Chapter II

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Naruto raced up the stairs of his apartment building, oblivious to the noise he was making. Once he reached the top floor, he hammered on Oscar's door. After a few seconds of impatient waiting, the door was pulled open and the sleepy boy stood in the doorway wearing a tee shirt and flannel pants with pictures of clouds on them. "What is it?" he asked, running a hand through his already-messy hair. "And can it wait until tomorrow?"

"No." Naruto said, "This cannot wait. Come to my room so I can tell you about it."

Oscar muttered something about what he'd like to do to people who are cryptic and melodramatic in the middle of the night. Then he yawned. "You go on into your room. I'll join you in a second." he stepped back and shut the door. Naruto proceeded down the hall and entered his own room, sinking down on the bed. He sat there for a total of roughly ten seconds before got up and began to pace, mind still spinning. He removed his new headband and laid it carefully on top of the dresser. Then he resumed pacing. When heard the creak of hinges, he whirled around to look at the door, but no one was there. Therefore, he jumped a mile when he heard Oscar's voice somewhere near the floor.

"High-strung much?" Naruto couldn't figure out where his friend was until he crouched down to look under a table that was pushed against the wall. The same wall which separated his room and Oscar's. He blinked, momentarily distracted by what he saw. Whoa. Didn't see that coming, he thought. It seemed that Oscar had discovered a tiny door in the wall that connected the two rooms. It was a little more than two feet square and was situated in a spot in the wall that happened to have a table over it in Naruto's room.

Naruto backed up a little to make room as his friend put his head down and crawled through the tiny opening and swung the door shut behind him with his foot. He crawled out from under the table and sat up, crossing his legs, "Well?" he prompted as the blue-eyed boy hastily sat down in front of him, "What's the story? What do you need? And log help you if I decide that it could have waited until tomorrow."

"Um." Naruto had been so sure that this was something that he had to tell someone else, but after seeing his own behavior reflected in his shadow clone's he was sure that the way to broach this was not to blurt out 'I have a huge demon fox sealed inside of me,' so he opted for the more gradual approach. "Have you ever heard of someone having a bijuu sealed inside of them at birth?"

"Of course," Oscar replied promptly.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'm from Kumo, remember? The Raikage's brother is a Jinchiriki, so most people where I come from understand the concept."

Naruto was a little lost from this explanation. "What's a Jinchuriki?" he asked, helplessly.

"It's the official name for someone who has a tailed demon sealed inside of him," Oscar explained.

"Have you ever met a Jinchuriki?" Naruto asked, searching for something that might soften the blow when it finally came time to deliver it.

"No. I'm not important enough to meet the Raikage's brother. That is, no one except for me thought I was important enough."

"About that," Naruto said, tired of dancing around the subject and finally allowing his straightforward side to win out. "It turns out, I'm a Jinchuriki. I only found out tonight, but it seems that I have the Kyuubi no Yoko sealed inside of me." Naruto hung his head, peering out at his friend from under his hair, waiting for a reaction.

Oscar, to his credit, didn't so much as stiffen. He put his head to one side and regarded Naruto, before speaking, "That kinda makes sense. The Kyuubi attack was thirteen years ago, right? And you're thirteen years old, right? And it would explain why everyone ignores and mistreats you." Naruto nodded in agreement, hardly daring to believe what he was hearing, but Oscar wasn't finished. He was frowning now, and as he did, Naruto's spirits plummeted. "But," Oscar said in a pondering kind of voice, "Why on earth would people treat you like that just because you're a Jinchuriki? That doesn't add up. Don't they realize that Jinchuriki are not responsible for the actions of their tenants until after they're sealed? Why should you be blamed for attacks the Kyuubi made before you were born?" They sat in silence for a minute before the dark boy let out a tired sigh. "I have a theory," he said. He put out a hand and took hold of one of Naruto's shoulders until the blonde consented to look up into the dark boy's face.

"What's your theory?" He asked miserably, sure that it would be something along the lines of 'You're lying to me.'

"My theory is that people are bastards who let raw emotion fuel their actions instead of logic. Does that sound about right to you?"

Naruto felt he could have hugged Oscar if he hadn't been weak with relief.

The next morning, Oscar crawled through the tiny door in the wall into a scene of intense indecision. On the one hand, Naruto wanted to wear his forehead protector as a sign that he had finally become a genin, but on the other hand, he was afraid of damaging it. He confronted Oscar with this dilemma, hoping for advice. Oscar sighed a bit.

