Jiraiya was actually looking forward to seeing the progress his godson had made and giving him something more to keep him occupied. He had painstakingly sorted through the boy's parents things to select a few of the scrolls he intended to hand the boy if his progress was satisfactory and a frog themed wallet just in case. The fact that his late student's possessions had been put into his care after the Kyūbi incident nine years ago was one of the most well kept secrets in Konoha due to what could happen if certain jutsu scrolls fell into the wrong hands. All the scrolls he was going to give Naruto for his tenth birthday were from his mother's collection though. Mostly concerned with the various unique traits of the Uzumaki clan just to see if he had inherited any.
He found it harder than he had expected to locate Naruto's chakra signature and was even more surprised when he found the boy standing on the surface of a pond with ten solid clones going through his taijutsu katas.
When Naruto finished, he walked right to the tree his godfather was hiding and shouted "That was good enough to get more scrolls, right?"
"Cheeky little brat!" Jiraiya needed to save face a bit and so he moved swiftly behind the boy and patted him on the head. No one would ever know that the great toad sage and spymaster extraordinaire had been found by a ten year old kid when he had been trying to hide, well at least from a child. "Well done, Naruto."
If Naruto's smile at the complement got any wider, his was face would be all teeth "So hand them over."
If Jiraiya's guess was right then Naruto's unexpected sensory skills meant that was one of the Uzumaki abilities down already. His eyes shifted to the nine clones still standing on the pond observing them and he wondered out loud who had taught shadow clone to a child.
"Jiji did because I have such awesome chakra." Came Naruto's prompt reply with his palm still outstretched expectantly.
"Fine." Both scrolls Naruto received this time had the Uzumaki spiral on them one concerned seal theory for beginners while the other covered Uzumaki clan abilities.
Naruto had first noticed his peculiar stalker not long after he had started to be able to tell where people were even when he couldn't see them. Now he was learning to identify them by the light and feeling their presence gave of. His current subject was none other than his classmate, Hinata Hyuga, the shy one with a penchant for trying to imitate a turtle whenever approached. For the last few weeks he had noticed her presence close by often hidden behind one object or the other. He had finally run out of patience waiting for her to talk to him rather then follow him around and so a hand sign followed by a puff of smoke and a twig falling to the ground and he was behind her.
"Hi" he said and was not the least bit surprised when she spun around, squeaked, turned bright red and her extremities started to retreat into her oversized sweater. Though he knew who she was and he was sure the opposite was true as well he decided to start with an introduction anyway "Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you." Followed by an outstretched hand.
It took her a moment to realize he was waiting for a response and a hand shake before she responded "Hinata Hyuga" and took his hand then went an even darker shade of red and her eyes moved around looking anywhere else but at him.
He smiled encouragingly at her then proceeded to drag her to the clearing in the training field he had just been practicing at before he decided to confront her.
"Starting today, All of you are real Shinobi" Iruka began "You will start your journey as genin with missions to help out the village. To do this you will be put into four person cells consisting of three genin and a jonin instructor."
"We tried to balance out the strength of the team while also taking synergy and compatibility into consideration" he said as he glanced at the clipboard "The teams are as follows…"
Hinata already knew this and was hoping she got to be on the same team as Naruto. While they had grown familiar enough with each other ever since he had ambushed her in that training field a year ago, she would be glad to be able to spend more time with him even if he did most of their talking during their time together.
"Team seven consists of Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuga Hinata and Uzumaki Naruto" Iruka said continuing down the list.
While Hinata almost wanted to jump for joy, Naruto was less than pleased.
"Why do I get paired with that stuck up prick?" Naruto complained "Also, not that I'm complaining… okay I guess I am but why are three of the top students on the same team if you wanted balance?"
"I'm not actually sure" Iruka replied thinking more carefully on the team that had just been named "The Hokage and the council had a hand in deciding these teams and he must have had his reasons."
"Fine whatever" he said slouching back into his seat.
"We'll introduce you to your jonin instructors in the afternoon" Iruka said when he was done with the list "so until then take a break."
"I'm glad you accepted my request to train sensei's son" Kakashi said as he stood before the Hokage "It's the least I could do."
"I think it was for the best as well" Hiruzen replied "Besides, your team will also have Sasuke of the Uchiha clan. Good luck!"
"Yes sir!" Kakashi replied as he turned to leave "That's going to be interesting."
Kakashi had been late to pick them up as expected and they all seemed much too grumpy, well maybe all but the girl who was fidgeting and couldn't look him straight in the eye. He sighed then tried to cheer up the mood with a smile "Well let's begin with introductions."
"What do you want to know?" Naruto asked eager to get on with it.
"How about you likes, dislikes, dream for the future and things like that?"
"Why don't you go first, then we can follow" Naruto said "after all we need to get to know you as well."
"Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi, I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes" He paused to consider "Dreams for the future… hmm, oh and I have a lot of hobbies."
"You only told us you name" Naruto said looking quite disappointed.
"Now it's your turn." Kakashi said ignoring the comment "Why don't you go first, red"
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto" he replied "likes are ramen and training, don't really dislike anything, my dream is to become Hokage one day so people acknowledge my existence and restore my clan."
Sasuke stiffened and glanced at him when he said the last part while Kakashi seemed mildly amused
"He seems to have grown in an interesting way." Kakashi thought as he turned his attention to Sasuke "Your turn grumpy."
"Uchiha Sasuke, there are a lot of things I dislike and not many things I like" He paused here and his eyes narrowed at nothing in particular "what I have is more of an ambition than a dream and that is the restoration of my clan and the death of a certain man."
"As troublesome as I thought" Kakashi almost sighed "You're next bashful."
"I'm Hyuga Hinata" She said "um I like many things, I dislike crabs and shrimp, my dream is to prove myself to my father and bridge the gap between the two branches of my clan."
"Ok" Kakashi said "That's it for the introductions. Tomorrow we'll your first task which will be survival training."
"I hope it's a step up from what we were doing back in the academy at least." Naruto said
"Oh, don't worry about that." Kakashi said amused "You're going to be fighting me."
"That's new." Naruto said suddenly quite excited until Kakashi started chuckling "What?"
"There's a 66% failure rate" he was both disappointed and proud of the lack of reaction he received. "Either they were quite confident in their skills or I'm losing my touch. Hmm, at least the girl seems to be fidgeting more."
"We did fairly well in our graduating class." Naruto said while smirking "I'm sure we can manage"
"That test was just to determine potential students so that fewer jonin instructors were needed." Kakashi said "Tomorrow you're going to have to give your all if you want to have a chance. Oh, you might also want to skip breakfast if you don't want to throw up."
"Hey guys, good morning!" Kakashi said as he waved to his students.
"You're late…"
"Don't sweat the small stuff." Kakashi said as he put an alarm clock on a tree stump "This is set to ring at noon. You have until it rings to get these two bells from me. Whoever doesn't get one gets tied to the stump and won't get any of the lunch we'll be eating. Oh, and after that you get sent back to the academy. Also, you won't stand a chance unless you come at me with intent to kill."
Kakashi noted that Naruto whispered into Hinata's ear which caused her to blush slightly then nod after which they both got into stance. "Begin!"
Hinata immediately jumped back and activated her Byakugan, Sasuke dashed into the bushes to hide and observe while Naruto stood his ground.
"The two of you aren't going to hide?" Kakashi inquired.
"Considering that we can't even hide from each other, it would be pointless to try to hide from a jonin" Naruto replied, watching the instructor closely.
"Not a bad point" Kakashi said as he pondered what the boy had said. "Why can't they hide from each other? I can understand the case of the Hyuga having the Byakugan but has Sasuke already acquired the Sharingan? And what does Naruto have that would allow him to find them as well? Maybe I should've read their files" "I'm guessing you intend to make an opening for the girl there to get in a good hit with her gentle fist?"
Rather than respond, Naruto drew a kunai from his pouch and tossed it at the instructor though it was easily caught.
"There are many ways by which Shinobi fight, guess I'll show you the three basics." Kakashi said as he rummaged in his pouch for something causing Naruto to stiffen. "First up, Genjutsu!" he said as he pulled out a book with the title "Icha-Icha Paradise"
"Trying to rile me up aren't you" Naruto said "It's not going to work."
"I actually just want to know what happens next." Kakashi said as he flipped through the pages "Don't worry though; it won't make a difference against you guys."
Naruto was about to retort until he noticed Kakashi's one handed sign and then all he saw were leaves followed by a bonfire at Ichiraku's using all the ramen they had. He was almost immediately on the ground and frothing at the mouth.
"Next up, Ninjutsu." Kakashi said calmly as he walked towards Hinata who adjusted to a defensive stance.
When it became obvious that he was more interested in the book he was reading than whatever threat she presented, she went after him instead. All her strikes were dodged until he seemed to get bored and grabbed one of her arms with his free hand after another failed attempt. "Like I said earlier 'you won't stand a chance unless you come at me with intent to kill.'" Then his hand lit up as lightning crackled around it and her hair stood on end as she promptly fell in a heap. "Two down one to go."
Kakashi was just about to round up with Sasuke when he heard what sounded like a stampede coming in his direction. He paused and looking towards the noise and smiled at the approaching chakra signature. "It seemed things are about to get interesting"
He was soon surrounded by one hundred clones courtesy of Naruto who proceeded to mob the jonin. A quick double substitution first with one of the clones then another with something else farther away got him out of the situation easily enough though he was surprised that the boy immediately stopped and turned in his direction.
