No Longer Faceless

Chapter 3

Saijo Atsuki took the scenic route in today's travels towards Training Ground 7 so that he would arrive at exactly seven o'clock. Today, just like yesterday, he was received with harsh glares from his teammates Shiho and Shin for being so close to being late. All three of the Genin were decked out in full combat gear in preparation for the trials and tribulations that would inevitably occur today.

In response to the rather cold greeting, if it could be called that, Atsuki gave an irritated huff and rattled off the shinobi rule that states that a good shinobi shows up on time; no sooner, and no later. Shiho gave an embarrassed blush and mumbled an apology, while Shin just gave an annoyed grunt and plopped himself down next to the center wooden training post. The blonde girl settled down next to the post to Shin's left as her face shifted into a peaceful expression that showed some amount of clear anticipation. Atsuki elected to perch atop the remaining post in order to gaze out at the surrounding area.

The large training posts were situated in the center of a large clearing, surrounded for the most part by woods. There was a large stream that cut through the area several dozen meters away from the Genin. Several meters behind them sat a large crystalline rock, with dozens, if not hundreds of names inscribed onto its surface. It was clearly a memorial stone, a tribute to all of the brave shinobi that perished in the service of Konoha.

A cool breeze rippled through the grass, a rarity considering the season, just as Shin grew annoyed enough with the silence to speak up. "I heard some nasty stuff about this Kakashi guy, asides from his eternal tardiness." The only response he got was a clear shifting of attention towards him, so he continued, "I heard that this guy has been an elite Jounin for nearly a decade, but hasn't taken on a Genin squad yet."

This got a much more pronounced reaction as Atsuki actually turned on his perch in order to look at Shin face to face, and Shiho piped up, "An Elite Jounin, think of what an opportunity this is! A chance to be taught by a master!"

Atsuki cut off her celebration very quickly. "Ten years? But don't the Elites have to take in a Genin squad? Ten years without would mean…"

"Ten years of Genin sent back to the remedial class," Shin finished.

"But, but, he said, the test was-"

Atsuki cut her off. "Only a thirty three percent chance of passing? He probably lied about it. Given that we're dealing with the guy responsible for a full generation of remedial students, he's probably going to give us some kind of Impossible Task."

"I wouldn't call the Bell Test impossible, Saijo," Kakashi remarked from behind said boy, who jumped in surprise and fell off his perch but caught himself in the landing, and was immediately on guard, with kunai in hand. Privately, Kakashi applauded the boy for stopping himself from throwing the knife in what would clearly be an instinctive reaction. Atsuki's intense reaction caused the other two would-be Genin from remembering to chastise Kakashi for his tardiness, even though he was a full four hours late this time.

Kakashi immediately went about clarifying the parameters of the Bell Test. He placed an alarm clock on Atsuki's former perch. "You have until noon to take one of these," he pulled out two bells from his flak jacket and attached them to the equipment pouch at his hip. "If you do not have one by noon then you fail. None of you are allowed to eat until the test is over, by the way." He said this is the most evil, yet cheerful tone that Shiho and Shin had ever heard.

At this, two stomachs, growled viciously, and the owners of said stomachs glared just as viciously at the owner of the third. No other action could be taken as Kakashi has set the timer and announced the beginning of the survival exercise.

Atsuki glanced at both of his teammates only to blanch when he saw that neither of the two was still at his side. "Are they stupid? This guy is a Jounin! Our only shot at this was to do the most unexpected thing ever: an immediate full frontal assault from all three of us! This guy is too good for any one of us to beat, or even all of us together. This is Day One, our teamwork is obviously shitty." He glared at Kakashi, who had apparently been lecturing him about being out in the open. "This guy has his full focus on me, or at least enough of it so that it would be impossible to drop off the radar for even a moment at this rate!" Atsuki only had one move in his, in hindsight, rather pitiful arsenal, that would give him so much as a chance of creating some distance.

The boy proceeded, much to both of his hidden teammate's dismay, to charge headfirst towards Kakashi, clearly going for a frontal assault with kunai in hand. The older man gave a rather disappointed sigh as he reached into his equipment pouch for a… book?

Atsuki continued, undaunted and without so much as stutter stepping, until he was just outside of punching distance of his sensei. He feinted to the left but went right, attempting to strike at the artery at Kakashi's shoulder. Or so everyone thought. The one eyed man elbowed Atsuki in the face only for him to pass straight through. It was a Bushin, an incorporeal Clone.

The real Atsuki had gone left, his eyes wide in surprise, "Holy shit, he fell for it, the Clone Superimposition!" If possible, his eyes widened further, "The bells are right there. I could…"

Kakashi however, noticed immediately and proceeded to roundhouse kick Atsuki in the gut, sending him careening several meters away into a nearby training post. His head cracked loudly against the wood, and the kid collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. The masked man walked up to examine the boy, making sure he was merely unconscious and not dead. After finding a pulse, Kakashi kneeled down to fish one of his bells out of the grass, he silently resolved himself to redouble his training. He must really have grown dull to have almost missed such a rookie trick.

