"So now that you're here," their new Sensei started. "Why don't you tell me a little about yourselves?"
They frowned in response. "Why should we?" Sasuke pointed out. "For all we know you're really the academy hobo and you're lying to us. Did you steal that headband from our classroom?"
"Yeah. And why are you covering your face? It's almost like you don't want us to know who you really are," said the equally suspicious Sakura.
"I. . .look I'm your sensei, that's all you need to know, okay?" the white haired man tried. "You've most probably heard of me, I'm known as Kakashi Hatake," he said proudly.
"Never heard of you."
"If you're really our sensei then prove it," Naruto said finally. "Show us a cool jutsu or something."
The man known as Kakashi looked at the other two faces which were both nodding eagerly. "Fine," he said. Forming a hand sign he changed his appearance to that of Iruka. "Kakashi is your new sensei now so behave," the Iruka lookalike said before a puff of smoke revealed him to be Kakashi again. "Good enough?"
Sasuke scratched his chin. "I don't know. That's kind of the thing they taught us when we were eight. Show us a high level jutsu that only a jonin would have."
Kakashi growled. "I don't have to prove myself to kids like you. Meet me in training ground three tomorrow for your final exam, and it's probably best if you don't eat," he said before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.
As the leaves settled Naruto looked to his two teammates. "So do you guys think we should wait around for our real sensei to show up?"
Sasuke shook his head. "No, he showed us a jonin jutsu."
Naruto frowned. "When? Was it too fast for me to see?"
"Right at the end, when he disappeared," Sakura realized, to which Sasuke nodded his approval.
Naruto shrugged. "Fine, don't tell me."
Sasuke groaned inwardly while Sakura looked at Naruto as if he was stupid. She wasn't entirely wrong.
(O_O)
Team seven met up at the crack of dawn in the designated training ground. The sun had barely begun rising and it glinted off of the memorial stone in the center of the clearing. Naruto had visited the stone once or twice when he was younger to look at the many Uzumaki that had died in service of Konoha. That was when he was younger. He had asked the Hokage if any of those names could be his parents and was told that it was likely not.
He was nervous, although less nervous than the day before. There was still a final exam and if he felt like backing out at the last second he still had that choice. Although he knew that he wouldn't back out, Sasuke would never forgive him. He and Sasuke hadn't eaten that morning as per the hobo's instructions, but they had packed lunches just in case. They sat on the memorial stone none of them saying anything while they waited for their sensei.
"Do you think he wants us to find him like yesterday?" Naruto suggested suddenly. "Maybe that's the test."
Sasuke and Sakura turned to him with questioning looks on their faces.
"Yesterday when I found him he was just lying down and reading some book as if he was waiting for us. Maybe that's what he's doing. Maybe he's even watching us right now."
Sakura frowned. "How can he expect us to find him with all of this forest?" she asked, ever the voice of reason.
Sasuke also frowned, but he looked like an idea was forming. "There are ways of finding people," he said simply.
Naruto looked to Sakura. "What do you think we should do?"
She looked flustered. "I suppose we could try to find him. But I don't know how we would go about doing so. Also we should make sure one person is here all the time to make sure that if he does show up we'll know."
Naruto nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a good plan. None of us need to stay here though, I have something for that," he said, fishing around in his backpack and pulling out a scroll. "Let's see, perimeter scroll. Here it is. Now I just need to put in the right distances and we're good," he said, penning in some numbers then slamming the seal onto the side of the memorial stone. "It's a very simple seal to get around but he won't be expecting it so I figure it will work. Now let's get out of here before we set it off," Naruto said, rambling as he did when it came to talking about seals. Putting the scroll back in his bag he set off in a random direction, looking back over his shoulder. "Coming?"
Sasuke grumbled at having to suddenly move after having just gotten comfortable but he stood up. Sakura had already been standing and followed, pausing only to look up at the sun.
"How are we doing this?" Sasuke asked, catching up quickly.
"The logic would be to find out where he lives and go forward from there," Sakura said. "If we find out which direction he would be coming from we might be able to find out where he's hiding."
Sasuke nodded, his approval of the plan. Naruto frowned but brightened after a moment. "We could go ask the Hokage, he gave me an open invitation to visit if I ever need anything."
Sakura's eyes widened but Sasuke didn't look like he was surprised. "The Hokage likes him for some reason. Don't ask me why," Sasuke explained blandly.
Sakura shrugged. "It's a good place to start."
"Great. Let's go," Naruto said slightly too loud for normal conversation and sped off in direction of the Hokage's tower.
"Is he always this energetic?" Sakura asked Sasuke as they were both left in Naruto's dust.
