Team Tragedy
A Naruto Fanfiction
Author: ElderxChildx6 Co-Author/Editor: EDelta88
Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. All rights reserved.
Team Tragedy (c) Me (ElderxChildx6)
Len Hatake (c) Me (ElderxChildx6)
Chapter 10: The Nomination
"Wait. Wait! Hold it!" Naruto cried, repeatedly crossing and waving his arms to get Len to stop. "Back up! Back the holy fuck up!"
"Language!" Len told Naruto sternly as she placed her hands on her hips.
"You just told me Sasuke is a closet perv for hardcore ninja porn and you think I give half a fuck about my expressive vocabulary?!" Naruto laughed. "Fuck that! Get back to the part where you tricked him into admitting it!"
"This… is not going away anytime soon, is it?" Sasuke muttered dejectedly.
"You'll be lucky if it goes away, ever," Kakashi chuckled, his books nowhere in sight. Who needed literature when he had entertaining gennin to tortu- amuse him?
They had been out of Wave Country for a few days, now. Having been there for at least a week or two so that way Tazuna could finish the bridge. The mini vacation wasn't all that bad. Kakashi had Sasuke and Naruto practice a little more on their water walking while he sparred with Len in front of the boys. Taunting them with the potential they could have if they became masters at water walking. Even though they were good at it, it was best to make sure that they were excellent at it for future encounters. Naruto also pranked both Sasuke and Len a lot as they stayed in Wave, claiming there wasn't much else for him to do that was entertaining to him.
Sasuke for his part had spent most of his time, that wasn't spent training, doing his level best to avoid the combined mischief of his teammates. Namely, avoiding Naruto's many pranks and hiding from Len's quips about his… habits, as much as was humanly possible.
Unfortunately for Sasuke they were now on the road home and there was no way to safely avoid any of his team. A situation that Len was now capitalizing on to shamelessly embarrass him as she finally told Naruto what she had found out.
"I'd say it's about time you read it," Naruto chirped as they walked down the road. "They're really good books."
Sasuke gave Naruto a droll stare. "You mean you actually read those books, Naruto?"
Naruto looked back at Sasuke like he was stupid. "Yes...why wouldn't I?"
"Do you even understand it, Naruto?" Sasuke demanded. Cocking an eyebrow as he looked at the blond male of his team.
"Well...there are certain parts that I don't quite understand…" Naruto admitted. "Like that bit where the girl eats her boyfriend's gym membership... but for the most part, I get the general idea of the story."
Suddenly, the entire rest of the team froze, staring at Naruto in bemused horror.
"Naruto…" Len started. "Where do babies come from?"
"A stork drops them off at their parents' house. Everyone knows that," Naruto said, squinting at his friend. "You feeling alright?"
There was a moment of silence. Then...
"Not it!" Len cried, hopping away from the blonde boy to emphasize her point.
"Not it!" Kakashi rushed as Sasuke began to stammer.
"Wait-What?! Not-oh fuck you both!" Sasuke yelled, glaring bloody murder at the two Hatake. "You're our sensei! This is your job!"
"I'm only certified to train you in the ninja arts," Kakashi deadpanned. "Not teach you how to produce children."
"Seduction and bloodline theft are ninja arts! They're named!" Sasuke argued.
"Really~" Kakashi replied in a singsong voice. "I had no idea! Well, obviously you are more qualified than I on this subject so I order you to give Naruto the talk."
Sasuke's eyes bulged to the size of dinner plates. "Fuck. You!"
"Now, now Sasuke," Kakashi began, waving his hand mockingly at his student. Who knew torturing children was so much fun? "That's insubordination. I'll let it go this time because of your recent trauma due to our mission going horribly awry but if you do it again I'll have to do this formally. That means submitting publically available paperwork listing my orders and the qualifications you possess that justify my reasoning and wouldn't it just be so… unfortunate, if your fan club found out how knowledgeable you are on this particular subject?"
