Edit: Here once stood a huge author's note with me talking about a lot of stuff. Let me sum it up. I did the math with ages, and the Yondaime was only Hokage for a year.
-Chapter Two: Children of the Future-
Minato's blue eyes shot open. Within the same instant, he was fully alert. His head turned to face the clock on the night stand next to him. Six-o'clock on the second. He sat up and stepped out of bed, pulled on his morning robe, tied it with its sash, slipped his slippers on, and opened the windows in his room. As this was done, he made his bed, and then dropped to the floor, doing his few morning push-ups, rolled over, did his sit-ups, and then stood once more, looking at the clock again. Six-oh-five, on the second.
"You're such a slave to time it isn't even funny." Minato turned to his door to see Minato. She sighed and shook her head. Minato didn't respond to her, nor did he change his facial expression. She was a head taller then him, and wearing a pink morning robe, contrast to his blue one. Her long blonde hair was untidy and stood up somewhat in the back, and her eyes, though blue as Minato's, weren't half as alert.
"Today is the day." Minato spoke with a quiet voice, not far from a whisper.
She ignored his comment and walked in the room, completely barefoot Minato noticed, and probed his hair with her eyes.
"Why is it that you can always wake up with perfect looking hair?!" She said and bent slightly putting her face only inches away from Minato's. The top of her robe was a little revealing. Minato blushed and turned his head to the side while closing his eyes.
"Please don't put your face so close to me, Sora-san." He spoke, still keeping his voice nice, quiet, and maybe a slight hint of mysterious.
He felt her hand on his head, and then it violently shaking, messing up his hair, while inflicting minor pain on Minato's part.
"That hurts!" Minato proclaimed
"What have I told you about calling me 'san' Minato?! It makes me sound like an old lady!"
"Sorry Sora-neechan! Sorry!" He pleaded, his voice squeaking.
She stopped, and laughed. "That's better! And you don't have to go around talking all 'ninja' around me, what have I told you about that?"
Minato was holding his head with one hand. "But as of today, I will be a ninja."
"That's only if you pass the tests." She said with a smirk.
"I will be a ninja." He said with enthusiasm.
She laughed again and he raised an eyebrow.
"Sometimes I think the only thing you really put emotion into is being a ninja. Oh well, lets get you some breakfast Minato."
-An Hour Later-
Minato left the house after waving goodbye to Sora. He wore a tin white hoodie, hood down of course, and blue shorts, that in his opinion, matched his eyes, and black sandals common to most ninja. He made sure to carefully tape his ninja gear to his leg, and took inventory of them as well.
Minato jogged all the way to the academy. Once he got to his class room, he looked inside to see only two other students, out of the eighteen. This meant he was somewhat early. Either way, he didn't recognize either of them. Minato actually didn't know many people in his class, since he didn't socialize with them. He smiled, and looked over to see on of his sensei's. He approached, and politely bowed, before greeting him.
"Ohayo Jiro-sensei."
"Early as ever." Jiro smiled. He wore a simple chunin outfit, and was at least in his late twenties, probably still working at the academy out of enjoyment or habit. "You know, I've been telling you this since day one, but you don't have to bow and greet me personally everyday."
"I apologize, Jiro-sensei." Minato responded and then made his way to the desks to take his usual seat.
"He says that everyday too…" Jiro mumbled.
Students slowly made their way into the class room in the following minutes, as well as Minato's other sensei, Akio. Akio wore pretty much the same outfit as Jiro, except he was somewhat younger. From what they knew, he had only become a chunin a few years ago.
"Want the honors?" Jiro asked Akio, once he saw everyone was settled and his companion was there.
"Sure." Akio answered. He turned to all of the students, and spoke. "Now you all know I'm not one for talking, and that Jiro-sensei is much better at these sorts of speeches then I am. However, let the record show that I'm not as lazy as Jiro-sensei."
