Disclaimer-I don't own Naruto

Chapter Two

Tayuya walked out of the academy, grinning. She looked around, but was unsurprised to see that Anko wasn't there. After all, her mom was a jonin, and she had more important things to do then show up at an academy graduation. Still, some part of her had hoped…She shook her head, driving that thought out of her head, and walked over to the swing. "Hey, let's go get some ramen." She told Naruto, leaning against the tree. Tayuya was one of the few friends his age that Naruto had. In fact, he only had one other friend, and that was because of Tayuya as well. When Anko had finally decided that Tayuya was ready to be unleashed upon the villagers of Konoha, she'd sent Tayuya to a playground, where the red head had found Naruto. She'd quickly discovered that the other children weren't supposed to play with him. So, being Tayuya, she'd set out to make him her friend. Naruto had been suspicious at first, but over time he'd realized that she really was his friend. The blond boy looked up at her morosely, then turned back to stare at the crowd of graduates and their families.

"Go ahead." He said dully. Tayuya scowled, and smacked him on the back of the head.

"Baka! Do you know what the word let's means dumbass? It means, let us. As in two or more people. Now get off your ass, and let's go get some ramen!" Naruto glared at her.

"Leave me alone." He growled.

"So you didn't graduate." Tayuya told him. "Look at like this. When you graduate next year, you'll be the best in the class because you'll have so much experience."

"This isn't the first time I failed." Naruto reminded her. Tayuya shrugged.

"Well, I'll get plenty of experience as a shinobi myself over the next year, so I can help you master everything you need to learn." She told him. "Now stop feeling sorry for yourself. I know you want to impress Sakura, but your Sasuke impression still needs work."

"W…What?" Naruto stuttered, staring at her.

"You need less sadness and more anger." Tayuya told him, screwing up her face into a close approximation of the Uchiha boy. Naruto finally cracked a smile. "See? You got the emo part right, you just went in the wrong direction. Now let's go get some ramen." Naruto sighed and stood up.

"Have I ever told you you're really pushy Tayuya-chan?" He asked. Tayuya rolled her eyes.

"Yes you have. Several times. Now wait here." She turned from her friend and went to go find her other friend. Hinata was standing in a corner, looking down nervously at the ground and twiddling her fingers. "The asshole didn't show up?" Tayuya asked, walking up to her.

"I'm sure he's very busy." Hinata said nervously.

"I'm sure." Tayuya said dryly. "C'mon, Naruto and I are going to get some ramen." She continued, grabbing Hinata's hand and pulling her through the crowd. Hinata let out a small squeak and began blushing furiously, staring at Tayuya's hand. Tayuya frowned, then shrugged it off. She was probably just worried about leaving before she was 100% certain her father wasn't showing up.

Three hours later

"Oi! Tayuya!" Anko called out. Tayuya looked away from the practice dummy she'd been attacking with her sword. If you could call it a sword. It was the best that Tayuya could afford using the money she'd earned, but that wasn't saying much. In short, it was a piece of shit.

"What do you want bitch?" Tayuya asked, walking over. Anko rolled her eyes and smacked Tayuya on the back of the head. There wasn't any malice behind Tayuya's words, it was just the way she talked. All the same, it had become a habit/ritual to smack her whenever she swore. It had started out as an attempt to get Tayuya to stop, and now she just did it despite knowing that it wouldn't change her adoptive daughter's behavior.

"I got you a graduation gift." Anko said, reaching behind her to grab something out of reach. Tayuya's eyes widened.

"What is it? A new flute?" She asked, letting some excitement slip into her voice. Anko smiled.

"Nope. I did you one better." She said, revealing a katana. Tayuya's eyes bugged out in awe as she reverently took the sword from Anko, slowly drawing the sword. Unlike her current one, this was made of fine steel, perfectly balanced. Anko grinned and patted her on the head, then walked away.

"Hey…" Tayuya said slowly, looking up from the sword. Anko turned around, wiping the grin off her face.

