Time skip To Final year of academy.

1.5 years after the attack

The sound of clashing swords rang across the academy training grounds. It was Friday again and time to show how much their weapons skills had improved over the past week. This had been the normal Friday routine ever since the month after the attack on the Hyūga compound. After Sasuke heard that Naruto had nearly fought off his father with a weapon not taught in the academy he had been furious. In his mind Naruto didn't deserve to know how to defend himself. He didn't deserve to know how to fight with a sword when Sasuke, an Uchiha, did not. In Sasuke's mind he was the one who should have been allowed to learn sword fighting, after all he did deserve it, he was an Uchiha and it was his right to know everything before everyone else. It was his birthright to be the very best in the academy, so as soon as he had heard of Naruto's apparent skill with a blade he had barged into the Hokage's office and demanded to be allowed to learn as well. Since the Hokage had been planning to create a better weapon's program anyways, he had given the arrogant boy his that Sasuke had left with a smug look on his face, he didn't even wait for the Hokage to tell him which weapon trainer he should go to, as if it mattered to the boy, he chose his own master.

Of course the next Monday when Sasuke showed up to school with a katana strapped to his back he had immediately shown it off to everyone and bragged that he had special permission from the Hokage to have it. Imagine his surprise when Iruka walked into the classroom followed closely by Heiwa Sakusei and explained that the Hokage had decided that it was time for the academy students to learn how to wield their own unique weapons. He was rather pissed off at that, what he had thought was special treatment that he had intimidated the Hokage into giving him was nothing more than advance notice on a curriculum change for everyone, but there was nothing he could do about it. All he could do was vow that he would be the best in this subject and hope that he would be able to "accidentally" kill Naruto in the process.

Heiwa hadn't been at all happy when he saw that Sasuke had taken it upon himself to pick out his own weapon before everyone else, but he had expected it to happen, the Hokage told him about sasuke's little temper tantrum in the office and how he had humored him. So he wasn't at all surprised and actually a little happy that the boy had found his own master to teach him. Heiwa had not been looking forward to dealing with the brat's ego so he just counted it as a win and proceeded to explain everything to the other, more compliant students, and left Sasuke to his own devices.

He gave each student a private skill and personality assessment to decide which weapons would be right for them. Unsurprisingly most of them tested out very well with conventional weapons such as swords, knives, or Bo staffs. There were however a few surprises, Shino had shown an aptitude for a rare tandem weapon known collectively as wind and fire wheels. Ironically Shikamaru ended up with the deer horn knives just like Hinata, and Kiba went with twin butterfly knives for some odd reason.

Naruto and Hinata of course tested well for their primary weapons that they had been learning for years, not surprising to him but surprising to the ones who didn't know of their training. After all of the students had obtained their practice weapons Heiwa had told them that they were to carry their weapons with them, in plain sight, at all times so as to get used to having them around. This meant a slight change for Naruto as that meant that he could no longer keep his tiger hook swords in the seals inscribed on his biceps and disguised as Uzumaki clan symbols. Instead he took to wearing them on his back in a sheath that was specially made for their unique shape, both sheaths crossed to form an X on his back so as to present a handle to each hand when he reached over his shoulders for them, and by carrying his swords strapped to his back he was able to put his deer horn knives in the seals instead of having to leave them at home. Hinata went through a similar change for her deer horn knives, Heiwa specially designed a sheath for them so that they could be holstered on her hips instead of inside the jacket lining as it wasn't feasible to reach for them in a fight when they were in that position. (imagine a standard police issue gun holster shaped to fit deer horn knives instead).

Since their jackets were no longer necessary to hide their weapons in, both Naruto and Hinata began wearing the standard Hyūga shinobi attire instead. Naruto's uniform was a very dark shade of orange with black lining on the edges and stripes in strategic places to break up his outline (the same way that a tiger's stripes give it camouflage in it's natural habitat even though it's fur is mostly orange) and if it wasn't for his fox-like characteristics he would have very closely resembled his weapons' namesake. Hinata's uniform was more of a tawny brown, extremely light yet well suited for camouflage in the forests surrounding Konoha, just as Naruto's uniform utilized a tiger's camouflage pattern, Hinata's utilized a deer's camouflage ability. This was all the result of an idea that their friend Shikamaru had shortly after the students all obtained their weapons, in a rare moment of non-laziness he was struck by the fact that Naruto's "I'm an idiot please kill me" orange jacket was horrible for camouflage yet he was never caught for his pranks.