The students in the class laughed, and Jiro rolled his eyes while Akio smiled, and eventually continued. "Today is the day that you will all be taking the Genin exams. If this is the first time you're hearing this, then it probably means you haven't been paying any attention, and it would be best for you to leave before we begin—"
"The test is TODAY!" A student yelled. Minato looked over at him, surprised by the outburst. Minato was always quiet and behaved in class; if only everyone else was like this.
"—that was for you, Ryokumaru-san." Akio sighed.
"What? Me! Quit! Impossible! I'll ace this Genin test for sure!" Ryokumaru exclaimed, now standing.
"That's great, Ryokumaru-san, really. Now…can I get back to talking?"
Ryokumaru looked up and realized that everyone was watching him, and sat back down, slightly embarrassed at his antics.
"Anyways, like I was saying. If you don't feel like you are ready for this test, then it is best to back out. You can indeed be hurt doing this." Akio looked around the room, and no one left. "Alright then. Well, first, we'll be doing a Jutsu test. Jiro-sensei and I will go into the next room over, and we're going to take you in one at a time. You are all already seated alphabetically, if you haven't noticed, and that is the order you'll take the tests. I wish you all good luck on this exam. Hopefully by the end of the day, I'll be able to look at all of my students as Genin." He gave a warming smile, and then left with Jiro into the other room.
Once he left, several of the students began to talk about the exam, or even other things in general. Some even practiced hand seals. Minato however, sat silently and motionlessly. He wasn't nervous, well, not about the test, he just didn't know how to respond around other people. He never had. Socializing really wasn't his thing, and he didn't need any practice. The last thing he needed was to jinx himself about over worrying about the test.
Finally, it was Minato's turn, and he entered the room. Jiro and Akio sat at a desk, and they had a long piece of tape from one end of the room to the next. It had measurements on it.
"It's finally Minato turn, well, this should be interesting." Jiro smiled. "Now, the first thing we need to test is the Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker). I want you to stand at on end of the tape, and try and get yourself all the way to the other side with a Shunshin. You'll be graded on distance you travel, and time it takes you to perform your hand seals." Minato nodded, and took his position.
"You may begin….now!" Jiro spoke once he and Akio were ready. They watched Minato's hand movements carefully as he made the seals, making sure they weren't sloppy. Sure enough, they were great. Far from perfect, but the best they could want from someone of Minato's level. The problem was they were slow. Extremely slow. It took Minato twice, if not three times as long as it took any of the other students they'd seen so far, to perform the proper hand seals. Once he released the chakra however, the execution was flawless, and he landed on the far end of the tape. The teachers looked down to make marks. He was top notch in performance and technique, but was significantly slow, which brought his grade down.
"Alright, good work Minato! Now we need you to perform A Henge no Jutsu on…you know what the Hokage looks like, right?" Jiro asked, and Minato nodded. "Good. Become the Hokage."
"Like before, you will be graded on time to perform the jutsu, as well as the effectiveness of the jutsu itself. You maybe begin…now!" Akio finished Jiro's statement.
Minato had the same problem as before. His hand seals were good, but he was slow in performing them. Finally, he released his chakra and executed the technique. "Henge no Jutsu!" (Transformation Technique)
Minato's transformation was good, probably the best Jiro and Akio had seen all morning. Still…he was slow.
"Now, just stay like that Minato, and perform a Bushin no Jutsu. This one will be hard, since you'll have to keep your bushins transformed. Again, you'll be graded on performance and speed."
Minato made his slow hand seals, and released his chakra again. He could feel it being strained, since he had to keep a Bushin no Jutsu and a Henge active at the same time. "Bushin no Jutsu!" (Clone Technique)
And there were three very detailed clones of Minato as the Hokage in front of Akio and Jiro. They were impressed by the skill he could had, and the amount of Chakra Minato had. They had only expected one clone, and most couldn't even maintain both jutsu's very well. Still, Minato was slow.
Jiro and Akio quickly totaled Minatoi's scores. He did exceptional in performing all the jutsu, but ranked poor in speed, bringing him to a slightly greater then average score.
"That was great Minato, but your all done for now. Your dismissed." Jiro told him, while prepairing for the next student.
