Rockman Naruto: Reloaded
Chapter Four: The Test
It was the break of dawn as the three members of Team Seven woke up from their respective beds in anticipation for the test their sensei was bound to give them. It would be the hardest test they were ever given, thats for sure!
Sasuke had about an eager face mixed with fierce determination about the test as he traveled to his scheduled meeting place. He would show his teacher that he was worthy of teaching to, and it would give him all the knowledge he needed to smite the traitor from the face of the earth.
He didn't know about the other two, but this was one thing he would do alone and garner the favor of the teacher as his most worthy pupil.
Naruto was yawning as he tiredly traveled toward his destination, and his hunger hasn't helped so far in keeping him awake. He tried to find a good area to eat some breakfast before remembering that he couldn't eat breakfast and he couldn't find any areas that were open this early in the morning.
Passing by the Commercial sector, he saw the time and he barely registered it before walking onwards once again.
5:30 AM
Sakura was trying to stay awake in front of her mirror as she used both her hands to gently slap herself awake like she always saw her dad do when she was younger. It was supposed to make you alert and awake, but so far...nada.
Taking a look at her alarm clock, she decided to forget trying to do what her dad did, and just hoped that the cool air would wake her up.
Kakashi was many things. He was a ninja of great renown, he was a major pervert, and he was one of the most laid back, lazy looking, and all around tardy bastard of a person Konoha ever had the pleasure of having in service to them.
He woke up with sharp look to his face before calming himself down. He had that dream again...
Konoha, 1988
Undisclosed Location
It was that time where it could almost be a scene from hell. Fires were eating away at the local tree shrouds, making for an unstoppable wildfire, and the sounds of humans screaming and dying.
This was Kakashi's world.
It was only months after Konoha's victory over Iwa, the Stone Village, and their reckless land grab war that resulted in thousands dead and their tails between their legs. However, where there should have been celebrations, there was more horror.
The Kyuubi had come into the fray, with all his nine tails with it.
As Kakashi was being beaten down by a simple tail flick when he tried to jump into the air with a Raikiri Technique aimed for the beast's body, he began having flashbacks of his fallen teammates.
Obito Uchiha, the only person that Kakashi could gladly call his friend saved his life from being crushed with a giant boulder.
Rin...went missing in action after a bold infiltration assault by Iwa's ally, the Cloud Village, Kumo. She was feared dead, turned over or was put into a breeding program for any possible bloodlines hidden in her blood as Konoha seemed to be popping up new bloodlines almost every year or so.
As soon as he hit the dirt floor, he was sure he heard a summoning technique near him before losing unconsciousness.
The strange part about that dream was that he already saw the Yondaime summon Gamabunta, the frog boss summon and that his dreams that day were the soothing kind, despite the carnage going around him...
Kakashi shook his head, there was no way that last part was real, it just couldn't be.
Sighing at crazy ass dreams, he looked at the alarm clock.
6:15 AM...
Ah well, he could sleep another 3 hours until he meets his team and have a really nice breakfast afterwards!
Before closing his eyes, he stopped for a brief moment, remembering something.
Did they take his last words seriously? They must've known that no reasonable human being would skip out on breakfast, especially as early as six AM...that, and they must've known that it was a little unofficial rule that their first day doesn't start till nine...It was done in the Yondaime's day, so it should've applied here...
He really should learn to communicate more often...
Konoha 2000
Training ground 7
Team seven's stomachs unanimously rumbled with betrayal and hunger as their master's emotions were set on Glower mode. Their teacher will pay...he will pay oh so dearly...
Konoha 2000
Training ground 7 : 9 AM
Kakashi came up to the meeting spot filled with food, a good mood and well rested to see a trio of cold, hungry and angry students-to-be. If he were a lesser ninja, the sheer amount of pressure that the glares combined at him would be tantamount to a D-rank missing ninja's Killing Intent. Slightly impressive, but not enough to make him do anything embarrassing.
He did chuckle though, and the pressure increased just a little more.
"Good morning student wannabes! Ready for your test to Genin?" Kakashi asked as the glares stopped and each one nodded, glad to have something else to think about than their hungry stomachs.
