He then explained that Professor Uchiha would be teaching the more text book orintated things, and that come end of the year their grade would one fourth be counted on their work during the year and the other three forths would be graded in what he called a mock chunin exam. He also explained where he came from that wizards there were given rank depending on certian abilities they learned and that their country was always in the middle of some fude or another so learning was very important and take very seriously.
Harry was bored, actually, this sounded WAY too much like gym in his old muggle school and was wondering why Professor Hatake was taking such pain staking amount of time to explain all of this when he said something that caught Harry attention. "Now class, I must tell you anything we teach is not to be shared with other students who are not taking the class or you familys, you may show them the things you have learned, but do not attempt to teach them."
Professor Hatake said, the air in the room seemed to become painfully thick and a shudder ran down every ones spine, but as soon as the feeling had come it was gone and Professot Hatake was smiling, or at least he though he was... "Alright, every one out of your seats please, take you books and supplies and place them in front of the door if you would?"
Warily the class did as they were told, Professor Hatake flicked his wand sending their desks and seats to the ceiling where they flipped upside down and stuck them selves to the ceiling. Professor Hatake then pulled out a small bundle of jingling bells, to their amazement he jumped up and placed a set of bells on the bottom of one chair before monkey swinging to another placeing two bells on each seat evenly thought the room. He then lets go dropping gracefully to the floor.
Professor Hatake sorted them into groups of three, to Harry's horror he was placed with Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom, each group being placed under a set of bells. "Okay, now all you have to do is get the bells-"
"Tch that'll be easy." Malfoy snorted interupting Professor Hatake.
"With out you wands." Kakashi finished, then told them to pocket their wands and if they used them anythime during the lesson they would earn detention with Professor Hoshigaki.
Hermione's hand shot up and Professot Hatake motioned for her to ask her question. "Huh, Sir, why are there only two bells for each team? Is there anything sagnificant about that?"
Professor Hatake chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Right, I forgot, who ever doesn't get the bells down by the end of class, will get a failing grade for this class for the rest of the semester, who ever doesn't have their own bell by the end of class wont get lunch this afternoon and will be spending the lunch piriod locked in this class room, watching me eat. Also I understand that you are to always to carry your wands around with you where ever you go, as it is wise, but you will not be using them in this class. Ever. Time starts... now."
Hermione looked scandilized saying that at least one student out of every group wouldn't get lunch, he face twisted in a cross between horror, disbelieve and determination. Actually most of the class had similar looks just not to that extreme. Then Professor Hatake cast another spell and suddenly Harry couldn't hear or see the other students. 'Must be to keep people from taking other's ideas.' Harry mused as he turned his attention to his new 'team mates', Neville he could handle, but trying to do anything with Malfoy was going to be a pain.
He almost chuckled when he saw Maylfoy jumping veinly to reach the chair, who then gave up and ordered poor Neville, who was sweating bullets, to get on his hands and knees so he could stand on him. "Enough Malfoy, you know as well as I do it wont be enough, but I do have an idea, if you'll listen that is." Malfoy crossed his arms with a scowl, looking at Neville and comparing the hight of the chairs again.
"Alright Potter, if you think you're so smart let's hear it." He said smugly. Harry just moved Neville to stand infront of Malfoy.
"Alright, now I want you two to grab hands as if you were shaking hands, then do the same with your left hands an hold them there." Malfoy reluctantly held out his hand, mumbling something about this had better work. Neville whipped his hands on his jeans before gripping Malfoy's out streached hand, then repeating with their left hands so that their arms were crisscrossed with their hands interlocked.
"Alright, now lower your hands down so I can step onto them, then once I'm up, slowly raise you arms, don't worry Neville it's easier then it sounds." Harry reasured the terrified boy. Begrudgingly Malfoy did what was asked, only because Harry looked lighter then him, deffiantly lighter the the slightly pudgy Neville and Malfoy didn't want to chance falling or being dropped, who'd of thought that Potter would have thought all this out in a matter of seconds?
They lifted Harry up, who could now easily snatch the bells, they lowered him down enough for him to climb off. "Thanks guys." Harry murmerd loud enough for them to hear. He then held out a bell to Malfoy and Neville who held up his hands saying Harry deserved it because he thought up the plan and actually got the bell.
"No you take it Neville, it was very brave of you to help like that." He then placed the bell in Neville's hand letting go quickly so he had no choice but to take it. Harry felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to come face to face with a bell.
"Here Potter, you need lunch more then I do, besides I had too much to eat at breakfast, I'm not really that hungry." A low growl from his stomach said other wise. Neville set his bell down and Malfoy looked at him questioningly before setting his bell down as well.
"Looks like none of us will have lunch then." Harry said as what ever made the other students inviasable vanished, revialing some commical scenes. Ron was currently being used as a stepping stool by Goyal, Crab standing in view of Ron cracking his knuckles, they hadn't managed to come close to reaching their bells. Hermiones team looked like the had given up leaving hermione to try desperatly to reach for the bells. A girl from Slitherin was sobbing being comforted by a boy from Slitherin and a Gryffindore sitting sulkly on the floor. It was complete an utter chaos.
