This was the result of the thought that Uzushiogakure and Konohagakure were very close allies until Uzu's fall. Given that, what agreements might have been made between them?

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Genin Of The Whirlpool

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"Naruto," Iruka said regretfully, "You fail."

"What?" Naruto half-shouted. "Just because my clones don't look good…"

"You need to demonstrate that you can use chakra, control it." Iruka sighed. "The Bunshin is a test of that."

Naruto scowled as he started to stalk out, then he paused in thought. Iruka stared at him as Naruto's expression turned from a scowl to a grin, one that he used as he pranked someone.

"…Naruto?"

"Gotta check something!" Naruto shouted as he sprinted out of the room. Iruka and Mizuki exchanged glances.

"This can't be good."

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Hiruzen stared in shock at Naruto.

"What?"

"As per the treaty between Konohagakure and Uzushiogakure," Naruto said, holding up a tattered document that Hiruzen hadn't seen since he had been a genin and another that had vanished during the time that the Civilian Council had tried to claim the Uzumaki fortune for the village, "I, as the senior representative of Uzushiogakure to Konoha hereby confirm that Uzumaki Naruto, a member of the Uzumaki clan, is hereby recognised as a genin of Uzushiogakure and, as per the treaty, petition Konohagakure to extend training to him."

Hiruzen continued to stare at Naruto, then his gaze dropped to the Hitai-ate with the Uzushiogakure spiral engraved upon it that Naruto was wearing as a belt.

"Naruto…" He said slowly, "Uzushiogakure is gone…"

"Really?" Naruto frowned. "It can't be, it would have been mentioned in the Academy history books if it had fallen."

Hiruzen made a mental note to have the Academy texts vetted by a group of Jonin.

"But the treaty wasn't cancelled." Naruto smirked. "I checked the announcements and there wasn't one, so it is still in force."

Hiruzen slowly nodded. The precedent (the Village hidden in the Grass) was there, the village in question had been destroyed and was re-founded a decade later in a different valley, but the neighbouring villages had all recognised it as the original village and maintained the treaties.

Part of him wanted to try and deny Naruto his claim, another part wanted to go through with it and laugh at the confusion it would cause.

The latter part won.

"Naruto," Hiruzen said as he rose from his seat, "I have several scrolls containing techniques gifted to Konoha from Uzu before it fell. I believe that you should have copies of some of those scrolls, including one with the traditional Bunshin of the Uzumaki clan, the Kage Bunshin."

"Uhhhh, Bunshin's are useless." Naruto groused as he followed Hiruzen out of the office.

"Not this one." Hiruzen smirked. "I use it a lot to help with my paperwork."

"Huh?"

"By the way, where did you find those two documents? I've been looking for them for the last decade."

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"…team seven will consist of Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Inuzuka Kiba." Iruka said, ignoring Sakura's scream of joy. "Team eight is Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and… huh?"

Everyone's attention snapped to the confused tutor.

"… and… a genin from Uzushiogakure?"

"Never heard of it." Shikamaru mused. "What's so odd about it?"

"Uzushiogakure was regarded as being the sixth of the Five Great Villages even though it was the size of a minor village until it was destroyed just before the Third Great Shinobi War." Iruka said slowly. "It was Konoha's greatest ally from the day Konoha was founded and it took an alliance of three other villages, Mizu, Iwa and Kumo, to destroy it, and even then they lost almost half their forces in the process. The loss of Uzushiogakure was one of the sparks for the Third Great War and the damage they inflicted as they fell is still regarded as the reason why Konoha won."

"Why the heck didn't we get taught about those badass people?" Kiba asked and Iruka shrugged.

"I… don't know. Odd."

For a long moment, no-one spoke, then Iruka coughed.

"Team nine is still active so team ten is Akamichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino."

Ino snarled as she glared at her rival.

"Dammit! You get the class hunk, the Princess gets the mysterious ninja while I get the lazy clown and the sleeper!"

"What was that?!" Choji growled, his bag of chips dropping from his grasp.

.

"What was that?" Kurenai asked in shock and Hiruzen smirked at her.

"Just what I said. Genin Uzumaki Naruto of Uzushiogakure has been provisionally assigned to your potential genin team."

Kurenai blinked several times. "Uzushiogakure's fallen…"

"But the treaty was never cancelled." Hiruzen riposted. "Naruto found out about it and realized that he could use it to become a genin, despite being failed by the Academy."