To say Sasuke was horrified would be like saying Naruto liked to occasionally indulge in a single bowl of ramen. All the color-what little color was there to begin with-drained from his face as he looked at Kakashi like he was the bane of his very existence.
Meanwhile, Naruto looked back and forth between Len, Kakashi, and Sasuke. Completely confused by the entire situation to begin with ever since the strange conversation between the three had started. "Um...what are you guys talking about?" he finally asked as he looked at them all with puzzlement.
Sasuke mechanically turned his head slowly towards the obnoxious boy who wasn't too far away from him. He wasn't sure if he could handle this. He wasn't sure if he could handle this, at all. He was almost certain that he was going to die if he had to be the one to tell Naruto anything about sex…
"Go on, Sasuke," Len told him in a singsong voice as she waved her hand at him like she was shooing toward Naruto. "Get the talk out of the way so it's done and over with so you don't have to worry about it so much, anymore."
Sasuke's face suddenly went blank. Fine. They wanted to play it like this? Fine. "One day soon, you won't know when, you won't know where, and you won't know what it will be, but I am going to make both of you regret this on a level you can scarcely comprehend," he told the two Hatake before turning on his heel, snatching Naruto by the collar, and marching off in a random direction as Naruto stumbled awkwardly behind him.
"...Think we took that too far?" Kakashi asked.
Len shrugged. "It's just Sasuke, what's the worst that could happen?"
Kakashi froze. "I thought I told you never to say that!"
Len rolled her eyes. "Oh, give it up you big baby. Your superstitions are completely unfounded. I mean, seriously, what could possibly go wrong?"
A sudden chill ran down Len's spine.
Kakashi glared at her. "Just so we're clear, I blame you for whatever eldritch horror Sasuke unleashes on us."
"Oh come on! What could he poss-"
"SILENCE!" Kakashi roared as he looked down at his niece.
A few hours later, Squad Seven finally made their way through the village gates of Konoha. One of the Izumo and Kotetsu both looking at Naruto in particular with confusion. The blond boy's face seeming to be stuck into an odd combination of deep contemplation and abject horror. Sasuke, meanwhile, appeared to have a rather smug look on his face, his hands stuffed in his pockets as he whistled a jaunty tune. Len and Kakashi seemed rather suspicious as they constantly glanced back at the two younger males of the team.
"...Okay, I'll bite," Kotestu said as Kakashi handed their papers over to the gate guard and his partner. "What in all the nine rings of Hell happened to those two? Nothing too serious, I hope."
"Uncle Kakashi-sensei blackmailed Sasuke into giving Naruto The Talk," Len snickered.
"Then shouldn't Uchiha Sasuke look a bit...embarrassed or something?" Kotetsu inquired. "And shouldn't Naruto look more...horrified?"
"Sasuke may or may not have sworn vengeance against both of us," Kakashi replied, glaring at his niece.
"You make it sound like it's all my fault when you went and ordered him to do it," Len shot back.
"I'm not the one who went and popped off two of the phrases that no shinobi should ever say under any circumstances for any reason!" Kakashi shot back.
Izumo paused, looking confused for a second. "Phrases that should… wait she didn't say…"
"Two of them," Kakashi confirmed.
"Huh… well then, good knowing you guys," Izumo sighed.
"Hey, Kakashi can I have your house when you're gone?" Kotetsu asked as he handed their papers back to Kakashi.
"Psht," Sasuke snorted, an evil smirk playing on his lips. "I'm not going to kill them. It would be over too quickly."
"Damn kid, remind me never to get on your bad side," Izumo chuckled.
"The best way to avoid my bad side is to not do anything monumentally stupid," Sasuke told him matter-of-factly.
"Good point," Izumo replied as he looked at the raven-haired boy.
Kotetsu handed Kakashi back his papers. "There you are," he told him. "Well, if you do manage to die, can I have your house?"
