Chapter 3
Disclamer: If I owned Naruto, the Sasuke would only appear in the second half thanks to the Resurrection of an Impure World Jutsu. As this is not the case, it is quite obvious that I don't own Naruto.
The next day after being told about the Kyuubi Naruto was in the Hokage tower once again. Naruto had had to go in today in order to get his ninja identification photo taken. Instead of heading strait home after his business with the record department was taken care of, Naruto headed off to the Hokage's offices. Passing by the Hokage's secretary Naruto called out, "Good day, I'm here to bring some documents that I know Grandpa Sarutobi will want to have a good look at." Receiving a casual nod from the secretary, Naruto opened the door and went into Sarutobi's office.
Once the door was closed Naruto called out, "Good day gramps." Sarutobi looked up from his desk and smiled seeing Naruto's cheerful face. Before Sarutobi could ask why Naruto was here the boy said, "During our talk last night I realized how I was unintentionally hurting this village by keeping all of the Uzumaki clan records to myself." Reaching into his coat, Naruto pulled out a stack of papers that were tied together. Placing the stack of papers on Sarutobi's desk Naruto said, "I had several shadow clones stay up all night copying these pages out of several clan books. These papers contain the Uzumaki clan notes on how a person can have multiple bloodlines. Also, there are notes on how to make a type of paper that will allow you to determine which of the three categories a person's bloodline or bloodlines are."
There was a small tear in Sarutobi's eye as he reached over on his desk and picked up the papers that Naruto had put down. It was very rare that a ninja clan, even one as small as the Uzumaki currently were, to ever give a copy of their clan records. Most people thought that the reason why Konoha's libraries contained only E and D ranked jutsus with the uncommon C ranked and very rare B ranked jutsu was do to village security. Actually the truth of the matter was that none of the Clans would give up anything higher then a D ranked jutsu when Konoha was founded. The small supply of C and B ranked jutsus were in the library because of a few generous ninjas like the Shodai who had wanted to help out those without a clan become good ninjas.
Sarutobi had placed the precious documents that Naruto had given him into his desk and was about to thank Naruto when the door opened. Into the room came running Konohamaru with a shuriken in his fist and yelling out, "Today's the day I defeat you and become Hokage!" Sadly for Sarutobi's would be defeater, Konohamaru tripped over his scarf. Quickly picking himself up off of the ground Konohamaru looked around himself. Pointing an accusing finger at Naruto, the little boy called out, "Hey, you tripped me!"
Now the months of meditation and training with Iruka may have calmed Naruto down a great deal, but Naruto sill was impulsive and emotional. Most of the time the whiskered boy was able to keep those tendencies of his under control; however Konohamaru managed to somehow bypass Naruto's self-control. Thus to Sarutobi's shock and surprise, the old Hokage watched as one of his grandsons started to strangle the other one. Naruto did this by holding Konohamaru up in the air by the little boy's scarf. Looking Konohamaru in the eye as he held the boy up in the air, Naruto said, "Get your facts strait moron before you start throwing accusations around."
At that point Konohamaru's private tutor Ebisu came barging into the room looking for Konohamaru. On seeing Konohamaru as he was, Ebisu demanded that Naruto let go of Konohamaru. After Naruto set the boy down, Ebisu started scolding Naruto stating that Naruto was an uncultured ruffian for treating the Hokage's grandson like he was. Naruto replied to Ebisu's remarks by yelling at the man. "Sir, If I'm an uncultured ruffian then you're a useless kiss-up. As Konohamaru's teacher you should be teaching the boy to use his head. Being the relative of a Kage out on the field only means that you're a bigger target for the enemy; teach the brat to stand on his own instead of hiding in his grandfather's shadow." With that said Naruto stormed out of the office complaining about self-important nobodies.
During Naruto and Ebisu's argument, Konohamaru watched on in silent surprise. Konohamaru was completely surprised at how Naruto had reacted to the news that he was the Sandaime's grandson. Everyone that Konohamaru had met outside of his family always treated him with the utmost respect and let him get away with anything he wanted to. It was because of the fact that no one would dare refuse the 'honorable grandson' that Konohamaru had started to pull pranks. He was sick and tired of people just seeing him as the 'honorable grandson' and had been hoping that eventually someone would snap from his pranks and treat him like a regular kid.
To Konohamaru's surprise and joy he had finally found someone in that blond haired whiskered boy who was treating him as his own person. Okay, so being chocked by his scarf while being called a moron in front of his grandfather had been painful and humiliating. As far as Konohamaru was concerned it was a small price to pay for being acknowledged by his own name instead of 'honorable grandson'. Seeing that Ebisu was going on and on about only he could help Konohamaru succeed his grandfather, Konohamru quickly ducked out the door to go look for Naruto.
