Four
When the Hokage had called Kakashi into his office, the last thing the jounin had expected was to be given a genin team. It only made matters worse that Kakashi was given this genin team.
Uzumaki Naruto, the carbon copy of Uzumaki Kushina except for his hair and eyes. It was painful enough for Kakashi to be a part of the boy’s ANBU guard, but he had to teach him now. The last Uchiha, who reminded Kakashi of younger himself too much for his liking. Then, there was the last — Haruno Sakura.
She was interesting, to say the least. A clanless and nameless and a Haruno father, though the two had divorced when Sakura was young. There wasn’t anything much of interest in her file, except for the fact her father was an immigrant from Kirigakure. She was quiet, and seemed to give Kakashi the least of all trouble. Her family seemed to be civilians, which was interesting and a little troubling.
Sakura was also painstakingly average. Though intelligent, her practical skills were pitiful. Kakashi guessed that the teachers hadn’t expected her to be anything beyond genin, maybe chunin if she tried hard. According to additional comments, Sakura was also very protective of the Uzumaki. Huh.
Kakashi sighed, he peered down at his students from among the trees. The girl was… meditating? While the boys bickered amongst themselves. The man shoved his hands into his pockets as he continued to observe the three of them. He watched as Sakura opened her eyes and moved to defend Naruto when the girl’s snapped up and…
Was she looking at him ?
‘No,’ Kakashi thought to himself, but the uneasiness never dissipated. The girl was also quite familiar, though he had no idea why.
Once he decided that he had kept them waiting for a little while (for hours), he jumped down from the branches and approached them in the clearing.
Time to send some punks back to the Academy!
Kakashi had not expected how the last two hours had transpired.
Uzumaki and Haruno worked together, as expected — they had nearly gotten both of the bellsl. The Uchiha had refused to work with them, even though both the Uzumaki and the Haruno girl nearly begged him to.
After Kakashi gave his lecture about teamwork—
(‘Those who leave their mission behind are scum,’ the man explained with a pointed look. ‘But those who leave their teammates behind are worse than scum.’)
—and the memorial stone, he had tied up the Uchiha boy to the post, and pointedly told the other two that they were not to release him nor were they allowed to feed him. After that, he’d let them have another chance at the bell test.
However, it seemed while the Haruno girl was a stickler for rules, the Uzumaki boy enjoyed breaking them. After the girl pulled out a bento for the blonde, and another for herself, the blonde boy pointedly offered his food to the Uchiha boy.
‘Oh, come on, Sa-chan,’ he grinned at the girl. ‘We’ll need all the energy we can get, right? We also need to work together to c-c- what’s that word?’
‘Conspire?’
‘Yeah! We need to work together to conspire against that Kaka guy!’
Kakashi frowned to himself, he had many monikers but he’d never been called “Kaka guy” by anyone before.
‘Won’t we get in trouble?’
‘What will he do? Send us back to the Academy?’ Naruto snorted.
After a hesitant moment of contemplation, Sakura also offered her food to Sasuke. The Uchiha looked… constipated, for lack of a better word. He definitely had never asked for help.
‘Don’t make that face,’ Sakura scowled at him. This was the first time she had spoken directly to him, judging from Sasuke’s expression. ‘We only want to help you. We need to work together.’ Her voice was soft, but strict. Sasuke rolled his eyes, but he accepted it anyway.
‘You know that one of us is going back, right.’ It was more of a statement than a question.
‘That’s not possible, actually.’ Sakura interjected before Naruto spoke. ‘It was either all of us or none of us. A genin team needs three members, there’s never been two.’
‘Then…’
‘I was going to give you my bell either way, actually.’ Sakura ignored Sasuke, and she continued to speak. ‘Even if you didn’t want to work with us. The bell rang, however, so I couldn’t snag the other bell.’
Kakashi gave them a minute or two before he approached the three of them.
‘You all…’ he paused rather threateningly. ‘pass!’