Chapter 2 – Sensei
"I'm so excited. What if we're on the same team? Who would our third team member be? Which Jounin would we get? Or what if we aren't on the same team? You were top of the class, so tradition says you should be paired with the dead last. Who was the dead last? Do we know the dead last? Maybe I can be the third to you and the underachiever?" Naruto rambled breathlessly as he and Sasuke dressed for their first full day as Genin. Naruto wore a simple training jumpsuit with orange panel accents. Sasuke favored a less eye-catching blue and white, with an Uchiha symbol on the back.
Sasuke tied his forehead protector on and smirked at his blond friend. "Take a breath. We'll be fine whether we end up on the same squad or not. These teams are just how we start. Whoever we end up with will be the two people we get to weed gardens with and paint houses with and possibly go on a few escort missions with. Then we'll become Chuunin and we'll go our separate ways for the most part."
"You're right. There's no use worrying about it I guess." Naruto tied his Hitai-ate to his bicep and surveyed the effect. He had already tied the light armor to his thigh, his waist, and even tried it like an odd lopsided jockstrap, a look that had actually made the imperturbable Sasuke laugh out loud.
"It looks better on your forehead, keeping those crazy bangs out of your eyes. You'll see better and fight better with it on your forehead."
As usual, Naruto couldn't fault Sasuke's logic. He returned the forehead protector to its most predictable location and smiled faintly. "It makes me look more like my dad this way."
Sasuke shrugged. "Don't worry, the resemblance is only superficial. The enemy ninja will realize you aren't the Yellow Flash when they fight you and you don't destroy them in less than thirty seconds."
"Thanks a lot." Naruto playfully punched his friend on the shoulder as they dashed off to the academy.
Haruno Sakura sat straight in her chair, nervous and confident and hopeful. Her best friend Ino showed no signs of nervousness as she berated Shikamaru for carelessly propping his dirty feet on a chair so that anyone who came along and sat there was bound to get soiled.
"Ninja get dirty, Ino," Chouji said since Shikamaru seemed too bored to bother defending himself.
"Especially if they aren't paying attention to their surroundings," Shikamaru added under his breath.
"Tradition." Ino turned to Sakura with a huff. "You realize that I'm going to have to put up with those two as teammates almost definitely. Our families have worked together for three generations. They held me back a year starting at the academy just so the three of us would go through together. My future is hopelessly decided."
"Annoying tradition," Sakura agreed without conviction. She wished that she had three generations of ninja legacy to complain about. Her parents remained flabbergasted that their daughter didn't want to study at a real school and have a real profession like engineering or architecture. Just that morning, her mother had sniffed and blamed herself for taking the Konoha mechanical engineering contract all those years ago that had resulted in raising her only child among crazy shinobi. Her parents were scientists, craftsmen, and they didn't like to think about wooly things like Jutsu and Chakra. At least her father seemed to sort of understand. After announcing her graduation, she took his genial pat on the head as acceptance.
Two inseparable, yet opposite boys burst into the classroom one after the other. Sasuke, dark and pale, the class's undisputed genius led the way. Naruto, loud, blond, and tan, arrived with a dramatic wave and greeting to his classmates. "We're here, bring on the Jounin instructors."
Every girl in the room turned to stare at the pair. Some were attracted to the loud blond and his family connections. Others idealized the quiet genius at his side. None were unaffected by the pair. The current scandalous rumor around class had the two boys in love with each other and forever off the market to the female population. Sakura didn't think the two friends were in love. Twelve year old boys didn't even think about love properly according to her mother. It took them a couple more years to really notice the opposite sex. For herself, Sakura hadn't decided which boy most appealed to her. She didn't know them yet.
Secretly she imagined being sorted onto a team with an appealing boy like Naruto or Sasuke, becoming friends, and eventually the boy would fall hopelessly in love with her. She had read the scenario in eight different novels. There had to be a grain of truth in the recurring plot.
