Disclaimer: All Naruto characters are the copyright of Masashi Kishimoto. I'm just borrowing them to write up a story with no intention of making any money. This is for fun. That's all. :) No copying of my story is allowed. That's stealing if anyone copies my story into his/her own story. Write your own story without taking others' works! (angry glare)

Note: This is a very long chapter. So settle down and enjoy! (big grin)

Note II: Please understand that this chapter is unbetaed, thus there will be spelling and grammar mistakes.

If sentences are all bold like this, this means it's being told in 1st person in a book.

Story rating: M (R)(for adult themes, sexual and blood)
Written: April 2009 - Present

Summary: By surviving the Uchiha Massacre, one woman changed the path of destiny.

oooooooooooooooo

The Matriarch of Destiny
Chapter 6 – Orientation of Sensei and Students
By JuPMod (aka JPMod)

Regardless of the village, when it comes to starting off graduated genin on their career profession, nothing is more important to these young people than their jounin-sensei. The jounin-sensei will not only teach the genin new skills & knowledge and set the young warriors down the path of what type of shinobi the individual will be, but also the jounin-sensei will become guardian and counselor to the growing genin. The bond between sensei and genin students is vital at this stage, for if the students do not gain trust of their jounin-sensei, it will cause discord within the team that could lead to the students not be taught properly, not to mention a good chance of ending up dead in a dangerous situation.

Yet, in Konoha, the Academy graduates have one last test to pass before being consider true genin, and this test is administer by the suppose jounin-sensei. If the team of three genin passes, the jounin-sensei and the genin will become an official shinobi team of four in the Konoha Shinobi Force. If the genin fail however, the three will be revaluated to determine whether any of them still have potential to be considered being members of the Konoha Shinobi Force. Most eventually will be placed in the reserves and be allowed to attend regular school to gain skills, which will give them opportunities to help the shinobi force and the village – accountants, secretaries, engineers, blacksmiths, etc. All vital and important for any village to survive and prosper.

For Naruto and Sasuke, the meeting with their jounin-sensei would mark the first time that someone else would be training them other than Mikoto. They knew they have to trust their jounin-sensei, if they were to advance, but for the two boys, it would be, at first, quite a test to place such trust to another person, when they had unquestionably trusted their mother to guide and train them during the four years prior to graduating from the Academy.

oooooooooooooooo

Walking into his office, the Sandaime saw every jounin, who was assigned to become a jounin-sensei, was there. Even a certain Copy Nin was there, lazily leaning on the sidewall reading his Icha Icha. Knowing his strongest warrior, the wrinkled man thought for sure the son of the White Fang would be late. Yet again, Hatake Kakashi could be punctual… when it suited him at times.

Keeping his opinion regarding Kakashi to himself, the elderly leader of Konoha went to sit in his desk chair with Iruka following to stand by his side. Only then did he address his subordinates. "If you was not aware of it, the situation regarding the Scroll of Seals has been resolved. Thanks to the bravery of two of our recent graduates, Mizuki is now in custody for betraying our village."

"Mizuki, Sir?" asked Genma, a shinobi with a senbon in his mouth.

After nodding his head once in affirmative, the Third Hokage told the whole story about Mizuki's plan to get the Scroll of Seals and how it was thwarted, thanks to the two sons of Uchiha Mikoto. By the time he was finished, there were many astonished expressions throughout the room.

Raising an eyebrow, Kakashi was mildly impressed. "Well, we have to remember that Mikoto-sama has been training Naruto and Sasuke throughout their years at the Academy. It shouldn't really be much of a surprise that the two have gained skills beyond a mere graduate is capable."

"True," agreed a man standing besides the Copy Nin. He took a drag out of his cigarette and blew the smoke away before speaking again. "Yet it still somewhat out of the norm these days to have two graduates have chuunin level skills."

"You're right about that, Asuma," the Third concurred with his youngest son. He picked up his pipe, prepared the tobacco, lit it, and took a puff out of it. "Now, we're here to discuss the placements of this year's graduates into genin teams."

Standing on Asuma's other side, Kurenai, a dark-haired beauty of a kunoichi, raised her hand prior to speaking to her leader. "Are you going to continue the tradition of placing the top rookie with the top kunoichi and the dead last of the class?"

The intelligent old Hokage shook his head. "No, that can not be possible this year." Seeing everyone was confused, with the exception of Iruka, Hiruzen explained. "Simply put, the top rookie is no other than Uchiha Sasuke, and after witnessing their performance against Mizuki, it will not be wise to split Sasuke and Naruto apart."

Iruka spoke up next. "Naruto's scores put him in the middle, thus he's not the dead last. Being a witness to their fight against Mizuki, it will do Mikoto-sama a grave injustice to have her sons be split apart. Their teamwork is just amazing."

Kurenai guessed what was the most logical outcome. "So, I presume that you'll just assign the top kunoichi to complete their team?"

The Sandaime nodded once with an agreeable grin on his face. "Precisely," he said before his eyes scanned every jounin in the room. "The question now is who will be their jounin-sensei?"

Over the course of nearly 10 minutes, the Hokage heard almost every jounin made an argument over why he should be Sasuke and Naruto's jounin-sensei. The only one not making a case was the rookie-jounin, Kurenai, the only kunoichi in the room. Yet after hearing his top soldiers quarreled almost like kids, Hiruzen felt it was enough, or else he would end up with a splitting headache. Least Konoha's Genjutsu Mistress was wise not to bother, given even she could see she was not suited to teach a combat ninjutsu team that Naruto and Sasuke was definitely turned out to be.

After raising a withered hand to silent his jounin, the elderly Sarutobi took another smoke out of his pipe, the nicotine helping to calm his nerves. "As much as I understand many of you wouldn't mind training Sasuke and Naruto, only one will become their jounin-sensei."

When the Sandaime announced who would take the position, some moaned in disappointment, yet none of them could dispute that the jounin was the best person for the job according to their leader's reasoning. The question many of them were asking, including the Third himself, was whether the Uchiha Matriarch would approve.

oooooooooooooooooo

Sliding open the front door of his home and then sliding it shut behind him, Naruto sighed in relief as he walked down the hallway. It has been a crazy day, all thanks to Hokage-jiji's grandson. Yet, the blond could sympathize with the younger boy, when it came to wanting people to actually acknowledge him and not a title. He wondered if Konohamaru would even have real friends than kids, who would likely be friends just because he was the grandchild of the Third Hokage.

Entering the kitchen, Mikoto's adopted son was greeted by his so-called 'brother'. "Where have you been, Dobe? " he asked from his seating position at the low table.

Naruto tiredly chuckled. "Long story, Sasuke." Blue eyes scanned the room and noticed someone was missing. "Where's Kaa-chan?"

"Preparing herself," replied Sasuke, his hand holding a cup of tea. "Surely you have not forgotten that we're eating out for dinner tonight due that we weren't able to do so last night?"

Chuckling again, this time out of slight embarrassment, the whisker-faced boy strolled over to the refrigerator. "It slipped my mind, honestly." He took out a bottle of fruit juice and took several gulps of the refreshing liquid before sighing in contentment. "That sure hits the spot."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at what he heard. "You sound like you're exhausted, which I find hard to believe given your stamina."

After putting away the juice bottle back in the refrigerator, Naruto took the few steps back to the low table. "I feel okay, just relief to get away from Konohamaru," he softly laughed. "He certainly was clinging to me like glue."

Once more, black eyebrows went upward. Sasuke wondered what did the Hokage's grandson have anything to do with Naruto. Yet before he could voice his question, the kitchen door opened to reveal his mother, looking beautiful in a dark-blue, long-sleeved dress and black slipper shoes with her raven hair held back by a dark-blue hair band across the top of her head.

Mikoto grinned upon seeing her golden-haired son. "There you are," she said, obviously relieved upon seeing him, only for her grin to turn into a slightly stern frown. "Where were you? Sasuke was home hours ago, after he completed his genin registration at the Hokage Tower."

Giving another small chuckle, Naruto scratched the back of his head. "As I told Sasuke, it's a long story." With that said, he proceeded to tell his tale of meeting Konohamaru during the registration meeting with Hokage-jiji and how he managed to gain the young boy's interest after bopping the brat on the head. Of course, he also had happened to meet Konohamaru's so-called teacher, Ebisu, who he'd saw as a jerk. After hours of being followed by the Sandaime's grandson and finally giving in to give a few tips on how to be a ninja, Naruto had gained the younger boy's rivalry for the title of Hokage, especially after defeating Ebisu when the jounin was being a pain in not leaving Konohamaru alone.

"You defeated him? How?" asked Sasuke. It was one thing for Naruto and him to work together to beat Mizuki, a chuunin, it was another for Naruto alone to beat a jounin.

Naruto snickered a bit evilly. "Well, I knew he would underestimate me, thinking I was not skilled enough to take him on, so I immediately took advantage of that. I did a Shunshin to get directly behind him and gave him a huge wedgie."

Both Uchihas blinked at what they heard. "How hard did you pull?" Mikoto asked with a raised eyebrow.

Another snicker escaped Naruto's mouth. "Hard enough to make him get on his knees and clutch his groin."

As Sasuke closed his eyes, groaned, and shook his head, Mikoto gave a "Are you crazy?!" look at her blond son. "I'm guessing you're only lucky Ebisu-san was not expecting you to know the Shunshin, Naruto," the Uchiha Clan Head mentioned the only explanation to how Naruto could have won so easily over a jounin.

"Yeah, you're only lucky, Dobe." Sasuke opened his eyes before giving a small smirk. "Next time, he'll likely be the one hanging you out to dry."

