Tempered Steel

by The Snow Mage

It takes time to forge a blade, no matter how skilled the smith. After the third war, the graduation age of Genin of Konoha was pushed to 16, granting them a more thorough education. With a few extra years of training, in specialized fields and under the watchful eyes of their instructors, how much could have changed? Mild AU

1. Chapter 1

Hello, all! You've probably read Naruto fanfiction before, so let's get right down into it, shall we?

Edit: This was lower on the list until I got some advice from a kind reviewer: if you want to skip the opening spiels in my stories, skip to the first set of X's, which have been bolded for your convenience.

Well, technically their advice was to excise the wall of text below entirely, but some bits are the sorts of things that would turn people off of a story, so I left most of it in and just moved the skip-notice-thing up here. End Edit.

First off, students at the various Ninja Academies graduate at 16 instead of 12 or 13. Because of this, they are trained significantly harder and for much longer, and were able to choose from several electives to help refine and focus their skills (in addition to the general education they received). Just as a general rule of thumb, the rough power level of a Genin in this story will be about the same as a Chunin in the anime/manga.

Second, the level of technology. Relatively small radios and landline phones are rather commonly available, and television exists, though it hasn't transitioned from black-and-white to full color. It's worth noting that there aren't phone lines set up between the villages, though, so you can talk to your neighbors, but not your relatives from outside the village; this also resulted in television being rather poorly received, as receivers are (again) not set up to transmit for long distances, meaning that the only shows and programs people can watch are those that their village produces. There are trains and motorized ships, but no planes or automobiles. Computers exist, but they're the bulky monstrosities that existed back in the 1960s; few (if any) models would be commercially available, and they would be expensive enough that only the wealthy could afford them.

Third, there will be no lemons. I don't enjoy writing that sort of thing for several reasons, so, while there will certainly be some sexual themes in the story, they won't progress into full-blown (heh) sex scenes.

Fourth, on the subject of demons, there are more than just the Bijuu in this story. Just to put out an off-the-cuff number, there's likely more than six thousand Kitsune in the Elemental Nations - and that's just the Kitsune, who aren't even the most populous demons around. I will not always be 100% accurate in my depictions of demons (etc.), but I will strive for at least some accuracy, and anything that strays incredibly far from accuracy will be specifically noted in the closing AN for the chapter that type of demon first appears in (well, appears wholly in; if a character appears as a "stinger" at the end of a chapter, I won't be describing them in detail in the closing AN).

Finally, as mentioned in the second point, there will be death and destruction aplenty, violence in spades, and overbearing descriptions of all of the above. If you have a weak stomach, or a particular aversion to gore, that might be something to keep in mind going forward. This isn't just me talking out my ass, either: I've found that the absolute lightest death I can give a character involves a sword being wrenched out from their throat in a way that involves chunks of their flesh and spine being torn out. If that description bothered you, well, I strongly urge you to consider tempering yourself before reading too far into this story (not this chapter; it's pretty tame).

Alright, looks like we're all set to go! Dive on in!

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"Oh, are you fucking kidding me?" he mumbled under his breath as he opened his eyes, the all-too-familiar smell of water and rust filling his nose. "Again? Piece of shit-garbage fucker," he continued to mumble as he rose to his feet, slowly trailing off into wordless grunts as he glared up at the massive set of metal bars in front of him. "What is it this time?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, glaring at the faint red glow that came from behind the bars.

He didn't get a response, not that he'd expected one. As Naruto Uzumaki had learned long ago, trying to get information from the Kyuubi no Youko was a lot like breaking your own nose to get out of a bear trap: a waste of time that only left you in more pain than you should be.

Naruto sighed, frustrated, an action that caused his spiky blonde hair to sway perilously. His blue eyes were full of something too strong to be called annoyance but not quite potent enough to be called anger, and, as time passed, the scowl he wore deepened, stretching the odd, whisker-like marks on his cheeks into greater prominence.

Finally, after a few more minutes of pointless waiting, a massive clawed hand slammed into the bars, shaking them menacingly; the impact would have rattled Naruto if he hadn't seen this a hundred times before. An equivalently large vulpine head loomed into view, escaping the darkness that swallowed the deeper parts of the cage and emerging into the flickering torchlight of the sewer-like area. Its red eyes focused onto Naruto with a predator's focus, and its lips twisted into a smirk that its muzzle should have made impossible.

"Are you done yet?" Naruto asked irritably, folding his arms over his chest.

The Kyuubi's eyes narrowed hatefully, but then it let out a deep, heaving sigh as billowing smoke swallowed its body.

"I miss the days when you would've shit yourself in fear," came a remarkably feminine voice from within the cloud of smoke. As it cleared, it revealed a red-haired woman with crimson eyes, wearing a kimono the same dark orange as the fox's fur. It was open slightly, revealing the cleavage that her modest, perky breasts could create, and barely fell to her knees; as it parted slightly near the bottom, it revealed a vast expanse of pale, supple thigh, though it being belted at her hips by a thin silk sash gave her at least some modesty.

"You're a woman today," Naruto said, letting out a sigh. "Why?"

"You humans seem to find women more inherently sympathetic than men, for some reason," the Kyuubi said dismissively, studying her nails; they were painted the same orange as the accents streaked through the left side of her straight haircut that fell to just below her collarbone. "Plus, I find it easier to convince you to do something if I distract you with breasts."

"That doesn't explain why your hair's different," Naruto pointed out, drawing a smile from the Kyuubi that was a bit too sadistic to be satisfaction. "So, why exactly did you bring me here?" Naruto asked, trying to hide the tremor that slid up his spine from her smile.

"Just to remind you of my kindred," the Kyuubi said, lifting her eyes to meet his. "You'll be able to leave the village on assignment soon, which means that the protection of this settlement will not keep us safe from them, should they try to free me from this damnable seal."

"And why would they attack me, exactly?" Naruto asked, letting out another sigh. "Jiraya-sensei altered the seal, remember? If I die, you die."

"That would deter them if they had any way of knowing," she said, shaking her head. "Sadly, they do not. The ones you are most likely to encounter will have no knowledge of Fuuinjutsu, and will not be able to determine the seal has been altered. They will try to kill you, believing it will free me."

"Great," Naruto said, sighing again as he ran a hand through his hair. "Thanks for the warning, I guess. Is that all?"

She didn't bother answering. He merely blinked and his surroundings had changed, the sewer leaving him for a more familiar environment.

His bedroom.

It was almost shockingly filled, his futon having been wedged into a corner to help the room contain the over-sized wardrobe and desk that looked like they wouldn't fit through the door. The chair at his desk was similarly large, nearly large enough to seat two, and was made of an oddly green-colored material that was soft enough to sleep on, as Naruto had done multiple times over the last few years. His futon was the only thing that could be considered small in his room, only barely large enough to hold his entire body; his pillow actually draped halfway off the side of his futon most nights, and typically wound up on the floor by the morning.

Naruto groaned as he sat up, cradling his forehead with a hand as he squinted at the early morning sunlight sneaking in between the closed blinds on his window. "Damn fox," he murmured, flinging the single blanket covering him to one side as he twisted, standing up and walking out from his bedroom, grabbing some fresh clothes on the way to his bathroom.

After about fifteen minutes spent in the bathroom, he walked back out, toweling his hair dry and clad only in a clean pair of boxers. He barely managed to put on a pair of dark grey pants before there was a knock at his apartment's door, making him look up in the middle of sliding his belt on.

"Let me guess," he mumbled to himself as he made his way to the door, lazily wrapping his towel around his neck as he went. "Hello, Hinata-chan," he said as he opened the door, smiling at the blue-haired young woman who stood outside it.

She let out a huff, folding her arms beneath her sizable chest as her lavender eyes dipped down to his bare chest. Her cheeks colored and her eyebrows rose, but she nevertheless kept staring, giving Naruto a chance to look her over as well. She was wearing a thin black vest over a black shirt, both lined with dark grey accents that brought her large breasts into greater prominence, despite the thinning effect that the dark colors had. Her pants were a dark shade of purple, bound tightly at her ankles with a few feet of white bandages, though her boots, made from dark grey leather, hid most of those bandages from view. A length of blue cloth was wrapped around her neck, the steel plate it bore holding the carved image of a leaf, the insignia and namesake of their home village.

"My eyes are up here, Hinata-chan," Naruto said, his smile morphing into a full-blown grin as Hinata smirked, meeting his eyes for a moment before returning her gaze to his well-sculpted pecs and abs.

