The shrill sound of the alarm cut through the air of the training grounds, a metallic shriek that decreed the game was over.
Noon.
Time was up.
Naruto, who was in the middle of the clearing preparing for one last, likely disastrous assault, let his shoulders slump in an exaggerated display of defeat. He collapsed onto the grass, panting dramatically, his face covered in dirt and his brow furrowed in a mask of pure frustration.
Right on time, he thought, as his stomach, in a display of perfect comedic timing, let out a pitiful roar that echoed in the sudden silence. Phase three: the starving martyr. Let the show begin.
"It's over."
Kakashi's voice appeared out of nowhere, as always. The jōnin stood by the central post, arms crossed, the two bells still hanging intact from his belt, gleaming mockingly under the sun.
Sasuke emerged from the shadows of a tree, his face impassive, but Naruto could see the tension in his fists and the rigid set of his jaw. Sakura appeared a moment later; she had recovered from the genjutsu, but her eyes were red and she avoided everyone's gaze, a layer of shame blanketing her exhaustion.
Perfect, Naruto analyzed, maintaining his expression of a defeated idiot. Sasuke is processing his humiliation. And Sakura… she's trapped in her own. This is going to work.
"Well, well, well," Kakashi said, his single visible eye curving into a smile that promised nothing good. "The results are quite clear. None of you managed to get a bell. And when there are no winners… there has to be a loser."
His gaze landed squarely on Naruto.
"You were the first to fall, and in the most spectacular fashion. So, as a lesson on the consequences of failure, you will receive the punishment."
Naruto lifted his head, indignant.
"Huh? A loser? I almost got one! My butt is still in shock from that pervy jutsu! That's not failing, that's being a victim!"
Kakashi ignored him with a sigh. In a flash, he was behind him. Before Naruto could protest further, his arms were pinned, and his body was bound firmly to the wooden post. The ropes were thick and coarse; they dug uncomfortably into his skin over his orange jacket.
"Hey! This is abuse of power!" he shouted, struggling uselessly, making sure his performance was as convincing as possible. "I demand a ninja lawyer! And lunch! I demand a lot of things!"
Kakashi turned to the other two.
"You can eat."
He pulled two bento boxes from his vest and placed them on the grass. They were simple, but the smell wafting from them was a glorious torture. Naruto swallowed, and this time, the reaction was completely genuine. The steamed rice, the grilled fish, the pickled vegetables… his stomach roared again, this time with a very real desperation.
"That's not fair! Why do they get to eat and not me?" he whined, his voice pitiful.
"Because they are still in contention. You are not," Kakashi replied, his tone growing more serious. "Learn this: on a mission, individual performance can determine the success of the entire team. A single weak link can cause the whole chain to break."
There's the trap, Naruto thought. He's mixing truth with lies. He's making them think the individual matters more, to see if they can figure out the opposite.
Kakashi sat at a prudent distance, took out his little orange book, and began to read, creating a bubble of indifference around himself.
The silence that fell was thick and heavy. Sakura and Sasuke sat on the ground in front of the bento boxes, but neither of them opened one.
Naruto decided it was time to start the concert.
"Ahhh, I'm so hungry…" he moaned, letting his head hang. "I think I'm gonna die… My vision's getting blurry… I see ramen floating in the air… with extra naruto…"
He watched Sakura through his lashes. She was biting her lip, her gaze lost in the grass. She wasn't looking at Sasuke. She wasn't looking at the food. She seemed trapped in her own mind.
She's reliving it, Naruto realized. The genjutsu. But not just that. He remembered their brief interaction before she ran off.
"Don't go after him, Sakura-chan!" he had told her. "It's a trap! Kakashi-sensei just wants to separate us! Sasuke's strong, he'll be fine!"
She had looked at him with disdain. "What do you know, Naruto? Shut up! Sasuke-kun needs me!" And she had run straight into the illusion.
