Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or this idea as it is a challenge fic.
Chapter Three
Naruto was at his desk working on the first part of the Gennin Exams. He had been surprised when he arrived early as usual and found a new teacher already in the classroom. The man didn't seem to take any notice of him, but for the first time since he began at the academy his name was called during roll call. The other kids, minus Shikamaru who thought for once the blond bastard wasn't getting preferential treatment, stared at Naruto not really remembering who he was.
Shikamaru though hated the blond boy as he envied him and his ability to do anything he wanted with nobody bothering him. Yet the bastard didn't even take advantage of that by lazing around and taking a good nap. No, instead the bastard would actually listen and take notes even though he didn't have to do any work and when school would let out Shikamaru would some times follow him and find the idiot doing exercises and training.
'Doesn't this baka get it he has no parents nagging him when he goes home, the teachers ignore him, the other kids avoid him he could just find a nice area to lay out in and watch the clouds. He could just fall out and go to sleep wherever he wanted for as long as he wanted and no one would care. Yet all he does is work even when no one is looking or even cares that he doing such work. I really hate him' Shikamaru thought as his pencil snapped from the pressure he exerted on it do to his anger over a certain work aholic blond.
Thinking about all the possibilities of the lazing around he would do if he was the blond made Shikamaru's anger transition into exhaustion as he slowly lowered his head onto his desk and began to go to his favorite place … dreamland where he would dream of nothing but clouds and laying on those clouds … all of them.
*Smack* Shikamaru was instantly brought out of his dreams as he rubbed his aching head. Looking around he saw the new teacher with a stack of papers he held thrust out in front him.
"Now that your awake Shikamaru you can hand these out to the class" The teacher with a scar across his nose said placing the stack down on Shika's desk.
"What? Why me?" Shikamaru asked rubbing his head gently where he'd been hit.
"I asked for volunteers, but only you were caught not paying attention. Why can't you be more like that blond kid over there who looks so attentive and interested in what we are doing" the new teacher says.
For Shikamaru that was an insult of the highest order and drove his hate up another notch for the blond. If he wasn't so lazy he would have voiced said hate or glared the kid into submission, but that would require too much work so he festered in his hate vowing to make the baka pay some day.
'I'll use my shadow possession jutsu and force him to just stand all day and when he's tired and wants to sit I won't let him. No, I'll force him to lay down instead and look up into the sky … yeah then I'll get to lay down and watch the clouds and he won't be able to do anything' Shikamaru thought as he lazily passed out the tests making sure Naruto got one as well.
For Naruto the test wasn't hard, but he didn't want any attention so he purposely got a few wrong. Naruto had learned his lesson about seeking attention as it never wound up good for him. The past few years he had learned to embrace the fact everyone ignored him even the Hokage seemed to ignore him saying he had too much work to be bothered or some crap like that. If he got loud it didn't change anything, if he did something bad he'd just get hurt and then everything would go back to the way it was. So now he preferred the way people treated him although there were a few exceptions like the Ichiraku's who were always nice to him, but he even came to realize they were just nice people who treated everyone the same and he was no exception.
Naruto acted like he was still working on his paper until at least half of the class seemed to be done and then placed his paper face down on his desk. A half hour later everyone was done and sitting around talking as the chūnin, whose name was Umino Iruka, graded the papers. Naruto just sat in his seat reading a book. It was an autobiography penned by a retired jōnin that had survived the second and third shinobi world wars. The book was of course censored leaving out many details, but still gave the reader at least a glimpse into the horrors of war and combat.
By the time Naruto had finished his third chapter Iruka was ready to move on to the next part of the exam. Everyone moved outside in their own little clicks or not so little considering the Uchiha fan club was collectively stalking the last remaining loyal Uchiha. Naruto just went outside unnoticed by most as he readied himself for the next test.
The test turned out to be weapon throwing in which Iruka and a couple of chūnin that introduced themselves as Izumo and Kotetsu handed out ten shuriken and ten kunai to everyone. Most of the class managed to pass with the Uchiha of course leading the way with a nearly perfect score. Shino Aburame took second, Kibua Inuzuka fourth, and Hinata Hyūga led the girls finishing third.
The rest of the students and the teachers were surprised by the shy, stuttering, meek Hyūga's performance. Naruto wasn't though as he knew the true Hinata Hyūga and not the weak, stuttering, submissive girl she showed to her clan and those outside of her clan. Hinata had taken to the deceiving part of the shinobi code like a fish to water from an early age. Her act was instilled in her by her mother before she died. Hana Hyūga knew her daughter would be in danger as the clan's council wasn't happy with Hiashi's choice of bride being a woman from outside the clan nor did they like the thought of a female clan head. Hinata's behavior was one that would ensure they would leave her alone and not treat her as a threat while her kindness to the branch members would endear her to them giving her a solid base of support in the clan as the branch members made up at least two thirds of the clans populous. It was also why she espoused one of her goals in life to be the abolishing of the Caged Bird Seal. She meant it, but it also served to elevate her status among the branch members of the clan.
Naruto made the mistake of thinking he could befriend Hinata seeing as she was looked down upon as well, but quickly found that assumption to be false. Hinata had rejected him just like everyone else not even acknowledging his presence. His problems were his own and she shed no tears for the boy leaving him as so many others had to suffer in silence. He had also seen her take down a civilian boy that thought he could humble the weak, shy, stuttering Hyūga heiress when they were away from prying eyes. She wasn't mean or arrogant, but she was … serious he guessed would be the word to describe her.