"Fat chance!" immediately defended Naruto with a huge smile. He thumbed his chest. "Next time, I'll be stronger than today! I'll be so strong that I'll be the one hanging Glasses Man up by his pants on a flag pole!"

With a hand over her mouth, Mikoto laughed, for the image was just too silly in her mind. She had met Ebisu a few times, and as far as she was concerned, the man has a huge self-image that he was so good a shinobi that no one could beat him. It was why she felt for the Hokage's grandson. To be stuck with such an egoistic man for a teacher was borderline abuse in her opinion. How could such a man be a teacher with such an attitude?

Her laughter dying off, the beautiful Uchiha Matriarch came forward to get behind her adopted child, and with a hand on his back, she pushed him toward the kitchen's exit. "Now that you're here, we can go to dinner and have that delayed celebration."

"Alright!" shouted Naruto with a raised fist. "Ichiraku's Ramen, here we come!"

"We're not going there," Sasuke groaned as he stood up and followed his mother. "It's not technically a restaurant."

"What do you mean it's not a restaurant?!" cried out a peeved Naruto. "Of course, it is!"

Mikoto sighed, giving a gentle grin at her adopted son as they walked down the hallway toward the front door. "What Sasuke meant, Naruto, is that it's just a stand, not a true indoor restaurant where you can sit down at a table. Compare to a real restaurant, Ichiraku's does not have much of a variety of food to serve. We're going to a restaurant that serves far more than just ramen."

The blue-eyed boy sighed and crossed his arms. "Fine. As long as they serve ramen, I'm okay with it. Although I know it will not ever taste better than Ichiraku's."

Sasuke snorted a laugh. "You're still a Ramen Noodle Brain, even after all these years."

"Oh, stuff it, Teme!" Naruto quickly replied. So what he loved ramen? He had eaten other foods Kaa-chan insisted he consume. It just he still loved ramen more than anything else in the world. What was wrong with that?!

As the two boys strolled through the front door, Mikoto wore an amused grin prior to shutting the door closed. She would be ordering a few other food items for her hyperactive child other than ramen. She was glad that Naruto had broadened his list of favorite foods since she had adopted him, but ramen remained his top choice regardless. It was amusing to hear her 'son' defended his favorite dish with so much passion, she wondered if he would pass a law to forbid anyone from speaking ill toward ramen when he would become Hokage.

With that silly image in her head, the Matriarch of the Uchiha Clan followed her children out of their home's compound and guided them toward the restaurant and the private celebration dinner that awaits them.

oooooooooooooooooo

Gathered together for what they knew would be their last time as a class, the Academy graduates were in their classroom at the Academy, awaiting the moment they would be assigned into teams as well as their meeting of their prospective jounin-sensei. The room was filled with excited chatter, mostly on talk to what he or she thought which graduates would be together as a team.

As usual, Sasuke sat at his seat next to the windows, while Naruto sat with his friends in the center row of bench desks. Since the Hokage had not say anything about keeping the incident with Mizuki a secret, the blond, whiskered boy was delighted to tell the others regarding the whole event, which had happened two nights ago. Some had found it hard to believe, but since Sasuke had confirmed it, it became apparent just how far Sasuke and Naruto had come in skills and power. It led some to wonder whether the two would stay together as a team.

Kiba snorted a laugh. "I still can't believe you two actually beat Mizuki-sen… Mizuki," he corrected, thinking the man did not deserve to have the title anymore after what he had done.

Sitting next to the dog boy, Naruto placed his hands behind his head as he leaned back a bit, his smile big and wide. "Whether you believe it or not, Kiba, it's the truth. It was great to see the baka all tied up and dragged away by the ANBU. Getting B-rank pay was awesome!"

The only son of the Inuzuka Clan Head growled a bit out of jealousy. "B-rank pay," he muttered before placing his chin on top of his arm, which lay across the desk. "It'll be great if my first mission is a B-rank."

Sitting on the bench desk two rows behind Kiba, Shino fingered his shades up his nose as he spoke. "I am very doubtful that will happen. The circumstances to Sasuke and Naruto's first official mission were sudden and will not likely repeat for any genin under normal conditions. It is highly likely your first official mission will be of a lower rank, Kiba."

"Thanks a lot, Shino," the Inuzuka boy growled sarcastically. He took the chuckles from the others in stride.

Just then everyone felt a low rumble that grew a bit in intensity, and from the slight shaking, it was easy to deduce the cause was approaching the classroom from the hallway at the upper level. Yet no one was surprise or concern, for they all had experienced this many times during the past 4 years.

Groaning, Naruto crossed his arms and sighed. "Here they come."

Sitting directly behind Naruto, Shikamaru lazily placed his head on his arms and closed his eyes. "How troublesome. Even after four years, they still act like this."

"Hai," Hinata frowned from her position at the end of Naruto's bench desk. "I really do not see how they could have graduated with such attitudes."

Out of the corner of his eyes, Naruto saw Sasuke grimaced. It was so slight that most would not have spotted it, but having lived with the guy for four years, the blond knew his brother well enough to spot the tiniest of facial quirks to know Kaa-chan's blood son was in complete agreement with Hinata.

A sudden commotion at the upper entrance made everyone, except Sasuke, trained their eyes to the door, and surely enough as predicted, there was Sakura and Ino glaring at each other as they tried to squeeze through the door, each determined to get through first, causing both to end up stuck within the door frame. After one final push, both entered the room, tumbling to the floor.

Placing a hand over his mouth to prevent him to being heard, Naruto snickered, and hearing the muffled laughs around him, he knew others too thought it was funny. Not that he ever saw the entire 'rivalry' for Sasuke's affections was humorous, for it was mostly pathetic since Sasuke had clearly shown no interest in any girl. However, no one ever disputed the occasional verbal fights between Ino and Sakura were entertaining, for the girls acted silly most of the times.

After picking themselves off the floor, the pink-haired and blonde girls saw the two seats besides Sasuke were free. They squealed a bit, causing Kiba and Akamaru to winced, and before anyone knew it, Sakura and Ino were standing right next to Sasuke's bench desk.

"Can I sit next to you, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked with starry eyes.

"He doesn't want you, Forehead," Ino scoffed prior to eying the Uchiha with her own starry eyes. "I know he wants me to sit next to him."

"You wish, Ino-pig," the pinkette crossed her arms, glaring at her rival.

Ino glared back. "He wants me!"

"No, he wants me!"

"No! He wants ME!"

"How troublesome," Shikamaru whispered, yet everyone in the room, if they had heard him, would definitely concur. This latest Ino-Sakura fight was escalating into a shouting match that could damage everyone's eardrums.

Having enough, Naruto stood up and faced the two girls, who were one step above him. "Ino? Sakura-chan?"

"WHAT?!" both girls angrily roared as they turned their heads at the same time at the blond boy.

"Why not flip for it?" he suggested.

Everyone was confused to what the whiskered boy meant, yet Sasuke knew precisely what his brother was referring, and to validate his guess, Naruto reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a coin, which represented one ryou. It was now clear to all what the blond had in mind.

"Kaa-chan always flipped a coin to determine which of us would win when Sasuke and I get in an argument over things," Naruto explained with a huge grin.

Sasuke snorted a laugh, for Naruto had exaggerated the truth a bit. It was simply over who should get the last piece of shrimp or other pieces of food.

Naruto continued. "Heads, Sakura wins."

"Ha!" Ino boasted with her arms crossed. "Suits you, Forehead." The pink-haired girl clenched a fist.

"Tails, Ino wins," Mikoto's adopted child explained, pretending he has not heard Ino's rude quip.

Sakura smirked evilly. "With your curly tail, it suits you, Piggy." Ino narrowed her eyes.

"Here we go!" Naruto proclaimed before tossing the coin into the air above him. Everyone watched as the coin went up and then down into his hands, and with quickness, the boy slammed the coin on the desk behind him, right next to Shikamaru's head.

The Nara eyed the coin and languidly announced the results. "It's Heads."

Sakura squealed in joy with raised fists, and this time everyone winced, while Kiba and Akamaru covered their ears. "Kami! Enough of the squealing!" the Inuzuka grated. His white-furred partner howled in total agreement.

The pinkette's cry of joy died off, before she swiftly settled into the seat next to the reluctant Uchiha Heir. Ino took the end seat, but not before sending a glare at Naruto, who simply shrugged with a grin. Sasuke's brother reclaimed his coin as the Yamanaka girl sat down.

A couple of minutes later, the bottom entrance door slid open, allowing Iruka to enter with a clipboard in hand. The Academy teacher gave every graduate in the room a proud grin.

"Once more," he began, "congratulations to all of you. You had graduated, and when each of you had registered yesterday and took the oath of duty in front of the Hokage, you've became official members of the Konoha Shinobi Force. You all made me proud." His eyes scanned the room and saw they all had proud expressions, with the exception of Sasuke and Shino, whose faces were neutral.

"Now then," Iruka carried on, "I have here are your team placements. After I announced the teams, you're free for one hour for lunch, which I recommend to get to know your teammates better. After lunch, be back here where you'll meet your jounin-sensei. Okay?" When he saw no one spoke, he began announcing the teams.

Minutes later… "Team 7 will be Uchiha Sasuke…" Everyone was now paying attention. "Uzumaki Naruto…" Not much of a big surprise, given it was surmised the two would be together after the entire Mizuki Incident. Just who would be their kunoichi teammate, if they were going to continue tradition of one kunoichi to every two shinobi? "And Haruno Sakura!"

