A/N: So this is the first of a series of new chapter updates. I'm uploading everything that I had in storage :). Please be aware that I struggle writing geniuses and I have a lot of focus on Kakashi and Shikamaru who are geniuses, and technically Sasuke since she has the mind of an adult in her head.

Chapter 8: Kakashi-Sensei

Since they had been ordered to be at training ground three for seven in the morning, Sasuke turned up an hour early so she could do basic surveillance of the area.

Training ground three was one of the large training grounds, but was rarely used as such because it was so out of way of the village and was directly next to the memorial stone. There was a large open area which could be used for training in ninjitsu without potentially causing damage to the surroundings. Off to one side was the river, which had to be crossed by a red bridge in order to access the training ground. The water at the edge of training ground was wide enough that they would be able to practise water walking on. Sasuke had already taught herself this exercise, but she was still getting used to doing more than walking on it. At the moment she wasn't skilled enough at adjusting to the flow of water to be able to fight on the surface of the water, and the technique wasn't considered mastered until one could do so.

Surrounding the rest of the training ground was the forest that made up a large portion of the outer section of Konoha. Sasuke took her time to circle the field within a twenty-kilometre radius of the clearing, looking for any traps that Kakashi may have put in place before hand. Although she wasn't particularly skilled in setting more than basic traps, she was capable of identifying up to high level traps. She was hopping to work with Naruto on this skill, encouraging him to place more advanced traps, and developing her ability to identify (and dismantle) them. In the academy, she was the only one other than Shikamaru who didn't get caught in the pranks that targeted the whole, or individual members, of the class. She had developed the ability while going through her clan compound because they had many things hidden under traps, not always relying on the Sharingan to hide everything.

Sasuke had just returned to the training field and was about to begin her warm up exercise, when Sakura arrived.

"Sasuke." Sakura greeted, smiling happily. She was still wearing the impractical pink Kimono dress that she had always worn at the academy. The fabric was from a civilian contractor and so did not have the resistant properties of ninja clothing, which means her clothes would be destroyed in three or four days if she took training seriously, or before the end of her first C-rank mission if she ended up fighting bandits. Her hair was also impractically long for a ninja of her calibre, falling to mid back and was held back with her forehead protector which had been placed on a pink band. Without any Shrunken or Kunai on her person, the only thing that identified Sakura as a ninja was her head band.

"Sakura." Sasuke greeted simple with a nod of her head while moving into the opening stance of her stretches. The horse stance was a good opening stance, since it could easily be adapted into the opening stance, or hold stance, in a fighting style if the fighter was someone who could take and deliver hits from a fixed position. While holding this stance, Sasuke moved her arms into the next position instead of having them rest at her hips. She always started like this, keeping her legs in the fixed horse position, while working on her upper body flexibility, particularly her hips.

At seven o'clock exactly Naruto came racing into the clearing, his eyes clearly showing panic about being late.

"You're late!" Sakura snapped.

"No I'm not. It's seven o'clock. Besides, Sensei isn't here." Naruto answered stubbornly, a wild smile on his face as he looked around, as though he expected Kakashi to pop up from nowhere.

Sasuke paused in her exercises to grab a sealing scroll from her pocket without getting out of her horse stance. She unsealed the scroll to reveal to bento boxes. She had prepared two extra breakfasts that morning when she realised that her team would have taken Kakashi's suggestion as an order. She threw the bento's to each of her team mates before placing the scroll away and continuing her exercise.

"What's this?" Naruto asked, opening the lid. His nose twitched and his stomach started rumbling immediately.

"Breakfast." Sasuke answered simple.

"But, Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-sensei said we weren't to eat breakfast." Sakura said hesitantly, hugging the bento to her chest like it was the greatest gift in the world.

"I have never exercised so much that I've thrown up my food. Besides, if we're going to have to complete a test set by a Jonin, we're going to need all the energy we can get. And even if we do end up throwing up the food, we won't be able to get rid of all the nutrients we'd taken in. Besides, Kakashi sensei never ordered us not to eat breakfast. He simple suggested it. And a suggestion can be ignored if we feel that the reasoning behind it is floored." Sasuke explained simple, never pausing in her exercise routine. She wasn't going to waste time sitting around doing nothing while she waited for Kakashi to show up. Once she knew how the man was going to set up their training, she would decide how to best make use of her time. For now, ensuring that her muscles were warmed up and prepared for a fight was the best thing she could think off.

