Meetings
Naruto walked at a leisurely pace as he reached the usual training grounds for Team Seven munching on an apple. It was almost eight o'clock and he knew that Kakashi would be arriving soon. As he stepped onto the large grassy area, a smirk appeared on his face as he saw his other teammates present and by the looks of it they had been waiting there for quite some time. Sakura, it seemed, was sitting on the ground, leaning against the tree while Sasuke stood to her left also leaning against the tree. As the blonde reached the pair, he realized that while Sasuke was just relaxing with his eyes closed, he was very awake and aware of his surroundings but Sakura was soundly asleep.
"Oh well," muttered the blonde as he sat down to the pink haired girl's right and started to eat the rest of his apple. "Oi, Sakura-chan," said the blonde as he shook his pink haired friend lightly. When he got no response, he shook her a little harder. "Hey, wake up!" The only response he got this time was Sakura turning a little towards him before wrapping her arms around him, grabbing him like a pillow as she slept more comfortably with her head now on Naruto's shoulder. The blonde boy blushed a furious shade of red as he realized their physical positions and quickly disentangled himself from her before jumping up. Sakura unceremoniously fell on the ground as her support was suddenly standing a few feet away from her. Slowly she pulled herself off the ground before going back to sleep as she leaned back against the tree trunk. Naruto looked at Sasuke to see him smirking slyly as he looked at Naruto's flustered face.
"Sasuke, do you know what this test we are having is about?" asked the blonde trying to gauge the boy's reaction to a team member, if he wanted to be friends or even accepted, he knew that the signs he would be showing are either amiable, or that of insecurity.
"No," he replied nonchalantly. "But whatever it is, I know I will do better than the dead last of the class," he sneered. Naruto really could not argue with that without blowing his cover, he knew that according to class dynamics the top student of the class should get paired with the last one to form a balanced out team, and technically he did fail, but it did make him wonder why, after all Iruka knew about his apprenticeship to Jiji. So he just took a deep breath and remained calm as he waited for Kakashi to appear.
"Yo," nobody really needed to see who it was that gave the familiar greeting, but Naruto was rather surprised when he felt the killer intent leaking from Sasuke as he glared at their Jounin sensei. The blonde just shook his head as he went to wake the still sleeping Kunoichi by the tree.
"Maa maa Sasuke, calm down," said the silver haired man as he shook his hands frantically in front of the annoyed Uchiha. "You know I had to take the longer route because a black cat crossed my path," he said as he gave an eye smile towards him, only to get reprimanded by another one of his students.
"Save the lame excuse sensei!" shouted an obviously peeved, and now awake, Sakura as she too glared at the slacker of a Sensei.
"Ne Kakashi-sensei, you really did piss them off," commented Naruto as he stood off to the side making the Jounin give him a pointed look from the corner of his eyes.
"Let's all calm down, I will now tell you about the test, so you better pay attention," said Kakashi loudly which had immediate effect on his students. Sakura stopped shouting, and Sasuke's look of anger turned into one of concentration, even Naruto walked forward so he could better listen to his teacher's instructions. "Right now it is about eight in the morning, so you have four hours till noon," he pulled out a small table clock along with two large sized bento boxes and placed them on one of the wooden tree stumps that people usually used for tai-jutsus or target practice. "I have fixed the alarm on this clock at noon. Your job is to get these bells from me," he held up two silver bells the size of large marbles, and had a string going through the loops of each of them, and tied them to the lower right corner of his flak jacket. "You have till noon. The person who does not get a bell will be tied to the stump and won't be given lunch, any questions?" Sakura raised her hand so Kakashi pointed at her.
"Umm, sensei, there are only two bells and three of us so what happens to the person who does not get a bell?"
"That person fails anything else?" Kakashi looked at all three of his students but none of them appeared to have any questions. "Ready?" his students vanished from sight, well two of them anyways. He still did not notice the orange shirt wearing blonde standing a few feet from him. "Well," muttered Kakashi, as he pulled out an orange book and started reading it.
"Oi, you need to pay more attention to your surroundings Kakashi sensei," said the blue eyed blonde loudly as he saw his sensei's head snap towards his direction.
