Kakashi had to admit, he was a bit intrigued by this crew. When the Hokage shoved yet another folder into Kakashi's hands that morning, in his mind, he had already written off his new set of students as another failure. Already with two failing teams to his name, Kakashi learned that he shouldn't have any expectations.

Having no expectations meant no disappointment. He learned that the hard way.

Even though he had written off his new team and despite his lazy appearance, Kakashi still took his duties seriously. Perhaps it was a byproduct of his stickler-for-rules persona that he embodied throughout his childhood, but Kakashi didn't shirk his duties after he was assigned to them. And so Kakashi found himself settling into his favorite tree - the one above the bench near the front gates - and thumbing through the Academy files.

His first team was hardly memorable. They were three boys who had no noteworthy clan name to back them, which was fine. Kakashi had seen living proof that a nobody could become one of the strongest jonins in the village (Gai), not that Kakashi would ever admit that out loud. Yet those three boys had egos the size of one of the heads on the Hokage monument, but had no skills to back up said ego.

They'd been written off as a number, a statistic for Kakashi Hatake's team falling rate.

The second team stood out a little more than the first; after all, it was rare to have triplets and then even rarer to have triplets placed on the same team. When he first received the folder from Lord Third, Kakashi instantly knew that combination was a horrible idea. Everyone would argue that it wasn't; they were familiar with each other's jutsus, they had trust, they had camaraderie. Too bad they had to go and prove Kakashi right.

And his third team? Well, Kakashi would be a complete liar if he said that he wasn't intrigued by them. Plastered at the very top of the stack was Sasuke Uchiha's profile. The Last Uchiha. The Academy standout for their graduating class. A quick glance over at his statistics, Kakashi was hardly surprised that he scored perfect marks in everything.

Just like him, Kakashi mused. He could understand the choice; the two of them were more similar than Kakashi cared to admit. Class prodigy. Insane potential. Sharingan wielders. Traumatic childhood history. Lightning and fire affinity. They were the picture perfect student and teacher pairing.

The profile was Naruto Uzumaki's. When his eyes glazed over his Academy picture, Kakashi's breath hitched for a brief moment. Seeing that particular shade of blue eyes brought back an onslaught of unwanted memories. With practiced ease, Kakashi shut those memories out, shoved those lingering feelings to the very back of his mind.

Being Sensei's son didn't mean Kakashi would go easy on him. But he had to admit, putting the last ranked student with the top scorer had been an interesting choice. Especially since it reminded him so much of his own team.

The final student sealed the deal. A kunoichi with immense intellectual prowess but lacked physical strength. She was noted for possessing refined chakra control although Sakura had never taken advantage of that attribute to hone her skills in something. Her description sounded very much like his former teammate.

Kakashi had to face it: this team was essentially the second version of Team Minato and he was assigned to play Minato's role this time around.

Only this time, Kakashi wasn't going to make the same mistake that his sensei did.

Only when the sun began to set, was Kakashi conscious that he was almost three hours late to meet his team. Inevitably, he was going to get a lecture from Iruka and the Sandaime tomorrow, but he already had an explanation ready.

It was a test of patience, Kakashi would say.

Kakashi smirked under his mask, amused by the prospect that Lord Third would just shake his head as if to say "what will I do with you" at his explanation, while Iruka would rant and rant and rant about how he needed to be more responsible, be a good role model for his students.

Then Kakashi would have to bite his tongue so he didn't set off the man on another tirade by revealing that he never intended to pass those kids in the first place. Maybe Kakashi was out to get them...but it wasn't his fault that Academy kids these days were so incompetent, so self-absorbed.

Kami, he was starting to sound like an old man.

Swinging his legs off of the branch, Kakashi hopped out of the tree. Tucking the folder in the large pocket inside his flak jacket, Kakashi ambled his way to the Academy. If he was already three hours late, what would another fifteen minutes do?

The blackboard eraser was jammed in the crack of the sliding door. A childish trick, but if that trick was concocted by the three of them, then Kakashi was willing to live with chalk dust in his hair for a few hours to give them the satisfaction of seeing their efforts of teamwork come into fruition.

