The silence seemed to stretch on forever as Iruka waited for the Hokage to finish looking over the genin team assignments he had drawn up. While he had gone through this in past years as well, the approval process had always been more of a technicality; though he supposed he could understand the exceptional amount of attention the Hokage was paying to this year's teams, it did somewhat grate on his sensibilities. After all, he had taught his students for nearly four years, and it was almost insulting to think that he might not know the best way to organize them. Still, it was the Hokage's prerogative—albeit one rarely exercised—to alter the team assignments in any way he chose, so Iruka supposed he had little choice in the matter.

Finally, the Hokage looked up from the papers and nodded approvingly. "Very good work," he said. "I agree with your division of the students, though I am afraid I cannot allow you to take credit for it. I suspect that one—perhaps two—of this year's jounin-sensei will be unhappy with their teams, and it would be better for that dislike to be directed at me than at you."

"I understand, Hokage-sama," Iruka replied, feeling more than a little relieved. While he had not considered the reactions of the jounin-sensei, he knew that many people, including those in positions of power, would likely be upset with him if they learned not only that he had allowed Haruno Sakura to graduate but also who he had assigned to be her teammates.

Because of his duties as an academy teacher, he was in somewhat of a precarious legal position; technically, as a chuunin, he fell under the Hokage's authority with all the other village ninja, but as a teacher for children who were still considered civilians until graduation, he could conceivably find himself answerable to the village council. While he doubted that they had any grounds to press actual charges, they could—and probably would—make his life difficult in many other ways. Fortunately, the Hokage had apparently considered the same thing and found a tidy solution that would preserve both the team arrangements and Iruka's standing in the village.

Just then, there was a knock on the closed office door, and he heard the voice of one of the chuunin guards outside say, "Hokage-sama, the last jounin-sensei assigned to Umino Iruka's class has arrived. Shall I start sending them in?"

Iruka thought he heard the Hokage mutter, "And only an hour and a half late, too," but couldn't be sure. More loudly, he called out, "Send them all in. I still have another appointment after this, so I would like to finish as quickly as possible."

The door opened, and three jounin—two men and a woman—entered the office. Of the three, Iruka only recognized one of the men by sight, though he had read all of their profiles while creating the genin teams. For a moment, he wondered which of them the Hokage expected to protest their team assignments, then shrugged. That, at least, would not be his problem.

"Let's begin," the Hokage said abruptly. "Sarutobi Asuma, you will lead the team consisting of Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino. While their exact training is left to your discretion, academy exercises indicate that they have significant potential as an infiltration team. Do you have any questions?"

The man Iruka had not recognized shook his head. "None," he answered. "Though, if they're anything like their fathers, this should be interesting."

"Dismissed, then," the Hokage said, and Iruka could have sworn he was hiding a smirk. "Next. Yuuhi Kurenai, you will lead the team consisting of Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Uchiha Sasuke. As you are aware, you are under consideration for transfer into ANBU, and you may consider this assignment a preliminary test of your leadership skills. In keeping with their natural abilities, you will be expected to train your genin as a hunter squad. Do you have any questions?"

"No, Hokage-sama," the woman said, sounding somewhat puzzled, "though I would have thought the Hyuuga girl would be more suitable for a hunter team than the Uchiha, given the capabilities of her Byakugan."

Beside her, the second man—Hatake Kakashi—looked as though he very much wanted to protest, though it was hard to tell given the mask covering the lower half of his face and the fact that he continued to read the book he had brought with him. As the only person in the village with a sharingan eye, no doubt he had been expecting to have the Uchiha boy in his team, but Iruka had been concerned that that similarity could easily lead to favoritism towards Sasuke over his other team members once he manifested his own sharingan.

"Neither of the other two possess particularly strong ninjutsu abilities, Yuuhi-san," the Hokage said, "and as such I deemed it more important to include someone skilled in distance attacks rather than another tracker. In addition, I have received interesting information regarding the possibilities of combining the sharingan with genjutsu. As a genjutsu specialist, you will be in a good position to help the Uchiha experiment with this if and when his sharingan appear."

Appearing satisfied by this explanation, Kurenai bowed and left, leaving Iruka alone with the Hokage and Kakashi. The tension in the office had risen dramatically, and he wished he had taken the opportunity to slip out at some point. Though Kakashi had not stopped reading his book, it was quite clear that he was not happy, and Iruka had no desire to be even peripherally exposed to his temper.

Much to his surprise, though, the legendary jounin simply said in a bored voice, "So that leaves me with Kazama, Hyuuga, and Haruno, right? It'll be a shame to fail Sensei's kid because of the demon brat, and old man Hyuuga probably won't be too happy either, but whatever." Giving an indolent wave, he disappeared in a puff of smoke, never having once looked up from whatever he was reading.

