Konohagakure no Sato
The Village Hidden in the Leaves
The brilliant Sun shone upon Konohagakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the heart of a vast, living and breathing forest, on this fine March morning. Birds chirped out their melodies and enchanted theirby all who bothered to lend an ear, as the villagers, civilian and shinobi alike, went about on their usual daily routine.
One particular place however, radiated with joy and expectation. In Konohagakure no Sato's main civilian Ninja Academy, this year's graduates had all gathered to be assigned their teams. Umino Iruka's classroom in particular was pregnant with expecting graduates, and it was, noticeably, also the noisiest part of the Ninja Academy, because-
"GET AWAY FROM SASUKE-KUN INO-PIG!"
... Yes, precisely for that reason.
"YOU GET AWAY, FOREHEAD! LIKE ANYONE WOULD EVER ASSIGN SASUKE-KUN ON THE SAME TEAM AS YOU!"
And yet, as the blonde, one Yamanaka Ino, shouted that back at her eternal rival - a pinkette named Haruno Sakura - with the flames of passion burning in her eyes (there were small fireballs, quite literally visible in the eyes of both rookie kunoichi who were currently on the verge of a catfight), a dark-haired boy with a pineapple shaped head merely raised a bored eyebrow at Ino's statement.
"What a drag," Nara Shikamara thought. Ino and Sakura's bickering had woken him from his nap, and needless to say it was a troublesome affair indeed. Yet, appearances could deceive, because the Nara boy while having a lazy disposition, had a mind that far surpassed his peers, "How can Ino be so stupid to not realise that there's no way they are ever going to break up the Ino-Shika-Cho, so she'll be stuck with me and Chouji? ... And Sasuke will most likely be paired with Sakura because he's the Rookie of the Year and she's the Top Kunoichi... how troublesome."
Meanwhile, in one corner of the classroom dressed in blue ninja garb, the dark-haired Boy Who Lived himself sat brooding, completely ignoring the two bickering fan-girls near him as his head rested on his intertwined fingers, all the darkness of the Universe itself seeming to rain down on him as if he were the personification of Amegakure.
Then the doors slid open, and all eyes turned towards a whiskered light blond-haired, cerulean blue-eyed short boy dressed in an old, worn-out orange jumpsuit who had a bright grin plastered on his face.
"Is that...? Naruto, get out of here!" the words of one Inuzuka Kiba were followed by a tiny bark from his puppy familiar, Akamaru, "this is for graduates. The next class doesn't begin til next week!"
Uzumaki Naruto clenched his teeth at the boy, the whisker marks on his cheeks growing a tad bit prominent due to his contracted facial muscles and giving him a look truly resembling an enraged fox. "SHUT UP, DOG BREATH! SEE THIS-TTEBAYO?!" the blonde pointed at his forehead, showing a glossy, silver forehead protector ensheathed in a blue headband.
A bluenette named Hinata 'eeped' at that as her cheeks turned red and a smile found its way on her face. Ino and Sakura stopped bickering and turned to look at Naruto, as if to verify that this wasn't just another prank of his. They all saw their Senseis fail Naruto, so how could he be here as if he had passed?
Even Sasuke raised an eyebrow at spared the orange-clad eyesore a side glance.
"WHAT?! No way, you failed the Genin Exam! Where did you get that!?" Kiba shouted.
"Settle down, Kiba-kun," the voice of Umino Iruka, their Class Instructor, cut through the noisy room, as it finally settled down and all attention turned to him upon him entering the classroom. "Naruto-kun passed via a... Special Exam, so yes, he is now a Genin like the rest of you," he explained, briefly, smiling at his adopted little brother who grinned back in response, "Now, take your seats all of you, and we'll begin the Team Assignments."
The blond-haired Uzumaki - an unnatural occurrence, for all Uzumaki, however rare, were known to be red-haired - climbed up the stairs before he sat in the same bench as - but on the seat furthest from - Uchiha Sasuke, who merely 'hn'd in acknowledgement.
"Hey, teme!" Naruto grinned at the dark-haired boy in greeting.
