Naruto: the twelve.

By Deathsheadx

disclaimer: i own nothing! If i did Sasuke would be dead!

“talk”

“biju talk”

'mind talk'

'thoughts'

chapter 4

The Formation of Team 7.

it was early in the morning several new Genins were talking and showing off their forehead protectors and in some cases showing off the rewards they got for graduating when one graduate caught sight of something at the corner of his eye and let out a little gasp which caused another kid to turn and look at what had startled his companion he too gasped in shock. Quickly more students saw turned to see what was causing the growing commotion. Walking through the yard was the freak seven as they had been nicknamed they were all wearing a high collared cloak. the back of the cloak was emblazoned with a black dragon encircling the sun with the Kanji for dragon situated in the center of the sun. seeing them all dressed the same walking together as a group was actually an imposing sight. The seven made their way into the academy and took up seats in the back. Of the class room.

The teachers lounge 8 Jounins were gathered in the lounge with Iruka and the Sandaime Hokage looking at a list of students.

“So Asuma will take the Ino-Shika-Cho trio they'll make an excellent capture team and their families naturally work well together” said the Iruka

“you just don't want three irate dads after you!” said Raido with a laugh. “So who's my team?”

“Ami, Tatsuya, and Manabu,” said Iruka handing Raido a folder.

Raido looked through the list and swore “Are you serious Iruka? According to this Tatsuya is scared of his own shadow and Ami is a bully!”

“I have absolute faith in your abilities,” said Asuma mockingly.

“who gets Uzumaki?” said Aoba.

“why do you ask?” Questioned Kurenai.

“well whoever gets Uzumaki also gets the Uchiha.”

“Oh yeah the best-worse thing!” said Kurenai, “i cant help but think its a poor system it leaves a team greatly unbalanced.”

“but the whole point of best and worse is they balance each other out!”

“With exception of Gai's team It hardly ever works out that way, the mid level, the teams that consist of more average students have a better chance at progressing to Chunnin and beyond without trouble and at least one team disbands in the first year.”

“You may have a point Kurenai,” said Sandaime “As it is the whole system is up for review but for now we'll stay with the system. Now then lets move on...”

“I think you agree that Naruto is right,” said Chojii. “uniform cloaks increase the intimidation factor”

Kiba shrugged “intimidation is fine as long as we don't take it to far.”

Naruto nodded “yeah the idea is to intimidate our foes not innocent people.”

just then Iruka entered the classroom “ah everybody's—“ Iruka gaped at the sea of crimson on the back row. He knew that since being ostracized by the other students that seven had become firm friends but the matching uniform was taking it to a new level. He shrugged and shelved his surprise for now. “okay once again congratulations to you all for graduating!”

“how did Uzumaki pass?” muttered a student.

“I'm not at liberty to say.” replied Iruka. “Now that you have graduated you are to be placed in a 3 man--” Iruka stopped as he saw Sakura's hand shoot up “yes Sakura?”

“Iruka sensei isn't that well sexist? I mean there are kunochi's as well as the boys”

“WHAT? No its not sexist Sakura, man can be used as a gender neutral term any way as i was saying you will be placed in a 3 man--” Iruka looked pointedly at Sakura, “cell under a jounin sensei who will take over your training. Okay lets begin... team one---”

Naruto looked at Shikamaru. “Question I've got to ask, do we be upfront about our abilities or hide them?”

“While having our jounin sensei's finding out at a later date could be troublesome we need to hold back, too many spies.”

“got ya,” said Naruto nodding he turned back to the front of the class and listened to Iruka.

“Team seven,” said Iruka, “will consist of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha”

“oh hell,” muttered Naruto “i just realized I've got to put up with Uchiha-bastard and fan girl Haruno again, and its 3 years before Haruno drops the fan girl act and gets serious.”

“I feel for you.” muttered Shino “compared to team eight and team ten you will be at a disadvantage”

“don't worry Naruto-kun,” said Hinata softly “you'll make the best of a bad situation.”

“Yeah, look on the bright side you get to show up Sasuke if you want to!” said Ino.

“True that,” grinned Naruto.

Down at the front of the class Sakura was on cloud nine she had gotten onto the same team as Sasuke! Ever since Ino had suddenly dropped out of the running for Sasuke's attentions she had been making tremendous inroads towards winning Sasuke the only thing that would make the situation even better would be if the Uzumaki freak wasn't on her team. He was weird and annoying before but after the coma thing he weirded her out. His eyes were constantly scoping things out it freaked her out. But she decided not to let Naruto spoil her day.