Uh-oh, Iruka thought, risking a glance out of the corner of his eye over at the Hokage. He fully expected to see the man fuming with anger, but was astonished to note that he actually seemed quite calm. With a small, mysterious smile, he leaned back in his chair and pulled out a pipe, which he lit with a tiny fire technique and began to puff on contentedly.

"Hokage-sama?" Iruka ventured after a minute, as the older man appeared to have completely forgotten his presence. "Um…do you need me for anything else?"

"Ah, my apologies," the Hokage said around his pipe, not bothering to look over in Iruka's direction. "No, you may go. Please inform Sakura that she may come in, if you see her as you leave."

Iruka bowed and left. Though he was unsure why Sakura would be waiting to see the Hokage, he smiled as he saw her in the outer office, proudly wearing her new forehead protector. "The Hokage says you can go in now," he told her. "And…Haruno-kun? Congratulations. Don't let anyone tell you that you haven't earned that."

He was rewarded with a deep blush followed by a dazzling smile as she jumped up from her seat and practically ran over to the door to the Hokage's private office. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei," she said softly, looking back over her shoulder before closing the door behind her and leaving him with the two chuunin guards, both of whom were looking at him oddly.

"What?" he asked, before realizing that they were probably wondering why he had said something so kind to the dreaded demon vessel. Rolling his eyes, he shrugged and left the office, barely even considering that just a few years ago, he would have thought his actions just as strange as the guards no doubt did.

- - -

"You wanted to talk to me, Sa—um…Hokage-ojiisan?" Sakura asked as she closed the door behind her. Flushing a little at the near-slip of her tongue—the Hokage had asked her to continue referring to him by his title outside of their lessons together—she sat down in one of the chairs near his desk and waited for him to finish whatever he was writing. While she hoped she was portraying the appropriate amount of decorum and patience, inwardly she was still charged with more restless energy than she could ever remember having in her life.

Almost unconsciously, one hand stole upwards to touch the unfamiliar texture of her—her!­—Hidden Leaf forehead protector, and she couldn't help but smile as she felt the embossed spiral insignia on its metal plate. A quiet chuckle interrupted the stillness of the room, but there was no mockery in it, and when she self-consciously jerked her hand back down to her lap, the Hokage shook his head at her.

"Enjoy this moment," he said, standing up from his desk and walking over to sit down across from her. "There will be others, but perhaps none quite so free of regrets. Every success after this will be at the expense of another, perhaps even one of your friends, so you should not feel embarrassed for treasuring this one that you can share with them."

Hesitantly, Sakura nodded. She was unsure of what exactly the Hokage meant by what he said, but it was clear that it was significant at least to him—and as he was her teacher, she supposed that meant it should be significant to her as well. Some of her confusion must have shown on her face, though, as he laughed and shook his head, dispelling in an instant the pensive mood that had come over him a few moments earlier.

"Never mind that. This is supposed to be a happy day for you, and you certainly don't need me spoiling it. Now, as for what I wanted to talk with you about, I am sure you are aware that tomorrow you and your classmates will be divided into teams of three, each with its own jounin leader and instructor. Have you considered what this might mean for you, though?"

Sakura began to shake her head, then stopped, suddenly having a horrible thought. "Does…does it mean that you won't be teaching me any more?" she asked, feeling her cheerfulness evaporate at the idea.

"Nothing of the sort," the Hokage answered, so firmly that she couldn't help but be reassured by the words. "While you may sometimes be unable to attend our sessions in the future, I will only stop teaching you when I feel you no longer have anything you need to learn from me. You are somewhat correct, though, in that I do wish to discuss your lessons.

"More specifically," he continued, "I am sure you remember how I insisted that you not tell anyone you have been taking lessons from me, and especially not what those lessons are covering. While I must still hold you to those conditions for the most part, I think it wise to make an exception now. A team cannot function if its members keep secrets from each other, especially where those secrets concern abilities that may be important to the team's success or even survival."

What he was implying was obvious, but Sakura asked anyways, just to be certain. "You want me to tell my team about our lessons, and how I've been learning fuuinjutsu? But…what if other people find out, or my teammates think it's bad?"

Much to her confusion, the Hokage simply smiled at her. "I will not insist that you speak to them," he said, "but I do insist that you consider the benefits of doing so. The possible problems you mention are just that—only possible—and I suspect you may find them less of an issue than you currently think."

It makes sense, Sakura admitted to herself, albeit somewhat grudgingly. Still, it would depend on who her teammates were; there was no way she would ever willingly share something private with Inuzuka Kiba, for example. She wasn't even exactly sure how teams were assigned; if her possible teammates were only her classmates, she had a good chance of being on a team with her friends, but the odds were much less favorable if the selection widened to include everyone in their year. She had seen her yearmates in a few combined classes, and she had recognized more than a few of her tormenters from her pre-academy school among them.

