Rewind, Relive, Return

by kashaminami

This is a dream, right? There's absolutely no way that all of this can be real, right? Yeah. There are five heads on the Hokage Monument. Not four. And Sandaime-jii-chan's been dead for years now, everyone knows that. There is absolutely no way he could've... is there? Time-travel's supposed to be impossible, isn't it?

3. Chapter 3 Shikamaru Enters The Game!

A/N: I'm posting this much-longer-than-the-previous-two-chapters chapter as an apology for the long wait of this and the next update. Thanks to the slave-drivers – also known as my teachers – I'd be lucky if I could even breathe anywhere near my computer. The next update will come sometime before the end of July… I hope. Again, very very sorry!

Please excuse the horrible fight scenes as I am still working on improving myself in that certain area. And I hope you guys like the picture and the summary!

To Bloody Rabbit Alice (aka Usagi-chan), Allyieh, Crimsonsheen, kitty 132383, RedRangerBelt, Theia Pallas, DarkFoxKit, Madara Rennigan, EmiTenshi, xNaomi, luckyschoolgirl and Sayle: *Squeals like one of Sasuke's fangirls* 12 reviews and it's only the second chapter! That's like, eighteen reviews if you count the ones from the first! Guys, thank you sooooo much! Wow, I'm so happy – though you can see it – I'm starting to cry!

To Allyieh: Don't tell anyone this, but that's exactly what I was aiming for! But my little brother is staring to convince me to do otherwise... Oh well, I guess you'll just have to read and see!

To Crimsonsheen: I hope I haven't gone OOC in this chapter. I'm really glad that you liked my little Naruto/Jiraiya bonding scene. I think that Naruto and Jiraiya's relationship is important too – though, personally, I think the bond he shares with Sasuke is more important. It sucks that Kishimoto killed of the old pervert, don't you think?

To RedRangerBelt: About Shikamaru, you'll just have to read this chapter and find out! And I'm glad that you thought that the kissing scene was funny – thaht took a load off of my chest – And as for who would else would get their memories back... hmm... I don't know, I haven't really decided yet. Do you have any suggestions?

To DarkFoxKit: I swear, I will not abandon this story unless I get extreme writer's block, DarkFoxKit-san! You'll see! And if I do, I'll run a thousand laps around my neighborhood as an apology to you! *Does the Nice Guy Pose with shining teeth, sunset background and all*

To EmiTenshi: Thank you, thank, you, thank you, thank you, soooooo much for the compliment! I was afraid that people might not like my 'getting their memories back' idea! But I'm really glad that you do! And as for Kai's fics, I especially like Raven's Fall and Before The Phoenix. And have you read her new fic, Saviour?

Summary: This is a dream, right? There's absolutely no way that all of this can be real, right? Yeah. There are five heads on the Hokage Monument. Not four. And Sandaime-jii-chan's been dead for years now, everyone knows that. There is absolutely no way he could've... is there? Time-travel's supposed to be impossible, isn't it? And the impossible is all that Uzumaki Naruto has ever done and – most likely – has done once more.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. An imaginary cookie goes to those who already knew that.

Rewind, Relive, Return

CHAPTER 3 - Shikamaru Enters The Game! Team 7 Once More!

XxX

Nara Shikamaru groaned as he woke up to one of the worse headaches he had ever gotten in his life.

"How're you feeling, Shika?" the Nara heard a familiar voice ask.

He turned his head to see a blond boy sitting next to him with an empty cup of instant ramen in his hands.

"Uzumaki Naruto…" Shikamaru grumbled slowly. "You…" he pointed to his wide-eyed blond friend. "…are one troublesome guy." Shikamaru slowly pushed himself up until he was no longer lying on the roof but was now sitting up. "Man, I need a smoke…"

Naruto chuckled. "It's good to have you back, 'ttebayo."

Shikamaru looked at the blond's smiling face seriously before he drew his eyes to the window of their classroom which could be seen from their position on the roof. "Is this real?" he asked – more to himself than to Naruto. "Are we really in the past?"

"Believe it," Naruto replied anyway.

Shikamaru sighed. "If I didn't know how much your chakra control sucks, I would have thought that the things that I saw were just some kind of extremely believable genjutsu."

"It's not a genjutsu," said the Jinchuuriki as he stood up to throw away his empty ramen cup.

"So, they really are alive then…" said the genius softly as he thought of Team 10's sensei.

"Yeah…" Naruto said just as softly. He walked over to his friend and sat down next to him.

Shikamaru turned his head to look at his friend. "So, who else's got their memories back?"

"So far," said the blond, "it's just Ero-sennin and the toads. I gave the old perv his yesterday morning. The toads got theirs back around the same time I did."

Shikamaru nodded. He didn't need Naruto to explain further. The Nara boy was smart enough to understand what his friend meant. Apparently if the Summoner remembers, then so would the Summons.

"I was telling the truth, 'ttebayo," Naruto said to Shikamaru. "I really do need to talk to you about something."

The lazy genius looked at the blond questioningly.

"Me, Ero-sennin and Sandaime-jii-chan had decided that we needed to give the other Jinchuuriki and Tsunade-baa-chan their memories back," began the blond. "Ero-sennin had this idea that it might be better if we gave Nagato – that's Pein, by the way – and Itachi their memories back, but we've decided to put off the final decision until the after the Chunin Exams."

Shikamaru nodded as he processed the idea. "And where is Jiraiya-sama now?"

"He left the village to look for Tsunade-baa-chan, 'ttebayo," was the blond's reply. "Anyway, what I wanted to talk to you about is whether we should give the others their memories back."

"Maybe not, it would be too troublesome…" Shikamaru spoke slowly before realization set in and he looked at Naruto carefully. "You're asking me whether we should give Sasuke and Sakura their memories back, aren't you?" his tone sounded more accusing than anything else.

Naruto slowly nodded without meeting the genius' eye. "More or less…"

The genius sighed. "If you want my opinion, I think giving Sasuke his memories back would be terrible idea. Worst case scenario, he might try to kill us immediately and at best, leave the village to go join Madara or Orochimaru, which would be very troublesome for us."

The blond remained silent but he nodded in understanding.

Shikamaru continued, "But, if you really want him to remember, then I suggest you wait until after the Exams and Orochimaru has either been killed or captured. And you absolutely should not return his memories to him if he has the Cursed Seal."

Naruto's eyes lit up with a small flame of hope. "So, if Sasuke never got the Cursed Seal then-"

Shikamaru cut him off. "Maybe. We'll see."

The Jinchuuriki nodded once more in understanding. "What about Sakura-chan?"

The lazy genius thought it over. "Sakura's a wild card…" he began. "For one thing, she might be a big help to us, but for another, she might do something stupid and try to kill Sasuke herself like last time."

"So, that's a 'no' then, 'ttebayo," Naruto sighed.

Shikamaru shook his head.

"What about Sai-teme and Yamato-taichou?"

"Sai's in ROOT. We'd be lucky if we could even find him let alone get close enough to him to give the guy his memories back. And Yamato-senpai… well, we might need him if we have to restrain one of the bijuu. Don't look at me like that, Naruto. I know that they were ones who turned back time and that this entire thing was their idea in the first place, but I think we'd be better of being safe and sorry. Madara might somehow get his hands on one of them and try to control them with his Sharingan like he did with the Kyuubi, we'll need Yamato-taichou to help us when it happens."

"If it happens," Naruto corrected vehemently. "It'd be a cold day in Hell when I let Madara get anywhere close to them, 'ttebayo."

Sihkamaru sighed. "So troublesome…"

The bell chose that moment to ring and call the students back into the classroom.

Naruto and Shikamaru stood up and started walking to their class where they saw the other students were heading. Before Naruto could even step into the classroom, Shikamaru pulled the blond aside and forced his friend to face him. The genius sighed – something that he seems to do a lot.

"It's troublesome for me to say this, but…" he said to the Jinchuuriki. "You can't avoid him forever."

"What are you talking about, Shika?" questioned Naruto.

"Sasuke," was the lazy genius' answer. He gave the blond a sharp look when Naruto started to object. "You've been avoiding him. You haven't looked at him throughout the whole day. Not even when the two of you ki-"

"Don't say it, 'ttebyao," Naruto hissed.

Shikamaru sighed – again. "Look, I know it's hard, but you're going to have to face him sooner or later."

"I know, 'ttebayo…" mumbled the blond. "I'm just… I mean, he's…"

"I'm not forcing you to do anything," said the genius as he started to walk into the classroom of newly graduated Genin. "Just… try not to mess up. If you really want your best friend back, then I suggest you start by not treating him like he's some sort of disease."

XxX

"Hey, Shikamaru," Akimichi Chouji called to his best friend when the Nara boy entered the classroom. He and Ino had eaten lunch together with a heavy awkwardness hanging in the atmosphere. The big-boned boy could have sworn he had heard Ino sigh in relief when the bell signaling the end of lunch had rung. Chouji had been curious to know where his best friend had been and why he wasn't spending time with his newly-formed team, but when he asked Ino about it all he had gotten from the long-haired blond was a furious growl and many curses directed at the said Nara boy.

He lifted a curious eyebrow when he saw a frowning spiky-haired blond standing in the corridor outside of their classroom before Shikamaru slid the door close and cut off Chouji's view of the boy.

He tossed a questioning look to his best friend before he realized that Shikamaru was also frowing – at him.

"What is it, Shikamaru?" he asked the angry looking genius. "Why do look so mad? Did I say something I shouldn't have?"

Shikamaru's face twitched in annoyance. Seeing the Akimichi boy's face had triggered a memory that he had recently gotten from Naruto. It wasn't what his best friend had said that was pissing him off, but what the Akimichi boy had done – or will do. Shikamaru had seen how Chouji had thrown himself into battle when he had barely recovered from his previous one just after he had heard of Shikamaru's death from Ino and Kurenai.

Shikamaru quelled his anger before answering the other boy's question. "It's too troublesome to explain," he grumbled.

Chouji's confusion just grew. What was all that about? he wondered.

Then, the door opened and the first Jounin arrived for the students.

XxX

"Naruto!" Sakura called furiously to her blond teammate. "What do you think you're doing?"

Naruto was lodging a blackboard eraser above the door of the classroom. "That's what he gets for being late!" the blond declared.

"Fine," grumbled Saukra. "But it's your own fault if you get in trouble. Sasuke-kun and I had absolutely nothing to do with it."

Inner Sakura meanwhile was cheering the infamous prankster on.

"Hn," grunted the last member of Team 7. "He's a Jounin. There's no way he's going to fall for suck a simple trick."

Naruto spared Sasuke a brief glance before he continued admiring his handy-work.

There it was again. Sasuke had noticed that the blond had been avoiding his gaze since he had entered the classroom that morning. The idiot hadn't even tried to goad him into a fight! Not once!

