A/N: Hi to anyone reading this, it has been a while since i last updated, i could say a lot of reasons of why i couldn´t find time to write, but i don´t want to bore you, so i´m only going to say that i was lazy and that vacations got to me. Oh! I also want to thank all the reviewers, reviews show me that people are really reading the story and not just ended up here by accident.
Disclaimer: I am a sheep of the system so i have to do this... Naruto and any of its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto, so if any of you are angered at the lack of creativity of the anime/manga, then blame it on him, not me!
Chapter 4 Soon to be Genin!
*beep*
*beep*
*beep*
By ringing loudly an object fulfilled its purpose as its cries stirred the individual hiding underneath purple silk sheets.
Not taking kindly being woken up, a hand shot out of the bedding.
At first the extremity palpated around the small table unable to find the object making all that noise, but finally the hand found it and with a not so gently slam turned the alarm off.
Silence reigned once again in the bedroom now that the evil alarm clock had been defeated, but the damage was done, the young girl under the bedding wouldn´t find sleep anymore.
Getting out of her hideout, Ino Yamanaka sat up and let the soft sheets slid down her body as she stretched her arms over her head, her camisole that matched the color of her sheets raised high enough to reveal the creamy skin of her flat stomach.
It was early. It was still dark outside except for some stray sunrays coming from the horizon that somehow managed to evade all the buildings and made the darkness on the streets recede.
Thoughts of getting back into bed tempted her; let her more lazy-self indulge herself once in a while, after all what possible harm could sleep a couple more hours do?
Sighing Ino knew otherwise. Beauty had a price and she was more than willing to pay for it.
Letting out one last yawn before getting up, Ino went directly to her vanity table. Seeing the lack of sunlight she decided against opening the curtains, instead she opted to press the switch collocated conveniently next to her mirror that would turn-on the lights of her room.
Ino blinked a couple of times to let her eyes grow accustomed to the light; afterwards, she took a moment to look at herself in the mirror, then she took her brush and began the arduous task of combing her hair out of any knot that could have been formed while she was resting.
Once she made sure her hair was smooth and free of knots she began the second phase of her daily ritual. Take a bath.
After gathering enough clothes out of her walk-in closet she made her way towards her bathroom where she promptly took off her camisole, pajama pants and underwear before taking a shower.
Finally after easily thirty minutes, Ino exited the bathroom fully dressed in her usual attire that consisted in a purple sleeveless top with high collar that reached above her bandaged abdomen, a purple skirt cut at the sides that revealed her also bandaged thighs, a pair of white and purple elbow warmers and in her waist, being used as a belt, was her recently earned Hitai-ate.
Now she was almost done, the only thing remaining to do was fixing her hair, so once again Ino sat on the chair of her vanity table and began running her hands and fingers through the still wet blonde locks.
The Yamanaka took a hold on her favorite brush and combed her hair with utmost dedication.
She tried different styles, Pigtails, curls, a long single braid, even buns, but in the end she decided to tie her hair up in the same ponytail with bangs covering the right side of her face that she always wore, ever since she let her hair grow pass her shoulders.
Sparing one last approving smile at her reflection she stood up and left her bedroom.
Ino walked down the staircase, guided by the delicious fragrance of freshly-made breakfast she soon entered the kitchen and to her surprise the only person in there besides her was her mother.
"Morning, mom." Said the young Yamanaka.
Mayu Yamanaka stopped cutting vegetables and turned around to greet her daughter. "Good morning Ino-chan, did you sleep well?"
Ino smiled and took her seat at the table "Yes I did mom. Say, where´s Naruto-kun and dad?"
The older woman stirred the boiling contents of some pots at the stove and answered. "Your dad left earlier, he said he was needed at the intelligence division."
Ino nodded knowing perfectly how busy her father could be sometimes.
"And Naru-chan, well, I think the sleepyhead is still snoring in his bed." Mayu said with a giggle.
The Yamanaka heiress stood up abruptly. "What? From all the days he could have overslept it had to be this one!"
"Now, now, calm down Ino-chan." Mayu said soothingly. "Your father probably trained him to exhaustion again."
Ino sighed. "Do you want me to go wake him up?"
"Yes, please do so, or else you both are going to be late."
Doing as her mother told her to, Ino went upstairs and walked pass her bedroom, her parent´s bedroom and reached Naruto's.
