I've never tried to write an action scene before (the scene with Itachi was more tense then action) but I tried something this chapter. I hope it's realistic! Let me know what you think! Also side note, I should have one or two more chapters uploaded by tomorrow and then I'll go to once a week for uploads, probably on Saturdays. Because they're less often, they will probably be longer though so thats good news!

~Line Break~

The next morning I was up early. (not as early as dawn but still early.) I set myself up with two packs, one on my hip, the other on my thigh. One was packed with shuiken, ninja wire, and kunai. The other was a mix of kunai, medical supplies, and some exploding tags I had made with dad's help. I was dressed just like I always dressed in the academy, Black pants, taped off from mid shin to ankle before my open toes sandles. Today, however unlike the academy, you could see the white tape because I had forgone my typical weights. I also wore the same fishnet light armor my family favored under a grey v-neck. Looking at Shika slumped at the kitchen table, I could see the similarities between us. down to our posture and inky, spiked hair. I gave a slight grumble for hello, which Shika reciprocated. Mom began to scold me for waking up late, but waved her off, explaining that I was going to eat on the way so that I was less late. She accepted that to Shika's shock ( I could see the beginnings of a morning routine in his head) and handed me some onigiri to munch on while I walked. It would be enough to fill me. (while I loved eating in both of my lives, I couldn't deny that I was tiny in this one. I would be lucky to ever be much taller then 5 foot and I was slight. It was almost pixy like, except, while skinny, underneath my clothing was all muscle. Unfortunately 5 foot of muscle still doesn't need that much food. Truly a tragedy.)

I arrived at training ground 3 by 8 in the morning, still an hour and a half late, but in a much better mood then my teammates, who caught my finishing up the last bite of my onigiri. "YATTA, KAGE-CHAN YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO EAT, DATEBAYO!" Naruto screamed (again right in my ear. He needed to take a step back before speaking from now on)

I blinked slowly at him, then looked around. "Where's sensei?" I asked, glad to see my gut feeling on sleeping in had been right.

Sasuke and Naruto both scowled. "LATE" cried Naruto. (I had taken the step back to avoid the scream. Every little bit helped.) I nodded sagely. Sooooo glad I had slept in today instead of putting up with this for a few extra hours. "Say Kage-chan, why were you eating? You're gonna throw up, Dattebayo!" I tilted my head at him.

"Have you ever thrown up from working out?" Naruto looked as enlightened as if I'd shown him the sun. "Beside's, people need nutrients. Even if you throw them up, you can't get rid of all of them and something is better then nothing if we're gonna be doing a hard test today."

Naruto began jumping and down saying something about how smart an idea that was and he was going to make sure to eat extra for lunch to make up for it. I laughed quietly while Sasuke glared at me. "If I had failed because you were late…" He hissed at me threateningly.

I shrugged. "Then we all would've failed. So be it." He looked at me in astonishment. I briefly wondered if he had ever dealt with someone who didn't care about failure. 'Naruto for all his bravado, doesn't want to actually fail anything. He works hard to improve.' I had seen people like Sasuke when applying for medical school. People who couldn't possibly imagine not getting a perfect score. People who couldn't imagine a grade lower then an A. People who expected others to care about grades and scores are much as they do. 'Once I would've been just like that. But now? In this life?' I knew my skills were better than most of our class. No, I honestly didn't care if we failed. While I thought it would be awesome to be taught by the Hatake Kakshi from my dad's BINGO books, if we failed, we failed. I could try again next year. I still had some time before the war to get better. What was one more graduation exam in the grand scheme of things?

Sasuke was still gaping at me in horror, while Naruto kept up his unending one-sided conversation, now telling me what his options for lunch were (ramen, ramen and maybe some other kind of ramen?) I ignored them both to go lie down by the three training posts in the middle of the training ground, wondering what our test would be and how I could help this team work together.

The second I lay my head down, there was a puff of smoke and our sensei appeared. "LATE" cried Naruto. I scowled at sensei along with Sasuke. His thing was perfect to interrupt my nap, which made me think he'd been watching from somewhere. I was expecting another hour or so. Kakashi-sensei eye-smiled back. I think he could tell what I was thinking cause it looked extra fake to me. 'He must be annoyed I showed up late' I sat up and rolled into crosslegged seated position, looking up at sensei. Without meaning too, Naruto copied me, and Kakashi, shrugged and joined us on the ground, making Sasuke look stupid being the only one standing. His scowl deepened, but he grudgingly joined us on the ground.

"Sorry, sorry, there was a little old lady who needed help with her groceries on the way here…"

"Shops only opened an hour ago." I said innocently, widening my eyes and looking at him from under my fringe.