Sakura stood upright and squealed loudly, making everyone winced. Kiba and Akamaru once more covered their ears. "Will someone kill her please?!" the dog boy yelled. Not that he actually wanted her dead, just wanted the damn squealing to stop!

Ino spoke out when her rival eased her squealing. "Iruka-sensei, why Forehead?! If you're breaking tradition to not assign the Dead Last with the Top Rookie, why assign the Top Kunoichi to their team?!"

Iruka gave a small grin. "Sorry, Ino. The Hokage broke the tradition due to Sasuke and Naruto's performance in apprehending Mizuki two nights ago. I'm sure by now the entire village knows about the story. Hokage-sama saw it would not be productive to separate Sasuke and Naruto due to how well they'd worked together. Yet he'd decided to keep the tradition of adding the Top Kunoichi to round off the team."

"Ha!" Sakura pointed triumphantly at her rival. "Take that, Ino-pig!" With that said, Team 7's kunoichi sat down.

Shikamaru raised his head to place on his hand, which was supported by the elbow on the desk. "I'm not surprise. I'm also not going to be surprise in knowing who are going to be your teammates, Ino."

The platinum blonde grimaced. "I pray it's not what I think it is!"

Speaking out, Iruka continued announcing the team placements. "Team 8 will be… Hyuuga Hinata… Aburame Shino… And Inuzuka Kiba!"

Kiba blinked before grinning at Hinata next to him. "Looks like we're on the same team, Hinata," he said before looking over his shoulders at Shino. "Just why you, Shino?"

Shino answered logically as usual. "Simple. Our skills meant that we are most likely to be a tracking team."

"Fine with me," Kiba shrugged before turning back around to face front.

Hinata meantime sighed in disappointment. She really wished she had been placed with Naruto's team. It was too bad her scores couldn't beat the book-smarts of the Haruno girl.

"Team 9 is continuing in circulation from last year," proclaimed Iruka. "Now then, Team 10 will be… Yamanaka Ino…" Ino became alert. "Akimichi Chouji…" Ino's jaw went wide open, for there was no doubt what the next name would be. "And Nara Shikamaru!"

"Noooooo!" cried out the Yamanaka girl before slamming her head onto the desk. "Why did my Dad agreed to that silly notion to have his child at the same time as his teammates?! Why?!"

While Chouji was snickering, Shikamaru smirked. "You already know the answer, Ino," the Nara said. "I'd told you we're the next Ino-Shika-Cho team. Why else our fathers had planned to have their first children born in the same year?"

Ino did not say anything as she continued to stew. She was hoping that the Hokage would ignore the request from the first Ino-Shika-Chou team, their fathers, and placed her with someone else, but nooooo, she had to get stuck with a lazy bum of a Nara and a fat Akimichi. It seemed Kami hate her.

After announcing a few more teams, Iruka was finished. "Well, those are the teams. You're free now for lunch. I'll see you all in an hour." With that said, the genin stood up and assembled into their teams.

Sakura gave her rival a smirk. "See you later, Ino. Enjoy your new team." The Yamanaka snarled a bit at the pinkette before reluctantly followed Shikamaru and Chouji out of the classroom.

Facing her crush, Team 7's kunoichi sighed. "How about we go find a nice quiet place, Sasuke-kun? Just you and me?"

Naruto, having joined the two as the room soon became vacant, raised an eyebrow. "What about me? I'm on the team too, Sakura-chan."

"Go jump in a lake," she replied instantly without taking her eyes off the Uchiha heir.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto crossed his arms and smirked. "Gee, Sakura-chan, I guess this means you don't want to eat with us?" Seeing those green gems has turned and now were paying attention to him, the blond boy launched the bait. "Kaa-chan gave Sasuke and I a third bento box to share with our third teammate. She guessed that we would be on the same team, so she prepared just three boxes." He gave a shrug as he turned around. "However, if you don't want to eat it, I'll just give it to Ino. She'll probably appreciate it more. I don't think Kaa-chan will like it, if we tell her you refused her lunch."

"Eh?" Sakura blinked before realizing what Naruto was conveying. "Of course, I'll accept it! It'll be rude to deny such a gift from Mikoto-sama!"

"Great!" beamed Naruto. "Let's go then." He began walking down toward the bottom exit.

However, instead of following, Haruno turned back to facing Sasuke. "I'm sure you have the third box, right, Sasuke-kun? We'll leave Naruto and go somewhere else."

Raising a dark eyebrow, Sasuke responded by pointing to Naruto, who stood at the bottom of the room. "Naruto has the third box."

Eying the golden-haired boy, Sakura saw he grinned widely while holding up a scroll, which no doubt where the third bento box was sealed. Sighing in defeat, the longhaired pinkette gave in to the apparent conclusion. "Fine. We'll eat lunch together." The next moment, she changed expressions in a flash as she latched onto Sasuke's right arm. "Let's go, Sasuke-kun!" she chirped.

"Let go of me," Sasuke shrugged off the hand before marching around the girl and down the stairs. Sakura followed with starry eyes, not even faze by the brush-off.

Walking pass his brother, the blood son of Uchiha Mikoto led the way out of the room. Sakura followed, her voice told Naruto she was in awe of Sasuke. "Oh, he's sooo cool!"

Naruto picked up the rear with a shake of his head and a small grin. He still considered Sakura to be the prettiest girl in the class with her pink hair and captive emerald eyes. Yet over the years, he slowly lost interest in pursuing her and focused on the training Kaa-chan was giving him. He had admitted that Kaa-chan's training sure was better than being yelled at by a girl, who was not interested in him. He just wondered how long it would take Sakura to realize that Sasuke was just as much disinterested in her as she was to him. Most likely it would take years.

oooooooooooooooooo

Leaning his head back, Naruto looked up at the ceiling. There were a few cobwebs and one of the lights seemed to be titling a bit. Was that a spider crawling toward the front? ….

"AAARRGH!" the blond shouted as he grabbed his hair. "When will our sensei get here?!"

"Calm down, Dobe," Sasuke spoke from his usual seat next to the windows. "Shouting will not solve anything."

"Yeah," Sakura chided from her position two rows behind Naruto. "Just have patience. Sasuke-kun definitely is not shouting, although I do agree that this is ridiculous with this waiting."

Inside Sakura's head, Inner Sakura, Sakura's inner personality, appeared, raising a fist. "RIDICULOUS?! THE JERK IS SEVERAL HOURS LATE! WHAT KIND OF SENSEI WOULD BE SEVERAL HOURS LATE LIKE THIS?! KICK THE PERSON TO THE MOON! SHA!"

Naruto grumbled. "Well, I'm bored. Instead of being coop up waiting here, we could already been outside by now, doing something with our sensei, like training." His two teammates didn't say anything, for they were total agreement with him.

After lunch, which was a mild affair with Sakura asking Sasuke questions and paying no major attention to Naruto, they had returned to the classroom with the other graduates, and it was not long afterward that each team's jounin-sensei arrived and took his or her team away. Team 8's sensei was a beautiful kunoichi named Yuhi Kurenai, while Team 10's sensei was Sarutobi Asuma, whom Sasuke and Naruto recognized as the Third Hokage's youngest son. Only their team was left minutes after the last team left, and after one hour, Iruka-sensei left as well, stating he couldn't stay due to other work. He had bid the three good-bye as well as good luck before leaving.

Now here they were, least four hours after Iruka left and their sensei still has yet to appear. Naruto felt restless, while the other two sat calmly even though he could see his brother was tapping a finger on his desk and Sakura almost fell asleep a few times. The blond very much wanted to drive several kunai into their sensei's skull for this!

The three genin were quickly alerted, when the bottom entrance door slid open to reveal a silver-haired shinobi with a mask covering his face from the nose south and his headband slanted to cover his left eye. "Team 7, I presume?"

"Yeah, that's us," Naruto answered, his arms crossed as he scrutinized the man. "There is no other genin team here other than us, so we are Team 7."

The man eye smiled. "So true." Opening his right eye, he quickly examined the three genin before speaking again. "My first impression of you guys…." He saw they were waiting. "You're a bunch of idiots."

All three youngsters face faulted.

An angry Naruto was the first to recover quickly as he stood up and pointed to their supposed sensei. "This coming from a guy who is four hours late?!"

"Naruto is right!" Sakura fumed. "What kind of jounin are you?!"

"SHA!" Inner Sakura shouted. "KICK THE JERK IN THE BALLS!"

Sasuke stood up, his eyes narrowed at the jounin. "I'm in agreement with Naruto. You have no reason to judge us, when you're late." He paused for a moment. "Why are you late?"

"Oh, that?" the man eye smiled again. "Well, a black cat had walked across my path, so I have to take the long away around the village."

The three genin blinked at him. "Is this guy for real?" they mentally asked.

"NEVERMIND KICKING THE GUY IN THE BALLS," Inner Sakura raged, "SLAM HIS RETARDED HEAD INTO A WALL! SHANNAROOOO!"

After chuckling, the silver-haired ninja pointed to the ceiling. "Meet me on the roof." With that said, he disappeared in a poof of smoke.

Naruto growled a bit. "Sasuke, do you have a feeling this guy could have used the Shunshin to get here faster?"

"Yes, he could have used the Shunshin," Sasuke concurred, "but he took his time instead."

"I'm already starting to not like this guy," Naruto grated before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Sasuke followed suit, leaving a pink-haired girl all alone in the classroom.

"Not fair!" she whined. "I don't know that jutsu!" She ran out of the room toward the staircase that would lead to the Academy's roof.

oooooooooooooooooo

The silver-haired man chuckled upon seeing Sakura panting as she arrived at the Academy's right wing, rooftop open-patio. "Glad you can make it."

