Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
There is only one omen, to fight for one's country.
- Hector, Homer's Iliad, Book 12 verse 243
Part One: How It All Began
Chapter Three: Genin of the Leaf
"Team Seven," the Hokage announced, "will be comprised of Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura."
Kakashi blinked as he heard the Hokage's proclamation.
"Team Eight will be–"
"That can't be right," Kakashi mumbled.
The aging Hokage gave him an irritated look. "Is there something you wish to add, Kakashi?
"Yes, there is, Hokage-sama," the silver-haired ninja said. "I had requested that Hyuuga Hinata be placed on my team along with Uzumaki Naruto."
He had figured that, being the only person in Konoha who still had a Sharingan, he'd get saddled with the Last Uchiha whether he wanted to or not. But at least he'd have his two apprentices with him. And who was this Haruno Sakura, anyway? She couldn't be the rabid Sasuke fangirl Naruto often complained about. Could she?
"I considered your request but, ultimately, I had to reject it."
"Why would you do such a thing?" the silver-haired ninja asked incredulously.
Kakashi knew he had crossed some kind of line the moment he saw the stern look on the old man's face. "Because this is what's best for the Leaf."
"How can separating Naruto from his only friend be what's–"
"Exactly, Kakashi. Hyuuga Hinata is Naruto's only friend. As you saw fit to remind me three years ago, it's important for the boy to have more friends among his peers."
The Copy Ninja stared at the Hokage, feeling as if he were missing some crucial piece of information. "I still don't understand your reasoning behind assigning them to different genin teams."
"A ninja of the Leaf should be able to work with all his fellow shinobi and strive to protect the people of this village," the Hokage reminded him. "Naruto isn't like that. He has closed himself off from everyone and shows little consideration for those around him."
"Yes, because they're so kind and considerate towards him," Kakashi mumbled under his breath.
"Their behavior is of little importance," the Hokage said, fixing him with a withering look. "Naruto is no longer a child, but a full-fledged shinobi; he should be able to put his duty above any personal grudges."
Kakashi wanted to point out that what Naruto had towards the people of the Leaf wasn't so much a grudge as an intense, burning hatred. The boy's ability to sense negative emotions made it impossible for him to show tolerance towards those who treated him with nothing but scorn and disdain. The young man didn't exactly approve of his student's behavior, but he couldn't find it in him to lecture the boy about it, either.
He held his tongue, however. As much as he hated to admit it, the old man was right. Friendships and cooperation between teammates were a factor, of course, but not a decisive one. If two ninja who loathed each other were the ones best suited for a task, then they would be assigned to it and would be expected to put their differences aside long enough to complete it.
Besides, angering the old man was the best way to ensure that he would never get what he wanted.
"Naruto has made significant progress these past few years, Hokage-sama, but I fear that separating him from the people he trusts would undo everything." The underlying message that 'you'd have to be an idiot to do that' didn't escape the notice of any of the jounin in the room.
Oh well. It was the politest Kakashi could do right now. At least he hadn't called the Hokage a senile old fool directly to his face.
"It's not my intention to separate Naruto from everyone he trusts." The way the Hokage's eyes were narrowed made the Copy Ninja feel uneasy; suddenly, he realized that he was mouthing off to the most powerful shinobi in the Land of Fire – and, possibly, all of the elemental nations. "However, genin teams aren't formed based on friendships or rivalries among the students; they're organized in order to serve a specific purpose.
"According to your reports, along with Umino Iruka's assessments, Uzumaki Naruto is one of the best combat-orientated young ninja in years. Out of all his classmates, only Uchiha Sasuke comes close to him in raw chakra reserves. Therefore, placing the two of them on the same team should be self-explanatory. Haruno Sakura has been assigned as the third member of this assault squad because of her exceptional chakra control and aptitude for genjutsu."
"But–"
The old man raised a hand to cut off Kakashi's protestation. "Granted, Hyuuga Hinata could fit that role just as well as Sakura. However, it would be a waste of her talents. Hinata's Byakugan, mastery of the Gentle Fist, and aptitude for stealth make her ideally suited for infiltration and recovery missions. Therefore, I saw fit to assign her to a tracking squad. She, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino will make up Team Eight, with Yuuhi Kurenai as their sensei."
The crimson-eyed young woman bowed politely to the old man. "Thank you, Hokage-sama."
"What about assigning Naruto to Kurenai's tracking squad, instead?" Kakashi had promised to himself that he'd see the boy's training through to the end, but he had no illusions about what being separated from the only person his age who didn't see him as an annoyance would do to Naruto. "I can train the Inuzuka or the Aburame to become combat specialists."
"I have no doubt you can, Kakashi," the Hokage said in a slightly exasperated tone. "But even though Naruto is skilled in stealth and reconnaissance, he doesn't have Kiba or Shino's talent for tracking."
Dammit! If only there was a way to explain Naruto's sensory abilities without revealing the full extent of Kurama's influence in the boy's life.
"Team Seven won't work, Hokage-sama," Kakashi insisted. "Naruto and Sasuke have been at each other's throats for years. I doubt that's going to change because someone will ask them to work together now. As for Sakura…" The silver-haired ninja couldn't pin the name to a face. "Is she the one with the pink hair?"
"She is," the Hokage confirmed.
"I thought as much," Kakashi mumbled. "From what I understand, she and Naruto had a rather nasty argument back in their first year in the Academy, during which she knocked him out with a single punch."
Asuma raised an eyebrow, impressed. "The girl was that strong back when she was… what? Seven years old?"
"Pretty much," the silver-haired man nodded. "She would be a terrifying kunoichi if she wasn't so single-mindedly focused on chasing after Sasuke. Anyway, she and Naruto don't get along – at all. She dislikes him because she thinks he's stealing the spotlight away from Sasuke and he's never forgiven her for that punch."
"Well, there goes teamwork," Asuma commented lightly.
"Exactly," Kakashi agreed.
"That is indeed troubling," the Hokage said, stroking his beard. "Regardless, my decision stands. It will be up to you, Kakashi, to turn them into a cohesive unit, even if you have to beat teamwork into them."
"But, Hokage-sama–"
"It is imperative that the teams stay as they are," the old man continued, heedless of the young man's indignant sputtering. "Your fondness for your students is admirable, Kakashi, but it's clearly clouding your judgment."
'Clouding my–' the silver-haired ninja bristled inwardly.
"Respectfully, Hokage-sama," Kakashi began, even though his voice didn't hold even an inkling of deference, "but I only want what's best for my students." 'And what you're trying to do isn't it!'
"Is that so?" The old man looked at him through narrowed eyes. "Then explain to me how preventing Naruto from interacting with more of his peers in a positive way is 'what's best for him'."
Kakashi found that he had no satisfactory answer to offer.
"As I explained earlier," the Hokage said, answering his own question, "Naruto is a shinobi of the Leaf now. Sooner or later, he will be required to work with ninja other than his classmates – people he's not familiar with and might not even like. He needs to learn to rely on others regardless of his personal feelings, just like they will be counting on him to protect them during a mission.
"If he stays with you and Hinata, they two people he's most comfortable with, during his tenure as a genin, then he may never be able to function in a different squad. And Kurenai doesn't have your familiarity with him, so she might not be able to handle his... quirks… as well as you do. This cannot be allowed to happen, so assigning him to Team Eight is also out of the question.
"Team Seven will remain as it is. Do you understand, Kakashi?"
"…I understand, Hokage-sama." Kakashi said through clenched teeth.
"Good. Now, to get back to the genin team assignments…"
-XOXO-
Naruto was sitting with his back against the tree in front of the Academy and his eyes closed, facing the building's entrance. He had long since adjusted his breathing to the rhythmic sound of the swing moving back and forth in the afternoon breeze. To the unsuspecting eye, the twelve-year-old boy appeared to be meditating serenely. Upon closer inspection, however, one would notice that the markings on his cheeks were much more prominent than normal, standing out against his fair skin.
The boy winced as two people passing in front of the Academy glanced at him, feeling his breath hitch slightly.
Within moments, his expression turned blank and his breathing matched the swing's motion once again.
Naruto gave a mental cheer for this small victory. Training himself to be able to endure the hatred and malice all around him had turned out to be much, much more difficult than he'd originally thought it would be. For one thing, as his skill at sensing the negative emotions of the people around him grew, so did his understanding of just how petty and spiteful humans could be.
Kakashi and Hinata, by virtue of being associated with him, were partially subjected to the same treatment he was. Kakashi, being a well-known jounin, rarely got anything worse than a few cold looks. Hinata, however… That was a whole other story – and that was before one took into account the contempt most members of her family had for her. It took all of Naruto's willpower to keep himself from pummeling Neji, her cousin and supposed 'protector', every time he felt the anger the older boy was always directing at Hinata.
And therein lay the problem. He was still too easily overwhelmed by what he was sensing. He was just as helpless now as he had been on that horrible day four years ago.
