This is my first Naruto Story. Updates are incredibly slow and I'm very close to labeling it discontinued, but I'm leaving it as is for now just because. This particular chapter has a lot of dialogue pretty much copied directly from the anime's dub, and throughout the story you might even see a good bit of OoC-ness. I did do my best however, so enjoy!
To most, this was a special day. The day after they graduated from their academy journey. The day that they became full fledged shinobi. This was the day that they would meet their new sensei and begin their advanced and more specific training. They would start doing missions and getting to know the world of the Elemental Nations. The classroom with the newly formed genin had an all around cheerful aura to it.
There were many girls trying to impress one Uchiha Sasuke, the prodigy that was easy on the eyes. However, most of the less obsessed fangirls decided to back down when Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino began fighting over the seat next to the young prodigy. Sakura had emerged victorious this time around, and Ino had to settle for sitting behind Sasuke.
Just then, a person who wasn't in a less than stellar mood entered the class. Just the night before he had discovered that he housed the monstrous beast known as the Kyuubi. Sealed inside him was the creature responsible for leaving their village in ruin. That beast was inside of him. He wasn't even sure if he was himself or the monster. For all he knew, he could be either.
These thoughts had been plaguing his mind all through the night and into the early hours of the morning. Naruto began walking up to a random seat. However, before he could make it, someone stuck their foot out to trip him. Naruto reflexively jumped up and landed on top of this person's leg. Say what you might, Naruto's instincts and reaction time were sharp.
The culprit screamed in pain at the pressure added to his limb. "What the hell was that for?" Naruto said in a low, angry tone. The chatter around them died down and everyone in the room watched the predicament. Even the Uchiha prodigy showed some interest.
"Dude! Man, chill. I was just stretching my leg." the culprit said nervously. He had in fact done it on purpose with the intention of tripping the blond. His plan had clearly backfired though.
"Like hell you were. Just don't do it again!" Naruto responded in an even more bitter tone than before. He stepped off the almost broken leg and went to take the seat he had caught sight of before. This just happened to be beside Sakura.
Naruto had had a crush on this pink haired girl since almost as far back as he could remember. He obviously knew about her love (or rather, infatuation) with the last Uchiha, but Naruto promised himself that it was fine as long as she didn't get hurt.
He did realize that, at some point, she would get her heart broken by that bastard because of how crass the guy tended to be. This was one of the factors that made Naruto dislike Sasuke.
Naruto didn't even notice the people sitting around him. For once, he didn't even care. He sat in silence, still thinking about the Kyuubi inside of him. He wanted to ask it why had it attacked his home. Why did it kill the Yondaime. And most of all, why was it sealed inside of him, out of all the people in the village.
'Its not like I had a choice.' Echoed a feminine voice from Naruto's mind. He had a feeling that he wasn't hearing things. That it was something in his mind, that it came from the deepest corners of his subconscious.
Before Naruto was able to pry into this, Iruka stepped into the room. "Good morning! Congratulations on becoming genin." He paused and took a glance at Naruto. He could see it in his face that he hadn't slept much. Iruka felt sorry for his student. No one should have to deal with such sorrow.
Disregarding the blond for a moment, the chunin continued speaking. "As of today, you are all shinobi. To get here you have all faced difficult trials and hardships. But thats nothing. What comes next will be far more difficult. Now you are only genin, first level shinobi. All the genin will be grouped into three-man squads. Each squad will be lead by a jonin, an elite shinobi." The class began to whisper and chatter with their friends.
Many female voiced could be heard saying "I want to be with Sasuke-kun!" Sasuke's thoughts on this were different. He hated the idea of being put in a squad. He knew that this would hold him back. How was he supposed to get strong enough to kill Itachi if he had two other punks to take care of.
Sakura was hoping, like many other girls, that she would be with Sasuke. Naruto wasn't paying much attention. He vaguely heard that they were going to be put into squads, but he was trying to talk to that voice.
'Hey!' he thought loudly. 'You in there? What are you doing in my brain!? Get out of there, its mine! Say something you coward!' There was no response though. But who would respond to someone who sounded like a whining child.
Iruka had been saying the squads while Naruto was trying to coax the voice out of his mind. He had given each squad a number than named its three members, telling the what room to go to after lunch to meet their instructor.
All the girls who had been put into a squad until now had begun to quietly sob. The Uchiha prodigy had yet to be put in a squad. Until, that is, that Iruka said "Squad Seven: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke."
