Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, dialogue, etc. of Naruto© and Kingdom Hearts©, are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot of this work are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.
Naruto awoke suddenly, jerked into wakefulness as his alarm clock blared loudly his empty apartment. His hand slammed down on the off switch as he sat up, groggily noting that his head felt strangely fuzzy. What had just happened he wondered sleepily, a bit dazed, but the fragmented memories of his dream were already escaping him.
Shaking his head to clear the last remnants of sleep away he stumbled to the bathroom to take a shower. The slowly warming water helped shock him awake and he shuddered as he recalled the events of the previous night, the fight with the traitorous Mizuki and his subsequent field promotion.
After being lost in thought for a time he finally shook his head. What happened had happened, and it was time to move forward. Now that he knew the truth of what he was, he was more determined than ever to show the village that he wasn't a monster.
After his shower he glanced at the clock noting that he had about 40 minutes to get to the academy, and a small smile made its way to his lips at the thought. His class was going to be really surprised to see him; after all as far as they knew, he'd publicly failed the academy jutsu test. He went over to the dresser where he kept his clothes and for the first time in ages, moved his beloved orange jumpsuit aside.
The previous night had shown him, with painful clarity, that the shinobi world wasn't all fun and games. The Third Hokage's warning about his behavior and admonition to be careful and serious echoed in his mind, it was time to take his profession as a ninja, and his dream a bit more seriously. Underneath his four pairs of hideously bright jumpsuits he had a collection of clothes the 3rd Hokage had given him for his birthday and various festivals over the years, that he had almost never worn. Privately, he admitted to himself that it because none of the clothes had had a hint of orange, which was still the greatest color in the universe in his humble opinion, so he'd kept wearing the garish jumpsuits instead.
Today however, he slipped on a pair of thick, tear resistant black cargo-style pants with half a dozen pockets of various sizes, and a white long-sleeved shirt embossed on the back with the red swirl commonly found on Konoha shinobi clothing. He also slipped on a black sleeveless vest, virtually identical to the standard chūnin wear, placing his kunai and shuriken in various pockets.
Idly he glanced at himself in the mirror, noting that while the he did look pretty different in black and white; his outfit didn't look half bad. The last thing he put on as he walked out the door was his new headband, the steel plate shiny and new. Smiling he took off towards the academy, ready to take on the world.
For once in his life, Naruto slipped into the Academy quietly, actively trying to not draw attention to himself. He didn't feel like answering questions right now. He spotted an empty seat next to a dozing student with their head down on their desk, and he grinned recognizing the other student immediately by their black hair tied in a large spiky ponytail as Nara Shikamaru, the laziest Nara clan shinobi he'd ever met. And that was saying something. Shikamaru's laziness was practically a feat unto itself, as most Nara shinobi were pretty laid back and prone to doing the minimum required of them in any situation, Shikamaru went even further beyond that.
As he dropped into the empty seat, his movements disturbed Shikamaru just enough to somewhat rouse him.
"Naruto?" he whispered blearily his brown eyes half opening, "What are you doing here, didn't you fail?" Naruto smiled and pointed at his headband, "Field promotion from the Hokage," he murmured softly, "I'm an official genin, just like you." Shikamaru nodded vaguely, uncaring, "That's nice," and promptly went back to sleep. Naruto fought back the urge to laugh aloud at his almost friend's antics, Shikamaru was an interesting one alright, but he was used to the guys' lazy attitude.
As students quickly filed in more than a few noticed his presence, but whenever they would open their mouths to ask, Naruto would simply point to his headband and shake his head, which was answer enough for most everyone.
About five minutes before class officially began, a young man with dark black hair and equally dark eyes strode in. He was wearing a navy blue, short-sleeved shirt with a high collar, white shorts and white arm warmer. Sasuke Uchiha, the last living member of the once great Uchiha clan. A straight up prick, in Naruto's opinion, but he chose not to voice the though aloud, for now.
Sasuke as typical had a semi-permanent frown on his face, but thankfully didn't even look around the classroom, and consequently took no notice of Naruto, who as far as he knew, had failed to graduate yesterday. As the Uchiha boy took his seat and turned his nose up, Naruto breathed a quiet sigh of relief, he really hated the air of superiority Sasuke put out, and the way he always looked for ways to put down others, but he didn't want any trouble today. Unfortunately, his wish was not to be granted.
