(A/N) It's Sakura's birthday today! So, you get an extra update of this. Be happy! This jumps a bit, okay more then a bit, but yeah.

"Team 7, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki."

Sakura smiled slightly. Figured, the designated Rookie of the Year, and Dead last. And her, Top Kunoichi. Naruto probably would have been higher, but his grades had never quite recovered from his two month absence. Also, they were kinda the last three options, Shino, Kiba, and Hinata would form a tracking team, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji were a given, and the other civilian kids were tossed into teams together. Sakura was basically a clan kid due to her marriage contract with Shino, and as such, was mostly treated like one.

The other teams read out as expected, and Iruka dismissed them for lunch.

As was normal, Sasuke and Naruto stuck close to her and just a little behind, with Shino by her side. This time, Hinata and Kiba joined them, Hinata blushing and stuttering when exposed to Naruto, and Kiba actually being quiet for once in his life, Akamaru tucked securely in his hood.

They ended up sitting on a ledge overlooking a river. Kiba sat next to Hinata, who had Naruto on her other side, Naruto having Sasuke next to him, then Sakura, and finally Shino.

Sakura, having designated herself as the lunch box carrier, handed out lunch boxes to Shino, Sasuke, and Naruto. Hinata and Kiba pulled out their own lunches.

They were back in the classroom before the specified time, as none of them were very prone to dawdling.


Apparently, their Sensei was prone to dawdling. And lots of it.

Everyone else had already left with their Jounin Sensei, but Team 7 was stuck waiting for their very late teacher.

"When he comes in that door," Sakura began. "I'm going to punch him."

"He's coming, I think," Naruto offered.

Sakura hopped up, standing next to the door, and clenching a fist.

Their silver-haired Jounin Sensei came in the door, only to be punched in the stomach by Sakura. He grunted, frowning disapprovingly at Sakura. "My first impression of you all is that you're violent."

"Darn right," Sakura interrupted him.

"Meet me on the roof," he finished, disappearing in a shunshin.

"He'd better teach us that, or I'm hunting down someone else to do it," Sakura deadpanned.

"If he was alive, I would've suggested my cousin," Sasuke muttered. "But noo, he just had to fall off a cliff and destroy his own body!"

Sasuke was a lot more vocal about his family and past, often complaining that his brother had promised to teach him something or other, and hadn't done it, or something else like that. Or complaining about one of his cousins.


They arrived a couple of minutes later, their sensei sitting nonchalantly on the railing and reading a book.

"Well, sensei? Won't you introduce yourself?" Sakura asked in a poisonously sweet tone.

"Hmm, well, my name is Kakashi Hatake, I have many likes, quite a few dislikes, not very many hobbies, and I haven't really thought about a dream for myself quite yet."

Sakura gave him a flat glare. "Sakura Haruno, until 16, anyway, I like my friends, I dislike you, I have a hobby of crochet, my dream is to reach S-class and still be a mother. If you try and stop me, you will die."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I like my friends and the Aburame clan, I dislike late people, my hobby is sewing, my dream is to Hokage and put a stop to someone's nonsense."

Sakura knew what he meant, Sasuke knew what he meant, Kakashi clearly did not, and probably thought it was some sort of store owner or something.

"Sasuke Uchiha, friends, you, woodworking, slap my brother and drag him back, ANBU captain under Naruto."

Kakashi seemed a bit confused if the quarter of his face visible was any indication. He recovered quickly though. "Alright, meet me at training ground 7 tomorrow at six."

"We'll be there at nine," Sakura said, smiling sweetly at him. "Just so you don't have to worry about us poor small children sitting there all alone."

He gave her a flat stare. "Six."

"Anything else?" Sasuke broke in impatiently.

"Don't eat breakfast, we don't want to throw it up, now do we?"

Sakura thought about it for a while, before a devious grin spread over her face. "Of course, Sensei," She chirped, her suddenly sweet smile fooling no one, least of all her teammates.


"We're disobeying sensei," Naruto said nervously.

"No, we aren't, we're not eating breakfast, we're eating a snack," Sakura countered. "So don't get your scarf in a twist."

"He didn't say we couldn't eat something after skipping breakfast, and we are taking advantage of it. Also, it was a suggestion, not an order," Sasuke agreed, his hands disappearing into his jacket sleeves as he finished his tomatoes.


