2.
We sat there in the classroom and watched the other teams come and go. I gazed after Hinata particularly enviously - her new sensei Kurenai was a tall, glamorous dark-haired woman with exotic red eyes. It would have been so cool to have a strong female mentor to look up to. I still wasn't sure how I felt about being taught by an unknown man, even if I did feel somewhat more at ease with my new teammates - more so, at least, than I'd ever thought I would be.
Pretty soon, we were the only ones left in the classroom besides Iruka-sensei, who sat patiently at his desk. But when even Iruka-sensei sighed, stood, and began packing up to go home, I approached his desk nervously.
"Sensei," I said, "our teacher doesn't seem to be showing up." Just my luck, he was the only one who hadn't.
"Yes, that is peculiar." Iruka-sensei frowned. "Don't worry, though. He should be here soon."
I watched my old Academy teacher leave the room for the afternoon with trepidation. I was not exactly reassured. The last thing any good ninja was supposed to do was bail out on their team leader... But what if he just - never bothered to show up? In my eyes, the possibility seemed depressingly likely. Only the thought of Uchiha Sasuke also being on my team gave me hope. Who would pull a no-show on the most talented kid in the graduating class?
As the clock ticked on, and I shifted restlessly in my seat in the silence, I sighed.
"What is it?" Naruto asked from where he was lounging elsewhere in the classroom, vaguely curious, seemingly for a lack of anything else to do.
"I wish I'd brought a book," I admitted. "I'm so bored. I hate -"
"Waiting." Naruto nodded. "It's the worst." He thought for a moment and then stood decisively. "I'm going to go get you a book from the library."
"You can't do that!" I sat up straighter, panicking slightly. "What if the teacher comes while you're gone?"
"Then he shouldn't have shown up late!" Naruto replied irritably, with impeccable logic.
I frowned. "But -"
"Let him." We both looked at Sasuke, who had spoken reservedly. "If he wants to risk getting in trouble with a Jonin, that's his prerogative." He shrugged and nodded in the direction of Naruto.
"See?" Naruto said, waving a hand in Sasuke's direction. "I don't even know what prerogative means and I still agree!" Sasuke snorted.
Despite all my protests, Naruto left the room in a decisive sort of way. I looked after him worriedly.
"Don't concern yourself with it." I turned in surprise to Sasuke, who was eyeing me sideways. "Naruto's right, in a way. The teacher is the one who chose to show up late. As long as he comes back... How is he showing the teacher any less respect than the teacher showed him?"
This actually made sense. When Naruto brought the book back and held it out to me, beaming - it was an action adventure novel - I smiled shyly, sheepish, and took it from him. "Thanks, Naruto," I said, in what I tried to make genuine gratefulness.
I hadn't expected my teammates to be so... nice.
("I didn't even know you knew where the library was," Sasuke said, and Naruto replied, "Fuck you," just as matter of factly. So they still weren't very nice to each other.)
I curled up in a window seat with the book and was about halfway through chapter two - the time seemed to fly by with a book in my hand - when I heard a noise and glanced up absently. And then stopped, staring. "Naruto!" I said, scandalized anew, sitting upright. "What are you doing?"
Naruto, restless again, had gotten up on a chair and shoved an eraser into the wedge at the top of the door, so that the eraser would fall on the teacher when he went to open it. "Come on!" Naruto looked over at me, grinning. "It'll be funny!"
"A Jonin won't fall for something like that," said Sasuke immediately.
"Au contraire!" Naruto insisted, standing back and smirking. "It's always the simple stuff that really gets to people." Sasuke seemed unconvinced, his eyebrows raised in an unimpressed sort of way.
"But it's kind of boring, don't you think?" I spoke up before I could stop myself, then blushed when they both turned to look at me.
"Pranks are never boring!" Naruto frowned.
"But it's just an eraser," I argued, now almost teasing despite my embarrassment. "Can't you come up with something a little more creative? Whatever happened to the guy who vaulted over the side of a sandstone monument with buckets of paint and plans for making all the men female?"
Naruto's eyes widened, lit in a kind of delight, and then he pointed his finger in my direction. "That's a challenge if ever I heard one!" he said enthusiastically, and I realized too late that I'd just egged him on.
