The walk back was quiet and didn't last long as we walked into the clearing.
"Lookss like your little fox iss all tied up." Sasayaki hissed quietly and I nodded as I fiddled with the bells in my hands.
"Right... Sakura, Sasuke, here you go," I handed each one of them a bell and walked over to Naruto quietly and placed it in his hand. "I told you Naruto, the Hokage never works alone. Being Hokage is a two way street, without the village the Hokage would be nothing and the village would not be able to thrive without the Hokage." I whispered quietly before moving away from him.
"You three should sit down," Kakashi states and I nodded silently and sat on top of the post Naruto was tied to as his stomach growled. "Was that your stomach growling? Well you must be hungry, too bad. Oh and about this test, I've decided none of you will be going back to the academy." His voice was dangerously calm.
"He'ss up to ssomething." Sasayaki hissed suspiciously and I hummed in agreement.
"What? I passed?" Sakura's voice was full of confusion as she spoke. "All I did was faint, do you get points for that?" I resisted the urge to facepalm at her question.
"In fact, everyone one of you except Kami are getting dropped from the program permanently." For a minute no one spoke until Naruto decided to open his mouth.
"Drop us from the program?! If you do that then we'll never be ninja-!" Leaning down I placed my hand over his mouth, effectively shutting him up.
"You don't think like ninja, you think like brats," Kakashi stated firmly causing Naruto to squirm under my hand furiously. Sasuke's reaction wasn't any better as he got up and attacked Kakashi only to end up pinned to the ground.
"You think it's all about you." Kakashi's voice began to show some emotion, but I was unsure what it was.
"Let Sasuke go! You can't step on him like he's some bug!" Sakura cried out furiously, but her voice wavered nervously.
"You think being a ninja is some game?" Kakashi asked and suddenly I recognized the emotion in his voice. It was anger and slight.. Regret? "Why do you think we put you on squads? Did you even consider the reason?" By now I had let go of Naruto and sat there quietly with slight uneasiness. This conversation wasn't directed to me and it was as if I didn't really belong here.
"What it's about?" Naruto asked and it took all of my strength not to groan out of frustration.
"Yes. It's what determines if you pass or fail. Think about it. We put four people to a squad. Why would we do that?" Kakashi was getting annoyed and it was obvious.
"It's teamwork," I stated slightly annoyed myself. Kakashi sighed heavily not allowing Sasuke to get up. "He pitied us against each other, to test if we could get past our selfish reasons and think of everyone on the team."
"Kami is right. A genin should have a natural feel for teamwork. Sakura, you were so obsessed with Sasuke that you didn't even notice Naruto, who was right in front of you and you didn't help. Naruto, you refused Kami's help and did everything alone. Everything. Sasuke, you thought the others were so beneath you that you put them all beneath you. Arrogance. Kami offered every single one of you help and even when refused that help, still assisted all of you. Kami had to force his way into your minds for you to help and yet still have every single one of the bells to his squad members without hesitation." I looked away feeling everyone's guilty stares and awkwardly cleared my throat.
"Ninja missions are carried out in squads. Of course individual skills are necessary, but teamwork is the most essential. Every Shinobi must understand this. When and individual puts themselves above the squad on missions, failure and death is what that leads to," Kakashi was very stern with every word and you could feel the intensity in his stare even if you couldn't see it. "For example, Sakura! Kill Naruto or Sasuke dies," Naruto and Sakura gasped clearly horrified by Kakashi's order. "That's what happens on a misson. An enemy takes the hostage and you're stuck with an impossible choice. And someone ends up dead." Kakashi let go of Sasuke and walked over to the memorial stone and the air suddenly got a bit depressing. "Do you see this stone? The names on this stone were all heroes of this village."
"They were all killed in action." I didn't give Naruto a chance to say something stupid as the words slipped off my tongue.
"The names of my closest friends are engraved here..." Kakashi trailed off for a minute which we all granted him, keeping silent. "Ok I'll give you guys one more chance to get the bells after lunch. You'll have three hours to get them. Oh and do not feed Naruto. Kami you can go home for the day." I nodded and jumped off the post as Kakashi took the bells from my teammates.
"Good luck to you," I wished to my teammates honestly before turning towards home. "And Kakashi-sensei, I think you are the only one who can handle this bunch of knuckleheads." With those words I left silently.
