Chapter 08: Of False Smiles and Tardy Teachers

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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, it is the property of Masashi Kishimoto

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Naruto yawned as she made her way through Konoha's darkened streets. She had managed to survive dinner at the Hyuuga Compound, and she had learned more about Hiashi's desires besides wanting her to tutor his youngest daughter.

Naruto had the feeling that Hiashi was glad that it had been a private dinner. He had not only spoken to Naruto about helping Hanabi once or twice week throughout her Academy years, he also spoke about how the Hyuuga needed to adapt and change, they had become predictable. While they were still deadly on the battlefield, they were easy to read and many of the younger Hyuuga had been badly injured or killed in recent years.

Hiashi had questioned Naruto extensively, hinting at his belief that the Kyuubi was acting as a catalyst for the new powers and abilities being granted to her and the others. As the two debated, Hanabi, Hinata, and Neji watched in various stages of disbelief. Hinata, who had been picking at her dinner nervously, had relaxed when her father spoke of changing the clan and the Jyuuken. Hanabi, on the other hand, froze when she realized that her father was using her as an example and a guinea pig of how the clan could be changed. The young child didn't know how to feel about it.

It was Neji who was the most surprised with his uncle's decision. He kept quite while he stared down at his dinner, but his eyes betrayed his thoughts. When he had entered the dining room to report in from a mission, his uncle had insisted he join them. While he had wondered why the feminized Uzumaki was there, he ignored everything but his food until uncle started to speak. He was absolutely delighted when his Clan Head had basically given him permission to do as he wanted, at least as far as his training was concerned.

Naruto managed to get the details for Hanabi's training/tutoring sessions after Hiashi had finished talking. With Hanabi due to start the Academy at the beginning of the next term, Hiashi wanted Naruto to come by once or twice a week for tutoring sessions on whatever Hanabi felt she needed help with. Naruto would be paid per session due to how some missions could interfere. She also needed to bring whomever her jounin-sensei was to the first session in order to ensure that they knew of the tutoring sessions.

Between her part-time job at Higurashi's, tutoring Hanabi, and her own training, Naruto knew her schedule would be full. Naruto sighed as she looked up at the night sky.

She must have been stopped, lost in thought for more than a minute, because a voice to her right caught her by surprise, "Tonight's a beautiful night, wouldn't you agree?"

Naruto turned quickly, pulling a kunai as she spun. The voice came from a boy who was only a year or two older than her, dressed in a plain black jacket and pants. Taking a step back, Naruto's eyes narrowed as the boy held up his hands, holding a book of some sort under his arm.

"Apologies, I didn't mean to surprise you," the boy said, keeping his hands visible, "My name is Sai, may I know who you are miss?"

Naruto stared at the strange boy, trying to figure him out. He had snuck up on her, so he must have had some training, but he was also staying far enough back where neither of them were in easy reach of the other. Deciding to humor him, Naruto spoke.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," she said as she shifted slightly. When the boy's smile seemed to become slightly more genuine, or less fake as she thought, Naruto wasn't sure what to think.

"I thought so," Sai said as he lowered his hands, "You have a lot of people talking about you in the village, and I wanted to see if what they said was true."

"Huh? What are they saying about me?" Naruto asked, completely caught off guard as the boy walked past her and down a different road.

"You'll find out soon enough," the boy said as he waved to her, leaving the confused redhead standing in the middle of the street. As Naruto shook her head clear of weird people asking weird things, Sai continued to walk down the road leading to his apartment. As he walked he let the false smile slide off his face as he reviewed the encounter with the one Lord Danzo had told him about.

'Naruto Uzumaki, she has good reflexes and her reserves are quite large, but she seems unsure of herself and was taken unawares rather easily. Possibly due to her abilities?' Sai pondered as he continued his walk, 'I will need to observe her and her team before I can draw a more conclusive solution for my mission. Lord Danzo did say I would be working closely with this year's class as well due to Uzumaki.'