Now she feels like an idiot, Naruto thought, feeling a pang of genuine empathy mixed with the satisfaction of his plan. Not just for falling for the genjutsu, but for falling for it after I, the team 'idiot,' warned her exactly what would happen. Her pride is just as wounded as Sasuke's.
"My stomach has started a rebellion!" Naruto continued, putting a panicked tone in his voice. "It demands sacrifices! And the only nearby sacrifices are you guys! Watch out!"
Sakura finally picked up her bento box, but she opened it with the slowness of someone who doesn't want to see what's inside. The fragrant steam escaped, a delicious aroma that contrasted with the bitterness of her expression.
Naruto inhaled theatrically.
"I smell… victory… even if it's not mine…"
Sasuke's stomach protested too. It was a low, treacherous sound that he tried to cover with a cough, but Naruto heard it and smiled to himself.
You're hungry too, teme. But your pride is bigger. You're analyzing. "Why would he do this to us? What's the purpose?" You're so close to getting it. You just need a little push.
"Well… I guess I have to eat…" Sakura said in a whisper, picking up her chopsticks.
She picked up a piece of rice and brought it to her mouth, but she stopped halfway. Her gaze shifted to Naruto. The shame on her face was palpable. It wasn't pity. It was the uncomfortable feeling of having to admit, even if only to herself, that she had been wrong. That Naruto had been right.
"Sakura-chan!" he groaned. "Is it good? Does it taste as good as it smells? I need details! My ghost wants to have good culinary memories!"
Sakura put her chopsticks down with a clatter, leaving the rice back in the box.
"Naruto… can you just shut up for a second?"
"No! It's physically impossible! My mouth runs on stomach energy and right now it's in emergency mode!"
Sasuke, for his part, opened his box. Unlike Sakura, he picked up his chopsticks with a cold determination and began to eat. Each bite was methodical, but his eyes weren't on the food. They were fixed on the post where Naruto was tied.
He's processing, Naruto thought. He sees Sakura, sees her conflict. He sees my stupidity. And he sees the situation. Two bells. Three people. An individual failure being punished. It's an equation. And Sasuke is good with equations. He hates the answer, but he sees it.
Time passed. The sun was a hammer overhead. Naruto's hunger was a real and furious beast in his gut.
Sakura looked at Sasuke.
"Sasuke-kun…"
He didn't answer. He just kept eating, chewing slowly.
"He's… not going to last much longer," she said quietly, to no one in particular.
Sasuke paused, his chopsticks in mid-air.
"He's an idiot," he said, his voice flat. "It's his fault for being weak. Kakashi-sensei is right. The weak link."
Almost, Naruto thought. Still clinging to the surface logic. You need to break it, Sakura-chan.
Sakura looked at him, and something inside her seemed to click. The shame transformed into a strange, reluctant determination. She stood up. Holding her bento box with both hands, she walked toward Naruto. Her jaw was set.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, his eyes wide. "Are you coming to deliver the final blow? To rub that delicious rice in my face? You have no heart!"
"Shut up, you idiot," she said. The insult was the usual one, but the tone was different: sharp, embarrassed. She planted herself in front of him. "Open your mouth."
Naruto froze for a second. This is it. The key moment.
"Huh? What for? Are you going to tell me a secret?"
"So you can eat!" she snapped, blushing to the tips of her ears. "You're right about one thing. You're incredibly loud when you're hungry. So eat. And shut up."
Naruto opened his mouth, stunned. Sakura picked up a piece of omelet with her chopsticks and, with a hand that trembled with embarrassment and defiance, stuck it in his mouth.
It was sweet and delicious. A piece of heaven.
She did it, he thought, savoring the moment as much as the food. Not out of pity. Out of shame. To shut me up. Because she can't stand that I was right. It's perfect. It's so… Sakura.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Sasuke's voice was a blade of ice. He had risen and was standing beside them, his shadow covering them.
Sakura flinched.
"Sasuke-kun! I was just…"
"Sensei will disqualify all of us," Sasuke warned.
