A/N: I very much appreciate the feedback from the last chapter :). I'm glad you guys think I'm doing a good job.

Now, I wanna set some review goals once in a while, so for this chapter, let's see if we can get to 900 reviews with this update. There's a little more to this chapter, so I think it can be done.

Time for Chapter 19

Enjoy!


"I'm sorry for dragging you all out here so early, but we have a lot to get done today."

Team Seven all gave a collectively tired nod. It was before sunrise, hardly after four in the morning, and they were all situated in a dew-dampened field on the outskirts of Konoha. Just a single week had passed since their arrival back home from the Land of Waves, a week they had been given to rest, but even so, the abrupt return to such brutal meeting times was hardly enjoyable. Sensing that none of the teens were particularly keen on instigating, Kakashi cleared his throat.

"As I'm sure you've all heard, the Chunin Exams are scheduled for the end of next month. I'd honestly forgotten about them myself until recently, which makes it rather short-notice for you three." he began. Shikamaru then raised his hand, prompting the Jonin to nod in his direction.

"Don't you think it's a little irresponsible to sign us up for it? We're still new to being genin." he asked tiredly. Kakashi folded his arms across the front of his flak jacket.

"No, I don't think it is. Your cell is something of a special case as far as genin teams go. I know a fair few Chunin who'd lose to both Naruto and Satsuki head to head, and you're smarter than most Jonin." he replied. Satsuki then followed Shikamaru's example and raised a labored hand.

"That's probably true, but you need more than just strength or smarts to get a promotion. You need both." she pointed out, not bothering to wait to be called on before speaking. Naruto nodded along with her in agreement. The Copy Ninja smiled under his mask. If they had learned anything from their experiences in the Land of Waves, it was to be aware of their limitations.

"That's exactly why I'm signing you three up. All of you have one half of the recipe. Shikamaru, you're smarter than I am in some respects, but you're nothing to write home about in combat. Naruto, you're tough, resourceful, and destructive, but you're reckless and unintuitive." he said, earning a glare from his blonde student. Kakashi then looked toward the Uchiha girl.

"And you're the most well balanced of the team, but you're about as flexible as a steel pipe." he said calmly. The raven haired girl simply scoffed in response.

"To summarize, you all have some potent strengths, especially for your age and level of experience, but I haven't seen the ancillary skills required of an independent Ninja yet." he said conclusively. Naruto, who still looked mildly perturbed at having been described and 'unintuitive', frowned.

"Then why have us take this exam at all? Sounds to me like you don't think we can pass it." he inquired. Kakashi produced a kunai and began twirling it around one of his index fingers.

"Because, it'll be a good learning experience either way. It wouldn't even shock me if one of you managed to become a Chunin. You're all talented enough. It just comes down to how adjustable you are." he said smoothly. He then let the blade fly from his fingertips, accurately pinning a dragonfly to the bark of a nearby tree.

"Now, onto what we'll be doing today." he began, immediately earning the undivided attention of his team.

"The Chunin Exams are broken up into three distinct phases. A written test, a survival round, and one-on-one combat. The second of those phases are what we'll be focusing on. From now until sundown, you three will be acting as prey, and I'll be acting as the hunter." he continued, eyeing up each of the genin to test their reactions. Satsuki merely shifted slightly, Naruto met his eyes head on, and Shikamaru gave an exasperated sigh. Taking a mental note of each, Kakashi reached into his pouch and took out three coins.

He then tossed one to each of his students. Seeming to catch on rather quickly, Naruto pocketed his.

"I'm guessing we have to keep these away from you?" he asked. The silver-haired ninja gave a thumbs up and watched as Satsuki and Shikamaru followed Naruto's example by stowing away their coins.

"Think of it as an inversion of the bell exercise. That drill focused on offensive teamwork, while this one focuses on defensive teamwork. You'll be needing a bit of both next month." Kakashi said. The sun then began to peak over the horizon just a tad.

"You aren't allowed to leave the forest, but other than that, the rules will be broadly the same as they were for the bells, but in reverse. Only one of you needs to have a coin by the end, but if at any point I manage to take all three, the exercise is over, and you're all running laps around the village tomorrow." he said, drawing a fearful shudder from Team Seven. Even Naruto, who ran regularly, despised Kakashi's brand of endurance training.