Pulling a set of bells out of his pouch on his vest, he dangled them in front of the trio, watching them become curious about them.
"There are two bells, and your job is to get them off my belt, by any means necessary." Kakashi explained, making them chime with clarity as to drive home the objective to the students.
Naruto eyed those bells with a frightening hunger...or he just might be hungry, Kakashi couldn't tell which.
Sakura was more easier to read, she was clearly hungry, but her eyes followed the bells from left to right.
Sasuke seemed to be the most focused, forgoing hunger with such ferocity in light of his new objective...almost an obsession in his eyes.
Kakashi mentally frowned, such determination is praised upon, but not in this case...
Nevertheless, he forged on with his plan.
"Alright, you have until I say start..." He took out a large alarm clock, complete with large bells. "Until this alarm clock rings. I'll set it to noon, so you have your time limit." Kakashi paused as he began to set the clock.
Naruto saw this as an signal to win the bells early, and snuck behind the busy teacher to the tune of waiting breaths of his teammates.
As soon he made the lunge for the bells though, Kakashi grabbed his reaching arm and pinned him hard to the ground with his knee on Naruto's back, Naruto's arm stretched painfully outwards, where Kakashi was gripping it with surprising force.
Instead of being angry, Kakashi eye-smiled.
"Ah, sneaky group aren't you? Well, I haven't said begin yet, but it was a good try. I think I might see you guys differently now." Kakashi said, albeit mockingly, but also slightly proud.
"Ok, everything is set, and we can finally start. Everyone ready?" Kakashi asked, and all three students tensed up for the go ahead.
"Set?" Kakashi drawled out, as if making tension. All three students gulped in anticipation...
"GO!" Kakashi barked out and all three students disappeared from his vision, but not his senses as he felt all three signatures in the trees, in the bushes...
and right in front of him?
Kakashi looked forward to see Naruto in front of him, grinning cockily and looking at the bells on his beltline.
Kakashi sighed, there is always one of these in every team. Best humor them, before delivering a smackdown to their brains.
"So, I take it you're first? And here I thought you would have learned something from last night..." Kakashi muttered, but Naruto caught it.
"What? What does last night have to do with anything...have you been spying on us?!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke didn't seem fazed, but Sakura flushed a light pink, as if last night's events caught up with her.
"Why, no, it was just coincidence that I was passing through the commercial sector and was following you at a safe distance. Total coincidence." Kakashi said casually to an infuriated Naruto.
'I wonder...will you show your full hand to me, Naruto? Or is your mind sharper than that?' Kakashi thought as he got his answer.
"Time to show you my attack! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted as he formed 50 clones that to Sasuke and Sakura's viewpoint, didn't seem to differ from the regular bunshin, except for a few word changes.
"Kage Bunshin? Lets see what you do with them, Naruto." Kakashi said seriously, but his actions seemed to tell Naruto otherwise. He was relaxed, limbs loose, and his eye was somewhere else.
Naruto growled.
"Make fun of me, will ya?! Lets go, fellas!" Naruto called out the charge as all of his clones rushed at the teacher, intent on beating him to the ground.
The following would make Sakura and in retrospect, make Sasuke wince for a couple of days.
Kakashi, for all his lazy attitudes, was not a lazy ninja in skill. He grabbed the closest Naruto clone and launched it a delta formed group of clones and made them poof out of existence with a single flick of the clone.
The next Naruto clone, who tried to kick him in the head was thrown high into the air and looked like it wasn't coming down soon, which gave him enough time to sucker punch another clone and to mule kick a sneaking clone behind him.
Basically, it was a massacre of clones and the finale was yet to come.
Naruto, the original Naruto that is, was a tiny bit scared at the Jounin's ability. He took out his clone brigade in less than five minutes.
Having no choice, he considered resorting to his true form, only to pale.
He didn't know how to activate it!
Kakashi took Naruto's pause to get behind him and speak menacingly at the startled blond.
"You really shouldn't let people get behind you Naruto, and for that you'll get a lesson in Taijutsu I like to call..." he formed a seal.