What ended up happening was that Sasuke and I watched Naruto start putting together a more elaborate prank, both of us with the best of intentions of not joining in and then playing the voice of protest when the teacher happened to walk in on us. But watching Naruto put something like that together was actually really interesting. And then I made a suggestion, and then slowly I got pulled in to the vortex, and then Sasuke seemingly couldn't help correcting us, so a suggestion burst inadvertently from him, to his own surprise as much as ours, and then pretty soon, in a fit of boredom, the three of us were planning an elaborate plot to embarrass the Jonin who had made us feel so insignificant by showing up to the first meeting so late.
It was sort of like trap making classes at the Academy. At the end of it all, we had constructed a sort of pully system attached to the ceiling with spare ninja equipment. When the door opened, the eraser full of a special kind of colored chalk would fall toward the Jonin's head just as a bucket of water was flown down the pully system on ninja wire and flung into his face, perfectly timed so that it would hit the chalk in midair and the colors would run down over his head and onto his face. The plan was, seemingly, perfect.
But just as Sasuke had suspected, the Jonin didn't fall for it.
We waited with bated breath as the tall shadow appeared behind the door. A hand reached for the door, it opened slowly... and then we couldn't even track him. One minute the water and chalk were heading toward his head, and the next, he was gone. It was like he'd disappeared into thin air.
I paused in confusion. "Where'd he go?" But Sasuke was already looking cannily behind us. I turned around slowly in dread.
The Jonin was a man, looming up before us. He was so fast we hadn't even seen him cross the room.
He had messy silver hair and a hitai-ate ninja band slid down across his forehead and over one of his eyes. Tall and slim, he wore a dark, skin-tight cloth face mask over his lower face, but it was easy to see the outline of attractive features, high cheekbones and a sharp chin. He was surprisingly young, and couldn't have been older than thirty.
Funny. I had counted on him being old and unreachable.
His eyes were narrowed, and the atmosphere was very cold. "You tried to ruin my face mask," he said in a deadly voice.
I swallowed. "Uh... what?" Naruto, ever helpful, said nervously.
"You tried. To screw with. The face mask."
"I don't understand - is that bad?" I was the one to ask.
"Just - just go." He closed his eyes and pointed out the door, as if trying to keep a hold on his temper. "Suffice it to say you have not made a great first impression."
"Neither have you," Sasuke was bold enough to point out, and he didn't even look scared doing it.
The eyes opened, anger flaring within them. "Go!" We did.
As he was walking behind us down the hall, I swallowed and asked, "Where are we going?"
"We're having an introductory meeting on the school roof," said our teacher brusquely, and I thought I heard him mutter, "So I can toss you all off of it."
Oops?
There was an almost sarcastic air to our teacher as he spread his hands, the three of us seated on the school roof before him. "First things first," he said. "We get to introduce ourselves. Doesn't that sound fun?"
It didn't. Especially the way he said it.
"What do we say?" I asked, raising my hand.
"Your name. Your likes. Your dislikes. Your hobbies. Your dreams. That sort of thing." He made it sound sort of vague at the end but, scholarly to the last, I'd already memorized the list and begun compiling in my head a list of ways to respond to each specific question. Now if only I had some paper...
"Why don't you introduce yourself first, Sensei?" Naruto asked. "Show us how it's done!" He managed to make it sound really macho when he said it. Guys were so weird.
"Alright. My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no intention of telling you my likes or dislikes -"
"Can we get away with saying that?" I asked.
"No."
Damn.
"I have few hobbies. And as for dreams... eh. Who needs 'em?" My ninja teachers, they were just full of inspiration. I bet Kurenai has aspirations in life.
"You first," Kakashi said then, turning to Naruto.
Naruto talked a lot about cup ramen. A lot. To hear Naruto tell it, his entire life revolved around eating ramen. I did catch one bit about Iruka taking him out to get ramen at a restaurant called Ichiraku's, and I filed that away in the back of my mind under the section labeled Weird connection between Naruto and Iruka. (Because, hello? He never took me out to dinner. And I got As on all his tests!)But then I heard Naruto say his dream was to become the Hokage, one who would surpass all his predecessors. I'd heard him say that before, a long time ago when he was a little kid and we'd all had big dreams, back when we were first starting out at the Academy - other kids had laughed at him and I'd felt kind of bad, though I was too much of a moral coward to really do anything about it. But it was just surprising to hear he still had that dream, despite all his shitty grades and constant rebellion. I guess everyone else just gave up on the big dreams after a while. Life got in the way.
