Chapter 12: Scarecrow

I was laying on the training field, arms crossed under my head and leg propped on the other. It's been a few days since I've submitted my photo to register as a shinobi. The team formations are tomorrow. I haven't kept tabs on Naruko since that night, which meant I got some quiet me time for a change. No doubt she's busy teaching Konohamaru the Sexy Jutsu.

A chuckle escaped my lips, "Alright, that's enough training for today."

"Dynamic Entry!"

Following the rambunctious shout, an impact kicked up a dust cloud in front of me. As it abated, I could make out a silhouette.

"Known as the taijutsu specialist. It is I, Konoha's handsome devil, Rock Lee!"

He ended his introduction with a thumbs up and smiling with his pearly white teeth, said teeth glistened even without any light shining on it.

"Okay, there is something I got to know."

"I see, do you enquire about my presence and introduction? Because I, the number one genin, officially challenge you to-"

"Which dentist did you see to get teeth that white? That can't be natural."

"That's what you wanted to know!?" Lee did the straight man play, recoiling in shock about my strange question, "Most people would ask about my eyebrows instead of teeth. Actually, my teeth are always like this, I don't remember doing anything special."

"Seriously? Well, I've seen shinobi done weirder stuff. Anyway, see ya."

"Wait! Please allow me to speak my mind, I have come to issue a challenge of determination and strength to you. For my burning drive of becoming stronger, I have waited for the day you would graduate and officially spar you to determine how much the rumors are true, and to prove my strength as the strongest!"

"No thanks, I'm late for lunch."

"Gah! How do you keep disrupting my rhythm!?"

"Lee! There you are." Another newcomer, she's around Lee's age wearing a chinese themed outfit and has buns on her head. Upon seeing me, she connected the dots, "I'm sorry about my teammate, I hope he didn't bother you."

"I was prepared for a fierce battle, and to carry out one thousand pushups should I lose... but I didn't expect to be rejected."

"Come on, Lee. Do you think you stand a chance?" His other teammate arrived, a dashing looking guy who could be a hot chinese guy in the future with Byakugan eyes. He caught me staring at him for a while, "May I help you?"

"Oh, sorry. It's nothing." It's been a long while since I've seen him in the anime. With any luck, I can prevent his death in this timeline, "Since you guys know me, I'll make my introduction brief. I'm Takamiya Ken, the kekkei touta user."

"Hyuga Neji, a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"My name's Tenten, it's nice to meet our junior. We're active shinobis for over a year now. Anyway," Pinching Lee's ear, she pulled him by the lobe to get him to leave, "we're here to get our teammate back. Hope to see you again, Ken."

"Whelp, that killed a few minutes. Not as loud as Naruko though Lee's a close second. Alright, time to-

"KEN-KUN!" Naruko ran towards me, kicking up a dust cloud behind her, "Say, you're not gonna believe what happened yesterday. So I met this kid named Konohamaru, he tried to attack me because he hates me for some reason, and then he followed me around-"

So much for a peaceful day...

"Alright."

Tightening my headband and placing my weapon holster, I checked myself one last time before heading out.

"Wait a second, Ken."

Kaa-chan stopped me just before I reached the door. I was wondering what's up until my eyes trailed to the box in her hands, surprising me.

"Here take this."

I silently accepted it, opening to see what's inside. To my surprise, it was a pair of custom weapons. The handle was comfortable and easy to grip, with a blade at the end. The craftsmanship was amazing as even I could tell how sharp the curved edge is. It was mostly black except for the silverish white sharp side and edged knuckle dusters. Slipping my fingers around the handle, I found that it hardly affected hand sign formations.

"Are these tou-san's..."

"The design is similar but I ordered a completely new ones for you. It is made with chakra conductive metal just like your tou-san's, allowing you to channel your chakra nature to augment your attacks. Call it a mother's intuition, I had a feeling you would have talent for these trench knives just like him."

This was... really touching. Weapons aren't very popular since shinobis require two hands for hand signs, though I can work with this. Besides, they remind me of Asuma's weapons and I've seen him how deadly he can fight with them. Sheathing the weapons around the sides my hip, I gave my mom a big hug, "Thank you, kaa-chan."