Stopping his stroll and looking up at the moon, Sai tried to guess what emotion he should be feeling at this moment if he hadn't been trained in the ways of ROOT, "Hmmm... I truly don't know."

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A few hours Earlier, Hokage's Office

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Hiruzen sighed as he finalized the teams for the new batch of Genin. He may have twisted the traditional set-up due to Naruto's new ranking, but as it stood, the shape shifter was the best choice to work with Sasuke. Even after he had broken tradition to ensure a balanced team, he still had one problem, the assigned Jounin-sensei.

The best person to lead Naruto's team, Team Seven, was Kakashi Hatake. The man was strong, intelligent, and had the necessary experience to face what could happen on the battle field when it came to protecting the child of the Fourth and the Last Uchiha. Add that to his connection to Naruto's Parents and the implanted Sharingan, he was the perfect choice. The problem, though, was both very simple and very complicated at the same time. Kakashi did not want a team.

Many of the other jounin thought he kept failing teams until he got the one he wanted, and others thought he was just being lazy. While every jounin used a test based on teamwork, Kakashi had taken the infamous Bell Test and made it nearly impossible for fresh genin to pass. The truth of the matter was Kakashi believed that everyone he got emotionally attached to would die from being around him. His father, his sensei, his teammates, his allies, everyone. In an attempt to prevent this, he distanced himself from the few friends he still had left. By forcing this man to take a team would be a cruel reminder of what he was trying to forget, but it was needed. So by the time the expected knock on his office door came, Hiruzen had prepared himself.

"Enter," Hiruzen called as he steepled his fingers against his chin, watching the door as it opened. As the younger man entered, the Third took in his appearance. Like his namesake, Kakashi was tall and lanky, which belied his true physical strength. His dull silver air seemed to lay to the side and his one visible eye exuded apathy. He wore the standard jounin uniform, with only his mask, which covered his lower face, and his slanted headband, which concealed his implanted Sharingan, standing out as his own personal touches.

"You sent for me Lord Hokage?" Kakashi asked, his fingers twitching. Hiruzen knew the twitch was from habit, and that Kakashi wanted to bring out one of his diversions to help deal with what was likely to be a high stress situation. Seeing as he did not bring anything out, Hiruzen appreciated his self-restraint.

"Yes, it has to do with your next assignment," The Third said as he passed three files over to the jounin.

Kakashi remained impassive as he leafed through Sakura's file, unimpressed by what he saw. A slight twinge of reluctance and pity passed over his visible features when he opened Sasuke's file, and he went completely blank as he stared at both of Naruto's ID pictures. Snapping the last folder closed without even reading it, Kakashi stated, "They'll fail like the rest."

"They may surprise you." The Third stated as Kakashi looked up to meet his gaze.

"I'm not going easy on them, no matter what you order."

"And you shouldn't."

"Meaning?"

"Test them how you want, just do it fairly. Pass or fail, I want a good, and fair, report on their abilities. In the event they should pass, but you still don't want to be their sensei, include a list of recommendations to replace you." Hiruzen said as he prepped his pipe.

Kakashi didn't even think over the order for more than a few seconds, "Of course Lord Hokage, by you leave?"

Giving the young man a nod, Hiruzen watch him leave with only a single thought, 'That went better than I thought it would."

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Naruto woke with a start, minutes before his alarm was set to go off. Too excited to try and sleep those few minutes away, he reached over and switched it off before leaping out of bed. Today was the day he had long waited for, Team Assignments. Naruto opened his closet and sighed at the portion of his closet dedicated to his female side. It was, in his eyes, a necessary evil that almost made him regret taking the Kyuubi's deal. Almost.

Dressing in his new 'Mission Ready' jumpsuit, Naruto stood in front of the mirror making everything was nice and straight. The dark orange and black jumpsuit was brand new, as was the kunai holster on his left leg and the pair of weapon pouches on his belt. His goggles, refurbished, reinforce, and dyed black, were perched on his forehead and the scroll pouches on his jacket were full, the right three blank, and the left three containing his two weapon scrolls and a supply scroll. Deciding to go with the wow factor, Naruto had unsealed his sword and strapped it to his back.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto picked up his headband, which now sported a black cloth instead of the original blue, and attached it to his left sleeve where two specially made slots where to prevent the headband from sliding down his arm. Sliding the ends of the headband through the slots and tying them tight against the inside of his arm, Naruto nodded at his reflection and left the apartment.

