yeah i had this one written up before posting the previous chapter but didn't get a chance to edit it till today so i hope most people said that they'd like to see the normal team seven.
is that a spoiler? oh well, it izz what it izz.
edit: oops, hope you like this anyway…
i just really love the dynamic between Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke so that's usually what i write and what i look for when i read.
hope that anyone who wished otherwise continue reading, i promise i have some other team dynamics planned as well
speaking of planned, i did something i never expected to do and make this whole plan about what I want to do with this story (all the way through to the end of part 1, haven't thought much about shippuden yet, but that's a long way to go, these little babies are barely genin right now), it's not very fleshed out, mostly just bullet points but I'm really excited to write it all out!
Naruto woke up excited for the day to come. She pulled her curtains open and took in a deep breath of the fresh Konoha air. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon and it was still relatively dark out.
Today would be the first day of the rest of her life!
Ino had invited both her and Sakura to her home so that they could have breakfast together before going to the Academy. She would need to hurry up and get ready if she hoped to make it in time.
Naruto took a quick cold shower (still no hot water, she would need to use some of her genin paycheck to get the heater fixed.) and headed off to her best friend's flower shop after picking out an outfit of a blue shirt and matching pants, her signature orange jacket over it. She had found a new one her size and had grabbed it despite her friends' protests. On the way, she ran into Sakura, whose hair was still wet from her shower. Naruto's breath hitched at the sight of her but she said nothing besides a polite greeting.
"Running late, Sakura?" she teased.
"What do you mean, we're both here at the same time."
"Yes, but you have this annoying habit of always being early to everything."
Sakura huffed and gave no response.
There weren't many people around, so the two walked in comfortable silence until they reached Ino's home.
"Congratulations on passing the exam you two!" Ino's mother said as they knocked at the back entrance to the store that led into the residential part of the building.
"Thanks Mom," Naruto grinned at the older woman, she had taken to calling her that after she had slipped up one time, the older woman didn't seem to mind, and had even teared up the first time. Naruto had stuck to calling her that ever since.
"Come on in, Ino's been waiting at the table, nervous munchies," she winked.
The two shuffled inside without another word.
The graduation exam earlier that week was… underwhelming, in all honesty. All three of them had passed the physical portion of the test with flying colors, Naruto had some difficulty with the written test, but she was sure she had done just about enough to scrape by, and scrape by, she did.
All-in-all, she had expected more from the exam after getting so worked up over it and even failing once before, but with the help and support of her two best friends, she felt like she could overcome anything.
"You're finally here, I'm starving!"
Ino did not wait for either of them to sit down and began piling her plate with food. Naruto idly remembered the first time she dined in the Yamanaka household and how different everyone's life was a few short months later.
"Ino, manners!" her mother chastised.
"Showwy," Ino said with a mouth full of food.
The older woman simply shook her head and served the two guests their breakfasts.
"Has Inoichi-san already left?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah, Dad had some important work that came up early today, he woke me up to wish me luck today and I haven't been able to go back to sleep since." Ino explained, having swallowed this time. That probably explained how hungry Ino had been, she might've been up for a few hours knowing how early the older Yamanaka could sometimes be called into work.
Soon enough, the three were done with their meal and the sun was shining gently through the curtains, probably time to head to the Academy.
"Bye mom!" Ino called as she stepped out of her home, Naruto echoed the same.
"Bye bye Yamanaka-san," the ever respectful Sakura said, instead.
"Have a lovely day dears, I wish you the best of luck with the team selections!"
Sakura sat between Ino and Naruto apprehensively. The teachers' decisions today would have a heavy impact on the rest of her life. She could only hope to be placed in a decent team. Her team would be her comrades until the day they died, it was a big deal!
She had some idea about the team selection process, no team was decided randomly or without thought. Everything would be considered, from grades to clan to proficiency.
She was effectively just a regular civilian, she couldn't bank on some clan name to land her in a good team.
What she could bank on, however, was that she was still the top kunoichi in her class. She scored the highest in the written test so her smarts were undoubted, she also placed a solid third place in the practical portion of the exams after Sasuke and Naruto respectively. Logically, there should have been nothing to worry about, but she couldn't help but nervously chew on the inside of her cheek.
"If you keep making that face, it's gonna get stuck like that, ya know?" Naruto teased.
"Yeah, you should stop worrying, Sakura," Ino tried.
"Easy for you to say Ino, you're pretty much guaranteed to be placed with Shikamaru and Choji."
