Naruto 1. Strange New World

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do however now own a job, or it owns me more truthfully, and somehow this has made me want to start writing again... Probably so I don't try to kill myself from how boring it is.

In fact most of this chapter was written during down time at work so expect more of this as long as work remains boring, and unfortunately that's a pretty safe bet.

Please note that I never planned to write this out, it was just a daydream I kept notes on to try and keep suicidal thoughts at bay during data entry, so keep that and the fact this is my second attempt at writing in mind before getting too critical on me.

But whatever, most of you skip this part anyway I'm sure, so let's get down to business!

**Chapter 1: Strange New World**

* * *

(Konoha Interrogation Corp. Building)

His head was swimming, his ears were ringing, and he couldn't even tell if he was still among the living...

This is the state the newest focus of the Konoha interrogation team awoke to find his self in. On his knees in a large room with his eyes closed as he tried in vain to quell the aching in his head, but he could almost sense people around him, looking at him.

Trying to recall any information on the situation he found himself in he reluctantly strained his eyes open to see what he could find out. The first thing he noticed being that he was dressed in his standard clothing for some reason; a black T-shirt with his right sleeve normal while the left one went down to his wrist underneath a dark blue zip up sleeveless jumper. He had baggy dark blue trousers on with black lightweight shoes on his feet.

On his right arm he had a black fingerless glove on his hand alongside a black wristband with some kind of white symbol on it, looking like a star with four large spikes along with smaller ones jutting out between them, inside of a non complete circle; it didn't reflect any of the village symbols that the Konoha ninja knew of.

He had spiky dark brown hair and one brown eye. His right eye however was... different...

"It doesn't even begin to resemble any of the doujutsu we know of, what clan do you think this kid is from?" The confused dark haired boy managed to make out through the constant ringing in his ears.

"I wish I could tell you." Another man spoke up, this voice was much clearer, and for good reason; the man currently had his hand on the boy's head, though he could only see his toe-less sandals due to his current position, "In all honesty Ibiki I wish I could tell you something about this child, but I can't find anything... it doesn't even feel like his mind is trying to keep me out... like some other force is keeping his mind on lock down from me."

Wait... This person was trying to read his mind? Was that even possible? He tried to move but only managed to sit up slightly with a groan.

"Oh so he's awake?" The first man, Ibiki as the other had called him noticed as he began walking towards them, "Well if you can't get anything out of him then let's try this my way."

The boy didn't like the way he said that, but before he could even try to force his body to move he was picked up by his collar and had his back slammed into a nearby wall, "Who are you? What village sent you? What is that eye of yours?" The out of patience man barked at the boy, "I'd suggest giving me some answers kid, or we're going to get to see if your body is as tough as your mind."

"Where... the hell... am I?" The boy managed to struggle his voice into working through his confusion, fear and the grip this large scar faced man had on his collar.

"You know damn well where you are runt, now why are you here?" Ibiki emphasised by pulling the boy slightly off the wall just to slam him into it again.

"Can we just slow down for a second here, please?" He needed to get some facts straight fast or this man was going to hurt him without even meaning to that badly, just slamming his back onto the wall for the second time was unbearable, what kind of people was this guy used to dealing with? And where the hell was he?

"Ibiki, that's enough." An older but extremely stern and powerful voice ordered. The large scarred man dropped the boy to the floor in a heap upon hearing this and turned to face the new presence in the room.

"Hokage, with all due respect this is my job, is it not?" Ibiki questioned, quite annoyed that he wasn't able to even get started with his interrogation methods.

Walking to be face to face with Ibiki, the old looking man in his white and red attire with a large similarly coloured hat simply smiled at him, "Yes it is, but you would do well to remember what mine is..." The man's stare seemed as though it could pierce steel, "now leave the boy be a moment." There was absolutely no room for rebuttal left for the man as he resigned himself to another corner of the room as requested.

"Thank you..." A weak voice came from the heap of a child on the floor as the old man crouched down to speak with him.

"Please excuse Ibiki; he is rather thorough with everybody in his line of work, even a child such as yourself." He spared a glance at said man, making Ibiki turn his eyes elsewhere just to avoid eye contact with his superior, "I am Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Hokage of Konoha, the village in which you find yourself. Do you recall your name, young one?" This man's eyes were no longer sharp as they were moments before, now comforting enough to get the boy to ease up and sit properly in his spot on the floor attentively, the man's smile brightening as he sat up.

The boy didn't know what this 'Hokage' thing meant, but he liked the man enough to answer him, "I'm... My name's Rike... Rike Dunkon, Sir..." He remembered his name at least, that much the boy was happy about.

"Good to meet you, Rike." The encouraging old man said as he rested a hand on his shoulder, "Now, do you remember how you got here?" Maybe he could get some information on this child if he just let him explain at his own pace.

"No sir..." Rike actually felt bad that he couldn't answer this man's question despite his best efforts to search his memories, "The last thing I remember was going to sleep in my room after saying good night to my parents..."

"That's fine." Hiruzen reassured him, "Just try to remember what you can for me. If you don't know how you got here, can you tell me where you're from?" A simple enough question right?

"Yes sir; I'm from the research and design district of Kina Village on Odesa Island." Rike chirped cheerfully with a small smile.

Not knowing of anywhere with names even close to that the men in the room all shared confused looks before Hiruzen spoke again, "Right..." Rike had said it with such normality that it was hard to think he was lying. Questioning it further wouldn't help them at the moment, thus he changed the subject; "I only have two questions left for you Rike, the more pressing one being your right eye... What is it?"

Rike changed from a bright demeanour to a confused head tilt like a switch had been flicked, "What about my right eye? It's my eye isn't it, what's so interesting?"

'_Does he not know about it?_' Hiruzen thought to himself, the same being thought by the other two men in the room, '_If he doesn't know about it yet, then I have to be careful how I word this..._"

And as if on cue to such a concern, Rike began to freak out a little. He began to almost frantically look around the room for something reflective to get a look at his eyes.

"Calm down." Hiruzen said once, being both comforting and stern simultaneously, "There is nothing wrong with it. There are a few clans in this village that also have unique looking eyes; we just wondered if this one had a name."

Trying to calm down, Rike realized that whatever they were referring to seemed almost normal to them for some reason, and that nothing was hurting from whatever it was, "I... don't know anything about my eyes looking different. I have regular brown eyes as far as I know, or I should have at least... what do they look like to you?"

Deciding to just be up front with the boy Hiruzen explained, although still taking care not to alarm the boy as this was clearly new to him, "Your left eye is just as you say, but your right eye appears to have been replaced with what looks to be a light -grey metal orb with a deep dark-grey 'X' engraved into it, with the crossing point seeming to act as the pupil as you look around with it."

Rike just sat there with his mouth agape in shock... He could still see fine, so whatever it was it was clearly designed to act as an eye, but what the hell was it? "And you're saying you still have another question for me... aftertelling me that I have a _metal_ eye now?" Giving up on figuring out what it was at the moment he thought he would ask what the last question was himself, "Well, what is it?"

"You are correct, the last question is; do you know how you got here?" Hiruzen stood up as he spoke, helping Rike up as well as he did. The boy shook his head in the negative confused though, "Hmm, well maybe seeing it will jog your memory on a few things." The elder ninja hoped so at least, because 'it' had been confusing the three ninja since they found it.

Not knowing of what 'it' the nice old man was talking about, Rike was quite interested to see what had brought him into this strange situation, and more importantly why? Would it help explain this new eye of his at least?

XxX

(A few moments later)

Leading him through a few corridors Rike followed closely behind Hiruzen with Ibiki and Inoichi Yamanaka, the man that had been trying to read his mind, right behind him.

'_This place is nothing like home_' Rike thought to himself, and comparing it to what he was used to this place was extremely strange, '_There doesn't seem to be any technology at all apart from a few lights... How do these people live?_' His home of Odesa was a rather advanced place compared to this, in terms of science and technology at least it seemed.

This point was reiterated to all four of them upon entering the room containing the way in which Rike came to be in Konoha. A metallic cylinder big enough to fit a large person inside with a curved top and bottom with an open door at the front of it was being held up by chains in the centre of the room. It had an open scroll and a mass of thick black ink in letters, patterns and circles under it on the floor for some reason. Through the open door it could be seen that the inside was padded for someone to stand or lie in it, alongside a small screen on the inner left wall with some form of interface under it.

"This is what brought you to our village." Ibiki explained as he walked towards the object, "We detected an object entering our sensor ninja's barrier jutsu at high altitude, we thought it was an enemy missile-type jutsu at first, but it wasn't aimed anywhere important; it landed in the forest behind the Hokage mountain. This is what we found when we went to investigate, with you unconscious inside." He finished with a point of the finger towards Rike.

For once Rike didn't have a puzzled look on his face as he actually knew what this was. It was this fact and knowing what it was used for that confused him, "Why?" He asked to seemingly no one but himself as he walked closer to the object, "This is a prototype escape pod my parents built... I didn't even know they had got it working..."

Rather confused, and getting more questions than answers, the older Konoha ninjas just let the boy speak his thoughts aloud instead of asking him what he was talking about.

"This device was originally designed and built by my parents, but the project was scrapped as it cost too much to make and power." Rike explained rather well for his age, actually clearing up some of the questions the Konoha men had, "I don't know why they actually used it though... and to send me of all people, what were they playing at? It was designed to send people off island in case of an emer-" and there Rike froze with his eyes wide.

Hiruzen stepped forward to speak, as he understood what the boy had just realized if he had been following the information thus far correctly. However before he could even open his mouth, Rike ran straight at the pod, "No, no, no, no, no, NO!" Jumping into the padded interior Rike immediately began doing something with the area underneath the screen.

Not fully understanding what the device was, originally believing it to be a weapon, Ibiki drew a few kunai and prepared to launch them at Rike. Luckily for the only non-ninja in the room, Hiruzen grabbed Ibiki by the arm and stopped him in his tracks, "It's not a weapon Ibiki!" the old Hokage shouted to make sure his trigger happy underling understood.

Rike didn't even notice that if not for the Hokage's fast reflexes, he would have been in a lot of pain at best, and more likely dead by way of pointy metal objects being hurled at him. His mind was elsewhere at the moment, '_Come on, come on, there has to be something... Anything... There!_' He stopped fiddling with the area under the screen and looked up at it as a recorded video began playing. Interested by what this device was doing, and Rike's frantic rush to find it whatever this was, the three Konoha men gathered quietly at the entrance to the pod and watched.

There was a moment of static and cutting in and out as the recording began to play, but it quickly settled out to show the top half of a beautiful middle-aged woman with long blond hair and blue eyes, wearing clothes similar to Rike but for women. She also had a white lab coat with a black version of the symbol from Rike's wristband on it, "Mother..." Rike whispered to himself, half in panic and half in joy at finally seeing a familiar face, although the ninja there clearly heard what he had said.

"_Hello Rike" _She began with a smile, "_I know you'll be confused by the time you see this, and I don't have long to explain, but I'll try... I can't just leave wondering why..._" A solemn look swept her face that tugged at Rike's heart, "_As you have probably guessed by waking up in the escape pod there is an emergency, and I don't know how else to say it; but by the time you watch this... Odesa Island and everyone on it will be gone..._"

With that, everyone there, even the hardened ninja recoiled in shock at the information they had just heard. Rike could barely process what he had just learned before his mother's voice continued, "_I and your father have to save you though... and this big hunk of junk is our only way to do it fast enough... The main reactor in the power sector will melt down and explode in less than half an hour; this is the only thing that has a chance at escaping the blast radius in time..."_

If this metal pod was classed as junk by Rike's mother, then the ninja present could only imagine what was classed as good or even standard equipment on this Odesa Island, they quickly got an example though, "_If you haven't noticed yet, your right eye has been replaced with probably the greatest technological creation ever built on this Island; The Exye."_

So at least now they had a name for it, an eye with an 'X' in it... how blunt, but what was it exactly? "_After hearing reports and stories of what the ninja of the far away land of the Elemental Nations could do, and believing ourselves to be hopelessly... hilariously out-gunned if it ever came to having to fight them; we pooled most our resources into creating something that would put us on an even footing with them, or even at an advantage... The result is the Exye you now possess, the only one in the world. Since you will be the only one getting off this Island we saw fit to give it to you... You may wake up feeling rather awful due to the anaesthetic and the rushed surgery... Sorry about that."_

Well that explained the slowly calming pain in his head, and learning that the thing in his right eye socket was something of a gift from his parents did put a small smile on Rike's face, "_I don't have time to tell you how to use it, but we have faith that you can figure it out. The Exye itself should help teach you what it can do, use it to keep safe... We gave you the only thing that could power it too, th- *__**BOOM**__* What th-" _an explosion seemed to rock the womanin the video, disrupting the recording for a moment before clearing up again, the camera being rather off centre and out of focus though, "-_ho are you, what do you want?" _The voice of Rike's mother from off screen asked someone who had entered during the chaos.

"_Oh, nothing much... the science on this island is just too dangerous to leave alone you see, so it's all going disappear soon." _A muffled but strong and evil voice said as a man in black walked past the camera as the dust from the explosion began to settle, making things hard to see clearly.

"_That was you at the reactor... but why are you in my house? You've already done what you wanted, no one's getting out of here alive, just leave us be!" _Rike's mother desperately pleaded, struggling to get the pod ready before this man noticed.

This was all very difficult for Hiruzen to watch, he wanted to take Rike away from the situation, but felt it wasn't his place to take him away from what seemed to be the last information on his mother and homeland.

"_Yes, you'll all be dead soon it's true... but what a waste it would be if I let that boy there die without first taking what he has for myself." _He gestured grandly at something off screen, an unconscious Rike in the pod no doubt, _"It's no tailed beast, but I'm sure I can still find a use for it... now stand aside..."_ While the mysterious man rambled on about his evil intentions, Rike saw a blurry figure he knew to be his father run past the camera with a metal rod ready to swing.

