eleven
Tenten tried not to fidget as she waited nervously for her name to be called. She’d done it; she’d graduated the academy as the top kunoichi and now she would be starting her journey as a genin. The thought of all the weapons she could master made her drool slightly but she held it together. She had to find out who her teammates were first.
“Team Nine will be Hyūga Neji, Hagane Tenten and Rock Lee. Your sensei will be Maito Gai.”
She bounced up from her seat. Neji was the top shinobi this year! He was a super strong teammate to have. Lee was the dead last this year but she’d seen him in the taijutsu exam. He was no joke either. She’d never heard of Maito Gai but she already had high hopes for this team. It was probably going to be more taijutsu focused going by the skill set of her new teammates but that suited Tenten just fine. Oh, what if Gai-sensei was a weapons expert? That would be amazing!
Her thoughts were interrupted by a large man slamming the door open, bounding in with a big smile and boisterous laugh. Her brain stopped for a moment as she took in the tight, green spandex, orange leg warmers and bowl cut; what in Konoha’s green earth?
“Team Nine! Follow me to truly flourish in the Springtime of your Youth!”
Tenten shared a look with Neji at the man’s statement but she followed him out the door anyway. He did say Team Nine although she didn’t know what he meant by youth. Maybe because they were genin?
She had to jog to keep up with the man as he strode in the direction of the training grounds. They finally stopped in one and Tenten stood next to her teammates, watching the man with anticipation.
“Welcome, Team Nine!” His voice boomed across the empty training ground. “I will be your sensei, Maito Gai! I am blessed to be teaching such wonderful and Youthful genin such as yourselves and I look forward to working together to reach the Springtime of our Youth!”
He grinned brightly, hands on his hips as he looked down at them. Tenten smiled back awkwardly. This wasn’t exactly what she was expecting from her jounin-sensei. What did the whole Youth thing mean?
“I am honoured, Gai-sensei!” Lee yelled from beside her and she winced at the volume. “I look forward to working my hardest and blossoming into the best version of Lee I can possibly be!”
“Such Youth!” Gai cried and…were those real tears?
Tenten looked desperately at Neji to make sure she wasn’t the only sane one here. Neji was always a bit stoic but even she could tell he was just as bewildered as she was.
“Now!” Gai announced, clapping his hands together excitedly. “Everyone introduce themselves! Your name, specialty and your goals as a shinobi!”
“I’m Rock Lee!” Lee yelled before Tenten or Neji had a chance to respond. “I specialise in taijutsu and my goal is to become the greatest taijutsu master in Konoha!”
“What a wonderful goal, Lee!” Gai threw him thumbs up. “As Konoha’s Sublime Green Beast of Prey, I will do my utmost to help you achieve your goal and reach the pinnacle of your Youth!”
“Gai-sensei!”
“Lee!”
Tenten watched the pair in horror. Is this what she was going to have to live with from now on? Sure, her teammates were pretty strong but she didn’t relish having to watch this display every day. Gai turned and pointed dramatically at Neji.
“You!”
Neji stared back, his blank, pale eyes staring back at their sensei with the opposite level of enthusiasm Lee had shown.
“Hyūga Neji, taijutsu,” he said flatly. “My goals do not matter as my path in life has already been predetermined.”
“You’re wrong!” Lee pointed a finger in his face. “Nothing is decided; only our hard work can determine our future!”
Neji looked at him, unimpressed.
“With your limitations, your goal is impossible,” he folded his arms. “Your birth has already dictated your station in life. You would be better to give up now rather than face disappointment.”
Lee’s face turned red and Tenten looked desperately at their new teacher, hoping he would step in before it escalated. The pair had never really gotten on in the academy either but they’d also never been forced to really work together before. Tenten knew Neji would beat Lee with ease and she didn’t want to spend her first day watching her teammates fight.
“How wonderful to see the Will of Fire burning so brightly in you both!” Gai clapped his hands, delighted. “Having a rival will push you to reach heights you would never have thought to reach alone!
