Title: Blackout

Author: Lady Hachimitsu

Disclaimer: Own lots of things but Naruto is not one of them. Also Suzue's kekkei genkai is based off an ability found the Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanders, so don't even really own that either...

Warnings: Anxiety, freak outs, minor panic attacks, Naruto normal violence, and not much else for this chapter I think…

Chapter: One – This Was Not Supposed to Happen

Hagiwara Suzue couldn't help but pause in front of the door to her former classroom. She bit her lip and fiddled with the hem of her skirt before forcing her hands away from it. Instead, they came up and adjusted the new hitai-ate that was still a foreign weight on her forehead. Shifting her weight from foot to foot, she made her hands hang limp by her side before taking a deep breath.

She walked into the classroom only to pause again. Suzue let her gaze sweep the room to take in all the former classmates who had passed the academy graduation. Even one Uzumaki Naruto was there. Sitting at a desk in the middle of the room, he had one of his larger grins stretched across his face. She was sure that she was the only class member who found him being in the classroom unsurprising. Though, she did wonder just how many of them knew he 'failed' to begin with. Some of them did at least, as one of the boys paused going to his seat to ask Naruto what he was doing there.

Turning away, the lavender-haired girl noted that her normal seat was free. Suzue gave small smiles and waves at the few classmates who greeted her as she walked to her seat. No one actually stopped her to talk which she was glad for. The twisting in her stomach was bad enough. Interacting with people who she saw as nothing more than acquaintances would be too much.

Pale hands landed on the desk in front of her as she sat down. The fidgeting didn't completely stop as she ended up with her right thumb rubbing the back of her left hand. The preteen let out a sigh, annoyed but decided it was good enough for the time being. She turned her attention elsewhere.

As usual, her eyes found what a fandom of another life had lovingly referred to as the Rookie 9.

Suzue was pretty sure Inuzuka Kiba had been the person who coined that name. But she no longer had access to the needed information to confirm if that was true or not. Regardless of whether it was true or not, she still referred to those nine classmates in her class by that name.

It was somewhat hilarious that they were all sitting in the assigned teams they would be getting. Aburame Shino was sitting in his normal corner staring off into space. Next to him was Hyuuga Hinata hunched in the seat next to him fiddling with her fingers and not looking at anyone. Kiba was sitting next to her but turned to chat with two other boys who were sitting behind him. A couple of rows up had Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji sitting next to each other. Yamanaka Ino was stomping up to the last seat in the row next to Choji.

Suzue watched as the blonde jerked out the chair and collapsed into it. The girl leveled a glare at one Haruno Sakura who had just taken the only seat available next to the Uchiha Sasuke. The pink-haired girl was staring starry-eyed at the dark-haired boy next to her. Said boy was determinedly ignoring everything going on around him. Turquoise colored eyes flicked to the last member of the Rookie 9, Uzumaki Naruto. As she watched, he stood up, knocking his chair over, and hopped up onto the desk to land in front of Sasuke.

Teeth found her bottom lip again as Suzue watched the two boys get into a staring (or glaring) contest. This would be the first and probably only, 'canon' scene she would get to witness. The famous 'kiss' between the two rivals. It was a bit weird to know what was going to happen. Even weirder to have scenes of what was to happen in her mind but still be watching it. Suzue figured she shouldn't be too surprised to find herself with the feeling of deja vu. She watched the Uchiha Fanclub egged Sasuke to kick Naruto's ass.

Then it happened.

Suzue's hands flew up to her mouth to smother the half snort, half giggle that escaped her. It was like seeing someone trip and fall. You have that odd reaction to just laugh at them even though you know you shouldn't be laughing at them because they probably just hurt themselves but you couldn't help it. And seeing that 'kiss' in 'real' life so to speak...it seemed a lot more painful than either the manga or the anime made it seem. It was still amusing to watch their reactions, though. Naruto really was the only one who could make Sasuke lose his cool.

It was less amusing to watch Sakura and a couple of the other girls beat up Naruto for stealing Sasuke's first kiss. If Suzue was a more outgoing person, or even just a better person with the will to back it up, she would have gotten up to stop the beating. But she wasn't. Instead, she sunk in her seat, turned away from the scene to stare at her hands clenched together on top of the desk until someone called that Umino Iruka was coming down the hall.

The physically preteen girl didn't bother to look up as the group broke up and everyone went back to their seats. She still didn't look up as Iruka-sensei got the class quiet and start his last lecture to all of them. Suzue did listen, though. Most of it was review of what they had learned for the last four years they had been at the Academy. Things like: what was expected of them now that they were all shinobi of Konoha, what they should expect going into shinobi corps, and how they were all going to be divided up into teams of three with a jounin sensei leading them. Suzue was actually surprised by how much you need to work as a team, how the jounin might not keep your team, and other small but still useful things in that lecture there were. If one was listening to Iruka-sensei's lecture, then Hatake Kakashi's test shouldn't have come as a surprise. That they would be sent back to the academy yes, as Iruka-sensei said that if their jounin didn't keep them they would be dumped into the genin corps, not back into the academy.

Once the class calmed down from the outburst of not being able to pick their own teammates, Iruka-sensei started listing off the teams. Suzue listened waiting to hear her name and growing more nervous as it wasn't called out. She tried to reassure herself that she was going to be a Team Nine as Iruka-sensei started to call out Team Seven. Any calm she managed to gather was thrown out the window when instead of any of the actual members of Team 7's names being called, her name was called.

"Next is Team Seven. Hagiwara Suzue. Uzumaki Naruto. And Uchiha Sasuke."

"Iruka-sensei! Why does an outstanding shinobi like me have to be on the same team as that prick! Over there!" Naruto shouted pointing at Sasuke who determinedly stared straight ahead, not acknowledging anyone. "And who the hell is Hakihawa Susu?"

The girl in question felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. She hadn't even realized that Naruto didn't know who she was, even though they had been in the same class for two years now. This was probably how Hinata felt around Naruto, not something Suzue ever wanted to know.

"It's Hagiwara Suzue, you idiot!" Sakura yelled joining in. "And why does that musclebound freak have to be placed on a team with Sasuke-kun?! He deserves better than her!"

