A Test of Resolve

After a night spent with my hands slightly shaking because of the verbal beat down that I had endured the day before, I ate a respectable breakfast in my kitchen. Kakashi had foregone the customary warning about not eating before the meeting.

He didn't do a lot of things that I expected him to. I quietly admitted to myself as I ate scrambled eggs and bacon, my eyes occasionally stinging as the asshole's words washed over me.

You collected a few people to make yourself feel better about yourself.

Oh, I knew that his psycho, verbal attack likely hadn't fazed Kabuto at all, being completely wrong, and that Neji instead had almost attacked the Jonin. I almost did it myself.

More than his words and the nagging doubt that I had interacted with Lee, Tenten, and Neji only for personal gain, I was shaken by the complete and absolute death of whatever metaknowledge I could leverage in my immediate future. Before meeting Kakashi, I had a relatively reliable plan: learn enough, and then bolt it during a mission far enough from the Hidden Village of the Leaf.

I only needed to figure out how to hide in a small village in the ass-end of nowhere, making use of the skills I had copied from this blacksmith or that butcher to pretend to be normal until I found something to do.

I gave myself a couple of years to learn under a jonin sensei before doing so. Given the improvement of canon Sasuke, it was more than enough to simply hide. Maybe in Tetsu no Kuni, who knew? And it would still leave me with enough time before Orochimaru's assault on Konoha, and in particular, his hard-on for my eyes.

Now not only had my timeline completely disappeared, but I also had to deal with a psycho Kakashi and Kabuto.

Ideally, I would kill the latter during a mission outside of the village and either claim that he attacked me, or drop the guilt on someone else's doorstep. It couldn't be so difficult, could it? During the first mission in which Kakashi led the canon team 7, he survived because Naruto was lucky. Taking away his Mangeyko was an interesting idea as well: if Itachi could plant Kotoamatsukami into a fucking crow, could I end up with a magic eye to hop dimensions?

A summoning Contract would be fucking useful. I realized in the safe confines of my mind. If nothing else, the Summons would be loyal only to me.

With a sigh, I completed my morning ritual by changing my neutral chakra into fire natured one and keeping it controlled just under my skin, chasing away the coldness of the cloudy morning until I felt I was about to sweat. The itch to simply spit a fireball was there, but there would be no point.

Without further ado, I made my way to training ground 14.

Neji and Kabuto were already there, the latter greeted me with a shaky smile while the first was sporting his usual stony facade, but it was something frail, something I knew simply buried whatever reaction Kakashi had caused on the day before.

"So, what are we going to do?" I asked to get some kind of conversation going.

"I've told you about the genin tests..." Kabuto hesitantly answered, "but after meeting Kakashi-sensei... I have no idea."

"We'll improvise then." I simply looked at Neji, who had the decency of nodding in agreement, "But it's reasonable to expect some form of fighting, yes? Likely Us three against sensei, your teacher had you do something similar, didn't he?"

"Yes." Kabuto nodded slowly, as if he felt reassured by the fact, "But there was nothing as intense as yesterday's meeting..."

"The Uchiha and I will engage in close quarters, how is your shurikenjutsu?" Neji spoke for the first time that morning, and like often happened, he was all business.

"Not the best." Kabuto made a show of pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"We can maneuver around you." Neji stated confidently, "It matters little if I'm not looking directly at you, the Byakugan will allow me to see what you're doing."

"Ideally, I'll keep Kakashi between me and you, Kabuto, so I can see whatever you throw and move out of the way. Neji can stay between you and sensei and keep him from engaging you directly while keeping an eye on you." I told my improvised plan to the medic-nin. It wasn't like we had any actual hope of succeeding, and I didn't know if we were going to receive some kind of hell-version of the bell test, but it reassured me to have some sort of plan, worst came to worst, we'd wing it and hope for the best.

"Do you have any poisons on your person?" Neji asked knowingly, his eyes landing on a particularly squared pouch on the med-nin left thigh.

"What in little doses heals, in large ones kills." the bespectacled shinobi replied, his hand landing lightly on the pocket in question.

"If we end up fighting, dip your weapons in something before throwing them." I looked at Neji, "You can see when I mold my chakra for a Kawarimi, and I can see you doing so before you actually do it, we can switch positions without missing a beat."

"Shouldn't we try to hide and set an ambush in case of fighting?" Kabuto finally proposed, making me snap my head in his direction.

