Kakashi Hatake looked down at the four genin, his single eye crinkling into what might have been a smile. "Now that we're all acquainted," he said in a voice entirely too cheerful, "let's talk about your final test."
Naruto blinked. "Final test? But we graduated!"
"That was just the Academy's final test," Kakashi clarified, waving a dismissive hand. "This is my final test. It's a survival exercise, and there's a... let's say, a sixty-six percent chance you'll fail." His eye narrowed. "In fact, of all the teams I've been assigned, not a single one has ever passed. Fail, and you're heading straight back to the Academy."
The mood on the rooftop plummeted.
"Meet me at Training Ground 3 tomorrow at six a.m. sharp," he continued. "Oh, and I wouldn't recommend eating breakfast. You'll just puke." He gave them a closed-eye smile and vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving four very different kinds of silence in his wake.
The next morning, at the designated training ground, three genin were already waiting. Sasuke stood leaning against a tree, stoic and impassive. Sakura was trying to look composed, but her stomach growled loud enough for Deva to hear it. Deva himself stood perfectly still, his senses scanning the area. He had eaten a small, protein-rich meal two hours ago. Kakashi's warning had been a clear deception; he could feel no killing intent in the air, only the lazy, waiting energy of their instructor hidden somewhere in the trees. It was a test of logic, and he had no intention of failing it on an empty stomach.
Naruto arrived last, full of energy. A few minutes later, Kakashi appeared, hours after the appointed time.
"Morning, everyone," he said cheerfully. "Ready for your test?"
He placed an alarm clock on a stump and pulled two small bells from his pouch, their silver surfaces glinting in the sun.
"The test is simple," Kakashi explained. "You have until noon to take one of these bells from me. Those who get a bell pass. Those who don't are tied to one of those posts and will watch me eat my lunch in front of you."
Sakura's face paled. "But Sensei... there are four of us, and only two bells!"
"Precisely," Kakashi said, his eye crinkling again. "That means at least two of you are guaranteed to fail. You'll be pitted against each other for these bells. Feel free to use everything in your arsenal, including shuriken and kunai. If you're not prepared to come at me with the intent to kill, you won't stand a chance."
He looked at them, letting the pressure sink in. "Ready... Start!"
In an instant, Sakura, Sasuke, and Deva vanished into the trees. Only Naruto remained, charging head-on. Deva found a high branch with dense foliage and settled in, becoming just another part of the forest's background hum. His goal wasn't a bell. His goal was data.
He watched as Kakashi dealt with Naruto with humiliating ease, using a simple substitution and the infamous "Thousand Years of Death" technique. From his perch, Deva wasn't just watching the fight; he was sensing the flow. He felt the precise, minimal chakra Kakashi used for each movement. He felt the flicker of a foreign frequency in Kakashi's covered eye—the strange, warped Uchiha-like hum he'd sensed yesterday—flare for a moment.
Next came Sasuke. The Uchiha was skilled, using traps and a powerful Fireball Jutsu that forced Kakashi to move. But the Jonin was on another level, eventually catching him in the Headhunter Jutsu, burying him up to his neck. Then Sakura, who fell for the most basic genjutsu, screamed and fainted.
It was illogical. A Jonin of Kakashi's caliber toying with genin. Two bells for a four-person team. A test designed to create conflict. Deva had deconstructed the problem hours ago. The stated objective was a lie. The test wasn't about the bells.
He formed a single hand seal. A perfect clone of himself emerged from the trunk of the tree and dropped to the ground, running in the opposite direction. It was a diversion, a way to gather more data without revealing his position.
Kakashi appeared before the clone in a swirl of leaves. "Well, look what we have here. The quiet one. Finally decided to join the party?"
The Deva clone said nothing. It simply charged, throwing a kunai. Kakashi sidestepped it easily, but his eye widened slightly. The clone hadn't aimed at him; it had aimed for the rope holding up a log trap Naruto had set earlier. The log swung down, forcing Kakashi to substitute.
He's not fighting, Kakashi thought from his new position. He's testing my reactions.
The alarm clock rang, signaling noon.
The scene was grim. Naruto was tied to the center post, his stomach rumbling. Sasuke and Sakura sat on the grass, defeated and hungry. Deva emerged from the forest, his expression unreadable.
"Well," Kakashi said, his voice hard. "None of you got a bell. So you all fail." He paused. "I've decided not to send you back to the Academy. You will all be dropped from the program. Permanently."
Naruto struggled against the ropes. Sasuke trembled with fury.
"You don't understand what it means to be a ninja," Kakashi said, his voice dropping. "You think it's all about you." He gestured with his thumb towards a large, black stone behind him. "This is the Memorial Stone. My best friends are all carved on this stone."
He looked at them, his gaze cold. "You were given a mission as a team, and you all acted individually. Sakura, you obsessed over Sasuke and ignored a wounded Naruto. Naruto, you charged ahead alone. Sasuke, you saw the others as nothing but hindrances. And you," he said, his eye landing on Deva. "You were the worst. You understood the true objective from the beginning, didn't you? Yet you did nothing to guide your team. You just watched them fail."
Deva's silver eyes met his, unflinching.
Kakashi sighed. "I'll give you one more chance. After lunch, we'll try again. I've prepared bentos for the three of you. But Naruto gets nothing. It's his punishment. And if anyone feeds him... you will fail instantly. I make the rules, you follow them. Understood?"
With that, he vanished. Three bento boxes sat on the grass. The smell of food filled the air. Naruto's stomach roared.
Silence. Sakura and Sasuke hesitantly picked up their chopsticks.
Without a word, Deva stood up, walked over to his bento, and picked up a piece of tempura. He then walked directly in front of the bound Naruto.
"Deva, what are you doing?!" Sakura hissed. "He said we'd fail!"
"We will fail if he remains tied up," Deva stated, his voice flat and logical. "The mission objective is to get a bell. A restrained teammate cannot complete the mission. Therefore, the order not to feed him is a contradiction to the mission's ultimate goal. It's the final part of the test."
He held the tempura up to Naruto's mouth. "Eat."
Naruto stared, shocked, before gratefully chomping it down.
Sasuke watched for a long moment, then grunted. "He's right. It's illogical. We need him at full strength." He stood up and offered Naruto a rice ball. Sakura, flustered but understanding, followed suit.
"YOU!" A massive cloud of smoke and killing intent erupted behind them. Kakashi stood there, his face a mask of thunderous rage. "You broke the rules! I gave you a direct order! Do you have anything to say for yourselves?!"
Naruto trembled. Sakura hid behind Sasuke. But Deva simply turned to face their instructor.
"We are Team 7," he said, his voice clear and unwavering. "A team is a single unit. A mission is failed if one member is compromised. We chose to complete the mission as a unit."
Kakashi's furious expression held for a moment longer, before it melted away, replaced by his signature closed-eye smile.
"You pass," he said cheerfully.
They stared, dumbfounded.
"You figured it out," Kakashi said, looking at Deva before addressing the group. "In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum, that's true. But... those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." He gave them a thumbs up. "The four of you are the first team I've ever passed. I'm proud of you."
He looked at them, a new light in his eye. "Team 7's first mission begins tomorrow!"
For the first time, the four of them stood together, not as rivals or classmates, but as a team.