Naruto was reminded of the fact that it was approaching winter as another cool breeze hit him and made him shiver once again. 'Why do we have to do this so early?!' He cursed for the tenth time that morning. He glanced at his two other teammates, which seemed unaffected by the cold unlike him.

'What, did they teach how to produce fire chakra inside you or something in the year I missed?'

Naruto decided to keep reading his boring and hard to understand book about seals. It wasn't an entertaining activity, nor simple to do in the weak sunlight he had at the moment, but it helped him ignore the cold and sheer impatience he had right now. He had been waiting for their sensei for half an hour now!

'I knew it was a bad idea to try and get here early, waiting for other people is the worst!'

He kept at his reading for awhile, but not long after he grew bored of it too. Now that he thought for a little, he didn't even know his teammates names. So he decided to approach them.

"Hey you two, I'm Uzumaki Naruto! What about you? Naruto finished his introduction with the friendliest grin he could muster. But his friendliness wasn't recociprated, in fact it was met by complete avoidance.

They both took some distance between them and him, and both had completely serious expressions while doing so. Which was extremely unsettling on the brown haired boy that seemed to be overly open and had been very talkative moments before.

It hurt deeply. And also confused him very much. He knew he wasn't liked and that many people ignored him, but most didn't do it to that extent. They both just seemed to be weary, almost as if he was a beast that could lash out at any moment.

But before he could reprimand them for their actions, their sensei appeared in a swirl of leaves. 'For how plain he looks, he sure knows how to make an entrance…'

"Alright you three, here's a scroll containing information of where your objective is. From this moment on, you have till 8 AM to complete the test." And as fast as he appeared, he was gone.

Naruto awkwardly butted in to read the contents of the scroll as well, to the annoyance of his teammates. After a quick read, what he gathered was that the documents were located on an old shack deep into the forest, right alongside a big boulder.

That was all the blond needed to go charging ahead as he ventured into the green scenery.

-o-

"Where… the hell is it?!" Naruto wondered in between huffs, he had already been searching for half an hour to no avail. 'Alright Naruto, think! Where would an enemy hide important documents?' Naruto asked himself as he analyzed the situation.

'A discreet place, where you could perfectly place traps and that was near a big boulder… "Dammit! That could fit for the entire forest!" Naruto complained out loud, how come a big boulder was so difficult to find?

Thinking wouldn't do him any good, so he would just need to brute force it! But how?

Naruto smirked, as he formed a hand seal that was ever so becoming more familiar to him. A puff of smoke and several bright orange figures dashing later, he knew he would find it.

-o-

Naruto knew he was close to the place as a kunai whizzed right past him. Sensei sure wasn't joking when he told them to be careful.

He spent a while dismantling some traps and just carefully activating other ones until they ran out of weapons, at least until he figured out the real purpose for why clones existed. To act as sacrificial fodder.

Ignoring the tenth vision of himself getting skewered by a bunch of senbon, Naruto went on ahead and saw the wooden shack. It wasn't just old; the wood that composed it was rotten and had mold growing on it alongside some mushrooms. And the big boulder the text referred to was actually a little statue of a monk with an oversized head.

Naruto was ticked off by this, having spent so much time searching for that boulder. Shooking his anger off, he went inside the little old shack and found… nothing.

"Wha…" Naruto said before the sound of an explosion was heard throughout the forest.

He immediately ran to the source of the sound, and was greeted with the scene of his teammates fighting ferociously with his sensei. Coming closer, he could see the scroll they had been tasked to search for on the hand of one of his teammates.

'That explains why I haven't seen them…' Nonetheless, Naruto charged right into the battle as he tackled their sensei into the ground. Opening his eyes, he noticed he was now laying on a log, 'Replacement.' Was the last thing he thought before he had the air knocked out of him.

Due to a powerful kick from behind, he was now flying at dangerous speeds towards a tree. Fortunately Naruto managed to roll off most of the energy, covering himself with his arm to guard himself from the remaining one.

'Shadow Clone Jutsu!' Naruto yelled mentally, grabbing a kunai in hand he charged alongside his copycats towards his sensei that was now busy evading shuriken from his teammate. But just as he was about to thrust at the man, he was suddenly rolling on the wet earth of the forest. Skiddling to a stop, Naruto breathed heavily as his eyes were completely widened. Even his clones had already dispersed.

'How is he fighting me off so easily?' Naruto asked in shock. But the answer came to him as he continued watching the fight and noticed a lot of things.

First of all, they were fast. Like really fast. Focusing his eyes he could see the slight blue tint of chakra on their feet, and the realization hit him like a bunch of bricks. 'They are using tree walking!'

But that wasn't all, their movements. Their taijutsu was so refined, it was almost as if they didn't expend any energy while punching, always hitting in tight timing and seemed to predict the opponent's next move. It was all kind of a well choreographed dance, that had been practiced time and time again.

