10 Graduation and Team 13

After their ninjutsu test, they continued on to shuriken throwing, kunai throwing and finally taijutsu test.

Amatsu performed perfectly in every test. In taijutsu, he defeated Mizuki sensei under a minute creating a new record. He thought Mizuki was weaker than other chunins.

'This may be why he is an assistant teacher in the academy not an active chunin.' Amatsu thought.

He had fought some of the chunins of his clan and they were much stronger than Mizuki.

Poor Mizuki was once again defeated miserably by Sasuke. Iruka sensei had to intervene and took Mizuki to the hospital. After that he and another chunin completed the rest of the taijutsu test.

Yakumo struggled but managed to perform enough to be able to pass. Taijutsu was not her strong point. Ino passed easily. She was better than average. Finally Hinata fought against Iruka sensei to a draw which was remarkable considering Iruka was stronger than Mizuki.

(A/N: You may think I have made everyone stronger than their canon self. This is indeed true. I will tell you the reason why. First of all Sasuke has already awakened his sharingan that night. I think watching all of his clansmen being killed by your own brother including your own parents is enough to awaken sharingan.

Why he had not in the canon bugged me.

Hinata is no longer shy or held herself back with Amatsu's helping her. She is like her Naruto Shippuden self. No one will deny that she was not talented.

Ino and Yakumo are taking being a ninja seriously unlike Sakura who became a fangirl of Sasuke. Sakura had broken her friendship with Ino. She was also not a heiress of a famous clan. Even though the anime didn't show it, all clan heirs trained seriously or knew that becoming a ninja was not a joke.)

After the last of them was tested, they were told to wait for an hour before their results would come.

Amatsu and the others discussed about the test. Except for Yakumo who was nervous, everyone was confident they would pass.

Finally after waiting an hour, the results were announced and headbands were distributed. The headband represented their status as a shinobi of hidden leaf.

24 of 27 students passed. Naruto and two others failed.

They were told to come after a week to know about their teams.

Everyone that passed to become a genin was happy and sharing their success with their friends and family. Naruto and the two others were very sad. Especially Naruto as it was his third try at graduation.

Amatsu saw him sitting alone on the swing and looking extremely sad.

He felt pity for the poor boy. Even now the villagers were whispering among themselves and were actually happy that he didn't get to pass.

He was able to hear words like demon child, monster etc. from the ignorant villagers.

Having nine tails or the kyubi sealed inside you didn't make you a monster. In fact it was the opposite. He was the hero carrying such a burden from the day he was born.

Yeah, Amatsu knew about Naruto's status. Although he was not told by anyone, it was not that hard to guess after hearing about him from the villagers. Especially after he asked about the Uzumaki clan and it's history.

With every shinobi wearing the clan's symbol along with Konoha's went to show how important the clan was. Sealing masters, incredible vitality and physique, longer lifespan etc. were the well known specialties of the clan. Their crimson hair was their distinguishable feature.

Amatsu had doubts whether Naruto truly knew about his own clan. That boy had least amount of interest in academic study. Whether it was his choice or his situation forced him to be, it remained unknown.

Amatsu had not told anyone about Naruto. He could guess most if not all older generation knew about it. And he had no doubt Shikamaru of the Nara clan might have deduced it already like him.

Although Amatsu had never tried to become friends with Naruto. This was due to the amount of anbu and other ninjas constantly watching over him every moment. It was quite a coincident that he managed to locate them.

After learning about the nine tails, he tried to once again check Naruto with byakugan without focusing on kyubi's like he did last time. Suddenly he saw multiple ninjas keeping an eye on Naruto from a distance. They all were carefully hidden. If not for his byakugan, he might not have found them.

A week later

Today was the day that was going to decide their team. It was a very important part of being a shinobi in Konoha. After all you were going to spend a lot of time together with them.

Konoha valued team work the most as compared to other great shinobi nations. With proper cooperation and trust between team members, it was easier to carry out missions successfully. Also fighting alongside someone who you would trust with your life would increase the efficiency. Even fighting against someone stronger than you was possible.

The perfect example of team work would be the three sanins. Jiraiya, Orochimaru and Tsunade fought and managed to survive against someone of the same level as of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third hokage.

Hanzo was a very strong shinobi. Even though the sanins were weaker than their current self, they survived the battle due to their co-ordination and team work.

Many example like this could be found in the history books. Hence team selection was very important event.

Amatsu and Hinata reached their classroom in time. They were late than usual today due to a morning training session against Hiashi. Both of them had to face him together.

Even if they had improved, they were still far from reaching Hiashi's level.

After a proper beatdown from Hiashi, both the preteens had to rush towards the school.

Thankfully Iruka sensei had just entered the classroom.

They immediately went to their usual seats.

"Now that everyone is present, I will announce the teams." Iruka said.

"Iruka-sensei why is Naruto here? He failed the test." A loud voice interrupted Iruka. It was not surprising to find the voice belonging to their former friend Sakura.

Amatsu and Hinata found the said blond boy sitting unusually quite today.

"Naruto has become a shinobi after he helped in the capture of Mizuki. Mizuki turned out to be a traitor who wanted to stole an important scroll. But Naruto found out about it and caught him red handed. Hence hokage-sama saw it fit to reward Naruto by letting him become a shinobi." Iruka said with serious voice.

'I had heard of a spy being caught. So it turned out to be Mizuki.' Amatsu thought. 'Its hard to believe a guy who has been teaching you can become a spy next moment. This just make it harder to believe in others.'

'This again proved that the world is dangerous.'

Amatsu was not so surprised by now. Living for 12 years in this world had taught him various lessons already. Thankfully he was not a normal kid.

Sakura didn't ask further. You would be a fool to question your kage's decision without knowing the circumstances. After all he was the military leader and unlike powerless politicians, he could easily squash you. Kage were publicly known as the strongest inside a shinobi village.

"No without further delay, I am going to announce you future team members and your teacher." Iruka continued. "Team 1 consist of ....."

"Team seven Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha." Sakura squealed. Her dream of being in the same team as Sasuke just came true. She quickly forgot of her other team mate. Sasuke just remained cold as usual. But Naruto was happy to be with Sakura.

Naruto had a crush on Sakura which was not hidden to anyone. After all he would ask her on a date for almost every single day. And Sakura would reject him every time.

"Your teacher is going to be Kakashi Hatake."

'Kakashi huh. I don't know they are lucky or unlucky.' Amatsu thought. He had gathered some info about the jonin who were going to be his teacher. Kakashi was someone he was very impressed at.

'Graduating at five, jonin by twelve, student of fourth hokage, wielder of the only known sharingan outside of Uchiha clan publicly, an elite jonin with the title 'Copycat ninja', rumored to have learned a thousand jutsu using his sharingan.'

The info he collected certainly showed his impressive records. He would be lying if he was not disappointed of not getting him as his teacher.

"Team 8: Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga and Kiba Inuzuka. Your teacher is Kurenai Yuhi."

Hinata let out a disappointed sigh of not being in the same team as Amatsu. She was hopping they would be on the same team.

"Team 10: Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara. Your teacher is Asuma Sarutobi."

Like Hinata, Ino also let a disappointed sigh.

"Team 13: Amatsu Hyuga, Yakumo Kurama and Gin Sarutobi. Your teacher is .....Tsunade Senju."