And whenever Naruto did look at him, it was always brief and never lasted longer than three seconds. Even if he wouldn't admit it – not even to himself – Sasuke was curious as to what he had done to the blond to get such a treatment from him.

It couldn't be because of the ki- umm… that, could it? No. Naruto had been avoiding him even before it happened.

And, Sasuke realized, he hadn't even tried to flirt with their pink-haired teammate or try to get her to go on a date with him today. Naruto didn't even react when she had been futilely flirting with the Uchiha before the argument of who gets to sit next to him broke out either.

"Yeah!" Sakura agreed with Sasuke's earlier statement. "You're such an idiot, Naruto!"

Just as Sakura finished her statement, a gloved hand appeared at the small opening of the classroom's entrance and a masked face peered into the classroom before the eraser bounced on top of gravity-defying silver hair before dropping to the wooden floor.

Silence.

Naruto burst out laughing. "He fell for it!" Again! the blond mentally added in his head. "He fell for it, dattebayo!"

"I-I'm sorry sensei," Sakura apologized sweetly. "I told him not to do it, but Naruto just wouldn't listen to me."

Meanwhile, Inner Sakura was laughing just as loudly as the prankster was.

Sasuke was scrutinizing the silver-haired man critically. Is this guy really a Jounin?

The man bent down and picked up the eraser. He studied it as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world before he turned his eyes on the three Genin.

"Hmm…" he mumbled lazily. "How should I say this… My first impression of you guys is…"

Sasuke and Sakura tensed up while Naruto grinned like a fox.

"Maa," the Jounin said. "I hate you."

Sasuke and Sakura twitched in annoyance and irritation. Naruto just sighed.

XxX

The three Genin and one Jounin could now be seen having their first official team meeting on the roof of Konoha's Ninja Academy.

"Now," the sensei said to his students. "Why don't the three of you introduce yourselves?"

"What should we say?" asked the pink-haired kunoichi of the team curiously.

"You know," drawled the Jounin lazily. "Your like, your dislikes, your dreams for the future, your hobbies… Stuff like that."

"Ano sa, ano sa," said Naruto. "Why don't you introduce yourself first, sensei?"

"Hmm. Me?" The man thought it over. "I'm Hatake Kakashi. I have no intention of telling you my likes or dislikes."

Sakura look at him questioningly, Sasuke remained impassive and Naruto simply looked annoyed – not that he'd expected anything less from the silver-haired man.

Kakashi continued. "As for my dreams. Hmm… Well, I've never really thought about it." Pause. "I have a few hobbies."

"So, all we found out was his name…" grumbled Sakura.

Naruto nodded in agreement. "Yeah."

"Now," said Kakashi. "It's your turn." He turned to Naruto. "You're first."

The blond grinned as he jabbed a thumb at his chest. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo. I like to eat ramen, but I like the ramen Iruka-sensei treats me to at Ichiraku's a lot more. I really hate the three minutes you have to wait for the ramen to cook after you pour in the hot water. My hobbies are pranking and comparing the different flavors of ramen. And my dream is…"

Sasuke and Sakura were expecting for the blond to start his rant about becoming Hokage and getting everyone's acknowledgement, but what they got was entirely different.

"I'm going to become Hokage, dattebayo!" the blond announced. "One to surpass all the previous Hokage! I'll become a bigger badass than my father and a stronger shinobi than my mother ever was! Believe it!" he quoted the words he had said to the Sandaime after his revelation of being from the future.

The other ninjas' eyes widened.

Naruto's parents…? thought Sakura as she realized that her blond teammate had never said anything about his mother or father before before.

He knows? Kakashi was shocked. The only secret bigger than the Kyuubi's imprisonment in the boy was the identity of his parents. How could he have known who they were? Does the Sandaime know of this?

Naruto's grin grew wider. The look on their faces was priceless! Even Sasuke looked surprised!

Kakashi quickly shook off his shock and kept control of his voice when he said, "Okey, next." He indicated to the still stunned pink-haired kunoichi.

"I-I'm Haruno Sakura!" the girl said with a smile as she quickly regained her composure. "I like… well, the person I like is…" She blushed as she glanced at Sasuke from the corner of her green eyes. "And my hobby is…" She brought her hands up to her face as she giggled. "My dream is to…KYAA~!"

Naruto and Kakashi stared at her in disbelief – though Kakashi hid his better than Naruto did. "And?" the silver haired Jounin asked. "What do you hate?"

"Naruto!" growled Sakura immediately.

Naruto just sighed and hung his head in exasperation. No fair! Now he really wanted the old Sakura-chan back, 'ttebayo!

Kakashi sighed. It was only to be expected. Girls her age were more interested in boys than their ninja training.

"Last guy," Kakashi called.

Sakura looked at Sasuke with admiration shining in her eyes.

Naruto didn't even look at the Uchiha, but he kept silent and listened to his rival's introduction.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," began the raven-haired teen. "There are many things that I hate and very few that I don't."

Sakura's expression dropped in slight disappointment.

"Also," Sasuke continued. "I have an ambition which I have no intention of just leaving as just a dream. That is, the revival of my clan and… to kill a certain man."

Everyone was silent.

Naruto snorted softly. This guy, he thought, hasn't changed a bit.

Sasuke-kun is so cool! Sakura squealed in her mind.

Kakashi was not surprised by Sasuke's revelation. Just as I thought…

"Alright," Kakashi broke the silence. "You three all have unique personalities. I like that. We're going to have our first mission tomorrow, so be prepared."

"Ano so, ano sa, what kind of mission is it?" asked Naruto with curious excitement – though the blond already knew the answer.

"We are going to do something that only we four can do," replied the teacher.

"What is it, sensei?" asked the blond once more.

"Survival training," said Kakashi.

"Survival training?" parroted Sakura. "Why are we going to train when it's a mission? We had plenty of training at the Academy."

"This is no ordinary training," said the teacher ominously.

"Then, what kind of training is it?" asked the Jinchuuriki of the team.

Kakashi just chuckled darkly.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"Hey," grumbled the only kunoichi present. "What's so funny, sensei?"

"Well," began the one-eyed Jounin. "If I say this, I'm sure that the three of you are going to be very surprised."

Naruto very much doubted that.

Sasuke and Sakura looked at their teachers questioningly.

"Out of the 27 graduates," Kakashi said. "Only 9 are going to become Genins. The other 18 shall be sent back to the Academy. In other words, this training is actually a very hard test with a dropout rate of 66%."

Sakura gasped.

Sasuke's eyes widened.

Naruto…yawned…?

Well, thought Kakashi. That's unexpected.

"No way!" screeched Sakura incredulously. "Then, what was the final exam for?"

"That?" asked Kakashi when he had finally torn his eyes away from Naruto and the blond's lack of surprise. "It was held to pick out those who are qualified to become Genin."

"What?" Sakura yelled. She turned to Naruto and was greatly shocked at the blond's lack of reaction. Did he know about this from the very beginning?

"Anyway, I'm going to determine whether you guys pass or fail tomorrow at the training grounds. Bring your ninja equipment and meet at Training Ground Three at 5am tomorrow."

The man turned his back to the three – two of them panicking slightly – and announced, "Now, then, meeting over." He paused. "Oh yeah," he narrowed his eyes on his students. "Don't eat breakfast. You're going to throw up if you do."

XxX

Sasuke was walking home, reflecting on his new Jounin-sensei's words.

He grunted in annoyance as he thought of his two teammates - the fangirl and the village idiot. An image of the love-struck girl and the loudmouth blond entered his mind. They were weak and would just drag him down with them. They're more of a nuisance than anything else.

Their sensei on the other hand… He thought of the mask-wearing Jounin and frowned. He was… strange, but he was a Jounin, so he must be powerful. He would be the key to Sasuke's path in revenge. Maybe, if he was the only one who passed tomorrow's test and the two losers failed, then it would just be him and his sensei. He would get stronger under the silver-haired Jounin's tutelage and it wouldn't be long before he was strong enough to face and kill that man.

"Oi, teme!" a loud voice cut through his thoughts.

Sasuke scowled. Only one person called him that. He'd recognize the voice anywhere.

"What do you want, usaratonkachi?" Sasuke asked without turning around or pausing in his stride.

He could hear the other pre-teen take a deep breath before he blurted out, "Let's train together."

Sasuke stopped and turned around to give his blond teammate a questioning look.

"Y'know," Naruto fidgeted uncomfortably under the Uchiha's dark gaze. Unknown to the raven-haired boy, the blond was nearly sweating with the effort of driving out the image of the exact same black eyes staring at him with such hate and loathing… "To get ready for the test tomorrow…"

"Why should I train with you?" asked Sasuke haughtily. His I-am-an-Uchiha-bow-down-to-me attitude was resurfacing.

"Why shouldn't you, 'ttebayo?" the blond shot back almost angrily.

Sasuke grunted. "Forget it, loser," he turned his back on his – unknown to him – once best friend and continued on his way home. "I don't want to waste my time on you."

Naruto gritted his teeth and clenched his hands into fists as he watched his friend turn his back on him just as he had done many times before. Damnit! he cursed silently. Sasuke… You haven't changed at all, have you?

"Putting on airs as always, huh Sasuke?" the blond said quietly to himself before he sighed. Well, he tried treating the teme like a friend and he failed. At least now, Shikamaru can't say that he didn't try.

"Hey, Naruto!" a high-pitched feminine voice called from behind the blond. "Have you seen Sasuke-kun anywhere? I wanted to ask him if maybe he would…" Sakura's words died in her throat as she blushed deeply at the thought of asking Sasuke-kun out on a date.

"Yeah," Naruto answered, his voice cracking slightly. "The teme just left."

"Naruto!" screeched Sakura. "Don't call Sasuke-kun a teme!"

Then, an idea struck Naruto. "Hey, Sakura-chan," he said to the only girl on his team. "Do you want me to show you something neat?"

"No way," Sakura said immediately. "Whatever it is, it's probably something disgusting or perverted."

"It's not, dattebayo!" Honestly, you invent one seduction jutsu and everyone thinks you're a pervert. "Please, just at least let me show it to you Sakura-chan," he almost whined.

"Why should I?" Sakura asked.

Naruto groaned. Here we go again. "If you do…" the blond thought it over. "I-If you do then I'll…umm… Aha! If you let me show you this trick, then I promise I'll never ask you out on a date ever again!"

"W-wha…?" to say that the pink-haired kunoichi was shocked was an enormous understatement. "Are you serious?"

Naruto nodded vehemently.

"But why?" This Naruto we're talking about – the idiot who's been chasing after Sakura's affections since their very first day at the Academy. Had the blond finally realized that getting her to like him was futile when her one true – and only – love was the great Uchiha Sasuke? Or maybe… "Naruto, have you found someone else that you like?"

