AN: And I'm back!

I want to clear a few things up for people. The reviews calling for blood, don't worry, the rapists will get their's. Remember, they were fully trained ninja while she was six, and she hasn't spoken to accuse them, so there will be justice, it will just take some time.

Now then, on with the story!


CHAPTER 3

Naruko, knowing there would be some kind of test of their skills, arrived at the training ground an hour earlier then needed to scope out the area. The training ground was composed of a dense forest with a clearing in the center, made of a single tree on a small hill, a large river, and the Memorial Stone.

She looked sadly at the Stone, knowing that somewhere carved on it were her parents' names. When she was four, she wanted to know who here parents were, and asked the Hokage if he knew. In response, he brought here there. He explained that it was a memorial to honor the shinobi that had died for the village. She had asked what their names were, but the Hokage said that she would know when she became a chunin.

Returning to her task, she took in the area. There were three posts in front of the lone tree, so she figured that that was where they would meet. She decided to start there and work her way around the area.


Uchiha Sasuke woke up from his alarm around five-thirty in the morning. After getting ready, he made his way to the training grounds, pointedly ignoring the empty building in the Uchiha Compound. He couldn't bear to look at them any more than he had to.

It wasn't as if they offended him, it was just that it brought too much anger and pain when he thought about what his brother did to their clan.

He hated his brother. He felt his brother deserved a slow, painful death for his actions. That was his reason for being a shinobi. That was why he trained to the point of exhaustion every day to unlock his sharingan to even have a chance against Itachi, and he wouldn't allow anyone or anything to get in his way.

Not even Uzumaki.

To him, Uzumaki was an enigma. She didn't faun all over him like Sakura and the other fan-girls, and actually seamed to be disgusted by it. She never spoke, so you never knew what she was thinking, and he had the dealing that she was hiding something from her pears when it came to her skills. No one struggled that much at basic jutus, not even that Nara kid, and he paid less attention in class then her.

Lost in his thoughts, he aimlessly wandered into Training Ground Three to the three posts in the center anout ten minutes before six. Figuring he was the first one there, he was surprised to see none other than Naruko down the hill at the Memorial Stone.

Wondering why she was so early, he silently watched as she stood there, staring at the stone. She was different today somehow, and it took him a couple moments to notice that her ever-present hood was down, letting her blonde hair flow freely down to her shoulders.

Distracted as he was, he didn't notice the annoying pink blur until it was too late.

"Sasuke-kun!" The screech nearly blowing out his eardrums, he could only brace himself for the impact as she flung herself at him.

As soon as she heard the Banshee, Naruko had snapped out of her trance and had quickly thrown up her hood, silently cursing herself for not noticing then two earlier.

Sasuke felt strangely disappointed, but crished the feeling as soon as it appeared. He was an Uchiha, he shouldn't care about what this girl looked like. Ignoring whatever it was Sakura was saying, he made his way over to the posts on the hill to wait for Kakashi-sensei.


Sakura was seething. She had been happy that she had gotten on Sasuke-kun's team, but it was dulled somewhat by the fact that she was also on the same team as the freak.

She really hated Naruko. She never seamed to care what she looked like, and if that wasn't bad enough, she didn't see just how great Sasuke-kun was. She also hated that Naruko never spoke. What kind of freak never said anything to anyone? What was her problem?

When she got to the training ground, she immediately made her way to her Sasuke, but paused when she saw that he was watching something. Following his gaze, she couldn't help the small snarl that escaped her lips. That Naruko bitch was standing by some rock, admiring it. She couldn't have Sasuke looking at Uzumaki, only she was the girl for Sasuke, and decided to get his attention away from the bitch.

After running over to and hugging him, Sakura started to to talk about everything she could think of, trying to keep Sasuke's attention on her instead of Naruko, and it seemed to be working, as he took one last look at her and turned away, walking toward the posts.


The three waited for hours, Sakura sitting uncomfortably close to Sasuke on the ground in front of the posts and Naruko sitting on one of the tree's branches. Finally, at around ten o'clock, Kakashi-sensei showed up.

Sakura immediately jumped up, shouting, "You're late!"

"Sorry. A black cat crossed my path-" started Kakashi, but was cut off by the Banshee.

