//------------------------------// // A Test of Character // Story: Friendship Contract // by Demeristraz //------------------------------// "Okay, let's start with introductions. To make things interesting, why don't you introduce each other. Pinkie, you go first, introduce blondie." The jounin said, eye-smiling at the trio. "Fine." Sakura muttered, still pissed about the three hour wait. "What should I say?" "You know, Likes, Dislikes, Hobbies, Dreams for the future?" Kakashi said. "This is Naruto, he likes loud noises and bright colors, and probably shiny objects too. He dislikes people who mock his ridiculous 'ninja' summons. His hobbies include playing pranks and being annoying to the respectable people of Konoha. And his dream for the future, as farfetched as it is, is to become Hokage." "Alright, why don't you go next Sasuke, introduce the pinkette." "This is Sakura... I think." Sasuke shrugged. "Is that it? What about Likes or Dislikes?" Kakashi prompted. "Likes should be obvious, she wasted four years of her life trying to become a ninja just to get me to notice more than her terrible habits." He snickered. "Love and tolerate." Naruto muttered. "Dislikes? I don't know, how about putting more time into training than doing her hair each day? As for hobbies, stalking habits aside, probably insulting honest people to make herself feel better. Dreams I don't think would be appropriate to discuss, there are children present." Sasuke said. Sakura looked heartbroken. Naruto shook his head, he really should tell Sasuke off for being mean, but even his patience was wearing thin with the girl after 3 hours. Kakashi sighed, another dysfunctional team for him, oh yay. "Last up, Naruto, introduce Sasuke." "This is Sasuke, the 'last' Uchiha, he likes training and looking cool. He dislikes people who kiss ass or obsess over names, as well as people who don't take being a ninja seriously. His hobbies include skipping stones and even more training. And his dream for the future is to help the Uchiha name rise from the ashes." Naruto said simply, shocking Kakashi and Sakura. "Right well, tomorrow there will be a test, 6 am sharp at training ground 7, if you fail I send you back to the academy. Don't bother eating breakfast, you'll just throw it up." The jounin said casually, before disappearing in a poof of smoke. "He didn't tell us anything..." Sakura said, still looking lost. "Well, I'm starving, Ichiraku's here I come, who's in?" Naruto said, forming a cloud in front of him. "You're buying this time." Sasuke said, walking over to the edge of the roof. "I'll pass... I'm on a diet." Sakura said quietly. "What? Seriously? Ichiraku's even has a vegetable based broth because their number one customer is vegetarian." Sasuke said, giving the girl a questioning look. "Ramen still has way too many calories." Sakura shrugged. "You do know, that ninja's metabolism runs an average 2.6x the normal rate to produce chakra, right? Twilight did this entire study on me when I was 9. That means a girl your age, if you maintain the level of physical activity standard for a ninja in training, you need a minimum of 5,000 calories a day." Naruto said, now sitting on his fully formed cloud. "Even if you never train, any diet you are on is only limiting your ability to produce chakra." Sasuke added in, already leaping to the next closest roof. Naruto floated the cloud along to follow him. Sakura hesitated a moment, mulling over what had been said, before taking the stairs down to street level, and walking to the ramen stand. She found the two boys engaged with wolfing down bowls of ramen, Naruto was already on his third. "Why are you two so hard on girls being ninja?" She asked, sitting down at the empty stool next to Sasuke. "I have nothing against girls being ninja. Sure Konoha doesn't have any decent ones, but I spent part of my life in Equestria, and the difference between here and there is night and day." Naruto said between bites. "Equestria, that's where all your little ponies live right? Figures you were raised by animals." She smirked, as her own bowl of ramen arrived. "It's a matriarchal society there, the girls rule, they make use of male strength, and they treat them with respect, but the gender ratio is heavily skewed towards females. The thing is though, the girls there are strong, way stronger than the ones in Konoha. Before you say it, I don't mean physically, I mean their character is strong." Naruto said, ignoring the attempts to make him angry. "Konoha has plenty of strong women." Sakura maintained, "Like Tsunade, she's one of the strongest ninja Konoha ever produced." "And she left." Sasuke noted, before returning his attention to his bowl. "The fact that everyone acts shocked when ONE of our top 10 ninja is a girl just proves the point. I've done my research, you're playing into exactly what Konoha expects of you. You do the bare minimum training, you look pretty and learn genjutsu so