"ALRIGHT CLASS! Listen up, these are the team lists. Now for sheer simplicity's sake, the teams have been arranged based on averages. We try and put one student into each team who specializes in one of three fields; ranged combat, mid-range combat/Genjutsu, and close quarters combat. Keep in mind, these only represent your potential for a field, not your current skill, as you are expected to grow and improve. (For instance, Team 9. Rock Lee is the CQC expert. Tenten, Long Range. Neji Hyuuga is a CQC expert as well, but his near perfect chakra control shows that he has high potential for Genjutsu, even though he refuses to learn non-clan techniques.)" Having finished his lecture, Iruka took out the squad list, and began listing off the squads. As he read through the squads, he couldn't help but think that absolutely none of these squads had a snowballs chance in hell at passing. It looked like every student with any talent or clan status was stuck in the last three teams! Except for Sakura of course. Why anyone thought she was ready for combat was a mystery.
Having read off all the teams which were guaranteed to fail, he got to the "Clan squads" which were guaranteed to decimate everything and everyone, as their members all came from prestigious and powerful clans. It was an unfair and elitist system which Iruka had tried to fight, but ultimately failed. Fortunately, the Hokage had made some alterations to the squad lists for teams 7, 8, and 10, after hearing the lists, and the reasonings for it as decided by the civilian council. Reworking the three teams, he arranged them in a manner which would allow all nine students to succeed to the best of their abilities.
"Team 7, under Hatake Kakashi. Sasuke Uchiha. Sakura Haruno. Kiba Inuzuka."
Originally Kiba had been in the same squad as Shino and Hinata. The logic being that putting the only three Ninja in the class with specialized tracking Kekkai Genkai on the same team was somehow intelligent. The hope was that Kiba's strong-headed attitude would inspire Sasuke to stop brooding. Of course, if Sasuke stopped brooding Sakura would emulate him to the best of her abilities, so if he started training seriously, so would she. Good in theory perhaps noted Iruka, but time would tell. For the time being though, Kiba was mocking Sasuke's wired-shut jaw, and the ugly pinkish scars that covered his face. What the entire hospital could accomplish in one day when working together was astonishing. But Sasuke would likely have scars for the rest of his life. The emo boy had been glaring daggers at a sleeping Naruto since class began.
"Team 8, under Kurenai Yuhi. Choji Akimichi. Ino Yamanaka. And Shino Aburame."
It was tough to tell with the coat, but as his food/diet obsessed teammates walked off with their instructor, Iruka swore he could see Shino crying. Poor guy. The logic there was that Shino's logical reasoning would bind the group together, and drive his slacker teammates to improve in Ninja fields.
"Team 9 is still in circulation so Team 10, under Asuma Sarutobi, will be Naruto Uzumaki-"
The blonde boy sat up when he heard his name, having slept through the rest of Iruka's talking.
"Shikamaru Nara and Hinata Hyuuga."
Naruto had already analyzed his teammates during combat yesterday, but he wondered who his Jonin instructor would be. Logically it should be Asuma, because the Hokage knew of Naruto's wind manipulation skills, and Asuma was the best wind master in the village. More importantly, there were only two teams worth of students still in the class. His new team, and a very unfortunate team with Sasuke on it.
Hinata was in her seat, blushing up a storm as she mentally cheered. Six and a half erotic fantasies later, Naruto tapped her on the shoulder to let her know Asuma was here to collect his team. She sat up with a start, realizing she wasn't currently in Hot spring country getting the ride of her life from Naruto. Sighing sadly, Hinata suddenly realized who had tapped her shoulder. When she looked into Naruto's sparkling blue eyes, fantasy world took over and she fainted with a mild nosebleed.
Shikamaru mumbled something about how troublesome it was to be troublesome, and headed towards Asuma. Naruto tried waking his pale-eyed teammate, then mumbled "To hell with it." And slung her arm over his shoulder.
Hinata awoke feeling that she had just had the oddest dream. In it, she was placed on Naruto's team, then she had... Fainted and... Sitting up, she looked around to find herself on the Academy rooftop, with Asuma waving smelling salts beneath her nose. To her left, Shikamaru longed against the railing around the rooftop, looking up at clouds. To her right, she saw Naruto... And promptly fainted.
This time with smelling salts taped beneath her nose, Hinata awoke. Unable to faint, she was forced to torturously endure it when she was assailed by fantasy after fantasy about her secret crush.
Watching his student burn with the brightest blush he'd ever seen, Asuma clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. Lighting a cigarette he puffed on it, then addressed his students. "Alright. Looks like i've got a promising group this time. Why don't you all tell me about yourselves. Dreams, ambitions, family, and whatever else you feel like sharing. You guys are a team now, meaning you'll basically be friends for life." Blowing a ring off smoke into the air, Asuma remembered his old team, and the memories they'd shared. "Let's see. You can go first." He said, pointing at Naruto, who was the most eager to begin.
"Hi! I'm Naruto. My last name is Uzimaki, but nobody ever called me that so don't bother. I like certain people, and of course my friends! I dislike those who attack the weak just to prove themselves, and those who treat war like a game. I love my family, and believe that a true friend is more important than any blood relation. Thats what makes up my family, the friends who care for me, like i care for them! I hope one day i can call all of you family too. My dream is to protect all the people i care about, and put an end to the weak being taken advantage of. After creating my clan of course!"
Nodding happily at the importance Naruto held in friendship, Asuma gestured for Shikamaru to speak.
"Sigh, troublesome... My name is Shikamaru Nara. I like cloud watching. I dislike troublesome things and those who cause them. I dream of one day either marrying an average girl, becoming an average shinobi, and living an average life, or discovering a cloud element."
