Yo! Welcome to the fifth part of Ninja of the Spiral. Sorry the last chapter was so short so I'll try and make this one long for you. This chapter includes the land of waves arc and uh when team seven first meets obviously so yeah. Happy reading!

[Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto!]

Chapter 5: Team Seven, Assemble!

The new genin of team seven were in the room for about two hours now.

Naruto never realized Kakashi could be so late.

So he decided to play a prank on him when he arrived. He opened the door slightly and put a chalk board eraser so it would drop when Kakashi came in.

"What are you doing Naruto?" Sakura asked.

"I'm punishing our sensei for being late!" He replied.

"You must be an idiot to think that a jonin would fall for something as dumb as-" Sasuke immediately shut up when someone decided to open the door.

Kakashi entered the room the eraser dropping on his hai

Naruto snickered Kakashi looked up.

"My first impression of you guys.. Well how do I put this..? I hate you." He said bluntly.

The three genin had a slight grimace when they heard what he said

Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were

"Your turn Blondy." He signaled for Naruto to introduce himself.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen, my friends and Old man Hokage. I don't like having to wait for my ramen to heat. My hobbies are training and playing with my friends. My dream for the future is to become the Hokage!" Naruto said.

"You go pinky." Kakashi pointed to Sakura.

"My name is Sakura Haruno. My likes are.." She paused to look at Sasuke and squealed

"My dislikes are Naruto-baka and Ino-pig! My hobbies are.." She stopped to look at Sasuke and squealed again this time quieter. "And my goal for the future is to marry.." He looked away this time and blushed. Resembling a certain Hyuuga girl.

"Alright now you.." Kakashi was still bored he now had to take care of a fan girl.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I don't have alot of things I like and on the contrary I have a lot of things I dislike. I don't have any hobbies. And my goal for the future is to repopulate my clan and kill a certain somebody.." He brooded to himself.

Now Kakashi was disappointed. He had hoped that Sasuke wouldn't turn out how the reports said but now he was sure that he was a time bomb ready to depart this village at any moment, if the slightest drop of power came to his eyes.

He sighed and said. "Alright. Come to training ground seven tomorrow for an survival exercise." Kakashi said.

"A survival exercise? What for?" Naruto asked.

"Do you really want to know? I don't think you'll like it." Kakashi said.

"Come on! Tell us!" Naruto begged

"Well." Kakashi's tone suddenly got serious.

"Out of the twenty seven genin who graduated this year, only nine will pass."

Naruto and Sakura paled when he said that.

"I told you that you wouldn't like it." He ended

"So what was the point of the genin exams!?" Naruto questioningly screamed practically going insane.

"That was to separate the genin who actually had a chance. But anyways. You'll have a survival exercise to test if your worthy to be genin or not. I expect to see you early tomorrow and training ground seven. Make sure you have your proper tools. Oh and a bit of advice, It's best pass on breakfast. You'll throw up." Kakashi said the last two sentences coldly.

Naruto went home after having dinner at Ichiraku's.

He followed Kakashi's orders and packed his Kunai, shuriken and etc in pouch.

He went asleep early to prepare for the next day.

He woke up, got dressed, got his equipment and was about to leave his apartment when he heard a voice.

"Your not actually going to skip breakfast are you?" Kyuubi sincerely asked Naruto.

"Yeah, Kakashi sensei said to." Naruto replied.

"Fool. That was advice. And bad advice at that." Kyuubi said.

"What? Kakashi sensei would never! Plus how can I even trust you." Naruto seemed offended now.

"Whatever don't blame me when you starve." Kyuubi ended.

Naruto hesitated when Kyuubi finished talking. He eventually decided to have breakfast after a while of consideration.

He resolved that Kakashi had never made him through up while training before and decided to leave with breakfast.

"Pretty sure your teammates are gonna be idiotic as well might wanna bring something for them."

Naruto was getting annoyed that Kyuubi kept talking everytime he was about to leave.

"Fine! But if you're gonna say something else say it now!" Naruto said frustrated

Kyuubi snickered and said that's all.

"Hey wait, since when could you talk to me?" Naruto inquired to Kyuubi

"When you awakened that dojutsu of yours. My chakra was somewhat in there and when you used it I gained that ability." Kyuubi answered the blondes question.

"Oh." Naruto said and headed out.

Naruto arrived at the training ground at the same time as the other two. He noticed Sakura looked fatigued. Sasuke looked better but he could tell that he was affected as well.

"Hey Naruto. Why do you look so good?" Sakura asked tiredly.

"You guys okay? You look like you didn't eat." He responded.

It took Sakura a while but she realized.

"You are breakfast!? Kakashi sensei ordered not to! You're getting in huge trouble!" He shouted at him, slightly jealous at his energy.

