345Updated: 7/16/2009
A/N: This is going to be my first re-write or re-edit out of many. Things might change, chapters might be merged so… yeaahhh. I changed quite a few things, so it would be a good idea to go back and reread it. (it's a lot longer than it was before) Now, let's get on with it, shall we?
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or anything associated with the franchise.
Teamwork, the Answer is Teamwork!
Chapter 1: Team 7
It was a pretty peaceful morning in Konoha, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. The people of Konoha were fairly pleased with the nice weather that they were graced with today. Suddenly, a high-pitched scream punctured through the peaceful atmosphere and it's origins could be traced back to the Academy.
"NOOO!" wailed two girls from their seats next to each other in their classroom, saddened at not being placed on the same squad as their beloved Sasuke-kun. As despaired as they were, Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino weren't the only ones sadden by the news that their sensei had just given them.
A certain Uzumaki Naruto sat broodingly in his seat when he had realized that he hadn't been assigned to the same Genin team as his beloved Sakura. But in contrast, young Hyuuga Hinata was delighted to have this opportunity to be on Team 7 with Naruto, the object of her affection. The last member of their three-person squad, the silent and moody Uchiha Sasuke felt mildly irritated regarding his placement on this team; these squads would only prove to hold him back. Though, in the back of his mind, he was somewhat grateful to be assigned to the same team as the silent Hyuuga as opposed to another loud and obnoxious fangirl.
"Ha!" Sakura screamed suddenly, turning around and standing up to point at her rival, making the whole class turn around and look at her, well, except for Sasuke and Naruto, who was still moping over the fact that he and Sakura weren't on the same team. The rest of the class was confused, why did Sakura seem happy?
"At least you're not on the same team as Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed while Iruka demanded that Sakura sit down, so he could continuing with announcing the team arrangements. Sakura obeyed with a slight smirk on her face.
"So," started Iruka, "With that over, Team 8! Haruno Sakura!" Sakura hoped she wasn't with someone bad. "Inuzuka Kiba! Aburame Shino!" Sakura groaned. She got the dog boy and the silent freak on her team. Oh great.
"Ha!" Ino taunted Sakura from the seat behind her. "You got dog boy on your team, Forehead-girl! You have the worst teammates!" Ino ignored Sakura's glare and laughed quietly to herself, but stopped when she heard her name being called.
"Team 10, Yamanaka Ino! Nara Shikamaru! Akimichi Choji!" Ino sighed; okay maybe her team was worse than Sakura's. Ino sighed and prepared herself for what Sakura was going to torment her about.
"Oh," started Sakura with an innocent look on her face, "What was that Ino-pig? What was that about my teammates being bad?" Sakura smiled deviously. Iruka finished calling out all the teams and dismissed everyone for lunch.
"Don't forget to wait in the classroom after lunch for your Jounin senseis to pick you up!" Iruka called out to the Genin as they all left the classroom. Hinata walked out of the classroom quickly, in search of Naruto. She had two bentos in her hands; today she was determined to get Naruto to eat the lunch that she made for him. But as she walked towards the doorway, not looking where she was going, she bumped into somebody's back. Hinata looked up and say a red and white fan on navy blue before looking down.
"G-Gomen," she apologized. "I-I wasn't l-looking where I-I was going U-Uchiha-san, s-sorry."
Sasuke turned around and glared at the shorter girl before he recognized who she was and replied, "If you and I are going to be on the same team, please get out of the habit of stuttering so much and apologizing so much. Sooner or later, it is going to get annoying. Speak up, you aren't going to be notice by Naruto if you are so quiet." With that, Sasuke left a blushing Hinata behind. How did he know about my crush? She asked to herself as she started to look for Naruto again.
The Hyuuga found Naruto sitting under a tree with his eyes closed. She set the bentos next to her on the ground. "N-Naruto-kun," Hinata said as she shook Naruto softly, trying to wake him up. "N-Naruto-kun," she said as her hand moved to shake his shoulder again. Naruto batted her hand away and mumbled something in his sleep.
Hinata tried again but this time Naruto responded, "Sakura-chan, do you want to go out sometime?" Hinata backed away slowly. Though she had known, for quite a while, about the blonde's crush on the pink-haired girl, the lavender-eyed girl couldn't help but feel a tinge of hurt in her heart.
She willed herself not to cry and tried to wake the blonde up again. At least if Naruto didn't like her, she could at least get to eat lunch with him. She tried calling out his name again, and after a minute or so of no response, Naruto's eyes opened. He sat up, wiping the sleep from his eyes before he noticed Hinata.
