"Team 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruna, Sasuke Uchiha." Iruka-sensei informed us. "What! Why do I have to be with him?" I complained. "Come on, Iruka-sensei. You know he will only hold me back."
"Shut up Naruto! Sasuke-kun is so much better than you anyway." Sakura said as she bonked me on the head. Iruka just looked on in pity as he saw me being unfairly treated. "Don't worry Naruto, I am sure that your jounin sensei will make sure all of you become great ninja. Your sensei is Might Gai."
Suddenly this weird dude popped out of nowhere. He was dressed in this strange looking but strangely alluring green thing. He had caterpillars... I mean eyebrows that were huge. "Um... who are you?" I asked while rubbing my hair.
"I? I am the green beast of Konoha. My name is Might Gai. I am here to pick up Team 7." Teeth shining, thumbs up, and green spandex, oh and the caterpillars all rolled up into one package. "Now follow me my youthful charges and let us go and test your Youth!" the strange man shouted as he ran out the classroom.
A collective sweat-drop formed on all the students. Even Iruka-sensei was sporting one. All the young ninja looked at the weird man like he was crazy. Then they looked at Sakura, Sasuke, and I and the pity was rolling off them in waves. I think I even heard a troublesome from Shikamaru, but I might have been wrong because he seemed to be asleep.
"Ok... I guess we follow him?" Sakura questioned us. We agreed and all got up and cautiously walked out of the classroom to meet our new sensei. Of course our new 'sensei' forgot to mention where we were supposed to meet him.
"Is anyone else under the impression that we are in deep trouble with that man as our sensei?" I asked with what I considered extreme tact as I felt like going up to the Old Man and giving him a piece of my mind for giving me this lunatic as a sensei. I guess it worked because they both just nodded their head.
We set off to find our sensei with me leading the pack. We checked high and low, under rocks and above the trees. Of course my teammates looked at me like I was crazy, but I was going to find our sensei were Sakura-chan would be so grateful. After walking around for two hours, I finally found him in training ground 11.
"Hurry up idiot!" Sakura screeched... I mean kindly said. "Your slowing us down, and you even made Sasuke-kun have to find our sensei for you." I glared at Sasuke because it should have been me Sakura was congratulating so. Anyway, we walked up to the spandex wearing man while he was doing pushups.
"4998...4999...5000. Yosh, I am feeling fired up. Oh, it appears my youthful students have finally arrived. Where have you been my students?" Gai asked while looking at us with his freaky eyebrows. "Well, Gai-sensei, you didn't tell us where to meet you." Sakura tried to explain.
Gai looked at us with a shocked expression and then he burst into tears. "Oh my students! I have already failed you. I shall now run around the village 50 times in the next 3 hours, and if I can't do that then I will climb Hokage mountain with only my fingers." I looked around to see Sakura's and Sasuke's expression. They both had their mouths so wide that I could have put my fist into it. Though I wouldn't ever think of doing that to my dear Sakura-chan. Of course I was looking at my new sensei with something approaching awe. It would be so cool to climb up the Hokage mountain using only my fingers!
"Ooh, Gai-sensei, can you teach me how to do that?" Sakura and Sasuke looked at me like I was crazy, but Gai-sensei had two shining stars for eyes. "YOSH! Of course I will teach you how to do that Naruto-kun. All you have to do is pass my test." He said with a smile and a thumbs up.
Sakura's brow furrowed, "What test, Gai-sensei?" "Why none other than your test to become genin of this marvelous village of course. Now before we start this youthful test I want each of you to introduce yourself." He waved at us to sit on the ground, so we all took a seat and Gai-sensei started the introductions.
"Now I am known as the sublime green beast of Konoha. My interests include training and challenging my great rival Kakashi. I am also known as the taijutsu master of Konoha. Now my young charges, let us have you go first." Gai said while pointing to Sakura.
