I do not own Naruto. Im letting my imagination run wild with this.

Darius is, of course, mine.

Chapter 2 Teams

Darius Browsed the isles of the flower shop, unable to decide.... roses, nah, too plain... Carnations... possibly...

"May I help you with something young man?", came a voice behind him.

"Yes maam, im looking for a pretty flower to pick to give to someone.... any advice?" Darius asked.

"Well, that all depends, everyone has different tastes and likes, I take it that this someone is a girl?" the woman asked.

"Ummm,,, yeah, shes got such pretty blonde hair and we had such a nice conversation yesterday... I thought it would be a nice sign of friendship to give her a pretty flower....

the woman thought for a moment and then handed him a delicate looking flower, I think this will do for freindship she said.

He held a beautful golden flower, delicate and yet strong looking, it had an intense fragrance that it suddenly took him back for a moment.....

Young man, the woman asked, shaking him out of his day dream... are you alright?

"Oh yes, thanks", he said dropping the money on the counter and dashing out. "Dont want to be late for my first day....!"

Naruto was there early, Hinata sitting next to him, a look of embarassment on her face...Sasuke being fought over by Sakura and Ino, the others looked bored as Darius walked in, just made it he thought

"Ino, ummm, I wanted to... give this ….. to say thanks for being a friend and all" he started to say, holding the flower to her.

"See Ino-PIG, you already got Him.. Sasuke is mine!" Sakura said.

"whoa, wait a sec, its just a gift, right darius, for being a friend. Tell FORE HEAD THAT!!!"

"Ummm, yes...." Darius sheepishly replied.

"OK that will be enough" Iruka said as he walked in the door. His look of dissatisfaction with the certain fan girls was driving him up an unclimbable wall.

"I have your team assignments, Darius please take a seat", Iruka motioned to Darius to sit next to Ino.

She cast him a bossy smile and whispered thanks to him before turning her attention to the class.

Iruka started to list the names of the teams and their jounins that would be guiding them.

Team 7 was Kiba, Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura mocked ino for getting sasuke. Their Sensei was Kakashi Hatake.

Team 8 was Darius, Naruto and Hinata, their sensei was Kurenai.

Team 9 was Chouji, shikamaru and ino and asuma was their sensei.

Iruka indicated that Shino Abramue was being sent off for special trainign with his family for a time.

Naruto was visibly happy that he got his 2 friends, but sad and annoyed because sakura was teamed with the teme.

Hinata was wide eyed when she discovered naruto would be on her team, she thought she might faint but managed to keep your self conscious, she had to be strong and determined as Naruto was, and not hold him back.

Darius had mixed emotions. He was glad to be on his friends team and yet, kind of hoped that ino would be on his team too. He let out a sigh.

"hey, why the sigh?" Ino asked. "At least hinata is on your team, shes a hyugga and they have the bloodline." Darius faked a weak smile. "Besides, I bet you can beat the pants of that naruto brat".

Darius turned, "Ino, Naruto is my friend, and hes strong. Stronger than what you might realize, give him some slack ok?" she shrugged and congratulated them before she and her team mates left out the door to meet their sensei.

Team 7 was already gone.

Hinata looked nervous but suddenly smiled as she saw the red eyed kurneai walk into the room to meet them. Her sadness seemed to melt in the presence of their sensei.

Flashback

Meeting in the hyuuga compund, Kurneai was told that she would be caring for hinata for now. Her gaurdian, Hizashi hyuuga believed that she was weak and that the hyuuga needed stronger blood. Hinata had heard the words and she felt like such a failure.

End Flashback

She hugged Hinata like a mother would and hinata seemed to cheer up.

Darius and Naruto had never seen her look so , well, happy.

"I am your Sensei Kurneai Yuhi. From this day forth, you are gennin, the lowest class of ninjas. Be prepared to work as hard as you can if you ever expect to became better than that. Today, lets just get to know one another."

Kurneai pointed to Naruto.."you first whiskers..."

"My name is Naruto Uzamaki and my goal is to become the strongest ninja to prove the village that I am worthy of praise and to protect my two best friends, hinata and darius. Some day I will be the greatest Hokage ever! Believe it"

Hinata smiled, he always showed so much strength, she wanted to be like him.

Kurneai nodded

"well you have a lot of work ahead of you naruto if you want to be hokage, but never give up on your dreams. She added.

