Disclaimer: I don't own anything in Naruto.
AN:So far, I doubt there will be any pairings in this story...but well, we'll see how it goes. I aim to explore a very different Naruto - one who has been tempered by countless years. Essentially, a cool, calm and collected all-round BAMF. Enjoy and please leave feedback.
AN 2: It seems like my punctuations do not carry over well from my text editor. I will try to make sure that the file uploaded is in the proper format.
Thank you for all your reviews, follows, and favorites…your words of encouragement are truly, truly appreciated.
The people who were present at the entrance to the Academy that morning were able to witness Naruto materialize – already in a smooth walk - in front of the academy. Some of them actually allowed themselves to acknowledge how cool he looked, arriving in such a fashion. Casually making his way inside the Academy, Naruto ignored the muted whispers from his peers and the others standing around the school's entrance; no doubt news of his performance during the graduation exams had already spread. Naruto arrived at his assigned classroom and entered to find that he was the first one there. Shrugging to himself, he proceeded to the single seat at the back; having no intention of ending up seating next to Sasuke and thus suffering the horrendous voices of his fan club. Deciding to kill some time, he took out The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja and began to read it, again. His sharp senses detected the approach of a few classmates and thus he didn't even twitch when the door opened to accept four people into the room. The sounds of dragging feet and chewing preceded Shikamaru and Chouji, while the muted sound of buzzing heralded the entrance of Shino. The last student was from a civilian family and, from what Naruto had observed, would probably end up being cannon fodder down the line.
Shikamaru, Chouji, and Shino took the seats in front of Naruto, who hadn't looked up from his book since their entrance. Shikamaru threw a quick and considering glance at Naruto, then just shook his head and mumbled, "Troublesome." Shino, on the other hand, actually turned and addressed Naruto,
"Congratulations on your success in the graduation exams Uzumaki-san."
Naruto finally looked up at that and giving an eye-smile to Shino, he replied,
"Thank you Aburame-san. As I recall, you also did quite well, so congratulations to you too and please feel free to call me Naruto."
"Thank you, and the same to you too."
Both of them returned to their previous positions – Naruto reading his book and Shino seating calmly. By this time Shikamaru had already dozed off, while Chouji just continued munching on his chips. Over the next few minutes, the class slowly filled up with the successful Academy graduates. When Sasuke entered, he cast a briefly assessing gaze at Naruto before taking his seat in the middle of the room. Naruto's sensitive hearing easily picked up the approaching footsteps of two students and judging by their voices, he correctly deduced their identities. A few seconds later, Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino burst into the room, obviously having just finished sprinting to the Academy, then began their customary arguments and competition for the seat next to the Uchiha. Iruka came in before they could settle their argument and cowed them into submission.
Naruto glanced up as Iruka came in and smiled as he noticed the absence of Mizuki; the fool was most probably enjoying the hospitality of the T&I Department at the moment. He returned to his book, only peripherally aware of the various team assignments being read out by Iruka. Seeing as he wasn't the dead last this time around, he absently wondered whose team he would be…
"…and Uzumaki Naruto. Your Jounin-sensei is Hatake Kakashi… "
…well then, that answered that. He wondered what convinced the Old Man to place him on the same team as the 'top' two students in his year, until he remembered that as far as the hokage was concerned, Naruto had attempted suicide a few years ago. Well, that would do it, he mused to himself. After banishing his thoughts, and noticing Iruka's closing statements and subsequent dismissal for lunch, he returned to his reading.
Hours later, only the three future members of Team Seven were still seated inside the classroom, waiting for their Jounin-sensei. Sakura had spent the past two hours trying, and subsequently failing, to get Sasuke to go on a date with her. After a particularly vehement denial, she decided to take a little breather, much to the Sasuke's well-hidden relief. She turned her attention to the third member of her team and was surprised to note that he hadn't moved from the spot where he had been reading for the past few hours. Now that she was paying attention to him, she allowed herself to take him in fully. She recalled the time when he used to constantly follow her around, asking her for dates and making her feel so good about herself. No matter how annoyed she had felt at the time, the constant attention and adoration had bolstered her sometimes flagging self-confidence. However, ever since he had missed school for about two months, things had changed. At first, when she noticed that he seemed to be ignoring her, she brushed it off – fully expecting him to get back to pestering her. It never happened. It took some time but she eventually came to realize that Naruto simply didn't care about her anymore. It was a surprisingly bitter pill to swallow, but swallow it, she did. She cast a glance at Sasuke, and seeing the closed off expression on his face, she decided to sit quietly by herself, until their sensei arrived.
