It had been several hours since lunch had ended and Team 7's new instructor had yet to arrive. All three of the young ninja were quite agitated at this point and Naruto decided to take out his frustration on their new sensei with a practical joke. He placed an eraser precariously atop the ajar class door and snickered at his plan.
"Dude… it's not going to work. Whoever is gonna show up will be jonin level. They will probably see that from a mile away," Tayuya warned. Sasuke just stayed quite but was thinking the same or was… until said jonin opened the door and seemingly fell for the trap. This caused Naruto be break out into a mirthful laugh while the Tayuya was left with her mouth agape.
"What?! That worked?!" Tayuya stated. She was floored that Naruto somehow managed to pull that off while Sasuke stared at their instructor in disbelief and questioned whether or not he was actually a jonin.
"Hmm… my first impression of you," the older silver-haired ninja said as he examined the eraser that had hit him. "You're all a bunch of idiots," he finished with a smile that the trio could feel was behind his mask. Shortly after, he instructed them all to follow him to a new location so they could talk. Once there he asked them to introduce themselves.
"Introduce ourselves? Why? We already know each other," Naruto said with his eyes closed in thought.
"That may be true but I don't know you. Plus, this is a good time to enlighten the group about anything they might not know," the jonin said.
"Well, what kind of information do you want to know about us?" Tayuya asked.
"For starters, your names? Hobbies? Things you like, things you hate? Dreams for the future? That sort of stuff," the jonin replied.
"Why don't you go first so we can see how it's done?" Naruto asked.
"Do these kids really not know how to introduce themselves? This might be harder than I expected," The older ninja thought. "Alright, my name is Kakashi Hatake. I like many things and I hate many things. As for hobbies… I have lots of hobbies. Dreams for the future? Haven't really thought about it."
"…" Naruto stared at the man with an annoyed look on his face.
"You know sensei… you could give some examples of those things? If we are going to be on a team shouldn't we know more about you… like at least a little?" Tayuya asked with an equally annoyed expression on her face.
"Ah yes, I guess that would help, wouldn't it? In that case I like… eggplant-mixed miso soup and I hate fried foods. My favorite hobby is probably reading and I really haven't thought much about the future as I said before. Satisfied?" Kakashi asked as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Actually… yeah, that's a lot better," Naruto said with a dopey smile. "My turn! I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" The boy then went on to describe his love of ramen and how his hobby related to it. "… and my dream is to become Hokage!" Naruto finished with a yell, determination radiating from his whole body.
"Yeah… he's pretty… ambitious," Tayuya said before introducing herself. "My name is Tayuya Uzumaki. I like practicing ninjutsu and genjutsu. I also like dango since everyone else has mentioned food. I hate people who don't take being a shinobi seriously. My main hobby is playing the flute and my dream…" Tayuya paused as she didn't really have a concrete dream like Naruto's. She was going to say something similar to what her new sensei said when a memory flashed across her mind. She saw herself scared and crying in the corner and remembered why she wanted to be a shinobi in the first place. "… is to become strong. Strong so that I can protect the people I care about."
Kakashi looked at Tayuya and was pleasantly surprised by that answer. It warmed his heart that someone as brash as her genuinely cared about the people around her. It made him have hope that these brats would actually pass the trial he was about to set up for them; however, he still kept his expectations somewhat low because no one had ever met his standards before.
"Alright, good introductions so far. Now it's your turn," Kakashi said as he gestured towards Sasuke.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha…" the boy in blue then went on to say he hated many things and didn't like anything before stating his goal of killing a specific person. His answer annoyed Tayuya because it was just as vague as Kakashi's and she already knew part of what he said wasn't true.
"Bullshit! If you don't like anything, then why do you always have the same thing for lunch everyday?" Tayuya asked with a smug look on her face.
"Why do you know that I eat the same thing everyday?" Sasuke countered.
Tayuya put her head in her hands as she explained herself, "because Sakura and Ino would never shut up about it… 'Oh did you see that?! Sasuke was eating omusubi with okaka and tomatoes today! He eats that all the time! I should make him some! Then maybe he'll notice me!'" Tayuya said pitching her voice as high as she could to imitate her fellow classmates. "Kami, they would not put a sock in it!" She yelled exasperated and began to lean back until she was laying on the ground. Naruto chuckled at her impression while Sasuke was embarrassed that he received so much attention from people he saw as idiots. Kakashi couldn't help but smile under his mask at her antics. He admitted that these new potential students were entertaining if nothing else.