"Naruto, aren't you missing the point here?" asked the former ANBU in a concerned voice. It wasn't like the blonde to just stand there in plain sight of the opponent.
"No, not really, but I have a few questions concerning the fact that now I am in a team," responded the genin, as he saw Kakashi nod.
"Okay, do I let my real skills out in front of my teammates? And what about the fact that I was apprenticed to Jiji before this?" The Jounin thought for a bit as he processed the pros and cons of the consequence of such a secret coming to light for Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura would probably take that like any other regular girl and be awed by Naruto but Sasuke would be a whole different story. Being obsessed with becoming as strong as possible in a short period of time, Sasuke would not be able to handle seeing someone his age being on par with Jounins in shinobi skills and will prove a lot more difficult to control than he already was.
"No, not in training but in missions you have full clearance to use all your skills if the situation requires for it, understand? So for now keep a low profile and act like a genin." Kakashi made his stand point on the idea clear, so Naruto gave him a large grin before charging at him with his arm cocked back for a punch. Kakashi immediately went on the alert, Naruto's punches were a big no-no and unfortunately he wasn't using his Sharingan at the moment either, a solid punch from the blonde could knock out even a fully fledged ANBU, Tenzo had found that out the hard way, and even Anko had become wary of the blonde when it came to all out taijutsu spars. Using the longer range that the Jounin had, his leg shot out, meeting the genin's chest squarely as he disappeared in a puff of smoke. "When the heck did he make a clone?" wondered the mask wearing shinobi, before shaking his head and going back to reading his favorite book.
"Was that a solid clone?" wondered Sasuke as he watched the whole encounter between Naruto and Kakashi, though he was too far to know what they were talking about prior to when Naruto recklessly attacked their sensei. Sakura also saw the encounter and wondered where the real Naruto was when someone whispered in her ear, making her nearly jump out of her skin.
"Sakura-chan we need to make a plan or there is now way we can take him down by ourselves."
"Gah!" Sakura nearly shouted but was able to keep her voice low enough that she did not give away her position. "Naruto, never do that again," said the pink haired Kunoichi in a serious tone, she was still clutching her rapidly beating chest.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," said Naruto as his expression turned bashful while he scratched the back of his head. Sakura had to smile; the crestfallen expression looked so alien on his face that it should never be there decided the kunoichi.
"Never mind that, what did you want to talk about?" asked Sakura as she dismissed his apology with a care-free wave of her hand.
"Oh yeah, you do realize that we by ourselves can never get the bells from him right, we have to work together, all three of us," Naruto said in a confident voice.
"Yeah, but how do you think we will do that? And even of do get the bells from sensei, who will keep it and who will end up failing?" asked Sakura, she still could not believe that at least one of them would be going back to the academy no matter what. She was more than a little surprised when she saw Naruto was laughing at her, which annoyed her a little because she was losing her mind worrying about them all this time. When she folded her arms and gave him the most severe 'angry' look that she could come up with, his amusement abated a little bit as he explained his reasoning.
"Say Sakura-chan; have ever even heard of a two-man cell?"
"No, but what has that got to do with anything?"
"So what makes you think that we will become the first two man team in the history of Konoha?" wondered the blonde loudly, and even Sakura blushed a little in embarrassment, but another thought struck her making her protest once more.
"But he might fail one of us and then give someone from our class into our team if his or her both classmates failed. Then we would still be a three man cell and…" she trailed off as a thoughtful expression crossed Naruto's face.
"The possibility of that happening is very close to nothing because; think about this, why would our academy teachers make such balanced teams if they were sure that it would be broken later on? No, either all three of us will return to the academy, or no one from this team will. I am sure because I believe that our sensei is just testing us, to see if we will break under pressure or we will have the mind to use all our resources and still work as a team even though the possibility of one of us never making it is inevitable. So what do you say Sakura-chan, wanna give it a try my way?" Naruto's reasoning was sound and he sounded so sincere and confident that the kunoichi could not help but agree and was rewarded with a grin that she seemed to crave more and more these days.
