A/N: I do not own Naruto or its characters I just like to twist their lives around for amusement.

'Kyuubi speaking'
'Mio speaking'
Jutsu

(For pics of what Kurama looks like Google: Maned Wolf Also called the stilted fox)
(For pics of what Mio looks like Google: king cheetah)

Chapter 4: Survival…

Naruto sat face down at the kitchen table, Mio and Kurama curled together underneath the table while Suzume helped Anko make breakfast. "Anko, Kakashi sensei said not to eat…"

Anko turned and glared at the sleepy blond over her shoulder, Suzume taking over stirring the soup. "I don' care what that perverted scarecrow said. You aren't leavin' the house to do any kinda trainin' without eating somethin'. Those are the rules." Naruto shrank back at his pseudo-mothers glare and nodded, Kurama releasing one of his raspy bark-laughs at his partners expense.

Suzume grinned at her brother; "I made Miso-Ramen Nii-Chan!" the blond sat up significantly more awake at the thought of his favorite Ramen for breakfast. Suzume sat with him at the table, and they both dug in, Suzume looked up at Anko, "Mama, can Mio and I go with Nii-Chan?"

Anko frowned a bit, "Suzume, I don't think-… I don't want you to be under foot."

Suzume shook her head vigorously, "We won't Mama, We just wanna watch and I wanna see what the big deal is about this Uchiha kid… I bet Naruto-Nii could beat him!"

Anko rolled her eyes, "Suzume, Most kids your age haven't been personally trained by Anbu and Jonin since they could walk…"

Naruto snorted into his noodles and Suzume smacked his arm, before scooping up Mio carrying the too big feline like an oversized teddy and heading to the door, Kurama getting up to follow. "Hurry up Nii-Chan! You're gonna be late."

Naruto nodded, gulped down the rest of his food and ran out the door after his sister, "bye-bye Anko!"

Anko just smiled and shook her head at the blond, "Naruto, Look after Suzume!"

Sasuke and Sakura were already there when Naruto and Suzume arrived. Sakura looked at the other girl with curiosity burning in her jade-green eyes; Sasuke just stared, hiding his own curiosity with carefully concocted disdain. Naruto looked over at his sister, "Suzu-Chan, this is Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura." Suzume put her large cat down and ran over to Sakura, ignoring Sasuke completely.

"Uwaah! Your hair is so pretty!" Sakura blinked in surprise. The girl was almost a head shorter than her, with short, wild violet hair, big gold eyes. She was dressed in a long sleeve fishnet shirt, a black zippered vest with a hood, leather fingerless gloves, black shorts, and black ninja sandals.

"Umm, thank you?" Sakura sounded unsure.

"Can I braid it for you? It might get in the way, since it's so long."

Sakura continued to stare, slightly confused. "O-okay…" They sat and Suzume started braiding the bubblegum pink hair into low pig-tails, humming all the while, Mio coming to lay by her partner's side. Naruto followed their lead and plopped onto the ground, leaning into the already laying Kurama. Sasuke stayed standing and alert while Sakura and Suzume got to know one another and Naruto dozed against his partner lazily.

It was almost ten when Kakashi finally showed, Sakura and Naruto both jumped to their feet. "You're late!" was shouted in unison.

Kakashi waved a hand at them in a lazy and dismissing manner, "Mah, mahh… a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way here…" he paused, his eye landing on the vaguely familiar violet haired girl. "It seems we have an extra… you are?"

Suzume stood, "Mitarashi Suzume and this is Mio; we're just here to watch."

Kakashi paled at the girl's last name and he cleared his throat uncomfortably, "Well alright then, just don't get involved." Suzume nodded and Kakashi turned to his students, "alright so all you have to do is get one of these bells from me and you pass." The Jonin held out a pair of small bells and set an alarm clock out on a stump, "You have until noon, whoever can't doesn't get lunch."

Sakura blinked in surprise, "What?"

Kakashi pointed at the trio of tree stumps, "I'm going to tie you up over there and eat lunch in front of you."

