4

Naruto arrived at the training grounds promptly at 10am, full and content. He had, of course, taken his own advice and eaten breakfast, not to mention he didn't get up until 8 and ate about 9.

"You're late, Baka!" Sakura screeched, as always.

Naruto cleaned his ear with his pinkie, looking at it in a mock gesture as if looking for blood.

"You're really loud. Good morning to you too, Sakura, Teme. Did you take my advice, Sasuke?" The raven nodded slightly, and Naruto took that as a win. He knew Sakura hadn't listened to him, for the sole reason that she seemed to hate him.

Half an hour after Naruto arrived, Kakashi poofed into existence in front of them.

Naruto applied his mask, realizing it had been slipping so quickly it was a wonder nobody had noticed it before.

"You're late, Sensei!" Both Sakura and Naruto called out.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, pulled out his orange book, and put one of his hands in a pocket as he slouched and began to read.

"I was on my way here, when a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way," Kakashi responded lazily.

Naruto mentally rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, today we're going to do that Genin exam. All you have to do, is get one of these bells from me before noon, and you pass. As added incentive, those who pass get one of the bentos I brought with me."

Sakura, being the dumb blond/pinkette she is, had to point out the obvious. "There's only two bells, sensei."

"Exactly. Good luck. And don't forget to come at me with the intent to kill." Kakashi gave his eye-smile, and shouted, "Go!"

The three Genin-hopefuls disappeared into the trees around the grounds, hiding their chakra signatures as best they could.

'Huh, I would've thought Naruto's control would be so abysmal he wouldn't be able to conceal himself, but I can't even tell where he is. The other two, on the other hand, need to work harder. Sasuke is like a sitting duck butt, and Sakura isn't any better. Guess it's my job as their sensei to teach them a lesson.'

While Kakashi was having his inner monologue, Naruto had snuck over to Sasuke's side, and nearly scared the butt off his hair.

"Sasuke," Naruto started. "I know the point of this exam. It's teamwork. Do you know any 3-man cells?"

Sasuke had to admit the blond had a point. "What do you have in mind?"

Naruto explained his plan, and then went over to find Sakura, and also recruit her for the plan as well, grateful he had gone to the duck-ass first, otherwise, Bubblegum wouldn't have been willing to help him at all.

"Sakura. I know the point of the exam. It's teamwork."

"What are you talking about? If the point was teamwork, why are there only two bells?"

"Because he's trying to trick us into working against each other. Have you ever seen a shinobi team consisting of only 3 members?"

Sakura thought about it, only to admit that, no, in fact she had never seen a squad have only three members. It normally consists of a leader, and three subordinates.

"Well, if that's the case, then I want to work with Sasuke-kun, not some Baka like you."

Naruto rolled his eyes, once again grateful for his choice of order. "I already asked Sasuke, and he's in on my plan. Here's what we'll do..."

Naruto appeared in the clearing in the middle of the training grounds, looking and listening for his sensei. He saw what appeared to be the two bells hanging from a tree, and hurried toward them. Before he reached them, however, he noted the snare laying on the ground right below them. He smirked, and grabbed the bells, creating a Shadow CLone without any handsigns, who stepped into the snare, and was bounced up and down, caught in the trap.

Naruto quickly tracked down his two teammates, and handed them each one of the bells, and just in time, too, because the timer went off.

The team came out of the tree line, and lined up in the clearing, waiting for their sensei to come and discuss with them how they did.

"You three failed to get the bells from me within the allotted time, which means you failed the exams," Kakashi said, fake sympathy in his tone.

"But sensei, we have the bells right here," Sasuke said, holding up one fo the bells Naruto had given them. Sakura held up the other one and Naruto smiled at the dumbstruck look on their sensei's face.

"What?" Kakashi looked down at his belt, and with astonishment, what he believed to be the bells turned into a pair of walnuts tied to his belt with ninja wire. "How?"

"You know that tree that 'I' was hanging from where you 'tricked' me with the bells?" Naruto asked. Kakashi nodded and the blond continued explaining. "It wasn't actually me, it was a clone. I grabbed the bells without even getting caught by the snare, but then created a clone and had him purposely get caught in the trap, giving me the chance to switch the real bells with the fakes, and bring my teammates the real ones."

"But if you gave both your teammates the bells, that means you failed, Naruto."

"Actually, it doesn't, when I understand the meaning of the exam:teamwork."

Kakashi was shocked. None of his previous teams had been able to figure out the point.

"'Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends and comrades are worse than scum.' Isn't that what someone close to you once said?"

Kakashi couldn't believe it. His student somehow knew his friend's words that Kakashi started to live by since that incident.

"Yes, it is, word for word, Naruto. How you knew it, I have no idea. Anyway, teamwork is a very important thing to learn, because it can mean the difference between a mission success and failure. The person who taught me that line Naruto just said, his name is on that stone over there, along with countless names of heroes who are famous in this village for their acts of bravery."

"I want to be on that stone some day!" Naruto exclaimed, still attempting to stay with his mask on.

"You may want to rethink that stance, Naruto. You said it yourself yesterday, that's the KIA stone, where the heroes of Konohagakure are immortalized in stone for their bravery, because they sacrificed their own lives for this village."

There was silence for a few minutes, as that information sank in.

"Anyway, since you three passed, we'll have our first official mission tomorrow. Meet here at 7am. See ya." Kakashi once again vanished in a swirl of leaves.

(ᵔᴥᵔ)

It had been several months since Naruto had graduated from the Shinobi academy. Since joining his team, he hasn't really had a lot of fun. Between Sakura beating him up for "being a Baka" and the villagers hating on him every chance they got, his life was beginning to head into a downward spiral. It wasn't a good thing.

Shikamaru had been meeting up with Naruto quite often as well, and had slowly been noticing these changes in the blond. His once vibrant blond hair, was slowly turning paler, heading closer toward Ino's dull blond hair, and even gaining a bit of silver to it. His eyes, which had once been a vast ocean of blue, were now becoming more and more gray, like a stormy sea. Pineapple didn't know what to do, or how to help.

One day, he went to Naruto's apartment, because they were supposed to hang out that day, but when the blond didn't show up, Pineapple grew concerned. He quickly made his way over to the blond's house, to find all the lights were off, the windows were shut and locked, but the door was wide open.

That worried Pineapple far more than anything else. He rushed into the house, stepping over trash and dirty clothes, and trying to find out where Naruto was.

"Naruto! Naruto, where are you?" he called out as he was picking his way deeper into the room.

It was when he was nearing the bedroom when he smelled it.

The metallic scent of blood.

Shikamaru rushed into the bedroom, and when he saw no sign of the blond, he quickly went into the bathroom.

That's when he found the blond, curled up on the floor of his bathroom, in nothing but a pair of naruto patterned boxers, laying in a pool of his own blood.

"Naru!"

Σ('◉⌓◉')

A/N: If that's not a scary cliffhanger, I'm not sure what is. Hope you all are enjoying this story. Look forward to the next chapter! Until then じゃあね！ ♪( 'θ｀)ノ