"So what is the plan?" she asked following Naruto as they were now looking for Sasuke. The blonde genin however was not looking, he knew where Sasuke was due to his chakra signature and it seemed that he was steadily moving closer and closer to Kakashi's position, this was not good.
"Well, first we have to find Sasuke and convince him to cooperate or else it is just up to me and you," he replied not turning back, he was almost upon his teammate when the chakra signature seemed to move with a burst of speed as it collided with Kakashi's position. "Crap," thought the blonde before he turned to Sakura and asked her to follow him quickly before jumping off. They both arrived to see Sasuke going toe to toe against their Jounin sensei, and to Sakura, he seemed to be holding his own against the mask wearing ninja admirably well. Naruto looked for a few moments before realizing, that even though this was only a spar, the former ANBU captain was holding back immensely. "If Sasuke pushes this too far he is screwed," muttered the blonde before he realized that Sasuke was running through hand seals.
"Fire release: Great Fireball Technique!" shouted Sasuke as a massive fireball shot off from his mouth towards the book reading shinobi. The Uchiha was surprised when he saw that the Jounin did nothing to prevent the flames from engulfing him, before realizing that there was a presence behind him. Turning, he saw to his surprise, that Kakashi was standing there, as he continued to read his book. "When did he create a clone, much less use it as a replacement?" wondered the Uchiha as he stopped to take a better look at his opponent. Grudgingly, he admitted to himself that even though the Jounin appeared completely immersed in his book, his senses were fine tuned enough that he was simultaneously aware of his surroundings as well. "There has to be a way to take him down," thought the raven haired boy but could come up with nothing, this man was just too powerful for him. To his right, he noticed a movement, and suddenly three Narutos jumped out of the bushes and engaged Kakashi in a furious Tai jutsu fight.
"Sasuke-kun, we need to get out of here!" Sakura was suddenly next to him and grabbing his arm, she took off back into the bushes pulling him along, and none too gently either.
"Let go of me!" growled the Uchiha, he had had enough of this useless kunoichi dragging him around, when suddenly she let his arm go, making the boy land in a heap on the ground in a very unseemly manner.
"Gee Sasuke, a simple 'thank you' would have been much more appreciated," came a sarcastic comment, and the fallen boy's head snapped up before his eyes focused on a blonde boy casually leaning against a tree.
"When did you…how did you…what the hell happened?" sputtered Sasuke as he finally got off the ground, dusted his arm warmers and shorts before looking back at his teammates.
"Look, there is no way we, three genins, can measure up to shinobi with Jounin caliber, unless we combine our resources. Anyone of us cannot hope to defeat him single-handedly, so why not work together, that way at least we will stand a chance," lectured the blonde before he realized that Sasuke was smirking at him in a disdainful manner like he always does. "What, I saw you fight too, you couldn't hold a candle to him!" snapped Naruto, his irritation at the Uchiha finally getting the better of him.
"Speak for yourself dope, I will get a bell one way or another, don't need help from weaklings like you," he said derisively as he ran his eyes over Naruto before lingering on Sakura. That was it, Naruto could take insults from him, but nobody insulted his friends in front of him, nobody.
"So you think you are better than me?" asked the Uzumaki, his voice was completely different from the tone he had a moment ago, it was dark and menacing, almost sinister.
"I know I am," said Sasuke trying to sound as confident as before, but the absolutely emotionless look that had come over his blonde teammate's face made the Uchiha take step back.
"Let's see you try," said the young jinchuuriki as he took a purposeful step towards the other boy when a hand restrained him.
"Stop it both of you," shouted Sakura, the atmosphere was getting extremely tense and she knew that if it wasn't diffused a fight would be inevitable. "We have to get the bells from him, not fight amongst ourselves!"
"But Sakura-chan, he—" Naruto started to say only to get interrupted by the kunoichi again.
"I don't care what he did; I realize that other than working together there is no way of getting the bells, so put your quarrel aside for once and think of how we will take those bells from him!" Sakura was very serious and it showed by the way she talked to her teammates and the sincerity in her voice, it was obvious that she wanted to pass this test just as much as any of them. Sasuke still looked at them with disdain before turning around.
