Kakashi did try to chase down Sakura, but indeed, Naruto and Sasuke were both ready for it and were quick to send an army of clones to stop him.
Naruto's clones were nothing but a tiny annoyance, but Sasuke wasn't someone he could just disregard.
After a few short exchanges with his clones, Kakashi judged him to be at least at the level of a Chūnin, and despite those being far inferior to Kakashi, they could still threaten him.
More so since they would mix in with Naruto's clones, forcing him to treat them all with a level of caution that didn't allow him to just chase Sakura, no matter how slow she was.
So, by the time the alarm went off, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke stood side by side, looking proud and smug at having won.
"Well, well, I guess I have to admit you aren't all useless," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "But there are only two bells, so who will get them?" he asked, wanting to see how they would overcome this final test.
"Sakura," Sasuke said, holding out a hand.
The girl hesitated for a moment before placing both bells in his hand, in that way entrusting her fate to him.
"Here," Sasuke didn't hesitate to throw the two bells over to Kakashi. "We passed your test."
"Oh? And what test is that?" Kakashi asked, a little surprised that they just gave him the bells.
He had expected them to fight over them, given that was what he had told them the test was.
"The test was to see if we could work as a team, not to see if we could get your bells," Sasuke explained.
Kakashi looked at them, a small smile playing on his lips. He had expected them to fail, but they had not only passed, they had understood the true meaning of the test.
"Impressive," he said. "Very impressive."
"So, does this mean we pass?" Naruto asked, unable to contain his excitement.
"Yes," Kakashi said. "You all pass. Congratulations, you are now official members of Team 7."
"YES!" Naruto shouted, jumping up and down in joy.
Sakura couldn't help but smile. She had done it, she had proven that she wasn't useless, and she had done it in front of Sasuke-kun.
Sasuke, on the other hand, just nodded, a small smile playing on his lips. He had done it, he had passed the test, and he had done it without relying on politics.
"Alright, now that that's settled, I have a little announcement to make," Kakashi said, as he pulled out three bentos from his pouch. "Since you all worked so well together, I've decided to treat you to lunch."
Naruto's eyes widened at the sight of the food. "Lunch! Awesome!"
Sakura couldn't help but feel a bit grateful to Kakashi, even if he had made them wait for so long.
As for Sasuke, he just shook his head. Both his teammates had clearly forgotten that Kakashi had made them wait around for hours, and that he had done so after telling them to skip a meal.
Nor that the meal he was promising had originally been part of the test, and that he had always been planning to treat them.
Still, he did respect how quickly he used a teaching tool as a reward, and did so without a hint of shame.
But he hadn't forgotten that Kakashi had made him waste his time, not just once, but twice now.
And for that, he would have a bit of revenge.
"Good, I know a place, a BBQ place where we can eat. It's a bit pricey, but with Kakashi treating, we don't have to worry about anything." He said it before Kakashi had a chance to say anything.
Sasuke was pleased to see the look of horror on Kakashi's face, and even Sakura was smart enough to understand that this was Sasuke's revenge for being made to wait all day, something that made her smile at her crush's cleverness.
"I didn't say I was paying for a restaurant..." Kakashi tried to save himself, but he had already lost the battle.
"You did, you said you were treating us to lunch, and this will be a great team bonding activity, right?" Naruto said, catching on to Sasuke's plan, and eager to get some free BBQ.
Sakura just smiled. "Yes, Sensei, you did, and it's a great idea!"
Kakashi sighed. He knew when he was beaten, and the fact that he had been beaten by a Genin who had only been a Genin for less than two days made it all the more frustrating.
But at the same time, he couldn't help but feel a bit of pride in his new students. They were clever, and they knew how to work together to get what they wanted.
They were going to be a handful, but he had a feeling that they were going to be a great team.
"Fine," he said. "But don't think this will happen often."
This time, Sasuke didn't hide his smile as he led them towards the best of the Akimichi Clan's restaurants. A place he had only been once with Aiko and the others of the Uchiha clan, but he clearly remembered the prices.
Kakashi, as a seasoned Jōnin, knew the layout of the village like the back of his hand, and he also happened to know about this particular restaurant.
Which made his expression appear all the more pained as he realized just how much this was going to cost.
For the first time, he couldn't help but be thankful that Sakura was still clearly a fangirl and was on a diet.
Naruto, on the other hand, had a bottomless stomach, as he had proven at Ichiraku.
So he was in for a very expensive lunch.
-----
Sasuke returned to the Hyūga compound that evening, the smell of grilled meat still clinging to his clothes, a faint, pleasant counterpoint to the usual scent of pine and clean stone that permeated the estate.
