Dec 27th

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It was yet to be sunrise, not even the birds were up to chirp. The three genin were told to skip breakfast and wait at this training area early the next morning. Sakura grumbled to herself, lamenting her choice not to eat dinner the day before. Sasuke and Juzou, however, made things interesting for themselves with small chit chat.

"A samurai clan, huh? Then what are you doing in a ninja village?"

"As I stated, I am training. I am no Ronin, I was trained in both disciplines by my mother and father."

"So what kind of Jutsu do you know?"

"Many you will see when I fight, but I suppose there is no threat in showing you the Kekkei Genkai."

Juzou placed his fingers in the form for the tiger, then began cycling through hand signs at a near blinding speed. After a few seconds he activated the jutsu, calling forth "Chakra Barrier Jutsu!". His eyes changed to a blue color with a pattern similar to the Sharingan. He looked over at Sasuke who had no change of expression.

"Chakra barrier?"

"Yes, my mother's technique, combined with my fathers defensive training. This ability drains my own chakra heavily, and since I have limited ninja training that means it won't last very long. This ability allows jutsu that use the same amount of chakra or less then my current bank; you can see how this helps."

"The longer you use it, the less they can use against you." Sakura stated with matter of fact style.

"Correct. However, if I completely drain my bank, I won't be able to build chakra for one year's time. So I must be very careful with it." He deactivated the jutsu and sat down on the road in recovery.

Minutes later, Kakashi strolled onto the scene with a casual grin, from what they could tell. With a hand scratching the back of his head he said a black cat cut him off, hence his tardiness. Again, the children retaliated in disbelief.

Kakashi set a timer on a cut log and clicked the button on top.

"Ok, you have until noon to complete this exercise. All you simply have to do is this..." He grabbed two bells from his pocket and jingled them. "Take these bells from me." He then placed two lunches near the timer. "Who ever gets these bells gets lunch."

"So that's why he had us skip breakfast." Sakura groaned with her stomach. "But there are only two bells. One of us will be guaranteed not to get lunch."

"Precisely, so you'd best make sure you get one. You can use any jutsu and tool to your liking, just come at me with intent to kill."

"But Sensei, that's too dangerous, you could get hurt!"

"Don't worry about me, you're the ones that need to pass, remember?"

"This is going to be fun," Juzou said with a large, nearly evil grin.

"Ready..." Kakashi took a deep breath. "GO!"

In a flash the three genin disappeared. Before Kakashi could explain what the first lesson was, Juzou charged at him with blade in hand. Kakashi simply kicked his foot getting the low blow on the lad.

"First lesson is concealing oneself; make sure the enemy can not find where you are, so that surprise is a guarantee. Got that?"

"Clear as a bell." Juzou said with pained groans.

Several minutes passed, and Kakashi could not find a trace of any of the genin. He mentally applauded them all, then began to take things seriously. He took one step and something came rushing out of the bushes at him; Kakashi thrust his palm into the object's midsection. The object creaked with the force of the attack; Kakashi caught wind of what it was as it flew off into the brush. "Bamboo armor?" Kakashi quickly jumped the attack from behind and thrust his legs down hard on Juzou's back, stopping him in his tracks.

"Again you attempt to surprise me when you do not have the upper hand."

"I am sure you really didn't see the bamboo armor trick." Juzou said with pride.

"I admit, giving mobility to an inanimate object is a good way to surprise someone."

"Good." With little warning the armor returned with blade at its side.

It swung hard at Kakashi. He blocked the sword with the metal guard on his hand and thrust his palm once more into the armor. Upon impact he felt a small sting shoot through his arm. "What!?" Kakashi looked back to see Juzou with a finger near his neck. "Damn he hit a pressure point!"

"Damn! Not enough force to do much than tickle him!" Juzou leapt back and called back his armor and sword.

"I must admit, you have more talent than I first thought. A samurai/ninja combination will surely be a hard act to follow. But too bad your only weapon is that Sakabatou."