'Musclebound freak?' Suzue mouthed to herself, wide-eyed and finding it difficult to breathe. She knew she had the most visible muscles out of all the girls and even some of the boys in her class. She also knew that girls could be very mean, especially at this age, but Suzue wasn't used to that meanness being directed towards her. But knowing that and knowing that Sakura was just mad that she wasn't on Sasuke's team (even though she was supposed to be on it, not Suzue) didn't stop her eyes from filling up with tears causing her to blink rapidly to try and not burst into tears.

"Sakura, don't be rude. And Suzue scored higher than you, that is why she is on a team with Sasuke, who also scored highest in the class, and why both of them are on a team with you Naruto. You scored the lowest in the class. Do you understand? It's to balance out your low scores Naruto."

"Don't get in my way...deadlast," Sasuke said in a deadpanned tone not even looking at the boy in question.

"What did you say?!" Naruto screamed as he tried to reach the other boy over Sakura who wasn't having any of it.

"Just because I'm not on the same team as Sasuke-kun's doesn't mean I won't let you get away with stuff like this," Sakura shouted at the blond punching him back into his seat.

Suzue hunched in her own seat wondering just how screwed everything was now.

Lunch found Suzue on the roof of the Academy trying not to have a panic or anxiety attack over team placements. Her arms were crossed over her chest with her fingers digging into her arms as she paced back and forth with her bottom lip caught in her teeth. Worry had her stomach coiled in knots so tight that she couldn't even think about eating her lunch that she had been planning on sharing with her new teammates. But that wasn't happening now.

Sasuke had basically run out of the classroom as soon as Iruka-sensei had dismissed them and Naruto hadn't bothered to seek her out to eat lunch with. Suzue had been planning on at least one of her teammates to approach her to eat lunch with. Had also been planning on her teammates not being characters from a story.

And that was a bit of a problem. She still saw those people she knew from a story as characters, not actual people. In a way, it was a bit like seeing them as celebrities. Famous people you knew were real but didn't really interact in what you viewed as your real world. That was going to have to change, though Suzue wasn't sure how. She hadn't planned on being part of the story at all.

Which was another problem Suzue had obsessed over for more time than it probably deserved. Just how much of the story could she trust? How much had she forgotten? How much had she confused between canon and fandom? Just how much of canon was actually correct? After all Naruto, the manga had been a story for entertainment, not a historical account. One just had to look at the messed up timeline to tell that much. So should she view the manga as historical fiction? Major events were probably right but the details made over dramatic for entertainment value.

And what about the anime? Was anything from there going to factor in? If so, she was doomed because she knew next to nothing about all the subplots and fillers in there. She had only seen half the movies too.

Now that she was on Team Seven instead of Sakura, it brought up even more questions in just how much her future knowledge had changed. And was it for good or bad? Had she just doomed everyone in this world to being killed off by that moon goddess/princess? Because there was no way she was going to become a medic like Sakura from the story. She could barely make it through the first aid classes in the academy so making it through actual medic training? Out of the question. So would Sakura still become the next Tsunade?

Suzue had no answers. She knew the best course of action would be to go up to Sakura and somehow get her to go into medical but after that comment during orientation, there was no way Suzue would have the courage, guts, to go interact with the girl, let alone convince her to go into something that she may not be interested in at the moment.

A whine escaped her lips and Suzue curled into herself in a crouch, hands moving to clutch at her hair as thoughts and questions went around and around in circles. She knew she needed to stop this, or she was just going to drive herself insane, but it was hard. The lavender-haired girl really didn't understand how people could just stop worrying about things at a moment's notice. It also didn't help that her default setting was to worry about everything and then question just what could go wrong; even if she knew that nothing was going to go wrong.

"Hey, musclebound freak!"

It was more startlement of someone calling out to her than the insulting nickname that had her looking up to find that a group of Sasuke's fans had converged on her as she was thinking. Sakura was in the lead and had been the one to call out. Suzue wondered why she of all people would resort to name calling. Hadn't she been a victim of that as a child?

Sakura's cheeks flushed pink to match her hair as Suzue did nothing but stare at the group. The crouched girl just didn't know what to make of the group that was glaring at her or just why they were there.

"We're talking to you, freak!" Sakura shouted hands on her hips. Suzue just blinked unsure what to do or even say.

"Yeah," a girl in a pink jumpsuit stepped forward. "So you better listen."

"Don't think we'll let you get your hands on Sasuke-kun just because you're on the same team as he is," Sakura continued after a moment of awkward silence when they clearly thought Suzue was going to say something. Several of the other girls threw in their two cents about how Sasuke was going to be theirs and she couldn't have him. Turquoise eyes blinked as she processed just what the girls were going on about.

"We're twelve!" Suzue finally blurted out. "Why would I even be looking at Sasuke like that? Or anyone?!"

"I'm thirteen!" Sakura countered like it really made a difference.

"So?"

"You!" Sakura grounded out thrusting a finger at the other girl.

"Just don't go after Sasuke-kun! Just because you had good grades doesn't mean you're good enough for him," one of the other girls ordered.

"I'm not going to," Suzue protested not really believing these girls. "Seriously, why are you all obsessed with the boy?"

A moment later and Suzue regretted asking that question as several of the girls went on to inform her on just what made Sasuke so great. She really didn't get just why all these girls were obsessed with a boy. She hadn't been at this age. Though she hadn't been in a class with a 'cool, cute' boy like Sasuke and maybe she had been a little obsessed with some fictional characters at that age but even with that knowledge she didn't understand.

Feeling overwhelmed by the group and just way too confused, Suzue abused ninja knowledge and performed a kawarimi no jutsu to escape. She then used henge no jutsu to turn into one of the teachers carrying a pile of papers into the building so they wouldn't see where she went. The transformed girl heard various cries of where did she go and saw out of the corner of her eye the group of girls leaning over the railing to see if they could spot her. Once in the building Suzue dropped the transformation and tried to figure out where she could go to hide from the fangirls until it was time to meet their new sensei. After a moment of thought, she headed to the auditorium/gym that was used when it was raining outside. She was also pretty sure it was the place where Lee and Sasuke would have that fight before the chunin exams.

Suzue paused as she debated walking up the wall with chakra or using her kekkei genkai to reach the rafters. A sudden noise made the girl jump and whip around the gym for the source. Seeing nothing and not wanting to be found by anyone, Suzue made her decision and dropped a coin on the floor.