"Neji and I will keep him from pursuing you," I nodded, completing the half-assed plan while I turned towards the Hyuga: "we can't win in a straight fight, but when you see the trap ready, we'll either run into it, letting Kakashi-sensei trigger it, or we'll try to corral him into it."

While we planned, I looked around: the Training ground was pretty standard, open field surrounded by a forest in which ran several creeks, offering the occasional pond to the Suiton enthusiast. There wasn't an area that screamed 'here you can fuck up a jonin', and truthfully, I didn't expect it to exist. My eyes landed briefly on the cloudy sky, briefly imagining myself capable of Sasuke's Kirin before I turned my attention back to my surroundings and started to pool ideas with the other two genin.

Precisely at 7:27 a.m. Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Are you done with your war council?" he didn't wait for us to answer, even if we instinctively turned in order to face him.

"These are two bells." he spoke raising the dreaded things in front of his eyes: "If you catch one, you pass my test and I'll keep you, otherwise I'll drop you back with the reserves faster than you can say Konoha. Understood?"

I turned my head towards Kabuto for an instant, feeling a frown appear on my face. How did it work?

"There are only two bells." Neji said my objection out loud, making me turn my attention back to Kakashi, who was really unimpressed.

"Kabuto-san is already a genin, so..." I tried to add, only to be interrupted.

"So?" Kakashi looked at me with a raised eyebrow: "I don't care, I have better things to do than wasting my time with you little shits. You'll stay in the reserves until an opening in one team presents itself."

I was very skeptical about the whole thing, but the attitude of serious-Kakashi was... not worrying per se, but it made me remember that I was a nine years old kid, while he was a veteran capable of pulling my spine from my ass faster than I could blink.

"You have until lunch." he placed a timer on a training post, and then stared at us, who shared a glance, unsure if we were to start already or not.

After a deep sigh, I channeled chakra into my eyes, and I charged, a kunai opening my attack, while I threw two shuriken with my off-hand.

Kakashi batted away the first kunai, avoided nimbly my first punch, and delivered a punishing kick that I barely managed to intercept with my shoulder in the time it took for Neji to follow me, while Kabuto disappeared among the trees.

I rolled on one side and jumped over the body of Neji, which had been just flung at me, only to pull on the ninja-wire I tied to the second shuriken and cross-block a punch that would have broken my jaw.

My hands closed on the offending wrist, only for my left to return to my side, anticipating a knee that would have broken my ribs with ease were it to land, and I kicked with my right foot, clinging on the jonin through raw strength and chakra.

Kakashi simply pulled his arm back towards himself, making my kick go wide.

I was about to transition into a knee thrust to his temple when he spun, using me to bodily intercept Neji.

Air left my lungs faster than I realized could happen, and for a terrifying instant I was spinning airborne without a sense of up and down.

My useful bloodline came to help me then, recognizing the second shuriken that I had thrown with a purposeful large curve, and three hand signs later, I used Kawarimi with it, landing unsteadily on my feet.

Neji had rolled back to his feet and led the attack with an open palm thrust that was easily deflected while I threw a flurry of shuriken and three kunai with pinpoint accuracy, chakra lacing one of the ninja stars so that it would complete yet another large curve around the target.

At a twitch of my fingers, a shuriken impacted with a kunai, deviating it so that it wouldn't strike Neji while the rest of my projectiles gave the Hyuga some breathing room.

The lone uncovered eye of Kakashi meet my eyes then, and as quick as I could, I acted. Ram, Dog, Boar. Chakra slipped from my eyes into Kakashi's system, briefly making the shuriken behind him disappear.

I say briefly because the genjutsu was broken almost as soon as I felt it take effect.

Fucking hell. I cursed in my head as I threw a veritable hail of projectiles against Kakashi, who simply jumped to one side, and again when Neji tried to intercept him with three shuriken thrown at his head, his middle, and his calves respectively. Pulling on the wire tied to a few shuriken belonging to my opening salvo, I made them turn, intercepting the ones thrown by Neji so that they would close in on the jonin, who, for the first time, used a ninjutsu.

Neji's projectiles landed with a solid thunk on a wooden log, while Kakashi reappeared, blatantly bored, in the middle of the field.