"You all fail." Professor Hatake said electing a few more sobbs, Hermione looking close to tears herself.
"B-but Sir, we m-mannaged to get our bells." Neville stuttered out, every eye in the room landed on them, Malfoy kicked the two bells on the floor toward Professor Hatake who bent over picking them up.
"So you did, may I ask how you mannaged this seemingly impossible feat?" Professor asked, with an undertone that the question was retorical and that every one else should know what the answer is.
"Well, I heard Malfoy... ask, Neville to let him stand on his back, but it looked to be too short, so we desided instead to have two members interlock their hands and lift the third member of our group up so they could reach the bells. Once we had them we couldn't deside who should have them so we agreed to skip as a whole group to be fair." Harry said, keeping who's idea it really was and who interlocked hands to save Malfoy's pride, they would more then likely need to work together later on.
"I'm impressed, now can any one of you who failed to meet the goal of this test tell me what this test was about?" Still looking like he was about to sob Hermione meekly raised her hand. Professor Hatake nodded for her to answer.
She looked at her two team mates before looking back. "Team work, sir."
"Correct, now if you all had worked together to come up with some way to reach the bells with out thinking of how to get one for yourself, you might have succeeded." Another hand shot up, this time it was Pansy, a second year girls from Slytherin, she didn't even wait for Professor Hatake to nod.
"You perpously pitted us against each other! How could you do that if you want us to work together, it makes no sense." Kakashi to there suprise smiled at her out burst.
"I did pit you against each other, but tell me, what if this was a battler against, oh say a Deatheater? Let's pretend you are trained Aurors, sent in a small team to track down a Deatheater, your mission is to bring the Deatheater back no matter what, but your friends are trapped in a caved in tunnel unable to get out with the air supply deminishing rapidly, if you go capture the Deatheater your friends run out of oxygen and die, but if you go and save your friends the Deatheater gets away and you may never have another chance to capture him again, failing the mission and loosing your job, what do you do?"
Professor Hatake got several complaints that it wasn't fair and it was an impossible situation, nothing like that would ever happen. Then int he blink of an eye he had Malfoy under pinned him with a sharp object to his neck, he threw another object at the bottom of Crab and Goyle's feet. "Crab, kill Goyle or Malfoy dies."
Said boys froze with terror, both looked at each other then down at the kunai on the floor, neither moving to grab it. Kakashi sighed and got up off Malfoy sliding the kunai back into it's holster. "You see, in a real life situation, had these two acted just as they did now Malfoy would be dead, had I really wanted to kill him. What they did is basically the equivilant of running away and leaving Malfoy behind. Remember, those who disobey orders are trash, but those who abandon their friends and comrades are worse then trash."
Kakashi flicked his wand, all the chairs and tables flipped right side up, the bells flying into Professor Hatake's hand as the chairs and tables set them selves onto the floor once more. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Longbottom, you are free to go, Miss Granger you may leave as well since you at least understand the concept of the test and Mr Weasly you may leave as well, you both still have a failing grade though, Mr. Crab and Mr. Goyle have detention with me tonight, you know why, every one else gather your things and make yourselves comfortable."
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Naruto had never been so confused in his life once him and the edler Uchiha had went their seperate ways, he hadn't even gotten a chance to get hints as to why the elder Uchiha was telling him this. He got most of what the Uchiha was talking about, or at least he thought he did, but it made his brain hurt trying to peice together the pieces of the puzzle.
Flash Back
"Naruto, don't let your guard down around me or Kisame, especially if Kisame is a round." Itachi glance out of the corner of his eye as something crakled in the class down the hall. He was oviously preturbed at the idea of being caught by anyone while he was talking to Naruto.
"I don't have much time so listen close, the leader is not The Leader but the man who is can't be beat by normal means. As there is an illuision to the motives of the Akatsuki, know that not every story is told the same from another's point of view. After all who knows the story better then the one committing who created it?" Itach said cryptically, stressing the second leader title, wheels turned in Naruto's head, but before he could ask any questions his clone despelled. He gave Itachi a warning and the edler Uchiha told him to go on ahead and not to mention this conversation to anyone he needed to figure it out on his own.
End Flash Back
He had understood the part about the leader, but he lost the elder Uchiha at the part where the motives of the Akatsuki are an illuision. He pretty much guessed that Itachi meant that he needed to find the person this who mess started with, but the question was, who started it? How and why was the Akatsuki formed in the first place? Yeah these were questions he'd asked himself before, but now they seemd even more important, meaning they were going to haunt his every waking thought now until he figured it out.
"Great, just what I need." Naruto mumbled to himself as he made his way up to the greate hall for lunch. Naruto wasn't stupid, at least not as stupid as he acted, hell if he had actually done his work in school he would have blown Sakura's almost perfect grades out of the water with better then perfect. He also would have left the academy long before them, well technically he had, but only three people knew the true extent of what he meant, one of them being himself and another being dead.
