Hinata squeaked then sweatdropped, "*sigh* Naruto-kun..."

Akamaru whimpered and Kaori's eye twitched, "...You've got to be kidding me..."

"Mmm... See, guys? I told you that I made my own technique..."

"But it's so stupid!" Kaori burst, "Who the hell would fall for a trick like this?!"

"I've tricked and deceived a lot of guys with technique already, one of them being Iruka-sensei."

"Um... Naruto-kun, I agree with Kaori-chan-" Kaori sent Hinata a look, "A-Ah, I mean, Kaori. This technique seems a little um...bizarre..."

"Oh, come on guys! What person with a fully working brain would turn this-" Naruto turned his body in a complete three-sixty degree turn seductively, "-down?"

"A perverted asshole, that's who." Kaori said flatly. Naruto, henged with his oh-so famous Oiroke no Jutsu, pouted cutely.

"Oh, don't be that way, Kaori..." Naruto then smiled and ground his (her) bare body against Kaori's side, "You know you want me..."

Naruto then found himself in a deadly choke hold.

"I'M NOT GAY, YOU DUMBASS!" Kaori roared. Naruto, due to Kaori's assault, dropped his henge and found himself desperately clutching at Kaori's arm, which was tightly wrapped around his windpipe.

"Okay okay okay! Sorry! Come on Kaori, I can't breathe!" Naruto exclaimed. Kaori, being taller than Naruto, lifted him off the ground by reclining her back, his now kicking feet attacking nothing but the air in front of him. Hinata simply sighed. She loved him dearly, but in her opinion, he kind of deserved this...

"Um... Is this supposed to be some kind of warm up sparring session, or something...?"

The three preteens snapped their heads in the direction that they heard the voice, and spot Kurenai walking into the training grounds toward them, along with someone else whom they were not familiar with.

"K-Kurenai-sensei, help me! Kaori is trying to kill me!" Naruto called to the Genjutsu master. Hinata shared a look with Kurenai, both sighing and shaking their heads at the two hyperactive pre-teens. Kaori grinned evilly.

"If you want me to let you go, man up and make me!" she growled.

"Um, you guys might want to save your energy for the training assignment I have in store for you today..." Kurenai mumbled. Kaori gave her new sensei an over-exaggerated smile and dropped Naruto on the ground. She then knelt down and patted Naruto on the head.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, sensei. I wouldn't want poor Naruto-kun here to become crippled before you even give us our assignment! After all, you are my teammate, right Naruto-kun?" Kaori asked with what seems like a sarcastically sweet attitude. Naruto scowled up at her.

"Grr... You wouldn't have crippled me. I swear if you were a guy, I'd-"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY, BAKA?!"

"Gah! I said I wish I knew how to fly!"

Kaori gave the boy a creepy, but somehow innocent smile, "That's what I thought."

"Heh, I think I'm starting to like this girl already, Kurenai."

The three Genin (and Dog-nin) all turned their heads toward the owner of that voice.

Kaori's eyebrow raised.

Hinata gasped.

Akamaru barked.

Naruto's jaw dropped.

"Ah, something told me that I'd get those kinds of reactions from these guys." Kurenai mentally chuckled to herself with a shake of her head. She then looked over to the woman that her team was openly gawking at. She shook her head at her best friend's choice of wardrobe; A tan overcoat thrown over a mesh body suit, along with a short dark orange skirt.

Seeing that all the attention was on her, the Scary Snake Mistress, Anko Mitarashi, gave Kurenai's squad a wicked smile.

"Why hello, guys! Kurenai-chan told me about her new team and asked me to help out with her training assignment for you three. But before we get to it, why don't we get familiar with ourselves, because I'm sure this isn't the last time we'll be seeing each other." Anko said to the teens, a cheerful expression on her face, "My name is Mitarashi Anko. May I ask what your names are?"

The members from Squad Eight look at each other.

"She seems just a bit too friendly..."

"She's weird..."

"Something about her doesn't sit right with me..."

"Er... My name is Inuzuka Kaori." Kaori takes the initiative yet again.

"Um... Hyuuga Hinata..."

"Uzumaki Naruto..."

Kurenai tried her best not to laugh out loud at her team's facial expressions. Anko simply grinned even wider.

"Nice to meet you three! I can tell already that we're gonna have a lot of fun with this training assignment already!" said an enthusiastic Anko.

"What's the training assignment going to be about, anyway?" Naruto asked. Anko giggle, with the three Genin sensing a small amount of deviousness in her laugh, and looked at her friend Kurenai.

"Do you wanna tell them, or should I?" she asked. Kurenai shrugged.

"Eh, I guess I'll tell them." Kurenai then looked towards her three students, "You see, being a shinobi means that you will be called upon to carry out missions given to you by the Hokage. Many of these missions can and will include the task of finding and guarding information and keeping it safe until you bring it back to the village. That is what this training exercise will demonstrate today." Kurenai then pointed to the forest in the training grounds beside her a few yards away, "This section of the training grounds has a small forest in it. Within this forest are nine scrolls scattered within random sections of the area. The objective is to find and locate as many of these scrolls as you can by sunset."

"Sounds easy enough." Kaori shrugged. Anko grinned.

"Yeah, if it were only that simple. There's a few catches to Kurenai's exercise."

"Which are?" Naruto inquired.

"This is an activity that will pin you three against each other. Whoever finds the most scrolls by sunset will be taught a very impressive genjutsu technique by yours truly. Whoever finds the lesser amount will be taught a more basic genjutsu." Kurenai then spoke seriously, "And whoever finds the least amount will have to turn in their hitai-ate, and will have to re-enroll back into the academy in order to become a shinobi again."