"Alright, you're all unique in your own way and now you and I both have a better idea of who everyone is as a person. Tomorrow…" Kakashi then began his spiel about the survival exercise he had planned. When he finished he dismissed everyone and they all went their separate ways. Tayuya and Naruto walked towards the apartment complex that they both lived at and waved goodbye to their teammate as he walked off in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, neither of the Uzumaki kids had ever been adopted, albeit for different reasons and so the Hokage provided them each with cheap housing to live in. Neither particularly liked their situation but they made the most of it. It helped that they had each other at least. That way, neither of them would be alone if they didn't want to be.
When they arrived at their respective apartments, they said their goodbyes and entered their domiciles. Tayuya began packing up her ninja gear for tomorrow and wondered if she should pack all of her tools or just a few. She decided it was better to be prepared and packed everything she could fit in her pouches before heating up some leftovers and calling it a night. She figured she'd need a lot of sleep if she had to get up at the crack of dawn for whatever this "survival exercise" was all about.
She had no idea how right she was to believe that.
As soon as the sun began rising in the sky, the three genin of Team 7 arrived at the training site Kakashi ordered them to meet at. Sasuke and Tayuya were wide awake, while Naruto could barely stand up. The poor kid had been up all night with excitement for what he believed would be his first real mission; however, he would be quite disappointed when he and the others realized they would have to wait several hours for their instructor to arrive once again.
"Yo!" Kakashi greeted when he finally arrived.
"You're late!" Naruto yelled out while his teammates glared at their sensei.
Kakashi proceed to give one of his trademark excuses before telling them the various rules about the test he set up. Including the penalty of being sent back to the academy which Naruto complained about. Tayuya, on the other hand, was pleased with this development. It helped her feel better knowing many of her classmates were not actually going to become ninja right away. She felt like they weren't ready and if she herself couldn't pass this test then she knew she wasn't either. In her mind this was perfect, either way she proved her point and would know where she stood. Of course, that didn't mean she wasn't going to try her hardest so that she and her teammates could move on… or at least one of her teammates. The one hangup was that there were only two bells to grab so one of them had to fail automatically; however, there was no way in Hell any of them would manage to grab a bell on their own. She figured there must have been some point to that and it would be explained later. Regardless, the best option was to work together and sort out which of them would get sent back afterwards. With all of that settled in her own mind she only had one question.
"Hey sensei, you said we could use lethal force like shuriken; does that mean we can use nature releases too?"
"Good question. Any jutsu you guys know is fair game but I wouldn't have expected genin to use any so now you've put me more on guard," Kakashi scolded. He was impressed she was implying that she knew some advanced skills; however, it was best not to reveal said skills to your opponent.
Tayuya slapped herself in the face when she realized how stupid of a question that was and Sasuke gave her look that screamed, "way to go" all over it. Shortly after her faux pas, the test began and she, Naruto and Sasuke hid themselves in the forest. Kakashi commended their efforts at stealth in his head until Naruto appeared right in front of him and demanded they fight for the bells fair and square. Kakashi was nearly taken aback by how little subtly the boy had but was only mildly surprised when Naruto then charged at him. Kakashi smoothly pinned Naruto but was caught off guard when half a dozen more Narutos appeared from various hiding spots.
Kakashi braced himself to easily defend against the shadow clone onslaught; however, before he could, one of the clones grabbed his back and held him in place. Naruto appeared very proud of his plan as he went in for the beat down; however, he was surprised and confused to discover that he punched himself instead of his sensei. This, predictably lead to an argument among the many Narutos that led them to beat each other up until the original undid the jutsu.
From some nearby bushes Tayuya watched the exchange and smirked. So far, everything was going according to plan and she was delighted when "Naruto" ended up slung up in a tree with Kakashi giving him a lecture on not taking easy bait. The jonin was right where all three wanted him and she quickly used an earth-style technique to bury herself and burrow through the ground towards them. Kakashi was about to continue lecturing Naruto when all of a sudden, Naruto began weaving several hand signs. Kakashi instantly recognized them as a fire-style jutsu and was shocked that Naruto of all people was about to use one against him!