"Stop being so grim," Kurama chastised him. "You're messing up your concentration. Besides, if you do find yourself in a situation like this again, you should consider yourself fortunate. Most people don't get the chance to eradicate so many of their enemies in a single stroke."
Naruto chuckled coldly at that. Kurama was right; he was no longer a defenseless little boy. He had several non-lethal ways to strike back against his tormentors now.
A few minutes later, he frowned in confusion as he sensed a familiar chakra signature exiting the Hokage Tower. 'Isn't that Mizuki?'
"It is. And he's extremely agitated, for some reason."
The blond boy focused on the Academy instructor's chakra. It was fluctuating wildly in a way that suggested a significant amount of fear, along with a number of other emotions he couldn't identify. 'Wanna find out what he's up to?'
"Of course. Besides, it would be incredibly rude of you not to say hello to your teacher."
Naruto smirked and opened his eyes, revealing blood-red irises with vertical slits instead of pupils. In one fluid motion, he got on his feet and took off after the Academy instructor.
It didn't take him long to catch up to Mizuki, who had been moving cautiously until he'd reached the edge of the forest.
With a burst of speed, Naruto overtook his former teacher and stood on a tree branch more than ten meters ahead, blocking the white-haired man's path.
"Hey, Mizuki-sensei!"
"Naruto!" the chuunin exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"Following you," the boy replied simply, before pointing at the massive scroll tied across Mizuki's back. "What's that?"
One of Mizuki's hands went behind his back, as if to secure the scroll. "Nothing that concerns you. Now move aside!"
"Nope!" Naruto said cheerfully, relishing the look of fury on the white-haired man's face. "I wanna know what the scroll really is – and why you sneaked into the Hokage Tower to get it."
Naruto moved to the side in order to avoid the giant shuriken Mizuki threw at him. He then had to jump on another branch as the chuunin attacked him with a kunai, drawing a kunai of his own in the process.
"I don't know how you saw me, but you're not going to tell anyone else about it!" Kunai struck kunai as Mizuki lunged again. "It's too bad I can't return to the Leaf; I'd be named a hero for killing you."
Naruto jumped backwards again, putting some distance between the two of them. Mizuki was more experienced than him and his more muscular frame gave him an advantage in hand-to-hand combat. He wouldn't be taken down easily.
"Really?" Naruto drawled, trying to buy enough time to come up with a plan.
"You think anyone will miss you?" Mizuki laughed as Naruto glared at him. "Because they won't. They'll be glad to see you're gone. Do you want to know why, Naruto?"
'Shadow Clones. That's definitely going to wipe that smirk off his face.'
"The Nine-Tailed Fox, the spirit that destroyed our village, has taken over your body. You are the Nine-Tailed Fox!"
'On second thought, let's not use Shadow Clones.'
"See, this is where you're wrong, Mizuki. The Fox and I are not the same person. But…" Naruto bared his teeth in a smile and drew upon Kurama's chakra. Within moments, his eyes had turned red again, his whisker marks were harsh lines on his cheeks, and his canines were long and sharp like a fox's. "…We do work as one."
"You–"
Naruto completed the sequence of hand seals before the chuunin could finish his sentence. 'Fuuton: Daitoppa'!'
A gust of wind tore through the trees, slamming Mizuki against a tree trunk hard enough to knock the breath out of him.
Before Mizuki could react, Naruto closed the distance between them and punched him in the gut, using all of his red-chakra-augmented strength. A second punch to the face knocked the chuunin unconscious.
"Pathetic," Kurama said; disdain was dripping from every syllable of the word.
Naruto nodded. 'Yeah, I thought he'd be able to take a few more hits than that.'
The blond reached over and untied the massive scroll from the unconscious man's back. With great care, he carried it a couple of meters away and set it on the ground.
"You're going to have to–"
Naruto found the edge of the scroll and unrolled it.
"…Or maybe not. You shouldn't have been able to open a scroll from the Hokage's personal library so easily."
'Maybe it's not one of the important scrolls,' Naruto suggested with a shrug; he wasn't going to start nitpicking over details when things were working out to his benefit.
The first entry on the scroll was the Shadow Clone jutsu.
'So it's a collection of jutsu. Cool!' The blond unfurled the scroll even further, scanning the names of the ninja techniques listed inside and trying to find one that sounded interesting.
Four Corner Purple Barrier... Four Corner Red Barrier... Naruto shook his head and kept reading. He didn't want to learn a defensive jutsu. He wanted an offensive one; something powerful enough to–
He dropped the scroll and jumped to his feet when he heard the sound of footsteps upon the tree branches behind him. Three ninja landed a few meters away from him just as he was assuming a defensive battle stance.
The Hokage, dressed in his white and red robes, blinked at him. His eyes then travelled to the opened scroll lying on the ground, before resting on the unconscious Mizuki. "Did you do this, Naruto?"
The blond boy followed the old man's gaze and realized how bad this was looking for him. "I kicked Mizuki's butt, but I didn't steal the scroll. I don't even know what it is!"
The Hokage raised an eyebrow as he looked pointedly at the scroll in question; it was unrolled more than one third of the way.
"I only saw some barriers and the Shadow Clone jutsu," Naruto added. "I didn't find anything interesting."
Why couldn't the old man have waited ten or, better yet, twenty minutes before getting here?
"'Some' barriers?" one of the ninja flanking the Hokage asked incredulously.
Naruto shrugged. "I don't see what the big deal is. You need at least four people to use them, anyway."
"There are ways to work around this restriction." The Hokage walked over to the scroll, rolled it, and picked it up. "How did you open this?"
"I just found the edge and pulled it open," Naruto said simply; why were both the Hokage and Kurama making such a fuss over this?
The Hokage studied his face for a long time. "I see."
'What does he see?'
"Do I really have to spell it out for you?'
'Yes.' Naruto was starting to get really annoyed that he was the only one who didn't know what was going on here. 'What's so important about this scroll?'
Kurama let out a heavy sigh. "It's from the Hokage's personal library," he repeated, "so only the Hokage can open it.'
'Then how was I able to open it?'
"How should I know?" the Fox snapped, clearly at the end of his patience. "Perhaps it's because your chakra is so similar to your father's," he added, mellowing out slightly.
That made sense; it also brought a smile to the boy's face. 'You really think I'm like my dad, Kurama?'
"You certainly haven't inherited his brains, brat," the Fox said dismissively. "Those you got from Kushina."
Naruto barely managed to stop himself from responding in kind; Kurama was just teasing him.
"Take Mizuki and hand him over to Ibiki," the Hokage ordered the two ninja who had accompanied him to the clearing. "I want to know to whom he was planning to deliver this scroll as soon as possible."
The two ninja nodded. One of them slung the still unconscious chuunin over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and they started running back towards the center of the Leaf.
As soon as they were put of sight, the old man turned his full attention back to the boy. "Tell me, Naruto, how did you know where to find Mizuki?"
"I saw him exit the Tower with that scroll, so I followed him here."
"How curious," the Hokage said. "I was also watching Mizuki since he entered the Tower, but I didn't see you."
"I was hiding, Hokage-sama," Naruto answered after only the briefest moment of hesitation.
"I see." Naruto almost sighed in relief as the Hokage's eyes left his face. "You should return to your home and rest, Naruto. You have a big day tomorrow."
Of course, the genin team assignment was tomorrow; he had completely forgotten about that. "Yes, sir. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Naruto."
The boy jumped on the nearest tree branch and headed towards his home; he couldn't shake the feeling that the Hokage's eyes were following his every move.
-XOXO-
Kakashi leaned against the railing and examined the three newly-promoted genin he had to turn into a cohesive unit. It took a single glance to realize that his earlier misgivings were not only completely justified, but also severely understated.
'It's going to take a miracle to turn these three into a solid team.'
"…Let's start with introductions."
All three children stared at him blankly, as if he had just asked them to explain the basics of space-time altering ninjutsu.
"The three of you are going to have to work together from now on," Kakashi reminded them. "So, how about you share a few things about yourselves?" The young man found himself getting increasingly irritated by their blank stares. "Your likes and dislikes, your goals… Naruto, you start."
The blond boy groaned, but didn't object. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto," he said with all the enthusiasm of a teenager asked to clean his room. "I like ramen and training. I hate the three minutes it takes for my ramen to get ready. My goal is to become a great shinobi and someday make everyone in the village respect me."
Kakashi nodded; that was exactly the kind of response he had been expecting from Naruto. It also confirmed beyond any doubt that the Hokage's concerns were not unfounded. "Your turn, Sakura."
"I'm Haruno Sakura. I like..." The pink-haired girl's eyes darted towards Sasuke, before she caught herself. "I mean, the person that I like…." Once again, she snuck a peek at her dark-haired team-mate. "My hobby is–"
Kakashi had to forcibly restrain himself from slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand when she squealed with pure fangirly glee as she once again looked at Sasuke. 'I'm going to have to deal with this every day for the next few years, aren't I?' Never before had he so acutely appreciated how much Hinata's quiet nature and polite demeanor failed to irritate him.
