Disclaimer: do I gotta say it again...?

Speech

Thought

Kyuubi

Wolf Naruto

Seimika: I may be misreading your review, but he doesn't actually have a wolf in him. The wolf statue is pretty much just a representation of Naruto's lycanthropy. The ears and tail are due to that, not Kyuubi.

For those of you wondering, I haven't abandoned 'Naruto:Reborn'. I'm just on a roll with this one and wanna keep it up while my mojo is still going.

Wolf In Fox's Clothing

Chapter 8: Genin Life Begins

"Troublesome women.." Shikamaru muttered as he watched Sakura and Ino try to muscle each other out of the doorway. He was more annoyed that their thundering interrupted a perfectly good nap.

"Get out of my way, Ino-Pig! I was here first!" Sakura growled, trying her hardest to shove the other girl aside.

"In your dreams, Forehead!" Ino snapped back as she tried to give her an elbow. Before it made contact, however, someone piped up behind them with a voice that sent a chill down their spines; in a good way.

"Um, as entertaining as this is, could you two let me by before all three of us end up late?"

They whirled around to see a tall young man standing with his hands in his pockets. The hooded trenchcoat he had on concealed his identity but they could see a pair of gleaming silver-blue eyes under the hood. They continued to stare until Iruka took hold of their shoulders.

"All right you two. Inside." He said, leading them in, along with the hooded stranger.

The second he entered Hinata kicked on her Byakugan on reflex and went wide-eyed before clamping down HARD on her nose, and Iruka had to suppress a chuckle at the girl's reaction. Akamaru sniffed and started barking like mad to Kiba.

"Akamaru, what's with you?" Kiba asked as the dog continued to go at it, "Wha..? What do you mean that's Naruto?"

The figure sighed, "Blabbermouth." he muttered. When he saw Hinata's reaction, he knew the jig was up and took off his coat. It took the others a moment before they finally spotted the familiar black ears and tail, along with his waist-long hair, "I figured out how to finally change back."

"NARUTO?!" Came the startled yell from everyone except Hinata, who was now bright red and holding her nose even harder. They could barely believe their eyes; the blonde was still as close to Iruka's height as he had been, but his fur was now gone. In its place was a face that caused a fair number of blushes to show up, the black whisker marks once again visible. He was still barefoot, but now he had on a pair of wraps around them Guy had given him along with a basic pair of shinobi pants and vest with a short-sleeve shirt under it. He was also wearing a pair of thick, black fighting gloves that extended to his elbows. What no one could see, however, was that like all his previous clothing, this new outfit was weighted.

"Cool, their not glomping me this time." He mused, thinking things might be better for him now.

Kyuubi chortled, "Don't count on it, Kit. They simply thought you were cute and furry before.."

The comment was, to Naruto's dismay, confirmed when he stepped past Ino and heard her say in a somewhat squeaky voice, "H-hot!" while Sakura was doing her hardest to pretend he wasn't there and stared at Sasuke like mad. Several other girls were following in suit, some were drooling like idiots.. He gulped slightly and tried to shake it off, taking his usual seat beside a still scarlet Hinata. She had managed to finally stem the nosebleed that tried to issue forth after she saw underneath his shirt. She knew he trained with weights, but not that much.

"All of you sit down so I can assign you to your genin teams." Iruka gave them a moment before checking his clipboard and ticking off names, "Team 7: Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno.."

"CHA! True love conquers all!" The pink-haired kunoichi belted out, sticking her tongue out at the fangirls scowling at her.

"AND.." Iruka raised his voice to get their attention again, "Kiba Inuzuka."

Kiba rolled his eyes. He was no fan on the broody boy. Sakura was too busy enjoying her seat beside her crush to notice both boys looked annoyed.

"Team 8: Chouji Akamichi, Ino Yamanaka, and Shikamaru Nara."

Ino groaned in annoyance and Shikamaru simply sighed. Chouji just focus on his munchies.

"Team 9 is currently still in circulation. Team 10: Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga, and Naruto Uzumaki."

