The next morning, Naruto swaggered into the Academy classroom, wearing his new Genin headband like a crown. He plopped down in his seat with his hands behind his head, grinning from ear to ear. The quiet confidence rolling off him was a stark contrast to the usual loudmouthed desperation for attention.
Kiba Inuzuka, perched on a nearby desk with Akamaru on his head, pointed a finger at him. "Hey! What are you doing here, Naruto? This is for people who actually graduated. Don't make me have Akamaru chase you out!"
Naruto's grin widened into a triumphant, mocking smirk. He stood up on his chair, ensuring he had the entire room's attention. "Heh! Your breath stinks, dog-breath!" he yelled, pointing right back at Kiba. "I passed! The Hokage and Iruka-sensei gave me a super-secret, super-hard mission last night, and I passed it with flying colors! Which means I'm not the dead-last anymore!" He puffed out his chest, looking down his nose at the stunned Inuzuka. "So suck it... dead-last."
Before Kiba could launch himself across the room, Iruka entered, a stack of papers in his hand. "Everyone, settle down!" As he began to read out the new team assignments, a quiet scene from the day before played out in the Hokage's office.
Hiruzen had looked over the Genin files, his gaze lingering on Team 7's roster. "The council's recommendations were predictable," he'd said to Kakashi. "They want the Uchiha with a veteran. You are the most qualified."
Kakashi, leaning against the wall, hadn't moved. "And the other two? The Uchiha requires specific instruction. The girl is top of her class in theory, but lacks drive. And the boy..."
Hiruzen had looked him in the eye. "And the boy is Minato's legacy and a Jinchuriki with unprecedented abilities. Sasuke needs you to master the Sharingan. Naruto needs you because you understand the burden of a legacy, and I need someone I can trust completely to monitor him. Sakura Haruno will provide the balance. This is not a request, Kakashi. It is a mission."
Back in the present, Iruka announced, "Team Seven: Naruto Uzumaki! Sakura Haruno..." Sakura slumped in despair. "...and Sasuke Uchiha!" Sakura instantly erupted in a silent, internal celebration. Sasuke just grunted.
Team by team, the classroom emptied, until only Team 7 remained, waiting. And waiting. Hours passed. Naruto, seeing no point in sitting around, created a shadow clone, ordered it to wait, and slipped out to train.
When Kakashi finally appeared, he was greeted by an irate Sakura and a bored-looking Sasuke and Naruto-clone. "My first impression of this group... you're a bunch of idiots."
He led them to the Academy rooftop. The clone dispelled, and the real Naruto felt the mind-numbing hours of waiting flood his memory.
"Alright," Kakashi said lazily. "Introduce yourselves."
After his own non-introduction, Sakura went, her entire world revolving around Sasuke. Then Sasuke, his quiet, chilling vow to kill "a certain man" silencing the birds.
"And you," Kakashi said, turning back to Naruto. "Your dream."
Naruto's playful demeanor vanished. "My dream isn't to be Hokage," he said, his voice steady. "My dream is to become the strongest man alive. The First Hokage was so strong his very presence brought peace because nobody dared to start a war. That's real power. I'm going to get that strong. So strong my existence stops wars before they can even begin."
Kakashi stared, momentarily speechless. "Well now," he finally managed. "This is going to be interesting." He stood up. "Meet at Training Ground 7 tomorrow morning at 5 AM sharp." He gave them his signature eye-smile. "Oh, and... don't eat breakfast. You'll just puke."
The next morning, at 9 AM, Kakashi finally arrived at Training Ground 7. He found a fuming Sakura and a stoic, hungry Sasuke. He also found Naruto, sitting comfortably under a tree, just finishing up a massive, multi-tiered bento box.
"NARUTO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Sakura shrieked. "SENSEI TOLD US NOT TO EAT!"
Naruto looked up, polishing off a piece of grilled fish. "He advised us not to. That's a suggestion, not an order." He patted his full stomach. "Besides, I was hungry."
Kakashi just watched, amused, as he set an alarm clock on a stump and explained the bell test. "You have until noon. Come at me with the intent to kill."
The test began. Sasuke and Sakura vanished. Naruto, however, simply began to stretch. He cracked his knuckles, then his neck, and pointed a confident thumb at himself. "Alright, Kakashi-sensei! No clones this time. You and me, let's go!"
He charged. It was not the clumsy rush Kakashi anticipated. It was an explosion. Using Soru, Naruto closed the distance in a flicker, his opening move a storm of precise jabs and hooks. Kakashi, relying on years of experience, was forced onto the back foot, his arms already aching from blocking the monstrously powerful blows. This strength... it's not normal!
He leaped back into the trees for distance. Naruto followed, kicking off the air itself with Geppo, his pursuit relentless.
