Chapter 7: Training, and Wave
Kyuubi123 here to clarify a few things. I know that my last chapter had many scratching their heads in confusion. The reason I did what I did was twofold. One, I hate when stories become predictable, it makes them boring and uninteresting to read so I wanted to throw a twist your way. Two, I'm a bit twisted what can I say.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
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Naruto awoke at 7:30 am. He quickly got dressed, ate breakfast, and gathered his gear. As he left his apartment he thought about what lay in store for him.
'I may be willing to work with them, but is the same true for them.' He thought. He was still far from happy with his team arrangements, but there really was nothing he could do about it.
He arrived at the training grounds to see Sasuke and Sakura already waiting. With a sigh he walked over to them.
"Hey." He said as he sat down beside Sakura.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were going to change teams." Sakura said.
"The old man denied my request, so it seems that I am stuck with you two." Naruto said solemnly.
"I guess two losers on the same team is the max." Sasuke said nastily.
Sasuke suddenly found himself lifted up by his shirt and staring into the face of an angry Naruto. He found himself staring at the same cold stare that Naruto had given them yesterday.
"Listen to me, Uchiha, and listen well. I don't like you, and you don't like me, but we are on the same team and I am willing to put my feelings aside to work together with you. However I will not allow you to insult my friends. If you don't having anything productive to say then kindly keep your mouth shut." Naruto said angrily. He may have been willing to work with them but he was not going to take their crap.
"Hey leave Sasuke alone Naruto!" Sakura yelled. Though she quickly shut up when she was met with the same icy stare as Sasuke.
Naruto dropped Sasuke to the ground and walked away from them.
'This is going to be a long day' he thought.
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The three genin were left waiting for 2 hours. Naruto had distanced himself away from them as he didn't want to deal with them.
Sakura had eventually stopped trying to get Sasuke to go on a date with her and was sitting quietly wondering where their sensei was.
Sasuke was brooding, and trying to figure out how Naruto had gotten so strong. He would never admit it but when Naruto had grabbed him, he had felt slightly afraid of the blonde and the look of anger in his eyes.
Finally, Kakashi appeared and looked at his potential team. He saw a lot of his old team in them.
Saukra was similar to Rin in that she fawned over Sasuke the same way that Rin had fawned him.
Sasuke was so similar to him that it was scary. They were both silent and reserved and were considered geniuses. Kakashi hoped that he would be able to break Sasuke out of his current mindset of superiority as he had been, just without the death of a teammate being the catalyst.
Naruto was a surprise to him though. He initially saw a lot of Obito in Naruto, but that had changed as of late. Naruto was nothing like he used to be and Kakashi was at a loss as to what could have caused this transformation. He doubted that it was Kurenai or Anko and he was very interested in his growth rate.
Kakashi shook out of his thoughts when Sakura noticed him and yelled that he was late.
"Sorry about that, but I ran across a black cat and had to retrace my steps." He said.
Sakura called him a liar, Sasuke gave him a dark look, and Naruto seemed to ignore the excuse.
"Anyway, this will be a survival test, you have until noon to get one of these bells from me." He said as he showed them the two silver bells.
"Sensei there are only two bells." Sakura said confused.
"I know. One of you will fail and be sent back to the academy, only two can pass." He said with a smile. He noticed that Sakura and Sasuke had alarmed expressions on their faces while Naruto simply looked thoughtful.
"Anyway, the one who does the poorest will be tied to a log and won't be able to eat lunch." Kakashi finished with a smile.
"So that's why you told us not to eat breakfast." Naruto commented though he himself had ignored that rule.
"That's right, Alright begin." He said.
All three of the genin jumped into the forest to plan thier method of attack.
'Well let's see what they can do.' He thought, while pulling out his Icha Icha book.
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Naruto was in a tree thinking about the test. Something seemed off about it. By bringing two bells Kakashi was essentially turning them against each other. If they were going to be a team then why would he start with such an unorthodox method?
