"You fail," Kakashi's words felt like a meteorite the size of the sun had just shattered the earth into a trillion dust particles. Except in this case, it was Naruto's galaxy sized ego.
"B-but you said after lunch we would have another chance!" Sakura tried to argue with the perpetually tardy ninja.
"I know what I said. I lii~ed." Kakashi said as if they were idiots, making sure to drag out the last word of his sentence. His one visible eye crinkled in smile. Naruto felt his fist tighten, nails drawing blood. "I said that to see if you could show team work, if not some form of human decency to your teammates." Sasuke glared hatefully at the man as their sensei continued. "To be completely honest with you guys, I was ordered to pass you because the political importance of this team." All three of the students eyes widened, the same hopeful thought going through their head, did that mean? " But I've never really cared for the council, hahah" Kakashi laughed and left them all in a swirl of leaves.
Sakura wanted to cry, Naruto wanted to yell and blame someone else, Sasuke wanted to rip the man that had failed them's throat out. But instead they all walked away. Not a word spoken as the former team 7 parted ways from the training grounds.
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"You really messed up this time Kakashi," The third hokage said letting lose a long sigh full of smoke. The aforementioned ninja tried not to wince at the third hokage's relaxed, reprimanding tone, it was the same tone interrogators used right before they pulled out the grinder. Kakashi sucked in air as he got ready to defend his decision. Only for the wrinkled old man to put a hand up, silencing his unspoken rebuttal. "Just get ready for the counsel, Sasuke's failure won't sit well with them."
Kakashi nodded and prepared for his meeting with the unofficially named Uchiha lover's club.
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Naruto spent the night slurping on cup noodles, tears dripping into the already salty broth. He only stopped at his last cup, as he looked around he saw just how many cup noodles he had gone through. Sunlight made its way through the cracks in his cup mountains, signaling a new day. A deep, depressed sigh came from deep in his belly. He couldn't stand this.
Naruto decided to dig his way through the ramen cups and take a walk outside. Not even his usual orange and blue jacket could cheer him up as he slid it onto his skinny arms. It still had mud caking the cuffs from the test, and the moody blonde almost tossed it off the building like it was covered in fire ants at the reminder. Almost. But he just grit his teeth and walked down his stairs to the street, his stomach felt like a rat was running around in it, trying to escape. He felt sick.
Naruto reached the street and steeled himself for the day. A deep breath in, a deep breath out, one more time and then his signature smile. Naruto kept walking forcing his stomach to shut up. He only made it two blocks before he hurled in an alley. "I can't fucking go back to the academy, not now! I barely even passed this time because Mitsuki was a lying asshole!" Naruto's whole body shook, for once he couldn't bring himself to meet the scowls of the villagers with a smile, he couldn't feel happy despite his failings. Because this time he couldn't yell and boast and blame anyone besides himself. He had finally run out of excuses. Naruto kept walking without course, letting his feet guide him through Konoha's bustling morning traffic.
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Naruto has learned an important lesson over the last few years of his life. Being sad and moping around didn't get him anywhere. But begging and complaining to Hokage-Jiji did. It was for this reason that he was currently sitting outside the old man's office, legs bouncing as he worked on his list of 10,000 reasons why Naruto Uzumaki should be kept as a ninja. The door to the Hokage's office opened and Naruto's head snapped up so fast it left him feeling slightly dizzy. But he forced himself not to run full tilt into the room. Instead he walked slowly trying to copy the important looking man that had just walked out.
"Hokage-Ji- errr Sama" he bowed as deeply as he could. "Dammit I already messed up, I'm supposed to show him how respectful a ninja I am!" Naruto mentally berated himself.
