The Academy graduates were given a few days to savor being free before reporting for genin team assignments. Naruto was not seen during that time, but he had made disappearances like this before so no one noticed when Naruto appeared at the Academy after disappearing for several days. What people did notice was the saber strapped to the back of his waist and lower back. The sheath for a saber was designed to be at the hip, but since its design with the location of where it connected with a belt, and the fact that it was entirely metal, made carrying the saber at its designed place too noisy for a shinobi. What Naruto did instead was place the sheath diagonally so that it started at his right side just above the small of his back and ended about six inches below the left side of his waist. The sheath was held in place by several ropes wrapped around the sheath and Naruto's body.
Iruka walking in (with several bruises and other signs of womanly wrath) snapped Naruto out of his thoughts (and let loose a very wide smirk).
"You are all now genin. Look around you. Konoha treasures camaraderie above all else; the people you see are your comrades and some day their very lives may be in your hands and yours in theirs," Iruka lectured.
Naruto managed to hold in a snort upon hearing Iruka say that. If that was true then he would be dead on his first C-Rank mission.
"The graduating students have been sorted into teams of three picked by the Hokage himself, so no complaining! Team One led by… Team Seven under Hatake Kakashi: Uchiha Sasuke, Inuzuka Kiba, and Yanamaka Ino. Team Eight under Yuhi Kurenai: Haruno Sakura, Aburame Shino, and Akimichi Choji. Team Nine under joint leadership Mitarashi Anko and Kuragari Naito: Uzumaki Naruto, Nara Shikamaru, and Hyuuga Hinata."
"Iruka-sensei! How come they get two senseis when Sasuke-kun only gets one? If anyone deserves two senseis it is Sasuke-kun!" a pink-haired banshee by the name of Haruno Sakura shouted.
"Team Nine is under joint leadership because both senseis are Tokubetsú Jounin while all other teams are under regular Jounin leadership. Thus Team Nine is under joint leadership to make up for each Tokubetsú Jounin's own lack of skill."
Naruto sighed; he could have been given worse. He could have been stuck with the emo-teme and the banshee. Naruto couldn't keep in the shudder; being stuck with those two bimbos was a fate no one deserved. In another dimension, the knucklehead blonde we all know and love sneezed before concluding that someone was talking about him before going on and on about how he would become Hokage and everyone would respect him.
As the class was dismissed for lunch, Naruto walked over to his teammates and calmly said, "If we're going to be working together for the next who-knows-how-long, then we should probably at least be civil to one another. So why don't we hang out while waiting for our senseis?"
Hinata calmly said, "That does make sense. If we can not trust one another then how will we be able to properly function?"
Shikamaru sighed before responding, "Sure, as long as it isn't too troublesome."
After the three left the building they then headed for a tree that provided plenty of shade and sat down in a circle under it. Or rather, Hinata sat, Shikamaru flopped onto his back, and Naruto leapt onto a branch and swung upside down so the only thing keeping him from crashing into the earth was his tail wrapped around the branch.
"Well, I'll go first, as you know I'm Uzumaki Naruto. My favorite things to do are reading, eating, and training with my friend Tenten. The things I despise in the world are most of this village and those who betray those who hold them close. My goal in life is to be seen with respect of any kind and to find my father so I may learn why he did what he did."
"I am Hyuuga Hinata. My favored activities are flower pressing, training in and creating new moves for my family's taijutsu style, and, like Naruto-san, reading. I dislike how my clan is currently run, my father (the word was spat out like a curse), and Kumo. My goal is to either remake my clan, or if I can not do that then start a new one."
"Mendōkŭsái I'm Nara Shikamaru. I like my friend Choji, watching clouds, and things that aren't troublesome. I dislike things that disrupt my cloud watching, troublesome things, and women," Shikamaru would have continued except for the fact that he was interrupted.
"Just what are you saying here buster?" Hinata asked in a too sweet voice while sharpening a kunai.
"Allow me to rephrase that, I dislike most women."
"Better," Hinata replied before tossing Naruto's whetstone back to him.
As Naruto glance back and forth from his whetstone pocket to Hinata (wondering how she got it out from his pocket without anyone seeing), Shikamaru continued his introduction, "My goal is to become an average chuunin with an un-troublesome wife and two un-troublesome children, one boy and one girl."
Naruto stifled a laugh before saying in an amused tone, "Shikamaru, the moment we were put on the same team you lost a chance at having an average life. Take a good look at me and think about that."