"You worry too much, Sakura-chan," the Hokage said, as though he could read her thoughts, and reached over to lay a comforting hand on her arm. "Just think about what I said. Now, I do believe that celebratory dinners are customary on special occasions, and your academy graduation certainly qualifies. Is there anything in particular that you're hungry for?"

Overcome by a sudden wave of affection for the man who had been part-teacher, part-grandfather to her for the past several years, Sakura impulsively stood up and hugged him. She had been expecting to spend this night as she did most others, though perhaps indulging herself a little by buying some sweet dumplings to celebrate her graduation. Her friends were all busy with their own families, no doubt, and while she was sure they didn't mean to exclude her, that didn't make her own situation any less lonely. Now, though, it seemed like everything had turned out perfectly after all.

"I…anything would be fine with me," she replied, putting aside the questions of who her teammates would be and how much she could tell them. She could worry about that tomorrow, but tonight she would be happy and celebrate.

- - -

"Ooh, I can't wait!" Ino exclaimed, clasping her hands together and bouncing a little in her seat.

Sakura barely restrained herself from throttling her best friend. That has to be at least the seventh time she's said that…in the last ten minutes, she thought, rolling her eyes. All of this year's academy graduates had gathered together—after lunch, thankfully, as she had stayed up quite late the previous night thinking about what the Hokage had said to her—and were now waiting for the teachers to show up and announce the genin team assignments. Some, needless to say, were waiting with rather less patience than others.

Then the voice of her unlikely savior sounded from the seat next to her. "Ino-chan, if you say that one more time, I'm going to tell your dad that you asked him to cook a special dinner for you in order to celebrate your graduation."

Chouji, who was seated on Ino's other side, looked over at Naruto in horror. "That's beyond cruel, Naruto," he said, frowning deeply. Chouji tended to take threats involving food—or, in this case, the mess that Ino's father made of food—very seriously. If possible, Ino herself looked even more aghast at the prospect, though Sakura supposed that was to be expected, given that she had actually experienced the horrifying ordeal that was a meal prepared by Yamanaka Inoichi.

"Can't you all just be quiet?" asked a disinterested voice, followed by a long sigh. Apparently they had succeeded in waking Shikamaru, and even though he was sitting on Chouji's far side and she couldn't see him, Sakura could picture his sleepily indignant expression.

"Sorry!" Naruto and Ino chorused, before looking at each other and snickering. The two blondes' expressions were eerily similar, and for a moment she shuddered at the realization that she was sitting in between them if they decided to try anything. Hinata cast her a sympathetic look over Naruto's shoulder but appeared rather relieved not to be in that situation herself.

Just then, though, Iruka-sensei walked in, accompanied by a group of unfamiliar older ninja, and every student's attention was instantly fixed on him. As she saw the list in his hands, Sakura felt the weight in her stomach that her friends' antics had managed to dispel reappear, heavier than ever, and she thought for a moment that she might be sick. Instead, she felt a hand reassuringly squeeze her own, and as she looked to her side and saw Ino's excited smile, she couldn't help but smile back.

Up at the front of the classroom, Iruka-sensei had begun reading the list of teams, but Sakura found herself unable to focus on them past the nervous flutterings in her stomach. As the students—no, genin, now—heard their names, three by three they left the classroom along with their jounin-sensei, until finally only two jounin and the members of Sakura's own class remained. For one terrible instant, she wondered if her graduation had been a mistake somehow and she wouldn't be assigned to a team after all, but then she told herself she was being silly. Even if that was the case, it would still leave two of her classmates without a team, and she was sure none of them had failed.

Then the last vestiges of her worry disappeared as Iruka-sensei said, "Team Seven will be made up of Kazama Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata, and Haruno Sakura. Unfortunately—" here he paused for a moment, looking distinctly annoyed— "your jounin-sensei has yet to arrive, so please remain in the room for now."

For a moment, Sakura honestly thought she was about to faint. An endless stream of 'Is this really happening?' ran through her head, and it was only when she realized that Naruto was poking her in the shoulder that she regained some sense of reality. Looking around, she saw that she, Naruto, and Hinata were the only people left in the room, and she wondered what had happened to everyone else.

"Are you okay?" Hinata asked, a concerned look on her face. "Ino tried to say something to you before she left with Chouji and Shikamaru, but you just sat there and acted like you didn't even hear her. You're not upset because we're on your team…are you?"

Hinata looked so disappointed at even the idea of that that Sakura shook her head as emphatically as she could, sending her normally tied-back hair flying in a cloud around her face. "No!" she exclaimed, loudly enough that Naruto jumped a little.

"Of course not—how could I be? I was just surprised, because I was so worried that I wouldn't be on a team with any of my friends. And then…no, I'm not upset at all," she continued, more quietly, before breaking out into a smile so wide it made her face hurt.

Beside her, Naruto grinned as well. "Naturally," he said, nodding sagely. "After all, who could be upset about being on the great Naruto's team? And Hinata-chan's too, of course."