As he watched Sasuke try to kill Naruto in their spar he realized that Naruto's camouflage and fighting abilities rivaled that of a tiger, which could hide itself despite it's color, he thought that if Naruto refused to wear another color he might as well wear the camouflage pattern of his weapon's inspiration. As soon as he realized this he got to thinking, if such a thing could work for Naruto, why couldn't it work for himself and Hinata? The same situation was apparent, a deer had almost unrivaled camouflage ability, and their weapons were designed to mimic the deer's offensive capabilities so why not mimic the animal's defensive ability as well? The lazy genius knew that Naruto wouldn't change his wardrobe willingly, but Hiashi could certainly get him to do it, so he went to the clan head and told him the idea.

Hiashi loved it, he thanked Shikamaru profusely and asked him to help by having his father make the uniforms out of Nara deer skins (the Kyubi festival was coming up and several of the Nara herd were usually butchered to provide venison for the event, plus the hides were going to be used as leather anyways so why not use them to make new uniforms for some up and coming shinobi?) doing that would make the uniforms durable and serve to help the Nara clan financially, which was always a good thing. Hiashi commissioned three uniforms for each child and even bought Shikamaru three as well (to thank him for the idea). Naruto was surprisingly receptive to the new wardrobe when he was told about it, but that probably had something to do with the fact that he was now allowed to wear orange without being yelled at for being too noticeable.

Naruto sighed yet again as Sasuke kept up his weekly routine of trying to kill him "accidentally" in a spar. He was extremely glad that such a thing would never happen. This past year and a half had been an amazing time for him and Hinata. He had finally managed to master the intermediate style for the tiger hook swords and was working on the advanced style which he would hopefully master in the next few months, the same could be said for his skills with the deer horn knives. He was a secretly acknowledged seal master for the village and was working on several seals on consignment from the Hokage and Hiashi, including a scaled down version of the caged bird seal in preparation for an ultimatum to the clan council, either everyone gets the scaled down curse seal (it has no pain/kill switch) or get rid of it altogether. Hiashi was rather confident that the elders wouldn't realize that both options had the same effect, making the entire clan equal with or without the seal.

Naruto's progress could be blamed entirely on one thing: he now knew what he was fighting for. Before the attack he had only had a weak desire to become a strong ninja to spur him onward,but after the attack happened he realized that he couldn't let his precious people get hurt because of him and his...tenant, so he went about his training with a new vigor, wanting to become the strongest ninja he could be so that he could protect those precious to him, and eventually, the entire village as their Hokage.

Hinata's training had progressed just as fast as Naruto's, she wanted to be as strong as possible to protect her 'Naru-kun' (she only called him that in her mind since she hadn't yet had the courage to call him that to his face) while he was protecting others. Because she was further along in her training with the deer horn knives at the time of the attack, and the fact that she only had one weapon to master instead of two, she had actually succeeded in mastering the advanced style for her chosen weapon. Indeed she was something to be feared by anyone who threatened her precious people. Not only because she had mastered her weapons but also because her mastery of the weapons forms had actually enabled her to master the jyukken as well, and put her own spin on it using her natural flexibility to make it even more deadly.

On top of that, over the past two years she had steadily climbed the rankings in the academy, at the moment she was in the number one slot and a shoe-in for rookie of the year, having taken the position from Sasuke six months before. And now there was absolutely nothing that Sasuke or any of the idiot Uchihas could do about it. As soon as she had learned to perform the shadow clone jutsu (only performed under close supervision and while wearing one of Naruto's 'chakra batteries') she had double or even triple the study time that other kids had, there was nothing to hold her back. Now some might say that that was cheating, but they had special permission from Iruka-sensei for her to use shadow clones to study and instead use her time to master her taijutsu and kenjutsu, which couldn't be learned using clones because they required muscle memory to master their techniques effectively. Naruto was currently working on a seal specifically designed for her, it was meant to be powered by his chakra batteries and would make her new Hyūga attire into a full fledged suit of chakra armor to protect her during battles such as the one he was in now with Sasuke. His theory was that if it was possible to make strings out of chakra that couldn't be cut, then it should be possible to make strips out of chakra and form them into a kind of platemail or chain mail armor.

