Naruto leaned into yet another sit-up. He was feeling the anxiety within eating away at him. He couldn't sleep. With each sit-up, he could feel some of the pent-up fear within being worked out of his body. He forced himself into another and rested at the top. Out of the corner of his eye, he could spot the moonlight seeping through his curtains and into his room.
The chilling fear of knowing that everything you strived for could be ruined all in one day fought in the pits of Naruto's stomach. He knew he should've been sleeping but he could not rest. 'I wonder how Gaara is taking it,' he pondered.
The Genin Exams were only a few short hours away. Naruto knew that he was capable of passing them. He had trained vigorously the past two years, Tsunade had made sure of that. The main requirement of a genin was that they were able to fight competently as a shinobi. This meant all that was required to pass was a good score in a spar with a randomly selected student.
Naruto knew that he could fight. What wrought his mind with anxiety was who he would fight. It was true that you did not need to win the spar to be promoted and Naruto had to continuously remind himself of that. But it was also true that the wrong matchup could be detrimental to passing the exams. Naruto had thought about it over and over, who could he beat and who could beat him? Who should he look out for and what strategies should he use to win each scenario? He was confident that he would do well against someone like Ino. But against someone like Shino or even Sasuke? That was unclear.
Naruto grimaced at the thought of failing. He shot up to his feet and a determined scowl adorned his face. 'If I lose, it won't be from a lack of trying,' he resolved himself. He ducked into a kickboxing stance, southpaw because he had been practicing to catch others off guard. He couldn't be too loud, he didn't want to potentially wake Gaara up if he was sleeping, and Tsunade was always cranky when her rest was interrupted. Instead, he erupted into a swift, well-practiced shadowboxing combo to warm up.
He drew the power of his strikes from the hips as Tsunade had taught him, imagining the plethora of potential foes he would be fighting in the morning. In his mind, he was throwing a jab at Kiba and ducking a hook from Chōji and before long he was totally lost in the exercise. He panted heavily as he danced around his room, throwing blow after blow into the wind. He bounced on his toes and swayed left and right while keeping his right shoulder forward to pretend to roll punches off of it.
A lead overhand followed a hook and he ducked under an imaginary strike before jumping back up to retaliate.
"Naruto."
His head whirled around in surprise mid-lunge and his stance collapsed. The rhythm of his complex maneuvers evaporated and he fell forward, slamming hard into the floorboards.
"Ow – !" he wailed, rubbing at the side of his face that smacked the floor. He awkwardly picked himself up from the ground and sat cross-legged.
"Sorry," the voice whispered quietly.
Naruto's blue eyes snapped onto his bedroom door, searching for the source of the interruption. Peeking into his room from just behind the door was Gaara's dark, seafoam eyes.
Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and flashed a smile of embarrassment. "It's no problem. Did you need something?" he beckoned.
Gaara stepped into the room and carefully closed the door behind him. "Couldn't sleep, heard you hopping around in here and figured I'd visit."
"Yeah, I can't sleep either," Naruto revealed, leaning back and resting on his elbows. "What do you wanna talk about?"
The redhead walked forward and sat down before Naruto, hugging his knees to his chest. "I'm not sure. Do you have anything that you want to talk about?"
Naruto was silent for a moment. His eyes scanned the environment in consideration. "Hmm…" he went. "How are you feeling about tomorrow?" He looked at Gaara hesitantly, not sure if he should have asked that question.
Gaara's face was stern. "I think I'm feeling confident about my chances," he began. "I'm a good matchup against most of the other students just with my sand," the redhead admitted. "As long as I don't have to fight Sasuke or Shino then things will be relatively simple."
Naruto's face softened and he offered a weak smile. "Yeah, I figured as much."
"Are you not feeling great about your chances?"
Naruto bit his bottom lip. "I don't know," he plainly revealed. "I've improved a lot and meet the bare minimum requirements to qualify for the exams but I don't know if that's enough."
"You'll make it work," Gaara said with a matter-of-fact tone.
Naruto furrowed his brow with curiosity. "What makes you so sure?"
Gaara stretched his legs out from him. "You fight well and you fight hard. You hate to lose but put your all into every battle even if you can't win. It's no kekkei genkai but that sort've ability will count for a lot here," he explained.
Naruto's lips curved into a small smirk. "Heh, thanks," he said in a quiet tone. "I'm not sure that will count for much if I have to fight Sasuke, or even you," he sighed.