So, in a way, past all the food obsession Naruto was actually kind of inspirational. He just kept surprising me.
Then it was my turn. Oh goodie.
I took a deep breath and tucked a strand of loose hair self consciously behind one ear, back into my bun. "My name is Haruno Sakura. I like... cats, books, flowers... warm blankets, hot chocolate... um, lots of stuff. Oh! And training. Of course." I had remembered to tack that on at the end because the Hokage had told me I needed to 'sell myself as a ninja' more.
Kakashi gave me a funny sort of smile. I had trouble reading it. "No one likes training," he said. "They like to reap the benefits of training afterward, and look cool in fights. So I take it you like looking cool in fights?"
"I..." I had flushed, embarrassed, unsure how to continue. There was something about the way Kakashi looked at people. There was a cold, calm edge to it.
"Sakura likes proving herself! Like me!" Naruto saved me at the end. He turned to me and nudged me. "Right?"
"Yeah!" I smiled, looking down. "Definitely." It was even true, after all. "I don't like... waiting." I couldn't help but look up at Kakashi-sensei, deadpan, at this part. For some reason, he smiled again.
"My hobbies are... I don't know. I listen to music. Watch movies. Read books... Umm... Oh! I make photo collages and... work on puzzles... dress in dorky outfits... and... I'm a complete nerd! Please don't listen to anything I have to say!" I had been rambling. My face burning, I put my face in my hands and my hands in my lap. Finished.
Except I wasn't.
"And... dreams?"
I blinked and lifted my head a little, looking into my palms. What were my dreams? My first thought went to Sasuke and how much I... loved?... him, and my second thought went to what I'd told my friends about not wanting to have to rely on other people in fights. Then I thought of Naruto and his child's dream, and I remembered that once I had wanted to be a powerful Jonin kunoichi, with tons of amazing spells and techniques. Then I thought of what I'd told the Hokage, about wanting to murder serial rapists.
So, what was my dream?
"I want to get married," I started slowly, because for some reason that was easiest. "I want to be a strong ninja in my own right. And... I know what I don't like. I don't like sexist men. I want to help women," I started, and then I was at a loss for what exactly I meant.
I looked up slowly at Kakashi. "Do you see... what I mean?"
He was thoughtful. "Yes," he said. "I think I do."
And in that moment, I really, actually, truly liked my new teacher.
But Sasuke still hadn't had his say.
"You next," said Kakashi, turning to Sasuke, and Sasuke began.
"I dislike many things and I like very few," he started, coldly. "I disdain hobbies and I have an ambition that I have no intention of leaving as a mere dream. I wish to revive my clan, and... to kill a certain man."
I didn't know how to feel. On one hand, there was the calculated pause, the disdain of mere human things like hobbies and dreams. The fact that he wanted to murder someone. On the other hand, there was the fact that all ninja had to murder someone at some point, and there was also the incredibly attractive way he'd said it. There was just something about his poise and his calm, the way he shamelessly and deliberately uttered every word. Reviving your clan? was my first thought. I'd be willing to donate some eggs for that.
My next thought was, Thank God no one here is a telepath.
"Alright. You all have different personalities. Very good. That will make this next exercise..." And here Kakashi-sensei paused for a moment. "Interesting," he said at last.
"Exercise?" I asked.
"We'll be doing a mission together," said Kakashi, and Naruto responded by exploding.
"I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS! What is our first mission, SIR?!" Naruto sat up straight and saluted.
"During this mission, it will just be the four of us..." said Kakashi, leadingly, and I could tell he was just screwing with us by the upping the tension. Damn, if it wasn't working, though.
"What is it, what is it, what is it, what is it, what is it -"
"Kakashi-sensei, tell him, shut Naruto up!" (That was me.)
"Alright." Kakashi lifted his hands and all went silent. He smirked and I felt a distinct sense of foreboding. "As you wish. What we will be doing is survival training."
"We're training - and it's a mission?" Why was I the only one asking these questions? They were important questions!
"Yes - or, to be more specific, if you do not succeed at this training you will no longer be a ninja. So, it's a mission, for you." Here, he smiled.
That got our attention.
"You see, out of all twenty-seven graduates," said Kakashi, darkly amused at our expressions, "only nine will become Genin. The rest will be sent back to the Academy. This training is actually a second Genin test with a 66 percent fail rate."
