Circle of Leaves
Chapter One
Minato satin the classroom with his chin resting on his arms as he gazed, glossy eyed, at the black board, which had the words 'Congratulations Graduates' written across it.
His twin sister, Hana, was sitting behind him. She was chatting with one of her friends, very animatedly. Minato was trying to drown out the sound of them.
He was snapped out of his reverie by something slamming down onto the desk right next to his head. The boy looked up to see a giant fan resting on the desk. Holding the other end of it was a blond girl, one who was smirking at him.
"Minato-kun, here we are ready to start our careers as leaf Shinobi, and you are about to fall asleep?" she commented, shaking her head and sitting down next to him. "Some times you are worse than my father."
He smiled and nodded to the girl, "Hello, Shikara-chan," he said sitting up. "Now is that why you are a friend of mine? Because I remind you of your father?"
Shikara smacked him lightly in the back of the head, "Baka."
Minato settled back into his seat, and eyeing the battle fan the girl had, "so, I see your mother finally got you one, huh?"
The girl shook her head, "no, this was a gift from my uncle. It is hard to find one like this in Konoha, as there aren't that many people that work with wind attacks. So he brought it over last time he visited here from Suna. My mother let me have it as a graduation gift."
"That's cool," the dark haired boy replied.
At this point Minato felt something poke him in the back of the head. He turned a bit to see his sister grinning, while motioning her head to the blonde Konoichi that was sitting next to him. He rolled his eyes and turned to face front again. Behind him he heard more giggling and whispering.
Once every one was in class the Chunin that was sitting at his desk stood and addressed the kids. "Ok class, first I want to say that I am proud of all of you. You have all done well and graduated." He paused for a moment until the class's sudden uproar died down. "That being said, I will now call out the teams of three that you have been sorted into, and after your name is called you will come down and meet your new Sensei, so team one…"
Minato drifted out, until he heard his name being called. All around him people where giving mixed reactions, some looked happy at their teams, while others where more than a bit disappointed.
The Chunin finally said something that brought Minato back to reality. "Uzumaki…Hana," he started and Minato began to drift out again, but forced himself to pay attention as his team could be this one, though he hoped not, or the next, the class was getting a bit on the empty side.
The Chunin continued, "Inuzuka Mikato and Aburame Inbi, you three will be team Eight. Your Jonin Sensei is Sarutobi-Yuuhi Asuma."
Minato watched as his sister got up and joined her two teammates and a young bearded man, who looked no older than twenty-one, escorted them from the room.
Their Chunin sensei continued down the list, "Uzumaki Minato," at this the boy perked up, "Tezuma Hito, and Nara Shikara will make up team nine. Your Jonin Sensei will be Ankuko Mayte."
Minato looked over at the girl next to him to find her smirking at him. He smiled at the blonde a bit before getting up with her to join their new teammate already at the door, along with a man that Minato knew as one of his father's old students.
The three followed the Jonin silently to the roof where he had them introduce themselves. This was mostly a formality, as they all knew each other. Some more than others though, Minato glanced at the other boy there thinking to himself that he knew this guy was a good guy, but he mostly kept to himself in school.
Mayte spoke when they where all sitting in front of him, "ok, now I want to go through introductions as we need to get to know one another. I understand that I know a couple of you," he said nodding in Minato and Shikara's direction, "and that you know each other from the academy, but it is tradition and so I want us all to say a little bit about ourselves." He paused for a moment, "I'll even go first. My name is Ankuko Mayte, I like training and my work, I dislike… well I don't really dislike anything too strongly that it bears mentioning, also there are no real goals I have that need to be fulfilled." He motioned to Hito, "now you."
The boy nodded, "My name is Tezuma Hito, I dislike pointless violence and pain, and I like training and studying. I suppose my goal would be to be the best that I can be and eventually teach others, I feel that my time is best served in helping others."
Mayte nodded at that, "ok very good," he pointed at the other boy, "ok go ahead."
"I'm Uzumaki Minato, I like to read and to relax with friends, and I dislike having everyone expect nothing but the best from me. I want to do my best as well but I don't want people to think that I have to. My goal is…not really something that I have thought about."
"Ok, good." Mayte said, and motioning to the female present, "now you."
"Hai, my name is Nara Shikara." She said, "I like to train and spar. I want to prove myself to my parents and my friends. My dislikes are pervert. My goal in life is to be a strong Konoichi along the lines of the fifth Hokage, Tsunade and Lady Sakura."
Mayte nodded, "ok that's good. Well I have a good feeling about this group. Hopefully you can prove yourselves worthy of the title of ninja tomorrow."
"What do you mean, 'prove ourselves?' We already passed." said Shikara.
Mayte smiled and chuckled softly, "what that you passed the academy?" he shook his head. "I'm sorry but before you can continue on I must judge you to be worthy of remaining a squad. That and to make sure you will work well together."
"How do we do that?" asked Minato.
"You will meet me in the training grounds, number 20, tomorrow morning at 5 am. There you will be tested. Oh and be sure not to eat any breakfast as well." The Jonin said.
"Why not?" the female asked.
"Because you will only throw it up." He replied.
In another part of the school, the new team 8 where going through the same thing as the others did, in introducing themselves. "My name is Sarutobi-Yuuhi Asuma, I became Jonin a couple of years ago and this is my first team. My hobbies include reading and training my genjustsu skills. My goal in life is to be strong in honor of my father."
His new students nodded and the blonde girl went first, "I'm Uzumaki Hana, I like my friends and my family, I also like training with my uncle. My dislikes would have to be annoying know it all's. My goal is to be a strong Konoichi like Uchiha Sakura maybe be recognized as a Sannin level ninja like her."
"Ok good, you next," the Jonin said, pointing as the boy with the dog at his feet.
"Hai, I'm Inuzuka Mikato, and this is Kasshoku," he said motioning to the dog. "I like sparing and working out. I dislike cats. I have no real goals but to be the best I can, like my uncle and clan leader, Kiba."
"Very good, now you," Asuma said motioning to the last boy there.
"Hai sensei, my name is Aburame Inbi. I like bug collecting and researching now species of insect. I dislike people who dislike them based simply on pre-conceived notions of disgust. I plan to help further the understanding that bugs are not always something to be feared, at least not without reason."
"Ok well that's good," said the Jonin. "I have a good feeling about this group, now I have no other groups to base it on as this is my first, but my mother was sensei to a group just like this one.
"Really?" said Mikato.
"Well I know that Hana here already knows that my mother was sensei to hers, so this group now has a member with the power of the Hyuuga clan, also on that old team was you uncle Mikato, and Inbi's clan leader. So this group has the same expectations as team 8 from the konoha 12, can anyone guess what that is?"
Inbi spoke up, "well we have descendents of the Hyuuga, the Inuzuka and Aburame clans on this team. Based on what I have heard, then it is expected that this team will be a tracking and surveillance specialties."
"Correct Inbi," said Asuma. "But we will not be overly specialized, after all focusing too much on one strength leaves weakness in other areas."
The Genin nodded and Asuma continued, "That being said we will train and enhance your current skills and build new ones. Tomorrow we will met in the morning at training grounds 16 we will have a test there, you are to meet me at 5 am is that clear?"
The three all nodded together, "Hai, Sensei."
Well that's the start of my new story the sequel and final chapter of my Naruto sensei/Rokudaime Naruto line. Hope you like and please review.