Chapter 5
To Better Myself
Beta reader: YokoNoDara
DISCLAIMER; I do not own Naruto
A few days had passed since Naruto had had his little heart-to-heart with his sisters and everything had gone back to normal. That of cause is what he would have hoped to say, but alas it was not so, although the relationship between him and his sisters had been repaired, strengthened even, there was one problem left for little Naruto to solve. No matter how hard he tried, no matter what he tried Naruto couldn't get some sleep, he couldn't forget the images of the dead man looking at him with those dead haunting eyes. So he had gotten very little sleep in the past few days, evident by the dark rings that had developed around his eyes.
His Baa-chan had suggested he refrain from going to the academy for a few days, and his mother had stopped taking missions again so she could spend the days with him and monitor his health.
Kushina was in the kitchen cooking up a meal for her and her son, her son, she thought sadly. She was very worried about him, she could see that his was not getting enough sleep lately and was getting paranoid of his surroundings and she knew the reason behind it, everyone did. Tsunade had suggested that she wait for him to come to her and tell her about his sleeping problems, however she was getting impatient, her motherly instincts were demanding, screaming, for her to help her distressed son but she had held strong and had not yielded. She looked outside through the window of the kitchen and saw her son sitting on the swing absentmindedly pushing himself, instantly her will broke
'Screw Tsunade, my baby needs me!' She shouted in her mind. She stopped what she was doing and walked outside, making her way towards her son with a determined look on her face.
"Naru-chan" Naruto almost jumped in fright when he heard her voice.
"Kaa-san!?" he said in surprise, Kushina nodded her head with a smile and moved behind him and gently started pushing him.
"Is something wrong Naruto, something you might want to talk about?" she asked carefully not mentioning what it was she was referring to. Naruto heisted before he shook his head. Kushina inwardly sighed, he was going to need a bit more push.
"You Know Naru-chan, when people are having problems with something, talking with someone usually helps. Even I at times talk to your Tou-san when I have problems just like he does the same thing when he has problems" Naruto looked up at her in surprise
"You do?" she nodded her head to him, before she smiled and stopped pushing him, moving in front of him she kneeled to his level and took both his small hand into hers, giving him a warm motherly look and in a very soft gentile voice she spoke
"I do, now Naru-chan tell your Kaa-chan what's been troubling you" Naruto looked at his lap seeing his hands being covered by his mothers, he was silent for a while
"I can't sleep" he said lowly, but Kushina heard him
"Why is that, why can't you sleep?" she pressed on
"Every time I try to sleep-"he stopped there and took a small breath"- I keep on seeing the dead person always looking at me and I end up not sleeping..." He finished with his head still facing down, and a small tear dropped and fell on his hands, Kushina instantly hugged him.
"Shhhh Naru-chan" he continued to cry for a few more minutes before coming down enough for Kushina to talk to him.
"You know, I too reacted the very same way you did when I first killed someone" she began, rubbing the remains of his tears with her hand
"Y-You did?"
"Yes , and do you know what your grandmother said to me at that time" Naruto shook his head
"She said when you kill someone, remind yourself why you did it, was it for money?, Revenge? Or was it to protect the ones you hold precious in your heart?. Form your own nindo and always follow it no matter what"
"Your own Nindo?" he said softly
"Yes, a nindo is a rule you live by, your own ninja way"
"What's your Nindo Kaa-san?" Naruto asked curiously
"I never go back on my words and will always protect my family at all costs" she said passionately before standing up and kissing him on the forehead and walking back towards the house, her work was done.
'My own Nindo huh?'
LATER THAT DAY
Kushina was sitting on the kitchen table writing up some seals on scrolls to pass the time and stopped what she was doing when she heard some small footprints making their way towards her. She looked up from her scroll and saw her son standing on the door nervously, she raised a single eyebrow at that
"Kaa-san, I was wondering...if you please...allowmetogotheuchihaclanlibary" she blinked a couple of times and slowly thought about what he had said 'Kaa-san, I was wondering if you could please allow me to go to the Uchiha clan library' instead of exploding like Naruto expected her to, Kushina's eyes narrowed at him.