"Wear it, Naruto," he said wearily. "What your saying is similar to if I said 'I'd use my brain, but I'd be afraid of wearing out the batteries.'" He wore it after that.

Arriving at his classroom door at the academy, Naruto steeled himself to face the disbelief that he knew would come. In the normal way, he wouldn't let that bother him and would go in grinning and yelling like a loudmouth idiot: very un-shinobi-like. Now that he was determined to reevaluate his attitude and personality, he decided to go in quietly and unobtrusively as if it were perfectly natural for him to be returning.

He pushed open the classroom door and Oscar followed him inside. Naruto kept his head down, hoping not to attract the stares of his classmates, with little success. As he stepped forward, Kiba stood up and pointed at him from across the room. "Hey!" he called, "Who said you could come back, deadlast?"

Naruto had to bite his lip to stop one of his old retorts flying to his lips. Instead, he calmly looked the young Inuzuka in the eyes and inquired, "In what way exactly am I a deadlast?"

Kiba was slightly confused at this response and turned surreptitiously to his dog, Akamaru, for support. Akamaru made a tiny growling noise, which seemed to restore the loud boy's confidence. "You failed the genin exam!" Kiba said. "You were the only one to fail! That's what makes you the deadlast!"

Oscar, who was still standing beside Naruto, turned to his friend, frowning. "You failed the exam, Naruto? I thought you passed with flying colors."

As the blonde boy turned toward the dark-haired one, he caught Oscar giving him a tiny nod. "You're right." Naruto said,"I'm not sure who Kiba is thinking of, but it can't be me. I passed the genin test and got my headband yesterday just like everyone else, see?" He tapped his forehead protector. Obviously defeated, Kiba slid down into his seat and glowered.

"Come," Oscar said imperiously. He took hold of Naruto's upper arm and led him up the aisle to the back row, where he sat his friend right next to Hinata. Though Naruto did not seem to be looking, Oscar saw the Hyuuga heiress' face redden as she looked away.

After a minute or so of waiting for Iruka to turn up, Oscar took a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket, smoothed it out, and began drawing. Peering over the shorter boy's shoulder, Naruto saw that Oscar was actually sketching out strings of crude little stick figures, each of them engaged in a different task. Several were fighting each other, some were doing target practice using the back of another one's head, a few danced or preformed gymnastics, while one little one appeared to be setting a trap in the bottom right-hand corner.

Naruto only tore his eyes away when Oscar set down his pencil and slipped the sheet back into his pocket. His eyes flicked to the front of the room the see Iruka quietly closing the door behind him. Once he had everyone's attention, Iruka began to give his usual spiel about how they were now ninjas and were therefore responsible for doing their part in the ninja community. Naruto tuned out for a minute until he heard the part about being assigned to teams.

"When each of you goes out on a mission, you will be accompanied by your team. Each team will consist of three genin and a Jounin-sensei." Iruka began to call out the team assignments. Naruto waited on the edge of his seat for his name to be called, not even noticing the disappointed glance cast his way by Hinata when she got assigned to a different team. Iruka lowered his clipboard and looked around at his class. "We're going to give you guys a break now, but be back this afternoon to meet your Jounin instructors, alright? Now go on!"

Naruto grabbed Oscar's sleeve as the other boy stood up. "Oscar!" Naruto hissed, "I didn't hear my name! Which team did he say I was on?"

Oscar gave him a blank look. "Iruka didn't call your name. Or mine. I suggest we go and ask him. He may have forgotten to read out a group or something."

So the two headed down to the front of the room where Iruka stood waiting, two students already standing in front of him. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he recognized one of them as the last Uchiha, then he brightened as he realized that the other one was Sakura.

Iruka seemed to be waiting for the other two boys, so they hurried over to the small group.

"What's going on Iruka-sensei?" Sakura was asking in a slightly panicky voice. "Neither Sasuke nor I were assigned to a team. Did you forget one? What's going on?"

Iruka surveyed the four of them. "I didn't forget to read out a team, I just thought it better to explain to you personally. As you know, all genin teams consist of four members: three genin and a Jounin. And, until last night, this would have been a team like any other, consisting of Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and Oscar Junomaru." His eyes flickered toward Naruto's. He continued, "Naruto was not recognized as a genin until last night, which meant that all of the teams had already been formed with three genin each without including him. However, when he was recognized as a genin, we still had to put him on a team, regardless of the unprecedented numbers. Therefore, all four of you are on Team seven and your Jounin instructor will be Kakashi Hatake. That's all. I just wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings. If you don't have any questions, I suggest you take advantage of this break before you come back to meet your sensei."