"Yeah?" She asked. Tayuya looked down at the ground, blushing slightly.

"Thanks…Mom." Anko grinned again, even wider than before.

"No problem Hellfire. Just don't break it on your first mission, okay?" She said. Tayuya nodded solemnly and walked back into the backyard to begin training with her new sword.

Twenty hours later

Tayuya sat down in her chair and put her feet up on the table in front of her. "Hey, move your legs Tayuya-chan!" Naruto told her, glaring.

"What the hell?" Tayuya exclaimed, staring up at him in surprise. "What are you doing here?" Naruto grinned.

"Secret." He told her, stepping over her legs. Tayuya rolled her eyes and let him. "Where's your forehead protector?" Naruto asked, looking at her and frowning.

"Right here." Tayuya told him, tapping the plate she'd wrapped around her left bicep, just below her shoulder.

"Why didn't you put it on your forehead?" Naruto asked, cocking his head to the side.

"That would mess up my hat." Tayuya told him. Naruto frowned and opened his mouth, but Iruka walked into the room before he could. The teacher pulled out a clipboard and smiled at the group of graduates.

"Good morning. Today I'm going be giving you your assignments. Specifically, I'm going to be giving you the names of the jonin assigned to teach you and lead your teams." Tayuya spaced out for the most part. She barely listened to Iruka, just paying enough attention to make sure that her name wasn't being said. She did smile though when Hinata was put on a team with Kiba and Shino. That was good, her shy friend needed the boost in confidence, and being on a team with two of the best people in their class would definitely help with that. "Team 7-Mitarashi Tayuya, Uzumaki Naruto," Tayuya and Naruto grinned at each other and fist bumped. "And Uchiha Sasuke." Tayuya scowled, and Naruto stood up angrily. Before he could say anything though, Tayuya yanked him back down.

"Shut up dumbass." She hissed. "It's a miracle you graduated, don't mess it up by whining about something you can't change." Naruto glared at her, but said nothing.

"That's all for today students. Tomorrow you will meet your new teachers." Iruka said. "Class dismissed."

"Man, I can't believe that we got stuck with a moody loser like him." Naruto grumbled as he and Tayuya walked out of the classroom.

"He was the best in the class." Tayuya pointed out. "It's probably a good sign that we got put on the same team."

"You're happy about this?" Naruto said incredulously. "Don't tell me you have a crush on him too!" Tayuya gave him a death glare, pissed off at the mere suggestion that she might like Sasuke, and Naruto waved his hands frantically and backed away. "I was just kidding, I was just kidding!" He yelled as Tayuya began punching him.

"I'm not happy about this shithead!" She snapped when she'd gotten all the anger out. "It's just that, unlike you, I get the concept of accepting things. Besides, you're just upset that Sakura isn't on your team." Naruto looked away from her, not saying anything, and Tayuya grinned, taking it as proof that she was right. "Sheesh Naruto, you need to get over her. I mean, c'mon, she's obsessed with Sasuke, just like pretty much every other girl in our year. Hell, for all I know, Hinata's obsessed with him too. If that's the case, then every girl in the class is obsessed with him."

"No, I refuse to admit defeat to that lazy jerk!" Naruto said, folding his arms stubbornly. Tayuya rolled her eyes.

"Fine. You're going to have to change your approach if you want her to fall in love with you though." Naruto paused, and then looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

"What do you think I should do?" He asked.

"I told you, move on and find another girl." Tayuya told him.

"No, I meant, what would you suggest I do to get her to fall in love with me." Naruto said, sounding slightly frustrated. Tayuya shrugged.

"Hell if I know." She told him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto demanded. "How do you not know how to get girls to fall in love with you, you like girls!"

"Yeah, but I don't know how to get girls like Sakura to fall in love with me. I'm not interested in having a girlfriend like her, and besides, I'd have to work even more than you would, because she's not into girls." She reminded him as they came to a stop at a corner. This was where they parted ways to get home.