Needing no further verbal prompting, the three genin turned their attention toward the trees. Sensing that they were ready to begin, Kakashi held up three fingers, then two, then one, and then zero. In an instant, they were off, vanishing into the foliage of the forest before them. Opting to give them a head start, Kakashi casually strolled toward the edge of the wooded area. He needn't rush. He held an enormous edge in skill in regards to both stealth and tracking.

'If I actually try, this'll be way too quick for them to learn anything. I'll give them a few chances each.' he decided. Once enough time had elapsed for the genin to have made a fair amount of distance between themselves and their teacher, Kakashi leapt up onto a branch and pushed off.

The hunt was on.


Naruto's eyes darted side to side as he strained his ears. Roughly twenty minutes had passed since he and the rest of his team had set out into the forest, and up till the present moment, things had been unnervingly peaceful. Despite the lack of danger or action, he couldn't shake the unwavering feeling that they were being watched.

"You feel it too, don't you?" asked Satsuki, snapping the blonde from his trance with a flinch. Naruto swallowed and nodded. It was an unpleasant feeling, but not one any of the three were unused to. Not after what they'd gone through in facing Zabuza.

"I think we're fine for now. He isn't nearby yet." Shikamaru, who had been largely silent since their entrance into the forest, said with surprising confidence. Satuski raised an eyebrow at his assuredness.

"How can you be so sure? He's way better at this than we are." she said. The Nara paused for a moment, causing the rest of the cell to follow suit. After an uncomfortable few moments, he began walking again.

"My family goes hunting a lot. It's not quite the same as this, but it's given me a decent sense of when someone or something is close by. And right now, I feel relatively safe." he explained. Naruto managed to relax himself slightly.

"Yeah, I've heard you guys own a deer reserve outside of the village. Kakashi-sensei's probably a little smarter than those things, though." he said. Shikamaru gave a low chuckle.

"You'd be surprised." he said, a dash of humor in his voice. Before any of the three could add on to the conversation, Satsuki let out a shrill shriek as she was violently ripped off the ground by the ankle. Responding quickly, Naruto launched a kunai just above the Uchiha girl's leg, resulting in a metallic snapping sound. Satsuki then fell back down again, following through on the momentum with a forward roll to break her fall.

"Are you sure he's not close by?" the raven-haired kunoichi complained, cutting off a snag of metal wire from her ankle as she spoke. Naruto curled and uncurled his fingers. His heart was racing.

"I think he was right. If he were close to us, he'd have snatched you up before I could cut you down. I think he was here." the blonde said stiffly. Shikamaru nodded in agreement.

"That means he either planted traps before the exercise even started, or he slipped past us a while back without any of us noticing." he deduced. Satsuki stood back up to her feet with a wince, something Naruto caught onto immediately.

"Your ankle is swollen." he said, pointing to her visibly damaged leg. His teammate gritted her teeth and stepped forward.

"I can still walk. It's nothing." she said in a pained tone. Shikamaru pursed his lips and glanced off in each direction at their surroundings.

"Even if you can walk, you're gonna need to run and jump pretty soon. This is a problem." he said seriously. Satsuki gave him a harsh look.

"What're we supposed to do about it? We just have to find a way around this." she said firmly. Naruto thought for a moment, searching his mind for solutions to the issue at hand.

"He said that we only need to have one coin in total, right? If that's the case, then maybe it'd be best if we split off in different directions." he suggested. Shikamaru frowned at this.

"It's a team building exercise. Don't you think that'll just get us yelled at?" he asked. Naruto shrugged his shoulders.

"Scattering is a thing people do in combat. It's a team strategy." he argued. Satsuki then hobbled her way between the two boys.

"I think Naruto's got it right for once. With all of us in one place, if Kakashi finds us, we're screwed. If we spread out, we can at least slow him down and warn each other." she said. Naruto snickered and grinned.

"All it took was a sprained ankle for you to see how smart I am." he said jokingly, earning himself a mean elbow to the ribs from Satsuki. Before they could begin bickering, Shikamaru cut in.

"There's some logic to that, but he's definitely going to go after you first, and with that injured ankle, you're easy pickings. We'll be down a coin by default." he reasoned. Naruto glanced at Satsuki for a moment before responding.

"I'll stay with Satsuki, you go off on your own." he said. The Nara boy furrowed his brow at the suggestion.

"How's that going to help anything? No offense, but you can't really protect her from him. He'll just take your coin too." he asked. Naruto responded by producing his coin and popping it in his mouth, much to the confusion of his teammates.