"So what?" Sakura shot back, the force in her voice surprising everyone, including herself. "Look at us! You were beaten, I fell for a stupid genjutsu because I wouldn't listen…!" She stopped, but the admission hung in the air. "…and he's tied to a post. You call this 'being in contention'? We've already failed! At least let's fail together!"
The word "together" echoed in the clearing.
Sasuke looked at Naruto. Naruto looked back, chewing loudly, an expression of pure, idiotic bliss on his face.
And the equation in Sasuke's head was solved. The logic of his pride shattered against the irrefutable logic of the situation.
Sasuke sighed, a sound of pure resignation. He walked over to Naruto's other side and held out his own bento box.
"Eat, dobe."
Sakura's jaw dropped.
Naruto feigned the same surprise.
"Sasuke? You too? Did you hit your head? Kakashi-sensei is going to turn us into fertilizer for these trees!"
"Sakura is right about one thing," Sasuke said, not looking at him. His gaze was fixed on the forest, as if expecting the enemy. "You're a drag. And a hungry drag is even more useless. So eat. And stop being so pathetic."
It wasn't kindness. It was pure pragmatism. It was Sasuke, in his own twisted way, investing in his one and most annoying asset: his teammate.
And in that precise instant, all hell broke loose.
A cloud of thick white smoke enveloped them, accompanied by a boom that shook the ground.
"YOU!"
Kakashi's voice was no longer lazy. It was thunder, charged with a fury that made their skin crawl. The smoke cleared to reveal the jōnin standing before them. His posture was threatening, his one visible eye blazed with a terrifying anger, and the sky behind him seemed to have suddenly darkened.
"You broke the rules! You disobeyed a direct order and fed the failure!" he roared. "Do you have anything to say for yourselves before I send you back to the Academy in pieces?"
Sakura shrank back, pale with terror.
"No, sensei! It was my idea! I started it!"
Sasuke stepped between her and Kakashi in a protective stance.
"No. The three of us are responsible."
Naruto, his mouth still half-full, looked at them. And then at Kakashi.
"That's right!" he shouted, sounding more defiant than ever. "We're a team! If one of us is a failure, then all three of us are failures! And if one of us eats, we all eat! That's what it means to be a team, even if we're a team of idiots, believe it!"
The words flew from his mouth, the same words he remembered. But this time, he felt the truth behind them, a truth he himself had engineered.
A tense silence fell again. Kakashi looked at the three of them, his furious expression unreadable.
Naruto held his breath. Come on, sensei. It's your turn.
Slowly, the tension left Kakashi's shoulders. The anger faded from his eye, replaced by that curved, enigmatic smile.
"A team of idiots, huh?" He raised a hand. "You pass."
The relief hit Naruto with the force of a Bijuu. It wasn't the loud joy he showed on the outside.
"WHAT? REALLY?! YES! WE DID IT! WE'RE THE BEST TEAM IN THE WORLD!"
No. It was a deep, silent, overwhelming relief that settled in the core of his being. A warmth that dissolved the knot of anxiety he had carried all day.
It worked.
"Yes," Kakashi said, as he untied Naruto from the post. "The goal of this test was to see if you could put the team's needs above the rules. In the shinobi world, those who break the rules are scum, that's true."
He paused, and his gaze fell upon the three of them, a gaze heavy with a weight they were only now beginning to understand.
"But those who abandon their friends… are worse than scum."
The words resonated in the clearing, cementing something new between them.
Sakura looked at Sasuke, who for the first time met her gaze, not with coldness, but with a hint of… respect. Sasuke looked at Naruto, not with disdain, but with a new, baffling curiosity.
And Naruto looked at them both, not as the team clown, but as the architect who had just laid the first stone of a building destined to touch the sky.
"Team 7 begins its first mission tomorrow," Kakashi announced. "Try not to fail so spectacularly."
Naruto stretched, feeling the ache in his muscles and the emptiness in his stomach, but inside, he felt fuller and stronger than ever.
The first great gambit had been a success.
The foundation was laid.
Now, the real work could begin.