"See you tomorrow Tayuya-chan." Naruto said with a grin, walking off in one direction.

"See you tomorrow dumbass." Tayuya said, returning the smile as she walked in the other direction.

Twenty-four hours later

Kakashi watched his three new genin as they waited for him in the empty room. Well, Sasuke was waiting for him. Naruto was placing something on the door so that it would fall on Kakashi when he entered the room, and Tayuya was up and standing next to him, talking. Kakashi was far away to tell if she was reprimanding the blonde, or if she was trying to help him. Seeing as this girl had been raised and, to a certain extent, trained by Anko, he decided to enter through the window instead, just in case she was helping Naruto lay a trap for him. He scanned his students, watching for a moment when none of them were looking at the mirror. He was still baffled by Naruto's jumpsuit. Even though shinobi weren't as stealth oriented now as they had been in earlier periods of history, orange still seemed ridiculous to him. At least his other students were more appropriately attired. Sasuke was wearing a blue shirt with a big collar and white pants, while Tayuya was wearing jeans, a dark green shirt, and a strange hat not unlike a beanie. Kakashi sighed and put his book away. Time to go greet the genin.

"Whatcha doing?" Kakashi asked pleasantly, appearing in the window. His three new students all jumped and turned to stare at him in surprise. "I hope you weren't planning on doing something as stupid as pranking the man who holds your careers as shinobi in his hands." Naruto's eyes widened in horror as he realized just what he'd been trying to do, and Tayuya elbowed him in the stomach. "Good. Now, normally I'd suggest that we'd leave the room to talk, but I don't think anybody wants to go through that door right now. So, we'll just stay here."

"Stay here and do what?" Sasuke asked rudely. Kakashi shrugged.

"Oh, mainly introduce ourselves." He said. "I figure you can all tell me your names, your likes and dislikes, and your goals. Then, tomorrow, you'll meet me at the training field for a little test." Sasuke snorted, clearly considering this beneath him, while Tayuya and Naruto took the news fine.

"I'll go first!" Naruto said eagerly. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like ramen, I hate the time wasted waiting for the ramen to be ready, and my goal is to become Hokage and make everyone in the village acknowledge me!" Sasuke snorted quietly at this, but Naruto didn't seem to hear him.

"I guess I'll go next." Tayuya said. "I'm Mitarashi Tayuya, I like swords, flutes, and girls, I hate whiny, arrogant idiots, and I don't have any particular goals beyond being a shinobi the history books will remember."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are a lot of things I dislike, I don't like anything…"

"Yeah you do." Tayuya said, leaning back. "You like hair gel and being all depressed and angsty." Sasuke glared at her, and Kakashi sighed. 'This is not going well.' He thought to himself as Sasuke continued.

"I don't have any hobbies, and I don't have any goals. I do have an ambition however. I want to rebuild my clan and I want to kill a certain person." Tayuya rolled her eyes, and Naruto paled. 'I hope he's not talking about me.' He thought with a gulp.

"Well, I suppose I could tell you a little about myself before we get started." Kakashi said, running a hand through his hair. "My name is Hatake Kakashi, I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes. Goals for the future? Hmm…And I have many hobbies." Naruto stared at him in disbelief, while Tayuya and Sasuke barely reacted at all. Neither of them had expected to get much more information than that out of the Jonin. "Now then, onto the test tomorrow. Now some of you may be wondering why I'm having you take another test so soon after graduating. Well, simply put, it's a test to see if you, well…" He started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Naruto demanded, glaring at their new teacher.

