Love Triangle: Kakashi vs. Genma

23 | This Damn Team

Kakashi eyed over them once more before speaking. "Hm, how can I put this? My first impression of this group: you're a bunch of idiots." The three students glared at him and he just stared lazily. It was another year and, almost decidedly, he would fail them all again. "Well, come on." He finally said, turning and leading the group outside to one of the balconies overlooking this side of the village. He sat atop the railing, hands folded in his lap as he watched the three kids move to sit on the steps in front of him. "All right. Why don't you introduce yourselves one at a time?" He figured that would be a good starting place, until the pink-haired girl (Sakura, was it?) spoke up. "Introduce ourselves? Well, what are we supposed to say?"

Kakashi wondered if what he had asked was really so difficult but clarified anyway. "Things you like, things you hate. Dreams for the future. Hobbies. Things like that." Naruto spoke up next. "Why don't you tell us stuff first? I mean, before we talk, tell us about you, so we can see how it's supposed to work."

Kakashi was only slightly surprised that Naruto had asked about him. It was a fair question, but he also expected it to come after they all got the opportunity to talk about themselves. "Me?" He feigned the surprise. "I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate—," He mulled it over for just a second. He liked a lot of things, he hated a lot of things, "—I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future... never really thought about it." A quick lie to dodge the question. "As for my hobbies, I have lots of hobbies." Kakashi finished and smirked slightly to himself, knowing that's not at all what his new students were expecting. It was enough to entertain their request, but not enough to give away any information other than his name. He watched them whisper in annoyance to one another before speaking again. "Okay, your turn..."

Kakashi just stood there listening, making notes along the way. The hyperactive blonde one who loved ramen. The pink haired one who was in over her head infatuated with Sasuke. And Sasuke himself, who Kakashi had briefly seen after... well, that didn't matter. Sasuke wouldn't remember him anyway. At the end, Kakashi tried to play nice and just let them off easy for now. "Good, you're each unique and you have your own ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow." Naruto was quick to ask what kind of mission and Kakashi decided to leave it a secret for now. "It's a task that the four of us will do together."

"What? What? What? What?" Naruto. So much energy.

"A survival exercise." Kakashi said, expressionless. Naruto cringed. "Huh? A survival exercise?"

Sakura was quick to speak now, a little offended. "I thought we were supposed to have a real mission, not more practice. We already did this stuff at the academy! That's how we got here."

"This is not like your previous training."

"So uh, what kind of training is it then?" Naruto asked, eyes squinting. Kakashi could only laugh. How eager they were now... at this rate, he would fail them all by this time tomorrow. Sakura glared at him. "Hey, hold on. That's a normal question. What's so funny?"

"Well, if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it." Naruto put up more fuss, so Kakashi continued. "Of the twenty seven graduates who just came here, only nine will actually be accepted as genin. The other eighteen will be weeded out and sent back to the academy. In other words, this is a make it or break it, pass-fail test and the chance that you'll fail is at least 66%."

He had to admit that he kind of enjoyed the looks of horror the three gave him. "See? Didn't I tell you, you wouldn't like it?" He continued lecturing, ending by telling them to make sure to be at the training area at 5 a.m. He didn't particularly intend to be that harsh to them, but this was a real world, life or death career they were pursuing. He hadn't taught anyone he deemed worthy enough of going through with training yet and he wasn't going to start going easy on them now.

With that, he left and went to find something else to do with his time. He had to admit that he did kind of enjoy the increased free time that this job provided. Now that he isn't being sent off back to back on various missions, he had time to read, to practice his own jutsu, visit with his friends, to really do whatever...