DISCLAIMER: I do not claim to be the creator of the Naruto manga or anime series. I had absolutely no part in any creation of the series, and I'm just a dedicated fan of this series who has taken my time to create this fanfiction.

Author Notes: Author Notes: This is a semi-self-insert fiction of what I think would happen if Minato had two teammates who would not only challenge him to do better but could keep up. I hope you enjoy it. This is rated M, because of possible language, and violence. At no time will there be a pairing between any of the three teammates. Not that there won't be pairings outside their team, just not inside it.

I am trying to pull most of my resources on timeline from the manga, but I am only human so if any of my readers have any insight that I have missed on the timeline do drop me a message.

"Speech"

"Technique Casting"

"YELLING"

"Inner thoughts and speech"

"INNER YELLING"

I will add more if/when they become needed

Chapter 6 - Bullies, Boredom and Bedlam

The summer break started off with us in detention, again Jetti joined us. Guess he thought he was also responsible, even though he didn't use any techniques. I am proud to have him as a friend as much as a cousin. Our detention turned out to be orders from the Hokage to clean every single classroom at the academy. No ninjutsu allowed. True to what he had said during our lecture, the Hokage presided over our detention. He sat at a desk in whatever classroom we were cleaning in, doing village paperwork as many different ninja came in to ask questions. It was tiring, but way better than writing lines or something equally stupid like that. Hokage-sama reminds me of Dumbledore, even if he isn't leaning on the "eccentric old man" act. After that long week we finally got to go on break, but that was also short lived for me. My parents were none too happy that I had caused trouble for the Hokage, but were also equally proud that he took a vested interest in our punishment. So I got off light on the home punishment, THANK GOD. The punishment I got from them was that I was not allowed to have my friends over during summer, even Jetti. Instead, they filled all my newfound free time by drilling me on discipline and chakra control. One time, when Mom went inside to get us some drinks, Dad whispered to me, "I am proud of you, you managed to perform the Great Fireball jutsu perfectly from what I have heard. You were also able to help your friends to learn their techniques, as well as the proper timing to combine them. Most Chūnin never learn that is even possible, let alone managing to perform them with such synchronicity."

"It was all thanks to foot taps and my Sharingan." I said smiling as I activate it for him.

He peered at me intently. "It's progressing quickly for someone so young. From what I can see, it now is at step two; it now has two tomoe in each eye. Now, what does that mean?" he questioned me as if it was a test.

I responded happily, "Stage one allows superior sight. Stage two allows the user to pierce genjutsu and lets you see someone's chakra—though from what I have learned from Iroha-chan it is not as defined as their dōjutsu. Is that correct, daddy?" he nodded with a small, sad smile.

"And the final stage allows one to be able to read the subtle tells in their opponents and can copy jutsu that they see." I finished. He grimaced when I said final, but I didn't think much about it at the time. I was distracted by my mother coming back with cooling water and the conversation was quickly forgotten.

-Time Skip to beginning of third year-

As the new school year started, word of our prank spread like wildfire through the Academy. We all heard the whispers about how three second-years had not only learned how to do elemental releases, but had combined them to form something larger and only got a week's worth of detention. Little did they know that the week's worth of detention was during summer holiday.

"Hey Iroha-chan, Kushina-chan, how about we call that combination we did Summon Sensei no Jutsu?" I proffered to them during lunch the first day back.

Kushina broke out laughing, but Iroha looked at me seriously. "The Hokage told us to not use that combination again unless supervised by a teacher." Then she took a long pause and added smiling, "But that is a good name for it."

Jetti chuckled at this and added, "It will be useful when one needs back-up."

"I am glad we are all finally in the same class. About time, right?" I laughed.

After lunch, we laid back under the tree to take a small nap. We didn't notice that a group of twelve year-olds were making a beeline towards us until they were right on us.

"HEY, BRATS, GET UP OUT OF OUR SPOT NOW!" bellowed a girl that had long dark brown hair tied up in a single ponytail, "OR WE WILL KICK YOUR ASSES!"

"Yeah, this has been our spot since before you all came here," snarled a boy that looked like he had hit his growth-spurt way early as he towered over the rest of them. He reminds me of the linebackers I saw in high school, both broad and tall.

We looked up at them dumbfounded. Kushina brazenly spoke up as she stood up, "ARE YOU TRYING TO PICK A FIGHT, IS THAT IT? WE WERE HERE FIRST, SO GO FIND YOUR OWN PLACE, DATTEBANE!"

