And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 13!

So I finished the chapter. Longest one yet. Again. I don't know why that keeps on happening. But it does. This one actually managed to break 10,000 somehow. Woo-hoo.

For some reason, I can't monitor the traffic the story gets anymore. Last Sunday, it just cut off. It's as if nobody is viewing it or my profile anymore. But I know that isn't true as more people are still following and such. It is even telling me there are 0 views for chapter 12. It isn't a big deal, but I would still like to see how the story does. I don't feel like contacting anyone and I don't know if I'm just failing at life again. Anyone know what's happening?

OmegaDelta: Meh. :P

KenColtheart: Pending

LazyAssassin24: Sorry, but the main Kingdom Hearts story won't come in for a while. I want to go up to the time skip before I do that stuff.

Shadowmwape: I've thought about that. I don't know if I will ever do it though. But it seems a little fun.

Anyways, on with the Story!

I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: 'Insert witty remark here.'

Biju/Diety Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Biju/Diety Thinking: 'Insert witty remark here.'

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: Insert Jutsu Here

Hokage's Office (One Week Later)

It was the day following the graduation exam. Currently, there was a large group of jōnins assembling in the Hokage's office. This was a yearly occurrence so nobody questioned why they had been called. They were all called there to see who had been chosen to receive and test a genin team that year. Two of the jōnin who were assembling were Kurenai and Asuma.

Kurenai had modified her outfit from the one she had worn during the Kyūbi attack. Her outfit now consisted of a red mesh armor blouse where only the right sleeve was visible. On top of this, she wore a material that resembled bandages with a pattern similar to red thorns. Both her hands and thighs were now wrapped in bandages and she had the Konoha headband secured to her forehead.

Asuma on the other hand, had not modified his outfit much from all those years ago. He still wore the standard Konoha shinobi outfit. The only differences were the bandages wrapped around his sleeves, the pair of black bangles, and the sash he had around his waist that had the kanji for "fire" on it.

The two of them entered together and walked over to the side of the room to wait for the Hokage to show up and tell them who got what teams. After looking around for a moment to see who else was there, Asuma sighed. This action caused Kurenai to look over to him with a raised eyebrow. "What's wrong with you?" She asked him.

In response, Asuma grimaced. "I'm hoping that I don't get chosen for a team. I don't really want one. It seems like a lot of work to train three kids and to ensure their safety on missions." He lamented.

Kurenai huffed and turned away from him. "You're just lazy. It's a great thing to be chosen as a jōnin sensei. You get to receive three new genin and help them learn and mature. And over time, those three genin will grow up to be fine shinobi who will make everyone proud of them as they achieve their own dreams." She said all of this with a small smile on her lips.

Hearing her tone, Asuma glanced over. "You sure are looking forward to getting a team, huh? Are you sure you will get one?" How could she know she will get one? They were here to find out if they would or not.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure I will get one, but I'm hoping I will."

Asuma hummed in thought. "In that case, what kind of team would you like to get?" He knew that if he had been forced to take on a team, he would want one that was laid back.

She thought about it. "While it would be nice to get at least one student who I could pass my genjutsu skills onto, I know that isn't a definite if I got a team. Taking that into account, I am pretty open with any type of team." She frowned after saying this. "Although a front line assault team probably wouldn't be my first choice" She looked back over to him. "What about you?"

He closed his eyes as he considered it. "A team that was laid back would be nice…" he voiced his previous thought. He heard her huff at him again. "But I know this may not happen. If I did get a team, I don't really care what type it is. I could help them gain experience in any field. Although, unlike you, I think that a front line assault team wouldn't be that bad."

"If your team was a lazy as you I would be seriously worried."

He mocked being physically hurt by her words. "Oh, that hurts, Kurenai-chan. How could you possibly insinuate that I am lazy?"

She crossed her arms. "That is because you are lazy. Both you and Kakashi have serious problems getting to work. Whether it is doing the work or actually showing up to do the work." She looked around the room again. "Speaking of which, I don't see him anywhere. But I know he hasn't passed any teams yet, so he should be here." She frowned. "He probably will show up late again."

Asuma snorted. "Is that really a surprise? Kakashi never shows up for anything on time unless it is an order from the Hokage or Kushina-sama threatens him." He paused for a moment. "Or threatens his books." He added.

This made Kurenai scowl. "Twelve years ago, I would have never guessed that someone like Kakashi was actually such a pervert. But now, he doesn't go anywhere without those disgusting books, giggling all the while."

Asuma smirked as he recalled the unique quirks of his silver haired friend. "Well, Kakashi had never even given them a chance before. But once he did, he instantly fell in love with them. It was apparently destined to be." He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head in a helpless matter.

Kurenai pinned a glare onto him. "I swear to kami, if you ever even so much as pick up one of those damned books, I will-"

She was cut off at that moment as the door to the office opened back up and three people entered. The first was Minato who headed directly to his chair in order to start the meeting. The next two however, caused sweat drops to appear throughout the room. It was a scowling Kushina dragging an unconscious Kakashi.

Asuma chuckled. "Well, at least he is on time today." He took great amusement in seeing Kakashi being manhandled like that.

Kurenai only sighed, closed her eyes, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Idiot…"

Ignoring the looks she was getting, Kushina walked over to the front of the room and threw Kakashi onto the ground. He didn't even stir. Kushina quickly grew even more irritated and a dark aura formed around her. Seeing this, many of the battle hardened shinobi backed away with looks of fear.

As if sensing the danger, Kakashi's eye sprang open and his gaze locked onto the source of the thing that was setting off his danger instincts. Seeing the source, he paled. "Kushina-senpai, you got it all wrong! I wasn't planning on being late again, honest!" He pleaded.

