Perspicacious
Chapter I: Team 7 is Born
The next day, Naruto was called into the Hokage's office. "So, Naruto, Iruka tells me that you wish to be Hokage, is that true?" Naruto enthusiastically agreed, while Sarutobi shook his head. "Naruto, I don't think it's a good idea for you to become Hokage."
"Why? Is it because I'm a jinchuuriki? I'm going to be Hokage despite that setback, believe it!"
Sarutobi laughed at that. "You being a jinchuuriki has nothing to do with it, Naruto. I just think it's a bad idea because of the kind of person you are. Above all else, you desire to love and be loved, don't you?" Naruto nodded at that. "Being Hokage is the loneliest job in the world, Naruto. My wife is dead, I barely see my children or even my grandson. My son despises me because of how much time I dedicate to being Hokage rather than to my family. Find yourself a different goal, Naruto, one that will make you happy and allow you to love."
"You don't think being Hokage is a happy job, Hiruzen-jiji?"
"There's a reason I retired once, Naruto, and it has nothing to do with age. Even without losing my family, I've had to do or at the very least ignore things that I despised, all because of my duties as Hokage. Please, Naruto, do your best to be qualified to be Hokage, but never accept the job." Not least because his position as Hokage was probably part of the reason your father was killed, Hiruzen thought. Just then, Ebisu burst in with his grandson, Konohamaru. Well, this should be interesting to watch, Hiruzen though as he subtly leaned back in his chair to watch the show.
Monday started off very interestingly. First was Nara Shikamaru and his surprise at seeing Naruto, revealing Naruto's surprise graduation despite failing the in-class test. Second was the arrival of Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino, each proclaiming to be first, only for Naruto to call out "No, you're both dead last!" The comment made Sasuke laugh, seeing as how that was one meaning of his favorite nickname for Naruto. However, that only made both girls furious with Naruto, their fury growing even more by the fact that he was sitting next to their crush (and his best friend, not that they cared about that. Actually, now that he thought about it, the two seemed to hate that he even tolerated Naruto. Just one more reason to do his best to kill their crush.) As a result of their rage, they threw Naruto out of his seat, which made him jump on the desk in a crouch and make eye contact with Sasuke, silently agreeing to take out the annoyances that were the fangirls.
That is, until another classmate named Tobio stood up in excitement, causing Naruto to accidentally kiss Sasuke. To their shock, the two boys both enjoyed the kiss far more than they'd expected, resulting in the kiss lasting a good ten seconds. Iruka smirked at the boy he considered a younger brother, planning on teasing him later about his first kiss. But that was for later. Right then, he stopped the girls from attacking Naruto with a simple "I thought girls liked seeing two boys together?" causing the girls to start blushing and go to their seats. When Iruka announced the teams, Naruto and Sasuke for once had mixed feelings about being together, as that kiss had seriously messed with their heads, resulting in them avoiding each other for the rest of the day. Sasuke went to train on his own, while Naruto went back to the Hokage Tower and asked to look at the Scroll of Sealing again to further study the Shadow Clone jutsu.
The next day, they were the last ones to meet their new sensei, who came a good two hours after everyone else had left, resulting in Naruto pranking him with a sealed eraser falling on his head and covering him in glitter, which in turn resulted in him proclaiming them a bunch of idiots. He then told them to introduce themselves, and when Naruto asked him to go first, Hatake Kakashi revealed nothing except his name. Naruto went first and he responded "I love ramen of all kinds and I hate traitors. My dream is to become the greatest fuinjutsu master ever and strong enough to protect or at least avenge those precious to me. My hobby is training with the teme, good enough?" Kakashi nodded, though he noted the look that Naruto and Sasuke had shared when Naruto mentioned his hatred of traitors. What was that about? And why did he mention avenging his loved ones?
Sakura dodged around her crush on Sasuke and Sasuke's response was exactly what he expected. "What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan and destroy a certain someone." Kakashi however was shocked to see that Naruto shared yet another intense look with Sasuke, one that almost seemed both sympathetic and to hold a promise, but that couldn't be right ... could it? Could that have something to do with Naruto's own vow of vengeance?
With a shake to clear his head, Kakashi told them to meet him the next morning for a pass-fail survival test and suggested they skip breakfast. Sasuke and Naruto shared a look and Naruto ran off. "So, what's going on?" Sakura asked.
"Meet us in the Uchiha District after dinner, we'll talk then." Sakura shrugged, but agreed.