Man this kid likes clouds, Asuma thought, just a little creeped out by the cloud obsession, before pointing to Hinata.
Blushing even redder, the shy girl stuttered her way through an introduction, which was 90% nosebleeds when she looked at Naruto and 10% her name and clan.
"Alright, good job team. Now, tomorrow we are going to have a test to determine if you are really Genin material. This will test you on a large number of factors, so be prepared. Thats all for today, get a good night's sleep and eat a good breakfast. You'll need the energy." Asuma left to visit with Kurenai, leaving his trio of Genin behind.
Instantly Naruto took command. "You two. We are going to work together from now on, and i'm going to pass this test. Both of you have a lot of work to do. Come with me." Kicking off the roof, Naruto sped off to the training ground, followed by an "excited and eager" Hinata, and a mildly curious Shikamaru.
Reaching the training grounds, Naruto faced his teammates. "Shikamaru, you're up first. Your clan technique is useful, and we need to work on combo moves that can combine our abilities. You come up with a good strategy involving my wind release and your shadow possession, and I'll help you manipulate clouds." To prove his point he used wind chakra to push down a cloud, the fluffy mass drifting around the team before falling apart.
"Hinata, you are going to get over this fainting thing. Then we... Are going to dance."
Hinata fainted again.
Team ten met at the same training field they'd practiced on before. The only difference was, this time Asuma was waiting for them. "Firstly, i'd like to say that i'm proud of you three for taking the chance to practice yesterday. Don't worry, i didn't hang around to watch your techniques, i can't wait to see what you three have come up with. I can tell you, you'll need everything you have, because you'll be fighting me. Good luck."
With a handsign chain, Asuma created two wind clones and each drew a pair of his trench knives. Impress me kids, was his last thought before moving towards them at high speeds.
"Shikamaru! Time to show off a dream!" Naruto called, as Shikamaru began an unknown handsign series. "CLOUD STYLE: FIELD OF DREAMS!" Immediately clouds began forming around the field, covering everyone's legs in a thick bank of fluff. The water served to slow the three Asuma's, as each rushed a student.
Asuma was disappointed when each student allowed themselves to be isolated from the others so easily. They were already showing poor teamwork, if this kept up he'd fail them all. That being said, Shikamaru's new jutsu impressed him, no Genin should be able to develop a technique that quickly. And such a perfect technique. Combined with the shadow possession, this jutsu locked everyone's feet to the floor.
The Asuma clone attacking Shikamaru put in a burst of speed and elbowed him in the chest before the boy could cast a shadow possession. Only for the elbow to be caught by Naruto, who dropped his Shikamaru transformation as Hinata cast the Shadow Possession and captured her opponent, while the transformed Hinata who was pretending to be Naruto caught her sensei with a Juken strike.
Leaping away from Hinata's trap, Asuma looked at all the promise his team showed and couldn't stop the smile. One of his clones was dispelled by shikamaru, while the one in contact with Naruto leapt back to regroup. As they did, the clone exploded, the explosive tag Naruto placed on it's shoulder detonating. But the paper bomb was a two part attack, when the flash bang attached to it detonated seconds later.
"Hit the deck!" Naruto called, and all three dove beneath the cloud bank. Asuma, thinking quickly, tried to do the same. Ducking under the clouds he prepared his counterattack.
"Checkmate." Came the voices of his three students.
What do they mean? He wondered, before passing out.
Dispelling the clouds, Naruto used a minor jutsu to force the wet air out of their sensei's lungs. Breathing easily again, Asuma woke up and looked at his students.
"I'm -cough- Proudd of all of you -cough- But how did that happen? I just... -cough cough- passed out? Never thought i'd loose against Genin."
Naruto high-fived Shikamaru, the slacker still excited from finally using a cloud jutsu in combat, even if it was cast by another person. "That easy sensei!" Naruto laughed, "All we did was look into your weaknesses. The most obvious one being your smoking habits. So before the match began, we each transformed into another of us. In doing so we lured the real you into combat with Hinata, knowing that only the most powerful one of you would fight me, correctly assuming i was the most dangerous. Then we used the trap to force you to go under the cloud bank, with the assumption that the flash bang hid an attack."
Blowing away the last wisp of the cloud bank, Naruto continued. "Do you know what smoking does to your lungs? Do you know what the adrenaline of combat does to your breathing? You breathe faster, and stop noticing how often you breathe due to your focus on combat. With your lungs damaged by the smoke, it became impossible for your lungs to function as they should when the moisture heavy clouds entered them. So without breathing, you passed out. And that explosive note was simply to mess with your hearing and therefore make you less likely to realize your difficulty breathing. As Ninja we train ourselves to ignore our bodies during combat, making an injury less likely to be debilitating. Unfortunately, this training made our plan all the more effective."
Asume was blown away by his students grasp of strategy. "Naruto... Not only do you all pass, but when the Chunin exams arrive in four months, you are going to be the youngest team ever recommended for them!" And probably the youngest to win as well! He added mentally.
Two months later and Team Ten was fed up and tired with missions. Every single one was awful and boring, simple team building exercises through shared hardship and such. Finally Asuma gave in and taught Naruto his wind clone technique, upon which Naruto created several dozen and set them to perform every D-rank mission in the leaf village. Working while the original slept, they finished everything in less than a week.
"Jiji-san! Time for a mission!" Naruto said with an evil gleam in his eye. Their team was ready for more than a D-rank, and without any D-ranks to give, the old man would HAVE to let them take a C.
A nod of assurance from Asuma, and Sarutobi's mind was made up. "Good timing Naruto. We've got a bridge builder in need of bodyguards to protect him from bandits. Team Ten can have it."