The Life of a Lone Fox~ A Naruto Fanfic

Pranks don't kill

It was a bright morning, and all the students of the Academy were being assigned into temporal teams for the day. It was a common occurrence thanks to the smart thinking of a young academy sensei.  

Because how dire the situation was at the village, Iruka had taken it to himself to better the Academy's training system. He had pushed changes to the Hokage and to the civilian council until his form was approved and supported. Thanks to that, long gone were the days were students never handled a weapon, or only learned 3 jutsu with the minimum knowledge of the world.

Now students were taught near life and death situations with them specializing in teamwork. The village could not afford for them to be killed off just because they were not trained well. Too many deaths had already happened and they couldn't lose more. 

Iruka looked at his students and smiled melancholy at them. Just before his reform was passed, three recently graduated genin had been brutally killed on the borders of the Land of fire in a mission that had only required them to give food to the poor. How the mission could go so wrong in an area where they currently had a peace treaty was beyond him. That had been the eye opener for the civilians, which got his form approved.

Iruka sighed and signaled for all of his students to gathere on training area #5, the taijutsu area, where he had already redirected his special guests. In the field were the 3 teams who had graduated before them with their corresponding Sensei. Today, the older generation of students would teach the young. No one took a teacher seriously anyway, until they heard the truth from their own peers. And those who had already graduated had had enough time to see the cruelty of the world, enough for them to do their best to warn and advise the younger generation seriously. 

"Gather in your teams!" Iruka yelled out for all to hear. Naruto smirked to Sasuke and Sakura and went to his team. His team consisted of the pretty Hyuuga girl. She had been a shy girl at first, but over the time she had spent with the trio, her confidence had risen to pretty high levels. Naruto had to admit, she looked beautiful with her newfound confidence. 

"Hinata chan~" he called out to his friend, who turned around and smiled brightly at him. 

"Naruto kun, we are on the same team." She said. That was another thing, she could finally speak to anyone without having a hard time. That made him feel proud, Hinata deserved all the respect, and not just because she was a heir to her clan, but because she was capable enough to bring great changes once she took over. 

"Yep, but I wasn't paying attention much, mind telling me who we got paired up with?" He asked rubbing the back of hisneck sheepishly. Hinata giggled and he blushed but smiled at her.

"That would be me dobe." Sasuke said from behind him. He turned to find his brother looking at them with a serious expression,

"Why don't you just marry already?" he asked. At that Naruto chocked on bare air while Hinata openly laughed, a soft blush rested on her cheeks, but that didn't stop her from enjoying the moment any less.

"Why don't you just marry Akita?" he retorted, at that Sasuke became furious, chasing after his brother. Akita was the leader of his fangirls, and she happened to be the girl Sasuke hated the most. Hinata watched the two siblings shaking her head. Those two would never learn. 

On the field, Iruka felt the chills rise on his back and he immediately turned to the devil trio. Sakura had been separated from them but he was starting to regret leaving the random pairing with Naruto and Sasuke together. Kami help us. He prayed hoping the kind Hyuuga would keep them in check.

After a couple minutes, most of the teams settled down and Hinata smiled  when she realized that their sensei was none other than Hyuuga Neji, her cousin. Naruto also noticed because he stopped running away from Sasuke and went to say hi. Naruto had heard what had happened with the Hyuuga clan. In fact, Neji's father had offered Neji a home in the Kyuubi's forest, but he had refused and stayed to protect his baby cousin, Hinata. Naruto found that admirable, but the young teen's hate towards Hinata's father was something troubling, but that was a thing for another day.