"No he didn't." Naruto bluntly said not bothering to explain it knowing she could understand.

"Oh.. Well I'm on a diet anyway, hmph!" She acted younger.

"Well your loss since I brought some Incase. Sasuke how about you?" Naruto asked the Uchiha instead.

He considered for a while and took one and thanked Naruto quietly.

Sakura gave in to her starvation and took up Naruto's offer.

Kakashi arrived in the clearing to a sight surprising to him, genin who didn't seem on the verge of death by exhaustion or starvation.

"You're late!" Sakura and Naruto shouted at Kakashi the very second he stepped in.

"Yeah, Yeah! Well you see, I came across a black cat on my way to the training ground!" He lied

"Alright I set it for noon." The three genin continued to look at him this time in confusion.

"This assignment is to take these bells away from me. If you can't. You won't get lunch. You'll be tied to the post and forced to watch your lunch Infront of you until I think you've done enough.

"So that was the reason." All three genin though with relief they had eaten

"Kakashi noticed and said, looks like your not too affected by that! Good job!"

"What do you mean Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura questioned

"Rule number one of being a ninja! Deception is your greatest tool and enemy!"

He explained

"Hey but Kakashi sensei why are there only two bells?" Naruto asked.

"Well there will be atleast one of you or all three of you tied to those posts. And as well as failing the exercise that person or possibly all three of you will be sent back to the academy."

He looked up and saw all of his genin determined.

But Sasuke on the other hand was realizing something was fishy about this. There was always three genins and one jonin in a genin team. There was no way two would be the right number.

"To get these bells you need to come at me with the intent to kill. When I say 'begin' we start."

Kakashi counted to three seconds in his mind.

"..one.."

"..two.."

"..three.."

"Begin!"

The three genin jumped off into the forest.

"Well they're hidden well." Kakashi noted. He was actually quite interested in this team. They might stop his record of failed teams.

"I should probably go after Naruto first since he's the most dangerous." He was about to look for the blonde but noticed something behind him.

He turned to the side and dodged Naruto who was heading for him bells.

He subdued him and Naruto smirked and revealed himself to be a clone.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes and looked around.

He really wish he could use his sharingan right now but that would risk too much trouble with Sasuke.

He turned around when he saw a stream of water heading to him.

He jumped high and Naruto showed that he was hiding in the water stream ready to attack Kakashi.

"Lesson one: Taijutsu." Kakashi said quietly.

He dropped down and dodged various punches by three Naruto clones. He roundhouse kicked all three of them into trees with his hands in his pocket. They dispelled and three more clones came from The forest.

"These are still clones so where is the real Naruto..?" Kakashi thought dodging eve punch and kick his way.

He widened his eyes quickly and jumped in the same second when Naruto appeared from a tree and attempted to grab his bells.

Sasuke saw this as a chance to attack Kakashi when he hit the ground.

He charged for the bells as well and joined the taijutsu fight with Naruto.

Kakashi jumped again and kicked Sasuke back with a light kick.

They continued to engage Kakashi and there was a hint of amusement in his face.

"They have the right idea just not on point. They're trying turn after turn patiently waiting after the other to try." A ghost of a smile appeared behind Kakashi mask as they continued.

"Lesson Two: Ninjutsu." Kakashi said

Kakashi went through a few hand signs telling Naruto he was performing a fire stye jutsu.

He saw Sasuke do the same and shouted for him to stop.

Kakashi's hand signs ended before Sasuke and Naruto had no choice but to push him out the way.

Sasuke got pushed and was surprised when he saw Naruto most get hit by a fireball.

To his surprise Naruto disappeared right before the fireball hit him and appeared right next to Sasuke.

"What the.. How did you manage to dodge that." Sasuke immediately asked Naruto.

"Not right now!" Naruto focused his attention on where Kakashi was.

The fact was he couldn't sense him and that worried him.

"Earth style, Head hunter jutsu!" They heard as something yanked their feet.

Naruto struggled to get out and Sasuke just looked like he was about to kill somebody.

They looked at Kakashi who was dusting his hands off when he realized he was successful in trapping his two biggest threats.

Sasuke broke the silence between them "Gonna tell me what was that back there now?"

"No, I don't even know if I can trust you yet." Naruto refused Sasuke's question.

"How are you going to build trust if you can't trust your team?" Sasuke asked

"After you tried to kill me?" Naruto retorted.

Sasuke looked aways he had no retort himself to that.

"Seriously, you say that like you know anything about trust. You don't even have the thought to work as a team." Naruto said

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke went back to his broody voice.

"Anytime we do a survival exercise, or even anything that relates to teams you always run off on your own." Naruto explained.