At this point Hinata had arrived in the clearing as well with her byakugan active and pointed the direction in which Kakashi was more for Sasuke's benefit
"I don't need your help." He growled as he sped off after the jonin.
The alarm went off and Sasuke found himself tied to the post with a teammate on either side.
Sasuke fumed silently "Still not strong enough… I need to get stronger more quickly" then he looked to his pale eyed teammate "maybe…"
"You guys look really hungry" Kakashi said as he stood before the three genin "Oh and about the test, well let's just say there's no need to send you back to the academy." He waited until their worries had melted away and they were about to begin jubilating before he added "All three of you should quit as shinobi" "Maybe that was a bit cruel of me"
"You may be close to the answer but close is not good enough" Kakashi said as he ignored Sasuke's growling and struggling "The purpose of this test was to see if you could put aside your own self-interest and work together. Yet Sasuke tried to do it alone while Naruto and Hinata despite working together never thought to include Sasuke in their attempts. We'll try again after lunch and remember Sasuke doesn't get any."
As soon as Kakashi was out of sight, Naruto closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening his lunch and offering some to his tied up classmate.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke inquired as he eyed the offered food and his stomach gave a rumble.
"You're running on empty, we need to be at our best if we're even going to be able to do anything to a jonin that's barely taking us seriously."
"Here, have some of mine as well" Hinata offered "This way we all get a decent amount."
"Thanks" Sasuke replied, taking a bite out the offered food,
A stray wind blew leaves across and when it cleared, Kakashi was left standing there with a menacing look on his face as lightning flashed in the background. "What do you all think you're doing?" he ground out as all three children froze. "You all… Pass!"
"Huh?" was the eloquent response.
"You're the first team to disregard my orders for the sake of the team" Kakashi explained "Every other team just did exactly what I told them."
"Aren't you just promoting insubordination?" Sasuke asked.
"You have to look underneath the underneath. Look for the hidden meaning in things." Kakashi said as he moved to untie Sasuke from the stump "Those who break the rules are referred to as trash but those who abandon their teammates are worse than trash."
Sasuke tentatively approached Hinata, "Can I talk to you for a bit?" then he glanced at Naruto "Privately."
"Fine. I can tell when I'm not needed. Till tomorrow then." Naruto said as he turned around to leave.
"My sharingan still hasn't awakened yet and I was wondering if you could give me some tips since you also have a dojutsu." Sasuke inquired after they were alone.
She had already been surprised when he had asked to speak with her and was even more so when he asked for her help. "Well, for people who have difficulty, there is a series of hand signs or a single hand sign they use before channeling chakra to their eyes to help. I'm not sure how the hand signs for ours will help you though."
After considering what she had said for a bit he made the tiger seal. It was the seal most closely associated with has clan and if any single sign would do it, it would probably be that. He took a deep breath molding his chakra and channeling a steadily increasing amount to his eyes.
"Oh, it seems it worked." Hinata said as she blinked a few times before looking into his glowing red eyes with a single tomoe in each spinning lazily.
"Wait, are you serious? Surely it couldn't have been that easy" though even as he said that he could see how clear his vision had become "…Thank you"
It had been a long time since Sasuke had been in such a good mood and despite his best efforts, he could not prevent the corners of his lips from twitching upwards. He lowered himself to sit on his front steps and gazed at the moon. That, however, was when his sharingan activated on its own and a long suppressed memory came unbidden to the surface.
A brief silhouette of a ninja standing on a telephone pole with the full moon at his back. He was gone so quickly Sasuke was not sure if it was real.
"What the…?" he is unable to complete the sentence as the notices the bodies in the street. As a sudden realization hits, he runs to his home and is confronted by the bodies of his father and mother with the perpetrator standing above them in shadow.
Author's Notes
Sorry for the long wait. University life and my own laziness is to blame. I feel like I'm rushing the beginning a bit with all the time skips for example his interaction with Hinata but eh I just hope I can get far enough in before my muse completely deserts me for a while as she usually does. I've actually had this chapter more than 90% complete long before I even posted the first chapter but some parts just didn't feel right.
Been looking into getting a beta. The process for becoming a beta seems quite detailed by the site but information on how to acquire one seems quite lacking unless I'm quite blind. Do I just look through the list for someone that betas Naruto and pm them or is there more to it?
Anyway, next up is wave the whole of which will be covered in the next chapter if all goes according to plan. I have the urge to let Haku live though to be honest I don't have much planned for him except for maybe one event after wave and a few interesting skills I want to use. Input on that would be welcome.
I was also supposed to put the whole Sasuke flashback (and I mean the whole thing) into this chapter because it's actually sort of important but the laziness got to me and I decided on alternate way to go about that. If you are wondering why it's important then
SPOILERS
It's when Sasuke actually activates his Sharingan.
END SPOILERS
