I do not, in fact, own Naruto. I know that must be horribly shocking.

I remember the day I graduated from the leaf's academy very clearly. The exit exam was of course grueling, and it was rare for anyone to pass it their first attempt. It had even been hard for me, and I was sure I didn't get a perfect score. Never the less, I had no doubt I'd passed it. My best friends—Hinata and Ino—were more anxious about the results, but I was confident they had both passed.

I wasn't surprised to see that I had the highest score and Hinata was second, with Ino at a respectable tenth. Hinata was and is one of the smartest people I know, and one of the sneakiest. Even at 15, she outshone every other girl at the academy despite not wearing makeup. It would have been easy to be jealous and hate her, if she wasn't so incredibly kind. She had been shy when we first met at 6, but that had changed abruptly in our fifth year at the academy. I'd eventually weaseled out of her that she had a suitor. She wouldn't tell me much, other than that he was a genin, was three years older than her, and was a member of ANBU. He must have been some guy, but I couldn't help but wonder how he and Hinata got away with courting, given what the Hyuuga are like.

"Look Sakura!" She said in her quiet voice pointing at my score. I replied "Yes Hinata, I saw that I ranked first. What are you..." I trailed off as I saw what she meant. I'd glimpsed my place in the rankings, but not my actual score. I had tied the record for the genin exam. But even more interesting was the symbol next to my score. "Is that..." I asked, not able to finish the question. Hinata as always knew what I was going to ask and said "Yes Sakura, you've been accepted by the ANBU"

So in due time I found myself entering a low windowless building at the back of the village, built right up against the cliff. My orders said to report to this address to meet the team I was joining and get sorted. When I walked into what appeared to be a warehouse, two boys were waiting for me. One had wild blonde hair and a fox mask, and the other black hair and a monkey mask. Fox spoke, sounding amused "Sakura Haruno, welcome to the Teams. A couple of things to remember: we don't call ourselves the ANBU black-ops internally. We are just the Teams. You're joining Team Seven, under senior captain Hatake and junior captain Senjuu. I'm Naruto Uzumaki and this is Sasuke Uchiha." Sasuke grunted, but otherwise didn't respond. Naruto went on "I read your file. You have amazing chakra control and an adequate level of skill with genjutsu. However your taijutsu, ninjutsu, and chakra reserves are poor." I was beginning to get angry as he belittled me when he dropped the serious tone suddenly and laughed hard "I wish I had a camera!"

Needless to say, I was un-amused with the mind games, but chose to keep my silence. If this was really Naruto Uzumaki, he was the son of the Forth Hokage and Kushina Uzumaki, and was the Leaf's sole Jinchuuriki. Fighting down my feelings cost me an effort though, and apparently one that was visible on my face "I was teasing Sakura. Your genjutsu is easily A-rank, and your taijutsu and ninjutsu are around C-rank. Before we go taking you out on any dangerous assignments, you'll need to train your ninjutsu and taijutsu up to A-rank."

I hung my head. He wasn't exactly wrong, I had coasted in the academy, not really exerted myself. Clearly things were going to be different as a member of ANBU, or the Teams I guess as Naruto had insisted. Then his chakra signature clicked and I looked up at him in surprise "wait... you're the guy who's been courting Hinata!" I said, utterly startled at the twist of fate that put me on the same team as one of my best friend's mysterious suitor. There was a quiet, almost inaudible chuckle from Sasuke and silence from Naruto.

When he spoke, he sounded sober. "Yes, Hinata is my fiancé. So you're a chakra sensor? I'll have to remember to add that to your file." "How did you get Hiashi's permission to date the clan heir?" I blurted. "Oh, I just talked to him" Naruto said nonchalantly "He didn't like the idea at first, but he warmed up to me after a while." Before I could quite figure out a response, Sasuke spoke in his quiet manor "Hiashi said he'd kill Naruto if he ever approached Hinata again, and woke up the next morning to find a Kunai stuck in his mattress." I paled and turned back to Naruto "You snuck into the Hyuuga clan compound without any of them spotting you and left a kunai in the clan head's sleeping matt?" Naruto's only response was to shrug.

