It was a dark day for the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, as he was facing a one-sided battle he was sure to lose.
With only enough strength in his body left for one more move, he weakly pressed the call button on the small intercom on the top of his desk.
"Yes, Hokage-sama?"
"…..Cancel any and all appointments I have scheduled for today…"
"But… Hokage-sama, the new-"
"NO! For the sake of the village… I must finish this paperwork!"
"I'll just send up the new ANBU recruit…"
"*cough* Yes, thank you…"
Hiruzen sighed, and sent a glare that could melt the strongest metal to the stack of papers on his desk. However, the paper didn't budge an inch.
Scowling heavily, Hiruzen took a sip of the Sake bottle he always kept under his desk. A Hokage's got to be prepared for everything, so why not pack a little liquid-courage wherever you go?
Waiting a few minutes, Hiruzen heard three polite knocks.
"Come in, ANBU-san."
In most cases, Shinobi are inducted into the ANBU one of three ways.
The first, is to simply apply for a position yourself. This may be the quickest way, but it is also the one with the largest failure rate.
The second, would be the recommendation of one's peers.
The third, and most rare, also had the highest success rating. In this third path, you are hand-picked by the Hokage himself to become ANBU.
The person that Hiruzen had requested to see had taken this third path.
Uzumaki Naruto entered the room with a signature thousand-watt smile.
"Greetings, Naruto-kun. I'd assume you're fitting in quite well with the others so far?"
Naruto simply chuckled and nodded, "Hai, Hokage-sama. Yuri-kouhai, Tenzō-senpai, Anko-senpai, Taji-senpai, Sai-kouhai, Yugao-senpai and Kakashi-senpai have all treated me with kindness and fairness."
The aged Hokage smiled softly and nodded, just as a familiar shape materialized behind him.
Kakashi took off his dog mask, revealing one of his signature eye-smiles. "No need for such formality, Naruto-kun. I'm not your superior, but your peer. I would like for you, in turn, to treat me as a your peer, along with Yugao, Anko, Tenzō, Taji, Sai and Yuri. Frankly, anyone in ANBU Black Ops in general, Naruto-kun. Remember, Kitsune, the ANBU do not have ranks. Only respect." As Kakashi was talking, he had made his way around the desk and taken a seat in one of the chairs facing the Hokage's desk.
Naruto couldn't help but grin as he gave the man a nod. "Of course, Kakashi-sen—I mean san!" The whiskered boy then sat in the empty chair, before both ANBU faced their Hokage.
Hiruzen simply stared at them with an intense look of concentration on his face for a few seconds.
"...Why did I call you two here again?"
Kakashi and Naruto immediately face-faulted out of their chairs.
Hiruzen snapped his fingers, "Ah, That's it!" And then pulled a scroll from under his desk as Kakashi and Naruto returned to their seats.
"Naruto-kun, I need you to listen to me very carefully." Almost immediately, Hiruzen's voice lost all of it's playfulness. Naruto and Kakashi immediately straightened.
"Before I give you this, I want to remind you that I care deeply for you, Naruto-kun. I consider you my grand-son, and I'd do anything in my power for you,"
Naruto smiled warmly, and nodded. "I understand, Jiji-san. Don't worry about it. 'Busy' is in a Hokage's job description, so I don't blame you."
The aged Hokage smiled back, "I'm glad you understand that, Naruto-kun. Now, back to business. I assume you're aware of what the Counsil wants you to do?"
Naruto scowled slightly, "Yes, Hokage-sama. I do."
"Right. Once you become Chuunin, Naruto, you'll be able to officially be inducted into the ANBU ranks once more. Again, I'm sorry for this. I'm seriously considering disbanding the Council... Or, at least taking away all of their say in Shinobi matters." Hiruzen sighed heavily, and began loading his pipe after he had handed Naruto the mission scroll.
Kakashi raised a hand. "Hokage-sama, what do you require of me?"
Hiruzen smiled warmly. "You're going to be the Jōnin sensei of whatever squad Naruto is placed on."
Both ANBU groaned heavily as their heads fell in unison.
'Kakashi's going to be my sensei!? The biggest pervert in all of Fire Country!? What did I do to deserve something like this...?'
'I'm going to be a sensei to three brats!? One of them being Naruto!? The biggest Ramen-junkie in all of Fire Country!? What did I do to deserve something like this...?'
Hiruzen was grinning like the Shinigami himself at the metaphorical rain-clouds above their heads.
Sasuke Uchiha sat down in the seat he could see out the window best, at the second-to-last row on the very left of the class-room. For being an "emotionless brooder", he was actually quite excited about the new week. The last week of the year. He'd finally become a Genin.