"Fire-style: fire ball jutsu!" Naruto yelled before unleashing a massive torrent of flame from his mouth towards Kakashi, who barely had time to dodge. As he was sliding away, he felt a brief tremor in the earth that clued him into Tayuya's attack. Tayuya quickly leapt out of the ground for a bell but was not able to reach one as Kakashi took to the air. Once in the air, Kakashi spotted a large amount of shuriken headed his way. He was forced to use the substitution jutsu and hide from the onslaught these kids were hitting him with. He then noticed not all of the shuriken hit his dummy and a few went to cut the rope Naruto was strung up in. Naruto landed gracefully and even dodged the secondary trap Kakashi had set up before exploding in a puff of smoke to reveal Sasuke.
Kakashi was floored at their teamwork. They had actually fooled him into thinking Naruto was just charging off on his own when in reality it was Sasuke and a bunch of Naruto's clones. They lulled him into a false sense of security and had a three pronged surprise attack planned for when his guard was at its lowest. He was seriously impressed. Never before had a group of potential genin actually managed to work together like this while he had been an instructor; however, he had little time to marvel at them as he quickly saw that the Tayuya that had attacked him turned into a puddle of mud, meaning it was actually a clone. This meant that the real Naruto and Tayuya were still hiding and could attack him at any moment. He had to keep his guard up higher than he anticipated. He was a little annoyed that he wouldn't be able to read Make-Out Paradise but at least what these kids were doing was interesting enough to keep his attention anyway.
Sasuke quickly ran back to the forest and slid into a bush. Underneath said bush was a hole that acted as the to Team 7's makeshift hideout. Tayuya had used her earth-style to create a little bunker for them to hang out in so that they could strategize. Once Sasuke was back the three of them began to put their heads together to decide their next move.
"Okay, so plan A was a bust. Plan B is too similar so we probably shouldn't even bother," Tayuya noted.
"Plan C then?" Naruto asked.
"No, plan C involves all of us using taijutsu. We can't hope to match Kakashi's speed and power at this point," Sasuke stated plainly.
"Speak for yourself! I'm great at taijutsu!" Naruto said confidently.
"Naruto… you couldn't even beat Sasuke when you sparred with him two weeks ago," Tayuya deadpanned.
"Oh yeah! You're one to talk! You couldn't beat me when we sparred two days ago!" Naruto retorted.
"… Taijutsu isn't my strong suit," Tayuya said as she blushed in embarrassment and crossed her arms. She had been thoroughly beaten by her cousin in a straight up brawl-style fight and was still not over the humiliation of her defeat.
"We can't use plan D yet either. We came up with that assuming we would know some genjutsu at some point. I don't think any of us realized we would need these plans so soon," Sasuke continued, ignoring his teammate's earlier exchange.
"Yeah, I don't even really know how genjutsu works," Naruto said with a blank expression.
"Idiot," was all Sasuke could say in response.
"Actually… we could try plan D," Tayuya said as she opened up a pouch on her left thigh. She pulled out her flute and gave it a good once over. "I didn't mention it yesterday but I can use some genjusu… at least in theory. I've only ever practiced it on one person and he was able to escape it every time."
"Then that sounds pretty useless," Sasuke said with a look that screamed "unimpressed".
"Hey! I was only 9 when I last tried it on a person!" Tayuya said as she remembered her practice.
A young Tayuya was playing her flute on a training ground teeming with animals. She was trying to use her melody to hypnotize the animals into dancing for her like she had read in a book once; however, that was easier said than done. She was able to paralyze a few here and there but only for a few moments before they would break free of her spell. She was starting to get very frustrated and began throwing a temper tantrum. This caught the attention of a boy who was practicing his shuriken jutsu nearby. He wasn't able to focus with all the ruckus and decided to see what was troubling the girl so much.
"What are you doing there?" The boy asked.
"I am trying to make the birds and squirrels dance!" The girl said with a pout.
"So, you're trying to put them in a genjutsu?"
