A week had passed and no amount of begging could persuade the Old man to tell me about my team assignments. I had to wait for it, like others. I knew that the traditional Rookie of the year paired with dead last was out of question. I was comfortably an average student. Who knew that studying actually took so much of effort! I blame it all on my greater than normal chakra reserves.
Once all the students reached the academy our instructor, Hyuuga Hikaru, gave a nice speech about us being rookies, will of fire and some others things which I tuned out.
"Today we will be creating three man teams and each team will have a Jounin sensei, you will then be assigned duties by the village."
"... Team five - Uzumaki Naruto, Mizumi Akira, Inuzuka Tsuba."
-After the team announcements-
"This afternoon we will be introducing your Jounin senseis. See you after lunch."
Before I could run off for lunch, Tsuba waved at Akira and I to join him for lunch.
"You don't mind if we go to Ichiraku's?", my ramen addiction reared its ugly head. Yet another thing that was in line with canon.
"Sure, no problem." With that the three of us headed for lunch. I looked at my teammates. Tsuba looked like a typical Inuzuka, swept-back dark brown hair, the fang markings on his cheeks and black eyes. He was quite tall, but then when compared to me everyone was taller. Akira had short and spiky black hair and dark blue eyes and a blue crescent shaped mark on his forehead between his eyes.
On reaching the restaurant I ordered Miso ramen with extra pork. As usual.
"I missed you so much, my dear ramen." I sighed in satisfaction as I felt the first bite of ramen hit my taste buds. Seriously, it had been way too long.
"Hey, how old are you anyway?" Tsuba asked me. "You look seven or something."
I scowled at him, "I am nine."
"Still in single digits." He teased.
"And here I thought our team will be based on mutual respect and maturity." I sighed, I had hoped my future teammates would not remark on my age, but alas, my prayers were unanswered in that regard.
"You wish brat!" I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Hey, why don't we have female shinobi in our team, don't they usually put two guys and a girl in a team." I asked them.
"I am hurt Uzumaki san. Don't you like me as your teammate?" Akira asked with a mock offended voice.
Tsuba patted his head, "Don't worry Akira, I am here for you."
My team mates were crazy. Once they were done Akira turned to me, "Were you sleeping before the team announcements?"
I laughed sheepishly.
"One reason could be because there were not too many girls who graduated this time. And the one who did graduate might not have been a good fit for our team."
After that we talked for while about ourselves. Akira told about the Mizumi clan, a clan that I didn't know existed. Apparently, his ancestors had moved in from Land of Water after the First Shinobi War. It was a small clan with about fifteen to twenty people. They were good with genjutsu and had their own taijutsu style. Tsuba then talked about his dog Shiromaru, who was with a vet because he injured himself.
I was happy with my team. It was not an impending disaster that was team seven. It also helped that I like the number five, better than number seven. It sounded silly, but I didn't really care.
...
...
...
After lunch we headed back to the academy where our Jounin instructor was announced.
"Team five, your Jounin sensei is Mashido Hiro."
Mashido Hiro was a tall lean man, with brown eyes and dark brown hair which were arranged in spikes. He wore the standard Konoha flak jacket and a black trench coat over that. I could see two swords strapped to his back.
He led us to an empty class room and just stared at us.
"I am Mashido Hiro. I hope you know that there will be another test before I take you in my team?" we nodded, "In that case be at training ground five by 8 a.m." and he left.
He dragged us all the way to other end of the academy, just to inform about the test. I had a feeling that we were in for a world of pain. *sigh* At least he was not as bad as Gai.