"Good enough for me. Thanks." Naruto announced, plopping down on the ground and digging right in. "WOW! You're a really great cook. It's not as good as Ramen, but it's still good." He announced after quickly swallowing his mouthful of food.

"Thank you, I've had a lot of practise." Sasuke accepted the compliment as she finally moved out of horse stance and began going through the leg and core exercises.

"Thank you Sasuke-kun." Sakura finally decided Sasuke couldn't possibly be wrong and so dug into the food as well.

*****Scene Change*****

Kakashi already had a pretty good idea of two members of his team. Having been on the ANBU team assigned to guard both Sasuke and Naruto over the years he had been able to watch the both of them as they grew when he wasn't on missions outside of the village.

Naruto was a ball of energy who loved pranking people, but he was also a hard worker. He hated theory work, but he would spend the time studying the note books he had collected, and a few scrolls he had managed to retrieve from the library since he deemed them necessary. Over the last four years, his taijutsu had greatly improved to the point that he was only just behind Sasuke in this area. If his teachers had ranked him fairly (and Kakashi was aware that his scores were not accurate unless they had been graded by Iruka) this would have been reflected in his grade, but he had been marked as just below average for taijutsu. Then there were his high chakra reserves, which meant he was pants at gengitsu, but his ninjitsu (body replacement technique and henge) were both very good. His use of the shadow clone technique proved this. The fact that he was able to learn the shadow clone technique in under an hour also hinted a level of intelligence that Naruto didn't typically show outside of his prank set up.

With a proper mentor Naruto would excel.

Sasuke had self-isolated himself from the majority of his class mates and the village. He only had regular contact with Shikamaru during class, and once a month or so he would visit Inoichi at the flower shop. At first this was because he wasn't emotionally ready to deal with others, but after a while it was because Sasuke didn't see any of his class mates as worthy of his respect, likely because they hadn't proved themselves yet. There was a chance that this would have changed now that his class had graduated, something he had already shown the day before by the way he interacted with his teammates while they waited for him.

In the years since his clan's massacre, Sasuke had become dedicated to his training. From what he, and his team had observed, Kakashi would place Sasuke's level at high to mid-Chunin. However, without any experience in combat or in completing missions, Sasuke's level was probably only at high genin since he only trained on his own or with Lee. He didn't know how his new fighting style, or his Uchiha fighting style, would hold up against an actual opponent, nor did he have experience using his true speed or strength against one.

It wouldn't take Kakashi much time, perhaps only six months, to work out the kinks in Sasuke's style and get him the experience he needed in order to graduate to Chunin, a level which he would only remain at for the time it took him to get the experience of leading teams and taking B-rank missions necessary to be tested for Jonin. In a year, maybe a year and a half, Sasuke would be a full jonin of Konoha – of this he had no doubt.

With both Sasuke and Naruto on his team it was expected that they would become a front-line team, as Sasuke had identified the day before. The both of them had above average chakra reserves, and they were both also very good at taijutsu. However, Sasuke was also looking to become a good genjustu and kenjutsu user, which meant he could be used as a mid to long rang fighter if necessary, which would allow for him to cover Naruto in combat. Naruto had his father's build, but his mother's legacy. If Kakashi introduced Naruto to kenjutsu and Fuinjutsu as well, then he would have something other than taijutsu and ninjutsu to fall back on in a fight and would help with his current short range. The fact that Sasuke had chosen to go down the root of Kenjutsu as well would be useful since they could train against each other. If he also improved on Naurto's trapping skills, and introduce tracking skills then this team would go from being a heaving hitting, front line team, to an all-rounder team. Something that Konoha needed since a team like this could be sent on any type of mission. At the minute, Kakashi was one of the few people in the village that could fill that role.