"Yeah," Tayuya responded as she gave him her full attention. She now got a good look at him. He had dark hair, onyx eyes and unusual face indents on either side of his nose bellow his eyes. He wore a black shirt and pants with white tape from his shoes to his mid-calves. He seemed to be a fair bit older than her and also was wearing a ninja headband. He must have been at least a genin then, while she had just barely started at the academy thanks to the Hokage finally allowing her in.
"I see, well why don't I help you practice then? There aren't many people in the village interested in genjutsu so I'd be happy to help you learn," the boy offered.
"Really?! You mean it?!" Tayuya said as her eyes lit up and went as wide as they could.
"Sure, we'll have those animals dancing in no time," the boy said with a soft smile.
It took hours of practice but the results of his teachings were staggering. Not only could she fully paralyze all the animals on the training ground, she could also get them to dance a little. The boy was pleased with her progress and offered to be a test subject himself since humans were more difficult to cast genjutsu on than animals. She accepted and began directing her genjutsu at him. Unfortunately, he would prove a much more difficult challenge for her and she made no progress against him for the rest of the day. Luckily, he agreed to keep helping her and for the next couple weeks they worked on improving her abilities until one day she was able to trap him for over ten seconds before he broke free.
"Very good, you've come a long way," the boy was impressed. Even most adults he practiced with couldn't catch him for that long.
Tayuya was panting from having to use so much chakra during practice and was still frustrated with herself. "I only managed to trap you for a few seconds though! That's not very long," she pouted.
"During practice it might not seem like much but during a real fight, 10 seconds is a very long time to be kept immobile. It allows your comrades to take advantage of the opportunity you've given them and it can change the entire tide of battle," the boy said wisely. What he didn't tell her was that she could already trap most chunin in her jutsu indefinitely at her level.
"Really? That's amazing," Tayuya said as she looked down at her flute in awe.
"Keep practicing, I sadly have several missions to go on so I won't be practicing here again," the boy said.
"Wait… you won't be here every again?" Tayuya asked.
"I don't think so," The boy said sadly as he remembered what was happening at his home. "Farewell," he said before turning his back to her. This was the first time she remembered seeing the back of his shirt and she noticed it had a red and white fan symbol stitched into it. It seemed familiar but she couldn't place it at the moment.
Before she could even say anything to him, he was gone. He had disappeared faster than her eyes could comprehend. This made her extremely sad as she finally thought she had made a friend aside from her cousin… but apparently it wasn't meant to be.
"Thank you," she muttered softly before heading home.
"Hey Tayuya, you okay there?" Naruto asked. His voice snapped her back to the present.
"Oh… yeah, I'm okay. Just remembered some stuff," Tayuya said as she shook her head to get it back in the game.
"I hope it was 'stuff' pertinent to our situation," Sasuke said.
"It was, as a matter of fact. I also just realized the last person I used genjutsu on had the same symbol on his back that you have Sasuke. Does that mean he was from your clan?" Tayuya asked. She never got the boy's name and she would like to know who he was.
"…" Sasuke stayed silent for a long moment.
Tayuya had forgotten that his entire clan had been massacred 5 years ago and when she realized this she quickly apologized. "Sorry Sasuke, I… forgot what happened for a sec there."
"It's fine," Sasuke finally replied. "Do you remember what he looked like?"
"Yeah… he was a teenager and he actually kinda looked like you but with these weird indents on his face. I'm guessing he's… not around anymore huh?"
Sasuke's widened when he realized who she was referring to. It didn't make any sense. Why would he help her with anything? He was a monster. The young Uchiha could not wrap his mind around the thought that his brother would help some random girl with her genjutsu… especially when he was "too busy" to help him with anything… and the fact that he was the incarnation of evil in Sasuke's mind.
"Uh… are you okay, Sasuke?" Naruto now asked as he shook his teammate's shoulder.
Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts and returned his attention to the present. "I'm fine, loser."
"You sure? You looked like you were going to have a panic attack there," Naruto continued with concern in his voice.
"I said, I'm fine!" Sasuke yelled as he glared at Naruto.
"Jeez! Okay, okay! Touchy much," Naruto said as he crossed his arms and turned his back to the Uchiha.
Sasuke felt a little bad for snapping at him like that. After all, Naruto was just worried about him. He also saw that Tayuya was glaring at him for yelling at her cousin so he figured it was best to apologize. "Sorry Naruto… talking about my clan brings up… bad memories," Sasuke said as she stared at the ground.