Sasuke grunted. "You don't know the half of it."
(O_O)
"Tell the lord Hokage that Naruto Uzumaki is here to see him," Naruto shouted to the secretary who had a face of not being paid enough for this crap.
The secretary looked down at the list in front of him. "I don't have you scheduled," he said in a bored voice. "You can make an appointment if you want."
Naruto growled. "Whatever, I'm going in."
"Naruto, I don't think. . ." Sakura started, reaching for his shoulder only to be shrugged off as Naruto ran up to the front door and was intercepted by two anbu guards.
"Finally, some service. Go tell the Hokage that I'm here. Go on," Naruto shooed the guards away.
One of the guards turned to the other who shrugged in turn. He disappeared from where he was standing, and the other anbu took up a position blocking the way to the door. A moment later the guard returned, sending a hand signal the other guards way who nodded and then both disappeared leaving the hallway leading to the Hokage's office empty.
With a satisfied smirk on his face, Naruto headed towards the door, remembering to knock at the last minute. He didn't wait for a reply and flung the door open. The Hokage was sitting at his desk, a pipe in his hand and he was gently blowing smoke rings out of his mouth. "How can I help you Naruto," the Hokage said, not bothering to turn and face him.
Sasuke and Sakura sidled in behind Naruto, bowing and making sure Naruto did the same. "We were wondering if you knew where our new sensei lives? He claims his name is Kakashi Hatake," Naruto said with the confidence of a charging bull.
The Hokage puffed on his pipe for a few seconds. "Surely there are better ways of finding out than going to an old man that has an entire village to run?" he asked, his voice not betraying anything.
Naruto shrugged. "I figured that if he really is a jonin then he wouldn't be in the directories or he wouldn't be easy to find and I don't know any other jonin to ask. Also I figured that seeing as jonin are important parts of the village their residence might be something considered top secret and not known to the general public."
"Is that all?" the Hokage asked.
Naruto slid his foot back and forth. "There was one other thing," he said slowly. "I don't think anyone else would know where he lives. He seemed lonely."
The Hokage puffed his pipe for a while more. "I suppose he's late?" he said, not so much a question as an expectation.
"Maybe," Naruto said.
"Hmm." The Hokage's serious face was replaced with a smirk. "I don't see the harm in letting you have that information. In fact it might end up working better than I expected." His smirk had turned gleeful. "Rat," he called and an anbu guard appeared before he finished the word. "Show these kids where Hatake lives on the map, then return to me to discuss security protocols for the future."
Naruto bowed. "Thank you lord Hokage," he said sincerely. His two teammates acted in kind.
"Ah but Naruto, one thing," the Hokage said before they left. "It's better that Hatake doesn't find out who gave you this information."
Naruto nodded, bowing once more and turning to follow the anbu.
A moment later and they were off, heading towards their new sensei's apartment. It was in a civilian area which meant that he probably had to use henge a lot so as not to scare any bystanders. They tended to not be so comfortable around ninja, no matter the age and it showed as team seven passed through. Next time they would have to use henge themselves. Arriving at the apartment Naruto rang the doorbell, then when that heeded no results he rang it a few more times, enough to be annoying.
"What? What?" an annoyed voice said on the other side of the door. Naruto saw his shadow appear in front of the door and saw the light flicker out in the peephole. "Oh no," was the response.
The door clicked and opened to reveal the hobo in all his glory, dressed exactly the same as the day before.
"So do we pass?" Naruto asked.
"Pass?" was the astonished reply.
"Yeah, we found you, just like we did yesterday," Sakura said proudly.
Kakashi stared at them with what could have been a bewildered expression for long enough that it started getting creepy. "Who told you where I live?" he asked finally.
"Trade secret," Sakura said, sticking out her tongue.
"Are you going to invite us in or are we just going to stand around out here looking weird," Naruto asked, trying to break the tension.
Kakashi looked at him then over his shoulder into his apartment at was clearly a huge mess. "Wait here," he said, sighing before turning around and slamming the door behind him. He returned five minutes later looking more put together than before, leaving the room and closing the door behind him, locking it and stowing the key away. The only change to his outfit was that he now had two silver bells hanging off the side of his belt. They were probably some sort of special ninja weapon, Naruto knew that ninja weapons could look weird and he wasn't to judge.
Their sensei set a tough pace as they followed him along the rooftops and while Sasuke and Naruto were able to keep up, Sakura was clearly struggling. When they finally arrived back at the training ground they were all breathing hard and Sakura looked like she wanted to collapse. Kakashi hadn't spoken one word since leaving his apartment and he was now looking over his new students with a less than impressed expression on his face. Or at least that's what Naruto assumed it was, it was pretty hard to tell what with most of his face being covered.