"You've given me some really tough fights before," Gaara pointed out. "Without my sand, it's not even a contest," he admitted.
"Yeah, I'm sure that without Sasuke's Sharingan or Shino's bugs, it wouldn't be much of a contest either," Naruto rolled his eyes.
"The point is that you can still put up a great fight even at a disadvantage. You didn't forget that you don't need to win in order to get promoted, right?"
"No, I know you're probably right. I just can't shake the idea of what will happen if I fail, or what will happen if I can't control my fear under all the pressure," he frowned.
Gaara withheld a response for a moment as he thought. "Neither of us are going to be able to sleep," he spoke. "We could do some light sparring and exercise to pass the time until the Exams," he suggested.
Naruto rubbed his chin in contemplation. "Alright." He hopped to his feet and headed for his bedroom window. "That'll be a good way to take my mind off things," he agreed. Both tireless boys snuck out of the room through the window and into the backyard to warm up.
Naruto walked through the academy grounds with Gaara at his side. The morning sunshine cast the shadows of the leaves on the ground. Naruto could feel the pounding in his heart reverberate through his entire head.
"Alright, everybody line up before the sparring grounds," Iruka instructed.
A flurry of academy students raced into a neat line as they were told. Naruto and Gaara made their way to their spot in the line. Naruto swiftly regarded the expressions of all his peers as he walked. Hinata had a particularly nervous air about her twiddling her fingers around anxiously. They shared a mutual glance at one another before she shot up and quickly looked away. Naruto couldn't tell for sure, but he thought she looked a bit more resolved all of a sudden. Sasuke's uncaring and aloof attitude got Naruto's attention next. Examining him a little closer, Naruto could tell that Sasuke did have a more stern glint in his eyes as he and Gaara rested at the end of the line.
Iruka stepped into the middle of the sparring grounds and put his fist to his mouth to clear his throat. "Now it's time that I explain these exams to the lot of you," he began. "To take the Genin Exams you are required to have passing grades and have at least three jutsu – elemental and non-elemental each. All twenty of you are here because you meet the basic requirements."
Iruka's serious gaze washed over every one of his students. "On to how you pass and become a full-fledged genin. When I tell you to, each of you will come up here and grab one of these cards." He held up a small deck of solid white cards for all to see. "There are two sets of every number from one to ten in this deck. It's shuffled to be random. When I call out a number the pair with that card will come up here and spar with each other." Iruka spread the cards out facedown in an array in his hands. "Now come up here and take a card."
Naruto was hesitant to go first. He looked down the line to his peers who were also flashing uncertain glances. Naruto turned to Gaara but was taken aback to see him already approaching Iruka. Then he watched Sasuke saunter over to the cards with his hands dug into his pockets. "Hmph." Naruto's face was made stern. 'I can't get cold feet now,' he resolved himself and stepped forward.
He watched Gaara quickly take a card from the deck and Sasuke followed. When Naruto got to pick his card he looked up at Iruka who shared an impassive expression with him. Naruto reached for a card and hesitated, swiftly took a separate card on the opposite side of the deck, and followed Gaara and Sasuke back to the line. He looked at his card to learn his number. It was number one. 'Am I going to have to go first?' He tried his hardest to contain his breathing as one by one, Sakura, Shikamaru, Kiba and everyone else took their cards.
"Now that each of you have your cards, it's time I clarify what you will need to do to pass this exam," Iruka started. "You do not need to win your spar to be promoted. An adequate showcase of your abilities in the spar can be enough to pass. Give it your all and show us why you deserve to be a shinobi," he said with an encouraging air. "Now will the two examinees with the matching number one cards please come here."
Naruto had to ignore the throbbing in his chest. His stomach lurched with panic. He put his foot forward to make his way to the sparring grounds and scanned over the line of his peers for his opponent. Already halfway to the starting point, Sasuke's hands were still stuffed into his pockets all nonchalantly. Naruto's mind erupted into a storm of curses. 'Of course I had to fight him to pass.'
He met Iruka and Sasuke at the center of the grounds. Sasuke glared at him and Naruto scowled back.
Iruka raised his hand to the sky. "Are you ready?" he asked.
"Yes." Sasuke pulled his hands from his pockets and balled them into fists.
Naruto fought off the doubt that clouded his mind. He didn't need to beat Sasuke, he just needed to fight him well enough to prove he was genin material. His expression was made determined. "I'm ready," he bellowed.
Iruka swung his arm down like lightning between the combatants. "Begin!"