"Do whatever you want but do not get in my way," he said darkly before walking off.
"Teamwork is just not in him, huh?" wondered the blonde aloud before turning to Sakura. "Err, Sakura-chan, do you know any genjutsu techniques?" asked Naruto as he scratched the back of his head, before giving a hesitant smile.
"Yes, a few basic illusions," replied Sakura in a subdued voice making Naruto realize that Sasuke's rejection to work with them had affected her more than she was letting on. That did not sit well with the blonde, but he had no idea what would make his friend feel good, so he did the only thing he could come up with.
"Hey, you know you shouldn't be the one that needs to feel bad," he said as he took both of Sakura's hands in his. "Listen, if he decided not to work with us, that is his loss. As I have already said, there is no way a genin can get those bells from a shinobi that is a higher level Jounin. But if we want to become ninjas, we have to give our best try, so are you ready to give this a shot with me?" Sakura quickly wiped the tear that was threatening to fall from her eyes and smiled weakly.
"Yes, but what do we do?" she asked, now she wanted those bells more than ever before, she needed to prove it to her teammates that she was not as useless as Sasuke was making her out to be. The determined expression on her face only made Naruto's resolve to get the bells even stronger.
Kakashi was getting tired of fighting Sasuke; he had already attacked the Jounin twice, and both times had ended up buried neck deep in the ground. The silver haired ninja was seriously getting worried about whatever the other two were planning to do to get the bells from him. He was not getting worried for them, but for himself. When Naruto made plans, it was something that regularly people would think ridiculous, to the point of foolhardy stupidity to follow it through, but if on looked at the plan and realized the finer points in his several layered idea that when the full plan was revealed, it worked miraculously, albeit a little unconventional in its ways. The transplanted Sharingan bearing shinobi was brought out of his thoughts as he heard a raw throated yell and turned to see Sakura charging at him followed by two Narutos.
"What in the world?" muttered Kakashi as he sprang to his feet to face his fast approaching foes. As soon as the first Naruto came into his range, he attacked, shooting his hand out in a solid uppercut, followed by a sidekick, but to his surprise, he missed, not only that but it did not appear as if Naruto even tried to dodge.
"What's going on?" muttered Kakashi before an elbow buried itself into his stomach, making him stumble back before springing away from his students.
"Wrong move!" came Naruto's voice from behind him and he whirled around to see a fist moving rapidly towards his face.
"Shit, I am screwed!" thought the former ANBU, Naruto's physical strength was well beyond that of an even fully grown man, and among the people that knew him, he was infamous for his extraordinarily strong skills as a taijutsu user, nearly rivaling that of Gai himself. The Jounin tried to move, but he was already being held by two pairs of extremely strong arms, he really did not need to see to realize that the previous two Narutos had been clones. Yet, the punch never came, and when he looked back at Naruto he was a little taken aback to see him smiling at him.
"Umm, so what happened?" asked Kakashi, making Naruto's smile turn into laughter before Sakura walked into his field of vision as well.
"Well should we tell him?" asked Sakura as she looked at Naruto, as if asking for permission, but the mirth in her voice was enough to tell the Jounin that he knew now his students were playing with him.
"Just tell me already!" exclaimed the Jounin, almost in a childish manner, surprising Sakura at seeing the dignified shinobi talking to Naruto in that manner.
"Yes, Sakura-chan go ahead and tell him or he just won't leave me alone," said the sapphire eyed boy, still chuckling at the antics of his sensei.
"Well, Kakashi sensei, Naruto came up with a very simple plan of using a fluke to distract your attention while using me as a main component of his plan to confuse your senses and take you down."
"What exactly was your part in this?" asked Kakashi as the clones let him go, and he stood up.
"I knew a few basic genjutsus to confuse the senses, just minor ones that muddles the opponent's sensory faculty just enough to mess up his sense of perception and distance. While Naruto made a clone and transformed into me so that you wouldn't be looking for me, I was hiding in the woods casting the genjutsu. Then he attacked you with three clones and you couldn't properly counterattack, making them able to take you down just long enough for the real Naruto to get the bells," explained Sakura as Naruto held up the two bells showing it to him, making the Jounin just shake his head in disbelief. Simple yet brilliant, the blue eyed boy never ceased to amaze him, and the fact that he fell for the oldest trick in the book for shadow clones; he really was losing his touch.