"And prey tell why you want to go that library" Naruto shifted a bit before he responded
"I thought about what you said earlier about forming my own Nindo and came up with one of my own" Kushina nodded her head wondering where he was getting at, and also wanting to hear type of nindo he had come up with" My nindo is that I will become the strongest ninja in the world and protect my family and precious people with my very life!" Kushina gave him a proud smile
"I'm very proud of you Naru-chan, but that still does not explain why you want to go to the Uchiha clan library" She said with her eyes softening a bit.
"Um since I want to become very strong, I want to master my sharingan to help me become stronger and the only place I can learn how to use it is in that library" Naruto responded. Kushina looked at him and thought about telling him about Kakashi and asking him to help him with his Sharingan but decided against it, 'It will help him learn the value of hard work 'She thought to herself
"I will allow you to go-"Naruto was about to celebrate when she cut him off"-BUT you will only go there for ONE hour and after attending the academy tomorrow" she finished in tone of finality. Naruto visibly deflated at that but gave her a smile before going to his room
"Thank you Kaa-san!" Naruto shouted back at his mother, as he excitedly made his way to his room. He had to prepare for the academy tomorrow.
AT THE ACADEMY THE NEXT MORNING
Naruto walked into the academy building with his sisters beside him, his head was covered by the hood of his jersey. Some of the students, those who saw him were either giving him looks of admiration, some were giving looks fear and some looks of envy, he paid no mind to them and continued his way to his class. When he entered inside the classroom everyone became silent, all their attention and eyes fixed on his form. He made his way to the back of the class where he usually sat.
Sitting down he glanced at his only friend who was sitting beside him, wanting to see his reaction. Shino looked at him and nodded his head at him.
"Welcome back" Shino said with his usual stoic face
"Thanks" Naruto responded with a small grin on his face.
Naruto nodded his head back at him and looked back to the front of the class where their sensei had just entered and was now teaching. A small smile made its way across his face. Shino for all his quietness was a very good friend, he did not judge him like all the other students, and instead he just accepted him for him, no questions asked, a true friend.
AFTER THE ACADAMY
Instead of going straight home, Naruto started walking towards another sector of Konoha. His sisters had asked him where he was going but he had just told them he would back later, they had tried to convince him to take them with him but his mother had come to his rescue and convinced them to let him go alone.
As Naruto walked towards the Uchiha district he was well aware of the ANBU following him, ever since he had woken up from the hospital he had been able to 'feel' people or so to speak and knowing his father, his grandmother and his mother, he wouldn't put it past them to have some ANBU tail his every footprints. The Uchiha district was quite far from the village so it took a little while to reach it.
Arriving at the Uchiha district, Naruto made his way to the clan Heads house, passing the many Uchiha's on the way, he was bit surprised at the many respectful looks of approval he was getting from many of them, though there were that few that were giving angry and disapproval looks. He arrived at the house that was in the middle of the clan compound, it was several times bigger than the other houses and more specious. He knocked on the door and stopped knocking when he heard a feminine voice respond
"Coming" he waited for a few seconds before he heard the door open, the person to open it was a woman with long straight black hair and black eyes. She was wearing a purple blouse with a red skirt and a yellow apron, she looked around in confusion before her eyes landed on the small red haired boy on her doorstep. She blinked in surprise before she smiled warmly at him
"Naruto-kun, what are you doing here?" she asked, opening the door widely for him to come in.
"Good afternoon Mikoto oba-san" Naruto started after coming into the house " I was wondering if I could speak with Fugaku-sama" Mikoto looked about to ask what it was that he wanted to speak with her husband for but stopped when she heard her husband walk down the stairs. She looked back and saw said Husband walking down the stairs, and looked as though he had heard everything.
"Naruto, follow me into my study, where can speak in private" Fugaku said seriously glancing at his wife who had the decency to blush. Naruto said northing and followed him upstairs to the study.
