The sky was the same blue. The dirt still tasted the same. And it still hurt when he got his ass kicked. But the Konoha of the past was just amazing. He had a home. A home that he could return to and not be alone, sure he shared it with Kushina but that wasn't a bad thing. And Mukaze was amazing at cooking ramen.

Sure he missed some of the people from his time, like Iruka-sensei and a few of his classmates. But those only came up when he was alone. And now he was almost never alone. If he wasn't at class he was arguing with Kushina, running around with Kizashi, or learning seals from Mukaze.

"Good fight." Minato, the blond-haired boy that Kushina absolutely hated - and his recent sparring partner - extended a hand down towards him. Despite his best efforts, Naruto hadn't even landed a hit on Minato. No one had.

Naruto stared at the hand. Jerk. He was trying to say that he was better than Naruto. That he needed his help. With his eyes locked onto Minato, Naruto stood, brushing the hand away. "Just you wait Minato, I'm going to beat you eventually!"

"I'll look forward to it then." Minato smiled at him giving him the smallest of bows as he nodded. Wait. What? Why was this prick being so nice? Where was the glaring? Where was the to cool for you attitude! "Let me know if you ever want to train together." Minato laughed, scratching the back of his head. "You're pretty tough, if the fight went on for much longer you would have won."

"Oh," Naruto mumbled, his face was warm, dammit, why was this guy so nice? "Umm, sure that sounds like fun I guess."

"Enough dilly-dallying ladies!" Inumaru-sensei barked, hands behind his back as he glared down at them. "Perform the seal of unity and let the next match begin!"

"Hey!" Kushina shouted from the circle, hands on her hips as she glared at Inumaru-sensei. The other girls mimicked her. "What's wrong with being a girl huh?"

"Yea, Sensei." Miss Mikoto growled joining the girls in their glare. "Is there something wrong with being a lady?"

To his credit Inumaru didn't bat an eye, keeping his vigilant gaze outwards, though he did look nervous. "Next match, Kushina and Mebuki, please step into the center."

The fights lasted for the rest of the day until everybody - save for himself and Kushina - were too tired to stand. Even Minato had taken to resting on one knee, and Kizashi was laying on his back half dead next to Mebuki who was too tired to scowl at her pest.

"Now, then." Inumaru began hands behind his back as he paced back and forth. His scowl never leaving his face. "Today's training session has demonstrated many different lessons I hope many of you picked up on. But it also gave you a good idea of each other's strength and weaknesses. I want you to keep this in mind for tomorrow's Exposition. In effect, this will be your final exam."

"There's," Mebuki asked raising her hand, she was the girl that according to Kizashi was going to marry him someday. According to her, there was no way in hell that was ever going to happen. "Not going to be a written exam?"

"There will be," Mikoto answered. "And for those of you not selected by a jounin sensei, it will be much more important. But you all will be required to pass the exam at some point."

"Exactly, and this exam will demonstrate all of the skill you should have been learning up until now." Inumaru took a step aside revealing a large box with a flap over a hole. "Now then, the training is simple, think of it as a modified version of Capture the flag, The blue team wins if they have both their flag and the enemies flag in their base, the opposite is true for the red team."

"And yellow team?" Minato asked his breath still long.

"Yellow team wins if neither blue nor red wins by the time limit. While this might seem like the easiest team to claim victory as they will also have the fewest members." Inumaru paused smiling as he reached into the box after pulling out a handful colorful headbands. "You will be required to wear the headbands during the exam. You may also use whatever jutsu you have available to you."

"But no killing!" Mikoto added in.

"That should go without saying." Inumaru produced an odd-looking blue Kunai that looked like it was made of cloth. With a lazy toss, he hit the still lying Kizashi, turning him blue. "Tomorrow you will receive a set of these Kunai and similar shuriken, the paint lasts for thirty minutes, if you're painted you're out."

"Now then, please when your name is called please come and grab a single headband."

Their class twenty-four was divided into two teams of ten and a single team of four. Somehow, he ended up on the yellow team alongside Kushina, Kizashi, and some guy called Tarou.

"The Exhibition will take place at Training Ground Eleven at 10 in the morning until then you are dismissed."

