A good portion of this chapter will seem useless and boring on its own, but will make sense about...fifteen or so chapters from now. Much later.
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"You're kidding, right?" Kiba pointed at Naruto skeptically.
The jounin-sensei were quiet, unsure what to say.
"Sorry, Kiba. No joke," Naruto lounged with his elbows on his knees as he taunted his fellow chuunin.
"That doesn't even make sense!" Sakura shouted angrily, glaring at her teammate. "How can you be second? The mission said the second was missing!"
"I was missing, Sakura-chan. I wasn't here, was I?" He grinned again, laughing at the faces his friends were making. The leaf-nin were all very confused, and the Guild-nin were smiling predatorily at the confused ninja.
When the room became silent, but tense from the confusion, Tigerdragon re-entered the conversation.
"Fox came here when he was five, and lived in the Quadgram for five years, before he returned to Konoha. When I commissioned you all, I specifically asked for his friends, because I knew that he would be here for several months. He has been my second for several years, and I trust that you will all follow his orders." Tigerdragon gave the ninja a serious look, before rising and walking into his office.
The looks on the foreign ninja's faces were hilarious. Most of them were gaping in shock, though Hinata looked pleasantly surprised, and Kakashi looked blank, as though his brain had stopped working.
"He's…serious…" Sasuke found himself muttering in surprise.
"No way," Kiba said disbelievingly.
As they stood gaping, Tigerdragon returned from his office with a small wooden box. Seating himself on his throne, he gestured vaguely to Naruto, who nodded.
Suddenly, Naruto seemed extremely serious.
"I'm going to call your name," he told them, "and then give you a code name and assign you to a squad. Here," he opened the wooden box and showed them its contents," are symbols that show your loyalty to Guild." Shiny metal jewelry in the shapes of various animals sat in the box.
Everyone remained staring, and Naruto began to read off the names.
"Shikamaru." The lazy ninja snapped out of his stupor and cautiously approached the dais. Naruto rummaged around inside the box and tossed a silver piece of jewelry to Shikamaru, who caught it in the air.
"You're Deer," Naruto told him. The piece, Shikamaru saw, was in the shape of a stag. "Your squad leader is…" he scanned his list, thinking, "Boar." Though Shikamaru had no idea who Boar was, he nodded and walked back to the group, glancing curiously at the silver stag in his hand.
"Kakashi." The silver-haired jounin walked forward, completely blank. He seemed so scatter-minded that he nearly dropped the piece that was thrown to him.
"You're Retriever," sure enough, the silver piece was in the shape of a retriever. "Husky will be your squad leader." Kakashi nodded automatically, but stopped suddenly and looked up at his student.
"My squad leader?" he echoed indignantly. Naruto nodded.
"Yes. You're not used to fighting the way we do." He gave his sensei a shooing motion and called the next name.
"Kurenai." As Kakashi re-entered the group, the kunoichi approached, unable to believe she was following orders from her friend's student.
"You're Cardinal," Naruto tossed a silver piece in the shape of a flying cardinal to the jounin-sensei. "Your squad leader is Sparrow." Recognizing the name, Kurenai turned to see Sparrow waving at her from the wall.
"Gai. You're turtle. Your group leader is Crocodile." He tossed the man a black piece in the shape of a turtle.
"TenTen. Panda. Your group leader is Rhino." She received a gold, panda-shaped piece.
"Asuma. Black Bear. Your leader is Kodiak." Asuma's piece was black and bear-shaped.
"Ino. Pig." Sakura snorted with laughter, and Ino blushed, angry and embarrassed. "Your leader is Horse." Ino's jewelry was golden, and shaped like a pig.
"Chouji. Butterfly. Your leader is Wasp." Chouji's piece was silver, and butterfly-shaped.
"Shino. Scarab. Your leader is also Wasp." Shino received a black piece in the shape of a scarab.
"Kiba. Shepherd. Your leader is Husky." Kiba caught his silver-colored dog in the air and grinned. By now, the leaf ninja were either contemplating why they received the code name they received, or were wondering what their code name would be.
"Lee, you are Squirrel. Your group leader is called Squirrel, too." Lee's piece was silver, in the shape of a squirrel mid-jump. His goofy smile told Naruto that it had been a good choice. Happily, Lee ran over to show Gai his piece.
"Neji, Falcon. Your leader is Eagle." Neji's piece was black, in the shape of a soaring bird.
"Sakura, Kitten." Ino giggled as Sakura turned pink with anger. The pink-haired girl was insulted by the wimpy-sounding name. "Your leader is Rex." Sakura caught her black kitten and stuck her tongue out at Naruto angrily.