Sasuke took a while to process what Naruto said and widened his eyes.

"That's it." He said calmly while Naruto looked at him as if he'd gone mad.

"The whole point of the exercise was to test our ability to work together. There's always three genin in a new team. There's only an exception when a person dies, retires or becomes rouge. The two bells don't make sense." Sasuke explained his understanding.

"So he purposely made us go against each other with the bells to see if we could see underneath the underneath. He even gave us a clue in that speech about deception."

Naruto smirked at Kakashi's ingenious.

"But even if we know how to pass how are we going to get out?" Sasuke asked.

They looked around and saw Sakura approaching them.

"S-Sasuke.. and Naruto but they're bodies are gone!?"

She freaked out and fainted

"Yes! I'm out!" Naruto exclaimed.

He had slipped out a kunai out of his pouch and dug his way out.

"Cool, now help me out." Sasuke demanded.

Naruto helped Sasuke out of the hole and they went to awake Sakura.

She woke up when Naruto shoved her a bit.

They made a plan and all three of them surrounded Kakashi in bushes.

All three genin surrounded Kakashi whilst hiding in the bushes.

A fireball flew at Kakashi from where Sasuke was.

Kakashi easily dispersed it with a water jutsu.

But he didn't expect to see Sasuke there behind the fireball.

"He hid behind it and suppressed his chakra coating it with the one that left with the fireball. Smart." Kakashi said subduing him.

But his expectations were completely useless when he saw Sasuke had turned into smoke.

"Shadow clone? But he doesn't even know that."

He swiftly looked up when he noticed the three genin attacking him at the same time.

He dodge Sasuke, Countered Naruto's Kunai and kicked him away. Jumped over Sakura's kunai, But couldn't hit her when Sasuke threw a kunai of his own. Kakashi was forced to dodge but when he caught a sight of the kunai he stopped.

Kakashi widened his eyes.

The kunai Sasuke threw at Kakashi was the one that Minato-sensei used.

Naruto appeared with a cross hand sign.

Smoke engulfed the empty air beside Naruto revealing 4 other clones.

The piled on Kakashi but we're dispelled as he kicked them and the real Naruto away.

To Kakashi's amusement though they didn't stop their assault. They were synchronized as if they had planned this.

Kakashi behind his mask was making a full smile. His experience in emotion hiding in anbu not working. Nothing could overwhelmed the pride he felt in that moment.

All three genin were close to grabbing both bells the closest being Naruto who had only tapped it.

ring ring ring

The time was officially noon and team seven didn't get the bells.

"Well you didn't get the bells but you still pass! All of you! You proved that you have the ability to work together as a team and because of that I do believe that you should pass. Follow me I need to show you something."

"Why are we here Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.

They had wen to a corner of the clearing to go to the grave that Kakashi had shown Naruto before.

"This stone consist of the names of heros. They were ninja that were killed in action."

Sakura and Naruto developed a frown and Sasuke's expression was unmoving.

"My.. friend's names are on here." Kakashi said in a sad tone.

"Listen, I want you to understand this. It's true in the ninja world those who break the rules are garbage, but if you would a abandon even one of your friends, you're worse than garbage." Kakashi said.

"Yes Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said in unison with Sakura which earned an 'eyesmile' from Kakashi.

"Alright. Make sure here bright and early so we can get our first mission!" The scarecrow said holding out his orange book.

Sakura and Naruto snapped. "You make sure that you come bright and early!" They said in unison again.

3 Weeks later

"Has anybody seen the it yet?" Kakashi asked

"I think so, I see something brown with a red ribbon sticking out from a bush." Naruto answered.

"That's it! That's the cat I saw earlier!" Sakura responded.

"Okay go to Naruto, quietly." Kakashi ordered.

"Sasuke, are you in position?"

"Yes Kakashi-sensei."

"Okay. If it dodges Naruto it will most likely go your way. If not, it'll come to me and Sakura. Naruto, engage in... three.. two.. one.. now!" Kakashi shouted quietly.

Naruto jumped out ambushing the cat and actually caught it.

"Yes!" He exclaimed.

The cat screeched and used it's claws to tear Naruto's face skin.

Naruto dropped the cat in surprise and the cat ran into the forest towards Sakura and Kakashi.

The cherry blossom haired girl had caught it and had not been injured at that.

"I have it!" She said the other three walking over to Naruto.

"Get it away from me!" Naruto flinched as Sakura approached.

The cat hissed at Naruto which made him flinch even more.

Sakura had a deadpanned expression. "It's only a cat.." She whispered just enough so everyone could here.

"That's a demon!" He retorted.

"Ironic." A voice rang from his head.

"It's better than you for sure." Naruto taunted Kyuubi.

