AN: Hello people! I have been absent from this website for a while and I kinda just left my only story completely unfinished... And the reason for that was mostly lack of motivation and due to my huge amount of laziness. Recently however I have wanted to continue it, but I felt that I couldn't really work with what I had written so far(mainly because of characters being a bit OOC and plot holes I had created for myself that would be hard to work around), so this will be a fresh restart of it. Hopefully this time I won't drop it again..
I do just wanna quickly mention that this story will contain romance between Naruto and Sakura and I mention this because I know that some people don't like that pairing very much. I hope you can move past that and enjoy this fic anyway, but feel free to drop this if the pairing isn't to your liking, because it will probably play a somewhat significant part of the fic.
Before any confusion arises, I want to adress that this is my "reimagining" of the Naruto franchise, meaning that established things in the manga and anime might be contradicted in this fic (such as certain jutsu abilities, backstories of certain characters and any general aspects of the Naruto universe), so take that in mind. I'll establish my own rules for a lot of things (while still trying to keep the feel from the original intact), but I won't change everything either. But if something is mentioned which contradicts canon, that's most likely why (unless I contradict rules I've set up myself, in which case feel free to leave a review about it).
Anyways, sorry for the long ramble. Here is chapter 1, I hope that you'll enjoy it!
Plot: This fic is a reimaging of the Naruto series as a whole. So you can expect the characters you know and love from the original series be put in new situations with new characters. A lot of things will play out differently, one of the bigger changes being that Obito will have taken Kakashi's place as team 7's teacher. (Starts off at the beginning of chapter 3 in the Naruto manga).
Disclaimer: I do not in any way own the Naruto series, it's characters or anything associated with it. The Naruto series is owned by Masashi Kishimoto. This is purely made for entertainment and I am in no way earning profit from this.
(Don't really know if this is necessary, but I'm seeing everyone else doing it, so I thought I might as well.)
Note: Surnames are said first just as they are in Japan (and because i watched the anime in japanese this is how i prefer it).
Note: "..." = Thought
Note: "..." = Speech
Note: "..." = Special speech (e.g Nine-tails)
Note: ~:~ = Flashback marker (indicates the beginning and end of a flashback)
Chapter 1: Graduation and a new team
Obito let out a heavy and loud yawn, with no effort to hide his tierdness from the passersby. It was early in the morning, grass was still wet with dew and a thick layer of mist enveloped Konoha. This combined with the significantly small amount of people awake, gave the illusion that the village itself was asleep. Kakashi—Obito's long time friend and comrade—walked beside him. He noticed his yawn, and decided to comment on it.
"Lack of sleep yesterday?", asked Kakashi without averting his eyes of off the "Icha Icha" book he was reading.
"Yeah, I didn't manage to sleep too much".
"Were you up all night missing Rin?". Kakashi smirked under his mask.
"Yea–yeah, I miss her a bit, so what?!", he said, a tint of red on his face. Rin had been given orders to go to Sunagakure(the village hidden in sand, ally of Konoha) to heal the kazekage who had suffered a great injury. She was one of the best healers of Konoha; and way outmatched the frankly lackluster medics of Suna. This made her presence there quite important.
"I can't believe you guys haven't hooked up yet", commented Kakashi, with his eyes still on his book. Obito hesitated to speak for a moment.
"It's... complicated, you know that. ", he responded. Kakashi shrugged his shoulders in response. Obito felt slightly uncomfortable and cleared his throat.
"I'm kinda nervous about getting a new team tomorrow too...", he said. "I just hope I don't get any students who'll end up bullying me, ya know?".
"What the heck is he talking about...", Kakashi thought. "No, I don't know. They're just kids..."
"Just Kids? They don't have any boundries okay, they're brutally honest and mean! Once I was in the park working on my new ninjutsu, and when I accidentally mess it up, it pushes me back so I fall down in a puddle. And then these 6 year old kids start laughing at me! One of them even kicked me!".
"Ha... you really are pathetic aren't you?", said Kakashi with a light chuckle. Obito glared at him for a couple of seconds, before an attempt at a light punch to his shoulder, which was swiftly avoided by Kakashi. Obito sighed in deafeat.
"... I wonder if one of us will have Naruto assigned to our teams?", Obito said, his eyes dropping ever so slightly.
