"How are you so scared of a spider?" a shrill voice asked down the hall.

"Bb-But Sakura-chan! It's huge!" a boy yelled back.

"Dobe, it's just a small spider. Watch," another boy speaks, then a light crunch sounds and the other boy speaks again," there, no more spider. Will you get down now?"

"Thanks, Sasuke-teme!" hearing a pause then a thump as the boy jumps down from wherever he was perched.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were standing in the classroom waiting for their next sensei. The teams had been announced 2 hours earlier and they were the only ones left. They had been sitting in silence until Naruto saw a spider crawl onto his desk. Naruto jumped off his chair onto a beam on the ceiling, pointing at it yelling about it until the conversation earlier occurred. Now Naruto is standing at the door with a contemplative look on his face.

"Nauto, stay still!" exclaimed Sakura.

"But why is it only our sensei that is so late?" he asks looking impatient. "the other squads have already gone with their sensei's, and even Iruka Sensei has left!"

"Don't look at me," she says dismissively, before hearing a rattle coming from his direction. "Hey, what are you doing, Naruto?"

Laughing he says, "It'll be his fault since he's late!" he finishes securing the chalkboard eraser in the door before jumping off the stool.

"Man you're asking for it," Sakura says with her hands on her hips.

"Hn, A Jonin wouldn't get caught by something stupid like that," Sasuke mumbles into his hands, resting on his elbows.

"You'll never know till you try!" Naruto exclaims and goes back to his desk. "Now we wait!"

Sakura sighs and sits back at her desk, she's sure it won't work, but it will be interesting to see if he will tolerate Naruto's antics.

A few moments pass by until they hear steps coming down the hallway, everyone holds their breaths waiting for their new sensei to open the door. Then a satisfying poof of chalk off the head of the Jonin as he slides the door to enter the room.

A beat of silence passes as everyone looks surprised, "I got him! I got him!" Naruto exclaims.

The man just stands there, blankly looking into the room. "I'm so sorry sensei! I tried to stop him but that's just how he is!" Quickly Sakura walks over to Naruto, "Naruto Baka! That's our sensei," as she punches the back of his head.

As Naruto quiets down to rub the back of his head, Sasuke stairs at the Jonin as he picks up the eraser. " How do I say this? as my first impression of you," he points at Sakura, "you're a suck-up, you're annoying," pointing at Naruto. Then pointing at Sasuke, "and you're broody. Overall, I hate all of you." After letting them sit for a moment looking downcast, he holds up two fingers, "meet me on the roof in two minutes." then in a poof, he disappears.

"Great, Naruto, look what you've done!" yells Sakura. Sasuke hn's and glares his way.

"Hey, it was just a bit of fun!" Desperately looking between the two. "You have to admit it was funny." He looks at the floor, mumbling.

"Come on, he already hates us, we shouldn't be late and make him hate us more," Sakura states as she heads out the door. Sasuke stands and follows her out in silent agreement. After a few seconds, Naruto smacks his cheeks and begins to walk silently behind them.

Once they reach the roof, their sensei is sitting on the railing, "alright, at least you can follow simple directions." the man says, once they are all sitting on the steps he begins, "Let's see, how about you all introduce yourselves."

"Introduce ourselves," says Sakura slowly. "What do you want us to share?"

"Well, my name is Kakashi Hatake, I won't tell you my likes or dislikes. I've never really thought about my hopes or dreams, and," he pauses for a second looking contemplative, "I have many hobbies."

Sakura glares at him and yells, "we only learned your name!"

"And for now that's all you need to know," he says closing his eyes and smiling under his mask. "Okay, first off, you, Pinky." He points to Sakura.

Sighing at the name she perks up and starts, "my name is Sakura Haruno, I like... well..." She blushes and looks at Sasuke, "and my hobbies are..." she flushes more and starts to squirm, "and my future dream is-" she cuts off and screams into her hands.