If Naruto and Sasuke had been a surprise, Kakashi and Tenzou were more or less exactly what I expected from their reputations. They gave me my armor, and taught me the basic pass phrases and the keys to the jutsu that the Teams used instead of physical locks. As my in-brief wound down, Kakashi said "Go to the library on basement four and spend the rest of today selecting ninjutsu and taijutsu styles that would suit you; dismissed."

I entered the library curiously. The space was enormous, at least five stories from what I could see and with a large foot print as well. The lights were low, but were plenty bright enough for reading. I grabbed an empty storage scroll from beside the door and read the plaque.

ANBU Library Usage:

Take a storage scroll from the box.
Please note that all original scrolls are behind barriers.
You may not check out original works.
You may check out a scroll or book by tapping the
activation mark bellow it.
A temporary copy of the scroll or book will be added to
your storage scroll.
Any items checked out will dispel if they are taken beyond
the confines of the village.
If you are not cleared for a scroll or book,
you will not be able to read it.

I took almost three hours and walked away with well over two-hundred scrolls and maybe half that number of books in my storage scroll. Much would likely be stuff that would turn out less suited to me than I'd thought, but there was no harm in taking more than I really expected to use. Part of my in-brief had included a private room in the genin barracks on basement two, so I headed straight there with my reading.

It was a fairly large room, well lit and comfortable even without windows. I started methodically removing the items from the storage scroll and putting them in the empty shelving. I found the ANBU regulations and handbook rather quickly, and dumped them on my bed to memorize before I started digging through the rest of my selections.

As I came to the end of the storage scroll's contents I found a black scroll I didn't remember selecting; what was odder, it was unlabeled. Very curious, I opened it. The contents were strange, some kind of summoning array I thought, but more complicated than the one that had been shown to us as an example in the academy. Perplexed, I rolled it back up and decided to find an opportunity to ask captain Hatake about it.

I unrolled the ANBU regulations and began reading the densely written archaic contents. Article 1 dealt with the rights of civilians as they applied to a privately hired Shinobi; of course, a Shinobi hired by a daimyo in the hierarchy would be bound to follow the more extensive protections that citizens of the land of fire had from legal authorities. No surprises there since Article 1 was no different from Ninshuu. Article 2 dealt with classified information, which was rather interesting and complicated.

It didn't take me all that long to finish memorizing the ANBU regulations, so I moved on to the handbook. The explanation of Shinobi Combat Effectiveness rankings (SCE rankings) was fascinating. My genjutsu and chakra control were both A-rank and my taijutsu ninjutsu bukijutsu and chakra reserves were around C, which put my SCE ranking at B-rank. I was quite pleased, since the standard for genin was D-rank. I could probably—as I was now—pass the chuunin exams with ease, but Naruto had indicated I needed to improve; which made sense as I read on. ANBU did not promote to chuunin without first achieving A-rank status.

The rest of the handbook was similarly fascinating, but it was short. So in not too long I was deciphering a scroll on the Blue Lotus style of taijutsu, one which could incorporate small subtle uses of genjutsu to supplement taijutsu combat. As I read, I began to realize what an infantile view of jutsu I'd had from the academy. I'd been treating ninjutsu and taijutsu too rigidly, which made sense for someone first learning to use chakra; but now I saw the underlying complexities, or began to. Ninjutsu was the formation of seal arrays internally through the molding of chakra, primarily by hand seals; and there was a similar complexity to taijutsu. Blue Lotus was designed for kunoichi; focusing on flexibility and speed in the main. I spent much of the remainder of that day switching between experimentation with Blue Lotus and water release, my affinity. By the time I put the various scrolls away and left my quarters to meet my team for dinner, I thought I might have gotten both ninjutsu and taijutsu up to B-rank. It didn't take long for this misplaced confidence to be dashed.

