Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Juniper ❯ Strategy ( Chapter 4 )

Agent's Spiel: Thanks to my first reviewer here on MediaMiner!

From here on out Naruto will be using alternate means of communication:

Single quotation marks `' will be used to represent sign language; I'll probably use more than one form of sign language but I'll denote that in the sentence, it will still be within single quotes `'.

Back slashes // will denote Naruto writing what he is saying.

If anything else comes up I'll tell you when we get there. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Strategy

Haruno Sakura was in heaven.

She had arrived an hour early the day of Genin Orientation with the intent of getting a seat next to one Uchiha Sasuke; she had succeeded.

He had even made it easy for her by taking the seat farthest from the center isle so that there was only one seat available that was next to him. As they say: the early bird gets the worm, and she had gotten it in the form of that one open seat. Now she was one step closer to becoming Uchiha Sakura.

To make matters even better, she had heard that her bane, Uzumaki Naruto, had failed the Genin Exams for the third time in a row so there was no chance she would have to worry about being on a team with him. Better yet, no on had even seen or heard from him in the week since the exam.

Yes, she was definitely in Heaven, she thought as she turned to glance prettily at Sasuke.

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Iruka shook his head in amusement at the group of new Genin in front of him. It never ceased to amuse him how excited they got even though the majority of them would end up either back at the Academy, dropping out, or under special care instead of becoming active Genin.

He was a little disappointed that no one had supposedly noticed Naruto's absence, but he knew Naruto hadn't really been close friends with any of his classmates unless he was working with them to skip class. He only hoped that the Hokage knew what he was doing by placing Naruto with Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke. They would definitely be an odd group. He glanced down at the Team listings and smirked; they would all be odd groups.

Shikamaru's utterance of “How troublesome,” was his cue to start so he shuffled his papers a final time and stood up to face the students he had taught for the past four years. He cleared his throat to get his students attention and smiled at their excited faces. “Congratulations, from this day forward you are no longer merely students of ninjutsu. As of today you are all Genin. Today you join the proud ranks of Shinobi of Konohagakure. However, it would do each and every one of you good to remember that among these ranks you are at the bottom. You all have a great deal to learn and for some of you, you may learn that being a shinobi is not what you imagined. Some of you may learn that being a shinobi is not meant for you.

“Today I will divide you into three man teams that were decided upon by the Hokage. You and your teammates will work together under the guidance of a Jounin. This Jounin will aid you as you become accustomed to the many duties that shinobi must accomplish,” Iruka finished his opening speech and looked up at his students smiling. Many only looked more excited, but he was glad to see that at least of few of them looked uncomfortable. And so he got started; the first five teams complied happily with their new assignments, but if he was to be completely honest with himself: none of them would pass the second exam. “Team 8: Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba. Team 9: Akame Ami, Lou Fan, and Hijiri Fuki. And finally Team 10: Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji. All of you have an hour for lunch. After that, please return here to meet with your sensei. I wish all of you luck,” he said still smiling at them.

Sakura looked at him in confusion for a moment before glancing around the classroom and back at Iruka. She began to raise her hand when he glanced over at her. “I'll speak with you just a moment,” Iruka said before Sakura could say anything. He turned away from his curious students and began packing away his papers so that he could accompany Sasuke and Sakura to meet with Kakashi. When he finished and turned back around he was amused to see his entire class still in their seats. “I said you could all go to lunch,” he repeated in amusement.

“Iruka-sensei, if Sasuke-kun doesn't have a team. He can be on mine, I'm sure Chouji or Shikamaru wouldn't mind leaving,” Ino told him sweetly.

Iruka chuckled at her hopefulness, but only shook his head at her. “All of you are dismissed for lunch. I'm taking Sakura and Sasuke to meet their new sensei and teammate,” Iruka informed them, heading for the door and beckoning for the two students to follow.

“I'm on Sasuke-kun's team!” Sakura shouted in excitement, as she stuck her tongue out at Ino and followed Iruka out the door.

“I'd feel sorry for him if he wasn't such a jackass,” Shikamaru muttered to Chouji and Kiba, gaining a few chuckles.

“So who do you think their new teammate is?” Kiba asked, catching the classrooms attention.

“It could be Naruto,” Chouji suggested, “maybe he didn't fail after all.”

“Neh, its probably some Genin whose team has already been promoted or killed,” Shikamaru reasoned, “Whoever it is, I don't care enough to look into it.”

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Iruka led Sasuke and Sakura out of the academy and towards the administration building. He ignored their questioning glances the whole the way there. If he was to be honest with them he would admit that he wasn't fully aware of what Kakashi was planning either. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of bringing them to Naruto's room with no explanation, but Kakashi seemed to believe it was important for Naruto to be there when they were told.

As they walked past the Hokage's office, Sandaime surprised them by calling out to Iruka and asking them to wait for him. “Ah, thank you, I was just getting ready to head over and check on his progress,” Sandaime informed them as he exited his office and joined them in the hall.

“Of course,” Iruka said, turning back to the hallway and heading towards Naruto's room. “When I left this morning he had solved the name problem by deciding to just use nicknames for everyone,” Iruka explained, “also he's improved a lot faster than we expected. His lexicon isn't large, but what he knows, he knows well and is able to recall quickly. We didn't actually expect him to be able to hold a conversation this early, but he was actually getting close this morning. Of course he would probably be learning quite a bit quicker if he didn't constantly stop to read that comic you gave him,” Iruka added, turning to scowl slightly at Sandaime.