"What are you…" Satsuki began, trailing off into shocked silence after the blonde made a gulping sound. It was metallic and bitter, but Naruto managed to keep his breakfast down. He had swallowed his coin.

"He's gotta find it first." he said with a sly grin. Satsuki covered her face with one of her hands and shook her head.

"The metal they make these with is probably toxic if you digest it, dumbass." she said incredulously. Naruto shrugged and wiped his lips clean.

"Oh well. For now, my coin is safe." he said. Seemingly deciding that any further discussion would simply be a waste of time, Shikamaru took several steps away from his teammates.

"Let's meet back up in a few hours to regroup. If we all have our coins by then, we'll stick together. If not, we'll split up again." he said, receiving a pair of nods in return.

"If you meet a hot chick in the woods again, at least try to make sure she isn't gonna try to kill us this time." Naruto called out to him as he walked away. The Nara boy grumbled something unintelligible in return.

With that, Shikamaru jumped up into the trees and vanished, leaving Naruto and Satsuki alone.


Satsuki wiped sweat from her brow with her free hand as she and Naruto trekked along down a foot-beaten forest path. A little over four hours had passed since they had split off from Shikamaru, and as was the experience while the cell had been whole, little had happened. There had been minor scares regarding traps, but they had managed to evade or escape all of them without injury. While the traps themselves were far from intimidating individually, they lent credence to the idea that Kakashi had rigged the forest in advance.

'Cheap bastard. You're already better at this than we are. You could at least play fair.' she thought to herself in irritation. She then felt Naruto breathe in deeply, causing her to glance to her left, where he resided. The blonde looked exhausted. Sweat was running down his face, and his breathing was growing more labored. It was unsurprising. As her ankle had swollen further, Satsuki had found herself completely unable to walk. In turn, Naruto had offered to support her weight on her injured side.

In short, Naruto had essentially been carrying her for at least an hour and a half. The Uchiha girl kept her eyes fixed on him as they awkwardly walked along.

"If you need a break, I can try walking on it again." she offered. Naruto shook his head and rolled one of his shoulders to relieve stiffness.

"I'm fine. It's just a furnace in here. I almost think the shade is making it worse, somehow." he said. Satsuki blinked a drop of sweat out of her eye.

"If you think you're miserable, try having long hair. I'm basically cooking under a blanket." she said. Naruto shifted his grip across her back and picked up the pace at which they were walking.

"Yeah, my arm's stuck under that blanket too. Pretty sure it's melting." he said humorously. The Uchiha girl then spotted a wide-trunked tree up ahead.

"Let's rest against that tree for a few minutes. We both need to breathe a little, I think." she insisted. Though he initially seemed poised to argue, Naruto relented, walking them both over to the large dome of bark and sitting down with Satsuki in tow. For several moments, they sat in silence.

"You can let go of me now, Naruto." the raven-haired girl said in reference to Naruto's arm, which was still laced around her back. The blonde quickly pulled his arm back and let it rest in his lap.

"Sorry, sorry." he muttered. When another lapse of silence threatened to take hold, Satsuki prevented it with a rare attempt at humor.

"You think I could sue Kakashi for indirectly injuring me inside the village?" she asked jokingly. Naruto cracked a smile.

"I mean, you'd probably win the case. We both know he'd be a no-show in court." he said. The Uchiha girl held down a laugh. As light as the moment was, they still needed to remain undetected.

"I probably wouldn't do it, though. Not like I need the money. Besides, I don't really want to get moved to another team over something that dumb. Or at all, really." she said. Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Really? I figured you'd kill to not have to work with me." he said skeptically. Satsuki felt her face heat up a tad. Unwittingly, she had backed herself into a conversational corner.

"Somebody's gotta keep you in line. Might as well be me." she said, her tone coming out far more meek than she'd have liked. The Jinchuuriki gave her a sideways smirk.

"Oh yeah? I never took you for the territorial type." he said in a surprisingly suggestive tone. The Uchiha girl swallowed a small lump in her throat. For perhaps the first time since she had known him in any meaningful way, Naruto had well and truly put her on the backfoot.

'Is he…flirting with me? Him of all people?' she wondered in a mild panic. Sensing that her window to respond was closing, Satsuki blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"It's not like anybody else is gonna want you anyway." she said quickly. The moment the rushed response left her mouth, the Uchiha girl slapped a hand over her lips. It was comically mean, but also had other, far more embarrassing implications. For better or worse, Naruto only seemed to pick up on the more antagonistic side of things.

