A/N: Give me ideas to put in this story and if I like them enough, I'll be sure to apply them in some shape or form. (Note, not for parts of the story already written). Cheers.

Many years had gone by, and by that, I mean my time at the academy was coming to a close. By this point, I could show off my true skills, which first and foremost included me acing every single written test alongside the shuriken and kunai throwing tasks, which at this point most expected to reach genin could get between 80-90% at the bare minimum, as well as obviously the incredibly easy 3 academy ninjutsu, none of them but the kawarimi actually requiring a noticeable amount of chakra, where a civilian could probably perform the bunshin and transformation.

I was near the top of the class, but unfortunately, I would never take that crown. That one Uchiha guy was too good. I could beat him in everything but taijustu, where his sharingan had managed to uncover all my known techniques from our countless spars, so even whilst not using said eyes during ranking spars, I would still find myself with dirt in my mouth, a foot on the back of my neck and 2 hands holding my wrists at an uncomfortable angle behind me. No wonder Danzo-sama placed me to spy on him. Regardless, I still soundly swept the other competition.

There was a problem however. With Sasuke getting so strong, in turn fully developing his sharingan in the process to the matured 3 tomoe form that Danzo-sama informed me of, and him constantly destroying me in battle faster than ever, even with me training even more than him at this point in time, he was beginning to get bored of fighting me. I was no longer good enough, as evidently fighting a person who only knows basic techniques at an expert level isn't sufficient, which makes sense. He did once tell me that eventually, after we became genin, that he would stop sparring with me. Once again valid.

To kill an opponent such as Uchiha Itachi would require training against far stronger foes because said man was high A to low S-rank at our current age, and would have only gotten stronger, faster, smarter, wiser…

It was terrifying to think what Sasuke's final goal was, though I never did know the true pain of losing one's family to a traitor.

Nevertheless, as usual due to my lack of Surname, I was one of the last to present my ninjutsu, which contrary to popular belief was not actually necessary for promotion. Apparently, some kid had no ability to use chakra last year and still made it under the infamous tutelage of Might Guy. As such, I asked Iruka-sensei and he stated 'you could only afford to fail one section of the total exams, that being ninjutsu, taijustu, kunai/shuriken throwing or the written test without having to repeat the year.' Passing all would get you a better grade and thus place you better in the rankings and make you more likely to have a more qualified jonin-sensei, with obvious exceptions, such as what Danzo-sama told me about Hatake Kakashi being assigned to Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, though only if the latter passed. I would wait till after the class to find out, seeing as nobody was allowed to return into the classroom after the final section.

I performed all three as requested, crisp and cleanly. Two nodding instructor heads made it clear I was in the green, as did the headband now tied around my skull. I congratulated Hinata outside, offering to go out for dinner sometime in celebration after she shared that she would spend tonight with her family, and I did the same for Sasuke, who merely nodded with a grunt and an arrogant smirk, before saying "you do not need to come over to my compound anymore to spar." Before hopping away from roof tile to roof tile.

I Quickly scanned the remainer of the class. All clan heirs had headbands somewhere on their body (Ino had hers as a girdle and Shikamaru as an armband), Uzumaki Naruto was crying off in the tree line as expected. Everyone knew he can't make a clone, so he'd fail that section, but the Jinchuriki could have applied himself to the written side of things to scrape by. He wasn't sabotaged, but he never paid attention, nor was he naturally gifted with brains. It was disappointing Hokage-sama had allowed him to grow up entitled regarding ninja skills and the work ethic required to attain them properly. There was always next year though, and Danzo-sama had told me in the last report that war was most definitely not on the horizon, so Sandaime-sama still has time to fix him up. Most of the class passed, as expected. Kids were happy, parents were happy, the teachers were clapping, some confetti rained down upon the crowd.

I walked home, by now a fully furnished apartment with enough flair to look lived in. Paintings littered the walls, with only the best on display, and the rest were rolled up into scroll form in my bookshelf, alongside that one book I had during my days in Root. I had finished it now, and until I found Shin's grave, whether that be filled or empty, I would hold onto this book. Once I found it, I would bury the book with him. He deserved that at least.

I spent 2 hours painting, currently working on blending colours into extremely accurate skin, wood or fur tones, as 99% of my painting was spent on living things. After that mindless excursion, I hit the bed, instantly unconscious as thinking over who I'd be paired with would be a waste of time, and it would ruin whatever surprise was left.

The next day started off with a bang. Literally! I walked into none other than Uzumaki Naruto getting slammed into a window next to Sasuke's desk by multiple fangirls whilst both boys were gagging, Naruto also cowering for his life. Sasuke was fuming, so I wouldn't ask him. As such, I turned to Hinata, who wore a furious blush.

