Kakashi's POV

'I must admit these kids are quite amusing compared to all of the others I've had. Except for the fact that they're going to fail. Just like the rest of them.' I thought as I walked away from the Uchiha kid. So far I've only faced the pink one, the anti-social one, and the very hyper one. Although I haven't seen the last one yet, Akina I think her name was. As I was walking I continued to read my book, hoping to finish it today possibly, since I have nothing else better to do. Unless, of course, Akina actually attempts to get a bell within the next few minutes that are left.

'Well she better hurry up it's almost no-'

I didn't get to finish my thought as an ambush of kunai attacked me from all sides. A few of them almost cut my book in half. 'Very clever of her to attack her enemy when they least expect it. This might be fun and I actually might put my book away for this. ' I thought as I dodged more kunai. Suddenly the rain of kunai stopped and the air became unnaturally still, as I waited for her to make a move. I scanned the area with my eye trying to look for her through the tree branches, wondering where she was hiding. A few minutes had passed when a shadow blurred through the trees heading in the direction towards the same clearing where we had started from. I felt the chakra signature of the shadow it turned out it was Akina running through the trees. I was actually somewhat excited for this.

'Let the chase begin.' Was my last thought before I jumped into the trees and ran after her.

Sasuke's POV

'How the hell did I get stuck like this! Damn it!', I thought as I watched Kakashi walk away and leave me here stuck in the ground. I could feel the scowl on my face deepen at the fact that I beaten so easily. Suddenly he was being ambushed by kunai coming from the trees and he actually put that stupid book away or else it would have been shredded by kunai. For a few minutes he stood there after the kunai stopped attacking, as though he was waiting for something. He must have seen something, I couldn't see because of my position, because he jumped into the trees chasing after something. This left me all alone in the clearing, by myself.

Still stuck in the ground.

"Of course none of those bakas will have any sense as to look for me and get me out of this damn hole." I said at no one, my anger rising because I was placed on a team full of idiots. Except Akina since she can actually pay attention to something, that is not me, and she can think for herself.

'That must be the reason why they put her on this team, to balance the scale of whose smart and who's an idiot.'

"Well Sasuke if that's how you really feel about us then I should just leave you here."

Slightly shocked, since I didn't sense her, I turned my head to the right and see Akina standing there with her arms crossed over her chest and she had that 'Tsk,tsk' expression on her face while slightly shaking her head. I just turned my head back forward and closed my eyes trying to ignore her, even though I did need her help.

"Ok then I guess I will leave you here even though no one else but me and Kakashi-sensei knows where you are but who knows how long it's going to take him to realized that he is just chasing a shadow clone." she said while turning around and started to walk away. This caught my interest a little bit because she gave up a chance to get a bell so that she could help me, but why?

Akina's POV

'Now let's see if this Uchiha will fall for the bait.' I thought as I walked away from the Uchiha who was still stick in the ground. When Sasuke and Kakashi were fighting I had made a few clones and told them to wait on to go to different places around the clearing so that we could ambush Kakashi-sensei with kunai. I told one of my clones to wait for a few minutes and then to run towards the clearing from this morning and to make sure Kakashi would see her. The plan worked perfectly as the clone did her job and Kakashi ran after her just as I had hoped.

"Wait."

I stopped in my tracks as I waited to hear what the Uchiha wanted.

"Help me." he said in a commanding way.

'I think I'm going to play with him just a little bit.' I thought as I smirked.

"What's the magic word?" I said as I put my right hand to my ear as if I was listening for something.

"Please."

I could hear him grind his teeth together when he said it as if he had to force the word out; this made me smile a bit.

"Alright then let's get started." I said as I prepared to get my hands dirty. About 5 minutes later Sasuke was out of the hole and was brushing the dirt off of his clothes. I was in the process of wiping the dirt off my hands when I heard Sasuke say something, "Thanks." It wasn't much but I knew that it was all that I was going to get.

"No problem, now how about we get back to the clearing, since we probably only have a few minutes left anyway." I said as I looked at him. He just 'Hn'ed at me in agreement as he began to walk in the direction of the clearing. I sighed as I followed him into the lush green forest.

The entire walk with Sasuke was both silent and somewhat awkward since we said nothing to each other at all, but during our walk we did hear the alarm go off signaling the end of the challenge. I looked at Sasuke's face to see what his expression was and even though his face stayed the same his eyes showed his anger and annoyance. A few minutes passed until we could see the clearing just ahead us and I could see that Sakura was already there since her pink hair stuck out against the greenery. Although, I didn't see Naruto anywhere near her. 'I wonder what happened to him?' I thought. As Sasuke and I stepped out of the forest and into the clearing Sakura immediately noticed Sasuke and bolted towards him. When she got to him she automatically hugged him tightly and started to speak a mile per minute.

