Ask and you shall receive.
At the height of the Chunin exam, just as Sand and Sound are about to attack, Kyuubi and half-a-dozen other demons attack Hidden Leaf. The result is utter chaos, with Konoha trying to get high level summonings and their main forces into play with the Hokage and Orochimaru in mid-duel. Since Gaara is a target, Sand breaks off from attacking Leaf to fight the demons, which leaves Sound running around too few to do serious damage but drawing off resources Konoha needs to fight the demons.
Combining Neshan's Seal knowledge, Katsu's demon knowledge and Anko's snake summoning experience, the three help Anko's daughter Hotaru (because she has a chakra condition like Katsu's), to summon Jomungundr, who summarily takes out a large chunk of the arena (incidentally putting Neshan, Katsu and the Sound Four out of action and opening up the Orochimaru-Sandaime fight), tramples over Manda (who Jiraya and Gamabunta were fighting), and heads for the fight with Hotaru sitting on the head.
Joining Jiraiya on Gamabunta, 'Nenai and a semi-coerced Gaara combine forces. Working together they create a huge paper umbrella and use the vast shadow to seize the demons long enough for Hotaru and Jomungundr to defeat them. Gaara disables 'Nenai, gathers up the Sand forces and leaves. Anko and Jiraiya manage to work with Hotaru to banish Jomungundr (some link remains).
Although the immediate problem has been dealt with (and Sandaime did manage to take out Orochimaru), the original Team 7 are still missing. And now Jiraiya decides to take Anko, Hotaru and the three of them with him to convince Tsunade to return and become the Godaime Hokage (it's thought best to get them out of Konoha for a while before anyone links them to the damage Jomungundr did en route out of Konoha).
In other news...
---------------------------------------------------
The classroom was filled with commotion as the twenty-seven genin in class were divided between the jounin assembled to take responsibility for their new teams.
Iruka was so consumed with the last minute details of this handover that it wasn't until he'd shooed the last of the jounin out of the room that he realised that three of his students were still sitting at their desks. No, not three of his students any more, he realised. Three new genin, the members of the new Team Seven.
"Obviously our Jounin-sensei is a master of stealth, disguise and punctuality," said the spiky-haired Nara Shikanenai sardonically from one end of the bench as he noticed Iruka's attention. He wore a rather baggy shirt under a grey vest with bulging pockets and was cleaning his fingernails with a kunai.
Beside Shikanenai, the long-haired and bespectacled {Bakusei?} Neshan was looking around with an air of curiosity. {insert description & comments}
At the far end of the bench sat {Kakugari?} Katsu, glaring intently at Iruka with something oddly feral behind his eyes.
"I suppose that your sensei must have been delayed, Shikanenai-kun," the scar faced chunin advised. "I'll wait here until he arrives to collect you."
"That's not necessary," Katsu said shortly.
Iruka shot him a suspicious look. "I've gone four years without Shikanenai-kun burning down the school," he retorted. "I'm not going to leave him unsupervised at this late date."
"Ooh," Shikanenai said mockingly. "That's a good idea!"
Four hours later, even Iruka's patience wearing thin and the three genin had begun exchanging glances that the teacher was at a loss to interpret. To the best of his knowledge the three of them weren't particularly friendly - Katsu just didn't talk much, despite his bevy of assorted female advisors - Neshan did talk but generally only to quieter members of the class such as Hyuuga Hinata - and Shikanenai, despite never being at a loss for a smart-alek remark or a destructive response, was in his own way as private a person as Katsu. But all three of them seemed to be troubled by something, and Iruka was fairly sure that the absence of their jounin-sensei was not the cause.
It was at this point that the door to the classroom slid open to reveal a lanky jounin clad in the typical Hidden Leaf uniform, a thin mask across his lower face and his head protector pulled low at one side to cover his right eye. Iruka recognised him almost immediately as Hatake Kakashi, one of Hidden Leaf's more celebrated jounin. Among other things, he was known to have failed every team ever passed to him by the Academy.
"You're late," Iruka snapped, a little harsher than he really should have with ninja who outranked him.
Kakashi blinked (or winked, it was hard to tell), turning his head away from the three genin lined up at the desk and towards Iruka. "Did you say something?" he asked, with apparent sincerity.