The Kinzoku Idōnin (which she was mostly certain meant metal move person or something like that) kekkei genkai allowed the user to Push and Pull on any form of metal. Depending on the weight of the metal and if it was against something allowed the person to either make the metal come towards or away from them. It also allowed the person themselves to go towards or away from the metal. It was a very useful kekkei genkai to have as a shinobi but the family it hailed from was very small and the only member who was the same age as anyone from that manga was Suzue herself. Which Suzue was sure was the reason why the kekkei genkai had never come up in The Naruto story. It was surprising how many things there were that didn't show up, actually.

Pushing against the coin she had dropped, Suzue made her way up to the rafters to hide out until it was time to meet up with her sensei. Once she settled, she Pulled on the coin so no one would suspect something. Rubbing her eyes to get rid of the lingering tears that had gathered once again, the girl sniffed as her thoughts returned once more to the fact that she was now in the middle of a plot she had wanted to avoid. Well, mostly avoid, had figured she wouldn't be a part of, and just what had she changed to get this result?

Suzue's thoughts were interrupted by the wandering realized that she left her lunch up on the roof making her groan into her knees. Could this day be any worse?

"AH! You're the purple haired girl!"

Apparently, Naruto did, in fact, know who she was; he just didn't know what her name was. This wasn't making her day any better.

"It's lavender," Suzue muttered sinking into her chair while trying not to pout. They were the last ones in the classroom besides Iruka-sensei who was just preparing to leave. It was the only reason Naruto had even figured out she was the third person on his team.

"Whatever," Naruto wave off. "I guess you're an okay teammate. Sakura-chan would have been better, though."

Suzue sunk further into her chair knowing that Sakura was supposed to be on this team but that she had replaced her. And it hurt that Naruto (the main character) only thought she was okay. Even knowing that Sakura was his crush didn't help ease the pain.

"Dobe," Sasuke threw out not even looking at Naruto who whipped around to growl at him.

"What was that, Teme?!"

"Boys," Iruka-sensei interrupted, "Behave and wait for your jounin-sensei. He should be here soon...I hope."

Suzue was pretty sure they weren't supposed to hear the last part of that.

"What? You're leaving already?" Naruto whined.

"I have other duties to attend to Naruto, so yes, I am leaving. But your new sensei should be here soon, so wait patiently for him alright?"

"Yes Iruka-sensei," Naruto drawled out as he flopped onto a desk.

The scarred man smiled at all of them and then left. It seemed like an eternity sitting there waiting for Kakashi. Sasuke just sat there ignoring them, which was normal for him, and Naruto just kept fidgeting as they waited. Suzue felt like she should do something, talk, get to know her teammates, or run out of the classroom yelling 'I quit!', but she found herself doing nothing. She never seemed to know just what to say or ask to get to know someone anyway, so they all sat in awkward silence for nearly an hour before Naruto let out a frustrated cry and stood up.

The blond boy went to the door and peered out into the hallway to see if their new sensei was just lurking out there for some reason. Suzue actually thought Kakashi would pull something like that, it seemed like a thing his character would do. With more sneaky-ness then just standing outside the door. So was he doing just that?

That thought made the lavender-haired girl look around and focus more on the metal she could sense everywhere. While she couldn't sense chakra, she could sense, or see, where metal was; and every ninja carried metal, even if it was just their hitai-ate. So she could locate people rather easily with that sense but for the most part didn't bother to focus on it since there was metal everywhere, especially in the village. It was a side effect of the Kinzoku Idōnin kekkei genkai.

Either Kakashi knew enough about her kekkei genkai to hide from her senses (which was possible) or he wasn't around watching them. Though at the edge of her sense she caught moving metal that could be their sensei coming towards them. Turning her attention back to the visual world, Suzue saw Naruto hop off the table he was standing on to lodge an erasure into the door. The boy caught her watching him and gave her a cheeky grin.

"It's what he gets for being late!"

"It seems...too simple for a jounin," Suzue said before her brain could throw out what a bad idea speaking was as her eyes glanced back at the prank. And it was always easier to respond to someone that being the one to start something. Except when they were being confusing like Sasuke's Fanclub.

"Hey, it's a classic!" Naruto countered. "And he could come at any minute!"

Suzue noticed the moving metal was drawing closer to the door and nodded. "You're right. I think he's just about here."

"You're a sensor?" Sasuke demanded at that comment, attention turning towards her. Suzue started and turned wide eyes to her dark-haired teammate.

"Sort of? It's not in the normal sense."

"Sensor? What's that?" Naruto asked looking confused.

"Someone who can sense or feel another person's chakra and be able to tell where they are based on that feeling or sense. Most ninja train to have some skill in it but there are a few people who are really skilled in being about to do that. Usually, they're born with that skill, though."

"And you can do that?" Naruto grinned, eyes bright. "That's so cool!"

"No I can't, I do something different," Suzue protested, getting flustered. Naruto inhaled to ask more questions but the girl was saved by the door sliding open and the clatter of the erasure falling onto Kakashi's head.

There was a moment of silence before Naruto burst into laughter saying, "You totally fell for it!"

Suzue had to admit, Kakashi in person didn't cut a very impressive figure. His one lone eye was half lidded like he could barely stay awake, his shoulders were slumped forward adding to the 'I'm tired look', and his uniform looked like he had just thrown it on because it was the closest thing to him when he got up this morning. Add that in with the fact that he let Naruto's prank get him, and yeah, Kakashi didn't seem very awesome.

"I have to say I think my first impression of you all is…I dislike you."

If Suzue had more confidence, courage, or just less anxiety with interacting with others, she probably would have said, 'well at least our impressions could only get better from here on out.' But she wasn't that type of person so the thought stayed as a thought instead of morphing into actual words. It probably would have helped if she had thought of that come back before the moment stretched into awkwardness.

A few minutes later found all four of them up on the academy roof. Suzue noticed that her lunch she had ended up leaving up here was still there. She made a note to retrieve that before they left as they all sat down.

"Well, let's begin with introducing yourselves!" Kakashi started with a grin. There was a beat of silence as Naruto and Suzue shared a glance with each other, Sasuke being 'too cool' to do such a thing.