IN THE STUDY
Naruto sat nervously watching as Fugaku look at him with a very curious gaze, after what seemed like an eternity for Naruto Fugaku finally spoke
"You wanted to see me" it was not a question, Naruto nodded his head a bit before speaking
"Fugaku-sama I would like to ask you to grant me permission to enter the Uchiha clan library" for a long time Fugaku was silent making Naruto get nervous
"Why would I grant you such a privilege, many of our Clan's secretes are documented within the library" Fugaku said seriously with his eyes narrowed
"I understand that, but ever since I awakened my Sharingan, I have been reading on how best to use it, however most of the things I've read is but common knowledge" Naruto said, Fugaku agreed with him on that point, most if not all the clans keep the knowledge of their techniques a secret to anyone but their clan members, so he was not that all surprised that Naruto had come to him seeking to access their clan library. Though he had expected the young boy to come on a far latter date, not at this age, not whilst he was still so young.
'Allowing him to access the library will possibly gain us a favour with the Hokage and will look good on our image if the boy keeps coming here...not to mention the clan elders would bitch on if they learned that I refused him' Fugaku thought, he looked at Naruto for a few more seconds and smirked a bit when he saw him shift in his seat in nervousness.
"The library is at the far end of the compound..." His gave Naruto his answer, his face still serious "and remember, what you learn within the library should never be disclosed to anyone else" he finished, leaking a small amount of KI at the end and putting an extra emphasis on 'never'
"I won't!" Naruto blurted out and blushed in embarrassment when he realised what he had said/done.
"Make sure you don't" Fugaku replied in a slightly amused tone, and indicated for Naruto to leave.
"Thank you Fugaku-sama" Naruto said bowing his head and walking out of the room. When he opened the door he was surprised to find Sasuke falling inside, he had been listening in on them, Naruto realised. He looked at the downed figure of Sasuke and stretched out his hand out to help him up, however Sasuke just huffed and ignored his hand and stood up on his own. Naruto blinked then shrugged his shoulders before walking out, he gave Sasuke one last curious look and saw said boy giving him an angry and jealous look, he blinked again and walked out
'What's his problem?'
"Come in Sasuke and close the door behind you" Sasuke gulped when he heard father say that.
WITH NARUTO
Arriving at the library Naruto walked inside the building and was surprised to find an inscription on the door
'Only those of true Uchiha blood can access the knowledge within these walls, the ability to understand our knowledge is hidden within those of Uchiha blood' he stopped to think for a while before walking inside.
Inside the library he saw several sections branched into 3 different parts
"HISTORY, SHARINGAN, JUTSU" he read out loud, he almost jumped at the jutsu section but stopped himself, 'first things first' he thought. Walking towards the SHARINGAN section, he searched for the book he was looking for and found it...on the very top part of the shelf. He almost screamed out in frustration when he realised that he was far too short to reach the book he needed. He was about to go and find someone to help him when, a tall figure reached for the book and looked at it before handing it to him.
He accepted the book and looked at the person who had given it him and saw a teenage boy who looked to be at least 15 years old. The boy had short, unkempt, black hair and was wearing a high-collared dark-coloured outfit with a tanto strapped on the right side of the back of his shoulders.
"Thanks" Naruto thanked the young teen who smiled at him
"It's no problem, I'm Shisui by the way" the now named Shisui introduced himself
"Naruto" Naruto introduced himself already knowing that Shisui knew who he was, pretty much everyone knew who he was. Shisui looked at him quizzically as though there was something he wanted to say but held back.
"Well I must be on my way, it was nice meeting you Naruto-san" Shisui said turning around and stopped for a second when he heard Naruto's small reply.
"Nice meeting you too Shisui-san" he smiled and continued walking.
After seeing an empty table, Naruto walked towards the empty seat and sat down. He opened the book and after skimming through the contents page looking for the information he wanted, Naruto found the page number listed under Abilities.
He opened the page and was surprised to find it blank, thinking back to the inscription on the door, he activated his Sharingan and was both pleased and surprised when the words in the book materialized right before his very eyes. He briefly wondered how they had done that before continuing on and started reading.