you won't have to get dirty, you learn medical skills so you can patch up the men after they do the fighting. When you get into a fight you try your best to survive until your teammates can come fight your battles for you." Naruto continued. Sakura was fuming. "What are you trying to say? That I shouldn't bother being a ninja? That I'll just be a burden?" "I'm saying, break the stereotype, grow a backbone, find a real reason to fight. If you want to be a medic, don't become one because it's what you're expected to do. If you want to get strong, train hard, get dirty, sweat a little, bleed once in a while. If you want to be a ninja, then be a ninja." Naruto shrugged, finishing his last bowl. "This one's on me." He said, putting money on the counter, and rising to leave. Once out in the street he did five hand seals, and disappeared. O~O~O~O~O He arrived in Equestria near Fluttershy's cottage, moving up to the door he knocked twice, hearing the sounds of animals moving about inside. Soon enough the door cracked open, and Fluttershy poked her head through the doorway. Seeing him she smiled and invited him inside for tea. They made small talk for a while, before Fluttershy touched on what was wrong. "I said some things today, to the girl who's supposed to be my teammate, that were rather unkind. I feel bad about doing it, but it's something that needed to be said, her life could depend on it." He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I don't want to stop her from being a ninja, if that's what she wants, but it's a dangerous job. She's been at this four years, and still won't take it seriously." Fluttershy leaned forward to nuzzle the distraught boy, "Sometimes we have to be assertive, there are some times where it is important to put your hoof down, when something really matters." She whispered as he returned the hug. "It may seem to be an act of cruelty, when you do something like that, but when it is for their own good, it is truly an act of great kindness. If it's really her life at stake, you're doing the right thing, but from here we can only hope she will listen." O~O~O~O~O Sasuke arrived at the clearing at exactly 6 am, to see Sakura waiting patiently. The girl looked like she had a rough night, her hair was a mess and she had neglected to put on makeup. She tensed as he approached, as if resisting the urge to shout out to him as he took a seat across from her. "Clouds don't hang that low Naruto, you may as well come down." He said casually, as the blonde haired boy leaped down from his perch. "I was going to anyways, I brought lunch!" He said, brandishing a picnic basket. "It's 6 am, isn't it a bit early for lunch?" Sasuke said, seeing Sakura fail to react to the bait. "Yeah, but Kakashi said we shouldn't eat breakfast so..." He trailed off, waiting until the smell of fresh food got the best of all three, and they dove in. It was 10 by the time Kakashi arrived to the field, seeing his three genin once again playing poker. "So then I was like 'Look here, I don't care how bucking runny it is, hand it over with all speed.' so the stallion turns around and pokes his head into the back, and makes this disappointed noise. Then he turns around with a glum look and says 'The cat's eaten it.'" Kakashi cleared his throat to interrupt the story, and gave a small wave. "Hello Kakashi! We were on the subject of deliberately wasting someone's time." Naruto said cheerfully, and the jounin had the good grace to appear sheepish. "Well let's get started then." He said, feeling any excuse about his lateness would worsen the situation. "The sooner we finish this test, the sooner we can have lunch." He gave an eye smile. "But Kakashi, we already ate lunch." Said Sakura, noting the twitch her teacher gave. "Right well, if you'll follow me."He turned and lead them towards a large wooden wall with a doorway in it. "Usually I'd give you the same test my sensei gave me, but the Hokage has suggested something a little more inventive this time. Ahead of me is a maze, you are to get to the middle, the first two there win. You are not allowed to go over the walls, and you are not allowed to leave the maze, if any of you break the rules all of you fail. Understood?" Seeing three hesitant nods he allowed them to step forward. With a final gesture he lifted his headband, and the three genin collapsed to the ground. O~O~O~O~O Naruto stepped forward into the maze, leaping to the side as a wall rose up, separating him from the other two. "See you in the middle I guess!" He called, before heading in to the labyrinth. Traps sprung up as he ran, all of which he dodged with only minor injury, up ahead he could see the first clearing. It was a small apple orchard, and in the middle stood Kakashi. "First one here I see, the real test begins now." He said, barring the way deeper into the maze. "Why do you want to be ninja Naruto?" Naruto paused, not expecting a question instead of an attack. He