Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah I don't own Naruto.
"Lord third, with all due respect this idea is completely unethical and violates several laws in the Leaf code of conduct!" A slender woman with long black hair and red eyes stated respectfully yet firmly.
"Kurenai's right dad, this doesn't make any sense. I don't like it." a tan man with short black spiky hair and a beard added.
"The fact that we have to take care of this many kids isn't really what I'm worried about, I just dislike the fact that its under such short notice. I would've remembered to be late…" a man with spiky silver hair with a mask over his face tartly mumbled.
"…"
The eldest man in the Hokage office was silent for a moment before finally replying.
"Your concern for order in the procedure of how genin teams are formed is admirable, but I assure you this is for their safety." The old man said.
"How so? And why are these nine so special? Why not experiment on some of the other eighteen graduates and their sensei? They have normal three-man cells led by one Jonin, so why don't we?" The bearded man asked curiously.
"Not to mention only nine of the twenty-seven graduates will become genin. We coincidentally have nine students on our cell, meaning if our group passed, there would be only one genin team from this graduating year." Kurenai added.
"To be honest Kurenai, that doesn't really matter. And to answer your question Asuma, it's quite simple. These nine are among the most promising and… "special" genin of their year." The hokage truthfully said.
"Pardon me Lord Hokage, but I don't quite agree. I could understand the Uchiha and maybe the Hyuuga due to their respective kekkei genkai, but what makes the other seven special?" The masked man questioned.
"Think about it Kakashi. All of these children have something extraordinary about them. The Haruno has amazing untapped potential in the genjutsu field along with her advanced book smarts, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio could be among the most elite genin teams in the village with some extra attention, the Aburame is among the best strategists of his class second to only the Nara when the ladder isn't being lazy, the Inuzuka has the best taijutsu of his graduation year, and lastly, Naruto not only needs extra attention due to barely graduating, but if his… "passenger" inside of him is unleashed; we'll need more than just one Jonin to suppress him. A more promising group doesn't currently exist here in the village." The hokage said with a vague grin.
The three jonin all mumbled for a while, but none could think of a decent excuse to get them out of the troublesome situation. They conceded.
"Well, no point in complaining. They're waiting for us." Kurenai admitted as she exited the offices.
Kakashi shortly followed behind her after a respectful bow to his superior.
Asuma gave his father an apathetic look before momentarily following behind Kakashi.
'This will be interesting. Hopefully he's happy now…' Hiruzen thought to himself.
'I'm sure they will be fine though.' The old man dismissed the topic as he pulled out chapter forty-one of the Icha-Icha paradise book series from his drawer with a perverted giggle.
Elsewhere…
"They're late! I wanna know which sensei is mine already! The other groups left almost 20 minutes ago!" a blonde boy with blue eyes wearing a rather ugly orange. outfit agonizingly yelled as he paced back and forth.
A girl with pale lavender eyes and dark blue hair gazed at the blonde and silently agreed with him, though she was absentmindedly vexed by his rowdy behavior.
"Stop complaining idiot. It's annoying. You heard what Iruka said; the higher-ups were late forming squads. Our respective sensei are probably just now receiving news on which students they'll have. Be patient." An adolescent with onyx eyes and black chin length hair affirmed with his hands clasped over his face with his elbows on the desk.
On the other side of the classroom, a bespectacled youth silently pondered the idea that something was amiss. There was no proper reason for the fact that not only were the higher-ups "not done" forming teams when teambuilding was supposed to be done and over with yesterday, but all three sensei for all three teams were ridiculously late. This was an odd situation to say the least.
"Sasuke's right! Shut up Naruto!" the pink haired young girl wailed towards the blonde boy, much to his dismay.
"Stop copying Sasuke you parrot!" a girl with long blonde hair and ocean blue eyes said mockingly.
"Who asked you Ino-pig!" the pink haired girl aggressively said.
"Who are you calling a pig, Forehead!" the blonde girl yelled.
The two girls went on to scream like banshees towards each seemingly endlessly, much to the other's annoyance.
"Their screaming is more troublesome than Naruto's. How am I supposed to sleep with all this noise." A boy with shoulder length black hair tied into a ponytail groaned with an irritated expression while lying on a desk.
A rather plump boy with red spiral markings on his cheeks seemingly didn't notice the activity around him and only focused on his delicious bag of sour cream and onion potato chips.
"That's it! I'm gonna find them and bring them here myself! C'mon Akamaru!" A boy with a grey fur coat declared as he stood up followed closely by his puppy.
"Right behind ya Kiba." Naruto said as he followed behind the boy who was equally as impatient as him.
The canine-like boy reached for the doorknob to begin his search before the door suddenly opened revealing the three sensei who they had been waiting for far longer than they should have.
"Yo." The masked shinobi said as unemotional as possible.
"Hey." The bearded jonin said with a wave.
"Hello." The kunoichi said with a smile.
"Well! Which one of you is my sensei!" Naruto said pointing his finger at neither of the three in particular.
'This kid is rude. No hello?' Kurenai thought to herself.
"That would be me." Asuma said with a grin.
