"Better stand tall when they're calling you out
Don't bend, don't break, baby, don't back down"
Bon Jovi- It's My Life
Chapter 2
Naruto was practically vibrating with excitement as he walked back to the academy for the last time. Kakashi had spent the previous week teaching him the Kage Bunshin as promised. It had only taken Naruto a day to learn it, and he was excited to show it to Sasuke.
Sasuke was already in the classroom when he got there, so Naruto took the seat next to him. It was the least he could do to help keep away a few of the fangirls Sasuke had gotten over the years. Being at the top of the class got you a lot of attention and Naruto was the only one who could really compete.
"Alright class, settle down," Iruka-sensei said as he walked in. "Let's get this done quickly. I'll announce the teams, then you will have a break for lunch. After lunch your sensei will come pick you up."
"Who do you think will end up together?" Naruto whispered to Sasuke as Iruka started reading the team listings.
"How would I know? Itachi-ni isn't one of the jounin sensei. Did Kakashi-san say anything?"
"Nothing. In fact he refused to talk about it at all. I'm not sure if it's just because he's mad about something or if he's intentionally hiding it," Naruto said with a grimace.
"Well one way to find out I suppose," Sasuke said. Naruto agreed and then pulled out a piece of paper to take notes out of habit.
Team by team was read out until finally he was called, along with Sakura and Sasuke for team 7. He shot Sasuke a grin, though he frowned when he realized their sensei hadn't been announced. Team 8 surprised him when Kiba, Hinata, and Shino were all put on a team. Team 10 was another group of clan children with Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji.
"Do they always put all the clan kids together?" Naruto couldn't help asking Sasuke as he reviewed his notes. "Technically we're the only team that's mixed."
"Probably based on skills. Itachi-ni said we'd have to be good enough to pass our sensei's test too, so they want the best to succeed by putting them together?" Sasuke said giving Naruto a shrug. "Doesn't matter to me. With the two of us on the same team our third member doesn't really matter anyway."
"Yeah, we'll own the second test! Now let's get lunch."
"You and your stomach," Sasuke grumbled, though he stood to follow Naruto.
"Um, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun…"
Both boys stopped and turned to see a nervous looking Sakura standing there. She blushed but then took a deep breath.
"Can I come with you for lunch?"
It was said in such a rush that it took Naruto and Sasuke a minute to decipher it. When they did, they both looked at each other, at Sakura, and then at each other again. Finally Sasuke gave a minute nod to Naruto, who gave Sakura a big grin.
"Sure. We're going to go get ramen."
"Since that's all this baka eats when given a choice," Sasuke said.
"Hey, that's because Kashi-ni always makes me eat healthy stuff. A man's gotta have ramen too you know," Naruto retorted. He turned back to Sakura and gave her another smile. "Don't worry about him; he's always a smart butt. You'll get used to it."
"Ah, alright," Sakura said as she followed Naruto and Sasuke to Ichiraku's.
They all ordered and dug in, with no one speaking until the first bowls of ramen had been finished. Naruto ordered a second while Sakura and Sasuke just set their chopsticks down.
"So, we'll need a strategy for the second test," Sasuke finally said.
"Second test?" Sakura looked confused so Naruto decided to explain given that Sasuke didn't look like he was about to.
"Each jounin sensei gives their team a second test to confirm whether they'll actually be genin or not."
"So we could still fail?!"
"Don't panic Sakura-san," Naruto said with a cheeky grin. "You've got me and Sasuke on your team. There's no way we're failing anything. We just need a plan."
"Do we even know what the test is though?" Sakura asked, her eyes wide.
"Not yet, but they can include anything from combat to retrieval tasks," Sasuke said. "The key is to work together to accomplish whatever the task is."
"Yeah. Everyone said it is supposed to simulate missions to see how well we fit and if we're ready to be ninja for Konoha," Naruto said, remembering what the ANBU had told him.
"So treat it like a mission then?" Sakura asked. She had a thoughtful look on her face as she contemplated the information. "Should we have a team leader then?"
"That's probably a good idea," Naruto said as he finished his second bowl of ramen. "That way there's no arguing later. Have fun Sasuke."
Sasuke just tsked. "You just want me to do all of the hard work."
"You always do better on the tests anyways," Naruto said. "We both know I'm more of a fighter than planner."
"Yeah yeah, I got it," Sasuke said. As much as he would have liked to argue, they had a bad track record when it came to Naruto coming up with the ideas. "Sakura, you're pretty good with chakra control and thrown weapons, but bad with Taijutsu right?"
