A/N I'm skipping the academy because I feel that it isn't important to the story. And something I forgot to say before the Uchiha Massacre happened but differently. Itachi killed the conspirators and got the Hokage to give the Uchiha some more power so this wouldn't happen again. He is seen as a hero, and Shisui never died.
Naruto Hatake sat at his seat bored. The exams were finished and the teachers were compiling the results. He was sitting by Ino Yamanaka who was also bored, and Shikamaru Nara. Just before Naruto could lose it Iruka came in and told them the results. He listed out the people who passed. He then announced that the Rookie of the Year was Naruto which surprised no one. The Top Kunoichi was Ino, and that the dead last was Shikamaru. His assistant Mizuki handed out the forehead protectors.
"All those that passed come back tomorrow, and we will announce the teams" Iruka said. The students then proceeded to leave the room. Naruto was seen with his trademark grin, and was walking away happily. He looked behind and saw the usual crowd of girls following him. Naruto sighed and began to walk faster.
Naruto had become very popular with the girls in the academy. His calm demeanor, good looks, and reputation attracted the girls. People were calling him the greatest prodigy since Itachi Uchiha, much to Sasuke's ire. Naruto's fan club had exceeded Sasuke's own which is a great feat, because few people can exceed the Uchiha in fan club numbers
As Naruto was walking he noticed Sasuke walking home. He decided to make some small talk.
"So Sasuke how does it feel to be second in the class" Naruto asked.
Sasuke just sent him a glare, and kept walking. Naruto realizing what he said might be considered arrogant decided to try and apologize. But before he could say anything, Sasuke replied.
"When I get my Sharingan you'll be nothing compared to me."
"Please Teme, you'll never be better than me."
'"We'll see" Sasuke said then left with a smirk on his face. Naruto shook his head and continued walking. He heard the whispers from the girls behind him about the standoff he just had. Deciding that he had enough of the girls, he leapt onto a building and started running on the rooftops. The girls while having lost Naruto, they started to talk among themselves about how cool he was.
Naruto decided to make a stop to one of his favorite restaurants Ichiraku Ramen. He sat down and waited for either Ayame, or her dad to come out and notice him. Ayame came out and noticed their number one customer and flashed Naruto a smile. He ordered three bowls of Miso ramen and waited for it to be prepared. While he was waiting he heard a voice.
"Hey Naruto-kun!"
Naruto looked up and saw Ino smiling at him.
"I'm not surprised that I found you here" the Yamanaka heiress said.
"Ha Ha very funny" Naruto replied.
"So Naruto-kun are you excited for tomorrow."
"Yeah a bit."
"A bit! Naruto, tomorrow is the beginning of the rest of our lives."
"Yeah your right, I guess."
"Naruto if you don't cut it out right now!"
"Ok Ok, sorry Ino-chan."
After Naruto hastily apologized to Ino, his food was ready.
"Ahh the ramen is ready!" Naruto said happily, he then dug into the food. As he was eating, Ino started to shake her head
"With all the ramen you eat you're going to get fat" the heiress said.
"I assure you Ino-Chan I'm totally healthy" Naruto replied.
"Yeah right" Ino replied.
"I can prove it."
"How?"
"By taking off my shirt."
Ino blushed at that.
"Since you blushed it seems that you would like to see that" Naruto taunted.
"Please I bet you dream of seeing me shirtless" Ino retorted.
At this the tables were turned, and Naruto was the one who was blushing. Ino let out a laugh at his red face.
"I see you don't like the taste of your own medicine" she said then let out a laugh.
"I see you kids are enjoying yourself" they looked and saw Kakashi giving them his trademark eye smile.
"Hey Kakashi" Ino said brightly.
"Hello Ino" Kakashi said "Naruto finish up, we need to get home"
"Ok Tou-chan" Naruto said with a mouth full of noodles.
"Naruto-Baka don't talk with your mouth full!" Ino yelled.
"Sorry Ino-Chan" Naruto said hastily.
