As Naruto ran toward the Academy for team assignments she figured she had two options. She could burst in loudly to try and grab everyone's attention or she could sneak in which might have more prank potential. If she were trying to grab a specific person's attention, she might try the first option, but she was not interested in attention from boys due to some bad experiences and none of the girls with the exception of Hinata were nice to her. Loud and proud would just embarrass Hinata, so she decided to do sneaky.
She ran up behind the Academy and climbed a tree near the wall to get onto the roof. She used the Disguise Technique to change into a little brown mouse. She had noticed that none of the other kids could do this, they only did other people. She scurried through the ventilation system until she got to her classroom. She snuck into the back corner and waited until most of the class was there, but Iruka was not. She changed back into herself sat down next to Hinata with a smile. Hinata gave a quiet "eep" which Akamaru noticed. Kiba and his puppy were sitting right in front of her.
Kiba turned and said loudly, "What are you doing here Naruto-san?"
She gave him a grin and said just as loudly, "You didn't notice the shinobi in the bright orange jumpsuit?"
By this time the whole class was watching them. Kiba spluttered and said, "You aren't a shinobi, Naruto-san. You failed the test."
Naruto tapped her Leaf Badge. "I thought you Inuzuka were supposed to be observant. It turns out that Mizuki was sabotaging my test scores and Iruka-sensei and Hokage-jiichan re-evaluated me and passed me. You should know that there was no way a shinobi as awesome as me could have really failed."
Kiba snorted. "Yeah, right. You'd still be the Dead Last. I'll believe you could pass when I see it!"
Naruto smirked. "You mean you wouldn't see it, right?"
Hinata giggled and then eeped again when Naruto and Kiba looked at her. In reality Naruto got along with Kiba well enough, but they had a fun time baiting each other.
"Hey, Naruto-san," Kiba said. "What's up with those ear things on your head? And why are you all pasty white now? The kill-me orange jumpsuit not getting you enough attention?"
Naruto sighed. She could see most of the class listening in. "The reason they knew to investigate Mizuki was that he got me captured by some missing nin. They had me for three days before I escaped. While I was captured they did something to me that changed my coloring and the 'ear things' are horns that grew because of that."
"Bummer," Kiba said. "I'm glad you escaped, although they must not have been that tough if the Dead Last got away."
Chouji and Shikamaru also chimed in here to say they were glad she had escaped.
By this time the daily feud over who got to sit next to the Uchiha was nearing its climax. Ino and Sakura were arguing with a third fangirl whose name Naruto could not be bothered to remember and who had managed to get the coveted seat.
Iruka entered the classroom and used his Big Head Technique to quiet everyone down.
"Congratulations on becoming shinobi," Iruka began. Naruto only gave him half her attention as he talked about there new responsibilities and started announcing the teams.
The first six teams contained civilian or non-clan kids. They treated her much worse than the clan kids, so she ignored them in return. She only remembered Sakura's name because of the one day she had been friendly and then how awful she had treated her since. Naruto had to admit to herself that sometimes she sought Sakura out when she the pain of being lonely outweighed the pain of insults. It was something she was not proud of.
". . . Hyuuga Hinata-san, Uchiha Sasuke-san, and Uzumaki Naruto-san will be Team 7. . ." At this point Iruka was interrupted by the screeches of the fangirls.
"No way!" yelled Sakura who drowned out the others. "Dog Face and Stutters don't deserve. . ."
"Sakura-san!" interrupted Iruka with his Big Head Technique. "Such insults are unbecoming of a shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato! Did you completely ignore what I just said about you all being comrades?"
"But. . ."
"If I hear another insult out of you, I will put a complaint in your official file! Your foolish infatuation is likely to get you killed. I will be talking with your sensei, as well as those of several others, to help you grow out of this dangerous phase."
He took a deep breath. "As I was saying, the Jounin Sensei for Team 7 is Hatake Kakashi-san."
Naruto absently noted which teams her friendlier acquaintances were on: Kiba and Shino were stuck with Sakura and Chouji and Shikamaru with Ino. She was glad she was with Hinata. Sasuke would be a pain, but she could bear it as long as their sensei was decent.
Most of the new genin had met their senseis after lunch. Two hours after everyone else had left with their sensei, Naruto was already regretting hers. After all those questions, she would have thought that Jiichan was serious about getting her a good one. Sasuke was sitting off by himself brooding. She and Hinata had talked for a while, but they had run out of small talk.
