The next morning, I managed to make it to the meeting place before anyone else. To kill time, I ended up climbing up a nearby tree and was munching on an apple on a branch when the others walked up.
“Good morning,” Sakura managed to say through a massive yawn while Naruto mumbled a sleepy greeting. Sasuke was the only one that seemed wide awake.
“Where’s Kio-chan?” Naruto mumbled, looking around in exhaustion.
“Up here, Naruto-kun,” I called, waving lazily when everyone looked up in my tree.
“Hey, why are you eating?!” Sakura yelled, pointing accusingly at my apple. “Kakashi-sensei specifically told us not to eat!”
“Yeah, well, I’m bad at following rules,” I replied with a shrug, taking another bite and jumping down to land beside them. “Want a bite Naruto?”
“Thanks!” he exclaimed, grabbing my apple and devouring the rest of it.
“I said a bite, not eat the whole thing,” I sighed, shaking my head at him.
As I had predicted, Kakashi didn’t bother showing up on time like the rest of us. We ended up passing the time with Naruto and Sakura dozing while Sasuke and I stared silently out into space, trying not to die of boredom. Several hours later, Kakashi finally showed up with a wave.
“YOU’RE LATE!” Naruto and Sakura screamed while I just glared silently at the jonin.
“Sorry about that,” Kakashi laughed sheepishly. “A black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around.”
“Liar,” I mumbled, still glaring at him. Kakashi went on to set an alarm clock on one of three stumps and pull out three bells. He explained that our task was to get a bell from him by any means necessary. If we didn’t get a bell by noon, we would be sent back to the academy.
At this announcement, my eyes narrowed in suspicion. Something wasn’t right here. While it was true that not all genin that passed the graduation exams actually became genin, I had never heard of the squad being pitted against each other. Kakashi had to be up to something …
While I was lost in thought, Kakashi had been giving a lecture that somehow ended up with Naruto attacking him. In the blink of an eye, Kakashi had Naruto’s arm pinned behind his back with his kunai pointed at the back of his neck. I shook my head in exasperation, but made no move to save my friend. I knew Kakashi wouldn’t really hurt him.
“I didn’t say start yet,” Kakashi scolded with a smirk. “However, you came at me with the full intent of destroying me so … how do I put this … I’m actually starting to like you guys!”
“You have serious issues,” I muttered while the others smirked like they had accomplished something.
“Ready … Start!” Kakashi exclaimed, triggering us all to take off and hide.
A few moments later found Sakura, Sasuke, and myself all hidden within several feet of each other. Naruto, on the other hand, was standing right out in the open. As I could have expected from him, he challenged Kakashi to a one on one battle and … lost ... miserably.
While Naruto dangled from a tree by his ankle, Kakashi took off after the others, leaving me free to hash out a plan. Within seconds, I came up with several plans that had a chance of working, as long as I got the others to cooperate. First up was Naruto.