I could start dishing out a ninjutsu here and there. The problem was that my reserves wouldn't allow me more than three decent-sized fireballs. They would be dangerous however, I spent the past two years in the Academy training up my natural affinity, knowing that there was little point in forcing myself to learn another without supervision.

I had taijutsu that couldn't keep up with the strength, speed, and range of Kakashi. I had shurikenjutsu that could somewhat corral the jonin in one direction when I pushed myself to the limit. My D-rank genjutsu was a joke, and I doubted that my ninjutsu would do anything but force Neji to abort his close-range attack.

I straightened myself, my eyes landing briefly on Neji, who shook his head faintly. Kabuto isn't ready yet.

Changing my chakra into fire natured one, I charged, heat pooling in my stomach and steadily climbing up.

Neji struck at the base of Kakashi's spine, only to blast away with a chakra-enhanced open palm a backhanded slap from the jonin, the Hyuga's left foot almost landing on the back of the teacher's right knee.

The white-haired shinobi took a single, taunting half-step to his right, and his left leg kicked Neji in the face, crashing through the forearm that the genin rose in his defense as if it wasn't there.

By then I was in position: as I attacked, I ducked under a straight kick and somersaulted when it turned into a sweeping motion, my left forearm completing a circular motion to deflect the incoming punch that nevertheless rattled my teeth, and brought my right hand in front of my mouth, half tiger seal helping to focus my chakra.

I felt it surge up from my stomach, searching for something to burn, air or flesh, it mattered not. And yet, it was mine, and so it didn't touch me.

As the flame started exploding out of my mouth, faster than I had ever managed it, my eyes found Kakashi's lone one, and in a split second, I tried to push chakra through them.

Instinctively, I found myself twisting my chakra while the fireball did what it was made to do, and the Genjutsu slipped inside Kakashi's chakra pathways, naturally targeting his sense of hearing. His inner ear, for the split second that the jonin took to dispel the illusion, screamed to the sensei that the up was down and down was left, leaving me with the illusion of success.

Then all my air left my lungs, my eyes started to itch, and I crashed over Neji, who attempted to catch me.

I hadn't seen the movement, and through the pain and lack of breath, I felt a large smile take over my features. If the jonin had to resort to superior speed and strength to avoid us, it was our victory, period. It meant that our attacks didn't leave any other option. It meant that the only thing we could do better was being stronger and faster: things that would come naturally with age.

I never managed a visual, sealless genjutsu before. I felt overjoyed by the accomplishment, and as I looked around, I saw the world move a tad slower than what I was used to.

All in all, we might have been fighting for five minutes, if that, and we had hours of this hell to go through before any rest could be achieved. I quickly pocketed the numerous kunai and shuriken that littered the immediate vicinity, trying to avoid thinking about my lagging reserves of energy. We might have been fighting for less than 5 minutes, and I had to already control my breathing so that I wouldn't look like an overheated dog.

"Now?" I asked Neji, and feeling him flee in the forest, I dropped a smoke bomb, throwing two kunai in a straight line towards the jonin that was staring at me with a bored expression. Under the cover of smoke, I added a kunai in the shadow of the last one, and added another couple of shuriken to the mix, the second hidden by the first.

Then I bolted, pushing chakra through my limbs as I followed the Hyuga towards the trap set by Kabuto.

"You have another tomoe in both your eyes." Neji confirmed without me needing to ask, and I felt my smile stretch even wider as the forest blurred around us. The stress of the fighting forced me to develop another tomoe in my eyes, and I managed to cast a visual genjutsu, both things that I had been unable to accomplish in two years spent on my own.

It made sense that actual fighting would be the trigger to actually evolve my eyes, and while I hadn't tried to cast genjutsu through the Sharingan, I knew the theory behind most illusions, and applying it against Kakashi had been natural. Apparently, Uchiha were made for fighting, who knew?

I spotted Kabuto's lousy hiding position with nary a glance, and stopped upside-down from a branch, while Neji crouched on the side of a tree, his bloodline blazing: "He's not following us." he informed me and Kabuto before we could speak.

"Seriously?" I wanted to scream, I had fun pulling almost all the stops with Kakashi, but I expected him to pursue us.

"Tactically, it doesn't make sense for him to follow us." Kabuto's voice cut in from under a bush, "I mean... we are the ones that want something he has, not the other way around."

"I hoped he would be more accomodating." I grumbled, receiving twin snorts as an answer.

"What part of our interactions with him made you think that?" Neji's sarcastic question made me grimace in distaste.