And then there was his threat of being sent back to the academy. As far as he knew there never existed a two man squad. If this was the case, then why did he purposefully split them apart?
He shook his head as he saw Sasuke attack their sensei. Needless to say the Uchiha was getting tossed around. While Naruto was interested in the fact that he knew the fireball jutsu, he was less than impressed with the power behind it. He saw Kakashi pull Sasuke into the ground up to his neck and calmly walk away.
Naruto didn't know what to think about this test but he knew that he was no match for a jonin. As far as he knew Kakashi was one of the best and he couldn't even beat his nee-san in a fight. If he as going to have any chance at all then he was going to have to get help.
He sighed as he heard Sakura's scream. He knew that working with them would probably be as hard as pulling out his own teeth, but as his nee-san said, he had to make due with what he had.
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Kakashi was leaning against a tree with his face in his book. He was not paying any attention to it, however. He was busy contemplating what had happened so far in his test. Sasuke was the first to come at him. He used traps very well to get Kakahsi into position for a fire jutsu, and he admitted that Sasuke had a lot of talent, but that was far from enough. When Kakashi had commented that he couldn't win on his own, Sasuke had retorted that he didn't need anyone's help. Kakashi could only sigh at Sasuke's superiority complex.
Sakura was an even bigger disappointment. All he did was a simple genjutsu and she was knocked out. It was pretty pathetic, and she had a long way to go if she wanted to be a good ninja.
Naruto was nowhere to be found. He had expected Naruto to come out eventually and challenge him, yet the blonde ninja had kept silent so far. He was the only one who seemed to think about what he had said, without taking it at face value like Sakura and Sasuke had.
This was a big part as to why he wanted Naruto on his team. He seemed to think things through and Kakashi hoped that he would be the heart of the team as Obito was to his team, and bring them together.
Suddenly Kakashi was forced to dodge a few shuriken thrown at him.
He looked up to see Naruto in a tree, with an intense look on his face that remained him of his sensei.
"Yo sensei, what's up with this test? You tell us we're a team yet you give us a test that specifically splits us apart." Naruto said.
"Well why don't you figure it out Naruto." Kakashi said lazily.
Naruto simply looked at him for a minute then suddenly attacked.
Kakashi sighed, he had hoped that Naruto would figure it out. He prepared to dodge the genin's attacks only to find that this wasn't as easy as he initially thought. He was using some style that he had never seen before. Kakashi had a difficult time predicting his next attack. However, while Naruto's style was hard to predict it was far from perfect as Kakashi could see slight hesitations in the way he fought. Kakashi took advantage of this to get behind him.
"Thousand years of death!" he yelled as he poked Naruto in the butt and sent him flying into the air. Naruto simply vanished in a burst of smoke.
'So that was a shadow clone.' Kakashi thought. He was impressed that a shadow clone was able to fight so well against him. He looked around to see if Naruto was going to use this to his advantage, but when nothing happened he simply reopened his book and waited once again. They would either work together, or they would fail.
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Naruto was walking toward Sakura when he got the memories of his clone. He knew that the clone wouldn't stand a chance, he simply wanted to test his style against his sensei and he was slightly impressed. It seemed that not even a jonin of his level could predict his style, but that didn't make it perfect as the result of the fight clearly indicated.
He walked toward Sakura's body and woke her up by releasing a small chakra pulse that Kurenai had taught him when the trained together. She instantly awoke and looked around.
"Where's Sasuke?" she asked.
"He's pushing up daisies." Naruto said simply as he walked away.
"Hey where are you going?" she asked.
"Sakura, has there ever been a two man squad in the history of Konoha?" he asked, ignoring her question.
"Huh, what does that have to do with anything?" she asked him with a confused look on her face.
Naruto simply looked at her with an "are you stupid" look.
"Just answer the question." He said with a sigh.
"No not that I can remember." She said, she normally would have been upset with the way he was treating her, like she was an annoyance but she remembered how angry he could get and so let it go.
"Let's go and dig up Sasuke." Naruto said as he began to walk away again.
