Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, dialogue, etc. of Naruto© and Kingdom Hearts©, are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot of this work are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

While Kakashi-sensei was explaining their test and winding up the alarm clock, Naruto seized the initiative and surreptitiously palmed four of his special, home-made fast acting smoke bombs.

The instant the command to begin was given, he hurled them at everyone's feet, thinking furiously, trying to think of something he could do against a seasoned jōnin. His mind raced over his meager skills, when suddenly he was hit by a bolt of inspiration.

Bringing his hands into the new cross shaped hand-seal he was becoming more and more familiar with, he whispered as quickly and quietly as possible, "Shadow Clone Jutsu,'' and flared his chakra, creating five duplicates of himself in a wave of smoke, further obscuring him and his teammates and Kakashi.

The clones were left to spread out and engage, while took off into the woods around their clearing. Meanwhile unbeknownst to him, Ino and Sasuke had also taken advantage of the smoky chaos, and had ran for cover as well.

Ino took refuge in one of the nearby trees, eyeing Kakashi-sensei, who was leaning on a tree, looking completely bored, as he faced five identical copies of Naruto, who was still sporting his non-orange outfit.

"Well well," the scarecrow-like jōnin, drawled lazily, but did not move "Guess you decided to come at me directly."

"Damn right I did," growled one of the Narutos stepping forward, "We're going to kick your ass sensei!." The speaker began to rush forward, and as if on an unseen or heard signal, the clones moved forward as well.

Then, Ino was treated to what could have possibly been a horribly traumatic scene, as Kakashi's right arm flashed out, and a kunai was promptly lodged into Naruto's neck, and then two seconds later, four more knives flashed out, each hitting their mark with frightening accuracy.

She just barely managed not to scream or freak out, and her relief was immediate when all five Naruto's burst into smoke. It was just a distraction, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"You'll have to do better than that," Kakashi taunted as he reached into his flak jacket, and withdrew a hard-cover book with a bright orange cover, seemingly tuning out the genin hopefuls entirely.

What should I do? Ino wondered from her perch, warily watching the possibly insane jōnin for a few more seconds before, an idea came to her, and she took off, jumping between branches, not noticing Kakashi-sensei's amused look as his eyes followed her.

After what seemed to be an eternity of searching, which in reality was only about ten minutes, she finally caught a flash blond in a tree ahead.

Putting on a burst of speed, she rushed forward, and reached out grabbing Naruto's struggling form." Gah!," her fellow blond protested, far too loudly for her tastes given the current situation "What the hell, Ino?" he demanded as he tried to struggle out of her grip.

"Quiet!" she whisper hissed, "This is for your own good, now shut up and help me find Sasuke." He would have protested, but there was a peculiar gleam in her eye that caught his interest, so grudgingly, he came along with her as she scoured the undergrowth.

Sasuke's blue shirt was be hard to find in the undergrowth, but he had white shorts on. It took a bit more time, before they finally spotted patch of white wasn't sunlight creeping around in the shadows of the trees.

Ino raced down and grabbed it, only to be quickly greeted by a livid Uchiha Sasuke's face.

"Ino?" he demanded, looking enraged. "What the hell are you doing?" He had his hands clamped firmly on his shorts which were currently being threatened to be pulled off.

"I'll explain later," she hissed back, casting a nervous look at Kakashi, who was still reading his odd orange book. Signaling back up to Naruto, the three genin made their way to a small glade where hopefully they couldn't be overheard.

"Okay, guys, so here's the plan," she began, only to be promptly cut off by Sasuke.

"Look, Ino, I don't know if you got the point, but we're supposed to do this alone." He growled "That's why there are only two bells."

"Oh, be quiet!" she snapped quietly, reaching out smacking him over the head. "You realize that if we went up against him one-on-one, we'd never get a bell?"

Sasuke looked affronted. "Maybe for you, but—" he began sullenly, before being cut off by the fiery girl, "No, not even you, Mr. Smarty-pants, can get it! He's a jōnin, for God's sake! I've sparred with my dad enough to know that there's absolutely no way for genin can win one-on-one against one."

Unfortunately Sasuke didn't look convinced, and even Naruto was looking at her dubiously "If all three of us work together, we'll have to fight over the two bells," he said cautiously.

"You forgot about my special ability," she said smugly, "Remember, I have the Mind Transfer Jutsu, I can possess him and force him to say we all pass."

Comprehension quickly dawned on both boys faces, and she continued eagerly, "So here's the plan…you guys can add parts if you want…"

A few minutes later

"HAA!" Naruto cried as he rushed into the clearing where Kakashi was still standing and idly reading. "I want to fight you one-on-one, Kakashi-sensei!" he drew closer, "For real this time."

Kakashi for his part, simply lazily scrutinized him for a moment or two before answering lackluster, "Okay," ad his eye returned back to his book.

"Why you!—" Naruto yelled in frustration, charging forward and punching Kakashi, who blocked the punch with a lazy flick of his arm. Naruto attempted to kick him, and Kakashi nimbly leapt backwards with cat-like grace.

