It was, as usual, a warm day in Konoha. The faces carved in the mountainside shone as if they were polished, the trees rustled in the wind and the villagers prayed that maybe tomorrow the shinobi would not run over the rooftops at the crack of dawn.
The Academy for beginning shinobi was empty. The graduating class had finished their celebrations and all but stormed out of the building to taste 'freedom' and celebrate with their family. The school's playground looked deserted but, if one looked closer underneath the giant oak with a single swing dangling from a branch, one could see two students.
One wore the most atrocious jumpsuit in the world and the other wore a traditional haori. The short one (with the jumpsuit) was resolutely shaking his head as the taller one begged.
"Please? Come on, Naruto!"
Mud-colored eyes looked at him expectantly and Naruto looked away. "I told you I am not allowed to teach you. The old man says it's too dangerous."
Chi groaned but her eyes lit up, this time closer to a yellow shade and it made the blond nervous. "How about you show me? I want to see it."
Naruto rolled his eyes but realized she wasn't going to give up. He got up and dusted his clothes. "Sure, but somewhere where Iruka-sensei can't catch us."
Chi grinned as she followed him. The two walked out of the playground and onto the bustling streets of Konoha. Their destination was the Hokage Monument. Villagers stared at them and whispered amongst each other, but the two paid them no heed.
Chi loosened the ribbon functioning as her belt and relished in the cool breeze. How Naruto could stand the thick fabric of his jumpsuit was beyond her imagination. He didn't show any signs of a heatstroke as they climbed the stairs leading to the faces. Once they were seated on top of the Fourths head, she looked down at the stone face.
"Such a shame that the paint is gone already." It was quite a sight to see the famous Fourth Hokage with a mustache and eye patch.
"Yeah, Iruka-sensei made me scrub it all off on my own." Naruto sighed and laid down. Cleaning the monument had cost him most of the day and he was sore for a week afterwards.
Chi made a face "Sounds tough."
"Yeah well, he treated me to ramen afterwards so I don't mind." Naruto shrugged.
"You're too easy..." She shook her head at her friend before bounding up besides him and crouching down. "Will you show me now?"
Naruto pushed her aside, annoyed at her shadow falling over him. "Yeah, yeah, impatient woman..."
Half an hour and one hundred clones later found Chi nodding and reviewing her notes and her blond friend frantically waving his arms. Panic made his already grating voice shoot up. "Oi Chi! I told you that it's dangerous!"
"I'll be fine, unlike you I am not a dumbass." Chi retorted without taking her eyes off the paper.
Naruto squinted and jabbed his finger at her "Aren't you the second last in the entire Academy?"
Chi's eyebrow twitched. "That's still better than you!"
"What did you say?!" Naruto launched himself at her but a Shadow Clone grabbed him from behind. He elbowed it until it dispelled and plopped down, sulking.
The two remained on the monument, Chi reviewing her notes and occasionally asking Naruto questions while Naruto stared at the sunset. That is until his stomach started rumbling and he dragged his friend off to treat him to ramen. After a long day of thinking, he deserved an extra large meal.
Iruka's living room, night~
Iruka tapped his pencil on his desk, counting down the list. Besides him were stacks of maps, all labeled with a team number.
"A tracking and scouting team, an interrogation or infiltration team, two regular assault teams, one spying team, a new generation of Eternal Chuunins... If they make it, that is..." His eyes scanned the names again.
"One heavy assault team, specially designed to destroy." Naruto's artistic photograph was on top. Iruka grinned at it and put it back in Team 7's map. There was one team left. He pushed away any protesting feeling of guilt and picked up Team 11's map. "And one team with the sole purpose to get killed..."
Of course that wasn't the offcial reason but it was pretty obvious. This team consisted of three girls with only one from a shinobi background. Not that there was much left of it but, it was way more than her civilian teammates. They all graduated with barely average grades and to make matters worse, they had yet to exchange a friendly word with each other.
The teacher rubbed his eyes and pushed his chair back. All the troubles with Naruto combined with his task to make teams were taking a toll on him. He liked the boy, he really did but he exhausting to deal with at times. The recent issue with Mizuki made him change in a tiny way but it was not nearly enough for Iruka to lead a peaceful life.
And then there was Chi, who's character was still a puzzle for the teachers and the various therapist the students had to talk with throughout the years. The girl switched between innocent prankster to Orochimaru's incarnate at the drop of a hat.
