chapter 3
meet the team
"Well" Naruto thought, as he sat in his classroom at the Academy for what would likely be the last time, "Jiji's grandson sure is an interesting brat. Konohamaru. I'll remember your name." It had felt odd, teaching someone like that. Of course, all he had wanted to learn was the Orioke no Jutsu, but still...
It was strange, being in this room without Iruka-sensei, like looking at the sky and seeing the sun missing, or eating ramen only to find out the noodles weren't there. Instead, it was just Jiji standing there, giving a clearly pre-written speech about the responsibilities and dangers of being a ninja. The words just had that dull, lifeless feel to them, like they had been said so many times by so many people in this same situation over the years that they were just tired and wanted to rest. He tried to picture how Iruka-sensei would do it if he were there, but even his mental recreation of the scarred chunin couldn't manage to make the speech any more interesting.
The blonde had found himself thinking deeply a lot more often the past few days. Probably because there was just so much for him to think about now. He'd see something completely ordinary, like a man buying some pig meat from the butcher just down the street from his apartment building, and he'd wonder. What did the man want the meat for? Was it for feeding his family? Or to be given to some animals? Or maybe he was just buying it because he could. Looking closer at the man's face, though, was enough to give him the answer he wanted. The man had that bright, happy look, the king you only get when doing something for someone you love. It didn't even lessen when he spotted Naruto staring at him. Dinner for his family then.
Something else had changed over the past several days as well. Now, when Naruto walked down a street, one out of every few hundred people would smile instead of glaring. And the blonde would smile right back, that soft smile he first felt himself use when Iruka-sensei gave him his forehead protector, not the extra-wide grin he normally showed the world. He recognized every single one of these "smilers," though. They were the people who had been at the funeral. And while his dream of being accepted by the people of Konoha was still a long way off, those smiles in the street erased any lingering doubts about it being impossible.
And this morning, he had noticed one more change. His classmates. Whenever one of them would look at him, or speak to him, they didn't think of him as an attention-grabbing idiot failure. No, now they though of him as an attention-grabbing idiot who was able to give a good speech. Well, at least it was an improvement.
Well, not quite all of his peers had changed their views. Sasuke-teme still saw him as worthle-
"OW!" Right. Important fact: Jiji can throw chalk really hard.
"Naruto, please pay attention. I am going to announce your teams."
Oh. Right. "Sorry, Jiji. I'm listening."
"Very well. Team one will be..."
Make that half-listening, anyway. Kinda just partly paying attention so as to know who was with who and who he was with. The blonde would have been fine with just about anyone in his class, except for Sasuke-teme. Stupid bastard. Everyone loved him and thought he was so cool just because he had lost his family, and they had all been awesome ninjas, apparently. So everyone thought he would end up being an awesome ninja too, and... Bah! The thing that really pissed Naruto off, though, was the Uchiha's attitude, like he was above everyone else. He really wasn't that great, and the blonde promised himself that he prove it to him one day.
"Team seven will be Uzumaki Naruto..."
As Jiji paused, the blonde boy suddenly found himself on the edge of his seat in suspense. The next two names out of the old man's mouth would be the people he had the best opportunity to become good friends with. It was really a moment that would affect the whole rest of his life in ways he couldn't even imagine. And the old man sure was pausing a long time...
"Yamanaka Ino.."
Ino? Why couldn't it be Sakura-chan? Well, not that he was complaining or anything, but Sakura-chan was just so pretty, while Ino was just a Sasuke freak. Well, as long as the bastard wasn't the third team member, things would turn out okay. And again Jiji was pausing a really long time between names. He hadn't done this for any of the first six teams! It was like the old man was doing it just to annoy him... Wait a sec! He was! He had that mischievous little glint in his eye, stupid old man! "I don't care if my pranking days are over, I'll get you for this somehow, Jiji!"
"And Inuzuka Kiba."
Ino and Kiba? Yeah, he could get along with them all right, and they were both pretty good ninjas, so there was no need to worry about anyone falling behind and dragging the team down or anything like that. Or quitting. They were some of the only ones in the class that Naruto could tell really wanted to be ninja. Oh, the old man had just announced team eight to be Hinata, Shikamaru, and Choji. And it looked like there wouldn't be a team nine, something about last year's team nine still being there. Only three students were left now, so it seemed kind of silly to say who team ten was, but Jiji did it anyway. Shino, Sakura-chan, and the bastard.