Annoyed, Kakashi rolls his eyes and asks, "what about your dislikes?"

Without missing a beat she says flatly, "Naruto."

With a huff, he turns and glares at her, "I've done nothing to you!" exclaims Naruto, "you just hate me 'cuz everyone else does." mumbling the last part where only Kakashi heard it.

"Alright, you, broody." Kakashi crosses his arms and waits for Sasuke to begin.

As before, he's sitting with his elbows on his knees and hands folded in front of his face. He glares at Kakashi, "Name, Sasuke Uchiha. I have many dislikes and little likes. And rather than a dream I have an admission, to restore my clan, and to kill a certain man."

Everyone sits in silence before Naruto speaks, "In that order?" He looks expectantly at Sasuke. Kakashi curiously looks at Naruto.

"What do you mean?" Asks Sasuke, turning to glare at Naruto.

"Well, would you spend the time to restore your clan, or will you go to kill someone that may kill you first?"

"Hn," is all that comes from Sasuke as he turns back to Kakashi.

"Well that just leaves Annoying over there," says Kagashi lazily.

"Okay well, My name is Naruto! My parents died the day I was born so I don't know my last name." Everyone looks at him with curiosity, "I have some likes, like Ichiraku Ramen! I also like Hokage Jiji and Iruka Sensei!" He pauses for a second thinking, "I don't like the villagers sometimes, they like to hit me and call me names, but that doesn't mean I hate them. Another thing I like is the Village! My hobbies include going to Ichiraku with Iruka Sensei and playing pranks on the Villagers! Though my favorite thing to do is to play with the wild animals in the Forest of Death!" Everyone is sitting in silence staring at the oddity that is Naruto. "As for my dream, I want to surpass the Hokages in power and become the greatest Hokage to ever live- Dattebayo! Then maybe earn the respect of everyone in the Village!" he holds up a peace sign with a large, goofy grin stretched across his face.

Kakashi smiles under his mask and says happily, "you remind me of some people I know."

"Are they strong?" Asks Naruto excitedly.

"They were," she says closing his eyes and smiling sadly.

"They died?" Naruto looks at Kakashi, "how can they die if they're strong?"

"Strength doesn't mean that you get to live forever, sometimes your strength comes from the sacrifices you make." He says, eyeing the blond to see his reaction. "Okay, the three of you are very distinctive and interesting. Sure, let's go with that. So, I have a mission for you guys."

Springing up, Naruto salutes and, "Yes sir! What kinda' mission?"

Pausing in dramatic silence, as his new genin begins to squirm waiting for his answer, he says, "a survival training."

Naruto deadpans, "I thought you said mission!"

"Yeah, Sensei, why would we do a training? Shouldn't we start actual missions?" asks Sakura.

"This isn't just some exercise like the ones at the academy." Kakashi shifts to dig through his pouch. "This test will weed out those not fit to be genin; it has a failure rate of 80%. If you fail it, you'll be sent back to the Academy." As his genin look shocked he pulls out his orange book of Icha Icha, his favorite book to read. You can find him reading it almost everywhere. On one account, he's been found reading it while in the shower.

Naruto stands up holding out his fist. "Then what was the purpose of the Academy tests?" He yells, almost like a statement, and starts to pace in circles, "I mean, I worked so hard just to get through school, and now you're trying to send us back?"

"That test was to select those who may have what it takes to be a genin, but this test is to see if you have what it takes to go out on the field. When you're on a mission, you can't just fail and try again. If you fail, you die." Kakashi says in a serious tone. Then smiling, "well then, meet at Training Ground 7, tomorrow at 5 a.m."

"So early, how will we know you won't just be late like you were today?" asks Naruto.

"Hm," Kakashi turns to jump off the roof but stops. "Oh, also, don't eat breakfast. I don't want to clean up genin puke." With that, he jumps off the roof and disappears.

