Chapter 1
The Softness of Youth
Konohagakure was in the middle of a sunshower, the soft touches of rain upon the wooden deck and nearby steel roof of the Academy as a set of karate bouts were taking place for the 5th years. The students cheered for their preferred candidate and jeered at the other the best they could.
A swift throw of the leg to the side of a boy with a brown shirt and short hair from an orange clothed loudmouth hit and they were called to go back to their starting position. The score was 2-1 with Naruto ahead by 1 point needed for a 3 point victory.
"Come on!" the brown haired kid shouted as he got ready.
"Huh? Not talking so much about kicking my butt now huh? I'm gonna get that next point." He grinned with all the humbleness of a cat.
The bell rang and Naruto engaged quickly with a bit of a sloppy stance, legs marginally apart and body forward with fists up; he launched a few shots at the mid section before being blocked and backing off. His opponent moved in and swung and missed and another was thrown and Naruto swung his arm sideways and blocked it before hitting him quickly in the face and the bell was rung to signify the end of the fight.
"Yeah! Take that you brown haired bozo!" Naruto cheered and did a little dance, much to the groans and annoyance of the majority of the crowd, withstanding but a handful of students that liked Naruto better than the brown haired student. He pranced off the stage towards Shikamaru and Choji. Choji patted Naruto's back,
"Good job Naruto! You showed him good," Choji gleamed a kilowatt smile and did a small little dance with his pudgy looking but truthfully muscular body.
"We only have Ninja Systems and Village Systems left," Shikamaru, the pineapple haired lanky boy commented as the trio began to go back to the class.
The next hour and a half were incredibly boring for Naruto and the gang. Iruka lectured on the four classes of ninja, Genin, Chunin, Hyonin, and Jonin. Furthermore he spoke about the Jonin Council and the ANBU, albeit, with much less information on those two. Interestingly enough, a question was asked mid lecture about the difference between Hyonin and Chunin. Brass tacks of it was that after the third war it was considered that there should be a rank to guide Chunin that were skilled and had the right leadership qualities that were not powerful enough to be Jonin in the vacuum of elite ninja in Konoha and other ninja villages after the war. It was a review for the test they had in this class tomorrow. The bell for class end rang and the students filed out whilst Iruka shouted about not forgetting to study.
"If Iruka thinks for one more second I'm going to study, he's got another thing coming." the orange clothed Naruto complained to his three friends while walking away from the Academy gates.
The Nara sighed, "You failed the last history and the last strategy test. What makes you think you'd pass this next one?"
"Because I paid attention this time in class," Naruto declared as he looked far too proud for simply doing the bare minimum.
"Mmmm you go ahead and do that Naruto. I'm going to study with Shino later. I know he'll do well!" Choji cheered.
"Suit yourself, you going to go home Shikamaru?" Naruto inquired, turning around, a few steps ahead of the two.
"Yeah, I'm gonna go home to look at the clouds for a bit, maybe do some reading or play some shoji."
"Yawn. Well, see you two later," Naruto skipped off to his apartment complex near the edge of the market on the farside of the Hokage tower near to the red light district and slums. The streets were dirty with litter and a few shady characters on the corners and a look of distress in the eyes of the prostitutes at the corners and more ladies of the night within the alleys. Not a place for a kid to grow up, but it is the only place in the village that'll accept him without too much issue past the occasional break in, mugging, and vandal. Nothing that he wasn't used to or frankly unsure of how to live otherwise. He's lived in this little side of Konoha for well over half his life with little more than check ins Jiji or one of the ANBU assigned to make sure the area was not in too much hot water.
He opened his door after fiddling around with the key for a few seconds and quickly entered and locked the door behind him after it was shut. He sat on the couch as he saw the softness of the rain touch the window with the sun shining over the village. An oxymoron in of itself and a mockery of all 5th grade understanding of weather. He snickered to himself about the oddness of sunshowers as put on the TV and went to the kitchen and started his nightly meal of cup ramen. He sat there patiently hearing the hum of the microwave as he droning hummed along with it until 6 seconds were left in which he stopped it and took it out with a 'hot, hot hot,' to the counter and ate while the news went on about a new initiative to increase trade between Suna and Konoha along the Razon main road to the capital and Suna split. After his meal he turned off the TV and went outside and with an old dirty jacket he stole from some traveler who left it at his booth.
Outside was setting to dusk. He started off to one of the alleys and down some side streets with loud noises and dive bars till he came to a small bar labeled, 'Parade'. Inside was a lower level with a bouncer at the top. Naruto used his jacket to cover his identity as he went down to a cage match with two missing nin violently duking it out in the middle. Naruto has been here a million times, along with a bunch of rich people with too much money to spend so they bet on fights.
