AN: This is going to be the last chapter of what I call the "Intro Arc". After this is when the real fun starts. (Hopefully)
The sun had barely risen. The village was stirring awake from its sleep. A lone figure was seen sitting in front of a grave. "Kaa-chan, it's me, Naruto. I finally read your letter last night. I've come here to visit you and update you on how my life has been. I am eating well, Kakashi-Nii has been forcing me to eat my vegetables and not just ramen. The people at Ichiraku are very nice to me and I really love their ramen. I shower everyday and I visit the hot springs once in a while. I try to keep clean to look presentable. Kakashi-sensei has been training me since I was young. I am slowly becoming stronger so that I can protect those precious to me. See you soon, Kaa-chan. I promise to visit you again soon."
Naruto stood up with tears in his eyes and gave the grave one last look before he shunshin away. Naruto could only visit early in the morning to avoid meeting anybody. Nobody could know that he was the son of Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze. He had cleaned Kushina's grave and gave her a few flowers. Naruto made his way to his favourite ramen stall.
"Good morning, Ayame-chan! Teuchi-ossan!" Naruto announced as he opened the flap of the ramen stall. There, he saw two people already waiting for their food. "Nee-chan? What are you doing here so early?" Naruto asked.
The purple-haired woman in question turned around to face Naruto to give him a smile. "You don't really think that you are the only one who enjoys ramen here, do you?" Yugao said as she chuckled. Naruto placed his hand behind his neck and chuckled along in embarrassment. He sat down and took a place beside her. He ordered three bowls of his usual ramen.
"Naru-chan, you remember who this man is?" Yugao asked as she pointed at the man beside her who waved at him.
"Hmm…." Naruto had to track back his memories to remember who this man was. It hit him after a few seconds of remembering. "Oh! I remember now. Hayate-san, it's been a very long time since I've seen you." Hayate was a man with brown hair, eye bags under his eyes and was Yugao's boyfriend. He was introduced to Naruto a few years ago when he joined one of his training sessions with Yugao.
"I'm glad you *cough* remember me *cough* Naruto," he said. Hayate has a lung disease that causes him to constantly cough. However, he was not stopped by his disease and persevered to be a shinobi. He is now a tokubetsu jonin. He was also the man who taught Yugao kenjutsu in the first place and they eventually fell for each other after spending so much time together.
"Naruto, how has *cough* your kenjutsu *cough* training been?" He asked as Ayame placed two bowls in front of him and Yugao. They started eating not wanting the food to get cold.
"It's been going great! Sensei here says that I am ready to get my own katana." He said as he himself started to dig into the ramen that was just placed in front of him. Yugao had said that he could only get his own katana if he is proficient enough. This is to ensure that his foundations were strong. Once somebody gets their own katana, it will be suited to their strengths. Hence, it is crucial to minimise any weaknesses before advancing in strengths.
"That's quite good! To *cough* be able to advance in kenjutsu so much *cough* in three years is *cough* quite a feat. You must *cough* quite a natural," he commented. "Maybe I am, or perhaps I just have an amazing sensei," he said as he elbowed Yugao playfully.
Just then, Naruto sensed a familiar chakra signature approaching the stall. He turned as the flaps to stall were lifted up to show Iruka. "I knew I'll see you here, Naruto." He said as he took the last vacant seat. "Hey Iruka-sensei! How's the recovery going?" Naruto asked as he continued to slurp his ramen. "It's going well. I'll recover in a few days. The doctor managed to close up the cut with medical ninjutsu." He said before he ordered his ramen.
"Iruka, how *cough* did you get injured?" Hayate asked. Iruka rubbed the back of his neck as a sign of his uncomfortable position. He knew that Mizuki's betrayal to the village was a secret and he could not tell anyone. He also felt slightly embarrassed that he lost to Mizuki so easily in front of his student. He wanted to avoid the topic.
"Ah, it's fine Iruka-sensei. You can tell him. I would trust everyone here with my life so there's nothing wrong with telling about some minor secret like that." He said as he slurped down his fifth ramen bowl. 'I swear, I only ordered three. Oh well, I don't get to eat ramen everyday anymore so I'm not complaining.'
"Naruto, the Hokage decreed it as secret for you to keep remember?" Iruka said.
"Nah, Jiji also said that I could share it with people who I really trust and those are the people in this stall." He said as he pointed to the people around.
