Chapter 1 – Cover the sky to cross the ocean

"Yes ...I destroy… the world…and create it…anew."

And in that moment the world stood still. A friend found the resolve to live a cursed life. A sister mourned the price paid for her simple wish. A woman in love regretted being unable to see the truth sooner. And a witch prayed for her warlock's salvation.

Unseen by anyone, the symbol of Geass lit up and burned itself into Code on bloody wound of the dying emperor before disappearing. Far away in the space where C's World existed, in the ruins of the Sword of Akasha, a voice echoed continuously.

"DON'T STOP THE MARCH OF TIME!"

"What I want…is TOMORROW!"

The spherical form of God rippled and turned hazy. A lone figure whose neck bore the symbol of Geass stood on an unbroken platform, gazing up at the human collective unconsciousness.

"The power of Geass is too great for humans to possess. But, perhaps humans can use it better than those fools chasing immortality." The semi-translucent figure murmured to itself. "Is this what you saw in them when you sealed the first Code, Mokushimi Ōtsutsuki?"

The hazy form of Jupiter, or otherwise known as Mokusei, in the sky began shifting. The gas storms gathered into a single spinning spiral, the surface bleeding into red.

"If she had seen this back then, do you think Kaguya would still have made the same choice?"

The spinning spiral halted to reveal a pattern of three concentric circles with nine magatama. An eagle cry reverberated across the ruins, and the pattern broke to reveal the symbol of Geass as red shifted to purple.

O O O

His eyes blinked open to a starry night sky obstructed by the forms of massive trees. He got up and felt the heavy round object he was carrying on his back. Looking around, he was alone in a forest with a single wooden shack a few metres away. Then he remembered the current situation, in which he had stolen the forbidden scroll of seals and ran away to practice one of its techniques for the purpose of graduating.

'Wait, what? That's not right, I was dying for the Zero Requiem!' The demon emperor thought furiously, trying to remember what had happened to get him here. All of his memories from before his planned death made sense. But there was nothing after that. He started again from his latest memories and tried to trace backwards. He was training in the mass shadow clone jutsu he found in the scroll of seals. He had stolen the scroll from Old Man Hokage's house after Mizuki-sensei told him about the secret way to graduate, because he had failed the Academy exam for the third time.

'Huh? Jutsu? Hokage? Academy?' Lelouch was suddenly at a loss. Information about these concepts flowed into his mind naturally as if he had known about these things for a long time. Only, it was obviously impossible because ninja and Fire Shadows and a school for training ninja kids was clearly not anything that could be in the modern era! Sayoko was a ninja but there was no way anything like an entire village of ninjas could be hidden in a world completely dominated by the modern superpowers that mapped and fought for every inch of land and water on Earth.

As he thought further back, he found what seemed to be the recent memories of a life that he didn't live, of a boy named Naruto Uzumaki. The memories came naturally but couldn't recall anything that happened beyond the last few days, except in relation to people, things, and specific events that reminded him of other events in the past. He could not recall the events that occurred when he was 11, but he knew that he failed the graduation exam three times and one of them happened while he was 11. It was as if all the memories were there, but they weren't properly stored as episodic memories in his brain.

But that was enough to let him grasp the situation. He brought his hands together in the two finger cross seal and channeled his chakra in the way he remembered training in.

A boy in an orange jumpsuit covered in dust while bearing a huge scroll on his back poofed into existence in front of him, staring back curiously.

'Unless I've gone insane…somehow I've transmigrated into a different world as this boy. A world where magic is real and ninjas call it jutsu, powered by chakra.'

But either way, he had to assume it was real and try to figure out what really happened later on, because he had just been fooled into stealing a priceless artifact of the village and no doubt there were already countless ninja after him. And he knew he had been fooled because…the scroll had real forbidden techniques in it, one which he had just learned.

He sat down and quickly unfurled the scroll again as the clone in front did the same.

"This scroll is empty," The clone stated before rolling it back up. Lelouch didn't respond and instead focused on the real scroll in front of him.

The clone grabbed a kunai from his pouch and threw it at a random tree. It collided with a thud before bursting into smoke, leaving a deep indent in the tree. Then he made the cross seal and three more clones appeared. One clone transformed into a sword which a second clone grabbed and smashed into the third clone. Both the sword and the third clone dispelled with a poof, and the original Lelouch flinched at the shock of being sliced apart. He was stunned for only a moment before he regained his bearings, then he looked at the two clones remaining. One of them dispelled itself, while Lelouch tossed a kunai over to the last clone. The last clone threw the kunai at the same tree he threw the cloned kunai, and it embedded deeply. The clone walked over, pulled out the kunai, tossing it back to the original before inspecting the trenches the two kunai made. Thrown with the same force, the one with the real kunai went deeper. Satisfied, he then formed a fist and punched the tree as hard as he could, before he also disappeared in a burst of smoke. Lelouch sat quietly contemplating the results of his tests before returning his attention to the scroll in front of him.