Shino merely nodded. Hinata, on the other hand, was fighting the urge to squeal in excitement at being teamed up with her own crush. Naruto was a mix of being glad he wasn't teamed up with 'Emo-Boy' as he called Sasuke and almost pitying Kiba.

"All right, that's everyone. Your instructors will be here momentarily. I wanna wish you all luck with your new lives as Konoha genins." Iruka said as he left the room.

A few minutes later the Jounins began arriving. Naruto was a little surprised to see Kurenai and Asuma were two of them. He hadn't expected either to become instructors. For a moment, he could've sworn Kurneai went bug-eyed and blushed slightly when she looked his way.

Hinata noticed and twitched slightly. "Aw HELL NO!" She grumbled to herself, "It's bad enough I gotta worry about Hana and Yugito!"

"Team 10? Follow me." Kurenai said as soon as she composed herself.

"Naruto?" Shino spoke up as the trio left with their instructor, "My insects have been acting somewhat odd since you arrived."

"What do you mean, Shino?" Hinata asked. Naruto glanced over at him.

"They seem..curious about you now for some reason. They say your chakra is more...beastly...than before."

The blonde tensed and cursed himself for forgetting how sensitive the Aburame clan's bugs were to chakra. He had wanted to keep his full form a secret until he knew how others would react, "Well, I'd have to show you. But not right now, ok?

"Ok."

"Very well."

Hinata was starting to get pissed. Their jounin instructor was leading them through the streets of Konoha and since Naruto had forgotten his coat back at school, just about every girl between 12 and 20 was staring at him. Some seemed innocent enough, mainly giggling and blushing; but quite a few were giving him hungry looks; and she did NOT like that. The Hyuuga heiress wasn't a violent person, but she was going to throw down if any of them tried anything.

It took them a while to realize Kurenai was taking them to a dango shop. The three students gave her an odd look.

"No sense getting to know each other on an empty stomach." Was her response. They took a table and made their orders. As they waited, they started telling each other a bit about themselves, like Kurenai's hatred of perverts and the book a certain silver-haired jounin always has, Shino's dream to follow in his father's footsteps as an honorable clan leader, Naruto's hobbies of training and hunting (he IS partially a wolf, after all), and Hinata's dislike of her clan's elders and the sidelong glance she gave naruto while discussing her likes.

Kurenai polished off her last dumpling and smiled at her group, "That wasn't too bad. All right, I suggest you get some rest, Your final exam is tomorrow."

"But we already took the finals in class." Naruto said.

"Actually that test was just a qualifier. The real one will show whether or not you have what it really takes to be shinobi." She got up to pay the tab, "Meet at Training Ground 4 tomorrow at 7AM sharp. And NO latecomers, got it?"

The trio quickly nodded, they all had a feeling tomorrow was going to keep them on their toes

The next morning Kurenai met up with the three genins at the training area; a moderately-sized clearing out in the woods. When they arrived, she procured a small clock and began to wind it, "Your task will be to locate and attempt to capture me before this timer goes off. You'll have 2 hours, starting now!" With that, she vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Well, we better get in gear. She's probably gonna try and mess with our heads while we hunt for her." Naruto muttered, "Kurenai specializes in genjutsu. She caught a guy trying to peek in the bathhouse one time and hit him with an illusion that made him think his clothes were trying to eat him."

Hinata raised her eyes at the very idea, "She wouldn't use something like that on us, would she?"

"I doubt it. She reserves her nastiest stuff for people who have it coming. She'll more than likely just use ones to stall us." He replied, "Either way, we better get going. Shino, can genjutsu affect your bugs?"

"No. Insect minds aren't quite as complex as most creatures." The Aburame said, quickly catching on and sending out some into the woods. Meanwhile, Hinata was using her Byakugan to keep watch and Naruto kept his ears and nose open for anything.

After a few slightly uneasy minutes, a handful of the insects came back and the team headed off in the direction they gave Shino. They moved as fast as they could without making noise, hoping to get as close as they could before the jounin decided to make her move.