"Doesn't mean that's where I'm looking, Naruto-kun," Hinata said sweetly, still staring even as Naruto backed up a step to let her into his apartment. She brushed a hand against his abs 'accidentally' as she walked past him, her blush deepening as he rolled his eyes at the contact.

"As you can see, I'm in the middle of getting dressed," Naruto said, returning his towel to his hair.

"I can see that," Hinata said, smiling at him as she stepped into his kitchenette/dining room and leaned her arms on a chair. The room was rather clean and orderly, compared to Naruto's bedroom; there were a pair of plates and some utensils in the sink, waiting to be washed, but other than them and the few potted plants resting on the windowsill, the room was clean and empty, with everything put away where it should be. She raked her eyes over his bare chest again before saying, "I'll bet you haven't eaten breakfast yet, either."

"Maybe," Naruto said, returning to his bedroom to continue getting dressed. "Have you?"

"Not really. Just some rice."

"Well, if you're interested, I've got some stuff still in the fridge. Pancakes and eggs sound good?"

"Gods, yes. You want me to get started on the pancakes?"

"Sure thing. Thanks, Hinata-chan."

"No problem, Naruto-kun."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

The Konoha Ninja Academy was a rather large facility. With eight distinct years of students, each year typically holding more than thirty aspiring ninja, it would need to be to enable the variety of exercises and rather destructive techniques that the students were made to do. Despite the various destructive ninjutsu that wound up being used on its premises, as well as the more prankster-minded natures of certain students, the school was extremely mundane and unassuming, made of locally sources lumber and stone, with no outward signs that would tell its true nature.

It was also practically empty, as the Academy had given every grade a week off from their training and education as part of the graduation celebration.

Naruto found it a bit off-setting. He stared at the building, his arms folded behind his head as he walked beside Hinata. He wore a basic black shirt beneath a thin grey vest, as well as a number of large pouches on his belt; much like Hinata's vest, Naruto's bore a pair of large pockets and a few adjustable hoops, two of which bore small, tightly-bound scrolls. His insignia-bearing headband was wrapped around his forehead, pushing his spiky bangs out from in front of his eyes.

"You okay?" Hinata asked, noticing how intently he was staring at the Academy.

Naruto blinked, then slapped his hands against his cheeks. "Sorry," he said, shaking his head a bit as he returned his hands to his pockets. "It just seems... off, I guess. Maybe I'm just too used to it being full of people."

Hinata giggled a bit, jostling his arm with her shoulder; if he wasn't a few inches taller than her, she would've bumped her shoulder to his own. "It'll be full with our classmates soon enough, if it isn't already," she said, making him grunt and nod. "Speaking of which, who do you think will be on our teams?"

"What?" Naruto asked teasingly, prompting a blush from the Hyuuga. "You don't want me on your team, Hinata-chan?"

She giggled again, blushing further. "I'd like that more than you'd expect or enjoy," she said, making Naruto laugh as well. "But I don't think it's likely. We are the only two in our class who took the Intermediate Fuuinjutsu elective, after all, and I doubt they'd want to keep us together when we could support two different teams."

"Fair enough," Naruto said, nodding sagely, which set Hinata giggling again. "I think I'll wind up with Kiba on my team. He didn't mellow out as much as I thought he would a couple years ago, so I bet I'll get stuck with him to be a good example. 'Prankster hellion turned budding seal master' probably came up in whatever meeting picks this stuff."

"I actually think you'd get Shikamaru-san for that," Hinata said. "Make him more willing to train by meeting him halfway and all that."

"Who knows? Maybe I'll get both," Naruto said, shuddering.

For a moment, Hinata was silent; then she sighed, shaking her head. "I can't think of who I'd get," Hinata admitted, shrugging her shoulders at the look Naruto gave her. "Maybe Sasuke-san? We're both clan heirs, so maybe the Hokage would want us to get along better?"

"Maybe," Naruto said, shrugging as well. "But maybe you'd get someone like Ino or Chouji. You can track better than most people, and the Jyuuken is pretty effective at disabling your opponent without killing them, so putting you on a team with someone who can capture a target would make sense."

"This would be easier if we knew what everyone's grades were," Hinata mused, drawing a chuckle from Naruto.

The two teenage ninja had wandered their way to their classroom before they'd realized it, bringing their conversation to a halt. Naruto and Hinata glanced at each other, chuckling and blushing; they'd nearly walked in while talking about their classmates faults. Naruto just shrugged sheepishly, and the two of them walked in together, a rather common sight for their class.

The classroom was much the same as the Academy itself, a somewhat small lecture hall made from local wood and stone. One side of the room held the teacher's broad desk and a chalkboard, bearing a stack of papers and a few stray bits of chalk, respectively; on the other side, the wooden benches rose along a staircase until they hit the opposite wall, desks and seats alike built into the structure to prevent them from being moved. The classroom's windows were cracked open, letting in a breeze tinged with the smell of dirt and fresh wood, as well as the lingering scents of dried sweat and old blood; the room bordered the Academy's training field, where accidents were unfortunately common, though almost never lethal or even debilitating.

The bleacher-like seating structure was packed with their fellow classmates, though, as Naruto noted with a degree of relief, he and Hinata weren't the last to arrive, as there were only twenty-five newly minted Genin other than them in the room. They weren't late, but they had cut it rather close, being only five minutes early to the team assignments.

With what little time they had left, Hinata and Naruto found a place where they could sit next to each other and settled in to wait, falling into the same comfortable silence that the rest of their class seemed to be in.

Only for that feeling to shatter some time later.

Naruto blinked, shaking the light drowsiness from his head, glancing to his side to see Hinata doing the same thing. "What was that?" one of their classmates, a shapely platinum blonde named Ino Yamanaka, demanded from the room as she rose to her feet.

"A Genjutsu?" another classmate, a raven-haired young man named Sasuke Uchiha, said, his voice forming it into a question as his black eyes scanned the room from his seat. "Who set up a Genjutsu, and who broke it?"

Naruto blinked again, looking around the room with a frown as he took a headcount. "Are we all here?" he asked, making the count again. "I thought some people hadn't gotten here yet."

"No, we're all here now," Hinata said, confirming his count. "But some people weren't a few moments ago, and I don't remember the door opening since then."

"I think we can confirm it was a Genjutsu, then," a pink-haired woman, Sakura Haruno, said, shaking her head vigorously. "I was the first one here, and I don't remember anyone else coming in."

"The way I see it, there are two options for this scenario," said Shikamaru Nara, his thoughtful brown eyes beneath a head of dark hair, spiked up in a way that made his ponytail vaguely resemble a pineapple. "Either our sensei are enacting an invasion to show off our skills to our Jounin-sensei, or this is an actual invasion. We're best served in either case by acting as if this was all for real, and attempting to non-lethally subdue any enemies we come across."

"Agreed," Sasuke said, nodding his head at him.

"Seconded," Naruto said.

"Same," said Hinata.

"Then we should break into groups and head to the facilities most likely to be attacked," Sakura said as everyone else stated their agreement. "The hospital, the Mess, the Hokage Tower, and the Hokage Monument."

"We should also have a few people scouting the Academy grounds. There was a Genjutsu put on this room for a reason," Shikamaru pointed out. "There might be something here that we don't know about and could be considered a primary target."

"Good idea," Sasuke agreed. "Five teams. The hospital, Mess, and tower are all trafficked too frequently for any Fuuinjutsu based tactics to be viable, right?" he asked, waiting for a nod of agreement from Shikamaru before he continued. "Then we should send our Fuuinjutsu specialists to the Monument."

"No, at least one of them should stay here," Shikamaru said, shaking his head. "If there's something here worth targeting, it would be hidden by Fuuinjutsu."

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked, turning to her. "Did you ever see anything here that looked like it might be hiding something?"

She shook her head, saying, "Sorry, Naruto-kun. I've looked over just about the entire school with my Byakugan at one time or another; if there are seals hidden here, they're not hidden by any Genjutsu."

"Damn," Naruto grumbled, looking up to the ceiling.

"There's thirty of us, so we should break into five teams of six," Shikamaru said, grimacing at the exchange between Naruto and Hinata. "Hinata-san, Shino-san, I want you on the team going to the Monument. If anyone can find hidden Fuuinjutsu there, it would be you two."

"Right," said another of their classmates, this one wearing a high-collared stone-grey shirt and a dark brown hoodie that was splotched with patches of both bright green and dark; between them and his sunglasses, almost none of his face was visible.

