Disclaimer: Nah
"Since you guys completed the test before noon, let's go over that plan of yours over some lunch."
Kakashi led them back to the stumps where his and their backpacks were and pulled out four bentos. He passed them out and sat down with his own in hand. Naruto dug in immediately, while Kurama glanced over the one he was handed before shrugging and doing the same.
"So, how did you come up with the plan?" Kakashi asked bento still untouched in hand. Kurama wondered if the man was going to take off his mask to eat. He had never seen his face before, even after all these years, he spent talking to him at night.
"I wanted to attack you using my shadow clones while Natsu snuck up and stole the bells by pretending to be one of my clones, but Natsu said that this test was probably about teamwork. So we decided to include Sasuke-teme in on the plan. While I search for a good vantage point to attack, Natsu went to talk to Sasuke-teme. Since he's good pretty much everything at the academy," Naruto made a face there but continued on in a cheerful voice. "…it wasn't that hard to add him to the original plan. Natsu came up with the switch with the body replacement jutsu and Sasuke-teme said he knew a jutsu that would catch you off guard. We figured that either Natsu or Sasuke would grab the bells while you were distracted, but you threw Natsu away immediately so Sasuke-teme was the only one who could."
"Hm." Kakashi hummed. "It was a good plan. I wasn't expecting that out of a group of genin, much less you guys. I had assumed Naruto and Natsuki would coordinate an attack and was on guard waiting for Natsuki attack, but I wasn't prepared for Sasuke's appearance."
Kurama saw Naruto grin out of the corner of his eye, flushing with pride. He eyed the half-empty bento in the jounin's hand with suspicion but otherwise didn't say anything.
"Now, what could have gone wrong? In this test or if I was an enemy."
"You could have left, using the body replacement jutsu instead of staying to fight the clones," Sasuke answered immediately.
Kakashi nodded but remained silent obviously waiting for more answers.
Kurama thought about it for a moment. "You could have used me as a shield against Sasuke's attack."
"Uh, you could have had a back-up? Other villages work in teams too, right?" Naruto added scratching his head. "So, you could have been the distraction while your teammates finish whatever mission they had or attacked us while we were focusing one you."
"All good points." He set the empty bento next to him and started to dig in his backpack again. "Even the best plans have holes or faults, that's why it's important to be flexible. And in order to be flexible, you need to know your own strengths and weaknesses and that of your teammates."
He pulled out three folders and flicked through them for a moment. Kurama quietly finished his meal and set it aside as he exchanged curious glances with Naruto.
"Sasuke, you are the most well-rounded in the team and the one with the best chakra control. You have talent and the control for a variety of jutsus, which will serve you well when you activate the Sharingan. Your taijutsu is also very good, but you focus too heavily on strength and less on mobility and flexibility. You're young and while you may be one of the strongest in your class you won't be stronger than an adult shinobi. Your stamina is also the weakest of the three along with your chakra reserves."
Kurama watched as Sasuke scowled and clenched his fists. Kurama could feel the anger radiating off the boy from that assessment of his weaknesses. Kakashi ignored the reaction and continued onward.
"Naruto your chakra control is a little shaky and while you can surprise your opponents with your…interesting taijutsu, it's still sloppy and leaves your defense full of holes. However, with one-hundred and fifty-three successful pranks on other shinobi, including the Hokage himself, you likely have the most ingenuity of the group. You've managed to assess situations and predict your opponent well enough to catch shinobi unaware while utilizing the least amount of supplies possible for the prank itself. You're able to think on your feet and fling around more chakra than most jounin can without breaking sweat."
Naruto flushed with pride. Kurama, himself, couldn't believe someone actually kept track of all the pranks his brother pulled. Kakashi then turned his eyes on Kurama making him straighten slightly.
"Natsuki you have the flexibility and mobility that Sasuke lacks in his taijutsu, and you have more control over your chakra than Naruto, but I still don't think you'll be able to do a lot of justus due to the, ah, oddity of your chakra. Its intensity is a bit too much for a lot of jutsus. From what I understand Iruka has taught you some higher level fire jutsus? That's a start, but it'll still be a lot of trial and error to find jutsus that'll accept your chakra. Also, you have the shortest reach of the three of you and you lack your teammate's physical strength. However, your genjutsu is spectacular for your age and you seem to be a natural at chakra sensing."