Sakura was still confused but decided to follow him since he was leading her to Sasuke.
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Sasuke saw Naruto coming toward him with Sakura in tow.
"What are you doing here?" he asked suspiciously.
"I'm here to dig your sorry butt out of that hole." Naruto said, ignoring Sakura's scream and subsequent fainting at seeing Sasuke's head.
"I don't need your help." Sasuke said.
"Fine then get out of there on your own." Naruto said as he crossed his arms.
Sasuke gave him a glare but didn't say anything.
"That's what I thought." Naruto said as he began to dig the Uchiha up.
After Naruto had excavated the Uchiha and awoken Sakura, he began to think through the whole scenario.
Their teacher was purposefully trying to pit them against each other. They each had no chance against a jonin separately and even working together the chance of victory was slim. If all this was true and there had never been a two man squad, then the main goal must have been teamwork.
"I think I know what this test is all about." Naruto said.
"What do you mean Naruto? We have to get the bells." Sakura said.
"Wrong, why would he only bring two bells? Why the threat about going back to the academy? He is trying to split us up. The true purpose must be team work." Naruto said.
"Whatever, I don't need to work with you two to get a bell." Sasuke said as he began to walk away.
Naruto moved in front of him to block his path.
"Listen Sasuke, I don't care how good you think you are but none of us are good enough to beat a jonin." Naruto said testily.
"Get out of my way dobe. I don't have time to play ninja with you. I will fulfill my ambition, even if it means going against a jonin." Sasuke said as he tried to push his way through naruto.
Naruto grabbed his arm, twisted it behind his back, and pushed him face first into a tree without releasing his hold.
"Look Uchiha, I have had it with your superiority complex. I don't care about your ambition or your dreams. If you go out there alone then you will be beaten again and I won't be there to pull you out of the dirt this time!" Naruto said angrily as he released Sasuke.
"Naruto, leave Sasuke alone!" Sakura yelled.
"Shut up Sakura, you were taken out by a simple genjutsu that a genin should have easily seen through! You both have gone it alone and have been beaten. If we work together as a team then we may be able to accomplish something." Naruto said, once again beginning to lose his temper.
Sakura looked at the ground in embarrassment and while Sasuke looked extremely angry at Naruto, he was going to listen. He was smart enough to see Naruto's point, even if he wouldn't admit that out loud. He would do what the dobe had in mind so that he could be a genin, but afterwards he was going to do things his own way.
"Now, then are you willing to listen to me?" Naruto asked.
Both genin looked at each other and then nodded.
"Here's what we do." Naruto said.
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Kakashi looked at the clock and saw that they only had a few minutes before time was up.
'I wonder what's keeping them.' He thought.
He then heard fighting occurring nearby and went to investigate. He saw Naruto and Sasuke fighting amongst themselves and Sakura yelling at Naruto.
Kakashi sighed. It seemed that he wasn't going to be able to pass them after all.
He went down to break them up. After separating Sasuke and Naruto he tied all three of them to a log and began to scold them when all three said one thing.
"Boom"
They exploded and dust was kicked up, obscuring his vision.
'That was pretty clever.' Kakashi thought as he waited to see what they had in store next.
He didn't have to wait long as numerous Naruto clones came forward to attack him. Their unorthodox fighting style combined with the smoke and dust to make fighting them slightly more difficult. While Kakashi eventually dispatched them he wasn't able to rest.
"Fireball Jutsu!"
"Hidden Shadow Snakes!"
Kakashi dodged a fireball and saw snakes attempting to grab him.
He grabbed one of the snakes and pulled Naruto toward him. As he prepared to toss the genin he had to release him to avoid a horde of kunai and shuriken thrown at him by Sakura.
'So they figured it out.' Kakashi thought with a smile.
The dust cleared and Kakashi found himself surrounded by his team.
Sasuke had the seal for another fireball.
Naruto also had a seal for a technique that he wasn't familiar with.
Sakura held kunai and shuriken at the ready.
Suddenly the bell rang.