Sakura gasped, he wasn't about to burn him alive, was he?!
"THOUSAND YEARS OF PAIN!"
Naruto howled in pain as two fingers coated in chakra poked...at his butt. Normally, it would be very creepy, but in this case, it was both creepy and painful.
Sakura and Sasuke looked a bit green from their teacher's antics and hoped to god that it wouldn't happen to them.
A loud splash signaled that Naruto landed in the river, and painfully if the split second groan of pain that was covered by the water splash was any indication.
Kakashi calmly stood up and clearly said...
"Next?"
Sakura shuddered...this was going to hard...
While Kakashi was entertaining his two remaining targets, Naruto was making a plan of his own.
Naruto's solitary clone finally landed in the water after spending so much time in the air giving Naruto the distraction to hide away back in the woods on the other side of the river.
He had to get those bells, but he also wanted to have Sakura-chan pass with him...what to do...?
Furthermore, he had to figure out how to access his Rockman Form again, it would really be useful right about now, but he didn't know how...he wondered if he could ever use it again?
Shaking his head, Naruto began planning with what he had here and now, inaccessible powers did no one good in the thick of things.
Sasuke was awed by the strength that his soon-to-be teacher was showing off. He was making this look effortless, and it was positive that it was taking little effort on his part.
All his tactics, seen through.
All his punches, blocked while reading that book from yesterday.
All his kicks, the same.
Sasuke shook his head and began his assault once more, this time, he will get those bells and secure apprenticeship to him!
Sakura however, was trying to find Naruto by the river.
She wasn't known as the smartest female student in the academy for nothing, and got an idea that unknowingly for her paralleled Kakashi's intended result.
She had to work together with someone, but she would only be a hindrance to Sasuke-kun, so it would be in the team's best interest to recover Naruto and work together to get a bell.
Still, something about this test felt off for her, as if telling her that the answer was the most obvious way to do it, but it just wasn't reaching her brain.
Shrugging it off, she continued in her search for Naruto...
Kakashi looked not the least bit tired as he continued reading, his past training was more intense than this joke attempt, so he wasn't too worried about his stamina at the moment.
Still, it was really hard with all these standard limitations that being a Jounin Sensei came with nowadays. He had to cut at least 75 percent of his natural strength to make match with the fresh recruits' strength when they came out of the academy.
The next problem is the recruits' own sense of superiority. Just because they passed the test, they think they are all that. While entertaining to cut them down to size, his observations made it almost too hard to not humiliate them terribly.
Almost.
However, he really liked these guys, he really did! So he went the extra mile for them. He went and cut 10 more percent for these guys. 10 whole percent!
And they still couldn't beat him?
That was sad...he might as well resort to Plan B and see how that goes. I mean, his own teammates passed by this way, maybe they could?
He shrugged and continued reading his book, not really oblivious to the second assault that Sasuke should spring right...about...now!
He purposely tripped a wire and a handful of shuriken and kunai screamed toward him in an arc.
Kakashi mused, at least one of them used wire to control his metal strikes...still he remembered that from somewhere, he didn't have time to think about it as he had to go entertain Sasuke one more time...
Maybe he should show him a mole's view of the world?
Naruto was surprised when he saw Sakura in the clearing as he was sure Kakashi would have walked by any time now. His clone army was stashed everywhere they could hide, making it for a decent ambush.
"Naruto! Naruto, where are you!?" Sakura shouted, cupping her hands to her mouth, it looked like she was looking for him for some time now, so he had to stop her from tripping the wire trap that would leave her bound that was meant for an adult body, meaning that if she tripped it...
There would be a very good chance that she could be choked to death...that wasn't good.
"Sakura! Watch out!" Naruto shouted out, desperate to save his friend.
Sakura looked to the ground and sighed in relief. She almost fell for it...
"Thanks Naruto, you might've got me caught and you would've gotten a bell!" Sakura shouted back to Naruto's confusion before he paled in realization.
That wasn't Sakura!
The false Sakura smirked and she erupted in a cloud of smoke to reveal Kakashi with an eye smile in place.
