Jiraiya's Twins

Chapter 12

The children's stomach growled. Even though Tadashi ate something he was still hungry. Naruto and Tadashi were tied to a wood post in the center of the clearing. Katsumi had her back facing Kakashi and the rest of the group, she hugged her legs and kept her face hidden... defeated.

"Oh my, your stomachs are growling. By the way, about this exercise. There's no need for you to go back to the ninja academy."

Naruto smiled and Sakura was shocked. The two began cheering, Tadashi was not convinced. He looked at his sister who still cradled herself despite the news.

"Then that means the five of us..." Naruto began, unable to contain his excitement.

"Yes... the five of you, will not become ninja" Kakashi barked.

The cheering stopped. Katsumi held onto herself tighter, she began shaking, tears were falling from her eyes.

Tadashi struggled more with the ropes. "What gives old man! Give us some of us credit. We were close to getting those damn bells. At Least we didn't lay down somewhere and do nothing. You can't just say something like that."

Naruto yelled, agreeing with Tadashi's words.

"That's because you're all brats who don't have the qualifications of becoming a ninja." Kakashi said with his hands on his hips. Sasuke grunted and ran towards the man. Their teacher quickly made work of the Uchiha, pinning him down to the floor.

"Don't you step on Sasuke damn it!" Sakura yelled. She bumped onto Katsumi a bit. The blind girl hid her face in her hands, embarrassed.

Tadashi continued to move around. Trying to break free.

"You guys think being a ninja is easy?" Kakashi said, looking at his remaining students. "Why do you think you're doing this exercise in teams?" he asked.

Tadashi stopped moving and thought about the question for a second. Naruto and Sakura looked at each other wondering the same thing.

"We were supposed to work together as a team. Like Tadashi and I did when we tried to get the bells." Katsumi said softly.

"That's right Katsumi. How ironic, the blind one was the only one that saw the true purpose of this test. The answer is teamwork. Why do you think you guys were put in squads."

"W-wait. You mean work together?" Sakura asked, looking down at Katsumi, who was still hugging herself.

"Exactly, but it's too late. Even if you realize it now. You guys might have gotten these bells if you came at me all together. Welp.. too bad." Kakashi said, looking at the shocked faces of the three other children.

"Hey wait a minute! Katsumi and I were working together flawlessly. You should pass us since we worked as a team." Tadashi barked.

"Yes, you two displayed a wonderful sense of teamwork. However Tadashi, it's not just you and your sister anymore is it?" He said looking down at Sasuke.

"Why use teamwork if there were only three bells? Two of us would've failed." Sakura started. "That's not creating teamwork, but discourse."

"Of course, this test is purposely set up to pin you guys' against each other." Kakashi started. He further explained how these conditions were meant to show one's true intentions as a ninja. And the conditions were set to find those who could work well in teams.

"Sakura, you only cared about Sasuke. You didn't even know where he was, and you didn't care about Naruto or the twins who were right in front of you. Naruto all you did was run carelessly towards your opponent. You Sasuke, labeled the others in your team as a hindrance and acted on your own. And finally the twins, you both work well together but didn't bother to use your abilities to support your team who could have used your help. Katsumi, you easily got distracted when I mention someone who isn't here. That's no different than what Sakura did. Tadashi you were only concerned with protecting and working with your sister; even yelling at Naruto, completely abandoning the entire team." Kakashi said strongly.

Katsumi nodded her head, still refusing to look up. Tadashi sighed and stopped struggling. Kakashi was right of course. Tadashi always focused on his sister with these kinds of things and he had no faith in the capabilities in this team despite the fact he knew that ninja worked in groups just like this one.

"Missions are carried out in squads. Don't get me wrong, a ninja must have a decent amount of skill on their own. But teamwork is considered to be more important than that. Individual acts that disrupt teamwork leads to a crisis, and then death."

As an example, he pulled out a kunai knife and held it up to Sasuke's neck. He told Sakura to kill Katsumi or Sasuke dies. Sakura gasped and looked back and forth. Katsumi looked up but her back was still facing away from the group.

Kakashi twirled his knife around and explained further that this is a very much real scenario that can happen in the field. And every mission is a life-threatening one.