"…and before that, I forgot to feed my dogs so I had to turn back and make sure they were fed."

"It's best to feed dogs at midday and evening, not at dawn. Surely a dog owner like you would know that best?" I keep the doe eyes up, not for a second sounding angry at his being late, instead channeling innocence, my best weapon in pissing people off. (Something about playing dumb really got to people)

"…And before that there was a cat stuck in a tree that I needed to help down."

"How kind." I murmured lowering my head in acquiescence. I'd let him have this one for now.

He clapped his hands together. "Any~way, today we have your test! Its pretty simple for the rules." He stood, triggering Naruto to bounce up and Sasuke to slowly rise up. I stayed sitting tilting my head to the side and listening carefully. "I have two bells here" He indicated his side where two tiny, silver bells hung, "and you need to get them. A bell equals a pass!" He plopped an alarm clock on one of the training posts. He eye smiled at us and then clapped again. "You have until 12. Any questions?"

Naruto looked back and forth between the bells then us for a second (likely he was counting). "YAH Ojii-san theres not enough bells! There are three of us!" He indicated to us, "And only two bells!" I looked at Kakashi's face curious for how the explanation would go. As someone who I knew was the real og on teamwork, surely he wouldn't fail one of us?

"One of you will fail. At least one of you. Maybe all three of you if no one gets a bell." Eye-smile.

I frowned. That didn't make much sense. Teams passed or failed together. Besides, he was living legend. There was no chance that we were going to get the bells on our own. (wellllll I had been practicing the shunshin with Shisui no Shunshin, so maybe I had a chance without my weights, but it was unlikely unless he was really distracted and I would only have the one chance before he would have my measure)

Sasuke and Naruto didn't even question it. "HAH You're gonna fail teme!" Sasuke merely Hnged back at Naruto.

I ducked my head sighing then I slowly stood up form the ground and stretched. "hey guys I have an … Idea…"

Sasuke was already gone and Naruto was already losing to sensei. I blinked. It took me less then 3 seconds to stand up and stretch. Had our team really lost any chance at cohesion in 3 seconds? Sensei glanced at me and I could tell he was smirking, before turning back to Naruto. I watch Sensei send Naruto flying with a jab to his butt and sighed. 'This is so bothersome.'

I mentally calculated our odds as I made my way slowly to the forest wondering if I should look for cover. They weren't very good if I was being honest. I mean, they weren't very high in the first place, but working individually? Our chances were dropped. I scanned the treelike for a glance at Sasuke. Ah there he was hiding in a tree. He was pretty good, but I was good at infiltration and he wasn't even bothering to hide his chakra signature. While not as good a sensor as mom or Shika, I was decently average. I ambled over to him, deciding against hiding (when sensei was done playing around, we were done. Why bother messing around in the trees or bushes if he was definitely going to find us?)

"Yo Sasuke, I have a plan, wanna help?" He ignored me. Well that was rude. Ignoring me wasn't gonna make sensei not notice him over here. "Yoooooo Sasuke, come on. Work with me here. I'm sure once we get Naruto we can—" Here he interrupted me

"You think working with two dead lasts is gonna help me? You're going to fail. End of story. Leave me alone to focus." He hissed this at me from his tree branch hiding spot. I frowned. Any civility from yesterday failing after he heard about a teammate being dropped. I guess it invalidated my argument from yesterday. And his chances were admittedly higher then Naruto's were working on his own, but all of ours were higher working together.

"Come on, hear me out. Haven't you heard to always trust a Nara's plan? Think smart, not act stupid? Listen, I can use shadow capture. And I know its not on any files at the academy, because I made sure Iruka thought I couldn't do it. If I can freeze him for even a second, that will higher your chances at catching him." Not a lie; I could use shadow capture. Not as well as Shika, but still reasonably well. Kakashi was a jonin though, and chances were he would be able to fight it. Which was why the best chance we had was to have Naruto and his clones hold him still while Sasuke moved in to grab the bells. Sasuke paused for a second to here my plan before Hgning and and hoping down from his tree cautiously and joining me. I sighed in relief. While there were only two bells, I had a feeling that the point of this was to work together. Even leaving aside my background knowledge of the character, the whole structure of the test made no sense.

Naruto was recovering in the woods a little ways off. He was just as easy to find as Sasuke because his chakra faintly glowed, there was so much. I weaved in between the trees and came up behind him. "Yo Naruto, we have a plan."