“He’s not my rival,” Neji snapped, annoyance bleeding through his expression.
“I will make you acknowledge me!” Lee yelled.
Tenten hopelessly looked around at her team. Was this even going to work? Her teammates couldn’t get along and their sensei seemed to be trying to make it worse.
“Have no fear, we have not forgotten about you!” Gai grinned at her, cutting off Lee’s declarations. She flinched and cursed silently. She was this year’s top kunoichi; she couldn’t be acting like a civilian girl.
“I’m Hagane Tenten,” she said, trying to inject confidence she didn’t feel into her voice. “I specialise in weapons and my goal is to become the best weapons mistress in Konoha.”
“An honourable goal!” Gai threw her a thumbs up. “I have no doubt that you will accomplish it in no time!”
Tenten felt a small smile curve her lips. He may be weird and badly dressed and super loud, but he did seem like he cared. Only time would tell if this team would sink or swim. As Lee lunged for Neji, declaring a practice spar to prove him wrong, she felt like they would find out sooner rather than later.
Naruto blew on his ramen before he shoved in another mouthful, watching Gai’s new team argue among themselves from his perch in one of the trees surrounding the training ground. The leaves rustled gently around him and the sun lit up his surroundings in a kaleidoscope of green. It was rare that he took a moment like this to just sit and allow the world to move around him. He knew the urge to move and train would creep on him in no time but for now he was happy to sit in this tree with his ramen, judging Gai’s new genin.
He watched that Rock Lee kid yell at the Hyūga. He’d been channelling chakra to his ears so he could hear them even from this distance and he had to say he was unimpressed. This predestined shit the Hyūga was on was garbage. If Naruto kept to the ‘destiny’ the village had decided for him then he would be long dead by now. A part of him wanted to beat that mindset out of the other genin but the other, much larger part of him didn’t care enough to get involved. It wasn’t his problem; it was Gai’s. Although knowing Gai he would just let the Hyūga figure it out himself, believing his newly proclaimed ‘rival’ would help him.
Rock Lee had cut the braid off but he was still way too loud. He was making challenges that Naruto knew he probably wouldn’t be able to back up with his skill set. The girl was almost the opposite; Naruto could already see she was getting overwhelmed by her teammates and that was no use. What would happen if they were ambushed outside the village? Naruto could guarantee that it would be a hell of a lot more overwhelming than Gai.
He hadn’t been like this when he’d graduated, had he? Gai really had his work cut out for him and Naruto fucking knew he would be talked into training with them or helping out. Gai would ask him with that hopeful expression and Naruto wouldn’t be able to let the man down and then he’d be stuck with these idiots. Gai was wasted on them. Thank the gods he’d never been forced onto a team; it already looked like a nightmare.
“Got a good seat?”
Naruto looked over at Kakashi as he stood on a nearby branch, eye-smiling at him.
“What does it look like?” He sniped back, gesturing with his chopsticks.
Kakashi stepped onto Naruto’s branch, deliberately shoving Naruto’s legs over the side before looking out to the training ground. Naruto kicked out at him but the fucker just dodged with ease, not even looking back.
He’d been Naruto’s bloodline and ninjutsu teacher for almost two years now and they had a very different relationship than the one Naruto had with Gai. He’s still never called the man ‘sensei’; it wasn’t even out of deliberate disrespect either. He’d just never felt like he and Kakashi were ‘student-teacher’ material. Most of the time, it felt like he was training with an annoying older brother, or what he thought a brother would be like. It wasn’t as if he had a reference. They sniped at each other, tried to wind each other up and did things purely to annoy the other.
Gai had once spoken to him about it, concerned that his rival and student weren’t being very ‘Youthful’ towards each other. Naruto hadn’t been able to explain to the man that this was just how they worked. Naruto enjoyed having someone to push back against while also knowing there would be no hard feelings. He was pretty sure the jounin felt the same as he would have probably said something by now. He did respect Kakashi’s encyclopaedic knowledge of ninjutsu and he did appreciate the jounin could wipe the floor with him without breaking a sweat, so he toned it down during the times when Kakashi was actually teaching him stuff. The rest of the time was free game though.
