Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

For those of you who've already read chapter 28, just scroll down to the bottom.

As a Ninja, 28th chapter.

Despite my very real concerns, I did not die, nor was I attacked by my comrades. I suppose that was rather fortunate, as killing Shizune would have given me some slight dissatisfaction.

The march progressed quickly, and with very little delay, as almost all culinary needs were met by yours truly. Therefore, a mere three days after our initial departure, we found our target. It was to be expected - that we found him as we did- but my team seemed quite surprised. For, indeed, it would be entirely more factual to state that Orochimaru found us.

My clone, too busy thinking, failed to dodge as a razor-sharp kunai obliterated it, exposing its true nature in a puff of smoke.

"Oh? Bad luck." Chuckles came from behind us.

"Orochimaru!" Shizune yelled as she spun around and took in the form of our attacker.

Playing my part as an Anbu, I took to the trees hastily. Leaving Tsunade, her apprentice, Jiraiya, and of course Orochimaru in the clearing.

"Orochimaru! Today is the day you pay for your crimes!" Jiraiya yelled rashly, charging forward with a Rasengan. I almost slapped my forehead, why didn't the idiot at least summon his toads first?

Tsunade at least had a bit more intelligence, summoning two small slugs while Shizune prepared something. Useless poison most likely, Orochimaru was far too paranoid to not have virtual immunity to every concoction known to man, and then some.

Tsunade now joined the fight, throwing punches that would make most quake in terror. For Orochimaru, however, they were a joke. Nonetheless, as expected of two Sannin, Jiraiya and Tsunade coordinated extremely well.

I replaced myself with a clone, heading underground.

Just as Orochimaru dodged another of Tsunade's blows, my hands popped out of the ground, grabbing Orochimaru's ankles. But, before I could pull him under, the snake slipped from my grasp, running afoul of my clone's SEFs as he did so.

I dropped the henge and chakra-disguise as I leapt out of the ground, smiling as my master bled, if only a little, from his wounds.

"I should have known they'd send you, Nanashi-kun."

"Yes, you should have. Especially since you knew I left the village at the same time."

"But the chakra… you always did invent new tricks, my student."

"I'm not as old a dog as you, after-all."

Orochimaru sneered at me, summoning snakes, "I'm afraid we'll have to cut this little reunion short." He activated shunshin, fleeing into the woods.

But by no means had the poor little sucker escaped, as he soon discovered. Leaving my team to the snakes I charged after my sensei, knowing the clones I'd left couldn't hold him off forever.

As expected, my nigh-gearless copies weren't faring well with the pale-faced Sannin. Of course, with my arrival, their sacrifice had served its purpose.

Orochimaru snarled as I came into the fight, my identity as the primary clearly shown by my floating form.

"Now, now, Orochimaru, you should have prepared for at least this much." I mocked him as my clones kept the fellow occupied. In return, Orochimaru hurled insults.

I took out The Cannon, giving it to a clone as I unsealed my sand, "Shall we get a bit serious, or will you kindly explain why you betrayed my trust?"

"What trust? You thought to use me as some pawn, I am not a pawn!"

"Pride still hurt by that defeat, eh? Perhaps a little humility will do you good!" I leapt forward, the Sword of Winter in hand, sand trailing behind me.

Orochimaru kept up well, his body reinforcements causing any minor attacks to become useless. On the other hand, while weaker by a bit, my armor achieved the same result.

The fight was fought at enormous speeds, but we both knew the truth. Jiraiya and Tsunade would arrive very soon. And when they did, this balance would be tipped in my favor.

"You see, master, I have not increased in power as much as you since our last meeting, but I haven't fallen behind you."

Orochimaru wasn't an idiot, he knew he needed to either escape or pull off one of his forbidden jutsu, too bad for him they all took forever to activate.

"No matter, I also didn't come alone." Orochimaru's voice betrayed anger, no doubt his pride was hurt that he needed help, but the self-preservation instinct within him was strong.