Before he could scream out his acceptance, I slammed a hand on his mouth. Still, there was a muffled shout of acceptance. "Right, well its pretty simple as far as strategy goes." He looked at me, vibrating with energy (I know I had promised myself to not compare Shisui and Naruto, but when they were both excited, they couldn't help but let it show. It was a-dor-a-ble)

"So we're gonna use your clones to hold sensei." I held up a hand to stop Naruto, "yes I know that he's too fast for you to grab, but you just need to distract him. I plan on using my family jutsu to freeze him in place for a second so that you can grab him. And I can really only promise a second. Still with you holding him and Sasuke grabbing—" I should've kept quiet.

Naruto burst out "WHAT? We don't need that teme. Let's do this. I'm gonna be Hokage, DATTEBAYO." I twitched along side Sasuke. (If the ninja world didn't already have ADHD as a diagnosis i was gonna be the one to create the label)

"Naruto," I explained patiently, "Our jonin sensei is… well he's a jonin, right?" Naruto nodded in agreement. "That means he's one of the best ninja in our village. Three fresh graduates from the academy don't have a chance against a war veteran of his caliber." He looked confused "we don't have a chance against someone like him." I simplified further.

Naruto now looked deflated, so I decided here was the time to introduce the reward, "UNLESS we all work together, Konoha works in teams for a you can work effectively with a team, as a group your pooled ability level can quadruple and even quintuple. That means our ability goes up 4 or 5 times what we are individually. Its why we bother creating cells in the first place." I hesitated to say the next part I really did. "You know…The Hokage was part of a team too… I bet if you put him on a team with any one in this village, he'd be able to work with them. Even Sasuke-teme" Hopefully that wasn't too overdone. Now to step back and see the pieces fall together.

"YAT—" he quieted as when I gave a sharp rap on his wrist. "Yatta! If I'm gonna be Hokage, I can do it too! Let's work with Sasuke-teme and get the bells." Here he paused then looked horrified again, "But Kage! Theres only two bells!"

I smiled back kindly. "Don't worry. I have a plan for that! Come one lets figure out positions." Naruto grinned, again bouncing with energy, as I led him and Sasuke back through the forest, towards Kakashi's chakra signal. Once we were on the perimeter of the clearing I held out a hand and paused our group " Right, so here's what I'm thinking…" I grinned. It was fun playing poker with a stacked hand after all.

~Line break~

Kakashi POV

It was almost noon. He'd mentioned the time limit, but he wasn't sure they were eating attention as they only had a little over an hour left. He'd even started the test early giving them extra time. Regardless, Naruto was about due for one more beat down, and Sasuke probably wasn't going to give up that easily. The Nara girl hadn't tried anything. Honestly if he hadn't been one of the anbu who saw her hold back Itachi, he probably would written her off already. But she had managed to hold him off for few seconds. And even a few seconds was impressive enough for him to be watching her chakra signature. And more importantly, it said in her file from the academy that she didn't know the family jutsu which meant that at 12 she was already holding back her abilities from official review.

He'd noticed when she had gone to talk to Sasuke (how could he not; she was the antithesis of subtle) while he was dealing with Naruto and his clones. She had then moved on to Naruto with Sasuke in tow, while Kakashi stood alone in the clearing readind. And now all three of them were plotting in the woods. He sighed. At least that was one show of teamwork, but the two boys seemed to be making life difficult.

No, there was no point in passing this team. He wasn't so stupid as to fall for the councils stupid excuses. He wasn't planning on taking a team that was destined to have two genin fail or die. Did the council think he'd stopped caring for sensei's son? No, he wasn't going to pass a team like this. Even with an apparent Nara genius. She must be to have the foresight to hide her skills and to be able to talk Naruto and Sasuke around.

He twisted out of the way of three shuiken as Sasuke and Naruto finally burst from the trees, to attack him. They both launched themselves at him and —strike that this must be Naruto and a clone henged to look like Sasuke. Yup there was Sasuke's Chakra signature coming at him from his back. He ducked Naruto's punch and grabbed the real Sasuke's leg pulling him forwards and swinging him into the two Naruto's to burst the clones.

Speaking of chakra signatures where had the Nara gone? More Naruto clones burst out of the woods, some henged to look like Sasuke and the Nara (which was funny because they all rushed just like Naruto)and slammed into him, while Sasuke bounced up form the ground and launched himself at Kakashi once again. Kakashi continued to dodge dropping his book to his side, and scanning the tree line, wondering where the Nara had gone when

"ah and heres the last of you" he looked towards the forest where the three Kunai had just been launched at him. He knocked them to ground noticing with interest they had wire attached. Not often you see a Nara use weapons or ninja wire. Still, he kicked a Naruto in the chest launching him away and moved to pop the three other clones, while Sasuke took a second to prepare himself. Some of narutos clones moved to cover the direction from where the kunai had come from, one them moving to stand directly over the wire

Sasuke moved to attack once again, 'Let me guess another Fireball Jutsu. So original.' Kakashi sighed and moved to stab one of the remaining clones with a Kunai when…he… froze… suddenly three of the remaining Naruto clones launched at him grabbing his torso, his arms, holding him in place even as he fought the shadow capture. And Sasuke was already moving snatching at the two bells. Kakashi freed himself and twisted and he would've been able to stop just Sasuke, but Naruto was in the way and he yanked on Kakashi's arm and then the two bells were free.