The only true unknown on this team was Sakura Haruno, a civilian student. The academy scores say that she was the best in theory, and because of her small chakra reserves she also had very good control and did the best out of the females in genjutsu training. Her physical scores did let her down, particularly in the stamina department, but she knew the forms for the academy taijutsu. From what he had observed so far, the girl was fan-girl obsessed with Sasuke, hated Naruto and didn't take the ninja career seriously.

There was a very good chance that Sasuke and Naruto would be able to pass the bell test, and by consequence Sakura would also pass. In the event of such happening, he was going to have to break the girl of her fan-girl mentality and get her into shape before he would even consider taking his team out for a C-rank mission. If Sakura couldn't measure up, then he had the right to simple drop her from the team and he would have a two-man genin team until the next class graduated at which point, they might gain an 'odd man out' or student with potential whose team failed the jonin test. Although rare, this had been known to happen when a genin was dragged through by their team mates but hadn't been able to keep up and so had been dropped by their sensei, severely injured or killed or simple decided they couldn't hack it and dropped out themselves.

Kakashi arrived at training ground three, twenty minutes before he had ordered the three genin to arrive, only to discover that Sasuke was already there and completing his assessment of the area. Nodding his approval, Kakashi ensured that he was completely concealed as he settled in to watch over his students. He wanted to know what they would do when confronted with an absent sensei. The day before they had talked about their strengths and weaknesses, but only at the prompting of Sasuke.

Sakura was the next to arrive as Sasuke began going through his warm up exercises. These exercises consisted of a combination of what he would do after his morning run, and some of the academy exercises which he would do before practising his fighting forms. At seven exactly Naruto arrived, which prompted Sasuke to unseal a pair of bento boxes.

Impressive, he'd looked beyond what Kakashi had said the day before and evaluated the situation. A ninja always needed to ensure that they had plenty of energy for a fight, and it was always best to eat something before engaging in combat if possible. The fact that Sasuke had also taken measures to ensure that Naruto and Sakura were in a fighting ready condition suggested that he was more than willing to accept working in a team.

Once Sakura and Naruto had finished eating, Sasuke somehow convinced them that they had best go through some stretching and warm up exercise. Sasuke himself had moved on from exercises to practising his basic kata's. From the looks of it he had decided to only do the first two levels of the Uchiha form. Clearly, he wanted to keep his muscles loose and ready to fight, but he didn't want to waste all of his energy before Kakashi turned up.

*****Prov Change*****

It was nine o'clock when Kakashi sensei finally appeared in a puff of smoke. Sasuke relaxed from her kata and gave her full attention to the man. She had no doubt that Kakashi had actually been sat, hidden from their senses, observing them to see what they would do. Although the man was prolific in his lateness, she very much doubted that he did so without a purpose.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura and Naruto shouted as one, abandoning their kata's to glare at the man.

"Mah. A black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way round." Kakashi gave them an eye smile.

"Lies!" Naruto declared.

Kakashi ignored the anger of two of his genin before explaining what his test was. He wanted them to face him in three on one combat in order to get the two bells that he tied to his belt. If they retrieved the bells they passed the test, if they didn't they failed and had to go back to the academy.

Sasuke frowned during the explanation. Jane didn't know an awful lot about the Naruto manga of her life. What she did know was what she picked up from discussions between her soldiers. Which meant her knowledge was mostly based on character descriptions and fan theories. Over the years Sasuke hadn't paid a lot of attention to Jane's memories, only really using her knowledge to benefit her training and tactics. Because of this, what knowledge Sasuke might have gained had mostly faded. Which meant that she was analysing all the situations she encountered as though she had never heard about it before – even if things had some familiarity about them such as this test. She knew this was something that Jane had been told about, but the only information that she could pull up was that this test was a turning point for the blond ball of sunshine she had been subtle helping over the years.

Konoha had a strong focus on their team work, as she had told Naruto and Sakura the day before. A genin team consisted of three genin under a jonin. This was always the case. Even when a genin – normally one who had graduated early – was apprenticed under a jonin, they always gained another two genin at some point, as had happened with Kakashi sensei. When Itachi lost his genin team mates, he was placed on another team who had a genin in the hospital for the week leading up to his Chunin exams.

