Chapter 1: Day One for Team Three!
Zaku opened his eyes and yawned. He sat up and rubbed sleep from his eyes. He threw the covers to the side and slid off of the bed. Zaku looked in the mirror as he yawned again. He was twelve years old and his brown hair was spiked forwards and went off to the right side. His white eyes signified him as a descendent of Hyuuga blood.
"My first day…" He said to himself as he slowly woke up. There was a knock on the door and someone poked their head in.
"Hey Zaku, time for your first day at the academy, you ready?" It was Uzumaki Naruto, some thirty years old he had grown a goatee, but still wore similar clothes at he always had.
"It's still early uncle Naruto…" Zaku said. Naruto opened the door fully and walked in.
"Hey, this is an important day, believe it!" He said as his usual excitement filled him.
"Yeah… I know but… can't just go in at like noon?" Zaku said nervously. Naruto laughed and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it Zaku, everyone gets nervous before they go to the academy for the first time, its no big deal. But you do have to actually go before you become a ninja, so how about gettin' dressed?"
He walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. Zaku opened the closet and put on some green cargo shorts over the boxers he was wearing and pulled on a white t-shirt with a red Konoha leaf symbol on it. He headed out of the room and down the stairs. He got downstairs and saw Naruto sitting at a table and eating ramen. Hyuuga Hinata was sitting across from him and drinking tea. Zaku looked at the two of them and smiled, they always seemed so happy. She smiled when she saw him and set her tea down.
"I'm glad you're awake Zaku, are you excited about your first day at the academy?" Zaku started to talk, but Naruto interrupted him.
"Of course he is! Who wouldn't be! You're gunna' be a great ninja just like your uncle Naruto huh!" Zaku cracked a smile, Naruto was more excited about this than he was. Hinata smiled at Naruto, probably thinking the same thing. She stood up and walked over to him.
"Zaku, I know that it must be hard moving to Konoha and starting the academy after what happened to your mother, but I want you to know that I'm more than happy to have you here. Your mother and I had grown apart somewhat after I left the head family, but she was still my sister and I'm glad that she wanted you to live with me." She hugged him and pointed to the clock. "You should probably get going." He wasn't quite sure what to say to that, he didn't have a great memory of his mother, most of his childhood with the head family was in patches.
"Thanks aunt Hinata..." Naruto rushed him out with his enthusiastic way. Hinata gave him a lunch and they wished him good luck.
"Say hello to Sakura for me!" Naruto yelled as Zaku walked away, to which Hinata gave him a slightly dirty look.
He was walking down the road that led from their house for a while before he realized he had no idea were he was going.
"Aw hell, first day in this place and I'm lost already..." He heard someone come up behind him and he turned around. It was a kid who looked about his age. He wore a grey hoody with the hood up and white cargo pants. He had red line tattoos on either side of his face.
"Names Inuzuka Kiba, you new in town?" Zaku nodded.
"Uh... yeah, I guess I am." He said. So he followed Kiba to the academy, getting to know the guy along the way. He was named after his father, and seemed to be a little bullheaded. They got to the academy late, but Kiba didn't seem too worried about it.
"Hell, they'll hold the class for the strongest guys in the village!" He laughed and pushed open the doors. Haruno Sakura stood in front of the small class room and was in the middle of welcoming the new students.
"Well, looks like we have a few late arrivals. Inuzuka Kiba... and Hyuuga Zaku I presume?" She gave them an evil eye that sent chills down Zaku's spine. Kiba put his hands behind his head and casually walked into the room.
"Yeah, who else would we be?" She shot across the room in the blink of an eye and had a hold of his ear."Ow! Hey leggo' a me!" she drug him over towards the seats and pushed him up the stairs.
"Go sit down! If you think you're back talking me you got another thing coming!" She said and turned to Zaku. He slid past and ran up the steps, and he and Kiba took seats in the back as a few murmurs of laughter ran through the class.
Kiba leaned over to him and whispered.
"You know what they say, those who can't do, teach." he started to laugh a little, but Sakura was on them in a second and yelling at Kiba again.