"_Keiri, launch the pod now!_" The newest voice to come from the recording shouted as he took a wild swing at the back of the unclear man in blacks head, "_What the hell? Is he a ghost?_" The dark man seemed no worse for wear as the form of Rike's father flew back past the camera, crashing into a shelf as vivid smashing sounds told that most of its glass contents had been destroyed, likely deeply cutting into the human rag doll that now lay unconscious on the floor.

"_Futile, I will have what I came fo-" _A sudden shaking and fiery noise cut the man off as if to refute him, "_Tch,_ _damned bitch!" _ He shouted as he flung something at Rike's mother off screen, with the squelching bloody noise making Rike close his eyes for a moment, but the need to know what happened forced them back open, "_Damn it! That thing moves fast... He'll survive... That means I can still find him..." _ The man darkly chuckled as he walked past one last time before the recording ended from the pod being out of range of the wireless camera.

The very last image left on the screen was the black of the man's cloak, and the red clouds that adorned it.

The Konoha ninja shared a knowing look, as they all knew what that meant '_Akatsuki...'_ was the thought they shared. The Hokage himself didn't even know what to say, taking in all of the information. Learning that an entire large Island had been completely destroyed along with everyone on it was a terrible thing to learn, but entire clans and villages being wiped out were not uncommon occurrences in the Ninja World... But this boy was not a ninja.

The young child held up better than the three thought he would though, silently crying whilst giving the red cloud frozen on the screen an angry stare that made even the ninja around him wary.

He had no home, no clan or family to speak of, nothing. Just a fancy eye and if he was following the information correctly; something that rivalled a tailed beast on or within his person... Why did all of this pull at the Hokage's heart so much, and what was this uncanny feeling of déjà vu?

Nevertheless, the Hokage eventually rested a hand on the still sobbing boy's shoulder, "I am terribly sorry... No child should have to experience what you just went through..." Hiruzen's sober expression showed that he truly felt sorry for this boy.

"That man on the screen," He said, pointing at the red cloud, "belongs to a powerful circle of criminal ninja, and he will still be looking for you..." Akatsuki didn't let things go, and if Rike had something one of them wanted they wouldn't stop until they had it.

"So I recommend staying here, in Konoha, where we can keep you safe." And train him to use whatever abilities the Exye and this other mysterious force he held could give him. The easiest way to do that would be; "We can enrol you in our ninja academy to teach you about our world, and you may become a Konoha ninja if you so wish... I will not force you to do so; I will not even force you to stay. The choice is yours."

The now no longer sobbing but sniffling Rike looked up at the Hokage, with a more controlled anger than before, but a great anger still, "If I become a Ninja... will I get a chance at taking them down... even the smallest chance at facing them and winning?"

Revenge is not a good thing to fuel was the first thought to come to the wise Hokage's mind, although when he looked closer he could see that the anger in Rike's eyes didn't seem like blind revenge. Regardless of what he thought, the Akatsuki would come knocking on the doors of Konoha for Rike and another certain child eventually whether they liked it or not. Revenge or not, "If you train hard, master the gifts your parents left you, and don't let your anger cloud your judgement... then yes, I believe you will."

His sniffling stopping and a determined smile began forming, while the look in his eyes remained as serious, but much more focused, "Then sign me the fuck up... Sir..." Rike promptly added, embarrassedly trying to make up for his little outburst that actually made Ibiki chuckle, he liked that attitude.

Smiling at the young boy's answer Hiruzen looked to his fellow ninja, "Ibiki, Inoichi. You two are the only ones who know of this 'escape pod' of Rike's, correct?" The sage man asked.

"Yes, Hokage" The two men swiftly answered.

"Good, then seal it away and store it as deep in the archives as you can. The information we all just heard is now an S-class secret, strictly not to be shared with anyone but us four." The Hokage had begrudgingly failed to keep a different child he had taken in from suffering because of secrets he didn't know of or understand; He would not make the same mistake with this boy.

At least whatever it was that this child had within him it had never ravaged their village before. That would make things easier for Rike when the time came for him to learn how to use it.

Better no one knew about it yet though.

"Very well, Hokage" Ibiki and Inoichi answered, both moving to separate sides of the pod before slamming their palms on the open scroll in unison. A puff of smoke along with a strange noise later and the pod had disappeared, leaving nothing but loose chains and the scroll on the floor that Ibiki rolled up. Bowing to his Hokage, he then disappeared into smoke himself, Inoichi doing the same shortly after.

OK... So these people were apparently wizards or something because the only word Rike could describe what had just happened was magic, '_Is this what a real ninja can do?_' The thought that he could potentially learn how to do similarly crazy things did excite the boy he had to be honest.

"Now then," Hiruzen said to snap Rike's attention away from staring at where Ibiki and Inoichi just were, "Let's get you set up. Welcome to Konoha." Although getting Rike settled in was going to take the Hokage pulling quite a few favours, and a lot of paperwork... '_I hate paperwork...'_

XxX

(Two weeks Later - Konoha Ninja Academy)

'_Okay, first day of ninja training... No pressure, everyone else is new as well right? You're no different from any other kid here... Apart from you're not from Konoha... And you have a metal eye... No big deal, right?_' Rike thought, trying to calm his nerves to no avail while he stood on the grassy grounds just outside the Konoha ninja academy.

If nothing else he did looked out of place, something some of the other children getting ready for their first day at the academy were whispering about, but Rike just ignored them.

He was still in his gear from Odesa that he arrived in, with nothing coving his Exye despite Hiruzen buying him a patch to hide it if he so wished. He had also bought him some more ninja style clothes during the two weeks they spent together as well, but Rike just really didn't think they suited him.

It may have took some Hokage rank pulling, but it took only two weeks to get things like citizen ID, a bank account with some funds for basic living and a simple small apartment for Rike to live in for the time being. Hiruzen was good like that.

All things considered, Rike was extremely grateful to the old man who had taken up the role of his guardian while he got settled in to his new life. Rike couldn't have asked for anything more from the man. By now he thought everything the Hokage had already done was far beyond any generosity he had been given previously, even compared to when he was back home...

'_Home..._' That word still pulled at Rike's soul, but he knew crying about it would solve nothing. He had his mission set in his mind; "_Get strong, find Akatsuki, and kick their ass._" A simple enough mission, in the eyes of a child, but he would eventually learn that he had gravely underestimated just how strong he would have to be to make such a thing a reality.

Rike's thoughts were brought to an end when he noticed some of the other children entering the academy building after saying goodbye to their parents. Actually, when he stopped to think about it, all of the other children had their parents there to see them off on their first steps to becoming ninja.

Except for Rike... And one other child he saw sitting on a rope swing hanging from a nearby tree. Seeing some common ground, as sad as it was, he thought he might as well try and make a friend.

However as he began to walk in the boy's direction, he noticed something else about a few of the parents he had been watching. They were giving this child on the swing some of the coldest stares he had ever seen, whispering to each other about a 'Demon Fox' and 'Cursed Child' and other confusing but harsh terms... All directed at this lonely looking blond boy.

Seeing said child's face sour and become a mixture of both sadness and anger didn't stop Rike from walking over to him though; why would he care what some nasty old people said?

"Hey," Rike greeted the blond boy, who just ignored him, seemingly not registering that he was being spoken to. It was like the boy wasn't used to it, "Umm, Hello?" Rike tried again, finally getting the boy to turn to him, his uninviting expression still plastered on his face.

"What? Do you want to make fun of me too?" The boy on the swing asked rather harshly as he slowly rocked himself. Just how dejected was this child? Shaking his head in the negative with a small smile was Rike's answer, "Then what do you want from me?"

'_And I thought _I_ was going to be the one that struggled at making friends here...' _ Rike thought to himself before speaking again, "I don't want anything from you, really," rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "You just looked lonely. I don't have any parents here either so I thought we at least had that in common, so I wanted to say hello." It really was that simple to Rike, even if the similarity wasn't something good, it was still something.

"Hmm..." The blond boy hummed, looking Rike over, "You don't look like you're from around here, your clothes are too weird," coming from a child with whisker markings wearing an orange jumpsuit, "you a spy or something?" He jokingly accused.

"No!" Rike took a small amount of offence at such a claim. It was not the first time someone had thought he was one, like that damn Ibiki guy who he had noticed keeping tabs on him every so often, "I'm not from Konoha originally, but this is my home now, so... nice to meet you, the name's Rike Dunkon." He finished while extending a hand for the boy to shake.

Not getting any bad vibes from this brown haired kid and actually getting a few laughs at how seriously he took his joke, the boy stood up off the swing and shook his hand, "Nice to meet you Rike. Meet Naruto Uzumaki, ninja prodigy and future Hokage! Dattebayo!"

Was that a verbal tick or something? An odd way to end a sentence, but Rike let it slide. When he wasn't being all down trodden Naruto actually seemed like a nice and bright kid. Even if Rike very much doubted the blue eyed boy's chances of becoming Hokage, but he wouldn't tell him that while he was trying to make a friend.

Speaking of eyes, "What the hell is that?" Naruto suddenly got far too close into Rike's personal space for his liking trying to get a good look at one of his eyes, actually making Rike jump back a fair distance on reaction, "What's that thing in your eye? It looks cool!"

'_Really, it took him that long to notice?_' Rike dead-panned to himself as Naruto continued trying to figure out what it was, "It's called the Exye; it's a replacement eye my parents gave me before they passed away." The full story on that topic was now a secret by order of the Hokage, but Rike could say this much of his own background at least.

"That's awesome!" Naruto chirped happily, how fast did this kid's just mood switch? "Oh shit!" He abruptly exclaimed as he remembered something, changing just as quickly into a panic.

"What is it?" Rike wondered aloud, watching the eccentric blond yell at himself.

"Shut up and come on!" Naruto pleaded as he grabbed Rike by the arm and started running for the academy doors, "I am NOT being late on my first day to becoming Hokage!"

Oh, that's right; He originally went to talk to Naruto because some parents were saying goodbye to their kids... as in sending them inside... as in they were now quite late after chatting for a while... "Oh God damn it..." Rike sighed with a shake of his head as he got Naruto off his arm but kept up with him as they continued on into the building.

Hopefully this wouldn't be an accurate reflection of the pair's escapades in the future, right?

Rike could hope at least.

XxX

(3 Years Later – Rooftops of Konoha)

"I am NOT being late for my ninja exam AGAIN!" The older but unmistakable voice of Naruto Uzumaki cried out as the orange clad boy ran at speed over the roof of a building.

The blond ninja in training was still wearing an insufferable Orange jumpsuit with blue shoulder parts and a high white collar, a kunai holster and ninja pouch strapped on to his left leg and backside. He wore blue toe-less sandals, as well as had his ever trusty goggles on his forehead.

"Whose fault is it that we're late _again_, genius?" The now more refined voice of Rike called out, following behind Naruto as the pair jumped from rooftop to rooftop.

Having long grown out of his clothes from his homeland Odesa, Rike had done the best he could to replicate the look of them by using and modifying ninja clothing; as he now had dark blue ninja leggings taped up at the ankles leading down to black toe-less sandals on his feet, his left thigh also taped up with a long black kunai pouch attached around it, as well as having a similarly dark general ninja tool pouch behind his right hip.

He had cut the right sleeve off of a black long-sleeve shirt, leaving the area around his shoulder frayed, along with a dark blue zipped up jumper-vest over the top of it. He still had a single black fingerless glove on his right hand alongside his faithful wristband with his family's star symbol emblazoned on it.

But the most striking piece of his new attire was a metal headband with a leaf symbol inscribed on it wrapped around his forehead with black fabric, keeping his longer but still spiky brown hair out of his eyes.

"How many times do I have to tell you that going to Ichiraku's for breakfast is a bad idea?" The newly appointed Konoha Genin yelled forward rhetorically. It wouldn't be such an issue if he just had one bowl of ramen like a normal person, but if Rike had learnt one thing over these few years it was that Naruto Uzumaki was far from normal, likely being the reason they had become friends so easily when he thought about it.

"Trick question! Ichiraku's is never a bad idea, EVER!" The blond shouted as he jumped down to the ground as they ran out of rooftops to traverse, taking a second to land in a crouch before taking off in a sprint again.

"Why do you care so much about being late this time, you've failed this exam what, like three times already? What's so different this time?" Rike shouted as he dove head first over the final buildings ledge, a rather suicidal looking way down if any normal person was watching.

However instead of falling straight to the ground like Naruto had, Rike somehow righted himself in an arc to have his body horizontal to the ground as he kept his momentum. Rike was essentially flying, low and parallel to the ground, the 'X' of his right eye glowing yellow, before it turned back to its usual dark grey colouring as he landed without missing a beat and continued chasing after Naruto.

"Today is my day man! I can feel it! And for as fancy as your stupid V-Exye is, it is not getting us there any faster!" Naruto taunted over his shoulder as the academy came in to sight.

If Naruto was honest he was actually quite envious of just how cool that damned eye and the things it let Rike do was, but he would never admit to such a thing, "What are you being so high and mighty about anyway? You failed the exam the first time and only passed the second time because you cheated!"

"I did no such thing!" An annoyed Rike fired back, "Using my C-Exye to give me better control over my chakra is not cheating; it is good use of the tools I have access to!" He smugly argued while the 'X' of his eye began to glow light blue. He didn't even plan on using it at the moment; he just knew the mere sight of the C-Exye pissed Naruto off.

"That's what I mean; CHEATING!" Naruto was having none of Rike's crap today.

His Exye abilities were fair were they? Yeah right. They had briefly learned about other special eyes in class, and sure they sounded powerful, but the Byakugan sounded mostly fair; hell, even some aspects of the Sharingan seemed fair. Some of the things the Exye let Rike do was just good, honest to God, real-life cheating of the highest order. Was Naruto a bit salty that he didn't have a quick solution to sucking at chakra control?

"It's such BULLSHIT!" Of course he was. Why didn't he have something useful like that?