In true Naruto fashion, both my reinforcements and Orochimaru's arrived at the same time.

I didn't recognize the form of Orochimaru's helper, but I knew exactly who he was, "Sasori-sama, a true pleasure to meet you."

Jiraiya and Tsunade frowned, but Shizune was younger and not so controlled, "Akasuna no Sasori is dead!"

In several senses, this was true, but the mind and more importantly the knowledge within his body was certainly the real thing.

Sasori's covering, H-something, tilted his head, "So you know of me." He turned to Orochimaru, "We're leaving."

"Ah, ah, but I think you might be interested in a little spar with my art. How about it?" I unsealed numerous puppet at once, taking control of them all myself.

"Orochimaru here already told me you could use puppets, outdated rotting things you use."

"So harsh, Sasori-sama, so harsh. Nevertheless, Orochimaru isn't going anywhere."

My clone acted at this point, firing his powerful gun right into Sasori's gut. The puppet that ought to have protected his frame was easily blasted through, pieces of wood flying as the bullet exited the back.

It wasn't called The Cannon just for size you know.

Fortunately for the legendary puppet master, any vitals he still had were missed by the shot, although one or two of his gadgets might have been damaged.

"So you managed to complete your little project after-all." Orochimaru commented, my clone already 'dead'.

Ah yes, I suppose I had shared a bit of my aspirations with the man.

"But your mistake was giving me time. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" The forest was flattened in an instant as the purple figure of Manda appeared.

The snake hissed; jaws open and ready to strike.

"Be glad you informed me you would require my power, Orochimaru. I demand only ten humans in exchange for killing thesse aggressssorss."

"Just kill them, Manda." Orochimaru was in no mood to banter with a lesser creature.

The snake would have grinned if it weren't busy snapping its jaws over my previous location.

"You Sannin rely on your summons far too much, in my opinion." I commented dryly as both Gamabunta and Katsuyu appeared.

"I said we're leaving." Sasori angrily told Orochimaru off for escalating the conflict further and attempted to leave.

"Come now Sasori-kun, I doubt leader-sama would mind if we finished off the best of Konoha."

Whatever facial reaction Sasori might have indulged in had he been able was irrelevant. Though I do suppose it would be one of agreement, as he joined the fight.

Sasori immediately brought the big guns, the dead form of the Sandaime Kazekage just as strong as ever. Well, perhaps a little worse.

I nearly paled as I realized just what the fearsome Kage's power was. I was not interested in losing more of my arm.

It was time to decide. To defect, or to strive onward?

Well, the power over metal would certainly disable my more modern equipment. As for my arm, I could merely deploy chakra in high concentrations around it to prevent any hostile actions.

"It seems I was wise to bring out my puppets that have no metallic parts." I frowned, "Everyone, please dispose of anything magnetic, the 3rd Kazekage is here!"

Jiraiya and the rest were puzzled, not yet knowing of the necromancy, but complied.

"Time to get a little serious," I floated forward, unsealing my sand and commanding waves of dirt and chakra to attack Sasori and his prize puppet.

Said puppet blew aside or blocked all the attacks with his own, iron, sand. It was annoying to face what I, and all others, considered to be my signature ability.

But Fugaku had already imparted in me the knowledge on how to beat such a sand user; the Kazekage would be no challenge. The scorpion tail on Sasori's protective puppet came out as one of my own puppets attacked, the Kazekage far too occupied to offer help.

Indeed, the superior quantity of my sand was clearly evident, and even the incisive Sasori couldn't solve the problem. Any counter-attacks were prevented by my own sand, while Orochimaru and his summons were in no position to offer aid.

It appeared to be team Konoha's win, but I smelled a rat.

Predictably, just as the third Kazekage was about to be crushed under my vigorous assault, trees sprouted from the ground and assailed me. Orochimaru really had been working hard.

