Sasuke charged at Naruto and swung his fist in an arc right at his head.

Naruto ducked and shot out a kick to the chest. It was blocked.

Then he pushed himself further and tried to do a double kick in the air.

This was a mistake.

Sasuke grabbed his leg and twisted. Naruto fell to the ground, face in the mud.

The day was darkening.

The battle was lost.

Sasuke was congratulated as the winner to much applause. Slowly Naruto got up. Sasuke held out a hand.

Naruto slapped it away in rage. He had lost.

He was a loser, nothing more than a dead last. Dejected he hobbled away and went to where he always felt the most happiest.

He went to the library. The old man was there, smiling calmly as always. "Hello Naruto, I saw your fight."

Naruto muttered hello and went to a table. He slumped into the chair, and folded his hands. Then he put his head on his hands and began to cry.

The loss hurt.

The old man said nothing. He just watched Naruto for a few minutes, when he suddenly got an idea.

He went to a shelf and pulled out another volume of dragon ball z.

Slowly and quietly he put it on the table, next to Naruto's head and left the library.

He went home and hoped to god that Naruto would be okay.

But he knew inside Naruto would be fine. Still it burnt his heart to see Naruto so sad. It was like the time he lost his eye. He knew how a loss felt.

Naruto stiffled his sobs and picked up the manga. He started to read.

He read about how Vegeta never gave up, and always trained. Always tried to beat Kakarot.

Slowly, Naruto smiled.

What was he doing, crying like this? He should be training! He should be like Vegeta, and get right back into the game.

He went home, smiling a little. On the way ninjas congratulated him and the villagers nodded to him.

Something amazing had happened.

They were treating him with respect.

Naruto's smile grew wider. He went home and changed into a clean orange suit and then he went to the training grounds and began to punch a log. One, two, three.

His eyes flickered over to the right where he saw a boy in green tights also training.

Naruto knew that the boy trained even more than him and Naruto trained for a LONG time.

Naruto wanted to be like that boy.

Naruto wanted to be like Vegeta.

He couldn't be a sore loser, he had to get stronger!

And so he did.

Two months later he passed the genin test with flying colours, right up there with Sasuke and Sakura. These three were widely known throughout the school as the new geniuses.

Naruto, a genius! The idea would have been laughable to Iruka a few months ago but now that Naruto had applied himself...

He wasn't a genius though. He had just worked hard. Much more than either two.

Naruto was a genius of hard work.

Maito Gai might be interested in this boy, Iruka thought as he drafted up teams. Too bad Maito already had a team.

Now where to put him?

In the end he decided to put Naruto with Inuzaka and Hinata. They would be fine, and their sensei would take care of them. Kurenai-chan was their jounin sensei.

The next day, Naruto went with his team mates to where Iruka had told them to meet Kuranai. Training Ground 12.

"Hello, team 12," Kurenai said with a friendly smile. Her voice was quiet, yet it carried.

Naruto nodded to her and sat down in front of her, following the que of his team mates.

"Now lets tell each other about ourselves. My name's Kurenai, I like gengutsu, ice cream, and nature. I hate disgusting pigs for men who try to ask me out just for my appearances, enemies of Konoha, and ramen."

"You hate ramen?!" Naruto exclaimed, shocked. "How could you hate ramen?"

"I just do, it tastes awful."

"Well, I love ramen!" Naruto declared. "I love beef ramen, pork ramen, vegetable ramen, RAMEN RAMEN RAMEN!"

"Okay we get it," Kiba muttered.

"I hate people who hate ramen!" Naruto declared. "I also want to be the hokage."

Kuranai smiled. "You hate me?"

"Well..." Naruto shrugged. "You seem nice I suppose, we'll just have to wait and see."

"I'm Kiba!" Kiba shouted. "I like dogs, dog chops, and dog toys. I hate cats, cat food, and cat toys."

Hinata said nothing, but blushed when everyone stared at her. "I... um... I like..." She looked up and saw a bright red bird sitting on a branch. "Birds."

She said no more.

After an awkward silence, Kurenai clapped her hands. "Okay, tomorrow you are going to have the real genin test!"

She explained the whole process and how one would go back to the academy if they failed.

The next day, in the morning, the team met Kurenai and the test began. "What you have to do is get these two bells from me."

Naruto smiled knowingly. "You can't fool me sensei. This is an easy test. Its all about team work. I looked it up in the library you know."

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked.

"All genin teams are three people. Therefore we can't go back individually. Its either all of us or none of us so all we have to do is work as a team to get the bells."

"Who says you'll get the bells?" Kurenai asked, smiling slightly in pride at her new team.

"Come on, guys, lets do this."

At the end of the day, they were tired but they got the bells. Kurenai congratulated them and took them out to a restaurant to eat.

She made the mistake of letting Naruto eat as much as he wanted.

Luckily it was a buffet.

Too bad there was no ramen.

Together Team 12 got into a very routine way of life. They would all meet on the same training ground, spar for a bit, and then do some D-rank missions. It was always Kiba and Hinata versus Naruto because Naruto was leagues ahead of the two.

Soon they were begging for a C-Rank mission and reluctantly Kurenai got one for them. "You're not ready though..." She muttered.

Their mission was simple, to escort a famous writer to the village of the mist.

There was a problem. The village of the rock was in the way of the village of the mist and the rocks were bitter enemies of Konoha. No doubt they would try to sabatoge the journey of Konoha's most famous writer, Jiraiya the Toad Sanin.

The funny thing was that Jiraiya didn't really need an escort.

He asked for Kurenai specifically, much to her anger. Still while on a mission she couldn't hurt her client and the Hokage had that twinkle in his eye when he told her of the mission.

Kurenai couldn't refuse a mission.

That was against the ninja code of honor.

She would just have to brave it up, despite hating the pig of a man, Jiraiya, and his perverted books.

Naruto was excited about this. He saw this as an opportunity to learn cool jutsu spells. So did Kiba.

Hinata was content but she wished she could get over her shyness and talk more to Naruto.

However the team got used to her shyness so she didn't bother.

But otherwise she was in bliss.

Naruto was so cheerful all the time, so exciting. It brought shivers up her spine just thinking about Naruto.

On the day of the trip, Naruto paid a visit to the library.

"I'm going away on a mission," he said to the old man. "So I'll need a few books..."

The old man happily brought him a whole stack of books, which Naruto carefully packed in his bag.

Then they were off!