I found myself sitting in my fathers office. After he had found myself and iruka we decided that the insueing conversation should be held somewhere more private. i just finished telling him the story about why i took the scroll. " so let me get this straight you" he sent a pointed look at myself " after failing your graduation exam were approached by mizuki whom led you to believe that if you stole the sacred scroll of seals you would still be allowed to become a genin" he looked at me questioningly "uh...yea." i hear him sigh" naruto you need to think things through before you just go off and do them, but i cant really be mad at you as a student if you cant trust your teacher then who can you trust." he may not be mad but i can tell he's disappointed in me and if anything that hurt worse. " so after you had taken the scroll" nice of you to gloss over the fact that i totally got you with my sexy jutsu old man. " you proceed to the meeting location where you were able to complete the shadow clone jutsu" did i hear just a little bit of pride in his voice. " YEA you wanna see its so awesome" he smiles at me and shakes his head " maybe some other time naruto" i frown there always seemed to be another time for me and yoko. " so about this time you come in" he send his gaze to iruka " yes hokage-sama."says iruka. " so you can verify that mizuki attempted to frame my son for treason" my father asked iruka. " i can sir, mizuki all but pleaded guilty" my father sent iruka a questioning look " all but?" " well he never out right said that he attempted to frame naruto but it was blatantly obvious." my father shrugged " oh well i'll have him taken to ibiki anyways so he'll get it out of him; which leaves me on my last topic of discusion, the kyuubi." i tense at those words i had hoped to just forget about it completely and pretend it didnt exist but i guess that was a cowards way out. and if there was one thing naruto namikaze was not it was a coward. i looked up at my father and asked the only question that came to mind "why." my father looked confused for a second then said " your gonna have to be little more specific then that naruto" i look at my father angrly " why me, why not someone else" he sighed " the only way to stop the kyuubi was to seal it away and the only thing that could keep it locked away safely is an uzumaki. with your mother dead that left only you and your sister." he looked down sadly " i couldnt bring my self to choose so i just grab the of one that was closest and left immediatly for the sealing when i got there the third was already waiting he asked me to allow him to do the sealing and at first i refused it was my duty as hokage to protect the village he called me a fail and asked how i could village if i was dead" he laughed it was hollow and humorless " he was right so i allowed him to do the sealing.". I looked down i didnt want to let the shed tears through. I didnt want to be angry at my dad or sister but i couldnt help it, it just wasnt fair yoko was the loved prodigy and i was the scorned dead last. i got up and left i neede time to think " naruto wait..." i hear iruka call after but ignore it. " leave him be iruka he needs time to sort out all his feelings, i wouldnt he's a strong kid im sure he'll pull through" iruka turns to the hokage " i hope your right sir.".

I walked until i found myself on top of the hokage monument. I took a seat on my fathers head, this place brought me great comfort, it's a place very few go to reguraly so i didnt get any glares up here and i gotta chance to see the village as it really was. the was village beautiful and the few people out this late were happy and cheerful. this sight was the soul reason i hadnt lost hope in the village accepting me one day. i saw the way the loved each other an knew deep down that these people weren't evil they were just scared. i mean come on whos gonna believe that little kid can hold back the strongest demon in existence when even there hokage couldn't. that didnt mean i wasnt a little angry at them but its not like i could go down there an just go on a rampage that would make me no better then the kyuubi. It would only prove them right in there assumption that i couldnt handle it, so no i decided i would be better then them even before i knew about the kyuubi. I decided i would do anything in my power to get there acceptance even if it meant being hokage. " hey thats not a bad idea" i said slowly " yea once im hokage they have to aknowledge me" i smiled my resolve firmly in place that no matter the strife no matter how much pain i would be hokage.

I woke up the next morning feeling as if a weight had been lifted of my shoulders. I now knew why i wasnt liked, they say the first step to fixng any problem is finding the problem so hey im one step closer then i was before. 'god im cheesy even in my own mind' i laughed then i realized today was team assignment. ' i wonder who i'll be on a team with, anyone but sasuke and i'll be happy' i get out of bed and begin getting ready i can hear my sister in her room getting ready as well maybe today we'll to school together like we used to. scratch that she just walked out of her room, down the stairs and out the door. ' whatever i didnt want to walk with her anyway' i finish getting ready and head for the academy.

