Chapter Two: The Bell Test

Two of the four ninjas were groaning and yawning as they entered the third training grounds, while Sasuke stayed aloof and…Rei, was…worse. Her eyes were deadened and dark circles were visible underneath them. It had been another bad night for her, and she had to force herself to get up so that she could keep up with her teammate. She had no other choice after all. She didn't want to be the weakest link - and thinking back on Naruto and Sasuke's performance and Sakura's intelligence, the only weak link would be her.

"No sleep either?" Sakura yawned to the other girl. Rei looked up with a kind smile but merely shrugged as if she was fine – when she was anything but. Sasuke glanced over at her, and immediately knew that the smile was covering up something bad but he decided not to comment. Their eyes met and for a moment, he could see a familiar gaze in them before her eyes slid by him. Hours later, their sensei still didn't arrive yet which left Naruto sitting on the ground, yawning still, and Rei giving up completely and curling up against her bag to rest.

"Morning everyone, ready for your first day?"

They all shot up, pointing fingers at their sensei and accusing him of his lateness. "Well a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way." Rei rolled her eyes and got up slowly, fighting the light-headedness and the slight black out.

"Well," he cleared his throat, "let's get started." Placing a clock on a tree stump, he explained, "Here we go. It's set for noon. Your assignment is very simple – you just have to take these bells from me. That's all there is to it." The bells chimed. "If you can't get them by noon, you go without lunch. You'll be tied to those posts and you'll watch while I eat my lunch in front of you."

Naruto groaned. Loudly. The other three's face dropped, except for Rei. She had no appetite.

"Wait a minute, there's four of us! How come there are only three bells?"

Kakashi laughed. "Well that way, at least one of you will end up tied to a post and ultimately disqualified for failing the mission. That one goes back to the Academy…then again, all four of you can flunk out too."

Rei stopped listening to them, her mind distracted – but next thing she knew, Naruto was racing towards Kakashi with a kunai. She frowned. Kakashi was fast, and this was going to be difficult. At his cue, they all dispersed into the cover of the tree – except Rei, however. She stood her ground there, staring at him. Kakashi was impressed at the girl, who seemed to be more confident than the Uchiha prodigy, the smart one, and that other idiot.

"Well aren't you going to hide?"

"This isn't a stealth test," she countered and pointed towards the bell, "what's the point of hiding? I might as well just go for the prize."

Kakashi sighed, slightly disappointed. "Ninja must know how to conceal their movements and hide effectively."

Sakura bit her lip, watching the little brown haired girl go up against the jonin, while Sasuke watched in sharp observation. Rei merely stood there, her face serious and in thought. And then it flipped and she shrugged easily. "If you say so." Quicker than the speed expected of her level – she was gone. With that, she redeemed herself a bit. At least she was smarter than she was prideful.

But Naruto…wasn't. He jumped in and challenged him to a fight, and clearly Kakashi didn't care since he simply took out a book as he read and blocked all of his shots. The other three watched the fight clearly, but next thing they knew, a strong voice echoed through the forest - "A thousand years of death!" And Naruto went flying.

Sasuke wanted to burn everything to the ground. This was a joke. "Those two are just…total idiots."

"Right?"

He inhaled quickly. How did she get there so fast? Rei was right next to him, hidden beside him. He wondered how she could've possibly found him, let alone sneak up on him. But she just smiled and whispered, "Just snatch this in ten seconds, and I have Sakura holding onto the other end. I'll try to bind the bells for all of us, and give them to you, Sakura and Naruto – and hopefully, Kakashi will be impressed and decide not to fail me."

He stared at her. "That's a -"

"Great plan? I know, right? I was -" But then she broke off, her false, teasing bravado subsiding and a smile pulling up on her face. "I'm kidding, Sasuke. But we have to try something while Kakashi-sensei is distracted."

In a blink of an eye, Rei jumped across the clearing back and forth, creating an intricate array. Kakashi looked up, expecting her to throw down dozens of kunai – but nothing. Then she turned and yanked an arm, and then he realized – wire strings. By the time he spotted the shine off the string, he didn't have a chance to pinpoint what she was targeting. Not him, but the bells. Fingers moving quickly, she played with the wire and tugged out the bell, releasing them off from its ties and pulling it towards her as two other wires…ones that were being steadied by her two teammates, acted as an extra measure to wrap tightly against the bell.

But Kakashi grabbed a hold of the wire and cut those through easily, only taking the one with in Rei's hands to pull her close to him. Quickly, she bit off the wire before she came flying right into the silver haired jonin and retreated back into the forest. "Damn it, so close!" she scolded herself, hitting a tree and then biting down on her lip from screaming. Sakura just held the limp piece of wire, wondering what the heck had she even done.