All three genin's eyelids lifted in shock.

"WHAT?!" Naruto screeched, "You can't do that! You can't just rob us of our rights as a shinobi like that!"

"And why can't she?" Anko questioned with a mean smirk.

"Because only the Hokage can do something like that! She doesn't have the right!"

"Sure I do." Kurenai said simply, "I'm your Jounin sensei now. Which means you three are under my authority and discipline. I have the right to command you as I see fit. If I do not believe that any of you are ready to tackle the responsibilities as Genin, by all means, I can rid you of your shinobi rank and have you sent back to the academy."

"That's bogus!" Kaori exclaimed, "Iruka-sensei made us genin for a reason! You can't just send us back after we've already proven ourselves at the academy!"

Kurenai looked somewhat amused, "With all due respect to Iruka, he is a Chuunin. I'm a Jounin. I outrank him, therefore, my word overrules his. If I were to command that he should reteach you, he would have no other choice but to obey."

That immediately put a halt onto whatever arguments Kaori or Naruto had against her.

"Kurenai-sensei started out so sweet... when did she decide to be so cold all of a sudden?!" Thought Naruto mentally.

"Any more questions?" Asked Anko with a smug smirk. Hinata seemed as though she were thinking about something, and that was something Anko didn't fail to see, "By all means, Hinata-chan, if you have a question then ask away."

Hinata jumped, having been caught off guard due to being so wrapped up in her thoughts," U-Um... I was just wondering... What happens if each of us gets the same amount of scrolls by sunset?"

Kaori raised an eyebrow, "Hey, yeah... there's nine scrolls, so even if we manage to get all of them, there's the potential of us getting three each."

Anko gave them a grin, one that made the Genin of Squad Eight very nervous. She looked at her friend, "Should you tell them, or should I?"

Kurenai crossed her arms, shrugging, "By all means, go ahead."

Anko turned back to them. Her smirk was suddenly gone. Her face was actually serious for the first time since she's met with Kurenai's team.

"If all of you have the same number of scrolls by the time limit, you'll all fail and will all be stripped of your Genin rank." She stated solemnly, "Same thing happens if all nine scrolls are not in each of your possessions by the time limit."

This actually produced three gasps among the group.

"Wait just a damn minute!" Kaori barked, "How are we supposed to know how many scrolls are in each of our possessions and how many are actually remaining in the forest?!"

"That is for you to discuss among your group." Kurenai answered.

"But we're being pinned against each other, right?!"

"Correct." Kurenai nodded.

"So why should we try to cooperate if we're also going against each other?!"

"You just have to see the bigger picture." Anko stated, "You are cooperating with and competing against each other at the same time. You're competing because the loser will have to resign as a Genin. You're cooperating because not doing so can lead to all off you resigning as Genin. Catch my drift?"

Naruto grimaced, "So to put it simply, either one of us fails, or we all do..."

"Exactly." Kurenai said, "I've composed this test to eliminate the weakest link in the group. What you all decide to do once we start is completely up to you, whether it's working together or fighting and opposing each other to obtain the scrolls from one another. Whoever demonstrates the least amount of ability and mindset of a true shinobi will have to start over. It's that simple."

This made Naruto, Hinata, and Kaori gain varying amounts of nervousness as they refused to make eye contact with one another.

"Well... if that's all there is to it, what's the point of her being here?" Kaori asked, pointing at Anko.

Anko smirked at the dog girl, "I'm here to assist Kurenai with this training exercise. You see, Kurenai and I aren't just going to be standing here doing nothing while you look for the scrolls. We'll actually be trying to prevent you from doing so and take the scrolls back, should you find any."

"You're kidding..." Naruto sighed. Mentally, hearing about this test was exhausting him.

"Afraid not, Naruto. Just like in a mission, enemy shinobi will be trying to retrieve the info you obtain from them back if you're caught. But to make it fair for you all, we won't use any ninjutsu or genjutsu, just taijutsu; you all are free to use whatever you wish. We also have light chakra seals placed on us to slow our movements some and close the skill gap between us." Kurenai said. She saw how this seemed to relieve them, if only slightly, "This exercise will also let me see the amount of tracking skills you have. The scrolls are sealed with chakra, so Hinata, you should be able to find them with your Byakugan, and Kaori, you and Akamaru should be able to sniff them out."

"Hey, what about me?!" Naruto exclaimed.

Kurenai turned to him with a grin, "Oh, I've seen your records, Naruto-kun. Apparently, you've learned a high level ninjutsu known as the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Not only that, but you can create many of them due to your high chakra levels. So you'll be able to cover a lot more ground if you have multiple clones out there searching."

"Huh." Kaori mumbled to Naruto, "So I guess you weren't lying."

"Told ya!" He gloated.

"In any case," Kurenai interrupted, "The longer we sit here talking, the less time you guys will have to grab those scrolls. So as soon as you all are ready, you'll each go to your respective starting points at each edge of the forest. Naruto, you stay here and start at the southern point. Hinata, you start east. Kaori and Akamaru, you start west. Anko and I will start north. And when I give the signal, we'll all go into the forest and begin. Understood?"

Kurenai received three hesitant nods from her students.

She nodded and formed the tiger seal to perform a shunshin, "Alright, I wish you all the best of luck."

"You'll need it!" Was Anko's addition to the statement before both Jounin vanished in a whirl of leaves.

For once, Kaori, Naruto, and Hinata had nothing to say to each other. They all simply looked at each other with an awkward air between them. The two girls then began to walk off in different directions to prepare for the exercise ahead of them.

This left Naruto alone with his thoughts, "This is so not cool... But I plan to win!"