Naruto was confused. Where did she get that idea from? The only reason he had even suggested the idea was because he really wanted the pink-haired girl to see what he wanted to show her and also because after years of getting to know her better, Naruto had come to ee his teammate a more of a sister than anything else. "Actually, no," he said. "I…"

But Sakura wasn't listening to the blond anymore. The girl just giggled. Now that Naruto had started liking another girl, there was one less person who would get in the way of her love-life. Sakura smiled.

"It's OK," Sakura reassured (ignoring Naruto's confused expression). "I won't tell anyone about this." The girl hesistated a little before she sighed and said, "And sure, I guess I could go see what this 'neat trick' of yours is."

Naruto sighed in relief before he flashed Sakura his infamous face-splitting grin. "Alright, 'ttebayo!" The blond turned around and quickly walked away from Sakura.

"Eh?" Sakura exclaimed in confusion. "Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna need a good tree if I wanna show you my trick, 'ttebayo," her blond teammate said.

Sakura started running to catch up to Naruto's fast pace. "Huh? Why?"

Naruto grinned. "You'll see, 'ttebayo!"

XxX

"Alright, watch!" Naruto instructed to Sakura once they've reached one of the many training grounds of Konoha. The blond started walking towards one of the trees with Sakura watching his every move.

At first, Sakura had thought that Naruto was going to run straight into the tree, but instead he… walked up the tree…?

"Naruto," Sakura said in amazement as she watched Naruto stand upside-down under one of the higher branches of the tree. "How are you doing that…?

"It's cool, huh, 'ttebayo?" Naruto grinned before he hopped off the tree, twisted his body in mid-air and landed gracefully on his feet. "As for how I did it…" Naruto's grin grew wider. "Well, I used my chakra of course."

"Huh?" questioned Sakura.

"You see," Naruto started explaining. "All you have to do is gather your chakra at the bottom of your feet, like so." He lifted one foot and made it glow with his normal blue chakra to help with his explanation. "And use it to attach yourself to the tree trunk. Like this." The blond walked up the tree once more and stopped halfway to the top to look back down at his still gaping teammate. "It's easy, 'ttebayo."

"N-Naruto," Sakura called to the blond as he slowly walked down the tree. "Where… Who taught you how to do this…?"

"Some Jounin I knew a while back, 'ttebayo," the Kyuubi vessel said simply. Well, it was true… kinda… "He said that this exercise helps shinobi with their chakra control. The better your control is the easier and less chakra you'd need to do a jutsu."

"C-can I… umm…?" Sakura stuttered. How was she going to ask the person that she said she hated to teach her something that seemed so easy to him?

'Shannaro!' raved Inner Sakura in frustration.

"Since you're still new at this," Naruto began. "I'd suggest you try running up the tree to give yourself a boost, 'ttebayo."

"Okay," said the pink-haired girl taking his advice without any comments. She stared at the tree determinedly before she broke into a run towards it.

Sakura ran. Up and up and up until… "Hah!" gasped Sakura as she finally reached the top and grabbed onto the closest branch she could reach and hoisted herself onto it. "I did it…" the girl mumbled in disbelief. "I-I did it! Yeah!"

"That was awesome, 'ttebayo!" Naruto cheered.

Sakura smiled in triumph greatly resisting the urge to pump her fist and yelled 'SHANNARO!'

"Now, for the hard part," Naruto grinned. "Getting down."

Sakura blanched when she looked down and realized how high she actually was. Aw man…

XxX

"Ne, Sakura-chan, I'll be honest with you," Naruto said as he walked into the main town of Konoha with his green-eyed friend walking next to him. The sun was setting over the village of Konoha. He had made Sakura practice the tree-climbing exercise until she was almost ready to pass out from chakra exhaustion. The only reason the pink-haired kunoichi stopped complaining about how sweaty she was getting and how unattractive she looked drenched in sweat ("What if Sasuke-kun saw me?) was because of what Naruto had said about the exercise helping her with her chakra control. And with better chakra control, she would be one step closer to becoming a stronger kunoichi and getting 'Sasuke-kun' to notice her more – though she already had excellent control, it still barely held a candle to the control the future Sakura had. "I think you're a horrible fighter, 'ttebayo."

"What was that?" growled Sakura dangerously to the blond.

Naruto paled as he realized how his words might have sounded. "N-No! What I meant was… umm… you should probably leave the fighting to me and Sasuke-teme seeing as to how bad you are at taijutsu. Heck, you're worse than me, 'ttebayo!"

"Naruto…" the kunoichi hissed in warning.

"Wait!" the Jinchuuriki said quickly. "I mean that in a good way… umm well, you…" Naruto groaned. He really sucked when it came to explaining complicated stuff like this, 'ttebayo! "You're a really smart person Sakura-chan," the blond began slowly.

Sakura – not hearing anything wrong or demeaning – nodded in satisfaction.

"But that's just it! You've got more brains than you have brawns." Seeing Sakura's annoyed expression Naruto quickly put his hands up in defense. "Just hear me out for a second, 'ttebayo."

Sakura didn't say anything and Naruto took that as his cue to resume talking.

"Though, you're not as smart as Shikamaru is." Sakura gave Naruto a skeptical look. "Oh, don't look at me like that," the blond grumbled – continuing the mostly one sided conversation. "Shikamaru's smart – all Naras are, 'ttebayo. Most of them are just too lazy to get off of their asses and actually use those monstrously high IQs of theirs. Our little Shika just so happens to be the laziest of them all.

"Now, as I was saying, you're smart and you have near-perfect chakra control (his teammate visibly brightened at that), but you're really bad at taijutsu and you're chakra reserves are really small compared to mine and Sasuke's, 'ttebayo. I'm not saying that you shouldn't fight – by all means, get stronger – just that you don't have the chakra reserves or the love for destructive jutsu me and the teme do. That's why…" Naruto directed his blue eyes to his friend. "I think you should become the medic of our team."

"Huh?" exclaimed Sakura. "Why?"

"All medic-nin have good chakra control like you do, 'ttebayo," he explained shortly.

"I don't know, Naruto…" the girl said hesitantly. "I mean, I-I'm not saying that iryou-nin are useless or anything, but… well…"

The blond sighed. He was afraid that something like this would happen. Fortunately, he'd already thought of a back-up plan for this exact situation. "Think about it, Sakura-chan…" he said slowly as a lecherous grin crept its way onto his face.

He moved closer to the pink-haired girl. "When, Sasuke-teme gets himself injured on a dangerous mission, he'll turn to you to heal him…" Sakura's eyes widened at the blond's words. "He'll be counting on you to make him feel better and to treat his wounds… Think about how close you'd have to get to him when you have to heal his injuries or wrap his wounds in bandages… If he gets some cuts on his chest, he'd have to take his shirt off and…" Naruto left the sentence hanging. Sakura better make up her mind fast! The Jinchuuriki was afraid that the mental scaring he was getting from all of this would never fade.

Sakura meanwhile was in a world of her own.

XxX

She imagined Sasuke-kun, shirtless on a white bed watching her every move as she ghosted her hands over his perfect skin…

"Sakura," he'd call out her name sweetly.

"Y-yes," she'd stutter while a cute blush adorned her face.

He would reach out, stroke her face softly and say, "You have such a charming, wide forehead."

Then, Sakura would giggle adorably at his sudden praise. "Oh, Sasuke-kun…"

And then, he'd give her a dazzling smile and lean in and… and… and…!

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto would barge in on them and she and Sasuke-kun would pause just as they were about to have their first kiss. (That… thing that happened with Naruto didn't count!)

XxX

Huh? thought Sakura with great confusion. Naruto…?

"Sakura-chan!" yelled Naruto once more from the real world. Then, he sighed in exasperation. "You didn't listening to a single word I was said, were you, 'ttebayo?"

"Yes, I was!" she immediately denied the blond's accusation as Naruto lifted an unconvinced eyebrow. "I-I just zoned out a little…" she mumbled as a light blush dusted her cheek. She couldn't believe that Naruto – of all people – had caught her fantasizing about Sasuke-kun!

A shirtless… hot… Sasu-

"Sakura-chan!" the Fourth Hokage's son called once more. "You're doing it again, dattebayo!"

"Am not!" was the pink-haired girl's quick reply. "Anyway," she reseumed before Naruto could come up with his own reply. "I-I think you're right! Maybe I should become an iryou-nin! I-I mean, someone will have to look after you guys if you get yourselves hurt o-or something." she announced with a sagely nod of her head.

"Alright then," Naruto said as he started walking towards the direction of his run-down apartment. It would be better if he escaped now. He really didn't want to be anywhere near Sakura and her weird fantasies of Sasuke at the moment. "That's all I wanted to say to you, I guess." He broke into a jog as he called a quick "See you tomorrow, Sakura-chan!" over his shoulder.

"Yeah…" Sakura said as if in a daze. It would seem that the green-eyed girl was still fantasizing about her precious Sasuke-kun.

XxX

A few minutes later, just as she was about to turn the corner that would lead to the street where her house was located, Sakura was stopped by a familiar face she hadn't seen since morning.

"Iruka-sensei?" she called to the scarred Chunin.

The sensei – who had been roving his eyes around the neighborhood – turned his warm brown eyes to his ex-student and a smile almost immediately lit up his tan face. "Hey there, Sakura!"

"What are you doing here, sensei?" the girl asked curiously. If she remembered correctly, Iruka lived on the other side of the village…right?

"I came by to give you these," he said, smile still in place as he showed her the many scrolls Sakura hadn't noticed he had been carrying.

"Scrolls?" The pink-haired girl was busting with nearly curiosity right about now.

"Not just any scrolls," said Iruka as he carefully handed the scrolls to the girl. "These are scrolls on iryou-jutsu."

"Really?" Sakura asked, her green eyes visibly lighting up.

After Naruto had left, Sakura had thought – really thought – more on the idea of becoming an iryou-nin. The concept did sound interesting… and iryou-nin were pretty rare to come by, even in a big village like Konoha – which just made the thought only seem more appealing – and having at least one medic on their team really wasn't such a bad idea and let's not forget the fact that Sasuke-kun would have to depend on her to heal his wounds… KYAA~!

But, she her thoughts were going off course. Now that she really thought about it, being an iryou-nin really wasn't that bad…maybe.

"Yes," answered the sensei, his smile growing wider seeing his ex-student's obvious enthusiasm at learning iryou-ninjutsu. "Naruto came by to my place about an hour ago and told me about how you were interested in becoming an iryou-nin. He asked if I had-"

"Wait!" Sakura cried, rudely cutting the Chunin off. "Naruto? He asked you to get these for me?"