There were fifteen units in the Teams at that time, and every few months each would get an off month to rest and train. There were never more than two or three teams on R&T at a time, and at the moment that was Team Seven under senior captain Hatake and Team Thirteen under senior captain Uzaki. Although it was normal to wear masks when on duty out in the open, it was rarer for them to be worn on base. I had been issued my mask, but had yet to get the tattoo everyone else in the small mess hall had on their left shoulder. Naruto and Sasuke were both extremely handsome, and I found myself ruefully concluding that there would be a great number of cold showers in my future. Kakashi, even with his ANBU mask off still had most of his face covered with a mask as well as a headband pulled down over his left eye; presumably his Sharingan if the rumors I'd heard were true.

Kakashi was clearly the senior person present as even the other senior captain seemed to hang on his words. Kakashi's speaking voice was rather informal and relaxed during the meal, an odd contrast with the highly disciplined officer I had first met. Naruto and Sasuke were a little different than my first impression as well. Naruto's sarcasm and banter served a goofy idiot act that covered a deeply analytical mind. Sasuke was less taciturn off-duty, and seemed somehow less mechanical than Naruto; of course, part of my slight aversion to Naruto could have been the certain knowledge that he—unlike Sasuke—was firmly off limits. Still, I had the unnerving feeling that he was reading me like an open book, this impression bolstered by at least one speculative look between me and his long time partner.

And of course, it all made perfect sense when I thought about it a bit. Of course they had a carefully guarded work persona. That was something I'd have to learn; something I wouldn't find in any scroll; how to hide my tells and shape a public face that revealed nothing.

"Yes Sakura, that's how advanced approaches to Ninjutsu work; in fact, there's honestly no difference between written seals and those formed within your chakra network through will alone. The more familiar you become with a ninjutsu, the less you'll need the hand seals to force your chakra into the right configuration. You don't get to A-Rank in Ninjutsu till you can perform high level ninjutsu without hand seals." I nodded interestedly "Several of the things I was reading made mention of that, but I couldn't find anything on fuinjutsu among the unclassified items in the library." He smiled "The Uzumaki clan was renowned for our fuinjutsu, and among them my mother, Kushina, stood out particularly. I can let you borrow a couple of her notebooks, if you're interested."

After my dinner was a psych eval from Ibiki Morino. Even when he isn't interrogating you, he makes Naruto's steely analytical dissection of you seem like Hinata's warm sweetness. I started to wonder if Naruto had learned his approach from Ibiki, or developed a similar manor independently.

At my request, Naruto became my instructor in taijutsu. This was after Sasuke turned me down, saying that Naruto would make a much better teacher than him. Perhaps this was wise, as it was by far the hardest training I'd ever undergone. Even when Naruto sealed himself to match my lesser speed and strength, he seemed to be able to predict what I would do not only before I'd done it, but even—it seemed to me—from the beginning of a bout. I eventually asked and learned that this was the result of sparring every day for a decade with an Uchiha who wielded the Sharingan. I was too predictable, always going blindly for the optimum move as I saw it. Under his tutelage, I learned to hide my intentions within layers of faints and misdirections.

But Naruto wasn't the only member of Team Seven and Team Thirteen to train me. Most every member took free time to work with me on various specialties. Sasuke and Kakashi helped me a lot with my ninjutsu, Yugao and Towa began teaching me kenjutsu, and Komachi taught me elements of bukijutsu I'd never learned at the academy that had me far more accurate than I'd ever been before. When they were all too busy, I closeted myself in my private quarters and practiced, studied, and experimented. By the end of R&T, I was up to an SCE of A-rank, and a good thing too as Team Seven would be given a rather difficult mission right after going back on active duty.

Reference of Idea Sources (other than Naruto canon)

* Towa & Komachi - Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 (Wii)