Sasuke grimaced as he heard who was on his team, dead last and one of the fan girls. He didn't need them, they would just hold him back. He needed to train in order to get stronger, so he could kill-- kill a certain man. But his thoughts drifted back to Naruto for some reason something was off about Naruto. His presence was causing Sasuke's sense of preservation to flare up as if Naruto was a potential threat to his continued existence. But that couldn't be, the dobe was dead last he was no threat, but still...

---------------

the Jounins slowly trickled in and took their teams and left. Kurenai and Asuma were surprised by the matching cloaks their team wore but both shrugged it off. Raido gave his team and Tatsuya suddenly fainted. Raido knew right there his team wouldn't pass. After a while only team seven was left in the room. Naruto decided to catch a couple hours nap as Kakashi wouldn't turn up for another 2 hours he was just about to drop off when he heard footsteps getting closer to the classroom his eyes snapped open and he sat up looking at the door in surprise.

The door opened and Naruto gasped at the figure in the doorway

“you?” He snapped in surprised

“you!” Came the reply

before Naruto and team seven was a kunochi in a long light brown trench coat, underneath she was wearing a short skirt with hot pants underneath and a body glove her purple hair gathered up on her head and over her left eye was an eye patch with the kanji for strength on it

“you know each other?” said Sakura.

“you could say that.” muttered the kunouchi.

“her name is Anko Mitarashi, she's a tokubetsu Jounin,” said Naruto. while outwardly calm Naruto was panicking had things changed so much that team seven now had a different sensei? But then he realized something without Kakashi, Sasuke wouldn't learn the blasted Chidori. Naruto grinned as new possibilities opened before him “sooooo Anko. what are you doing here?”

“I'm your Jounin sensei kid,” said Anko. “meet me at training area 17 in 20 minutes and with that she turned and left.”

“Okay how do you know Anko?” said Sakura

“Well besides the fact I've been chased around the village by her more than once, its private.”

Sasuke's eyes narrowed the way the dobe had answered Sakura gave the impression it was something big. “Whatever.” he snapped “we best get going.”

-------------------

Kakashi made his way to the classroom to pick up team seven. He frowned as he thought of having to fail yet another genin team. It wasn't he liked to fail them, it wasn't that he couldn't be bothered to train a team, the problem was so far, none of his teams had been good enough to be Ninjas they had no idea of the true meanings of being a ninja, they had no concept of teamwork, no comradely he opened the door his visible eye widening. The room was empty. He looked round to see if there was any Genjutsu but they weren't there. With a frown he turned to make his way to the Hokage tower.

team seven arrived at training area 17. standing at the gates was Anko.

“We're here Anko sensei!” said Sakura politely

“good. Lets get to business.” she handed each graduate a folder. They flipped it open and paled inside was pictures of graphically mutilated and killed

“jeez Anko!” whistled Naruto “couldn't you have a normal fetish like Kakashi or Maito Gai?”

Anko spluttered in surprise at Naruto's outburst. “Don't push it kid she muttered what you have there is photo's of fallen Shinobi of Konoha the reason I'm showing you all this is to show you what can happen to you, this is no game kids this is your life here one mistake and you could end up another photo in the folder. I'm going to give you a chance right now to quit, if you want to get out just turn around and walk away.” She looked round to see none of them made any attempt to leave. “Fine you passed the first stage. okay,” she handed the trio another folder

“ooh! More from your personal collection Anko sensei?” Sniggered Naruto next moment Naruto leaped back to avoid a Kunai sent at his lil' Naruto. “Oi! You trying to end my bloodline before it even begins?”

“Keep testing my patience kid and I'll happily oblige!”

Sasuke looked at Anko in fear he had to consciously force himself to resist the urge to cover and protect his genitals.

“Okay inside is raw data on your team mates. The reason for this is to help you get a basic idea of what your teams strengths and weaknesses are so you can adapt to it. A Shinobi's ability to adapt can mean the difference between life and death. Okay now follow me,” Said Anko as she lead them into the training area. “this is training area 17 my second favorite place to be. Its a wooded area with an assault course at the center which helps train in stealth and speed its littered with traps and obstacles in theory you Genins should be able to complete it but I've never seen a genin complete it.”

“Well there's a first time for everything,” said Naruto although his mouth wasn't visible because of the high collar on his cloak Anko knew he was grinning

“ah but here's where things get interesting tomorrows test isn't just completing the assault course you have to find me then retrieve my forehead protector and escape area 17 within a set time limit, and I'll be doing my damnedest to get it back as well as take your own protectors.”