My metaknowledge did. I snorted myself. Actually, you are all ink on the page of a manga. "Okay, I can't believe we didn't think of this before, how do we bring him here?"

"We take one of the bells." Kabuto's answer made me want to kill him on the spot, and from Neji's absolutely stony expression, I guessed I wasn't the only one. "I mean, " the bespectacled spy added, "he only has to believe that we have a bell."

That made me think. And think quickly: "Can you henge in a bell? You must control your chakra perfectly and be ready with a chakra scalpel."

"Why?"

"We'll trick him into thinking he lost a bell." Neji supplied, "The traps here are acceptable, he'll pursue and likely obtain said bell." the Hyuga's mind had immediately understood what I had been thinking about: "But the bell will be you under henge, once he picks you up, you'll try and cut him, while the Uchiha and I provide both distraction and the actual attempt on the bells."

"Then it'd be better if I changed in a couple of bells." Kabuto pointed out, "If he remains with a single bell, he'll simply push us to fight over the one we have."

"Good point." I nodded, "Just to be clear, everybody realized that the bells are a trick to force us to not make use of teamwork, yes?"

Neji's flat gaze confirmed his position, while Kabuto chuckled sheepishly: "I have already undergone a test, remember? Basic competence and teamwork are the only things that matter, even if I don't know how much this jonin is bluffing."

"Cool." I smiled faintly, "Can we go now?"

"Hold me in a way that doesn't make the bells ring, or he'll figure out the plan."

"Let's go then." I exchanged a glance with Neji once Kabuto henged himself, and gestured for him to pick up our third teammate. Then, as we were about to run back to the jonin very much capable of whipping our asses in his sleep, I had a thought.

When in doubt, I had once told Tenten, throw a second kunai in the shadow of the first. If you were lucky, it landed, if you weren't, it made the opponent paranoid.

"Throw me." I told Neji, and once his eyes gleamed with understanding, I immediately performed a henge, my shape-changing and turning into a Fuma Shuriken.

Naruto had managed to obtain some measure of success with this against Zabusa, did he not? Why would I need to reinvent the wheel? Besides, visual genjutsu or not, I doubted that my illusion would last long enough for our plan to succeed, we actually needed to get the bells.

Soon enough, my limited sense of the surroundings allowed me to understand that I had been thrown, and in the exact moment I felt some resistance, I dispelled my technique, returning to my original form in a small puff of white smoke, Fire Natured chakra already rising from my stomach.

As I returned to normal, my eyes took an immediate picture of the surroundings: I was roughly at shoulder height of Kakashi, who had extended a hand to catch what he had believed was a giant shuriken in the middle.

To our left, Neji had just concluded a Vacuum Palm, and was transitioning into a deadly sequence of the traditional Gentle Fist, chakra and hands blurring as even my eyes had difficulty with following his movements.

Instinctively, my legs crossed over the shoulder of Kakashi while my right arm clutched to my chest the jonin's forearm. I heaved with my back, attempting to dislocate the shinobi's elbow while my left arm rose to my mouth: the flare of fire was more like an umbrella of flames than an actual fireball, but it covered a rather large area, and this close he couldn't easily avoid it.

Timing the opening of my mouth, I started to spit minute balls of fire at the body of Kakashi, while my eyes found his, slightly wider under his eyebrow because of the surprise, and I cast another Genjutsu.

The first illusion was brutal and blatant, as the very first I had cast with hand signs at the beginning of our confrontation: my chakra slipped in his system without finding purchase as he stopped his own for a split second. The secondary visual genjutsu was cast so soon after the first that it could have been layered, had Kakashi been someone else. The third illusion burned through a fourth of my chakra, and encouraged him to ignore the ringing of any bells.

Then Kakashi moved.

His left leg hit Neji with a sweeping motion that crashed through his defense, simply overwhelming the newly minted genin, he sealessly molded Suiton chakra to spat a ball of water on the flames, then I was punted into the ground, literally, as Kakashi's arm flattened itself on the dirt, my grip growing slack for the pain.

Still leering, I planted one foot on the sternum of the jonin, trying to kick him, only for my muscle to wobble hopelessly as if I had just tried to kick a mountain. With that distraction, I threw some dirt into Kakashi's eye while my free foot landed over the bells he had secured at his hip.

