The New Generation
A/N: Well I hope you enjoyed the last chapter. Before you begin reading I just want to warn you that this story is going to have some obvious things in it, like the Genin teams, but then again I have some very original characters so it'll spice up the story some. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 2: Genin Teams
Minato sat back in his chair at the academy. He was napping, having stayed up all night waiting to get assigned to a team.
"Hey Minato." Came a quiet voice. Minato snapped out of his slumber and crashed on the floor.
"Ow." Minato said sitting up rubbing his head. He looked to who knocked him out of his slumber. He caught sight of one of his friends Aburame Mushi, "Oh, hey Mushi, what's up?"
"Have you seen my butterfly cage, I believe I left it here yesterday by accident." He said monotonously.
"No, sorry." Minato shrugged.
"Here it is!" Came a booming yell. There was a loud high-pitched bark and a small rust-colored dog landed on Minato's head with a small cage handle in its jaws. "Good boy, Sabi." Came Inuzuka Tsume. "Hey Minato, why are you on the floor?" Tsume asked.
"Oh you know enjoying the sights and glamour of the dust and dirt." Minato said sarcastically.
"Ha very funny, but you look more like a perch for my pup." Tsume mused.
Minato shot up, Sabi landed on the desk, and got in Tsume's face, "You wanna go dog-girl?" Minato asked.
"Anytime blondie!" Tsume shot back.
"Ahem." A new voice interjected, "Interrupting anything?" Ichiban asked.
"I think they're going to fight," Hana said, "Five ryo on Tsume."
"Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence." Minato said flatly.
"AHEM!" Came a booming, irritated voice. Iruka was now in the class. "Everyone take their seats, time to begin assigning teams."
The whole class cheered. Iruka started calling out names for teams. Minato became drowsy and rested his head on his hand.
"Team Seven," Iruka was saying.
"Dad's team…" Minato thought.
"Uchiha Ichiban." Ichiban smirked.
"Uzumaki Minato." Minato gave a thumbs-up to himself.
"And Uchiha Hanabira?" Iruka said kind of confused about the team setup.
"Ichiban and Minato?" Hana asked, "That's an odd setup."
"Yeah." The two boys agreed simultaneously.
"Team Eight." Iruka continued. "Nara Hirune, Akimichi Kudaku, and Sarutobi Asuma Jr." Iruka said.
"And finally, Team Ten," Iruka said relieved, "Inuzuka Tsume, Aburame Mushi, and Rock Lee Jr."
"Okay everyone after lunch you will be meeting your Jounin sensei's." Iruka said dismissing his soon-to-be ex-students.
The class piled outside to get some fresh air and socialize. Minato was sitting on a stone bench gazing at the sky when someone's shadow blocked the light. It was Tsume and Sabi.
"So, did you want to do this thing?" She asked.
"What thing?" Minato asked.
"You asked me if I wanted to go, and I'm ready." She said smugly.
"What are you talking about?" He asked with a dumb look on his face. But that face faded into a sly smile, "It's already on."
Tsume's face became shocked when two Minato clones hurled her off of her feet from behind. She recovered quickly however flipping to a safe landing and tossing two shuriken at Minato. They hit him squarely in the chest.
Minato fell back and turned into smoke. The onlookers were stunned and very entertained. Minato jumped out from a tree and charged at Tsume with a kunai. Tsume pulled out her own kunai. They were locked in a kunai duel, neither showing signs of giving up.
"Ahh!" They both yelled each about to give their strongest attack. Their knives never met because their arms were gripped tightly by none other than Hyuuga Nema, Minato's cousin.
"Minato, you should know better than to pick fights." She scolded.
"Yeah, yeah," Minato brushed off.
"Don't just dismiss it like that Minato," Her tone became more serious, "If you keep this crap up your arrogance will be the death of you."
"I…" Minato looked away, "I suppose you're right."
"Glad you can see reason," Nema smiled, "I'll see you later, I have to deliver something to Iruka and then I have a mission."
"Good luck." Minato said.
"Don't need it." She said. She started walking off but stopped and looked back at her cousin, "Oh, by the way what team did you get?" She asked.
Minato smiled widely, "Team Seven." He said proudly.
