Intermission: Before the Test

"Sakura! You're home!" Kizaishi and Mebuki Haruno rushed at their daughter ebulliently, firmly grasping her in an embrace.

Ugh, as bubbly as usual, Sakura sighed in defeat as she suffocated in their overly enthusiastic felicitations.

"Honey how did your day go?" Kizaishi questioned her. "Who's in your team? Who's your sensei?"

"Is your crush… Soskay what's his name again, on your team?" Mebuki teased her playfully.

"MUM!" She protested mortified and embarrassed.

...0.0

Sasuke Uchiha glared outside of his window, relishing in his personal thoughts of vengeance: becoming stronger, gaining more power and slaughtering Itachi. Someday, his brother would be a bloodied mess on the ground, defeated, that someday was gradually nearing. Presently, it was only 5 in the afternoon and his cousin was still at work. Perfect, he thought to himself, I could do with an hour or more of training.

He had seldom had time to connect with Shisui, who was always too busy in running the clan and whenever those two did spend time together, Sasuke talked as little as possible. Instead, he preferred gazing pensively at no particular object, just daydreaming, daydreaming about killing Itachi.

Right Itachi. That was what frustrated Sasuke the most, Shisui kept trying to lecture him about how he's still got plenty of family left. What did he know? The agony, the hatred I felt on the death of my parents is beyond his understanding, Sasuke said to himself bitterly.

He was slightly frustrated at the selection of his team today. The dead last and that insufferable fangirl. They'd only hold me down, he contemplated, never mind I can past the test myself.

Just as he grabbed his weapon pouch and was about to head out for training, the doorbell ran. Great, he inwardly grimaced, Shisui's home early.

"Hey Sasuke! How was meeting your genin team?" His cousin attempted to start a conversation, feigning to be cheerful.

"Hn. Alright," Sasuke grumbled in return.

"You were going to train weren't you?"

"Yeah."

"I can help you know, don't go train alone the whole time."

"Hn. Whatever, are you stronger than Itachi?"

Not again, Shisui groaned, not another one of his I-want-to-kill-Itachi fits. This time, he'd try to persuade his cousin once and for all. Right like that'll actually happen, he then inwardly rebuked himself for his naivety.

"Mmm… I'm no so sure, but I'd probably know a little more of our clan jutsus than you do," his cousin replied him, probably not understanding what the fuss with Itachi was all about.

"Hn. Then lets go." Sasuke irately opened the door and both of them left for the training grounds.

...0.0

"And, and, he wants to become Hokage just like me!" Naruto finished retelling his day to the academy instructor, Iruka Umino at Ichiraku Ramen.

"Hey Iruka-sensei?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think I'll pass the test tomorrow?"

Iruka gazed at him warmly, yet his insides were a mixture of conflicts. Once, the boy had been a mere symbolism of the Kyuubi that caused devastation upon the village and stripped away the lives of his parents. Nonetheless, after getting to know the boy, he had long started to view Naruto as a sort of younger brother, someone that never ceases to provoke him with exasperating pranks and someone he longed to protect no matter what.

He was worried about Naruto, worried about the boy's welfare; if Naruto became genin, he was beyond Iruka's supervision. On top of this, Naruto's sensei… was Obito Uchiha, there were already several rumours that he would succeed the Sandaime in the near future—it that case wouldn't the boy, the rest of the team be lowered to his second priority? Iruka didn't want Naruto to ever be neglected again.

All in all there would be an inevitable sense of melancholy if the boy did pass, however that would most definitely be overpowered by his vicarious happiness and pride.

"Hey Iruka-sensei, lets have a ramen eating competition!" Naruto's voice rang throughout the entire restaurant, earning bemused glances on their direction.

Iruka sighed, "One bowl please, Teuchi-san."

"We're on dattebayo!"

...0.0

Like any regular day, the jonin headquarters were full of chatter. Kakashi Hatake and Maito Gai have both just returned from their recurrent challenges, with Gai fervently declaring himself the winner and the other jonin pretty much indifferent about it. They then joined the circle of potential jonin sensei's discussing about the newly graduates they had just met.

"Hmmm so how are you all planning to test these kids out?" Kakashi asked the group, especially curious about Obito's answer.

"Anything youthful?" Gai tried to add, which only received a couple of puzzled expressions.

"I was thinking about the bell test, he… you know the one Minato-sensei used on us?" Obito explained to the group, "though I doubt they'll pass, Sakura seems to much of a fangirl, Sasuke seems way to stuck up and arrogant—"

"Way to describe your cousin!" one of the jonin's, Hayate Gekko, laughed.

"It's true!" Obito admitted, he'd been used to calling people from his clan similar epithets, "oh and Naruto really reminds me of myself when I was his age—"

"By that," Kakashi snickered, "you mean loud, obnoxious, never-on-time?"

"Kakashi!"

"You're still never on time you arrived 3 hours late," he sighed.

"I've gotten better!" Obito exclaimed, except aware of the fact that he is blatantly lying. "No, I meant enthusiastic, eager and well, always wanting people to notice him. You all know the pranks he does! It's pretty amusing until you're on the receiving end. Poor kid, Mina—"

Kakashi silenced him, and shot a glare that seemed to say, this is an S-ranked classified secret, not everyone in the room knows about it.

Obito mentally berated himself, right, I totally forgot.

A/N: Thanks for all of your reviews, they are very much appreciated! Anyways I hope this chapter wasn't too boring and bland, I just really wanted to give a little sneak peak onto Team 7's lives. Tell me about how I am at writing non-parody stuff, I realize that I have tendencies to veer towards the "parody' genre and I tried doing my best in this chapter to keep things toned down. Expect an update in the next week, since I'll have more time on writing during the holidays!

Some questions:

What happened at the Kanabi bridge mission?

This WILL be covered eventually, so until then keep reading!

Also, by no means is Kakashi out of the picture, he WILL play a significant role in the future:)

Until then, please leave behind your thoughts :)

Special thanks to Arcami, DoctorWho41, Helen delia, Kat July, King Grimlock, Lucio BetaBlake, Midnighter67, NIGHTANGEL21, TemplarDon, TheWildHunt, Ulquihimefan1, Watergirl244, Cristelia, Jonathan112, SUNSHINGIRL, Shut up Steven, angeleyes09 and seti31 for following and favouriting this story!