Sakura nodded and blushed at the thought that Sasuke had paid that much attention to her. However both boys caught her blush and shook their heads.
"I'm only going to say this once," Sasuke said. "If you act like a fangirl, I will make your life difficult."
"Ah, sorry," Sakura said, trying to get her cheeks to stop burning from embarrassment.
"Don't worry about it too much Sakura-san," Naruto said. "He just gets grumpy when people bother him a lot. Some of the girls got really annoying a few years ago."
Naruto shuddered at the memory. They had followed Sasuke, and thus him, around for months. Not even when Anko and some of the other Kunoichi had confronted them had they completely stopped.
"I remember," Sakura said. Naruto saw her grimace, and figured she must have been on the receiving end of one of those lectures. "I'll work on it, I promise. I really do want to be a good ninja."
"We know," Naruto reassured her. "You're pretty strong for a kunoichi, especially from our class, so it'll be fine."
Sasuke just nodded and then gestured to the door with another nod. Naruto nodded and went to pay. Sakura thanked him as he paid for her ramen as well as his own and Sasuke's.
"You guys really know each other well don't you?" Sakura said as they walked back.
"We've been friends since before we started the academy," Naruto said.
"We've just been through a lot together," Sasuke said. His face was set in a grimace even as Naruto just laughed.
"That's probably an understatement actually. One time, when we were little, we got kidnapped together."
"Another time this baka nearly got us killed because he thought it would be fun to sneak outside the wall."
"Don't forget the time we did the flour and feathers traps on that one ANBU team."
"And because my nii-san works with his nii-san, I couldn't get rid of him," Sasuke muttered. Naruto laughed again and slung his arm over Sasuke's shoulders.
"As if you'd want to. Life is more fun with me around."
"More like I have to keep an eye on you or you're going to end up doing something more stupid than normal."
They bickered the entire way back to the school and only settled down as they picked seats once again. This time Sasuke sat in the middle while Naruto took the seat to his right and Sakura sat on his left. Time passed and the various sensei came and left with their teams. Finally only team 7 sat in the classroom, as even Iruka-sensei had to leave for his other job.
"So what now?" Naruto asked, already beyond bored.
"We wait," Sasuke said without even looking at his friend.
"Did they say who our sensei was?" Sakura asked. The two boys shook their heads and she sighed.
"Maybe something happened to them?"Naruto said.
"Like what? They got waylaid by rogue ninja while inside Konoha?" Sasuke scoffed at the thought of a jounin who was supposedly strong enough to have a team running into any trouble.
"It could have been an emergency mission?"
"Or it could have been annoying pets that don't ever listen," a voice said from behind the three of them. "By the way, negative points for not paying attention."
Naruto glanced at Sasuke in horror as they turned to see Kakashi standing behind them.
"You've got to be kidding," Naruto groaned even as Sasuke sighed.
"Afraid not brat. Ok you three, rooftop!" Kakashi gave an eye smile and then teleported away without even a wisp of smoke.
"You know him?" Sakura asked, eyeing the spot the jounin had been standing.
"Yeah, that's my nii-san," Naruto said. "His name is Kakashi Hatake, and he's one of the strongest jounin Konoha has."
"He's also the most irritating," Sasuke said. "Let's go."
The other two nodded and they all took the stairs up to the roof. Kakashi sat on one of the rails waiting for them, and gestured for them to take a seat in front of him.
"Great, now that you're here, let's all introduce ourselves."
None of them said anything at first, and then Sakura spoke up.
"Why don't you go first sensei?"
"I am Kakashi Hatake. I have no intentions of telling you my likes and dislikes. As for my dream... I have few hobbies."
"Yeah like reading porn," Naruto muttered.
"You only told us your name sensei," Sakura said. Sasuke just sighed.
"Ok, next," Kakashi said, pointing to Naruto.
"Yeah, whatever. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen and training with my friends, especially the ones that wear masks. I dislike people that hurt my friends and precious people. My dream is to become Hokage. You already knew that though," Naruto said with a glare. "Hobbies include pranks and helping out with D ranks."
"Wonderful, next," Kakashi said. He looked at Sasuke, who just sighed.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I enjoy training, I dislike irritating people. My dream is to become stronger than my nii-san."
"And finally, Pinkie over here."
"Um, my name is Sakura Haruno. I like, um, flowers I guess, and getting a new technique right. I dislike bullies, and my dream is to become a strong kunoichi." While Sakura had started out stumbling, her voice was strong when she declared her dream.