Kushina however, didn't buy it for an instant. Glaring at him, she responded. "Kakashi-kun, I swear, if this meeting had been held up because we had to wait two or three hours for you to show up…" She trailed off.

Kakashi was shaking a bit in fright. Frantically shaking his head, he responded. "I would never be late to something like this! I mean the future of three little genin could be put under my care today. That's too important to take lightly!"

Kushina snorted. "Yeah, right. That is exactly how you see getting your own genin team." Shaking her head, she waved her arm off to the side. "Whatever, just go off to the side and wait to see if you are chosen."

Quickly nodding his head, Kakashi scurried over to where Kurenai and Asuma were standing. He ignored the looks he got on the way. Both the smirks amusement and looks of pity. Once he reached them, he lazily waved. "Yo." He then proceeded to lean against the wall.

Asuma smirked over at him. "Wow, Kakashi. You're actually on time today. What's the occasion?" He asked.

Kakashi flinched. "The occasion is having the habanero hunt me down and drag me her so I wouldn't be late." He shivered at the memory. "…It was terrible." He said in a small voice.

While Asuma's smirk only grew wider, Kurenai looked at Kakashi with a glare. "If you weren't so late all the time, that wouldn't be necessary." She told him.

Kakashi looked as if he was going to respond, but was cut off before he could do so. Minato cleared his throat, instantly gaining the attention of the room. After looking around to make sure that all conversation had stopped, Minato started speaking. "Welcome. As you know, this meeting is to distribute the genin teams to the chosen teachers. Not all of you will be getting a team. Those of you who do not get a team will instead report to the mission desk to receive a mission. Those who do receive a team, stay here to get the records of your new students. You will need to pick them up from the academy in two hours. Any questions?"

He looked around, not really expecting anything as this is how they had been doing it for years. People knew how the procedure worked. Not seeing anyone wish to speak up, Minato nodded to himself. "Ok. I will go right to assigning the teams then." He picked up a paper and looked at it. "Team one will be made up of…"

Academy (Half an Hour Later)

Naruto walked into the classroom to see that it was already filled with many students. Most of them were talking excitedly to one another as they imagined what they would be doing now that they were shinobi. Although looking closer, he could spot some of them looking nervous. Especially some of the civilian born kids.

Ignoring some of the predatory looks that some of the girls gave him as he walked in, Naruto continued on his way over to the back of the room where he and his friends always sat. He noticed that he was the last one to show up today. He grinned at them. "Hey, you guys ready to start your shinobi careers?" He got a grin a grin from both Chōji and Kiba while Shikamaru gave a long suffering sigh. Rolling his eyes, Naruto continued. "Wow, Shika. Don't start hopping out of excitement now." He said sarcastically.

Shikamaru snorted at this. "Whatever…I'm not looking forward to this at all. At least in the academy, I could take naps all I wanted. I can't do that with a jōnin breathing down my neck and making me do laps or something."

Naruto smirked. "Who knows? You may get a jōnin assigned to your team that was as lazy like you. He may simply want to sit around playing shogi instead of training you guys."

Shikamaru smirked. "That would be great…but there is no way that would really happen."

Kiba let out a loud laugh. "As if there is actually a jōnin out there that was lazy like him! He wouldn't ever had made it that far."

Chōji smiled slightly. "I don't know…there could be. While Shikamaru isn't very motivated, he is really smart. And it isn't like he can't do the work if he wanted to… he just doesn't." He defended his friend.

Naruto shrugged with a smile. "That's for sure. But anyways, you two will probably paired together with Ino to remake the Ino-Shika-Cho team your dads made. If anything, Ino won't let you be too lazy…" He finished with a smirk.

His smirk grew wider as he watched Shikamaru groan. "Troublesome…there is no way that girl will let me do what I want to do. This sucks." Shikamaru placed his head on the table as the others snickered at him. Before any of them could say anymore however, the door was thrust open as two girls came barreling in.

"FIRST!" The two of them cried. The four boys looked over to see who was making all of the noise. When they did, they sweat dropped when they saw one of the two was the girl they were just talking about. Both Ino and Sakura were hunched over and panting as they were arguing over who had reached the room first.

Kiba and Naruto shared a look before smirking and looking back over to Shikamaru. "Wow, Shikamaru." Kiba began. "Your new teammate sure has a lot of energy…"

Naruto picked up where Kiba let off. "Yeah. And you know what? She has so much energy, some of it may even rub off on you. Wouldn't that be great? Or at the very least, she could direct that energy to helping you find the…motivation to kick your ass into gear and get moving." Both Kiba and Naruto broke into snickers after this. There amusement only grew as they heard their lazy friend groan more. Looking back over, Naruto saw that the two of them were now arguing over who would sit next to Sasuke.

Sasuke hadn't changed his outfit recently. He wore a navy blue short sleeved shirt with the Uchiha crest on the back and white arm warmers. He also had on white shorts and the Konoha headband worn in the typical manner.

If you looked closely, you could see that his eyebrow was twitching from all of the noise going on around him and the obsessing of his fangirls.

Following Naruto's line of sight, the other boys frowned at the scene. Shikamaru shook his head. "You would think they would take things more seriously now that they had graduated." It made no sense to him to fawn over someone at any stage of the shinobi career. Especially the newly graduated genin stage where you need to decide what path you want to take in the future.

Chōji shook his head as well. "They aren't good, but I would not call their habit terrible. They aren't the worst, at least. It would be a lot worse if they didn't hang around Narumi-san. She helps to curb their fan girl habits."

Kiba shivered and Akamaru whimpered. "Can you imagine if that wasn't true? Those two easily have the loudest voices out of all of them, and that's saying something. If they were constant fangirls, I would probably resort to stabbing my ears."