Hatake blew on the dirt, throwing it back on my face and making me let out a dismayed groan as I clenched my eyes shut. Only then, the older shinobi's attention returned lazily to Neji, who had climbed back to his feet, and was waiting for me to get out of the way.

As I rolled on all four before standing up, I blocked with a knee the vicious kick that the jonin delivered me, once more making all the air leave my lungs.

Neji stopped me from rolling all the way into the forest, and helped me back on my feet.

Still, I was smiling, because I had taken the bells making use of the tree walking technique when my foot landed over them. As subtly as I could, I performed a sleight of hand with my empty palm, my free hand rubbing the dirt out of my eyes, making it a show for the jonin.

My vision swam, and after a couple of seconds, I felt the supreme clarity given to me by the Sharingan fade, as my eyes burned fiercely for the abuse I had just forced them to undergo. Note to self: don't suddenly start to pour a lot of chakra into your eyes without previous training.

Then, slowly, under a cloudy sky and the hollow gaze of Kakashi's lone eye, Neji lifted the Henged Kabuto while I dug a three kunai out from the ground sliding the bells safely into the small hole one of the weapons left in the dirt, the angle making impossible for the jonin to observe me as my foot slid over the grass, flattening it over the hole.

Then we ran.

There was really no thinking about it, I had managed to sneak by a couple of genjutsu that by now Kakashi had undoubtedly broken through, I had burned through my chakra reserves at an insanely fast pace, and my eyes were stressed from overuse. I had been pushing myself to the limit, something that I never did if not for chakra control and Nature Manipulation.

My self-training on the side of the Academy simply hadn't prepared me for the kind of fast-paced hell that actual fighting was, and Serious-Kakashi sure wasn't going easy on our asses.

We arrived at the clearing where Kabuto had set up the traps with the Jonin hot on our tails, and I threw another small pellet that exploded in smoke so that he couldn't land his steps where Neji and I were. Finally, he's starting to...

Everything went black and I heard the dull echo of an explosion.

I came to with a persistent ringing in my ears, my vision slowly gaining focus as the world stopped being a confusing blur. Hesitatingly, I rolled myself on one side, groaning as my everything hurt.

"None of you have the bells." Kakashi's voice forced the world into focus, and only then I noticed that we were where our test had begun, not far, in fact, from where I hoped the bells were still hidden.

"Clever tactics, some rudimentary teamwork, you're competent enough." the Jonin's voice made me roll my eyes, and still half seated on the ground, I spotted my two teammates, who were similarly groaning and ineffectually wiping the dirt and the ash from their faces.

"You set up an explosion?" I slurred, my eyes glaring daggers at Kabuto, who simply shook his head in an exhausted denial.

"He didn't." Kakashi spoke before he could answer verbally, "None of you did. I simply got bored."

Like the day before, for a single instant I was reminded that he could pull my spine out of my ass if he wanted, and that nobody could do anything to stop him.

"I wanted to make you sweat a little bit more," he shrugged, "but I guess that you're frailer than what I thought." his lone eye trailed to the timer he had set on a wooden post at the beginning of the test: "I checked you all, you don't have the bells. The point is, that neither do I." he rose his eyebrow in mocking surprise, "Since your task was to get the bells, and the timer's about to ring..."

"We do, in fact, have the bells." I smiled wildly as I felt the surprised gazes of Neji and Kabuto bore into the side of my head, "We got them before the end of the allotted time, so you get to be our sensei, congratulations." I mocked him openly, I didn't care. Fuck you, I know the standard of the other genin, we smoked them.

While I spoke, the timer rang signaling the end of that hellish experience.

At the ringing of the timer that signaled the end of our mission, and only after I checked for both genjutsu on myself and illusion placed on the clock to fool us, I dragged myself across the training ground, my hands pilfering kunai and shuriken from the grass, until I activated my Sharingan and managed to find the place where I had casually hidden them, swiftly recovering them.

"You have the bells, congratulations." his voice could have frozen an active volcano, "but who will you chose to be part of Team 7?"

"That's okay." I shrugged, throwing both bells at my teammates. Kakashi almost visibly wanted to sigh in exasperation, I could see if, if only thanks to my bloodline. If he had any doubt before, the fact that I had so easily given up the bells would confirm that I had figured out the meaning of the test.

Apparently, that didn't mean that Hatake was going to let me win: "Very well, team 7 will be a two-man team composed by Yakushi Kabuto and Hyuga Neji."