"I don't know. Last time we met him was like 12 years ago, I mean he was a baby, it's not like we have a bond with him or something".
"Yea, I just think it'd be good if he had a teacher who doesn't think of him as a monster, you know?", Obito said, as he kicked a pebble down the dirt path.
Kakashi closed the book for a second. "Sure, but it's not like everyone sees him that way and I'm sure the sandaime(third hokage) will find him a good teacher. Stop worrying too much".
"Yeah, I guess you're right", Obito answered and yawned once more.
Obito and Kakashi felt the glares of several jounins upon their entrance through the big wooden door that lead to the conference room. It was a big and oval-shaped room. The room was old-fashioned and had a cozy feel to it. A big window that displayed the majority of the village was visible at the end of the room, it provided light with addition to a paper ceiling light. There was a faint earthy scent in the room, similair to an old cabin. In the middle of the room stood an oblong mahogany table, where said glaring jounins sat in addition to the sandaime. Obito looked over at the ticking grandfather clock in the room, which confirmed his suspicion that they had arrived a bit too late to the meeting.
"Oh, you've arrived. We've been waiting for the two of you", said the sandaime. "What took you so long?".
"This guy overslept like usual. Please don't put any blame on me for the two of us being late", Kakashi said with a finger pointed towards Obito.
"Huh?! You're one to talk! You were completely slowing us down because you were reading that perverted book of yours!".
"Oh, let's not change the subject matter now", said Kakashi.
"How's that changing the subject matter?!".
"It's fine, don't worry about it... Just make sure to get here in time for the next meeting. Please, get seated", said the sandaime to the two.
Obito and Kakashi seated themselves at two vacant chairs.
"As you all should be aware, you are all to be assigned a team of three genin shinobi(ninja). It's your duty to help them grow and advance as shinobi...", began the sandaime. Obito only payed half attention to what he said, most of it was formal talk he didn't care about enough and was too tired to listen to. He leaned back against the leather cushioning of his chair and let out a subtle yawn. His ears focused on the ticking of the clock as he felt his eyes grow heavier and heavier. Just as his eyes started to fall, Obito jolted up when the sandaime started the announcment of the teams. He listened closely, interested in what students he would be assigned.
"... Team 4, Kimura Takasu, Hamasaki Haruka and Hayashi Kinzo. Kakashi, I would like you to be in command of these three, do you have any objections?". Obito was a bit puzzled. He didn't recognize any of those names. Obito could list most clan names and it was quite uncommon for a team to not have a single clan member in them. The vast majority of shinobi belong to a clan afterall.
"No, I don't have any objections sir", Kakashi responded with his usual monotone voice. Obito looked at Kakashi. He didn't look surprised, disappointed or happy about it. He wasn't surprised by this, Kakashi wasn't the most expressive of people when it came to this kind of stuff. Obito leaned his head against the palm of his hand and waited for his team to be announced.
"Team 7, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. Obito, you'll be in charge of them, do you have any objections?", Obito was glad to hear that Naruto had ended up in his team and let out a breath of relief.
"No, I have no objections sir".
Naruto looked into the mirror on his wall. It reflected his prideful face with Iruka's headband tightly wrapped around his forehead. After having posed in the mirror for several minutes, Naruto grabbed a bag of ninja tools and rushed out of his apartment and onto the street. "Here I come graduation!", he shouted cheerfully.
As usual for Konoha, the sun shined brightly. It provided warmth to the village. Cicadas were heard singing in the trees and the chatter of the villagers brought a sense of liveliness to the village. The warmth wasn't unusual, Konoha usually had great weather because of it's geographical location, and summer season made it signficantly warmer. Despite this Naruto was somehow not all too warm with his usual orange and blue; jacket and pants combo.
As he ran to the academy Naruto suddenly heard a quiet sneeze behind him. He stopped and turned his back. He could see a wooden textured blanket that did a very poor job of hiding the person behind it.
"Konohamaru I don't have time for you right now".
"As expected from Naruto-oniichan(brother Naruto)! You see through all of the Ninja tricks!", Konohamaru responded after he tripped on the blanket, confirming his presence.
"How can you call that a Ninja trick?", Naruto thought to himself. "Of course I'd see through something like that. I am a Ninja after all!", Naruto said. He grinned as he pointed a thumb towards his new headband.