"He… failed? Then…?"

"Because they didn't take his chakra levels into account." Hiruzen said, all amusement vanished from his tone. "Naruto has so much chakra that it is actually physically painful for him to sit and study for more than three hours a day. He needs to learn by doing and the more chakra he can burn off, the more he is able to concentrate."

Kurenai nodded slowly as she thought through what Hiruzen had said and, more importantly to any ninja, what he hadn't.

"If it helps, he showed me yesterday that he has learned Kage Bunshin." Hiruzen added, earning a shocked stare. "I took the liberty of checking that he knew about the memory aspect of it."

"Kage Bunshin?" Kurenai breathed. "That would be very useful for a recon team…"

"Indeed." Hiruzen agreed. "Now, you may want to head over to the Academy, you should be picking up your team."

Kurenai bowed and then vanished in a swirl of leaves.

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The door to the classroom opened and everyone turned to look, only to blink in confusion.

The figure at the door was clad in a black outfit, a white spiral embroidered on each shoulder. Over the top of the black high-collared top was a segmented armoured plate held by two thick straps over the shoulders while the front and back portions were cinched tight by orange cords.

The new arrival's Hitai-ate boasted not the leaf of Konoha, but the spiral-in-a-circle of Uzushiogakure and was worn on his forehead, above his sparkling blue eyes…

"…naruto?" Iruka finally managed.

"Iruka-Sensei." Naruto grinned at him. "Watcha think? I found out about my clan and this is what they wore in battle."

"Naruto-baka!" Sakura screeched. "You failed! How dare you pretend to be a ninja!"

"He is a ninja." A new voice said and Naruto spun round to find himself looking at a cleavage in a dress apparently formed from a long embroidered ribbon of cloth wrapped in multiple layers. Backing up, he looked up to see a pair of red eyes examining him critically.

"Good morning, Genin Uzumaki." The new arrival said with a slight smile. "I am your assigned Sensei, Yuhi Kurenai. Are Hyuuga Hinata and Aburame Shino here?"

Both genin stood up and Kurenai smiled at them. "Excellent. Meet me at Training Field 8."

Kurenai seemed to ripple out of existence, leaving the entire class staring dumbstruck, a silence that was broken by Iruka coughing theatrically.

"Don't three of you have somewhere to be?" He chuckled.

"Ahhh! Yeah!" Naruto gasped as he sprinted away from the door, grabbing his new team-mates and leaping out of the window with them.

"Naruto!" Iruka shouted, sprinting to the window in time to see a dozen clones catching the falling genin and setting them onto their feet before dispelling.

"What the heck was that?" Kiba gasped from where he was hanging over the window-sill.

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Kurenai nodded with approval from within her genjutsu as all three of her Genin arrived together and started to look round.

"I thought that she'd meet us here?" Naruto asked, his voice filled with confusion. "This is training ground 8, isn't it?"

"It is." Shino replied. "It is logical to assume that she is here and we are to find her. What skills do you have that can be of assistance?"

"I have the byakugan." Hinata said quietly.

"Shadow clones!" Naruto stated, summoning a dozen of them.

"My Kikkai can search large areas and report their findings to me." Shino said. "however, it would be logical to use the most efficient method we have to start with. Hinata-san, if you would please use your byakugan to search for any genjutsu…"

"No need." Kurenai said, dropping her illusion and walking up to them. "You have proven that you can work as a team and that's good enough for me to pass you both."

"Both?" Naruto asked and Kurenai nodded.

"As an Uzushiogakure Genin, you were in no danger of being sent back to the Academy." She explained. "If I had failed the other two, you would simply have become an Unassigned Genin like many of our shinobi, responsible for your own training and missions."

"I'm still trying to catch up on things." Naruto said with an embarrassed shrug. "I kinda had to teach myself to read and I'm not that good at it…"

"I'll help." Hinata said before she could stop herself.

"Really?" Naruto cheered as he grabbed Hinata in a hug. "Thanks!"

"I will aid also." Shino said quietly. "It is only logical. Why, you ask? Because we are a team. Urk!"

Kurenai fought down laughter as Naruto pulled Shino into the hug, a hug that was enlarged by all the clones. As it finally ended and Shino managed to extract himself, Naruto started panicking.

"Kurenai-sensei! Hinata's out cold! What's wrong with her?"