"It's more like empathy, sensei," Kurama replied. "I can sense the negative emotions of people. Naruto can too, to a lesser extent. I can differentiate who I'm sensing if I know them, but I think calling it chakra sensing is a bit of a stretch."
"Hm…"
Kurama froze as a wave descended over him.
He could feel his body shaking, but it felt distant.
He tried to swallow but found that his mouth was suddenly completely dry.
He shivered, staring straight ahead of him frozen in place by an onslaught of emotion.
No. Not emotion per say.
Concentrated killing intent.
He had felt a little bit of it with Mizuki, but it wasn't nearly as strong as this.
(He wondered vaguely if this is what his wrathful chakra felt like to humans. Perhaps this was karma.)
"Natsu…"
"Natsuki!" He felt Naruto's warm hands on his neck and relaxed as the emotions abruptly left.
Naruto was trembling next to him.
His eyes wide and face pale.
Even the Uchiha looked paler than usual.
Kurama turned to the source of the killing intent. The man hadn't moved an inch, his eye blank. Kurama didn't want to open himself up to another attack by reaching out to try and sense his emotions, so he waited for an explanation trying to subtly catch his breath.
"Empathy is a useful skill for tracking and even in the interrogation department, however, it is a double edge blade. Most shinobi carry a certain amount of darkness in their hearts. It's hard not to considering our jobs, but shinobi are also taught to control those emotions. The most common form of control is by concentrating their negative emotions into what we call Killing Intent. Some shinobi have perfected this skill to the point of immobilizing their opponent without ever lifting a weapon." His eye grew distant for a moment before he continued calmly.
"On the other hand, some shinobi have become desensitized to the point where there will be no negativity when they attack you. Instead of concentrating on the negative emotions and throwing them at you, they shut them down or erase them completely. It's simply the usual business to them. In both these scenarios, your talent may actually be more detrimental than useful. Not to mention the fact that if people find out about it, they may do what I just did and project all of their negative emotions and killing internet onto you in order to cripple you in battle. It's a tricky ability, but we can make it work."
"So!" He clapped his hands. His eye brightened in excitement. "We need to work on establishing individual strengths and combining those strengths into a cohesive whole."
He stood up dusting off his pants. Kurama reluctantly followed, grateful that his legs supported him and he didn't look like a fool in front of everyone by collapsing. Naruto hovered next to him, sending him an uncomfortably knowing look.
"Get ready kiddos. We're going to have a real mission tomorrow."
He could help the small bubble of excited that coursed through him at those words.
Kurama wasn't sure what exactly he had been expecting when he finally became a genin, but pulling weeds in an old man's overgrown garden had never crossed his mind. He glanced at Kakashi, who was giggling while reading his book in the shade of the oak tree and sighed. After years of talk with the man during the late hours of the night, he had thought of him as a good person. A kind soul that was willing to sacrifice his nights to help Kurama. As it turns out, the man was a complete troll with a sadist streak.
This was the third day of non-stop D-rank missions.
Their sensei had said he was trying to get a proper training regimen together for the three of them but hadn't explained anything more than that. All he did was drag them to the mission office in the mornings and sign them up for a variety of D-rank missions to complete throughout the day.
After they were exhausted he had them practicing the basics and other cardio activities till they were ready to drop.
Sasuke had not been thrilled to learn that both of them knew how to tree walk when Kakashi had forced them to teach the other boy. It was a rough day for everyone. Once the three of them were at the same level he forced them to learn water walking by tossing them in the deepest part of a river. Iruka looked like he wanted to chastise the man when they came home soaking wet yesterday and muttered complaints under his breath as he ushered them into a warm shower before dinner.
Kurama glanced at the Uchiha, wondering how bad his aches and pains were after three days of this routine. At least, Naruto and him had his chakra to heal the worst of the muscle strain and sooth the pain. However, the other boy didn't have that option. He knew chakra had positive effects on the human body, allowing them to push further than your average human, but even so...
He glanced at the dark haired boy.
The Uchiha was working slowly with a frown on his face, his movements sluggish.
Kurama frowned and glanced at his brother. The boy worked furiously on his section of the yard. Yanking out flowers as well as weeds. Kurama winced.
Naruto wasn't taking the new missions very well.