"... Touché."
"Well what about me then, I don't have a clan, Just like you."
Sakura stared incredulously at her blonde friend… the shorter of her blonde friends, "Are you serious Naruto?"
Naruto stared back at her blankly, "Did I say something wrong?" She glanced worriedly at Ino, who simply facepalmed.
"You realize that the Uzumaki were a really powerful clan, highly respected by the Leaf, so much so that we have their clan symbol like, everywhere." Ino gestured to the spiral insignia on Naruto's jacket.
"WHAT?!"
The entire class looked at Naruto strangely for suddenly shouting.
"Shut up Naruto, don't be annoying." Sasuke murmured.
"No really, how did I not know this before?"
Sakura stared at her like she grew a second head, "You're not joking are you? We had like an entire chapter about them last year."
"Oh." Naruto grew quiet.
"I always wondered why I never heard you shouting at the top of your lungs about it, we all know what you were like back then."
Naruto cringed at her younger self, she had been quite unnecessarily loud in the past, she still was, just not nearly as much.
"Remind me to look more into them once we're done today."
"Sure."
"Alright class, settle down."
Iruka entered, and that meant the teams had been decided. Sakura grew nervous again, not having Naruto's oblivious nature to distract her anymore.
"First of all, I'd like to congratulate all of you for passing the graduation exam!"
The class cheered in response.
"Secondly, and this is a bit off topic, but I'm sure you all are aware of Mizuki-sensei, yes?"
Huh, Why was Iruka talking about Mizuki? To be fair, she hadn't seen the silver haired chunin for a few days now, not since he had taken over for Iruka while he watched over then clean up the Monument.
"I'll just get to the point, Mizuki has been arrested last night and has been marked a traitor for attempting to steal and escape with the forbidden scroll of sealing."
Gasps and hushed murmuring echoed on the walls of the classroom.
"Alright no more of that, You're all adults now, which is why I'm entrusting this news to you, so I expect you all to behave yourselves."
The class quieted down, wanting to leave Iruka with a good final impression.
Mizuki was a traitor? That didn't make any sense, he was always so nice and friendly to everyone, including Naruto before her change. To learn that he betrayed the village came at a great shock to Sakura.
"Beginning today, you are all real ninjas," Iruka said after clearing his throat, "But you are still merely rookies, Genin. The hard part has just started."
Iruka adjusted himself before continuing, "Now, You will soon be assigned duties by the village. So today we will be creating the 3 man teams and each team will have a Jonin sensei. You will follow that sensei's instructions as you complete your assigned duties. We have tried to balance each team's strengths and weaknesses and there will be no changes to the roster."
Sakura already knew all that, all she was worried about was being paired with teammates she could tolerate. She knew Ino was out of the question, definitely being reserved to fold the third generation of the ever effective Ino-Shika-Cho trio like her father had been in. Her next best hope was being paired with Naruto or Sasuke. Naruto was still one of her best friends and Sasuke was well…
Sakura still had a massive crush on Sasuke, but held herself off from actively pursuing him out of fear of losing Ino again, and by extension, Naruto. He just wasn't worth it anymore. That being said, he was still an incredibly powerful shinobi, titled "Rookie of the Year" for getting the highest overall score in the exams, getting first place in the practicals and tying for first with herself on the academics, both getting a perfect score.
Iruka began listing out teams one at a time, starting with Team One. Sakura had tuned out the other names until she heard her own.
"-Next, Team Seven: Haruno Sakura, -"
Sakura held a bated breath.
"Uzumaki Naruto, -"
YES! She was in the same team as Naruto, she couldn't be happier.
"And Uchiha Sasuke."
She was wrong, she could be happier.
Naruto hugged her tightly, Sasuke let out a characteristic 'hn'.
"I'm so glad we're on the same team! I was totally worried there for a second." Sakura said as she hugged Naruto back.
"Aren't you happier to be on the same team as Sasuke-kun." Naruto wiggled her eyebrows at her suggestively.
"Meh, he's alright, I guess." It wasn't easy to feign indifference, but Ino was right there, she wasn't about to gloat in her face again.
"Just don't get in my way," Sasuke said with a deadpan expression.
"She's almost just as good as you, ya know," Naruto defended, "And doesn't even have your clan advantage."
Sakura was glad Naruto came to her defense, but Sasuke simply said nothing. Iruka ignored their banter and continued listing off the rest of the teams.
