Teams, Tests and D-Ranks

Hokage Tower

Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, the strongest ninja in the Elemental Nations, was very confused at the moment. He was doing his paperwork when he remembered that he had yet to decide the team placements. He was also thinking about his eldest son. As long as he remembered, his eldest was the silent one among his siblings. Tomoe had inherited his demeanor and his silent, calculative nature but even he had his moments when he showed just who his mother was. Naruto however did not show a shred of happiness in his, or even anyone else's presence. This worried him greatly as he was acting quite a lot like Orochimaru. He had seen the eyes of Naruto so he knew that he was only like Orochimaru in some aspects like his calm and reserved nature. Where Orochimaru's eyes were full of greed and malice, Naruto's eyes never had a single twinge of malice, hate or even jealousy which is present in a child to some extent. Naruto had eyes like a veteran ninja who was fully determined to even lay his life for the nation.

As he thought about the team assignments, he remembered that this year, there was one person less, so he had to look for some replacement. He looked through the list of other gennin to check who would become the final team member. He decided on the girl who had the ambition to become a great Genjutsu specialist, the heiress of the Kurama clan Kurama Yakumo. Quickly looking through the list, he was hit by anther dilemma about who should he place with his children. His first thought was to place all the three siblings together, but Mito and Tomoe were too much coordinated to for that to happen. So he decided to place Uchiha Sasuke on a team with Mito and Tomoe under his student Hatake Kakashi . Next one to be decided was Kurenai's team; which was initially made up of Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino, but Shino's inability to show much emotion would be counterproductive to Hinata, so he put Yamanaka Ino in her place. For Asuma's team which was to consist of the second Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Ino was replaced by Haruno Sakura. And finally he placed all the silent gennin namely Kurama Yakumo, Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto and Aburame Shino, but who to place them under.

Suddenly a loud voice from the door asked," Hokage-sama, do you have a mission for the Sexy and Single Mitarashi Anko?" the grinning face of Anko was seen and Minato made his choice.

At Namikaze Home

Namikaze-Uzumaki Kushina was happy to be with her family. She had a handsome husband; and three amazing children but for quite some time, she noticed that Naruto was distant towards his family. He barely ate with them and she did not see him spend time with his siblings, well… there was not much time to spend anyway as his siblings were quite busy with their training to utilize Kyuubi's chakra. She just wished that they could give some time to him. He always seemed lonely and reserved. Now that Mito and Tomoe were ready to utilize the fox's chakra, she could concentrate on Naruto. She loved Naruto; perhaps slightly more than Mito or Tomoe, he was always the apple of her eye. The first time she held him was perhaps one of the best moments of her life. She longed to see his smile once again. Sometime during the years, she saw his smile disappear. She was determined to bring the smile back on his face. With determination, she decided that no matter what, she will train him in the Uzumaki techniques after the Chunnin exams that are to be held in Konoha. She started making dinner with new energy.

Next Day

Naruto was sitting in his desk waiting for the team assignments to begin. He took a note of the people in the room. Nobody changed their clothing very much. His siblings now wore black jumpsuits with orange lines (Think of Naruto's Shippuden outfit for both males and females.), Sasuke wore his normal high collared shirt with a large Uchiha crest on his back. Other than that, the only person to change something in his clothing was Naruto who now wore a black haori with the kanji for Duty on is back. While he could legally wear Yamato, he preferred to keep his beloved sword hidden. He will wear it when he leaves the village as a samurai rather than a shinobi. While he was observing his classmates, certain people in the Hokage tower were watching them.

Hokage Tower

Namikaze Minato and other Jounin senseis were looking at the future gennin and shinobi of leaf. He was observing the clan heirs as well as his own children. He was also waiting for the person he would soon be promoting.

"Now lets wait for a comrade of yours. I wish for at least four teams to pass the second gennin test. Kakashi, you asked for Tomoe and Mito, so you will have a team which consists of Sasuke, Mito and Tomoe." said Hokage.

"Isn't it a little unfair for Kakashi to receive all the top students, I could have used someone strong like Mito under my command. It is like you are overpowering Kakashi's squad." frowned a slightly disappointed Kurenai for not having such a powerful gennin under her squad.