Naruto shouted aloud in horror. Sasuke straightened, eyes widening slightly.
"But that's logistically impossible! We'd have heard about this before!" I protested, flabbergasted.
"At least someone's paying attention. Smart girl." Kakashi-sensei nodded. "She makes a fair point. No, you're right, most of the rest will actually be sent into the reserves with no hope of ever advancing. Which is worse than being sent back to the Academy." He seemed to be taking great humor out of this.
"But... but I went through all that work..." Naruto was still staring blankly.
"Says you. You slacked off in school. It's Sasuke and I who should be angry," I muttered rebelliously, gritting my teeth as I glared up at our unrepentant Sensei.
"Hey, I worked hard to get those Cs! She's right, though, why aren't you saying anything?" Naruto looked over in puzzlement at Sasuke.
"There would be no point." Sasuke's eyes had narrowed. "But I don't intend on failing." His words were just as deliberate and cold as they had been ever since we'd arrived on this rooftop. It was as if being within sight of his goal had awakened something deep in the back of his mind.
"Neither do I!" Naruto looked forward stubbornly, pounding a fist.
"Well, I sure don't," I agreed, more confidently than I felt.
Kakashi had been watching us closely. "Well said," he said, though his smirk still had something a bit too knowing about it.
Before Kakashi left us there on that rooftop, he told us to meet at a certain training ground on the edge of the village tomorrow morning at five AM and not to eat breakfast because if we did we'd just throw up.
You know what this meant?
That I had to get up at three in the goddamn morning so I would have time to digest all my food and I didn't have to fight on an empty stomach.
I was nervous the entire time. I couldn't sleep that night, even though I cuddled with my kitten and I went to bed early, even though my parents had wished me luck that night before going to their own bedroom. I couldn't sleep at all. I kept running through training and scenarios and strategies in my head. What if I did fail? I kept asking myself. What if I failed and my path as a ninja ended here?
I couldn't let that happen. But statistically, the odds were... not in my favor.
I sat there, staring groggily out the kitchen window as I ate breakfast, the stars still out above me. And I worried.
But soon enough, it was time to pack up all my ninja equipment and head off to the training grounds for my survival training - my second, true test to becoming a Genin.
The training ground was a dark green forest with a wide clearing in its center. There in the clearing was a field of grass with three posts sticking out of the middle and what looked like a war memorial stone set there before them, a black rock shining out of the grass. When I arrived at the training ground, to my weary relief, Kakashi-sensei wasn't there yet. Sasuke and Naruto, both looking gloomily asleep, walked up as I did. We all set our packs down and began waiting. As the minutes ticked by and Sensei didn't show up, it occurred to me he might be late again.
"Shouldn't we be training?" I asked my teammates at last. They both looked over at me in vague surprise; Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "We'll have to pass together... won't we?" I asked at last, slowly.
Sasuke frowned in thought. "Supposedly," he said, "but we know nothing about the kind of survival training we're supposed to be doing. We could practice trap making, I guess, or go through what we learned at the Academy about team management skills and foraging for food, but if you haven't memorized that stuff or don't understand trap making by now, it won't come to you in an hour."
He seemed to be looking over at Naruto as he said this, and Naruto glared. "I know how to make a trap, asshole!"
"Naruto is actually a good strategist," I spoke up, and blushed as I was rewarded by Sasuke looking at me like I was crazy. Then he looked over dubiously at Naruto... who responded by standing and asking Sasuke loudly if he wanted a fight. Sasuke retreated into sarcastic name calling, and I sighed and closed my eyes, attempting to rub the headache from my temples. All I really wanted to do right now was sleep...
When Kakashi finally arrived, it was eleven AM. "Where -" I resisted the urge to swear in front of my teacher's unapologetic face. "Where on earth have you been?"
"Yeah, asshole, where the hell have you been?!" Naruto was less inhibited.
Even Sasuke was glaring.
"Sorry, a black cat crossed my path, so I had to -" Kakashi smirked as all the blood rushed in fury to my face. I could have killed him.
Kakashi gave a cough which might have been hiding a laugh and set a timer down on the center stump. "This alarm will be set to noon," he said. "You have one hour. Your objective?" He held up two silver bells. "To get these bells from my belt loop."