He observed the hasty, but well camouflaged trap. He really didn't see it there for a moment, but would have spotted the trap with or without Naruto's shout.
He really did care for the girl, but he had to stay his hand and mouth in the future, as any smart ninja could do the same thing and ambush their enemy this way.
Still, there wasn't any danger for him, and to the shock of Naruto, he jumped into the trap and set it off, at least his original will have this information for future use, it really was a well made trap...
Naruto was shocked, to say the least. He inadvertently warned his teacher from setting off the trap, and he sets it off anyways?
His answer was further shocking as his teacher chuckled a bit before vanishing in a puff of smoke. It took him a moment before his eye-widening realization.
His teacher knew Kage Bunshin?
Naruto shook his head, of course he must've! He is a Jounin, he might've learned from that huge scroll as well!
A good thing that he didn't spring his Kage Bunshin on Kakashi, or his entire plan would've gone in smoke!
"Alright guys, lets move out!" He called out to the clearing.
A few minutes later, a sea of blue pants moved out following the original in search of the bells.
If they would've left a moment later, they would've met up with Sakura, who was still in search of Naruto...
Kakashi stood stock still in the middle of the field, getting bored with the wait. Reading the book is fine and all, but theres something...actually, no. The book is fine and dandy.
A sudden shift in the trees alerted him of the next attempt by his ninja-wannabe students.
A shout of what sounded like "Charge!" and it came.
A large army of Naruto clones were rushing toward a surprised Kakashi, who almost dropped his book in awe.
That many shadow clones would take the chakra of nearly 100 ninja and he was stuck against them all.
Well, it wasn't like he hadn't fought this many before, just replace clones with real people, and replace peace with war...
Kakashi shook his head, this wasn't the time and place for the past.
Looking with a nonchalant look, he stood to face the onslaught.
Maybe he should do this left handed...
Sakura finally backtracked to the main field in the training ground after spotting a mushroom cloud of smoke to the right of her eyesight.
Thinking that Naruto might've been there, she made her way there to see Sasuke watching a lot of copies of Naruto being destroyed by Kakashi, who was making a tiny-bit more effort than they did them.
It looked like they weren't trying to harm the man, but just dive to grab a bell on his beltline.
Sakura could tell that there were many possible battle plans that were much more effective than just this spectacle, but for all the new found tolerance and respect that she gave Naruto, he wasn't exactly what you call a military genius in strategy...
Maybe she could sneak by all that smoke and try and get a bell for herself?
Smiling a bit at her impromptu idea, she jumped down to the smoky floor, determined to get a bell...
Kakashi was just about to end it when he felt another chakra source, a source belonging to Sakura...
Hm...could this be a moment of opportunity? Or an actual attempt at teamwork?
Well, he was desperate to actually try and end this debacle, but he couldn't let them pass with such a poor attempt at teamwork.
He didn't need to do anything, of course. Time will do it for him, after all.
A shrill ringing pierced the area in Training Ground Seven that signaled the end of the test, and their subsequent failure to finish the test...
---
Konoha 2000,
Training ground Seven: After the Test
Kakashi couldn't decide who to wail on first.
Naruto, for his needless knuckleheaded rush tactics, which failed.
Sakura, who somewhat tried to find a teammate, but didn't use the most basic tracking techniques.
Or Sasuke...
Sasuke didn't seem to do anything in the terms of teamwork, just using opportunity after opportunity to strike at him without any regard to safety or wellbeing to his other teammates, who usually opened the way for him.
Now in front of a grumbling Naruto, a somber looking Sakura and scowling Sasuke, he had to pass judgment.
Will they pass...
or fail?
Of course, he was being a bit dramatic, but the test didn't really start yet. He had to milk it for all its worth though.
"Well, I hate to break it to you guys...but you failed, badly." Kakashi started. Taking a breath, he continued on.
"In all my years failing team after team, you guys were the worst. You showed no talent for for being serious ninja, and you don't seem ready at all to be even an academy student!" Kakashi put on a frown, it was true in what he said, but they needed to hear it as well as accept it.
