There was very little humans could hide from him.

His new teammates Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura sat with their backs against wooden stumps. Sasuke looked alert, his eyes wandered around as if he expected to be attacked any moment now. The other boy's face was screwed in a facáde of indifference. But Naruto knew better.

Naruto could feel the Uchiha's anxiety and trepidation. It was palpable like pin pricks on his skin. He focused deeper, like he usually did when he had nothing else to do. There was hatred there, but it wasn't so simple to put in words. Sasuke's emotions resembled an onion. Layers upon layers of fear twisted with anger and hate. There was worry there too. But it wasn't worry for the present. The boy was split in half focused on his surroundings, but the reddish tints and blackness throbbed in the background.

Naruto's other teammate was Sakura. She was pretty and wore neat clothes. Naruto wondered if she remembered that they there supposed to be tested today. Unlike the Uchiha, Sakura was like an open book. Too easy to get a grip on. When she saw Sasuke, she was tangled in blues and greens. Annoyed that he was ignoring her, angry at herself and at someone else, disappointed, scared… On and on it went.

Naruto clicked his tongue in irritation and jumped off the branch he was perched upon. He made sure the landing would make enough noise to get his teammates' attention. Sasuke didn't look up, but his emotions jittered a little. He didn't have to read Sakura to know what she was thinking. A small smile pulled at her lips, but Naruto saw, even as she avoided looking at him by inspecting her surroundings.

He walked up to them.

"Still brooding? What happened this time? Your maid forgot to salt the eggs just right?" Naruto jeered.

Sasuke glared at him, but there wasn't any aggression in the gesture. Only a tiny fleck of relief mixed with gratitude? He wasn't sure what that meant. But he'd seen it often enough by now.

"Naruto! Apologize right now!" Sakura yelled at him, but it was hollow even to her ears.

Naruto ignored her and pulled out a kunai and whispered, "Three o'clock, behind the trees." Quickly returning to his carefree demeanor he said, "Oh, c'mon Sakura! We're only playing."

Sakura froze like a rabbit, while Sasuke — to Naruto's satisfaction — pulled a kunai and hid it underneath his sleeves. Naruto gestured with his hands, a simple system taught in the academy.

Enemy. Trees. Attack. After. Sakura looked confused but Sasuke nodded.

Without thinking further Naruto tossed his kunai in a wide arc towards the left side of the tree. He felt the man standing behind the tree prepare to move, and then he gestured 'Right' to Sasuke. The boy threw two blades from his pouch and then pounced towards the tree.

Naruto's smile widened at the flawless maneuver, and he took off towards the left side to catch the man off guard. In the blink of an eye Naruto felt a presence move underneath the ground towards Sakura and he skidded to a halt. He tried to warn her but then the man behind the tree jumped toward Sasuke. He threw another kunai at the man but he caught it. Faster than he could process, his teammates were down for the count. Sasuke laid on his back and Sakura was captured.

Naruto eyed the man. He had gray hair and his forehead protector covered his left eye. The kunai Naruto had thrown was now hanging on the man's fingers.

"You are late again Sensei." Naruto said. He took a moment to observe his surroundings.

There were two Kakashis in the clearing. One of them stood over Sasuke and his emotions were muted. The fact that a clone even had emotions astounded him. The 'real' Kakashi was now holding Naruto's kunai at Sakura's throat. The man's lone eye was crinkled in the impression of a smile, but Naruto could feel the emotions.

If he had a word to describe the man it would be 'dog'. But even that didn't fit exactly. The man was full of ragged edges and smooth silky lines. Everything was drowned in a sea of gray and silence.

In control, but there was also anger and frustration. It was all bundled up in self-loathing. The man hated himself, which only reinforced Naruto's initial assessment from yesterday's meeting. The man was a mystery. The one file he managed to pocket from the village archives was mostly filled with blacked out lines. Only biometric information for the hospital remained. He was depressed, for years, by the looks of it. Naruto would have felt pity, if he had any pity left to give. Right now, he decided that kernel of information was critical for whatever this test was going to be.

Kakashi cleared his throat, "Took you long enough to find me. I was there for three hours y'know."

Naruto chuckled a little. "No you weren't, " Naruto told him. "You were sleeping and only woke up half an hour ago when an irate ninja knocked down your door with orders to come here. I think it was the Cat lady? But I'm not sure. All the ANBU feel like stale bread to me."

