On the Academy rooftop, Kakashi sat on the railing and finally began the team introduction meeting he had delayed by several hours.
"Before we start, let's do some simple introductions." Kakashi spread his hands lazily. "Things like what you like, what you hate, your future dreams, your hobbies… that sort of thing."
Naruto and Sasuke were both the more passive type, so when nobody spoke for a while, Sakura raised her hand first.
"My name is Haruno Sakura. What I like is…"
Her eyes drifted toward Sasuke.
"My dream for the future is…"
Her eyes drifted toward Sasuke again.
"And what I hate is people who compete with me for the person I like!"
The other three fell silent.
What kind of self-introduction was that? The entire thing revolved around Uchiha Sasuke…
Kakashi nodded, then turned to Naruto.
"You're next."
Naruto thought for a moment, then decided to have a little fun with it.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. There are lots of things I hate, but nothing I really like."
Kakashi's gaze sharpened, and Sasuke immediately sensed something was off—
"And while I don't want to stop at merely talking about dreams, I do have ambition. I'm going to restore my clan… and one day, I'll personally defeat a certain man."
Sasuke completely lost his composure on the spot. He whipped his head toward Naruto, shock written all over his face.
Wasn't that all my line?!
Naruto's statement did not just stun Sasuke—it caught Kakashi off guard too.
Restore his clan? Defeat a certain man?
He had assumed only Sasuke would say something like that.
He was just about to ask when Sakura blurted out ahead of him, "Naruto, aren't you an orphan with no parents? Where would a clan even come from?"
The second those words left her mouth, both Kakashi and Sasuke looked at her differently.
Kakashi sighed inwardly.
This girl… she really speaks too bluntly. She doesn't consider other people's feelings at all.
Sasuke's brows furrowed even more deeply. He did not care much about Naruto one way or another, but the word orphan still struck a nerve in him.
He shot Sakura a cold glance, and she immediately swallowed whatever else she had been about to say.
Naruto did not look hurt or angry. He simply asked in an even tone,
"Sakura-chan, don't you think it's strange that I'm the only person in the whole village with the surname 'Uzumaki'?"
"But—" Sakura started.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto cut in, "when Kakashi-sensei showed up earlier, did you notice the symbol on his back?"
"His back?" Sakura tried to remember, but her impression was vague.
Sasuke, however, immediately caught the point. "You mean the crest. Kakashi's back has a spiral mark on it. Any surname worthy of being called a clan usually has its own representative crest or symbol."
Naruto nodded and picked up the thread.
"Exactly. Just like the fan crest on Sasuke-kun's back represents the Uchiha, I don't think the symbol on Kakashi-sensei's back is something random. Maybe it has something to do with 'Uzumaki.'"
Sakura frowned harder. "But that doesn't prove anything, does it? Iruka-sensei and Ino's team instructor have similar symbols on their backs too. Are you saying they're related to the Uzumaki too?"
Naruto continued calmly, "That's a fair point, Sakura-chan. But then why would an orphan with no parents like me just happen to have the one surname in the whole village that nobody else has—Uzumaki?"
"This…" Sakura opened her mouth, only to realize she had no real answer.
She was just an ordinary civilian girl. She knew very little about the shinobi world's hidden history.
Sasuke skipped over that topic entirely and asked the part he actually cared about.
"Compared to that, I'm more interested in who this man is that you want to defeat."
For the first time, a faint flicker of anticipation surfaced in Sasuke's heart. Could it be that this so-called dead last actually shared the same goal of vengeance as him?
Under the tense attention of all three of them, Naruto answered:
"The Third Hokage."
"What?!" Sasuke froze.
Using the most matter-of-fact tone imaginable, Naruto explained, "I want to become Hokage. If that's the case, then of course I have to defeat the current Hokage to take the position."
So that was what he meant by defeat.
Not blood vengeance. Not revenge. Just becoming Hokage.
Sasuke's mouth twitched faintly. In the end, he only gave a cold snort and turned his head away.
Behind his mask, Kakashi nearly lost control of his expression too.
So it was that kind of "defeat."
He had tensed up for nothing, half-convinced Naruto had been influenced by some dangerously extreme idea.
Still… wanting to become Hokage?
That was the same dream his teacher once had.
"All right, all right, we get Naruto's 'ambition.' A very grand dream." Kakashi pulled everyone's attention back on track and looked at Sasuke. "Next, you're up."
After Naruto's introduction, the speech Sasuke had prepared suddenly felt impossible to say out loud.
With a strange, bottled-up frustration in his chest, he gave the briefest possible answer:
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke."
And then he closed his mouth.
Kakashi waited a few seconds. When nothing else came, he asked, "Sasuke, what about the rest?"
Sasuke folded his arms and coolly threw out one sentence:
"I don't feel like telling you."
Kakashi: "…"
He suddenly felt that his dignity as the team leader had been challenged.
Wasn't that supposed to be his signature dismissive line? How had the student stolen it first?
Honestly, ever since Naruto started talking, the whole flow of this introduction has gone off the rails, Kakashi thought helplessly. Still… I guess that's the Fourth's son for you. His instincts really are sharp. His reasoning is a bit off, but noticing the unusual nature of 'Uzumaki' already puts him ahead of a lot of people.
Thinking of Minato Namikaze inevitably reminded Kakashi of his own bell test years ago.
He looked at the three of them and said, "You're all pretty interesting. Starting tomorrow, you'll begin taking missions."
"What kind of missions?" Sakura asked quickly, trying to smooth over the awkwardness from earlier.
"To begin with, there's a task that only the four of us can carry out…"
Kakashi deliberately drew out his voice for suspense.
"A survival exercise."
"A survival exercise?" Sakura blinked in confusion. "But we've already done plenty of those at the Academy."
Kakashi's tone turned serious.
"This one is different. This isn't an ordinary drill. It's a test with a sixty-six percent failure rate. Only those who pass will become genin. If you fail, you go back to the Academy and start over."
"What?!" Sakura cried out.
She had worked so hard to graduate—there was no way she wanted to go back.
Sasuke's gaze sharpened.
He absolutely could not fail. Going back to the Academy would be a waste of precious time, and it would only move him farther away from avenging himself against that man.
"If you don't want to embarrass yourselves tomorrow," Kakashi said with a disturbingly pleasant smile, "then I suggest you skip breakfast. Otherwise, you'll throw up."
He clapped his hands once.
"Tomorrow morning, five o'clock. Training Ground Three. Bring your ninja tools. Dismissed!"
Then, with a poof, Kakashi vanished in a cloud of white smoke.
Sakura looked worried. Sasuke did not look relaxed either.
Only Naruto remained calm.
One hundred gold, and Kakashi's acknowledgment along with it—he intended to claim both.
But fighting alone was obviously not the answer. Teamwork was the key.
The problem was how to persuade these two teammates, each more difficult than the last.
Naruto tested the waters.
"Sasuke-kun, Sakura-chan, since the survival exercise is tomorrow, should we talk things over first?"
"No need," Sasuke rejected him cleanly. "If you have time to waste talking, you should spend it training instead. Don't drag me down tomorrow."
Then, perhaps because Naruto's recent behavior had slightly improved his impression of him, Sasuke paused and added one more line:
"Don't put too much pressure on yourselves. I'll figure out a way to carry both of you through."
This guy…
Naruto turned to Sakura next.
But Sakura was already getting restless after seeing Sasuke leave. She tossed out a quick "See you tomorrow," then hurried after him.
Naruto stared silently at the now-empty rooftop.
These teammates really were impossible to carry.
Might as well queue up for another ninjutsu duel.
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