It was a day like any other in the Leaf village as Naruto made his way to Team Seven's usual meeting place. So far the blond had followed his normal routine: he woke up, ate about a week's supply of ramen, gathered and checked his ninja gear, set off for the bridge, and ignored the several glares that the villagers sent his way. As he approached his destination, the next item in Naruto's list was to shout. "Sakura!" To greet his female teammate.
Leaning against the bridge's rail, Sakura sighed in annoyance. "Great! Not only is Sasuke late today but now I'm left all alone with Naruto!" The pink haired girl ranted in her mind. "What do you want Naruto?" She asked, not bothering to keep her distaste away from her words.
Catching the aversion in the kunoichi's words, the blond genin stopped in his tracks. "She's angry… Did I do something to make her mad?" The nervous Jinchuuriki wondered. Knowing it was too early to get on Sakura's bad side, Naruto looked for a topic that would appease her, or at least distract her. "So… Where's Sasuke?"
At the mention of her crush, the pink haired girl's demeanor completely changed. "I don't know…" She solemnly informed. "He usually gets here before I do… I just hope that everything is alright." Sakura commented before going silent.
The two shinobi stayed in awkward silence for what seemed to be an eternity, though in reality it was merely two hours. Suddenly, a cloud of smoke burst out in the middle of the bridge, revealing Kakashi and Sasuke as it dissipated. "Yo!" The copy ninja nonchalantly greeted.
"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto immediately screamed at his sensei, still following his routine.
Meanwhile, Sakura made her way towards the Uchiha. "Sasuke-kun, where were you…? I was starting to get worry…" The kunoichi asked with genuine concern. Unfortunately for the young girl, her crush simply grunted an incoherent answer and walk pass her.
"Sorry for the delay, guys, but I was having some trouble trying to find Sasuke." Kakashi apologized as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Liar…" Came the immediate retort from the raven haired boy. "You told me to wait at the entrance of the Uchiha compound. I had to stand there for almost three hours." The young Sharingan user said, clearly angry and annoyed at the wait.
The silver haired jounin cleared his throat. "Anyways, setting that aside…" The copy ninja dismissed the issue. "I called all of you out here to talk about a very important matter concerning the Chunin Exam; I have already started discussing this with Sasuke." Kakashi explained.
The Jinchuuriki's eyes set on his teacher the moment the words "Chuunin Exam" were uttered. "I wanted to talk to you about that too, Kakashi-sensei!" The blond genin exclaimed excitedly. "You see, I don't think I have learnt enough to try taking the exam." The spiky haired boy admitted as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "So, I was wondering if… Maybe… You could teach me some new jutsus? But only because my offensive arsenal is pretty limited with only Kage Bunshin!" The young Leaf nin explained his position, congratulating himself for the eloquent request.
Now Kakashi felt ashamed. How could he continued with what he was about to say after hearing his students earnest request? Nevertheless, this was something he had to do; he owed as much to his fallen teammate.
At that moment, the silver haired man could not have possible imagined that his decision would ripple into a wave that will thunder throughout the shinobi world. "I'm sorry, Naruto… But I can't." He answered, looking away from his orange clad student. "I'll be training Sasuke for the time until the Exam starts. He just awakened his Sharingan and I'm the only one that can instruct him on how to use it properly." The copy ninja explained.
