Ah, yes it's time for reviews, well here we go:
BaineMiller- It's here, don't worry.
Imnotsurereally- Thank you but I think you misunderstood that bit, Naruto copied down some jutsu and managed to unseal one of the scrolls from the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing.
frankieu- Thank you but I'm not how you learned anything from the scroll, I don't even remember putting anyone I didn't know into this story. Though I may start a Danganronpa project soon, so keep an eye out. Also you will learn soon how soon though, not this chapter.
novonia- Ah good, some constructive criticism, I haven't had any of that in a long while. About the spell check errors, can you or someone else point them out as I have a biased perspective here? A beta, huh, they are quite hard to get hold of, at least in my experience, any volunteers?
Magicvibes- Thank you, it will change more, don't worry.
With that wrapped up, let's begin.
Naruto went to sleep early. He wanted some time to do things in the morning, like unseal that scroll that he got a few a days previous, in his excitement about becoming a Genin, he had forgot all about it.
Waking at 3 AM, he had a shower, a stone cold shower as that asshole of a landowner hadn't given him a proper shower. After his shower, he got dressed on the same clothes that he always wore, he wished he could get more but nobody would sell any to him. Stupid shop owners and their ridiculous prices that they only sold to him at.
Once he had gotten dressed, he sat down on his bed and picked up the scroll which he had left down the side of the bed, rather carelessly.
Looking at it more thoroughly, he saw it was red with gold trim down the side and at the end of the scroll where the seal would be was an ornate version of the symbol that was carved into the Hitai-Ate that all Konoha shinobi wore. Unsealing the scroll, a note slipped out.
Naruto's curiosity got the better of him and he picked up the note which read: To whomever reads this scroll, please keep it safe, it is the Scroll of the Uzumaki, that we disguised so no one would know what it was. Anyone can open this scroll but only those of Uzumaki blood can actually read it or unseal what is inside, unless they can undo the seals that make the scroll do this. In it are some of the most powerful and important seals and artifacts from the Uzumaki Clan, as well as where to look for the rest of the seals and artifacts that we would never want our enemies finding and a couple of odds and ends like scrolls and books on basic and intermediate fuinjutsu. Please don't let this fall into the hands otherwise you may as well say goodbye to the world.
Best Regards, Kensuke Uzumaki, 7th Leader of the Uzumaki Clan
P.S, Kushina, if it's you reading this, you are next in line as your siblings have passed on at the hands of the enemy. Almost the same goes for her children, it is a shame I'll never meet you. Unless you find the medium seal then I look forward to meeting you.
Naruto dropped the note in shock, that man was his Grandfather and he was next in line to the Uzumaki Clan 'throne', so to speak.
"Me? I-I'm effectively royalty to both the people of Konoha, if they stopped hating me, and any other members of the Uzumaki Clan that are still alive".
About 15 minutes passed before he did anything else. The first seal inside the scroll had the title 'Book of the Uzumaki Clan Family Tree'. Unsealing that he was confronted with a book, flicking through the book, there was pages upon pages of diagrams of family trees, big and small. Going back to the front page, there was a paragraph that said, 'To add your place in the family simply drop some blood onto the seal below'.
Taking one of his kunai, Naruto cut the palm of his hand enough so that blood would start welling up he hovered his hand over the seal so that blood would drip directly onto the seal. As soon as a drop of blood hit the seal, it got absorbed and the book briefly glowed a whitish colour before settling down again. Naruto then flicked back through the book to find where his mother's name was. On page 9 near the bottom was his mother's name and directly below it was his name but it didn't show his father's name, presumably not having any I do on him.
Sighing, Naruto hid the book under the covers of his bed and continued to look at the scroll, next to the seal that contained the book was another couple of smaller seals that apparently contained the book titled 'Fuinjutsu for Newbies' and a Rookie's Fuinjutsu Kit.
"I'll have to have a better look at this later", Naruto muttered before hiding the scroll under his bed so that no one would find it as it was the automatic presumption that the underside of Naruto's bed was disgusting after looking at the rest of his apartment but that wasn't the case. It was actually one of the few places that was, mostly, clean, he didn't know why though.