"I'll stay on the Academy team," Naruto offered, lifting a hand. "You said you'll need a Fuuinjutsu guy here, after all."

"I can be part of the hospital team," Sakura offered. "Most of the doctors know me there."

And so, they broke into teams, filing out into groups of six as dictated by Shikamaru, outside of certain more obvious roles, such as Sakura goign to the hospital; some of the young Genin were less than happy with their assignments, but were nonetheless silent on the matter, forcing themselves to think of the security of the village over their own personal feelings. They then headed out to their objectives, worry that they'd spent too much time talking filling their minds as they moved toward their goals.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"Hold up," Kiba Inuzuka said, tilting his head upwards as he took several rapid inhales through his nose, the pair of triangular red marks on his cheeks twitching with the motion. He flicked his black eyes around them, taking in the beaten down dirt-and-grass training field next to the Academy and the various walls around it, then let out a deep breath through his nose. "I think I smell something, but I can't tell what it is."

"What do you mean?" Ino asked, her arms folded beneath her sizable breasts, which strained against the fabric of her sleeveless purple sweater.

"Akamaru?" Kiba asked, glancing to the white-furred hound at his side. It was large for a dog, the size of a fully grown jaguar, and wasn't finished growing yet; the ninja-companion dogs bred by the Inuzuka clan tended to wind up the size of a pony by the time they were done growing. Akamaru sneezed once, then let out a soft, almost yipping bark. "I thought as much. Too many scents at once to be natural."

"Can you track the source?" Naruto asked.

"No, they're all too weak individually to actually track," Kiba said, shaking his head. "And trying to mesh them all together could take me in a completely different direction."

"So whoever we're up against knew there'd be an Inuzuka on our team," said another newly-minted Genin. His hair was a dark shade of green and his eyes brown; combined with the basic forest camouflage coloration of his shirt, jacket, and pants, he reminded Naruto of a forest. His hand rested on the hilt of his katana, which was sheathed on his back instead of his hip due to his rather short stature. "Or they just tried to mask themselves from all forms of tracking," Arata Hashimoto added, shrugging a shoulder.

"It's more than I'm getting," said a rather tall woman, her body covered nearly completely with a hooded grey overcoat, a pair of sunglasses, and a black face mask that went up to just beneath her nose. A pair of gloves were her only other adornment, the simplistic web pattern on their backs belying the fact they were made from the silk of an Onigumo; her hand was raised at the moment, a small black beetle resting on her fingertip as a few others flew around it. "My Kikai aren't reporting any chakra signatures nearby other than our own," said Miyako Kobayashi, formerly of the Aburame clan.

"So we're not dealing with a Genjutsu right now: our opponent has cloaked their scent physically," Shikamaru said, glancing around them as he took a few steps forward. His expression was far from worried; he almost looked amused. "Masking your chakra signature is hard to do while standing still, much less while moving around, so odds are we're looking for a stationary target."

"Or a Jounin," Ino muttered darkly.

"If we were dealing with a hostile Jounin, we'd probably all be dead right now," Miyako said, almost dismissively, making Ino shudder. "Let's face it: we're Genin, and not even experienced Genin. If we were fighting a Jounin going all out, we'd be dead unless we took him by surprise."

"Which is why we have a shot," Shikamaru said, nodding his head. "A Jounin would have recognized that and made their move by now. Odds are we're dealing with a Chunin-level ninja, if their current tactics are anything to go by."

"We've still gotta figure out how to smoke this guy out of hiding, though," Naruto said, his arms folded behind his head as he glared at a nearby tree.

Arata tilted his head sideways at Naruto's phrasing, then smiled as an idea hit him. "That's it! Odds are, an invader wouldn't bother bringing a rebreather into Konoha, so, if they're in the immediate area, we can just make a bunch of smoke to get them moving!"

"Sounds like a plan," Miyako said, grinning at him behind her mask and glasses. "Anyone know a good jutsu for that?"

Naruto grinned, the whisker-like marks on his cheeks deepening. "Leave it to me."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"That's the last of them," Shino said, his monotonous voice echoing in the rocky caverns built into the mountain the Hokage Monument was carved from. His Kikai beetles had swarmed through the facility, quickly finding the various seals that had been placed throughout it. However, as Hinata had quickly learned upon studying the first set of seals he'd found, most of the Fuuinjutsu lining the caves were protective seals, reinforcing the stone against any potential damage from weather or stray Ninjutsu. It had been much slower going than they'd first thought.

However, Hinata had also noticed something else, which she'd kept to herself: her team would likely lower their guard if they knew the seals she was disrupting were a modified storage seal that Naruto had come up with to use as a paint-and-feather bomb. Designed to fling their contents with barely enough force to move ten feet, they could only be harmful if filled with acid or a particularly potent poison.

"I can't believe we're stuck up here," came a mutter from one of the taller members of the team. His hair was a dark shade of brown, his eyes green but with an inner ring of purple. He wore a black vest, open to reveal his utter lack of a shirt and the toned abs and pecs he had, as well as a pair of loose-fitting crimson trousers held up by an immensely thick leather belt, from which hung a sextet of pouches of varying sizes and the sheaths for his two aikuchi, long daggers curved like a katana that were a mere two inches short of being two feet long.

"Shikamaru's the closest we have to an expert tactician, Tatsumi-san," Hinata said, already kneeling beside the sealing array that Shino had marked for her. "If he thinks you'll be needed here, then I know he has a good reason for it."

Tatsumi Hayashi scoffed, flexing his hands by his sides as if eager to draw his daggers.

Chouji Akamichi let out a sigh, grabbed another handful of chips from the bag he was eating from, and placed them in his mouth. He was rather heavyset for his age, more with thick muscle than actual fat, though there was plenty of that, too. His hair was long, spiky, and more red than brown, much like his eyes, and his jacket and trousers were a dark red that seemed to swallow light, lending him more stealth than he'd normally be able to possess. "I trust Shikamaru's judgement," he said once he'd swallowed. "He probably saw that the rest of us aren't speed-based fighters and sent you with us to make up for that deficiency."

"Great," he muttered, glancing only briefly at Chouji before returning to his vigil near the entrance to this set of tunnels. "I love being stuck with the slowpokes."

The two remaining members of the team glanced at each other, sighed in unison, and then turned their gaze outward again, looking out at the city through the holes carved into the Yondaime's head's eyes. They were nearly identical, despite the difference in sex: black hair, black eyes, and an unnaturally pale skin that resembled snow more than flesh. Their outfits were very similar as well, though they had made a concession to help their classmates tell them apart: the male, Akira, wore a basic T-shirt and hip-hugging slacks, both black and bearing green, swirling, ivy-like designs; the female, Akemi, wore the same style of T-shirt, but had traded out the slacks for a nearly knee-length skirt of the same design, though she'd also added a thick black jacket to help hide her bosom, since she was somewhat ashamed of their overly large size.

Rumors had gone around their year that Akira and Akemi Yamauchi were telepathic, which the twins had vehemently denied – which a pair of telepaths would, I suppose.

Their eyes narrowed, almost simultaneously, as they spotted a flickering shadow coming from the tunnel leading to the Sandaime's head. They each drew a kunai from a pouch on their hips, holding the fat blade in a reverse grip as Akemi called out a warning.

The other ninja reacted instantly and instinctively. Chouji turned to face the tunnel, his arms brought up in a defensive posture; Tatsumi swore under his breath and drew both of his aikuchi, holding them in a relaxed stance as he rolled his shoulders; Shino released a swarm of Kikai from beneath his jacket, which broke off into smaller groups and hid in the various shadows of the stone head; and Hinata activated her Byakugan, the veins in her forehead and around her eyes bulging as she looked through her Kekkai Genkai.

The Byakugan allowed those born to the Hyuuga Clan to see chakra signatures, through walls, and in a nearly complete circle around them, and expanded their ability to process information in order to make it actually viable. Her eyes closed, her hand still working in careful strokes to break the modified storage seal without activating it, Hinata located the source of the disturbance and said, "Genjutsu: twelve yards, one'o'clock."

Akira and Akemi threw their kunai at the designated location, eyes widening almost imperceptibly as they were deflected into the rock wall by a hand made from solidified shadow. The shadow melted away from the wall, falling into a puddle on the floor of the cavern.