Locking the door, Naruto turned to his balcony and surveyed the rooftops of Konoha. He loved the view, and living on top of one of the tallest buildings in the village, he always got it. With a grin, he let himself fall forward over the railing. He savored the wind rushing past him as he continued his free fall for a few seconds, loving the rush it gave him. With a quick twist, he launched off the side of the building to the roof of the adjacent store.

'One day,' Naruto thought as he started his dash across the village, 'I'll figure out how to fly.'

To fly had been one of his shorter lived dreams from when he was younger, and it was one that had resurged with a vengeance when he discovered his affinity for wind. With a grin, Naruto made the leap from the building he was currently on to the next one, letting out a whoop as he did.

As he ran along the 'Shinobi Highway', Naruto passed several people he knew. He and Kabuto briefly crossed paths as the older boy was heading off to the hospital, he had jumped over Ryu as the retired shinobi was opening his store, and passed Lee who was going the opposite way towards his team's usual training grounds.

Naruto did his best to ignore the general crowd in the streets below. While they had never been able to take out any of their misplaced anger on him without being arrested, it didn't really stop the discrimination. Despite his newly gained gossip popularity and standing in the village, a good portion of the civilian population still held the opinion that he was a demon in human skin.

As he shook himself from his current train of thought, Naruto caught a blur of grey to his right. Grinning at Kiba, who had Akamaru tucked in the front of his coat, Naruto picked up speed to push ahead of the other boy. Eyes alight at the challenge, Kiba poured on the speed as he and Naruto started racing each other.

It didn't take the two boys long to reach the Academy, as they both flipped over the wall surrounding the yard and startling many of their classmates. As Kiba took off for the doors, Naruto grinned as he raced to the side of the building. Taking a flying leap to the second story, Naruto stuck to the wall as he pried the window open. He slid inside just as Kiba came through the door.

When the Inuzuka saw Naruto closing the window, he snarled, "Damn it Naruto, that's cheating!"

"We never agreed on any rules, so it's perfectly legal!" Naruto retorted.

Just as Kiba was about to argue the point, he stiffened before leaping to the side. When Sakura and Ino got wedged in the door trying to beat the other in, Naruto grinned and went to sit down.

"Hey Sasuke, budge over." Naruto said. The Uchiha looked up at the blond, who in turn gestured to the two girls who were currently arguing with each other over who won and who got to sit next to him.

To the amazement of the others in the class, Sasuke grunted and slid over to the wall while Naruto took the middle seat.

"Why do you get to sit next to Sasuke dobe?" a purple haired girl, Ami, asked as several more girls crowded around the desk.

Naruto looked at the girl who had bullied several of the other girls in class, and gave a grin, "Because he would rather deal with me than any of you."

Sasuke's grunt of agreement seemed to only incite the girls' anger even more before they were sent scurrying away to their seats when the door banged open letting Iruka enter the room. As their teacher deposited a stack of papers and his lunch on the desk, Naruto smiled. Here he was, ready to take his first step to Hokage. It didn't matter that he failed three times, it didn't matter that he was a jinchuuriki, and it didn't matter that he was currently acting as a buffer between Sasuke and Sakura. The girl was alternating between tossing him stink eyes and Sasuke goo-goo eyes.

Iruka let out a sigh of relief as he picked up his clipboard, happy to be back in the Academy. Looking over his class, the teacher felt a sense of pride. Though he felt this way with every class, this one would hold a special place in his heart. Deciding that it was time for his final speech and team assignments, he cleared his throat.

"Alright everyone, calm down," Iruka called out, trying to cut of the conversations around the room, "I said quite down!"