"Looks like they gave you a sympathy pass on your third attempt, dobe," Sasuke replied stoically, as he closed his eyes, conveying thereby his intention to ignore Naruto for the entirety of the rest of his existence.
The girls - in particular Sakura and Ino - who were sitting behind the two boys were glaring daggers and flames at the oblivious blonde. They could not understand what was worse: the fact that the Dead-Last was the only person in the class that their precious Sasuke-kuuun even acknowledged, no matter how poorly or the fact that said Dead-Last had referred to their precious Sasuke-kuuun as a 'bastard'.
Meanwhile, Naruto, ticked off at Sasuke's response, was about to shout back at him when suddenly, their Sensei's 'Big Head no Jutsu' kicked into full effect and the amplified shout of, "SETTLE DOWN, ALL OF YOU, AT ONCE!" caused practically every student to get glued to their seat, stop whatever they were doing and pay attention to Iruka.
"Now," the Instructor began. "These are the Team Assignments I have received, straight from the Hokage Tower. Your individual skills, your performance in the Academy and the influence of the clans to which some of you may belong were some of the factors that were considered in these assignments, and these are final on the order of the Hokage, which means you can't change your teammates. Konohagakure Genin Squads are three-man squads, and your Jounin-sensei will pick up on your further instruction and training. Now, as for Team One..."
Thus, Iruka began listing off each name on the list, until he got to...
"Team Seven," he began. "Will be Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura-"
"YATTAAAA! CHA!"
"NOOOO!"
"-and Sai, who is a senior Genin being reassigned to your Squad. You three will be captained by your sensei, Hatake Kakashi."
Iruka paused, sparing a glance at his classroom. Most of them were nonchalant, Sasuke did not even look like he was paying attention - though Iruka new full well how alert the boy truly was. The real sad sight was the face of Sakura, grinning ear to ear while staring hearts at Sasuke-kuuun, and the crying Ino and... Naruto seemed to have his face in his hands as well.
Iruka smiled and shook his head at the blonde boy. His little brother-figure had always had a crush on the pinkette. Too bad.
"Team Eight will be Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba. Your sensei will be Yuhi Kurenai."
From the corner of his eye, Iruka saw the white-eyed bluenette visibly wilting at not being put with her crush.
"Team Nine is still in circulation from last year," Iruka continued, regardless. "Team Ten will be Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino, and Akimichi Chouji. Your sensei will be Sarutobi Asuma."
A loud thud signalled Ino's head dropping on her desk in dismay, as the Nara boy simply sighed while his best friend Chouji continued to loudly chew on his bag of chips. Iruka shook his head with a smile and fell silent for a few moments after that, while he pulled out a fresh page from the stack of pages in his hands.
But those few moments of waiting were too much for Konoha's Number One, Hyperactive Knucklehead, who thought they had forgotten to assignment. All his classmates' names had already been announced, after all.
"Oye! Wait, Iruka-sensei! What about me?!" Naruto shouted, cerulean orbs wide as saucers at the thought that Old Man Hokage had forgot to assign him on a team.
Kiba snickered. "Told ya, ya didn't pass!"
Naruto's head snapped back in Kiba's direction, tick marks on his head. "Shut up! Iruka-sensei just told you I passed!"
"Learn patience, Naruto," Iruka scolded. "You passed late, by then the teams had already been assigned. In any case, you've been placed on a Special Squad."
At this, Uchiha Sasuke's eyes finally opened to spare the blonde, and then their Sensei, a glance.
"Special Squad?" Naruto, confused, voiced the thoughts on everyone's mind.
"Probably a Squad of Dead-Lasts," Sakura snickered, and Naruto showed visible signs of anguish at such a comment from his crush.
At that, Iruka finally snapped. He knew he needed to maintain a professional attitude when in class - his relationship with Naruto was personal, and he could not play favourites. But... technically, they were no longer his students, and he had grown more than tired of the way they treated the boy he cared for so much. So, with a deviant smile, Iruka decided to give Naruto something to show off about. He did deserve it, especially after that stunt with Mizuki.