She only stood up the boy's chest, but she was standing up to him all the same. That gave me the courage to stand up to them too; I did a handspring onto my feet to face them as well. I was shorter than Kushina but I gave them my best pissed-off-Uchiha glare. It was an old fashioned stand-off; neither of us wanted to back down. They may have the "training", but I think we could at least hold our own IF they start it. After the detention this last summer I am not in the mood to get in trouble again, but if they start it we can say we were defending ourselves.

"OHHHH, I SEE, TOMATO HERE IS YOUR LEADER. OF COURSE ONLY SOMEONE WITH THE PATIENCE OF THE HYUGA COULD STAND BEING AROUND HER. AND WHAT ARE TWO UCHIHA GROUPING UP WITH THEM? DON'T YOU HAVE ANY CLAN PRIDE?" the girl shouted out for everyone to hear, as this had started to gather a crowd and it looked like they were enjoying the publicity it was garnering.

What an obnoxious ass. What happened to "Konoha ninja should stick together"? For that matter, where is a sensei when we need one? I was tempted to try to use a fireball to summon one, but I was saved from having to do something reckless as the bell rang out for the end of lunch. We grabbed our things and headed back to class, though I made a point not to seem rushed. Iroha apparently had similar ideas; she stood there giving them the Hyūga Stare until we had our things, then quite deliberately turned her back on them and followed us to the classroom.

As we entered we made a beeline to our spot in the back. Once there I spoke up, "So that was random. Why the hell did they choose us to pick on?"

"Who knows?" Jetti shrugged, not overly concerned.

"Probably because of me," Kushina mumbled quietly.

"Of course/Hell no, it's not because of you," Iroha and I quickly interjected, practically in stereo.

I thought for a moment. "Hmm, do you think it is because of that stunt we pulled at the end of last year?" I whispered, "Do you think that…?"

"We made too big a name for ourselves?" Iroha continued, picking up my train of thought. "Probably. We know that we got a week's detention under the Hokage's eye during summer break; my family probably spun it as 'our daughter was personally overseen by the Hokage during a training exercise,' or some such nonsense." She mimicked a stuffy old clan elder so perfectly that Kushina and I both had to choke down giggles.

"I think," I said, after a moment, "that we should stay on our guard, and be ready to deal with whatever they throw our way. We won't start anything, but we'll definitely finish it." We all nodded in agreement.

Sadly, all of our classes every day for the next few months were boring, teaching us things we already had learned, either from our clans or from our training after class. No one in the class stood out as much as our little group. There was this kid with bright yellow hair that seemed to always edge us out in grades, but that was all he seemed to have going for him. He never got the sort of spectacular results we did in the practical exams, and was fairly quiet otherwise.

As regular as clockwork, near the end of every lunch break, those same kids came over to try to pick a fight. So far, our resolve had held, but it was getting harder and harder to ignore/stand up to them. Every time, they tried they made a complete scene of it, gathering as much attention as possible. Obviously, they wanted as many witnesses as possible to see it when we "inevitably" snapped and attacked them. Classic bully baiting. Well, fuck that; if they want a fight, they're going to have to throw the first punch.

As the months passed, it became a regular thing. I was getting really tired of it, but that detention of last summer had put enough fear into me that I wasn't about to start a fight just to get them to back off—not yet, anyway. Thankfully, the rest of the group seemed equally bored with it; we got to the point where we didn't even bother standing up to face them. We just sat there talking to each other, totally ignoring them. This did not sit well with the brown haired girl—I had nicknamed her Brownie, much to Iroha-chan's amusement. This time she had enough of our shit; as I was distracted with my lunch, she punched the back of my head, hard.

My vision blurred as my head flew forward, smashing face-first into my bento box. I had taken some hard punches during sparring sessions, but this one had caught me completely by surprise. As I sat there in a daze, I noticed my friends springing to their feet for some reason. Why were they so upset again? Outraged exclamations like "Hey what was that for?" and, "How dare you?" prodded my brain back into gear. Oh, right, she hit me; in the back of the head, even. That was rude; I ought to do something about that. Is this…? I reached up and wiped away something that I thought was from my bento box on my face, only to find my fingers stained with red as I pulled them away. Blood...nose? I quickly blinked myself out of my stupor. SHE F****** HIT ME!

