Team 7 & Team 10: Meeting
Umino Iruka glances at the names on the scroll, humming in disbelief. Nonetheless, he continues with a steady voice: "Team 7 consists of Uchiha Sasuke" two girls practically growl in anticipation while shooting each other wary glances, "... Uzumaki Naruto" Naruto wants to die, "and ...Nara Shikamaru with Hatake Kakashi as their sensei."
Suddenly giving up his lazy composure, Shikamaru nearly falls off of the bench. Has he heard that right? No Ino-Shika-Cho? "Eh, Iruka-sensei?" he asks, thinking it to be a mere mistake.
The scarred man huffs and answers: "No, Shikamaru-kun, I can read. It says so on the scroll and I'm sure you three can make it work."
"Believe it!" Naruto shouts through the stunned classroom. A lot more quietly, he adds: "Even though we have the Teme on our team."
"Hn." Sasuke grunts. It could either mean he agrees, he disagrees or he hasn't registered what's going on and why it is weird to have three males on their team. Maybe he's glad that neither one of the currently too shocked to properly form a word banshees, Sakura and Ino, will pester him... or so Shikamaru muses.
He himself just blinks a couple of times but accepts the situation quickly. Hatake Kakashi is a very competent jonin so he isn't too bothered. The fact that there is an ongoing rivalry between his other two team mates is a bit troublesome. Although... he has prepared to face Ino on a daily basis and this isn't worse than her nagging.
Sakura and Ino nearly miss the next assignment. Unluckily for the ears of the poor other students, they don't.
"On Team 8 we have Aburame Shino, Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura with –" Iruka is cut off by two pre-teen girls yelling an outraged "WHAT?!".
"QUIET!" he barks back, used to their fangirling contests and animosity, "As I was saying" he stares the two young kunoichi down until they have to swallow under his disappointed gaze, "their jonin sensei is Yuuhi Kurenai."
Shikamaru cranes his neck to see how Shino is taking the news. As expected, his appearance is still stoic but there's also a bead of sweat on his cheek. The Nara is suddenly really glad that he's not in Shino's position.
Naruto seems to think otherwise as he's enviously gazing at Sakura and then eyes the Aburame heir with the same look.
"Team 9 is still active so we'll jump ahead to Team 10 which consists of Akimichi Chouji, Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba with tokubetsu jonin Shiranui Genma. Now please wait here in silence" another stare is directed at Ino and Sakura who want to make their displeasure known yet again, "for your jonin to collect you."
Chouji pats his best friend's back. "Could have been worse, eh?" he asks, munching on a potato chip.
"Much worse, yeah. I'm just a bit thrown off that they didn't stick us together." Shikamaru answers honestly. He's always relied on Chouji to have his back and now that that's not possible anymore – at least until they make it to chunin – is kind of eye-opening. Maybe they have separated them because of their reliance on each other, to show them that they'll have to adept to all kinds of people to become good shinobi.
Nara Shikamara is wrong for the council had intended to rely on that but well, that's that.
One by one, the jonin senseis casually trot in to pick up their students. Another pat is exchanged when a man no older than thirty comes in. He chews on a senbon which is a dead giveaway. Genma collects his new students with a small smile. He isn't used to getting clan kids (the council always underestimates him just because he's no actual jonin) so he's excited to have three of them this time. Obviously, it doesn't mean they'll pass but they seem to have a much more promising set-up than his previous genin teams.
Just before he goes out of the classroom he notices the lack of another sensei lurking behind.
Genma raises his eyebrows and turns to the three boys who are waiting. "Who are you waiting for?" he asks them.
The blond haired kid wearing an orange abomination of a track suit perks up at the tokubetsu's question. "Kaka-something!" Shikamaru snorts and even from the usual stoic Uchiha a curt amused sound is heard.
"Kakashi?! They gave you Kakashi as a jonin instructor... alright, wanna go with us? We're going to have our first meet-up at Yakiniku Q." Genma offers easily.
"But aren't we supposed to wait here?" It's surprisingly Sasuke who speaks up.
