Chapter 10

Timeskip 1 week

It has been one week since the mizuki incident and maruto graduated from the academy. The sun rose and our young hero was awake with excitement. Today was team placements and he was ecstatic. He flew off the bed to the bathroom where he brushed his teeth, took a shower and moved to the kitchen where he smelt the inviting aroma of izumi's special pancakes that he liked. He entered the kitchen and looked towards izumi who was dressed in a simple plain white top that hugged her frame and accentuated her well endowed c-cup breasts. There was a small uchiha emblem on the collar and buttons with the emblem on them. She wore a blue denim skirt that finished above her knees and wore a cute pink apron over it. Her hair was in its customary ponytail with the same hairclip that naruto gifted her all those years ago with two bangs framing her face. He had no clue how she looked so angelic in those simple clothes but he was not going to complain.

"good morning izumi," said naruto. Turning around her cheeks turned rosy as her eyes came upon his form. He was wearing the clothes she ordered and gifted him as a graduation gift last week after scolding him for the mizuki incident.

He wore a blood red short sleeve shirt with the uzumaki swirls on his shoulders, black anbu pants that she got from her connection in anbu, black shinobi sandals and black holsters. He wore black bandages on his arms up to the elbow with black fingerless gloves with metal plating on the back. He had a white jacket and a blue forhead protector. She quickly turned to the stove to hide her blush and replied, " good morning naruto."

Naruto saw her blush and smiled widely. He came up behind him and whispered into her ear, "like what you see izumi?" Her blush deepened and shivers rolled down her spine from his whisper. She turned around and bonked him in the head with her metal spatula and he howled in pain and backed away. She giggled and rubbed his head and placed the dishes on the table. They both ate and izumi asked about who he wanted as teammates while naruto just devoured the pancakes that she knew he liked so much. She looked on with a laugh as he finished and she took the dishes into the kitchen as he helped her to clean them since he had time. He heard her humming a tune while working and he let out a true smile. He was glad that her duties were relieved last year but now she was restricted to patrols and occasional guard duty inside the hokage office. He was also glad that she lived with him as he had been alone for so long that he didn't realize how good it was to have someone to welcome you home and cook a warm meal for you and she was an excellent cook. He placed the last plate in the cabinet and said he was leaving now. She smiled at him and nodded and wished him good luck. He nodded and left.

As he walked down the road, most of the villagers did not notice him due to his outfit change. As he turned a corner, he saw someone hidden behind a cloth with the wrong pattern on the wall and sighed. "Konohamaru, you can come out now I know that you're there." "As I expected of my rival," said the boy and he challenged naruto who told him he had team placements and left.

Entering the academy, he saw that he barely made it after his interaction with konohamaru. He entered the classroom and felt everyone's eyes on him. All the girls had blushes on their faces. Sakura was much more verbal though.

"Naruto-baka what is the big idea of trying to look all cool like sasuke-kun?" screeched sakura. He walked pass her ignoring her and she screamed his name again. He turned around to face her this time though and said "hmmm, you say something?" as the entire class snickered. Iruka then came in and told everyone to take their seats as he began to give his final speech which naruto tuned out.

In the Hokage Office

All of the jounin senseis were gathered and looking at their futures charges through the old man's crystal ball. Upon seeing the interaction between sakura and naruto, kakashi cried anime tears muttering that he was so proud while guy was shouting about kakashi and his infectious cool and hip attitude. All of the gathered jounin sweat dropped as kurenai, asuma and hiruzen snickered.

Back at the academy

Iruka began to call out team placements

Skip to team 7 placement

"Team 7 will be Sakura haruno, Sasuke uchiha and Naruto uzumaki with jounin sensei kakashi hatake," he said as sakura screamed out about true love conquers all as naruto and sasuke slammed their heads on the table. This made iruka sweat drop.

Shaking his head, iruka continued, "moving on, team 8 will be kiba inuzuka, hinata hyuuga and shino aburame with jounin sensei kurenai yuhi. Team 9 is in rotation still so the next team will be team 10 which will be under asuma sarutobi and will contain ino Yamanaka, shikamaru nara and choji akimichi." As he finished the team listings, he exited the classroom not before telling the students that their jounin senseis will be here shortly. After he left, the jounin senseis for the teams except team 7 came and took their students and left. They waited for three hours which naruto spent by reading his fuinjutsu book and eating some lunch that izumi gave him while sakura ranted making sasuke annoyed. Kakashi entered the classroom to find an annoyed sasuke, a ranting sakura and naruto reading a book with not a care in the world.

"Meet me on the roof in five minutes," said kakashi as he disappeared. Arriving at the roof and taking a seat opposite kakashi, they began introductions.

"I'm kakashi hatake, I have many likes and dislikes. I have some hobbies and my dreams….. those aren't your business. You go pinkie." Said kakashi pointing at sakura as the three newly graduated ninja sweat dropped.

"My name is sakura haruno not pinkie! I like….*glances at sasuke* my hobbies *looks at sasuke again* and my dreams for the future *looks to sasuke* kyaaaaa," she stopped with a blush.

"And your dislike?" asked kakashi.

"Ino-pig and Naruto-baka!" exclaimed sakura.

"The feeling is mutual," stated naruto as kakashi sighed at the thought of having a fangirl on his team.

"You're next emo." Said kakashi looking at sasuke.

"My name is sasuke uchiha, I don't have many likes but lots of dislikes. I don't have any hobbies and what I have is not a dream but an ambition. I am going to obtain power and and restore the uchiha clan to power." Said sasuke as sakura ranted about sasuke being so cool and kakashi sighed as this is another power hungry uchiha.

"You're up red."