"Whenever you're ready," Kakashi prompted sarcastically.
The three of them rested on the memorial stone while looking at him. "So did we pass?" Sakura asked.
"You haven't done the test yet," Kakashi answered.
"Then why did we just spend most of the morning finding you?" Sasuke asked angrily.
Kakashi shrugged. "I didn't tell you to do anything like that."
Sasuke grumbled but didn't say more. "So what's our test then?"
"Ah yes," Kakashi said, the smirk clear on his face. He detached the two bells from his belt and held them up. "The exam is simple. If you want to be a genin you have to get one of these bells from me. Everything goes. If you don't get them by sundown you fail."
There was a sharp intake of breaths by all three of them. Only two of them would be passing. That sounded terrible, it sounded. . .actually it didn't sound too bad. Naruto wouldn't mind redoing the year if he would be able to spend more time on his sealing before being deployed for missions. Sasuke had an angry expression on his face and Sakura looked sad for some reason. Sighing he reached out a hand to each of their shoulders. "Don't worry about who's going to pass now. I don't mind redoing the year, the two of you are going to be much better ninja than I am," Naruto said.
Sakura shook her head. "N. . .no. I can't let you fail. The Hokage would never let her teammates fail so that she can succeed," she stammered, the words clearly very hard to say.
Naruto smiled grimly at her. "You can and you will. I won't hear it otherwise." Sakura opened her mouth to argue but Naruto shushed her, he could tell that she wanted this much more than he did. "You're not the Hokage yet, you can be a little selfish."
Sasuke frowned. "We'll discuss this later. For now we need to get the bells, afterwards we can decide who passes." His two teammates nodded in agreement, although disheartened. "What's the plan team leader?" Sasuke said grinning in what he probably thought was assuring. It wasn't but nobody needed to tell him that.
Smoothing her face out Sakura looked at him disbelievingly before furrowing her brows in concentration.
Kakashi, who was still standing calmly watching them from only a few paces away cocked his head to the side. "Hey aren't you going to attack me?"
Naruto shushed him. "We have until sunrise, don't we?"
"Well yes but. . ." Kakashi said but was cut off by another shushing from Naruto.
"She needs to concentrate," he explained.
Kakashi's eye widened slightly but he shrugged, pulling out the small book he had been reading the day before.
While Sakura thought out her plan, Naruto stood up and started rifling through his bag, retrieving a scroll that looked much like the one he had brought out before. With scroll in hand he started walking around the training ground, very obviously laying tag after tag down in obvious places. On the trees at various angles, on the ground, never going near enough to Kakashi to be in immediate striking distance, although he was sure that the distance wouldn't make much of a difference to him, he was a jonin after all and during their run to the training ground it had been clear that their sensei hadn't even broken a sweat, apparently considering that pace nothing more than a casual stroll. If Kakashi was interested in what he was doing he didn't show it.
"Got it," Sakura said finally after some time, beckoning Naruto over. As he told him her plan his grin only widened.
"You're going to be a great Hokage, Sakura," Naruto said when she finished, which she returned with a blush. He whispered something additional to her and brought out three sets of darkened goggles from his backpack. "When I say so you put those on," he said. They both nodded in turn. Grinning purposefully, Naruto strolled over to where Kakashi was standing while Sasuke and Sakura took up positions on either side of him. "Hey sensei, I don't suppose you could hand those over?" he asked hopefully.
"No," Kakashi said, not looking up from his book.
"That would have been too easy," a disappointed Naruto said to himself. Sighing he reached towards the bells slowly enough that even a child could have stopped him. Kakashi stepped away casually finding a path that wasn't taken up by Sasuke or Sakura. Shrugging, Naruto jumped back, Sasuke and Sakura following his lead.
It was Sasuke's turn to test the waters with a shuriken thrown at Kakashi's book. He dodged again easily. Two more shuriken were thrown and were dodged just as easily. Both Sasuke and Sakura retreated to the trees where they held shuriken ready. Naruto undid the clasp for his kunai and pulled down his goggles.