"Well it seems that you failed to get the bells." Kakashi said with a smile.
"Maybe, but you never expected us to get them in the first place." Naruto said releasing the seal.
"Yeah you just wanted us to work as a team." Sakura said.
"That's true, the true purpose of this exam was to see if you could work together as a team even when you were forced to work separately." Kakashi said.
"Any idiot could see that." Sasuke said with a snort.
"Then why didn't you." Naruto said.
"Shut up dobe." Sasuke said angrily.
"Make me Sasuke. I was the one who discovered the true purpose of this exam, not you so get off of your high horse." Naruto said angrily.
"You don't want to start a fight with me, dobe." Sasuke said equally angry.
"Yeah, I wouldn't want to damage your pride again would I?" Naruto sarcastically replied.
"Naruto, you shouldn't say that to Sasuke." Sakura said.
"Enough!" Kakashi said, quieting the genin. It was obvious that while they had worked well together temporarily, they still had no love between them.
"You are now a team. You need to overcome your differences and work together. Those who disobey the rules are trash but those that abandon their comrades are less then trash." He said.
"Sasuke, you need to learn to get off of your high horse and work with the others. Sakura your skills are well below where they could be. You need to work harder. Naruto while you did figure out the purpose behind the exam you need to work on your people skills." Kakashi said.
Naruto stared at him with anger in his eyes.
"What? My people skills are just fine when the ones I'm talking too are intelligent and don't have an irrational dislike toward me. What about you? There are plenty of different ways that you could have used to teach us teamwork. This was pretty obscure and stupid if you ask me." Naruto said hotly. He didn't need to be lectured by someone who was chronically late and seemed to enjoy giving misdirection to his students.
"Your job is to teach us things, but so far all I've learned is that we have to be careful of everything you say as it could be false information. While a ninja should look underneath the underneath, that shouldn't apply to comrades. We need to learn to completely trust each other and I can tell you right now that this entire test has done nothing but make me not trust you very much." Naruto said.
When he was training with Hinata and Shino they had overcome their problems by sitting down and talking things out. They learned to trust each other first and foremost and teamwork simply spanned form there. Kakashi was doing it all backwards in his opinion.
"Maybe, but it all worked out anyway. Meet me here tomorrow for your first team assignment." He said as he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
The genin looked at each other and all went their separate ways.
'I knew this was going to be a long day.' Naruto thought as he walked home.
He knew this team was going to be tough to work with. Sasuke was going to be a constant irritant and they would continually but heads. Sakura could be tolerable if she shut up but the problem was that she never did and her skills were pathetic. Kakashi was chronically late and his teaching skills were questionable at best.
He went to his apartment physically and emotionally drained. He hoped that things would get easier.
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Unfortunately for Naruto things didn't. The next day they were told that they were going to start D rank missions. These missions were extremely simple and were more like chores. This frustrated Naruto, as he would much rather practice on his own then be grouped with his team doing these stupid missions.
Anko had given him some scrolls on simple kinjutsu basics to learn so that he could use the golden dragon sword that was given to him. He would practice on the weekends and was improving, though he refrained from bringing it on missions as it was hardly necessary.
Team seven was currently standing before the Hokage awaiting another mission.
Kakashi had his book out but wasn't reading it. His team was not living up to his expectations. He had hoped that Naruto's presence would help Sasuke calm down as he hoped they would eventually form a rivalry and become closer as friends, just as he had done with Obito. This, however, never happened for various reasons. While Sasuke wanted to prove his strength against Naruto, the reverse was not true. Naruto seemed to have no willingness to compete with Sasuke at all and this only served to further infuriate Sasuke and bring more tension to the group.
Sakura had also been a disappointment. She continued to fawn over Sasuke, though she had refrained from insulting Naruto as she feared his anger. She was far from a competent ninja and was the team's weak link.
Naruto was also not living up to what Kakashi had planned for him to. He wanted Naruto to become the heart of the team, but it was painfully obvious that Naruto had no desire to bond with them. He would work with them to complete a mission, but he didn't open up to any of them and refrained from talking unless he had to.