“Get your own branch,” he growled.
“So aggressive, Naruto-chan,” Kakashi said lightly, moving to a thinner branch to their left and whipping out his orange book. “Some residual feelings over seeing Gai with other students perhaps?”
“I was the one who told him to do it,” Naruto shoved in another mouthful of ramen. “Aren’t you supposed to be teaching some of your own?”
“I’ll see them tomorrow,” the jounin waved a hand dismissively.
“You mean, you’ll fail them tomorrow,” Naruto accused good-naturedly. “You fail them every year.”
“You never know, this might be the year,” Kakashi replied without a drop of conviction in his tone.
“What are you even looking for?” Naruto looked away to see Gai start to fight the genin. He was being so much nicer to them. He hadn’t gotten a warning; Gai just ambushed him when he’d reached the training ground. He probably wouldn’t have wanted to stand around talking anyway but that wasn’t the point. “They’re just out of the academy; you know they’re pretty useless going in.”
“I do remember you being particularly terrible at the tree-climbing exercise.”
Naruto pouted. He’d gotten the hang of it eventually. He could do them all now; Gai was ruthless when working towards a specific goal like that.
“You know what I mean…besides, you’re avoiding the question.”
Kakashi remained silent for a long moment and Naruto took the opportunity to slurp up the rest of the broth and noodles. He took out a scroll, sealing the rubbish to dispose of later.
“They don’t know how to be a team,” Kakashi finally replied and Naruto rolled his eyes.
“Well, duh,” he raised an eyebrow at the jounin. “The academy is about learning a list of stuff and competing against each other. Why would they work in a team?”
“It’s integral to being a shinobi,” Kakashi replied with a little heat, actually lowering his book, and Naruto took a deep breath to stop himself snapping back.
He and Kakashi had very different ideas about the necessity of teamwork as a shinobi. Kakashi seemed to think that teamwork was the golden rule for all shinobi despite being a fucking loner and avoiding social interaction like the plague. Naruto had been functioning as a solo genin for two years and he knew that teammates were bullshit; they would have held him back if anything. If he’d been forced onto a team with anyone he’d graduated with he would have spent his entire genin career looking over his shoulder. He didn’t need to be looking at his back when there were plenty of enemies to fight right in front of him. People couldn’t be trusted; they would just let him down or betray him or treat him differently and he didn’t have fucking time for it. Kakashi had entirely too much faith in people and Naruto couldn’t understand why.
They’d had two arguments about it in the time that they’d known each other and they were enough to show that they just should avoid talking about it. They would never agree and Naruto did like the man when he wasn’t shoving teamwork propaganda down his throat.
Naruto looked out to the training ground as the Hyūga slammed down hard into the dirt. He might have the Byakugan but that wasn’t enough against Gai. He was probably too reliant on it, like the rest of his clansmen. That would soon get beaten out of him if Gai uses the same physical conditioning regime that Naruto used back when he first graduated.
The girl was light on her feet and better at dodging than he expected but she was reliant on weaponry. Naruto hadn’t seen her try to physically hit Gai once. Weaponry was the better alternative only if you were good at weapons in the first place. At this point, even after months, Naruto knew that in a fight his fists would be more effective than his twin blades. There would be no point in her learning all the weapons if she was shit with them.
Lee was pretty good at taijutsu for genin, although Naruto would probably never say it out loud. He had some decent power and he could take the hits Gai’s dishing out. He wasn’t very creative though; it was like he thought if he did the same thing enough times he would accomplish something. He didn’t try a new approach or think of anything on the fly. It limited him in a way that would be trouble later on.
“Any thoughts?” Kakashi prompted knowingly.
Naruto stood and fixed his hoodie.
“They aren’t my problem,” he said firmly. “No point wasting my time when I got my own shit to work on.”