Sitting down to Sasuke's right side on the wide, small staircase, the tired kunoichi gave a mild glare at the jounin, who was in front of her team while leaning against the railing of the building. "Well, I do not have that transporter jutsu compared to Sasuke-kun and Naruto."

The jounin-sensei chuckled again. "Well, I was surprised too upon seeing the boys used the Shunshin to get here. It testified to how well their mother had trained them." Both Sasuke and Naruto smirked a bit, feeling proud of the compliment given to their mother.

Sakura smiled a bit at this. Who was she to complain regarding how well Mikoto-sama had trained Sasuke and Naruto? It just made the Uchiha boy so much cooler in her eyes regarding being trained by his mom.

Feeling a bit warm under the sunlight, the pinkette wished she had a bottle of water on her. It would have been better, if they had used the left wing's rooftop atrium, which has a nice half-circle bench at the end. Least that place was shaded.

"Well," the jounin began, "now that we're all here. How about you each introduce yourselves? Tell me your likes, dislikes, and dreams for the future."

Raising a hand, Sakura spoke what was no doubt on her teammates' minds as well. "What about you? You have not even told us your name yet."

Sheepishly rubbing the back of his head, the silver-haired man chuckled. "Oops. Sorry about that." He paused, before his face became normal again while dropping his hand. "Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I like things I like. I dislike things I dislike, and my dreams are my dreams."

"We learned nothing but his name," all three 12-year-olds mentally grated, wondering again whether this guy was for real.

"Your turn, Pinky," Kakashi pointed to Sakura.

Haruno's cheeks took on a slight shade of red. "I'm Haruno Sakura. Well, I like…" She eyed Sasuke cutely. "My dreams…" She giggled while again eying the Uchiha heir. "AND I HATE INO-PIG! MAY SHE ROT IN MANURE!"

oooooooooooooooooo

In Training Ground 10, a bleach blonde girl sneezed. She rubbed her nose as she turned away from her teammates and sensei to glare in the direction of Konoha.

"Are you coming down with a cold, Ino?" asked Shikamaru. He did not want to get sick, for that would be too troublesome for him.

Ino shook his head. "No, I'm not catching a cold. I bet it is Forehead talking about me." She raised a fist in Konoha's direction. "MAY YOU BURN, FOREHEAD!"

All three males of Team 10 sweat-dropped.

oooooooooooooooooo

Sakura sneezed before glaring in a particular direction. "HA! UP YOURS, INO!" Her sensei and male peers sweat-dropped.

"Just great," Kakahsi mentally groaned. "I have to get a deranged fangirl. How did she manage to graduate?"

"Keep this idiot away from me," mentally declared Sasuke. He always wondered whether some of his fangirls should be put in a mental institution.

Naruto simply blinked before giving a shrug. Sakura, Ino, and other members of the Sasuke Fan Club were always a bit on the loopy side anyway.

After giving a sigh, Kakashi pointed to Naruto. "Your turn, Blondie."

Naruto's smile was wide and bright. "The name is Uzumaki Naruto! I love ramen, training, learning new jutsu, Hokage-jiji, Ichiraku's Ramen, and most importantly, Kaa-chan! She's the best!" Eying Sasuke, the blond boy amended his list. "Oh!" He wrapped an arm around his brother's shoulders. "I like my brother here too! He's a brooder, but he's okay!"

"Get off me, Dobe," Sasuke muttered before elbowing his adopted brother in the ribs, causing the boy to veer away with a snicker. Mikoto's blood son gave a tiny smirk,

"What I don't like," Naruto continued with a grim face, "are people who are selfish, arrogant, judge people unfairly, and try to harm others for their personal gains." He paused as his big smile returned to his face. "And my dream is to become the best Hokage in the village! Dattebayo!"

Sakura rolled her eyes, thinking Naruto was quite predictable with that dream of his. Sasuke once more smirked, thinking the same thing. Kakashi eye smiled with a chuckle. "He's definitely your son, Minato-sensei, Kushina-sama."

"Your turn, Brood Boy," Kakashi pointed to Sasuke.

Sasuke grunted, a bit irritated with that nickname. "The name is Uchiha Sasuke. I love my mother, who I swore to protect." He smirked a bit. "Maybe a bit of the Dobe here too. He's an idiot, but he's okay."

"Hey!" Naruto called out, while Sakura giggled.

The Uchiha Heir let his smirk faded before commencing. "I only have one thing I truly hate in this entire world, and it is part of my dream. I'm going to find that person who destroyed my clan and kill him, no matter how long it takes. Once done, I'll help Mother revive the clan."

Sakura sighed, thinking Sasuke was so cool, but Naruto sighed a bit sadly at the same time, while Kakashi just sighed.

"It seems your son is out for revenge, Mikoto-sama," Kakashi mentally said. "Then again, maybe he is just seeking justice."

Shrugging off the mystery whether Sasuke was seeking revenge or justice, the silver-haired jounin regarded the three teens for a moment before giving a small grin. "Well now… Now that we've all been introduced, I want you to be at Training Ground 7 tomorrow for your final genin test."

"Say what?!" Naruto called out incredulity before eying his brother, who also wore an expression of disbelief.

"What do you mean, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. "I thought we passed our tests. We're genin."

"Oh, the Acadmey tests were just to see who were qualify to become genin," Kakashi proclaimed, his voice sounding mischievous. "The graduates' final test are giving by the jounin-sensei, whom will determine whether the graduates become actual genin or not."

"That's not fair!" Naruto shouted as he stood up and pointed to the older shinobi. "We've been told that we are genin!"

Kakashi still kept an amused expression despite the whiskered boy's outburst. "That's the way things go, Naruto." He opened his single eye. "Training Ground 7 tomorrow at 5 AM." He mentally snickered upon seeing the gawking faces. "Oh, do not eat breakfast at all."

Sakura blinked in confusion. "Why?"

Team 7's jounin-sensei's lone eye creased into that amused expression again. "You're going to throw-up with the test I'm planning, so it's better you guys do not eat. Ta da." With a wave, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke and swirling leaves.

Sasuke stood up to stand next to his adopted sibling, who was growling. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Naruto?" the dark-haired boy questioned.

"Yeah! The guy is a jerk!" he replied.

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke shook his head. "Besides that, Dobe. Do you remember what Mother said regarding eating before going into battle?"

Naruto instantly calmed down. "You're right. Kaa-chan always said that we should have a good meal before fighting."

"Precisely," the blood Uchiha temporarily pointed to the blonde at the same time Sakura stood up, listening to the conversation. "Fighting on an empty stomach is suicidal. Not only do we loose a source of energy by not eating, we also run into a chance of being distracted by our growling stomachs." Dark eyes narrowed at the spot where their so-called sensei had been. "He's up to something."

"But…" Sakura sputtered, finding it hard to belief their jounin-sensei had lied to them, yet it was impossible to dispute the wisdom of Sasuke's mother. "Why would Kakashi-sensei tell us not to eat then?"

"As I said," Sasuke answered, "he's up to something." His expression became thoughtful for a minute, before his eyes narrowed as he turned his gaze on his female teammate. "Think about it, Sakura, he told us to be there at 5 AM. How many hours late was he today?"

"He was four hours late," the pinkette replied in confusion. "Why does…" Her eyes went wide as she realized what her crush was telling her. "He's going to be late tomorrow, right?"

"Right," Sasuke nodded, glad to see Sakura figured it out. "If he had been on time with the other jounin-sensei, I would have thought he was being serious about being at the training ground at 5 AM. However, being late as he was today with that stupid excuse, I have a feeling he's going to be late tomorrow."

"That jerk!" Naruto shouted out to the sky with fisted hand.

Sakura's left eyebrow was ticking as she fumed. What kind of sensei was this guy?! First, he told them not to eat, and now, she knew Sasuke was right regarding the guy no doubt would be late tomorrow!

Inner Sakura manifested herself inside the girl's mind. "AAAARGH! FORGET ABOUT BASHING KAKASHI-BAKA INTO THE WALL! THROW HIM INTO A VOLCANO! SHANNAROOOO!"

Mikoto's youngest birth child could see both teammates wanted Kakashi's blood, and frankly, so was he. "Okay," he spoke, catching Sakura and Naruto's attention, "we'll be there at 8 AM, not 5 AM. We'll eat a good breakfast before leaving home. Whatever he has planned, we'll see tomorrow."

"Yeah!" Naruto grinned. "We're going to pass this test! We'll show Kakashi-sensei that we're genin!"

Sasuke widely smirked, feeling his brother's enthusiasm going through him. "You got that right, Dobe." He turned to see Sakura was grinning too, for she too couldn't contain her excitement to get back at that lying, one-eyed jounin.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Sasuke nodded to the pink-haired kunoichi. With that said, he vanished in smoke and leaves.

"Hey! Wait for me, Teme!" Naruto howled before he too disappeared via the Shunshin.

Left all alone, Sakura felt giddy over what they were going to do tomorrow. However, upon realizing Sasuke was gone, her expression became a disappointed one. "Oh, poo!" she swore and stomped her foot. "I didn't get a chance to ask Sasuke whether we can have dinner together!"

Sighing in knowing she missed another opportunity to date her crush, Team 7's kunoichi strolled toward the staircase, which would lead her down to the ground level and then to home.

Inner Sakura, however, was thinking of something else. "WE GOT TO LEARN THAT TELEPORTING JUTSU! IT'S SO COOL!"

oooooooooooooooooo

As her skillful hands chopped up meat and vegetables for the stew, Mikoto heard the voices of her sons emanating from the hallway, and when the sounds grew louder as the two boys approached the kitchen, the 39-year-old woman turned her torso just in time to see her children entered the room.

