Vision of Truth I: Cat and Fox (Naruto)

Becoming a Genin

Chapter 10: Becoming a Genin

Kakashi explained that our first "mission" was a survival test. Apparently, all of the new squads were doing it, and only a third of us would officially become genin while the rest were sent back to the academy. I did not care one way or the other, but I knew how Naruto would react if we failed, so I promised to try my best.

We were told to meet on the training field at five in the morning, and we were to not eat breakfast. Like that was going to happen. I woke up at seven, put on all my ninja gear, ate a normal breakfast, and got to the meeting spot at eight thirty. Naruto and Sakura sat in the grass, appearing half asleep, while Sasuke stood with his back to them and his arms crossed.

Naruto brightened when he saw me. "Katsumi! I thought you weren't going to make it."

"You were supposed to be here hours ago," Sakura said with a glare.

"Is Kakashi sensei here?"

"No."

"Then I'm not late." I proceeded to sit next to Naruto, and there were no further arguments.

Since he was late the previous day, I had a hunch that would happen this day as well. Even after I arrived, we still had to wait way too long for him to show up. "Morning, everyone," he said as if nothing was out of the ordinary. "Ready for your first day?"

" Hey!" Naruto and Sakura exclaimed. "You're late!"

"Well, a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way," Kakashi said.

"You shouldn't give into false beliefs about cats like that," I said, though I was certain he was lying.

"Like that's the problem here," said Sakura.

Kakashi ignored both of us. "Well, let's get started." He placed an alarm clock on a nearby post of which there were four. "Here we go. It's set for noon." He held out three silver bells by their ribbons. "Your assignment is very simple. You just have to take these bells from me. That's all there is to it. If you can't get them by noon, you go without lunch. You'll be tied to these posts, and you'll watch while I eat my lunch in front of you."

"Wait a minute!" Sakura said. "There's four of us. How come there's only three bells?"

Kakashi laughed. "Well, that way, at least one of you will end up tied to a post and ultimately disqualified for failing to complete the mission. That one goes back to the academy."

"But Iruka sensei said the squads were carefully chosen based on our strengths and weaknesses," I said. "If one of us leaves, wouldn't that mess it up? I thought we had to win this as a team."

"It only takes one person to bring the whole team down."

That was not much of an answer, but I did not care enough to push it. I looked back at the kids. "You guys can get the bells. I don't care about being a ninja."

"No!" Naruto exclaimed. "We have to be ninjas together, remember? You promised you would try!"

I sighed. "Fine."

"You can use any weapons, including shuriken," Kakashi went on. "If you're not prepared to kill me, you won't be able to take the bells."

That sounded just great. I did not know how I would manage to get through this one. I thought I should stick by Naruto, but he attacked Kakashi before the test even began. Of course, Kakashi caught him. After that, we started for real. Sasuke and Sakura immediately ran off to hide while Naruto stayed back with me.

"Katsumi, let's do this together," he said.

I nodded. "Okay." I thought our teammates probably had the better plan, but I did not want to leave Naruto to recklessly attack Kakashi on his own.