So, the two bells were likely a test. Kakashi had designed a test which would put them in direct competition for the bells, making it harder to see the true meaning of the test. They had absolutely no chance of getting those bells from an elite Jonin like Kakashi on their own even if the man limited himself. Sasuke probably had the best chance based off her knowledge and training, but she didn't have the experience or reach to even stand a chance at actually beating the man. Especially when he had watched over many of her training sessions until the year before when her ANBU guard pulled away completely.

The only way they had a chance at even touching those bells was if they found a way to work together. Sasuke was glade that she had got them discussing their strengths and weaknesses the day before since it would make it easier for her to come up with a plan. Having commanded soldiers as Jane and being friends with a Nara, Sasuke had gotten very good at quickly analysing situations to come up with a plan.

The moment Kakashi set the timer and announced the start of the test Sasuke snapped an order at her team mates.

"Naruto, clone cover." Sasuke used the voice of a commander, the one she hadn't had cause to use since Jane had left the army.

Naruto didn't even hesitate before he formed the hand seal required and spammed the clearing with over fifty clones which charged Kakashi. In the meantime, Sasuke had grabbed Sakura's and Naruto's arm and pulled them back into the bushes. She silently led them away from the clearing. Naruto frowned but at Sasuke's signal he kept quiet until they were far enough away that Sasuke felt they were safe enough to talk.

"Why did we run?" Naruto whined.

"Because we need a plan. We don't stand a chance against Kakashi sensei on our own." Sasuke answered simple. "We need to work together to get those bells."

"But there were only two bells." Sakura frowned, hesitant to speak out against Sasuke but doing so anyway.

"It's a test. Kakashi can't pass two genin, that's not how team formations work. But he wanted to make it sound like we had to fight each other so that it was harder for us to see the true meaning of the test. One of the important rules about being a ninja is looking underneath the underneath." Sasuke explained as simply as she could. "Besides, if I'm wrong you two can take the bells. The council won't let me remain in the academy, I'm the last Uchiha in Konoha after all." Sasuke finished bitterly.

She'd noticed the way the civilians acted around her, and she knew that this was a result of Danzo and the council's whispers. They placed her, and her clan, on a pedestal. And they felt that by trying to give her preferential treatment she would be more likely to be loyal to Konoha and their agenda. Especially since, once she'd either reached the aged of sixteen or a jonin, they would start to push her to marry a woman and restore her clan with as many kids a possible. She knew that the only reason there was only two Uchiha alive was because of Danzo's order to massacre her clan. Yes, her clan was planning a coup and the only response to that was execution. But the children, the civilians and those the T&I could have proved innocent were supposed to have been spared. Instead of taking out over one hundred people, only forty to fifty would have been killed in the clean out. And her brother wouldn't have been left, on the run doing god knows what to survive, unknowing that she had discovered the truth.

"So, what do we do?" Naruto asked.

"We need to distract Kakashi. Naruto, how many clones can you make and can a clone you have create make more clones?" Sasuke asked with a frown.

"I don't know." Naruto answered, quickly making a clone. It didn't need any instructions, before it formed the seal and began making clones. It managed to spam the clearing with nearly 80 clones before dispelling when it tried to make more. With the original gone, the other clones popped themselves.

"Okay, so. Naruto, I want you to make a clone, send it charging into the clearing with maybe fifteen other Naruto clones. Have one clone stay back at the tree line, making replacements. Have another four or five clones waiting in the background. When your lead clone signals the backups that it's running low on chakra, use the smoke of forming clones to perform a substitution with your fresh clone so it can continue making more clones. Try and have them attack in formations, using everything you know about taijutsu to keep sensei's focus on you." Sasuke explained Naruto's role with a thoughtful frown.

"On it." Naruto said happily, making the clones and sending them off with a battle cry.

"Okay, now, Sakura how good is your aim?" Sasuke asked the female of the team.

"It's okay. I struggle with moving targets, but I'm good at hitting the centre." Sakura admitted.

