Chapter 32: Chapter 47
After years of training, studying, extortion, and sneaky preparations for the future, we had finally become genin. The Academy was finally over, or would be over after today. My new Konohagakure headband gleamed on my forehead, although it was barely visible under my long, dark-red bangs. The rest of my hair had grown longer too, although it hardly mattered when tied into a ponytail and hidden into my coat.
"Congratulations on graduating! You are now full-fledged ninja! As genin, you have a lot of hard work ahead of you. Today, you will be assigned to a three member team under a jounin leader." Iruka looked us over with pride. Mizuki saw me glaring at him and fearfully looked away.
Ino and Sakura were squealing with each other, no doubt anticipating their team assignments. Next to me, Naruto said, "I hope I get put on Sakura's team. I think she's finally coming around to me. She doesn't punch me nearly as often anymore."
I had something else on my mind. "Finally, a Jounin teacher. I hope I get one that can help me with my seals. And I can finally learn kenjutsu now that I'm a ninja." I had tried every practice dojo in the village but none of them would take an academy student because of some regulation.
Iruka started, "Team Seven will consist of Uchiha Sasuke..."
"Not Naruto?"
The instructor continued, "...Haruno Sakura..."
The pink haired girl jumped up and shouted, "Yes!" before cowering back into her seat as the half the class was looking at her. Sasuke expressed no emotion, as stoic as ever.
"...and Haru."
"What? Why? Why is not Naruto?" This wasn't supposed to happen. I was supposed to be done babysitting Team Seven. I cradled my face in my hands in despair.
"Team Eight will be Hyuga Hinata...Uzumaki Naruto...and Aburame Shino."
"Team Ten includes Yamanaka Ino...Nara Shikamaru...and Akamichi Choji."
I looked up. Naruto seemed to be in despair, his forehead resting on his hands on his desk. I glanced at Hinata before telling Naruto, "Make sure to take good care of Hinata, Naruto." I patted him on his shoulder.
"Poor Kiba." He had been assigned to another genin team outside of the students who ate lunch above the Hokage Monument.
"After lunch, you will meet with your jounin instructors. Until then, you are dismissed."
Predictably, Team Seven was the last group left waiting in the classroom.
"Why do I have to wear this?" Sakura asked as she held the thin piece of fabric in her hand.
"You'll find out really soon. Would I ever lead you astray, Sakura-chan? Your Sasuke-kun is wearing his already." I tied my own cloth facemask over my mouth and nose, tucking the knot through my headband. The forehead protector was pulled down over my eyepatch.
The girl growled but obeyed. "You bastard, if this is some trick..."
I smiled, which was mostly obscured by the mask. "Too bad it's so short notice. Otherwise I could have done a way better cosplay. Does it count as cosplay if you know the character in real life?"
The three of us sat in a row, waiting irritably for our jounin instructor. Eventually, the sliding door opened and the chalkboard eraser I had placed there fell on Kakashi's messy white hair in a small cloud of dust. The room was silent as the man paused and stared at the three young teens who were wearing masks that matched his own and staring back at him, our expressions unreadable except for our one visible eye. The three of us had pulled down our headbands to cover an eye, in imitation of our new, beloved teacher.
"Hmm. I want to say that, for my first impression of you guys, at least you have good fashion sense."
By the time we had reached the roof, I had allowed Sakura to take off my silly joke. Sasuke and I did the same, pushing our headbands up and taking off the cloth face masks. I replaced the genjutsu on my eyepatch. I couldn't tell if Sasuke had enjoyed our first meeting with Kakashi but Sakura expressed resentment in her body language.
Kakashi sat on the railing at the edge of the roof. "Let's start with introductions."
Sakura asked, "What kinds of things should we talk about?"
The jounin said, "Things you like, things you dislike, your future dreams, hobbies, stuff like that."
I decided to introduce myself first. "My name is Haru. I don't really think the things I like or dislike are very important. I don't really have many hobbies. My future goal is to kill a certain man." I was still very far away from being able to take on Madara. But it was something for me to work toward.
"Interesting. Next," Kakashi said, looking at Sakura.