Knocking a couple of times on his door, Ino soon came with the conclusion that if he was really sleeping then mere knocking wouldn´t wake him up, so she shrugged and entered his room.
'As messy as ever…' Thought Ino as she walked closer to the bed, evading discarded shirts, pants, scrolls and other things that lay randomly on the floor.
Once she was close enough to the sleeping blond she called out to him. "Up and shine Naruto-kun, it´s morning already!"
Her voice didn´t reach him by the way he kept snoring, his mouth open wide and a little bit of drool escaping his lips.
Seeing as her first plan didn´t work out as planned she was about to resort to more extreme ways, when an idea popped up in her mind.
Reaching to the window next to the blond´s bed, she opened the orange curtains in one swift shift and let the sunlight do the dirty work for her.
Ino thought she won when the sun hit Naruto's face, but to her disappointment the Uzumaki just mumbled something in his sleep and turned to his left to escape the light´s assault.
The Yamanaka felt her patience run thin so she went to the side Naruto was facing, grabbed his shoulders and began shaking him. "Naruto-baka, wake up already! If you don´t we will be late!"
The rough wake-up call seemed to be working when Naruto began to stir, but then suddenly the sleeping blond caught her hands and then pulled her towards him.
Ino yelped loudly when she felt herself lose her balance and then fell on top of her fellow blond.
Time seemed to freeze for the platinum blonde, one moment she was trying to wake the Uzumaki up and now she was on top of him, his arms tightly secured around her slim waist.
Her body tensed and her face flushed beef-red when she felt Naruto's warm breathe tickling her ear while the boy slept unaware of their intimate position.
She tried to get up, but froze when her hands traced the firm chest of the boy beneath her, only now realizing he wasn´t wearing a shirt.
Trying once more to separate herself from the blond boy, Ino found out that his hands wouldn´t budge from their position even when she started to struggle fiercely against his hold.
Her efforts to escape resulted in her being pressed closer to Naruto as he moved one of his hand to her back and pushed her down.
She felt her breasts being pressed against his naked torso, his hands holding her like if she was his lifeline and his essence filling her nostrils; it had a slight tint of sweat in it, probably because of the same action of sleeping, but it still carried the Naruto-ish aroma that made her feel lightheaded.
'Maybe we can stay like this for some more. We have time and I still feel a little sleepy.' Thought Ino as she cuddled her way to rest her forehead on the boy´s shoulder.
Ino´s lips curved into a smile when he felt the heaving of Naruto's chest, his deep breaths were proof of how soundly the boy was sleeping. 'Gosh, daddy must have worked you to the ground again.'
The position they were in triggered a flow of memories in the girl´s mind…
-Flashback-
Three blondes were in an ample training ground surrounded by trees, two of them were next to each other while the last and only female in the group was watched them while sitting comfortably on top of a rock.
"All right Naruto, today´s session is almost over." Said a tall blond to a kid currently doubled in exhaustion, his hands on his knees and taking deep breathes to regain the lost oxygen.
The tall blond was no other that Inoichi Yamanaka, his arms crossed and a serious expression on his face while talking to his disciple. "To finish up, I want you to do pushups nonstop until I return from shopping for tonight's dinner." The sand blond man looked at his sitting daughter. "Ino-chan, could you come here for a moment?"
The girl did as his father told her. She pushed herself off the rock and ran towards her dad, excited to be able to help.
"Ino- chan here will make sure that you do as I commanded you to, and if Ino-chan tells me that you stopped then I´ll make you run twenty laps more around the training ground, understood?"
The eight years old boy gulped but nodded nonetheless.
"Good. Now Ino-hime I will be away for a while so you are in charge meanwhile." With that said Inoichi leaned forward and kissed the top of his daughter´s head and walked away.
Now completely alone the two stared at each other until the girl broke the silence. "What are you waiting for Naruto-kun?"
Feeling slightly intimidated by the smirk on Ino´s face, he got down to the ground and began the pushups.
The Yamanaka observed keenly as the boy did the exercise without many problems and soon grew bored of it.
Naruto was around his thirtieth pushup when he felt some extra weight on his back that almost made his arms falter.
"Ino-chan, what are you doing?" Asked the blond boy as his arms kept trembling under the weight.
