Update Sept 2015. To all new lovely readers: I'm re-writing this because it's been 10 years and I can't stand this terrible writing. If you're just starting, check out the newer version from my profile!
This is an AU
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of their characters. But the ones I make up are mine.
Chapter One:
"NANI!" screamed a dark blond girl wearing white, hospital robe, tied at her waist with a string. At the moment, she had bandages wrapped around her head and cotton plasters stuck to her face and arms. "Kakashi PASSED!"
"You've got to be kidding, sensei," said a boy who was similarly clothes and treated as the girl, and although his face portrayed the same shock, he seemed to be able to keep himself under a better check. Before the blond haired man standing in front of them could answer, the girl shrieked again.
"But how! That was such a monstrously evil last test, and he PASSED! But sensei – "
"Calm down, Midori," the man cut in, bending his head a little to come down to her height, and he put his hands on her shoulders. "I'm not kidding by the way," he continued before the girl could burst out again, "Kakashi's a Chuunin now. And you should both be grateful to him, because he brought both of you back with him. Over half the competitors died."
"But still, Kazuma-sensei, that's not fair!" Midori whined, pouting.
Kazuma laughed, "Not fair? What are you talking about? You three were officially the youngest participants in the shinobi history that took the Chuunin exam."
The other boy sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. Midori dropped her head onto her chest. "I'm a failure…I lost to Kakashi…I can't believe I lost to Kakashi…" she kept mumbling.
"So you two managed to get out of bed?"
Midori and the boy looked up quickly to see a silver haired boy walk through the entrance of the hospital. He wore a navy shirt and white shorts, and a navy mask up to his eyes. He also wore the Konoha Head Protecter across his forehead. He seemed casual, and to an extent, even bored. Kazuma straightened, then turned and smiled.
In an instant, Midori was on the silver haired boy, her eyes glaring death at his, her hands grabbing fistfuls of his shirt by his neck and she shook him with all her power. "Kakashi you bastard, I'm going to kill you right here and now!"
"Midori…" Kazuma sighed exasperated and scratched the back of his head. "We're in a hospital," he called hopefully, but the girl wasn't listening.
Kakashi blinked a few times and let the girl shake him. "What have I done this time?" he asked in his usual, bored monotone which made a vein pull dangerously on her temple.
"You…," she whispered through her clenched teeth, closing her eyes and trying to control her temper that rose quite quickly. "You…passed the…Chuunin exam…YOU BASTARD!" She let her fists fly at his face, allowing her fury to burst through her. Kakashi sighed and dodged through the rain of blows and in a few seconds, appeared behind her beside the other boy.
"You've gotten her mad now," the boy said.
Kakashi's shoulder sagged a little as he stuck his hands in his pockets and watched Midori storm back towards him. But Kazuma caught her as she passed him and after a minute or so, got her to calm down.
"Oh, by the way, Obito" Kakashi said, remembering something and pulled out a nearly completely squared goggle from his pocket. He dangled it in front of his team-mate's face. Obito was shocked to see them and his face expressed that clearly. But he quickly recovered, and grinned at Kakashi.
"I thought I lost that in that exam," Obito commented, taking the goggles and fixing them loosely over his eyes. "Thanks."
Momentarily, Kakashi's eyes curled up into a smile, but it hardly lasted a second. By then, Midori was calmer than before, but still in a foul mood.
"Anyways," Kazuma said, intending to keep the water surface still for now, "Obito, Midori, you should go back to your rooms now and rest for another night. The nurses said that you could leave by noon tomorrow, then we'll be continuing our missions."
With reluctant, but obedient replies, the two turned and went back down the corridor to their rooms, which left Kazuma and Kakashi alone.
"Why aren't you wearing your vest, Kakashi?" Kazuma asked out of curiosity.
"It's annoyingly big, sensei," he replied, "And I don't need it." Kazuma chuckled.
"I suppose they didn't expect any six year olds to pass the Chuunin Exam."
Kakashi didn't say anything as the two walked out of the hospital.
"Is there anything you want me to do, sensei?" Kakashi asked.
"No, not for today," Kazuma replied, "We'll meet at one o'clock tomorrow on the bridge and go see what tasks they'll give us."
"Hai," Kakashi replied with a nod and then leaped away as a blur of movement. Kazuma sighed with a small grin as he watched the young prodigy ninja leave before going on to attend to his own daily duties.