"Um, my name is Haruna Sakura. I like..." she blushed as she looked at Sasuke. "My hobbies include..." She blushed again as she looked at Sasuke. "My dream for the future is..." This time she gave a ear-splitting shriek as she blushed while looking at Sasuke. "Kami-sama, why won't she look at me that way?" I thought.
Sasuke went next and basically said he is emo. Then it was my turn. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen and training. My hobbies include gardening, training, and eating ramen. I don't like the three minutes I have to wait for ramen to cook. I also don't like people who hate others before they even know them. My dream is to be the greatest Hokage this village has ever seen. Then people will acknowledge me. Believe it!" Man that felt good. Now Sakura and Sasuke can bask in my awesomeness.
"Hnn" said one. "Yeah right, keep dreaming idiot." said the other. Ok maybe that didn't go as I planned. "Yosh, don't worry Naruto-kun. I am sure that with my expert training the position of Hokage will be within your reach." Gai-sensei said with what I was coming to believe was his standard pose: the nice guy pose with teeth shining and a thumb up.
"Wow, you really mean it Gai-sensei? You really have faith in me?" I asked with curiosity because no one else had ever believed in my dream except the Old Man. "Of course I do Naruto-kun. Anything can be accomplished if enough training is done. Now let us began your genin exam to see if you will be getting that training."
Gai-sensei got all of us to line up before him. He then positioned us in a semi-circle around him with Sakura-chan in the middle. "Now listen closely as I detail your test." We all immediately started paying attention. Though I was curious why Sakura kept looking at Sasuke with stars in her eyes. Maybe he had something on his face? I decided to think about it later and give all my attention to Gai-sensei.
"I will stand right here and not move no matter what you throw at me. Your goal is to touch me or get me to move away from where I am standing. Come at me all at once or individually is your choice. Now lets start!" As soon as he said start I rushed forward. I was going to prove to everyone there that I was better than Sasuke and definitely going to become a genin. Then I could get the really cool training.
"Yah!" I yelled as I took swing after swing at the man. "Dammit! Nothing's working!" I tried every move I knew but nothing worked. Finally Gai-sensei backhanded me away. The thing was I went like 100 feet! "This is crazy. He barely hit me and I went this far away. How strong is this Guy?" After taking that hit I decided to hide behind a tree to see how the others were doing.
Sasuke was getting his butt handed to him. Well kinda because Gai-sensei hadn't really attacked him or anything, but at least none of Sasuke's attacks were getting anywhere near our strange teacher. After looking around again, I didn't see Sakura anywhere. "I guess she's hiding." I thought with a shrug.
I did the shadow clone jutsu and rushed back onto the attack. Gai raised an eyebrow (shudder) at the high ranking technique, but immediately destroyed all my clones. "What! How the hell are you doing all this?" I couldn't believe the strength of this Gai. He was destroying everything I sent after him.
"Come now, my students. Is this the limit of your Youth! Let me see the Fires of Youth burn in your eyes!" Gai shouted. "Yatta! I am going to show you Gai-sensei. Your going to pass me and train me on your genin team. Shadow clone jutsu." Two hundred clones popped into existence all ready to force Gai-sensei to take at least one step.
"What the hell? How did the dobe manage to learn such a technique?" Sasuke muttered. Ha now he sees that I am just better than him. "Now clones. Let us show our future sensei just how strong we are. Yeah!" The clones charged forward ready to put life and limb on the line. Though they just popped when they were destroyed.
That was when I witnessed for the first time why Gai-sensei was called sublime. His taijutsu was awe-inspiring. He moved with such grace and skill that even though he was staying in one spot, it was like my eyes couldn't even see him. What was once two hundred solid clones was now reduced to twenty-three.
After seeing the massacre, I pulled my clones back and decided to hold a strategy meeting. "Ok guys... we just got our ass kicked. Anyone got any suggestions?" I looked around and spotted one with his hand up. "Yes, you, the one in the back." He looked around before pointing at himself. I just nodded my head. "Um, we could use explosives to force him to move."