Naruto charged Kakashi, screaming the signal to don the goggles as he closed in. Forming a sign, bright light exploded from Naruto's chest, forcing Kakashi to close his remaining eye and jump back opening his eye again, Naruto detonated another seal in his direction and another, forcing him to keep his eye closed as he charged again. Taking to the air, Naruto leaped and managed to wrap his arms around Kakashi's midriff, as more flashes continued to erupt around the area. That was all the signal his teammates needed, throwing shuriken and kunai at Kakashi while Naruto tried to hold him still. Cocking his ear to the side, Kakashi put his book away and pulled his headband over his other eye rendering him effectively blind, then he dodged, then again, then again. It was as if he could see every projectile and was dodging them easily, even while Naruto was still wrapped around his midriff weighing him down. In retrospect Naruto really wasn't that heavy and probably wasn't doing so much to weigh him down as restrict his movements.
Sasuke shouted the name for his jutsu and blew a fireball at Naruto and Kakashi, Naruto waiting until the last second to let go of Kakashi and dodge out of the way while Sakura threw shuriken over Naruto's head, effectively blocking any escape routes for Kakashi.
When the flames cleared, they all raised their goggles, expecting to see a slightly burned yet angry Kakashi, but what they saw sent shiver down their spines. "He's gone," Sakura observed in awe.
Sasuke grimaced. "It's not over yet." He took up a position with his back to his teammates kunai arm up in a guard. Naruto and Sakura followed his example, backing up until their shoulders were touching. They rotated slowly, scrutinizing the environment for even a strand of white hair.
"Where could he have. . .," Naruto started before a fist reached up from the ground and grabbed his ankle. He cried out and felt his body submerge in the soil until his neck. Sasuke and Sakura had already jumped out of reach of Kakashi who had apparently been hiding underground. "Goggles," Naruto shouted again, shutting his eyes as he shoved his fingers together underground, then waited for the flash. Nothing happened. Opening his eyes, Naruto looked around in confusion as did his other teammates who had raised their goggles.
"Looking for these?" Kakashi asked, dropping torn strips of paper to the ground. "You're going to have to do better than that."
Sakura whispered something to Sasuke who nodded and charged Kakashi, swinging his kunai wildly. Kakashi caught his arm easily, only for Sasuke to push up with his legs, pivoting his body to push his legs up and aim for Kakashi's face. Kakashi pulled his arm down, throwing the kick off balance. Sasuke didn't let up and his other arm was already on the way, grabbing for Kakashi's mask. His arm was once again caught in a death grip and he was held limply over the ground. Sasuke struggled for a second then grinned. Kakashi looked over his shoulder and saw that Sakura had mostly managed to dig Naruto out of the ground.
Narrowing his eye, Kakashi threw Sasuke back and formed a hand sign. Suddenly Sakura let go of Naruto's hand and fell to the floor screaming, her eyes going wide and her body going limp. Then everything turned upside down. Kakashi had snuck up behind Sasuke and attacked him in a very demoralizing way that looked like it would indeed guarantee one thousand years of pain as its name described. Leaving him groaning in pain on the floor he sauntered over to Naruto who had only just managed to dig himself out and slap a flash seal on his own forehead, bringing his fingers together.
Kakashi reached out quicker than Naruto could flare his chakra and ripped the flash tag from Naruto, throwing it behind him where it let off a bright light harmlessly. Naruto looked up at the white haired ninja who was towering over him with something that looked like a smirk.
"I don't suppose we can call for a rematch?" Naruto asked, trying to back away.
The fist flying towards his face was all the answer he needed.
(O_O)
Naruto woke up to the sound of Sasuke and Sakura groaning. Opening his eyes slowly he looked around, first at the ropes binding him, then at the bruised faces of his two teammates and finally at the setting sun, minutes away from casting them into darkness. He struggled against his bonds and realized quickly that he didn't have much hope of getting out quickly, although if he wriggled for long enough he might be able to get a kunai out of his pouch, but that had very little chance of succeeding. He might be able to chew through Sasuke's bonds though.
Sasuke wrenched himself against the bonds violently. Naruto wondered how long he had been struggling there for. Sakura wasn't bothering, from the look on her face it seemed that all the fight had gone out of her. It was probably the genjutsu that had done that, from the sounds of her screams Naruto could tell it hadn't been pretty.
With a final defeated moan, Sasuke fell slack against his bonds as the sky darkened fully. They had failed, it was done, they would either get sent to the genin corps or forced to live out their lives as civilians. Both of those were equally bad options.
After a long few moments Naruto looked at his team. They had only been together for a day now and he already felt a kindred with them, more than before at least. "At least they can't split us up now," Naruto said after a while. "We're not gonna let this keep us down. We'll show them that we don't need any sensei to become great. Sakura's gonna become the greatest Hokage of all time, Sasuke is going to be the ultimate avenger and I'm going to be the best sealing master in the world and we're going to do it by ourselves," he declared bravely, not feeling the confidence that he was showing.