“Ah, I was hoping he'd enjoy that. I got one for my grandson as well to reward him for his hard work in school,” Sandaime answered, smiling at Iruka's frustration.

Iruka paused in front of the door to Naruto's room and knocked twice waiting for Kakashi to answer. A moment later the door was yanked open by Kakashi and his glare immediately settled on Iruka. “Pervert?” he asked, causing Sasuke and Sakura to look over at Iruka in shock.

“Excuse me?” Iruka asked.

“You taught him how to sign `pervert',” Kakashi stated.

“I did not; his language was horrible before, I'm certainly not teaching him anything like that,” Iruka countered angrily, shoving his way into the room. He stopped short when he saw Naruto curled up on the bed shaking with laughter.

“I must apologize, Kakashi,” Sandaime said from the door as he chuckled at the sight. “I taught him the sign last night and it wasn't until just now that I realized why he wanted to learn it,” he apologized, chuckling at the Jounin. “Now if you don't mind, your students are all here and I believe they have quite a bit to hear,” he said, ushering Sasuke and Sakura in and pointing to the chairs that had been left near Naruto's bedside. Sandaime followed them in and sat next to Naruto on the opposite side of the bed.

“Naruto's our teammate? I thought he didn't graduate,” Sakura said in confusion.

“Naruto took an alternate exam after it was learned that one of the Academy teachers was biased against him,” Sandaime explained, “Kakashi, I'll allow you to explain the rest of the situation to them.”

“I'll let Iruka do it,” Kakashi informed them, sitting down next to Sandaime and pulling out his book. Iruka looked at him in exasperation, but when the Sandaime chuckled and nodded to him he sighed and turned back to Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto.

“Under normal circumstances none of you would actually be Genin yet; normally after passing the academy tests and being placed on teams you would face a second test that is meant to gage your ability to work as active shinobi on a team. For several reasons including Naruto's injuries, the council decided that your team would not take this test. They didn't do this because they believed that you would not be able to pass the test on your own; in fact, it was done for the opposite reason. However, they had to judge on the cautious side and Kakashi's reputation worried them.

“Because you won't be taking this test, all of you are now officially Genin and once Naruto is released you'll be able to begin active duty including missions. However, because you didn't go through the second test this team will be run slightly differently from the other Genin teams. The majority of your team's emphasis will be focused on training,” he explained; he wasn't sure he liked the glint that had appeared in Naruto and Sasuke's eyes.

“You will accomplish missions less frequently than other teams, most likely you will only achieve enough to take the Chuunin Exams at the time Kakashi chooses, probably in about year,” he continued; he was certain he didn't like the glint that appeared in Kakashi's eyes.

“Starting tomorrow, Kakashi will be testing each of you individually. He will grade you in all aspects of ninja ability, even those that you may not be aware of. I have agreed to give all three of you some individual supplementary training so that Kakashi can focus on your teamwork and overall training,” he finished, smiling at them.

Sandaime smiled at the three Genin as they took in everything Iruka had told them, most of it was new even to Naruto. Kakashi looked up with start when he realized Iruka had finished speaking. “Actually, I already finished testing Naruto. His results are over there,” he said, pointing to a folder on the nightstand next to Naruto's bed.

Sandaime nodded to him and then turned back to the three. “I should warn all three of you, that while this seems like a remarkable opportunity, it will not be easy. Council decisions such as this one are not common knowledge; however, there is nothing to stop your friends from finding out. You may be criticized by others who believe you are being favored over them or who believe you are being pampered. There may come a time when you have to show others that you deserved this. And there will come a time when you have to show the Council and myself that we were right in believing that you were worthy,” he told them gravely. “And with that, Iruka and I are going to step out for a bit,” he stated, standing up and taking Naruto's folder with him. “I'll be back to check on Naruto's progress later tonight,” he added as he walked out the door with Iruka right behind him.

The three Genin appeared shocked at Sandaime's previous words so Kakashi waited a few moments after the Hokage left before speaking. “Now that you understand the situation a bit better, why don't you tell me a bit about yourselves? Things like your favorite things, what you hate the most, dreams, ambitions, hobbies, favorite volume of Icha, Icha Paradise, most embarrassing story about Iruka-sensei, etc.” he finished, eye curving up in amusement. “You first,” he decided after a moment, pointing to Sakura.

“Umm… My favorite thing is…well it's not a thing, it's a person. A boy...and that boy is,” she paused for a moment and glanced over at Sasuke, blushing. “Uh…Let's move on to my dream,” she paused again and let out a small squeal and blushed a deeper red as she glanced at Sasuke again. “My hobbies are…” she let off a soft sigh as she turned to and smiled dreamily at Sasuke before coming back to her senses and turning back to the others.

“I hate stupid people who goof off all the time,” she said, glancing at Naruto out of the corner of her eye. “I don't know what Icha, Icha Paradise is and I don't know any embarrassing stories about Iruka-sensei and even if I did I probably wouldn't share them with you because apparently you're a pervert,” she finished resolutely with a light glare in Kakashi's direction.

Kakashi outwardly giggled at her insult and made mental notes of her speech as he turned to Sasuke who had stared resolutely at the wall during Sakura's entire speech. “Now you, Casanova,” he quipped, causing Sakura to blush to the roots of her hair and Sasuke to glare at him.

“There are plenty of things of I hate, but I don't see how it matters, considering there is almost nothing I like. It seems pointless to talk about `dreams'…that's just a word…but I do have an ambition: to restore my clan and to kill a certain man,” Sasuke finished.