Kakashi took the papers from Kotetsu. "I won't be the one dying," he informed the chuunin. "I may not be able to make it out unscathed, but if anyone is going to die for this it's going to be Len. So, no. You can't have my house."
"Oi! Who said I'd be the one dying?!" Len shouted as she watched Kakashi start to walk into the village before quickly following after him.
Naruto and Sasuke both followed closely after their squad members. Sasuke's expression still smug and Naruto still a mixture of terrified and calculative.
After they reached the mission hall and gave the Hokage their report on the mission details it was back to the dubiously dull drudgery of D-Rank duty for a duration directly derived from a detailed dictatorial directive duly dolled down for dumbass decisions.
Namely, the Hokage was pissed and Squad Seven was grounded.
Sure, Squad Seven performed admirably in the events that took place with the Bridge Builder, however because Tazuna had lied to the village, he was fined for lying and charged the difference in mission. Because the economy was still struggling, Tazuna was put on a payment plan to ensure that Konoha would get their money for the mission's appropriate rank. This also put any future clients outside of Konoha under a magnifying glass to ensure that no other client tried something so dangerously stupid in the future. Each client questioned thoroughly to make sure that the rank the mission would be placed under was the right one.
No one—other than possibly Kakashi, himself—was particularly thrilled over the idea of having to deal with lousy D-Rank missions, but they had mentioned when they had been given the C-Rank mission that they would not complain for a while if given one and, in hindsight, continuing the mission had been monumentally stupid. So...they had to deal with it. Although the whole reason why they had continued the mission in the first place was initially Kakashi's idea, and thus his fault.
As a result, Kakashi was punished just as much as his fellow genin were. The Hokage gave Kakashi his own set of D-Rank missions he had to fulfill after his squad duties were done and over with. Those missions that were given to Kakashi would even make an innocent child cringe, they were so horrifying.
Most of the D-Rank missions that Squad Seven as a whole had to accomplish involved retrieving Tora, again. Sasuke, Len, and Naruto all believing that the Third was giving them this particular mission to torture them for blackmailing him into giving them the C-Rank mission. Another part could be that it was punishment for
In which case, there was going to be hell for him to pay, later.
"We finished walking the dogs, cleaned up the trash in the river, weeded the client's garden, and retrieved Tora for the...possible millionth time since we got back from Wave Country," Kakashi listed off. "Not all that bad, at all. I'd say you have the rest of the day to yourselves for the time being."
Len smiled as she looked over to Sasuke and Naruto. "What do you think we should do?"
"RAMEN!" Naruto shouted cheerfully as he threw his fist into the air.
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Can't you think of anything else to eat, besides Ramen?" he demanded. "It's fine when there's no real time to cook anything, but we don't have to worry about that, right now."
"Is that you saying you want Len's cooking?" Naruto countered in a suspicious glare.
Sasuke closed his eyes as he faced away from his teammates. "I'm saying you should be eating more than ramen," he argued. "If you eat nothing but ramen you're going to lose that girlish figure you like so much."
Naruto glared at Sasuke with absolute fury. "WHAT?!"
"Boys...do I need to throw sharp, pointy things at you?" Len threatened as she folded her arms over her chest.
Sasuke and Naruto both looked over to their female squad member, then to each other before quickly facing away from each other with a "Hmph!" and folded their arms over their chest. Len slouched her head as she sighed heavily.
Kakashi shunshin off to go give his report to Sandaime-sama while the rest of Squad Seven made their way over to Ichiraku's to have ramen.
As they walked, they talked amongst themselves about what possible prank they'd pull on the Third Hokage for not only giving them the C-Rank that turned out to be an A-Rank, but also for having them be the ones to retrieve Tora so much since their return home.
"I say we leave water balloons filled with paint in his office," Naruto suggested. "Triggered by a trip wire that will drop them over his head when he steps inside."
"Nah," Len begins. "Too messy for his office. His house, though..."
