Disclaimer: I do not own 200 pounds of candy, though I'd sure like to! Oh, nor do I own Naruto
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Author Notes: Mixed reactions, I counted about 30 votes aside (given that adding reasons gives your votes a weight of 2 point, not 1) with Pro-Team Naruto ahead by one single vote.
Which is weird because all other times I've ever asked a question I get a landslide majority. That said, none of my other fics have been remotely close as popular as this one, so I assume my target audience here is vast, huh people?
Right then my decision is (here is where you might notice a flux of similar fics gone the other way) to Not have Naruto as a team leader.
Your reasons on either side were good and well rounded, however given the closeness of the vote I am putting it down to one thing; The Fic's name. Naruto Sempai, not Naruto Sensei.
I hope those who voted for are not too disappointed, by this choice. In either case I shall proceed with the story in the same manner which I have been
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Response to aegisZero who wrote: "I vote for Naruto to remain as a chuunin, being an assistant teacher.
Also on a side note for filling Naruto's spot on team 7, assuming same teams, can you use Sai? just a preference over OC"
I myself typically find OC characters rather lame. On the rare occasion, some are written very well, but generally, lets face it, who cares about OC characters? We're all here to read about our favourites, am I right or what?
However given Sai's very character it is impossible to bring him into the story at the present time I believe. Which leaves me with a difficult choice; as there is only 8 canon characters to use. Unfortunately I think my answer will simply be dropping the 2 spare. Not from being a ninja, but certainly from the front of the story as there will almost have to be an OC in their group. If anyone has another idea to combat this, then I'm all hears but unfortunately that is my current thought line.
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Naruto Sempai: Chapter 2 – Hinata versus Sasuke?
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Over the course of the next few days, Hinata would be sure to look everyone she spoke to dead in the eyes. Not staring exactly, but somewhat less than relaxed, which was often a fright to her conversation partner; having two pale pupil-less eyes fixated on your own. At first it was very difficult; she felt self conscious, and somewhat naked in a sense. Though as the days shifted on, and she practised eye contact more, she found it progressively easier, and was becoming less tense when speaking to people. Her usual stutter was receding from her speech remarkably in the time given. In fact over all she felt a little better about herself. She remained shy, timid and lacking in the self confidence area; however her ability to hold actual conversations were growing rapidly.
Naruto visited her only once since, just to check up on how she was doing. He took her again to the ramen bar, thus solidifying her belief it was indeed one of his favourites. She found she really enjoyed him even just for his company, his personality was so warm and uplifting you would have to trying to NOT get along with him. He made sure she was the one talking mostly, mainly asking questions about her time in the academy the focus shifting between the lessons themselves to her classmates. Hinata enjoyed Naruto's company, his personality was so warm and uplifting, it was quite refreshing, and so different from anyone she knew. He was quite outspoken with a cool tempered confidence underlining how he spoke. He was quick to make a joke whenever the opportunity arose, seemingly to both get a laugh from his conversation partner, and to keep the conversation quite light. Next to him she couldn't help but feel even more withdrawn than she knew she was, but in a good way, if such a feeling was possible.
She decided to herself that there was indeed much to learn from Naruto, what he taught her, as well as how he acted and how he spoke.
Today was Friday, the last day in the week for the academy and with it a small test accompanying it. It would be one of two 'practice-test' days before the final exam. Naturally Hinata was quite nervous of it. When they first started at the academy she was by comparison to her classmates very talented, however, since then it seemed they had all surpassed her. On days like today she actually wished she was sick, or something of the sort.
She dawdled to the academy, practically dragging her feet as though willing them to anchor her to the spot. But all too soon she found herself sitting in her seat, waiting for her self confidence to take another body blow.
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Uchiha Sasuke sat in the shade, watching the remaining of his group finish their kunai and shuriken throwing test. As per usual he had aced his own, as well as getting extra points for aerodynamic control and agility over his weapons after they had been thrown. This meant all of nothing to him. Curving the path of his weapons made it harder to guard against, and he had been doing it as easily for a small number of years already. Even supposing that wasn't true, these 'fake-exams' were the last thing on the boys mind. He was thinking of a certain blonde haired ninja.
He couldn't shake the thoughts from his mind. This guy, the same age as them or so he looked was not only a fully fledged ninja, but was even of the intermediate 'chuunin' level?
How had he done it? He hadn't known anyone to progress that fast save for his quarry. A fact he found difficult to deal with on an emotional level. He had tried to seek him out, but had only found him once, and he was spending time with Hyuuga Hinata. He looked over at her. She was the shy daughter of the head of the clan. Beyond that he realised he knew nothing about her really, only that she was so quite he sometimes wondered if she had some sort of condition which prevented her from speaking too much.
Realising they were alone, most of the class still performing, or waiting to perform the test he decided to speak to her out of sheer curiosity.
"How did you do in the test?" he asked flatly, knowing full well how she had done. Hinata blinked, and looked toward him.
'That's strange… he's the only person who speaks less than I do' she thought. Still it would be rude not to reply, so she responded, whilst looking at his eyes.