"Is there anything you dislike, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, trying to steer the conversation back to something resembling sense.
The girl stopped daydreaming about whatever Sasuke-related fantasy she had lost herself in this time –Kakashi was under absolutely no illusions that this was an isolated incident – and turned completely serious. "Naruto."
The blond boy simply huffed in annoyance without so much as looking at her.
The silver-haired ninja resigned himself to his fate and decided to just get this over with. "And you, Sasuke?"
The Last Uchiha clasped his hands and rested his chin on them; his eyes were turned towards the ground but Kakashi could tell that the boy's thoughts were somewhere far away. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and kill a certain someone."
Kakashi frowned both at Sasuke's words and at the conviction they were spoken with. 'He means it. He's really planning to hunt Itachi down and kill him.' This was worse than he feared. Sasuke was nowhere near Itachi's level – hell, Kakashi wasn't entirely certain he was on Itachi's level. The only thing the boy would get if he pursued this unhealthy obsession of his would be an untimely death.
"…Right," Kakashi said, even though the situation he had found himself in couldn't be further from it. "I'm glad to see that all of you have your own unique goals…" '…and plenty of emotional baggage to go along with them.' Not that he had any right to lecture others about emotional baggage. "You'll make an excellent team… if you can pass the final test."
Naruto narrowed his eyes. "What test?"
"This isn't fair, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said, looking worriedly towards Sasuke; Kakashi didn't have to think long about what was troubling her. "We've already graduated from the Academy."
"You did," Kakashi conceded with a nod. "But graduating from the Academy means that you're fit to be genin candidates," he informed them, glancing at Sasuke. The Uchiha was the only one who hadn't voiced his indignation, but his knuckles had turned white from the way he was gripping his hands. "I'm the one who decides whether you're ready to become genin or not. If you fail my test, you're all going back there."
Kakashi was willing to bet his entire collection of novels that the kids would fail spectacularly. He was certain that the thought of working together to pass his test wouldn't occur to them, not even if he dropped a few hints the size of a Tailed Beast. The Hokage was right: these kids were in desperate need of a wake-up call about the reality of life as a ninja.
Not that he would ever admit this to the old man.
'Then again,' he thought with a measure of sadistic glee, 'this could turn out to be a lot of fun.' For him, at least; he was fairly certain that the brats wouldn't enjoy his test one bit.
"Meet me in Training Ground Three tomorrow morning at six." Kakashi instructed his new students, cutting through Naruto and Sakura's increasingly louder grumbling. "Oh, and don't eat any breakfast," he added seemingly as an afterthought, chuckling inwardly. "You will regret it later."
'A lot of fun, indeed,' Kakashi thought as he saw their incredulous expressions. He had to conceal his mirth from them, though; he had a reputation to maintain.
Sasuke was the first one to leave after Kakashi's rather ominous warning, with a nod of farewell that could barely be considered polite. Sakura hesitated for a few moments, then stood up, bid him a hasty farewell, and followed Sasuke like a lost puppy.
Kakashi shook his head fractionally; that girl was hopeless. He then turned to face his remaining student. "Aren't you going to go with them, Naruto?"
"As if," the blond boy snorted. "Besides, I wanted to talk with you."
Kakashi nodded; he had a good idea about what Naruto wanted to discuss with him. "I'm sorry you and Hinata couldn't be on the same team."
HIs blunt approach took the boy by surprise. "You said... Didn't you want to teach both of us?"
"I did," Kakashi said. "But I'm afraid that it wasn't that simple, Naruto."
"Why not?"
"I couldn't get you and Hinata assigned to the same team without revealing your... unique abilities."
Naruto lowered his head; the combination of the height difference between the two of them and the boy's bangs falling over his eyes made it almost impossible for Kakashi to read his student's expression.
"I understand," Naruto said in a voice barely above a whisper.
"That doesn't mean you're forbidden from talking to each other or training together." Kakashi smiled when Naruto looked up at him again with a hopeful expression on his face.
"You're right, Kakashi-sensei." The boy set his jaw in a determined expression that reminded the silver-haired ninja of his long-dead sensei. "I just have to pass your test tomorrow."
"I'm sure that you, Sasuke, and Sakura will be up to the challenge." There. He couldn't get any less subtle than that.
Naruto narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to the side a bit. "…I guess."
'He didn't get it.' And, from what he'd just seen, neither would the others. 'Great…'
Kakashi hoped he wouldn't have to resort to outright telling the kids that they had to gang up on him in order to pass his test. That would sort of defeat the purpose behind the bell test.
Naruto waved goodbye. "See you tomorrow, sensei! And you'd better not be late!"
Kakashi waved back, chuckling inwardly. Late? Him?
As if a sensei could be so inconsiderate towards his students on such an important day for them…
-XOXO-
"…Remember, you have until noon to take the bells from me. Begin!"
The three aspiring genin vanished from sight at their sensei's mark, each choosing a different place to hide and plan their next move.
Naruto inched forward, careful not to rustle the bushes he was hiding in, until he had a clear view of the training ground. He could see Kakashi, the two bells hanging from his belt, and that damned clock.
Eleven past ten.
Naruto seethed inwardly as he saw the time. Four hours late! That had to be a new record, even for Kakashi. 'He's so getting pranked after this.'
"Focus, Naruto. Get one of the bells first, then decide how to prank him."
'I know.'
Unfortunately, the chances of him actually getting a bell were slim, bordering on nil. After being trained by the man for three years, Naruto didn't have any illusions about his ability to beat him in a fair fight. Not even Kurama's chakra would be of much use; what would be the point of a super-strong punch if he couldn't hit his target? His best chance was to somehow distract Kakashi and use the opening to snatch a bell.
Naruto closed his eyes and drew upon Kurama's chakra. Sakura was fifteen meters to the left, and Sasuke was nearly fifty meters in front of him. From the way their chakra was flowing, he could tell that neither of them was preparing to attack their sensei.
Perfect. That meant he wouldn't have to worry about the two of them getting caught in the crossfire.
He released Kurama's chakra and formed the cross-shaped seal for the Shadow Clone jutsu with his index and middle fingers. With a puff of smoke, eight solid clones were crouched beside him for a second before they scattered to surround Kakashi.
Naruto waited until all his clones were in position. The moment one of them used a Fuuton: Daitoppa – the signal he'd been waiting for – against Kakashi, he and the rest of his clones jumped out of cover and attacked the silver-haired ninja.
"I see you're starting to get the hang of the Great Breakthrough," Kakashi commented as he dodged a series of kicks and punches from the army of Narutos, dispelling four of them in the process. "But I'm a little disappointed, Naruto; I thought you'd be able to pour more chakra into it."
"I'm not trying to kill you, Kakashi-sensei," one of the boy's clones said.
The Copy Ninja's visible eye flashed; a split-second later, he was standing behind the clone, holding a kunai at his throat.
The clone grinned and dispelled himself in a puff of smoke, startling Kakashi. Naruto moved to take advantage of the opening and snatch a bell but, unfortunately, Kakashi was faster.
"Not bad," the silver-haired ninja said appraisingly. "But you're going to need a different strategy if you want to take the bells from me."
Naruto smirked at his sensei. The man was now standing between the boy and the small stream near the edge of Training Ground Three – which meant that Sasuke and Sakura were completely out of the way.
"How about this?" The boy and his three remaining clones unleashed a wave of Wind chakra so powerful that the trees on the other side of the stream started swaying.
Kakashi vanished before the dust cloud the Great Breakthrough had created died down.
'Where did he go?' Naruto drew upon Kurama's chakra again and looked around warily.
The blond boy barely had time to move before Kakashi popped out of the ground under his feet.
-XOXO-
Sasuke stared in mild shock at Naruto as the howling of the wind pierced his ears. He didn't know that the blond was capable of using such a powerful jutsu.
He didn't even know that he was capable of using Wind Release in the first place.
The Last Uchiha narrowed his eyes. He wasn't about to let Naruto, the loser who could never beat him at anything – not even at shurikenjutsu! – in the Academy, to take a bell while he was hiding in the underbrush. This was simply unacceptable.
The blond moved suddenly as Kakashi popped out from the ground like some strange kind of plant. The masked jounin almost casually flicked a bundle of shuriken at the four Narutos.
Sasuke saw his chance.
Before Kakashi could lower his hand, the black-haired boy jumped out of the bushes and attacked the jounin, throwing a flurry of kunai and shuriken at him–
– Only for them to end up impaled on a log used by a Substitution jutsu.
'Dammit!' He had given up his position and exposed himself for nothing!
With a strangled exclamation of annoyance, Sasuke jumped back towards the tree line and started running, hoping to conceal himself and plan his next move before Kakashi had time to retaliate.
-XOXO-
Sakura carefully extracted herself from the underbrush and followed Sasuke – or, at least, she started running towards the same direction Sasuke was headed a few moments ago.