Although kaa-chan still doesn't want me to be a shinobi, she whole heartedly supports my decision. It feels weird, and hard to explain. Part of the reason why I didn't want to be a shinobi in the first place was because of my mom, but now it felt like a weighty anxiety has been lifted from my heart.

With a big smile on my face, I waved goodbye, more excited than ever, "I'm heading out."

Opening the classroom door, "Hey Naruko, check out my-"

My body froze in mid step as if gravity has lost track of me. All the girls were blushing hard while the guys had nosebleeds. Dead silence permeated the room as if even a pin drop could spell the end of the world.

Naruko and Satsuki, had their lips locked together for the whole classroom to witness. I could already tell that everyone was rooting for the yuri route. I don't know how much these newly appointed genins know about adult stuff, though I can certainly claim that these pre-teen shinobis aren't exactly innocent.

Somewhere, in the quiet room, I heard a guy saying, "I ship it."

What seemed like hours was actually less than a few seconds. Naruko and Satsuki split apart, gagging and throwing up from the taste on their lips. Mostly everyone sighed in disappointment that their ship sank.

Satsuki, on the other hand, was glaring sharingan daggers at Naruko before duking it out. A comical cloud formed as they beat the living shit out of each other similar to the ones in a gag anime.

"Right, you're busy. I'll come back later."

Later...

They didn't stop even when the teacher came. Iruka had to physically pull those two away from each other before using his Big Head jutsu. Now Naruko was sitting on my right while Satsuki at my left.

After Iruka gave a short congratulatory speech, "Alright everyone, you will be assigned to a team of three during your genin days. You'll be working together for a good while so I hope you guys will get along."

The moment everyone heard teams, all heads turned to me. I simply drank some water from my bottle.

"Team 1-"

"Please please please. Put me on the same team as Ken-kun dattebayo." Naruko crossed her fingers, quietly yet incessantly praying while shutting her eyes, "For the love of ramen, I'll even do my chores without clones dattebayo."

Okay, she was praying in her own way. I turned to Satsuki and found her staring at me, she quickly looked away the moment our eyes made contact.

"Team 7: Namikaze Naruko-"

"This is it dattebayo!"

"Uchiha Satsuki."

"I'm doomed dattebayo."

"... Tch."

"And Takamiya Ken. Your jounin instructor is Hatake Kakashi."

"Yay!" Naruko jumped up from her seat, grabbing my hands and waving them up and down, "See Ken-kun, I never doubted it for a second! It'll be you, me and teme- Wait! Iruka-sensei, why is a super awesome shinobi like me have to be with Satsuki dattebayo!?"

A vein throbbed on Iruka's forehead, yet he calmly explained, "The team formation is decided based on your results and abilities to ensure each member can strive to improve. Naruko, you scored as dead last while Satsuki is ranked second, that is why you are with her and Ken. Moving on, Team 8-"

Naruko sat back down, pouting her whiskered cheeks, "Ken-kun is with me but then there's teme... Hmmm, what should I do dattebayo..."

"Just don't get in my way, loser."

"Grr!"

"Now now, since we're on the same team now, let's try to get along."

Both of them turned their heads away at the same time, ""No.""

"Well, I tried."

Once Iruka was finished, the jounin senseis came to pick up their respective squad. Kiba and the others went on ahead, though not before saying goodbye.

"Good luck taking care of those two, you're going to need it."

"We shall meet again. Why? Because we are all the same Konoha shinobi."

"What a drag. I hope my sensei doesn't make me move much."

It was pretty much identical to canon, though I'm not sure whether other teams will pass in this timeline. The only difference now is that Sakura is appointed as an apprentice medical shinobi at the hospital while I took her place. Waving goodbye, everyone else has left and only the three members of Team 7 remained. So now we patiently waited.

Five minutes later, Naruko exploded, "Where is he!? Everyone else already met their sensei!"