when i enter i greet iruka-sensei and take my seat next to sasuke. he doesn't even aknowledge my presence with a glance, what a bastard. i keep getting strange glances from everyone in the room though, apparently they didnt expect me here. iruka calls the room too attention " all right everyone i want to congragulate you on passing the exam and taking the first step in your ninja career" he smiles proudly at us " now lets get down to team assignment, team 1 will be..." i wasn't really paying attention to iruka sensei anymore, i was just looking out for my name to be called. i take a look to see who all passed the exam, in my rush to leave the academy yesterday i hadn't given it much thought. All the caln heirs seemed to pass and a few civilian born kids, including his ever lovely sakura. Ah she was such a delicate flower someday she would understand his love and feel it too (that could very easily be misconstrued as a sexual innuedo). i perk up as i here " team seven will be Naruto Namikaze, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno under jounin sensei Kakashi Hatake" ' well shit i guess coulda been worse i mean sakuras on my team so it should be okay' i console myself over the news of being on a team with sasuke. " team 8 will be Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame under jounin sensei Kurenai Yuuhi" that made sense. they were obviously a tracking, i mean between an inuzuka, aburame and hyuuga how much better of a tracking team could you get. " Team 9 is still in circlulation from last year so we'll move on to team 10 which will be Ino yamanaka , Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi under jounin sensei Sarutobi Asuma." well i coulda saw that one coming a mile away considering how much success the last generation of the ino-shika-cho trio had. I wonder who team 9 is if there still in circulation. " Team 11 will be Yoko Namikaze, Tobio and Minoji under jounin sensei Tenkuno Kendan" so yoko was paired with two civillian born kids. the were as average as average gets well that mojino fella had these weird eye markings, they were dark green lines at the corner his eyes that ran into his hair line. yoko seemed indifferent to who she was paired with.

" okay guys were gonna break for lunch after that your jounin sensei will come and get you, i recommend you meet with your teammates during the lunch break so you can get to know one another better" i reluctantly look over at sasuke to see if he'd like to have lunch as a team but the jackass snorts before i even ask then walks away. " what pompous ass" i mutter under my breath the look for sakura but cant find her. " Hey sasuke-kun wanna have lunch together it will be like a date." i turn around at her voice and she her standing by sasuke. "No" sakura looks devastated at his answer so i walk up and say " ah forget him sakura-chan come have lunch with me, you know like a date." i give her the widest smile i can muster unknowingly creeping her the hell out. " in your dreams naruto" i most cerntainly did not pout as she walked away to look for sasuke.

after that i decided to beat up sasuke and impersonate him. it almost didnt work but boy did those solid clones suprise him. so now i was walking down the main street of konoha look for sakura when i walk by yoko by herself. she looked up at me quizically but there was no way she could tell i wasnt sasuke. "naruto?" 'shit' i try to ignore her and keep walking " why are you henged as sasuke, naruto and i know its you i could tell your chakra signature anywhere" ' shit' in a poof of smoke i turn around and smile at her " hey yoko what are you doing here." she gives me a dry look and says " really your gonna try and play it off as if i didnt just catch you as sasuke and the best you come up with is hey yoko." i huff in exasperation then look at my watch are lunch is almost up 'damn i wont have anytime to talk to sakura' i sigh" man why do you always have to ruin my fun yoko." she snorts and says " whatever idiot" then gets up and walks back to the academy. " love you to sis!" i holler as i head to ichiraku ramen ' hey theres always time for ramen'.

After a few bowls of ramen and lecture from iruka on punctuality i sat and waited for my sensei to show. i waited ... and waited ... and waited somemore until finally kakashi-sesnei showed. now i had met kakashi before, i mean he was the student of my father so the obviously stayed in touch. but that wasn't to say we were close by any means. " so your team 7 i presume" kakashi says " meet me on the roof for introducions" then shunshins away. i just sighed and made my way too the door if i remeber correctly my father had menioned kakashi tardiness.

as i made it to the roof i took a seat next to sakura as she descretely slid away from me. sasuke sat by himself in his typical brood pose. " now that everyones here we can begin"kakashi says, i nearly drowned in the irony of that statement "why dont you three tell me a little about yourselfs, your likes ,dislikes and dreams of the future" sakura perks up and says " why dont you go first sensei" kakshi eye-smiles and says " my name is kakashi hatake, my like and dislikes well i dont feel like telling you as for hobbies well your a little young for that" he chuckled. i sweatdroped ' really all he told us was his name' he turned to sakura and said " why dont you go next pinky" a tic mark appeared on her head " my name is sakura haruno my likes are..." she glances ast sasuke and i nearly vomit " my dislikes are NARUTO!" were just star crossed lovers she get it eventually " my dream for the future is..." she steals another glance at sasuke and yep i definetly threw up in my mouth that time. " ooookkkay why dont you go next naruto" sakura gave him a quizical look for knowing my name but didnt question it. i smiled and said " my names naruto namikaze, my likes are ramen, my dislikes are non-punctual jackasses and broody bastards , my dream for the future is to be the hokage" kakashi looked suprised at that statement. its understandable up untils this point i had never shown any interest in being hokage. i had see how much my father worked and it had really veered me off the idea until recently, now i would do anything to be hokage. after his lapse of surprise, well his one eye widened a little so i think he was surprised, he nodded and turn to sasuke and said " and you" sasuke just turned slightly and said " my name is sasuke uchiha, i dont particularly like anything and there a lot of things i hate, what i have is not a dream but a ambition i will see finished im going to kill a certain man" i was a little disturbed by his last statement i mean what 12 year old do you know who thanks of murder 24/7, dont they give a psych evaluation before you become a genin, if so then how'd this psychopath pass. after sasukes little spiel kakashi just nods as if its the most normal thing in the world then says " good you all have your own ideals and views. meet me at training ground 7 tomorrow morning at 6 for your official test to be genin, and remember dont eat anything before or you'll throw it up" then vanishes in a shushin leaving me sputtering " wha.. what test i thought we were already genin" sakura seems just as surprised as me. sasuke just grunts and leaves for were ever the hell he goes.

