Author's Note: I do not own Naruto.
Hinata began to stir as she heard voices surrounding her. However, it seemed as though the voices weren't really facing her. The next thing she noticed what felt like a cool breeze blowing on her face. She slowly started to open her eyes. As she took in her surroundings, she realized that she was outside by the sparing area propped up against a tree, and the voices she heard were that of her classmates and Iruka-Sensei.
"Alright, Naruto, Sasuke, I want a clean fight between you two. This is just a friendly taijutsu spar, got it?" Iruka questioned.
"Whatever." Sasuke stated in a neutral tone. "When I beat this dobe maybe you guys will have to wake up to reality and acknowledge that I should be the Jounin instead of him."
"I'm ready Iruka-Sensei." Naruto stated with a smile not even bothering to acknowledge Sasuke's taunt.
"Alright, begin!" Iruka commanded.
From Hinata's sitting down position she had a perfect view, so she didn't bother to move or anything. She simply watched with excitement at seeing how good Naruto really was.
Half a second after Iruka had started the match Sasuke charged forward in an attempt to end this before it ever really began. However, Naruto just stood there in a very loose stance waiting for Sasuke to arrive. When the young Uchiha appeared before Naruto he through fist after fist after fist followed with kick after kick after kick, however, not a single punch or kick even so much as made contact. Naruto was simply dodging every strike like it was nothing. This continued for several moments before Naruto decided that he was bored. In no more than a blink of an eye Naruto grabbed an oncoming kick, slipped Sasuke over onto his stomach. When the dust settled the crowd of genin looked on in amazement and wonder as Naruto kneeled on Ssasuke's back with his right hand pushing his prisoners head into the ground and his left holding a twisted arm behind his back. The only people who didn't seem shocked were the Jounin Sensei, Iruka, and Hinata.
The Jounin and Iruka already knew about the blonde's skills and were expecting the match to turn out this way. Hinata on the other hand just smiled because she always knew that Naruto would be stronger enough to beat Sasuke in a fight one day. She had always had complete faith in her love.
"Winner Naruto Uzumaki!" Iruka called out pulling everyone from their stupor. "Now, make the unison sign."
Naruto got up and waited for the raven boy to turn and face him. It was only a moment before the embarrassed boy had gotten up and was coldly gazing Naruto right in the eyes. Naruto held up his two fingers waiting for Sasuke to return the sacred tradition. Everyone stared on in complete the majority of the crowd still in shock at what they had just witnessed. After a moments hesitation the Uchiha boy brought his hand up as if to return the hand sign. However, that was just a ruse. With his hand about halfway up, he changed it into a fist and struck out at Naruto's unprotected form.
It was easy for the Jounin to see through the deception, as he easily blocked Sasuke's fist while simultaneously kicking the boy's feet out from under him.
As Naruto stood over his defeated opponent, he finally felt the need to speak. "Sasuke Uchiha. You and I are now ninjas of the Leaf. Stop this childish act right now. In the last three years I have worked until my body dropped with the thought that one day when we met again you would finally look at me as an equal, but I guess I was wrong. I have anticipated this meeting hoping that I would finally be a rival worthy of you, but I guess that was wishful thinking. I see now juts how wrong and disappointed I was destined to be. You always were nothing more than a bully, and despite me growing and maturing over the last three years you have had no growth at all. I hope that for the sake of your team and Sensei, as well as the rest of the village, that you decide to grow up. Now stand up and respect the sacred traditions of the Leaf. Make the unison sign with me."
Everyone watched as Sasuke slowly got to his feet and finally made the unison sign with Naruto.
"Good." Naruto stated with a smile. "I hope that you can learn to humbly listen and learn from your new Sensei. Kakashi-Sensei was one of the two main people that I have trained with for the last three years. He can teach you a lot if you are willing to learn."
As Naruto went to leave the sparring circle someone in the crowd finally decided to speak up. "Naruto you baka! How could you hurt Sasuke-kun! Don't be all high and mighty just because you got some specialized training! If Sasuke-kun had gotten even half of the training, you did he would be twice as far along as you are now! You pathetic loser!"
All attention turned towards the pink haired banshee as she practically wailed those words at the top of her lungs.
Naruto went to speak but was abruptly stopped as he watched in awe when someone else stepped in to protect him. Before anyone could react Hinata had gotten up from her sitting position by the tree and had made her way to Sakura. Without any hesitation or her usual lack of self-confidence, she activated her byakugan and put said girl on the ground.
"You don't know anything Sakura!" Hinata raged in as loud of a voice as she could muster, which still wasn't that loud. "Naruto-kun always trained harder than any of us. He's always had a strength that Sasuke-san never possessed. So, don't you dare talk down on him!"
Hinata was proud of herself for not stuttering. However, that was short lived.
"Hinata," Naruto called out in a gentle but commanding voice, the whole time wondering what possessed the shy girl to lash out like that and defend him of all people. "That's enough."
Hinata's pride in herself instantly waivered. She looked around and realized everyone was looking at her. She bowed her head, began to blush profusely, and wished nothing more than to fade away from the spotlight.
