CHAPTER 1
It was a bright and very sunny morning in Konoha, too sunny, in fact, for a particular blond that was tossing and turning trying to get as far away from the burning light of day as possible without falling off his bed. It seemed that the sun had a vendetta against him this day because the light was practically following him around on his old futon. With a grumble of complaint and a resigned sigh, he slowly opened his eyes and sluggishly got out of bed.
He lazily slothed his feet around his small, worn down apartment toward the small bathroom. His stomach loudly moaned and groaned as he was brushing his teeth, remember in that he forgot to eat last night. Memories from yesterday's evening were still in front of his mind and he couldn't help but smile. He was actually a ninja now!
Suddenly energetic by the though he jumped into the cramped shower stall, and washed himself thoroughly, not even bothered by the ice cold water. He hurriedly ran towards his room and rapidly unlocked his closet door to feast his eyes on the relatively unimpressive wardrobe of orange and blue clothes, which were all looking very dirty at the moment.
He hastily searched through them, where he found a clean, long-sleeved black shirt with orange stripes going up through the sleeves and linking around the neck where they rushed downwards along the front where the fused into a spiral.
A pair of orange cargo shorts were neatly folded alongside them. He shrugged, not giving it much though as he donned them. As long as they had orange on them, it was a go for him. He slipped on a pair of blue open-toed boots and tied his headband around his neck and was out the door, making sure to lock it behind him, not that he had anything of value inside there.
Easily making his way through the moderately crowded street, he set his sights on the academy. He put his hands behind his head and tread at a comfortable pace. In a couple of minutes, he was at the academy. He made his way towards his classroom and gently opened the door. He went through and closed is behind him. No one else was in the room except for Iruka, his academy teacher and his rival, Sasuke Uchiha. He so only threw him a glance, gazing at the headband lazily secured around his neck and his unusual choice of clothing, before grunting and went back completely ignoring him and staring at the blackboard.
"Naruto! You're here early today." Iruka asked curiously.
"I thought I'd take it seriously on my first day as a ninja. I don't want to screw this up, hehe." He replied with a sheepish smile.
Iruka smiled and said, "That's a very mature way of thinking, Naruto. I'm proud of you."
Naruto grinned and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. He made his way to a seat, a couple spots away from Sasuke, and sat there with his feet propped up on the bench in front of him and absently though about his placement on a team. Soon the number of student coming in to the room started to increase until he heard deep, reverberating footfalls outside in the hall.
A dull blonde-haired kunoichi by the name of Ino, and a brash and loud pink haired kunoichi named Sakura stormed through the door, panting and gasping, obviously breathless as they scuttled towards a single chair that was empty next to the sole Uchiha heir.
"I got here first, so I get to sit next to him!" one yelled.
"He's not going to listen to a girl with a forehead as big as the Hokage Mountain, so you might as well leave right now!" the other shouted
"Ino-pig!" Sakura growled.
"Forehead!" Ino snarled.
An awfully ignorant Inzuka Kiba strolled through the vast classroom with his dog perching on top of his spiky brown locks, largely unaware and oblivious to the fight that was going on at the moment. He artlessly sat down on the chair. When two fists of rage came down on his head, effectively knocking him out. His dog, Akamaru, whined and put his head between his paws as if to say why my partner is such an idiot. The class began to quiet down and their teacher, Iruka, made his way to the front.
"As you all know, from today and onwards, you're all ninjas. For now you're Genin, lowest ranking ninjas. But with the more experience you gain, you'll rise through the ranks with ease. First we have to divide you into three-man teams, based on how well you did on your test scores and assign your team with a Jonin sensei. From there you can start missions, D rank at first, until you eventually get to B and A ranks, but that won't be for a very long while though."
"I am going to be calling out your teams and your sensei's now. Team one will be…" He strolled through the list until he made his way to team 7.
"Team 7 will consist of Uzumaki Naruto …," said blond haired perked up upon hearing his name, "Haruno Sakura", the pink haired girl's head noisily hit the table in front of her and moaned , "…and Uchiha Sasuke ." Sakura vigorously jumped up in the air, recent despair forgotten, and shouted in joy, with happiness in her eyes. Ino, who was sitting a row away, comically weeping away at her utter loss.
