The sun steadily rose over the village of Konoha. The city began to sprung to life as a young Uzumaki, Nara, and Yamanaka made their way to their training field. Shikamaru practically collapsed with exhaustion as he tried to fall back asleep. Naruto following his fellow teammate laid down and closed his eyes. As Ino approached she saw her teammates and the position they were. She sighed, blew a strand of hair out of her face before yelling "YOU GUYS ARE THE LAZIEST FUCKS I HAVE EVER SEEN!"
Both Nara and Uzumaki sighed in frustration. "Too early." both whined out. Ino in her frustration decided to kick both boys. Naruto whined before conceding and getting back up. Shikamaru did his best to try to ignore his annoying teammate. They heard a deep laugh from behind them and all 3 turned their head to the noise.
Their stood their sensei laughing at what was transpiring before him. "I can see the beautiful bonding of my team." The man said while chuckling. Shikamaru sighed before sitting up. "So, what are we going to be doing today." Nara asked.
Asuma reached to his flak jacket and pulled out a cigarette and sticking it into his mouth. "Your first mission" he stated bluntly. Ino buzzed with excitement at his response. "Cmon" He muttered.
Asuma led them through the village to the entrance of the Hokage Tower and glanced a look at his team. Shikamaru had the same lazy expression on his face that he always had. Ino was buzzing in excitement in anticipation but Naruto was plain neutral. He raised his eyebrow. How wrong did they get this kid? None of the notes he received were at all correct but it was kind of relieving. Heaven on earth knows how he would've dealt with a kid who was bouncing off the walls.
He led his genin inside to where they would receive their mission and saw his father sitting to greet genin. The team approached him before stopping and bowing in respect. "Hokage-sama, Team 10 is here to receive their first mission."
Hiruzen smiled at the sight before him before looking at Naruto. He remembered their conversation over a week ago and he still couldn't help but still feel the stain of guilt that hang over him. "Well first thing first, I do have to say congratulations on making it this far. Remember to work hard, make Konoha proud, and more importantly good luck in everything you do."
The 3 genin nodded in response. "Now for your first mission you actually to get pick your choice. A little tradition we have around here." Naruto rolled his eyes he knew what these "missions" actually were. "So, first we have the choice of walking the Inuzuka Clan dogs around the village, next we have finding a missing cat, also cleaning out a storage area of a grocery store." Hiruzen looked up to see the Shikimaru's and Ino's horror of the actual reality of being a genin. Naruto had absolutely nothing on his face, no widened eyes, no tell, almost if he expected this.
Ino groaned before looking at her team. "Alright what are we gonna do?" "Anything but finding that damn cat." Naruto responded. Ino looked at Shikamaru and all he did was shrug his shoulder. "Do you guys like dogs?" Their sensei asked. All 3 faintly nodded in response. "We'll take that one Hokage-sama." Hiruzen handed the scroll to his son and while he pocked the scroll he spoke to his team. "C'mon guys the faster we do this the faster we get paid."
After Team 10 Hiruzen leaned back into his chair and lit his pipe before inhaling deeply. A few seconds later he could hear the audible groan of Team 10 and the man couldn't help but smile. "The will of fire shall continue." He chuckled to himself.
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To say their first mission was particularly easy was an understatement except for a certain blonde headed Uzumaki. It just seemed to be dogs definitely weren't Naruto's animals.
For Ino, she had gotten the smallest of the dogs, puppies and smaller breeds of the sorts. Shikamaru had gotten all the average sized dogs. Even for someone like Shikamaru the dogs were fairly obedient so it was a breeze for him. Naruto on the other hand had gotten the oldest and largest breeds assigned to him.
Once Asuma had handed the leashes over to him the dogs had a complete shift in personality. They went from being loyal, obedient, tempered animals to absolute wild pain in the asses. While being the strongest out of the group, Naruto had to use all said strength to prevent himself from being dragged across the ground. To say the soles on Naruto's shoes had eventually worn down was an understatement. The boy could swear he could poke his toes through the soles after they were done with the mission.
They all rendezvoused at where they had started. Ino and Shikamaru were waiting calmly while a sweat drenched Naruto had showed up being dragged by his beasts. "Uh are you good Naruto?" Ino asked. Naruto shot her a glare before responding with a simple "No."
Asuma had return to their comeback point and glanced a look at Naruto and cocked and eyebrow. "So, I leave for 5 minutes to grab a pack and I come back to you drenched in sweat. What do they not like you?" "No, now please help me." Asuma chuckled to himself before helping the Uzumaki untangle all the leashes and taking over for the poor kid.
"Listen kid." Asuma placed his free hand on the boy's shoulders. "It's the little things that make being a ninja worth it. No one said it was going to be easy but it's the little victories that matter. At least you didn't end up covered in dog shit am I right?"
Naruto sighed before nodding in response. Asuma slapped the kids shoulders. That's the spirit now let's take these dogs home and lets go get paid."
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Team 10's day went on doing grueling D mission after mission. The last mission they had took was cleaning out a store's storage room and Asuma couldn't help himself but to watch. It took forever for team to actually start on their assigned mission due to a Young Ino dragging over Naruto over to the clothing section for what she had called an emergency wardrobe change. He thought his new clothing would prevent him from being forced to endure such torture but he forgot he was teammates with Ino.