Iruka stifled his anger. At least the other ninja was here now and presumably had some sort of excuse. "You've got Team Seven," he said instead. "{Bauku-}"
The jounin cut him off with a wave of his hand. "I'll get all that from them," he said airily. "You three," he said, looking at the genin. "Meet me on the roof." And with that, he disappeared in a cloud of ninja smoke.
Iruka could have sworn that Shikanenai's hand made the sign for 'asshole' as he stood up to head for the door. But that was impossible of course - no one would have taught the signing to a genin who hadn't completed even a single D-rank mission, much less to a mere student.
On the steps up towards the roof, Shikanenai paused and looked at the others. "Does the name Uchiha mean anything to you guys?" 'missing' he signed.
Neshan nodded. "Uchiha Itachi," he said. "S-rank missing-nin." Then he frowned at the Nara. "Didn't he have a brother the same age as... as Shikamaru?" His fingers sketched 'team'
"I think so," Shikanenai said, making the sign for 'seven'. "Talk about it later?"
Neshan nodded at that and then looked measuringly at Katsu, who was looking intrigued. "Ring any bells?"
"Yes," Katsu replied simply. "Let's not keep Hatake-sensei waiting."
As they filed up the stairs and out onto the roof, the three of them fanned out, apparently casually watching their surroundings. Kakashi's visible eyebrow shot up. They were acting more like seasoned ninja than novices - had someone made sweeping changes to the Academy curriculum without his hearing about hit? Then he shrugged it off. They were probably just acting tough to impress him.
"So," he said. "Tell me about yourselves. Names, likes, dislikes, dreams?"
The three boys looked at each other wordlessly, and then Shikanenai flicked his hand. "You first," he suggested.
"My name's Hatake Kakashi," replied the jounin. "I've got a few likes, I don't like any of you and I don't think I'll tell you about my dreams."
"I'm {Kakigaru} Katsu," Katsu started, to the slight surprise of the others. "I like {assassination}, I don't like some of the clans in the Hidden Mist and I dream of being a jounin with students of my own." There was a slight emphasis to the word dream, which Neshan and Shikanenai chuckled at, although it wasn't clear to Kakashi what they found amusing.
"{Bakusei?} Neshan. I like seals and ranged weapons. I don't like a certain Medi-nin or most of Hyuuga. I dream of being Head of the Archives." A nod from Katsu and a smirk from Shikanenai greeted that particular ambition.
The last boy looked at Kakashi but there was something that indicated he wasn't really speaking to him. "Nara Shikanenai," he began. "I like travelling. I don't like 'noble clans' and I dream of going all over the continent once I'm a chunin - maybe before then."
Kakashi frowned. Seems that they all have a few axes to grind, he thought. I wonder why they put this lot together? A bookworm, a prodigy and a tourist-wannabe don't make much of a team. "Well," he said. "For our first mission, we'll be doing some survival training."
Neshan and Shikanenai both seemed to be choking on something. Katsu looked intrigued.
"So meet me at Training Ground Five, bright and early," Kakashi said. "Six o'clock sharp. And don't bother with breakfast," he added. "Chances are that you won't keep it down."
"There's more to this than Survival Training, isn't there?" Katsu said.
"Gai-sensei didn't call it 'survival training'," Shikanenai said drily. "But it'll be the same idea. This is the final test."
"Only a third of the genin who graduate from the Hidden Leaf Academy go onto active teams," Neshan explained. "The rest go back to the Academy and get chennelled into administration or the police or the like."
"So what's the test?" Katsu asked.
"Teamwork," Shikanenai said simply. "We have to show that we've got the right attitude as well as the abilities to be ninja."
"I hadn't heard that," Katsu said. "We don't do anything like it in Hidden Mist - of course, not as many ninja graduate from the Academy."
"It's not precisely a secret," Neshan said, "but it's supposed to be a surprise for new genin so it's not talked about very much. I suppose the Mist's elders think our training is soft -"
"It is," Shikanenai interjected. "I've seen the numbers."
"Aren't they classified?"
"Yes."
Seeing that Shikanenai wasn't about to say anything else about that, Neshan continued. "- having a large reserve of ninja, even if they aren't trained up to frontline standards, lets Hidden Leaf keep a very high proportion of active teams outside the village without compromising our cash flow."
