And Chapter 3 is up! I told you last time I already had it written but me and my friend need to check it over for spelling, and for scenes that just didn't work well and need to be re-written. I hope you enjoy Chapter 3 of "A Journey to Greatness"!
I do not own Naruto-the universe of Naruto is owned by Kishimoto and the other Naruto creators
Naruto looked down at the grave. He hadn't been this sad since Hitomi-sama's death. Next to him was Sasuke. Since Naruto was now the closest thing Sasuke had to family he attended the funeral. He was worried about his friend. Sasuke hadn't said a word except for "hn". Naruto didn't know what to do. He had never been in this position before. Not knowing what else to do Naruto gave his friend a hug. "If you ever need anything, I will always be there for you. Just tell me what you need and I will do everything in my power to make it possible" said Naruto. Sasuke bowed his head lower and started shaking. He cried into Naruto's hug, and Naruto let him cry for as long as he needed.
After Sasuke had finished he said "I must avenge them, I must kill Itachi" a strong hatred building within him. Naruto thought about the situation and just couldn't believe Itachi would do something like this without a reason. "I don't think Itachi did it without a good reason," said Naruto, trying to divert Sasuke's hatred. "What do you mean? He killed everyone I loved just so he could prove his strength and then left the village like a coward" growled Sasuke. Naruto knew this logic wasn't right and tried to reason with Sasuke "I may not have known Itachi like you have, but I know he's not the type of person who would do something so terrible just to prove his strength. Is the Itachi you know someone who would do that?". Sasuke clenched his fists in frustration. Releasing his balled fists and he sighed "No, Itachi wouldn't do something like this to prove his strength". Glad he could get his friend to see reason, Naruto gave a soft smile to his friend. "So if we want to find out why he did what he did we're just going to have to get strong enough to make him tell us," said Naruto. Sasuke smirked at this, " Damn right we are, we're going to make Itachi explain things to us and then we're going to drag him home no matter what". Naruto smiled and offered to go get some dango. Sasuke couldn't resist and agreed. As they walked away from Sasuke's parent's graves Sasuke promised 'I don't why you did what you did Itachi, but I will do everything within my power to make sure you tell me why'.
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Graduation Day at the Academy
Once again the students of Naruto's class were standing upon a stage. All of them a lot bigger now of course. Sasuke was now the second tallest kid in the class, second only to the stoic Shino. Naruto however had the reverse, he was the shortest kid in the class. Something he was often teased about by his friends. While they did have other friends Naruto and Sasuke did everything together for the most part. They'd train together, eat together most nights and always were paired against each other in spars.
While Naruto was bottom of his class technically, he was by far the fastest and one of the smartest. Of course the written tests didn't show this. When it came to tests it would seem like everything he and Sasuke had studied just vanished from his head. Then the first time sparring he had beaten Sasuke by knocking him out of the ring. This resulted in him being beaten up after school by the local school bullies and Sasuke's Fanclub. Deciding that losing in a spar was better than a beating later Naruto never showed his true abilities unless he was training with Sasuke.
Sasuke was top of the Class however, with Hinata Hyuga as a close second. Since he hadn't unlocked his sharingan he couldn't copy abilities. He didn't care though, Sasuke found copying abilities and not putting any effort into learning something was wrong and weak. He had beat the school's previous record for most bullseyes with kunai and shuriken with 173 bullseyes beating the previous record of 86. The 174th landing just outside the center of the target.
Hinata was not happy she had come in second to the Uchiha, and was even more displeased with the fact he spent so much time with the class idiot. How Naruto would pass the tests after the ceremony she found to be beyond her. She didn't think he was very special. He had beat the Uchiha once, but then always lost easily. Although when she had spared against him, it seemed like he had let himself be hit. 'You are a mystery Naruto Uzumaki, though in the end you'll still be scum that was lucky enough to be in the same class as me'.