Naruto then turned back to face him with a more understanding look on his face. It seemed to him that their entire team was full of traumatized individuals and he thought it might be a good idea to all sit down and talk about it at some point so they didn't set each other off again.
"Anyway, Tayuya; how long were you able to trap him in a genjutsu for?" Sasuke asked as he set his mind back on the task at hand.
"About ten seconds and I've been practicing since then," Tayuya said hopefully.
"Holy shit! She trapped HIM for that long," Sasuke thought as he looked at her. He then smirked as their chances of victory just went up. "Alright, if that's the case then let's try plan D… the only problem is that we have to find Kakashi."
"Yeah… that's a waste of time, he can probably hide better than us. Additionally, he won't come after us if we use ourselves as bait because we already did that when we tried plan A," Tayuya voiced.
"We have to come up with a new way to lure him to us… that might be more difficult than actually executing the plan," Sasuke said as he pressed his hands together in thought.
It was then that Naruto had an epiphany and raised his hand excitedly. "Hey guys! You remember how he said it was against the rules for us to eat?"
"Yeah? What does that have to do with anything? Did you bring snacks or something?" Tayuya asked as she was confused by his non sequitur.
"No, no. But! I did see that Kakashi brought some boxed lunches and put them near the stone at the field entrance!" Naruto exclaimed happily.
"Okay… so you're so hungry that you've lost sight of what we're doing?" Sasuke asked as one of his eyebrows twitched in annoyance.
"Oh come on! Can't you guys see? We can't eat because that would be breaking the rules so that means if we try to steal the lunches then he'll have to try to stop us to enforce the rules!"
"And then he'll fall right into our trap!" Sasuke and Tayuya said in unison as they realized what he was talking about. The group then proceeded to high-five each other and left the safety of their bunker to execute their plan.
Kakashi was wondering what was taking the students so long. After their good initial showing, their momentum completely died off and he was left bored. He had hoped to be on edge the entire test but it was possible that they simply didn't have the chakra or the brainpower to execute another strategy. In that case, he would definitely have to fail all of them which would be unfortunate, given who they were and their impressive start. It was at that moment when Kakashi noticed Naruto trying to sneak over towards the boxed lunches he left as bait. Given their earlier attack, Kakashi knew this was another trap; however, he had to commend their strategy because it was a trap he had to fall into given the parameters of the assignment. That was good thinking on their part now all that was left to do was to see how effective their trap would be.
"Sensei said that if we don't get a bell we don't get lunch but if I eat lunch ahead of time then there's nothing he can do! It's chow time!" Naruto yelled out as he stacked the box lunches on top of each other.
"Hi there," Kakashi said as he landed on top of the memorial stone.
Naruto had a look of shame on his face as he said, "Ugh… I was just joking sensei."
"Nice try," Kakashi said.
"No, I mean it," Naruto said as he turned around and revealed a paper bomb on his chest.
Kakashi quickly panicked and with lightening speed, he grabbed Naruto and ripped the paper bomb off his chest. He then slapped it onto a kunai and threw it as far as possible. It exploded in the distance. He breathed a sigh of relief and was about to lecture Naruto about what just happened when the Naruto before him disappeared into a puff of smoke. It was then that Sasuke jumped out of the trees and threw a demon wind shuriken at Kakashi. The jonin easily dodged it but had to dodge a second one that was hidden in its shadow. After that, the jonin had to evade eight blades as the shuriken separated and every piece of them was redirected towards him as Sasuke manipulated them with ninja wire. Just when Kakashi was able to get a second of reprieve, more Naruto clones jumped out of the bushes at him.
The more experienced ninja was able to quickly dispatch all of the clones and then rushed at Sasuke and managed to pin him; however, before Kakashi could say anything he heard a haunting melody from the trees and shortly after, the colors of the world around him began to take on a red hew. He also noticed his arms were being pulled in different directions by thick threads. His arms then began to melt. He quickly realized he was under a genjutsu but he couldn't bring his arms together to release it. In fact, he couldn't break free at all! He was truly trapped!
"How could a genin know such a potent genjutsu?!" Kakashi thought as he kept trying to free himself.
"Wow that actually worked!" Sasuke said as pulled himself from under Kakashi now that the latter ninja's arms were outstretched.