XXXX

Training Ground Eleven, was mostly woods, saved for the clearing created by a creek that divided the area into two zones. The terrain was mostly rocks, fallen trees, shrubs, and water. On either side of the clearing sat the simple wooden forts that served as the bases for the red and blue teams.

The Yellow Team had no base. Instead, they gathered near the river bed. With almost no sense of coordination.

Honestly, Jiraiya just showed up for the free food - which was lacking in both flavor and quantity, he was a big man he needed good big food - there was just no way that he was going to take on another group of brats to watch over. He just finished training those Ame kids. Then again, the more apprentices he had the more likely that stupid prophecy was to come true.

"Ahh Jiraiya," Jiraiya spun, a rice ball stuck in his mouth even as he turned to see his teammate Orochimaru standing side by side with their sensei. "I wasn't expecting you to be here."

He swallowed the rice ball in a single bite, nearly choking as it stuck to his throat before it slid down easy. Man, he should get a drink after this, shame Tsunade wasn't around. "Orochimaru? Sensei? What are you two doing here, I didn't expect you either of you to be interested in taking a team."

Not that he was one to talk.

"Oh, nothing of the sort," Orochimaru had that look in his eyes. One that Jiraiya had learned to both fear and respect, it was his unquenchable thirst for knowledge. "I'm just eager to see how the next generation is developing."

Hiruzen gave a brief nod gesturing out onto the field from the watchtower. "It is as Orochimaru says, there is a great deal of promise in this group of children, besides, with the Hokage watching them, they might try to show off a bit more wouldn't you say?"

"Or you might stress them all out to the point that they mess up."

Hiruzen gave another laugh. "They will learn to adapt, after all as the Hokage I'm watching over all of their missions."

"Careful you don't let the paperwork kill you old man," Jiraiya grumbled scratching his chin and popping in another rice ball. He had no idea how his sensei did it, running the village and still having the time to act like everybody's father. It was like there was five of him all around the village. Maybe he was a clone?

"Still, I'm happy you're here Jiraiya, there are quite a few students I believe you'd be a good match for." Hiruzen never took his eyes off of the students, his lips twisted upwards into a smile of strength, it almost looked Orochimaru like in its glee. Was Orochimaru rubbing off on him? He probably shouldn't have stayed away for so long.

"And which one would that be?" Sakamo, the white fang of Konoha asked joining them on the railing. Not two seconds later the tall tired looking man with a mane of white hair that rivaled his own did Sakamo pull out a photo of his wife and newborn son. "And have you seen my son? His names Kakashi and he is just the sweetest little babe, doesn't so much as cry!"

"Uhh no," Jiraiya swallowed another rice ball. "But your wife is hot."

"Thank you, she truly is the most beautiful woman in Konoha!"

"I'm sure he'll make a fine ninja one day," Hiruzen nodded turning his attention back to the field. "As for the students, I'm certain that the ones I'm referring to will make themselves known."

The other Jounin and a few chunin joined them on the observation deck, many of them he had fought alongside with during the second war. All eyes were on the soon to be genin as they milled about organizing themselves into teams, and already the power structure was made known.

"Who's the blond kid on the red team? He seems to be a natural leader?" Jiraiya asked watching the boy direct each of his teammates like it was second nature. What's more is that they listened to him.

"That would be Minato Namikaze," Hiruzen said. "He's one of our more promising students, with excellent grades all around."

Jiraiya grunted his eyes flickering between all of the other students, on the blue team, only Minato stood out so far. The red team was worse, only the Ino-Shika-Cho combo stood out as having any semblance of teamwork. And then there was the yellow team. They looked confused and lost.

Hard to blame them considering their goal was to stop the other two from winning, they'd have to react to one team gaining the upper hand and be careful not to swing the momentum too far to either side. Something he wasn't sure they could do. Especially because the blond one and the redhead were already shouting at each other.

And now they were stomping out into the middle of the field glaring at both the red and blue team.

Without proper teamwork, they didn't stand a chance. Ha, one of the other ones was sitting on the tree ready to take a nap. "I don't think Yellow has much of a chance this year."

There was a collective groan in agreement.

"I wouldn't count them out just yet, the two in the middle are Uzumaki, I heard Mukaze has been training them himself," Sakamoto gestured towards the two in the middle. "I admit, I'm a bit curious what they can do."