Naruto was just glad she didn't mention marrying Sasuke or having his babies. One of the girls had done that before and it had just been creepy.
"And now that we've done that, I'll explain what we'll be doing next. You have half an hour to meet me at training ground 7 with whatever you think you'll need to pass my test. If you fail, I'm sending all three of you back to Iruka-sensei. I'm sure Naruto-kun or Sasuke-kun were kind enough to inform you that I can do that as your Jounin sensei." Kakashi gave them all an eye smile before vanishing again.
"Why are we being tested now?" Sakura asked.
"Who knows with him," Naruto said. "We better hurry though. Training ground 7 is kinda far."
"We'll pick up gear from my place," Sasuke said as he took off. The other two followed behind him as Sasuke continued. "We won't have much time, but it should be enough to get what we need. His plan is likely to throw us off balance by not giving us time to plan."
"Or time to rest either. But if that's so, the test can't be an endurance test, can it?" Sakura mused. "All tests have a way to be passed and we're not prepared for an endurance test."
"That's not true Sakura-san. A real endurance test is when you're already tired and you keep going," Naruto said.
"Still, why would he care about endurance? That can be trained," Sasuke said. "He's going to be looking for proof that we can make it as ninja."
"What's the most important thing for ninja then?" Sakura asked.
"The will of fire?" Naruto offered.
"He will probably see how well we complete a task," Sasuke said. "As we said earlier. Now focus on running faster. We'll need gear and none us will stand a chance without it."
The three made it to the Uchiha compound and quickly grabbed kunai pouches, along with shuriken, ninja wire, and a few smoke bombs. It wasn't much but they weren't allowed explosive tags yet, and without knowing the exact test there was no way to plan better either.
Kakashi was already standing in the middle of the training ground when they arrived with only a minute to spare.
"For a moment there I wondered if you were going to make it," Kakashi said. Naruto just stuck out his tongue as he caught his breath. Sakura was more winded than either boy but still the three were as ready to go as possible. "Now for your test, you'll have until the sun sets to retrieve these two bells from me. If you fail to get a bell, you fail the test. Simple, ne?"
Naruto glanced at Sasuke, who just nodded. Sakura looked unsettled but also looked to Sasuke for instruction.
"Ready? Begin."
"Let's go," Sasuke said, and he darted into the tree line. Naruto followed closely behind, though he made sure to leave Sakura in the middle. If they were ambushed she stood the least chance of holding Kakashi off.
Once they were a suitable distance away Sasuke found a group of bushes they could hide in.
"First, suppress your chakra as much as possible. He'll still probably find us but let's make it as hard as possible." Sakura and Naruto nodded, so Sasuke continued. "Our first priority is getting the bells. Anything else can be determined later. We have a few hours until sunset, but in all honesty we're only going to get one, maybe two chances before we're too tired or out of supplies."
"Not to mention the darker it gets the harder it will be for us to catch nii-san."
"That too," Sasuke said. "Naruto, I'll need you to make as many clones as you can, and try to flood his vision with it. Sakura-san, you'll be throwing kunai and shuriken to help distract him as well. I'll move in for hand to hand and see if I can't push him enough to give one of you the chance to cut the bells from his waist. Naruto, don't actually be among the clones that way Sakura doesn't have to worry about hitting you."
"Actually, I know the Kage Bunshin now, so they can help attack too," Naruto said with a grin.
"Even better. Make as many as you can and keep him distracted. Make a few regular Bunshin to make his life more difficult while you're at it."
"Got it!" Naruto said.
"Alright," Sakura said.
"Good, now hopefully he'll still be waiting for us. Move out."
Keeping their chakra low, the three crept back towards the clearing. Both Sasuke and Naruto had done enough training to be able to sense Kakashi's chakra once they were close enough, and Sasuke nodded. Naruto made a cross sign with his hands, and suddenly the clearing was full of clones. Then he ran through another set of hand signs and more clones appeared in the field. Sasuke used a quick henge to match Naruto and darted in. Between the three of them, they managed to get a clean hit in only for Kakashi to disappear in a puff of smoke.
"Ah man, a clone," Naruto grumbled. He tried to stay hidden as he moved all the while keeping his clones active to hide Sasuke's retreat as well. Before he could meet back up with his team mates though, Kakashi caught him by surprise and sent him flying into the clearing. The pain disrupted his control and the regular clones disappeared. His other clones, what were left of them, were helping Sakura and Sasuke get out of the way.