This was especially evident when his blue-haired teammate joined the fight, fighting almost as if she was a wave. Which was quite bizarre for him to picture.

'No matter, I can also do that!' And gathering chakra on his feet, he took off. And really fast at that. Without wanting to, Naruto crushed into all three, taking them all to the ground alongside him.

It wasn't what he had in mind, but it still worked, was what Naruto thought as he leaped toward his sensei. Or that's what he wanted to do, if it wasn't for the fact that his legs were stuck to the ground. Looking down, he noticed a swamp of mud had replaced the solid dirt of before. And it wasn't just him that was stuck, both his teammates were in the same situation as him.

Everyone except him, Naruto realized. Sitting calmly on a tree branch, was the plain man that was his sensei with scroll in hand. As if mocking them, the man waved the scroll before Naruto's eyes and just barely out of the blond's reach. He kept this little game for a while.At least until a torrent of water hit him straight in the back.

Looking farther ahead, was the quiet girl that was readying up another jutsu. Naruto was confused as he turned back around only to find the spot where the girl was once stuck on had been replaced by a log.

"Oh yeah, we can still use jutsus!" And with that realization, Naruto summoned his clones to drag him out of the mud.

Now free, Naruto refocused on the battle taking place as he narrowly dodged a bullet of water coming for his head.

In front of him, a battle that he couldn't have ever imagined a genin could be in was taking place. Multiple jutsus were thrown around, counters being made by one another and multiple replacements were taking place in a moment. And what surprised him the most was the absolute ease sensei had on him during the whole battle, almost as if he was playing with her, with them.

Naruto stood stunned for a moment like that, until he noticed a particular object laying on the ground.

In a small puddle of dirtied water, was the scroll that would define the future of his career. Naruto knew he had to go get it, after all he couldn't just wait for his sensei to eventually beat his teammate just so he himself could get his ass handed to him.

'But how am I gonna get it?...' Naruto wondered, he needed a distraction. And suddenly he remembered the unfamiliar weight that was on his bag, a peculiar boring book.

Naruto quickly took out his ink set as he went to draw the seal. He hurriedly drew a shaky seal that he hoped would work, as he summoned a clone and handed the slip of paper to him, who then proceeded to run in the middle of the altercation.

Suddenly a blinding light occurred in the middle of the forest, leaving everyone unable to act except for a little orange figure who was now clumsily dashing towards the clearing.

Naruto couldn't believe it, his plan had worked! Now he just needed to run a little more and he would officially be a brand new genin.

Naruto grinned as he hastened his pace at the already discernible sunlight that reached through the thick collection of leaves. Close… so close...

"Interesting plan, but getting your teammates caught in the crossfire isn't exactly a good idea." Those monotonous words made him freeze, he slowly turned his neck to face what his worst nightmare was right now. His sensei, eyes still lacking of emotion, staring down at him as if he was an inoffensive rabbit. Prey.

"Especially if you're weaker than them." The man before him dissolved into a pile of mud and it took him a moment too late before he realized the words had come behind him.

Thud

Naruto went crashing into a tree once again, only this occasion without time to prepare for the collision. The coalition was hard, and he could swear he had broken a bone in the process. And so he was unable to do anything when the older man leisurely walked next to him and took the scroll laying by his side.

"Remember, you have never won until you've won, so always have a backup plan in store. If not? Let's just say you won't last very long." Having uttered those words, he started slowly leaving as Naruto pathetically struggled to get up.

'No, it can't finish like this!' Naruto thought in between gritted teeth, slowly rising even if his body screamed at him to stop. He couldn't give up, not now!

However, before he could stand up completely, dozens of shurikens appeared out of nowhere and embedded into his sensei's body. Having replaced with a log, his sensei turned around to face his brown-haired teammate, who was… carrying one of the Seven Swords of the Mist?

"Didn't know they were teaching genjutsu at the Academy now." His sensei muttered as he went with new speed that seemed to be too fast even for his teammate as he fell over.

Naruto frowned, he had to act now! So he went charging towards the man with kunai in hand.

Metal met with metal as his sensei blocked his attack. Immediately after they got out of their little stale mate, Naruto received a powerful punch on the gut that would normally leave him without acting for a moment. But not now, he couldn't let that happen.

Planting his feet firmly into the ground, he willingly expelled as much chakra as he could muster towards his feet as he flew fist ready towards the man. It connected, and the sound of crushing bone could be heard as his punch connected with his jaw.

Naruto smirked for a moment and went on to a roundhouse kick, but before he could do that, however, his sensei's body transformed into mud that covered most of his body that then hardened into stone.

He was stuck, Naruto realized. Completely, utterly stuck. He tried to break free with all his strength, but his struggles ended up being useless.

"No! This can't end like this, it can't!" Naruto fervently shouted towards the diminishing figure of his sensei, which was getting further and further ahead.