Sasuke merely rolled his eyes at their conversation. It wasn't that he didn't want to partake in the pranking when it came to the Hokage, but considering that Naruto could use the kage bunshin, it seemed a little weak in comparison.
As Len and Naruto continued to brainstorm, after a moment, Len suddenly fell silent as her gaze turned to the ground. Her gaze squinting with confusion. Naruto and Sasuke, realizing that their female teammate had stopped walking, turned their attention to look at her.
"Len? What is it?" Naruto asked as he looked at her with confusion.
"...We have company," she finally answered as she looked back and forth between her two teammates. "Normally, I wouldn't think anything of sensing a few chakras scattered throughout the village...but this...this is too many. Possibly from other villages." After a few seconds, her eyes suddenly narrow. "Sasuke—"
Sasuke nodded before he suddenly turned and jumped into a tree. Disappearing from sight. Already getting what Len's plan was. After watching the Uchiha disappear from sight, Len turned her attention to Naruto.
"Naruto, you stay with me," she ordered before she smirked. "Let's go pay a visit to some of these foreigners and give them a Konoha welcome."
Naruto blinked at her words for a moment.
"Two of them are not too far," Len informed him as she rolled her eyes. "Three academy students are not too far from them..."
Sudden realization hit the blond boy as his eyes narrowed and nodded. "Got it."
With that, Len continued on her way down the street. Her hands in her pockets as she walked. Naruto flanking her at her left.
Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon are running through the village. Pretending as though they are no longer in the academy and are actual ninjas. As they rush through the village, Konohamaru rounds a corner and suddenly bumps into a stranger dressed in black with purple make-up on his face and something large wrapped in bandages carried on his back. The hitae-ate showing the symbol of Sunagakure Village.
The foreigner glared down at Konohamaru who was sitting on the ground. Looking up at the stranger absolutely terrified.
"Pesky little brat!" The foreign boy retorted before he grabbed Konohamaru by his blue scarf and lifted him up into the air. Glaring at the small brat with irritation. "Can't you even watch where you're going?!"
"Kankuro!" The female wearing her blonde hair in four pigtails and in a pink battle dress and chainmail under the dress. The chainmail is seen on her right thigh, and then a section of the chainmail is seen on her left shin—also a fellow Suna shinobi—growled as she glared at him. "You shouldn't draw attention!"
"Aw, come on, Temari," Kankuro began with a devilish smirk. "Why don't we toy with them, a bit?"
"By all means," Len suddenly began from out of nowhere. Causing Temari and Kankuro to turn their attention to the platinum blonde. Smiling coldly at the two foreign shinobi. Her hands still in her pockets, but her rather relaxed-looking posture still seemed to hold a very dangerous edge to it. "Assault the Hokage's grandson. See where it gets you..."
She was standing directly behind Udon and Moegi. To Len's left, Naruto stood battle-ready. Shuriken in his hand as he glared at the two strangers. No one threatens Konohamaru so long as Naruto had anything to say about it.
Kankuro appeared a little uneasy upon hearing that the boy he had in his hand was a member of the Hokage's clan. He went to open his mouth to say something, but before he could make a sound, Len's eyes narrowed and she flared her chakra. Enough to catch Temari and Kankuro by surprise as they looked at the local in astonishment.
Suddenly, a rock whizzed by and smacked the hand Kankuro was holding Konohamaru with. Causing him to cry out as he release Sarutobi Konohamaru. Naruto was quick to act. Suddenly catching the small academy student before returning to Len's left flank just as quickly.
"You're okay, right, Konohamaru?" Naruto asked as he looked at the boy. Setting the child down on his feet.
"Yes, boss," Konohamaru answered. Looking up at Naruto. Udon and Moegi quickly moving to stand with Konohamaru.
"Good. Wanna play ninja? I'll even give you a head start," Naruto said, giving the younger boy a pointed look.
Konohamaru took the hint and made himself scarce. Moegi and Udon following after Konohamaru, close behind.
