NARUTO CLANS OF THE LEAF
PROLOGUE
Introductions
Konoha Memorial Grounds
Kakashi really hated his job sometimes. He was about to meet his potential Genin team and from what he had seen before it was not going to go well. If he had to describe them, it would have to be 'too clever and talented by half'. They were possibly the three most gifted Genin Konoha had ever seen and it was his duty now to guide them as their Jonin instructor.
What set all three of them apart were their Clans and their bloodlines; Namikaze-Uzumaki, Uchiha and Hyuga.
He looked at his watch and noted the lateness of the hour. By coming to the Konoha Memorial Stone he had once again become lost in memories. By his estimate they would have been waiting for three hours and that was likely to not go well with them.
"Well Obito, wish me luck" he said softly and he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Konoha Ninja Academy
He made his way to the Academy to meet his new students and quickly arrived at the large circular, double story building that served as the starting point for all Konoha Ninja. He took his time to look at it and reflect upon the past.
Unlike him, his students had gone through three years of training with little to no combat experience. He was five years old when he graduated and moved out into the field, these brats were twelve which made them relatively ancient.
He well understood the change in the Konoha training system. Although they were considered geniuses they were not rushed through the Academy. There were no major wars bleeding Konoha of able bodied ninja's and Konoha had recovered from the Kyubi attack to once again be the pre-eminent Hidden Village. There were enough missions and there were enough experienced Ninja to prevent the next generation from facing incredible danger before their time.
He himself had left ANBU because his skills and talents were no longer needed in that branch. The missions assigned to the ANBU did not require a man of his incredible talents and he felt he better served the Village as a High level Jonin.
Although he was not one to brag, Kakashi still understood that his reputation was well earned. He was a skilled Ninja and no one could take that away from him. There was no need for self-deprecating humility. He was what he was.
The son of the White Fang of Konoha, a ninja on the same level as the Sannin. He was a former student of the Legendary Fourth Hokage. He was the man who had inherited Obito's Sharingan and used it to protect his Village as Obito would have done. And finally he was Kakashi.
Kakashi inserted his hands into his pockets and stepped into the Academy. He made his way up the stairs to the second floors, main lecture room where his prospective students would be waiting.
He came to the door, grabbed the handle and slid the door open. He entered the room slowly and looked up to see if his prospective students were here.
He first saw a young girl with dark blue, almost black hair, sitting in the front row. Her hair was in a bowl cut that had two thick bangs framing her face which went to just below her chin. She was a cute child and she had a small smile on her face. The most prominent aspect about her though was her eyes.
They were unmistakably the eyes of a Hyuga. Pale pupil-less eyes but uncharacteristically hers had a tint of lavender in them.
She was wearing dark blue ninja pants and a heavy beige jacket that came to just below her waist. On the front of the Jacket there was delicately embroidered symbol. It was a solid golden circle with lines running through it and dividing it into eight different sections. This was fitting as the name Hyuga meant 'Towards the Sun' and their Clan followed the Eight Trigrams principle. Her Forehead protector was loosely tied around her neck fitting snugly along the jackets collar.
She was well presented and carried herself with a dignified air.
"Yo" Kakashi said in greeting. "Where are the other two?"
This is the heiress of the Hyuga Clan, Hinata Hyuga, and a genius kunoichi of the clan who has inherited the deeper powers of the Byakugan.
Hinata turned to him with a slight look of annoyance.
'She is angry that I'm late but she won't say anything. Thank goodness for Hyuga manners' He thought to himself.
She did not reply to his question instead she looked up. Kakashi followed suit and saw the other two Genin standing upside down on the ceiling.
One had black hair that was spiked at the back and had thick spiky bangs in front. This one wore a dark blue shirt with a high collar and on its back was the Fan that served as the Uchiha Clan symbol. His Forehead protector was tied on his forehead.
Uchiha Sasuke, the boy whose skills were said to rival Itachi at that age.