"Hmmm, not a bad idea," I thought. "Anyone else got any more plans?" After looking at all the clones with frowns on their faces from concentration, one finally raised his hand. "You, the one with the blonde hair." "We all have blonde hair, genius." One clone muttered sarcastically. "Hey, no talking in the ranks unless you have a suggestion." I told them.
"Well we could ask Sasuke to use a fire jutsu and force him to move." Every clone turned to look at him like he was crazy. I mean if we let Sasuke show off even more then Sakura would never look at me right. "How about we combine both plans." One clone suggested. "I mean hear me out. We have Sasuke start out with a fire jutsu. Then we surround Gai-sensei in a semi-circle with each one of us carrying explosion tags. After Sasuke attacks, each clone throws a kunai with the explosive note at a different level. Some throw high, others throw low, and some throw medium. This way we guarantee he will move."
"Well I don't know. It sounds really complicated, and I would have to get the teme's help to pull it off." I whined. "Come on boss, let's follow this guy's plan." Most of the other clones agreed as well, so I generously agreed to follow the clone's plan. After we broke from the huddle to set the plan in motion, I realized that each clone was me, so I literally just debated with myself on the best course of action. I just used different people who were me but weren't me... "Ah my brain hurts!" I shouted.
As I neared Sasuke, I finally realized where Sakura was. She was out cold sitting next to a tree. "Sakura-chan!" I yelled as I ran up to her to see what the problem was. I shook her and shook her, but the only thing I saw wrong was the knot on her head. Finally I succeeded in getting her to wake up, but when she saw my beautiful face, she must have been so enraptured that she had to hit it away or else she would have swooned. Of course it really hurt when I hit my head on a tree from being hit so hard by her.
"Sakura-chan listen up, I have a plan." I told her confidently. I explained the plan to her and asked if she wanted to help throw exploding kunai. She seemed reluctant to agree but finally did when I told her that Sasuke was going to help. Maybe she thought she would get to see him beaten again? I know I was hoping for that.
After my clone reported back that Sasuke really didn't want any help but he would send one fire jutsu out just to see what would happen, I put my plan into action.
My clones, along with Sakura-chan, rushed forward to surround Gai-sensei. Sasuke shot off his fire jutsu, while everyone else surrounded sensei. Gai-sensei just looked at the jutsu headed toward him and held out his hand. Then he freaking punched the fireball headed towards him! "What the hell!" everyone shouted.
We immediately started throwing all the exploding kunai at him. Gai-sensei initially just dodged them, but when on accidently hit another, it set off a chain reaction that finally got Gai-sensei to move.
"Yatta! We finally did it. Now he has to teach us that amazing training technique." I was dancing with joy that I was finally a genin. Even Sakura-chan and the Teme looked happy that we passed.
"Yosh! Great job my youthful companions. I see that you have learned a great lesson from this test. Yes, my students, that lesson is teamwork." After seeing our confused faces, Gai-sensei himself got a confused look. "Didn't you realize that individually you could not make me move, but together as a team you were able to move me?"
"Oh... well I knew that." I declared loudly. At Sasuke's and Sakura's disbelieving stares, I started scratching my head in embarrassment. "So we're genin right, Gai-sensei?" Sakura-chan asked.
"Yes! You are now the proud students of Konoha's Green Beast, Might Gai! Team practice begins tomorrow at 7:00 A.M. sharp. I expect you all to be here on time. Now who wants to stay here and learn how to climb Hokage mountain with only your fingers?" At this Sakura and Sasuke walked away with Sakura asking Sasuke to go out with here to celebrate their new genin status. "One day, teme, one day it will be me she is asking out." Now to get my training from my new sensei.
I was so excited. I would now be taking another step closer to reaching my goal of Hokage. "Well Naruto-kun, it seems you are the only one who has stayed. Now let me teach you one of the most important things I can ever teach you, so listen carefully Naruto-kun."
