A/N: Apologies that this took so long, I don't have much time anymore with homework and stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to finish another chapter by the end of the weekend, but no promises. Tell me how bad this was please. 

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Kakashi sat on the middle stump, nose buried in his orange, perverted book and occasionally giggling. Naruto grimaced, Kami-sama I hate perverts.

You and me both kit.

Naurto grinned, it looked like he and the Kyubbi had another thing in common. Ah well, time to start the party I guess. Thank you Kami-sama for letting me discover this technique…Koushou Kage Bunshin no Justu! (Advanced Shadow Clone) Henge! Naruto created one Kage Bunshin before turning himself into a windmill shruiken. The Kage Bunshin then jumped into the clearing and yelled, "Nyah nyah, Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi looked up and raised his one visible eyebrow. C'mon Naruto, I'm not that dumb, not after what you just did to my ass. "What is it Naruto?"

'Naruto' grinned, "A fight Kakashi-sensei! A shinobi fight! And no tricks!"

Kakashi's eyebrow went up slightly, Alright then you want a fight, I'll give you a fight, and I'll make sure that you learn that in a shinobi battle, everything goes. He pushed himself off the log, put away his book, and went into a Taijutsu stance. "Alright Naruto, lets go!"

'Naruto' grinned, and yelled, "Alright then! I'll start things off! Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" Putting his hand into the cross seal, he created several dozen bunshins in a loose circle around Kakashi, then each of them pulled out two shruiken, threw it at him, and started another set of seals. Kakashi's eye widened, He couldn't have learned that yet...they stopped abruptly, terminating the line, and shouted "KAI!"

The only thought going through Kakashi's head as he heard that was, Oh shit… Each of the once small, almost harmless shruiken had now turned into a large spinning metal windmill of death, and had abruptly sped up, not having any time for jutsus, Kakashi just avoided them all by jumping up. Looking down, he saw that all of them passed each other where he used to be. Surprisingly, only two of them had hit each other and fell to the ground. It was as if they were thrown like that on purpose…

Kakashi looked up suspiciously at the Narutos. Each of them was standing calmly, even as death by shruiken approached them. The shruiken got closer, they just stood there, then they hit them…and all sailed past as smoke indicated them all as Kage Bunshins. Kakashi hurriedly looked down again, just as both of the shruiken disappeared in ninja smoke and two blonds replaced them. They both threw shruiken up, but only one of them was starting seals. Strangely, the other one had both his arms straight out from his sides, and had closed his eyes. Kakashi was forced to ignore him though as the first one shouted, "Shruiken Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"

Not even paying attention to his about-to-be-shredded-sensei, the first Naruto started scanning the trees around him, with his Kitsune Shriyoku and smiled when heard a puff of smoke indicating a successful Kawarimi, and a sudden, subtle shift in the foliage's chakra pattern. Releasing his doujutsu, he turned to his partner, and said calmly, "8 o' clock. Thirty meters." His only response was a grunt, at which Naruto grinned even more.

Kakashi stared at the odd pair in the center of the clearing. The one who had performed the jutsu against him was now just standing next to the other one, his posture was completely relaxed and open, and he had even closed his eyes and looked like he had gone to sleep. The other one had barely moved from his strange position, except for the occasional twitching and manipulating of his fingers. Hmm, what's going on? Suddenly, the second Naruto opened his eyes and brought his hands together right in front of him. Kakashi blinked, he could have sworn that he just saw blurred red and gold where Naruto's blue eyes had just been before they changed back. Bloodline? Naw, there are only two doujutsu bloodlines in Konoha. I have one of them and the other is pretty obvious. Still…He was about to ask Naruto what it was when the second Naruto said, very quietly and without turning his head, "Do it, now." The first Naruto immediately snapped out of his relaxed position and started doing a long line of seals.

Kakashi just stared at the long line of seals being preformed, and felt slight disappointment that his Sharingan wasn't exposed to catch this new jutsu. He stared eagerly at the young blonde, trying to find out its effects. He was concentrating so intently on the first Naruto's hands that he didn't notice the growing buzzing, or the subtle twitches of the second Naruto's fingers. "Kaze no Yaiba!" What?

