information on powerful ninja, Naruto-san. Most of the time, they are only owned by Jounin and Anbu which is why we are not just walking into that store and buying one."

"Oh. Are we going to get into trouble for this?" He asked curiously. He wasn't scared, but wanted to know the stakes.

Sasuke, too, looked at the girl questioningly.

Kasumi considered. "Probably not. This is a shinobi village; we are expected and even encouraged to think sneakily. At the most, maybe a lecture from Kakashi-sensei or the Hokage."

"Okay!" Naruto agreed unhesitatingly. It wasn't like he hadn't experienced that before.

Kasumi looked at Sasuke who scowled, but nodded.

Satisfied, the cream-haired girl went on to explain the plan. "Okay, so, Naruto-san, you're going to cause a small commotion near the shop, alright? When the shop owner comes out to investigate, I'll stall him and Sasuke-san will slip inside. And this is why we're lucky."

"What?" Naruto scrunched his eyes in confusion.

She grinned craftily. "The shop owner's daughter happens to be one of Sasuke-san's fangirls."

Naruto gaped at her and even Sasuke seemed surprised.

"Y-you..." Naruto gasped in delight. "You're so smart, Kasumi-chan!"

"Why, thank you, Naruto-san." She replied sweetly.

"You planned this from the beginning." Sasuke accused, his respect for the girl increasing despite his annoyance. "Don't need my help, my ass."

Kasumi widened her eyes in faux innocence. "I don't know what you're talking about, Sasuke-san. Everyone ready?"

Affirmatives all around.

The plan went off without a hitch to their surprise. Naruto set off a small explosion ten feet away from the store with a flash bomb for extra security. He made certain that it was large enough to attract attention, but small enough that it wouldn't cause any actual damage. And then he hightailed away, as he had a lot of practice doing. His prank experience certainly did help.

The store owner came out to see what the commotion was around and Kasumi 'bumped' into him, wailing that she had lost her glasses somewhere. While the man was preoccupied with helping the obviously blind girl find her glasses, Sasuke slipped into the shop.

Quickly finding a bingo book, he walked to the counter where the cashier was all but ready to faint. One compliment on her hair and he was walking quickly out of the store with a bingo book in a bag. In the background, the cashier had finally fallen to the ground in a swoon.

A minute later, the blind girl 'found' her glasses - henged from a nearby rock - and happily thanked the store owner before sprinting off for her 'late appointment'.

As they say: Bingo.

Observers

In his office, Sarutobi and Kakashi watched the scene through the Hokage's crystal orb with raised eyebrows.

"What do you think?" The Hokage asked.

"... If Kasumi can keep the two boys working together, they might just pass my test tomorrow." Kakashi admitted. "I didn't expect them to work together at all, much less be so bold."

The old man chuckled. "Yes, she is quite exceptional, isn't she? A few more adjustments and some experience and Ibiki'll have a field day with her."

Kakashi hummed noncommittally. "Maybe."

Copy Cat

The three gathered together back at the park.

"We did it!" Naruto crowed, his grin outshining the sun.

Kasumi laughed breathlessly and even Sasuke's eyes were sparking with adrenaline. Wordlessly, she held out a hand for the book and he handed it over to her.

She flipped quickly through the book and sighed. "This'll take a while," She warned, calculating how much she would have to spend going through the book.

"Eh?!"

45 minutes later, both of the boys were growing restless.

"Kasumi-chan! When are you going to be done?!" Naruto complained, thudding a fist to the ground.

"Patience, Naruto-san. Patience." She said, eyes scanning the pages carefully.

He grumbled and Sasuke rolled his eyes, so neither of them caught the slight widening of Kasumi's eyes when she turned the page.

She paused. "Why don't you guys spar? It'll be good practice for tomorrow."

Normally, Sasuke would have rejected the idea outright and Naruto would have protested, but both of them were bored out of their minds. So with only a small amount of insults, they got up and went over to the fields beside the park.

"No ninjutsu!" Kasumi ruled firmly. They did not need the place burned down; she did not want a jounin to show up and see a genin with an unauthorized bingo book. "Stick to taijutsu for now."

"Okay!"

"Fine."

And the two boys began to fight.

Kasumi discreetly tore a page out of the book and folded it neatly. Stuffing it into her pocket, she turned the pages until she found a familiar silver-haired jounin. Rapidly reading it over, she concluded that she had been right in the Council giving the great Uchiha Sasuke a special sensei. Putting the book down with a sigh, she leaned back and studied her teammates.

Sasuke was definitely strong. She didn't like his arrogance, but conceded that he did have some claim to it. He was fast and he hit quickly. The style he used was unfamiliar to her; it was probably his Clan's. His style was polished and structured.

In comparison, Naruto's taijustu was sloppy and weak. There were a lot of holes in his stance and his reactions were slow. But he was unpredictable and some of the moves he used were plain genius. With some help, he could become devastating.