Shikamaru looked Naruto up and down…err…down and up (whichever it is since Naruto was hanging upside down) before muttering, "Troublesome."
"Is that all you ever say?"
"Only when things are troublesome."
Naruto dramatically smacked his hand onto his face, causing Hinata to giggle slightly. She stopped when she saw both her teammates staring at her with wide eyes and Naruto inching his hand towards his saber hilt.
"What?" she finally asked.
"I thought that it was a clan rule for Hyuugas to be arrogant, stuck up, emotionless S.O.B.s," Naruto calmly said.
Hinata got an evil gleam in her eye before swinging a mallet from out of nowhere and hitting Naruto smack dab in the face. Have you ever stuck a baseball on a rope then tied that rope to a branch before hitting the ball? Basically, Naruto's tail was the rope while Naruto himself was spinning around the branch in a blur.
"I meANT no OFFenSE HinaTA!" Naruto shouted as he spun around the branch.
Hinata created a chakra string and flung it towards Naruto (who was still spinning around the branch). The string attached to Naruto and with a jerk from Hinata, was sent flying into the tree trunk. Naruto groaned as he slid down the branch to lie on the ground.
"By the way Naruto, how is it that you passed? I had been under the impression that you had failed because you didn't know any extra nin or genjutsu," Hinata remarked after Naruto sat up.
"Mizuki-teme attempted to trick me into stealing a scroll that contained techniques secret to the village. I told the Hokage and we made a plan that once the traitor showed up I would send out a chakra pulse to alert the ANBU. Unfortunately neither of us planned on Iruka-sensei showing up so I had to fight both of them at the same time to avoid getting killed while sending out the pulse. I finally managed to grab onto Iruka and then teleported above the hot springs and ax kicked him down into them before teleporting back and getting the chakra pulse out," Naruto said as he sat up and rubbed where his forehead hit the tree.
The three then headed inside and only had to wait five minutes before their two senseis walked into the classroom. Or rather, one walked in and the other came flying in through the window. The one that walked in tossed a kunai that caused the banner that the other sensei had unfurled as she broke through the window fall to the ground.
"Team Nine?" the man who had walked in asked.
Hinata, Naruto, and Shikamaru stood up while the sensei who tried to have a dramatic entry through the window glared at the one who ruined it.
"Meet us outside Training Ground Forty Four," their male sensei continued before shadowy tentacles wrapped around him and dragged him into the floor.
"Don't worry about him, he always does that," the female sensei calmly said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
Hinata and Shikamaru turned to Naruto who held up his hands and said, "I can only teleport to places I can generate a picture of in my mind, simply thinking the name of a place doesn't work. We'll have to walk."
The other two shrugged before leaving the Academy and heading to the general area for training grounds numbering in the forties. While the exact locations of all training grounds weren't known to everyone, the general layout of the village had the main village in the center, with branches reaching towards the four different gates, followed by the training grounds that wrapped around the village like a spiral.
After the three arrived at the entrance to the training ground, they stood before their senseis who smirked.
"This is Training Ground Forty Four, also known as the Forest of Death," Anko started.
"In order to truly become genin, you must pass a test decided by us. Now Anko-chan wanted to stick you in the Forest for two weeks," Naito said with a smirk as the three paled.
"Naito-kun wanted to use the test administered by his sensei, so we compromised."
"My sensei would only take me as an apprentice if I could break free from one of his self-created jutsu. It is similar to a genjutsu, but it forces you to view the domain of demons," Naito continued as the three genin-to-be paled as they realized what he was talking about.
"Yes, it fools all of your senses into thinking you're in Hell," Anko explained.
"Our compromise is that you will be subject to my sensei's test, but you will be stuck there for two weeks. A side effect of this jutsu is that any and all secrets that you have will be meaningless," Naito said while looking at Naruto, "because you will have depended upon each other to survive. Before we begin, I should warn you that my sensei was Konoha's Oni. Yamiton: Makai Kanran no Jutsu!"
There was a flash of black light (for lack of a better term) before the three pre-teens found themselves in a barren wasteland.
"Okay, we need to think. We're in hostile territory with no supplies, no relief, no support, and nothing except the clothes on our backs. Hinata, what weapons do you have on you?" Naruto asked.
"Ten kunai, ten shuriken, and some ninja wire," Hinata responded.
"I've got the same minus the ninja wire," Shikamaru said before Naruto could ask.
