Lotus Of The Leaf ~Book One~

Chapter 4: You Failed! Kakashi's Final Decision!

We finally managed to awaken Sakura and she basically shoved me aside and threw her arms around Sasuke's neck. I rubbed my elbow with a glare as Sasuke pushed her off. "The timer went off, Sakura. You know, for the test we've been doing?" I snap, standing up and stomping off towards the middle of the training grounds. I rubbed my stomach as a weird feeling pinched my insides. I really did not enjoy that scene. But I immediately forgot about the anger as I stared at Naruto tied up to the post. I started giggling at him, pointing at his grumpy look.

"Laugh all you want! Keep it coming!" Naruto grumbled angrily as I started to snort. I sat down besides the post poking at his leg, still laughing lightly. Sasuke took a seat besides me while Sakura took a seat besides him. Kakashi stood in front of us as Naruto's stomach growled loudly, and as if on que, the rest of our stomachs started to growl. I pressed my hand against the flat plane along my stomach and grimaced.

"Uh oh, stomach's growling? That's too bad. Oh, by the way. About this exercise? Well. I've decided I won't send any of you back to the academy." Kakashi started. I cocked my head, wondering how the hell Sakura passed.

"What? I passed? All I did was faint and fall over. Do you get points for that?" Sakura mumble out, making me roll my eyes. Sasuke smirked from his spot and Sakura started cheering.

"That means all four of us!" Naruto cheered.

"Yes. All four of you... are being dropped from the program. Permanently." He finished. I felt like the air had left my body in one gush as tears started stinging at my eyes.

"Drop us from the program! We can never become ninja?! You said we if we couldn't take the bells, we'll be sent back to the academy! You can't just change your mind and kick us out! Why would you do that?!" Naruto shouted angrily.

"That's because you don't think like ninja! You think like little kids! Like brats!" He snapped sternly. Without a word, Sasuke tried to attack him, but was quickly thrown to the ground. Kakashi pulled his arm behind his back and leaned his knee on it. "You think it's all about you." Kakashi retorted.

"Let go of Sasuke! You can't step on him like he's a bug!" Sakura screamed out, making me wince and push my finger into my ear.

"You don't know what it means to be a ninja. You think it's a game, huh? Why do you think we put you on squads, did you consider that question for one moment?" He asked.

"I don't know what you mean." Sakura said with a dumb expression.

"I mean, you never realized what this exercise was all about! Not even close! Ren figured it out in the end." He scolded.

"What its about?" Naruto asked.

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

"But thats.... that's what I wanted to ask you about from the beginning." Sakura said weakly.

Kakashi looked over at me for the explanation. "It's... about teamwork. Right? To get us to stick together even though the test was against us." I recite softly, pulling my knees up and wrapping my arms around them. "You deliberately drove a wedge between us to get us to fight, rather than try to take you down together. Even if it meant sacrificing one of our teammates." I added.

"Exactly, Ren. Four people on a squad. Teamwork! It's so basic!" He snapped.

"Just working together? Is that what it was?" Sakura asked.

"That's what I mean. It's too late now, but if all four of you came at me, you might have been able to take the bells. Well, anyway. It's over."

"You set it up with four people but only three bells. If we work together, only three of us could keep them. That would lead to group conflict. The squad would break up!" Sakura shouted.