"Sasuke, you can come out now," said Kakashi as he turned towards the woods and out came the raven haired boy, yet his countenance showed he was quite angry for some reason. When the boy reached them, Kakashi continued. "Well I guess I was not too surprised that Naruto, you, figured out the main purpose behind this test, so well done. Even more commendable was the facts that you were able to make your teammates…err teammate realize the reason for this test as well. So good job Sakura, Naruto, I am confident that both of you are ready to begin the duties to your village as the Genin of the Hidden Leaf."
Naruto only managed a small smile before he was suddenly tackled into a hug by Sakura as they both fell on the ground. "Thank you Naruto, thanks a lot!" she said earnestly into his ear, only making his smile grow, before she let go of him and they both stood up with content smiles on their faces.
"Thank you too Sakura-chan, for believing in me," said the blonde after they were both securely back on their feet, as he gave a large grin to his teammate while rubbing the back of his head.
"Sasuke, to put it bluntly, I am disappointed in you," said the silver haired ninja, pulling his other two students' attention back towards him as well. "You kept on believing that your teammates will get in your way so you kept turning down their offers to try to get the bells from me together."
"Yes, I get it. So I couldn't get the bell but that does not mean I have to quit being a ninja. I can still be a ninja can I not?" Sasuke looked at Kakashi in the eye, there was a stubborn scowl stamped on his face as arrogance crept into his voice.
"If that is your attitude then you should just quit because you are just a punk who does not deserve to be a ninja." Kakashi gave a bored look at his student, only to see his scowl turn into a look of pure anger. Noticing how his body tensed, the Jounin could tell he was about to attack. Sasuke was furious, furious at this Jounin for not only insulting him, but also insulting the Uchiha clan. And if there was one thing that Sasuke never tolerated, it was the fact that of the Uchiha name being tarnished. Once it was the strongest and most revered clan in Konoha, its eye techniques and strength unequaled by any other until it bore the instrument of their own destruction, Itachi Uchiha. Was it not enough that an Uchiha was the one responsible for driving the noble clan to near extinction? It did not deserve anymore insults if it could be avoided, and that is what this man was doing in front of him, and the youngest Uchiha knew that at least he would not take it lying down, not on his life! The boy took off at in admirable speed for a genin, but in the end he ended up with Kakashi's foot on his head. "And that's why you are a punk." The Hatake confirmed as he held Sasuke in an unbreakable hold, at least for the boy under him. "But be thankful to your teammates because of them you pass today, but in real life you would have been the one that ended up dead."
With that the Jounin pulled his orange book out once more and started walking out of the training grounds. "Meet me at the Hokage's office tomorrow at ten in the morning, we will collect our first mission there, and then we have team meetings later in the day." Kakashi vanished in a swirl of leaves.
THE NEXT DAY LATE AFTERNOON
Ino Yamanaka walked at a brisk pace as she headed for the training grounds where Asuma sensei had told her and her team to be at around four in the afternoon for some team meeting and that there will also be an experienced Genin Team that will be able to give some advice on advanced Shinobi training as well as what to expect as a Genin of Hidden Leaf. She was, in fact, looking forward to it though the reason itself was very confounding to her to say the least. She was not, as she would have expected of herself before, at all looking forward to meeting with Sasuke-kun, though she was a little jealous of Sakura not only getting Sasuke, but Naruto on her team as well, talk about being lucky! Sure she got her childhood friends as her teammates, but none of them were as…interesting or fun as Sasuke or Naruto. No, the reason she was looking forward to this meeting of her old graduating class was because she wanted to talk and hang out with her new friend, Naruto Uzumaki. As she neared the assigned training grounds, she could hear squeals of laughter, definitely a girl's, mixed in with a baser and more boisterous one, that of a boy.