Much to Kakashi's annoyance, he hadn't even bothered to respond to his last two questions. “All right,” Kakashi said, turning to Naruto and getting a grin in response. “Naruto's been practicing all day for this, so let's try it,” he said, causing the other two to look at Naruto in confusion.

“So now you're so stupid that you have to practice to answer questions that don't have a right or wrong answer,” Sasuke commented, smirking at the blond.

Kakashi was impressed with Naruto's quick response and use of sign language, but he was fairly certain that it wasn't anything Iruka or even Sandaime had taught him. “Now, now kiddies, let's all get along,” he said, grinning at them. “Go ahead Naruto,” he said when Sasuke crossed his arms and stopped smirking.

Naruto closed his eyes for a moment and scrunched his face up in concentration before nodding to himself and turning to look at his teammates. `I like ramen. I like it when Sensei buys me ramen at restaurants. I hate waiting three minutes for instant ramen and when Sensei doesn't let me have ramen. I want to become Hokage and gain acknowledgement from the villagers,' Naruto finished, looking over to grin at Kakashi.

Kakashi grinned back at Naruto, before turning to the two stooped Genin sitting next to him. “Since I'm sure neither of you understand sign language, allow me to interpret for you. He said he likes ramen; especially when Iruka buys it for him from Ichiraku's. He hates waiting three minutes for instant ramen to cook and when Iruka doesn't let him have ramen, which I would like to remind him is in fact the order of his doctor. His dream is to become Hokage and gain acknowledgement from the villagers, which will be discussed at a later date,” he explained, trailing off to whisper lightly at the end.

“Why did he use sign language?” Sakura asked, her eyes attempting not to tear up at the possibilities.

“Naruto was injured in an attack a week ago; his voice is out of commission until Sandaime can contact a competent medic,” Kakashi explained. “This means, of course, that part of your training will be learning sign language. Iruka will be including that in you supplementary training, beginning tomorrow. And no, you cannot slack off simply because you feel it is an inconvenience,” he added the last part looking over at Sasuke, who scowled deeper.

Sakura was looking intently at Naruto as he grinned over at Kakashi. After a moment she turned to look at Kakashi, but he began speaking again before she could say anything. “Well, we're finished for the day. Naruto is stuck here for the next two days, which is why I'm using tomorrow and the day after that for your testing,” he said pointing to Sakura and Sasuke. “Tomorrow morning, I want the two of you to report to Sandaime's office; he'll tell you where to go after that. I'll start with Sasuke's test tomorrow; Sakura you'll be working with Naruto and Iruka on sign language,” he told them. “I'll show the two of you out,” he added standing up, “Naruto I'll send Iruka back in when I pass him.

Naruto grinned and signed, “Ramen.”

“No, I will not tell him to get you ramen,” Kakashi retorted as he closed the door.

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The next morning Sakura arrived at the administration building bright and early. She ran into Sasuke outside of the Hokage's office, where he was sitting impatiently against the wall. “His aides said he would see us at eight,” Sasuke told her.

She checked her watch and saw that they still had fifteen minutes to wait. “It would have been nice of Kakashi-sensei to tell us that,” she muttered angrily.

Luckily they didn't have to wait that long. As Sandaime's chuckle told them he was already prepared to see them. “Now, now, it's nothing that bad,” he promised them as he ushered them into his office. “I wanted to talk to you this morning because there are several things I need to explain to the two of you. As I'm sure Kakashi told you yesterday, Naruto was injured about a week ago, which resulted in his loss of voice. For the time being, I'm going to ask that you not tell anyone that Naruto is on your team. This will not last for very long, but we are trying to keep Naruto's injuries from becoming general knowledge. As I'm sure you both know, a shinobi should keep their weaknesses well hidden and we would like to help him do so. For now if people simply don't know where he is, he is less likely to be forced into compromising himself,” he told them.

“So, can we not talk about our team?” Sakura asked in confusion.

“Not at all, I'm simply asking that you avoid giving his name and talking about him specifically. It will probably be easier to do if you talk about your team in general instead of each member specifically. Do you understand?” he asked.

Sakura nodded reluctantly trying to figure out how she would be able to do so. Sandaime smiled at their nods and then turned to lead them back to the door. “I'll take you to Kakashi now,” he added, leading them out into the hallway. They passed two of the Hokage's aides on the way and Sasuke glared at them as they chuckled. When they reached Naruto's room Sandaime knocked twice and they waited.

After several moments, Naruto answered the door and let them in. `They aren't here,' he explained to Sandaime.

“Well then, while we're waiting for them why don't you show me what you learned last night?” Sandaime suggested, taking a chair next to Naruto.

Naruto thought for a moment and then began signing a list of words. While Sakura and Sasuke watched, Sandaime studied Naruto's movements occasionally pointing out small mistakes. Sandaime eyes widened when Naruto signed his seventh word and reached out his hands to stop Naruto from going on. “Who on earth taught you that one?” he asked, gaining a sheepish grin from Naruto before he signed `Pervert.”

“Why?” Sandaime asked in exasperation.

Naruto snickered and signed `Names.'

“Whose?”

Naruto grinned and jabbed his finger in Sasuke's direction.

“I should have seen this coming,” Sandaime said sighing. “Is there anyway you can be convinced to change it?”

Naruto nodded his head resolutely.

“What is he calling me?” Sasuke asked cautiously.

Naruto repeated the sign and Sasuke and Sakura turned to Sandaime for explanation. “He's signing `Bastard',” Sandaime finally explained.