"Ohh! It fits you perfectly Naruto-oniichan!".
"Well I have to go, it's Graduation day today!", Naruto said and took off again towards the academy.
"SEE YA NARUTO-ONIICHAN!", Konohamaru shouted in the distance.
As he entered the classroom, Naruto was met with chatter from his classmates. They talked with excitment about their future as shinobi. The hot topic however seemed to be the divisioning of the teams. The academy graduates were all to be assigned into teams of three, with a jounin to teach them. Whilst a lot of people just wanted to group together with their friends, most of the girls had their hopes up to join the same team as Sasuke. A couple of girls in the classroom were in a fight over which one of them was the most "destined" to be Sasuke's teammate.
Naruto—who of course got annoyed by the fact of how desired Sasuke was—took heavy strides towards Sasuke who sat on one of the benches in the classroom. He was motionless with an expression so lacking in emotion that it was almost unsettling. Naruto had always pondered how he could always have that same face, even when practically all the girls talked about him.
"SASUKE! I'm not gonna lose to you! Fight me and I'll prove that I'm better than you!", Naruto shouted and slammed his hand down on Sasuke's table.
"I don't care what you have to say... deadlast".
"What did you call me Sasuke-teme(jerk)?!".
Naruto growled at Sasuke, who glared back. They kept at this for a couple of seconds until the classroom door opened as two Kunoichi(female ninja) entered—in a fight over who would enter the classroom first. It ended with a draw, but to them it was clear that one of them had won. Naruto interrupted his heated glares towards Sasuke and instead turned his head to them. A slight blush and a smile appeared on his face as he caught sight of Sakura. Even as she argued with Ino he couldn't avoid to think that she was cute. Their conversation ended when they lost insults to throw at each other and Sakura instead made her way towards Naruto and Sasuke.
"Sakura-chan is walking towards me!", Naruto thought as he widened his smile. Sakura's eyes glowed when she caught attention to Sasuke. Naruto—who optimistically thought this was in reaction to him—greeted her. "Good morning, Sakura-chan!".
"You're in my way Naruto!", Sakura said and pushed him to the side. "Sasuke-kun, can I sit here?", Sakura asked, with her voice made as innocent and sweet as she could.
"Do whatever... I don't care", said Sasuke.
"Yaaay!", Sakura cheered.
Despite having felt a bit sad about being neglected, Naruto quickly forgot about it and seated himself on the rear side of the bench that Sakura and Sasuke where seated. He once again glared at Sasuke.
A couple of minutes later, the door opened once again and this time it was Iruka who entered the classroom.
"Good morning everyone!".
"Good morning Iruka-sensei(teacher)!", the class answered. Iruka laid down some papers on a table and looked at the class with a smile on his face.
"All of you are officially genin as of now, congratulations!", he said, which caused a stir of excitement in the classroom, as if the reality of the situation had finally kicked in. "I've got some things to go through, so let's make this as quick and simple as possible. Starting of I'll announce the three-man teams you'll all be divided into". Small talk between the students began once again.
"Well, as long as I'll be in the same team as Sakura-chan and not end up with Sasuke, I'm fine", Naruto thought.
"Please, let me end up in the same team as Sasuke-kun", Sakura desperately begged.
"Hn, what a pain", Sasuke thought to himself.
Iruka started announing the teams one by one. People were left relieved and some dissapointed. Every now and then there was someone audibly dissapointed they didn't join teams with Sasuke. As new teams were announced, the class stayed quiet, hoping for the best.
"Team 7, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura...". Naruto jumped up from his seat and shouted happily, whilst Sakura's head fell in agony onto the bench. "... and Uchiha Sasuke", this time Naruto was the one with his face on the bench and Sakura the one who jumped up. On the surface Sasuke seemed to stay neutral, but in reality he was quite displeased that the two people who annoyed him the most ended up in his team.
