This is my first story. Don't hate for no reason. Will take fair criticism though.

I do not own Naruto or anything related. That goes to Masashi Kishimoto

CHAPTER 6

Laying in his bed Naruto thought about his day. Not even 24 hours into being a genin and he already had a completed B-rank mission in his file. And as forced as it was, his jiji finally told him about the 50 story tailed beast in his gut. He knew that his grandfather-figure only wanted to protect him. But sometimes it is better to know the truth than to be protected from it.

With these thoughts his eyes closed. But when they opened he didn't know where he was. He was in what seemed to be a library. He was in a large hallway with many different paths branching off. And lining the walls were bookshelves that were nearly empty except for the occasional book or scroll yet he could envision the collection eventually growing. But far far away he heard a low growl and a steady breath. Naruto slowly stalked towards the noise hoping he wasn't alone in what seemed to be an endless labyrinth. Eventually he found a dark cage. He couldn't see inside so he inched forward.

"So my warden finally comes to greet me." A gigantic red slitted eye appeared in the darkness.

Naruto stared at the eye in fear, "And who might you be?"

A toothy grin appeared next, "Didn't you tell your leader you knew about me?"

Widening his eyes in realization he points and screams, "You're the Kyuubi!"

Emerging from the darkness was a red-orange fox 1000 feet tall and nine swishing tails behind him, "At least my container is smart."

Scratching his chin pensively, Naruto mumbles, "All those books were wrong."

Seemingly raising his eyebrow The fox questions, "What do you mean by that?"

Meeting the beast eyes Naruto explains, "Well all the books describe you as a mindless, destructive beast, of pure chakra, hatred, and malice. But from this conversation alone I can tell that you're not mindless so I'm wondering if there are other sides of you that I could learn about."

"What are you after?" Kyuubi growled menacingly.

Naruto held up his hand defensively, "N-nothing. It's just I figure if we are going to be sharing a body we should come to some type of compromise."

Kyuubi became angry, "Compromise? You just want my power!"

"Not without asking! I know I would hate someone taking my chakra without asking so I'm offering a deal."

Calming down, the biju lays on his arms, "Fine. What are you offering."

"What do you want?"

Kyuubi shows a cheshire grin, "You could open the seal."

Naruto laughs lightly, "Nice joke but you know I can't do that without dying. Is there anything that might improve your quality of life?"

"Something to do other than sleep might be nice."

"What's your favorite thing to do?"

"Recreational destruction is fun."

"Of course it is. I'll see what I can do."

Through the bars the Kyuubi watched Naruto carefully as he focused on his task, still slightly suspicious of the boy's intentions. His previous containers never gave him this opportunity. They only viewed him as a burden. Yet as his surroundings slowly changed to those of a field with tall trees he could sleep under and a town off in the distance he could destroy he was finally hopeful. Hopeful he had found a friend.

Panting, Naruto asked, "How's that?"

"Thank you. But where is the cage?"

"Look down, I changed it to a collar. I figured if you wanted a bit more mobility a collar would be better."

"And if I tried to harm you?"

"It would electrocute you."

"Fair enough. So what do you want from me?"

"You're really going to help me?"

"I may be a beast of pure destruction, but I do have honor. What can I do?"

"I want to be the best Hokage ever. To do that I need to be a strong ninja so are there any abilities or jutsu that you could teach me?"

"There aren't any of my techniques I could teach you without you learning to use my chakra first. Though I guess I can teach you some of my past containers' jutsu."

Naruto smiled brilliantly, "Thank you. You know I never got your name."

"Name?" The kyuubi eyed Naruto.

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "Well the ichibi is named Shukaku, so I figured you have a name too. And we can't be friends if I don't even know your name."

"Friends? Why would I need friends?"

Naruto frowned at that, "Well everybody needs somebody. And if we're going to be together until we die, we might as well be friends."

"Kurama."

"What?"

"My name. It's Kurama. But don't tell anybody. I need to respect them to know my name."

Beginning to wake up, Naruto starts to fade, "I'll see you soon for those jutsu. At least I know where to find you."

"Or we can form a mind-link."

"Next-time Kurama. One step at a time."

-a week later-

Despite Konohamaru being almost a little brother to Naruto, the past week of constantly asking Naruto for training annoyed him. (A/N: I'll do that part later because I figure it's time to get to the juicy stuff.)

Sitting down in the classroom for the last time in a while Naruto was simultaneously excited but immensely nervous. He knew that most of the civilian born ninja hated him. And if even one of them were on his team, teammate or sensei…especially sensei, his genin days would be hell. As Iruka walked through the door, clipboard in hand his nervousness and excitement grew.

"Good Morning. Today is the day you truly become genin. You will be placed in squads of three genin and a jonin sensei…" Naruto zoned out Iruka's speech just focusing on praying for good team members.

"...I will call out your teams one by one. After that you will be dismissed for lunch. Return by 12:30 pm to meet your jonin senseis. Alright starting with Team 1."

As Naruto listened as teams were called out and his hope slowly grew. With each team only civilians were called out leaving behind clan heirs.

"Team 7! Kiba Inuzuka…Sakura Haruno…"

Kiba paled, scared for his hearing. And Sakura was depressed over being paired with a 'mutt'.

"And Sasuke Uchiha."