While Kurama was irritated, but mostly amused by their sensei's actions, Naruto was getting more and more peeved over the simple missions. Kurama figured it had to do with the Mizuki incident coupled with his brother's high expectations for becoming a shinobi.
He sighed.
After finishing the garden and sat through a lecture about picking flowers instead of weeds, they trudged over to the training grounds. Kakashi ushered them over to the three wooden poles in the middle of the field and proceeded to perch himself on the middle one. The three of the stood awkwardly in front of him before he gestured for them to sit. Kurama eyed their sensei suspiciously, the man seemed too happy today.
"Alright kiddos, let's talk strategy and training."
"From what I've observed and the reports the academy complied it obvious that this team will be an offensive unit. I believe that your best strategy would be pinning the enemy in place and beating them like you did with me. However, we need to work your individual strengths and teamwork."
Naruto raised his hand like they were still at the academy. Kakashi sent him an amused look.
"Aren't all team offensive?"
"Yes and no." Their sensei replied. "All teams are required to know how to fight and defend from an enemy unit, but some teams specialize in specific things such as tracking or defense. When talking about an offensive team I mean a specific team that doesn't have a specialty."
"Ah," Naruto rocked back with a thoughtful look on his face. "So we don't have a specialty?"
Kurama rolled his eyes at the slight disappointment in his tone.
"That's not a bad thing." Kakashi chuckled. "My team was an offensive unit, in fact, most teams are. Specialties are limited to the general tracking/sensor, defense, and genjutsu for Konoha. Other villages may have different types. Among your age group, there is only one future tracking team."
"So, what are you going to train us and when?" The Uchiha butted when Naruto looked like he was going to ask more questions looking irritated at the digression in the conversation.
"Well, Sasuke and Naruto I'll teach you a variety of ninjutsus and we'll focus on fire ninjutsus since that seems to be your element. We'll have to test that officially, though, just in case. However, I want Naruto and Sasuke to be diverse with your ninjutsus. As for individual specialties. Sasuke, since you are the tallest and strongest of the group I want you to learn more advanced taijutsu and shuriken jutsu for long range attacks. Naruto, I think you'll be well suited for traps and eventually sealing considering your history with pranks. While Natsuki will work more on genjutsu and chakra sensing. I know you said your ability is more like empathy, but I think it's similar enough for you to be able to branch into chakra sensing easily. You can too, Naruto, if you're interested, but I think you might have your hands full with traps and sealing."
Kakashi rubbed his hands together.
"When I said you guys will be able to hold an enemy team in place and beat them down, I meant it. Between those clones, Naruto's pranks and Natsuki's illusions you guys should be able to pin any enemy in place to eliminate them or capture them depending on the mission. However, the key to this strategy is teamwork as well as your individual training. It'd be no use if you build up your individual strength only to fail to communicate with one another and fail to trap the enemy."
Kurama took a deep breath analyzing the information slowly as his brother bounce excitedly in place beside him, his early irritation at the D-rank missions seemly gone. Teamwork. He tried to not to glance at the Uchiha on the other side of Naruto, but it was a difficult battle. He had made a truce with the boy in order to pass the bell test, but would be able to fully commit to being his teammate?
He let the breath out in a deep sigh.
It wasn't like he had a choice.
He'd just have to deal with it.
(He tried not to think of red eyes. At least in the cage, he had control of his own mind, but those eyes, those eyes robbed him of his will. They robbed him of his self.)
"Alright, my cute little genin. You have the rest of the day off, but starting tomorrow your life will be hell." The grown man giggle. "We'll start the day off with every genins favorite teamwork mission; find Torra."
With that ominous statement, he vanished in a swirl of leaves.
(Several Days Earlier)
Sakura was not happy.
She nearly didn't hear her new sensei call for the team because she had been so shocked. She had followed him in a daze to a nearby empty classroom. She clenched and unclenched her fists as she sat there waiting for her new sensei to finish coughing. It had been nearly two minutes since he started. She glanced at the boys to her left. The blond one looked as irritated as she was, while the larger brown haired boy was smiling serenely. She didn't know either of their names and only vaguely recognized their faces. She hadn't cared for any boy other than Sasuke, so that wasn't really a surprise.
Sasuke.
She clenched her fists again.
Since team seven (Sasuke's team) had been called she had been trying to figure out where she could have been wrong in her prediction. She gritted her teeth, it had to have been the Uzumaki twins. She had figured that they'd go to separate teams since that had been the decision for the last pair of twins from the Hyuuga clan, but apparently, that assumption was her mistake.