Instead of being at the end of the day, this ceremony had been at the beginning. Many students were really nervous and the teachers had hoped some time with their parents would help calm them. Naruto and Sasuke however walked to where the testing would be held. Since neither of them had family that could be present they decided to avoid watching others being comforted by their mothers and encouraged by their fathers. Arriving at the testing site Naruto finally let his nerves get to him. 'Damn it, I still can do a proper clone. Why can't I do a simple bunshin no jutsu?! ' Naruto continued adding to the list of everything he struggled with and had started biting his nails when Sasuke had gripped his shoulder. "You're going to be fine, don't stress out about it. You never focus right when you're stressed" said Sasuke. Naruto calmed down with Sasuke's words and smiled at the friend he now thought of as a brother. "You're right, we're going to blow this test out of the water!" exclaimed Naruto. With that the duo made their way into the classroom and waited to start the written test.
Sasuke had aced the written test and hadn't broken a sweat, Naruto on the other hand had forgotten the answers to most of the questions and ended up with a 71 as his final score. Better than most of his previous scores but still low enough to land him at the bottom. Scratch that, Shikamaru was at the bottom. Not because he didn't know the answers, but because after answering 13 out of the 21 questions he claimed the test was "too troublesome" and decided to take a nap. Landing him with a 61. With the written test over it was now time for the jutsu test. The order for who would go had been alphabetical so Naruto and Sasuke were some of the last to go. Since he couldn't leave the classroom Sasuke ended up getting swarmed by fangirls. This caused him to go into what Naruto called his brooding state as he tried to block out all the girls.
'What the hell, it's the last day might as well have some fun with it' thought Naruto. With this Naruto had made his way to his secret prank box he had hid in the back of the classroom. Looking through his supplies Naruto pulled out rubber chickens, fake spiders, whoopie cushions, and many other irritating items. Then it hit him, the perfect prank to pull on these girls. Grabbing a piece of paper and writing down his plan on it, Naruto then folded it up and discreetly gave it to Sasuke as he walked by. Sasuke temporarily broke his "brooding state" and read what was on the paper. Smirking he looked at Naruto and gave a slight nod. Naruto then went to get the last person needed for his plan.
Naruto walked over to Kiba who had just finished his test and was waiting for his results. First getting the Inuzuka's attention, Naruto then whispered his plan into his ear. Kiba had a devious smile on his face by the end of hearing Naruto's plan. Kiba loved attention, and he knew how annoying Sasuke found his fanclub. Heading to the back of the room Kiba then henged into Sasuke waiting for things to get rolling. Giving Sasuke a signal to tell everything was ready Sasuke began to play his part "You know it's the last day, and I've been really nervous about this test. I think I need a hug if I'm ever going to calm down". Without hesitation 13 fangirls leapt at the Uchiha offering a cuddle and a kiss. Right before they made it to him Sasuke quickly pulled a substitution jutsu with Kiba. The girls were none the wiser. Kiba was now being hug by 13 different pairs of arms and had blood dripping down his nose with his arms being pulled into chests. With the henge it looked as if Sasuke had just had a 180 on his personality and was now was a playboy enjoying his own harem. Unfortunately for the Inuzuka, all good things must come to an end. This hug event came to a close when Hinata pointed out to the girls "You do realize that's some else in a henge of Sasuke". All the girls looked at the Hyuga heiress and blinked. Turning back to Sasuke they started to notice inconsistencies that only an extreme stalk would notice. Hinata having witnessed the entire event decided that she should toy with the girls too. Of course to everyone else it just looked like she had ruined a perfectly good prank. Kiba started sweating bullets. "Sorry ladies I greatly appreciated your hugs today but I'm a busy guy and… bye!" said Kiba, with that he zoomed out the window. Enraged that they had been fooled the fanclub set off after Kiba with a fury that would scare any of the teachers.
Sasuke then stepped out of his hiding place in the back of the room with a worried Akumaru in his hands. "Don't worry Akumara, Kiba will be fine" 'I hope' said Sasuke. Naruto was on the floor letting out the laughter that had been building inside of him.
Hinata had a perfect view of the whole ordeal and while she never showed it or would ever admit it she found it to be extremely amusing. 'Serves them right, if they actually took their ninja career seriously they would have known right away that Sasuke had been substituted'. With that Hinata then went back to her thoughts about her possibly losing the title of clan heiress. While she studied hard and trained harder, she was just barely able to beat her sister last time. She was thought of as weak by the elders because of her lack of aptitude to the juuken fighting style. 'How much longer will I be able to beat my sister until she beats me and becomes heiress?' thought Hinata. 'Will father have the caged bird seal put on me there and then or will it be stalled until I'm of age to marry?' Hinata asked herself.
