Extra Credit

In times of relative peace, it could be hard for some ninja to remain motivated. After the horror of the last war, most people just wanted to sit back and take it easy. However, there were also at least a few academy students with a little too much energy. Rather than letting them wander around the village causing mischief – something Naruto knew all about – Naruto had devised what he believed to be a cunning solution: the extra credit program.

The idea behind the extra credit program was very simple: over-eager academy students could participate in a range of challenging field exercises in exchange for additional credit. These field exercises also gave the students a chance to experience a more realistic simulation of the field, although Naruto hoped that they would never need it.

The extra credit program also served another purpose: punishing troublesome jounin. After all, the students needed to get used to fighting much stronger opponents in the field, and what better way to do that than by sending them up against jounin who'd managed to get on Naruto's bad side? It was all wonderfully clever, and Naruto liked to believe he was very clever – even if Sasuke insisted that he was just stupidly lucky.

But, like so many of Naruto's plans, things didn't always work out as intended. Case in point: the jounin running today's extra credit program was none other than Kakashi. His crime: submitting more than a dozen illegible reports that Naruto, as the Hokage, had been forced to trawl through.

The silver-haired ninja arrived precisely two hours late – not that it really mattered. Naruto might have been able to force him to take the program, but not even Naruto could force him to arrive on time. Besides, coming late was one of his habits, and hadn't all three of his students become truly exceptional ninja in their own right?

Okay, maybe his original team weren't the best example. Naruto might have become Hokage – but his path there had been far from smooth, and he'd needed more than a little luck. Sakura had become the foremost medical ninja in the world – but she'd also developed a terrifying temper and a reputation for being borderline psychotic. And Sasuke – there wasn't enough time in the world to talk about all the things wrong with Sasuke.

But back to the present…

The little tykes were glaring at him with as much venom as they could which, considering all he'd seen, wasn't very much at all. Still, he had to give them points for effort. One of them, a little Inuzuka boy, was even baring his teeth. It was absolutely adorable.

"Good morning, children!" Kakashi gave them all a sunny smile, or as much of a sunny smile as he could give with one eye and half his face covered. "And welcome to today's extra credit program!"

The children looked distinctly unimpressed. To his amusement, one of the girls had even palmed a kunai. It was so cute when the kids thought they could kill him. No wonder Sakura had been pestering him about starting a family. She probably couldn't wait until they had a few tiny psychopaths of their own.

"You're late!" The Inuzuka boy jabbed one finger at him. Apparently, he was the ringleader. "Two hours late!" At his side, a small, black dog growled.

Good, at least the Inzukua's partner was loyal. But Kakashi had faced down far bigger and scarier dogs – Akamaru dwarfed even the largest of his summons.

"You're too uptight, kid." Kakashi gave the boy another sunny smile and ruffled his hair. He had the guts to take a swing at Kakashi, but his limbs were too short to reach, and the worst his dog – puppy, really – could do was chew at the soles of his sandals. "And didn't anyone ever tell you that it's rude to yell at your commanding officer."

"What?" The boy's shrieking reached a new, and impressively high, pitch. "You can't be the one taking today's program!"

"Wait…" A little Hyuuga girl tugged on his sleeve. "Don't you know who that is, Ryoushi? That's Kakashi Hatake. He's the Rokudaime. He's a hero!"

Kakashi was sorely temped to pass the little girl right there. He wasn't above being flattered. In fact, he rather liked it. His original team had never been big on the compliments, and Sakura now spent more time threatening him than praising him. Admittedly, he kind of liked it when his wife got angry – Sakura was so beautiful when she was murderous – but a compliment now and then was always nice.

"Well, aren't you a nice girl?" Kakashi gave the Hyuuga a thumbs up and a gentle pat on the head. "Anyway, I am indeed as awesome as she says, which is one of the reasons that I'm in charge."

One of the kids, a Nara, put his hand up. "But my daddy says that only people who've pissed off the Hokage have to take this program."

Those Nara were too smart for their own good. "That's not true. In fact, the Hokage considers this to be one of the village's most important programs. Only the best are allowed to take charge of it, which is why I'm here today."

Yes, that sounded suitably impressive. Hopefully, they'd buy it. Most of the children appeared to, nodding their heads and smiling. Heh. He still had the skills.

"Anyway, let me explain how today is going to work. As ninja, it is important for you to be able to reach your objectives even when they are heavily defended. So for today's extra credit program, you'll be working in teams of three. Your objective will be to claim one of the flags on top of the hill in the middle of the clearing a few miles north of here."