Sasuke breathed an internal sigh of relief when Sakura finally ceased bothering him. He noticed the glance she threw at the corner and turned to see Naruto sitting there, reading his book. He was almost startled to notice that he had forgotten that there were three people waiting in the classroom. Now that he had noticed his last teammate, he remembered his desire to find out more about him. Never one to beat around the bush he addressed him directly,
"Hey, dead…Uzumaki, how did you do so well on the exams if you missed so many important classes?"
Sakura perked up at the question and turned back to Naruto – she too was curious about his previously unknown skill. Without taking his eyes of his book Naruto distractedly replied,
"Did you ever consider that I chose not to attend those classes because I didn't need them?"
Sasuke blinked at Naruto's response. He concluded that Naruto must have meant that he got training outside the academy, thus negating any need to attend the practical academy classes. Still curious, he continued his inquiry,
"And who did you get help from?"
At that, Naruto finally glanced up from his book, and fixing Sasuke with a disinterested look, he retorted,
"Help? Why would I need an instructor when I am fully capable of reading?"
Sasuke found it hard to believe that Naruto had learned all that from scrolls, but before he could continue his questioning, the door was thrown open. He turned in surprise, noticing from the corner of his eye that Naruto was obviously not startled. In the doorway stood a tall gray-haired ninja wearing a facemask very similar to Naruto's. He even had a book in hand. The ninja – obviously their Jounin-sensei – ran a bored gaze across the room and spoke in a lazy tone,
"My first impression of you is that you're boring. Meet me on the roof in five minutes."
In a cloud of smoke, he was gone. Sasuke glanced at Sakura then glanced at the empty seat where Naruto used to be. His eyes widened when he realized that Naruto had somehow vanished from the room without his notice. Huffing out a frustrated breath, he left the room, making his way towards the roof.
Hatake Kakashi suddenly felt eyes on him and casually glanced up from his book. He had to fight down a twitch when he noticed his blonde haired student calmly staring at him. When the hell did he get here, and how didn't I notice? He saw the amusement in Naruto's eyes and narrowed his eye at him. In response to this, Naruto in turn fixed Kakashi with a narrow eyed gaze. Sasuke and Sakura arrived on the roof to find their teacher and teammate engaged in a staring contest. As the two kids drew near, Sakura cleared her throat. In an eerily synchronized motion, Naruto and Kakashi turned to face the two of them and eye-smiled in unison. Fighting off creepy shudders they took a seat on either side of Naruto and all three turned to face Kakashi. Deciding to get the ball rolling, Kakashi began,
"Well then, why don't we get started with introductions? I'll go first. My name is Hatake Kakashi, my likes are not your concern, nor are my dislikes. My hobbies and dreams…well, you're much too young to know those," Kakashi concluded with another eye-smile.
Motioning towards Sakura, he indicated for her to go next. She started,
"My name is Haruno Sakura, my likes are…glances at Sasuke with giggles and stifled squealing…my hobbies are…rinse and repeat…I dislike Ino-Pig, and my dream for the future is to…glance, cue ear piercing squeal"
Sasuke and Kakashi shook their heads to clear the residual ringing, only to notice Naruto removing ear plugs from his ears with laughter in his eyes. Almost sulking at the betrayal, Kakashi indicated that Sasuke was next. Sasuke began in a solemn tone,
"Uchiha Sasuke…I don't have many likes nor dislikes, and my hobby is training to get stronger. My dream for the future…no, my ambition is to revive my clan and kill a certain man."
At the end of his speech Sakura was gazing adoringly at him while Kakashi was giving him a thoughtful look that expertly hid the frown he wanted to show. Naruto was…reading his book. After getting over his surprise at just how indifferent his blonde haired student could be, he motioned for Naruto to go next. As Naruto prepared to begin, he was completely aware of the blatant interest on Sakura's face, as well as the hidden interest on Kakashi's and Sasuke's faces.
"You may call me Uzumaki Naruto. I like the colors red and black. I dislike the color purple. My hobby is music, particularly playing the violin"
Kakashi perked up at that surprising tidbit, as did Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto paid no attention to their reactions however. He instead fixed all three with a suddenly fierce and determined gaze that caused all of them to subconsciously straighten and pay attention,
"My dream for the future…no, the reality of my future…I will become the greatest Shinobi this world has ever known."