'The Sharingan grants the user the user several ocular powers-'
When Naruto finished reading he looked at the clock and was he saw made his eyes widened in shock and horror, 3 hours had passed. Not even bothering to close the book or put it on the shelf, he bolted out of the library like he was on fire. It was already dark out-side he noticed in alarm.
'Kaa-chan is going to kill me!' he shouted in his mind as he ran as fast as his small legs could take him.
Arriving at the house he slowed down, took a few breaths to calm himself down, and slowly made his way inside the house. He slowly opened the door and almost squeaked when the first thing he saw was the angry image of his mother standing a few feet from the door with her hands crossed and her left foot angrily tapping the ground.
"Evening Kaa-chan" he began nervously
"Naruto-kun" Kushina said sweetly...too sweetly
"Y-Yes K-Kaa-chan" Naruto stuttered out, taking a step back and almost cried out in horror when he realised that the wall was right behind him and there was nowhere else for him to run to. His eyes almost watered when her hair started raising and swaying in a nine tail-like pony tails, her eyes gaining a glow-like image.
"How long did you say you would go for?" Kushina asked taking a slow predatory step towards him.
"1-1 h-hour" her angry/murderous look increased tenfold and Naruto could swear he saw his life flash right in front of him.
"And how long did you take?" Naruto almost pissed his pants then and there
"T-three H-H-Hours" She took another step forward and Naruto tried fazing through the wall and running for his life. She finally reached him and faster than he could react, she grabbed him by the scruff of his jersey and raised him to her eye level with an amazing display of strength.
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED I WAS!?, THE NEXT TIME YOU DECIDE STAY FOR KAMI KNOWS HOW LONG MAKE SURE YOU TELL SOMEONE!." She screamed out shaking the poor horror stricken boy like a rag doll "FROM NOW ON TILL I DECIDE WHEN, YOU ARE GROUNDED! NOW WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR Yourself?"She finned her rant and blinked when she saw him looking at her with a blank gaze with white form coming out from his mouth.
"Naruto?"Kushina shook him a few times wanting to get a reaction out of him. Kushina was about to run and take him to Tsunade when she turned around and saw everyone expect her other two children looking at her barely holding back their laughs, from the commercial scene between mother and son. Tsunade calmed herself and walked towards them, she placed her hand which was glowing green on Naruto's forehead
"Don't worry about him, his just unconscious, you should take him to bed" Kushina nodded her head and almost jumped to the stairs taking her son to bed. When she was out of sight Tsunade and Minato burst out laughing, Shizune's laugh was muffled by the sleeve she was holding to her face.
TIME SKIP; 2 YEARS LATER
"Fire style; Dragon Fire Jutsu!" a large dragon made purely out of fire rushed towards the training dummies at the end of the small clearing and when it struck, an explosion sizeable to that of a hundred explosive tags going off at once, rang throughout the training ground. When the explosion calmed down only the charred ground remained of what were once three training dummies.
An 8 years old red haired boy could be seen smiling in accomplishment at the destruction caused by the fire dragon.
"YATTA! I finally mastered it!" Naruto said to himself loudly. Not much had changed about Naruto, he still wore the same outfit which he wore two years ago, and the only noticeable difference about him was that he was a few inches taller and instead of the two tomoe in each sharingan eye he now had three. Naruto had managed to fully mature his sharingan three months ago whilst having a taijutsu spar with his father, well a clone of his father to be precise.
He had been so excited about it that he had constantly kept it active for almost an entire month, only turning it off when he was about to sleep or when he was inside the house. His mother, getting rather annoyed, had thoroughly reprimanded him about showing off his abilities and how a real ninja would keep their abilities a secret to surprise their enemies. He had stopped showing it off after that.
Their parents had decided to tell his sisters a year before about his 'condition' to his sisters. They had taken it rather well and Hitomi had even gone as far as saying that no matter what anyone might say or do they would always love him and would see him as their brother no matter what.
