CHAPTER 1: HERE COMES TEAM 7

(Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto.)

"Talking/Jutsu."

'Thinking.'

'Flashback'

"Flashback talk"

|Konohagakure no Sato, Shinobi Academy|

"Team 7: Uzumaki Naruto..." Iruka said, gaining the attention of the blonde boy. Today was the day ninja teams would be assigned and Naruto couldn't wait to see who were going to be his teammates. Now that he was a fully-fledged Genin, his path to become Hokage had just shortened. Just a little longer and that hat would be his for the taking!

"... Haruno Sakura..."

"Yatta! I'm paired with Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheered at the top of his lungs. Not only did he graduate, but he was also placed on the same team the girl of his dreams was. Things were looking particularly good for the Uzumaki boy.

However, the same thing couldn't be said for Sakura if the very disappointed look on her lowered face was anything to go by. 'I can't believe that I'm stuck in the same team with Naruto-baka!' she thought in distress.

"... Uchiha Sasuke..."

At the mention of the last Uchiha, the roles between Sakura and Naruto were exchanged.

'Darn it! Why did I have to be paired with the teme! I'm doomed.' Naruto thought frustrated.

'CHA! TRUE LOVE WINS!' Inner Sakura shouted while pumping her fists. If being in the same team as her Sasuke-kun meant that she would have to deal with Naruto, she was willing to do it.

Sasuke said nothing and didn't even bother to acknowledge the existence of the other two. He just kept brooding like he usually did, seemingly unaware of the rest of the world. Little did he know that his attitude was going to change rather sooner than later.

"... and Ozuma Shujinko."

Almost everyone in the class, Sasuke included, glanced at the boy sitting with two other students on the other side of the room. The boy in question had medium-long brown hair, slightly tanned skin and a pair of golden eyes on his face. He wore an open, black, long-sleeved jacket with a white t-shirt underneath. He also had dark brown pants and blue shinobi boots. The boy was chatting with some of his friends when he was announced as the fourth member of team 7, which took him by surprise but his smile showed that he seemed to be rather excited about the news.

If one had to use one word to describe the golden-eyed boy, it would probably be 'likable'. Shujinko was known for his cordiality and his ability to make friends, as well as his prowess as a shinobi. He was actually tied with Sasuke with the 'Rookie of the Year' tittle, though Sasuke ended up receiving the tittle because of his slightly betters theoretical grades. Apart from that, the two of them were pretty much equal in other aspects regarding their ninja skills. However, unlike Sasuke, Shujinko was amicable, had a sense of humor and lacked arrogance. To top it all up, he was good-looking in his own right, or at least that was what the females students said to one another.

This didn't mean that everyone liked the guy. In fact, there were a few students that thought of him as a lucky guy that everything came to him effortless, but most of them were just jealous. In reality, Shujinko was very dedicated to his career and spent almost all of his time either training or reading ninja-oriented books, such as survival guides and jutsu theories. It's not like he was a training maniac, he simply understood the risks and expectations of his line of work, something that a lot of Sasuke's fangirls didn't seem to understand or care for that matter. All they seemed to care about was winning the affection of their beloved Sasuke-kun, something that unnerved him to no end.

Speaking of which, Sasuke's sub consciousness was showing him the first day he met Shujinko.

|Flashback|

A nine-year old Sasuke was currently in a random training ground, practicing his kunai throwing and avoiding the horde of annoying fangirls that had chased him through the village. Those stupid girls didn't seem to understand that he wanted to be alone, that he wanted to train in peace so he could finally get strong enough to kill Him. Uchiha Itachi. His brother. The murderer of his clan.

As he threw another kunai from his pouch, he watched how the target would get hit dead-center just like the last time. Most of the kids of his class would be overjoyed by having such results, but he wasn't. He was top of the class and he knew it, but that meant that he had no one to measure himself against. All the others boys and girls were simply too weak to practice with. The only ones who would improve would be them, not him. What good would that be?

"Hey there, can I join you?"