He'd finally be one step closer to defeating him…
Sasuke had never cared to meet any of his classmates, but by demand he had memorized their names and personalities—which is why when a face he didn't recognize entered the classroom, he was immediately curious.
'Who's this kid? He's never been with us before... And what's with the face-mask?'
The boy that had entered had spiky, electric-blonde hair, with bright, cerulean-blue eyes peaking out from under his unruly bangs. A cloth face-mask covered the entire lower half of his face up to the bridge of his nose. His shirt was grey and skin-tight, and the collar extended up into the face-mask. Over this, the boy wore a relatively simple dark-orange jacket that was fully-sleeved. Three pockets were stitched on each side, and there was a longer, thinner pocket on his left bicep just below his shoulder. His pants were black, moderately loose and baggy, and were taped off at about mid-calf. A generic Shuriken-Kunai pouch was on his right leg. The ensemble was complete with a pair of black Combat Sandals.
Unfortunately for Sasuke, and everyone else, the newcomer offered no answers and simply sat in one of the three empty seats to the right of the Uchiha.
Naruto turned his head to look at the raven-haired boy, and although Sasuke showed no outward reaction, the calculative way those blue eyes looked at him sent a chill down his spine.
"Alright class, settle down!" Iruka Umino, their instructor, had entered.
The class wasn't really all that unsettled, but they began paying attention to the heavily-scarred man regardless.
"Before we kick off the lesson today, I just want to tell you all how proud I am, of all of you! Now, all you have to do is survive one more week!" Iruka finished with a grin and wink that he shared with a few of the students.
Then, a man about the same height as Iruka stepped In the classroom. He had white hair and he wore his hitai-itae like a bandana. He also wore the standard Chūnin outfit.
"Ah, Mizuki-kun! There you are!" Iruka walked up to the man and shook his hand.
Mizuki smiled and patted Iruka's shoulder as they shook hands.
"Wouldn't miss the final week, now would I?"
Iruka chuckled and turned to the slightly confused students.
"Class, this is my new assistant, Mizuki. We're long-time friends, and he was the teacher of a recently-graduated class."
Mizuki was slowly scanning the faces of the Academy students, but his gaze lingered on the last-minute entry. The newly-printed student file was only viewable by select Chūnin and higher, and Mizuki was one of the select Chūnin. The anger at the Kyūbi-incarnate almost made him attack the boy right then and there, but, with a mental breathing-technique, he opted for a more... Indirect approach.
Before Iruka could continue with his lesson, the door at the top of the stairs exploded open, revealing a distinctive head of pink hair, followed by an equally-distinctive head of platinum-blonde hair.
"HAH! SUCK IT, INO-PIG! I beat you fair and square! I get the seat next to Sasuke-kun!"
Everyone in the room immediately gained either a large tick-mark, or a large bead of sweat.
The girl with the blonde hair, Ino, glanced over at Sasuke and was about to send a retort to the pink-haired Banshee, as Naruto immediately took to calling her, but was suddenly assaulted with feelings she had never experienced before. She had locked eyes with the newcomer, and the primal, animalistic glint in the boy's eyes sent a not-so-unpleasant jolt down Ino's spine.
Sakura took Ino's sudden reaction as a small victory, "HAH! Too surprised that you lost? Well, get used to second place!" She then closed her eyes, walked with a swagger and confidence a lot of people didn't know she had, and made her way across the top row of seats. Iruka would have immediately stopped this interruption, but a small part of him wanted to see what would happen.
Easily walking down the stairs out of sheer memory, and stopping exactly at Sasuke's row, Sakura stepped over, and promptly sat down in the seat next to the Uchiha.
The only problem with this, was that the seat was already taken and the girl had just plopped down in Naruto's lap.
At first, Sakura was sure she was sitting in a seat. A solid, wooden seat. But, as she felt flesh—which was still noticeably solid—and warmth instead, she was suddenly very confused. Grinding her hips in a circle, she tried getting a better feel of what she was sitting on. This not-so-subtle movement elicited a slight groan from Naruto, which made Sakura's worst fear a reality.
With an ear-shattering scream, the girl was suddenly standing back on the stairs, her face bright red. She was waving her arms at Naruto, and trying to apologize. "I...! You...! What the-!?"
Seeing this as her chance, Ino quickly leaped into the seat on the right of Naruto. Sakura was immediately back to being competitive.
"I-Ino-pig! Get out of my seat!"
"Actually, Sakura-san, There are no assigned seats for any students this week." Iruka pointed to the only other empty seat, the one next to an easily identifiable Akimichi boy. "You'll have to take the one next to Chōji."