"Hashirama. As always, the constant stream of annoying jutsu," I commented to no one in particular, then I turned to my opponent, Sasori, "We'll have to wrap things up pretty quickly, I'm afraid Jiraiya doesn't have the tools to win now."

Sasori popped out of his somewhat damaged encasement, finding its mobility and defense inadequate. He then proceeded to unseal several human puppets, "Your logic is flawed, Nanashi-san."

"I didn't say I was going to defeat your pitiful band of dead ninja, only that I would wrap up over here." I held not back in offensiveness, having already chosen which side I was on.

Sasori's face was wooden indeed as I made a couple dozen clones and armed them with various weapons and puppets.

"This will be plenty for you, Sasori-sama."

I smirked as I flew over to the battle with Orochimaru and his two minions.

Katsuyu was suppressing the Shodaime and Manda with her acid spray, while Gamabunta and Jiraiya handled Orochimaru himself. Tsunade and Shizune attacked whenever there was a good opening, but Hashirama's trees were keeping them on their toes.

To be arrogant, my arrival was about to change things.

I formed one more clone, sending it to the location of The Cannon and entrusting it with two rounds of very special ammunition, just in case.

After-all, only an idiot would bring only one of his trump cards.

…Where did I hear that before? Ah, Orochimaru.

Puzzling indeed, where was the Nidaime? Surely an extra human life was not too much of a price for a guaranteed victory. Not really guaranteed, but it would be in Orochimaru's mind.

It didn't matter. All I needed to do was make an opening.

The sword of winter came to life in my metal right hand, the cold it gave off so intense that if one looked past it their view would be distorted.

I kicked off thin air, charging Hashirama with a speed that was truly insufficient.

For in sooth, branches obstructed my way in massive quantities, such that cutting through them with a sword was impractical.

"Such ignorance!" I bared my fangs at the stoic Hashirama, and all around me sharp whips of chakra swirled with such speed and range that only by going underground could attacks reach me. The Shodaime immediately adopted this tactic, but it was too late.

Bursting forward with shunshin, I ran at the wood-bender, my chakra whips now gone.

It was at this point that with two great poofs both Gamabunta and Manda returned to their homes, although the battle still raged strongly.

Unsurprisingly, a wooden mesh block any assault I might otherwise have made, while more branches circled, threatening me from my rear.

I formed a cone-Rasengan, stabbing it forward and piercing the mesh as my own back was stabbed through by sticks.

The distinctive sound of a gun-shot rang out, and the bullet whistled right into Hashirama's gut, my body that should have blocked it already gone.

From the epicenter of Hashirama's gut the world turned black in a radius of two meters for just a moment. All that remained was that single bullet, falling now to the ground, and containing within it the most legendary of Hokages.

The wood that was not sealed within my ultimate technique was stiff and useless now.

"Impossible!" Orochimaru roared, his fight with Jiraiya going well for him, but paused for the moment.

I picked up the bullet, admiring the seal-work that adorned its entire body.

"Everything is a simple matter if you just seal it away, and anything can be sealed," I smiled sardonically at the outraged snake Sannin, "It won't last forever I'll admit, but at least a few minutes." Hashirama was no Kyuubi after-all, and the Ichibi was sealed in a teapot for a week.

"And believe me, a few minutes is more than enough to crush you."

Orochimaru spat angrily, sending poisonous powders and gases flying as he turned and ran, aiming for the security of anywhere but here.

I chuckled as I took off, my armament already sealed in a scroll, spreading my arms and going into full flight mode. Even with a high-speed movement technique there was no chance his running would surpass my flying.

Sure enough, I caught up in a few seconds. My face grew more serious as I formed thick earthen walls around Orochimaru, though the top remained open.

"If you had only provided me my due tribute, I wouldn't have to put you down now."

"Arrogant brat, as if I owe you anything."

"Oh, you do. I repaid my debts to you in full the moment I let you go, but the favors you owe me are still unsatisfied." I tilted my head to the side a bit, "And now I suppose they never will be."