"Sasuke Uchiha" called the teacher. With this Sasuke put Akumaru on the ground and went off to take his test. With an aura of confidence Sasuke entered the testing room. Naruto wished his friend luck and went to sit in his seat. Out of nervousness he started tapping his feet on the ground. This tapping had disrupted the train of thought of the cold Hyuga in the back. Trying to ignore him Hinata went back to her thoughts trying to think of ways to train so she would be able to beat her sister with. Then she was disrupted again by the tapping of fingers on a desk. She looked back at Naruto and gave a slight glare. Not that Naruto noticed he was consumed by his worries about the exam. Ignoring him once more Hinata went back to her thoughts. Then she heard a humming. Looking back over she saw it was Naruto who was now tapping his feet, fingers, and was humming.
"Can you stress about the test quietly, I'm trying to think here!" snapped the irritated Hyuga. Naruto realized she was talking to him and came back at her with "Well I'm sorry if it disturbs you princess but I don't really care if I disrupt your thinking". Hinata scowled, no one had ever talked back to her like that "What was that, you piece of filth!?". "You heard me princess, I don't give a damn about you! Sorry if I'm the first to tell you that but I'm not going to bow show respect to someone who thinks everyone is below her!" yelled Naruto. "Why you little… you should had your tongue removed with that!" replied Hinata. "Like you could princess, if people had the power to do that I'd be dead by now." said Naruto. Before Hinata could get back at him a teacher had said "Naruto Uzumaki!". Smirking Naruto left his set and made his way to the testing room. At the door he turned around and said "I must thank you princess, it seems that our talk ended up calming my nerves''. With that Naruto turned and closed the door. Leaving Hinata fuming at her desk in the corner and a class silently wondering what in the world just happened.
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Naruto entered the testing room and instantly his confidence left him. As he made his way to be in front of the teachers Naruto made a silent prayer to Kami he would pass. "Hello Naruto '' said Iruka-sensei, Naruto smiled and greeted his teacher back, over the years Naruto had formed a special bond with his sensei. When Naruto was struggling in class Iruka would give him pointers that helped Naruto understand the topic and was the only teaching in the school that had treated him like a human.
Starting the test Iruka asked "Ready?". Naruto nodded and prepared for the first jutsu. "Alright Naruto, first I want you to do a substitution jutsu" said Iruka. Naruto nodded and shouted "substitution no jutsu", with that naruto had teleported to the far right of the room and a desk stood in his place. Pleased with the results Iruka called Naruto back over and started with the next jutsu, "Okay Naruto now I want you to perform a henge jutsu".
Naruto had a foxy smile spread across his face. Knowing that all the teachers in front of him were secretly perverts, Naruto shouted "sexy no jutsu" and a cloud of smoke spread out from him. Confused by the jutsu name they heard the teachers waited for the smoke to clear, leaving an attractive naked girl in front of them with smoke covering her more private parts. "Is this okay Iruka-sensei" asked the henged Naruto, putting a pout on his face with the last word. All three teachers had a massive nosebleed all at the same time, making them fall back in their chairs. Naruto transformed back and was clutching his sides in laughter. Three furious teachers with tissues up their noses greeted him and Naruto went from laughing to cowering in 0.052 seconds. Regaining his composure Iruka said "Naruto could you perform the henge jutsu please?" in a tone that said if he did otherwise Naruto would find himself in a world of trouble. Naruto gulped and nodded. Saying the words "henge no jutsu'' Naruto had transformed himself in the Third Hokage. Being the creator of the sexy jutsu Naruto had gained incredible skill in the fine details of the henge jutsu. Impressed with how realistic the henge was, Iruka said "Well done Naruto! Now for the final jutsu. Can you please perform the bunshin jutsu?".