Naruto sliced apart all of the trees around Kakashi's for fifty meters. Staring back at the two, Kakashi had the sinking feeling that he was about to get killed. His suspicions were correct when large shruiken surrounded him.

"Oy, Kakashi-sensei!"

That comment made him look back at the pair of Naruto's. "What?"

"I call this one my Fuusha Dohyou! (Windmill Arena)" Kakashi merely looked bored as he tried to find a way out of this. Hmm, never guessed that Naruto knew how to make chakra strings. This could be interesting.

"Fuusha Dohyou! READY! SET! GO!" With a slight finger twitch, the first of ten shruiken started on its course towards him. Kakashi merely ducked right under it and was about to say that he could do this all day…at least until he felt the heat of the burn mark cascading down his back. What? Looking back at the shruiken, he now noticed faint trails of red on it.

"Oh and Kakashi-sensei!" At that the sensei turned to stare at his student, "Did I forget to mention that each shruiken has an element surrounding it? Like fire?" Kakashi winced and quickly revealed his Sharingan Shit; I'm going to need every advantage I have to get out of this. Even a near miss can get me, and he can control these damn things! "Shall we start again sensei? Now that you're ready? GO!"

This time the controlling Naruto twitched two fingers, and sent two shruiken towards Kakashi. Looking closely, with his Sharingan Kakashi noticed a slight trail of white on them. Relaxing slightly with his ability of foresight, he merely jumped to the ground, only to be met with the same pair as they curved down and came right back at him. Glaring daggers at the two, Kakashi threw some shruiken at the two, but never managed to multiply it due to his dance with the metal. Pulling out two kunai, he attempted to block the two, but only managed to have his weapons frozen, the broke as the large shruiken sailed right past him, managing to cut and freeze parts of his vest.

"Oy Sensei!" Turning back at the two and glaring both at a pair of sky-blue eyes and his shruiken on the ground, he tried to think of a way out of this. Kawarimi? Too far. Katon? Might work on half; probably make the other half stronger. Doton shield? Nah, he'd just freeze it then bust through it. But what about…yeah…that'll work. Tuning back to the physical world, he just managed to catch, "…so how bout we turn it up a notch?" Looking around frantically, he noticed that all the shruiken had suddenly started to circle around him. Interestingly, the white and red blended together to make a somewhat pinkish color.

Naruto noticed this turn out, hmm, nice…reminds me of Sakura's hair, maybe I should teach this to her… "Hey Sensei! I call this Rakka no Sakura (Fall of the Cherry Blossom)!" Then, as one, each of the shruiken curved inwards into various elliptical orbits around Kakashi. Kakashi himself was hard put to keep track of all the flying weaponry, each whirling at such a speed as to blatantly show their element, fire or ice. Kakashi just stood there though, making a line of seals until he placed his hand on the ground and called out, "Doton: Doroutoku Enchou (Earth Shield Dome)!

All of the shruiken hit the dome and broke threw it, but revealed nothing but a hole. The first Naruto slapped his hands on the ground and thought, Shit. The second Naruto jumped, just in time to avoid a questing hand thrusting out of the ground. The other managed to grab the ankle of the first Naruto and pulled him down. Kakashi pulled himself out of the ground in front of the one he trapped. Kakashi's eyes widened when 'Naruto' grinned and disappeared in a poof of ninja smoke. The explosive tags he left behind however, didn't disappear, and thus blew up right in front of him, sending him into the air. The real Naruto pulled back his arms, and swung them forward as fast he could, sending the shruiken attached at the end of the chakra strings on a ballistic course with his sensei.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!" Kakashi used the small fireballs move in midair, trying to dodge all the weapons. That was extremely hard as they kept coming back and swirling continuously around him. Naruto had long since landed, but Kakashi was having a hard time since every time he fell, several windmill shruiken came up to meet him, and he had to pull off a jutsu to keep him from getting sliced and diced. Over time though, he managed to pull a Kawarimi with a stone on the ground. Naruto looked over at him and grinned, Kakashi's breathing was getting harder, and he looked a little tired from the midair fight and jutsus. Naruto yelled, "Kakashi-sensei! Try this!" At those words, Naruto pulled back his shruiken to let them fly at him at the same time. Once they were all on a collision course with Kakashi he let the chakra strings go and started doing seals. The shruiken themselves all unhenged themselves into Kage Bunshins, threw kunai at their objective, and performed hand seals, "KUNAI KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

