Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and I'm proud… because now I won't get sued. HA! Take THAT you stupid lawyers!

Summary: The sons and daughters of the Konoha Genins partake in their own adventure as ninjas. Love, hate, vengeance, jealously, grief, joy, combine to tell an epic tale of young ninjas trying to live life at the fullest.

A great and ample amount of thanks to: HisuiKaze; beta reader of glory!

Chapter One: The Nascence

(Don't know what nascence means? Look it up, sucker.)

It was any other breezy day in late April in Konoha. Villagers going to work, people going on dates, the local children playing a game of soccer, and all the other regular activities the villagers pursued their lives with. The day was nothing too special in any way; to the villagers at least.

Today was actually the day that the young academy students at Konoha Ninja Academy were being tested for the Genin title. Their parents' minds were filled with anxiety and nervousness, even if they weren't the ones taking the test.

In the ninja academy however, a tall man with large glasses was calling out a young ninja's name to be tested.

"Uchiha Koumyou!" the tall man yelled, "Please proceed to room 172 for your test!"

"See ya," a black haired boy said as he crawled up from his seat. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Then, he headed for the door. After sliding the door shut, he continued down the hallway of the building to room 172.

Uchiha Koumyou was a twelve year old boy with dark, black hair that was spiked and curved to the right side. A fairly large bang covered half of his left eye and stretched down to his mouth, which wore a grin. A black jacket with orange trims covered a shadowy blue shirt in which a Konoha leaf was inscribed. On the back of the jacket, the traditional Uchiha insignia was sown onto the back. He wore beige pants that stopped at his ankles. On the side of his right thigh, a weapons case was tied around his leg with bandages.

He knocked on a door that read: '172.'

"Come in," a voice lingered through the door.

He complied and pushed the door open. The room was very large and empty. On the other side of the room, a table was placed against a wall. Two Chuunins sat behind it.

"Please come forward," one of the Chunnins commanded.

Koumyou nodded and walked forward. He reached the table and stood there while the Chuunin shuffled papers. Koumyou fidgeted involuntarily.

"Ok…" the Chuunin instructed, "I will say a jutsu and you will perform it. Understand?"

"Hai," Koumyou quickly replied.

"Ok… First I'd like you to start of with a basic Henge No Jutsu. Transform into our current Hokage please."

Koumyou jabbed his hand together and gathered chakra for a moment. With a pop, he transformed into a tall, muscular blond with three whisker-like looking birthmarks on either cheek.

"Good, good. That looks exactly like Uzumaki Naruto," the other Chuunin commented.

Feeling proud, Koumyou released the henge and returned to his normal state.

"Next we have Bunshin No Jutsu. Please execute it."

Koumyou put his hands together once again and created eight identical clones.

"Good, next…"

Koumyou released the jutsu.

"Now we are going to test your weaponry skills. Take this kunai and hit the target on the opposite wall."

The other Chuunin handed him a kunai.

Koumyou readied himself, and then threw the kunai straight at the target across the room. With a loud 'chunk' it landed on the first ring of the target.

"That's good," the Chuunin stated, "Next, take these three shuriken and try to hit all three targets on the opposite wall with one throw."

Koumyou picked up the three shuriken and placed them between his fingers and took aim.

He then threw the shuriken.

The projectiles whistled through the air towards the targets. With three loud 'thunks', the shuriken hit their respective targets.

One of the shuriken lay on the second ring, while the two others lay on the most outer ring; the third ring.

"Good. They all hit," the Chuunin commented.

Koumyou sighed in relief. 'I let go too soon, dammit!'

"Thank you, Koumyou. You pass the first test. You may now return to class," the Chuunin said, still shuffling papers and making marks.

Koumyou let a deep breath and left the room.

00000000

As Koumyou was walking back, feeling hesitant about his shurikens' near misses, he noticed a door wide open in which someone was being tested. He decided to hang back and watch.

There, he saw a brown-haired kunoichi pick up a kunai from the desk and just throw it without hesitation towards the target.

'What? No preparation at all?' he gasped.

The kunai hit dead on in the center of the target. Complete bull's eye.

"Very good, Seimura!" one of the Chuunin testers commented, "Next hit the three targets on the wall with shuriken at the same time."

She hastily placed the shuriken interlocked between her fingers, with her back turned, and then quickly flung her arm towards the targets, pulling her body around with her.

All three shuriken hit the targets in the center.

'Impressive.'

"Wow! You pass, Seimura. You may return to class now," the Chuunin tester said.

"Yes!" she said, thrusting her fist in the air. Then, she noticed Koumyou watching from just outside the door. She waved at him. He waved back, with a grin.