"Eh. Kakashi is notorious for being late. We could pick him up early and do a sort of double genin team introduction." the brown haired man shrugs and twirls his senbon between his teeth.
Naruto jumps up from the desk he's been sitting on and bellows: "Yosh! C'mon Shika, Teme! Let's go with them!" Genma isn't surprised that such an energetic kid speaks as if every sentence is exciting enough to put an exclamation mark at the end of it. He has to fight the smile at the memory of Kushina oftentimes doing the exact same.
He wonders if he'd have invited Team 7 too if he'd been assigned the usual pretty much worst clan-less children thrown together to torment him. Probably not. Usually, he fails them after five hours. His genin test isn't the most difficult but it involves teamwork and quite frankly, the council's inclined on giving him exactly those who have nothing of that in their bones.
Finally, they've climbed off of their high horses and gifted him with two angels and... and... an Inuzuka. There's no other word for the animalistic natured Kiba. Every Inuzuka is like that, more or less, but this shouldn't be a problem at all with Hinata's and Chouji's peacefulness. Nice. Genma's three little brats don't even bat an eyelash when Team 7 trots behind them. Okay, Hinata glances at an oblivious Naruto every time she feels it safe to do so but other than that, they're all quite well-behaved.
Genma spots Kakashi standing in front of the memorial stone and has to hold back the sigh threatening to break out of his mouth. Of course – where else would he be? Minato's child is in his team, no wonder he couldn't help but seek out long lost souls before confronting him.
"Oi, Kakashi-san!" the tokubetsu jonin calls out. Startled, Kakashi turns around. Although his facial expressions are veiled by his mask, he blinks at the six genin and Genma before walking over, lazily waving his hand. "Yo. Did you kidnap my genin team?"
"Yeah" Genma says, making the other man snort.
"Huh but... aren't we short on one kunoichi?"
"You don't know you have three boys? Didn't even check the final placements, eh?"
The masked man shrugs nonchalantly, answering with a slightly chagrined tone: "Maa, didn't think the council would change something... normally they don't. Hokage-sama told me I'd have a... what was her name? Sayuri or something –"
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto throws in helpfully.
Kakashi nods. "Aa, yeah. Anyways, why did you kidnap my genin, Genma-san?"
Genma rolls his senbon again before pulling it out of his mouth and pointing its sharp end at the memorial stone. "How long would you have avoided them?"
"I would never do something like that..."
"Oh yeah?" the tokubetsu jonin snorts, "Well, maybe you're right. You'd just have become lost on the road of life or something like that."
The other man sheepishly scratches his head. "The road of life is a bit tricky, you see..."
Kiba and Naruto, both loud-mouthed brats without any restraint, call out: "Bullshit!"
Honestly, up until then, the six genin have just been kind of awkwardly standing behind Genma while listening to the increasingly weird conversation between the two high-ranked shinobi. A couple of them, only Shikamaru and Chouji really, have even sat down next to each other after it became clear that it would be a rather long verbal exchange. With Hinata blushing furiously every time she gazes at Naruto and with Sasuke constantly brooding, the only ones aggravatingly pacing back and forth have been said blond boy and the Inuzuka heir.
It's almost as if they have waited for an opening to voice their discomfort.
"Alright, alright. So, where do you intend on leading us, Mister Kidnapper?" Kakashi asks with his single eyelid crinkled in a cutesy smiling way.
"Yakiniku Q."
That being said, it's surprisingly easy for the eight of them to fall into a leisurely walk. The six genin, even Naruto and Kiba, can hold their voices until they reach the restaurant. No wary glances are directed at the blond jinchuuriki with two of the most proficient shinobi at his side. It's... comfortable – nice, one might say. Naruto sits down next to Shikamaru and Hinata at a round table where there initially has been a shortage of one chair. He almost thought he'd be excluded when, all of a sudden, Kakashi-sensei has taken a chair from a neighbouring table, sat down on it himself next to Genma and made a gesture for him to sit anywhere he wants to.