So they were Uzumaki, big deal, even if those stamina freaks could fight till the last it wasn't like either one of them had seals to use in combat at the moment. Once again Jiraiya found himself drawn to that Minato boy, he could feel it. That tugging at his soul, he needed to train that boy as badly as he needed to breathe. Well, maybe not that bad.

On a scale of important things, it was about five steps below appreciating the beautiful woman in the world.

The match started with a flare, and both sides sprang into action. The red team set out a larger force of seven, valuing offense over defense, while the Blue team went for a more balanced leaving five to defend.

There was a shout from the two Uzumaki in the field, the boy multiplied creating dozens of clones - solid ones - and charged both advanced teams, drawing them towards the center of the field. The girl was in a word, terrifying. She made the most of the chaos and spread chaos in the ranks of the red team.

"Why are they just fighting in the middle?" A jounin asked scratching his chin. "Their objective isn't to beat each other up."

"It's Yellow team," Sakamo answered, a gleam in his eyes. "They're drawing them in like a whirlpool," He had on a smug grin at that one that made Jiraiya roll his eyes. "They've effectively trapped over half of the combatants in the center, if either side starts to retreat they'll lose a fighting advantage. As a stalling tactic, it's brilliant."

It was short lived as the girl was bathed in red powder at one point, leaving only the little copier in the center. Well him and an ever-expanding sea of clones. really how much chakra did that brat have? He was basically a one-man army. or rather a temporary one at any rate.

"Look there," Sakamo pointed towards the red camp. The lazy Yellow one that had sat down minutes ago was lazily walking up to the red teams flagged, there was some shouting, then talking.

"So he's going to even out the red team's Defense?" A chunin asked, hand over her mouth. Damn, she had a ring on it.

"No," Sakamo said his face twisting into a giant smile. The boy took up a defensive position near the flag. "He's taking advantage of the situation, while the most of them are now fighting in the middle he's getting close to his objective, Lord Hokage who is that boy?"

"Kizashi Haruno, he's roughly average in all regards. a bit of a trouble maker if I understand his sensei."

Ahh, that Minato broke free from the chaos alongside one of his companions they were taking a roundabout route towards the red teams flag. What's more is that two members that had been defending were now moving forward opposite of him. "There's a boy that understands tactics."

It brought a smile to his face watching him work. "Sensei, I'd like to request Minato be placed on my team."

Orochimaru placed a hand on his shoulder eyes still locked onto the action. "Perhaps you should wait until you find out the results?"

"Indeed, I'll be able to listen to your requests after the exam." Hiruzen nodded. "You may want to change your mind once you see the finale."

It was obvious, the blue team was going to be the victor, too much of the red team was engaged and that Kizashi boy wasn't going to do much. Especially not with Minato's shuriken jutsu. It happened exactly as Jiraiya thought it would, caught in a pincer the red team defenders were quickly overwhelmed and then.

Wait. what?

"Ha! I knew it!" Sakamo howled in laughter jumping as he stood like he was twelve. "Now that's looking underneath the underneath."

"Is that even legal?"

"I'm impressed."

The praise continued as the red team's flag went up in flames. securing yellow teams victory. Perhaps he should have looked more closely at the group of misfits. There was just as much value as being unpredictable as there was in knowing your next step.

And now that he looked at the boy - the Uzumaki one - he felt that same pulling as he did for Minato, perhaps not as strong, but still there begging him to teach him. "Give me a team with Minato, and the Uzumaki's."

"Well now hold on a moment." Sakamo stood in front of him, the smile was gone and the debate was about to begin. "Lord Hokage, I'd like to request that Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto Uzumaki, and Kizashi Haruno be placed under my tutelage. It'd be a waste for someone that can make use of the openings to be placed on a different team."

"I'll be sure to weigh your requests as I'm making the teams." Hiruzen turned a pipe in his mouth. "Orochimaru did any of them catch your eyes."

Orochimaru just smiled. "Perhaps."

AN: I struggled with this chapter a lot, I couldn't get the action down, so I settled for the jounin watching it like it was a football game. Also, here's about where the fun begins. Kind of. Maybe? Anyways I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I'll try to update this fic about once a month or so (Do remind me)