Thinking back to yesterday, Naruto remembered that not eating was only a recommendation, not an order, so he could eat if he so wished, so he took a cup of instant ramen from the cupboard and filled his kettle up and then left it on to boil, he then poured the steaming water into the ramen cup and waited for the water to soak into the noodles and broth powder and slurped them down very quickly.
Noticing the time was about 4:30, Naruto left his apartment but he decided that he would take it slow, Training Ground 7 wasn't far away from him, in fact it was one of the closest. The walk through the village was uneventful as no one was outside this early in the morning, it was kind of creepy, if he was perfectly honest, sure it was good not getting glared at but it just felt weird that there was no one about.
Once he arrived, he found that he was the first person there, mentally he debated should be start doing some last minute practice or should he have a rest by one of the posts, not that he really needed it of course but lying down was nice and he could have a good think about things while lying down. It made him wonder just lazy Shikamaru was, maybe all that sleeping and lying down somehow made him more intelligent. Naruto shook that slightly bizarre thought from his head and sat down against the middle post.
It was a good few minutes before Sasuke arrived, being his usual brooding, depressed, assholish self with a certain pink-haired banshee in tow. He looked surprised for a brief moment before adopting his regular scowl. Naruto took a mental guess that it was he was not the first person there but he only looked surprised for a short period of time, not showing any other outward feeling. Speaking of which, "Naruto, how on earth did you beat Sasuke-kun here?! Are you trying to look cool or something?!".
"Just how obsessed are you that you didn't even refer to yourself getting here at pretty much the same time as the broodster here did? And how does being early make me seem even remotely cool? Geez, Sakura have some sense, I thought your were supposed to be the smart one".
Sakura didn't answer and instead sat next to Sasuke and fumed. Sasuke had no real response to this and just ignored her incessant chattering while that waited for the man that they called their sensei to arrive on the scene.
One hour, Kakashi hadn't arrived and it was visibly starting to annoy the three prospects. Two hours, still no Kakashi and all of them where either violently angry or fuming. Naruto had resorted to kicking the post that he was previously sitting at just so he could release some anger. Three hours and the man had finally arrived, "Good, you are all on time, though I can tell that you all are annoyed, anyway, your goal is to get these bells off of me by lunchtime".
Sakura, who had calmed down, asked the question that Naruto wanted to, "There are only two bells there, sensei. Why?".
"Good question, Sakura, well the reason is that only 2 of you can become Genin, the other one goes back to the Academy, though I will say this one bit of advice, look underneath the underneath with all that said your test starts...now".
Immediately, the three Genin vanished into the bushes, well Naruto did, the other two were glaringly obvious, as Kakashi had expected to happen. Sasuke and Sakura then moved further into the treeline and away from Kakashi. Kakashi presumed that Naruto had done the same and so calmly stood there. Naruto had not moved from his position in one of the trees on the treeline, pondering on the meaning of 'underneath the underneath'. He swore he had beard it sometime in the past but he obviously forgot it.
From their positions, Sasuke and Sakura were preparing two different ambushes for their sensei. Sakura was thinking about what 'underneath the underneath' meant as well but not as deeply as Naruto was. Sasuke had just ignored the advice, thinking that he didn't need any because he was an Uchiha or something along those lines.
5 minutes had passed and Kakashi left the spot he was standing at and entered the bushes not noticing Naruto as he went by. Naruto was still trying to think about the meaning of 'underneath the underneath' and so just let Kakashi past him. Kakashi first noticed Sasuke who was about to out and attack him, he pretended to not notice him which made Sasuke attempt a dropkick. Moments before impact would happen, Kakashi grabbed Sasuke's leg and threw him away. Sasuke grunted and rolled as he reached the ground and quickly stood up on his feet. He quickly ran through a set of hand seals and released a Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu. Kakashi stood as the flames got closer, from Sasuke's point it view, seemingly enveloping the man in flames however, Kakashi had used Kawarimi to dodge out of the way and was currently standing behind the smirking Uchiha and hit the boy on the back of the back of the neck which knocked Sasuke out cold, temporarily. Kakashi walked off to find the other members of the team, muttering something along the lines of, "He needs to be more aware if his surroundings", as he went.