Nema thought for a moment and looked at Minato, "Good luck. You're going to need it."
Minato was about to ask what she meant but she disappeared. Minato looked at Tsume, "Hey are we good?" He asked.
She looked at him and smiled, "For now." She said, "See you later." She walked off to join her team.
Ichiban and Hana walked up to Minato. He turned to them, "Let's go meet our new sensei." He said happily.
They nodded in agreement.
"I'm proud of you son." Naruto said gazing at his all-seeing glass ball entrusted to him by the Sandaime and Godaime Hogake's.
One hour. Two hours. Three hours.
"DAMIT!" Minato yelled, "Where the hell is our sensei?"
"How should we know?" Ichiban asked irritably, his head resting on his propped up arms on his desk.
"You're so loud." Hana groaned, she was lying on the top of a row, arm over her eyes.
"Impenitence is an enemy." Came a new voice from the back of the room.
Shocked, they shot their heads towards the new voice.
It was a young woman about in her early twenties. She wore a silky dark purple kimono with a white Konoha emblem sewed on it. Her hair was a nearly perfect lavender color and reached down to her lower back and her eyes were a deep shade of soul-penetrating silver.
"How long have you be here?" Ichiban asked, on edge from being so surprised like this.
"How long have you been here?" She countered, with an amused smirk on her face.
They all gave her an annoyed glare.
She smiled at this and said, "Meet me on the roof." Then she was just gone.
The three Genin looked at each other in confusion and shrugged their shoulders and started for the stairs.
They sat on the roof, it was a nice day, sun shining, few clouds in the sky and a comfortable breeze.
The strange woman's hair danced in the wind as she stared at her new students. "Well to begin we should introduce ourselves and tell a little about ourselves as well." She said. "I'll start. My name is Koname Suiko, Suiko-sensei to you three, and I was assigned to this team by Kakashi-sempai after he reenlisted in the ANBU. My hobbies, there are many, I like a lot of things, dislikes…naturally, future dreams…don't push your luck."
The three just kind of looked at her, a little dumbfounded at her explanation, only learning her name.
"I'll go." Hana said. "My name is Uchiha Hanabira. I enjoy training with my father and learning new techniques. I like to fight. I dislike…many things, like annoying showoffy boys. My dream for the future is to one day takeover the Konoha Police Task Force after my father."
Ichiban went next, "Uchiha Ichiban is my name. I enjoy learning medical nin-jutsu from my mother and honing my chakra control. I like…well I'm not going to tell you that. I dislike loud, arrogant, pale-eyed blondes." He glanced at Minato, who gave him a poisonous glare, "And my future dream is to become head medical ninja."
"And I am Uzumaki Minato!" Minato shouted proudly, "I love ramen and training. I dislike uptight, self proclaimed superior twins." The twins looked at him with icy glares, "And my dream for the future…" He thought about it, "To be honest I'm not exactly sure…"
Suiko looked at Minato with a masked face, but behind that was a face of confusion. "No future dreams?" She thought, "I don't believe Hokage-sama will like that."
"Suiko-sensei?" Hana asked, bringing Suiko out of her thoughts.
"Oh, sorry," She cleared her throat and continued, "Tomorrow at seven a.m. sharp at training ground 7. I don't tolerate tardiness. Be sure to be at your best, you won't stay Genin's long if you slack off and have a cocky attitude."
"What?!" They exclaimed.
"Surely you know that out of the twenty-seven academy students that graduated only nine will officially become Genin. I would think you three would've known that." She said.
They looked away in embarrassment.
"Well it doesn't matter, you know now." She got up, "Prepare for a fight and remember...I don't tolerate tardiness." She gave an evilly-kind smile and a little wave goodbye and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
The three Genin looked at each other. They got up and bade their goodbyes. Minato sauntered back home, peering into weapon shops along the way; as the Hokage's son he pretty much had an entire military arsenal at his disposal, but he liked to help out the small businesses in Konoha.
He entered an older-looking shop and explored for a minuet or two and went up to the counter. Behind the counter sat an old man, who looked about as old as the village itself. He sat meditating on the counter, he noticed Minato and gave a stern nod. "What can I do for you today young shinobi?" He asked in a quiet but firm voice.