O O O

Only a few minutes later, a man in a chuunin vest dropped down from the trees and stopped in front of Lelouch with a look of exasperation. "I found you!"

"Hehe…you found me, Iruka-sensei. I did it! I learned a skill from this scroll! If I show it to you, you have to let me graduate, right?" Lelouch responded with a goofy grin while he his eyes stared widely at Iruka's own eyes.

Iruka noticed the dirt and grime on the boy and realized he'd been practicing here. "Naruto…where did you get that scroll?"

"Oh this, Mizuki-sensei told me about it, and this place too! He said if I learned a technique in the scroll, I'd definitely graduate!" Lelouch said happily. 'So my geass didn't work…or I don't have it anymore.'

Iruka was startled for a moment before he sensed a flurry of weapons and pushed Naruto away.

Shuriken and kunai slammed into the Academy instructor even as he guarded his vitals with his arms and stumbled back. The weapons pinned him to the wall of the wooden shack.

"Nice job finding the moron!" A voice called out.

Iruka looked up to Mizuki perched on a tree and understood what was going on.

"Naruto, give me the scroll!" Mizuki commanded.

"Naruto! Whatever happens, don't give him the scroll!" Iruka yelled back.

"What's going on!" Lelouch looked back and forth between the two.

"That's a dangerous scroll that has forbidden ninjutsu inside it, Mizuki used you to get his hands on it!" Iruka exclaimed.

"Naruto, there's no point in you having it. I'll tell you the truth" Mizuki started with a gleeful expression.

"No! Don't!" Iruka shouted desperately.

"Twelve years ago, you know about the demon fox being sealed right?" At Mizuki's mentioning, Lelouch did recall such a thing, which they had learned about in the Academy. "Since that day, a special rule was created in this village, but this rule was never meant to be told to you."

"What rule? Tell me!" Lelouch demanded.

Mizuki laughed for a good few seconds first before answering. "The rule is that nobody is allowed to talk about the fact that you are the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox!"

"Stop it!" Iruka yelled.

"You are the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that killed Iruka's parents and destroyed the village! You were sealed up by the Hokage you admired and…"

"Stop!" Iruka yelled again.

"You have been lied to by everyone! Didn't you find it odd how everyone hates you? Iruka is the same! He also hates you!" Mizuki pulled the massive fuma shuriken off his back. "Nobody will ever love you! And that scroll was used to seal you up!" Mizuki started spinning the shuriken in his hand and moved it back in preparation to throw it as he cackled madly.

Then he heard a chuckling sound and saw Naruto's posture and expression suddenly change into one of complete calm.

"Say, what should a demon do when it finally gets the keys to its prison?" Lelouch looked at Mizuki mockingly.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Mizuki's heart skipped a beat as he comprehended the meaning of the boy's question. He stilled and reassessed the boy standing below, with an uncomfortable feeling gnawing at his head as he glanced towards the huge scroll at the boy's side.

"What's wrong? Why not attack? Your opponent is just an academy student. Or have you finally realized...the only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed!"

Iruka looked at Naruto as if he'd grown a second head.

A chorus of growling sounds come from the surrounding forest.

"What's happening here?!" Mizuki's eyes darted around rapidly, trying to make sense of the situation. He felt as though a stone dropped in his gut when he saw unnaturally large foxes with red eyes and crimson fur walking in slowly from behind the trees. Some foxes were easily the size of several adults and each had varying numbers of tails trailing behind them, with more tails on the bigger ones.

Lelouch saw Mizuki's panicked look, and knew victory was in his hands.

"This demon commands you...die!"

Mizuki was suddenly tackled from above and slammed into the ground, his fuma shuriken dropping on the way. Thunderous roars sounded before he was assaulted from all sides.

As the legion of foxes ripped into Mizuki, Iruka watched in shock, and a hint of fear showed in his wide eyes. Then the foxes started poofing into clones of Naruto as they continued to beat up Mizuki. It was then that Iruka realized that the foxes weren't summoned by the Nine-Tails, but simply disguised clones...that were all solid. It wasn't long before Mizuki lost consciousness and the clones dispelled, leaving the forest with an eerie silence.

"Iruka-sensei...is it true? Am I really the Nine-Tails?" Lelouch asked with his head lowered.

O O O

After receiving Iruka's lecture at Ichiraku Ramen, Lelouch wandered around the village. It was getting close to midnight so the streets were quiet. Still, there were enough people around that Lelouch could clearly see that people in the village did indeed hate the boy whose body he now occupied. No matter where he went not a single person looked at him with warm or even neutral expressions. The village was a large place, large enough to be called a town instead. Fortunately his new body was extremely athletic and he could run around or even jump around roof tops like the other ninjas did to get around the village. In his old body, Lelouch could barely pass his gym classes, despite his dangerous escapades. That was partly why C.C. would often co-pilot knightmare frames with him, as his body simply couldn't keep up with his mind. But where he used to be out of breath after running fifty metres, now he had seemingly endless stamina. After a while he found himself on top of the mountain with the faces of the Hokages.