"Home, sweeter home," he walked around watching the fight and casing the rich looking patrons, swiping the odd wallet and putting it inside his jacket. One of the fighters inside grabbed a kunai thrown to the ground causing a perfect time to slip off to the toilets and drop all the cash he could into his wallet and throw the rest into the garbage. Today, he got a decent score. About 12,000 ryo. Enough for next month's rent and food. When he returned to the floor he was greeted with two angry looking customers, one of which with a tanto.
"Hey there, you got something of ours?" one of the men Naruto stole from asked as the other fiddled with his knife.
"I have no idea what you could mean?" he played dumb.
"You have our money. We want it back, now. Or we take those hands of yours," the man with the knife made a chopping motion with his knife to the hand. Suddenly, the crowd erupted in cheers and groans as presumably one of the fighters was knocked out or killed. Naruto took this chance and blasted through both of them and sprinted for the exit and up the stairs.
Outside he stumbled outside with the two men not far behind him. He got ready for the fight. He fell to the ground to avoid a kick to a wall, but the man fell too into the muddy street from the recent rain. Naruto grabbed some mud and threw it at the man with the knife who got hit in the face with it. He scrambled to his feet and kicked the man on the ground before being slashed at. He swiftly bobbed around the swing and struck twice at the ribs and gut of the man before backing off. The punches didn't do too much but he seems to wind him marginally. He looked around for something to fight with, any much longer and he'd be toast. A garbage can, some broken glass, and a tonne of mud. He grabbed the lid of the can and started swinging it around and knocked the knife away as the two backed away from the lid. He threw the lid at the two of them who simply batted it away, good enough. He grabbed the knife and ran. He didn't stop running but he could hear them calling after him. He dipped behind two turns and sat down and threw his jacket over himself to hide himself. The two ran by as he held the tanto to the edge of the jacket with heavy breathing as he dared not look. He left after about 10 minutes and slipped back to home.
Just before he went inside he saw one of his favourite people. An old and gruff looking newspaper, magansine, and book vendor that smelt of old cigarettes. "Benji! What's up?" Naruto tried to act casual even though he was filthy.
"Just about to close up for the day and go home. What can I do you for?" asked the man, looking a bit concerned at the boy all covered in mud.
"Can I steal a newspaper and a book on nina systems off of ya?" the boy asked with a bit of hope.
"Hmm, I don't think having anything on ninja systems exactly, But I have an old account written by a veteran after the 3rd shinobi war. About 80 pages long. And I can certainly do you on that paper though," he handed the paper and shuffled around inside his cart and pulled an worn looking almost pamphlet sized book. "Here, the book and the paper. On the house." He smiled softly and ruffled the kids hair before lighting a smoke and taking a long drag.
"Thanks Benji! You're honestly the best," Naruto beamed as he flipped through the first few pages of the book before putting it in his pocket. "You know, I'm still gonna ask. What did you do before you became a peddler?" he inquired more as a need to keep up a long going bit.
Benji snorted. "Yeah, maybe a different time. I like you, but I don't like you that much," he closed his eyes and took another drag. "Well, I should be off to home. Good luck on your test kid."
"Thanks… Hey! How did you know I have a test?" Naruto seemed a bit confused as he never mentioned.
"You don't ask for books like that unless you need them. So I assumed you'd be studying for a test of some sort." He began to push his cart away and fade off into the dark of the night as the soft rain came to a close.
Naruto went inside for the night, showered, read the book in around an hour and put it down to go to sleep. It was a good day, and he was feeling good.
The next morning, he did his morning routines and hopped out to school, keeping his jacket and tanto at home. The next day at the Academy was relatively uninteresting. They had some teamwork drills, combat drills, basic ninjutsu and survival training as well as work out and finally the test. It wasn't as hard as he expected. Naruto felt good about it as he knew most of the answers. He was a bit stuck on the role of ANBU as they should be the same thing as ninja, but they weren't and he was never quite sure on how that worked out.
The next test was the final test, the jutsu test. The class stayed inside as each individual was called outside to complete the jutsu test. Finally, Naruto was called.
"OK, Naruto Uzamaki. Please perform a clone jutsu of any type," Iruka told him.
Naruto put his hands together in the rat position and made one passable clone. It was shaken and looked a little discoloured. Barely a pass.
"Kawarmi."
He switched places with a log on a seat for him to switch with.
"Henge"
Naruto focused his energy and became Iruka. He looked alright. Nothing horribly wrong so he'd get a pass again.
"Finally, go back to your seat," Mizuki remained totally calm and collected while Naruto continued to pass the exam, much to his dismay. Naruto began to walk but stopped and stabbed his toe against the log causing him to wince and break out of a genjutsu and now genuinely walk off the stage. When he sat down he
In any case, when that final bell rang he went to the park with Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba tagged along this time.
The rest of the day came and went. Fairly boring and not much happened. A relaxing day as they played games and jokes around. They all went home to their warm beds and food their bellies. The final day where they were still civilians, tomorrow, they were ninja, soldiers.