Naruto's hands shook and he had started to sweat. 'Pull yourself together, like Sasuke said, getting stressed will only hurt me. I need to calm down!'. With that Naruto took a deep breath and said "Bunshin no Jutsu!". Smoke filled the room for a second and then left as soon as it came leaving three Naruto clones that looked like half cooked pancakes. Iruka's sweat dropped at this. He knew Naruto struggled with the bunshin no jutsu but this was pathetic. Wrapping up the test Iruka said "thank you for the demonstration Naruto we'll be telling you your exam results in a few minutes".
Naruto left the testing room and then made his way to his desk. Once he sat down he sighed and deflated onto the desk. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this, "did it go that bad?" he asked jokingly. "No, but my bunshins looked like cake batter that didn't cook right," said Naruto. Turning his head into the desk Naruto sighed. Sasuke hoped that his friend didn't fail the test because of this. He knew Naruto had huge Chakra reserves and struggled with controlling it but that didn't mean anything to the teachers. Why most of the teachers discriminated against Naruto he didn't know but he hoped with Iruka-sensei in charge of the tests Naruto would at least have a fighting chance.
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Iruka now stood in front of the class with a clipboard smiling since a majority of his students had passed this time. As the student's name was called they had gotten out of their seat and then went to the front of the room to receive their Konoha forehead protector. "Shino Aburame" was the first name to be called, followed by "Choji Akimichi, Sakura Haruno, Hinata Hyuga", and many others. Eventually all but 4 people were at the front of the class. Naruto was one of those people. "Okay everyone that concludes today's testing, to those of you who didn't make it don't worry you can test again next month" said Iruka. While he wasn't supposed to have favorites as a teacher, he had to admit he had been hoping Naruto out of everyone had passed. Unfortunately not being able to do such a simple jutsu was enough to make him fail.
After Iruka's speech Naruto slumped in his chair. Sasuke made his way over to try and comfort his friend but Naruto told him "don't… I just need some space right now. I'll talk to you later". Sasuke nodded and walked away from his friend with a small frown on his face. As Hinata walked by she had a smirk on her face, 'serves you right dobe' thought Hinata. She then made her way to the school yard to then be escorted home.
Naruto sighed. He really thought he was going to get it right this time, 'it seems no matter how hard I try I'll never be able to produce a good bunshin'. Deciding to leave the school before they kicked him out Naruto made his way to the entrance of the school.
Mizuki was standing on the roof of the school waiting for Naruto to emerge. He had been forced to help teach that brat for the past 5 years and now he was going to make sure that brat suffered for it. Seeing Naruto exit the school Mizuki put his plan into action.
"Hey Naruto!" said Mizuki in a fake happy voice. Naruto looked up to see his teacher Mizuki. "Oh, hi Mizuki Sensei" replied Naruto, still upset about his test results. Mizuki saw this depression and knew it would be too easy to fool the boy. "Hey Naruto, I know you're upset that you didn't pass the test, but I've got a secret to tell you" said Mizuki in a hushed voice. Naruto raised an eyebrow at this and looked at his teacher curiously. "What secret?" asked Naruto. Mizuki genuinely smiled now "There's a secret test that we only give out to a special few students. If you want, I can let you take this special test. But you can't tell anyone about it, otherwise the secret will be ruined" explained Mizuki. Naruto's eyes wided "Really! I can still become a genin!" exclaimed Naruto. "Quiet down!" Mizuki snapped in a hushed voice. "Okay Mizuki sensei. What do I have to do in this test?" asked Naruto.
Mizuki smirked 'I've got this kid hook, line, and sinker'. "There's a scroll in the Hokage's office that's protected by guards and you have to steal it and then make your way to the old house in the woods on the outskirts of the village," said Mizuki. Naruto didn't think about the possibility that this could be a trap, he just knew this was another chance for him to become a genin of Konoha without having to do the stupid bunshin jutsu. Naruto nodded and asked "when does this test start?". "Right now," said Muzuki and Naruto sped off to the Hokage's office. Mizuki was now smirking and started walking to the location he told Naruto to meet him at and started laughing along the way. 'What an idiot that demon. He'll steal the most important scroll in Konoha and then give it to me! He'll be blamed and I'll be halfway to Orochimaru-sama!' thought Mizuki as he walked down the streets of the village he hated.
