Disclaimer: Naruto © Shonen Jump, Viz Media and Masashi Kishimoto, and is used without permission.
Author's Note: Obviously, this story is an alternate universe. However, this is more of one than most, in that some elements, like Kaguya and Datara will exist in the narrative in some way, but the nature of the tailed beasts themselves will be changed, sometimes irrecoverably. This is due to the fact some of the 'animals' they are barely qualify as such, and the power scaling is all over the place. One major change is that the term 'tailed beasts' will be a misnomer, since some of them have something other than tails which are divided into multiples.
Also, I will admit that I will be using some elements of accepted fanon in a unique manner, and I intentionally did the pairings how I did...
Kitsune Tails
Chapter 1: Iruka's Plan
The story of Datara, a strange story in itself, has long divided intellectuals. Apparently the modern take on the creation myth, Datara is considered to be the most powerful entity in the known world. The accepted version of events is that, according to writings from the time, A young woman found a tree which had a strange connection to life. Eating the fruit which grew from said tree gave her the capability to awaken the force known nowadays as chakra, and placed her and her ancestors in an eternal debt to said tree for gifting her use of chakra.
However, a small group of scholars see the story as ridiculous, and a corruption of one of the original creation myths. Later texts, they point out, refer Datara to be somehow the Ten Tails, a misnomer due to a faulty translation of texts talking of nine Beasts, some texts referring to them as Gods, others as Demons. This brought about a second aspect of historical record, that the creation of said Beasts was out of Datara's chakra, broken off and moulded into nine demons, the ninth having half the power of Datara, the eighth a quarter, and so on.
But this lead to one particularly nasty part of the story of Datara, that has caused a lot of contention, where it speaks of the young woman consulting Datara since the people were deadlocked in seemingly endless war. The conflict was ended when every single participant's chakra was reclaimed, due to being abused as a tool of war. What worries people in the modern day is that we seem to be falling into a second conflict equal, maybe even worse, than that legendary conflict. What is there to stop Datara reclaiming all our chakra?
While most of the time, team assignments involved a secret set of criteria, with the only part known being that the worst student was commonly partnered with the best two students in their year, as part of an attempt to encourage them to learn off their peers, and to encourage the best two students to aid their weaker colleague to improve, this year was entirely and shamelessly political in how the team assignments were. The sons and daughters of some of the greatest ninja the village had ever trained were all in that year.
Already, the Yamanaka, Nara and Akimichi family's heirs were training in a way that was a pre-built team, and they shamelessly just had to pick the leader for the second coming of Ino-Shika-Cho. The rest of the teams however were causing a problem. Namely the stock 'Best with Worst' team was looking to be a disaster in the making, in that it would be Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. The issue was that Iruka had seen how Sasuke and Sakura 'worked' with Naruto, and knew that, when the team assignments happened, Naruto would be left in the dust, if not worse.
It would be an even bigger car crash incident than Team Minato, where Obito Uchiha saw Kakashi Hatake as a bitter rival, both in skill and love, and ended up only, at the very end, redeeming himself, but the team was never the same again, literally torn apart by the mistakes inherent in the team selection process. Which brought them to that day, with Iruka sitting down with the people who in a couple of years would be tasked with cleaning up the shortcomings the academy training system had.
"Why have you summoned us here?" Kurenai asked, as Kakashi and Gai glared at each other across the room. Gai would be getting his team early, his focus member being Rock Lee, who she could tell would be practically Gai's adoptive son before long. Not that anyone would mind at first.
"In a year or two, you will be assigned teams based on the current intake, many of them hugely political in nature. We're literally looking at what Sarutobi hopes to be our successors as Konoha's vanguard..." Iruka stated, showing twelve pictures which were placed on the wall, in sets of three, "Kakashi, You're pipped to end up with Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno,"
"I don't see it..." Kakashi admitted, "Sakura's scores are baffling. The amount of effort she puts into her work sometimes is abysmal, but she's also top kunoichi. She'd be dead weight for me, and Naruto… We're looking at Team Minato 2.0, and likely the same result. Hell, I was the one to watch that team self-destruct from within. The fact about Naruto's special status means that, if it does turn into that, the results will be an outright disaster. I can't go with that with how they are right now,"
"OK, Ino-Shika-Cho, that's a guaranteed slam-dunk perfect team..." Iruka stated, Asuma nodding, "Which brings us to Team Gai and Team Kurenai, and I might as well work in a fireworks factory than deal with this screw-up… We put Neji on the same team as Hinata, and it's suspected that Hinata would end up dead, either due to being driven to suicide or a deliberate act by Neji. He might be loyal to the village, but his cousin… He's gone on record as stating he wants her dead."
