By the time one of the clones saw a shinobi it didn't know enter the building, the three children had already spent two hours training in Room Two. They were slowly starting to tire, especially Sasuke, who had the least stamina amongst them – although Hitomi was barely better than he was. They had focused on kenjutsu, since Hitomi always had their training swords in a storage seal wherever she went. The boys had quickly gotten used to that little eccentricity: it wasn't the craziest thing she had in those seals she loved so much and hid everywhere she could: in her pockets, under her bandages, against her skin even, stuck there with chakra, if she lacked space.

"Time to go back to the classroom!" Naruto announced, his eyes widening in surprise. Was he doubting Hitomi's words before getting proof she was telling the truth? If so, she was happy. It was more than time for her friend to start doubting what people told him.

When the sensei walked in the classroom, he found them sitting at the back, in their usual seats, quietly eating a light meal Naruto had been clever enough to prepare and take with him in the morning. Hitomi only had rations in her seals, which weren't exactly pleasant to eat. Even the variant prepared by the Akimichi, which she could afford thanks to her late father, didn't exactly taste good. It wasn't their purpose.

"My first impression of you," Hatake Kakashi drawled, "is… better than I would have thought based on your files alone. Meet me on the roof in five minutes." He shunshined away in a puff of smoke before they could answer, addressing them the first eye-smile of a long series to come.

Five minutes was a short time for such a distance – the Academy was seven floors high – but they were ninjas, so they couldn't complain. Such a speed wasn't beyond their abilities, only slightly annoying when the guy asking for it had just made them wait five fucking hours.

When they arrived on the roof, Kakashi was waiting for them, sitting on the edge with his body facing the door they came through. The wind was toying with his hair, and the silver mass really defied gravity. Hitomi had never met the man, who was smiling at them behind the mask hiding almost his entire face, but she knew he was her mother's kind-of-friend. Despite that, he was the only one amongst the Jōnin-sensei who had never visited them in the Nara land. Even Gai had come once or twice – and yes, he really was as eccentric and dynamic as the canon showed him to be, losing himself in long tirades about the virtues of youth and effort at the slightest provocation. Cute, in a way.

"We're going to start with introductions. The important stuff: name, what you like and dislike, your hobbies, your goals in life. Girlie, you first."

"Err… Couldn't you go first, please?"

"Ah… Well, yeah. My name is Hatake Kakashi. I don't really want to tell you about my likes and dislikes, and my hobbies are, well… As for my goals for the future… Nah, you're too young and innocent to hear about that. Come on, your turn."

"Fine. My name is Yūhi Hitomi. I love my family, my shishou, reading and learning. I don't like people who abuse their strength or power, treason and wasabi. My hobbies are training, reading, experimenting and learning fūinjutsu. My dream… My dream is to become a Seal Mistress."

"Well, kid, that's ambitious. That title hasn't been granted to anyone since…"

"The Fourth. I know. Doesn't mean it's impossible, though."

"Ah, we shall see," Kakashi concluded with a dismissive shrug. "Now, the Uchiha. Your turn."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like training and spending time with my family. There are a lot of things I dislike. I don't have any hobbies outside of training, nor do I have a dream. I just have a goal: to kill a certain man… to stop him from destroying the people I love and the things I believe in."

When she heard that, Hitomi shifted so her shoulder pressed against Sasuke's. She didn't feel at ease enough to do anything more in front of their sensei. As for Naruto, he didn't hesitate and hugged Sasuke – it was always fun to watch the Uchiha try to escape even if his eyes gleamed with pleasure. The Yūhi girl couldn't help but think about Itachi at that moment. She wanted to change his destiny, but she was still far too weak as a shinobi to be able to intervene in any manner.

The sensei seemed unfazed by what he had just heard. If the gossip was to be believed, he had been part of the team that had found Sasuke after the massacre, under his ANBU mask. He had to know who the boy was talking about, and yet he only nodded to Naruto. "You, blondie. Your turn."

