Hello readers,

Most of the reviews I have received so far are suggestions of the possible candidates for Naruto's harem and I might say there everyone have their own unique choices.

Finally after taking into account all the reviews, one more member has been added to the harem. The identity of the girl will be revealed when she makes an appearance. The reason she was chosen was there will be a lot to explore with her character and it will be real fun that I can assure you for.

I should thank - for the suggestion of including her in the harem though I would make some changes to your suggestion.

Oh! I didn't mention the name did I. A cookie/champagne (if you are of the drinking age) to those who get it right.

As for Haku, I am seriously in turmoil. Her death is a turning point in mental growth of cannon Naruto but my Naruto differs with him on some aspects. If Haku survives she will be part of Naruto's harem and if she dies the slot will be given to someone else.

Now lets start with the fiction.

Chapter 3 – Bell test and the team

Only about a couple of minutes before the allotted time did Naruto reached the training ground 7 as told by their sensei. He only found the duo of the Uchiha siblings present there as there seemed to be no signs of either Sakura nor Kakashi being there. He had expected Kakashi-sensei being late from what he had heard but he didn't think Sakura would be late as she too knew well enough that the Uchiha siblings always had the habit of being early.

Today he didn't wear the orange jumpsuit which he would wear most of the time as he was in the outfit which he wore when he went to submit the ninja-registration form. The attire was made of blue shinobi sandals, dark-blue cargo-shinobi pants with a ninja-belt strapped to it and shuriken holsters on both the thighs. The upper body consisted of a blue tee-shirt with dark-orange jacket over it with the back of the jacket having the Uzumaki spiral in dark red color. He wore the hitai-te on his forehead as it helped in stopping his hair from obstructing his view.

The Uchiha siblings were not people he really liked to interact seeing that he considered Sasuke a stick-up-he-ass-jerk and he hardly had talked to Hitomi as she had the habit of scaring of guys away from her which earned her the title 'Ice-princess'. But as fate had some kind of fun watching him suffer had seen that he was paired with those two and the girl who seriously had anger-management/mental issues when it came to him. Normally he was not the believer in fate but this time fate had face and name to go by, the Sandaime Hokage.

Now that they were in the same team they would be working together so now was not the time to think of the past and start new. He from experience knew that the only reason Sakura would approach him was to insult or try to make him a punching bag because she was upset because of Sasuke not answering her while the brooding-emo-duck-butt Sasuke and the ice-princess Hitomi would never approach him on their own. So swallowing the past Naruto walked closer to the sibling's duo to start a conversation.

"Hey, teme and hime, GOOD MORNING!" said Naruto as he shouted the last part as he was close to them. (Hime is the something Naruto had started calling her a couple of years ago when she received the unofficial title of 'Ice-princess' as he everyone be adult or child treated her like a princess)

The two Uchihas were taken by surprise at the sudden rise in the blonde's voice which they could tell was closer to the voice of Sakura. After they got out of their surprise they found the blonde laughing out loud.

Meanwhile the moment Naruto caught the duo by surprise he couldn't hold back his laughter as a few drops of tears fell from his eyes. It was not because of surprising them to hell but the faces the two portrayed out of surprise/shock. Their eyes had gone wide as they could while their mouth was wide open as a look of pure horror was present on their face. He really wished he carried a camera for such moments as this would be one of the favorite pranks so far. It was not like he wanted to click the picture of the duck-butt who looked more closer to a duck now but it would be good poster picture for 'Sasuke-kun fan club'. But he really wanted a camera to click a picture of Hitomi as she looked rather cute with that face as her hair was also messed a bit.

'Wait cute… the ice princess… I must be he side effect of the kiss we had yesterday… yeah that must be it… THE CURSE OF THE SNOW PRINCESS' thought Naruto.

Meanwhile the Uchiha duo was angry, no, outright pissed. Sasuke grunted in anger but decided to do nothing as he thought everyone lower than him and the blonde was no-clan-nobody. Hitomi was never one to share his sentiments of judging people by clan as she was currently glaring daggers at the blonde and if looks could kill he would have been dead where he stood.

"Uzumaki, How dare you?" Hitomi roared in anger still glaring at the said blonde.

"How dare I what, hime?" asked Naruto with a complete innocent face as if he did nothing.

"How dare you startle us? And. Stop. Calling. Me. Hime" she said as anger was even evident in her voice.

"First, I think didn't startle you as I just greeted you Good Morning. Isn't that what one should do every morning when they meet others", Naruto said still with the innocent face which angered her more.

"And about stopping to call you hime…" said Naruto as he took a thinking pose for a couple of seconds "… not happening. You are hime and will always remain hime."

Hitomi couldn't believe as she heard his reasons for startling them she was seeing red in front of her (not the Sharingan, the one in the type of the bulls) and his reason for not stopping from calling her hime still remained the same, the one he gave her the first time and continued for the past two years. But today something different happened, as instead of her face boiling in anger it was red because of blushing as her heart skipped a beat.

'What is wrong with me!' she thought as she walked of to rest under a tree.

'I. Am. Alive' Naruto thought as he saw Hitomi walk away. He breathed a sigh of relief as such situations would warrant a beat-up from her.

Sakura arrive fifteen minutes later and saw the three sitting far away from each other and no sign of Kakashi-sensei which she was relieved about. It had taken more time for her to dress-up for her Sasuke-kun which was the reason why she was late. She didn't want to be scolded by sensei on the first day and make a fool of herself in front of her Sasuke-kun. She saw her opportunity as Hitomi was not sitting with Sasuke and walked towards him.

