Disclaimer- I do not own Naruto or its characters…
This is going to be a partially dark yet fun story with lots of talking and some mind-blowing action sequences. If you are a SasuSaku or a NaruSaku fan, please leave immediately, this story isn't for you. I won't bash Sasuke, Sakura or Kakashi much, but needless to say, the story won't be centred on them in any way. No pairing as of yet. This is a Naruto-centred story developed at a slow pace… Alternate Universe… Alternate Reality…
Fire Country-
A blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy dressed in eye-blinding orange was walking alongside a bored pink-haired girl clad in red and a grumpy raven-haired boy clad in dark blue, followed by a very busy tall silver-haired man whose left eye was fully covered, who had his nose buried in a small orange book.
It was genin team 7, with their Jonin-sensei Kakashi, who were all on their way back to Konoha having successfully completed their first A-rank mission. Everyone in the team had a varying range of thoughts going on in their mind. Kakashi was just happy to be free as he was enjoying the silence of his team since he was busy reading his Icha-Icha book. Sakura was bored out of her mind, since her initial attempts at engaging a conversation with her teammate Sasuke had failed miserably and so she had resorted to keeping quiet. Sasuke was his usual detached and sulking self, mostly because the boy couldn't wait to go back home and begin training with his now-awoken Sharingan. Since he could only do that with the help of the Uchiha clan's library filled with valuable scrolls about the Sharingan, so for obvious reasons, he was itching to go back home.
Meanwhile, the blonde-haired boy named Naruto was hungry, he just wanted to go back home and have the best Ichiraku ramen as much as he could eat. For the first time ever, he no longer felt obligated or did he feel the innate need to pester Sakura for dates after his fifth rejection this morning. It's been almost a month since the battle on the bridge against Zabuza Momochi and his apprentice, Haku. At long last, the bridge itself was built to completion and they had successfully finished their mission protecting Tazuna.
They had spent the last four weeks in wave country and he was almost homesick. For the last four weeks, he had to endure Kakashi's all-time indifference to the team, Sasuke's almost permanent half-emo/half-smug look and Sakura's constant fan-girlish giggling over Sasuke; all the while he was completely invisible to her. It was glaringly obvious to him that Kakashi liked Sasuke the most among the three since Kakashi often took Sasuke alone out to train and when asked Kakashi would reply that it was to teach him something called the 'ways of the Sharingan', whatever that was. It also offended him when Sakura constantly and almost unconsciously ignored his attempts to get a date, always in favour of Sasuke; he couldn't for the world understand why the entire world revolved around Sasuke and why he was invisible.
He initially wanted to inquire about these things to Kakashi-sensei, but he didn't want to ask them with Sasuke around, so not to give away his insecurities. He also figured that if Sasuke was going to have secret Sharingan techniques up his sleeve, he didn't see why he couldn't have a few secret techniques up his sleeve too.
As they were slowly walking on the path through the forests, he was broken out of his musing when he heard Sakura sigh in both relief and happiness, he looked forward just in time to see the village walls to come in sight. It was Konoha, he never believed that he would actually come to miss it, as a child he had often wondered what it would be like to run away, but in any case, this last month had given him a better appreciation for the village and he was at long last, happy to be home.
Hokage's Tower-
"That's an interesting development." The old man clad in Hokage's robes smoking a long pipe spoke with evident surprise in his tone as he heard the one-eyed Jonin's report about his mission in wave country and he continued analytically, "Recently, I heard whispers about shipping magnate Gato's illegal workings being an annoyance to our trade routes. But, I never thought of him to being capable enough to completely disable and monopolise an entire country just to smuggle and traffic drugs. I'll find out why we didn't get the information about Gato considering that the man had a neighbouring island nation under his control."
"Of course, Hokage-sama…" Kakashi spoke respectfully yet laxly standing in his relaxed stature.