His thoughts were interrupted by Iruka-sensei calling an end to Sasuke's weekly assassination attempt, jokingly referred to as a spar. As usual it was the last one for the day, since Sasuke tended to get carried away and was often too injured or tired to stay at the academy any longer. Naruto was glad that this was the last time Sasuke would be able to make an attempt on his life for quite awhile, the genin exams were scheduled for the next Friday and after that they would be full fledged shinobi and hopefully he would be away from the idiot Uchiha for a very long time.

Naruto was rather sure that he wouldn't end up on the same team as Sasuke, since he and Hinata had been planning for the past two years on how to be on the same team. They had hit on a rather good one too. Naruto was already the dead last in the academy, having hidden his abilities on purpose to avoid suspicion, and at the time that they made the plan Hinata was number three. Their plan was simple, Hinata would take over the number one slot and become rookie of the year, thus forcing them onto the same team in an attempt to "even out" the team dynamics, with any luck they would get a relatively good team mate that would make them into a well balanced team. They were hoping for either Shikamaru or Shino or Kiba, since they got along relatively well with all three of them, but beggars can't be choosers, so they were determined to be content with whomever they were given.

They wouldn't be disappointed.

Itachi walked into the Hokage's office, which, he reminded himself, was soon to be his office. He walked straight up to the old man and bowed before saying, "You wanted to see me Hokage-sama?"

The Sandaime looked up from his paper work.

"Ah Itachi you're here, right on time, as usual. Have a seat." Itachi did so. "How many times do I have to tell you to call me Hiruzen? Or at least Sarutobi. After all soon we'll be of the same rank." He said genially.

"I believe this is the two hundred and fifty second time you have made such a request. And my answer remains the same, until I am instated as Hokage and we are truly of the same rank I will continue to give you the respect that you deserve." He said matter of factly.

The Hokage smiled. "Fine then, but just because you are not Hokage in name doesn't mean that you can't be a Hokage in action. Take a look at these files and tell me what you think."

After he was handed the files Itachi glanced over them superficially for a second. Once he was finished he looked up at his soon to be predecessor. "These are the files of this year's academy graduating class. What do you want me to do with them?" He asked.

The Hokage looked at him calmly and replied, "I want you to separate them into teams, make them as evenly balanced as you can, and then chose one to take on as your own team. Once you have done that you are to find the jonin that would best fit with each team's skill set. Then you will explain to me why you made those choices. This is an exercise in team creation, since that is a rather large part of your responsibilities as the new Hokage, now get to work."

Itachi spent twenty minutes going over the files in more depth than he had the first time he looked at them. Once he was sure about his decisions he put the files together in groups of three. He then picked up the list of jonin who had demonstrated their willingness to take on a genin team and went over it several times before chosing several promising names from the sheet and retrieving their files. After reviewing the files he placed one with each group of genin. Once he was finished he beckoned the old Hokage over to review his work.

The old man was impressed, the teams weren't exactly what he would chose but they did complement each other very nicely, at least on paper. He had a sneaking suspicion that these teams would actually work better than the ones he was thinking of. He sat down across from Itachi and looked at him appraisingly. "Now, tell me your reasoning behind these teams."

Itachi shifted closer in his chair and picked up one pile of files. "I separated the teams into their potential skill sets and created three semi-specialized teams that should hopefully be rather successful in the long run."

He said before opening the files in his hand and spreading him out on the desk.

