Rezaa was eleven when he took the academy's graduation exam to become a genin. No one was surprised when he passed it easily.

"How Youthful, Rezaa-kun!" Gai exclaimed when he heard the news.

"Thank you, Gai-ojisan."

"I myself have just become a jonin sensei to a team of genin! Too bad that Hokage-sama hasn't made you one of my students!"

"Right," Kakashi agreed, "too bad."

Rezaa thought his father didn't sound very sad about it.

"I will be joining the genin corps until a jounin sensei is available or I make chuunin," Rezaa told Gai.

Gai gave his pseudo nephew a thumbs up, "Feel free to join my team in its morning training! I'll be off to them right now! Goodbye!"

The boy had only a short moment to wave before Gai was off to meet his team.

"I pity his students," Kakashi remarked dryly.

Rezaa frowned, "But he's a good teacher."

"You only think that because you also have too much energy."

"Running is nice," was all the boy answered as they made their way home where Kakashi would make a celebratory dinner for the two.

After today he would be going back to Anbu again. The apprenticeship with his son had only been considered a long absence, not a resignation.

Kakashi wondered if it would feel strange to wear the Hound mask again after more than half a decade without it.

Rezaa spent only a week with the genin corps before he was told that there was a new jounin sensei available–his father.

"Isn't it a bit unfair to test us when he's your father? We know he'll just pass you anyway," one of his new teammates complained.

"My father will only let me pass if I complete his test to his expectations. He won't be biased because I am his son."

"Yeah, sure," the other boy scoffed.

"Where is he anyway?" the third boy asked.

"He likes being late," Rezaa explained.

Two hours later their test finally started.

"All you need to do is get these bells from me," Kakashi announced to his thoroughly annoyed genin. "If you don't get a bell, you fail."

"But there's only two-" one of Rezaa's teammates started but the young Hatake had already pounced towards his father.

"I haven't given you the go yet," Kakashi said in a casual voice while deflecting his son's blows.

"Oh well," with that he knocked the kunai out of Rezaa's hand and kicked him to the side with a swipe of his leg.

The three genin took turns trying to go for the bells but it didn't take long for Kakashi to have all of them buried in the ground to their necks.

"You fail," he eye-smiled.

"That's stupid! You can't send us back to the academy because we couldn't defeat a jounin! We're genin!" the boy to Rezaa's left complained.

"Maa, if you can't fight me while I'm not trying to kill you, how will you do if you run into trouble on a mission? Other ninjas won't care if it's fair or not either."

"He's not sending us back to the academy," Rezaa reminded them.

"But he-" the boy to his right started.

"We all passed the genin exams, he can't demote us–only the Hokage can–so we'll just be going to the genin corps.

"Well, have fun getting out of there," Kakashi smiled once again and wandered off, ignoring the protests of the mostly-buried genin behind him.

It took Rezaa a couple more tries but a few months later he had a team.

Team 7.

Comprised of one Uzumaki, one Uchiha, and one Hatake.

Sometimes Kakashi regretted passing them.

"Useless," Shou grunted as Naruto fell down his tree again.

The blonde glared and tried again. He failed once more.

"This is so stupid! Why do we have to be able to walk up trees if we can just climb them?"

"It makes it easier to travel and it is the precursor to water walking–a skill that will help you in water-bound battles."

"What does pre-CURSE-er mean?" Naruto asked.

"It means if you can't even do this then you'll never be able to water walk," Shou interrupted.

"You're such a bastard," Naruto grumbled and continued to try the exercise.

Shou huffed and turned to his own tree. He had already mastered the exercise but it never hurt to rub Naruto'sface in it some more.

Rezaa, having learnt this exercise alongside his summons before becoming genin, was spending this time practising katas.

As the sun started to set, the three of them left the training ground together–Kakashi had left hours ago to leave them to their individual training.

"We should get some ramen together!" Naruto suggested excitedly. He had yet to master the exercise but had at least visibly improved.

Rezaa nodded amicably, always a fan of any food that contained meat.

"Why?" Shou asked, "We're not friends."

"We're a team," Rezaa reminded him, "We should learn to be comfortable around each other in and out of combat."

"Yeah! Didn't you pay attention to what Kakashi-sensei said, bastard?" Naruto poked the Uchiha's arm.

"I'll come if you stop calling me that."

Naruto remained silent for a moment, then, "Okay!"

And so the three of them marched over to Ichiraku Ramen for their first meal together as a team. It would surely not be the last.