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Naruto had made it to the Hokage's office. He was currently hiding on a rooftop of a nearby building trying to think of ways to get in and get out without being detected, but he just couldn't think of any. 'Aaaah, why didn't I practice stealth more with Sasuke! How am I going to get in?! It's not like I can just walk in and walk out without anyone noticing me!'. Then it hit him. 'Wait, I don't need them not to notice me, I just need them to think that I'm someone else!' with that Naruto jumped off the rooftop and into a nearby ally saying "henge no justu".
The chunin who guarded the Hokage's office were bored. They had been on guard duty for almost 9 hours and their replacements still hadn't come. Deciding nothing would happen if he took a nap one of them sat on the ground and started to fall asleep. He was interrupted when his partner told him "the Hokage's coming!". He shot off the ground and quickly dusted himself off. Saying thank you to his partner. As the "Hokage" approached the two chunin bowed to him. In return the Hokage bowed his head to acknowledge their respect and continued onward.
'Yes, I'm in! Now I just need to find that scroll' thought Naruto. He continued through the office looking for the scroll until he came to a room with two more chunin outside it. 'This must be the scroll room' Naruto thought. Continuing to pose as the Hokage, Naruto made his way to the door and was again greeted by the chunin with bows. Once again he bowed his head to respond to the greeting and then went into the room.
It was dimly lit and didn't have much furniture, but that didn't matter to Naruto. In the back of the room was a giant scroll that was no doubt what he was looking for. Not wanting to waste any time, Naruto grabbed the scroll and then henged again so it didn't look like he was carrying the scroll and made his way out of the office.
Once outside Naruto continued walking until he could find a place to detransform. Finding an empty ally Naruto quickly made his way to it. Once he decided no one was watching Naruto stopped the henge jutsu and went his full speed to the meeting place Mizuki-sensei told him.
Now for any other genin this trip would have taken about 5 minutes. Maybe for some one like Kiba, 3 minutes. For Naruto it took a minute and 30 seconds.
Once he arrived Naruto noticed that Mizuki-sensei hadn't arrived yet. 'Well I might as well see what's on this scroll'. With that Naruto carefully laid the giant scroll on the ground and opened it up. "Water Samurai Jutsu'' read Naruto. It was an B-ranked water jutsu that made water armor around the user that could be harder than steel. However, if the user didn't get the pressure of the water right it could either fall apart or crush the user. "Warning not for those who lack good chakra control" read Naruto. Deciding that he didn't want to risk being crushed by water armour, Naruto Continued. "Wind Katana Jutsu, makes a sword of compressed wind chakra in the user's hand, Warning could cut fingers off if the user doesn't have good chakra control" read Naruto. "Aarrgg, why do all of these require good chakra control!" complained Naruto. Going back to the scroll Naruto looked for a jutsu that didn't require chakra control. "Found one!" cheered Naruto. "Shadow clone jutsu, like a normal clone, but has a physical form. This allows the clone to fight, do reconnaissance, gather information, and train. Memories of the clone's return to the caster once they run out of chakra, or they receive a certain amount of damage" read Naruto. "Do not attempt if you don't have a large Chakra supply" read Naruto. "Yes! This is perfect for me!" exclaimed the blonde. With that Naruto started to practice the jutsu.
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Iruka was in a panic. He had just been informed that Naruto had been seen with the village's jutsu scroll. That scroll was invaluable, it held some of the most dangerous ninjutsu ever seen in the five great nations. Hoping to find his student before the Anbu did, Iruka doubled his search speed.
Naruto was laying on the ground trying to catch his breath. He had just mastered the shadow clone jutsu and had gone through half of his chakra reserves in the process. Hearing someone land on the ground Naruto sat up to see Iruka-sensei. "Hi Iruka-sensei!" greeted Naruto. "Look I got the scroll just like I was supposed to! Do I get to become a Genin now?!" asked Naruto. Iruka was confused by this, "Naruto what do you mean you were supposed to get the scroll? That's the most sacred scroll in the village, it has countless deadly justus in it that could spell our doom if it fell into the hands of another village". Naruto was confused by this, "Mizuki-sensei didn't mention that''. "What are you … Naruto look out!" shouted Iruka. Naruto dodged a giant shuriken that had been thrown at him and then looked to see who the assailant was.