"What, so you would want that sealed inside of you?" Kyuubi responded.

Naruto had no response which made Kyuubi burst out laughing.

Team seven headed to the hokage's tower after two days. They had their last mission a d rank as I said two days ago and they were headed for a new one.

"Team seven, Hokage-sama requesting a new mission." Kakashi said entering.

"Alright I have another d-rank mission for you to paint someon-" Hiruzen got cut off by a bored Naruto.

"Ughhh I'm tired of all these d-ranks can we get a C-rank all ready old man?" Naruto groaned.

"Hey Naruto! Don't demand stuff like that! You have the climb the ranks, you're still a newly appointed genin!" Iruka scolded Naruto

"It's fine, Iruka." Chuckled the sandaime. "Very well. I'll give you a c-rank mission. You have to guard someone."

Sasuke and Sakura were slightly taken aback. They didnt expect the hokage to actually agree, especially to someone as disrespectful as Naruto.

"So who are we guarding?" Naruto inquired.

"You can enter, Tazuna." Sandaime spoke.

A dark skinned gray haired old man stepped in. He reeked of alcohol and if the bottle in his hand wasn't enough he was an alcoholic.

"This is the team you assigned to me? It's just a bunch a' squirts! Especially you, blondy." Tazuna spat.

Naruto deadpanned.

"You'll be guarding me with your life until I get home and finish my bridge." Tazuna finished.

Team seven with Tazuna gathered outside the village's gates. Sasuke was stoic, Sakura was slightly hesitant, Kakashi was bored and Naruto was exited.

"There's still no battles on a c-rank mission so don't get to exited Naruto." Kakashi said to Naruto.

"Right.." Tazuna whispered nervously.

Naruto noticed the shift in his emotion and Sasuke noticed his nervous demeanor.

Team seven and Tazuna headed off for the land of waves.

Naruto sensed 2 chakra signatures around them. They were trying to conceal their chakra but he sensed them nonetheless.

The fact they knew chakra control gave him the impression that they were ninja.

He walked over to Sasuke and whispered. "Look out, we could be ambushed."

Sasuke glanced over at Naruto and saw he had a concerning look to he trusted his thoughts.

Team seven just walked beside a puddle when Kakashi noticed something off about said puddle.

He shrugged it off and continued walking.

Just as they were about to pass it. Two Ninjas wearing mist headbands charged for Kakashi.

They had a chain attached to gauntlets on each other's hand respectively.

The caught up to the lazy jonin, rapped the chain around him and tore his body apart.

Team seven and Tazuna looked back and Naruto grimaced "They were coming for me next!" he thought.

"Sasuke help me out here!" He asked Sasuke.

"Hmph" Sasuke grumbled and went to help Naruto.

Naruto was dodging their chain when Sasuke came to help.

The raven haired Uchiha threw a shuriken at their chain pinning it at a tree and before they could recover he threw a kunai into the shuriken's hole pinning the chain even more.

"Huh? It won't move?" The two ninja thought and dismembered the chain from their gauntlets.

They charged Sasuke and Naruto respectively in a taijutsu battle.

Naruto began his battle with a parry. He countered the punch with the sharp gauntlet with a kunai.

Taking advantage of his small size he backflipped and jumped on Gozu's gauntlet.

He smirked at the mist ninja and kicked him the head. He put a bit of Chakra into kick making Gozu stumble a bit before standing up properly.

"Damn, this brats gonna stop me. Heh. But he left the bridge builder wide open."

Gozu smirked behind his mask and immediately rushed for Sakura and Tazuna.

Naruto's paled. He wouldn't make it in time. He didn't have time to put a seal on the mist nin so he couldn't stop it.

He thought of using the body flicker jutsu but he the hand signs would take too long.

Sakura nervously held out a kunai. She wasn't going to give up.

Gozu got around 10 inches close when he was forced back by something.

He disappeared as Sasuke's fight came to and end.

He stopped brawling with the mist ninja was stopped in his tracks and disappeared the same way as Gozu.

Kakashi appeared behind Naruto holding the mist ninja's in his arms both unconscious.

Naruto sighed in relief as he realized that their mission hadn't failed.

"Good job, I'm proud of all of you. You actually stood up to them." Kakashi spoke warmly. "Though I need to discuss something with you Tazuna."

"Hm?" The old man grumbled questioningly.

"Specifically who was the target of these two."

"What do you mean?" Tazuna started to sweat but still remained composure.

"I mean if their target was us ninja or you. These two are rouge ninja and these types take clients to do business for them.

Furthermore we were informed you only requested defence against bandit gangs.

We encountered ninja which would result in this to being a b rank which is out of my genin's league. Im assuming your explanation for this is good." Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the bridge builder.