"Oooh," muttered Ino as she instantly went for the trees. It was considered a felony to breach property reserved only for shinobis by civilians, not to mention, it also could be very dangerous considering the fact that some of the training fields are hard wired with traps that ninjas use to train and teach the younger shinobis how technically traps are set. If civilians were to activate them, they would be either gravely injured or worse if they could not avoid or get through the traps safely. Quickly climbing up, she saw something that she had not been expecting, but for some reason it ticked her off greatly. There was Naruto sitting with Sakura, and he was saying something to her which was apparently making her laugh every few seconds. Then suddenly he said something that made Sakura's eyes go really big before she got up and attempted to run away from him, but he caught are, grabbed her around the waist and picked her up. As he spun her, while Sakura screamed, he lost his balance and they both fell on the ground before bursting into laughter again.
"Hot damn, that's some team bonding right there! Don't you think so Hinata?" commented an enthusiastic voice, followed by a small bark, Ino looked down to see Kiba, looking at the members of Team Seven with a sly smirk on his face. Next to her stood a tomato red Hinata, and the ever stoic Shino.
"Hmph," thought Ino, as she jumped off the tree before stomping towards her 'friends' with an angry look on her face. As she approached the duo, they noticed her, and did not miss the furious look on her which immediately wiped the smiles on their faces as they gazed with concerned looks at their friend.
"Hey, Ino-chan what's wrong you look upset?" asked Naruto as he gave her a welcoming smile, but was immediately shot down when the blonde girl glared at him before shouting at him in a chastising manner.
"What in the world do you two think you are doing?"
"Umm, just hanging out Ino, why are you so angry?" asked Sakura in a timid voice, she knew that somehow they must have made Ino angry, but what exactly did she do?
"You two were not just hanging around, you two were fooling around. I think there is a difference. As for the way you two were behaving, you should probably stop doing that from now on because we are all genins now, shinobis of Konoha, so fooling around really does not suit you," reprimanded Ino, yet in her gut she could feel that she was not particularly angry at Sakura or Naruto, but at the situation they were in, what was going on?
"Uhhh…sure Ino-chan," said Naruto as he rubbed the back of his head, making the other blonde smile. That grin of his was too infectious for her not to smile along with it. Sakura was just too confused to say anything, and decided that it was probably nothing. Naruto sat down again, this time indicating both the girls to sit as well and they did, as they usually did with Naruto in the middle.
"Since when did Ino become so nice?"wondered a particular Nara as he looked at his childhood friend, who moments ago seemed ready to pummel their blonde haired new friend into the next week and yet, all of a sudden her anger seemed to have been replaced with giggles and laughs as Naruto was animatedly narrating something to them, the usual sparkle in his eyes was still visible to those who were looking at the trio of the newly promoted genins interacting.
"Since she met Naruto, I assume you have noticed," said a monotonic voice from Hinata's left, and Shikamaru looked to see one of the most silent boys in his graduating class looking at him through a pair of heavy sunglasses, Shino.
"Yeah, she certainly seemed to have toned down, and not just her but Sakura as well," interjected Kiba as the boys started a conversation among themselves about the new developments in their friends due to the appearance of the funny, albeit a little mysterious, boy in their class. Hinata, being the only one left out, had nothing to do as the boys started talking amongst themselves. So deciding to interact with her new comrade she slowly made her way towards her ex-classmates, who seemed to be enjoying themselves, and made her presence known as she sat down across from Naruto with a shy smile on her face.
"Hello Naruto-san, my name is…" she started to say only to get interrupted by the energetic blonde sitting across from her.
"Hinata Hyuuga, I know, but since you never really talked to me in class I figured you probably didn't like me hehe," said Naruto as he grinned at her a little sheepishly.
"It's not like that Naruto," said Ino as she gave a smile to Hinata, the girl was shy but everyone knew that she was also very kind and good hearted and was mostly considered a friend by most of the kunoichis because she was never a fighting over Sasuke like every other girl in their class.
"Hinata is a very shy person," said Sakura sagely, while also clarifying Naruto's confusion a little. "That is why it usually takes her a little time to become friends with someone new, but she is also very nice and always helps out people who need it. She was the one who helped me with the history quiz that Iruka-sensei gave us last month; I would have probably failed if she had not studied with me the day before during lunch." Sakura's compliment made the purple haired kunoichi blush a little as she looked at her feet shyly.