"Alright Naruto to celebrate you becoming a Genin, Jiraya and I have decided to give you that katana you've always wanted." Jiraya stepped up with the cloth wrapped katana. He unwrapped the cloth and Naruto saw the scabbard. It was one of the most beautiful things he had ever saw in his young life. It was white with gold lines snaking around the scabbard. It had small rubies adorned all around it.
Jiraya handed the scabbard to Naruto as he took it out he said.
"Kakashi suggested that I should pick up a katana while I was out. SoI had it made during my last visit to the Land of Iron, it's made with some of the hardest material in the shinobi world and extremely conductive chakra metal."
Naruto looked at the white and gold katana. It had a white grip, with a gold pommel and cross guard. Along the grip was a wolf snarling. He began to swing it around tentatively, it was balanced perfectly. He then looked at two men who had gotten the gift for him and gave them a large smile, and then proceeded to hug both of them.
"Alright! This is going to help me become the greatest Shinobi of all time!" The blonde said enthusiastically. The two men chuckled. Naruto then ran off to go practice with his brand new weapon.
"Since Naruto has left why don't we have a spar" Kakashi said.
"Sure why not" Jiraya said.
So the two men left to go have a spar. When everyone was tired they all came to the house and retired for the day.
Sunlight came in through the window and a whiskered blonde opened his blue eyes. He groaned and rolled over planning to stay in bed longer, when his alarm went off just 3 minutes later. He threw his pillow at the alarm. Which did nothing as it still continued to ring. Groaning he got up knowing that he couldn't delay the inevitable any longer. He went to the bathroom and took a shower, and brushed his teeth. As he was about to put on his usual black shirt with some grey ninja pants, he noticed a package on a chair. He saw a note on it that said.
Another birthday gift I thought you would like some new threads.
Love Kakashi.
Naruto proceeded to open the package. He saw the clothes and went to put it on. After he was dressed he looked in the mirror. He was a wearing a black sleeveless shirt, and an unzipped standard Konoha vest except that it was grey. The vest had the Hatake symbol surrounded by the Uzamaki swirl. He was also wearing black Shinobi pants.
He went downstairs and saw Kakashi and Jiraya sitting and talking with steaming cups of coffee on the table. They looked up and saw Naruto.
"Wow Gaki you look good, you're sure to attract more fangirls looking like that" Jiraya said.
"I hope not" Naruto replied.
"Oh yeah, here's my gift" The Toad Sage threw a scroll towards Naruto, who caught it and saw it was the toad summoning contract.
"You can sign it the toads approved" Jiraya said.
Naruto wrote his name on the scroll and bit his thumb and put his blood on the scroll.
"We have another gift for you" Kakashi said. He threw another scroll to Naruto, the blonde opened and saw it was a large scroll full of jutsu. "It's from both of us" The copycat ninja said. Naruto hugged both of them then sealed the scroll away. He grabbed some fruit and left the house. He ran to the academy while eating. He arrived and went inside.
'Damn it I'm late.'
Everyone was looking at him, and taking his new outfit in. Naruto could hear the girls muttering "he's even hotter than before." Even Sakura was blushing.
"Naruto nice of you to join us" Iruka said. Naruto just flashed him a grin and went to take his usual spot by Ino.
"Wow Naruto you look nice" Ino said with a slight blush on her face. Naruto gave her one of his trademark smiles.
"You don't look so bad yourself" Naruto responded. Ino blushed she could feel some glares from the other girls. When Naruto looked away she stuck out her song at them, which caused them to become even angrier.
"Alright class calm down, it's time to find out your Genin teams" Iruka said. This effectively shut up the whole class. He started to read off names on the paper. Naruto didn't really listen until he heard.
"Team 7 will have Sasuke Uchiha, Ino Yamanaka, and Naruto Hatake, your sensei will be Itachi Uchiha." Sakura glared at Naruto and Ino for keeping her away from her precious Sasuke-kun. Sasuke just grunted, and Naruto and Ino both had a soft smile on their face.