Naruto frowned in distaste at the idea of screeching fangirls. Not wishing to allow his mind to continue dwelling on the notion, he turned to Kiba. "Well, these two are accounted for…" He said as he pointed over to Chōji and Shikamaru. "But do you have any idea who will be on your team?"

Kiba shrugged. "I don't know. Akamaru and I would probably fit into either a tracking team or be a close combat fighter of some other team. While I would enjoy the action of combat, I wouldn't mind being a tracker either. What about you?" The other two boys looked over as well. They didn't really know what kind of specialization Naruto preferred. He was good at combat, yeah, but is that what he wanted to do?

Naruto smiled. "I want to be some type of combat shinobi. Whether it be front line or something similar would be fine with me." He thought about his other skills. "Although I could do ok when it comes to a little support as well…" Some of his spells did augment the abilities of the target after all. And then there was the healing spell. That could use a little more work, but he has it down on some level.

The other three boys nodded at his words. It was then that the other two Uzumaki-Namikazes walked into the room. Seeing her two friends arguing again, Narumi scowled. She marched up to the other two girls and hit them both upside the head. Instantly, they both turned to glare at the one who did it, only to falter when they saw who it was and the ominous aura surrounding their friend.

Ino gathered her courage first. "H-hey there, Narumi. How are you doing?"

Sakura gulped. "Hope you are r-ready for today. It is our first day as shinobi, after all."

Narumi only continued to glare at them. "Were you two seriously fighting over this again?" She grabbed the two of them and dragged them off to their usual seats. "I can't believe you two are still arguing over every little thing. It is so stupid." She continued to chew the two of them out until she was satisfied.

Kiba snorted. "Your sister is scary when she wants to be, Naruto." He looked over to the crimson blond.

In response, Naruto rolled his eyes. "You aren't one to talk. I seem to remember you talking about your sister and how scary she is sometimes…"

"Tch." Kiba scowled in response.

It was at this point that the door of the room opened up again and Iruka walked in. Looking around, he noted that many of the new genin were already giving him their attention. He smirked inwardly when he saw this. 'Better late than never…' He cleared his throat in order to gain the attention of the remaining portion. When they all looked over to him, he opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted.

"Iruka-sensei. Where is Mizuki sensei?" Someone from the front of the room called. This caused Naruto to twitch, but only Shikamaru noticed.

Iruka flinched minutely. "Mizuki had a mission come up and was pulled immediately so he could perform it." He lied. He needed to resist the urge to let his eyes wander over to Naruto as he said this. He cleared his throat again. "Now then…" He looked around the room. "Today, you are all staring your careers as a real shinobi. No longer are you only an academy student, you are a full-fledged shinobi of Konoha. Congratulations." Smiles and excited murmuring broke out around the room but it quickly died down.

Iruka continued. "But you are still genin, you have a long and hard path ahead of you as get assigned missions and you climb the ranks. Hopefully, one day you will become the village elites and become the backbone of the village in your own way. But for now, you will be assigned into three man teams. And each of these teams will be led by a jōnin sensei. You will follow the instructions of your sensei in order to carry out your assigned tasks."

It was at this point that even more talk erupted throughout the room. It was a mixture of surprise and excitement. Naruto sent a quizzical look to those who looked surprised at the notion of three man teams and jōnin sensei. Wasn't that already obvious? It wasn't like they would let them work alone. And even then, it was common knowledge that genins worked in teams of three. 'I really hope my teammates aren't complete idiots…Or at least are willing to work together.' He shook his head and focused back on Iruka.

"I will now call out the names of each team." He looked at the clipboard in his hand that had all of the teams listed. He listed the teams one by one. As he did so, there were both small cheers and lamentations as friends were either put together or separated. Neither Naruto, his friends, nor his siblings had been called yet. Eventually, the teams started to get interesting.

Iruka cleared his throat to regain the attention of the room. Again. "Team 7. Team 7 will be made up of Sasuke Uchiha…" Instantly the tension in the room tripled as the majority of the girls who hadn't been called yet started to listen in. "Sakura Haruno…"

"Yes!" Sakura cheered. She turned and shot Ino a victorious look. She glared back and looked back over to Iruka as he was about to call out the final person.

"…and Saito Hiraga." Hearing this, said boy perked up from his spot next to Menma as many of the hopes of the girls crumbled away as the final spot was taken.

Saito was a boy with black hair and blue eyes. He wore a blue and white long sleeved jacket top that had a raised collar. He wore dark blue pants and black shoes. On his forehead was the Konoha headband.

Saito looked nervous at all of the jealous being sent his way from the various girls in the room. He shrunk in his chair and tried to stay out of sight. Seeing this, Menma smirked and nudged him in the side, earning a glare from Saito.

Continuing, Iruka began listing the next team. "Team 8. Team 8 will be made up of Kiba Inuzuka." From where he was sitting next to him, Kiba looked up with a look of excitement. "Hinata Hyūga…" Naruto looked over to the girl.

Hinata was a shy girl with dark blue hair that was levelled into a hime style cut with chin length strands framing her face. Her eyes were the normal Hyūga lavender without pupils. She had on a cream colored hooded jacket with a fire symbol on the upper parts of the sleeves. Around the wrists of her jacket was fur. She also had on navy blue pants. She had her Konoha forehead protector worn around her neck.

She glanced over to where they were sitting. But upon seeing Naruto was looking, she blushed and averted her gaze. This action caused Naruto to frown slightly while he scratched the back of his head. He would like to befriend Hinata, but he was pretty sure she had feelings for him on some level. He wasn't looking for a relationship at the moment, so he was worried things would get awkward. When he ignored this possibility and talked to her anyways, she blushed and stuttered so bad that it was hard to get the conversation going. Sometimes, she even fainted.

Naruto looked back to the front as Iruka continued naming the final member of the team. "…and Shino Aburame." This time, Naruto looked over to said bug user.

