Path of the Shinobi
Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. It's nice to get feedback.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 4: Kakashi's Exam
Naruto awoke the next morning to find to find that the sun was already high up in the sky. He quickly turned to check his clock and found that he had forgotten to set the alarm.
"Oh crap, I was supposed to be at the academy three hours ago!"
He quickly got dressed, didn't even bother with breakfast, and ran out the door. In his panic, he had completely forgotten about shunshin.
Dashing across the streets, he soon discovered there were too many people. So he quickly jumped onto the roof, and ran along the rooftops.
After about ten minutes, he finally burst through the door of the classroom.
"Well, it's about time you got here Naruto," Iruka with disappointment. "Three hours late?! That's a new record even for you Naruto."
"I forgot to set my alarm clock and got here as fast as I could," Naruto answered.
"Because of your tardiness, your team has had to wait for you for three hours. Luckily, your sensei is Kakashi, so you're actually just in time," Iruka said as he laughed. "Since you were late, we had to move you to Kakashi's team because he's always so late. Your original team members were Hinata Hyuga and Kiba Inuzuka. Now your team is Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno.
"You can't mean the emo bastard and crazy fan girl?" Naruto pleaded. " Please, put me back on Hinata's team."
"We should be the ones asking for a new team member you dobe," Sasuke replied as he walked through the door.
"No complaints Naruto," Iruka said sternly. "Now, you'll go and meet Kakashi, your team leader."
He ran over to the classroom where he was supposed to be meeting his team. However, he discovered to his shocked that Kakashi was already there.
"Amazing, this is the first time someone has actually been later than me. Well, lets get started. I want each of you to tell me your likes, dislikes, and dreams. Your up first," as he pointed to Sakura.
"Well my likes are," she looked as Sasuke and giggled. "My dislikes," as she glared at Naruto. "My dream is," and she looked at Sasuke and blushed.
"Damn fan girls," thought Kakashi. "Well it's your turn," and he pointed at Sasuke.
"I probably have too many dislikes to count, and I don't like anything enough to remember them. But as for my dream, it's to kill a certain someone."
"Alright, it's your turn Naruto."
"My likes are ramen. My dislikes, fan girls and ignorant bastards," as he glared at Sasuke and Sakura. But my dream is, to someday, gain respect in this village. Someday, the people of this village won't look at me with contempt and hatred anymore. Instead, they'll look at me with admiration and honor. One day, I will become Hokage."
"That's quite a dream," thought Kakashi.
"I'll meet you all on training ground 7 tomorrow at 6 AM. And don't bother eating breakfast," he shouted. "You'll all end up puking anyway."
When all three of them arrived on the training grounds the next day, Kakashi was nowhere to be seen.
"Crap," Naruto yelled. "I should've known he'd be late again."
After waiting three hours, Kakashi finally appeared in front of them.
"Today you will be given a test that will determine whether you become a Genin," he explained. "I have with me two bells. By noon, each of you must take a bell in order to pass."
"But there's only two bells, and three of us. Does that mean one of us won't pass?" asked Naruto.
"Exactly. Two of you will become Genin and the other one will be sent back to the academy. But I must warn you. Unless you come at me with the intent to kill, you will never get the bells. The test will begin…NOW!"
The Sakura and Sasuke dashed away, but Naruto just stood in the same spot. "It's just you and me now Kakashi-sensei."
"Naruto," Kakashi sighed as he pulled out a book. "Shinobi Tactic 1: Taijutsu."
Naruto vanished and suddenly appeared behind Kakashi. He aimed a kick at Kakashi's head, but it was easily dodged. Then Naruto tried to stab him with a kunai as he spun around, but Kakashi's wrist guard deflected it.
Finally, Kakashi decided to counterattack. He quickly got out a kunai stabbed Naruto. The blade embedded itself into Naruto's chest, but as soon as it did, Naruto exploded. The explosion blasted Kakashi off his feet and created an enormous crater.
"It looks like I underestimated him," Kakashi said with surprise in his voice as his book burned to a crisp.
A few feet away, hidden in the bushes, Naruto watched as his Inferno Clone exploded. "Damn," he thought. "I won't be able to beat him alone. I have to find the others." And with that, he dashed into the forest.
A good distance away, Sakura was busy looking for Sasuke. "Were could he be?" she wondered. She soon found herself in a clearing and suddenly, leaves began to swirl around her. Quickly, she jumped away.
"Sakura," a strained voice whispered. "Please help me…"
She whirled around and found Sasuke bleeding heavily. His limbs and chest were littered with kunai and shuriken. "Help me," he insisted.
Shocked at the sight of the dying Sasuke, Sakura immediately fainted.
When she awoke, she found Naruto beside her. "What happened, where's Sasuke?" Sakura asked quickly.
"Of course," Naruto replied. "Genjutsu. I can't believe he got you with that. We have to find Sasuke. None of us can beat him alone."
"Sasuke can't lose," she argued angrily. "He's too good to lose."
"It doesn't matter, we have to find him anyway." Then they rushed to find Sasuke.
After Kakashi had caused Sakura to faint, he kept reading until Sasuke unexpectedly landed in the clearing.
"Well, it looks like I have another person to deal with," Kakashi said with amusement.
"I'm not like the others," Sasuke said coldly. "You might've beaten the others, but I intend to get one of those bells.