Sasuke frowned, "So that's why he said..."

"...don't eat breakfast." Sakura finished with a pout one hand pressed over her growling belly, then she blinked and looked up at her sensei in confusion, "But wait, why are there only two bells?"

Kakashi smirked slightly beneath his mask, "Since there's only two, at least one will have to be tied to the log. That person will fail since he failed to complete the mission. The person will go back to the academy. It might just be one, or it could be all three of you." He paused and tied the bells to his weapons pouch, "You can use your shuriken, kunai and any Jutsu you may already know. You won't get the bell's unless you come at me like you're gonna kill me."

Sakura winced, "But we could hurt you Kakashi sensei!"

Naruto and Sasuke simply looked resigned and Kakashi eye smiled at the trio plus fox, "We're going to start after I say "Ready, start" he put his hand on the timer and looked over his almost Genin, "Ready, start!"

The trio plus fox disappeared a moment later. Suzume picked a tree near the edge of the clearing and sat down leaning against it to watch as Mio comfortably settled across her lap.

Naruto crouched a short distance away with Kurama, 'you know this isn't just him testing your survival skills, right?'

Naruto glared lightly at the fox having the good sense to at least be a little offended. "Of course! There's no possible way one normal Genin could take out a Jonin and really three couldn't take one out either even if they were coming at him with intent to kill. He probably just wants to see if we can work together." The blond stated in a low voice.

The fox nodded at the blond in approval, 'then go do it kit.'

Naruto nodded and wasted no time in tracking down his teammates. He confronted them with an unusually serious look on his face, "We have to work together."

Sasuke sneered at him, "I don't need your help with anything dobe." Sakura and Naruto watch as the Uchiha stalked quietly from their hiding spot and went to confront the Jonin. Sakura stared after her retreating crush and nodded in agreement following after him a moment later.

Naruto sighed and dropped a hand onto Kurama's head, "Well we tried, I guess we're gonna have to do this the hard way…"

The hand full of shurikens hit Kakashi with a sickening thunk and Sakura Gasped in restrained horror as Kakashi fell to the ground. Sasuke gaped for a moment, 'that was way to…' then there was a echoing poof of chakra smoke and a log replaced Kakashi's previously downed body.

Sasuke took off running through the trees a moment later, "Damn it, he used a replacement Jutsu, He must have determined my location from that shuriken attack. He dropped his guard on purpose. I fell for his trap."

Kakashi eye smirked from his place hidden in the trees, 'There he is.'

Kakashi and Sasuke stared at each other, slowly Sasuke reached into his weapons pouch and grabbed some shurikens and threw them at Kakashi. Kakashi dodged easily, 'There's no use in just using normal attacks.' He blinked when one of the shurikens cut a rope he hadn't initially noticed, 'A trap?'

Hurriedly Kakashi jumped out of the path of numerous weapons flying at him which were sprung from the surprisingly well laid trap, Kakashi skid across the ground, then looked behind him just in time to see Sasuke appear, ready to kick him. 'What?'

Sasuke tried for a roundhouse kick, but the experienced Jonin blocked and grabbed Sasuke's foot in retaliation. The Uchiha then goes for a punch but that is also blocked. Sasuke swung around with his other foot but, once again, Kakashi blocked. The bells jingle and Sasuke smirked. Kakashi gasps soundlessly as he sees Sasuke reach for the bell fingers just grazing cold metal as Kakashi jumped back. Then the stare down continued, "I'll admit that you're good. Probably better than the other two…"

Sasuke smirked at his sensei and performed a number of seals. "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu [Fire element: Blazing fireball]"

"What? That technique isn't something a Genin can do... He shouldn't have enough Chakra!" Kakashi stared in shock as Sasuke produced a decent sized fireball directed towards Kakashi.

Once the flames disappeared Sasuke scowled when he saw that there Kakashi was no longer there. 'He's gone! Is he behind me? No, above? Where is he?'

"Beneath you."