"That's right," chirped the scarred man, unperturbed by the girl's earlier interruption.

But how? Sakura thought in slight distress. Naruto was teaching me that tree climbing exercise around that time…wasn't he?

Iruka looked towards the setting sun and noted how late it was getting. "Well, I have to go now," the man said as he turned towards the direction of his house. "I'll see you later, Sakura!" Without waiting for a reply, the man jumped onto the nearest roof and disappeared from Sakura's sight.

"Y-yeah…" mumbled the kunoichi as she stood there in the middle of the street with a bundle of scrolls in her arms, she was still shaken up with what the teacher had said.

Wait! Could Naruto be a… Sakura immediately dismissed the absurd thought with a furious shake of her head. She chuckled a little at how ridiculous the idea sounded. Iruka-sensei must have said 'a minute ago' and not 'an hour ago'. I must have just misheard him. Besides… she opened her front door as her knees wobbled and her voice called out a shaky, "I-I'm home."

There are no such things as ghosts…right?

XxX

As soon as he was sure that there was no one around to see him – not that anyone bothered to even look at him in the first place – Naruto used Hiraishin to transport himself to his apartment quicker.

As he plopped himself down on his rusty bed, Naruto thought back on the events that had taken place earlier that day.

He had seen all of the Rookie 9 – people he had thought he would never have the privilage of laying his eyes on ever again – he had given Shikamaru his memories back (He absolutely refused to think of that thing that had happened with Sasuke before that!), Team 7 had – unknown to its other members – had their second reunion where all four of them had knowingly been in the same place at once (this time without one of them having already been a nuke-nin for almost three years and the other three trying to kill and/or save said traitor), Kakashi-sensei had told them about the stupid test and he had given Sakura-chan a one-on-one lesson on tree climbing.

The blond sighed as he felt the clone he had sent to Iruka-sensei's house earlier dispel itself and showed him its memories of seeing Iruka-sensei give Sakura-chan the scrolls on iryou-ninjutsu just as he had asked for. He had been wondering whether or not doing that was such a good idea.

For one thing, he had helped out Sakura by setting her path on becoming an iryou-nin and he even gave her a little push by asking Iruka-sensei to give her the necessary scrolls she might need. For another, he had given her the wrong kind of push and motivated her through Sasuke!

Naruto groaned and rolled onto his side as another thought entered his mind. Speaking of the teme, if he sees him and Sakura doing the tree climbing exercise, he'd get frustrated and mad that the 'stupid fangirl' and the 'dead last' could do something that him, 'the great Uchiha' couldn't. Then, he'd start thinking that he was weaker than both Naruto and Sakura… Then, he'd start thinking about how much farther he was from achieving his goal in revenge… And when Orochimaru comes for him during the Exams, the idea of having more power would just sound all the more appealing… and then… and then…

By this time, an – almost visible – cloud of frustration and depression had settled itself comfortably over the bed and enveloped itself around our favorite blond Jinchuuriki.

Naruto, realizing where his thoughts were leading him, quickly shook his head – as if to shoo away the cloud of gloom – and heaved another sigh.

Well, too late to turn back now. (He was too scared to think of what might happen if he asked Kurama to reverse time once more over something – in Naruto's opinion only was not – so trivial.) Might as well just wait and see what happens.

And with that cheerful thought, the blond hauled himself out of bed and began getting himself ready to sleep for the night and mentally prepared himself for the trauma he was sure to come from having to take his sensei's stupid Bell Test…again.

XxX

The next morning, Sasuke and Sakura had turned up early at Konoha's Third Training Ground. Sakura was just about ready to drop on her feet. She was so tired, she didn't even realize that both her ad Sasuke had arrived at the exact same time until he was standing right next to her. Though Sasuke hid his exhaustion better than his female teammate, you could tell ho tired the prodigy was by how droopy his dark eyes were. If Naruto were there, he was pretty sure that the blond would have made fun of his half-lidded eyes and barely conscious state – if the idiot weren't so tired himself, that is.

Speaking of the loud-mouth...

"Where's the idiot?" asked the raven-haired boy as he ran his dark eyes over the area in search of his more brightly colored teammate.

"Huh?" questioned Sakura sleepily as her mind slowly processed the Uchiha's question. "Oh, you mean Naruto?" She gave the training ground a brief glance herself before she heavily shrugged. "I don't know. He probably just overslept or something…" he mumbled incoherently.

"Hn," grunted Sasuke. Knowing the ramen-loving blond, Sakura's theory probably wasn't that far off its mark. That idiot…

XxX

"YOU'RE LATE!"

"W-well, you see…" Naruto chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head with his left hand as his other had was occupied with holding a small plastic bag. "I just thought that since Kakashi-sensei was late yesterday, it would only make sense that he'd be late again today, 'ttebayo."

"And what if he wasn't?" Sakura challenged the blond.

Then, I'd have a heart-attack, Naruto thought to himself silently. "Then, he'd deserve having to wait for me since he made us wait for him yesterday, dattebayo!"

"But still," Sakura fumed. "What if we were on a really impor-!"

Sasuke, who could already feel the headache that was sure to come from having to listen to the two yell at each other, quickly cut off Sakura from her rant and brought up a different topic. "What's in the bag, usaratonkachi?"

Naruto grumbled a short, "Don't call me that," under his breath before he stuffed his hand into the plastic bag and pulled out one of its contents to show to his teammates. "Apples," he said simply as he bought up the ripe red fruit to their eyes.

As if on cue, both Sasuke and Sakura's stomachs grumbled loudly at the sight of the fat juicy red fruit.

Sakura groaned.

"Usaratonkachi," Sasuke growled at the undignified noise his body made. "We're not supposed to have breakfast, remember? Or is your brain too small to even recall something as insignificant as that?"

"A single apple doesn't count as breakfast, 'ttebayo," Naruto said with a sagely nod. "It's more of a…" he thought of the proper words he could use before he turned back to the Uchiha. "A morning snack, dattebayo!"

"Sasuke-kun's right," said Sakura even as she looked at the fruit in her teammates hand with great longing. "We're only going to get in trouble if we eat anything."

Naruto shrugged, as if he couldn't care less. "Whatever," he said as he brought the apple to his mouth. "More for me then." And with that, the blond took a great big bite out of the red fruit. A couple of drops of its juice ran down the blond's chin. Realizing this, Naruto quickly wiped his mouth before he tore another bite out of the apple.

Sakura kept looking at the red fruit her teammate was eating in longing while Sasuke was looking at a random tree, trying his best to ignore the crunching sounds the blond made as he chewed on the apple.

Naruto – who had finally decided to take pity on his friends – threw away the remains of his 'morning snack' at a random direction before he took out the remaining two apples and tossed one of them to each of his teammates.

"N-Naruto," began Sakura hesitantly as she brought her green eyes to the fruit in her hand before she tore them around the training ground – as if she was expecting their masked teacher to make an appearance any second. "W-we can't-"

"I won't tell sensei that you guys ate something," Naruto said as he pointed a finger at himself before he directed said finger to his two teammates. "And you don't tell sensei that I ate something. Deal?"

After a long moment of silence, with both of Naruto's teammates going over their own thoughts on the idea, Sakura was the one who broke first.

"Oh, alright," she sighed. "Deal." The only girl of Team 7 inspected the apple (to make sure that it wasn't rotten, didn't have a bug poking out of it, or made out of plastic) before she took a hesitant, tentative and small bite of the juicy red fruit. Sakura could have moaned at how good and absolutely delicious it tasted before she took another – bigger – bite of the apple.

"Hn," grunted the Uchiha before he too took a – much smaller – bite out of his apple.

Naruto grinned. Though, it wasn't much and they were nowhere near to the bond they had shared in the original timeline – and it didn't matter what the old Sasuke had said, Naruto knows that the teme did care about their bond (the Uchiha's death had been proof of it) – it was a start.

XxX

Shikamaru sighed. Man, he really needed a smoke right now.

Don't get him wrong. It's not like he's addicted to it or anything – heck, he doesn't even like the stuff – and he only smokes when he's really upset or when there's a puzzle or a problem he couldn't solve – which was few and far between – but… Oh, what he wouldn't give for a stick.

Shikamaru groaned and gazed longingly at the box of cigarettes his sensei had just taken out to pop out another stick.

Speaking of his sesnsei, the man and Chouji was listening – or at least pretending that they were – to Ino rave about how unfair it was that 'Sasuke-kun' had to team up with 'Forehead-girl' and 'Konoha's Number One Idiot' and not with her and blah-blah-blah.

Shikamaru snorted. If only she knew exactly what 'Konoha's Number One Idiot' was going to be like in the future...

Shikamaru sighed – something that he has been doing a lot lately and has Naruto to blame for. But that was it, wasn't it? They don't know. They don't remember. None of them do. Right now, it was just him, Naruto and Jiraiya-sama who held their memories from the original timeline – and Jiraiya-sama isn't even in Konoha anymore.

His teammates don't remember all of the missions they had gone through together. They don't remember the horrors they had faced and lived through – together. They don't remember the Chunin Exams, Sasuke's betrayal, Naruto's departure from Konoha, Asuma-sensei's death, Pein attack on their village, Madara Uchiha, the Fourth Shinobi World War...

They don't remember.

But he does.

And so does Naruto.

Naruto had given them a second chance. A chance to do things over and make things right.

Sure, everything still hurts. It hurts to see his sensei alive and well once more like nothing had happened. It hurts to see his two teammates so young and naïve. Ignorant to the horrors they were going to face in the near future. It hurts that they don't remember all of the things they had been through together as Ino-Shika-Chou – a squad known to have some of the best teamwork in the history of Konoha – and together with their friends as the legendary Konoha 11 – arguably – Konoha's most powerful generation of shinobi.

But they're alive. And honestly, that was more than Shikamaru could ever ask for.

The Nara boy's lips lifted to a small smile as he looked at the yelling Ino, his smoking sensei and his big-boned best friend (who hadn't stopped eating since the beginning of the team meeting). This was his team. His friends.

And besides, it's not like they were going to forget forever. Naruot did say that everyone was going to get their memories back in a couple of years, didn't he?

Speaking of the troublesome blond idiot...

Shikamaru sighed – again.

Though it was a good thing that everyone else was alive again – a very good thing – but for it to happen at the price of his friend's soul... Is it all really worth it? To have his team back, but to lose a friend in return? And why Naruto? Why can't the Shinigami ask for something – someone – else?

But...Naruto wouldn't want that, would he? That selfless moron wouldn't want someone else to take his place and even if the Shinigami did want someone else – which, considering Naruto's significance and role in the history of the Shinobi World, was definitely not going to happen – the blond would have just found some way to replace that person with himself. The guy cared too much about others and too little of himself. He had proven that during the Fourth War by sending clones to every battlefield and almost got himself killed from chakra exhaustion.