Naruto continued to persevere, and continued punching and kicking wildly, but all of his strikes were either dodged or blocked, and the jōnin, never one took his eye off the page.

This continued for at least three minutes, before the silver ninja finally spoke up, "Maa, Naruto, this doesn't seem to be getting you anywhere," he observed cooly.

"Oh yeah?" the blond retorted, as his hands linked together in the cross seal, "Shadow Clone Justu," he shouted and two clones appeared on either side of Naruto. "The first lesson you need to learn, is taijutsu," the silver haired nin said ominously. All three Narutos ignored the words and directly charged at the jōnin, but in a flash Kakashi snapped his book shut, stowed it away, and back flipped backwards, and with a surprising display of agility, neatly kicked both clones neatly out of existence.

"Time to end this now." Kakashi said as he vanished in a literal blur of motion. A second or tow later he reappeared directly behind Naruto, in a crouch, his fingers locked into the Tiger hand-seal.

"Konoha Secret Taijutsu Move…One Thousand Years of Death!" Kakashi bellowed, his voice echoing across the training grounds. Then there was a flash of chakra, and Naruto's eyes opened wide, and he began screaming s Kakashi propelled him 50 feet forward into a nearby pond by doing something Ino would rather not look at, or think about, ever again.

Sasuke winced as he heard Naruto's screech of pain, for once in his life grateful that he did not have an active sharingan yet. Glad that he would not have the memory of what Kakashi-sensei had just done, forever burned into his memory.

After Naruto went flying into the pond, Kakashi chuckled to himself at the joke technique and started walking back to his previous spot. All of a sudden there was a tremendous SPLASH as the blond boy burst from the pond, soaking wet, and clutching his behind with a look of pain, along with twenty angry clones.

Kakashi's eye narrowed as clones from the river quickly surrounded him, "Gotcha!" Naruto crowed as he stepped onto land. " One of the clones aimed a punch at Kakashi, and —"Ah!" The clone punched another clone, which was knocked out of existence

"Substitution Jutsu!" Naruto gasped quickly grasping what had happened, and he quickly dispelled his clones, while Kakashi dropped down from a nearby tree.

"Well, Naruto, that was a good try," he said to the sodden boy, but his eyes widened again as even more clones who leapt out from behind the trees suddenly raced by, as well as Uchiha Sasuke, and he quickly found himself unable to move.

Looking down, the older ninja realized he'd been bound to the tree with the razor wires Sasuke was fond of using, Naruto's clones on either side of him wearing identical maniacal grins and holding the wires for their teammate.

Sasuke rushed in front of him, fingers racing through a string of hald-seals, before he opened his mouth to expel pure flame, Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu," he breathed and Kakashi was ignited in a huge fireball.

Sasuke stepped back, looking satisfied, but was stunned when Kakashi reappeared right behind him, patting him on the back. "Nice, Sasuke," he said, with what could have been pride, "But you still haven't gotten me—"

Then Ino burst out of the bushes, her fingers laced together in the clan technique's unique seal, and yelled, "Mind Transfer Jutsu!," with a flare of her chakra.

To her immense satisfaction, Kakashi actually looked surprised. Even he couldn't avoid this, she knew, not even with a Substitution Jutsu, because she was standing so close, so he closed his eyes, awaiting the inevitable she supposed.

Then "Kakashi" faded out of existence with a puff of smoke.
_

"Holy crap! Ino's spirit swore as she rapidly moved forward out of her body. Sasuke, seeing what had happened, jerked backwards directly into her path, and Ino slid into a body that wasn't her own.

Ino-Sasuke blinked as she/he adjusted to new surroundings. "What the hell…" she muttered, as she flexed long, worn, pale fingers that were definitely not her own. She glanced at her blue shirt, and white shorts, and it clicked, she was in Sasuke's body.

Damn it, she what happened, and why did Sasuke move at all?

"Release it," a voice hissed from the back of her mind, presumably Sasuke, and she collected herself immediately. Lacing Sasuke's fingers into her clan seal, he pulsed her chakra, and said, Release!," firmly, thankfully feeling herself lift out of Sasuke's body and back to her own quickly.

She found herself looking up at the sky from where she had collapsed, and Sasuke blinked rapidly as he gained control of his body again.

"Why did you…?" she began to ask, and Sasuke shrugged. "I didn't want you to take time to get back to your own body. Then we'd have no chance of carrying out the plan.

Ino smiled at his answer, she knew Sasuke didn't have time to think of any of that that in the split second that he had leaped—he had done it purely out of instinct. She chose not to mention it though.

"Yo." Kakashi said cheerfully as he suddenly reappeared towering above them. "Time's up." Less than a second later the alarm clock he had set on the stump began blaring loudly, and all three genin groaned.