As I stood up to face them, I noticed that Kushina was going toe to toe with Brownie, and Iroha was deftly dodging the bulky guy. His punches were slow, but I could tell that if he landed one, it would really hurt. Jetti was desperately trying to fend off two others that looked kind of like Inuzuka; their little dogs nipping at his heels were a dead giveaway. I rushed to his aid as quickly as I could, activating my Sharingan as I did so.

My blood was pumping fast, my nerves stinging with adrenaline as the whole scene came into complete focus. As much as I don't want to be fighting other Konoha ninja, these dunderheads have it coming. Time to put a stop to this nonsense once and for all. I came at them fast enough that they almost didn't see me coming and the closest one just barely ducked the punch I aimed at his head. Well, no going back now. As I dropped into a fighting stance with the ease of long familiarity, I engaged the Inuzuka; his dog quickly came to his defense. I heard the shouts of other kids converging on us from other parts of the yard. Looks like we'll have a sizeable audience in a moment or two.

Two years difference in age might not mean much when you're in your twenties, but it means a hell of a lot more when your age is just barely into double digits. As hard as we fought, they had the advantage in strength and endurance, and it showed. Kushina had a ton of energy, as always, but her composure was quickly coming undone. Iroha continued to dodge with astonishing speed; she didn't get many chances to counterattack, but when she did those deceptively gentle taps staggered her opponent like hammer blows. Jetti and I were not doing so well with our opponents. At first the dogs seemed like nothing but an annoyance, but as the fight continued I began to understand why the Inuzuka clan's taijutsu style was so widely respected. Their beastial fighting style messed with our heads; even with the help of the Sharingan, we had trouble anticipating their moves. We paid for every mistake with cuts and bruises as the fight wore on.

This was turning into a battle of attrition, and that was a fight we were all but destined to lose. "RETREAT," I yelled out in desperation, hoping to salvage what I could. What a mess. Why did we let them bait us into this?

We tried to disengage, but again their two years of training showed as they gave us no breathing room. We're about to get our asses kicked here; why hasn't a sensei come out yet? Was there some sort of interference going on to stop them from noticing? And just as I thought that, I hazarded a glance at the academy and noticed that something was off about the windows. Someone had placed a genjutsu over the windows. You sly bastards, I thought. Even if it was just a visual obstruction, that would be enough to keep the sensei from noticing what was going on until it was too late. Well, that just means we have to do something they'll notice anyway. I cringed mentally at the thought of the apologizing I'd have to do for this later, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Summon Sensei no Jutsu, NOW!" I yelled as I started going through the hand seals for my part of the technique. Kushina and Iroha didn't hesitate and surprisingly Jetti also joined in; they launched into theirs before the sentence was all the way out of my mouth. Synchronized by long practice and sped by desperation, our technique worked even better than I had hoped. The combination of fire and wind ninjutsu didn't produce a pillar of flame this time, it produced an fuel-air explosion.

A bright flare lit up the sky above us, bright enough that the sky seemed to dim for a second. Everyone within a dozen yards was knocked flat by the sheer concussive force of it, and my ears rang with a loud, high-pitched whine as the noise rendered me temporarily deaf.

As we slowly sat up, blinking stupidly, a dozen or more sensei and other ninja that I didn't recognize appeared around us with preternatural speed. A couple of them, I realized with shock, were wearing the white, animal-themed face masks that marked members of ANBU. Ho-ly shit, I think we just pissed off the ninja secret police! I thought with some measure of panic.

As they took in the scene, Nara-sensei came right up to me and the Inuzuka and pushed us apart with a huge scowl on his face. Yup, we're in for it now, I thought with a sick sense of dread making a pit in my stomach. The other adults began separating combatants, pulling them aside for questioning.

I expected Nara-sensei to yell and scream and foam at the mouth. He didn't do that. He just looked at me, his gaze level and his tone even. "Kamiko Uchiha, if you value your future as a shinobi of this village, the next words out of your mouth had better be a complete and one-hundred-percent-honest account of what just happened. If you try to lie, or withhold information, I will know, and it will not go well for you. That, I promise." The deadly seriousness of his tone frightened me more than any amount of enraged threatening could. Gulp. His eyes darted to my face and I realized that I had been just letting my nose bleed freely. I was covered in my own blood. I quickly held up a hand and tried to stem the flow as I started speaking.