"Your Jonin sensei is Hatake Kakashi." He said, with a look of pity on his face to the three new genin.
Sasuke frowned and then sighed with dejection, why do I get to be with the pathetic fangirl and the useless dobe.
"Team 8 will be made up of Aburame Shino, Hyuga Hinata and Inzuka Kiba." Your team sensei will be Yuuhi Kurenai." The three genin looked up at each other and shrugged, in Shino's case, his black shades just flashed.
"Team 9 is still active, so Team 10 will compromise of Nara Shikamaru, Yamakana Ino and Akimichi Choji," He paused, "led by the jonin Sarutobi Asuma." The class then started to talk among themselves while Iruka was still talking. He swiftly, and effectively put his infamous Big-head no jutsu to work.
"I'M STILL NOT DONE SO ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!"
This efficiently and successfully quieted down the class down to a few faint whispers. Iruka then sniffed and wiped the bridge of his nose.
"Well then, I only have one thing left to say. I am very proud of you all and I know for a fact that you guys and girls have the greatest potential to be the best shinobis and kunoichis in Konoha. Thank you." He smiled proudly at his former students and made his was out of the classroom, before hearing a voice he very much knew, "Way to go Iruka-sensei!" Iruka twisted his head sideways and gave a kind smile towards his favourite pupil. He left quietly and closed the door behind him.
Soon after he exited, jonin started entering the room and picking up their graduates. A black haired jonin with a beard picked up an energetic, sans Shikamaru, team ten, while a pretty black haired, red eyed woman escorted her expectant team out. Soon all the genin left and all who was there were the three members of team seven.
Sasuke was still brooding, but was starting to get anxious. Sakura was busy staring at Sasuke with hearts in her eyes, while Naruto was occupied thinking of what they were going to do, and what kind of jutsus they were going to learn when their sensei got there. It was roughly an hour later when a tall, grey haired man with a mask over his face and his hitai-ate around his left eye. He entered the room and raised his right hand up and saluted with a lazy wave and an eye smile.
Naruto and Sakura quickly got to their feet and pointed their fingers at him, with fuming faces shouted, "YOU'RE LATE!" Even Sasuke was looking like someone pissed on his head.
He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and said, "Sorry, I ran into a black cat on my way here and had to take the long way around."
"I don't have to listen to your pathetic excuses. Let's get out of here." Sasuke uttered.
Kakashi took it all in stride, "All right, meet me on the roof in five minutes." He declared and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
The trio made their way out of the room and hastily went to the roof. To their surprise, they found him already on there, ready an orange booklet, which he quickly stowed away in his weapons pouch when he saw them finally come.
"Took you long enough." He said with an invisible yawn. All three of their eyes started twitching.
"Why don't you sit down? We can start with introducing yourselves and mentioning your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future and whatnot."
Sakura replied, "Why don't you go first, sensei, so we know how to do start."
Kakashi shrugged and responded, "My name is Hatake Kakashi. I don't really like anything nor do I dislike many things. I have no hobbies and, well… I don't want to tell you my dreams." He ended with an eye smile.
All three genin sweat dropped at his relatively unenlightened and illiterate answer. Naruto spoke again, saying "So all we basically got was your name, which we already knew…."
Kakashi ignored him and pointed a finger at Sakura. "You there, pinky, why don't you start?"
Said girl began to fume, but managed to retain herself. "My name is Haruno Sakura, my likes are," she gazed at Sasuke while blushing, "my dreams for the future are," she once again stole a glance at the black haired Uchiha, while he was glaring at her, "my dislikes are idiots and perverts."
Kakashi nodded sagely while continuing, "Any hobbies that you'd like to tell us?"
Her face flushed red at the comment and answered, "Oh… umm" she peeked over at her crush, before Kakashi cut in, saying "Alright…. moving on, you there, duck boy, how about you?"
Sasuke grew a tick mark on his head and looked annoyed, but continued, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I don't like many things, and I dislike a lot of things for example useless fangirls and wannabe ninjas. I have no hobbies and I have a lifelong ambition of killing someone." He ended rather dully. Sakura was swooning over him while Naruto gave him no mind.