"Oh Sasuke I missed you so much! I couldn't find you anywhere! Are you injured? Hurt?" Her only answer was Sasuke yelling at her to "Get off!" as he was pushing her away. When he finally got her to let go she had a sad expression on her face but it immediately turned into her normal love-struck daze as she still looked at Sasuke.

"Oi, Akina you're here! Did you get a bell?" said a voice which sounded like Naruto's. Slightly startled I turn my head to the right and saw that Naruto was sitting tied up to the middle post where the alarm clock sat. Confusion clouded my mind as I wondered why Naruto was tied up in the first place. I walked over to him and in front of him cross-legged and before I could say anything he started to ramble on into his story of why he was tied to the post. Apparently after Naruto had left me standing there in the clearing he was trying to find Kakashi-sensei and in his quest he had found the lunchboxes. And since Kakashi-sensei wasn't anywhere to be seen he tried to eat his lunch so he wouldn't starve if we failed except before he could open his box Kakashi-sensei stopped him and tied him to the post as punishment. During the whole story I sat there and listened while I was slightly shaking my head in disbelief. 'Oh Naruto I love you but you DO NOT think things through very well at all.'

"Hey Akina how about you help untie me, Kakashi-sensei would never know!" Naruto whispered to me.

"Or Akina can just ignore your request or else I will also tie her to the post next to you." Kakashi-sensei whispered as he stood right behind me while bending his upper body so that it was hovering over my head.

"Sorry Naruto you're on your own for this one." I said not wanting to be tied to the post as well, as much as I cared for Naruto, so I moved out from under Kakashi-sensei to sit against a post next to his. I noticed that Kakashi-sensei had all of our lunches behind his back and I could feel myself get slightly hungry but not too much since I did eat breakfast this morning.

"Traitor." Naruto mumbled as he looked away from Kakashi-sensei and I.

"Now that that is settled I can now announce that I'm not going to send none of you back to the academy even though you all failed this exercise." At hearing this Naruto became very excited as he yelled in excitement, Sakura had a 'WTF' face, Sasuke was being Sasuke (meaning all he did was 'Hn'ed), and I starting to think that Kakashi was pulling our leg here. 'There has to be something more to this because he wouldn't let us pass since we did horrible on this exercise. What is his game plan?' I thought as I waited for him to elaborate.

"Instead all four of you will be expelled from the program immediately and this is permanent."

Everyone's expression was of shock and disbelief at what Kakashi just said. 'This has got to be a joke they can't drop us from the program because of this. No, Kakashi-sensei has to be going somewhere with this.'

"What the hell Kakashi-sensei! You said that if we couldn't a bell then you would just send us back to the academy. Now you go and change your mind on us! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" Naruto yelled at Kakashi-sensei while struggling against the rope that binds him to the post.

"Actually I can do that because instead of thinking like ninjas you're all thinking like a bunch of little brats." Kakashi said with his arms crossed and a hard expression in his eye. Before I could comprehend it Sasuke was rushing towards Kakashi with a kunai in his hand and, by the look in his eye, I could tell that he wasn't thinking right, he was letting his anger blind him. Kakashi used this against him as he easily pinned Sasuke to the ground and was now sitting on Sasuke's back while twisting Sasuke's left hand behind his back.

"Now you think you are better than everyone don't you, well guess what you aren't. None of you know what it takes to be real ninja instead you are all acting as if this is some kind of game. Let me ask you this; why do you think you were assigned into teams? I guess that never even crossed your minds did it?" During his speech Kakashi's tone was the definition of harsh and I could see that everything he pointed out were starting to make everyone realize what he wanted us to figure out.

"Sensei I don't understand what you mean?" Sakura said with uncertainty in her voice.

"What I mean is that none of you have even come close to figuring out why we're doing this exercise in the first place, although I suspect that Akina already figured it out from the beginning. Didn't you Akina? Would you please tell them what the whole point is?" Kakashi asked as he turned his attention towards me, as everyone else did the same.

I automatically straightened my back against the post, from all of the attention and pressure, as I began to answer Kakashi's question, "The point of this exercise was to learn about teamwork since that's the only reason why they assign us to different teams in the first place. If we had all come up with a plan together we would have passed the test but since we went our own ways we didn't get a bell, so we failed." As I was explaining my teammate's faces changed from their shock to understanding as they started to understand everything.

"Perfect Akina, that is exactly why we have these tests for all of you. But since you guys couldn't grasp that sooner you lose."