"Kurenai-san, you specifically requested Hyuuga Hinata. Now looks like your latest colleague has arrived." And the door was opened by a slightly confused Mitarashi Anko.

"You called me here Hokage-sama. I was just ready to interrogate the next case. I waited the whole night to interrogate Mizuki. He is suspected to have some connection, though it's just speculation on the part of Ibiki.

Minato smiled and said, "Special Jounin Mitarashi, you are suspended from your duty at T&I Department for unforeseeable future."

Anko was shocked, the job at T&I was a way for her to gain information on the whereabouts of her old mentor Orochimaru. It was one of the few things she gained after Orochimaru abandoned her with a curse seal. She was hated by quite a lot of civilians for her connection to Orochimaru, yet she held hope that the shinobi respected her loyalty. Yet she was suspended from her post at T&I Department. As her mind went on this line of thought she heard something else, which raised her spirit instantly.

"You are hereby promoted to full Jounin; this will include all the benefits as a full Jounin. I will also give you ten coupons of all you can eat Dango. This is your reward for your services and it helps in your next assignment. Congratulations Jounin Mitarashi. This assignment is something that I need your help and that is also the reason why the other people are in there."

Anko was shocked at this news before an intense bout of happiness passed through her and her brain restarted. Anko might act like a child most of the time, but she knew how to act according to the situation. Now that he looked around, he found that the other Jounin were also in the room and were crowding around a mirror connected to a crystal ball. She knew of the special all-seeing crystal ball of the Sandaime. Apparently, the Yondaime made some adjustments. As she looked, she found the graduating class of this year. This gave her the idea as to what her next assignment was. She knew that the teams were already decided so she wondered about which team she will receive.

Minato continued, "Now, Team 8 will be a team of Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Haruno Sakura. The clan heirs are good shinobi and while Haruno is a fangirl at the moment, I am sure that Kurenai will be able to break her out of her fangirlish tendencies. With her chakra control, she can excel as a Genjutsu specialist or a Medic Nin."

"Asuma will have this generation of Ino-Shika-Cho trio. I hope that their teams will gain similar fame as their predecessors did. While they are under your command, I want their individual faults corrected. You have to curb Shikamaru's laziness, Ino's fangirlish tendencies and Choji's eating habits. Also, make sure that they can perform individually as well."

"Anko, our team would be most difficult to handle, be careful with them." Minato said which shocked everyone. What was so special about this team that Hokage-sama was calling this team most difficult. They looked at the gennin Minato was pointing at.

"Your team will consist of Aburame Shino, Kurenai's previous student Kurama Yakumo and my eldest son Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto. Their personalities are so similar that you will have a hard time handling them. They don't act like children but rather war veterans. Shino is distant from other people due to his upbringing and the as you know, people tend to avoid the Aburame clan. Yakumo has an icy exterior because of her special Genjutsu ability which made her illusions real and a demonic split personality used her ability and killed her parents. She is usually cold and a no-nonsense person. Naruto however is an enigma. No one knows his skill set, not even me. Since I was mostly busy with training Mito and Tomoe to use Kyuubi's chakra, I did not have time to teach him. As a result, I know nothing about his skills and where he stands in terms of ninja abilities. Secondly, he is quite distant from us because of the low amount of attention he received. It is your responsibility that he covers up any lost ground while remaining loyal to Konoha. "

As Anko looked at the said enigma, she found herself intrigued. He was quite tall for his age, already coming close at Kakashi's height; his muscles were built like a swimmer and while they did not look obvious because of his hakama, she could see the hints on the portions of his arms visible at the sleeves. His haori with the kanji for duty was something she did not understand, but it was certainly better than Gai's fashion sense. Another thing she noted was the lack of a kunai and shuriken pouch. At the same moment, Iruka had started to announce team placements. She quickly used Shunshin to arrive at the academy, at least she would be able to scare the wet behind the ears gennin.