“How dare you call Sasuke-kun that!” Sakura shouted in outrage, standing up and preparing to berate Naruto.

“What did he call Sasuke?” Iruka asked, cutting off Sakura's rant. He entered the room and placed the bag he was carrying on the table next to Naruto's bed. “Well, what did you call him?” he asked a suddenly sheepish Naruto.

Naruto hesitantly repeated the signing, `Bastard.'

Iruka smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand and turned to look down at Naruto. “You're giving me a headache,” he told the boy. “I realize you find this amusing, but if you refuse to be nice can't you at least call him something neutral. I'm sure he would rather be called `boy' or `blue' than your choice.”

“I'd rather he just use my name,” Sasuke growled out.

“Well that would be rather cumbersome,” Iruka explained.

“Naruto is in fact not learning sign language to completely replace speaking; there is still a possibility that he will be healed. Because of this, he's learning it in stages of practicality and finger spelling, which is how most names are done in sign language, is quite impractical,” Sandaime explained.

“What do you mean?” Sakura asked.

“Sadly, in order to sign `Sasuke' it would take more time than it does to sign `Bastard',” Iruka said.

“Mainly due to the fact that time is often of the essence, Naruto is learning to abbreviate where he can, so context will be important when interpreting what he signs,” Sandaime added.

“Well don't call Sasuke `bastard',” Sakura said, turning back to berate Naruto.

“Well that's not fair, no one protested when he decided to call me `Pervert',” Kakashi whined falsely from the door.

Naruto rolled his eyes at his whining, and Sakura noted that it was synchronized with Iruka's eye roll. “You are one,” Iruka finally stated. “Try to come up with something else today, alright?” he told Naruto. Naruto nodded grudgingly as Iruka turned back to the bag he had brought and pulled out a book. “Which one are you taking today?” he asked Kakashi.

“I'll work with Sasuke today and do Sakura's tomorrow. Keep her here until I return though so I can talk to all three of them again,” Kakashi said, stepping up behind Sasuke and placing a hand on his shoulder.

Iruka nodded and handed the book to Sakura as Kakashi and Sasuke left. “I'll come by and check on you all later,” Sandaime said with a wave as he followed Kakashi and Sasuke out the door, shutting it behind him.

“Did you eat breakfast?” Iruka asked, Sakura as he began pulling food out of the bag.

“Um, no I was in a hurry,” she explained, deciding not to mention the fact that she was in fact on diet so she had skipped breakfast all together.

“You can eat with us then while you skim over that,” he said, fixing her some food. “That's a short overview; look over it first and then I'll start working with you. Eat first of course,” he said.

As the three ate, Sakura looked over at Naruto curiously. “How much sign language do you know?” she asked him.

Naruto thought for a minute before shrugging and turning to Iruka. “He's learned quite a bit actually. We've been teaching him for the past week or so; normally this isn't something you would cram and learn so quickly, but the fact that he has to use it helps him. He understands the basics of sign order and such, so right now we're beefing up his vocabulary. At final count last night he knew almost two hundred signs,” Iruka explained.

“He wouldn't be able to hold a conversation with just anybody on the street because we've been selective with the order we've been teaching him words in; we had to practice all morning when I realized Kakashi was going to ask you to introduce yourselves, because those were signs that we hadn't taught him yet,” he added.

“Will I be learning in the same order as him?” Sakura asked, gaining a nod from Iruka.

“Right now the first things we have to teach you and Sasuke is how to understand Naruto. Neither of you have to use sign language to speak back to him, but if you can't understand him your teamwork will suffer because one of you will essentially be unable to be anything more than a bystander. We want to build Naruto's lexicon up to at least five hundred signs before you start missions; after that Kakashi will probably teach the three of you lip reading, which you can use to extend conversations with Naruto past what he knows how to sign,” Iruka told her.

After breakfast, Sakura turned to the book Iruka had given her and spent the rest of the morning reading it and asking Iruka questions. Iruka and Naruto spent the morning going over new signs and occasionally holding conversations to make sure that Naruto was putting everything together correctly. Sandaime brought them lunch at about noon. Naruto eagerly showed him everything he had learned that morning and Sandaime spent some time testing him and conversing with him using signs.

While watching them, Sakura realized for the first time that Sandaime, Iruka, and Kakashi all seemed to know sign language perfectly. She sat up a bit and turned to Iruka where he was watching Naruto describe a scene in the comic Sandaime had given him. “Iruka-sensei, where did you learn sign language?” she asked, catching Iruka slightly off guard and ending Naruto and Sandaime's conversation as they turned to look at her. She was slightly abashed at the sudden onslaught of attention and spoke to retract her question, “I'm sorry if it's too personal-“

“It's not that,” Iruka responded, smiling at her. “I just never thought to explain it. My mother and grandmother were both deaf, well technically my grandmother was only partially, but she still primarily used sign language unless she was forced to do otherwise. I learned it from them,” he explained.

“Hokage-sama, do you mind if I ask how you learned it?” she said.

“I learned it shortly after I became Hokage. It was simply part of the job at the time,” he explained.

Naruto tugged at Iruka's sleeve and signed `Pervert?'

“You'll have to ask him,” Iruka told him.

Sandaime was called away soon after when his aides came to warn him that his grandson was looking for him. After lunch they went back to work, until Kakashi and Sasuke returned near dusk. “That was a long day,” Iruka remarked as the two returned.

Sasuke sank into one of the chairs and glared up at Kakashi who smiled back at Iruka. “Doesn't matter I've learned everything I needed to,” Kakashi retorted.