"I-I think I did alright, not exactly good, but I usually p-pass after similar performances" she replied, considering other recent such tests. Sasuke shifted, realising he would have to think of something else to say to keep the conversation alive
"You seem to be doing as well as you did today for awhile now" he commented, still not looking at her, but rather the group before them still being tested.
"Y-Yes. Unfortunately I'm not making so much progress…" she trailed off, finding it difficult to talk about herself in such her way to the top of the class. Sasuke realised he had inadvertently hit a nerve, and turned to mutter some sort of an apology, but stopped dead when he saw her looking right at him her eyes staring into his own. He blinked. Finding it hard to look away he immediately turned back to break the eye contact.
"Ugh…" he said re-gathering himself "Sorry" he murmured quietly. Hinata found his reaction quite peculiar, was he so unused to people looking him in the eye? The truth of which being not as such, in fact Hinata was quite uncomfortable talking to him, so when forcing herself to look into his eyes, she came across as staring rather intensely. A heat Sasuke was still feeling as he shifted where he sat uncomfortably. Not knowing how to respond to his random apology Hinata opted to say nothing. Something which added to Sasuke's steadily rising level of complete lack of comfort.
"So, er…" He began unable to take the silent staring "…what is your element of your chakra?" he asked, sending her a side glance, before snapping his eye back frontward after seeing her still staring at him
"Ano… my chakra is-"
"Can you stop looking at me like that!" he suddenly pleaded, "Please" he added for good measure. Hinata blinked, and leaned back
"Um… sure, s-sorry" she said, deciding now would indeed be a good time to look at the floor. Sasuke sighed a breath of relief as he felt the weight of her gaze break. He had heard the eyes of the Hyuuga were powerful at unnerving a person but that was ridiculous, he mentally groaned.
"Don't worry about it" he said, trying to regain his indifferent voice. Hinata at the same time had clicked onto why he was uncomfortable, and couldn't help but let loose a small giggle. Sasuke frowned, and dared to glance over, watching her trying to hold her laugh in. He folded his arms tightly across his chest and had a face that looked like a child who had their ice-cream stolen, he clearly wasn't as amused.
"S-Sorry" she said trying to suppress her amusement. Sasuke just looked at her as she smiled looking away deliberately now. At that moment he just knew she was going to be on his genin team. He groaned inwardly.
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Hinata sat on the swings outside the academy. It was time to go home but she didn't have the energy, either physically or mentally. Instead she sat watching the final students make their way home, or be picked up. She silently moved back and forth thinking about the events of today, and what it would mean for things to come. She had failed. On each individual test even. Things were not looking good. She wondered of her fathers reaction if she failed. She considered her life if she could not be a shinobi? No, that was unheard of for one of the Hyuuga to fail much less the Firstborn and heir the clan.
"Hey, what're you doing?" A familiar voice suddenly came from in front of her. She snapped back into reality, finding Naruto hanging from upside down in front of her.
"Ahh!" she cried, falling off the back of the swing. Naruto just looked at her with a twisted smirk, before bursting out into a laugh. Hinata frowned a little, Naruto sealed his lips into another twisted smile. Though it lasted only seconds before he broke out into a laugh again.
"Oh come on, it is a bit funny" he reasoned, hopping down in front of her, and offering her a hand up. Hinata accepted but didn't smile, her thoughts were already back to her results. She looked down and stayed silent. Naruto studied her for a moment before resting a hand on her shoulder. This got her attention as she looked at him properly
"Hey, come on now, whatever it is, I'm sure it's not that bad" he said reassuringly. Hinata sighed
"I-I failed" she murmured. Naruto smiled a little
"We all fail sometimes Hinata, which ones?"
"All of them" she replied dejectedly. Naruto went wide eyed for a moment, but regained his expression easily.
"Well... that is less good, but not earth shattering. Come on, let's sort you out" he said turning to her side, and using the hand on her shoulder to ease her forward with him via her back. They continued to walk until they came to a field with three wooden stumps at the base of it. Hinata by which time had fallen again into deep thoughts of what would happen when she failed.
"Hinata-san" Naruto said, withdrawing his hands to his sides, he walked forward and leant on the middle stump. "Let me share with you my biggest secret."
This caught her attention, and Naruto saw it in an instant.
"No doubt you've wondered to yourself how I got to where I am, right?" he said nodding, already giving her the answer. Predictably she nodded back.
"Well the answer to my success. No I take that back" he said looking at the floor as though he'd thought of something before looking back to her "The secret to being a ninja is one thing…" he said, trailing off, gesturing for her to come closer. She obeyed and leant in enough for Naruto to whisper it to her.
"Guts" he said softly.
Hinata pulled back, her expression revealing her confusion.
"To have the will to never give up. To get back up no matter what. That is what it really means to be a ninja" He explained "By learning ninjutsu, and other such ninja arts, we can do amazing things. But; by believing in ourselves and always taking that step forward, we can do great things Hinata." He said with a smile. "That is the only thing that separates me from anyone else. I know that if I try hard enough, and believe in myself, I really can do just about whatever I set my mind to."