Sakura gaped in horror

“what happens if we fail to retrieve the forehead protector?” Asked Sasuke

“You wash out.” said Anko “you go back to the academy for another year and hope you get selected for a new team when selections come around again. you will also fail if at the end of the exercise i have more forehead protectors than you do. Right be here bright and early tomorrow morning!” said Anko with a sadistic grin.

A the group turned to leave Anko spoke again “Naruto before you go i need a quick word.”

Naruto sighed and turned back to Anko nodding. After the others left she turned to Naruto and removed her eye patch and dropped her henge.

“Okay kid start talking. What happened.”

Naruto shrugged “you were in a bad way and passed out my friend killed the ANBU and took you to the hospital after using an eye from the Hyuuga ANBU to replace the one you lost.”

“And this friend? She have a name?”

“Ahhhh. That i cant tell you yet.”

Anko ground her teeth the kid was good, there was no hesitation, no hint of a lie which in itself showed he was choosing his words carefully and there was a lot more to what happened she frowned then nodded. “I'll hold you to that.”

“i wouldn't expect anything less from you Anko sensei”

“just call me Anko kid,” said Anko walking off.

Naruto frowned as he left training area 17 Anko's test was going to be murderous. He could possibly get Anko's forehead protector and protect his own but he knew for a fact that either team seven passed together or they failed together it was the way the tests were set up so he couldn't just leave them to Anko's devices which meant teamwork was needed but how was he to attempt that? He knew how Sasuke and Sakura would react to the idea. Sasuke would scoff at the idea and Sakura would ignore him. He sighed as he decided he would figure it out later. Right now he wanted to meet the others...

the Hokage's office.

“Hokage sama, Kakashi Hatake to see you.”

“ah. send him in”

“Sarutobi-Sama i went to collect my team to find them missing.”

“They're not missing Kakashi i assigned them a different jounin sensei”

Kakashi's visible eye widened “may i ask why?”

“The answer is two-fold Kakashi the first is your abysmal tardiness is starting to get ridiculous you were 3 hours late Kakashi despite prior knowledge of the team selection meeting which you didn't bother to turn up for!” said the Hokage in an annoyed tone

Kakashi frowned beneath his mask he must have been really pushing it to tick the old man off. “And the other reason?“

“Well i had a jounin who has long wanted to get a team, who cant take any high missions for a while this was the perfect opportunity to keep the jounin on the active lists.”

“who was the jounin you chose?”

“Anko Mitarashi”

“You gave one of the most sadistic Jounins in Konoha a genin team? And what happened to Anko that meant she was off the high level missions?”

“She was nearly assassinated by root.”

“Kuso!” Snapped Kakashi “maybe i should of stayed on as an ANBU captain and cleaned house!”

“It would most likely not make any difference Danzo is slippery”

Kakashi nodded and sighed “well i guess I'll be reporting for normal missions then.”

The Hokage nodded “don't look so down Kakashi you would most likely have tried to fail the team as you've failed all the other teams you tested, anyway if thats all?

Kakashi bowed and left.

Naruto met up with his friends outside Heishiro weapons and equipment emporium.

“Okay my dad has everything from training equipment to real weapons,” said Tenten “since your my friends i managed to persuade him to knock 25 percent off. Your purchases so are you ready?” The others nodded and entered the shop. “Okay first things first weights!” said Tenten “we'll all started with the basic 5 to ten pounds per limb, lee and Naruto, due to the fact their strength beasts should go higher.”

Lee nodded looking to Naruto. “I discovered in training I'm twice as strong and fast as i was at the Chunnin exams you?”

“I would gauze my strength and speed at close to your level at the Chunnin exams” replied Naruto.

“then i think you can take my weight load.” said lee. Naruto nodded. “So Naruto how was your meeting with Kakashi sensei?”

“It didn't happen, instead we were met by Anko, she's our jounin sensei.”

“Wha? how did that happen?”

“I have no... idea,” said Naruto “and her final genin exam looks like its going to be a lot harder than Kakashi's bell test.”

“Don't worry you'll pass it.” Said Hinata giving him a quick hug

“I hope so,” said Naruto with a sigh.

“why don't you scope out the assault course tonight?” said Shikamaru

“thats-- thats a great idea,” said Naruto with a grin. “I'll see if i can locate most of the traps and plot a path through so i have an escape route plotted out. Anyway i think I'll get a bokken to practice my sword stance.”

“You know my dad runs a twice weekly class in sword fighting and if you're good enough he might teach you his specialized sword style.”

“The one he wont teach you?”

