Disclaimer: I wish I own Naruto series.

A/N: Here is it, the Genin test. We finally get to see some action in this chapter. Yay! However, Naruto will continue to mask his true abilities, so he won't be having flashy fight or throwing jutsu at Kakashi at the moment, but he won't be completely blatant at his attacks either.

"Rasengan" - Speaking

"Rasengan" - Thinking

"Rasengan" - Technique/Jutsu

Chapter 3

Standing in front of the Memorial Stone in training ground number three was none other than Hatake Kakashi, the former ANBU captain and the current team seven's Jounin sensei. The Memorial Stone was a monument listing all the ninja who died in service to their village, Konohagakure no Sato, which was why the silver haired man was seen there every morning. He spent much of his free time at the monument because his former comrades' name, Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin, and his sensei's name were engraved though was kind of special as he was joined by his little brother figure and the now Genin student, Naruto.

The blonde was looking at two specific names that belonged to his parents, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. Naruto still remembered the time when he was told of his parents' identities. His initial reaction to the revelation was pretty predictable. Having your father as the famous Yondaime Hokage who was hailed as 'The Yellow Flash of Konoha' was any child's dream and pride. Not to mention, having seen a picture of an extremely happy Minato and a healthy and pregnant Kushina reassured Naruto that he was not abandoned by his parents. He knew that they must have loved him so much. A sad smile showed itself across his face.

After he finished paying respect to his deceased beloved, he turned to his older companion and asked, "Are you gonna spend another 2 hours standing here again?" He received a nod as his answer. "I mean no disrespect, nii-san. But you have to let it go somehow. You just can't waste your time here all day." sighed Naruto as he tried to tell the same thing again and again to Kakashi.

"I just couldn't forget what had happened, Naruto. I always feel like everything went wrong because of me." replied Kakashi with a sad voice.

"You should just focus on things in the present so as to prevent from making the same mistakes." the blonde suggested. He didn't want to see his brother/sensei in such state all the time. Kakashi needed to get his social life active. Sulking about something you had no control of wouldn't do any good at all.

"I guess so." said the Jounin as he was going through the words of advice from his blonde companion.

"Now come on, let's get going! Or that pinkie will screech at you again. It won't affect only your ears, you know." cheerfully said Naruto as he started to drag Kakashi to their team's meeting point to begin their Genin test.

As both ninja arrived at their destination, they were met with the usual scene of the other two teammates. Sakura was once again asking Sasuke on a date; however, the boy rejected her again and again. She seemed to never give up on her quest though. "Ugh, what are we goinna do with her" the two former ANBU thought at the same time.

"Ohayou, Sasuke, Sakura. Are you ready for the test?" asked Kakashi, getting both of their attention.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura screeched at the two arriving people. All the males winced at the loud yell and covered their ears.

"Well, I got lost on the road of life. Thanks to Naruto to get me back on the right track here." posing his signature eye-smiled at his students. His students, except Naruto as he was used to the behavior, sweat dropped at their sensei's worst excuse they ever heard. Turning to their third member to confirm if it was true, Naruto just shrugged. "Anyway, did you guys follow my suggestion to not have breakfast?" the older man's voice turned serious. All the three nodded. Then Kakashi pulled something out of his pockets.

"Now as you can see, there are two bells in my hands. What you have to do today is to get these bells from me by using whatever means possible. You have 2 hours to succeed." He then noticed the confusions on his students' faces as he knew exactly what was on their mind, "Yes, there are only two bells, so that means that there will be only two of you pass this test, while the one who failed will be sent back to the academy and won't be getting any lunch after this test." The looks of his little Genins almost made him laugh. Sakura paled at the idea of being demoted and not able to stay with her Sasuke-kun. While the raven hair boy growled slightly at the result if he somehow failed to get a bell. The masked Jounin was too strong for his level which didn't make his objective any easier. The only one who wasn't affected at his sensei's threat was Naruto. The blonde already knew the real reason behind the test, but he wouldn't say anything just yet. "Now that we're clear with the rules, let's get back to our business. You have until the clock ticks 11am. We can begin in 3…2…1 GO!" As soon as he gave the signal, the three scattered into the forest.