"Team 8 will have Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame your sensei will be Yuhi Kurenai." Hinata and Shino didn't let out any reaction, while Kiba let out a feral grin.
"Team 10 will be Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, and Sakura Haruno your sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi." Shikamaru muttered "troublesome", Choji kept munching on his chips, and Sakura was frowning very intensely.
"Your new sensei will be outside waiting for you." All the Genin went out and looked for their respective Sensei.
"Team 7" a voice called out. Naruto looked up to see Sasuke standing by a man who wasn't that much older than them. Naruto and Ino walked over to the man.
"You me must be Itachi Uchiha" Naruto said.
"Correct" the now identified Itachi said. "Well now that we're all here meet me on the roof" Itachi then shunshined away. Naruto then held out the ram symbol and shunshined away also. Itachi was surprised to see Naruto on the roof immediately after he appeared. A Genin could perform the shunshin it was very impressive, but then this wasn't any ordinary Genin. Naruto Hatake was hailed as the greatest genius since the Yondaime, Kakashi Hatake, Shisui Uchiha, and himself. It would be interesting to see what he was capable of. The other two soon arrived.
"Well alright let's to get to know each other, tell us what you like, what you dislike, your hobbies, and your goals." Seeing the blank expressions on the trio's face Itachi sighed and decided to go first.
"My name is Itachi Uchiha, I like training, Konoha, and my family, I dislike traitors, and slimy pedophiles. My hobbies include training, and eating good rice balls. My goal in life is to keep Konoha, and my family safe. You're next Naruto."
"My name is Naruto Hatake, I like Konoha, my friends, wolves, and Ramen. I dislike traitors, arrogant jerks, and Coyotes. My hobbies are training, eating ramen, and hanging out with my friends. My goal in life is to become the most powerful ninja of all time, and the Hokage."
"A very ambitious goal there Naruto, but I'm sure you can do it your next Sasuke."
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I like training, and my family. I dislike weaklings, and slimy pedophiles. My hobbies include training, and learning new jutsu. My goal in life is to become the greatest Uchiha to ever live."
"Ok Ino it's your turn."
"My name is Ino Yamanaka, I like training, plants, and fashion. I dislike jerks, and fashion wrecks. My hobbies are reading, working at my parent's shop. My goal is to become the greatest Kunoichi ever."
"Well that's it for today, meet me tomorrow at training field 7 at 7:00 sharp. You're dismissed." With that Itachi Shunshined away, and the rest of team 7 went their separate ways.
Naruto was curious about why Sasuke was on his team, as this didn't follow the rookie of the year with the dead last system. Shouldn't Shikamaru be on his team? When he got home he immediately asked his father. Kakashi cleared it up saying that it had to do with the council. Naruto grasped what he was implying. Naruto then went to learn some of the new jutsu he had gotten.
The next day Naruto woke up and grabbed a light snack and made his way to training ground 7. He found Sasuke and Itachi already there. The three of them waited for Ino to arrive. After 3 minutes Ino arrived.
"Well since we're all here let's begin, now you think that you're a genin because you passed the graduation exam. Well you're wrong you have one more test to pass before you're officially a genin." Itachi looked at the reaction of the three teens. Sasuke wasn't surprised because he had already filled him in but he had a determined look. Ino had an irritated look on her face but composed herself far quicker than he expected. Naruto had no change in facial expression and stood there watching Itachi.
Itachi continued "To officially become genin you have to restrain me for thirty seconds."
'That seems easy enough' Ino thought.
"The tests begins now" Itachi said then disappeared.
Sasuke then began to leave until Naruto stopped him.
"It's obvious that none of us are anywhere close to Itachi's caliber so the most logical thing is to work together."
Sasuke knew what Naruto was saying but he felt like leaving just to spite him. Finishing behind Naruto in the class rankings wounded his pride. But his drive to become a genin won out against his pride and he stayed. Naruto smirked and the three of them began to form.