Hands fisting the hem of her skirt Suzue threw out, "I'm Hagiwara Suzue!" then said nothing else even though she knew what Kakashi was looking for in an introduction. She wasn't sure if she really saw a twitch in Kakashi or if she was just imagining things.

Sasuke caught on next as he said, "Uchiha Sasuke." That seemed to clue Naruto in as his confused looked cleared and he turned to Kakashi with a wide grin.

The blond jabbed his thumb into his chest and introduced, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be Hokage!"

All three of them stared expectantly at Kakashi who gave them a lazy blink before exhaling, loudly. "That wasn't I was looking for, but I guess it'll do."

"If that wasn't what you wanted then you should have shown us an example," Naruto shouted at the silver-haired man who looked like he would rather be in his bed then here.

"Mah, maybe," Kakashi drawled with a glance at the sky. "Hatake Kakashi."

"Huh?"

"That's his name dobe," Sasuke pointed.

"I knew that teme!" Naruto shouted back, his cheeks becoming faintly pink.

"Well, that's it for introductions, for now, I guess," Kakashi informed them in a bored tone making the two boys turn to him. "Tomorrow we'll be starting our shinobi duties."

"Sweet! What are they?" Naruto demanded with a wide grin vibrating in his seat.

"Well, the first task will just involve the four of us," Kakashi started.

"What is it? What is it?" Naruto interrupted about to jump out of his seat.

"Survival training."

"Survival training?" Naruto repeated, the eagerness fading from him in his confusion. Suzue clenched her fingers into her skirt and waited for Kakashi to continue.

"This survival training will be different than any training you did in the academy, as I will be your opponent."

"Well, what is it?" Naruto asked again not really getting it. The blond's question just made Kakashi chuckle evilly. And it was a chuckle, not a giggle. "What are you laughing at?!"

"Oh, just that when I tell you guys, you're going to totally freak out is all."

"No way! We won't freak out! Right, guys?" Naruto declared turning to his teammates for support on this. Suzue nodded and Sasuke just glared holes into their new (not really yet) sensei. "See!"

"Of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine of you will move on to be genin. The rest of you will fail and be sent back into the academy. This test has a sixty-six percent failure rate."

Suzue had to admit, Kakashi did creepy rather well. Her back was tensed and her anxiety was higher than normal just from Kakashi informing them about this test, even though she knew what was going to happen. Actually, she was fairly certain that knowing what was going to happen combined with Iruka's lecture this morning was the only reason she wasn't on the verge of having a mental breakdown due to stress.

Pushing that thought aside, the lavender-haired girl turned to her teammates and blinked at the looks of horrors they had on their faces. It seemed they really didn't pay attention to Iruka-sensei's lecture today. Suzue sighed as Kakashi laughed at them.

"See, I told you that you would freak out!"

"No way!" Naruto shouted in protest. "We worked our asses off to pass that test! What was the point of that just to get another one!"

"To see who really had it to be a genin and who was completely hopeless," Kakashi shrugged. "Anyways, you'll have to show your skills in the training ground tomorrow so bring all the weapons you'll think you'll need. Oh, and also don't eat breakfast, you might throw up."

"Only might?" Suzue couldn't help but mutter as Kakashi pulled three sheets of paper from his hip pouch.

"Did I say might? I mean probably will," Kakashi eye-smiled at them as she handed them the papers. "Details are on theses. Make sure to show up on time!"

Suzue felt her face heat up as she realized that Kakashi had heard her. She couldn't bring herself to look at him as she grabbed one of the papers and looked it over. It was mildly surprising to find that the information Kakashi had given them was written as if it really was a mission. Suzue couldn't help but found that to be really cool.

"Well, that's all for the day...so you are all dismissed," Kakashi informed them before vanishing in a whirl of leaves. Suzue watch as the leaves drifted down to the ground before looking back at her paper. More focus on it than her teammates, it took her a moment to realized that they were not next to her anymore. Panic flared to life and she turned around to find them only to see that they were leaving the roof. Teeth caught her lips as she knew the best thing would be to call out to them and suggest going to scope out the training area to make plans for what to do, but she just couldn't get it passed her lips. Then they were gone and she had lost the moment.

Suzue slumped in her spot she was still sitting at, hating herself for not having enough courage to suggest something that was perfectly reasonable and even smart to do. She looked at her 'mission' paper before sighing and deciding to just deal with it all tomorrow morning. Getting up, Suzue left the roof. A few seconds she rushed back onto the roof to snag her lunch before really leaving this time.

Sleep was hard to come by and wakefulness came too early, but that schedule did allow her to make breakfast bento for herself and her teammates. Suzue was putting a bet on her knowledge of a manga she had read in another life was going to be correct in that Kakashi was just messing with their heads about not eating breakfast. She was also hoping that her teammates would accept and that maybe it would let them bond with each other, allowing them to come up with plans against Kakashi and getting the bells. Not that she was supposed to know that, yet. Surprising, she found that she was the last one to the meeting spot, minus Kakashi, but he didn't count.

"Is that food I smell?" Naruto asked blinking beady eyes at her and nose twitching.

"I... brought breakfast, enough for all of us," Suzue offered as she held out two of the bento, one to each boy.

"He said not to eat breakfast," Sasuke pointed out, eyes narrow as if he was trying to figure out her game plan.

"It was more of a suggestion," Suzue offered still holding out the bento to him. "He just said that we might throw up if we ate, and I don't think that's a good enough reason to skip breakfast and go into a training exercise that we don't have much information on with an empty stomach."

"Are you saying that I should have had ramen for breakfast like I was planning before remembering what Kakashi said? Because that sucks if so, I had to throw out a perfectly good cup of ramen because I forgot that Kakashi told us that," Naruto babbled with a frown on his face.

"Yeah, something like that. I'm sorry about your ramen," Suzue offered more upset by the fact that Naruto had just wasted good food instead of that food being ramen. And he really did eat ramen for breakfast?

"I gave it a worthy funeral so it's alright," Naruto informed her like that was supposed to make it better. Suzue just blinked at him, not sure if he was joking or being serious.

"Dobe," Sasuke let slip.

"Hey, ramen is the food of the gods! It must be shown proper respect! Not something you would know about you-you-"

"Heathen?" Suzue suggested without thinking.

"Yes! You heathen!"

