A/N:
PREVIOUSLY:
Kakashi gets assigned a genin team a year before the original Team 7 - all of which are reincarnated OCs (not that he knows that, of course). He internally complains about having them in the first place, then they all do introductions. In short, he learns that children are weird and he wants no part in their shenanigans, but alas, he must deal with them for another day (ahahah) so he can have them do the Bell Test.
Akira meets his new teammates, watches the way they look at Kakashi like they know something he doesn't, and thinks, ah, they're reincarnates too .
It's probably not the first conclusion that most people leap to. Not even his teammates, who seem to attribute the others' strange behavior to the oddities of shinobi children.
They could be right, for all he knows. But he doesn't think they are , which is why he shows up the next morning to their team meeting with three fully-made bentos and says—
"So, reincarnation amirite?"
Hotaru's head whips around towards him, and Kaho pauses before narrowing her eyes in his direction. Akira, unphased, shows off his winning smile.
"What did you say?" Hotaru asks slowly.
" Reincarnation? " Kaho echoes flatly. Despite her bored tone, she looks hesitant, and Akira pats himself on the back for his foolproof way to prove their status as reincarnated souls.
"Yep!" Akira answers cheerfully. "I mean, I always kinda believed in it, but in a fictional world? That's wild."
Both of his teammates outright gape at him. He thinks he sees why Kakashi likes messing with people so much.
"You…," Kaho lets out, then pauses. "Hm," she says next, eyes dawning with realization as her lips fall into a flat line. "Fuck."
"When?" Hotaru asks, eyes flicking between Akira and Kaho as if he's truly seeing them for the first time.
"Four years ago," Akira answers, immediately recognizing what the other boy is getting at. "Third year at the Academy."
Hotaru gives a slow nod, and Kaho sighs. "Troublesome," she sums up succinctly, and Akira laughs.
"I guess you really are a Nara," he teases, then laughs again when Kaho shoots him an unimpressed look. "So, what's the plan?"
"We pass, obviously," Kaho drawls, though she looks far more attentive than before.
Akira blinks, curious. "You're not worried about the canon Team 7?"
"I doubt it'll affect them much," Hotaru says with a contemplative frown. "They're too politically sensitive, what with the Sharingan and…" he trails off, making a face as he waves his hand through the air. "Even if Kakashi didn't have personal connections to them, I don't think the council would be willing to place their team under anyone but him."
"Which means," Kaho says, looking to be a mixture of tired and annoyed, "That the best case scenario is that we make it to chunin within the year. Otherwise…"
"We'll either be failed immediately no matter how we do in Kakashi's test, we'll be dropped into the genin corps if we can't prove ourselves, or - and this is the least likely option, considering just how many issues would crop up because of it - we'll become a seven-man team," Hotaru finishes grimly.
Akira hums, lips twitching into a smile. "Aa, but none of that matters, because we're gonna do great!" he tells his teammates cheerfully, and finds himself on the other end of two pairs of raised brows. "We already know what we need to do, yeah? That means we can't fail, as long as he keeps everything fair. And Kakashi's a bit of a troll, but if we can get on his good side, well… Maybe," he suggests with a grin, "He'll turn that around on someone that's not us ."
"The council," Kaho says immediately, then snorts. "I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation."
"We still have to actually figure out how to pass the test," Hotaru points out with raised brows. Before anyone can say a word, Akira's stomach rumbles.
"We'll do it over breakfast," he decides with a sheepish grin, finally taking a seat in the grass before pushing over the bentos he'd put together towards his teammates. "I didn't know what either of you liked, so I just went with something easy," he says, opening his own box. "Hope you don't mind."
Kaho flicks hers open, then shrugs. "Good enough," she tells him, then pauses mid-bite when she tries it, eyes wide. "Wha' the f'ck? Are you a professhional chef 'r shomethin'?"
Hotaru glances at him, giving an agreeing hum as he swallows.
Akira laughs. "Aa, no. But I thought it'd be fun to learn! Pretty useful, too."
"Well, keep doing it," Kaho says, shoving her chopsticks in his face. "You're the team's designated chef now."
"Agreed," Hotaru adds without hesitation.