Orochimaru grimaced slightly, knowing full well he was in a bad spot. He could try to tunnel out, but I was a master of Doton, making that plan extremely risky.

Fighting me was also dangerous, as I could simply collapse the impromptu prison, not to mention I had allies coming. Jumping out was the most ridiculous, as my speed, mobility, and lethality in air combat were unmatched.

In the end, Orochimaru chose a combination, launching numerous ninjutsu at and around me, hoping to keep me occupied as he fled underground.

It worked, much to my self-loathing. Orochimaru's prowess was by no means overrated, and I could not so simply catch him.

But, pride and humility aside, I was still better than he, and no amount of running could save him. Only a strong reinforce-

I tilted my head to the side as a Teppodama careened past me.

I smiled thinly, so the Nidaime was his escape plan. Not bad.

But too naïve! I swerved up in to the air, climbing above the effective range of most of Tobirama's ninjutsu. Sharingan active, I quickly located Orochimaru running at break-neck speed, heading towards Ame.

I dumped grenades as I followed, timing them to blow up in the Nidaime's face.

Just then a rush of air blew past me, and I glanced down quickly, fast enough to see a pale face coming at me. I attempted to dodge, but the adversary grabbed me successfully.

A palm flew towards my gut, purple chakra evidently employed on the finger tips. I hastily formed a barrier of chakra and simultaneously used lightning to shock my opponent.

It was insufficient, and the Gogyo Fuin was successfully planted on my gut, immediately resulting in my complete inability to use chakra.

"… I got careless, sensei." I didn't even bother trying to fight. Without chakra, I was dead if I tried.

Orochimaru shifted his body so that as we fell I would hit the ground first, shielding his body from impact. And very likely killing me in the process, unfortunately.

"Indeed." He finally replied.

"I'm-" *thud*

XXXX

"GUUUH!" I inhaled sharply as I awoke. I blinked twice, taking in the situation around me; Jiraiya was standing off to the side, looking unhappy.

Shizune and Tsunade were evidently responsible for my revival, as they were kneeling beside me.

I diverted chakra to my head to rid it of its aching.

"Thanks, Jiraiya-sama," He nodded gruffly, "Shizune-san, Tsunade-sama, thank you."

"Whatever."

"You're welcome."

Well, the capture mission failed spectacularly as far as Orochimaru was concerned. I looked over the memories from my shadow clones; it seemed Sasori wasn't so fortunate.

I grinned despite our technical failure; capturing one of the two people better at puppetry than me -and the superior between them no less- was no small gain. Even if hoping for his cooperation was silly.

"No losses on our side worth mentioning, so I'll call it a win."

"Sasori isn't small fry, but if you'd have paid attention we'd have them both." Jiraiya complained.

Well, he wasn't wrong; if I had used my head we'd have Orochimaru too. It was, without a doubt, my fault. Of course, shifting all the blame on me wasn't fair at all, as all three of these fries would be corpses without me.

Then again, without me being here the mission wouldn't have happened. It might be self-centered, but the truth is, I was the reason anything happened at all.

"I'll call in a favor, no worries, it won't happen next time."

One Month Later

"Ichizen, a pleasure, sorry to call on you for this, but it seems I need to learn your skill." I spoke quickly to my newest teacher in the arcane arts of chakra perception.

"The pleasure is mine. Are you sure calling me to Konoha was wise?"

"It's well within my purview as a fairly senior jonin to grant asylum to nuke-nin 'deemed to have useful knowledge or abilities'. Frankly 'abilities' was meant to refer to bloodlines without saying it explicitly, and 'knowledge' is spy-related stuff, but this ambiguity essentially grants carte blanche. Most importantly, I have Sakumo-sama's support."

"Then I look forward to teaching you my skill." As expected of Ichizen, he accepted quickly.

"Food and lodging are already prepared." It was amazing what a few clones could do in mere hours.