Sakura smiled lightly at his outburst and Sasuke didn't seem quite as dead, but for all that his words helped, Naruto couldn't help but feel that he had let them down. He didn't like this feeling, the hurt and disappointment. He didn't want to see any of his friends like this ever again if he could help it.
His stomach rumbled lightly. He needed food. The hungrier he got though it would be easier to chow down on the ropes. Leaning over to Sasuke he started to nibble on the main rope. He had already chewed a good quarter of the rope before a small puffing noise announced Kakashi's arrival, no longer sensei. He received glares from all of his students but no words, there was nothing to say.
"That was an awful showing," Kakashi started. "I don't know what possessed any of you to think that strategy would work, if I had been coming at you properly you would all be dead already." He paused, surveying the drooping heads of his captives. "I guess we'll just need to train you to be better. Meet here tomorrow morning. Dismissed." With that he disappeared as did the ropes binding team seven.
Looking at Sakura and Sasuke, Naruto's eyebrow twitched. "What just happened?"
Both of them looked just as confused as he. "I think we passed," Sakura said disbelievingly.
"But we failed to get the bells?" Sasuke said in a pained voice.
Naruto shrugged. "Maybe he just wanted to test our awesome skills and he gave us an incentive. Sort of like when Mizuki forced me to do homework by stopping my sealing lessons."
"Then why only two bells?" Sasuke asked again. That was met with silence.
"So," Naruto said after a minute. "Celebratory dinner at our place for passing. Wanna come Sakura? Sasuke's gonna make tomato soup."
Sakura smiled sadly. "Sorry, I have to get home. Maybe another time."
Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, maybe. Let's go," he said to Sasuke and they were running home an instant later leaving Sakura to watch them go.
(O_O)
As Naruto lay down to sleep something flared in his chakra. He tried to ignore it but it continued to tick into his chakra, ringing like an alarm bell. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was the perimeter seal he had left on the memorial stone that morning. It felt like someone was strolling back and forth through the training ground. When it felt like it wasn't going to stop, Naruto groaned and got out of bed pulling on his clothes silently so as not to wake Sasuke.
Running through the village, Naruto expected the perpetrator to be some animal, maybe one of the Nara's deer. He didn't expect to see a familiar face or rather lack of. "What are you doing here?" Kakashi asked without looking back. For it was him setting off Naruto's perimeter seal over and over again.
Naruto tried not to look like he was doing something wrong and instead moved over to the memorial stone, searching for the seal he had placed earlier. "Forgot this," he said, waving the seal lightly, although Kakashi still wasn't looking at him. Shrugging, Naruto turned to leave, stopping mid step. "Sensei," he started, turning back.
"Hm?"
"What was the point of the test this morning? Why did we pass? Why were there only two bells?"
Kakashi breathed heavily then turned back to look at Naruto for the first time that night, beckoning him over, then as he came close, indicating that he should sit. Following the unsaid instructions, Naruto seated himself, still maintaining a small distance in between them just in case this was going to result in an attack on his body.
"Do you see these names?" Kakashi asked.
Naruto didn't answer, realizing that the question was rhetorical.
"These are the names of all the shinobi that died in service to the village, performing the missions that keep this village safe," he continued. "What do you think of them?"
Naruto scratched his head. "They're heroes I guess. Sorta like the Yondaime."
"They're tragic losses. Nothing more, nothing less," Kakashi said, his voice sounding bitter. "The Hokage might tell everyone that the most important thing a shinobi can do is die for their village. For a nameless shinobi that might be true, but we're fighting for our lives as well and if you're not alive to enjoy that peace then it's meaningless. Abandoning a mission makes you trash but abandoning your friends makes you worse than trash. You rob them of the peace that they're trying to make."
Naruto nodded. "I think I get it. You were testing us to see if we would split up just because we knew that we wouldn't all make it. But if that was true then wouldn't the only way to pass be to abandon the mission before it started?"
Kakashi chuckled. "Maybe that's the better option, but you still have to try, that's what being a shinobi is all about, learning to endure even when the odds seem impossible. The point of the test was to show you that there's always a third way, even if it seems like you can only fail or die."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Naruto asked finally.
Kakashi chuckled morosely. "You three are confusing. I thought that maybe you didn't need to hear it."
"Yeah, well maybe we could do with hearing it again," Naruto said quietly. Standing up he brushed himself off and bowed slightly to Kakashi. "Thanks sensei. It's nice to know that someone cares."
Walking away Naruto wondered vaguely who Kakashi had lost and why it had hurt him so much. Although he forgot the thought almost as soon as he fell asleep.