"Oh really, wish I knew that!" exclaimed Naruto as he looked at the shy Hyuuga sitting across from him, biting her lips while going redder and redder every second.
"Hey Sakura, what have you two been up to?" asked Ino, she was interested to know what her friends' Jounin teacher was like, Naruto said he knew Asuma quite well, and she already knew that he was very close to Team Eight's sensei, Kurenai, as well, so that left out only Kakashi Hatake. "And what about the test that your sensei was supposed to give you?"
"Oh, well the test was really hard because we were supposed to take a pair of bells from him that he had tied to his vest, the genin that did not get a bell at the end of the test would end up failing and would have to return to the academy," Sakura stopped as she looked at the expression of the two kunoichis that were sitting next to her, they were stunned as expected.
"But that is not fair," said Hinata in a small voice.
"So is that why…you know…Sasuke-kun is not here right now because he…failed," asked Ino in an apprehensive voice but was a little shocked to see Naruto chuckling softly at her words.
"But the problem was that no genin alone could beat a Jounin like him, so this test was specifically designed to see if we were prepared to give everything we had even though we knew that someone had to go back in the end no matter what. Se the test was designed to see whether we were prepared to do anything for our teammates no matter what the odds were, and if we could work efficiently as a team when required by putting our differences aside," explained Sakura as comprehension dawned on Ino's and Hinata's features.
"That's pretty intense for the first day as a genin," commented the blonde kunoichi as she looked at Sakura with a finger on her chin.
"I thought so too, but Naruto figured it out pretty quickly so thanks to him we passed Kakashi-sensei's test." The pink haired kunoichi was genuinely relieved that they had already passed his test; it seemed Kakashi Hatake was not going to make their journey as a team an easy one.
"Yosh! All my youthful friends are here!" said a bombastic voice as everyone turned to see Rock Lee with his fist in the air as fires burned in the pace where his eyes were supposed to be.
"I have no idea how he does that," muttered Shikamaru, he thought Lee was only capable of using taijutsu because he could not conduct Chakra at his will. But the displays of genjutsus that he seemed to perform without even trying left even the most proficient illusionists baffled!
"Bushy-brows? So his was the experienced team that Kakashi-sensei must have been telling us about," thought the young jinchuuriki as Neji and Tenten soon followed.
"That boy looks very strange, does he not?" asked a timid voice and Naruto turned to stare at Hinata as she turned a little pink under his scrutiny. Sakura and Ino couldn't hold their giggles even though they tried extremely hard to stifle it, but the shy Hyuuga's bold assessment of the green spandex clad genin, and Naruto's completely baffled expression made it nearly impossible.
Rock Lee's extravagant entrance was followed by four tall figures of their Jounin Senseis. They seemed to be in a very important discussion because as they entered the training grounds, they still continued, and Asuma had even stamped out his cigarette, which usually meant he was serious about whatever was being talked about.
"So what is it that you are going to do about Hinata, your assessment about her was not wrong, she is not the type to be cut out for the shinobi life, maybe a medic or…" Asuma started to say only to stop as he realized the glare he was getting from Kurenai. "Okay what; you were the one who brought this up in the first place?"
"I did say she is not the type who looks like she could make a shinobi, but that does not mean that her skills are not as good. Her chakra control and the grasp over the basic Hyuuga Gentle Fist style are very good. If trained by the right shinobis in the right field, she could very well match some of the strongest kunoichis of Konoha, but her biggest enemy right now is her shyness, if she could just overcome that…" Kurenai suddenly stopped as she noticed just what her 'timid' student was doing. "That is unbelievable; I have never seen her like that before." All the other heads turned in the same direction to see Hinata, along with Sakura, and Ino were all laughing very hard with Naruto, who had the same stupid grin plastered on his face that he always does.
"Well what did you expect, she is with Naruto after all," said Kakashi, while Asuma and Gai nodded, the blonde had the personality that just seemed to pull people towards him.
"Hmm, you are right, but I also get the feeling that some of Kiba's boisterous personality will be a good influence on her," said the red eyed Kunoichi as they made their ways towards the center of the field. "Alright Gai, you can begin."