~Five Years Later

"…Team four: Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Nagamine Junko, your sensei will be Uchiha Nanashi-sama…"

The listings continued, until all graduates had been assigned a team and sensei.

I found the Kakashi method to be amusing and useful, so I let them sweat for an hour.

A solid barrier of chakra stopped Naruto's pitiful attempt to prank me, and I walked in regally.

My eyes were bandaged, so any neck movements were unnecessary, as such, I addressed my students facing the wall.

"My eyes are covered, why?" I asked abruptly.

"Because you're blind," Naruto guessed first. The fool should have known better, that would have made every front page for miles.

"Because your eyes are valuable?" Junko hazarded.

"Because you're an arrogant ass," Sasuke stated, with a tone that indicated he was utterly convinced, and any rebukes would fall on deaf ears.

I nodded, satisfied, "Good, you've all given plausible answers, meaning there is hope. Meet me on the roof."

Without so much as a puff of smoke, I disappeared.

The unlikely trio looked at each other for a moment, before Sasuke muttered, "Showoff," under his breath and headed out.

My eyes were not bandaged anymore by the time my prospective students arrived.

"Welcome to the roof of the Ninja Academy, you did well to assume this was the roof I meant, but that could have been a dangerous assumption. Never let lose sight of that, and never become too used to the routine. Now, introductions, I'll go first. I am called Uchiha Nanashi, I have a dream for the future I don't feel like saying, an ambition you wouldn't understand, and I like learning." I glanced over to Naruto, who happened to be on the far left.

He took the hint with glee, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be the best ninja ever!" Some things never change it seems, how reassuring. "My dream is to be Hokage, my ambition is to be Hokage, and I'd like to be Hokage!" …It sounded retarded, but it was actually quite smart, coming off as an idiot, that could just be a ploy.

This could be an AU Naruto. Better watch him closely.

"I am Nagamine Junko, my dream is to live safely, and I'd like to have a family someday." Conservative, unambitious, joined the Academy only because she had chakra and just wants to live happily. Useless, really, when it comes to fighting Madara.

My nephew now had his turn, "Uchiha Sasuke, my dream is for my clan to prosper, my ambition is to surpass Itachi, and I like proving to idiots just how much better I am."

Arrogant, confident, and having no respect for others, definitely a purebred Uchiha. He was also clearly taking a jab at Naruto, though whether the boy in question knew that or not was beyond me.

"Now for your test," I smiled at them, waiting for some poor fool to bite.

"Another test?" Naruto blurted, somewhere between eager and annoyed. I suppose at this juncture I should reveal the truth, Sasuke was the top graduate, and beneath him was Naruto, Junko being the dead last. It's really amazing what a mom can do for a boy.

"Of course, around 40% of students get sent packing, right on back to the Academy. Or, if they are too old for that, they get shipped to the genin corps. No sensei, just books, patrols, and D-class missions until they hit chunin. Luckily, you guys aren't so old as to receive that fate."

Junko sighed in relief, after-all, being dead last didn't exactly build confidence. In addition, all kids are natural-born bullies, so it would be no surprise to hear she'd had her share of foul treatment.

To be honest though, being bullied resulted in a better attitude than Sasuke had. Constantly fawned over and praised to the skies, and with real talent to boot, he had become exceedingly arrogant. To add to that, he'd been held back for years at my request, not even getting the chance to try out for graduation until now. Thus, it came as no surprise that the kid hated me to no end.

Well, humbling him wouldn't be so hard. By establishing an 'ask and receive' system he'd start losing ground to Junko and Naruto, until his superiority complex forced him to come crawling. That was the plan anyway.

In the end, just like in Naruto this team's largest struggle would be teamwork. In my opinion though, they didn't have to be friends, or even work well together, just so long as they didn't let each other die.

Obviously, and unfortunately, they weren't professionals yet. Thus, just saying that wouldn't do anything, and eventually one of them would die.

"Training ground six sounds good, be there in an hour."

X

I stood by at the designated location, waiting with the humanoid figure next to me for the children to arrive.