Naruto honestly can't believe his luck. The only adults who never look down on him are Iruka-sensei and Hokage-jiji. For Kakashi-sensei to be amongst them – it's amazing.
Sasuke blinks at the strange light in his team mate's eyes. Huh, has he missed something? He turns to Shikamaru who is stationed tactically between the two other Team 7 genin and raises his eyebrows in a silent question.
The Nara shrugs dismissively and it could be either "I don't know" or "It's too complicated to tell you when there are others around." It's probably option two because Shikamaru is even more intelligent than Sasuke (which is a feat in itself because when you're completely alone herded in an empty clan compound, one tends to become invested in short of everything to block out unnecessary emotions).
"Hn." he grunts back.
Well, so there they are. Team 7 are on the left side of the table and Team 10 on the right.
Food is ordered and when it's clear that they have a bit of time on their hands before it arrives, Genma begins speaking: "On a team it's important to know each other – so we're going to introduce ourselves to our comrades. We have two teams here. That's even better in the long run if you all pass the mandatory genin tes tomorrow. Should you not pass..." he pauses, making sure that everyone is still listening to him (they are – he's a pretty decent speaker), "...it's good to have connections anyway, no matter which future you end up having."
"What he said!" Kakashi states merrily, making his team sweat-drop.
Genma clears his throat. "On that note, I'll give you an example how you should do it and then we'll go from right to left. Alright?" Most of them nod.
"So, as you know my name's Shiranui Genma. I'm twenty-nine years old and I like reading, training with my senbon and pumpkins. I dislike dishonesty and my goal is to support the Hokage to my best abilities. Got it? Right, then we'll begin with you."
Chouji blushes lightly at the unwanted attention but he says steadily: "I'm Akimichi Chouji. I'm twelve and I like cloud gazing with my best friend and potato chips. I... I hate when I'm underestimated just because of my weight... and my goal, I guess, is to become a strong shinobi."
Genma flashes him a warm, lazy smile and motions for Kiba to do the same.
"I'm Inuzuka Kiba!" he immediately proclaims, "I'm twelve too and I like Akamaru and my hobby's playing hide and seek" faintly, Naruto whispers: "Yeah, no shit with that cheat of a nose." and Kiba's grin grows impish at that, "and I hate people who think the Inuzuka suck 'cause they aren't stuck up like other clans. My dream is to become the best ninja ever! Better than the Hokage himself!"
Naruto splutters, wanting to intercept but Shikamaru flicks his forehead.
Hinata's head is completely red when she is prompted to introduce herself. "I-I'm Hyuuga Hinata, a-also twelve. I lo... – I mean I like... flowers and pressing them. I don't really dislike much. My hobby is training and I w-wish to become a good person."
The tokubetsu jounin is interested in the fact that she says "person" instead of "shinobi". He nods at his genin and then Kakashi's follow.
"Uzumaki Naruto! I love ramen but I hate the three minutes it takes for them to cook! My hobby is playing pranks and I will become Hokage! Believe it!" That was to be expected.
"Nara Shikamaru, same age as the others, and I like cloud watching with Chouji. I dislike troublesome things and my hobby is playing shogi. My goal is to protect my team, my precious people and the citizens of Konoha." Even though it's said in a lazy drawl, the message behind it makes Naruto gape open-mouthed at the Nara. Maybe it's because he's never even heard Shikamaru talk more than one sentence at a time before. Who knows?
And then it's Sasuke's turn. He eyes the others before stating: "I'm Uchiha Sasuke, twelve. I like... tomatoes." at that, he blushes a bit and scowls at the table underneath him. He hadn't wanted to blurt that out but when nobody laughs at him, he deems it safe to proceed, "I dislike people who think I'm great just because of my clan and who pity me for the same reason. My hobbies are drawing and training. And my goal is to... to..." he halts yet again. So far, the mood has been light and he has felt comfortable even with the dobe Naruto sitting at the table. He doesn't want to drag everybody down and it's not as he'd never had other ambitions than to re-enact his clan and slaughter that man.
Sasuke says the unimaginable: "My goal is to publish my artworks in a collection."