To put it simply, his team was an unmitigated disaster.
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The third looked at the team before him with the same thoughts as Kakashi. He had hoped that they would overcome their differences and become a team of the same caliber as the sannin, but that simply wasn't happening. Not only were their personal interactions between each other nearly none existent, but they had come close to attacking each other, from what he had heard.
It seemed that Sasuke wanted to take the lead for every mission and would ignore Naruto's suggestions. This in turn would anger Naruto and they would have a verbal argument that had to be broken up by Kakashi. Sakura simply agreed with Sasuke all of the time, and thus was of no help.
Sarutobi sighed as he looked at Naruto. He had started to refer to him as Hokage-sama, which was a sign that he had lost Naruto's respect. Even now he saw no warmth in his eyes just boredom, anger and frustration. Sarutobi could see that unless something changed then this team would never be progress to their full potential.
"Alright team seven, it's time for another mission." He said as he looked through the D-rank missions.
"Hokage-sama if I may. I believe that we should be given a C-rank mission." Kakashi said quickly.
This shocked all who were present.
"Oh? And why is that Kakashi?" Sarutboi asked.
"Well Hokage-sama, my team has done the minimum number of D-rank missions needed to be completed before we are able to request a C-rank mission." He said.
"Be that as it may, from what I've heard your team doesn't work very well together. I don't think that they are ready." Sarutobi said.
"That may be Hokage-sama. But the missions we have been doing right now seem to bore my students, maybe if they were given a higher class mission then they would improve." Kakashi said.
Sarutobi looked at him. Normally he wouldn't do this but he could see the look of interest and anticipation in the genin's eyes.
'Maybe being out in the world will help them grow closer together.' He thought.
"Alright, I do have a simple mission for them. All you have to do is guard someone and lead them back to their country. You can come in now." He said.
An old man came in. He had a straw hat, an old worn grey shirt and pants and a bottle of sake in his hand.
"These are the brats that are supposed to be protecting me? What a joke, especially the short blonde one." He said.
Naruto didn't react except to glare at the old man which seemed to be enough as he backed off when he met the cold blue eyes of the genin.
"Don't worry I am a jonin and will be able to protect you if anything were to go array." Kakashi said.
"Alright we leave tomorrow at noon. Don't be late." The old man said.
"Team, go and get a good rest and meet me at the north gate tomorrow at noon." Kakashi said.
The genin nodded and walked out of the room leaving the Hokage alone with Kakashi.
"Do you think that this will be enough to get them on the right track Kakashi?" Sarutobi said.
He still didn't think that this was a good idea, but he wanted the team to work together.
"It may Hokage-sama" Kakashi said.
"I didn't expect so much trouble to come from them. I thought they would be able to work things out." Kakashi added.
"I think that we made a mistake when we placed them on the same team." Sarutobi said.
"Maybe, but I still think that they can pull it together. If only Naruto would open up more." Kakashi said.
Sarutobi looked out of the window at the back of said genin. He had rarely smiled since being placed on his team. He seemed to have shut out anyone other than Anko, Iruka, Hinata, and Shino. Sarutobi sighed sadly, he wondered if he should just change the teams.
Team eight had been having problems as well. It seemed that Hinata and Shino were having a hard time adapting to Kiba. Kiba wanted to be the leader and would constantly try to prove himself as the alpha of the team even when the situation called for him to step back and allow another to be in charge. Hinata seemed to be constantly upset and Shino had withdrawn himself from everyone except Hinata and Kurenai.
Sarutobi had to face facts. He had screwed up. He had let his failure of the past affect his decision when making the teams. He should have just placed Naruto with team eight, instead of trying to create a team like the sannin. In the process he had lost a potentially great team and had lost the respect of Naruto, Anko, Iruka, and Kurenai. He was getting too old for this.
"Kakashi I will allow you to take the mission, but if your team doesn't show improvement soon, then I will take action." Sarutboi said.