Naruto instantly dashed away to create distance, knowing that engaging Sasuke in taijutsu wouldn't be favorable. His hands clapped together to form hand signs. His chest swelled up with air. "Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullets!" A flurry of compressed rounds of air shot from his mouth, whistling through the wind and into Sasuke's direction.
Sasuke began to dance between the slicing projectiles, forming his own set of hand signs as he went. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Naruto watched his air bullets drill into the cloud of searing flames and combust in booming explosions. The fireball barreled down on him with unforgiving speed and heat.
He threw his hands together in a hand sign. "Clone Jutsu!" An exact copy of him poofed into existence right by his side. "You know what to do!" Naruto instructed his clone.
"Right," it said.
Both boys swiftly formed an identical set of seals. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" Naruto and his copy both began to blow out a rolling wave of cutting gales that tore the dirt from the ground. The gusts whipped and lashed at the surface before meeting with the looming mass of fire in the center of the sparring grounds. At first, the flames grew larger, swallowing the air like a hellish tsunami, but the concentrated winds were too much and blew the flames apart with sheer force.
Naruto smirked, the feeling of overpowering the superior element was always fantastic. The cloud of flames was sheared through by the winds and Naruto began to cease his jutsu.
"Ugh!" Naruto heard the wails of his clone. He shifted his focus to his copy, seeing Sasuke already on top of it, unleashing a rapid onslaught of precise strikes as the clone tried its hardest to maintain a meek defense.
Naruto gritted his teeth. 'He flanked us.' Naruto dashed over to the engagement. Sasuke kicked the clone's legs out from under it and brought his foot up for a finishing curb stomp. Naruto met the Uchiha just before his deadly blow could connect and shot into his legs, tackling him to the ground.
The Uchiha grimaced with discomfort and fought against Naruto's grasp. The clone was once again on its feet and storming back to Naruto. If he could keep Sasuke down it would be easier to take him together. But the Uchiha wriggled his hands out of Naruto's hold. The boy pushed Naruto off of him. Naruto shot in to keep him pinned again but was unable to avoid a devastating kick that Sasuke retaliated with from the ground. It crashed right into his chin and made his head snap up. He stumbled back, trying to collect his bearings. He rubbed at his chin, his vision blurry from the kick but already beginning to clear. The sight that greeted him made him grimace with indignation. Sasuke was already back on his feet with a fresh kunai in his hand.
Naruto and his copy both watched the Uchiha carefully. He sprinted at them with incredible speed, swiping at Naruto with the sharp tip of his kunai. Naruto weaved out of the way, allowing his clone to throw a jab at Sasuke. He expertly slipped it and thrust his blade at the copy's neck who only narrowly avoided it.
This gave Naruto just enough time to retrieve his own kunai. He drew the blade over his head and swung down at the Uchiha. Sasuke put up his kunai to intercept the attack. At the final moment, Naruto smothered his kunai with a great amount of wind chakra. Sasuke's dark eyes lit up in surprise, realizing that if he didn't act fast he was going to be severely maimed. Naruto's extended blade of wind met Sasuke's normal kunai and began to slice right through it. The dark-haired boy was able to jump away just in time but not quick enough to avoid the nasty bleeding gash that ran down the side of his face.
Sasuke wiped at the bloody cut and grimaced. He bared his teeth with frustration as he saw his kunai was nearly sliced in half. "Your wind style is good," Sasuke held his kunai out in front of him. "It won't be enough, though," his face lit up with orange as he enveloped his kunai with a raging jacket of fire.
Naruto frowned bitterly. 'I still have the range advantage with my wind but if his kunai touches mine it's gonna blow up in my face.'
Sasuke pounced forward at him with his flaming kunai held out ready to stab. Naruto sidestepped him and met with his clone, who had prepared a kunai coated with slicing gusts like his original. Naruto slashed at Sasuke's back which he ducked below. He dragged his fiery weapon up and cut at both Naruto's necks who were keen to keep their distance. The clone ducked below another attack and sliced at the Uchiha's abdomen, managing to just knick his blue shirt before he could step out of the way. Naruto continued to add pressure before Sasuke could riposte and jabbed his wind-tipped weapon at the dark-eyed boy's jugular.
Sasuke stepped back, needing to dodge away from attack after attack and never getting the time to retaliate. Naruto had him totally on the edge of the sparring grounds and reeled back for the finishing blow. His kunai parted the air as he slammed it down onto the Uchiha, but something changed at the last second.