"You draw that good?! Teme, you gotta show me!" Naruto yells, somehow pointing at him in accusation.
"Alright... I guess." the Uchiha answers, scratching his cheek while averting his eyes in embarrassment.
Kakashi blinks thrice before the statement of his genin truly sinks in. And then his whole world shatters. It's good, though, very good. Sasuke isn't as far into revenge as he has pegged him to be and if he can get his three little menaces to work together, he can even properly train them.
All eyes land on him. Ah, yes. He's the only one left. "My name is Hatake Kakashi, I'm twenty-six years old and I like my ninken. I dislike people who leave their team mates behind, my hobby is reading romance novels" Genma hides a snicker, "and my goal is to make my sensei proud and train a team that's even greater than the Sannin."
"That's going to be us, believe it!" Naruto says loudly before sheepishly looking at Shikamaru, "Eh... Who are the Sannin?"
They laugh, not at Naruto but with him and then the food arrives and it's... "Is that why Iruka-sensei has told us that Konoha's strength lies in teamwork?" a boy asks himself.
Kiba shares stories, Hinata smiles, Chouji laughs, Naruto's hidden hurt nearly vanishes, Shikamaru's not finding anything troublesome and Sasuke, who has asked himself this question, can't help but let himself be dragged into the conversations.
Genma has a good feeling about Teams 7 and 10.
Team 8: Meeting
Yuuhi Kurenai's patience is diminishing by the second. She has led her team to the nearest training ground and told them to introduce themselves to her. Shino, while he's said the least, seems to be not opposed to working with two kunoichi.
He isn't the problem.
Kurenai sometimes wants to trap the Hokage into a genjutsu that lets him live through whatever kind of bullshit she has to deal with. Asuma has complained to her because he didn't get Ino-Shika-Cho... well, she doubts that he is in any position to do so after she tells him her first impression of Yamanaka Ino.
And Haruno Sakura, for that matter, isn't any better.
They are still fighting over that Uchiha boy. It's been ten minutes. Shino stands next to her because he doesn't want to be involved. The red eyed woman can't take any offense to that as she herself is avoiding them. Hatake Kakashi's approach to such situations is now justified in her books. Maybe she'll let them wait a couple of hours to cool down and tell Shino the right time when he's expected to show up.
Another ten minutes and she's had enough. E.N.O.U.G.H.
"Shut up. Both of you." No, she doesn't scream. The sentence is uttered in a normal volume but the cold harshness layered with a bit of killing intent (that's how pissed off she is) make Ino and Sakura stop in their tracks.
"Aren't you ashamed of yourselves? Is this how you want to present yourselves in the real world as well – as little girls who fight over a boy who doesn't want anything to do with them? I can understand him, really, if you are just like that in front of him."
Shino's sunglasses slip down a bit and reveal the extent of his shock. Not that he isn't grateful and loves how badass his sensei is but he has never seen anybody be that angry before.
"If you are only kunoichi just because you want to appeal charming to some boy then you'll die in less than a minute out on the field. Being a kunoichi, being a shinobi, is NOT fun. It's duty. It's waking up at four in the morning to an ambush from enemies. It's making your first kill and vomiting afterwards. It's losing people you have fought side-by-side because of human mistakes. It's training your asses off in a career path dominated by men. Most of those men will respect you as their fellows. Others, though? Not so much. They will question your very existence because you're a woman. If you don't end up as a medic or a seduction specialist even more so because heaven forbid a kunoichi being better at tai-, nin- or genjutsu than their male counterparts!" Kurenai hisses dangerously.
Sakura fell to her knees a while ago, shakily looking up at her jonin sensei. Now, after Kurenai's speech, Ino does the same.
"Tomorrow morning at six sharp, right here, you'll give me a reason... one reason... why I shouldn't just immediately take you from the program. I will test you. If you fail, then I will mark you as irredeemable so that you will never endanger another team with your foolishness. Dismissed."
Yuuhi Kurenai leaves her genin team in the dust.
With that, she changes the fate of two kunoichi and, for that matter, the Aburame heir's as well.