"Well, we can debate the advantages of respective training methods another time," Katsu pointed out. "We shouldn't have any problem with that. Now," he looked around to make sure that no one was listening in as they sat on a log in one of the groves of forest that Konoha had been built around. "What the hell are we doing here?"
"Team Seven," Shikamaru said. "Should be Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and what'shername, TenTen - your student," he added to Neshan. "Right?"
"TenTen's about a year older than the others," Neshan said, thinking about it. "Her class was slightly oversized because Naruto-kun graduated a year early. This year should have been one short, but without Uchiha and Haruno, the three of us brought it up to strength."
"So we've got two or three missing students," Shikanenai said thoughtfully. "I don't remember seeing Uchiha, Haruno or Naruto around anywhere. So Tenten's probably with Gai, along with Lee and... someone else, because Gai doesn't seem to be married, so Rikou's not around. I guess you're the expatriate Mist-nin this time, Katsu."
"Don't call me a Mist-nin," Katsu replied harshly, showing his teeth.
The young ninja paused and then nodded aquiesence. "Noted. My apologies." The others looked at him suspiciously. "What?"
"I don't recall you being quite so considerate in this lifetime," Neshan pointed out.
"I don't screw around with team-mates," Shikanenai replied simply. "Well, not as much, anyway."
"Well that's good - you're not my type."
"Do you think we should go with what Kakashi said about not eating?"
"I've got a pretty strong stomach," Katsu observed. "I think he's screwing with us."
"Okay, not turning my back on him. Ever," Shikamaru quipped.
"I don't trust him either," Neshan agreed. "Tenten told me a bit about how he treated his team in our timeline. He's a good leader and one of the best ninja I've ever met. But he's a lousy teacher. Probably because everything comes so easily to him."
"Well, given that you're jounin and special jounin, I don't suppose he's got much to teach you," Shikanenai observed. "At least that he'd be willing to pass on to twelve year olds. And if you don't mind giving the poor lil' chunin a helping hand then I won't have to rely on him much myself."
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
At the height of the Chunin exam, just as Sand and Sound are about to attack, Kyuubi and half-a-dozen other demons attack Hidden Leaf. The result is utter chaos, with Konoha trying to get high level summonings and their main forces into play with the Hokage and Orochimaru in mid-duel. Since Gaara is a target, Sand breaks off from attacking Leaf to fight the demons, which leaves Sound running around too few to do serious damage but drawing off resources Konoha needs to fight the demons.
Combining Neshan's Seal knowledge, Katsu's demon knowledge and Anko's snake summoning experience, the three help Anko's daughter Hotaru (because she has a chakra condition like Katsu's), to summon Jomungundr, who summarily takes out a large chunk of the arena (incidentally putting Neshan, Katsu and the Sound Four out of action and opening up the Orochimaru-Sandaime fight), tramples over Manda (who Jiraya and Gamabunta were fighting), and heads for the fight with Hotaru sitting on the head.
Joining Jiraiya on Gamabunta, 'Nenai and a semi-coerced Gaara combine forces. Working together they create a huge paper umbrella and use the vast shadow to seize the demons long enough for Hotaru and Jomungundr to defeat them. Gaara disables 'Nenai, gathers up the Sand forces and leaves. Anko and Jiraiya manage to work with Hotaru to banish Jomungundr (some link remains).
Although the immediate problem has been dealt with (and Sandaime did manage to take out Orochimaru), the original Team 7 are still missing. And now Jiraiya decides to take Anko, Hotaru and the three of them with him to convince Tsunade to return and become the Godaime Hokage (it's thought best to get them out of Konoha for a while before anyone links them to the damage Jomungundr did en route out of Konoha).
In other news...
---------------------------------------------------
The classroom was filled with commotion as the twenty-seven genin in class were divided between the jounin assembled to take responsibility for their new teams.
Iruka was so consumed with the last minute details of this handover that it wasn't until he'd shooed the last of the jounin out of the room that he realised that three of his students were still sitting at their desks. No, not three of his students any more, he realised. Three new genin, the members of the new Team Seven.