Shino was had dark brown bushy hair. It was impossible to see his eyes because he always wore sunglasses that made it so you couldn't see them. He wore an outfit that was of a similar style to the rest of his clan as it was a high collared jacket that was sea-green and dark pants. He had on the Konoha forehead protector in the typical manner. As always, what was visible of his face was set in a stoic expression.

Iruka began speaking again soon after. "Team 9 is still in rotation. Team 10 will consist of Shikamaru Nara." Shikamaru only showed he was listening by cracking an eye open. "Ino Yamanaka." The boy sighed at this. Across the room, it was possible to hear a small curse come from the blond girl. "And Chōji Akimichi." No surprises there.

Shikamaru sighed. "This is really troublesome…"

Naruto smirked at him. "But it is nothing you weren't expecting though."

Shikamaru sighed again and nodded. Following this, he closed his eye again and tried to get some sleep.

Once he made sure the class was paying attention again, Iruka started to list the next team. "Team 11. Team 11 will consist of…" He trailed off and frowned at the paper in confusion. "What? But…Alright then…" He muttered to himself. This caused the room to perk up and look at him in curiosity. "Team 11 will be a unique team made up of Menma Uzumaki-Namikaze and Narumi Uzumaki-Namikaze. No third teammate."

This caused surprise and whispers to race across the room. Naruto frowned to himself. 'Probably because they hold the Kyūbi's chakra…' Narumi and Menma looked over to each other. Based on their expressions, they had come to the same conclusion. They looked back to the front of the room as Iruka began to speak again. But Narumi sent a sad look over to Naruto. In return Naruto gave her a small look and a shrug in response.

"Team 12. Team 12 will consist of Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze…" Naruto felt a shiver go down his spine. Just like with Sasuke, it seemed like the tension of the room increased as a big portion of the girls began to listen closely. "…Yakumo Kurama…"

Yakumo was a girl with long brown hair and light brown eyes. Her hair was done into a braid on one side while the other side was straight. She had a hair clip that had two circular designs. She wore pink kimono styled for battle that was held together with a pink sash with two pockets. Her pant were baggy and a violet color. Under her kimono, she had on red mesh armor and on her legs as well. She had on orange sandals and around her forehead was the Konoha headband.

"…and Sai." Hearing this, Naruto looked over to the other member of his team.

Sai had shot black hair that was straight and dark eyes. Both of these characteristics contrasted with his pale skin. He had one a short black and grey jacket with red stripes that only had a long sleeve on his right arm, the other being short. His shirt was a dark, high collared one that ended at his midriff. He also had on black pants, black gloves that had the index fingers and gloves exposed, and black shinobi sandals. On his back was a tantō. He had the Konoha headband worn in the normal way.

Naruto didn't know much about his two teammates. Yakumo seemed shy and spent a lot of her time drawing or painting. She seemed to be a decent kunoichi though. And when it came to Sai, Naruto didn't know what to think. He was the dead last of the class but Naruto sometimes got the feeling that it was on purpose. He felt this way because Sai was consistently scoring just enough to pass each test without much variance. While he didn't know about the written tests, this was true for the physical tests. He was also sometime slightly unnerving because it felt like his expressions seemed slightly fake.

Shrugging, Naruto decided to tune out the rest of what Iruka was saying as he already got his team assigned.

Later

It was now time for the teams to get picked up by their jōnin senseis and the new genins were waiting excitedly for their teachers to come and pick them up.

After Iruka had finished calling out the names, he had let them out for lunch. Naruto had wanted to spend the hour with his new teammates in order to begin to get to know them, but Kiba had other plans as he dragged him and Shikamaru out of the room. Chōji chuckling to himself as he trailed along. Knowing how Kiba was, Naruto didn't fight against it.

The hour was now up and they were in the room as one by one, the assigned jōnins came by. Naruto took note of who was assigned who, especially when he recognized the jōnin as one of the big name ones. Hearing a commotion out in the hall, he looked over to the door as the rest of the class did.

"Ow, ow, ow! Kushina-senpai, please let go! I won't run away, I swear!" A male voice called out.

"No way-ttebane! I'm not taking the chance. You will be on time to pick up your students!" An angry female voice called out.

Naruto sighed when he heard this. As did his siblings. It wasn't hard to figure out who was making the noise. The jōnin in the room looked extremely amused by the situation while the genin looked confused.

"But what about my reputation? That took a lot of time and hard work to build up!"

"You actually tried to make that damn reputation?!"

"Uh…I mean…wait wait. No don't. I can walk into the room!"

It was then that a body was thrown the room from the hallway. Seeing who was thrown in, Naruto sighed as his suspicions were confirmed. Not that he needed a confirmation. On the floor in the room was Kakashi Hatake, who was holding his head from where it hit the floor.

Standing in the hallway was a glaring Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze. She was in full habanero form as she glared at the man on the floor. But she soon paused. Looking around, she noticed that many of the people in the room were looking at her in confusion and fear. She rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that…I had to drag him here to get him here on time…" A few moments of awkward silence before she cleared her throat. "Anyways…team 11, let's go!" She said with a bright smile. Narumi and Menma quickly followed their mother out of the room. The both of them shot Naruto a look before they left.

Once they were gone, Kakashi picked himself off of the floor. He waited for a minute before heading towards the window. He opened it and got ready to jump out, but before he could, a kunai came sailing into the room. This forced him to duck out of the way. "No way in hell, Hatake! You will take your students now! Not later, now!" The voice of Kushina came from outside.

