Disclaimer

I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in said story. If I did own them I would be like a mini-god. But I don't so I'm not. I do however own this story.

Author's note

I would like to let all of the readers out there know that this is fanfiction story based off of the series "Naruto". I kindly ask all of those who are reading this to look at the title I just typed in. It says Naruto, not Sasuke, therefore this fanfiction shall be about said headline character, AKA Naruto. If you want a story about Sasuke, don't ask me to make him a major character in my story, just SHUT UP AND FIND ANOTHER STORY. That being said let us begin our story about Naruto.

Chapter 1: Introduction

After Iruka had given Naruto his headband and returned him to the village, he realized that Konhoakagure was slowly destroying itself. He had seen the looks all of the elders were giving Naruto when he returned. Those people were disappointed that Naruto had lived, let alone returned to the village. Iruka had a feeling that if the Third wasn't there, some of them might actually have tried to kill Naruto. When Iruka had walked home from that ordeal, and started looking around, he realized that problem was that the village had become a coalition of cliques. And just like school girls they hated outsiders. The clans with bloodline limits would look down on those without. Iruka knew that many clans had main houses and branch houses. 'That's bullshit.' Iruka had thought. It didn't help that the underlying theme in the village was competition. From a young age, everyone in the village seemed to pick a rival. They would spend their entire lives competing against that on person, in hopes of getting stronger than that other person. Iruka had noticed that these rivalries were passed onto the children of those people. This led to entire clans competing with other clans.

'The single biggest threat to the village,' Iruka realized, 'was the village itself. Konoha is about to tear itself apart.' Iruka could see the village killing itself. Clans were already at each others throats. Iruka had talk of clan leadership being overthrown by the branch houses. 'The only way to end this is to stop it from starting,' Iruka concluded. With that thought in mind, Iruka reassigned the future gennin into their teams.

When Iruka entered the classroom, he could see that all of the graduates were waiting in nervous anticipation for the team announcements to be made. Even Shikamaru, who was never excited about anything, seemed anxious to hear the announcement. Iruka could see Sakura yelling at Naruto for sitting next to her instead of letting Sasuke take that seat. Iruka realized that this would be the last time he would have the chance to talk to this group as a whole. 'Oh well,' thought Iruka. 'This happens every year.' He began to wonder which three teams would become gennin and which wouldn't. He realized that the top three teams would probably become the gennin teams, but he still had hope for the other teams, particularly Narutos'.

"As I am sure you all realize," Iruka began, "Today you will be assigned into nine teams of three people each. This year the team assignments are based on the grades you received in this class, the higher your grade, the higher the team you will be in. Do you all understand?" The whole idea was to make teams where the students would be more equal. Competition was less likely to occur between team members who were closer in skill. He hoped that by putting together people who were closer in skill, they would help each other progress, rather than scorn/envy the other members of their team. To ensure this, Iruka had made sure that the jounin knew that in order to pass, the gennin had to work as a team. The gennin needed to learn early that the strength of an individual is nothing compared to that of the strength of the group.

"Yes, Iruka-sensei," came the chorus from most of the students.

"Then without further ado, allow me to announce the teams. Team Number 1; Uchia Sasuke,"

Sasuke thought that such teams were useless to an avenger like him. 'I should be on a team alone. Others will only slow me down and keep me from being able to beat that bastard brother of mine. Teams are for the weak.'

"Aburame Shino,"

Shino could have cared less which team he was in or who was on his team. His bugs were the only ally he would ever need.

"And Yamanaka Ino."

With that Ino jumped up and started shouting "I'm with Sasuke! I'm with Sasuke!"

Ino actually didn't care about being with Sasuke or not. She had originally started liking Sasuke to help Sakura out. Sakura had always had such a low self-esteem that she would rarely try to succeed because she expected failure. Ino hoped that by pretending she liked Sasuke, Sakura would try her best to become stronger than Ino in order to show off to her Sasuke-kun.

Sakura jumped up and shouted, "Sit down, Ino-chan." Inner Sakura had other thoughts, 'Make Ino-pig shut up by kicking her ass in front of Sasuke-kun.'

Iruka continued to read through his list of teams.

"Team 5; Akimichi Chouji,"

Chouji was busy eating pork rinds, but he did wave his hand to acknowledge that he heard.

Iruka was sorry for splitting up Chouji from his best friend Shikamaru. He almost put them on the same team, but he realized that with them on the same team, Chouji would continue allowing Shikamaru to stand up for him. Iruka had looked through the records of all his students and had found out that Chouji's, Shikamaru's, and Ino's families had all been on the same gennin teams for three generations. 'It is that sort of isolation that is tearing our village apart.'

"Inzuka Kiba,"

With that, Kiba cheered and Akamaru started licking Kibas' face. This caused Kiba to start laughing.

Kiba was already dreaming of how he would become the leader of the team.

"And Haruno Sakura."

Sakura was upset that she couldn't be with Sasuke-kun, but at least she didn't have to be with Naruto, that annoying brat.

Iruka continued until he reached Team Nine.

"Nara Shikamaru,"

"How troublesome," the young ninja muttered.

Shikamaru was actually happy with being on the lowest team. He figured it would be easy and that no one would have any high expectations of him since he was on the reject team.

Iruka had always been puzzled by Shikamaru. Shikamaru had always been able to perform the jutsus, albeit reluctantly, he had never turned in a single piece of homework.

"Team Nine; Hyuuga Hinata,"

Hinata blushed when her name was called. 'Father going to be so angry when he finds out that I'm on the lowest team,' was her only thought.

Of all his students, with the exception of Naruto, Iruka felt sorriest for this poor girl. Even though she was going to be the leader of the Hyuuga clan, her father still ignored. It wasn't that she lacked power or ability, she had plenty of both, she just lacked the inclination to use that power. She also had a crush on ...

"Uzamaki Naruto."

With those words Hinata started blushing furiously and totally forgot about her father and how angry he was going to be. 'I'm finally with,' Hinata was thinking, 'the person that I admire most.' She remembered the first time she had seen Naruto. The boy had been running away from more than fifteen villagers after he had pulled some practical joke. She could still hear his voice ring out, saying "You can't catch me because someday I'll be the hokage." With this brash display of confidence, Hinata had fallen in love Naruto instantly. Hinata realized that she had never actually talked with Naruto before, she had always been too afraid. She doubted that Naruto even realized she existed. She decided at that moment that she would make Naruto notice her.

Naruto had much different thoughts. 'I'll show them that I am the strongest of all the rookies.' Naruto decided. 'I'll go beat Hokage-sama, and then they'll have to make me the next hokage.' Naruto started laughing as he imagined the old hokage down on his knees begging Naruto to take over the job of the village's strongest. Then Naruto's stomach growled. 'Well, first I'll eat some ramen, and then I'll beat the old man.'

Iruka dismissed the class by saying, "Be here at 8 0'clock tomorrow to meet your jounin instructors."