Hinata noticed the blonde was constantly darting his eyes around in a somewhat nervous manner, "Naruto-kun, are you ok? Your acting kinda jittery."

"Well, to be honest, Hina; I'm not real good with genjutsus. They're my biggest weakness." He answered, getting looks from both of them, "Just couldn't get the hang of it. The only way I can get out of one is physical injury. That's why I'm hoping we can get to her first."

"You're forgetting I'm here, Kit." Came Kyuubi's voice in his mind, "You might not be too big on using my power, but that doesn't mean i won't be watching your back."

"I know. It still makes me a lil uneasy though.." He was cut off when Shino nudged him and subtlly pointed up towards a nearby tree. All three looked to see Kurenai crouched up on a branch.

Any thoughts of beating her to the punch were immedantly extinguished, thought, when she suddenly spun around and grinned at them, going through seals as she did.

"She was expecting us!" Shino said, watching her fade away.

The next 60 minutes would come to be 'the weirdest damn hour ever' for the genin team. Thanks to the genjutsu mistress' sense of humor, Shino found himself conversing with a 3-foot-tall stag beetle. Hinata nearly passed out when she thought she saw Naruto pulling off his shirt, and the werewolf was clinging to a branch in an attempt to get away from the horde of screaming fangirls he was seeing. Kurenai was in pain from holding back her laughter at the sight.

"KIT! Snap out of it!" Kyuubi yelled in an attempt to get the blonde to realize what was happening, "You're in one of her illusions, dammit!"

"Wha..Kyuubi.?" Not expecting the yell, Naruto lost his hold on the branch and fell to the ground with a loud THUD. Fortunately it was only a few feet, "Ow..think I landed on a rock." He sat up and blinked in confusion, "Their gone...?"

"Kit, they were never there anyway. That woman got all three of you."

"Aw man! And using fangirls!? That's just plain low!" He looked over to see Hinata staring dreamily at a tree and Shino talking to..well, nothing, 'Ok, she brought this on herself!" He summoned up a shadow clone to wake Hinata when he got Shino. It took them a few minutes to get them out of the genjutsus, but all three were soon free and glaring at Kurenai with annoyance..

"GET HER!" Naruto shouted as he led the charge.

What occurred next could only be described as a mass of blurs ricocheting off the trees. However, before they could get to the jounin, the timer finally went off.

"Saved by the bell." Kurenai thought, slightly winded. The trio had given her a run for her money, "Well, you didn't complete the objective, but, that doesn't mean you failed."

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked, still a little irked at the illusion that had been used on her.

The jounin chuckled, "The real test was to see if you could work as a team. And I'm pleased to say that you three did just that."

"Wait..are you saying what I think you are?" Naruto's ears perked up.

"Exactly. I'm happy to say that Team 10 passes! We'll begin our first mission early tomorrow morning."

Shino stifled a chuckle as Naruto whooped and put Hinata in a hug, much to the girl's surprise and delight.

Back at his apartment, Naruto had begun trying to take inventory of all his remaining gear when he found a couple of empty storage scrolls under his bed, "Forgot I had these." He remembered Asuma getting them for him when he was 9, but he never learned how to use them.

"Kit, now that you've achieved your first goal, I believe it's time I had a hand in your training; and those scrolls will be perfect for what I'm going to start you off in."

"You're going to teach me to use a storage seal??"

"To start with. I also selected a few jutsus from the Forbidden Scroll while you were learning shadow clones. I will warn you, though, the training I plan to have you do will put a high strain on your chakra and be painful at the beginning."

"I'm no stranger to pain, fox. Remember?"

"True. So, do you think you can handle it?"

"Heh, you're on, fox. When do we start?"

"Right now."

I know the genin test wasn't exactly grand, but I couldn't think up a really good way to do it,

Before anyone freaks about how Kurenai went about in this chapter; in the anime, during the chunin exams, Asuma remarks that Kurenai hadn't been a Jounin very long. So, in that light, she's somewhat of a rookie jounin and it's possible that this team could've been her very first one.

Next time: To Wave!