"Do you know anything about this Hatake Kakashi-san, Hinata-chan?" she asked.
"Well," the dark-haired girl responded quietly, "he's the jounin that always wears a mask and his Leaf Badge covers one eye. I've heard my clansmen say he's very skilled but irreverent. He's always late and he's always reading dirty books."
"Hey, I've seen that guy around and I know what he looks like. Maybe one of us should go look for him?"
"Knowing you, Dead Last," Sasuke spoke up for the first time. "He'd show up just after you left."
"Hah, I'll just use my awesome new technique to look for him." She summoned six Shadow Clones. "I wonder if my clones can use the Byakugan? Give it a try, girls."
The six clones flew through the hand signs and activated their Byakugan. "Awesome," Naruto yelled. "Head out and look for him!"
"Since when do you have a Bloodline, Dead Last?" Sasuke asked.
"Since I was kidnapped by missing nin," she replied.
"They randomly decided to give you Hyuuga eyes?" he said in disbelief.
"Nah, they did something to my chakra. I talked to Hokage-jiichan and Hinata-chan's dad and they think I'm distantly related to the Hyuuga and whatever they did awoke some long-dormant genes."
Sasuke grunted in either acknowledgment or disbelief. Naruto didn't know him well enough to know the difference.
"I'm distantly related to you too, you know," she said.
He stared at her. She smirked. "Hokage-jiichan said that Senju legend says that the Uzumaki, the Senju, and the Uchiha are all descended from the Rikudou Sennin. Hyuuga legend says that they are descended from the Sennin's brother."
"Family stories do say that the Uchiha were descended from him," he said finally, "but if the Senju were as well, why did they fight with us all the time?"
"Jiichan said that it started with an inheritance squabble."
He grunted. "Well, don't think it means anything. A common ancestor 500 years ago makes us, what? 25th cousins? Give or take a few. Might as well not be related."
She did not have anything to say to that, so they went back to ignoring each other. After a while she had memories of her clone finding him at the Memorial Stone. She had looked at it before to see if she could find any Uzumaki names on it before. There had been a few and she had memorized them all. Kushina had been one of them.
"One of my clones found our delinquent sensei at the Memorial Stone."
"How'd you know a clone found him, Dead Last?" asked Sasuke. He sounded curious despite himself.
"Shadow Clones are awesome!" she said. "When one dispels, I get her memories."
"Can you teach it to me?" asked Sasuke with interest.
"Sorry, Hokage-jiichan made me promise not to teach it to another genin. If you don't have enough chakra you can die of chakra exhaustion. The only reason I can do it is because I have jounin-level chakra reserves."
"You have jounin-level chakra reserves?" asked Sasuke incredulously.
"Yeah, that's why I could never do the normal Clone Technique. I have too much chakra to control it easily. Evidently it's a common problem for Uzumaki."
Sasuke grunted. He looked a little perturbed that there was something that she could do that he could not.
"Should we go run him down or should I have my clones harass him until he comes here?" Naruto asked trying to distract Sasuke from his pouting.
"Um, Naruto-chan," Hinata stuttered poking her index fingers together, "he could get angry at us for either of those."
"Hmmff, I really don't think he deserves any considerations for being over two hours late."
"I agree with the Dead Last," Sasuke said. "Can you have your clones keep an eye on him so we don't miss him?"
"Yes." She made a clone and it dismissed immediately. "Give me a few minutes to make sure my other clones get there to make sure he hasn't left."
"Okay," she said a few minutes later. "My clones are monitoring him from a distance with the Byakugan."
"Leave one here too, in case he gets around us," Sasuke suggested.
"I'll do better than that," she said with a smirk. She created three clones and had two of them disguise themselves as Hinata and Sasuke. The Hinata-disguised clone activated her Byakugan, but lost it after about five seconds.
"Oh, that's hard to do," the dark-haired girl clone said. "Maintaining both skills at once."
"I'll have to practice," Naruto murmured to herself.
The three new genin approached the Memorial Stone.
"How should we do this?" asked Hinata stuttering.
"I figure we have three choices," Naruto said. "We can approach him like we were supposed to meet here. We can scream and yell at him for not coming to us like he was supposed to. Or we can play the hurt students and try to guilt him into be on time next time."
Both Hinata and Sasuke were looking at her incredulously.