Ino wasn't conflicted about the two boys. She stood and waved. "Naruto, there's an open seat here." While the two friends made their way to the open seats, Ino whispered to Sakura hopelessly. "You're so lucky. You could be sorted into any team at all."
"Definitely lucky," Sakura said, for the first time mostly agreeing with Ino. Secretly she worried that she was going to land on a team with dog breath, Kiba, or bug-boy, Shino, either of which she did not want to fall in love with her. But by her earlier logic, love was a risk between teammates. If they did fall for her, she wasn't sure how to handle unrequited affection from a boy.
Naruto brushed the dirt off the seat next to Ino and settled in, taking time to talk to everyone around him who was conscious. Shikamaru had drifted back to sleep moments after Ino had stopped berating him.
"Quiet down," Iruka commanded from the front of the room. He held a simple stack of lined notebook paper, their future, in his hands. "After your team assignments, please wait here for your sensei. Team one, Urashima Mei..."
Sakura let the parade of names wash over her waiting for her own name to be called. She was obliged at team six, "...Haruno Sakura, Aburame Shino..." her heart sank, awaiting Iruka's next pronouncement, "Namikaze Naruto, Jounin Hatake Kakashi." Score one hottie! inner Sakura celebrated. She glanced right, but Naruto wasn't exactly celebrating. He caught her looking and smiled, some enthusiasm shining through.
Sasuke was shuffled in with Hinata and Kiba, and Ino received her expected team.
"I have dibs," Ino whispered quickly to Sakura. "On Naruto, acknowledge that I have dibs. We're friends and I've been trying to get his attention since forever."
"He's not the last pineapple flavored popsicle, he's a boy. You can't dibs him." An obstinate glint came into her eyes and she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Don't pick a fight with a ninja, forehead girl," Ino said ominously.
"We're both ninja," Sakura said with more confidence than she felt.
Naruto listened with interest as his classmates were sorted into threesomes and assigned instructors. He tried to figure the logic of teaming each group up and he could imagine reasoning for most easily. He even knew most of the Jounin being named. When they announced his team, the pink-haired brain and Shino, Naruto just held back from vocally protesting. Where was the logic in that team? Who was he going to spar with? Shino was decent at Taijutsu and his ninja bugs were interesting in a creepy way, but Sakura was a brain without a ninja family or any other distinguishing skill that he knew of. Now that they were Genin, there wouldn't be many written tests.
To his left, Sasuke groaned so low that someone who didn't know him well might have missed it altogether. Naruto looked at his friend, realizing he had zoned out for all of team seven's announcement. "What's wrong?" Naruto whispered.
"My Jounin," Sasuke replied after a moment, as though Naruto should understand.
"I wasn't listening." Naruto winced internally, knowing that zoning out wasn't a good tendency in his chosen profession. Sasuke's look of disdain had him blushing with embarrassment. "Who is your Jounin then?"
"Your mother," Sasuke whispered back.
"Seriously?" He couldn't help laughing softly at his friend's discomfiture. His mother and Sasuke had a contentious relationship. She blamed his best friend for most of the scrapes he got himself into, and had been trying to encourage less dangerous (boring) friendships in him since he was three. Naruto turned back to Iruka who seemed to be finishing up.
"Good luck fellow Shinobi. It was a privilege and an honor to teach you."
Jounin appeared one after another immediately following Iruka's farewell. Kakashi poked his head in among the first few, and Naruto was forced to leave Sasuke to stew on his situation alone. Following the silver-haired, masked man, Naruto felt his enthusiasm rebuilding. No, he hadn't drawn a perfect squad, but he had an elite Jounin sensei who knew tons of jutsu. Sure he never actually passed a squad to active duty in his years accepting students, but that was just the ten or so teams. He was due to pass a squad, and Naruto had no intention of failing.