"Oh, I see. And how do you know that?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders and fingered a kunai from his pouch. The knife swiveled lazily on his finger. "I see all. I know all."

Sasuke grimaced as he dusted his clothes. "Can we just get our test and be done with it?" He said somewhat forcefully.

Don't be so glum, the man's a Jonin for a reason. Naruto thought. The only reason he felt him was because Kakashi didn't know about his emotion sensing in the first place. Naruto tried to keep it secret since there might have been a way to utterly conceal one's emotions. He hadn't seen it yet. Even the ANBU hidden in the Hokage's office didn't escape his notice. But that might have been their intention in the first place.

A sort of warning that they were there and watching. Ready to slit your throat if the Hokage gave the order.

"Sure!" Kakashi chirped. He pushed Sakura away towards them and then lazily walked to face them. "The test is simple." He pulled a pair of bells out of his pocket and let them jingle. "You have to take these from me. If you have one in the end you pass." He smiled that eye smile of his. Naruto could feel the smugness rolling off the man.

"But there are only two bells, Sensei. " Sakura said.

"Oh?" Kakashi looked at the bells with a mocking glance, "I guess one of you won't become a genin today. Sad really, I was looking forward to having a team of my own. Oh well… I can make do with two!"

Kakashi pulled an alarm clock from his pouch, "I'll set this clock for one hour. It would have been two but your friend's smugness kind of tested my limits. It would be boring if it lasted two hours anyway. " He let the clock rest on top of one of the wooden stumps. He then walked into the middle of the clearing and stood still. "Come at me with the intent to kill! You won't stand a chance otherwise. "

The trio stood still until Kakashi whistled. "Well what are you waiting for? Fifty-eight minutes to go!"

Naruto didn't move when Sasuke and Sakura scattered in the surrounding forest. He eyed the man who now had a little green book in his hand. The man's eye lazily read through the page, but Naruto could feel the lack of focus.

"You are weird." He finally said.

Kakashi's eyebrow scrunched up as he drawled, "How so?"

"By all accounts you should be dead."

"Oh?"

"Mhm." He nodded and said, "How should I put this in words? Words are really important y'know?" Naruto let a little childishness creep into his tone. Just enough to look like he was an innocent child, unaware of everything around him. He almost smirked when Kakashi became more curious.

"Words cut sharper than kunai."

Naruto caught the warning but nodded nonetheless. Talking to his classmates could never be as exciting as this. He knew the man wouldn't kill him. Or at least that's the impression he had. It was an assumption really, could Kakashi convince the Hokage that it was an accident? A knife thrown a few degrees off course. Poor Naruto! He got brained by a stray kunai! Still. Naruto was reasonably sure that no matter what he said, he could get away with.

"True, true!" He nodded again. He let more excitement color his words. "I've seen men and women return from missions you know. When I sat at the Hokage's office? Bad missions, when they can't even hold their tears in front of the Hokage. 'We thought it was safe!' they said. 'It was only a C Rank! Poor Shinatsu sacrificed herself to save us!' But it's always the same. They come back a week later. Invigorated. Ready for revenge.

"But then sometimes they have no target to get revenge from. Or sometimes it's a lover, or a family member. And then they turn black. Obsidian. They try to move on, they fight. One day they don't dodge that one kunai. And then they die." Naruto let the silence spread. He could feel Sasuke listening in. Kakashi was intrigued, and Sakura was too far away. He had an audience! He could spin and weave and lace his words in just the right combination. And they'd become putty in his hands.

Some were tougher than others. They needed special words, or more research and time. Yet Kakashi didn't react, nor did his feelings spike one way or another. They remained obsidian.

"'Come at me with the intent to kill!' you said Kakashi sensei. Tell me, what are you even alive for?" He changed his inflection during the sentence. It took a scathing tone, like nails scratching a blackboard.

He waited for the moment Kakashi's feelings turned into confusion, the man's eyelids peered down for just a blink of a second. It was enough for Naruto to throw his kunai. He didn't wait to see if it hit, instead he jumped into the treeline.