A minute or two after Sasuke's arrival, the quiet of the classroom shattered as a small horde of girls, the Unofficial-Official Sasuke Fan Club, as the rest of the class called them, stormed in. Naruto watched impassively as Haruno Sakura, his classmate with girl with bubblegum pink hair and green eyes, rather ruthlessly muscled her way to the "coveted" empty spot next to Sasuke, with a ear piercing "CHAAAAA !" of triumph, and promptly began whispering and eyeing Sasuke. Much to her consternation however, the broody Uchiha pointedly ignored her presence, while the remaining girls dispersed into empty seats.
"Naruto?!" suddenly questioned a female voice loudly, drawing closer. Naruto tore his eyes away from Sakura and Sasuke, noting Ino Yamanaka, heiress of the Yamanaka shinobi clan, who had spoken. With her fair skin and pale-blonde hair, a rarity in the village where most had brown or black hair, she was quite striking, and easily recognizable. Thankfully, Ino was one of the few girls in the class who was not overtly obsessed with Sasuke like the Fan Club was, but Naruto had seen her eyeing the Uchiha a few times.
He also noticed that she was wearing a new purple outfit, with a high-collared blouse and some kind of matching apron, with bandages on her abdomen and legs covering exposed skin, and that her shinobi headband was being worn as a belt around her waist.
"Naruto, what are you doing here?" she all but demanded, and Naruto bit back a groan as up in front, Sasuke quickly spun around to look at him,
"Don't you know today is only supposed to be for those who passed idiot?" the Uchiha drawled with a smirk. Naruto jerked a thumb to his headband irritated, "I got a field promotion last night," he shot back, "I'm here as an official genin, same as you."
Sasuke scowled deeply, "How did an idiot like you get a field promotion, you can't even do the basic clone jutsu," he demanded. Naruto smirked, "Sorry, bastard, but that's classified, you'll have to ask the Hokage about it." Sasuke grit his teeth in irritation but turned away without further question.
Ino flushed lightly as she watched the heated exchanged, and quickly took the last empty seat next to Naruto, "Sorry," she mumbled, "I didn't mean to...," but he waved her off, "It's fine, it was bound to happen," he admitted. "Bastard probably hates the idea that I got some kind of special privilege and he didn't." Ino nodded absently, but then jerked suddenly and spun in her seat to look at him again, "You're not wearing any orange," she gasped, with a hint of more-than-a-little surprise.
"Yeah, I decided it was time for a change," Naruto responded lightly with a smile, "I mean we're real ninja now right? We can't exactly go around wearing super-bright orange for stealth missions, even if it is the best color." She nodded and looked him up and down for a second, "Well you look good Uzumaki," she drawled, stretching out the vowels of his last name, "Really good," and smiled wickedly.
Now it was Naruto's turn to blush heavily, and Ino giggled quietly as he did so, while Shikamaru somehow muttered "How troublesome," in his sleep.
As he did every day Iruka walked in at exactly 9 am sharp and Naruto beamed at him silently. "All right class," he said striding down to the front of the room, "Settle down!' and the class fell silent at his command. "You are all here today because you passed the Academy's Final Exam yesterday."
"Today, I will assign you to a three man cell under your jōnin sensei," Iruka continued, "You will work with this team until you are promoted to the rank of chūnin." He paused while he pulled out a sheet of paper from a pocket, and continued "Now, Team One will be…"
Naruto half tuned out as Iruka read off various names and numbers, wondering what his jōnin sensei and team would be like, but he was pulled out of his reverie when he heard finally his own name, "Uzumaki Naruto, you are assigned to Team Seven, along with Ino Yamanaka and Uchiha Sasuke, under the command of jōnin Hatake Kakashi." Iruka paused for a second, "Best of luck," he said, before hastily continuing, "Lastly, Haruno Sakura, you are assigned to Team 8 along with Aburame Shino and Hyūga Hinata, under the command of jōnin Yūhi Kurenai."