Time seemed to fly by. Day after day he went to the academy and learned in the ways of the ninja. It was about as basic as you could get since it was the lowest level of training. Leaning about Chakra and basic Jutsu was harder than he had thought it would be. Zaku didn't do to bad, but didn't exactly find school work fun. They didn't do very much 'hands on' training, but what they did do taught him that he had above average Chakra and control. He really wasn't sure the significance of that, but he figured it couldn't hurt. Slowly, he had gotten used to these people. Kiba was always as loud and wild as anyone he had ever seen, but they became pretty good friends. Sakura remained as bi-polar as ever, but she was a decent teacher. There were about twenty people total in the class, but not many of them stood out. There was Nara Ino, the daughter of Nara Shikamaru the shadow master and Sakura's rival Yamanaka Ino. Aburame Shuno was the son of Aburame Shino the bug master. Rock Kari, daughter of Rock Lee and Ten-Ten. Hyuuga Jira from the head family. Agari Ayame was the daughter of a great healer. And Kinata Dosu, who stayed quite most of the time and always set the curve.
Three years passed in the academy. Zaku was sitting in the back of the class, waiting for his turn. It was graduation day, nine students would become Genin after the test was over. It was a simple test, successfully complete a duplication Jutsu. A lot of the student had trouble with it, but he wasn't all that worried. He had done perfect duplication Jutsu before, it was Kiba he was worried about. Kiba was a great fighter, he had inherited the Beast style Jutsu of his clan, and was pretty good at using it, but he had never exactly been a master at Ninjutsu.
"Man, I don't know if I'll be able to do this Zaku..." Kiba said nervously. Zaku shrugged and stepped forward as the line moved.
"I'm sure you'll be fine Kiba... just... try not to overdo it and you'll be fine." The person in front of him failed to make a very good clone and moved on. Zaku stepped up to take his turn. Sakura stood there with a clip board and smiled.
"Alright Zaku, your turn." She said and waited for him to go.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He said, and made the simple hand seal. Six shadow clones appeared on either side of him.
"Very good Zaku, you pass easily." Sakura said with a little laugh. The clones disappeared and he walked away and heard Kiba mutter something in a mocking voice.
"Just don't overdo it and you'll be fine... showoff..." Zaku smirked and walked over to the door and waited. Kiba did his best when he was mad.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he said and made the hand signal. A clone appeared beside him. Sakura looked at it for a second and Kiba looked like he was going to lose it.
"Not bad at all Kiba, not bad at all." The clone disappeared he looked like he was really relieved.
"Did you ever doubt me for a second! Oh yeah!" Kiba strutted out of the classroom and past Zaku. Zaku laughed and followed him outside with the rest of the class. All of the people that Zaku noticed had passed. The forehead protectors were handed out later that evening and everyone left for home. Tomorrow would be the Genin team assignments. Zaku and Kiba were walking back when someone caught their attention.
"Zaku!" he turned to see Jira walking up behind them. He had never liked Jira very much, mostly because Jira had never liked him. He had never done anything to the guy, but he was part of the Hyuuga main family, from which Zaku had been kicked out. Hinata had left the family, and since he chose to live with her, he was also exiled.
"So, you managed to make it? No big deal, your still just a worthless punk." Jira said with disgust in his voice. Kiba balled up his fist and got ready to lay Jira out.
"Touch me and I'll have you put down, mutt." He said with his smirky grin. Zaku starred him down, looking into the same white eyes that he had.
"Jira...I know that you don't like me. But if you think that for one second I'm afraid of you, then you're dumber than I thought. If we ever cross paths after becoming ninja... I will not hesitate to kill you." Zaku turned and walked away, Kiba followed a second later, barely stopping himself from attacking Jira.
Naruto was overjoyed that Zaku had become a Genin, so much so that he drank himself into a stupor. Hinata was proud of him, but Jira worried her.
The next morning he made his way to the academy. He had started dressing different to match his new rank. A baggy black t-shirt with a collar that went up to his chin overtop of a long sleeve mesh shirt. He had blue fingerless gloves with metal hand protectors on the back that fit nicely. He had khaki cargo shorts with his Kunai holder on the right leg. His shoes were the normal ninja style shoes. He wore his forehead protector on his forehead like most ninja did, his bangs on the right covering it slightly.
He met up with Kiba at the academy, it was one of the few times they had been on time. Kiba wore more or less what he always had, but now had a Kunai holder and his forehead protector. They were waiting for a while before everyone who had passed arrived. Sakura walked into the room and held up her clipboard.