Sasuke's eyes flashed with red and Naruto could do nothing to stop him from weaving under his strike. The Uchiha lunged kunai first into Naruto's unsuspecting clone and stabbed it in the side.
Naruto dashed away far enough for him to no longer be able to hear the repugnant sound of his copy's flesh searing. He raised his hand to his face and made a hand sign. "Release!" He watched the panic swell up in Sasuke's Sharingan as the clone used all of its strength to hug him and then exploded in a blinding, violent blast right in his face.
The dust and smoke were kicked up into the air obscuring Naruto's sight. He tried his hardest to ignore the oohs and ahs of surprise from his peers. "Eat that, you freaky-eyed bastard!" he taunted from afar.
The smoke billowed into the sky and the dust began to settle, revealing that Sasuke was pelted with a number of cuts and scratches but miraculously not mauled or unconscious. Naruto swore indignantly. 'The clone must've been too close to popping to use all its energy to explode.'
Sasuke's red glare made Naruto's breath get trapped in his throat. Sasuke dug into his pouch of weapons. 'Shuriken!' Naruto realized. The Uchiha slung many shuriken from both hands that curved toward Naruto as they flew through the air. A bead of sweat raced down Naruto's face. He danced out of the way of the shuriken, narrowly escaping.
Sasuke jumped into the air and withdrew six kunai, throwing each one directly at Naruto's sides. Naruto stiffened up, the kunai were buried deep in the dirt, and that's when Naruto noticed that something about them was off. 'Wire!' His head swung back up to Sasuke who pulled on the wires with all of his might causing him to soar toward Naruto feet-first like an arrow. Naruto didn't even have time to brace. Sasuke's foot slammed deep into Naruto's stomach causing him to hunch over. Blood and spit flew into the air. The Uchiha's extraordinary momentum carried his heavy foot deep into Naruto's guts and made him skid atop the ground.
Naruto tried to choke down air beneath the Uchiha's foot. He gritted his red-stained teeth together. The crowd each shared a collective gasp. Sasuke was looking down at him with a stern expression. Naruto's face scrunched up with anger.
He hated being looked down on.
He brought his hands together to form a single sign. Sasuke jolted back to create distance, taking his foot off of Naruto. But Naruto didn't want that, he gripped Sasuke's leg with both hands and hugged it to his body to stop his escape.
The Uchiha scanned his surroundings for what Naruto's jutsu was. The surprise stretched out his face. Holding onto both of Naruto's feet was a clone, and holding onto that clone's feet was another clone that formed an interlocked chain. Sasuke frantically stomped on Naruto's face to try and break free but Naruto simply would not let go. The Naruto copy at the end of the chain hurled the others over his shoulder with all of his might. Naruto closed his eyes as he was flung up into the air. He could feel Sasuke's weight dragging in the wind above him. Before long he could sense the descent and he gathered all of his strength to pull Sasuke downward by the foot, slamming him into the earth with a quaking crash.
Naruto ignored his aching body, having now realized that such a maneuver wasn't easy on him when he's at the front of the chain instead of a clone. He could hear Sasuke's pained groans and his eyes flung open. He pushed himself onto one knee. He could see Sasuke was on all fours through the dust. His face was painted with dirt and a surprised glare. Naruto looked behind him, the copy at his feet had dispelled from the impact, but he still had his other clone.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!
Naruto's ears perked up at the sound of rapid footsteps. Before he could turn his head he felt his body get yanked up around the waist by a suffocating grip. The entire world was upside down. His body was thrown into the dirt like a rocket. His back bounced against the surface. He bared his teeth and grunted in pain. Forcing himself to roll over onto all fours, he was just in time to see Sasuke stab his clone in the throat with a kunai. 'How did I manage to let him suplex me?'
"Dammit," Naruto pounded the ground with his fist. He pushed himself off the ground and onto his feet.
Sasuke turned to face him. "You've gotten a lot better these last few years," Sasuke acknowledged much to Naruto's surprise.
Naruto's eyebrows quirked in confusion. None of his peers had ever commended him and now one of the strongest among them had acknowledged his progress – and in front of everybody else for that matter.
"It's still not enough to beat me," Sasuke spoke up, running through hand seals. He drew in a massive gulp of air. "Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!" From his lips, he blew a hot stream of fire that quickly spread out into a wide wave of flames that steamrolled everything in its path.