Useless. It had all been useless. Now he would be sent back to the Academy, and receive even more ridicule for his earlier boasting. Iruka-sensei wouldn't be thrilled either. Naruto slumped his shoulders, already accepting his fate.

But then his sensei stopped moving, standing still for a moment before he shouted some words.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Kyo Michiya and Manami Kotone will now be part of the newly formed Team 11 under the leadership of me, Masato Goya! Congratulations on becoming official shinobi of the Village of Konoha!" Naruto stared shock for some moments, until he erupted into euphoria and excited dancing. He did it, he did it! But how?

Looking towards the clearing, stood the blue-haired gir, or Kotone as he now knew, with scroll on hand. Now that he realized, what he had thought was the scroll was what he could now clearly see was a stone with paper wrapped around it.

Naruto immediately went down to his knees and thanked all his lucky and all the gods that were out there. He was so happy and relieved that he could cry, and he couldn't lie if he said he teared up the slightest bit at the pure joy he was feeling.

After a while of each genin celebrating the outcome their own way, except for Kotone who seemed unsurprised of the result, Goya reunited them near some stones that served as seats. Everyone now sitting down, the jounin cleared his throat as he went on to explain.

"As I've told you before, our task as a team will be the escorting of different valuables and sometimes the infiltration of enemy territory to recover important documents. Now I suppose you all have kinda figured out your role on the team during this test." At that they all three nodded, even though Naruto wasn't still so sure what he was doing here.

"First let's start with you blondie," Goya-sensei said while ignoring Naruto's sounds of complaint. "your role is that of acting as a decoy thanks to that clone jutsu of yours. Not only does it help to distract enemies, it's a fine way to set off traps without risking your life." Naruto's eyes widened as he let out an "Oh" of understanding.

"I think you managed that part quite well, even though it was useless since your teammates had already got around them and obtained the object of value. You shouldn't be running around on your own when you can't even begin tracking." Naruto could only nod and hope he went to the next one as he tried not to think too much of the hurting words.

"Next Michiya, you are that kid that keeps saying he wants to be an Anbu right?"

"Of course! I mean how can I not when Big Bro is one and always has cool stories to tell? And all the information you can learn with that position? I'm sure that they know even the most obscure facts about what's happening in the world! And the jutsus, how could you forget about the jutsu?! I mean-" Their sensei quickly decided to intervene Michiya from continuing his barely comprehensible rumble.

"Alright, I got it. And you shouldn't be revealing your brother's position so lightly." Goya hurried to add the last part to stop the boy for good. Michiya noticeably was embarrassed as he started scratching random itch spots on his body, all while being quiet.

"Well, I have to say that you're on a good path to become an Anbu, you just need to practice getting that finishing move before your opponent hits you with anything unexpected like the sudden kick I gave you." Fortunately the boy only nodded and responded with a "Yes sensei!" and that was all.

"Finally, Manami Kotone," Immediately his face turned more stern and he became more professional, almost as if someone was watching how he treated her.

Naruto thought that was weird, 'Is it like this with all clan children?' But he could only guess as he knew nothing about that world.

"As expected from someone from a clan, your skills are above the average genin. And a nice water jutsu arsenal alongside it." A short but concise appreciation, which was met with nothing more than a nod from the girl.

"Now, that would be all for today. From tomorrow onwards we will be reuniting here at 6 AM every day unless I say otherwise. Clear?" All three genin nodded at that. "Good. Now I will be explaining what my function is. I am not here to train you, only to give you an assessment of your skills and guide you to people that will better assist you. Other than that I am just here in case something goes horribly wrong in some of our missions."

Naruto was surprised at the last bit of news, and also kinda afraid. What if the people who sensei recommended rejected him? This wasn't good, he would need to find a willing trainer asap!

-o-

Naruto sighed sadly as he sat on a nearby bench. He had been rejected time and time again that day. The excuses were always different, but the answer was always a clear and resolute "No."

He had spent so much time trying to find a sensei that it was already evening, as his stomach made him remember. At least he would always have Ichiraku's to cheer him up!

'Maybe old man Teuchi will give me another free ramen because I officially graduated today…' Naruto thought with a smile until his thinking was loudly interrupted by a wave of shoutings.

Coming closer to investigate the cause of so much yelling, Naruto came to the scene of a green man shouting with all hair kings while a boy of long wept in what appeared to be… happiness?

Naruto was… confused. And started to consider the possibility he was in an extremely bizarre illusion from that fox. Coming even closer, he realized the man of green suit was giving an identical suit to the young boy.

'Maybe… this is some kinda ritual?' Naruto tried to come up with an explanation, and decided fleeing from the scene. The resulting headache that would result from trying to understand what was going on was not worth it.

"I wonder what kinda ramen I should get today…" Naruto muttered to himself as the shouting behind him got quieter and quieter…