"Gotcha," Akira replies with an easy smile. "But back to the test: do you think we can actually get the bells?"
"Not if he's trying," Hotaru answers without hesitation. "I doubt he will, though. He did almost get hit by Sasuke's fireball in canon, so he'll probably be fighting us at a chunin level, or somewhere around that."
"You act like that's a good thing," Kaho mutters.
"At least that means he won't use his Sharingan," Akira offers.
"In the end," Hotaru says, steering them back on topic, "Whether or not we pass mostly depends on our strategy, and if we can show him enough teamwork. With that being said," he says, looking between his teammates, "What are you two best at?"
When Kaho doesn't immediately respond, Akira answers with a smile. "Fuuinjutsu!" he says cheerfully, grinning when Hotaru blinks in surprise. "Not the standard kind, though," he admits a little sheepishly, "I'm terrible at that."
"What's that mean?" Kaho asks with a frown.
Akira shrugs. "I had to figure out something for myself. It's not perfect, obviously, and I've not recreated the Hiraishin or anything, but I can make explosion tags, smoke bombs, storage seals, and stuff like that. Oh!" he says, lighting up. "I also learned how to make a flashbang!"
Kaho chokes.
"A flashbang?" Hotaru repeats incredulously, then raises his gaze towards the sky and lets out a long breath. "Right. Okay," he lets out, shaking his head. "Well, at least it should be helpful."
"As long as we don't blind or deafen ourselves with them," Kaho points out, eyeing Akira with a mixture of interest and wariness.
Akira laughs and scratches his chin. "Aa… I'll bring the weaker ones just in case."
"You do that," Hotaru says, sounding relieved. "As for me, I know a decent amount of genjutsu. I probably won't be able to use any visual ones, but other kinds, like auditory ones, might catch him off guard."
"How'd you learn those?" Akira asks curiously. "They only teach you how to dispel genjutsu in the Academy."
Hotaru huffs. "Begging," he admits. "By the time we graduated, I bled all of the Academy teachers dry. I'm not all that great at physical stuff, so I think they took pity on me. Especially Iruka - he probably gave me the most out of everyone. All but one of them are D-Rank or below, though."
"What's the C-Rank?" Kaho asks.
"False Surroundings."
"Oh!" Akira lets out after a moment. "Like the one they used during the chunin exams?" When both of his teammates send him blank looks, he tilts his head to the side. "...Like, right in the beginning. When there were those two chunin at the door, trying to keep everyone from getting in."
Hotaru's eyes light up as he remembers, though Kaho's frown becomes more pronounced. When Akira looks at her, she grimaces.
"I only watched what my brother wanted me to," she tells them. "And that was years before… ending up here. I remember the chunin exams arc, but I think I tuned out most of it 'cause Sasuke kinda pissed me off."
Akira lets out a startled laugh at that, and Kaho shrugs unapologetically. "Aa… I watched the whole thing. Read some of the manga, too." He glances at Hotaru. "What about you?"
Hotaru clicks his tongue. "I… didn't watch all of it either," he admits. "I saw all of Naruto, but only some of Shippuden. I spent a lot of time on the wiki, though."
"Does it even matter?" Kaho asks, chin in her hands. "We'll probably end up changing things even if we don't want to, and by the time 'Shippuden' rolls around, it'll all be different. Besides, we have a full year before the original part even starts, so we're all flying blind there."
"I'd rather not keep everything the same anyway," Akira confesses after a moment. "I mean, I know it sounds cliche, but we've been given a chance to make things better, so…"
"I'm not opposed to changing things," Kaho says with a shrug. "It's not like I really know what's supposed to happen anyway, except for snippets. Like… Zombies and Moon Goddesses?" Her face scrunches up. "Is that actually real, or was my brother just messing with me?"
"They're real," Akira answers, shoulders slumping.
Kaho grimaces. "Great."
"Well, I'd rather avoid that if we could," Hotaru says, looking disturbed. "And… Well, I don't think we should go in guns blazing or anything, but I don't think we should just do nothing , either. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not be relegated to a background character who gets sacrificed for the protagonist's power up, or something."
"Sounds spiteful," Akira mentions.