After an hour of arguing back and forth and with threats of Ino forcing her way into Naruto's mind, he eventually relented and let Ino have her way with him. After finding Shikamaru napping on top of some boxes, the team breezed their way through finally cleaning out the store's storage room. After the team finished, Ino forced Naruto into his new clothes and while it wasn't the worst it definitely wasn't him. Ino forced him into a pair of dark cargo shorts, a purple windbreaker and a dark blue shirt.
After finishing their day's work, Asuma directed them to their training field. Naruto angrily tugged at his new clothing while dragging all the bags of new clothes he had been forced to buy until Ino swatted the back of his head and Naruto decided to just accept it. When they reached their field Asuma led them to their usual meeting spot where the genin all decided to sit while he leaned against the tree.
Asuma looked over his team with a huge grin. They had been through their spirit crushing hazing process that all new genin would suffer through. He could've watched them all day struggle and be massively entertained throughout it all.
"Well," Asuma muttered to them "That was an okay first day. Ive seen much worse than y'all and at least you guys didn't actually fail any of those missions." The trio all looked at each other, these "missions" were thing they could have done in the academy.
"So, what now Asuma-sensei?" Ino asked curiously.
"Good question." Asuma responded. "I'm in a little bit of a pickle to be honest. I pretty much know what either of you can do." He said pointing at Ino and Shikamaru. "I've worked with both of your clans before in my time and even with both of your fathers at one point." He then looked at Naruto. "You however are the odd man out. You are absolutely nothing like what the notes I received are. I know you can use shadow clones but beyond that I only know what Hokage-sama has told me."
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck in response. "Well to be honest I don't really know much. Hell, I don't even really train with anyone else."
Asuma smiled in response. "Well, that's one thing a team is for Naruto, training partners. While your justu repertoire isn't big at all, I'm pretty sure you could whip these 2 into shape at least. I'm responsible for all of your training, helping you all get stronger but to be honest I don't even know what I'm not allowed to teach you. Hell, none of you guys even fight like me and besides that, you 2 still have to learn your family techniques." Asuma said pointing again at Ino and Shikamaru.
"You're all genin for now but I expect you all to get very good very fast, I think you all have the talent for it." Naruto and Ino smiled at the compliment while Shikamaru just seemed to roll his eyes. Sounded like a lot of work to him.
Asuma rubbed his chin while he pondered. "Alright were gonna actually call it a day. You all did good today but Naruto I want you to stay here, we need to talk more. Naruto's eyes perked up in response as Ino and Shikamaru got up to leave. Both waved and nodded goodbye before heading their respective ways home.
Naruto looked up at the man that was his sensei. "Did I do something wrong Asuma-sensei?
"No Naruto, you did a great job today actually, especially with you dealing that torture with Ino" Asuma chuckled to himself.
"Definitely not my finest moment, right?" Naruto retorted. Both of them shared a laugh between teacher and student.
"You know, hokage-sama actually gave me instruction to give you extra training." "Oh, did he now?" Naruto responded. Asuma raised his eyebrows expecting the genin to be excited at the information he had just received. "Can I ask you something sensei?" Asuma nodded. "What's it like to be the Hokage's son?" Asuma tilted his head back and looked at the clouds above him. He wasn't expecting such a deep question from his pupil but he wasn't one to lie to him either.
"Honestly, not what you'd think it would be. You're always judged to be perfect, the best but I was never that. Do you know how many times me and him have fought over the years? Countless. I've expected him to be there more of my life. It always seems that his personal family was on the back burner compared to the village. I know it seems selfish too but hell it's one of the reasons I left the village for a while to become one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. I just needed to be somewhere where I could be me and not be judged for what was in my blood."
Naruto felt the genuine response reverberate with him. "Just like how I feel with the kyuubi." He muttered to himself. Asuma grunted "So you really do know huh?"
Naruto sighed "You know I've always been ostracized all my life from the village. Been chased out from everywhere I go, kicked out of countless orphanages, you know I even have to use a henge to buy groceries?" Naruto felt a tear fall from eyes down his cheek.
Asuma felt for the boy. He knew the tremendous pressure that was on the boy's shoulders, he could resonate with that. Asuma couldn't help but reach out to the boy and embrace him. It definitely something he wasn't known to do but deep down he knew that they both had felt pain.
Naruto hadn't known comfort but when Asuma embraced him he felt different. Anger and hate slithered away and it was calming. Asuma broke his embrace and patted Naruto's on the back. "Things will get easier kid. You got me looking out for you now. Now you done crying?" Someone might see us."
Naruto couldn't help himself but laugh and wipe his face. "So forreal now, what's the reason you kept me back?"
"Give you extra training. I was serious. Old man asked me to." Asuma responded. "First thing I need to know is what your chakra type is" "Wind." Naruto said quickly. "Oh? How do you know that?" "I did one of those chakra paper things and it split right down the middle."
Asuma grinned. "Well, aren't you just in luck, youre looking at Konohas only other wind user. Tell me how do you feel about fighting with these?" Asuma pulled out his trench knives and pushed his chakra through them to enhance them.
"I'm listening." Naruto replied.