"Who else, who else is on our team!?" Naruto asked anxiously.
"Hopefully Sakura is on my team…" Naruto giddily hoped inwardly.
"Sakura Haruno…" the bearded man started.
"YES!" Naruto outwardly cheered.
"No… I'm doomed." Sakura mumbled, halting her screaming at Ino.
"Sasuke Uchiha…" the bearded man continued.
"YAY!" Sakura cheered even louder than Naruto had seconds ago.
"And then Sasuke comes and ruins everything as usual…" Naruto mumbled even quieter than Sakura had moments ago.
Ino was now sitting at a desk moping at the fact that she wasn't paired with Sasuke.
"…Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga and Kiba Inuzuka." The son of the hokage finished.
At this point, every child in the room's jaw had dropped quite far excluding Sasuke and Shino who both raised eyebrows. Choji almost dropped a chip on the floor due to shock, but hastily caught it and devoured it.
"I don't quite understand. Would you mind explaining this to us?" Shino Aburame asked politely.
"Certainly." Kurenai spoke up noticing Shino as the most polite student she'd heard speak thus far.
"You see, Asuma, Kakashi and I are your three jonin commanders. You nine are an experimental group of graduates who have all been assigned to one team." The red eyes woman said with a smile.
"What the fuck?! " the feral boy hollered simultaneously with his dog's "Arf!"
"WHAAAAT!" Naruto screamed.
'A nine man cell… These losers will only get in my way…' The Uchiha mentally concluded.
Sakura and Ino simply glared at each other
Choji continued to munch on his chips, albeit much slower since he was shocked by the fresh news.
Shikamaru leaned up from his desk and opened one eye to stare at the three Jonin.
Shino seemed unmoved.
Hinata shyly stared at Naruto happy to be on the same team as the boy.
"I know this whole situation is pretty hard to swallow…" Kakashi began before being interrupted by Kiba's immature giggling at his statement.
"… but it will actually make things easier and in the long run all of you will probably become much stronger that you would have with only one sensei." The masked ninja finished.
"You see, the three of us all specialize in one of the three jutsu categories. I'm Asuma Sarutobi, and I'm skilled in Taijutsu." The bearded man stated.
"I'm Kurenai Yuhi, and I specialize in genjutsu." The kunoichi said.
"And I'm Kakashi Hatake, I prefer Ninjutsu." The seemingly cycloptic man said.
"So in summary, the nine of us having three senseis who together specialize in all three jutsu types will result in all of us later down the line becoming elite in all three instead of focusing on the one they're best at like most genin do, am I right?" Shikamaru hypothesized as he finally leaned up from off of the desk, finally intrigued by the situation.
'That's probably the genius Nara that dad told us about. Man, he's the spitting image of Shikaku.' Asuma inwardly pondered.
"Yep. That's right. However, I'd rather not have a long conversation about this whole thing here. Meet the three of us on top of the Kenmopo Center behind the Ichiraku ramen shop in one hour. Don't be late." Kakashi said as he shushined away less than a second later followed by the other two Jonin.
"…"
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The nine rookies all sat in silence for what felt like five minutes.
Eventually the nine conversed about the situation and the pros and cons of the entire thing.
About 20 minutes later…
Everyone had long left the classroom and Naruto was taking a stroll around the village since he still had quite a long time until he needed to meet up with his sensei. He turned a corner only to encounter and lock eyes with his crush, Sakura Haruno.
He walked towards her.
'Just one last try, its now or never Naruto!' The boy inwardly cheered himself on.
"Hey Sakura, I was thinking since we're gonna be on the same team and all we should go out or something and get to know-" Naruto began.
"Eww, why would I want to go out with you!?" Sakura rhetorically asked.
Sakura had rejected Naruto more times than he could count, but for some reason he still fought for her affection. However, something about the look of disgust on Sakura's face made Naruto far beyond offended. Despite this, the boy chose to contain his growing anger on a whim.
"What's so wrong with me Sakura? You've never even given me a chance and I haven't done anything to you. What's the deal?" Naruto asked calmly.
"Naruto. You're annoying. BEYOND annoying. You're arguably the single most annoying person I've ever met. Just leave." Sakura said disrespectfully.
Naruto gave Sakura an apathetic look trying with all his might not to say what was exactly on his mind at this point.
"Ok then." Naruto said plainly as he turned around and walked off.
'Oh, I don't care! Who needs that big fore headed bitch anyway!?' Naruto violently thought to himself as he walked passed a familiar Uchiha who he didn't even glance at.
Sakura frantically ran up to Sasuke and ironically said,
"Hey Sasuke, I was thinking since we're going to be on the same team and all we should go out and get to know each other."
"Who are you?" The Uchiha honestly asked after analyzing the girl for a few seconds.
When Sakura gave a sorrowful look and no response, Sasuke simply walked off without another word.
Sakura simply went to go sit on a nearby bench to mope for a good ten minutes.
38 minutes later…
All nine rookies had gathered together on top of the Kenmopo Center roof with two of their sensei with the masked one mysteriously absent.
"I'd ask you all to introduce yourselves, but there are too many of you and I'd get bored." the eldest male on the roof announced.