"I'm sorry that my parents thought I needed to be even more bad-ass." Rike mockingly apologized, not entirely accurate as to the reason he was given the Exye, but it had the desired effect at pissing Naruto off further as they entered the academy grounds like a pair of blurs.

Hey, Rike had already passed the ninja exams, the shiny metal plate on his forehead a symbol of said achievement, so he felt fully entitled to rile Naruto up as he got ready for his fourth shot at them.

Fourth! He was sure he could have passed the last exam himself on his second try even without the C-Exye giving him a little unfair advantage in the control department, so what was Naruto's excuse?

Naruto might have been the second worst student in the world when it came to books or lectures, right next to that lazy ass Shikamaru, but if there's one thing he loved it was his jutsu. He and Rike could both do the Transformation Jutsu just fine, despite Naruto's persistently perverted usage of it to try and catch some of the older men in the village off guard, so why did he find the Clone Jutsu so difficult?

Choosing to cease the back and forth between the two for now, Naruto shot into the academy building, closely followed by Rike. Too closely in fact, as when Naruto entered their classroom and abruptly stopped to check if their teacher Iruka was already there or not, Rike turned the corner into the room and slammed full force into his blond friend, sending them both hurtling across the room before coming to a stop as a tangled mess of arms and legs on the floor.

Everyone else in the room just ignored the entrance of the class's resident fools, as they had seen similar if not the exact same event occur so often across the years that it wasn't even worth pointing out any more, let alone laughing about it.

"Will you two IDIOTS watch where you're going!" Well, almost everyone.

"Sorry, Sakura..." Rike droned to the red and white dress clad kunoichi with long pink hair Sakura Haruno, obviously not sorry in the slightest as he removed himself from the mangled mess he had just been a part of like it was a trained and practiced art, helping his blue eyed fellow moron off the floor as he did so.

"Yeah, sorr- Wait a minute, we're nowhere near you, what the hell are we apologizing for?" Naruto noticed mid apology that Sakura wasn't even in the gangway at the back of the class where they had just came bumbling in. She was all the way over in one of the isles, standing next to an uninterested black haired boy wearing a high-collared blue top and white arm warmers, hands laced in front of his face as was the norm.

"I_ was _talking with Sasuke before you two oafs came running in as usual!" Just because it was the usual didn't mean it wasn't annoying for Sakura, and their blatant disregard for anything she said just irritated her further.

"No, you weren't talking 'with' Sasuke; you were talking '_at_' Sasuke, there's a difference..." Rike bluntly corrected, getting a few chuckles from the room, grating on Sakura further, "And you can chill Naruto, Iruka isn't here yet." He pointed out at seeing Naruto start looking around for their teacher again.

'_Troublesome..._' A half asleep Shikamaru Nara thought to himself with his head in the palm of his hand resting his arm on the desk, did these two always have to be so loud? He wore an unassuming chain armour vest under a grey jacket with green edges, his black hair in a large, upwards-pointing spiky ponytail, '_If Naruto's here that means he was serious last time..._'

"Wait, if Naruto's looking for Iruka... Please don't tell me he's doing the test _again_?" Sakura realized for herself, half mocking and half dreading having to sit through Naruto try to make clones again, "Why don't you give up? You just can't do it, move on. You're simply not cut out to be a ninja."

"You," Rike began with a point at Naruto, "don't go getting all depressed because 'your Sakura-Chan' is being bitchy as usual," He knew Naruto had something for the pink haired girl, God only knew why, and before said girl could even take offence Rike pointed straight at her, "and you, leave the hell him alone!" Naruto felt genuinely blessed to have at least one person that he could count on, "If anyone gets to drill him about taking the test a FOURTH damn time it's me!" Naruto just fell over backwards as the uplifting feeling thoroughly disappeared.

"Fuck you, fuck her, fuck clones and fuck that damn eye of yours!" Pointing at Rike, Sakura, the ceiling then back to Rike again as Naruto vented. He just got up and stormed off in a huff, taking up his seat towards the front of the class, Sakura doing the same having long since had enough with the pair of idiots for the time being.

Naruto wasn't that mad, he was just anxious about the test was all, he'd be fine in a few minutes. Knowing this Rike just took up his own seat near the back left corner of the room next to a purple haired girl in a dull-white winter coat, her pupil-less violet-white eyes just watching as things unfolded, with particular interest in Naruto it seemed. This was something Rike always noticed about his classroom neighbour Hinata Hyuuga but chose to ignore; If Naruto was blind enough that he couldn't see this on his own, Rike wasn't going to point it out for him.

Sasuke Uchiha just watched the scene play out from his seat, bored. He didn't dislike the two newest entrants to the room that much. Sasuke was not one to 'like' anyone of course, but he actually disliked Rike slightly less than he did most people, the sole reason for this being the fact that the strange eyed boy often got into logical arguments with the pink haired girl that had just been stood next to him.

Rike never '_won'_ any of these arguments of course, because as Sasuke knew all too well; Sakura was not logical... It got her to stop bugging him whenever one sparked off though, and for that he was genuinely grateful, even if he never planned on sharing that fact.

As the ruckus settled down a rather plain man with his brown hair in a short upwards pony-tail, a long horizontal scar that went over his nose and a standard Konoha headband entered the room, wearing the standard Chunin uniform of blue clothes under a green combat vest. The teacher-ninja Iruka was treated to the rare sight of his entire class sat in their seats relatively quiet for once, something that made him think his students were actually growing up, "Come on and get started so I can pass this thing already!" This thought lasted about a second before an irritated yet eager looking Naruto tore it asunder.

Looking at Naruto after his outburst it took all the composure he had for Iruka to fight his natural urge to inflate his own head to the size of the room to yell at the blond boy like he would usually, but he could see why Naruto was on edge at the moment, "Naruto, you've failed this exam three times already. The only reason I'm letting you have one last go is because you begged me to for an _hour_ after last time... This will be the final time I let you take this exam, I have teams to arrange and I can't wait any longer to see if you're going to be in one."

Iruka did feel sad for the boy; despite him being a nuisance most of the time, he knew that Naruto wanted nothing less than to be ninja, and he did work hard towards that goal in his own way despite the ego problem. However the fact that Iruka had to decide on the teams for his passing students to be put into before the end of next week was something he could delay no further.

"I won't need another time, because I'm going to pass this right now!" Naruto said with confidence as he vaulted over his desk, making it to the open front area of the room in one jump. Before Iruka or anyone could say otherwise, Naruto slapped his hands together into a ram seal and began gathering an invisible energy within his body prior to shouting the name to his most hated jutsu; "Clone Jutsu!" An odd noise rang out with a puff of smoke concealing Naruto as his jutsu took effect.

"_Huh, maybe he wasn't just running his mouth for once. He did that with confidence and it actually looked right._" Rike thought as the smoke of the jutsu began to clear. As it did however, the classroom was met with the sight of a pale, lifeless duplicate of Naruto laying face down on the floor before disappearing abruptly after a few seconds with a pop.

The only sound that could be heard in the classroom over a few chuckles at yet another failure from the dead last member of the class was the loud bang of Rike's forehead impacting his desk, "_Or maybe not... God damn it man..._"

Rike just sat there, face down on his desk with his eyes closed, mulling around the thought of how Naruto wouldn't be on his team in the future. There was no guarantee of such a thing anyway even if he passed, but there was no chance of it now...

Rike didn't mind the fact he'd have to make new friends with his future team members; he planned on doing so regardless, unless Sakura ended up on his team, screw befriending her, but knowing that his longest standing friend wouldn't be joining him on his ninja career, even from another team, was a hard pill to swallow. If he felt like this, then Rike had no idea how Naruto must have felt at that moment.

Hearing the classroom door slide open with a bang Rike had a pretty good idea how he was doing, as before he could even finish looking up Naruto had already ran out, leaving everyone remaining either laughing, feeling sorry for him or not caring at all.

"What was that all about?" Another man, similarly dressed to Iruka, poked his head through the now open door, wearing a bandanna-style headband with dull, long white hair poking out from it, "Was that Uzumaki just now?" The man asked Iruka, having just seen the orange bundle of emotions blur past him.

"Hey Mizuki," Iruka greeted his fellow teacher, "Yeah, he just failed the last exam for the final time, so he's pretty upset..." Iruka finished with a frown; he really did feel sorry for the boy despite how he usually felt towards the child for a certain S-Class secret he just so happened to be at the centre of.

"Ah, I see..." Mizuki turned to leave the room, "I'll go find him and calm him down before he does something dumb like paint the Hokage Mountain again." Rike broke into a chuckle quietly so to not be heard, those were some fun times.

"Good idea, thanks Mizuki." Iruka watched as his colleague left to find the distraught boy before he got into any more trouble than usual, not able to notice the evil smirk on the man's face as he exited.

"Right, everyone left here has passed their exams and is now a fully qualified Genin ninja," Iruka spoke to his class to get them to pay attention now the whole event with Naruto had finished, "Now, the last phase of your time here at the academy is getting into teams of three to go begin your careers together. However thanks to Naruto trying the exam so many times we have not yet decided on how best to balance out the teams."

At that the class began to mutter about Naruto messing things up as usual, while Rike just sat there contemplating how quickly he could punch everyone complaining in the face and how to get away with such actions, where was the Exye ability that would let him do that hiding?

His daydreaming was cut short when his teacher continued, "So, for today we will be going over how things work now you're all ninja and what you will be doing as of next week when you are assigned your teams. We'll start with missions; there are four types you'll be doing..."

Iruka broke into full teacher mode and that was where Rike stopped listening. He would figure things out as he went the same way he always did, right now all he could wonder was where Naruto had gone off to...

He knew his friend would be devastated by this outcome despite all the joking the two did, but he also knew that Naruto was tough. In fact he was one of, if not the single toughest person he knew. He'd be fine given some time and enough ramen to feed the village, and Rike wished he was exaggerating that last part.

Rike's thoughts began to wander as always when in class and noticed Shikamaru asleep at his desk, '_Man after my own heart, if we end up on the same team I feel sorry for whoever that unlucky third person is..._" This was his last thought before lying his head down on the desk himself to catch some Z's.

Hinata watched Rike as he fell asleep and couldn't help but worry for his best friend as well, though for her own reasons, "_Naruto..._" He always tried so hard, and was always so bright, even when she and anyone else looking close enough could see how hard it was sometimes for him to keep acting that way.

Naruto's general outlook on life had improved vastly thanks to her fellow odd-eyed comrade that was peacefully sleeping away next to her, but the way people treated him could and would still get to him every so often like just now.

But he would bounce back, he always did, of this much she was sure as she began paying attention to the lesson once more.

XxX

(One Week Later – Konoha Ninja Academy)

As Iruka had instructed, the new Genin regrouped one last time in their classroom at the academy to be assigned their teams and their new squad leaders/teachers.

Rike hadn't seen Naruto once in this time, which was worrying in and of itself, but was made worse by the fact that Ibiki had came by his apartment a few days ago to ask where Naruto was. Something about some scroll or whatever, Rike hadn't been listening past the 'Where's Naruto' part and just told the large scarred man what had happened at the academy before closing the door and going back to bed.

Rike wasn't in the mood to deal with Ibiki, he couldn't find his friend anywhere; not at his house, not at their training spot in the forest, he hadn't even seen him at Ichiraku's for a whole week. Just thinking about that part worried Rike the most, as the fires of hell engulfing the village and meteors falling from the sky wouldn't stop Naruto going there for a bowl of his favourite ramen, so where was he?

These were the thoughts running around in Rike's mind as he sat there with his head down on his desk, waiting for Iruka to get there so he could tell them how they were going to be grouped up, trying to push the thought to the back of his brain that regardless of whose team he ended up on it wouldn't be with his friend.

The door at the front of the class opening and the chattering of the room getting louder caught Rike's attention. Believing the ruckus to have been caused by Iruka arriving he looked up from his favourite classroom posture to be met with the last thing anyone in that room expected, "Naruto? What the hell?"

And there he stood, as orange as always and a smile that seemed to grow as more and more people noticed the shiny metal plate with a leaf symbol engraved on it that sat firmly in place wrapped around his head with blue fabric, "Where did you get that?" Sakura stood up from her seat, slamming her hands on the desk, "You failed? How do you have a headband?"

"It's a _long_ story..." The shit-eating grin never dropped for a second as he just stood there at the front of the room showing off with his arms folded. Not a good reactive stance for a ninja to take, as Naruto soon found out as he was swiftly tackled to the floor by Rike who seemed to fly from his seat like a missile with his V-Exye helping out to greet his friend, "Oof, good to see you too man... Now get the hell off me!"

Rike did as asked but never turned his vector controlling yellow Exye off as he just danced around in the air above his new comrade. He didn't even care where Naruto had been for the past week or what he possibly did during it to get his headband, he was just happy that he had his only real friend back, and as a graduated ninja to boot.

Those unfamiliar with Rike's favourite ability granted to him by his right eye just stared between the airborne ninja and the headband on Naruto's forehead with equal disbelief.

Hinata had a simple serene smile on her face as she stared at the pair of ninja, Sasuke was looking up at Rike's glowing eye with a tint of envy, trying to act uninterested but failing, and Sakura just gawked in disbelief at what she was seeing.

The usually lazy Shikamaru spoke up out of curiosity though, "So, how'd you get it Naruto? We all saw you fail, so what gives?" The rest of the class nodding in agreement to this, he wanted to ask how Rike was busting such smooth moves high above the rest of the class as well, but one mystery at a time.

If he or anyone other than Naruto and Iruka ever actually paid any attention to Rike when he trained or just in everyday life they would know about his Exye abilities. It wasn't like Rike had been hiding them for all these years as he figured them out, just no one noticed he was doing anything special by ninja standards. Doing his best rendition of some form of thriller dance in mid air in front of the entire class seemed to be what it took to get people to finally wonder about it.