She had a very cute face, he noticed. She had hanging bangs two buns of hair tied neatly on the back of her head. She wore a traditional Chinese pink shirt with two overlapping sides that were buttoned together all the way down her shirt. She had three small bags hanging of her belt and two kunai pouches tied with bandages to both legs. Two odd-looking black marks lay next to her eyes. They gave her a sharp and clever look.

"Hi!" she said, bounding next to him, "My name's Yokoi Seimura, what's yours?"

They began to walk side by side, to the classroom.

"Uchiha Koumyou. That's some pretty amazing weaponry skill s you have there, Seimura," Koumyou replied.

"Thanks, Koumyou. To tell you the truth, that's the only thing I'm really good at… I suck at ninjitsu and genjitsu. I could barely create two clones."

She smiled, scratching her head. Koumyou smiled back.

00000000

The door slid open and Koumyou and Seimura stepped into the main room of the academy where all the other academy students were waiting to be tested or for the testing to be over. Everyone in the room was chatting excitedly to each other, but one particular student sat up when he saw Koumyou enter the room. He signaled for Koumyou to sit next to him. Koumyou waved goodbye to his new friend, and sat down next to the student that had signaled him.

"What took you?" the student asked, "I was called for testing right after you left, and when I came back, you weren't here!"

"Um, the testing took longer than I thought, Tetsuri," Koumyou replied.

"Right… and who was that girl that you came in with?"

"Just someone who was being tested."

"Ah."

Tetsuri had eyes different than almost all of the students at the academy. Instead of it being colored, and having an iris, his eyes were both completely white. This was clearly the mark of a Hyuuga. He had tied bandages around his forehead, which would probably be replaced with a head protector soon. He had longer hair than Koumyou, and most of it hung of the bandages, covering them up. He wore a light brown jacket with a large collar that could be buttoned up over his chin and mouth. But, for now, he had unzipped and unbuttoned it, revealing a regular t-shirt. He wore long dark brown pants with a kunai pouch tied to the side of his right leg with more bandages.

"Alright, listen up brats!" the tall man yelled.

The talking immediately ceased.

"The taijutsu test will begin shortly. I need you all now to follow me to the outer arena for the matches," the tall man commanded.

Some of the students grumbled as they crawled out of their seats in order to follow the tall man, who had slid open the door and stepped outside.

After a few minutes, the large group of students arrived at the outer arena. They followed the man to the wall and there, he ordered them to line up against the wall and await their time for testing.

"The rules are simple," the man explained, "I will choose two of you to fight each other in this arena using only your taijutsu skills. That means no weapons, no ninjitsu, and no genjitsu. You will fight each other until I say to stop. Understood?"

All of the students either nodded or murmured, "Hai."

The tall man adjusted his glasses and then started flipping through some of his papers on his clipboard. He made two quick checkmarks and then put the clipboard down to his side.

"First match," he said, "Uchiha Koumyou… and… Hyuuga Tetsuri!"

"So it's us first, huh?" Koumyou mumbled as he walked to the middle of the arena with the tall man and Tetsuri.

"Guess so," Tetsuri mumbled back.

They stopped in the middle of the arena and faced each other. After a few tense moments, the tall man said, "Begin."

Koumyou immediately rushed forward to attack Tetsuri. He threw a hard punch at Tetsuri's shoulder with his fist, but Tetsuri blocked it easily with his own hand. As Tetsuri held Koumyou's balled his in his hand, he jabbed at Koumyou with a flat hand. Koumyou saw this coming and dodged to the right. He then re-countered with a kick to Tetsuri's side.

But, Tetsuri was too fast for Koumyou. He quickly brought his right palm down and hit Koumyou's leg down, away from his side. Koumyou ripped his hand free from Koumyou's grasp and jumped back, far away from Tetsuri.

"As usual, Tetsuri…" Koumyou mumbled as he re-centered himself, "You're too good."

"Same goes for you," Tetsuri replied.

By now, an ample amount of cheering was going on. The other students, who were watching from the sidelines, were yelling and whooping for either one of the fighters.

"Looks like they want us to fight, Koumyou," Tetsuri sighed, "We'll just have to comply."

Both Koumyou and Tetsuri jumped in the air at each other. In mid-air, Koumyou managed to get a kick on Tetsuri, but Tetsuri avoided a critical hit by raising his arms to soften the blow.

After kicking Tetsuri, Koumyou landed swiftly on his feet. A few seconds later, he saw Tetsuri come down too, but not as gracefully as he had.

Koumyou felt a small shot of pain go through his leg. He flinched and looked down at his leg.

'Wait…' he thought, 'He can't be using-…'

"If you're worried that I might be using gentle-fist, I'm not, Koumyou," Tetsuri reassured him.

