Umiko's POV

I tied my leaf headband around my forehead and had packed my necessary weapons and walked out the door to the academy.

As I opened the door to the room, I heard a stampede of footsteps behind me. Stepping, to the side, I just barely missing getting crushed my Ino and Sakura.

"GOAL!" They both yelled and panted.

"I won again, Sakura."

"What're saying? The tip of my foot got in one centimeter faster!"

I sighed and walked over to surprisingly Naruto. "Naru-kun what are you doing here?"

"Oh, Umi-chan! I passed and got my leaf headband! But I also figured out something..." He said the last part quietly.

I tilted my head to the side. "Eh? What do you mean?"

"I figured out I'm the nine tails..." He said sadly.

I smiled. "Well, I guess we weren't different after all!"

"Huh?" He asked confused.

"You'll know sooner or later." I sat down next to him.

Just then, Naruto stood up and crouched on Sasuke's desk and they glared at each other.

"Naruto! Don't glare at Sasuke-kun!" Sakura and the others glared at him.

They leaned in so they were a few centimeters apart and electricity shocking from their eyes.

"Just beat him up, Sasuke-kun!"

"Yeah! Yeah!"

"What really?" A guy knocked his elbow behind Naruto's back. He turned around. "Oh! Sorry!"

"Wha-?"

"Woah!"

I burst out laughing, clutching my stomach rolling on the floor. The guy behind Naruto elbowed him, resulting them to kiss. I heard their lips smack together and smooching sounds.

I continued to laugh and they pulled away, gagging and holding their throats.

I stopped laughing and stood up.

"You jerk...Naruto! I'll kill you!"

"My mouth is rotting!"

"Huh? Was that my fault?" The guy behind Naruto asked.

"What? I feel rage..." Naruto looked up and saw the fangirls.

"Naruto...you..."

"An accident...it was an accident."

I was fully serious now and stood between the girls and Naruto.

"If you touch him," I took off my bandages from my eyes and opened them letting them look at my pale eyes, giving them a threatening glare. "I'll kill you."

Everyone gasped. There was a long scar going across both my eyes.

"Ha, what can a blind girl like you can do?"

I made a little chakra in my eyes feeling pain to the voice and she started screaming. "W-What is this?!"

"I'll say it again. If you dare lay a finger on Naruto...I'll kill you." I glared at them.

The girl nodded furiously. "Just make it stop!" I made the chakra disappear and all of them ran away to their seats. "Freak!"

I sighed and wrapped my bandages around my eyes and sat down. I felt Naruto and everyone else looking at me.

I turned to Naruto. "What?" I asked like everything I did was forgotten.

"Umi-chan...why did you protect me?"

"Because," I gave him a smile. "You're my friend and I shall protect you with my life."

"But what happened to your eyes? What was that scar?" He questioned.

I glared at the table and clenched my fist "Nothing." I said coldly.

He paled.

"Umi-chan..." Just then, Iruka Sensei walked in.

"As of today, you all have become full-fledged ninjas...however, you're still genin. The tough part is still to come! From here on, you'll be in a squad of three and carry out your mission under your own Jonin teachers! However, there will be a team of four since the students are uneven." He yelled.

I heard Sasuke click his toungue probably thinking he's better that everyone.

I couldn't help but get the feeling of something watching us. I turned my head around and looked around the room. I landed on the top corner of the room and squinted my eyes at it. I shrugged, thinking it was my imagination and turned back around.

No one's POV

"And that's Sasuke Uchiha, the last surviving Uchiha excluding Itachi." The hokage said and all the jounins looked at the small orb on the center of the table.

They continued to look at everyone until their eyes landed on a white headed ninja. She turned her head around until her eyes landed on the orb staring at the jounin.

Everyone gasped in the room except for Kakashi. "Hokage-sama! Who's that?!" Asuma yelled.

"That's Umiko. A blind ninia. But despite she can't see, she is very strong." He explained.

Umiko's POV

"The groups have been determined so that the strength of the group will be balanced. But one group will uave four sinve the students are unequal." I startes to zone out but come back in when Naruto's name was called.

"Naruto Uzumaki!"

"Sakura Haruno!"

I heard Naruto cheer and Sakura slumping her head down. "Sasuke Uchiha!" Then it was the opposite.

"...And Umiko!" Me and Naruto high-five.

"Which team are we on?" I whispered to Naruto.

