Hello guys, I know it has been quite some time since I have updated any story, although I have no excuse. The reason was simply life. i had too much on my plate, and still do, but I thought I should really get back into writing an here I am. I shall be trying this chapter out in Naruto's P.O.V, although if you dislike it and prefer third person, then please vote on the poll I have created on my profile and tell me. Without further ado, enjoy.

"Speaking"

'Thinking'

"demon/summon speaking"

'Jutsu'

Naruto P.O.V

It wasn't the arrival of Sasuke that woke me up, neither was it the arrival of the sisters. It was when Kushina shouted for Kakashi to, and I quote, "Get your ass down here right now or I swear to god I'll get Minato to ban those books of yours" that i finally bothered opening my eyes. Guess all the stories of her having anger issues as a child were not all wrong.

"Kakashi-sensei, what what were you doing on the tree?" Sakura, ever so curious asked. The masked jonin gave an eye smile which, I'm pretty sure was dragged on purposely so he could think up some bullshit excuse "I suspected there to be a cat" I was right, and it seems as though I wasn't the only one, as Kushina, Naruko and Sakura shouted "Liar" I'm pretty sure Kakashi busted an ear drum or something.

"Anyways" I made my presence known which, judging by the narrowing of Naruko's eyes, wasn't appreciated by everyone. "Since everyone's here can we begin with that survival exercise you mentioned yesterday?" The quicker we get done with this, the quicker I can legally change my name, move out, get a seat on the council and officially start working on getting revenge on the family that destroyed my childhood. No rush.

Kushina seemed to think otherwise "What's the hurry, Naruto?" I had a few choice words that could have given a pretty good answer, but I decided against it. "I believe we should first make clear, what the real purpose of the survival exercise is." This raised more then a few eyebrows. "As Kakashi said yesterday, you guys have yet to officially earn the title of genin."

Sasuke put into words what was going through everyone's minds "So passing the genin exam and getting our ninja identification card made was simple a facade?" It was true, not only were we each given our headbands, but we also got our ninja identification cards made. Kakashi explained how the genin exam was to pick out those with the potential to be ninjas and that there was a chance that all, or at least a few of us would be sent back to the academy. Suddenly I felt bad for the people who filled up all the legal documents, just to find out that the graduates have been sent back to the academy. Way to treat civil workers like trash, Minato.

"That aside, the rules of this exercise are quite simple. I have here two bells" Kakashi began as he showed to small bells in his hand "Since we have an unusual amount of possible members, I've decided to change the rules a bit." That was strange, so they were going to change the team 7 tradition that has been going since the time of the Nidaime Hokage? "The six of you will be divided into teams of two, while Kushina-san and I will hold onto one bell each." I ignored Kushina's remark of her feeling old due to the formalities and took a look at my potential partners for the exercise. Should Naruko or Narumi be selected, I'll quite this entire think myself. There's always next year, right? Sasuke would be the ideal choice with Sai being a close second, although I don't know much about the later. Speaking of which, the pale guy boy was simply staring at me with an awkward smile. Yep, not suspicious at all.

Although I wouldn't like it much, there's a chance, although slim, that Sakura would be my partner. It's highly likely that she'll instantly agree to forming a temporary truce with whatever team Sasuke would be in and, if memory serves me right, the goal of the bell test is always to see if the team works together. As such, it would not only increase my chances, but also Sasuke's chances of victory. However, as I said, the chances of me being paired with her are- "Naruto and Sakura will be the final team" -Incredibly high, of course. Sakura looked like she wanted to object and ask for her to be placed in Sasuke's team instead of Sai, but she seemed to have decided against it. Huh, that was unexpected.

"Now each team is to go after one bell. Failing in obtaining one will result in immediate removal of your rights as a ninja." Kakashi finished. Naruko seemed to be desperate to prove her intelligence, as she pointed out how there were only two bells "Of course there are" Kakashi answered "That simply means that two of you are bound to go back to the academy."