Kakashi gave him a look that said he knew Naruto was talking out of his ass but he was going to let him get away with it for now. It pissed Naruto off; just because Gai got some more students, didn’t mean Naruto had to talk or train with them. He didn’t care how they did. As long as Gai was still there to train him, that was all he cared about, and he knew Gai would never abandon him.
“How has your katon been?” Kakashi gave him an out and Naruto took it.
“I set fire to two trees yesterday,” he grinned back.
“We should test your affinity sooner rather than later,” Kakashi eyed him carefully. “You should have more control by now.”
“Bold of you to assume I didn’t do it on purpose,” Naruto shot him a look before he started to make his way down the tree trunk. “Now come on, you look like you have nothing better to do so train me in that fūton jutsu you taught me last week. I think I’ve figured out a way to do it with a sword.”
“I’ve told you before, learn how to use the swords, then add ninjutsu,” Kakashi said exasperatedly as he followed him down, his nose still stuck in his book. “How many times do you need to stab yourself with your sword for that to stick?”
“Hey, I am very close to finding a kenjutsu teacher,” Naruto defended himself. The Kyūbi took care of his wounds in minutes anyway so it wasn’t a big deal. “Besides, you said we would start using my bloodline with them now.”
“I say many things, you rarely listen,” Kakashi shot back under his breath and Naruto felt a small, genuine smile creep onto his face. He walked a little quicker so Kakashi wouldn’t see. No need for the man to start getting a big head.
Sasuke stomped into the training ground. He’d thought that his fourth year in the academy would be different. Not that much different, it was still the academy after all, but they were less than a year from graduating. He thought they would begin to learn skills they could apply to future missions or more intensive ninjutsu or taijutsu; something other than memorising the lists of boring facts or throwing blunted kunai at a target or beating the same lazy classmates that’d been wasting his time since day one. He had thought wrong.
If he had someone decent to compete against it wouldn’t have been so bad. He would still have come out on top but at least he would have felt like he was getting stronger. As it stood, his entire class was useless. The boys were lazy and undisciplined. The only one who even bothered was Shino and even then he was nowhere close to Sasuke’s level. The girls were even worse; they called themselves his ‘fangirls’ but he wanted nothing to do with them. They were a nuisance and if it was Sasuke’s choice, none of them would be at the academy.
“Are we making a habit of stomping into the training ground?” Naruto quipped from where he was stretching. “I mean, I started it but I want to know if it’s becoming a thing. It seems like it’s a thing.”
Sasuke could only growl at him as he started his own stretches. He hadn’t expected much when he and Naruto had first started training together. He just wanted to learn the tree-climbing exercise and go on with his life. Instead he’d found a decent opponent who could not only keep up with him, but in some areas surpassed him. It was actually refreshing to have someone he could go all out against every time and he did feel that after a year, he had truly gotten one step closer to taking down Itachi. It made the situation at the academy all the more frustrating.
“What crawled up your ass?”
He looked up to see Naruto now standing over him with an eyebrow raised and arms crossed. He’d abandoned the black sleeveless hoodie in the training ground somewhere so Sasuke was assaulted with a full view of the genin’s awful orange t-shirt.
“Do you have to wear that eyesore?” He snapped instead of answering.
“Hey, the only eyesore right now is your face,” Naruto sniped back. “What your fangirls see in you, I’ll never fucking understand.”
Sasuke twitched slightly at the mention of the harpies and Naruto grinned. Sasuke just glared; he hated when Naruto did this. For someone so up front and direct, he was a sneaky shit when he wanted to be.
“So it was them,” Naruto mused. “Hey, I told you, just scare them or something. If you make yourself enough of an asshole, they’ll back off.”
“That would just make things worse,” Sasuke huffed. The worse he tried to treat them, the worse they got. There was no winning.
“Well you were the one who wouldn’t take my suggestion to just beat one of them up to send a message…”
“I am not beating up someone that fucking weak and we can’t fight classmates outside of class.”
“I said to beat them up during taijutsu practice! It’s the best excuse!”