Kakashi slowed down once he left the larger masses of houses and people and found himself in the training grounds. He drifted through the trees until he finally stopped and leaned against the trunk of a large tree that overlooked the main field of the grounds, though the leaves kept him covered up. He was bored and obviously had nothing to do so he slid down the trunk to sit down, raised his right knee and let his other leg just stretch out on the branch. His arms hung loosely, with his right wrist on the knee, and he settled down into his own thoughts.
It wasn't long however, before noises below in the training grounds distracted him. He cocked his head to that side and saw a group of kids around his age with a teacher gathered in front of the shuriken and kunai throwing areas. Kakashi assumed them to be from the Ninja Academy. After a brief explanation and example from the teacher, the students retreated back to the line of practice and started throwing the hand weapons at the aiming logs. Kakashi watched the session without really paying attention to it, but was stirred from his daydreaming when shouts of alarm, amusement and anger shot up from the grounds. Before he could assess whatever happened below, he noticed a shuriken flying straight at him and out of reflex, caught it onto his index finger just as it would have struck him in the face. As the rotation of the weapon slowed down and it dropped to the bottom of his finger, Kakashi raised a curious eyebrow and looked down.
It was easy to find the kid who threw it. His attention was immediately on an incredibly thick eye browed boy who was being scolded by the teacher and laughed at by the students.
"I'm sorry sensei, I really am," the boy was saying, his head bowed and shoulders sagged. But in the next second, he straightened and a new determined composure took over his other apologising one. "But not to worry, sensei," he said now in a clearer voice. Then he raised his hand and gave the teacher a thumbs-up sign and smiled a big toothy smile, the sunlight glinting off his tooth. "The next time, I won't miss!" That earned him a big smack on the head, and the other students laughed even harder.
What a strange boy, Kakashi thought to himself fiddling with the shuriken in his hand. He took a closer look at the weapon and noticed that it wasn't new. There were clear traces of much use, but it hardly made a difference to Kakashi's expression. It didn't really matter if the boy was practicing much or little. It didn't affect him at all. With his thumb, he wiped away some of the strains made from being struck into wood and with half his attention, he listened to the lesson continued below. It caused him to start remembering about his own year of experience at the Academy. He had entered it at the age of four, and graduated within a year, which was about half a year ago. Few had graduated at that time, but that was considered to be normal. Aside from their Team 2, there had been two others, but those other six had been returned to the Academy, having been judged as 'not quite ready'. Even they had nearly failed the first test, the bell chase. It had been by chance that Obito had come across him during the test and they decided to work together…
(Flashback)
Kakashi stiffened as he heard a few leaves shuffle close by. He quickly looked into the clearing, below him and was reassured that Kazuma was still there.
"Obito?" Kakashi dared to whisper in the lowest possible volume. A moment later, Obito slid down from a higher branch and landed silently and lightly on Kakashi's branch.
"We're never going to get those bells like this," Obito mouthed more than spoke. "We're going to have to work together. Agreed?"
Kakashi glanced back at their Jounin teacher, and reluctantly nodded.
"Good. You get him from the right, I'll move to the left. I'll send off the birds in the trees as a signal."
Again, Kakashi nodded, and without a sound, the two leaped away. Kakashi landed as softly as a cat behind a dense line of trees that was the edge of the clearing and waited for the signal. It came quickly, as a dozen or so birds took flight, and he saw Kazuma glance in that direction. Taking that moment, Kakashi leaped forward, but wasn't stupid enough to think that their teacher hadn't noticed.
His hands flew through a set of hand seals. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu He multiplied into three, and all of them went through another set of hand seals. At that moment, there was a great gust of wind, and the leaves were torn away from the trees. It was then that Kakashi noticed that someone was making the wind, for the direction chanced dramatically and all the leaves soared into a whirlwind shape. Henge no Jutsu Kakashi blended in with the other leaves, not knowing that Obito had taken the same chance to do so. Within the shelter of the trees, Midori grinned as she allowed the wind to die down.
Kazuma hadn't moved from where he stood, but he stood with more attention and awareness now. Kakashi broke his jutsu first and with a small puff of smoke, he immediately started engaging his teacher with taijutsu. A moment later, Obito sprang out of the pile of leaves, quickly followed by one Kakashi's replicas. Then after another second, Midori joined into the fight from the leaf pile. The three of them started to successfully push their teacher towards the trees, and as Kazuma showed a fraction of defencelessness, Midori shot out from the trees and yanked the two bells from Kazuma.