"First, let's review Taijutsu," Kakashi said with an evil looking grin. Naruto gulped and slid into a proper Taijutsu stance. Kakashi took that as a cue to start and began delivering punishing blows that Naruto used every trick he knew to escape. Just as he thought he was done for Sasuke appeared and used a low attack, giving Naruto a chance to Kawarimi out of the fight.
Sasuke grinned as he felt the chakra for the technique go off, and continued his assault with support from Sakura. Naruto clones quickly rejoined the fray and Sasuke released a Katon that made Naruto grin. They had practiced together as Sasuke learned to hide the shuriken in the Katon, and Naruto quickly amplified it with a minor Fuuton that Asuma-san had taught him.
For a moment Naruto thought they just might have had him. But then, in a mere instant, Sasuke ended up buried in the dirt, Naruto hanging from a tree, and Sakura tossed into the nearby lake. Kakashi disappeared and the three were left to free themselves in peace.
"Well that went well," Naruto said as he dug Sasuke out.
"Our strategy worked fine. He's just that far beyond our skills," Sasuke replied.
"So what now?"
"We try again." Both boys looked in surprised to see a very determined looking Sakura standing there. Even though she was soaking wet, she wasn't ready to give up. "Doing the same thing won't work so we'll have to get creative, but we don't stop trying until the sun sets."
Both boys just grinned and nodded.
"Any ideas then?" Sasuke asked.
"Yeah. Naruto-san, you played a lot of pranks on Iruka-sensei right? So you're probably pretty good with traps. Let's try to heavily trap an area and then lead him there for the fight."
"If we set up enough Kawarimi points too, we should be able to move faster than him," Sasuke mused.
"Henge is out since Kashi-nii uses his nose though," Naruto said. Sasuke gave him a strange look before sighing.
"Remind me of that next time before we rush into the fight, baka."
"Sure thing aho."
Kakashi surveyed the trio before him. The sun had set and they were all exhausted, yet they hadn't stopped until the very end. And even if they hadn't managed to get the bells, they had shown him something more important than so called skill.
"So, what have you learned from this?" Kakashi asked. He might know they were going to pass but they didn't know yet.
"That we need to get stronger still," Sakura said. If the look in her eyes was anything to go by, she would be working on that at the next opportunity regardless of her results.
"That even when we work together, sometimes there will be opponents we can't defeat," Naruto added. Saying it obviously frustrated the boy but it was also good for him to realize there would be times where you couldn't always win.
"You still have to finish the fight though, even if it seems pointless," Sasuke finished. Kakashi hid another smile at their attitude.
"Why did you work together though? You each needed a bell to pass and there were only two."
"As if we stood a chance otherwise," Naruto retorted with a snort.
"Sensei is too strong," Sakura said, giving Naruto a nod.
"Not to mention missions are completed as teams. Nii-san said when you are on a mission, your mission may come first but you must always be aware of your team mates," Sasuke said.
"And what would you have done had you gotten the bells?"
All three of them looked at each other and then shrugged.
"We would have figured that out after we had them, I suppose," Sasuke finally said. "But genin don't work in groups smaller than four, so it didn't make sense that you would fail one of us and not the rest if we had all worked together for the final goal."
Kakashi felt a bubble of pride in Naruto and Sasuke. Watching the two grow had been something utterly terrifying at times and yet also utterly rewarding.
"This monument is a place where the names of heroes are written," Kakashi said. His students looked confused by the change of topic but listened intently. "These heroes are special though, as each was killed in combat and unable to be brought home. My best friend's name is on here, along with the names of many people I cared deeply for. This test was a test on two fronts. First, it tested your resolve. Despite the odds, could you come at me with the intent to complete the task. Secondly, it tested whether you could work as a team. A well coordinated team can take down a much stronger opponent with ease."
"Then why the two bells?" Naruto asked. "Wouldn't that put us against each other?"
"Someday, you may be forced to make a choice: the mission or a comrade. Just as there were only two bells, perhaps only two could return. What would you do then?" Kakashi asked, turning to face them once more.
"Find a way to do both," Naruto instantly replied and Kakashi sighed.
"The mission is supposed to come first," Sakura said, but Kakashi could hear the hesitation in her voice.
"Our comrades are supposed to be our family, and that is supposed to come first," Sasuke said. His voice was resolute, and Naruto nodded.
"Even if it would start a war if the mission was failed? Even if thousands of lives were lost because you refused to sacrifice one?"
"That doesn't matter," Naruto said. "We can only affect the missions we are on, and you can't know what will happen if you save your team mate but you know that if you don't, they will die."