Naruto's eyes bulged from their sockets. The sheer size of the jutsu cast a blaring light that seemed inescapable. It chased Naruto down with intense haste. Naruto dashed away, putting distance between himself and the hellfire. He turned away to flee, running through hand signs as the blazing heat of the flames struck at his back and legs. 'I don't have a strong enough wind jutsu to blow this jutsu apart,' he realized. 'Just have to make the jutsu blow up in both our faces.'
The intricate string of hand signs ceased and Naruto drew in the deepest breath he could muster while running for his life. He jumped into the air and faced the raging wall of fire. "Wind Style: Great Drilling Air Cannon!" He spat out an enormous spiraling column of gale right into the center of the fire. The wall of flames parted for a moment before swelling around the torrents and swallowing them whole. The fire expanded with rapidity and then burst out in a sizzling wail flinging searing flames into the area that whipped and lashed at Naruto's bare flesh. He winced and covered his face, closing his eyes from the blinding flash.
Before he knew it, the heat consumed him, he curled into a ball and hoped that things would pan out alright. It hurt beyond comprehension, Naruto was crying but the tears were evaporating away instantly. He couldn't stand it, the heat flash took everything out of him and it still continued without any signs of stopping. His body swiftly gave out and he slipped away from the world.
Naruto's eyes opened. A bright light assaulted his vision, causing him to squint. He threw his hand up before his face to defend himself from the blinding light. Swiftly scanning his surroundings, he noticed that he was encircled by green curtains that blocked his ability to see the rest of the room.
'Where am I?' he thought. He noticed the blanket that was tucked around his body and yanked it off of him. Naruto winced as he took in the sight of his burnt skin that was riddled with bulbous blisters. The smell of the burns that ate through entire layers of his skin was awful but he was beginning to understand where he was. 'They sent me to the hospital.'
His lower legs were bandaged, as well as his forearms, but it seemed as though the doctors had not yet gotten him into a proper gown as he was shirtless and still in his tattered, singed pants.
He sighed deeply and then assumed a determined expression. He planted his hands by his side and pushed himself up into a sitting position, trying his hardest to pretend the debilitating pain did not exist. Once he was sitting, he bared his teeth in a mix of frustration and agony. He pushed himself off the bed and onto his feet, wincing through the stinging in the soles of his feet as they hit the cold surface of the floor.
Naruto limped over to the curtain nearest to him, trying to be as delicate with his movements as possible so as not to provoke any more unnecessary discomfort. He parted the curtains and regarded the room outside. It was two columns of beds similarly sectioned off by green curtains that formed a loose corridor to walk between them. He stepped through the curtains to the outside.
"You're awake."
Naruto jumped at the noise. He instinctively spun towards the voice. It was Sasuke. He sat up in his hospital bed, similarly covered in bandages and with a great air of discontent that permeated his presence.
"How long was I out?" Naruto asked.
Sasuke's face slouched into a thoughtful expression for a moment. "It's been over a day."
Naruto's face twisted with intense worry. 'I'm still this burnt after all that time?' Then a wave of realization washed over him. "The Genin Exams are over by now."
"Yeah," Sasuke replied dryly.
The door to the room creaked open and Tsunade stepped in. "Oh, Naruto, you shouldn't be standing right now," she scolded.
"I'll be fine," Naruto insisted. The faster he could leave the hospital the better. Teams were always assigned two days after the exams. He had to go meet his new team and jōnin sensei soon. "Wait a second," he blurted, panning over to Sasuke with wide eyes.
"What is it?" Sasuke beckoned with an annoyed look as Tsunade removed some of the bandages from his arms to apply some medicine to them.
"Did I pass?" Naruto held his breath in intense anticipation.
"Yeah," Sasuke revealed before hissing at the application of the Slug Sannin's medicine.
Naruto's expression was flooded with wonder. He felt the immense weight of the exams that sat on his chest be lifted and he managed a deep sigh of relief. But then he realized something. His eyebrows quirked down in confusion and a question berated his tongue. "Did I win?"
"No." Sasuke's voice and expression were totally blank. "You performed well enough for the proctors to make you a genin," the Uchiha explained.
Naruto's features softened. "What happened?"
"You were burned half to death after that stunt of yours with the wind jutsu. Iruka called the match after that," Sasuke explained through grunts as Tsunade wiped the medicine down more of his body.
Naruto walked closer to the side of Sasuke's bed. Something about his condition did not sit well with what Naruto expected. His entire body was marred with deep, rigid gashes in his skin which was expected but where were his burns? "You didn't get swallowed by the fire as well?" he inquired.