Academy Classroom

Naruto heard Iruka announce that his siblings were paired with Sasuke under the command of Minato's student Kakashi. While Naruto did not hate Kakashi, he certainly was not fond of him. While his siblings saw Kakashi as an older brother or uncle, Naruto only saw someone who was only a nuisance and thought that Kakashi must go through a psych evaluation. Next Kurenai's team of Kiba, Sakura and Hinata was announced. Kurenai was a good Jounin but she also had her flaws. She could not even stand a slightly perverted male and would use terrible Genjutsu on them.

"Sometimes, I am really glad that you are not perverted at all, or you would have been the death of us." spoke Yamato.

"Seriously kit, she is quite a prude and slightly messed up in the head. No normal person could be as sadistic as her. She must also go for this psyche thing." said Kurama.

The next Ino-Shika-Cho trio was announced and he was happy that Team 10 will at least have a sane sensei. Asuma was quite strong, after all, you don't get chosen as a royal guard to the Fire Daimyo by being weak. Finally his team was announced. He was quite relieved by his team as no one in his team had any weird habit. While he had never met Yakumo, he knew of her and new quite well about her nature. Shino was as quite as one gets without being mute. If only he got a normal sensei, then life was good.

Unfortunately, his prayer went unanswered as a black ball of cloth came through the window and unrolled to reveal a woman dressed in an orange miniskirt, mesh armor and a tan leather trench coat. The cloth was a banner that read THE GREAT, SEXY AND SINGLE MITARASHI ANKO. His eye twitched as she instructed him and Shino to travel quickly to Training Ground 44 or as it was called, the Forest of Death. When they reached the gates of the training ground, they could see Anko and Yakumo there. He just knew that the whole matter would be quite troublesome to deal with.

Back in the class one Nara Shikamaru suddenly sneezed and went back to sleep after saying troublesome. Back with Team 11, Anko decided to issue the first order to her students.

"Alright brats, how about you introduce yourself. I am certain you would love to know about your teammates. I'll go first; I am Mitarashi Anko, I like dango and red bean soup, tea, my friends and the village, I dislike a certain snake, spicy food and perverts. My hobbies are holding tea parties, working at Torture & Interrogation department and eating Dango. My future goal is to kill a certain snake for ruining my life. Now its your turn girly."

Yakumo possesses long brown hair and light brown eyes. Her hair is straight on one side, but on the other side it is in a braid. In addition, she sports a clip with two circular designs. For her outfit she wore a pink kimono held closed by a pink sash with two pockets on the front. She also wore violet baggy pants and red mesh armor underneath her kimono and legs along with sandals that were orange in color.

Yakumo did not change her expression from an icy look and introduced herself," My name is Kurama Yakumo, the heiress of the Kurama clan. I like my clan, curry, and Genjutsu. I dislike Ido that resides in me. My dream is the gain complete control over my clan's bloodline and become a good clan head."

Next was Shino as he introduced himself," My name is Aburame Shino. I like onigiri, bugs and my clan, I hate the people who needlessly kill bugs and I want to become a good clan head in the future."

Anko now wanted to know about the gennin that had intrigued her so much. She motioned Naruto to introduce himself and Naruto started," My name is Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto. I like home cooked simple food, foxes and people. I hate wars, traitors, rapists, junk food, throwing weapons and unnecessary fighting. I wish to bring the world into an era of peace."

Anko stood there dumbfounded yet could notice a few things. For one, he did not say anything about his family, yet she could not sense any resentment to anyone in the village. She had thought that Hokage-sama was joking when he told her that Naruto was yet to be taught anything from clan archives. As she looked over his emotionless and calm face, she could only wonder as to why a gennin, who was not taught anything by his clan could be so confident and ready. In his eyes, she was unable to find any shred of malice or evil. Without those, she could almost mistake him as a second comic of Orochimaru by how he acted. While this relieved her, what concerned her more was that she could not even find any shred of love or affection in his eyes. Now she understood what Minato said about his son. He looked like a child but was too mature for someone his age and acted as a veteran. She expected such an introduction from Ibiki. After all, which child does not enjoy junk food or hate wars? In his eyes there was only a sense of duty, pride in his achievements though she did not knew what his achievements were, without being anywhere near arrogance and fiery determination. Anko decided t take the gennin exam now, no use by putting it off. She quickly announced this to her team.