"Actually, Sakura," Iruka began, as all heads turned to him. "Naruto was promoted to Genin Rank because he managed to master an A-Rank forbidden jutsu in just under a few hours, and then proceeded to defeat a traitor to the village with it who, without Naruto's intervention, would've gotten away with the Hokage's Forbidden Scroll. Naruto protected hundreds of village secrets from leaving our walls, singlehandedly."
Most of the class gasped in shock that. Uchiha Sasuke and Nara Shikamaru, however, merely raised an eyebrow each. Naruto blinked, then blushed and grinned sheepishly, whereas Ino began to chatter incessantly in hushed tones with her personal group of gossip girls.
"For that reason, the Hokage has assigned Naruto-kun to a Special Squad of his own design and choosing," Iruka held up the paper he had pulled out earlier. "Uzumaki Naruto, your team-mates are Konan and Tobirama, new Genin like you but who are not students of this civilian Ninja Academy, having been trained under the Hokage's Special Program. Your Captain will be Yamato-san, and you are Team Eleven."
Konohagakure no Sato
Ninja Academy
Half an hour after Iruka-sensei had left them with his advice and blessing, Jounin Sensei after Jounin Sensei came turn by turn to pick up their newly assigned students. In the end, only three students remained in the classroom. The pinkette was still shocked, evident by how her mouth hung open every time she stared at Naruto, who sat there smugly enjoying the free attention he was getting, whereas the Boy Who Lived merely glared at the boy with all the arrogance and jealousy he could muster.
"How?" Sasuke spoke, finally.
"Huh?" Naruto looked at him.
"How did you master an A-Rank? You couldn't even do a proper Bunshin," Sasuke noted, darkly.
"Hey!" Naruto glared at him, slamming his hand on his desk as he and Sasuke literally got in each other's faces, blue eyes shooting sparks at black. "I'll show you 'Bunshin'!" Naruto's hands found themselves forming a T-seal, Sasuke's own hands coming together in the hand signs for a Fire ninjutsu merely out of reflex at seeing Naruto's hands move, as Sakura stared on in horror.
"Kage Bu-!"
"Katon: Gou-!"
"Wait-!"
All three were interrupted in their simultaneous speech by a poof of smoke, which disappeared to reveal a tall man with short brown hair and black, almond-shaped eyes, dressed in standard Konoha-nin garb, most prominently the pale green Jounin flak jacket.
The ghoulish look on his face immediately stopped everything the three Genin were planning to do, their hands paralysed mid motion and their tongues mid-sentence.
"Now then," the look disappeared, as the man began speaking. "My name is Yamato. I believe I'm here to collect a single one of you, so, if you would please, Uzumaki-san?"
Naruto blinked, before he looked to his left to see Sasuke, then to his right to see Sakura, and then pointed dumbly at himself. "Me?"
"Yes, you. Be quick about it."
Naruto grinned ear to ear, pointing at himself. "Oh, so you must be my Special Jounin-sensei here to pick me up for my Special Genin Team, dattebayo!"
"... My first impression of you is, you're an idiot," said Yamato, as sweat-dropped at the blonde's antics.
Naruto sweat-dropped at that, and Sakura cheered with a shout of 'Cha!'
'It must've been a fluke, whatever impressed the Hokage,' Sasuke thought, smirking to himself as he calmed down and placed his hands in his pockets before going to seat himself again.
"Quit wasting time, Uzumaki-san," Yamato said to the blonde. "Your colleagues are already waiting at Training Ground 11. I just came here to collect you, so, if you don't mind..." Yamato grasped Naruto's shoulder with his hand, who simply stared at it in wonderment, before his entire world shifted and became high-speed tunnel vision as the Sensei-Student duo disappeared in a poof of smoke.
"Yatta!" Sakura cheered suddenly. "Now it's just me and you, Sasuke-kun, cha!"
A dark looked crossed Sasuke's features, as he intertwined his fingers and rested his head on them. 'Every Jounin Sensei has come and gone, so ours should be here any moment now. All I have to do is ignore this pink-haired nuisance til then,' thought the dark-haired Uchiha.
Little did he know Hatake Kakashi would not get there for the next four hours.