Iruka rolled his eyes and turned to watch Naruto as he attempted to gain Kakashi's attention. Kakashi, who had chosen to blatantly ignore Naruto just for the heck of it, learned never to do so again when Naruto lashed out and kicked him far closer to the groin than Kakashi was able to continue ignoring. He looked down at Naruto, but refrained from yelling at him when Naruto signed `I have a question.'

“What?” he asked.

Naruto thought for a moment and attempted to ask it twice before giving up and turning to Sakura. “Oh! We wanted to know how you learned sign language,” Sakura said for him.

Kakashi looked at them for a moment before his eye turned up in amusement and leaned in conspiratorially. “That is a secret,” he told them happily before turning around and heading to the door. “I trust the two of you can find this room by now. Meet me here tomorrow morning; Sakura make sure you eat breakfast,” he ordered as he left.

“A secret?” Sakura asked no one in particular.

“Ignore him for now. He'll tell you eventually,” Iruka assured her. He turned to Sasuke and asked, “Have you eaten dinner yet?” Sasuke only shook his head no. “Did he stop long enough to let you eat lunch?” he asked, gaining another negative from Sasuke. “Do you want to rest here for a bit while I go get dinner for all of us?” he asked. Sasuke hesitated momentarily, but Iruka was pleased by the tired nod he got from him. “What about you Sakura?” he asked turning to her.

“I guess I can. My dad's not supposed to be back from his mission yet,” she answered.

“I'll be back in a bit then,” he said, leaving the three teens in silence.

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Sakura arrived at the administration building the next morning with a nervous flutter in her stomach; maybe she should have ignored her Sensei's instructions and skipped breakfast. Sasuke had looked exhausted when he returned from testing the night before. He had been the head of their class in everything. Her test scores had been perfect, but she wasn't stupid, her test scores weren't likely to help her much with this testing.

There was also the problem of Kakashi-sensei. She knew nothing about him and doubted that Naruto or Sasuke-kun knew much more. She didn't know what he expected her to be able to do and unfortunately she knew that she was far below other kunoichi of her rank when it came to physical skills. Sakura didn't even want to think about how far below Naruto and Sasuke-kun she was.

She absentmindedly waved to the Hokage's aides as she turned down the small hallway that led to Naruto's room. She reached up to knock when Iruka opened the door and looked down at her in surprise, mirroring her own. “Ah, sorry Sakura, go on in,” he said stepping out of the way to allow her in. “I'll be back in a few minutes; please behave,” he said, stepping out.

Sakura looked around the room in confusion before she spotted Naruto and Sasuke glaring at each other. “Naruto what did you do to Sasuke-kun?” she asked.

Naruto gaped her for a moment before signing something that she didn't understand. “I don't know what that means,” she admitted to him. Naruto's face fell slightly and he turned away to scowl at the window. She shrugged at his behavior and took a seat next to Sasuke to wait for Kakashi to arrive.

When Iruka returned fifteen minutes later, Kakashi had yet to arrive and all three Genin were beginning to fidget. “He's not here yet?” he asked with a sigh.

Sakura was about to answer when Kakashi appeared in the doorway behind Iruka. “Who's not here?” He asked, causing Iruka to swirl around to face him.

“Never mind,” Iruka growled at Kakashi's infuriating nonchalance.

“Well then, Sakura why don't you come with me? I'll leave Naruto and Sasuke to you,” Kakashi responded happily, beckoning for Sakura to follow him out of the room. She nervously stood up and waved to the others as she walked out and silently followed Kakashi out of the administration building and through the streets. When they reached one of the smaller training fields, Kakashi stopped and turned around to look at her. “First things first, do one hundred sit ups and one hundred push ups,” he ordered, pulling out his book.

Sakura nodded and complied quickly. These exercises had been typical in the academy so she wasn't overly worried about her performance on them. She finished several minutes later and was pleased to note that she hadn't felt too much strain. “Alright then, start laps around this area. I'll tell you when to stop,” he said.

Once again she nodded and complied. After about twenty laps, which she judged to be about four kilometers, she was a bit winded, but she continued on as Kakashi glanced lazily between her figure and his book. Ten more laps and her pace had slowed significantly. Every time she passed Kakashi and he didn't stop her she glared at him but continued on. Finally as she was struggling to finish her fiftieth lap, Kakashi called out to her and beckoned her over. “Good work,” he told her, as she stood in front him. “You're a little weaker than I would have expected, but I was told by Iruka that kunoichi around your age have been shunting physical training in the academy so we'll just have to work you a little harder. Take a short break then we'll move on,” he told her.

Sakura happily slumped down on the ground and leaned over to catch her breath. She swayed slightly as the wind picked up and a dizzy spell passed over her, but she shook her head and ignored it. After several minutes of silence, she looked up to ask her sensei a question only to find him not standing in front of her. “Kakashi-sensei?” she said, as she stood up and looked around the suddenly barren training area. “Where did you go?”

“Sakura,” she heard someone say off to her right, “over here.”

“Kakashi-sensei, what?” she began to ask before being cut off.

“Sa…Sa-ku-ra,” the voice said weakly. It wasn't Kakashi's voice, but she knew it was one she recognized from somewhere. “Sakura,” it repeated, slightly more clearly than the previous times.

Her eyes widened in recognition and she sped up as she walked towards the source of the voice. “Sasuke-kun, what are you doing out here? Did you come to see how my test was going?” she asked sweetly as she neared her dear Sasuke-kun.

