Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

4:59.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

5:00.

[Name] narrowed her eyes into tiny little slits.

They were late. All three of them.

[Name] put her pocket watch away and tapped her foot impatiently against the softly ruffling grass. She spotted a glimpse of orange from the corner of her eyes and turned her head to see Naruto.

He looked half-asleep and ready to fall face first into the ground and just pass out. [Name] had to admit that it was a bit early; the sun was barely rising and moon was just disappearing, casting a blueish hue to the sky and world.

Even though she usually went to sleep at this time (since she did her missions at night and partly slept through the day), she always enjoyed this time of morning.

Naruto reached [Name], a dazed look plastered on his whiskered face. The corners of her lips twitched as they threatened to pull up into a smile. She had to admit that Naruto's goofy face was actually pretty cute, despite girls saying otherwise.

[Name] glared at Naruto and he swayed a little before regaining his balance again.

"Woah! When did you get here, sensei?" Naruto exclaimed, genuinely surprised as he looked up at [Name] with wide, tired, and curious eyes.

She didn't say anything for a moment or two but eventually answered, mumbling, "I was here the whole time."

"Geez, you're almost as invisible as Sasuke!" Naruto laughed at his own joke before stopping short once he noticed her murderous glare.

"I-I mean, no offense or anything.. you're n-nothing like Sasuke-teme!" He squeaked out, holding his hands up in defense.

[Name] didn't say anything and just ignored him, waiting on the other two to get there.

•••

In a few seconds, [Name] spotted Sakura running towards the two of them with a wild look on her face. Her hair looked frizzy and her clothes wrinkled.

Sasuke trailed behind her, a stoic look plastered on his face.

As Sakura and Sasuke reached Naruto and [Name], Sakura bowed to her continuously.

"I'm so sorry, [Name]-sensei! My alarm clock was broken so I had to rely on my mom to wake me up, and she totally forgot and woke me up late, so I didn't have much ti—" she was cut off.

"Stop."

Sakura instantly closed her mouth, staring at [Name] with wide, green eyes. She stopped bowing by now, completely frozen as she awaited her next words.

"Being late to a real mission will cost a life. Get it together, relying on people will not do any good for you since they will only let you down." [Name] intimated bluntly.

Sakura quickly nodded at her words, a small smile appearing on her face at the advice. She noted it in her mind for future reference.

[Name] turned her attention towards Sasuke, "You too, Sasuke." She glared at him and he glared back with equal fire.

She turned away and looked at all three of the children in front of her, who were all fully awake and alert.

"Today, you will learn how to overcome the obstacles you may possibly face on a real mission. I will be analyzing your skills to see how many of my shadow clones you can take down, how well you do it, and how well you work under pressure. Keep in mind that this is not a race, so do not try to outdo each other. Understand?" [Name] shot Naruto a look and he shrank down, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

She gave the three a small smile, which shocked them, and disappeared into a tree somewhere. She made the correct hand signs to do the Shadow Clone jutsu and closed her eyes, focusing of creating twenty shadow clones.

The clones poofed into the field Team Seven was standing in, undeniably startling all three of them as they saw the sadistic smirks plastered on each one of their faces.

She didn't know why all her clones came out looking like that because she never smirked and never really
smiled. They were also very rude and sometimes unwilling to cooperate with anything unless it had to do with fighting.

[Name] also didn't have the biggest chakra reserve, so being able to keep these Shadow Clones active was going to be a bit difficult.

She laid back against the trunk of the tree she was in and watched intently as Sasuke walked forward, drawing the clones' attention towards him.

"Eeh? Who's this brat? Another wretched Uchiha?" One of the clones spat tauntingly, her smirk widening as
the monotonous look on Sasuke's face stayed the same.

"Seems like he wants to fight one of us." Another one snickered, nudging a clone nearby in the rib jokingly.

The one that was nudged smiled malevolently before cracking her knuckles and narrowing her eyes humorlessly at the raven-haired boy.

She let out a dry laugh and closed her eyes.

"Bring it."

•••

Oops, the fighting begins in the next chapter! Also, if I wrote 'you' or 'your' anywhere where 'she' or 'her' etc. is supposed to be, it was an accident because my more recent books are written in that style and just know that when I say that, I'm referring to you, the reader.