The Little Huntress || Kakashi Hatake x OC ||

Chapter 4: Survival Test, Pt. 2, You Pass!

 It had all been a genjutsu. Kakashi Sensei had sent one of his clones to test me by turning into the one man I feared most. And now he knew more than he should've. There was a faint rustle in one of the trees, and I vanished, reappearing behind the person in the tree. Of course it was Kakashi Sensei, so I grabbed one of the bells before scooching my way backwards a little bit, my hands shaky. Kakashi Sensei turned and looked at me. He was shocked, but it wasn't because I had managed to grab the bell. Before he had a chance to ask me any questions, I hopped into the trees and headed closer to the main area of the training grounds.

Naruto was already tied to a pole by the time I got back, which really didn't surprise me. Sakura and Sasuke emerged from the trees not too long after I did, so we all went and sat by naruto. At Naruto's feet were three boxed lunches. Kakashi Sensei was standing in front of Naruto with his arms crossed as he looked down at us while everyone else's stomachs growled.

"Uh-oh. Stomachs growling, huh? That's too bad." He unfolded his arms and pointed to the side at nothing in particular. "Oh, by the way, about this exercise. Well, I've decided I won't send any of you back to the academy." That made Naruto excited.

"What? I passed?" Sakura started with a shocked expression. "All I did was faint and fall over. Do you get points for that?" She started to cheer as Sasuke smirked.

I lowered my head, both out of shame and because I didn't think any of us actually passed.

"Then, then, that means all four of us, I mean all four of us..!" Naruto trailed off.

"Yes... All four of you are being dropped from the program. Permanently." There it was. Everyone's expressions fell, and I sighed. I wasn't sure what else I could to do make money. There was the Night Circus, maybe they would take me?

"Drop us from the program!?" Naruto started kicking his feet. "That means we can never become Ninja! You said if we couldn't take the bells that we would be sent back to the academy! You can't just change your mind and kick us out, why would you do that!"

Kakashi Sensei tilted his head, his one eye showing indifference to Naruto's tantrum.
"Because you don't think like Ninja, you think like little kids. Like brats." That hit me harder than expected, and my hand instinctively went to the scar my shirt covered. Sasuke tried to charge at Kakashi Sensei, but was almost instantly pinned down.

"You think it's all about you." Sensei said, staring down at Sasuke.

"Let go of Sasuke! You can't step on him like he's some bug!" Sakura yelled, tears welling in her eyes. My hands moved to my ears, and I closed my eyes until she stopped yelling. Seems like I have some more recovery time to deal with.

Sasuke groaned under the grip of our teacher, trying to push Kakashi off of him.

"You don't know what it means to be a Ninja." His expression darkened as he looked at us. "You think it's a game, huh?" Sakura exhaled sharply, her eyes widening. Same with Naruto. "Why do you think we put you on squads? Did you consider that question for one moment?"

"I-I don't know what you mean!" Sakura spoke.

"I mean, you never realised what this exercise is all about, not even close."

"What it's about?" Naruto repeated.

"Yes. That's what determines if you pass or fail."

"But that's... I mean, I wanted to ask you about that from the beginning." Sensei scoffed at Sakura's words.

"Use your head. Four people on a squad. Why do you think we would do that?"

Naruto was genuinely dumbfounded, his eyes widened before he closed his eyes in frustration as he spoke.