The kage nodded his head in acknowledgement and spoke, "Since, the mission was bumped up to an A-rank mission and considering the success despite the clear ineligibility of your genin team. I will grant your team an A-rank mission's pay, equally distributed among the four of you."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama…" Kakashi replied thankfully and bowed slightly, followed by a deep bow of Sasuke and Sakura, while the Hokage's favourite blonde stood high with both hands tied at the back of his head and with a huge smile plastered on his face. The Hokage smiled at the sight, it reminded him of a genin team which contained a fierce red-haired kunoichi at her youth and also of his own genin team especially of a certain silver-haired student who had an appreciation for toads.
The Hokage pushed those thoughts off of his mind and took another puff of smoke through his pipe and ordered, "You're all dismissed."
Kakashi ushered his team out of the Hokage's office and spoke, "All of you can go downstairs, get your pay, go back home and get some rest. We'll meet as usual at the training ground, tomorrow morning at nine."
Kakashi stood there with a deadpanned look because just as he handed the scroll necessary for assigning the mission pay for the team to Sasuke, his team almost bolted away through the corridor, racing past each other without as much as a 'goodbye' or a 'see you tomorrow'. Kakashi shook his head in annoyance at the sight, he knew that his students were homesick but this was ridiculous and with that, he once again knocked on the Hokage's door and walked in when he heard the 'come in'.
The aged Hokage viewed his most decorated jonin curiously and inquired, "What can I do for you again, Kakashi?"
"Permission to speak freely, sir…" The Cyclops requested to the Kage.
The Kage looked up from his paperwork and viewed Kakashi curiously, "Granted..."
"Permission to speak in private, sir…" The jonin once again requested.
This time the aged Hokage simply placed his palm on a spot on the underside of his desk and they both subsequently sensed the chakra activating in the walls around them, meaning that the privacy barrier was erected, "Granted…"
"What do you want to tell me, Kakashi?" The kage asked curiously.
"Hokage-sama, I sensed a huge surge of the fox's chakra out of Naruto's seal back in Wave, almost a month ago. I rushed the fight the moment I sensed the demonic chakra, but by the time I finished, the chakra disappeared leaving no trace. I checked the seal and I couldn't find anything wrong with it, I may be proficient in sealing but I'm no master and sensei's seal is some really advanced work that most seal-masters would have trouble with, I won't be surprised if I missed something. In any case, from what I saw, I believe that the seal is weakening, to me it seemed like Naruto unconsciously accessed some of the beast's chakra without him ever realising it, and I think it would happen again if there is another high-stress situation in the future."
"This is most troubling, Kakashi. I must admit that I expected something like this to happen a long time ago and when it didn't come about, I saw it happening soon enough in the future, but this is unexpected. I may know more about Minato's seal than anyone else in the village, but Fuinjutsu is not my field of studies and I don't think that I'll be able to find if there is indeed a problem with the seal. I think it's time to call 'him' back to the village."
Silence prevailed in the room for the following few minutes and finally, the Sandaime Hokage spoke once again, "You're dismissed, Kakashi." The Kage's tone made it seem like the aged leader was in deep thought and was distracted.
"Hokage-sama…" Kakashi stood straight and then disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving the Hokage to muse on his own thoughts.
Residential District-
Iruka Umino was locking the front door of his moderately big apartment and was about to be on his way to the ninja lounge near the academy to spend the day socialising with his colleagues since it was Sunday which was essentially his only day off from teaching. Just as the man locked his door and was about to walk away he heard a very familiar yell, "Iruka-sensei…!"
The chunin instructor who was startled by the loud yell turned around just in time to see a yellow and orange blur racing towards him. The man's eyes adjusted when the blur came to a screeching stop just a foot before him. It was his favourite blonde knucklehead with a huge grin etched on his face.
"Naruto, when did you come back from Wave and how was your first C-rank mission?" Iruka asked curiously with a smile, being happy that his student was finally enjoying the dream of being a ninja.
"Boy, do I have a story to tell ya…"
Ichiraku Ramen Stand-
"I can't believe Kakashi-san chose to stay and finish the mission rather than return back after the first encounter?" Iruka commented in disbelief, not really wanting to believe the story the blonde knucklehead had just iterated to him.