Kakashi started to sweat as he saw death coming. Looking around, he saw a decent rock, and performed Kawarimi. Looking back at the real Naruto, he saw him start doing seals, and instinctively started copying him. Remembering this particular series of seals, his eyes widened slightly even as his mouth shouted in unison with Naruto's "Suiton: Surryuudan no Jutsu."

Both water dragons crashed into each other, soaking the entire area with water. Kakashi smiled, Not bad Naruto. Looking at him again, he noticed him grinning and started slowly doing another set of seals. Kakashi naturally copied again, but this time finished a lot faster than Naruto as he knew this sequence, "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!" and blew out four fireballs.

Naruto jumped across the river behind him, still doing the seals slowly, once he landed on the other side, he finished the rest of the seals rather quickly and blew out four fireballs to match Kakashi's. Seeing them explode over the river, he grinned. As steam started to rise from the heat, Naruto started to do a third set of seals. Sweat started to pour off him as he knew he didn't have much time before his sensei could see him properly, and he really wanted to keep this jutsu to himself.

Kakashi squinted at the steam rising from the river, and raised an eyebrow. Not bad Naruto. So you don't want me to know what's you're doing next huh? The steam messed up his vision, and didn't give him a clear enough view of Naruto's hands to know what he what jutsu he was doing. It did come as quite a surprise when Naruto's voice rang out, "Setsugou Youso: Doton Suiton: Dororyuuou Endan (Union Element: Earth Water: Mud Dragon Blast)!"

Kakashi did a double take, What! But element union jutsus are forbidden! Damn, I wish I saw his hands. Kakashi then had to deal with a large, dripping dragon coming out of the ground in front of him. So that's why he did Surryuudan in front of me, he didn't want the jutsu damage; he wanted the water! Jumping back as he had never seen this jutsu before and didn't know what it did, he just waited. Once the dragon was half out of the ground, it opened its jaws and started a rapid-fire barrage of mud balls at Kakashi. Since he had paused to satisfy his curiosity, he couldn't fully dodge all of them and got splashed with mud from the attack's impact on the ground.

After quite a lot of shots, the dragon finally used up all the mud in the immediate area, and fired three last shots made from the mud making up it's body. Kakashi was puffing slightly, and he was completely covered with layers of mud. Staring back at Naruto, he noticed that Naruto was breathing hard as well, Hm, I'm surprised that Naruto could last this long with so many high level jutsus. Then again he does have Kyubbi. But he should be nearing his limits soon. Wearily, Naruto, put his hands together in a cross seal, he attempted one last jutsu, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Kakashi readied himself…and only one bunshin appeared.

Naruto looked at it, "What! I wanted twenty! Not one!"

Kakashi relaxed somewhat, "Naruto, you're almost at your limit."

Glaring back at his sensei, he retorted, "Like hell I'm at my limit!" He reached back into his pouch and pulled out a blue chakra pill.

Kakashi stared at the strange blue pill, What is that? It looks like one of the Akiminchi special pills, but he couldn't have gotten that. They guard those pills and it's recipe with their lives! Naruto placed it into his mouth and swallowed, instantly feeling the effects, Naruto brightened up, and Kakashi's mood started to sink, Does this guy ever get tired? "Now, lets try that again. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Another four-dozen bunshins appeared, and Kakashi readied himself for combat. Then all the Naruto's closed their eyes and looked to be in really concentrating, Kakashi tensed up even more for whatever Naruto was planning as he saw all the chakra gathering around their eyes. As one, all fifty Naruto's opened their eyes and shouted, "Kitsune Shriyoku!" Kakashi just stared.