I grabbed my right trench knife, testing how fast I can draw it, "Hatake Kakashi, known as Kakashi of the Sharingan or the Copy Ninja. He's one of the strongest jounin in Konoha and student of Yondaime-sama. He also has a tendency of being late."

"Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I think I've seen him before with tou-chan."

Satsuki's interest was peaked, "Sharingan? How can a non-Uchiha have that moniker?"

"I don't know the exact details, but I heard he got a sharingan transplanted due to certain circumstances. And he's pretty good at using it."

"Ew, sounds gross dattebayo." Naruko shuddered from the thought before staring at my knives, curious, "Did you always have those?"

"Just this morning. Kaa-chan gave these to me a present, they're chakra blades too."

"Cool, can I try it?"

Lending my left knife to the blonde, I channeled pure chakra to my right. At the knuckle duster and blade parts, blue chakra emitted in a form matching the sharp edges, extending the range and destructive power.

Oh god, I can feel my inner chuuni locked deep inside me re-emerging. I've always wanted to have my own special weapon and look cool with it in combat. I can already imagine myself taking down multiple enemies and hear the announcement 'Triple Kill' in my head.

Lost in my childhood fantasy, I didn't notice Satsuki until she was next to me gazing at my weapon, "You want to try it?"

Despite saying nothing and having a stoic expression, Satsuki grabbed my right knife and made a few swings. As expected of the Uchiha genius, she slashed beautifully while doing it, though her brows did wrinkle a bit when she noticed the chakra emitted wasn't as refined as mine.

*Shink*

A distinctive sound made our heads turn to see Naruko. The blonde was holding my knife, and said knife was embedded deep inside one of the tables. She was caught red handed as the culprit of unintentional vandalism. Sweat came pouring out from Naruko, her eyes darting left and right in panic, "Uh... there was a spider dattebayo. Hang on, I'll get it out."

"Naruko wait-"

Clutching with both hands and putting her back into it, Naruko was ready to pull with all her might. Fortunately, the knife was retrieved quite easily. Unfortunately, she sliced off an entire section of the table in the process.

The cut section slowly slid off, falling to the ground with a 'clonk' sound.

"... On second thought, I don't mind our sensei being late. Does anyone have any glue dattebayo?"

Satsuki pinched her the bridge of her nose, finding this completely asinine, "I can't believe I'm stuck with this loser."

I grabbed my weapon back. Despite what happened, there wasn't so much as a nick, the razor sharp knife shining brightly under the light. Sheathing it back, "Okay, what do I do about this table?"

Two hours later...

Kakashi opened the sliding door, examining his squad. Satsuki and I were sitting calmly while Naruko was shaking like a leaf, trying and failing to act casually. The jounin nodded, "Naruko, I'll send the bill to you later."

"AAAH! How did he know dattebayo!?"

"Anyway, meet me at the roof."

"So, start introducing yourself."

"But we already know each other. Why don't you start first dattebayo?"

"Alright, I'm Hatake Kakashi. I have likes and dislikes. As for hobbies, I have lots of hobbies. And my dream is a secret."

"He's Hatake Kakashi of the Hatake Clan, he likes the adult-rated books published by Jiraiya-sama and dislikes anything that disrupts his time with said books. His hobbies are reading those books and sometimes have challenges of youth with his eternal rival. And his dream is to see the Icha Icha series finally completed."

For a moment, I saw his lone eye twitch, "Are you an acquaintance of Gai?"

"I see you sometimes around the village, your silver hair is hard to miss."

Naruko and Satsuki were appalled when they heard adult-rated, gazing at their sensei with judging eyes. Unperturbed, Kakashi pointed at me, "Your turn smartypants."

"As you've probably read from the files, I'm Takamiya Ken and wielder of the meiton kekkei touta. I like delicious food and sleeping, my dislikes are cockroaches and bitter food. My hobbies are trying new jutsus and hope they won't explode in my face. As for my dream... well I thought about becoming a dentist, though for now I want to beat Yondaime-sama and see if I can surpass his SS-rank in the bingo book."

"... Laid back and ambitious at the same time. You're next blondie."