The shadow flowed in a way that shadows weren't meant to, rising up from the 'puddle' like a bubbling geyser of water. It thrashed and roiled, slowly finding its way into a new, more humanoid form. Its head came up in a display of vicious spikes, resembling a rather common hairstyle in Konoha, and its arms were long and gangly, stretching more than six feet long over the course of three elbows and ending in set of what looked like claws to the young Genin, despite their hazy nature.

Its face stretched open, revealing a reddish hue of light within the solidifying darkness as it screamed like nothing they'd ever heard before, a piercing wail that could be heard across the village. Six eyes of the same color flicked open on its head as the sound echoed around the walls, and it lunged forward, reaching out with those claws towards the first of its prey.

Only for a swarm of beetles to descend on it, their forms tearing through the constructed darkness before it could reach Akemi and shredding it from the creature's form. They were joined by more of their kind, devouring the chakra that had created it in a swift display of predation; mere seconds passed before it was gone, the Genjutsu having been effectively dispelled by Shino's Kikai.

"Aw, where's the ninja?" Tatsumi asked, disappointed, as he ran a thumb over the glass bead studded into the bottom of his aikuchi's hilt. Despite his apparent dismay, however, he was looking around cautiously, trying to find the Genjutsu's source before it found him.

"I don't see any chakra signatures other than ours," Hinata said, the veins around her eyes still bulging as she continued working on the seal before her. "Shino-san?"

"My Kikai have found one, but he's outside of our effective range," Shino said, glancing out the side of the Hokage Monument and out at the village. "Two hundred yards southeast, on the roof of Yamanaka Botany. She's making hand seals."

"Got it!" Tatsumi yelled out, a sadistic grin on his lips as he sheathed both of his blades and started towards the Yondaime's eyes. "Who's coming with me?"

"I'll go," Akira said, slipping his kunai away as he made to follow. He glanced at Akemi briefly, but she shook her head, casting her gaze back to the tunnel that they had been guarding. Akira nodded at his twin understandingly as he cleared the short distance between them and stood beside Tatsumi.

"I will as well," Shino said, adjusting his glasses as he followed.

"I'm staying," Chouji said, giving them a thumbs-up. "Give her hell, yeah?"

"You bet!" Tatsumi exclaimed, giving Chouji a much more friendly grin, before he turned back to the eyes and it turned sadistic again. "Let's go!"

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

The brush around the small training field at the Academy was mostly on fire, courtesy of Naruto's display of pyrotechnics. Smoke was steadily filling the air, the leaves and wood of the various plants and trees having been chosen specifically for the amount of smoke they could put out, since the ninja-in-training were extremely likely to cause an out of control fire when they first began learning fire-based techniques; the excess of smoke enabled more experienced ninja to show up and produce a water technique to put out the flames.

The masked ninja finally departed from his hiding spot, coughing as smoke filled his lungs. He leaped out from the overly large bush, jumping to the highest branch of the nearest tree and trying to take a deep enough breath to clear the smoke from his airway.

Only for a pair of humanoid tornadoes to lunge at him, their nails bared and as sharp as claws. The masked ninja jumped away again, throwing a kunai at one of the twisting forms, but it was deflected a few feet from them.

He landed gracefully, despite the smoke still coming out of his lungs, and glared at the various Genin assembled before him. His eyes were cloaked in shadow from his blank headband, almost assuredly a Genjutsu, and his entire body was covered by clothing, with not a single inch bared for his adversaries to examine.

"Interesting," he said a hundred times at once, in a hundred different voices; Naruto mused for a moment whether that was from another Genjutsu or from a piece of technology from a Research and Development division somewhere.

"Capture him," Shikamaru said lazily, sounding both tired and mildly annoyed.

The masked ninja flicked his eyes at each of the Genin in front of him in turn, before a displacement in the air behind him made him jump instinctively – but not quickly enough to avoid Kiba and Akamaru's Gatsuga. Though he avoided Akamaru entirely, Kiba's nails sliced through his boot and along the side of his foot, drawing a bit of blood.

The ninja bit back a scream of pain, forming hand seals as his jump was knocked off course. "Suiton: Suiryudan! (Water Release: Water Dragon Missile)" he called out, drawing water up from a nearby stream water feature and molding it into the shape of a dragon's head, which lunged for the Genin.

Most of them avoided it easily, leaping away from the Ninjutsu, but Kiba and Akamaru were still recovering from their clan's technique; they caught the edge of it and were sent tumbling to the ground, hitting it hard enough to dispel the Jujin Bunshin (Beast Human Clone) that Kiba had cast over Akamaru, turning the replica of the Genin back into the hound he had originally been. Akamaru snarled, saliva dripping from his teeth as he rose to his feet and walked over to his master, helping the young Genin back to his feet.

"Thanks, Akamaru," Kiba said, wrapping an arm around the dog's shoulders to haul himself up, though he nearly slipped in the mud; the water technique had already soaked into the ground, which was watered frequently enough that even a half-pint of water could create a pool of mud.

"Doton: Doryudan! (Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet)" Arata said, taking advantage of the newly made mud. A draconic head formed from the ground he'd just vacated, its open maw aimed at the ninja, and seemed to exhale, spitting balls of compacted mud as fast as water soaked into the ground.

"Katon: Karyudan! (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet)" Naruto followed up, having begun his hand seals the moment he saw Arata's technique. He landed just behind the dragon head, flame streaming from his mouth as he exhaled into the barrage of mud balls it was spitting out.

'A combination technique!' the masked ninja thought, his eyes widening behind his Genjutsu as he started running, avoiding the hardened mud that was still aflame as Naruto's technique stole the chakra from Arata's to maintain itself. The bullets of burning earth smacked into the rock wall bordering the training field as the masked ninja fled, cracking the barrier in multiple places as Arata's technique pivoted to track the masked ninja.

Only for him to stumble over a series of nearly invisible threads, so sticky they caused him to slow.

"Ninpo: Onigumo Kinuorimono, (Ninja Art: Spider Demon Woven Silk)" Miyako said, smirking behind her mask, thin threads having extended from one of her gloves and stuck to the wall ahead of the masked ninja.

Stuck as he was, the masked ninja was helpless as the assault of burning mud caught up to him, slamming into his body. Before the Genin could celebrate, however, a cloud of white smoke enveloped him; when it cleared, all that was left was a brutalized log.

"Kawarimi? (Substitution)" Shikamaru mumbled to himself, casting his gaze around lazily as the rest of his allies did the same. The smoke was still thick around them, despite the various jutsu that had passed through it, and was only growing more intense, though there was a clear spot near where the masked ninja's water technique had collided. "Can someone put these fires out?"

Almost as if mocking him, a sudden wave of air washed over Shikamaru and his classmates, smothering the flames by sheer pressure as it lifted the Genin from their feet and flung them away. They landed harshly in another of the Academy's training fields, unable to maneuver in the pressurized air, the impact knocking the breath from their lungs as the attack wound down, filling the space around them with the smoke it had brought with them.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa, (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)" Ino coughed out, moving her hands through the seals as quickly as she could before cupping them in front of her. Air flowed from her palms, though not as harshly as the attack they'd been hit with; it was little more than a strong breeze, but it was enough to clear the smoke from around them and let them catch their breath.

"Thanks," Arata said, drawing his sword as he came to his feet. The blade shone in the sunlight, having been freshly cleaned and oiled only this morning, and he slashed it through the air as soon as the masked ninja reappeared in his sight, sending a crescent shaped blade of blue-tinted air cleaving through the space between them. "Fuuton Kenjutsu: Takatsuki! (Wind Release Swordsmanship: Lunging Hawk)" he called out as he repeated the motion, again and again, making each movement faster and faster until his arm was little more than a blur of sweeping color. "Rendan! (Barrage)"

The projectiles his technique spat out were easily avoided by the masked ninja individually, but in such a large mass there wasn't room to dodge between them; he darted sideways, only for Arata to redirect his technique and keep the scything barrage of wind aimed towards him. The wall behind the masked ninja was bombarded with the missing projectiles, cleaving long slashes into even the Fuuinjutsu reinforced stone and throwing up a great deal of dust.

"Doton: Domu! (Earth Release: Earth Spear)" Kiba mumbled, his eyes closed as he focused hard on his hands and arms. Blue light radiated from his fingertips, the chakra creeping up his arms until it reached just below his elbows; when the glow faded, his arms had darkened considerably. He opened his eyes, a wide smirk stretching his cheeks as he went through another series of hand seals. "Giju Ninpo: Shikyaku no Jutsu! (Imitation Beast Ninja Art: Four-Legs Technique)" A staple of the Inuzuka clan, the Shikyaku no Jutsu granted them the animalistic presence of their ninken, growing their nails to the length of claws and their teeth into fang-like protrusions; it even enhanced most of the user's physical qualities as chakra surged through their muscles, resulting in heightened strength, speed, and endurance.