The rooftop was silent for a few moments after Naruto's declaration – which sounded like a foretelling. Kakashi finally broke the silence after observing his sensei's son for a few moments and decided to wrap things up.
"Very well then, meet me on training ground 7 tomorrow at 6am for a survival test that will determine whether or not you become my genin or return to the academy for remedial training. Oh, and I suggest you don't eat any breakfast; you'll only throw it up. See you."
In a cloud of smoke, he was gone before any of them could respond to his statement. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, determined to pass whatever test came his way the next day. He glanced to his side, only to discover that Naruto had once again vanished without him knowing. Gritting his teeth, he immediately shot down Sakura's offer of a date and departed for some training and preparation. Sakura, completely crushed by Sasuke's rejection and feeling anxious for her test tomorrow, also left the rooftop.
The sound of incoming footsteps forced Sakura out of her daytime fantasy of being Sasuke's wife. Looking up, she was just in time witness the figure of her blonde haired teammate enter the clearing a whole three hours after they were told to arrive. She inhaled, preparing to lambast her tardy team member when she was cut off by a casual statement from her intended target,
"So his three hour lateness is a regular thing; good to know."
Stunned, and feeling especially foolish for arriving so early, she quieted down and turned away from him, thus missing the amusement shining in his azure eyes. Sasuke merely grunted, refusing to acknowledge that he should have thought of the same thing. Naruto simply walked across the clearing to a tree on the other side, sat down, took out his book and began to read. He was fully aware of the contemplative looks being thrown his way by the other two members of his future team. Completely ignoring said looks, he prevented any amusement from showing on his face when he heard the near silent huff of frustration from Sasuke. Just as Sasuke was about to resume his interrogation from the day before, their late sensei showed up in a puff of smoke. Kakashi merely eye smiled as Sakura screeched her indignation to the high heavens, causing Sasuke to twitch. When her voice had ceased echoing, he calmly took out his ear plugs and tossed a thumbs-up at Naruto, who was failing to muffle his chuckles. Before Sakura could react to that insult, Kakashi's countenance became serious, prompting the three before him to pay attention. He raised two silver bells in one hand and began his instructions,
"The objective of this survival test is to acquire at least one of the bells you see in my hand. You will have until noon to accomplish this task. Anyone who fails to get a bell will be tied to one of the stumps in the clearing and will be denied lunch. Furthermore, the one who didn't get a bell will fail this test and will subsequently be sent back to the academy for another year. Now, begin! "
His instructions left no room for argument and his prospective students vanished into hiding in the surrounding vegetation. Kakashi spared a second to evaluate their stealth,
Sasuke is well hidden, certainly undetectable to anyone chunin and below. Sakura, on the other hand, isn't too bad, but nothing like a top kunoichi should be. And Naruto…is still standing in front of me.
Giving his final student a vaguely perplexed look he said,
"You are an odd one; shouldn't you be hiding like those two?"
Naruto merely glanced at him then returned to his book. Blinking in muted surprise, Kakashi decided that the kid had the right idea and promptly produced his own literature to begin perusing. He crouched in position, oddly more comfortable that way and continued reading. His sharp hearing picked up approaching footsteps and he subtly went on alert, preparing for any surprise his enigma of a student could have. Instead of attacking however, Naruto merely walked passed him and stopped, and then he too crouched and rested himself lightly against his teacher, and continued reading. Feeling oddly amused by the cheek of his student, he let him rest part of his weight on him, all the while keeping a watch for any attempt on the bells tied to his belt. A handful of minutes later, Sasuke obviously got impatient and launched his attack.
A couple of kunai were launched from Kakashi's left and instinctively, he shifted to move out of the way. His blood ran cold as he suddenly realized that his movement had thrown his other student off balance, thus making it very likely that Naruto would get hit by the kunai. Without even thinking about it, he spun and scooped up his sensei's son and blurred away from the incoming attack. He spared a moment to ensure that his student was fine before he took off to test his black haired student. So preoccupied had he been with getting Naruto out of harm's way that he had failed to notice the faint smirk that curled on said student's lips, nor the fact that said student had demonstrated a complete mastery of the kawarimi no jutsu. Kakashi instead vanished from the clearing, too fast for any but Naruto to see.