"But-" before Iruka could protest some more, Naruto took out a brush, ink and paper. He wrote some kanji on the paper and stuck it onto the counter. He pushed chakra into it and the writing lit up. The light expanded and surrounded the whole stall before contracting back into the paper.
Everyone watched in awe at the light display that just occured. "Naruto, what did you just do?" Iruka asked, bewildered by Naruto.
"That was a privacy seal. Nobody can hear our conversations except those within it, which would be, the four of us, Teuchi-Jiji and Ayame-chan."
"You know fuinjutsu? Since when? You never showed me," Iruka asked.
"I've known fuinjutsu since I was like 10 years old and I didn't really have any situations in the academy to use fuinjutsu. Anyways, I have a story to tell." Naruto proceeded to tell the group about Mizuki's attempt the previous night. He did not tell about the events after where he learned about his parents. He did not want many people knowing about his heritage too early.
"Naruto, we are going to start your elemental ninjutsu training today. Before we start, we must first find out your elemental affinity." Kakashi said as he took out a piece of paper. "This is chakra litmus paper. It will show a person's elemental affinity when they channel chakra through it. If your affinity is water, the paper will get soaked. If it's windy, the paper will be sliced in two. If fire, then it will burn. If earth, it will crumble and if it's lightning it will wrinkle." Kakashi explained as he channelled chakra into the paper and it wrinkled before it crumbled. "I have two affinities, earth and lightning. Having two affinities is rare unless you have a kekkei genkai."
Naruto received a chakra paper from Kakashi and channeled his chakra through it. The paper was soaked before it was shredded to pieces.
"Looks like your affinity is wind and water. Your water affinity is most likely from your clan and wind is probably your main affinity. In konoha, most people have fire or earth affinities. There are some with water and lightning but wind is the rarest. There's only one person in Konoha right now with wind affinity and that is Asuma Sarutobi." Kakashi said.
Naruto was asked to split a leaf in half with his wind chakra and soak a leaf with his water chakra. Naruto created 200 clones. Half worked on splitting the leaf while the other worked on soaking it. Naruto himself was taught the tree climbing exercise. He had to climb a tree while only using chakra. This training continued for a few days with breaks in between until the last day of his week-long break.
During one of his breaks he had to take his ID photo. He kept his clones training while he ran off to the Hokage tower to get his photo taken. "Jiji! Good morning!" He greeted the Hokage.
"Good morning, Naruto-kun. I hope you have your ID photo taken already," the Hokage who was seated beside the academy principal replied while he smoked from his pipe. Naruto handed him his photo that was taken in the neighbouring room. Even in his photo, Naruto was still wearing his mask and scarf. "Where is your konoha headband, Naruto-Kun?" The Hokage asked as he noticed Naruto was not wearing his. "I didn't want to dirty it. So I'm keeping it in a storage scroll until I truly become a genin." He replied.
Suddenly, the door to the room opened and a kid came running in with a wooden shuriken. "Jiji! Today is the day! I will defeat you and become the next Hokage! Then I will…" before the kid could finish his declaration of attack, he tripped.
'Who the hell is this shrimp? How did he even fall down? This floor is flat, polished and stainless.' Naruto thought.
'It's his fifth attack today. When will he learn…' the Hokage sighed.
"Honourable Grandson, are you okay?" Asked a man wearing the Konoha shinobi uniform and sunglasses.
"Someone tripped me. You, it must be you!" The kid accused as he pointed at Naruto.
'It's him, the Kyubi…' the man with the sunglasses thought.
"What! You trip on your own scarf, you clumsy shrimp." Naruto said as he pulled the kid by his collar.
"Hey you! Take your hands off of him! He is the honourable grandson of the Sandaime Hokage," the man in the sunglasses said.
'That's right. Just like everyone else, he stopped when he heard who my grandfather is.' "Are you scared? Scared of hitting the grandson of the Hokage?" He taunted.
"I don't care if the Hokage is your grandmother!" Naruto exclaimed as he slammed a fist into the back of the kid's head. After swiftly saying goodbye to the Hokage, Naruto promptly left the building in a shunshin to head to Ichiraku for an early lunch. 'Woah, he is so cool' thought the Honourable Grandson.