Sasuke turned around to see the source of the voice. While he was distracted by his own thoughts, a boy his age appeared and was now standing close to him. The boy had brown hair, gold eyes and was wearing a plain white t-shirt, gray shorts that reached a little past his knees and blue shinobi boots. He had a smile on his face that seemed to pour happiness and good vibes.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked with little interest and somewhat annoyed.

"My name is Ozuma Shujinko. You're Uchiha Sasuke, right? We're in the same class in the Academy. I saw you practicing and I was wondering if I could join you. I also need a little help with my kunai technique." the boy now identified as Shujinko said.

The Uchiha narrowed his eyes. He didn't recall seeing him in class before. But then again, he rarely payed attention to any of his classmates. "I don't need help with my kunai technique and I train alone. Go find another place." he said before returning his gaze to the wooden dummy that was his target.

Shujinko was a little taken back by his words. He'd seen him in class before and he knew he rarely talked to anybody, but he didn't know he was so mean. However, Ozuma Shujinko was not one to be dissuaded so easily. "Oh, come on! Then why don't we have a spar? I'll be fun!"

'He wants to have a spar with me? Doesn't he know I'm the top student? He doesn't looks like much either." Sasuke thought before replying. "No."

"You're no fun!" Shujinko said with a childish pout. Then his mouth formed a mischievous grin. "Okay, how about this? We have a little spar and if you win I'll never ever bother you again!"

That seemed to interest the young Uchiha, or at least it got him to turn around and face Shujinko once again. If anything, he could take him out quickly and hope that he would keep his promise of leaving him alone. He considered asking what he would want if he won, but that was a ridiculous idea. Sasuke was going to win, he just had to decide how long would the fight last. "Fine."

Shujinko grinned. "Alright, that's more like it!" he said as he went into the typical Taijutsu stance that was taught at the Academy, with Sasuke doing the same. "Ready?"

"Hn."

"Okay... Go!" Shujinko yelled as he started running towards his opponent with his right hand back, indicating that he was planning to go for a direct hit.

When he was close enough, Shujinko went for the punch. Sasuke saw this coming a mile away and effortlessly raised his arm to block the punch. What he didn't saw coming a mile away however, was Shujinko pulling back his fist in the middle of the hook and instead going for a left kick. Sasuke was a little surprised by the change but he didn't show it, stepping out of the kick in the last moment. Realizing that his left leg was still yet to touch the ground, Sasuke ducked and attempted to sweep Shujinko's right leg. Shujinko jumped back and went for a four-hit combo with both his hands. Sasuke dodged every punch thrown at him and quickly went for a spinning wheel kick, but missed as Shujinko lowered his head just in time.

Sasuke was not done yet. As soon as he finished his attempt to kick Shujinko's face, he immediately raised his hand and punched his opponent's left cheek. Shujinko, who was just lifting his head up after avoiding the kick, didn't had enough time to block the incoming punch and ended up receiving a fist to the face. Now Sasuke smelled the victory, but before he could end the fight Shujinko stepped aside and kicked Sasuke's left thigh with a low kick. The Uchiha grunted in pain, and even more when Shujinko seized an opportunity and punched Sasuke in both his stomach and near his collar bone. Feeling lucky, the brunet went for a third hit, but Sasuke evaded it and thrusted his knee deep in Shujinko's gut. Sasuke took advantage of this and jumped back to distance himself from his opponent.

This went on for a couple of more minutes. Dodging, punching, kicking, evading, jumping, etc. Sasuke didn't want to admit it, but the boy he was facing was good, quite good actually. He had a solid stance, was fast in his attacks and defending, rarely left out any spot he could take advantage of and had a lot of energy. To top it all up, he had some unpredictable moves that caught him off-guard in more than one occasion. Without either of them noticing, the little sparring match was now over an hour long. They kept going at it until neither of them could move because of the pain and the fatigue they were experiencing. Blood, bruises and scratches were all over their bodies.

"How about... we... call it a... tie?" Shujinko suggested as he tried to catch his breath.

The Uchiha didn't respond as he was also breathing hard. He was honestly surprised by the kid's abilities and was wondering how did Shujinko, the classmate that he had ignored for so long, was able to fight him like an equal. Sure he didn't won, but he didn't lose either. That confused and intrigued him to no end. "How?"

