In a month Sasuke mastered a whole knew fighting style and learned the Chidori... yes with the Sharingan but still impressive. Naruto remastered most of the academy stuff and taught himself bojutsu...

They learn a lot in the academy. History, anatomy, first aid, traps, tracking, tactics, strategy, taijutsu, throwing weapons and the basic jutsu... so Naruto plus pranks and evasion is actually rather dangerous... plus he figured out chakra control a bit with the leaf sticking exercise.

Remember the aim of this story is full self sufficiency.

The next day, Naruto walked to the training field, yawning with some exhaustion as he made his way. The field was quite large with lots of forested grounds on either side, making cover easy. Years of pranking made it easy to imagine where to hide, how to mask his presence, and know how to evade bigger, more skilled entities. All of this fueled him almost immediately and he knew what to do.

Within moments of entering the field he saw his annoying teammates, Sakura who looked exhausted, and Sasuke who looked fine.

Without hesitation, Naruto moved over to the nearest tree and grabbed some Ninja Study flash cards, moving through them happily. "I have a feeling he's going to be late again, might as well get comfortable."

Sakura frowned, realizing clearly that he wasn't exhausted or hungry. "You ate, but Kakashi Sensei said-"

"We shouldn't eat, nothing about reading so shut up and move on. Oh and here." he tossed two rice balls to the others. " One of the First rules of being a ninja- never go into a mission hungry as it lessens your strength, chakra and more. I read that a few days ago." The others looked at each other, but it was only when Sasuke dug into the food that Sakura did the same. In minutes they were all by the tree, sitting waiting for Kakashi...

By the time the man appeared, about two hours later, everyone was full and content. Kakashi started by saying. " Morning everyone, ready for your first day?" Naruto was moving through Kata for taijutsu, gently as he could to burn off the excess energy he always had. Sakura glared at them and Sasuke looked contemplative.

Sakura barked at the man. " Hey, your late!"

"Sorry, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around." Sakura growled at him. "Well, lets get started." Satisfied with his stretching and ready for a fight, Naruto stopped and moved toward Kakashi as the man put an alarm clock on a wooden post. "Here we go. It's set for noon. The assignment is very simple. You just have to take these bells from me." From a pouch he pulled out two bells. "That's all there is too it. If you can't get them by noon, you go without lunch. You'll be tied to those posts while I eat my lunch." The man suddenly frowned, realizing he heard no stomachs growling. "You all ate, didn't you?"

Naruto shrugged. "You said we shouldn't not that we couldn't. Now I realize it was to motivate us to get hungry so you can abuse us with this test. Smart, mean but smart."

The man's smile turned cruel. " Guess I'm going to have to make you puke."

"Wait of minute, their three of us why are their two bells?" Sakura said, a rare moment of wisdom in her voice.

"Well that way one of you will be tied to the post and ultimately disqualified for failing the mission," Naruto growled this time. "That one will be sent back to the academy. You can use any weapons including shuriken. If your not prepared to kill me you'll not be able to take the bells."

Sakura looked horrified. "But those weapons are too dangerous sensei!"

"When I say start, you can begin." There was a long pause... and then Kakashi said. "Get ready... and start!"

In an instant each flashed away, disappearing into the brush and Naruto was no exception.

Only Naruto had a plan, one based entirely in his long history of pranking... he had so many ideas, and punishments for Kakashi... and boy was he prepared. It had been so long since he pranked someone, and boy was he ready for it.

"""

Kakashi was impressed. 'Ninja must know how to mask their presence and hide effectively... Sasuke and Sakura hid well, but I genuinely cannot detect Naruto at all. How is that possible, his chakra levels exceed the Hokage's in his current state by at least double. How can he be this good at hiding?' Focusing hard, Kakashi tried to genuinely find Naruto but was stunned to realize that he couldn't even smell the boy, or rather all he could smell was the boy. He couldn't hear him trampling in the undergrowth, feel his incredible chakra, it was like he just vanished. 'He has a long history of pranking and evading capture, Iruka is a skilled tracker, that I know, so maybe that is where his skills come from, especially mixed with his more recent studying. There are entire facets of the academy for evasion, since Genin cannot go against higher level Ninja safely we teach them to escape and hide. These two factors mean that Naruto is going to be very hard to find, but is that all? I guess I'll have to start with the others, lure him out.'

Turning to where he sensed Sakura, Kakashi vanished.

"Shinobi art number one- Genjutsu."

Casting the Demonic Illusion genjutsu, Kakashi watched as it took instant effect and Sakura screeched before passing out seeing who knew what. Sighing, he turned only to be peppered by shuriken from two directions, one from Sasuke and one from another source. It was effortless to dodge, to replace himself with a log. He created two clones and sent them into the woods, one to look for Naruto, the other to stay nearby for future use.

It was easy to appear behind Sasuke, who turned to look towards Sakura's scream.

"Simple mind control, Genjutsu but I am not like the others." Sasuke said, detecting his presence.

Kakashi laughed. "We will-" And a dozen more kunai appeared rushing towards him, he caught them all, only to cringe as his clone was killed by a kunai to the back. 'Naruto killed my clone, and so efficiently, that was my kidney... good boy, but very unlike the brawler, bratty boy we all knew of...' Kakashi used the kunai to deflect Sasuke's shuriken without thinking, and threw one at the place he swore Naruto was at, only to hit something but tree. 'This feels like a challenge...' Turning to Sasuke, he smirked. "Let's see what you can do." Within minutes, Sasuke was partially underground and Kakashi was going through the woods, looking for Naruto. "Where are you, Nar- Why is my nose burning?" He cringed, holding his nose in agony as peppery something burned in his nose, making it damn near impossible to focus. For Kakashi, who had such a strong sense of smell, it was almost unbearable. "Damn this is awful!"