The four teammates filed out in silence, not so much as looking at each other.

Naruto slumped in his chair, possibly asleep as they waited for their Jounin sensei to turn up. He wasn't the only one who was bored, just the worst at hiding it. Sasuke was in the same brooding posture that he had assumed an hour ago when they had arrived. Sakura had been gazing adoringly at Sasuke since all of the other groups had left with their Jounin-senseis well over half an hour ago. Oscar had taken out that paper again and resumed filling it with doodles. He had finished covering both the back and the front ten minutes ago and had at that point assumed the same attitude as Naruto; his head down on the desk on top of his crossed arms so that only the top half of his face could be seen over them.

Suddenly, Oscar's head shot up out of his arms, eyes wide open and ears pricked. "What is it?" Sakura asked eagerly, "Did you hear something? Is our sensei here?"

Oscar tilted his head slightly, listening, before shaking his head, smiling. "Nope. I don't hear anything." He was prevented from letting his head drop back down into his arms by Sakura getting up and whacking him in the back of the head. "Hey!" Oscar protested, putting his arms up to cover his head, "I need that skull! It's the only thing keeping my brain from leaking out of my ears!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Just don't do that again. I thought for sure that we were done waiting." She sat back down.

However, as she did, Oscar's eyes lit up, "I just had a brilliant idea!" Without explaining any more than that, he got up, went over to the black board and picked up the chalk.

"You're going to draw on the blackboard?" Sakura asked disbelievingly, "How old are you, five?"

"Two hundred seventeen," the dark boy corrected her, kneeling down on the floor to begin drawing right near the bottom.

At the sound of chalk scraping, Naruto raised his head, blinking sleep from his eyes. "Is he here yet?" he asked, yawning.

"Not yet," Oscar said. "Want to come draw on the board with me?"

"Alright." Naruto got up, found another piece of chalk and set to work on the opposite end of the board from Oscar.

Sakura stared at the two. These were her teammates? At least Sasuke-kun was not participating in this childishness. Mmmm. Sasuke-kun… Sakura's thoughts drifted toward the less innocent end of the spectrum.

After another two hours of waiting in near silence, the door was pushed open by a man in a Jounin vest. Most of his face and one eye was covered, and he had a spiky shock of gray hair. Oscar and Naruto looked over their shoulders to see their new sensei. They were not altogether impressed, and Naruto muttered something about it being about time.

Oscar took a more outspoken route. "You're here," He said briskly, "Good thing, too. We were almost out of chalkboard." Sasuke and Sakura, who had been resisting looking at the chalkboard for two hours, finally risked taking a glance at it. It was truly impressive. Nearly the entire board was filled with what looked like two separate stick figure armies, each one bristling with weapons. They could tell that a different person had drawn each army, as Oscar's army consisted of shorter figures, which seemed to be arranged in factions, while Naruto's army consisted of a single mob of long tall figures. As they watched, Oscar grabbed the chalk eraser and swept it across the entire thing, erasing two hours worth of diligence. Sakura almost gasped at the waste, but Naruto just shrugged and helped to erase the whole thing.

"It just would've been erased by tomorrow, anyway," Naruto pointed out.

The Jounin nodded. "When you're finished here, meet me up on the roof." He shunshin'ed away.

"Alright, why don't we introduce each other to start out with." All five of them sat on the roof: the four genin on the steps and their Jounin instructor sitting on the railing. He spoke again, "I'll go first. My name is Kakashi Hatake. Just go around and tell us your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future, that sort of thing. You start." He pointed at Sasuke who gave one of his trademark scowls.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I wouldn't exactly say I have likes or dislikes-"

"Because you find everyone and everything annoying," Oscar chipped in.

Sasuke treated him to an extra serving of glare. "Yes," He conceded. "I suppose training to get stronger would be my hobby, if you can call it that. Lastly, my lifelong ambition has been to kill…a certain man." Sasuke sat back unsmiling, perhaps to enjoy the silence he had created.

"What then?" Sasuke's head jerked toward Naruto.

"What?"

"What will you do after you kill that certain man? Where will you go?"

Sasuke dropped his head guardedly, "It's none of your concern."