Sitting on top of the boy´s back with her legs crossed, she answered. "My clothes will get dirty if I sit on the ground. "
The boy replied struggling a little. "Can´t you find other place to sit that it isn´t on me?"
"Don´t tell me this is too much for you? Daddy would be disappointed to see his disciple struggling to lift little 'ol me…"
Naruto knew that Ino was toying with his pride, but he wouldn´t give her the satisfaction of seeing him defeated, so gathering all the strength he could, he lowered himself until his nose almost touched the ground and then lifted himself back up.
"Fine, sit tight and watch how the future Hokage does things, Dattebayo!"
The Uzumaki continued with the pushups for ten minutes, and the platinum blonde had to say that she was impressed. Not a single time he faltered, his will to succeed gave him strength to do anything he focused his mind into.
'He never complains, no matter how hard daddy trains him, he never gives up…'
Ino was brought out of her thoughts when the boy she was thinking about spoke. "Kami, Ino you are heavy."
The girl´s brow twitched. There are things that should never be said to any girl and Ino was about to teach Naruto that.
"Really now?" The Uzumaki never saw the narrowed eyes or the mischievous grin on Ino´s lips.
The Yamanaka waited until Naruto was almost touching the ground again to begin her assault of tickles on the defenseless boy.
"I-Ino, cut it out!" Naruto demanded while trying to contain his laughter, but Ino didn´t stop, in fact she sped up her attack until it became too much for the boy, his arms flaked and the weight drove him to the ground.
The whiskered boy rolled around on the ground laughing uncontrollably while trying to escape from his attacker. Once he managed to regain his breathe, Naruto rolled them around so he could gain the upper hand and retaliated by ticking Ino´s belly.
"Hey, stop it!" Shrieked Ino while fending off the hands tickling her weak points.
"Did you think that only because you are a girl I wouldn´t attack back?"
Ino was laughing so hard she thought she would pee herself, but the young girl acted quickly and countered by rubbing the whisker marks on the boy´s face.
The two kids played around on the ground for a while unaware of the figure watching them from afar, his hands holding a couple of plastic bags.
The man couldn´t help but smile at the way the two kids interacted with each other. Naruto seemed really happy to be able to play with someone after being shunned for so long.
"Okay kids break it off, it´s time to go home!"
The two blonds stopped turning around, but they were still on the ground, Ino on top of Naruto, the two breathing heavily.
"Hey! I said break it off!" Yelled Inoichi to the kids who seemed to be ignoring him.
-End of Flashback-
The Yamanaka didn´t know or care how fast or slow the time passed by, for her it only existed the 'now' as she let herself enjoy the embrace she was in just how she did many years ago.
"My, my, Ino-chan you're so bold."
At the sound of a very familiar voice Ino turned her head dangerously fast to see, as she feared, her mother.
"I came upstairs to see what was taking you so long, if I remember correctly I told you to wake him up, not to sleep with him." Mayu said with a dreamy expression as she leaned against the doorframe.
"T-t-t-this isn´t what it looks like!" Ino managed stutter while trying to sit up.
Finally she battled her way out of the embarrassing position, but during her squirms she didn´t notice where she placed her right hand until she felt something hard and rather large under her palm.
Slightly intrigued at what could possibly be what was resting under her hand she unconsciously groped it.
It was until she heard a moan coming from the still sleeping Naruto that she deduced the identity of the object she was touching.
Ino´s face turned redder than the cherry tomatoes she likes so much when she confirmed that indeed, her hand was touching Naruto's groin.
Foreseeing problems, Mayu quickly covered her ears while she walked back to the kitchen. She was halfway down the stairs when she heard the unmistakable voice of her only daughter.
"You pervert, wake up already!"
"Ino-chan, wait up!" Naruto whined to the girl walking several steps ahead of him.
Said girl ignored his whines and continued her way.
The boy slumped at the cold shoulder he was given by his female friend.
Just like every other day, a pair of blonded could be seen walking down the streets of Konoha. Normally they would be walking side by side, but each time the girl walked ahead of the boy it could only mean one thing… the boy did something stupid to anger the girl.
'It wasn´t my fault… dattebayo!' Thought the boy.
Imagine the surprise he got when he woke up from a very pleasant dream only to get the hell slapped out of him by a very angry blonde, a very angry and beautiful blonde on top of him.
