Naruto was pumped up.
Today was going to be his big day. He would become an official member of Team 7 and then he'd show the world what he got. No more disrespect! With that in mind, he completely forgot about Kakashi's instructions and cleared two cups of instant ramen. He only remembered when he grabbed his headband and promptly cried out in guilt.
It took him two whole minutes of running around screaming before he cooled himself down and made three more cups. He carefully stacked everything in a bag and threw in some chopsticks. The blond then proceeded to scare the hell out of the village by power walking all the way to the training ground in a record time of two and a half minutes.
By the time he had arrived, Sasuke and Sakura were already waiting. They barely acknowledged him, though he had a feeling that Sasuke wanted him to distract Sakura who was clinging to his arm. He really wanted to jump and wave at them but ramen was more important.
"Ehh guys?" He had their attention now. He had to hurry, only fifteen seconds until the noodles were done.
"I accidentally ate breakfast today so I brought some for you too. I also made one for sensei but he is not here yet..." He lifted the warm bag up.
Sasuke scoffed and Sakura rolled her eyes "Baka! Sensei told us that we couldn't eat breakfast!"
Sensing that the noodles were about to go soggy, Naruto pleaded "But if you all eat then we're even! Besides it's just one cup of ramen-"
"I would never eat that! I am on a diet." Sakura declared and peeked at Sasuke, hoping for a reaction. Sasuke ignored her the way he had for the past years and eyed the back. He had done some training when he had woken up and was starving.
Naruto noticed his look and was almost tempted to tell the boy he couldn't eat it, but he remembered Chi's words and thrust the bag to him.
"Here, it's chicken flavor. There are chopsticks in the bag too. No napkins though."
Sasuke, who had been expecting an insult, was pleasantly shocked. Of course that did not show on his face but still.
"Hn." And there was the Uchiha pride again. Only this time his stomach seemed to forget whose body it was in and rumbled loudly. His team stared at him as his ears flushed red and he quickly went to grab a cup and chopsticks. Sakura shook her head and looked at the bag. Naruto was growing impatient but his stubbornness won over: he was going to make Sakura eat the food or so help him. It was the best way to show his skill as a gentleman!
"You know, I eat them all the time and I never gain any weight." He tried and winced when the girl huffed.
"Yeah right. Your clothes are just hiding it, but I bet that you are fat."
Naruto stared blankly at her and then handed her the bag. He was still looking at her when he lifted his shirt up, revealing his overly skinny abdomen. Sasuke frowned every so slightly and Sakura gulped. Not a word was spoken between the members of Team 7 afterwards. Sasuke and Sakura quietly ate the ramen and eventually Sasuke ate the last one as well, since there was no sign of their sensei.
The cups were cleaned out and neatly gathered in the bag. The members sat in the growing shadow of the tree. Sasuke was brooding, Sakura was braiding her hair for what seemed to be the hundredth time and Naruto was planning a prank fest. After he was done drawing and cackling, he turned to his teammates with an evil grin.
"How about we prank him?"
Sakura panicked and shook her head "No way! Did you forget what he said yesterday when your traps went off?"
Kakashi had declared that he disliked them severely and brought them to the roof for a dubious round of introductions. Then a teacher had stormed up to them and forced them to clean the entire room, Kakashi was long gone by then. Naruto waved her worries away.
"Relax, these are special ones. If he sees them, he might see how awesome I-we are!" He smiled his thousand Watt smile that blinded Sakura, made Sasuke look away and flash fried a dove.
"I-if you say so..." Sakura wasn't sure what to think of her teammate other than that he had a dangerous smile.
"..." Naruto looked at the other person.
"..." Sakura put on her best puppy eyes. Hey, she might charm him.
"..." Green and blue orbs stared at him. An innocent mouse tippling by melted away with a delighted squeak.
"...Hn."
"YATTA!" Naruto cheered and Sakura clapped before stopping herself with a shock. Naruto-baka and I worked together.
There wasn't much time to be in shock however. The three separated the many papers and material they had together and got started. Soon all three were putting their utmost in the job, snickering under their breath every now and then when they attached a paper tag. Inner Sakura was raving and at times Sakura had to join her in an moment of awe when they got to the next part of the plan. Even Sasuke had to admit that these traps were of genius caliber. He never knew that the dobe was capable of such creativity.
Two hours later, they stood back at their starting points and looked thoroughly satisfied (in their own ways of course). It took another hour for their sensei to arrive but at this point Sakura and Naruto simply greeted him and Sasuke nodded. Kakashi's senses jumped into action instantly while his internal alarm shrieked.
No one had ever greeted him like this when he was this late. Not even the Hokage after so many years of him arriving three hours late. Nonetheless, his eye curved in a cheery smile.
"Good morning! I am sorry for being late but I got lost on the path of life." It was his most obvious excuse and it pleased him to see Sakura's eye twitch.
Ha, I win.
His eye went over the bag in the corner. All three suddenly looked guilty, Naruto the most.
