Hi, yep, it's me. :) So, I've been completely and utterly uninspired to write Naruto, but I have latched onto another fandom in the mean time, so I'm happy that at least my creative writing spark isn't completely gone. That said, 2021 was quite the year for me, but I won't bore you with the details. Instead, how about you enjoy this brand new chapter, huh?

Disclaimer: I don not own the Naruto universe.

Chapter Six

Minato stared for what seemed like ages, but was probably only mere seconds, before the person on top of him let out an ear piercing squeal and quickly scrambled off of him, kneeing him in the side in the process. Minato let out a small 'oomph' of pain (those were his ribs!) before he carefully sat up. The girl, as he saw now, glared down at him.

"Stupid Naruto!" she yelled, and went to hit him, but then Shuji and Kiku were there, with the latter grabbing the girl's arm and pulling her back.

"Now now, Pinky," Kiku said, a hint of warning in her voice. "No beating up my team mate just cuz you mistook him for yours."

The girl (had he seen her before…? right, the pink haired girl in the exams, hard to miss really) glared at Kiku, then glanced down to where Minato sat. Slowly, her face turned red as she realised that Kiku was indeed right.

"Oh… er… oops?" she said, shifting nervously.

Minato stood up, dusting himself off. "It's fine," he said. "Naruto and I do look alike."

"Maybe at first glance you do," Shuji said. "But there are certainly differences once you get a second look. I don't think anyone who's met both of you will mistake one for the other after that first meeting."

"Well, I'm sorry I was about to hit you," the girl apologised. "Naruto pulled a stupid stunt before, and I'm so mad at him! When I get my hands on him… Arrgh!"

"Don't tell me he pranked you, Sakura," Kiku smirked wickedly. "That boy's too infatuated with you to do that."

"No," the girl, Sakura apparently, sniffed. "He used a henge to make me think he was Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke-kun?

Kiku saw the look on Minato's face and said with an even more wicked grin (how was that even possible?), "Pinky here's a part of Sasuke-kun's little gaggle of fan girls."

"You take that back!" Sakura yelled. "I'm not some simpering fan girl! I am Sasuke-kun's true love! No matter what Ino-pig or the others might say!"

Kiku snorted in amusement, Shuji rolled his eyes, and Minato's own eyes widened at the mere idea of a group of girls chasing after some poor guy. (there, right there, was some pity for the last legal Uchiha.)

"May I suggest that instead of hanging around here chatting, we head back to the classroom?" Shuji spoke up.

Kiku swore, closely followed by Sakura's own curse (waaay tamer than Kiku's) and then the four of them were off and running back to the Academy. Kiku was in the lead, then Minato, Shuji, and Sakura was last behind them, at least until she spotted what seemed to be Sasuke and Ino off in the distance. Then she was off faster than Minato had seen anyone ever run, leaving them in the dust.

"Ino-pig get away from him!" was all they barely heard before she was gone.

"Like I told ya," Kiku said. "Fan girl."

When they arrived back at the Academy, Minato and his team mates took their seats, waiting for Iruka-sensei, who was at the front of the class, to speak. "Alright," he said after clearing his throat, "the selected jounin senseis should start arriving soon. When they enter, they'll call you out by your team number, so just a last check, has anyone… forgotten… what their team number is?"

A few hands reluctantly went up, and Iruka-sensei sighed then told them their teams again, and was about to speak up again, when there was a short rap on the door, and a jounin walked in. "Oh, Iruka, are you not finished?" the man asked.

"No no, you're all good," Iruka said. "Your team's all yours, Nen-san."

Iruka left as the jounin eyed them all up and said, "Team four, you're with me."

Three people stood and followed the jounin out, and that started a slow trickle of jounin senseis as the room then began to empty. Soon, Asuma-oji came in, and after giving Minato a greeting wink, left with Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino. A woman that he'd seen hanging around Asuma-oji a lot lately came and took Kiba, Shino, and Hinata with her. There were two other senseis who came and went, and finally…

"Akio-oji?"

"Minato," his uncle (who was actually Hakuku-oji's second cousin on his mother's side) greeted him, then clapped his hands sharply. "Team Nine! You're with me. Make sure you keep up!"

"What the heck does that mean?" Kiku demanded, but then Akio-oji (maybe he should be calling him Akio-sensei now?) was gone. "Gah! Where'd he go?"

"He said keep up," Shuji remarked, getting up out of his seat even as Minato did. "So… let's keep up."

Kiku grinned and shot out in front of them. "Race ya!" she hollered back at them and the three of them ran through the halls and out of the building.

(all the while they were being yelled at to slow down in the hallways, of course)

Minato had locked on to Akio-sensei's chakra signature in order to follow him, and he figured that Kiku was following his scent (with help from her ninken Inuka) and Shuji had his byakugan active. Their sensei led them on a merry chase clear across the village, over rooftops and through the streets, before they finally found him just standing there (not winded at all, unlike them, just a bit) waiting for them, with what looked like a stopwatch in his hand.

"Not bad," he remarked. "You're all pretty fast. For a rookie gennin team, at least. But training should get you up to where you need to be. In the meantime, take a seat on the stumps, and let's do introductions, shall we?"

"Whaddya mean by introductions?" Kiku asked, flopping down on a rather sizeable stump, even as Shuji sat stiffly and Minato half flopped, half sat properly as well.

"You're going to tell me who you are, what your goal as a shinobi is, and you're also going to tell me why I should accept you as my students," Akio-sensei said.