wanted to shout the same answer as always, but something made him hesitate and think it through. Why did he want to be a ninja? When he could easily go live in Equestria, he could even keep the contract, and visit Konoha from time to time. "Honestly, spending so much time around ponies, it becomes easy to see how flawed humanity is. We have so much violence, so much hate and cruelty and death, for such hollow reasons. I asked them once why they accept me, why they'd agree to come to the elemental nations, knowing what awaited them there. It was Celestia who told me, 'Naruto, to look out over Equestria and see all ponies at peace is common, I can wake up every day for a thousand years and see the same, and indeed I have. But you humans, while you are capable of such great darkness, it makes those full of light shine all the brighter. You are so full of hope, so full of all the virtues, and I have faith that you will change your world. It will be a struggle, but I want all of my little ponies to see what it's like, to take a world like yours, where violence is the norm, and see it at peace. I cannot think of a more beautiful sight, nor a more worthy goal.' I'm going to do it. I don't know exactly how, but being a ninja is just the first step to becoming Hokage, and becoming Hokage is just the first step to bringing peace to this world, even if it's just for a day." Kakashi was silent a moment, and from that distance Naruto could not make out what his reaction was, before he nodded once and vanished in a poof of smoke. Several minutes passed as Naruto evaded more complex traps, before coming to a fork in the road. In both other directions many traps were triggered, and the walls were littered with kunai and shuriken. Checking the ground for footprints Naruto took off in the direction they were going, stopping in horror as he rounded a corner. Sakura lay on the ground ahead, bruised and bloody, with several kunai still lodged in her. "N-naruto?" She said, cringing as she twisted to face him. "I hurt myself on some of the traps, it doesn't seem to be too bad, but I'm definitely out of this race." Naruto took one quick look at the path ahead, the route forked, but left alone Sakura wasn't going anywhere, if he left her here he'd definitely win. Sure she was hurt but it was nothing fatal, Kakashi would step in if she was in any danger. Knowing immediately what to do, Naruto walked forward with purpose. He pulled his trusty first aid kit, yellow with pink butterflies, off his belt and began cleaning and bandaging her wounds, she winced a few times as he pulled out the kunai and disinfected a few cuts, but surprisingly did not complain. "I can do the rest myself you know." She said, reminding him of their race. "Yeah, but I've been doing this for years, besides, leaving you hurt would be a totally jerky thing for a teammate to do." He replied, finishing up the last bandages and helping her to her feet. Nodding, the two each took a different turn at the fork, not needing to look back to know the walls closed off behind them. It was nearly an hour before Naruto finally came to the final clearing at the center of the maze, it was wider than the others, a sky full of storm clouds loomed overhead. He was the first one of the three to arrive, but he was not alone. "Naruto, I'm glad to see you are relatively unharmed." "Old man?" Naruto asked, "What are you doing here?" "The Daimyo insisted we come speak to you at once. He has an offer for you." The official looking man at Sarutobi's right stepped forward. "My wife has become quite taken with your summons, and has insisted I make you an offer for the contract. I know how attached you are to them, so I have prepared a suitable offer. If you pass ownership of the contract over to my custody, the Hokage has agreed to name you his successor, you will be privately trained for the next five years by the best tutors available, and take up the hat when the Third retires. You will be the youngest Hokage in Konoha's history." Naruto was struck dumb. There it was, everything he dreamed of, he would be properly trained, the hat would be his. All it meant was the loss of his closes friends, his surrogate family. Within the span of a second the face of every pony he knew passed through his mind. This was his dream, many years ago, but things had changed, he had a new dream now. "Thanks but no thanks, I'll become Hokage my own way, with my friends beside me." Naruto said. "I was afraid you'd say that." Sarutobi said with a grimace, and Naruto's world went black. O~O~O~O~O Sasuke entered the maze and was immediately separated from his teammates, it wouldn't be much of a competition, he supposed, if they all took the same path. Although he supposed running the entire maze, neck in neck with Naruto would be entertaining. A kunai whizzed by his head. Especially with the traps. The first clearing loomed ahead, and among the apple trees stood their aloof