Kakashi slumped with a groan. "She really left a clone to make sure I stuck around? What the hell…" If it wasn't for the fact that he was sure he would be killed for it later, he would have simply Body Flickered away. The other jōnins smirked at him while the students gave him looks that ranged from incredulousness to distaste. Sighing again, Kakashi turned back to the room. "Fine then…Team 7, meet me on the roof." With that, he disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Sasuke, Sakura and Saito got up and walked out of the door. Seeing that the show was over, the lingering jōnin took their students away.

Two of them walked up. Naruto recognized them as Asuma and Kurenai. Kurenai was the first to speak up. "Team 8, follow me." She walked towards the door.

Kiba jumped to his feet. "Oh yeah! This will be awesome! See you guys later!" With that, he raced over to follow Kurenai out with Akamaru. Shino and Hinata soon got up and followed after them.

Once they were gone, Asuma spoke up. "Team 10, you're with me." He too walked over to the door.

Shikamaru sighed and forced himself to his feet. "This sucks…See you, Naruto…" He and Chōji followed after the man with Ino soon joining them.

Naruto looked around. There weren't that many people left in the room. His attention was drawn again as someone else entered the room.

This time it was a woman with straight purple hair that was long enough to reach down to her waist and brown eyes. She wore a shinobi outfit consisting of a black sleeveless shirt and flak jacket. She had on black gloves that went past her elbows and the typical black ANBU pants and black sandals. On her back was a katana.

Naruto thought he recognized her as an ANBU but he of course wouldn't call her out on that. She stopped when she reached the front of the room. "Team 12, come with me please." With that, she walked over to the door.

Naruto quickly got up and followed her out. He was soon joined by Sai and Yakumo.

Training Ground 12

The four of them were now seated in the twelfth training ground. The unnamed jōnin was seated on s stump in front of them as the three genin were seated on the floor in front of her.

She smiled at them. "Welcome to Team 12. My name is Yūgao Uzuki and I will be your jōnin sensei. Let's get introductions out of the way. Let's say our names, likes, dislikes, hobbies and dreams for the future. I'll start. Like I said, my name is Yūgao Uzuki. My likes are the moon and relaxing once in a while. My dislikes are perverts and people who look down on others. My Hobbies include watching the moon and training my kenjutsu. My dreams for the future are to become the best female swordsman ever known." She pointed over to Yakumo. "Your turn."

Yakumo ducker her head a bit as the attention was shifted to her. "Um…My name is Yakumo Kurama. My likes are art, clouds and flowers. My dislikes are perverts and people who can't be quiet. My hobbies are painting, drawing and spending time with family. My dreams are to become a famous artist and one of the best genjutsu users ever known." She blushed as she admitted this.

Yūgao smiled at her. "That's a nice dream." This cause Yakumo to return the smile. Yūgao then pointed over to Sai. "Your next."

Sai nodded and smiled. Something about that smile made Naruto question it. "My name is Sai. I don't have a last name. My likes are drawing and training. I don't really have any dislikes. My hobbies are the same as my likes. My dreams for the future…to serve my village until the end of my use." Naruto frowned slightly at the wording, as did Yūgao.

Hearing this, Yūgao nodded. She motioned to Naruto. "And then you."

Naruto grinned. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. My likes are my friends, family, sleep and music. My dislikes are those who look down on others and those who don't get that there is always a flipside to everything, even to the actions of people." This caused Yūgao to tilt her head slightly in thought. "My hobbies are training, sleeping, listening to music and sometimes writing some of my own." He blushed slightly as he admitted this. Not many people knew he did that. "My dreams for the future…To help some people I know escape the darkness…" He gained a sad look as he said this.

Yūgao was curious about his dream but didn't question him. "So all three of you are artists in some way, huh?" Nodding, she spoke up. "Alright, we have introduced ourselves, now we can move on to the test." This caused confusion throughout the three genin.

Yakumo spoke up. "Um, sensei…didn't we already pass the genin exam? Why do we need another test?"

Yūgao gave an apologetic smile to the three of them. "You guys aren't actually genin yet. At least, not completely. You need to pass a final test provided by the jōnin sensei to become an official genin team. The test is different from sensei to sensei. It can be whatever they want it to be."

Naruto tilted his head with a frown. 'That must be the next step that Iruka-sensei talked about last week…' He looked at Yūgao. "What happens if we fail?"

Yūgao looked at him with that same smile. "If you were to fail, you will be stripped of your genin rank and sent back to the academy."

This response caused all three of their eyes to widen in surprise. Naruto felt a feeling of nervousness crawl up his spine. "Ok…what do we have to do?" He asked.

Yūgao looked at the three of them. "This is actually my first time being a jōnin sensei, so I don't have a test of my own yet. Because of this, we will just fight. All three of you against me. You may do this one on one, two on one, or three on one to beat me. It doesn't matter. 'Wonder if they will figure out the point is to actually help each other…' "Are all three of you ready now?" Seeing their nods, she stood up and led them over to the center of the training field.

They spread out so there was some distance between Yūgao and the three genin. Seeing that they were ready to begin, Yūgao spoke up again. "Anything goes. You may even come at me with the intent to kill. We will go until I say stop in half an hour. I will do so whether I feel that you are either ready to pass or ready to fail. Any questions?" Seeing no one begin to speak up, she nodded. "Ok then, begin!"

Immediately, the three genin jumped into the nearby forest. Seeing this, Yūgao smiled to herself. 'Good, they know not to fight head on against a stronger opponent.' She decided to just wait for the three of them to come to her. Hopefully together.

In the Forest

Naruto was seriously confused. This lady didn't actually expect them to beat her, did she? There was no way that was going to happen. Forget the fact she might have been ANBU in the past, just a jōnin was beyond what three genins can beat. So how did she expect this to work?

This was actually the other reason Naruto jumped into the forest. To give himself time to think. There was something off about this test. If they couldn't beat her -and they can't- then how were they meant to pass? It was really confusing.

