Sorry I'm Late, (Insert Lame Excuse Here)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Simple as.

A/N: Here is Chapter 3, enjoy! Onward to the Genin Exams! Thank you to everyone that has taken time in their busy lives to review, especially to VVolf and narufanT – thanks for the constructive criticism, I'll be sure to take it on board =D

Oh yes, what happens near the end of this chapter will seem like an obvious rushing towards a NaruIno if readers use their amazing inference skills; this won't happen though – it'll be gradual, I promise.

Chapter 3: Sorry I'm Late, (Insert Lame Excuse Here)

A whistling and cheerful Naruto bounded in to his last day at the Academy, showing off his brand new hitai-ite on his forehead. Plonking down next to Ino, he grinned at her while she gave a small smile back.

"Hi Ino-chan!"

"Morning Naruto-kun. Had a good night's rest?" she asked.

"Sure did, slept like a rock." he replied. The two chatted about various things from their alternate lives, laughing as they passed the time while waiting for Iruka-sensei to show up. "Hey Ino-chan, remember when Gaara got caught by the Akatsuki and they killed him, only to have Chiyo revive him?"

"Yeah I do. Team Gai and Team Kakashi had to be given a few days off afterwards as well."

"Speaking of the Akatsuki, I met Itachi yesterday." stated Naruto nonchalantly.

"Itachi? As in Uchiha Itachi?"

"How many Itachi's do we know?"

"The point is, you met an S-CLASS MISSING-NIN and you don't bother to tell me?"

"…Yes. He's a double agent anyway." Ino huffed, not pleased at this bit of information escaping her. At that moment Iruka burst in.

"Sorry I'm Late, I had to help this old lady struggling with her bags and erm…" Iruka sat down and picked up a list.

"Yeah, look who sounds like Kakashi now." muttered Naruto.

"Okay class, in a moment you will be finding out who your new Jōnin-sensei's will be, you will be operating as Konoha Genin in three-man cells." Iruka paused for this info to sink in before continuing. "Now here are the teams…Team One…"

"…Team 7, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura," Sakura groaned loudly, muttering under her breath about loudmouth, attention-seeking brats wearing bright orange that pointed to 'Everyone, Let's Kill The Orange Guy'. Naruto however didn't react at all and blankly stared ahead, almost as if he knew what was going to happen next. "…and Uchiha Sasuke." This time, Naruto simply sighed while Sakura jumped up from her seat and yelled,

"Cha, I'm with Sasuke-kun! In your face, Ino-pig."

"Like I care, Forehead." replied Ino defiantly. A rabble of whispering rose up from that statement – Yamanaka Ino, one of the ringleaders of the Uchiha Sasuke fan club, didn't care? That meant that for the other fangirls, there was one less major competitor for Sasuke and that was a good thing.

"Ahem, may I continue? Thank you. Team 7, your Jōnin-sensei is Hatake Kakashi." Naruto smirked. "Team 8, Hyūga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino. Your sensei will be Yūhi Kurenai. Team 9 is still in circulation from last time, so Team 10 will be Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chōji, with Sarutobi Asuma. You will all be meeting your Jōnin-sensei's after a lunch break in which you can get to know your team, the locations of your sensei's are on this sheet." Iruka pinned up a sheet to the wall nearest to the classroom door. "That will be all, and good luck."

The class filed out, each heading to various places at the Academy. Naruto saw Sasuke and Sakura walking up ahead, and ran to catch up with them.

"Heya Sasuke! Sakura-chan!"

"What do you want dobe?" sneered Sasuke.

"Iruka-sensei said we should get to know each other, teme."

"Dobe."

"Teme."

"Dobe."

"Teme."

"Dobe."

"Te-"

"CUT IT OUT, okay? Iruka-sensei is right; we should get to know each other better. Let's have lunch!" shouted Sakura.

Lunch proved to be not a good base for Team 7 to connect; Naruto tried to talk to both of them, while Sakura was only interested in talking to Sasuke and Sasuke was not interested in talking at all. Finally Naruto lost it.

"If you two don't want to talk to me then fine. I'm going to find a real friend." With that he stalked off towards the classroom balcony, where Team Ino-Shika-Cho, 2nd Generation were hanging out.

"Hey Ino-chan, Shikamaru, Chōji, how's it going?"

"Shouldn't you be with your team, Naruto-kun?" asked Ino.

"Well, Sasuke's being a teme, and Sakura is in fangirl mode, so I thought I'd hang out with another team instead."

"Fine with me." said Chōji, munching on chips like always.

"Troublesome, but okay. Wanna play shogi?" asked Shikamaru. Naruto consented, and the rest of the lunch break was spent interacting with Team 10.

