Caged Birds Lullaby

chapter 20

Hatake Kakashi was certain that his team would make it. The way they acted at the Wave mission was a dead giveaway. Plus with the additional training he put them all through, and the teamwork drills. He was positive his team would make it past the pseudo test set to get rid of the weakest and lower the number of participants. Kurenai and Asuma had already gone, their teams being already in the room. Gai, worried for his, went to check up on them. He was probably going to bring them from one of the backdoors.

So he was left alone, reading his book while he waited for his kawaii gennin to appear. 15 minutes later, he heard rather loud stomping. His eye left the rather interesting chapter to stare at the sight in front of him.

Sasuke, with a very pissed of expression (like someone dared to kill Itachi before he even got there) was dragging a very red Naruto, who was shell shocked, and Sakura, who was dazed.

Slowly, he lowered his book and stood up. He was afraid of the answer if he asked the question, so instead, he settled to their usual scenario. Even if the roles where revised.

"You are late."

"A green bushy caterpillar crossed out path, wanting to fight for his flower..", started Sakura, slowly coming out of her daze.

"And then greenie started a fight with me, and I decided to protect two flowers. But one got 'hit' in the end.", sputtered Sasuke, glaring at the ground.

"And well, then the other flower got lost on the road of lo..er.. life?" Naruto carefully hid her blush and smiled her trademark grin.

Kakashi just stared at them, eyebrow raised till the maximum. There was slight fear of it disappearing into his hair permanently.

"Your adventures seem to be more fun then mine"

All three laughed.

"We learn from the best, dattebayo!" yelled Naruto. Sakura smacked her upside down lightly. Sasuke 'hn'-ed as usual.

Well, at least they are back to normal. Though Naruto is still blushing like there is no tomorrow and Sasuke still has the murderous look.

"Its good all three of you came."

"Huh?"

"Well, this is a team test, meaning if one of you backed down, I wouldn't have let the other two through."

Sakura squirmed a bit, but nodded, determined not to be a burden to Naruto and Sasuke. The exam was starting, they needed to forget about the incident and leave it till later.

All three understood this, and even Naruto, whose frantic heart still couldn't stop, focused.

"Are you ready? Good luck then. Make me proud."

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei", they chorused and with one last, confident look at one other, entered.

The copy ninja eye-smiled after them.

He was positive they would make it.

But what was that about?

Green bushy caterpillar? That sounds like Gai, maybe he should ask the jounin about it in the lounge while they waited?

With that thought in mind, he strolled down, hand flipping back to his precious book.

Things are going to be more interesting.

"Erm…this is the correct room, right guys?", whispered Naruto to the other two. Both nodded and stared ahead. The classroom was huge. They never used it. And now, they understood why.

There were so many different genin, almost more then a 100, chattering, glaring, yelling, laughing, some observing.

Colors varying from black to green to white clashed together.