Everyone—except for Len, who kept her gaze on Kankuro and Temari—turned their attention to Sasuke as he sat in the tree. Casually tossing a rock up into the air before catching it in his hand.
"You're not from around here," Sasuke began in a droll voice. "Are you?"
Kankuro glared up at Sasuke. "Another wimp come to play?" he rhetorically demanded bitterly.
Sasuke wrapped his fingers around the small rock that had been in his hand. As he flexed his muscles some, a cracking sound could be heard before he opened his hand and sand suddenly began pouring out from his palm.
"Get lost," the Uchiha ordered as he glared down at Kankuro.
Kankuro growled as he continued to stare at Sasuke in rage. "Wimps like you piss me off most of all!" He reached up and grabbed the bandage that was around his shoulder. "All bark and no bite!"
Temari's eyes widened as she looked at Kankuro in surprise. "You're going to use Karasu for this?!" she demanded.
"Kankuro...back off," a soft, raspy voice suddenly filled the air. Making everyone's eyes widen as they suddenly looked over to the other branch opposite of Sasuke.
There, standing upside-down on the branch with his hands folded over his chest, was a boy with chopped red hair, dark rings around his eyes—resembling a raccoon's eyes—the kanji for "love" tattooed on his forehead. He wore a black one-piece suit with a white cloth wrapped around his right shoulder going diagonal across his torso, and a thick brown strap wrapped around his left shoulder in the same manner as the white cloth. A large gourd on his back.
"You're an embarrassment to our village," the boy continued. His expression remaining blank.
At that, everyone looked at him in shock. Kankuro quickly tried to compose his astonishment, though. Closing his eyes as he gave the boy a nervous grin.
"H-hey, Gaara," Kankuro said in a shaky voice.
Len's eyes narrowed as she looked at the new addition to their little spat. How the hell did he do that?! She practically screamed in her thoughts. With chakra that chaotic, I should have been able to sense him well before now!
Gaara's pale emerald eyes—which were on Kankuro, at first—slowly drifted around. His gaze lingering for a few seconds as he looked at Len, Naruto, and even Sasuke in particular. After so long of staring at each one of them, he returned his attention back to Kankuro. "Have you forgotten why we came all the way here?"
"I-I know," Kankuro started. "I-I mean, they challenged us." He let out a nervous chuckle. "So, they started the whole thing, really. See, here's what happ—"
"Shut up," Gaara ordered as he glared down at Kankuro. His composed face cracking. "Or I'll kill you."
Kankuro flinched as sweat began to drip down his face. Appearing terrified at the boy who just ordered him to keep quiet. "Ah, right," he said nervously. "I was totally out of line. I'm sorry, Gaara."
Gaara then turned his attention completely to Len, Naruto, and Sasuke. "I'm sorry, for any trouble he caused."
His eyes...I don't like them! Len thought as she looked at the Suna shinobi in the tree. They're a killer's eyes.
After a few seconds of staring at Sasuke, Gaara transformed into sand and drifted down to Kankuro and Temari. Rematerializing in a crouched position right in front of them before he stood up and turned to face them.
"Let's go," Gaara ordered. "We didn't come here to play games."
"A-alright, sure," Kankuro stuttered. "I get it."
Gaara then proceeded to walk past them. Temari and Kankuro both turned and began following after him. Len's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Wait!" she ordered. Causing all of the Suna trio to pause.
"What?" Temari called out. None of them turned around to face her.
"You're Suna shinobi," Len started as she continued to look at them suspiciously. "Is the reason you are here because the Chuunin Exams are to be held here?"
Naruto looked at Len with mild confusion, but he quickly composed himself as he looked back to the Suna shinobi. Sasuke jumped down from the tree to stand to the right of Len. His hands in his pockets as he glared at the team they just had a confrontation with.
Temari and the others finally turned to face Squad Seven. A slight smirk on Temari's face. "Perceptive, aren't you?"
After a long moment, Gaara turned his attention fully toward the three Konoha genin. "You three. What are your names?"
