5Ch.1 Team Assignments? The Avenger! The Icy Maiden! And The Unpredictable Ninja!
Ai Kōrichi had barely gotten any sleep last night, how could she? With her recent graduation to Genin and her looming team assignment Ai couldn't contain her worry.
"What if they hate me?" "What if I'm not good enough?" "What if…What if?"
A thousand scenarios flashed across her mind each gradually worse than the last. Shaking her head as if to physically throw the images from her mind, she stood on her bed and boldly shouted.
"No! I won't worry. I've got Papa and Mom on my side!"
Her gaze shot over to the shrine that she had built with tears still fresh in her eyes as a child. The faces of a smiling dark blue eyed woman and a blue-haired man were immortalized on it. Changing out the incense a sad smile came to her face.
"Mother, Father….look out for me okay?" Smiling, a wave of determination coursed through her. Tightening her father's hitai-ate around her waist she couldn't help but shout.
"Alright Konoha get ready. Cause Ai Kōrichi is officially a ninja!"
The walk through town to the academy was particularly uneventful, although Ai found some small amusement by Ino Yamanaka frantically rushing down the street while fixing her hair.
However, when she arrived in the classroom is where the real fun began.
It was surprising to see Uzumaki there considering he had failed the test earlier. How the heck did that happen?
It was sudden when Uzumaki got up into Uchiha's face though, all the other girls seemed so upset. Ai couldn't help but think it made them adorable.
She had almost let loose a mad cackle when Naruto was pushed into kissing Sasuke, priceless. What wasn't so priceless was the beating the other girls gave Naruto.
It wasn't his fault.
It was on that note that Iruka-sensei walked in.
Here it is, moment of truth, my ninja career starts with this team.
"Team 7 will be Uzumaki Naruto , Kōrichi Ai , and Uchiha Sasuke . You'll be meeting you're instructor in this classroom so stay here. "
Hmmm Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, hmm? Well I can think of worse combinations. I wonder who our sensei will be? I believe some information gathering is in order! Well I haven't been to the library in a few days, what better excuse than now? Or maybe the registration office? Decisions decisions. Although if I go to the library I can maybe weasel some croquettes, no wait fried shrimp, out of Shiki-nee, she needs to eat more anyway so to the library it is.
Unfortunately Ai was too lost in thought to notice everyone but Naruto, Sasuke and her were left in the classroom. Finally settling on a plan she got up and was headed for the door when it opened and an eraser fell on a head of silver hair. Ai couldn't help it, she laughed right along with Naruto. It didn't take too long for Ai to be the only one laughing with both Naruto and Sasuke giving her a look that clearly asked "What the hell?"
The silver haired jounin was the one to interrupt her mirth.
"My first impression of you? I dislike you. Meet me on the roof in 5."
With that command he disappeared and left to three standing there with dumbfounded looks mirrored across all their faces.
Shaking herself out of her shock, Ai sprinted toward the stairs leaving both boys behind. Again, the same thought crossed between them.
What the hell?
Following his orders to the letter, Ai arrived on the roof in exactly 5 minutes, with neither her teammates or sensei in sight. After 30 seconds Naruto and Sasuke arrived, the former panting, somehow out of breath, the latter only looking slightly annoyed at having to run.
"You're both late." A voice called from behind them, their sensei leisurely walking up the steps.
How did we miss him? Was the message that all their faces clearly conveyed. Which caused their sensei to close his only visible eye in amusement, or that's what Ai thought it was.
"You however," he said looking directly at Ai "were exactly on time.
Well done."
"Thank you...Sensei." Ai couldn't help but blush, doing a very good impression of Hinata at that moment, embarrassed by the praise.
The silver haired man turned to look at the group of young Genin.
"It would seem introductions are in order."
"My name is Hatake Kakashi and I shall be your Instructor from now on." He gestured at them. "Now it's your turn, tell me a little about yourselves. Likes, dislikes, dreams and all that." he pointed at Naruto "You go first."
"Um...okay...m-my name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like ramen, especially from Ichiraku's Ramen stand."
"And my dream is to become the strongest ninja in the village, and become Hokage, Believe it!" He said in a sudden rise of both confidence and his voice, causing Ai to jump a little.
"Al...right, well that is certainly an ambitious goal." Kakashi then pointed at Sasuke.
"What about you?"
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I have few likes, I have many dislikes and my dream is not a dream but a certainty; I WILL kill a certain man and restore the Uchiha clan to its former glory." Sasuke's face was hauntingly calm as he said this, which gave Ai great reason to move a tiny bit away from the brooding youth. A chill made its way up her spine at the certainty and conviction in his voice.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, but made no comment, simply pointed at Ai and said "Okay moving on, you're next."
"I'm Kōrichi Ai, I like croquettes, and all fried foods but mostly croquettes, Shiki-nee, books and cold days. My dislikes include hot weather and dry places. My dream is to become the next head of the Konoha Cambium Library and surpass Chishiki Hatchu."
She finished with a dramatic flourish of her hands. Naruto and Sasuke's faces both adopted a look of disbelief from the seemingly uncharacteristic actions of their teammate.
"Well you three are certainly an...interesting group of individuals." Kakashi said.
"I have more important things to attend to now but I'll leave you with your instructions for tomorrow's Genin exam"
"But Sensei" Naruto whined "didn't we already pass the Genin exam, why do we have to take it again?"
Kakashi's face crinkled into an amused expression.