"But sensei even if we did come together and got the bells from you, only 3 of us would have passed since there are only 3 bells and four people. Which would have created inner conflict between the team and eventually the team would split apart." Sakura explained as she was getting closer to a very important point.

"I know I did this on purpose. I wanted to see if you would all stick work together and overcome this obstacle by putting the squad before yourself. As genin you should automatically feel the need for teamwork among yourselves, which was what Akina tried to do in the first place but you were all too blinded by your own selfishness. For example, Sakura when Akina woke you up from my Genjutsu your first thought was about Sasuke so you began to worry about the well-being of someone else, who wasn't even near you at the time, instead of even asking Akina to come with you or even work together to find him. Next was Naruto when you fell for my trap and was hanging upside down, who was it that cut you down instead of leaving you there to go after me. Oh that was Akina, and by the way you guys are so close I was quite shocked when you didn't even give her the time of day for her to ask you to work together. No you wanted to do everything on your own without any help at all. And lastly we have Sasuke who thought he was so far above you all that he thought you were worthless. In fact if it wasn't for Akina you would probably still be sitting in that whole while Akina could have left you there and go after me. Except she didn't, she was more worried about her team mate so she sacrificed her own chance to beat me when I had my guard to help you. That is just plain arrogance to the core. Even though it is important to each have your own set of skills the most important one that every shinobi he/she knows is teamwork, without it you will fail every mission without a doubt and people will die. Let me show you an example." I saw Kakashi pull a kunai from his weapons pouch and put it to Sasuke's throat. 'What the hell is he doing?' I thought as I sat up more in my sitting position, my body tensing up ready to move if I have to.

"Sakura kill both Naruto and Akina now, or else Sasuke dies!" Kakashi was very serious as he looked at Sakura, waiting for her to react while holding his kunai too close to Sasuke's throat for my liking. I could feel my body tense up even more as an overwhelming strong wave of protectiveness washed over me, which almost made me want to attack Kakashi right then and there. And I could feel myself almost growl at him but I stopped myself before I could make a sound. 'What is going on with me? This has never happened to me before.' I thought as I tried to silently calm myself down and pay attention to the situation. When I looked at Sakura she just stood there not knowing what to do while Naruto had a panicked look on his face, wondering whether or not if Sakura was going to do it.

"This is exactly what will happen on a mission if there is no teamwork, one of your comrades will pay the price for it. With their life." Kakashi-sensei explained as he removed the kunai away from Sasuke's throat which made my sudden protectiveness go away and my body was starting to relax as the tension was slipping away. Which was also the case with Naruto and Sakura since Sasuke wasn't in any danger anymore. We all watched as Kakashi-sensei got off of Sasuke and started walking towards a giant black stone.

"This stone is very important; on it are all of the names of shinobi who are considered heroes of this village." Kakashi said and I could hear the tone of his voice get lower and held sadness in it.

"That's it! I want to have my name engraved on that stone too! So that everyone will see that I am a hero, that I didn't' die for nothing." Naruto exclaimed with great enthusiasm. 'It looks like he doesn't fully understand the importance of this stone. But I do, my mother's name is written on it.' I thought as I examined the stone from my seat on the ground, wondering where they had placed her name on it.

"Naruto each of these heroes are a special kind of hero." Kakashi tried explained to him.

"Well then what kind of hero are they then Kakashi-sensei! Please tell us!"

"They are all KIA, which means Killed In Action. This is a memorial stone for them; some of these names are the names of my closest friends." The smile on Naruto's face quickly disappeared when he fully processed Kakashi's words. It was a very silent moment as we stood/sat there thinking about all of the people who were on that stone.

After a few moments Kakashi turned around to face us and said, "I am willing to give you guys another chance but it won't be nearly as easy as the first task was. I'm going to give you 3 hours to get a bell so eat lunch to build up your strength, but DO NOT give Naruto any lunch since he tried to eat it earlier by himself. And if anyone of you tries to feed him you automatically fail, I make the rules around here and you have to follow them. Do you understand?" With that Kakashi gave us back our lunches and walked away to somewhere we didn't know. Sakura and Sasuke began to eat their lunches while I sat there for a moment just looking at mine. I looked at Naruto's face and saw that he was trying desperately to be strong and look like he wasn't hungry, but deep down I knew he was starving since he didn't eat any breakfast. 'It's okay if I fail it's not like this is going to stop me from becoming an Anbu Captain down the road, it will just take a little bit longer than expected.' Suddenly Naruto's stomach made a loud growl which made chuckle a bit as his tough-guy expression was wiped off his face by embarrassment.