Sasuke just huffed and turned away from Naruto. "He could show up at any minute and we shouldn't be in the middle of eating if that happens."

It took Suzue a moment to realize that he was talking to her. "Oh, well, he was late yesterday. I have feeling that he's going to be late today."

"Seriously?!" Naruto whined. "I hate waiting."

"You and me both," Suzue muttered. "But we can eat in the meantime."

"Well, it's not ramen, but I guess it would be okay. Training on an empty stomach doesn't seem like fun anyways," Naruto reasoned as he grabbed the bento Suzue was still holding and sitting down on the ground with a plop before starting to devour the food.

"What about you? Are you going to eat it or go hungry?" Suzue asked. Sasuke just huffed again but swiped the bento she was holding out to him before sitting as well. Suzue joined them and there was silence as they all focused more on their food than each other.

Nerves settled in Suzue's stomach making it mildly difficult to eat but she pushed through because she hadn't eaten much in the last twenty-four hours due to said nerves. And she figured since she was the one to push the two boys to eat it would be weird to not eat. Sasuke would probably jump to the conclusion she was poisoning him or something.

"This is really good," Naruto commented. "Did your mom make it or something. That's what mom's do right?"

Suzue blinked. "I made it...my mom's dead."

"Ah, really?" Naruto blinked in surprise. "So you live your dad then?"

"He's missing."

"You don't have a family either?" Naruto asked sounding really surprised. His face wrinkled into a confused thoughtful face. "But I remember seeing someone come and pick you up sometimes."

"I have two older siblings; they check up on me when they're in the village. Sometimes they came by after school to take me out to eat or something."

"But you don't live with them?" Sasuke asked, eyes focusing on her like she had just ended up on radar and he hadn't expected it.

"No... I live by myself."

"Why? You have a family," Naruto asked sounding way too confused that someone who had a family would still live by themselves.

"It," Suzue started not sure what to say and not really wanting to talk about it. "It just works better for everyone if I live by myself."

"You're family's weird."

"Did...did your mother teach you to cook?" Sasuke asked making Suzue look up at him in surprise. He wasn't looking at her but his fingers were clench tightly around his chopsticks.

"No, I never knew my mother. My grandmother taught me."

"Hn."

The three of them descended into awkward silence as they went back to eating. Not even Naruto did anything to fill the silence making Suzue fidget with her chopsticks in between bites. Eventually, the only girl couldn't take it anymore and blurt out, "So what do you think Kakashi-sensei's test is going to be and what do you think we should plan for?"

Five hours later, Kakashi arrived in the clearing to three annoyed preteens who were already tired of being in each other's presences. Trying to plan and predict Kakashi's test without revealing what she knew about the test had stressed Suzue out to the point that she was just done with people for the day already. Not to mention, Sasuke and Naruto did not get along; they fought about everything. So any effort at planning failed as neither could agree on a course of action for the three of them to do. And that was after they spent a large amount of time debating just what the test would be.

Suzue was seriously thinking about having things go as they did in the manga and call it a day. That wasn't what she wanted to do but it would be easier for her. At least she brought breakfast and wasn't having to deal with this on top of being hungry.

"You're late!" Naruto shouted at Kakashi, pointing a finger at him.

"Mah, my alarm clock didn't work this morning," Kakashi offered as a way of explanation. Naruto just gave him a look that clearly said 'Really?'. With a sigh, Suzue followed Kakashi to the three stumps in the training ground where he pulled out an alarm clock and set it on the middle stump.

"Wait, I thought you said your alarm clock wasn't working," Naruto pointed out as Kakashi set it up.

"That was my alarm clock, this is a different one," Kakashi eye-grinned at them. Both Sasuke and Suzue just looked unimpressed with him. "This one is set for noon."

Kakashi pulled out two bells and held them up for them to see. "Here are two bells. Your task is to take these from me before the time's up. Those who don't have a bell by noon won't get lunch. I'll not only tie you to one of those stumps but I'll also eat said lunch right in front of you."

'He really likes messing with us doesn't he?' Suzue mused to herself as Naruto pointed a finger at Kakashi. "That's why you didn't want us to eat breakfast?!"

"Well, there's still the chance you could throw up," Kakashi shrugged then jingled the bells. "You only have to get one bell. There are only two so one of you will definitely be tied to the stump. And the person who doesn't take a bell fails. So at least one of you will be sent back to the academy."

Suzue bit her lip as the two boys next to her gulped as they suddenly realize the stakes they were playing for. The girl wondered if she really could get the two of them to work with her or not. She was so not good at anything people related in actual practice. And this morning was showing her that she didn't have any skills getting these two to work together.

"If you want you can use shuriken and kunai. You won't succeed unless you come at me intending to kill."

"You're joking, right? You couldn't even dodge an eraser! We'll definitely kill you!" Naruto laughed blowing the tension in the air out of the way.

"In the real world, those with no talent often bark the loudest," Kakashi deadpanned. "Well, ignore the deadlast and start when I say."

It only took a second for Naruto to snap at the title of deadlast and attack Kakashi. Even knowing what was happening, Suzue was unable to actually see Kakashi move to place Naruto in a kill hold. Naruto hadn't even taken a step towards Kakashi before the older man was behind the blond with said blond's own kunai pointed at the back of his neck.

"Calm down...I haven't said start yet," Kakashi said in a mild tone as if he couldn't kill Naruto in less than a second. Suzue was actually pretty sure that if the man wanted he could kill all of them without them even realizing it.

"I will say this for you, you did at least come at me with the intent to kill, so you're learning...or finally acknowledging me?" Kakashi mused to himself. "Hehe, it seems like I'm beginning to like you guys. Okay, let's get going. Ready, start!"

In the Academy, they teach the students not just how to perform kata and spar but actually how to fight. How to not flinch when someone attacks you and how not to let adrenaline overtake you in a fight along with what to do when it did overtake you. They even help the students figure out what style of fighting would best suit you. Suzue was a fighter who performed better with an objective in mind and no plan.

One of Suzue's main problems with nearly everything is that she's very prone to overthinking everything to the point where she paralyzes herself with fear or worry. This had actually been noticed early on in her academy career and the teacher at the time had suggested that she just not think. Her fighting ability improved by a lot just on that suggestion.