As he took in the view of the whole village and the great forest that extended around for many miles all around, he felt a sense of vertigo. This place was so familiar. It felt just like home, and it was sickening. It was his home, but this wasn't his life. He was not Naruto Uzumaki, the boy whom he'd replaced and possibly killed by extension. He was Lelouch vi Britannia, the demon emperor that held the world at gun point. He was Zero, the man of miracles that brought peace and freedom to the world. He was Lelouch Lamperouge, the exiled prince that created a gentle world for Nunnally. At the end of his quest, he was meant to die to atone for the vast sins he had committed in the name of defeating greater evils. He needed to die because he killed Euphie's dream, forced Suzaku to fire a FLEIJA that obliterated millions of civilians, enslaved millions more under the thrall of Geass, and embarked on an unprecedented reign of terror. He died for the world's peace and he did it with a smile on his face. He had no regrets, except perhaps not quite living up to his contract with C.C. even if she agreed to the plan in the end.

But now all of that was like dust in the wind. There was nothing left of his world but memories that would fade in time. He didn't join C's World and cannot watch over the people he left behind. He would never get the chance to apologize to Euphie and Shirley and all the troops he abandoned at Tokyo and everybody else who died for him. He was forever separated from his friends and loved ones, alive again in a new world where not only did he have no friends and family but was actually hated by everyone just for existing. Even if he had loved ones in this world, he inherited none of the feelings and emotions from the memories of the body he now occupied.

'Is this supposed to be divine punishment?'

He closed his eyes. In one fluid motion, he drew a kunai from his pouch and reversed his grip on it, pointing the tip towards his heart. He wavered there for a moment.

"If you do that, some people will be very sad, Naruto-kun," a gentle voice murmured from beside him.

He opened his eyes and found his arm held by an old and wrinkled hand.

"Hokage-jiji?" Lelouch whispered in surprise as his eyes traced the hand to its owner's face.

The village leader stood beside him looking at him with a sad smile. "I for one, could not bear to see you leave us so soon."

Lelouch's grip on the kunai loosened and it fell to the ground. "I'm…sorry for stealing the scroll," said Lelouch as his eyes turned downcast.

"It's quite alright, my boy. You defeated me fair and square after all," the Hokage chuckled. "And you made very good use of it, I am truly impressed at your mastery of the Shadow Clone technique."

"Uh…thank you," Lelouch responded awkwardly as the Hokage's admittance brought up the memory of how exactly the boy defeated the village leader.

The Hokage sighed heavily and put both his hands on Naruto's shoulders, moving down to meet the boy's eyes level with his own. "I am the one that should be sorry, Naruto-kun. I have failed you…this village has failed you. You are a hero, Naruto-kun. You deserve to live a better life than this. This old man has no excuse for allowing you to suffer alone all these years."

At his words, Lelouch recalled the many memories Naruto had of the Third Hokage. Before Iruka, the old ninja was the only one in the village that seemed to genuinely care about and actively try to spend time with him, eating ramen, sending gifts, visiting the orphanage, or just letting him hang around the Hokage's office. Whenever he had troubles with the villagers, the old man would always help, like the apartment he was able to rent when the orphanage's relatively kind caretaker died and was replaced by someone not so nice.

"No…you've done more than enough for me, Jiji…" Lelouch mumbled with teary eyes.

"I don't have any right to say this…but…please, don't give up just yet. You are not alone, even though it may seem that way some times. Your parents gave their lives to protect you, more so than they did for this village. They loved you and and I'm sure they would have wanted you to live long and happy. In time, you will make many friends and the villagers will see you for who you are. Iruka is only the first of many that will come to understand you. And to me…you are like my grandson." With that, the Hokage took off his hat and put it on Naruto's head.

Tears streaked down Lelouch's face and he sniffed pitifully.

"So please, live on until the day your dream can come true," the Hokage finished.

"Hokage-jiji…" Lelouch's whole body shook as he cried out.

The old man leaned forward and wrapped his arms around the boy in a hug.

O O O

The next two days passed peacefully. Lelouch reviewed the Academy teaching materials out of idle curiosity for the novelty that was chakra, ninjas, and magical techniques. He handed in his ninja registration and cleaned up his apartment. He observed the ninjas moving around the village and looked at the ninja tools commonly sold in shops. He bought a set of the Japanese equivalent version of chess, shogi, and thought it strange that this world had so much culture in common with Japan, yet convenient that he was used to it after having lived there half his life. He tried to recall as many things as he could from his memories so he wouldn't be caught off guard by a memory suddenly hitting him after seeing something related. But in all that time, he kept to himself and let the time pass. Although he seemed to make it past Iruka and the Hokage, he was not truly confident in his acting skills. His great performances as Zero had just been magnifying his original personality, and he had rarely needed to pretend to be somebody else.

And so it was time that the graduates received their team assignments.