Koumyou let out a long sigh. If he had been using the gentle-fist, he would have gone down long ago. Without any jutsus, he wouldn't be able to stop the gentle-fist at all.

"Then let's go then," said Koumyou.

Tetsuri smirked. He knew Koumyou's fighting style too well. 'He'll probably attack from the side now,' he thought.

After a short pause, Koumyou readied himself and shot straight at Tetsuri. Seeing this, Tetsuri braced himself for the attack.

About ten feet away from Tetsuri, Koumyou swerved to the right quickly and then turned left to tackle Tetsuri.

'Just as I thought…'

Tetsuri was ready for Koumyou's direct change in attack. He dodged the charging shinobi and countered with a elbowing to Koumyou's back.

As Koumyou hit the ground hard, he coughed up some blood. He lay there for a few seconds, and then he staggered to his feet.

Tetsuri had already gotten a safe distance away from him. He watched Koumyou wipe the blood away from his mouth with the back of his hand.

Koumyou smirked at Tetsuri. He was underestimating him, as usual. He'd just have to make a new fighting style for now, that's all.

"My turn," Tetsuri mumbled.

In a second, Tetsuri had appeared right in front of Koumyou, ready to attack.

'Direct approach?'

Using his instinct, Koumyou took a right hook at Tetsuri. Tetsuri dodged it easily and returned it with a kick. Koumyou sidled to the side to dodge the kick and tried to jab at Tetsuri's stomach. This time, his attack made a direct hit. But, Tetsuri held his ground and flat-palmed Koumyou back a few inches. Tetsuri didn't let up for a second. He jabbed at Koumyou's stomach a few times, making Koumyou gasp in pain. Koumyou made a grope to kick Tetsuri, but it was in vain. However, the grope had interrupted Tetsuri's combo of attacks and had made him jump back for his own safety.

"That's good enough, stop!" yelled the tall man. "Go back to the sidelines!"

Tetsuri grinned and then walked over to help Koumyou up. He held out his hand to Koumyou, grinning more widely as ever. Koumyou grinned back and took his hand.

"Need a shoulder?" Tetsuri asked after he helped Koumyou to his feet.

"No, thanks anyways," Koumyou replied.

They walked back to the sidelines, side by side. Out of the corner of his eye, Koumyou saw Seimura watching him.

00000000

"Alright settle down, kids," said the tall man with glasses, "The results are in for the test. When I call your name, go into the other room and receive your grade from the other teachers. If you are among the top twenty-seven, then you will receive a head protector and the title of Genin."

"The moment of truth…" a student whispered to his friend.

The tall man reached 'H' for 'Hyuuga' first, so Tetsuri left first to receive his grade. About five minutes later, 'Uchiha' was called, and Koumyou left his seat to go to the other room.

00000000

Koumyou opened the dreadful door slowly, allowing the hinges to squeak loudly. He gulped down a ball of saliva and walked into the room.

When Koumyou walked into the room, the Chuunin behind the desk looked up.

"Ah, Uchiha Koumyou. Your ranking is…" the Chuunin said as he looked through a stack of papers.

The Chuunin continued to shuffle through the papers. He pulled a paper out of the stack, and scanned it quickly with his eyes.

"Your ranking is sixth out of sixty-nine. Congratulations! You pass!"

'Sixth? Better than I expected… but…' Koumyou thought as he received his head protector. Hesitantly, he tied it around his head, gave it a good hearty tug, and walked out of the room.

As he walked out of the room, he saw Tetsuri walking around with a wide grin on his face and a head protector tied around his head. He waved to him and then Tetsuri bounded upon him, grinning happily.

"I placed first! Can you believe it?" Tetsuri said enthusiastically. His mood was quite different than usual. He was actually very happy and had hit the height of his mood swing. It seemed like nothing could sever his mood now.

"Yeah, I can believe it. You're much better than the rest of us. There's no way you wouldn't have gotten first place," said Koumyou.

"How about you?"

"Well…"

"Well?"

"Um…"

"I told you what I got."

"That's nothing not to be proud of."

"So? Just tell me."

"Fine."

"Good, then what is it?"

"Sixth."

"Sixth?"

"Sixth."

Tetsuri's wide smile faded into a small, stern-full frown. He knit his eyebrows together and though hard as he returned to his normal, serious mood.

"But… but doesn't that mean-…"

"Yeah."

"What's your dad-…"

"I don't know."

"Damn. This isn't good."

"I know."

"Sixth place is actually really good though."

"That's not what my dad thinks."

"Why?"

"You know why."

"Your dad's to expectant of you."

"That's what I always tell him."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to avoid him until after we meet our Jounin senseis."

"Alright."

00000000

"What's our sensei supposed to be like, anyways?" Koumyou asked his teammates.