"Of course," Sakura muttered, rolling her eyes at him, then giggled as Hinata slapped his arm. "So, where is our jounin-sensei?" she asked after a glance over at the wall clock. "If he was supposed to be here for the announcements, he's already almost half an hour late."

Naruto and Hinata shrugged in unison. "Don't know," Naruto said. "Before he left, Iruka-sensei told us he probably wouldn't be here for a while—I guess that was while you were out of it—but he didn't say how long we have to wait for him."

"Until he gets here, probably," Hinata added, sounding faintly annoyed at the prospect. "I think my father knows who it is, but he wouldn't tell me. He didn't seem very happy, though."

Well, that sounds like a fairly good recommendation already, Sakura thought. Anybody Hinata's father didn't like couldn't be all that bad, even if he apparently didn't have a very good sense of time. One look at Naruto showed that he was undoubtedly thinking the same thing, and they shared a tiny grin before turning back to their pale-eyed friend.

Fortunately, before Hinata could inquire into the reason for their behavior, the classroom door opened and the strangest-looking ninja Sakura had ever seen walked in, reading a small orange book. He appeared perfectly normal from the neck down, wearing a standard-issue utility jacket over a black uniform, but he also had a mask covering nearly his entire face and a mess of bizarrely-styled greyish hair that seemed to stand straight up from his head. Perhaps most strangely, his forehead protector was fastened such that it slanted down over his left eye, and she found herself wondering what kind of injury was concealed beneath it.

"Sharingan Kakashi," she heard Naruto whisper from beside her. She wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but apparently the strange jounin had heard him as well, as he suddenly looked up from his book.

"Yes, I am Hatake Kakashi," he said, glancing at each of the three genin. Sakura shivered as his gaze seemed to linger on her, the look in his single visible eye sharp and unforgiving. Though most of his face was hidden, she had a sinking feeling that, as with most of the rest of the village, her new jounin-sensei did not like her at all.

"I was going to tell you all to come to the roof with me so we could introduce ourselves," Kakashi continued, favoring Naruto with a look far more friendly than the one he had given her, "but on second thought I'd rather just get this over with. So, who wants to start? Your name, hobbies, likes, dislikes, and dreams."

"Um…Kakashi-sensei," Hinata said hesitantly, looking as though she was unsure what to make of the jounin's request, "maybe you could start? Just—just so we have an idea of what to say."

"Fine," Kakashi said, his tone one of unbelievable boredom. "You know my name. I have plenty of hobbies. I like…some things, and I dislike others. My dreams…" He trailed off, then shrugged.

Great, Sakura thought, though she very carefully said nothing aloud for fear of attracting Kakashi's attention again, we still don't know anything about him.

"I'll start, then," Naruto said, sounding just as annoyed with their new teacher as she felt. "I'm Kazama Naruto. My hobbies are training with my mother and eating ramen. I like spending time with my friends, and I dislike people who are mean to them. My dream is to make my father's spirit proud of me."

Unaccountably, Sakura felt herself panic at his last words. How could she share her own dream with Naruto sitting right next to her? She could try to lie, but she had a feeling their new jounin-sensei would know if she did, and she very much did not want to give him any more reasons to dislike her than he already had. Still, what choice did she have? The Hokage had requested—very nearly insisted—that she tell her teammates about her studies, but she was certain he didn't intend for her to include the reason for them, as that would require her to tell them about the Nine-Tails.

Meanwhile, unaware of Sakura's internal dilemma, Hinata began to speak—at first uncertainly, then gradually with more confidence. "My—my name is Hyuuga Hinata. My hobbies are…um…training, and also gardening and making herbal medicines. I like my friends. I dislike…" She looked down at her feet for a moment, then continued, "My dream is to become strong so I can…be a good head of house someday."

Wondering what her shy friend disliked so much that she couldn't even say the words, Sakura almost missed the others' inquisitive stares before realizing that they were waiting for her to say something. "Oh! My name is Haruno Sakura. My hobbies are reading and studying, and I like my friends too. I dislike how people always seem to hate me before they even know me," she said, summoning up the courage to stare right at her new teacher's single visible eye, "and my dream—well, I guess it's more of a goal, but it's…a secret," she finished lamely.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed. "I'm the only one who answered all the questions…not fair!" He was actually scowling, Sakura noticed, and she couldn't help the tiny laugh that escaped her lips at the sight. That seemed to set Hinata off, and she began giggling as well, while Naruto's expression shifted into a full-blown pout—which only made Sakura laugh even harder.

When she managed to calm herself down again, she realized that Kakashi was staring at all of them, something in his face giving the impression that he was frowning. "I'm not impressed so far," he said, "but I have to give you a chance anyways, I suppose. Your final graduation exam will be tomorrow morning at five. Meet me at the training field near the river…oh, and don't eat any breakfast. Wouldn't want you throwing up during the middle of the test."