Konohagakure no Sato
Training Ground 11
A young white-haired boy with red-eyes, who could easily be mistaken for an albino, flashed his katana around as he drilled himself through different swordfighting forms. Adorned in a pair of pin-striped pants and a blue shirt which left his arms exposed, the young boy had facial markings that resembled those of the Nidaime Hokage, the Second Fire Shadow that had taken command of Konohagakure no Sato in history. In fact, to anyone alive today who would've met the Nidaime, he would've looked exactly like a younger version of him.
Next to him sat a young girl in a karate top and skirt bottom, with a pouch she wore at the front of her outfit. She had short, straight blue hair in a bun, lively amber eyes with lavender eye shadow, but her most noticeable feature was the large light blue paper flower clipped onto her bun for adornment. She sat crossed legged on a rock next to the practicing boy, knee-length grey ninja sandals taken off and placed at a side on the ground below next to the rock she was sitting on. She appeared to be practicing origami, a blue paper swan held in her hands which she was adjusting, amber eyes full of concentration.
Both their heads turned, distracted from whatever they were doing as both detected the chakra signatures before the puff of smoke that symbolised the coming of their Sensei and newest team-mate.
Both of them cringed simultaneously upon seeing the bright, eye-damaging orange.
"Greetings, Konan-chan, Tobi-kun," Yamato gave them both a smile, before gesturing with his hand at the blonde beside him, who looked a tad disoriented due to his first ever Shunshin. "I'd like to introduce to you your new team-mate, Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto recovered almost immediately at the mention of his name, loudly thrusting his fist forward. "Alright, you must be the Special Team-mates that the Hokage assigned me, dattebayo!"
He was immediately bonked upside the head by Yamato. "Don't say that word 'Special' again, alright?!" the brown-haired man said, with his ghoulish expression and Naruto almost soiled his pants then and there.
"H-h-h-hai!"
The two similarly-aged Genin in front of Naruto both sweat-dropped, before the one known as 'Tobi-kun' spoke up. "Did Sandaime-sama seriously make the third of our trio the village idiot?"
"Yep," Yamato smiled at him deviantly, and 'Tobi-kun' growled.
"Alright, now, settle down, I believe we need proper introductions here. While the rest of us know each other already, Naruto doesn't know us so we need to be polite and induct him into our group," Yamato explained.
Soon enough, the three Genin were sitting in front of Yamato who sat leaning against a log post.
"Alright, first things first, Naruto-kun, I want this introduction to be complete. As team-mates, we need to trust each other completely as trust is essential to teamwork, the lack of which merely spells death on the battlefield. As you said - but I won't use the word you used - this is a Team formed of people who each are... unique, each in our own way. We were therefore put together in one team, and the Hokage expects much of us. Each of us harbours secrets that themselves as S-Rank Classified," at Yamato's pointed look, Naruto immediately sat up straight. He understood immediately what the brown-haired man meant by 'S-Rank Classified'; the tenant that lived in his abdomen.
"So, he is the Kyuubi jinchuriki," 'Tobi-kun' said, interrupting his teacher, as his red-eyes stared at Naruto. Konan's amber eyes ran to blonde at that, widened in shock.
Naruto stared at the white-haired boy. "H-Huh?! How did you-?"
"I'm a Sensor-type," he explained, stoically enough to rival Uchiha Sasuke, but he didn't have Sasuke's dark air about him. "I could pick up that gigantic mass of dark chakra concentrated inside your belly. I don't know much about Jinchurikis, but I do know that the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked the village thirteen years ago, when you would've been a newborn baby."
Naruto blinked, before glancing at Konan, and then at his Sensei.
"It's alright, Naruto-kun," Yamato smiled warmly, and his smile, like Iruka-sensei's, melted away the blonde's anxiety. "Like I said, all of us harbour S-Rank Classified secrets. That was yours, and I have express permission from the Hokage to discuss these secrets between us - there are silencing seals placed around the perimeter of this training ground so that no one can spy on us. No one here will judge you for what you hold; we all know the difference between a jailor and a prisoner."