Kakashi was separating them on purpose. Every time Naruto tried to close in on Sasuke, the man would jump in and separate them. Naruto felt Kakashi closing in on Sakura who was on the other side of the clearing. There were two clones ready to substitute in case something happened. He didn't know how, but he suspected that Kakashi would know, if one of the clones died. So he chose to flick a kunai at the branch the original was perched on.

Kakashi jumped onto another branch and started looking for him, but by that time he had cleared the distance towards Sasuke who was observing them from behind a bush,

"We need to work together." He said.

Sasuke took a while to process the statement. "And if we get the bells? Who goes back to the academy?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Even if we succeed, which I doubt by the by, we have a perfect little teammate who wouldn't mind ensuring her precious little Sasuke became a ninja." Sasuke's wince brought a smile to his face.

"Fine. Any ideas?"

"He is good at tracking, I don't know how he does it, but he knows we are here. He knew where we were from the moment the test started. He is fast, strong, and according to rumors he knows over a thousand techniques."

"In other words you have nothing." The tone was scathing. It was meant to bite into Naruto's pride. The despondent feeling underneath Sasuke's bravado said otherwise. Naruto played along.

"How about you?"

"Traps. We'd need someone to act as bait. You seem to know where everyone is at all times. But he threw you off? Earlier in the clearing."

"Mhm. His clones are muted, hard to distinguish. He also keeps two clones nearby for the replacement technique. If we take out one of them, he'll know. So timing is important."

"Can we even kill the clones?" He asked.

Naruto arched an eyebrow, it wasn't like Sasuke to doubt his abilities. Still it was a good question. Could they? He didn't know. "We have to assume that he will leave them vulnerable. There isn't much point to do this test if it's impossible to beat… Unless—"

"Unless what?" Sasuke said.

"Nothing. We set some traps, set Sakura as bait, you kill one clone, I'll make sure the second clone dies. Then we catch him. Sound good?"

"Good? No. It's shit. But I have nothing better right now."

"Then it's good. It has to be." Naruto said as he turned around to head towards Sakura.

Sasuke heard it first. A high pitched squeal of horror that could only be Sakura. She sounded terrified. Naruto landed next to him when they reached the spot. Sakura was sprawled on the ground. "Her emotions are muted. Is she a clone, you think?"

"No. Genjutsu."

"Ah. Makes sense I guess."

"Hn. Where is he?"

Naruto stood silent for a moment, "In the clearing again, that bastard. He's taunting us. No clones, it's practically an invitation!"

Sasuke looked towards the clearing. As if he could see the Jonin through the trees. He eyed Naruto who was poking Sakura's forehead with a stick. "Can you wake her up?"

"Do we need to?" Naruto whined.

Sasuke scoffed, "Shut up. Can you wake her up or not?"

Naruto rolled his eyes again and took out a small jar of smelling salts. He put it in front of her nose and the boys stared at her as she stirred. "Why the hell are you carrying smelling salts?" Sasuke asked.

"Why wouldn't I carry smelling salts? Haven't you heard of Shinobi Rule Sixty-Five:A good Shinobi shall always carry smelling salts. For you can never know when your incompetent teammate gets knocked down by a genjutsu!"

They stared at each other for a few moments. As if waiting for one of them to lose and give way. Sasuke's lips quivered and the 'pft' sound of muffled laughter drove Naruto to laugh too.

Sakura woke up to the sight of the boys laughing. She wondered briefly if this was some sort of double layered illusion, but nothing happened when she pricked her skin with the knife in her pouch. They noticed but neither said anything as she stood up and got her bearings.

"Slept enough there, princess?"

Naruto's smirk made her want to punch his teeth out, but she clamped down on her anger which only made his smirk widen. "You look like the cat with the canary. Anything good happen?"

Sasuke was the one to answer. At least he wouldn't look at her as if she was an amusing pet to play with, "We have a plan but it's a long shot."

"What do I need to do?" She asked.

The way they looked at eachother, didn't inspire much confidence. The actual plan was even worse.

Kakashi was looking at the pages but wasn't reading the words. It didn't make much sense to read them anyway. He had read that little book so many times with and without his sharingan that he could, if needed, recite the entire thing. He could do the voices for each of the characters, and mimic their inflections.

Why are you even alive?

That flinch of anger and despair, the memory of his forearm in her chest cavity. Crackling electricity and the smell of ozone mixed with burned flesh and boiled blood. How did Naruto know about Rin and Obito? How did he know about the feeling of despair? How many times did he force himself to dodge? When the sharingan detailed the trajectory of incoming attacks. How many times did he have to deliberately decide to live? The worst part of it all was that Naruto had known.