A blink later, Kakashi was holding my headband. I hadn't even felt as he removed it from my neck. What the fuck? Is he serious?

I was left there for a second or two, Kakashi already turning his back in order to leave, when both my teammates gave up their headbands. Kabuto because his mission was likely to glue himself to my Uchiha ass, and he likely thought that the jonin was bluffing to enforce his position.

Neji instead looked both at Kabuto and at me for an instant, before following suit and throwing his hitai-ate at the jonin, even if his forehead remained covered by a strip of cloth. He didn't say anything, not a word, and yet his expression seemed to shout: 'I dislike Kakashi more than the idea of being forced back in the Academy.'

And given the verbal tearing apart that we received the day before, I couldn't say that his decision was a nonsensical one. If Kakashi didn't stop being the devil incarnated, learning under him would be hell. At least remaining with me meant that Neji could somewhat maintain the little human contact that I spent years trying to build.

What I didn't expect was for the Jonin sensei to throw back one of the three forehead protectors at Kabuto: "Report to the reserves."

His lone eye then turned back on both me and Neji, before crinkling in what I assumed was a sure sign of a smile: "You'll return to the Academy."

And he disappeared, faster than my eyes could follow.

Neji and I were left alone, staring at the empty place that Kakashi left behind. He won't be allowed to drop us, will he?

"The only possible meaning of this test was teamwork." Kabuto spoke, his hands caressing the forehead protector while he wore a forlorn expression, "I'm... I don't know what to say."

I remained in silence, staring at Neji. Besides the shock of being dropped from a genin team, which I knew I was overqualified for, I was surprised by the Hyuga's action. I knew how much it meant for him being ahead of his peers, I knew how much it meant to him to be in the same team as me, the only one that he deemed an equal, even if he would never admit it.

Yet, he had chosen to stay behind.

Oh, it was entirely possible that he was counting on Kakashi's bluff, very much like Kabuto and myself, but the way he looked at me...

With my plans for the future utterly broken, my metaknowledge as useful as trash, I was left looking at a kid obsessed with the concept of victory that genuinely preferred to be held back with me than to advance, and in that moment, Kakashi's words of the day before fell apart completely.

Whatever may come, I knew that Neji would have my back.

Failed by my genin-sensei, I found myself smiling as the cloudy sky finally decided to let go of the rain it was holding back since the previous evening: "Hey Neji, do you want to get something to eat? My treat."

When he nodded, I almost managed to sling an arm around his shoulders, only to receive a chakra-less poke at my ribs.

I had just hit a major setback, but between avoiding ending up with Kabuto on my team, and the years I had before everything started to go to hell, I didn't feel defeated. I would simply keep studying on my own. Neji had my back, and that certainty Kakashi couldn't take away from me.

"Do you mind if I join?" Kabuto asked a tad bit hesitantly, "I'll think about what you can do to not return to the Academy..."

Ugh, I had almost forgotten about the fucker. I nodded, there was no reasonable way to not make him suspect that I knew about him, I would have to bear his presence.

For now.

Soon after the jonin disappearance from the training ground, with rain still falling heavy over Konohagakure no Sato, Kakashi was giving his report to the Sandaime Hokage, his lone eye narrowed because of the bad news he had just received.

The Hokage's office was a circular room, with a tall library behind the large desk where the Hokage was currently sitting, on the left of which stood an impressive pile of paperwork, and by the angry puffing of his pipe, it was easy to assume that it was still to be completed. The door that Kakashi used to enter the room had tall windows on both sides, and the left one allowed the Hokage to see the mountain with the faces of the others that had shared the job.

On the walls sat pictures of the ones that had held the weight of the hat. There was even a pot of freshly picked flowers which warred with the smell of the Hokage's lit pipe, aggressively making itself known to the sensitive nose of Kakashi: "You won't fail team 7." the Sandaime Hokage repeated with an exasperated tone.

"I can..." Kakashi's slouch lessened as he started to protest, only to be interrupted.

Hiruzen Sarutobi took the pipe from his mouth, using it to point at the annoying jonin: "You're only annoyed that he saw through the bell test."

"He still..."