He quickly threw four shuriken, but Kakashi easily dodged them. Sasuke abruptly appeared behind him and gave a powerful upward kick. Kakashi caught it, so Sasuke rapidly performed some hand seals. "Fire Release: Grand Fireball Jutsu," he yelled as a giant ball of flame shot towards Kakashi at point blank.
When the flames cleared, Kakashi was gone. "Where could he have gone?" Sasuke wondered as he hurriedly looked around.
"I'm right here." Sasuke heard the voice and spun around to find Kakashi speedily executing hand signs. "Earth Release: Stone Prison Jutsu," he shouted as chakra surrounded Sasuke. The chakra then became numerous massive rocks that sealed into a rectangle, and Sasuke was trapped inside.
"You won't be able to escape from that. Those walls are stronger than steel," Kakashi explained.
"Then I'll just have to blast them down by force," Naruto said as he and Sakura landed next to the stone prison. He slowly drew SeikaKage. "Let's end this here and now."
Chakra began to flood in the sword as the blade became aflame with black fire. "Demonic Blade: Shadow Release!" Naruto yelled. SeikaKage began to transform as it started to grow in size. The flames spread past the blade and onto the hilt. Fire began to lick across Naruto's hand; however, it did not seem to injure him.
As soon the transformation was complete, Naruto swung the sword at the stone prison. The rock wall exploded as the blade made contact. All three of them taking advantage of the dust, they rushed Kakashi. However, Naruto decided to send in another Inferno Clone instead.
When they reached him, Sasuke immediately saw that the Naruto was a clone. Sakura threw a shower of kunai and shuriken at Kakashi, which he effortlessly dodged, only to be met by Sasuke, who shot another fireball.
Barely escaping and slightly burned, he was intercepted by Naruto's clone as he landed on the ground. The clone swung its sword, and when Kakashi dodged it, flames shot out. Kakashi was hit at least twice until he steadied himself and showered the clone with kunai. Instantly, the clone exploded, and when the smoke cleared, Kakashi found Sasuke pointing a kunai at his back, Sakura with a kunai at his chest, and around his neck was Naruto's blazing sword.
"You've all done very well," Kakashi announced. "Therefore, you all pass."
"But I thought we had to get the bells?" Sakura asked with confusion.
"The test was to see whether you could all work as a team, and I have to say that you all did much better than I expected. Team 7 is now an official Genin squad. You will all start missions tomorrow at seven in the morning," he said as he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Yeah sure, more like at ten," Naruto shook his head.
As they all headed home, Naruto decided to stop for some ramen. He was surprised to find Hinata there. He grabbed a chair and sat down next to her as old man Ichiraku stopped by.
"Hey Hinata! Have you ordered yet?"
"No," she replied while she shook her head. "I just got here. Want you eat with me?"
"Sure! My treat!"
They both ordered and started talking about the test they took.
"Did you pass too?" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, but Kakashi's really one hell of a shinobi. We barely won."
"Well, I just glad that you passed."
They continued to talk about what being a Genin would be like and wondering how difficult missions would be. Soon it was dark and Naruto decided to walk Hinata home.
As they walked they talked about their teammates. Hinata said Kiba and Shino were pretty nice. But Kiba was a bit overconfident sometimes and Shino was really secluded. Naruto said that Sasuke was probably a bit like Kiba and that Sakura was just an obsessed fan girl. Hinata laughed at her antics.
Before long, they found themselves in front of the Hyuuga compound.
"I had a great time with you Naruto-kun," Hinata said timidly.
"Yeah me too," he replied. "We should do it again sometime." He began to walk away, but stopped and turned around.
"Thanks Hinata, for accepting me for who I am for all these years. Everyone shunned me or showed dislike towards me, but you were one of the few people in this village who showed me kindness," he said smiling.
"Naruto-kun…"
"I'll see you tomorrow." He waved and started to walk away once more.
All of a sudden, he felt Hinata wrap her arms around him. He turned and hugged her back.
"Good night Naruto," she whispered.
"Good night Hinata."
Naruto waited until Hinata went inside before he turned and left for home. Tomorrow would be his first day as a shinobi.
(Two months later)
Ever since Team 7 had officially become shinobi, they had done nothing but D-ranked missions. They did useless things such as washing windows, sweeping leaves, chasing after cats, and so many other tasks that almost any person could do.
"I want a real mission," Naruto demanded one day. "I'm tired of doing all this useless junk. We've done like a hundred of these worthless D-ranked missions. Half of those were just capturing the Firelord's cat damn it! Give us a C-ranked mission or something."
"I hate to say it," added Sasuke. "But the dobe is right. We're getting bored of these missions."
Kakashi sighed. This was probably the tenth time that they had made such a request. He doubted that the Third would ever relent, but his answer surprised him.
"Very well then," agreed Sarutobi. "We will give you a C-ranked mission. It will be your duty to escort this man, Sakoro Hatori. He is a merchant for the village of Kirigakure. You will ensure that he survives the trip."
"Well, it's not much," sighed Naruto. "But it's a start."
That's it for now! I might not be able to update while I'm gone, so I give you guys this chapter before I leave. Read and Review! I hope to see lots of new reviews when I get back.
P.S. I know the test turned out a bit differently, but I wanted to mix it up a little bit. I hope you enjoyed it.