It was a normal afternoon in Konoha. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and our favourite blonde was making his way to the Academy for team assignment. He was thinking about what happened the night before, the incident with Mizuki.
'I can't believe I had to act stupid and weak the whole time! I could've kicked his ass without Iruka getting hurt. I hope he's alright. But wait, why the fuck do I have to act like a happy-go-lucky idiot again? Oh right, cause the fucking council will say that I am under the control of the demon. I swear they are such idiots.'
These were the thoughts going through Naruto's head as he passed through the morning crowd with his fake smile. On his way to the Academy he felt all the cold glares from the citizens. He heard all the whispers, all of them calling him a demon. If looks could kill then he would have been mutilated by now.
Though contrary to popular belief, Naruto already knew he contained the Kyuubi, even before last night. He figured it out when he was 5 years old, when he met the fox for the first time after another assassination attempt and that was what had changed his life.
He felt something wet fall onto his face. Naruto got up from the ground to see he wasn't in his bed anymore. Pipes covered the ceiling above him occasionally dripping water creating a ripple on the partially flooded floor. He was half submerged with his back in the water.
"Where am I?" He wondered out loud as he stood up shakily. "Did the bad men chase me back into the sewers again?"
His knees were covered by the water but he had no trouble walking. It was then he saw a light from one of the many tunnels that surrounded him.
"Light is good right?" He followed his gut and continued down the hallway. He ended up in a room with a huge cage. There seemed to be something or someone inside. Naruto was about to step closer to get a better look when he heard a low gravelly voice.
"Who are you?" The voice said, at the same time a huge red eye opened. Naruto yelped and stepped back.
"Stop with the shouting you child. Who are you?" The voice was starting to get irritated and angry. The young blonde didn't want him angry. He knew what people did to him when he was angry.
"Uzumaki Naruto. Who are you if you don't mind me asking? If you are here to hurt me, please go ahead and get it over with, " It was quite a gamble on the young blonde's behalf seeing as his usual attackers didn't like it when he get all smart with the attitude with them. The boy had nothing to lose seeing as he was already going to die.
"Uzumaki huh? Just like Mito and Kushina. Perhaps you are the son of that Yondaime brat that put me in here. I'm the greatest of all the tailed beasts. I am the Kyuubi no Yoko. I like your spunk but that doesn't change the fact that I want to kill you," The red eye slowly rose of the ground and moved forward. The Kyuubi's tails on full display for the young boy.
"So Kyuubi-san, is you're name actually Kyuubi or do you have another name? Because it doesn't sound like a name to me," The young boy feeling generally curious. He wasn't so afraid anymore. If the Kyuubi was really to hurt him, he would have done it by now.
"It has been awhile since somebody has asked me that," the Kyuubi stated getting quite all of a sudden. He started to remember his time when he was under the care of the Rikudō Sennin. "My name is Kurama."
"Nice to meet you Kurama-san," the young blonde said with a bright smile that almost melted the old demon's ice cold heart.
'This boy isn't so bad. None of the past jinchuurikis has ever asked me that. Interesting.' Kurama though to himself as he released some of his chakra through the bars so that the young boy could heal.
' I can't have this boy dying on me cause then I can never be free. I might as well add a bit more so that he get bigger chakra reserves and better senses. This boy needs as much strength as he can to survive the cruelty of the world.'
Naruto then awoke to the white ceiling of the Konoha Hospital and the warm hand of the Sandaime holding his.
He wasn't the idiot everyone thought he was, the boy was actually a genius. Maybe it was due to the reality check that Kurama gave him after his third assassination attempt. At the age of 6, he already began trainning.
Kurama was helping him, though he was still being hostile but it was clear to anybody else that the young boy had wormed his way into the demon's cold heart. He had given Naruto the idea to observe as other ninja did their trainning, going as far as to teach the boy how to mask his own chakra until he became unnoticeable to even the best ANBU. The boy was a clever one and picked up on techniques by watching them being performed. He then replicated the techniques. A genius indeed.
But the boy knew the dangers if he showed his capabilities to the world. The civilian council would be suspicious and claim that the demon has awakened in him. Which in reality wasn't really far off but he wanted keep suspicion away from him as much as possible. So he wore a mask of happiness and idiocy which covered his true self.