Having refreshed his clan's most fundamental Ninjutsu, as well as stacking a powerful earth-based technique on top of it, Kiba barreled into the masked ninja just as Arata stopped his attack, panting from exhaustion. Kiba swept his darkened hand at the masked ninja, who made the mistake of trying to block the attack: it sent him flying backwards, crashing into the already weakened wall with enough force to chip the reinforced stone. Kiba was on him again almost before he could recover, slamming a clawed fist at him, but the masked ninja managed to dodge this time, slipping past the strike and letting it collapse the weakened section of the wall.

Only for the masked ninja to stop, raise a hand to his face, and start poking himself in the chin, almost thoughtfully. It was sudden and strange enough that Kiba stopped his assault, thoroughly confused as to what was happening.

"Shinranshin no Jutsu, (Mind Body Disturbance Technique) success," Ino said, her hands held so that the index finger of each hand pressed against the thumb of the other. "I have complete control."

"Kagemane no Jutsu, (Shadow Imitation Technique)" Shikamaru said, his hands held together in a more common seal and his shadow having stretched to swallow the masked ninja's. "Success."

"Why didn't you do that earlier?" Naruto asked as Kiba lightly slapped the masked ninja's cheek, trying to bait a reaction that never came.

"He was moving around too much," Ino said, beads of sweat appearing on her brow. "Can you guys tie him up, or something? I can't hold this forever, and we can't get him to talk if I'm controlling his mouth."

"On it," Miyako said, striding towards the masked ninja. Repeating the technique she'd used earlier, she bound the ninja's hands behind his back with a thick weave of demonic webbing; her left glove was notably absent when she finished, the material having been put towards forcing his fingers apart to prevent him from escaping with a Ninjutsu of his own. "Okay, we're clear."

Ino sighed in relief, dropping her hands to dispel her jutsu as Shikamaru did the same. The moment she did, the masked ninja began struggling against his bonds, only to realize that it was hopeless: there was little that strength alone could do against a the silk of an Onigumo.

"Good job, everyone," the masked ninja said, his voice no longer obscured by a Genjutsu; it was rough and masculine, and full of good-natured cheer. "I'm surprised it only took this long for you to catch me."

"I knew we were just being tested," Shikamaru said with a sigh as the rest of the Genin formed up around him. Kiba had dispelled his techniques, and Arata had taken a seat, his katana returned to its sheath; sweat poured down the young swordsman's face, his breathing heavy from the exertion of his technique.

A cloud of smoke burst up from the masked ninja as he dispelled the elementary Ninjutsu he'd used to conceal his appearance. When it cleared, he was revealed to be a man in his early thirties, a cigarette hanging loosely from his lips as he looked at the Genin before him with appraising brown eyes. His hair was black, and held away from his face with a dark blue headband that bore a metal plate etched with the symbol of the leaf village. His beard was also of note, as few shinobi bothered to take care of one; it was trimmed and neat, framing his face and hardening his lazy demeanor into something more threatening.

"Congratulations," Asuma Sarutobi said, beaming at the young ninja in front of him. "You pass."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"As some of you have likely been told by now, your prospective Jounin-sensei wanted to see your abilities for themselves," an oddly average looking man (save for the horizontal scar across his nose) named Iruka Umino said to the classroom full of Genin. After their various self-appointed "missions", they'd returned with a Jounin who'd been holding back just about all of their strength and essentially let themselves be defeated; hearing this resulted in more than a few bruised egos, since they'd naively assumed their respective opponents hadn't been holding back very much, if at all. The scarred Chunin-sensei of the Academy continued, saying, "Normally, the instructors at the Academy are the ones to actually test you like this, but enough of your Jounin-sensei volunteered to do it themselves that they were able to do it without assistance from us."

"Didn't we already pass the Genin exams?" Ino asked, her arms folded over her chest as she let out a huff of annoyance.

"You passed an exam in a closed room, where you knew with absolute certainty that you were being tested and that you'd prepared yourself for it," an instructor with blue-tinted white hair named Mizuki Kururugi said. "Even though you managed to discern that this was a test relatively quickly, you still didn't know for sure."

"That bit of uncertainty can make or break a Genin in the field," Iruka continued from Mizuki's point. "Now that you've felt a bit of it in a setting that wasn't within your control, you'll have a much better understanding of whether or not you'll be suited for the sorts of missions that higher-ranking ninja are regularly sent on. All I ask from you now is that you actually admit to yourselves what you felt during this test, and not delude yourselves into thinking otherwise."

"Now, with all of that said," Mizuki said, plucking a clipboard off of the desk he and Iruka were standing in front of, "it's time to assign you to your Genin teams."

"As you know, each team of three Genin is assigned a Jounin-sensei to help them continue to grow and learn, even after their time at the Academy," Iruka said. "Because most Jounin tend to specialize in one area or another, your teams will not necessarily be balanced in the same way that a Chunin team would be. For example," Iruka added, nodding to Mizuki.

"Team Ten will consist of Chouji Akamichi, Shikamaru Nara, and Ino Yamanaka, under the direction of Asuma Sarutobi," Mizukli said, looking over to the Jounin who'd been leaning against a wall as he waited.

"Due to your clans' unique Ninjutsu, the three of you are very well suited to capturing enemy combatants, as well as interrogating them," Iruka explained. "Under Asuma's direction, you'll learn quite a bit about how to effectively analyze your opponents to help you break them faster, even in the middle of a fight."

"Next: Team Nine will consist of Arata Hashimoto, Tatsumi Hayashi, and Miyako Kobayashi, under the direction of Kaede Ueda," Mizuki said, looking to a rather slender woman who'd been standing by the window. She wore her black hair short, though she kept two locks long enough to frame her crystalline blue eyes, and wore a typical shinobi flak jacket over her basic black T-shirt. Below her knees, her black slacks were bound tightly to her legs with spare lengths of white bandages, and she wore open-toed sandals made from oak. With the metal-plated sash she wore around her neck, she appeared to be a rather typical kunoichi of Konoha.

"Unfortunately, the three of you have tested among the lowest in the class regarding your chakra reserves," Iruka said. "However, Kaede-san's chakra control is easily among the top five in Konoha, and she remains one of the go-to Jounin for assassination missions. I imagine there's a lot you can learn from her."

"Next: Team Eight will consist of Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga, and Kiba Inuzuka, under the direction of Kurenai Yuuhi," Mizuki said, this time looking to a rather beautiful woman who'd chosen to stay close to the instructors; with her silky black hair, her attention-grabbing red eyes, and her heart-shaped face, as well as her slender waist and bountiful bosom and hips, she'd been a large part of why the students hadn't been speaking against their team assignments. She wore a red, mesh armor blouse, though only the right sleeve and upper chest of the garment were visible beneath the white dress made of broad, interlinked bolts of cloth, each bearing a black line through its midsection. She even wore makeup, the red lipstick and purple eyeshadow providing a striking contrast to her forehead protector and the lengths of bandages wrapped around her hands and upper thighs.

"Kurenai-san is one of the best Genjutsu experts we have in Konoha," Iruka said, cutting the Jounin off before she could speak; this earned him a slightly annoyed glance from her, which he ignored. "As the three of you all have a Kekkai Genkai that makes tracking down a target much easier, you'll be learning how to suppress your presence as much as you possibly can, both through mundane methods and Genjutsu."

"It's easier to keep your target in view when you know how to hide in plain sight," Kurenai said, smiling at the Genin who'd been assigned to her. "I look forward to working with you."

"Next: Team Seven. Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki," Mizuki said, a frown appearing on his features at the last name. "Under the direction of Kakashi Hatake."

This time, when Mizuki looked up from the clipboard, he looked around the classroom, only to sigh and shake his head.

"It seems that your sensei isn't here yet," Iruka said, also letting out a sigh. "I'm sorry, but that's something you'll likely need to learn to deal with."

"Are you kidding?" Naruto asked, feeling the urge to rise up out of his seat and start yelling at his sensei; he clenched his hand into a fist and, remembering his lessons with his therapist, took a deep breath before asking, "Why were we assigned to someone who can't even tell time?"

"Unfortunately, the reasons you were assigned to him are much more complicated than the reasons the rest of the teams were formed," Iruka said with a grimace. "I'd rather not cover them while everyone else is still waiting for their team assignments."