"I've got my saber, two vials of poison, a scroll with fifty kunai and fifty shuriken, and a few daggers," Naruto listed off his weapons.
"Our first priority should be getting water. If we can find that we're sure to find food. I just hope demon meat is edible," Shikamaru calmly said to the agreement of his teammates.
"First off, Naito-sensei said that secrets would be meaningless so I might as well tell you now. My father's a missing-nin," Naruto calmly said, though inside he was terrified.
"So what?"
"My father isn't just any missing-nin, he's the one that killed the Yondaime!"
Hinata and Shikamaru's eyes widened as they realized why Naruto was hated, everyone in the village loved the Yondaime so when he was murdered the entire village was pissed. When it leaked out that the Yondaime's killer also had a child with the Yondaime's wife, in addition to that child looking like something out of Hell, they grew to hate it and assumed that it would follow in his father's footsteps.
"Naruto, I do not know what to think right now. I do know that we need to work together for the time being however so I am willing to put that aside until we get out of here," Hinata said in an emotionless tone to which Shikamaru agreed.
"While my family does hate Damatsu Take for killing the Yondaime, we also respect him as a shinobi. So if you inherited his skills as a shinobi, there isn't anyone who I would rather work with," Shikamaru said.
"Thank you," Naruto breathed in relief.
"Now let's get to finding water."
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After an hour the three genin hopefuls found a river that had several trees and caves nearby that would be good places to sleep when night fell. Naruto glanced into one cave only to teleport away as a bear demon roared and came charging out. Naruto drew his saber and crouched down as his teammates drew their own weapons.
The bear demon roared before charging at the shinobi in the middle, which just so happened to be Naruto. Naruto held his saber out while wrapping his tail around one of the daggers that he had in the small of his back. Hinata held one palm out while drawing the other one out behind her. Shikamaru flashed through hand seals for his favorite jutsu as the demon approached. Naruto gripped his saber in both hands and teleported just above the demon, catching it by surprise. Shikamaru finished his hand seals and his shadow stretched out towards the demon's shadow. Hinata thrust her arm out and a mass of chakra shaped like a spear shot out. By this time Naruto had landed on the demon's neck and he used his tail to slam the dagger into its shoulder while he stabbed into its neck with his saber. Hinata's spear of chakra hit the demon in the eye just before Shikamaru's shadow connected with its own.
"Kuso, this demon has a really thick hide!" Naruto said as he pulled his saber out.
"Naruto, try stabbing through its eye! If we're lucky your saber will reach its brain and kill it!" Hinata shouted as she drew a kunai just in case.
"BUT WAIT UNTIL I DISCONNECT MY SHADOW! IF YOU DON'T YOU'LL KILL ME AS WELL!" Shikamaru shouted as Naruto climbed onto the top of the demon's head.
Naruto held his saber ready to stab when he felt Shikamaru's shadow suddenly disconnect via bear demon movement. Naruto lurched forward slightly and used the momentum to help swing the tip of his saber into the bear demon's eye, but unfortunately didn't reach into the demon's brain. The demon roared in pain and swung a paw to dislodge Naruto, in the process sending Naruto flying into a tree. Hinata aimed her arm with her pointer and index finger at the demon as chakra built up in her finger tips. The demon let out another roar and she fired a laser of chakra that drilled through the upper part of the demon's jaw and practically sliced the demon's head in half!
Once Naruto was awake he looked at the demon's fangs and claws and adopted a thinking posture while his tail returned his dagger back to its sheath in the small of his back. After a minute he said, "I think I know how we can keep from wasting our weapons."
"How?" Hinata asked as she used a kunai to skin the demon while Shikamaru examined the cave it had been habiting.
"Every demon we kill is bound to have some kind of natural weaponry; we'll just make our own weapons from those. Like this bear demon, we can use the claws and fangs as daggers or, if one of us desires, use the smaller ones as arrowheads."
Hinata nodded at the logic as Shikamaru came back from the cave.
"The cave's clear," Shikamaru said as both he and Hinata knelt down next to the demon's corpse and helped skin and gather any materials they would need from it. After all of the meat had been separated, Naruto started to cut specific sinews from the longer pieces before laying that aside. He then placed the ribs to one side along with all other bones he could think of a use for. After asking Hinata how long her ninja wire was, "two batches of ten feet", he used some of Hinata's ninja wire and a rib bone to fashion a rough bow before gouging out a handle by using one of the bear's claws since a kunai wasn't designed for that or sharp enough. Hinata in the meantime was cutting sections of the demon's hide into blankets, mats, and sections for clothing and bags. Shikamaru was dividing up the meat and trying to figure out how long the meat from this demon would last. Considering that the demon was twice as tall as them on all fours, that could be a while.
