Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 1 - Introductions

The classroom was in a situation of ordered chaos this morning. The teacher had not yet arrived and the students were enjoying themselves. A blond haired kid entered the room with a grin that almost spread from ear to ear. Naruto was presently looking around for his pink haired beauty only to find that she hadn't arrived yet.

"Hey, Naruto. What are you doing here? This is only for people who passed, no dropouts allowed," Shikamaru asked him lazily. He had turned to face the boy while still in his seat.

"Hey I passed. What do you think this is?" He pointed to the Konoha symbol secured to his forehead.

"Troublesome."

Naruto continued down the steps to the front seats of the classroom as other students filed in. He didn't make it more than two rows before a loud commotion could be heard at the back of the classroom. Two girls were trying to force their way through the door at the same time, one with pink hair and one with blond.

"Get out of my way forehead."

"You first Ino-pig." Several seconds later they burst through the door at the same time.

"Ha. I'm first," both yelled out and then immediately began panting. It took several seconds before either of them recovered.

"I win again Sakura.

"Give it up. I had to look back to see you. My toe was at least an tenth of an inch ahead." The two girls began to grumble at each other, until the pink haired kunoichi looked around the room and found what she was looking for. She ran down the aisle.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ino asked after her.

"Hey Sakura, how are you…" Naruto never finished.

"Move it." Sakura brushed by him and shoved him aside. He was lucky enough to fall into an empty seat in the next row. "Good morning Sasuke."

The boy shot her a pointed look and maintained the glare as she continued.

"Mind if I sit next to you."

"Back off forehead. I'm sitting next to Sasuke." Ino grabbed her former friend's arm. Lightning seemed to shoot between their eyes.

Sakura growled out, "I was here first."

"I walked into the classroom before you did. Everybody saw it"

"Dream on."

At this point other fan girls began to join in the commotion. Each girl was claiming a right to sit next to the black haired boy.

Sasuke diverted his gaze back to the front of the room. 'Clueless.'

Eventually Sakura slid in neatly into seat next to him. Her arms came to together against her chest as she squealed at her good fortune. Ino just gave her a dirty look before turning on her heal with her nose in the air to sit right behind her.

Naruto, meanwhile, had recovered and managed to get to his feet. As Ino walked away he saw a perfect opportunity and slipped into the seat next to Sakura.

"Hey, Sakura."

"What do you want, Naruto?" Her contempt was audible.

"I was just wondering, if afterwards you'd like to go on a date with me?"

"No." There wasn't even a pause for thought.

Naruto slumped against the desk. The joy of his first day as a ninja was temporarily forgotten. His chin was resting on the desk, but then he turned his head to the side to see past Sakura and get a look at Sasuke. 'What is so great about him? There's nothing he can do that I can't. So what if he's popular and good looking and talented and has the best grades…' He stopped his thinking. He was only making himself feel worse.

Iruka finally entered the classroom and called for order. "Settle down everyone." He waited for quiet and began.

"First of all I'd like to say that I'm proud of every single one of you. As of today you are all ninjas. To get here you all faced difficult trails and hardships, but that's nothing. What comes next will be far more difficult. Now you are only genin, first level ninjas, but it is the first step into the world. It is a path filled with adventure, but it is a path filled with hard work and hardships. I've taken you as far as I can; the rest is up to you. Your choices and decisions will determine your path from here on out. Now, all the genin will be grouped into three man squads. Each squad will be led by a jounin, an elite ninja."

A ripple of surprise coursed through the class at that news. 'A three man squad?'

Several of them were already planting their hopes to be with someone. Several of them were hoping to be with the same person. The class started to get restless and wanted him to get on with the team assignments.

"We want each squad to have a balance of strengths and abilities, so that's how we set them up." The class returned their attention to Iruka when he spoke the words, "I will now announce the teams." Naruto sat up, but slouched a little after the first few teams were called out.

"Team 7 will be: Naruto Uzumaki," the blond boy's attention was fully on Iruka now. "Ino Yamanaka," he slouched with a groan. He wanted to be on Sakura's team. All the other teams so far had only one kunoichi on them, "And Sasuke Uchiha. Team 8 is Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame."

Naruto couldn't believe his luck. Stuck with the stuck up bastard and number one fan girl. On top of this, his precious Sakura wasn't going to be with him. His head hit the desk.

"And finally Team Ten, Sakura Haruno, Shikamaru Nara, and Chouji Akamichi."

Naruto had had enough. "Iruka-sensei, how could you put a great ninja like me on the same team as that guy?"

He wasn't the only one yelling.

"In your face forehead. Sasuke is on my team. You don't stand a chance now. You're stuck with the lazy ass and food boy." Ino started to giggle as her rival started to fume.

"Iruka, how could you put Ino with Sasuke and not me?"

"Enough!" The three of them went immediately silent. Sasuke had lost some of his control as his face twitched Naruto's comments and the volume of the two girls. "These teams were constructed by the Hokage himself. They were made so that they would be balanced. For instance, Sasuke is number one in the class, while you Naruto are at the bottom of the class."