Naruto sighed, shaking his head as he slumped back in his seat, tuning out Mizuki as he continued to list off the rest of the teams.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

After the teams had been decided, the Genin had formed up and followed their team's sensei from the room, save for Team Seven, who were still sitting around and waiting on their own Jounin-sensei half and hour later.

"God damn it," Naruto mumbled, flexing his hand to give himself a physical outlet for his building frustration. "When's this guy gonna show?"

"Calm down, Naruto-san," Sakura said, busying herself by reading a booklet detailing medical theories and advances in the last few years. "I'm sure our sensei is just testing our patience."

"Well, patience tested," Naruto growled, standing up from his seat and beginning to pace around the room. "I hate waiting for people who can't show up on time. It just... ugh! It pisses me off!"

"And your grumbling is starting to tick me off," Sasuke said, glancing at the frustrated blonde. "Do something to take your mind off it," he added, gesturing to the scroll in front of him, which detailed the effects each hand seal had on the formation of chakra and how they mixed into specific effects. He'd already read it multiple times over the course of one of his electives, but Sasuke kept it around for when he wanted to have the information at hand.

"Right, right, sorry," Naruto said, taking a long, deep breath. After a moment of thought, he asked, "You better with grunting?"

"Don't work out in the classroom, Naruto-san," Sakura said, not looking up from her booklet.

Naruto sighed. After a few moments of trying to figure out something to do, he let out another sigh and returned to where he'd been sitting. With his eyes closed and his hands brought together in a meditative seal, he sent a question into the depths of his mind. "Kurama-san, you got anything you want to talk about?"

"You really need to learn patience." Unlike before, when the Kyuubi had appeared as an exceptionally feminine woman, the voice that answered Naruto was undeniably masculine.

"I know that, but it's really hard! Any tips?"

"Learn how to rest with your mind at the surface."

"Huh?"

"Figure out how to fall asleep quickly and wake up instantly."

"That's not exactly something I can do right now."

"I didn't say it was."

"Great. Thanks for the help, fox," Naruto sent sarcastically, opening his eyes with a sour expression on his face as deep, rumbling laughter rose up in reply.

"If you wanted something to do right now, you could have just asked. Work on that sealing array you've been trying to build," the Kyuubi sent, making Naruto sigh in relief.

"Thanks, Kurama-san," Naruto sent back, and this time he meant it.

"You're welcome, brat."

Naruto rolled his eyes as he pulled one of the scrolls from his vest and unwound the length of silk that kept it closed. Before he could actually open it, however, a puff of white smoke emerged from the middle of the classroom, only to begin dispersing as quickly as it had appeared. As the three Genin could easily recognize the technique after having seen their Chunin-sensei use it so frequently, they merely started putting away the things they'd been reading or working on, though Naruto also began grumbling under his breath again about how late their sensei was.

"Hello!" the man said chipperly, his only visible eye closed in a way that made the Genin believe he was smiling beneath the black mask he wore. His other eye was concealed by the forehead protector he wore at an angle, though from the barest hint of scar tissue peeking out from beneath it, his students guessed that he only had one eye. His shock of silver hair seemed to defy gravity, but other than those few identifying markers, he seemed to be dressed rather plainly for a Jounin, his slender build garbed in dark blue trousers, a long-sleeved shirt of the same color, and the flak jacket typical of Konoha Chunin and Jounin. "You must be Team Seven."

"And you're late," Naruto said, folding his arms over his chest as he scowled at him. Despite her annoyance at the blonde's brashness, Sakura couldn't help but join him, her own rather pretty features morphed into a rather ugly glare.

"Sorry about that," the ninja said, still in that same chipper tone. "There was an old lady who needed help with her groceries, and after that a black cat would have crossed my path if I hadn't taken the long way around."

"You used the Shunshin (Body Flicker) to get here," Sasuke pointed out, his eyebrow raised. The Shunshin was the name of a technique that could be effectively described as "near-instantaneous transmission" or, in Layman's terms, teleportation; its users did not have a "path" so much as a destination that they arrived at within a few seconds of using the technique.

The ninja let out a long-suffering sigh, although the three Genin could tell that he was doing it just to try to annoy them. "You're not very good at first impressions, are you?" he asked, making Naruto's and Sakura's eyes start twitching. "Meet me on the roof in five minutes."

With that said, he disappeared just as suddenly as he appeared, a plume of smoke rising from the floor to envelop him, only to fade after a single second.

Naruto let out another sigh as his teammates stood up, palming his forehead as he rose to his feet as well. "Well, after that, I'm looking forward to making Chunin eventually," he said sarcastically to his teammates, prompting a faint giggle from Sakura and a smirk from Sasuke.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"Well, at least you three can follow orders well enough," Kakashi Hatake said dryly as he examined the three Genin under his care. The Genin had chosen to sit down on the benches of the amphitheater-like space that made up the roof of the Academy, whereas their new sensei had instead decided to perch on the thick safety railing along its edge. "Shall we start with introductions?"

"Uh, sensei, we know each other," Sakura said tentatively, both confused by the way the older ninja was acting and at what he'd asked them to do. "We know a little bit about you, too, and I can guess that you know a lot about us if you decided to be our sensei. Why do we need to introduce ourselves?"

"How much do you know about each other, though?" Kakashi asked, smiling beneath his mask. "For example, if you three had to rate yourselves on your, oh, let's say your culinary skills, which one of you would be the best and which would be the worst?"

"Uh, I think I'm likely the best at that," Sakura said, blushing as she glanced over at her teammates. "My mom wanted to try to make me abandon trying to be a ninja by convincing me to be a chef, so she taught me a lot about cooking."

"Oh?" Kakashi said, his smile growing. "Naruto, Sasuke, did either of you know that?"

"No," Naruto said, frowning at Sakura as their raven-haired teammate shook his head.

"So, Sakura, if I told you that Naruto learned how to cook from Hinata after a chance conversation from her, or that Sasuke learned how to cook just from reading cookbooks due to wanting something better than the frozen dinners and clumsily prepared dishes he'd been living off of before, would that be news to you?"

Sakura blinked in surprise, her lips parting as she looked between her two teammates. Naruto scratched his cheek sheepishly, and Sasuke turned away at the attention, not wanting to let his teammates see him blush. It only took her a moment to realize why they'd been forced to learn: both Naruto and Sasuke had been orphaned early in their lives, to the point that they'd lived most of their lives without their parents.

"Now that you know that, Sakura, would you still rate yourself so highly?" Kakashi asked, cocking his head to one side.

"I... I don't know," she admitted, half-mumbling. "I mean... I'm pretty good when I've got a recipe to follow, and I've memorized a few of them, but... I do sometimes make some mistakes when I'm not following a recipe, and it never turns out as well as when I do."

"It's okay, Sakura," Naruto said, placing a hand on her shoulder and squeezing gently. "I'm really only good when it comes to making sweets. Most of the other things I can make barely involve cooking."

"Huh?" Sakura asked, frowning at him.

"Hinata's family is really vegetarian," Naruto explained, shrugging a shoulder. "Most of what she could teach me involved putting together a salad, or making some dressing or dip to make a meal go a bit further. The rest we had to work on together, but it was a slow process since we were typically busy doing other things, so it turned into learning some really basic stuff like pancakes and eggs."

With that said, the two of them turned to look at Sasuke, who sighed before he started talking about what he'd learned in the kitchen. "I've really only worked with stuff I knew I'd like before I tried making it," he said. "If it doesn't involve pasta, peppers, or tomatoes, odds are I don't know how to make it."

"Odds are?" Naruto repeated, raising an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean by that?"

Sasuke sighed again, then said, "I still have my mom's old cookbook. I've made a point of going through it every now and then to look for a recipe to learn."

Naruto nodded his head slowly, his opinion of the rather reclusive Uchiha taking a turn for the better, while Sakura was fighting off the urge to shed a few tears at how sweet she thought it was that he was trying to keep something of his mother alive, even if it was just her cooking.

Sasuke cleared his throat, then turned back to their sensei and scowled at him. "Is there anything in particular you'd like us to cover, sensei?" he asked, exasperated.

"Your likes and dislikes, your goals, what electives you took, and both your dream for the future and your worst fear," Kakashi said. "Sasuke, since you seem eager to go," he added cheerily, making the Uchiha's scowl deepen, "how about we start with you?"