In a bush, the two male team members decided to stick together while their female companion hid in the opposite side of them.

"Hey Sasuke, don't you find this test suspicious?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, we have only heard of a four-man cell, not three. Normally, a team consists of three Genins and one Jounin sensei. So there's no way what Kakashi-sensei told us would work." reasoned Naruto.

Now that he thought about it, Sasuke did found the rule suspicious. "Then what would you suggest we do? We can't just charge in without a plan."

"That's why I think we should work together. I'll fight him up close creating openings for you to throw your fire jutsu at him. That way we might have some chance against him." suggested Naruto, "But first we should find Sakura and tell her about the plan."

"Why her? She would just get in our way." Sasuke never liked people who didn't take their job seriously.

"Though I hate her obsession as much as you do, we still need her to boost in our plan-" Their plan to include the pinkette, however, was crushed after they heard her cry of pain somewhere in the forest. "Just great." both of them face-palmed at their female teammate for getting caught this early. "Well, looks like it's just the two of us then."

Meanwhile, in the middle of the clearing, their target was currently reading his orange book in a relaxed manner, like nothing had happened at all. Just a few seconds ago, he just took down Sakura by casting a simple low rank Genjutsu on her. He was disappointed, to be honest, that the so called 'Kunoichi of the year' would fall for such trick. He had to cut his thought short as there was a yellow blur charging towards him. The speed was fast, but not as fast as his opponent's true speed was. A fist was thrown at his face before he blocked it and attempted a leg sweep, only to be jumped over by the blonde. Naruto did a backwards somersault and sneaked in a kick to Kakashi's chin. However, the masked Jounin saw that coming and jumped back.

An opening was given, then Naruto yelled at his comrade, "Now Sasuke!"

Back on a tree watching the short confrontation, the Uchiha saw the opening as well before answering the call, "I know!". Sasuke went through a set of handseals before releasing his jutsu. "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Grand Fireball technique)!".

A decent size fireball shot towards Kakashi. He jumped away as soon as he heard the jutsu was called out. A small crater appeared at the place where he had been seconds ago. He was left no time to spare as Naruto engaged him again with another close combat. Punches and kicks were either dodged or blocked by their opponent respectively. The Jounin was a bit hard pressed as a dozen of Kunai and Shurikens were thrown at him while he was fighting. He had to suppress the blonde while keeping an eye out on when the projectiles would be coming next.

Unfortunately, Naruto slipped on a small rock, which left himself opened for an attack. The attack did came as Naruto was kicked directly on his stomach, which sent him skidding away a few meters before he got back up to his feet, only to barely dodge a powerful looking punch aiming for his face. He rolled to the left, then jumped away immediately to escape five shurikens, courtesy of his sensei. They engaged once again in a fight of fists.

Another fireball came, forcing them to jump back from each other. "Are you alright, Naruto?" Sasuke decided to jump in as he saw the blonde had difficulty to keep up the fast pace.

"I'm fine. We have to double team him to beat him."

"Agree, but I don't have much chakra left. Those two fireballs sucked the hell out of me" replied Sasuke. The two teammates rushed at their opponent, intending to get some advantages over.

Kakashi cursed at the turn of event as the advantage in numbers was on the other side now. He had to double his awareness as Naruto was pulling out punches at his head while Sasuke was sweeping his legs. Kakashi blocked the fist and jumped over the low attack, before throwing Naruto a few feet away to get himself some space. He managed to kick Sasuke in the chin, sent the Uchiha up in the air.

Sasuke flipped back on his feet on the ground before having to roll to his right to escape an ax kick. The raven hair Genin ran through a few hand signs before spitting another fireball towards Kakashi. Kakashi jumped away from the damage right as he sensed a presence behind him. His instinct from combat experience kicked in as he ducked under a kick from Naruto before elbowing the blonde in the stomach, only to be swatted downwards. Both sides jumped away to reposition themselves.

Suddenly, a sound from a bush to their left or right depends on each's perspective caught their attention. Sakura ran out from there and was met with a scene of her teammates and sensei facing each other ready for another round of fight. She took a look at Sasuke, seeing he was on his knees, apparently exhaused from spamming his jutsu, and then ran towards him. "Oh my god, are you alright, Sasuke-kun? Are you hurt?"