Three hours and four escapes from Ebisu after first meeting Naruto in his grandfather's office; Konohamaru was finally able to locate where Naruto had gone to. Currently Konohamaru was looking out onto a meadow where about two dozen Naruto clones were hard at work. A dozen clones were standing up in the trees throwing shuriken at a Naruto on the ground that was busy deflecting the shuriken with two kodachi. The other dozen shadow clones were currently mediating on the undersides of tree branches. Finally there was one Naruto off to the side who was doing sit-ups. Deciding that it would be safest to approach the Naruto doing sit-ups, Konohamaru slowly walked over and said, "A mister, can I talk with you?"
Naruto looked up into the slightly nervous face of Konohamaru and said, "Sure Konohamaru." Getting into a sitting position Naruto yelled out at the Shadow clones in the meadow, "Times up boys. Disperse yourselves one at a time in 5 second intervals; I don't want to deal with a headache like last time!" Konohamaru watched in amazement as the Narutos in the meadow did exactly as the Naruto sitting next to him told them to. Seeing the look of surprise in Konohamaru's eye, Naruto said, "Their shadow clones. My family on my mother's side has a long history of generating a lot more Chakra then other people but at the same time having a lot less control. Someone in the family came up with this jutsu and it allows the user to create an actual physical clone instead of an illusion. Everything that the shadow clones learns I learn when the clones disperse. So what do you want to talk to me about Konohamaru?"
For the next hour Konohamaru and Naruto talked about things in Konohamaru's life and about both of their dreams to become Hokage. Unknown to Konohamaru, but known to Naruto who simply pretended otherwise, Ebisu was standing on a tree branch listening to the conversation. At first Ebisu had wanted to come in and take Konohamaru away from Naruto. However Ebisu had refrained from doing that as he noticed that his charge was practically spilling his heart out in front of Naruto. Ebisu learned more about Konohamaru listening in on that hour long talk then he had in the past six months.
At the end of Konohamaru's talk about himself Naruto, to Ebisu's surprise, said, "I understand where you're coming from Konohamaru. Both of us want to be recognized for who we are and not what the villagers see when they see us. You want to step out of your grandfather's shadow and not be loved by the villagers only because of the fact that you are the Hokage's grandson. On the other side I want to step out of scorn that many villagers have for me." Seeing the surprise and confusion on Konohamaru's face Naruto went on to explain. "You see Konohamaru I was born on the exact day of the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha. Because of that fact and my whisker like birthmarks I seem to constantly remind people of all those that they lost on that day. Trying to cope with the immense pain that they were dealing with, most of the people in the village directed their feelings on the attack towards me."
Konohamaru was completely shocked that such a thing could happen and asked Naruto how he was able to deal with it all. With a smile on his face Naruto said, "I deal with it one day at a time. Luckily most people have been able to cool down over the years since the attack. Also, through it all, I was able to find several people who saw past the villagers' anger and saw me for who I was. Your grandfather who I also consider to be like a grandfather to me, the man at the ramen stand along with his daughter, and finally my old teacher Iruka who I think of like a big brother all helped me deal with the pressure."
Inwardly Ebisu was quiet impressed with Naruto's little speech. The boy had managed to rather skillfully explain his situation to Konohamaru without revealing the secret about the Kyuubi's defeat. Actually, when Ebisu thought about it, Naruto's little cover story was a very solid one and made a note to tell the Lord Hokage about it so that it could be disseminated throughout the ninja ranks. Soon enough after Ebisu had heard that conversation he made up his mind. Turning around Ebisu quietly left the two boys alone. Konohamaru was in good enough hands for now and it seemed like this conversation was doing the little boy a lot of good. It would be best for things in the long run if he not disturb the conversation that was going on behind him.
One month after the gennin graduations, every boy and girl who had passed the Academy's exam was heading back to the academy. Today was the day that the graduates would be told what teams they were going to be placed in. Naruto walked into his former classroom and sat down in his old seat. The only thing about Naruto's outfit that had changed since he talked to Sarutobi about the Kyuubi a month ago was the fact that Naruto had a pair of dark sunglasses on his face. This slight change in Naruto's wardrobe was because Naruto had decided that the sunglasses would help hide the fact that he had a dojutsu. Thanks to the Ranseigan's remote viewing abilities Naruto could set his viewing point just beyond the sunglasses making it like he wasn't even wearing them.