Looking back, Naruto thought about the rules surrounding the test. Or lack thereof. 'All she said was we could come at her with the intent to kill. She even said anything goes. Was there something I missed?'

His attention was drawn back to the clearing as he saw something going on. It looked like Yūgao was under attack. And she was being attacked by a…tiger? Yes, some kind of tiger was attacking her. It was a weird looking one as it was black and white. It almost looked to be a giant ink drawing.

Yūgao didn't panic as the tiger pounced on her. She merely drew her sword and slashed it apart. After it was killed, the tiger exploded into some type of black liquid.

Naruto looked at the scene in interest. He was trying to figure out what the liquid was from his spot in the tree. Leaning forward, he scrutinized what he could of it. 'It looks like…ink? Ink ninjutsu? Which one of us could do that?' He looked back on what he noticed about his two teammates. 'It is probably Sai. He smelled heavily of ink.'

As if responding to his silent call, more ink animals burst into the clearing and Sai took that moment to attack. It didn't work though as he was quickly dispatched by Yūgao who simply swung around and kicked him away as he approached her from behind.

Naruto shook his head. 'I knew it. There is no way a genin on their own can win against a jōnin.' There was a few moments of silence before Naruto silently face palmed. 'I'm an idiot. That's the point. A genin can't win on their own, they need to work together to take down a stronger opponent. This test isn't about beating her, it's about proving we can work together!'

With this new discovery, Naruto circled around to where he knew Yakumo was. He found her hiding in a bush, painting on her canvas. Naruto raised an eyebrow but didn't question it. He approached her and got her attention. "Yakumo-san." She seemed slightly startled to hear him. She whirled around with a kunai, only to relax when she saw it was him.

"Oh. Naruto-san. You aren't going to attack her as well?" She asked him.

Naruto shook his head. "That's the thing. I think we should work together. She said we could, and I'm pretty sure that's the point of the test, not defeating her."

Yakumo tilted her head in thought. "I hadn't thought about that. It sounds possible though…" She considered it.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I thought so too. I hear that you and your clan are good at genjutsu, is that true?"

Yakumo nodded. "Yes, I am proficient at genjutsu." She motioned to her canvas. "My paintings are actually a way for me to strengthen my genjutsu. I can do without it, but they are stronger this way."

Naruto nodded. That explains why she was painting now. "Ok. Can you create an opening with your genjutsu while Sai-san and I strike?" She nodded. "How long until you are ready to go?"

She bit her lip a bit. "Not long. I can get it done in a minute or two."

Naruto nodded with a grin. He turned towards the clearing. "Ok, I'm going to help out Sai-san. Just launch the genjutsu when you can." Seeing her nod, he jumped into the clearing as Sai was launched back towards a tree.

Naruto caught him and set him on the ground. Looking down onto him, Naruto noted his surprised expression. He grinned down to the black haired boy. "Hey, Yakumo-san and I have a plan. You willing to work together?" He asked. He got a nod in response. "Cool. Can you create more of those ink creatures to cover me while I attack? We only need to wait a little bit for Yakumo-san to be ready."

Sai nodded again and got his supplies out. "That's fine. I'll provide support."

Nodding, Naruto looked at Yūgao who seemed pleased that they were helping each other out. Naruto got into a battle stance as he grinned. "Ok, Yūgao-sensei, let's see how you do against more than one of us." He rushed forward.

Yūgao smiled at him and blocked the punch he sent at her. Grabbing his arm, she sent him flying over to the side. "ROAR!" Hearing this, and knowing what it meant, she ducked to the side as another ink tiger jumped at her.

She quickly dispatched the tiger, only to feel something wrap around her legs. Looking down, she saw there were black snakes wrapped around her. Yūgao's first thought was that a certain kunoichi who also had purple hair was interfering, but she quickly noticed that the snakes looked to be made of ink as well.

Knowing this, she took a kunai out and killed the snakes, causing ink to be splashed all over. She looked up when she heard some type of bird, and was quickly attacked by a pair of ink hawks. 'Just how many animals can he make?' She swiftly killed both birds and looked around for more animals. Seeing none, she was about to rush at Sai to stop him from making more animals but stopped when she heard the familiar sound of a sword being drawn.

Whirling around with her own sword drawn, she blocked the black blade from slicing into her. She was greatly surprised by the fact that Naruto even had a sword. 'None of the reports on him stated an aptitude in kenjutsu…' The clearing was soon drowned into the sound of clanging metal as each of the two kenjutsu users tried to get a hit on each other. Although it was more like Yūgao was trying to get a feel of how skilled Naruto was with a blade.

And he was skilled.

For someone his age, he was absolutely amazing! There wasn't any hesitation in his strikes, and his style was well practiced and each move flowed into the next seamlessly. Although that was another thing that confused her, the style. She didn't recognize it, and it seemed to be a little too well practiced to not have been taught to him.

Clang! The two blades were now pressed up against each other as the two kenjutsu users tried to push one another back. Yūgao tensed when she felt something come up from behind her. Knowing what it was, she pushed Naruto back hard enough to cause him to stumble and break his stance.

She used this opportunity to rapidly cut down the tiger that tried to get to her from behind and whirled back around at high speeds to grab Naruto and disarm him. She hurled him into the air and onto Sai. She was surprised at the team work and skill the two of them had shown so far. She had just been forced to use high-chūnin/low-jōnin speeds. These two were surprisingly good…

"Ow!" The two of them clutched their heads in pain from where they had hit each other. "She really likes throwing us…" Naruto muttered.

Hearing this, Sai nodded his head. "Yes, she does seem to do that frequently."