"Uhh okay… Next up, Blondie, go ahead."
Quickly rising to his feet, "Alright! My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I love ramen and hate the 3 minutes that it takes to make it. My hobbies are eating different types of ramen and training and my dream is to make real instant ramen and be the greatest Hokage ever!" he concluded with a cheerful grin.
Kakashi smiled under his mask at the introduction. Alright, we have a fangirl, a ramen fanatic, and an emo. Let's see if they are any good that the bunch that I have failed before.
"Alright then, now that introductions are over, let's talk about our first exercise."
"Being?" Sasuke asked.
"Survival training." He plainly stated.
"B-But didn't we already do our training during the academy?" Sakura asked.
Kakashi nodded. "You did, but this time it will be different. You see, the graduation test you took yesterday had nothing to do with actually becoming genin. They were tests to see if you had the potential to actually become one. This one will truly be decisive whether or not you become genin. Just to let you know, this exam has a 33 percent chance of passing and a 66 percent chance of failure. If you fail, like the five genin teams that I've failed before, you'll have to go back the academy and stay there for another year."
The three gulped at this realization.
"But no worries. I have high hopes in you guys. Who knows maybe you will be the ones to break the record." Kakashi replied. "Anyway, I need you guys to meet up at 5 o'clock tomorrow at training ground seven for your assessment."
Naruto dropped his head. "It's in the morning isn't it?"
Kakashi eye smiled again. "On the mark shortie." Which Naruto growled at, "Also, I suggest you don't eat breakfast, you'll only puke if you do. See you then. Ja ne!" With a quick hand-seal, he disappeared in a cloud of grey smoke.
Naruto was the first one to leave, "See ya later guys!" He jumped off the roof with a waving his hand behind his back. Sakura stared owlishly at him for a moment. Huh, Naruto didn't even ask me out today…. Weird. She shrugged, not really caring one way or another. She turned to Sasuke, but already found him gone. She dejectedly made her way home.
Naruto enthusiastically made his way down the street to his favourite place in the whole world, Ichiraku ramen. He made it there in record time, blowing past the curtain and sitting down on a stool.
"Seven miso, old man, and on the double!" Naruto practically bouncing in his seat.
Teuchi chuckled at his enthusiasm while calling his order to Ayame, who was back in the kitchen, "Hey Naruto. What's the occasion?"
"I got picked for a team and got out sensei. That's one step closer to becoming Hokage!" he suddenly quieted down for a second, "But getting me nowhere closer to creating real instant ramen…" he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Congratulations Naruto, today's on the house." He smiled kindly.
Not very long after Teuchi's only daughter, Ayame, came in holding his very large order. After setting it down, she came towards him around the counter and hugged him tightly, while giving him a soft kiss on his cheek. He blushed profusely while she smiled knowingly and congratulated him. He ate his meal as eagerly as always and finished, before waving thanking them, "See ya old man, Ayame nee-chan! I've got some training to catch up on!" He exclaimed as he was running out.
Naruto tiredly sauntered into his diminutive apartment, feeling very weary and exhausted after his multi hour training period. The sun had already went down in Konohagakure no Sato, and the bustling activity during the day had started to turn in, civilians and shinobi returning from the markets, missions, and a multitude of other reasons.
The dull thrashing of leaves in the surrounding forests were lulling the city's citizens into sleep, among them was a particular spiky blond haired jinchuriki. He drowsily washed his clothes from the dirt and grime, which he had picked up during his training regimen for that afternoon, and hung them on a cord on his cramped balcony and took a quick shower before plopping down on his overused mattress. He raised an arm and set up his clock to wake him up at 5 o'clock before fixing his blue night hat. Naruto gently closed his eyes and fell asleep.
That was a try at my first fanfiction in years,(also my first Naruto one too) my others being rather dull and plain. Umm.. updates will be sporadic and random so if I leave you hanging don't blame me. As for the pairings, I still haven't decided yet but I am a NarutoxFuu or Yugito fanatic so it will probably be on of them or an OC. Anyways, see ya next time!