Sasuke smirked at this.

"These teams were not made for girls to fawn over boys. They were made with the purpose that you complete missions and work as a team to do so. I just explained all of this to you. There will be no changes. Now moving on. After lunch you'll meet your new jounin teachers. Until then, class dismissed. Be sure to be here on time and good luck to you all."

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Naruto was walking along kicking up dust on the path. He was in no mood to talk and didn't bring a lunch so as far as he was concerned this was a wasted hour. He tried to find and talk to Sakura, but he was told to leave her alone. She said she wanted to have lunch her group and get to know them better. Needless to say the rejection only added to his depression. He though about doing the same with Ino, but he wasn't in the mood. He took a seat on the swing. This was supposed to be a good day for him too. As he pushed back and forth he thought about it and the smile returned to his face. 'I'm finally a ninja. I'm one step closer to being the hokage.'

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Ino called out again. "Sasuke!" She had wanted to have lunch with him and closer to him, but he had run off as soon as he could. She sighed and then called out again. 'Well I guess there's no need to rush things. After all we'll be on the same team for a long time.'

She found a bench and began to eat.

When it as close to the time to head back, Sasuke walked by. Ino saw him, leaped up and latched onto his arm. Sasuke turned to her and gave her a half lidded look of disdain.

"Sasuke where have you been? I was hoping we could have lunch together."

"Let go of me."

"But Sasuke…"

He paused and let the silence calm her down before he said, "Why?"

"Because I like you Sasuke and…"

"You're annoying."

Ino flinched. They words were so cold, but she steeled herself. She would not be deterred. She shook herself and got back on the horse. Sasuke managed to slip out of grip. Before she could get another word out, Sasuke spoke.

"What do you think of Naruto?"

"Huh, Naruto. Well, honestly, I think he's loud, rude, annoying and completely oblivious. He's always going after Sakura even though she would never give him the time of day. He's just so inept at everything and he doesn't even seem to care. He's got no parents so he's got no one to punish him and he just does whatever comes into his head. He's so selfish. He does what he wants and gets away with it. He's lucky like that I guess."

"You think Naruto's lucky. What would you know? You've never felt the pain of being alone. Never been punished. He's got no one, that's worse than any punishment a parent could think up. You can't imagine what its like to be all alone. Next time think before you open your mouth." He spoke with an icy tone with malice practically oozing from the words. He began to walk away. "Leave me be."

"But Sasuke…"

He turned his head to look at her and her hopes rose. "You're annoying."

He world seemed to crumble away. It hurt even more the second time she heard it. After he was out of sight she stopped and thought about it. Could she imagine being all alone? She tried, but it wouldn't come. She was the most popular girl in her class and always had people around her as far back as she could remember. No she didn't know anything about Naruto's life.

Looking up she saw the blond boy heading back towards the school from the swing out front. 'Well we are going to be on the same team from now on.' She walked over to him to try and start up a conversation.

"Hey Naruto," she called out.

He turned around. "Ino?"

"Hey I was just thinking. Since were going to be on the same team and all that maybe we should…" She stopped and looked at his face. It was contorted into what looked like a condescending sneer. "What? What's your problem?"

A second later Naruto grabbed his stomach with both hands, cried out and bolted in the other direction. Ino was left there stunned and blinking.

"What the hell was that?"

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The last of the other teams had already left the classroom with their instructors. Naruto, Sasuke and Ino were still waiting for their teacher to show up. They were all silent; none of them had anything to say to each other. Sasuke had his hands clasped in front of his face brooding. Annoyed at being kept waiting for over an hour already. Ino was sitting next to her crush, but couldn't bring herself to talk to him. After their little confrontation she felt a little humiliated. Naruto was doing his best to contain his energy and found his legs to be bouncing up and down on the ball of his feet. He was seated about four seats away and two rows back from his teammates.

He had been the last to arrive from lunch, having been stuck in the bathroom. Ino confronted him when the teachers started coming.

"I'm sorry. It was my stomach; it felt really sick. It just hit me. I must have eaten some spoiled food."

She wasn't angry with him before, just completely baffled as to why he ran off. Now she got it. "It's fine. Just wanted to make sure nothing was wrong."

That had been a while ago now. Naruto looked up at the clock. Almost two hours. They had been sitting there for two hours doing nothing. They were told to be on time and their teacher couldn't extend them the same courtesy.

"Did we maybe miss him when the other teachers came in?" Ino asked.

"No."

She deflated at Sasuke's stoic answer.

"That's it. I've had it. If he can't be bothered to be on time then he's going to pay for it." He jumped up from his seat and ran down to the blackboard. He grabbed an eraser.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Ino stood up to try and see better.

"I'm going to teach him a lesson." He grabbed a chair and dragged it over to the door.

"Maybe you shouldn't Naruto. We could get in trouble. I'm not getting into trouble on my first day. Do you hear me?"