Naruto pointed to himself. "Well, my name is—"
Len interrupted Naruto by swiftly bringing her hand up in front of him. Causing her partner to look at her hand in confusion before he brought his bewildered gaze up to look at the side profile of her face.
"That...would be telling," Len said with a devilish smirk.
Gaara cocked an eyebrow. "What?"
"You'll just have to wait to learn our names," Len informed him. Folding her arms over her chest. "I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again, real soon."
Gaara's eyes narrowed as he looked at Len in particular. It infuriated him that he was unable to learn the names of the shinobi standing before him. The one who threw the pebble at Kankuro, the one who expelled a rather significant amount of chakra to distract his team and signal the one in the tree to attack, and even the one who moved at a rather significant speed to retrieve the academy brat that Kankuro tried to bully.
Temari and Kankuro, knowing that Gaara was now irritated, gave their fellow teammate a terrified look before they looked back to the Konoha genin, as if to say "You just had to get him mad?" without actually saying it.
"Very soon," Gaara finally said before he turned to face away from them and jumped off. Kankuro and Temari turning and following after their squad member. After a short while, Naruto closed his eyes as he sighed before he looked to Len and leaned in close to him.
"Len..." Naruto whispered into her ear. "I think...that Gaara guy is the same as me..."
Len nodded as she continued to stare in the direction the Suna genin had disappeared. "With the chakra level I sensed off of him," she whispered back, "it wouldn't surprise me."
"Yet another jinchuuriki..." the voice rang in Len's head. "Things just got interesting."
The next day, Kakashi was again late to training. Something the team was used to by this point...well, something Naruto and Sasuke were used to by this point. Len appeared to already be used to it. Considering their jounin leader was her uncle.
Deciding that it was pointless to wait for their leader without doing something, Len decided that they were going to work on their stealth. A game of hide-and-seek seemed to work excellently for such an occasion. Picking Naruto to be the one to find them, Len and Sasuke disappeared into the dense foliage while Naruto turned his back away and proceeded to wait.
After a sufficient amount of time had passed, Naruto turned back towards the dense forest in the training ground. Creating three shadow clones before racing off to find his fellow teammates.
Naruto's eyes scanned through the dense forest as he zipped along. After a little while, he spotted something blue off in the distance and quickly pulled out a shuriken. Whipping it towards the direction the speck of blue was. One of the many points sticking into the tree just above where the speck was.
Upon hearing the shuriken sink into the bark of the tree, it was suddenly gone. Zipping through the forest. Naruto smirked as he watched his best friend race off.
"You can't get away that easily, Len!" he called out.
Off in the distance, Naruto heard one of his shadow clones cry out before the memories of the clone flashed into his head. Telling him where Sasuke was. With a devilish smirk, he set his plan into motion.
He summoned two more shadow clones and sent them off to send Sasuke towards where he wanted before he continued on after Len. After a short time, he catches up to his blonde friend and throws another shuriken at her. Causing her to immediately jump to the left to dodge.
Naruto's smirk turned into an evil grin.
Len felt something tug ever so slightly against her ankle before it suddenly disappeared. She quickly turned her gaze to see a barrage of shuriken fly in her direction each attached to wire. Sasuke, trying to dodge the clones that were suddenly attacking him, bumped against Len just seconds before the trap caught them and tied them together. Causing them to stumble before falling onto the ground.
Len growled as she glared over to Naruto. "Really, Naruto?!" she shouted. "When the hell—"
Naruto pointed to himself with an beaming grin on his face. "Ninja~"
Sasuke gave Naruto an outraged glare. "I told you to prank Len and Kakashi-sensei! NOT ME!"
Naruto looked away before he shrugged his shoulders. "I'm still working on that one," he informed his partner.
"Want me to hold him down while you fillet him?" Sasuke suggested as he continued to glare at Naruto.
"What would be great, thanks," Len said as she, too, glared at her best friend.