"That was just the preliminary test, tomorrow is the real exam." His tone conveyed he was extremely amused by the situation.
"Tomorrow you shall gather at Training Ground 7 by sunrise, don't be late." He turned to walk away, then stopped. "And one more thing, don't eat breakfast tomorrow unless you want to throw it up" he pulled out an orange colored book and continued on his way. Before he disappeared for good he concluded with.
"Just so you know, 66.6% of students fail this test. Good luck."
Chishiki Hatchu was perhaps the only person in Konoha who Ai trusted completely. Being raised by her certainly helped in that regard. It also helped when she used her position as Head Librarian of Konoha Cambium Library to aid Ai in her research.
The problem was actually getting the good information from her.
"Ne ne Shiki-nee I need info on the Uzumaki and Uchiha so could you. PLEASE?" AI was doing her best to seem as small and adorable as possible.
"Hello to you too, Ai." Chishiki said, feigning hurt.
"And may i ask why you need it?"
"My teammates on Team 7 are Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, I wanna make sure I know everything about them before tomorrow's test."
"Ai, we've done this song and dance before, you know I can't just give you privacy invading information like that."
"However, I'll be participating in missions with life or death consequences with them, should I not have that type of information to better work as a cohesive unit?" Ai said, finally dropping the puppy dog eyes.
Chi thought for a moment, before relenting with a sigh "Fine, but you better not use what I give you to blackmail them or something like last time."
"One time! It was one time and that jerk completely deserved it. Do not deny it." Ai defended.
"Of course he did." Chishiki chuckled "now what specifically is it that you would like to know about them? Birthday? Address?"
"Well, family records, I want to see if I should need to prepare for any kekkei genkai, besides the sharingan."
After a brief period of searching, and coming up with nothing satisfying Chi sent a runner to the clan archive that was hidden in the Hokage Mountain for the files on the Uzumaki and Uchiha clans. Chi was disappointed, but not surprised, at the portion dedicated to living members. However, she was more pleased with the reports and family trees.
"Well it seems you have something in common, with all three of you being orphans. However, there is some info on the clans. The Uzumaki's being a clan that originated in Uzushio and were known for a proficiency in fūinjutsu. Konoha had very close ties, Uzumaki Mito-sama was married to our first Hokage Senju Hashirama-sama , with Uzushio to the point that the spiral you see on all our clothes comes from the Uzumaki spiral. Unfortunately Uzushio no longer exists as it was destroyed before the Second Great Ninja War. The Uchiha on the other hand, well you know about them, they help found Konoha after all. The most prominent being Madara Uchiha who was killed by our first Hokage."
Ai was impressed, she didn't know it was possible to talk that much in one breath, or the fact she was able to comprehend it, but leave it to Shiki-nee to surprise her.
Remembering a concern of her's from earlier Ai asked.
"Hey, this has been bugging me for a while today. How did Naruto pass? I thought he failed. Or at least that is what I concluded from seeing him without a hitai-ate on the day of the test."
"Oh that's way easier to explain. Iruka graduated him after a little incident in the woods." Chishiki told her of Naruto's theft, and then subsequent mastery of the Shadow Clone jutsu.
It was after a bit that Ai was reminded of her other reason for visiting her Shiki-nee, mainly her growling stomach.
"Hey, can we have fried shrimp today Nee-chan? I mean it's not everyday that your favorite imouto graduates from the academy right?" Ai said tilting her head to the side, bringing her cute strategy back full force. "Can we?"
Chishiki smiled, giving in instantly. "Of course, I'll even make double the usual amount, since it's such a special occasion."
Ai's face could have rivaled the sun as a shout of "Hooray!" Echoed through the village hidden in the leaves.
No matter how early Ai fell asleep the night before it still felt like she hadn't gotten any. Her body went into autopilot as she got ready for the day. Get up, bathe, brush teeth, eat the food Shiki-nee slaved, according to her, to make get dressed and finally bring herself back into the conscious world.
With all that done Ai readjusted her hitai-ate around her forehead today and made for training ground 7.
Now or never, she WOULD pass this trial.
Authors Note:
Joker:I'm still in shock we completed this, it was what 2 weeks?
DamascusDalek: 2 weeks 1 day
J: Thanks Netflix hopefully it gets the rest of Naruto
DD: at the rate we're going we'll have content til the Boruto sequel
J: what a Boruto's grandpa spin-off?
DD:more like Boruto's great grandson.
DD:so, shall we introduce ourselves?
J: Sure, I'm Joker: someone who has played almost an unhealthy amount of Persona 5, and I'm the main writer
DD:And I'm DamascusDalek, henceforth called Damascus or DD, and im the one who is just getting back into Naruto, and im the co-writer/editor
J: Add another D and you can be a penguin
DD:play nice
J: Kirby is fun, I've played super star ultra to the point I'm surprised I still don't have a 100% save file
DD:we all have our shames
J:Like restarting ultra moon for a shiny starter (I'll get it, one day)
DD: so we will both be hosting this on different sites, with me hosting on my FF account: DamascusDalek
J:and me on AO3, on my Account : TrickStar25
DD: well joker I think that about wraps it up for now, what say you?
J: Yep, thanks for reading all the way to the end
DD:and expect the next chapter in way less time. Maybe a week.
J:Hopefully less since we're done with the establishment chapter, depends on how finals study plays out
DD:and with my moving back home. May Arceus bless us.
DD:See ya next time in Ch2. First Test! Team 7's Trial by Fire!
J: Byeonara!