"I was just trying to keep things light." he muttered dejectedly. For all the insults he could take in stride, it appeared that anything to do with neglect was a touchy topic. Suddenly feeling quite guilty, Satsuki drew her knees up to her face and rested her chin on one of them.

"I'm sorry." she said quietly. Naruto turned his head to face her, seeming rather surprised to have received an apology. After a time, he turned his attention back to the foliage ahead of him.

"You're all good." he said neutrally. Letting out the small breath she had been unknowingly holding, Satsuki straightened her legs out in front of her again. Before anything more could be said, another voice cut in.

"Sometimes, I miss my teenage years, but watching you two is giving me secondhand embarrassment."

Immediately shooting up to her feet despite the pain in her ankle, soon followed by Naruto, the pair scanned the canopy around them. Though it did not take them long to locate the source of the voice, what they found was daming. Nonchalantly hopping down from a branch roughly twenty feet over their heads, Kakashi landed across the path from the two genin. Tucked under his right arm was Shikamaru, who was conscious, but visibly beaten up.

"Not sure why you thought sitting down was a great idea, but then again, Naruto went and swallowed his coin, so I really shouldn't be surprised." the Jonin said with a sigh. Naruto jammed an indignant finger at Shikamaru.

"You told him?!" he yelled. The lazy genin rubbed the side of his head and craned his neck up to face his angry teammate.

"It was either that, or he said he'd waterboard me." he shot back. Dire as the situation was, Satsuki couldn't help but find some humor in it all. Eccentric as they both were, they were unflinchingly themselves no matter the situation.

"Sellout." Naruto hissed accusingly, though his face looked more flustered than angry. Kakashi then tossed Shikamaru over to the pair. Landing on the ground with a dull 'thud', the Nara boy rolled over onto his back slowly.

"Ow…" he groaned weakly. Kakashi promptly vanished from view. When he reappeared, he was directly behind Satsuki. He then swiped her kunai pouch, which was attached to her left thigh.

"Two down…" he began, quickly finding the raven-haired kunoichi's coin buried in the pouch before she could even begin to stop him. He then vanished once more, this time reappearing in front of Naruto.

"...one to go." he concluded, sinking his fist into the blonde's stomach a beat later. In a surprisingly clean procedure, the Jinchuuriki coughed painfully, somehow spitting out the coin he had swallowed in the process. Kakashi easily swiped the bile-soaked coin out of the air before it could hit the ground.

The Jonin then strolled back over to his side of the path and presented the three coins, one lodged in each gap between his fingers.

"That's all three. You lose." he said with a patronizing, masked smile. All three genin sighed heavily. They had been beaten, and not after a particularly grueling contest.

"Did you have to punch me? You could have just squeezed it out of me or something." Naruto complained, still catching his breath from the blow to his abdomen. Kakashi shook his head.

"You do realize that every moment that coin was in your stomach, you were at risk of lead poisoning, right?" he pointed out. Satsuki snickered a bit as Naruto muttered a convoluted excuse.

"Anyway, you three definitely have work to do. Get used to this sort of drilling, because it'll be most of what we're doing for the next little while." he revealed, earning a unified groan from Team Seven.

"Well, since it's only around seven in the morning still, let's get back to the clearing. We'll do some basic taijutsu until noon, and then knock out a few public service assignments. After that, you're free. Sound reasonable?" he suggested. Satsuki nodded, prompting her teammates to follow suit.

After a few minutes' rest, the group made their way out of the forest again.


Hiruzen snapped out of his work-induced trance as the sound of a knocking on the door to his office hit his ears. It was evening, and the hot temperature of the mid-day had finally begun to cool somewhat. It was the ideal time to make daily errands without drowning in one's own sweat.

"Enter." the elderly leader called out to the person on the opposite side of the door. Slowly creaking open, Kakashi Hatake's form was slowly revealed just outside of the office. Finding himself relieved that his guest was not another marble-mouthed diplomat, Hiruzen smiled.

"I was expecting you a bit earlier, I must say." he greeted the younger man. Kakashi scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"If I told you that I had to help an elderly woman cross the street, would you buy that?" he asked. Hiruzen chuckled and set aside his pen and documents.

"Not in the slightest. Now, I trust you have a report written as I requested?" he inquired. The Copy Ninja nodded and slid a file across the Hokage's desk.