"Alright! I'm Namikaze Naruko, I like ramen and Ken-kun and I dislike waiting three minutes for ramen to cook and Satsuki. My hobby is trying out all ramen flavors there are in the world. And my dream is to become the Hokage dattebayo!"

"It was mostly about ramen. Finally, the edge lord."

"My name is Uchiha Satsuki, I don't like many things and I dislike most things. I don't have a dream but an ambition, that ambition is to kill a certain someone."

"Anything you want to add, smartypants."

"Probably the only private information I can give out without getting slapped is that she likes tomatoes."

"Hm."

"Now that that's out of the way. Tomorrow we will have our first mission."

"What kind of mission dattebayo!? Defeating gangsters!? Saving a princess!?"

"Calm down and I'll explain. Tomorrow we will have a survival mission to test whether you're eligible to become a shinobi. There's at least a 66% chance failure rate and anyone who doesn't pass will be sent back to the Academy."

""!""

Kakashi snickered, "Not so fun anymore right? Meet up at Training Ground Three at dawn. And a word of advice, don't eat breakfast or you'll puke."

The moment he disappeared, I announced, "Don't listen to him. Eat breakfast and he'll be late again for about two hours. Maybe even three."

"Ken, you talk as if you already knew all of this. What's the survival mission tomorrow?"

"Well, sensei wouldn't pass us if I just say it. Either that, or he'll change it into an entirely different test."

"Hm. Fair enough."

Satsuki got up and left. Naruko scoffed at the Uchiha's attitude and raised my arm with hers, "Who needs her. We'll do just fine on our own, right Ken?"

'This already seems more hopeless than in canon.'

After eating breakfast and reaching the training ground around 10am, I found my two teammates already here and they're sitting away from each other. First thing in the morning, and they're glaring each other.

"Is sensei not here yet?"

"Hm."

"No, we've already waited for an hour dattebayo."

"Guess I was off, maybe he'll be here in another hour?"

Just as I said that, the silver haired jounin casually strolled while waving his hand. Greeting pleasantly as if he was the most innocent kid in the world, "Ah, good morning my cute students."

A vein throbbed on Naruko's forehead like a certain Academy teacher. Her head comically enlarged and hair waving menacingly in nine parts, "YOU'RE LATE!"

"Sorry. A black cat passed my way so I had to take the long way here."

"LIAR!"

"Since we're all here now, let's get started." Kakashi pulled out a clock and two bells, "Your task is simple. Get a bell from me before the timer rings at noon, anyone who doesn't get a bell will get no lunch."

At the sound of silence, the jounin questioned about the lack of rumbling tummies, "I thought I said not to eat breakfast."

"And I told them otherwise. If we're going on a mission, might as well have the energy for it."

"Aren't you a smart one?" Kakashi eye-smiled, "So you can think for yourself and ignore what could be a trap."

"Like your tricks will get us, we beat a jounin before when we were seven! This test will be easy dattebayo!"

Satsuki glared at the blonde, aware that the only reason we beat said jounin was because we got lucky. The Uchiha resisted the urge to slap Naruko for her stupidity.

"In that case, anyone who doesn't get a bell will be revoked of their shinobi status and get sent back to the Academy." Chuckling at the girls' shocked expressions, Kakashi continued, "Not so fun now, is it?"

"Waitwaitwait! Then what was the point of the whole graduation exam dattebayo!? Passing us just to send us back!? That doesn't make sense!"

"Oh, that. That was just to filter out who has the potential to become a genin. If you don't want to fail, then come at me with the intention to kill-"

Naruko blitz ahead, kunai in hand with the bells in her sight. Just as she got close, Kakashi practically teleported, subduing the blonde in an arm lock. The kunai slipped out of Naruko's hand as she couldn't comprehend what just happened.

"Don't be so hasty, I didn't say start." Taking one last glance at the three of us, the jounin casually let go of Naruko, "Okay, now you can start."

Just as the records stated, each of them have distinct personalities. Kakashi's lone eye trailed to the bushes where Satsuki is hiding, 'Not bad, she's masking her presence quite well. Her skills are good enough to be chunin level. A bit brash, but there's definitely potential.'