Minato left the room, feeling quite good. Sure, he was a little slow with the jutsu, but it couldn't be helped. If he didn't focus enough, he might have made a mistake. It was better that he ensured the techniques worked right.
He retook his seat, and waited patiently for the rest of the students to finish the exam, so they could get on to part two.
It took at least another hour, but finally, the last student reentered the room, followed by Jiro and Akio. Whatever people had been talking about before, it all stopped now. Everyone was focused while Jiro and Akio finished the final parts of their papers, and then did a quick prep for the next part. Jiro then stood to speak to the class.
"Everyone did fairly well, however, this next part is where it gets messy. We need everyone to sign a release before you can take this second part of the test." He turned to Akio, who promptly passed out the papers. Everyone turned in the sheet, though some later then others.
"Alright." Jiro continued. "Now that that's over with, I need everyone to meet me and Akio outside." He and Akio then performed a quick shunshin to take themselves outside, while the class make their way into the hall and out the door, meeting their instructors. There was a line of dummies on the field.
"In the same order you took your jutsu tests, we need you to line up so we can do the weaponry tests. Everyone is going to be given eight shuriken, and you must target the eight vital spots on the target." Jiro pointed to the dummy as Akio said this. "You will be graded on the number of vitals you hit, and the speed you throw the shurikens.
The students slowly began taking the tests, while Jiro watched for the vitals and style of throwing, and Akio timed them. Most students threw the shurikens one after another and hit with about five of the them, but getting maybe two or three vitals. On Minato's turn, he slowly took aim with every single shuriken, and threw them one at a time. By the end, the class wasn't sure to be amazed or not. He had taken well over a minute to do the test, but every shuriken hit its vital.
Jiro and Akio noted the same problem. Minato was slow. His accuracy was keen, there was no question, but it took him too long to take aim. His total for this turned out to be again, slightly higher then average.
Then came that other student. Minato only paid half attention to most of the other classmates, but this one he watched. The boy had dark hair and wore purple, and when given the shurikens, he turned around, and in one swift motion, threw all eight. Seven it the vitals, the other one missed. Minato was impressed. So was the rest of the class. Jiro and Akio not as much, having seen the boy ace the jutsu test, they expected something like this. Eventually, the entire class had finished the test.
"Okay students, this next part is where things become dangerous." Akio spoke. Some of the class grew pale. "You're going to line up, and Jiro will throw one shuriken at you. Now, keep in mind, me and Jiro are Chunins, you won't be able to dodge our attacks. Instead, we want you all to use the Kawarimi no Jutsu (Body Replacement Technique). It is possible to be hurt during this test, so be careful."
Everyone took their positions, and the test began. Akio kept records of how fast they managed to do the jutsu, and how effective it became. Some barely made it in time, and had difficulty finding a replacement object. When it came time for Minato, Jiro gulped, and reluctantly threw the shuriken. Minato, to the ease of everyone else, managed to perform the jutsu quickly. Jiro sighed, and Akio finally gave Minato a decent speed grade.
Once Minato was done, he waited with the rest while the remaining students took the test. Then it came to him.
Minato recognized him as Ryokumaru, since Akio said his name that morning. He was sweating, and when Jiro threw the shuriken, it impacted, as it had done with everyone else. All watched closely for the puff of smoke and to see what he used for a replacement. Instead, blood dropped onto the ground. Ryokumaru screamed out in pain and keeled over. Jiro and Akio were there in an instant. The whole class, save Minato and one other, seemed to panic at their fellow classmate being hurt. Jiro spoke to Akio.
"I'll take him down to the hospital, you continue the tests here." He said seriously. Akio nodded.
"No! I'm not done here!" Ryokumaru practically screamed. He started to stand.
"Ryokumaru-san, you shouldn't be standing." Akio said, and Jiro tried to help him back down.
"I said I'm not done here! I'm staying for the next test. I'm going to become a ninja and maybe someday, the Hokage! I will not be defeated here!"
Everyone was in awe, including Jiro and Akio, as Ryokumaru was standing again. He was clutching his chest, which was gushing blood, with one hand, but managed to smile.