"And that concludes this year's genin team divisions. Your jonin instructors will be arriving to pick you up after lunch; I recommend you use this period to become better acquainted with your comrades."
Yup. Jiji was definitely annoying him on purpose, and he was definitely getting pranked for it later. Hmm... Naruto had promised not to pull anymore pranks, but Konohamaru hadn't. Now he'd just have to find the brat and teach him the wonderful art of the prank...
"Oi! Naruto!" Only two people in the class had a voice that loud, and the blonde boy was one of them.
"Yeah, Kiba?" he shouted back across the room.
"C'mon over here already! Hokage-sama said we should get to know each other better!"
Oh, so that was what all those big words Jiji had used meant. "Okay! Comin right over!"
Naruto decided to take the fastest route, namely the air. That way, he could get there quickly, wouldn't have to bother with pushing his way through the crowd, and it would look cool. Of course, he didn't stop to think about how, when jumping across a crowded room, one can't be sure the spot they plan on landing in is empty. This turned out to be the case when the blonde-haired blue-eyed boy crashed straight into the class's only blonde-haired blue-eyed girl.
Naturally, the sound of the two hitting drew the attention of all thirty five other people in the room (twenty five genin, one Hokage, and nine hidden jonin-senseis. And one dog.).
The scene they saw caused one young Hyuuga girl to turn beet red, let out a quiet "eep" and faint.
Somehow, Naruto had managed to land directly on top of a startled Ino, their lips pressed together in a completely involuntary kiss. Also, both of them had had their mouths open slightly.
For several seconds, it was like the world had frozen. Then...
"met oth" The sound had come from the girl on the floor. The boy on top of her took two more additional seconds to process that she was, in fact, trying to speak, and that it would be completely impossible for her to do so with his tongue in her mouth and visa versa. On realizing this, he swiftly pulled his face off of hers.
"Huh?" The boy's brain wasn't quite functioning properly at the moment, or he would have been able to properly interpret the look of pure rage on the girl's face.
"I said. Get. Off." The words didn't quite have the force she had hoped for. Something to do with not enough air getting into her lungs because of the heavy weight on top of them.
"Oh, um... Sorry." Only now was Naruto beginning to understand what had just happened.
"Naruto you idiot! Be a bit more careful next time you want to try and show off, would you? I was saving my first kiss for Sasuke-kun, you clumsy fool! And you seriously need to start laying off the ramen! I swear, you weigh as much as Chouji!" Each insult was emphasized with a fist to the top of the boy's head.
"What was that?"
"Oh, nothing, Chouji! But as for you..."
"Oi! I'll have you know this is all good, solid, hard-earned muscle! And what's so great about Sasuke-teme, anyway? I could pound his face in any day of the week!"
"Don't insult Sasuke-kun like that, you-"
"Knock it off, you two!" Kiba chose that moment to intervene before his new teammates decided to kill each other. From on top of his head, Akamaru echoed his partner's sentiments with a couple of sharp barks."It was an accident. Don't go tearing each other to pieces because of it."
More than anything else, it was the fact that Kiba was acting as the voice of reason that managed to calm them down.
"Sorry, Ino." the blonde apologized.
"Sorry, Naruto." the other blonde apologized.
As it always did when he was embarrassed, the short boy's right hand went up to scratch at the back of his neck. "So, um, since that was mostly my fault, why don't you pick where we go for lunch?"
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"So, guys, what d'you wanna talk about?" Naruto asked, grinning at his two teammates. The three genin of the newly-formed team seven were sitting on the Academy roof in a sort of triangle shape, each with a bento box in front of them. Well, actually, the small boy had two bento boxes in front of him, and Kiba had a can of meat for Akamaru as well.
There had been a silent agreement between the three to leave ninja-related things out of the conversation. This time was for learning about each other on a more personal level.
"Well," said the dog boy, "let's start with asking why you brought so much food!"