After delivering that rather disturbing bit of information, Kakashi unceremoniously disappeared in a puff of smoke as Sakura, Naruto, and Hinata all looked at each other in confusion. None of them spoke for a few moments, but eventually Naruto broke the silence—though he only said what they were all thinking.

"Another test?" he moaned. "I thought we graduated already! Why do we have to take another stupid test now?"

"Personally," Sakura said, feeling distinctly uneasy about the whole situation, "I'm a little more worried about the whole 'don't eat anything or you'll throw up' part at the end. I wonder what will happen to anyone who doesn't pass?"

She left unspoken the nasty suspicion that this 'test' might be nothing more than an excuse to fail her, since she had passed all of the regular exams. Hinata and Naruto must have picked up on her concern, though, even if they were unaware of its source. They looked at each other for a long moment, as if communicating through their eyes alone, then turned back to her.

"Doesn't matter," Naruto said, apparently speaking for both of them. "We're all going to pass together." The certainty in his voice was absolute, and Sakura found herself believing him despite her own inner doubts. Beside him, Hinata nodded, and that simple gesture was every bit as reassuring as Naruto's confident words.

"Yes," Sakura murmured, so quietly that she wasn't even sure they could hear her, "I suppose we are, aren't we?"

- - -

Hm…nearly eleven. I suppose I should get going, Kakashi thought lazily as he lay on his couch. The newest volume of his favorite serial was sitting on the table barely a few feet away, though, and that was far more appealing than the idea of giving a test to a bunch of freshly-graduated brats. They were just going to fail anyways, even if one of them was his own jounin-sensei's son. Perhaps they might have had a chance if the Hokage hadn't put the demon girl on his team, but surely the old man had to know he would never even consider passing a team with her on it, even if it also contained Arashi-sensei's child.

He had been surprised, though, by the easy way the three children interacted the previous afternoon. After observing them unnoticed for several minutes before entering the room, he had even found himself wondering if he might have been too hasty in automatically dismissing their chances. The way each of them had named their friends as their "like" had not escaped his attention either. Any incipient good will had vanished, however, when he heard the Haruno girl's evasiveness regarding her dream—no, her goal, he corrected himself. Had she somehow learned of the demon within her and was now planning to release it on the village?

"This is pointless," he muttered, standing up with a resigned sigh. No twelve year old could defeat the Fourth's seal; she probably just had a crush on some unlucky boy and was too embarrassed to mention it in front of her friends. Regardless, while she might not be a danger currently, she could easily become one in time. For that reason alone, he could not allow her to pass his test and receive further training, though it was unfortunate that he couldn't pass the other two separately.

Grabbing the tempting volume of Icha-Icha Paradise from the table, he set out to where he had told his temporary group of students to meet. Upon arriving at the training ground, though, he was surprised to see that the genin were not where he had expected them to be.

Maybe I'm a little too late this time? he wondered to himself. Still, patience—or simply endurance—was a necessary virtue for ninja, and if they had given up this quickly, they certainly didn't deserve the name. Suddenly, he felt much less guilty about failing them.

Then he noticed the three figures standing some distance away, by the monument to the village's fallen heroes. Their distinctive hair colors made them stand out, and for a moment he simply watched the three genin as they spoke quietly with each other. He felt a flash of anger when the pink-haired girl stretched out a tentative finger to trace one of the names carved into the stone, but then she said something to the other two, and he could hear the sadness in her voice even though he was too far away to make out her words. Ignoring the traitorous thought that perhaps she was more human than he had imagined, he used a quick shunshin to bring himself directly behind them just as the other girl laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You're so late!" the blond boy, Naruto—so much like Arashi-sensei, he thought—yelled, not even bothering to face him. The two girls gave startled gasps and spun around, glaring accusingly at him, and he allowed himself a brief smile of amusement at their reactions.

"I asked my mother about you last night," Naruto continued, still with his back turned, "and she warned me all about your laziness and perverted habits. I bet you're late because you were reading that porno book, huh?"

With a tiny sigh, Kakashi slipped his book into a vest pocket. He had managed to forget that Kazama Yukie both was alive and knew—or had known, at least—him very well, and now she had apparently decided to pass on that knowledge to her son. Unfortunately, that meant that all of his best excuses probably wouldn't work on the boy either. Oh well, he thought, it's not like I really have to explain myself to them.

"I…overslept," he said, shrugging. Curiously, that seemed to satisfy all three of them, and they nodded, Naruto finally turning around to face him.

"So why do we have to take another test?" Naruto asked. "I thought we were done with all that once we graduated from the academy, and Mother wouldn't tell me anything." The two girls nodded, both looking curious as well.