The young blondes true nature was anything but idiotic. Having watched the more advanced join train for years took a toll on him, by the age of 7 his abilities had out shined those of the children his age. Along with his training, he developed a sense of maturity that of far beyond his years. As Naruto finally arrived at the Academy effectively shaking him out of his thoughts. He climbed up the stairs to the room where the assignment would be held. He stepped inside to find that he actually arrived earlier than usual.
"What are you doing here dobe? This room is for those who graduated only," Kiba said once he saw the blonde enter the room.
"I graduated dog-breath. Look," Naruto replied as he rolled his eyes, gesturing to the headband that was tied around the blonde's forehead.
Kiba just shrugged and left the matter alone. The Inuzuka didn't actually hate the blonde, in fact he could even consider them friends, with all the times that they ditched school together and the numerous pranks that they 's just that the senseis told him to stay away.
Since Naruto was in no mood to deal with the last Uchiha who thought that he was better than everyone or the annoying banshee Sakura who didn't take her job as kunoichi seriously, he chose a seat in the far corner of the classroom. He lay his head down on top of his fold arms and pretend to sleep. In reality he was observing the whole room.
He saw sleeping Shikamaru with Choji eating a bag of chips a few seats away from him. He noticed that Kiba was boasting to Hinata about a powerful technique he learned with the young heiress just nodding along. He saw Sasuke staring out the window brooding once again but what caught his attention was the girl next to him.
She didn't study at the Academy. Naruto would have known her if she did. She didn't even seem interested in the fact that she was sitting to the "precious" last Uchiha and that was odd since there were only less than a hand full of girls who didn't.
She had black hair that faded to white at the end that stopped just below her neck. She appeared to be sleeping. Her posture was oddly similar to his, always on guard.
The door flew open with a bang, revealing a tired Ino and Sakura, interrupting Naruto's assessment on the new girl. Almost all the boys in the class rolled their eyes at the behaviour of the two fangirls that were racing to take the seat next to their 'beloved' Sasuke-kun.
The two girls finally noticed that the seat they were fighting for was already taken by a girl. They were nothing short of furious. It was Sakura who initiated the contact with the mystery girl.
"HEY BITCH! What are you doing sitting next to MY Sasuke?" She practically screamed at the girl as she rudely shook the girl awake.
'She'll regret doing that. This should be very interesting.' Naruto thought with a slight smirk. He knew that the Haruno had little to nothing skills when it came to being a ninja even though she had more than enough knowledge. She was way too focused on maintaining her figure rather than trainning. So this new girl could most likely kick her ass.
The mystery girl stood up after being rudely awakened. Though she was only a few inches taller than Sakura, the girl still looked down at her. "What the fuck did you just call me?" The mystery girl asked menacingly.
The whole room grew silent and watched the scene that was about to unfold. Sakura was screwed.
"That's right you heard me bitch! Who the hell are you anyways? You aren't even supposed to be here! This room is for ninja only!" Sakura says in a loud, obnoxious voice.
Ino felt pity for Sakura. It was clear to Ino that the Haruno should have just kept quite instead of answering back. The next thing everyone one was that there was a kunai against Sakura's throat and the mystery girl was now behind her. This shocked everyone, they didn't see her move.
In that moment Sakura could not be more afraid, she felt the cold metal against her neck. She could feel the sharpness of the blade that could cut her skin any moment if any of the girls moved in the slightest. With the unnamed girl's kunai pressed against her throat she said "You talk to me like that again, I will not hesitate to cut through your throat. You call yourself a ninja and you can't even block me. You're pathetic."
Sakura nods nervously, she was desperate to save her life. The girl let go of her and put away her kunai. "Here is your seat. I don't want it anymore." Sakura just numbly stood, holding her neck.
The unnamed girl made her way to the corner of the room where our blonde was still pretending to sleep. She lightly tapped his shoulder making the blonde sit up, "May I sit there?" she asked politely gesturing to the seat next to the blonde.
"Sure! Why not? What's your name? I've never seen you here before," He said in his overly happy and hyper voice. 'Well, she seems nice despite her almost murder a few seconds ago. I think we are going to be good friends,' Naruto thought while he kept his fake smile towards the girl in-check.