"We were just sitting under the tree, having lunch. I had my back turned to the rest of the field, minding my own business, when that girl with the brown ponytail over there," I pointed to her with a blood-coated hand, "punched me in the back of the head, hard enough to shove my face into my bento and break the box!" A bit of my earlier indignance came back as I recounted the tale. "Then, they all attacked us, and we were doing everything we could to keep them away, but they just kept coming at us! I had my Sharingan on, and I noticed that somebody had put up a genjutsu over the windows facing this way, so we did the only thing we could think of to get your attention." I looked down in shame, trying not to let him see the tears of rage and pain glistening in my eyes. "I know we weren't supposed to use that combination jutsu without a teacher to watch us, but we were trying to get your attention, so...I guess it worked?" I said, trying to keep him from seeing my eyes and nose.

He didn't look amused. "Leaving that aside for the moment, you can't expect me believe you did nothing to provoke them into this fight." Nara-sensei said, his voice heavy with skepticism.

"Well, actually, they've been trying to pick a fight all year. It started about a week after classes resumed. I THINK it is because of the combination jutsu we did last year, and I THINK they believe we got out of trouble by some means. They seemed to want to exact their own punishment and to get a little notoriety of their own," I said. As I finished, I noticed that I still had my Sharingan active. Whoops. With a mental wince, I quickly shut it off. My bloody nose let out another wave of blood.

Nara-sensei gave me a long, calculating stare before nodding curtly. "Well, I have to confer with the other sensei, but I can already say that just like last year, this is too big of a situation for a normal detention. Once again, you are all going to have to answer to the Hokage. Do not go anywhere." That last part he said with even more seriousness, if that was even possible.

Nara-sensei walked over to the others that had finished questioning each of us and they chatted for a few minutes. I glanced at my friends to get a gauge of how injured they were and was dismayed to find that they were just as injured as I was, or possibly even worse. Iroha-chan didn't seem as bad off as the others, but even she was sporting a large bruise on her arm that was just starting to surface. That is going to hurt later. I know I got several from the Inuzuka and dog I fought. I sighed. Mom had told me that fights were noisy, messy, chaotic things, and of course she was right. I saw one of the sensei go over to the tree and sweep up the remains of my now bloody and broken bento box. Nara-sensei motioned for us to follow as we were led out of the yard with two sensei and two of the ANBU escorting us and keeping the two groups separated. Good, hopefully this won't get out of control again.

If I thought the long wait to be shown into the Hokage's office was unbearable, it was only exacerbated when several parents showed up, with my father in his full Chūnin outfit leading the charge. Iroha's father showed up not far behind, clad in formal Hyūga whites and features set in a carefully blank expression that made me nervous all over again. A dozen or so other parents crowded the room, all with varying looks of upset and worry. Their individual expressions differed, but they all radiated that parental aura of "you're in trouble now!" We are in deep shit. Breathe Kamiko, just breathe. Tell the truth and you shouldn't be in too much trouble, but then again we promised to the Hokage last year that we would not perform that combo unless explicitly supervised. BREATHE! My dad, in spite of his thunderous face, knelt down next to me and pulled my now crusty hand away from my nose and began a quick examination to determine if it had been broken or not. I felt a surge of shame and anger and affection that made my eyes tear up again.

Then the Hokage's doors opened, and everyone, including our parents, were ushered in. My friends and I were to one side with each of our parents standing ominously behind us while the older students and their parents were on the other side with the four 'guards' standing quietly in between the two groups. As Nara-sensei entered, he closed the door behind him. The tension was so thick that it felt like it might snap like a rubber band. Why do I feel like I am at a gallows or something? I knew we were in the right, intellectually, but convincing my gut to believe that was proving difficult. It was churning so much, I felt like I might puke.

After a brief moment that felt like an eternity, the Hokage lit his pipe, took a long puff and cleared his throat. "So, back again I see," he said, eyes sweeping across to me and my friends, "and this time you've brought along quite a few others." He did a slow penetrating sweep of the room, with his gaze coming to rest briefly on each of us. "Dare I ask what brought you here this time?"

"Hokage-sama, it seems that a brawl occurred during lunch recess and culminated with Kamiko Uchiha, Jetti Uchiha, Iroha Hyūga, and Kushina Uzumaki performing the combination jutsu which you explicitly forbade them to use without direct permission. No one was directly harmed, though several people were knocked prone by the blast. That said, the brawl was very rough; more what I'd expect to see from a bunch of angry civilians than academy students." Nara-sensei stated coolly then added, "Their stories do not exactly match up but it seems that this group," motioning to our side, "was sitting under a tree eating lunch when this group decided that they wanted that spot and wished to use physical force to remove them." motioning to the older students. "While it has been suggested that while this was not the first confrontation between these two groups of students, it appears that this is the first time it became an physical altercation."