It was obvious that Kakashi would target her dark-haired teammate next, since Naruto, who had been forced to jump into the stream in order to avoid the barrage of shuriken, was still too busy swimming towards the shore. His last three clones – when had he learned how to make solid clones, anyway? – hadn't been fast enough to escape.
Sakura pushed the blond out of her mind; he would be fine. It was Sasuke that was in danger now, and she had to try to help him.
Try being the key word here. She didn't know what she was supposed to do against a jounin. She didn't even know where Sasuke was! She was just running blindly in the forest, hoping to find him before Kakashi did.
She stopped running and jumped on a nearby tree branch, scanning the surrounding area. 'Where are you, Sasuke-kun?'
Kakashi couldn't have already caught up to him! Could he?
'I'm going to kill him if he hurt Sasuke-kun!' her inner voice screamed, brandishing a fist threateningly. Sakura couldn't remember when this aspect of her personality had first appeared, but she hadn't been able to silence it.
…Not that she'd tried particularly hard to get rid of this 'Inner Sakura', as she'd come to call the voice. Most of the time, the voice simply expressed the thoughts she was too shy to say out loud.
"Behind you, Sakura," a male voice said softly.
The pink-haired girl felt a chill running down her spine as she recognized her sensei's voice. She turned around; he was looking straight at her, holding his fingers in the Ram seal.
Images of Sasuke bloodied and beaten entered her mind.
Sakura screamed.
-XOXO-
Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks; that had sounded a lot like Sakura.
'Kakashi must have found her.'
He shook his head fractionally and listened carefully for anything that could indicate Kakashi was nearby; he wasn't going to be next.
"Aren't you going to help Sakura?"
Sasuke's head snapped to the left; Kakashi was leaning against a tree, with his hands in his pockets. The dark-haired boy could have sworn that the jounin hadn't been there a second ago.
"I would only be walking into a trap." Sasuke readied himself; any moment now…
Kakashi let out a small sigh. "So you chose to abandon her."
Sasuke didn't want to hear any more of this. Sakura meant nothing to him, and neither did Naruto. Team Seven meant nothing. All that mattered was getting strong enough to kill Itachi and avenge his clan. Everything else was just a means to an end.
He quickly formed a series of hand seals and drew a deep breath as he held the Tiger seal in front of his chin.
Katon: Goukakyou no jutsu!
He expelled the breath he had been holding, creating a large fireball which flew towards Kakashi with a sort of whooshing sound.
The Fireball was halfway between him and the tree Kakashi was leaning against when he felt himself sinking into the ground.
Sasuke blinked and stared at Kakashi's masked face, which was now an arm's length away from his own. He tried to wiggle his way out of the sinkhole, but found that he couldn't move. He was defenseless, completely at the jounin's mercy.
"I was expecting better from all of you."
Sasuke could do nothing more than glare at the man.
-XOXO-
Kakashi shook his head as he examined the three would-be genin standing in front of him. Naruto was still drenched and was giving him the stink-eye, obviously planning an elaborate prank as retribution for his emergency dive in the stream. Sasuke, with his clothes torn and covered with dirt, had a similar expression on his face. And Sakura was still pale, often stealing worried glances at Sasuke.
Granted, he may have gone a little overboard in dealing with them, but it was necessary in order to get through to them; these brats weren't going to listen to a strongly-worded lecture.
"You have failed to take the bells from me in time," he told them sternly, letting his gaze fall on each one in turn.
"So we're going back to the Academy?" Sakura asked dejectedly.
"No, you're not."
Naruto and Sakura looked at him with obviously rekindled hope, while Sasuke just gave him a disbelieving frown.
"You're going to be dropped from the ninja ranks entirely."
"What?!" Naruto yelled.
"You can't do that, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura half-shouted, half pleaded.
Sasuke simply glowered at him, obviously seething in anger.
"You're not suited to be shinobi," Kakashi said harshly; he wasn't going to coddle these kids any longer. "You're nothing more than selfish brats playing ninja–"
Without warning – besides the murderous look in his eyes, that is – Sasuke launched himself at Kakashi, holding a kunai in his hand.
The Copy Ninja effortlessly subdued the genin and took the kunai from the boy's hand, before pinning him to the ground and placing his foot on top of the boy's back for good measure.
"Let go of Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled.
"Or what?" Kakashi placed the stolen kunai next to Sasuke's throat. "The only way to save him is to do as I say. For example…"
He tossed the kunai at Sakura's feet; it was time to give these brats a long overdue lesson.
"…Sakura. Kill Naruto or Sasuke dies."
-XOXO-
Sakura stared at the kunai that had been planted in the ground a few centimeters away from her feet, completely petrified. From the corner of her eye, she noticed that Naruto had fallen in a combat stance, ready to defend himself against her.
The blond's reaction nearly drove her to tears. 'He really thinks I'll try to kill him.'
She and Naruto had never been friends, but she'd never hurt him! How could he even think that?
"This is what happens when one of your teammates gets taken prisoner." Kakashi was speaking calmly, as if he hadn't just asked her to do something unthinkable. "You're faced with an impossible choice and, most of the time, there's no happy ending. That's why teammates have to be able to trust and rely on each other. The purpose of this test is to see whether you can function as a team or not.
"You three have failed this test. Naruto!" The blond reluctantly turned his attention back to their sensei. "You didn't even consider asking the others for help, even though you knew that you couldn't defeat me on your own.
"Sakura!" The pink-haired girl jumped slightly as Kakashi called her name. "You rushed to help Sasuke at the first sign that I might go after him, but refused to lift so much as a finger when you saw that Naruto was in trouble
"And Sasuke…" Sakura swallowed an angry remark as Kakashi twisted his foot to get a better look at the black-haired boy. "You don't even care about the others. You think they're beneath you, that they're a liability.
"The three of you aren't fit to wear the Leaf's hitai-ate." Kakashi examined each of them in turn. "It didn't even cross your minds to attack me in unison, did it?"
The jounin's question was met with silence.
"I thought so."
"But you said that only the ones who had a bell would graduate and become genin," Sakura reminded him.
'Have you gone senile, sensei?'
To her surprise, it wasn't Kakashi who answered her, but Naruto. "A trap. You wanted to see what we would do."
"Yes," Kakashi said simply. "I wanted to see what was more important to each of you: your personal goals or the mission."
Kakashi removed his foot from Sasuke's back and let the boy get back on his feet. Sasuke slowly walked to where Sakura and Naruto were standing, dusting himself off and shooting dark looks at their sensei.
"I'll give you ten minutes to catch your breath," the white-haired ninja added; the three prospective genin stared at him in astonishment. "Then, you'll have one hour to take the bells from me.
"This will be your last chance. Make it count."
-XOXO-
"What are we going to do?" Sakura asked as Kakashi's form vanished among the trees.
"You heard what Kakashi said." Sasuke retrieved his kunai from the ground and placed it back in his leg holster. "We have to attack him together in order to get the bells."
"Easier said than done," Naruto said sullenly.
Sasuke nodded reluctantly, looking as if he had just taken a huge bite out of a particularly sour lemon.
"Two of us will have to act as bait," Naruto continued, repeating his earlier plan to them. "Then, when Kakashi-sensei's busy, the third one will snatch the bells."
"I'm the fastest," Sasuke said, "so I'll get the bells."
"I'm almost as fast as you are!" Naruto protested. "And I know how Kakashi-sensei fights."
"You have that clone jutsu," Sasuke pointed out. "You'll be better off acting as a distraction."
"Wait." Naruto smirked at his longtime rival. "Did you just admit that I'm better than you at something?"
"No. Focus on the mission, loser."
The blond boy's smirk widened. "Whatever you say, dumbass."
"What do you want me to do?" Sakura asked hesitantly.
The two boys stared at her for a few moments, before exchanging a look. Sakura was great at the theoretical stuff, but she wouldn't be their first choice for partner on such a difficult mission.
"Uh… Watch my back?" Naruto half-suggested, half asked.
"I can do that," Sakura said in a would-be decisive tone than sounded more than a little hollow.
"Good." Naruto closed his eyes and drew upon Kurama's chakra. "Kakashi-sensei's over there," he said, nodding towards his two o'clock, "near the edge of the forest."
"How do you know that?" Sasuke asked suspiciously.
"Instinct," Naruto said with a small shrug. "Let's move! The ten minutes are almost up."
Thankfully, that was enough to make Sasuke and Sakura focus their full attention on Kakashi and away from his 'instinctual' knowledge of their sensei's location.
"Use that Wind jutsu to flush him out," Sasuke suggested.
Naruto grinned at the Uchiha; that was a great idea. He started forming the hand seals for the Great Breakthrough.
This time, they were going to get the bells for sure.
-XOXO-
"There it is again," Yamanaka Fuu said. The young ANBU was looking towards Training Ground Three in an unfocused way, holding his right hand in the Ram seal. "It was just for a couple of seconds, but I'm certain that it's the same chakra as before."
Hiruzen and Danzou didn't say anything, letting the sensory type ninja continue his observation of Team Seven's progress.