"Do you have any ninja wire?" Sasuke asked.

"No, I've not had the opportunity to buy anything yet, not even a set of shurikan and a kunai. I left the academy ones at home because they're blunt." Sakura blushed shamefully at having disappointed her crush.

"Its fine, we'll sort out your standard equipment later. For now, attach my ninja wire to half of these shurikan." Sasuke handed both the ninja wire and some spare shurikan over. After a moment of thought she also handed over a pair of kunai. It would be the height of foolishness to leave her team mates unarmed. "You're going to be covering us with thrown weapons, keeping out of the way of the close fight. When you run out of shurikan, use the henge to turn yourself into a kunai which a Naruto clone will throw at Kakashi's feet along with some other kunai." Sasuke outlined Sakura's role, getting a determined nod.

"Naruto, your role is to keep Kakahsi's attention on you and me. I'm going to be moving among your clones, henged and taking shots at Kakashi. I want you to keep an eye on me, if I give you this sign," Sasuke over lapped her thumbs and place her hands at a forty-degree angle, getting a nod from Naruto, "Then I want you to order all of your clones that are in front of me to hit the ground because I'm going to use the great fire ball technique. In the wake of the fire, send your clones in for a hit."

"Right," Naruto nodded.

"You can be among the fray, but you must always keep an eye on me because I don't want to hurt you." Sasuke repeated sternly.

"I'll be careful." Naruto said solemnly.

"Good. While Kakashi is dealing with your clones following the fire attack, I'm going to electrify the ninja wire, which will be Sakura's signal to undo her henge and grab the bells." Sasuke finish the outline of her plan.

"I can have one of my clones attach ninja wire to one of the lines Sakura set up, and attach it to sensei after you use the fire ball, that way he'll be distracted even more." Naruto proposed.

"If you can do that that would be amazing. But you can't attach the wire to Kakashi's belt without running the risk of electrocuting Sakura. And Kakashi likely has some resistance to lightning since that is his elemental affinity, so be warned that it won't pause him for long." Sasuke agreed with Naruto's idea.

"Let's get to work on attaching the ninja wire." Naruto said determinedly.

It took them thirty minutes to get everything set up before they headed back to the clearing. Before they emerged from the trees, Naruto did something that Sasuke hadn't expected. Eight of his clones henged into her likeness, while another eight henged into Sakura's likeness.

"Good thinking," Sasuke complimented quietly. "Have Sakura's likeness stay at the edges, attacking with kunai and Surikan, while my likeness will be engaging in taijutsu. Use the fighting style you saw me use at the academy and copy it as best you can."

The clones that were henged to look like her nodded seriously to show that they understood the instructions. Naruto had beamed at the praise she'd given him, before he nodded to his clones. Kakashi was stood in the middle of the clearing, reading his little orange book having dispatched all of Naruto's clones and was now waiting to see what they would do next.

Naruto charged out first, with Sasuke on his heels and his clones forming around them. They fell into a protective formation around a clone that was henged into their likeness, making it seem like the clones were protecting the real them, while they tried to get in close to Kakashi to either land a hit or grab a bell. From the edge of the clone attack, and from within the trees, shurikan and kunai were thrown, sometimes falling short and other times forcing Kakashi to dodge or block and stopping him from disabling a clone.

Despite having never fought among Naruto and his clones, Sasuke was instinctively moving her body among them. Several times she launched a Naruto clone into the fight in order to protect the real Naruto from an attack by Kakashi. She never got within arm's reach of Kakashi, instead using her Kunai to attack from a distance and lending back up for Naruto. If she hadn't been working within the mass of clones she would have engaged in hand to hand, but she wasn't skilled enough, or knowledgeable enough of Naruto's fighting style, to do so without endangering herself or Naruto.

She caught the signal from the clone that was with Sakura, letting her know that she had been thrown at Kakashi's feet. Which meant it was now her turn. She spotted the real Naruto had fallen back to analysis the situation before launching himself back into the fight. She moved her hand behind her back to make the signal. She wasn't sure how Naruto was going to signal the twenty clones in front of her to drop, but she trusted that he would as she brought her hands forward and rapidly formed the seals.

