Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did I'd be swimming in cash. I do however own the OC in this story.

Warnings: Swearing, violence, bloodshed as always. I forgot to mention that the rating might go up depending on where I take this. Might.

And thanks to you wonderful reviewers I was able to finally update and finish this chapter. Here's a cookie and cake for you all as a bonus! Hope you enjoy this chapter! :D

Chapter Five

Sasuke didn't even give me time to think as he flung a large shuriken at Kakashi. The man dodged.

"A frontal assault is wasted here." He told the boy firmly. Sasuke smirked. A whistle sounded from behind Kakashi. The shuriken was coming back!

Realising this, the silver-haired man dodged just in time, the blade whizzed past just as he jumped, landing in a nearby tree. Sasuke assaulted him with more weapons, they were the standard kunai this time, but he dodged that too, the weapons also landing on a nearby tree. Changing tactics, Sasuke ran at Sensei and swung a leg round in a strong kick. The man swiftly blocked it with an arm to absorb the impact and grabbed Sasuke's sandled ankle. Sasuke punched, Kakashi caught his fist, preventing it from going any further.

Choosing this as my time to attack, I launched myself at Kakashi from behind, aiming to slam my foot into his back. This failed as Kakashi pushed himself and Sasuke away, making me miss completely. I growled in frustration and landed back on the ground with a grunt.

Sasuke whipped his head 'round to glare at me. "I don't need you help!" He growled. I glared back, annoyed at his arrogance. "Who said I was helping you!" I retorted, my fists clenched in annoyance. Sasuke ran past me back at Kakashi, saying. "Stay out my way!"

I growled angrily to myself and stomped my foot. "Fine! Just don't come crying to me when you don't have a bell!" I yelled back at him. And with that I leapt back into a tree, leaving the fight. I knew I was being rather cowardly but I was mad and I needed to cool off or I'll won't be able to control my chakra. I don't know the extent of my power yet, but I know it'll cause devastating effects if not handled properly. That's why I sleep so much, why I train so hard, and why I'm tired most of the time. It's to keep my chakra in check. So when I do fight or anything it won't cause such bad results.

It's also the reason why I like to learn. With the unknown size of my chakra, I'm able to study and train lengths without having to restrict myself too much. The doppelgangers I use are able to retain memories and information, so when I cancel the jutsu, they are relayed back to myself, it's a really useful side-effect.

The sound of grunts and battle noises drew me from my thoughts and brought my attention back to the scene in front of me.

"I admit, you're not like the others." Kakashi stated after dodging more blows from Sasuke. The Uchiha boy retreated back and started doing various hand-signs in a pattern unknown to me. Soon enough, he pressed his fingers to his lips and took a deep breath.

'What is jutsu is he gonna use?' I wonder from my perch. I stared in awe and shock as a massive ball of flame shot out from Sasuke's mouth. The flames engulfed the area where Kakashi was standing.

"Oh my god, is he okay!?" I shouted, concerned for my sensei. The flames cleared up but it held nothing. Kakashi wasn't there. Sasuke tensed, hurriedly trying to figure out where the man had disappeared to. The ground suddenly rumbled beneath Sasuke and he struggled to keep balance.

"Earth Style! Groundhog Technique Decapitation!" Kakashi shouted, grabbing Sasuke's ankle and dragging him down into the earth, leaving just as a head poking out of the ground. Kakashi appeared in front of him, crouching down to get to his level. "The third shinobi battle skill: Ninjutsu." He lectured. "But at least, as you predicted, your performance was head and shoulders above that of your companions."

I rolled my eyes at his joke. But still smirked and sniggered at Sasuke's situation. 'Serves him right for shouting at me.' I thought to myself. I watch Kakashi as he walked away from Sasuke, saying dismissively. "Oh, well. You know what they say. The nail that sticks up is the one that gets hammered down, right? Heh heh heh."

As soon as he disappeared, I jumped down from my tree and walked over to the grumbling Sasuke. I grinned broadly under my mask, giggling madly. I crouched down and poked his cheek teasingly, much to the boy's displeasure.

"Stop it!" He demanded, attempting to shift his head away from my finger but failing horribly, I carried on still laughing. "It's not funny!"

"Ha ha! It so is!" I said joyfully. "I mean look at yourself, you're head is sticking out of the ground! It looks like you are talking severed head!" I stopped poking him to roll onto my back in laughter. Sasuke growled in annoyance, his cheeks flushed in embarrassment, a tick mark showing on his temple.