Slowly as the minutes passed by the rest of the graduates trickled in by ones and twos. There was a proportional increase in the noise level of the classroom as the number of genin in the classroom increased. With the large amount of people moving about and talking Naruto figured that this would be a good time to practice using the Ranseigan. Naruto's control over his dojutsu had improved thanks to a month of daily practice with Iruka. However Naruto was still unused to using the Ranseigan in such a chaotic environment.
Five minutes after the last genin to graduate from Naruto's class walked in the door, Iruka strolled in with a clipboard in his hand and a smile on his face. That smile rapidly degenerated into an eye tick as Iruka stood there at his desk and was completely ignored by most of the genin in front of him. Iruka really loved kids and enjoyed working with them, but these graduates should have had the common decency to stop talking when he first walked into the room. Seeing no noticeable diminishment in the noise level of the classroom, Iruka used his very own Gargantuan Head Jutsu to get the graduates' attention.
Everyone paying close attention to him thanks to the Garantuan Head Jutsu, Iruka smiled and started to talk. "Now that I have everyone's attention, I would like to say a few words. You all may have graduated from this academy and have become ninja but you have not reached your true destination. As you all know, Genin is the lowest level of qualified ninjas in the world. There is a long way for you all to go until you are able to become Chunins and hopefully Jonins. Your Jonin senseis will help you in every way that they can to reach your potential. However this is a two person process, each and every own of you must work with your senseis to bring out the power that rests inside of each and every one of you."
"Look around you at your fellow graduates. School rivalries, petty grudges, young crushes, and class titles that have been with you throughout your schooldays, none of those things mean anything in the real world. Despite what you may or may not think, your all beginners and all equal. These young men and women you see next to you are your fellow shinobi. In the future you can expect to work with them, bond with them, cry with them, bleed with them, and yes possibly even die with them. Our lives as shinobi are dangerous and uncertain. Only through the unity of teamwork and our individual strengths are we able to survive in this world. This academy has done its best to prepare you for this harsh life and I hope to god that none of you precede me into the grave."
The mood in the classroom was a somber one for a few minutes as Iruka's words hung in the air like a mist. Iruka then turned his attention to his clipboard and started calling off teams and team members. For the most part Naruto was only listening with half an ear as the names were called waiting for when his team would be called by Iruka. Things got interesting When Iruka called out team seven which was made up of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and someone called Sai. No one in the classroom knew who Sai was and so someone asked Iruka who Sai was. With a friendly voice Iruka answered, "One of the councilmen has been privately tutoring several potential ninjas in an attempt, or so I've been told, to 'prove the inadequacies of the ninja academy.' While Sai has passed all of the requirements to be a genin, the lack of data on him has caused the Hokage to pair the boy up with Sakura and Sasuke."
Everyone in the classroom nodded their heads assuming that the Hokage had made this arrangement because of the fact that Sasuke was rookie of the year and Sakura had earned the title of top kunoichi. Personally Naruto didn't care about why Sarutobi had made that call. What was on Naruto's mind was the fact that there were 27 genins in the classroom which would mean that someone wouldn't be named to a team here. Naruto was curious as to what would happen to the one genin whose name wouldn't be called.
As Iruka finished calling out the members of team ten, Naruto silently cursed his luck. It seemed that the fates had decided to allow Naruto to find out the answer to his question by being the odd man out. Naruto, quite annoyed that no one else in the classroom seemed to have noticed the fact that his name wasn't called, said in a friendly voice, "Sensei Iruka, what am I to do since my name wasn't called?" Immediately the whole classroom was filled up with surprised chatter from many shocked genin. Iruka, Naruto, and Shino, all sweat dropped as they watched the gaggling genin. In the back of the three's minds were running one single thought: how could you not have notice this fact?
Managing somehow to resist the impulse to bash his head on the desk, Iruka politely coughed into his fist. Once the genin had managed to quiet themselves down, Iruka proceeded to answer Naruto's question. "According to the principle, who I talked to before I came in here, you're supposed to head up to the roof about an hour before the Jonin senseis arrive. There are two other genin, one from each of the other two graduating classes this year, who also weren't place on a team in their home class that will meet you there. The three of you are going to form a genin team."
At the appointed time, Naruto headed up to the roof as he was directed. Opening the door in front of him Naruto walked out onto the rooftop just as his two new teammates walked out onto the rooftop as well from two different exits. To Naruto's left was a girl with long obsidian black hair and who was wearing a plain forest green two-piece Chinese dress outfit. On Naruto's right was a boy with brown hair in a tapered cut. The boy was wearing brown cargo pants, a white sleeveless buttoned shirt, and had a sword strapped onto his back. Taking one last quick look at his two new teammates Naruto said, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, would you two please tell me your names?"