Sakura felt like she had won the lottery. Which, in a way, she had. All the girls wanted to be with the handsome Uchiha, and now she was his teammate. She would see him every day until all three of them became chunin. Having Naruto on her team did bring her mood down in the slightest, but he seemed different today.
Sasuke didn't like it. He had one of his most obsessive fangirls on his team. He knew that she would pay no attention to the missions nor the training, and only try to get close to him. Of course, he wouldn't give her the time of day, but it would still be distracting. And then he had the class zero in his team. That Naruto guy would surely bring him down. Sasuke would probably have to risk his own ass to save that dobe's.
The rest of the teams were announced, and they were free to go to lunch. Naruto ate at Ichiraku's in silence. After his third bole, he left the stand. He still had some time before he had to meet his sensei, so he decided to go sit on top of a tree.
Naruto found a large tree, and sat atop one of the upper branches. There, he tried to contact that voice he had heard once more. This time in a more serious tone, he called for it. He had already deduced that it was probably the Kyuubi. But he had never imagined it to be a girl!
'Kyuubi, come out! We need to talk.' Naruto say loudly into his mind.
'Kit, I think you of all people should know that I can't come out. So if you want to talk, you have to come in.' Said the female voice.
'Fine! But we just have to sort some things out.' Naruto responded. As he did, he shut his eyes and fell into a deep slumber.
To him it didn't feel like he had fallen asleep. It felt like he just blinked. But when he opened his eyes he saw a sewer. A ditty old sewer that had a yellow-ish glow to it. There was mucky water that went halfway up his shin and he felt a little grossed out. But Naruto decided to walk forward.
After a little while of his march, he came to something strange. There was a huge rusty gate that had a little paper that read 'Seal' on it. "Kyuubi!" Naruto called out. His voice echoed through the tunnel and sounded louder. If the beast was in there, it would hear it.
"Yeah yeah. I hear you kit. No need to yell." Said the voice from the other side of the gate. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the face of the fox. The head itself was about two times as tall as he was. And it had such deep, red eyes that could strike fear in anyone. The beast was huge fangs the size of katanas.
Naruto wasn't one for detecting or even feeling Chakra, but this was ridiculous. He didn't even have to feel it, he could see it. An ominous red aura all around the enormous beast. It just spelled evil out for him. Naruto had never been more scared in his thirteen years of life.
His body began to tremble and he took a step back. The Kyuubi noticed this and sighed. "My bad, kit. I forgot how my true form affects humans." it said. The red aura began to glow brightly and it momentarily blinded Naruto.
When he regained his eye sight, he didn't see the beast. What he saw was a woman. She had long orange hair and was wearing an orange kimono that matched. She still, however, had the Kyuubi's piercing red eyes and long, sharp fingernails. She even still had the fangs, but they weren't nearly as deadly now that she was the size of a human. "Sorry for the scare, kit." she said.
"Its alright." Naruto said in a whisper. He was pretty shocked with all this, but he tried his best to keep his calm. The Kyuubi just simply walked out of the gates by passing between the bars. Naruto wanted to run away, but he stood his ground, his body stiff.
Kyuubi noticed this and said "Loosen up kit. I'm not going to kill you or anything." Naruto took his own hand and slapped himself in the face with it, this made Kyuubi chuckle. He shook his head and slapped himself with both hands, one on each cheek.
"I want answers!" He said loudly, pointing one of is index fingers at Kyuubi. "Why did you attack my village?"
"Like I told you before, I didn't have a choice." Kyuubi sighed. "I was calmly sleeping inside Kushina until some dude with a mask came and dragged me out. Then I got mad at him for doing that, and hurting Kushina, so I attacked. But the guy put this weird jutsu on me and my anger got directed at this village for some reason. Then I was like teleported here and I unwillingly began to attack. Then Minato came out and began to fight me. I didn't want to fight the love of my hostess. But the jutsu didn't give me a choice."
Kyuubi took a pause. She breathed deeply and calmed down a bit. "It tore my heart to attack him. Such a handsome man, wounded by me." A small tear streamed down her cheek. "Then he and Kushina didn't have a choice but to seal me. And it had to be within a baby who's Chakra channels hand't fully developed. You were unlucky enough to be that child."