Sakura's spirit was immediately dashed, and she slowly trudged up the stairs with her arms hanging limply at her sides. Chōji had been eating a bag of chips since he had entered class, much to the chagrin of Sakura.
Shikamaru, who had been asleep since he entered the class, didn't really care all that much about Sakura's new seating arrangement—as long as he stayed asleep until absolutely necessary.
Ino looked over at Sakura and pulled down one eye-lid and stuck her tongue out in a teasing manner, prompting the pinkette to blow steam out of her ears.
Iruka sat down at his desk and looked up at his class, surveying the students he'd been teaching for the duration of the year, with the exception of the Jinchūriki.
The scarred man was slightly unnerved at the newcomer, as the boy's eyes slowly scanned the entire class. Some of the kids met his gaze, but quickly averted it and looked elsewhere, while most of the girls — and even a select few of the boys — kept the boy's gaze. Not like he cared.
'Hmm... So this is the Jinchūriki. Goes from ANBU recruit to academy student in the span of an hour. I wonder where he was before this... Surely he should've been in the Academy?'
Iruka's thoughts slowly drifted back to thirteen years ago. The attack on Konohagakure, courtesy of the Kyūbi no Kitsune.
He felt a slight stab of pain in his chest as he mentally replayed his parent's laughter. The way they'd both pick him up and swing him around as he laughed with them. They way they'd all three fall asleep together on the couch together after a long day of training.
They way they screamed in horror as the Fox Demon stepped on them, ending their lives.
Naruto caught a Kunai right before it impacted his forehead, and in the next heartbeat caught a second one aiming for his neck.
"IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO DIE, FOX! YAAAH!"
It appeared to everyone else that Iruka had simply appeared in front of Naruto, but Naruto had watched the man leap from his desk almost in slow motion.
Naruto dropped the two daggers to the ground and shot up from his chair, bracing for the kick that would have impacted his temple. He grabbed on to Iruka's leg at the ankle and knee and shoved him backwards. If he had put anymore power behind his push, Iruka would have slammed into the chalkboard.
Naruto didn't know this man very well, but he recognized the fact that Iruka was trying to kill him. As he was a fellow Konoha nin, he sought to subdue the teacher instead of kill him.
Naruto rarely showed pity like this, but he couldn't kill the teacher of these brats right in front of them.
Naruto body flickered directly in front of Iruka, startling the Chūnin. The man recovered quickly however, and launched into a taijutsu assault that was sloppy from anger.
Naruto sighed as he was easily staying out of reach, and then abruptly stopped his retreat, making Iruka lose balance and slam his face into the boy's chest.
Iruka's nose let out an audible pop as all of his weight slammed into Naruto's sternum. Naruto, however, barely needed to take a step back.
The usually-cool Chuunin quickly got back up and drew a Kunai with his right hand, and held his heavily-bleeding nose with his left.
"YOU'LL HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN THAT IF YOU WANT TO KILL ME, DEMON!"
Naruto sighed heavily, before creating a clone behind the Chūnin and using a Kawarimi to switch places with it. Naruto dispelled the clone that was in place of the real Naruto, making Iruka tense in preparation.
"Too slow," Naruto whispered as a fist suddenly impacted Iruka's temple.
As soon as he had caught the man and set him down, Naruto realized he no longer needed to withhold judgement on the white-haired assistant.
Mizuki's mind raced, and he quickly came up with a plan that might work.
"How dare you assault a fellow ninja! Your own instructor at that! Traitor!"
Naruto began chuckling darkly, actually scaring the students and even Mizuki, even though it was more intimidating than scary to the man.
"I could ask you the same thing, Mizuki-teme…"
Suddenly, Naruto was standing where Mizuki had been, his fist extended, and In turn, Mizuki had been slammed into the wall. His body cracked the wood, and left an indention as the man fell to the ground on his hands and knees. He spat some blood out of his mouth and drew a Kunai as he stood.
"You'll have to do better than that if you want to kill me..."
Naruto simply laughed. "Yeah, I got that the first time."
Mizuki growled lowly and charged the boy at mid-Chūnin speed. To the students he was a blur, while to Naruto it looked as if Mizuki was in a slight jog.
As the man got close enough, he began a downwards arc of the Kunai, hoping to split Naruto in half. So, Naruto did the smart thing and stepped aside. The Kunai sliced into the wood where Naruto was standing a millisecond before.
He was now behind Mizuki, and since the man was on one leg and his weight was still being distributed through the Kunai, Naruto tapped the man in his rear just hard enough for him to lose his balance and fall forward. Mizuki tumbled to the floor and quickly rolled over to dodge a kick from the blonde. Naruto's foot slammed through the floor, splintering the wood with a loud crack.