"Just browsing, for now, looking to pick-up some gear for my Genin test tomorrow." Minato said.
"Ah, then you have come to the right place." The man said, "My shop may not be the prettiest, but I can assure you that they are the highest quality of weapons in the village." He bent down to whisper something to Minato, "Between you and me kid," He looked around, "I even made custom weapons for the Yondime."
Minato's eyes widened. "Grandfather!"
"So are you looking for anything in particular?" the man asked.
"The usual, some shuriken, kunai…" He looked around, "and maybe something from your special reserves."
The man eyed him suspiciously, then his face lightened up. "A kid who is straightforward and knows what he wants." The man laughed, "Don't get many of those these days."
He walked to a curtain behind the counter and motioned Minato to follow. Minato obeyed and walked into a fairly large room, with a furnace, work bench and all sorts of other items for making weapons.
"Here are just a few of my inventions," he said walking up to a table with a few regular looking kunai. Minato looked at them with disappointment, "Don't be disappointed, they aren't what they look like. Pump a little chakra into it and throw it at that straw dummy in the corner." He said pointing to the dummy.
Minato complied. He picked up a kunai and pumped up a little chakra into it and tossed it at the dummy. It hit the dummy in the chest…and nothing happened. Minato started to look frustrated when the kunai suddenly exploded in a bright display.
Minato gasped in astonishment. "That's awesome Mr…?" He looked at the old man.
"Yamo." He said.
"So how much would some of these cost?" Minato asked.
"Well…" He rubbed his chin in thought, "how about fifty exploding kunai for a hundred ryo?"
"You've got a deal." Minato said excitedly.
"Ah, but before I finalize any deals. There I something I want to show you." He motioned Minato to a heavily locked cabinet. Yamo unlocked the cabinet using several keys and pulled out a gaudy looking case. He turned to Minato and opened the case.
Minato's eyes grew as big as dinner plates and his face lit up like the sun.
"H-h-h-how much is that?" He asked.
Minato sauntered in through his front door.
"Uzumaki Minato!" Hinata's voice boomed, "Where have you been? I've been worried sick." She stepped out of the kitchen with an apron on and a hands on her hips.
"S-sorry mom I was taking a walk and just kind of lost track of time." He rubbed the back of his head.
Hinata sighed, "Well your father will be home soon. Get ready for dinner."
"Okay, and I have great news for dad!" Minato shouted as he ran up the stairs.
"Team Seven..." Naruto said.
"Aren't you proud?" Minato asked.
"Um, well the thing is…" Naruto took a drink of his sake, "I chose the teams, so I'm not too surprised."
"Oh…" Minato looked down at his food.
"But hey, don't listen to this old man. I couldn't be prouder of you if I tried." Naruto informed his son.
"Thanks dad!" Minato's face beamed.
Minato lay in bed sleeping, but not a peaceful sleep, he was drenched in a cold sweat.
Minato kneeled, panting and sweating.
A blood freezing screech filled the black starry night air. Minato looked over his shoulder at the shadow, darker than the night itself, rushed forward in an inhuman speed. Minato mustered all of his strength to stand and run as fast as he could.
He ran for what felt like seconds when the cloud engulfed him. The cloud was full o f bats, large mutant-like bats, they circled around Minato.
One bat landed with a quake in front of Minato. It stood ten feet tall and had huge three fingered claws for hands, foot long fangs that reached his near his chin, his ears were large and stuck out high above his head and his hair was black as coal. But his eyes were the worst thing about him, the evil mind destroying yellow eyes with slit pupils, gazed at him.
"Unleash your inhuman power!" It demanded.
"I don't have any inhuman power! I'm just a regular shinobi!" Minato yelled.
"Liar! I kill liars!" The bat opened its mouth and let out a deathly screech.
Minato shot up from bed in a drenching cold sweat, screaming with his hand over his ears.
"Minato!" Naruto shouted crashing into his son's room with a kunai in hand, Hinata at his heels. He grabbed Minato's shoulders and shook him out if his nightmare, Minato opened his eyes. The edges of his eyes were golden, like Orochimaru's. Naruto was shocked. "Minato are you okay?"