Naruto arrived first, amply decked out in gear, and looking ready as all get-out despite having worked hard to pass the Academy test already today.

Junko arrived next, with nothing more than a pack of kunai and shuriken. Well, that's not quite right, she had appropriate clothing too.

Sasuke arrived last, fairly well covered in explosive notes, storage scrolls, and other seals. All of them gifts from me to him across his many birthdays.

It was to be expected. He had peered into the abyss that was my power enough to know that my test would be hard.

"First, shake hands and say 'Please treat me well' to each other." First off, direct any hatred about this team towards me, and add a commiseration factor. Teamwork starts with mutual feelings, ya know? Well, this was fated to make them hate each other too, but that could also be useful.

"What on the Elemental Continent for!?" Naruto demanded.

"If you refuse to do this very easy thing for me, how can you be trusted to do very hard things for my village?" Second, appeal to their patriotism, forcing them to acknowledge just how petty they are. And whenever they start to lose unity, perhaps these words will stick and they'll ask one another, 'Isn't it an easy thing to smile and get along?'

"Oh," I continued with an evil grin, "And since you didn't do it right away, kowtow to each other instead of shaking hands." Third, punishment for disobedience, if I tell you to do something as harmless as shake hands and instead you ask questions, obviously something bad has to happen.

"And if you refuse or delay for more than a minute, I'll be relieving you of those headbands."

They looked at each other, imagining in their little minds the act of dogeza.

Sasuke and Naruto had received training on the proper form, but neither had actually used it. Junko was, as all children her age, aware of what exactly it entailed. And there was no doubt it entailed embarrassment.

Naruto was, surprisingly enough, the first to bend the knee, "Please treat me well." He prostrated himself to Nagamine, "Please treat me well." Without getting off the ground he turned to Sasuke and did the same.

Junko followed, and just before the minute was up Sasuke also did so. Though the hateful glare he sent all of us was telling enough.

"Stage one passed with drooping colors!"

"""…"""

"Puns are life. Fear not, for there is only one more stage." I dramatically held up two little bells, "Whoever gets one of these passes." I handed the bells to the puppet beside me, and it accepted them with a bow.

"Please try hard." The puppet spoke up pleasantly, its voice quite high for its male silhouette. Actually, I was still working on AI, this was a little trick I learned a while ago, ventriloquism.

"Hai!" Junko yelled without thinking, then she looked at the clearly wooden puppet again, "It talked?"

"Of course I did, I'm a revolutionary new autonomous puppet!" The mouth piece moved to complete the illusion, and the gullible girl fell right for it.

"Really?" She asked, getting excited.

"No, idiot, it's just a puppet and ventriloquism." Sasuke burst the bubble, eyes rolling and fully projecting in his tone 'what kind of idiot would actually be tricked?'

"Begin! Come all together, come alone, come an hour later, but you need a bell to pass!" I called to my would-be students. The puppet attached the bells to its breast as I spoke.

Naruto came right for the bells, his thrown shuriken aimed for its joints, and a kunai in his left hand.

The puppet simply took the kunai blow right in the arm, dodging the shuriken by just enough so that its joints would not be clogged.

"Your opponent is not human, it feels no pain."

Naruto's right hand stretched out for a bell anyway, only for it to be caught by the puppet, which then proceeded to squeeze.

Naruto immediately kicked off the puppet, sending it and him to the ground, but now separate.

"You would have seriously broken my wrist!" The blond accused, pointing at me.

"Master bears no fault in this; I was the one breaking your wrist!" The puppet got up quickly and defended me, lol.

"That's not funny." Naruto sighed, defeated, and sat down.

"Is it fine to be sitting down with your enemy right here?"

"I'll take my chances." In real combat it would be incredibly stupid, but as I wasn't going to attack him, I could only praise his intelligence.

