More oneshots—hurray! Anyway, this is a present to SumireMayonaka for reviewing all 23 chapters of NGoF. (NDH will be out soon people! I promise!)

Just as a note, these genin are my actual characters in a doujinshi I'm working on at the moment. It's still in the editing process, but there are preview pieces on my deviantart account for them if you're interested.

"Um . . . why are we doing this at a ramen bar?"

Naruto grinned. "It's not any ramen bar—it's Ichiraku's! The finest place in the village!" With that he rushed towards it so fast he left a cloud of dust in his wake.

"What kind of sensei did we get?" Kishin wondered aloud. Takeo and Haruko simply shrugged.

By the time the three genin caught up to the jounin he had already finished four bowls. Their eyes widened in shock.

"Does he even chew?" Haruko whispered as she gestured to the blonde. Naruto stopped shoveling the food into his mouth and pointed to the three seats beside him.

"'afs yorfs!" he mumbled before returning to his fifth bowl. The three 12-year-olds glanced at each other warily and sat down, pondering whether they should go back and demand a new jounin instructor from Iruka-sensei.

Two awkward minutes later, Naruto sighed in content and laid his eighth bowl down. "Still as delicious as ever, ossan!" He grinned widely at the old man who chuckled in response.

"Always the best for my favorite customer!"

"So . . . how are you guys today?" Naruto asked, rotating in his chair to face the genin.

"Uh, fine I guess," Takeo answered. He carefully removed a noodle from his purple jacket that had been lucky enough to escape Naruto's hungry wrath. He hadn't been fast enough to get a seat away from the jounin, and instead was stuck with the spot closest to him. Haruko and Kishin had been faster.

"Pardon me for asking, sensei," Haruko began, "but why are we eating? Aren't we supposed to take a test to prove our ability to work together as a team?"

Naruto raised his eyebrows and looked at each of the kids in turn, noticing that they were expecting the same thing. "You're smarter than you look. Most people don't know there is another test after the genin test."

"Well, it's not too hard to figure out." Kishin folded his arms. "There are always a fair amount of older kids who come back to the Academy, and there are only nine rookies who pass each year. An idiot could figure that out." He smirked when he noticed the blonde's cheeks redden with embarrassment.

"The reason I brought you three here is for us to get to know each other a little better before we take the test! We're going to be a team so I want to get to know you. Personnel files can only tell so much."

"Sounds like you already think we can pass," Haruko said.

Kishin smirked. "Is your test that easy? I thought it was supposed to be a challenge."

Naruto grinned back. "Oh, it's a challenge all right. I just have a lot of faith that you can pass."

"Really?" Takeo stared at the man to his left with renewed fascination. "How can you have so much faith in us?"

The blonde clapped the dark-skinned boy on the back. "Because you're going to be my students after all! Can't a leader believe in his subordinates?" The three genin glanced at each other in amazement. Perhaps their sensei wasn't so bad after all.

"What do you want to know?"

"What you like, don't like, and why you want to be a ninja." Naruto turned to Takeo. "How about you first?"

"Oh! Uh . . . " Takeo fiddled with his hands uncomfortably. "My name is Kizoku Takeo and I like my parents, younger brother, and building things. I don't like uh . . . having to talk in front of a lot of people, and I want to be a strong ninja like my mother."

"My name is Morizumi Haruko and I like my family, friends, and reading. What I don't like is when someone insults my friends or tries to tell me what to do." She gave a playful scowl at Kishin. "And as for why I want to be a kunoichi, I want to be one of the best!"

"I am Fukao Kishin!" the dark-haired boy announced with pride. "I like fighting with my two katana," (he gestured to the swords strung on his back) "and playing tricks on people." Naruto noticed Haruko and Takeo's sigh at this while Kishin simply smirked at his teammates' reaction. "What I don't like is when people judge without getting to know you first. The reason I am here is because I want to be a brave shinobi like my parents and serve Konoha."

They're quite opinionated, Naruto observed. They're acting more like Sasuke than Sakura and me. I hope they act a little more grown-up than my team did. His thoughts were interrupted as he realized all three genin were staring at him. "What?"

Kishin raised an eyebrow. "Well? Aren't you going to tell us about yourself?"

"Oh, right!" Naruto chuckled nervously. "How about you guys each ask me a question? Anything you're dying to know?"

"I got one!" Haruko said quickly, raising her hand. At Naruto's nod she leaned forward expectantly. "Got a girlfriend?"

Naruto's cheeks reddened and he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Well . . . I um—you see . . . there is this one girl and we-we've been dating—for a while . . . but so far—"

"Out with the name already!" Kishin said.