"Naruto, my child, what brings you here this morning?" Naruto looked up into his surrogate grandfathers kind gaze and abandoned any form of political correctness. "JIJIIWANNABEANINJASOBADBUTKAKASHISENSEIFALLEDUSBECAUSEWEWEREBIGFATHOESTOEACHOTHERTHATCOUD'NTWORKTOGETHERANDNOWIHAVETOGOBACKTOTHEACADEMYBUTIMGONNABEKICKEDOUTBECAUSEI'MBAAAAADDDDD PLEEEEAAASSSSEEE LET ME STAY A NINJA!" Naruto was laying on the floor, his faces mashed against the floor in a bow, tears were streaming down his face. The Hokage sucked in smoke from his pipe as he contemplated what to do. Breathing out he came up with his plan.
"You can stand up now Naruto". The orange laden boy stood trying to clean his wet face with his sleeve. "If you choose not to return to the academy, which is an option for all genin failed by the Jonin sensei. You are giving up your opportunity to train directly under a jonin in a three man cell. You will be transferred to the genin corps instead." Sarutobi paused and took another puff from his pipe and saw Naruto thinking over the information. "Good he's think about this seriously" the third knew that Naruto was not stupid, but he also knew that the prankster tended not to think things through completely.
"Can I still become hokage if I choose genin corps Jiji?" Naruto asked. Hiruzen let smoke leave his mouth as it drifted up towards the ceiling lazily. "Yes, there are morning classes every other day that cover basic knowledge for the requirements of promotion as well as other important shinobi skills that must be learned. I must warn you that promotion from the corps is difficult." The third hokage thought he could almost see the gears in Naruto's mind turning as he looked into his wide blue eyes. The moment those sky blue eyes hardened in resolve Sarutobi knew the child's answer.
"ALRIGHT OLD MAN I'M GONNA BE THE BEST NINJA EVER, DATTEBAYO!" he started to leave but turned around and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like a thank you to Hiruzen.
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Naruto woke up the next morning vibrating with excitement. Practically shooting out of the house towards genin headquarters.
Naruto slowed down when the building came into view. It was easily forgettable with two stories and plain grey walls. Naruto had walked past it on his way to the academy almost every day and only realized it was there when he was looking for it. Outside was a Chunin with drooping eyelids and greased back hair sitting behind a plain white table. Several other new genin were lined up with their paperwork clutched in their hands. When it was Naruto's turn, he handed his paperwork to the chunin and waited for him to wordlessly stamp it and drop it in the growing stack.
Naruto was waved into the open double doors and he half walked, half ran into the building with an absolutely shining grin. "Man I wonder what my first missions gonna be like, maybe escorting a princess? Or tracking down some super criminal? Hehheh being a ninja is gonna be so cool."
Naruto strutted over to the table with a "team assignments" sign hanging over the front. The rest of the floor seemed to be a break area with cafeteria tables and genin of various shapes and sizes milling around.
"Hello! Naruto Uzumaki here to get assigned a team dattebayo!" The blonde half yelled to the two genin in charge.
"Ah, well if it isn't Naruto Uzumaki. I had a feeling you would end up here." The genin on the right insulted, not that Naruto realized it or cared.
"Heheh well if I'm gonna be hokage I have to start somewhere" the blonde said as he scratched the back of his head. Stupid grin splattered onto his face.
The old genin that looked to be around fifty on the left smiled warmly. "Well I'm the genin commander Kane, it's good to meet you Naruto. I'll have to warn you that only about 1 in 10 of the genin corps even makes chunin, much less become hokage." Naruto laughed good naturally, it was nice that the old man didn't just blow him off. The genin on the right just snorted like a jackass.
"Well I guess I'll be the first then haha. Could I get my team? I'm excited for my first mission!"
The old man nodded, though laughing inside at what the kid must be imagining as his first mission.
"Give me just a second," As the old man Kane ruffled through his some papers he explained some rules that Naruto was expected to follow. "As a new member of the genin corps you are expected to complete 45 D-ranks every month. It doesn't particularly matter when they're done but you will be in trouble if you don't do them," He handed his papers to Naruto but kept a tight grip so the blonde couldn't take them. "And remember Naruto," his eyes turned cold. "any property damage caused by one of our shinobi will be payed for by him, and disciplinary action will be taken." Naruto swallowed and nodded, the genin commander was someone he decided he should stay on the good side of. It seemed he would have to tone down the pranks a bit as well. The commander let go of the papers and Naruto almost stumbled onto his butt. "Your teammates for today are Takeshita Wanari, and Hina Matsuri, their usual teammate is sick today. Look for them outside."