"I dislike it when people try to learn about me through underhanded methods," Sasuke said instantly, making Kakashi grin widely enough that it closed his visible eye. "As for what I like... training and reading," he said after a moment, frowning as he realized that was nearly all he ever did. He then shook his head and continued. "My electives were Intermediate and Advanced Ninjutsu, Intermediate Genjutsu, and Kenjutsu," he said, reaching up to tap the hilt of the katana that he wore on his back. "My goals are tied to my dream: I want to bring my clan back into prominence, and kill my brother for slaughtering my family." He closed his eyes for a moment, then added, "I know that I might never be strong enough to face him alone, or even myself, but if I can aid in his death in any way, that would be enough for me."

Sasuke went silent again. After a long moment, Kakashi quietly asked, "And your worst fear?"

"Dying before I can even live my own life," Sasuke said, his voice nearly inaudible.

Kakashi nodded his head respectfully, then turned to face Sakura. "Sakura, you're next."

"I, uh, also enjoy reading," Sakura began, blushing, "but I also like studying medicine and helping out at the hospital when I can. I dislike... no, I hate the person I used to be," Sakura said, her frown turning into a shame-filled grimace. "I'm grateful for everything our instructors taught us, taught me, so that I could be better than that useless girl. Oh, sorry!" she said, blushing and ducking her head. "That wasn't on the list, was it?"

"It's all right, Sakura," Kakashi said, smiling at her. "You can tell us whatever you want about yourself."

"I... alright," Sakura said, taking a deep breath before she continued. "I, uh, also took the Intermediate Genjutu and Kenjutsu electives," Sakura said, blushing again as she glanced at Sasuke, her hand falling to her side to brush against the hilt and scabbard of her own katana, "but I also took the Basic Fuuinjutsu elective, and both years of Medical Training, as well. My goal is... uh..." she paused, frowning, then let out a nervous giggle. "I guess I haven't really thought it through, but I do know that I want to be a strong kunoichi. I also want to find a husband and start a family with him someday, but that can wait for a few years, right?" she asked, smiling awkwardly as she blushed again. "My dream is to become as good of a doctor as Tsunade of the Sannin, and my worst fear is to become a worse person than Orochimaru of the Sannin while pursuing that goal."

Kakashi nodded at her as well, just as respectfully as he did with Sasuke. "And Naruto?" he asked, facing the final Genin of the team.

"I like practicing Fuuinjutsu, cooking, and training," Naruto began, worried that his introduction wouldn't measure up compared to his teammates'. "I'm not a fan of being around people I've never met before, though I can deal with it, and I dislike most rodents. Disease carrying bastards," Naruto trailed off, mumbling under his breath, only to remember where he was and scratch his cheek sheepishly. "Sorry about that. Anyway, my goals are basically just to advance my career as a ninja: make Chunin, train and teach at the Academy for a few years, make Jounin, take on a team. You know, stuff like that, to reach my dream of being well respected and protecting my home," Naruto said with a smile.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at him, nodding his head thoughtfully; he knew exactly why Naruto felt the way he did.

"As for my electives, I took Intermediate Ninjutsu, Advanced Stealth, and Basic and Intermediate Fuuinjutsu," Naruto continued. "I would have taken an advanced course on Fuuinjutsu too, if there was one, but I've been doing what I can to teach myself everything I can about it."

"And your worst fear?" Kakashi asked, only to raise up a hand and say, "No, before we get to that, there is something I need to say."

"Huh?" Sakura asked, frowning as she looked between both Naruto and Kakashi. The only reason she wasn't acting indignant about being forced to reveal her worst fear when Naruto wasn't was that he seemed just as surprised and confused as she felt.

"This team is rather odd, for a variety of reasons," Kakashi began. "Unlike most of the other Genin teams, yours wasn't founded on making you specialize in a specific tactic or technique to make you more valuable to a Chunin team. No, this team is part of an old program that the Sandaime Hokage's protege has been looking to implement again, and the two of them have been working together to actually make it work.

"What's more, this team is unique in that all three Genin members are privy to classified information that they, and pretty much just they, are allowed to divulge," Kakashi continued, making Naruto pale significantly. "So, instead of having me explain it to you... Sasuke, would you be willing to tell Naruto and Sakura what you know about the Young ANBU Program?"

"I... don't think I have the clearance to talk about that, sensei," Sasuke said, staring wide-eyed at the masked Jounin.

"Technically, no, but I do, and the Hokage himself has instructed me to tell you about this," Kakashi said, smiling at the raven-haired young man. "In the interest of helping you bond with your teammates, I'm willing to stretch his orders a little bit."

"Okay," Sasuke said after a moment, still staring worriedly at him. He closed his eyes, taking a moment to both gather his thoughts and steel his will, then began. "Ansatsu Senjtsu Tokushu Butai (Special Assassination and Tactical Squad). They take on missions with the highest possible risk: namely, assassinations and causing disturbances in foreign nations. When a powerful ninja goes rogue, they're the ones who get called on to deal with it. When a foreign Daimyo starts to gear up for a war with Hi no Kuni, the ANBU are sent to silence him."

Sasuke swallowed at the lump forming in his throat, then continued, saying, "The Young ANBU Program was specifically designed to find promising candidates in the Academy and basically fast-track them through the extra training that ANBU get. My brother was part of it, and he... changed, because of it," Sasuke said, opening his eyes to stare at Kakashi. "Eventually, he killed my entire clan. Except for me."

"It's okay, Sasuke," Kakashi said, inclining his head and making Sasuke's shoulders slump. "You can say the rest of it."

Sasuke's eyes closed again, and he let out a long, deep sigh. "He did it under the orders of the Hokage and his closest advisers," he said, making Naruto recoil and Sakura gasp in shock, "to keep them from rising up against Konoha and starting a civil war. They... the clan council, including my father, felt that Konoha owed them more than they were getting. For their role in the village's founding, for their continued actions defending the village as the military police, and for a whole lot more, both real and imagined." Sasuke let out a weak laugh, a sad smile appearing on his lips as he turned his gaze to the sky. "I... didn't learn about it until I was fourteen, and that I was only spared because I was the only Uchiha who wasn't involved somehow. Everyone else was, even... even Rina-nee-sama," Sasuke said, gritting his teeth in a mixture of anger and remembered pain.

"You had a sister?" Sakura asked, her voice cracking as a few tears spilled from her eyes.

"Rina was my cousin, but... she looked after me like a sister might've," Sasuke said, clenching his hands into fists before letting them relax again. "And it doesn't explain why Itachi decided to torture me like he did. Maybe he... maybe he just wants to die, after all he did, and was willing to go even further over the line to make sure some measure of vengeance got paid, but... I don't know," Sasuke sighed. "Maybe he's just crazy now."

Sakura leaned over and wrapped Sasuke in a hug; at first, he tensed up, but then he seemed to relax ever-so-slightly. Naruto inclined his head at the Uchiha, conveying what he knew neither of them would be willing to say or hear.

"Thank you, Sasuke," Kakashi said, his voice quiet and respectful. After a few moments of silence, he faced Naruto again, and said, "Naruto. I know that your secrets are a bit more... volatile than Sasuke's, but I believe that letting your teammates know everything about who you are is necessary for you three to trust each other. If you would...?"

Naruto chewed his lip, clenching his hand into a fist in his lap. "Okay," he said after a minute. "I... don't know where to begin, sensei," he admitted, ducking his head. "Is there... anywhere in particular you'd like me to start?"

"How about what happened the day you were born?" Kakashi said.

"The... the Kyuubi attack?" Sakura asked, looking between the two.

"Yeah," Naruto said, his voice rough. He cleared his throat before he continued, saying, "You know that I was born on the day the Kyuubi attacked, but..." He trailed off, letting out a sigh. An ironic, spiteful smile turned his lips as he said, "I guess you could say me being born is what caused the attack."

Sakura froze, staring at the blonde as Sasuke said, "What? How?"

"In this world, there's a... a type of person, called Jinchuuriki (Power of Human Sacrifice)," Naruto began. "They have special powers because... because they have demons sealed into them. They can access the chakra of their demons, and Jinchuuriki who either befriend their demons or have really strong wills can learn techniques from their demons, too. My mother..." Naruto paused, taking a deep breath to steady himself. "My mother was the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki."

Sakura gasped, and Sasuke's eyes widened. Both of them stared at Naruto silently as he continued.