He sighed again at the thought.

He checked the clock on the stump. Another five minutes until the test ended. Then he could fail them and go home. They showed some teamwork. But it was Naruto just conning his way and not three people selflessly trying to achieve the same goal. It felt petty, even to him.

The day before, during their introduction.

He saw something there. In the eyes. It was always in the eyes of people. They revealed a lot of things. Some might call it corny, but people only have so many things they can control. Their eye movements aren't one of those. There was a sort of calculating intelligence. That smug grin that suggested that he knew more than one assumed. Normally someone would have missed the forced stillness when Sakura gushed over the Uchiha. Or the self assured smirk of Naruto saying: 'I'll become Hokage believe it!" And yet it had been a lie or a half-truth. Kakashi had seen enough liars to last for a century, and yet it had been almost convincing. Only the tingling feeling in his chest that told him that something was amiss.

Something didn't fit.

Then today came around and the plot thickened. Because Naruto could feel him up to three miles away in his house. Snoozing. He could feel the ANBU that came to wake him up, and even knew which ANBU it was. This suggested an extremely fine sensor ability. It probably even extended to proprioception, if the movements were anything to go by.

Such feats weren't out of the realm of possibility. The sharingan worked much like that. Probably even better.

Kakashi was brought out of his musings when he smelled the sweat and grime on their skin. Only one of them was heading his way. The other two were circling around. Curious, he thought.

"I give up!" Sakura shouted as she ran towards him. She was caked with mud and sweat. Nothing like the prim and proper girl he met this morning. Her eyes were frantic as she came closer to him. Both of her arms were in the air, showing that she wasn't a danger to him.

How disappointing… He had never had a prospective genin give up. Sometimes they were too injured to go on. Sometimes they fought each other before they even tried to get the bells. But outright surrender? Never to this day. He resolved to talk to her Academy teachers after this was over.

He tried to walk up to her. Knock her out before she disgraced herself further. Then he felt it.

His shadow clone, nested atop a nearby tree, popped as a huge fireball almost engulfed him. Quickly he substituted with a log, the wood disintegrated when he landed on his perch. He looked at Sakura who was now smiling giddily. She held up one of her arms and a single bell was hanging there. She jiggled it a little and smirked. He looked at his belt and saw both of the bells still hanging there. Confused and disoriented he looked at Sakura again who was now running towards him. An illusion, he realized. With no time left to react he jumped down to avoid another kunai.

He caught Naruto's foot as it tried to impact his face. With a heave he tossed the blond away, only for Sasuke to rush him from behind. The boy dodged his kick and went for a throat slash. Sakura jumped on his back and hugged him around the belly with her feet restricting his thighs. Naruto was up again, he threw his last kunai at his knee.

Kakashi jumped in the air with Sakura still on his back. She was screaming shrilly when he shrugged her off. His eyes caught Naruto and Sasuke waiting for him to descend, he deflected Sasuke's shuriken with his own kunai.

After landing, Kakashi backflipped away to gain some ground. Naruto was already on his heels jabbing and kicking. Kakashi fought back and found that he had to put more effort than expected. The boy danced around his limbs and stayed close to Kakashi's feet. It was when the clock rang that Kakashi decided to end the fight.

The kids got distracted by the sound, so he seized the chance to retaliate. Faster than their eyes could track he kicked Sasuke in the stomach leaving the boy heaving. He flash stepped behind Sakura and lightly pinched her neck putting her under. He appeared in front of Naruto who was slack jawed.

"Do better next time." He said and then sent Naruto to sleep.

Kakashi stood amidst three gennin who came close. Too close to taking the bells. He could imagine their plan now that he saw most of it. It failed the moment he substituted with the log. They either didn't account for it, or they had expected him to do something else. If he had been less experienced, or underestimated them a bit more, they would have taken the bells.

Now only one question remained. Who would have gotten the bells?

Naruto was the first to wake up.

He was tied on a stump. Next to him, Sakura and Sasuke were also tied up. In the middle, Kakashi sat cross legged and ate. It smelled divine. Not as good as ramen, but good enough. His stomach growled, even though he went against the order and ate breakfast.