He quickly understood why the girl was so angry about. 'Come on! I couldn´t help it, it was a natural occurrence of my body and i never told her to place her hand on my… ahem, penis'
The blond boy was wearing a simple purple T-shirt, black cargo shorts that reached until his shins, black shinobi sandals on his feet and a Konoha Hitai-ate on his forehead.
'But man did her hand felt go-' Naruto's thought process was cut when he felt someone pat his back.
Twisting his head slightly to see his assailant, the Uzumaki saw no others that two good friends of him.
" Morning, Naruto." Spoke a 'chubby' boy through a mouth full of chips.
Naruto gave his friend a smile and returned the greeting. "Good morning, Chōji!"
Chōji Akimichi, heir of the Akimichi clan, was a brown haired boy the same age as Naruto. He had whirl marks on his cheeks and his outfit consisted in brown shorts, a long white scarf, a short-sleeved green jacket over a white shirt with the kanji for food on it, ring earrings, and his legs and forearms were wrapped in bandages. His forehead protector was also worn on a bandanna around his head cut at the sides in a way that allowed his hair to spike out of it.
"Morning..." Said a black haired boy after taking one unnecessarily long yawn.
"Morning to you too, Shikamaru." Said Naruto
Shikamaru Naru, heir of the Nara clan, was a boy with black hair tied up in a spiky ponytail. Besides a face dull of laziness he also wore a green lined mesh T-shirt under a short sleeved grey jacket with green edges, adorned on both the sleeves and the back with a circle with a line through it, his blue forehead protector worn around his left arm, brown pants, and blue sandals.
"Hey Naruto, what´s up with that woman?" Shikamaru asked while walking next to the blond.
Chōji used the time that took opening another bag of chips to join the conversation. "She seems pretty mad. What did you do this time, Naruto?"
Naruto for his part had his eyebrow twitching. "Why does everyone assumes I did something stupid every time Ino is mad?"
Sighing the young Nara said. "Listen Naruto, believe me when I said that is better for you to just accept that it was your fault and leave it at that."
"How can you said that if you don´t even know the facts?" Asked the Uzumaki.
"Troublesome…Fine, what happened?"
Naruto slowed down and motioned for his two friends to come closer.
Once Chōji and Shikamaru were in a distance where Naruto was sure Ino wouldn´t hear them spoke. "Guys, what happened was that when I woke up…"
The two boys waited patiently for Naruto to continue, but there wasn´t any signal that the blond would resume his explication. Then the blond began to sweat and shiver.
'It´s impossible, she shouldn´t be able to hear us… Is this the legendary women´s intuition?'
The male heirs followed Naruto's gaze to find the reason of his weird behavior.
There, in a pair of emeralds were graved promises of pain and eternal suffering as the blond girl glared intensive at his blond counterpart.
Naruto gulped. "Guys, better we leave it like this…"
The two boys nodded in understanding.
In a classroom flooded with excitement, young Gennin waited expectantly for the announcement that would decide who they will work with for the next years.
Boys and girls alike talked with each other hoping to calm down the nerves that grew stronger with each passing minute.
Some of the fresh shinobi contributed to the ambient by speaking aloud or proclaiming loudly how great as a ninja they would be.
"Yahooooo! Nothing is going to stop us Akamaru!" Howled a boy noisily, causing the small white dog poking his head curiously out of the boy´s grey furred jacket to give a bark in agreement.
"Kiba, do you have to be so loud so early on the morning?" Groaned Shikamaru as he lifted his head out of his folded arms resting on the table.
The noisy boy smirked, showing his large canines, one of the many animalistic traits that denounced him as a member of the Inuzuka clan, as well as being of the most visible ones alongside his slitted pupils and the red markings that resembled fangs marred on his cheeks.
"Come on, don´t be such a spoilsport! Today we will meet our teams, show some excitement you bum!" Said the boy named Kiba to the black haired boy sitting on his left.
The Nara didn´t even respond, instead he just leaned right back into his folded arms and closed his eyes.
Kiba seeing as Shikamaru wasn´t going to talk anymore decided to socialize with the other two boys sitting at the same large desk as him; said boys were Naruto and Chōji.
After talking for a while about noting in particular, Kiba noticed something weird.
"Hey Naruto, how come you're sitting with us instead of with your girlfriend?" Teased the Inuzuka.