"So you realized that I was hoping to get the upper hand mentally. But it looks like I'll need to use force." He began channeling chakra for a jutsu. He held his sword out and let it go, leaving it floating there. He then began forming hand signs and chanting. Multiple images of his sword began replicating from the original, not illusions, but solid replicas.

"Juzou Blade Jutsu! Steel Cloud!" He rushed at Kakashi with the swords floating nearby him.

He slashed with all his might at his Sensei, Kakashi blocked the attack and the blade shattered, leaving metal shrapnel floating in the air. Juzou disappeared and attacked at a new angle, keeping Kakashi on his toes. Every sword and every strike, wore down Kakashi until there was only one sword left, and a million pieces of shrapnel floating around him.

"Oh no! I fell straight into the trap!"

Juzou held his hands out wide and then brought them in to a clap. The shrapnel lunged at Kakashi with great force, piercing every part of his body. Juzou just chuckled as he walked up to the body and reached for a bell. Before he could grab one he felt a strange sting on his behind.

"Secret Finger Jutsu! Thousand Years of Death!" Juzou flew through the air in pain and embarrassment. Kakashi just chuckled slightly as he removed one piece of shrapnel from his arm. "Remind me to watch out for that move again..."

"He managed to escape from that? Without alerting Juzou or moving any shrapnel? All with only one wound!?"

"What kind of jutsu was that?" Sakura said with displeasure.

Juzou emerged from the small lake near Kakashi, his hair lost its hold and was flat down his back. Juzou took a few moments to catch his breath before he returned to a combative stance. Kakashi seemed surprised at his lack of weakness.

"Strange, many of the others would be begging for food at this point..."

Juzou quelled his stomach to stay silent a little longer. "He's fully aware of our hunger, but with the stamina of a samurai warrior I can take a small amount of hunger..." "You're done playing around, it's time to prove your actual ability sensei!" Juzou held his sword with two hands in front of him, and stood in a completely symmetrical form. His eyes became fierce and he stared down his opponent.

Kakashi just looked at him with a small stare of amusement. "Ninja technique number two, genjutsu, the art of illusions...Lets see what this one does."

"Juzou Family Special Jutsu! Statue of Anger!" Juzou's body instantly petrified, turning to stone in the blink of an eye.

Kakashi seemed surprised at first but held his calm demeanor. "And ninjutsu...he's combining all the training of a ninja into one technique." Kakashi quickly spun on his heel and threw a punch through an illusionary Juzou; he sensed an attack from above and arched his back to avoid the blade strike. Another clone came in with a tripping attack, Kakashi saw through the illusion and let the image phase through his leg. Series of attacks from illusions came at all angles, many mixed with real objects or fused with sticks and other objects to give them solid features. Kakashi got tired of playing around and used a substitution to get out of the illusionary assault and stood behind the statue. He gave it a hard tap on the head. As soon as contact was made, images starting running through Kakashi's mind, each one of horrid detail, provoking his inner rage. His eye twitched as each image slowly became more and more grotesque. Eventually he let out a small growl and drew a kunai and lunged it into the statues neck. Juzou quickly released the jutsu and evaded the attack, rolling a safe distance away from the enraged jounin. Kakashi was barely managing to keep control.

"W...What are you doing to me!? Raaarrgh!"

"It's an affliction jutsu, as the name states, contact with the statue provokes rage. The illusions are there for your protection, if I knew how to make solid clones this jutsu would have a much more useful effect."

"Interesting, he develops a jutsu before he has all the needed training, making the process of developing and mastering a jutsu slightly less grueling." Sasuke smiled a the genius of his partner.

"Wow! I'm going to be on the best team ever!" Sakura blushed. "Eat your heart out Ino!"

Kakashi managed to get his hands together and break the spellbinding jutsu. He fixed his hair and looked at the boy. "Well, you are proving to be quite versatile, but the object is to get the bells from me, not earn my respect."