"Okay! My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I love my family more than anything in the world! I also really love the ramen from Ichiraku! I love ramen, swords and cooking! I hate when someone I love is sad, and waiting when I'm cooking. My dream… It's surpassing all the Hokage, so the whole village will have no choice but acknowledge me!"

Kakashi, despite his surprise – Naruto had been described by the Third in quite the caricatural manner and he hadn't thought about asking Kurenai about the boy – managed to see the other two children's reaction to his declaration. The Jōnin, by observing them, had a brief idea of a possible future: if Naruto showed himself to be worthy of the position he coveted and accomplished his dream, his adopted siblings would stand right by his side, as councilmen and armed hands of his will.

He hadn't been surprised when he had seen that his team included the last Uchiha. After all, he was the only shinobi loyal to Konoha to have a Sharingan, and he was expected to teach the boy how to use it, even though he hadn't had anyone to teach him about it. Uchiha Sasuke would probably get married very young to a woman deemed able to give him as many children as possible – probably a civilian with a history of twins in the family – in the hope that his clan would be reborn from the ashes.

Getting Naruto under his wing had been somewhat logical too. He was the only student of Namikaze Minato to still be alive and knew his and Kushina's fighting style quite well. If the boy was to awaken the Uzumaki Chains, Kakashi would be able to teach him how to use them. Naruto had also been placed under his nose as a reminder – a reminder of what Konoha's enemies could do to the people he loved. Kakashi had understood the message and didn't plan on getting attached to the kids. He would accomplish his duty and, when they all became Chūnin, he would quickly take back his Hound mask and hide in the ANBU. His place in the secret force would wait for him to get back.

No, having the two boys didn't surprise him. The girl, however… Since she was the daughter of one of his few friends, he had kept a distant eye on her. She was clever, cunning, a born leader who would jump all her life from one incredible feat to another. He was surprised she hadn't been taken by the shishou Kurenai had told him about, the one who had taught her to turn her illness into an asset. She would have bloomed faster if she had been the sole focus of an accomplished Jōnin, someone who would lead her step by step on her way to the unthinkable summits she was shamelessly aiming for. Kakashi couldn't do that for her. He wasn't capable of such devotion anymore. "Well, this was all interesting, but I know enough about you now," he said with his typical eye-smile. "Before we get started on missions, I want to be sure you're good enough. For that, I planned a little exercise we're gonna do, just the four of us."

"Uh? An exercise? What kind?" Naruto asked.

"Why, a survival exercise, what else?"

"Ah, just like the Academy!"

"Yeah… Well, not exactly like the Academy. Who knows, maybe having done that will help you. This exercise isn't like any you've done before. You'll have an opponent unlike any you've fought before: me."

"Eh?"

Hitomi desperately wanted to calm Naruto down, but she knew she couldn't intervene. She had known this would happen and had prepared accordingly, but that didn't mean she wasn't nervous, on edge even.

"That's not all, kids. Ah, the heads you're gonna make when you'll understand the stakes of this exercise…"

"The stakes?" Sasuke intervened. "What stakes?"

"Amongst the twenty-seven graduates of the year, only nine will keep their sensei. All teams will face a challenge that will decide if they are worthy to continue being Genin. In other words, this is a hyper-selective trial with a failure chance above sixty-six percent."

Hitomi felt her adopted brothers tense next to her and, yeah, they were probably making funny faces right now. She put in the effort to seem rather anxious, but she wasn't afraid. She had a plan. Her goal wasn't to kick Kakashi's ass – although she could see the appeal in that – and she knew it wasn't what he wanted from them anyway.

"But it's stupid!" Naruto yelled. "Why did we just spend six years of our lives in the Academy if you can throw it all away like that, diploma or not?"

