Chapter Text
'How did I get here?' Kakashi lamented, flipping another page in his book.
He had been hoping this year to be freed from his candidacy as a jonin instructor, but noooo, he just had to be given a team with Minato-sensei's son, the last Uchiha, and a genius kunoichi with a civilian background. When would Lord Third realize he wasn’t cut out for this kind of thing?
Naruto Uzumaki.
He hadn’t seen the kid in years until recently. He was boisterous and reckless, and liked doing things on his own. As far as his actual skills went, it wasn’t bad. He lacked experience, but he had boundless potential. No, his skills weren’t the problem here, the problem was he wanted to do everything himself. The thought to team up with Sasuke and Sakura hadn’t even crossed the boy's mind once.
Thirty minutes had passed since the test had started. Naruto had fallen for his trap and was strung up in a tree, but Sasuke and Sakura were both on the move. There had been zero attempts at teamwork so far.
He’d take care of Sakura first, then move on to Sasuke.
Sakura Haruno.
When he had looked at her assessment papers, he’d been impressed with her scores. She had been the best student in her year as far as the theoretical tests went. Her ninjutsu and genjutsu scores had been high as well, but her taijutsu had received a low score. Apparently she hadn’t done well in spars either, so it was the application of what she knew that was lacking.
Again, that wasn’t the problem though. The problem was her focus wasn’t on being a ninja. She was distracted by a crush on "her Sasuke," and it had caused her to miss an opportunity he'd given her to help Naruto out. She was also missing the concept of teamwork.
Both her and Sasuke had moved elsewhere, and they were both good at hiding their chakra signatures at the very least, he’d give them that, but Sakura's pink hair was a dead giveaway (as well as the loud noises she was making as she made a mad dash to find Sasuke.) A harmless little genjutsu of Sasuke bleeding to death put her out of commission. He certainly hadn’t expected her to faint though. Oops.
Maybe it was a bit much for a civilian girl to handle, but he’d expected her to break out of the illusion easily enough.
Oh well. Two down, one to go.
………
It seemed Sasuke had given up on running away, and was instead waiting out in the open for him.
Sasuke Uchiha.
He was the most promising student from his year. He’d been able to make two clones during the graduation test, and everything else he’d been tested on he’d passed with flying colors. Kakashi was looking for teamwork though, and so far Sasuke wasn’t any better on that front than Naruto or Sakura.
There was also another thing he needed to check with Sasuke though. Iruka had given him high praise in his assessment, but there had been no mention of the sharingan in his list of talents. Lord Third had asked Iruka about it himself apparently, but Iruka had never seen Sasuke using his clan's dojutsu.
Of course, Lord Third had asked Kakashi to confirm to him on wether or not Sasuke had awakened the sharingan;(although Kakashi suspected it was the counsel that was more interested in this subject and the Hokage was asking more for their sake.)
Sasuke was quite arrogant, but skilled, Kakashi could begrudge him that much. The little brat even managed to touch one of the bells. Still, the little Uchiha hadn’t used the sharingan, even during close combat. It was possible that he hadn’t awakened it after all, but Lord Third has asked Kakashi to check on it, so Kakashi decided to push him a bit more. To break a genjutsu, he’d probably use the sharingan if he had it, so Kakashi got some distance between them and cast the genjutsu while Sasuke was distracted by a substitution.
He had a good idea of what would make Sasuke emotional enough to use the sharingan.
A perfect image of Itachi, dressed in his old anbu gear (sans the headband) appeared behind Sasuke. As soon as Sasuke caught sight of it, he froze. His eyes went wide, and his whole body tensed. The illusion took a step forward, but Sasuke was still not moving. He was locked in place and—oh shit, he was shaking. Maybe using Itachi in the genjutsu had been a bad idea?
Scrambling to make the genjutsu a little more…genjutsu-y, Kakashi gave the fake Itachi a voice that sounded nothing like him.
"It’s been awhile, Sasuke," illusion Itachi spoke. Jerking backward, Sasuke was finally able to move, and with shaking fingers, made the release sign.
So no sharingan then. Lord Third will be disappointed to hear, but it can’t be helped. Some Uchiha never awakened the sharingan. That might not be Sasuke's case however, he could end up being a late bloomer instead, like Obito.
Sasuke fell down to his knees, his breathing erratic as he clutched at his chest. Maybe he’d leave him to calm down, and in the meantime check on Naruto who was moving suspiciously close to where he’d left the lunches.
………
'Okay, so maybe it was a bad idea to show him Itachi,' Kakashi finally admitted to himself.
In his defense, he had certainly never claimed to be good with children. When he was twelve he’d been able to handle much worse, so he’d assumed it would be fine.
'But these children have never seen war,' he reminded himself.
Sasuke hadn’t even touched his lunch yet. His eyes were unfocused and he was breathing quickly. Sakura and Naruto hadn’t noticed yet, he was being quiet, but Kakashi has seen that look on enough men and women to know what's going on.
He’d seemed fine when he first came back with Sakura. He’d glared so harshly at him when he’d glanced over that Kakashi thought he’d attack him. After Kakashi announced that they’d failed so badly he’d make sure they never got another chance to become ninja, the kid had rushed him, so he shoved his face into the dirt and made an example out of him for Sakura and Naruto. He’d hoped the display, along with his lecture afterward would help them figure out what to do next.
Unfortunately, Sasuke hadn’t been okay, and Sakura didn’t seem to want to share her lunch with Naruto either.
All three of them would fail as there was no real second part in this test; lunch was their second chance. Sakura finished eating, and even though Sasuke hadn’t touched his food yet, it was over.
He wouldn’t make an exception for this team, even if Lord Third wanted him to. If they didn’t understand the value of teamwork, he wouldn’t train them.
They had failed.