Now she was stuck with two boys she didn't know and a sensei who wouldn't stop coughing.
As if to spite her thoughts the man took a deep breath and settled down. The man looked at them silently for a moment, Sakura nearly shivered when his eyes landed on her. It felt like he could see right through her. She had to remind herself that even though he didn't look like much, he was still a jounin. Specifically, a jounin selected to teach the future generation of shinobi.
The man sighed and looked down at the folders in his lap.
"Okay, I guess we should begin our introductions. Just tell me your names and a little bit about yourselves. I'll start to show you how it's done." He coughed into his hand briefly before continuing. "My name is Hayate Gekkō. I am a Tokubetsu Jōnin who specializes in kenjutsu. I like oolong tea and meditating during my free time. I dislike paperwork and large crowds. My dream is to someday retire, marry my girlfriend and live out the rest of my life with her peacefully."
There was a brief awkward silence as the three of them glanced at one another trying to see who was willing to go next before the blond rolled his eyes and began.
"I'm Chou Hasegawa. Call me Hasegawa, don't call me Chou. I like my mom's tonkatsu and I hate my stupid name. I look up to the Fourth Hokage 'cause he was super powerful despite being from a civilian family like me. I hope that I can be like him someday and prove those stuck up clan kids wrong."
Sakura glanced at the other boy in surprise. His pale green eyes were flashing as if he was daring their sensei to disagree with him. Their sensei didn't say anything, so the other boy took the silence as his turn to begin.
"Well, my name is Kenta Nishimura. I don't mind if you call me Kenta or Nishimura. Chou ("I just said not to call me that!") and I have known each other since we were kids, so I like hanging out with him. I don't like bullies or fighting, really, but my dad was a shinobi and I want to be like him."
Sakura sighed, scolding herself for not think about what she was going to say, before starting slowly.
"My name is Sakura Haruno. You can call my Sakura. I like, um, (Don't say Sasuke! Think of something else, quickly!) I like the color red and, um, reading. I don't like failing tests. My dream is to, um, settle down with the person I love."
Sakura smiled slightly at boys curious stares and turned to the jounin, hoping he'd elevate the awkwardness of her introduction. The man coughed as he shuffled the folders in his lap.
"If you're curious," he coughed. "These are the reports compiled during your time as a student at the academy. The jounin instructors are given these in order to have a basis for their team's training."
He sighed.
"I'm not going to lie to you guys." He coughed again. "This team sucks."
The next day was hell.
Kurama would have groaned if it wouldn't have alerted their target to his presence under a bush. They had gotten the mission at 7 am, it was now nearly noon. Kurama couldn't believe a single cat could be so wily. The scratches on his hands were almost healed from their last attempt at grabbing the cat, but they still stung slightly reminding him of their failure.
He let out a silent sigh, as he waited for his teammates to get into position.
Naruto muttered curses into the earpiece as he tried to set up a simple trap with ninja wire and catnip. Apparently, the scratches on his hand were stinging as well. The Uchiha was silent, presumably still sulking over his epic face plant half an hour ago when he tried to make a grab for the demon cat despite Naruto and his warnings not too. The Uchiha's perpetual state of anger and annoyance was a mere buzz in the back of his head now, but it spiked every once in a while as their attempts to caught the cat continued to fail. One would assume he, as a thousand-year-old chakra being, would be above feeling vindictive glee over the Uchiha's pain.
One would, of course, be wrong in their assumption.
Kurama did try to hide it, however, by the amused look, Naruto sent him and the Uchiha's glare he failed in that attempt.
"Ok, I got it," Naruto whispered through the com.
"I'm in position with sights on the target," Kurama replied just as softly.
"Me too." The Uchiha muttered.
"I'll give the signal." Naruto took a deep breath. "3. 2. 1. Go!"
Kurama released an illusion of angry dogs towards the meandering cat trying to considerate more on the auditory rather than the visual. Sasuke leaped out of his tree with Naruto's clones on the other side of the cat in order to herd it towards the trap Naruto set.
For a heart-stopping moment, Kurama though his illusions weren't good enough.
Then the cat took off away from the illusionary dogs.