"Kakashi-sensei was so cool. He fought against Zabuza like he was the wind; I couldn't even see them move."
"Jonins of their calibre usually fight like that, Naruto. Actually, if it wasn't for Kakashi-san's presence, your team could have died against Zabuza Momochi. I mean Zabuza Momochi; if my memory is right, this guy was one of the seven swordsmen of the mist, and they're the most ruthless ninjas Kirigakure has ever produced. Not many jonins let alone ninjas in our village can match Nukenins of Momochi's calibre and come out alive." Iruka spoke worriedly.
"I figured that part all by myself, Iruka-sensei…" He replied not realising his former teacher's sense of worry, "I'm done." Naruto spoke with satisfaction, as he finished gulping down the remaining soup at the bottom of the sixth ramen bowl. And the concerned chunin followed after the blonde blue-eyed boy in surprise as his student had just paid and tipped generously to the ramen stand owner before walking out. Iruka couldn't believe it; his student had treated him to ramen rather than the usual other way around.
As they both walked out and were on their way past the training grounds, Naruto asked, "Iruka-sensei, could you tell me what 'specialise' means?"
"What...?"
"'Specialise', what does it mean?" The blonde knucklehead asked curiously.
"What brought this on, Naruto?" Iruka asked surprised because this was out of character for the blonde. His question was an attempt to understand the context in which the word is used.
"Back in Wave, I heard Kakashi-sensei telling Sakura-chan about how she could specialise in genjutsu. I tried finding the word in the dictionary, but I didn't understand anything about it."
The chunin instructor gladly began to explain, "Specialise means to become an expert in something you choose. In this context, it means a ninja choosing a specific field of studies to gain mastery in…"
"Huh…?" It was the only thing he could say because he didn't understand a single word of what Iruka-sensei just said.
The patient chunin understood that his student was blank and so he continued, "Naruto, It's like this. Most ninjas choose to become good at one thing rather than at everything, for example, that traitor Mizuki chose to become proficient in taijutsu and weapons training while I chose to be all rounding in every basic skill. Let's take a taijutsu user for a moment, the guy would be good at hand-to-hand combat, but not at ninjutsu or genjutsu, it doesn't mean that the guy doesn't know how to use other techniques, but he will be far less adept at it. Do you understand?"
"Genjutsu requires perfect chakra control; ninjas like Sakura who have a smaller chakra reserve have a naturally good chakra control, giving them a good chance at learning genjutsus while you have chakra reserves the size of a big hill, which is why you have a tough time controlling it." The chunin continued after a short pause, while carefully outlining Naruto's obvious problem since his academy days. Since Naruto was very oversensitive which meant that he could be easily offended, the chunin took extra care in wording it in a way so that it wouldn't tick Naruto off.
Naruto understood what Iruka was trying to explain, "I get it. Specialise means becoming a master at either ninjutsu or taijutsu or genjutsu, but not at all of them together, not like the Hokage. And Sakura-chan can be good at genjutsu cause' she has very less chakra to use and so she can be better at it than me and Sasuke-teme."
"Not exactly…, but more or less like that."
The blonde grinned and continued, "Sensei, do you know any chakra controlling things?"
"You mean chakra-control exercises?"
"Yeah, that…"
"I'm sure Kakashi-san would teach them to you soon enough, there's no need for you to hurry." The academy instructor didn't see why his former student had to train on his own; his rational part told him that he needed to impart the importance of patience to the blonde genin.
"Please…" Naruto, however, was determined to train in chakra control because according to his teammates, the chakra control thing was the most basic skill and according to Sakura's and Sasuke's opinion, he sucked at it and he had to prove them both wrong.
"Maybe, I can show you a few things…" The Chunin agreed after a moment, seeing that nothing harmful would come to be by just teaching the boy a few chakra control exercises.
"Yay…"
Uchiha Compound-
It was late at night; the moon above lit the sky bright. He was roaming the halls of the northern sector of the Uchiha Compound. He was itching to test something out, something he had wanted to find for all these years.
