Promises Kept

By the time Naruto arrives at his classroom to receive his Genin assignment everyone else was already sitting in their seats leaving only one open chair for him in the back between Hinata and the door. Deciding not to attract attention to himself just yet he sits down quietly beside the Hyuuga Heiress only to realize that he forgot about his weighted clothing. The resulting crash with an accompanying stream of profanity that would impress even the most seasoned sailor instantly draws everyone’s attention to the spiky blond hair barely peeking out from under the desk. Naruto continues to cuss under his breath as he slowly begins to get up causing a collective gasp to be heard as they all now see his new appearance for the first time. Once Naruto realizes that the entire room is watching him he fells his face begin to grow warmer as a blush of embarrassment begins to spread over his cheeks. Rubbing the back of his head he gives them all a foxy grin as he chuckles nervously, “Sorry Iruka-sensei,” he says sheepishly, “Looks like I broke another one.”

Iruka can only shake his head as he signals for Naruto to stand against the back wall until he finishes. ‘Every time Raven increases that boy’s weights I lose another chair,’ the Chunnin thinks to himself, ‘Exactly how much weight is he wearing anyways?’ The Chunnin returns his mind to the task at hand as he begins to read off the list of names the Hokage provided him this morning. “Starting today you are all now officially Konoha Shinobi,” he tells the class. “You have taken the first steps on the long hard journey in the dangerous and exciting life if a Shinobi. I will now divide you up into three man teams and each team will be assigned a Jounin instructor who will take over your education and training so that you may all become excellent Shinobi of Konoha.”

Naruto closes his eyes as he listens to Iruka’s little speech knowing full well that less then sixty-six percent of the class would actually continue on as Genin after today while the rest would return to the Academy for an additional year of training. His chat last night with Raven replays itself in his mind as he waits for Iruka to call his team.

****Flashback****

“So, what did the old man want to talk to you about Raven-niisan?” Naruto asks.

“He just wanted my help with picking the new Genin Squads,” Raven answers. “Sad thing is that even though your entire class passed the Academy’s Exams they still need to pass their Jounin Instructor’s Test to officially be registered as a Team and begin accepting missions.”

“What kind of a test?” Naruto asks now slightly worried about his chances of passing.

“Don’t know,” Raven answers honestly, “Each Jounin is permitted to create their own test for their squad. It is solely up to them to determine whether or not they feel their team is worth training or not.” Raven chuckles as he remembers his own test. “Some Jounin like, Jiraiya-sensei and Minato-san, use the same test that their Instructors used when they were Genin.”

“What kind of test did you have to do?” the boy asks trying to learn as much information as he could.

“Nice try runt,” Raven chuckles, “But I’m not telling you since I know for a fact Kakashi took the same test and you’re on his team. After the test we’ll compare notes,” he says ruffling Naruto’s hair. “Till then just remember what I’ve told you about teams and you’ll be just fine.”

****END Flashback****

“Team Seven will be lead by Kakashi Hatake and will consist of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha,” Iruka says bringing Naruto out of his thoughts right before Sakura begins squealing happily while the other girls in the class, except Hinata, whine disappointedly. “Team Eight lead by Kurenai Yuuhi will be Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuuga and Shino Aburame,” he says before looking at a notation on his list. “Since Team Nine is still on Active Duty Team Ten will be Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi under Asuma Sarutobi. You will meet your instructors after lunch so you are all free until then.”

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Sasuke Uchiha is sitting up in a tree eating his lunch by himself as he hides from his fangirls for the third time today. “Mind if I join you?” A voice asks from behind and above him. Turning his head to see who asked he spots Naruto hanging upside down fro the branch above him. “Go away dobe,” the Uchiha tells him.

“You know Teme,” Naruto says, “Since we’re going to be on the same team for at least the next few months we should at least try and get along,” Naruto tells him before dropping to the ground, flipping so he can land safely on his feet. “Work with me or not it’s up to you,” he tells Sasuke as he turns to walk away, “But I’m done taking shit from you,” he says before walking off to find Sakura.

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Sakura was carrying a bento box lunch she had prepared for her and Sasuke to eat that day. She was still on cloud nine at the knowledge that they would be on the same team together. ‘So what if Naruto’s also on our team,’ she thinks to herself, ‘As long as I have my Sasuke-kun I don’t really care.’