"Hinata," Naruto whispered.

"The Hyuuga?" Takeo asked. "The powerful soon-to-be leader of the Hyuuga clan?" Naruto nodded and Kishin smirked.

"Wouldn't think she'd go for someone like you," he teased as Haruko giggled and Takeo tried to cover a smile. Naruto stuck out his lower lip.

"I'll have you know that I'm a very attractive and eagerly sought for shinobi!" he protested as he sat up a little taller in his chair. "Women everywhere are impressed by my masculinity and—" Whatever he had to say next went unheard as he lost his balance on the chair and fell onto the floor.

Naruto cursed his luck silently as his future genin team erupted into chortles of laughter. He had been trying so hard to be as impressive and cool as Kakashi-sensei was when Team 7 met all those years ago, but was failing fast at a great first impression. The blonde was going to have to rely on more than his past victories and triumphs to help him in this situation. Oh well, there's always the test, he thought wickedly.

"Right," Naruto said as he dusted himself off and sat back down. "Two more questions."

After explaining the test to his students, Naruto glanced at the manila folders that had been given to him earlier that day. He had only briefly glanced through them before, but now that he had some extra time on his hands, he figured this was the best way to spend it. His attention was drawn first to Takeo's.

It was hard not to—not many people in Konoha were dark skinned. Naruto read through his family history and saw that while the boy was a natural born citizen of Konoha, his father was not. He had been a merchant traveler from Kumogakure who had chosen to settle in their village when he fell in love with one of the female chuunin. While conditions had been favorable with Kumo once the incident involving the Eight-Tails had been resolved and smoothed over, Takeo's father had been subject to scrutiny and slight interrogation to make sure he would not betray their village. Takeo had been their first child, followed by another boy who would have entered into the academy this year.

When he first learned of the boy's appearance Naruto was worried about having to deal with prejudice from the other teammates, but it appeared as if the three of them already knew each other and got along quite well. It certainly cut down on a lot of stress. He would never tolerate that kind of behavior from his subordinates.

His attention was then drawn to the other male—Kishin. His heart went out to the boy when he learned that he was an orphan like himself. Apparently, Aiko and Jensei had perished while escorting a hundred refugees to safety, leaving their four-year-old son behind. He seemed to be managing quite well on his own, but Naruto could already see some ramen trips in the future.

As for the girl, both of her parents were shinobi and she had a younger sister who had just been born two years ago. At the moment her dad was on a month-long S-rank mission, and Naruto wished for his safe return.

What intrigued the blonde most was what made the three children stand out. They each had their own unique weapon, yes—but they all had a summon contract. Takeo and Haruko hadn't made the actual blood-binding contract yet, but Naruto figured they would the moment they became genin as a sort of rite of passage as most families did. Kishin already had bound himself to his two lions, but his was a different story. In fact, judging by his personnel file, the two lions had practically raised him! Naruto grinned at the prospect of getting to know the lions better. His experience with his toads, Kakashi's nin hounds, and Tsunade's slugs taught him that summons were rather interesting.

Due to their lineage, Haruko would be training with black panthers and Takeo with tigers. Naruto chuckled as he thought of what a sight they would make—four people with an odd assortment of lions, tigers, panthers, and toads. Probably the only reason why he had been chosen as a potential sensei for these kids was because he had more experience with summons than did the rest of the shinobi his age. Kiba came close, but he was already in ANBU so he was unavailable.

Finished, Naruto replaced all the papers into their appropriate folder and stood up. Now it was time to check up on the genin with their test. He fervently prayed his prospective students passed.

"Geez! How many parts does this genin test have?" Kishin complained loudly. He and the others had been spending the past two hours doing menial task after menial task. Naruto had left them in the middle of Field 6 with a long list of things they had to complete before the timer went off. Their test was like a scavenger hunt, except instead of finding objects they had to accomplish D-rank level tasks and then have the person they accomplished it for sign their initials. So far they had finished fifteen.

"Maybe he's trying to see how long it takes for us to break," Haruko sighed, rubbing her shoulder. One of the weeds she had pulled was so long and deep that it felt like it tore out her shoulder. After Takeo and Kishin had helped her, they discovered it to be five feet long and two centimeters in diameter.

"Or maybe he's waiting to see how much we complain," Takeo said timidly. "He could be listening in on us right now." The three genin glanced about nervously as if expecting him to be right there beside them.

"Well, from what I've heard Naruto-sensei did his fair share of complaining when he was our age!"

"But isn't that what sensei's are supposed to do, Haruko? Try to keep their students from making the same mistakes?"

Kishin laughed. "He's got you there!" The girl folded her arms angrily.