Something that had intrigued Sasuke from the moment he heard his brother speak of it on that fateful night all those years ago, "In the main hall of Nakano Shrine. Underneath the seventh Tatami mat from the far right, is our clan's secret gathering place. There you'll find a secret document. An explanation for the Uchiha clan's jutsu…It tells of the visual jutsu's true purpose."
Sasuke clearly remembered the words of the person he hated the most in life, he followed the instruction precisely as it is and as a result, he was standing in front of what seemed like a dusty old stone tablet. Since he couldn't read the contents of the tablet, he activated his Sharingan in order to try and read it, but even then, he couldn't read the text. He surmised that he needs to fully mature his Sharingan to even read a little of the tablet's contents, and as he only possessed two tomoes around the pupils, he knew that his Dojutsu wasn't fully matured, hence whatever that was written on the tablet was out of his reach, for now.
He quickly exited the Northern wing and proceeded towards the right side corridor on the western sector of the clan compound. He remembered being forbidden to play here by one of the clan's elders when he was just a child. It was only later, did he realise that the right side corridor held the entrance to the Uchiha Library, which happened to be something only an Uchiha with an active Sharingan can access. He had waited so long to enter this place and now he was finally here and he couldn't wait any longer.
The moment he walked closer to the Library's door with his Sharingan still active, the huge door opened on its own as the seal on the door recognised his presence as an Uchiha. Unlike the stone tablet, entering the library was available to anyone who had an active Sharingan. As he set foot in the library, all the lamps inside lit itself in a consecutive stream stretching to the full length of the long room. When all the lamps were lit, the light revealed the sheer size of the library filled with scrolls on the shelf after shelf, stretching from the sides to the full length, while different weapons of different sizes hung on the walls on all the sides.
A mad grin appeared on the Uchiha's face as he realised that the years of his hard work had finally paid off, he was now at long last, a real Sharingan user, a real Uchiha, not just in name but in calibre.
Next Afternoon (Training Ground Six)-
It was just after twelve, the sun was shining brightly over their heads. Sakura was slumped on the ground and to her right; Sasuke was sitting cross-legged, sulking as usual with his arms crossed over his chest. The two individuals were tired, bored and annoyed, tired of waiting for their sensei, bored out of their minds and annoyed because of the constant loud snoring of their third blonde teammate who was sound asleep to their left without a care in the world.
And finally, the one-eyed Jonin decided to pop in, there was a sudden puff of smoke in front of the three children and a silver-haired man appeared with a cheery, "Yo…"
"WHERE IN THE HELL WERE YOU?" Sakura yelled out in complete frustration.
Hearing the loud yell, the blonde Jinchuriki jerked awake from his sleep with a scream, "AHHHH…"
Meanwhile, Kakashi noticed that his blonde student was unusually silent, but he had a good idea why because from where he stood it seemed like the boy barely had the strength to throw a tantrum. Kakashi chose to reply, "You see, I was helping an old lady to carry her groceries…"
"Sensei, just don't, okay…stop, we don't wanna hear any more of your stupid lies." Sakura once again spoke but this time gritting her teeth comically at the Jonin.
"Okay then, let's go do some D-ranks…" Kakashi spoke cheerily completely ignoring Sakura's outburst.
"OH GODDD…" All three genins simultaneously moaned rather exasperatedly at their apparent misfortune.
"Come on, let's go." Kakashi ushered his genins out of their fatigue and had them walk towards the Hokage's tower.
That Evening-
He was on his way back to his apartment having finished the day's D-rank missions and being rejected by Sakura yet again. As he was sulking back to his apartment, he was in deep thought, for the first time in years, he was actually wondering why he even cared about getting Sakura's attention at all. When he chose to pursue after Sakura in the academy, he was a failure and he thought that maybe if he got Sakura to go on a date with him, then others would begin noticing him due to Sakura's popularity in class. Every time Sakura shot him down without mercy, he tried harder and harder in order to impress her; eventually, in time, he didn't even stop to think why he even wanted a date.