He felt a quiet satisfaction, a hum of a successful day's work. He had manipulated the situation, bent his new team to his will, and extracted a small measure of revenge for his wasted morning. More importantly, he had laid the groundwork. The foundation for a team that could, one day, be a weapon in his quest for vengeance.
The evening light was soft, casting long shadows across the manicured gardens as he walked towards the small, separate building he shared with the other Uchiha remnants. He pushed open the door to the common area, expecting the usual chaos of the younger children playing or practicing their shuriken throws.
Instead, he found only Aiko. She stood by the window, her back to him, a silhouette against the fading orange glow. The silence in the room was heavy, a stark contrast to the usual noise. She didn't turn. She didn't need to. He could feel her awareness of him, a palpable pressure in the still air.
"So," she said, her voice flat and cold, cutting through the quiet. "I heard your team passed."
"We did," Sasuke replied, his own tone matching hers. He set his hitai-ate down on a nearby table with a soft click. There was no need for pretense between them. He walked to the center of the room and stood opposite her reflection in the dark glass. He could see her sharp profile, the tension in her jaw.
"I also heard you took your new team out for lunch," she continued, her words like carefully placed stones on a frozen lake. "On Kakashi Hatake's dime."
Sasuke remained silent. It wasn't a question. He knew exactly where she was going with this.
"I wonder," Aiko mused, her gaze still fixed on the world outside the window, "if you were celebrating your passing, or if you were teaching your new sensei a lesson for making you wait. Was that it, Sasuke? Showing him that the Uchiha are not to be trifled with?"
She finally turned, and her Sharingan was active, the three tomoe spinning like tiny, bloody pinwheels in her eyes.
Sasuke's own Sharingan appeared in his eyes. "Sensei or not, no one gets away with wasting the time of an Uchiha," he said, his voice strong, not at all backing down.
There was, within the faint light of the waning day, an invisible clash between the two as Yin chakra fought for dominance.
A silent, utterly invisible clash.
"Good," Aiko said, ending the fight before a winner could be found. "Kakashi is stubborn. He won't stop being late, he does it mostly to honor an old friend, but maybe you can get him to be a little less late."
She paused for a moment before moving on. "Now, enough with your games. Tell me about the Uzumaki boy. Was there any sign of the fox?"
Sasuke's Sharingan deactivated, and he began to recount the day's events, stripping them of all emotion and focusing only on the facts. He told her about the test, about their plan, about Naruto's Shadow Clone Jutsu. He described the explosive tag, the coordination, the way they had used Sakura's perceived weakness as a weapon. He made sure to highlight Naruto's surprising tactical awareness and the sheer number of clones he had produced.
"The number of clones was… significant," Sasuke concluded. "Far beyond what a standard Genin should be capable of. He has a massive chakra reserve. That was clear. But as for the Kyūbi… nothing. Not a flicker of unusual chakra, no change in demeanor. Just the dead last we all know, only slightly more resourceful than we gave him credit for."
Aiko listened, her expression unreadable. When he finished, she was silent for a long moment, her red eyes slowly losing their glow as she deactivated her own Sharingan.
She was the current leader of the Uchiha clan, bound tightly with the Hyūga clan. She knew countless secrets, because the Hyūga knew all secrets.
It was all but impossible to keep anything hidden from a clan that could see everything, even the Uchiha clan's secrets were known to them.
So she was aware of who Naruto was, not just his status as Jinchūriki, but as he had said last time, she knew who his mother was, which naturally also meant she knew who his father was.
She hadn't told Sasuke, but she figured he would find out soon enough anyway.
While she hated the boy for being HIS brother, she had to accept that Fugaku's sons were both talented.
"Now that you are a Genin, now that you are on this team, that means you are in the heart of a massive storm of politics, so you must be careful. If something happens to Naruto, it is easy to get blamed," she warned him.
She honestly didn't know why he was allowed to be on the same team as the Jinchūriki.
After all, she had long since made her displeasure with the Hokage known to the man. The Uchiha might have been wiped out by Itachi and an unknown person, but the root of it all was the conflict with the Hokage.
He bore a lot of the blame, not to mention that night, Root had been there. They knew it happened, and they helped.
If she had the power, she would have killed Danzo already, but sadly, she was still suffering from the wound back then.
While the Kaguya kunoichi had saved her life, it had come at a cost.
"I know," Sasuke said, as he excused himself upon seeing Aiko getting lost in her thoughts.
She just watched him go, hoping that whatever reason Hiruzen had for putting him on this team, it wouldn't end badly for their clan.
They couldn't afford another loss.
(End of chapter)
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