The shuffling of a bush caught our attention and out came of it Sakura. She seemed to have recovered from whatever Kakashi did to her, but once she saw Sasuke, she paled.

"It's Sasuke's head! It's been severed!" She shrieked and proceeded to drop into a dead faint. This made me break into laughter once more. "Ahah hah hah! See what I mean?!" I giggled whilst pointing to the collapsed girl. Sasuke once again growled in annoyance and climbed his way out of the ground. I calmed down enough to stand back up and watched as he walked over to Sakura. I ignored them as I was uninterested. My stomach was still gurgling with hunger, but was stronger than before.

'It must be nearing noon.' I thought, rubbing my belly. And right on cue the alarm signaled the end of the test. I swallowed tightly. 'I haven't got a bell yet and I only attacked Kakashi once, it was like I wasn't even trying. Dammit, I'm so screwed.' Thoughts overwhelmed my mind as I walked over to the tree stump. I saw Naruto was already tied to a stump looking grumpy with his stomach growling. I took a seat besides Sasuke, my body slumped in defeat.

Kakashi stood in front of us, his arms folded. "Oh my, listen to those little stomachs growl. By the way you four, I have announcement about this exercise."

I lifted my head to listen to what he was about to say. "None of you need to worry about going back to the Ninja Academy."

"Huh?" What's the catch? We can't have possibly passed because we didn't get a bell. I gave Kakashi a bewildered expression. Naruto and Sakura gained excited looks, oblivious to what was coming to them.

"This rocks!" They yell happily. "This means all four of us-"

"Are hopeless." Kakashi interrupted. "More schooling would be pointless. None of you will ever be shinobi!"

"And there's the catch." I mumbled miserably, my head hanging low. The others stared at Master Kakashi in shock.

"Give it up. None of the four of you," Kakashi continued. "Will ever be a ninja!"

I punched the ground in frustration, my eyes screwed shut. My dream is ruined.

"What do you mean give up!" Naruto screamed. "Give me a break! Okay so maybe none of us one of those stupid bells! But why the hell should we quit over that?!"

My snapped open at that. 'Naruto's right! I'm not gonna give up! I've gotten this far, why should I stop now!?' I thought and stared at Kakashi in determination.

"Because..." Kakashi drawled. "None of you have what it takes!"

It's seems Sasuke still has some juice left in him as he charged at Kakashi with full speed. But it was in vain as Kakashi had him pinned to the floor in no less than a second, his foot pressing against the boy's head.

Sakura yelled in shock for their sensei to get off of him. 'Grr! That does it!' I growled mentally, bloodlust shrouding my mind. And with that I stood up, anger fuelling me. My team-mates stared at me in confusion, I just ignored them. Instead, I acted.

"Art Of the Doppelganger!" I shouted and in seconds about a dozen clones stood around me, all of them preparing to attack. I grabbed some of my weapons and threw them in the air for my clones to catch. They did so. Now that they had their weapons, it was time to attack. I ran straight forward towards my sensei before kicking him of Sasuke. When Kakashi blocked it with an arm, I had one of my clones kick him in the side. It landed! Kakashi let out a grunt and moved away from Sasuke. I sent more of my clones to attack the Jounin whilst I turned my attention to my team-mate.

"What no thanks?" I said when the boy just brushed himself off, not saying a word. Sasuke grunted. I rolled my eyes at his behaviour. "Typical." I muttered and proceeded to walk back to my spot.

"Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast." The familiar voice of Kakashi sounding directly behind me. He was pressed right up my back, leaning forward to speak into my ears. The close contact and the deep voice sending shivers down my spine.

"H-how-?" I stuttered. My eyes wide with nervousness.

"You should never turn your back on an Elite shinobi, Reicheru." The Jounin rumbled into my ear. "That's a rookie's mistake."

I winced. "And now you get to pay the price." Kakashi finalized.

~0~

And so now I'm tied to the stump next to Naruto, behind Sasuke, irritated as all Hell. I listened as Kakashi once again gave us a lecture.

"What you are is a bunch of spoiled brats." He sneered, giving us a glare. "Are you trying to make fun of the shinobi with your behaviour? Well are you?"

I glared straight back at him.

"Did you even stop for one minute to think why you were divided into teams?" Kakashi asked. Naruto and Sakura stared blankly whilst Sasuke and I glared darkly.

"So you missed the entire point of the exercise." Kakashi sighed. "Okay then, think of it this way. The answer is what the two of you have done already, but because one of you decided to get cocky, you failed to have any chance of getting the bells. Any idea as to what the answer might be?" Kakashi glanced at us all before landing his eyes on me.