Staring at him were fifty Naruto's, with gold eyes and weird shaped pupils. In each eye, Naruto had three pointed, elliptic, tail-like things extending from the middle. By then, a steady chakra flow had been established to his eyes, and the three 'tails'-for lack of a better word- started to slowly spin and Kakashi found himself entranced. The inner parts started moving first, then the outer tips a little later, which gave the effect that there was a three-tailed spiral in each eye. Eventually, the black of the pupil started to change to a crimson red, and it was then that all one hundred eyes started to move, and broke the spell.

Clone after clone came at him, and Kakashi started to feel his body wearing down. After there were only a few clones left, he heard a whistling and jumped to avoid the sudden barrage of weapons. Looking at where they came from, he was surprised to see Sakura crouched on a tree branch. Then he heard a surprisingly familiar voice, "Katon: Gokakyuu no Jutsu!" performing a Kawarimi with a Naruto clone, he looked up at the face of Sasuke performing the jutsu. Feeling a slight breeze, he turned back towards Naruto and stared, Naruto was nowhere to be seen. Looking down and feeling the familiar weight of the bells still tied to his belt loop, Kakashi pulled down his walked over to the stump. Looking down at the clock, he noticed that there were five minutes left. He pulled his Icha Icha Paradise book out again and started reading and giggling like the pervert he was.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Naruto was grinning as he leaped back to the clearing where Sakura passed out. He was holding in his hands the two bells that his bunshin had given him, delighted in the cool metallic nature of his prize. Inside, he could hear the fox laughing, I can't believe he never noticed the bells not ringing as he walked away!

Naruto's grin grew wider, Yeah, I thought we was supposed to "look underneath the underneath". Stupid geniuses think they know everything.

Yeah kit, but the one fault that most of them have is their mindset! I'll tell you from experience, geniuses are called geniuses because they're good, but a lot of them are set in their ways, and that gets them killed. I got to my strength and position through sweat and blood, and I personally find the word genius slightly insulting.

Ah well, they act stupid, the rest of us profit, now if only the other two won't make such a big fuss over this, this will be perfect.

Naruto landed in the clearing, and walked over to his two unconscious teammates. Looking at them, he saw that both of them were still out. Sakura was still frothing at the mouth slightly, and Sasuke was just extremely dirty and out from the hit Naruto gave him. Naruto sighed, spotting a stream nearby, he grinned. Suiton: Surryuudan no Jutsu! A medium-sized dragon of water came up from the stream, and once it hovered over the two unconscious kids, Naruto released the jutsu, causing all that water to fall down on his teammates.

Both of them woke up instantly, coughing and sputtering while Naruto just held his sides and laughed. Sakura woke up, soaked to the bone and saw Naruto, not thinking or seeing anything else, just jumped up and hit Naruto over the head, "What the hell was that for?"

Holding his aching head, "Well you were asleep! How was I supposed to wake you up?"

Screeching, and hitting Naruto again, "I was not asleep! And you didn't have to soak us!" Here, she paused in her beatings as her conscious mind registered the presence of Sasuke. Rushing over, "Sasuke-kun! Are you alright? Are you hurt? You're going to get a cold like this! Naruto, if Sasuke-kun gets a cold, I'll kill you!"

Sasuke just sat there, thinking about how to get the bells the next time he fought. Sakura sat, continually rattling off questions that he didn't really pay attention to, until one got through his head, "…so you did get bells, right Sasuke-kun?"

Looking up at Sakura, he answered "I got pretty close. I'll get them next time" Sasuke's answer unnerved Sakura, I didn't even get close, even Naruto did better than me! If Sasuke passes and I don't, we'll be separated forever! "Um…Sasuke-kun, it's getting pretty late, maybe you should wait for next time."

Sasuke stared at her, "I will get the bells, and I will pass this test. Alone if need be."

Naruto heard Sasuke's answer and started to laugh. Sakura got up, walked over to Naruto, and hit him again on the head, "Baka! What are you laughing at! Sasuke-kun will get the bells next time, just you see!"