"Is it a new jutsu, Gai-sensei? Is it? Is it?" I was bouncing around in excitement at getting to learn a new jutsu. I couldn't wait to show it off to Sakura-chan. Then she would forget all about Sasuke and start begging to go out with me. I could just see it now. Aw, such sweet thoughts. Unfortunately, reality caught up to me at Gai-sensei's words.
"No, Naruto-kun, it is not a jutsu. It something even better." he said grandiosely. I got all excited again. "It is the 'self-imposed rule, Naruto-kun" Gai-sensei dictated. "With this rule even a failure can become great. You see, Naruto-kun, that many ninja set out to do a certain task, but many don't try their hardest or fail. With the 'self-imposed rule' even when you fail, you win. An example would be if I lost a bet, then I would do 500 push-ups. If I cannot do something, then maybe I will run around Konoha 10 times. Do you see how this works, Naruto-kun?"
"I think so, Gai-sensei. Say, Gai-sensei, do you think with this rule that I can beat Sasuke and impress Sakura?" Gai-sensei looked at me seriously a moment and then said, "With this rule, you can beat me, Naruto-kun, and become Hokage. Also you can throw in those other things too." He then took his trademark pose: teeth shining brightly, thumb up, and huge smile on his face.
"Thanks, Gai-sensei. Yatta, can we start our training now Gai-sense?" I asked bouncing around, already eager to start kicking butt. Gai-sensei looked at me with his chin in his hands. "Naruto-kun, I have a training trick if you want to learn it, but this trick could be very dangerous and be very hard for you."
"Don't worry, Gai-sensei. If I can't do this trick of yours then I will do 100 push-ups and sit-ups." I declared proudly with my own imitation of the nice-guy pose. "YOSH! That's the spirt, Naruto. I will be right back, so stay here and await my arrival." With that he disappeared into thin air! "Wow, he is fast." I thought in awe.
After five minutes, he arrived back with something in his arms. "Ok, Naruto, these are training weights. I want you to put these own underneath your clothes on your arms and legs. I would also suggest a change in clothes were no one will be able to tell that you are wearing weights. If you dream of beating your genius teammate then you will want every advantage you can have."
I looked at the man in awe. Not only was he helping me get stronger, he was also helping me finally realize my dream of showing Sakura that I was so much better than Sasuke. This guy was amazing.
I couldn't contain my grin any longer, and I started thanking Gai-sensei profusely. He waved my thanks off, and he helped me strap the weights on.
"Holy crap. I can barely move." This was crazy. Even the smallest movement was hard now! I looked to Gai-sensei to see if he had any words of wisdom. "Naruto-kun, it is now time for our workout. I believe we should start at 200 push-ups, 200 sit-ups, and 200 squats. Then we should move onto running. How does 20 miles sound?"
I looked at him like he was crazy, but then I started remembering the 'self-imposed rule'. "I guess this is what he meant by hard training, but if it makes me stronger, I don't care. I will become stronger, and I will become Hokage."
"Hai, Gai-sensei!" We started our workout for the day. As I sweated, toiled, and plainly almost passed out, the only thought going through my head was that I would get stronger. We ended the day after the promised 20 mile run. Gai-sensei then said that if I wanted he would be available for even more training tomorrow morning. I agreed, and he told me to be here at 5:00 A.M.
"Gai-sensei?" I asked with confusion. "Yes, Naruto-kun?" he responded with a smile on his face. "What's 5:00 A.M.?" At my question, I could see the sweat-drop form on his head as he face-faulted.
"Don't worry, Naruto-kun. Tomorrow we will do more warm-ups and get you into shape. If we have enough time, I might even start teaching some of the goken." That sounded cool! I couldn't wait to begin, even though I didn't like the sound of more warm-ups. I thanked Gai-sensei for his help today and started walking back to my apartment. The problem was I was so tired from training that I could barely make it, and when I finally got to my apartment, the only thing I did before passing out on my bed was setting my alarm clock for the ungodly hour of 5:00 A.M.