teacher. "First test!" he called, bringing Sasuke to a stop and into a ready stance. "Why do you want to be a ninja?" Sasuke smirked, "If I were still a child, I'd tell you it would be to make my family proud." He called out, moving forward into the clearing. "And I'd be a fool, chasing Itachi's shadow, hoping my father would someday look past him. If not for my friends, I'd probably tell you it's to get revenge for what he did. And I'd be an even bigger fool, chasing Itachi's shadow once more, this time with the ghosts of my family at my back. So I walk another path now, with nothing ahead of me but the road I choose, and nothing at my back but my friends. If at some point Itachi stands before me, I'll fight to protect whatever new family I've found along the way." Kakashi was silent for a full five minutes before he disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Sasuke walked forward. Coming upon a fork in the road he noticed the multitude of triggered traps, and more than a little amount of blood. Around the corner he spotted a familiar head of pink hair, and a nostalgic yellow box. Figuring Naruto must have dropped the box for Sakura he moved forward to help her up. "You should go." She muttered as he pulled the metal from her body. "If you leave me, you can still win." "I'm not as good at this as Naruto, so you'll have to sit still." Sasuke said, ignoring her. "Why are you doing this? Aren't you worried I'll just get up and compete with you later?" She said, wincing as he applied the disinfectant. "I don't mind a little competition, its why the orange wonder and I are such good friends, it's a constant challenge trying to keep a step ahead of him." He said, wrapping the wounds. "Besides, I'm not about to abandon teammates, regardless of circumstances." Helping her to her feet the two split up at the nearest cross roads, Sasuke was off running before the walls behind him could even close, Naruto was ahead, and regardless of what he said, he hated losing. The final clearing loomed in sight an hour later, and Sasuke burst into it with vigor, Kakashi stood before him waiting patiently, Naruto was nowhere to be seen. A deep rumble sounded from the clouds overhead as Sasuke slowed to a walk, a masked Anbu leapt into the clearing and kneeled before the jounin. "Sir! Itachi has been sighted near our Northern Post Station!" The Anbu said. No sooner were the words out of his mouth that Sasuke was moving, he pumped chakra into his legs, preparing to jump the wall, only to hesitate at the last second. Was he ready to do this? What would he do? Leap the wall? Then what? He's have to leave the village, likely without permission. The test wasn't over until Naruto or Sakura arrived, if he left did they all fail? His legs trembled beneath him, he wanted so much to go and find Itachi. Why? Why did he need to find him? He told himself he didn't want revenge. He told himself he would walk his own path, but he wanted answers, he wanted to know why. And he would get answers. As soon as the Anbu brought him in for interrogation. He turned back towards Kakashi. "You can go, I'll wait for the others." And then his world went black. O~O~O~O~O Sakura steeled herself and entered the labyrinth, jumping slightly as the walls closed up to separate her from her teammates. Taking a moment to psyche herself up she steeled herself. She had been up late the night before, coming to terms with what Naruto had said, and harsh as it was, she'd needed to hear it. With determination she strode forward into the maze, and narrowly dodged the first trap. It took fifteen minutes to reach the first clearing, but she had only a few scratches on her, opting to avoid or disable every trap she could spot, and clumsily dodge the ones she couldn't. Walking among the apple trees she tensed as Kakashi suddenly loomed in front of her. "Why do you want to be a ninja?" That question cut deep, and Sakura had to steady herself to prepare her answer. "I'll admit it, my reasons up until now have been stupid and childish. I've wasted four years on an endeavor that would never pay out. But I've made my decision, I'm going to be a ninja, not a 'kunoichi', not the girl Konoha expects me to be. I refuse to be some two-dimensional fashion accessory, thrown onto a team to act as cheerleader to the heroes. I'm going to be strong, as strong as Tsunade, strong enough to be one of Konoha's strongest ninja, and I'll break the nose of any guy who acts surprised that a girl could do it. I'm going to be strong of body, strong of mind, and strong of character. It's a long time overdue, but this is my first step on the path to being a ninja, and I'm going to gain momentum, so you'd best get the hell out of my way!" She was shouting by the time she was done her response, and with that first step forward Kakashi poofed out of existence, leaving the path before her clear to take. She soon found herself at a fork in the road, and raised an eyebrow