With a tired grunt Iruka forced himself to stand up and get to bed to catch some sleep. He would need it if he wanted to survive the next day. His last thought was that he should be demanding more pay if the next graduating class was anything like this one.
Academy classroom, the next morning~
"Team 7: Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura-" Iruka paused to let the horde of fangirls scream and flail for a bit before sending a kunai towards the wall at the other end, effectively silencing them. His colleague glanced at him in surprise but Iruka ignored it. He overslept and had yet to have his daily fix of caffeine so he could not be bothered with... anything really.
"Your sensei will be Hatake Kakashi." he finished and made a mental note to notify the janitors not to close the school too early.
"Team 8: Inazuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata and your sensei will be Yuhi Kurenai-" Iruka continued on automatic pilot until his fellow teacher nudged him.
Some kids were snickering and pointing but stopped when another kunai embedded himself in a desk in front of them. Iruka send a well practiced glare their way and looked down at his list. He was finished. Thank goodness.
He scanned the list again, mainly the teachers. It would be quite the blunder if he had assigned them to the wrong person. Kakashi, Kurenai, Tobio, Anko, Asuma, E- His eyes zeroed in on the fourth name. His posture went rigid and suddenly the class was choking on his killer intent.
It was easy to forget but Iruka was by no means a weak ninja. His daily interactions with various shinobi of all kind and especially Anko shaped him into a cunning shinobi. It should have been no surprise that his killer intent felt like a thick blanket of doom.
"Oi Iruka!" His fellow teacher hissed at him, unsure if touching him was still safe. Iruka growled and crumpled the paper in his hand.
"Team 11!" He barked and was only a bit guilty when all three Genin went ramrod straight in their seats. In a calmer tone (not that many noticed) he continued "Your sensei will not be Mitarashi Anko, it will be Morino Ibiki."
His colleague let out a near unnoticeable sigh of relief. He had contemplated to keep the three students here under the guise of a failed test just so that they could escape the maniac that was Anko. The Killer Intent faded and the Genin were able to breathe again. Iruke send them an apologetic smile.
"You will have one hour for lunch, afterwards you will gather here again and wait for your sensei to come and pick you up. Dismissed." He send them off and collapsed as dignified as possible in his chair. Today was such a long day.
"Jeez Iruka, what's gotten into you?" The other teacher couldn't help but ask amusedly.
"A rough night." After he had finished the teams, he had gone to bed only to realize that he had about two hours left. Still, he decided that two hours was better than none at all and drifted off, only to be rudely awakened by a bunch of crows near his window. He took one look at his still ringing alarm bell and everything just went downhill from there on.
The smell of fresh, extra bitter coffee woke him from his musings and he shot a grateful look at the teacher.
"Say, how long do you think Team 7 is going to wait?" The other man sat on a table in front of him with his own cup of dark goodness, looking devious.
Iruka cracked a smile "Three hours, at least." He had a bet to win.
Park, noon~
"You did it again, didn't you?" Naruto stated as he stood in front of the oak. The girl looked worn and rather sleepy, her yellow haori wasn't ironed and she had neglected to brush and tie her wild, brown hair. There were bags under her eyes and she sat slumped against the trunk with her eyes closed but with a content smile on her lips.
"I told you not to do it!"
Chi waved his worries aside lazily. "Relax, I am still alive. Besides, I managed to create around fifty clones so I'd say that this jutsu won't kill me."
Naruto glowered at her.
"Don't glare. This will help me train better and faster. Besides it's a good exercise to improve my stamina." She opened one eye to look at the orange ninja after it became too silent for too long, only to find him looking confused.
"What?"
Naruto scratched his head. "How will this help you train better?"
"You're kidding me." Chi's expression told him that she really wished he was kidding but she didn't have much hope. This was the difference between the dead-last and the second-to-last, she guessed.
"Eh?"
"You moron." Chi looked up to the sky in search of patience. "You told me that you made about three hundred clones to fight Mizuki-sens- Ahem, Mizuki. Did you not feel anything afterwards?"
Naruto thought for a while and then broke out in a grin "I remember feeling awesome! You should have seen me. I was so cool, believe it! "
"You are such an idiot." Chi grabbed a stick from the ground beside her and threw it at his head.
Ignoring his whining she got up and dragged him to a bench near the targets for practice. She could remember throwing a couple of shurikens towards this bench, almost killing a couple of girls who couldn't stop fawning over Sasuke.
It wasn't on purpose, of course it wasn't. But they never slacked of again and she could swear that she saw the Uchiha glance at her with something other that the famed glare. It was not near emotional enough to be called a smile but it was an improvement to her eyes. He's still an asshole.