"All right, keep up with me." Kakashi leapt to the nearest rooftop and began a steady run toward the closest training grounds. As fast as they were going, Naruto was glad the training grounds weren't far, but their morning jog didn't stop amongst the first set of training logs they passed. The man kept going, cutting through groves of trees all the way to the outer wall, where he began to follow the curve of the city's boundary, neither speeding nor slowing.
He didn't actually want to lose them, did he? Naruto thought. He had to push hard with his much shorter to legs to keep their Sensei in sight. Just ahead of him, Shino seemed to be slowing a step as well. And Sakura, well he could still hear her gasping and trying to keep up behind them.
Every team had been collected within the first two hours of being assigned, all but one. Sasuke, Kiba, and Hinata waited in various states of dismay for their Sensei. Hinata had cautiously tried to speak with her teammates when the last of the others had left with Sarutobi Asuma, but between Kiba's agitated pacing and Sasuke's steady glare at the door, the words never made it to her lips. Things could not have turned out worse for her, Hinata thought dejectedly. Unable to even talk to the boys she had been selected to work with, how were they ever going to function as a team?
The door banged open and a cranky-looking redhead stepped to the front of the room. Rather than a Jounin uniform, she wore a simple, pale green gi. The Uzumaki clan swirl adorned the back and a black belt held the ensemble together. Sasuke was unpleasantly reminded that his Sensei was a foreigner.
"You three, follow me to the roof," Kushina ordered.
"Hai Sensei." Hinata spoke quickly before Kiba could articulate the displeasure he had been muttering for the last hour. Their Sensei disappeared in swish of smoke.
Kushina took the forty five seconds her team gave her to try and compose a reasonable introduction. She had decided only a day earlier to take on a set of students. What with their emergency diplomatic endeavor, she hadn't had a chance to properly prepare for the moment. Sarutobi and Umino had saddled her with three proud clan children to boot.
Sasuke, Kiba, and Hinata skidded to a stop in front of her, all three obviously eager to begin, but Kiba was the only one to voice what they all had to be thinking.
"We waited for hours. Where were you?"
Kushina glared at the Inuzuka just long enough to make him pause then smiled brightly. "I was busy sleeping, and I'd still be sleeping if the third Hokage hadn't woken me to let me know about you three. If you'd known you could all have gotten a nap too. Ah well, missed opportunities.
"As you've indubitably guessed, I'm Namikaze Kushina, your Jounin for at least a day or two. As you're all from clans, I'm sure you're aware of the next test. Before we get down to the business of that, please introduce yourselves, if not to me, then to each other. Sasuke and I are acquainted." She shot the Uchiha a smirk and pointed to Hinata. "Get us started Hyuuga."
Sitting quietly up in a tree, Kakashi turned the page of his novel. He had been waiting for his new Genins for nearly an hour now. He hadn't actually expected them to be able to keep up for an endurance sprint, but how they found him would be their first test. He had no intention of going easy on this group just because he had been assigned Sensei's son. If anything, he expected more of Naruto and by extension his team.
With no attempt at stealth, the three Genin arrived together. Naruto had the kunoichi on his back and Shino led the way. "You're sure your bugs aren't lost?" Naruto asked. "We've been on this shortcut forever."
Shino's only answer was to point up at Kakashi and his bright, orange-covered book. "Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto called. "What's the big idea, running off? Sakura sprained her knee."
"How unfortunate," Kakashi said. He stowed his book and leapt down. "Set her down and let me have a look."
Looking embarrassed, Sakura presented her swollen right knee. "There was a hole," she explained. "I was trying to keep up."
"There will be holes and long sprints, and far more difficult things ahead. Does anyone here know any first aid jutsu? If you're on a mission and a teammate sprains their knee, what do you do?"
"It depends on the mission, the situation. Naruto carried me," Sakura said. "Some missions might have required them leaving me. Without a medic your options are limited."
A book perfect answer, Kakashi thought with an internal grimace, without any sign that she understands what leaving a team member behind in most situations means. "You will need a trip to the hospital. Are you in much pain?"