Naruto was speechless. The Kyuubi wasn't evil. It hadn't had a choice in the matter. It was all that masked man's fault then! But wait, Naruto had felt the evil in it's Chakra. He knew he didn't just imagine that. This was probably just a big trick to get him to release the Kyuubi on the village again. He wasn't going to let that happen.
"So, let me guess, now you want me to undo the seal so you can atone for your sins?" Naruto said, his eyes narrowing.
"No thanks. I have way too much power to be in the outside world. Plus, too many people want to hunt me down or capture me. I'd much rather be sealed happily in a good kid like you. Better you than some jerk." She said.
Naruto's jaw dropped. He just stared at the Kyuubi. Eyes wide in amazement. So it didn't want to wreck the place. But he still didn't believe it. Kyuubi took a good look at Naruto's cobalt eyes. She knew that he didn't believe it. But she figured that he would eventually. He was stuck with her after all.
"Kit, I know you don't believe me, but we have to get along somehow. Oh, and by the way, you've been in here for about an hour and a half, so if you had something to do..." she said.
"Yeah, whatever..." Naruto responded. But then he remembered that he had to meet his teacher. He had only around ten minutes to kill when he had gone up the the tree, and that meant that he was an hour and twenty minutes late. "Oh no! Kyuubi, get me out of here! I need to go!"
Kyuubi laughed as Naruto began to run around the place panicking. "Hey kit!" She said and Naruto skidded to a stop. He looked at her with a clueless expression, his blond hair ruffled from the running. "Good luck!" As she said that, she snapped her fingers, and Naruto disappeared from the sewer with a small 'Poof'.
"He's just so cute!" Kyuubi said as she strode back to her gates.
When Naruto opened his eyes again, he was sitting on the tree. He shook his head and jumped down. He dashed to the academy as fast as he could, entering a room with the label '439' on it. In the room there was Uchiha Sasuke sitting in a chair staring at nothing, and Haruno Sakura leaning against a table.
Naruto looked around and saw no one else. It appeared that the teacher was not here yet. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late."
Sasuke gave him no acknowledgment whatsoever and Sakura simply said "Your lucky that sensei is late too." before diverting her attention back to Sasuke.
The blond took the seat closest to him which was on the table right beside the door. Usually, if his teacher was late, he would have tried to pull a prank on him. But he wasn't in the mood today. He just thought about what Kyuubi had told him about when she had been forced to attack the village. She said something about people named Minato and Kushina. Naruto knew that Minato Namikaze was the Yondaime, and Kyuubi had said that Kushina was in love with him or something.
But Naruto was now confused. The Yondaime had always been a sort of idol to him, someone he felt like he had to surpass. He did do a little research on him and had learned many things. Like that he was taught by Jiraya, of the Sanin. That he had taught a squad of genin, much like his own. Also that he was know as the Yellow Flash of the Leaf because of his space-time jutsu. However, Naruto had never heard of him having a wife or a lover of any sort. It must have been unrequited love or something.
Then Naruto moved on to thinking about if what Kyuubi said about not wanting to attack the village. It didn't seem like she wanted to be unsealed or anything, but maybe she was just being lazy for a while. Everyone has those moods every once in awhile. And it isn't that hard to believe that there are strong shinobi that want Konoha to be destroyed. There are plenty of those. So maybe it was all just a setup.
While Naruto was deep in though, Sasuke took a glance towards him. 'The dobe isn't acting like usual. He's... quiet.' He thought. 'He looks serious. Well, if he had that type of attitude, it might not be that bad having him on my team.' Then he directed his gaze to Sakura. She was looking at him too, and their eyes met. Sasuke frowned. 'Better than her.'
Sakura's heart soared when her eyes met Sasuke's. She felt like she had never been so happy in her life! But then he frowned, like his disapproved of her. 'I must be imagining things.' she thought. She looked in Naruto's direction and saw him sitting on the desk staring at the floor. There was a different feel about him. He wasn't acting the way he usually did. And, for the first time, Sakura noticed that he looked pretty cute. Now that he didn't have those stupid goggles on his forehead and that he didn't have the goofy smile that often seemed forced.
Time passed quickly as each individual explored their own thoughts. It had been exactly forty minutes since Naruto had walked into the room, and the door began to slowly slide open. In came a man that had tall, spiky gray hair and wore the classic jonin uniform. He had a mask covering his mouth and nose, and his Konoha headband covered his left eye. You could see it in his right eye that he was smiling though.
He looked from Naruto to Sasuke to Sakura. "Sorry I'm late. You see, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around." He said.