"Quick! Take the bells Sasuke!" Naruto shouted as he ran up towards his comrade. Sasuke could barely hear Naruto though, as they were both wearing earplugs to protect themselves from Tayuya's jutsu. Tayuya herself appeared before them and that's when they both realized they could take out their their hearing protection. All three of them approached Kakashi and were going to take the bells off of his belt when they realized that they were missing!
"Oh shit! He doesn't have them!" Tayuya yelled in frustration.
"Crap! What do we do? We can't just go running around the forest until we find them!" Naruto lamented.
"Then we have to force Kakashi to tell us where they are. Naruto grab his right arm and leg, I'll grab his left, then Tayuya will dispel the genjutsu and interrogate Kakashi," Sasuke quickly planned.
"Alright! Let's do this!" Naruto yelled as had and Sasuke pinned Kakashi.
Tayuya then walked up to Kakashi a brandished a kunai near his neck before dispelling the genjutsu. Kakashi snapped back to reality and looked towards his attackers. He was impressed that they had actually captured him but he hadn't ruled out the possibility so he had hidden the bells ahead of springing their trap.
"Wow, you managed to capture me. What happens next?" Kakashi asked curiously. He remained calm despite his situation. He could easily throw Sasuke and Naruto off of him at any moment; however, he wanted to see what Tayuya would do now that she had a knife to his neck.
"Now you tell us where the bells are!" Tayuya demanded as she moved the knife closer to him.
"Oh? Will I now? And what if I don't? What if your enemy isn't afraid to die? What if the thing you're after is more valuable to them than their life?" Kakashi asked as he stared at Tayuya. If she moved to kill him, then that would be the wrong choice in this scenario since they need something that only he knows there whereabouts of. It would be a poor tactical decision. He already had enough information to pass these three but now he was testing to see how far along they really were so he could see what he needed to teach them.
Tayuya's face was full of surprise at Kakashi's questions. She wasn't sure what to do, even though they had captured him, he was still the one with all the power in this situation. "Uh…" Tayuya said as she pondered her next move.
"Wait… what are we supposed to do now?" Naruto wondered allowed. He looked towards Sasuke for the answer but the other boy just shrugged his shoulders as he was at a loss too.
After a few more moments, Kakashi was about ready to give them the answer when suddenly it hit Tayuya. She didn't like the answer but… as a shinobi should have guessed that something like this would come up at some point.
"If you don't tell us where the bells are… I'll start cutting off your fingers," Tayuya said. Her expression was clearly one of someone who was horrified. Naruto and Sasuke were shocked at her reply while Kakashi noted that he needed to teach all of them to hide their emotions better when in combat.
"Are you nuts Tayuya?! He's our sensei!" Naruto shouted.
"Wrong! Right now, I'm your enemy Naruto. Tayuya has the right idea; however…" Kakashi used that moment to throw Naruto and Sasuke off of him. He then grabbed Tayuya's knife-holding hand and spun around behind her so that she was pointing the knife at her own back now. "You have to be able to make good on your threats."
"Dammit!" Tayuya yelled as she struggled against his grip.
"Additionally, what if I resisted all of your efforts? What if torture wasn't enough? Some ninja have very high pain tolerances. Although, I suppose that might be an unfair question for a genin," Kakashi said a little sheepishly. He was really starting to think of chunin-level stuff to teach them since they already were nearly at that level, much to his surprise. "But what isn't an unfair question is, what do you do now that one of your teammates has been caught? How do you approach this situation?"
"Oh crap! What do we do? Sasuke?" Naruto asked as he panicked. He never expected one of them to be caught for real, let alone the only family he had.
"Don't look at me, I don't know!" Sasuke said. He was almost as panicked. As much as he wanted to maintain his cool demeanor, this test was pushing them all much further than anything they had experienced and even he was scrambling for answers.
Tayuya was trying to remain calm about her situation; however, her mind was racing for someway to escape. Unfortunately, she didn't come up with any real options since both of her hands were being held and so she couldn't substitute or clone herself. It was then that an idea hit her… it was a dumb idea but she figured it couldn't hurt.
"Naruto! Plan Z!" Tayuya yelled out.