While Sakura's mood flipped in an instant over being paired with her 'True Love', Kiba's mood darkened even further.

"Team 8! Aburame Shino…Hyuga Hinata…and Uzumaki Naruto."

While Naruto was indifferent to Shino and completely fine with working with him it was Hinata he was worried about. While her immeasurable kindness was sometimes helpful, it was a gigantic weakness, and if their jonin sensei didn't fix that he would.

"Team 9 is still in rotation so moving on to Team 10! Akimichi Choji…Nara Shikamaru…and Yamanaka Ino."

"I'm with the lazy bum and the chubby? I'm screwed!" A sob pierced through the room.

"Oh yeah? Didn't both of them do better than you by a lot? Who's really screwed?" Naruto shouted, finally tired of the fangirl attitude.

Embarrassed, Ino sat down and didn't speak.

Smirking at the interaction, Iruka announced, "You are dismissed. Be back by 12:30."

Walking over he asked, "Hey, If we're going to be a team maybe we should get to know each other a little better. Lunch maybe?"

While Hinata's head slowly began to glow brighter than Rudolph's nose she squeaked out, "ok."

"That sounds productive. Where are we eating?" Shino spoke monotonously.

"Well I don't think ramen is good for your bugs, so maybe we should go to a cafe somewhere?"

"That is acceptable."

-later-

They waited briefly for their sensei when a woman with red eyes and untamed black hair. She wore a red mesh blouse covered by what seemed to be large bandages with a rose thorn pattern.

"Team 8, with me!"

Following their sensei they were eventually led to a patio with a few benches. Sitting down the woman began her speech, "My name is Yuhi Kurenai and I might be your jonin sensei, but more on that later. Firstly I wanted to get to know you all, your likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams for the future. I'll even go first.

My name is Yuhi Kurenai. My likes are genjutsu, my friends, and dango. My dislikes are rapists, fangirls who give kunoichi a bad name, and perverts. Especially perverts. My hobby is practicing new genjutsu. My goal for the future is to show the world that genjutsu is just as strong as ninjutsu and taijutsu. And that kunoichi can be just as good as men. Who's next?"

"My name is Aburame Shino and my likes are my kikaichu and my family. I dislike people who hate or kill bugs unnecessarily. My hobby is to collect bugs. My goal is to become the best Aburame clan head I can be.

'Those are reasonable goals.'

"Who's next?"

"M-my n-name is Hyuga Hinata. M-my likes are c-c-cinnamon b-buns, m-my family, and…" She glanced towards Naruto and blushed. Everyone caught it.

"M-my dislikes are k-k-kidnappers and r-rapists. M-my hobbies are f-flower p-p-pressing, and…" She glanced at Naruto and her blush deepened. Everyone then showed looks of confusion and concern (Naruto).

"M-my g-goals for the f-f-future are to unite m-my clan, r-remove the c-caged b-bird s-seal, and…" One final glance at Naruto and she fainted. Everyone, used to her fainting spells, just continued.

While Kurenai was thinking, 'I really need to instill some confidence in her.'

Naruto was following a similar thought path, 'I should have tried to help her out of that a while ago.'

Once Hinata regained consciousness Kurenai continued, "You're last."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and my likes are training, seals, and ramen. My dislikes are people who mistake the scroll for the kunai, perverts, and bullies. My hobbies are training, trying to invent new seals, gardening, and shogi. My goal for the future is to become the greatest Hokage."

Kurenai smiled, 'He might be able to help me with Hinata.'

Returning to the task Kurenai spoke, "Now that we know each other. This team is meant to be a tracking squad."

Seeing Naruto raise his hand Kurenai motioned for him to speak, "I understand why Hinata and Shino are here, but wouldn't Kiba be a better fit for this team because of his sense of smell?"

"Tracking squads tend to be a little weaker in terms of power than other squads. So you are here to bolster our fighting power."

Naruto nodded his head in understanding so Kurenai continued, "However, like I said earlier I might not be your sensei. You see, the graduation exam was only to weed out the hopeless cases. Each sensei has one last test that you must pass to become genin. And individually the pass rate is only 33%"

While Shino remained stoic hearing this, and Naruto grinned in confidence, Hinta became very nervous."

"The test is tomorrow at 8 am on training ground 8. If you pass, I will do my best to make your dreams come true. See you tomorrow!" She shunshined away. While Shino went to leave with the same stoic look, Hinata slumped to the floor, a nervous mess.

Naruto ran over and held her by the shoulders, "Hinata! Look at me. Look me in the eyes."

Once her eyes met his he continued, "You will do just fine. I'll be there and…"

Turning to Shino, "Wait."

Looking between the two Naruto continued, "Look she said that individually we have a 33% chance. Maybe if we work together that will go up. We're a team now. We have to act like one."

Hinata felt a wave of confidence, and while Shino didn't show it he did too.

Hinata spoke slightly confidently, "Ok!"

Shino walked back and sat down, "Agreed. But what is our plan?"

"Well we can't make them too specific since we don't know what the test is. But there are two things we do know, we are going to be tested on how well we can track, as that is our squad's purpose, and that our sensei is most likely extremely proficient in genjutsu."

To be Continued…

I changed Naruto's first interaction with the Kyuubi because I believe that Kurama would be less angry if Naruto didn't immediately try to take his chakra.

I will post every one to two weeks. Thank you for reading.