The other boy had blond spiky that seemed to defy gravity. He wore an orange jumpsuit which had a white round collar and it was dark blue on the shoulders. On his back there was a red circle with a black line that spiralled towards the centre of the circle. The symbol was familiar to him because it was on his own Konoha uniform. It was the symbol of the Fallen Whirlpool Country. On his left shoulder the boy wore a talisman. It had two thick, brown cylindrical rods that framed a pale lavender circle. There was a thick white line that formed a spiral within the circle completing the talisman.
Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto, the son of the Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, the boy who had inherited the two unique bloodlines and a very heavy burden.
Kakashi cleared his throat.
"While I commend you both for being adept at chakra control enough to perform to walk on the ceiling, I must admit that I can't find a reason why you would be doing it right now." He said calmly.
The blonde boy was about to speak but Kakashi continued. "I really don't care why you're up there. Just meet me on the roof so that we can begin"
Kakashi then disappeared in a cloud of smoke and made his way to the roof of the building.
He moved to a convenient bench and sat down. He took the moment to assess his first impression of them. 'Those brats are very advanced and Hinata did not seem too impressed which means she is on the same level or even higher. This is gonna be interesting'
He heard the door to the roof open and he saw the Hyuga walk through it. She was followed quickly by the other two.
He could tell from her raised eyebrows that she was curious about this meeting while the other two seemed to be indifferent to it. Instead there was a barely simmering tension between the two boys. It showed in the way they walked next to each other yet were miles apart.
Now that he thought about it he could see that they had an intense rivalry that pushed them on. Ironically that did not make them the strongest. That was surprisingly the place of the Hyuga heiress who fittingly walked in front of them. He could see it by the way they deferred to her, she walked in the middle them and in front of them.
It made him want to laugh out loud but he managed to smile, once again thankful for his mask hiding his face. It did more than just make him look super cool.
"Good afternoon Master" Hinata said in a soft but confident voice. She took a seat on the ground in front of him.
"Master" Naruto greeted in a vibrant tone. Kakashi got a good look at the boy and noted his uncanny resemblance to his Master. His deep blue eyes reflected an inner mischievousness that contrasted with his recorded genius behaviour.
"Sup" Sasuke said in a bored tone which earned him a stern look from Hinata. "I mean Master" Sasuke recovered.
'Seems she has them well under hand'
"Well sorry I was late back there" Kakashi said.
"We don't need to hear your excuse." Hinata interrupted in all seriousness.
"Why is that?" Kakashi asked. This girl was obviously not too impressed by him.
"Hinata made us do some research when we heard that the famous Copy Ninja Kakashi would be our Master" Naruto said with a grin.
Kakashi was silent as he realized that even though he was studying them they were in turn studying him.
Prodigies indeed
"Anyway, let's get down to introductions." He said. "My name is Kakashi Hatake." He paused for a moment. "I don't really feel like telling you about the things I like and the things I don't like." He paused again and he looked to the top left in what he knew was the typical action when someone tried to recall something. "My dreams for the future are not relevant right now and as for my hobbies" he involuntarily brought his hand up to his mouth and giggled guiltily. "I have a lot of hobbies"
He turned to Hinata. "You next"
"Hey, all we got was your name" Naruto said.
"And that's all you're going to get for now" Kakashi said. "Now please give your teammate a chance to introduce herself."
Hinata smiled and started speaking. "My name is Hinata Hyuga, I like..." at this point she stopped and Kakashi noted a small blush on her face. She turned to glance at Naruto who was looking zoned out at the time. A disappointed look came to her face and she looked back to him. "I don't like prawns and crabs. My dream for the future is to become the best leader of the Hyuga clan and to change the rules for the Branch House and Main House."
She said it with a strong determination and Kakashi silently commended her attitude towards the problem.
"My hobbies are flower pressing and cooking." She finished.
"You next" Kakashi said pointing to Sasuke.
The Uchiha prodigy looked up and his black eyes locked with Kakashi's. "My name is Sasuke... Uchiha, there are tons of things I dislike but I really don't like anything except Sakura. I don't want to use the word 'dream', instead I will say I have an ambition." A look of anger passed through his eyes. "I have an ambition to kill a certain man-"
He was interrupted by Naruto. "It better not be me, you bastard!" he said out loud totally ruining the serious air around Sasuke.