"D-d-dad?" Minato was shivering, "The dream, I had that dream again, but this time…" Minato looked away.
"What? What happened this time?" Naruto asked.
"I was engulfed by the cloud, it was a swarm of bats. And one of them…the leader I think, I swear he had Orochimaru's eyes." Minato explained.
"Orochimaru. But son, I killed Orochimaru six years ago." Naruto said, "Remember when he suddenly arrived and tried to abduct you. I killed him, it was just a dream."
Hinata walked over and hugged her son, "Go back to sleep, I promise everything will be better in the morning." She said while rubbing his head.
"I'll try." Minato said.
"Goodnight." His parents said in unison.
Minato laid back down on his bed and shut his eyes.
Down stairs Naruto and Hinata sat at the small table in their kitchen, drinking coffee.
"What's wrong? Is it what Minato said?" Hinata asked noticing the worried look on Naruto's face.
"No…It was his eyes," Naruto sighed, "They were turning into Orochimaru's eyes."
"How can that be?" Hinata asked, appalled that Orochimaru did something to her son.
"I don't know, but I'm going to fix this." Naruto didn't let the disgust out of his voice. "I need to get some sleep or I'll go crazy. Are you coming?" He asked his wife.
"No, I need time to think about this." She replied.
He bent down and kissed her, "Goodnight." He went upstairs.
Off in the distance a lone figure stood on the top of a pointed structure, gazing at the Uzumaki home, grinning to itself. "Yes. All is going well." The figure said to itself and disappeared from sight.
Minato woke up and ate breakfast. He grabbed his bag and left the house. He was walking along the main trail, half asleep, looked at his watch; 6:57. Minato suddenly awoke fully and ran at top speed to the training grounds. He skidded to a halt in front of Hana and Ichiban who looked at him like he was an idiot.
"Ha, with three seconds left!" Minato said.
"Actually your watch is three seconds ahead, so you're right on time." Said a light voice from behind. It was Suiko, dressed in a red kimono with a sliver Konoha symbol. "Now, time to get started."
They looked at her intently.
"The test is to get this single bell away from me." She held out a single silver bell on a black string.
"That's it?" Hana said disapprovingly.
"I'm not done," Suiko said sharply, "You have until noon today to get it, if you don't you will fail. But there is one thing…whoever gets the bell will be the team leader below me." She hooked the bell on the right sleeve of her kimono.
The three looked at each other, competition in their eyes.
"And I will only hold back from using deadly force, apart from that, I will try to stop you at all costs." Suiko continued. "Is that understood?"
They nodded.
"Good. Now begin!" The three leapt away.
They dashed behind the foliage.
"So how are we going to do this?" Minato asked.
Hana, putting on black gloves similar to her mothers, looked at him. "Force. I'm getting those bells." She jumped back through the foliage and charged Suiko. She threw a vicious punch, but Suiko simply moved to the side and made Hana trip. Hana caught herself about half-way through her fall and rolled into a standing position.
"Ms. Uchiha using unplanned force on a superior target is unwise." Suiko scolded.
"Who said I didn't plan anything?" Hana asked as the ground behind Suiko busted up and a Hana clone lashed out with a kunai, "And my name is Hana!"
Suiko elbowed the clone and used her foot to shove Hana away from her. As Hana rolled away and the clone disappeared Ichiban watched intently, waiting for his time to strike.
Suiko's back was turned and her attention was focused on Hana. Ichiban dashed out of his hideout, a bush, and moved in. Instead of drawing a weapon he released chakra around his hands, a medical technique, so he could cut up Suiko.
Suiko saw him coming and before Ichiban could react grabbed his forehead and swept his feet from under him, slamming him into the ground. Ichiban was momentarily glazed but recovered quickly enough to launch a kick at the back of Suiko's head. A hidden knife emerged from Ichiban's shoe, to launch a death strike. When the kick landed Suiko's eyes went wide, then lifeless as her body melted into mud.
"The hell?" Ichiban questioned, clearly surprised.
