Author's Notes

DISCLAIMER: Yeah, you know the drill. I do not own 'Naruto', it is the property of Masashi Kishimoto. Please support the official release.

Yeah, so please R&R and let me know what you think I should improve upon or if I'm portraying the characters well.

As of now, these are the pairings I want to have in my story (eventually):

Naruto X Hinata

Rock Lee X Sakura

Sai X Ino OR Choji X Ino

Shikamaru X Temari

Neji X Ten Ten

And maybe Sasuke X Karin

If anyone has any other pairing ideas (that make logical sense, please) or you want to comment on any of these (like helping me choose between Sai and Choji for Ino) please leave it in the review

I've been writing this story for the last week during class w/e I had nothing to do, so I'm a bit into the opening arc, but all my chapters are fairly short right now. I'm hoping to make them a lot longer once I get to the academy graduation part. Right now the chapters are pretty much expository flashbacks lol.

Also, for the teams, I'm switching Hinata and Sakura. For one, I really don't like Sakura. For two, it makes more sense to me that the Rookie 9 member whose the best at genjutsu (i.e. Sakura) be the student of the village's resident genjutsu expert (i.e. Kurenai). For three, I also find it interesting to put the two rival clans of the Uchiha in a team with the last heir of the Uchiha (Hinata being a Hyuga, whom everyone likes to think is constantly fighting the Uchiha, and Madara mentioned that the Senju's Will of Fire burns bright within Naruto, so I'm going to take that literally lol). For four, I really don't like Sakura. Did I mention that one already? If anyone has any thoughts or comments on this switch, please let me know in your review.

I'm also going to be making some other little changes. For example, the Chunin Exams are now annual, not biannual. Also, the Rookie 9's class graduated about a week after the most recent one, so they all get about a year to train, while Team Gai gets 2 years. They are still called the Rookie 9 though because I don't think just one year of being a ninja makes them not rookies anymore, they need more experience than that. Also, whoever wins the 3rd stage tournament in the exams gets automatic promotion as well as 50,000 yen and a gold medal. Runner-ups get their respective medals, but nothing else unless the judges think they should be promoted. Let me know what you guys think of these ideas in your reviews.