"Alright that's the last team, we'll introduce the Jonin senseis later this afternoon, you are all dismissed for a break until then."
Everyone shuffled out of the classrooms with their lunches in hand, Ino tugged at both Naruto and herself, "Come on let's go eat," she held up two bento boxes, "Mom's packed on for Naruto as well."
"Aw tell her I said thanks," Naruto grinned.
The three of them took a seat at their usual bench, the very same one Sakura had rekindled her friendship with Ino and made a new one in Naruto.
"Did you hear any of the other teams, I kinda zoned out till my name was called."
Ino rolled her eyes, "I'm with Shika and Choji, as expected."
Sakura nodded.
"And Hinata is with Kiba and Shino, and honestly, I don't remember the rest."
Sakura chuckled, she could barely blame Ino, after all.
"Alright, now spill the truth young lady, how excited are you to be in the same team as Sasuke!"
Sakura flushed pink, she was sure she had hidden her excitement well but it clearly wasn't well enough.
"Kinda, I mean, I'm way more excited to be with Naru, here" She nudged her friend's shoulder affectionately. Honestly, after she got through the initial stages of being friends with her just because Ino had asked her to, she really found herself warming up to Naruto. She just had such a sunny and bubbly personality and her smile was so infectious it could be classified as a bio-weapon. She would never have a bad day as long as Naruto was around, she somehow just had the key to bringing out the joy in her, it was uncanny, really.
She also stopped asking her out, which was a breath of fresh air. Besides, she liked guys, especially pretty guys like Sasuke.
Sasuke who was sitting right across from them, eating a sandwich. How could someone look so cool while eating a bloody sandwich?
Catching her gaze, he turned around and walked away without saying a word.
Sakura considered going after him, but decided against it.
She turned back to her own lunch, her mother had prepared her a nice meal of rice, grilled chicken and sautéed vegetables. Ino and Naruto had a similar box with fish instead of chicken.
"Hey Sakura, can I try summa that chicken?" Naruto asked with a sheepish grin.
"Only if you give me some fish in return," she teased, not really wanting anything in return and well aware of Naruto's appetite.
"Sure!" Naruto took the largest piece of fish she had and placed it in Sakura's lunch box.
"Hey hey, I was just kidding, you can just take the chicken."
"Nuh uh, this seems like a fair trade to me."
"At least give me a smaller piece, or take half of this one back." She broke the fish in half and placed it into Naruto's box."
She picked up a slice of chicken with her chopsticks.
"Now open up," Naruto's eyes widened, but she obeyed and opened her mouth wordlessly. Sakura didn't know what came over her, suddenly offering to feed Naruto, oh well, too late to turn back now.
She thrust the chicken into her mouth with a slight blush dusting her cheeks, if anyone was watching, they'd think she was insane, probably.
Naruto, bless her heart, said nothing, chewing with a pleasant smile on her face.
Oh.
Oh nevermind, Naruto was way prettier than Sasuke like this. It wasn't really a fair comparison, Naruto was a girl and girls were supposed to be pretty, so really it made perfect sense why she thought she was pretty. She liked pretty boys.
Ino, having been strangely quiet, let out a mischievous smirk and said, "Can I also have some chicken Sa-ku-ra."
She opened her mouth wide, Sakura choked on her spit, face flushing even darker at being caught.
"Ugh, n-no, I need my proteins to grow up and become a strong and powerful kunoichi."
She hoped she sounded three times as convincing as she felt she did in her head.
Ino mock pouted, "Oh alright, I understand."
"I can give you some of my fish if you want, Ino."
Naruto picked up the half Sakura returned and went to give it to Ino, but she refused politely.
Confused, but not wanting to question her friend's odd behavior, Naruto popped the half into her mouth instead with a shrug.
What's gotten into her, why is she acting all strange all of a sudden. Why was she beginning to feel hot? Did the temperature rise?
She settled for ignoring the questions in her head and focused on her meal again instead.
Stupid pretty blondes be damned.
hope you liked this one! again, this was gonna have the whole meeting kakashi thing, but I got distracted adding that cute lil' scene at the end that was totally not planned for and just popped into my head as I was writing, thats the best thing with making a plan isn't it, going completely against it when little plot bunnies burrow into your head, build a nest and live comfortably till the end of their days.
I think that metaphor got a little out of hand there, sorry :D
the next chapter will be kakashi and bell test. I hope the team can pass!
bubbye!