"Jiro-sensei, you should take him anyways." Akio spoke calmly.
Jiro just looked Ryokumaru in the eyes. "You know, you'll be marked as failing this test, and you'll have almost no chance of becoming a Genin with your current marks. It would be easier to back out now, Ryokumaru-san."
"I'm…going to be a Genin, no matter what." Minato saw a strange sort of resolve in Ryokumaru's eyes. It was…illogical, not the thing a ninja would do. It was certainly not something Minato would do. Then again, Minato would have made sure he wouldn't have been hit in the first place.
Jiro smiled. "I'll let him go, Akio. I'm taking him inside while I give him some quick medical jutsu treatment. You finish testing the rest."
Akio nodded, even though he was hesitant.
"Now class, I'm sure Ryokumaru will be just fine. This last part is the most dangerous however. You will use a kunai, and can dodge or block, five shurikens I throw at you. You will be judged solely on how effective you evade the attacks. Class…students, everyone do your best."
The next test actually went faster then Minato thought it would. Most of the students were nervous, but once they got up there, dodging the shurikens wasn't very hard at all. Akio followed a pattern, and it was easy to dodge the first three, and block the last two. Minato felt he did exceptional on it, having read all of Akio's movements. No one was hurt.
When Ryokumaru and Jiro returned, the rest of the class had finished. Ryokumaru took the position for the final test, his wound smaller, but not gone. He held his kunai tightly, and Akio began throwing.
Ryokumaru ducked under the first one, and felt a splitting pain in his gut from his injury. He saw another shuriken coming right at him, and blocked it with his kunai, but barely. He tried to prepare himself for the next attacks, but the pain was so much. He winced, and three shuriken flew by his head, one at a time. By the time he realized what happened, Akio was already making marks. Ryokumaru put his head down in defeat. His sensei missed with those last three shuriken on purpose.
"Class, everyone can head back to the classroom now."
Once back in the classroom, Ryokumaru seemed to be the topic of many people's gossip. Jiro and Akio quietly conversed with each other while filling out paperwork, and after about half an hour, they began calling up students one at a time, who would leave the room afterwards. When Minato was called, he bowed in front of Jiro, and then gave him a smile. Jiro was authentically proud of Minato's results. He handed Minato a paper first, showing his marks. Minato surveyed it.
He scored high, very high, in doing everything. However, he saw what was keeping him down. It was his speed. Minato was sluggish, and if he could have gotten faster, he might have been higher. Over all, he scored 8th out of eighteen. Jiro then handed Minato a metal plate. Minato took it, and felt instantly warm inside. He had done it. He had finally become a Genin.
He had become a ninja.
"Alright, little Minato, just take that forehead protector home and find something to mount it on. It is your symbol that you are a ninja of Konoha. Also, report to the next room to have your license picture taken." Minato nodded, bowed, and headed into the next room.
After Minato left, but before they called the next student, Jiro turned to speak to Akio. "I think he'll go far."
Akio shrugged. "Who knows?"
-The Next Day-
Minato was waiting in his classroom. Jiro and Akio were not there. Instead, he would meet his Jonin instructor. Yesterday Sora had gotten a blue strip of fabric and mounted Minato's forehead protector on it, which Minato had wrapped in his pocket. He wore the same clothes, shorts and a hoodie, but he felt a little different today. Maybe it was because he was a Genin. Today was his first day as a ninja.
There were only two other people in the room with him. One of them was Ryokumaru, from yesterday. He had tan skin, his hair was a very short black, and his eyes were dark green when fully open, but he usually kept them narrow. He wore somewhat longer shorts then Minato, tan in color, and a loose green shirt with short sleeves. A fishnet undershirt could be seen around his collar. He, like Minato, didn't wear his forehead protector, but had it on him no doubt. He seemed to be back to his usual self.