"How what?" Shujinko asked back in confusion.

"How did you kept up with me? I am the best in the class and no one should be able to do that. But you did. How?" Sasuke asked once he had enough air.

Smiling at Sasuke's interest, Shujinko explained. "Well I train a lot. Most of my time I spend it getting better and learning new things. I want to be the strongest ninja I can be."

And with that, the two of them parted away. Shujinko felt happy and satisfied to know that he could go toe-to-toe with the top student. That could only mean that he was growing stronger by the day and he would continue to do so. Sasuke, on the other hand, felt something he hadn't experienced since the day his clan was massacred: Excitement. He had finally found someone who he could measure himself against, someone who might help him get stronger. Granted, he didn't particularly like Shujinko's happy and innocent demeanor, but he would put up with it as long as he could put up a fight against him.

And that was the beginning of the rivalry between the top students of the class.

|Flashback ends|

Since that day, both Shujinko and Sasuke would spar against each other at least once a week. Shujinko was no natural prodigy, but he was extremely dedicated and hard-working, always trying to find his weaknesses so he could improve and exploiting his strengths. Not only was he strong, but he was ingenious as well. In fact, when he discovered Shikamaru's passion for Shogi, he started playing with him so he could improve his strategies. It was only after their first game of Shogi when Shujinko found out just how smart the Nara heir actually was. Kami, that boy was a genius! A genius too lazy to do anything other than watch the clouds in the sky. Still, the two of them bonded through Shogi and, by instance, Shujinko met and befriended Akimichi Chouji. Even if Shikamaru never lost a game against Shujinko, he enjoyed all of their games together. The golden-eyed boy was smart for his age and was even able to force Shikamaru to change his strategy in order to win, occasionally making him mutter something about 'troublesome friends and their troublesome strategies'. Shujinko just laughed at him.

Back at the present, people were whispering about the members of Team 7.

"A four-man team?"

"Has that ever happened before?"

"Why would they put Sasuke and Shujinko on the same team? They're top of the class!"

"I can't believe Sakura got placed in the same team as Sasuke-kun and Shujinko-kun! No one should be that lucky!"

"Well, they do have Naruto on their team. The two top students should be balanced with the dead-last, right?"

That last commentary made Shujinko frown in annoyance. He was aware that Naruto wasn't exactly a genius... Okay, the boy was a loud goofball. But at the same time, he respected his efforts of being a ninja. Shujinko had to admit that, if the roles were reversed between him and Naruto, he would've probably given up a long time ago. Naruto, despite all of his flaws and his lack of skills, had confidence and determination in spades. Besides, his pranks did make Shujinko laugh every once in a while.

With Naruto, the news of having Shujinko as a teammate surprised him quite a lot. He didn't knew the guy that much and (not that he would ever say it out loud) he was somewhat envious of his talent as a shinobi and the recognition he had among his peers. His classmates would always say how Shujinko was the only one in the class that could be considered as an equal to the teme. But even if he tried to, he couldn't bring himself to hate him or anything like that. Unlike Sasuke, Shujinko was never rude and never treated people like they were below him. In fact, in the few occasions that Naruto and Shujinko had exchanged words, Shujinko had never disrespected him or called him dead-last like the rest of the class did. All in all, Naruto felt glad that he had another teammate besides Sakura that he liked. Maybe the two of them could even become friends!

Sakura felt somewhat similar to Naruto. While the two of them never really had a conversation per se, Sakura noticed that Shujinko seemed to be friendly and not full of himself, something that could be expected from one of the classes top student. But her obsession with Sasuke blinded her to the point of not bothering to know him. She didn't think badly of him, she just didn't know the guy. At least for now.

Finally, Sasuke's reaction was that of slight surprise and interest. He had no business with Sakura or Naruto, but Shujinko was to this day the only one he could consider a worthy rival. They still had their spars once every week and they would make small conversation every now and then. Sasuke wouldn't call him a friend. After all, Uchiha Sasuke had no friends. But he did consider Shujinko to be someone closer to him than any of the class. 'Those two are only going to slow me down.' Sasuke thought in despair as he glanced at Sakura and Naruto. Then his gaze met Shujinko. 'But I need him on my team if I want to get stronger. Maybe he can even drill some sense into the dobe's head or at least get him out of my way.'