How troublesome.

Thinking of Naruto made the Nara boy think of the other members of Team 7. Shikamaru still wasn't sure whether not returning Kakashi's memories was a good idea. And though Sakura would be a big help to them, they still couldn't really be sure how she would react. And of course there was Yamato-taichou and that troublesome Sai. And they couldn't forget about Sasuke.

Shikamaru had meant every word he had said at the village gates. He never really liked Sasuke much – never has and never will. But he was Naruto's friend. He was Naruto's reason to get stronger. The blond had done everything to get the Uchiha to come home – even going as far as to say that he would gladly die with the raven-haired boy after their final battle against each other. And for all Shikamaru knew, Naruto could even be doing all of this for Sasuke as well. To make sure that his teammate never leaves the village as he did the last time. They couldn't risk letting the Uchiha go traitor again, that was for sure.

But that's just Sasuke. They still haven't figured out what to do with their actual enemies yet. Orochimaru, Kabuto, Pein, Madara... And of course they still had to figure out how they were going to find the other Jinchuuriki and give them their memories back...

Shikamaru groaned. There was just so much to do and so little time to do it. How they got through all of this in the original timeline and still have time to goof off was a mystery to the Nara boy. What a pain...

But, Shikamaru thought as he stole a glance at the remaining members of Team 10. The Chunin Exams were at least two months away and the Akatsuki wouldn't make their appearance until after the Exams. And... Naruto's still alive. He's still here. We still have time to think of a way to keep his soul here before he defeats Madara and the Shinigami comes to collect his payment. There's no use worrying about things that haven't happened yet – and will probably never happen if we play our cards right. We just need to be really careful. Take things slow and steady, hope for the best...

Shikamaru looked up to the sky – which he remembered had been dyed red from the blood of their fallen comrades on his last day in his first life.

...and prepare for the worst, he silently finished in his head.

XxX

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura yelled furiously for the second time that morning – this time her voice was accompanied by Naruto's – slightly humored – one.

Sakura turned to said blond and hit him – hard – as she said, "So were you!"

"Ow..." groaned Naruto as he rubbed on the growing bump on his head. "That hurt, 'ttebayo." Though, it was nothing compared to the punches the old-Sakura could throw – which had been known to put escaping hospital patients into long comas – it was still extremely painful.

"Well, you see," said a certain mask-wearing Jounin. "A black cat crossed my path, so I had to..." Kakashi's voice faltered at the fierce glare, annoyed scowl and dry stare sent to him by Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto respectively. The man coughed into his fist, regained some of his lost composure and said, "Alright, then. Let's move on."

He walked to the three stumps that had been placed nearby – something that Sakura had just noticed, Sasuke had chosen to ignore and Naruto stared sadly at – and placed a black alarm clock.

"Now," Kakashi began, "I have set the clock to go off at exactly 12pm." Then, he took out two silver bells which had a red string attached to each of them. "Today," Kakshi said to his two curious and one strange (Naruto was glaring at the two small bells like they had offended him somehow) students. "What you three are going to do is to try to get one of these bells from me." The silver-haired man jingled the bells lightly, to emphasize his words. "Whoever doesn't have a bell by noon," he continued. "Won't be allowed to eat lunch. Instead," he pointed to the three stumps, "I'm going to tie you up there and eat lunch in front of you."

Sakura and Sasuke glowered (So, that's why he told us not to eat breakfast, they both thought,) and Naruto just heaved an exasperated sigh.

The only girl in their team then glanced at the tree where Naruto had buried the remains of the apples they had just eaten ("I'm destroying the evidence," he had said when she had asked the orange-and-black wearing boy what he was doing.) and made a silent promise to be nicer to the blond idiot from now on.

"But, wait," Sakura said in sudden realization. "Why are there only two bells?" the kunoichi asked.

"Well," Kakashi said as his only visible eye curved up into a slight U-shape. "At least one of you has to get tied up, right?" Then, he looked at the three Genin individually before continuing. "That person will be the one to fail the exam since he or she had also failed to complete the mission. And he – or she – will be sent back to the academy with the other drop-outs."

All three of them grew serious. Even Naruto, though he had – unknown to the others – taken the same test at least twice in his original timeline and passed on both occasions. The blond was silently thinking of a plan on how to get his two teammates to trust him, put their differences with each other aside and work together. Or at least plan a way of making himself look cool in front of them and not get himself tied up and humiliated like the first time.

"It might be just one of you," the Jounin said – unaware of his sensei's only kid's planning. "Or all three."

Sasuke's face grew solemn. He had gone too far, he was not going to get sent back to the academy just because he couldn't a stupid bell from some freaky one-eyed Jounin. I have to pass, the boy thought with determination. The other two could fail for all I care, but I won't. I'll pass this test, get this man to train me and then... finally...

"My foolish brother… If you want to kill me… curse me! Hate me! And live a long and unsightly life… Run away… run away… and cling to your pitiful life!" (A/N: Taken directly from Narutopedia.)

Naruto scowled at the heavy and dark auras – mostly from Sasuke – which felt ten times worse to him because of his hypersensitivity to negative emotions. He sighed. There's so much 's almost suffocating me, 'ttebayo.

"You are allowed use you weapons," said Kakashi. "Be warned, you have no chance of even coming close to one of these bells unless you come at me with the intent to kill." He fisted the two bells and started tying them to his belt.

"But, that's too dangerous, sensei!" cried the pink-haired girl.

"Sakura-chan's right, dattebayo," Naruto agreed. If he fought Kakashi with the intent to kill, he wasn't sure if anyone within five miles of the fight would be able to survive. (This was something his friends had to learn – the hard way – and have since then made sure to put a lot of distance between themselves and him when he was fighting an enemy that would take more than just the normal incomplete Rasengan to take out.) "You couldn't even dodge a chalkboard eraser," added the Jinchuuriki.

"In society, those who don't have many abilities tend to complain more," shot the Jounin. "So, please just ignore the dobe."

Naruto scowled. So much for avoiding that nickname.

"We're going to start after I say, 'start'." He looked on as the three pre-teens tensed and their face grow serious with determination.

"Ready... Start!"

With that, two f the three Genin dissapeared.

XxX

"Is there something you'd like to ask me, Iruka?" the Sandaime said to the scarred Chunin sitting in front of him. "I'm sure you didn't invite me here just so you could have tea with me?"

In truth, Sarutobi already knew what it was that Iruka wanted to ask him. He had almost anticipated it actually. With how much the man cares for his knuckle headed student, this little meeting he had called for was of no surprise to the Hokage.

"I just wanted to know," said the teacher. "What kind of teacher is the Jounin Naruto and Team 7 had been assigned to, that's all."

Ah, thought the Sandaime. Just as I suspected. The old man absentmindedly wondered if Minato or Kushina would have showed the same concern and sense of protectiveness over their son had the two of them still been here. But, Kakashi had been Minato's student once, so he probably wouldn't have worried himself too much. And Kushina would have just hung the threat of castration over the poor silver-haired Jounin if he failed her one and only child.

"You mean, Kakashi?" the Sandaime asked. "Does it worry you?"

"It's just," Iruka said almost hesitantly. "I heard this slightly disturbing rumor of him and..." the man's voice faltered near the end.

The Sandaime guessed that Iruka was either talking about the Jounin's tastes in literature or...

The old man took out a small book and showed it to Iruka.

"What is this?" the teacher asked.

"It is the list of Genin Kakashi had either passed or failed since I had made him a Jounin Instructor," he said as he flipped the book to the right page.

Iruka's eyes widened slightly in surprise at the presence of the book – it had been as if the Sandaime knew what it was he was going to ask about – and gingerly lifted it from the table. Honestly, Iruka had to admit that he was almost afraid of what it might say. This man could have been the teacher to every Nuke-nin from Konoha for all he knew. Or maybe all of his students had at some point in time died a mysterious death before any of them even reached the rank of Chunin. Or maybe he's a pervert who likes to molest his students. Or...

Iruka gasped. "Th-This is... No way!" To say that the brown-haired man was shocked was an understatement.

"Kakashi's test might be a little harder than the one's most Jounin would give to fresh-out-of-the-academy Genin," stated the old Hokage.

"But, Hokage-sama," Iruka said, his voice raised slightly. "This is just ridiculous. None of the Genins he had been in charge of had passed his test!"

"It is true. Kakashi had never passed a single team before. All of them had failed," the old man said, adding more to Iruka's worry. But, he silently added. If the things Naruto had said was true. Then, I'm sure that we have absolutely nothing to worry about.

XxX

A basic skill for a shinobi is to hide one's presence, Kakashi thought. His visible eye was half lidded and his hands were in his pockets in a laid-back and casual manner. Though, he could still sense where two of his students were – Sasuke was somewhere in a tree to his right and Sakura was hiding in a bush about ten feet from the Rookie of the Year – it was still a pretty good effort. But, that was more than what he could say about a certain blond knucklehead. "So, what exactly is it that you're trying to do, Naruto?" he asked the previously mentioned blond knucklehead.

The blond knucklehead was standing in front of Kakashi with his arms crossed and a big shit-eating grin on his scarred face, looking unbelievably smug. "C'mon, sensei! Let's have a match! Just you and me, one on one!"

Kakashi looked quiet disappointed and confused yet still somehow managed to keep his impassive and bored aura.

Somewhere in a nearby tree, Sasuke grumbled, "What an idiot."

"I have to admit," Kakashi drawled. "I've met a lot of weird people in my time." It was impossible not to with someone like Maito Gai as your so called 'eternal rival'. "But, you might just take the cake." But, then again, knowing who the kid's mother was, Kakashi assumed that he shouldn't be too surprised.

"What's weird is your hair, 'ttebayo!" Naruto yelled in response. "I mean, it's just standing up like that!" the seventeen-year-old Genin in a twelve-year-old body made up and down motions with his hands in the air above his head for added effect. "How the hell do you do that anyway? It looks almost as dumb as Sasuke-teme's duck-butt hair!"

"Usaratonkachi," Sasuke growled in annoyance.

Naruto then extended a kunai from the hidden kunai mechanism (A/N: Yes, that is what it's called, dear younger cousin of mine who I know is reading this. I checked.) in his sleeve and immediately charged at the masked Jounin.

It was only a moment later when the hand – which was still holding the kunai – aimed the sharp end of the shinobi weapon at the back of its owner's head, with Kakashi holding both the hand and the owner in place.

To those who were watching, it seemed as if it all had happened in less than a second.

"Don't get so hasty," Kakashi chided with his visible eye curved upwards to show his smile.

No way… Sakura thought with wide-eyed amazement. I didn't even see him move.