All was not perfect in his life however, it never was, ever since that day two years ago when he had asked permission to enter the Uchiha clan library, Sasuke had started giving hateful glares and would always ask him to be paired with him during the taijutsu spars in class and when he lost, which was every time, he would become very angry and storm off. He did not know what his problem was and honestly he did not care, to him Sasuke was acting like a spoiled brat who couldn't take anyone being stronger than him.,
Another thing had happened at the academy, he did not know when or how it started one day, the day he would forever curse. A lot of the girls at the academy had decided that he had the best 'boyfriend material' and had suddenly developed a crush on him, leading to him having the one thing he had never dreamed of having...fan girls.
And the leader of said group was none other than Ino Yamanaka and her friend/ rival was the leader of the Sasuke fan club, Sakura Haruno. He wondered what had happened to her, from what he could remember she used to be such a quiet and shy girl but now, she was...different.
The one thing that happened that made him smile was that he had discovered a lot of jutsu in the Uchiha clan library. Apparently they were ranked by how much you had mastered the Sharingan, E-D ranked jutsu were accessible by those who activated the first stage of the Sharingan , C-B ranked jutsu were accessible to those who had manage to activate the second stage, B-A ranked jutsu were accessible to those who had fully matured their sharingan. Though he had tried reading the S-ranked section and found that he could not, which made him wonder if perhaps there was another stage of the Sharingan that people/he did not know about or maybe they were only accessible by a special password.
When he had told his parents about how he had access to C-B ranked justu from the library, both his parents had immediately stopped him from reading and trying to use those Ninjutsu, stating that it was too dangerous for him to attempt such dangerous jutsu at such an early age.
After a long session of him trying to convince them to allow him to try them{thank Kami for the puppy dog eyed jutsu} they agreed. Though they put up a few rules for him to follow, first he had to master 3 D-ranked jutsu before he could attempt any C-ranked jutsu, secondly he was only allowed to learn 5 C-ranked jutsu and would only be allowed to attempt a B-ranked jutsu after he had fully mastered all the C-ranked jutsu and getting an approval from both parents and lastly he was only allowed to learn 1 B-ranked jutsu. He had immediately hugged his parents and run off to quickly learn the required D-ranked jutsu.
So not to make their daughters feel left out, both parents had decided to teach them each a jutsu and teach them more should they master the jutsu that they had taught them.
And so after learning the three D-ranked jutsu which were, Replacement jutsu, Clone jutsu and the fire style; cinder technique which in all honesty did not take that long, about 3 weeks to master them all. He had told his parents and had gotten permission to learn the 5 C-ranked jutsu, surprisingly he had chosen all five of them to be fire techniques, for some reason he found fire Jutsu more appealing and much easier to master than other jutsu of different natures.
That is where we find Naruto now, having just fished mastering his third C-ranked jutsu which had taken him 2 months to muster. He looked at the sun and saw that it was just about set.
'Better go home before Kaa-san freaks out again' he thought to himself, and started back toward the village.
As he walked down the streets of Konoha he could not help but feel as though something was wrong, he quickened his pace to a jog to get home quickly.
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When Naruto got home, he still could not shake the bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, entering the house he was not all that surprised to get tackled to the ground by his sisters, he wondered when and if they would ever stop doing that.
"Good evening to you too Hitomi-chan, Hikari-chan" he said as he gently pushed the two giggling girls off him.
"Hello Naru-kun" Hitomi greeted him first with Hikari following after
"Hi Naru-kun" they grabbed his hands, each taking one and proceeded to drag towards the dining room where his mother and Shizune were seated chatting amongst themselves
"Good evening Kaa-chan, Nee-chan" both women turned their heads and their faces brightened when they saw the three little red haired children
"Hello there Naru-chan how was your day?" his mother asked after giving him a hug
"It was great, I finally managed to master the Dragon fire technique!" he said proudly, his mother blinked in surprise before kissing him on the forehead, much to his chagrin and her amusement.
"Well then congratulations, how about we go out for a little celebration, let's all go get ramen!" Kushina suggested happily, Naruto made a disgusted face and his sisters cheered "and pocky" she added after seeing his reaction
"Shizune is paying" she added walking out of the room with her children in tall, she laughed when she heard a small feminine shout
"Hey!"