"My name is naruto uzumaki. I like training, learning and mastering new techniques, spending time with izumi. I dislike traitors and power hungry individuals. My dream is to one day have a family of my own and become the strongest ninja possible." Finished naruto as kakashi eye smiled. He told them about the true genin exam and told them to come to training ground seven tomorrow morning at six and don't have any breakfast before leaving. Naruto left and went home ignoring his teammates' discussion. Arriving home, he was greeted by izumi and he recounted his day to her. She told him that kakashi was chronically late to everything and that he should eat breakfast to have full energy which he agreed with.

Next morning

Naruto woke up at seven, went through his morning rituals including eating breakfast with izumi before leaving for training ground 7 at eight. Getting there fifteen minutes later, sakura screeched that he was late but he just ignored it and sat under the tree. Half an hour after, kakashi arrived and sakura yelled out, " You're late!" Looking at her, kakashi replied, " A black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way around." He then took out two bells and said that they had until noon to get these bells from him and whoever did not have one would be sent back to the academy. He also told them to come at him with the intent to kill. "Hajime," shouted kakashi as everyone scattered and he pulled out his trusty Icha Icha Paradise and began to read.

Naruto stayed hidden and tried to come up with a strategy as, according to izumi, kakashi was the best the village had to offer and he knew that there was no way that any of them would be able to hit a jounin in a fight.

Realizing that the test is one of teamwork, he began to think of a way for them to work as a team. However, he knew that it would not work so he decided to wait until after they confronted kakashi.

He looked on as sakura was placed in a genjutsu where she yelled out something about sasuke and fell unconscious. Kakashi watched as naruto came and broke her out of the genjutsu and eye smiled as he thought that maybe this team would pass.

"Sakura, this test is about teamwork all three of us need to work together. It had nothing to do with the bells at all. Let's go find sasuke so we can come up with a plan," said naruto.

"Naruto-baka, sasuke-kun and I will work together. We do not need the help of some clanless orphaned loser like you!" said sakura as she stormed off to find sasuke.

Naruto sighed and waved his hands through his hair and decided to look for sasuke to see if he would understand.

He gazed as sasuke engaged kakashi. He continued looking until sasuke was buried to his neck and sakura passed out when she found him. He walked over to where sasuke was, told him the test objective and suggested working together. But sasuke just told him that he does not need the help of a clanless dobe like himself as he was an uchiha, an elite. He left him there and went to kakashi and stood before him.

"I'm surprised naruto, I thought you got the meaning of the test but here you are all alone," said kakashi still reading.

"I did but they don't want to work with a clanless orphaned loser like me so I guess I'll have to get the bells alone," said naruto as he got into his stance for the hummingbird style. Kakashi closed the book and put his hands in his pockets. Naruto had already released his restriction seals and dashed towards his opponent. Kakashi's eyes widened at the speed of the genin as he blocked the strike. They continued to fight in the clearing and kakashi was amazed at the flexibility of his potential student. Naruto threw six shuriken at him as kakashi dodged but he noticed too late that they had ninja wire attached to them. The wire wrapped around him as naruto thought 'triple windmill attack'. Realizing that he couldn't break free of the wire, kakashi looked up at naruto who went through two handseals, took a deep breath and shouted 'fire style : Dragon flame jutsu'.

He released the wire as that combo had taken a lot out of him. He suddenly felt movement behind him as he fell unconscious. Behind him a sigh of relief was heard out of kakashi as his body still ached from that taijutsu exchange, his clothes cut in multiple places and his vest half burned as he was able to substitute in time before the last attack.

"Well he took my instructions to heart. If I had underestimated him for another moment, I would be a charred mess right now. The skills on this genin is amazing. The hokage did tell me he was hiding his skill but this is something else. I guess izumi disappeared over him," thought kakashi as he put him near the stump where the other two were tied.

Naruto woke up and he saw himself leaning against one of the stumps while the other two were tied to them. Kakashi then went ahead and told them about the true meaning of the test and how it was teamwork all along. He went on to say how konoha teams work in teams. He then told them that they passed while telling them that those who break the rules are scum but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum before he left. Naruto untied the other two and left the clearing towards home.

At the Hokage's Office

Hiruzen had watched the entire fight via his crystal ball and was proud of his pseudo grandson. He was truly skilled as he had suspected but when he remembered that combo from years ago on shurikenjutsu. He had seen it performed by only one person and that was madara uchiha while he was sparring against Hashirama. He knew that it was one of his signature moves and knew it required mastery of the sharingan as well to perform. He realized that minato must have concealed his heritage and he would also take the secret to the grave if naruto doesn't wish to reveal it. However he was proud that his grandson was a master of the sharingan and he doubted anyone would recognize any of those techniques as they were decades old. He was broken out of his inner musings as his door opened and the jounin senseis entered the office.

"team 8 pass" said kurenai.

Asuma responded "team 10 passes."

Kakashi then entered, bruised, tattered clothing and a singed vest. "team 7 passed" he said with an eye smile. Immediately the room erupted into murmurs of how kakashi finally passed a team.

"What happened to you kakashi?" asked asuma

Looking at him, kakashi replied, "well I gave the standard bell test and told them to come at me with the intent to kill. One of them seems to have taken that quite literally." All the jounins immediately sweat dropped and Hiruzen just laughed silently. He dismissed all the other jounins except for kakashi. When they were alone, kakashi spoke " I think you saw proof?"

Hiruzen said "indeed."

Continuing, kakashi said "the boy is a true prodigy. Pushing myself to such limits even if I held back and underestimated him is quite a feat in itself." Hiruzen proudly nodded and kakashi left to treat his wounds while hiruzen had a thought that crossed his mind

That boy looks so much like his parents, its not even funny.

To be continued