"As for you Haruno." Naruto began in an agitated and annoyed voice. Everyone instantly noticed that he used her last name and no honorific. The whole class seemed surprised by the new development considering the blonde's previous obsession with the girl. However, there was a certain bluenette who was secretly happy about it all. "You may be right that Sasuke would be farther than me if he had the same training. Afterall he is a prodigy, and I am not, but that doesn't matter anymore because I am the one blessed with the training that I received, and I was the one that put in the hard work for it. I can only hope that each and every new genin here is ready for the hard work to come."
With that Naruto gathered up Shikamaru and Hinata and departed. Every last genin's eyes were glues to the boys back as he walked away.
It took the trio about 10 minutes to make their way from the Academy to their destination of Ichiraku Ramen. Once there they sat down with Naruto in the middle of the three.
"Hey old man!" Naruto called out. After a few moments the owner of the shop and his daughter, Ayame, walked out with large smiles plastered on their faces.
"Naruto-kun how have you been and who are these two with you?" Ayame asked.
"These are the two members of my new team." He said with a smile. "This is Hinata Hyuga." Gesturing to the girl on his right. "And this is Shikamaru Nara." Gesturing to the lazy looking boy on the left. "Hinata, Shikamaru this is Teuchi, the owner of the shop, and his daughter Ayame-nee-chan. Hey whatever get these two whatever they want. The meal is on me today. We need to discuss somethings about our new team!"
While Shikamaru and Naruto ordered Hinata's mind was racing.
'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Naruto-kun is paying for me, and I'm sitting next to him! This is almost like a d-d-date! Well, except for the part where Shikamaru is here.' She thought to herself before she felt a hand gently shake her shoulder.
She looked at the hand before following it up the accompanying arm to see that it belonged to Naruto. She instantly turned bright red.
"Hey, are you okay?" He asked with a voice filled with concern. "We've been trying to get your attention for a few moments now to see what your order will be. Plus, you are bright red now. Are you not feeling well?" He finished as he moved his hand to feel her forehead for a fever.
She didn't pull away form the contact of his hand on her forehead. She just kept trying to do her best to keep breathing and not faint. After a few moments she calmed down before very shyly answering her love's questions. "I-I-I'm f-fine Naruto-kun. I wa-was j-just thinking for a mo-moment. I-I'll have whatever you're ha-having." She stuttered out.
After smiling brightly, he turned back to the two employees and ordered for her.
As they waited for their orders to arrive Naruto decided to go ahead and get the business side of things taken care of.
"So, Hinata, Shikamaru. We aren't going to do any training or missions just yet. I'm not sure if you are aware or not, but you are technically only probationary genin at the moment. You see you have to take another test given by your new Sensei to determine if you are going to be accepted as a new genin or not. Each Sensei has his or her own test that they like to give. Mine is actually a multi-day test. So, starting the day after tomorrow at 8:00 in the morning we will meet up here and I'll be taking you two out of the village for the three days following. So, pack everything you will need. Such as camping gear, food, clothes, training gear, etc. When we return, I will determine if you passed the test. Are there any questions, so far?"
Hinata sat there blushing at the thought of camping with Naruto and was having a really hard time thinking of any questions she might have.
Shikamaru on the other hand had thought of a question. "Yeah, Naruto, uhh, Sensei what kind of test will it be?"
Naruto smiled at the question before speaking, "Now that is a good question Shikamaru, but one I am not prepared to answer. Let's just say it'll all be made apparent as we go along."
Once he realized that there weren't any other questions at the moment he decided to continue. "The next thing that I want to talk about is the whole Sensei title. I don't expect you two to call me Naruto-Sensei all the time. I mean I'm the same age as both of you so that might be a little weird. Just call me Naruto or Naruto-kun, if that's what you want Hinata." She blushed brightly as he directed that last comment at her. "However, if we are with the other Sensei or the Hokage or anyone else of importance I would appreciate it if you called me Sensei just for appearances sake and what not. Does that sound good to you two?"
They both nodded in response.
"Great! Then there is just one more thing to discuss. I know that right now we only have two genin in our squad, and usually a squad is made up of three, but the numbers just didn't add up this year. We may end up staying as just the three of us, but we may also be getting a fourth member. You see all the other teams will be taking their tests tomorrow. If a member of one of the teams shows the potential to pass despite the fact that their team failed as a whole, then that person may be given the opportunity to try with my test. I should know tomorrow around noon if someone else will be joining us or not. So, be prepared for that."
At that moment Teuchi and Ayame brought out the orders.
Naruto gave the largest smile possible before speaking up one last time. "Usually, we would take this time right now to get to know each other better, but with our three-day camping trip and the potential of one more member I think we will have plenty of time for introductions and such later. For now, enjoy the food and then you may go."
Hinata smiled shyly at Naruto before turning her attention to the food before her. She was completely floored by what she saw. Before her were 10 bowls of ramen.
"Wh-what is a-all of thi-this?" She stammered out in shock.
"Huh? Oh, you said you wanted what I was having." Naruto said with a look of confusion. She looked over and realized that indeed Naruto had the exact same 10 bowls in front of him. She couldn't believe he ate that much, but she didn't want to disappoint her crush, so she began eating the ramen before her.