So, this is the true power of a Jounin, Sasuke thought, still hidden from view.

Naruto on the other hand was just as shocked as his fellow Genin were. You could even say that he was horrified. That was impossible. Kakashi couldn't have snuck up on him like that. With how much his senses had improved from his years of training and experience, Naruto should have seen it coming. And even if he didn't his natural instincts and reflexes would have helped him to easily dodge the Jounin and given him enough time to make a counterattack.

Then, his blue eyes widened in realization. But, that was it, wasn't it? His old body had the muscle and experience necessary for it, but… this body didn't. This was the body of a twelve-year-old troublemaker who barely knew the difference between a shinobi from Suna and Iwa. This body hadn't gone through the strain his old one had from years of almost-non-stop training. This body didn't have the muscles he had developed from weeks of speed training with Rock Lee during the Fourth Shinobi World War in preparation of facing two very powerful and dangerous Sharingan users. This wasn't the body he had been so used to over the years; it was the weak chibi version of his old one!

Naruto thought he had understood what Kurama had meant when the Bijuu had said that he would need to train hard and relearn everything from scratch, but this… This was just pathetic, dattebayo! Had he really been this weak as a kid? How had he survived for as long as he did?

The blond felt the shuriken at the back of his head move closer to his skull and realized that he had spaced out. He huffed in agitation. He was in the middle of a fight here. There was no time to think about this. There was no way around it. He'd have to figure this out later. Kakashi was right, he shouldn't be so hasty. He'll just talk to Shikamaru about this after the test.

Naruto twisted his body almost painfully and – with the firm hold his sensei has on him helping very much – he jumped over the Jounin's head and landed behind him, effectively making Kakashi relinquish his hold on his hands lest he were to follow Naruto's movements and fall flat on his back.

With the kunai still in hand, Naruto immediately charged after the Jounin once more. he stabbed the kunai at the man left and right. Aiming for the man's openings and – if there weren't any – made a few opening's himself until Kakahsi was forced to take out a kunai as well in order to defend himself in fear of walking out of the fight with holes all over his body.

Naruto smirked at the barely concealed surprise on the Jounin's face and gave a cry of success when he forced thekunai out of his sensei's hands and into the nearby river.

Kakashi, seeing Naruto pause in the fight, placed a hand into the pouch in his belt and said in a bored tone, "Ninja Arts, Lesson One: Taijutsu." He bored his dark eye at Naruto before continuing. "According to your teachers at the academy, taijutsu is one of the things you were most horrible at."

Dammit, Naruto cursed in his mind. Even if the man seemed laid-back and casual now, even without the use of his ability, Naruto could still sense the slight suspicion in the Jounin's eye. Was that too much? Had he revealed himself already?

But, then Kakashi eye-smiled and the suspicion was shrugged off as it was never there in the first place. "Maa, but I guess they were wrong."

The silver-haired shinobi then proceeded to take out an orange book from his pouch with a picture of a man chasing a woman with boobs three sizes bigger than what her red dress was meant to carry and the title 'Icha Icha Paradise' written in bold on the cover.

Wait… Is that…? thought Sakura incredulously form the bushes.

"What the…?" Sasuke muttered, just as unbelieving.

Naruto gave a slow chuckle. That thing again, he thought exasperatedly. The Icha Icha Paradise series had been the second of the few things he hadn't missed after his Shishou's death in the original timeline. Having to edit and proofread the books had been the first.

"You're not seriously going to read that thing while we're fighting, 'ttebayo," he groaned. "Are you?" Though, he knew the answer himself already.

"Oh," Kakashi smiled as he opened the book to a certain page. "You seem to be quite familiar with this particular work of art, Naruto…"

Calling that sorry excuse for literature a 'work of art' would like calling Deidara's weird exploding clay-animals 'mater-pieces', 'ttebayo, the Fourth Hokage's son thought to himself. "My godfather's the author. How can I not be?" he said as he sent a fierce glare to the small orange book, hoping to somehow suddenly develop a hidden doujutsu that could set fire to badly written porn. It didn't work.

"Oh?" he said and Naruto felt the suspicion slip in again before it disappeared just as it did before. But, unlike last time, the blond could sense small traces of it linger in his teacher's eye."I see…" the man said slowly.

Then, he straightened up and looked at Naruto with his usual bore expression. "Well, what are you waiting for?" he mocked slightly. "Come and get me."

"Ano sa, ano sa," Naruto said instead. "Aren't you going to put your book away first?"

"Why should I?" the Jounin asked as his one eye flickered to the book and he began reading. "I'm getting curious to what will happen next. You see the hero of the story, Jiro had successfully seduced the beautiful and sexy, Tsubasa into his bed and now they are-"

A kunai was thrown dangerously close to Kakashi's feet and he almost immediately stopped talking as he examined the weapon. He looked up to Naruto, who was looking at something somewhere to Kakashi's right warily. Kakshi followed the boy's gaze and saw a bush. Then, he remembered exactly who he had sensed hiding in said bush and paled slightly.

'Shannaro!' screeched Inner Sakura. 'Finish that sentence! I dare ya!'

"R-right… Anyway," the man said curtly, regaining his impassive composure. Though, not before taking two steps to the left and getting a little more space between him and the deadly bush. He turned his attention back to Naruto who – Kakashi noted – had done the exact same thing he did and had taken a few big steps away from the bush where the Jounin could sense the hot glare Sakura was sending him. "Don't worry about it. It's the same whether I read this or not."

Huh. Underestimate me, would you? Naruto smirked. Big mistake, 'ttebayo. He charged once more. "You're going down!"

He attacked – after dropping his kunai – and punched Kakashi, but his attacked was almost immediately blocked. Without pause, the Genin followed his punch with a roundhouse kick – which Kakashi dodged – and another punch, but before his fist could make any contact, the Jounin disappeared.

"Huh?" the blond exclaimed in confusion.

Wait a minute! Naruto thought in panic. He's…!

"Letting your opponent get behind you more than once," Kakashi reprimanded. "Maybe your old teachers were right after all. And I was the one who overestimated you."

The man was crouched behind the blue eyed boy with his hands curled together in a seal.

Sakura's green eyes widened in realization and fear for her teammate. It's the seal of the tiger.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he observed the man's stance. That seal... It's mostly used for Katon based Jutsu. Then, the Uchiha gritted his teeth as an unknown emotion shrouded his heart. Is this guy serious? He could really kill Naruto! The emotion Sasuke was currently feeling was known to most as protectiveness. He was feeling protective of Naruto. Unknown to him, the feeling came from the time he had spent together with the blond as a Konoha Genin in another timeline. Sasuke would have screamed had his pride not gotten in the way. But that didn't stop him from worrying. What are you standing around for? the raven-haired boy demanded in his thoughts. Run, you idiot!

Sakura meanwhile had no such qualms or such an amount of pride. "Naruto, run! He's going to- Mmph! Um hmm!"

Sasuke was too worried with what was happening in front of him to pay much attention to Sakura. She wasn't in any danger. They're only threat was crouched right in front of him, ready to use a –most probably – deadly jutsu against his teammate. The pink-haired girl had most probably fallen on her face anyway.

"It's too late!" Kakshi exclaimed, his finger already taking their aim.

Naruto gasped.

"Konohagakure no Sato's Secret Taijutsu Technique: A Thousand Years of Pain!" The silver-haired man's hands shot up and into Naruto's butt. And Naruto… disappeared in a puff of smoke…?

What? Sasuke thought with incredulity and slight anger that he had worried over the usaratonkachi for nothing. Was that a clone? No. It was solid. But, then how did…?

"Hmm." Kakashi murmured. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, huh?" This must be the Forbidden Technique Iruka mentioned the boy had used to defeat Mizuki.

The man then looked up at the sky and eye-smiled. He's only a Genin and he can already create a solid clone. You must really proud of him, huh sensei?

XxX

Sakura gasped when she saw Kakashi – half-an-hour after his fight with Naruto's Kage Bunshin – standing in the middle of a clearing reading his orange perverted book.

"He's here," she murmured.

"You're looking the wrong way," the kunoichi heard a voice say from behind her. "Sakura."

The girl tensed before turning around and facing a familiar silver-haired one-eyed Jounin.

She screamed.

XxX

Without taking his eye off of his precious book, Kakashi murmured thoughtfully, "Maybe I overdid it a little," as he spared one uninterested glance at the unconscious pink-haired girl behind him.

He paused.

Then, "Nah." He started walking in the opposite direction and said in a bored tone, "One down and one MIA. Now, just one more to go."

As he headed for the direction her knew the third Genin to be in, Kakashi missed the smug grin spread across the previously-thought-to-be-unconscious pink-haired girl before she disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.

XxX

That was Sakura… Sasuke thought after he heard the scream.

"Ninja Arts Lesson Two: Genjutsu," announced a voice behind Sasuke. Sasuke turned around to see Kakashi casually leaning against a tree and was glad to note that both bells were still with him and that neither Sakura nor Naruto had gotten their hands on any of the small bells yet.

Not that he had expected those two losers to be able to get anywhere close to them, anyway.

"Sakura fell for it easily," the masked Jounin continued.

"I'm not surprised," stated the Uchiha before his dark eyes narrowed dangerously. "But… I'm different from those two."

"Why don't you repeat those words after you get a bell?" Kakashi drawled in a bored tone, his eyes still not leaving the orange book.

Sasuke – getting annoyed that the man wasn't taking him seriously – attacked.

XxX

Meanwhile…

"That way, 'ttebayo!" Naruto exclaimed as he and Sakura began running through the trees and moved toward the location where the blond had sensed Sasuke's annoyance – something that he was extremely familiar with as it was usually directed at him – and anger.

Sakura – following Naruto from behind – asked him in a skeptical tone, "How can you tell? And how do I know that you're not just leading me to some trap you've come up with and not to where Sasuke-kun is?"

Sakura had been shocked when Naruto had pounced on her from behind and covered her mouth in an attempt to make her stay quiet when she was clearly seeing Naruto getting a poke in the ass by their weird one-eyed Jounin Instructor. It was later – when the Naruto who was with Kakashi 'poof'd out of existence – that she realized that the Naruto she had seen fighting had been a Bunshin meant as a decoy to distract the Jounin as he looked for her.

Then, she realized that it must have been a clone who asked Iruka-sensei for the scrolls while the real Naruto talked to her about becoming their team's Iryou-nin yesterday. But how exactly Naruto – the Dead Last who had failed the Academy genin Exams three times – could create a solid clone was an absolute mystery to the kunoichi.

Then, the – hopefully – real Naruto had set her aside and told her his ridiculous theory on how Kakshi-sensei's test was actually about teamwork and stuff and that they needed to find their last teammate and work together to get the bells.