"Plan Z? We don't have a plan Z, what is she talking about?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto was puzzled for a moment as well but then he remembered he and Tayuya's walk home last night. During their conversation, he had come up with another plan to add to their list that the team had put together at lunch the day before; however, she dismissed it as too stupid to work. He whined until she relented and dubbed it "plan Z" as a joke since it would be their last, last resort as she thought it would never work. As a result, neither ever told Sasuke about it since it wasn't a "real" plan. After, remembering all that, Naruto became giddy as he chuckled to himself before wrapping his arm around Sasuke to share the details of "plan Z". Sasuke listened intently until Naruto finished and then his expression changed to one of pure irritation.
"I knew you were an idiot but that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" Sasuke yelled at him.
"Oh come on! It worked on Iruka sensei, Ebisu and the Hokage! It's worth a shot!" Naruto said with a cheeky grin.
"… it seriously worked on Lord Third?" Sasuke asked incredulously.
"Yeah! Yeah! Come on! We can do this!"
Sasuke sighed as gave in and agreed, "Alright but only because we don't have a better plan!"
Kakashi was wondering what the Hell they were bickering about. What "plan" did they have that could work on the Hokage and still be considered "stupid". He watched them intently for their next move which was his mistake as he was not prepared for it.
"Alright! Sasuke let's go! Double Sexy Jutsu!" Naruto yelled as both he and Sasuke transformed. Naruto transformed into a naked woman with cloud vapors covering her chest and lower anatomy, while Sasuke transformed into an equally attractive woman who covered herself in a bikini. Sasuke figured that if he was going to do this than his would not be as revealing as Naruto's. Kakashi's eye widened at the sight and he was so shocked that he fell over as if he had been punched. Tayuya was blushing fiercely at the display but used the opportunity to escape and regroup with her comrades who transformed back into their normal selves.
"Wow Sasuke! I wasn't sure you could do it but that was great! You must be pervier than I thought!" Naruto joked.
"Shut up! I've just seen you do it at the academy!" Sasuke retorted.
"It's weird that you can both do it so well, so could we just move on," Tayuya said as she was still embarrassed by their display. She also put a finger to her nose to catch a bit of blood before either of them could see it. She didn't want to reveal that it affected her a little too.
"Uh right! We need to get the bells before-" Naruto started before an alarm clock sounded, revealing that they were out of time.
"FUCK!" Tayuya screamed and fell on her back from both being exhausted and disappointed. Naruto and Sasuke quickly followed suit as all of them realized their failure. As they did this Kakashi stood up and walked over towards the memorial stone.
"Naruto, Sasuke, Tayuya. Come over here for a second would you?" Kakashi asked.
All three of them were baffled but did as they were told and slowly crawled over. Kakashi then began to speak about the significance of the stone and that the people on it where heroes. This got Naruto excited until Tayuya explained they were all killed in battle. After that, Naruto looked sad and guilty because it was his idea to strap a paper bomb onto his clone earlier. He could have destroyed something more important than he expected.
"The names of my closest friends are all engraved on this stone," Kakashi revealed making all of the students feel sorry for him. "The life of a shinobi is hard and painful. It can be cruel and we often lose those we care about most; however, the best way to avoid ending up on this stone… is to learn to trust and work with your comrades. That is the route to success as a shinobi," He then turned towards the three genin candidates and continued, "You three showed me that you all understand and value cooperation and trust. You demonstrated better teamwork than any genin candidates have in all the years I've tested them. It would be foolish to send you all back to the academy, so the only thing left to do is inform you that you all passed; with flying colors," Kakashi said as he closed his eye and smiled under his mask.
"We… WE PASSED?! WHOOPEE!" Naruto yelled as he began to jump up and down while Tayuya and Sasuke were happy but couldn't believe Naruto had the energy to do that.
"Yes, Team 7 will start their first mission tomorrow!" Kakashi said as he gave them all a thumbs up.
"YEAH! YEAH! I'M A NINJA, I'M A NINJA!" Naruto kept shouting as Sasuke and Tayuya stood up.
"And since you all impressed me so much, how about I take you to lunch?" Kakashi offered. He would later regret that decision as he did not realize that the Uzumakis could eat his wallet dry; however, for now the group celebrated as they walked back to the village. All excited and optimistic about their future.