Naruto just chuckled a bit and said, "You won't get the bells from Kakashi-sensei."

Sakura hit him again and yelled, "BAKA!" At that, the sound of an alarm clock could be heard throughout the woods, and Sasuke's muttered, "Damn…"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

All three members of Team 7 were tied to the logs. To Kakashi it was surprising that none of them were complaining much. He stood over them and began lecturing them over what went wrong. "What was the objective of this mission?"

Sakura blinked, "To get the bells so we can eat lunch and not fail."

"Wrong! You must learn to read underneath the underneath," Kakashi yelled.

"Teamwork," Naruto said quietly.

Kakashi said, "Ahhh…" So he understands…

Sasuke went, "…"

Sakura just turned to look at him and shout, "WHAT?"

"Right in one Naruto." Kakashi verified for the stunned kunoichi.

Sakura stuttered, "But…but why are there only two bells then?"

Both Naruto and Kakashi stared at her then, in perfect unison they said, "Do you…" Both of them stared at each other until Kakashi motioned for Naruto to continue.

"Do you really think that life will be like that? That everybody wins and nobody loses? Sometimes people have to make sacrifices for the team, even if it means themselves."

Kakashi nodded, "True, for instance," Kakashi pulled out a kunai, used it to cut Sakura loose, then held it Sasuke's throat and yelled, "Sakura! Kill Naruto or Sasuke dies!" He let Sakura stew in such a threat before he put away his kunai again.

Naruto continued, "Kakashi-sensei's test was done to see if we would work together or not. They gave us all the clues, we just had to see underneath the underneath. In Iruka-sensei's class, he told us, and I quote, 'your teams were made to be as equal as possible in terms of ability. Not one team will be composed of all good graduates, and not one of them will be made of all bad ones.'"

Sakura just stood there stupidly, staring at Naruto speak more intelligent words in two minutes than he had said all year.

Sighing, Naruto said, "Each genin team is composed of three genin and one jounin instructor, right?" Sakura nodded, "And there's only supposed to be a 33 pass rate, right?" Sakura nodded again, "Then why would give the entire graduating class, a top chance 67 for graduation?"

Sakura's face just looked blank.

Naruto sighed again, "Geez, and you're supposed to be smart! It means that if you take what Kakashi-sensei said at face value, we could end up with anywhere from zero to eighteen students! If this was truly and individual test and fourteen students passed, then what do you do with the extra two students, huh? Send them back to the Academy? Divide them into quarters for each team? No, that statement is complete, and total, bullshit! The only way to make sure that there's at least a number of students each year divisible by three would be to pass them in groups of three, hence, each team. Get it now?"

Sakura though about it for a while, then gave an expression of realization, "Oh, and the only way we would be able to test each team would be through teamwork."

Naruto shook his head and mumbled, "Sheesh, how did you ever get the title, 'top kunoichi'?" Unfortunately for him, Sakura heard him and hit him over the head for it.

Kakashi was a little taken aback by Naruto's revealed intelligence, but quickly recovered, "Yes, well now that you know why you failed, I'm going to tell you just how badly you did so." Sakura leaned against the tree and started sliding down, head down, hands covering her face, and mumbling incomprehensibly.

He looked over at Naruto, "Naruto, you're too direct. You stood there in front of me at the beginning and demanded a fight. Even more so, you had a perfect chance to take the bells from me when you were on my back, after you planted the tags and didn't even try to take it."

He looked down at Sakura "Sakura, you're too obsessed with Sasuke. You got knocked out from a simple genjutsu, and I was told that genjutsu was one of your strong points."

He looked back at Sasuke, "Sasuke, you're strong, and you're good, but you're too ambitious and foolhardy. You immediately charged into a fight against a ninja you knew was strong enough without any back up. At least Naruto had the help of his Kage Bunshins."