"I see," the Jounin mused with a pleasant smile, and glanced at the Midori he had been fighting, and she disappeared in a puff of smoke to turn out to be the other of Kakashi's replica. The replicas disappeared as well though, and the real Kakashi dropped to his knee, panting. Kazuma was still smiling. The rumours that claim Kakashi as a prodigy is really true. Combining the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (which is a Kinjutsu) and Henge no Jutsu, then transforming into Midori as well. It's going to be interesting to see how he grows.
(End Flashback)
Kakashi came out of his musing and looked back down at the lesson. Quietly, he got back to his feet and light tossed the shuriken to the ground near the aiming posts, then quickly left. In the fields, the young Gai saw the sun reflect off some metal and then noticed the shuriken digging into the ground. He frowned, staring at the weapon, and then glanced up at the trees.
"Hey, Gai, what are you standing there for? Hurry up!" the students jeered, and that forced him to push that matter to the back of his mind.
"No worries, I will," Gai said enthusiastically, covering up his wonder, and giving them a nice guy pose. The students rolled their eyes, and the teacher's shoulders sagged.
Kakashi flitted through the trees once again, but his pace decreased as he got closer to the village. He stopped on one of the smaller, outer roads, and stood there for a moment, before doubling back the way he came. Come to think of it, he had nothing to do even if he went back to his apartment. He didn't go back to the training field, but went more to the center of the forest. There, he practiced a few fire techniques, before he went back as the sun was setting.
The next day, at the promised one o'clock, Team 2 met at the red bridge that straddled a small river at the edge of town. Together, they went to the main Shinobi center to receive their next mission. No one was really expecting much. It was probably another D rank mission of babysitting, or garbage cleaning. So they were mildly surprised when the Third Hokage announced that they will be doing a C rank, body guard mission.
"Your task is to protect Gamashi Kengou until he reaches his home town, which is located on the outskirts of theRock Country," the Third said, glancing down at the scroll he held. He then looked up passed the four and called in a slightly louder voice, "Gamashi-san, will you come in, please?"
The door slid open, and they all turned around to see a tall, mid-aged man walk through. His brown hair was long, but pulled back into a ponytail, he wore loose, black and grey clothes, and his sharp eyes sized up each of them in turn. When he finished with the three younger ones, his eyes narrowed and he looked across the room at the Third.
"How are these kids going to be of any use protecting me?" Gamashi demanded, crossing his arms across his chest. Midori took quick offence and huffed quietly, crossing her arms as well and frowning at the man.
"They may be young, Gamashi-san," the Hokage explained with patience, "but they have all gone through the proper training. I assure you, that they will not disappoint you. And if, by any chance, anything does happen, Kazuma here is a Jounin. There is nothing to worry about."
Gamashi glanced at Kazuma, who lowered his head in a silent greeting. "There had better not," Gamashi grumbled, "We're leaving in half an hour. Get ready, gaki." With that he turned around and left. A vein was already pulsing on Midori's temple and her quick temper burst as soon as the door was closed.
"Who does he think he is, that geezer! By the end of this trip, he'll be apologising constantly for what he said!"
Kakashi sighed, sticking his hands into his pockets and tried to ignore the rest of Midori's tirades. Instead, he and Obito looked to Kazuma, and he caught their eyes.
"Well, you heard him," he said casually, with his usual, friendly smile, "We'll meet again by the North Gate in thirty minutes, so pack your things during that time."
"Hai," the two of them replied, and dragged their team-mate away.
"Kazuma," the Third said before he turned to leave.
"Hai, Sandaime-sama?" Kazuma replied.
"Be of your guard," he said, "This man seems like he is hiding a few things. I trust that your team will be able to accomplish the mission? Otherwise, I will give this mission to a few older Chuunins."
"Iie, they will be all right," Kazuma assured him. The Hokage nodded, and Kazuma swiftly left.
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Author's Note:
Kinjutsu – forbidden techniques
Hai – yes (for those of you who don't know)
Gaki – little kid (again, for those who didn't know)
Iie – no
And yeah, Kazuma is the Yondaime. It never states what his name is, so I made one up. I would really appreciate a review, but then again, I can never force anyone to review…Anyways, I'm just making up the plot as I go, so I can't tell for sure what will happen. That's about it…Well, bye bye for now!