"Team seven. Iruka Sensei!" Naruto stood up and pointed at Sasuke. "Why does and exceptional student like me have to be in the same group with this guy?!"

"Sasuke has the best grades of the graduates. You have the lowest. And Umiko has the highest grades of all." He said.

"But how?! She just came to the academy!" Sakura yelled.

"Well, she made 20 clones in the shadow clone jutsu." He said.

I smirked. "Now, you will be meeting you're jonin in the afternoon. You're dismissed!"

"Come on, Umi-chan! Let's go to Ichiraku's Ramen to celebrate!" Naruto said.

"Fine. Let's go."

--

"He's late." Naruto complained as we waited in the room with Sasuke and Sakura.

I heard Naruto sliding the door open and peek his head out. "Naruto! Stay still!" Sakura scolded.

"Why is only our squad jonin late while the others have probably already gone somewhere?" He said.

I felt a chair being moved and him standing on it, placing something between the door. "Naru-kun, what are you doing?" I asked.

"It's his fault he's late." He jumped off the chair.

"There's no way he or she could fall for that. It's a jonin." Sasuke pointed out.

I felt Sakura nod. "Yeah, I agree with Sasuke-kun. There's no way he could fall for that."

I heard footsteps coming and I sniffed the air, recognizing the scent.

The door opened and the object hit the jonin's head. Naruto laughed and Sakura started to apologize about not stopping Naruto.

"Oh hi, Kakashi Onni-san. I didn't know you were gonna be our teacher." I stated and put my hand up.

"Onni-san?!" Naruto and Sakura yelled.

"Hmm...my first impression of you guys...is that you're all idiots."

We all put our heads down in shame.

"Well, let's go to the roof." We all sat on top of the roof waiting for Kakashi to say something.

"Let's see. First off, let me have you guys intoduce yourselves." Kakashi Sensei said.

"Introduce ourselves? What should we say?" Sakura asked. Her stupid questions.

"Your likes, dislikes, your future, dream, hobbies, things like that." He crossed his arms.

"Hey! Before that, please introduce yourself." Naruto said.

"Me? My name is Kakashi Hatake. I don't feel like telling you guys about my likes and dislike. My furture, I won't tell you that. And I have lots of hobbies." He said.

'You like reading pervy books. You hate people burning your pervy books. Your dream is to meet the writer of the pervy books. Reading pervy books'

"So all we got was his name." Sakura whispered.

"Your turn. The blonde hair."

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki. I like cup of ramen but I like the ones at Ichiraku's Ramen. I like eating ramen and comparing them. I also like Umiko as my best friend. What I don't like is waiting for 3 minutes for it to eat. My dream it to become the best hokage!" Naruto introduced. Umiko smiled at him.

"Good. Now you with the pink hair."

"I'm Sakura Haruno. What I like is..." she looked at Sasuke. "What my dream is..." she kept looking at him. "My hobby is..." she squealed.

"And? What do you dislike?" Kakashi Sensei asked.

"Naruto!" She said without hesitation. Naruto anime cried.

"Now you, Umiko."

"My name's Umiko. I like Naruto, strawberries, and animals. I dislike fangirls." I looked at Sakura. "My hobby is to pull pranks with Naruto and my dream," I looked at the horizon. "Is to see the sunset again."

"What do you mean again?" Sakura asked.

"I will tell you all someday." I said mysteriously. Everyone sweat dropped.

"Ok...and finally you." Kakashi pointed at Sasuke.

"My name's Sasuke Uchiha. I have lots of dislikes and no like in particular. I want to restore my clan and kill a certain man." He said.

Naruto paled, probably thinking that he's the one that Sasuke wanna kills as Sakura fan girled. I pat him on the back.

"That's so emo, duck butt." I commented.

He glared at me. Well haha! I'm blind moron so I can't see!

"Good! The four of you are very distinctive and interesting! We have a mission tomorrow!" Kakashi Sensei yelled.

"What kind of mission?" Naruto asked.

"First, we'll see what we can do with 5 people."

"What? What? What?" Naruto asked.

"A survival exercise." He said.

"What kind of exercise?" Sakura asked.

He started to chuckle evily. I shuddered.

"Hey, why are you laughing, Sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Uh, well If I tell you, you'll grow disenchanted." Sensei said.

"Huh?"

"Of the twenty-eight graduates, only nine will be recognized as junior ninjas. The remaining eighteen will be sent back to the academy. In other words, this exercise is and extremely difficult test with a failure of 66% or higher." He explained.