Sighing, Kakashi started cutting Sasuke's ropes with his kunai, "But…eventually, in the end, you did work as a team, even though you didn't get the bells. So I suppose you guys pass." At this statement, Sasuke's stare intensified just a bit, and Sakura stopped mumbling and stared up at Kakashi. Ignoring them, Kakashi walked over to Naruto and cut his ropes off. Lifting his hands up, Naruto grinned and stretched, then started doing wild cartwheels and jumps and yells, mostly celebrating the fact that they passed.

Kakashi coughed slightly to get their attention, then said, "It's official, we are now Team 7. We start our duties tomorrow, report to that bridge in the mornings and we'll start our first mission." With that, he pulled out his book and left in a poof of ninja smoke.

Sakura stated, "We passed, and it's all thanks to you Sasuke-kun!" Here she tried to give Sasuke a hug, but he just sidestepped and she fell. Naruto chuckled at the scene.

Sasuke's brow was furrowed in concentration, Naruto stared at him for a while, the started chucking again. Sasuke noticed and asked, "What's so funny?"

Naruto replied, "You. I'll bet you're wondering how we passed."

Sakura stood up and yelled Naruto's face, "We passed because of Sasuke-kun's skill!"

Naruto stepped back a few paces, dug a finger in his ear and tried to get his hearing back, "Nope. Remember what he said? Word for word, 'in the end, you did work as a team, even though you didn't get the bells.' Now tell me, how do you think that happened?"

Sasuke stated, "You, you made two Kage Bunshins and had them henge into me and Sakura, didn't you dobe?"

Naruto sighed, " Would you please stop calling me dobe? And yes, I did do so. You two should be thanking me, because of what I did, we passed."

Sasuke snorted, "Yeah right dobe. You only managed to get on Kakashi-sensei's back through luck, and you didn't even take advantage of it. I was merely caught unawares, if we had fought again, I would have gotten a bell."

Sakura chimed in, "Yeah! Sasuke-kun would have! You never managed to get a bell even with Kage Bunshin!"

With an annoyed look on his face, Naruto placed his left hand in his pocket and stated, "Sasuke, if you had fought then and there, you wouldn't have gotten a bell from him."

"Want me to show you how I'll do it dobe?" Sasuke got into a taijutsu stance

Naruto repeated, "I said, you wouldn't have gotten a bell from him."

Sakura froze, then she breathed, "You didn't…"

Naruto grinned, "I did." he pulled his left hand out of his pocket, clenched around something. Opening his fingers, he let two bells dangle from his fingers.

Everybody froze in their positions right there and then, different thoughts going through their head.

Sasuke thought, What! He got both bells? Is he stronger than me? No! He is not better than me? I was top rookie! I need power to beat Itachi! I could not have been beaten by someone whose scores are dead last! HE IS NOT, CANNOT BE, STRONGER THAN ME!

Sakura's thoughts went, Wha…what? Sasuke got beaten by Naruto? No this can't be happening! Sasuke is the strongest! Naruto was dead last in the Academy! He can't be stronger than Sasuke.

Naruto just sighed inwardly and smiled bitterly, They don't believe me. You can see it on their faces. They don't believe that I could have gotten the bells, simply because of my grades and actions in the Academy.

Look on the bright side kit, since you're using this lesson yourself, you'll be less taken in with it in the real world, where it'll mean the most.

Kyubbi, if we were your kits, what would you have said and done?

Truthfully? I would have said that in the real world, the most they would've found of you three would be ashes and blood. That sensei of yours was holding back, trying not to get himself and you guys killed, you do know that right?

Yeah!

Good, just checking.

Hey!

What I would have done was beat the crap out of you guys so bad, you wouldn't have been able to sit down for half a year. That dark haired boy is nothing but trouble, and his inferiority complex doesn't help matters much. The girl is almost as bad, incredibly smart, but chooses to let love life and instinct override her common sense. Waste of a good gift. You though, I might have gone slightly easier on you. Even if you were too direct for my taste, you knew his strength, and he acknowledged yours, oh, and you insulted him to boot, even if he doesn't know it yet.

Oh yeah, I still have to set off my prank.

Hehe. I can't wait to see him tomorrow.