"What, I can't have a big lunch? It's not like I couldn't afford it. Now that we're ninjas , I'm sure we'll be making lots of money!" He had brought a lot of food, though: two rice balls, two turkey ham tomato and cheese sandwiches, two oranges, and two cartons of milk. "And since we're talking about lunches, Ino, what the hell is that supposed to be?" Immediately after asking this, he bit off nearly a quarter of his first sandwich.
From her bento box, the girl had taken a cube of tofu and a leaf of lettuce, leaving the box empty. "My lunch, of course. In case you didn't notice earlier I'm a girl. I need to stick to my diet if I want to keep my figure and impress Sasuke-kun.!" The two boys of team seven looked at each other and rolled their eyes simultaneously. Then another quarter of Naruto's sandwich vanished, Kiba tore into a chicken leg, and took off a corner of her tofu cube.
"Hey Naruto, I've always meant to ask," this was Kiba again, having just swallowed his first hunk of meat, "do you have a pet fox or something? Cause you've always got this fox scent around you."
The Kyuubi container froze momentarily. Fortunately, neither of the others noticed, because he immediately started to choke on the large clump of rice he had just put in his mouth. The short time spent not able to breathe was enough to calm his briefly panicking mind.
"Whaddya mean 'fox scent?' And what are you sniffing me for anyway?" the boy accused.
"I mean exactly what I said. Inuzuka clan members have a heightened sense of smell, I can't help it. And Akamaru can tell too. You smell like a fox who went for a bath in a bowl of miso ramen." The small white dog stopped tearing at his own meat long enough to yip his agreement.
He wasn't quite sure how to respond to that last bit, so he chose to just ignore it. "Anyway, I don't have any pets, unless you count Ukki-kun, but he's a plant. I think there's a family of foxes living near one of my favorite training spots, though. Would that explain it?"
Kiba nodded.
Team seven's kunoichi decided to make herself heard. "Plant? You like gardening, Naruto?"
Unfortunately, she had caught him with a slice of orange in his mouth. "Mah. I on'y mth th un tho."
"Huh?" This came from both of the other two.
He took a moment to finish chewing. "Yeah. I've only got the one, though. Not enough room in my apartment for any more. D'you like to garden, Ino?"
"Yep. My parents own a flower store, so I've been around plants my whole life."
"Oh yeah! Yamanaka flowers, of course! I remember that place now! There was this one time, about a year ago, when I..." Konoha's prankster king trailed off, concluding that that particular story would be best told in other company.
"Yes?" the other blonde asked, the slightest hint of a threat behind the inquiry.
"Umm... Never mind. New topic." He swiftly turned to the other boy. "So, Kiba, your family is, like, a family of dog ninjas or something?"
"Oh no! You're not getting off that easy!" That slight hint of threat had become much more obvious. "When you what, Naruto?"
He looked to his fellow male for help, but both Kiba and his partner were busy eating. "When I...snuck-in-and-poured-orange-dye-in-the-washing-machine-while-it-was-running-please-don't-kill-me!"
As soon as Ino figured out what the other blonde had just said, she threw herself at him, intent on giving him a beating for ruining her clothes. Naruto immediately leapt to his feet, and she started to chase him in circles around Kiba.
The boy and his dog looked at each other and sighed. Then the Inuzuka decided to take advantage of the opportunity by stealing Naruto's remaining rice ball. He brought it to his mouth...
"Yoink!" The blue-eyed boy stole his food back, stuffing it straight into his own gaping hole.
However, he had come a bit too close to Kiba, and his leg got tangled up in the other's jacket, resulting in him spinning around to face the other direction.
Ino, of course, was not expecting this sudden turn around and stop and slammed straight into him.
The end result was much like what had happened back in the classroom, except that Ino was now on top, and the rice ball was filling both their mouths.
Thirty seconds later, both had agreed to pretend it had never happened.
"Anyway, you both probably know I'm an orphan. Been living on my own since... um... Can't quite remember. Hokage-jiji was really the only person in my life when I was younger, besides the Ichirakus, so it really isn't surprising that I want to be just like him. Well, except for the smoking. And the old age. But what about you two? What are your families like?" Naruto asked, before chugging one of his milk cartons.