I closed my eyes, spreading out my chakra sense, honed for years under the expert tutelage of Ichizen. While the 360 degree vision was inferior to the Byakugan's as it only saw chakra, and also couldn't observe tenketsu, it lacked the characteristic blind spot.

Sasuke was lurking in a tree, trying to devise a way to beat the puppet. But as he had no guarantee that I wouldn't interfere myself he kept hesitating.

This in and of itself was a hint at the answer to the test; the enemy is hard to beat because there are two. Oh. It didn't take a genius to figure out the intended answer, did it?

Sasuke's face no doubt twisted with displeasure as he saw the answer. His pride, however, was too great for him to ask for help from his rival, or the dobe. And thus he lurked still, not knowing the shadow clone technique, and therefore without the requisite power to get a bell.

Junko was on the ground, poorly hidden by some bushes, trying to devise a way to win. Pointless. She had entirely insufficient information.

"Master, these three seem useless; shouldn't we just fail them and go?" The puppet 'asked'.

"Hnn," I looked at my watch, "Give them a little longer, even underdogs like these guys deserve a chance."

Kunai loaded with explosive tags flew immediately from Sasuke, landing all around the puppet and exploding as it curled into a ball.

The black haired boy ran over, additional tags ready, and shuriken were sent flying at the chakra strings that allowed me to control the puppet. As expected of the Sharingan.

But way too naïve. I lazily adjusted the position of the strings, and the shuriken flew harmlessly by. Sasuke's inevitable melee assault would be pointless, the puppet being both quicker and stronger.

Or at least it was supposed to be. Unfortunately, the foolhardy explosive tags had done their work, and the left leg and been blown off.

Too bad for Sasuke, it didn't last. The puppet left behind its lower body, a new one appearing as it crawled away from the old. And all of this happened so fast that Sasuke couldn't get a bell in time.

In the fast-paced taijutsu engagement that followed, Sasuke was defeated.

"You should have launched your attack a little later, who knows, if you'd hustled maybe you'd have gotten a bell." I mocked the defeated lad, who was now held securely on the ground by my puppet.

He just grinned up at me.

"Haaaaaa!" Nagamine roared as she came charging as fast as her legs could carry her, obviously aiming for a bell.

In response I had the puppet pick up Sasuke, aiming to throw him at our fresh assailant. But as it reared back to hurl my nephew a hand came from behind, snatching both bells.

"How's that?!" Naruto boasted, tinkling the bells.

The puppet set Sasuke down on his feet and I approached the trio, facing the three who had quite naturally formed a group.

Ah, my little students, how proud I am. Still, we've got to go through the formalities, "Well, you have two bells, will you keep both, or give one away?"

"Neither." Naruto responded with a smile, throwing the bells out to his teammates, "Now we all pass, I got the bells, and both of them have one." As I would hope of one going to be taught by me, always look for loopholes in the terminology.

"Yes indeed. So, regale me with your brave tale of teamwork."

Sasuke now took the role of spokesperson, "I already knew about the second test. As soon as I heard that you would be our sensei, I knew that it would involve something less than straightforward. And you gave us plenty of time to think."

A whole hour is indeed a lot.

"I figured it out with the hint of time. You gave us time to let us talk and get to know each other. Teamwork was also the thing that would be clearly the most difficult for us. The number one, a useless number two who thinks he's better, and the dobe." Nothing more need be said on the note of dobe I see, Sasuke.

"So we came up with a rough plan, and it worked perfectly."

Impressive, Sasuke understood from hint number one what the goal was, and executed. And to presuppose the content of the test so accurately that he could come up with an effective modus operand was certainly excellent.

I smiled again, "I hereby welcome Uzumaki Naruto, Nagamine Junko, and Uchiha Sasuke to team Nanashi. May we leave all other rookies in the dust."

"Alright!" Naruto cheered, Junko just sighed in relief, and Sasuke grinned smugly.

I could tell this would be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. But that is a story for another time.

XXXX

Authors Note: I decided to end my story here; I'll pick it up again if I feel like it ever.