"The first specialized team I created is a Capture/Interrogation/Pursuit team, I placed Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi on this team. Hopefully their teamwork will be as good as the past three generations of the team. My reasoning was that their fathers were specialized in this area and they most likely taught their children most of what they know, and as soon as they find out that their team has been reincarnated those man will most likely teach their kids everything that they left out. I placed them with your son Asuma because he has a similar mind set to Shikamaru but he still knows when hard work will be involved and doesn't shirk away from it. Hopefully he can teach Shikamaru to adopt this attitude to replace the one he already has. The man will also be good for Choji because he can teach the boy to use his larger size to his advantage, and that combined with the teachings of the Akimichi clan will mold Choji into a heavy combat fighter fit for any battlefield. Hopefully he will also be able to get through to Ino and stop her self-destructive fan girl crush on my brother. What do you think?"

the Hokage nodded. "Sound reasoning, good job Itachi. Now what about the others?"

Itachi closed the files for team Asuma and grabbed another pile to spread out.

"For this team I decided to try for a Heavy combat/Escort team. I placed my brother Sasuke Uchiha, Hana's brother Kiba Inuzuka, and Sakura Haruno on this one. My brother's arrogance will set back their team work quite a bit, but Sakura's status as his fan girl will make her follow along with whatever he says and Kiba's natural sense of loyalty as an Inuzuka will tie them all together and hopefully rub off on Sasuke a little. I feel sorry that I have to place my future brother in law with such a horrible team but it really can't be helped, Kiba is one of the few I know who could possibly survive this team. I placed Kakashi as the Jonin Sensei to hopefully teach Sasuke teamwork." He said, looking up to be sure that the Sandaime was still listening.

He continued with his explanation once he was sure that the old Hokage understood his reasoning.

"Since Kiba is more suited to a tracking unit than a team such as this, I am going to have Hana train him on the side, because of his dual role as a heavy combat specialist/tracker we will be able to send this team on a greater variety of missions. I'm going to have Hana help Kakashi train this team because the man is always at least three hours late. Plus to keep Sasuke from doing anything stupid he is going to have to give him more attention than the others, giving them a second trainer will offset this and hopefully Hana can break Sakura of her fan-girl tendencies. Does that sound good to you?"

The Hokage nodded. "Yes, but I have to admit, I never would have thought of giving this team a second Sensei to offset Kakashi's bad habits. Good job Itachi. Now, on to the third specialized team."

Itachi obliged by spreading out the next set of files.

"This team is going to be a Tracking/Pursuit/Heavy Combat/Bodyguard team, basically the perfect all around team for nearly any mission. I chose them for their variety of talents and for how well those talents complement each other. Once fully trained they will be able to track any missing-nin, no matter what his rank is, and have a high possibility of either retrieving or eliminating their target successfully no matter what the circumstances." He said matter-of-factly, before pausing for a second to let this information sink in.

The Hokage nodded and gestured for him to continue, so he obeyed.

"I placed Hinata Hyūga, Naruto Uzumaki, and Shino Aburame together on this team. I know that this team is supposedly the most imbalanced considering that it contains both the dead last and the rookie of the year, but I have a hunch that Naruto is much more skilled than he lets on, and his previous relationships with both team members will make for a very successful team dynamic. This is the team that I wish to teach myself, but I will have Kurenai Yuhi assist me since I am soon to be the Hokage and will have many responsibilities. Hopefully she will be able to offset my rigorous schedule."

The Hokage looked like he was about to ask a question, but Itachi preempted his query.

"And before you ask, the reason why I didn't chose Hana for this is because of the fact that we are in a relationship and it might cause problems later on, I will discuss my decision with her and hopefully she will trust me enough to let this happen without a fuss."

Itachi paused for a moment before continuing.

"I realize that this is a bit forward, but doesn't this situation remind you of your genin team? It's almost the same situation, if all goes well then I will be teaching a genin team while I am the Hokage, just as you did."

The Hokage's eyes widened. "I didn't see that until just now. Do you realize what this means?"

Itachi nodded his head but remained silent, waiting for the Hokage to continue.

"This means that we could have a new team of sannin on our hands right now!"

Itachi continued where the old man left off.

"And if we play our cards right, this team of sannin won't abandon Konoha like their predecessors did. Hopefully this team won't have a traitor like Orochimaru on it. That's actually why I placed Shino there instead of Sasuke, Shino doesn't have a desire for power like Sasuke and Orochimaru do. He will be a much better ninja than either of those two ever could be."