It skidded to a halt when it caught sight of Sasuke and Naruto's clones before going in the direct of the trap.
Kurama could hear Naruto yelling excitedly in the com as the cat got ensnared by the wire.
He let his illusions got while Naruto dispersed his clones. Slowly the three of them ghosted over to the ensnared cat as silently as possible. Despite wanted to end this hell as soon as possible they stood back and watched as the cat discovered the catnip and because to lick at it excitedly.
"So, who wants to grab it?" Naruto whispered cheerfully.
"Sasuke is the only one without scratches on his hands," Kurama muttered back.
The dark haired boy shot him a glare, his face covered in drying blood from his face plant earlier. Kurama raised an eyebrow in return. With a huff, the Uchiha stomped over to the now content cat and tried to pick it up, but struggled with the thin wires still wrapped around the cat's feet.
Naruto chuckled. "I guess I ought to help him."
"Hm," Kurama smiled. "You better hurry up it looks like he about to get his hands tangled as well."
Kurama felt a faint breeze to his left and turned to look up at their sensei.
"Five hours and one trip to the pet store. That's better than most." He said cheerfully.
Kurama rolled his eyes.
"Those illusions were really good too. Most genjutsu beginners struggle with animals, but you made them move naturally. Though I think they sounded more like foxes than dogs. I'll have to introduce you to a friend of mine who specializes in genjutsu." The man moved away to go talk to his other teammates who were arguing as Naruto attempted to untangle both the cat and the Uchiha.
It was a compliment. He knew the man didn't mean anything more than mild constructive criticism, but that didn't stop his muscles from seizing ever so slightly. He took a deep breath and tried to reign in his emotions.
He tried not to think about the possibility of being found out. He didn't want to think about it for a number of reasons. If he was found out then Naruto would know. He would know that Kurama was...
(A-A demon that almost d-destroyed the village?")
(He was too weak as a human. If they found out and tried to trap him. Hurt him. Chain him like they did before. He'd have too…the glass was so thin…he could….but Naruto…)
He took another deep breath, shoving those wayward thoughts to the back of his mind.
He was Natsuki right now.
No one had found out about him being the Kyuubi, but they would if he continued to be obviously ruffled by innocent comments.
He blamed Mizuki.
He hadn't been this unbalanced and agitated since he was an infant and was still reeling over his new situation.
"Come on Natsu! Stop daydreaming and let's get this stupid mission over with!"
Kurama started at Naruto's call. He glanced at his team and found them waiting, impatiently in Naruto's case, for him. He fixed a small smile to his face and joined his team as they headed back to the mission room.
"Kakashi-sensei can we have a better mission?" Naruto whined. "I'm sick of D-rank missions!"
"If you can master the water ninjutsu I plan on teaching you and Sasuke today, I'll think about it."
"Really!? I'll definitely master it completely, you know!"
(In the back of his mind, he knew this wasn't healthy. It was really only a matter of time…)
This is later than expected, but it is, ironically enough, a Sunday update. The lateness was due to one part laziness and two parts me trying to figure what I wanted to do for the Zabuza Arc. Truth be told, I have a ton of ideas for the Chunin arc, but I haven't had many for this one. I'm still a little shaky on what I want, but we'll have to see. In the meantime, this chapter is semi-filler but still kind of important for the future of this fic. I know it's dialogue heavy, but don't worry we'll be officially starting the Zabuza arc next chapter.
Because this chapter was focused on setting up the team dynamics, I spent a lot of time thinking about the different specialties and talents of the characters. As you may have noticed I realized the drawbacks to Kurama's ability to sense negative emotions. As a giant chakra being, I'm sure he didn't feel these effects, but the human body gets funny when it comes to empathy. I figured in a world where killing intent was a thing and large scale battles were the norm there'd be a lot of negative emotions flying around which could be detrimental to someone who could feel them. I dunno, the thought wouldn't let me go and it fit in with the offhanded comment I made in an earlier chapter where Kurama claimed to get migraines for feeling too much negative emotions from people. Naruto is effected as well, but to a lesser expect since I see his ability as less powerful than Kurama's (mostly based on it never being addressed much in the anime). Does it make sense? Tell me what you guys think.
As always, I'm blown away by the response to this story and very grateful for the reviews you guys give me. Thank you so, so much.
P.s. About Sakura's sensei, that canon plot point will not change...I apologize in advance.