A/N: Alrighty then, I'm back. I said less than a week last time didn't I… oopsie. Welp, that's the life of an Adult for ya, deadlines are flexible when they're about your hobbies :P Let me know what ships you want, suggestions for the future, and all that jazz!
XxX
"You… WHAT?! NO WAY, I'M GONNA BE THE HOKAGE!"
"YEAH, MAYBE AFTER YA ACTUALLY START TRYING AT THIS BEIN' A NINJA SHIT YA WILL!"
"Okay, okay. Settle down, you too." Kakashi seemed exasperated, and despite his non-committed attempt at calming down the two hot heads in his new possible team, he was surprised to see Sakura had instantly quieted down and looked at his direction, ignoring the barrage of arguments coming from Naruto's direction.
Sakura, or rather, Subaru sat attentively. Remaining still and looking with high intensity. Kakashi stared at his potential new student, eye-brow raising to the bottom of his headband.
"You don't need to be so serious, these are just introductions." He spoke, nonchalantly. Afterall, the occasional hardass student wasn't a rarity.
"Of course, Kaichou." Still determined, Subaru sat still, waiting for the response of the final person on this team.
'Kaichou?' Kakashi couldn't help but hang on to that term.
"Hn. I'm Sasuke Uchiha. My goal… is to kill a certain someone."
The atmosphere was already a bit bizarre, but that simply dampened it further. The blue-clad boy seemed to have forgotten to give his likes and dislikes, but at this point, the mood was so weird Kakash, he simply threw his head back and sighed.
"Well, alright then… I'll be seeing you all tomorrow first thing in the morning for your final exam at Training Grounds 3."
"EH? FINAL EXAM? But I thought we were Genin!" Yelled Naruto, concern clearly marring his boisterous tone.
"Oi, kaichou's speakin', listen to what he's gotta say." Sakura responded cooly.
"As I said, yes, this will be your final test. Whoever fails gets sent back to the academy. And as a final piece of advice… don't eat breakfast. You'll throw up." Kakashi's cheeks creased, as he disappeared into the day at breakneck speeds.
"...Man, the boss' is really strong, ain't he?" She stared off into the direction he leapt towards, not even being able to see him at her eye's limit.
"Nah! He seems like a real clutz to me, believe it! Who's he to say we can't graduate! Anyways… Sakura, wanna eat together? Sasuke can't come though!"
"Eh? Don't be a dick, bro. He's part of the team now."
Sasuke looked to the two, an unsure expression painting his face. His eyes set on the girl that previously swooned over him. Though she proved to be somewhat annoying at the beginning of their interaction with their sensei, her attitude really had changed drastically. Maybe this Sakura would be more tolerable?
XxX
Damn… this guy's pretty cruel to them kids, but no shit, seems to be really strong. The no breakfast thing's weird, but never been much of a breakfast guy anyways.
Subaru showed up extremely early, but to no surprise Sasuke appeared to have been waiting for quite some time already. Yet, the raven haired boy seemed more surprised at pinky's arrival.
"Hn."
He stared at her hand, which contained a can of some sort of drink. Bubbles popped out every once in a while, the hum of the sizzling carbonation causing his throat to tickle.
"Ya got somethin' to say? Don't know what fuckin' 'hn' means."
Sasuke rolled his eyes. A few minutes passed, as Naruto made it to the training ground.
"WHAT?! WHY ARE YOU DRINKING THAT, SENSEI SAID NOT TO HAVE ANYTHING BEFORE TRAINING!"
"Oi! Keep it the hell down, yo - this ain't enough to get me all prepped an' ready that fast! Besides, this ain't breakfast, just somethin' sugary and caffeinated before some sorta test."
"I guess… but it's not fair Sakura-chan! Let me have a sip!"
Naruto pursed his lips, as thoughts of kissing Sakura indirectly through a canned drink bloomed into his mind, though his eyes started to squint in fear as she approached him.
.
.
.
Only to force a sip down his mouth.
"Eh? Just like that?"
"What do you mean 'just like that,' we're brothers now. Workin' under the Hatake family, we gotta look out for each other. Next time though, you better share with me. I ain't doin' any one sided deals here."