"Now that we're not moving, I'm fine. It can wait." Sakura tried to project toughness.
"Time for introductions then, tell us your hopes, dreams, likes, dislikes, plans for the future," Kakashi smiled, his eyes squinting together. "Naruto, why don't you get us started?"
We all know each other and I know you, Naruto wanted to grouse, but open insubordination in his first team meeting didn't seem like the wisest course of action, so the still-winded Genin took a seat next to Sakura and introduced himself. "Namikaze Naruto, I like homemade ramen and ramen from Ichiraku. I dislike boring, time-consuming administrative jobs. I hope to learn a ton of awesome jutsu, be recognized as a kick-ass ninja, and go on a lot of exciting missions." He smiled brightly at Kakashi.
"You're next, knee-girl," Kakashi said.
"Sakura," she corrected, "Haruno Sakura, I like reading and studying and..." she trailed away, resolutely not looking at the boy who had just carried her halfway around Konoha. "I want to be a great ninja and..." Sakura couldn't bring herself to come out and say that she wanted to fall in love, grand romantic love and live happily ever after eventually. It was girly and silly and not a serious ninja thing to say, so she swallowed her primary dream and moved on. "I dislike people who think others without a ninja clan can't be great ninja. " She glanced apologetically at Shino. "And bugs might make me a little nervous."
Shino accepted her admission with a slight inclination of his head, and without waiting for direction, he continued the introductions. "Aburame Shino, I like my new beetle colony, and being a Shinobi. My aspirations are simple, to prosper and allow my hives to prosper, to defend my village and the hives ensconced there. I dislike ignorance in all forms."
"Are you going to introduce yourself, Sensei?" Naruto asked.
"Of course, I'm Hatake Kakashi, my likes and dislikes are none of your concern and my dreams for the future would simply bore you." His eyes squinted again in smile. "Now we should discuss your Genin test."
Naruto and Shino exchanged knowing looks, but Sakura just frowned. "We already graduated," she informed him.
"That's just the first test," Naruto said. "The Jounin give a second test in the first couple of days with a team and if we fail a fate worse than death awaits us."
"Kakashi-sensei will send us back to the academy," Shino supplied.
"Your teammates are correct." Kakashi's expression sobered. "The pass rate for the second exam is only thirty three percent. My personal pass rate to date is zero. Tomorrow's exam will not be easy. Meet me at six hundred hours, training ground three."
Kakashi raised his hand in silent farewell and made his exit. Overall it wasn't a bad beginning for the group. They had made it to the introductions without leaving a teammate behind, and it had only taken them an extra hour to locate him. Their self-professed dreams and aspirations were more concerning. Sakura was silly and immature and everything she left unsaid made him worry that she didn't understand what being a Shinobi actually meant. Growing up in Sensei's home, Naruto had to have some understanding of the dangers of his dream, but he acknowledged no fear or misgivings about the dangerous missions he craved. Shino had the most realistic outlook of the group, but that particular kid, like all Aburame, was difficult to read.
"We should take Sakura to the hospital," Shino said in a quiet deadpan.
"Definitely," Naruto agreed. He carefully lifted Sakura again, piggyback style. "And then we should get some ramen and talk strategy for tomorrow."
Shino led the way, a contemplative frown creasing his brow. "I've had a thought," he offered. "Something tangible we should try to do before tomorrow."
"What is it?" Naruto asked. "Is it some form of training?"
"Information gathering actually. We know that our Jounin fails all his Genin squads. We need to find out why before we make the same mistakes that they did."
"How exactly are we supposed to do that?" Sakura asked. "Are you going to ask Kakashi-sensei to tell you about it?"
"No, but we should ask the Genin he failed if we can find them," Shino said.
Kushina surveyed her students, arms crossed over her chest. "Your test starts now. You have two objectives. Select a leader for the duration of the mission. Protect your cargo." She tossed each Genin a single bell. "Rules state: Don't leave the village. No hiding the cargo off your person in the village. Don't swallow the cargo. I'll give you a ten minute head start. This test ends at dawn or when you've lost all three bells."