(One week later)
By now Team Nine had adapted to life in the demon realm. Their clothes made from the bear demon's skin doubled as very effective armor and Hinata was becoming quite proficient in her demon-bone bow. She had decided that her Byakugan would make her the most suited for the bow. In fact she took to the bow like a duck to water. Shikamaru combined the vertebra of the bear demon and some of Hinata's ninja wire to make a rudimentary chain to use in conjunction with his Kagemane no Jutsu. Naruto used the claws as daggers and also hollowed some of the claws out combined with some of the hide to make a set of clawed gloves that only he could wear. Not through seals or anything like that but because there were only three finger spots on each glove. Hinata and Shikamaru had also become comfortable with the fact that Naruto was related to the Yondiame's killer.
The three were currently stalking an elk demon in hopes to use its antlers for more weaponry. They still had enough meat for a few more days but they didn't want to push their luck, already they had been forced to vacate their original cave due to a pack of wolf demons and had to leave much of their meat stores behind (although they did manage to kill five of the demons before retreating). They also found out that all of the plants in the demon realm were exactly the same as what was around Konoha.
Shikamaru suggested that they really were still in Konoha, but their senses still told them they were in the demon realm. With nothing else to go on the other two accepted this until they could question Naito-sensei about it.
The three shook themselves from their thoughts as the elk demon moved into position for Hinata to snipe it. A single arrow later and the elk demon was dead and Team Nine now had enough supplies for the rest of the week.
(One more week later)
"Okay, today's the day this ends," Naruto said to his teammates.
The elk demon they had killed a week before had been a blessing. Naruto had hollowed out some of the antlers to make drinking horns (darn near literally) and had managed to grab three wolf demon bodies from the pack that had moved into their cave. The skulls were big enough that Naruto was able to fashion chest armor on top of the bear demon hide for the three of them and used rib bones to protect the rest of the torso. Hinata had taken the wolf demon hides and made hooded cloaks for the three of them from a single hide. She saved the other hides for when they returned to Konoha to make for others that the team wanted to make cloaks for.
The ribs of the elk demon were naturally sharp and they were able to use them as a perimeter during the night. In addition, Naruto was teaching the others how to use a blade by using the rib bones. They were roughly the same size as his saber, if a bit more curved, so they made for good practice blades. The hooves were hard enough to crush a skull and Shikamaru found out when he accidentally destroyed the part of the bear demon's skull that they had kept.
Team Nine blinked as their surroundings changed from their home for the last two weeks to where they had been standing right before. They turned to a grinning Naito who was receiving bills from Anko; apparently Naito had won a bet that most likely involved them.
Naito stood before the genin and said, "Congratulations, you three pass. In addition to making me one hundred ryo richer, you have done what nearly no other genin could have done. You survived two weeks in Hell."
"What do you mean Naito-sensei, it wasn't real was it?" Hinata asked.
Naito laughed before saying, "Oh it was very much real, look at what you're wearing."
The three looked down at themselves and saw that the clothes they had made while in the demon realm were still there. Hinata still had her bow, Shikamaru still hade his vertebra chain, Naruto still had his claw gloves and daggers as well as the longer antler that he had saved.
"That's right maggots, you came close to dying several times," Anko said with a smirk.
"Starting tomorrow we will be doing team training. After a week of that, we will start missions. Two D-Ranks a day followed by training for four weeks six days a week before receiving a C-Rank mission. You have the rest of today off, enjoy it," Naito said with a smile as he shooed Team Nine home.
(With Naruto)
Naruto walked into his apartment only for several kunai to bounce off the skull on his chest followed by a feminine battle cry. Naruto sighed and drew his saber before parrying Tenten's katana.
"TWO WEEKS! TWO WEEKS WITH NO EXPLANATION, NO REASONING, NO NOTHING AS TO WHERE YOU WERE! YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST LEFT A NOTE!" Tenten shouted all the while slashing with her katana.
Naruto tossed his saber in the air while pulling out his claw gloves and catching his saber with his tail. Naruto blocked a katana strike with his saber before swiping with his right glove. Seeing the attack, Tenten sucked her stomach in while pulling out a wakizashi with her left hand and stabbing at Naruto's own stomach. Naruto then spun around, causing Tenten to overbalance and fall past Naruto who knocked her out with a punch to the temple.