Sasuke, who had swiftly changed positions after his failed initial attack, remained crouched on the branch he was on. He quickly threw a punch to his left, only for it to meet his sensei's palm. As though that were a signal, the two burst into a quick and fluid taijutsu exchange. Kakashi ended it by tossing Sasuke away when his hand got close enough to actually touch one of the bells. His eye, however, widened when he noticed the hand seals being woven by Sasuke. His surprised expression never vanished even as a huge fireball leapt the intervening distance between them. When the smoke had finally cleared, Sasuke noticed that nothing remained of his teacher. Looking to the sides and above for him, he was taken off guard when hands erupted from the ground and proceeded to drag him under until only his head remained aboveground. Sasuke glanced up in time to watch his teacher disappear with naught but an eye-smile thrown his way.
Sakura had decided to circle around to Sasuke's position the moment she saw the kunai launched at Kakashi. Ignorant of the noise she made as she moved through the brush, she emerged in a smaller clearing. Looking around to orient herself, she suddenly dove into some bushes – praying that her teacher hadn't noticed her. She peeked out of hiding and sighed in relief when she noticed him still leaning against a tree. Kakashi meanwhile hid a smile at his pink haired student's adorable naivety. Sakura, rightfully doubtful of her chances against a ninja of Kakashi's caliber, turned to stealthily make her way in the other direction. She heard a rustle in front of her and glanced up into the smiling eye of her teacher. She gasped and recoiled in shock, only to lose sight of him. Looking around frantically, she turned at the sound of a voice coming from the right. Knowing who owned said voice, her face broke out into a relieved and smitten smile as she prepared to meet her Sasuke-kun. The smile fled from her face as she saw Sasuke drag himself into view – his remaining leg bent at an odd angle, fingers missing and blood leaking from numerous wounds on his body. Unable to face the vision before her, she clenched her eyes shut, let loose a scream of abject terror, and slumped into unconsciousness.
Musing absently to himself, Kakashi wondered if he had overdone it. Shrugging the thought away, he returned to the clearing and promptly stumbled in surprise when he found his third student still casually reading his book. Moving towards him, he opened his mouth, intending to admonish his lazy student, only to have to duck a sudden airborne spinning kick aimed at his head. Before his eye had finished widening he promptly switched places with a log in time to avoid getting hit by a ball of lightning fired by a clone originally behind him. Finally getting a moment to orient himself, his head snapped up at the sound of a page being turned to find Naruto still in place reading his book. He furrowed his brows at that and nonchalantly tossed a kunai at his student's head. Naruto simply caught it by its ring and returned it at twice the speed, forcing Kakashi to shift out of the way of the approaching kunai. Hidden in the shadow of that kunai was another one with an explosive tag attached to it, which Kakashi only saw at the lost moment. Once the resulting explosion had settled, he stepped out of the place he had switched to and closely regarded Naruto – still sitting there and reading.
"Well, you're better than I expected. I might actually have to start taking you seriously."
Naruto let loose a chuckle and stood up facing his teacher. In another eerily synchronized motion, they both slipped their respective books away and prepared to engage one another. Kakashi started off with a blurring punch aimed at Naruto's torso. Slapping the attack aside, Naruto retaliated with a lightning coated jab to Kakashi's face, smoothly shifting it into an elbow jab and then a rising knee as Kakashi deflected each subsequent attack. They continued in a swift and fluid Taijutsu exchange, with Kakashi pleasantly surprised at Naruto's ability to keep up with the pace he was setting. Finally, believing his student to be wide open, Kakashi slammed a kick into an airborne Naruto, only to clench his teeth as lightning coursed through his body from the dispersed lightning clone. He mitigated the damage using his own inherent lightning chakra and pivoted on the spot, fluidly catching and returning the five shuriken launched at his back. Quickly forming hand seals he called out, Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique) and the five shuriken became a hundred. Naruto inhaled deeply and then blew out a chakra laced gust of wind while saying, Fuuton: Renkuudan (Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet). The wind bullet slammed the shuriken off course and continued on to Kakashi who responded with a wind bullet of his own, canceling out Naruto's attack. Kakashi glanced up as he heard, Raisou: Ikazuchi no Utage (Lightning Burial: Banquet of Lightning), and witnessed Naruto stomp his foot on the ground. He jumped into the air as lightning raced along the floor towards his position. In midair, he was unable to react in time as Naruto faced him and calmly intoned, Raiton: Rairyuu no Tatsumaki (Lightning Release: Lightning Dragon Tornado), launching a tornado of lightning at Kakashi. The attack impacted with Kakashi and exploded in a surge of lightning. All of a sudden, a kunai was placed along Naruto's jugular and Kakashi lazily spoke,
"You definitely have some smooth moves, but you still have a ways to go."
