"AH he just got blasted by shuriken!" Naruto yelled, waving his arms around, "Are you out of your mind Sasuke? You went too far!"

Yurei had her hand over her mouth, sure she heard Kakashi say that they had to actually want to kill him to get the bells but she didn't expect anyone to actually... well, do that!

Suddenly Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke and a thick, stumpy chopped log landed on the ground in his place embedded with shuriken and kunai.

Sasuke darted backwards and out of Yurei's veiw, disappearing into the trees as fast as he could. Yurei turned her head back to the log and the hanging Naruto. She was about to slide off her branch and land onto the tree below her but was stopped when she heard a loud, piercing scream that sounded quite like Sakura.

Her head whipped around when she heard Naruto yell as he was pulled into the air once again from the floor, this time hanging from one foot.

"I fell for it again!" He shouted, bashing his head.

Yurei finally slid off the branch, and let go. She landed on the branch below and jumped from that to the ground silently, she really was glad that she had spent so much time sneaking around and perfecting her movements to the best of her ability.

She walked over to Naruto, who was still swinging and thrashing around.

"Ah! I know what those things are! They're boxed lunches! ...A ninja must see through deception!" Naruto mumbled to himself.

She walked to the back of the tree and climbed up to the branch that Naruto was tied to. From there she worked on untying the tricky knot.

"Why not use the Kunai? It's right there." Naruto said, looking up at me.

"I have never used a Kunai before. I think I'd end up cutting myself." Yurei responded and let go of the rope. Naruto crashed to the ground, landing on his head.

He sat up, rubbing his neck, "Where have you been? I haven't seen you since you ditched your shoes by Kakashi-sensei and ran off!"

"Hiding." She jumped down next to Naruto and helped him to stand.

"Why didn't you come out any fight? It's really fun, apart from the part where he beat me. Well he hasn't beaten me yet! We still have time! Let's go, Asuka-chan!" He grabbed Yurei's wrist and started sprinting towards a large stone statue where some boxes rested.

They stopped by the stone, a few feet away.

"Hey, Asuka-chan, do ya think that the point of this excercise was to eat our lunches? Like to see through the deception? Yeah?"

"Maybe..." Yurei looked at the boxes suspiciously, "Are you sure?"

He sat down on the stone by the boxes and put his hands together, "Sensei told us that if we dn't get a bell... then we don't get any lunch! But if we eat out lunch now then there's nothing he can do! It's chow time!" Naruto grinned at Yurei who still looked at bit unsure.

"Hi there."

Yurei looked up to see Kakashi perched on top of the stone, looking down at them.

"I was just joking sensei," Naruto said quickly.

"Nice try." Kakashi replied.

The bell began ringing just as Kakashi finished tying Naruto to the wooden post. Yurei was on the one beside him, irritated that she'd gotten punishment when she hadn't even done anything.

Sasuke and Sakura soon appeared and came over, sitting in between the wooden posts.

"Uh oh! Stomachs growling, huh? That's too bad! Oh, by the way, about this excercise? Well I've decided, I won't send any of you back to the academy."

Naruto made some sort of noise of appreciation.

"What? I passed?" Sakura asked, "all I did was faint and fall over. Do you get points for that?"  She jumped up and began cheering.

"Then, then that means all three of us, I mean all fours of us..."

"Yes!" Kakashi interrupted, " All four of you are being dropped from the program. Permentantly."

That stopped Sakura cheering.

Yurei frowned, "That's stupid."

"Drop us from the program? That means we can never become ninja! You said that if we couldn't take the bells, we'd be sent back to the academy! You can't just change your mind and kick us out! Why would you do that?!" Naruto yelled angrily.

"Because you don't think like ninja, you think like little kids. Like brats." Kakashi answered.

Sasuke jumped up and ran forwards, but ended up underneath Kakashi, pinned down.

"You think it's all about you."

"Let go of Sasuke! You can't step on him like he's some bug!" Sakura screeched.

"You don't know what it means to be a ninja, you think it's a game, huh? Why do you think we put you on squads? Did you consider that question for a moment?"

"I don't  know what you mean!" Sakura said.

"I mean, you never realised what this excercise is all about, not even close. That's what determins whether you pass or fail."

"But that's... I mean I wanted to ask you about that from the beginning." Sakura mumbled.

"Ch. Use your head! Three people on a squad, well four in this case. Why do you think we would do that?"

"How are we supposed to know why you picked three people? We didn't make the rules!" Naruto yelled.

"It's so basic. Teamwork!" Kakashi snapped.

"Just working together? Is that what you mean?" Sakura asked.

"That's what I mean. It's too late now, but if all of you had come at me you might have been able to take the bells. Well anyway it's over." Kakashi answered.

"You set it up with only two bells but four of us. If we had worked together and got the bells only two of us could keep them, that would lead to group conflict and the group would break up!" Sakura said angrily.

