Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Sarutobi Hiruzen, Hokage of Konoha, loved his village above everything else. Some people might think him harsh for putting the village before his own family, but then those people would simply be admitting to not understanding what Konoha stood for. The village was a family.
The fact that a few of its members were ostracized in their very own home was nothing sort of a stain on that family and hurt him deeply. Yet he couldn’t change how the minds of the people worked, as much as he wanted to.
And, of course, like in any family, there were some members whose sole purpose often seemed to consist of making his job as Hokage much harder than it already was.
Such was often the case of his teammates turned advisors.
On this occasion, they had decided he was in need of their expertise in regards to this year’s team placements. It wasn’t unexpected but it did annoy him. Their interest in this year’s graduates had been long foretold, seeing the assortment of Clan Heirs it held, including the last Uchiha scion and the Uzumaki twins.
Team 10 had been a given. The trio Ino-Shika-Cho was more than a tradition: it was a formation that had yet to be beaten. There had been no questioning when Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji were assigned to Sarutobi Asuma.
Team 9 had been entrusted to Yuhi Kurenai and it was formed by Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba and Hyuuga Hinata. The opportunity to train a specialized tracking team by pairing up those three particular clans had just been too good to pass up.
Most of the remaining teams had also posed no problem, giving them several well-balanced teams, even though not all of them would make the cut.
The actual trouble came at the time of assembling Team 7. The jonin assigned was Hatake Kakashi, though he had yet to actually pass one of his teams.
Uchiha Sasuke had been an obvious voice. Since there was the potential ―and expectation― of him awakening the famed Sharingan, they had all agreed that it would be best for the only other in the village with any knowledge of that particular Bloodline Limit to train him. Thus: Hatake Kakashi.
The disagreements began where the boy’s teammates were concerned.
Haruno Sakura was top kunoichi of her year along with Yamanaka Ino ―her theory scores high enough to compensate her poor performance in taijutsu and low stamina, whilst the Yamanaka Heiress had had more evened out grades. With Ino belonging to the next generation of Ino-Shika-Cho, she was the next best choice for Team 7’s kunoichi.
Uzumaki Naruto, having the worst grades out of the whole class ―even if he was also tied with another third of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Nara Shikamaru―would balance out the team and keep his and Sasuke’s rivalry ongoing, pushing them both to better themselves.
Last but by no means least, Uzumaki Akira. The younger twin of their resident prankster. His grades were not much better than Naruto’s or the Nara Heir’s, actually. The boy wasn’t physically strong by any means, but he was more level-headed than his brother and smarter than his Academy teachers realised. The Hokage hadn’t forgotten that Akira had taught the blonde how to read and write after learning to do so by himself and so he thought that is low scores in theory were just a result of Akira not putting any effort into his studies.
The Hokage was reluctant to separate the twins for various reasons, amongst them the promise he’d made to their dying mother and the fact that it would be doubly difficult to protect the hosts of the Kyuubi if they were split apart.
Then there was the fact that if they did split them up they’d have to decide which to include in Team 7 and what to do with the one left out.
Akira had graduated the conventional way and it would be unfair to send him back to the Academy, but he also believed his temperament wasn’t best suited to provide the challenging environment the Uchiha would thrive off of. That was without even taking into account Kakashi’s long-standing request.
However, the only option that wouldn’t end up with the twins in different teams would leave Team 7 without a kunoichi and, although it wasn’t unheard of ―teams like the senior Ino-Shika-Cho or Jiraiya’s own Team 7 came to mind―, it was highly unusual. Kunoichi’s were trained with a certain skillset in mind, mostly geared towards infiltration. That in itself could be easily resolved in most cases by passing those teachings along with a few tricks onto one or more of the team’s male members.
But there was another reason: due to their exceptional attention to detail which their training focused on, kunoichi usually had better chakra control than their male counterparts. That made them the best candidates to learn Iryojutsu and, although this wasn’t always the case, he doubted any of this particular boys fulfilled the requirements for the acquisition of that skillset.
It was for that very reason that he was loath to leaving Team 7 without a kunoichi and possible future medic-nin ―especially since it was his own student, Senju Tsunade, who proved that having an Iryo-nin increased the survival and success rates of a team and pushed to make mandatory having a member of each team proficient in at least the basics of Iryojutsu.
