It was early morning in Konoha. The first merchants had opened their shops or put up their stalls at the marketplace. Ninja of different ranks were traversing the village, some through the streets and some across the rooftops. A team of Genin were out on an early D-ranked mission, struggling to keep the large dog they were supposed to walk from running after a cat that had crossed the road. And in a small apartment in the poorer parts of the village Uzumaki Naruto had just gotten out of bed.

It had been a week since the events after the Genin exam, and today was the day that he would be put in a team together with two other graduates. This was not what was on the young boy's mind though, as he groggily made his way to the bathroom for a quick shower. Still half asleep, he almost slipped upon the discarded pieces of clothing that he had forgotten to pick up the previous evening. He caught himself on the basin, now slightly more awake, and turned on the shower. He stripped, got in, and sighed contently at the hot water that fell upon him, dampening his hair and soothing the sore spot on his back, a reminder of the mistake he did during his training the day before.

He had been practising his balance and his skill at throwing kunai at the same time but had been so focused on hitting his target that he had forgotten that he was standing on a narrow pole and not on the ground. His throw --which missed-- was followed by a yelp and an undignified fall off of said pole. As to make matters worse he had fallen upon a sharp rock that was conveniently placed just below the pole, thus the --now mostly healed-- injury on his back.

He absently scratched the skin where the wound had been while reminiscing about the somewhat brief discussion he'd been having with the Hokage on the day after graduation. Nothing much had been said, he had simply explained how his bloodline worked in a bit more detail and had asked the Hokage for a change of clothes, as all of the clothing stores refused to let him enter. The new clothes had arrived the previous evening, and he was anxious to try them on.

'Oh, Ojii-san asked me if I still had the same dream as before as well.' he remembered with a small sigh.

At first, he honestly didn't know. But the past week had given him a lot of time to think, and he had come to the conclusion that he shouldn't dwell in the past, instead drawing strength from his past experiences while looking toward the future. So he had, at least mostly, forgiven the villagers and more importantly, the Yondaime for what they had done to him. He had decided to show the villagers himself that he was his own person and had vowed himself to become the hero the Yondaime had wanted him to be. This was easy enough in his head, but he knew that he would have a hard time ahead of him if he was to prove himself to the village.

He pushed those thoughts from his head and stepped out of the shower, rubbing his hair dry with a towel with one hand while putting another around his waist with the other. Once he was completely dry he walked into the kitchen and put a kettle of water on the stove. While waiting for the water to boil he took two cups of instant ramen from a cupboard and a pair of newly washed chopsticks from a neat pile beside the sink. Opening the refrigerator he frowned at the lack of food inside.

'Seems like I'll have to stop by a food store on my way home today.' he thought while frowning at the expired milk he held in his hand. Shrugging, he threw the milk into the waste bin before picking up the kettle and filling the ramen cups with the boiled water.

After the ramen was ready he mumbled a quick 'Itadakimasu' before quickly slurping up the noodles. When the noodles were gone he began to absently sip on the broth while pondering on who his team-mates would be.

'As long as it's not Sasuke I'm fine with it.'

If there was one person Naruto couldn't stand it was Sasuke. They had been in the same class in the academy since the start, and while Sasuke hadn't been too bad at the beginning he had changed after the massacre. Out of all the Uchihas in the village, he was the only survivor. After that he had started to brood a lot, and had begun treating everyone like they were below him.

Naruto, who had seen how lonely he looked once, had offered him his friendship, but Sasuke had turned him down, behaving as if the blonde was nothing more than dirt under his sandals. After that, said boy had given up on the brooding Uchiha as he no longer deserved his friendship.

Seeing that his mood was getting darker, Naruto stopped thinking about the last Uchiha and walked back into his living-room-made-bedroom to finally try on his new clothes.

Ten minutes later he was happily making his way toward the academy. He had lots of curious looks thrown his way as people didn't seem to recognise him. This only caused a smile to appear on his face and he revelled in the lack of hate toward him.

His new outfit was nothing special really, just a pair of forest-green shorts and a short-sleeved jacket of the same colour, but to Naruto it was perfect. It was made out of a light yet extremely sturdy material, but it did not halter his movements in the slightest. He had strapped the new kunai pouch that came with the outfit to his right thigh, just where it wouldn't be in the way and where he'd still be able to easily reach for a kunai. To complete the ensemble he had tied his new hitai-ate to his forehead, keeping his hair from falling into his eyes. All in all it was a huge improvement over his usual jumpsuit. He shuddered unconsciously at the memory of the orange eyesore --which he had burned after getting the new clothes-- and continued his trek toward the academy.