"I think I can help with that one." The attention of the class turned to the door as a seemingly injured Iruka walked in with a crutch, smiling despite this, with his headband absent, "Naruto displayed how a true ninja should act yesterday, and in light of such a courages act to protect a comrade I granted him a pass and my own headband as proof of such. He is now a ninja of Konoha the same as the rest of us." Iruka finished with a bright smile with his eyes closed at Naruto, who returned it full force.

Iruka then noticed something absent after looking at his class, "Where's Rike?" A united raise of fingers at said ninja being his answer made Iruka look up at the boy effortlessly hanging in the air, "V-Exye?"

"V-Exye." Rike chirped happily, he had seriously not been in such a good mood since he passed his own headband earning exam.

Iruka just looked back at Naruto under the strange Genin, "How long has he been up there?"

"Since just before you got here." Sakura helpfully chimed in.

"Ah, I see..." Iruka acknowledged with a nod, "Five, four, three, two-"

Naruto's pondering at what his teacher was counting down for while he took a few steps back was cut short when Rike fell out of the air and crashed into him, leaving them as their trademark heap on the floor, "One..." The entire class finished before bursting out into laughter, they hadn't seen that one before from the pair.

Iruka just shook his head in an amused fashion, "Rike, you know you can't use that ability for long yet... It was great to watch though."

Rike just happily grunted in his effort to stand, he had forgotten completely about the usage limit on his passive Exye abilities with Naruto showing up and then getting caught up listening as to why he now had a headband, "Sorry Iruka, I was busy celebrating." He said as he helped his friend turned ninja up from the floor.

"I guess some things just don't change." Iruka laughed as he made his way to the front of the classroom, "Get to your seats now you two, we're all here for a reason other than Naruto graduating." The two fledgling ninja did as instructed, in far too good of a mood to be a pain in Iruka's ass like they usually were.

"Ok, now that that's over with let's get to the reason you're all here; Teams." Iruka grinned as he saw his pupils chatter amongst themselves wondering and hoping who they would end up with. Iruka just watched for a while, taking it all in as he knew this would be his last time seeing them as his pupils, after today they would no longer be his students, but his comrades.

"Ahem," A good old clearing of the throat got attention back to Iruka, "So then, let's get started. Team One-"

XxX

(A Few Minutes Later)

"Team 7:" Iruka had taken his time announcing the names of his students while writing them on the board, then gauging the reactions from those announced now they had their team. Rike and Naruto were starting to get noticeably impatient though, "Naruto Uzumaki," Said ninja fist pumping into the air as it was his turn to find out his future team members.

Sakura just sat there repeating herself in her head, '_Not with the idiots, not with the idiots-_' and so on.

"Hinata Hyuuga," Sakura stopped chanting in relief, there was only ever one girl per team so she was safe from Naruto at least, but her new mantra repeating in her head was of the begging fashion aimed at the raven haired Uchiha.

"Sasuke Uchiha," Sakura's head slammed on the table in disbelief, how was her luck this bad?

"And Rike Dunkon. Right, Team-" Iruka was cut off when Sakura stood up and yelled out at him.

"What!" The sheer volume of her outburst made those around her visibly lean away from her as if a shock wave came from it, "Teams are made up of three Genin! Why does Sasuke-Chan's team have four?" It didn't make any sense, Sakura had never even heard of a four man team before.

Iruka looked away from where he was writing names on the board to see Sakura stood waiting expectantly, but was far more interested in Rike who once again had his V-Exye active and was doing his thing in the air, holding Naruto up alongside him as the pair celebrated in their own strange way.

This was something that Hinata just smiled at; she was with Naruto so she was happy with that. Rike was a good person too, and Sasuke was just quiet as far as she could tell, things couldn't have been better in her eyes.

Speaking of Sasuke, the most silent member of the newly formed team 7 had his hands laced in front of his face like usual, but if anyone looked hard enough they would see a smirk hiding behind them, '_Not with Sakura... Thank God... If that means I have to put up with the idiots, so be it. At least the Hyuuga is quiet, so that's a bonus I guess._'

"Five, four, thre-" Iruka began to count again before Rike swiftly dropped Naruto into his seat and landed back in his own seamlessly, letting out a chuckle at almost letting his self-imposed time limit slip his mind again, "Better. And the answer to that is quite simple Sakura," Iruka began answering as he looked to her, "We didn't expect Naruto to pass."

Naruto and Rike face faulted while the rest of the class laughed at the blunt reasoning before Iruka continued, "By that I mean his sudden graduation threw a wrench into how the teams added up, so one team had to have four members. Since Sasuke here has the highest marks in the class we found it fitting to balance things out by putting the third and second lowest marking students on his team. It was either that or put the single worst in Shikamaru on it, but his team's clans have a thing going with them."

Rike and Naruto just looked at each other and shared a shrug. Hey, it made enough sense in their books. They didn't even take the remark as an insult, they knew as much as anyone they never gave a damn when it came to writing stuff down, especially in tests.

"That leaves Team 8:" Iruka continued writing names on the board, "Kiba Inuzuka, Sakura Haruno and Shino Aburame."

'_Great, first I'm not with Sasuke-Chan, and now I'm stuck with dog boy and bug brain... Kill me now..._' Sakura internally moaned to herself as the other two members of her new team seemed to not care one way or the other.

Kiba had untamed brown hair and two red fang-like markings on his cheeks framing his grin. He didn't mind Sakura and Shino, and his small white dog Akamaru sitting in the hood of his furry dark-grey jacket letting out a yap at liking them was all he needed to accept his new team mates.

Shino himself was as blank and emotionless as a brick wall, the announcement of his team not changing this fact whatsoever. Most of his features other than his short spiky dark hair were hidden by his ever present small circular shades and a grey coat with a collar that was high enough to cover up to his nose. If people ever looked close enough they would see small bugs crawling around under his coat, but most people thought it best to just leave him be so they didn't freak themselves out.

"Team 9 is still an active team from last year, so that just leaves team 10; and as I mentioned earlier it is the clan team of Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka." Iruka finished, turning back to his class.

The rotund boy Choji wore a green vest over a plain shirt and white scarf around his neck, his brown hair spiked up into two points as he shared a grin a with his friend Shikamaru, while Ino had a defeated look on her face.

'_Great, first I'm not with Sasuke-Chan, and now I'm stuck with lazy-ass and fatso... Kill me now..._' The blond haired Ino complained to herself as she sat in a purple dress, her sky-blue eyes closed in a sigh. If she could have read her fellow kunoichi's mind she wouldn't have found the freakishly similar manner her friend/rival-in-love Sakura and her both responded surprising, and doing such a thing was not as far-fetched for a Yamanaka as you would think, Rike could attest to that.

"And that's everyone." Iruka said as he began leaving the room, "Your squad leaders will be along soon to pick you up and get to work. It's been fun everyone, and good luck." '_You're all going to need it._' Iruka waved his now former students goodbye as he left, his finishing thought putting a smile on his face. They would all do great and he knew it, and he couldn't wait to see where they went from here.

The class began talking amongst themselves and went to sit with their new teams to start getting to know each other. Rike and Naruto never ceased to smile as they walked with Hinata to go sit over with Sasuke and start getting to knowing each other better, as they all knew the Uchiha wasn't going to move to join them. If he even joined in the conversation before their squad leader got there that would have been progress in their eyes.

From this day forth, they were all official ninjas of Konoha, and everything that went with it, whether they realized what that meant yet or not.

* * *

**And there you have it!**

**Not a bad start, but I'm just trying to get all of the set up stuff out of the way since it's the part of the story I have the least notes on.**

**The Exye is something I thought up a LONG time ago, and as I mentioned before: this was just a straight up daydream, shameless self insert so that is what I gave the main character as his unique point. I have intentionally not explained how it works yet so don't go nuts asking about it.**

**Any questions that don't encroach on spoiler territory will be answered if you PM me, and as always try to keep feedback helpful.**

**For those of you in the know, my cat doesn't seem to have noticed I'm writing again yet, but I do now have a rather large puppy of a dog that feels rather left out when I'm typing, and randomly decides to try to tackle me out of my computer chair when I'm doing so...**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope to get more on this and maybe Highwinds done if the spur of the moment hits in the near future but we'll see how that goes.**

**Peace, ]-[**


	2. Hell's Bells

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. You know you've been out of the game too long when the Manga goes and straight up ends, meh ending but not awful. Long story short on the almost a year delay is that real life is a bitch that eats away at your time and soul until you are but a husk, but oh well, that's the struggle I guess.

I thankfully got a fire lit under my ass to actually get this wrote, and hopefully you won't have to wait another year for the next chapter, but no promises.

So yeah, I'm back baby, let's do this thing!

**Chapter 2: Hell's Bells**

* * *

(Konoha Ninja Academy)

"Where the hell is this guy?" Naruto loudly grouched as he paced around the front of the classroom.

Hinata was simply watching Naruto walk around while the four of them were waiting for their squad leader to arrive. Sasuke had yet to move from his pose with his hands laced in front of his face, and Rike had been asleep on the desk for a while now.

The rest of the squads had long since been picked up and left to go do whatever it was their new teachers had planned for them. It was maddening to Naruto that over an hour had passed and his team were _still_ waiting for whoever was meant to come fetch them. He wished he could just fall asleep at the drop a hat like Rike could but he was too energetic for that most of the time, never mind when he was excited to start doing 'real' ninja stuff.

The more talkative three had tried to speak to Sasuke while they were waiting but didn't get more than a few annoyed grunts from him so they gave up on that course of action. Rike already knew Naruto, and he talked with Hinata enough beforehand to know they got along. However any time Naruto tried talking to her she simply clammed up, much to Naruto's confusion. Seriously, he was the single most oblivious person Rike had ever met.

Soon after the avenue of talking to each other to pass the time seemed like it had closed off Rike fell asleep as he was known to do, while Sasuke and Hinata just waited patiently.

Naruto was not patient.

"Screw this." Naruto was done waiting, doing nothing wasn't his style, opting instead to set up a prank for when their teacher finally showed up, if he ever did. He made them wait this long, so he deserved it in Naruto's book. A classic board eraser on the door trick, that'll do the job.

"Naruto, our new teacher is a Jounin, one of the highest ranking ninja in the village. He's never going to fall for something so basic, idiot." Sasuke pointed out, getting a glare from Naruto and actually waking Rike up.

"Oh, so you can talk." A rousing Rike commented on the broken silence from the least talkative member of the team, "We need to work on your people skills, but it's a start I guess."

"_People _just get in my way..." Sasuke said seriously. If Rike thought Naruto had trouble making friends when they first met; Sasuke was on a whole other level of antisocial, "I can tolerate you three at least though." Well weren't they special...

His attitude didn't stop Rike trying to keep the conversation going though now that he was speaking up, "Well thanks, I think... Hopefully you end up liking us but I'm not going to force being friendly down your throat, that'd probably just make things worse. You'll warm up to us eventually." Rike said with a confident smile.

Forcing someone like Sasuke to change on the spot would just alienate him further, so they'd let him open up in his own time. Same for Hinata but she was just shy, she'd get some confidence soon and she'd be fine.

"Hm, I doubt it but we'll see. Just don't get in my way and we'll be cool." Sasuke spared Rike a glance, noticing his smile that didn't make him want to punch him in the face like he felt the urge to when Naruto pulled his stupid grin for some reason. It just seemed more genuine than any time Naruto smiled.

He also noticed Rike's metallic eye he saw in use earlier and was actually interested enough to ask about it, "What is that eye of yours by the way? Iruka called it the 'V-Exye' or something... does it just let you fly?" Coming from a clan renowned for their visual prowess, it irked Sasuke that Rike had his own ocular ability before he'd gained access to his Sharingan. And did he actually use the words 'just' and 'fly' in the same sentence? Some ninja would easily give up an arm and a leg for such and ability.

Rike just chuckled a little as he had noticed Sasuke eyeing his Exye, "Not quite... since you two quite clearly don't know much about it and we're going to be working together I'll give you the crash course on this thing." He finished pointing to his right eye.

"It's called the Exye; an artificial eye that my parents gave me before they passed on. Since they died soon after giving it me and sending me here I've had to figure most of this out myself so bear with me." Rike frowned a little at bringing up his parents, something Sasuke didn't miss, but brightened up again soon enough. There would be time for mourning after Akatsuki got a swift foot up the collective ass.

Hinata and Sasuke were actually rather interested by Rike's explanation and listened intently, both having or soon to have visual abilities of their own it was an experience hearing someone describe one they'd never even heard of, "Basically it lets me use certain abilities when I switch the colour of the 'X' part of the eye," Switching to his yellow V-Exye and floating up into the air to continue explaining, "This is the V-Exye, that you'll see me use a _lot_: as long as I have it on its passive ability lets me control my own vectors; my speed and direction, for a short while. So I can ignore stuff like gravity, or in simpler terms; fly." He turned it off as he landed back with the two entranced members of his team, "I can do other stuff with it but you get the idea."

Naruto had sat through this all before, having been around in person while Rike figured out his eyes powers. Thus he was still looking around for something else to do, ending up looking through some of Iruka's stuff he'd left behind, "There are also active abilities that I can be a bit more offensive with though..." Rike grinned to himself as he drew a kunai from his pouch and held it out pointing at Naruto who was rummaging away.

Without even moving his arm and with a slight flash of bright yellow from his eye, the kunai shot out of his hand like a missile, implanting itself just above where Naruto was, getting a glare from the blond ninja before he went back to looking around, "That's the V-Exye's active ability; I can control the vectors of something I'm in direct contact with, like sending a kunai flying with no effort on my part."

That seemed pretty useful to Hinata all things considered, "There's a catch though; active abilities I can only use once and then I have to wait a while before I can use that Exye's active again, I won't be able to do that again for two minutes now."Rike pointed out, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "It used to take five minutes but I can train with my abilities to increase my usage time of their passives and shorten the cooldowns of their actives to a degree."

Sasuke was very interested in all this and was quite astute as he picked up on how Rike worded a part of his explanation, "You said that you won't be able to use 'their actives' again for a while. Does that mean you have more than one?"