Ino went first. "It's just me, my mom, and my dad. Dad's a jonin, but he's not gone as much as you'd expect, because he helps out pretty often in the interrogation department. Mom just stays home and runs the store. Dad and I help when we can, but it's Mom who does most of the work. She has basic ninja training, of course, but apparently it just wasn't the life she wanted for herself.
"Dad was the one who made me want to be a ninja, though. When I was little, he'd tell me stories about some of his missions. It all just sounded so exciting! Saving people, stopping bandits, everything. Not too long after I started the Academy, I met Forehead girl, and we were best friends for a while, till we started fighting over Sasuke-kun. And that's my life in a nutshell."
"My turn, I guess," Kiba said. "I've got my mom, my sister, and all the dogs. Dad used to be around, too, but Mom... Well, she can be kinda... forceful... sometimes, and apparently it was a bit too much for him. I think I was about five then, so I don't remember too well.
"Mom's a jonin, and she's actually the best tracker in the village, so she and Kuromaru go out with the hunter nins pretty often to help them catch missing nins. Hana's eighteen and a chunin. She mostly stays in the village though, cause she's the only veterinarian in Konoha.
"As for me becoming a ninja, there was never really anything else. The whole clan has been ninjas all the way back to the time of the Shodai. But I get the feeling that ninja life is something I can enjoy, don't you think so too, Akamaru?"
"Arf!"
By this time, all four had finished their lunches and begun cleaning up.
"Well," this was Ino, "I say the first thing we do after meeting out jonin sensei is go shopping!" The other two looked at her like she was crazy. "I mean it, you two! You boys have no fashion sense. I absolutely refuse to be on a team with someone wearing that." She pointed to Naruto.
Predictably, the boy took offense to this. "Oi! What the hell's wrong with my jacket?"
"It's orange." The look she gave him said, quite clearly, 'just how stupid are you?'
He just as clearly missed said look. "So? Orange is awesome! Way better than that stupid purple thing you're wearing."
"Uh, guys?" Kiba tried to interject
Now Ino was furious. No one insults her clothes. She took a threatening step forward. "I will not allow that monstrosity of a piece of clothing on my team! And the pants will have to go, too!"
"Guys?" He was ignored again.
"Your team? Your team? This is definitely not your team. It's our team, or our sensei's team!" That comment had really pissed Naruto off, if the small wisps of chakra leaking off him were anything to go by. Their faces were now only inches apart.
"GUYS!" the third teammate shouted.
They both rounded on him. "WHAT!"
"It's time to go," he reminded them.
"Oh," both said.
"Sorry, Naruto. About the clothing and the team comment. I didn't mean it. I just get a bit riled up when people insult my clothes."
"I'm sorry too, Ino. I'll try to keep that in mind about you and clothing."
Team seven turned and headed back inside, Kiba in front, Naruto in back.
"But that purple thing really is stupid looking." She immediately rounded on her fellow blonde, only to find him smiling at her. "Hehe. Just kidding." Ino smiled in return.
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Sitting in between his two new teammates, Naruto couldn't help but think that finally, after twelve years of suffering, his life was starting to look up. He liked Ino and Kiba. Well, most of the time, anyway. The blue-eyed girl seemed able to get on his nerves in a way even Sasuke-teme had never managed, and her obsession with the pretty-boy Uchiha was really annoying. Kiba, though, he didn't see himself having any problems getting along with, because they were just so similar personality-wise.
He turned to face the door, along with all the other new genin (except Shikamaru, who had somehow managed to fall asleep in the two minutes since he had sat down) when eight men and women, all clearly jonin, walked into the room and stood at the front of the class in a line, facing them.
One by one, they called their teams to them and left the room. Naruto looked ahead to the seventh person in the lineup. He was a tall, dark-skinned man with a thick beard smoking a cigarette. Ugh. The boy could smell the vile thing from this far away, and it was all he could do not to gag. Next to him, Kiba and Akamaru seemed to be in the same state, if not worse.
"Team seven, come with me." Damn. They did have the smoking man. Oh well. Hopefully his teaching would make up for his stench.
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Asuma led his new genin team to a training ground about ten miles from the Academy. He made sure to keep his pace at something the fresh ninjas would be able to follow. When they arrived at the main clearing of training ground 3 (Kakashi would probably kill him when the man found out he had stolen it), he saw that the results of his impromptu test were exactly as he had expected. Uzumaki was perfectly fresh, as though he had just been on a brisk jog. The Inuzuka was breathing heavily but trying to hide it. And the team's kunoichi would probably need a moment or two to recover.