"Damn that Kakashi, thinking he can get rid of me." Naruto pouts, crossing his arms and plopping back down onto the step behind him.

"Well, you'll probably be the only one sent back tomorrow anyways, Naruto Baka. You where the weakest one out of all of us," spits back Sakura. "Besides, the team would be better with just me and Sasuke in it," she blushes to look over at Sasuke with expectant eyes, hoping that he would praise her for what she said. Instead, all she got was another "hn" as he started to walk away.

before he started to go back downstairs, Sasuke turned to Naruto, "Don't get in my way, Dobe. I'm going to pass the test, and I will not tolerate anything less." Then with a glare, he walks down the stairs with a heart-eyed Sakura running after him and calling out.

Sighing, Naruto stands up and starts to walk home. "Why do they hate me too? I haven't done anything to anyone, except maybe a few pranks... but they were all harmless!" he starts talking to himself until he gets to the gate of the academy. "Okay, it's just a few blocks home then I'm safe." He starts walking faster. He keeps his head low so he wouldn't accidentally catch someone's attention but to no avail. As he turned a corner, he runs into a man on accident. "I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking and accidentally-"

"Hey boys look who it is!" the man interrupts, turning around to see Naruto. "Our favorite little Demon brat!" The other two turn around to see Naruto staring up at them, afraid.

"I'm sorry, I'll pay better attention and will not run into you again, I promise," Naruto says starting to try and circle them. He knows what is about to come and doesn't want to get hurt today.

Meanwhile, above the scene, Kakashi was laying on the roof reading his book until he heard the blond's voice trembling below him. Curious, he crouches down on the edge of the building to watch.

"Now that sounds familiar, " says one of the men below, "How about we take the Demon down to the old side of town, no one's there to hear us while we... teach him a lesson." The other two chuckled as they grab Naruto, one gagging him while the other tied up his hands and flung him over his shoulder.

As Kakashi eyes the scene he remembers the Hokage's words from earlier.

=An hour before Kakashi met team 7=

"Kakashi, I want you to observe your genin. Watch what their day is like when you're not around." the Hokage is standing at the window looking at Konoha as he takes a puff of his pipe.

"Yes Hokage, but may I ask, why should I? They are just some genin." He briefly looks up from his book as the Hokage sighs.

"Because, frankly, you learn more from people when they think no one is watching." He turns to face Kakashi, "I only have one request. Under no circumstances are you to interfere. I want you to observe only and think about what you saw."

"Yes Hokage-Sama," says Kakashi before using shunshin to sit outside the tree of his genin's classroom.

=Current time=

As directed, Kakashi had made a few shadow clones to follow Sakura and Sasuke, while following Naruto himself. When the men grabbed Naruto, he put his book away, and standing up, he starts to jump across the roofs following them while making sure not to interfere. Kakashi is never one to defy orders from his Hokage, under almost any circumstances. Almost.

They make it to the other side of town and throw down Naruto, "Now, Kyuubi, how about some payback for 12 years ago?"Naruto opens his mouth to retort with him being just a baby 12 years ago, but is stopped by a swift kick to the stomach. "Stupid brat thinking he can just talk to us like any other human."

"How about we teach him that he is below us, Yuuto?" one of the others says.

"Funny, " thinks Kakashi, "Naming your child Helping Harmony when this is what he does to children."

"Great idea, Riku," says the now named Yuuto.

"Seriously what is with these names? Wise Sky, what's next, the third one will be something like hope or kindness," thinking Kakashi.

Almost, as if on cue, Yuuto turns to the last of the three and says, "Nozomu, go get some rocks and aboard, we're gonna see how much pressure he can take."

Nodding, Nozomu walks off, and Kakashi sweat drops. "Seriously It's like this is on purpose."

He looks back to see them tying Naruto's hands to one post and his feet to another, stretching him out across the floor so he can't run away. Nozomu returns dragging a board about 3 feet wide and 4 feet long with a pile of rocks on top.