He had a crush on Sakura and would ask her out, she'd clobber him and fawn over Sasuke. He hated Sasuke, more or less. Now Sakura and Ino were chatting between themselves and ignoring Sasuke. Was this an improvement or not and was it something that people later on would decide was his fault?
"Okay," said Iruka-sensei as he entered the room. "Things are a little bit up in the air right now, but it's time for the team assignments. So if everyone would take their seats..."
"What about...?" asked Kiba, hefting a red-and-white sphere in one hand.
"Leave them there, you can explain it later," said Iruka. "The decision for now is that they are to be treated as bonded summons. The civilian council, the Hokage, and the ninja council are all arguing the fine points and the Fire Daimyo is coming here to arbitrate. That's when the final decision will be made."
There were a few stirs among the genin as Iruka tapped some papers against his desk before he began.
Sasuke brooded. Sakura read a book. Naruto fiddled around with a kunai briefly, then took out a red-white sphere from his belt and regarded it.
"Better not," advised Sakura as she turned a page.
Naruto sighed and put the ball away. A few minutes passed before he went over to the chalkboard and picked up an eraser.
"He's a jonin, you know," said Sakura, turning another page and frowning at the contents. "A simple trap is just going to annoy him."
"I suppose," said Naruto, deflating for a few seconds then going over to the teacher's desk and rummaging through the drawers. "Ah HAH."
"You're going to get in trouble, dobe," said Sasuke.
Sakura actually glanced up. "He can always use the excuse that he was bored and practicing his trapmaking skills. Which is actually true, if you think of it that way."
Naruto blinked. Sakura had just argued with Sasuke? Was the world ending? Meh. Why worry about that when he had chalky erasers, four feet of string, a pair of scissors, a pack of chewing gum, three pencils, a yardstick, and a shaving kit? Oh, here was a box of paperclips. So many possibilities!
Having just gotten back to Konoha late last night, and spending most of the morning brooding at the memorial, Kakashi nonetheless had a suspicion that something had changed about Konohagakure.
Whatever it was, it wasn't important. No, all he had to concentrate on was that there were three little genin he had to fail. One was the Last Uchiha, whose last psych eval had more red flags than the Fire Daimyo's golf course. Another was a fangirl with good grades. Finally there was the jinchuriki of the Ninetailed Demon Fox. Failing all three would actually be a favor to them. Let them be kids for awhile, sort through their issues, maybe decide whether or not a life of constantly living in danger and amongst death was their future. They could go on and become something else after all. Not likely, but it could happen.
Still thinking about this, Kakashi Hatake opened the door where the genin had been kept waiting.
twung! ratchet! thwip! splurt!
Slowly, Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Nin, Master of 1000 Jutsu, elite jonin of the Leaf, reached up a hand and wiped shaving cream off of his face.
"Uhm, weren't you supposed to dodge at least some of that?" asked one of the genin in the room.
Kakashi shifted his head slightly so that the eraser that had dropped down fell off of his head.
"I'm kind of underwhelmed here," said the kunoichi in the group. "Shouldn't you have demonstrated some awesome jonin-level avoidance technique? Maybe some jutsu?"
"Yeah, Iruka-sensei has that 'see everything going on around him' jutsu I ain't never figured out, and HE's a chunin," grumped the blond troublemaker.
"Hnn," indicated the black-haired brooder, though whether that was agreement or disagreement was open to interpretation.
"How can I put this?" asked Kakashi. "My initial impression is that I don't like you guys."
"Well, Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura, using her 'Deflect Blame' jutsu. "It isn't OUR fault you didn't demonstrate your ability to avoid traps. If you can't even dodge NARUTO's traps, then are you really ready to manage a team of genin? We may be just too awesome a set of ninja for you to associate with."
"I..." Kakashi paused, cocked his head again, and looked at the kunoichi. "You may be too awesome for me to handle?"
"That's right," said Sakura. "Ready, Naruto?"
Kakashi blinked and realized that his attention had drifted from the blonde troublemaker, who was holding his hands in a sign and had a globe of silver fire forming in front of him? "Wait a minute, what are you...?"
Fwash!
Birds chirped merrily overhead.
"Not bad," summed up Sakura, looking around. "That picnic area near the river huh?"
"Yeah, it was getting stuffy in that classroom," said Naruto, flopping down on a log.
Sasuke shrugged and moved a little so he was getting some shade.
"O-kay," said Kakashi. "Just a moment."
The three genin waited impatiently for their sensei to finish washing off chalk dust and shaving cream.
"What was the point of that, anyway?" asked Kakashi when he returned.
"Naruto's been working on his teleport, mainly the speed and the whole 'excluding objects' part," said Sakura. "Though you DID take two desks."
"I ain't had a lot of time to practice, ya know," grumped Naruto.
(Posted Sat, 15 Jan 2011 17:17)
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