"But her seal was... it was an older seal, designed to let the demon out when the host died," Naruto said, swallowing again as tears welled in his eyes. "And I... giving birth to me was... it killed her." He clenched his hands into fists, turning his head away from his new teammates so they wouldn't see him cry. He cleared his throat, then continued, saying, "The Kyuubi was released as a result, and the Yondaime Hokage gave his life to stop it, but... he didn't kill it, like we were taught in the Academy. He created another Jinchuuriki. Me."

Having said that, Naruto raised his shirt up just enough to expose his toned abdomen and channeled just a bit of chakra through his body, causing the seal on his stomach to appear. Sakura and Sasuke stared at it, though Kakashi merely averted his eyes, knowing full well what it looked like.

"There's more to the story, though, isn't there, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, his voice quiet and soothing.

"Y-yeah..." Naruto said, clearing his throat again as he let go of the hem of his shirt, letting it fall back down to cover his seal. "My parents were... My mother was Kushina Uzumaki, a descendant of Uzushiogakure."

"I remember them," Sakura said, her voice barely above a whisper. "They were Konoha's allies in the first war, but they were either wiped out or scattered by an alliance made of pretty much every other ninja village. They were known for having the best Fuuinjutsu experts in the known world, right?"

"Yeah," Naruto said. "It's... it's part of why I took the electives I did. To get more in touch with my family's history, on both sides."

"On both sides?" Sasuke asked. "What do you mean?"

Naruto chuckled weakly, shaking his head. "My father... my father was Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage," he said, making Sakura gasp.

"The... the Yondaime?" she asked, drawing a nod from the blonde. "I... you... how?"

"They fell in love," Kakashi said, surprising Sasuke and Sakura. "There's not really much more to it than that. It was... a more normal relationship than you'd expect."

"Why do you know that?" Sakura asked, blinking repeatedly in her confusion and shock.

"He was my sensei," Kakashi said. "Again, not much more to it than that. The Sandaime didn't select him as a successor until after he'd been teaching us for a few months, so my team and I didn't really think too much of it.

"Anyway," Kakashi said, shaking his head as he changed to subject, "there's one last thing we need to talk about. Sakura, if you would?"

"I... I... I thought I wasn't allowed to talk about that, sensei," Sakura said, shifting uncomfortably. After everything she'd heard so far, she was feeling somewhat overwhelmed in the presence of her new teammates: she'd already felt inferior to the last Uchiha, but knowing that the blonde who'd worked his ass off to rise from bottom of the class to being in the top five was the orphaned son of the Yondaime and his lover, and that their new sensei had been taught by the Yondaime himself, was making her feel like her being chosen for this team was a mistake. "If, if you're talking about the, uh, the thing from two months ago, I mean."

"I am. I asked the Hokage about this specifically, Sakura, and he gave me the clearance to have you tell your team about it," Kakashi said, his voice still carrying that soothing tone he'd been using for much of their discussion. "I'll explain why in a bit."

"Um... okay," Sakura said, still clearly uncomfortable. "Uh, so... my parents own a restaurant in Konoha, and a couple months ago some of their employees called in sick. Since I, uh, we... since we didn't have school that day, I wound up helping out, and, uh, the, well... The Daimyo's eldest son came in," Sakura said, letting out a nervous laugh as Sasuke and Naruto stared at her. "We, we gave him a booth that was relatively private, and, uh, I was the one waiting on his table, so, um... I may have overheard the conversation he was having with his retainers. I... I went to the Hokage's office to report what I'd heard once I was done helping my parents, so, um..."

"What did they talk about, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, making her swallow nervously.

"They, they may have talked about overthrowing his father with help from Iwagakure," Sakura said quietly, glancing around to make sure no one was listening in.

"Which leads us into why we're here," Kakashi said, meeting each of his students' eyes in turn. "Unlike the rest of the Genin teams, we won't be doing the simple D-rank missions to build trust and teamwork. Our first mission, starting one week from today, will be an A-rank assassination mission: killing the Daimyo's son, Takashi Uwehara, and planting enough evidence against Iwagakure that his father moves against them."

The Genins' eyes widened, Sakura letting out a gasp at the news.

"Tomorrow, be at Training Field 19 by 0600. You'll be getting one last test to see what we need to work on fixing immediately," Kakashi said. "After that, we'll be training ten hours a day until we leave for the capital, Saku Hi no Machi. I don't think I need to tell you that this mission will be heavily classified, but I will warn you to not share its details with anyone: not your family, not your friends, not even to a wall. Start thinking about what you'll need to pack now, while you still have a chance."

After that, he raised a hand in front of him and made half of a hand seal, disappearing in a puff of smoke a moment later and leaving his students with the rather sobering news that they were going to be diving further into the ninja life than they'd expected.

Silence reigned among the Genin of Team 7 after their sensei had left, awkward tension surrounding them as they realized that their new comrades now knew the secrets that they'd kept. In the end, it was Naruto who broke the silence, giving an awkward laugh as he sheepishly scratched his cheek; it prompted a subdued giggle from Sakura, as well as a relieved smirk from Sasuke.

"So, uh, that was awkward, right?" Naruto asked, still chuckling. "I don't know about you, but I could go for something to eat after all that."

Sasuke snorted out a laugh, nodding his head. "Same."

Sakura smiled at the two of them, relief palpable in her eyes, and said, "Well, I know a decent restaurant we could go to. I-I mean, if you want to," Sakura added, feeling a flutter of nervous tension in her stomach.

"Sounds good to me," Naruto said, folding his arms behind his head. "Sasuke, you in?"

"Hm, might as well," he said, making Sakura giggle again. He stood up, an action that his teammates followed, and started towards the stairwell. "Where to, Sakura-san?"

Kakashi couldn't help but smile as he watched his three new students make small talk as they left the Academy from the roof of a relatively nearby building; due to the Academy's relative isolation from the rest of the village, it took a wind-based Ninjutsu to see and hear them. His smile dissipated as he felt a presence appear beside him, though he didn't turn his attention away from his students until they'd disappeared from his sight.

"So, Hatake-san," the old man said as Kakashi turned to face him, "how do you like your new team?"

"Hmm," Kakashi said, closing his eye and forcing a thoughtful expression into what little of his face was visible as he pretended to think it over. "They could use some work, but I think they'll do just fine, Hokage-sama."

The older man chuckled as he smiled at him, the wrinkles on his tanned skin deepening. He turned to face the Academy again, the white robe that covered his body fluttering in a sudden breeze as his smile turned into a deep frown. "I believe," Hiruzen Sarutobi said, adjusting the broad white hat he wore, which bore the Kanji for Fire, "that we will come to regret this."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

And thus, the first chapter comes to an end.

This chapter was rather awkward to write in a few ways. The sheer bulk of characters I needed to both introduce and use immediately made for a rather odd experience, in my opinion, but at least now it's out of the way and I can use them more freely going forward. Although, I'm almost certainly going to need to do similar things in the future regarding even more characters, once we reach (and pass) the Chunin Exams, so hopefully I'll be able to figure out a way that feels less awkward for me.

Anyway, no matter if you liked or disliked this story so far, feel free to leave a review. Constructive criticism is always welcome (and I do need thicker skin), so if you saw any easy mistakes that I made, feel free to correct them in a review. Or a PM, if you think it'd be too embarrassing to leave it where anyone can read it.

Likewise, if you have any questions to ask me about this story, again, feel free to ask in a review. I don't think I'll be able to keep up my monologues in the upper AN forever, so introducing a Q&A segment could be a decent way to open new chapters. If you think your question could lead to something a bit too spoilery, though, you might want to send a PM instead; if the answer isn't a spoiler, I'll answer both in the top of the chapter and in a PM, but if it is I probably won't answer it at all or will just tell you that it is in a reply.

Anyone sending PMs might want to include that they're talking about this story, though. It's not my only fanfic on this site, and my others might wind up treading similar ground at some point, so... yeah, including that you're talking about Tempered Steel could be a good call.

Speaking of which, if you liked this story enough, you might want to check out my other stories. They're all RWBY stories, so if you're not a fan of that you might not want to read them... The first has been completed, and was essentially my attempt to write something within the setting using what we knew at the time, with as few characters as possible; one's a HSAU slash crime drama with heavy supernatural elements that's going to slowly turn into the backstory for Bloodborne; and the last is a rather typical Fallout crossover/AU that uses the descendants of a lot of main characters, and a lot of characters will die before the end of it, including several main characters (though I'm currently rewriting it, for reasons that are obvious if you're reading it at the time this story was first posted).

I think that's all I want to say right now. Until next time, folks!