Naruto woke up and looked at the clock. It was 4 in the morning. Naruto got up, brushed his teeth, and got dressed. He then shunshined to his training ground and did the regular routine.

It was now 6:30 am. Naruto decided to start heading home to get ready for the bell test.

Naruto arrived at training ground 7 and found that he as the first one there. He sat down under a tree and started meditating knowing from past experience that Kakashi wouldn't be there for another few hours. A few minutes later, he felt the chakra signature of the Uchiha followed by the annoying and obnoxious pink banshee. They both saw Naruto meditating under a tree and walked over. There was an awkward silence when finally Sakura decided to break it, "Hey Sasuke-kun..."

"Shut up." Sasuke cut her off. Sakura flinched and backed away.

"Don't get your hopes up about Kakashi sensei being on time, he will probably come in a few hours," Naruto explained with his eyes closed, still meditating.

"Hn," Sasuke responded.

"You're nothing like your brother," Naruto muttered under his breath.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"Nothing, nevermind."

"Yo!" Kakashi greeted suddenly coming out of nowhere with his perverted book in hand.

"YOU'RE LATE!!!!!!" Sakura screamed.

Naruto covered his sensitive ears which also blocked the sound getting to Kurama's ears.

Kakashi sweatdropped, "Uhhh, I got lost on the path of life!"

Naruto sighed, got up, and walked towards the group. "You and I both know that that is not true Kakashi-sensei."

"Ahha..ha.ha... Okay, well moving on..." Kakashi shivered. "Today I will be giving you all another test. If you fail, then you will be stripped of your genin rank and be sent back to the academy."

"WHAT!!!!" Sakura screamed, "But we already passed the genin exams!!!"

"Yes, but this is a test to prove to me that you can truly be called a genin."

"But!!!" Sakura yelled.

"Shut up Sakura," Naruto grumbled.

"No!!! You shut up DEMON!!!! NOBODY WANTS YOU AND YOU WILL NEVER BE AS GOOD AS MY SASUKE-KUN." Sasuke and Kakashi widened their eyes and Naruto eyes glazed over for a fraction of a second before going back to normal and hardening up his face.

"Yeah, you're right. I am a demon. I can be cruel and cold and I can kill without mercy now if you don't fuck off, I will personally torture you while skinning you alive and much, much worse." Naruto threatened in a cold and ominous voice.

"SEEE!!!! HE ADMITTED IT, HE PERSONALLY SAID THAT HE WAS A DEMON!!!!!" Sakura yelled.

Naruto closed his eyes and breathed.

Naruto took a breath, "Thanks Furball. I don't know what I would do without you."

Naruto calmly walked over to a tree and punched it with pure strength without channeling any chakra at all. The poor tree was obliterated into nothingness. The surrounding trees were also obliterated by the sheer force of the punch that Naruto conducted on one tree alone.

Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura looked at him with pure terror and a shiver went down their spines. Naruto took another deep breath and lowered his fist. "Kakashi, continue." Naruto ordered in his commander's voice."

"H-hai." Kakashi stammered. "U-um let's continue shall we?"

Sasuke and Sakura didn't respond, they were still shocked by Naruto's outburst.

"Anyway, for the test, I will be giving you guys a timer, you will have to get the bells from me by the time the timer has ended," Kakashi explained while holding up 2 bells.

"B-but sensei, there are only 2 bells," Sakura blatantly pointed out.

"Exactly, that means that one of you is going back to the academy," Kakashi explained while he sweatdropped. "One more thing, there are bento boxes over there near the tree, Do not eat them or else you will fail. Understand?

The two nodded.

"Okay, Hajime."

Both Sasuke and Sakura jumped away into the bushes and trees while trying to conceal their chakra. Naruto sighed and walked up to Kakashi.

"So, you really want to do this again, Kakashi?" Naruto asked.

"H-hai Taichou," Kakashi whispered, not wanting to expose and anger who Naruto truly is yet even though he just showed Kage level strength just a few minutes earlier.

"Fine." Naruto got into a stance and waited.

"You do know the true meaning of this test, don't you Tai- I mean Naruto?" Kakahi said putting away his Icha Icha Paradise.

"Of course I do." Naruto said as he ran at his Jonin "sensei".

"Oi, Sasuke," Naruto whispered making Sasuke jump.

"Na-" Naruto put a finger to his lips silencing the raven.

Naruto put a hand up to Sasuke's forehead and made a mental link.

"Hey," Naruto said through the link. Sasuke's eyes widened. "You're not a Yamanaka, how did you do that!?"

Naruto smirked, "That you don't need to know. Get banshee over here, I need to make a link with her as well." Naruto ordered.

"Why?" Sasuke questioned.

"The true meaning of the bell test is to test our teamwork and nothing else," Naruto explained.

"Oh, I understand. I'll get Sakura."