The other was the amazing boy who had scored seven vitals on the weapons training test yesterday, with only one throw. He had long dark hair. He had bangs, but the length of his hair in the back was tied as if in a pony tail, but it was bound on the top of his head. Minato looked at it several times, and it still seemed odd. His eyes were blue, like Minato's, but not as bright, and he wore a sleeveless dark purple shirt, with light purple strips on the sides, and shorts similar to Minato's but black. He had a fingerless glove on one hand, and on the other, the same fingerless glove, but longer, reaching his elbow, and looking closer to a gauntlet then a glove due to the metal plating.
Resting against the side of his chair was a katana. It was large; probably adult sized, and had a plain black metal scabbard. The hilt couldn't be seen, as it and about half of the scabbard was wrapped in taping. Besides the sword being large for someone the boy's size, it just seemed odd for a Genin to have a katana. Minato tried to remember if the boy had always carried this sword with him.
He decided that he hadn't, and was only carrying it now that he had become a ninja. This was the most reasonable purpose. But why would a Genin carry a katana? Kunai and shuriken were the quintessential weapons of a ninja, not swords. They hadn't even had training in swords. Minato concluded that this boy had something to hide.
The door opened and a man came in. He was young, twenties Minato would assume, but had snow white hair. His eyes were dark, and he had red markings on his cheeks. A mole of some sort was on the side of his nose. He wore two shirts, the first one white and long sleeved, and one on top of that which was dark blue, and short sleeved, as to show the sleeves from his white shirt. On the back of the blue shirt was a red Konoha symbol, the same symbol he had on his forehead protector. He wore typical black pants, but no ninja tools could be seen.
Minato sat with his normal smile. Ryokumaru gave him an odd look. The other boy didn't pay attention to him.
"Geez, tough crowd, ehh? Well, it seems since you're the only people left, that I'm your Jonin instructor. How about you all…meet me on the roof of the Hokage tower, this classroom is boring."
He disappeared in a puff of smoke. Minato seemed to have the same idea as the dark haired boy, because the two of them flickered themselves outside. Minato was glad to be able to use jutsu now that he had his license. The other boy jumped onto the roof of a building and began making his way to the Hokage tower. Minato thought it was sort of rude to walk on people's roofs without a good enough reason, so he just walked. He didn't see Ryokumaru on his way.
Once he was at the base of the tower, he informed the guards of his destination, and was in time to see the other boy still jumping his way to the top. He had made better time then Minato, but he wasn't in a rush. Once at the top of the tower, he saw the man who would be his sensei sitting on a bench, and the boy sitting on the far side next to him. Minato approached them, but just stood and waited for their last member, who came about five minutes later.
"Took all of you long enough." The white-haired man said with a smile. Well, why don't all of you take a seat" he stood up. "And we can do introductions, how does that sound?"
Ryokumaru was panting. Minato and the other boy didn't break a sweat.
"I'll start off. My name is Jiraiya, and I was actually a student of the Hokage-sama. I became a Jonin about two weeks ago, and can't say that I planned on becoming a sensei. Either way, I hope that all of us can grow to work as a team. My hobbies include, well…"
Jiraiya looked left, he looked right, and then ducked down and spoke silently. "I like drinking sake and watching women do stuff." He had a larger-then-life grin.
He stood back up and spoke normally again. "Anyways, I dislike being interrupted in either of my hobbies, and my dream in life is…"
Jiraiya stared off into space before he answered. "I want to become a writer." He smiled and then pointed at Minato. "Okay, how about you go next."
Minato kept his smile while he talked. "My name is Namikaze Minato. My hobbies are reading books and talking with my neechan. I dislike being tardy for things. My dream is to…well that isn't important."
Jiraiya nodded at least four times, and then pointed to Ryokumaru.
"My name is Rokku Ryokumaru! My hobbies are playing sports and I dislike stuck up people who thing they're better then everyone else." Both Minato and the other boy glared at Ryokumaru, who was sitting in between them on the bench. "My dream is to someday become a powerful ninja, maybe even Hokage, but no matter what, prove that the Rokku clan is great!"
"Alright, and you're last." He pointed to the last boy.
"My name is Otonashi Katsu." The boy spoke, his voice quiet and smooth, not unlike Minato's, but it seemed to have even more of an air of mystery. "My hobbies are sparing with others or doing puzzles, and I dislike loud people." Ryokumaru got another glare. "My dream is to…learn about someone, and something."