Sakura put her head down, as if to block her teacher from seeing her cry. Naruto looked away and Sasuke put on a full blown glare, as if his words were meant for someone else.
Kakashi shook his head, and proceeded with his real test. He was going the extra mile for these guys, as this was usually the hopefuls' normal stop.
"I'll give you another chance, but this time-" Kakashi paused as he rushed toward Sakura, who hadn't raised her head and surprised her by taking her farther from the two surprised boys to another clearing, with the two boys close behind.
When Sasuke and Naruto got there, they saw Sakura tied to a tree with a narrow eyed Kakashi staring toward them, a Kunai knife near the frightened girl's neck.
"Your test is this..." He pulled something from behind the tree and tossed it in front of the boys. It turned out to be a lunch box.
"This box was to be your reward for completing my test, but since you failed...this box has become your last chance." Kakashi said, with his eye closed and his free hand stroking his chin.
"I had only two bells for a reason. It means that only two of you are to pass my test and become real ninja, while the other goes back to the academy, or become a civilian, I don't care." Kakashi looked at the fallen box and gestured with his free hand to pick it up.
"Your objective is this: Whoever gets this lunch box to Sakura first, is the winner. The loser, well you know what happens." Kakashi smiled with a narrowed eye, as if sneering at them.
"Go!" Kakashi shouted and saw the two boys scramble for the box and race to a terrified Sakura, who looked like she was about to cry.
She was said to come from a civilian family, she didn't know about the hardships of life, but normal children, civilian or clan, shouldn't know either. Of course she would be scared, the academy doesn't gear you for the dark times that occur so often in ninja life.
It should really, but Konoha was trying to define the ninja to be human as well as assassins. It was a generally unaccepted method of definition, both by foreign and local ninja.
It all started with his teacher, who slowly brought the seed that would later become today's Konoha to light during his short reign as village leader.
He wholeheartedly supported the idea, seeing his own father die by the old ideology, and then the war...
Focus! He can't think about that, this wasn't the time.
Looking toward the boys, he wasn't surprised that Sasuke was walking toward Sakura with the box in his hand while Naruto was groaning on the floor, clutching his stomach in pain.
While the Uchiha were renowned for their bravado with their full confidence in their sharingan eyes, they were also really powerful from the get go, having numerous prodigies become ninja that served the Konoha forces loyally. Sasuke, the damned scion from the destroyed clan, seemed to be blessed with high combat ability and learning as well.
Naruto was an enigma as well, he showed great prowess during the test in the early stages, and then he disappeared. When he reappeared, he tried a mass rush that worked against him, and it made him look extremely weak.
He was expecting to see that form that he donned that night. When he saved the Hokage and much of the ninja force against that traitor. He used a power not felt since his teacher was alive, but in a more visual way, with the complete change in attire and use of an arm cannon that shouldn't be possible.
It left him thinking, was it a bloodline?
Or was it something else entirely?
He watched Sasuke come up to him, the box held in front of Sakura, who was shocked at seeing the act of malice from a boy regarded of many things, most of them positive.
"Kakashi-sensei, I have the box. That means I win." Sasuke said, a bit proud that he got the last spot as the student of this Kakashi. Kakashi, for some reason, got a bit angry at him.
He sighed.
"Looks like you got it, but you didn't seem to get it, so you fai-"Kakashi was interrupted by Sasuke.
"Now, Naruto!" He shouted suddenly, as he looked toward the fallen Naruto. Kakashi looked toward the still body, startled by the shout and putting his attention toward the boy.
Kakashi was surprised when a force hitting him from the side made him stumble and fall. He looked to see Naruto tackling him to the ground while Sasuke was cutting the ropes that were tying Sakura.
Realization hit him, and he was happy for it.
They tricked him, and they did some fancy teamwork to do so.
Well, they passed in his book...but...
He just couldn't resist a bit more drama.
Quickly grabbing Naruto and throwing him surprisingly hard toward Sasuke, who pushed Sakura out of the way and took Naruto's flailing body to his own at full force, Kakashi approached the fallen students with a harsh glare, with dark skies and everything.