Naruto shook his head to clear it. "You ok to keep going? Yakumo should be ready to go by now." Sai nodded. "Cool, I'm going to rush around to get my sword back from where she tossed it and go in for another attack." Seeing Sai agree, Naruto circled around to where his sword was. Grabbing it, he circled some more so that Yūgao was now in between the two of them. That was when he saw it. Off to the side, he saw Yakumo signal him. She was ready.

Seeing this, Naruto smirked. Looking back over to Sai, he caught his eye and nodded. Sai nodded back and quickly created more ink animals to attack.

Seeing her get rushed from the other side, Naruto rushed at Yūgao from where he was. Yūgao looked from side to side before she crouched, ready to defend herself. When they got close, she used her own sword to dispatch some of the ink animals. It looked like she was going to defend herself some more from the onslaught, but then something appeared to have changed.

Yūgao stumbled when she moved forward. Her eyes widened in surprise. She seemed to be having muscle spasms all over her body. 'What?! My body! What's happening?' Seeing another tiger come at her, she threw herself to the side in order to get out of the way. But she appeared to be unable to coordinate a landing efficiently, causing her to tumble as she did so. 'It seems like everything refuses to respond correctly every few seconds!'

Seeing this as an opening, Naruto rushed in to strike. Sai backed him up with more snakes to restrain her. Yūgao saw this coming and attempted to raise her blade to fend them off. She was able to block a few, but her body froze up after a few strikes, causing her to be restrained by the snakes. She quickly found a blade pressed against her throat as well.

Her eyes widened in surprise and shock at what just happened. But after a moment, she smiled at them. "Wonderfully done. You have managed to subdue me." She paused for a moment. "But you haven't won." Seeing their eyes widen, she grinned. Poof!

Yūgao disappeared in a cloud of smoke, causing all three of them to tense. That was when each of them felt it. Cold steel pressed up against their throats. Looking down, they saw there was a kunai pressed to each of their throats, ready to kill them. This caused Naruto and Yakumo to gulp. 'I didn't even see her move…' It was at this point Naruto noticed both of his teammates were in an identical situation. Realization dawned on Naruto. "Shadow Clones." He said.

Hearing this, the clone restraining him smiled and nodded. "Yes, that's it exactly." Poof! All three of the clones holding kunai to their throats disappeared. Another Yūgao stepped out into the clearing. This one smiled at them. "That's enough, all three of you come over here."

Hearing this, they walked over to her. "Well done. All three of you performed well to your strengths and played out the role most suited for you and your abilities. But most of all, you worked as a team. Sai, you were able to provide Naruto with support and fight as needed. Yakumo, you stayed hidden and cast a genjutsu that not even my clone noticed at first. Naruto, you were the frontal assault and damage dealer. Although you didn't land any hits, you are definitely the best suited for close range combat." She grinned. "I'm proud to say that all three of you have passed. You are now officially team 12. Congratulations."

Naruto felt a huge grin begin to split his face when he heard this. But a thoughtful look soon replaced it. "Yūgao-sensei…when did you replace yourself with a clone? Was it a clone the entire time we fought?" He asked her.

She smiled at him and shook her head. "No, I only switched out with a clone towards the end. Can you figure out when? Do you know when you both took yours eyes off of me?"

Naruto frowned in thought. Did he really do that after engaging her for the first time? When? "It was when Naruto-san and I were clutching our heads in pain after you threw him, wasn't it?" Hearing Sai say this, Naruto's eyes widened as remembered the event. He had taken his eyes off of her at that point. But to be fair, it really hurt!

Yūgao nodded. "Yes, that was when I did it. I took that chance to switch out with a clone. I was never under the genjutsu, but my clone was. It was wonderfully done, Yakumo." She added to the girl. A genjutsu that disrupted how well the body functions is very useful. Hearing this, Yakumo blushed a bit under the praise and smiled at her. Yūgao looked over all three of them. "Anyways, like I said, we are now team 12. This will be our training ground where we meet from now on. I expect to see all three of you here tomorrow morning at eight. We will begin each day with some training and do that for a few hours. We will follow this up with some sort of mission before calling it a day unless the mission finished quickly enough. Any questions?"

Seeing none of them speak up, she nodded. "Very well then. Dismissed. See you tomorrow." And with that final remark, she disappeared into a swirl of leaves.

Hokage's Office (Later that Day)

The jōnins who were assigned as a team sensei were now gathered back in the Hokage's office giving their reports on whether or not the team passed. It mainly consisted on simply stating whether the team passed and any additional comments if necessary. Minato was currently sitting behind his desk and noting what teams passed.

"Team 5."

"Failed."

"Team 6."

"Failed."

"Team 7." That was Kakashi's team wasn't it? Minato was already moving his pen over to the failed check box.

"Passed."

Play Naruto The Movie 1 OST – Actress – Yukie Fujikaze

Dead silence reigned following this. Kakashi simply looked up from his book for a moment to see everybody was staring at him. Once he glanced around the room one time, he shrugged and went back to his book.

Minato was shocked. His student actually passed a team? "Um…Kakashi…" he began, getting the silver haired man's attention. "They passed?" A nod. "How?"

"They shared their lunch."

"…They shared their lunch." Another nod.

"Yes. They shared their lunch with Saito. It was very moving, really. I have high hopes for this team." And with that, he went back to his book as everyone just continued to stare at him in silence.

"Very well then. Team 7 is now formed." What kind of reasoning was that? But he would trust Kakashi.

End Music

Shaking his head to clear himself of these thoughts, Minato continued. "Team 8."

"Passed." Kurenai reported.

Minato nodded and took note of this. "Team 9 is still in circulation. Team 10."

Asuma spoke up. "Passed."

Minato nodded again. "That's the Ino-Shika-Cho team of this generation, right? I have high hopes for them. They could be even better than their fathers were." He took note of this result. "Team 11."

His wife beamed. "Passed of course."