Before long, the academy came into view. Naruto slightly increased his pace as it wouldn't do if he was late for this. Only half the class was there when he stepped into the classroom, and, after a brief look at the clock hanging on the wall beside the blackboard, he deduced that it was because it was still about thirty minutes before the meeting was to begin.

'It's ironic if I think about it. I have the power to manipulate time, yet I still need a clock to tell what time it actually is.'

Shrugging, he simply went to his usual seat and sat down, not noticing the curious looks he was getting. He was still happy for the lack of hate toward him today, but now that he had reached the academy his thoughts once again returned to the subject of team-mates. He was quickly brought out of his musings when a bored voice spoke up beside him.

"Hey, who are you? This is only for gradu- Naruto?" the bored tone of the voice was replaced by surprise when he raised his head, and as he glanced at the owner of the voice that had intruded upon his pondering he was met with the lazy, yet slightly surprised face of Nara Shikamaru, one of his classmates.

"Yep, that's me." was the response the blonde gave, and after a little thought he added "And before you ask. Look at what I'm wearing on my forehead."

Shikamaru, who had been in the process of opening his mouth to ask what the blonde did there, complied and quickly shut his mouth, a dawning look on his face. He muttered a quick congratulation, followed by something that sounded like 'troublesome', before stalking off to find his own seat.

Naruto briefly followed the Nara with his eyes, before turning his gaze toward the door of the classroom, where a commotion of some sort was taking place. What he saw was the infamous pair of friends-turned-rivals, Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura. Ino was a fellow blonde, but while Naruto's hair resembled the colour of the sun, Ino's was paler, as was her eyes, both a pale blue that bordered on turquoise. She was garbed in some strange purple outfit that couldn't be practical but apparently was, if her grades was anything to go by.

Naruto shrugged it off as a girl thing.

He only briefly scanned over Ino before his eyes fell on Sakura. She had long hair coloured the same shade of pink as her namesake, a slightly-larger-than-normal forehead, and eyes a shade of green that could put emeralds to shame. 'The same shade of green as my chakra.' he mused absently. Naruto had had a 'crush' on her for a long time, or at least he thought that's what it was called. Whenever he looked at her he was reminded of those eyes, along with a bright smile, and it always made him feel warm inside. He smiled brightly in his mind when she looked his way, but it faltered when he remembered who was next to him.

Uchiha Sasuke. Not only was he the 'Rookie of the year' and a stuck up bastard, but he was also the only boy on the mind of every single girl in the academy, including Sakura and Ino, who were both on their way toward him, each sporting a murderous glint in their eyes. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of their wrath, Naruto quickly bolted out of his seat to allow one of them passage to the seat next to the brooding Uchiha. Unfortunately, he had done a minor miscalculation in his hurry to get out of the way, and the result was him tripping on his own feet and falling flatly to the floor.

'And here I thought I had promised myself to stop the acting.' was the thought running through his head, and he was slightly angry at himself for still acting like the boisterous idiot he had made himself out to be. He purged those thoughts from his mind for the time being and got up, plastered a fake grin on his face to hide his frustration to his laughing classmates, and returned to his seat as Sakura had managed to place herself next to the raven-haired Uchiha while a fuming Ino had stalked off to find another seat. He looked at the pink-haired girl next to him and sighed.

Normally, he did everything by logic, not allowing his feelings to get in the way. --'Just like the academy has taught us.' he thought absently.-- Yet he couldn't logically explain why he was the way he was when he was close to Sakura. The girl was never nice to him, always belittling him or comparing him to Sasuke, yet whenever he was near her all he wanted was to make her smile. It was a strange and rather foreign feeling to him, but as he didn't have an explanation for it he labelled it off as this 'love' thing that all the girls in the academy seemed so fond of. He had no idea what this 'love' really was, and, as he couldn't get into the village's library, he had no way of finding a book to describe it.

'It would be nice to know though. It seems to have quite a lot of power over at least the females in class, and knowing about it could give me an advantage should I need one.'

Nothing productive would come out from that train of thought, at least not without sufficient information on the subject at hand, so Naruto instead thought of the jutsu he was currently working on. It was purely to be used for convenience, so it wouldn't need a fancy name, and it was almost complete. All he would need to do now was test it, to see if his calculations were correct.

His brow furrowed in thought, Naruto absently scribbled down notes about the technique on a piece of paper that he had found lying on his desk. As such he almost missed the fact that the classroom had grown quiet, and that Iruka was now standing in front of the blackboard, waiting for the last noise to ebb out before beginning with his congratulatory speech.