"Hey don't worry about me I can go for days, ha even weeks without having to eat. Believe It!" Although after he said it his stomach growled even louder than before. Shaking my head at Naruto's front of courage I moved my lunch box in front of his face just as Sasuke did the same thing and our boxes slightly bumped together. I looked at his face, my mind filled with curiosity as to why he was even helping Naruto in the first place. His face revealed nothing as he said to Naruto, "Here you need to eat something if we're ever going to get a bell from Kakashi."

"But Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei said that we will fail if we try to help him. Aren't you both afraid if what will happen if you do fail?" Sakura said as she had a fearful look in her eyes as they wondered around the clearing, trying to see if Kakashi was near.

"I will be more afraid if Naruto doesn't get any energy before we try to get the bells he will be useless to us. It will jeopardize not only the safety of our team but the mission as well." I said looking at Sakura with determination, trying to ease her worry and doubts away. She looked down at her lunch until she also put her lunch in front of Naruto's face, with more confidence than she had a few moments ago. During all of this Naruto had a look of utter disbelief and shock as he saw all of us wanting to help him, he actually had small tears in his eyes.

"Thank you guys so much, you're all the best."

"It's okay Naruto just hurry up and eat before we get caught. Besides I'm on a diet so I don't need to eat as much as you guys." Sakura said. A scared look came upon Naruto's face when Sakura said this and it confused me a little bit. 'I wonder what's wrong with Naruto, she was just telling him to eat when- wait. I think I understand now.' I thought as I moved from the post I was leaning against to sit in front of Naruto, on my knees. I opened up my lunchbox to grab my chopsticks so that I could feed him some of my Korokke I made yesterday for dinner. With everyone's shocked face watching me I put the food in front of Naruto's face so that he would get the hint to open his mouth.

He looked at me with appreciation, and tears, in his eyes and said, "Akina you are the greatest friend I could have ever asked for."

"Thank you for the compliment Naruto, but for right now eat this so that we can complete this mission, okay. But just to let you know the only time I will ever do this again is because for some magical reason you broke both of your arms and you can't use them. Is that clear?" I said with an innocent smile on my face. Sweat appeared on his forehead as he understood what I had said to him.

"Don't worry Akina this only a onetime thing I promise." With that cleared up he took the Korokke in his mouth and started to chew it. As soon as he swallowed it I felt a sudden strong gust of wind blow from behind me and I could see smoke from the corner of my eye. Everyone was struggling to fight against the wind so they could what was going on. After the wind and smoke died down Kakashi was crouching in front of us with an evil glint in his eye.

"YOU!" He screamed very dramatically looking at all of us. Naruto started to freak out because of it but I was more upset with the fact that he made me drop my lunchbox. 'Asshole!' I thought as I still sat in front of Naruto giving Kakashi a hard glare.

"You all broke the rule so now it is time for the consequences because of that." He straightened into a standing position as he started to perform hand signs. Dark clouds that were as black as the night sky rolled in and a giant drum of thunder was heard. Unpredictable flashes of lightning could be seen and one of them struck the ground right behind Kakashi which really made him somewhat scary. 'What the hell does he think he is doing? Is he trying to kill us?' I thought as I continued to watch him wondering what he was going to do next.

"Any last words?"

"W-wait now hold on a minute. Y-you said that there were three of us and that's why they all helped me." Naruto answered as he looked around at all of us.

"We are all on this squad so we're all in this together." Sasuke said as he backed up Naruto. Sakura stopped shaking when she heard them both and added, "Yeah that's right we gave him our lunch because the four of us are all one."

"This means that if our teammate is in trouble then we will help them. Regardless of what the rules tell us to do. We are a team, no rules should tell us which of us should live or die." I added at the very end. Saying exactly what I believed in.

Kakashi stared at us with that hard look in his eye and said, "Is that your excuse? All of you are one." We all nodded at him without fear and with truth in our eyes. Suddenly his entire mood changed as he smiled and said, "You pass." We all looked at him as if he just grew a second head.

"What did you say?" Sakura asked for all of us.

"I said you passed."

'WTF! You ruined my lunch for this?'

The end! Yay! I live (after dealing with problems I had to take care of and the time-consuming schedule that comes with being a junior in high school. Oh the fun of it. NOT) and another chapter is out but I am still looking for a beta reader because even though I try re-read my chapters it is hard because well to me everything looks fine. Except to you guys so either ask me to be my beta and/or review/private message me with criticism so that every chapter will improve. With this I sign off and hope you guys enjoy your week.

~animerox023 and Akina Yukito