“Sa-kura…help me,” she heard Sasuke plead as she stopped dead in her tracks. “Help,” Sasuke repeated faintly, jump starting Sakura's actions as she sprinted the last few meters to his location. She froze on the spot when she saw leaning haphazardly against the trunk of a tree as if it was the only thing holding him up, which it probably was, considering the massive amounts of kunai and shuriken piercing him from the waist up. She swayed unsteadily on her feet as she watched him reach toward her and struggle to stand.

“What?” she whimpered in confusion as she took a step towards him.

“Help,” he said one final time before his eyes slid shut and his body slid to the ground.

“Sasuke-kun?” she whimpered again, kneeling down next to him and reaching forward. She reached towards his neck and checked for a pulse to find it already gone. “Sasuke-kun?” she repeated, nudging him slightly as she began to pull the weapons out of him tossing him behind her. “Sasuke-kun? Sasuke please wake up! SASUKE!” she said as voice grew steadier and louder with each word. When the boy in front of her failed to respond, she began shaking and her hands fell away from the remaining weapons as she collapsed over him sobbing.

She wasn't sure how long she had been crying when she suddenly felt an a hand in her hair. She relaxed slightly at the comforting touch, until the hand tightened its grasp and yanked her backwards away from Sasuke. Sakura screamed and attempted to steady herself so that she could get a glimpse back at her attacker, but a kunai was placed at Sakura's throat prohibiting her from moving her head.

“Don't move or we'll kill the other boy too,” a gruff voice said. She heard the sound of something being dragged along the ground, and strained her eyes to the right only to see Naruto's unconscious form lying on the ground. She whimpered and tried to stop her mind from going into overdrive so that she could find a way out of the situation. None of it made sense. Sasuke and Naruto were supposed to be with Iruka-sensei; neither of them should have come down for any reason. If the Hokage had needed Kakashi-sensei, then he would have sent one of his aides. Kakashi-sensei wouldn't have left her without telling her; she knew the man was weird, but he couldn't be that weird or that rude. She calmed almost immediately as she came to a final conclusion: “This is still part of the test.”

“Shut up girl,” the person behind her said, yanking roughly on her hair.

She quieted but kept up her internal dialogue as she tried to figure out what this had to do with the test and how to pass it. Had Kakashi-sensei called Naruto and Sasuke down here and faked their current states to prove something to her? Were they some type of special clones? Or others, using henge? What could possibly be doing all of - her thoughts quieted as she came to her second conclusion: genjutsu. She slowly brought her hands together in the tiger sign and whispered, “Kai.” The wind picked up slightly and whirlwind of leaves surrounded her.

As the leaves faded away, the sound of clapping reached her ears. Sakura turned her head to look for the source, but she felt something tug at her hair. She fought not to begin panicking again, and slowly reached back to see what her hair was caught in. She relaxed slightly when she felt bark and not skin. She fiddled around for a bit as she tried to loosen her hair, but she had no luck.

“Ah, sorry about that,” Kakashi said, landing in front of her. “Give me a moment and I'll have you loose.”

She felt a couple of tugs on her hair as he worked to get it loose, but five minutes later he had no luck either. “Hmm…I guess you struggled a bit more than it seemed like; either that or I let the branch get too tight, but that's not likely,” Kakashi muttered, earning himself a glare from Sakura. “Well, there's really nothing else to do,” he said pulling out a kunai.

Sakura panicked slightly when she saw him reach behind her with a kunai. “Wait what are you-” her sentence dropped off when felt a final tug on her hair and then something soft landed on her arm. She glanced down cautiously and saw locks of pink hair scattered about on the ground. “You cut my hair! I was growing that out for Sasuke-kun and you-” her rant was cut short when Kakashi squatted down in front of her and placed a hand over her mouth.

“You think about Sasuke too much. He's your main weakness at the moment and it's one that is very easy to exploit. I'm not saying that it's wrong to care, but you center everything you do on Sasuke. You don't train enough and you diet too much because you want a specific body type. You dress, act, and look not only impractically, but contrary to the way you were taught to act as a kunoichi. Sasuke is now your teammate; I won't tolerate you favoring one teammate over the other. I also won't tolerate you allowing yourself to be distracted by him. Think about that instead of your hair; it would have gotten you killed one day anyways,” Kakashi stated bluntly, shocking Sakura.

She sat quietly even after he had removed his hand and stood up. Kakashi finally accepted her silence as understanding and reached down to help her stand up. She rose shakily and he led back towards the training field. “Good job with the genjutsu; Iruka mentioned you might find your knack in that area and I'd say it's worth a shot. You're Haruno Sanzo's daughter, right?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Sakura replied, turning to him with curious gaze.

Kakashi eyed her for a moment before continuing. “I think the Hokage said he would be back from his mission tomorrow. When you see him tomorrow night, ask him to teach you Ikko Akechi,” Kakashi told her.

“I've never heard of that,” Sakura informed.

“Don't worry; he'll know what it is,” Kakashi promised as they left the training grounds and headed for the administration building.

When they reached the administration building, Sakura caught a number of eyes with her uneven haircut, which she ignored in favor of glaring at Kakashi's back as he hummed and continued to read his book. He walked straight into Naruto room without looking, but Sakura hesitated at the door. After taking a deep breath she stepped up behind Kakashi and noticed that Iruka was occupied explaining something to Sasuke.

Naruto was the first to notice their entrance and when he noticed the state of Sakura's hair his jaw dropped. He reached over and nudged Iruka's shoulder several times until Iruka finally looked up. He was about to reprimand Naruto when he also caught sight of Sakura's hair. “Kakashi, what did you do?” he bit out, glaring at the older man.