"Shut it Kiba, she is not my girlfriend." Growled out the whiskered boy.
The Inuzuka smirked wider this time. "Calm down man, all I'm sayin' is that is nice to see you out of your leash once in a while."
"Oh, now you are talking about leashes dog-boy? How about I get you a flea collar, we wouldn´t want you to stick your fleas to Akamaru now, would we?" Asked Naruto with a smirk of his own.
"Why you!" Kiba was about to leap at Naruto when he heard the guffaws coming from the boy sitting next to the Uzumaki.
Chōji, who had been watching the conversation between the two bickering laughed at their antics, but stopped when he saw them, looking at him with narrowed eyes.
"Sorry guys, is just that is always the same with you two!" Said the Akimichi while trying to keep in his laugh.
Naruto and Kiba shrugged, both of them now calmer than before. Then kiba sent a not so subtle glance towards the other side of the room to see the Yamanaka heiress's stern expression.
"Anyway, did you do something stupid to make her mad again?" The feral boy asked.
A tick mark formed in Naruto's forehead, but even so remained calm. "Why everyone does assumes that is my fault?"
Now Shikamaru joined the conversation. "It is your fault; you are too dense for your own good…"
Before the sapphire-eyed boy could ask about what he meant, an insanely loud yell was heard that silenced the whole classroom.
"Shut up already!"
When the ringing in his ears disappeared Naruto looked at the front of the classroom to see unsurprisingly, his academy teacher, Iruka Umino.
The teacher, presented in the proper uniform of a Konoha Chunin, spoke when everybody took a seat and remained quiet.
"Good morning everyone. Beginning today all of you are real ninjas, but you are still merely rookie gennin. The hard part has just started."
Suddenly a girl with bright pink hair and a red dress raised her hand. "Excuse me, sensei!"
"Yes, what is it Sakura?" Replied the scared man with a smile.
"Why isn´t Mizuki-sensei here?" The only pink-haired girl in the class asked.
The Chūnin sighed and then spoke with a small frown on his face. "Mizuki was discovered to be a traitor yesterday when he tried to escape the village with the forbidden scroll of seals."
Most of the class let out surprised gasps when they heard the words of their instructor.
Soon enough murmurs were echoing in the classroom, ranging from murmurs of disbelieve to murmurs of anger and betrayal.
"However the details of what happened is confidential, so I won´t be able to answer any questions you may have about what happened."
The low voices continued for a while until they disappeared completely.
Seeing the grim expressions on the faces of his student´s, the Chūnin tried to lighten up the situation. "Relax guys; this is a daily occurrence in the lives of Shinobi, but with the correct training you will all be able to deal with it, I'm sure of it!"
A wave of confidence washed over the young ninjas when they saw the smile on their sensei´s face.
"Now… you will be soon assigned duties by the village. So today we will be creating the three man teams and each team will have a Jōnin sensei. You will follow that sensei´s instruction as you complete the assigned duties."
With that said Iruka pulled out a chart and started to read the members of each team one by one until…
"Team 7 will be Haruno Sakura, Naruto Uzumaki…"
Sakura slammed her forehead on the desk, the blonde sitting next to her glared at her in a mix of jealousy and anger.
"…And Uchiha Sasuke. Your sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."
As soon as those words left the instructor´s mouth two things happened. First, Sakura´s mood did a complete turnaround as she cheered loudly, and second, Naruto frowned.
Ino watched with pity at the Uzumaki until the girl next to her decided to make herself known. "Take that Ino-pig! Sasuke-kun is as good as mine!"
The Yamanaka looked at her clearly annoyed. "Forehead, How many that do I have to tell you that I don´t like Sasuke!"
Sakura smirked smugly. "Yeah right, then tell me why do you wear the same arm warmers as him?"
"What are you talking about? He was the one who copied me!" Ino nearly screamed.
"Give it up piggy, you won´t be able to fool me!" Stated the convinced Haruno.
Ino rubbed her temple in frustration. 'Why did I sit next to this girl?'
"Next, team 8… Inuzuka Kiba, Hyūga Hinata and Aburame Shino. Your sensei will be Yūhi Kurenai"
Kiba looked at the shy girl with dark blue hair fidgeting in the corner and then at the quiet boy with brown hair, a high collar light green jacket and sunglasses.