"Those were tests of your skills, to see if you're capable of becoming ninja," Kakashi said, capturing their eyes with his own. Each of them stared up at him in rapt attention, just as so many other genin had before them. They were always attentive, but none of the genin assigned to him ever really understood what he was trying to say. Because of that, for their own good, it was better that he fail them now than have them learn as he had.

"This is a different test, to see if you deserve—" here he stared hard into the Haruno girl's jade-green—not crimson, as he had halfway expected—eyes, some part of him surprised to see that she met his gaze without flinching— "to be ninja of the Hidden Leaf. Most of you don't; this test has a two-thirds failure rate. Now, these are the conditions."

From one of his vest pockets, he removed two bells tied to pieces of twine and secured them to his belt. "Your goal is to take a bell from me, and if you have a bell at the end of the test, you pass. If not, you fail and have to return to the academy—and anyone without a bell will be tied up at the end while the rest of us eat lunch. Any questions?"

"Kakashi-sensei," the Hyuuga girl said, a puzzled look on her face, "there are only two bells, but there are three of us. Are two of us supposed to share a bell?"

Kakashi was thankful for his mask, as it hid his surprised expression. While he had expected someone to notice the number of bells did not match the number of genin, it had been quite some time since he had had someone ask if it was possible to share the bells between teammates. Somewhat against his better judgment, he decided they deserved an extra hint just for that.

"No," he replied, causing her face to fall. "One bell per person. Like I said, this test has a sixty-six percent failure rate. You must be prepared to use lethal force against me if you expect to pass."

"But…Kakashi-sensei, wouldn't that be a thirty-three percent failure rate, with two bells and three of us?" the Haruno girl, quiet up until then, asked. Almost immediately, she seemed to shrink back in on herself as he focused his attention on her, her earlier courage apparently deserting her. He could all but see the wheels turning in her mind, though.

"I think that's enough questions," he said, cutting off Naruto as the boy opened his mouth. "The test will run until noon. Begin!"

The three genin continued to stare at him for a moment longer before running for the cover of the nearby underbrush—in separate directions, he noted with a slight sense of disappointment. Apparently, despite the marginal promise they had displayed earlier, they would end failing just as all of their predecessors had. At least he had managed to silence the nagging question in the back of his mind about whether he had perhaps misjudged the demon vessel.

For several minutes, none of the genin made any moves. Kakashi could tell from the movement in the underbrush that they were still nearby, though, and he shrugged and pulled out his book again. If they wanted to waste their time, that was up to them, even though he had to give them points for not being so foolish as to rush him out in the open. Eventually he would have to go after them—simply sitting and waiting was so boring—but for now he was curious as to how long it would be before one of them grew impatient.

Some time later, he caught a glimpse of pink hair through the bushes and smiled to himself. He wasn't surprised that she would be the first to attack, though he was surprised when she failed to enter the clearing, instead choosing to throw kunai at him from the safety of the treeline. The first few projectiles missed him by a safe distance, but her aim rapidly improved with each one. By the fifth kunai, he was having to actively dodge them, and he muttered angrily when one nearly lodged itself in his book.

Right, that's enough, he decided. Lethal force against his person was one thing, but Icha-Icha Paradise was sacrosanct. As a precaution, he placed the book back inside his jacket, then set off for the area where the projectiles had been coming from. When he arrived there, though, he found nothing but disturbed dirt and leaves, along with two loose kunai on the ground. Just then, he noticed a flash of pink out of the corner of his eye and ducked, just in time to see yet another of the throwing knives blur over his head and bury itself into a nearby tree trunk.

How many of those things does she have? Kakashi wondered, even as he began working his way around the trees towards the girl's position. From what he remembered, her profile stated that she was adequate with throwing weapons, but not spectacular, and he wondered what kind of standards the academy had now if this was what they considered merely adequate.

Granted, he could have ended the little game of cat and mouse at any time in any number of ways, but despite his dislike for the girl, he was determined to fail her fairly—and that meant no high-level techniques. That didn't mean he would fight fairly, of course, and he chuckled to himself as he saw her crouched behind a bush, her back to him and completely unaware of his presence.

As he was attempting to decide the most humiliating way to demonstrate to her the stupidity of leaving her back unguarded, his danger sense screamed a warning, and he pivoted just in time to block a palm strike aimed at his right shoulder. A rapid flurry of blows pressed him back further, and by the time he could spare a glance in her direction, she had vanished.

He had more important things to pay attention to at the moment, though, as the Hyuuga girl continued her assault. The bulging veins around her eyes clearly indicated she was using her byakugan, and he was forced to admire her technique—and her ruthlessness—as he slipped around a particularly intricate combination that would have temporarily paralyzed his lungs if it had connected.

If she were any faster, he thought, this might actually almost be interesting. For a moment, he wondered if the two girls had planned this together, before deciding that if they had, he would no doubt be dodging kunai in addition to jyuuken strikes.