So, even knowing it was a bad idea and would probably not work, Suzue attacked Kakashi the moment he said to start. Shuriken were launched from her hands and Pushed on with her kekkei genkai so they went faster, all aiming at the bells tied to Kakashi. The silver-haired man's eye widens but he easily caught the weapons. Suzue, however, was already following that up with a low sweep kick that Kakashi easily jumped over. He caught the hand she used to try and grab the bells the moment he was in the air. Upon landing, Kakashi spun, lifting Suzue off the ground by her caught wrist, and threw her across the field towards Naruto who was just standing there yelling something at them. Twisting in mid-air until she was upside down, Suzue opened both her weapon pouches on her thighs letting the dozen shuriken kept there to fall out into the air. She Pushed on them to head towards Kakashi who drew a kunai and deflected all of them with ease. The lavender-haired girl continued her twist to landed on the ground and focused on the metal now scattered around Kakashi trying to figure out if she could use them again to get the bells.

Naruto, apparently deciding that he had enough of just standing around yelling, entered the fight with a punch to Kakashi's face. Or at least that was his intention but Kakashi had easily blocked the fist. With a growl of frustration, Naruto readjusted himself to throw a kick at Kakashi's head instead only to have the older man crouch down with no effort to avoid. By this point, Naruto had to land on the ground again, but he was back on the attack readying another punch. In a blink, Kakashi was behind Naruto with his fingers in the Tora seal.

Suzue blinked as she realized what was about to happen to Naruto and wildly looked around to figure out how to prevent this from happening. As funny as she remembered it being in a manga, real life was something different and she really didn't want to see Kakashi poke Naruto in the ass for real. Kakashi's new spot put him in the perfect position for half her fallen weapons and she Pulled on them. The shuriken leap from the ground heading directly towards Kakashi on their way back to her. He was forced to abandon his plan to jump out of the way or be impaled with six sharp weapons.

Allowing them to continue all the way back to her, Suzue caught them with practiced ease before throwing them back at Kakashi as she Pulled the other set back to her to do the same thing. But before she could throw her next set Kakashi was gone from the spot. An intake of breath and Suzue realized that there was metal behind her. She tried to spin around so that she had Kakashi in front of her instead of behind her but she was too slow. He held the kunai he had used to deflect all her earlier weapons against her neck.

The girl tensed before forcing herself to relax. She had to be ready to move. She also started Pushing on the kunai. Not hard enough that Kakashi would be forced to take it away, but enough that it seemed like she was trying to do just that.

"You know, I half expected Naruto to do what you did. Generally, the smart thing would have been to hide and come up with a plan," Kakashi mused.

"He did what you expected of him, I just beat him to it," Suzue said as she tracked all the metal around her. Naruto was staying in one spot, Sasuke was up in a tree to their right, and there was a lot of discarded weapons lying around. Now could she use any of them to her advantage?

"Well, I had been planning on teaching you Shinobi lesson number two, Genjutsu but I guess you and Naruto will both get Shinobi lesson number one, Taijutsu."

"No Shinobi lesson on weapons?"

"Lesson number four that I hadn't even thought I would teach today," Kakashi said in a happy tone. "You're surprisingly good with them. For a freshly graduated genin."

Suzue felt her cheeks heat up at the compliment.

"Caught you Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto's voice interrupted. "Now let Suzue-chan go!"

Taking the moment of distraction, Suzue Pushed full force on the kunai in Kakashi's hand. His whole arm went flying out in an arch with the force and the kunai itself was ripped from his hand and sent flying off to hit a Naruto in the head. Said Naruto burst into smoke.

"Hey!" Naruto protested in multiple voices, and Suzue realized that Naruto had used Shadow Clones and was ambushing Kakashi. Taking the opening after a moment of surprise, and realization that she could not tell where any of the clones were by tracking metal, Suzue spun going for the bells. Just before she could grab them she noticed that she could no longer sense the bells that she was staring at. In fact, she could no longer sense any of the metal on the Kakashi in front of her. Only Naruto who was holding onto Kakashi's back.

Her fist went through the bells revealing they were a genjutsu and was pulling her hand back to make the sign for a chakra burst to destroy it but Naruto punched false Kakashi before she could follow through. In Kakashi's place was a Naruto clone that burst with the punch.

"You're Kakashi-sensei aren't you?! You used henge no jutsu to transform!" one Naruto declared pointing at one clone. Suzue watch as all the clones proceeded to get into a brawl over who was really Kakashi-sensei. With a sigh, Suzue turned her attention to locating their sensei and found him in a tree to her left. He was either getting better at figuring out what she could and could not do with her kekkei genkai or he had just gotten lucky with his chosen spot as there was nothing around him she could use to attack.

"He's not here..."

Suzue turned to see that Naruto had dropped all the clones to find that Kakashi wasn't anywhere in the field. He then peered at her suspiciously.

"You're not Kakashi-sensei are you?" Suzue shook her head and watched Naruto in case he decided that she was lying and attacked her. "Man, even with both of us we couldn't get him."

Suzue sighed and turned away from him once it was apparent that he wasn't going to think that she was Kakashi. The girl had figured that her 'just attack plan' wouldn't have worked and this fight had shown her that she was going to have a hard time working with Naruto for the foreseeable future. He didn't plan for anyone but himself and his clones. His fighting style was really bad too. She could see it actually working for the blond but at the moment he wasn't using it right. Too much wasted movements and giving up too much defense for an attack. Still that plan had been a good one and probably would have worked on anyone who wasn't an elite jounin.

"A bell!" Naruto suddenly shouted making Suzue jerk out of her thoughts. "It's mine! He must have been desperate to escape if he dropped a bell!"

The lavender-haired girl blinked as she realized that what she had mistaken for a discarded weapon was, in fact, a bell laying on the ground. Then it dawned on her that the bells were metal, she could Pull them towards her at any time.

'I'm an idiot,' Suzue thought as she facepalmed. A yell made her glance through her fingers at a now swing Naruto who was shouting once again. 'And so is he.'

From what she remembered of the bell test that happened in a manga she had read, Kakashi would have taunted Naruto and Sasuke revealed his position to take advantage of what appeared to be a golden opportunity making him have to run for it. At least she was pretty sure something like that happened with the added bonus of Naruto trying to steal their lunches. Sakura had been tested with genjutsu but Suzue wasn't Sakura and given what Kakashi had said she wasn't sure if he would do the same thing to her.