"Team 9 is still on circulation; team 10… Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chōji. Your sense is going to be Sarutobi Asuma."
The three members of the new Ino-Shika-Cho nodded at each other.
"Your new sensei shouldn´t take long to get here, so please wait patiently." Said the teacher to the class.
True to Iruka´s words soon enough the Jōnin began to flock to the room, taking their teams with them when they left.
As the minutes passed by the once congregated classroom began to feel the shortage of people as there were more and more empty seats and the room grew quiet.
"Team 10, with me." A tall bearded man dressed in the standard Konoha Jōnin uniform said as he placed a cigarette on his lips.
Doing as the man instructed, Ino, Shikamaru and Chōji walked down the steps to join the man in the front of the room.
Shikamaru and Chōji followed their sensei out of the room, but Ino lagged behind to send one last worried glance at the boy that sat by himself since his friends left.
Naruto saw the platinum blonde looking at him, so he grinned widely and gave her a thumps up.
The Yamanaka smiled and left the room running to catch up with her team.
Now with team 10 gone, the only people remaining were team 7 and Iruka.
Ten minutes later, Iruka left with the excuse of having to go grade exams.
Left to their own devices, Sakura began pestering Sasuke about going on a date, but after ten minutes of being rejected by the cold boy, she gave up and sat in an empty desk.
Minutes passed and there weren´t signs of their sensei.
Naruto sighed and decided to at least have a decent relationship with his new teammates, so he stood up and went over to Sasuke.
"Sasuke, seeing as we are going to be in the same team for the next years, let´s work hard together!" Said Naruto as he stretched his arm to shake hands with the raven haired boy.
The Uchiha for his part didn´t even move from the position he was in, his elbows on the table and behind his interlaced fingers was his face.
The raven haired boy snorted. "Just don´t get in my way."
Naruto retracted his hand. "You are a dickhead, you know that?"
The two boys stared at each other with hate shining off their eyes.
" Naruto-baka, leave Sasuke-kun alone!" Screeched Sakura while storming off to slug the blond in the head, but Naruto saw the punch coming a mile away and easily sidestepped the attack.
Sakura´s body staggered forward when all the strength she infused in her fist missed her target and eventually lost her balance and fell on the floor.
The Uzumaki scoffed. "Sakura, you never learn, do you?" Then he turned to the Uchiha. "And you Sasuke grow up already." Then the blond left his two teammates and sat far away from them.
For the next hour an uncomfortable silence washed over the almost empty room.
While waiting Naruto thought about playing a prank on their sensei for making them wait for so long, but in the end he decided against it. 'It would make Inoichi-sensei look bad…'
Finally after pushing their patience to the limits, team 7 was rewarded when a mop of spiky silver hair peeked through the doorway.
"Team 7, meet me on the rooftop." And with that, the man left.
"Ok, let´s start with some introduction." Said a man as he sat leisurely on the roof´s guard rail.
Naruto looked at the man in detail. 'The spiky silver hair, the mask covering his nose and mouth, the forehead protector covering his left eye, the standard Konoha shinobi outfit and a lazy attitude that could rival Shikamaru´s… yep, this man is indeed the copy ninja, Hatake Kakashi.'
"What do you want to know?" Asked Sakura as she sat next to Sasuke, her legs pulled to her chest.
The tall Jōnin shrugged. "How about your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies. Stuff like that."
Once more, the only girl in the group queried. "Sensei, could you show us how to do it first?"
"It isn´t that hard, but all right…"
The Jōnin took some seconds to think about what to say. "Well, my name is Kakashi Hatake. I have no desire to tell you about my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future? Hmm… and I have a lot of hobbies…"
Sakura deadpanned. "All we learned was his name…"
The blond smirked. "That´s not true. We also learned that he has a lot of Hobbies!"
Kakashi crossed his arms. "Okay blondie, seeing as you want to talk that much, how about you go next?"
"Sure, I don´t have a problem with it, Hatake-san. My name is Uzumaki Naruto. My likes are the Yamanaka clan, the Hokage and my friends. My dislikes are arrogant jerks…" Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Traitors and people who try to hurt my precious people. My dream for the future is to become strong enough to be able to protect the people I care about and my hobbies… train and read, I guess."
Kakashi seemed mildly surprised at the blond´s introduction. 'Not bad. Inoichi did a good job raising him…'
"Next." The Jōnin said.