Tenten nodded

“why wont he teach you tenpu-kosai-ryu kai?” Asked Ino

“because of a weird promise he made after getting into a drinking contest with mom before they fell in love She bragged her sword fighting style was better than his. They fought he won, she wanted to learn it. in anger he made a vow to never teach it to her or any child of hers of course once married he realized he couldn't teach his offspring his sword style.”

“Ohhh bummer...” said Kiba “hey,” said Kiba suddenly. “if Naruto learns it then he can teach you! That gets round your dad's vow!”

Tenten's eyes widened and then she grinned “thats right! And it finally allows my dad to pass on his legacy to future generations!”

As the group talked Tenten's mother Rimururu moved away from where she had been working a smile on her face not having the chance to learn her fathers style had long been a bone of contention between Tenten and her dad, now there was a way for Mitsurugi to get round the unfortunate vow. She went to see her husband in the forge.

Naruto was deep in mediative sleep. In this state Naruto was able to cut a couple hours o his sleep time. Deep within his mind he was talking to Akomachi, while Kyuubi screamed obscenities

“So let me make sure I've got this straight it turns out i do have a Kekkai GGenkai?”

“Yes,” said Akomachi

“and originally as Kyuubi you used your chakra to suppress it due to the fact that it absorbed traits from my ancestor the Sodiame Hokage's ability to control the Biju giving me power over Kyuubi?”

“yes,” nodded Akomachi

“and the reason years later when you became Akomachi you didn't tell me was because even if i knew i wouldn't be able to activate it due to the fact Yokai chakra had altered my chakra coils to much that my matured coil system couldn't activate the Kekki Genkai”

“yes,” said Akomachi,

“but since I'm still maturing and my chakra coils are still underdeveloped you can activate the kekkei Genkai?”

“You got it!” said Akomachi

“Well then lets do this!”

“Okay, here we go,” said Akomachi as she drew a seal in mid air. suddenly Akomachi paled in shock as the walls around her and Naruto began to change and suddenly a pair of golden eyes materialized before them. Akomachi and Kyuubi gaped in shock. “I know those eyes!” Akomachi gasped as they turned into a ball of light and entered Naruto's chest.

Naruto fell unconscious leaving Akomachi and Kyuubi looking at each other. “What have you done you foolish female!”

“I, i don't know!” said Akomachi in wonder “but those eyes, it cant be him can it? I mean we both know he was disincorporated.”

“It would be like him to have a contingency plan in case of his defeat. And If it is him then this is on your head.” Snarled Kyuubi

“actually,” said Akomachi wit a smirk. “I'm now realigned with the celestial orders I'm safe. You however are not.” And with that Akomachi vanished leaving a trembling Kyuubi behind

Tori no Kuni

a woman in who looked to be in her early forties walked along a street and entered an inn she sat down in the main hall.

“Ah... lord Han was the job done to your satisfaction?”

“Yes, yes, the package arrived safely.”

“Well then i think its best we conclude our business.”

lord Han waved to a henchman who brought over a small chest “as agreed payment in full.”

The woman nodded and opened the case inside was rolls of notes she quickly counted the rolls and checked they added up to the agreed price then smiled “it was a pleasure doing business with you,” said the woman getting up. she took the chest and left the hall walking towards her room she was halfway there when she stopped and sighed, “what do you want?” she said in an irritated tone.

two men moved out of the shadows of the hallway one was large and had a pronounced forehead ridge, the other was thin and dainty. “hand over that chest and walk away.” Said the dainty looking man

“ah. I'm afraid that wont be happening.”

“Then die!” Snapped the heavy set man he pulled out his sword to swing at the woman but before he could strike her fist shot forward slamming into his own causing the sword to spin out of his hand the woman grabbed it in mid air and with a quick lunge impaled the man.

“Amateur.” she muttered. She looked at the dainty man. “your friend will survive the wound if he's taken to a doctor, do not bother me again.” The woman walked to her room and opened the door, inside Sleeping on a futon was a young girl

“obaa-san,” murmured the girl waking up.

“Uriko go back to sleep dear,” said the woman.

“ohh okay.” said the young girl.

the woman smiled and stood up to go pack away the money when suddenly her chest felt warm she grabbed the pendant hanging down on her chest and suddenly she felt a tugging sensation she found herself rushing across the lands to a village surrounded by trees she found herself flying towards a cloaked figure no more than a boy in fact, with blond hair very familiar blond hair the boy turned and looked at her with the bluest of eyes and an unmistakable face and then the vision ended and the woman fell back

Uriko shot up “obaa-san are you okay?”

“Yes dear,” said the woman softly. “it seems we'll be leaving here soon, one of our clan has awoken...”