The next day Naruto entered the classroom with his Hitai-ate attached to the ice-blue headband that Hiroke had given him prior to his returning to Konoha. He was also wearing the set of clothes that Nanami and her teammates had given him. When he entered the classroom, looking very much like a ninja, Inuzuka Kiba yelled out, "Hey, what the hell are you doing her Naruto?"

Naruto calmly replied "I thought that the reason that I am here should be quite obvious, even to you dog-breath."

Kiba loudly growled out, "What was that?"

"Do you want me to repeat it?" after a short pause Naruto said, "alright then, I thought that the fact that I clearly passed," Naruto gestured at his Hitai-ate, "should be quite clear, even to you, dog-breath."

Kiba said, "That's it," as he got up, out of his seat, to attack Naruto for his perceived insolence.

Luckily for Kiba Iruka came into the class in the nick of time as Naruto was withdrawing a kunai from his kunai holster attached to his right leg. Iruka, seeing what was happening, shouted, "Alright, that's enough, everyone back in your seats." The Genin-hopefuls returned to the seats that they normally used and Iruka sat down at his desk at the front of the room. Iruka said, "As you may have noticed, Naruto is here because he passed a special test that was run later that day, now, on to the team assignments." Iruka shuffled through a few sheets of paper until he found the one that he was looking for and placed it back on top of the pile of papers. He announced the teams (the same as in the series) and said, "Right, now you just have to wait here for the Jounin that will be in charge of you for the next stage of your career."

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No less than three hours later Team Seven was still waiting in the classroom for the Jounin that was to lead their squad. Naruto got extremely bored and decided that it would be a good idea to set a trap for Kakashi, but before he could even start setting it up Kakashi came into the room and said "Right, Team Seven, yes?"

Sakura replied, "Uh huh."

Kakashi said, "Good, what do you say we go up to the roof for this next bit?" before disappearing in a cloud of smoke (1).

As Naruto left the room he said, "Geez, some leader, makes up wait over three hours and then up and disappears on us, looks like we lucked out."

Sakura said, "Oi Naruto, he's a Jounin, he must have had some reason for being so late." Then she thought 'at least he better.'

Sasuke meanwhile kept up his silent act.

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When they got to the rooftop they saw that Kakashi was sitting on a stool opposite a chair that had clearly been rigged up solely for the occasion. Naruto asked "hey, Kakashi, what took ya so long in getting to the meeting?"

"Oh, you want to know do you?" Kakashi asked in a sly kind of way.

"Yeah," Naruto replied in an equally sardonic tone.

"Well, you see I got lost on the road of life."

"Huh? That's the best that you could do?"

"Well, anyway. Since we're going to be a team for a while I think that we should probably start off with introductions, how about ladies first?"

"Uhh...geez, I don't know. What should I tell you about?" Sakura asked, unsure of how to continue.

"Well, how about your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies, that kind of thing."

Naruto piped up and asked, "Well, instead of us, why don't you go first, so that we can see how it's supposed to work?"

"Me? Well, alright. I'm Hatake Kakashi, things I like, things I hate...I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future...never really thought about it, as for hobbies...I have lots of hobbies."

Sakura looked at Sasuke and Naruto and said, "Well that was totally useless, all he really told us was his name."

Naruto nodded and Kakashi said, "Okay, your turn, you on the right."

"Alright then," Naruto said, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I like instant ramen and the ramen from Ichiraku Ramen Stand, I also like Amayah-nee, I hate the three minutes it takes to heat the ramen. My hobby is eating all different types of ramen and comparing them and my dream is to be greater than all the previous Hokage, then the village will treat me with respect."

Kakashi thought 'well well, he's grown up in a very interesting way.' He then said "alright, next."

Sakura said "I'm Haruno Sakura, what I like...uh...I mean the person I like...is..." she blushed and glanced at Sasuke. "My hobby is..." she continued glancing at Sasuke. "My dream for the future is..." Sakura squealed as she scrunched her eyes up.

Kakashi asked "and, what do you hate?"

Sakura stated, with utmost conviction, "Naruto."

Naruto said, "Ah who cares."

As Naruto was exclaiming his disinterest in what Sakura thought of him, Kakashi tiredly thought 'girls her age are more interested in boys than in ninja training.' He then said, "Okay, last one."

Sasuke, taking on a tone that screamed 'everyone is below my almighty notice', said, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I hate a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything." As Sasuke was introducing himself Sakura was eagerly hanging onto his every word. "What I have is not a dream as I will make it a reality, I'm going to restore my clan, and destroy a certain someone."

Sakura thought 'Sasuke is sooo hot!'

Kakashi thought, 'I thought as much.' He then said, "Good you are each unique and you have your own ideas, we have our first mission tomorrow."

Naruto asked "a mission, so soon?"

"Yes, it's a task that the four of us will do together."

"Okay, what is it, not some lame-ass D-Rank mission is it? I've had just about enough of them for a lifetime."

Kakashi thought, 'How does Naruto know about the bane of a ninja's life, the dreaded D-Rank missions. Well, never mind.' Kakashi said, "No, it's even better, a survival exercise."

Naruto thought 'a survival exercise, why do I get the feeling that there's going to be some kind of catch to this?'

As Naruto was coming up with possible implications of what Kakashi was telling them, Sakura asked, "A survival exercise? Weren't we meant to leave all that kind of stuff back in the academy? That's how we got here."

"This will be nothing like your previous training."

"Uhh...how will it be any different sensei?" Kakashi started laughing to himself, causing Sakura to ask, "Hey, that's a normal question, what the hell's so funny?"

Kakashi mocked, "Well, if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it." He continued to laugh for a while before saying, "In actual fact, only nine of the twenty-seven graduates will actually become Genin. The other eighteen will be weeded out and sent back to the academy, in other words, this exam will determine your fate, keep in mind, the failure rate is 66%."

Sakura asked "so if we need to do another test with you now, then what was the point in having the test that we just did yesterday?"

"That was to see who had the potential to become Genin."

"Huh?"

"I have final say as to whether you enter the ranks of the Konohagakure Shinobi, or return to the academy. Meet me at the designated training ground at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. And bring your ninja gear."

Sakura thought 'if I fail then I'll be separated from Sasuke. This is a trial of love.'

Sasuke thought 'there's no way that I'll be going back to that academy.'

Naruto meanwhile was thinking more clearly than the other two. Naruto thought 'what's with that 66% failure rate? There's got to be some meaning behind it, but what?'

Kakashi started to walk towards the side of the building but, before he left, he turned and said, "Well, later..." he started to walk further before he turned once more and said, "Oh yes, you might want to skip breakfast tomorrow, otherwise you might throw up," he then jumped off the edge of the building.

Sakura and Sasuke thought 'what the hell kind of test is this going to be.'

Naruto, for his part, thought, "Well, I better come prepared for anything."

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Author's Notes:

(1) Shunshin