Lelouch made his way to the Academy classroom early when nobody else had arrived and sat down in a back corner of the room beside a window. He propped up his arm on the desk and supported his chin with his hand, looking outside the window mindlessly. It was nostalgic he thought, to be sitting in school again, like the days in Ashford Academy when he had no power to realize his wish for the destruction of Britannia. When he was nothing but a corpse going through the motions of living, up until the day he met C.C. and obtained the cursed eyes that granted the Power of the King.

In his absent-minded state, he barely noticed his classmates filling in. But he couldn't care less, it wasn't like he had any friends among them…he couldn't help but think of the foolish activities Milly used to hold, and wondered if he wouldn't be so resistant if he could go back to that time. He didn't pay attention the odds looks he received from his current classmates, he had already gotten used to the special treatment from the villagers when they saw him. Instead in his mind he wondered what his old friends were doing now. Were any of them in danger of being linked to the dead prince that returned to usurp the throne and conquer the world?

"Hey! What are you doing here, Naruto! Only those who've passed the exam are supposed to be here!" A person yelled up at him. He glanced over and didn't recognize who it was.

With a look of annoyance, Lelouch pointed at his headband in response before continuing to look out the window.

The boy gaped as he was brushed off. He was about to continue when the door was kicked open and two girls loudly fought their way to the seats beside the Rookie of the Year Sasuke Uchiha.

Said Rookie of the Year scrunched up his face in disgust as the two girls couldn't be resolved to just take the two empty seats beside him and instead had to fight over who sat right next to him.

Shortly after, Iruka entered the classroom and took control of the situation and began his lecture on becoming true ninja.

Then a random student raised her hand to ask a question.

"Iruka-sensei, where's Mizuki-sensei today? Shouldn't he be here to see us off too?"

Iruka couldn't help but grimace and glance at Naruto slightly before schooling his features and answering, "Mizuki-sensei…has been scheduled for execution on charges of treason and exposure of vital village secrets." He was originally planning to make a random excuse, but Hokage-sama suddenly changed his mind about quietly imprisoning Mizuki the day before, and ordered that he be executed with the reason made public, that being the Third's law enacted 12 years ago regarding a certain S-rank secret. There was no point in hiding it as the students would quickly find out on their own.

Gasps abounded in the class, and certain observant students did not miss the look Iruka directed to Naruto before his answer. However, Iruka did not spend any more time on the subject and continued. It wasn't long before the team announcements began.

"Next is Team 7. Sakura Haruno…Naruto Uzumaki…Sasuke Uchiha." The girl named Sakura gave a loud cheer when Sasuke's name was called. Lelouch perked up at these names and almost cringed when he recalled how bad the relationship was between him and these two.

After a lunch break Lelouch spent by himself, the teams waited for their jounin senseis to arrive. One by one the jounins came and took their students away.

"Hi, I'm Asuma Sarutobi, instructor for Team 10," said a bearded man with spiked hair wearing the typical jounin vest. From his right waist hung a grey sash with the symbol for Fire.

'Asuma Sarutobi…that's the Hokage's clan,' Lelouch noted to himself.

As Asuma walked out casually with his team and headed towards the Yakiniku bar, he took out a cigar and lit it up. As he turned his head back towards the path and was about to put the cigar in his mouth, a black cat with purple eyes strolled across the street in front of him. It turned its head towards his cigar an turned its nose up as if in disdain before strutting away.

"Huh…maybe we should take another path…" Asuma chuckled nervously.

"Don't be superstitious! Besides, it looks like your smoking chased it away." His sole female student, Ino Yamanaka, admonished.

"Troublesome…Ino…don't forget who's the student here…" Ino's fellow teammate, Shikamaru Nara quietly reminded.

"Hahaha…well she's right, ninjas shouldn't be superstitious," Asuma said lightheartedly and continued.

O O O

After an hour Team 7 was the only one left. The three waited in total silence. Silence was typical of Sasuke, while Sakura looked subdued. She had attempted to ask Sasuke to have lunch together and was completely rejected, even told off for being annoying. Lelouch was leaning on his fist with his eyes closed and his head could be seeing occasionally bobbing up and down. Both Sasuke and Sakura sneaked glances at the blond boy who had acted uncharacteristically quiet the whole day. With their intelligence, they had clearly recognized that he had somehow graduated while failing the exam and thought that something big must have happened. And of course, Sasuke saw the look Iruka gave Naruto earlier and came to his own conclusions.

After a couple more hours of waiting, a man with silver hair and his headband covering his left eye entered the classroom.

"Hello," the man said with a wave. "Hm…" He glanced at the three students, two of which quietly watched him with unreadable expressions. Suddenly Lelouch opened his eyes and observed him as well.

"Well, you're an odd bunch aren't you?"

The team went to the rooftop.

"Well, let's start with introducing yourselves," the jounin declared.

"What do you want to know?" Sakura asked in return.

"How about your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future and things like that," the jounin leaned back against the railings.