The Genin didn't seem to notice Itachi watching them in the trees. He was surprised with how Sasuke relented to Naruto's idea very easily. He thought he would give the blonde more trouble, but it only took him a few seconds to decide to stay. He wasn't complaining because this could be very good for the team's teamwork. He was very confident they were going to pass, but he wasn't going to make it too easy for them.
Suddenly he heard something whistling through the air behind him. He dodged the kunai that was thrown at him and it hit the tree right by him. He then saw the exploding note attached to the kunai and quickly jumped away as the note exploded. Itachi looked around for who had thrown the kunai but couldn't find anyone. He quickly looked to where the teens where and saw they were gone. It quickly hit him that they used the explosion as cover for them to escape. Had they known that he was watching them? Then he remembered that Naruto had been making hand gestures while with the others. He was signaling the others that he was listening in. But how had he known that he was watching him.
Itachi didn't have much time to mull over this, because a large fireball was speeding was towards him. He easily dodged it. He saw Sasuke running into cover. Itachi knew that they were trying to draw him in but he decided to humor them.
When he got to Sasuke he exploded. Itachi escaped unscathed and realized it was an exploding clone. He kept looking for the genin. Itachi stepped onto a branch then saw 4 shuriken coming straight at him. All of them missed their mark. What he thought were ordinary shuriken transformed into clones. All four of them put their hands on the ground. Itachi wondered what they were doing. When he felt a disturbance in his chakra.
'Genjutsu!' He realized. He broke the genjutsu and saw multiple exploding tags around him. He quickly ran into safety as the explosions shook the forest. He was bombarded with several genjutsu has he searched for the genin.
After breaking another Genjutsu saw Sasuke charging at him. Sasuke launched into a barrage of taijutsu. Itachi blocked all of the attacks, and kicked Sasuke away from him. As Sasuke went flying Itachi had to dodge a jutsu sent from Naruto who had just arrived. The jutsu ripped several trees behind him apart.
'Was that Wind Style: Great Vacuum Sphere. That's a B rank jutsu how can he perform such an advanced jutsu.' Naruto capitalized on his surprise and launched into his own barrage of taijutsu.
'He hits hard for a genin Itachi said while wincing slightly. Make that harder than most chunin.'
Itachi also kicked Naruto away from him. Itachi looked around for Ino. He had deduced it was her bombarding him with all the Genjutsu. Naruto realizing what he was doing created a large amount of Shadow Clones and made them attack Itachi. Itachi took down the clones with ease; he also had to dodge a couple fireballs Sasuke had created. Ino joined the two boys and dropped a smoke bomb on the ground. Smoke filled the clearing and Itachi couldn't see.
Itachi being a very good ninja knew where they were still. He decided not to take his advantage. He wondered what they were doing. When the smoke cleared. He saw sixteen clones scattered around the clearing. Each of them were holding a storage seal. They all activated the seal and the ground was then covered with this mud like liquid. Itachi's feet began to sink and before he could and get out; Naruto channeled chakra and it hardened. He was trapped. Itachi decided they had done well enough and said.
"I yield." The trio started to celebrate and gave each other high fives. Itachi then flared his chakra and the hardened liquid broke. He jumped out of the miniature hole he created and saw the stunned looks on the Genin's faces.
"Why are you surprised? You must have known that if I was going all out there was no way that you could have beat me." The Genin realized this was true but they were still bummed out that he let them win.
"Hey Naruto what was that liquid?" Itachi asked.
"It's a mix of quicksand and cement I created. It's one of my first inventions. It's just like normal quick sand at its base form and when chakra is channeled through it, it hardens and becomes like cement." Naruto explained.
Itachi nodded then said "All of you go home, that includes you Sasuke, come back tomorrow at 11 am." The Genin nodded and went their separate ways. When they were out of sight Itachi started walking to the Hokage's tower. He had to tell the Hokage about what he learned.