"Yeah, I have others, like the C-Exye that lets me control my chakra better," He flashed his eye light blue to show it to them, and got an annoyed noise from Naruto that made him chuckle, "Naruto doesn't like that I have this one since he sucks at control."

"And the fact it's CHEATING!"

"See what I mean." Rike gestured over to him to make his point.

"Why do you call them that anyway? I understand 'V' for vector and 'C' for chakra but they sound strange." Hinata commented quietly on Rike's naming conventions. She could at least talk to him without feeling faint, something she struggled with when it came to Naruto.

"Believe it or not I didn't name them." Rike defended, getting confused looks from his team mates, "The first time I turn a new Exye on, I get an explanation of what it can do and its name in my head. Almost like a voice, but it's more like it just puts the knowledge in my head when I use it for the first time. It freaked me out to begin with I'll admit."

That was strange, but useful, Sasuke very much doubted his own eyes would come with instructions when he finally awakened them, "So if the Exye itself names them, and they each have a letter corresponding to the ability... does that mean you have twenty six abilities locked away in that eye?" That seemed a little ridiculous if it was the case, just one of them let him fly, what other crazy things could it let him do?

"I've noticed that myself actually and I'm not sure... but no letter has overlapped yet so it's a sound theory. It's taken me three years to figure out the few that I already know though; it's a really flawed system to tell me about it after I activate it myself either by chance or them activating themselves under certain circumstances." Rike simply chuckled at the awkward way his eye worked, but it was better than nothing at least.

"Does it do anything else? Like when it's just its normal colour?" Hinata asked raising her hand like she was still in class. Well she was technically but that was neither here nor there.

"Sort of... I think..." The confused look on Rike's face showed his lack of understanding on this facet of his eye clearly, "It's similar to how it just puts the information of the Exye abilities into my head, but it does it for random things, like my peoples technology, science and their history. I'm not sure why it does it, but I'll just know something I never learnt every so often."

Even compared to everything else it did, that was very strange, what kind of ability was that?

Despite wanting to question Rike more on his rather unique eye, they were cut off from doing so by the door to the room opening to show a spiky, white haired man in the same uniform Iruka wore, only the bottom half of his face was covered in a blue mask, and his headband covered his left eye for some reason.

As he entered, the eraser Naruto had placed earlier fell clean onto his head with a thud and fell to the ground, getting the man to stop in his tracks and look indifferently around the room with his one visible eye at the children within.

'_He actually got hit by that? This is our teacher?_' Sasuke thought to himself, trying to hide his shock that such a high ranking ninja could fall for such a thing.

Naruto was just laughing to himself at his successful prank while Hinata and Rike were in equal disbelief that his prank worked.

"Well..." The new entrant to the room began, "My first impression of you all: You're a bunch of idiots..."

Taking varying levels of offence to this comment, Rike spoke up, "Hey, that's not fair. One; you just met us. Two; _you_ are the one that just failed to dodge an eraser of all things, and three; me and Naruto may be idiots, but Sasuke and Hinata are not, so leave them out of this."

Naruto just nodded along with Rike until his last point, where he stopped and then shrugged, it was still a pretty valid point. Hinata just awkwardly smiled at being defended, whereas Sasuke rolled his eyes at anyone trying to defend him.

"A first impression doesn't need me to know you at all, why would I bother dodging an eraser? And until you prove otherwise you are _all_ idiots." The white haired man calmly countered Rike's points in order.

"Well... Shit..." Rike deflated in his chair at being thoroughly out talked, getting the white haired man to smile even though none of them could see it apart from the way his eye closed happily.

Before anyone could start asking questions the man turned around and started leaving the room, "I am Kakashi Hatake; I am your squad leader from this point forward. Follow me up to the roof; we'll have a team introduction up there." The man pointed up while leaving.

While Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke all began heading towards the door Rike just remained in his seat, "Hey! Are you coming or what?" Naruto shouted back into the room as the three of them left.

"Yeah, be there in a minute!" Rike shouted, although he made no effort towards making good on that statement.

'_Why is this guy my teacher?_' He thought to himself as he looked up in his seat, '_Why couldn't Asuma be my squad leader? At least he's cool and I know how to deal with his brand of crap..._'

Leisurely walking over to and opening the window of the classroom Rike smiled to himself, '_Well,_ _better get going. Hopefully they're up there by now._'

XxX

(Meanwhile - Konoha Academy Rooftop)

"Now then, why don't you introduce yourselves? Wait..." Kakashi trailed off while reading some colourfully covered book, "Aren't there four genin on this team, where's the other one?" He wondered aloud, although it didn't sound like he actually cared at all as he continued to read.

Hinata and Naruto started looking around while Sasuke was just sat in his pose quietly like a statue, "He said he'd be here in a minute, so where-" Naruto cut himself off when he realized just what his friend planned on doing, "Oh you show-off bastard..."

Before the only one paying attention to him in Hinata could ask what he meant, Rike shot up from behind the railing the three of them were sat in front of, front flipping in mid air and landing seamlessly sat on the rail with a huge grin on his face and his right eye fading from a yellow colouring, acting like what he had just done was normal. Well it was as far as he was concerned.

'_So, that's the Exye that the Hokage mentioned._' Kakashi thought to himself as he looked up from his book for a moment before going back to reading, '_So I've been handed a team that consists of a child that literally fell out of the sky with an eye that even he doesn't know much about, the sole survivor of the Uchiha incident who has a one track mind for avenging his clan, the princess of the Hyuuga clan and the Jinchuriki of the fuck mothering Nine Tailed Fox... Fantastic..._'

"I would say 'I hope I didn't keep you waiting' but after how damn long it took for you to come get us I'm going to skip that part." Rike said as he sat on the railing with his never fading grin.

"Must you use the V-Exye for _everything_? We only went up a few stairs, couldn't you have just walked?" Naruto asked, even if his arrival did look cool.

"Let me answer that with another question: If _you_ had the ability to _fly_ at will, would _you_ use it _all _the time?" Rike swiftly fired back, getting Naruto to stop and think about it. Yes, yes he would.

"Now that you're all here can we get on with this? I have places to be." Kakashi spoke up, even though he never looked up from his book.

"If you had places to be then why didn't you just come and get us earlier like you were supposed to!" Naruto yelled while pointing at the masked man.

"Since this is my first time meeting all of you why don't you introduce yourselves?" Kakashi said, thoroughly ignoring Naruto's valid point, "Your name, things you like, things you don't like, hopes and dreams, that kind of stuff."

Even though Naruto had just been quite annoyed at his new teacher for ignoring his question he chose to take point on introducing himself in a rather loud fashion, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I like new jutsu that don't need a lot of chakra control, eating ramen of all kinds and proving people wrong that think I can't do something. I dislike people who think I can't do things, waiting for ramen to cook and that son of a bitch's eye." He exclaimed nodding his head towards Rike before continuing, getting Rike's grin to grow, "And my dream is to be the Hokage of the village, so that everyone will have to respect how awesome I am!"

'_No surprises there from what the Third told me about the kid._' Kakashi nodded before looking at Hinata, getting her to sit up at the attention, "Why don't you go next?"

Hinata straightened herself out to try and look less flustered, "Um... I-I'm Hinata H-Hyuuga..." She managed to say quietly before she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around she saw Rike up on the rail smiling down at her and giving her a nod, as if he was saying it was ok.

This actually helped to calm her down a bit as she spoke up louder but still in her regular reserved voice, "My name is Hinata Hyuuga. I like looking after my sister Hanabi, learning new things and..." She trailed off while looking over at Naruto before shaking her head to continue, getting Rike to facepalm at the fact Naruto didn't even register what just happened, "I dislike mean people, feeling weak and people that complain about things without trying to do something about it." She said with a strangely serious tone that most didn't think the girl was capable of, "And my dream is to fix an issue within my clan that I cannot share with you, I'm sorry." She finished with a small bow.

'_Mild mannered, astute and not a complete airhead like most young Kunoichi, she has potential._' The still reading Kakashi evaluated as he listened to his teams introductions, "Next."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything. My dream is to restore my clan and to kill one certain individual." Sasuke didn't even move, quickly saying his piece to get it over and done with. No one noticed Rike nod his head at his last points.

'_As I thought, as single minded as you could expect after what he's been through. I'm no bastion of people skills, but this kid needs to get his head on straight before he destroys himself and everyone around him._' Kakashi gravely thought about the team member he ironically had the most in common with for one reason or another.

With a look from the white haired squad leader Rike grinned and began his own introduction, "My name is Rike Dunkon. I like being a ninja, sleeping and unlocking then mastering new Exye abilities." He noticed Naruto fidget around and grumble something about 'stupid eyes'. Oh he was going to _love_ being on this team, "I dislike how fucking stupid the way the Exye works at times, people that over complicate their problems and something about the shape of some clouds pisses me off."

Everyone, including Rike, just found his final dislike incredibly strange but he knew where it originated from, leading to his next point, "And my dream is to beat the shit out of, and or kill, a certain group people for reasons I don't feel like going into." The calm but dark way Rike spoke shocked and confused the other Genin further. Hearing a dream like that from Sasuke didn't seem too farfetched when they thought about it, but why did Rike, someone who was soft as a brush most of the time, want to bring great harm or death to anyone?

Sasuke and Rike had no idea at the time that Uchiha's ambition and at least one of the Odesan boy's self imposed targets were in fact the same person.

'_I should have expected that after what the Hokage mentioned to me, but that was incredibly blunt for something that's supposed to be a secret Rike..._' Kakashi would have spoke up on the matter but it would have drawn more unwanted attention to the matter if he did.

'_Hmm... Maybe I might actually get along with Rike after all..._' Sasuke was just as surprised as the rest of the Genin at Rike's ambition, but he respected it a lot more than the others would.

"As much as I love coming to terms with the fact we seem to have not one, but _two_ future nut jobs on the team," Naruto half jokingly spoke up, even he didn't know that much of the darker aspect of Rike, but couldn't judge the boy on keeping secrets after what he had learned about himself from Mizuki, "I think Kakashi-Sensei should introduce himself. All we know about him is he likes reading and doesn't like being on time..." The other Genin nodded in agreement and looked to Kakashi for his introduction.

Suffice to say they never got said introduction, at least not one they thought was any good, "Well as I said; my name is Kakashi Hatake, and I don't feel like sharing my likes, dislikes or dreams with any of you. So that's that."

"I think you'll find that _that's_ bullshit." Rike so eloquently called out the older ninja, "Come on, you can't tell us anything about yourself?"

"Nothing I want to tell any of you at the moment, no." Kakashi chirped happily, getting a pair of annoyed stares from the more active genin. He had to admit, if there was one thing he did enjoy about this whole squad leader thing it was winding up the kids, "Anyway, now that we all know each other," He had to block a small laugh at some annoyed mumbling from two of his squad, "I'll tell you about our first task together."

That quickly got the undivided attention of all four Genin, completely removing Naruto and Rike's annoyance and replacing it with excitement, "Well, I say task... but I really mean test." And back to annoyance it was, "A training test to be more specific, intended to show me what kind of skills you all have and how I can think to help you improve on them."

That made sense when they thought about it. If he was going to be leading them then it was only natural that he needed to know what they could do, "It does have another purpose, but I'll tell you that tomorrow. For now go home, get some rest and be up bright and early to meet me on the bridge." Kakashi told his team, chuckling to himself in his head, like he ever did 'early.'

As instructed the Genin all began getting up to leave before Kakashi decided to add one final thing, "Oh, and by the way; you might want to skip breakfast, you really don't want to have eaten before this." He finished mysteriously, putting the fledgling ninja on edge at just what kind of 'training' this man had in mind.

XxX

(The Next Morning – Konoha Bridge)

Sasuke and Hinata were already on the bridge when a tired looking Naruto and Rike arrived. The sun had barely started coming up, it was that early in the morning, bearing in mind Rike was adverse to waking up anytime before noon. People often questioned if Rike was a long lost Nara or something.

"Hey you two, I thought you'd be here before us." Rike greeted while failing to hold back a yawn, "How long have you been here?"

"About half an hour." Most would have expected Hinata to answer but instead the rare voice of Sasuke was what they got.

Progress.

"Huh, maybe there's hope for you yet." Naruto drawled out, feeling and looking just as bad as Rike.

Speaking of which, "Umm... Rike... What are you doing?" Hinata softly asked as the three of them watched Rike pull a pillow seemingly out of thin air and lay down on the bridge.

"After yesterday do you seriously expect Kakashi to get here on time? I'm going to sleep to make up for how little I got last night, someone wake me up when he gets here." Rike explained, not even bothering to open both eyes to look up and answer Hinata before falling asleep.

The still awake trio of ninja just shared a confused look and went back to waiting in their own ways. Kakashi couldn't be that late _again.._. Could he?

XxX

(Several Hours Later)

And like that Rike's powers of clairvoyance were proven.

Over three hours had past and Naruto was at wits end. The general village populus had woken up and been going about their normal daily lives for hours now and they were _still_ waiting for Kakashi to show up.

Even the usually calm pair of Sasuke and Hinata were beginning to show visible signs of irritation at how late their teacher was. Never mind the hunger pangs that would strike every so often as they had done as recommended and not had breakfast.

"Wait a minute..." You knew something was up when Sasuke started a conversation, "Why are your two's stomachs not growling every so often like our's are?" Sasuke questioned Naruto and the still sleeping Rike.

Knowing Rike had no intention of getting up to answer him, Naruto had nothing to hide, "Because Rike and me went for Ichiraku's before we got here." This got even the statuesque Uchiha to twitch in annoyance, "What? You think Kakashi being my squad leader for less than a day gives him the right to stop me eating Ramen? Not a chance in hell. Even if old man Hokage asked me to skip breakfast I'd still probably sneak in a bowl or five." Naruto answered, not bothered in the slightest by the envious and annoyed glares he was getting from the usually pretty impassive Uchiha, and even the Hyuuga to a lesser extent.