Hand on the door, Kakashi slid it open, taking one step into the doorway while he mentally counted down the seconds until the eraser fell onto his head.

Three...two...one. The object hit his head lightly, sending a spray of chalk dust everywhere. Tipping his head forward, Kakashi let the eraser slide down from his head and clatter against the floorboards.

The boisterous laughter caught his attention. In between his laughter, Naruto muttered barely comprehensible things like "he fell for it" or "stupid sensei" or "that's what he gets for being late."

To his left, Sakura had put up a fake innocent and apologetic expression. Fake because he could practically hear her laughing at his expense on the inside. Only the words that came out of her mouth didn't reflect her true feelings; instead, Sakura pinned the blame entirely on Naruto, citing that she tried to stop him.

She hadn't. Her body language betrayed her.

Sasuke was still sitting in the front row. Elbows propped up on the desk, his hands were clasped together, blocking the majority of his face. For a brief second, Kakashi could have sworn he spotted a hint of a smirk and a subtle eye roll.

They were certainly an interesting crew.

After instructing them to meet him on the rooftops, Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke. He perched on the railing, fingers itching to reach for Icha Icha while he waited for his students to clamber up the stairs.

The three of them filed in front of him, sitting down on the concrete slab in front of him.

Kakashi began by asking for an introduction, even though he knew everything that he needed to know from the Academy files. Still, it would be interesting to hear other things, things that would make them a person, rather than just another sheet of paper jammed among the stack of graduates.

"Well, tell me your likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams."

Unsurprisingly, Sakura was the one to fire back with a request for him to go first so that they had an example to work off of. And Kakashi did, giving them them vague responses, relishing the annoyance written on the kids' faces when they realized they had learned nothing but his name.

It was alright. They weren't here to stay. They didn't need to know anything else about him.

Naruto went first. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that he wanted to become Hokage. It wasn't entirely a surprise; after all, he had the blood of two people who wanted to become Hokage running through him, but it was interesting to know.

He had his father's looks but everything about his personality screamed Kushina.

Sakura went next and if Kakashi was quite honest, her introduction was an incomprehensible mess of squeals. This was something that the Academy files hadn't told him; he hadn't anticipated a fangirl to be placed on his team. And for someone as sharp as she was, he was appalled that Sakura didn't know the meaning of subtlety.

Kakashi mentally sighed. This wouldn't do.

Sasuke was the last to go.

"I like to train and learn new jutsus. I dislike people who abandon their comrades." At this part, Kakashi blinked in surprise, wondering if he was hallucinating or not. "My hobbies are to read -" Here, Sasuke paused to clear his throat, veering away from what he was originally going to say. "Books. My dream is to become strong enough to protect my friends."

What the hell? In his mind, Kakashi had painted Sasuke as an aloof prodigy. Someone who felt that comrades would only serve as a hindrance since he was leagues ahead of them. Someone who was arrogant enough to think that they could accomplish everything on their own. Basically, someone who acted just like he did as a child.

Sasuke had just dispelled that notion and now Kakashi was left with a blank canvas, wondering how the kid turned out so differently from what he anticipated.

Kakashi smiled under his mask. Maybe there was hope for this team.

Intriguing, indeed.


Sakura was the first to arrive at the training grounds. In part, it was because it had been drilled into her since the first day of the Academy that a shinobi should always be punctual - a rule which their sensei didn't seem to care for. And combined with the fact that he had fallen for the eraser trick made her think that this training exercise would be a piece of cake. It was clear that he wasn't all that after all, but it sucked that they were stuck with the worst sensei.

The second reason, well, Sakura knew that Sasuke would be the second to arrive and then they could spend quality time alone…

Only Sakura was entirely shocked to see that Naruto was the second to arrive. His entire demeanor suggested that he was still half asleep, even letting out a loud yawn while he collapsed onto the ground next to her.

"Wake me up when Sensei gets here, alright Sakura chan?"