Now, he was a ninja and his way forward to become Hokage was his path, he was suddenly considering his feelings for Sakura to be empty. A moment later he realised that he was contemplating his feelings for Sakura; he immediately brushed it off as his own paranoia. However, he failed to realise that the sapling of destructive thought that was planted in his mind would never stop growing.
As a welcome distraction, he began noticing a square rock following him around, he sighed tiredly and he turned to the rock and said, "Come out guys, you are not fooling anyone! There are no such things as square rocks with two perfect holes." And then suddenly the particularly square rock that was following him around suddenly burst into a lot of smoke and the three children stumbled out in a coughing fit.
"Konohamaru, you added too much smoke powder!" The bespectacled boy named Udon said through his coughing and once they got steady enough they started together and aloud.
"I am Konohamaru the strongest ninja in the academy…"
"I am Moegi the sassiest kunoichi in school…"
"I am Udon, I like math…"
"Together, we are the Konohamaru Corps." The three troublesome children finished their intro together rather loudly.
"Boss, come on play ninja with us…" Konohamaru asked or rather begged out loud, with the three kids simultaneously employing the infamous puppy-dog-eyes technique on him.
"What kind of ninja would play 'ninja'?" Just as he was about to buckle down to the pressure of the children's combined puppy-dog-eyes jutsu, Sakura's voice came out of nowhere, as she commented out emerging from behind the nearby intersection, essentially breaking the tender mood.
"Sakura-chan…!" Naruto exclaimed out loud.
"Boss, is she your…?" Konohamaru asked him noticing the 'chan' behind the girl's name and held out a pinkie finger at him.
He couldn't help but grin stupidly at Konohamaru for assuming that Sakura-chan was his girlfriend. However, his silence was interpreted much differently by the children impatiently standing in front of him.
"I knew it, boss, why would you pick a girl with a huge forehead and a flat chest…?" Konohamaru said out loud in an obvious tone, not realising the threat of what was about to come.
"Konohamaru, RUN…" He warned because he could literally see the black flames oozing around Sakura and a visage of Shinigami appearing behind her.
Sakura was actually on her way home when she met with Naruto and the group of children. She was going home because she was depressed, she was sad because her beloved Sasuke-kun had claimed that she was even more useless than Naruto, when she was badmouthing about the said boy. She couldn't fathom those words uttered by her love interest, how could she be useless than the dead-last dobe of their class and how could her Sasuke-kun be so cruel to her. Since her problems had her preoccupied, it didn't take long for Konohamaru's insult to push Sakura off the edge.
And a moment later Sakura's head grew bigger to comical sizes and with a loud battle cry, "AHHHHHH…" She started chasing after the small boy and the said boy started sprinting like crazy, however, on the next intersection Konohamaru turned left and bumped into a boy.
Konohamaru gulped and looked up at the older boy he had just run into. He was wearing a black cat-like suit with a hood and cat-shaped ears attached to it. He had purple markings on his face. He also had a circle on his black outfit. Half of it was yellow and the other half was red. He carried what looked like a sack on his back, a sack wrapped around with white sash. The girl who was with him was slightly older; she was wearing a desert-like dress attached with fishnet mesh at the very top of her dress, on both her arms, and on both her legs, on the right, it was as low as her ankles and on the left, it was right above her knee. She had a giant fan on her back; she also had her hair in four ponytails.
"THAT HURT YOU LITTLE SHRIMP." The boy with the purple makeup screamed while picking Konohamaru up by the collar.
"Stop, Kankuro... You're making a scene." The older girl said to the guy who was now swinging Konohamaru back and forth in the air like a rag doll.
"Put him down, now…" Naruto angrily demanded to the new boy.
The older boy however completely ignored him, and so a moment later there was a loud yell, "PUT HIM DOWN YOU BIG FAT APE!"
The strange boy, however, had a different idea in his mind, "All I was going to do was play with the kid, but I guess you want him to die." Kankuro spoke while grinning cruelly.