Hinata suddenly stopped glaring at the person she usually had a fairer look towards and moved over to Rike, kneeling down and sharking one of his shoulders, "Rike, wake up." Despite being as quiet with her voice as usual Rike actually began to stir and sit up.

"Huh? Why are you getting me up?" Rike sleepily asked as he looked around, "Kakashi isn't even here yet."

As if to purposefully rebut this statement, a puff of smoke appeared atop the sign of the bridge with Kakashi seemingly smiling down at them in a crouch, "Hi everyone, sorry I'm late, a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way around."

"...I'd hurl a kunai at you if I wasn't one hundred percent sure it would miss..." Rike said with a deadpan look up at his teacher before turning back to whisper at Hinata, "How'd you know to wake me up?"

Hinata just wordlessly pointed at her eyes, getting Rike to make an 'oh' silently with his mouth, "I swear Iruka put this team together on purpose, we've got the best eyes in the business." He didn't even know the half of it.

Hinata let out a small laugh before Kakashi hopped down and started walking towards the village gates, "Come on, it's not far to our training ground."

"We have a training ground? Sweet." Naruto began following along with his hands behind his head as he walked, "This might actually be fun."

'_You wish._' Kakashi thought to himself at the young ninjas expense, '_I can tell you and Rike have had breakfast. I _will_ make you regret that._' The man darkly chuckled to himself in his head.

XxX

(Team 7 Training Ground)

"Well this place beats training in a dank forest hands down." Rike grinned as they arrived at their new training location.

There was a large, wide open patch of land next to a rather beautiful lake with a small rocky cliff on the other side of it. There were trees all around the outside of the area great for hiding in with one large tree just next to the water. There were also four wooden poles sticking out of the ground in a row, three looking like they had been there for a while with the other looking like it was added recently in a bit of a rush.

'_I'll fix that up later... it's not my fault I forgot that I have the only four man Genin squad in like forever._' Kakashi sweat dropped to himself unnoticed by the others. Some would say this was the reason he was late that morning. Some also clearly didn't know Kakashi Hatake all too well, because it took him all of ten minutes to stick another pole in the floor, he just liked making people wait to wind them up.

While the others were scoping out the grounds, Sasuke couldn't have cared any less about where he trained as long as he got stronger, "So what's this test of yours?"

"It's a rather simple training test," Kakashi said as he held up two small bells on red thread, "All you have to do is take these bells from me." He explained simply before tying the thread to his waist and pulling out his colourful book.

"..." The Genin were all waiting for him to elaborate further, but he just stood there reading.

"So... just take the bells off you? That's it?" Naruto asked dumbfoundedly.

"That's what I said." Kakashi didn't even look up to answer, "There is one other thing though..." Ah, so there was more to it, "Those who don't get a bell before time is up will get tied to one of those poles over there and won't get to eat lunch..."

That sucked yeah, but it wasn't that bad, "And they will get sent back to the academy for failing."

"WHAT!" All four genin exclaimed, although at very different volumes.

"That is just plain unfair, we never got told we could be sent back to the academy after graduating! And there are only two bells, so two of us are going back regardless! What the actual fuck?" A rather irritated Rike ranted.

'_I am _not_ going back to that hell, no way, no how._' A scowling Sasuke thought to himself.

"This just doesn't make any sense..." Hinata worried to herself. She worked hard to become a Genin, and on Naruto's team too of all the miracles; she didn't want that taken away from her by some unfair test.

"Screw sense, I'm getting one of those bells, Dattebayo!" Naruto not being one to think things all the way through, he quickly pulled a kunai from his leg pouch and pulled it back ready to throw.

"Ah ah ah." A voice belittled from behind Naruto, "I didn't say 'start' yet."

Turning to Naruto the three other Genin didn't believe it. Kakashi had Naruto's hand in his grasp, pointing the kunai at the back of his head with one arm, while still reading with the other.

'_I didn't even see him move! How fast is this guy?_' Sasuke wondered in a little bit of a panic at having to take a bell from him.

'_He may act a fool, but this guy will tear us apart without even trying..._' Rike realized after Kakashi's show of speed, '_How is any one of us supposed to get a bell from him?_'

With another impressive show of speed, Kakashi returned to where he was originally stood, spinning Naruto's kunai on his finger, "Now that I have your attention, we can actually begin, but I will warn you; if you don't come at me with intent to kill, you will _never_ take one of these bells from me." His look would have been unnerving if it was directed at them and not his book.

Sharing a quick look around at each other the Genin nodded at one another before turning back to their teacher who had just given them more than enough reason to respect his god-damn authority if they didn't before, "Good." Kakashi calmly said before hurling his borrowed kunai into the air, "When the kunai hits the ground you may begin."

All four of them tensed up, ready to move at a moment's notice as they all waited silently for proverbial pin to drop.

*DING*

And like that they blurred out of sight.

"Well, at least they're not half bad at hiding..." Kakashi thought out loud while still reading his book before he noticed something and looked up for a moment, "...What?"

Well, half of the Genin had disappeared into the tree line to plan an attack. No prizes at guessing which two remained, "Me and you, right here, right now!" Naruto shouted at Kakashi with his arms folded confidently. It was as if he had blanked what the man had just done to him moments earlier from his memory.

"O...k..." Kakashi droned, "I somehow expected Naruto to be too straightforward, but I didn't expect you to as well Rike."

Rike was indeed stood next to his friend, although he did share Naruto's confident look at all, it was more like he couldn't believe what he was doing by not running and hiding like the others, "Damn it..." Rike sighed before deciding to just deal with the horrible situation he found himself in, "I would hide and try to go about this how a ninja should... but I know how this idiot thinks..." He reasoned more to himself than anyone else, gesturing at Naruto, "And I'm not leaving him behind to get thrashed on his own, so I'm here to back him up... unfortunately..." He really wasn't happy with Naruto right now.

'_A dumb reason to put yourself and the mission at risk... That's what most other squad leaders would say to you..._' Kakashi smiled, pleasantly surprised by Rike's explanation, '_Maybe this team has some hope._'

"Alright, time's up, let's do this!" Naruto yelled as he formed a hand seal Rike didn't recognise, but Kakashi did.

'_No way, he can't know-'_

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Kakashi's disbelief was stricken down when in puffs of smoke five more Naruto's appeared around the original.

'_So that's what he got when he stole that scroll for Mizuki... That's actually kind of impressive.'_ Kakashi thought to himself, this team was just full of surprises.

"I... what… you know what, I'll ask later." Rike didn't know how he did that but they weren't just illusions, they were full blown physical clones, "And you _are_ teaching me how to do that when this is over."

"I'm sorry; I can't hear you over how awesome I am." Naruto was so happy to finally have one over on Rike and his stupid eye, let's see his eye beat an army.

As was just previously stated, Kakashi was genuinely impressed by Naruto's jutsu... That was until he was set upon with the least coordinated frontal attack by six Naruto's at the same time. It was the most horrendous use of the jutsu he had ever seen. Even Rike was just stood there watching the shambles of an attack.

Batting clones away into nothingness using just one hand, without even breaking a sweat or looking up from his book, he had dispelled three of them in a matter of seconds, before hitting one that didn't disappear on contact.

Grinning evilly at finding the original he quickly grappled the blonde ninja and hurled him over into the lake with an impressive show of force, "There, that should cool him off for a while." Kakashi said to himself as he dusted his hand off and went about finishing off the few remaining clones.

Striking a blow on the final Naruto duplicate Kakashi was ready to go and torment the two of his team he knew were hiding in the trees trying to pick their moments. That was until the clone blocked his attack, and _didn't _dispel.

Slightly confused by the clones actions Kakashi quickly attempted to sweep its legs out from under it, but found his kick swiftly dodged by the clone back stepping away from him before quickly getting back in range with surprising speed to try and smash Kakashi with a back-fist.

Kakashi didn't know how a clone was doing this, and why it was so much more calculated in its movements than Naruto was, "What the-" Or how it hit so damn hard for the clone of a Genin when he blocked its attack, actually forcing him back a little before having to defend from a kick with one of his own.

The kicks stalemated but it was never meant to land, as Kakashi noticed the clone attempt to snag a bell while attacking with its legs, forcing him to break off and back away so it didn't succeed.

Why was a clone somehow managing to go blow for blow with him? Sure Kakashi knew he wasn't even trying or else he'd wind up killing one of his team members, which he was surprised by how fast they were growing on him when he thought about it.

And why did said clone have a glowing purple eye?

Wait a minute...

Kakashi could only laugh at himself for not noticing sooner, "Not a bad bit of improvisation there Rike." He chuckled a little before hurling a kunai at Rike who was just stood watching the fight.

'_Rike!_' Hinata almost ran out to try and get him out of the way, but it was too late, the kunai had buried itself into Rike's chest... before puffing into smoke, '..._What_ _just happened?'_

The Naruto 'clone' just grinned before a puff of smoke revealed Rike in it's place with the 'X' of his Exye glowing purple, "Sometimes you just have to work with what you're given."

'_Transformation Jutsu__? And pretty convincing ones at that.'_ Sasuke thought to himself, trying to convince himself that he wasn't just impressed by the pair's on the fly tactic, '_As soon as Naruto made his clones he made one use transformation to look like Rike before the smoke cleared, and Rike did the same to hide as a clone...'_

'_Naruto made the fake Rike act like he would have for never having seen the shadow clone jutsu before, so no one expected Rike to have reacted that fast to transform into Naruto ... These two have better teamwork than I gave them credit for._' Kakashi admitted, genuinely impressed once again by the pair of Genin.

"I knew it would only work for so long until you forced me to use the P-Exye to fight you. I wouldn't have had a chance with my normal speed and strength, but I can't hide the Exye with the transformation very well when I'm using it." Rike laughed while rubbing the back of his head, "Worked better than I thought it would with how fast I had to react to it though."

Using the P-Exye passively multiplied his natural physical abilities; his speed, strength and reaction times were all improved. It still wasn't enough to get a bell though, and he wasn't risking the P-Exye's active without knowing for damn sure it would make contact.

A sarcastic slow clap came from Kakashi, "We're all very impressed, but you still don't have a bell..."

"And Naruto isn't the only one who knows how to use Shadow Clones."

The sheer terror that immediately found its way to Rike's face was very justified, as that voice came from right behind him.

The real Kakashi was crouched down behind Rike with his hands held in the Tiger hand seal.

'_That seal! That's for fire style Jutsu!_' Sasuke panicked, his clan knew their fire Jutsu, '_Is he going to kill him?_'

Before Rike could dodge, even with the P-Exye enhancing his body and reactions, Kakashi made his move, "Konoha Secret Jutsu: One Thousand Years of Death!"

Sasuke and Hinata could only watch in horror with mortified looks on their faces as Kakashi rammed his Tiger seal straight into Rike's backside, the point of his fingers seeming to shine for dramatic effect alone.

The sheer force sent Rike flying into the air before a poof left a log split clean in half in his place.

"Don't you ever, ever, ever, EVER, **EVER!** Try to do that again!" An uncharacteristically irate Rike shouted as he walked out of the surrounding trees with the look of horror still frozen on his face, "Seriously! What the hell kind of stupid technique is that?"

It was very hard to genuinly piss Rike off, but what Kakashi had just tried to do definitely pulled it off. Rike didn't know what he would have done if he didn't know the Substitution Jutsu and even that was almost not fast enough to get him away from that god forsaken 'attack.'

"If it looks stupid, but works, it's not stupid." Kakashi reasoned. He loved that Jutsu; it never failed to catch people completely off guard, it seemed to be the last thing any ninja was ever expecting.

Despite the fact Rike was one step from the edge and about to break in anger; he managed to notice Naruto silently sneak out of the water near a the large tree next to the lake, and more importantly the small bell that lay on the floor at the base of it that his friend was skulking towards. Quickly noting that there was indeed a bell missing from Kakashi, he questioned just when or why he would have put it there...

'_It's a trap!_' Rike exclaimed in his head, rapidly pulling out a kunai and a pair of smoke bombs from his supply, surprising himself at just how much being angry improved your work ethic. Dropping one of the bombs to cover his movements he launched himself to the side to line himself up with Kakashi before firing the kunai at him, '_Please just dodge..._'

Right on cue Kakashi moved effortlessly aside out of the quickly flying weapon, but it had never been intended to hit him, planting itself into the tree with the bell under it to create another large plume of smoke from the second bomb that had been attached to it via its ring, stopping Naruto from getting to what Rike was certain was a trap.

Kakashi turned to see the cloud of smoke slowly dispersing near the bait he had left, but cleared to show the trap still un-sprung. In fact when both clouds disappeared, he noticed that the two of his team that refused to do so at the start had done the same, leaving the Jounin in the clearing on his own, '_What was that about I wonder?_' He mused to himself at Rike's actions, '_Whatever, it's about time I went and terrorized the other two anyway._' And like that he vanished himself in a swirl of leaves.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Surrounding Forest)

"What did you do that for? I was just about to get a bell!" Naruto complained animatedly to Rike as they quickly put some distance between them and the white haired devil 'testing' them.

"No, you were about to get yourself trapped like an idiot..." Rike bluntly pointed out, "Do you really think Kakashi would just drop a bell by accident? I don't know when he set it up but that was a trap if I've ever seen one."

Naruto had to admit he had a point, Kakashi didn't seem like he ever did anything without having an express purpose behind it, even if they didn't get what it was, "Well what now then?"

"I have an idea, but first we need to find the other two before he does." Rike explained, the pair quickly leaping through the tree branches in search of the Hyuuga and Uchiha.

Unfortunately for the other two, they weren't that lucky...

XxX

(Elsewhere – Surrounding Forest)

Sasuke had moved deeper into the woods surrounding their training grounds after watching his two male teammates try their best against their new teacher and get nowhere fast. He wanted to make his own move against Kakashi as soon the man was distracted by Naruto springing the obvious trap the Jounin had set up at some point, but Rike had stopped that from happening at all and had forced Kakashi to move into the treeline in search of them.