"So, you like to play with taijutsu, do you?" Kakashi called out to her, using kawarimi to seamlessly replace himself with a pile of leaves and teleport up to a low-hanging branch as she grazed what would have been three of the tenketsu in his left leg with pinpoint blows. "What do you do when your opponent is too far away for that to work, though?"

To her credit, the girl didn't just stand still and wait for his inevitable attack. As she leapt to one side, her enhanced vision easily tracked him through the tree's leaves—but according to her profile, she was relatively poor at ninjutsu, and he was counting on her hesitation as she tried to come up with a way of attacking him at range.

"Too late!" he exclaimed cheerfully, even as she finally seemed to settle on an idea and began forming hand seals. "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!" His hands flickered through the seals, and a number of tiny spheres of flame shot towards her. He was near the edge of the technique's effective range, so he was unworried about actually hurting her, but it had its desired effect as she crouched down and covered her face with her arms to protect herself from the miniature fireballs.

For a moment, he considered whether the fire technique had been a bit too advanced to use in good conscience against a fresh genin, but then decided that she hadn't exactly been fighting on a genin's level either. As he prepared to jump down and subdue her while she was still distracted, though, he caught a glimpse of blond hair off to his left. Judging by the way the leaves were shaking, it was coming towards him rather quickly, too.

And that would be number three, Kakashi thought, beginning to wonder if he had been mistaken about their lack of teamwork. The interruptions seemed to be a little too convenient for random chance, one genin attacking just as he was about to finish off another. This suspicion was confirmed a moment later, to his rapidly growing interest.

"Oi! Fight me, not Hinata!" yelled the blond boy as he burst through the trees and into plain sight. A quick flick of his hand embedded several shuriken into the ground between Kakashi and the Hyuuga, a clear warning not to go any closer to her. Kakashi decided to indulge him, especially as the girl still hadn't moved; he could tell she was more or less uninjured, but it was possible the fireballs' detonations had temporarily stunned her.

"How can I fight you if you're running away from me?" he called out loudly as Naruto led him on a chase through the trees. Something about this was beginning to seem very suspicious to Kakashi, and he allowed his eyes to trail down to the holsters strapped to the boy's legs. The one on his right leg was clearly intended to hold kunai, but even though he had used only shuriken to defend his teammate, it was completely empty. Remembering the Haruno girl's unexpectedly impressive throwing skills, which now seemed more in line with what Naruto's profile had mentioned, he found himself distracted for a key instant as he burst out of the trees just behind the blond genin.

"Now, Sakura!" Kakashi heard Naruto yell, and he spun around to see the pink-haired girl stand up from where she had been hiding in a bush, dropping something—a stick?—onto the ground. With one smooth motion, she drew a kunai across her palm and formed a quick series of seals before pressing her hand to the ground.

"Fuuinjutsu: Tenchi Saifuu!" she pronounced clearly, and Kakashi felt the world twist and shatter as a cold, blue-white light flared up in a ring around him, illuminating an intricate pattern of lines and characters scratched into the dry earth.

Who? he wanted to scream, but his voice would not respond. Who could possibly have been insane enough to teach the Nine-Tails' vessel sealing techniques?

He recognized the seal, of course; how could he not, given who his jounin-sensei had been? 'The Dividing Heaven and Earth Seal operates by warping the chakra coils of anyone within its radius,' he quoted to himself from memories of lectures long past, 'temporarily causing disorientation and loss of voluntary muscle control proportionate to the amount of chakra used to activate the seal.'

Indeed, he felt his legs waver and almost give way underneath him, and he only remained upright by the barest of margins. Despite his growing horror, he felt a twinge of grudging admiration for the demon girl, as she had obviously put quite a lot of chakra into the seal if it was affecting him this strongly. While he could break free of the effect fairly easily—his chakra coils were simply too strong and well-developed to be affected for any real length of time by anything a genin was capable of doing—Kakashi decided to allow this to play out to the end.

Then, as he had half-suspected would happen, the other two struck. Naruto and the Hyuuga girl, whose clothes were scorched in several places but otherwise appeared little the worse for wear, swooped in and neatly cut the bells from their cords, just as the seal's light faded.

Curiously, though, their expressions were less triumphant than resigned as they stood a safe distance away and clutched their prizes. After their astonishing display of teamwork, not to mention how well they had played him, he would have expected them to be jumping up and down in excitement. Even given the disturbing revelation regarding the Haruno girl's abilities, ones her profile had failed to mention and ones she most definitely should not have possessed, not given who she was, he was sorely tempted to pass them. They had performed brilliantly by any standards, even allowing for his own underestimation of them as well as a substantial amount of luck.

"Well?" Naruto demanded, his tone flat. "We got your bells, so are we done? I—Sakura-chan!" he exclaimed, his expression changing in an instant to one of sheer panic. Kakashi turned, his legs thankfully back under his full control, just in time to see the pink-haired girl fall heavily to the ground.