"What?" she said. "I'm an orphan girl that nobody likes. I had a few close calls when I was younger where I would have ended up in raped, or worse, if ANBU hadn't saved me. I've learned I have to be careful in new situations. Just because I act like an idiot, doesn't mean I really am."
Hinata looked sad, but Sasuke still looked like he did not believe her.
"Believe it or not, when I was younger I tried to be a good student, but the teachers all ignored me and treated me suspiciously. I actually get treated better if I act like an idiot. I might be tempted to make the mask real if it weren't for the real risk that being stupid carries for a girl who's all alone."
"So, do you know why no one likes you?" Sasuke finally asked.
"I just barely found out during the kidnapping incident. And let me tell you how unpleasant it is to have almost everyone hate you without knowing why. All I'm going to tell you is that it had something to do with what happened the day I was born. I'll tell you more when, or if, we become real friends and teammates."
Sasuke grunted. Hinata still looked sad.
Finally Hinata said, "Um, I think we should do the first option. I don't think we'll be able to guilt a jounin, especially not from what I know of Kakashi-sensei's reputation, but we might be able to impress him."
Sasuke grunted. "I think the Hyuuga's right."
"Probably," said Naruto, "but screaming and yelling would be satisfying, at least."
Sasuke rolled his eyes and led the two girls closer to the Stone. They stopped a few paces behind him. He continued to ignore them. Naruto elbowed Sasuke in the side.
He glared at her, but said, "Sensei, we're here for our introduction."
Nothing happened for ten seconds. Then Kakashi turned around and his visible eye closed like he was smiling. "I'm so happy that my cute little genin have come to seek me out. Have a seat, so we can get to know one another." He dropped to the ground and sat. The three twelve-year olds followed his example.
"How about you introduce yourselves: name, likes, dislikes, goals, things like that," the Jounin said.
Naruto decided to go first. She said animatedly, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like ramen, especially from the Ichiraku stand, and Hokage-jiichan. I dislike the three minutes it takes for ramen to cook and people who can't tell the difference between a sealing scroll and what's inside it. My goal is to be an awesome shinobi and the best Hokage ever, so that people will respect me!"
When neither of the other two immediately followed, Kakashi pointed to Sasuke and said, "You next, Broody."
Sasuke grunted and said, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't really like anything and there are many things I dislike. My goal-no my ambition-because I will accomplish it, is to kill a certain man and rebuild my clan."
Kakashi turned to Hinata.
"My name is Hyuuga Hinata," she stuttered. "I like pressing flowers and my sister. I dislike the way my clan treats the Branch House and I hope to change it some day. My goal is to be a strong shinobi so that I won't disappoint my father."
Naruto frowned at Hinata's brief description of her home life. The three of them waited. Finally Naruto said, "Aren't you going to introduce yourself, Sensei?"
He gave them the weird eye smile again and said, "My name is Hatake Kakashi. It's probably not appropriate to tell you my likes. I dislike people who abandon their comrades. Umm, goals. . . Yeah, I probably shouldn't tell you those, either."
The three genin blinked at each other. At least they got one tidbit besides his name.
"I suppose I should tell you what we're doing tomorrow," Kakashi said. "Meet at 7 o'clock in the morning at Training Ground 7 prepared for a survival exercise." He pointed to some posts not far from the Memorial. "I recommend that you skip breakfast so that you don't puke. The results of the exercise will determine whether you really become genin, whether you get sent back to the Academy, or whether you are dismissed from the program."
"What!?" yelled Naruto. "We just took an exam for that!"
"That was just to weed out those who were really unsuited," said Kakashi.
"Or had too much chakra," Naruto mumbled under her breath.
"I should warn you," continued Kakashi, "that this test has a 66-percent failure rate." He then disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
Sasuke stood up and walked off.
Naruto and Hinata looked at each other. Finally Hinata poked her fingers together and said, "I should go and report to my father."
Naruto sighed. She had hoped to be able to spend time with her team and get to know them better, but she couldn't think of any reason that Hinata should put off reporting to her father for. "Okay, Hinata-chan. I'll see you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow, Naruto-chan. I'm glad I'm on your team."
"Me too."
That afternoon and evening, Naruto practiced doing the Byakugan and the Disguise Technique at the same time. She had a few clones practice too, since she figured that she would have her clones doing it as well, since it was a pretty awesome spy technique and she didn't know if it was more or less difficult for Shadow Clones. After a few hours it became easy enough that she and her clones could do it well enough.