"And the rules?" someone asked.

Kakashi giggled as the clouds above darkened ominously. This was the bit he loved most. "There aren't a lot of rules. All of you are allowed to do whatever you think is necessary to me in order to get one of the flags. Naturally, I'll be taking things a little easier on you. I'm not going to kill you, but you can expect a few cuts and bruises. I might even explode you a little." He chuckled at the looks of horror on their little faces. "You only have until sunset, and I will not tolerate any of you hurting each other. You all belong to this village, and I expect you to act like comrades. Other than that… go wild."

"So… uh… are we starting now?"

"Yep. Your time starts… now."

X X X

Kakashi wasn't the least bit surprised when one of the teams promptly decided to ditch common sense and pick a fight instead of running away.

"Take this, old man!"

The little boy took several steps and then flew through the air in a ridiculously extravagant jump kick. True, he got an impressive amount of air, but a jump kick was hardly the most intelligent way to start a fight against a stronger, faster, and more skilled opponent. Indeed, the boy hadn't even considered what would happen if Kakashi took one big step to the right.

The boy sailed past him and crashed into a tree. Kakashi winced. That sounded painful. Walking over to the kid, he slapped a tag on his forehead. The tag wasn't an exploding tag or anything, but it did have something written on it: tag – you're dead.

"Well, that's it for you." Kakashi grinned. "Better luck next week."

The boy's two teammates took a slow step back. The reckless one must have been their leader. Oh well, that just made things more interesting.

"So, are you going to stand there all day or…?"

The boys decided to go for the 'or' option – the wrong 'or' option. Instead of running for it – as they should have done – the boys decided to go into full on 'Naruto Mode'. That is to say, they shouted something about courage and friendship and then charged right at him.

A little under three seconds later, both boys were lying on the ground next to their leader.

"You need to plan more, kids." Kakashi bestowed head pats all around. "There are some opponents you can't beat with just platitudes and flashy moves – that's a Naruto-specific ability."

The leader of the trio folded his arms over his chest. "So, what should we have done then?"

"It should be obvious that you three can't beat me in a straight-up fight. And remember your objective: all you need to do is get one of the flags. You don't have to beat me. Your best option would have been to either try and evade me or use a distraction to draw me away while you make a run for a flag."

He would have said more, but an explosion rocked the area, sending up a plume of dust and green paint.

"What was that?" one of the kids asked.

Kakashi giggled. "That would be one of my traps. You didn't think I'd leave the flags unprotected, did you?"

The three children gave him looks of undisguised awe. "Is that why you were late today, you were setting up traps?"

"Of course it was." Kakashi nodded firmly. Of course, that was a lie. He was late because Sakura had a day off, and she'd dragged him back into bed – or maybe he'd been the one doing the dragging. "And by arriving late, I also took all of you by surprise."

"Awesome." The leader of the group stared at him with wide eyes. "So, what do we do now?"

"You guys can wait here until the exercise is over. You can use this time to practice your teamwork and basic skills."

X X X

Kakashi had always been amused by the sight of people running away from explosions of his making. Sakura had argued that it was the result of too many years on the frontline, but come on! It was funny – and it's not like anyone was actually getting blown up.

Right now, he was watching another trio of students run across the edges of the training ground, screaming at the top of their lungs as they ran from one explosion to the next. Hmm… he would have to emphasise the importance of thinking from the opponent's perspective. The kids just kept running from one explosion to the next, never even realising that they were simply moving from one obvious source of cover to the next. Naturally, Kakashi had anticipated that – but the kids hadn't anticipated that he'd anticipate that.

But it wasn't like they would die. The explosions were more for show than anything else, although he had rigged each exploding tag to unleash different colours of paint. The only thing better than seeing a trio of students running away from explosions was seeing a trio of students running away from explosions while covered in a dozen different colours of paint.

The students finally stumbled into his last trap – a net – and Kakashi watched them flop around like fish for a few seconds before he ambled over.

"So… it looks like you're all dead. Once you managed to cut yourselves free, head back to where we started and do some practice."

"But –"

"You know, if those were real explosions, you'd all be dead."

"Damn it."

X X X

It was down to the final trio of students: the plucky Inuzuka, the polite Hyuuga, and a typically quiet Aburame.

The Inuzuka – Ryoushi – had been smart enough to lay a number of false trails while the Hyuuga kept an eye out for him. The Aburame had, in the meantime, left several groups of his insects behind to try and ambush Kakashi.