The old Hokage nodded thoughtfully.

"The only problem I can see is that the old sannin all had animal summons, so the new ones will need them too. We'll have to put out a search for some good summoning contracts to aid them in their missions. But which summons to give them? I have a feeling that we can get Naruto one with foxes,since he does contain the fox lord, but what about the other two? What summons can we possibly give them?"

Itachi sighed, "I don't have a clue at the moment, perhaps we should leave that question for another day. Hopefully we will find them a summoning contract by the time of their first c-rank mission, having a summons will greatly aid in any mission they are given."

The Hokage then came to an interesting realization, they didn't need to give the children a summoning contract, there was a way that they could get one for themselves, the way that Jiraiya got his toad summons. He told his hastily made plan to Itachi who agreed but insisted that they get the parent's permission before having the children do such a dangerous technique, and took the proper precautions once they did attempt it. This concern for his student's welfare only served to reinforce the Hokage's faith in the man and showed that he had indeed made the right decision in his choice of successor.

The Hokage smiled and stood up. "I think you'll be just fine as a Hokage, your team selections were superb, but what about the rest of the graduating class?"

Itachi stood up as well, "I placed them together as well as I could, but I sincerely doubt that the other teams will pass, the only ones I see potential in are the ones which we have already discussed."

the Hokage nodded gravely, "Sadly that is the way things usually play out in the end, only nine graduates are truly ready to be shinobi. Oh, well the others will have another chance next year. I'll see you later Itachi, and don't forget to observe your new team over the next week to see if you were correct."

Itachi nodded as he turned to leave. "I will Hokage-sama, see you next week."

For the first time in a month someone other than the Hokage used the door rather than the window.


one week later

the day of the genin test.

The genin test wasn't hard at all, both Naruto and Hinata passed with flying colors and received their hitai-ite from Iruka-sensei. After the test Hiashi and Hizashi met the two of them outside of the academy, but Naruto had forgotten his bag inside the classroom. He asked the others to wait for him as he ran back to the academy to retrieve it. As he neared the classroom he heard voices inside, and they didn't sound happy.

"I'm tired of all this crap! I'm being held back by this damn village and all it's morals."

"As I said before, you are welcome to join with Lord Orochimaru's forces if you want. But you need to do something to prove your loyalty first before I tell you where he is." said another voice from inside the room.

Naruto recognized the first voice as Mizuki-sensei, but the second voice was completely unfamiliar to him. "Just tell me what I need to do, and I'll do it, I don't care what it is." He heard Mizuki say.

"To prove your loyalty to Lord Orochimaru you must steal the forbidden scroll from the Hokage's office. Once you have it meet me outside the village, only then will I tell you how to find Orochimaru." The strange voice said.

"Alright I'll steal it tonight, meet me by the old shack to the east." he heard Mizuki say.

Naruto then realized that Mizuki planned to betray the village tonight. He left as quietly as he could in order to tell someone. As soon as he got outside he began to run after his family, only stopping when he had caught up to them. When he did he tried to tell them what he had heard.

In between huge gulps of air he managed to force out. "Mizuki-sensei....gonna ...betray...village...steal...forbidden scroll."

Neither adult fully understood what Naruto was trying to say, so he tried again once he got his breathing under control.

"I overheard Mizuki-sensei and someone else talking, Mizuki wants to defect to someone called Orochimaru. He's planning to steal the forbidden scroll from the Hokage's office!" Now they understood, and they didn't like what they were hearing.

"I'm sorry children but the celebration will have to wait. We have to report this treachery to the Hokage immediately. Naruto, come with me." Hiashi said. "Hizashi, take Hinata home and wait for us there. With luck this won't take long and we will be able to celebrate your graduations after Naruto and I return."

That being said, Hiashi led Naruto away to the Hokage tower.

It didn't take much to get in to see the old Hokage, being the leader of one of the most powerful clans in the village certainly had it's perks, and being with the jinchuriki didn't hurt much either. When the two walked into his office the Hokage was sitting at his desk battling his greatest nemesis: paperwork; so he was glad of the interruption, at least he was until he heard the reason why they came to see him.