He had watched the three of them interacting on the Academy roof during lunch earlier that day and found himself pleasantly surprised. For a fresh genin team, they got along with one another pretty well. But more on that later. Now it was time for what was known as 'introduction time.'
"Right, now that we're all comfortably settled, I think it's time we got to know each other. My name is Sarutobi Asuma. I enjoy playing strategy games like shogi and go, along with smoking my cigarettes. My favorite color is brown. I don't like parents who try and control their kids' lives, and I have absolutely zero tolerance for anyone who would threaten Konoha and Fire Country. My dream for the future is to one day settle down and retire, maybe have a kid or two of my own."
"Sarutobi? Are you related to Jiji and Konohamaru, then?" the blonde boy blurted out as soon as he finished.
Figures the kid would pick up on that bit. "That's right, Naruto. Hokage-sama is my father, and Konohamaru is my nephew. Now, I was going to let you go next, but after that outburst I've changed my mind. Kiba, you go."
"I'm Inuzuka Kiba, and this here is Akamaru!" The boy's partner added in his own bark of introduction. "I like spending time with Akamaru, especially going for runs through the woods with just the two of us. I also enjoy being with my family, except for when Hana starts teasing me about stuff. My favorite color is grey, like my coat. I dislike arrogant bastards like Uchiha Sasuke who think they're better than everyone else just because. And my dream for the future is to show the world that I'm gonna be a great ninja and a proud member of the Inuzuka clan."
When the dog-boy had mentioned the last Uchiha, Asuma had found himself needing to send a harsh glare at the team kunoichi to keep her from interjecting. So far, though, everything was going pretty much as expected. He gestured for the girl to speak next.
"Hi, my name's Yamanaka Ino. I like Sasuke-kun, flowers, gardening, helping out in my family's flower shop, and Sasuke-kun. My favorite color is purple. I don't like anyone who insults Sasuke-kun or my clothes, and my dream for the future is to marry Sasuke-kun!"
Energetic, but a bit of a one-track mind. Well, it was good to know what needed to be worked on. Only one left now, and if half the stories his dad had told him were true, the jonin would probably find himself wanting new eardrums before the fox-boy finished.
"Finally!" Naruto leapt to his feet. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, Konoha, and training! I really like the ramen they serve at Ichiraku Ramen, Hokage-Jiji, old man Ichiraku, Ayame-neechan, and playing pranks! Jiji made me promise to stop the pranks now that I'm a ninja, though..." His face fell briefly before springing back into a huge grin just as fast. "My favorite color is orange! I don't like the three minutes I have to wait for the water to heat up when making instant ramen! I'm starting to really dislike the smell of cigarettes. And I really really don't like stupid Sasuke-teme! He's such a stuck-up bastard, like Kiba said, and he's always just off brooding by himself, so obsessed with what he lost that he doesn't realize what he had, or what he has now. I hate traitors. Anyone willing to betray the people who love and care about them isn't worth the spit from my mouth. My dream for the future is to make Iruka-sensei proud of me and become the greatest Hokage ever. And to try every flavor of ramen!"
That last bit had been tacked on almost as an afterthought. While Asuma did indeed find his eardrums ringing, he was also quite surprised. Apparently, the death of that Academy instructor had affected the boy greatly, moreso than he normally let the world see. Uzumaki Naruto... A psychologist would have a field day with that kid.
Anyway, now he had three cute potential genin and one dog all staring up at him, wanting to know what they were doing next. "Very good, you three. I think we'll all get along just fine. But before we do anything else, there's something you should know."
Four inquiring gazes locked onto his own. "You see, you three aren't actually genin yet." He braced himself.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAT!" Damn, these three could be loud. His dad must have heard that all the way over in the Hokage tower!
"That's right. The test at the Academy was just to get rid of the ones who never had a chance. Tomorrow, all the newly-assigned teams will be given their own test. Pass, and you are officially instated as genin of Konoha. Fail, and it's right back to another year at the Academy."