"Naruto just used another Wind jutsu against Kakashi-san." Fuu frowned slightly. "He's leading the others straight to him."
"From what you told us earlier," Danzou said, "it should have been impossible for him to know Kakashi's exact location."
"I believe so, Danzou-sama," Fuu said slowly. "Kakashi-san had concealed himself inside the forest. There's no way a genin could spot him from that clearing."
"Unless that genin is a sensory type," Danzou observed. "Like you, Fuu."
"Yes, sir."
Danzou gave Hiruzen a meaningful look.
"Thank you, Fuu-kun," Hiruzen said. "You're dismissed."
"Hokage-sama. Danzou-sama." The young ANBU bowed politely to the two elders and vanished without another word.
"Perception that is impossible for someone without sensory abilities, preceded by tiny bursts of the Kyuubi's chakra." There was an undercurrent of triumph in the one-eyed old man's words. "It is as we suspected."
"Yes." Hiruzen examined the training grounds. "Somehow, he must have gained the sensory ability Mito-sama described. It's the only possible explanation."
According to Uzumaki Mito's journals, the Kyuubi's chakra could give its vessel the power to sense the negative emotions of the people around them. Kushina had never been able to acquire this power, which required the jinchuuriki to have almost complete control over the Demon's chakra. But somehow Naruto, a newly-minted genin, had acquired it.
"How long do you think he's been able to use the Kyuubi's chakra like that?" Hiruzen asked his longtime friend.
"I suspect that he had already been able to use it when we visited him in the hospital four years ago." Danzou gave the Hokage a sidelong glance. "It would certainly explain his reaction towards you, old friend."
The Hokage nodded. "Yes, that would make sense." It would also explain why the boy was in the hospital to begin with. "I apologize for not listening to you sooner, Danzou."
It was only a few months ago that he had begun to take his closest advisor's concerns on the matter of Naruto into consideration, but it wasn't until after the incident with Mizuki that he had been convinced that Danzou was right. Naruto hadn't been anywhere near the Hokage Tower that afternoon; he couldn't have possibly seen the traitor stealing the Scroll of Sealing.
Danzou inclined his head fractionally, accepting the apology. "Perhaps this will be enough to make you reconsider the genin team assignments."
This again. Hiruzen had to admit that Danzou was nothing if not persistent. "I have already made up my mind about the genin teams."
"You're taking a gamble, Hiruzen," Danzou countered. "It's clear now that both Hatake Kakashi and Hyuuga Hinata helped Naruto achieve such mastery over the Kyuubi. By separating the boy from one of them, you're risking–"
"Much less than you think, I assure you," the Hokage interjected. "We may not know the full extent of Naruto's control over the Kyuubi, but we do know that Kakashi and Hinata helped him hide this power from everyone else." The old man gave his advisor a cold look. "Kakashi chose to lose one of his apprentices rather than reveal Naruto's sensory abilities to me."
Hiruzen took Danzou's silence as concession.
"As long as Naruto has both Kakashi and Hinata around him," the Hokage continued, "he will never reach his full potential. Instead, he will keep hiding his true abilities.
"Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura will make excellent teammates for him," Hiruzen added. "They're both very talented, even though Sakura will need considerable training before she's able to hold her own next to them. More importantly, neither of them is a sensory type like Hinata. Naruto will have to reveal the full extent of his abilities or risk them getting hurt."
"That may be," Danzou agreed reluctantly, "but it's still an enormous risk. By your own admission, Haruno Sakura isn't ready to face the same challenges as her teammates." The one-eyed old man looked pointedly at the Hokage. "As it is, Team Seven will fail the Chuunin Exams."
"I agree." Hiruzen wasn't going to pretend that Sakura was the ideal choice. "Hinata would have been better suited to be the third member of Team Seven."
"Then why isn't she?" Danzou snapped in a rare display of emotion.
"Because when the time comes for Naruto to join the ANBU under your command, I don't want you to be able to use her in order to manipulate him."
Hiruzen hadn't been born yesterday; he had seen how deeply the friendship between the two children ran and knew that, in time, it might blossom into something even stronger.
He also knew how far Danzou was willing to go in order to protect the Hidden Leaf – with or without his approval.
Danzou's sole remaining eye narrowed in anger. "Like I said, an enormous risk."
"Perhaps." Nevertheless, it was a risk Hiruzen was willing to take.
-XOXO-
"And did you manage to get the bells?" Kiba asked before stuffing his face with a mouthful of ramen even Naruto would have considered monstrous.
Naruto hastily swallowed his ramen. "Nope. But we did manage to make him summon his ninja hounds."
"Cool!"
"Kiba, please refrain from talking with your mouth full." Shino's usually impassive voice was colored with a hint of annoyance. "Why is that? Because the sight is sufficient to make me lose my appetite."
"Sorry, Shino," Kiba said – without bothering to swallow his food first.
Hinata suppressed a sigh and took another bite out of her own lunch. Kiba and Shino couldn't have been more different from each other if they tried. Nevertheless, she found that she liked their company.
"Learn some manners, dog-breath!"
This time, Kiba had managed to swallow his food. "Like you're one to talk, fox-face!"
Naruto didn't respond; he simply ate the last of his third bowl of ramen and turned to face Kiba, cheeks puffed up from the food, eyes closed, and a mocking grin on his face.
Hinata giggled softly at the sight; the blond truly resembled his nickname right now.
"Idiot," Kiba teased good-naturedly. "So how come you passed Kakashi-sensei's test when you didn't get the bells?"
It took a few moments for Naruto to swallow his food. "Well… I don't know, exactly. After the hour he gave us was up, he just grumbled and said: 'Maybe there's hope for you brats yet'. And then he told us that we pass and gave us that lecture about teamwork."
Hinata knew the lecture Naruto was referring to; she had committed the words to heart. Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.
"Kurenai-sensei didn't lecture us about anything," Kiba said. "She just had us track her around the training grounds."
"That may have been because you, Hinata, and I were working together from the start," Shino pointed out.
"Could've been," Kiba said, slurping down the remnants of his ramen broth.
"Who cares?" Naruto rubbed his hands in anticipation as Teuchi placed another bowl in front of him. "What matters is that we're genin now!"
"Exactly!" Kiba agreed.
Shino gave both of them a blank look before focusing back on his bowl of ramen.
For the next few minutes, the only sounds were the slurping of ramen – mainly from Naruto and Kiba – and the sound of chopsticks on the porcelain bowls.
The four genin looked over their shoulders as Akamaru, Kiba's puppy that was usually resting on top of the boy's head or inside his coat, yipped at something outside the small ramen shop.
"Hey, guys!" Kiba waved enthusiastically at Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji. "I see you passed the test, too."
"Of course we did," Ino said smugly.
"And we're going to celebrate with all-you-can-eat barbeque." Chouji's eyes brightened and a bit of saliva drooled out of his mouth as he lost himself in a mental image – probably that of a never-ending parade of trays piled high with barbequed pork.
But Ino wasn't paying attention to the conversation anymore; she was more preoccupied with scanning the bench, looking for something. "How come you're here on your own, Naruto? Didn't your team pass the test?"
"We passed it," Naruto said. "But Sasuke left to go train or something and Sakura said she wasn't hungry."
"Oh. I see," the blonde-haired girl said dejectedly.
"Would you like to join us, Ino-san? Shikamaru-kun? Chouji-kun?" Hinata asked, feeling a bit sorry for the other girl; she remembered all too well what it was like to be invisible to the boy she admired.
Chouji didn't need to be asked twice; he simply took a seat next to Naruto. "One miso ramen with double everything!"
"I thought we were going to get barbeque," Shikamaru reminded their big-boned friend.
"We can also get some barbeque later," Chouji said cheerfully.
"How troublesome," the Nara muttered under his breath before sitting next to Chouji.
"That's going to ruin my diet completely, Chouji," Ino complained but nonetheless took a seat next to Shikamaru.
Hinata smiled to herself as Shikamaru and Ino ordered their lunch; it was always good to have more friends around.
"So," Naruto began, looking towards the three newcomers, "what did you guys have to do to pass your test?"
"Fight Asuma-sensei to the point of exhaustion," Shikamaru grumbled as he accepted a bowl of ramen from Teuchi.
"For once, he's not exaggerating," Ino said, taking a dainty bite out of her ramen.
"Ouch," Kiba said, making a pained face. "And I thought Kakashi-sensei's test was bad."
Shikamaru raised a questioning eyebrow at Naruto. "Why? What did you have to do?"
"We had to take two bells from him…"
-XOXO-
"No wonder that cat ran away," Naruto said, watching in mild discomfort as the cat in question was smothered by a very large, very loud woman.
"Naruto!" Sakura hissed, glancing worriedly at the plump noblewoman who was oblivious to everyone around her except the cat in her arms.
"What?" Naruto asked defensively. "That's got to count for animal abuse, Sakura. I'm actually feeling sorry for the little fur-monster."