"It's pretty short, but it's thorough." he affirmed. Hiruzen initially moved to open the file and assess its contents, but opted to wait.

"Before I read the official version of things, how do you feel he did today?" he asked. Kakashi shrugged and adjusted his forehead protector to better cover his left eye.

"Things went smoothly. Both in training and during the cleanup jobs I had them do. There's some tension between him and Naruto, but nothing too bad." he said. The Hokage gave a satisfied nod.

"Good to hear. I've heard that you plan on having them participate in this year's exam. Is that true?" he asked curiously. The Jonin sighed and sat himself down in one of the free chairs in the room.

"Everybody I talk to is grilling me on that decision." he grumbled. Hiruzen cracked a smile at the younger man's reaction.

"I actually like the idea, but I think you can understand how strange it sounds. They have less than twenty D-ranked missions on their resume, and while they technically completed an A-ranked mission recently, it was hardly because they were ready for it." he said. Kakashi's expression remained tired and half-lidded.

"The kids had the same reaction. Even Satsuki and Naruto seem apprehensive about it. Like you said, there are plenty of reasons to be nervous, but I don't see the harm in letting them fail. That's how you learn." he said, stretching his arms across himself a bit.

"I'm not even convinced they can't pass. Shikamaru specifically might actually do just fine if he puts his mind to it." he added. Hiruzen eyed Kakashi intently.

"And what makes you think I'd give him that promotion so soon after what he did in the Land of Waves?" he asked. The Copy Ninja met his gaze.

"Because you like him. All three of them, actually. Naruto would've gotten expelled from the academy years ago if it weren't for you, the Uchiha sector would have been seized if you hadn't pulled some strings, and Shikamaru would've been suspended if you hadn't taken it easy on him in your official write-up to the council." he listed calmly. The Hokage remained silent for a time, but soon relented.

"Guilty as charged, I suppose. I simply feel that expecting people as young as they are to face such harsh consequences for mistakes they were always going to make sooner or later." he said honestly. Kakashi glanced off into empty space.

"The guilt of letting people down tends to be enough to straighten them out most of the time. Then again…that guilt never gets any easier to cope with. Even for the strongest people." he said, an odd hollowness to his voice. Hiruzen easily caught on to what he was referring to, consciously or not.

'Your boy still misses you, Sakumo.' the elderly leader thought sadly. He then cleared his throat and straightened his posture.

"How has Naruto been? If I recall correctly, the seal slipped to an alarming degree after Satsuki fell to the huntress. How is he handling it?" he asked, effectively changing the subject without a fuss.

"He's seemed more or less like himself. I think he told Satsuki the truth, because she's been reading up on Lord Fourth since we got back. As for Shikamaru, I'm not sure if they've talked about it, but I'm pretty sure he's pieced it together on his own." the Jonin reported. Hiruzen stroked his thin beard.

"I'd hoped that he would be able to tell them on his own time, but perhaps that was wishful thinking. The stress of his first few real assignments were always going to put his stability to the test." he said thoughtfully. He then glanced at the clock. Luckily, he still had time.

"How do you feel they're getting along in general?" the elderly leader asked. Kakashi thought for a moment.

"Better than I expected, actually." he said vaguely. Hiruzen motioned for him to continue, to which the younger man obliged.

"They don't fight about anything major very often, and even seem to like each other a fair bit when things are calm. Naruto and Satsuki give each other a pretty amazing amount of grief every time they're within fifty feet of each other, but that's just the way they are. Shikamaru gets along fine with both from what I've seen, though he can be a bit detached." he explained. He then laughed a bit.

"Honestly, I enjoy being their teacher. They give me a reason to wake up everyday that doesn't involve a paycheck." he said. The Hokage felt himself relax. It wasn't perfect, but Team Seven was still very much functional according to what he was being told.

"I'm glad to hear it. You're free to go." he said. Kakashi nodded and stood up. Moments later, he was out the door, leaving Hiruzen alone once more. Once he could no longer hear Kakashi's footsteps, the old man took hold of his pen and slid a stack of paperwork in front of him. A long sigh escaped his lips.

'I should hire another secretary.'


A/N: Was four scenes too many in this chapter? Or just right? Tell me what your preferences for length are, alongside what you thought of this chapter in a review

I hope you guys are enjoying these chapters. I promise, the next few will be a bit more fun :)

Remember, the goal is 900!

Read and Review :)