Naruto once more fought the urge to groan, he had to be on a team with Sasuke? This was going to suck, he just knew it. Ino on the other hand was ecstatic; she was going to be on the team with the two cutest boys in school, and if anyone had looked closely they could see the predatory gleam in her eyes.
Iruka cleared his throat again before looking at all of them intently, "From here on you are all shinobi, you represent the power and the future of this village." "I wish you all the best of luck," and he walked out of the room without another word.
An hour and a half after Iruka left, Naruto, Ino and Sasuke were the only ones left in their old classroom, and frustration was beginning to boil over. "Urgh!," Naruto all but shouted, another five minutes of silence, "Where is he!?"
Ino shrugged, "I don't know," she answered, "Maybe he got caught up in something?" Naruto scowled not at her, but at the situation, "He's still late," he grumbled, before an idea cam to him "I'll show him," he growled as he ran to the chalkboard, grabbed a dusty eraser, and carefully wedged it into a small gap at the top of the sliding door.
"You moron," drawled Sasuke as he observed the other boy, "He's going to be a jōnin, do you really think he'd fall for something so obvious?" "So what?" retorted Naruto as he returned to his seat, "You'll never know if you don't try." Thankfully they didn't have to wait long for their answer before they heard the door begin to open.
All three genin, although Sasuke would never admit it, watched in anticipation as the eraser dropped onto someone's head in small poof of dust. "Got him," Naruto chuckled, "Told you." The incomer, a man, shook his head to dislodge the eraser and ran his hand through his spiky grey hair, "Very funny," he said blandly, without the slightest trace of discernable emotion.
The newly minted genin took a moment to look over their likely candidate for jōnin sensei curiously as the older ninja walked in further. The man wore the standard Konoha jōninuniform, a green flak jacket, dark blue pants, and a long-sleeve shirt, and sported a pair of customized finger-less gloves with metal plates on the back. Strangely enough he wore his shinobi headband slanted down across his face completely obscuring his left eye, and a black facial mask pulled up to the bridge of his nose hid the majority of his face. In fact the only part of his face not covered totally covered was part of his forehead, and his right eye, which stared right back at them, impassively.
"Meet me on the roof in three minutes," he said abruptly, breaking the silence, and then vanished in a puff of rapidly dissipating smoke. Naruto blinked, "I've got to learn how to do that," he mused aloud as he rushed out of his seat. Both Ino and Sasuke privately agreed.
Two minutes later Team Seven burst out of the door to the roof, and quickly perched themselves on various structures on the roof staring at their sensei expectantly, although he didn't say anything, the jōnin did nod at them, possibly approvingly.
Once everyone was situated, he spoke "So, why don't you guys introduce yourselves?" "Sensei, what exactly do you want to know?" asked Ino. He shrugged, "Names, goals, likes and dislikes that kind of thing." Ino nodded, "Well, why don't you go first?" she suggested sweetly, and he scratched his chin idly for a moment before responding.
"My name is Hatake Kakashi," he began, tonelessly, his voice still lacking any kind of emotion, " I've been a jōnin for about 16 years now, I like I don't know reading I guess, I dislike a lot of things, and I don't really have any dreams, but I do have few hobbies."
The genin frowned, "We still know next to nothing about you," Ino pointed, finally feeling a little out annoyed, "And what do you mean 16 years? How old are you?" Kakashi just shrugged, but refused to answer. She huffed, "Fine, my name is Ino Yamanaka, I like flowers and my family, I dislike people who end friendships for stupid reasons, and my dream is to be the best leader I can be for my clan."
Kakashi nodded, "Your clan specializes in mental jutsu right?" he asked. Ino nodded, "Have you learned any of those techniques, and how proficient are you?" She sighed, "I know the Mind-Body Switch and the basics of the Individual Telepathy technique but I'm not as good as I could be," she admitted, "My chakra reserves aren't very large so I can't sustain them for long." Kakashi nodded again, "It's good that you can recognized your weak point," he replied, and the students could finally discern a note of approval in his voice.
Kakashi then pointed to Sasuke, "You, broody one, what about you?" Sasuke scowled at the nickname before answering, "I am Sasuke Uchiha," he said proudly, "I like training and learning ninjutsu, I dislike many things especially weakness, and my dream no my ambition is to kill the man who took my family away and to one day rebuild the Uchiha clan."