This action however gave Kakashi an opportunity, which he took immediately. Kakashi caught Sakura in an arm-lock before using her as a hostage. He pointed a kunai at Sakura and said, "Your teammate is in danger now. What will you do in this situation? Will you leave her to her own demise or forfeit so that she would be let free?"

Naruto and Sasuke cursed inwardly as they knew that their chance of winning were slim now, if not none at all. Their only choice was to forfeit. Sasuke was frustrated because he failed to get his bell. "Now I have to waster another year because of her." While Naruto was disappointed at the thoughtlessness of his female teammate which could ruin the whole mission if they were on one right now. However, he already completed his objective now. He had shown that team seven was able to cooperate with each other even if they still had some trouble with their coordination.

"Alright, we forfeit, sensei." both said, letting out tired sighs at the result.

"Good. Now that the test is over. You all know the result right? You did not manage to get the bells from me. So I only have one word to say…" all three Genin, only two in fact, lowered their head as they were about to accept their fate. "You all pass!" eye-smiled the masked Jounin. Both said Genin snapped their head towards Kakashi, not believing what they just heard.

"Wh-what?! But we failed the test, sensei." asked Sakura, surprised at the news.

"Yes you failed the objective that I set for you guys, but you passed the real test." Still seeing the look of confusion on their faces, Kakashi let Naruto revealed the true reason behind the bell test. "Would you mind enlighten them, Naruto?"

"The true meaning behind this bell test was to see if the team was able to put down their differences and work together to finish their missions. The fact that this test has a 66% failure rate is because those teams weren't able to see the real reason and tried to work individually and failed miserably. That's why their Jounin sensei had to deem them unfit to become ninja." explained Naruto.

"So you know about it all these time, Naruto?" asked Sasuke feeling a little bit left out on such important information.

"Yeah I know it all along. It's just that we need to proof to Kakashi-sensei that we can work together that's why I didn't tell you guys."

Sasuke nodded as he found the answer reasonable. Sakura, on the other hand, was having an emotional conflict. She realized that she was the liability of her team. She was the reason why they failed to take the bells. Both Naruto and Sasuke were working smoothly until she came to ruin everything. A hand on her shoulder got her out of her stupor; she looked up to see her sensei smiling at her.

"It's ok, Sakura. It wasn't entirely your fault. You just have to take your job seriously from now on. You have to train harder and improve if you don't want to feel like a burden to the team. Okay?" Kakashi reassured his female student after seeing her sad look at her action. Turning back to see a smile and a nod from both of her teammate made her relieved that she still had a chance to correct herself. She gave them a grateful smile, then she resolved that she would become stronger to catch up with the boys.

"Alright team, I'm glad that you guys pass the test. I'm sure you must be tired, so for the rest of the afternoon you can do whatever you want. Meet me at the same place at 7am sharp. We will do our first mission as an official team seven. Dismissed." said Kakashi before he puffed into a smoke. The three Genin said their goodbye and then made their way to their own place. Surprisingly, Sakura didn't make any attempt to invite Sasuke for a date today.

For the past three weeks, team seven had been doing several missions together. However, those missions were not what they had expected. At first, they, mostly Sasuke and Sakura though, were so excited that they could do more awesome things like eliminating bandits etc. Little did they knew, all of the newly formed Genin teams were only allowed to do D-rank missions only. Things like painting walls, walking Inuzuka dogs, weeding fields, cleaning kennels of the Inuzuka compound were what they had done so far. One mission that made them and all the Genin teams had nightmare was the Tora's retrieval mission. The cat was said to be demon-possessed as most teams that got sent out to catch her never came back unharmed. The same goes for our favorite blonde's team. Naruto himself was the victim of Tora's assault when they finally managed to corner her and about to suppress her. Let's just say that day Naruto had additional whisker-like marks on his cheeks and was the laughing stock when they entered the mission department. The Sandaime snickered at his grandson's 'condition' after the mission. These activities went on and on until Kakashi decided that his team was ready to get the taste a C-rank mission. Today team seven was making their way to the mission department to get their daily missions. Opening the door to see the Hokage and several Chuunins were assigning missions to other teams. They now stood in front of their leader.