"We almost had you. You were surprised. It would have worked." The words were pronounced slowly. He didn't want to slur as he talked, it would have shown weakness. Instead Naruto spoke in a choppy, accusing tone.

The white haired man didn't pay him much attention and kept eating. Naruto could feel the smugness rolling off the man's skin like butter.

"You said something earlier… How did you know?"

"Know? It was just guessing with some deduction. I didn't lie you know. You are suicidal, and you are a jonin or ANBU going by the way you feel. People like you never seek out help, and so all that muck accumulates and shines through. I won't try to learn what happened, but I assumed you lost people and you feel responsible. The rest was just being generic enough for you to assume that I knew. "

Kakashi's eyes widened briefly before his expression returned to its usual placid state. "You two. I know you are awake."

Naruto looked at them with an arched eyebrow. They were staring at him as if he grew a second head. He didn't even feel them stir. Sakura was looking at him, an awed expression on her face, disbelief coloring her emotions. Sasuke was just staring ahead, lost in whatever brooding scene his brain conjured up.

"One last question for you three." Kakashi said. "Even though you failed, what would you have done if you had gotten the bells? Who would you have left behind?"

Sakura was the first to speak up, "I'd give the bells to Sasuke and Naruto."

"Sasuke and Sakura." Naruto said.

"The other two." Sasuke added.

Kakashi smiled, and Naruto knew that this one was genuine. A bright yellow pierced through the obsidian muck. The man nodded, "The test was never about you getting the bells. No one gets the bells. A day may come when you have to decide between the mission and the survival of your teammates. You might have to choose between teammates. Who to save, who gets to die? You are shinobi now. Soldiers for the Hidden village of the Leaf. You serve the Fire nation. But always remember, those who break the rules are scum. But those who betray their teammates are worse than scum. I am proud to be the squad leader of team seven!"

The trio cheered, and when they were done Kakashi was nowhere to be found.

"Son of a bitch! He didn't even untie us!"

It was evening already. Ichiraku Ramen was filled to the brim with jovial customers, a light buzz permeating the air as alcohol and sweat mixed together. They sat on the front of the tiny shack, people passing by on the street outside. The chatter all around them was exciting and quick. Words shot rapidly between people as they tried to speak over each other. Naruto felt at ease here. Singular emotions stopped being a thing, instead they all culminated in a sea of sounds, colors, and smells.

Sakura had already left. Went home to clean up, Naruto was munching on the last of his noodles when Sasuke spoke up. "You were dead last on purpose."

Naruto allowed the words to sink in. They were important. Sharp and accusing but the feeling behind was more akin to a stung pride and acknowledgement. Sasuke didn't need an answer, because he thought he already knew. So he nodded and slurped the rest of the broth, and wiped his wet lips with his sleeves.

"Well… Not so much on purpose." He amended. "I just didn't think that it was that important. Also the practical needed me to perform a clone technique. I can't do those to save my life."

"So how did you pass?"

"Ah. I'm a somewhat special case. My hand to hand is pretty good, I did come second y'know? And my grades in theory were good enough for me to pass. The Hokage waived the ninjutsu portion."

"So you can't do ninjutsu?"

"Not exactly. You know what the tenketsu points are?"

Sasuke nodded and Naruto went on, "Well, my tenketsu register pain when I use chakra without changing its nature to wind. I can use it, but it becomes extremely painful and if I overdo it my body shuts down."

"That's—"

"An inconvenience?" Naruto suggested. Sasuke nodded his head and took a bite from his noodles. "I guess it is, but to be fair I have some advantages that others don't have."

"That's how you knew where everyone was. A sensor." Sasuke realized.

"Yeah. Something like that."

"How did you know that we wouldn't pass if we got the bells?"

"It was a prisoner's dilemma." Naruto said.

Sasuke nodded and his lips parted slightly at the realization. Naruto nodded in agreement, "Yeah. The only scenario where we win — or rather, where we don't lose — is if we cooperate. In a normal prisoner's dilemma he would have separated us, but I think most kids don't even attempt to communicate during the test, so it's a moot point anyway. "

The pair settled in silence for a while. The restaurant's noises and smells drowned out whatever awkward tension, between the two.

Eventually Naruto spoke up again. "Let me ask you something then. Who made you like this?"