The three Genin took no time to talk, instead running for the nearest cover, each of them jingling as they ran. "We have to muffle these bells," Sasuke said, skidding to a halt under the cover of some brush.
"And select a leader," Kiba growled. "I nominate myself."
"Are you serious, dead last? Consider yourself vetoed," Sasuke snapped. "We need to deal with the jingling bells giving away our location. I'll lead. It's obvious. I was the top ranked ninja in the class."
Hinata froze, watching the boys argue. She could speak up and break the deadlock. Her vote would decide the issue succinctly. Their time was ticking away while the issue of leader was argued. What would her father say if she were sent back to the academy? The situation didn't bear thinking on.
"Sasuke will be leader," Hinata declared. Both boys jumped back as though she'd slapped them. "Now how are we going to muffle the bells?"
Sasuke smiled smugly, and though he obviously didn't like it, Kiba nodded. "There will be a Jounin stalking us in about eight minutes, so we need a strategy," Sasuke said. "If we stuff some fabric in the bells so the ringers can't jingle, we regain the possibility of silent movement."
"That does nothing to address the redhead about to attack us," Kiba said.
"We could scatter. Go to ground. Evade the enemy until dawn and we win. It isn't flashy, but I think it's our best shot," Sasuke proposed.
Busily shoving bits of fabric shredded from his shirt into his bell, Kiba grumbled, "I don't like running away from an enemy."
"Can you think of a better plan?" Sasuke asked. He gave Kiba several valuable seconds to propose another strategy. "Fine. We scatter and meet back at the main gates after dawn if we're able. Agreed?"
The other two Genin nodded, and then all three were running in near silence, trying to get some distance from their sensei.
Naruto spread a scroll with a list of names in front of his two teammates. "I had to swear to the records secretary, Kiku-sama, that the information was for my dad, but he gave it up. Fortunately the names of ninja on failed Genin squads aren't classified or it might have been more difficult."
"Are these addresses accurate?" Sakura asked.
"I hope so," Naruto said. "You guys want to split up and each of us question a third of these if we can find them?"
"Agreed," Shino said. "But don't search into the night. Sleep and eat so that you're ready for the test tomorrow. We'll meet at 400 hours for breakfast and to discuss what we found. Agreed?"
"Totally!" Naruto exclaimed. He carefully ripped the scroll into three equal pieces. Sakura nodded and accepted her names on the list.
Shino smirked to himself as their kunoichi tried to talk Naruto into doing the interviews as a pair in case her knee started bothering her again. The blonde assented with a frown and a scratch to his head.
"Fine, but if your knee doesn't feel right, we should take you back to the hospital before the test tomorrow," Naruto said with more than a touch of confusion.
Author's Note:
Q: Why doesn't Naruto know about Kakashi's testing proclivities, shouldn't he have that info from his dad?
A: There is an implied taboo regarding the bandying of Genin testing methods. I couldn't find a smooth way to state the taboo in conversation or in anyone's thoughts. Leaving it implied is subtle, but hopefully works well enough.
Characterization note: Hinata is still shy and introverted, but I dumped the scenario that resulted in her mother's death and hope that's sufficient justification to give her a touch more backbone and resilience right from the get go. Besides that, reading her stutter is one of the reasons I avoid Hinata in the fandom. Writing her stutter is not something I'm prepared to do.
While there was a nod to the Naruto/Sasuke slash community early in the chapter, the story isn't slated to be a slash story. No pairs are decided. Fanfic is organic and if this story wanders where I'm planning, romantic love and betrayal will play a role.
Finally, to anyone who was subjected to my accidental substitution of chapter one with the prologue for about a day. It was careless and I'm terribly embarrassed about it. Apologies.
NOTE: The chapter was beta read by Chelsea and lightning fast. Kudos and thanks are owed!