"Oh hey!" He said to her, smiling brightly. The Hyuuga said a soft 'hello' in response, a light blush on her cheeks. She opened her mouth, planning to ask Naruto if he wanted to eat lunch with her before a certain pink-haired girl walked by that caught Naruto's attention.
"Hey Sakura-chan! Do you want to have lunch with me?" The pink-haired girl stopped in her tracks and turned around to look at Naruto.
"Well, will I be paying again this time?" Though she didn't show it, Hinata could tell that there was an edge of frustration in Sakura's voice as she talked to the idiotic blonde. Sakura's jade eyes noticed Hinata next to Naruto and her eyes softened. Like many other people, she knew about the shy Hyuuga's crush on the dense blonde. "Are you sure you weren't going to eat lunch with Hinata-chan?"
"Oh, Hinata-chan?" Naruto shook his head.
"Ano…" came Hinata's soft voice, "I-It's okay. I, um, n-need to go t-to the Hyuuga c-compound to get something a-anyway." Sakura looked at Hinata again, her eyes asking her, Are you sure?
Hinata picked up the bentos from the ground and shoved them into Naruto's hands. "H-Here. You and S-Sakura-chan can eat these. I h-hope you enjoy them." She stood up and ran away, not wanting to see the looks on her friend's faces and trying to keep the tears from falling.
"Wait! Hinata-chan!" Sakura called after the dark-haired girl, but her cries fell upon oblivious ears.
The lavender-eyed girl ran and kept running. She didn't stop until she reached the private training-grounds in the Hyuuga Compounds. She was thankful that her father and sister had stopped training to take a lunch break; she didn't need for them to see her as the pathetic "Hyuuga Weakling" they always thought her to be.
Adrenaline pumping, Hinata fell into the Hyuuga Jyuuken fighting stance. She gathered chakra into her leg and hit the nearest post, blasting it to pieces. She was a whirlwind of emotions. She felt happy for Naruto that Sakura was willing to spend time with him; sadness because, obviously, the blonde had no interest in her; and anger, at herself for not being the type of girl that Naruto was interested in and at Naruto, for always thinking about Sakura first.
Post after wooden post blew up into a rainfall of splinters. Hinata knew that this was the improper technique, but she didn't care. She had all this anger welled up in her and she needed to get rid of it some how. But she had no idea how this would be explained to her father.
A screeching sound filled the air as a bird flew overhead, signaling that lunch was over. Hinata wiped the sweat from her brow. As she headed back to the Academy, one thought coursed through her mind.
Maybe it's time to get over Naruto…
Sasuke looked around the empty classroom, only Naruto, Hinata, and himself were left in the classroom. Many senseis had come to get their teams earlier and everyone else had gone, except Team 7. Naruto and Sasuke were sitting in the front of the room. Sasuke was observing everyone while Naruto was grumbling and complaining about how their sensei was one hour late. Sasuke turned his head around and saw Hinata sitting in the back corner of the room, looking out of the window with a blank expression on her face.
Sasuke was confused. How come the Hyuuga wasn't fawning over Naruto right now? Suddenly, Naruto stood up and walked over to the chalkboard in the front of the room. His picked up an eraser and walked over to the door. He opened the door slightly and placed the eraser at the top of the door. "What are you doing?" Sasuke asked Naruto with a cold tone to his voice.
"When Sensei opens the door, the eraser will fall down on his head! He deserves it for being late!" Naruto exclaimed, with a triumphant look on his face.
"Naruto," Hinata said, her voice was steady and unwavering. It was a stark contrast to her normally shy persona, "That wouldn't be a very good idea." Sasuke eyed the Hyuuga; this sudden change was shocking. Naruto just ignored her. Last time, I remembered her talking to Naruto very nicely and calling him "Naruto-kun"? Did something happen between the two of them? Suddenly, the door opened and in looked a man with silver hair and a mask covering his face with his forehead protector covering his left eye.
He then turned around to look at the group. "My first impression of you guys is, I hate you." Everyone face-faulted at his statement. "Come'on let's get going." Everyone stood up and followed him out of the Academy.
"Okay, let's begin with some introductions", the Jounin told his student. The Jounin was sitting on the railing and the students were situated on the steps. He looked from one face to another. He really did have an interesting group of genin this year. But it wouldn't be long until he would be able to see if they would really be the team.
"What should we say?" Naruto asked.
"How about… your likes, dislike, dreams for the future, hobbies, ect. You know, the standard stuff."
"Hey, hey, why don't you introduce yourself to us first?" Naruto said right back.