At least now he understood why the cat had tried to claw his face off; he'd have done the same if it meant running away from someone like Shijimi-sama.
"Me too," Sakura admitted quietly.
The blond boy looked up at Kakashi. "Shouldn't we do something?"
Kakashi placed his hands in his pockets; for once, his favorite book was nowhere in sight. "Not unless you want to throw the mission, Naruto."
The blond scoffed and idly noticed the Fire Daimyo's plump wife heading towards the desk the Hokage and Iruka were seated. "How long do we have to keep doing these boring missions, Kakashi-sensei?"
"Until I think you three are ready to tackle something more difficult."
Sasuke looked at their sensei with a more-annoyed-than-usual frown on his face.
"We're ready now." Much to Naruto's shock, Sasuke actually nodded in agreement. It was almost imperceptible, but it was there.
"Come along, Tora-chan," the Daimyo's wife crooned to her distinctly unhappy pet. "It's time to go home."
Six pairs of eyes followed the plump woman as she exited the room.
"What makes the two of you think that you're ready for a C-rank mission?" the Hokage asked as the door closed behind the noblewoman, looking sternly at the two boys.
"We're the best in our class." Naruto set his jaw and stared defiantly at the old man. "We can do more than weeding gardens and tracking down lost pets."
The old man narrowed his eyes. "Overconfidence is one of the foremost causes of death among ninja, along with lack of preparedness."
"I'm not being overconfident." Naruto kept looking directly into the old man's eyes. "We're not little kids anymore, Hokage-sama; we're genin of the Hidden Leaf."
"Is that so?" The Hokage leaned back in his seat. "Sasuke, Sakura, do you feel the same way as Naruto?"
"Yes." Sasuke punctuated his monosyllabic response with a sharp nod of agreement.
Sakura fidgeted awkwardly and glanced at the dark-haired boy. "…Yes."
"…Very well," the old man replied after what seemed like an eternity to the blond boy. "Iruka, give Kakashi the C-rank mission that came in earlier." The Hokage turned to look at a man with a burn mark stretching across the left side of his face. "Raido, please introduce Tazuna-san to his new bodyguards."
The brown-haired man with the burn mark smirked and left the room, probably to go fetch this Tazuna guy.
"Bodyguards?" Naruto stood on his tiptoes, trying to get a glimpse of the mission scroll Kakashi was reading just a little above his field of vision.
"Tazuna-san is a bridge builder from the Land of Waves," the Hokage explained. "He's concerned that he might be attacked by bandits on the way back to his homeland, so he has requested a cadre of bodyguards."
'Finally, a real mission!' Naruto somehow managed to restrain himself from shouting this out loud; he didn't want the Hokage to change his mind about assigning this mission to Team 7.
Unfortunately, the blond boy's hopes of an exciting mission spent protecting an innocent traveler were dashed the moment said traveler walked into the room.
"Huh." The man was elderly, with glasses that were hanging low on his nose, a wide-brimmed hat, and a half-empty bottle of sake clutched in his left hand. "So you're my guards."
Naruto wrinkled his nose in disgust; even from this distance, the old man smelled like a distillery.
"You three don't look like much." The old drunk glanced between the three genin. "Especially shorty there."
Naruto blinked. Shorty?
The blond boy glanced at Sasuke; then, he glanced at Sakura. Both of them were at least five centimeters taller than him.
'I'm going to kill him!'
"Yes, that would be the perfect way to show the Hokage that you're not a little kid anymore."
'He called me short!'
Kurama chuckled wickedly, clearly enjoying himself far too much for Naruto's liking. "That's because you are short."
Naruto seethed inwardly, but couldn't think of a way to convincingly defend himself. He really was the shortest person in his Academy class. Even Hinata was taller than him by a couple of centimeters.
'...Shut up.'
"I assure you, Tazuna-san," Kakashi said before the bespectacled old man could say anything to insult the other two genin, "that, despite appearances, my students are quite capable."
The blond glowered at the silver-haired ninja, irritated by his cheerful tone. 'Whose side is he on?!'
Naruto noticed that Sasuke and Sakura were also looking darkly at their sensei. Good. They could all plan their revenge later.
"We'll see," the old drunk said quietly. "Won't we."
-XOXO-
Naruto watched in horror as Kakashi was torn apart by the two chains that had suddenly enveloped him.
There was no time to shout out a warning or even cry out in dismay – one moment his sensei was there, the next he wasn't.
From somewhere far away, he could hear a voice shouting at him that Kakashi was still alive, that the two rogue ninja needed to be dealt with, that he needed to move right now.
"SNAP OUT OF IT, NARUTO!"
Naruto blinked as the world came back into focus and noticed that one of the metal gloves the rogue ninja were wearing was centimeters away from his face. He reflexively parried it with the kunai he was still holding numbly in his left hand and swallowed a cry of pain as one of the weapon's claws grazed the back of his hand.
Sasuke was standing in front of Sakura and Tazuna – when had that happened? – shielding them with his body from the second masked ninja.
The blond boy shot the first ninja a look of pure rage as the man tried to attack him again. These bastards had killed Kakashi. He was going to tear them apart.
Before he could move, however, Kakashi materialized next to the walking dead man and knocked him out with a hit at the back of the neck.
The second rogue ninja was dispatched in a similar fashion.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura exclaimed, looking immensely relieved that the silver-haired ninja hadn't been reduced to little ninja bits.
"But you're…" Tazuna looked between the young man standing in front of him and the place he had 'died' a couple of minutes ago.
Naruto couldn't say anything; he just stared at his sensei, feeling a little lightheaded as relief replaced his dismay. 'I thought…'
"He used a substitution, Naruto," Kurama said softly. "I tried to tell you, but you weren't listening."
"A puddle of water on the ground when it hasn't rained for at least a week was a very poor camouflage, Tazuna-san," Kakashi said. "I simply decided to find out who their target was: us Leaf ninja or you." The silver-haired ninja narrowed his eye. "Perhaps there's something you wish to share with us before we continue?"
The old man squirmed under Kakashi's piercing gaze.
Then, he spilled his guts.
Naruto eyed Tazuna critically; the old drunkard didn't look like the kind of person who would stand up against the leader of a gang of criminals, much less threaten to bring down said mogul's criminal empire by building a bridge. If anything, the blond boy would have pegged him as the kind of guy who would run away at the first sign of trouble. 'Looks really are misleading.'
"You've just figured that out?" Kurama scoffed. "If looks were an accurate depiction of a person's nature, then you'd be a no-talent ninja wannabe."
'Oh, yeah? And why's that?'
"Orange jumpsuit," Kurama replied simply.
'Feh. Even with the orange, the ANBU still can't catch me.'
The Fox gave an annoyed grunt at that, something the boy interpreted as a victory.
He had considered wearing something a little… less orange, of course, but he liked his clothes. Besides, they added a challenge on his pranks – and now, on his missions.
"…So, what's going to happen now?" Tazuna asked quietly after wrapping up his story. "Will you head back to the Leaf?"
Kakashi levelled a cold look at the old man. "I should. However, that's not entirely up to me."
"But we have to go back to the Leaf, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said worriedly. "Naruto has been hurt."
The blond followed her gaze; with everything that had happened, he had completely forgotten about deep, nasty-looking graze at the back of his left hand.
"The Demon Brothers' weapons looked like they were poisoned," Sakura continued. "Naruto needs to be taken to the hospital for treatment."
Naruto scowled at his wound and removed a kunai from his leg holster. Before he could begin second-guessing his plan, he plunged the kunai into the wound, reopening it.
"Naruto!" Sakura shrieked, her eyes wide with horror. "What are you doing?"
The others were also watching him with concern.
"Taking out the poison," he told her as he watched the blood slowly dripping past the kunai he was still holding, doing his best to ignore the pain.
None of this would have happened if he had been surveying the surrounding area at frequent intervals, like all sensory type ninja were supposed to do during a mission. He would have detected the Demon Brothers' pathetic attempt at an ambush at least a kilometer away. Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna wouldn't have been threatened by the rogue ninja at all. And Kakashi wouldn't have…
Naruto choked as he remembered the despair he'd felt when he'd thought that Kakashi was dead. This time, it had been one of the Copy Ninja's tricks. But what about next time?
'I can't let him die. I won't let him die.'
For years, he'd been afraid of what people would do if they discovered how deep his connection to Kurama was. So he had hidden his true abilities, learning to use them in roundabout ways instead of exploring his full potential.
'No more holding back.' Not when it meant that the people he cared about would get hurt.
"Are you sure about this, kit?"
'Yes. I'm your jinchuuriki; I should start acting like it.'
"We're going to finish the mission," the blond declared, surprising the others.
Sasuke smirked at that; if the blond didn't know better, he'd say that his rival was pleased with this turn of events.
Kakashi walked up to him and squatted in front of him.
"Remove the kunai from your hand, Naruto," the silver-haired ninja said softly. "I need to bandage the wound."
"It would be wise to staunch the bleeding before you faint. I can deal with what remains of the poison."