"I understand." Kakashi said, feeling a sense of desperation. He had to make sure that this mission went well.
"Also what did you think of our client?" the third asked with a hint of suspicion in his voice. He wasn't known as the professor for nothing. The client seemed scared of the idea of being guarded by children. It was as if he expected something of greater threat then common thugs.
"I think that he was hiding something." Kakashi said having gotten the same feeling from the client.
"I have an idea." Sarutobi said after a moment of contemplation.
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Naruto awoke and went through his normal routine for the day. He couldn't believe the way things were going. His team was pathetic to say the least. He couldn't be around Sasuke for three minutes before he wanted to punch the loser. He was constantly trying to prove himself superior and would disregard Naruto's input. Never mind the fact that he wouldn't even be a genin if it wasn't for Naruto.
Naruto began to pack with a sigh. He hoped that this mission would improve his mood. He hadn't been in the best of temperaments as of late. He couldn't see Shino or Hinata most of the time because of his missions and he missed them desperately. He wanted to be able to talk to someone without being judged or ignored.
As he began to leave he felt a strange sensation at the back of his head. He looked around trying to see what was causing the sensation. It was as if something was trying to gain his attention. His search came to an end when he looked at the sword that was given to him. He couldn't be sure, but he thought that this was where he was getting the sensation from.
He got the feeling that he should take it with him. He was still far from an expert with the blade and never had a real reason to take it with him on any of his prior missions. He picked it up and the sensation ceased. He remembered what the man had said.
'A great swordsman listens to his sword.'
Naruto placed the blade in his belt and left for the gate. He had a feeling that he would need it.
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As Naruto arrived at the gate to find Sasuke and Sakura waiting for him along with the client, whose name he found out to be Tazuna.
"Took you long enough." Sasuke said.
Naruto ignored him and looked for Kakashi.
"Hey Naruto what's with the sword?" Sakura asked curiously.
"It was a gift." Naruto said simply.
"I bet you can't even use it right." Sasuke taunted.
Naruto looked at him with an upraised eye brow.
"Oh? Maybe I should use it against you, Uchiha." Naruto said placing his hand on the handle.
"Now, now that's enough." Kakashi said as he appeared. He took a look at Naruto's sword and was impressed by it; he would have to figure out who he had gotten it from.
"Any way team there is a change of plans. We will have another team accompanying us to the wave country."Kakashi said.
The genin looked at him with confusion.
"What for sensei?" Sakura asked.
"We just want to be careful and make sure that everything goes smoothly." Kakashi said with a smile.
"Who is it?" Sasuke said a bit angrily. He didn't think that they needed anyone else's help; they would just slow him down.
"That would be us."
The genin looked behind them and were meet face to face with team eight.
"We are your backup." Kurenai said with a smile directed at Naruto.
Naruto's eyes lit up and a smile appeared on his face for the first time in weeks.
"Hey Shino, Hinata-chan!" He said as he felt happiness and joy blossom in his chest at the sight of his best friends.
"Hello Naruto-kun." Hinata said with a smile that rivaled Naruto's. She had been ecstatic when Kurenai had told them that they were going on a mission with Naruto.
"It is good to see you Naruto." Shino said with a small smile as well.
"Hey what about me?" Kiba said, not enjoying the fact that he was being ignored.
None of the three acknowledged him as they began to converse with each other.
Kurenai walked up to Kakashi.
"Well it's good to see that they are still so close, no thanks to you Kakashi." She said with a frown. She was still angry with him for taking Naruto from her team.
Kakashi refrained from commenting as he saw the three genin interact.
'He looks so much happier.' He thought solemnly.
"Let's go." He said as the two teams formed up and began their journey to the wave.
It should have been a simple mission. However, what none of them realized was that this mission would affect the future in ways that none of them could have foreseen.
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Here's chapter 7. I know that it was a bit slow, but don't worry. Now the action begins and I promise that there will be twists and turns all around. What twists? What do I have planned? Who will make an appearance? That is a secret! Till next time, Kyuubi123 out.