Sasuke smirked. "No, you had too much force behind your jutsu and knocked me out of range of the explosion. I just got cuts all over my body."
"So the fight was a tie?" Naruto asked with a hopeful glare.
"I was still conscious and able to stand at the end of the fight. Iruka gave me the win after your suicide bomb didn't work," the Uchiha boasted.
"Dammit," Naruto whispered under his breath. He should've figured as much.
Tsunade wrapped Sasuke in bandages once again before turning to Naruto. "Let me apply some of my medical salve and bandage your torso and then you two can get some more rest," the Senju offered. "The salve combined with your natural healing affinity will have you back to normal by tomorrow," she explained to Naruto.
He wasn't ecstatic at the thought of spending another night at the hospital but even just moving around was an arduous and excruciating task with all of his marred flesh. Naruto disregarded his sulking and agreed with a nod and Tsunade slowly escorted him back to his hospital bed.
She began to rub down his blistered, scarlet-colored chest with the salve and Naruto was overcome with a swift sense of cooling relief that forced him to exhale a relaxing sigh. "Naruto," Tsunade grabbed his attention. "You did good," she commended with a smirk which elicited a weak smile from him. He still wasn't used to compliments, even from Tsunade.
"Thanks, Granny."
The walk back to the academy was slow, quiet, and painful but Naruto could feel the stinging burns becoming more tolerable by the minute. He stepped into the classroom just behind Sasuke and scratched at his neck with anxiety.
He looked around the class for who was present in the room. Hinata and Shino both sat alone in the back row. Hinata had a nervous but also curious glare to her eyes when he entered. Near the middle of the classroom, Shikamaru was busy napping away next to Chōji who scarfed down a bag of potato chips without a care in the world. The front row of seats was the fullest. Ino, Sakura, and Kiba all sat with expectant looks about them, waiting anxiously for their new sensei to arrive. And in the far-away corner of the room was Gaara, who rested with his arms crossed with a deadpan stare.
'So this is everyone that passed,' Naruto thought as he took a seat closer to the back row. Sasuke accompanied the seat directly in front of him.
Iruka then stepped forward to the front of the room. "Now that everyone is here, we can finally get down to assigning each of you to your genin squads," he shuffled through a loose stack of papers until he found the right one.
Naruto noticed how the others flashed swift glances of uncertainty to one another and the importance of this event bared down on him heavily. 'Who would I even want on my team?' He looked in the first row and choked up. 'I'd hate to be paired with Kiba or Sakura.'
The sleeping Nara was nudged awake by Chōji. "Huh – ?" Shikamaru blurted out. "What's happening?"
"We are about to be assigned to our teams," Chōji explained through a mouth gushing with half-eaten potato chips.
"Ugh," Shikamaru rolled his eyes in annoyance. "How troublesome."
'Shikamaru and Chōji wouldn't be so bad as teammates,' Naruto thought.
Naruto turned to look behind him. What immediately caught his attention was Hinata's intense white-eyed stare that she rushed to break. 'She's kinda weird but she also doesn't seem mean,' he shrugged. He shuddered at the thought of being paired with Shino, 'Such a creepy guy, where the hell does he even hide all those bugs? Gross!' He locked eyes with Gaara and frowned. 'Funny how the one person I want on my team won't be assigned to one. I just had to be friends with the only foreigner in the entire academy.'
Naruto turned around to face Iruka again, but from the corner of his eye, Sasuke caught his attention. A wave of intimidation crashed over him at the thought of being paired with Sasuke. He was the greatest in the entire academy besides maybe Gaara and the thought of being overshadowed by the Uchiha plagued Naruto with nervous sweats. Then he pushed out a controlled exhale. 'Maybe that competition is what I need to push me to be the best ninja I can be,' he thought. 'But if I can avoid it, I'd still take Shino as my teammate over Sasuke.'
"To start off," Iruka pulled everyone's attention to him. "I think it's only fair that I begin with Gaara," he said. "Since Gaara is still a foreign shinobi he will not be assigned to a squad. Rather, he will assist in certain missions as foreign aid from the Sand." Iruka retrieved a red head protector with the Sand symbol engraved into it and tossed it to Gaara who tied it around the strap of his gourd.
"Before I assign you all, remember that these are teams that have been put together by Lord Third and are composed in such a way that each member of the team balances the others out in one way or another. Does everyone understand?" Iruka asked.
About half of his classmates nodded 'yes' in unison.