3 hours later…

It had been three hours since the time team 7 was supposed to meet at the training ground 7 as per their sensei's instruction. So the team of four had arrived around 7 in the morning but it seemed their sensei was running late but even after 3 hours the silver-haired jounin was running late.

Naruto had been watching his team for the past 3 hours, as he watched the pathetic ways tried too convince Sasuke to go on a date with her. Seriously that girl in his eyes was shame to the name of all the real kunoichis like hi mother. He watched Sasuke continue to brood completely ignoring the girl who was asking him on a date. Seriously how could the boy keep on brooding, couldn't he just ask her to shut up or go on her date with her. Meanwhile he watched Hitomi who seemed to be in deep thought as if she was planning about something which he wished was not ways to him because of the morning incident. Unknown to him he kept on glancing towards Hitomi from time to time as he was busy doing some odd exercises which wouldn't catch the eyes of his team not that they would be interested in watching him.

So wrong was he as thought two of his teammate ignored him the last kept an eye on him throughout the morning. It really nerved Hitomi when she actually first time in her life liked the blonde calling her 'Hime'. Throughout the three hours she watched the blonde gather leaves and small stones in his vicinity as he held them in his hand for a few seconds and throw away pieces of leaves and stones and gather another and continue the process. Though she had yet to awaken her Kekkei-Genkai the Sharingan but her eyes could sharp than normal shinobi because of the Kekkei-Genkai. She could easily tell those were clean cuts as she wondered what the blonde was doing.

Finally Kakashi had decided to grace the young hopeful-genins as he entered the clearing with the classic cloud of the Shunshin no jutsu.

"Yo!" he said waving at all giving an eye-smile.

"YOU ARE LATE", screeched Sakura as all the four walked towards him.

"Well, on my way here a black cat passed my road, so to not be cursed by bad luck I came here by traveling from the other side of the village", said Kakashi.

'That's so lame…' thought the four hearing the excuse as giant sweat-drops were formed on the back of their heads.

Kakashi removed two bells and an alarm clock from his pockets as he sat the alarm clock on the nearby stone structure while he jingled the bell in front of the genin-hopefuls.

"Now you are to come at me with all you get with the intention to kill. The ones who get the bells pass, while the others go back to the academy. You have up till noon to get the bells that is about 2 hours from now", he said.

"That's unfair", shouted the four in unison.

"Well who said being ninja is about being fair. Now START", said Kakashi.

As he shouted start was the moment a cloud of dust rose in front of Kakashi stating that the 4 had jumped to hide themselves. He located the Sasuke to his right taking cover behind a tree branch while Hitomi was to the left concealing her with a genjutsu. He found Sakura hiding close to Sasuke while Naruto…

'The siblings are at least are good at hiding as they would probably try a sneak/coordinated attack. As for Sakura even though she has chosen a good spot she is horrible in concealing her presence, is she even trying. And the last one…' thought Kakashi as he spoke, "aren't you an odd one."

Sanding in front of him was Uzumaki Naruto ready to take on a jounin by him self.

"Well you know the test seems a bit odd", said Naruto taking a thinking pose.

"What do you mean by odd, Naruto?" asked Kakashi a bit surprised as someone actually caught on to it and the said person was Naruto.

"Our team in a first place is already odd, but even still I have never heard of a team with 2 genins and a jounin", said Naruto still in the thinking pose.

"I see, so what do you intend to do?" asked Kakashi.

"Well would you mind giving me a bell?" asked Naruto as he reached out his hands and used the 'puppy-eye-jutsu'.

Kakashi was completely taken aback by this as he was ready anything from the blonde as the Sandaime had said 'expect the unexpected with Naruto' but not this.

"Well that's a new approach, but sorry I won't", said Kakashi.

"Well it was worth a try", said Naruto as he hung his head a bit low as anime tears falling of his eyes.

Seriously what was with the blonde who the Sandaime asked to be alert/wary of or the one which the new ANBU recruit Yuugao was impressed with. He really wanted to see how good the blonde was but this was disappointing.

As Kakashi was busy putting his thoughts of disappointment of the blonde away, the said boy charged at him with speed which completely took the veteran jounin by surprise. But he was a veteran, a shinobi who fought in the third shinobi world war, a renowned and feared shinobi through out the elemental nations for nothing as he blocked the punch meant for his stomach at the last moment.

The block didn't dishearten Naruto has he knew he was facing a jounin for Kami's sake who was considered one of the strongest in Konoha. He continued his attack by spinning in the place trying to slam his right hand to the sides of the jounin which again was caught. Taking the jounins hand as support he went for an axe-kick which connected but not with the person but a log.

Kakashi for his part was truly impressed as the boy continued three unrelated/unpredicted attacks with such a flow that finally one was going to connect. He was actually forced to use Kawarimi to dodge the blonde's final attack. The boy's taijutsu was unpredictable yet it had a flow to it as he could feel as if he had seen this style before but couldn't remember when or from whom. Kakashi jumped down of the tree as he decide to take the blonde more seriously this time as the blonde charged at him.

The two traded punches with each other in the middle of the clearing i.e. Naruto attacked and Kakashi blocked or dodged. The exchange went on for the next five minutes with Kakashi narrowly avoiding or blocking the unpredictable taijutsu of the blonde.

The exchange resulted in two conclusions to Kakashi about the blonde as one was his taijutsu was the best in the current genins, heck, it was better than some of the chuunins. He knew the boy could take any genin and a maybe even some of the chuunins in taijutsu unless the opponent was a taijutsu specialist. Second was that the blonde was a stamina monster as he hardly seemed winded by the small exchange as he knew the blonde was giving his best.