Mizuki walked out from the shadows of the trees and clapped. "Well done Naruto, you got the scroll just like I asked you, now give it to me and maybe I'll let you live" said Mizuki in a threatening voice. "What?! You said if I brought you the scroll you'd make me a genin" shouted Naruto. "Don't you get it!? We'd never let a demon brat like you become a ninja! Do you want to know why?! Why you're hated by the village, why mobs chase you, why so many demand for your blood to be spilled!" Said Mizuki. Iruka started "Mizuki don't you dare...", "Shut up Iruka" interrupted Mizuki. "You're blind Iruka! This village has grown soft! The ninja are weak and those who are strong leave. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to leave and join Orochimaru and become strong! Strong enough to destroy this hell hole to the ground for letting the Nine Tailed Fox be able to roam among us!" Shouted Mizuki, slowly sounding more and more insane.
"What do you mean Nine Tailed Fox?!" asked Naruto, confused about Mizuki's declaration. "Mizuki don't do this! He's just a child!" shouted Iruka, trying to reason with the man he once called a friend. "A child! A child?! He is no child! You want to know why?! Because instead of killing the Fox the 4th Hokage sealed it! YOU!" Mizuki said, pointing to Naruto. "You are the Nine Tailed Fox! You took my parents away from me! You took Iruka's Parents from him! You will pay for the pain you've caused us!" Mizuki finished his rant and threw his second giant shuriken at Naruto.
'That's why they hate me? I'm the Nine Tailed Fox? I did that? I killed Iruka-sensei's parents?'. Naruto was still in shock from the news and didn't notice the shuriken coming at him. It wasn't till Naruto felt blood dripping onto his face that he broke out of his trance. Looking up with tears in his eyes he saw that Iruka had taken the shuriken for him and had a stream of blood coming from his mouth. "Naruto...cough… you are not the Nine Tailed Fox… cough… You are Naruto Uzumaki. The future Hokage of Konoha…", coughing up more blood Iruka continued. "The Nine Tailed Fox is sealed inside you but that...cough… doesn't make you the fox. You are …cough… are who you choose to be…" Iruka finished. As he did he fell on his side and rolled onto his back, no longer being able to stand on his own two legs.
Naruto had tears streaming down his face. No one had ever done something so selfless for him before. Anger growing in him, Naruto made a series of hand signs ending with his fingers making a plus sign. Mizuki didn't recognize the hand signs and didn't want to see what would come of them. He rushed forward, kunai in hand, aiming to end Naruto in one blow. "Kage...Bunshin… No Jutsu!" shouted Naruto and smoke filled the area in a 200 meter diameter from where he stood. Mizuki stopped his rush and took a defensive stance. As Mizuki scowled, Iruka's eyes widened at the sight. Hundreds of Naruto clones appeared around them. "You think a bunch of illusions will fool me?!" shouted Mizuki, with that he sped off to where he saw the real Naruto standing last and stabbed the clone with his kunai. Poof, Mizuki grew frustrated and went to attack again, but Naruto wasn't going to sit back and watch. In unison the clones charged Mizuki with fists and kicks at the ready. Mizuki smirked at this 'what do they hope to do, scare me away? How pathetic. I'll show him what true strength is!'. Mizuki stood with his arms open as if to welcome the clones thinking they would dispel when they touched him.
To say Mizuki was surprised when he felt the fists and feet of hundreds of Narutos landing on every part of his body was an understatement. The Narutos had shown no mercy in those strikes and Mizuki had never been in more pain. Passing out from the shock Mizuki fell backwards and started twitching on the ground". Iruka's mouth was hanging open, trying to think of how Naruto had accomplished such a feat. Then he looked at the Sacred Scroll and saw it was opened to shadow clones. Iruka became even more impressed that Naruto had been able to master such a high ranking jutsu in such little time!