As soon as Naruto finished his story the Hokage took action. He called in several ANBU to go and reinforce the guards around the scroll. Unfortunately village law did not allow him to take the word of a twelve year old soon to be ninja, the culprit had to be caught either in the act of stealing the scroll or after actually stealing it, they would have to set a trap. At least catching Mizuki would be easy, the hard part would be finding the spy in their midst who had been talking to the errant teacher in the classroom. At the moment all they could do was step up ANBU patrols through the forest around the village, and hope that ANBU torture and interrogation broke the man quickly before the spy left the meeting point or got wise to his loss of cover and decided to flee. No matter, few spies ever survived long once the Konoha ANBU counterinsurgency unit started looking for them.

On Monday Mizuki was conspicuously absent when Iruka walked in to announce the teams, apparently he really was dumb enough to get caught trying to steal the scroll, and then he tried to fight off the seven ANBU who were waiting for him. Not his best idea ever, the last time anybody had heard any mention of him was when somebody let slip that the chunin was in the secure medical wing of ANBU headquarters in a coma, when the man woke up he would be immediately sent to the prison, if he woke up at all.

Iruka quickly got the class under control and began to announce the teams. Naruto zoned out until he heard Kiba shout something about the teams not being fair because he was with Sasuke.

Iruka got a little frustrated and decided to use his outburst as a small example to the rest of the class, he said, "Look Kiba, you can whine and whine until the cows come home but you won't get yourself on a different team, the Hokage himself helped put these teams together and he set them up like this for a reason. Any questions?"

Naruto raised his hand.

"Yes Naruto?"

"Where are the cows and why haven't they come home yet?"

Iruka smiled at this and had a hard time holding in his laughter, the rest of the class had no such distinctions, they burst out laughing and didn't stop for almost five minutes. Iruka smiled at him, leave it to Naruto to defuse a potential argument before it even began. As soon as the class calmed down Iruka went on with the team announcements, "Team 8 will consist of Hinata Hyūga, Shino Aburame, and...Naruto Uzumaki..." At this a shout went up from both Naruto and Hinata, all eyes were on them as they hugged each other in their elation at being on the same team. As soon as they realized that everyone was staring at them they broke apart and sat down, blushing profusely. Iruka finished off the rest of the teams and sent the students off to lunch, telling them that that their jonin-senseis would pick them up after lunch.

After a very interesting lunch where Naruto and Hinata got to know Shino a little bit better, they ended up back at the classroom waiting for their new Sensei. They were surprised when a woman with red eyes came in and beckoned them forward, usually the jonin-senseis were men, it was very rare for a woman to make it to jonin rank let alone taking on a genin team. But they followed anyways, the group walked in silence for about fifteen minutes before they stopped. All three looked around in apprehension, they were currently in one of the less frequently used training grounds, their new Sensei paused as if waiting for something to happen. And then, out of nowhere, something did.

A/N: Hmm, what's going to happen? what kind of summons will they get? When will those dang cows come home?

but seriously, anybody have any ideas about summons? i know what to give naruto, and i'm pretty sure about hinata's (though i'm most likely going to get flamed for it), the only problem is that

i have no idea what to give shino. i can't really think of anything that hasn't been done before. (yes i know that naruto as a fox summoner is a very common theme on this site, but trust me

when i say that the summons that I'm thinking of giving hinata have most likely never been done yet.) Let me know if you have any ideas about Shino, and remember that it doesn't matter if

there is an existing summoning contract or not. i have some serious deus-ex-machina (God of the Machine) already prepared to deal with that issue. five million

"whose line is it anyway"points to anybody who comes up with a good summons for shino, any idea for the other two will be seriously considered but don't be offended if i decide to go with what i already have.

And if you want an additional five million points that are made up and really don't matter, you can try guessing exactly how i'm planning to get them these summoning contracts. (hint: sarutobi already mentioned it in conversation with itachi.)

the same conditions as my other reader participation offers apply. i'll give credit where credit is due

oh and i changed my profile to show additional information about this story just as i promised.

this information includes links to info on the unique weapons i've been mentioning.