An idea bloomed in her mind, she just needed to gather the courage to go talk to Sasuke about it. Right at this moment. Swallowing and wishing she had different teammates because she was not a leader and didn't want to be the one in charge, which is what she felt like to her, Suzue went through the handseals for a kawarimi no jutsu and landed on a branch above the dark haired boy. He launched a kunai at her which she caught and handed back to him hilt first. He took it slowly, eyeing her warily.

"What?" he asked in a low tone.

"All three of us need to work together to get the bells," Suzue said in a rush, using the same low tones so their voices wouldn't carry.

"I don't need you or that idiot," Sasuke hissed. Suzue bit her lip to keep from sighing. This would be the reason why she didn't want to do this.

"That outlook is going to get you killed on the first mission you go on," Suzue pointed out keeping her hands gripping the branches so she couldn't fidget with them. Her stomach turned into knots as Sasuke just glowered at her. "Look I can get the bells, I just need Kakashi distracted and between you and Naruto he should be distracted enough. Also, I think you're skilled enough to accommodate for Naruto's...style."

"And who gets the bells? There are only two," Sasuke pointed out as he turned towards the flash of silver that had suddenly appeared. Kakashi was now taunting Naruto.

"You and Naruto," Suzue offered without missing a beat. She pulled off her hitai-ate and held it out to him. "You can keep this as assurance that I'll give you a bell."

The boy stared at the hitai-ate for a long moment before letting out a noise of disgust and turned back to Kakashi and Naruto. "Keep it, I'll just take your word. But if I do get a bell then the deals off and you stuck with the idiot."

"Fine, have fun," Suzue agreed as she tied the band back on and jumped out of the tree. Sasuke attacked Kakashi in a moment of apparent weakness only to have the adult pull the same trick he had used on Naruto. The last Uchiha cursed and ran off. Suzue took a moment to track Sasuke and find Kakashi. He was farther out than she would have thought and was heading off towards where Sasuke was heading.

With a sigh, Suzue walked back out to the field to talk to Naruto who was slowly spinning in the rope trap he was currently trapped in. He caught sight of her and the blond flailed making himself spin faster.

"Suzue-chan! What are you doing back here?"

"I have a plan to get the bells but need your help."

"Huh? My help? But aren't we supposed to get the bells on our own? And, well, our combo attack didn't work that well either," Naruto rambled as he continued to spin. Suzue had that passing wonderment of if he was getting dizzy or not.

"Kakashi never said we couldn't work together," Suzue pointed out as her fingers pick at the hem of her skirt. "And Sasuke's going to help us, but we need to hurry."

"But there's only two bells! Who gets a bell if we all work to get them?" Naruto pointed out.

"You and Sasuke, I can live with another year at the academy," Suzue shrugged. "Are you in or not?"

"Alright," Naruto said slowly with a frown. He pulled out a kunai and reached up to cut the rope. "But I think you should keep a bell and not give one to Sasuke-teme."

"Wait-"

Too late, Naruto cut the rope, landed, and was promptly caught in another trap. Suzue facepalmed as Naruto screeched about the unfairness of there being two traps. Peeking through her fingers, the lavender-haired girl asked, "Aren't you supposed to be a pranking master? How could someone with that title fall for such a prank as this one?"

Naruto was spinning again and looked way too bewildered. "You're right...this was totally a prank. Well, he's not getting away with this! If he wants pranks, I'll show him pranks."

After giving the ground an evil eye, Naruto cut himself down and was about to run into the forest to look for Kakashi when he paused and looked back at Suzue. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know where Kakashi-sensei is would you?"

"Just follow me," Suzue said and took off into the woods.

Watching Sasuke go at it with Kakashi did show her that Sasuke at least knew what he was doing. Kakashi had to pay more attention to him than he had with her and Naruto, not by much though which sent a bit of pride into her. Suzue watched, waiting for the perfect moment when she could pull the bells to her. The girl had a brief thought that she could do this on her own but had figured Kakashi was simply too skilled and would notice the bells too soon for her to get her hands on them.

Sasuke's hand was reaching for the bells and Kakashi had just realized that he had no free hands to deflect Sasuke's grab. It got worse as several Naruto clones suddenly burst from the trees and bushes around the two pulling off a similar attack to his earlier one. In that moment, Suzue Pulled on the bells and they came flying towards her as Kakashi dealt with the two boys. The girl was surprised it actually worked and she caught the bells in her hand.

Looking up, Suzue saw that Kakashi had disposed all the Naruto clones and had thrown the original along with Sasuke across the clearing so that they landed on top of each other. A brief argument and Sasuke pushed Naruto out of the way to start a jutsu only to pause as he took Kakashi in. Or rather, he noticed the lack of bells.

"Hn, it actually worked," Sasuke noted a smirk crawling onto his face. Naruto blinked as he processed what that meant then he too grin.

"Haha, of course, it's because we're awesome!"

"Ah," Kakashi hummed as he too noticed the lack of bells. "Well, it seemed like you three worked together to get the bells, or one of you just saw an opportunity and took it. So I wonder...which is it?"

"We totally worked together!" Naruto shouted, pointing a finger at the silver-haired man.

"Then let's see if that's true or not," Kakashi eye-smiled and Suzue had a bad feeling in her stomach that had nothing to do with her normal nerves. She slipped the bells in her hip pouch while pulling out a handful of shuriken as the tall man said, "So can the three of you keep the bells out of my hands until the bell rings?"

That was the only warning Suzue got before Kakashi was suddenly in front of her. She pulled out a kunai with her other hand and swiped at Kakashi's face with it as he did an eye scan of her trying to figure out where she stashed the bells. Distantly, Suzue heard the yells of the boys as she dropped one shuriken and tossed the rest point blank at the silver haired man who dodged or caught them. She Pushed on the dropped shuriken and shot straight up into the air as high as she could get.

A moment later had Kakashi jumping out of the tree up at her, and humans should not be able to jump that high. Panicked, Suzue lost her balance and tipped over which was probably the only reason Kakashi missed grabbing her. Scrambling to find another anchor before crashing to the ground, she Pulled on a piece of metal to get out of reach of Kakashi before Pushing on another to send her back into the air. Since Kakashi didn't have the same ability as her, he was limited to just how much he could move around in the air. Thus he had to fall back to the ground before launching himself back up to where she was now.