"Naruto-san is right," Sakura said. "You shouldn't make decisions based on information you don't have." Sasuke just nodded his agreement.
"Congratulations then, you three. You pass." His students shared a look before looking at him even more confused. He decided to take pity on them and explain. "Ninja are trained to take orders and to complete missions. But that doesn't mean that their lives aren't worthwhile. A friend once told me that those who abandon their missions are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. When you take missions I want you to think about your orders, and also to value the lives of your comrades. If you can't do that, then you aren't fit to be ninja. Everything else can be taught or trained."
"So, you're really letting us pass?" Sakura asked and Kakashi chuckled.
"Yes, you pass. Team 7 will start training tomorrow morning at 8am here. So go home, and make sure to eat something that will give you plenty of energy for tomorrow. You're going to burn it off, I promise."
AN: So this chapter was actually pretty long. Don't expect them all this long but I didn't want to be mean and split their test up. I know some of you will be surprised I chose a traditional team 7 but you'll see in the next chapter a bit more of the reasoning why. Based off of what most of you have said, I'll be posting as I have the time instead of waiting for getting further into the story. I have a decent amount written, and even hit inspiration but I also don't have a lot of time to edit it and I dislike posting anything I haven't at least read over once. With school I really can't make any promises but I'm going to try to do every other week for updates. Also sorry my line breaks keep getting removed somehow.
I do still have one shots that I'll be working on as I have time as well, but again those will be time dependant. Any oneshots that happen in between the events of 1 and 2 will still be posted to 1, unless everyone would rather I create a separate place for them. Let me know if you guys feel that would be better. And now on to my favorite part, reviews!
Clipped Wings- So sorry I missed your review last time, but thanks for waiting and hope a double length chapter is worth it.
Azfaerydust- sorry it took me so long. I see you finished yours and got onto a sequel. I must say I'm a bit jealous and also embarrassed. Still find it funny we kept unintentionally mimicking each other lol.
Darkhuntress- thanks for the review and hope you enjoy. As for my comfort, well I'm a college student, so there's no such thing. I used to have this thing called free time, but it was so long ago I barely remember *sniff*
Quackerduck- thanks for the review. Irritating thing, I still haven't managed to take my test because apparently this thing hates me and won't let me schedule it. -.-
Lukymiko- thanks so much for being so supportive. I love having such great readers and all of you have been really understanding with my schooling. As I said earlier, I'm hoping I'll manage biweekly, or at least monthly, as this is something I really enjoy.
Silverdreams- thanks for the enthusiasm, and yah, grad school is no joke. I'm still managing all A's in my program though so totally worth it. Hope you like this chapter too.
Butterflypuss- thanks!
Quiltedcat- More story it is, though I'm actually not one of those authors prone to frequent rewrites even when unposted. I will do 1, maybe 2 edits unless I'm really not happy. Mainly because this is fanfiction and I do it for fun. But I did find inspiration for the next chapter to make it even better so this delay was totally worth it.
Emptysurface- I'll be trying to get what I have up over the next few weeks/months. School is manageable minus hard to work with team mates and really long nights some times. Hopefully this chapter makes up for a slow first one.
Kunohichi8- I already have the entire story mapped, at this point it's a matter of filling in the little details along with smoothing out the edges. Still, I'm in a good writing mood and have a day or two off so will prob try to work ahead a bit.
Uchiha's Legacy- I love Kakashi and Naruto together, though a part of me loves Kakashi with his ANBU more. They just make me laugh so hard. Hope you enjoy this one.
SoraHuuzuke- one of these day I will write an omake where Kakashi shows up on time, or even early, just because and the entire day/mission will spiral out of control to the point where he swears never again. And yeah school is first but it's going well at least.
XPrisca150- thank you so much. Reviewers really do make my day and the fact that so many of you stick with me makes me happier than I can express using words alone. I hope this updates gives you the same smile your review gave me.
Duchessme- thanks for the compliments and I feel like I should apologize for any addictions…then again nahhh. It's too much fun. Hopefully I'll be able to keep a biweekly schedule but we'll see. You're right that extra time helps, but sometimes getting away from it too much makes it harder to get back in.
Guest (1)- I'm glad you enjoy it and I'll try to get them up as I can.
EclipseKuran- I'm glad I can make you so happy. Hopefully the sequel won't let you down.
MugetsuIchigo- Awwwwww that's so sweet And I'll prob have to aim for biweekly but I'll do my best.
If I missed any reviewers I'm sorry and I love you all and hope you enjoy this chapter.
~Hichii 3