His planned window of opportunity now gone, Sasuke found it logical to keep moving lest he was found on the older ninja's terms and not his own.

At least this was his thought process, until he stopped himself abruptly but silently on a branch near a small clearing in the trees, where he could see his masked teacher simply leaning against a tree reading that strange book of his. Sasuke could swear he heard the white haired man giggling to himself, and thought this was the best chance he had at getting himself a bell; with none of his teammates to get in the way.

Quickly glancing around the clearing he didn't notice anything disturbed enough for a trap to have been set up beforehand. He wasn't reckless, he didn't want to get tricked like Naruto almost was.

'_Let's do this._' Sasuke reassured himself as he rapidly pulled a kunai with one hand and a few shuriken with the other, launching the kunai deep into the woods to the side. The dull thud it made when it hit a tree wasn't too loud, but enough for Kakashi to turn his head to the right to look, putting Sasuke and the shuriken he had thrown before the kunai had even made a sound in the Jounin's blind spot thanks to how he wore his headband over his left eye.

Sasuke was already moving on the ground towards where he expected Kakashi to dodge his projectile-based faint attack, but almost stopped when the handful of shuriken made contact with his teacher, sinking into his chest. Sasuke didn't believe it for a second as he took off towards the clearing again, '_There is no way they hit him… He might not have dodged an eraser but he can't be that bad, can he?_'

Confirming his suspicions Kakashi poofed into smoke as soon as Sasuke entered the clearing, leaving a log embeded with shuriken and a childish carving of a smiling face with one eye to fall to the ground, '_I knew it, substitution jutsu, every ninja knows the damn thing… He really is just toying with us..._' He found himself growing even further agitated by his squad leader when he nonchalantly just walked out of the treeline towards him, his head still buried in that book.

"Not bad. You were attacking as if to kill me just like I said, but you really are going to have to do better than that..." Kakashi drawled in his trademark bored tone of voice.

"I am an Uchiha! I don't do _better_," Sasuke said confidently as he moved with surprising speed into taijutsu range of his teacher, "I do_ best!_"

Kakashi would have been lying if he said he was fully prepared for how drastically better his brooding student's taijutsu was in comparison to the other two boys, he had even put his book away for the first time during the test because of it. There seemed to be great natural talent and obvious hours of training behind the boys attacks, only let down by something he seemed to share with Naruto; raw overconfidence.

Sasuke pressed forward, unknowing of his teacher's focus on analyzing him instead of fighting him, trading blows and blocks, feints and parries, until finally finding some give in the man's guard. As soon as one of his punches was blocked by Kakashi's forearm instead of outright knocked aside he flung his body upwards in such a way that the masked Jounin almost wasn't ready to block the overhead kick that followed with his other arm. Almost.

The young Uchiha couldn't have executed his combination any cleaner, as he twisted his body while in mid air, partially held up by his two blocked limbs. He threw his free leg's knee towards Kakashi's face at the exact moment he reached out with his last limb, feeling the metal bell tied to the man's waist brush his fingertips.

'_You've got to be kidding me!_' As soon as his student had made the slight contact with the bell Kakashi backpedaled so far and so fast it looked like he had teleported if it weren't for the dust trails his feet had kicked up, '_What is with these kids?_'

Sasuke somehow managed to land on his feet after losing the support his blocked limbs had provided previously, spinning through the air skillfully while making hand seals, '_Damn it! I'm not done yet!_'

Kakashi didn't miss the movements of the dark haired boys hands despite his acrobatics trying to conceal them, and he recognized the jutsu they were for too, "There's no way a Genin can do that jutsu, takes too much chakra!"

Kakashi had just enough time to remember that one of his other students could somehow perform a Jounin ranked clone jutsu like it was nothing before Sasuke lifted his hand to his mouth and started to spew flames from it, "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

A portion of the clearing was lit ablaze as Sasuke attempted to burn his teacher alive with a large orb of chakra generated flames. He had to end the technique before it drained him too much, leaving a large burnt patch of grass along with charred leaves and embers floating in the air.

But no corpse, or any sign of the masked man at all for that matter.

Sasuke had tired himself out more than he should have with his favorite jutsu, looking left and right scanning for Kakashi to give him the best chance of dodging in his worn out state, but could find no trace of him, '_There was no substitution there so how did he dodge it? Where the hell is he?_'

"I'm where you least expect me." Was all Sasuke heard as a gloved hand came up from the ground, grabbing onto his ankle tightly.

"What the-" The Uchiha couldn't even finish being surprised before he was rapidly dragged bodily into the ground until he was buried up to his neck.

Seconds later Kakashi popped up from under the earth landing in a mocking crouch in front of the trapped boy, "Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu." You could somehow tell the man was smiling even with the mask that always hid his face, and it pissed Sasuke off to no end, but despite his best efforts he couldn't even budge his body, let alone punch the smug look off of him like he wanted to.

"You think you're so special don't you? Even if Naruto and Rike were stupid to attack me head on, they weren't stupid enough to do it alone." Kakashi chided his student, who just turned his head as much as he could with a dismissive noise at being compared to those idiots, "What? You think you're different from them? Better? _best_..." Kakashi added sarcastically, just frustrating the boy further.

"Well… You are different, I'll give you that. But different isn't always better..." Kakashi continued in a lighter tone of voice as he started to leave the clearing, "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down as the saying goes…"

The blunt humor of Kakashi's departing phrase was not lost on Sasuke, it just fueled his aggravation as he continued to try and wriggle himself free from his soily prison, to no avail, '_What would you know? What would any of you know about me..._'

XxX

(Nearby - Surrounding Forest)

Hinata hadn't been too far away from where Sasuke and their teacher had fought, she had activated her Byakugan when she heard the blast from a jutsu of some kind, and had eventually zeroed in on the clearing where there was now just Sasuke on his own… in the ground...

She planned on going to help her ensnared teammate as she couldn't find Naruto anywhere, but stopped as she saw movement behind her on her left side. Her eyes allowed her 360 degree vision while active, so she could clearly see a set of shuriken fly from the trees towards her.

She dodged the deadly metal stars clearly, but also tracked where they were going to land, spotting a kunai trap that the shuriken set off when they landed, launching the flying daggers towards her, forcing her to dodge again. She didn't know how she had missed the trap, she was so focused on finding her team again that she hadn't checked her immediate area.

And she wouldn't get a chance to now, as when the kunai missed they too triggered a pair of traps that fired off more hidden sets of the metal weaponry, which in turn set off more and more as the seemingly endless chain reaction continued with the Hyuuga girl almost effortlessly and elegantly dancing through the storm of knives and stars.

If she was looking hard enough instead of dodging for her life, Hinata would have noticed all of the weapons were blunted training versions, not the real things. Kakashi wasn't trying to kill any of them today after all, but they would still hurt like hell if they hit.

As the rain of metal ended Hinata didn't have a scratch on her, she wasn't even that tired, just short of breath from evading and keeping her bloodline ability active for so long. She stopped channeling chakra to her eyes as the world returned to colour from the monochrome vision the Byakugan provided, simply trying to regain her composure when she heard a noise coming from the bushes nearby.

She was about to re-activate her all seeing eyes when a voice stopped her, "H-Hinata…"

She knew that voice, it was Naruto, and it sounded like he was in pain. Without thinking she ran over towards where she had heard him, "N-Naruto-kun?" the young Hyuuga asked as she moved around a tree, when she felt someone collapse onto her from behind it, making her stumble as she caught them.

It took her a second to realise it was Naruto who had fallen onto her, he was bloody, his clothes were tattered and he had a mass of kunai protruding from his body all over him. And yet still the thing she noticed the most was how close he was to her, with all of his weight pressing on her as she tried to steady him, she couldn't handle it as she blushed deeply at the contact, "N-n-n-n-nar… ut…" She couldn't even finish saying his name as she fainted and fell onto her back, Naruto falling on her.

Kakashi was sitting in a tree nearby, watching as his only female student collapsed with a smile on her face despite the genjutsu that she was trapped in having her teammate in a near death situation, '_Well, she has great use of her eyes when she's focused, and she has even better movement than the boys... But when she starts to think about Naruto she doesn't think things through at all, and then…"_

He made a half Ram seal with one hand to dispel the illusion he had placed on her, '_When she does find him she's so embarrassed she either becomes so flustered she doesn't function right, or just shuts down altogether..._'

The masked man concluded his analysis on his students into one brief thought, '_If they do find a way to pass this, we have a _lot_ of work to do..._'

XxX

(A few minutes later)

Kakashi was simply reading in his tree near where Hinata was still passed out. He wasn't just going to leave her like this in the forest on her own, her father would have his head if he found out he did that. He was thinking about trying to wake her up himself when he noticed Rike and Naruto moving towards her.

Making a quick string of hand seals he hid re-hid himself with a simple genjutsu, nothing special and easy enough to break, but enough to keep him out of sight from a few fresh Genin.

"What the hell happened here?" Rike asked as they looked over the ridiculous amount of ninja tools littering the area, "This place is a war zone… No blood though, so hopefully they're fine."

Naruto hoped that at least Hinata was alright, he wouldn't mind if it was just Sasuke... On second thought, he wasn't that cruel, even if the Uchiha was an asshat sometimes, "Yeah, but where are they? This doesn't look like where that smoke came from."

As they looked around Rike noticed something white behind a tree, "Hinata!" he yelled as she was just laying on the floor not moving as he flew over to her literally.

Naruto started moving over to where Rike had gone when they heard a shout in the distance, "Hey! Get me out of here!" From the sound of it the person really wasn't used to asking for help, sounding more like a demand than a plea.

"That sounds like Sasuke," Rike noted as he got to Hinata, upon closer inspection she seemed fine, just unconscious, "Naruto, go find him and see what's wrong!"

"Right!" Naruto agreed as he set off towards where they had heard their final teammate.

Rike gently lifted Hinata to be sitting against a tree as he tried to shake her awake. He was glad he had a reason to send Naruto off, as if he was here being all concerned when she woke up she had a good chance of passing out again, and they didn't have time for that, "Hinata, come on give me something here…" He said trying to rouse her from her state, but nothing.

It was the sounds of uncontrollable laughter and annoyed shouting, with repeated use of 'idiot' and 'dead last', that eventually woke the young girl from her slumber, "N-Naruto?" She asked quietly with concern thick in her voice.

"Ah, so you are still with us, I was starting to get worried." Rike got her attention as he helped her stand up, "Naruto's with me, he's fine, don't worry." She was a little shaky at first but she was fine soon after.

"Thank you Rike, I don't know what happened to me, I was fine one minute and then..." She tried to explain but Rike could only get mumblings out of her past that. He could hazard a pretty good guess at what got her to faint with a blush and a smile like she was doing now. Sooner or later Naruto was going to figure this out himself, but this was not the place and definitely not the time.

Rike flew over towards where there was still a ruckus going on with Hinata following after, Kakashi silently observing as he moved over above them. The Odesa born Genin arrived to the sight of Sasuke's head sticking out of the ground looking angry and shouting at Naruto who was rolling around on the floor clutching his stomach laughing.

"We're supposed to be ninja here, dammit…" Rike pointed out as he palmed his face at the scene.

Hinata started making her way into the clearing, asking what all the noise was, "Rike… What's the situation?" She quietly asked as she joined them, getting Naruto to stop laughing and stand up although the odd snicker still escaped him.

"Kakashi's fucking kicking our asses, that's the situation…" Rike exclaimed as he walked over to where Sasuke was stuck, placing a hand on his dark hair before flashing his eye yellow and forcing the Uchiha's body up out of the ground by using the V-Exye's active ability to control the boy's vectors.

Sasuke didn't even say thank you, not that it surprised any of them, as he shook himself off and started trying to walk off into the forest in search of their teacher again.

"What? Got another plan of attack now?" Rike almost mockingly asked, getting Sasuke to stop.

"I have a plan;" Sasuke said resolutely as he looked over his shoulder back at them, "Attack."

"Yeah, because you didn't end up stuck neck deep in the floor last time you tried that…" Naruto pointed out, getting a glare from the Uchiha.

"You wanna fight dead last?" Sasuke threatened as he walked up to Naruto.

Hinata wanted to get them to stop arguing but couldn't find the words or courage, Rike had no such issues though, "Hey, I will gladly march over there and bitch slap you as equals! We're not fighting each other here!"

This got Sasuke and Naruto to stop glaring lightning bolts at the other as they turned them onto Rike, "Look, here's the problem…" The young ninja sighed, getting them to stop trying to stare daggers into him, "Every single one of us sucks…"

And there the glares were again, Sasuke even started moving towards the boy intent on making him eat those words, "But!" before Rike suddenly continued, "This test isn't about every _single_ one of us, is it?"

Kakashi could have swore that Rike shot a glance at him up in the trees, but he couldn't have, he was still under the cloaking genjutsu, but he was happy that at least one of them seemed to have figured it out by the sound of it, "This test is about all of us together."

That got Rike puzzled looks from the rest of his team, "Think about it," He expanded as he started pacing around the clearing, "How on earth do think a Genin fresh out of the academy could steal something from a seasoned Jounin? They can't, it's just not a fair task."

"I touched one of the bells." Sasuke proudly pointed out with his arms folded.

"Oh, good for you." Naruto sarcastically praised, earning the boys ire further.

"We've all tried our best here, and neither Rike Dunkon, Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuuga or Sasuke Uchiha can take a single bell from Kakashi Hatake…" Rike listed off as he stopped wandering to look at them with a grin, "But can Team 7 take them from him?"

All of the other young ninja finally got a look of understanding, Hinata was smiling softly while Naruto and Sasuke shared a look, before grinning at each other. They might not like one another, but they could work together if that's what this needed.

Kakashi had the most genuine smile he'd had in a long time, he had heard what he needed to and left his students as they began trying to think of a strategy. He was actually curious as to what they'd come up with now they were working together, and wanted it to be a surprise.