"Good," Iruka said. "Then let's get started." He coughed into his fist to clear his throat and scanned the paper. "Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Chōji Akimichi, all three of you have been assigned to Team Ten under Asuma Sarutobi."
"At least we got each other," Chōji reasoned as Ino gave her new teammates disappointed looks.
"What a drag," Shikamaru groaned and rested his head to sleep again.
"Enough of you three," Iruka interrupted and the team was quickly silenced. "Next up is Shino Aburame, Sakura Haruno, and Kiba Inuzuka who will comprise Team Eight under Kurenai Yūhi."
"Makes sense that they wouldn't put me with Sasuke since I'm so strong and the teams need to be balanced," Kiba leaned back into his chair and put his arms behind his head.
"You're on a team with Shino, idiot," Sakura mumbled under her breath, annoyance oozing from her person.
Iruka rolled his eyes at his students and soldered on to the next team. "Finally, Sasuke Uchiha, Hinata Hyūga, and Naruto Uzumaki will combine into Team Seven under Kakashi Hatake," he finished. "Please step forward to retrieve your head protectors."
"Kakashi Hatake is taking a genin squad this year?" Kiba perked up.
"I never thought that Copy Ninja Kakashi would take a squad. He's a legendary shinobi," Sakura chimed in.
"Sasuke is getting trained by Kakashi? How amazing," Ino praised the Uchiha from below.
Naruto froze. He actually got put with Sasuke. This was going to be exhausting. 'At least the Hyūga girl is okay,' he thought, 'But who the hell is this Kakashi guy that's going to be our master?' He stood up and retrieved his blue head protector before walking back to his seat. Tying it around his head, he felt a sense of accomplishment creep up from inside.
"Now if you would just patiently wait here, each of your masters will come by to pick you all up and introduce themselves," Iruka concluded.
Naruto waited patiently. He thought about who his sensei was. They seemed to be quite the big-time ninja. Naruto hoped that this Kakashi would turn him into a great shinobi as well. He smirked slightly at the thought of all the amazing jutsu he would learn and how much stronger he would get.
He looked to Sasuke, who had his hands clasped together resting atop the desk with an uncaring aura. 'Can't expect this guy to be excited about anything,' Naruto scoffed and peered behind him at his other teammate. She was fiddling with her fingers awkwardly like normal, but in a more sporadic way and her face was slightly pink which was allied with a soft smile. 'At least she isn't immune to good emotions.'
He then grew curious as her eyes softened at him and she spoke up. "Congratulations, Naruto. Y-You put up a great fight against Sasuke," she managed through timid cracks in her voice. Her soft smile suddenly froze over with the icy chill of nervousness.
Naruto's face became slack with surprise. This weird and intense pounding in his chest. Waves of confusion washed against dazzling shores of wonder in his mind. He could not easily think of a time when a classmate had commended him. It was so foreign. This warmth that blanketed him, was this what it meant to be recognized by your peers? It was so… nice.
The closest comparison Naruto could immediately draw upon was Gaara, but to him, Gaara was different. They shared a bond that both of them knew was nothing short of extremely rare. Each of them housed Tailed Beasts and were ostracized because of it. They shared a mutual understanding of isolation and social scorn that Naruto just wasn't sure anyone else could grasp like he or Gaara could. Naruto imagined that what he shared with Gaara was as close to having a brother as the real thing.
Naruto stiffened. He found himself getting lost in his thoughts in front of Hinata but he couldn't help it, he was just caught totally off guard. A small but thankful smile accompanied his nervous gaze and he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Thanks," he managed, though quietly. "I uh… I'm sure you did awesome in your fight as well," he stumbled over his words.
"O-Of course. And thank you." Her sincere smile shined down on him like bright rays of sunshine.
'Hinata is nice,' Naruto thought as he turned away to face the front of the room. A part of him felt that maybe Team Seven wouldn't be so bad after all.
Fifteen minutes passed and Ino, Shikamaru, and Chōji were retrieved by their jōnin-sensei first.
Then thirty minutes passed and Shino, Sakura, and Kiba were leaving with their new master.
After forty-five minutes, Naruto was crossing his arms with indignation. 'Does this bozo even know he has a genin team now?'
At an hour and a half Naruto was entirely fed up, slouched into his chair with his bottom lip jetted out in frustration. He huffed with anger. "This guy is never coming," he blurted out matter-of-factly.
"Don't say that, Naruto. He'll come soon, I'm sure," Hinata quietly assured him.