Finally Naruto recovered some distance from his sensei as it seemed he had yet to land a solid hit. It was something he had already predicted as he was facing Hatake Kakashi. He knew the man was still going easy on him and the only way to land a hit now would be to increase his speed now but he didn't want to give away his little secrets so early. He was already fighting using with the basics of that taijutsu style.

Back in their hiding places the members of team 7 watched in awe at the taijutsu battle between the blonde and their sensei. They had never seen the blonde use such moves during any of the taijutsu spar and could clearly tell he was way superior than all had given him credit for.

"Well your taijutsu is better than what I had heard it to be also it is quite unpredictable…" said Kakashi with an eye smile, "but still not good enough to take the bells from me."

"Thanks Sensei and I just do what I seem would work at the moment…" said the blonde.

"As for the bells, I'll just keep coming at you till I can…" said the blonde as he started to make handseals.

Kakashi's single eye widened watching the blonde go through what looked like seven hand seals as he stopped at the Inu (Dog) seal also his hand seal speed was also quite impressive in his eyes. He watched the blonde inhale a huge amount of wind as Kakashi wondered whether the boy was going to use a wind jutsu.

After feeling that he had inhaled enough air in his lungs adding chakra to it and manipulating the nature of his chakra he called out "Fuuton: Shipuu Hakai no jutsu (Wind release: Gale destruction technique)" as he exhaled out a powerful yet condensed gale of wind towards Kakashi.

Kakashi watched the powerful gale of wind heading towards him as he quickly used a Kawarimi with a log. From the hiding place Kakashi witnessed the destruction caused by the blonde's jutsu. The jutsu was similar to Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough) but at the same time the wind was more compressed and it also moved at a much greater speed but the destruction it caused in its path was one sight when the cloud of debris and dust settled which it caused in its path. The ground looked like its upper layer was shredded by the jutsu while a few trees in its path were uprooted by the sheer power of the jutsu. Kakashi's visible eye was wide to see the aftermath of the jutsu as he was glad he did a quick Kawarimi out of pure instincts as he really wouldn't have liked the result of being hit by that jutsu but it also raised more questions about the blonde.

From their hiding spots the three remaining members of team 7 watched wide eyed at the path/aftermath of the jutsu.

'What was that jutsu? Where did the dobe learn it from?' thought Sasuke with a frown as he thought such a powerful jutsu belonged to the elites like him.

'AHH! How did Naruto-baka know such a powerful jutsu? I bet he must be spying on Sasuke-kun when he was practicing his jutsu…' thought Sakura.

'Cha! Spying on Sasuke-kun is only our right. How dare the baka spy on our Sasuke-kun' shouted the Inner-Sakura to which Sakura agreed and promised pain for Naruto.

'Uzumaki! But how!' wondered Hitomi as she watched the boy in awe but still couldn't help but wonder where did an orphan like him learn a jutsu from (she will be the logical one in the team since cannon team 7 seriously lacks one).

A the dust settled Naruto saw the shredded pieces of log in place of Kakashi as it told the man used a Kawarimi. He already knew that the jounin would dodge the jutsu but didn't know how. I could be the likes where the jounin would sink underground and use it as an attack which could have been really been troublesome. Suddenly he felt a presence behind him as he turned his head and found the jounin crouched behind him with a serious face and his hands in the Tora (Tiger) seal.

'So fast…' thought Naruto as he didn't even see the jounin move behind him.

Meanwhile in the trees the trio looked horrified at the fate of their fellow genin as the face of the jounin told it was going to deliver immense pain while the siblings recognized his hands set in the seal for a fire jutsu.

"Lesson number one Naruto, never let your enemy get behind you", said Kakashi.

Kakashi leaned forward as he called out "Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ougi: Sennen Goroshi (Konohagakure Hidden Secret Taijutsu Technique: One Thousand Years of Death)" as his fingers inched closer to the blonde's butt-hole (Seriously what is wrong with Kakashi). From the corner of the eye he caught the blonde form a Tora (Tiger) seal while a smile formed on the blonde's face as he said something in a whisper. Kakashi was one of the few peoples whose senses could be compared to that of an Inuzuka also he could lip-read as he heard/saw the blonde's words which caused his single eye to widen as it was Bunshin Daibakuha (Clone Great Explosion).

The trio watched as a small explosion rocked the place where the sensei and student. Was this the jutsu their sensei was going to use, was he intending to kill the blonde was what all three wondered. When the smoke from the explosion faded they found the burnt remained of a log, a small crater and nothing else.

In the spot behind a tree where the log he replaced was place, Kakashi just couldn't help but smile under his mask. The blonde had grown far better than he had expected but also it seemed he was also powerful than what the academy reports said to the point he Hatake Kakashi was forced to use the Kawarimi no jutsu. But still he couldn't help but wonder where the blonde had learned all this since he knew enough that there were discrimination against him in the academy a the Sandaime had pointed out to him. For now he decided to hunt/test the others since the blonde was nowhere in sight.

Kakashi first decided to see how Sakura would fare and so he sought out her hiding place which was really easy in his opinion. Sakura was a disappointment in his eyes as she had easily fallen for a low level genjutsusMagen: Narakumi no jutsu (Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing technique) and he seriously didn't wish to know what ha caused the girl to scream so loud which he was sure could be heard in Suna. According to academy reports she was smart and had a knack for genjutsus, seriously what was the academy grading the students on he wondered.