Sakura had been stunned into silence that she couldn't do anything but nod. Naruto accepted her answer and promptly fell back asleep.

Two minutes until their meeting time. By Sasuke's standards, he would be considered late. An unsettling feeling appeared in the pit of her stomach. Sakura paced the vicinity as the minutes ticked by, anxiety building up inside her. All sorts of thoughts raced through her mind, the loudest being the urge to go and check up on Sasuke. Yet her sense of duty rooted her here.

What if Sensei showed up while she left to go find Sasuke? Her eyes flickered to her sleeping teammate; she couldn't count on Naruto to properly pass the message along. He looked so deep asleep that Sakura felt he wouldn't even wake up even if she yelled at him.

Sakura plopped down on the grass, crossing her legs. Closing her eyes, Sakura began to meditate, an act that always helped to calm her nerves. Only, that lasted for all of five minutes before Sakura picked herself off of the ground and started pacing again.

The cycle continued. She would pace around, then try to meditate, only to fail. It was practically impossible as her mind went into overdrive thinking of all the possibilities of why Sasuke was late. Most of them were grim.

By the time Sakura finally worked up the nerve to leave to check up on Sasuke - after all, like Sasuke said, comrades were important so certainly ditching a training exercise was excusable - Sasuke strolled into view. Sakura ran up to him, checking him all over for any injuries.

There were none.

"Sasuke, you're finally here!" Sakura greeted, maybe a little too loudly judging from the way Sasuke leaned away from her.

"Uh, yeah," came Sasuke's uncomfortable response. "Is Sensei here yet?"

That question set Sakura off into a rant about how their sensei was late again. Sakura had gotten so heated during the rant that the volume of her voice woke up Naruto, who sat up, still looking slightly disoriented.

"Where have you been?" Sakura finished with. Before Sasuke got a chance to answer her question, Kakashi appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Yo," he greeted, the skin around his visible eye crinkling with amusement. "Sorry, I'm late, but I-"

"Got lost on the path of life," both Kakashi and Sasuke finished in unison. Kakashi's lone eye slid over to examine the dark hair boy, eyebrow raised as if to question how Sasuke knew exactly what he was going to say.

Sakura voiced his question aloud for him.

It was all wrong. Once the question left her mouth, she watched as the blood drained from Sasuke's complexion. His tongue darted out to lick his dry lips, a sign that he was nervous. Sasuke wasn't supposed to be nervous. He was cool and confident.

Was this Sasuke the one she even knew?

Sasuke's left eye twitched abnormally, almost like it was a natural reflex for the eye to be closed and he was fighting to keep it open. His lips were pressed in a straight line, but the strain of his cheek muscles indicated that he was fighting a smile?

Sakura was convinced that she was dreaming. Never in the years that she had known him had she ever seen him smiling.

"Seemed like the kind of shitty excuse he would say," Sasuke finally said, weakly. While Naruto accepted his answer, bouncing on the balls of his feet from the pent up energy and eagerness to start the training exercise, his answer raised red flags for Sakura.

How would he know what kind of excuse Sensei would give if he never heard it before? Yesterday was supposedly the first time they met and Sensei hadn't given an excuse for his tardiness then. The first thought that flitted through her mind was that yesterday's meeting wasn't their first encounter with each other, but if that was the case, then why was Sensei surprised that Sasuke could finish his excuse?

Sensei didn't linger on Sasuke's excuse; instead, he directed the spotlight off of him and onto the training exercise at hand, which raised her suspicions even more. Was Sensei covering up for him? Covering up the fact that they already knew each other in favor of appearing unbiased?

Sakura didn't have time to ponder on the question any further as the training exercise began, after Naruto stupidly attacked Sensei before the start signal. Like she learned in the Academy, the first thing she did was conceal herself, in a set of bushes while suppressing her chakra signature. She was pleased to note that Sasuke was nowhere in sight either; despite his strangeness, he seemed to still have retained his senses.

As for Naruto, Sakura was at a complete loss for words as she watched her teammate attacking Sensei head on. And Sensei...was reading a book? While fighting Naruto?