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto's loud voice boomed through the class. "Why do I have to be on the same team as that teme?"

Shujinko had to cover his ears. He knew Naruto wasn't a bad guy, but Kami, he could be as loud as Sasuke's fangirls when he wanted to.

To his credit, Iruka's twitching eye was fairly well dissimulated. "That's because Sasuke had the best grades of all the graduating students. You, Naruto, had the worst scores. To create a balanced team, we put the best student with the worst."

"But then why did they pair Shujinko-kun with Sasuke-kun as well? Shujinko-kun had the second best graduating grades!" a random girl asked.

"Well, that would be because we had a total of 28 students at the end of the year. We couldn't let one student alone, so we were obligated to create a team of four members. Hokage-sama decided that placing Shujinko with Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke was the best thing to do." Iruka explained.

"Hmpf, just make sure you don't get in my way, dobe." who else but Sasuke said.

"WHAT WAS THAT, TEME!"

"Don't insult Sasuke-kun, Naruto-baka!"

Shujinko sighed. 'This is gonna be, as Shikamaru would put it, troublesome.'

Iruka coughed. "After lunch, you'll meet your new Jounin-senseis. Until then, the class is dismissed."

And with that said, everyone left the room. Sakura and several other girls went outside looking for Sasuke to have lunch together, Sasuke went to hide himself from his horde of screeching fangirls and Naruto went to get some of his holy ramen. With none of his new teammates to spent some 'getting-to-know-each-other' time, Shujinko went to his favorite lunch spot in all of Konohagakure no Sato: The glorious 'Yoi Sakana's sushi bar'.

For Shujinko, sushi was to him what ramen was for Naruto. Well, maybe not THAT important, but it was definitely his favorite food. The stand wasn't luxurious by any means, but it was wide and comfortable and the prices were good. And the food... the food was incredible. If anyone wanted to get on Shujinko's good side, all they had to do was treat him with sushi and they were good to go.

After having a delicious lunch at Yoi Sakana's, Shujinko went back to the classroom where Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were waiting for their Jounin-sensei. Shujinko was actually a bit late and he had hoped that their new sensei would forgive him this time for his tardiness. After all, they were Genin now and it was expected of him to be punctual just like his sensei surely was.

Oh, how cute and naive.

(2 hours later)

"He's late!" Naruto yelled in frustration as he kept looking outside to see if their new sensei was coming.

Now, Shujinko considered himself to be fairly patient. He had to, as it was expected of ninjas. Brash decisions and thoughtless actions often got shinobi killed, or so Shujinko had read once in one of those survival guides he liked to read so much. Knowing when to strike and knowing when to wait was something priceless in the ninja world.

But their new sensei was pushing it BIG TIME. Seriously, what kind of sensei arrives two hours late to his first meeting with his new Genin team?

As it was expected, Sasuke was on one side of the room brooding and Sakura was trying to make some conversation with her one-sided crush while failing phenomenally. Shujinko was reading a scroll about jutsu and chakra theories. He wanted to make conversation with at least one of his new teammates, but that was no easy task. Sasuke rarely ever talked with him and he only spoke what was necessary, Sakura was too busy trying to get her Sasuke-kun's attention to actually care for anything else and Naruto was displaying his rather childish antics thanks to the Jounin being absurdly late. Not exactly the best mood for conversation.

"Naruto, sit down already!" Sakura exclaimed as Naruto was still waiting by the door.

"I don't want to! How come our sensei is the only one late? The other teams already met their senseis and took off to some adventure or something, and Iruka-sensei is gone too!"

Sakura sighed. "We know, ok?" she said. The next thing she saw, Naruto was on a chair placing an eraser on the top of the door, giggling mischievously while he did so. "Naruto!"

Naruto jumped off the chair. "That's what he gets for getting late!"

"You're asking for trouble. You know that, right?" Sakura scolded him. But on the inside, Inner-Sakura was cheering. 'CHA! I LOVE THIS!'