In no time at all, Sasuke had pinned Naruto down and had a kunai to his throat.

"Sasuke-san wins." Kasumi judged flatly. "Break it up, guys."

Obligingly, Sasuke let Naruto up with a smirk and the blonde glowered at him, but made no move to attack him again.

Wanting to break the tension, she called out, "Found Kakashi-sensei."

Predictably, that got their attention and snapped Naruto out of his gloom.

"Really?!" He bounded over, Sasuke following at a more sedate pace.

In response, she gestured to the book. The boys speedily pounced on it.

As they read, Kasumi saw the confusion in Naruto's eyes and the tightening of Sasuke's jaw.

"Copy Cat Kakashi... Kakashi of the Sha-rin-gan." Naruto read slowly. "What's a sha-rin-gan?"

"Sharingan." Kasumi corrected gently. "And I think that's a question Sasuke-san would be able to answer more accuretly."

Naruto frowned and turned to look at his rival, only for a double-take at his expression. "... Teme? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Sasuke stared at the bingo book, completely bemused. "How... does Kakashi have the Sharingan? He's not... apart of the clan..."

"Oi! Teme! What are you rambling on about?!" Naruto demanded loudly.

The noise seemed to snap Sasuke out if it. "The Sharingan... is a bloodline of the Uchiha clan." He explained impatiently. "Why the hell does Kakashi have it?"

"Not sure," Kasumi murmured. "But it's probably his left eye, the one covered by his forehead protector."

There was a brief silence as they mulled over that.

"There's no way we can defeat him." Kasumi said abruptly. "He's an A-class ninja with years of experience and he was originally in Anbu. If we fight him head-on, we'll be decimated in seconds."

Naruto frowned. "We can't just give up!" He argued with utmost conviction.

"No." She rose to her feet gracefully. "We'll try anyways, of course. It's getting late and we should all get a good night's sleep. Remember to eat a good breakfast tomorrow."

"But Kakashi-sensei said we shouldn't!" Naruto recalled.

"No, he suggested we not. How do you expect to fight against a jounin on a hungry stomach?" Kasumi inquired pointedly.

"Oh, right... wait! That bastard purposefully set us up to fail!" Naruto ranted, jumping up in anger.

Sasuke furrowed his brow, annoyed at the deception as well.

Kasumi shook her head. "See you guys tomorrow morning." With one last smile, she turned to go home, scooping up the bingo book in the process.

"Yeah! See you Kasumi-chan!" Naruto waved cheerfully

"Hn." Sasuke was already walking away.

Kasumi sighed. Was it possible for this team to get more dysfunctional? Probably.

Impossible

Kasumi opened the door to her home quietly. "I'm home." She called out softly.

"Kasumi-chan!" In a flash, her older brother, Hiroshi, was at the door, pulling her into an affectionate hug. "How did your first day as a genin go?"

She smiled, returning the hug. "A bit exasperatingly, to be honest."

"Oh?" He pulled back, ruffled her hair, and dragged her to the dining room. "I made dinner, by the way."

"Thanks, onii-san." She sat down tiredly. "I got Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke on my team with our sensei as Hatake Kakashi."

Hiroshi stared at her. One. Two. Three. He broke down, laughing helplessly until he was pounding his fist on the ground. Kasumi waited him out, an irk mark appearing on her forehead.

"It isn't that funny, onii-san." She said, irritated. If anything, this only made him laugh harder.

Finally, he pulled himself together, wiping away some tears off with his thumb. "Sorry, Kasumi-chan." He got out, still chuckling. "It's just... that team sounds so... impossible."

Kasumi glared at him. "I'm on that team!"

"I know, I know, honey." Snickering under his breath, he placed the plates on the table. "I'm sure it'll work out... somehow."

She sighed in resignation and started to eat her dinner. Still, her brother was a jounin... "Do you know anything about Kakashi-sensei, onii-san?"

Hiroshi paused thoughtfully. "Not really. But... I have heard that he's never passed a team before."

Kasumi groaned and let her head thump on the table. Wonderful. This would turn out so well.

Obsession

Later that night, as she was getting ready to go to sleep, Kasumi slipped out the page of the Bingo Book she had ripped out.

She stared at it for a moment and then reached for a match. Lighting it with a crackle, she placed the paper in the sink and lit it on fire.

Silently, Kasumi watched it burn until there was nothing left.

I may not be able to stop him, she thought fiercely. But I won't encourage his obsession.

Decisively, she turned on the faucet and let the ashes of the page on Uchiha Itachi flow down the drain.


Review! Please, please, please review! Reviews are my soul-food! I need them!

Ah and does anyone want to be my beta for the story? All my betas are in hibernation right now. I think school and work is just burying them somewhere. Please PM if you are willing!