I felt the others pale. "See, see? You got disenchanted!" Sensei exclaimed.

"That's crazy!" Naruto yelled. "To have suffered that much! T-Then, what was the graduation test for?"

"Oh, that? It was just to select those who have the potential of becoming genin."

"Whaaaaat?!" Naruto yelled in disbelief.

"Well, that's the way it is. I'll be determining whether you pass or fail. Bring your complete set of ninja tools. We'll meet at 5 in the morning. Okay you're dismissed." Sensei waved. "Oh...and you'd be best if you skip breakfast. You'll throw up."

[IN THE MORNING]

I packed my kunais, shurikens, sebon needles, paper bombs, food and clothes and met the others in the forest.

"Morning." Sakura said a bit sleepy. Naruto groaned.

I sniffed and didn't find Kasashi's scent. I walked over to a small clearing. "Hey, Umi-chan what are you doing?!" Naruto yelled.

"Sleeping." I started to make hand signs. "Earth style! Shelter!" A small hut of dirt appeared. "Good night!" I yelled over and went inside. I put my bag down and fell asleep.

--

"You're late!" I woke up and smelt Sensei's scent. I got up with my bag and walked out.

"Mornin." I yawned.

"Well, a black cat crossed my path, you see." I clicked my tongue. Horrible liar.

He cleared his throat. "Oh well," He placed something down on a stump. "Ok! It's set for 12:00!" I'm guessing a clock. I heard a jingle.

"The assignment for today is to take these bells away from me by noon. Those who can't do it won't get lunch!"

"Eh?!"

"They'll be tied to that stump and I'll eat the lunch before your eyes!" He pointed to the right and I smelled pine.

All of our stomachs growled. "Chotto, matte! Why are there only three bells?" Sakura asked.

"Because one of you will have to go to the stumps. That person will be disqualified for failing the mission...and will go back to the academy." I can picture the smile in his voice. "It might be one person or all four of you. You can use your shuriken. You won't be able to take the bells if you have the intent to kill me." He said.

"But that's dangerous, sensei." Sakura said.

"Yeah that's right." Naruto agreed. "You couldn't even envade a chalkboard eraser." So that's what fell on his head yesterday.

"In this world, those who aren't skilled enough, tend to complain more." Sensei said. "Well, just ignore the loser."

"Start when I give the ready-go signal." I heard Naruto took a kunai out and charge at him. I sighed while sensei took Naruto's hand and pointed it at his neck.

"I didn't say start yet." we all got in our positions. "Start!"

I leaped on top of a tree while Naruto's footsteps rumbled towards Kakashi Sensei.

"Alright! Let's face fair and square!" Naruto yelled who was in font of Kakashi.

'Baka!' I screamed in my head.

Naruto started to aim attacks at him and all of them Sensei blocked or dodged. Kakashi appeared behind him, in a crouch position, and did a tiger sign.

"Leaf Village Secret! Ultimate Taijutsu! One thousand years of pain!" I didn't know what was happening but once I heard him said that, Kakashi Sensei lodge his fingers in his butt and he went flying.

It took everything I could to not laugh but Kakashi heard and looked my direction. I made a small yelp and jumped to another tree 'Shimatta!'

I continued to jump to tree to tree until I made sure there was no sign of him.

I felt movements next to me and heard Naruto hanging on a tree, with a rope tied to his ankles from the tree.

"Naru-kun, what happened." I snickered.

I heard a grunt and I pulled out a kunai. I threw it and the rope letting him go. He fell on the floor head first and I started to laugh.

"Anyways, thanks Umi-chan!" He went to run, but I grabbed the back of his shirt.

"Hold it! Naruto we have to work as a team to get the bells." I told him.

"Sorry, Umiko. But I have to prove that I can do it myself!" And with that he jumped off.

I sighed and heard Sasuke scream. I dashed towards the direction and sniffed the air and picked up Sakura's and Sasuke's scent.

I landed where those two were and felt Sasuke's body underground and only his head. I snickered. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh all you want. Just get me out of here." He gruffed.

"Alright, Alright." I stood a few yards on front of him and focused all my chakra in my right fist.

"Well? Are you-" He was cut off when I flung my fist towards the ground and punched it. A crack was made towards him and he widen his eyes. Soon, he popped put and landed near Sakura.

He got up and I smiled. "Yeah yeah. Thanks." They ran past me but I held the back of their collars.