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke had been sitting in their designated classroom for well over two hours now. Naruto was scheming in his head for a better prank to pull on Kakashi-sensei, while Sakura was bawling in frustration and even Sasuke was twitching. Naruto got up and placed a whiteboard rubber at the top of the door which was slightly ajar. He then placed a banana peel right in front of the door, so whoever stepped into the room would slip and fall.

"Dobe, a Jōnin would never fall for that kind of trick. Are you stupid or something?"

"Wait and see."

Just as Naruto got back to his seat, Kakashi pushed the door open and stood there, letting the whiteboard rubber fall.

"See, dobe? A high-ranking shinobi would never fall for that kind of trick." Grinning, Hatake Kakashi walked in, only to step and slip on the banana peel. He crashed to the floor and rubbed his head.

"Sorry I'm Late; I was…attending classes to learn to be on time?"

"Ouch." Sakura's mouth was open in horror that her future sensei was dumb enough to fall for such a trick, and Sasuke was shaking his head, sighing. Naruto however was grinning like a maniac, prank having worked the second time round.

"Okay, my first impression of the group: you're all idiots. Meet me up on the roof, like, now." Kakashi shunshined away.

"Now that we're all together, tell me your likes, dislikes, dreams and hobbies. I'll go first. My name is Hatake Kakashi. Likes and dislikes…nothing much really. Dreams…never really thought about them, and hobbies, er I have lots of hobbies!"

Naruto chipped in, "He likes using One Thousand Years of Pain, which is nothing except a jab up your ass. He has a Sharingan eye and likes reading those perverted books of his." Kakashi glared at Naruto.

"For that, you're going next Naruto."

"Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage. I like ramen, ramen and more ramen. I also like my friends, Team 10, various people from the academy and the Hokage. I hate the 3 mins you have to wait for the ramen to cook. I dream of one day being the Hokage, believe it!"

"Your turn pinky." Sakura shot daggers at Kakashi for that, but spoke anyway.

"Erm…my name is Haruno Sakura…I like…" she glanced at Sasuke. "I dislike Naruto…My dream is…" she blushed at Sasuke again. This girl is seriously a hardcore fangirl… thought Kakashi.

"Ok your turn emo boy."

Sasuke's eye twitched. "Uchiha Sasuke. I don't like anything, and I dislike…someone. My dream is not a dream because it will become a reality. I will kill a certain…someone."

"Great, that's done and over with. Now tomorrow you'll be taking your Genin test, don't eat or you'll throw up."

"What test? I thought we were done with those after the Academy!" asked Sakura. Kakashi was about to answer, but Naruto beat him to it.

"Well you see Sakura, that test was to see whether we stand a chance of becoming Genin. This test is the actual ninja exam, the other one was just to weed out those who didn't even have a chance. Oh and there's a 66% fail rate." Naruto grinned.

"Well, as Naruto so kindly explained everything, I'll be off. 6am tomorrow morning. Bye!" Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Don't know bout you two, but I'm going to catch up on some sleep. Oh, and remember to eat. He's just telling us not to because he wants to torture us." With that, Naruto disappeared as well.

The alarm clock blared. Naruto didn't bother reaching out this time – in the future, he had always summoned a toad to do it for him, then sleep for another 2 hours.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu," he mumbled tiredly. Slowly, he slipped back into unconsciousness.

Naruto woke up and stretched, kicking away his blanket and looking out at the tops of trees below him. Wait…tops of trees? Naruto looked down. A huge toad supported his bed. Splinters of wood were everywhere. The area around him was ruined. But…there was only one toad this big…Gamabunta. Frantically, he looked back towards his house. Or, where his house HAD been. All that was left of it was a mass heap of wood and a few bits and pieces of debris. That meant...Gamabunta. Had. Sat. On. His. House.

"OI, YOU USELESS TOAD! WHY THE HECK DID YOU KILL MY HOUSE!"

"Eh? Oh its you Naruto. It wasn't my fault, I was summoned in the house and I was too big, so it broke." the chief toad replied.

"Ok, but where am I going to live now? And I have a Genin exam to go to! At least you could bring me there!"

"Yeah, ok, whatever. Hold still." With that, Gamabunta leapt off towards the scheduled training area.

Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi were sitting around, waiting for Naruto to arrive. All three were extremely pissed off, Kakashi especially because HE was the late one, not anyone else. Suddenly, a huge toad blotted out the sun momentarily and crashed down onto the training ground. Perched on top was Naruto.

"Sorry I'm Late, you see a toad sat on my house, and I was arguing with it about the health and safety issues?"

A/N: And here ends chapter 3. Oh, anyone have a good name for Mrs. Yamanaka for the next few chapters? It's going to be "too much of a drag" *coughShikamarucough* to type it over and over again. R&R as always =D

Next: I Did Not Like It When You Sat On My House