[Everything else that occurs is basically the same as canon. Konohamaru stalks Naruto and begs him to teach him. Naruto teaches the Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu) which he knows, he just had not had the chance to use it yet. He learned it from reading Kakashi's books.]
The classroom was buzzing with excitement. Today was the day everyone was placed into their genin teams. "I hope I get into the same team as Sasuke-kun!" "I hope I get into the same team as Naruto-kun!" The fangirls announced.
"Yo, do you guys know where Naruto is?" Kiba asked the group of friends. "How should I know where the dobe is?" "Nah, he's too troublesome…" were the answers he got.
In the Hokage tower, a group of jonin and the Hokage were looking at the classroom of students through the Hokage's crystal ball. "So that's Uchiha Sasuke. Quite a promising student," said a man with short spiky black hair and a beard. He wore the usual jonin uniform with the konoha flak jacket and a sash that has the kanji for fire on it around his waist.
"He really lives up to the name of Uchiha. He is one of the two that tied for the position as the top of the class. The other being Naruto Uzumaki," said a woman with unique red eyes. She wears an outfit different from the usual jonin outfit. She wears a red mesh blouse with the left arm being sleeveless. Her blouse looks like bandages wrapped around her body.
"Speaking of Naruto, it looks like he isn't there yet," the Hokage pointed out. "He is not usually one to be late. I wonder what's holding him up."
Iruka entered the noisy classroom and the class immediately quieted down. Iruka stood in front of the class and started taking attendance. "…Naruto? Does anyone know where Naruto is?" He asked as he looked around the class for answers. Nobody knew where Naruto was.
Beside Iruka, a swirl of leaves started forming and soon, Naruto appeared in a Shunshin. Naruto had a new outfit. He wore black anbu pants until his ankles and black shinobi sandals. He wore an orange tee with the Uzumaki crest on the back with a mesh shirt underneath. He wore a white jacket with orange stripes running down the shoulders to his wrists. He wore his mask up to his nose and had bandages wrapped around his hands up till the wrist and around his ankle. He wore his headband on his head proudly and his golden hair was still as messy as before. The class was in awe of Naruto's new appearance, well everyone except Sasuke. He would never admit that Naruto looked cool. The fangirls were basically drooling over him.
"Naruto, where were you?" Iruka asked.
"Sorry Iruka-sensei, a black cat crossed my path today so I had to take the long way here, hehe." Naruto replied as he rubbed the back of his neck. Everyone's sweat dropped when they heard Naruto's excuse.
The Hokage, who was in the middle of drinking his morning coffee, ended up burning his tongue after hearing the excuse. Everyone in the Hokage office turned to Kakashi who was feeling very proud of Naruto. 'The kid's gonna surpass me one day…' he thought before he felt some killing intent aimed at him. He gulped at the feeling. "Hokage-sama, is Neko by any chance in this room right now?" He asked. The Hokage only nodded. "Ah, shit…" was all Kakashi could say before he was smashed through the window by a blurred figure.
The class finally settled down five minutes after Naruto's entrance. Iruka was stood at the front of the class as he presented his speech. "As of today, you are all shinobi. To get here, you faced difficult trials and hardships. But that is nothing. What comes next will be far more difficult. Now you're only genin, first level shinobi. All the genin will be grouped into three man squads. Each squad will be led by a jounin, an elite ninja."
'I hope I am with Sasuke-kun' thought both Sakura and Ino. 'Hopefully, my team doesn't slow me down' thought Sasuke. 'Troublesome…' Thought Shikamaru. 'I hope I don't get any fangirls as teammates' thought Naruto. 'Someone like Shikamaru or Kiba would be great. Hopefully not Sasuke-teme though.'
"Now I am going to announce the teams and their members." Iruka announced. "Team 1…" Anticipation and excitement engulfed the room as everyone waited eagerly for their teams. Naruto was no different. He too was eager to know who his teammates were. For the first time in the academy, he gave 100% of his attention to Iruka. "Team 7: Sasuke Uchiha, Shikamaru Nara and Naruto Uzumaki. Team 8: Shino Aburame, Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno. Team 9 is still in rotation from last year. Team 10: Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuga and Choji Akimichi."
"No, I don't get to be with Sasuke-kun," said both Sakura and Ino in sync. Many objections were also heard from other fangirls about both Naruto and Sasuke.