"Huh? But… we are your students now, aren't we?" Kiku asked.

"We passed the gennin test," Shuji said. "That means we study under a jounin, correct?"

Akio-sensei shook his head. "You graduated the Academy," he told them, "but you're not proper gennin yet. Not all of your classmates are going to end up on a team. Some will end up in the gennin corps, career gennin unless they can find a way to take the chuunin exams with two others. Some will even end up being sent back to the Academy to repeat their last year, if their sensei deems it necessary."

Kiku and Shuji were gaping at him, while Minato frowned. That didn't seem fair…

"B-but!" Kiku stuttered, but Akio-sensei put up a hand, stopping her stutter in its tracks.

"Forget that for now," sensei said. "Introductions! Tell me what your goals are."

The three gennin exchanged glances, before Kiku crossed her arms in a pout, Shuji sat up straighter and seemed to school his expression, and Minato released a sigh, hoping that his ninja dreams weren't about to end right here. There was silence a moment, no one wanted to speak up first, but then Akio-sensei rolled his eyes and pointed to Shuji.

"You go first," sensei decided.

"…Fine," Shuji conceded. "My name is Hyuuga Shuji, and I'm a branch member of my clan. I guess my goals as a ninja are to make it to jounin, and possibly get into ANBU? My cousin said their tracking teams are among the best, and that's where I want to be someday."

"Aaand…? Why should I accept you as my student?" Akio-sensei prompted.

Shuji frowned. "Because… because… You should because I can prove that I can actually make it to my goal, and that I won't let the team down."

Akio-sensei nodded thoughtfully, then pointed to Kiku. "You're next."

"I'm Inuzuka Kiku, and this is my ninken, Inuka," the grinning kunoichi declared. "Our goal is to first wipe the floor with my older brother, Haru to teach him that's he's not better than me just cuz he's a guy! Then we're gonna get Tsume-sama to teach us all her awesome jutsu, and then I'm gonna get into the Hokage's special corps, y'know, his bodyguards! Oh, and you should be my sensei because I freaking kick ass, alright!"

Shuji snorted at that, and Minato outright laughed at that. Akio-sensei also smiled briefly, before he turned to Minato. "Last but not least," he said.

"Uh, I'm Sarutobi Minato," Minato said. "My ninja goal is to make jounin, and possibly ANBU one day too. Also, Hakuku-oji taught me a lot of different things, like seals, genjutsu, and even politics. So I think maybe I might look into a career that makes use of them? Though I'm not sure what that could be just yet."

Kiku snorted. "Politics? Maybe you should try for Hokage," she suggested. "Though that brat Naruto keeps spouting off how he'll be Hokage one day. Who knows? Maybe he'll even do it."

Hokage!? He'd never even considered something like that. Though honestly… he wasn't sure he'd even want to, yet it did seem…

A clearing throat interrupted his thoughts, and he looked up to see Akio-sensei looking at him expectantly. Oh…

"So, you should take me on as your student so that I can reach those goals, and prove that home schooling to be a ninja works, just as well as the Academy curriculum."

(even though he was still sore about not being able to attend)

Kiku snorted, Shuji simply sat there, and Akio-sensei sighed.

"Alright," their sensei said. "I guess that concludes that portion. Now, for a test. This will decided once and for all if I take you on. Normally I'd leave the test until tomorrow, but I think we can squeeze it in this afternoon. It's just after two, so… You have until five to find… me."

Akio-sensei clapped his hands together, and suddenly there were four of him in front of them. Clones of some sort?

"These are shadow clones," Akio-sensei told them. "With a personal tweak of course. Their chakra signature and network are identical to the original, but there is one small difference. What that is, you'll have to figure out as a team. If you fail to find the real me by five, or you find all three clones before you find the real me, then you fail. Simple as that. Are you ready?"

The three of them stood and nodded. "Then… begin!" Akio-sensei disappeared in a puff of smoke.

OoOoO

Sarutobi Hiruzen stood by his office window, puffing on his pipe as he stared out at the village. He wondered just how many of the jounin sensei were going to test their gennin today, and how many would leave it for the following day. Of course, there were some sensei who had been 'encouraged' to pass their team no matter what. Those teams were the ones with the Clan heirs on them. Three teams met that criteria.

He was pretty sure that Asuma was just going to accept his team without a test, and simply train them up in the qualities that all Konoha ninja were required to have. The team with the Hyuuga, Aburame, and Inuzuka on it were primed to succeed as well, and Hiruzen had had a talk with Kakashi about his team, the man knew what was at stake with his team, but Hiruzen also knew that Kakashi wouldn't pass them if they're not ready.

(despite the fact that people like Danzou wouldn't be all that happy about Naruto, and also Sasuke, not passing)

Movement caught his eye, and he focused his gaze in time to see what seemed to be Minato and two others racing across the rooftops (a skill normally taught by jounin sensei, yet most clans would have already taught that basic skill to their younger members). They appeared to be chasing… Ah, so Akio-kun was testing them straight away? He wondered whether or not his clansman would pass them…

Hakuku-kun probably wouldn't be too happy with him if he failed Minato.

Turning back to his desk, he sat down and summoned his crystal ball to him. He watched as Minato and his team mates ran around the village, obviously chasing their sensei down. Their methods were… interesting to say the least. He laughed suddenly, watching as the three worked together to gain what they hoped was their victory. They'd be alright, he decided, as he cut the connection to his crystal ball.

Thanks for reading!