"Okay students gather around, looks like everybody is here except…okay everybody is here," said Asuma, he stopped when he noticed that a certain Uchiha was missing until he jumped down from one of the trees. Soon enough all the genins had gathered around their senseis and Gai began talking. He talked about missions and how they were expected to do a certain number of D-Ranked missions before the Hokage thought they were ready to start missions outside the village, before going onto talking about the types of trainings that genins went through under the tutelage of their Jounin Senseis. Each shinobi had an affinity towards a certain type of techniques and fighting style and it depended upon their senseis to train the genins to become most successful as future shinobis of the Hidden Leaf. As Gai stopped, Kurenai started to speak.
"Alright, today we have gathered her to do some exercises together and to increase the familiarity between the genins, because as we shinobis get promoted to higher ranks our genin teams are not the only ones that we have to work with, but other teams as well depending on the Shinobi's abilities and the category of the missions that they are being sent on. Now we will ask what kind of things you are good at and go from there, are there any questions." Kurenai looked evenly at all the genins and when nobody had raised their hands or asked a question, she turned to Gai, who understood what she wanted him to do. Swiftly walking to his genins, the spandex clad Jounin spoke up the names of his students and their abilities.
"This here is Tenten, her skills lie in the ability to use various weapons and she is also quite skilled in ninjutsu. Neji Hyuuga, one of the most talented genins of his graduating year, he is very good at Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, and also has a few Genjutsus under his sleeves as well, and this," he stopped as he placed a hand on his apprentice and a mini clone, Lee. "Is my most prized pupil, Rock Lee, his skills lie only in Taijutsu, he can use neither genjutsu nor ninjutsu but his hard work and dedication to prove himself has made him into one of the strongest Taijutsu user in the Hidden Leaf!" Asuma spoke next.
"This here is the Shikamaru Nara, one of the smartest genins of this year, is good at using his family techniques and a little ninjutsu, but that is about it. Choji Akimichi, good at taijutsu and the Akimichi clan techniques. And last but definitely not the least Ino Yamanaka, she has talent in genjutsus and uses her family techniques quite well." Next came Kurenai Yuuhi, her intros to her students were rather curt and to the point.
"Kiba Inuzuka, good at Taijutsu, some ninjutsu, and also well versed in his family techniques. This is Shino Aburame, very skilled in using his hive and his bugs are quite good at collecting information and relaying messages, he also has some ninjutsu and genjutsu techniques, and this is Hinata Hyuuga. She is very good at using genjutsus and her taijutsu is also above par due to her training in the Gentle Fist style of the Hyuuga family, and she has retained the full use of her Byakugan." The genjutsu mistress noticed with satisfaction as she saw the little widening of Neji's eyes as he heard that. Then finally came the masked shinobi, Kakashi Hatake who gave his unique smile to everyone before starting with the introductions.
"Yo, this here is Team Seven. As you all probably know, this is Sasuke Uchiha," he pointed at the student with raven black hair before continuing. "His skills at Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, and Taijutsu are all above par for a genin." He did not miss the strained look that had come over the faces of most of the males from his graduating class. "Then here is Sakura Haruno, she has some talents in using genjutsus and a little ninjutsu, and is very strong for someone her age, and finally here is Naruto Uzumaki. He is extremely good at ninjutsu and taijutsu," with that he ended his introductions.
"Okay, now that we know everybody we will pair you up and have spars! Are you ready?" asked Gai in his usual enthusiastic manner, making the instructors sweat drop but the genins just thought that the man was a little weird. When Gai saw most of them nod, he smiled. "Let's see what you can do."
Hey guys, I hope you liked it. As always ideas and opinions from readers are always welcome and if you would like to discuss the story in farther detail, just send me a quick P.M. I was actually surprised by the amounts of alerts and favorites I got, but people did not leave much reviews. Still, loved the reviews I got, so please keep them coming. Anyway, next chapter will be spars and then onto Wave! Poll about Zabuza's sword still stands. And please, please, please don't forget to review.
Thanks,
Tanneal.