"Obviously our Jounin-sensei is a master of stealth, disguise and punctuality," said the spiky-haired Nara Shikanenai sardonically from one end of the bench as he noticed Iruka's attention. He wore a rather baggy shirt under a grey vest with bulging pockets and was cleaning his fingernails with a kunai.
Beside Shikanenai, the long-haired and bespectacled {Bakusei?} Neshan was looking around with an air of curiosity. {insert description & comments}
At the far end of the bench sat {Kakugari?} Katsu, glaring intently at Iruka with something oddly feral behind his eyes.
"I suppose that your sensei must have been delayed, Shikanenai-kun," the scar faced chunin advised. "I'll wait here until he arrives to collect you."
"That's not necessary," Katsu said shortly.
Iruka shot him a suspicious look. "I've gone four years without Shikanenai-kun burning down the school," he retorted. "I'm not going to leave him unsupervised at this late date."
"Ooh," Shikanenai said mockingly. "That's a good idea!"
Four hours later, even Iruka's patience wearing thin and the three genin had begun exchanging glances that the teacher was at a loss to interpret. To the best of his knowledge the three of them weren't particularly friendly - Katsu just didn't talk much, despite his bevy of assorted female advisors - Neshan did talk but generally only to quieter members of the class such as Hyuuga Hinata - and Shikanenai, despite never being at a loss for a smart-alek remark or a destructive response, was in his own way as private a person as Katsu. But all three of them seemed to be troubled by something, and Iruka was fairly sure that the absence of their jounin-sensei was not the cause.
It was at this point that the door to the classroom slid open to reveal a lanky jounin clad in the typical Hidden Leaf uniform, a thin mask across his lower face and his head protector pulled low at one side to cover his right eye. Iruka recognised him almost immediately as Hatake Kakashi, one of Hidden Leaf's more celebrated jounin. Among other things, he was known to have failed every team ever passed to him by the Academy.
"You're late," Iruka snapped, a little harsher than he really should have with ninja who outranked him.
Kakashi blinked (or winked, it was hard to tell), turning his head away from the three genin lined up at the desk and towards Iruka. "Did you say something?" he asked, with apparent sincerity.
Iruka stifled his anger. At least the other ninja was here now and presumably had some sort of excuse. "You've got Team Seven," he said instead. "{Bauku-}"
The jounin cut him off with a wave of his hand. "I'll get all that from them," he said airily. "You three," he said, looking at the genin. "Meet me on the roof." And with that, he disappeared in a cloud of ninja smoke.
Iruka could have sworn that Shikanenai's hand made the sign for 'asshole' as he stood up to head for the door. But that was impossible of course - no one would have taught the signing to a genin who hadn't completed even a single D-rank mission, much less to a mere student.
On the steps up towards the roof, Shikanenai paused and looked at the others. "Does the name Uchiha mean anything to you guys?" 'missing' he signed.
Neshan nodded. "Uchiha Itachi," he said. "S-rank missing-nin." Then he frowned at the Nara. "Didn't he have a brother the same age as... as Shikamaru?" His fingers sketched 'team'
"I think so," Shikanenai said, making the sign for 'seven'. "Talk about it later?"
Neshan nodded at that and then looked measuringly at Katsu, who was looking intrigued. "Ring any bells?"
"Yes," Katsu replied simply. "Let's not keep Hatake-sensei waiting."
As they filed up the stairs and out onto the roof, the three of them fanned out, apparently casually watching their surroundings. Kakashi's visible eyebrow shot up. They were acting more like seasoned ninja than novices - had someone made sweeping changes to the Academy curriculum without his hearing about hit? Then he shrugged it off. They were probably just acting tough to impress him.
"So," he said. "Tell me about yourselves. Names, likes, dislikes, dreams?"
The three boys looked at each other wordlessly, and then Shikanenai flicked his hand. "You first," he suggested.
"My name's Hatake Kakashi," replied the jounin. "I've got a few likes, I don't like any of you and I don't think I'll tell you about my dreams."
"I'm {Kakigaru} Katsu," Katsu started, to the slight surprise of the others. "I like {assassination}, I don't like some of the clans in the Hidden Mist and I dream of being a jounin with students of my own." There was a slight emphasis to the word dream, which Neshan and Shikanenai chuckled at, although it wasn't clear to Kakashi what they found amusing.