"Gotcha!" She yelled as the mud covered Ichiban's body and hardened. Suiko stood in front of him smiling smugly. She looked as though she was about to say something but stopped abruptly when her danger sense kicked in. She spun to the danger, but too late, as Minato's kick caught her straight in the chest. She staggered backwards.
"Not bad Minato." She said.
"Thanks," Minato replied.
"But you haven't got me yet." Suiko's voice whispered in his ear, paralyzing him in shock for a few seconds. Suiko was standing behind him. Minato reached into his kunai holster and went to stab his sensei.
Suiko caught the knife as it was being unsheathed and pushed Minato away, keeping his kunai.
"Three" Minato thought.
"You're good Minato, but you can't defeat me with such rudimentary tactics." Suiko schooled.
"Two"
"I guess you guys don't was to pass." She said mockingly to her students.
"ONE!"
Suiko's danger senses went ballistic, she moved her head in every direction, searching for the danger. She then realized the danger was from the kunai, she threw it as hard as she could away from her.
The kunai exploded seconds after leaving Suiko's grasp. When the smoke dissipated Suiko was standing with her arm acting as a shield. Her kimono sleeve was completely burned off and her arm was still there only because of the arm guard on her forearm.
"Clever, where did you get such a device?" She asked, but noticed Minato wasn't there, and for that matter neither were Hana and Ichiban.
Minato dropped his comrades on the ground, rather roughly, "Wow are you guys idiots or what?" He asked.
"What did you say to me?" Ichiban bolted up and got in Minato's face.
"Its pretty obvious that she is just screwing with our minds." Minato explained, "The one bell thing is tearing us apart and keeping us distracted with thoughts of leadership over one another."
"That!..." Ichiban started, "Actually makes sense."
"Damn it!" Hana yelled and pounded the ground with her fist, "How could I be fooled like that?"
Minato kneeled down and squeezed her shoulder in reassurance, "Don't sweat it, we were all fooled, but I figured it out when I saw how she was expecting one-on-one attacks instead of group attacks."
"So we just have to alter our strategy." Ichiban said, finally catching on to what Minato was saying.
"But she is really strong," Hana said, "She won't go down easily."
"Damn, I hate it when you're right." Ichiban agreed.
"Don't think like that," Minato said, with a huge smug grin on his face, "I have a little surprise for Suiko-sensei."
He pulled a small package from his shuriken pouch and unraveled it. Hana and Ichiban looked at it and smirked.
"That could work." They said simultaneously.
Suiko stood staring at the shrapnel of the exploded kunai. "Odd little thing, almost blew my arm off." She started to look around for the three genin when her danger senses kicked in and she narrowly dodged the five shuriken emerging from the river near the battlefield. Five more shuriken came at her as he dodged the others. She ducked down, dodging all ten shuriken.
"Is that he best you can offer me?" She asked, but instantly regretted it when the shuriken puffed into ten Minato's.
"How about this then?!" They all asked as they each threw five shuriken.
Faced with fifty shuriken Suiko grew desperate, she made a few quick hand seals and focused her chakra, "Ninpo: Kage Kabe!" The Shuriken all bounced away from her as they came within a foot of her.
Momentarily distracted Suiko didn't notice when Hana slid under the shuriken, and when her kage kabe dispersed Hana kicked her square in the gut. Suiko was forced upward from the chakra-enhanced kick Hana engaged her with, and with this distraction Ichiban leapt into the air and snatched the bell from Suiko's right sleeve. Suiko slapped the bell away from Ichiban's hand and punched him away and reached out for the bell. When her hand was about to clasp the bell kunai landed in it instead. Seeing the kunai scared the life out of Suiko threw it away with all her might.
She landed on the ground with a hard thud. He vision was momentarily filled with stars and when it cleared she looked up at her new team, with Minato standing in front of the other two with the bell dangling from his hand. The three of them were smirking.
"So…" Minato lending Suiko a hand up, "Did we pass?"
She accepted the hand and when she got to her feet she looked up and smiled, "With flying colors!" She said proudly. "You worked out your differences and worked together to achieve victory, and I am proud of you three."
They all took pride in her statement.
"Now get home and get some rest." She ordered, "Tomorrow we're starting on our missions."
Next Chapter: Mission to the Sand.