Dispelling the clones, Naruto felt a rush of exhaustion wash over him. Naruto pushed aside his weariness and ran to his Sensei. "Iruka sensei are you going to be alright?" asked Naruto, tears welling up in his eyes. While Iruka had reacted to the entire battle it was only his head that had moved. His body hadn't moved an inch since he had fallen down. "I'll be fine… cough… Naruto. Anbu must have seen your fight and…cough... should be heading over here this very moment" reassured Iruka. He had never been more proud of his student. Then Iruka did the last thing Naruto had expected that night. Iruka forced himself to sit up, coughing most of the way. Then he put his hands behind his head and untied his forehead protector and then tied it around Naruto's head. "From this day forth...cough… you will no long be Naruto Uzumaki the demon child of Konoha...cough, cough… you are now Naruto Uzumaki...cough… Ninja of Konoha '' Iruka proclaimed. Naruto couldn't hold back the tears that had formed waterfalls running from his eyes to the ground.
As Iruka finished Anbu had finally found them and then proceeded to provide first aid to Iruka. Naruto wanted to stay and wait until his sensei was okay, but another Anbu had pulled him away. "Naruto!" said an old and upset voice. Naruto flinched at this and slowly turned his head to the owner of that voice. "Jiji! What's up?" replied a nervous Naruto. His knees had already started shaking at the tone of the Third Hokage's voice. "I hope you know what you did today was very dangerous and nearly had you exiled from the village!" snapped Hiruzen. Naruto pailed at this. "I had to use ever once of my power as Hokage from the council keeping you from being a ninja!" continued the old Sarutobi, making sure Naruto heard and understood each and everyone of his words. "However, you did stop a traitor from escaping with the village's sacred scroll, and because of that the council agreed to let you go without punishment" said Hiruzen relieved. Naruto sighed at this, thankful that the ninja career he had just gained was about to be taken from him a minute later.
Realizing something Naruto said "Hey jiji… how did the council know I fought Mizuki-teme when you didn't get here till after the fight?". Hiruzen smiled and replied "I have a magic ball that I can use to locate items or people, using it I found you and the scroll, however, I also saw you defending your sensei and this village's secrets as well. As for the timing of it all, I had left a shadow clone to deal with the council that had just dispursted". "Ooohhh'' was all Naruto had to say. Feeling his exhaustion from the battle and then the learning of an A-ranked jutsu beforehand Naruto asked if he could go home now. Hiruzen gave a small smile and asked one of the anbu to escort Naruto home.
Arriving at his apartment Naruto said goodbye to the Anbu escort and made his way inside, careful to avoid the broken glass from a window that had been broken earlier that day. Standing before his bed Naruto fell face first into the pillow and fell asleep instantly, not even caring that he hadn't changed out of his sweat filled clothes.
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The Next Day
The next day at the academy Naruto walked into the classroom with a multitude of confused looks aimed at him. "Naruto, what are you doing here? I thought you didn't make it" asked Sasuke. He was happy his friend was there but he didn't understand how. "The teachers noticed I have larger than normal Chakra coils and decided to give me another chance after school" answered Naruto with his rehearsed response. This satisfied most of the class who didn't care enough to ask further. Knowing there was more behind Naruto's promotion Sasuke decided he would question Naruto further later.
After greetings and congratulations from friends Naruto went to find a seat. Unfortunately, since he had been late due to sleeping in, Naruto's usual seat next to Sasuke was filled by fangirls. Looking around the room Naruto searched for another available seat. Seeing one in the back Naruto made off to take a seat and wait for the teachers to announce their genin teams. Sitting down Naruto sighed and went to start a conversation with the person who shared the desk. As he turned his head with a smile Naruto started his greeting, "Hi, who do you think you'll get on your….". Naruto's greeting stopped when he turned into the icy glare of one Hinata Hyuga attempting to put holes through the back of Naruto's head.
