The Genin have gathered together looking triumphant, although with a small amount of trepidation on Takashi's part. This is the riskiest portion of the whole plan. The part where everything could go wrong, at least for him. Everything.

"Well," asks Ebisu imperiously, "what do you have for me?"

Sajin lays six headbands on the ground in front of his soon to be sensei.

"We took the headbands from the Genin before they passed the exam, but they all passed so its fine."

Ebisu queries, "How did you know they would pass?"

"The newest generation of the oligarchical complex? Please, the Hokage would be impeached before such a thing could happen. And the day the kid with the Sharingan fails his Genin exam is the day Takashi decides to be a ninja."

Ebisu lets that sink in. Apparently they have already formed something of a bond, well, that's about enough to pass them. Not to mention taking out two Genin teams.

"Well, you guys did exce…"

"Oh," speaks up Nojiko, "here's the Hokage's hat!" She hands him…

What appears to be the Hokage's hat, red and white and with the kanji for Fire.

What.

What.

What.

…

…

What.

"Sajin and I told that kid Konohamaru that you would teach him how to be a super-cool ninja if he got the hat from his grandfather. Turns out that there are about five or so copies just lying around his house. Anyhow, he's scheduled to come over in about an hour."

Rage. So much rage. Rage with extra anger sauce and a helping of terror on the side. Well, it isn't so much terror as it is dismay. And it's not so much on the side as it is showing all over Ebisu's face.

"WHY IN THE HOKAGE'S NAME WOULD YOU DO SUCH A THING?"

"Oh," interjects Takashi, "this is for revenge, in case that wasn't quite clear."

"REVENGE FOR WHAT?"

"Setting us impossible tasks in a poorly designed attempt to test our teamwork. And trying to make me participate in this ninja farce."

Ebisu shuts down. Completely.

"But don't worry, I've countered your plan. You see, there are only three options you were prepared for: for us to work together and fail the tasks, work separately and fail the tasks, or succeed at the tasks. What you couldn't expect was for us to only pass some of the tasks with teamwork and fail others individually. So you see, Sajin and Nojiko worked together to defeat their members of the Genin teams and get the Hokage's hat, while I never managed to steal or fight anyone on my own. And so, for the final task, I took the challenge alone. And I, under advice from my teammates, chose the least likely academy student to be the subject of an S-rank secret, and so I name Uzumaki Naruto as my answer to the third exam question. And so I fail and you have to let me go back to my normal schoo….. Why are you making that face?"

….

"Dammit."

This is the Line known as the Scene Break. Please Tred Carefully.

"The Hokage knows my name. " It's more of a moan then a statement.

Takashi's two teammates glance at each other before shrugging. Nojiko glances at Sajin and gestures with her head. Sajin just gives her a look, shaking her head. Ebisu has remained behind to have a further conversation with the Hokage.

"The Hokage knows my nameeeeeeeee." Definitely a moan that time.

Nojiko ventures, "Isn't that a good thing? That means you have connections…"

"I DON'T WANT CONNECTIONS YOU FOOLISH GIRL! I DON'T WANT TO BE A NINJA! GET THAT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL!"

"Hey! Don't talk to her that way!"

Takashi spins around "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?! THIS IS THE WORST DAY OF My lif…" He catches sight of Nojiko.

It's not so much the fact that Nojiko is sad, as it is that her eyes choose to be sad. Nojiko's feelings are entirely irrelevant to the beings that inhabit her eye-sockets. Those beings do not feel such things are remorse, or happiness, or pain, they have transcended such plebian words and become something more, something Other.

They whisper with their combination of pupil twitches and the ever so slight build up of moisture: 'Guilt no Jutsu.' Their hand signs are their stare. And do they ever stare.

"I apologize Nojiko, that was not well said of me. I ask forgiveness from to the… team"

Nojiko and Sajin hi-five. A nut is thrown at them with unerring accuracy. No one notices.

"But now that the Hokage knows I can intuit S–rank secrets, he'll want to use me for infiltration missions and send me away to goreign nations and take me away from my books and make me use chakra and kill people and…"

Nojiko interrupts, "No he won't."

"Why would he?" Sajin interjects, "We've known for years and it's not like we've been graduated early or anything."

"I mean, come off it, the kid knows the Hokage personally, plus he failed the graduation exam and then showed up with a hiate the next day after a village-wide alert just happened to be issued. Not to mention the fact that the kid is no," *shudder* "Yamanaka and yet still has blonde hair and blue eyes, much like a certain famous Hokage who died twelve years ago. It's not kinjutsu or anything."

Ebisu has unfortunately taken this moment to join up with his team as they head back to their meeting spot.

…

They start walking back to the Hokage's tower.

This is the Line known as the Scene Break. Hear it roar.

After a second, longer meeting with the Hokage, during which Nojiko comments on the second S-rank secret that Naruto must be the subject of, Sajin railes aagainst the bias that the village has against ninja's without a clan name, and Tamaki attempts and fails to discretely cross his name out from the active ninja roster, Ebisu is tired.

He pulls of his sunglasses and makes the mistake of looking directly at his student's faces.

The eyes.

Good god, the eyes.

So innocent and clear, so much terror and guilt. It's overwhelming.

Nojiko blinks once and the spell is dissipated.

For now.

What's terrifying is that she doesn't know she's doing it. Ebisu will help her with this, he decides, for only with the power of those eyes, the strongest eyes in all the Elemental Nat…

Ebisu whips out a mirror. Nope. No Sharingan.

Coughing , he regains the attention of his Genin. "We'll begin training tomorrow please don't deduce any more secrets above B-rank, I'll see you at 8 AM, bright and early. If you're late, you have to cou… Oh Kami Konohamaru."

His shunshin blurs the line of reality. Somehow the scarf still follows him.

Takashi turns to his teammates, "We didn't get a chance to finish our conversation. Why would you give me Uzumaki Naruto's name if you KNEW THAT HE WAS THE SUBJECT OF THE S-RANK SECRET!"

"Isn't that obvious," Nojiko replies as she and Sajin grab each other's shoulders, tilt their heads together and smile, "we wanted you to stay on our team!"

"WHYYYYYYYYYY!?"

"Because, despite your throwing us to the wolves, err, snakes, you actually can plan your way out of a paper box. Which, I mean seriously, compared to the other Genin we could have gotten stuck with, is kind of a minor miracle. "

"Not to mention that every team needs a straight-man. And my obsession with the facist dictatorship that is this town mixed with Nojiko's deep abiding need to figure out what the hell is up with all the people who can shoot fire and lightning from their mouths but don't care about the fact they couldn't do it two-hundred years ago. And your only neurosis is that you don't want to be a ninja! You're perfect!"

There are no words to respond.

This is the Line known as the Scene Break. There is no fear, only pudding.

Tamaki, Nojiko and Sajin all walked home that night. Tamaki went to his apartment near the civilian school where he found a cheerful Chuunin informing him that because of his new ninja status, he would be relocated closer to the Hokage's tower, and farther from the library. Tamaki was not cheerful.

Nojiko never made it home because the pretty books in the new shinobi library, to which she now had access, distracted her. The librarians, informed in advance by her academy teachers, had already prepared a cot in a quiet corner. They prepared a shiatsu massage, as notes from Mizuki had indicated that bribery and threats were inefficient at removing the girl from the books before 5AM.

Sajin went home to his parents and had a quiet, normal dinner with minimal yelling.

In the darkness, a loan man watched the three as they prepared to settle in for the night.

Umino Iruka smiled.

I'll be editing the previous two chapters over the next few days.