At that, Naruto glanced to his right at 'Tobi-kun' again, who remained stoic, but nodded at the blonde. When he glanced at Konan, the bluenette smiled warmly at the boy before nodding at him, and that made Naruto blush a little, but he grinned his characteristic foxy grin in response.
This Tobi person resembled Sasuke a bit but he wasn't stuck up, and Konan was actually cuter than Sakura and not nearly as mean! Not to mention their Sensei seemed like a really decent guy.
Naruto liked his new team-mates.
"So, Naruto-kun," Yamato said. "Let's hear you introduce yourself, properly, leaving nothing out including any Classified information. I'll go ahead first and then you do. My name is Yamato, I'm a Jounin-ranked shinobi of Konohagakure, and I have served previously in the ANBU and in ROOT, which are both secret forces of the Konoha Shinobi Corps. I like walnuts and architecture, and my hobbies include reading books about architecture. I dislike enclosed spaces, as they make me suffer from motion sickness. I don't have any dreams in particular, just to be an excellent Konoha shinobi and do the Hokage proud.
"As for my abilities and secrets: when I was younger, I was kidnapped by a former Konoha ninja who turned traitor to the Leaf, a vile man named Orochimaru. He experimented on me, and infused me with the cells of the Shodaime Hokage, so I am apparently the only person alive who can use the Mokuton which made the Shodaime Hokage so famous."
Naruto's mouth dropped at that revelation, as he stared at his sensei with stars in his eyes. For a child who aspired to be the Hokage, training under a man who could use the style of the Founding Fire Shadow himself was nothing short of an honour.
"Alright, my name is Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto began, hyped up now. "I like ramen, Iruka-sensei, the old man and Ayame-neechan over at the Ichiraku Ramen, Sakura-chan and Hokage-jiji! I dislike the minutes it takes to make ramen, and Sasuke-teme! And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody. Somebody important, dattebayo!"
'Tobi-kun' smirked. "Hokage, huh?" was all he said.
"And... as for my abilities, according to Iruka-sensei and the Hokage, I have huge chakra reserves. So I can use the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu almost without drawback, I created like hundreds of clones men I beat up Mizuki-teme!"
Both the white-haired boy and the blue-haired girl stared at him in shock at that, whereas Yamato merely nodded.
"And... as you know, the Yondaime sealed the Fox in me the day I was born," at that, Naruto's tone took on a melancholy tone, but he brightened up almost instantly. "Iruka-sensei said that the Yondaime trusted in me, and wanted me to be seen as a hero! So that's another reason I want to become strong, to honour the faith that the Yondaime put in me, dattebayo!"
Naruto struck his fist forwards at that declaration.
Yamato nodded. "That was good, Naruto-kun. Now you go, Tobi-kun."
The silver-haired boy nodded. "My name is Tobirama... I am named so because I am a clone of Senju Tobirama, the Second Hokage."
At that, Naruto's jaw literally dropped to the ground. He couldn't even find words to express himself anymore.
Tobirama continued. "The same man who infused Yamato with the Shodaime's cells, also created me and Konan, alongside hundreds of others, in test tubes," Naruto glanced at Konan at that, who had her eyes closed and face expressionless. "He was a vile man, who sought to create a powerful army of shinobi under his control so, he tried to clone as many powerful shinobi whose DNA he could get his hands on. The clone project failed for multiple reasons, and he abandoned us all, but out of hundreds he did not realise, before abandoning the village, that he had succeeded in exactly two attempts... me and Konan. We were discovered during by the Yondaime months before he perished in the Kyuubi attack, and extracted from the artificial wombs we were in stasis in, alive... he had us placed in an orphanage, but the Sandaime after his death always kept us in surveillance, before assigning us to Yamato, who has trained us since we were both nine years old, helping us discover our abilities."
Tobirama heaved in a sigh, letting Naruto's (slow) mind digest all that for a few seconds, before he continued again. "So there's our secret and our history. I like fresh fish, especially that caught in the clean rivers of Konoha, and I dislike people who discriminate against others for something they are not responsible for. My hobbies are training my Water ninjutsu. And my dream, unlike yours, is not to be Hokage exactly, but to surpass my template, Nidaime-sama, in each and every way, because although I'm created from him, I am not him."