Jiraiya nodded once again. "Great! Now that we're all introduced, we should—hey, where are all of your forehead protectors?"
Ryokumaru spoke. "Why would we need those? I mean…they really don't serve much of a purpose—"
Bam! Jiraiya pounded Ryokumaru in the forehead with two fingers, leaving red marks and knocking him strait off of the bench. Minato and Katsu looked at the boy, who seemed to be suffering from a bad case of the dizziness. They put on their forehead protectors in unison. Minato saw Katsu mounted his with a purple fabric. It wasn't hard to tell his favorite color. Once Ryokumaru got back up and found his way to the bench again, he put his green-fabric mounted forehead protector on.
Jiraiya was still laughing, and eventually put a hand on Minato's head, who wasn't quite sure what he was doing. Then Jiraiya spoke.
"Mina-chan."
He put his hand on Ryokumaru's head next.
"Ryo-chan."
Lastly Katsu's head.
"Kat-chan."
Then he removed his hand all together and crossed his arms. The three boys looked at each other, and Ryokumaru was the first to protest.
"I will not be called Ryo-chan!"
Katsu spoke as well. "Jiraiya-sensei, I do not wish to be called Kat-chan."
Minato nodded for his answer.
Jiraiya laughed again. "Those are your nicknames, and if you don't want them, you'll have to prove yourself to me." He gave a dark grin. "Your not all officially Genin yet either. I will give all of you're a test. At the end, only six of the original eighteen of you will be able to fully become ninja. I need all of you here at seven o'clock sharp tomorrow, for your final test."
All three students nodded, separately motivated to become ninja no matter what.
"Oh, one last thing, don't eat breakfast."
"What? Why not, Jiraiya-sensei, we'll be hungry." Minato spoke.
Jiraiya seemed to think about this. "Yeah, what the hell, go ahead and eat breakfast."
All three boys sweat-dropped.
This is an odd sensei…he can't even make up his mind on trivial things. Minato though to himself.
Jiraiya turned around. "Now I've got someplace to go. I want all of you to practice hard. Your dismissed."
-Hokage Office-
Fifteen minutes later Jiraiya was sitting in front of his former sensei's desk.
"So, how'd it go?" Sarutobi asked.
"Ehh, they all sort of creep me out. The Rokku isn't too hard to read, but he seems like the stubborn thick skulled type."
"So like you?"
"Very funny" Jiraiya scowled at the Hokage, who just chuckled.
"The Namikaze and Otonashi boys are odd, both of them seem really intuitive. Funny, I don't know a Namikaze clan or Otonashi clan."
The Hokage's expression turned serious. "That's because neither one of them exists. The Namikaze boy, he moved to Konoha at a young age with his guardian to become a ninja. I have his paper-work, but I can't say I know much about his family."
"So he immigrated here…what about the Otonashi?"
"Ever heard the name Otonashi Yuri?" The older man answered.
Jiraiya thought about it for a few moments, and then it dawned upon him. "He's her child? I thought that she retired as a ninja? Why would she allow her son to become one?"
"It seems he must have gone against her will. Either way, he's motivated to work hard as a ninja."
Jiraiya rubbed his chin with his hand for a few minutes while he though. "So, a boy who we don't know anything about, that decided to become a ninja for unknown reasons; a boy who is going against his family's wishes to become a ninja, and graduated top of his class at that; and a boy who's clan is small and weak, wishing to return them to their former glory by becoming a spectacular ninja. These are the children of my team?" He looked up to face Sarutobi.
"These," Sarutobi took a puff of his pipe and then gave Jiraiya a smirk, "Are the children of the future."
-End Chapter Two-
As you can see, I have a lot of original creations. The Yondaime himself is practically OC in this, since I don't even have canon to work with, and where as the descriptions of his team I have from a picture, their characters are completely OC. Jiro, Akio, and Sora are just the start of a long list of persona I have to introduce.
Preview - Chapter Three: Mission Begin