Iruka announced the last couple of teams until everyone had been assigned into a team. "Well, that should pretty much be it for today. Tomorrow each team will meet their respective Jounin teacher. Be here at 6 o'clock tomorrow... Other than that, I wish all of you the best of luck. I know all of you will become perfect ninja each in your own way. It's been a pleasure teaching you!", Iruka said with a broad smile to his students.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BE-. Naruto slammed his hand on the alarm clock that shouted aggresivly in his ears. He took the closest pillow beside him and forced it against his face to prevent as much sunlight as possible to reach any form of contact with his eyes. He laid in bed for what felt like a mere five seconds before the abhorrent shrieks of the alarm clock returned to torture him. Once again, Naruto reached his hand out and slammed down on the clock, but with a but too much force. It fell to the floor.
"Ahhhhh! Let me sleep 'ttebayo!", he said as he yawned. He slowly dragged himself out of his bed to get the clock. His eyes locked onto the clock for a minute, dead-faced.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! I'M LATE!".
The door to the academy agressivley swung open and a short-winded Naruto entered into the academy classroom.
"I'M TERRIBLY SORRY THAT I'M... late?". He looked through the room, but could only see Sakura and Sasuke, the former of which glared at him.
"Naruto! WHY are you this late? You were supposed to be here 2 hours ago", Sakura shouted at him.
"Yeah... I'm sorry, I overslept. Where's our teacher?".
Sakura still glared at him. "He's late.", she responded.
"Really?! What a relief! I thought I'd have to endure some sort of penalty".
Sakura sighed in frustration. "Well, you probably shouldn't stick to the habit. If we end up in some sort of trouble because of you, I'll make sure that you'll regret it", she said and cracked her knuckles audibly.
Naruto gulped. "Don't worry about it Sakura-chan...", he said and laughed nervously. Naruto knew Sakura could get pretty aggresive, so he reminded himself to keep this promise.
Naruto occupied himself with observing a fly that had entered the classroom. He did this in an attempt to kill some time whilst he waited for their teacher to arrive. Not that he found it very interesting but he didn't know what else to do, as his attempts of conversing with Sakura were all to no avail and a conversation with Sasuke would surley be way more boring than the fly.
"AHHH! How the hell can a JOUNIN be this late?! It's been half an hour since i came here. AHH! I can't stand this!", said Naruto as his patience ran out.
"Well he probably has his reasons. He might be on a mission or something. I don't think he would do something like oversleep as a certain someone here", Sakura said. Naruto had to agree. A Jounin had to have his reasons... right?
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEE-. Uchiha Obito slammed his hand on the snooze button of his alarm clock. He slowly turned over in his comfortable bed to take a look at the time. His face turned blank for a minute until he let out a scream.
Naruto raised his hand high up in the air and locked his eyes on the fly that had now positioned itself on his desk. In a fast movement he slammed his hand down.
"Got him!", he said, but soon came to realise the fly was very much alive, when it calmly flyed away somewhere in the classroom. Naruto grunted in anger.
"Naruto, what are you doing?", Sakura asked.
"I'm trying to get this fly. He has been bugging me ever since I got here", he responded.
"You can't even kill an insect and you call yourself a ninja? Ridiculous", Sasuke said from the corner of the classroom.
"You wanna fight Sasuke-teme!?", Naruto shouted.
"A fight? You mean you want to get beaten?", Sasuke said with a grin glued to his face.
"I've had enough of you!", Naruto exclaimed and charged towards him. Sasuke took a battle stance and awaited for his attack to come. Just as Naruto was close enough to get a hit on him Naruto felt a pain in his stomache, as a heavy punch from Sakura sent him flying across the classroom. Naruto glided across the classroom until he bumped into something. He looked up to see Obito stand above him at the entrance of the classroom.
Obito sighed after having witnessed the scene.
"I think I'm gonna have to do some teamwork practice with these guys..."
Next chapter: Training grounds of Konoha
AN: So, there we have it, chapter one, I hope you liked it. I have to say this took me a lot longer than I would've liked, but I'm glad that I actually got it done.
I also feel that this was quite a big improvement from my last story and I'd say that's mainly because the first one got a bit too "serious". This one includes a bit more comedy. I hope you didn't take the scenes that were supposed to be comedic serious (like Obito's fear of kids), because that could make the scenes a bit weird(please tell me if that's the case)... I think comedy is very good way to start the fic and then progressivly move on to more serious moments.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading. Reviews, favorites, follows and all of that stuff is highly appreciated :)(Feedback and criticism on my writing and language is always appreciated, especially as English isn't my native language so there can be errors).