"T-That's... amazing," Naruto said, finally, after a short silence. Tobirama closed his eyes and smiled.
"My turn, right?" Konan spoke up, and all heads turned to her. "Hello Naruto-kun and the rest of you, my name is Konan. Like Tobi-kun said, I too am a clone of a powerful shinobi, though Sandaime-sama did not have much information about my template, except the fact that she belonged to Amegakure no Sato and was once a pupil of Jiraiya of the Sannin, who in-turn was the pupil of Sandaime-sama himself. In any case, like Tobi-kun, I like fish, but flame-broiled fish in particular. I have a passion for origami, and my hobbies are therefore origami and flower pressing," as if to demonstrate, she pulled out her paper swan and showed it to Naruto, who grinned his foxy grin upon seeing it, "and I dislike uncleanliness and disorder. And my dream is to, one day, a see a world without pain or suffering, where we could all understand one another," as she ended, she gave a small smile.
"Amazing," Naruto said again, pointing at the paper swan, "you made that yourself?"
Konan smiled and nodded, an almost unnoticeable but present pink tinge decorating her cheeks at Naruto's compliment.
"Wait a minute," Naruto blinked, cerulean orbs glistening with excitement. "So, I'm on a team captained by someone with the powers of the Shodaime, the clone of the Nidaime, and the grandstudent of the Sandaime Hokages?!"
All present blinked at that observation.
Konan laughed. "It would appear so, Naruto-kun."
"This is AWESOME! And I'm gonna take that Hat from the Old Man so we're Team Hokage, dattebayo!" he jumped onto his feet and struck his fist forward, making a thums up.
"Alright, alright, settle down," Yamato signalled with both hands, and Naruto assumed his cross-legged position on the ground again. "Now, see, we are a 'Unique' Team, and Hokage-sama expects a lot from us. All three of you are technically orphans, so you understand each other's pains, to an extent. Then, due having a similar past as Tobirama and Konan, and havin Senju DNA in me like Tobirama, I can relate to them as well. And with my Wood Release, I can even help you control the Kyuubi's powers, Naruto-kun."
Naruto double took at that. "R-Really?"
Yamato nodded, "all in good time. First of all, however, we need to learn to work together with each other, and coordinate with each other as a team. So, you can all take your leave now, but you are all to come here in Training Ground 11 at 7 o' clock, sharp, tomorrow morning. I intend to have us all familiarise each other with our abilities, and form strategies to work together with one another," Yamato pushed himself off the log post he was leaning on, standing up straight.
"... I guess that is all for today. You are all dismissed, and I have to go make my report to Hokage-sama. Remember, 7 sharp tomorrow. Ja ne," Yamato smiled, before saluting his three Genin and disappearing promptly in a puff of smoke.
The three Genin stood up, and Naruto, with his hands clasped behind his head, saw his two new team-mates beginning to walk away and signal their goodbyes, but he cut them off. "Hey, wait up!"
Konan and Tobirama turned around to look at him curiously.
Naruto blushed and scratched the back of his head. Having been rejected his whole life, Naruto felt it awkward asking them, but Yamato-sensei had reassured him that they knew he was not the prisoner, but the jailer. So...
Here goes a lot. "Would you guys, erm... like to eat ramen with me? I don't have a lot of money but... I can manage a treat, I'suppose."
Naruto feared rejection, but Konan's smile melted it away. "Well, I don't have anything else to do. And you're right, that can allow us to bond more and learn about each other's personalities!" she looked at her companion.
Tobirama was silent, but sighed and nodded. He did not exactly like ramen, but he agreed largely because he understood Naruto's emotional state. That, and he knew Konan would drag him by his ear if he denied.
"Sure."
Naruto felt a surge of happiness swell up in his heart, one that rivalled the feeling he had experienced on being acknowledged by Iruka-sensei.
"ALRIGHT, DATTEYBAYO!" his shout echoed throughout the training ground, scaring a few birds away, and capped by a gentle giggle from Konan.
Let's see how well this idea floats with readers.