For some reason when Naruto had heard the names of his teammates, he hadn't been expecting two, very fat, middle aged men. One was wearing a white tank top with several stains on the front and black shinobi pants, a cigarette was hanging between his fingers. The other had several pimples and deep bags under his eyes. He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. When Naruto walked up to him the pimply one glowered at him.
"Waddaya want shrimp" Naruto wrinkled his nose and tried not to recoil from the mans terrible morning breath.
"I'm your teammate old man! And I'm not a shrimp dattebayo!" Naruto proclaimed
"Well your short and orange, so you're a shrimp."
"Just our luck to get stuck with such a loud and annoying one isn't it Hina." The smoker commented, ignoring Naruto's offended gasp
"Sure is, well let's just get our mission for today over with, follow me shrimpy" Hina sighed and started on the way towards the missions office. Naruto bristled but followed them. They didn't seem like very good ninja but maybe they would surprise him when they fought some bandits. Naruto nodded to himself and jogged to catch up with them.
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"We have a couple good ones this morning, you can paint old man Saitō's fence, fetch Mrs. Watanabe's groceries or weed a few different peoples gardens?" The chunin stated blandly.
"WHAT! All those missions suck! Give us something more difficult you sack of crap!" Naruto practically screamed in indignation.
"Did you not realize what your fist missions would entail Uzumaki? Normally people in the genin corps have to serve for a year before they can take C-ranks, with the commanders approval." Naruto wanted to pull all the hair off of his head as the chunin's stupidly condescending voice reached his ears. A whole year? Naruto didn't have time for that crap. He needed to do some awesome missions to get the respect of the village and become hokage.
"A YEAR!? Who the hell made that rule!?" Naruto was really screaming now.
"The hokage," he handed a mission scroll to Hina. "Now if you could stop screaming like an infant and carry yourself like a proper shinobi, please leave the building."
Naruto did not leave the building like a dignified shinobi. The smoker, Takeshita, dragged him out of the building as Naruto tried to wring himself free and kill the chunin at the missions desk.
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"This sucks" Naruto poured as he pulled another weed.
"Hahah, sorry Naruto but if you wanted to be ninja that gets to do exciting things all the time then you you should have gone back to the academy" Takeshita consoled. He may have thought Naruto was a little bit of a brat but he didn't have anything against the kid.
"Why did you become a ninja Takeshita-San? You couldn't have wanted to do chores for life."
Naruto asked the brown haired smoker.
"I wanted to be hokage" he said simply
"Really! Why didn't you?" Takeshita sweat dropped at the straight forward question.
"It's not really as simple as wether I did or didn't kid. I joined genin corps thinking I could work my way up from there. But instead I never had another chance to get stronger or prove my skills. Now look at me, a fat man who does other people's house work for a living. If I had another chance I would have just become a merchant. At least I'de be making enough money to support my family." Naruto frowned, he had never really thought about what his life would be like if he didn't make hokage. Looking at Takeshita-San and imagining him as someone his age, proclaiming to the world that Takeshita Wanari would be the next hokage, it made the position of hokage seem farther than the stars in the sky.
Takeshita pulled the last weed in the now beautiful garden and stood up. Hina had finished his section five minutes ago and left for a drink. Takeshita brushed off his pants and clapped Naruto on the shoulder. "I may be an old man no stronger than most civilians, but if your in a pinch you can count on me. See you around shrimpy, and you've got my vote for hokage." With those parting words Naruto was left alone in the garden, tears started to form in his eyes as he saw the old man leave. Takeshita didn't even realize just how much those words of support meant to the usual ball of sunshine.
A/N hello people, this my first fic I've ever actually written, so any feedback is appreciated let me know if you liked it, if you love it, or even if you think this is absolute garbage.