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Atsuki groaned as he began to return to the land of the living. His thoughts were muddled and he had a killer headache stemming from the back of his head. He had had a concussion. He felt something next to him jump in alarm and heard, "Oh you're awake!" It was a familiar female voice, Shiho, his mind clarified.

Atsuki's eyes fluttered open as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. He stretched his sore muscles and gave a pointed glance at the girl next to him, who appeared rather beaten up, clearly asking for her to explain what had happened since his depart from consciousness.

After a moment, she got the point and straightened to attention and began explaining. "After Kakashi knocked you out, Saijo, you almost got a bell all by yourself, you know that-"She cut herself off and got back on topic after a sharp glare from the boy next to her. "Kakashi checked your pulse, replaced his bell, and began targeting me. I was trapped in some sort of Genjutsu loop. I was trying to be elusive and find Shin while keeping away from sensei since I'm not too good when it comes to straight out combat, you know." She paused, taking a breath to calm herself the memory of what had probably been a fairly traumatic illusion. "I don't know what happened to Shin and he refused to tell me. After Kakashi released me from the genjutsu, he tied Shin to one of the posts and waited for you to wake up. I guess he got bored after a while since you weren't waking up and none of us had any smelling salts with us. He cut Shin down from the post and began lecturing us on all the reasons we failed his test, mostly teamwork, or our lack thereof." Atsuki just glared at her like that had been obvious from the very start.

Shiho gave a very annoyed huff and demanded that Atsuki explain how it had been so obvious. The boy in question just replied that Kakashi was a Jounin as if that answered the question, and in hindsight, it did. There was no way a greenhorn Genin could defeat a shinobi as experienced as Kakashi all on their own. Shiho sighed at the depressing thought.

"We're being sent to the Remedial Class, Saijo!" She moaned. Atsuki asked where Shin was, clearly wanting to change topics.

"When Kakashi finished lecturing us, I think he ran off to go sulk. He tried so hard just to pass the Genin Exam, only to get stopped cold here…" Shiho trailed off.

Atsuki finally made to stand up and Shiho scrambled to steady him when he began wobbling. "Hey Shiho, do you mind helping me get home? I might still be concussed, I think." She nodded an affirmative, blushing lightly. He didn't know whether it was due to the relative intimacy of the request considering how little they knew of each other, or due to her close proximity to his person.

"I-I don't know where your place is, besides shouldn't you go to the hospital for that?"

"I think I can walk, just make sure I don't keel over or something. I got some medicine at my place; I don't need to bother our hospital with a simple concussion anyway," Atsuki assured her.

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Sure enough, by the time the two Genin made it to Atsuki's apartment, Shiho was carrying the majority of Atsuki's weight. He fiddled with the key for nearly half a minute before the blonde girl took from him and swiftly unlocked the door.

Atsuki staggered as quickly as he could away from Shiho and plopped down onto the desk in the main room, heedless of any of the three chairs. He was clearly ashamed at needing to have been virtually carried to his home. The girl rolled her eyes and asked him where he kept the pain killers. He gestured at the cabinet to the right of the refrigerator.

Roughly a minute later she returned with the pills, a glass of water, a damp washcloth, and some ice. After downing the pills and water, Atsuki held his hand out for the ice. Shiho rolled her eyes again in exasperation and insisted that she look at the damage. She stood behind him and pulled several splinters out of his hair though when she brushed her fingers against the bruised area she found no blood. Atsuki however, winced and shot her what would otherwise be a menacing glare. Satisfied with her work, Shiho wrapped the cloth around Saijo's head and put the bag of ice in place; she then wrapped the cloth around again and tied it off so the bag would stay in place.

Done with her work, the bespectacled girl stepped over to the table and pulled the closes chair around so that she could stare smugly at Atsuki.

` Immediately the boy asked the one thing that could wipe the smug off of her face in an instant. "So when do remedial classes start anyway?"

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Author's Note

Why do I feel like I'm using too many commas? The way I've structured the sentences, I think that most of those commas are actually necessary. It's still a lot of commas.

Finally, some dialogue, a touch of action, and the beginning of a friendship! Not a romance, I promise!

So come to think of it, I think that this fic spawns from the fact that in most of the fics when Naruto isn't a part of the Rookie Nine, authors just randomly, or with a paper thin excuse, throw Sai in there to replace him despite the fact that non-Root Sai is old enough to have graduated in Team Gai's class. Also they tend to make him totally identical to Root Sai due to the fact that he is just there to round out the Rookie Nine, despite that that is totally unrealistic since the Root conditioning constructed the grand majority of Sai's personality, or lack thereof. As you can see, these first few chapters are more about defining several aspects of his personality than of plot progression. There are already several responses that are quickly becoming standard for Atsuki.

Minirant over.

Please R&R, Signed Eye of the Blizzard, over and out.