He still managed to dodge a dozen kunai, only to slip when he landed, falling to his knee as something slick covered the branch.

"Paint?" Despite his confusion, he threw himself away from the kunai coming his way, grabbing one, only to flinch and throw it away as he realized it was covered in an explosive tag. The damn thing exploded, and he had to throw himself away as more and more explosive tag covered Kunai were thrown his way. Wide eyed, he readied himself for a shushin, to get to safety, only to feel his senses tingling to get a solid punch to his face that sent him flying back. He turned the action into a flip and landed on a tree, only to feel more squishiness as he slide back. "Where did you get all this paint?"

Naruto smirked, holding up the bells, stunning Kakashi. "Not where I got these bells, Kakashi... or this interesting book. " He held, in his other hand, Icha Icha, entirely unaware his godfather had written it. "Anyway, I think I did okay, didn't you... enjoy the forest fire."

"The what?" Kakashi asked, and then all around him paper bombs hidden among the brush exploded and Kakashi knew no matter how skilled he was, he was not getting out of there unscathed.

"""

Naruto found Sasuke and Sakura quickly, both of them stunned and looking at the exploding forest. "That was me, sorry. I set off a few explosive tags."

Sakura scowled. "You idiot, what about going to far, hmmm?"

"Sakura, he said to go at him with the intent to kill, so I did. I asked myself what my best skills were, pranking came to mind. I treated this like a prank, only made it deadly. This is what I came up with. I came here last night and hid some paint and explosive tags, and well, you see the results."

Coughing drew them to Kakashi, who was slightly burned and smokey, coming out of the forest with an amused air. "So that is how you did it... clever. You came at me with the intent to kill. I cannot fault you for that, It's what I told you to do." The Alarm clock rang loudly. "Well, who gets tied to the pole?"

Naruto turned to Sakura, and pointed at her. "She did nothing, she deserves it to be honest, but the point of the test was teamwork anyway." They all looked at him. "What? I am no genius, but isn't that the whole point of the Academy? I have been going over the tactics and stuff for the last three months pretty heavily. It explicitly says that Teamwork is the key to the Leaf's success, especially for weak genin like us. If I thought, for a moment, you two would work with me I would have asked you to do so but I knew you wouldn't."

Sakura frowned. "But he set everything up to work against each other!"

"That was the point, It was a giant prank with the solution being the obvious opposite. We could and would only find salvation by working together, that is the only way three weak, newbie genin would stand a chance against a powerful jonin."

Kakashi nodded. "Very good, he is right." Clapping his hands, he beamed. " "You pass. A ninja must see through the deception. In the Ninja world, those who break the rules are scum, that's true. But those that abandon their friends are worse than scum. The exercise is over, and you all pass. Squad Seven starts it's first mission tomorrow." Kakashi gave them a thumbs up as they each began to celebrate. "Let's go home."

Naruto threw him the bells. "That was fun... sorry about the near-fatal explosion."

Kakashi waved it away. "I did say to come at me full force... that was more my fault than yours... you did well, you worked to your strengths. You've really grown, Naruto."

"Now, if only I can the Hokage to not freak out because I am growing." he saw Kakashi freeze. "I saw it in his expression, I was naive before not dumb... I know he is not happy that I am not the same boy as before."

Kakashi sighed. "There are reasons, Naruto."

"You mean the Fox?" Kakashi froze again. "I met the Fox, he told me that the Fourth put him inside me... is it sad that the Fox was more respectful to me than this entire village? Sad, but honestly, I have to ask, would you feel loyalty to the Leaf and Hokage if you were treated like me?" Kakashi frowned but didn't reply. "I didn't think so. So maybe, instead of being pissy and hateful, you and everyone just treat me like a person? Earn the loyalty none of you bothered to get in the first place?"

Finally, Kakashi sighed, pained, rubbing the back of his head. "Sadly, you made a good point... for what it is worth, I am sorry."

"You really should be, all of you should be. I never did a damn thing to earn your disrespect or abuse... or indifference and everything to earn you help and respect..." Naruto walked away never seeing the genuine brokenness of Kakashi's heart.

"""

'Minato Sensei, you would be so proud of your son...' Kakashi thought as he looked at the memorial. 'But so disgusted with the village, it treated him like shit for so long... we really screwed up. In a few months, he turned around from a failure on all levels to a scarily efficient kid. Those traps were jonin level, low jonin level but still. He managed to get the bells through a clever usage of traps and blitz tactics. The kid is going places if he can keep this up...' Looking skyward, with a broken heart, Kakashi sighed. 'The kid is right, we did nothing to earn his loyalty, and I am not sure we are ever going to... he is more dangerous than Sasuke and I know we do not have his loyalty... what are we going to do?'

The spirits of the past did not give him any answers...

"Wait, he never gave me back my book! NARUTO!"

Chapter end, tell what you think in the reviews.

This was a joy to write. Naruto managed to prank the entire Leaf Monument in Broad Daylight, without chakra sticking, wearing orange... in a Ninja Village... the kid, if he moved things around, could have made it deadly... he has skills in trap making and evasion and stealth if he actually trained in them beyond pranks.

Love, your Ninja Overlord,

Mika.