The academy classroom was bustling; the cadets waited anxiously for their names. When they went down, they were given a diploma of academy completion, a recent Konoha general bingo book, and a Leaf headband. Naruto bounded down to Iruka's desk and stood at attention.
"Naruto Uzumaki, do you, swear to serve and protect Konoha and its people, at home and abroad?" Iruka began to swear Naruto in as a ninja.
"I do."
"Do you swear to obey the Hokage and to do their bidding wherever they and you may go?"
"I do."
"Then congratulations, you are now officially a Konohagakure Genin. Here is your headband, and your certificate of completion. As well as a bingo book to know who to look for when on the field and to know dangerous foes," he looked mildly proud of him but a bit worried too.
Naruto smiled brightly and put on his headband and took the book and the record of completion to his seat and relaxed. The rest of the ceremony proceeded normally, everyone that completed the examination got their certification and headband and was told to wait.
"Your Jonin sensei will come within the next ten minutes to an hour, they will announce your names and you will follow their directions. In the meantime you will stay within this room. I'll put a tv on with some movie," Iruka put on 'Seven Samurai' and took a seat, watching the movie as did most of the class. As the hour passed everyone seemed to file out three by three. Sadly, Naruto wasn't teamed up with his friends but as the hour turned to two, it seems he was left with Sauska and Sakura. He didn't explicitly dislike either. He was more indifferent or annoyed. Sasuke, while incredibly skilled no doubt, was quite mean to others and arrogant when challenged; Sakura on the other hand was more loud than anything. Although a talented medic and throws a mean punch. He could make this work.
Soon as the movie was reaching the two thirds mark, a man with a lazy look about him and a standard Jonin jacket and a black jumpsuit and pants and a face mask covering above his mouth waltzed into the room.
"Are you three Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto?" He asked with about as much enthusiasm as a bored cat.
"Yep!" Naruto popped off a bit miffed at his lateness but just more happy he's officially a ninja now.
"Lovely, come up to the roof," he glanced at the tv screen before walking away. The trio grumbled about the lateness once again and being dragged away from the movie just as it was really getting to the climax.
Once upstairs Naruto heard more grumblings from Sakura about Naruto being on her team. He frowned about that finding her pretty but she'd come around he thought. Sasuke was
Finally, the roof, Kakashi sat on the railing staring out to space as they all took their seats around and he looked back to his team. He gave the best fake smile he could, they could all tell but Naruto and Sakura smiled back, Sasuke just scowled.
"Congratulations on passing your examination. I am your Jonin sensei, Hatake Kakashi. I expect you three to behave as best as you can as well as listen to my orders. Those are the formalities of it. Now! How about some introductions from you three? Names, hobbies, and dreams?" Kakashi explained and then gave a strange smile with his eyes. "You, Pinkie, do you mind going first?"
She frowned but began, "My name is Sakura Hanaruo, my dream is to become the director of the hospital and to be with someone. My hobbies include cooking and writing poetry," she explained the last part like a first job resume.
Naruto pipped up, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. My dream is to become the Hokage and help the people near me. My hobbies are eating ramen and hanging out with Shikamaru and Choji," Naruto darn near shouted so all of Konoha could hear.
Prompted by Kakashk, Sasuke started, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha, my goal is to avenge my clan and my hobbies are unimportant to you," he said leaving no room for discussion in what he wanted.
Kakashi sighed and stood up, "Well this hasn't been a bad start. But I shall do a skills assessment of you three tomorrow at training field 5. It's near the river rapids, we start at 7am. Have a nice day," he stood up and began to zip off to who knows where.
Naruto and the other two stood up and began to set off for homes to prepare for the evening.
"Hey Saukra, Sasuke, want to go get something to eat, celebrate our start as a team?" He tried to inject some life into the duo. Sasuke blew a scoff and walked faster and Sakura glared at Naruto for annoying Sasuke and he frowned, going home.
As he walked near to his apartment he saw Benji, selling his magazines. He greeted him with a smile and waved at him warmly. Benji grinned back with his yellow stained teeth. "Hey Benji, selling much?" he asked as he walked towards the cart.
"A bit. Not as much as that new headband is worth though." He poked at the steel protector and blue headband piece adorned his head.
Naruto giggled at the mention, "Yeah, but I have you to thank for that with that helpful book of yours. I have it upstairs if you want it?" Naruto offered, making a gesture to his apartment block.
"Nah. Consider it a graduation gift. You know, I'm glad you became a ninja. Keeps you out of trouble I hope, doesn't hurt that it gives an older man like myself some hope. You'll make a fine ninja," he sounded genuine as he started to pack up. "I got to go soon. I hope your team does well," He began to wheel away into the coming dusk.
Naruto smiled as he went upstairs to cook some food and make his evening TV watching before bed cut a bit short to wake up early. He was glad for his one constant in life Benji and he finally had hope for another constant, his team. Team seven.