Sakura was waiting on Kakashi to appear. Little known to her, Kakashi had already appeared and has her trapped in a genius. Sakura heard a noise coming from the right of her, appearing from the dark bushes was Sasuke but he was riddled with Kunai and shuriken. This made Sakura collapse out of the tree that she was standing on. Kakashi caught her before she hit the ground and then placed her down, "Wouldn't want her to completely lose her chances but she needs to recognise genjutsu better, now where is Naruto?".
Naruto had remembered what 'underneath the underneath', both Iruka and the Sandaime had mentioned it before, saying it meant to always look for a secret meaning or reason. So this text had a secret meaning but what was that secret meaning, 'Thinking about it, there aren't really teams if Genin that are less than three, so there will be another way to pass. This thing but how, wait a minute, Konoha values teamwork over everything else, so the true way to pass this thing is working together. I have to find Sasuke and Sakura'.
Kakashi had walked further along the way that Sakura was so wouldn't be able to tell if Naruto was moved, not that he knew he was there, of course. He found Sasuke first, out cold on the ground. Naruto signed and pulled out his canteen and poured water on the prone boy in front of, "Wake up, you bastard".
Sasuke opened his eyes and was instantly annoyed though grateful, "Why did you do that, you dumbass?".
"So I could wake you up to tell you that I have figured this out. You know how Kakashi said to look 'underneath the underneath'? Right, well that means that there is a secret meaning to this test an I think it is that we have to work together".
Sasuke surprisingly accepted this but was still scowling, "Then we need to go and find the the fangirl then".
The pair found Sakura lying underneath a tree, obviously having collapsed, "Oi, bastard, it's probably better if you wake her up".
"Why?".
"Because she's your fangirl and she can't stand me, you know that".
Sasuke sighed and took Naruto's canteen and poured water from it over Sakura's head, the girl woke up and instantly tried to hug Sasuke, which the brooder managed to avoid. Sakura then calmed down and Naruto proceeded to tell her what he told Sasuke, send was less accepting but decided that if Sasuke believed it was right then she would believe it was right.
They develop ed a plan and hid in the trees where Sakura was in, laying in ambush. They waited 13 minutes or so before Kakashi appeared and they sprung their trap, Naruto had hid in a small pitfall-like hole while Sasuke and Sakura where in the trees on either side of the hole. As soon as Kakashi stepped on the covering for the pit, Naruto shot his hands out, as soon as this happened, Sasuke and Sakura shot out with attacks aimed directly at Kakashi. Kakashi, who had barely any time to react grabbed both Sasuke and Sakura but before he could do anything with them, Naruto's right hand bad let go of Kakashi's leg and right into Kakashi's groin, who let go of the combatants be had held, who promptly took away the bells from Kakashi's waist. Naruto go and climbed out, leaving Kakashi, who was clutching his balls, to fall in.
The three stood around the hole while Kakashi stopped cringing from the attack on his genitals,"You pass but I'm not sure if I really should, that was a horrible act on me but I will as you managed to see past the ploy to get you to fight amongst yourselves in the bells and worked together to create a very effective, if underhanded, plan. Now could you help me out so I can show you something interesting".
The three genin just stood around the hole with vindictive smiles on their faces, while Kakashi's visible eye just looked dismayed. The older man sighed and picked himself up and climbed out. Still in pain from the ball punch, Kakashi groaned, "Follow me".
He led them to a field not far away where a stone was placed, it was a type of memorial. "On this stone are the names of Konoha's fallen and all but forgotten shinobi who died in the 3rd Shinobi War. On there are the names of my teammates. You better hope another war doesn't start soon otherwise, your names may be included. That is where my job starts, it is my duty to train you three and prepare you for the life of a shinobi, especially one at war. It is also my duty to make sure you become fully loyal to Konoha".