The following Morning
Like usual Naruto woke from his sleep groaning not wanting to get up, got into his usual clothes and walked downstairs. Only to find his older sister Shizune sitting on the table watching his sisters' gulf down 3 bowls of ramen each within seconds. Raising an eyebrow, usually it was their mother who sat with them every morning when they ate, he wondered where she was. A smile made its way across his face as he greeted everyone.
"Good morning" everyone looked at him and smiled
"Morning Naruto-kun/Naru-kun" their voices chorused back
"Where is Kaa-chan?" he asked Shizune
"She had to take care of something and will be back later today" Shizune responded and Naruto nodded his head in understanding, it wasn't like this was the first this had happened. His mother often left on important meetings or emergencies Shizune would baby sit them. Today was Saturday and there was no academy today so Naruto headed outside to play on the swings where he knew his sisters would soon join him.
LATER THAT DAY
To say Naruto was shocked would have been an understatement, the Uchiha clan; one of the founding clans of Konoha, a clan known throughout the elemental Nations for their nin/gen/tai/shuriken jutsu prowess had been wiped out, in a single night, by one man!.
Itachi Uchiha had somehow managed to kill off his whole clan including his family and had managed to escape before anyone managed to realise what he had done. To kill an entire clan in the spun of a few hours at 16 years old, that made Naruto shudder, how strong and how ruthless was Itachi to be able to kill his own family and hundreds others.
His head could not get around how a single person had managed to accomplish such a feet, killing an entire clan, in a village filled by ANBU and jonin alike monitoring the village regularly and yet he had done it. A small amount guilt started building within, he had felt that something was wrong the previous day but he had ignored it, maybe if he had told someone they would have checked
'NO!' he shouted in his mind, it was not his fault! How was he supposed to know that something like this would happen, he was only eight for crying out loud. That's what he told himself trying to convince himself that there was nothing he could have done. He curled in his bed hearing his mother's whimpers through the walls as she mourned her best friend's death.
Maybe he should have something, then things might have turned out differently.
TIME SKIP 4 YEARS LATER
ACADEMY
"Ok class settle down" Iruka stated loudly but no one seemed to have heard him as they were all preoccupied with their own conversations, getting irritated his heard enlarged in a comically large way and on top of his lungs he shouted.
"SHUT UP YOU LITTLE BRATS!" his voice boomed throughout the entire class, everyone became silent and Iruka continued
"Thank you, now as was a about say today is the day where some and hopefully all of you will pass and receive the rank of genin" he saw many students giving each other confident looks and the majority of them showing a lot of excitement" however before you can be ranked a genin you will have to pass the graduation exam, the exam will consist of three phases, the first portion will be a written exam [ AWW!], the second will be a taijutsu spar and the final part will be a Ninjutsu test, where you will be asked to the three Ninjutsu you were taught here at the academy" the once confident looks of some of the students had turned to that of uncertainty and nervousness
"YAHOO! This is going to be piece of cake, right Akamaru" a browned heard boy wearing a grey hooded fur-lined coat with a white small dog on top of his head said, the little dog barked in agreement making the boy smirk confidently
"Quiet down Kiba! Ok everyone you may begin when I place the question paper on your desk"
ONE HOUR LATER
"Ok everyone put your pencils down and please line up outside for the second portion of the exam" when the students got outside they found Mizuki standing inside of a ring, with circle drown on the ground by white chalk. He beckoned for the students to separate into two groups, boys and girls
"Ok then for a pass you will have to last for 3 minutes within this ring, I will increase my speed as time goes on, the time limit is 10 minutes" everyone nodded their heads, the first person to go against Mizuki was a civilian girl by the name of Ami
"Watch me Naruto-kun" she shouted, making said boy shiver in slight fear, he had had many close encounters with that girl. She with her two lackeys would often chase him, wanting to get a date or sometimes [shiver] a kiss. Fortunately thanks to his prior training he was much faster and had more stamina than them and always managed to escape from their clutches. His best friend Shino turned out to be a great buffer for fan girls as they found him wired and creepy and would always run away or avoid him, they would leave Naruto alone as long as he was with him.