Admittedly, Naruto himself thought he took it too far with the asking for a drink thing, but Sakura really had changed way more drastically than he had already realized. It was like she was unaware of the implication of what she just said! But… brothers? What was going on with this girl…
.
.
.
A few hours passed, the trio mostly sitting silently, as Sakura and Naruto made small talk about things that were weird in the academy. It seemed that Sakura could shrug off most discomfort from sitting atop these grassy plains on a warm day in the Fire Country, and this spread to her teammates, who seemed equally as okay with waiting.
"Ey, now that I think about it, Kaichou's more than 2 hours late."
"Hey, you're right. That damn teacher! What's he making us wait for!"
"Shut it, dobe. Stop yelling."
"I DON'T WANNA HEAR FROM YOU-"
"OI! I wasn't done talkin'. Hear me out, doofuses."
Naruto and Sasuke looked at her incredulously.
"This is a good thing. If our boss is late, y'know what that means? It means we get slackin' hours in the mornin'! Nothin' better than gettin' the hardest hours outta the way without having to work."
"That… somehow makes sense." Sasuke said, still appearing a bit miffed. He'd rather have a more proactive teacher, but even he could make use of the extra free time to sneak in some training.
"Sakura-chan, you're a genius!"
"A genius at what?" Said the only person above 5 feet 2 inches, appearing ephemerally as always.
"Ah, Kaichou. Welcome sir, we're ready for our test." Sakura responded, with a ninety degree bow.
"Er, right. Forgot about your weird personality thing. You guys… aren't curious as to why I'm late?"
Sakura shot a glare, still bowing, at her two comrades, winking in the most forced and uncomfortable way imaginable. Naruto snickered, and even Sasuke sighed and looked away.
"Not particularly, Kaka-sensei!" Naruto said, with glee.
"You lot are proving to be… my strangest potential genin yet. Alright then, I'll explain your test. You need to get these bells from me - Sakura, you can stop bowing. You need to get these bells from me within the next hour. Only two of you will be able to pass, the last one will be sent back to the academy."
"HUH?! BUT THAT'S TOTALLY UNFAIR SENSEI!"
As Naruto whined, Sasuke appeared to steel himself in preparation, staring intently and listening closely to the upcoming instructions. Both their trains of thought were suddenly sent to a barreling crash however, when their most crass teammate opened her mouth.
"What? That's it? Aight then."
Sakura simply reached out, grabbing one of the bells Kakashi was holding out. He wasn't expecting… that level of audacity. It's not like he was off guard, but this was just like when the eraser hit his head. It wasn't a threat, so he didn't act. But…
"Cool, good luck you two. I already passed, so I'll be nice and help you two get your bells."
"...well, Sakura passed then. As for you two… begin!"
Sasuke expertly dashed away, never turning his back towards his new teacher. Even Sakura couldn't help but whistle in acknowledgement at those high levels of speed.
I definitely ain't on that level yet. Kid musta been practicin' earlier than the rest.
Naruto and Sakura were just standing there. Kakashi looked at them exhausted, and pulled out his copy of Icha Icha. Naruto has his arms crossed, looking almost prideful at the fact that he refused to bounce away, but his ego dropped when he saw Sakura standing next to him, slightly confused at the situation.
"You know Sakura, just because you got the bell already doesn't mean I won't fight back if you help these two."
"Yeah. Kaichou, no disrespect, but this is a team exercise, I ain't stupid enough to leave my comrades behind."
Kakashi lifted an eyebrow. Maybe she wasn't as smart as Sasuke, but there was a certain undeniable aspect of her that gave her an edge over the average ninja.
Thinking like a civilian. Or rather… not like a ninja. He pondered whether she knew that or not.
XxX
From the trees, Sasuke watched as his two moronic teammates stood in front of this Jonin level threat. The man was confident enough to pull out porn in front of them, and yet they still stood there, did they really think they had a modicum of a chance? He knew that being a ninja meant stalking your enemy, finding the right time to pounce. Yet part of him felt a strange tug… was his pride taking damage? Not just that idiot Naruto, but even the Civilian born Sakura thought it was a better idea to take this guy on full frontal style.