at the state of it, every trap in the area had been set off, as if a rampaging bull had torn through the area. Kunai littered the walls and the floor was cratered and scorched. Around the corner lay a familiar orange shape, battered and bruised and in some places bleeding. On the back of his belt she noticed a yellow box, the first aid kit he'd used on Sasuke once. A part of her wanted to laugh at his misfortune, but that part was tiny compared to what it would have been yesterday. She was a ninja now, in her mind, and he was a teammate, the one responsible for her change. As much as she would have liked to continue on through, she owed him too much to simply walk away. "Up and at 'em!" She called, pulling the kit off his belt and kunai out of his back with a distinct lack of empathy. "Ow, careful there, I bruise easy." He joked, as she made a small pile of the metal instruments nearby. "I swear you must have been trying to catch all of them without using your hands. How did you even set off that many traps?" She lectured, almost laughing as he pouted like a child. "It was sort of a chain reaction. Anyways, you can just leave you know, I can fix myself up from here." He said, gesturing at the path ahead. "Hell no, Sasuke's probably in the lead now, but I'm finally taking this seriously, winning by default is way too lame of a first win." She said, offering him her hand. He took it and they both approached the crossroads. She walked on with confidence as the walls closed up behind her. About an hour later the final clearing loomed in sight, Sakura brightened as she entered, looking around for either of the boys. A thunder crack sounded and she stifled an urge to jump, the clouds overhead seemed out of place. Before she could ponder the odd phenomenon more, movement drew her attention to the middle of the clearing. "Sweetie I've been looking everywhere for you!" Her mother, what was she doing here? "You can stop all this nonsense right now, I need you at home!" She called, slowly running over. "Mom? What are you doing? This isn't nonsense this is my genin test!" Sakura said, moving closer to the woman. "Your father and I have the most wonderful news, we've found you a husband!" She said, grabbing her daughter's hand and pulling towards a nearby exit. "A what!?" Sakura yelled, trying to pull away. "Oh come now don't be like that, it's more like a fiancée sort of deal, you won't be married for another 6 years. But sweetie he is such a catch! He's polite, and well mannered, and better looking than that Uchiha boy as well!" Her mother continued to gush, the doorway was looming ever closer. "Mom I... I'm not sure about this." She said, her will faltering. "If I leave now, everyone fails, Sasuke and Naruto and I will go back to the academy! Can't this wait a few minutes and then we can talk?" "He's so excited to meet you! I told him all about you, but of course I left out the whole ninja thing, his family dislikes ninja, so you'll have to give up on this little venture. But they're filthy rich, you'll have everything you could ever want, and you won't have to lift a finger." With a final tug she pulled free of her mother's grasp. "Are you even listening mom? And what the hell is this about me not being a ninja?" "Oh please darling, they won't send the last Uchiha back to the academy, and frankly that other brat should never have graduated. And don't worry I told his family you were at civilian school, you're smart enough go with a little fib aren't you? I mean you certainly don't look like a ninja, look at how nice you keep your hair. Oh but we'll have to fix it up before you meet him, it's in shambles after this-" "ENOUGH! I'm not going with you mother, I'm going to be a ninja, if some guy doesn't like it, he can take a hike." Sakura shouted, backing away from the older woman. "Sakura, be reasonable, this is your future you're throwing away here." She pleaded. "No, this is my future I'm embracing, you are just in my way." Sakura said, firm in her decision. She felt proud of herself for putting her foot down, for only a moment before her world went black. O~O~O~O~O Kakashi looked down over the genin who lay on the grass. "How long until the genjutsu wears off?" Came a voice to his left. "It shouldn't be much longer. I must admit, this is an odd way of testing graduates." Kakashi said, as the Third Hokage stepped up to the flimsy wooden wall. The three children would occasionally twitch with phantom pain, or speak out loud, but none woke up before the proper time. The whole time this was going on Kakashi kept his sharingan eye on them, allowing him to alter his end of the illusion in response to their answers. "So they all pass?" The third said, hearing Sakura give her final response. "Honesty, Kindness, and Loyalty. Not what you'd get from most hidden villages." Kakashi remarked. "Times are changing." The Hokage said, leaving the jounin to announce the results to his new pupils.