"Yeah, well," Hotaru says, rolling his eyes, "Civilians are stiffed out of a half-decent education, if you couldn't tell. It's like they're trying to make cannon fodder."
"Yowch," Kaho says, causing her male teammates to blink.
"Oh yeah! You're a Nara!" Akira remembers, then leans forwards, excited. "Can you do those cool shadow jutsus?"
Kaho blinks at him. "Uh, yeah. Only two of them, though. Paralysis and Imitation. Everywhere else, I'm pretty average."
"Hm…," Hotaru lets out. "Well, that'd be good for capture… Maybe…" He begins muttering to himself, while Kaho and Akira share a look.
"Wanna share with the class?" Kaho asks eventually, causing Hotaru to startle.
"Ah… Well, I just figured that our best bet is to probably corner and capture him, somehow. If Akira can set traps, and I can catch him off guard - maybe unbalance him? - with genjutsu, then Kaho can get him with her shadow and…"
"We can get the bells!" Akira interrupts, beaming. "That's a great idea!"
"It's shoddy planning," Hotaru disagrees, though looks somewhat pleased.
"We have time to hash everything out," Kaho points out, squinting up at the sky. "Unless Kakashi decides that today's the day he'll stop being late."
They all share a knowing look. As if .
"Good morning!" Kakashi greets cheerfully, a full five hours after he said he'd told them to arrive at the training grounds.
"You're late," Kaho drawls, one eye cracked open.
"Maa, sorry, the traffic was awful this morning," he offers airily, then turns around to place an alarm clock on a nearby stump. "Now that I'm here, though, we can get started. You have until noon," he begins, pulling a pair of old, silver bells from his pocket, "To get these bells from me. That's all there is to it."
After a moment of silence, Kaho sighs, muttering a quiet 'Troublesome' under her breath. "There's only two bells," she points out.
"There are," Kakashi agrees. "Whoever fails to get themselves a bell will go without lunch and will ultimately be sent back to the Academy." After a moment, he adds, "Then again, you could all fail, too."
Akira glances at his teammates before asking, "So there's no way for us all to pass?"
The man's gaze slides over to him, and he hums an affirmative, causing Kaho to make a face.
"Of course," Kakashi continues, "You can use any weapons you have, including shuriken. Though if you're not prepared to kill me, then you won't be able to take the bells."
"...You wouldn't be willing to just hand them over, would you?" Kaho asks hopefully.
Akira chokes on a laugh, while Hotaru puts his head in his hands and takes a long breath.
"No," the man says dryly, and Kaho lets out a longsuffering sigh. "Now, when I say start, you can begin."
There's a beat of silence before—
" Go ."
Akira remains in place, which keeps his teammates from moving. Kakashi, meanwhile, raises a questioning brow.
"'Now, when I say start , you can begin,'" Akira echoes with a million-watt smile.
Kakashi actually rolls his eye, which is hilarious. " Start, then," he says, and with that, Akira and his teammates take off into the trees.
A/N:
i realize i'm doing something dangerous here by having a Nara in the fic, considering the popularity of 'Dreaming of Sunshine'
if it's not obvious enough that their personalities are nothing alike now, it definitely will be next chapter, LOL
(speaking of kaho: while she didn't watch much of Naruto, she IS a clan child, so knows more than the average civilian anyway, which is why she's not completely oblivious to the ongoings in the shinobi world)
on another note: if you couldn't tell, Akira isn't the type to beat around the bush, and their team as a whole is pretty chill (plus, they've had years to find their place in this world), hence why they're not freaking out about the others' reincarnation - not to mention the fact that they'd be more likely to do that by themselves/in their head
relevant to that is the fact that I won't simply be infodumping about their backstories; it was a purposeful choice not to show their realizations of the world they ended up in, and i'll be making mentions of their past as the story goes on, until there's a clearer picture
AKA: you'll learn with them as they figure out more things about their teammates
also: the reason this chapter is 'short' is because I thought it'd be more interesting if the Bell Test was in Kakashi's POV, so I cut it off right before it began
so... get ready for that, plus longer chapters in the future (when the story really kicks into action) :D
anyway
Thanks for reading!