As he had expected of the Uchiha siblings the duo attacked him as a unit when they thought that he had let his guard down. Hitomi had trapped him in a Magen: Kokoni Arazu no jutsu (Demonic Illusion: False Surrounding technique) which was followed by volley of projectiles from the traps they had set. Kakashi as a veteran was easily able to get out of the combo which he did find impressive. The siblings then engage Kakashi in taijutsu as the two coordinated their attacks really well which could be something to do with them being twins wondered Kakashi. If the genjutsu at the start had impressed him than the next thing the duo did impressed him further as both Sasuke and Hitomi used the distance the two had formed to fire a Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball technique). The two fireballs reached the place he stood and formed a bigger and hotter fireball instead of cancelling each other out. Kakashi used this to his advantage as he used Doton: Shinju Zanshu no jutsu (Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation technique) on the two as he dragged both of them inside the ground with only their heads above the ground.

Kakashi crouched in front of the heads of the siblings taking a thinking pose and spoke, "to work as a team… eh... something I should have expected from you two…" and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto leapt from tree to tree to the place where he thought was the origin of Sakura's ear splitting screech. When he finally reached the spot, he found Sakura lying unconscious on the ground with her a horror-struck expression as there were tears flowing down her eyes and foam coming out of her mouth. A shiver ran down his spine as he wondered to what level Kakashi would go in this test as he watched the unconscious figure of Sakura.

It took a minute for Naruto to realize that the Sakura was put in a genjutsu as it was never his strong points. Even now it took him a while to recognize that there was a genjutsu placed on him and it was even harder to break free of the genjutsu. Luckily for Sakura Naruto knew the way to remove a genjutsu of others as he injected a small amount of his chakra into the girl which was enough to release the jutsu.

When Sakura was released from the genjutsu, she started to mutter of Kakashi-sensei was going to kill her Sasuke-kun and she needed to help her Sasuke-kun and ran of in a random direction. Naruto now really didn't even wish to know what Kakashi did or what was on the mind of the girl.

"Thank you…" said Naruto to himself imitating Sakura's voice perfectly.

"Don't need to, we are teammates after all", said Naruto in his voice.

"But that doesn't mean you are better than Sasuke-kun and I won't go on a date with you", Naruto said again imitating Sakura's voice raising it a few octaves.

"But I didn't even ask you…" Naruto was saying in his normal voice when he heard the familiar ear splitting screech.

"… Not again", Naruto said as he sighed running to the place where he heard the girl scram this time.

This time when he reached the spot he again found Sakura unconscious though this time the cause of her unconsciousness was not a genjutsu but were the two heads of the siblings sticking above the ground. Naruto had a good idea of the jutsu that Kakashi had used against the siblings duo and he knew he should help them but that would have to wait a he could hardly hold back his laughter. The scowling faces of the duck-butt-emo-Sasuke and the ice-princess-cute-Hitomi *something was seriously wrong with him since yesterday and he needed to find out was what he thought* was really something he really wanted to capture in camera and show the world.

"If you are done laughing your butt off, mind helping us out of this, Uzumaki", said Hitomi in an annoyed tone.

Finally Naruto controlled his laughter and crouched in front of the siblings as his gaze was fixed on Hitomi, "Mah, mah, Hime don't be so annoyed. It is just to fun to see the two mighty Uchihas buried under the ground."

"He just took us by surprise… next time it won't be like this…" said Sasuke in an angry tone.

"And next time I'll be king of this world", said Naruto as he created a couple of Kage bunshins and made them use Kawarimi with the sibling's duo as Sakura finally woke up and quickly went to see if Sasuke was safe annoying the boy more.

"What kind of clones were those?" asked Hitomi as she had only heard of solid-elemental clones but those clones were not made of any elemental chakra.

"Ki-mi-tsu (Se-cre-t)", said Naruto with a big grin on his face which caused another skip of heart beat for her which she seriously had to look into.

"How about all of us go assault Kakashi-sensei together… maybe that will increase our chances of stealing a bell from him…" said Naruto as he stood in a thinking pose.

"I don't need your help… last time I was able to touch a bell… we will for sure this time get the bells for us…" said Sasuke as arrogance dripped from his words.

'WHAT? Sasuke-kun already touched a bell… I didn't even get a chance to attempt at the bells… Maybe if I go with Sasuke-kun this time… but he already has his sister – Hitomi… I'm doomed…' thought Sakura as she looked dejected.

'To work as a team' Kakashi's words were the first thing that came to her mind as she heard the blonde's proposal. It did seem good since four people would be more effective than two people so she spoke, "Fine, I'm with you."

This took Sasuke by surprise as he spoke, "Hitomi…" but was interrupted before he could ask anything.

"It looks like a good plan, Sasuke-nii. The odds are better with four people rather than two", said Hitomi clarifying her point.

"Do whatever you want but I am not working with the dobe. I'll get the bells on my own…" said Sasuke as he rushed into hiding trying to formulate a plan while Hitomi looked a bit saddened.

"What about you, Sakura?" asked Naruto looking at the girl.

Sakura was busy thinking about what she was to do in this situation as she could join Naruto and Hitomi as they would than launch an assault attack on their sensei which would be effective. On second she could go join Sasuke-kun as he only stated that he won't b working with the dobe. With her on her Sasuke-kun's side they would easily take the bell for which he would praise her and love will blossom between the two and they will leave happily ever after. On the outside the blush on her face had overshadowed her pink hair.

"I think that means no…" said Naruto to Hitomi pointing at Sakura's face to which the girl nodded as the left to search for their sensei.