"Now team, there is supposed to be a second gennin test. This is given to see if the team is actually able to be a gennin rather than checking if they have minimalistic skills. While Team 7 has always done the bell test, I have something more practical. You will have to defeat the enemy of my choosing and take the scroll from him. This scroll had food sealed in it, if you are able to defeat the enemy, you will pass. Now give a big round of applause for the adversary you will be facing." said a grinning Anko as she started to use handseals. With a shout of Kuchiyose no jutsu, a huge snake appeared in the forest clearing. All the three gennin quickly separated from each other and decided to regroup around the snake in a tree.

With the Gennin

Yakumo begin in her cold tone," That snake will be our downfall, how can you expect three gennin to defeat a large snake summon. Snakes are naturally quite cunning and the summon will be able to see through our plan."

Shino was also having similar thoughts when Naruto said," Not if we think like it. We can predict our opponent's moves if we think logically. Yakumo-san make a small but strong Genjutsu quickly to disguise our presence from the snake. We will use that to plan the next course of action, Shino-san, while Yakumo-san is constructing her Genjutsu, take a note of our supplies. And if its possible, can you place this seal on the snake. It is a tracking seal that will help us find our enemy. The receiver seal is here. Place it on the base of your neck and channel your chakra through it, it will give you a mental map about the location of the summon. Give one to Yakumo-san as well."

Shino quickly used the seal and gave one to Yakumo who had completed the construction of a cloaking Genjutsu. The only disappointing thing they found was their lack of many ninja tools. They did not have lots of kunai; they did not have even a foot length of ninja wire. Now Naruto was torn; he did not want the team to fail the test, but his special techniques were too destructive when he suddenly had an idea. He took out a scroll and took out his sealing papers. Addressing his teammates, Naruto suggested," I have a plan but for it to work I will need your help. Yakumo-san, can you use a Genjutsu to confuse the senses of the snake, Shino-san, use your bugs to irritate the snake and lure it to the next clearing. I will be waiting with a trap ready."

The plan was in motion and Naruto truly hoped that the plan worked. Otherwise, Naruto will have to use Yamato against an innocent summon who was only called to test them. With this, the three gennin quickly moved out of the tree.

General POV

Anko saw as all three of her students came out of the tree they were hiding in. While Yakumo and Shino lured the snake by the help of Genjutsu and bug Ninjutsu, Naruto took his ink and quickly drew a large seal connected to a small seal and a medium sized seal. She saw that the snake was nearly in the clearing. Just when the time was right, Naruto shouted," Get away from the snake Yakumo-san and Shino-san. The trap is ready and with that, Naruto funneled a large amount of chakra in the smallest seal. With a huge thump, the gigantic summon nearly got crushed under an invisible weight. She did not know what Naruto did but it worked and the summon was defeated. They had passed the test with flying colors.

Later

The Jounin were assembled in Minato's office to give the results of the team meetings and tests for those who had completed the second Gennin test. Most Jounin sensei waited a day to take the tet but that was not something that always happened. Minato asked from the Jounin, and while the Jounin had things to say about the teams, none of them conducted the test today. Suddenly the newest Jounin Mitarashi Anko came running and started panting. She panted and said," I hope..pant.. that I am not the last Jounin to come. I lost track of time."

Minato smiled. Anko was like a breath of fresh air for the whole shinobi populace. He really hated that the civilians hated her for her connection to Orochimaru. Quickly, he calmed her down and asked for the report on her team.

Anko grinned and said," Looks like you were joking when you said that you did not train Naruto…." This completely confused Minato as he was unable to understand what she meant by that sentence "… after all, only someone trained by you or Jiraiya-sama could be so skilled in Fuinnjutsu to make a gravitational Fuinnjutsu trap within minutes. His enemy tracker seal and mind communication seal were a work of art. Are you sure that you did not teach him" teased Anko.