"Um…" both Tetsuri and Seimura stuttered.

Koumyou had been placed on team 4, along with Tetsuri and Seimura. Their sensei was supposedly the famous taijutsu user, Rock Lee. However, Koumyou didn't know a thing about his personality.

"Trust me; you don't want to know… Our parents both had him on their team when they were Genins. They told us about him… You REALLY don't want to know," Tetsuri mumbled. Seimura nodded in agreement.

At that moment, the main door of the room slid open loudly and a tall Jounin stepped into the room.

He yelled, "TEAM 4! YOUR JOUNIN SENSEI, ROCK LEE HAS ARRIVED!"

After yelling, he stuck out his thumb and grinned widely.

"Th-that's Lee-sensei?" Koumyou asked in utter bewilderment.

"Yup," Seimura sighed.

00000000

Birds were chirping once again and people were still going on dates, but now, a large bellowing voice was yelling at the top of his lungs at three frightened Genins about how being young lead to great power and strength.

'Oh my God! What's wrong with this guy?' Koumyou asked himself while covering his ears tightly with his hands.

"And now…" Lee continued, "I need to know something about you! I need to know what you like, don't like, and your hopes and dreams! I'll start, of course!"

"My mentor is my old, great Sensei, Gai-Sensei! I hate it when people make fun of Gai-sensei, and my dream is to be a great sensei to you, like Gai-sensei was to me!" Lee yelled. "Now it's your turn! Starting from the right! Tetsuri-kun, please start!"

"Um… I don't really like anything too much and I don't dislike anything either. My dream… my dream is to become a strong ninja, I guess," Tetsuri said.

Seimura was next. "Well, I like my friends and I don't like it missing a target when I throw my weapons. It hardly ever happens though… I don't really have a hope or a dream as of right now, though."

Koumyou spoke next, "I don't like much and I kind of don't really like my heritage too much. My dream... is to prove myself…"

"To who?" Lee asked.

"To my father."

'Interesting… Uchiha Sasuke isn't a good mentor? Very interesting…' Lee thought.

A long silent hiatus passed between the four. Every now and then, Seimura took a glance at Koumyou and turned away quickly.

"Well, now…" Lee broke the silence, "The next thing we need to do is take your entrance test."

"Entrance test? We just took out Genin Test not too long ago!" Seimura protested, completely bewildered.

"None of your parents told you about this, eh?" Lee said, suddenly changing into a dark and mysterious voice. "This test is an extremely hard test and the failure percentage is over 66 percent! Usually only a third of you Genins actually become real Genins! You can't merely 'wing' this test. If you do, you will fail for sure!"

"66 percent?" Koumyou gasped in surprise.

"Yes."

'Shit, if I fail this my dad will… I don't even want to imagine what my father will do to me…' Koumyou thought agonizingly.

"Here, take these papers and read it well," Lee said as he handed a piece of paper to either one of his students, "Oh… and one more thing. Don't eat breakfast tomorrow morning."

Lee left his students dumbstruck.

00000000

The next morning…

Guuuurgle...

"So hungry…" Koumyou mumbled to himself.

But then, he was too busy trying to catch his breath to worry about hunger. Lee was a strong Jounin, he could tell. But it didn't seem like he knew how to hold back... Koumyou still hadn't even gotten less than a foot away from the bells.

"I shouldn't have listened and eaten breakfast…" he mumbled to himself. (1)

"Same here," a voice came from behind him.

Koumyou whirled around quickly in a defensive stance, but dropped his guard when he saw Tetsuri climbing out of the bushes looking as exhausted as a sweating pig.

"I sparred with Lee-sensei again just a few minutes ago… he's too good…" Tetsuri said to Koumyou.

"How does he suspect us to get those bells anyways?" Koumyou asked.

"I've been wondering that too…" a feminine voice lingered out of the bushes opposite Koumyou and Tetsuri.

Seimura crawled out of the brush, looking more exhausted than either of the boys themselves. She laid herself down next to the boys and decided to rest on the cool, soothing grass.

"I went after the bells right after you left, Tetsuri. I couldn't even get one hit with a weapon this time…" she mumbled through her heavy breathing.

"Either of you have any idea how we're going to pass this test?" she asked.

"No."

"Nope."

-Chapter End-

(1) If you don't know what's happening by now, you don't like Naruto very much…

Author's Corner:

Phew! Longest beginning chapter I've ever written 3500+ words! Wowee! This story took a long time to write. After all, I had to plan ahead, make new characters, a new plot, and so on… You know how it is, no? So… I have a few questions for you!

1. Do you like this fic? Does it sound promising?

2. Rate the chapter! 1: Horrible, 10: Perfect