"Ah, yeah, the diploma. It's just a kind of preselection, to sort through the kids who want to become ninjas and stop the ones that would die during their first mission on the job, that's all. You're not even forced to go back to school if you fail: you can enter the General Forces, start a formation in the police or the hospital, or even find a shishou willing to train you… But being in a Genin team is your best chance of getting promoted one day. Now, that's enough. I'll decide tomorrow if you're worthy of my tutelage or not. Bring your gear and don't eat breakfast before coming. You'd puke it all anyway."

Once again, Hitomi feigned fright, but she was rolling her eyes hard internally. Kakashi obviously liked toying with the minds of children, and scaring them wasn't below him. If she hadn't had her precious knowledge of the future, she would have been terribly anxious, terrified by the idea of failing that test.

"Well, you'll find everything you need to know about the exercise on those papers," Kakashi concluded as he gave the documents to Hitomi. "Don't be late!" He then disappeared in a puff of smoke, eye-smiling once again.

Hitomi stood up with a groan of annoyance and shook her head in disbelief. What a good start… Under her brothers' perplexed stares, she minutely stretched, warming one muscle after the other. "What? Worrying is pointless, boys. We won't make incredible progress before tomorrow, right? Let's head home. Mom is with Team Eight today, and it's Naruto's turn to cook. After dinner, we'll talk about strategy."

The following day, the team arrived on the training ground two hours before they were supposed to. All three had had very little sleep, but the survival exercises at the Academy had gotten them used to the effects of tiredness. They were able to work around them or despite them with a rather stunning efficiency for children their age. Training ground number three was still plunged in darkness – Kakashi-sensei's document had ordered them to be there at five in the morning. That didn't bother them either.

Hitomi hadn't needed to insist much for her brothers to take breakfast with them. Kurenai hadn't been able to tell them anything about the exercise, but she had listened in on their preparations with a proud little smile on her lips. Her daughter knew her responsibilities as the implicit leader of her team for the mission to come and was planning accordingly. Kakashi really didn't know what a hornet's nest the Third had given him. Poor him.

"We're gonna start with traps, alright? Naruto, a clone please. Good… The original goes with Sasuke and the clone with me. Let's trap the hell out of this training ground, boys." They snickered and went their separate way. In their team, Naruto created improbably complex traps. Hitomi worked on logistics and creation, which was already interesting on its own, but Naruto? Naruto had a particular fondness for chain reactions and random triggers. There was only one trap that Hitomi absolutely wanted to set up herself, because this particular thing wouldn't be used to harm or disturb their teacher, but strengthen the one skill she possessed that might help them accomplish the goal Kakashi would set for them.

At five, as touches of pink and orange started to appear on the horizon, the three children met again in the central clearing of the training ground. Each of them sat with their back against one of the three wooden poles aligned in the centre of the clearing, sharing a quiet breakfast. Nothing would have worried them more than not feeling ready for the test to come, and Hitomi was willing to let them think, for now, that they could beat a Jōnin by working together. She had spent enough time training with Ensui to know they didn't stand a chance of kicking his ass.

But, once again, the goal here wasn't to beat Kakashi, which her brothers didn't know yet. Fortunately, their true goal would be easy to reach. This year's students had insolent luck, being the first teams trained to work as one for years before graduating, and Hitomi could only try to guess how this change from canon had even happened.

Since their sensei still wasn't showing up, they started warming up after finishing their meal and stretch in prevision of the physical intensity the test would probably include. Naruto had recently decided to focus on taijutsu and kenjutsu, and it showed: his shoulders were becoming wide, his arms were growing stronger. Sasuke was going to the opposite process. He too was focusing on sword skills, but had decided to improve his speed rather than strength. Hitomi had trouble winning against either of them in a spar when only taijutsu and kenjutsu were authorised. She was managing to when ninjutsu was allowed, though – Sasuke looked so offended when she forced him to go to close range, where his Fire Style techniques were useless!