The girl to Naruto left said with a pleasant voice, "Rei Higurashi, gennin and one of your new teammates."
With a friendly bug gruff voice the second male on the unnamed team said, "Iori Kusanagi. Hopefully we'll all be able to work together."
The three young ninjas stood where they where for a minute and then slowly started to walk towards each other. Once they were within arm's reach of each other they all stopped walking. Naruto lowered himself to the ground and sat down Indian style. Rei and Iori, seeing nothing wrong with what Naruto was doing, quickly (and in Rei's case elegantly) sat down. Opening his mouth, Naruto said in his usual friendly voice, "I think that we should talk about ourselves a bit."
Noting the look of surprise in Rei's emerald eyes and Iori's black eyes, Naruto quickly said, "What I meant is, that we should get to know each other. Each of us is from a different class so we know nothing about each other. It would help us in our teamwork if we weren't total strangers." Rei's face had a thoughtful look on it for a moment before she gave Naruto a small smile to show her approval. Iori gave a gruff nod to show his support for Naruto's idea.
Thinking about what to tell his new teammates Naruto closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them. "Alright," Naruto said, "I'll go first since it was my idea. I like reading my clan scrolls that Grandpa Sarutobi saved for me and I dislike close-minded people. My hobbies include practicing my various shinobi skills and hanging out with my old teacher Iruka who I think of like a brother. For the future my goals are to become a Sennin by some point during Grandpa Saurotobi's successor's reign. After that, I hope to be in a position to reach my ultimate goal of becoming Hokage when the Godaime decides to retire."
Rei decided to speak next after Naruto was done talking. "Allow me to go next; I like landscape paintings and the quiet countryside. On the other hand I dislike most of the kunoichi that have been graduating these past few years because of their frivolous and naïve mindset. My hobbies include studying sealing techniques with my grandfather and meditation. I don't have any lofty goals like Naruto but currently I am hoping to become a jonin and I want to help my older brother Katsuhito run my clan when my grandfather dies."
Iroi then said in a friendly, but slightly aggressive voice that reminded Naruto of Kiba, "So this is the part where I tell you two about me eh? Alright then, I like hearing about tales of valor and bravery while I hate cowards and people who give up. For hobbies I would have to say that I like playing shogi and practicing my kenjutsu. My dream is to win back my family sword that Orochimaru stole from my uncle who had decided to remain in Grass Country when my clan moved to Konoha."
For the next hour the three members of the unnamed team slowly got to know each other and talked about their individual abilities. One thing that had quickly come up was the fact that they were more alike then they had at first thought. All of them had purposely held back their abilities in what they showed at the academy. Their reasons varied as to why they had held back, but each of them was happy that they were on a team containing team members all stronger then the 'Rookie of the Year'. Each of them it turned out also was reasonably proficient in a weapon of choice in addition to the standard weapons that the academy trained hopeful ninjas to use. For Naruto it was his twin kodachi, Iori was trained in the use of the strait sword on his back which he claimed was the same balance and weight as his stolen family sword, and finally Rei was trained to use a naginata. When Iori asked Rei where she hid such a large pole arm she simply pointed to a bracelet on her wrist. Since Rei had mentioned that she had studied sealing techniques, Naruto and Iori deduced that Rei's bracelet must have a storage seal on it for her naginata.
Since it was a time to talk of many things, Naruto figured that his teammates should also know about the Ranseigan. Taking off his sunglasses, Naruto opened his eyes and revealed the eight-pointed purple stars on orange backgrounds that were the tell-tale sign of the Ranseigan being active. After giving an account of the capabilities and limitations of the Ranseigan, leaving out the three abilities of the parental Ranseigan because there was no need to give out that information; Naruto sat back and watched his teammates' reactions. Rei gave a polite thank you to Naruto for revealing that fact about him and Iori made the comment that most guys would give their right arm to have half of the abilities that the Ranseigan gave Naruto.