It took a moment for Naruto to pull his foot out; A moment Mizuki, surprisingly, didn't take advantage of.
Now Naruto was on the offensive. He decided he didn't want to kill the man, so he settled on just using one foot.
Transitioning his weight, Naruto swung his leg up and connected a solid kick to Mizuki's jaw. The man's neck whip-lashed to the side, and the momentum brought his temple right onto the corner of a nearby desk. The three students that were sitting in it jumped back slightly as the assistant fell to the floor, his head bleeding.
All the students stared at Mizuki's unconscious body, then they all slowly turned towards Naruto who was talking to a group of two ANBU who just so happened to have miraculously appeared in the classroom at that very moment.
"Greetings ANBU-san. I assume my clone explained the situation?"
The ANBU nodded her head and replied, "Yes, Uzumaki-san. We'll take Mizuki into custody now."
"Arigato, Neko-san."
The purple-haired ANBU turned away from the boy, and ordered the other operative that was with her to pick up the unconscious Mizuki.
Before they both Shunshin'd away, the male ANBU that was now carrying Mizuki turned to the still shock-and-awed students.
"Day off. A substitute teacher will be provided for the class tomorrow." And then they were all three gone in poofs of smoke.
Naruto looked up at the students, who all had wide eyes. As they all slowly began to focus on Naruto, the majority were filled with fear.
"Why would Iruka-sensei attack him...?"
"And he was calling him a monster!"
"Maybe he'll attack us...?"
Kiba suddenly shot up from his chair and slammed his fists onto the desk, almost shattering the wood.
"Wait a damn minute! You're the kid that my mom visits all the time! I'd recognize that blonde hair anywhere!"
Naruto cocked his head to the side slightly, "And this is a problem, why?"
Kiba suddenly blushed deeply and hate filled his eyes.
"It's because she always fucking talks about you! How 'Perfect' you are, and how I should be more like 'Naruto-kun'! Well I fucking hate it!" Kiba punched the desk, leaving an indention of his fist.
"Kiba-san, I assure you that whatever is… Ano… between Tsume-san and I, is in no way Romantic." Naruto wasn't exactly lying, but Tsume definitely liked to show her "fondness" for Naruto.
For example, sometimes as they would be in public together, either alone or with friends—such as Kakashi or Anko—the Inuzuka clan-head would wrap her arms around one of Naruto's, which in turn pushed Naruto's arm in between Tsume's… "assets".
Kiba only seemed to get more angered as he heard the quiet snickers of a few of his classmates. Naruto was abruptly reminded that these kids were definitely far from being as mature as he himself was, so the blonde was quickly just as frustrated.
"Just... shut the hell up!" Kiba yelled at the Naruto, drawing a Kunai from his hip. The Inuzuka heir launched the weapon at the blonde, causing all the students to gasp in horror.
"Attacking a fellow Konoha Nin is punishable by death, Kiba-san… It'd be wise of you to remember that. Sure, you don't like me, but I didn't volunteer to be in this class." Naruto was idly twirling the thrown Kunai around his finger, surprising all present. "Now, as far as I see it, only three Genin squads are going to make it to the Chūnin exams. I could be wrong, and four will make it, but I doubt that. I am, however, completely positive three of those teams will be the new generation of InoShikaCho, whatever team I'm on, whatever team Sasuke is on, or whatever team Shino is on. So we're probably going to be seeing a lot of each other for some time. This goes for all of you. It's time to grow up. Make some friends. Maybe then you'll last more than a few weeks."
With that, the mysterious new-comer turned and was about to leap out of the nearby window, until an unfamilar voice stopped him.
"Oi. You there."
Naruto sighed inwardly before turning and facing one Sasuke Uchiha, who was now standing on the ground floor in front of the blonde.
"Yes, Uchiha-san?"
Sasuke's scowl seemingly deepened. "How were you able to beat Mizuki and Iruka? They're Chūnin level at the minimum, and we're all Genin. You obviously aren't. Who exactly are you, and why aren't you already a Chūnin?"
Naruto grinned like the Cheshire Cat under his mask. "You act like you yourself aren't Chūnin-level already, 'Last Uchiha'. We'll be seeing each other around."
Sasuke's scowl turned into more of a snarl, but the raven-haired boy let Naruto leave without further harassment.
Well. Had to update the trash that was this first chapter before I continued this story. (Not to mention the fact it took me a couple of years.)
I still think this first chapter is a little too cringe, but i'll try to stick with it. I like this idea, but I don't really feel like completing revamping it from the start. I thank all of you that still dubiously await my updates. I'll be working on the second chapter as you'll all be reading this.