Moegi pulled on Naruto's sleeve asking, "Boss, do something!"
"I'll take care of this Moegi." With that, Naruto went charging at the boy named Kankuro, but just three steps into the sprint, Kankuro moved a single finger and Naruto tripped and fell face-first on the ground.
"First..." Kankuro began looking straight at Naruto, "I'll deal with this little squirt and then I'll waste you."
Kankuro drew his fist back, ready to deck Konohamaru in the face, but before he could land his blow, something fast and hard struck him in his wrist. Shocked by the sudden attack, Kankuro released Konohamaru and the small boy fell on his ass, while the weird ninja was left holding his throbbing wrist. Something rolled to the ground at his feet and when Kankuro looked down, he found himself staring at a pebble.
"Huh…?" Kankuro growled and spun around to find the person who had thrown it.
Sasuke sat tall against the back of a tree, overlooking the group while he repeatedly kept tossing another rock up and down in his hand, "You're a long way from home and you're way out of your league." Sasuke stated in his usual, cool tone.
"SASUKE…!" A noise exclaimed a much too enthusiastic Sakura, all the while blushing bright red.
Kankuro's eyes narrowed, "Oh great...another wimp to tick me off..."
Sasuke frowned, his fist closing tight over the rock he held, crushing it in between his palm while dropping only the remaining dust. "Get lost..." Sasuke warned still sitting calmly in the tree.
The genin's threat didn't reach Kankuro's ears, the boy turned to face Sasuke up in the tree and spoke threateningly, "Hey punk, why don't you get down here." Sasuke remained unmoving; his dark eyes further narrowing at the older boy.
"You're the kind of pesky little snot I hate the most." Kankuro declared as his hand reached up for the bandages strapped on the sack his back, "All attitude…, and nothing to back it up…"
His travelling companion gasped; her teal eyes widening as she realised the unwinding sash flying in the air, "What?" She asked in obvious surprise, "Are you gonna use the Crow for this…?" There was a loud thump when Kankuro's bundle of bandages that he had been carrying on his back dropped to the floor before him as the boy eyed Sasuke menacingly.
"Kankuro..." And out of nowhere there came a new voice, but this one was far more commanding, "…back off!"
Sasuke gasped quietly; his head turning to the side to see the new character standing upside down on the branch beside him. He had short auburn hair and light teal eyes; he had a 'kanji for love' carved on the left side of his forehead and on his back he carried a large gourd.
As soon as the voice came, Kankuro fell on his back with a nervous smile tugging at his mouth, "Gaara..."
"You're an embarrassment to our village." This new character named Gaara continued on with his arms crossed over his chest, "Have you forgotten the reason why we came all the way here?" The redhead asked threateningly.
Kankuro shifted nervously on his feet. "I know! I...I…I mean they challenged us. They started the whole thing really." Kankuro answered being frightened to his core, "...see here's what happened…"
"Shut up!" Gaara ordered; his tone was hollow with no emotions yet deadly. Kankuro stood up and took a step back as his face suddenly lit with fear, "...or I'll kill you."
"Uh...right." Kankuro spoke out loud, putting both hands up in front of him in a surrendering gesture, "I was totally out of line."
Turning slightly, Gaara faced Sasuke, "I'm sorry...for any trouble he may have caused." With that, Gaara's form vanished in a cloud of sand that fell to the ground below before the redhead reappeared next to his companions.
"Let's go." Gaara ordered once again, "We didn't come here to play games..." With that, the trio of strangers turned and began walking away with Gaara leading them.
"Hold on..." Sasuke called after them; bringing them to a stop.
"What?" The blonde-haired girl named Temari asked in place for the group.
"I can tell by your headbands that you come from the village hidden in the Sand. Of course, the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind are allies, but no shinobi can enter another's village without permission." Sasuke continued to probe the strangers.
Sakura took courage in Sasuke's presence and asked, "So, state your purpose here and it better be good."
The trio of sand village ninjas turned around at that to face them and Temari began, "Really?"