As soon as the call for beginning the the exercise went out, I quickly dashed towards a hiding spot. To my pleasant surprise, Sakura followed me "So what's the plan?" She asked further surprising me. Wow, when did she become so rational? Not wanting to push my luck, I forced my brain to work overdrive in order to work up a plan. One look at the clearing where Kakashi and Kushina were supposed to be, I realized that Naruko had stood back in order to challenge the jonin, which forced Narumi to stay back as well.

You see, if it was Kushina that they challenged, they actually might have been able to pull it off. Not due to Kushina's lack of skill, but due to the fact that it would be highly likely that she would hold back. Unfortunately for them, Naruko went up and challenged Kakashi, who seemed uninterested. Of course Naruko made some proclamations while Narumi backed her sister up, but that was unimportant. Soon Naruko made a direct dash towards Kakashi, intending to land a right punch on him. Kakashi grabbed the offending appendage and used Naruko as a body shield to block a kick aimed towards him by Narumi, leading to Naruko getting kicked in the stomach instead.

I was actually surprised to see the Naruko that was kicked disappear in a poof of smoke, and three more take her place, with one aiming for the head, one for the stomach and one going for a sweep. The masked jonin jumpled over the sweep, punched the blonde going for his face, who turned out to be the real one, and landed by performing a downwards motion from his front leg, effectively destroying the remaining clones. He quickly turned around to grab the hand of Narumi, who had attempted to finish it by going for the bell attached to his hip, and threw her on Naruko, who was attempting to get up. I turned to Kushina, who was watching the fight intently, and realized that the bell she was supposed to have hanging on her jonin vest was gone. Heh, sneaky bastards.

No way I was going to be outdone, but there was also no way I was going to win a head on fight against Kakashi, even if i was to use all the skills I had. "Need a hand?" I heard from behind me and, as expected, I saw Sasuke and Sai standing behind us, with the former tossing a bell in his hand. "Why would you guys help us?" Sakura asked, out of curiosity if anything "It's the only logical step to take, since we would rather have you two be in our team, as opposed to to the the alternatives." Answered the, till now, quite Sai. I just realized that if Sai hadn't talked during the introductions yesterday, I would think him to be unable to talk. Unimportant but oh well. It was time to put a plan together.


Sai informed us that the trick he used to get the bell from Kushina was not going to work on Kakashi. I was curious as to what the trick was, but decided to hold my tongue and tell them of my hastily made plan. To put it shortly, it was unimpressive and straight to the point, although that was to be expected when given such an objective. All four of us were in position as we waited for Sasuke to begin.

Kakashi had just finished knocking back Naruko for the fourth time, and I had to hand it to her, she was not someone who stayed down. Sasuke seemed to think the same, as he chose the time to shoot a raging fireball towards the back of the jonin. The one eyed man dashed towards the right, but by doing so, he set of a trap that Sakura had set up, which fired a volley of kunai and shuriken. As Kakashi substituted himself with the only log in sight, I prepared myself to flank him.

As soon as his physical form appeared, I filled flammable gas in my mouth and used the Katon: Kasumi Enbu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Misty Flame Dance Jutsu) to spread flammable gas around Kakashi. I then quickly took a couple of steps back and fired a small fireball to set off an explosion, but not before noticing a small white rat run off towards a nearby bush with a small object. The smoke cleared to show a filled with soot, but otherwise unharmed Kakashi, who had used a wind style technique to blow most of the gas away. Oh well, our work was done.

"Very well done Naruto, but you'll have to try harder then that to beat me." Kakashi commented with his only visible eye closed, signifying that he was smiling. I gave a smirk and answered "While it may not be enough to beat you, I believe that was not the objective today." Shock showed in the visible part of Kakashi's face and he looked down to prove that there was indeed a lack of bell. Sai, Sasuke and Sakura walked out with Sai holding a bell, and it dawned on me that all three of their names started with the same alphabet. Well now I felt left left out.