Sasuke's black eyes bore into Naruto. "Like this?" He asked.

Naruto had to ponder on how to phrase the question better. "People are like noodles." He said.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow. "Noodles?"

"Mhm. Noodles, once baked are bland. They have no taste of their own, kinda like Tofu in that regard, don't you agree?"

"I don't see where you're going with this."

"Sorry. It's a bit winded, but I do have a point I want to make, honest!" He said. "We are all like that deep down, see? We are born with a certain shape and appearance. But really, all that we are in the beginning is flour mixed with water. Eventually, the noodles are boiled, seasoned, and put in a broth. They are mixed with ingredients that make them better or worse. A creation that is better than the sum of its parts. So are we. Bland and tasteless, until we grow up. We reflect the world around us, our experiences shape us and we affect the world as we believe is right."

"I see." Sasuke said slowly. "So you're asking what seasoning made me into who I am now?"

Naruto nodded with a smile. Delighted that Sasuke caught the reference.

"I think it was my brother standing over my mother's corpse saying I should learn how to hate." He said it as if he was commenting on the weather. Naruto could feel Sasuke reminisce, the memory no doubt replayed in the boy's mind as he said the words. He winced a little for bringing it up.

"Does that answer your question?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto nodded and stayed silent for a while. Sasuke stood up eventually and laid some coins on the table. "Hn. I'm out." He said.

Naruto caught Sasuke's wrist and looked him in the eyes. "A short and fulfilled life, or a long and bitter one? What do you think Sasuke?" he asked.

Sasuke looked at him for a long while before he answered, "Shinobi are meant to endure."

"Tittering on the edge and constantly in strife?"

"Yeah. Something like that. See you tomorrow, dead last."

In the deep pit of purple and obsidian, a small dot of yellow illuminated the dark. It steadily went further away and eventually vanished. Naruto slapped some coins on the table and stood up. He said goodbye to the owner, Teuchi, and walked out into the streets. It was slowly getting dark. The sky was a pale orange. It gave the Hokage monument the false illusion of lifelike skin. As if the faces etched into the hill were actual people looking down on the city. In the distance, the Hokage's tower stood forlorn with no building contesting its height.

He steadily walked into an alley, and from there he climbed on some trash cans and jumped until his palms found purchase on the cracked wall. The sound of metal clattering sent some cats yowling away, but he was already on the roof of the two story building. The air cooled him down as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop, and eventually he reached the Hokage tower. From there, he descended on the ground and weaved through the alleys until he arrived at a small apartment complex. As always it was empty, and the surrounding neighborhood was almost dead. Only his senses caught some people scattered in the disheveled buildings.

Two presences appeared nearby. Well... 'Appear' was the wrong word. He knew they were there when he changed course. He stuck to the shadows, and clung to the walls as he made his way. He climbed onto another rooftop and then he finally found them.

The woman was grunting in faux pleasure and the man on top of her was out of breath. Naruto scrunched his nose in disgust, but stood silent while the pair finished. She gave the man a kiss on the cheek and a smile when he gave her some bills.

Naruto jumped down when the man left the alley. "Classy lady my ass. Why don't you fuck in the middle of main street? Free advertising and somesuch."

She was young, only a few years older than him. Straight black hair and tanned skin. He felt her surprise fade into amusement when her brown eyes saw him. She chuckled and slowly fixed up her dress. "Little Naru! What brings you to my part of town? Got your first paycheck? Want to test this aunty out?" She wiggled her hips.

"I'm really not amused Shiki. You told me it was a hostess job. Now I find you in some shady alley, fucking some guy for money? Is it worth the tuition?"

Shiki sobered after that, the frown on her face turned into a scowl. "What do you know?" She whispered. "In your fancy ninja school, with things paid by Lord Hokage himself. You've never been hungry, or cold while you sleep outside. You never had to be looked down upon like you're a piece of trash. Just another street urchin. This. Job. Pays. Well. So fuck you."

Naruto felt her anger vanish. Surprise mixed with something akin to horror rose up and she walked up to him, her eyes wide. "Na– Naru. Look…" She tried to grab his shoulder but he ducked away.

"Don't sweat it."

They stood there in silence for a while. Eventually Shiki said, "Have you eaten already?"

He nodded and grabbed her arm as he pushed her outside the alley. "Let's go, I got some ramen cups at home."