For the first time since they started waiting, Sasuke raised his voice. "Dobe, our sensei is a Jounin, an elite ninja. Do you really think he'll fall for such a simple trick?"

Needless to say, Sakura agreed with him wholeheartedly. "Yeah, Sasuke-kun is right! You're so clueless, baka!"

"(Sigh) Hey guys, do you think we could all get along for just a couple of minutes?" Shujinko asked with a tired voice. He could understand if there was no conversation going around, but the constant arguments really made him weary.

Whatever answer Shujinko was going to receive, it was interrupted by the sound of an opening door. Everyone looked at the entrance to see how things were going to develop.

POOF

As soon as the door opened, the eraser fell right on top of the Jounin's head. Said Jounin looked just like every Chunin/Jounin of the village except for a few things. One would be the cloth mask covering half of his face, his Konoha headband covering his left eye and his spiky silver hair. He had a lazy aura around him as he picked up the eraser from the ground

"Hahahahahaha! He fell for it, he totally fell for it!" Naruto yelled in ecstasy.

"I'm so sorry, sensei! I told him not to do it, but he wouldn't listen! I would never do anything like that." Sakura apologized. However, Inner-Sakura had another thing to say. 'CHA! PERFECT SHOT!'

Sasuke said nothing but on the inside he was frowning. 'He actually fell for that cheap trick? Is this guy really a Jounin?'

'Well, he sort of had it coming. After all, he was late for 2 hours.' Shujinko thought with a shrug.

"Hmmm, how can I put this?" the silver-haired man lazily said as he rubbed his chin. "My first impression of this team is... You're a bunch of idiots."

Everyone sweat-dropped at the blunt statement.

"Meet me at the roof top in five minutes. Ja ne." and with that, the man poofed out of their sight.

|Academy's roof top|

"Alright..." the Jounin started to say, "... why don't you introduce yourselves? One at a time."

"Introduce ourselves? Well, what are we supposed to say?" Sakura asked.

"Things you like, things you hate, dreams for the future, hobbies, things like that."

Naruto still wasn't so sure about the whole 'introduction' thing. "Why don't you go first, sensei? Tell us about yourself so we can see how we should do it."

"Me? I'm Hatake Kakashi. The things I like and the things I hate?... I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future?... I never really thought about it. And as for my hobbies... I have lots of hobbies."

...

"So... Is there anything you would like to tell us about yourself other than your name, sensei?" Shujinko asked with a raised eyebrow at the now identified Hatake Kakashi.

The man shrugged. "Not particularly. And now that you know what you are supposed to do, introduce yourselves. You first, blondie."

"Yosh! I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like instant cup ramen and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei treats me at Ichiraku's. But I really hate the three minutes I have to wait when I pour the hot water into the cup. My hobbies are collecting new types of ramen and comparing them. And my dream for the future is to be the greatest Hokage! That way the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like somebody important, believe it!" Naruto said with fierce determination.

Shujinko was listening to his teammate and couldn't help but wonder what he meant at the end. 'Stop disrespecting him? What's that about? Sure they used to make fun of him in class, but the whole village? I don't get it.'

'Well, he has grown up in a very interesting way.' Kakashi thought. "I see. You're next, pinkie."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched at the nickname but let it go. "My name is Haruno Sakura. What I like... I mean the person I like is... (girly squeal as she looks at Sasuke)... My hobbies are... My dream for the future is... (looks at Sasuke and starts squealing again)."

"And what do you hate?"

"... Naruto!" Sakura said out loud. Naruto gasped and started sulking with a few tears running down his cheeks.

'Wow, she barely told us more than Kakashi-sensei.' Shujinko thought with a deadpan expression.

Kakashi let out a small sigh. 'Girls her age are more interested in boys rather than ninja training.' he thought. "Very well. Your turn, darkie."

Sasuke glared to his teacher before talking. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are many things I dislike, and I don't particularly like anything." he started to say. Sakura looked at her feet in disappointment, asking herself when will the time come that her Sasuke-kun would admit his undying love for her. "What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and kill a certain someone."

The whole atmosphere went dead silent after Sasuke said those words.

'I hope he doesn't mean me.' Naruto thought warily.