"No. It's your concern. If the only thing you're focusing on now is that, you're going have one hell of a time bringing your life around to normal once you're done." Oscar was impressed with Naruto. Clearly the blonde had been thinking about what he had said about Sasuke that first time they had talked.

Kakashi hastened to move the introductions along before Sasuke achieved his ambition of homicide a little early. He pointed at Sakura, "Your turn."

Sakura cast a thoroughly soppy look at Sasuke's menacing profile. "My name is Sakura Haruno," She began, "My likes include Sasuke-kun," She paused with a dreamily disturbing look in her eyes, before she shook herself. "My dislikes include Naruto-baka." She did not notice Oscar nudge Naruto in the ribs and raise his eyebrows as if saying 'You see?' Sakura continued, "My hobbies include-" But Oscar cut her off too.

"Her hobbies include Sasuke-stalking and imagining herself in the same bed as Sasuke."

Sakura glared at him. "Anyway, my dream for the future-" a look of annoyance crossed her face.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked.

"What's wrong is that I've already said her dream for the future," Oscar explained, causing everyone to sweat-drop and earning him a punch in the arm from Sakura. "You should really stop doing that," he said, rubbing his arm, "Guys don't like it very much."

Kakashi, now trying to prevent another murder attempt, pointed at Naruto. "You next, blondie."

Naruto nodded with a bright smile, but before he introduced himself, he turned to Oscar. "Are you going to interrupt me, too?"

"Probably."

"Okay then." Naruto swiveled back around to face Kakashi. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki! My likes include ramen and Sakura-chan-"

"Don't ask me why," Murmured Oscar.

"-And my dislikes include Sasuke-teme. My hobby is setting pranks, and my dream is to become a Hokage to surpass the previous four!" He ginned happily. "Okay Oscar. Now you go."

"Alright then. My name is Oscar Junomaru and don't anyone dare comment on that! My likes include hanging out with friends and my dislikes include people who mistreat others and people who are illogical. And yes Sakura, before you say anything, I have been known to be illogical at times. But when I do it, I use it where it doesn't do any damage. Anyway, being random and being illogical have nothing to do with each other."

"Moving on?" Kakashi prompted.

"Moving on, my hobbies include tripping people up and weirding them out. Humans are such funny things. You never know just how one will react. Lastly, My dream for the future is to become head of the Torture and Interrogation department."

"Alright guys." Kakashi began, "We don't actually start until-" he stopped. Oscar had his hand in the air. "Um, yes?"

"Can I say something?"

"Go ahead."

Oscar smiled around at his teammates. "I'm just glad that I'm on this team." He had everyone's attention and expressions ranged from surprised to skeptical. "It's like we're one big happy murderous dysfunctional family!"

Outside the gates of Konoha, a group of four hooded figures presented their documents to one of the guards. The guard looked over the papers and frowned slightly, looking from them to the figures. "Hang on," he said, "there are only three names down here. You need to put down the final name before we can let you in. What is it?"

One of the two men in the group spoke, "We did put all of our names down. Two of us just happen to be-" The younger woman of the group interrupted.

"I think we forgot to write down Jensei's name. Here, I'll do it." She took the documents back from the guard and quickly filled in the name, both hooded men glowering at her silently. She then handed the forms back to the guard before they all filed through the gates. Once inside, She grabbed the arm of the hooded man who had spoken. "Seriously Jaitan! If you're going to make trouble before we've even spoken to anyone, I'm going to stop sticking my neck out for you!" She hissed.

The man whose arm she was not holding frowned. "I wasn't making trouble!"

The young woman just sighed. "I don't care what you thought you were doing. Just keep your cloaks on and follow me. Try not to talk to anyone before I've rented us some rooms."

A/N: Whoa. I absolutely did not expect for this chapter to be finished in a day. I know it's a bit shorter than the first chapter, but this seemed like a good stopping point, and anyway I though y'all might appreciate the update. I know there will be a few of you who are inclined to throw a hissy fit just because I created a five-man team (or rather, four-man-one-banshee-team) but I explained my reasoning! Since in canon there exactly twelve rookie genin, it only makes sense that I put Oscar on an already full team. Just bear with me. Things get better. And I know that I had Naruto thinking about shifting his personality a bit and that this is a NaruXHina story, but both things will be a bit gradual. I probably won't get to the NaruXHinaness in the next chapter. Perhaps the one after. Anywho, I hope you liked this chapter and don't worry, that scene at the end will come to light in due course. So Long! Review! Look both ways before crossing! Review again if you don't get run over!