Chapter 2: Lesson learned

Kakashi

He watched in mild interest as Izuna and Naruto vanished from sight, slightly impressed by their speed and Sakura well… she wasn't hard to track. He reached for his book in his back pocket and started reading but always alert for danger. He knew where Sakura and Naruto were but he lost track of Izuna, he didn't even know which direction she went.

It wasn't long before he lost track of Naruto too, he hadn't turned the page since he took out his book and he thought that sadly he might not get to read for the rest of the afternoon. He sighed quietly to himself and put it away, convinced an attack was about to come.

A crimson chakra arm came shooting out of the bush at blinding speeds, he uncovered his sharingan and dogged to the left, mind working furiously.

'Was that the nine tails chakra? Could he really be able to control it this well if it was?' he was brought out of his thoughts as more arms came crashing around him, he was avoiding all of them with a little difficulty. Then one came from below and reached for the bells, he was able to doge but just barely.

Naruto came at him from the shadows moving way too fast for a genin, Kakashi crossed his arms as Naruto's head slammed into them sending him sliding back about ten feet. Then he launched into an impressive display of taijutsu, he fought like an animal. Wild and unpredictable slashes with his claws and kicks with wild punches and flips. He blocked and avoided most of it but was cut on his cheek from a slash.

Kakashi was ready for another attack from Naruto but was shocked when one of Izuna's blades came shooting towards him from the side, he pulled out a kunai and blocked it. He was looking directly into Izunas Sharakugon, spinning almost lazily, she smirked. Then he was fighting against her one on one while Naruto sat and watched with a smile on his face. She was fierce and fought with the grace of a swordmaster, he was very impressed and couldn't counter attack at all, she left no openings.

Then she jumped back making hand signs "fire style: fire dragon jutsu" she said while taking a deep breath, the she expelled it. A huge fire dragon came barreling towards Kakashi.

"Earth style: mud wall" he said after making the hand signs, a wall of earth sprang forth and protected him from the flames as they blazed around him. Once the attack was finished he leaped back to avoid one of her blades piercing the wall right where his head had been. He felt a presence behind him and turned to block her blade again, her blade was coated in a thin flame. His eyes grew wide and substituted with a log as her bladed sliced through his knife, he was actually sweating now.

Then three Izuna's burst through the earth around him, he was impressed again she could use shadow clones. He fought them slashing and dogging punching and kicking but he couldn't pop any of them. They had also stopped trying to kill him unlike the original had a few moments ago which he found strange. After a few minutes of this back and forth he was begging to feel tired from using his sharingan, that's when he saw the original Izuna standing with her arms crossed and a shit eating grin on her face, just watching him.

Then two bells dropped out of her mouth into her hand, he looked down to see if she had actually stolen them from him. She hadn't and he was confused but then it clicked the moment before her foot slammed into his chin, he felt her take the bells in the same instinct and went flying through the trees about thirty feet away.

'Did I really just fall for an amature trick like that? I take it back I don't like this team at all.' he thought to himself while rubbing his injured chin. He could hear Naruto laughing his ass off in the distance and Sakura asking a million questions about how they did all that. He decided that since she got the bells he would pass them but he still had to make a point, they didn't even try to work together and that had to change.

Sakura

She couldn't believe what she just happened, she knew Naruto and Izuna were strong but this… no way did she think they could take a jonin. She had always admired their strength and skill but she realised how much they held back around everyone else and it blew her mind.

"Alright very good, lets go and eat lunch we need to have a little talk." Sakura was a little upset that she failed the test but was happy that Izuna passed, she watched her throw the bells back to Kakashi and he caught them without looking. They walked over to the three post on the grounds and sat down, Kakashi looked at Sakura for a brief moment and she felt guilty for not doing anything in that fight.

Izuna

Izuna sat down with a mix of annoyance and pride, she was annoyed that such a simple trick worked on Kakashi but proud of herself for thinking outside the box, she never used tactics like this in her old life… she didn't need to. Although she could have beaten him without them, he was not even close to as strong as the Kakashi from her old time. Though she did hold back against him he was much harder to fight than she expected, he was good with that eye of his.

"Now as you saw, Izuna managed to get both bells. However the bells were not the true objective of this test." Izuna knew this already and she was sure Naruto figured it out too, but Sakura was loud and confused.

"What do you mean? Then what was the point in all this." Izuna decided to speak up.

"It was teamwork Sakura, I'm thinking his original plan was to beat us all then, in a really dramatic fashion hammer that point home. Then give us one more chance to prove ourselves, right Kakashi?"

Kakashi

Kakashi was a little depressed now, she had seen through everything. Not only that she spoiled the fun part and now he didn't know how to send that message to them.

"If you knew all that then why didn't say anything to the others." he asked in a defeated tone.

"It's not that i don't get what your going for, I just have a little trust issues. I'm sure you know why." Izuna said while looking at him in his lone eye, he nodded his head a few times.

"Look i get it but if you can't trust the person at your back, then all you end up doing is hurting yourself. If your waiting for a knife in the back you won't see the one coming for your front." Izuna knew this already, she had lived through it during the war but nodded her head anyway. Kakashi then looked at Naruto.

"What about you? Why didn't you try to fight with the others?" Naruto blushed slightly before responding.

"Ahh… i was going to help Izuna but then i got… caught up watching her kick your ass." he started to giggle after saying this as did Sakura. Izuna looked at him with a question in her eyes but Kakashi spoke before she could.

"What about you Sakura?" she looked down before answering him.

"Well to be honest, I thought i would just get in the way." she said honestly. Kakashi took all this in and decided that he would pass his team but they would be drilling teamwork whenever possible.

Naruto

After Kakashi had talked to them about teamwork and trust Naruto had been starving.

"Hey guys, what do you say we get something to eat as a team." Sakura just smiled and agreed immediately but Izuna was less enthusiastic about this, unlike Sakura she knew where he wanted to go.

"Only if it's not ramen." she stated firmly and Naruto burst into fake tears.

"Come on Izuna i thought we were friends."

"I remember no such thing." she said with a small almost invisible smile but Naruto caught it.

"Fine but you're paying." Izuna lost her smile and grunted curses under breath. Sakura was trying not to laugh, she found this whole thing adorable. Naruto wondered if Izuna actually considered him a friend or not, he hoped she did after all she was the only one he could talk to about his past life and her to him. Though they didn't really do that much, only once or twice so far.

He often wondered what her old life was like off the battlefield but never asked her, nor she him. They finally arrived at the restaurant and ordered their food, Sakura was talking but he was too lost in thought to listen. Once their food arrived they ate in comfortable silence, and when they were finished Izuna paid the bill.

Kakashi

It had been a few weeks since they had formed team seven and one thing was clear, they all hated D-ranks. After the first two Naruto and Izuna started making shadow clones to do them so they could go train. Kakashi wasn't happy about this at first but was stopped in his tracks after Naruto and Izuna said that the clones shared their experience, so technically they were doing the missions themselves. He had to admit they had a point.

He noticed some results of their extra training also, Sakura had taken some advice from Naruto and Izuna and started practicing her taijutsu since she was really lacking in that area. Izuna and Naruto had been working on some combo jutsu involving wind and fire, they also trained in fighting side by side until they could fight without ever getting in each other's way. Sakura had less dedication than them but Kakashi was rather impressed by their attitudes and decided to take them on a C-rank.

A/N: again pretty rushed but that's mainly because nothing really changes all that much in this section, but change is coming. Also i don't have a set schedule or anything so chapters might come out everyday or maybe twice a day im not really sure. Anyway thanks guys.