'Sasuke-kun is so cool!' Sakura thought with admiration.

'As I expected.' Kakashi almost said, but stopped his tongue right on time. Shujinko was probably the most shocked out of the four. He had 'known' Sasuke since nine, and in all of that time he had never said such a thing to him. Of course, he knew Sasuke wanted to get stronger every day, very much like he did. But Shujinko never knew WHY he wanted to get stronger. The first day they met, Shujinko made it very clear that he wanted to get stronger just for the sake of being stronger and be recognized in all of the Elemental Countries. Sasuke, on the other hand, never said a word about his reasons and Shujinko had never bothered to ask him.

The Jounin looked at his fourth student. "Ok, last but not least, brownie."

'Brownie? Is that the best you can come up with?' Shujinko thought slightly offended. "My name is Ozuma Shujinko. I like training, learning new things, meeting new people, animals and the sushi from Yoi Sakana's. I hate arrogant, lying and overly-loud people in general. My hobbies are training, reading and creating new jutsus. My dream for the future is to be the greatest ninja I can be and hopefully live a very fulfilling life. Yeah, I think that's it."

Kakashi looked at the golden-eyed youth with interest. 'If his Academy expedient is accurate, then this one shouldn't give me much trouble. He's talented and has the right mindset to achieve his goals. I guess I'll see that tomorrow.' "Good. Each one of you is unique and you have your own ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow."

Naruto immediately perked up. "What mission are we going to handle, Kakashi-sensei?"

"It's a task that the five of us will do together. A survival exercise." the Hatake stated.

Sakura frowned. "Huh? I thought we were supposed to have an actual mission, not a practice exercise. We already did that stuff at the Academy, that's how we got here."

"Yeah! And what kind of exercise is it then?" Naruto asked.

To everyone's surprise, Kakashi chuckled for a minute. "Well, if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it." he then made a pause before going serious. "Out of the 28 students that graduated this year, only nine or ten of them actually become Genin. The others will be weeded out and sent back to the Academy. In other words, this is a pass-or-fail test, and the chance that you'll fail is at least 66%." Kakashi said, making Sakura and Naruto gasp in surprise. Shujinko and Sasuke stiffened at his words. "See? I told you you wouldn't like it."

"That's crazy! We worked our asses off to get here! What was that graduation test anyway?" Naruto exclaimed.

"Oh, that? That was just to select the candidates who might become Genin... or not." Kakashi responded calmly as ever. "In any case, be at the entrance of the training ground number 3 at 5:00 A.M. sharp. Don't forget to bring your ninja gear. Oh, and I suggest that you all skip breakfast, otherwise you'll puke." and with that said, the cyclops disappeared, leaving his potential students to their thoughts.

'I am so not gonna be weeded out! I'm going to pass this test one way or another, believe it!'

'If I fail this test tomorrow, then I'll be separated from Sasuke-kun! This is a trial of love!'

'...'

'5:00 A.M.? Why does it have to be so early?'

Since no one spoke a word, Shujinko decided to turn in for the rest of the day and go home to pack his things for tomorrow. "Alright, I'm heading home. See you guys tomorrow!"

"Huh? Oh, bye Shujinko." Sakura said, still a little (a little too much) distracted by Sasuke.

"Bye Shujinko! See ya tomorrow!" Naruto yelled with a foxy grin. Shujinko smiled and nodded his head.

The young Uchiha merely grunted in response.

With all of his teammates saying their goodbyes, Shujinko turned around and went home to tell both of his parents the news. Despite himself, Shujinko couldn't help but feel excited about his new life as a Genin. This was his very start as an official ninja of Konohagakure no Sato, and he was determined to make a name for himself.

Shujinko smiled, thinking about the things to come.

There you have it, the first chapter of 'Shujinko, The Fourth Member'. After watching a couple of fanfics with Oc's in them, I wanted to give it a shot as well. Like it? Hate it? Do you have any recommendations? Feel free to PM me or leave a review. I'm aware that there might be some grammar mistakes around (English is not my first language), and if you notice one please tell me so I can fix them right away. I'll also try to make future chapters longer; this was just to give you a taste of the story.

Ja ne!