Sasuke, sitting in the same position he was in before, his face behind his interlaced fingers introduced himself. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are tons of things I dislike, but I don´t really like anything. And I don´t want to use the word 'dream' but… I have an ambition, the resurrection of my clan and… to kill a certain man."
In the silence that the introduction left, several thoughts wandered in the minds of the remaining members of team 7.
'Cool…' Thought the infatuated Kunoichi.
Different ideas the blond mused in his head. 'He will never change, he is hell bent on taking revenge against the traitor Uchiha… dattebayo.'
'I thought so…' Kakashi mentally confirmed.
"Ok… and lastly, the girl."
The pink haired girl bashfully presented herself. "I'm Haruno Sakura, the think I like is, well, the person I like is…" She glanced at Sasuke and blushed. "Umm, should I say my dream for the future?" Again, she glanced at the Uchiha, blushed, but this time also squealed.
"And your dislikes…?"
This time, the girl answered without hesitation. "Ino-pig and Naruto-baka!"
'Is this some kind of joke?' The masked man thought as he scratched his cheek.
Meanwhile, Naruto turned to the girl. "Watch it, Sakura, I don´t care if you insult me, but I won´t allow you to insult anyone of the Yamanaka clan… especially Ino-chan."
"What did you say, baka?"
Just before Sakura could attack, Kakashi decided to stop the conflict. "Stop it you two. Tomorrow we will start our duties."
The Genin seemed interesting. "What kind of duties, sensei?" The gal inquired.
"First we are going to do something with only the four of us, and that is survival training."
The Haruno seemed confused. "Why is our duty, training? We did enough training at the academy."
The blond boy answered. "It won´t be training, it will be more like a test that anything and only the best are going to be considered as Genin, isn´t that right?"
Kakashi nodded. "You are well informed, in fact, of the 27 graduates, only 9 will be chosen as Genin. The rest will go back to the academy. This test has a failure rate of over 66%!"
Naruto closed his eyes, Sakura´s face turned grim and Sasuke sweated. "Tomorrow you will be graded in the training field. Bring your shinobi tools, oh, and skip breakfast… You will throw up."
"It was delicious like always, Mayu-san!" Naruto said as he dried one glass plate carefully.
The woman besides the boy rinsed another plate before handing it over. "Thank you Naru-chan, but it isn´t necessary for you to help me with the dishes."
Naruto shrugged. "It´s the least I can do, after all you prepared a feast for us tonight… again"
Mayu laughed. "You deserve it. Both you and Ino-chan ended up in the top five of the academy, you were second and Ino was fourth behind the Aburame boy, that is something to be proud of!"
"I guess, but I should have tried harder to beat the Uchiha…" Pouted the Uzumaki.
The platinum blonde flicked some drops of water at the boy. "Naru-chan, sulking isn´t allowed in this house, we are all proud of you!"
The woman dried her hands and then motioned to Naruto to follow her. "Come on; let's see what Ino-chan and my husband are up to."
The blond boy followed Mayu out of the kitchen and into the dining room, where Ino and her dad were sitting at the medium sized mahogany table.
Mayu took her place next to Inoichi and across Ino, while Naruto sat next to the young girl facing his sensei.
"Naruto, Ino has just told me about her team and their sensei… tell me about yours." Inoichi said calmly.
The Uzumaki straightened his posture and spoke. "Hai, sensei. Team 7 is conformed of Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and I. The Jōnin assigned to the team is Hatake Kakashi. In our meeting we introduced ourselves and Hatake-san told us about a test we are supposed to undergo before being fully accepted as Genin, the details about the test are in this paper." The Uzumaki pulled out a folded paper from his pocket and passed it to his sensei.
The blond man unfolded the paper and read it. "I see… you are expected at the third training ground by 5:00 A.M. "
Inoichi set the paper on the table. "I´m not going to lie to you, Naruto. I'm not pleased with Kakashi being your team leader."
The Uzumaki cocked his head. "Why is that? I thought he was one of the strongest shinobi in Konoha."
"He is one of the strongest and famous ninja of the leaf, but I don´t think he is capable of teaching properly. Your team is not the first team he has been assigned to, he has tested several teams before and none of them passed his trial." Explained Inoichi.