Naruto grinned as Kyubbi's laughter echoed off his mental hallways. Surprising both Sakura and Sasuke, he put his other hand up in a half-tiger seal, applied chakra, and said, "Boom." A faint, muffled explosion echoed, accompanied by a large angry wail of "NARUTO!"

Laughing, Naruto put the bells back in his pocket, and started walking away, leaving behind a very stunned Sakura and a very angry Sasuke.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

A very pissed off Kakashi stalked the streets of Konoha, walking with a furious rage in his stride, and snapping at more than just a few people as he passed by. After walking down several dead ends, doubling back a few times, he started to relax slightly and headed for the roofs. Leaping along to the other side of the village, he suddenly felt a slight shiver, and his anger flared up again. Jumping down to the street, he stopped in front of a very prestigious building, with several floors and a very wide roof, it was one of the most noticeable buildings in Konoha. Ignoring this one, Kakashi turned towards a very old and rundown once-apartment building. Taking out a kunai, he cut himself and smeared some blood on the decrepit door and went inside. The image that greeted him was gratefully, and unexpectedly different then that on the outside; A nice greeting room with plush chairs and a corner bar, and more than just a few semi-drunk jounins. Ignoring them, he went straight to the steel door at the far end and stepped into the elevator. Going all the way up to the top floor, he stepped out into a very sunny room with a skylight as a roof, into a room filled with other jounin instructors. All talk in the room immediately faded as they turned to see the newcomer. Silence reigned as Kakashi strode to the desk and said in a monotone, "Team 7, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto. Passed."

A collective sigh swept the room as they all released their breaths. The jounin at the desk registered the new entry and stated, "That's the last team. Only two other teams this year passed, Asuma's and Kurenai's. Congratulations."

Kakashi turned around, and asked, "So, whom do you have?"

Kurenai immediately responded, " Inuzuka Kiba, Abraume Shino, and Hyuuga Hinata."

Asuma just said lazily, "Ino-Shika-Cho team, new generation."

"So, the second-loudest shinobi, a bug-lover, and the shy Hyuuga heir on the same team?" Kakashi shook his head, "Troublesome."

"Kurenai retorted, "Don't disrespect my team! And what about Asuma's? Have you actually seen the three of them together? Even though they were a great team doesn't mean that their children will!"

Asuma calmly stated, "And Kakashi, what about your team? You have the last member of the Uchiha clan, a love-struck girl, and-drum roll please-the loudest shinobi, number one prankster, and self-established future Hokage of Konoha. And those are some of the nicer ones that people have called him, most of the ones I've heard are usually attributed to…his burden." Kakashi sighed, it was true that one of his team members was the Kyubbi holder, and the other was a self-attributed avenger. Throwing a love-struck girl into the mix just made it worse.

Kurenai just stared at Kakashi. What is it? C'mon, something's off about him today, I know it! It was just then that Maito Gai crashed through the door. Announcing, "My eternal rival, Kakashi, I heard that your team passed! Congratulations! They are definitely not up to my team of course! We should have them fight some time! And if my team loses, I'll walk around Konoha 500 times on my hands! If I can't do that, I'll do 1000 pushups! And if I can't do that, I'll kick a log until it breaks! And if I can't do that…" Gai trailed off as he saw Kakashi looking at him.

Kakashi noticed this silence and asked, "Hm? What? Don't let me be in your way, continue. I believe that you were at kicking a log until it broke?" Everybody just stared at him, "What?"

Gai suddenly jumped back and shifted into a fighting stance, completely serious, "Who are you? You are not Kakashi!" At those words, everyone in the room suddenly started going for weapons.

Kakashi's eye widened, but his tone still stayed jovial, "What? I am to Kakashi!"

Gai shouted, "Liar! The real Kakashi would have had his face buried in that atrocious orange book by now."

Kakashi suddenly emitted a slight aura of anger, "I would, if for the fact that that book just so happened to have exploded."

Kurenai said quietly, "The Kakashi I knew would have never let anything happen to his book. You're a fake."

Asuma had pulled out his knuckle knives and muttered out of the corner of his mouth, "Kurenai, dispel his genjutsu."