There was a moment of silence when nobody knew who should go first. Then Lelouch decided to get it over with it. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like justice and equality. I dislike those who treat others with prejudice and those who abuse their power to oppress the weak. And…" Lelouch almost said that he didn't have any particular dream, but decided not to rock the boat any further, given how seriously the village leader seemed to treat Naruto's dream. "…my dream is to become Hokage."

"Justice, equality, prejudice? Do you even know what those words mean, idiot?" Sakura mocked after being briefly stunned.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed while the jounin merely stared silently. The jounin sensei had reviewed the three's academy records and also met with the Hokage prior, so he was aware of and keen to observe Naruto's attitude change since the events surrounding the boy's graduation.

Lelouch turned his head slowly to face Sakura, and calmly responded. "No, I don't know what justice truly means. If there is evil that justice cannot defeat, is it just to taint our hands with evil to fight it or to remain steadfastly righteous and allow evil to persist? But some things are unquestionably unjust. To discriminate according to the circumstances of one's birth, to tyrannize those who lack the power to fight back…these are the actions of overprivileged parasites."

The jounin quirked an eyebrow. He couldn't help but wonder who exactly were the overprivileged parasites in Naruto's speech. And more importantly, did one night of shock, danger, and revelation really have the potential to transform a boy who couldn't read Kanji properly to an amateur philosopher? "You have an interesting outlook on life, Naruto-kun. If you achieve your dream, maybe you can do something about these injustices. Well, the girl, how about you next?" He turned to Sakura before the girl had a chance to say anything about Naruto's tirade.

"…!" Sakura gave Naruto another look, huffed, and began her own introduction, "My name is Sakura Haruno. The thing I like is…well the person I like is…" she glanced at Sasuke and trailed off. "I dislike…" she shot a look at Naruto before recalling a certain memory from lunch break and thought better of her answer. "…people who bully others for things they can't control."

Lelouch's eye twitched. 'This girl…says almost the same thing right after mocking me for saying it.'

"…And my dream…umm…" the introduction ended in a fit of giggles. Sasuke pretended not to hear anything while the only adult dropped a sweat.

"OK, next."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. There are lots of things I dislike and I don't really like anything. And I can't really call it a dream, but I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and…to kill a certain man," Sasuke uttered darkly.

The veteran ninja sighed. Sakura looked in awe. Lelouch felt a hint of both sympathy and pity, sympathy in that he understood the desire for vengeance , pity that the other boy had nothing left to cherish, unlike he who had Nunnally.

"Great, that's it for the introductions, tomorrow we'll start our duties as shinobi."

"How about yourself, sensei?" Lelouch cut in.

"Yeah, you look kinda suspicious!" Sakura added.

"Oh of course, how could I forget," the man smiled with his lone eye closed. "My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have no desire to tell you my likes or dislikes. Dreams for the future…hm…and I have lots of hobbies."

The eyes of all three genin twitched.

"Well first we are going to do something with just the four of us. Survival training," Kakashi continued nonchalantly.

"Why is our first duty training? We've had enough training at the academy," Sakura asked.

"This isn't normal training…this time I'm your opponent." Then Kakashi began to chuckle to himself and his right hand gripped his face as he trembled.

"What's so funny, sensei?" Sakura asked, disturbed by the creepy chuckling.

"Well it's just that…you'll freak if I tell you. Of the 27 graduates, only 9 will become genin, the rest will be sent back to the Academy! This training is a very difficult exam…with a failure rate of 66%!" Kakashi warned ominously.

Sasuke and Sakura was stunned into silence, which for the former wasn't any different from his usual self.

"Passing after an average of three attempts is not especially onerous. Or does failure imply that one cannot try again? Is that why there were no graduates who failed and returned in our classes at the Academy?" Lelouch questioned.

Kakashi looked surprised for a moment. "Very astute…being sent back to the Academy does not mean you will return to redo your old classes. You would be placed into a separate track for failed graduates, and you would not receive this opportunity to form a proper genin team again."

"Anyway, tomorrow you will need to show your real skills on the training ground. Bring all the shinobi tools you have. Oh and…skip breakfast, you might throw that up." Kakashi pushed off the railing and handed them some papers. "The details are on here. Don't be late."

O O O

Lelouch arrived at the training ground on time and gave a simple greeting to his teammates, who arrived at about the same time. Sakura replied curtly while Sasuke mere grunted. Three hours later Kakashi arrived, and received a yell from Sakura and glares from Lelouch and Sasuke for being late.

He then explained the details of the test. "I've set this alarm for noon. Here are two bells. Your task is to take them from me before time's up. Those who don't have a bell by noon, get no lunch. I will tie you to those stumps and eat in front of you."

The three students' looks grew darker as they realized why Kakashi ordered them to skip breakfast. Fortunately for Lelouch, he had indeed brought sufficient ninja tools and supplies, including food rations given that it was apparently survival training, and he was quite experienced in military logistics. Without food morale would not have held up to allow him to blackmail his troops into believing in a miracle when they were holed up in Narita. He had stored a week's worth of rations in scrolls as the instructions from yesterday did not specify how long the training would last.