"I know, but it's fun to see that I am on the same level as a jounin." Juzou was about to laugh smugly when a shadow clone chopped at his neck, paralyzing the boy.

"You think you get it don't you..." Kakashi slowly walked up to the boy. "It's not about showing off or out lasting your opponent, even a tired ninja can still manage to fight back." Kakashi bent down and poked at the back of the boys head, continuing his lecture.

"Now! He's let his guard down!" Sasuke quickly threw a handful of ranged tools at Kakashi.

Kakashi took the barrage of flying metal objects and flew several feet in the other direction. Within a second the substitution was revealed and Sasuke quickly ran from his hiding spot. "Damn, now he knows where I am, gotta hide and fast!"

"Sasuke!" Sakura quickly sat up and turned around, only to be face to face with Kakashi.

"Hi." He said casually.

Sakura couldn't handle the surprise and fainted on the spot. Kakashi just chuckled and stood out in the open.

Moments later, Sasuke stood before him with a look of determination. Kakashi just stared at him blankly, like all of this was just some happy dream. The training session lasted until the bell at noon, and none of the team had managed to get a bell. Sasuke was able to touch one, and Juzou had dinged one with a metal shard. Kakashi sat them down near the logs and sighed disappiontedly.

"You all have no idea what this whole exercise was about, do you? Do you have any idea why they are three man squads?"

All three of them seemed puzzled at this little bit of information that, until now, seemed just minor.

"For team work and ease of completion...?" Juzou said half heartedly like his last statement was meant to be more of an apology.

"Precisely. You, Juzou, you're so bent up on your Samurai code that you went at me alone with all your might, thinking your skills with a sword could outmatch an unarmed opponent. Sakura, you did nothing but watch as both of your teammates battled on. And you, Sasuke, thought that your teammates are so below your level that you believed they would only drag you down."

"Gomen..." they all apologized, as though it would be enough to have their sensei stop raising his voice.

Kakashi sighed. He handed them two lunch boxes. "Here, only two of you may have lunch. Decide wisely who should have them, if I find out that any one of you had part of the other's lunch, you're all being dropped from the program!" With that, Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Juzou grabbed the lunches and stared at them in deep thought.

"Here..." He handed each of the others the lunches. "Though I have gone three days without food, I can manage these next few hours."

"What?" Sakura couldn't believe her teammate. "No, you have it, I can go without it, I'm on a diet anyway."

"Just take it Sakura." Sasuke said with a sharp tone. "Juzou, have some of mine."

"What?" Juzou seemed confused. "You heard him, we'll be dropped if he find out about this!"

"He's not around; as long as he doesn't see it then he won't know."

"Sasuke, you can't surely be-"

"Shut up! Just take it!"

Juzou didn't argue anymore, he grabbed a large slab of cooked fish and ate it with the up most gatitude. "Thank you Sasuke, I owe you one."

"YOU!!!" Kakashi emerged from nowhere with a devilish tone to his voice. "You have broken the rules! I hope you are ready for your punishment!" Kakashi activated a jutsu which made the weather change to a stormy dark day. The children nearly huddled together in fear.

"You...YOU ALL...pass." Kakashi's last word seemed to clear the weather and cut the tension abruptly. Leaving the kids in a total state of confusion.

"But...how? Why? You said-"

"That if you feed the other you would fail. But you remembered my words about teamwork, sometimes you need to break the rules to do what's right. And you have learned that lesson well. Come on, let's finish our lunch then head out for a mission."

Team 7's labors were the toughest of all the rookie teams to make it out of the academy. Team 10 had a softer day, but it was not without its tension...

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For those of you getting confused, I am just trying to give some back ground on my OC's, plus have fun with the teams, giving an intresting look on how things change. From here on in you'll get alot more of these, it's not just about Naruto and Hinata you know.