The blonde girl continued, "Have you all been living under a rock or what? You don't know what's going on, do you?"
She returned towards them as she reached down and pulled out a certification card for travel and spoke, "We have permission. And we're here for the Chunin Exams, get the picture?"
"The Chunin Exams…?" Naruto being obviously clueless asked confusedly, "...what's that? I've never heard of it before."
Temari laughed out loud, "Oh Kami, you are totally clueless."
"Hey, boss..." Konohamaru whispered to him, "Those are the exams every genin's got to take in order to become a chunin."
"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed out loud, "Well, why didn't you say so? I am SO there…" The trio of Sand village genin scoffed out loud at Naruto's comment before they once again turned and started back down the street.
"Hey…" Sasuke stopped the trio yet again and asked, "You identify yourself…"
The blonde girl turned to face Sasuke and asked sweetly, "Who…? Me…?"
"No..., not you, the one next to you, the one with the gourd on his back…"
Gaara came to an instant halt, "My name is Subaku no Gaara. I'm curious about you too." The redhead answered as he turned his head back and viewed over his shoulder with one eye, "Who are you?"
"I am Sasuke Uchiha."
Seeing the two stare each other down, Naruto swiftly stepped forward, grinning like an idiot, "Hi there!" He declared, "I bet you're dying to know my name, right?"
"I couldn't care less..." Gaara answered in a completely uninterested tone. With that being said, Gaara and his group leapt off the ground and disappeared away from sight in an instant.
Now that the strangers were gone, Sasuke rudely pushed past him commenting, "Back off, dobe…" With that, the Uchiha left almost immediately and Sakura followed behind the Uchiha like a lost puppy.
Naruto turned dejectedly towards his little fan club. "Hey, Konohamaru..." Naruto asked quietly, "Do I seem uncool or something?"
"Well...compared to Sasuke, yeah, you're pretty lame!" The boy answered truthfully.
Naruto instantly gave a deadpanned look and began sulking comically. He couldn't understand what made him invisible to others and Sasuke the centre of the world. He didn't know what made Sasuke so special and him an idiot, he didn't ask for this life, he didn't ask to be born. He didn't know why this was happening, but in any case, he wasn't going to sit around and do nothing; he had an obligation to do something and he determined that he will do something.
Hokage's Tower (Next Afternoon)-
The Hokage was sitting at his desk in the conference room and before him, stood all the Jonin-sensei of all the genin teams in the village along with many Chunins and Tokubetsu Jonins. The aged Kage took another huff of smoke from his pipe and began, "Let's start with Kakashi."
The cyclopean ninja held a half-tiger hand seal with his right hand up to his lips and replied respectfully, "From the 7th squad that I lead Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura. I recommend those three to the Chunin selection exam under my name, Hatake Kakashi."
As soon as Kakashi finished, a tall bearded man with brown eyes and olive skin began in continuation, he too held a half-tiger seal with right hand up to his lips and continued, "From the 10th squad that I lead Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji. I recommend those three to the Chunin selection exam under my name, Sarutobi Asuma."
Following Asuma, a red-eyed, fair-skinned, slender built woman with long black untamed hair reaching up to her shoulder began out loud with her half-tiger seal up to her lips, "From the 8th squad that I lead Hyuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino. I recommend those three to the Chunin selection exam under my name, Yuuhi Kurenai."
As soon as they finished, almost everyone standing behind the three Jonins began murmuring amongst themselves. And then, the aged Hokage gave the three Jonins a barely visible nod of agreement.
Suddenly Iruka stepped forward interrupting them, "Please wait!"
"Excuse me for interfering, but the nine who had their names called were students of mine at the academy. Every one of them is talented, but it's too early! Are you trying to ruin them?" Iruka asked outraged by what he heard, his eyes pointing at Kakashi specifically, beginning in a respectful tone but ending it in a vindictive manner.
"They always complain during important missions. Putting them in a dangerous situation might be interesting. Ruining them is also interesting." The Cyclopean ninja replied almost nonchalantly.