When Kakashi finally arrived, Naruto had just thrown Hitomi to the ground and she was starting to stand back up while stopping Sasuke from immobilising her feet. When they were fighting to be the last standing, the two boys had taken the habit of teaming up against her until she was out then focusing on each other. Both of them knew that, if they didn't take care of her very quickly, they would have a greater problem than any they could create for each other. After all, she fought dirty as hell, her little strikes with the tips of her fingers or her open palm always hitting exactly where it should to send pins and needles or outright pain down their limbs.

"Yo!" the teacher drawled as he shunshined on top of the centric pole. "Feeling good?"

"You're late!" Naruto whined.

"Come on, Naruto, did you really expect anything else?" Hitomi said with a snicker before he could answer. "In the village, they say our sensei is the least punctual man of the whole Elemental Nations. I'm even surprised he remembered to show up!"

"Aw, so mean, Hitomi-chan. Your poor sensei is sad now…"

"But you're not really my sensei, right?" she challenged with a rise of her eyebrows. "So I don't care about your feelings yet. We have to beat you first."

"Ah, right, the exercise. See those bells? You have to take them from me before noon."

With a sigh, Hitomi watched the man as he tied the jingling trophies to his belt. It was almost ten in the morning. Two hours seemed kind of short to accomplish the goal he had set for them. It was still possible, but she would have liked a little more time just to be sure.

"The ones who won't succeed in taking any of the bells before then," Kakashi continued, "will not eat lunch. They will be tied to one of the poles and I'll eat their lunch just under their nose."

Only Naruto reacted to that idea; out of all three children, he was the most recent addition to the family, the one who had known mind-numbing hunger, the need to fight to eat and muffle the icy emptiness that filled his belly with pain and darkness. He sometimes forgot that food would always be there for him, be it on Kurenai's table or inside one of the numerous seals Hitomi always had on her.

"As you can see, kids, I only have two bells. It means one of you will miss lunch. Furthermore, the ones who fail from taking a bell will also fail the exercise. It means at least one amongst you will inevitably fail. You're allowed to use weapons. If you don't come to me with the intent to kill, you don't stand a chance against me." He punctuated this last sentence with a faint whiff of killing intent, just enough to make a shiver run down Hitomi's and Sasuke's spine. Naruto, as always, was oblivious to it.

Steady and coordinated as one body and one soul, the three children straightened up and squared their shoulders. Hitomi and Sasuke stroked the guard of their swords. Naruto's was sticking to his back with a constant influx of chakra, but it would find its place between his hands as quickly as they would unsheathe.

"Are you ready? Start!"

The three Genin immediately used the Permutation Technique to switch with logs they had placed all over the training ground during their preparations earlier that day. It had been Naruto's idea, based on what Sasuke had told them about Shunshin no Shisui's exploits. The idea was brilliant: it wouldn't be enough to efficiently flee from an Jōnin, but it was a good attempt, and Hitomi knew deep down that it was what the man expected of them.

Only when they were out of reach did they stop, all three hidden in the thick undergrowth near the border of the training ground. Hitomi used her meridians to locate the sensei. He hadn't even taken a step in their direction and his chakra was peaceful. He was probably already reading and waiting for them to make the first move. Good. The time he spent doing anything but coming after them was an advantage for them.

"Naruto, Sasuke," she whispered, "go watch him but stay in the forest. I'm gonna send my cats with you." As she spoke, she quickly summoned her three fighting cats. The twins had no place in such an exercise. Her summons had grown during the last few weeks and were on their way to reach her hip with their shoulders in less than a month. They immediately understood how serious the situation was and silently nodded to her in greeting before sitting next to the humans, waiting for instructions.

"Hoshihi, you're the strongest, so you're gonna team up with Naruto and Sasuke. Haīro and Kurokumo, you'll drive Kakashi, the man we're fighting against, to the point Sasuke will show you – you remember, Sasuke, right? I'll wait there. We have to act quickly. Go!"

The two boys and three cats immediately obeyed, leaving her alone as they ran without hesitation nor fear towards an opponent who surpassed them in all possible skills.