"Thank you. My name is Kojin Akira," She introduced with a small smile as she sat down in the chair next to him. The room was still dead silent with everyone staring at the newly named Kojin.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I'm gonna be the next Hokage!" The blonde said in reply, not minding the tension in the room. It was after all part of his 'personalty' to be oblivious, right?
"Nice to meet you Naruto-san," with that the newly named ninja went back to her fake nap. Whispers erupted among the rest of the genin who were watching their interaction. It was still very silent when Iruka came in, shocking the chunin. He waved it aside and began the assignments.
"Sit down and let's begin. I will be calling your names to announce which genin teams all of you will be assigned to. Each genin team has 4 members, a jonin leader and three genin."
The genins who were left standing all rushed to their seats, Choji awoke his sleeping companion and Naruto lightly tapped Akira's shoulder. Both sleeping genin slowly sat up, still feeling very sleepy. Their nature was similar, it was kind of unnerving.
"Okay, let's begin with Team 1…"
While the team assignment was happening, Naruto finally got a good look at the girl sitting beside him. She wore a black kimono-like blouse with a white triangle outline at the back, it covered her arms leaving only her hands visible. She wore black shorts that reached mid-thigh while the rest of her legs were covered by white bandages, the Konoha head band tied to her thigh. She carried the standard pouches that stored shuriken and other ninja tools. Her hair on the other hand was rather interesting seeing as it fell at her should and was white at the ends. A hint of tattoo was seen on her neck.
"Team 7, Uzumaki Naruto …"
This drew the blonde's attention back to Iruka.
"Haruno Sakura,"
Naruto pretended to celebrate due to the fact he was grouped with his "crush", while Sakura banged her head against the table.
"Uchiha Sasuke,"
This caused Sakura to rejoice and Naruto to bang his head against the table.
"and Kojin Akira. Your jonin sensei is Hatake Kakashi."
Once Sakura heard Akira's name she almost cried. She couldn't believe that she was grouped with the psychotic bitch that almost killed her. She unconsciously held her neck, remembering the event that happened a few minutes ago. It was not one she wanted to happen again.
"Ummm Iruka-sensei, I thought we were only supposed to be three genins in a team." Sakura said innocently, hoping that Iruka would remove a certain someone from her team.
"That is the usual case but since we have an uneven amount of graduates, your team will have four genins. Your sensei and the Sandaime has agreed to this until he is to transfer Akira to her sensei who is still out on a year long misison," Iruka said in reply to the pink haired girl, "So for now she will be with Team 7."
'Hmph, my team is full of useless people. They will not benefit me in any way,' thought Sasuke regarding his team. The boy wanted people who he could take advantage of, ones that would help him achieve his goal, not this useless bunch.
'This will be very interesting, though I have to be extra careful. This Kojin girl seems to be very observant, she might expose me and now is not yet the right time,' Naruto thought while stealing a glance at the girl sitting next to him who was looking forward at Iruka.
"Okay, moving on. Team 8: Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino. Your jonin sensei will be Yuuhi Kurenai." Iruka continued.
The Hyuuga heiress seemed sad by the fact that she was separated from Naruto. But she looked at her teammates and she was happy enough that they were nice people. Her family was well acquainted with the Aburame and Inuzuka clans seeing as they were usually put together for tracking missions.
"Team 10: Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Choji and Nara Shikamaru. Your jonin sensei is Sarutobi Asuma."
Ino was complaining about the fact that she was teamed with two very lazy ninja, while Shikamaru and Choji didn't mind her. But at the same time she was grateful that she wasn't with Akira, the new girl. The three were childhood friends and they had already expected this team assginemnet because they were the next generation of Ino-Shika-Cho, the well known combination due to their fathers.
That concluded all the teams and they went to have a lunch break and would be expected back at the Academy afterwards to be picked up by their respective jonin sensei.
"Do you want to eat luck together Sakura-chan? Sasuke-teme? Akira-san? Since we are teammates after all," Naruto asked the other members of his newly assigned team. Of course Naruto already knew that Sakura and Sasuke would reject the idea but it was part of the charade.