She was in complete disbelief. Not only did Sensei have a chronic late problem, but to top off with a blase and irresponsible attitude, she wondered if the jonin exams had been rigged. How did someone like him even become a jonin? Although Sakura did suppose that Sensei was holding out quite well despite reading a book, being able to win against Naruto didn't really mean much.

When the slew of Naruto clones let out a screech of indignation after falling into Sensei's trick, a snicker floated to her ears. Her head jerked to her right, spotting Sasuke squatting on one of the branches. Even from this distance, Sakura could make out the smile on his face, partly obscured by his hand as he desperately tried to hold in his laughter.

Even when Sensei suddenly appeared behind Naruto, hands forming a tiger seal - which Sakura recognized to be dangerous and realized this could end very, very badly - Sasuke was still greatly amused. So amused to the point where a few chuckles slipped his mouth, but then he tried to suppress it, which resulted in a series of uncontrollable hiccups.

Thankfully, the jutsu hadn't been dangerous. Naruto flew through the air, landing in the nearby river. The next time she turned her head, both Sasuke and Sensei were gone.

And then she was alone. Sakura realized that staying here meant that she was a sitting duck, and that she should be doing something productive. Academy taught her to rig traps, but those required time and she wasn't sure how much time she had. Assuming that Sasuke was currently engaged with Sensei right now, he would buy her a decent amount of time, but who was to say that he wouldn't send a clone to deal with her?

Her eyes flickered over to the river, where Naruto's head had just emerged out of the water. What did Sasuke say on the first day...that he hated people who abandoned their comrades?

Making up her mind, Sakura left her hiding spot in favor of reaching the riverbank just in time to give Naruto a helping hand to the shore. Naruto's blinding smile sent a warm feeling to her chest, as she acknowledged his gratitude. Even if he was the dead last in the Academy, at least there were two of them.

His presence had given her the confidence boost that she needed.

"Come on! Let's go find Kakashi sensei!"

From the trees, Kakashi smiled.


Like Kakashi thought, this crew was quite intriguing. Although Naruto was quite unorthodox in his methods, Kakashi had to admit that he was surprised to see that Naruto could form shadow clones at his age. Performing a forbidden jutsu at such an age was practically unheard of it, not to mention the sheer volume of them. Any normal shinobi would pass out from chakra exhaustion, himself included, but Kakashi supposed that having an immense chakra amount was helpful. Even if it came at the cost of having horrible chakra control.

His next target had been Sakura, but when he saw her contemplating on her next move, Kakashi was curious to see what she would do. Would she chase after Sasuke? Would she try to do something to defend herself? When she had chosen to go help Naruto, despite leaving her guard completely down during the process, Kakashi couldn't help but feel proud. Even if her basics were not quite up to par, at least she possessed the right mindset to be a shinobi.

It might have helped her idol had practically declared that comrades were important. Speaking of the devil…

Sasuke found him before Kakashi found him. They were situated on opposite sides of the clearing. Sasuke sized him up, while Kakashi lazily examined him. He may have been a prodigy, but Kakashi knew that he was still no match for a jonin like him. Although, it was unfortunate that he would have to take him more seriously than Naruto; he didn't think he could get away with reading Icha Icha while fighting Sasuke.

Kakashi tucked the book into his weapons pouch and waited for Sasuke to make his first move. He didn't have to wait long, a large fireball came hurtling in his direction. His fingers flew through the signs, easily countering with a water jutsu of his own. The two elements clashed, mist obscuring the entire clearing. He took the opportunity to slip underground, pinpointing Sasuke's relative location. Hand burrowing out from the ground, he expected for his fingers to wrap around his ankle, only to find that he grasped air.

How in the hell…?

Kakashi emerged from his underground position to find Sasuke was smirking at him, like he knew he was underground all along. After two seconds, the shock subsided and a neutral expression overtook his features once more. He readied himself for the next attack.

