Story Challenge Idea: Free to good home!

Canon Naruto takes place in a world where there is an uneasy peace between the great nations, and Naruto is allowed to develop his skills relatively slowly, his first brushes with combat being accidental.

What if that weren't the case?


Kakashi looked over the three genin sitting before him, saw the castdown looks they all had, and sighed.

He had hoped when the day came for him to take a genin team it would be during peace time, like the teams that had come up during the past decade. He wanted a bunch of bratty kids who would learn to be ninja by chasing crazy cats, weeding gardens, and taking on stupid bandits. You know, safe stuff.

But this was war. And he was tasked with war missions, not soft kiddie training missions.

"Team Seven, listen up."

Three sets of eyes looked up at him, eyes shining with hope and some expectation, eyes that wanted someone to tell them that everything was going to be okay, eyes that wanted someone to be kind to them, to tell them that they would have some rest after the battle they had just experienced. Eyes he was about to disappoint.

"My name is Kakashi Hatake. I am your jounin sensei, and your direct commander. You are my soldiers and you will follow my orders. Is that understood?"

He got three nods, the pink haired girl, Sakura, clearly about to shed tears. It was likely she wouldn't make it.

"I understand you lost friends yesterday," he continued. "I am sorry for your losses. I really am. But I'm going to tell you now to get used to it. We are going to war and even more of your friends will die over the next weeks and months. I'm going to do my best to teach you, to prepare you, and to keep that from happening to any of you, but I can't make you any promises."

The Uchiha's face went steely, stern, like a soldier's. That was a boy who had learned to face loss already. He would be ready for what was to come, most likely, but there would be even more suffering. And he would need to learn to care for his teammates if the three would ever be effective as fighting cell.

Sensei's son, Naruto, had a very different look on his face: dissent. He wasn't ready to face the reality that people he cared about were going to die and there was nothing he could do about it. This would be a hard lesson for him, unfortunately. The boy clearly had a lot of his mother in him, even if he looked more like his father. At least, by all accounts of the battle at the Academy he was prepared to fight, wouldn't hesitate in battle, and could use the raw power of the the beast within him in a pinch.

Hopefully, he wouldn't need that tomorrow.

"Tomorrow, your duties as a shinobi begin. So, go home, pack what you will need, have a good meal, and then get some rest. Meet me at the village gates tomorrow at 0800. We have a mission. Dismissed."

Usually, Kakashi would simply have vanished after giving such instructions, the ability to sunshin away was a nice psychological trick to employ on those not able to see how it was done, but at the moment it was not necessary to impress his kids with superior abilities. That would come later.

Sasuke Uchiha was the first to move, hesitating only a second before turning to walk away. The pink haired kunoichi fidgeted for a couple seconds before starting to move as well. But the blond stayed put, his previous resistance to Kakashi's message blossoming into full on rejection. As expected.

"That's it?" Naruto said, his voice raising. "We're going to just meet up tomorrow and start missions? We're not even going to stay for the funeral of our classmates?"

Sasuke and Sakura turned back, their gazes showing their agreement with their teammate's sentiment. Good. They should care about their Konoha brothers and sisters. They should want to mourn them. But that was not what their duty was right now.

"No, Naruto," Kakashi said, without a trace of rebuke in his voice. "We will not be here for their funeral. We have a mission."

"So, we're just supposed to, what? Forget about them? Forget that they just died? We're supposed to go on as if nothing happened?!" Naruto's voice continued to rise in indignation the more he talked.

Kakashi shook his head. "No, Naruto. Not 'just' go on. And we will never forget about them." Kakashi gestured towards the memorial stone. "This stone holds the names of hundreds of heroes who died fighting for Konoha. The names of my friends, my teammates are there, too. And we will mourn them and honor them when there is time."

Then Kakashi moved, faster than any of the genin could see. Even Sasuke with his sharingan activated would not have been able to witness it. In the blink of an eye, the jounin had a kunai at Naruto's throat.

Before any of the genin could register the threat, Kakashi put his head by Naruto's ear. "But right now, Naruto-kun, we are at war and the enemy has just put a knife to throat of our village. Is now the time to cry?"

Kakashi felt the malevolent chakra course through his student and released him, just as the deadly chakra cloak surrounded him. Then, just as soon as it was there, it was gone, and the eyes that had suddenly turned into red slits were back to the blazing blue so similar to Minato-sensei's.

"No," Naruto shook his head. "It's time to strike back," he answered.

Kakashi relaxed out of his battle stance and nodded. "Exactly right. We are a young team, but we are weapons in Konoha's hands, and there are targets that we can strike. So let's go and fight back, not forgetting about our comrades, but in memory of them."

The looks of determination Kakashi received from his three little soldiers was exactly what he had hoped for.


Details

Naruto's first two years in the Academy were the same, but at the start of his third year, relations between the Land of Fire, the Land of Stone and the Land of Lightning break down. Outright war is not declared, but the respective daimyo orders their hidden ninja villages to make preparations and to cripple the forces of their opposition.

The Academy is tasked with turning students into combat ready fighters for the upcoming war. And Naruto is to be prepared to battle not just as a Konoha shinobi-but as a jinchiriki.

On the day of their graduation, Konoha is attacked by an alliance of Iwa and Kiri, a simultaneous attempted decapitation of the Hokage, the Fire Daimyo and the most vulnerable of Konoha's forces: the Academy. Hiruzen fights off his attackers. Sasuke awakens his sharingan and Naruto breaks out his Kyuubi cloak in the presence of his fellow rookies for the first time.

The day after, only 33% of the village's academy student genin survived (the rookie Nine made it) and Hiruzen Sarutobi and the Fire Daimyo (who lived thanks to the 12 Guardians) declare open war. With the death of friends and teachers, Team 7 goes into their rookie training heading for very different experiences and entirely different challenges than the canon story.

Here are some of the details I would suggest:

⸭ Itachi returns to the village as an ANBU. This is a secret. At least at first.

⸭ Sasuke's focus on Itachi gives way before the realities of war. At least until Itachi saves him on the field of battle and the whole truth comes out.

⸭ Jiraiya and Tsunade are recalled. Saying "no" is not an option.

⸭ Naruto first learns to hate, then learns that hate sucks, and hopefully at the end decides he wants to end war and suffering (but without mass murder).

⸭ The Akatsuki disband because Pein focuses on the defense of the village Hidden in the Rain. Akatsuki members may still be encountered, but not as part of an organization.

⸭ There are no "Chunin Exams" only a chunin trial where candidates who receive field promotions from jonin commanders prove they have the necessary skills to retain the rank.

⸭ Orochimaru still wants Sasuke's eyes, but the Hidden Sound village is in a tenuous position and he doesn't have three years to waste. He may even turn to Konoha for an alliance.

⸭ Danzo is useful and has no intention of weakening Hiruzen in a time of war. Sasuke probably kills him anyway, but that's besides the point.

⸭ Tobi/Obito, Black Zetsu, Madara, Kaguya, and the Sage of Six Paths never enter the picture. Why not? Well, how about a random bijuu dama kills Tobi and the Zetsus? Wrong place, wrong time. Who needs them if you're doing an all new plot?

⸭ While we're at it, Kabuto was killed in the last chunin exam to be held before the "shadow war" started, so Orochimaru never improves on the edo tensei and never gets his hands on the Hokage corpses.