Naruto merely glanced at him from the corner of his eye and chuckled. Confused at his student's reaction and completely sure that he wasn't holding a clone, he asked,
"Care to share what amuses you?"
It was then that he felt the cool length of Naruto's ninjato resting with its tip poised a hairsbreadth from his chest and crackling with tightly leashed lightning chakra. He couldn't help it – he threw back his head and laughed. When he got over his fit of amusement, he disengaged from Naruto just in time for the alarm clock he set to go off, indicating that the test was over. Shaking his head at his most surprising student he left to fetch the rest of his team. When he arrived at the three stumps in the clearing, Sasuke and Sakura in tow, he found Naruto sitting on the middle stump with his book in hand. In a blur, he had Sakura tied to the leftmost post and a gag in her mouth to spare his sensitive ears. He turned to take in his students and pronounced,
"Well, you all f-"
The sound of bells tinkling cut him off and he slowly turned to Naruto, who was still reading, but in whose second hand was held the two silver bells. Suppressing the shock that threatened to show on his face, he asked,
"Ho…and at what point during our little dance did you steal those?"
Naruto raised an eyebrow at that and said,
"During the dance? Never, I actually just stole them from you when you were tying Sakura up there."
Seeing the confusion on their faces – hidden in Kakashi's case, he continued,
"At the beginning, when you were being my knight in shining armor, I filled the bells with chakra – the first step to initiating a successful Kawarimi, and then just now switched them with the chakra laced air next to me."
Silence met his explanation and he looked around to find Sasuke and Sakura looking stunned. Kakashi, with a detectable note of approval in his voice, said,
"Very well done Naruto, very well done indeed. Now, seeing as you have two bells, which of the others will you give one to?"
Naruto gave off an amused huff and with a flick of his wrist, Sakura was free of the ropes binding her and before either she or Sasuke could react to that, he flicked one bell at each of them, which they caught reflexively. Turning to Kakashi, Naruto said,
"Your instructions were to obtain a bell, not necessarily maintain possession of it once we did. So, since I have 'obtained' a bell, and so have Sasuke and Sakura, I guess we all pass."
Kakashi, seeing the dawning hope on Sakura's face, merely chuckled and replied,
"Nice try Naruto, but I remember saying that you had until noon."
Naruto, still looking calm and unruffled, spoke,
"That's true, and I'm sure if you look at the clock, you will find that someone had changed the alarm to go off about 20 minutes earlier."
Blinking in shock, the others looked at the clock and noticed that Naruto was indeed correct; noon was in six minutes. Giving Naruto a contemplative looked tinged with exasperated fondness, Kakashi finally said,
"Okay then. I could pass you on that technicality, and I will, only if one of you can tell me the main purpose behind this test."
Looking a little perplexed at that statement, Sakura offered up an answer,
"Umm, you wanted to gauge our levels sensei?"
The look on Sasuke's face said that he agreed with Sakura, and so he frowned when Kakashi shook his head. Catching the look on Sasuke's face, he passed him over – correctly deducing that Sasuke had the same thing to say as Sakura – and turned to Naruto for his input.
Naruto once again got that look in his eyes that made those listening to him lean forward in complete attention. In a solemn tone that cut through the sudden stillness, he gave his own answer,
"You are a jounin level ninja – Hatake Kakashi, reputably the strongest current Konoha Shinobi excepting the Hokage. There is no way that a bunch of fresh Academy graduates would stand a chance against you. You wanted to gauge our ability to function as a unit…as a team…as one. You wanted to make us learn that we are rarely, if ever, stronger individually than we are together. After all, those who abandon their mission are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."
Once more there was silence after one of Naruto's declarations. This time however, it was a thoughtful one, filled with burgeoning feelings of camaraderie and team spirit. After getting over his surprise, Kakashi stared at Naruto and realized that he had never seen such a stunning resemblance between Naruto and his sensei as he did in that moment. Sitting there with the wind in his sun-kissed golden hair and his eyes, such a focused and clear blue, Naruto cut a striking figure indeed. Smiling contentedly to himself, Kakashi finally broke the silence,
"Yes, that is entirely correct. Those who abandon their mission are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. That is the tenet I live by, and the tenet I hope you will all come to live by in the future. Congratulations, you all pass. Meet me on the bridge tomorrow morning for our first official day as team 7."
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