Naruto pulled the kunai out of the wound and extended his hand towards Kakashi, who was already holding a roll of bandages in his hand. The blond boy didn't know why his sensei even bothered with that; he could already feel Kurama's chakra healing the wound.
"Looks like we'll escort you all the way to the Land of Waves, Tazuna-san." Kakashi finished dressing the boy's wound and stood up. "Although I would appreciate it if you didn't keep any more secrets from us from now on."
"I don't have any more secrets, Kakashi-san," the old man assured them.
"Good," Kakashi said. "Formation is the same as before. Let's try to reach an inn before nightfall."
Sasuke and Sakura nodded and took up their positions near Tazuna.
Naruto didn't move from his spot. "Kakashi-sensei?"
The silver-haired ninja looked at him with an eyebrow raised in a silent question; behind him, Naruto could see that the others had also turned to face him.
"…Don't ever do that again," the blond whispered.
Kakashi's expression softened; he gave the boy his strange eye-smile and ruffled his hair.
-XOXO-
"There's someone following us, Kakashi-sensei."
Sasuke blinked in surprise and barely managed to restrain himself from turning his head to stare at Naruto, who was walking by Tazuna's other side. Sakura, who made up the rear guard, didn't have any qualms about gawking at the blond boy.
Kakashi didn't give any indication that he had heard anything out of the ordinary. "How many and how far away?"
"One person, about four hundred meters towards my five o'clock, closing in on us," Naruto said. "He's reeking with Killing Intent."
'Naruto is a sensory type ninja?' Sasuke hadn't known that – although, in hindsight, he probably should have guessed it after the bell test.
"Don't turn around." Kakashi's quiet warning came just as Sakura and Tazuna were about to turn their heads to look at the direction Naruto had indicated. "Can you tell which one of us he's targeting?"
Sasuke held back a disdainful snort; there was no way the blond could know that, even if he was a sensory type.
"Tazuna-san," Naruto replied without any hesitation.
Sasuke choked as the snort turned into a swarm of questions. 'How can he possibly know something like that?'
"That's comforting," the old man mumbled.
"Don't worry, Tazuna-san," Kakashi said evenly, "that why we're here: to protect you."
The dark-haired boy noticed a slight change in their sensei's posture; Kakashi wasn't slumping his shoulders as much as he usually did. 'He's getting ready to fight.'
"His Killing Intent just spiked." Naruto sounded anxious all of a sudden. "He's noticed you, sensei."
Sasuke couldn't stop himself this time; he craned his neck and peered at Naruto over Tazuna's belly.
The three thin lines on the blond boy's left cheek – the only one Sasuke could see – were now harsh black marks, and his eyes were crimson instead of blue. The black-haired boy wondered briefly if Naruto possessed some variation of the Sharingan, before noticing that his crimson eyes didn't have any tomoe in them and had vertical slits instead of pupils.
'What is he?' Sasuke, by virtue of being an Uchiha, didn't have any room to call another person's eyes creepy, but he felt he was justified in this instance; no human being had eyes like that.
"Sounds like he knows who I am." Sasuke couldn't see much of the silver-haired ninja's face, but he could tell that Kakashi was frowning. "I'll be at even more of a disadvantage, then."
"We'll help you fight him," Naruto stated.
"You'll do no such thing," Kakashi said sternly before Sasuke had time to express his agreement with his blond-haired teammate.
"But sensei–"
"No buts, Naruto. The three of you will protect Tazuna-san; that's your mission. Fighting this unknown ninja is mine."
"He'll be easier to defeat if we all fight with you, Kakashi." Sasuke wasn't about to miss out on what promised to be his first real battle.
The Demons Brothers were amateurs, if their blatantly obvious attempt at an ambush was any indication; Sasuke wondered how was it that they had managed to survive as long as they had. He also wondered how Naruto, who was apparently a very talented sensory type ninja in addition to a master prankster, had allowed himself to get caught by such a crude trap.
This enemy, however, was different. He was dangerous. Fighting this ninja was bound to give the dark-haired boy a good indication on how close he was to Itachi in terms of strength.
"Sasuke's right. We should–" Naruto's eyes went wide. "He's going to attack us!"
"GET DOWN!" Kakashi shouted as he turned around and dragged Tazuna to the ground with him.
A huge sword went flying over their heads before planting itself edge-first on a tree about a dozen meters away from the five of them.
Sasuke couldn't help but stare at the sword; that thing was as tall as Kakashi and about half as wide. What kind of monster could throw such a weapon so effortlessly?
The answer came in the form of a shirtless man whose lower face was covered by bandages. The man was standing on the flat of the blade – which didn't bend in the slightest under his weight, the black-haired boy noticed – looking at them contemptuously as they were getting back on their feet.
"Hatake Kakashi." The man's voice was low and gravely, sending chills down Sasuke's spine. "The Copy Ninja."
"Momochi Zabuza." Kakashi was standing protectively between the three genin and the masked man. "The Demon of the Mist."
Sasuke shivered as the man's cold eyes fell on him. Now he understood what Naruto meant when he'd said that the one following them was reeking with Killing Intent. This mas enjoyed killing. And they were his prey.
He had to get away from here – away from this man. If he stayed here, he was going to become just one more of the masked ninja's victims. How could he ever hope to defeat Itachi when he couldn't even stand being in the presence of this man?
"Get a grip, Sasuke!" Naruto hissed as the back-haired boy tried to get hold of a kunai in order to end this.
Sasuke jerked his hand away from his leg holster as he finally realized what he had been about to do.
"And Sakura, calm down. Please." The blond grimaced in pain. "I can't focus when you're both so terrified."
"You're one to talk," Sasuke mumbled; Naruto was a few shades paler than normal, although he was looking much better than Sakura, who was both pale and shaking like a leaf.
Tazuna was trembling almost as badly as Sakura. "You're supposed to fight him?"
"Manji formation!" Kakashi barked, startling the three genin back into sense. "Protect Tazuna-san!"
After a split-second of hesitation, the three genin took up their assigned positions and formed a circle around Tazuna, facing outward.
The former Mist ninja's jutsu was starting to take effect, filling the small clearing with an impenetrable curtain of mist.
"When I tell you to move, don't question me," Naruto said quietly. "Just do it."
"Okay," Sakura answered weakly; the kunai held in her hand was shaking slightly.
Sasuke huffed noncommittally, but resigned himself to being ordered around by the blond just this once. Without the Sharingan, he was just as helpless as Sakura in a situation like this.
He would pay Naruto back for this later by questioning him about his sensory abilities.
-XOXO-
Even in the safety of Tazuna's home, Sakura couldn't stop shivering when she remembered their battle with Zabuza a few hours ago. 'I thought we were going to die back there.'
If not for Sasuke and Naruto's quick thinking after Kakashi had been caught in Zabuza's Water Prison jutsu, they wouldn't have left the clearing alive.
'I was pathetic!' her inner voice screamed. 'All I did was cower in fear while Sasuke-kun and Naruto pulled out butts out of the fire.'
This was the second time during this mission that she had to be rescued by them. She knew, even when they'd first been assigned in the same team, that she would never be able to match either of them in terms of combat ability, but this was humiliating. She wasn't a damsel in distress; she was a kunoichi! She should have been better than that.
Sakura watched idly as Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, walked into the room carrying a tray with several cups and a teapot. She had been extremely accommodating to the four Leaf ninja, unlike her son. Inari had spent the entire time since their arrival sulking at them, as if they were somehow responsible for the trouble his family was going through.
"What did you do back there, Naruto?"
"Huh?" The blond looked up from the cuff of his right sleeve – which he'd been contemplating for the past fifteen minutes – and stared quizzically at Sasuke. "What do you mean?"
"Your sensory abilities, you idiot," Sasuke clarified. "Since when have you known that you're a sensory type?"
"Oh, that," Naruto said, looking relieved for some reason. "It's been… four years now, I think."
"Four years?" Sasuke repeated, echoing Sakura's thoughts. "And you didn't think to mention it before?"
The blond boy shrugged. "No."
"What's the big deal?" Inari mumbled to no-one in particular.
"Sensory type ninja are an invaluable part of a ninja squad, Inari," Sakura said, feeling the need to explain a few things to the boy. "They can detect the presence of others around them from hundreds of meters away, even if they're trying to hide their chakra."
Sakura turned to face her blond-haired teammate and fixed him with a dark look, doing her best to ignore her inner voice's cries to 'Just punch him already!'. "We almost died today, Naruto! And I can think of several other times your sensory abilities would have come in handy."
Like capturing Tora, for instance.
…Except that Naruto was the one who had managed to track the little hellcat down. Just like he was the one who had led her and Sasuke to Kakashi's location during the bell test. Even back at the Academy, he had always seemed to know when a teacher was around the corner.
The blond looked at his hands again. "I know, Sakura. But I didn't think it was necessary to tell you before."