"Welcome home, boys," she greeted with a grin before placing down the knife on the counter's chopping block prior to turning around fully to face her sons. She wiped her hands on her apron, which covered her usual housewife garbs. "Who do you get for your jounin-sensei?"

The boys looked at each other briefly before fixing their eyes on their mother. "Mother," Sasuke began, "what do you know of the jounin, Hatake Kakashi?"

Mikoto blinked in surprise. "Kakashi? You gotten Kakashi?" Both boys nodded. "Well, I know he is one of the best jounin in the village." Her lips flattened into a frown. "These days he is quite known for being notoriously late for meetings, although I understand he used to be a serious shinobi during his younger days though."

"He had been a serious shinobi?" asked her blood son, not believing it.

The older woman nodded with a sad grin. "He had been part of the Third Great Shinobi War. The war had been terrible and brutal. After the war, Kakashi became more of a relaxed person than someone who took the rules seriously." Her frown returned as she placed her right hand on her right hip. "Although, he became way too lax, being constantly late." She noticed her boys frowned deeply upon hearing that. "I'm guessing he was late in meeting your team, right?" she sighed.

"He was four hours late, Kaa-chan!" growled Naruto.

Sasuke backed up the blond. "The jounin-sensei were supposed to meet their teams at 1 PM after lunch. All the other teams' jounin-sensei were on time. Kakashi didn't arrive until 5 PM, Mother."

The Uchiha Matriarch closed her eyes and shook her head in disappointment. After a few moments, her eyelids opened again. "What did he do when you met him?"

Naruto shrugged. "Just made us go to the Academy's roof and just introduce each other. That's it."

"He's giving us a test tomorrow at Training Ground 7," Sasuke picked up the conversation. "Yet given he was late today and you confirmed, Mother, that he's the type to be constantly late, Naruto and I figured out that it will be waste of time to be there tomorrow at 5 AM as he said we should. We're planning to be there at 8 PM instead."

Mikoto sighed once more, but she also gave an approving grin at her children. "You boys learned this on your own, and that's good."

"Kaa-chan," the whiskered boy frowned, "he also told us not to eat breakfast." The raven-haired woman blinked at this. "That's stupid! You told us that we should not ever go into battle on an empty stomach!" Mikoto's expression quickly became amused. "We're not to going to do that!"

"Once more," she nodded in approval, "you learned on your own. So…" The Uchiha Head paused for a moment. "What do you think is going to happen tomorrow?"

She saw her sons frowned in thought, but it was Sasuke who answered. "That's the point. We don't know what he is up to, Mother. He is up to something, from the way he tried to make us be at the training ground early and suggesting for us not to eat breakfast. Just we do not know."

An idea sprang to Naruto's head, causing him to spring hopeful eyes at his adopted mother. "Kaa-chan! Can you tell—"

Mikoto raised a hand to cut her son off. "I'm sorry, Naruto," she grinned apologetically before lowering her hand. "I have an idea to what Kakashi might do on the test, but I can not help you. You, Sasuke, and your third teammate have to figure out the test on your own." She softly chuckled upon seeing Naruto's disappointment look. "I have a good feeling you boys will pass," she reassured them. "As long as you remember that this is a shinobi test, you'll be okay."

Naruto nodded, still feeling disappointed for not getting any hints. Sasuke's mind however was whirling in thought. "Did she just gave a hint? 'As long as you remember that this is a shinobi test'? What did she mean by that?"

Clapping her hands once to get her children's attention, the brunette kunoichi gestured to the kitchen's exit. "Now go clean up, boys. I'll have dinner ready in 15 minutes." Miikoto turned around to return to preparing dinner as the boys headed out of the room.

Just as Naruto and Sasuke reached the door, Mikoto swiftly spun around. "Oh, boys." She saw them stop and looked at her. "Who is your third teammate?"

"Haruno Sakura," Sasuke replied before leaving the room, followed by Naruto, who was looking forward to another great meal prepared by his Kaa-chan, for it least would get his mind off tomorrow's test for awhile.

Turning back to face the counter, Mikoto stared ahead for a few moments, yet when she resumed chopping the ingredients for the stew, her expression was bit grim as she sliced the food with a bit more force than normal.

Was she surprise? Not really, given her sons told her Haruno's scores indicated she was most likely to graduate as Top Kunoichi of the class. If Sasuke was Top Rookie and Naruto was paired with him due to their teamwork, it was obviously the Top Kunoichi would be place with them to round out the team, and that kunoichi was Haruno.

Was she upset? Of course, she was a bit upset. A fangirl was placed on her sons' team. A fangirl! Mikoto could already predict the pink-haired girl would be more focus on wooing Sasuke than being serious about being a kunoichi. She would give the young lady a benefit of a doubt, hoping that Kakashi might get the girl to take training seriously in the upcoming months. However, if Haruno would not change her fangirl ways… Well, the Uchiha Matriarch would definitely have a few words to say to the starry-eyed teen.

Swiftly dumping the chopped ingredients into the boiling pot, Mikoto gave a satisfied grin on not only for getting the stew ready, but also for her plan regarding the Haruno girl. She quickly added a mental note to extend the same plan to Kakashi as well, if the man did not take his role as jounin-sensei sincerely.

Stabbing the knife into the wooden chopping block, the still-grinning mother of two went about to set the table and get dinner ready for her family.

oooooooooooooooooo

In a swirl of smoke, Kakashi appeared, via the Shunshin, into the clearing of Training Ground 7. He noticed Sasuke and Naruto were doing some light taijutsu sparring, while Sakura sat besides the black stone memorial monument. When all three noticed him, he raised a hand and eye smiled. "Sorry I was late. I had gotten lost on the Road of Life on the way here."

The three genin blinked, thinking as they had yesterday that this guy was nuts, yet it was Naruto who recovered first as he gave a shrug and grin. "That's okay. You were only one hour late anyway."

This time, it was Kakashi's turn to blink in confusion. "One hour? Surely, you three were here at 5 AM, right?"

Sakura giggled. "Nope. We were here at 8 AM. Sasuke-kun figured out you would be late today, as you were yesterday, so he told us to be here at eight instead of five." The smirks on Naruto and Sasuke's faces verified to the jounin that what she said was true.

"They've adapted fast," the silver-haired shinobi admitted mentally, giving the trio points for not falling for his trick twice.

After giving a shrug, Kakashi strolled over to three wooden posts not far from the stone memorial as Sakura stood up and joined her teammates. They watched as their sensei placed a clock with a timer on top of the middle post before turning around to face them.

"The test is for you to steal these bells from me," he started as his left hand pulled out two small stringed bells, jingling them in front of the three teens. "If you each nab one, you'll pass Simple as that." His hand hung the bells on his left hip within eyesight.

Sakura spoke out, realizing something was wrong. "But Sensei… There are only two bells."

Kakashi eye smiled. "Oh, only two of you will pass. The third will go back the Academy."

"Say what?!" Naruto shouted in disbelief, while the expressions of his teammates said they too couldn't believe what they heard. "That's not fair! We all graduated!"

The grinning jounin was not perturbed by the outburst. "Well, that's the way it goes, Naruto." He paused to take out two bento boxes out of his back pouch. "In addition for failing to get a bell, the looser will be tied to this post and watch the other two eat lunch I provided here. I hope you three are really hungry," he chuckled.

While Naruto snarled and Sakura looked worry, no doubt knowing she would be likely the one to return to the Academy, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at their teacher, hearing the emphasis stressed on that last word. "So that's why he wanted us not to eat breakfast. He wanted us to be weakened. It's a good thing we ate breakfast."

"You got until 12 noon to get a bell," Kakashi continued. "The buzzer on the clock will sound by that time." His face quickly became serious. "You must come at me with intent to kill, if you want to get a bell. Remember, look underneath the underneath."

While Sakura gulped and nodded and Naruto prepared for the fight, determine to win and show this wise guy a thing or two, Sasuke once more thought on what the jounin said. "'Look underneath the underneath'? What did he mean by that?"

Chuckling again, seeing the three 13 year olds were ready judging by their postures, Kakashi touched the clock's timer with his freed hand. "Go!" The two boys disappeared in a blink of an eye, while Sakura jumped away, easily followed by eyesight, into the woods.

The older shinobi nodded approvingly at Naruto and Sasuke's quick departure. "Not bad. Given Hokage-sama's story regarding Naruto and Sasuke's fight with Mizuki, it quite apparent Mikoto-sama had taught her sons well." Placing the bento boxes down next to the memorial stone, Konoha's Copy Nin challengingly grinned. "Let us see how well you two perform."

Within the forest, Naruto and Sasuke landed in a small clearing. As much as each wanted to keep an eye on Kakashi, they needed to get far enough away to converse without being overheard. Least Naruto had the foresight to create a Kage Bushin to watch over their sensei and what Sakura was doing.

"Okay, what should we do?" the blond asked his brunette sibling. "I say we storm him. My Kage Bushins will distract him, while you get close enough to nab those bells."

"I'm not sure," Sasuke nearly muttered as he crossed his arms and thought about it. "Even if we do work together, we might not be enough for him."

"What do you mean?" Naruto blinked in confusion. "We did well in capturing Mizuki-baka."

Sasuke frowned. "Mizuki was a chuunin, and furthermore, he had underestimated us. Kakashi is a jounin. Do you think he would not be prepared for us?" Seeing the defeated pout on the other boy's face told the Uchiha Heir that his brother understood the situation. "Precisely. This fight will not be easy."