“Ah, I accidentally got her hair tangled in tree branch so I had to cut it off,” he explained cheerily, taking a seat.

“Wouldn't it have been easier to cut off the branch and work from there?” Iruka asked.

Sakura's eyes widened when she realized he was right and she turned to look at Kakashi with teary eyes. “Hmm…I never thought of that,” Kakashi muttered, before shrugging.

Sakura fought the urge not whimper and instead focused her energy on glaring at Kakashi as hard as possible. Iruka stood up and walked over to her. “Come one, I'll take you to get it at least cut properly. Kakashi don't leave this room,” he warned as he escorted Sakura out of the room. As they were walking past the Hokage's office, Sandaime stepped out and lightly closed the door muffling the childish shouting from inside. He turned and began to walk away lightly, and Sakura had to fight the urge to giggle when she realized he was tip-toeing. “Hokage-sama?” Iruka called out lightly.

Sandaime turned around in surprised and brought a finger to his mouth before beckoning for them to catch up. “Konohamaru is throwing another fit,” he explained as they continued down the hallway.

“Konohamaru?” Sakura said.

“My grandson, he enjoys challenging me to fights believing he'll become Hokage if he beats,” Sandaime explained before stopping in his tracks and doing a double take of Sakura's hair.

“What did Kakashi do?” he asked after a moment.

Sakura giggled at his exasperated tone. “He cut it off when it got stuck in a tree branch. I'm taking her to get it fixed and to get dinner for all of us,” Iruka explained.

“Hmm…if you'd like we can stop by the Jounin lounge. If Anko's in she could fix it up rather quickly, that way you wouldn't have to walk through the village,” Sandaime offered.

“Really?” Sakura asked hopefully, the walk back from the training field had been bad enough. If she went out in the village again there was chance that someone who knew her might see her.

“Of course,” Sandaime promised, patting her on the head.

“Would it be a problem if I leave her with you then? That way I could go get food while she's getting her hair fixed and get back a bit earlier,” Iruka suggested.

“Not at all,” Sandaime replied.

“Do you have any preferences for dinner? If I can get someone to say something other than ramen it'll give me another reason to not give it to Naruto,” Iruka said.

“Umm…anything's fine really,” Sakura said, when Iruka looked slightly crestfallen she added, “but sushi's always good.”

“Sushi it is then,” Iruka said happily, “I wonder if Naruto's ever tried it before. Anyways, I'll see you when I get back; just head up to Naruto's room when you're finished.”

Sakura blinked as Iruka walked away, but Sandaime's hand on her shoulder. He smiled at her and led her down the hallway. After going down two floors, the Sandaime stopped outside of a pair of double doors and peaked through the window. “Excellent, she's still here and the room isn't too full,” he said turning to Sakura with a smile. He opened the door and stepped in greeting everyone in the room. Sakura followed slowly, taking in her surroundings as she followed Sandaime in the direction of a young woman happily munching on dango.

She looked up in surprise when she saw Sandaime approaching and quickly finished chewing before greeting him, “Good evening, Hokage-sama.”

“To you as well,” he returned, before reaching back and pulling Sakura forward slightly. “I was wondering if you could do us a little a favor; Sakura's hair was sheered off in an accident during training and I was wondering if you had the time to fix it up a bit,” Sandaime explained.

“Sheered off?” Anko asked, standing up and reaching out to finger the edges. She pulled a stray twig off and Sakura eyed it in disgust, causing Anko to smirk at her. “Well, have a seat and I'll fix it up a bit.” Sakura nodded and complied quickly.

“So how much hair did you lose?” Anko asked, stepping behind Sakura and pulling out a kunai.

“About eight inches,” Sakura answered ruefully.

Anko whistled in response, catching the attention of the two other Jounin in the room who walked over curiously. “You giving out free hair cuts now?” one of them asked through the toothpick in his mouth.

“Will you give you one to Gai and that student of his if we drag them in here? We'll even tie them up and knock them out if that'll make it easier for you,” a second Jounin, with scar on his left cheek, suggested.

“Not even my expertise would be able to fix what they've done to themselves,” Anko muttered, causing all three adults to chuckle.

“Now, now,” Sandaime said as his chuckles died down, “individuality is encouraged among my shinobi and that occasionally leads to oddity. I recall the time you yellow polka dot bikini top and a purple miniskirt for a month.”

“Some of my best days,” Anko replied wistfully.

“I'd agree,” the scarred man added just as wistfully.

“Now that Naruto kid, he's got good taste too. Where's he been lately anyways? The village is too quiet without his pranks,” Anko stated, dropping the lock of hair she had been trimming and turning to look at Sandaime.

“Naruto's recovering from his run in with Mizuki; he'll be up and about in a few weeks time, I believe,” Sandaime answered.

“That long?” Anko sighed, turning back to Sakura's hair. None of them had noticed her slight stiffening when Naruto had been brought up; at least the question had been directed at Sandaime and not at her.

“So what exactly happened here anyways,” the scarred man asked, pulling up a chair and sitting down in front of Sakura.

“Lost eight inches during training,” Anko answered for her.

“How? I mean I know I tried to cut off my sister's hair a couple of times when I was younger, but I never actually succeeded,” he retorted.

“Raidou, I pity your sister. How did it happen?” Anko asked, stepping around to face Sakura.