Minato was surprise, Mito and Tomoe showed a high aptitude for Ninjutsu but Fuinnjutsu was way beyond them at this point. Even he did not start leaning seals when he was a gennin. Only Uzumaki clan had this practice of teaching Fuinnjutsu to children at the age of five. It was a reason why Kushina was a level five seal master when she graduated from Ninja Academy. While this certainly shocked and slightly hurt Minato, he felt an overwhelming pride in his eldest son to be able to learn and create seals like this at a young age like this. Yet the slight pain that his son did not wait for him to teach was making him uncomfortable. He had neglected Naruto's training for long enough. He decided that he would train Naruto and teach him every Jutsu he knew after the Chunnin exams this year. He never knew that by then, it would be too late as Naruto had no intention of remaining as a ninja after the Chunnin exams.

Some Days Later

Most teams found D-rank missions to be a bane of Gennin. D-rank missions were the lowest of the low, missions with no excitement, no fun, just mind numbing chores given to ninja by villagers who were too lazy to weed their farms, walk their dogs, and care for their children. Most Gennin teams loathed them, and because of this Anko decided to shove heaps of D-rank missions to break her students out of their strange, almost mute behavior. She trained all three in physical conditioning, chakra control and Ninjutsu. Where Shino and Yakumo were panting, sweating and silently cursing, Naruto looked almost bored with the heavy training she gave him. She decided to evaluate him on his physical conditioning. The results left her gaping, as his physical conditioning was far greater that her. She felt like a kitten while he stood tall and proud like a tiger. She was able to teach Yakumo and Shino quite a lot; They had better Taijutsu now, their chakra control was high Chunnin to low Jounin and their speed and stamina was quite high, yet it paled in comparison to the student she was not able to teach anything to. His base speed was higher than her, so was his stamina. His chakra control was something only Senju Tsunade had achieved and he was a very good user of Taijutsu, well, at least that was what she could glean from her spar with Naruto a few days ago.

Flashback

"Ok Naruto, you will spar with me for I need to test your skill in Taijutsu. I am ready when you are." said Anko as she took her snake-style Taijutsu stance. Naruto meanwhile observed his opponent and tried to gauge any weakness of her style. The snake-style was Orochimaru's signature style which required immense flexibility and maneuverability. But since it was such a flexible style, it sacrificed attack strength and ability to dodge multiple attacks. Naruto took a loose stance for the basic kata he created in unarmed Shingetsu style. While he could not use attacks like Nadeshiko, due to the destructive power of the style, he created it for the person to be in tune with the wind. When Anko started the fight and charged at him he felt the disturbance in the air around him and fluidly weaved around the attack, which happened again with the follow up attack. This silly yet deadly game continued; Anko would charge with some attack, which was redirected, blocked, or shifted around. Anko was starting to get frustrated. This child was toying with her and was almost impossible to hit. It felt as if she was trying to catch air. The Uchiha style boasted about predicting the next move of the opponent before it could even be made, yet the style Naruto was using made the Uchiha style look like a joke. Finally Naruto got fed up and the next attack by Anko was grabbed and he used his foot and her arm to completely flip her. Then came a single punch that had so much power in it that she immediately lost consciousness.

Flashback End

Now, Anko was taking her team to get another mission. They had completed the required amount of D-ranks, well, way more than the required amount and now, she wanted a D-rank. The only thing that she could train Naruto in was his throwing ability and she took many pains for him to start learning about the use of senbon needle.

Hokage Tower

Team 8 was in the Hokage's cabin for getting their first C-rank mission. While Minato wanted to fulfill her request, it was dangerous to send two of the clan heirs with only one Jounin, and though he hated to admit it, Kurenai was not like a Front line fighter and it would cause problems if some missing-nin decided to attack them. Kurenai was giving him a glare while tapping her foot to show that she won't leave without a C-rank. He was pondering on what he should do when relief came.

"Hokage-sama, I request a C-rank mission. My team has completed enough D-ranks to last us a whole lifetime." said Anko in tired voice.

"In fact, I have a perfect mission for both of your teams. Send in Tazuna-san

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