Shit.
He thought for a moment.
What if she helps that dobe get the bell instead? There's no chance, right?!
He stayed put. He stayed put. He stayed… put?
XxX
Naruto weaved through handsigns, and at the very sight, Sakura did as well. Clones of the two swarmed the area, Sakura's heading in first.
"Oi! I got my bell, so I can be reckless! Ya gotta do this a little smarter Narutoad!"
Interesting. Kakashi mused, not paying much attention to the girl's clones as they ran through him.
She tried applying these basic clones offensively, by adding a light layer of Genjutsu to elicit a pain response. Unfortunately for her, a little bit of pain isn't enough to fool me…
Suddenly, a Naruto clone jumped from the swarm, swinging both hands in a hammer strike directly at Kakashi's head. He stood there, ready to receive the attack, but dodged at the last minute when he noticed that Naruto… was slightly taller. Lightly kicking the clone's back, a transformation was dispelled showing a pained Sakura nursing her stricken area. This caused what was presumably the real Naruto to react in an outraged matter, charging forward with his fist cocked backwards.
"OI! Toad, don't just attack him like that yer gonna -"
Boom, hit in the face with a casual backhand from Kakashi, the moves were so slow he would've thought they were intentionally that way. And so, the rest of the Naruto army charged, but as seen by Sakura, these academy clones…
Dingle dingle dingle.
Kakashi panicked, as one of the clone's fingers got to touch the bell.
They were real?! Did they come up with that strategy before I got here? There's no way…
In a swift motion, Kakashi performed a roundhouse kick, clearing 5 Naruto's all at once, but not before the once thought wounded Sakura phased out of existence, leaping onto the jonin's back.
And here I wanted to do a little more reading, sigh.
Kakashi kawarimi'd away, leaving Sakura grappling a log. But, much to Kakashi's shock once again, a Naruto clone jumped out from behind the branch he was perched on! The clone began to breeze through some hand seals. He scoffed, not fearing for any particularly powerful attack from the clearly under trained boy, besides, those signs were for...
KATON! GOKAKYU NO JUTSU!
Eh?
.
.
.
EH?
A great flame formed from the clones mouth, the strain of the technique revealing the visage of Sasuke Uchiha, who's flame caught the ever onguard Kakashi, well, that reputation kind of hasn't been applying so far, but discounting the last three events, THE EVER ONGUARD KAKASHI, OFF GUARD!
Its kinetic force pushed him off the branch, into the small mob of clones below, where without a way to move midair, a clone leapt up and… just barely missed the bell!
But a grievous mistake was made on this day.
"You… you lot… YOU BURNED MY ICHA ICHA!"
A stream of extremely masculine, muscley, powerful tears poured out of Kakashi's only exposed eye! The man literally BLURRED out of existence, before all three genin were found… face down, zonked out.
XxX
Augh… my head's spinnin'.
"Eh? Where am I?"
Sakura found herself next to her teammates, and ahead of them, a dejected Kakashi looked down at the cinders of his once orange book. His Adam's Apple moved up and down visibly past his mask, if anything, its Navy Blue extenuating its shape. Sakura elbowed the two 'doofuses' at their ribs, causing them to jolt awake, the two somewhat bizarrely providing the same surprised reaction. Naruto opened his mouth like he was about to bicker, and Sasuke furrowed his brows as if he was ready to scold, but before a word was uttered by any of the three, their depressed sensei spoke up.
.
.
.
"I hate to say it… but you all passed."
End.
A/N: So… I think this chapter started off shaky! I had no inspiration for how to deal with the rooftop scene, but I think you can tell I got in my zone during the fight :) once again I'm sorry for the shitty updates, I'm kind of a mess when it comes to deadlines lol. Let me know what ships you'd like to see! It's probably a ways away, but there's no harm in planting the seeds now. Just as a fair warning though, I am planning on pairing Subaru/Sakura with a girl, so no SasuSaku or NaruSaku etc etc. Have a good one and drive safe!