With his enhanced hearing, Kakashi heard this and started panicking. He turned around to Kurenai, waving his hands and shouting, "No! Don't!" It was too late, Kurenai completed her dispel of the genjutsu and stared at Kakashi, expecting the face to change into someone else's. Kakashi winced.

Everyone in the room stared, and stared, and stared some more. The staring went on for a full minute until Kakashi started to get uncomfortable under the many pair of eyes on him.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" A burst of laughter from Kurenai made everyone look at her in surprise. Thump. She had fallen onto the floor and was now laughing so hard she had to hold her gut in one hand. Unfortunately for her, this caused her to overbalance and fall onto her side. She opened her eyes, took another look at Kakashi, and started anew with fresh peals of laughter. The laughter started building up among the other faces as grins replaced grimaces and everyone started laughing. Kakashi sulked as his dispelled genjutsu revealed what he had been trying to hide. The right side of his pants where the bells had hung was gone, destroyed in the explosion and revealing black boxers with a goofy dog face motif. The bottom of his vest had faired slightly better, not being next to the blast, but was still slightly blackened near the bottom. Unfortunately, nobody could really see it that well, as his entire body was splattered with a orange gook and quite a decent amount of feathers was stuck to him as well. To top things off, quite a lot of the orange stuff had gotten in his hair, where it started reactivating the chemical that was poured into his hair the other day, turning his hair into a mess of orange and pink.

To say that Maito Gai was shocked would have been a huge understatement. Once he had gotten his expressions of shock, and not just a few grins, under his control, he lamented, "Oh, my eternal rival! What could have happened to you that did such a horrendous thing?"

Kakashi snarled slightly, "Naruto did this to me!" At these words, most of the jounins, whom had just slightly recovered, dissolved into laughter again.

Tears streaming from her eyes, Kurenai asked, "Na-Naruto? He did this to you?"

Kakashi nodded sullenly. Kurenai's grin widened until she looked like a maniac, "So you're saying that you, Copy Ninja Kakashi, Stealer of a Thousand Jutsus, favorite student of the Yondaime Hokage, was beaten by a very loud, noticeable, idiot of a twelve year old whom is just barely a shinobi?" Wincing at the trap he had just fallen into, Kakashi hesitantly nodded again. Kurenai started laughing her head off again.

Gai brightened at a thought, "Hey Kakashi! When you said that your book was blown up, did you actually mean it?" Kakashi's only answer was to toss a heavily burnt, half of a book at the jounin, hitting him in the face with it.

Feeling sullen, Kakashi started performing the seals for his genjutsu again until he felt someone grabbing his wrist. Looking down, he saw Kurenai's hand grabbing his, preventing him from doing any seals. Looking up, he saw Kurenai's face, still filled with mirth, but slightly serious this time. Looking at him, she shook her head and said, "Let me. It's the least I can do after dispelling yours." Smiling gratefully, Kakashi stepped back, and let Kurenai cast her genjutsu. This time, it was perfect, and didn't give anyone who knew him the sense that there was something off about him again. Once he looked normal again, the laughter slowly started to stop. Everybody picked themselves off the floor as they wiped tears from their eyes and clutched their sides. Every time someone looked at him though, they started clutching their sides in silent laughter.

Feeling somewhat foolish, he picked up what remained of his book from Gai's hands, stuffed it back into his supplies pouch, and strode out the door. Asuma was about to ask Kurenai what she thought she thought about a genin beating the crap out of a top level jounin until she turned around, smiled, and shook her head. Holding up her hand, she started counting down on her fingers. Three. Two One. Everyone waited in silence, then they heard it, a large amount of laughter coming from downstairs and an anguished cry, "KURENAI!"

Smiling at the look on Asuma's face, she answered his unspoken question, "Timed genjutsu. I made it up a while ago and I've been dying for an excuse to try it out on someone."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

A/N: Hehehe! I'm so mean to Kakashi aren't I. I also think I made Kakashi slightly weaker than he should have been, and Sakura slightly dumber. Ah well, chalk it up to pretty boy again. Well, see you next chapter!