Sasuke just shook his head. He’d unfortunately gotten to know Naruto quite well during their year of training. The blond had a very skewed way of thinking, even compared to Sasuke. He was like a stray dog that bit anyone that came close, except for his chosen few. He was so averse to talking to people; Sasuke knew about his goal to one day leave the village. He’d never really had someone who could not only match him, but had goals as big as Sasuke’s before.
Sasuke had thought about setting Naruto on his fangirls before but that would first of all imply that they were friends, and second of all Naruto would definitely go too far. He’d heard of some of his exploits against his own academy classmates.
He might have gone mad a while ago if it wasn’t for these meet-ups with Naruto. The blond had a way of trading Sasuke’s anger for annoyance, but a good annoyance if it was possible. It was just nice to have someone not trying to kiss his ass. The rest of the village put him on a pedestal as the last Uchiha but he hated it. Itachi put him there; the only reason he was the last was because he’d lost his whole clan. It wasn’t something he thought of in a positive light.
Naruto was an asshole, but he also gave Sasuke the freedom to also be an ass. He didn’t have to watch his words or put up with bullshit. He could just punch him in the face and call him a dick and Naruto would grin, get back up and kick him in the gut while calling him a bitch. It was a weird dynamic but it was one Sasuke didn’t want to lose. They weren’t friends but out of the entire village, Naruto was the only one Sasuke could be himself around. He would die before admitting it aloud though.
He stood, stretching his arm across his body.
“Taijutsu only to start.”
Naruto bounced backwards, grinning widely as his eye flashed silver. Sasuke had not been expecting the other boy to possess a bloodline limit, especially one so similar to the Sharingan. He hadn’t been able to activate his yet but it did mean that the blond was nearly impossible to beat in a straight taijutsu spar. Sasuke vowed he would beat him soon and right now, he just wanted to hit something.
He moved first and Naruto ducked, following the movement with a hit of his own and Sasuke dodged, the rhythm of their spar soon banishing thoughts of the academy.
Neji stood straight as his team waited around the training ground. It had been two days since he’d been assigned to Team Nine and he did not like it. Tenten was an acceptable teammate being the only girl worth her salt in the academy but Lee was impossible. The boy refused to understand that their paths were already formed at birth; there was nothing they could do to escape this fate. He himself was fated to be a servant for the Main House, to one day die in service to them and there was not a single thing he could do about it.
Lee would soon see the errors of his ways. Someone like him did well to pass the exam but he would not be able to reach his goals. It was not possible for someone of his ability. It was not Lee’s fault that the circumstances of his birth have hindered him. The only fault of his is refusing to acknowledge that fact.
He still was not sure of what to think of their jounin-sensei. He was loud, brash, optimistic to a fault and yet exceptionally strong. Neji had not been able to land a single hit in their first battle and he had not had an opportunity since, as Gai-sensei had started them on a training regime. He’d barely been able to still fit clan training in the busy schedule.
Gai had told them he had a new opponent to test their ‘youth’ against, whatever that meant. Neji was not sure who would be worth their time when they already had Gai-sensei to defeat. The jounin had been vague about it although Neji was able to see that he’d barely been able to keep it to himself. The man was literally vibrating with excitement. His thoughts were interrupted as he spotted what looked like another genin entering the training grounds.
He was short, closer to Tenten’s height than him or Lee. He had spiky blond hair, shaved close on the sides and longer on top with no hitai-ate in sight. He wore close fitting black trousers, black sandals and an open, black sleeveless hooded sweater with a loose, orange t-shirt beneath. The hilts of two katanas could be seen just over his shoulders and he had unusual whisker marks on his cheeks that Neji had never seen before. His face was turned down into a scowl and his blue eyes were closed off. He walked reluctantly up to them, hands shoved in his pockets as he looked them over.
“You owe me a weeks’ worth of ramen for this, Gai-sensei,” the boy spoke, his voice flat and unimpressed.
“Of course, Naruto-kun!” Gai-sensei laughed, clapping the boy heavily on the shoulder. Neji’s eyes narrowed as this ‘Naruto’ didn’t even flinch. He knew the weight Gai-sensei threw behind those pats. “I thought this was the most opportune moment for my wonderful genin to meet! You will be able to help each other reach new heights and truly blossom in the Springtime of your Youth!”