Being the awesome ninja that he was, Kakashi had evaded each ambush and kept track of the trio. Still, he had to give them credit. They were impressive. If they took the test for genin, he might even be tempted to pass them. Despite their differing natures, they worked well together.

"Come on," Ryoushi shouted. "We're almost there."

"Wait!" The Hyuuga girl grabbed his arm. "There's a trap ahead of us."

"Damn it." Ryoushi growled, as did his little dog. "We're so close. I can almost see the flags."

"Let me go ahead. If you follow me, we should be able to avoid the traps."

"Fine." Ryoushi looked at the Aburame. "Keep your insects on the lookout. If you see Kakashi, hit him with everything you've got."

Kakashi grinned. Good – the Inuzuka had his eyes on the prize. They were close too. He had to dodge several swarms of insects before he reached the clearing where the flags were. The Inuzuka was the fastest of the trio, and he ran ahead to try and claim a flag while the other two hung back to intercept him.

But then Ryoushi did the strangest thing – halfway to the flags, he turned around.

Kakashi smiled. What an interesting thing to do. The trio attacked him together. The Hyuuga took the lead, using her family's distinctive style to try and cut off his chakra. At the same time, the Aburame hung back, waiting for a chance to pin him down with his insects. As for the Inuzuka, he and his dog were a constant nuisance, targeting Kakashi's blind spots and trying to keep him off balance.

But the kids had forgotten one thing, or perhaps they'd chosen to ignore it. Kakashi was a ninja of the highest calibre, and they were academy students. It was over in less than a minute, with each of the students sporting a bright 'tag – you're dead' tag on their foreheads.

"You know," Kakashi said as the three rubbed their foreheads. "You probably could have gotten one of the flags if you hadn't turned back, Ryoushi."

The boy scowled. "So what? I don't leave my friends behind."

"Is that so?" Kakashi allowed the barest hint of menace to creep into his voice. "But what about your mission?"

"Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends and comrades are even worse than trash." Ryoushi puffed out his chest. "That's what the Hokage says, and that's what I believe."

"Really?" Kakashi grinned. "I happen to know the Hokage didn't come up with those words himself – I did. After all, I was his teacher, you know."

"As if you would come up with something that smart." Ryoushi glared. "But it doesn't matter now." He looked at his two friends. "Let's go back now. We can try and get some more extra credit next week."

"Actually…" Kakashi said. "I think I might give you some extra credit anyway. You were pretty close, and I can't really fault your attitude." Kakashi gave them the thumbs up. "Good work, guys."

X X X

"So…" Naruto stared at Kakashi over his desk. "I heard you had an interesting time today."

"It was pretty fun." Kakashi shrugged. "I exploded a few students."

"Ah. Fun." Naruto gave Kakashi one of his foxy smiles. "But I heard that you actually handed out some extra credit this time."

"Did I? I suppose I did. But they reminded me a lot of a certain team I once had, although they were a bit smarter."

"Hey!"

"What? It's true."

"Are you going soft, Kakashi?" Naruto's expression was beyond smug. It was at time like this that Kakashi wished that he hadn't given the hat up to Naruto – then he could still punch him in the face. "Or maybe you're finally ready to take on another team."

"Please tell me you're joking." Kakashi's eye narrowed faintly. "My last team didn't turn out so well."

"We turned out okay. I'm the Hokage, Sasuke is commander of my ANBU, and Sakura is in charge of our medical program. I think that qualifies as a success."

"Maybe."

"Just think about it. I know Sakura wants you to step back from the more dangerous missions, and it's about time you took on another team. You're a good teacher, Kakashi, when you can be bothered to do it."

"Fine. I'll think about it." Kakashi paused. "But I want to take a closer look before I even think about taking another team."

"How does taking next week's extra credit program sound?"

Kakashi pictured the looks of horror on the students' faces. "Actually, that's sounds good."

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I neither own Naruto, nor am I making any money off of this.

It's been a while since I've written something for this story, but now seems as good a time as any to get back to it. Kakashi is one of my favourite characters in the series. He isn't without faults, of course, but he's fun to have around. And at no time is he more fun than when he's got a few unfortunate students to torment – which is the whole idea behind this chapter. Hopefully, you guys had fun reading it.

I also write original fiction. If you like my fanfiction, check it out. I'm sure you'll enjoy my original stuff too. You can find links to it in my profile. Most of it is fantasy, but I've written some Westerns too.

As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.