"Well—I still wish it was a little more exciting! Did you see what Leiko got to do with Lee-sensei? It looked like some sort of dangerous obstacle course!"

"Yeah, but would you want someone like that for a teacher?" Kishin struck a rigid pose. "I have no fashion sense and constantly commit myself to impossible tasks and—"

"Oh come off it!" Haruko slapped Kishin on the side of his head. "He's the greatest taijutsu master in the world!" She raised a threatening finger. "And I know he's a close friend of Naruto-sensei so unless you want him to Rasengan your a—"

"Quiet!" Takeo hissed, holding a hand out to stop them. "There's someone coming." The other two tensed at his tone and upon sensing the same thing, withdrew their weapons. Kishin drew his two swords from their sheath with a metal moan; Haruko pulled a metal rod from her weapon pouch, twirled it in the air, and it extended into a long bō staff; and Takeo snatched his nunchaku from his belt, spinning it above his head. Their list lay forgotten on the ground.

The trees rustled, and then suddenly a young girl burst out and rammed into Takeo, almost knocking him over. The spinning weapon collided with the side of his head, temporarily blinding him with pain.

"Help me! Help me! They're coming for me! They're coming!" Haruko immediately retracted her staff and rushed to the girl at the sound of her terrified cry.

"What's wrong?" Haruko gasped in shock at the small trail of blood trailing down the little girl's head. "Who did this to you?"

"It's them!" she wailed, pointing to where she came. "T-they attacked my m-mommy and d-d-daddy!"

Haruko and Kishin turned to Takeo who cleared his head and then bent down to the ground. He placed a hand delicately on the soiled earth and closed his eyes, breathing deeply. The only sound that could be heard was the young girl's whimpering cries.

"They're coming!" Takeo exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "About five of them!"

"What do you think we should do?" Haruko asked, unable to keep the tremor out of her voice.

"Stand and fight of course!" Kishin said wildly, brandishing his swords. "This girl's parents are probably just some traveling merchants and were easily taken by some common thugs! Nothing we can't handle."

"But we should go and get the adults!" Haruko protested. "We're just genin! And besides, we have a test to complete! We only have an hour and a half left and twenty more things to do! We'll never make it!"

"I think that protecting the village from outside threats waives any stupid test," Kishin mumbled.

"That's besides the point! I don't care how good you think you are but you can't—"

"Too late," Takeo whispered. "They're here."

"Listen, little girl," Kishin said, redirecting his attention to the sobbing child, "you just run towards the village and let as many people know what happened to you and send backup. Got that? Now go!" As they listened to the sounds of the girl running towards the village the genin withdrew their weapons once more. Their veins throbbed with anticipation and fear but they stood their ground, ready to defend their village. Only when the intruders came into view did their determination falter.

There were four men and one woman and while they certainly looked like simple bandits, they were rather formidable. Most of the men were as large as mountains and the female looked more muscle than lady. They all stopped screaming taunts and stared at the three genin in confusion.

"Where's the girl?" a man asked stupidly. His hair was short and wispy, looking more like black, feathery dust than hair, and his arms were as long around as a genin's head.

"She's not here!" Kishin yelled. His teammates had to admire him for his ability to keep his voice level. It seemed to instill some courage into them.

"Yeah, and you'll have to get through us if you want to go any further!"

The five companions looked at each other in surprise, then the man who spoke first shrugged. "Get 'em." The dust-haired man leapt towards Kishin who jumped out of the way at the last second. The ground where he had previously been standing was completely obliterated and Kishin gulped at the thought of what would have happened had he been too slow.

Meanwhile, the female and one of the men who had tall, blonde hair charged towards Haruko. She spun her bō staff high above her head and swung it hard into the man's shoulder. The motion was stopped abruptly by the sheer weight of the blonde man and he grinned at Haruko. He grabbed hold of the staff that rested against his shoulder and held tight, preventing Haruko from retrieving it. At this time the woman pulled back her fist and sent Haruko flying into a nearby tree.

"Haruko!" Kishin yelled. He jumped out of the way of another one of his opponent's destructive pounce, employed a few choice swear words, then bit his finger. "Kyuchiyose no Jutsu!" Out from the smoke arose a magnificent lion with a chipped right ear.

"What's the trouble?" he asked in a deep voice.

"Go help Haruko, Gouki!" Kishin gasped. The lion wasted no time and took off in the direction of his master's teammate.

The dust-haired man gaped at Kishin. "Are you guys ninja?"

Kishin grinned. "You bet! Scare you?" The man shrugged.

"You're just kids." He charged towards the boy once again.