"What did you say…?" Iruka asked back in shock.
"That was a joke..." Kakashi replied almost impassively.
The Jonin Kunoichi named Kurenai jumped in aiming at her fellow Jonin, "Kakashi, stop…"
However, the one-eyed Jonin decisively ignored Kurenai and spoke in a higher tenor than before but with his gaze firmly rooted on Iruka, "Don't interfere! They are no longer your students. They are my subordinates now."
The concerned Chunin was outraged by the Jonin's reasoning and began, "But the Chunin exam is also known as the…"
But Iruka never finished as he was interrupted by the Hokage, "Iruka... I understand your argument."
"Hokage-sama…"
"So, we will put the rookie Genins through a special preliminary exam." And the aged Kage came with an instant solution to the problem.
"A preliminary exam…?" Iruka thought to himself in confusion.
Next Day-
It was around twelve o'clock, Sasuke was sitting cross-legged on the ground, and his eyes were clicking irritably. He was on the edge of snapping because Sakura who was sitting next to him was still trying to strike up a conversation with him. He couldn't understand what was wrong with his pink-haired teammate, usually, if he ignored her for long enough she would stop bothering him but today she was overly persistent, she kept jabbering on about her hobbies for the last hour. And to his misfortune, his loud-mouthed but kind of lovable blonde teammate wasn't in any way interested in asking Sakura for dates, which usually gave him an opening to escape Sakura's annoying attention and provided him with the much-needed respite.
Meanwhile, Naruto was sitting separately from the two wannabe couples/teammates and he was busy playing an interesting game of cards with three of his shadow clones. He knew that Kakashi-sensei would show up late as usual and so he brought a deck of cards to kill the time.
All of a sudden the clone sitting opposite to him placed the cards on the ground and called, "Full house… Aces full of nines…"
"Oh, come on." He cursed out loud while the rest of his clones sighed audibly.
As Naruto's clone was about to begin a victory dance, the jinchuriki dispelled them all out of spite. As this was happening, Kakashi who was watching his students from the treeline viewed them with obvious disappointment. He knew how lonely it was for Naruto, the least his students could do was converse with their teammate, but seeing Naruto playing a card game along with his clones while his other two students who are not ten feet away from Naruto, not joining the game but going all the way up to completely ignoring the blonde was disappointing.
Until that moment, he was thinking if he made a mistake by enlisting them for the Chunin Exam but now he was sure that showing his students the true ninja life for what it is and how real it can become, was the best decision that he could make at this point. He firmed to himself in his thoughts that this would undoubtedly teach his team the necessity of teamwork and bring the team together.
With that, the Cyclopean Jonin shunshined into the training ground and appeared before his students in a puff of smoke, "Yo…"
"Sensei, if you show up late one more time, I will…ARGH…" Sakura yelled at the Jonin and for the lack of better words to express her anger, she stopped abruptly.
Naruto yelled along with his crush in agreement to her threat, "YEAH…"
"Shut up, dobe." Sasuke claimed out loud, annoyed by the blonde's outburst of agreement to their useless teammate's empty threat.
"Okay, all kidding aside, I have an important announcement to make. These are the entry forms for the Chunin selection exam." Kakashi handed out one sheet of application for each of them separately and continued, "I've entered you three in. All you have to do is show up at the academy, coming Friday, afternoon three o'clock, go to room number 301 and you are considered in…"
"And you have the rest of the week off, I've got to run, ja ne." And the moment the cyclopean Jonin finished, he shunshined off once again leaving a puff of smoke behind.
Naruto turned to his right only to see that his teammates were missing, he looked around and in the distance, and he saw Sasuke speeding away from the training ground with a very determined Sakura in tow. And since he didn't feel like asking Sakura out on a date, he chose not to go after them instead he dejectedly jumped into the treeline and began tree-hopping towards the academy because he had something that needed to be cleared up, and he knew the perfect person to inquire about it.
Okay, guys, the next chapter is over, stay tuned for more chapters…
See ya…