"You only have to get one bell. There are only two, so one of you will definitely be tied to the stump. And…the person who doesn't take a bell fails. So at least one of you will be sent back to the academy," Kakashi continued. "If you want you can use shuriken and kunai. You won't succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill."

"But, you'll be in danger!" Sakura protested.

'Even a veteran can be killed by a child playing with guns… this confidence…is the difference in power and skill really that large between ninja ranks? Or perhaps lethal weapons are not as lethal to jounin as they would be to civilians?' Lelouch wondered to himself.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. We'll start when I say begin. Ready…BEGIN!"

The four each jumped away and disappeared among the surrounding foliage. Only Kakashi reappeared a moment later and looked around.

'Nice, they've all hidden themselves well,' Kakashi assessed mentally. Seeing as there was no action for the moment, he took out a book from his tool pouch and started reading.

A few minutes later, Naruto walked out of the trees and stood before him.

"Kakashi-sensei. Why are there only two bells? Why does one of us have to fail this test?" Naruto demanded.

"That's just the way I made the rules. You got a problem with that?" Kakashi responded without looking.

"How does forcing back a promising student benefit Konoha? Is this your rule or the village's rule? There are 27 graduates who are the future of this village. What if you forced back a student who was relatively less capable than the two others on the team, but good enough that he or she otherwise would have passed if allocated to a different team?"

"So what? I make the rules and you just have to deal with it. Life as a ninja isn't fair. There will be plenty of missions where it's almost assured that not everyone will make it back alive. After knowing the difficulty of the mission, are you going to complain that you should be allocated to a different one, with higher odds of survival?" Kakashi admonished, still reading his book.

"I see. So that's why you called it survival training despite the task being one of item retrieval. This is to weed out the ones who can't face the tough reality of a ninja career. That's why there is only one chance to succeed or fail…just like a real mission. Very well." Naruto nodded in understanding.

Then he ran forward and openly assaulted Kakashi. Naruto's punches and kicks were easily blocked while the jounin continued to hold his book in one hand and to seemingly pay no attention to the boy attacking him. After a few more exchanges, Naruto was overextended and Kakashi got behind him, with his hands forming the tiger seal.

"Lesson one, taijutsu. Konoha Secret Supreme Hidden Technique: Thousand Years of Death!" Kakashi yelled as he poked Naruto's rear end with his fingers that were supposedly in the tiger seal.

Instead of hearing a painful yelp and seeing the boy get launched forward by the attack as expected, Kakashi saw the boy burst into smoke before revealing a log.

"Not bad. Good use of the basic—" Kakashi was interrupted by a sudden explosion from the log and was forced to get away.

'Explosive seal plastered underneath the log! He's much better than his grades show,' Kakashi noted as he landed with a stumble some distance away.

Meanwhile, Sakura and Sasuke had watched the whole exchange from their hiding positions and were surprised at the dead-last's skill. However, Sasuke saw the opportunity and instantly capitalized on it.

A flurry of shuriken flew at Kakashi the moment he landed, striking his face and sides. Sakura gasped in horror, and then Kakashi also burst into smoke and revealed a log.

'Damn! That was a false opening so that I would attack and reveal my position!' Sasuke cursed in his head.

With the field clear and nobody in the open, Sasuke and Sakura began moving.

O O O

Shortly after, Sasuke stopped in a clearing and Kakashi appeared leaning against a tree reading his book. From far away, Sakura's scream could be heard.

"Genjutsu…lesson number two. Sakura easily fell for it," Kakashi explained for Sasuke.

"I'm not the same as them," Sasuke replied.

"Say that after you get a bell, Sasuke-kun."

Suddenly several large explosions rang out from the distance. Parts of the surrounding forest could be heard collapsing with dull thuds.

Kakashi looked curiously in the direction of the explosions.

Sasuke made the first move by launching shurikens at Kakashi, who promptly dodged. "Such obvious attacks are useless." As soon as Kakashi said that, he noticed a shuriken cut through a rope, and was forced to dodge yet again from knives that shot at him from a trap that was triggered. As he landed, Sasuke was already there to meet him with a heel kick from his left leg. Kakashi blocked by grabbing onto Sasuke's ankle, but Sasuke pivoted against the hold to swing a fist at him, which was blocked by Kakashi's other hand. Then Sasuke twisted and launched another kick with his right leg aimed at Kakashi's face, which he blocked by maneuvering his arms together in a cross. Finally, Sasuke twisted again and made for Kakashi's bells with his sole remaining hand and just barely touched it before Kakashi threw Sasuke away.

There was a bloodcurdling scream whose voice couldn't be identified coming from near by.

After a moment of hesitation, Sasuke formed three hand seals and took a deep breath.