Although none of the genin noticed, Kakashi's eyes narrowed, "Your clan was best known for two things, the Sharingan bloodline trait and proficiency in fire techniques," Kakashi stated matter of factly, "Have you unlocked it or learned any of your clan jutsu?"
Sasuke grit his teeth in irritation, "No, I have not unlocked the Sharingan yet," he answered tersely, "But I have mastered the Grand Fireball and the Phoenix Flower techniques." Naruto leaned closer to Ino, "What exactly is the sharingan?" he half-whispered, before she could answer, Kakashi turned and locked eye with him.
"The sharingan is the special dōjutsu or visual technique of the Uchiha clan," he droned, as if repeating from a textbook "It grants the user incredible clarity of perception, enabling them to visibly see chakra, as well as fast-moving objects and, once fully developed, offers some amount of predictive capabilities, it also allows the user to copy almost any technique they see, memorizing ninjutsu, genjutsu, and the movements of taijutsu with near-perfect accuracy."
Naruto and Ino's eyes widened, "What the fuck," muttered Naruto, "That sounds overpowered as hell." "Hmph," answered Sasuke, but there was a smug grin on his face, which was then replaced by a suspicious frown, "How exactly do you know so much about our bloodline, some of your info isn't common knowledge?"
Kakashi looked at him flatly for a few seconds, "I'm a jōnin," he said finally, "It's my job to know this kind of stuff." Then he finally pointed to Naruto, "Now you, blondie number 2 go. Naruto scoffed at the nickname, but obeyed,
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto," he began. "I like training, pulling pranks, and I love ramen and orange things." He paused for a second, "What I dislike most is when people are close-minded or judge people for things out of their control, especially when they don't even try getting to know them," he squared his shoulders, "My dream is to become Hokage so that one day I can protect everyone I care about."
"That's a big dream," Kakashi noted idly, "Do you really think you can get there?" Naruto nodded firmly, "I'll get there one day." Kakashi actually almost smiled "You do not come from one of the major Konoha clans," he said, "What are some of your skills if any outside of the basic academy techniques?"
Naruto tapped his chin thoughtfully, "I'm actually really good at setting traps, and my Transformation Jutsu is one of my best skills." He frowned, "I suck at the basic Clone jutsu, no matter what I can't get it down at all, but recently I learned a way better jutsu so it doesn't really matter I guess."
'What do you mean a better jutsu?" asked Ino curiously. Naruto glanced at Kakashi, who nodded in approval, and Naruto grinned before walking a short distance away, "Watch this," he said confidently as he raised his hands into a cross hand seal. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he yelled firmly and flared his chakra hard. A cloud of white smoke burst into existence around him, obsucing him from view for a few seconds, before the cloud dissipated to reveal ten identical copies of the boy.
Ino frowned, as she looked at the duplicated boy "But how is that better?" she queried. The Narutos all smiled and one hopped over to her, "We are solid Ino," he said as he poked her in the arm, "We can actually fight," Naruto then dismissed his technique and his clones all vanished with a small pop and puff of smoke.
While Ino and Sasuke were surprised to learn about the existence of a solid clone technique, Kakashi was surprised that a fresh genin, even a jinchuuriki was able to create ten shadow clones without breaking a sweat. "Naruto," the jōnin asked after a moment "Exactly how many clones can you make?" Naruto shrugged, "I don't really know," he answered honestly, "I mean so far the most I made was about a two hundred, but I'm pretty sure I can make more than that."
Unbeknownst to the genin Kakashi sweat dropped, that many shadow clones was literally insane. "Can you teach me that?" asked Ino suddenly, "It looks really useful." Before Naruto could speak Kakashi cut him off, "No," the jōnin said, "He can't."
"What, why?" asked both blondes in unison. "The Shadow Clone Jutsu is actually an A-ranked technique," Kakashi explained, "The chakra requirement is actually really high, if you tried it like you are right now Ino you'd burn out your entire chakra pool." "Oh," said Ino a little pale, "uh, never mind then."
Sasuke scowled at the revelation, "How the hell did that idiot manage to learn something like that?" he seethed internally. "I'll need that kind of power to kill Itachi, I know it!"
