A/N: It's been a while since I've updated too much of anything, so I felt obligated to post SOMETHING. I typed up this unfinished segment when I was still playing in the Joker!Naruto sandbox. The fic updated are coming slowly, but surely, but it's a trying task lately, especially with me transferring from the Navy to the Army here in the next month and going through Warrior Transition Course, so there may be a small balnk in time where I may not update/answer reviews/PMs for a while in Sept/Oct. However, I should still be able to post my "Naruto Birthday Special" Chapter on time.

Speaking of which, the poll regarding the Naruto B-Day special is both, on my forums page, which can be accessed through my profile page, and on the profile page itself.

Three Genin stood in front of Hatake Kakashi, just as unlikely to pass as all the rest.

However, unlike all the rest, this particular group he would not take lightly. Pinky wasn't a threat. Hell, Tora the cat was more dangerous than she was. Likewise, the Uchiha Prodigy, while skilled for his age group and quite above the average Genin, was still just a Genin.

No...

It was the OTHER one. The misfit of the group, the one wearing a ragged orange jumpsuit, whose face was caked unevenly with white powder. Shinobi black camouflage was rubbed around his eyes and his lips were stained with blood from only who knows where.

Then there was his hair... An uneven mix of blonde and green, as if he had taken the green compound from the Shinobi camouflage and rubbed it into his hair, making his hair a mix between slick and spiky.

He was giving Kakashi a sort of crazed, wild-eyed smirk.

His grades may not have shown it, but Kakashi knew he was by far the most dangerous of the three.

Still, he couldn't help but ponder over his student's reactions to his tardiness. Sasuke had been annoyed, aggravated, but did his best to school his own reactions as to not show it.

Sakura... She was like an open book. She hid nothing, nor did she try to. Her first reaction was to berate him and call him a liar.

Naruto, on the other hand... Looked amused, as if he knew something the others didn't. Whether he actually did or not was irrelevant, it was all in the showmanship. Yes, out of the three of them, scarily enough, Naruto was the most ready to be a shinobi.

Unfortunately- or fortunately, Kakashi wasn't sure at this point- his chances at passing relied on his two prospective classmates.

So, as he did in innumerous other realities, he pulled out two bells.

"You have to get these two bells from me... If you don't have a bell, you'll be sent back to the academy," said Kakashi in a bored tone. "Now... You have until noon... Begin!"

In a blur of motion that would have been barely visible to the average civilian, two of his three charges were gone, leaving the deranged looking clown in their wake.

"You're... An odd one... Aren't you?" he asked. As predicted, instead of being taken as an insult, the boy merely smiled wider. Kakashi could barely contain his shudder at the sight of the smile on the poorly painted, scarred face.

"Ho, ho... Ha... Ha... Ho..Ha..He... Ho...Ho..." the boy laughed lightly before pointing at Kakashi, shaking his finger, "You're good... Yes... Oh, I like you... Ha... Ha... Brilliant..."

Naruto smiled, "I... I get this..." he then spread his arms wide, "I get all... All... Of this..." he spun around as he said this.

His prospective teammates looked at him incredulously, even Kakashi was looking at him weirdly.

"You see... This... This... Is a test... You see..." said Naruto with a grin, shaking his finger at Kakashi. "Clever...Devious, but clever... I like that..."

"We're alike... You and I... We THINK alike..." Naruto's gestures were erratic, "But them... They... They don't get it... They're not..." He swept his arm indicating the general directions of where Sasuke and Sakura could be. "Like us... You see... THEY can't see what you and I can... Can't see underneath the underneath, like us... They're boring... But you... You are interesting... Underneath that mask, with that laid back attitude... Yes... Interesting... But underneath... You're all... You're all serious... Uptight... You should... You should... Smile more..." Naruto's smirk turned into a full grin, "Yes... Definitely smile more..."

Instantly, Kakashi was on edge. Every instinct in his body was screaming out in warning.

"Shouldn't you be trying to get the bells?" asked Kakashi conversationally.

"Why? There's no point." said Naruto flatly, "This is a test, you see... The bells... The bells are not the test... So I'm going... I'm going to sit over there... Maybe... Maybe the others... They'll figure it out... But I doubt it..."

'Interesting...' thought Kakashi, as a sudden barrage of kunai slammed into him.

Sakura screamed out in horror as their sensei was taken out by the Uchiha prodigy. Naruto didn't even flinch as their sensei was obliterated, he simply looked bored, and was completely unsurprised when Kakashi poofed into a log.

"Well, well, well... What have we here?" asked Naruto as he came upon the head of Uchiha Sasuke.

"What do you want dobe?" Sasuke asked with plenty of venom in his voice.

Naruto squatted down to get a better look at the Uchiha prodigy. "He, He, Ho, Ha... You're funny... Dobe... He, ho... ho, ha... But if I were you, I'd look again... You see... You... You're the one... In the ground... And I'm... I'm the one... Up here..." Naruto then pulled out a rather simple looking knife, "And you're completely at my mercy... Such pretty little eyes you have..." Naruto said reverently while stroking Sasuke's face, "They see so much, but you see so little..." Naruto then tapped the point of the blade to the corner of Sasuke's eye.

"Such... Such a shame... So much potential... Wasted..." Naruto then suddenly stood up, "And they say I'm the clown!"

Naruto then skipped away, laughing hysterically as he left.

Sasuke couldn't help but sigh in relief, not once had he ever felt so insecure since the night his parents had been killed before his very eyes.

A/N: Keep in mind when/if I take up this idea for a full-fledged fic, in all likeliness, the Teams will probablly NOT be set up the canonical way as demonstrated here in this incomplete O-Make.