At first, Sakura had been hesitant – Naruto was known to be an idiot, so any theory that comes out of his mouth had the most probability of being incorrect – but at the mention of working together with her Sasuke-kun, the kunoichi had warmed up to the idea almost immediately.

"That's just it, isn't it?" Naruto said an answer to the girl's last question."You don't know. You'll just have to trust me on this, dattebayo." The boy made a sharp turn to the right and ducked under a low branch and Sakura had no choice but to follow the blond lest she wanted to lose him – her only lead to where her precious Sasuke-kun was.

It was only a few moments later that she realized he hadn't answered her first question.

XxX

"Teme, are you dead?" Naruto asked as he looked down at the glowering face of his teammate, who – by the way – only had his head sticking out from the ground.

Saskue glared at the orange clad blond. "Of course not, you idiot!"

Naruto snickered. How could he have missed this in the first timeline?

"Need any help?" he asked Sasuke when he saw the raven-haired boy start to squirm in the soil.

Sasuke glared at the grinning blond some more.

Naruto took out a kunai and began to help dig his once-best-friend out of the ground.

It was only a moment after Sasuke had managed to get himself out that another Naruto burst into the clearing with Sakura only two steps behind yelling out, "Sasuke-kun!"

And while Sakura was busy tackling Sasuke to the ground and the Uchiha was preoccupied with shoving the fangirl off of himself, the two Naruto's took the opportunity to converse with each other. "Hey there, Boss!" the Naruto who had come into the clearing with Sakura greeted his original. "I've found Sakura-chan, just like you asked."

"I can see that, 'ttebayo," Naruto said dryly. "Is the one we left at the logs still there?"

"Hmm…" the bunshin thought for a moment. "I think so. I didn't feel him disperse earlier, so maybe."

"Does sensei know?"

"Probably not." The clone shrugged.

"Okay, then." Naruto grinned and held his fist up. "Good work, 'ttebayo!"

"Thanks, boss!" the Naruto-clone mirrored his grin and the two bumped fists before it dispersed in a puff of smoke.

"What was that?" Sakura asked the blond as she stared at the spot where the shadow clone had disappeared. "How…?"

"That," Naruto grinned, "was my ticket to passing the exams."

"You can't make a normal bunshin," Sasuke said. "So, you made a solid one instead." Even I don't know how to do that! the raven-haired boy fumed. So how can Naruto of all people…?

"A normal bunshin uses too little chakra," Naruto explained. "My chakra reserves just aren't made for those kinds of jutsu, 'ttebayo."

"What-?" Sasuke began but was immediately cut off by the blond.

"Anyway," said Naruto quickly. "I think I've figured out the real meaning of the test."

Sasuke huffed. "Which is?"

Naruto grinned. "It's teamwork, dattebayo!"

Sasuke grunted. "Hn. Now I know you're an idiot."

"C'mon, teme," Naruto said, ignoring Sakura's glare at calling Sasuke a 'teme'. "Think about it or a minute. The guy's a Jounin and we're fresh-out-of-the-academy Genin. We obviously can't beat him by fighting him one on one, so we'll have to do it together."

Sasuke grunted once more. "I don't have time for this." He started walking away. "There's still some time left until noon. I'm going." He turned around and directed a cold glare at Naruto. "I'm going to get a bell without your help." He began walking to the direction of the clearing with the three stumps in them and said without looking back, "Don't get in my way."

Naruto clenched his fists – furious that the Uchiha was turning his back on his comrades again – and yelled, "Fine! If that's how you want it, then we'll see who can get a bell first!" at the retreating back of the Uchiha before he disappeared in a flash of yellow.

Sakura, of course – too busy on thinking that she had upset her idol – hadn't taken notice of Naruto's use of the Hiraishin no Jutsu instead chose to follow Sasuke instead.

XxX

As all of this was happening, the last Naruto-clone – who, all this while, had been disguised as the kunai the other clone had seemingly dropped during his fight with Kakashi – was feeling a sudden itch caused by the blade of grass that was tickling him where his nose must have been.

I have to sneeze, dattebayo! he thought urgently. No! I gotta hold it in and wait for the boss to come back! It was then that he felt the other clone – the one who had been sent to find Sakura – disperse and the memories of the dismissed clone flooded into him. Oh no… the bunshin mentally groaned. The boss still hasn't convinced Sasuke-teme to work together with him and Sakura-chan. Dattebayo! I really have to… have to… hafta...

"Achoo!"

"A sneezing kunai…" the clone heard a voice say slowly.

Oh no! Said sneezing kunai panicked. My cover's blown!

The shadow clone made a split second decision and transformed back into Naruto. Not a moment later, the clone sent a couple of shuriken at the direction he knew the voice had come from and leapt back to put some distance between himself and the speaker.

When the clone looked up, he saw Kakashi – with his fingers inside the holes of the two shuriken the Naruto-clone had thrown earlier – standing there in his usual laid-back manner.

"So, this is where you've been hiding, eh Naruto?" he said as he stared down at the crouching clone passively. "Or are you just another one of his clones?"

"Er…" the clone hesitated. Should he answer the question? Should he lie to the Jounin and tell him that he was the original? He didn't know what to do! This wasn't part of the plan! The plan was for him to stay on the ground as an innocent little kunai a clumsy Genin had dropped until the boss and the others come. And while they distracted Kakashi and fought the man, he would sneakily turn back into his real form and snatch the bells from right under the silver-haired man's nose. This was not how things were supposed to turn out! "Is that a rhetorical question?"

The man sighed before he lifted a lazily lidded eye at the Naruto-look-a-like in front of him. "It doesn't matter. Whether you're the real deal or not, you're still Naruto." Then, the man did his infamous eye-smile. "And I can still beat you."

The clone's eye-brow twitched with annoyance. This guy was making fun of him. He didn't care whether this freak was the boss's sensei or not! He was going down!

"I'll show you!" the clone yelled. "You're the one who's gonna get beaten, 'ttebayo!"

The clone took out a few kunai and aimed them at the one-eyed teacher. Kakashi easily dodged the projectiles and let them sail harmlessly over hi had and embed themselves into a tree that was standing behind him. The Jounin took out the volume of Icha Icha Paradise and continued from where he had reading before his little scuffle with Sasuke.

Kakashi gave a small hum of confusion when he heard a faint sizzling noise come from behind him before he turned around to face the tree where the three kunai the clone had thrown earlier had landed. His eyes widened lightly at the sight of three white tags wrapped around each of said kunai.

The silver-haired man's visible eye widened slightly before he leapt back to put some distance between him and the tree. The tree exploded into a thousand pieces – with the amount of explosive tags the blond had placed there earlier, Kakashi wasn't surprised – and he was forced to cover his face with his arm to protect his only working eye from the splintered remains of the tree. Though a few of the wooden projectiles did manage to scratch him in a couple of places – and one particularly thick splinter had somehow dug itself into his thigh – he was relatively unharmed.

When Kakashi brought his arm down, he realized – too late – that the explosion had caused him to momentarily take his eyes off of his twelve-year-old opponent and that the blond boy he had been fighting was no where in sight.

"How very…" the man mused out loud as he straightened his back and placed his book back I his pouch. "…unpredictable," he finished. The boy might have inherited Kushina-nee-san's smarts – or lack of thereof – in the academics department, he thought. But it seems that he had also gotten his father's smarts on the battlefield.

"He's better than I thought," the silver-haired man said before disappearing from the explosion sight. He reappeared in a tree, a few feet from where he was before, behind a surprised Naruto. "But unfortunately, it's still not good enough to beat me."

He kicked the boy out of the tree...only to have him change into a child sized stump in mid-air.

Kawarimi? Kakashi took a moment to hold down the pride he felt for his sensei's son before he scanned the area for the blond pre-teen. Where could he be hiding...?

As if the boy could hear his thoughts, a voice answered from above, "I'm down here, dattebayo!"

Does this kid seriously believe that he would fall for that old trick? He was a Jounin for crying out loud! There was absolutely no way he would-

Kakashi looked up as his thoughts complained about being looked down on by a mere Genin, just as two shuriken were thrown at where his head would have been had he not moved said appendage to the direction where his student's voice had come from.

What? Kakashi thought in confusion as he tossed himself out of the tree and into the clearing where the exploding tree had been. Once he got himself up-right, he looked ahead to see Naruto walking calmly out of the tree-line with a huge smirk on his face.

"How?" Kakashi asked, finding no need to elaborate the question.

"Fuuinjutsu!" the clone chirped happily as he pointed towards the top of the tree where a palm-sized piece of paper could be seen – stuck in between a couple of high branches – with a victorious grin on his face.

Naruto had gotten the idea when Kiba had used the I-say-I'm-over-here-when-I'm-actually-over-there trick on him during a spar they had once. The seals were simple enough to make – it was designed record his voice and then project it after a certain amount of time. Though, it wasn't too useful – not for Naruto at least, since he had the Kage Bunshin technique – it was great for confusing opponents and it was a very cunning trick. And Naruto just loves to be tricky and sly.

"Hmm," Kakashi grunted in slight displesure at being tricked so easily. Being the son and godson of two of Konoha's greatest Fuuinjutsu Masters and part of the destroyed Uzumaki clan, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

Suddenly, there was a familiar flash of yellow – Kakashi gasped and he had to hold himself back from calling out his dead sensei's name – and a second Naruto appeared. His face was set in a fierce scowl before he saw the annoyed look on Kakashi's face and the splintered remains of what had once been a tree and it quickly morphed into confusion.

"Ano sa ano sa," he asked the first Naruto who was scanning the surrounding trees as if looking for something. "Were you two fighting?"

"Yeah. There was an... unexpected change in palns, 'ttebayo," the clone said quickly – with a slight amount of embarrassment – to his original. "Where are the others, boss?"

The scowl came back and the second Naruto huffed in annoyance. "The teme is an Uchiha, said he doesn't need our help and – naturally – Sakura-chan followed his lead and left me in the dust."

"You asked for their help?" Kakashi asked the – obviously – original Naruto. As he slipped back into his usual I-couldn't-care-less self. "Why?"

"It was obvious that none of us can beat you alone, 'ttebayo," the original answered. "So, the only thing left for us to do is to work together."

Hmm... So he's figured it out, huh. Kakashi mused. "So, how did you find the others? They had both hid themselves very well. You would have to be some kind of tracker nin to be able to find the two of them. And I already knocked out Sakura with my genjutsu. She would have only been able to wake up on her own."

"Actually," Naruto chuckled as he rubbed at the back of hi head. "That was my clone you seemingly knocked out. My clone had already gotten Sakura-chan out of there way before you found her while I went out looking for Sasuke-teme." Then, he gave the one-eyed man a face-splitting grin. "And there's no way I'm going to tell you how I found them, dattebayo! At least, not until after I've gotten a bell form you!"