Once she was done shooting a scolding glare at Iori for inappropriate comment, Rei said, "Since you've told us about that I guess I shouldn't hold back. You see the Higurashi family also has a bloodline. The two of you probably haven't heard about the Kigurashi bloodline because most of the Higurashi clan have traditionally gone to become shrine keepers instead of ninjas. My bloodline allows me to use a unique Chakra release known among my family as Reiton. Spirit Release allows me to use jutsu that directly attack a person's chakra reserves and chakra system. The damage done by these attacks can't have the healing process sped up by the use of medical chakra. Also with training my bloodline allows me to greatly strengthen or weaken any seal that I can touch." While Iori made a comment about never making Rei angry at him, Naruto was making a private note to talk to Rei in private later. It wouldn't be a good thing for her to accidentally weaken the Yondaime's seal.
After he was done with his remark about Rei, Iori said, "It seems that the three of us surprisingly have yet another thing in common. The Kunsanagi have a bloodline that gives us a great deal of control over fire. My family doesn't need to use handsigns to perform a fire jutsu and the chakra costs of those jutsus are a great deal less for us then they would be for other ninjas. Unfortunately the Kunsanagi, due to the nature of our bloodline, are utterly incapable of performing water jutsus and actually have a great deal of trouble mastering the water walking chakra exercise. My classmates don't know about my bloodline because I didn't want to deal with comments about having a 'foreign' bloodline."
In the Hokage office, Sarutobi was looking into his crystal ball on the team bonding happening on the roof of the academy with a big smile. These three young ninjas were whether they realized or not, already laying down the foundations of a great team. Since the final test in order for a genin team to become an official team was one of teamwork; Sarutobi marked down on his notes that they had already passed. What was the point of giving them a test when they had already passed a better one of their own creation? Truly, revealing your strengths to your teammates and then listening as they did the same without any prompting showed that these three were ready for the life of being genin of Konoha.
Looking up from his crystal ball Sarutobi saw Chouza Akimichi walk into his office. Very politely Sarutobi inquired what Chouza thought of his knew Genin team. "Well," began the gentle Jonin, "this is a very interesting team. Usually genins with bloodlines are spread out among various genin teams so that more teams can benefit from the strengths of the various bloodlines. May I inquire Lord Hokage why such a team has been constructed?"
With a friendly smile on his old face Sarutobi said, "Yes this team is highly unusual, but I have good reasons for placing them all together. My first reason is that each of them is a good deal more mature then their classmates how they look at things. Also each of them is sadly an outcast in their respective classes. Rei because of her good looks and realistic outlook on the ninja lifestyle was practically ostracized among the girls of her class while the boys of the class were after her for her looks only. Iori was teased by his fellow students because of the fact that his parents moved here only a year before he was born and the fact that his family has had their clan sword stolen from them just before he was born. As for Naruto, the causes for his sad state of isolation are known to both of us."
"Despite these obstacles thrown against them, each of these youths has managed to reach where they are now without becoming jaded or hostile towards their fellow classmates. Part of the reason I think that these three were able to handle these pressures were the fact that they each had people that they could turn to for help. Another thing that these three have done to help themselves cope with the pressure they were under was to fake their actual abilities. Pretending to only be average while were among the top 5 of their class and getting away with it must have amused the three of them to no end. And they were good at getting away with this; only their own teachers and the principle of the academy knew or figured out the charade these three were playing."
"Sadly all of these facts make it that there would be a great deal of friction if they were place with a team made up only of their own classmates. I am sure that these three, who are used to hiding their abilities from their classmates, would have trouble opening up about their real abilities to the people they have been hiding from. On the other hand, their classmates would most likely become bitter towards them once these three decided to stop hiding behind their masks. Such a situation, as I know you can see, would only cause a complete breakdown of team unity. Only away from their fellow classmates will these three have a chance to drop their masks and flourish like they are meant to."
"While I was waiting for you come over here Chouza, I was observing your new team. There is no need to test them on teamwork as they have already proven to me that they already have the basic foundation of teamwork required to pass. If you are curious, they've proven themselves to me by opening up about themselves to each other. They are by no means the tight friends that you and the rest of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio were at the start of your genin days. But then again that is to be expected as they have just met while you and your genin teammates had known each other for years at that point."
Chouza nodded his head fully understanding Sarutobi's motives for this move and was personally very touched that the Hokage would entrust a team with such potential it him. When he had signed up to be a Jonin sensei Chouza had been expecting to receive only an average team. It wasn't that he was a weak Jonin; on the contrary he was one of top level Jonins. Rather, Chouza's mediocre expectations were because of the fact that his deeds were tide up mostly with the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. While the trio's deeds were quite well known, it wasn't the awe-inspiring performance of the Sannin. Also wasn't the individual fame that the Sannin had managed to accumulate even as that team had worked together. With a happy grin on his face Chouza said, "Don't worry Lord Hokage I will make sure that these three become the best that they can be."