"As of today you are all ninja. To get here you faced difficult trials and hardships. But that's nothing, what comes next will be far more difficult. Now you are only genin, first level ninja. All the genin will be grouped into three man squads. Each squad will be led by a jonin. An elite ninja." Iruka told the group. Naruto sat at his desk, hunched over in pain. Kurama slept beneath the desk, still unnoticed by anyone.

The girls began muttering about who would be in Sasuke's squad, while Naruto thought to himself.

"I want to be in Sakura's group, and… I don't care as long as it's not Sasuke." Naruto thought.

"When your jonin instructor arrives, they will bring with them your starter Pokémon. Every genin will be assigned one level five Pokémon of either Fire, Water, or Grass typing." Iruka continued. "Now then… I will now announce the squads."

Naruto was placed with Sakura and Sasuke. Ino was placed with Shikamaru and Choji, and Hinata, Shino, and Kiba also became a group.

"After lunch you'll meet your new jonin teachers. Until then class dismissed." Iruka said.

After lunch was over, the jonin instructors arrived. Well, most of them anyway. Team Seven's jonin was mysteriously absent. All the other jonin presented their teams with Pokémon and left. After a while even Iruka left. Naruto was peeved.

"He's late!" Naruto whined.

"Naruto, just sit down." Sakura said.

"I don't want to! How come our teacher's the only one who's late? All the other teams have met their teachers and new Pokémon. They've all left to go on some adventure or something." Naruto whined.

"We know ok?" Sakura sighed. Naruto started setting up a simple booby trap. He fit a chalkboard eraser into the doorway and slid the door almost shut holding it in place. It was high enough up that no one would see it until it had fallen.

"Hey what are you doing?" Sakura asked. Naruto grinned.

"That's what he gets for being late. Surprise!" he said.

"You're asking for trouble you know you shouldn't do that." Sakura said.

"Our teacher's a jonin, an elite ninja. You think he'd fall for that?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, Sasuke's right, you're so clueless Naruto!" Sakura said. Just then, a hand appeared at the door. The door opened and… The trap got him. Their jonin teacher stood there, dumbfounded as a cloud of chalk dust settled. Naruto laughed.

"I got him! He totally fell for it." Naruto said.

"I'm sorry sensei. I told him not to do it, but he wouldn't listen. I'd never do anything like that." Sakura said. Sasuke just stared, bemused.

"Hm. How can I put this? My first impression of this group… You're a bunch of idiots." their teacher said.

Later, they were all assembled outside. Kurama was still asleep, Naruto had to put him in his backpack and physically carry him outside. Their teacher sat down.

"Alright, why don't you all introduce yourselves." he said. "One at a time."

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

"Your name, your hobbies, things you like or dislike, dreams for the future. That sort of thing." he said.

"Why don't you tell us stuff first. I mean before we talk tell us about you so we can see how it's supposed to work." Naruto said.

"Me? I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate, I don't feel like telling you that. Dreams for the future, never really thought about it. As for hobbies, I have lots of hobbies." he said.

"That was totally useless. All he really told us was his name." Sakura muttered.

"All right you on the right, you first." Kakashi said.

"Believe it. I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei got me at the Ichiraku noodle shop." Naruto said. "But I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the cup. My hobby is eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them. And my future dream is… To be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will have to stop disrespecting me and treat me like I'm somebody, somebody important."

"Alright, next." Kakashi said.

"I'm Sakura Haruno. What I like… I mean the person I like is, uh. My hobby is… My dream for the future is…" she kept giggling at looking at Sasuke.

"And? What do you hate?" Kakashi asked.

"Naruto!" Sakura said.

"What?!" Naruto exclaimed. Kurama shifted in his backpack, partially awake.

"Last one."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything." Sasuke said. Sakura stared.

"What I have is not a dream because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan and destroy a certain someone." he finished. Everyone stared.

"Good. You're each unique and you have your own ideas. Take a Pokéball from this bag, and we'll have our first mission tomorrow." Kakashi said, showing them a bag. Naruto leapt forward. As he reached into the bag, he asked a question.

"What kind of mission are we going to have?" he asked.

"It's a task that the four of us will do together." Kakashi said.

"What, what, what, what?" Naruto asked, taking one of three balls.

"A survival exercise." Kakashi said. He offered the bag to Sakura next.

"Huh, survival exercise?" Naruto said, looking down at the ball. It had a raindrop icon on it, just above the button.

"I thought we were supposed to have a real mission, not more practice." Sakura said, taking a ball. Glancing at it, Naruto saw that she'd gotten one with a leaf patterned on it.

"We already did this stuff at the academy, that's how we got here." Sakura insisted, looking at her ball. Kakashi offered the bag to Sasuke next.

"This isn't like your previous training." Kakashi said, as Sasuke pulled out a ball. It had a small flame patterned on it. Sasuke looked at it with no expression.

"What kind of training is it, then?" Naruto asked, smiling. Sasuke had fire, he had water. Kakashi laughed.

"That's a normal question, what's so funny?" Sakura asked. Kakashi continued to smile.

"Well, if I tell you the answer… You're not gonna like it." he said.

"Huh?" Naruto wondered. Kakashi sat back down and put the bag away.

"Of the 27 graduates who just came here, only nine will actually be accepted as genin. The other 18 will be weeded out and sent back to the academy. In other words, this is a make it or break it, pass-fail test, and the chance that you'll fail is at least 66 percent. See? Didn't I say you wouldn't like it?" Kakashi said. The others stared at him in disbelief.

"That's crazy! We worked hard to get here! Believe it! What was that graduation test for anyway?" Naruto demanded.

"Oh, that. That was just to select candidates that might become genin, or not." Kakashi said, smiling.

"What?" Naruto cried. This was shaping up to be a very bad day.

"That's how it is." Kakashi continued. "I decide if you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at five am, and bring your ninja gear."

Naruto growled under his breath, "Well I'm not gonna be weeded out. People are gonna look up to me someday. I've got to pass this test. Believe it. Believe it."

Sakura muttered under her breath as well, "If I fail, I'll be separated from Sasuke. This is a trial of love."

Sasuke just clenched his fists tightly.

"That's it you're dismissed. Oh, tomorrow you better skip breakfast, or else you'll puke." Kakashi said.

Later that night, Naruto received a guest if the form of more ANBU. They had finally discovered a Pokéball that was capable of holding Kurama. A "Sealing Ball". Kurama wasn't thrilled about going inside the ball, but once he was inside it he stopped complaining. Apparently Pokéballs were specifically designed to be comfortable for their occupants. Naruto was allowed to keep the ball, once they realized that it was impossible to carry it away from him. It was as if an invisible force was pulling it towards him. So it was placed on a necklace and given to him to wear.