However, after a few moments of thought, Mikoto's youngest blood son shrugged. "Yet we're not going to learn how Kakashi fights by standing around here. Let's try that frontal assault."

"Alright!" Naruto pumped a fist, wanting to try his skills out on a jounin. Not that Kaa-chan counted; just he wanted to really go full out, yet he did not want to ever hurt Mikoto. The same he knew of Sasuke, for his brother would not ever fight with intents to kill against his mother.

With a nod to each other, the two sons of Uchiha Mikoto sprinted through the trees, one stayed on the ground, while the other took through the branches.

Meanwhile, not far from the main clearing, Sakura, laying on the ground in a bush, watched the silver-haired shinobi. He seemed very relax as he stood there gazing about. A few times he look away from her toward a particular direction for a moment before returning to looking around the place. Then he suddenly looked back toward the forest and eye smiled. The pinkette wondered why was he smiling, when the answer came that caught her unaware.

Out of the woods, dozens of kunai came horizontally at Kakashi, who simply jumped out of the way before the weapons contacted the ground, where they exploded from the explosive notes wrapped around the handles. Yet before the jounin could land on the ground, dozens of golden-haired figures emerged out of the forest, running toward their target. A few threw some kunai and shuriken at the older man, who simply knocked them out of the way with a kunai, and when he finally landed, the blond figures reached him and began to taijutsu fight with him.

Sakura couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Naruto! They're all Naruto! How can this be possible?! They're not regular Bushin, for they appear to be pretty solid!"

Kakashi was impressed. These clones were somewhat organized in the way they fight, yet despite the numbers, it still was not enough to score a hit on him or get near the bells. Yet as the number of bushins dwindled due to him hitting them hard enough to dispel them, the jounin knew something was coming. Why go through just taijutsu fighting him this way?

Surely enough, as Kakashi surmised, a blurred figure leapt out of the wood's branches into the air before soaring down toward him with a foot extended. The Copy Nin barely had enough time to see it was Sasuke before that foot slammed into his stomach with enough force to smash his body into the ground forming a cloud of dust.

"Sasuke-kun got him!" Sakura nearly squealed with excitement, seeing the dust settled to reveal their sensei situated on his back in a tiny crater. Yet her exhilaration didn't last long as Kakashi's body disappeared in a cloud of smoke to be replaced with a wooden log. "Nuts! Spoke too soon!"

"My, my," spoke Kakashi, alerting the three genin to his position standing next to the three posts. "I have to say you boys have good skills and teamwork," he smiled. "You do Mikoto-sama proud."

The sons of Uchiha Mikoto smirked together. "That's why together, we're going to beat you butt into the ground, Kakashi-sensei!" exclaimed Naruto.

Kakashi chuckled. "I'm afraid I'm not going to allow you to try that a second time, Naruto. How about we up the stakes here?" "As much as I want to not let them know yet about the eye, I know they will eventually know about it soon or later anyway." His left hand reached up to push up his headband to reveal his left eye, which shocked all three teens.

"But… But…" Sakura mentally stuttered. "How is that possible?!"

"Do you see what I see, Sasuke?" Naruto said wide-eyed. "Is that--?"

"The Sharingan," Sasuke finished before his wide-eyes narrowed in suspicion. "How did you get that eye? You're not an Uchiha."

The elite jounin gave a slight nervous yet reassuring grin. "It's a gift, I swear. It's from a friend, who was an Uchiha. He wanted me to have the eye." His grin dropped a bit as he took a stance. "Now then, come at me, boys. You're not going to get a bell by standing there."

Sasuke quickly formed several hand signs before funneling his mouth with a hand. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Elemetn: Great Fireball Technique)!" he shouted before shooting a massive fireball at the silver-haired man, who dodged out of way yet was facing another fail of kunai and shuriken thrown by Naruto.

While deflecting the second round of metal projectiles, Kakashi noticed the black-haired Uchiha heading toward him while forming hand-signs, which he recognized. "Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu (Fire Element: Art of the Phoenix Flower Technique)!" The teenage boy spitted out smaller balls of flame toward the man, who jumped into the air only to be followed by Sasuke, who kept the fire barrage at him. Kakashi once more dodged and avoided being hit, but when he landed on the ground, he was in for another surprise.

Least a dozen of Naruto's nearby kunai and shuriken burst into smoke to reveal they were Henge'd Kage Bushin, whom all ganged up on the jounin, for he once more found himself in the middle of taijutsu fight. "Naruto must have had the clones done the Henge in the woods before Sasuke and he started the first attack. Clever."

Suddenly, boomerang-like projectiles were seen around the fighting group, and out of the corner of his eyes, the Copy Nin saw they were attached by wires that led back to Sasuke, who pulled on the metal strings to make the boomerangs come back to start wrapping themselves around Kakashi. Any Naruto clones in the way dispersed to allow the wires to clamp tight against the man.

"Alirght!" the real Naruto fisted a hand besides Sasuke, who smirked. "We did it!"

"Knock him out, Naruto," Sasuke ordered.

With a big grin, Naruto made the cross-seal and summoned a dozen Kage Bushins, and then they proceeded to beat Kakashi into unconsciousness, making Sakura, still in her hiding place, winced at the beating. After looking down at his banged-up sensei for a few moments, the blonde was about to reach for the bells, when something began happening to the body. It turned brown and began to melt away like mud, surprising both boys.

"A Earth clone!" the Uchiha Heir nearly shouted out, realizing what it was.

"Then where's the real Kakashi-sensei?!" Naruto cried out.

Before Mikoto's sons could react, the so-called real Kakshi burst out of the ground behind Sasuke and kicked him hard enough to slam the boy into his adopted brother and his clones. The boys tumbled together to the ground as the Kage Bushins all dispelled out of existence.

Kakashi smiled down at the two growling boys looking at him. "Close, but not close enough." He swayed his hips a bit to make the bells jingle, mocking the male teenagers with their sound.

After standing up, Sasuke gestured for his foster sibling to follow him. "Let's retreat, Naruto."

"What?!" shouted Naruto incredulously. "You got to be kidding me, Sasuke! We can still beat him!"

"Have you forgotten Mother's lessons regarding tactical retreat, Dobe?"

The blond shook his head, his eyes narrowed as he trained his eyesight again on a still grinning Kakashi. "'There's no shame in loosing a minor battle in retreat, if it means winning the war later.'"

"Precisely," the Uchiha boy nodded. "Let's go." With that said, the brunet Shunshin'd away, followed by a peeved Naruto.

Watching the boys teleported away, Konoha's Copy Cat Kakashi smiled even more. "You definitely taught them well, Mikoto-sama."

Sensing a slight disturbance in a nearby bush and a figure running away from the clearing deeper into the forest, Kakashi chuckled as he pulled down his hitai-ate over his Sharingan eye. He knew precisely who the retreating person was. "Now that I have a good first-hand experience of the boys' skills, it's time to test out our lone kunoichi's talents."

oooooooooooooooooo

Landing back to where they had originally plotted their first plan, Sasuke turned to Naruto and crossed his arms. "Well, so much for that plan. As I had thought, even with the two of us tackling Kakshi together, we couldn't even beat him, nevertheless get a single bell."

"Well, we have to do something," Naruto fretted.

Fingering his chin, Sasuke was deep in thought. "I swear something is just not right here. Just what is it?"

They thought long and hard, wondering how to come up on top of this 'game'.

oooooooooooooooooo

Running through the woods, Sakura looked high and low for her two teammates. She knew they were skilled, thanks to Mikoto-sama, but it was not like they have the ability to disappear out of sight totally, right? Why was it so hard to find Naruto and Sasuke-kun?

Coming to a stop next to a bush to catch her breath, the pinkette wondered what would become of her. The boys definitely got the upper hand compared to her, thus she knew she would be the one to loose. It just was not fair for her to work so hard at the Academy only for her to return to the school as a failure.

Suddenly, she felt a presence right next to her, and when she turned her head, she was startled to see her jounin-sensei was looking at her from the bush, his face crinkled in that eye smile. "Hi, Sakura. You look like you're lost."

Yet before the girl could say or do anything, Kakashi has raised both hands, his right gripping over the extended index and middle fingers of his left. In front of her green eyes, he disappeared in a swirl of leaves that went around her and twirled upward, like she was in the middle of a mini-twister. When the display was over, Sakura blinked, seeing the silver-haired man was nowhere in sight.

"Now where did he go?" she asked, looking left, right and up. This was weird.

"Sakura…" said a male voice from behind her.

Sakura recognized the voice and became elated. "Sasuke-kun!" she called out happily as she turned around. However, her happiness was short-lived upon seeing Sasuke was severely wounded with dozens of kunai and shuriken sticking in his body. Behind Sasuke, Naruo was seen on the ground in a similar state of impairment.

"Run, Sakura," wheezed the Uchiha. "Get away."

Seeing her crush and Naruto looking like they were going to die was too much for her. Sakura let out a very loud scream of despair before passing out from the extreme emotional overload. She fell backward to the ground in an unconscious state.

Up in a tree, Kakashi raised an eyebrow as he looked down at the young kunoichi. "Hmmmm… Maybe I went too far with the gory stuff." A moment later, he shook his head and chuckled. "Naaa."

Leaping away, the Copy Nin decided to head back to the main clearing and awaited what Sasuke and Naruto would do next.

oooooooooooooooooo

Upon hearing a loud feminine scream, Sasuke and Naruto turned toward the direction they heard the commotion.

"That sounds like Sakura-chan!" admitted Naruto, concerned now for his female teammate.

Guessing that Kakashi has something to do with making Sakura screamed, Sasuke gestured for the blond to follow him. "Come on. Let's investigate."