"Team seven, requesting for another mission, Hokage-sama." Kakashi did the usual protocol.

"Ah yes, Kakashi-kun. Let's see, we have: paint the house of a council member, sorting out clothes shipment for a new store –"

"With all due respect, I want to request a C rank mission for my team, Hokage-sama" said Kakashi surprising the Chuunins in the room, but not so much for the old man.

"Hmm, I figured as much. Sooner or later you'll have to do it anyway. So you deem your team ready for this then?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama. My team is ready for a higher responsibility." answered the Jounin.

Iruka though happened to be in the room as well. After hearing the small discussion, he got worried for the three young Genins, "Hokage-sama, you can't do this. They just graduated weeks ago. It is too early for them for such dangerous mission. Please reconsider, sir."

"Iruka-san, the reason I requested a C rank mission is because I know my team's abilities and they had shown me that they are indeed ready for the next step to become real Shinobi." Kakashi backed up his decision. The scarred Chuunin was about to retort when the Hokage waved his hand, a sign to stop the argument.

"What Kakashi said is correct, Iruka-kun. I know you care about these young ones, but they are not your students anymore. They are under Kakashi's tutelage now, which is why he is the one to decide. Moreover, it seems that team seven has completed the required amount of D rank missions of twenty-five. So they have every right to do C rank missions." After his leader reasoned, Iruka knew he couldn't do anything anymore. He just nodded in understanding before the Sandaime went over the mission lists.

Throwing a scroll towards Kakashi, Hiruzen explained the brief detailed of their mission, "This is an escort mission. You are to accompany and protect a bridge builder named Tazuna from any bandits until he finished his construction. Tazuna-san, you can come in now." An old drunk man, wearing a stray hat and holding a sake bottle, entered and looked at the team before him.

"You are telling me that these tadpoles are gonna protect me along the way back to Wave? They looked like they can't even hold their weapons." scoffed the drunk man. The said Genins were annoyed at their client's insult to them. Sakura was about to yell at the man before Kakashi decided to reassure the client.

"I can promise you that these kids are more than capable of protecting you, Tazuna-san. If there are any complications, worry not because I am an elite Jounin. I will be taking charge of the mission." Tazuna just stayed silent after that. "Okay team, this will be a long mission, so go pack for a month long supplies. We are to meet in 1 hour at the gate. Further detail will be explained later on the way." commanded to his Genins. Three 'Hai' were his answer. Team seven bowed at their Hokage before going to prepare for their mission.

"I'm sure Kakashi and Naruto will take care of any obstacles, so I can leave the other two to their hands." the aged leader sighed in relief.

An hour later, team seven met up at the gate before starting their journey to Wave country. They all walked in silence, with Naruto at the front, Sasuke and Sakura on the side-flanks, and Kakashi bringing up the rear. Sakura then decided to ask Kakashi various questions about their destination. While the three, Tazuna included, were talking, Naruto and Sasuke noticed a small puddle in the middle of the road. "This is summer and the weather has been pretty dry these days, so how come there is a water puddle here?" both had the same thought. They nodded at each other, deciding that it was suspicious that they needed to prepare for anything beforehand. Kakashi noticed the disturbance on his two male students' face, and smiled that they were observant of their surrounding. All the travelers were forced to shut off their thoughts as a chain suddenly enveloped Kakashi. The Jounin were shredded into pieces a second later. The three Genins were shocked at the sudden action.

Sakura paled after seeing her sensei got destroyed quickly, while Sasuke were staring with wide eyes at the scene. Naruto knew this would happened and that a log was the one that got shredded, but he decided not to take any action yet. Tazuna nearly pissed himself after seeing the cruel death. The three young ninja were forced out of their stupor as the two murderers charged at them.

"Sakura, protect the client. Sasuke, you take the left. I'll take the right." Naruto took charge of the situation. His teammates did as he told them.

Sakura pulled out one of her Kunai and stood in front of Tazuna. The murderers suddenly appeared behind the two before trying the same tactic. Two Kunai was thrown and they pinned the chain to a tree, forcing the murderers to pull off the chain from their steel clawed gloves. They turned to see two Genin charging at them.