"I wish to state that, and this doesn't get beyond this room..." Kurenai began, everyone nodding, "Kiba has been reported to the Hokage due to a problem with how Inuzuka mating practices work. I suspect that a weak-willed girl like Hinata… We'd find her with her pants down, Kiba having practically forced himself on her. Hiashi would be angry if that was found, and would be ordering heads to roll if she got pregnant. And Kiba is itching to start..."
"Which means we need to find some way to mix up these teams, and quickly, because we don't want to have our clan heads declaring blood feuds..." Iruka stated, "I'm thinking of switching out Sakura right now, put her in your team, Kurenai. She's scored phenomenally well on chakra control, and would be a perfect person for genjutsu or medical fields. She's not suited for direct combat, but pure support,"
"And in Team 7, she'd support Sasuke even if he used something like my Chidori during a practice session," Kakashi offered, "For my team to work, we need a neutral party to defuse what is a bomb waiting to go off much more than someone who'd just stoke the fire..."
"And I have the perfect way to test out the teams, shuffle them and get a real idea how to deal with any issues that might come up in the next couple of years..." Iruka stated, "I'm going to pitch to Sarutobi that we effectively do some E-Rank missions..."
"E-Rank missions? We don't have an E-Rank in missions..."
"Some of the D-Rank missions, like painting fences, walking dogs, helping at the warehouses and checking training grounds for lost equipment… Boring as hell for any ninja," Iruka stated, all of them nodding. Those D-Rank missions used barely any skill, and were often rejected after two or three times. They were more community outreach than serious missions.
"We create a category, E-Rank missions, which are jobs that earn the students some money, but almost no-one else truly wants to deal with," Iruka stated, noticing everyone's hand go up, "Unless that's voting to make Tora into a C-Rank mission or higher, put them down right now,"
A few hours later, Sarutobi studied the fleshed out plan with the Jounin.
"So, Mundane Utility Tasks will now be classified as E-Rank. We'll find some other easy missions to pad out the D-Rank classification, like doing a patrol of the village boundary," Sarutobi mused, "Now, I have to ask, how will this help in team assignments..."
"One week in the next few months, we'll set aside a Friday, as well as the following two days for the missions themselves, for a special team-building exercise," Iruka offered, "These time periods are where E-Rank missions are completed, earning them pocket money, and making Mundane Utility Tasks into a nice distraction from the Academy,"
"And we'd be seeing things done quicker and more often, since we currently do not have students do missions," Sarutobi agreed.
"We'll pitch the class we're testing against one of equal skill in sparring matches, with those who do the best getting free selection from the E-Rank missions, the worst getting whatever's left over after that. Team selections will be up to the students, and the Jounin will be there to purely watch. The teachers will have final say on what's going on..." Iruka finished.
"What if there's a problem with one of the teacher's decisions?" Gai asked, "I'm not just going to sit there and take notes while Lee is taunted over his limited skill set!"
"That's actually why you're there," Iruka explained, holding up his hand to stop them interrupting, "I have been accused repeatedly of favouritism with Naruto Uzumaki, just because I have been allowing him to take classes and keep asking about why Naruto isn't in class, so I'm expecting that one or more the other teachers in the academy will attempt to push their own agendas, planning to have him earn the worst of the E-Rank missions as a best case, worst case end up expelled or dead,"
"If they do attempt something like that, your notes will be perfect for sending to Ibiki Morino to give them exactly what they deserve," Sarutobi stated, "If I was to sit in on a week of Naruto's classes, there would be some problems on the first day, then they'd be on their best behaviour, and nothing would be found out. If we set up a pilot program that they want Naruto to be seen in the worst light with..."