Naruto did not argue as they leaped into the trees, heading toward where they heard Sakura, and it was not long when they spotted the unconscious girl and landed on either side of her. Looking at her, it was apparent she has no wounds or even a bruise to indicate she was in combat. Sasuke now had a good hunch to what caused the kunoichi to pass out.

"Sakura," the raven-haired boy said, trying to wake her up by tapping her shoulder. "Wake up." After a few more nudges, green eyes blinked open.

Upon noticing he was alive and okay, Sakura gasped before suddenly sitting up to wrap her arms around Sasuke, startling both boys. "Sasuke-kun! You're alive!"

Sasuke sighed, for this was not what he had in mind. "Sakura?"

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?" she sighed happily as her hands felt clothed back muscles.

"Get off me," he replied prior to forcing her away from him by the shoulders. Naruto snickered, prompting a slight tick of the Uchiha's left eye.

Sighing once more to calm himself, Sasuke once more eyed the pinkette. "Sakura, we heard your scream, and we came as quickly as we can. Did you run into Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yeah," she nodded before launching into telling what had happened, and by the time she was finished, Sasuke and Naruto were slightly frowning.

"As I thought," Sasuke spoke, "he cast a genjutsu on you, Sakura. It perhaps was a low-level one."

The pink-haired girl felt stupid. "I know. I'm usually good in detecting D-rank genjutsu." She lowered her head, feeling slightly ashamed. "I don't believe I fell for such a trick." Before either boy could speak, Sakura muttered, her tone indicated she was miserable. "I know now I definitely will be sent back to the Academy. You two are going to pass this test, so just leave me here and get those bells."

"Hey!" Naruto cried out, surprise by her solemn mood. "Don't think such a thing, Sakura-chan!" Green eyes lifted up to gaze into intense sapphire blues. "When it comes to smarts, you're one of the smartest people I know in the entire class! Kaa-chan told me that some of the best ninja in the world are those who think on their feet, and you're smart enough to be one of them! Don't just give up!"

Sasuke slightly smirk in approval of his brother's words, watching Sakura slightly grin, her spirits lifted a bit by the golden-haired boy. "Thank you, Naruto," she responded. Yet her grin faltered a bit when she spoke again. "However, it does not change the fact that I am the weakest of the three of us. You two will get those bells, I know it."

This time Sasuke shook his head. "I know we're not going to get those bells, Sakura." His words caught his two teammates' attention. "As strong as Naruto and I are together, we just are not strong enough to fight against a highly trained jounin. Something just does not make sense with this test."

Sakura blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Why go through the trouble of testing our ability to get a bell, when it is obvious we are not skilled enough to nab a bell from a jounin?" asked the Uchiha rhetorically. "This test feels like it is rigged for all of us to fail, not just you, Sakura."

"But… but… That's not fair!" shouted Sakura.

"Definitely not fair!" agreed Naruto, his right hand fisted. "We got to do something!"

"I know," nodded Sasuke, his mind whirling. "Just I don't know what we can do. There's more to this test than meets the eye. Just what is it?" With that said, all three fell into silence, their brains racking to find the solution to this dilemma.

Several minutes later, a cross-armed Naruto hummed, when something came to the forefront of his mind. "Hey, Sasuke?" Seeing he gotten both his brother and Sakura's attention, the blond continued. "Do you remember what Kaa-chan told us a year ago about genin teams?"

"What about it?" enquired Sasuke.

"Well… Kaa-chan said that genin teams are always made of three genin. If this was the case, why did Kakashi-sensei said only two of us will pass? This makes no sense to me."

Sasuke blinked and blinked again, until he slapped his forehead. "That's it! How blind can we be?!"

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked in confusion.

The brunet boy pointed to his brother. "You said it yourself, Naruto. Mother clearly stated that a genin team consists of three genin, always. With the rare exception of a jounin taking a single genin as an apprentice, genin always are in groups of three. The reason why is that a single ninja squad always have four people. There is no such thing as a three-man squad consisting of just two genin and one jounin-sensei, especially with just-graduated genin! It's always one jounin-sensei and three genin!"

Sakura gasped, finally seeing what her crush was seeing. "So this test is set for either all of pass or none of us pass!"

"Precisely," Mikoto's blood son momentarily pointed to his female teammate. "It's clear that this test to nab the bells is a front for the real test. Kakashi said to look underneath the underneath, and Mother yesterday said this is a shinobi test. Their words were hidden messages to tell us that in order to pass this test; we have to find the hidden test within this test."

"Okay," Naruto nodded in understanding. "So what is this hidden test?"

Sasuke smirked widely. "The answer is right in front of our noses, Dobe. Think about it. Why are genin put in teams of three?"

The boys' female teammate answered instead. "From what I know, genin are not powerful compare to chuunin or even jounin. Given our skills are not strong enough to tackle stronger and more powerful opponents, we are placed in groups of three to work together as teams as we grow stronger, gaining new skills taught to us by the jounin-sensei."

Naruto raised his eyebrows, remembering what his adopted mother had told him a year ago. "Teamwork?"

"That's the answer," Sasuke knowingly grinned. "Either we work together or we fail as a unit. Mother has been training us to work together for years, Naruto. We just have to have Sakura to work with us on our next attack to show Kakashi that we can work together."

Sakura couldn't believe it. "That simple? Just show we can work together?" Sasuke's nod provided her with hope that she would pass this test, now that she knew what the hidden test was about.

Hearing muffled laughter, the black-haired boy and pink-haired girl turned to their blond colleague, who began elaborating why he was chuckling. "How about we give Kakashi-sensei a taste of his own medicine?"

After hearing Naruto explained what he had in mind, both Sasuke and Sakura agreed to the plan. It would indeed required all three of them to work together, but if all went well, none of them would have to worry about going back to the Academy.

oooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi giggled, enjoying reading his favorite orange-colored book as he waited in the main clear nearby the Memorial Stone. Yet despite his eyes were on the words on the pages, his shinobi senses were on guard, and once he detected three people were approaching his position, he closed the book and placed it back in his rear pouch. He inwardly grinned upon having had noticed the third person.

"Well, it seems you boys have finally included Sakura. What are the three of you going to do?"

The answer came, when Sasuke and Naruto burst out of the tree tops and began to attack. They first launched kunai and shuriken at their target, which easily dodged and moved out of the way, before the duo landed and initiated hand-to-hand combat with Kakashi.

Yet for the seasoned jounin, it was obvious what the boys were doing as the pair was herding him toward the forest, and as he predicted, Sakura came out of the woods and propelled at him dozens of shuriken and kunai, which mostly had explosive notes on them. The explosions fell short of their goal, but they blanketed Kakashi in a cloud of smoke.

When the smoke cleared, the elite warrior looked up to see all three teens were coming right down at him with kunai drawn ready to strike. His face was serious, but in his mind, Kakashi was laughing. "Clever!"

The silver-haired man side-stepped the assault before the trio landed, yet instead of counterattacking, the man raised a single hand up in the two-finger sign. "Kai!" he yelled.

The three genin suddenly shimmered away to show Naruto and Sasuke were in front of him meters away. The boys instantly ran toward him with growling, annoyed expressions. "Sasuke, he easily cancelled your genjutsu!" cried out the blond as they approached Kakashi.

"Not only that…" the jounin added. He all of the sudden reached behind him and again yelled "Kai!" Sakura's form shimmered into being right next to him prior to his hand grabbing her hand before she could take the bells from his person. Kakashi spun around and threw the screeching kunoichi at the boys, who was caught by surprise by the movement. The three teens tumbled into the ground. "I can also detect multiple layered genjutsu."

"I was so close!" whined Sakura as she raised herself off the ground as her teammates done the same.

Kakashi eye-smiled at the three. "Clever plan, you three cooked up. While the smoke momentarily blinded me, Sakura cast a low-level genjutsu to render herself invisible. Meantime, Sasuke cast another low-level genjutsu over me to make me see the illusion of the three of you attacking me from the air. You were hoping that even if I did detect and cancel Sasuke's genjutsu, I wouldn't be paying attention enough to notice Sakura as she sneaked up on me to grab the bells." He chuckled. "Unfortunately for you, as I said, I can detect multiple layered genjutsu. I immediately sensed the two illusions being cast when I was in the cloud of smoke. Maybe it could have worked, if they were high-level genjutsu instead of low-level ones."

After a few moments of smiling down at the three, peeved genin, Kakashi pointed to the clock on post. "You got another 30 minutes to get these bells. If you don't, all of you will fail."

"You're wrong," Sasuke replied with a bit of heat. Only then did his lips curved up lopsidedly on one side. "We figured out the true test, and it's not to get those bells."

Upon seeing Kakashi's curious face, the Uchiha Heir explained what he and his teammates knew. "You're a highly trained jounin, so there is no way the three of us can get those bells, even if we work together."

Naruto took over. "Kaa-chan told Sasuke and me a year ago that a genin team always has three genin. Always."

"That was when I realized the truth," Sasuke said. "You lied to us. There was no way to form a squad with only two genin and one jounin-sensei. You said to look underneath the underneath, and Mother told Naruto and me yesterday that this was a shinobi test. The bell test was a front for the real test."

Sakura spoke, her green eyes blazing. "I remember reading that genin were placed in teams in order to work together. By working together, a genin team can hopefully defeat opponents that a chuunin or jounin could defeated alone."

Sasuke took a few steps, approaching the older man. "That's the test…to show whether we can work together. You came up with the story of only two of us would pass in order to divide us. Well, we saw through that story and figured out the real test." He stopped in front of Kakashi, and out of the corner of his eyes, the boy saw his teammates flanking him just behind him.