The duo of Naruto and Hitomi found Kakashi in the clearing where Naruto had attacked Kakashi. The two looked at each other with an unknown understanding which actually scared both of them a bit as Hitomi jumped in the clearing in front of Kakashi as hands weaved through the required handseals of one of her favorite jutsu.

Kakashi was surprised to find Hitomi in the clearing and didn't think she would be coming after him so early. He watched her weave through about five handseals as he wondered where the other was hiding.

Hitomi ended her hand seal sequence at the Tora (Tiger) seal than she stretched her hands straight in the direction as she said "Magen: Musuu Chou no renpatsu (Demonic Illusion: Barrage of Countless Butterflies)" as countless butterflies came out of the sleeves of her top and made their way towards Kakashi.

At first Kakashi was under the impression as the girl stopped at the Tora seal that she was preparing for another fire jutsu as it was a specialty of the Uchihas. But he was surprised when the girl pointed her hands towards him and countless number of butterflies emerged from underneath her sleeves and made their way towards him. The butterflies encircled him as they attacked him from all directions. It was clear that the girl was more into genjutsu than ninjutsu and this was quite a good jutsu.

Suddenly he felt two presence very close to him as he quickly canceled the jutsu and found Naruto and Hitomi mere inches from him with their fists cocked backwards ready to strike him. Kakashi blocked the two fists aimed at him and quickly got some distance between him and the two as he really didn't wish to see how effective an unpredictable form of taijutsu combined with the Uchiha clan's taijutsu would be.

Suddenly Kakashi felt a little uncomfortable as the two didn't follow up with their attack as he saw a grin on Naruto's face while a smile on Hitomi's face. He watched Naruto put his hands in the Hitsuji (Ram) seal and call out "Fuuinjutsu: Shibari (Sealing technique: Binding)". As those words left out of the blonde's mouth, a circular seal pattern formed around him from which black thread shot out and started to bind Kakashi who was in a complete shocked state.

"Awesome! It worked like a charm -ttebayo", shouted the blonde as he punched the air with the biggest grin on his face.

"Yes it did", said Hitomi with a small grin on her face (the blonde's happiness is contagious).

"Now Kakashi-sensei we will take those bells of you…" said Naruto as he quickly created a Kage Bunshin which made its way towards Kakashi.

Naruto continued talking "… And just to be on the safe side that you wouldn't use one of the tricks in your bag and escape us…" as he and Hitomi weaved through hand seals. Naruto did seven seals ending it on the Inu seal while Hitomi weaved through six ending on Tora seal as both of them simultaneously inhaled wind in their lungs ready for an attack.

Kakashi for his point looked at the duo with a neutral face as the clone of Naruto approached him while the two were on standby with their jutsu. He looked at the centre of the circular seal that had him in a bind to find a fuuda paper with the kanji for bind written on it as the paper was glowing blue. The only way out of this predicament seemed to be flashy with a use of a powerful jutsu but even his hands were in a bind to make seals.

But on the inside there were two things that had Kakashi worried, the first being the duo in front of him as hey were ready to use the jutsus they had already used before. Did the two even understand what a fire-wind combo was capable of wondered Kakashi as he knew that even if the two had not intended it they were in perfect flow to create a combo jutsu. The second was that his peers/comrades were not going to let him leave another day until his death as how he had been trapped by two academy fresh genins and lost the bells to them.

But it seemed today luck was Kakashi's side as the clone-Naruto was close by the alarm clock started ringing signaling it was 'Time Up' as Kakashi released his breath. The look on Kakashi's face old the genin to release their jutsu and that they did as the clone dispersed while the two cancelled their jutsu and released a harmless breath.

"Naruto even the seal…" said Kakashi in a stern voice.

Naruto looked at him for a few seconds as he muttered fine and formed the Ne (Rat) seal and called out release dispersing the jutsu. The black threads binding Kakashi dissolved as he noticed it to be ink as the seal returned back to the fuuda and it burned itself. Watching this Kakashi had to wonder just how knowledgeable in Fuuinjutsu was the blonde. Five minutes later the Sasuke entered the clearing with a scowl on his face and behind him came a disheartened Sakura.

A few minute later we find Kakashi standing in front of his four genins of which two were tied to two wooden poles while two were sitting in front of the other two. The two that were tied to the posts were Sakura who had a look of complete defeat and Sasuke as his scowl on the face had grown bigger (if possible).

"I wish I could send you back to the academy…" said Kakashi as he eyed the four genins stopping for a while on both Naruto and Hitomi "… but I won't…"

This caused the four to look at him in different reactions as Sasuke had a smirk, Sakura was confused, Hitomi a small smile and Naruto had a neutral face.

'I am now one step closer to my goal' thought Sasuke.

'But I did nothing and only kept on fainting…' thought Sakura.

'It was because of our love and dedication towards Sasuke-kun' chirped Inner-Sakura doing a victory dance as Sakura found no fault in the logic.

'Did we pass?' thought Hitomi as she tried to make the meaning out of Kakashi-sensei's words.

Naruto just looked towards his sensei with neutral expression as he to wondered about the meaning behind Kakashi's words but a small gut feeling told him that they had failed.

"You should ALL QUIT BEING A SHINOBI" said Kakashi in an angry voice which caused three of them to look at him in horror while Naruto lowered his head with disappointment.

"B… But s… sensei, just because we didn't get a bell doesn't mean we should quit being a shinobi", shouted Sakura.

Kakashi's face suddenly darkened as he spoke, "Did any of you even wonder the meaning behind the bell-test?"

