new Team 7

Chapter 8

 of him. "Hanabi was born to this clan as a prodigy; Hinata was born as nothing more than a head ache, a head ache which is now yours, Kakashi."

"You bastard!" Naruto screamed again, trying with all his strength to get free from Kakashi, but he couldn't maintain his grip on the pillars and his hands finally slipped free from them. "How can you even say something like that?"

"That's enough Naruto." Kakashi said severely, covering the boy's mouth with his palm so he would stay quiet already. "I'm very sorry Hiashi-sama. Apparently my students don't know how to respect their elders."

"Apparently the Leaf Village is full of dishonor lately." Hiashi answered, annoyed by the scandal. "You know where the door is."

Kakashi dragged Naruto down the hall, away from the Hyuga clan training dojo. Kakashi sighed. There went his opportunity to use that wonderful place to train his new students during the winter courtesy of Uzumaki's outburst (He would have done anything to avoid getting wet and cold and be able to read his books under a roof). Minato, his teacher when he had been a gennin, couldn't have been less like his son, who he now manhandled out of the house.

Naruto was fuming; his arms crossed defiantly as he finally gave in and walked toward the exit. He could not believe there was someone so cruel as to treat his own daughter that way.

When they reached the entrance, they saw Hinata leaning against the wall of her house staring at the floor her eyes glittering with unshed tears. Sasuke Uchiha sat near her, a little slumped in thought as he silently glared into space. Naruto crossed quickly to where Hinata was standing and without hesitation he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"You are not a waste. You are my teammate." He spoke firmly for he truly believed in the words he was saying. "You graduated from the academy and now you are a ninja too. We'll work really hard so you can shut your father's mouth!"

"Na..Naruto-kun…"Hinata whispered with tears in her eyes, smiling tenderly at him.

"Speaking of which…" Kakashi walked in front of them, going down the steps before facing his three students. "We'll start with missions tomorrow."

"Missions! Yes!" Naruto shouted with enthusiasm. "What is our mission about? Catching some criminals? Are we going to go fight a neighboring country?"

"Uhmm… not really." Kakashi answered looking at the sky. "This is the sort of mission the four of us can do."

"What? What? What is it about?" Naruto asked, so excited with the whole issue that Sasuke couldn't help but roll his eyes in his direction. "What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it?"

"Survival training." Kakashi couldn't help but laugh as he took in Hinata's fear, Sasuke's angry gestures and Naruto's surprised expression.

"What's so funny?" Sasuke asked as he stood up.

"From the 27 students that managed to graduate, only 9 will become gennin rank shinobi. The other 18 will be sent back to the academy to keep studying." The three of them opened their eyes wide in surprise at the words he had just spoken. "In other words, this survival test has a 66% possibility of failure."

"But! But! I worked so hard on passing the final exam…!" Naruto started complaining.

"You failed the final exam." Sasuke corrected him.

"Grrr…what would you know?" Naruto snarled, approaching him with his fists up in the air, ready to punch him.

"Do you want to fight, dobe?" Sasuke asked him with an arrogant smile as he easily avoided Naruto's first hit.

"You can fight against each other all you want…tomorrow." Kakashi interrupted grabbing their wrists so he could separate them. "The academy final exam only selects people who have the capacity of becoming gennin, it doesn't mean you graduate to shinobi rank. Tomorrow I'll determine if you can become ninjas or not. Bring your tools, equipment and ninja weapons. We'll meet at 5 A.M!"

Naruto was shaking. It had been so much trouble to pass that damn final exam and now he was going to be put in the line once more. If he failed he would have to go back to the academy, again, and for sure he would be the biggest laughing stock of all… the mere idea of it made him sick.

Hinata lowered her head once more to stare at the floor. This day really couldn't get any worse. She couldn't expect to pass. Maybe she should tell them right away that she was useless under pressure and that she would rather not go so she wouldn't become a nuisance for her teammates. But then she remembered… the task was for the three of them, if she didn't go… then Naruto-kun and Uchiha-kun would fail because of her. What should she do then? She didn't know the answer to that.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto and Hinata, feeling so frustrated that he wanted to scream. It was more than obvious that those two would only cause him to fall behind and would completely fail as a team on that mission. He needed to be smart and cautious. He wasn't going to let those two ruin his dream of vengeance.

"Alright, you are all dismissed." Kakashi said closing that day's meeting; he would see them the next morning. "And remember… do not have breakfast. You'll be sorry if you do cause you might end up throwing up!"