"I WOULDN'T BE CAUGHT DEAD WITH YOU NARUTO-BAKA!" Sakura screamed while running after Sasuke, who didn't bother to reply. They for some reason hated the boy with a burning passion though he had never done anything to them. Naruto understood that it was due to the Uhciha's inferiority complex and the Haruno's fangirl attitude.
"I would like to join you, Naruto-san," Akira replied to the blonde as they left the almost empty classroom and into the nearby stairwell. She did not know the boy that was to be her teammate and she was curious.
"Then let's go! I'll bring you to the place with the best food ever!" Naruto said, still acting like an idiot as they went down the stairs. The boy needed to play that part and he was paying it very well.
"I would appreciate it if you stopped screaming and acting like an idiot, Naruto-san."
Naruto smiled at her statement and his whole demeanour changed. He stood up straighter and walked much lighter, his big goofy smile came off his face and was replaced by a small gentle smile.
"I would appreciate it if you weren't so formal with me Akira-san and please just call me Naruto."
"Then you can just call me Akira."
"I think we are going to get along quite well," Naruto stated. Both genin laughed and made their way to the ramen stand that wasn't too far away.
"So, who exactly are you Naruto?" Akira asked the male as they made their way to Ichiraku Ramen. She was very straightforward in asking which the blonde appreciated.
"I would be asking you exactly the same thing," Naruto smiled back. He did not fully trust her quite yet but seeing as she saw clever enough to see through him he would give her a chance. She peaked his interest as well so now the challenge was to ask as much questions without giving away too much about himself. After all he was rather private person.
"Fine, I'll ask you a question and you'll answer. You can ask me question and I'll answer. We alternate so it's fair. Okay?" Akira compromised. She did not like the idea but knew that it was necessary evil.
"Fine. Me first. So where did you come from? I know for a fact that you aren't from around here," the blonde had never seen her before and the fact that she was being kind to him showed that she wasn't from around here. Because in the village nobody treated him kindly, only a select few did.
"You got me. I actually just got here yesterday morning. I used to travel all around the world with my brother and my mom. We are originally from here, but we left before I was born." Akira said while taking in the sights around her that she had only heard about through stories from her mother. It was nice to be the place where her parents grew up and met.
She noticed all the cold glares directed to the boy next to her and was not happy about it . She released a bit of killing intent, not enough for the villagers to pee their pants but enough for them to look away. Naruto was shocked at this action because it was not everyday that someone would stand up for him.
"Interesting," he commented.
"So, why do you act like an idiot all the time?" She asked with a grin on her face. The boy was clearly not stupid. His eyes flashed with intelligence despite his idiotic grin.
"I'll tell you in a more private place, when we are done with our ramen," Naruto said as they reached their destination, Ichiraku Ramen. They entered and was immediately greeted by Teuchi and his daughter Ayame.
"Who is this Naruto? Finally gave up on the Haruno?" Teuchi asked when he saw Naruto enter with Akira. Naruto was frequent customer, the cook together with his daughter had treated as family eversincme the boy was young. The cook was always reminded of the Yondaime whenever he saw the boy. He too had passed by the stand frequently.
"Never old man. This is Akira, my new teammate." Naruto replied with his overly happy voice as he settled into his seat.
"Nice to meet you Akira. What can I get for you?" He asked the black headed girl. She was newcomer but any friend of Naruto was always a pleasure to have over.
"I'll take a bowl of Shoyu Ramen please" She replied as she took in the warm ambiance that the small ramen stand gave off. It felt so comforting that she had almost let her guard down but she like Naruto, knew better than to be overly comfortable.
"A bowl of Miso Ramen, old man." Naruto said with enthusiasm.
With that the ramen chef started to prepare their pair started talking about trivial such as how Sasuke's hair looks like the butt of a chicken. This brought out laughter from the cook and his daughter. Their food arrived and they immediately ate the whole bowl.
"That was good," Akira said, after finishing her third bowl as she reached to drink from her tea.
"I told you so, " Naruto replied, just finishing his fifth bowl. His stomach was practically endless. It was a miracle at how much he ate but remained in shape. If the boy were to be a normal civilian he would have been overweight by now.