"Oh, it's just that, when I tell you this, you're going to freak out. You see, out of the 27 students who graduated from the academy this year, only nine of them will actually go on to become genin. The academy was merely to see who had the potential to become genin. This test will actually determine if you can make it or not." Naruto's jaw dropped in horror, and Tayuya's eyes widened, while Sasuke barely reacted at all. Kakashi laughed. "See, I told you you were going to freak out." He handed them each a piece of paper. "These are the instructions for tomorrow's test. I recommend you study them now, as they'll also tell you where we're meeting. Bring all your ninja gear, and don't eat anything for breakfast, you'll just throw it up." With that, he turned around and left. Sasuke left a second later, followed by Tayuya, then Naruto.

Twenty-four hours later

"Good, you're all here." Kakashi said, looking at them. "Now, I imagine that you're all wondering what the test is. Well, I'll tell you." He held up two bells. "The test is actually fairly simple. Your job is to get the bells away from me. If you get the bells from me, then you'll graduate."

"But there are only two bells." Tayuya pointed out. Kakashi nodded.

"That's the trick. No matter what happens, one of you isn't going to become a genin. As a result, I'm going to allow you to use any weapons or techniques that you know. You'll have to come at me with killing intent if you want to get the bells. Now, I'll give you ten seconds to get away and strategize." All three of his students disappeared, and Kakashi looked around, nodding in satisfaction when he realized that he couldn't see them.

"Come fight me!" Naruto yelled. Kakashi sweatdropped and turned around to see Naruto standing out in the open behind him.

"Uh, you're kind of doing it wrong." He pointed out. Naruto just laughed and ran at him. Kakashi reached for his weapons pouch. "Taijutsu." He said calmly. "Is one of the three styles of techniques used by shinobi. I'm going to teach it to you." Naruto skidded to a halt, suddenly worried. Kakashi was going to use a weapon on him? Kakashi reached into the pouch and whipped out…an orange book?

"What the hell is that?" Naruto demanded, pointing at the book.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm just curious about what comes next. I won't need to concentrate for you three." Naruto growled in anger and threw himself at Kakashi.

"I'll make you acknowledge me!" He yelled, punching at Kakashi's head. To his shock, Kakashi blocked it with one hand, not looking away from his book. This pattern went on for a few seconds, when suddenly Tayuya came flying out of the trees, sword drawn, and she slashed down at Kakashi's head. The jonin jumped backwards just in time, avoiding the slice.

"Baka!" Tayuya yelled at Naruto, keeping her eyes on Kakashi. "You should have gone into the forest, we could've come up with a plan of attack from there!"

"But this is my plan!" Naruto protested, glaring at Tayuya. "He never expected that we'd attack him head on from the start."

"Doing the unexpected doesn't make the plan good." Tayuya retorted. Kakashi stared at them warily. They still weren't a serious threat, but he hadn't expected Tayuya to come and work with Naruto. He frowned behind the mask and pocketed the book. He had a feeling he'd need both hands for this one. Tayuya threw herself at him, swinging her sword. Kakashi jumped back, then threw himself to the ground as Naruto jumped at him from behind. The two genin didn't give him a moment's rest, both trying to attack him while he lay on the ground. Kakashi quickly drew a kunai, blocking Tayuya's sword strike, and lashed out with his feet, knocking them both away. Naruto scowled and formed a hand sign.

"I've got this. Meet my ultimate secret jutsu-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Tayuya and Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise as eight new Narutos appeared.

"What the hell is that?" Tayuya demanded.

"I'll tell you later. Now let's go!" Naruto yelled, charging. "There's not just two of us anymore!" He yelled. "Try and stop us now!" Tayuya stayed back to watch for an opening, not wanting to accidentally slice open a clone, and Kakashi just scoffed.

"Eight isn't going to be any harder than one." He said, getting ready to fight. Before he could move though, one of the clones jumped out of the river and latched onto his back, pinning him in place.