That was when he explained the rules. We were to attack him, using whatever means necessary to take the bells from him. He would be fighting back, trying to keep the bells from us. Getting a bell meant one passed into Genin. I had raised my hand, anxious, but he already nodded calmly and answered me. There were only two bells. That meant one person would have to fail. They would be tied to the center post without lunch, everyone else's lunch would be eaten in front of them, and to add injury to insult they would be sent back to the Academy or into the reserves.
Reflexively, compulsively, I pictured that person as myself.
"The intent to kill here is vital," Kakashi said, as casually as if he were talking about the weather, and his formidable calm made my nervousness increase. What, exactly, had I gotten myself into?
For the first time in my life, I seriously questioned my desire to be a ninja. And that probably wasn't a good sign.
All of a sudden, I had been catapulted into a situation where I was not supporting my teammates, but literally fighting against them. They both looked so determined as they glared at their new Sensei. We would be competing with each other to become a Genin. One of my competitors was Uchiha Sasuke. And I could ask to team up with one of them, but who would I choose? Was it Naruto, who I'd already agreed to learn alongside and support, or was it Sasuke, who I was supposedly in love with?
I couldn't choose. This, I was to learn, is how it always is.
Kakashi dismissed us and I ran off to the side, disappearing into the leaves to go hide and figure out what to do.
I watched from a hiding place amid the leaves as Naruto confronted Kakashi directly, attacking him there in the clearing with clumsy and off kilter taijutsu hand to hand combinations, prankish tricks, and Kage Bunshin physical copies. Nothing worked. Kakashi fought one-handed, rarely even looking up from the book in his other hand. He moved effortlessly. He fought mockingly, humiliating with careless ease, having a perfect opportunity to kill Naruto at least once. When he replaced with another Kage Bunshin and had the Kage Bunshin start fighting each other, I realized in a blind moment of panic that I had no idea where my teacher was. He was no longer in the clearing. He'd disappeared. I couldn't see him anywhere.
I ran off deeper into the forest, even less assured now than I had been before.
My only ray of hope was that despite all his talk of killing intent, Kakashi-sensei had had a chance to kill Naruto, and he'd left him to fight with himself instead.
I decided I would wait for Sensei to find me. I made a space in the trees and formed a trap made of ninja wire, hidden within the leaves. Then I climbed up into the branches of a tree to wait, hiding again, watching the ground below, ears straining to catch every little sound around me. I felt jumpy, nervous. I had no idea where he would strike from.
But when he did show up, it seemed relatively simple. (That should have been my first clue that something was wrong.) He walked into the clearing, reading his book, and then paused freezing up as he triggered a hidden wire and strong ninja wire wrapped around his frame, binding him there like rope. I made a hand seal silently and began the same simple genjutsu I had used on Sasuke, making myself invisible as I started to climb lightly down the tree to get around him and reach for a bell...
But I gasped involuntarily as I stepped down onto the next branch and it began moving, destabilizing me. It was a snake! I had stepped on a snake instead of a branch! As I yelped and began backing up unsteadily along the snake's body, it raised its head and hissed at me -
I was in a Genjutsu, I realized somewhere in the back of my mind. Somehow, he was fighting my illusion with an illusion, layered on top of mine. That had to be it.
Panicking, I closed my eyes hard and forced chakra out into the air around me, pushing, pushing -
And then while I was thus distracted, an arm wound its way around me, pulling me back against a hard male abdomen. I felt the cold metal of a kunai knife against my neck.
The snake was gone and I was very, very visible to Kakashi-sensei behind and above me.
I swallowed, and it occurred to me for a split second that I could die here. There was no amazing revelation following this realization, which seemed anticlimactic somehow.
Then Sasuke's lesson came back to me. With effort, I grabbed Sensei's other hand, the one not holding the knife, pulled it straight, strained my arm up with effort, hit his arm, and ducked underneath his grasp, flying to the other side of the clearing, whirling around, and getting into a stance. He stood there and we watched each other across the clearing for a moment, me breathing heavily. I couldn't tell whether he'd let me leave his grasp.
"... You used a Kage Bunshin," I said, when it didn't seem like he was about to kill me. "Like Naruto. I trapped a Kage Bunshin."
"Yes," he said simply. "You could not have made such a thing. You do not have enough chakra."
"So I've been told," I grumbled, downcast.