Just as Hinata finished her sentence the door to the classroom cracked open. Naruto shot up with anticipation. A man walked into the room with his hands buried deep in his pants pockets. He sported all black clothes with the standard green flak vest of the Leaf. He wore a black mask that obscured the lower half of his face. He had a silver head of hair that flopped over to one side almost like a wet mop, and his Leaf head protector was curiously pulled down over his left eye.
The man halted before the classroom and faced his new pupils. "If you three would follow me up to the roof of the academy we can get introductions out of the way," he waved them along.
At the roof of the academy, the man sat at the very edge of the building. Naruto took his spot cross-legged on the surface between Sasuke and Hinata.
The man lazily glared at each of the genin. "Well then, introductions," he said. "How about you start with telling me your names, likes, dislikes, and dreams for the future. You can start us off," he looked at Hinata with an uncaring air about him.
"Huh – ?!" she blurted out in surprise.
"Hold on a minute," Naruto interjected. "You're the master and you were late. You should go first," he argued in defiance.
"Oh, well I guess that's fair," the man agreed. "I apologize, this is my first time taking a genin team. Let's see…" he placed his hand on his chin and looked to the sky in a thoughtful manner. "My name is Kakashi Hatake. I don't really have many likes, except for maybe reading. I also don't really have any dislikes. I couldn't tell you what my dream for the future is because I don't really have one." His eye closed shut and his mouth curved into a subtle smile beneath his mask.
Naruto looked at him indignantly. 'He didn't tell us anything but his name,' he thought.
"Now you can go," Kakashi called on to Hinata.
"O-Oh, well…" The Hyūga trailed off and began tapping her fingers together as she tried to avoid eye contact with anyone. "My name is H-Hinata Hyūga. I like gardening and cinnamon buns. I dislike bullies. My dream for the future is to become the head of the Hyūga and c-change it forever." She glanced between everyone expectantly as if she was trying to gauge opinions.
"Very interesting," Kakashi commended with a monotone voice. "Who's next?" Neither Naruto nor Sasuke spoke up. The roof was shielded in silence for a moment. "Alright then, you're nice and quiet," Kakashi teased Sasuke. "You go next."
The Uchiha crossed his hands before his face and stared into nothing with a stern, almost hateful expression. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I don't have anything in particular that I like and I hate many things. I don't have any dreams, only a goal. I have sworn to restore my clan and avenge them by killing a certain man." The Uchiha's broody exposition had sucked the noise out of the air, leaving Naruto looking at him with a strong scowl of concern.
Kakashi flashed through an analytical one-eyed stare to a soft, uninterested gaze. "Sounds good," he said dryly. "And finally, it's your turn, Whiskers."
Naruto disregarded Kakashi's name-calling. He rested his hands on his knees. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen and training." His face developed into a faraway, angry grimace. "I hate stuck-up people and bullies, but my dream is…" Naruto's face was plastered with a serious determination and he glared directly into Kakashi's eye, "to become the greatest Hokage to ever live." His voice was low but unshaken and firm.
"That's neat," Kakashi eye-smiled nonchalantly.
Naruto held back a curse at the man. The way Kakashi so easily dismissed his dream was infuriating.
"Training begins tomorrow at six in the morning. I'll start with evaluating each of your capabilities and then determine where I wish for each of you to improve from there," Kakashi revealed. "You'll start taking missions in a month's time now that you're certified ninja. See you tomorrow morning, my cute genin," Kakashi disappeared out of view in an instant.
Naruto's excitement to finally graduate was diminished by Kakashi's eccentric antics. 'It's hard to believe that he's going to be the guy to teach me to be a shinobi.'
END
Author's Note
Thanks to the many folks that helped me put this chapter together.
Tell me what you think of Naruto and Sasuke's fight and their jutsus so far. As I hope you can infer from the writing, I intend for all the genin to be a bit more capable within reason.
Also yea, we got Hinata joining Team 7 now. I know a lot of people may not necessarily agree to that and I get it, but I got a lot of interesting things planned for Hinata as well as some stuff I want to do with the Byakugan.
I hope you guys are excited to see Kakashi show up now as well. It wasn't much this chapter but I still hope I was able to encapsulate him well enough.
All in all, I hope you guys liked the first chapter of some Part 1 Naruto. Next chapter drops on December 9th, around 12-1 pm EST.
I also hope all of you enjoyed your Thanksgiving for those of you that celebrate. But with that, I've said all I have to say for now.
Follow, favorite, and review.
Godspeed,
Salt