A/N: Here's the second chapter of ADW. New OC introduced! ^^ Enjoy!
-SoaringOnWings
Chapter Two
Aizawa Kentaro was, by no means, one who deserted those he loved. But when he had heard that his best friend, his teammate of six years, had died sacrificing himself for the sake of the village, he had broken.
He had left on a one-year infiltration mission at Iwagakure when he had received the news.
Namikaze Minato had been his friend for as long as he could remember. They had begun training together at the age of seven. Eventually, when Minato had been elected into the Hokage position, he had been chosen to be the ANBU commander.
The pair worked as a unit, sharing each other's sorrows when Mizuko, their female teammate, the head of the oinins, had died on a mission. They were inseparable, like brothers almost, since they were both orphans.
Aizawa looked up at the tall, lumbering gates of Konoha that he was overly familiar with. He was finally back.
He straightened up and walked towards the entrance. He heard a voice call out, "Excuse me sir! Can we see your travelling papers?" He turned to see Izumo and Kotetsu standing in their little building next to the entrance.
"Maa," he chuckled, "have you already forgotten me, Izumo? Kotetsu?" Their eyes quickly widened as they came to the realization of who he was.
They momentarily scrambled out of the building and gave him a respectful bow, "Aizawa-taichou!"
"Are you back from your mission finally?" Kotetsu asked excitedly. "Yes, I am. Good job at following protocol," he grinned as he handed them his papers.
They glanced over them and nodded, before saluting him, "It is a pleasure to have you back, sir!"
He lazily saluted them before continuing on to the Hokage Tower. "
He hasn't changed at all, I see," Izumo grinned.
Aizawa made his way up the streets of Konoha, smiling at the shinobi that saluted him. He arrived at the Hokage Tower after a stop at the dango shop.
The two guards stationed at the doors, he recognized, were Genma and Hayate, who-it seemed- had recognized him also. Genma grinned, taking the senbon out of his mouth to respectfully salute the man, and said, "Welcome back, Aizawa-taichou."
"Thank you. It's good to be back," he replied genially and with a nod to both of them, he entered the building.
As he was about to head down the hallway to the Hokage's office, the receptionist called out, "Sir, do you have an appointment scheduled with Hokage-sama?"
To her surprise, the ex-commander chuckled, "He will probably know me even before I step foot in his room, receptionist-san. Don't worry," and with that, he walked off down the hallway, whistling merrily. 'What an odd shinobi,' the receptionist thought, scrunching her eyebrows together. Where had she seen that man before?
Aizawa stopped in front of the door and, before he even raised his hand to knock on the doors, the Sandaime's voice sounded from behind the door, "Come in." He opened the door and stepped in the room, closing the door behind him.
"Ah, Kentaro, I thought I had sensed your chakra signature approaching. Welcome back," the Sandaime smiled warmly. On a more wistful note, he added, "And my condolences for your loss." "Thank you, Hokage-sama," he murmured, the sad tone in his voice almost imperceptible.
"If you could hand over your report, you are free to go," the Sandaime informed him. Aizawa activated a seal on his wrist and a scroll popped into existence and he handed it to the Hokage.
The Sandaime placed it on his 'priority to-read' pile. As Aizawa was about to leave, the Sandaime acted on a whim and asked him, "Aizawa, would you be willing to train a genin team this year?" The ex-commander stopped and turned around, the look on his face saying "What?"
"You have been on a long-term infiltration mission and I feel that you should relax for a bit. And, I have a team in mind that I would like a jounin like yourself to evaluate them and train them," the Hokage added.
"They must be pretty important for you to ask me of all people, Sandaime-sama," Aizawa noted.
The Hokage nodded, "Indeed. They are the prodigies of their class year. All three came in first, second and third score-wise at the Academy. I thought it would be too detrimental if I had separated them. They, according to my ANBU reports, have been training together over the course of a year."
"Two boys, one girl. One of the boys goes by the name of Uchiha Itachi," at this, Aizawa's eyes widened slightly, "the other boy is a street rat, with many tricks up his sleeve, by the name of Kataoka Sousuke. The girl, Saito Katsumi, is an orphan from one of the villages that has been pillaged and she has been adopted by the Nara clan."
Aizawa whistled. That sounded like quite the package. Uchiha Itachi was the heir of the Uchiha clan, Kataoka Sousuke was one of the talented kid street fighters and Saito Katsumi was an intellectual genius.
After mulling it over some, Aizawa came to a decision, "I'll take them." The Sandaime nodded and handed him their files. "Their last day of Academy was last week, so, I provided them with a temporary substitute jounin. I would advise to see them in action tomorrow. What they do may as well surprise you," the Hokage informed the ex-commander.
"You are dismissed," the Sandaime said and, with a smile, Aizawa bowed and exited the room.
Prodigies, huh?
Aizawa went over their files that night. They had last been seen doing elemental jutsus and, months before they joined the Academy, they had the Bunshin, henge and kawarimi down.
Their scores were high, even for prodigies. The last time he had seen such exponential growth among shinobi was with Hatake Kakashi. 'I wonder where that brat is, anyhow," Aizawa thought distractedly.
Then, a lightbulb went off in his head and he grinned.
I have the perfect idea for the test. Thank you Minato. He smirked. It was time to purchase some bells.
He arrived, that next morning, at the training grounds that the genin were said to have been training. He heard the sounds of light sparring and a young female voice yelling, "You guys are so wimpy!"
He chuckled. That was probably the girl on the genin team. He body-flickered to a branch on top of a tree and concealed his presence and observed his to-be-charges.
The girl, Saito Katsumi, was of average height with black hair tied in a small pony tail. Like the Naras, he mused. Her eyes glittered a startling green, an eye color not familiar to Konoha. She wore proper shinobi attire, with kunai holsters on each leg.
The Uchiha was had an appearance, typical of his clan. Dark hair tied back and dark eyes. He had stress lines under his eyes, giving him the appearance of a tired teen. He wore all black and had a kunai holster on his right leg.
Kataoka Sousuke had his shaggy brown hair tied back in a short ponytail and bright sapphire eyes. His attire was loose, seeming to let him move freely according to his taijutsu style.
As soon as he finished observing them, they called out, "We know you're there, jounin-san." Startled, he grinned suddenly before he performed a kawarimi with a log near the three genin.
"Hello, mina-san," he smiled. "Are you our jounin sensei? Hatake-sensei informed us yesterday that you would be training us," Itachi asked. 'Ah, so that's what Kakashi was assigned. Poor kid.' Aizawa thought.
"Yes," he replied. "I am Aizawa Kentaro, the previous commander of the ANBU division of Konoha. Pleasure to be acquainted with you three. I've heard many good things about you."
The three genins eyes widened slightly at the revelation of his previous occupation. The girl, at least, had the decency to blush at his compliment.
"Now, I'm sure, you know that most genin undertake a test to determine whether or not they are ready for the ninja world," at this, the genin nodded, "but you have not done it yet, correct?" They nodded again. "Correct?" he repeated, determined to get them to speak. The genin seemed to catch on and chanted, "Hai!"
"Very good. Because you have not undergone the test yet, I will be testing your abilities." Aizawa lifted two bells and jingled them. Let the fun begin.