“You know the Teme doesn’t care about anyone but himself right?” an all too familiar voice asks from behind her. Sakura turns to glare at Naruto and finds him leaning against a tree with his arms crossed over his chest. “You should do yourself a favor and find someone else,” he tells her pushing off the tree. “If you’re into the strong silent mysterious types Shino’s a great guy if you don’t mind bugs.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about baka,” Sakura nearly yells at him. “Sasuke-kun and I are meant to be together.”

“Suit yourself,” Naruto says as he walks past her, “Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Naruto continues to walk back towards the Academy. “He’s on the third branch of the fourth tree on your left,” he tells her with a sigh.

‘I wonder what has gotten into Naruto today?’ Sakura ponders as she watches her other teammate walking away. ‘First he changes his outfit and begins carrying a sword and now he’s offering me advise. Is this really Naruto or am I just imagining things? And was that disappointment a moment ago?’ Sakura continues to ponder over the new Naruto as she turns and heads in another direction to eat lunch by herself so she can think.

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It has already been twenty minutes since the last Jounin left with their team leaving Team Seven by themselves to wait for Kakashi. After another five minutes Naruto’s finally had enough. “That’s it dog-san’s toast,” he says as he pulls a scroll out of his coat pocket and unrolls it on his desk.

“What are you doing?” Sakura asks as she watches in amazement as Naruto retrieves some wire tags, with two different sets of seals she’s never seen before, and an even smaller scroll, about the size of a roll of film.

“Raven-niisan said if Kakashi-sensei was late then I could use him for trap practice,” Raven tells her as he walks over to the window and opens it. Sasuke and Sakura watch as he begins placing four of the tags with the same seal along the inside of the window frame. Naruto placed one tag at the top of the frame, one on the left, one on the right and one on the bottom before connecting the four tags with wire before closing the window and snickering. “He’ll get a real charge out of that one,” Naruto chuckles before moving over to the door.

“What kind of stupid traps are you setting dobe?” Sasuke ask. ‘Whatever it is it’ll at least slow down anyone opening the window.’

“The one for the window’s a static field,” Naruto tells him ignoring the dobe comment. “Whoever opens the window will receive a jolt of static electricity for about twenty seconds. It won’t really hurt them but it’ll give them one hell of a shock.” As they watch he opens the door and places three more tags of the second set of seals around the doorframe (one on the right, one on the left and one at the bottom) before securing the tiny scroll in the upper right corner of the door and connecting the three tags with some wire. After that he attaches the door to the flap of the tiny scroll before skipping happily back to his seat.

“What was that last trap?” Sakura asks curiously. ‘I’m going to so enjoy seeing this,’ Inner Sakura cackles rubbing her hands together.

“My new version of the bucket over the door prank,” Naruto tells her with an evil grin, “When the door opens it’ll unroll the scroll releasing two gallons of water onto the person below. Once the water’s been released the tags will activate freezing the water and the person for about thirty seconds.”

“Where did you learn all of this?” she asks still not believing he was actually this clever. ‘Oh HELL YEAH…’ Inner Sakura cheers, ‘This is going to be good.’

“From my mom,” Naruto says sadly. “She left me some of her scrolls detailing all the traps she used to use and what was needed to make them. She also left me two scrolls with enough supplies to practice with,” adds looking back at the window and the door. “Those were my last tags,” he tells them before grinning, “But it’ll be worth it if one of them catches Kakashi-sensei.”

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A few minutes later Team Seven is sitting on the roof with an irritated Kakashi while Naruto was holding his sides tightly as he continues to laugh at the Jounin’s wet hair. “I still can’t believe I got you with both,” Naruto laughs as he tries to regain control only to have Kyuubi show him the images of the copy-nin being shocked as he climbed in through the window or being frozen while trying to exit through the door. “You will now introduce yourselves and tell me your likes, dislikes, hobbies and dreams for the future,” Kakashi says while continuing to glare at Naruto. “The Kunoichi can go first.”

“I am Sakura Haruno and I like Sasuke-kun and dislike Ino-pig. My hobbies are studying and cooking for Sasuke-kun and my dreams for the future are to marry Sasuke-kun and help Sasuke-kun rebuild the Uchiha Clan.”