"Wait. Kakashi Sensei wants us to work as a team to get the bells. That's what he wants us to do." I said.

"Tch. You'll just get in my way." Sasuke ran off.

"Yeah. I'm following Sasuke-kun!" Sakura ran off.

I snarled. Fine I'll do this on my own. I hid in a tree and kept jumping, trying to find Kakashi sensei. I landed in a tree and looked around. Where is he? I felt movement behind me and I jumped backwards on the ground.

He landed in front of me and put away his Icha Icha book. "Well, this might be a interesting fight." He said.

I nodded and made the first move. I ran towards him and pulled back my fist. He dodged my punch and I tried to roundhouse kick him. He grabbed my ankle and flipped it. I slid back and use my hand to stop.

I went for him again and made a hand sign. "Shadow clone jutsu!" I used Naruto's tactic when he was fighting Kakashi sensei. 10 clones appeared and went for him. He dodged every punch and a clone grabbed behind him.

His eyes widen and the others started to grab his legs and arms, but made sure he was still standing.

I made a tiger sign and appeared behind him. "This was for Naruto!" He turned his head around and widen his eyes.

"One Thousand years of pain!" I plunged my fingers in his butt, and there was a poof. He turned into a block of wood and I sniffed his scent behind me. I turned to the side, dodging a punch from him. I leaped backwards and started to pant.

"I must say, Umiko. You almost got me there." He said.

I ignored him and made hand signs. "Water style! Tsunami Wave!" A huge wave appeared and went towards him.

"Earth style! Earth wall!" He didn't know that I was also in the wave. It was so powerful that it broke through the wall of earth and I grabbed a bell as I went past him and placed a genjutsu. While, the wave was keeping him occupied, I jumped in the air.

As the water cleared, he looked around trying to find me. He looked up and saw me. I heard him gasp and I made more hand signs. "Earth style! Earth ball!" A ball of dirt appeared around Kakashi and I dashed away into the trees. I heard the jingle of the bell in my hand the same time the clock went off.

--

So here we are. Naruto tied to one of the stump, and me, Sakura, and Sasuke, sitting next to him with our stomachs growling. Oh and Kakashi sensei watching us.

"Oh-oh you're stomachs are growling." He said. "By the way, about this exercise...Well, you guys don't need to go back to the academy."

Natuto smiled. "Eh? I...all I did was lay unconscious." Sakura said. "Yahoooooo!" She cheered.

"Then then, that means means the four..." Naruto started.

"Yes, that mean you four...must quit being ninjas!" Kakashi yelled.

Naruto and Sakura stopped cheering.

"Must quit being ninja?! What do you mean?!" Naruto yelled as he kicked his legs. "Um, it's true we weren't able to take the bells. But why do we have to be told to quit?!" Naruto yelled.

"It's because you're all squirts who don't have the qualifications to become ninjas." He said.

I felt Sasuke tense. Next thing I know he goes running towards him with a kunai in his hand.

"I'm saying you're squirts." Kakashi sensei sat on him and put his foot on his head.

"Don't step on Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shrieked.

"Are you kids thinking that being a ninja is easy? Huh?" He questioned. "Why do you think you're doing this exercise in teams?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Sakura asked confused.

"Put simply, it's as you guys have no understanding of the answer to the test." He said.

"Answer...?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. The answer that determines passing or failing of this test." He looked at us.

"That's...what I've wanted to ask about for a while now." Sakura said.

"Man, are you guys brainless or what?" Kakashi sensei said. "Don't you get the meaning of four-man squad?!"

"Jeez! What of four people to a squad?!" Naruto yelled impatient.

"That's...teamwork!" He yelled.

"You mean, working together?!" Sakura asked.

"Exactly. But it's too late even if you realize that now." Sensei reminded. "You might've been able to...take the bells if the three of you had come at me...well, it's too bad."

"Why use teamwork if there were only 3 bells?" Sakura asked. Oh my god. Her and her stupid questions. "If the four of us were to desperately go take the bells, with one having to hold back, that wouldn't be teamwork. That'd creat internal discord."

"Of course! This is a test set up purposely place against each other." He explain even more. "Sakura! You were only concerned with Sasuke and you didn't even know where he was. And you didn't care for Naruto who was right in front of your eyes. Naruto! All you do is run solo...Sasuke, you labeled the other three as hindrances and acted on your own...and Umiko! You asked the others for teamwork and didn't try hard enough, attacked me, and didn't get a bell."