"You...have no idea what you did right now..." Kakashi thundered, raising his hands and magically calling thunder to clap overhead. Sakura was looking at him wide-eyed and Sasuke and Naruto were trying to find a weakness in that pressurized glare that Kakashi was giving them.
"You have left me no choice! You have...!" Kakashi roared, as the thunder violently rumbled. Sakura was shaking now and Naruto was trying to not pass out as the pressure intensified. Sasuke didn't seem to be affected anymore than before though.
"Passed!" Kakashi said with a bright eye-smile and the dark skies instantly cleared up, with chirping birds in the distance. It was almost as if the thing was an illusion, which given hindsight, many, many years later during a quiet drink, probably was.
"Wh-what?" Sakura asked quietly, as if not believing what she just heard. Naruto's eyes widened almost comically and Sasuke didn't have a form of glare, sneer or all around negative look in his eyes for once. He almost looked as handsome as they said he would be, if not for the lack of desirable personality.
"I said, that as of now, Team Seven has passed and become official Ninjas of Konohagakure." Kakashi said with a jovial tone, as if excited that this team was the first to be worthy of training by him.
Naruto looked dazed and started to cheer loudly, grabbing Sakura's hands as they danced around in victory. Sasuke merely closed his eyes and sighed, as this was a harsh ordeal that only he could've got them out of.
Cocky bastard, Kakashi thought. He was so eerily similar it was like looking into his own reflection.
After the standard rules and regulations that Kakashi had to tell any passing team, he dismissed them and told them to report in front of the administration building to accept their share of missions as the brand new Team Seven.
After waving goodbye to a joyous Naruto and Sakura, Kakashi disappeared in a blur of wind and leaves, presumably to report in their success and induction into the Ninja Forces.
Naruto tried again to have a group outing, and was surprised that they accepted. They went to a restaurant that Sakura had suggested and both agreed, with the victory fresh in their minds, it felt like nothing could stop Team Seven!
Konoha 2000
Hokage Tower: Hokage's Office
"...and that concludes the induction meeting. Congratulations on passing your teams and good luck." The Third Hokage said with a smile, but inside he was disappointed that Kakashi had failed yet again another team without a care in the world, as he had done so in the past.
Both of his teammates and advisors from his own team, Koharu and Homura, were forced to attend the induction process as the Hokage's aides and witnesses for some bureaucratic thing the Civilian portion of their government brought into circulation and each had to sign it to prove that they were there before it was accepted by the civilians for god knows what reason.
When it first began with a simple paper form to push Kunai and Shuriken production to be faster than previous methods, the Bureaucratic process was something of a godsend by the Civilian population to the Hokage of the time, which was the first Hokage.
Then it came like an avalanche in snow country...
Paper for this...
Paper for that...
Soon the dreamlike fantasy that was the Bureaucratic process turned into the hateful demon damned by all Kages today.
Ahem...
Still, he was hoping for Kakashi to wake up from the past and face the present and move on.
Just as he was about to dismiss his aides, Kakashi came in, looking rather happy for some reason.
"Ah, Kakashi, I'm glad to see you made it, even if it was the end of it." The Hokage said to still smiling Kakashi...at least he thought he was smiling.
"Well Hokage-sama, I've come to let you know that I passed my team and that Team Seven is ready for active duty."
A stunned silence filled the room. The Hokage, his advisors, not even the hidden Anbu that were protecting the Hokage moved an inch (well they weren't supposed to anyways)...
Kakashi, Kakashi Hatake, who was known to outright fail his teams before...had passed a team.
Of course, just as the Hokage was to turn in for the day, this had to happen...what next? One of his students comes to kill him now? Tsunade comes up and becomes Hokage? Jiraiya comes to town and saves Konoha?
The Hokage sighed.
"Well now...thats all good and all, but you missed the deadline." Homura started, but trailed off to Koharu, who was more assertive in speaking.
"The passing teams already reported in, Kakashi." She broke the news to a stunned Kakashi, who was getting the feeling that this was very, very awkward now.
And it was.
The Hokage started to think, this could become disastrous if something should go wrong.
This is the first team that "woke up" Kakashi from being stuck in the past.