The Hokage sat there quietly with his hands folded in front of him on the desk for a long while, during which I hazarded a quick glance at my father. I was surprised to see that while he was displeased at this turn of events, he was carrying worried lines in the corners of his eyes and mouth. Every so often, his eyebrow twitched madly. Wow, I have never seen him worried before; this must be something much larger than I expected.

I quickly snapped my eyes forward as the Hokage spoke up. "I am very displeased. You are all not only citizens of the village, but prospective ninja. This is NOT how ninja of this village interact with each other. I don't particularly care what caused it to become physical, but I can't overlook the fact that it has." The tension in the room seemed to grow heavier as he focused his attention on the other group, frowning heavily. "You all will not only receive detention each weekend for the remainder of the school year, you will have to take this year over again, if you wish to take the Genin Test." Looks of stunned disbelief met his pronouncement. Brownie's mouth opened and closed, her face reddening as she looked like she might cry. "Furthermore, whether you choose to re-do your academy year again or not, you will be doing community service for the village for one year. You are dismissed." as he waved for two of the 'guards' to take them out. They filed out in a single file, each one of them staring at the floor as their parents followed, shame and disappointment clear on their faces. A few quiet moments passed before the doors closed behind them again. The Hokage turned to us once more.

"Now for you four..." He let out a long sigh. "Trouble seems to follow or find you. While I don't think you did anything to instigate this incident, I will encourage you to be wary in the future. They will resent you for this, and while they will probably not be so foolish as to openly defy my will, they will doubtless find ways to make your lives difficult in the months to come." He looked at each of us directly in turn. "I should reprimand you for performing the combination jutsu, but it is obvious to me that in this instance you were only trying to prevent further bloodshed. My rule on it still stands and if you perform it again, you will have a punishment befitting the crime of disobeying your Hokage, is that clear?" he said with great emphasis on that last part.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." all four of us said in unison, loudly and without hesitation.

"Good to hear," as a smile came to his face, "now, I think classes are done for today, so I hope that you use your time productively and study. Now off with you."

My dad's hand never left my shoulder as the guards walked us out and as we walked home in almost complete silence. It only tightened in the "you're in so much trouble" way when we got in sight of the house and my mother could see us walking towards her.

The remainder of the school year was boring by comparison, but one good thing came out of this situation. The rest of the academy knew that we were on thin ice, and that the older students had been severely punished for their actions. It helped that a girl in our class was the younger sister of Brownie. Surprise, surprise. Who would have guessed that the girl from Kunoichi class who picked on Kushina would be Brownie's bratty little sister? I thought sarcastically. I guess it runs in the family. Thankfully, the remainder of the year was smooth. We pulled top grades in our tests for both the written and practical exams. Jetti also scored much higher this time, though he was narrowly beat by that yellow haired kid who sits down near the front. Onto our fourth year after this short summer break. I kind of miss my old summer breaks that were two months long, but this three-week one isn't too bad. I guess they figure two months of downtime is too much.

The first week of summer, I had a sleepover with Kushina and Iroha at my place. I was a bit giddy at this, as I had always had this fantasy as a guy of how crazy girl sleepovers were. Now that I was a girl, though, I doubted that we'd be doing anything beyond staying up late chatting and munching on snacks. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not too far different than when I had sleepovers as a guy, though the topics of conversation were different. The big topic of conversation was about our altercation earlier that year.

"Hey, Kushina, you remember that girl that was picking on you during the first day of Kunoichi class?" I asked.

"How could I not?" she responded as if she wished she could.

"Well, birds of a feather," I said, "She is the younger sister of that brown haired girl you fought, I guess it runs in their blood to pick fights."

Iroha interjected laughing, "Who knows, it might be their family's Kekkei Genkai."

At this we all broke out into a giggle fest. The night continued in that vein, with us chatting, swapping stories, and laughing at each other's antics until we all passed out. As I settled down for sleep, I thought to myself, I hope this next school year is better than the last, or at least more interesting.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it, sorry it took longer to get out real life got in the way. I also wish to continue to give thanks to frodoschick and Halbyrd on co-writing without them this story wouldn't be as well written as it is.