The office was spartan, filled only with the essentials. A desk on the far side underneath a wide window. Kakashi walked through the entrance. The beige walls were barren, only the portraits of previous Hokage hung on the right. He eyed the Hokage who wasn't paying any attention to him. The older man was almost frail. The pipe in his mouth was still smoking, and weary eyes scoured a document. With a sigh, the Hokage stamped the paper and stood up. He set his pipe on the table and his arms met behind his back as he turned to stare at the village.

"I almost expected you to fail them." He said.

Kakashi nodded, "I still have some hesitance to be honest." He said. There was no reason to lie. The Hokage knew, either because of the ANBU in the outskirts of the training ground, or with some other means Kakashi wasn't privy to.

"You aren't one to get riled up like that. A good lesson for the future." The Hokage paused, "Tell me what you think of them, Kakashi."

"Sakura managed to fool me with her act, but that might have been my own bias about her skill. By all accounts, she seemed the type to give up at the first hurdle. Sasuke is skilled and talented enough. I think I could put him in an experienced team and he'd take to it like fish in water. Naruto…"

The Hokage interrupted with a chuckle, "He surprised you didn't he?"

"I think he might have intentionally avoided taking the bells. I only learned it after the test, when my clone popped. He– He knew my clone was listening in when he told them that if they took the bells they'd fail. Then told them the plan in signs, and executed it in such a manner that there wouldn't be a doubt that they could have taken them. I'm not one to toot my own horn, but that shouldn't be possible." Kakashi said.

"You underestimated them. A reminder that age and experience isn't a good measure of danger. Don't forget that Kakashi."

"Yes, Lord Hokage."

"Still, I won't fault you for it. Most people never encounter a Contractor."

Kakashi shuffled on his feet and shot a curious glance at the man, "A Contractor, sir?"

"Yes. Normally, a Contractor is an individual who willingly pays a price. In return they share they essence with a tailed Beast. The Beast will seek out the individual, and the individual will either accept or decline."

Kakashi's eyes widened, "The nine tails!"

The Hokage smirked. A wry expression playing on his lips, "Exactly. Naruto has the Beast's traits. A lot of Chakra, enough to fill an entire village of Shinobi and more. A great affinity to wind. His senses are exceptional, and I assume you've witnessed his other sense?"

"I think it's emotions, but I'm not sure. I thought it was some sort of chakra sensing."

The Hokage shook his head, "Yes. Chakra has nothing to do with it. I've watched him over the years, and he can feel emotions, but also the people around him. Their movements betray their actions. All combined together, the child is practically omniscient for miles and has an intuitive understanding of humans. Which is how he managed to catch you off guard."

"I see… And the information he had on me?"

The Hokage laughed, "He snuck in the tower yesterday. Don't worry, the information in your file is mostly redacted, but he doesn't need much to draw conclusions."

"Can you…"

The man raised him arm and shook his request off, "Already done. Everything has been redacted by now."

The room descended in silence. Kakashi wondered if he should leave, but he wasn't excused yet. The Hokage sat on his chair and lit his pipe. Weary gray eyes regarded him, "I have an assignment for your team, unless you'd prefer D ranks?"

Kakashi smiled, "I was hoping to torture them for a little while, but some excitement might do them good."

"Nothing too exciting I'm afraid. Do you know of the Kitsuki Academy for exceptional children?"

Kakashi shook his head.

The Hokage went on, "It's a school for aristocrats and wealthy children. A month ago, children started disappearing. Among them the Daimyo's treasurer daughter, Akari. The treasurer asked for help, but the Ninja Guardians denied him the request on the ground that it wasn't their domain. The Daimyo agreed to sponsor a mission to find her, and investigate the missing children. Your team is going to infiltrate the school and find out what happened to the children. This is strictly information gathering only. When you find who is doing this, you are to send for backup and then eliminate them. You leave in a week. "

"Ofcourse, Lord Hokage. It will be done." Kakashi turned to leave when the Hokage spoke.

"I love Naruto like a grandchild Kakashi. But keep your eyes peeled. He is a manipulator and a liar. He will do anything to get what he wants. The moment the kids show more loyalty to him than the Leaf? You come to me." The man's voice was serious. Nothing like its usual soothing calmness. Kakashi took the warning to heart.