"Damn it, out of all the people in this class, I had to get on the same team as Sasuke-teme." Naruto was clearly unhappy about his team.
"Hey, I don't like this as much as you do, dobe," Sasuke said.
"Troublesome…I have to be in the middle of some rivalry," Shikamaru muttered.
"That's all the teams. Your jounin-sensei will pick you up after lunch in this classroom. For now, take the time to get to know your teammates better. Good luck everyone, your journey starts now." Iruka spared one last glance before he left the classroom.
"Alright, how do we want to do this?" Naruto asked Shikamaru who was beside him and Sasuke who was sitting in the row in front of him.
"We already know each other quite well and it is too troublesome to go out for lunch just to come back again. How about we just stay here," Shikamaru said. Sasuke nodded in agreement.
Naruto then took some rice balls he bought and shared them with his teammates. "Teme, take one," he said as he handed a rice ball to Sasuke. "I don't want your handouts," he said but his stomach seemed to disagree with a growl. Naruto just gave him a deadpan stare when he heard it. "It's not a handout, it's sharing." Reluctantly, Sasuke gave into his hunger and took the rice ball from Naruto. Shikamaru took out a shogi board and challenged Naruto to a game. Naruto accepted the request and they started playing. Sasuke was spectating from the side and was eating his rice ball.
From a tree, Kakashi can be seen looking into the classroom. 'Maybe this team has hope.' Kakashi disappeared into a swirl of leaves before Naruto could sense him.
"So, all of you have seen your teams during the lunch break, what are some first impressions?" The Hokage asked the group of Jonin in front of him. "Asuma?"
"My team seemed to be already close. Kiba's the loud mouth and is very energetic. Hinata is very quiet and timid but it looks like she enjoys the presence of others. Choji seems to be very friendly and is like the bridge between the two. I feel like my team can succeed as a close combat assault team." The man with a beard said.
"Very well. Kurenai?" The Hokage asked the woman with red eyes.
"Sakura and Ino are very close and have some sort of rivalry going. They both know Shino from their past interactions and try to include him in their lunch. Shino however, is still very reserved to himself. I believe that Sakura and Ino can get him out of his shell. I feel like my team will succeed," Kurenai said.
"So far, so good. How about you, Kakashi?" Kakashi looked up from his book and saw that everyone in the room was looking at him. "You know what Hokage-sama, I think for the first time, I have a team that might pass." Gasps were heard around the room. Kakashi had never passed any genin team before. This was his first time even admitting that his team was good enough for him. "I know that some may think it's because of Sasuke or Naruto. However, it's because I saw that the teamwork and bond that I always look for is finally present in all three of them. They have a high chance of succeeding."
"Good, you are all dismissed. Let's hope they exceed our expectations." The Hokage said as all the jounins shunshin out of the room.
One by one, the jounin senseis picked up their teams. Kurenai took team 8 and Asuma took team 10. The only team left in the classroom was team 7. It had been two hours since the rest of the students had left and team 7 were getting restless. Although Shikamaru had been enjoying the past two hours of free time they had, he was getting tired of waiting for their sensei. He just wanted to go home and be in his bed.
Sasuke who was staring into space was also getting restless. 'How can a jounin be this late? They are supposed to be the best ninjas in the village.'
Naruto had already figured out who his jounin sensei was. 'There's only one jounin in the village that is this late. By the looks of it he will be here in an hour. Just my luck.' Naruto took his book on fuinjutsu and started reading it. An hour passed after he finished reading more than 20 pages of the book.
Many thoughts were going around Kakashi's mind. Sasuke was considered the last Uchiha. He reminded him of his old friend Obito. He held his left eye as he thought about the friend who had given him his sharingan eye. He knew of the Uchiha's superior mentality and the darkness that befell many of its clan members. Only a few members managed to steer away from those thoughts and Obito was one of them. He wanted Sasuke to be like Obito, to escape the hatred and darkness of the Uchiha clan.
Another thought was on Naruto. Naruto was his sensei's son and he hoped he could live up to the expectations of his sensei. He wanted to nurture Naruto so that he could become a splendid shinobi.
Kakashi knew that Shikamaru was not as motivated as Sasuke or Naruto. Like most of the Nara Clan, they were lazy but had exceptional intellect. He tasked himself with the goal to find the best motivation for Shikamaru. He knew that there was a great shinobi lying within him.