"Stay still!" a voice bellowed a couple feet away.

"You move too fast!" another voice agreed.

"Like I'm going to stay still long enough for you to hit me," Takeo mumbled from a nearby tree branch. The remaining two men had leapt towards him and the dark-skinned boy learned quite quickly that his nunchaku would prove futile in the fight. As skilled as he was, his simple rods and chains wouldn't stand a chance against the enormous metal chain that the largest of the two wielded.

The chain had quite a long reach, and so Takeo had been forced to evade without any chance to strike back. He grit his teeth in frustration and wished vainly that they had just left these bandits to the adults. If only they weren't so big they would be able to have a better fighting chance. All three of them had short distance attacks and even then they didn't seem to be very effective against their burly opponents. Perhaps if they were older, but no—they were just twelve-year-olds.

Takeo jumped out of the way of the enormous chain and covered his face protectively from the flying wood chips. If this kept up he would run out of hiding places. He needed to fight back soon or be killed. The boy landed in a bush and fumbled through some hurried hand signs. Supposedly his mother had some Iwa blood in her, and now it was time to draw upon that part of him.

"Doton: Daichi Tenchū!" The ground beneath the two bandits trembled and without warning large, pointed pillars erupted from the ground and rose a few meters into the air. They stopped when they were about the height of an average tree. The attack knocked out the opponent with the chain cold, but the other one remained.

I guess I can work with that, Takeo thought happily as he unsheathed his nunchaku.

Haruko flipped gracefully in the air, narrowly avoiding her opponent's fist. After she rammed into a tree, Gouki appeared out of nowhere and charged towards the blonde man, who shrieked in fear and took off in the other direction. Gouki chased after him and that left Haruko with the woman. The kunoichi knew it was Kishin who sent Gouki to her aid and she silently thanked him, despite her fury at having to be helped.

"Come on!" the female whined. "Don't hold back just because I'm a woman!"

Haruko smirked. "Could have fooled me!" Her opponent started seething in rage before flying towards her in fury. Haruko widened her stance, gripped her staff tightly, and then turned one end in a circle, pointing it at the woman. "Fūton: Teikiatsu!" A wind-swept funnel bloomed out of the end of Haruko's staff and blew the woman over the trees and out of sight.

Guess I should make sure to finish the job so she doesn't warn any others.

Kishin cursed loudly. Of all the people he had to fight, it was one who he couldn't get close enough to cut. He managed to make a small incision on the man's chest, but when those two massive hands the size of trash can lids came barreling towards him, Kishin had to abandon his attempt.

I need to distract him long enough to get an opening. Shuriken and kunai proved to be ineffective because the man was so thick-skinned he barely registered them. Kishin desperately racked his brain until coming up with an appropriate idea. Perfect.

The genin raised his swords together above his head in a crisscross shape and then swung them down hard. "Raikou Arashi!" Lightning danced in and out of the ground within five meters of Kishin's swords. The dust-haired man howled in pain and covered his eyes from the bright light. Kishin took that opportunity to rush forward and slice the man's chest. It wasn't enough to kill him, but the shinobi hurt some of the major tendons and sent him sprawling to the ground.

"How about you be a little more careful next time you use that," Haruko scolded. "You almost got me!" She was walking towards him while dragging the woman alongside her with some difficulty.

"Lay off it," Kishin mumbled, his chest rising rapidly. "That's what it's supposed to do!"

"I'm sure once you hone your skills more you'll be able to focus the attack better," Takeo said. He too, walked towards them with both of the men he defeated.

"These guys were tougher than I thought," Kishin admitted.

Haruko snorted. "We still beat 'em up." Kishin squinted towards the forest to their right.

"I wonder where Gouki is."

"Right here," a muffled voice called out. Sure enough, the lion emerged from the foliage with the blonde man, the shirt collar in his mouth. Gouki tossed the man towards theirs and faced his master. "If that is all I will return." Kishin nodded and the summon disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"There they are!" The three genin turned towards the source of the noise and saw Naruto being led to them by the little girl. They squirmed uncomfortably as Naruto stared at the mess in front of him in shock.

"What happened here?!"

"Uh . . . " Takeo turned to his teammates for help. "W-we thought we could try to help—"

"You're just genin!" Naruto interrupted. "You should have sent for help! Did you even try to assess their abilities? Or did just you jump into the fight with thoughts of glory?"

"We sent the little girl!" Haruko protested.

"A-and there wasn't enough time—"

"Wrong! Even if you had the opportunity to distract or delay them from a distance, Kishin—" (he turned to the boy) "—don't you have a summon contract? You could have sent one of your summons for help!"