Sakura, Hitomi and Sasuke looked at Kakashi wondering what he was talking about when suddenly heard Naruto answer Kakashi's question, "Teamwork."

Kakashi looked at Naruto for a few seconds as he was able to conclude that the answer the boy gave was not a guess but he actually was certain of it.

"I see, someone actually understands the meaning behind the bell-test. You were all supposed to work as a team to get the bells from me", said Kakashi as it was something rather obvious.

"But you only had two bells. How do you accept us to work as a team?" shouted Sakura.

"That is one of the purpose of the bell-test, it makes a team fight among itself so that we could see whether you are ready forget your own interests and successfully work together", said Kakashi.

"Yet… you guys…" said Kakashi as his eyes this time stayed more on Sakura and Sasuke rather than Hitomi and Naruto.

"Sakura you were completely focused on finding Sasuke throughout the test that you didn't even make an attempt on the bells. You didn't even answer to Naruto's idea of an assault on me to acquire the bells…" said Kakashi as he looked at Sakura while the girl had the decency to look ashamed of her self.

"You Sasuke, worked well with your sister but completely disregarded the idea of working with Naruto because of your 'I-am-superior-than-you-attitude'" said Kakashi looked he looked at Sasuke whose scowl had yet to leave his face but there was a small hint of shame on his face.

"if it was for me I would say you both are ready to be genins but you will be suffering the same fate as your team as here in Konoha a team is given more importance than an individual", said Kakashi as he looked at Hitomi and Naruto.

Kakashi now looked at the four with his expressions darkened as he continued speaking, "Since I don't wish to loose potential genins who understand the meaning of teamwork because of others selfishness, I am giving you all another chance. From now and I am the rules here. You are not to let Sasuke and Sakura have any of the lunch that I have brought with me…" as Kakashi set to lunch boxes in front of Hitomi and Naruto and disappeared with a cloud of smoke.

After a couple of minutes Naruto spoke as he set his lunch in between Sakura and Sasuke, "You can have my share of lunch since I am not hungry."

"I don't need your pity dobe and it seems you like you have a short term memory loss", said Sasuke with the scowl deepened on his face.

"You do remember that Kakashi-sensei said that you were not to let me and Sasuke-kun have the lunch", said Sakura with a bit of disappointment.

"And Kakashi-sensei did say that he is the rules here", said Hitomi though she didn't like one bit of it.

"Yeah I know. But the thing is the two of you would be useless without much energy if we are to fight sensei once again for the bells if you don't stuff your stomachs", said Naruto and at that very moment a roar was heard from three stomachs as they looked embarrassed.

"See that is what I meant. Also I wouldn't mind defying him once more", said Naruto.

"What do you mean by 'I wouldn't mind defying him once more', Uzumaki?" asked Hitomi.

"Eh… I already had breakfast, hime…" said Naruto with a sheepish grin as all looked at him as if he was mad "… that aside; you two open your mouths so I can feed you."

"Fine…" said Sasuke.

"This doesn't mean anything will happen between us", said Sakura as she opened her mouth to let Naruto feed her.

'Damn! She sure is delusional…' thought Naruto but decided to say anything as this was not the moment for it. During the start of the academy he had thought she was cute and even gone and said it to her in hopes of being friends with her though she declined it. She started to change when her friendship with Ino in a rivalry over Sasuke and she used that small memory as a way to put him down though he hardly talked with her after that.

"Yeah, yeah…" said Naruto as he brought his chopsticks forward to feed her while Hitomi decided to feed Sasuke.

At that moment with a loud bang and huge cloud of smoke Kakashi appeared with an angry face scaring all the four academy genins as he spoke in a deadly tone, "You guys…!"

"Pass *insert heart*" said Kakashi in a sweet voice as gone was the angry face replaced with an happy face as he showed his trademark eye smile.

"Pass? But why?" asked Sakura, Hitomi and Naruto in unison while Sasuke just stared at Kakashi in complete confusion.

"You guys are the first", said Kakashi causing more confusion and questions rise among he genins.

Kakashi ignored his students as he continued, "Everyone else would just do whatever I told them. They were all just morons… a ninja must see underneath the underneath."

Kakashi than looked at his students as he said, "Those who break the rules and codes of ninja world are called trash…" suddenly his eyes gained a far away look as he continued, "But you know what? Those who don't take care or abandon their comrades… are lower than trash."

The genins looked at Kakashi as he was the coolest person in the world for at least three of them.

"Tomorrow you have a day off. We start as a team the next day. Meet at this ground by nine." With that said Kakashi disappeared.

Hokage's office…

A lot of shinobis were currently present at the Hokage's office. Everyone was eagerly waiting to hear who of the fresh academy graduates had passed and was now a true shinobi of Konoha. The curiosity this time was greater since the current batch had a lot of son/daughter of clan heads of the major clan of Konoha and also the last 2 loyal Uchiha. Everyone was waiting for Kakashi Hatake – jounin instructor of team 7 to arrive as the said man finally arrived and thus the meeting started.

"Now that the all jounin sensei are present, I would want a report from you about whether your teams passed or failed and for what reasons?" asked the Sandaime hokage to all the jounin sensei.

It started with jounin sensei of team 1 giving the account of what happened in the test he gave as this reports went till team 6. All team sensei had failed their teams. Some couldn't work as a team while some lacked abilities enough to fight for real. Now it was time for Kakashi to give his reports, but was stopped by the Hokage.