"It seems you guys were able to get a bell, although I will ask later how it is you did so." Kakashi began "Although the matter at hand is that getting the bell, only Sasuke and Sai will be passing." Sasuke smirked as he threw another bell towards me, which I caught. Wow, would be awkward if I was to miss it, huh? Kushina made a weird noise as she just realized that her own bell was gone "What, how, when?" She asked, but no one was inclined to answer her just yet.


"This sucks" Commented the normally stoic Narumi as she, along with her sister, were tied on a bell post. Naruko, after flailing around for a couple of minutes, had chosen to accepting her defeat. There's a chance that no one realized this, but this was an exceptionally happy moment for me, watching two of the few people I hate being tied down while the third isn't able to do anything but watch "Sorry honey, but you guys failed in getting a bell. Don't worry, there's always another chance, right?" Consoled Kushina who I still thought was too soft to be a jonin.

Sai had finished retelling how he had gotten the bell from Kushina. Apparently, while the red haired woman was busy watching her daughters fight, Sai had created a small rat, identical to the one he had used to assist Sakura and I, and used it to grab the bell and bring it back unnoticed. Kushina lowered her head in shame at falling for such a cheap trick, as Kakashi asked "Then you guys wouldn't mind telling me how you took the bell from me? It would be safe to assume that the same rat had a part to play."

Sakura was about to anwer, when Sasuke beat her to it "Ask Naruto, he was the one who came up with it in the first place." And that really surprised everyone. As everyone, even my soon to be former family stared at me, I almost wanted to shrink away in a corner. While I never let it show, I was not used to being the center of attention, as no one ever held high expectations from me. Not showing any emotion, I answered "It wasn't really that hard. I simply had to wait for Kakashi Sensei to punch away Naruko for the fourth time" I ignored the scoff and continued "Sasuke was to shoot a fireball that was slightly towards your left. That would force Kakashi to dodge by moving towards the direction that was easier, the right. Unfortunately for him, Sakura had already planted a trap that, when activated, would fire multiple shuriken and kunai. I hid next to the only log that he could possible substitute with and prepared myself to attack him." In actuality, I had shadow clones hiding near the other possible areas of substitutions, but they did not need to know that.

"As Sensei came in sight, I filled the area with flammable gas so he wouldn't notice the small rat of Sai that had already started moving towards the bell. The animal returned the bell to it's owner, Sai." Everyone was quite, I mean, it was a simple plan, I wasn't expecting any applause or anything (Although they wouldn't necessarily be bad) "Wait." Kushina broke the silence "It was a spectacular plan and it went flawlessly, but if you had the bell secured, then why did you ignite the gas?" To answer her question, I gave an animal like smirk and told her to figure it out.

"That aside." Kakashi began as he handed out bento boxes to all of us, save for the two who were tied up, "Naruko and Narumi might be getting one last try." Figures they wouldn't set back the daughters of the Hokage a whole year "You guys eat up while the two of us go to Hokage-sama and inform him of the current situation." He was about to leave, when he suddenly remembered "Oh right. Be sure to not feed those two anything, or else you, yourself will fail with them." He finished as he, along with Kushina, left in a poof of smoke.

Ah yes, this was the life. Enjoying a delicious lunch while the Namikaze sisters stare at me like a couple of hungry, tied up wolves. Suddenly, Sasuke and Sakura decided to feed the two out of the goodness of their hearts, while Sai chose to feed them as it would be the logical course of action. The reason being that, if the rest were to be included in the chance the sisters would be getting, it would be best if everyone was in top condition.

Now you guys must be thinking that I would, by the goodness of my heart, or maybe because it would be the most logical reason, set aside all differences and feed the two people who look like they hadn't eaten for days. Well, fuck that. These two would be the last people I decide to share my food with, and as I continue eating, I see Kakashi appearing with an enraged look on his face. Oh well, not by problem. I was simply eat- Oh! This has those little prawns that I love so much!

"YOU...pass."

Huh

And it ends. Now I would like to thank all those who reviewed, even those who gave constructive criticism to this story. I shall try my best to update this story as frequent as possible, and might be starting a new story that has been lingering in my mind for quite some time. Well, not much to say beside remember to follow, favorite and review.