"Sasuke, Grey Wolf." Sasuke caught the silver piece with ease, but seemed very withdrawn. "Your leader is Fennec." Sasuke looked over at the familiar girl. Fennec, lounging against the wall, gave the Uchiha a vicious smile that seemed to mean, "I'm going to eat you alive, sissy-boy." Taken back, he quickly returned to the group.
"Sparrow," Naruto turned to his friend. "Take them to see their squad leaders, please. Help them settle in if you can. And get them a change of clothes." The three girls ushered the unsettled ninja out of the chamber, but left Hinata standing awkwardly in the center of the room.
"Um, Na…Naruto-kun," she spoke up quietly. "I was not placed."
"Nonsense, Hinata-chan!" Naruto laughed, pulling the final piece from the box and walking over to the shy girl.
"You're Vixen," he handed her the piece, identical to his own, only silver instead of gold. "And I'm your squad leader."
Hinata, face bright red, fainted.
Blinking in surprise, Naruto turned around. "Sensei, what did I say?"
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Once Hinata had regained consciousness, Naruto waved goodbye to Tigerdragon and led the shy girl out of the chamber and down several halls. At last, the two reached the front door of the house, where they encountered Sparrow, Oriole, Fennec, and the leaf-nin.
"What's going on?" Naruto demanded, walking outside and confronting the bickering ninja.
"They don't want to go," Oriole explained wearily. The black-haired girl gestured at the chaos the leaf and Guild ninja were making.
Sparrow was desperately trying to make peace with them, alternately begging the jounin-sensei for assistance and screaming at the leaf kunoichi to shut up.
Fennec had Sasuke pinned to the ground and was laughing depravedly as he tried to wriggle free.
Shino, Shikamaru, Neji, and Chouji seemed to be ignoring the situation, and Lee and Kiba were watching Sasuke with concern, wondering if they should interfere.
From behind him, Naruto heard Hinata gasp.
Shaking his head, Naruto approached the conflict cautiously. First he approached Sparrow, telling her that he would handle the situation. The frazzled girl looked relieved, and walked over to join Oriole in relative safety. As Sparrow collapsed with relief on the ground, Naruto attempted to get his friends' attention.
"Hey, look, I'll get you set up, okay?" he tried to calm them down.
"No! It's not okay, Naruto!" Sakura yelled. "Why didn't you tell us about this?!" The others nodded in agreement, except Sasuke, whose face was still pinned in the dirt.
Naruto frowned. "I didn't feel like it. And it was a long time ago; it didn't matter in the leaf," he explained.
"Why didn't you tell us once we arrived?" Kakashi queried.
Naruto pursed his lips as he looked into his sensei's eyes. "I didn't feel like it," he repeated. He scanned the leaf-nin's eyes, daring them to push the issue. Only Kakashi and Sakura seemed to be unsatisfied with his answer. Suddenly, he caught sight of Fennec, who was cackling wildly and sitting on top of Sasuke's back.
"Fennec, let him breathe," Naruto demanded. Fennec looked up in surprise before jumping off the Uchiha's back and walking over to Oriole and Sparrow.
Sasuke jumped up immediately, fire and sharingan in his eyes, and turned his gaze on Naruto rather than Fennec.
"What the Hell is going on, Naruto?" he stalked over to his teammate and grabbed him by the collar. The Guild kunoichi started to rise, but Naruto waved them off.
"What are you talking about, teme?" Naruto taunted.
"Why didn't you tell us you were second?" he shook the blonde once, hard.
"Because I didn't want you to know," he pushed Sasuke, knocking himself loose from the Uchiha's grip. The leaf ninja were watching the clash intently and cautiously. They all knew how explosive the two could be when around each other and didn't want to risk injury.
"Why not? Why does it matter?" he pushed Naruto back.
"Because I don't want any special treatment!" Naruto shouted, pushing Sasuke down. "I don't want to earn respect that way! I want to earn it because I deserve it!" Naruto unclasped his earring and held it out for Sasuke to see.
"You see this? This means that they respect me here. And I earned it! I don't want you to fall all over me because I've been here before; I want you to respect me because I'm a good ninja!" He put the earring back and turned to the Guild kunoichi.
"I'll take them," he said quietly, but powerfully. "Go get some uniforms: all sizes, all accessories, all shades. Meet me at my place." The three girls nodded and disappeared.
"Let's go," Naruto commanded harshly, turning and walking away. Startled by their friend's behavior, the leaf ninja followed him, whispering quietly among themselves.
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Mk, I know this chapter is really long, and most of it is pretty useless on its own. However, there will be a recurring theme in the story. If a character is in the presence of another character, they will use codenames. If it is thought, or me narrating the story, then I will use their real names.