"Well then," announced Kakashi suddenly, life blooming within his voice, "I think we are going to have a lot of fun together."
Naruto nearly twitched, he really didn't like the way Kakashi had said fun. "Provided of course you pass tomorrow's test as well."
"What?!" burst out Naruto indignantly, "Another test? Come on!"
"Yes," responded Kakashi unfazed, "Every jōnin instructor will be testing their teams tomorrow to make sure that they really are fit to be genin."
"So what do we have to do?" asked Ino quietly, her mouth dry with apprehension. Even though they couldn't see his mouth the genin swore that Kakashi was smirking at them, mainly from the way his exposed eye crinkled a little. "It's a secret," he said lightly. "But keep in mind that this second test has a 66% failure rate."
All three genin hopefuls swallowed in unison. "Be at training ground 7 tomorrow morning at 9 Am sharp," ordered Kakashi, "Oh and don't eat anything if you don't want to throw it up in the morning." He waved at them lazily and drawled, "Later!" then vanished in a puff of smoke.
A few moments after their sensei left Naruto exhaled, "Man, I wasn't expecting that," he said, both Ino and Sasuke made vague sounds of agreement. His stomach growled a second later and he grinned, a little embarrassed, "Uh, do you guys want to get something to eat?"
Sasuke shook his head as we started walking away, "No." Naruto turned to Ino, "How about you Ino?" She shrugged, "Why not," she said, "Beats eating alone." Naruto laughed, "Right." "Come on, I'll take you to Ichiraku Ramen, it's my favorite place."
After a nice meal at the ramen stand Naruto had taken her too, introducing her to quote his favorite chefs and the best food in the universe, unquote, Ino finally arrived home. Her mother and a few extended cousins were tending to the flower shop as was typical, but her father was home early. "Hey sweetie," he greeted as she walked in, "How was graduation?"
She frowned and crossed her arms as she sat down at the table, "I just found out about the second test Dad," she replied huffy. "You didn't think to mention that to me?" Inoichi Yamanaka chuckled, "Sorry hun, but we aren't supposed to mention it." Ino scowled but chose to accept the answer, "So who have you been assigned to?"
Ino's scowl morphed into a half smile, "I got placed in a team with Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke," she said happily, "They're both so good looking." Inoichi scowled this time, "Ino," he said warningly, "Don't be all boy crazy."
She waved her dad off, "Its fine," she said, "I won't be." "Good," her father answered as he picked up a cup of coffee, "So who is your jōnin sensei?" Ino sighed, "It's this kind of weird guy," she said, "His name is Hatake Kakashi and I just can't get a read on him at all you know?"
Inoichi nearly choked on his coffee, "Hatake Kakashi is your sensei?" he asked in disbelief, "Seriously?" Ino looked at her dad in surprise, "Uh yeah," she said slowly, "Why is that so strange?" Inoichi snorted, "Because the last time Kakashi was selected as a potential jōnin sensei was about six years ago, and he's failed every potential team that he was selected for."
Ino groaned, "Are you for real?" she whined, "How the heck are we supposed to pass this test?" Inoichi shrugged, "I'm sorry sweetie," he said, trying to be soothing, "The next graduation period is only six months away."
Ino scowled, "This is freaking crazy," she growled to her father, "What do you know about Kakashi-sensei anyway?" He shrugged, "Not much," and sipped his coffee slowly, "Kakashi tends to keep to himself, but I do know two things for sure." He held up a finger, "One, that guy is almost always late, to everything." Ino fought the urge to slam her head into the table, "What?" she demanded, exasperated.
"Unless the Hokage directly says something is time sensitive he'll be anywhere from an hour to three late," her dad explained, and held up another finger, "Two, he's unquestionably one of the best shinobi in the whole village," he said. Ino cocked her head to the side, "What do you mean?" "Among all jōnin Kakashi currently holds the record for most completed missions of all Ranks above D as well as fewest failed missions," her father explained.
"I know that he spent more than six years as an ANBU and he knows like a thousand different jutsu as well, its nuts." Inoichi rubbed his chin, "Now that I think about it, when Shikaku finally retires Kakashi will probably be the next Jōnin Commander."
"Great," replied Ino, her voice strained, "That's just great." She abruptly stood from the table, "I'm going to go train, maybe I can think of something."