Naruto on the other hand raced to Training Ground 12, where he knew one particular jounin would be working with his own genin team. Once the team left, Naruto approached the man. "Hey, Bushy Brows!"
"Naruto, my friend! Have you come for some more youthful training in the art of taijutsu?" Might Guy asked with his famous 'nice guy' smile.
"You know it, but first, I need some information from you," Naruto replied with his own smile. This actually surprised the Green Beast and he raised an eyebrow, encouraging Naruto to continue. "I was just assigned my jounin sensei, and he told us that we'd be facing a survival test. Could you give me an idea as to what we're going to face?"
"Naruto, you are in the springtime of Youth, you do not need me to pass your test."
Naruto smiled in such a way that Guy could have sworn he was part fox like everyone claimed. "Well, if you don't know then I guess I'll have to ask someone else. I just thought if anyone was to know about my sensei, it would be his self-proclaimed eternal rival."
Guy knew he was being manipulated, but he couldn't help himself. "You have been assigned to Kakashi? Of course I know what his test is, how could I call myself his eternal rival if I didn't know such a simple fact, or that he hasn't passed a single genin team? The test is a bell test ..."
The next morning, Kakashi was once again hours late and revealed the nature of the test: collect two bells from his belt. The ones that did would pass, while the other would fail. If they failed to get the bells by noon, they'd be tied to posts and forced to watch Kakashi eat his lunch in front of them while they ate nothing. To Kakashi's shock, the three simply looked at each other and nodded. Sakura then dropped a smoke grenade and his students disappeared in the smoke. When it cleared though, Naruto was standing in front of him and immediately created two dozen shadow clones. The clones were quick to cut him off from the stream before doing a set of signs that Kakashi had never seen before. "Shakuton: Firewhirl Jutsu!" the clones cried out once the last sign had been completed.
"Firewhirl?" was all Kakashi had time to say before he learned what the jutsu did, as a dozen fiery twisters came at him. Where did Naruto find this jutsu? Or could he have made it himself? Either way, he's definitely an Uzumaki, no other clan has the chakra to create so many clones and do an elemental jutsu at such a young age. After that though, each of his genin attacked him on their own ... and they seemed to be doing their best to use everything in their arsenal against him, including Sasuke using Fireball against him. Curious, but not enough to pass the test. By noon, he had made his decision. "You three are being dropped from the program, permanently! You don't think like ninja, you think like brats. Did you ever even stop to think about why we put you on squads."
"As a matter of fact, we did, sensei," Sasuke said with a smirk. "Sakura?" To Kakashi's shock, Sakura pulled two bells out from her pouch, bells that had a pair of cut ribbons tied to them.
Kakashi put his hand to where the bells should have been on his belt ... and felt a pair still there? "What's going on?"
"What, did you not notice the genjutsu, sensei?" Sakura mocked. She quickly removed the genjutsu and when Kakashi checked again, his bells were gone. "We've had a plan to pass your test since last night."
"Last night? But how?" Kakashi demanded.
"Naruto here questioned Might Guy about your little test, then we gathered at my place to plan," Sasuke explained. Might Guy? Well, that certainly explained some things was Kakashi's first thought.
"Believe it! We all know I'm great at attracting attention, so I was the distraction," Naruto continued. "Between my shadow clones and firewhirl, not to mention the genjutsu I set up over the entire field, there was no way your attention would be on anything but me. While my jutsus kept you busy, Sasuke cut the ribbon with a senbon and Sakura used the headhunter jutsu to collect them." A genjutsu over the entire area? Kakashi had thought that was impossible, it would take too much chakra ... except for an Uzumaki, he realized. And when did Sakura learn headhunter?
"After we had the plan to secure the bells, the boys and I decided the best thing to do would be to show off all our skills to you one at a time so you'd know what we need to work on, and where you need to start," Sakura continued.
"Of course, for the plan to work, Sakura had to be able to get the bells without you noticing her. Fortunately, cousin Shisui had managed to teach Naruto and myself enough of the headhunter for us to teach Sakura. She took to it like a fish to water."
Under his mask, Kakashi smiled. These three just might make it as shinobi. "Congratulations, you pass. But before we finish this, I'm going to teach you something that my sensei taught me. In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum. So, congratulations, Team 7 starts its first mission tomorrow!"
A/N: Shakuton is Scorch Release for those like me who only know the dub jutsus. Scorch Release is a nature release that combines Fire and Wind chakra