Naruto thought over the missions he was doing just before he left, it was almost impossible to earn enough money to support himself, well he could with the amount of work he did, if he were paying regular priced for things, his rent had been jacked up once again, shop owners always made him pay more for his things, at least the food and stuff he bought was in fair quailty they didn't dare sell him rotten food, if they Hokage got wind of it then it would be the end of them. And if the increase of price wasn't enough most times the clients wouldn't pay him the full amount, not only that but on top of being robbed or his apartment being broken into.
Naruto looked at the Slytherin table to see it was void of most it's students. He chuckled lightly and ploped down next to Malfoy who was eating a large serving of mashed patatos. "Kakashi Sensie did the bell test didn't he?" He asked helping himself to some seasoned rice looking wairly at the mased patatos.
"You mean Professor Hatake? Yeah, how did you know?" Malfoy asked eating another spoon full of patatos.
"Ah, it's what we call our Professors, usually their first name then Sensei, Sensei is the equivilant of Professor or Teacher is more accurate. And he gave us the bell test in our second year." Fist year counting as the academy.
"Though I think he did the bell test for all years by the look of it. The hall is almost completely empty, his classroom much be packed." Malfoy shrugged while swollowing the last bits of food in him mouth.
"I don't know about other years, but man is he bloody nutters. At first I thought he was only joking about the not getting lunch and failing. But I can kind of see where he's coming from." Malfoy said puching bits of patato around his plate, his huge appitite seemed to vanish.
"I was atually scared and mad when he pinned me then orderd my Crabb to kill Goyle or he'd kill me. Stupid morons could have at least picked up the knife and tried to save me, they looked like the were about to bolt." Malfoy said brooding, Naruto leaned one elbow on the table and rested his head in the palm of his hand.
"It's alright, Kakashi's test is bruttal, he was just trying to make a point is all, it also helps people to remeber it for the rest of their lives. People who disobey orders are trash, but people who abandon their friends are worse then trash. The bell test is also tradition, his Sensie, er, Professor taught it to him and his Teacher before him. I don't know how far back it goes, but the saying couldn't be more true. After all no one can ever do what they have to completely alone."
Naruto stood looking over across the room. "I'll be back in a few I just need to talk to some one real quick." Naruto said and made his way over the to Gryffindor table, ploping down next to Sakura and Sai who were currently talking to Harry, Ron and Hermione about something.
"Oh, hey Naruto. How you been doing? Are you feeling better now?" Sakura asked, Naruto was mentally beating her to death for being stupid.
"Yeah Sakura-chan I feel much better after a good nights rest." Naruto said, his mask firmly in place, even still Harry looked like he was sickend by the sudden on slaught of happiness. Naruto locked eyes with him for a split second sending what he hoped was a silently plee not to bring it up as he grabbed a roll and stuffed it animated into his mouth, earning him a wack on the back of the head, he would have choked if he wasn't expecting it.
"Naruto! Don't eat like a pig!" Sakura scolded. Naruto rubbed the bump forming on his head. He might be stronger then he lets on, but a wack to the head still hurt like a son of a bitch.
("Hey Naruto did you notice the Anbu looks alot like Sasuke?") Sakura asked in a hushed tone as the golden trio told Sai about Herboilgy class and some about the Kakashi's class.
(Yeah, but it's not him and you know it, he left for Orochimaru. How could it be?) Naruto said, making it sound excited like he was actually hoping it was him despite what he was saying.
(I don't know, maybe he's really an Anbu and going after Orochimaru was a cover to get infromation because Orochimaru had taken an intrest in him. Then once he got the information he needed he escaped and is currently hiding as the Anbu so Orochimaru doesn't know he's returned to the village.") Now instead of beating her to death because of he stupidity he wanted to laugh, though even he had to admit the story wasn't so far fetched, but he was certian that Anbu wasn't Sasuke.
"Hey Naruto, what are you doing at our table anyway? Slytherins hate us and hardly ever come near our table let alone sit down at it." Ron asked through a mouth full of meat.
"Well I gathered you guys don't like each other much the way your older twin brothers kept tyring to prank me, but what do I care? It's not like you're any different then the other houses... are you? Cause if you're really man eating ghouls or something tell me and they I'll avoid you like the plauge no problem." Naruto said dead panned and every one burst into fits of laughter
Naruto stood and turned toward his table. "See ya guys around, I told Draco I'd only be a few minutes." He walked over and sat back down next to Malfoy continuing his previous conversation.
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A/N Right, so I might have more then two chapters... this one's so long it practically counts as two, or the other chapter is just short... our computer that has internet died, bit the big one, kicked the bucket, keeled over, kissed it ass good bye, pushing up daisies, six feet under, you get the point. So envitably I've had nothing but time on my hands until we get a new one. Thank goodness this computer still works. *Knocks on wood.*
Editors note: I am currently editing this story for my sister, she's a little grammaticly challenged if you know what I mean, but i'm human and miss some words so if you spot a misspelled word or two please tell me what they were as well as the correct spelling. Please and thank you! 3 her littlest sis P.S And I so think this should be a DracoxNaruto!
Author: NO!!!! *Pokes her with stick* I've already made up my mind who's going to be with who. XP Buuut if peoples ask nicely... I might write a DracoxNaruto one shot!! Seperate from this story mind you.