"Right. Since theory won't work on you, make a clone."
Ten Naruto's appeared.
"Or ten, whatever makes you feel right..." Chi scratched her nose. Ten orange jumpsuits was really a lot to take in.
"Okay so I made them. Now what?"
"Right, hang on sec." She formed the seal and focused. Ten Chi's poofed in existence. She sighed, still feeling tired from yesterday.
"Form pairs and spread out. You already know your instructions." The replica's nodded and each grabbed one Naruto and raced of in a random direction. The original Chi went to sit on the bench and Naruto kicked his legs in the air, waiting for something to happen. Chi kept herself busy by carving doodles in the bench.
Naruto didn't know what to do and became more and more restless as time went by. He was about to explode and demand an answer or something from her, when a thought suddenly popped in his brain.
"Oi why did you do that?!" He grabbed her braid and pulled her close. Then another image appeared and he let her go. Amazed and thoroughly confused he sat through ten different ways in which he got killed or hit by Chi.
Chi waited until his expression stopped morphing into another state of horror, before explaining. "Get it? Whatever your clone does, you will know. The memories of the clone get transferred to you when the clone gets taken out."
"That's... pretty awesome!" Naruto's eyes went wide as saucers. Chi smiled and held out her fist.
"But how will this help me train faster?"
She decided a punch was better after all.
"OW! Hey!"
Chi glared daggers at the boy who lived after being punched through a target. She yanked him out and dragged him over to the bench to throw him down again, planting a foot on his shoulder to prevent him from slumping.
"Listen up dumbass, whatever your clones learn, you learn. So if you were to make one clone and you both train, you would learn twice as fast. If you made a hundred clones and you would all train then you would learn a hundred times as fast... Or something." God I hope I'm saying this righ Chi tried to do the mental calculations but failed.
Naruto, ever the quick recoverer, frowned and brightened up again. "Haha so I could easily surpass Sasuke?!" The foot on his shoulder pressed harder.
"Naruto." Chi had practiced her teacher voice. Naruto's blue eyes looked straight into her rust colored ones. Chi took a deep breath.
"Once we put the headband on, we are no longer enemies. Rivals, but no enemies. Sasuke is an arrogant bastard, but his your sensei will take care of that. You just improve for you and no one else."
Naruto rubbed his head as Chi released him, grudgingly agreeing with her. "Maa, I get that we're supposed to be teammates and everything, but I want to defeat him so that Sakura finally sees that he's no good."
"She'll see when you become Hokage." Chi shrugged and dropped besides him.
"Why is everyone so obsessed with him!" Naruto whined, ignoring Chi. "It's always 'Ooh Sasuke you're soooo cool and handsome!' or 'Oh Sasuke, how did you get your hair like that!'. It looks like a duck's ass!"
Chi rolled her eyes "Stupid fangirls... I got two of 'em in my team. They are going to be the death of me."
Naruto sulked. His stomach rumbled and Chi snorted. "Let's get some food."
He was up before she could finish her sentence. "Ramen!"
Chi shook her head and got up after him, pulling a metal flask from her haori's inner pocket. She took a long gulp and hid it again, before speeding up to catch her friend.
Academy classroom, afternoon~
Genin waited for their sensei in terse silence. Jonins walked into the room, one by one and called a team out. The class gradually become empty. Naruto was drumming on his table and occasionally glanced at his new team. Sasuke was brooding and Sakura was trying to get his attention, to no avail.
He sighed. Ever since lunch ended, he had been stuck on his seat. His feet were restless and in the end he had pulled out some papers and ink and started writing. It caused many to stare at him and few to try and dispel a genjutsu but he ignored them like he was told to do.
It was an exercise Chi told him about. She once saved him from getting caught after a prank and blackmailed him into reading a thick book from her clan's library. It was, in Chi's words, 'for the love of Konoha and Iruka-sensei's blood pressure'.
When it turned out that he, for the live of him, had no patience to sit down and read, she pushed a huge scroll and a brush into his hands. She then showed him a large board with various drawings on it.
"Copy these. Try to send as much chakra as possible in the brush so that you have less in your legs."
It turned out to be quite helpful. The thick, black ink seemed to flow straight out of his hands. Chi tried explaining that it was his chakra that mixed with the ink but Naruto failed to understand it. All he understood was that he had found a new hobby.