Kakashi's eyes widened, shocked that a genin had the chakra levels for the technique about to be performed. A huge fireball was unleashed from Sasuke's mouth that was at least several metres in radius, completely consuming Kakashi who had been standing five metres away.

Sasuke rapidly glanced around, looking for the jounin's whereabouts that were now obscured by the smoke and flames. Then he felt hands wrap around his legs before he was complete pulled into the ground, with only his head remaining above.

"Earth Style: Inner Decapitation. Lesson number three, ninjutsu. Well with this, you do seem ahead of the others, but we haven't seen the end of Naruto yet," Kakashi said while squatting down to face Sasuke.

Then a figure stumbled out of the forest, and fell to the ground with a pained yelp. Kakashi and Sasuke looked over to see Naruto covered in shuriken and kunai like a pin cushion, bleeding everywhere with a trail of blood leading over from the part of the trees where he stumbled over. Their eyes both widened and saw that it was no genjutsu.

Naruto coughed and looked up to see Kakashi, then Sasuke, then back to Kakashi as his eyes widened in terror. "No way…why aren't you injured? I definitely hit you…" He struggled desperately to crawl away.

Kakashi rushed over without hesitation and grabbed a hold of the injured boy in an effort to take a closer look at the wounds. However, Naruto scrambled wildly and screamed, "No…get away! I won't let you kill me!"

"Naruto calm down! Tell me what happened!" Kakashi ordered while restricting Naruto's movements.

"Oh my god! Sasuke-kun, Naruto!" A shrill shriek reached the ears of the three ninja in the clearing. They looked over to see Sakura not far away with teary eyes and covering her mouth with her hands. Beside her was another Kakashi sporting burn marks all over and frazzled clothes.

Naruto looked back and forth between the two Kakashi, and seemed to understand something. "I knew I got him!" He muttered under his breath.

The Kakashi holding Naruto narrowed his eyes at the other Kakashi. "Sakura, get away from that man! He's a fake!"

"Liar, you…you imposter! You actually killed Sasuke-kun! You won't get away with this!" Sakura yelled with a puffy-eyed glare at the Kakashi holding Naruto.

"I'm not dead!" Sasuke's head yelled back.

"Sakura…I'm going to get Sasuke out of the ground, do your best to find an opportunity!" The injured Kakashi put his hand on Sakura's shoulder and ordered quietly.

"Sakura, don't be fooled! The one beside you is the one that injured me!" Naruto cut in. "His goal is to capture Sasuke!"

Sakura was startled and turned hesitantly towards at the Kakashi beside her. But before she managed to fully turn around, she felt cold steel on her throat and froze.

"I didn't expect you to escape alive, Naruto-kun, or to put up such a fight." The imposter Kakashi said as he edged closer to Sasuke with Sakura hostage. "But playtime's over now. If you don't want this girl to die, I suggest the two of you step away from the Uchiha." His lips curled into a smile as he saw the shocked expressions on Naruto and Kakashi's faces.

Kakashi thought furiously but did as the imposter ordered, backing away slowly with Naruto, keeping his eyes on the imposter the whole time. When the imposter was less than two metres away from Sasuke, suddenly two shadows swept forth from the forest at Kakashi's back on either side of him and rushed towards Sasuke while throwing a massive storm of shuriken at the jounin and his injured student.

The imposter also acted by letting go of Sakura and dashing the final distance to his target in the ground. But Kakashi moved even faster as two shadow clones appeared beside him, each tackling one of the masked ninjas that appeared from the shadows, while the original jumped away with Naruto in tow before the shurikens landed. In mid air, Kakashi launched a flurry of shuriken near Sasuke in strategic positions to force the imposter to dodge.

Before Kakashi landed, the two masked ninja were already defeated by his clones and popped into smoke midway before getting to Sasuke.

However, the imposter Kakashi merely smirked as he dodged the incoming shuriken, as Kakashi was now wide open from another attack from behind!

Two inconspicuous trees transformed into the same two masked ninja that were just defeated and drew short swords before slashing at Kakashi.

Unfortunately for the masked nin, their speeds were far too slow to be worth anything in the face of an elite jounin like Kakashi, as the two previously formed Kakashi clones noticed the ambush and easily flickered over to block the attacks while Kakashi himself continued onwards without a glance.

The expression on the imposter Kakashi finally darkened as he roared, "All forces attack!"

And with his command a force of five more masked ninja emerged from the forest and dashed madly towards the combatants.

Kakashi took one glance backwards before he narrowed his eye and continued on his way to Sasuke. The two Kakashi clones immediately defeated the two masked ninja. Then the two clones disappeared in bursts of speed and the rest of the attacking force was easily wiped out in seconds.

As Sasuke and Sakura watched, they marveled at the power of their sensei.

Just as Kakashi reached Sasuke, he noticed the imposter was once again smiling while Sasuke and Sakura's expressions turned into horror.

Blood spurted out as a kunai pierced through Kakashi's chest and came out the other end.

Kakashi let go of his student with wide eyes, before Naruto withdrew the kunai fiercely and gave a helpful push as the jounin slid to the ground.