It was lucky that the blonde had the presence of mind to watch his surroundings, or he wouldn't have been able to catch the blackboard eraser that was flying toward his head.

Satisfied that he now had all the students' attention --and that his favourite one apparently had better reflexes than the Chuunin had assumed-- Iruka began with the speech, explaining the expectations that the village would have toward the graduates and the importance of working together.

It was nothing that Naruto hadn't heard before, the Sandaime liked to talk to him about it on the few occasions where they ate some ramen together, so he tuned the speech out and instead continued on with going through the theory for the new jutsu once again. When he finally returned to listening to what Iruka was saying said Chuunin had already started calling out the teams.

"… and Hayashi Yuudai. Team Seven will consist of: Uzumaki Naruto,…"

It seemed like Naruto had returned from his thoughts right on time. He unconsciously let out a small sigh of relief that he hadn't missed his own name being called. He snapped back to attention when Iruka continued reading up the names.

"… Haruno Sakura…"

Naruto didn't know if he should jump for joy or groan. It would be very awkward to work with a person who hindered him from thinking properly. But he'd try his best to make it work. He absently wondered what his soon-to-be team-mate thought about the situation though.

Sakura was not in a good mood.

Her day had started off well. Then she met up with Ino and they started to fight as usual. And now she would be forced to be in the same team as the dead-last.

'Off all the people I could end up with it had to be that immature idiot! Sasuke-kun better end up in my team as well or I think I'll tear something to pieces!'

'Hell yeah! And if Sasuke-kun end up in the same team as Ino-pig I'll hold Naruto responsible!!' came the voice of her inner personality.

Years of uncertainty and lack of self-confidence had caused Sakura to develop another personality within her. This 'Inner Sakura' was everything that the girl thought she wasn't, and always managed to cheer her up or boost her confidence when she needed it.

She glanced at her soon-to-be team-mate and was slightly shocked at what she saw. Since when had Naruto, the guy with no fashion sense, started to dress as a normal person? She had to admit that the clothes that he was currently wearing fitted him, and he looked slightly more mature without all the orange. Then she caught herself. Naruto, mature? The very thought was ludicrous.

But then there was his whole reaction to Iruka's announcement. She had thought that he would jump and scream for joy at the thought of being in the same team as her, yet he seemed slightly subdued. For the first time in what would soon be a common occurrence, she wondered if the picture she had of the blue-eyed boy was wrong.

She was brought out of her musings --which had only lasted a few seconds-- when Iruka announced the last member of Team Seven.

"… and Uchiha Sasuke."

Right there, Naruto lost faith that he would ever have something happening in his favour.

He knew that not only would working together with the arrogant Uchiha be impossible, but he also knew that said boy would probably get most, if not all of the attention of their Jounin sensei. Not only was Sasuke the 'Rookie of the year', he was also 'the last Uchiha', and therefore a very important person in the village.

Naruto held no illusions though. Sasuke was very talented, overall he was probably a better ninja than Naruto as well. But that was to be expected. While Naruto was hindered and ridiculed, Sasuke was coddled and praised, something that had not only boosted his skills, but also his arrogance. Something Naruto was sure the team would pay for, himself more than the others.

He was fuming all throughout lunch, and only continued to do it when they were back in the classroom, waiting for their sensei to arrive. They had now waited for two hours, and while Naruto normally enjoyed silence it now gave him too much time to brood, something he really didn't enjoy doing.

Just when he was about to snap, the door to the classroom opened.

Hatake Kakashi had had quite a troublesome day. He was just preparing himself for a day off with a high quality book --'Very high quality.' he thought with a slightly perverted giggle-- when he was interrupted by a message to come to the Hokage tower immediately. And now he was going to take on a team of snot-nosed brats and train them. Normally, he would just test his team, then fail them. But as the Council had assigned him the Uchiha brat, he was forced to pass them all, deserving or not.

'Well, there goes all my free time.' he thought with a sigh as he drew a hand through his long silver hair, hair that seemed to defy gravity in that that it tried to stand out as much as possible.

Had he known that he would have to take care of Genin he would almost have reconsidered leaving ANBU. Though team-mates died too easily in that organisation, and Kakashi doubted that he could take any more deaths without losing his mind.

So he was stuck with the brats. And speaking of those, he remembered the conversation he had had with the Hokage about his future team.

-Flashback-

The meeting between the Jounin about to take on Genin teams and the Hokage had just finished. Kakashi was about to leave when the elderly voice of the Sandaime held him back.

"Kakashi-san, I would like to speak with you privately."