"Ha! What are you going to do now?" Naruto demanded, jumping in the air to punch Kakashi. Just as his fist was about to come into contact with Kakashi's face however, he was replaced by a clone. Naruto wasn't able to stop in time, and he ended up beating up the clone. Kakashi watched from the forest as the Naruto clones began to argue amongst themselves, then frowned. A piece of bark, about a foot and a half long, was attached to the Naruto clone he'd replaced himself with. What was going on? Suddenly, he heard the jingle of the two bells, and looked up to see a small black kitten running towards Tayuya, the bells in its mouth. Kakashi frowned in confusion and ran after it. Tayuya hadn't brought a cat with her, and his inspection of her and Anko's house had shown him that she didn't even own a cat. Had she summoned it? He had sensed a rather large amount of chakra going off while he was fighting off Naruto. He'd barely entered the clearing however, when ten or so shuriken were thrown at him. He quickly replaced himself with a log, taking not of where the shuriken had come from, and re appeared in front of the kitten. He picked it up and tried to pull the bells from its mouth, but it resisted.

"I can summon a dog to take it from you if you'd prefer." Kakashi told the kitten, lazily tossing a kunai in the direction of Sasuke's hiding spot. He needed to flush the Uchiha out for this test to be completed. Suddenly, there was a puff of smoke, and the kitten was replaced with Sasuke, who kicked him in the head.

"I don't think a dog's going to do much." Sasuke said, jumping back.

"You replaced yourself with the kitten?" Kakashi said. "How'd you come up with that, that kind of plan takes coordination. Summoned animals don't usually like to have jutsus performed on them without explicit permission."

"Tayuya sent another cat to me to work out a plan while she was fighting you with Naruto." Sasuke said, pointing up. Kakashi looked up to see an orange cat perched on the tree branch above him. While he was distracted, Sasuke attacked him, latching onto his back and pinning him in place. Naruto appeared a second later, along with several clones, and they formed a ring, surrounding him.

"Not bad for an emo and a baka." Tayuya said, walking out of the forest with the black kitten on her shoulder. Sasuke jumped off of Kakashi, and she tossed him and Naruto a bell each.

"Not bad at all." Kakashi admitted. "I'll admit that you're the first group of genin to ever get the bells away from me. But you still have the problem of two bells and three people."

"What are you talking about?" Tayuya asked, holding out her own bell.

"Let me guess, Sasuke also transformed a rock or a leaf into a bell while he was hiding." Kakashi said with a sigh.

"I might have." Sasuke said. "Put how exactly do you plan on proving that?" Kakashi sighed again, then smiled. The three genin stared at him in shock. They couldn't see his mouth, but his one visible eye was clearly showing happiness.

"Congratulations, you three are the first team to ever pass my test!" He said happily. There eye's widened ever more when he appeared behind them, the three bells in hand. "In fact, all three of you would have passed even if you hadn't cheated with the bells."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Tayuya demanded.

"The point of the test wasn't to see if you could actually succeed in getting the bells away from me." Kakashi explained. "The point was to see if you were capable of working together as a team despite the fact that it looked like only two of you would benefit from it. As shinobi, you'll be forced to face threats and challenges that no single one of you could handle on your own. In those situations, you'll have to put aside your own differences and work together as a team. And, miracle of miracles, you did. So, I'm going to let you three go home, eat, rest, and then we'll meet again tomorrow to start your real training and missions." Tayuya and Naruto grinned and ran off, and Sasuke followed close behind, a slight smile on his face as well.

At the same time

"Zabuza-sama, there's a man here to see you." Haku reported, walking into Zabuza's hut. The muscular man looked up from his sword.

"Who is it?" He demanded gruffly. Haku paused, his eyes uncertain.

"He said that he's your cousin." He finally said. Zabuza groaned. There was only one member of the clan who ever bothered to try and hunt him down, and the man was so annoying.

"Fine. Koshioro, get your ass in here." The older, smaller man walked into the hut, a pleasant smile on his face.

"Now, now, Zabuza-kun, is that anyway to treat an older cousin that you haven't seen in years?" He asked, sitting down in front of Zabuza. Haku's eyes widened, and he backed away quickly to avoid getting caught in what was sure to be an explosion of rage on Zabuza's part. To his surprise however, Zabuza didn't react at all to being addressed as kun.