"LIAR" she screeched, causing Sasuke, who was still right next to her, to wince in pain, clutching his ear. Naruko was just amused by their sensei's actions. She had heard about the "Copy-Cat" ninja, and thought his attitude was refreshingly funny.

"... Anyway, today, you will be having a test."

"But Sensei, we already took the Genin Test. That's why we graduated," said Sakura, stating what everyone was thinking.

"That was just a qualifying exam," Kakashi explained. "You see, not everyone from the academy become genin. This test is to root out the weaker candidates. Those who pass, become full genin. Those who fail, go back to the academy to be re-taught to try again the next year. Oh, and by the way, this test has a sixty-six percent fail rate."

Naruko covered her ears just in time to avoid the dangerous "WHAT?!" and keep her hearing intact. Inwardly, she was very nervous about this test. She had barley graduated the first time, she didn't want to have to repeat the experience.

She uncovered her ears as soon as she was sure Pinkie wasn't going to cause her to go deaf.

"The test is simple," Kakashi continued. "All you have to do is take these two bells from me." He held up two small, shiver bells on a string. "It's that simple."

"But Sensei, there are only two bells, and three of us."

"Yes. You see, the one who doesn't get a bell, gets tied to one of these posts, without lunch, and fails.

"You have until noon once I start this timer. Be warned, if you don't come at me with the intention to kill, you will fail," he finished, holding out a clock.

"And ... Go," he said, starting the timer, and the three immediately scattered into the forest around the clearing.


Naruko crouched on a branch near the clearing, watching Kakashi, her mind working on a plan to get the bells.

Openly fighting him would be suicide. He may not act like it, but as a jonin, he could take on the three of them all at once if he wanted to and hardly break a sweat. She was no slouch, but she also wasn't arrogant enough to believe she could beat him alone.

Then it clicked. The two bells, the three genin, wanted them to turn against each other. She smirked as an idea came to her head.


Meanwhile, Sakura was walking along the path, shouting for her Sasuke. After a few minutes, she saw a flash of blue out of the corner of her eye.

"Sasuke-kun!" she shouted, happy to have finally found him. That is until she saw the condition he was in.

The boy was pinned to a tree, kunai embedded deep into his arms and legs, multiple shuriken sticking out of his stomach.

" ... Sa ... kura ..." he rasped, coughing up some blood, adding to what had already pooled on the grass under him. "Help ... me ... Sakura."

Sakura just stood there, frozen, staring in horror at her love bleeding to death in front of her eyes. Losing it, she screamed and fainted right on the spot.

Kakashi shook his Hearn disappointment. He didn't expect her to fall for the genjutsu so easily. "Oh well, hopefully the other two will be more impressive."


Kakashi was leaning up against the tree, reading from his "Icha Icha Paradise" when he suddenly had to jump to the side and dodge a kunai thrown his direction. Turning, he saw the Uchiha standing about twenty feet in front of him.

"Uchiha Sasuke. Where's the rest of your team?"

"I don't need them. They'll just slow me down." Kakashi sighed, it seems that this Uchiha would be as arrogant as most of his clan.

Suddenly, Sasuke rushed the jonin, swinging a kick at his head. Kakashi blocked it with his arm, grabbing his leg to hold him in place. Sasuke's other leg flew towards Kakashi's gut, but the jonin grabbed that to. Gathering his strength, he threw the Uchiha heir away from himself.

Sasuke twisted in the air to land on his feet, sliding a couple of yards backward. Standing, he went through a couple hand-signs, ending with the tiger sign.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" A large ball of fire flew towards the jonin, who had since put his book back into his pouch, surprised at the Uchiha's strength.

Sasuke watched as the fire engulfed the ninja, not fooled for even a second that he had actually gotten him.

Sure enough, when the fire disappeared, the jonin was nowhere to be seen. After a couple of seconds of furtively looking around, a hand popped of the ground, grabbing his ankle and pulling him down to his neck.

"Always hide where they least expect you," said Kakashi, popping out of the ground.

A little ways away in a tree, Sasuke and Naruko crouched wathing the scene play out. Naruko turned to Sasuke and gave the signal, causing him to smirk and jump out of the cover, simultaneously dispelling the shadowclone and throwing a barrage of shuriken.