"{Bakusei?} Neshan. I like seals and ranged weapons. I don't like a certain Medi-nin or most of Hyuuga. I dream of being Head of the Archives." A nod from Katsu and a smirk from Shikanenai greeted that particular ambition.
The last boy looked at Kakashi but there was something that indicated he wasn't really speaking to him. "Nara Shikanenai," he began. "I like travelling. I don't like 'noble clans' and I dream of going all over the continent once I'm a chunin - maybe before then."
Kakashi frowned. Seems that they all have a few axes to grind, he thought. I wonder why they put this lot together? A bookworm, a prodigy and a tourist-wannabe don't make much of a team. "Well," he said. "For our first mission, we'll be doing some survival training."
Neshan and Shikanenai both seemed to be choking on something. Katsu looked intrigued.
"So meet me at Training Ground Five, bright and early," Kakashi said. "Six o'clock sharp. And don't bother with breakfast," he added. "Chances are that you won't keep it down."
"There's more to this than Survival Training, isn't there?" Katsu said.
"Gai-sensei didn't call it 'survival training'," Shikanenai said drily. "But it'll be the same idea. This is the final test."
"Only a third of the genin who graduate from the Hidden Leaf Academy go onto active teams," Neshan explained. "The rest go back to the Academy and get chennelled into administration or the police or the like."
"So what's the test?" Katsu asked.
"Teamwork," Shikanenai said simply. "We have to show that we've got the right attitude as well as the abilities to be ninja."
"I hadn't heard that," Katsu said. "We don't do anything like it in Hidden Mist - of course, not as many ninja graduate from the Academy."
"It's not precisely a secret," Neshan said, "but it's supposed to be a surprise for new genin so it's not talked about very much. I suppose the Mist's elders think our training is soft -"
"It is," Shikanenai interjected. "I've seen the numbers."
"Aren't they classified?"
"Yes."
Seeing that Shikanenai wasn't about to say anything else about that, Neshan continued. "- having a large reserve of ninja, even if they aren't trained up to frontline standards, lets Hidden Leaf keep a very high proportion of active teams outside the village without compromising our cash flow."
"Well, we can debate the advantages of respective training methods another time," Katsu pointed out. "We shouldn't have any problem with that. Now," he looked around to make sure that no one was listening in as they sat on a log in one of the groves of forest that Konoha had been built around. "What the hell are we doing here?"
"Team Seven," Shikamaru said. "Should be Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and what'shername, TenTen - your student," he added to Neshan. "Right?"
"TenTen's about a year older than the others," Neshan said, thinking about it. "Her class was slightly oversized because Naruto-kun graduated a year early. This year should have been one short, but without Uchiha and Haruno, the three of us brought it up to strength."
"So we've got two or three missing students," Shikanenai said thoughtfully. "I don't remember seeing Uchiha, Haruno or Naruto around anywhere. So Tenten's probably with Gai, along with Lee and... someone else, because Gai doesn't seem to be married, so Rikou's not around. I guess you're the expatriate Mist-nin this time, Katsu."
"Don't call me a Mist-nin," Katsu replied harshly, showing his teeth.
The young ninja paused and then nodded aquiesence. "Noted. My apologies." The others looked at him suspiciously. "What?"
"I don't recall you being quite so considerate in this lifetime," Neshan pointed out.
"I don't screw around with team-mates," Shikanenai replied simply. "Well, not as much, anyway."
"Well that's good - you're not my type."
"Do you think we should go with what Kakashi said about not eating?"
"I've got a pretty strong stomach," Katsu observed. "I think he's screwing with us."
"Okay, not turning my back on him. Ever," Shikamaru quipped.
"I don't trust him either," Neshan agreed. "Tenten told me a bit about how he treated his team in our timeline. He's a good leader and one of the best ninja I've ever met. But he's a lousy teacher. Probably because everything comes so easily to him."
"Well, given that you're jounin and special jounin, I don't suppose he's got much to teach you," Shikanenai observed. "At least that he'd be willing to pass on to twelve year olds. And if you don't mind giving the poor lil' chunin a helping hand then I won't have to rely on him much myself."
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.