It stayed this way for several seconds before Naruto broke the silence. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" asked Naruto, forgetting that for the past 5 years that had been the Hyuga's seat in the classroom. "This just so happens to be my seat peasant, now if you would be so kind would you please move so I don't have to be in such proximity to something so disgusting?" replied Hinata without a shred of warmth in her voice. "Well if you haven't noticed princess there's no other seats available thanks to Sasuke's fanclub so how about we agree to mind each other's business and wait for our genin teams in silence" proposed Naruto. "Fine, but after today I hope to never see your face again" said Hinata, "don't worry princess you're not much to look at either" replied Naruto. Hinata's face went red at this comment and was about to let Naruto have it when a teacher had walked in with a clipboard and called for the attention of the class. Sitting back down, Hinata shot Naruto a nasty glare and then proceeded to turn the attention to the teacher. 'Man it is fun to get her flustered. Thank Kami I won't be seeing her much after today. I don't think I'd make three days being on her team.' thought Naruto.
The teacher started her speech "Okay, the genin teams consist of three genin and one jonin teacher. I will be calling you in groups of three, these are your teammates. Once the teams are assigned your jounin sensei will come to pick you up. Remember your teammates are your allies and could save your life any and every day when on a mission. Now the first team, team 3 will be...Team 8 is Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Sakura Haruno. Your jounin sensei is Kurenai Yuhi. Team 10 is Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Choji Akimichi. Your jounin sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi. Now the final team is Team 7 which will consist of Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki" , Naruto cheered at this and Sasuke smirked, "and Hinata Hyuga." finished the teacher. "WHAATTT?!" Shouted both Naruto and Hinata. The teacher had been knocked to the floor from the loud reactions of the two. Standing back up the teacher continued, "Your jounin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake". With that the teacher left newly promoted genins to socialize with their teams.
"So teammate…", Naruto tensed and hesitantly turned to face Hinata who now had a shadow covering her eyes. Hinata continued "It looks like we'll be seeing each other a lot more. Get in my way and you will wish you had never entered this world". She had now revealed her eyes, that would kill Naruto ten times over if it were possible. Naruto gulped in fear of what his new teammate would do.
Sasuke was thankful that there weren't any fangirls on his team but sighed knowing that his two teammates found each other to be insufferable. Deciding to go save Naruto before he got himself killed by their teammate Sasuke made his way to the back and sat between the two so as to act as a barrier. "Hmp," said Hinata, turning away to wait for their sensei to arrive so she could get as far away from the blonde as possible. Naruto was just recovering from Hinata's glare and started discussing with Sasuke the cool missions they would go on and how strong their new sensei was.
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After the first hour all the other teams had left with their jounin sensei and team 7 had taken new seating locations. Naruto and Sasuke had moved back to their seats and Hinata was still in the back patiently waiting for their sensei. 'What type of jounin is this late?! Does he know who I am?! I have a multitude of other things to do!' thought Hinata. Sasuke had decided to take a nap and was now semi asleep in his chair. Naruto however, had his face down on the desk bored out of his mind. "Where is he?!" complained Naruto. For once Hinata had agreed with him, neither of them had much patience, though they both showed it in different ways. Deciding to teach his sensei a lesson Naruto went up to the black board at the front of the classroom and grabbed an eraser. Hinata raised an eyebrow at this and watched to see what he was doing. Grabbing a chair, Naruto opened the door a little and stood on the chair. Then he placed the eraser between the door and doorframe, and then closed the door enough so the eraser would stay in place until the door had been opened. 'Does he really think such a simple trick will work on a jounin?' thought Hinata.
Twenty minutes later Hinata was proved wrong when a lazy white haired ninja opened the door to have the eraser fall on his head. Naruto laughed at his new sensei falling for the prank. Sasuke and Hinata had their sweat drop. Pausing for a second after being hit by the eraser the man looked at the trio and said "Meet me on the roof in 5 minutes". Then he walked away as if nothing ever happened. Following his instructions the trio of genin made their way to the roof, just as their sensei instructed.
When they arrived they saw the strange man sitting on the ledge of the building and had gestured for them to sit in front of him. Curious about the man the trio did as they were told and waited for the man to start. "Okay, my name is Kakashi Hatake and I'll be your jounin instructor. Now I want you each to say your name, your ambitions, things you like to do, and things you don't like to do".
If you have critiques to give I'm happy to receive them. Please don't over do it and use me as a way to vent your personal anxiety. Thanks!