"Kakashi since you were last to arrive, you will be last to give your report. Kurenai and then Asuma go on with your reports", said the Hokage. All shinobi's were now very interested as the remaining 3 teams had the heirs of the major clans of Konoha.

"Team 8 passed, Hokage-sama", said Kurenai and recounted the test to the others. The test she gave the academy graduates was to track and capture her within a space of two hours as the team. The 3 genins had used their abilities to the fullest and had shown good team work and cooperation. She also believed the 3 had great potential as a team for tracking and espionage.

"Team 10 passes too", said Asuma. He had given the genins a test to tag him. The 3 as expected had shown good team work and with help of Shikamaru's plan were able to tag him. He said that if given the proper training would carry on the legacy of their fathers and could be the new generation of Ino-Shika-Chou.

The shinobis present were pleased to hear that the six heirs showed potential as per their jounin senseis. Kakashi was the only jounin sensei yet to report about his decision on his team, the team which consisted of the last two loyal Uchihas who were considered prodigies by the academy standards and Konoha's resident Jinchuriki.

"Team 7…" said Kakashi with a serious as he took his sweet time increasing the curiousness of all shinobi present "… passed" finished with an eye smile surprising all.

Everyone present knew the test Kakashi used to test the fresh academy graduates under him to see if they were ready to be the shinobi of Konoha which was the Bell-test. For every team that was assigned by the academy to be an official team of Konoha was for their members to work as a team but the bell-test did the exact opposite. The test forced the academy genins to fight amongst themselves to see if they could put the team above them and if it wasn't enough there were the wicked rules which Kakashi placed by himself. So when Kakashi said that the team passed, everyone grew more curious as to how such a thing happened as they looked at Kakashi for answers whose nose was again buried in the orange book infuriating the females present.

Even the Sandaime was curious as he eagerly waited for the report by the masked jounin but it was not yet coming as he spoke, "Kakashi, the report?"

"Oh! Yes! The report!" Kakashi looked up from the book with a sheepish eye smile to which all sweat dropped as he continued, "the first to attack me was Naruto. After him the sibling's duo attacked me as a team as one would expect from them but they failed. Surprisingly the next to attack me was the duo of Naruto and Hitomi. Neither of the four were able to get the bells from me as I gave them the same choice to choose which I give all the teams and luckily they took the right choice."

Sarutobi knew that he wouldn't get the masked jounin to speak more than he already did but this report had also raised many questions which he decided to ask, "Kakashi you didn't mention anything about Sakura? And what happened when Naruto attacked you alone and also along with Hitomi?"

Kakashi once again looked up from his book and answered, "I didn't mention Sakura because she didn't make an attempt on the bells and as for the results of Naruto's attempt on the bell, he wasn't able to get the bells."

Though it was something all had expected but only a few caught onto the uneasiness in Kakashi's voice when he spoke about Naruto's attempt and also hi use of words.

2 months later…

Being a genin for the past 2 months had shown Naruto and his team to exactly what it was to be a genin of Konohagakure. The life of a genin was far different from the life of an academy student as a genin was not only supposed to train to grow stronger to protect the village but were also entitled to complete missions which would help the village's finance.

Currently team 7 was on a special capture and retrieval mission assigned to them by the Hokage as the team was now scattered in the forest of Konoha in search of their target. Finally after couple of hours of search Sakura found someone who resembled their target as she alerted the others over the communicators. The other 3 members of team 7 soon reached the location and hid in the shadows of the trees so as to not alert the target.

"What is the distance to the taget?" inquired Kakashi through the communicators.

"5 meters. I am ready anytime", said Naruto.

"I am ready as well", said Sasuke.

"So am I", said Hitomi.

"Me too", said Sakura.

"GO!" commanded Kakashi's voice from the communicators.

The genins moved from their hiding places as they launched a surprise attack on their unsuspecting target. Their target was one of the most renowned for its ferocity as the genins were now witnessing when they went into capture the target. The four genin fought for what seemed like an hour after thy finally captured their target as the three sported scratches all over their face signifying their victory in the battle.

The said target was currently being held by its neck by Sasuke at a distance from his face as Sakura confirmed the identity of the target as the lost pet Tora – the daimyo's wife's cat with Kakashi over the communicator.

Naruto's point of view…

'I still don't understand why Kami is punishing me in such a cruel way', thought Naruto as the team made their way towards the hokage tower.

After the bell test he had decided to gather information on the jounin sensei of his team as the name for some reason had taken his interest. Hatake Kakashi – his team's jounin sensei was hailed as one of Konoha's strongest jounin who was renowned of being a man who had over a 1000 jutsus in arsenal. His hopes were real high of learning a lot of things from the man who knew over a thousand jutsus. But the thing that had got him most interested was that Kakashi was the last living student of the Yondaime Hokage – his father. Finally he could learn of his father through the stories of Kakashi's past without letting anyone know he knew about his parents which were supposed to be a secret.

But through the two months as a genin his hopes had already been washed away as he had leaned nothing from the man, be it a jutsu or something about his father. Kakashi was a chronically late guy as he would always appear a couple of hours late from the time he himself set up as the team would then carry out their usual D-rank missions (chores) and would leave as soon as the team would finish with the missions (chores). He had tried to start a conversation with Kakashi in hopes of he man would speak of his experience as a genin doing the chores and thus continue with his genin life but he would easily change the subject.

Meanwhile he didn't understand what he was to make of the mismatched grouping of four genins known as team 7. It was not that the members didn't complement each other with their abilities (excluding Sakura as she had nothing other than her book smarts), it was completely the contrary as if they would try and work together they would be a force to reckon with.