"Reicheru. You remember, right?" He asked. I nodded. Of course I did. "So tell us what happened."

"Ugh, fine." I groaned. I was tired and hungry and wanted this over with as soon as possible. "Sasuke attacked you and when you blocked I took advantage of the situation and kicked you."

Kakashi raised a hand to stop me there. "So what do you call that?" He asked.

I frowned as I tried to work out what it was. "Erm. Sasuke and I both attacked you…" I hesitated when I struggled to get an answer.

"Yes." Kakashi encouraged.

"Like a team!" I brightened, finally getting an answer. "We used teamwork to try and get the bells!"

"Bingo, there you go!" Kakashi said with an eye-smile. "The answer's teamwork! If the four of you had come at me together you might have been able to take the bells."

I felt sort of proud that I was able to get the answer and but that feeling was spoiled when Sakura decided to talk.

"If we were expected to function as a team, why did you only have two bells?" She said with a stomp of her foot, looking slightly irritated at Kakashi. "Even if we'd work together, two of us would have had to go without lunch. You're preaching teamwork, but you played us against each other!"

The silver-haired male stared at the girl. "Of course. This task was designed to cause dissension in your ranks." Kakashi replied. "The situation was set up to reveal which of you would set aside your individual interests and propose to the others that you work together for the good of all."

Kakashi paused and looked pointedly at the red clad girl. "Instead of which you, Sakura, ignored Naruto, who was right in front of you while you focused your attention on Sasuke, though you didn't know where he was." The Jounin moved his eyes to Naruto. "Naruto tried to do single-handedly what should have been the work of all four!" He looked to Sasuke. "Sasuke had already decided that the other three just got in his way and he was better off playing solo." His black orbs finally turned to gaze into my own green ones. "And Reicheru used Sasuke to find me, thinking that because of his clan that I would seek him out in my real form. And when me and Sasuke did battle, she took advantage and attacked to try and get the bells herself, indirectly helping Sasuke. She would have continued was it not for Sasuke. He, like I said before, declared that she was in his way and that he didn't need any help. This resulted in Reicheru stepping out of the fight due to anger, though she had stayed behind to watch the fight." Kakashi turned away to glare harshly at the Uchiha. "So if Sasuke's stubbornness hadn't got in the way, they might have actually gotten the bells through teamwork, however unintentional it was."

'So it's all Sasuke's fault, huh?' I thought angrily, glaring as discreetly as possible at said boy.

"You are a team! Learn to act as one!" He reprimanded, scowling at all of us. "Yes, it's necessary for a ninja to have individual skills, but what is more important now is teamwork!"

The loudness and harshness of his voice made me flinch a bit. He continued. "Making a play as an individual is bad for the team and exposes your comrades to unnecessary danger. You might as well kill them yourself. For example," The sensei took out a kunai and grabbed Sasuke into a lock hold, holding the blade dangerously close to the boy's neck. "Sakura! Kill Naruto and Reicheru or Sasuke dies!" Said girl and Naruto shrieked in fright, whilst I widened my eyes and went tense, but let out a breath when Kakashi released the 'endangered' boy from his grip.

"The day could come when one of you may be taken hostage, and you're forced to make such a choice." The masked man turned his back to us to face the memorial behind him. "Look at the marker. All the names carved in the stone. Heroes of our village. Ninja." I could hear the sadness in his voice,it was faint, but there. My eyes softened, filling with sympathy and I thought. 'He must have known some of them.'

My thoughts were cut off by Naruto obnoxiously loud voice. "That's it! I just made up my mind!" He shouted happily, absolutely bursting with glee. "There's where I want my name to go! I'm not gonna throw my life away! I wanna be like them- a hero!"

"Oh Naruto." I whispered in a drawl, embarrassed at his obliviousness. I listen on as Kakashi continued with his speech. "But the ones listed there aren't just any heroes…" He paused. Naruto urged. "The dead kind. The died in the line of duty." Naruto's face fell as what was said sunk in.

"This is a memorial." Kakashi gestured to monument. "It includes the name of my best friend."

'So he had lost someone.' I bowed my head as a show of respect to Kakashi's fallen friend, silently praying that they went to better place. I knew what it felt like to lose people and it's not a good feeling.

"Pay attention." He demanded, turning back to face us. I raised my head up to listen to his next words. "I'm giving you all one last chance. One that'll be far more difficult than our last little game with bells." I felt my heart rise in hope. A second chance? Awesome! "If you're prepared to continue, you may eat one of the bento boxes. But no sharing with Naruto. The same goes for Reicheru."