Lelouch stood up to his full height, his injuries apparently not as severe as they seemed. Or perhaps they had already healed significantly. He glanced down at the body of Kakashi while the imposter behind him burst into smoke. He walked forward lightly towards the bells at Kakashi's side.

Sasuke and Sakura were completely speechless as they saw the emotionless face of their teammate. Soon enough, Sasuke's eyes seemed to see another image overlapping the murderous person in front of him. The man who had betrayed them all without a hint of hesitation.

Sakura felt her stomach churn as she saw the heavily wounded Kakashi whose face had slackened and eyes were staring blankly into the air. Her face looked increasingly pale, but fortunately she did not have breakfast so there was nothing to puke up.

However, the silence didn't last long as the body of Kakashi burst into smoke and revealed a log. Simultaneously, hands emerged from the ground and grabbed onto Naruto's ankles, pulling him down in the same manner as Sasuke.

Kakashi reappeared from the ground in front the three students with an unreadable expression.

He looked squatted down and locked gazes with Naruto. "Lesson 4: Don't underestimate your opponent's intelligence. It's not that easy to fool a jounin, though injuring yourself to get my trust was impressive. Unfortunately, I wouldn't just leave Sakura unconscious by herself, and your clones were far too weak into be enemy ninja capable of infiltrating this far into Konoha."

Then the sound of an alarm rang out.

O O O

Kakashi ate his lunch in front of the three students. They had returned to the meeting area and each of the students sat by a wooden post.

Despite their hunger, neither Sakura nor Sasuke had any mind to covet the food Kakashi was showing off in front of them. Lelouch just watched with a detached expression as he had plenty of rations. All of them had returned in silence and were waiting for Kakashi's judgement.

Shortly after, Kakashi finished and put the lunch box down.

"There's no need for you to go back to the Academy," Kakashi said neutrally.

Sakura and Sasuke perked up slightly, while a glint entered Lelouch's eyes.

"You should quit being ninja!" Kakashi shouted afterwards, shocking his students.

"Why do you think you were ordered into teams and doing this training?" Kakashi asked darkly.

"H-huh? What do you mean?" Sakura asked after there was no response from the other two.

"The answer that helps you pass this test. As ninjas, you must learn to see underneath the underneath," said Kakashi.

"We were supposed to work as a team to take the bells, right?" Lelouch finally answered.

Kakashi's gaze turned to him and stared hard.

"You set us up to fight amongst ourselves by only having two bells. But if we could put aside our personal interest and work for the sake of completing the mission, perhaps then we would have a small chance against a jounin," Lelouch continued on.

"That's right," Kakashi shifted his gaze back to look at them evenly. "Yet…Sakura, you ignored Naruto and only thought about Sasuke. Sasuke, you assumed the others would get in your way. Naruto…you seemed to understand a little bit, but what you did was the opposite of teamwork. Deceiving everyone, taking your teammates hostage, and attacking me while I was protecting you."

As he said the last part, Kakashi felt a wave of nausea. Naruto's performance was far out of his expectations. It was stunningly efficient and stunningly despicable.

"I will admit Sasuke and Naruto, that the two of you are very talented as individuals. A less experienced jounin might have even fallen to your scheme, Naruto. However, this is a team…and teamwork is even more important than individual skills. Individual actions that disrupt the team can put your comrades in danger and even get you killed. And Naruto, your comrades…are not just pawns for you to use." Kakashi stopped there and got up, preparing to walk over to the memorial stone.

Then he felt another wave of nausea, as if the world was tilting. He stumbled and put a hand to his head.

"You're right, Kakashi-sensei. As ninjas, we must see underneath the underneath." A second Naruto walked up to Kakashi from behind calmly.

Kakashi collapsed as his vision swam and lost feeling in his muscles. Lelouch grabbed him before he hit the ground and relieved him of the bells. "I never thought of them as pawns or intended to let anyone come to harm. It was nothing more than a diversion to confirm the answer to this test. Naturally, we were all just acting. The truth is, you were soundly defeated by our combined efforts, right Sakura, Sasuke?"

He looked at his two gaping teammates and smiled brilliantly.

"Don't worry about being late to report back to the Hokage, sensei, as your new team, we will make sure to highlight your excellent teaching skills and key lessons in our report."

Lelouch gently let down the jounin who started to foam at the mouth and took out a small metal object.

"You shouldn't have eaten lunch, sensei. Unfortunately, you won't get a chance to puke."

The last thing Kakashi heard before blacking out was the sound of a familiar alarm ringing.

"Checkmate."

O O O

AN: Cover the sky to cross the ocean – First of 36 strategems, this is the art of using false goals to deceive your enemy until the real objective is achieved. The essence of this stratagem is taking one course of action that serves two different goals, one your opponent will see, and one they didn't even realize could be a goal. In this chapter, the title stratagem was used at least 6 times. Did you catch them all? Official answers will be revealed in next chapter's AN.