Naruto himself managed to hit seven out of ten with kunai and six out of ten with shuriken placing himself eighth in the class behind the majority of the clan heirs and a few civilians. The class then moved back inside as they each displayed the three standard jutsu to complete the gennin exams. Naruto managed to do the henge, kwarimi, and thanks to dedicating a lot of his training to chakra control exercises he managed to make six standard clones. At this point the class was dismissed a few never to return again moving into a civilian lifestyle while the rest contemplated what team they would be on and who they would get as teammates.
Meanwhile, in the Hokage's office a group of jōnin were discussing the team assignments and who they wanted on their squads. It was more of a formality than anything as the Hokage would make the final decision and the jōnin would get what they were given and have to suck it up. Of course their were a few knowns in the selection process.
One being that Kakashi Hatake would get the Uchiha despite many protests and others clamoring for the vaunted position of being the last loyal uchiha's sensei. Hatake was not only considered one of the best ninja Konoha had to offer, but thanks to a sacrifice made by his deceased teammate who was an Uchiha he had a sharingan and would be able to help the boy with developing his prized bloodline. Next was Asuma Sarutobi who requested a remake of the old Ino-Shika-Cho formation as all three clan heads had children in the graduating class. The last was newly minted jōnin sensei Kurenai Yuhi whom requested the Hyūga heiress as she saw her like an adopted sister or daughter.
That left one team done, two incompletes, and the rest to be filled out afterwards. Kakashi could careless who he got really so he picked Sakura Haruno the supposed kunoichi of the year even though everyone knew she was probably third or fourth among the prospective kunoichi with Kurenai's girl being first and the Yamanaka girl being second. This also got the girls mother a civilian council woman off his back as she had been advocating loudly for her precious Sakura to be teamed up with the Uchiha heir. He really didn't care who was the third shinobi on the team, but had a few prospects that caught his eye if for no other reason than nobody would care if he trained them or not.
Kurenai chose Aburame Shino for her second choice. She figured his stoic and serious demeanor would be welcomed by Hinata not to mention he was second behind the Uchiha boy for rookie of the year. Thinking about her team led her to realize it was becoming something of a tracking or reconnaissance team due to Hinata's byakugan and the Aburame's clan techniques with their bugs. All she needed now was a third member to round them out either a tracking type like the Inuzuka boy or a genjutsu type.
If she had her preference Kurenai would go with a genjutsu type as she always wanted to mentor the next great genjutsu master and have someone following in her footsteps. Hinata was her imouto, but due to her clans rather strict guidelines she couldn't teach her any genjutsu beyond the basic henge. The Aburame were also limited, but that was mostly due to the conditions of their partnership with the bugs that lived inside of them. If only things had worked out better with the Kurama heir she'd have the perfect team … 'wait perhaps that's it' she thought.
After a bit of arguing, begging, and some compromises on her part a few she would never mention publicly Kurenai got her perfect team now all she had to do was convince Yakumo to give her a second change and find a new way to fix her problem. The Hokage was willing to help with a part of that sending for Jiraiya to come and help out as they thought sealing could lead to the solution or he might come up with something they hadn't. Still, the Hokage was leaving convincing Jiraiya to help out up to her and she could guess what the perverted Sannin might want for such a task.
That left the Inuzuka for Kakashi to take and he was all to happy to. The Inuzuka wouldn't need him really as he would get plenty of training from his mother the clan head or other members of his clan. This meant all he really had to deal with were Sasuke and Sakura and the pink haired fan girl didn't seem the type to want to train much so all he really had to deal with was Sasuke. This would leave him plenty of free time to do whatever he wanted including reading his favorite book.
With Teams 7, 8, and 10 out of the way this left the other gennin candidates for the remaining jōnin. These would be the teams most likely to fail and sent back to the academy or go into civilian life. If anything truly terrible happened like war they could be commissioned then as reservists, but for the most part the tediously boring existence of a civilian was what was waiting for them. Sorting through the remaining teams took less than an hour with the clan heirs out of the way and most not caring about who they got as they were destined to fail. The Hokage dismissed them, but reminded them to show up at the academy at 8 a.m. to pick up their squads.
Returning to his paperwork the Hokage thought about the various prospective gennin and their teams. He couldn't help but feel like he was forgetting someone important. A kid with blond hair and deep blue eyes flashed into his mind before exiting his thoughts just as quickly. He focused back on his paperwork readying himself for the days to come.
Hello everyone! I hoped you enjoyed the latest chapter of Speed Unlimited. I would like to apologize to everyone whom has taken the time to review. I appreciate each and every one so don't think I'm ignoring you, but until whatever this bug is that's messing up the review reply function is fixed I won't be answering you directly and I'm not the type to do so in an A/N. I again apologize and hope things are fixed soon so that I can respond to all of you once again.
I also want to apologize for a mistake on my part. I guess when I started this challenge I was deeply in love with the Naru-Hina pairing and to a degree I still am. I really only see her as a true love interest for Naruto among girls his age in Konoha although I do see potential for Ino. Anyway after a small inner debate I've decided that Hinata isn't going to be the girl for this Naruto. I'm still unsure as to who exactly that will be, but for right now a pairing is inconsequential to the story so it doesn't matter. All I can say is this isn't a harem story it will be one lady and it will happen some time after the time skip.
So again thanks for reading, sorry for not answering your reviews, and keep reading okay. Until next time dear reader :)