"And I appreciate the heads-up about Zabuza, Naruto." Kakashi was still a little pale, but at least he could now sit up on his futon after Tsunami's ministrations. "Getting ambushed by him could have turned out badly for all of us."
Tazuna shivered at the sound of the rogue ninja's name. "I'm sorry, Kakashi-san. I never thought that Gato would send someone like Zabuza after me."
Kakashi smiled in that weird way of his by closing his visible eye. "It's alright, Tazuna-san."
"At least Zabuza's dead," the old bridge builder said.
"Actually," Kakashi began, "I don't think that's true."
"What do you mean, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, fighting back her growing panic. "We saw that Mist hunter-nin kill him."
"No, Sakura. What we saw was a boy claiming to be a hunter-nin from the Hidden Mist incapacitate Zabuza before I could land the killing blow.
"Didn't his choice of weapon strike you as odd?" Kakashi didn't wait for her to answer his question. "Senbon are mostly used to target pressure points, not deliver killing blows. Also," the silver-haired ninja added, "there's the fact that this 'hunter-nin' carried Zabuza's body away, even though Zabuza outweighed him by at least twenty kilograms. A real hunter-nin wouldn't have gone to all that trouble; he would have disposed of the body at the scene."
"You mean that Zabuza is alive?" Sakura's voice grew progressively shriller with every word.
"We're going to die!"
"I'm afraid so," Kakashi said. "And he has an accomplice."
Naruto shook his head. "No way. I was sensing their chakra the entire time, Kakashi-sensei. The hunter-nin didn't have any darkness around him; hell, that guy was sad because he'd hurt someone like Zabuza!"
Kakashi simply stared at Naruto, quirking an eyebrow.
"There's just no way someone like that could be–" The blond's eyes widened as he made some kind of connection. "Oh. Crap."
The silver-haired ninja nodded in agreement. "Exactly."
Sakura – along with everyone else in the small room – was looking back and forth between the two of them, trying to understand what on earth they were talking about.
"Fortunately, he won't be in any shape to attack us again anytime soon," Kakashi said. "I managed to inflict quite a bit of damage on him before his accomplice carried him away."
"You're not in any shape to fight, either, Kakashi-san," Tsunami pointed out; she seemed to have forgotten about the tea cooling in the tray beside her.
"But I can still teach." Kakashi faced each of his students in turn. "Last minute training won't help you against Zabuza, but it might give you an edge over his assistant."
Sasuke huffed, clearly annoyed at the implication that he would need help to defeat someone who wasn't a jounin, and scowled at Naruto again. "Is there anything else you forgot to tell us?"
"No."
The black-haired boy narrowed his eyes. "You're lying."
Naruto glared right back. "Why should I tell you anything?"
"Boys," Kakashi interjected before Sasuke could respond and escalate things. "Not while we're on a mission. I need you to work together right now."
Both boys turned their heads away, mumbling what could be considered, if one was feeling generous, an apology.
Kakashi let out a small sigh. "That'll have to do – for now."
-XOXO-
Naruto stared at his sensei standing upside-down on a tree branch, feeling like the silver-haired ninja was playing a prank on all of them.
"Tree climbing?" Naruto asked flatly.
Kakashi nodded and started hobbling down the tree trunk.
Sakura gave the silver-haired ninja an odd look. "How will that help us against Zabuza's assistant?"
"It won't," Kakashi said as he stepped on the ground again. "But it will help you improve your chakra control."
Sasuke didn't say anything; he simply had a blank look on his face, like he always did.
"Since I'm still not feeling too well," Kakashi continued, "Naruto will oversee your training."
"What?!"
"After all," the silver-haired ninja added, completely ignoring the blond boy's indignant protest, "he's already mastered this skill."
"That's not fair, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto hadn't agreed to anything like that! Not to mention that he didn't like the looks Sasuke and Sakura were giving him.
"I'm going to get some rest," Kakashi turned on his heel and waved goodbye. "Good luck!"
'I'm going to burn his book to cinders!' Naruto thought as he watched his sensei hobble away on his crutches. 'He's gone too far this time.'
"And I'm going to take a nap. Have fun teaching your new 'students'."
The blond sighed in defeat and turned to face his teammates.
"So, uh… Shouldn't you start climbing?" No, he wasn't just going to burn Kakashi's book; he was going to burn it right in front of the man's eye and scatter the ashes in the wind.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the blond. "What are you going to do?"
"Practice my sensory abilities," Naruto replied simply.
The dark-haired boy gave him an irritated huff, picked out a tree to start practicing and drew a kunai to mark his progress.
Sakura hesitated for a moment. "Naruto, could you teach me how to sense chakra?"
Sasuke paused just as he'd been about to take his first step up the tree trunk.
The blond shook his head. "I'm sorry, Sakura, but this isn't something I can teach others."
"…I see," the girl said dejectedly.
Naruto followed her with his eyes as she walked up to a tree and started climbing it without using her hands.
'Besides,' he thought, glancing at Sasuke, 'I wouldn't teach you even if I could.'
She was better off being ignorant about the inner darkness of the people around her.
-XOXO-
Kakashi carefully sat on a log that had once been a proud tree, resting his crutches against it. This distance was close enough to oversee his students in case they ran into trouble and far enough that they wouldn't detect his presence.
Except for Naruto, of course.
The young man didn't really know what had made his blond-haired student change his mind about using the Kyuubi's chakra so openly, but he couldn't say he wasn't grateful. If Naruto hadn't used his sensory abilities so liberally during their battle with Zabuza, things might have turned quite differently.
Unfortunately, Naruto's little display of power had caught Sasuke's attention.
It was only a matter of time before the Last Uchiha tried to find a way to acquire this power in order to achieve his obsession and kill his brother. And things would only get worse when Sasuke would awaken his Sharingan.
Hopefully, being forced to work together would teach the boys a few things about teamwork before things spiraled out of control.
The most important one being that they shouldn't try to harm their teammates.
Author's Note:
I apologize for the huge gap between updates. I'll do my best to keep to my schedule from now on.
Since I haven't mentioned it before, thank you all for your continued support.
-X-
Naruto using Kurama's chakra: It occurred to me that I didn't explain this properly in last chapter's notes.
So far, Naruto has only needed to use two 'modes' of Kurama's chakra.
The first is drawing upon only a fraction of the red chakra. It's enough to let him use his sensory abilities for a moment, but not good for much else. The only change in his appearance is his pupils turning into vertical slits, although the irises remain blue. (Like it was shown in the aftermath of his battle with Gaara, when he was almost out of chakra.)
The second is the 'Initial Jinchuuriki Form'. By tapping into Kurama's chakra, Naruto speed and strength are augmented; in addition, his senses become sharper and he's able to use his sensory abilities without any restrictions. In this stage, his appearance changes drastically: his eyes become red with vertical slits, the whisker marks on his cheeks become thicker, his hair becomes wilder, his canines turn into fangs, and his fingernails turn into claws. If he draws too much of the Fox's chakra (but not enough to form the Nine-Tails' cloak and the first tail), he also gains an aura of red chakra.
-X-
Hector's words: The belief that defending one's country is the only good omen (as in: an ideal a person should care about) has endured through the centuries.
For those not familiar with the Iliad: Hector spoke these words to Polydamas, his friend and lieutenant, right before he led the charge to the Achaean's compound.
The Trojans, emboldened by Hector and eager to finally drive the Achaeans off their land, fought fiercely and began pushing the invaders back into the sea while setting fire to their ships (fully intending to burn and/or drown the Achaeans). Seeing as the Trojans were winning, Achilles, who was still sulking in his tent, gave Patroclus permission to wear his armor and defend the camp. Patroclus was subsequently killed by Hector, who mistook him for Achilles. What happened next was one of the most brutal duels in the Iliad that ended with Hector's death and the desecration of his body by Achilles. Achilles was later killed in revenge by Paris, Hector's brother. And, after a few more deaths, Odysseus came up with a brilliant idea to infiltrate Troy: the Trojan horse.
Homer's body count is staggering, if you think about it. He puts GRR Martin to shame.
In short, that one charge marked the beginning of the end for the Trojans, since Hector was their 'shield', so to speak. Still, if not for the meddling of the gods of Olympus (who constantly meddled in the affairs of mortals), that battle would have ended the Trojan War for good.
…I'll end the recap of the Iliad now.
-X-
The bell test: Nobody got tied to one of the training posts, since Kakashi was too angry with all of his students (especially Naruto) for failing so miserably; he couldn't decide which one was more deserving of the punishment. Instead, he immediately gave them a second chance and passed them when they proved to him that they could work together if they were properly motivated.
-X-
Kakashi being at a disadvantage during his battle with Zabuza: Kakashi has to fight defensively in order to protect his students and Tazuna. In contrast, Zabuza can (and did) attack without holding back, since he didn't care about who he hurt. Additionally, since Zabuza figured out who Kakashi was before revealing himself, he had some time to think up of a strategy in advance (not that it helped him much), while Kakashi had to think on his feet.
Thank you for reading! Please review and share your thoughts.