For the first time Sakura noticed that the woman had been using a kunai and turned to her in surprise. “You've been cutting my hair with a kunai this whole time?”

“Trust me sweetheart, there isn't anything I can't do with a kunai,” she replied with a wink. “Obviously whoever did this used a kunai as well, but they weren't nearly as talented as me.”

“My sensei cut it off when it got caught in a tree branch,” Sakura answered sheepishly.

“How the hell did you get your hair caught in a tree branch?” Anko answered, stopping to stair at her.

“Well it wasn't my fault. My sensei caught me in a genjutsu,” Sakura answered.

“What genjutsu was he using?” Sandaime asked curiously.

“I don't know the name of it; it took me a while to get out of it, and when I did I realized that what I had thought was a hand holding my hair was actually a branch,” she answered.

“You got out of it yourself?” Raidou asked, “Did you cancel it?”

“Yeah, once I realized it was a genjutsu I just used the dispel technique,” Sakura said.

“Impressive. You a Genin?” the one with the toothpick asked.

“Of course she is; you're in the latest batch of them, aren't you?” Anko said.

“Yeah,” Sakura assented.

“Who's your sensei?” Raidou asked, “Kurenai and Asuma are the only two I know who passed their teams.”

“She's one of Kakashi's,” Sandaime responded grinning.

All three Jounin froze immediately before turning to look at Sandaime in surprise. “You have to joking; he actually passed a team?” Anko said. “He's failed, what, ten of them already.”

“Ten?” Sakura nearly shouted, in surprise.

“It wasn't ten,” Sandaime assured her, “it was nine. Technically we didn't give him a choice this time. Her teammate is Uchiha Sasuke and the council wanted him to be taught by Kakashi. Their third teammate is injured at the moment, and they were worried about how that would affect the outcome of his test. They decided unanimously to give the team an automatic pass,” Sandaime explained.

“Lucky duck,” Anko claimed, moving back around Sakura to finish cutting her hair.

“So who's the third teammate? I haven't heard of any kids with injuries lately,” the one with a toothpick asked.

“He already told us,” Anko stated.

“No he didn't. He said that one of her teammates is the Uchiha kid, but he didn't give a name for the third one,” he retorted.

“Yes he did Genma; you just aren't paying attention,” she said, causing Sandaime to chuckle.

“I should have known you'd figure that out,” he said smiling at her.

“Was I not supposed to?” Anko asked.

“We are keeping the situation quiet for the time being,” Sandaime informed.

“Gotcha, I'll keep my mouth shut,” Anko promised.

“Actually, even thought we don't have a clue what they're talking about, we probably shouldn't talk about the auto-pass, should we?” Raidou said.

“It would help,” Sandaime commented.

“Right-o, we'll keep our mouths shut and you can run along home; I'm finished. If you get a chance, deck Kakashi one for me. Tell him if he ever cuts a girl's hair again, I'll show him another use I have for kunai,” Anko said, patting Sakura on the head.

Sakura smiled at her and nodded. “I'll tell him. And thanks for the haircut,” she added with a nod.

“Why don't you head back on up to meet Kakashi? Tell him I'll stop by to see him later,” Sandaime said.

Sakura nodded and waved good bye as she left the room and headed upstairs to Naruto's room. She entered happily and, completely ignoring the curious glances that her teammates gave her, took her time inspecting her new haircut in the mirror. When she turned around she looked at Kakashi and said, “He's not back yet?”

“I thought he was with you,” Kakashi responded in confusion.

“He went out to get the food. Hokage-sama offered to have one of the Jounin downstairs cut my hair. She wanted me to tell you that if you ever cut a girls hair again, she'll show you another use she has for kunai,” Sakura repeated happily, sitting down next to Sasuke.

Naruto snickered as Kakashi scowled at Sakura. “Well at least, Iruka being gone gives me the chance to speak with the three of you,” he finally said, standing up and turning to face them.

“There are several things I want to make clear, before we really get started tomorrow. I've evaluated each of you, and I'm sorry to say that I'm not as impressed with you as the council was. I've never passed a team before and, as much as Sandaime assured me I would like the three of you, I still have reservations. However, I am willing to put those reservations aside, on the condition that you listen to me and Iruka regardless of what we say. Some of what we teach you and say to you may go against what you have already learned or may go against your personal beliefs. I want your promise that you will think over what we tell you, that includes what I told each of you after I finished testing you. Do we have an agreement?” Kakashi asked, looking at each of his surprisingly sober students. After a moment, he gained a reluctant nod from each of them.

A moment later Iruka popped in the door. “Anybody hungry?” he asked with a smile.

 

Agent's Spiel: Iruka's speech at the beginning was inspired by the one in the manga so there are some similarities. Also, I obviously didn't make up the majority of the “Getting to Know You” session that the team had after the Hokage left; except for a few changes, it came from the official Shonen Jump translation. I also couldn't resist using Sakura's run in with genjutsu. Hope you enjoyed it!

As Sandaime and Iruka explained Naruto uses the signs for certain words as nicknames for individuals so that he doesn't have to spell out their names. So far the nicknames are:

Iruka - Sensei

Kakashi - Pervert

Sandaime - Old Man

Sasuke - Bastard

Sakura - Blossom…this chapter had a lot of her in it, didn't it?

As other characters become more prominent their nicknames will get listed as well.

 

Jutsu for this chapter:

Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu - Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique - this is the genjutsu that Kakashi uses on Sakura

Henge no Jutsu - Transformation Technique

Kai - Dispel

Ikko Akechi - First Beat of the War Drum, Bloody Earth