"But Naruto could not have done what you did. It was clever, using your brain and your high chakra control to your advantage to craft that illusion trap. You just happened to be unlucky enough to run into me. I know how to use Genjutsu as well, and I saw through you easily.
"But you still could have gotten a bell when I put my own genjutsu on you. You panicked. A good ninja never panics out in the field."
And with this almost disappointed close, he disappeared from my field of vision. The next thing I knew, I felt a blow to the back of my head and I lost consciousness.
When I woke, my splitting headache was back. I sat up slowly. I was alone in the forest with a bad taste in my mouth and a dull ache in my chest.
I had failed.
I sat there for a moment, miserable, and then slowly got up and began heading back toward the clearing. I was resigned, now, to what I had known all along: I would come back to find Naruto and Sasuke as Kakashi's new disciples and myself tied to the post with no lunch. I had no special techniques, like Sasuke and even (somehow) Naruto had, and I would be sent into the reserves, as unremarkable as I had always assumed I would be.
I told myself it was good I would get no lunch, since I had already eaten. It only made me feel slightly better.
But as I was walking back, I came upon a distinctly odd sight. I paused, staring. Sasuke's head was sitting there on the ground. A macabre, hysterically funny kind of nausea gripped me. I smiled and I didn't understand why. What was wrong with me? Why was the horror growing inside me so disproportionate to my face?
Then the eyes looked up at me, and after a horrible start, I realized it was not a severed head. Sasuke had been buried underground with his head sticking out of the top.
"Wha -?" I began, and then just left it hanging there.
"Sensei," said Sasuke flatly, annoyed and deadpan.
That surprised me. So Sasuke had not bested Kakashi-sensei either. "Did you see the rest of Naruto's fight...?" I began at last, curious despite myself.
"Kakashi played another trick on him to trap him and left him tied up there in the clearing," said Sasuke. "None of us have won. Now help me get out of this."
None of us have won. As frustrated as he sounded, for some unaccountable reason this made me feel better. I took out a kunai knife and began cutting away at the ground around Sasuke to free him as he used the basic Academy technique to get out of bonds to loosen himself.
At last, he was out, and I turned to him and tried weakly, "Do you want to team up to try to get a bell...?" I already had an idea of what the answer would be.
Sasuke looked at me sideways for a moment. "I work alone," he said at last. "I can't afford friends."
"You keep saying that," I said wonderingly, and then I remembered his goals. "Is it because of the man you have to kill?" It was such a personal question, I regretted saying it the moment it had come out of my mouth. "I'm sorry, I -!"
"No, it's okay," Sasuke said, though he seemed tense, guarded. "You're right."
My eyes flew open in surprise. His bored into mine seriously.
Then the glance was broken and he stood and flitted away, back into the trees. Only then did it occur to me that I didn't have to have helped him.
I was walking slowly back toward the clearing again when the alarm bell rang. I entered the clearing and found, to my surprise, a stern looking Kakashi-sensei standing above Naruto, who was tied to the center post and seemed rather unhappy about it.
"Wha -?" I seemed to be saying that a lot around my new teammates.
"He untied himself and tried to steal the lunches and have lunch early, keeping all the food for himself," said Kakashi, sounding in his own way just as flat and annoyed as Sasuke had. "Come out, Sasuke, I know exactly where you are and the time's up!"
After a moment, Sasuke walked begrudgingly into the clearing, clutching a knife and looking deeply angry.
We sat slowly on either side of Naruto, each holding a lunch, and Kakashi stood above us, as he had the first time we'd met him.
"Well." He clapped his hands sarcastically. "None of you need to return to the Academy or go into the reserves."
"Really?" I was surprised, disbelieving.
Naruto started cheering.
"That's right! Good job! You all completely fail at being ninja and should quit altogether!" Kakashi gave us his best smile.
Naruto stopped cheering with a choke and dead silence fell around the clearing. I swallowed, again. Kakashi's eyes roved around us, and paused on me, for a moment. And at last, he explained.
That was when Kakashi told us the meaning of the test: teamwork. We were supposed to work together to get the bells. The mission objective was the bells. He wanted to see if one of us would be willing to bite the bullet so the whole team could succeed at getting the bells. If that had happened, he'd have passed all three of us. But we didn't cooperate with each other.
"Naruto! You did everything on your own and thought only of yourself.