Rike was in thought, he might have got them willing to work together, but even as a team how were they meant to pull this off?

"Ok then, we do this as a team… So what's the plan?" Sasuke asked Rike. He didn't like having to work along with them, but he didn't dislike it too much either if he ignored Naruto.

"Well…" Rike scratched the back of his head nervously, "I've only got a few tricks left that Kakashi hasn't seen yet, but that's not enough on it's own…"

They were all silent as they tried to come up with something when Naruto broke them from it, "Hey, what happened over there, was that Kakashi?" He asked pointing over to where a portion of the clearing was burnt up.

"No, that was me with my fireball jutsu."Sasuke smugly answered, his ego swelling as his blonde teammate gawked at him.

Rike looked over and had to admit that was impressive, "Hmm… Do you think you could pull that off again?" He could work with this.

"If I really needed to yes. It's a massive drain on my chakra reserves but I could do it." The Uchiha explained.

'_Big assed fireball, an army of clones, eyes he can't hide from, the few ninja tools we have left and a Exye he hasn't seen yet…_' Rike mused with his eyes closed before opening them and speaking up to his team, "Alright everyone, I have a plan."

"Now you're just copying me from when I said I had a plan…" Did Sasuke just make a joke? Were they in a genjutsu or something here?

"Whatever," Rike ignored the shock from Sasuke's welcome change of tone, "I'm going to need you all to trust me on this one and do the best you can on your ends."

"Kind of hard to try your best when only half of us pass even if this works…" Naruto muttered, still annoyed at how this test worked.

"Don't worry about that, I've got a feeling that's not exactly how this works." Rike assured his friend, getting him to liven up, "And hey, if I'm wrong, those two can pass and me and you can go terrorize the academy for another year and try again afterwards." He finished with a mischievous smirk.

Naruto didn't mind it too much when he put put it like that, perking all the way back up, "Yeah you're right! Ok then, so what's the plan?"

Sasuke was confused at how he felt hearing Rike say he'd go back to the academy so that they could pass. Was this what being thankful felt like? He hadn't felt that properly in years… He didn't like it, or so he kept telling himself.

Hinata blushed, grateful that they would do that for her, but she would be sad if that was what happened, this team was really growing on her, and she didn't want Naruto to leave her.

Rike broke them from their feelings by beginning to explain, "Right, now we're all on the same page, let's get to it, here's what I need you to do…"

XxX

(Later - Team 7 Training Ground)

Time was running out as the sun began to hang lower and lower in the sky. By Kakashi's judging they had about half an hour before the test ended.

He was really starting to like this team, they were the first ones to ever even stop and talk things through instead of continuing to come at him one at a time. Rike seemed to have a better head on his shoulders than he gave him credit for, he had managed to get his team to stop together and listen to him, that could make him a good Jounin in the future if he got strong enough.

Rike was the brains and seemed to have a toolbox of abilities in that eye of his, Naruto would be the sheer manpower with his clones once his taijutsu improved, Sasuke would be a ninjutsu specialist once he awakened his Sharingan, and Hinata would make a great scout with her Byakugan complimented by her sheer speed once she learned how to deal with genjutsu and got some much needed confidence in her.

This team could go the distance if they put the effort in was all kakashi could think as he continued to read, stood in the exact same spot he had began the test from.

After a few moments he felt the presence of his students return to the training grounds. Looking up from his book he saw all four of them stood where they had begun too. "Nice of you all to join me." Kakashi greeted as he snapped his book shut and put it away, "You've only got about twenty minutes left to take a bell, or are you done?" He taunted as they all looked nervous, but something felt different from before, like they were more together.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Rike smirked to his teacher, his friends at his sides, "Ok Team 7, let's try this again!"

The four of them dropped into ready stances as both Rike and Sasuke dropped smoke bombs, concealing the entire team from vision.

'_That's the spirit… All right "Team 7", let's see what you've got._' Kakashi smirked to himself, he was having more fun with this group than any other Genin squad he'd been handed before. He had just enough time to think this when two shuriken flew out of the cloud, but they were going straight up vertically for some reason, immediately followed by a pair of kunai flying straight at him.

The Jounin thought about dodging them, but noticed that they were thrown with such bad aim that they just sailed by him, one on each side of him, '_Come on, you're better than tha-_' His displeasure with his students aim was short lived as the kunai that had missed him started wrapping around him rapidly. They were connected by ninja wire, and soon he had his arms trapped next to him as he was entangled, '_Uchiha do love their ninja wire, but this can't hold me… What's that sound?_'

Kakashi's single eye grew wide in shock as he noticed that the wrappings on the handles of the kunai had both been replaced with explosive tags, a clever trick to keep them hidden, as most ninja tied them to the rings of the throwing knives.

The training ground shook as the tags went off, sending fire and black smoke into the air that started to dissipate along with the smoke that his students had dropped previously. Kakashi had managed to substitute out just in time as he had been caught off guard by the sneak attack, and was looking from behind the large tree that his little bell trap was set up in.

As their cover faded away, Kakashi noticed that both Naruto and Rike were missing, leaving Hinata and Sasuke with their eyes closed… and something else on the floor. He immediately regretted looking at what it was, as the two shuriken that had been thrown upwards returned from on high, hitting the small white orbs on the ground.

The next thing Kakashi knew he could only see pure white, '_Sneaky brats, that's one way to use flash bombs._' It was his finely honed other senses that allowed him to block an assault from one of his students, Sasuke he figured from how he was rushing him down.

He could lift his headband and use his Sharingan eye to see, but that seemed like overkill even in light of how well his Genin's were performing now. To give himself some time to get his vision back up and running Kakashi substituted once again when he purposefully let one of Sasuke's attacks through, hiding in the branches of the treeline.

He had about five seconds before he had to dodge again, this time his attacker feeling swifter, but with much less ferocity in their attacks, "Hello Hinata." He smiled, happy that his only female student was finally coming at him, and even blocking those famed Hyuuga palm strikes was a painful exchange '_She's using her eyes and informing her team to stop me from being able to hide my substitution locations, good girl._'

The impressed Jounin got partial vision back just in time to jump down from the treeline in order to dodge Sasuke joining in with his teammates assault on him, chasing him down to the open training area, not letting up for a moment as they tried their best to coordinate attacks between them on the man, and not making a bad job of it.

With his sight quickly returning to him, Kakashi easily fended off the young members of the powerful clans, throwing Hinata to the side a fair distance away after parrying a palm strike. Soon afterwards he managed to land a clean, but still held back, blow on the Uchiha that sent him sliding away as he noticed one of his missing Genin try to sneak out of the water of the lake behind him.

It was Naruto who emerged, wet through, and once again attempted to grab the bell just lay there at the base of the large tree by the lake, but was quickly hoisted into the air by a rope attached to his leg, leaving him dangling in the air over the bell.

'_Well, that accounts for three of them, now there's just Rike to find._' Kakashi noted as he turned around and walked over to Naruto, he could find Rike after taunting his trapped Genin, "I'm glad you all seem to be trying this as a team, but if the bait is obvious, don't take it…"

The masked teacher was about to reclaim his bell that he had used as bait, before he noticed that Naruto's shadow was a lot darker than it should have been, especially given that they were in the shade of the tree, "**Good advice.**" An ethereal voice echoed that, if Kakashi had been looking, had put a huge grin on Naruto's face and had made Sasuke start flying through hand seals.

Before Kakashi had time to register what was going on, Rike launched hand first out of Naruto's strangely dark shadow, grabbing the bell that had been on the ground, his Exye emanating a black cross.

As soon as he felt his body fully leave the shadow, Rike immediately changed over to the V-Exye, spinning to be upside down in the air throwing a shuriken that cut Naruto down, while putting some distance between him and the befuddled Kakashi who was still trying to process things.

Naruto landed and promptly dove back into the lake as Rike landed a short distance from Sasuke, with Hinata mirroring him on the opposite side of the Uchiha who had just finished his hand signs.

Kakashi realized he was flanked quite well by the three on land, quite impressed by what they had just done, no other Genin team had got even a single bell off of him, and judging by the fact Sasuke had just prepared his Great Fireball Jutsu again it seemed like they weren't going to settle at one.

What he wasn't expecting was for both Hinata and Rike to litter the ground on his left and right sides with explosive tagged kunai as Sasuke let his jutsu roar towards him, thoroughly limiting his escape options.

A giant fireball coming in front of him, a multitude of random explosions on both his sides, and a lake with just Naruto in it behind him. It doesn't take a genius to figure out which option Kakashi took as he turned and dove into the water.

He should have just taken the burns.

As the flames and explosions ceased, the three on land all had varying expressions that all showed they were happy with the result in their own way, going from a dignified small smile and a slight smirk to a giant overjoyed grin with no points for guessing who was doing what.

The reason for this was that Kakashi had just jumped into a lake of what they had dubbed in the planning phase as 'Naruto Piranha', and by the amount of rippling and bubbling that the surface of the lake was doing it seemed like he was giving their teacher a run for his money with the amount of clones he had hidden in the water.

Kakashi was not having an enjoyable experience anymore, as he was mercilessly being harassed by an army of underwater Naruto's punching, kicking, and grappling him with some even trying to pull at his mask. He couldn't use any of his Ninjutsu underwater as he would risk killing his student if he did, so he was left with the tedious task of getting rid of them with Taijutsu, but even generating enough force to dispel them underwater was a task.

Little did the unfortunate man know that the Real Naruto had already gotten out of the lake and trudged over to his teammates, before holding the up the second bell with a massive toothy smile on his face, "Don't you love it when a plan comes together?" Rike laughed, getting a fist bump off of Naruto as he fell into line with his teammates.

The four of them merely stood there and waited for their teacher to pull himself out of the water, as the bubbling continued for a good while before dying down, shortly followed by a disheveled Jounin pulling himself out of the water.

"...What was that with the shadow, Rike?" Kakashi managed to ask as he ringed himself out, he understood everything that just happened apart from what his metal eyed Genin had done to get the first bell.

"S-Exye, it's passive lets me use shadows, like hiding in them and coming out when I want as long as I don't stay in there for too long. Downside is that I make the shadow permanent while I'm using it, so it's easy to spot where I am if you know what to look for." Rike explained, knowing Kakashi had seen how Naruto's shadow seemed strange due to him being in it, "It's active ability I don't feel like showing any of you yet, gotta keep some tricks up my sleeve after all don't I?" Rike made a show of his single long sleeved arm jokingly.

'_Lazy as sin and can use shadows, if Rike isn't related to the Nara clan somewhere down the line I'll eat my left sandal..._' Sasuke thought to himself, only half jokingly.

Kakashi did a good job of quickly recovering his composure as he darkly walked towards his students. He was trying his best to look menacing but he was so damn impressed with them all, plus even he knew he'd been had, and he looked like a mess from it, "Congratulations, you got the bells..." Kakashi voice boomed out trying to sound intimidating, getting his Genin's attention, "Now, which of you is going back to the academy?" He asked ominously, genuinely interested in their answer.

"None of us," Rike spoke up as he stepped forward, "The test was not to take the bell's off of you, but to act as a team and use our individual strengths to cover each others weaknesses to get as close as we could to taking them from you, right?" He finished, getting nods from his teammates behind him.

Kakashi continued walking up to Rike, who was beginning to get a little unnerved by the angry looking Jounin as he towered over him, and he could swear storm clouds were forming above the man's head. Had he got the point of the test wrong?

"You're absolutely-" Kakashi shouted, looking like he was going to kill them, emphasized by thunder and lightning.

"Right." And just like that the sun was shining once more, with Kakashi smiling with his eye closed, and was that a rainbow over there?

"S-so… We pass?" Hinata softly managed to ask.

"Yes, you pass." Kakashi answered pleasantly, "Team 7 is officially a Konoha ninja squad!" The man's awkwardly overacted thumbs up not stopping Naruto from jumping for joy, with his teammates being more reserved in their celebrations.

Rike just looked around confused, had no one else just seen the weather change?

"Oh, Hinata," Naruto ceased his jumping around to jog up to the now blushing girl, "Here," He said innocently as he handed her the bell he had managed to take, "For being our eyes in that fight."

Hinata bashfully accepted the bell before realising that Naruto's hand was still holding hers as he gave her the small metal orb, and promptly fainted on the spot, "Huh, Hinata? Hinata!"

Kakashi sweat dropped as he saw a clueless Naruto try to wake the infatuated Hyuuga, "Yeah, we're gonna need to work on that…"

Looking at the scene in front of him along with some of the things he'd seen today, Rike could only look at the small bell in his hand and say one thing, it just seemed to sum all of this up perfectly; "Ninja are weird…" Himself included.

* * *

Exye List So Far

V-Exye:  
Passive; Control over personal vectors for a short time. Active; Control over the vectors of an object or person Rike is in contact with.

C-Exye:  
Passive; Assists in chakra control for Ninjutsu. Active; Not yet shown.

P-Exye:  
Passive; Enhances Rike's natural physical combat ability such as strength, speed and reaction time. Active; Not yet shown.

S-Exye:  
Passive; Allows Rike to utilize shadows in numerous ways, such as to phase into them to hide etc. Active; Not yet shown.

* * *

**And there you have it!**

**Putting the Exye list at the end was a tip from a beta reader of mine and is actually a good way to keep track of what Rike has access to at that time, so ****cheers for that one Raven.**

**While on the topic of the Exye, ran into a grammar issue: I pronounce Exye as 'Zai' so I'm writing it as 'A Exye' instead of 'An Exye' how the spelling would dictate. So yeah, that's why it might seem strange.**

**Not much else to report here, I'm off to Download Festival in the morning, so I've hit my self set target to get this damn thing out before then by about 10 hours. Whooo...**

**Anyway, none of you care, I'm tired as balls, and no pet update this time, sorry.**

**Peace, ]-[**


End file.

Naruto, Fantasy, Humor