Spreading out his senses, the jounin strained yet couldn't find a trace of the smartypants, 'He's better than I can give him credit for. I heard that he's specialized in combat, yet his stealth can't be underestimated either. Almost reminds me of him. So much for my Icha Icha, I'll just have to read it later.'

'As for Naruko...' Kakashi one-eye deadpanned at the blonde standing right in front of him, "You do know being a shinobi means to not be seen, right?"

"I don't need to do that! I'll just take you down head on and get that bell dattebayo!"

'Willful, reckless, and tenacious. She's Kushina's kid all right.' Kakashi tucked his hands in his pockets, turning around, "I'll play with you if that's what you want, come at me when you're ready."

"Hey! Where are you looking at? I'm right here dattebayo."

"Because I'm looking for your teammates. Compared to the two geniuses, the dead last isn't a threat to me."

A tick mark appeared, anger getting the better of her. Naruko charged straight ahead, aiming a kick to the head, "You're asking for it!"

Kakashi simply ducked, not even bothering to look. With no impact, Naruko's kick threw her off balance for a second. She was surprised that he dodged so easily, "What!? How!?"

"You were saying. At this rate, you won't become the Hokage."

"Grr, lucky dodge!"

Naruko charged again, throwing a punch only to hit air once again. She dropped low for a kick, then a back roundhouse kick, then a haymaker. With each failed attempt, Naruko was just getting more annoyed and tired, the casual look aggravated her mood even further. Despite that, the blonde kept attacking in hopes to find an opening.

A punch came from above Kakashi. Naruko smirked as she was confident that she could hit him this time, except that she was utterly wrong. Puzzled, Naruko scanned the area but couldn't find the jounin, "Huh? Where'd he go dattebayo?"

"Boo."

"Hyah!" The sudden sound in her ear caused Naruko to launch up a good few meters in the air before landing on her butt. Naruko slack jawed, she knew she checked behind her for Kakashi literally just a moment ago, "Wha- wha-..."

"Another thing about shinobi, don't let anyone sneak up behind you. It's basic stuff."

"Aargh! Quit making fun of me dattebayo!"

"Hm? Sorry, did you say something?"

"That's it! I'll pull out my secret move dattebayo! Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Crossing her fingers, six other Narukos manifested, running towards Kakashi along with the original. The jounin simply stood there, unimpressed, "I suppose that is a different approach, but no matter how many of you there are- What?"

Kakashi turned around, finding another shadow clone pinning him down on his back. The Naruko clone smirked, "Don't let anyone sneak up behind you, right sensei?"

"This time for sure dattebayo!"

Naruko put everything into her punch, ready to sock the jounin in the face, except that the one she punched was a Naruko clone. Confused, the clones blamed each other and beat each other up. Once the blonde realized she could dismiss her clones, she found herself once again alone and face bruised with injuries.

"You know, I can keep doing this all day, but I should be checking my other students as well." Kakashi blitz through hand signs faster than Naruko's eyes can keep up, "Doton: Earth Wall."

From beneath Naruko's feet, she could feel the rumbling earth and couldn't react in time, getting nightmarish flash backs from the past. She shut her eyes and braced for impact.

Suddenly, Kakashi flipped out a kunai, blocking a trench knife aiming at his neck. A resounding clang echoed and the impact forced Kakashi to jump back, hand trembling for a second. Although flippant the whole time while toying Naruko, Kakashi never let his guard down, "Well, I was wondering when you would show up."

"Sorry for the wait, I wanted to size you up to be safe. It'll be interesting to face the Copy Ninja."

Finally noticing something amiss, the jounin looked back to see Naruko nowhere in sight. He meant to launch the blonde away though not to somewhere he couldn't find her. So Ken already rescued his teammate before confronting.

Holding his trench knives in reverse grip, Ken smiled, "I haven't had a good fight since Koro. Bring it on, sensei."

AN: At first I thought about using a katana as Ken's signature weapon, but then I thought it would be fun to change things up a bit with knives. Anyway, hope you all like it.

Ja Ne