Not a moment too soon because just as Sasuke pulled away clutching the bells, the alarm clock went off. Kakashi paused and then smiled at the clones and Sasuke.

"Time's up! Everyone out in the clearing." The real Naruto walked out form the tree line where he had thought Kage was. One of the Naruto clones hanged as Kageko shuffled forward and he realized it really was her, while the other clones dismissed themselves. Finally the clearing was back to just the four of them. Kageko didn't look tired at all. She was probably the most put together, but she hadn't stayed on the sidelines the whole time, she had just avoided physically fighting him.

Still, Kakashi had worked with enough Nara to see one of their plans. The ninja wire to get a straight shot at a shadow capture this close to midday. Moving closer then the tree line to avoid expending extra effort. Hiding amongst the clone-fodder. Convincing Naruto and Sasuke to work together in a way that actually complimented them. Definitely a Nara. He was a little surprised considering she wasn't supposed to be as smart as her brother, but he shrugged it off.

He smiled grimily. It was on to the next part. "Well Sasuke, You have two bells. You can either choose to pass one of your teammates or let them both fail." Nara or not, there was only so much you could plan for when there were only two bells. They probably thought they'd have a chance to talk before because the three—well two looked horrified. The Nara looked smug like she had expected this.

"Teme pass both of the bells to Naruto." Sasuke swung his head to stare at her, trying to understand. She smiled at him politely but her voice was firm. "Come on Sasuke, we don't have all day."

Kakashi was absolutely floored when the boy actually gave them to Naruto who simply stared at her, unclear on how he ended up with the bells. This was not what he had expected after reading their files from the academy. One successful plan couldn't really make the team just trust her could it?

"Hmm, Now Naruto make one clone." He obliged and Kakashi sighed defeated by a twelve year old. He held back the laugh. He could get behind these students who won on technicalities. Sure he could fight it, but they had actually understood the lesson of the bell test. And besides the council was wrong; these genin were strong.

The girl reached for a bell and then gestured for the other clone to hand one to Sasuke. Once everyone was holding a bell, she smiled and turned to him.

"Taa daa" she flashed him a victory sign and a bright smile but spoke in such a flat voice that he actually coughed to hide his laugh.

"Well. That'll do it. You pass." Which was impressive considering he was determined to fail them. But clearly the Nara wasn't as stupid as all the instructor reports had said. And Naruto was alright too with skills that far exceeded his dead-last report. And Sasuke had managed to exceed all expectations by working with his team. And even giving up the bells for a second at the end there too, clearly with no idea what the plan was. "The point of this test was teamwork. Those that break the rules in the shinobi world are trash; but those that abandon their teammates are worse then trash. It was never going to just be one of you failing. It was always all or have to be able to rely on your teammates, and always have their back. To trust is one of the hardest things a ninja can do, but I expect you to trust your teammates." He pointed to the memorial stone in the distance. "The names inscribed on that stone are those that have served the village to their highest honor. They are the heres of Konoha." He paused lost in his memories for a moment.

"Alright! I've decided. Im gonna be Hokage and Im gonna get my name on that stone! Dattebayo!" Kakashi kept his face blank, but he saw the Nara wince. Her mothers name was on the stone after all— of course she knew what it was.

"Then you will die." Naruto gaped at him. Kageko turned away. Sasuke looked on trying to seem indifferent. "The names of the people on that stone are those that have died in service to Konoha… My best friends are all on that stone." He let the three soak that in before clapping his hands. "I will do my best to make sure you don't end up on that stone. After all, one of you was aiming for a peaceful retirement." Here he smiled and the mood lightened considerably. "But for now you have all passed. We will be team seven for now! Please meet outside the Hokage tower tomorrow morning at 8 for a team picture and our first mission assignment."

The three genin gather their scattered supplied and cleared out of the field, but Kakashi walked over to the stone. He was now a jonin-instructor and he had some family to tell. "Ah Obito, Sensei, Rin, I guess you might have been watching. But I have a cute genin team now…."