The only reason the team didn't try to work together was the behaviour of his teammates. Sasuke had the biggest ego he had ever come across. The only person he even listened to was his sister as he considered himself superior to him and Sakura since he was an Uchiha.

Sasuke's sister Hitomi did not believe in her being an Uchiha made her superior to others but she held pride in being an Uchiha. But still she would listen to others if she thought their ideas and plans were reasonable enough. But of all the other team 7 members she was the one Naruto got along well with since it was always fun to tease her.

Sakura remained the same as she was during the academy days i.e. she would try to belittle him in front of Sasuke and continued to fawn over Sasuke. Actually her fawning over Sasuke had turned to hero/god worship as his every word and action was noted down by her.

In the past two moths he had come across the two other teams that had passed their genin test of their jounin sensei. The first was team 10 led by Sarutobi Asuma consisting of Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino. According to Ino their sensei was a one of the laziest person apart from Shikamaru as he loved playing shougi and smoking than training his team. The only thing according to her their sensei would train them in team building exercises.

The second was team 8 led by Yuuhi Kurenai consisting of Kiba, Shino and Hinata. Kurenai was the only sensei to actually teach their team as a jounin sensei is supposed to if Kiba's bragging was about how great (HOT) their sensei was and how she was the best sensei there was.

Normal point of view…

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts at the sight of Tora being hugged to death by its owner.

'Gyahahahaha! In your face stupid cat' thought Naruto.

'No wonder it ran away', thought Sakura.

'I pity Tora', thought Hitomi.

'Hn!' thought Sasuke.

"Now for your next mission team 7… is babysitting an elder's grandson, shopping or potato digging", said Sandaime Hokage looking in the mission list.

"NO! NO! NO! No thank you", called out Naruto putting his hands in cross shape in the front to emphasize the point. Normally he had a lot of patience but the missions (chores) that they did until now was killing all the patience slowly and gradually but chasing that hell cat – Tora was he final straw of his patience, "Give us some better mission Hokage-jiji. The missions we have done so far are nothing but some stupid chores."

'Geez… How annoying…' thought Sakura.

"I agree", said Sasuke.

"These are indeed not ninja missions, Hokage-sama", said Hitomi.

'Sigh… I thought it was about time… but even Hitomi and Sasuke', thought Kakashi.

"Naruto! It seems I have to explain to you what these duties are all about", said the Hokage and went on to explain about various missions and who are they assigned to. (A.N. if you don't know what he says, you haven't read the manga yet, so what the heck are you doing reading this.)

"I understand all that stuff you said, but at least give us a better mission", said Naruto.

The old Hokage thought over it o a few seconds and then said, "Ok! I am giving your team a C-rank mission. It is a protection mission of a certain individual." He then asked his secretary to bring in the said person.

Tazuna walked in the mission office. Seeing him the Hokage said, "Team 7 this is the client you will be protecting. Tazuna-san this is team 7, the one who would be in charge with your protection."

"What the hell! It's just a bunch of snot nosed gaki's!" The man exclaimed in annoyance, taking the bottle he had in his hand and chugging down several gulps.

'He's certainly not what I expected' Naruto thought to himself, his left eye twitching erratically.

"The two girls look like they care more about their looks then ninja duties. The guy with black hair in the shape of a ducks ass looks like he is practicing for some brooding contest. And of all, does any ninja wear orange like the blonde midget and also a Cyclops", said Tazuna taking another gulp of sake.

"Hnn…" scowled Sasuke and went on to pose a new brooding pose.

"Indeed Tazuna-san I do take care of my looks, but I also take my ninja duties and training seriously", said Hitomi looking at the old drunk with annoyance and small disgust.

"Y… Yes", said Sakura. She wanted to respond to Tazuna just the way Hitomi had, but what the man had said was indeed the truth in her case.

'CHA! We have to look good for Sasuke-kun' shouted inner-Sakura as Sakura agreed to it.

'You are right, the old man would never understand' Sakura though which made her feel a lot better.

"Who said ninjas can not wear orange? I love orange, so I wear it. Get your knowledge right old man Tazuna, ninjas are not known for what they wear but are known for their skills", said the blonde shocking the people in the room. "And who are you calling a midget. I am going to kill you." He jumped forward to attack Tazuna but was stopped by Kakashi.

"Now it isn't nice to kill the client before the mission starts", said Kakashi with a eye smile.

"U-u-uh… right…" Tazuna stuttered a bit as he heard the words of the blonde. "Anyways, my name is Tazuna, and I am a master bridge builder. You will escort me back home to Nami No Kuni, where I am building my next bridge." Somehow, despite his drunken stupor, Tazuna managed to straighten himself, "I expect all of you to protect me, even it costs you your lives."

"Right then", Kakashi said as he tried to the cool off the tension between his students and client. "Let's all meet at the east gate tomorrow at 8 in the morning. Pack for about a week's worth mission."

Team 7 left the tower to meet tomorrow for their first C-rank mission.

END CHAPTER.

The chapter showed Naruto to be skilled in Fuuton jutsus and Fuuinjutsu as well as Taijutsu. Naruto is already around a mid-chuunin level ninja. His skills in genjutsu are still worse in the fiction but unlike canon he can at least detect a genjutsu though it may take some time. He also has a couple of skills which will be shown as the story progresses.

As for Hitomi her skill level is similar to that of Sasuke leaving the fact that she is more inclined to genjutsu than ninjutsu and taijutsu.

Next is the journey to Nami no Kuni from where the story will take its own course though it will closely follow canon.