What! No food!? This guy is evil! I need food dammit!

"Why?" Sakura asked.

"He brought it one himself when he tried to sneak lunch for himself. And you know Reicheru got it for attacking me beyond the test. If either of you feeds them, you fail the test right there. My word is law. Do you understand?" He demanded sternly. And with that he teleported away in wisp of smoke.

Sasuke and Sakura picked up a bento box each, but before they opened them, I spoke. "Hey guys? You know how Master Kakashi said that teamwork is important?" I asked them. The two nodded in confirmation. "Obviously, teamwork means having a team, so saying that teamwork is important means that the team itself is important as well, you know?" I see their eyes light up as my words sink into them, Sasuke specifically. Suddenly, he shoved his box full of food in front of me. His onyx orbs held an unknown emotion as he said. "You're no good to me if you're just gonna be a liability." He had a small smirk playing on his lips. I huffed at his choice of words before saying. "Well you're gonna have to feed me yourself, since my hands are tied."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow when he realised something. "How are you going to be able to eat is you have that mask on?" My eyes widened at that fact. I had completely forgot I wore it. My god what is wrong with me? I've had this for my entire life, you don't just forget something like that. I sweat-dropped in embarrassment before saying sheepishly. "Oh, yeah. You gonna have to leave me then and feed Naruto instead because no way am I eating in front of you."Sasuke stared at me with now emotionless eyes. "Tch, fine. Have it your way." He said before moving to Naruto. Sakura seemed to have followed Sasuke example as she was now feeding the blond boy herself. Naruto was beaming happily as munched away at his food.

Suddenly a massive boom rattle the air as an explosion of a cloud appeared before us. We all screamed in surprise as Master Kakashi's face popped up right in front of our shocked ones.

"You!" He shouted in an intimidating voice. The cloud cleared up revealing the rest of Kakashi. "Pass!"

Huh? I looked at the sensei in surprise. We passed? Kakashi gave us all a wink as we all gave him confused looks.

"We passed?!" Sakura asked, voicing all of our thoughts. "But why?!"

"You four have just taken a giant step forward." Kakashi stated, not exactly answer Sakura's question, so asked again.

"Up until now, all of you have done is listen unquestionably to everything I say like mindless, little drones." He said. "A true shinobi seeks for hidden meaning within hidden meanings. In a ninja's world, those who violate the rules and fail to follow orders are trash. But those who abandon their friends are even worse than trash."

The man stuck his thumb up in the air in a nice guy pose and announced. "This exercise is now concluded. You all pass! Our duties start tomorrow!"

I grinned and giggled in happiness as I was freed of the rope. Then out of sheer overwhelming joy, I hugged my sensei.

~Kakashi's P.O.V.~

The impact of a body colliding with his torso surprised him, making him jerk back slightly. He looked down to see Reicheru hugging him and though the grip wasn't tight, it was still slightly uncomfortable as he wasn't used to such an unexpected gesture. He got over it quickly though as he heard his little student whisper a 'thanks' whilst looking up at him with her gorgeously green eyes. It was so easy for him to get lost in the depths of emotion in her eyes, it kind of scared him. Earlier he had saw sadness and understanding when he talked about the fallen heroes. What had she lost to warrant such emotion? As far as he knew her clan was a mysterious bunch that tended to hide a lot of secrets and her family were of an unknown status, neither dead nor living. Only the Lord Hokage knew of such happenings and he never told a single soul. Had something happened to her family? Is that what she lost, a family?

All these questions ran through his head at godspeed as he stared at the girl. An unknown emotion coursed through his body and settled in his heart. He had suddenly had the urge to protect this girl, to give her what she's missing, to make her happy, to be with her at all times.

'What is wrong with me?' He thought, confused by it all. 'I can't possibly be feeling like this, can I?' He quickly shuffled away from the girl before giving her an awkward pat on the head.

~Reicheru's POV~

"Er, yeah. You're welcome." Kakashi said awkwardly, shuffling away from my arms. I blushed when realised what I just did. I can't believe I just hugged my sensei. Well, that's embarrassing.

"Okay guys, let's go home." Kakashi instructed and I obliged, following the group back to town, leaving Naruto still tied to the stump.

I've done it. I'm finally an official ninja. Let the journey begin.

Thank you for reading if you liked it, fave, follow or review and I'll be seeing you next chapter. Cya!