He didn't answer her and placed the eraser between the frame and the door. He then went and replaced the chair back where it was.

"Like a jounin, an elite ninja, would fall for such a simple trap anyway."

"Sasuke's right, Naruto. Just take it down."

Naruto made it back to his seat and was waiting eagerly for his trap to be sprung. As time went on, his eagerness slowly faded away. It was replaced with the previous contained energy and annoyance. After another half an hour the three of them heard footsteps in the hall. Naruto sat up and leaned forward to get a better look.

The door slid open and a head stuck itself through only to be bonked by the eraser. A small cloud of chalk accompanied the hit.

"Ha, ha. He actually fell for it."

"I'm sorry sensei, but I can't control him."

'He actually fell for that simple trick. Is he really a jounin?'

The man who had entered stared at them lazily with his single uncovered eye. He wore a mask covering the lower part of his face. His silver hair rose up and leaned over to one side.

"How can I put this? My first impression of you guys is…you're a bunch of idiots." Ino groaned and flopped forward on the desk, Naruto cried out and Sasuke squinted his eyes, but otherwise remained impassive. He was still unsure about the man. "Meet me on the roof in ten minutes."

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

"Alright. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourselves," Kakashi spoke up after an interval of silence.

"Introduce ourselves. Like what are we supposed to say?" Ino asked him.

"Things you like, things you hate. Dreams for the future. Hobbies. Things like that."

"Why don't you talk about yourself first, before we go, so we can see how it's supposed to work." Naruto was sitting on his haunches, squinting his eyes at his sensei. Kakashi looked at him and couldn't help but think that he looked remarkably like a fox.

"Me. I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate; I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future…I never really thought about it. As for hobbies…I have lots of hobbies."

"Well that was pointless. All he really told us was his name," Ino laminated to her fellow blond. Naruto nodded in agreement. Sasuke continued to stare down the man.

"All right, your turn. You on the right, you first," he said in a lazy drawl.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen in a cup, the ramen that Iruka-sensei got me at Ichiraku's stand. I hate the three minutes waiting after you pour the ramen into the cup. My hobby is comparing different types of ramen. And my dream is to be Hokage, so everyone will stop disrespecting me."

'Hmm. He grew up very interestingly.' Kakashi mused. "Okay, next."

"Um, I'm Ino Yamanaka. I like flowers, shopping and most of all Sasuke. I hate lazy, loud and annoying people. My hobby is, well… My dream is to a great kunoichi and to get a certain person."

'At her age, girls are more interested in those kinds of things than ninja training.' Kakashi looked to his last student. "And finally."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things and there really isn't too much that I do like. I don't have any hobbies. I don't have a dream. It's more of an ambition, and I will make it a reality. I will restore my clan and kill a certain someone."

'And just like I thought.'

Both Naruto and Ino were giving him worried looks.

"Good. You're each unique and you all have your own ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow."

Naruto saluted him. "What kind of mission is it?"

"It's a task the four of us will do together."

"What?"

"A survival exercise."

Naruto squinted at the man again. "Huh, a survival exercise?"

"I though we were going to have a real mission. We already did that sort of thing at the academy," Ino stated.

"This is not like your previous training." A glint flashed across Kakashi's exposed eye.

"What kind of training is it then?"

Kakashi began to chuckle.

"That a reasonable question. What's so funny?" Ino piped up. She tilted her head sideways now giving her sensei and odd look.

"If I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it." He paused and stopped his chuckling. "Of the twenty-seven graduates only nine will actually be accepted as genin. The other eighteen will be weeded out and be sent back to the academy. So in other words this is a make it or break it pass/fail test. The chance that you'll fail is at least sixty-six percent."

Naruto's jaw dropped at this, his eyes went wide. Worried thoughts were now passing through his head. Sasuke simply gave his teacher another dark look. Ino's eye twitched with a look that clearly read, 'you have got to be kidding me.'

"See didn't I tell you you wouldn't like it."

"That's not right. We worked hard to get here. What was that graduation test for anyway?" Naruto started to whine.

"Oh that. That was just to select the candidates who might become genin. Or not."

"What?!"

"That's how it is. I decide whether you pass or fail." His voice turned serious. Kakashi started to lay down the law. The group went silent. "Be at the designated training spot at five am. And bring your ninja gear."

A determined look settled itself onto Naruto's face. Ino had an equally determined look on her face. Sasuke's expression didn't change.

Kakashi turned his back on them and flicked up two fingers. "That's it. You're dismissed. Oh and one more thing." He turned to face them with his single eye. "Tomorrow you better skip breakfast or you'll throw up."

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AN:This is my first fanfiction. It is a unique challenge to write with someone else's characters. I'll try and keep this short. I see fanfiction as an arena that I can use the improve my writing and story telling skills. I would appreciate any constructive criticisms.As for this chapter it may see retreading of old ground with a single change, but the effects will be seen starting with the next chapter. I skipped the Mizuki incident, because it is the exact same for this story.