The expressions of dread on each of their faces were priceless. If only he'd brought a camera... "This test, though, is extremely difficult, with an approximate 66,6% fail rate."
"Huh? Whaddya mean 'an approximate 66.6% fail rate?'" This was from Naruto, who now looked confused. The other two just looked more horrified.
While he didn't love this part quite as much as Kakashi, the jonin couldn't help but admit to himself that it was kind of fun. "I mean that, out of your graduating class of twenty seven students, only nine are likely to become ninjas."
But the expected fearful look never showed on the blonde boy's face. The other two, yes, but he was different. And it was at this moment that Asuma first realized just how different Uzumaki Naruto really was.
No, the Kyuubi jinchuriki wasn't frightened at all. He was determined. And excited. "Well bring it on! We're ready, right Ino, Kiba, Akamaru?"
"Right!"
"Right!"
"Arf!"
And his determination and excitement sort of flowed into the other two, leaving the Hokage's son with three resolved, serious genin (and one dog).
He laughed, resulting in three puzzled genin (and one dog). "That's great that you feel that way, but the test isn't until tomorrow. Meet here at 8:00 sharp, and we'll discuss the details then. For now, you're dismissed." And he shunshined away.
Not really, though. He had just gone into the trees and was watching to see what would happen next.
Predictably, Naruto was the first to voice his opinion. "Hey, why don't we all hang around for a bit and try and think up some ideas for this test, whatever it is. And we can explore the training ground, too. Get to know the terrain, like Iruka-sensei taught us."
The other two looked surprised at that last part. Kiba was the one to speak. "Naruto? Weren't you asleep for that lecture?"
The short boy gave his teammate a strange look. "Eh, probably. But ever since Sensei died, I've been remembering bits and pieces of the stuff he'd teach us, stuff I never really learned when he was alive." All three became a bit downcast.
As seemed to be becoming a dependable occurrence, Naruto was the first to perk back up. "So, what d'you say? Wanna check the place out?"
The other two's faces morphed into apologetic looks. "I'd like to, and it's a good idea, but I promised Mom I'd go straight home as soon as possible. She'd skin me alive if I disobeyed." The dog barked out his agreement.
"Forehead said she wanted to talk to me after team meetings. Said it was important. But hey, why don't we all meet back here later this evening, say around six?"
"Sure, six sounds okay." Kiba agreed.
"Yeah!" The orange clad boy was practically glowing with happiness.
"Well, see ya!"
"Yeah, see ya then!"
"Later!"
Asuma had a good feeling about these three. Of course, final judgement would be reserved until after the test, but still.. And as much as he enjoyed watching them together, he knew he'd have to force himself to stay away later that night. If they were going to use that time to prepare, it would be unfair of him to spy on them. After all, they'd need every advantage they could get come tomorrow morning...
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author's note: Thank you, mabscottsville, for giving me the name of Naruto's plant.
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comments: (note that comments for chapters 1-16 were written well after the chapters themselves)
I decided to skip over Naruto meeting with Konohamaru, because it really wasn't going to be any different from canon, which means many readers would probably just skim over it, so there wasn't really a point pouring time and effort into something that would be ignored. Instead, I mentioned that it happened and moved on to team selections.
Hopefully, everyone was surprised by exactly who Naruto ended up with. Sticking him under Asuma is a very rare occurrence, and I think I've only seen one other semi-decent fic place Ino and Kiba on his team. You'll also note that I decided to break the number tradition. Kakashi and Asuma have switched.
Also, I just had to throw in the "accidental kiss" bit for comedy, homage to canon, first pairing hint, and to show that Ino's Uchiha obsession didn't just magically disappear.
As for the three genin managing to get along so quickly, remember that they all have that same sort of dominant personality. Mixing them together like that could result in either great cooperation or extreme conflict. For story purposes, it's of course the former. There's a bit of tension between Naruto and Ino, but I don't really feel the need to explain why that's there.
The team introductions scene was a bit tricky to write, mostly because I had to find a way to do it that would have my readers wanting to actually read it, as it's one of the standards of Naruto fanfiction, and therefore something people don't usually pay much attention to, even with an unusual team combination. I hope I succeeded.
Attentive readers will notice that I had Ino mention a planed meeting with Sakura. This is the canon flashback where she returns the ribbon.