When the match began Ami seemed to be doing great but after 3 minutes her stamina had run out and she had forfeited the match, ending with a time of 3 minutes and 43 seconds
[A/N; I'm just going to skip the matches and just give you the results]
Ami 3:43, Haruno Sakura 3:10, Yamanaka Ino 3:56, Hyuuga Hinata 5:13, Namikaze Hikari 7:53, Namikaze Hitomi 8:01 after that Naruto zoned out, not at all interested in the other matches. There was a 15 minutes break as Mizuki regained his energy before it was the boy's turn.
Aburame Shino 5:33, Akimichi Choji 4:12, Inuzuka Kiba 7: 22, Namikaze Naruto 9:34, Nara Shikamaru 3:00(everyone including Naruto sweat dropped).
"Ok students the final portion of the exam will start in the 30 minutes times, be sure be in class when the bell rings" Iruka stated before going back to the class and marking the answers to the first portion of the exam. Naruto sighed when he saw Ino giving him a wink; he walked to his usual spot where he set with Shino
After the 30 minutes lunch break had passed all the students returned to their class and waited for the final part of the graduation exam.
"Shino Aburame-"and so each student were called to do the 'Academy 3' as they were dubbed, surprisingly all the students passed the exam and proudly wearing their new Konoha forehead protector
"Congratulations all of you for passing, your teams will be announced in a week's time, see you then" Iruka looked at his class one more time and for a second saw all the students transform into their young 6 years form and seven year olds, he blinked and saw that they were back to their normal 12 years old
'Must have been something in my eye' he thought as he walked down the whole, not noticing the single tear sliding down his face.
One Week Later
Naruto looked at his sensei and was a bit surprised not to see Mizuki-sensei with him, be blinked when he remembered hearing his parents talk about how someone had tried to break into the Hokage's library and steal the scroll of seals and had been caught by ANBU before he could even break in. He inwardly huffed 'Only a fool would try to steal something as important as that scroll and not think it would be guarded'
"Unfortunately Mizuki won't be with us today he had...ehm...a mission to go to" Iruka announced, rubbing the back of his head nervously. Instantly everyone perked at the mention of a mission and Iruka inwardly cursed
"What kind of mission sensei?" Sakura was the one to ask
"Ehm...a secret mission, sorry I can't tell you about it, it is against the law to disclose important mission statement" he sighed in relief when he saw that all the students believed him...well almost all the students, Shikamaru was asleep, Shino's face was stoic as ever so he really couldn't tell and Naruto was looking at him with a raised eyebrow showing he clearly did not believe him ' of cause his father is the son of the Hokage so he must know the truth' he glanced at Naruto's siblings and raised an eyebrow when he saw they, like the rest of the class believed his excuse' though that doesn't explain why they believe me'
"Anyways I will now announce the teams, Team 1-" Naruto stopped listening then and instead chose to rest his head a bit on the desk and dosed off. It was Shino who noticed that his friend was sleeping and woke up
"I believe that our names are to be called, you should pay attention" Shino said after Naruto had woken up
"Thanks" he mumbled under his breath
"-Team seven under the leadership of Kakashi Hatake will consist of Haruno Sakura, Namikaze Hikari and Inuzuka Kiba, Team eight under Kurenai Yuhi will consist of Hyuga Hinata, Aburame Shino and Namikaze Naruto, team nine is still in circulation so team 10 will consist of Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Choji "Naruto blinked 'What about Hitomi?'
"Due to there being an extra student left without a team, they will be apprenticed by one of the jonin and will join other teams regularly" Iruka answered their question before they could ask him. Everyone looked at Hitomi who looked dejected at not being placed in the same team with any or her siblings or any of her friends
"Hitomi, your jonin sensei will be waiting for you at training ground 14, as for the rest of you, your jonin sensei will be here to collect you in one hour, good luck and remember your teamwork" and with that Iruka left the class.