"A-ah you see sensei... I was really hungry this morning so I ate some ramen-"
"And then he brought some for us to get even. He even brought one for you but you were too late." Sakura unexpectedly finished, startling both Naruto and herself. It's alright. He hasn't asked me for a date yet and it was nice of him to bring us food too. Her Inner Sakura calmed her internal turmoil down and she managed a smile. "So Sasuke-kun ate yours."
Yikes! What did I do?! Now he'll get in trouble and then he will never go out with me!
"Hn, the noodles were cold and soggy anyway. You wouldn't have enjoyed it."
Now Naruto was just openly gaping and Sakura clutched her chest in utter shock. Kakashi was glad to see the Uchiha openly huff and turn away with a pink tint on his cheeks. He had been slightly worried that the kid was suffering from paralyzed facial muscles due to some fault in his genes. It would make sense since the pokerface was a clan thing and the Uchiha's married within the clan.
He eyed the team that he would have to test. Truth to be told, they already passed it. Hmm, but that is not enough right?
Kakashi smiled and pulled out the infamous twin bells. "Alright, time for the test."
He led them to the center of the training field, fully aware of the mischievous looks of his blond and pink student. Even the blue one looked amused. But not too much, just enough. His inner alarm was still blaring and he figured that it might have been better to just pass them. Especially since he couldn't detect anything odd. Warily, he explained the test, taking pleasure in how their tiny brains worked out the underlying issue of the two bells for three students.
He was so proud of them.
"So come at me with the intent to kill, okay?" He smiled and pulled out his book, noting the gawking expressions of Sakura and Naruto. Sasuke was full on amusing himself now, Kakashi was sure that he could recognize the Uchiha Lip Twitch #10.
"You sure sensei? You could get hurt." Naruto told him in all seriousness and his mind was in overdrive right now. He heard of this kid, of course he did. Besides the things every shinobi of his caliber knew, he learned that the boy managed to outrun ANBU and hid from them with success. He knew that he was responsible for the many pink files in the Headquarters and for the painting on the Hokage monument on broad daylight. He smiled again.
"I doubt that."
Naruto looked at him fellow Genin and shrugged "If you say so sensei." He formed a seal and all three immediately jumped away. Kakashi's sole eye widened when he felt chakra flare from all around him. The ground blurred and suddenly five large papers appeared with a seal on each of them. Instinct kicked in and he jumped up, right before the ground tore apart in a mass of explosions, paint and glitter. In awe, Kakashi landed on a nearby tree who immediately puffed away, making the Jonin jump away again. A leaf fluttered down and Kakashi just managed to spot the storage seal drawn on it. His heart leaped and he had to force the painful memories away. Instead he decided to move.
Like that a long chain of randomly disappearing trees, squirrels wearing a bomb suit (that was very disturbing and Kakashi had already planned a speech on abusing God's innocent creatures), doves that dropped paint bombs (that was impressive), patches of grass rigged with wire that triggered kunais and burning logs to fly at him, a very intricate, yet simple genjutsu that he admired for a moment before dispelling it, and a complex seal pinned to a bush that he didn't dare to touch out of fear for blowing up the village. It was Naruto after all.
After he was sure that all the traps were gone, he took a look at the destroyed training ground and then looked at his students in the tree.
He sighed "I didn't even say 'start' yet, did I?"
Sasuke would never admit it, but his first day of working together with his team was enjoyable. Naruto really stood out with his seals (apparently that was what he had been doing in class though he never really understood it) and Sakura straight out shocked him with her chakra control.
Since Naruto's genjutsu skill was abysmal, he and Sakura went on to design a simple illusion. In the end he couldn't perform it but she could. Of course it stung and he was determined to beat her, but in the end he would naturally become a better genjutsu user than anyone of them so it didn't matter.
He put his chopsticks down and looked at his team. They were sitting in a barbecue restaurant after blackmailing their sensei into paying for them. Naruto was sulking because it wasn't ramen, Sakura was fussing over her diet and Kakashi was reading his orange book. His plate was already empty. Sasuke's eye twitched, he hadn't even seen the man move!
Today was alright, but I can't afford to do this again. Kakashi has to start teaching me new jutsu or else I'll never beat that man. Sasuke gritted his teeth and grabbed another tomato of his plate. He needed to get stronger.
Unbeknown to him, Kakashi was eying him over his book. It seemed that his message didn't came through to the kid at all. He looked at the other members. One was sulkily eating more than all of them combined, the other was picking out the least fatty bits while sending hungry glances at the juicy meat. He sighed again. Sensei, what would you do with them?
There was no answer. The clock on the wall simply ticked on.
"Yo!"
"Oi what happened to meeting at nine?" Anko threw a bottle at him the moment he appeared. Kakashi's eye curved into a smile.
"I was taking my team out of barbecue."
"Yeah, right. Come up with a-mpff-" Genma's hand clamped over her mouth as the entire group of Jonin stared at him.
"You passed them?" Asuma asked, his cigarette was balancing dangerously on his lower lip as his mouth hung open. Kakashi nodded cheerfully
"Yup. Actually they passed before I even arrived."