Ino looked at her mother like asking for confirmation, Mayu nodded to her unspoken question.
"So what?"
The Jōnin raised his eyebrows at Naruto's answer.
"I don´t care if his test is hard! I'm positive that I can pass, after all I was trained by the best sensei in all Konoha!" Naruto said, his words carrying tons of conviction. "…Dattebayo."
Everyone at the table smiled, the bright words of the boy lifted the mood in the room.
"So, Inoichi-sensei, got any advice for tomorrow?"
"I´m afraid I can´t tell you much. Kakashi likes to keep his secrets under wraps, but I can give you a tip, look underneath the underneath."
The night deepened, the moon and the stars reached their peak. The lights of the homes of Konoha were for the most part turned off as their residents rested and recharged energies for a new day, but for a young blond boy sleep just wouldn´t come to him.
Eventually Naruto grew bored of gazing at his ceiling and got out of his bed.
Silently, Naruto left his bedroom, walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. He didn´t bother in turning the lights on, his eyes had long since accustomed to the darkness, besides, the moonlight entering from the window above the sink illuminated well enough.
He opened the fridge and rummaged through its contents until he found what he was looking for.
The sapphire eyed boy opened the plastic lid of the milk carton before guzzling the liquid inside down his throat.
"Use a glass. You´re not the only one in the house that drinks milk, you know." Scolded a voice behind the boy.
Turning around, Naruto asked. "Hey Ino-chan, can´t sleep?"
"Of course I can´t, if I could I wouldn´t be here!" Ino proclaimed as she took a glass out of a wooden cupboard and sat on the kitchen counter. "Pass me the milk." The Yamanaka ordered.
The blond boy approached the sitting girl, leaned against the counter where she was and poured milk on her glass.
Ino murmured a small thanks and took a sip from her glass. Naruto used this time to take a better look at the girl.
She was wearing her purple pajamas with white dots on both the shirt and the pants. Her blonde hair cascaded down her back and some bangs covered the right side of her face. But what really made him blush was that her pajama top had the upper buttons unbuttoned and exposed a moderate amount of skin.
Naruto shook his head out of any dirty thought before focusing his attention back to the Yamanaka.
Ino lowered her glass and licked any remains of milk on her lips. "Are you nervous for tomorrow´s test?" She asked.
The Uzumaki passed a hand through his hair. "Maybe a little, but I'm also excited!"
"Excited?" Ino looked at Naruto in confusion.
"Yeah… after we pass this last obstacle we will be finally full-fledged Genin, what can be more exciting than that!" Remarked the boy with a big grin.
The platinum blonde leaned back a little while her legs swung playfully from left to right, her toes occasionally brushed against the soft fabric of Naruto's pants. "You sound awfully confident in that, what if we don´t pass?"
"We will pass. We have worked very hard for this and nothing´s going to stop us from becoming ninjas." He said.
For a moment the pair of blondes ceased talking and just enjoyed the song of the crickets and each other company.
"I´m sorry about today… I don´t know what came over me to ignore you the way I did." The girl apologized.
Naruto placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don´t sweat it, maybe it was my fault for oversleeping."
"You´re right, it was your fault after all." Naruto sweat dropped at Ino´s words, but the girl only giggled. "…But I forgive you this time. Just make sure it doesn´t happen again, okay mister?" Said Ino while poking Naruto's chest.
"Hai hai. I got it, hime-sama." Naruto said mockingly.
The platinum blond pushed herself off the counter. "Good boy. Now servant, walk me to my room."
Naruto chuckled. "Anything for you, Ino-hime." Ino blushed, but it went unnoticed in the dark.
With that said Naruto led the blonde girl out of the kitchen and guided her to her bedroom, where he left her to go to his own room, but not before exchanging good nights.
Soon after Naruto and Ino climbed on their respective beds, they quickly fell asleep. In the end it wasn´t the nerves that caused their lack of sleep, but rather the bitter feeling of not talking to each other through the day…
E/N: As always thanks for reading. If any of the readers found some mistakes or has some tips about how to improve myself... don´t hesistate on letting me know, i acknowledge that my capitalization and puntuation are my weak spot and i´m trying to improve, but diferrent points of view always help!
Also i will try harder on uploading faster, but i assure you all that i will see this to an end, no matter how long it takes me to! That is a promise of a lifetime!...jajajajajaja