Kakashi showed up an hour after they did, or, in other terms, three hours after he told them to meet up.

They'd moved onto stretching after they finished their snack, and as such, were all in assorted stretching positions. They straightened when they noticed Kakashi though.

"See? I was right, we should've come at 9," Sakura said triumphantly.

"It was only an hour," Sasuke said, shrugging.

"Cause I was being cautious," Naruto protested. "A cautious ninja is an alive ninja!"

"Very good Naruto," Kakashi praised. He pulled the bells out of his pocket, placing an alarm clock on a rock next to him. "You have until noon to get these bells."

Sakura nodded. "Alright."

Kakashi waited, but no questions popped up. He decided to nudge them a bit. "If you get a bell you pass. If not, you get sent back to the academy."

Sasuke nodded this time. "Okay."

Kakashi waited for the inevitable realization that he only had two bells. It didn't come.

"Are you going to say start?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi drooped inside. "Start," he said, slightly morosely.

Sakura grinned, equal parts glee and malice. She threw a round of kunai at him, before grabbing the boys and disappearing into the treetops. Kakashi neatly sidestepped the kunai, pulled out his book, and waited for them to attack him.

He was still there an hour later, waiting. He'd finished the book for the hundredth time and really thought the genin would've attacked him by now. He decided to go search for them. He spread out his senses, finding the genin apparently standing around waiting. Were they trying to test his patience?

He was on them in an instant, book out and open to the beginning again, and he fought them casually while he read his book. He didn't notice them driving him backward until his feet met nothing but air and he fell backward.

He landed at the bottom of the hole, a bit disgruntled, and very annoyed as his genin used that time to get away. They were working together, and that meant he had to pass them. And now he had to deal with genin. And ones that didn't like him at that. To be fair, a lot of people didn't like him. It was just that these ones would be annoying him day in and day out until they became chuunin.

Kakashi sighed, shunshining out of the pit.


In the end he tied Sakura to the post for no other reason then she was the instigator of 95% of what made him want to fail them. Unfortunately, as soon as he turned his back, and a couple of seconds before that, actually, the boys fed her part of their lunch. Why? Why couldn't they just not have teamwork and make him fail them? Oh well, time to scare them.

He shunshined in front of them, a minor genjutsu darkening the sky with occasional lightning flashes behind him. "You…" he paused for dramatic effect, "pass!"

"Told you," Sakura chirped immediately.

Kakashi debated stabbing her and pretending it was a training accident. Although, whatever clan kid she was engaged to would probably kill him for that, so it was probably a bad idea.


The next day, his genin came to practice without their headbands, and even though he raised an eyebrow at them, they just shrugged and ignored the hint. He ignored them for the rest of training, and decided that they could have the Tora mission tomorrow.


When they did have their headbands the next day, except with embroidered bugs on them, Kakashi raised an eyebrow, paying a bit more attention to his student's outfits. Sakura, the odd civilian girl, with pink hair cut in a short bob around her head, and a dress of all things. The attention to detail on the embroidery was impressive, each little kikaichu had all six little legs, and the fade to white was pretty impressive, along with the little Uzumaki spirals, Uchiha symbols, and a couple of flowers just visible if you looked at the bugs on the bottom. The dress was sleeveless for the most part, just covering her shoulders, putting the armband with the centipede on it on full display. The wooden bracers Kakashi knew came from Sasuke just barely hid fabric arm guards embroidered with butterflies. Based on the amount of embroidered bugs on her person, he'd say the comment about being a Haruno until 16 meant she was engaged to the Aburame clan heir. He was about her age, and it was known that she was friends with him.

Sensei's son was wearing black pants with orange embroidered kikaichu, and a navy blue crocheted sweater with a sewn patch with the Uzumaki crest on it.. He had similar bracers to Sakura, but with the Uzumaki crest carved in them. Other then that, he was mostly normal.

Sasuke was wearing a navy blue crocheted sweater and the Uchiha symbol on the back. Around the neckline, bottom, and cuffs of the sleeves were small Uzumaki spirals, Sakura blossoms, and Kikaichu in orange, light pink, and silver, respectively. Other then that and the headband, nothing was particularly something you couldn't find in a store.

Kakashi wondered how those would stand up to Tora's claws…

(A/N) They'll hold up fiiine. So there's the bell test n stuff, next we have more fun! Happy Birthday Sakura, and have a great day.