The room sweatdropped. Of course he couldn't arrive on time on such a big day.
"What did they do?" Asuma inquired.
"They showed that they could work together for a single goal without tearing Naruto's throat out." The silver haired man opened his book and ignored the pointed look from his colleagues.
"How are they?" Kurenai asked "I did hear a lot of noise coming from your training ground."
"Yeah." Genma chimed in "Hokage-sama was staring at his glass ball the entire day and kept muttering about squirrels."
"Ah that. Let's just say that my training ground has changed." Kakashi explained sheepishly, deciding that telling them about the kamikaze-rodents would end with him and his team in a psychiatric asylum. No one was satisfied with that answer and he was sure that they would all make a trip to the field tomorrow to find the answer.
They would then see a pink, blue, orange and red glitter fest, would notice that a lot of trees were missing and they would most likely discover what that last seal did. Kakashi hadn't dared to touch it and neither did his team. When he asked Naruto about the seal, the boy shrugged "Chi made me draw it once."
Kakashi planned to have a conversation about the dangers of teaching potentially destructive seals to Naruto with her. He would also bug Ibiki to let him borrow the girl so that Naruto might be able to live up to his Uzumaki name. He sighed at the future of his team.
Forget heavy assault. They will be demolishing everything in their path whether they intend to or not.
"So now that even you have a team, and Gai's team is still breathing, that leaves just one person." Anko ginned evilly and looked past Kakashi. The Elite Jonin turned around and smiled at the sight of Ibiki who really wanted to blend in with the background. Too bad his black leather jacket didn't match the auburn bar. Asuma grinned at him, put his cigarette out, much to the relief of Kurenai, and instead downed his glass.
"You can't escape now. It has been two days and even Kakashi passed them. What are yours doing?'
Ibiki huffed "I am testing them to see if they can handle the job I am going to give them."
The room fell silent "Are you forcing them in the ANBU?" Kurenai narrowed her eyes.
"No, no. I am making them do a simulation of a mission. If they can handle it then they will have a bright future ahead."
"And if they can't." God that woman was scary, and what's with her eyes? I thought only the Uchiha had scary eyes. No wait, Ketsueki too.
"Then they can no longer be shinobi." He finished his glass.
"Ibiki!" Half the Jonin glared at him in shock. He noted the lone eye of Kakashi studying him. He knew.
"Orders are orders." The tension grew in the room and the barkeeper quietly walked to the far corner. The silence was deafening as all Jonins recalled who Team 11 consisted of. They had all received instructions to treat the trio as hard as possible and it didn't sit right with them.
"What's with this atmosphere?"
O no. Ibiki almost paled (he is a Special Jonin after all) and turned around. Iruku walked in smiling. He looked at the group and specifically Kakashi. The question remained unasked.
The Jonin saluted him "They passed."
It took Iruka two seconds to take it in and then he sighed in relief. The tension had left. The Chuunin walked to the bar and ordered before sighing in relief again.
"Man, am I glad you took them over, Kakashi."
Said man turned to him with a questioning eye. The Academy teacher was know for his fondness for his students. Iruku shook his head and leaned on the counter.
"Not like that. I like the kids, I really do. But I don't think that I could handle them during their first kills and worse: puberty."
All the sensei's collectively paled. The thought of having to teach these kids how to kill was disturbing enough, them being driving by hormones was straight out terrifying.
"M-maa, if they pass the Chuunin exams early then it will be fine right?" Kakashi tried but to his horror Iruka just looked at him with a funny expression.
"What do you mean? Puberty has just kicked in, the exams are pretty much a deadline for all the talks since it basically throws all those teenagers in one unsupervised battlefield." He sighed once again and took a large gulp. "I am so glad that I didn't have to tell them about the bees and hees. Especially Naruto, I don't think the kid could understand how babies were made even if I showed him a movie."
Ibiki choked, Asuma lit two cigarettes at once, Kurenai looked pale and Kakashi dropped his book.
Genma just about died laughing. Anko was snoring in corner and the barkeeper looked thoroughly uncomfortable.
"Say, we could always organize a class for all of them at once right? And since you are their most trusted teacher-"
"Forget it Asuma." Iruka shook his head. "From now on they will turn to you for their problems. Besides, Gai managed it. How hard can it be? Of course, Naruto is a special case but I am sure that the famed Kakashi of the Sharingan can handle it." Iruka smiled innocently and the entire room wondered what made the man look so evil.
A cough announced Hayate's entrance, closely followed by Yuugao. "What's wrong?"
Genma burst out laughing again. "Man, you have got to hear this!"
And thus, the teachers had to listen to their verdict once again. It did not sound better.
Especially not when Hayate had to laugh so hard he started coughing and eventually fainted from the lack of oxygen.
Is it too late to fail them? Kakashi thought.
Of course, at that moment Anko woke up and demanded an explanation for the unconscious Hayate. The barkeeper had never before sold so many bottles of sake to the Jonin.
