Chapter 4 – Introspective at it's coldest.

When Kakashi arrived, the three of his new little minions, two who seemed to be a little damp, were quiet. Sleep quiet. He knew that he was late to the meeting but not late enough for them to grow so tired and bored that they needed to sleep. Honestly that was just rude.

At least the three of them seemed to be getting along more than the Academy report said. He did wonder as to why they were wet though. Not that it mattered in the end, it was very unlikely that he was going to know them long enough for him to actually care about what they were doing.

With that decided, it was time to start the test and that wouldn't happen if the three of them didn't wake up soon. So he did what any sane – or in his case semi-sane – person would do. Put more water on them. And that was easily done by using a water technique that he had acquired from a lovely mist Nin that he had the pleasure of meeting. Make a line of chakra; make water follow line of chakra, dump water on the heads of innocent sleeping academy students. Mist Technique: Water Rope. It was definitely the best part of his morning so far. Especially when they awoke in such an informative manner as his three students did.

Sakura squealed and curled in on herself – something Kakashi knew he would have to fix sooner than later, a shinobi needed to respond to something dangerous with active action, not defensive action, - and tried to protect herself from the water rather ineffectually. Obviously not trained in traditional shinobi reactions, and as such, was obviously from a civilian family.

Sasuke, being who he was, jumped up and out of the way, and seemed to steam himself via heated chakra. A nifty trick that Uchiha's seemed to learn almost as early as Flame Technique: ? and seemed to be a lot more useful, to Kakashi anyway. Once dry, a lovely scowl presented itself on Sasuke's face and didn't seem willing to leave anytime soon.

Naruto, however, was gone before the water even hit him fully, jumping up and over the rail and onto the water bellow. Kakashi would contemplate what such knowledge of chakra training techniques mean later; it wasn't something he would have expected from any academy student – the academy had definitely lowered its standings since he had been through there – let alone the one who was supposed to be the worst in his year. He also had a nice scowl but it was more cute than scary and definitely less effective when he was trying to balance on the water without moving.

Ignoring his three scowling students, he clapped his hands loudly and cheerfully. "Okay. Now that your up, its time to actually do something and not waste away on your behinds. Though I'm sure you three would make very nice skeletons, maybe you could become a new garden feature or something. Now, that way."

He had the oddest feeling that he was lucky to still have the finger he was pointing with, especially if the way they were fiddling with their lovely sharpened kunai meant anything. Maybe he shouldn't bug them so much. Nope, it was too much fun to stop.

"Onward. March."

(Line)

"I see that you have had a wonderful morning." The smirk was still on his face by the time they had reached a clearing, and Sasuke was contemplating the numerous ways in which they could remove it, preferably with force and sharp pointy kunai.

The clearing was 25 metres wide and gave more than enough room for them to move. It also gave them no immediate cover other than a single tree in the centre. Their sensei was leaning on that tree reading a rather orange covered book that he was sure he had seen in the hands of a few of the older shinobi, not that they would show it to him or any of the younger gennin.

"See this alarm?" Kakashi rattled a fist sized silver alarm that looked oddly familiar. "When this goes off and you haven't succeeded it's all over for you. You've failed. No being gennin, no being shinobi and no respect. Back to the academy you go for another year of talking and doing things all over again. Sounds like fun doesn't it. Becoming another average human in a place where the outstanding are everywhere. What would people say? Naruto Uzumaki, the last in his year, probably shouldn't have expected anything else form him no matter who he is. After all a failure is always a failure and nothing can change that. That Haruno girl, honestly what did you expect? She's civilian born, not cut out for shinobi, maybe she should have aimed to follow in her mothers foot steps, might have had more luck there. And the last Uchiha expected more but that's what happens when people get too full of themselves. Maybe the Uchiha weren't all that great to being with."

The closed eyes and indented mask didn't even twitch despite the venom that it was spewing. There was being condescending and then there was this. He may only be an academy student but he was still an Uchiha and an Uchiha is never average and most definitely do not fail. They were great and will always be remembered as that. He felt burning in his gut, sharp and piercing, the handle of kunai cutting into this hand as his grip tightened.

"Ah, ah ahh." Suddenly there was a tight grip on his arm, yanking it out of his pouch. "I haven't said go yet, haven't told you what your doing, haven't even set the alarm, and so you'll get an immediate fail if you attack now. Don't think your friends would like you so much if you did that, not that they seem to like you anyway."

Never before had Sasuke wished his eyes were active than at that moment, maybe then the smarmy bastard in front of him would understand a thing or two about the Uchiha. He understood nothing, but one day he will, everyone will and no-one would call the Uchiha weak ever again.

(Line)

Mother would be so disappointed if Sakura failed this exam. She had such big desires for her daughter's future and Sakura didn't know what would happen if they all fell through. Her mother had always been disappointed in the insignificant amount of influence a civilian held in a shinobi village. She considered the civilian's as important as the shinobi - if not more – and would not stand for it. Having a daughter in an important position, if only by marriage, would be a gift for her and Sakura was afraid of not achieving that.

Kakashi-sensei's ideas about what it would be like if she failed were not as accurate as he might think. You still need to be a Haruno to be called by the family name. And she most definitely wouldn't have that name anymore if she embarrassed her mother that much. Which she understood, after all the useless and useful were completely different categories and her mother only had use for those who were useful.

So she had to pass this test, had to pass it with Sasuke and get on his good side, or mother's dreams wouldn't come true and then mother will be angry.

So she straightened her skirt, patted her hair flat, glanced shyly at her love and lifted her head high. It wouldn't do her any good to cower or get angry. She did notice Sasuke's grip tighten but understood that Uchiha were the most important to him and would always be – she just wanted to be the next on that list.

(Line)

Naruto didn't feel angry; he didn't even feel annoyed. Okay, maybe a little – but only because the mask-face was underestimating him completely. All he had to do was beat him and then he would stop calling him a failure. After all it's not like he knew all that much about Naruto, just the information that was added to his dossier every few months by his teachers and their assistants, both of who were out to get him. Only Iruka-sensei's would be at all accurate and he had only had him for the last year or so; which doesn't really counterbalance the bad reputation from the previous years. There was also Mizuki's notes to add to the smouldering crap heap that was his education history.

Most of it was bullshit anyway. Not that they had anyway of knowing.

(End)

Sorry, sorry, I know it has been a long time but look, a chapter. Might be short but it's something? I'm trying to get back into the swing of writing so hopefully you'll get more than a chapter every year or so.

Bye bye.