"Exactly. I purposely pitted you against each other. I wanted to see if you could over come that and put the squad ahead of yourselves. A genin should have a natural feel for teamwork, but it never even crossed your mind. Sakura, you were obsessed about Sasuke who was gone, while Naruto was right in front of you and you wouldn't lift a finger to help him! Naruto, you do everything on your own, everything! Sasuke, you though the others were so far beneath you they were worthless, arrogance. Asuka, you vanished for the whole excercise, I didn't see you once after you ran off, from what I understand you didn't even attempt to get the bells. Ninja missions are carried out in squads, of course you need individual skills but teamwork is the most essential element. Every shinobi understands this, when individuals put themselves above the squad this can lead to failure, and even death. For example, Sakura, kill Naruto now or Sasuke dies!" Kakashi pulled out a kunai in one fluid move and held it to Sasuke's neck.

Yurei blinked in shock, while Naruto and Sakura yelled in protest.

"That's what happens when on a mission."

"Oh boy, that was really scary!" Sakura sighed in relief.

"The enemy takes a hostage and you've got an impossible choice. Someone ends up dead. On every mission your life is on the line," Kakashi stood, putting away the knife he walked over to the large memorial stone, "Did you look at this stone? The names engraved on it? They are all ninja who are honored as heros in our village."

"That's it! That's it! That's it! Now I know! I've decided I'm going to have my name engraved on that stone! I'm not gonna live and die for nothing like a dog! I'm gonna be a hero! A hero!" Naruto thrashed against the ropes.

"They are... a special kind of hero."

"Huh? What kind of hero are they? Come on tell us! Well?"

"They're all K.I.A." Kakashi said slowly.

Yurei looked between Naruto and Kakashi, realisation flooding through her. She bowed her head slightly, in respect.

"That sounds real cool!" Naruto said.

"It means killed in action, they all died." Sakura mumbled sadly.

Naruto's eyes widened then he looked down awkwardly.

"This is a memorial stone, the names of my closest friends are engraved here. Alright I'm going to give you one last chance, but I'm going to make it much harder on you. You'll have three hours to get a bell, eat lunch now to build up strength but, Naruto and Asuka don't get any. It's your punishment for breaking the rules and trying to eat by yourselves, and if anyone tries to feed them that person will immediately fail. I make the rules. You follow them. Got it?"

Nobody said anything and Kakashi wandered away into the surrounding trees, leaving his four students.

Sakura and Sasuke picked up their bentos and started eating silently.

"Where did you go, Asuka?" Sakura asked.

Yurei looked up.

"During the test, you vanished. I didn't see you until the end."

"Oh, I was hiding." Yurei said.

Sakura obviously wanted to ask where but decided to drop it and continued eating.

Suddenly Naruto's stomach rumbled loudly, "This is no big deal! I can go without eating for days! For weeks! Believe it, this is no big deal! No problem..." He looked down with a grimace. Yurei could tell exactly how he felt, she felt the same. An empty pit demanding some sort of energy gurgling inside her body, deciding to get her attention by creating waves of hunger.

"Here." Sasuke held out his lunch with a sigh. Naruto looked up shocked.

"What? No Sasuke, you can't do that! You heard what the sensei said!" Sakura said looking around worridly.

"Kakashi's gone, we need to get those bells as a team. If those two are hungry, they'll be weak and innefective. That hurts the team and jepordises the mission."

Sakura looked down at her lunch then held it out under Yurei's nose.

"Thanks." Yurei said.

"Don't thank me! Just hurry up and eat."

"Hurry up, he could come back at any moment." Sasuke said.

Just as Sakura held out her chopsticks there was a loud bang and the group was surrounded in a dust cloud. Kakashi's head appeared infront of them, "YOU! You broke the rules, I hope you're ready for the punishment!" He said and did some hand signs, the clouds above darkened rapidly, and lightning crashed.

"Any last words?"

"But you said... you said that there was four of us, that's what you said and that's why Sakura and..." Naruto trailed off, looking at his team mates.

"We're all on this squad and we're all in it together." Sasuke said.

"Yeah, that's right! We gave our lunch to them because the four of us are one!" Sakura snapped.

"The four of you are one? That's your excuse? Hm. You pass." He smiled through his mask, bending down to eye level.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, still in a defensive position, "How'd we pass?"

"You're the first squad that has ever suceeded, the others did exactly as I said and fell into every trap. They couldn't think for themselves. A ninja must see through deception. In the ninja world those who break the rules are scum that's true, but, those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." Kakashi stood up properly, looking at the sky.

"He's uh, he's kinda cool." Naruto started to tear up.

"The excercise is over, everyone passes, squad seven starts it's first mission tomorow. Let's go home." He turned away and started walking. Sakura and Sasuke followed too.

"I knew they'd do this! It happens every time, believe it! You guys forgot to untie us!" Naruto yelled after them.

芸術