"Relax it's not you dumb ass." Sasuke said in a different tone.
Kakashi realized that Naruto's interruption was actually deliberate. Sasuke was going to down the dark path of his past and Naruto had quickly pulled him back to the present.
"Anyway, my hobbies are training and taking walks." He finished.
Kakashi smiled at the brooding boy and then turned to Naruto. "Last but not least" he said.
"Finally it's time for the hero to take centre stage." Naruto jumped up and landed in between the group. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze!" he said in a shout. "I like Instant Ramen and hate the three minutes I have to wait for it to cook. My dream for the future is to become the Greatest Hokage and change the world. My main hobby is gardening" Naruto spoke in a rushed, hyper and excited tone and when he was finished he promptly sat back down "
"Ok that went better than I expected" Kakashi said after a few seconds of silence. "You three achieved the highest scores in the Academy, Hinata was first and Naruto and Sasuke were tied for second." He stood up and motioned for them to do the same. "While Logic dictates a certain balancing of teams, there were extenuating circumstances in this year's team selections."
"What were those circumstances?" Hinata asked.
"That's not too important right now but let's just say you're abilities have been noticed" he said. "Please meet me tomorrow at the Three Logs training area tomorrow for your graduation test." He said.
"What do you mean graduation test?" Naruto said with confusion evident on his face. "We just passed the graduation test yesterday" Naruto said.
"That was the Academy test" Kakashi said matter of fatly. "You honestly didn't think that was all it took to become a Ninja of Konoha right?" he asked.
"Hahaha, of course not, I obviously knew there was a lot more to it than that" Naruto said in a lame attempt at recovery.
"The Jonin instructors are required to administer a personal test of their choice to their respective students to ensure that they are ready take up the mantle of Ninja of Konoha." He paused and looked towards the Hokage Monument to add dramatic effect to his statements. "This is done to ensure that the little leaves watched over by the Hokage's are not destroyed in the Spring time of their Youth"
'Damn, I'm even quoting Guy. I must be getting old'
"That's just lame" Sasuke said interrupting the coolness of the moment.
"Stupid brat, you just ruined the moment." Kakashi bopped Sasuke on the head with the metal part on the back of his ANBU issue glove.
"Ow!" the Uchiha exclaimed grabbing his head.
"Meet me at the training grounds tomorrow at six o'clock sharp." He moved to the edge of the roof. "Oh a quick tip, don't eat anything, because you'll be likely to throw up"
The looks on their faces showed that they took every word he said seriously. They each nodded their understanding and Kakashi smiled.
'These kids are really interesting'
He spread his arms and fell leaned forward over the ledge and he fell to the ground below. He flipped over at the last minute and in the instant just before he landed on the ground he performed the Shun Shin no Jutsu and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
"So he seems as cool as the rumours have said" Naruto remarked after Kakashi had left.
"Indeed, I guess this means things are going to get interesting" Sasuke confirmed.
"Maybe for you two" Hinata said. "Kami knows you have a long way to go before you reach my level"
Naruto chuckled. "You're just smug because you can use your bloodline to its fullest limit.
I'm on my way to that side too."
"Same here" Sasuke said. "You'll have to work twice as hard to keep your lead"
"Instead of talking, you should be training." she said.
"Yeah I think we need to work on that collaboration Jutsu" Naruto said with a mischievous smirk.
The others nodded and they all he Shun Shin no Jutsu and moved to the training ground at Naruto's estate.
End of Prologue
Omake
The Village of Konoha was founded towards the end of the Warring States period. Founded on the revolutionary One Country, One Village system it offered a place for Clans and their followers to settle and live in relative peace.
The Senju first proposed the plan to their closest allies, the Hyuga Clan and after acceptance brought it forward to their fiercest rivals the Uchiha and their closest allies, the small Namikaze Clan.
It must be said the Hashirama Senju the man responsible for bringing the plan forward had first proposed it upon his return from a small country that was at the time barely worth noting.
That Country was the Whirlpool Country home of the Uzumaki...
-A Treatise on Clans
Volume I-XII