Crater Outskirts Lab:
Dr. Jiraiya was walking down the white halls of the Outskirts Lab Research Facility with Naruto, the one ex Deo that had been giving everyone working on the Deus Project a hard time. Even the other ex Deo had been having a hard time dealing with Naruto's lack of ability to control his psychokinesis. While most ex Deo were out on field missions, Naruto's "teammates" had to settle with training and and testing. For months, they were told to keep themselves in top shape for when they would be ready to go out as a squad with Naruto. These teammates were known the subjects known as Sasuke and Sakura.
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were three very powerful ex Deo. All of them had exceptional skills and talents that set them apart from the rest of the ex Deo. They were watched more carefully than the others, especially Naruto. The development and preparation of the three ex Deo of the Magnum Opus project was almost as much as the rest of the Deus Project. The whole thing was a costly investment made by the government for the sake of winning the war. So far there have been few setbacks regarding the individual ex Deo. The Konoha government believed that with the launch of the Magnum Opus team the war would become more of campaign for conquest of Suna.
Naruto walked alongside Dr. Jiraiya. The entire area had a sort of odor to it, like an overly abundant smell of bleach as if it were refined to be a bearable scent. The entire place was almost dead silent. It was as if the place had been abandoned but someone had been looking over it to make sure it wouldn't all fall to ruin. The truth was that the place was filled with activity. Behind the walls, tests were being done and statistics were being looked at and analyses of data were being collected. One big thing that was going on due to the scheduled release of the Magnum Opus was work on NMH. The Drug and Health Board felt that with Naruto's large NMH intake, they needed to work on a more refined version of the drug so as to put him and the rest of the Magnum Opus to full use.
Naruto didn't know about any of this though. To him most of what happened behind the walls of the Lab meant nothing. He had lived in the Lab his entire life and still had very little of an idea of what went on. Naruto only knew a few things for certain. He knew that he had been getting prepared to be the proper tool for the military to help win the war. He knew that he was going to be grouped with other, similar tools for the same purpose to improve their overall efficiency. And he knew that he was anomaly. He wasn't like the others and had more trouble controlling his abilities. He often worried about his effectiveness. Would he be able to help his squad now that he was finished with the preparation phase. They told him that from today onward that he would be using his skills to aid in operation, but he wasn't very confident in his competence as an ex Deo.
As he and the doctor walked further down the halls he noticed five people standing, waiting for them. There were three adults and two children. He figured the children were ex Deo. There wouldn't be any other reason for children in the Lab. Of the three adults, one was dressed in an army combat uniform but with no equipment on him. The other two were wearing lab coats similar to Dr. Jiraiya's. Naruto assumed that they were the supervisors for the ex Deo with them.
"Dr. Tsunade. Dr. Orochimaru," Dr. Jiraiya politely greeted. "Doctor," Dr. Tsunade greeted back. "Dr. Jiraiya," Dr. Orochimaru greeted with a smile. The man in combat uniform turned to Dr. Jiraiya's direction. "I'm Captain Kakashi Hatake of 7th Infantry Division of the Konoha Army. I've been requ-" the captain stopped as he was interrupted by Dr. Jiraiya. "I know why you're here Captain. Before everything starts, we have a few things to discuss," the doctor told him. "Of course," was Cpt. Hatake's only reply as he and the doctors walked a couple steps away to talk.
Naruto looked at the other ex Deo. They were both barefoot and both had on the standard black t-shirt and pants that every ex Deo wore while in the Lab. One of them had black hair and black eyes. The other had pink hair and green eyes. They both stared down at Naruto, being taller than him. Naruto looked back and forth at the black haired one and the pink haired one. He didn't say a word to either. He simply kept looking at the both of them. Finally one of them opened their mouth to speak. "Could you stop doing that? It's aggravating," spoke the pink haired one. She began to glare at him angrily. Naruto's gaze turned to his feet. "Sorry," he mumbled, apologizing to his future teammate. "Hey, Sakura there's no need to be rude," the black haired one interjected, "This is our first time meeting him. We should make a better first impression than that."
"I don't give damn about first impressions Sasuke," Sakura replied. "He's the reason we haven't been able to go out and help. All the extra testing and practice after we were told that we were ready have been because of this kid. And look at him, he doesn't look so impressive to me," she said gesturing at him. "The least he could do is not be weird." Naruto was shocked, but not by the contents of the statement. He had already figured that they had all felt that way, however it hurt to hear them say it.
Sasuke looked at Naruto and then back at Sakura. "He may not look impressive," Sasuke began "but neither do we. We're all just kids so there's no reason to go by looks. Besides if he's going to part of the Magnum Opus, then he HAS to be impressive right?" On the last sentence Sasuke looked towards Naruto, grinning. Naruto looked up and caught Sasuke grinning at him. He felt a bit of relief hearing those words, but it still didn't stop him from thinking that he might still just be hindrance to his team in the long run.
Cpt. Hatake returned to his team of ex Deo as the three scientists walked away. He looked down at the group of children, their eyes all looking up at his face. "Alright Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, listen. Your supervisors are no longer your supervisors. I'm in charge of you now. You can still talk to your supervisors about whatever problems you may have, even if it's me. I need to tell you all though, you are now part of the military. You will be in combat, REAL combat. You will get hurt and you will see people die. They told me that you all have been trained to handle combat situations but I am telling you that there is no real way to train for combat other than to be in combat. There is no feeling quite like killing a man. There is no feeling quite like watching a comrade die. I am hoping that you all, as ex Deo, can at least act professional on the field. Feel nothing. Do what needs to be done," he finished. "Are there any questions?" No one said a word. "Then come with me," he said as they walked off.