Minato smiled back. "Right, of course." He noted this down. "Team 12."

Yūgao spoke up. "Passed."

Minato nodded. Looking back at Yūgao, he spoke up. "This is your first time being a jōnin sensei, correct?" She nodded back at him. "What did you have them do?"

Yūgao smiled as she answered him. "I didn't have a specific test, so I just had them fight me. To pass all they needed to do was show an adequate level of skill, tactics and teamwork. They did so, and very well as Naruto attacked outright with his sword while Sai provided support with his ink ninjutsu as they bought time for Yakumo to cast a genjutsu on my clone."

This response surprised some of the people in the room who had never seen Naruto even hold a sword. Minato spoke up. "Naruto used a sword? He knows kenjutsu?"

Yūgao nodded in response. "Yes. He used a daitō with a black blade. He was actually very skilled with it." She frowned in thought. "I had thought that you or your wife had taught him how to use it. Is that not the case?"

Minato frowned and shook his head. "I never taught him. Kushina?"

She frowned as well. "I never even knew that he had an interest in kenjutsu…"

Yūgao frowned at the way that sounded. "Well, regardless, he has a sword and knows how to use it."

Minto frowned in thought. "Right…"

Uzumaki-Namikaze Household

Naruto walked through the front door. Although they were slightly tired, especially himself and Sai, the three new members of team 12 went out to eat together in order to get to know one another better. He had enjoyed it and kind of wished that the three of them had talked more in the academy. Although at some points it seemed like Sai was unsure how he should act around them.

Clearing his head of this thought, Naruto walked down the hall towards the living room. When he entered, he saw both of his younger siblings slouching in a chair or on the couch. They appeared almost dead to the world. He smirked at the sight. "Whoa. What happened to you two? You both look terrible." He asked them. Although he already had an idea.

In response, both of them groaned. "Shut up, Aniki. Kaa-chan was so hard on us today." Menma answered.

"He is right nii-chan. The way she tested us…" Narumi shivered from her faced down position on the couch. "…it was so terrible."

Naruto's smirk only grew when he heard how miserable they sounded. "Hey, look on the bright side. Now that we passed all of our tests, we are officially genin of the village." They groaned in response. That was when another thought came to Naruto. "But hey, how come just you two are on team 11? Shouldn't you have a third member?" He was a little jealous at first when he saw it would just be them and their mother on their team, but he was happy now with his current team.

Menma spoke up in response. "Kaa-chan said it was mainly because we both have the Kyūbi's chakra in us. She didn't want other people to get hurt when we trained in it." Without realizing it, Naruto's hand went to his chest where his scar was as Narumi stiffened. Not noticing either reaction, Menma continued what he was saying. "She said that as a former jinchuriki, she could help us learn to control it. And if we went out of control, she could always use her Adamantine Sealing Chains to help subdue us."

Naruto nodded in response. It made sense after all. "What about missions? You don't have a full team."

Narumi was the one to respond this time. "She said that we would be helping other teams out by joining them on their missions. Kind of like a relief squad or something." It was at this point that Narumi glanced over at her older brother. Seeing what he had with him, her eyes widened. "Whoa, nii-chan. Where did you get that awesome sword?" This caused Menma to look over and widen his eyes in surprise as well.

Naruto looked surprised at the question. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that he still had his daitō strapped to his back. He had forgotten to reseal it. He mentally shrugged his shoulders after thinking this. He had already used it with his team, so that secret was out anyways. He looked back at Narumi and shrugged outwardly this time. "I got it a while ago as a gift from a friend." That wasn't a lie.

Menma looked at him. "And you know how to use it?" He questioned.

Naruto looked at him dubiously. "Of course I know how to use it."

Narumi pouted. "You are so lucky! I would love to learn how to use a sword!" Menma nodded his head in agreement. "Maybe I can learn now…" She tilted her head in thought.

Naruto smiled and shrugged. "I'm sure you can still learn it. There isn't really a point when you can't." He began moving over to the stairs. "Well, I'm tired from today and want to get some sleep."

Both of his younger siblings rolled their eyes at him. "Aniki, you like to sleep too much. You are always doing it when you can…"

Naruto smirked and shrugged. He couldn't tell them that half the time, he was actually training in the Station of Awakening, could he? This led to him desiring actual sleep where he was dreaming when he could. Which led to more naps. "Well even then, I'm sure it isn't just me that has training and then a mission tomorrow, right?" He got two nods in return.

Narumi grinned. "Our first missions, I'm so excited-ttebane!"

Naruto grinned in return. "I wonder what we will…get…first…" He trailed off as his mind realized what was happening. Judging by the looks of shock and horror on his sibling's faces, they had figured it out too. They were the children of the Hokage, so they had heard more often what kinds of missions gets assigned to what kinds of teams. And they had seen a few genin teams around the village.

They were not looking forward to D-ranks.

There we go! All done with Chapter 13!

So here is what I realized recently while reading some fanfiction. A lot of writers just skip over the fights completely. I never noticed. They get to the fight, and then bam! Fight is over and we get a general overview of what happened and what the result was. I never even thought of that. I may or may not start doing that. Cuz honestly, I suck at fight scenes so much.

Saito isn't an OC. He is from Zero no Tsukaima. I'm just lazy and needed a character.

That little tidbit of music was unnecessary but that's what I play in my head when something dubious happens.

Teams are formed! Team 12 consists of Naruto, Sai and Yakumo along with Yūgao as sensei.

Can I be completely honest with you? I was so close to just being lazy and doing the typical team 7 from canon. I really wanted to, but it wouldn't fit into the story perfectly and I realized I really should change it a bit. I didn't even really consider doing something else until I read Exalted Demi-Soul's review.

Not really sure what I will be putting in the next chapter. But I have an idea.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!

Until next time,

Kog6943