"What did I miss."

"Oh…"

"Oh what?"

"E-E-Er…"

"Just say it. It can't be that bad."

"Naruto-kun and Sasuke-san… they… u-um"

"They what."

"They kissed." She finally breathed out with mental exhaustion evidently plastered across her face.

…

'What?'

"How?"

"E-Er…"

Kiba came over to me with a shit-eating grin, "I'll tell you how, Sai. Naruto was on Sasuke's desk, he leaned forward and their lips made contact for a solid 5 seconds. By then Ino and Sakura had slammed him into a wall, which was the same time as you walked in. It was hilarious, and clearly Hinata-chan liked what she saw," he nudged her arm with his elbow whilst goofily worming his brows, in turn making her get even redder.

"Can't believe I missed that. So, they are into each other then?"

"Damn right, Sai! I'm surprised you never picked up on Sasuke's suspect tendencies."

"I'll be honest, I never really noticed it, though he was happy to have me over to his place whilst we sparred. I won't be doing that again."

"Damn Straight!"

Next thing I knew, I was on the floor with a pale fist smothering my cheek, and an angry Uchiha behind that arm, Sharingan whirling. "Shut. The. Fuck. Up." He muttered in a voice only the few of us in the back row could hear before taking his original seat.

"Naruto, Sai, Ino, Sakura! All of you take a seat this instant!"

…

"Now then, as my final duty to this class, I'll be listing out your new genin team designation. Your new sensei will come pick your team up as soon as possible from this location, and you WILL be respectful, honest and hardworking for them, or they WILL place you in the genin corps, and you do not want to be there if you care about faster promotions and becoming the best ninja possible, now listen up!"

"Team Sarutobi: Akimichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino."

"But I want to be with Sasuke-kun!" (You can guess who said that)

"Team Yuuhi: Aburame Shino, Hyuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba."

Those two teams were rather obvious…

"Team Hatake: Haruno Sakura, Uchi-"

"YES! Suck on that, Ino-Pig!"

"ha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Sakura-chan!"

"Piss off, Freak!"

"But Sakura-chan!"

There was a second imprint of Naruto in that one window frame now. Rather impressive accuracy speaking.

"Team Nara: Asato Shuji, Seto Eri, Sai."

There I am. And if you were wondering about my teammates, Shuji was as mediocre as they came, and Eri was also, but she had the hots for Sasuke, as did most girls from my class. It was nice to have a Nara, as they were as intelligent as you could get, and just as lazy, which when combined can lead to some crazy out of the box strategies to minimise effort input and maximise output. The problem however, was that I had no clue in hell which Nara I had, though it didn't really matter as it would be a jonin regardless and all were noted to be very similar. It was also good that I was no longer under spy duties, specifically involving reporting or gathering information on Sasuke, for that would raise many red flags with my new sensei.

A few more teams had been called out before Iruka bid us a final farewell, leading to a half hour wait until a stereotypical Nara, lanky, rocking a dark haired man-bun and accompanying goatee (though it was rather wispy) and evident bags under his eyes.

"I am *Yawn* Nara Ensui. Team Nara, please follow me." He turned around and walked out with an almost comically stereotypical grace only a Nara would carry. He led us to one of the lunch tables in the shade outside before sitting and gesturing us to follow suit.

"I'll be blunt. I saw all of your grades, and know you are all decent ninja. Odds are, you may all make chunin in your careers, and Sai might push jonin should he be skilled enough, not saying Eri or Shuji cannot, for I don't know much about your personalities and I'm going purely off of grades. I am not here out of free will. This is my duty to the village, but regardless, I intend to enable you to be as good as your potential allows for. I don't do those stupid teamwork tests, as I don't plan on failing you when I can simply tell you how to fix your errors. It would be too troublesome…

How about this. Seeing as I still need to do a test, we go to the park and I take a much needed nap. If none of you wake me up or bother me in any way until dusk, or I wake on my own, you can be my students. Consider it a test of a ninja's patience and maybe being a protection detail… and for me, to see whether you will be annoying pests, cause I will not train and intentionally take missions with troublesome people. All good."

We all nodded in a shocked yet mostly unsurprised silence, seeing as it was common knowledge how lazy the Nara clan could be.

"The silent type… Nice. Oh, and speak up if you need help with anything that you'd consider worth my time, or your time, as I don't like wasting time doing troublesome things. Now… Let's go."

We walked in silence to the park of his choosing, before he found a tree he liked the look of and dropped like a log.

"Oh… And one more thing… While we are far off the main park pathways, Make sure nobody sees you or me lying here, or else it'll be troublesome."