“Your turn Sasuke-kun,” Naruto teases as he finally regains control of his laughing.

“Fuck you dobe,” Sasuke growls.

Naruto gasps in mock surprise before placing a hand on Sakura’s shoulder. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he tells her sadly, “But it would appear that Sasuke-teme prefers boys.”

“Why you dobe I’ll fucking…” Sasuke begins only to have Naruto interrupt him.

“You’ll fuck me?” Naruto ask slowly inching away from the dark haired boy. “Sorry Teme but I don’t swing that way. Maybe you should see if one of your fangirls has a gay brother they can hook you up with.”

Kakashi just watches the exchange with rapt interest as his mask barely hides the grin on his face as he remembers him and Obito sharing a similar argument back when they were Genin and he had done to Obito exactly what Naruto was doing to Sasuke. “Okay let’s forget about the rest of the introductions meet me in training field three at five o’clock tomorrow morning for your Final Exam and don’t bother eating breakfast or you’ll just end up getting sick.”

“Final Exam?” Sakura asks, “What Final Exam? I thought we already finished with all the exams.”

“The Final Exam is a test the Jounin Instructors give their Genin Squads to decide whether or not they are willing to train them,” Naruto answers her. “While every Jounin is allowed to determine what type of test they’ll give their squad most tend to simply use the same test their Senseis used on them.”

“I see Raven-san’s been telling you what to expect,” Kakashi chuckles. “What did he tell you exactly about the test?”

“Only that since Minato-san was your Instructor chance are you’d give us the same test that Jiraiya gave them when they were Genin and that we’d compare notes after I passed,” Naruto answers with a grin.

“Who’s Minato-san?” Sakura asks them.

“Minato Namikaze was the name of the man you know as the Fourth Hokage,” Kakashi tells her causing both her and Sasuke to stare at him in amazement.

“You mean that you were trained by the Fourth Hokage himself?” Sasuke asks showing just the slightest hint of awe. “How does his Raven guy know him?”

“Raven-niisan,” Naruto begins, “Was on the same Genin Squad with Minato-san. They were best friends before Raven-niisan left Konoha for six years of training two years before Minato-san’s death.”

“That’s enough for now,” Kakashi tells them before the conversation goes too far and drudges up any more painful memories for him. “Training Field Three at Five o’clock tomorrow morning,” he reminds them. “Dismissed,” he says before poofing away leaving the three Genin to say their own goodbyes before heading their separate ways to prepare for their Final Exam tomorrow.

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A/N: That was fun…^_^ Okay now before the Sasuke and Kakashi fans start trying to flame me to death let me say that what happened with the traps wasn’t Kakashi bashing. I’ll explain later the real reason Kakashi fell for both traps. As for the Sasuke bashing (yes I admit I was bashing in this chapter) it’s necessary for the story and therefore will continue for awhile longer. The Sasuke bashing is Naruto’s way of showing Sasuke just how big a Teme he is and to try and remove that stick from Sasuke’s ass so that they can be a successful team like Raven’s Squad.

As for Naruto suggesting that Sakura forget Sasuke and suggesting Shino let me just say that that is in no way shape or form foreshadowing, at least I don’t think it is. Right now at this point in the story I really don’t have any pairings in mind other then Kurenai and Asuma and maybe Shikamaru and Temari since that’s what’s in the series. Hell to be honest with you I’m still not sure if I’m going to pair anyone together in this story but if I do it won’t be until sometime after the Retrieval Arch, which should take five or six chapters by itself, at the earliest.

Also to all of you Yaoi fans I’m sorry to tell you that I don’t write Yaoi (nothing against it, just not my style) so Sasuke-kun isn’t gay, sorry. That whole routine was just Naruto pushing Sasuke’s buttons to get a reaction out of the icy bastard. And I also wish to apologize to any of my readers who are homosexual if you were offended by that part of the story but as I’ve said it was just Naruto’s way of getting Sasuke to show some kind of emotion other then his usual cold indifference. Don’t ask me why but it seems that merrily implying that someone’s gay is usually the quickest and easiest way to get a negative reaction, go figure.

Anyways that’s it for now so as always please remember to Read and Review.

Later
~Raven~