It was phrased as a simple request, yet the silver-haired Jounin clearly knew an order when he heard one. He sighed, turned around, and stood at attention before the desk of the Hokage once again.

"What is it Hokage-sama?" he asked in a lazy drawl.

"There are a few matters that I would like to discuss with you concerning your team of Genin." came the reply.

"Is this concerning Sasuke?"

That would be the obvious reason after all. Sasuke was the last Uchiha, and the only one in the village with the potential of unlocking the Sharingan, one of the most powerful bloodlines in existence. Kakashi absently raised his hand toward his left eye at that thought, then caught himself and lowered it again.

"While the Council have assigned you as Sasuke's Jounin sensei, I have no interest in talking about the Uchiha. Instead, I would like to hear your thoughts about your second student, Naruto."

This surprised Kakashi slightly. Uzumaki Naruto was a mediocre student who had barely passed the academy. Why the Hokage would be interested in that boy was not something he could figure out.

'Oh, right… Naruto. That's the Kyuubi kid…'

Kakashi was hardly a man who would blindly assume that a jinchuuriki was a demon reborn, yet he never really could stand being close to the blonde container. The boy simply reminded Kakashi too much of his sensei. Yet he would not allow petty feelings as that to impede on his duty. He was a proud shinobi of Konoha, and thus he would carry out his orders without question.

"I don't know really. He seems to be nothing more than a boisterous loudmouth. Yet if my instincts are right he is likely more than one can see on the surface."

The Hokage smiled slightly at that, and Kakashi couldn't help but feel as if he had passed some sort of test. Had he not been in the presence of his leader, he would've sighed in relief.

"That is correct. Naruto is much more intelligent than he lets on, yet I fear that my failure has lead to him having great difficulties in trusting people. More than that, I fear that while he lets on a strong front, he is very fragile right now, and even a single push in the wrong direction would put him over the edge. No one can keep as much emotion as he does bottled up for too long. So I need you to watch over and take care of him. He needs all the kindness he can get in order for him to stay sane. Frankly, it's a miracle he still is."

This caused Kakashi to halter all thoughts of reading Icha Icha and snap to attention. Had the boy really had it that rough? He knew that while the Hokage hadn't said anything about it, Naruto had likely lived through hell every single day of his life. If what the Sandaime said was true, then Kakashi's respect for the boy had grown by miles.

"Of course, Hokage-sama." was the only thing he said, still deep in thought.

"There is one more thing that you as his sensei should know, yet I'm afraid that he will have to tell you about it himself. It is important that you know of this, so try to win his trust as soon as you can. And I hope that you know that should you ever break that trust, your days as a ninja and a male would be over."

Kakashi actually gulped. That last part was said with no small amount of killing intent. He simply nodded, and vowed to himself that he would never intentionally do something like that.

Taking the Hokage's silence after that statement as a dismissal, Kakashi bowed toward the village leader, then vanished in a swirl of leaves.

-Flashback end-

And now here he was, walking down the corridors of the shinobi academy, trying to find the classroom he was supposed to go to.

He absently fingered the slight bulge in one of his pockets, wondering if he should just ignore the team and spend the time reading instead. Then, about half a second later, he remembered the Hokage's threat and immediately dismissed that idea, no matter the fact that it was immensely better than meeting the brats who were to be part of his team.

He stopped mourning about the severe cut into his reading time when he reached the correct door. He slowly slid it open and peeked inside.

words:

Jinchuuriki: it literally means 'power of human sacrifice' and is the term used for those that contain a Bijuu

First of all, I'm sorry about the long wait. It took quite some time to write this chapter, and I still don't like how it turned out.

Second, I said in the last chapter that there will be no romance, and that still stands. The thing with Sakura is not love, and what it is will be explained soon. I'm not sure if I explained it good enough, but Naruto doesn't even know what love is.

The next chapter will include the real graduation and hopefully a few missions or something similar to that. It'll be rather interesting to actually start to write real fight scenes, and I hope that they'll be at least acceptable.

Right now the story is very similar to the manga/anime, but I will try to deviate from it more and more as time passes. Sometimes by replacing an event with something else, and sometimes by completely altering an existing event. The first time I will do the latter will be during the wave mission and I hope that the small twist I have planned will be something unexpected. I will also try to fit in more references to time and theories about what time is and how it works (mostly my own, which are probably far from the truth).

Sorry for rambling on. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I might answer and I might not. And again I would really like to hear your opinion of the story, or if you could find any errors in my language etc. (English is not my native language after all).

On a side note, the prologue for my other story 'Salvation of Lost Souls' is written, and I will upload it as soon as I start writing chapter one.

Thanks for reading!

/Andrin