All three genin stared in shock at their jounin sensei. None of them had thought of that, and now that they looked back on it—that was the better choice to make. They could have easily been killed and then there would have been no one to warn the village if they were able to catch up to the girl. Even though they weren't that much of a threat to Konoha, choosing to fight them head-on was a stupid way to gamble with their lives.

"We're sorry," Haruko mumbled. Her cheeks flushed red and she scuffed her feet on the ground. She heard Takeo mutter something similar on her far left.

"Well, I'm not." Four pairs of eyes shifted to Kishin, who stood in the middle of his teammates with his arms folded.

"What did you say, Kishin?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"I said—I'm not sorry for what we did." His sapphire blue eyes bore into the elder shinobi's defiantly.

"You're not sorry for endangering your lives unnecessarily?" Naruto asked in disbelief. "For not making the logical decision and letting this matter be handled by those who are more experienced?"

"How else are we going to get experience?" Kishin shot back. "By sitting still and doing D-rank after D-rank? Being a shinobi involves a certain amount of risk, doesn't it?"

"Yeah!" Haruko interjected, buoyed by her teammate's conviction. "We are warriors of this village and we are prepared to do whatever it takes to defend it!" Takeo nodded his consent.

Naruto gaped at them for a few seconds more before letting out an amused sigh. "As always, you taught them well, Iruka-sensei."

"What are you talking about?" The jounin glanced towards the genin, who stared up at him in utter confusion.

"Simple!" Naruto rested his hands on his knees and stared at the three of them each in turn before smiling. "You three pass." Three pairs of eyes blinked up at him.

"Wh-what?"

"Pass? What do you mean pass?"

"You can't be serious?"

Naruto laughed. "'Course I'm serious! You three are now officially Team 4 with me as your sensei."

"B-but . . . we didn't finish the things on the list!" Haruko protested. "Why are you—" Naruto waved her off.

"The list was just a distraction! What I really wanted to see was how you worked together as a team and faced unexpected dangers. I also wanted to see if you had what it takes to be more than just a mindless soldier. Whether it's the wisest decision or not, I want you to be able to have the courage and determination to be able to stand by every decision you make. That is the mark of a true warrior, and that is the only way things are going to ever change for the better in this world."

"That is the only type of people I want to have working with me," Naruto finished. He folded his arms and grinned down at them proudly. The three of them stood there stunned for a few seconds before mirroring Naruto's expression.

"Thank you, Naruto-sensei!" Haruko jumped forward and hugged the blonde tightly. Naruto laughed and ruffled her hair.

"It will be an honor working with you," Takeo said.

Kishin smirked. "I guess you're not half-bad."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"But . . . what about these people we defeated? Did you know they were going to attack?" Haruko asked.

"Oh, them?" Naruto gestured to the fallen figures. "They're kage bunshin!"

Takeo frowned skeptically. "Won't kage bunshin disappear when they sustain too much damage?"

"Quite right, Takeo. But these aren't ordinary kage bunshin, as you could tell. I've had many years to practice and hone this skill, and I've been able to create some very powerful bunshin that can handle more attacks. I can only make a certain amount of them—ten is my limit—and as you can see, they come in handy for a situation like this. They wouldn't stand up against a more skilled shinobi so I knew that leaving them with you would be the best route to take."

Naruto nudged one of the unconscious bunshin and they all disappeared in a puff of smoke. The blonde jounin looked contemplative for a moment before grinning.

"And now I have information on your fighting styles that can't be read from a personnel file. I was also watching you from the trees, and I already have some training exercises in mind for us tomorrow." He turned to Kishin. "When Gouki chased after one of my bunshin in the forest I told him all about this test or else he would have destroyed the bunshin and you would have figured out what was going on." He folded his arms proudly.

"That was the coolest test ever!"

"Naruto-sensei you're so cool!"

"It was a pretty cool trick."

Naruto laughed. "Team 4—meet at Field 6 tomorrow for an intense first day of training!"

The three genin saluted him. "Yes, sir!"

Eh, a little longer than a simple oneshot, but whatever! I hope you enjoyed it. (Coming up with genin tests are kinda hard!) As for the NaruHina going on, I personally am more of a NaruSaku and KibaHina fan myself, but seeing as how SumireMayonaka is a total NaruHina nut I figured it would be appropriate. :) I honestly don't care which girl Naruto ends up with, so long as he's happy. He deserves that much—right?

Jutsu

Doton: Daichi Tenchū— Earth Release: Heavenly Earth Pillars

Fūton: Teikiatsu— Wind Release: Cyclone

Raikou Arashi— Lightning Storm