Kakashi, on the other hand, was impressed. Wires was one of the tactics he did tried with Minato when he was younger. "That was close. A good start, Rei, well done." And team work.

Not in Sasuke's eyes, of course.

What? How could she have come out with that plan already? Sasuke's fist tightened. He was skilled in wire – he should have been able to formulate that plan and execute it, not just acting as some sort of stand for the wire. He would have gotten it right. He would have been the one earning the acknowledgement from Kakashi - not her.

Momentarily distracted from Rei's attack, a bunch of clones hurled towards Kakashi…only for Naruto to punch himself. And then they were in mass chaotic, all beating each other. Rei sighed, slapping her forehead. And worse – Naruto stupidly fell for a trap. Oh boy. And yet she was entertained as she scanned the clearing for her sensei. This was a team she could see herself a part of, especially with someone as fun as Naruto. Maybe he wasn't so sad after all. Maybe it was just his initial failure that made her think that she could reach out to him because the boy hanging on the tree right now was brave, and loud and enthusiastic all over.

A smile began to play her lips – but then a pain in her chest caused her to splutter. Her hands flew to her mouth, and when she pulled her fingers back, it was stained in blood.

Why now, why now, why now!

She felt that dryness in her chest…as if her lungs were being scraped from the inside out. It was worse than the last and she knew that if she were to go on, she would fail anyway. I'm out of the game for now. Spitting out the blood from her mouth the last time, she jumped up and left…hoping that with her out of the game, the other three would grab the remaining bells.

0-0

Kakashi looked around, wondering where his fourth student was. Well…he had to get going. Cutting through his current student's cries of happiness from their delusions of success, he said, "Yes, all four of you…are being dropped from the program. Permanently." A little history, truth and insult here and after a moment, he left them, wondering if they will ever get the point of the entire assignment. And to his contentment, they did get it.

Conjuring up a little thunder and dark clouds, he said in a booming voice, "The three of you are one? That's your excuse?" And then he chuckled. He knew it when he first saw the three - a mock resemblance of his former team, and thought that maybe this squad would be different than the rest and he was glad that he was right. He wouldn't want to miss out on the squad that included a Sharingan and his own sensei's son. "You passed."

"Huh?"

"The exercise is over – everyone passes. Squad 7 starts their first mission tomorrow."

Mass relief washed over the young ninjas as some grinned and jump in place. "Yes!"

"I did it, I did it! Believe it! I'm a ninja – ninja, ninja!"

Only Sasuke wasn't caught up in the frenzy. He frowned. His tone was stoic and his dark eyes didn't even have a flicker of warmth yet he - Sasuke, not Sakura or even Naruto - was the first to ask. "What about Rei?"

Kakashi turned curiously to the boy. Hm... "Well, she passes too. She was the first one to even attempt teamwork without a hint." His eyes curved with a smile. "Don't you worry about her."

0-0

"May I come in?" Kakashi asked, although he knocked first and went in anyway. Rei looked up at him, the dark circles more prominent than they were this morning; she looked pale and just plain exhausted. Not to mention the IVs hooked up in her. Kakashi sighed. He knew her condition of course, as her sensei, he had all her information. An orphan struck with illness – although not the most studious like Sakura, but she managed to hit just better than average in every test and performance and kept up with the rest of her class on the bare minimum level.

"It depends," she said with a weak smile but her tired brown eyes still managed to glow, "are you here to personally fail me?"

"No, you passed," he said lightly, "our first mission begins tomorrow. Will you be joining us?"

"Of course," she said softly. He recognized a trace of loneliness in her voice, despite her words. "After all, I'm still a part of the team, ri –"

"REIKO YUKIMORA, YOU ARE NOT TO LEAVE THIS BED!" A doctor came storming in, a medic-nin that had been worked closely with Rei for most of her life, started shouting affectionately. Rei's eyes widened and a sheepish smile was on her face as she pulled the blanket closer to her.

"Oh, c'mon –"

"No, no, she's right," Kakashi interrupted, taking a step closer to the doctor. "In fact...how long will Rei need to recover?"

"I am perfectly fine!" Rei cut in, face flushed. The medic-nin, Yuri, shot the younger girl a dark glare and Rei slackened back against the bed dejectedly. "You two suck," she muttered quietly, looking away to which Yuri callously yanked out a needle before jabbing a new one back in, causing the kunoichi to stir.

"Ten days. At least."

He sighed. She's going to miss a lot. Nonetheless, "I'll see you in two weeks then, Rei." Kakashi smiled supportively and patted his student's hair.

Since the first chapter got some good reviews - even favourites and follows, here's chapter 2! I appreciate all the reviews, and hope you enjoy this as well :)