"CODE FIVE." Naruto suddenly bellowed.

All the clones dropped to the floor and Kakashi's attention was drawn to Naruto. Sasuke didn't turn her head to see what he was doing, instead she completed the seals and released the large chakra build up in her chest in a great ball of fire. Over the last four years of practice, she was now capable of releasing a condensed ball of fire that was around six feet in diameter and could be sustained for ten seconds at a heat that – if caught within – would melt bone. She knew that Kakashi would be able to dodge her flames, but she was hopeful that she would singe him a bit. In the wake of her flames, the clones and Naruto silently launched themselves. Kakashi had indeed escaped her flames unharmed, but it gave the Naruto clones a chance to grab him.

Kakashi was about to disable the last clone and throw Naruto into a tree as I charged my hand with lightning chakra and touched the ninja wire at my feet. I saw Kakashi visible eye widen just as bit and he quickly remove the ninja wire that Naruto had managed to attach to his vest. Sakura used this distraction to undo the henge. She made a grab for the bells, but Kakashi jumped. Sasuke made a split-second decision when she saw the tensing of Kakashi's leg muscle. She performed the substitution jutsu and took Kakashi's blow to her arms which she had moved into a cross position in front of her body in order to absorb some of the impact. He still hit her with enough power that she was sent flying across the ground.

It seemed Naruto had recovered from being thrown, since he jumped up and caught her falling body before she could impact the ground at a rate of notes. He was grinning brightly as he stared at Sakura, who was stood, tightly clutching the bells in her hand.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, before he jabbed at the two bells that rested on his belt. They disappeared in a puff of smoke – clones. Sasuke got to his feet, shaking out her arms, before she approached Sakura with Naruto at her side.

"Well done," she complimented Sakura with approval in her eyes. She had determined the night before, that if she wanted to encourage Sakura to improve her ninja skills, she needed to use positive reinforcement. If 'her idol' Sasuke was heard praising her for her ninja skills then she would work harder in developing those skills. It also worked in the fact that she was quiet clearly acting respectful and giving her attention to Naruto who she already knew would be able to keep up with her in a fight.

It was going to be a long hard process, but if she could change Sakura's mentality then it was simple going to be a matter of improving her physical weakness. Something which Kakashi was likely to pick up on and start working towards as well. Between the two of them they should have Sakura at high genin level by the time the Chunin exams came around in eight months. The fact that Sakura had eaten all the food brought for her in the bento box (instead of leaving some as her 'diet' would dictate) and executing the plan so skilfully and making adaptions to it, shows that she does have promise as a ninja. They just needed to capitalise on that.

Sakura blushed brightly. "Naruto was the one who came up with the plan." She admitted. "He remembered that I was really good at the substitution jitsu, so he had two clones henge into the bells. When I failed to grab them, I simply used the substitution technique. Thank you, for getting me out of the way."

"You're welcome." Sasuke said simple. She must have used the distraction of finding the wrong genin at the end of his kick in order to succeed. Which was impressive, since Sakura didn't know that Sasuke was going to substitute her place, which means she must have overcome the disorientation of being in a different place very quickly.

"Well Sakura, what are you going to do now? You have the bells. Who gets to become a genin, and who goes back to the academy?" Kakashi challenged.

"I think Sasuke and Naruto should take the bells, they did most of the work and came up with the plan," Sakura said determinedly, holding the bells out for them to take.

"No way, Sakura you should get a bell you're the one who managed to grab them," Naruto immediately denied. "And Sasuke was the one to come up with the majority of the plan."

"But that plan wouldn't have worked without you Naruto. You were also the one to come up with the contingency plan in the event that the first attempt didn't work. And Sakura, you demonstrated impressive chakra control by substituting two objects, of a very small size, instead of substituting yourself with something. You two should take the bells." Sasuke countered immediately.

"Well…" Kakashi began, using a mild genjutsu to make it look like he was looming over them for a moment, before he allowed it to drop. "You pass."

"Awesome." Naruto cheered. "Sasuke tame, you were right."