It never came. Instead, Sasuke ran from the clearing. Kakashi followed him, noting that unlike Sakura, his guard was completely up. Even if Kakashi had chosen to ambush him on his way to his destination, wherever that was, Sasuke would have easily deflected it. So Kakashi resigned himself to observing Sasuke's next move.

His next destination was the clearing, the place where they started. Naruto's chopsticks froze midair as he registered Sasuke's presence, followed by Kakashi's into the clearing. Sakura was next to him, subtly pushing the bento box behind her.

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest. "You decide to eat instead of giving me a helping hand?"

Naruto sputtered. Sakura's mouth opened, excuses ready to spill from her lips when the shrill ring of the alarm permeated through the air. While Naruto and Sakura's jaw dropped - they officially failed the test - Sasuke seemed completely unfazed as he plopped down next to them, snatching the bento box from behind Sakura's back.

"You all failed." Kakashi didn't mean it; he just wanted to see how they would react. Naruto was indignant. Sakura was horrified. Sasuke remained completely nonchalant, continuing to chew on the rice ball.

How interesting.

Naruto filled the silence, babbling on and on about how he couldn't go back to the Academy. In the beginning, Sakura had chosen to remain quiet, but eventually joined in on Naruto's protests. Sasuke had chosen to remain quiet, taking the opportunity to polish off the contents of the bento. Only when their chorus of protests died down did Sasuke speak for the first time.

"We passed, right?" Sasuke's dark eyes bored into him, almost as if he was daring him to say no. Kakashi didn't take the bait.

"What makes you say that?"

Sasuke merely shrugged. "You saw our teamwork."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. Looks like the kid had done his research, but the question was how? What were the odds that Sasuke had run into one of the two teams that failed? Even if he did, Sasuke was always the quiet, brooding type in the Academy, or so he heard, so he wouldn't be the type to make small talk with them.

Or maybe it was a scheme all along. He had done his research, found out that the thing that Kakashi valued the most was teamwork, manipulated his answers to give off the impression that he cared about his teammates just so Kakashi would pass him. And then he would be one step closer to achieving his goal, which Kakashi wagered was to extract revenge against his older brother.

Maybe they had something else in common; Sasuke was as cunning as he was when he was younger. Just like Kakashi manipulated his team into working together during his own bell test, all Sasuke had to do was plant the idea in Sakura's head – not that it was hard since Sakura was heads over heels in love with him anyways – and say the words that Kakashi wanted to hear. Naruto wouldn't be a problem; he craved attention too much to thwart Sasuke's plans.

It was a brilliant plan. If Kakashi was anyone else, if he hadn't done the exact same thing before, Kakashi would have fallen for it. Too bad Sasuke had met his match.

Kakashi considered sending them back to the Academy, but it would be quite a pity. It had been so long since a team had even come close to meeting his standards and he could see that Naruto and Sakura had to form a sense of friendship. It would be quite a pity if he undid all that – undoubtedly, next time they would be placed on different teams when they graduated again – just because of Sasuke.

Maybe he would give them a second chance to prove themselves. A second chance to see if Sasuke genuinely cared about his comrades or if it was all a farce.

"Your performance this morning didn't quite meet my expectations," Kakashi began. "On the account that you did slightly surprise me earlier, I'll give you a second chance. After lunch, we will continue this exercise."

Sasuke's strangeness had thrown him so off kilter that the words didn't come across as menacing as he wanted it to. It would be fun to scare the genins a little bit, but he was quite perturbed at Sasuke's uncanny behavior that there was no room in his brain to plot ways to mess with them.

Just when Kakashi was certain that he was starting to figure Sasuke out, he had thrown another curveball in his direction. While Naruto and Sakura accepted his decision and had begun eating their lunch rapidly, surprise was written all over Sasuke's face. His eyebrows were knitted together, forming creases in his forehead, almost like he was wondering where he had gone wrong when he had been so sure of his answer.

He hadn't gone wrong. He just tried it on the wrong person. No matter how much planning, how much scheming, there was no way that he would have known that Kakashi and him were basically the same person. Both young prodigies who were too full of themselves to realize their comrades' worth and would do anything to further their objectives.