Naruto ran at his Jonin sensei with 10 kunai in his hand. He threw them at odd angles that were supposedly nowhere near their target mark, but after that, the kunai collided with each other and trapped Kakashi in a border of kunai that prevented him from getting over which faltered him for a fraction of a second. Just then, Naruto reached Kakashi and engaged in some hand to hand combat. Kakashi was behind since the kunais faltered him earlier but he eventually composed himself. Naruto didn't want to go too hard on Kakashi or else there would be no teamwork and Naruto would get the bells on his own without his other teammates. After a few minutes of simple hand to hand combat, Naruto finally threw a punch at Kakashi who caught the attack but then had to release because he had to jump out of the way of an incoming knee to the gut.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Naruto breathed in and let out a huge fireball from his mouth that shot up to Kakashi who countered it with a Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu (water style: water dragon Jutsu.) The fire was extinguished but left a cloud of steam that covered Kakashi's view of his opponent.

"Never let your guard down Kakashi." Kakashi heard someone whisper behind his ear. His eyes widened but didn't have enough time to counter the attack before he got slammed to the ground by a kick from the blondie.

"H-how?" Kakashi asked finally gaining his standing again.

"I put a marking on you with the kunais from before," Naruto explained. "I don't need to be touching a target for me to put a marking on it including anything else I put my chakra into, the target just has to be in the range of either me or another object containing my chakra," Naruto explained.

"I see, I didn't know about this Naruto, you never told me." Kakashi sighed.

"Well, I created this jutsu as a more advanced version of my father's Hiraishin no Jutsu a few years ago but I never really used it," Naruto said.

Kakashi looked down and saw the bells still dangling from his waist. "Why didn't you take the bells? You had many chances in doing so." Kakashi asked.

"Well, you see..." Naruto smirked and poofed making it known that that was a shadow clone and not the real Naruto.

"Shit. dang it, should've known. That was so long, they must have already hatched a plan already." Kakashi cursed.

"Well, you're right!!!" Sakura yelled. Kakashi looked up and saw a pink-haired girl coming straight at him from above, fist at the ready. His eyes widened and jumped out of the way into the trees. Sakura landed on her feet after doing a backflip. Kakashi was mentally cursing at Naruto for tricking him but it is something all shinobi should know how to do. Suddenly, he heard a rustle of leaves right behind him and he turned abruptly. He saw nobody though and he immediately put up his guard. He thought it was Naruto because he didn't sense any chakra whatsoever but when he turned around a breeze passed by him. Strange he thought the leaves on the trees didn't move at all.

Sasuke ran right behind Kakashi rusting the leaves in the process. Kakashi turned his head around, trying to find out who it is. That's my cue. I have 2 markings already, one on Kakashi and one a little further than him. Immediately, Naruto teleported over to the marking on Kakashi. In a split second Naruto reached out and grabbed the bells and then put a genjutsu to make it appear as if the bells were still there. Then Naruto teleported over to the second marking a little further away causing a breeze that Kakashi noticed and grew wary of.

Naruto teleported over to the second marking where Sasuke was waiting for him. Sakura was there also. Naruto smirked and dangled the 2 bells in front of their faces.

"Mission complete," Naruto said.

"Hn."

"We did it!!!" Sakura exclaimed. "Now what do we do, we still have time, do we just go up to Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.

"No, we just wait for the timer to end. I already put a genjutsu and made Kakashi think that he still has the bells." Naruto explained.

They both nodded and went to the original starting spot. When they got there they saw two bento boxes sitting near a large wooden pole. The three of them went over and sat down. Sakura began reaching for one of the boxes before Sasuke caught her hand.

"Don't, we'll fail if we eat them." Sasuke said releasing her hand.

"But I'm starving and I didn't have breakfast," Sakura whined.

"Sasuke, it's okay, don't worry about it, you two eat, Kakashi-sensei isn't around here anyway," Naruto lied clearly sensing Kakashi's presence.

"What about you dobe?" Sasuke asked.

"Nah, I'm good, I'm used to being hungry. I once went a few months without eating so don't worry about me." Naruto smiled gently with sad eyes as he remembered his past. Both Sakura and Sasuke looked at him with wide eyes, both feeling bad for the blondie in front of them. "Anyway, enjoy the food, I'll be back when the timer has ended," Naruto said returning back to normal and walking away into the forest to get more training done. Sasuke looked at Naruto as he walked away, then he looked guiltily down at the bento boxes and sighed.

I don't deserve this. Sasuke thought. Naruto has had an even harder life than me, I'm surprised he hasn't gone insane. I definitely would've. He looked over at Sakura and saw guilt in her eyes as well. She looked sad and angry at herself. Little did they know that Naruto's life was much, much harder than what they thought. Sasuke sighed and ignored the bento box, not having an appetite anymore.

I looked at Naruto as he walked away, feeling bad for everything that I had said to him. He was the one that led us to a successful test and the one that helped us maintain the rank of genin. He also had such a horrible life that he kept in the shadows. I suddenly lost my appetite and decided to drop the idea of eating. I sighed and glanced at Sasuke. He was also looking guilty and I could tell that he lost his appetite as well. I walked over to a tree and slumped down. I crossed my legs and tried to meditate just like Naruto did. I saw Sasuke looking at me but by now, I really didn't care. I could tell that Sasuke has a crush on Naruto and now, I can totally see why. I made a mental note to myself to apologize to Naruto later when I see him again.

Sakura walked over to a spot under a tree, sat down and started meditating just like Naruto did. I sighed and walked over to a spot across the training area from Sakura and started meditating copying Naruto. I finally realized and I finally admit that yes, I do like Naruto, not in a brotherly way, but in a romantic way. Yes, I love him, I admit it. I really do.