I found myself standing in training gorund 7 the next morning. Myself, sakura and sasuke had shown up on time and then proceeded to wait THREE HOURS for our beloved sensei to appear so you can undertand why the first thing out of my mouth was " YOUR LATE!". Kakashi just eye smiled and said " now now naruto on my way here a black cat crossed my path so i had to double back and make sure i had no bad luck" i swear i nearly had a brain aneurysm at his comment. he just turn a way and pulled and clock and bell out of god knows where then turned back to us and said " now then the way to pass this test is for you to get one of these bell from me before the time on that clock runs out i set it for noon so that should give you three hours, i would suggest coming at me with the intent to kill or you'll fail." sakura is confused at this and says " but what if we hurt you sensei" kakashi chuckles as if its the most ridiculous thing the world. " if you who aren't even genin yet can hurt me an elite jounin then i should probably resign anyways." . He looks at us squarely and says " if theres no more questions then let's begin."

i need no more instruction as i charge kakashi head up while sasuke and sakura hide. kakashi bats away my strikes as if im merely a fly to him. " huh i expected more from the son of the fourth" i lose all rationality at that statement. i had lived in the shadow of my father for a long time and even though i tried not to let it get to me it still got under my skin sometimes. i charge in at him recklessly, kunai draw as i approach. in seconds the tables are turned and kakashi's behind me with my own kunai to my neck. " touched a sore spot did i?" kakashis says eye smiling the whole time. he retracts the kunai and kicks me away. i turn around and make a cross hand seal" SHADOW CLONE JUTSU" in a poof of smoke ten clones appear and charge at kakashi. he doesnt even seem the slighest bit surprised i know a forbidden jutsu. i used the slight distraction my clones give to hide in the forest and regroup.

i took a moment to think over my fight with kakashi. I never stood a chance, i never even took him out of his comfort zone, hell he's out there reading a book right now. i realized there was no way i was going to be able to get a bell alone. but how would i be able to convince the others and even if i did then who gets a bell and who doesn't. there were only two so that meant one of us was doomed to fail. i decided not to worry about what happened after getting the bells, it wouldn't matter if i didn't get the bells in the first place.

i decided to look for my teammates and atleast try to persuade them to work together. i found sakura first she was unconscious in the middle of the woods. i shook her awake and asked her too help me find sasuke. she seemed a little too eager to help but i just shrugged it off there were more important things right now. we found sasuke buried up to his neck in dirt. after sakura past out thinking sasuke had been decapitated i lost it and began rolling on the floor laughing. sasuke didnt take to kindly to that but whatever he deserved it. after sakura regained consciousness and we got sasuke out the hole i began my plea " theres no way any of us can beat kakashi alone, he's just too good" i start " the only way i see any of us having a chance at getting the bells are by working together" sasuke seems sceptical and asks " lets say we do get the bells, then who gets a bell and who doesn't" i sigh " i know this is the problem i kept running into as well there are only to so one of us has to fail" sakura seems struck by this statement and says " say that again" i look at her oddly " there are only two so ne of us has two fail" she gains a quizical look to her and mutters " thats odd i' ve never heard of a two man genin team" realization shows it self on sasukes face " its all a ploy" he says " whats all a ploy" i ask confused. a look of understanding comes across sakuras face as she says " this whole test its all ploy to make us divide are selfs, it makes perfect sense now that i think" i look at her confused " the bells theres only two so that there will always be conflict between us on who will get them" she explains. " oooooh that sneaky bastard" i say sakura nods " yea im surprised i didnt think about it earlier but i was so concerned with passing it never even crossed my mind." " but if the bells arent the point of the test then whats is" i ask. "hn" sasuke grunts " it pretty obvious isn't, this whole things about setting aside your own personal gains to complete that mission." after that we hear clapping from above us in the trees " well said sasuke and you would be right" kakashi starts " the whole point of this exercise was to see if you three could still work as a team even when it may hurt you personally, ill admit at the beginning i didn't you three would pull it off" he the eyes smiles then says " but im proud to say you all pass, you were able to work together to figure out the real meaning of the test, you looked underneath the underneath" i was so happy i jumped up and screamed "YATTA" . kakashi then lead us to this rather large stone and sat us down" this is the memorial stone, all shinobi who are killed in action have there names carved here so there sacrifice can be remember and honored" he then turned to us and said the words that i would unknowingly carry with me for the rest of my life " remember this, those who break the rules are trash.. this is true.. but those who abandon there comrades are worse then trash"