Kurneai pointed to Darius, "ok, who are you and tell us something about yourself"

Darius smiled" my Name is Darius, I have no clan so its just darius. I was found in the mountains above the village almost a decade ago by my friend naruto and raised int e orphanage. I hope to be a great ninja someday and see the wonders abroad, they say I have a bad case of wandering. I like Exploring and Naruto and hianta are my friends."

Kurneai smiled, "well you are a pleasant fellow, tell us what the medallion is for?"

Darius cradled it in his hand, "I'm actually not sure, its an heirloom of the past the the only thing that keeps me connected to the past. From the past, we can learn what transpires in the present to shape the future." Darius wondered where that came from....

"An astute answer, hinata, why dont you go next even though I am familiar your friends may not be" kurneai smiled down at her.

:M-my n-name is Hinata Hyuuga and i-i-i am the heiress of hyuuga. I-I-I like to cook and p press flowers and b-be w-with my friends. I- want to bbbe stronger and c-change my clan for the b-better." Hinata felt so red all of a sudden.

"Dont worry, hinata, with me and darius around, we will help and ill always protect my friends!" Naruto interjected.

"Loud isnt he" Kurenai thought.

"Excellent now that we are all acquainted, lets go and begin our training, we have a lot of work ahead of us, especially team work. Thats what I want to focus on more than anything. A team that can not work together is useless and we want to be useful ninjas" kurneai stated coldly.

They traveled together out to the training area but they found the area had been destroyed, torn to pieces by a contest Lee and Gai had made.

"well this won't do" kurenai stated.

"ooo, oo, what about using that place you found darius to train at!? Could we do that instead sensei?" naruto stated.

She raised an eyebrow and asked, " and where might his be Darius"

"theres a place not far from here, probably about 20-30 mintues of hiking around a bluff... I haven't seen any sign of it being discovered the last time I went but its secluded and serene, sensei. We had planned to make a trip of it and this might be a good time as ever." Darius said.

"Well, why dont we gather our things and we can set out for it in an hour then?" Kurenai said.

It was about 2 hours later that they found themselves at the spot that darius had said. The bluff provided cover and a clearing a good cam and training site. Several practice dummies were already set out, with kunais and shurikens sticking out of them.

"this will do nicely indeed and im going to start off by teaching you all to enhance your chakra control, except for you hinata" kurneai told tehm. " I want you to begin on your taijutsu practice. Naruto will be your sparring partner"

"lets do our best hinata" naruto said.

"h-hai" hinata said shyly.

Naruto ran at hinata with a raised fist, which she easily sidestepped. He managed to dodge the come back strikes, with suprising agility that hinata knew would not stop her if she would go all out. Kunai flew, shurikens, dodges, parries, the battle lasted for about 10 minutes before a leg sweep knocked naruto down on his pride, with a determined faced hinata looking at him, "yield!?" Her hands an inch from his face.

"yes, wow hianta that was awesome" naruto praised her. She bowed to him, but she felt like he was holding back on her.

"Darius its your turn and I shall be your opponent" kKurneai said as she got up.

"Yes sensei, but I would like to protest first, they fought each other and I am fighting a jounin, I think the odds are against me." darius stated.

"We shall see darius" kurneai said with a smirk.

Darius un sheathed a straight blade, slightly wider than most. She could see the balance was near perfect. Darius then took up an odd stance, something that she hadn't seen before, it most certainly was kenjutsu, but what she couldn't tell. Naruto watched and hinata used her Byakugan to observe the battle. She was impressed by the fury and the boy had skill, the technique was some combination and showed proficiency with it, but kurneai ended the battle within a minute.

Hinata shook her head a bit, noticing that his chakra seemed to ebb and burst strangely.

"very skilled darius and you are right, you were outmatched but I wanted to test your resolve and you clearly will not back down." Kurenai said.

A smile to them all and kurneai got deadly serious, they started with walking on trees, exerting them selves to their limit over and over again through out the day. They slept at the site, secluded. , the light of konoha no longer obstructing the stars.

"This is why I come here, for that" Daris said smiling, showing his friends, a great field of stars, even some nebula appeared.

He pointed to one particular star and told his friends to watch and it suddenly burst into light blazing brightly for a few minutes before the light began to fade and it returned to it original luminosity.

"That was impressive darius, how did you know that would happen?" naruto asked.

Darius thought for a moment and said, "I don't know, something said look there and it happened."

He got up and excused himself, wandering around tot he edge of the lake. Naruto had already fallen asleep and kurneai and hinata slipped in their tent, to sleep away the work of the day

How did I know that Erandi would do that.. darius thought.