"Oh," Kakashi lifted a silver brow. "And how do you suppose you are going to do that?"

"Like this!" both Naruto and his clone yelled gleefully as they crossed the index and middle fingers from both of their hands in the form of the Clone Seal. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

The clearing was immediately filled with nearly a thousand of orange-clad Genin. Somewhere from a few feet away, Kaka shi heard the alarm clock ring – signaling that it was already noon and that the Genins' time was up – but he was too in awe of the amount of power Naruto was showing, he didn't give it much notice. Any normal Genin would have exhausted his chakra reserves if he tried to make even one shadow clone. But Naruto had created thousands and he doesn't look even slightly exhausted.

All of the Naruto were holding shuriken and with a cry of, "Shihouhappou Shuriken! (A/N: It means All Direction Shuriken. Naruto really has this technique. If you don't believe me, you can look it up on Narutopedia.)" the weapons were launched straight at Kakashi.

The Jounin suddenly understood how the technique had gotten its name. There were shuriken coming at him from every direction – the fact that they were all thrown at once only made matters worse. Avoiding all of them would be difficult – impossible even! And with him moving all of his attention on the flying weapons, Naruto could easily find himself a blind spot and attack Kakashi from there. At first glance, the technique would seem to be a desperate move when in truth, the attack was nothing short of brilliant – with its hidden objective of driving the target into a predicament and forcing him to be open to other attacks.

And this kid is the year's Dead Last?

Kakashi made a quick decision and used Kawarimi to replace himself with the log the clone from earlier had used, though it wasn't before he gained a handful of cuts here and there and a couple of shuriken stuck to his back – luckily they didn't penetrate his thick Jounin vest. Once he had gotten a safe distance between him and the many Narutos, he immediately turned to face them with body posed for battle. He had learned his lesson of underestimating the boy and he was not so eager to repeating the same mistake.

But instaed of attacking like Kakahsi had thought they would, almost all the of the Narutos – and the shurikens on his back – 'poof'd out of existence. The last Naruto – most probably the original – had a small silver bell in his hand, but he wasn't smiling and was instead frowning at the alarm clock Kakashi had brought in earlier.

"So close," the boy muttered.

Kakashi looked down at his belt and saw only one bell and not two. The last bell was seen hanging precariously on a single thread that was about as thick as the threads a spider spun its web with. One of the shuriken from his earlier attack must have managed to cut the first bell off before he escaped.

Kakashi eye-smiled. Not bad.

XxX

While the other two had been fighting, the remaining members of Team 7 were...

"Sasuke-kun, are you still going to go after the bells?" Sakura asked as she walked a few steps behind the person she admired.

"I was able to touch it a while ago," he said without turning to look at the pink-haired girl. "I'll get it next time."

"Really?" Sakura gasped in amazement as her heart beat grew faster. "Sasuke-kun, you're so cool!"

Meanwhile...

'Shannaro!' yelled Inner Sakura as she pulled at her hair in frustration. 'I haven't even gotten close to one of those damn things! At this rate, I'm going to get separated from Sasuke-kun for sure!'

"Hey, Sasuke-kun..." Saukura said a little hesitantly. "Since we have only a little time left before noon, why don't we just give up for now and try harder next time...?"

The Uchiha – finally – turned around and gave his teammate a sharp glare. Sakura took an instinctive step backwards. Though she would never admit it, the malice and venom in the boy's dark eyes had scared her a little. She knew that Sasuke thought of her and the other girls as annoying – and he had glared at each of them at least once – but he had never looked at them like that before. But what scared her more was how familiar those dark eyes were. Like from a long forgotten dream... where a pair of hate-filled red orbs followed her wherever she went...

"I'll bring him back! For sure!"

Huh? Thought Sakura with confusion. Where had that come from?

Sasuke remained silent. His thought filled with the events of that night... and those horrifying red eyes... Then, "Only I can kill that man."

"What...?" Sakura asked softly, afraid of how Sasuke might react.

"He..." Sasuke's fists clenched. "He made me cry that night..." (A/N: Sorry about this. I just can't help but remember the double meaning my yaoi loving cousing had pointed out behind that sentence. On with the story!)

"He did...?" Sakura asked.

"My..." Sasuke grew silent after that.

"What is it?" Sakura asked once she had found her voice again. "Sasuke-kun, who are you talking about?"

"I am an avenger," Sasuke announced. "My only goal is to become stronger than him. I don't have time to wait for 'next time'."

Sakura gave a silent gasp as she remembered the words Sasuke had said yesterday on the Academy roof.

Also... I have an ambition... to kill a certain man...

They heard the alarm clock ring as noon had come.

"Damnit," Sasuke growled. "I wasted too much time talking with you."

"Sasuke-kun..." Sakura called softly – knowing that Sasuke couldn't hear her – and watched in silence as Sasuke began walking back to where the three wooden stumps had been.

XxX

Three stomachs growled furiously.

This time, it was Sakura who was tied up to a post between her two teammates and Naruto who was sitting down next to her.

This sucks, 'ttebayo... Even knowing about the test in advance, our favorite blond idiot hadn't had anything but a single apple to eat since morning because he felt guilty for having a full breakfast when his friends had followed Kakashi's orders and skipped breakfast. He promised himself that the next time he was forced back into the past, he would remember to eat something before facing off a certain one-eyed silver-haired Jounin.

Speaking of his favorite – and only – masked teacher... "That sound I just heard must have either been an avalanche happening somewhere in Yuki no Kuni or the loud stomachs of three hungry Genin." he said cheekily, the cuts and bruises Naruto and his clones had given the man earlier standing out like a clown at a funeral. "You guys must be hungry."

All three of them gave him each of their own versions of the Glare of Death.

"By the way," he said, showing no visible reaction to the Killing Intent sent towards him. "About the results of this test..."

He paused to gauge their reactions.

Sasuke's expression remained impassive, but there was a still a glint of anticipation in his black eyes.

Sakura looked both nervous and hopeful.

Naruto looked... Well, Kakashi wasn't too sure. Something between familiarity and resignation...?

"None of you need to return to the Academy."

Sakuran smiled widely. 'Love prevails, shannaro!'

Sasuke gave a smug and self-satisfied smirk.

Naruto sighed inwardly. Here it comes...

"Yeah, you three..." Kakashi said slowly. "...should quit being ninjas!"

Sakura paled.

Sasuke looked murderous.

Naruto thought, And there it is.

"Quit being ninjas!" Surprisingly, it was Sakura who had yelled at the masked man. "What does that mean? So, we couldn't get a bell, but do you say that we should quit?"

"Actually..." Kakashi corrected. "Naruto did – technically – get a bell."

"What?" the kunoichi screeched as she stared – wide-eyed – at the supposed idiot of their group.

Sasuke's reaction was as similar as Sakura's. That dobe... but how...?

Naruto meanwhile was sarcastically thanking his teacher in his thoughts for placing him in the spotlight.

Thankfully, the man decided to take the light off of Naruto and back onto himself.

"But he was too late. It was already noon by the time the bell reached his hand. And why? Because you three are just brats who don't deserve to be ninjas. That's why."

Sasuke saw red.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried out.

Sasuke had sprung up to Kakashi, his hand out stretched with a kunai clenched in it.

But Kakshi saw it coming form a mile away.

In less than a second, he had the Uchiha struggling under his feet with a loathsome fire burning in his dark eyes.

"Like I said," the man said as he casually sat on the trapped boy. "You guys are nothing but brats."

"Don't step on Sasuke-kun!" Sakura screamed with all her might.

Naruto swore he had gone partially deaf after that particularly loud proclamation.

Kakshi huffed. "Do you kids really think that the life of a shinobi is so easy?"

he looked down at his captive and asked, "Why do you think we are broken into groups of three the moment we are given our hitai-ates?" When Sasuke didn't answer, he pressed the foot that was placed on the boy's head harder. "C'mon, Sasuke-kun," he mocked. "The answer's simple, really. Why it's so simple that even an idiot like Naruto-" he ignored Naruto's dignified exclamation of 'Hey!' "-could figure it out."

Sasuke's eyes widened.

Sakura gasped. "No way. It's..."

"That's right. The answer is..." Kakashi said as dramatically as he possibly could. "...teamwork!"

Naruto nearly choked on the shock he sensed in the air. I don't think this can get any more dramatic than it already is, 'ttebayo.

"You're teammate tried to tell you that," Kakshi continued. "But you ignored his words and let your pride and you emotions get in the way. And now, it's too late for you. If the three of you had come at me all at once, then you would have had a chance of getting a bell from me before the alarm went off. Well, that's your loss, I guess."

"H-Hold on!" Sakura exclaimed desperately. "How could we have known to use teamwork if there are only two bells? If the three of us had gone for it together, one of us would have been left to take the bullet for the others. We would have just fought against each other instead."

"Of course," said the silver-haired Jounin. "The test was deigned to put the three of you against each other. We want shinobi who can prioritize teamwork and the well-being of others before themselves. And you were all pathetic. Sakura!" he called.

The girl brought her attention from the still struggling Sasuke to the Jounin.

"You cared more about Sasuke than Naruto, who had helped you find your crush and saved you from getting attacked and knocked unconscious by me when he brought you away from your hiding place and replaced you with one of his clones."

Sakura's cheeks colored themselves in a bright red, both in shame and embarrassment at her crush on Sasuke being called on by a teacher.

"Naruto! Even after knwoing the true objestive of my test, in the end, you still went after me on your own. And – before you ask – no, teamwork between you and your Kage Bunshin does not count."

Naruto looked down, ashamed that he had gotten his emotions at the pride Sasuke had shown earlier and Sakura's abandonment – which, by the way, he should neither be surprised or resentful about – control him like that, before he mumbled lowly under his breath, "I wasn't going to ask you anything, 'ttebayo..."

"And you," he said to the last Genin. "You, Sasuke, only assumed that the others would be nothing but a burden to you and tried to do everything by yourself."

He looked up to address the others as well. "Even the most difficult missions are done in groups. While it is true that ninjas need well-developed individual abilities, but it is teamwork and how well you can work with your teammates that will be your most valuable asset in the end. An individual action that disrupts the team's rhythm will end up in the danger and – usually – the death of your teammates. For example..."

He slowly took out a kunai from his back pouch and held it to Sasuke's throat. "Naruto! Kill Sakura or Sasuke is going to die!"

Sakura was horrified. She would swear that she felt the bones in her neck pop as her eyes kept moving from her still sitting teammate to her childhood crush and back again.

"Are you willing to end the life of one comrade over another?"

Naruto remained silent. Then, "There is no choice."

XxX

Recommended fic of the chapter: Doomed to Repeat by Fiachra Ochiern – a Naruto Fanfic