Of course, the giant scroll was a better way to keep him busy since it required him to walk around and stretch in order to draw, but a small paper was more difficult. Naruto got the hang of it pretty easily and bugged Chi for more and more drawings until she caved and just gave him a key to the library and access to the tunnel that lead straight to it.
A light tap on his head made him look up.
"We're leaving."
Shikamaru yawned as he walked past him and Chouji waved, Ino just stuck out her tongue. Naruto grinned and waved back. There was a tall Jonin standing in the door's entrance, approximately the size of a bear. He looked old but Naruto guessed that it was because of his beard. The man was playing with a cigarette in his hands. A warning on the blackboard from Iruka kept him from actually lighting it.
"Good luck!"
Shikamaru grumbled a reply and left with his team in tow. Naruto looked around, just his team and Chi's team were left behind.
Oh well, I guess our sensei's are busy with awesome missions."
"They're just late, ya know." Chi's voice interrupted his daydream.
"Why must you always destroy my dreams like that?!" He whined and Chi offered him a apologetic smile. Naruto pouted at the unfinished drawings on his table. He had forgotten the rest of the pattern.
Sasuke sighed and Sakura looked up. She was huddled together with the rest of Team 11 on the table right in front of the last Uchiha. Their legs were carefully adjusted to look longer and their hair got an occasional brush with their fingers. Sakura leaned forward with a worried expression.
"What's wrong Sasuke?"
Sasuke didn't bother with an answer. Chi rolled her eyes. "He's probably dreading the fact that his teammate is only focused on dates she will never get."
Her response earned her an accusing shout from Naruto ("Don't say that to Sakura!") and a flaming blush on the pink haired girl before she jumped down to face the taller girl.
"Stupid Chi! And Naruto, you're annoying!"
Chi leaned closer "Oh? And what are you going to do about it? Fight me?"
Sakura's eyes were blazing "Shut up! You know I scored much higher than you, you freak!"
"Right," Chi drawled, feeling her heartbeat pick up. "because in the future we are going to fight with books."
"It's the content that matters, idiot!" Sakura snapped. "You and Naruto will be known as the dumbest shinobi alive!"
"At least people realize I am a shinobi when they see me." Chi shot back, all traces of humor gone and Sakura went still.
It was a painful truth. The differences between the clan children and civilians were big. Differences like their outfits for example: Chi wore a short haori and mesh armor while Sakura wore a silky dress. Sakura's hair was long and free while Chi kept hers in a tight braid. Their mentalities were different as well. While most shinobi children could relatively easily talk about death and murder, the civilians were cautious and almost scared of the thought.
The muddy eyes flared yellow and held the green ones for a long time. Eventually, Chi looked away and shook her head. "Be a fangirl all you want, but your precious Sasuke won't be there to save you and wipe your tears in a real fight, you know?"
"Oi, Sasuke is gentleman!" Not even Sasuke believed that.
"Yeah! Stupid Chi. Why don't you just take the dead last and leave already!"
Team 11 other members, consisting of Akamura Ryuya and Lee Shinji, all got up and stood behind Sakura. Naruto sighed, he was always telling Chi to lay down and just let them be: he would take down Sasuke and then they would change. Granted, it would take a while, but he could do it!
Chi was just too easily frustrated. If he was honest, he could understand. His first serious reactions after hearing who his team was, were worries about how Sakura would cope with the missions. He stepped in between the girls.
"Maa, calm down. Just because Iruka-sensei had to leave doesn't mean we can go and fight like this, ya know. Besides, Chi is just worried for your safety, in her own way."
He winced when he felt a sharp jab to his ribs but smiled nonetheless. The two behind Sakura gritted their teeth and sat down again muttering about how stupid they were and how he was still inferior to Sasuke. Much to his shock however, he noticed tears brimming on the corner of Sakura's eyes.
He whirled around and glared at Chi. The two engaged in a staring contest until Chi sighed and pushed him aside. He held his breath as the lean girl approached the fragile one.
"If you keep this up, you'll die on your first mission. Don't embarrass us kunoichi like that." Chi told her flatly.
Sakura's eyes flashed with anger but she turned away silently. Chi gave Naruto an 'I tried' look and plopped down on his desk.
Naruto let his breath out, that went better than he expected. He had half anticipated on an one sided beating that would end with Sakura in the hospital. She may be smart but Chi was muscular and just plain better at fistfights. If she had a good day of course, she couldn't be the second last if she didn't spend most of her days getting confused by the kata's.
