"We have thirty new genin," Hokage noted. "In addition to Ryoko."
"That's ten teams plus one spare," Iruka noted.
"Some things are clear," Sarutobi noted. "Kurenai has history with the young Hyuuga, and it makes sense to place her as Hinata's sensei for that reason. Likewise with Asuma and Shikamaru. And, of course, the young Uchiha."
"Yeah," Kakashi said from where he was reading his book. "We'll see how he does."
Iruka frowned as he considered the jonin's statement. He'd heard rumors about the past times Kakashi was called on to take a genin team. Come to think of it, he didn't think he'd heard of the jonin working with genin that hadn't been a ninja for less than three years.
"We also need to place Naruto," the Hokage said.
"We should put him with Sasuke," Kakashi noted, a bit in disbelief that he was suggesting this. "It will attract less attention."
"But it is traditional to team the strongest and weakest students together," another jonin protested. "Before the Mizuki situation, I'd have said that Naruto was the weakest, but there can be no doubt that he has extreme potential of his own."
"How can we be certain he didn't use the Kyuubi's power to beat Mizuki," another asked.
"Iruka was there to witness it," the Hokage said. "The demon chakra made no appearance."
"Then shouldn't Naruto be the anchor of another team?" someone asked.
"Naruto is not prepared to be an anchor of any team yet," Ibiki noted. "And Kakashi is right that placing Naruto in a team other than with Sasuke would attract attention. Naruto's grades are a matter of public record, easily obtained by other villages. The Mizuki situation is not something so easily obtained. We don't want word getting out that we broke our own tradition this way. It would bring eyes to Naruto that we don't want looking."
There were internal reasons as well, but Ibiki had already expressed those concerns to the Hokage. The Foundation was supposedly disbanded, but the individuals that made it up were still around, and they'd look for any sort of lever they could use to get back to the ways they felt things should be. They'd know about the Mizuki situation, but the majority of the public citizens wouldn't.
That left the third spot to fill on Team Kakashi.
"How about Haruna?" Kurenai asked, finally drawing some sort of interest from Kakashi.
"The potential is there," Kakashi said. "But not the drive yet. If I have to have those two on a team, I'd prefer a third member that keeps the same sort of pace. I'm already going to have to work at moderating the academic pace as it is."
The Hokage smiled.
"I think we know who might fill that bill," the Hokage said.
Kakashi blinked and looked up again from his book before sighing expressively.
Sasuke looked irritably toward the black-haired martial artist who saw in one of the chairs of the room, somewhat far away from him, he'd noticed. That was fine with him, she could stay curious and moon-eyed over there then. Meanwhile Naruto was pacing about a bit and grumbling about how late their jonin was.
Personally, Sasuke was more interested in why a skittish girl with no forehead-protector was doing assigned to his team. The only time he'd seen the girl was when she came to pick up her younger sister.
He'd heard rumors, of course, about how Naruto had been challenging her off and on since she got to the village two years back, but the fact that she always won didn't particularly impress Sasuke.
Most people could beat Naruto in a fight.
Which brought up yesterday's…situation.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he looked to the blonde, hyperactive ninja. He didn't know for what purpose Naruto had impersonated him, but it didn't really matter. The "dead last" ninja had defeated him quite easily. To make matters worse, the rumors he'd heard was that Naruto had tried something, but been easily rebuffed and Naruto wasn't saying anything to the contrary.
To be defeated was one thing, but this was verging on condescension.
Either that, or Naruto had simply forgotten the whole affair. That was a possibility that wasn't all that unbelievable.
In any case, he'd show the fool that Sasuke Uchiha was not someone to be taken so lightly.
"Ano…" Ryoko said quietly as Naruto brought a chair over and used it to climb up and place an eraser inbetween the door and the frame. "Sh…should you be doing that?"
"His fault for being late," Naruto said.
"Like a jonin would fall for a trap like that," Sasuke said grumpily.
Not much longer after he'd said that, the three heard the sound of footsteps and the door slid open to drop the eraser on Kakashi's head.
"Got him!" Naruto declared loudly.
"Ano…" Ryoko responded.
Sasuke remained quietly disbelieving that a jonin could be so foolish.
Kakashi, meanwhile, looked about the room, judging what he saw. As expected, Naruto had gotten up to some mischief and didn't even realize that it was bad, Ryoko was still uncertain about just what to do or say and Sasuke was watching arrogantly from on high without getting involved.
This would take a lot of work to mould these three into a team.
A few minutes later found them on top of the Academy, with Kakashi speaking to them.
"All right," he said. "Let's start by introducing yourselves."
"Introducing ourselves?" Naruto asked. "How do we do that?"
"As in give you name…" Kakashi thought a bit more "…likes, dislikes, future dream and hobbies…stuff like that."
That sounded authentic enough.
"Well, why don't you start then?" Naruto demanded.
"Me?" Kakashi said. "I'm Kakashi Hatake. I don't feel like telling you my likes and dislikes. I've never thought about a future dream and I have many hobbies. Now, Naruto?"
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto declared. "I like ramen and especially Ichiraku ramen. I dislike that it takes three minutes to make instant ramen. My hobby is comparing types of ramen. My dream is to surpass the Hokage and to be acknowledged by everybody in the village."
"All right," Kakashi said, turning toward Ryoko. "And you?"
"Ano…" the girl said, rising to her feet, she bowed formally. "I am Ryoko Saotome of the Saotome School of Martial Arts. I..like martial arts movies and manga. I di…dislike behaving poorly and m..making mis…mistakes. My dream is for my sister to be happy. My hobby is training."
"What kind of dream is that?" Sasuke asked, despite his overall annoyance for the whole procedure.
"Ano…" Ryoko said, confused.
"Yeah, Ryoko-chan," Naruto said. "A dream is supposed to be about what you want to do, not other people."
"Oh," Ryoko said, blinking. "I see. Th…then I am to bear strong children with a m…manly man in or..order to make sure the S…saotome family continues."
"Well, that's…interesting," Kakashi said as he turned from Ryoko to look at the horrified Sasuke. "Sasuke."
"I'm Sasuke Uchiha," he said, staring at Ryoko. "I don't particularly like anything. I have lots of dislikes. I especially dislike clinging girls that are already planning marriage…"
"Oh, I could not marry you," Ryoko said. "You must tend to your own family name. A…at m..most I could be your m…mistress."
Besides, the boy made her very uncomfortable with the way he was glowering and how heavy the chi around him was.
Kakashi hadn't thought Sasuke's expression could get more horrified until Ryoko said that.
"That way we b..both k..keep our family names," she explained.
"What's she talking about?" Naruto asked, feeling it was vaguely perverted somehow but he wasn't sure.
"Anyway," Kakashi said, setting aside the concept of why a twelve year old girl had thought such things through so thoroughly. "Your dreams and hobbies, Sasuke?"
"Uh…uh…" Sasuke said, trying to pry his eyes away from the disturbing figure of Ryoko.
Naruto leaned over toward Ryoko and started whispering.
"Ryoko-chan," he said. "Did you use some sort of jutsu on Sasuke-teme over there?"
"Ano…" Ryoko said, confused.
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:21)
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