An hour later Tenten awoke to see Naruto in front of her with a strange set of armor on. The chest piece looked like a wolf skull wile the rest looked like really big rib bones.
"Ten-chan, I couldn't leave a note because I was taking my genin test. It was completely unexpected, I was practically dumped into enemy territory with no supplies, no support, and no reinforcements and was told to survive for two weeks," Naruto explained.
"What sensei gives his team a test like that?" Tenten asked, she had one of the most eccentric jounins out there for a sensei and even he wouldn't do that.
"My team is under joint leadership of Mitarashi Anko and Kuragari Naito."
Tenten thought for a moment before her eyes widened and she said, "I don't envy you."
"This coming from someone who the second place winner for Emo-Teme of the Year award and two grown men who hug and cry like a pair of children?"
"Exactly."
Naruto paled as that processed though his mind, "Kill me now."
Tenten just giggled before she said, "By the way, we think that Lee just may be a mutant."
Naruto raised an eyebrow before he asked, "What makes you say that?"
"In training two days ago he briefly became covered in a skintight metal."
(With Hinata)
Hinata yawned as she walked into the Hyuuga Clan Manor. For the first time in two weeks she would get to sleep in her own bed instead of on a mattress of bear demon hide. What she didn't consider was that she was still in the armor that they had made while in the demon realm; thus once Hyuuga Hiashi saw her in "barbaric hides and bones" he was not pleased.
"Hinata, what do you think you are wearing?" he coldly demanded.
"Tou-sama, with all due respect, I just spent the last two weeks in a justu that made me think I was in Hell so I would very much like to sleep in my bed. I will answer any questions after a nap," Hinata responded before walking right by a stunned Hiashi.
Hinata had never brushed Hiashi off before so either she was pissed off at someone or she was really tired. From what she had said he guessed she had Kuragari Naito for a sensei. Hiashi hated Damatsu Take just like everyone else but he was only cautious around his former apprentice instead of automatically labeling him a spy like most of the village. He found it illogical to blame the apprentice or the son for the actions of the criminal.
(With Shikamaru)
The moment Shikamaru walked into his house, he was smothered into a hug by his mother.
After nearly being suffocated, Shikamaru calmly said, "I'll explain later, now I want sleep," before immediately going to his room and collapsing on his bed.
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AN: And CUT! Well that chapter took longer than I expected. The main roadblocks were figuring out the team structures and an original genin test. Once I got to the spot outside the Forest of Death I realized that there were already plenty of tests that involved it, and I'm trying to be as original as possible with this fic. I then realized that with a name like Konoha's Oni, Naito's test could have been involving a jutsu that placed the use in Hell. So I utilized that. I also chose to give Naruto's team two senseis because the way I see it Tokubetsú Jounin are officially very skilled chuunin in specific areas. I also figured that the village would be prejudice enough to keep both Anko and Naito from advancing any further than that, meaning if either one were to take a genin team they would either need a normal Jounin basically babysitting them or have a second Tokubetsú Jounin to pick up where the other wouldn't cover.
AN (part 2): First off I am surprised that no one commented how Iruka actually fought against Naruto in the first chapter. Even though no one did, I feel the need to explain myself, after which I will respond to a few of my reviews. The whole reason Iruka became attached to Naruto is because Iruka was an orphan after his parents died fighting the Kyuubi and Naruto acted like he himself did while growing up. In this fic, the Kyuubi didn't attack so Iruka was never an orphan added to the fact that Naruto didn't try to gain attention by playing pranks.
Now for reviews:
ss: First off actually READ the story. You will see that Naruto's father was NOT the Yondaime Hokage, but was the one who killed the Yondaime. And I didn't have the Kyuubi attack for a reason. I wanted to do something unique. If I kept the Kyuubi, then all I would have done would have been giving Naruto a new ability. I wanted something fairly original. Getting rid of the Kyuubi fits that pretty well. And the least you could have done would be to give me a place to reply to.
Jason: I gather I didn't make it clear enough, but there will be no X-Men in this fic. The X-Men are long gone. In this fic modern times are several thousand years in the past. As for your second question, yes Naruto will get a girl but it will NOT be one of the usual ones. Sorry NarutoHinata fans; I like Hinata just as much as the next person but I want to be as original as I could with this fic.