Kakashi was in the middle of a lecture when his pupil disappeared in a puff of smoke.

What!? Shunshin? No, it can't be, he's not that advanced, is he? He suddenly had to dodge a large group of shuriken and kunai, most passing him by as he moved out of the way. He now stood in front of the river, facing Naruko and Sasuke, who stood side by side, the first holding two kunai and the second in an advanced taijutsu stance.

Kakashi smiled behind his mask. Here he stood, surrounded by kunai and shuriken, back to a river, with his students working as a team to take him down. He couldn't be prouder. But they still hadn't gotten the bells.

He was about to speak, when the river behind him erupted, revealing ten more Narukos and Sasukes, each throwing more projectiles at him.

What!? he thought, dodging the very real weapons. I knew Naruko knew the Kage Bunshin, but Sasuke!?

Getting ready to fight the new opponents, he was surprised once again as every single kunai and shuriken erupted into smoke, turning into even more clones.

They all rushed in at once, Kakashi barley keeping them away from the bells. This was especialy tedious, as when the original clone threw their weapons, they turned into new clones, adding to the onslaught.

He was struggling against the clones when he felt the bells being disturbed. He turned his head to see one of the Narukos pulling at the strings. He shot out his foot, hitting her square in the face, dispelling the clone.

Suddenly, all of the clones dispelled. He looked around confused, then at the bells, only to see them poof into smoke. He looked back at his students, each of them holding a bell in their finger. He smiled. He had a feeling that they would make great ninja.


Sakura woke up groggily. She wondered where she was for a few moments as her mind started working, and looked up sharply as she remembered the last thing that had happened to her.

"Sasuke-kun!"

The rest of her team wasn't expecting the sudden screech, and all jumped when their ears nearly turned inside-out.

"Calm down, Sakura, Sasuke is fine. It was just a genjutsu," explained Kakashi, being the first one to recover.

She looked around, confused, then spotted her Sasuke-kun. She tried to run toward him, but found she couldn't move. Looking down, she noticed that she was tied to a post, and that the others had their lunches.

"B-b-but ..." She sputtered, not able to make a full sentence as the realization dawned on her.

"By the way," Kakashi said, gaining the attention back, "you pass."

Sakura was confused. Why was she passed? She didn't get a bell. Kakashi, seeing he confused look, started to explain.

"The goal of this test, as your two teammates were able to figure out, was teamwork. In the history of Konoha, ever since it was founded, there have never been any genin teams with less then three people. The reason there were two bells, was to test your teamwork against a factor that would break it. It was to teach you how to deal with real life situations. For instance ..." he grabbed Sasuke by the hair, pulling his head back, and put a kunai to his throat, " Naruko! Kill Sakura or Sasuke dies!"

Naruko looked at Kakashi, shrugged, pulled out her own kunai, and started walking towards Sakura, who nearly wet herself at the cold smile on Naruko's face.

Seeing as she would do it, and a little unerved by the fact, Kakashi let go of Sasuke, who glared at him, and went to stop Naruko.

Pulling her back, and missing the slightly disappointed look on her face, he continued.

"You may very we'll encounter these kinds of things on a mission, and your decision could decide if your team lives or dies. Now, Sakura, I'm letting you pass on one condition: you need to get stronger. A konoichi needs to be as strong as any shinobi, and you have a long way to go to catch up to your teammates. Now, Sasuke, I believe you were about to tell me how you learned the Kage Bunshin."

"Naruko," he answered simply.

Turning to Naruko, he just got a shrug in response.

"Well, I'm impressed. Not many chunin can create a shadow clone, let alone a rookie genin." Standing up, he said, "All right, that will be all for today. Tomorrow, you will start your first mission. Oh, and Naruko, Hokage-sama said he would like to speak to you after your training."

With that, the team dispersed, with Sasuke and Naruko heading to the village, leaving Kakashi to untie his remaining student.


AN: Alright it's finally done! That one was longer than the other chapters, I do think. What does the Hokage want? How does Sasuke know the Shadow clone? Why am I asking you?

Anyway, next there will be a talk, some missions, some filler, and the beginning of the Wave Arc if I'm lucky. Should update within the next week. Other then that, thank you for reading, please, don't be afraid to leave a review, and I'll see you next time.