Sasuke gasped as a hand came out of the ground and grabbed his leg, "Wha?"

"Doton: Shinjuusanshu no Jutsu [Earth element: suicide decapitation]" Sasuke made a shocked sound as he was pulled into the ground up to his neck. Then he blinked and Kakashi was standing before him, "Your talents are exceptional but you still need work, your too cocky." Then he walked away reading his book.

Sakura ran noisily through the trees looking everywhere for the Uchiha heir whom she'd lost sight of, 'Where is Sasuke-kun? Did Sensei already get him...? No, that can't happen to Sasuke-kun.'
the Pinkette gasped and ducked back behind a tree when she sees Kakashi. Slowly she peeked around to see if she'd been caught, 'I'm safe! He didn't notice me.'

"Sakura, behind you." Sakura yelped in surprise, looked behind her and saw Kakashi and screamed in shock the Pinkette stared blankly at Kakashi while he whipped up a small tornado. When the dust settled, she realized she was alone…

"What? What was that? Hey, where did Sensei go? What's going on? What the?" She looks around expectantly and caught sight of Sasuke at the edge of the clearing. "Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke dropped to the ground, leaning against a tree with multiple weapons embedded in him, "Sakura... Help me..."

Sakura stared in horror, tears forming in her mint colored eyes and released a teeth rattling scream, before dropping to the ground in a dead faint.

Kakashi looked from the trees and blinked before returning to reading his book, "Maybe I overdid it. But she should have been able to tell if it was real or not…"

Kakashi returned to the main clearing and blinked in surprise when he noticed Naruto and his fox simply sitting on the ground, seemingly waiting for him. "You took them both out already?" there was a hint of surprise in the blonds' voice and Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "I thought Sasuke would last longer… I told him we needed to all work together but noooo, don't listen to Naruto he's an idiot…"

The blond cut himself off when he realized he was starting to rant/ramble and looked at Kakashi, a determined expression coming over his whiskered face as he stood with Kurama and dusted himself off. "well time to get to work its almost noon." And it was, the blond ninja had just shy of ten minutes to try to retrieve the bells.

Then the blond made a hand sign that the Jonin knew the Genin definitely shouldn't know… "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" And then he was surrounded by nearly a hundred Naruto's all smirking in a way that didn't bode well… "Henge!" and then the near hundreds of Naruto's were smoke covered but still definitely naked, perfectly proportionate, busty, blonds. Kakashi flew back via nose bleed, eyes rolling… then there was a jingle and another poof of smoke and the multiple naked shadow clones disappeared, leaving a single smirking Naruto standing with his familiar, who had a very familiar pair of bells hanging from his jaw. Naruto pat Kurama's head affectionately, "Good boy." He took the bells and held them up.

Kakashi simply stared in shock... a moment later Sasuke appeared, Sakura just behind him and Naruto tossed the bells to the pair.

The two pre-teens caught them easily and blinked in surprise looking between the Jonin and the fox ninja. Sasuke scowled at him, "How did you- ?!"

Naruto cut him off and grinned at Kakashi, "Know thy enemy."

The scarecrow had the decency to look embarrassed, as the other two Genin, stared at him curiously.

Sakura blinked, "Wait but if you give us the bells how will you pass, don't you want to be Hokage?"

Naruto grinned at her the turned to Kakashi, "Oh I'll still pass and it's because I'm giving you the bells. The whole point of the exercise was team work, and sharing is part of team work and therefore we learned the point of the exercise."

All three Genin turned to look at Kakashi expectantly; the Jonin however was still in shock, though he shook it off shortly after. "err right teamwork, you pass."

Sakura and Naruto both whooped in excitement while Sasuke seemed to sag just a bit in relief.

Moments later Naruto and Kurama both were bowled over, Kurama by Mio and Naruto by Suzume, Naruto hugged the petite violet haired ninja and they both laughed. Kakashi cleared his throat and the group turned to look at him as one. "We start our real missions as squad seven tomorrow. Meet at the bridge at seven."

TBC…