At the end of the hour, Naruto had sensed Kakashi's chakra approaching. He packed all his things and woke Shikamaru up. He also asked Sasuke to prepare. The door to the classroom slid open and Kakashi stepped in and saw his three students giving him emotionless stares but looked like they were ready to jump him at any moment. "My first impression of you guys are, you guys looked like lovely students," he said as he gave them his famous eye smile. "Meet me on the roof in five." He disappeared in a shunshin.
Naruto grabbed Shikamaru's arm and Sasuke's shoulder before he shunshin them to the roof. Kakashi had just sat down and was about to take out his book when the team appeared in front of him. 'Damn it, Naruto. You couldn't let me have five more minutes.'
"Yo, sensei." Naruto greeted him with a wave as he sat with Sasuke and Shikamaru on the steps opposite of Kakashi. Sasuke was still taking in his surroundings. At one moment, he was in the classroom. At another, he was on the roof. 'Did the dobe use a jutsu? How does he know that jutsu?'
"Good afternoon, team. How about we introduce ourselves. You may know a lot about each other but I don't." He said in his usual lazy tone.
"How about you introduce yourself first, sensei. Like you said, we know a lot about each other but not you." Naruto said with a knowing smirk under his mask.
'This kid…' "My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have many likes and dislikes. My hobbies are not for people your age. The dreams I have are none of your business. You go next, pineapple-head," He said as he motioned for Shikamaru to start his introduction.
Sasuke's and Shikamaru's sweat dropped. 'We only learned his name.' Naruto only gave a look that said 'seriously sensei.' Kakashi responded to Naruto's look with only an eye smile. Shikamaru did not react much to Kakashi's name calling. "My name is Shikamaru Nara. I like doing nothing and staring at clouds. I dislike doing a lot of work. My hobbies are sleeping and staring at clouds. My dream is to do nothing like a cloud." He said with a lazy tone that could give Kakashi a run for his money. 'Figured as much,' Kakashi thought.
Kakashi then motioned for Naruto to start. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I love ramen and the precious people close to me. I dislike the three minutes it takes to cook ramen, traitors and people who hurt my precious people. My hobbies are training and reading. My goal is to be the best Hokage this village has ever seen." Naruto said with an eye smile. Kakashi smiled at Naruto. 'At the rate he improves, that dream might be well in his reach.'
"You, emo. You're up next," Kakashi said as he pointed to Sasuke.
Sasuke scowled before starting his introduction. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I have a few likes and many dislikes, some of them being a certain person, fangirls and Naruto-dobe." He said as he glared at Naruto who only gave him an eye smile in return. "My hobbies are training. My goal, no, my ambition, is to kill a certain man and restore my clan's honour."
'An avenger…' Kakashi could only sigh. ' This guy's too obsessed with Itachi, man,' Naruto thought as he mentally facepalmed. 'He wants to restore his clan yet he doesn't even look at girls. Maybe I should get him to read some of sensei's Icha Icha books.' 'Let me guess, he wants to kill his brother. Troublesome…' Shikamaru thought.
"Okay! You guys seem like a unique bunch. We will start tomorrow at training ground 7 for your test," Kakashi said. He got three confused students looking at him in return.
"What test?" Naruto asked the question that was on their minds.
"The test will be to see if you guys are capable of becoming genin. The academy graduation was only to weed out the potential candidates. This test will truly determine if you can become shinobi. If you fail, you will return to the academy." The last part got the three of them worried. Naruto's and Sasuke's lives basically depended on this test. Shikamaru knew he could not go home if he didn't become a shinobi. His mother would tear him to shreds. 'Shit.' They all thought. "See you guys at 7 in the morning. Don't eat breakfast if you don't want to puke. Ja ne." Kakashi said as he waved and vanished in a swirl of leaves.
"You guys better eat breakfast tomorrow," Naruto said.
"Yeah, what he said was not an order and technically only a warning. Such a troublesome sensei, somehow the guy is probably lazier than me." Shikamaru said. He had also picked up on the same thing as Naruto. "Hn," Sasuke grunted in agreement before they all left to go home.
At night, Naruto was lying on his bed staring up at the ceiling. 'I wonder what he has in mind for the test?' He wondered. 'Tomorrow is gonna be an interesting day…'
Yes the teams are jumbled up. Makes the story more interesting than the regular teams.