"Is that what you think?" Kakashi said seriously, his eyes became harder as his face became angrier at each word he spoke. "You thought I, a jounin, lied to you about this test, and that this test was about teamwork?! Is this what you think?!"

"YES!" all three genin replied with serious expressions, although the Killing Intent, Kakashi was releasing, was making them sweat. The boys were used to such KI, having trained under their mother to resist KI as best as possible. Sakura had no training, but by force of will, she prevent herself from fleeing like a scared animal.

"Then I'll pass judgment on you now!" yelled Kakashi, thunderclouds was seen around him with lightning strikes. "You three…" Suddenly the clouds were gone and the one-eyed main eye-smiled at them with his right thumb up. "Pass then!"

Sasuke smirked, while Naruto laughed with raised fists in victory. Sakura felt relieved the KI was gone, yet it took her a few moments to realize what the older man had said. "We… We pass?" After Kakashi nodded an affirmative, the pinkette squealed before tightly hugging Sasuke. "We pass, Sasuke-kun! We pass!"

The Uchiha boy frowned with a ticking eyebrow. Did this girl have to invade his personal space all the time now? "Get off, Sakura," he said, pushing the girl away from him. Despite being pushed away, it did not diminish her happy mood.

After chuckling at the boy's expense, Team 7's now-official sensei raised a hand to get his new team's attention. "I have to say that was good deduction work on figuring out the real test. You done well."

Naruto smiled at the praise. "Kaa-chan should get the credit. She's a great teacher!"

Kakashi once more eye smiled. "I'm sure she is, Naruto." With that said, he began walking over to the three posts to retrieve the clock. "You three can share the two bento boxes. I'm sure you're hungry by now with having skipped breakfast."

"Actually, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura spoke, still tickled on having passed the test, "the three of us ate breakfast." Seeing the man had turned around and gave them a curious look, the young kunoichi told the whole story about what Sasuke and Naruto figured out yesterday and the reason why a ninja shouldn't ever go into battle on an empty stomach.

Once the story was done, the one-eyed shinobi chuckled again. "You taught them perhaps too well, Mikoto-sama. I fear that I might not have anything to teach your sons, if you already taught them everything that is."

Watching Naruto popped out a dinner plate with chopsticks out of a storage scroll and divided the two boxes' contents evenly among the three of them; Kakashi picked up the clock, deactivated it, and strolled back to the Memorial Stone. He walked toward the flat side, containing the names of the fallen.

As the three genin ate on the side of the stone, they looked at their new sensei, looking forlorn at the memorial. Sensing their stares, Kakashi began to speak.

"You all perhaps know what this memorial is supposed to be about. It honors those shinobi and kunoichi, who died for the village. As ninja, we will at times be ordered to make the ultimate sacrifice to make certain the village and the people survive. Working together and supporting one another is why our village is strong." He paused as his eyes paused at a name on the stone. "Those who disobey the rules are trash, but remember, those who abandon their friends are worst than trash." His eyes turned to look at his new students with an expression, which told the teens he was serious. "This is why I gave you this test, to see whether you three will work together and support one another. I will not take a team who do not care for each other at all." The trio nodded their understanding.

As silence once more came to the training grounds, the genin ate and their teacher continued to stare at the names on the stone. Yet a few minutes later, after he had finished his meal, Sasuke broke the quiet with a question.

"Kakashi-sensei," he began, and after he caught the man's attention, he commenced. "Who was the Uchiha who gave you the eye?"

The jounin gave a somber grin. "His name was Obito. He was not your typical Uchiha from the way he acted. During the last Great Shinobi World War, he gave up his life to make certain two of his comrades live. I was one of those comrades." He paused to look at the name on the plaque. "Before he died, he gave me his left eye to replace the one I had lost." Kakashi once more paused to give a small grin at the Uchiha successor. "If you want to know more, ask you mother, Sasuke."

Sasuke nodded, sensing the man did not want to elaborate further. Judging from his expressions and tone of voice, it must had been quite a bad experience for the older man. After all, if Kakashi had fought in the Third Great Shinobi World War, the man must had been no older than 15 at most prior to the war's end.

"Anyway," Kakashi said casually, "tomorrow we'll start our first day as Team 7, which also will be known at Team Kakashi in the records. Our meeting place every day will be the wooden Kingyo Bridge at 7 AM, unless I say otherwise." He grinned at the three. "I'm going to report to the Hokage you've passed the test. You're free for the rest of the day to tell your families you've passed. Until tomorrow, ta da." With that said, the jounin vanished in a swirl of smoke and leaves.

Having finished eating, Naruto sealed away the dinner plate and chopsticks before standing up. "Kaa-chan is going to be so please we've passed, Sasuke! I can't wait to tell her!"

The black-haired boy smirked in agreement. It would have been better if either he or Naruto had nabbed a bell to tell Mother they had beaten a jounin. Maybe one day they would be strong enough to do so. Until then, Sasuke knew he has to continue training and get stronger.

Holding her empty bento box, Sakura rose and eyed Sasuke. "So Sasuke-kun…" she began, catching both boys' attention. "How about we celebrate? Say dinner together?"

Sasuke raised a disinterest eyebrow at her. "No," he simply answered, before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke and leaves.

Naruto chuckled as Sakura frowned disappointedly. "Better luck next time, Sakura-chan," he snickered. "Teme is not going to give you that date for a long time." With that said, the blond too used the Shunshin to teleported away, leaving behind a slightly frustrated kunoichi.

"I definitely have to learn that transportation jutsu," muttered Sakura, swearing that when she did, she would be able to follow Sasuke, no matter where he went.

Gazing down to the ground, green eyes spotted the second empty bento box, and the next moment, a pink-haired girl squealed. She picked up the box; thrilled to have the box her crush has eaten out of. She ran off toward home, imagining Ino's face upon finding out she has a bento box of Sasuke's, not to mention she was now officially on the same team as Sasuke's.

"CHA!" Inner Sakura yelled. "WE'RE CLOSER NOW TO SASUKE-KUN THAN EVER BEFORE! TAKE THAT, INO-PIG! HE'S MINE!"

oooooooooooooooooo

With passing the test, the members of the newly formed Team Kakashi had begun their careers as official warriors of the Konoha Shinobi Force. Today, psychologists are still debating over whether Hatake's Test of Teamwork was fair and just, wondering how many potential shinobi and kunoichi had lost a chance to shine. However, no one disputes the jounin's reasoning, for indeed one of Konoha's greatest strengths is in the great bond of comradeship and family felt within all. A team, which does not share this bond, is most likely to be doomed as a unit than a team that has the bond.

Yet as Team Kakashi just gotten started to walk together, their leader would face his own personal test. A test of character to see whether he was worthy to guide and train these three genin, and none other than the woman in the center of Sasuke and Naruto's lives would give it and pass judgment… Uchiha Mikoto.

oooooooooooooooooo

TBC (End of Chapter 6)

A/Ns:

1) Okay now, I can hear some of you complaining that I'm following canon with assigning Sakura as the kunoichi teammate and Kakashi as the jounin-sensei. Believe me, I really did thought long and hard about it, and I just can not create a different Team 7 for several reasons…

One, due that Sasuke and Naruto will be staying together, the jounin sensei has to have the knowledge of not only of how to be a ninja, but also know about the Sharingan. Kakashi fits this. So besides Mikoto, Kakashi is the only other person who can help Sasuke with his Sharingan when it develops.

Two, unlike canon, I'm going to develop Sakura as well as Hinata. Both will be important for this story, especially after the time-skip.

And three, there is one major difference between canon and this AU, and it's Mikoto. In canon, both Sasuke and Naruto have no parents or anyone to see whether Kakashi is doing his job to train his genin team. Sakura's parents are highly likely civilians, and civilians have no knowledge to know whether their children are being trained properly. Mikoto is a trained kunoichi with a rank of Jounin, so she does know.

So rest assures, I'm not going to be following canon precisely. With Mikoto alive, there will be differences, especially when it concerns her two sons. ;p

2) Given Naruto was raised by Mikoto during the Academy years, I really can't see him develop the Sexy no Jutsu, thus his encounter with Konohamaru is different with how Naruto defeated Ebisu. Yes, I know it sounded Naruto defeated Ebisu too easily with just a super wedgie, but knowing Ebisu's personality, he is the type to underestimate Naruto, thus as Mikoto said, the man was caught unaware. So as much as I think the Wedgie no Jutsu can be use in Naruto's arsenal, it is likely this would be a one-time event. XD

3) 'Fisshukin' means 'Gold Fish'. Since canon had not ever named the bridge Team 7 usual meet at, I'd decided to give it a name.

Editted in 4/29/10: Thanks goes to iPanda for correcting me regarding the Japanese word for 'goldfish', which is 'kingyo'. :)

4) Added in 4/27/10: Okay, now. If anyone wants to become my betareader for "Matriarch", I have two criterias for candidates. 1) You have to know English spelling and grammar. I just can't accept anyone doing corrections using a spelling and grammar checkers. I really need someone who knows. 2) You have to have the time to do it. If you're busy with school and other things in life with little free time, you shouldn't volunteer to become anyone's betareader. Period. My current betareader for "Unexpected Love" is very busy with school, so I'm not going to place "Matriarch" on top of his already full schedule. Another person volunteered, but after I gave him "Chapter 6" to beta, he never bothers to do the job and I have not heard from him in over a month.

So please, be honest when you volunteer to become a betareader. If you volunteer and then suddenly backtracked without telling the writer, it's rude. :(

oooooooooooooooooo

Next Chapter: Judgment of the Matriarch