Ahem the red-eyed jonin cleared her throat.
"What he meant to say was that the two of us and Kakashi have all read your stats from the academy, so we already know a good portion about you. Also, Asuma, Kakashi and I already told you a bit about ourselves in the classroom so introductions would be pointless." Kurenai assured.
"Then what was the point of all of us meeting here?" several of the genin thought to themselves.
All of a sudden a moderate sized cloud of smoke appeared revealing none other than Kakashi himself.
"Hi." The masked man said.
"You're a bit late pal." Asuma said to his comrade.
"Well you see I got a bit lost on the path of life. It's actually a miracle I made it here fashionably late." Kakashi said nonchalantly
"You're always late…" Kurenai mumbled.
'Hmm…' Shikamaru thought to himself.
"Straight to business though. We'll have our first mission tomorrow. It's a task that the ten of us will do together." Kakashi announced.
"What will we be doing Kakashi sensei?" Ino asked.
"A survival exercise." The masked jonin said firmly.
"What! That's not even a real mission!" Kiba barked.
"Yeah, that's just practice!" Naruto added.
"This isn't like the previous training exercises you all have gone through." Kakashi warned.
"So… what kind of training is it then?" Choji spoke up.
Kakashi simply started chuckling.
"That's a normal question. What's so funny sensei?" Sakura asked.
"Well, when I tell you, you're not going to like it." the cycloptic man said.
Naruto opened his mouth to ask for details but Kakashi continued to talk before he could start.
"Out of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine will actually become genin. The other eighteen will be sent back to the academy for further education. In other terms, this is a pass or fail, make it or break it test and the chance that you'll fail is at least 66%. Be at the designated training field at 5 a.m., and bring your ninja gear." Kakashi said intimidatingly.
'This is it! People are gonna look up to me some day! I cant fail.' Naruto inwardly concluded.
'If I fail I wont be with Sasuke… this is a trial of love!' Sakura thought motivationally.
Sasuke simply clenched his fists in anxiety.
Shikamaru contemplated how troublesome the whole situation was.
Choji simply pulled out a bag of candy from his pocket and started chowing down.
Ino was focused on outdoing Sakura and concluded that she would pass no matter what.
Hinata noticed the determined look on Naruto's face and knew she had to try her best.
'Me and Akamaru can't go back to the academy! No way no how!' Kiba thought.
Shino looked indifferent but was truly confident that he would pass.
"Oh, and skip breakfast tomorrow. You'll probably throw up. Alright, you're dismissed." Kakashi said as he shushined away.
Asuma and Kurenai simply walked off together leaving the kids to their thoughts.
The next morning…
The rookies slowly started arriving to the training field. Some in groups, others one by one.
First were Shikamaru and Choji, 15 minutes early. Shino arrived afterwards about 10 minutes early. Soon was Hinata who was 2 minutes early. Then were Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke, coincidentally at the same time, 5 am exactly. Lastly were Kiba and Ino, 10 and 13 minutes late respectively. The nine exchanged greetings before Shikamaru spoke up.
"Everyone listen up, I think I may have an idea." The Nara started.
"Why should I listen to a slacker loser like you? Who put you in charge?" Sasuke asked rhetorically.
"If you don't wanna listen, don't. But when you wind up in the academy again like a failure, who would be the real loser then?" Shikamaru said coldly.
Sasuke didn't want to admit it, but even if the boy's plan was terrible, a bad plan was a lot better than no plan. The Uchiha simply turned his back in defiance, pretending to be inattentive, but he was actually listening to every word Shikamaru would say.
"No offense, but we really don't have time to form a strategy. Kakashi sensei is probably hiding in some bush right now listening to every word we say." Naruto said gaining nods from multiple of his peers.
"Don't worry, he'll be late. According to Kurenai sensei he always is. Not to mention he admitted himself yesterday that "it was a miracle he arrived fashionably late" hinting that he tends to be much later to important events." Shikamaru explained.
The group all marginally agreed and paid close attention to the boy.
"Alright, first of all..." Shikamaru started
About two hours later…
Kakashi had finally arrived to the designated training field.
"Good morning everyone, ready for your first day?" Kakashi said casually.
The whole group nonchalantly nodded.
'I think I'll like this bunch. No one complains about me being late." Kakashi inwardly concluded.
Ahem "Well, lets get started. You have until noon to take these two bells from me. That's all there is to it. If you cant get them by noon you'll go without lunch and will be tied to those nine posts over there and watch as I eat my lunch." Kakashi explained.
"So that's why he told us to skip breakfast." the majority of the genin whined.
"But wait sensei, there are nine of us and two bells. What gives?" Kiba asked.
"That way, the majority of you will be punished for failing to complete the mission. Those seven will go back to the academy. Then again, all nine of you could flunk too. It all depends on how this plays out. You may use any weapon in the fight, if you're not prepared to kill me, you wont be able to take the bells. When I say start… well, you know what to do." The jonin said.
"Ready…" Kakashi started.
All nine genin braced their selves for the exercise.
"Start!" the cycloptic man commanded.