Inoichi gave her a wry grin, "Don't push yourself too hard before tomorrow," he warned, but Ino just brushed him off as she walked outisde.
The next morning
Naruto awoke early the next day, his body essentially on autopilot, as he went through his normal morning routine. He even ate breakfast, completely forgetting Kakashi's admonition to not eat anything, before heading out the door towards training ground seven. Most of the training grounds were located on the east side of the village, opposite of the imposing mountain that was carved with enormous busts of the village's four Hokage.
The various training grounds the shinobi used formed a crescent shaped perimeter of the village, and each was a different size, and featured different landscapes for training. Training ground seven was made to look like a forest with a large glen in the center with a pond to the north. At 10 minutes to 9am Naruto strolled into the center clearing, spotting Sasuke leaning against a tree.
"Morning," Naruto greeted, but Sasuke didn't reply, "Guess we beat Kakashi-sensei here," Naruto mused, "Hn," replied Sasuke, "You don't talk much in the morning do you?" "Not really," was the reply. Naruto shrugged at his answer, but sat down, "Whatever."
At 9 am on the dot, Ino arrived, with a frown on her face, "Hey guys," she said listlessly, and both boys noticed that she looked and sounded tired already, "My dad says we're probably gonna be here for a while, apparently Kakashi-sensei is frequently late."
Naruto groaned, "Great, just our luck," he groused, "We got stuck with the lazy sensei." Ino shook her head, "I'm not too sure about that," she said, "Dad says that Kakashi is one of the best."
"Che," said Sasuke, barely loud enough to hear, "I'll believe it when I see it." Ino shrugged, "Well I'm gonna take a nap," she said, "Wake me up in a little bit if he's still not here."
About 45 minutes later
"Damn it," Naruto finally all but exploded, "Where the hell is he?" Ino jerked away, "I'm awake!" she half-yelled frantically as she looked around for their sensei wildly. "Ah Sorry," Naruto apologized, flushing red slightly, " Didn't mean to wake you, and he's still not here yet anyway."
"Its fine," she said with a yawn, as she rubbed her eyes, and Naruto fought off a blush, damn it she looked cute as hell waking up. "I should be up anyway."
Naruto hopped to his feet, "Well I'm getting bored," he announced, and turned towards Sasuke "Yo ass-hat, do you want to spar?" Sasuke snorted, "It's been one day since the academy idiot, I seriously doubt you've improved that much, I'd still crush you."
Naruto grit his teeth, "Fine," he hissed, "Screw you anyway," and walked back to Ino, "How about you Ino, do you want to spar?"
"Sure," she said, to his surprise, "It'll help get my blood pumping right?" Naruto grinned, "That's the spirit."
Around twenty minutes later Naruto and Ino's taijutsu only match was interrupted when Kakashi fianlly appeared in a swirl of leaves. "YOU'RE LATE!." Naruto bellowed, at the top of his lungs, pointing an accusatory finger at Kakashi.
"Sorry," said Kakashi,idly picking at his right ear, "I was helping my neighbor find her runaway cat, and we lost track of time," he explained tonelessly.
All three genin scowled at the blatant lie.
"Now then," he continued, ignoring their ire, "It's time for your test." He pulled out a portable alarm clock and set in down on a tree stump, the timer set for two hours. Then he reached into another pocket and withdrew two small silver bells, which he affixed to his belt loops.
"Your test is simple," he explained, "All you have to do to pass is get one of these bells from me within the next two hours." Ino frowned, "But sensei," she said, "You've only got two bells."
"Correct," said Kakashi, "One of you is guaranteed to fail, that's partly why the failure rate is so high." "Damn it," cursed Naruto under his breath, the test was way harder than he thought it would be.
Kakashi turned the timer on, "One piece of advice," he said casually, "If you want one of these bells, you have to come at me willing to kill me, you can't afford to try and hold back against me." The genin shivered at his cold tone, realizing immediately that he was serious.
"Begin!." Kakashi barked, and immediately he was enshrouded in a wave of smoke.
If you liked this chapter, please leave a comment, favorite it if you really loved it, or if you hated it for some reason, send me some constructive criticism. This is the first story I've worked on for a while.
See you next time