As if the matter wasn’t complicated enough, Hiruzen also had to worry about keeping the three boys out of Danzo’s hold. At least he’d had years of practice with that.
Slouched next to his desk, Nara Shikaku yawned as if he’d rather be anywhere else. Which he probably did. Not that the Hokage blamed him, in this situation.
In front of his desk, Hatake kakashi lazily flipped through the folder containing the academic information of his prospective team under the impatient stares of the Council Elders. Hiruzen couldn’t contain a sigh at the white-haired jonin’s habit of annoying people.
“I see. This is what’s holding up the team assignments.” Mused Kakashi.
“Since my advisors and I can’t seem to find an adequate solution and since it is your future team that this pertains to, I’d like your input.”
Kakashi’s black eye bore into him with a familiar intensity, but the Hokage did not show any outward reaction.
“Possible future team.” Remarked the man. “With a very slim chance of being more.”
“The Uchiha-” immediately jumped Koharu.
“-will have to pass the test like everyone else.” Cur her off Hiruzen.
The woman pursed her lips, but didn’t speak up against the Hokage.
“As I was saying, I thought it best to bring the matter to your attention before reaching any decision. Since this is a rather unique situation we are dealing with, any suggestion will be taken into consideration.”
The jonin sighed, his eye straying to the Jonin Commander for a second. Out of the corner of his eye, Hiruzen noticed Shikaku’s slight shrug.
“Well, I don’t see the reason to be so hasty in this.” Answered the jonin with a lazy wave of his hand.
Immediately, the Hokage raised a hand to slence the protests that the Elders were about to voice.
“Please, explain, Kakashi-kun.”
“There’s no sense to dropping anyone off the team yet when they might all fail anyway. If you drop off any of them now and the team fails, you won’t be able to know if another combination might have worked and there would be no point to testing them again because they would already know what to expect.”
“What do you suggest?” asked Homura with a frown.
“I’ll give the Bell Test to all four of them. That will raise the chances of an actual team passing and it will also give me the chance to personally assess their skills.”
“Assuming at least one of them fails, that would work.” Said Shikaku, speaking up for the first time. “But what would happen if they all passed the test?”
“I don’t anticipate that happening, seeing as I’ve yet to come across a normal three-squad that passes it. However, let’s say it did happen: those whose skills were best suited to work together would stay on the team. As for whoever is left out… we’d at least have a better idea of their skills at the same time.”
There was a moment of silence in which they all thought over his words.
“It’s a sound strategy.” Declared the Nara. “At least better than making up the team now without knowing if they’ll work.”
“It’s decided, then. I’ll notify the Academy instructors and have the team assignments dolled out.” Said Hiruzen in a non-nonsense voice, more than ready to leave the matter as it was.
HPNHPNHPNHPN
“Here are the team assignments for this year’s graduates, Iruka-kun.”
“Thank you, Hakage-sama.” Said the Chunin taking a quick look at the list before looking back at the old man. “Is this right, Hokage-sama? Team 7 will be a team of four?”
“Temporarily.” Undisclosed the Hokage. “We’ll wait and see if they pass the test before making a decision.”
Iruka nodded in understanding, but there was a small smile on his lips.
“Naruto-kun and Akira-kun will be glad, I’m sure. They tried to hide it, but they were a bit worried at the possibility of being separated.”
If the instructor hadn’t been lost in thoughts of his two students, he might have seen the conflicting emotions in Hiruzen’s eyes before they were hidden behind the rim of his hat.
“Don’t let me keep you, then.” He said, expression clearing. “I’m sure your students are impatient and they’re a rowdy bunch.”
“Of course, Hokage-sama.” Answered Iruka with a sheepish smile that soon turned fond at the thought of his students.
Ex-students now, he corrected. They’d had a long way from their first day at the Academy to this moment and he’d had the pleasure ―though sometimes he might feel other words would be more accurate― of guiding them through it. But Iruka’s job was done now and it was time for them to ―hopefully― start their own paths as shinobi. It would be their jonin-sensei’s turn to guide them through it from now on.