They all smirked. A perfect ninja plan. While, on paper, it was a typical team building exercise, what it was in actuality was a way to root out traitors and form much stronger teams than usual. Yes, he didn't like having to use the students this way, and if it went beyond harassment of Naruto, it would be a political nightmare, but it wouldn't be him or the Jounin who would get it in the neck. He'd just let the angry clan heads know who made unauthorized changes to the exercise, and see who marched them to the execution block first.
The corruption was clearly worse than Iruka thought, with the first change being that the opposing team would be a class from a year above them. This, along with several others, were penned in by Mizuki, one of the most contentious teachers within the academy. There were suspicions he'd been 'bought', something Iruka hadn't been able to believe, and was shocked when he found he was one of those spreading the worst lies about Naruto among his friends and workmates, and had helped organize some of the efforts to stymie Naruto's development.
The idea over the opposing team was found to be acceptable by Sarutobi and Iruka after some discussion with the Jounin, giving a level of challenge that would help with the secondary goal of improving the team assignments, as well as allowing Gai to observe his future team. However, the other choices were much less altruistic and had not been approved.
The first unapproved offer was a supposedly impartial judge, who'd be checking weapons were training ones, but he'd ended up unable to work as a judge for the exercise, due to an appointment with Ibiki Morino, due to suspicions he'd been taking payments from someone to look the other way at key moments. Iruka had to step in to do the essential checks, which also covered the use of techniques that could easily be made into a killing blow.
Iruka didn't know how someone like him could have got so bitter and vengeful, but he knew Mizuki was digging his own grave, the other teachers who would fill out the judging panel likely to walk out of T&I with just a hefty fine. But the date was set, and he felt he'd got rid of the most blatant acts of treason, a stack of the soon-to-be-reclassified missions sat next to him as the students filed in.
"Now, we are going to be starting a pilot program from today..." Iruka declared, holding up his hand for silence, "Currently, even on the busiest days, some missions never get assigned, like searching the training grounds for lost weapons. If this program goes ahead successfully, these simple, easy tasks, that are beneath far too many of the ninja as far as they are concerned, will be assigned to students still in the Academy as a form of quick, easy money,"
"Would we get full mission pay?" Shikamaru asked, genuinely surprised they were actually getting missions.
"We cannot confirm the fact at this time," Iruka replied, "You would take home the same amount as if you did the mission normally as part of your final team, but outside of that, we are still looking into how missions are normally paid to see how much these would need to offer. For now, we will be doing a team-building and skills testing exercise, with the rank at which you place getting you to choose which one of these missions will be done by you and those you work with today. From today, we hope each of you will know your graduation team..."
He then walked out, heading to an adjoining classroom, and frowned as he repeated most of what he'd just said to the group in front of him. He refused to call it a class, most of them looking like they'd already graduated months, if not years before.
"Now, I don't know your skill level, so Mizuki hopefully gave you a skills test. Shortly, I will give you each an interview based on his information," Iruka stated, "When you've done with the interviews, Please go into the room assigned for today's activity..."
No-one told the 'students' that a pair of ANBU were hidden in the room and Ibiki had the room also bugged. By the end of the day, over half the class would be in ANBU cells, having inadvertently admitted to being hired mercenaries, with Mizuki's hand all over this. In between interviews, he claimed that he needed to take a break, before he body flickered into Ibiki Morino's office.
"We have enough evidence right now to have Mizuki up on a raft of charges," Ibiki stated, "Continue as you are, He'd make a break for it if he thought that we knew he was a traitor."
"Do however let Sarutobi know we've found one of the ringleaders for the anti-Naruto sentiment in the village," Iruka stated, then body-flickered towards Ichiraku, walking into the room where Mizuki was waiting with his take-out box. The interviews were finished, then the exercise could begin.
'Who bought you, Mizuki? Why would one of my best friends turn into a bitter traitor like this...' Iruka wondered, scrawling out a note which he handed to the Jounin...
'Mizuki is a confirmed traitor. Observe for any others who may have been turned by him,' The note read, a discreet flame jutsu disposing of the evidence once it had been discussed. They'd finished the secret task of this exercise, now they hopefully could sit down and get on with the rest.