The Genin fell into a silence. Sakura got surrounded by Ryuya and Shina in a corner and after some not so quiet insults thrown at Naruto and Chi they started speaking in a hushed tone. Their subject was not hard to guess. Every now and then, one would send a passionate glance at Sasuke. The latter was still sitting with his fingers intertwined and glaring at nothing.
Naruto rolled his eyes, feeling too tired to challenge him and slumped in his seat. His absurd stamina must have reached his limit, because not too soon the five Genin could hear soft snores coming from the orange ninja. Chi yawned soon after and fought to keep her eyes open.
Hours later, the door slammed open, making all Genin jump out of their skin. Naruto woke with a start, fists immediately clenched and waving around. The man who entered spared him a strange look before barking an order.
"Team 11. Outside, now."
His voice echoed in the classroom and the students sat up straighter out of fear. Shinji looked about ready to cry as she took in the scars on the man's face. Ryuya, being the smallest, looked extremely uncomfortable and intimidated by his huge posture. Chi carefully approached him and send Naruto a look that screamed for help. This man was going to kill them for sure. Naruto, of course didn't understand the look and instead turned to the scary teacher.
"Oi, when is our teacher coming?"
The giant stopped and slowly turned around. He stared deep into the blue eyes. Recognition followed by sadness flashed into the older man's eyes but it was so short that it might as well been imagination. Naruto paid it no attention and instead narrowed his eyes at the man.
"Are you Hatake's brats?"
"Eh, yes." Sakura answered timidly. The man's glare intensified to the point where even Sasuke lost his arrogant posture.
Much to their surprise however, the man started laughing and pushed his new students out of the door.
"You brats better get used to this!"
His laughter could be heard from the hall and send shivers down Sakura's spine.
"Was that man Ibiki-sensei?"
She felt bad for the girls.
Suspicious alley~
Ibiki had chased them to a rundown alley where he started the introductions. There was a smoldering pile of trash behind them and the air was filled with flies. Team 11 tried to breathe as shallowly as possible. Ibiki stubbornly reminded himself that he had once spend a week in a sewer. He could do this.
"Alright you brats. To you I am Ibiki-sensei. To me you are a bunch of snot nosed brats. To others I am the head of Torture and Interrogation." Ibiki smirked as he saw the girls shift.
"I don't need your names until you pass the test-"
"T-test?!" The smallest shrieked. Ibiki glared at her until she cowered and hid behind Shinji.
Ibiki held his glare until Ryuya managed to squeak out an apology. His eyes flitted over the tall one. Her eyes were turning a disturbing shade of yellow and he decided to continue his monologue.
"You may have passed the Academy test, but that doesn't mean a thing to me. You will need to pass my test or else you'll be back in the classroom by the end of the week." He paused to look at the reactions.
They all looked nervous to some degree. He noted that the yellow started to dull and gave himself a mental pat on his shoulder. He didn't know much about her clan but he knew that yellow eyes generally meant danger.
"Meet me at midnight in front of the Forest of Death. If you don't know where it is, consider yourself sacked. If you are late, consider yourself sacked. If one of you is missing, you are all back to the Academy. If you fail the test it means that you are either dead or dying. Understood?" He received three pale faced nods and had to suppress a wince. These brats would never be the same again after tonight, dead or alive.
"I will meet you there and give you your instructions. Come in full gear and keep an eye out for the wild animals. Oh, and watch out for a missing nin. We dropped him in the forest to warm him up a bit, he might be a bit cranky." He send them the scariest smile he could muster and poofed away.
He reappeared on a nearby rooftop and looked down on the trio that looked like they had a nervous breakdown. Or at least two of them had. The one in the haori was in deep thought and eventually slapped the other two on the head. He watched as she dragged them out of the alley and finally let out a sigh. Orders are orders, right?
Academy classroom, afternoon~
In the end Team 7 had to wait for a total of five hours. As it was, their sensei had come at his usual time of three hours late but found that he could not enter. All because there was a raging Ibiki stomping through the corridors, muttering about a certain snake and wishing her to the deepest pit of Hell. Of course, this meant that Kakashi had to wait. After all, how could he let himself arrive at the same time as someone else?
He couldn't, because Kakashi Hatake was a man of principle and discipline. He had to be at least one and a half hours later than anyone else. Thus he turned around and decided to pay another visit to his old friends.
When he returned, he not only got hit with a duster, narrowly avoided a flying can of paint, stepped in puddle of super glue, and almost got impaled by a barrage of pencils, he also had to wake his new students up. Kakashi decided that it was worth his reputation.