"It is when that cousin's an annoying prick. Now what do you want?" Koshioro got serious.

"You've been approached by a rich man named Getzou to take on a job, correct?" He asked, pulling a folder out of his robes.

"That's right. What about it?" Zabuza growled. Koshioro handed over the folder.

"This is a list of all the rogue shinobi that Getzou has hired over the years." He said. Zabuza opened it, quickly scanning the contents.

"They're all dead." He growled.

"That's right. Getzou hires rogue shinobi to do his dirty work, then has his own personal army of mercenaries kill them so he doesn't have to pay and he doesn't have loose ends."

"What do you want in exchange for this information?" Zabuza asked.

"What makes you think I need an ulterior motive to get my young cousin to not take a job that could end up killing him?" Koshioro asked, a pleasant smile on his face. Zabuza said nothing, giving him a dry look instead. Koshioro sighed. "Someone is hunting down and killing the adults of the Maveraki Clan." He admitted. "We don't know why, and the result is that we have a lot of orphans on our hands. They're not even focusing on those of us that are active shinobi, they're killing those of us who have become merchants and farmers as well."

"And you want me to track this killer down?" Zabuza asked. He had to admit, while he wasn't particularly close to most of his clan, the idea of someone killing them off pissed him off. Koshioro shook his head.

"No. Let's face it Zabuza-kun, you're not particularly great at tracking. No, we've decided to take an alternative path. The clan is very extensive, and with all this unrest in the land anyway, there are many people outside of the clan who wish to relocate somewhere safer, but don't want to join any of the larger villages. So, we've decided to form our own." He tossed Zabuza two forehead protectors, one for him and one for Haku. "The village hidden in the thorns." He said in way of answering Zabuza's questioning look. "We've received funds and aid from our old friend Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the construction and relocation has already begun. I'm here to ask you to become a jonin of the Hidden Thorn village and to take on the role of a mentor. There are two other genin level orphans of our clan who are in need of a teacher. As a legitimate jonin of a legitimate village, you'd be able to enter them and Haku in the upcoming chunin exams." Zabuza stared at the forehead protector. It was standard issue, a blue band with a metal plate in the middle. In the center was the symbol of the new village-a large vine, with hooked thorns coming out of it every few millimeters. He sighed again, then took off his old forehead protector and replaced it with the new one. Haku did the same, and Koshioro beamed.

Author's Notes

Alright, on the subject of the test-no I'm not trying to say that Tayuya likes people more in this story and that she's going to become great friends with Sasuke. What I'm saying is what Shikamaru said-Tayuya is smart, almost as smart as he is. So, she'd have the intelligence to realize that they had no chance against a jonin on their own. Sakura realized this too, but Tayuya would actually be willing to get all three of them involved in the plan, not just the boy she liked.

Now, I am going to be doing the whole Zabuza arc, just without Zabuza. After that however, comes the chunin exams. There will be a preliminary match for this one, with different matches, not just Tayuya vs. Ino. So, I'm going to let you guys pick. The only match I'm leaving alone is Hinata vs. Neji, and Sasuke vs.….the unimportant guy that nobody remembers the name of. So, feel free to state in the review section what matchups you want to see! Just so you know however, I will be replacing the Sound genin (as in, they don't make it out of the forest of death) with the three genin Zabuza will be training. I will introduce them in the next chapter, but I'll give a brief description of the two that aren't Haku now. The girl's name is Cana, and her specialty is taijutsu, like Rock Lee. Unlike Lee however, her focus is on punches. Simply put, her fighting style, as well as her personality, is like that of an 1980's action star-punch it, and keep on punching until it goes down. There's more strategy behind it than that, but that's her in a nut shell. The other is a boy named Tenzou, and his focus is archery. It's much easier to explain his personality-pretend that he's being played by a young Jack Black.

Thanks for reading guys! See you next time!