Kakashi had been so hopeful, hoped that maybe Sasuke was another Obito instead of another Kakashi. Seeing his performance today served to dash all of his hopes away, but that was fine. He failed two teams before them, a third wouldn't make any difference. At most, he'll get another lecture from the higher ups and suffer from accusatory looks from his peers. This time, it might be worse because he would have failed the Uchiha prodigy, something no one has done, since ever.

What else was new? He was used to being alienated anyways.

Their second chance started and already, they were off to a rocky start with Naruto and Sasuke arguing in the middle of the clearing. Sakura looked uncertain as to what she should do, her body language indicated that she wanted to take Sasuke's side, but it seemed that her newly formed camaraderie with Naruto was strong enough to keep her from outright doing so.

Mentally, Kakashi was tired. He was ready to jump down from the trees, to break up their argument, to send his third team back to the Academy. He would fail another team, dash away their dreams, and once again, be the bad guy. But Kakashi couldn't get soft; if he did, then they would all wind up dead.

This was his way of making up Minato's mistake, making up for the fact that his sensei had allowed his stupid kid self pass. It didn't matter if kid Kakashi would resent Minato forever; at least, his team would still be alive.

Right as he was about to jump down, he heard a voice behind him.

"He's over there, top of the trees." Sakura.

There was just enough time for his eyes to flicker down to clearing, to confirm that Sakura was still down there and then for him to realize they were all transformations of Naruto's clones before Naruto and Sasuke jumped out of the trees and attacked him. Kakashi hopped out of the trees.

Naruto's clones had given up the farce, reverting back to their normal image. All three attacked him head on and were easily dealt with, popping out of existence. The real Naruto came at him with a strong punch, which Kakashi caught. Grabbing hold of his wrist, Kakashi swung Naruto around and released him, sending him flying across the clearing from the momentum. He jumped upward to avoid Sasuke's sweep, while deflecting the barrage of shurikens that had been set off by Sakura, who was still hiding somewhere in the trees.

Kakashi couldn't catch a break. Naruto and Sasuke effectively tag teamed throughout, while Sakura provided support from the trees. Somehow, she had the time to set up a slew of traps everywhere and relished in the glee of setting them off one by one, to add in to the chaos.

This was a real team.

A small genjutsu knocked Naruto out of commission. Upon seeing Naruto fall, Kakashi noted that Sasuke's eyes flickered over to him, concern etched over his face. He lost his focus for a brief moment, a move that would have been costly in battle, yet to Kakashi, it affirmed that he truly cared.

Maybe it wasn't a scheme after all.

Sakura must have noticed that Naruto was under a genjutsu because she came out of trees to help Naruto while Sasuke tried to fend Kakashi off. Tried was the key word. Despite it all, he was just a genin prodigy while Kakashi was a jonin, so it wasn't long before Kakashi knocked Sasuke clean on his back. He turned on Sakura, catching her off guard - he would need to work on her awareness - and sent her sprawling to the ground.

Naruto was still slightly dazed and struggled to sit up.

Kakashi gave them one of his eye smiles. "Congrats, you pass!"

All three were too tired to offer much more than a weak groan. Even Naruto, who seemed to have an endless amount of energy, opted to continue lying on the grass. With great effort, Sakura pushed herself into a sitting position, happiness radiating from her features. And Sasuke?

He was smirking, but it wasn't one of arrogance, but rather it was full of pride.

Maybe there was still hope for this team after all.


A/N: Hi! Welcome to this story!

This story is dedicated to LaughingWombat who inspired the entire premise of this story. It was originally supposed to be a one shot piece, but if you've read my other stories, you know I always get carried away by the ideas lol.

Anyways, this will be loosely based on canon, but to be honest, it's been about a decade since I've seen OG Naruto so I'm working off of memory for the earlier arcs. I didn't go back to rewatch these arcs because I'm not interested in repeating everything detail by detail, so I filled in the gaps with some of my own imagination like you see in the bell test scene.

Hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think and drop any theories you have for why Sasuke is so strange. :) Until next time!

-MM