New Team

Naruto found himself standing alone with his two brand new teammates. He was feeling a little self-conscious being the odd one out but he managed a greeting nonetheless.

"Um hey, I guess Chie-sensei didn't really introduce me. I'm Namikaze Naruto."

"Nice to meet you, I guess you already know who we are. I am Tarō and this is my sister Hanako. We're just the kids of an average shinobi family, so it's a real honour meeting the Hokage's son, let alone being on his team." Naruto didn't quite like the looks of admiration that had come across his teammates' faces but he did his best to ignore them for now.

"Uh, don't worry; it's not that big of a deal. Besides, it was my dad that did all the cool stuff you read about, not me."

Hanako gave him a small smile. "Don't worry; we're just still excited about finally graduating from the academy. It's hard not to be when we are finally going to get to go out on missions."

"I wonder who our new sensei is going to be. Does either of you two know?" When the twins shook their heads Naruto felt a bit disappointed. "I'm certainly going to miss Chie-sensei though, she was a really good teacher."

"I consented to his graduation upon your word, but do you truly believe my son to be ready for this?" A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Uchiha Chie's face as she stood at attention in front of her leader. The sharp, calculating stare the Hokage was giving her did little to put her at ease.

"Namikaze Naruto has consistently scored far above average in every test and shows an unwavering love of his village. Above all he shows a level of maturity and focus not often seen in one so young. The constraints that an academy based education inherently has would be counterproductive to his growth as a shinobi. His only fault would be his mildly unrealistic view of our way of life, something that is incredibly common for those in the academy. I feel he would be better acclimated to our way of life through the more personal teachings a jounin-sensei would bring. It is for these reasons that I feel Namikaze Naruto is more than ready to graduate, Hokage-sama." She could only hope her reasons were enough.

The silence between the two stretched out for over a minute before the Hokage grinned and nodded. "It seems as if you have put good thought into this and so I will trust your judgement. It's comforting to know that I have someone as intelligent as you looking after our village's future. You are dismissed."

Chie bowed, thankful she wasn't in trouble. "Thank you very much Hokage-sama."

After meeting with his teammates and chatting, Naruto rushed home as quickly as possible. He was excited and simply couldn't contain himself. Rushing through the front door, Naruto was confronted with the smiling face of his mother.

"What has you so excited Naruto-kun?" Asked his mother, feigning ignorance.

"Come on Kaa-san, don't pretend you don't know already; I graduated! I'm so excited, I got to meet my teammates already and they were great! Tomorrow we're meeting our leader and starting training! I can't wait to start doing missions and protecting everyone in the village! Maybe I'll even get to rescue a princess!" At the end of his rapid-fire explanation Naruto was left breathless. As he prepared to continue about how excited he was his mother interrupted him.

"I know that you're excited, but isn't there someone else you want to tell about your achievement?"

Naruto's eyes widened before he nodded and rushed off to the living room to see his sister. He found her playing with some toys on the floor. As he approached his sister noticed him and began to reach for him. Naruto picked her up and began to cradle her in his arms.

"Hey, guess what imouto-chan? Your big brother has finally become a real ninja. I'm gonna meet up with my sensei tomorrow and begin my real training. You just wait; I'll be so awesome that when you enter the academy you'll learn about me!"

His sister simply looked at him and giggled, not understanding what he was saying. Naruto's heart warmed at the sound, it reminded him what he was training so hard for.

Unfortunately, just as Chie had to explain herself to a worried parent, so too did Minato. Arriving home not too long after his son did, he was cowering under his wife's glare. He had hoped his son would be excited enough to wear out his mother but he had decided to sleep a little earlier than usual for the coming day. At least he had become the hokage before dying.

"Would you mind explaining to me exactly why our son has already become a shinobi? And why was I informed by messenger hawk instead of you personally? It's almost as if you weren't thinking." As scary as his wife was he couldn't help but defend his decision.

"Now I know you're angry Kushina-chan, but please don't think so low of me. The only reason I didn't come see you was the two kids Naruto-kun is with were just put forward for graduation today, so I turned them into a team. As for Naruto-kun himself, both I and his academy sensei put a lot of thought into this and decided it was in his best interest to graduate. This wasn't a decision that I made lightly. "

Her glare softened but Kushina was unwilling to relent. "I know, but he's our child Minato-kun. This world is full of dangers, more so because we are his parents. I just want to protect our son."

"I understand, I want to protect him as well, but how can I sleep at night knowing I was sending off other children to fight while I held my much more capable one back? He's ready for this and we shouldn't hold him back."

Kushina let out a soft sigh before nodding. "I know, but with that masked bastard's attack on Konoha I can't help but feel as if things are going to get a lot worse from here on out."

Minato went to his wife and drew her into his arms. "When that day comes we will all be ready. Me, you, Naruto-kun, and Masuyo-chan. We'll stand together as a family."

"Alright team, today's our first day together and I'm looking forward to getting to know each of you. While some might have you introduce yourself along with hobbies and the like, I find it better to allow understanding of others to form through time spent together instead of forcing it. That being said, it's time I introduced myself. I am Wakahisa Tsuneo, your new sensei." A brown-haired jounin dressed in the standard uniform of Konoha's shinobi stood before his new students.

All three newly minted genin bowed to him. "We are honoured that you are teaching us Tsuneo-sensei."

"You're all pretty polite for new genins, usually we get upstarts who think they're the only people to have ever graduated. Now, as I'm sure you're all aware, this village was attacked not long ago by the Kyuubi. We lost many ninja during the fighting and it is for this reason that you are automatically made genin. Usually we do an extra test that the jounin sensei decides on but we simply lack the man power to have such a luxury. From today onwards I've been tasked to train you all intensively during the down time we have between missions. I expect you to be prepared ahead of time for whenever we have to leave the village."

"Sensei, what do you mean getting out of the village? Don't genin teams usually get easy missions inside of Konoha to start?" Naruto's parents had taught him some of the basics of life as a genin and the horrors of what they called D-rank missions had been.

"You graduated early so you wouldn't know. Because of the attack D-rank missions are done by older academy students so that our real shinobi might spend focus their efforts on more pressing concerns. In fact, we're going to go on a short reconnaissance mission to start. As a test of your skills and to see if you're worthy of being genin, we will be scouting the position of some bandits. I want you all to pack some basic supplies, like you learned in class; about two days' worth. I will meet you at the front gates in five hours' time. Dismissed."

Naruto, brimming with excitement, departed from his team. This was his first real mission, albeit a very simplistic one. Once it was over he'd begin to truly learn the shinobi way. All he had to do was complete this one mission.

This was meant to be a part of the last chapter but I was taking my sweet time. Hell, took my sweet time finishing this as well. Sorry bout that but the holidays started before I finished. Also a rather distressing personal problem came up that has since been positively resolved. It took a while to get back the motivation to really write back but it's all good now.

To make up for it I've already written a significant portion of the next chapter which I shall finish and post sometime tomorrow. It will be also be lot bigger as this was a fragment of a chapter.

Anyways, I'm rather surprised at the number of people who have liked/followed this story. Seems far more popular than its poor writing would suggest it should be.

Hope everyone else had/has as good a Valentine's Day as I.