"My name is Haruno Sakura. The person I like is...I mean the things I like..." She glanced over to Sasuke and started talking into her fists, "I like Uchiha Sasuke!" She squealed girlishly and continued, "The thing I dislike is this bastard right here." Her face turned cold and harsh as she pointed toward me.
"Next," Kakashi said.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are a lot of things I don't like. And this isn't a dream but an eventuality. I will avenge my brother and kill a certain man," he said darkly.
"Isn't that what Haru said?" Sakura asked.
"Nah, Sasuke and I are thinking of different people," I said with a cheerful visage, waving my hand dismissively.
"Alright. That was certainly interesting. Listen up, tomorrow we're going to go on our first mission, a survival exercise," Kakashi said. "This exercise is an extremely difficult test designed to weed out those unfit to become ninja. With a 66% failure rate, only nine of the twenty-eight Academy graduates will become fully recognized genin. But it seems like that won't deter any of you.
Kakashi continued, "Come prepared with all your necessary equipment tomorrow at five AM. And be sure not to eat breakfast or you will definitely throw up."
I arrived at the training ground exactly at five in the morning. The sun had barely started to rise, but in the pre-dawn light I could see the figures of Sakura and Sasuke arriving at the same time as me. A bird cawed in the nearby trees.
"What did it have to be so early?" Sakura whined.
"He's not here yet," remarked Sasuke.
I pulled out a trio of bento boxes, passing one to Sakura and one to Sasuke. I opened mine and cracked open the disposable chopsticks inside to begin eating breakfast.
"What? He said not to eat any breakfast, Haru! You're going to get us in trouble!" Sakura complained. That girl could complain about anything.
"Just eat it. Throwing up is better than not having any energy," I said. The girl watched her crush start to eat before starting to dig in herself.
"Wow, this is good, Haru. Did you make this yourself?"
"Yeah. Just be glad I didn't poison yours," I teased. Sakura blanched like a steamed vegetable until she saw me smirking.
"He has a point. You should have checked for poisons before you ate," Sasuke admonished. We had all learned how to check for additives by sight, smell, and with jutsu back at the Academy. S&S class had indeed been very useful.
"I guess so, Sasuke-kun. Shouldn't Kakashi-sensei be here though? Where do you think he is?" Sakura asked.
"It doesn't matter. It gives us time to strategize. Also, just because I know what the two of you are capable of, it doesn't mean you two know each other's strengths and weaknesses. Here's the plan..."
When Kakashi finally showed up, the three of us were playing cards.
"Good morning!" he said, waving his hand.
"You're late!" Sakura yelled.
Sasuke said nothing, merely crossing his arms and glaring.
"Right on time," I said.
The jounin glared at me before telling the three of us, "Well, a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way around..."
"Hatake-san, would you like some breakfast? I made you a bento," I said, pulling out a black rectangular container. "If you skipped breakfast too then I can only imagine you'd be starving. We've been eating slowly to prevent nausea but you took so long getting here that we finished our meals already."
"Maa, that won't be necessary." Kakashi gave me a frighteningly evil eye. He set an alarm clock upon a tree stump and set the alarm. "Your task is to take these bells away from me by noon." He dangled two small bells from his fingers by short threads.
Sakura looked at me with concern before asking Kakashi, "Why are there only two bells then?"
"That's because one of you will fail this mission. Anyone unable to take a bell will be sent back to the academy. It could be one of you, or all three of you. You can use whatever tools you want, including shuriken and kunai, but you won't be able to take the bells from me unless you come at me with the intent to kill."
"So you are our enemy then?" Sasuke asked.
Kakashi answered, "Indeed. We'll begin when I give the start signal." He looked at each of us before saying, "Ready...start!"
Immediately, Kakashi flew backward, deflecting Sasuke's taijutsu attack and putting distance between himself and me. I slowly walked toward Kakashi, emanating as much killing intent as I could muster. Sakura stayed close behind Sasuke, flinging kunai attached to ninja wire behind Kakashi to cut off his escape route.
"Not bad..." the man muttered. His bells jingled as he evaded Sasuke's punches and kicks. However, he wasn't prepared for the clone of Sasuke that grabbed Kakashi from behind, immobilizing him.