Sasuke dodged a swipe from a claw of his opponent before sending his kick towards his opponent's jaw. The kick was blocked as another claw came, intended to pierce his heart. He ducked under it and used the momentum of his foe's falling forward to sweep the legs, making the man tripped over. Sasuke turned around to chop the fallen foe in the neck, rendering him unconscious. The raven hair boy turned to look at his comrade, only to see his blonde teammate stood over his unconscious opponent as well. The two boys smirked at each other before a clapping sound echoing through the forest.

Standing on a tree was their sensei, Kakashi, unharmed and gave his cute little students a thumbs-up.

"Kakashi-sensei, you are okay!" Sakura were happy to see the masked man weren't dead.

"Of course, I'm okay. I just want to see how you guys handle this kind of situation and I gotta say you exceed my expectation. Good job!" praised Kakashi at his students' doing. "Hmm it seemed that your description of this mission was false, if the Demon brothers in front of us were anything to go by. Care to explain, Tazuna-san?" sending a stern glare towards the said old man.

Tazuna gulped audibly as he knew the secret was blown now. He sighed before kneeling, surprising the remaining ninja. "Yes, I lied about the mission. But I had my reason to lie. If you haven't known yet, Wave was currently in a poor state. Many of our people's businesses were ruined the greedy corrupted merchant Gatou. Ever since he came into Wave, all of our ports were under his possession which rendered our economy terribly." Tazuna described his country's condition.

"So, you don't have enough money to request for higher rank mission. Still, you should just tell the truth. This mission has rised up to high C or low B rank now. This is not the end though because I suspect that there will be more ninja, if not stronger ones, waiting to kill you. I have the rights to abandon this mission and leave you helpless, you know." Kakashi threatened Tazuna. "But I want to get these three's opinions first." Kakashi looked at the three, waiting for their answer.

"I say we continue on this, sensei. We can't just let many lives are being destroyed by one greedy man without doing something to it. Plus, it won't do good to Konoha's reputation if we abandon our mission like that." Naruto shared his thought on what to do. His teammates agreed with him as well.

"Well then, I guess we are continuing this. But I will expect your full payment after this mission is completed, Tazuna-san." "Yes, I will pay you full price. Thank you for saving us. Thank you, thank you!" The client gratefully thanked the ninja.

"But what about those two, sensei? What are we gonna do with them?" asked Sakura.

"ANBUs will take care of them soon. I already called them over."

After the little incident, the travelers continued on their path. They crossed the sea by a boat. The boat owner happened to be Tazuna's friend and wanted to help overthrowing Gatou in any way he can. The Konoha-nins were met with the scene of the bridge that their client was building. The bridge was huge and formidable even if it wasn't finished yet, but one could say the bridge wouldn't be destroyed easily. They walked a little more before Naruto suddenly yelled at them to duck down. Kakashi instantly pushed Sakura down while Sasuke did the same to Tazuna.

Likewise, a sword was flying right above them, then got stuck at a tree, leaving quite a big gash on it. They looked up to see a man crouching on the sword. It was a zanbatou as the man's weight didn't seem to affect it. The man's face was covered in bandages. He was shirtless and wore baggy pants with the striped pattern and mimetic wrist-warmers extending up to his elbows, with matching leg-warmers.

"Well well well, if it isn't Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan. What are you and your brats doing with that old man?" the man said amusedly to see his enemies revealing to be actually dangerous.

"Momochi Zabuza, an A-ranked missing-nin of Kirigakure, knowned as the Monster of the hidden mist. I can't believe you've stooped so low to work for a corrupted man like Gatou." said Kakashi as he recognized the foe in front of him.

"I don't care about who my client is, as long as I get my money. Now you should just give the bridge builder to me if you want to avoid confrontation. Wouldn't want your brats to experienced such thing this early in their-" Zabuza stopped his speech to look closer at a certain blonde. He frowned as he now realized that his job was gonna be even harder if the blonde was whom he assumed was. The missing-nin scoffed, "I see you brought back-up as well. Huh, Kakashi? It's my honor to meet two powerful Shinobi in one day at the same place. How are you doing, Konoha no Higitsune?"

A/N: Naruto's cover has been blown now. What will happen next? Catch it on the next chapter. #peaceout