“I ain’t helping shit,” Naruto scowled. “This is a one time thing, understand? They’re your team, not mine. I don’t care how sad you look next time.”
They were interrupted by Lee.
“Naruto-kun!” He grinned, eerily reminiscent of their jounin-sensei. “I am so happy to learn your name! Thank you for your wonderful advice last time we met!”
Naruto shrunk away from Lee, looking like he would rather be anywhere else but here.
“Naruto-kun, have you already met Lee-kun?” Gai-sensei looked thrilled.
“No,” the blond crossed his arms. “Whatever, we’re burning daylight. Are we going to do this or not?”
Gai-sensei clapped his hand.
“You make a wonderful point, my apprentice!”
Apprentice?
“This is Uzumaki Naruto!” Gai introduced, dramatically sweeping his hands to present the grumpy genin. “He has been my diligent apprentice for the last two years and you will find no one more Youthful in the village! He has agreed to spar with you today!”
“I thought you couldn’t have a team and an apprentice at the same time?” Tenten asked, speaking for the first time.
“I’m pretty independent,” Naruto answered. “Gai-sensei still trains me but I do missions on my own and stuff.”
“So you never had a team?” she replied curiously.
“Nope.”
Neji wondered about that. It was unheard of for a genin not to be assigned to a team, let alone be apprenticed straight out of the academy.
“Naruto, I would ask that you refrain from using your weaponry but all else is encouraged!” Gai threw him thumbs up.
Naruto shrugged, wandering away to stretch. Gai turned to them excitedly.
“Naruto is on his way to becoming one of the best taijutsu masters in Konoha,” he said without an inch of doubt. “You will learn a great deal from him. He is very skilled and hard-working. Following his example will lead you to become very strong indeed.”
It was the most serious Neji had seen Gai-sensei since meeting him only a couple of days ago. He had never understood the bond between master and apprentice but perhaps he would gain more insight from this. He watched the genin stretch briefly before walking back to them, shoving his swords at Gai. He turned to them, his face still turned down into a deep scowl as if they were an inconvenience to him. Neji scoffed; he did not appreciate this genin looking down on him. He could not be that good if he had thus failed to become a chunin.
“Alright, let’s do this,” Naruto scanned them with annoyance. “Anything goes.”
“I look forward to learning from you, Naruto-senpai!” Lee bowed, his head almost bouncing off the ground in his enthusiasm.
“I’m younger than you,” Naruto replied, leaning away in physical discomfort.
“Wait, how old are you then?” Tenten cut it and Neji was curious to hear his answer too. He did look young but he carried himself as someone who had long left the academy behind. Neji had assumed he just had a young face.
“Old enough,” he answered evasively at the same time as Gai-sensei announced “eleven!”
“So you graduated at, what, nine?” she asked, eyes slightly wide.
“Does it matter?” Naruto sighed, exasperated.
Neji may have to revise his assumptions about him. It was difficult to graduate early in an age of peace. It spoke to the skill the genin must possess but it was curious that he was reluctant to reveal that fact. Most genin Neji knew would be boasting that information.
“Nevertheless, Naruto-senpai, you are our senior in experience and I wish to show you the respect you deserve!” Lee burst back in, eyes sparkling as he stared at Naruto.
“Such a beautiful display of Youth!” Gai-sensei joined Lee in his exuberance.
“Can we just get this over with?” Naruto crossed his arms, looking at Gai-sensei. “I do have things to do today.”
“Of course, Naruto-kun!” Gai grinned at him.
Neji watched them carefully, cataloguing their interaction. They were so different; Gai was open and happy and free and Naruto was grumpy and hostile and closed off. He could not see how they could have worked together for what would be two years now. It did not make sense.
He dismissed those thoughts as he prepared his stance, his teammates readying themselves around him. It was no matter. The outcome of this battle has already been decided. All he could do was follow the path placed down before him. Fate would decide the victor.