As the new genin kept talking, a vein popped in Iruka's temple, "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP YOU HEATHENISTIC LITTLE SHITS!"

The class immediately went deathly silent. While Iruka had called them every name under the sun, he had never snapped like that before. Taking several calming breaths to suppress any hint of his sickness, Iruka offered the class an aggravated smile.

"Thank you. Now, I'm happy to see all of you again, and to see that some of you used your break to further your training. Remember, you are now genin of Konoha. We've maintained our reputation as being the strongest village since our founding, and now it's up to you to continue to uphold that reputation."

Naruto tuned Iruka out, having heard a personalized version of the speech the day he retook the test and was re-ranked as ninth in the class. Though he had grumbled about the placing, the fox had found it both amusing and appropriate. As Iruka proceeded to the teams, Naruto started making little guesses to stay amused. As the class was filled with exclamations of joy or dismay, Iruka continued down the list.

"Team Seven. Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha under the command of Kakashi Hatake."

Ignoring Sakura's shouts of 'True love concurs all!', Naruto turned to Sasuke. When the stoic Uchiha nodded, Naruto grinned.

'Maybe this won't be so bad after all.' The blond thought

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They had been waiting for three hours. Three long and boring hours. They had waited for so long that every other team had been picked up by the jounin sensei. Long enough for Iruka to have finished his paperwork and leave. Even long enough for Sasuke and Naruto to go outside for a spar that had lasted for close to an hour. The guy never showed up even though Naruto had left a clone in the classroom just in case their sensei showed up.

They were starting to get aggravated with waiting and each decided to spend their wait differently. Naruto had booby-trapped the door before pulling out a book titled 'A Beginner's Guide to Fuinjutsu' written by one of the Sannin. Sakura had also decided to read, but instead of furthering her shinobi career, she got lost in some trashy romance novel. Sasuke, while maintaining the appearance of brooding, was mentally going over his training regime and making changes. The match between him and Naruto had been very close, and he felt the need to modify his training so he could stay ahead of the blond.

He knew he could never match Naruto in either strength or endurance, so he decided to use his cunning and speed. It was what won him the spar, and it complemented Naruto quite nicely when they would work together. He understood that he and Naruto were Yin and Yang, both the same and different from each other. Even their elements matched up.

Before Sasuke could continue his train of thought, the door slid open as a man stuck his head inside. Sasuke watched in slight despair as the chalkboard eraser that Naruto had jammed in the door way landed squarely on the man's head, releasing a sizable chalk cloud.

As the man's lone eye wandered over each of them, he grunted, apparently finding them lacking, "My first impressions, you three are rather boring. Follow me on the roof."

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Kakashi studied the three children in front of him, trying to figure them out. They had used they time between when he was supposed to pick them up to the time he had 'arrived' for themselves.

The worst of the three was Sakura. She had not used her time productively, preferring to primp herself and read a romance novel. She was from a civilian family, her father hadn't made the cut as a genin and her family, while supportive, didn't want to encourage her. Since being a Shinobi was such a dangerous profession, Kakashi could understand why civilian parents weren't always happy to let their children go to the Academy.

The boys were a different matter. They had used some of the time productively, though if they passed his test as the Third believed he would have to talk to them about unsupervised spars. Besides the little bout of childishness that Naruto had displayed with the chalkboard eraser, he had sat down with a theory book that could be used later in his career. Sasuke on the other hand had been deep in thought, though most would believe the boy was merely brooding.

As the three genin began to fidget, Kakashi snapped out of his reverie. Eying each of them one more time, Kakashi spoke, "Well then, how about we get to know each other."

"What do you mean sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Why don't you tell me your likes, dislikes, hobbies, goals for the future, stuff like that." Kakashi said, "I'll start us off. My name is Kakashi Hatake. My likes are none of your business. Dislikes…I have a lot of hobbies. My goals, I haven't really thought about it."

'All we learned was his name...' Naruto thought as he studied the lanky Jounin. As the man scratched the back of his head, Naruto didn't know what to make of him.