After Iruka had left all the new genins got out of the class and sat with their new teammates trying to establish a friendly relationship amongst themselves and get to know each other better.
WITH TEAM EIGHT
Team eight sat on the bench where Naruto had first met Shino, this had become their usual meeting place to sit during the breaks. They sat there in a very awkward silence as neither team members were willing to say anything first. Surprisingly it was Shino who broke the silence
"I believe it would be in our best interest to introduce ourselves. Why? To better know each other and know our strengths and weakness" the other two members of team eight nodded their heads in agreement
"My name is Shino Aburame, I like learning about new insects, looking after my hive and Naruto-san, I dislike those who kill insects and people who show prejudice towards my clan members. My dream is to one day become the clan head and make my clan proud. I specialise in tracking and mid-ranged fighting" Shino finished not once showing an outside emotion, he looked at Hinata and she knew he wanted her to introduce herself, she gulped before nervously speaking up.
"Hi, my name is Hyuga Hinata, I like cinnamon rolls, my family and my friends, I dislike people who look down on others and senseless violence, my dream is to one day become a respected Kunoichi and rejoin my family. I specialise in tracking and I a short range fighter" she finished and bowing her head at the very end. Naruto looked at them for a bit and inwardly sighed when he saw Shino glaring at him from behind his glasses, he knew what he was about to do. Sighing inwardly again he spoke
"My name is Namikaze Naruto, I like my family, my friend Shino, training and pocky, I dislike those who hurt my family, friends and those who make fun of pocky, my dream is to surpass my father all the previous Hokage's, I specialise in close and mid ranged fighting" Naruto introduced himself lastly. They sat there for a while the uncomfortable atmosphere lifted after their introductions, the bell rang and the new team made their way to the class and meet their new sensei
Inside the classroom, after a minute of waiting the jonin sensei's of each team started coming in and taking their genins with them. After the jonin sensei of team 6 had left with his genins, the door opened and in walked a young woman with long black hair that reached her upper back she had very distinctive red eyes that looked almost like the Sharingan with a ring in them, though without the tomoes. She was wearing a red mesh armour blouse with only the left sleeve visible, which resembled bandages with a pattern on it similar to thorns. Her hands and upper thighs were wrapped in bandages, ultimately she was a very beautiful woman, and Kiba who had seen her had whistled loudly and even drooled at her form.
"Team 8 come with me" she called out seriously with a stoic face and turned around to walk out of the class not before giving Kiba a very cold glare as she walking out, with team 8 close behind her.
TRAINING GROUND EIGHT
Team 8 stood in front of their new jonin sensei who was standing in front of them looking at all of them with a critical eye, she held her gaze for another few seconds before she smiled at them and gave them all an approving smile.
"Ok team, since you have already introduced yourselves-"all their eyes widened, including Naruto 'how?' "-I will introduce myself, my name is Kurenai Yuhi, I like coming up with new genjutsu techniques and hanging out with my friends, I dislike perverts and people who think Genjutsu is inferior to other techniques, my dream is to one day became a world renounced genjutsu mistress. As a jonin I have many abilities but my speciality lies within genjutsu"
"I am going to tell you now that none of you are genin...yet" she smirked a bit when she saw the young genins almost shout out in shock but held it back
"You said 'yet' does that mean there is something else required for us to do in order to became genin" Naruto asked with his eyes narrowed a bit, Kurenai's smirk grew
"Very good observation" She praised him before continuing with her speech
"You are right there is something else that you have to do in order to truly become genin. You are not told this at the academy but there is an additional test that each jonin gives to their genin to determine whether they are ready to be genin or should spend another year at the academy, each test differs from jonin to jonin"
"What kind of test are you going to give us sensei?" Hinata asked nervously
"I'm glad you asked" she said taking out a hand watch and placing it on the ground, they all looked at her in confusion
"Your test is to locate and detain me within one hour, should the time run out and you have not done so you will fail and be sent back to the academy" she said seriously
"Your test begins. NOW!
'