"Sasuke! You assumed the other two would pull you down and refused to work with them.
"Sakura! You had more potential to bring the team together than anyone, and on at least one occasion you almost did. But you got scared and second guessed yourself, couldn't decide who you wanted to work with, so you did nothing. You panicked, just like you panicked with me in that clearing back there.
"You all reacted, in short, like little kids. And we can't afford that out in the field. Things are dangerous enough as it is." Kakashi walked over to the memorial stone, his expression serious. "As selfish as you three were, none of you would deserve to be on this stone alongside the names of my friends."
I understood immediately what he meant, and in that moment I promised myself never to be panicky and scared in dangerous situations again. Missions, apparently, were about self sacrifice. But Naruto didn't get it.
"Your friends are on that stone?" he asked, puzzled.
"The names of heroes are on this stone," Kakashi said cryptically, staring down at the names.
"Well, then, I want to be on that list!" Naruto boasted proudly, immediately.
"No, you don't, Naruto," I said quietly, scoldingly, seriously. "That's a memorial stone. All the people on it are KIA. They died in battle."
Naruto faded immediately, his cheerful face sagging almost sadly. Sasuke was dead silent.
Kakashi gazed at the stone for a moment, and then turned around. "I'll give you one more chance," he said, deadly, warning. "But the fight for the bells will be much harder after lunch, since all three of you will be attacking me at once. And, nobody will give Naruto any food. He broke my rules. And if you break my new rules, that's the end for you."
Kakashi left the clearing.
Sasuke and I ate in heavy silence, me trying to enjoy the respite for as long as I could. It was hard, though. Naruto's stomach kept growling. And he looked so pathetic, just sitting there...
Naruto noticed me looking and attempted a smile. "Don't worry," he said. "I'm fine." He wasn't. This, I was to learn, is how it always is.
"If he fights on an empty stomach, he could pass out," I said worriedly, looking over at Sasuke. "But if he eats on a full stomach, he could throw up."
"So could we. Sensei has us eating," Sasuke pointed out. "I was just thinking the same thing. Sensei's not around. Somebody should give Naruto food -"
"Aww, that's sweet, Sasuke -" Naruto interjected sarcastically.
"He'll be useless enough as it is," Sasuke finished coolly, smirking. The smirk widened when Naruto swore him out.
"How about we each feed him?" I suggested, nervously, glancing around us as if expecting Kakashi to walk out from the trees at any second. I disliked breaking the rules, even when it seemed necessary. "We'll each give him a little bit of food from our lunch."
Sasuke nodded and set his platter down in front of me. "You feed him, I'll keep watch." Sasuke kneeled before us, keeping vigil, waiting for Sensei. I sat before Naruto and fed him a few bites of my food (his hands were tied).
Then, suddenly, Kakashi-sensei did come out from the trees. He leaped out before us with no warning. There was a huge wind ninjutsu spell that blew up all the air around us, and Kakashi loomed up before us furiously, and he shouted, "You broke the rules! Are you prepared to receive your punishment?!"
"But Sensei, there was something wrong with the rules in the first place -!" I argued.
"Punish me, don't punish them -!" Naruto called in alarm, which I thought was rather touching.
"Are you ready to receive your punishment?!" Kakashi-sensei overrode us.
"Yes, fine!" Sasuke stood, taking a stance in front of us. "Do your worst!" And in that moment, he was kind of awesome.
And then the wind faded and the sun came out. Kakashi deflated, and smiled. "Congratulations," he said. "You all pass."
"... Huh?" was the collective, bewildered response.
"You were the first team to actually get the definition of teamwork," Kakashi shrugged.
"... You wanted us to break the rules..." I realized wonderingly.
Kakashi smiled slightly. "Sometimes," he said, "we need to break the rules for our friends. Those who break the rules are considered trash in the ninja world. But..." He gazed quietly up at the sky. "Those who abandon their friends are worse than trash, in my opinion. One of the heroes on that stone once taught me that."
I untied a blissfully happy and overly emotional Naruto from the stump, so amazed I wasn't sure how to react. My hands were shaking, and Naruto took them, and we looked up and smiled at each other incredulously. Even Sasuke had relaxed, his face warm and slightly happier, more emotive, than usual.
And, Kakashi leading the way quietly, the four of us left the clearing together. And from then on we were Team Seven.