"Let's get going, we still need to have that talk," Akira tells her blonde companion, who was patting his belly. She rolled her eyes at the scene.
"But I wanted some more," He whined, giving Akira a childish pout.
She gave him a pointed look and payed for their meals before taking their leave. The pair made their way back to the Academy, they went up to the roof and hid in the trees to have their talk. "So why do you act like an idiot? I know for fact that you are stronger and smarter than more than half of the genin in there." Akira asked curiously, looking at the blonde sitting beside her.
"The council will know somethings up and they'll send me to jail for various reasons." Naruto said to her telling her the partial truth of his situation with Kurama. Oddly enough, she gave him a nod not questioning further.
"Anyways, how did you know that I was just acting like an idiot? I have fooled most of the village."
"I can tell that you were acting because it is something I'm very familiar with. My family did missions outside of the village and were usually undercover to get intel," she replied giving him the bare minimum of what her family did.
She unconsciously shivered as if remembering something she did not want. Noticing her discomfort he moved on, "Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me that. Let's stop with the personal questions."
From then on only innocent questions were asked to each other. This went on until the two saw that it was time for them to head back.
'So she's a sensor, her parents are dead and her brother is a newly instated ANBU, and she likes sleeping. She's interesting but she seems to be hiding something, she wasn't exactly curious when I mentioned the council. It is as is she already knew,' This what our blonde thought concerning his new found friend.
'He's an orphan, has a fast healing rate, interested in a certain Hyuuga heiress and wants to be Hokage. He is very sharp. I have to be careful around him,' Akira thought to herself as they walked back down to the parties had something to hide and they respected but that did change the fact that they were curious as to what it is.
"I have to act like an idiot again. Talk to you later," With that the logical and smart Naruto disappeared and the idiot Naruto took his place. Akira was impressed by the blonde's acting skills. She entered first and sat down in a far off chair at the back, coincidentally she sat beside Shikamaru who was sleeping. She put her arms down and went to sleep as well.
Meanwhile Naruto finally entered the room, he announced his arrival and went to sit beside his 'beloved' Sakura. Sakura noticed his arrival and said "Get away Naruto! That seat is reserved for Sasuke-kun!"
"But Sakura-chan," He said in an annoying voice.
At that moment the famed Uchiha entered the room, without even sparing Sakura a glance he went to take a seat by the window.
"See this all your fault Naruto!" Sakura practically screamed in Naruto's then got up and hurried to sit next to Sasuke but she was beaten to it by Ino, so she sat behind him instead, getting as close as she could get to the boy.
"Sakura-chan! Why did you leave me for Sasuke-teme? All he does is brood and pretend to look cool." Naruto whines, following after her like a lost puppy. Sakura stood up and hit Naruto at the back go his head and sat back down in her chair. Naruto proceeded to over-exaggerate about the hit on his head. After that, he finally went to sit next to a certain Hyuuga and pretended to sulk.
Hinata was surprised that her crush sat next to her, she was literally about to faint. She forced herself to stay awake because she wanted to talk to him but she was to shy to even start a conversation. So she just looked down and started to poke her fingers together, a habit of hers that she did whenever she was nervous.
Naruto wasn't as oblivious as people thought, he noticed the beautiful girl beside him. He noticed him watching her since they beginning of the Academy, he heard all the soft encouragements she gave him in midst of the crowd that was bringing him down. He wanted to tell her that he felt the same way but he couldn't, it would show a flaw in his mask that he so carefully built up. But maybe one 's rant was ended when Kurenai entered the room. Everyone's attention was drawn to the beautiful jonin standing in front of them.
"Team 8, I'm your jonin instructor. Please follow me." With that Kiba, Shino and Hinata left the room following their instructor.
After a few minutes later Sarutobi Asuma entered the room to collect his genin, simply saying "Team 10, let's go, " before leaving with his team trailing after him.
Jonin instructors entered the room to collect their genin one by one. All the genin were with their joins except Team 7, who was still waiting for theirs to arrive. After a three hours of waiting, the remaining genin were clearly bored except Akira who was still sleeping.