Keeping an eye on both me and Sasuke, she shouted, "Sasuke! He's used a substitution technique! The real one is at seven o'clock."
Instantly, the two Sasuke dropped the fake Kakashi and bounded toward the real jounin. I continued steadily following the Copy Ninja, fully intending to destroy him if I caught up to him before my teammates. Sakura and I could heal him of any life-threatening injuries if it came down to that.
She screamed, "Haru! This isn't the time for your stupid genjutsu! Kai!"
"He's using the Shadow Clone Technique! There's more than one of him!" I shouted back. "Sasuke, I'll mark their location for your Sharingan. Sakura, don't let him separate you from Sasuke." I summoned two miniature Rasengan to point out the direction of the two Kakashi for the Sharingan user. They would be like beacons to his senses.
"If he's breaking out the big guns for this, I might as well also." I continued to walk inexorably toward the duo of Sasuke, but dropped my training weights in the process.
Sakura continued to interfere with the fight between Sasuke and Kakashi, slowing down the older man's movements with potshots of kunai and shuriken that I had supplied her earlier. I could sense the other Kakashi waiting in the distance but it was best to deal with one Kakashi at a time. He only had so much stamina. We had nearly forty minutes left. If he never left the training ground, the three of us could wear him down.
Making a third clone, Sasuke had finally pinned down Kakashi who poofed into nonexistence. "Tsch, this isn't getting is anywhere," Sasuke said, dismissing his own clones. He followed my floating mini-Rasengan orb as it tracked toward the real Kakashi, Sakura on his heels.
Instead of trying to fight Kakashi with taijutsu, he instead formed hand seals, intending to obliterate Kakashi's tree cover. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" A stream of fire melted the tree my mini-Rasengan was marking, leaving only scorched, empty earth in its place.
"Sasuke! Sakura! Jump! Get off the ground!" Fortunately, they weren't Kakashi's target. He had targeted my own Shadow Clone that was emanating sensing chakra and killing intent. Kakashi's voice sounded, "Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique!" as he pulled my clone into the ground. The real me was hiding in the trees with my chakra extinguished, watching Sakura's back as she supported Sasuke. "Do it now! Don't hesitate!" I ordered as my clone poofed.
Sakura, Sasuke, and another clone of myself rushed at the jounin as he emerged from the ground. My clone latched onto him to slow his movements while Sakura wrapped the two bodies with ninja wire to suppress Kakashi's arms. With a clear shot Sasuke made to grab for the bells.
Kakashi leapt into the air, summoning a shadow clone without even making a seal to intercept Sasuke. When the Uchiha tried to punch through Kakashi's new clone, it dissolved into blue, crackling lightning that rushed over Sasuke. At the same time, a flock of crows scattered from Kakashi, leaving him the only one remaining in the ninja wire.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura screamed as she dived valiantly to catch Sasuke. "Sasuke, are you okay?" she asked the unconscious boy as she prepared a medical jutsu that would inform her of the state of his body. I flickered over to her, slightly guilty that Sasuke had gotten hurt because of my plan. Performing the same medical jutsu, I was relieved that he was seemed merely stunned and unconscious.
Standing a few meters away, Kakashi threw Sakura's ninja wire onto the ground. He stared at the three of us intently. Then he checked his belt, finally noticing that the bells had been removed from his person.
The man chuckled. "Impressive. You're the first team ever to take the bells from me. Now, which one of you three will be going back to the academy?"
I hefted Sasuke onto my back. I could get my training weights later. "Come on, Sakura. Let's get Sasuke to the hospital first. He should be okay but it's better to be safe than sorry." The girl nodded sadly and began to follow me.
"I'm never going to forgive you if Sasuke got hurt because of you, you evil bastard!" Sakura yelled at me.
"Yeah, yeah," I said, accustomed to her complaints. As we were leaving, I told the stunned Kakashi, "Someone once told me that people who disobey orders are considered trash, but people who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. I don't know if that's true. But it seems like an okay thing to believe in." I slipped a bell into Sasuke's pocket and then tossed the other to Sakura. "Personally, I just like doing things my own way."
Kakashi said nothing as we left. Despite the bright noon sun, the training ground was solemn and quiet but for the distant cawing of a bird.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone