#10 - The Trio: Part 10

"Teamwork? That's what you wanted to teach us?" Tsubaki asked, a little enraged, she was completely off the mark, she had thought Kakashi was trying to teach them the harshness of the ninja world, by making them sacrifice one of their teammates... but he wanted them to actually break the rules and help each other instead?

Kakashi smiled at her, a little smugly, "Of course, those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum!" He declared, and Naruto felt, for the first time they had met, something similar to respect rise in his chest for their teacher.

"Then why did you only have three bells? Wouldn't we work together better if there were three bells?" Tsubaki asking, mostly because she was sulking,

"Obviously, this test tries to pit you against each other. Even in these situations, I choose those who can prioritize teamwork before themselves," Kakashi informed her, she crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks,

"That's dumb. You're not testing our ability to work in a team, it's how willing we are to break the rules." She grumbled.

"Aaah, you made her mad," Naruto said, looking at Kakashi accusingly. Kakashi tried to argue in his defence but Sasuke shook his head at him,

"Move on, it's not going to work."

Kakashi glanced back to Tsubaki, who had a stubborn set to her jaw and an annoyed glint to her eyes and knew she wasn't going to accept any argument or explanation.

"Well, either way, the purpose of this test was for you guys to understand how important working in a team would be. Missions are done in groups. It would be extremely rare to ever work alone, even if you become the strongest ninja in the village. Although it's true that ninjas need well-developed individual abilities but teamwork is held at higher regard and will often be the difference between life and death," Kakashi explained.

"That kind of makes some sense I suppose," Tsubaki admitted begrudgingly.

"Although you did use teamwork and I am very impressed by your preparation- that wasn't the first thing you thought of when I told you about the test was it? If you had been in a team with people you were working with for the first time today, you would have failed. Real bad." Kakashi told them.

Tsubaki sighed, and nodded, her immediate thoughts hadn't been about teamwork at all.

"Tsubaki, your immediate response was to move away from the fighting. You watched as Naruto and Sasuke charged at an enemy they were disadvantaged against - but you let them because it would benefit you later." Kakashi snapped, narrowing his eyes at her, she looked to the floor as guilt squeezed her chest.

"Naruto, all you did was work on your own, you didn't even bother hiding or think about cooperating with your team. And you, Sasuke, assumed that you were strong enough to take on a jonin - not only was that reckless, it was arrogant." He said the boys, who looked away from his sharp gaze.

Naruto was biting his bottom lip, something he did when he was genuinely upset and felt like crying and Sasuke was glaring one specific dandelion back into the ground.

"I'm not saying that you guys failed. In fact, you are the only team to have passed this test. You showed excellent forethought with those whistling signals and even managed to execute them in a way that they felt like a natural part of the conversation." Kakashi said, tone lighter now.

"It was Sasuke's idea," Tsubaki piped up, and Sasuke still glared but he also wasn't trying to kill weeds with his gaze anymore.

"I see," Kakashi smiled, before continuing, "I was also very impressed with the research you'd done on the law and protocols. It's important to always do prior research on anything you can find before heading into a mission. You showed great foresight and initiative." Kakashi told them.

"That was Tsubaki," Sasuke said in an off-hand manner, that had Tsubaki grinning widely.

"Good to know," Kakashi said, smiling at her.

He could see they were a good team, without a doubt. Perhaps it was the years of friendship, or perhaps it was the individual talents they had working well together, but they showed great potential.

Then he looked at Naruto, was still staring at his feet, looking more miserable than before. He was less skilled, hadn't contributed much and couldn't even work together with them.

If he had understood that - which it certainly looked like he had - this could become a moment of motivation for him, or the moment that broke his self-esteem.

"One more time," azure eyes blazing with a fire Kakashi hadn't seen in a long time - the scene was so familiar that he almost didn't hear what Naruto was saying.

"One more time?" he asked,

"Let us do it one more time! This time, we'll definitely get the bells from you!" Naruto declared.

"Hmm, alright." Kakashi smiled easily. "I'll go even harder on you this time,"

"What?" Tsubaki asked, but Sasuke was already stepping forwards, she glanced from him to Naruto before sighing.

"Well, looks like we won't be eating lunch early at least," she despaired.