"Alright sunshine, how about you going first?" Kakashi asked a he turned to face the blonde.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I like training, pranks and ramen, especially from the Ichiraku stand, and the old man. I dislike the three minutes it takes for ramen to cook and stupid people who can't see the truth when it's right in front of them. I guess experimenting with shifting counts as a hobby? My dream is to be an awesome shinobi and the best Hokage ever, so that people will respect me!"

'He's grown up in an odd way,' Kakashi thought as he studied the boy's new wardrobe, 'Wonder what he's got for those girl days?'

"You next pinky." Sakura glared at the man before introducing herself.

"My name is Sakura Haruno. My likes include… My hobbies are…My dream is…" She squealed in delight as Kakashi blanched at the blatant looks she was tossing at the last Uchiha. Naruto was gagging and holding his throat. Sakura glared at him. "My dislikes are Naruto and Ino-Pig!"

"That hurts Sakura, it really does." Naruto said, clutching his chest. Sakura looked ready to pound him.

'That's great. A fan-girl.' Kakashi thought sarcastically. "Alright, let's finish this up. You, the resident brooder."

As Naruto snorted, Sasuke spoke, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I have few likes and I have many dislikes. My dream, no, my ambition is to revive my clan and to kill a certain man."

"That's so cool!" Sakura gushed.

'He seriously needs a hobby.' Naruto thought, scratching his cheek.

'Just likeI thought.' Kakashi thought with a sigh, "Well, you are an interesting group. I only hope that you pass my exam tomorrow."

"What are you talking about?" asked Sakura.

"Well, the truth is that you aren't genin yet." Kakashi said, causing the three to sit up straight in surprise.

"What do you mean we aren't genin? We passed the genin exam!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Actually, the test you took is to just to see if you have what it takes to be genin. The real test is given by the jounin, your new teachers. Trust me, this test will be much harder than what the Academy gives you. Just come with your equipment at training ground eleven at five o'clock in the morning." Kakashi said, and just before he vanished, he added an afterthought, "Oh yeah, I suggest you don't eat unless you want to throw up."

After a few moments, Sasuke stood and left the roof, only sparing a single glance back to nod at Naruto. Sakura moved to follow him, and Naruto could hear her bugging him as they entered the building. Naruto just sighed before standing up and walking over to the rail. With a grin, Naruto threw himself off the side of the building for the second time that day and took off across the village towards Ryu's shop.

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Sunlight glinted off of Shino's glasses as he slowly walked away from the clearing his team introductions had taken place. His team was obviously put together as a tracking team, possibly even an investigations team. Unfortunately, there were problems with the set up.

Kiba was too headstrong and rash, itching to prove his status as the top dog on the team. This would inevitably bring the two of them head to head since Shino was the only other male on the team. With Kiba's new aggressive streak and Akamaru's growth spurt, Shino wouldn't think twice if it turned out to be the Kyuubi's influence.

Hinata was too shy, her confidence coming and going at odd times. He concluded that it had something to do with the orange and blonde blur that had just shot over him with a rushed greeting, and that Hinata would do well spending more time around Naruto.

While he had no real opinion of his new sensei, a Kurenai Yuuhi, he knew that she and Hinata had been acquaintances for a while. She had told them to use tonight to prepare for their test, and the only hint they had was they would have to find something.

A slight disturbance in an alley to his left broke his chain of thought. As Shino turned to find the source of the disturbance, he saw several gleaming eyes in the shadows. As the rats began scattering, Shino raised his arm, releasing a large cloud of beetles.

He watched as his swarm descended on the squealing rodents, letting them feast until they were full. His hive had changed since the night of the Mizuki incident. They were highly aggressive, more numerous, and very ravenous. While chakra could sate their appetites for a few days, every once in a while they needed a fresh meal.

As he recalled his swarm, the only sign of the rodent problem were the scattered bones.

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Author's Notes: Ever had that chapter that just didn't want to be typed? That was this chapter. No rants this time.