"He worked with his teammates, leveraging his own and their power the best he could." the Sandaime nodded in an exaggerated manner, making a show of it, only for his eyes to narrow as he felt the reluctance of his subordinate: "You can't drop him in the Academy, Kakashi." the Hokage's voice left no hope, "C-rank Katon manipulation with a single half seal, visual genjutsu, tactical acumen, shurikenjutsu beyond simply outrageously efficient."

"He's slow." jonin Hatake protested flatly.

"He's nine."

"His attacks have no bite."

The Hokage sighed heavily, removing his hat and placing it on the side of the large desk, discretely hiding the towering pile of paperwork that he didn't wish to face at the moment: "If he keeps Fire Natured chakra in his hands, he can learn how to flash boil their blood."

"That's..." Kakashi didn't have to fake his disbelief at the suggestion of the Hokage, such a technique was something that not just anyone could perform after years of training.

"He used only half-tiger seal to throw his fire ninjutsu." Sarutobi's smile seemed to stretch until it filled the whole room, "What does it say about both his affinity and control?"

"He's arrogant."

"He is prideful, and has reason to be." Hiruzen was almost enjoying the excuse that enabled him to postpone the dreaded paperwork, but even his amusement couldn't keep him from being serious for too long: "This doesn't stop him from learning, he has adapted his strategy no less than 4 times on the fly, adding something new each time."

"He planned around his teammate, not with him."

A bark of laughter left the Hokage's lips: "What should he have done? Trained Kabuto into a jonin with a specialization in ninjutsu during the hour and half you left there to stew? He couldn't teach the genin anything, nor it is his responsibility to do so." the old shinobi tilted his head sideways, making open use of body language to express his confusion at Hatake's stubbornness, "Besides, his teamwork with the Hyuga is very well done."

"He..."

"He is like you used to be, only better adjusted." the Hokage interrupted Kakashi, any levity finally leaving his voice as he turned slightly in order to tap the crystal ball he had on his desk, "I have observed very closely. You'll teach all three of them, to the best of your ability, then you'll have Naruto on your next team."

"I thought I would have Naruto in any case." a flash of lightning briefly let the Hokage see his subordinate perfectly, his slouch was completely gone, leaving behind only a stiff posture that seemed to scream his outrage at being denied something he thought safely tucked in his pocket. After all, the Hokage had pulled him out of ANBU to give him time to adjust before teaching Naruto, having that treat removed from the table, conditional of his acceptance of team 7 wasn't something he had expected.

"That was when you weren't acting like a stubborn idiot." the Kage replied with a raised eyebrow, "Now, we resort to exchange because I cannot force you to give you all to something as mercurial as teaching a genin team. If you don't take them, I'll pull Yamato for the task. Besides, you have absolutely no excuse to keep young Neji from joining a team."

"The headcase?"

"He's no worse than many others we've seen, and keeping him with the young Uchiha can only do him some good." the Kage puffed on his lit pipe, "But you knew that much already."

With a gesture of the head, the Hokage let Kakashi know that he was dismissed, while his eyes returned to his actual problem: the pile of paperwork had grown in the time he spent scolding the jonin headcase, and he still had to struggle through it all before he could call it a day and go home.

AN

Bell test:

I spiced up a little the bell test, opinions? You cannot fuck up a jonin, genius or not. But you can be a civilian and outsmart one, no sweat. In the first part of the manga, there was actually some form of mystery about the shinobi, it was all plans within plans. Then in Shippuden, they started throwing KAMEHAMEHA around like confetti.

Misdirection is hella powerful when applied well: Neither Neji nor Kabuto knew about actually taking the bells. And it would make sense that Sasuke would keep them on his person, or actually give them to Neji. Dropping them in a random hole in the ground is genius.

Does it make sense?

Hokage-Kakashi chat:

Nowhere in Kakashi's character there is something that would push him to be a teacher. He is been attempting suicide by mission since the death of the Fourth Hokage, was coaxed out of ANBU because of Naruto, and in canon he never met meaningful genin to teach, since each of them ended up choosing egoism above teamwork.

Having to teach people that graduated ahead of time sits ill with him, because he sure as hell doesn't wish on children the kind of life he had (genin at 6 thrown in the war), and because the last such prodigy (genin at 8) was Itachi. Having two of them, as well as a crippled survivor, reminds him only of the death of his team.

So we have a bit of interaction with Sarutobi. Did it work? I wanted to make clear that there is a lot running on this team already, and that Sarutobi is on board. It is hard to say no given the picture I've painted, isn't it?