But Kakashi was an elite Jonin, a veteran of countless battles. He saw the flaw in Naruto's relentless assault: it was all offense. As Naruto threw a powerful right hook, Kakashi didn't block. He ducked under it, his body moving with fluid precision, and pivoted, channeling all his momentum into a single, brutal spinning back kick that slammed squarely into Naruto's chest.
Even with a reflexive Tekkai hardening his muscles, the force of the blow from a Jonin of Kakashi's caliber was overwhelming. Naruto was launched like a cannonball, skipping across the nearby river and crashing into the forest on the other side, disappearing from sight.
"Arrogant brat," Garp's voice grumbled in his head as Naruto picked himself up from a pile of broken branches, wincing. "He outmaneuvered you. That was the fist of experience. Lesson learned. Now be quiet and see what he does next." For once, Naruto listened, staying silent and hidden.
With Naruto seemingly out of the picture, Kakashi turned his attention to the "textbook" shinobi. "Now, where is Mr. Avenger?"
He found Sasuke easily. The Uchiha prodigy tried to attack, but Kakashi was on another level. He toyed with him, lecturing him on his taijutsu and ninjutsu. "You and I are in a different league," Kakashi stated calmly. "But you're still just a brat."
To prove his point, Kakashi disappeared. Sasuke, on high alert, was suddenly grabbed from below. With a cry of surprise, he was pulled underground until only his head was sticking out of the dirt.
"Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu," Kakashi said, crouching in front of the immobilized and humiliated Uchiha. "You see, you focus too much on the enemy in front of you and neglect the possibilities below."
Next was Sakura. Kakashi didn't even bother with a physical confrontation. He found her hiding spot and cast a simple, low-level Genjutsu. She saw a horrifying vision of a battered and bloody Sasuke, causing her to scream and promptly faint.
With two students down, Kakashi dragged the tied up Sasuke and the unconscious Sakura into the clearing. He propped Sakura against the training post and waited.
"Alright, Naruto!" Kakashi called out to the silent forest. "Time's almost up. Your teammates have been... neutralized. Are you going to abandon them to save yourself?"
A moment later, Naruto walked slowly out of the trees, his hands in his pockets, looking disappointed. "Man, I thought you guys would put up more of a fight," he said, looking at Sasuke and the fainted Sakura.
"It's over," Kakashi said, appearing behind Naruto to grab him.
But as his hands closed on Naruto's shoulders, the boy dissolved into a puff of smoke. A shadow clone.
"Rule number one of being a shinobi," the real Naruto's voice said from a high branch above. "Look underneath the underneath."
Kakashi looked up, his visible eye wide with genuine surprise. At that moment, the alarm clock rang. Noon.
The test ended. Kakashi, impressed despite himself, tied the now-conscious and deeply embarrassed Sakura to the log. He announced their failure, explaining they didn't understand the meaning of teamwork.
He told them that he would give then another chance after lunch but also warned them not to feed sakura as punishment for not even putting up a fight.
Kakashi vanished in a swirl of leaves, leaving a heavy silence. Sasuke scowled, picking up his lunch. Sakura's stomach rumbled pitifully.
"He's too strong for us, you know," Naruto said suddenly, breaking the silence. He looked from the humiliated Sasuke to the tied-up Sakura. "I tried fighting him alone and got kicked across a river. You two tried, and... well, look at you. We can't beat him alone."
Sasuke scoffed, not looking at him. "And what's the point? Yeah, if we work together, maybe we could beat him, but still only two out of three of us can pass."
Naruto just shrugged, his expression completely unbothered. He picked up his own bento box.
"So? It's fine," he said, popping a rice ball into his mouth. "I'll just go back to the Academy and have more time to train myself. Being a ninja isn't the only option for me, after all."
He looked at his own calloused fists for a moment, a flicker of Garp's unwavering confidence in his eyes.
"I'll still become the strongest man in the world without being a ninja."
The statement hung in the air, utterly baffling to both Sasuke and Sakura. Their entire lives had been singularly focused on the goal of becoming a shinobi. To hear someone, especially the boy they thought was the most desperate for acknowledgment, treat it as a secondary option was a shock to their whole worldview.
It was that shocking indifference that broke the stalemate. It wasn't about competing with Naruto anymore. He was playing a different game entirely.
A moment later, Sasuke grunted and held out his chopsticks with a piece of fish toward Sakura. "Here."
Naruto grinned. "Now you're getting it!" He did the same.
In a puff of smoke, Kakashi appeared before them, his expression stormy. "YOU...!" he began, his voice booming. The three Genin braced for the worst. Kakashi's furious expression then vanished, replaced by his signature eye-smile. "...have understood the point. The mission was to test your ability to see past the rules and prioritize your comrades. You passed."