"Do you trust me?" he asked, rather suddenly. Hinata froze for a moment, but slowly, she nodded.
"I-I trust you, N-Naruto-sempai" she stammered with a small smile of her own. Slowly a smile spread across his face. His smile lit his face, giving it indescribable warmth.
"So if I asked you, theoretically what would you like to accomplish before becoming a genin?" he asked, studying her carefully. Hinata paused before answering, it was a rather unexpected question, as at the moment she was just concerned with becoming a genin. Still, there was one thing…
"I…" she began, looking at Naruto looking back at her with nothing but patience and interest, her confidence grew enough for her to continue.
"I… I wanted to have beaten Sasuke-kun at something" she said, a sense of shame of revealing such envy coming over her. Naruto on the other hand just chuckled. She looked at him worried, was her wish so off it was just funny?
"Hinata-san, you are more alike to me than I had realised!" he laughed, suddenly very clearly pleased by her answer. She grinned sheepishly back.
"Right then, as your personal mentor, it will be my job- no! My duty! To see this A-rank mission fulfilled!" Hinata could only blink at him. Was he serious?
"So, the only question remains my not-so-innocent little Hyuuga friend, in which area do you want to beat him?" Naruto continued, apparently quite serious. Hinata had to resist the urge to laugh out of sheer disbelief. Naruto saw this, and titled his head in question to it
"Ano… Naruto-sempai… forgive me but… are you s-serious?" She asked, as she instinctively brought up her fingers, as they poked and push one another. Naruto studied her for a moment before holding her hands, and pushing them down.
"I am absolutely serious Hinata. You are telling me you want to beat Uchiha Sasuke in one area in your graduation tests. I am asking which test" he stated, coolly. Hinata just looked at him, and then broke out into laughter.
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It had taken awhile for Naruto to get her to take him seriously, or so he felt. She was certainly an interesting girl, he would definitely have to credit her for that. The shy, timid and ever so polite Hyuuga heir had been laughing at him. Eventually she had laughed it out, allowing him to explain it further. He would personally oversee her training until she was of a passing grade, after them, he would focus much of her time and energy into the one area she chose in order to be certain she would defeat the Uchiha genius in said area.
Hinata had opted for Taijutsu, given that it was her own personal strength, and would be the lead of her powers in years to come. While she considered trying for kunai and shuriken practice, it wasn't as a practical choice on her part in the long run.
Naruto had given her a several appointments in the week during which she would be training with him personally. He advised her to spend most other time in other area's as with him 90% of their time would be focusing on taijutsu training. As promised he would give her help in other areas, and bring her up to a firm passing level, but he made it clear much of his time with her he wanted to put into Taijutsu.
Hinata was going over this in her mind as she walked home. She was still inwardly laughing at the very idea of beating the Uchiha Sasuke at anything. She wasn't among his group of avid supporters, however she knew he was incredibly gifted. She was… not gifted at all. However her mind kept playing over Naruto words. For that reason alone she couldn't dismiss the possibility. After all, Naruto would have to be even more than gifted to get to where he was today. If he was telling her, and more importantly he promised her. Even so, it was a very difficult concept for her to take in.
As she moved throughout the Hyuuga grounds she noticed a sparr going on in one of the open grounds. She stood to watch as their speedy strikes struck with inhuman levels of accuracy. She noticed how perfect their balances were, their posture, and how fluent their movements were. She found her mind drifting to how good Naruto was. All she really knew of him was that he was the same age as her; 12, and was of the chuunin level. The information combined was certainly impressing, but also unspecific. Was he a taijutsu specialist, or perhaps Ninjutsu? For some reason he didn't strike her as a predominant genjutsu user, so she dismissed it. It was then that it occurred to her, in the first class he summoned a shadow clone! Even more remarkable was that he performed the seal so fast, only Sasuke had seen it. She wondered if that meant he was a ninjutsu specialist, as taijutsu doesn't require the hand seals.
She could has stayed there wondering about it for a great deal of time were it not time to eat shortly. As she prepared for another meal avoiding her fathers gaze she smiled to herself upon a single moment of a thought.
How good would it be, to be able to tell her father she came top in the class in taijutsu, above and beyond the Uchiha genius himself.
She allowed herself a cheeky grin at the idea.
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Author Notes: Apparently there is some confusion as to the characters ages so allow me to clarify.
Naruto is 12
All of the Rookie nine are 12
Any further questions you would like to know if I feel I am able to without it being spoilers, I will answer your questions in the next update provided I saw it of course!
As a final side note looking back on this I feel as though it was a little rushed. If you get the same feeling then I apologise however the original chapter was nearly plus a third to a half as big, adding in details I felt having read it back were just irrelevant. So it has been shortened to maintain purpose and not to drag the story unnecessarily.
Assuming you are like me, details are fun, but not when you get tempted to skip them to get to the good stuff, and I right?
I tidied it up as best as I could however maybe it's because I wrote it but I can see it. Anyway, I'm rambling now, so I'm going away to write another day! Later peeps!