However, he didn't make the original limitations for the team fill-up...
This was a rare opportunity, and this could make Kakashi more and more confident in passing future teams...
The Hokage stood up, putting an end to the tension between the faltering Kakashi and the stern looks of his teammates, who were by the book a little too much and grabbed a book from his bookshelf.
He flipped through several pages and stopped at a certain article of the book and read it silently. His two aides looked over and saw where he stopped and nodded at his plans.
Finally, the Hokage looked toward a still Kakashi and passed his ruling.
"Kakashi, we can't add your team to the limit for the years rookies." The Hokage began to a serious looking Kakashi, who for the first time looked mad at his tardiness.
"However, we can add you to the Active Reserves Corps."
"The Active Reserves Corps?" Kakashi asked, to which the Hokage nodded.
"The Active Reserves Corps, or ARC for short was established in the case where four or more teams made the cut despite the limit of only three teams. Normally, that wouldn't be the case and we could just add an extra team and move on, but..." The Hokage paused and stood up to put the book back in the shelf before continuing on.
"A long time ago, around the time of Third Secret War, spies have infiltrated our tower and got hold of our genin rosters, which sparked the said war later on with the slaughter of the teams mentioned in the rosters."
The Hokage paused and lit his favorite pipe, before continuing.
"So the council and the head of Anbu at the time came up with ARC, in order to fool enemy spies into having less and less information on our actual genin count."
"But how did that help, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi questioned, seeing no real benefits to it except for miscounts in Genin production.
The Hokage chuckled.
"I thought that too, but it allowed us to give more and more Jounin to be sensei to more Genin who were exceptionally skilled but were either not good enough the first time around or were, being held back by an unworthy student. It just so happened that the Fourth Hokage was part of ARC with his team, and you know what happened with him."
"Which now brings us to this, since ARC wasn't implemented in a long time, you will become the first team to be part of the ARC program in some time now."
The Hokage stood up and put his hands behind his back, a gesture seen when he does an important decision.
"Since ARC was formed, each team was renamed from their respective number to ARC and a number. Since there is only one team in ARC right now, you and your team are now designated as Team ARC. You will receive missions directly under me when the rank for missions exceed C rank and above. You may take D rank missions as any normal team however."
The Hokage finished and sat down, apparently talking and balancing his pipe with his mouth was more strenuous than first seemed, but he was old for a Kage...
"You are dismissed Kakashi, we expect your team tomorrow morning, on time." Homura added and turned away when Kakashi left the office.
"You know Hokage-sama...that wasn't what ARC was used for..." He said quietly. The Hokage nodded, as if admitting the fact that he lied.
"I know Homura, but I believe that they are most suited for this type of work."
Koharu sighed.
"Is it because of that boy?" She asked.
"Mostly, but they seem to resonate something similar to Naruto, perhaps they are meant to be more than just Ninja...but I digress." The Hokage ended the conversation on that note and looked for any paperwork that he might've missed.
Time will tell, as he was told so many times during such talks. He couldn't agree more.
Time will certainly tell for this group of genin.
Well this is part two of the "Tests and Teams" arc that I planned, and its time to kick into high gear the next time around with more adventures for the newly dubbed Team ARC.
They are officially known as Team ARC, but that doesn't mean that the moniker Team Seven is gone, not by a long shot.
Well, I'll try and give them an adventure away from the classic wave arc, as I felt that it was a turning point mission than an actual standard mission that just erupted into a long arc by chance.
I'm also in the market for suggestions on who to give what powers to each character. They will help me try and build a mission or "stage" for Naruto and company to try and tackle the foe causing the trouble.
So, what I'm looking for is this:
From the Beginning of Team Seven to the eve before the first test of the Chunin Exams, I want you to give people that best resonate with these bosses.
Elecman
Bombman
Iceman
Cutman
Fireman
Flameman was ousted on the basis that since Mizuki returns to do battle with Naruto again, a future level boss was needed for him, as he was originally slated to be Fireman in my mind.
So, I leave it up to you and please tell me along with a review.
Laters,
Terra Ace