"I see my students are as lively as ever, this morning," Kakashi suddenly cut in. Crouched in the tree that was directly over the three genin. Causing everyone to look up at him. His features creased in a way that indicated he was smiling down at them as he brought his hand up. "Yo," he greeted.
"What's the reason you're late, this time, Kakashi-sensei?!" Naruto snapped as he pointed an accusing finger up at their sensei. "And don't give us that 'path of life' garbage you gave us the last two times! We know better!"
"Actually, I was caught in a rather interesting meeting, this morning, and that's why I'm late," Kakashi-sensei explained before he suddenly shunshin to stand beside them all. Len and Sasuke performing the escape jutsu to free themselves from the practice wire Naruto had tied them up in.
"What happened?" Len asked as she looked at him. Finding it odd that he would actually tell them the real reason why he was late.
Flashback
"I, Hatake Kakashi, lead Squad Seven," Kakashi began as he announced his team as candidates for the Chuunin Selection Exams. "Uchiha Sasuke, Hatake Len, and Uzumaki Naruto. I recommend all three of these genin for the Chuunin Selection Exams."
"Oh please!" one of the shinobi in the crowd behind him shouted. "You're only recommending your team to boost your ego!"
Kakashi turned his attention to the jounin who was running his mouth. "You have something to say, Ryuuk?"
"Yeah, I do," Ryuuk answered. "Everyone here knows that you're a sorry excuse for a jounin leader. And with that thing in your team, there's no way they'll last even a week after the first section of the exams!"
Kakashi's expression appeared as though he was smiling as he faced Ryuuk. "Oh? Is that right? Well, we'll just have to wait and see, now won't we?"
Concealed in his pockets, his hands clenched into fists. Using every ounce of his willpower to keep his composure and not punch Ryuuk in his face. It was already bad enough that his squad contained the very genin that had caused his niece such suffering shortly after her graduation to genin.
"By the way, how is Axl faring, these days?" Kakashi questioned. "I heard he had quite the turn of events shortly before my squad and I left for Wave Country. How long was your squad out of commission for while his injuries healed?"
Ryuuk glared at Kakashi. "Why should you care?"
"Because that boy—your little civilian prodigy—had better keep his actions in check from now on, if he wants to continue to have a chance at even getting a decent girlfriend," Kakashi informed him.
"Alright, enough, you two," Sarutobi called out. Causing everyone to look at him and shut Ryuuk and Kakashi up. "Next squad leader...announce your squad."
End of Flashback
"I have nominated you three to take part in the Chuunin Exams," Kakashi informed them. "These are your nomination forms." He handed each of them a slip of paper, which gave their respective name at the top, saying that they had been nominated to take part in the exams, and had his name and rank at the bottom. "You three will sign the form and take them to room 301 at the academy five days from today at 3pm."
Len cocked an eyebrow as she looked up at her uncle. "What? But I thought that you just nominated us. It's up to us on whether we want to attend the exam or not."
"Firstly, I know that none of you are going to turn down the chance to become chuunin outside of a field promotion if the said opportunity presents itself," Kakashi began. Holding up each finger as he listed off his reasonings for his word choice. "Secondly, are you sure you'd even consider turning down the exam if I told you that a certain jounin decided to badmouth your sensei?"
The space between all four of them got deathly quiet as Naruto, Len, and Sasuke looked at Kakashi with hardened eyes. The only things that could be heard was the leaves occasionally rustling from the wind, the insects buzzing, and the birds chirping every so often.
No one disrespected their sensei. No one.
A/N: Okay. Sorry that this chapter is EXTREMELY late. Life sort of caught up with me there for a minute. Working two jobs will sort of do that to a person. But thankfully I'm back now, and hopefully will be able to return to schedule after this. I'm still not entirely sure if I'll be able to or not. Hopefully I can. I'm in the part that not only am I most excited for, but most of you are probably excited for, as well. I know at least one reader who is DEFINITELY excited. Hope you like it.
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