"You need an example? Alright then." The Jounin pointed to himself, "Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I don't want to tell you guys about my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future? Ehh…Well, I have lots of hobbies…"
Naruto looked at the other two people on his team, "So we only learned his name?" Both Sasuke, but the girl of their team gave Naruto a side-ways glance and nothing more.
Kakashi said, "Now it's your turn."
Naruto got excited and grabbed his forehead protector and start to play with while it was still on his forehead, like he had done earlier that day, "Me, me, I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like cup ramen! What I like even more is the ramen from the Ichiraku that Iruka-sensei buys me. What I dislike is waiting the three minutes for the cup ramen to cook. My hobby is eating tons of cup ramen! My dream for the future is… To surpass the Hokage! And then have all the people of this village to acknowledge my existence
Kakashi moved his hand and pointed to Hinata and said, "Next."
Hinata started talking with a somewhat confident voice, but there was still a stutter, "I-I'm Hyuuga Hinata a-and I like to make m-medicine and to l-look at the scenery. M-my h-hobbies are m-making medicine and gardening. I dislike." She mumbles were the rest of the team could not hear her. During that time Naruto tried to get closer to her to hear. She than looked up and said in a strong confident voice without stuttering, "My dream is to get my Clan to notice me."
Kakashi said mostly to himself, "Hmmmm." Than he said, "And the last one."
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike a lot of things, but I don't really like anything." Sasuke face change to a more serious face and said, "And… I don't want to use the word "dream," but I have an ambition is to the resurrection of my clan, and… to kill a certain man."
Kakashi than said to everyone else, "Okay, you guys are all interesting. Tomorrow, we will begin training. I advise you to not eat breakfast, or you'll regret it. Go to Training Grounds around dawn-ish, I guess. Dismissed."
Both the Uchiha and the Hyuuga had arrived bright and earlier to the Training Grounds like their sensei had instructed them to do so. A comfortable silence floated around them as they alternated from sitting on the ground to standing up, looking out for their third teammate and their sensei.
It was an hour later when Naruto had arrived. It could be noted from his half-dazed expression that he wasn't quite awake yet. He mumbled a response to his teammates before falling to the ground. He curled up, using his hands as a makeshift pillow. Hinata looked at him, a small smile curled at her lips. Though she was trying to get over her crush for the blonde, she couldn't help but find him adorable at times.
The smile didn't go unnoticed by the Uchiha, who felt a very slight pang of jealousy.
"Yo!" said Kakashi, suddenly appearing on one of the three tree stumps a good three hours later. "Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the road of life." His sudden appearance had woken up Naruto, who jolted up. All three of the genin looked at Kakashi like he was crazy, but didn't say anything.
Kakashi brought out 2 bells than said; "Your task for today is to take these 2 bells from me before noon." He emphasized it by making the bells ring. "Those who cannot get a bell by noon get no lunch!" They now understood why Kakashi told them not to eat breakfast. Sasuke scowled to himself. In those past hours of waiting, he had contemplated sneaking away to go grab something to eat, but decided against it. He was not regretting that decision.
"Wait a minute! Why are there only 2 bells?" Naruto asked, eyes wide.
Kakashi smile or at least they thought because his eye made a crescent shape and said, "Because there are 2, so at least one of you will be sent back to the Academy. It might be just one, but it could be all 3. You can use anything you have against me. But, you won't be able to get these bells unless you come at me with a killing intent."
"But you'll be in d-danger, Sensei!" Hinata said alarmed, she didn't want to hurt their sensei on their first day of training.
"Yeah, you couldn't even dodge a blackboard eraser!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning.
"In the real world, those with the least talent often bark the loudest. Well, Mr. Baka." Kakashi said as everyone noticed that Naruto was getting angry. Kakashi continued, "And start when I say…" the blonde fumed and grabbed a kunai from his pouch. He went after Kakashi with it in his hand, surprising both Hinata and Sasuke by the recklessness of his actions.
Suddenly, Kakashi appeared behind Naruto with the genin's hand that held the kunai twisted behind his head. The jounin moved Naruto free arm behind his other arm, making it that when Naruto struggled, the kunai would hurt him. "Hold your horses, I haven't said "start" yet."
Hinata and Sasuke had jumped back when Kakashi had suddenly appeared there. They just stared at the situation that was unfolding in front of them. Kakashi smiled and said, "Finally seems like I'll be able to like you guys, seeing how you can come at me with the intent to kill. Okay, ready… start!" At his signal, all three genin jumped in different directions, hiding themselves in the trees.
And so Team 7's "training" with their new sensei began.
End of Chapter 1
A/N: The re-written version of Chapter 2 should be up sometime soon!
Vexitoire