* * *

The sun was setting and Naruto, Sasuke and Tsubaki lay in a collapsed heap in the training grounds. Sasuke had managed to touch a bell before Kakashi grabbed his wrist and threw him at the trunk of a tree and that was about as close as they had gotten to stealing a bell off of Kakashi's waist.

At some point, Kakashi had finished and put away his book, but that just made things 10 times harder for them. Tsubaki had tricked him into almost dropping the book, but he caught it before it hit the ground and also sent her flying into the trees as revenge.

They heard the message loud and clear - don't mess with Kakashi's book.

"I think it's about time to wrap this up," Kakashi smiled, glancing at the alarm clock that was still sat atop the log post.

"Fine, but let's get food at least," Tsubaki sighed, dragging herself back up to her feet. As if on queue, all three of their stomachs grumbled loudly.

"Alright! Ramen time!" Naruto cheered through his profusely bleeding split lip.

"I want sushi," Sasuke demanded.

"No way, Ichiraku's is best after a workout!" Naruto insisted,

"I want something with actual rice, dumbass," Sasuke snapped back,

"Well, I say Yakiniku, I want some meat," Tsubaki chimed in, though she was just doing that to be annoying.

"It's too hot for Yakiniku," Sasuke complained,

"I don't want to pay for food then cook it myself, that's dumb," Naruto added,

"Don't be lazy, everyone has a different preference for how they like their meat, just cook it yourself," Tsubaki told him,

"Alright alright, looks like I have the tie-breaker," Kakashi decided to step in because it didn't look like they were ever going to come to a decision.

"Didn't we just talk about teamwork?" he asked,

"This and that are different," Naruto informed him rather sagely.

"Well, since I've decided to treat you guys, we're going with the cheapest option; ramen," he told them.

There was a momentary pause between Tsubaki and Sasuke, while Naruto threw his arms up and cheered.

"Alright, if it's free I'm willing to compromise," Tsubaki relented, and Naruto linked his arm through her's before leading the way to Ichiraku's.

"I knew you'd see the light," he exclaimed.

Sasuke stared after them, muttering "Sellout," but still followed begrudgingly.

Kakashi sighed, shaking his head, it seemed that not for a moment had any of them considered going back and eating separately.

Maybe they weren't flawless and had a lot to learn before they could really be called ninjas. But there was a lot of potential, and a deep friendship made up of mutual trust and support, that he could definitely work with.

* * *

Sakura didn't know what she had expected from their first team meeting, but it certainly wasn't this.

Their sensei was a pretty woman named Reika, with sharp amber eyes and long dark hair and apparently a sadistic streak.

"Sensei, couldn't you get all the information about our skills from your files?" She had asked when she had told them what was in store for them. Their sensei had simply looked at Sakura and shrugged,

"I don't like reading disappointing things." She had said. "You've had that softy, Iruka as your teacher for too long, I know he must have mothered you all to death." She shuddered.

"But.... but my grades were excellent!" Sakura protested the other two on her team were already helping each other stretch.

"Is that what you're going to say to the enemy ninja in pursuit of you? I don't have the time or energy to go through basics. If you can't keep up, that's your problem, the other two have already started," Reika said, nodding behind her, to where Souji and Kenta were already running up the side of the mountain.

The first thing their teacher had done when they'd arrived at the training grounds, was used an extreamly large amount of chakra and her earth release to create a steep mountain in the middle of the training grounds.

Then she took one look at her students and said, "Climb it before the sun sets if you want to be a ninja,"

Sakura couldn't accept that. She'd been one of the best students at the academy academically, but now everything depended on a physical test?

But Reika had already sat down on the floor, cross-legged with her hands bracing her from behind as she stared up at the mountain, watching the two boys who seemed to climb it easily.

"You're falling behind," she sang, and Sakura sighed, before stomping over to the base of the mountain, and slowly making her way up.

They quickly realised, however, that it wasn't going to be that easy. About 1/3 of the way up the mountain, when it was getting too steep to run, and they were using the stones and their kunai as leverage to climb - the mountain began to crumble away under their feet.

"Oh, there's a time limit to this jutsu, did I not mention that!?" Reika asked, from where she was lounging around on the mountain, "it sure does seem to be a long way to fall," she added happily.

Sakura felt something like dread settle in the pit of her stomach. At this rate, there was no way she was going to make it.