Sakura knew that at a time like this Naruto would have said something like "Sensei, that makes no sense!" But she disregarded the thought thinking that he figured he had no right to say that since he had been late too.
"Anyway, lets go up to the roof and introduce ourselves to the group." the jonin said and walked back out of the room. Sakura began to walk after him, followed by Naruto and Sasuke. On the roof they sat where they could and the jonin spoke again. "So you can say your name, likes and dislikes and maybe your dreams for the future as well as your hobbies. I'll start. My name is Hatake Kakashi. Things I like and things I hate… I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future… never really thought about it. As for my hobbies… I have lots of hobbies." He said.
"Well that was kind of pointless. All he really told us was his name." Sakura said.
"Well then how about you go next pinky." Kakashi said, slightly annoyed by her comment.
"I'm Haruno Sakura. What I like... I mean the person I like is..." Sakura said. Then she paused and blushed deeply. She took a glance at Sasuke. "My hobby is..." She blushed deeper and kept on glancing towards Sasuke. "My dream for the future is..." Another few glances toward Sasuke after she said that.
Kakashi was now very irritated with his only female student. So he stepped in. "And... what do you hate?" he said.
"Naruto!" She said bluntly. Naruto had been paying attention to all this, and this was a deep blow to his heart. Granted, before that day he acted like an insensitive goofball that took nothing serious, and he promised himself that that would change now, but it was still very rude of her to say that she hated him.
'Girls her age are more interested in boys than in shinobi training...' Kakashi thought with a sigh. "Fine then, next." Kakashi ordered, looking at Sasuke.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I hate a lot of things. And I don't particularly like anything." When she heard that, Sakura felt like a ton of steel was added to her chest. Sasuke continued "What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan and destroy a certain someone." His voice was determined and deadly.
There was a short silence before Kakashi said "Okay... Lastly." He looked towards Naruto.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto." He began. He tried his best to put up his hyperactive front but it was a little harder than usual. "I like ramen, and I don't like having to wait for it to be ready. My hobbies are training and trying out different types of ramen. My dream is to become the Hokage, that way people will stop disrespecting me and see me as someone important." His speech lacked the usual fire that was normally there when he spoke of his dream.
Kakashi noticed that out of the three, the only one that had been able to say something relevant for each category he had put out had been Naruto. Though he had said it without much emotion, he said it nonetheless. But that was beside the point. "Alright, now that we all know who we are, I'm going to inform you about your next mission." He received three pairs of curious eyes. Some more obvious than others. "Its a task that the four of us will do together. A survival exercise."
Sakura decided to speak up. "I thought we were supposed to have a real mission, not more practice. We already did this stuff at the academy, thats how we got here." She was slightly irritated that they were going to do more training.
"This is not like your previous training." Kakashi responded.
"So what kind of training is it then?" Naruto said. He tried as best he could to act like his usual self, not succeeding. His voice came out a lot more serious than he had intended, and this didn't go unnoticed by the group.
Kakashi decided to ignore it for now and continued with his plan to scare the genin. He laughed evilly and said "Well, if I answer that question, your not going to like it." He smiled and that freaked out Sakura a bit. Naruto couldn't be scared of something like that after facing Kyuubi in her true form. Sasuke was much the same. After his encounter with Itachi, not many glares or faces could put a fright in him.
The jonin was a little upset that he didn't mange to scare them. He had expected for Sasuke to be unaffected by this since he often was, but he had also presumed that Naruto would be much like Sakura. He played on with his game though "Out of the twenty-seven graduates who just came here, only nine will actually be accepted as genin. The other eighteen will be weeded out and sent back to the academy. In other words, this is a make-it or break-it, pass-fail test. And the chance that you'll fail is at least sixty-six percent."
This much had all three of them get a reaction. The realization that they might have to be sent back and start all over again was pretty troublesome. Kakashi was much more satisfied with this reaction than he had been with the others. "See, didn't I tell you that you wouldn't like it." He said. "Be at the designated training grounds at five AM, and bring your fighting gear."
The three felt a surge of determination. Sakura wanted to pass this test so that Sasuke would look at her. Naruto wanted to pass this test to get one step closer to becoming Hokage. And Sasuke wanted to get through this to get stronger, strong enough to kill his brother.
"Thats it. You're dismissed. Oh, tomorrow you better skip breakfast, or else you'll puke." And with that, Kakashi vanished in a cloud of smoke.