The newly minted Team 7 members were surprised that their usually laid back sensei, from what'd they had seen so far, could be so solemn or serious. "Can you train a on your own here while I go and hand in my report to the Hokage".
"Eh sure, sensei, what should we do first?", Naruto decided that he would speak for the group.
"I'd try some strength and stamina based exercises for now, once I come back, we do something a bit more detailed and give you my full opinions on your current skills and what I think you could be good at in the future".
With that, he left the genin to do the 'training'. Naruto started doing pull-ups on a branch while Sasuke did some abdominal crunches. Sakura knew that she was, let's be honest, rather pitiful in the strength and stamina department but didn't know where to start, that was when the Inner Sakura decided to show her presence, "We should do some running, if we are gonna be kunoichi then we have to catch our enemies! CHA!".
Sakura, for once , agreed with her Inner version and she started doing laps around the clearing. It took three hours for Kakashi to return and during that time, Sakura had collapsed from exhaustion on no less that three occasions, once she was given water, she gained some sort of weird resolve and started running again. Naruto felt like his arms were gonna be ripped apart and noted that he gained at least a 5% muscle gain, at most 12%. Sasuke meanwhile felt like his spine had broken and was lying on his back with massive cramp in his abdomen. This was the scene that Kakashi found himself looking at.
"Right Team 7, looks like you have all worked hard and you are now officially genin, which means I am now fully responsible for your lives and your careers. Let's get on with business and we can go all go home afterwards, first some honest evaluations. Naruto, you are very good at hiding yourself and seen to be quite contemplative and inquisitive but also gullible as academy reports have suggested. You are also good at laying traps and doing pranks on the fly but your academy reports say that you are not very good at book work", Sakura muttered something along the lines of, "understatement", Kakashi ignored her and continued, "I also noticed that you were able to convince your teammates of your ideas which leads me to believe that you are at least somewhat charismatic though can also be sarcastic and even a smartass, you have also been noted to be lazy. I'd recommend that you learn ninjutsu and whatever you'd like to do besides".
Naruto's expression didn't change much, he knew that he was like what Kakashi had suggested, it didn't feel particularly good being told this to your face.
"Sakura, you are a fangirl, which is not a good thing if you want to become a true kunoichi. Fangirls are generally rude, violent and tend to try and make themselves look good for their respective crush, which is detrimental to a career, don't go on diets and eat plenty of meat. You are however very intelligent but can be a bit oblivious to things, academy reports say that you are very studious and are good at picking up knowledge. Due to this and your low amounts of chakra and high chakra control, I'd recommend learning iryo-ninjutsu, like with Naruto, you can do other things besides".
Sakura's confidence took a serious blow but from it a determination like she had never felt before arose. She knew what Kakashi said was true and now was the time to change that.
"Sasuke, you are overall the best in the team but there are some issues, for one you can easily get overconfident, I saw your face after the fireball, don't deny it. You also have a tendency to be distant from your peers and even arrogant. You need to get rid of these flaws if you want to progress as a shinobi as teamwork can get you far, very far. That being said, your body movements suggest you would be a good kenjutsu user and if your sharingan awakens then you could be very good at genjutsu. Again though, you can do your own thing if that doesn't seem like a good idea".
Sasuke's face was scowling, he had also taken a blow in his confidence and didn't like being called being arrogant but Kakashi's words saying that teamwork would go far, he could become a better person.
"Now then, what you were doing looked like a good idea, can you just continue doing that, we'll do some missions tomorrow", with that, he stuffed his face into the book that he always carried around with him and sat down at the base of a tree. His genin sighed, heavily, but continued with what they were doing.
Yep, this has gone somewhat differently and if anyone mentions anything about cliches, you were warned so don't come it.
I'm still not sure of pairings yet, except for one, but they will be decided. Also, all my other stories are up for adoption, if you adopt them then modify them in anyway you wish as they will no longer become my stories. And about that Danganronpa thing I mentioned earlier, I'll put the details on my profile.
Anyway, if you liked this and would like to see more, review, follow and/or favourite.
This was your friend, DaPika, signing off.
P.S: If you see any grammar mistakes, please let me know.