Too much chakra usage, he thought, analyzing the situation dispassionately. The girl's profile had mentioned her low chakra reserves several times, even while it praised her control, and he guessed she had blown all of her chakra on that one technique. It was a dangerous gamble, and he wondered if she had known what would happen. Her teammates' unhappy expressions at the moment of their success suddenly replayed in his mind, and then he realized something that shattered his world for the second time in as many minutes, if only metaphorically.

They hadn't figured it out. He had thought they had realized that teams had to pass or fail together, and that the point of the exercise was to see if they could overcome their individual competitiveness in order to work together—but they hadn't. The Haruno girl had willingly forfeited her chance at one of the bells in order to ensure that her teammates would pass, for he was certain that anyone skilled enough to mark out a seal as intricate as the Tenchi Saifuu in just a few minutes would also be quite aware of the effect of exhausting one's entire chakra reserves.

That isn't the act of a demon, Kakashi thought, as a wave of shame washed over him. Demons don't sacrifice themselves for anyone. And her chakra, visible as it charged the seal…that had been purely human, with none of the hellish red taint that had clung to the Nine-Tails like a smoldering blanket. Her knowledge of fuuinjutsu still disturbed him on a visceral level, but as he looked at her crumpled form, he realized he really only had one choice.

Taking advantage of the two conscious genins' moment of paralyzing concern for their friend, he swiftly moved behind the pink-haired girl and, pulling her to her feet and supporting her with an arm across her stomach, pressed the sharp point of a kunai to the hollow of her throat. As he watched, pure rage blossomed across Naruto's face at the action, while beside him the Hyuuga girl had gone dangerously still.

"You've accomplished the mission objective," he told them, hoping they would manage to restrain themselves long enough for him to finish, "but your teammate had to sacrifice herself in order for you to do so. Now she's been captured by your enemy, but she's still alive, and you can get her back if you return what you took. Otherwise…"

He trailed off, his meaning clear. "You have one minute to decide."

As he watched the two of them, whispering urgently to each other in low tones, he wondered which mistake they would make, his own or his father's. There was no right choice, but there was only one he was willing to accept. The situation was unfair, and it was beyond anything a group of genin fresh out of the academy should have to deal with—but the image of Obito crushed beneath a boulder was too deeply engraved in his memory for him to allow them any kindness here.

Their whispers grew to heated near-shouts, loud enough for him to make out a few words, and he wondered if they had become so absorbed in the scenario he presented that they had forgotten no lives or missions were truly at stake. Then the Hyuuga girl said something about a promise they had both made, to which Naruto's mouth compressed into a thin line in response, and he shook his head.

"Well, she can yell at me for breaking it all she wants, later," Kakashi heard him say, his tone unflinching. The girl hesitated, then nodded. Her reply was too faint to make out, but whatever it was, it seemed to relax her blond companion.

To Kakashi's surprise, it was the Hyuuga who came forward, holding both of the bells clenched in her white-knuckled fist. "Give her back," she said quietly, and while Naruto's rage might have been absent from her face, it flickered hotly in the depths of her pale eyes.

Slipping his kunai back into its pouch, Kakashi set the pink-haired girl down on the ground with a gentleness that surprised himself. He shook his head to refuse the proffered bells, then waved Naruto over to join them.

"By making a deal with your enemy and intentionally failing to complete your mission, you broke one of the most fundamental rules a ninja should live by," he said, not surprised to find that it took conscious effort to keep his voice steady as he met their confused, angry gazes. "Ninja who break the rules are trash. But ninja who abandon their comrades are lower than trash. Congratulations. You—all of you—pass…her for her sacrifice, and you for yours. We'll meet here tomorrow at nine to begin your training."

With one last glance back at the memorial stone, he quietly walked away from the three genin. That morning had given Hatake Kakashi many things to think about.

- - -

Author's Notes: Thank you all very much for the reviews of last chapter; as always, they're very much appreciated, both the positive and the negative. This is definitely the longest chapter I've done so far, and quite probably the longest that will appear in this story. Hopefully the length didn't put any of you off, but there really wasn't a good way to break it up. As you can see, the teams aren't all that much different from canon; when planning out this story, I had two initial guidelines for forming the teams--keep Ino/Shika/Cho together, and put Sasuke on a team other than Kakashi's--and everything else proceeded in a more or less logical fashion. If anyone is interested in a full explanation, please mention it in your review and I'd be happy to send you a message with more details.

I really hope Kakashi's character came across well. He's one of the more complex characters in canon, in my opinion, and I'm a little concerned I'm not doing him justice here. It doesn't make sense to me, though, that he would be immediately accepting of the vessel for the demon that killed his own sensei--but he's also shown that he is quite capable of changing even deeply-held opinions when presented with sufficient reasons to the contrary, which is one of the biggest things I was trying to portray. In any event, thank you for reading this, and I hope you enjoyed it!