"I have the Genin teams right here... but before I tell you what they are there is something I want to say. This is the beginning of the rest of your lives, becoming a Genin is the first steps all ninja must take... today you are officially Shinobi." Everyone was very nervous. If you got a good sensei you could go far, if not, it was an uphill battle. Although every single person who was in charge of a Genin group was an elite Jounin, some were better teachers than others.
"Aburame Shuno...Rock Kira...and Heiken Hautso... you will be the first team..." Zaku didn't know who the third guy was, he had never even noticed him. He thought about it for a second… that was probably good for a ninja.
"Kinata Dosu...Hyuuga Jira... and Agari Ayame... you are team two... that leaves Hyuuga Zaku, Inuzuka Kiba, and Nara Ino for the final team." Kiba jumped out of his chair and cheered.
The teams all gathered together slowly, only Kiba seemed to feel strongly about the teams either way. Ino walked over to Zaku and Kiba. She looked almost identical to her mother when she was her age. But she had black hair like her father, and instead of purple, her clothes were a dark maroon. She looked from Zaku to Kiba, then back again.
"Great, I get stuck with the dropout brothers..." She said in a sarcastic tone. Kiba stopped his celebration dead and turned to her.
"Like we need you anyway, you would just get in our way to becoming great ninja!"
Ino rolled her eyes and pushed him down into a chair.
"You wish mutt, I have more talent in my little finger than you do in your whole body." Zaku stepped in between them.
"Hey come on now, we're a Genin team. The last thing we need is to fight amongst ourselves." He said looking back and forth between them. Kiba got up and stuck his tongue out at her. "Yeah yeah, just stay outta' my way you imp!" he said.
She crossed her arms and looked away. "Your so immature, mutt."
Sakura cleared her throat a couple of times to get the attention of everyone who was now talking with their new teammates.
"Hey shut up!" She yelled at the top of her lungs after she failed to get anyone's attention. Everyone stopped and looked at her.
"Okay... now... I have a special treat for you all today, there is a special guest here!" She motioned towards the door dramatically. Everyone waited a few seconds, but no one showed up. Sakura got an angry look on her face and she muttered to herself.
"Late again...as usual..." The door slowly creaked open and everyone looked expectantly. A man made his way into the room, a long white and red cloak and a Hokage's hat pulled low over his face. Sakura smiled and turned back to the class.
"Everyone! This is my former sensei, and the village Hokage! The sixth Hokage, Hatake Kakashi!" She motioned to him proudly and he pushed his hat up with a finger.
"Yo" He said casually and waved with one hand.
The Hokage was a man of few words, Kakashi hadn't changed much in old age. He still carried around his little love novel everywhere he went. Zaku got the impression that he was a nice guy, but something seemed to be just beneath the surface. Nothing particularly bad or anything, just extremely powerful. Kakashi gave a short speech about being the future of Konoha, and how someone here might become Hokage some day.
Sakura passed out a piece of paper to each team after the Hokage left. She handed team three's to Ino and wished everyone good luck. Zaku leaned back in his chair and looked over at her.
"What does it say Ino?" he asked. She read it over a couple of times, than looked up at him.
"It's directions..." Kiba looked at her skeptically.
"Are you sure? Let me see it!" He grabbed for it, but Ino pulled it away.
"Can you even read?" She teased him.
Zaku interrupted them again. "Probably directions to meet our new sensei..." He said. They looked at him for a second, than agreed.
"What are we waitin' for then? Let's go!" Kiba said jumping up from his seat. Ino nodded and Zaku shrugged and followed them out.
Twenty minutes later they had made their way to the outer walls of Konoha. Kiba already looked bored. Ino looked at the paper again, and then pointed to one of the many training areas in and around Konoha village.
"Looks like that's the place..." They made their way out of the walls and into the little training area. It was at the edge of the enormous forest that Konoha was famous for, and three five foot tall stumps stood in the small clearing. An alarm clock sat on the center stump.
"What the hell is this about?" Kiba said as he walked up to it with his hands behind his head casually. He got within a few feet of it, when the ground exploded below him and a net shot up from the ground and pulled him into a nearby tree.
"Hey! What the hell! Get me down from here!" He kicked and screamed inside of the net, and Ino laughed at him. Zaku felt something behind him, and spun around to see the back of a man with his hands in his pockets and dressed in an all black version of the Jounin gear. Ino stopped laughing and turned towards him too. He looked back over his shoulder, his red eyes glowing like embers.
"I am Uchiha Sasuke, your new sensei."