That was probably what he had been planning but the sudden large orange spot that had appeared put a damper on Kakashi's plans. Hopefully, Sasuke was in the midst helping Naruto distract Kakashi from her. Standing in the middle of the air was not the best place to hide but it allowed more movability for Suzue.

With Kakashi busy for the moment with the boys, Suzue wondered what to do. There was enough discarded metal around in the training ground that she could, for the most part, keep herself in the air, problem was that Kakashi had proven that he could jump high enough to get to her with her only using a kunai or a shuriken as an anchor. She would need a larger source of metal to anchor to if she wanted to go higher. Just her luck that there was such a place in the training field.

The memorial stone wasn't just made out of stone, there was also a large amount of metal on or in it as well. The only question remaining was rather Kakashi could jump high enough to reach her. Hopefully not or she was going to be playing a game of cat and mouse with him. Latching onto a nearby piece of metal, Suzue Pulled herself towards it before Pushing off it and Pulling herself to another piece of metal. It took barely a minute to reach the memorial stone and she Pushed on it till she was tittering at the highest point she could without losing the anchor completely.

Fear of heights lost its powers when one could Push and Pull on metal to keep from going splat on the ground. Suzue took a moment to admire the view before glancing back down to the ground to see if she could actually see her teammates and sensei, not just sense where moving metal was. Seemed like the boys had lost their battle and Kakashi was heading towards her. He strolled into the field and looked up at her. He was too far away for her to tell what his expression was and with the facemask, she couldn't even tell if he was talking to her or not.

They stared at each other for a long moment before Kakashi reached into his hip pouch. A second later and he launched a handful of shuriken up at her. Instead of risking her position by catching them all, Suzue just Pushed on all of them, causing them to switch direction mid-air and go raining back down on him. With an ease that just showed how long he had been a ninja, Kakashi caught all of them. He eyed them before looking back up at Suzue.

Before he could do anything else, Sasuke and Naruto appeared from the trees and attacked. Suzue was pretty sure they were just trying to keep Kakashi busy and focused on them than on her. Still, she had been right about Sasuke being able to adjust for Naruto. The blond, on the other hand, was very much a wild child and just caused a lot of chaos for everyone to deal with.

It was only a few minutes before the alarm rang sounding the end of the test.

The lavender-haired girl hesitated for a moment before dropping the tether and plunging to the ground. She caught herself on the anchor again before she hit the memorial and slowly lowered herself to it then jumping to the ground. The boys had gathered around and with a wary eye on Kakashi, Suzue fished the two bells out to give one to each of the boys. Naruto was grinning like a loon and Sasuke had a smirk playing on his lips.

"Mah, that was interesting," Kakashi drawled as he watched them. "I really didn't expect any of you to get the bells, but I guess that's what I get for underestimating Suzue-chan's kekkei genkai."

"Hell ya! Suzue-chan is totally awesome and we kicked your ass!" Naruto crowed.

"Yet she's the one who's going to be sent back to the academy," Kakashi pointed out. "And won't get lunch."

"Really?! But that's so unfair!" Naruto complained. "She was totally awesome and we wouldn't have gotten the bells without her. Couldn't she pass too and be on the same team as us? We would make a kick ass team! Even with the teme on it."

"Rules are rules, she doesn't have a bell, therefore she has to go back," Kakashi said with a shrug.

"Screw the rules! Right Sasuke? We all disserve the pass."

"Hn, the dobe is right," Sasuke agreed. "We should all pass."

"Is that so?" Kakashi hummed. "So you think you should all pass or all fail?"

"Yes," both boys said at the same time.

"What do you think Suzue-chan? Do you think all of you should pass even though you were the one to do all the work in getting and keeping the bells?"

For a moment, Suzue was tempted to quote Obito and say that those who abandon the rules were trash but those who abandon their comrades were worse than trash. But that seemed like pulling a dragon's tail so she settled on something different.

"I think that you've been trying to play us off each other and that the test all along was to see if we could work together even when it seemed better not to. It was always, we all pass or we all fail, there was no in between."

"Figured that all out did you?" Kakashi eye-smiled at her.

"It wasn't that hard," Suzue muttered feeling her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. "Iruka-sensei pretty much told us something like this would happen during orientation yesterday."

"He did?" Naruto asked head tilting to the side in confusion. Sasuke, on the other hand, had his eyes go wide and a faint pink appeared on his cheeks as he realizes that she was right. He looked away from the group with a huff. Suzue bit her lip to keep from laughing at the Uchiha before giving Naruto a nod.

"Well then. There is only one course left," Kakashi began looking all three of them gravely, "You...PASS!"

A moment of silence then Naruto let out a whoop and tackled hugged Sasuke in joy. In retaliation, Sasuke elbowed the orange-loving shinobi in the ribs, hard, if the gasp Naruto let out was any indication. Suzue felt her own lips turning upward in a grin. Somehow it had all worked out.

"You three are the first team to have not only gotten their hands on the bells but figured out the test," Kakashi told them. "So remember, those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash...but, those who don't take care of their comrades are lower than trash."

"Yes, sensei," Suzue nodded.

"Great! And that ends the training. All of you pass! So starting tomorrow Team Seven will begin its duties!" Kakashi informed them with a thumbs up, Suzue wondered if he got that from Gai.

"Yay! Ninja! We did it!" Naruto cheered dancing around all of them.

"Let's go," Kakashi ordered and Sasuke and Suzue fell in with him. It took Naruto a moment to realize that he was being left behind and came running up to them with a cry.

"Wait up!"

"You can catch up Naruto-kun," Suzue called back still riding on the high of having pass Kakashi's test.

"You could have waited," Naruto grumbled as he caught up to them. The thrill of passing wouldn't be put down and Naruto was once again grinning at everything. "Hey, let's all go get ramen for lunch to celebrate!"

"There's other foods besides ramen," Sasuke taunted. Leading the two of them to get into an argument about food of all things.

Somehow, all four of them did, in fact, end up at Ramen Ichiraku for lunch.

Author Note: Welcome to Blackout, the latest reincarnated SI/OC in Naruto fandom. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to more. Next chapter should be out by next Sunday, 25 September.