Sasuke was still staring out the window but you could easily tell that he was annoyed by their instructor's lack of punctuality and a certain pink headed girl's attempts of starting conversations. Sakura on the other hand was still thinking of more ways to talk to her beloved, she too was getting annoyed by the instructor's lack of punctuality as well as a certain blonde's attempts of asking her out, which she rejected without any tact. Naruto on the other hand was already expecting this type of behaviour from the jonin when he simply heard the name Hatake Kakashi.
Naruto, still playing the idiot, set up a trap for their sensei as a form of punishment. He grabbed a chair and placed a dusty board eraser on the top of the sliding door, doing one of the oldest tricks in the book of pranking. He honestly didn't expect the jonin to fall for it. A few minutes passed and Akira finally woke up from her nap. She gave a look to Naruto, which went unnoticed by the rest of the occupants in the room. With that glance Naruto understood that the jonin was approaching.
The door was opened and the eraser dropped on the unsuspecting jonin, who was honestly too lazy to dodge. With the chalk dust still on his head he looked at the occupants of the room and said "My first impression of all of you is that I hate you. Meet me at the roof."
After that statement the jonin disappeared leaving only a swirl of leaves in his place. Sasuke immediately stood up and left with Sakura trailing after him. Naruto stood up, gave a look to Akira and started to run after Sakura. Akira merely trailed behind them without a care in the world.
Up on the roof a certain jonin was reading his favourite Icha-Icha Paradise book while waiting for his new subordinates to arrive. He was just about to turn to the next page when they arrived. They stood in front of him. He gestured them to sit down which they followed.
"So let's introduce ourselves, " The one eyed jonin stated, not taking an eye of his book.
"Why don't you go first Sensei? So we know how it's done," Sakura asked, still irritated at his tardiness but sucking up all the same.
"Okay. My name is Hatake Kakashi. I do not want to share my likes or dislikes with you, at least not yet. The four of you are too young to hear about my dreams for the future."
'We just learned his name…' The genin thought making their sweat drop.
"Okay let's start with you Pinky, " Kakashi said, referring to Sakura who seemed offended by the nickname but answered anyways.
"Hai. My name is Haruno Sakura. What I like is …" she said while mentally undressing a certain black haired boy, who was honestly freaked out by this.
"What I dislike is Ino-pig and Naruto-baka and …" she continued while glaring at the other girl on the team who obviously didn't care about the pink haired girl's hate towards her. This made the jonin laugh on the inside because it reminded him if how he acted when Gai would start spouting about being his eternal rival. He just didn't care and looks like neither did she.
"My dreams is to …" she continued while making a not so subtle glance at the Uchiha, blushing at the sight of his 'glorious' face. Poor guy.
"A-ano that's it."
The whole introduction made a certain black haired girl want to cut the bitch sitting next to her for being such a useless fangirl but she restrained herself. The jonin on the other hand knew that if this team passed he would have his work cut out for him.
"That's nice. Okay how about Brooding Chicken-Butt." Kakashi said referring to the last Uchiha,who was now furious and glaring at the jonin. The jonin loved getting under his genin's skin it was so entertaining.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are a few things that I like and many things I dislike. I don't have a dream, it's more of an ambition to kill a certain man and restore the honour of my clan," the Uchiha had an ominous look in his eye which lead Naruto to question his fellow genin's sanity. Well, nobody would be sane if they went through what he wen through.
"Well, you're a ball of sunshine. You're next Orange boy," The genin was not affected by the nickname and started to introduce himself.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like cup ramen and Ichiraku's ramen. I dislike the three minutes it takes to prepare cup ramen. My dream is to become the best Hokage ever," Naruto introduced in a rapid manner, retaining his overly happy self.
"I see. You're up next Mummy, " He said nodding towards the last remaining genin.
"My name is Kojin Akira. I like to sleep and read. I dislike kuniochis who refuse to take their roles seriously, disrespectful people and people who judge others unfairly. My dream is to make my family proud with what I do with my life," Akira stated retaining her blank face but her eyes had fire in them as she spoke.
'So I have a fangirl, an avenger, a ramen obsessed jinchuuriki and a mysterious new girl. Things will be interesting if they pass.' Kakashi thought to himself.