A few minutes later, they were all seated around the stump, with their heads hung low, well, not really Sasuke, but he was not looking at Kakashi either, so that sort of counted."So," began the silver haired jōnin breaking the silence, his voice one more emotionless, and the genin nearly flinched. "I guess I'll have to say this to make it official."

"Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Yamanaka Ino, you all…"He paused. "PASS!" The three younger shinobi jerked in surprise, and all looked directly at him in shock. It was hard to tell, but Hatake Kakashi was clearly happy. His visible eye was crinkled up in way that definitely suggested he was smiling, and he may have even been laughing silently.

Ino was the first to react, and she squealed, and threw her arms around Kakashi, who looked immensely uncomfortable. "What?" Naruto asked almost flabbergasted. "Really? WOW! That's awesome! He cheered, "ALL-RIGHT!" Even Sasuke breathed out a sigh of relief, with a tiny smile on his face.

"Now," Kakashi said, when he finally disentangled Ino's arm from around his neck, "Why do you think I passed you even when none of you got a bell?"

All three looked hesitant, but Ino took a guess first. "Maybe…you gauged each one of our performances as genin-level?" she tried, but Kakashi shook his head. "You all have solid skills yes, but what was more important than that?"

Surprisingly, it was Sasuke of all people who answered. "Teamwork." We only got close to you because we worked together."

"Yes." Kakashi drawled approvingly. "Teamwork. Now, if it hadn't been for Ino here, no doubt I would've failed you two," he said pointing at the two boys. "Although, if Ino did not have her Mind Transfer Jutsu, she might not have been able to think of this plan, and the two of you might not have agreed to work with her, so, it is very lucky that you two had her on your team."

Ino beamed at the unexpected praise, personally she felt her contribution was kind of lacking, but Sasuke and Naruto both looked rather put out.

"Don't worry," Kakashi assured them reading their faces easily, "It wasn't only because of Ino that you managed to impress me. Your skills are definitely above Academy level, but I want to talk about teamwork now."

"I tried to turn you all against each other, by hinting that you would have to compete against your peers by having only two bells." "This, however, is a ruse to test out whether the three of you could work together as a team, if you could ignore the fact that only two bells are available and be willing to work together," he looked at each of them seriously, "It also determines if you are willing to put aside personal gain in order to help your comrades."

Then the serious attitude vanished as he withdrew his book once more, and upon seeing the title Make Out Paradise, both Naruto and Ino blushed.

Ignoring their discomfort his eye continues scanning the book as he continues the conversation, "So now, let's comment on positive aspects of personal performance. Let's start with you Naruto. That Shadow Clone Jutsu of yours is very impressive," Kakashi told Naruto, who grinned sheepishly. "Your lake ambush was pretty admirable, good sense of tactics."

Then he turned towards to Sasuke. "Your speed impressive for a genin, and I was surprised you actually consented to share your razor wires." He hummed for a moment, "Nice execution of the Fireball Jutsu, for your age it's really impressive."

Finally, he turned to Ino. "I haven't seen much about you except for your Mind Transfer Jutsu, but I have to admit that I was impressed by your plan." "But…" Ino said, looking a little crestfallen. "All of us together could only barely beat your clone."

"Ah, that was really the only flaw in your plan," Kakashi said wisely. "When you dragged the others to another clearing, I made my own Shadow Clone in the clearing, you must never lose sight of your opponent. But, you managed to best my clone. That is impressive."

Now, he addressed all three of them, but still reading from his book "Now, I was able to deduce your fighting styles and I have an idea of what kind team. I have to say I'm pretty sure it will work out pretty well."

He snapped his book shut and eye smiled at them, "You guys don't need to eat the bentos I made, I'm not a great cook anyway, so go treat yourselves somewhere else.

Then suddenly, he was surrounded by a menacing aura, "So my cute little genin," he said creepily, "Tomorrow, meet me at 8 AM in this training ground again, for training," the word made each of them shiver, and then the aura vanished "Bye now," Kakashi smirked, and he Shushined away.

Sasuke immediately turned away to leave, moving quickly. "Sasuke!" Ino shouted, but he didn't say a word, he just halted. "You want to go get luch with me and Naruto?" she asked.

There was a moment of silence. Then—"No." and he continued walking away.

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that," Ino said sadly as he left, but quickly shook off her melancholy, turning to her fellow blond. "Come on Naruto," she said brightly, "Lets get some lunch to celebrate."

A huge smile emerged on Naruto's face, and he took her hand enthusiastically, "Great! I know the best ramen place!," he said enthusiastically. She giggled at his enthusiasm, but firmly declined.

"Let's try some place other than Ichiraku's," she suggested lightly, and before he could protest, she continued, "I know a great barbecue place, and I'll bet Shikamaru and Choji will be there too, assuming they passed."

Naruto perked up at that detail, and cheered, "Let's go then."

It was a while before either noticed he was still holding her hand while they walked.

If you liked this chapter, please leave a comment, favorite it if you really loved it, or if you hated it for some reason, send me some constructive criticism. This is the first story I've worked on for a while.