Chapter no.19 Final Test

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Lunch ended and the newly graduated genin all filed back inside of the classroom to find that there was a group of adults already there waiting on them. Team 10 decided that now was as good a time as any to start working like a team and sat in the same row next to each other while most of the others were still spread out around the classroom. After everyone reentered, Iruka took the front of the class again.

"Alright everyone." Iruka started, "The men and women standing before you are your jounin sensei for your duration as genin. Remember to work hard and remember everything you've learned through your time here in the Academy." With that, the jounin started going down the line taking their teams away by the number indicated.

"Team 8?" A beautiful raven-haired woman with remarkable red eyes said. She had on a mesh blouse with one long sleeve and a missing other underneath a broad, bandage looking material that had a pattern of thorns on it. She had bandages wrapped around her upper thighs and her hands up to her elbows, "I'm your jounin instructor, Yuhi Kurenai, come with me and we'll get started."

Kiba, Hinata, and Shino all stood up and walked out of the room with the woman when Sakura stood up, "Um, you skipped Team 7. What about our sensei?"

All of the remaining jounin shook their heads with amusement etched on their faces as the next man stepped forward, "You guys are going to be waiting a while for him to show up. Anyway, Team 10? I'm Sarutobi Asuma and I'm your sensei, so follow me."

Naruto, Ino, and Shikamaru stood up and followed him out with Shikamaru giving a small wave to Chouji before they left for luck to him and how he would fare on his own team. Shikamaru was still worried about leaving his oldest friend like that all on his own, but he had to worry about himself at the moment and how he was going to do on his own team.

Naruto looked at the bearded man they were following oddly, as if he were supposed to be familiar or something, "Hey, have we met before?" Naruto asked with his eyes closed in confusion. The man chuckled at the diminutive blonde, "Hey, what's funny?"

"You must not have a very good short term memory eh kid?" The man said as they started walking outside. When he saw Naruto's face scrunch up in thought, "We met yesterday kid. You were outside of the Hokage Tower and ran into me after messing with my nephew."

"Huh?" Naruto was still confused before he started piecing together what Asuma had just said along with his last name, "Wait, you're Konohamaru's uncle? Then that means you're the Hokage's son right?"

Asuma sighed, "Well that's not what we were really talking about but yes, I am the Hokage's son."

"Wow." Naruto said with a grin on his face, "So you must be like a younger, more awesome version of Hokage-jiji right?"

Asuma broke into laughter at hearing that. If nothing else Naruto was going to be entertaining to have around on his team, "Well I don't really know about that. I don't even fight anything like the old man to be quite honest with you, but I do in my own humble opinion think I'm quite strong."

Ino gave Naruto a chiding look, "Naruto why would you call Hokage-sama that? That's disrespectful to his status in the village."

Naruto shrugged, "It's just what I've always called him. Ever since I was a little kid I've been calling him Hokage-jiji whenever he came to see me and he never corrected me on it so I guess he liked it or something."

Now Shikamaru and Ino had something else to think about. Why did the Hokage spend that much time with Naruto when he was little? Sure he was an orphan and everything, but for Naruto to be comfortable about calling the man such a familiar name in passing… that's a whole different level of acquaintance.

The newly minted Team 10 kept following their jounin commander as he walked them about all the way to a training field where he instructed them to sit down in the grass under the shade of a tree while he leaned against the trunk. Shikamaru acquiesced far too easily for Ino's tastes when he plopped right down on his back and looked up at the sun poking through the leaves vacantly. Naruto swiftly did as he was told as well, just staying seated normally on the ground. Ino did so reluctantly and sat with her knees pulled to her chest as they all looked at their sensei reach into one of his flak jacket's pockets and pull out a cigarette.

Ino watched him distastefully as he stuck the cigarette in his mouth, "Those will kill you, you know."

Asuma smirked and pulled out a lighter to spark his cigarette up, "Girl I think you'll find after you've been doing this for a while that compared to being a ninja, a little smoke can't even come close to being anywhere near as dangerous." He took a moment to enjoy his cigarette for a moment, taking in the expressions his genin all wore.

Ino was calm, yet she had an air of annoyance about her; apparently she wasn't as pleased with her team selection, or her sensei if the way she was lightly glaring at him and his cigarette was any indication, as she would have liked to be but she was willing to deal, that was good.

Shikamaru didn't seem to care either way. He was just waiting for whatever it was he was supposed to do apparently before he decided whether or not it was worth the trouble of actually doing it. This kid would need some serious motivation if he was to end up any good kind of ninja. He didn't appear to be as out of it as he looked while gazing up at the clouds. It was clear he was still paying attention.

Naruto was barely able to hide his excitement. He was hardly able to sit still and every few moments you could see a huge grin threatening to peek through his already happy expression. Well there was clearly no lack of motivation in him and he didn't seem to have any problems with the way the teams panned out, he was just happy as a clam to even be there at all. 'Alright.' Asuma thought to himself, 'Enough of the silent contemplation.'

Asuma tapped the ashes off of the end of his cigarette, "From this day forward I'll be your jounin sensei. You will train under me, take missions under me, and I will be responsible for all of your well-beings from this point forward." He saw a their faces receive that information, 'And now for the fun part.' He thought with a smirk, "That is, after you pass your final test to become genin."

Ino looked at him with a cocked brow, "Wait, I thought we already did that? We just got through with graduation didn't we?"

Asuma chuckled, "Come on. Anyone can reel off a few memorized test answers and crank out the most basic level jutsu that pretty much any ninja can do right?" After he said that, a sweatdrop formed on his head when Ino's eyes turned to Naruto and Shikamaru who laughed nervously and muttered 'troublesome' respectively, "Right. Nevermind. Well regardless that was just to scout out prospective candidates that actually end up being ninja. The truth is that there's a 66% average failure rate for kids at your level.

Naruto's eyes widened, "That's why Shiho-chan almost ended up not being a real ninja after all! Why didn't she tell me?" Both Shikamaru and Ino looked at him in surprise after his outburst, 'As a matter of fact why didn't Tenten tell me? Gah, I'm pissed!'

Asuma nodded, "You say almost, so I assume she was one of the lucky ones that didn't end up having to be sent back somehow. She must have gotten someone to actively apprentice her. But most shinobi don't have the time for that, or they don't have anyone they're actually interested in enough to go through that pain in the ass process for so the failed ones usually end up heading back to the Academy or in a lot of cases washing out altogether."

He let silence settle over the field before sighing, getting the full attention of the group of kids, "You know, I talked about it with Hokage-sama beforehand and I have to tell you all, just to be fair to you, I don't really want a team." He surprised them, "I have the freedom to make the test to pass you as tough or as easy as I want it to be, and I'm going to come up with something you'll never be able to pass. A task a full-fledged jounin would have to take a second thought at accepting." He exuded the minutest trace of killing intent he could to enforce his threat, and seeing Ino's eyes quiver he had to hold himself back from breaking his straight face.

"That's not fair!" Naruto said loudly from the ground, "You can't do that to us just because you're a lazy ass!"

Hearing Naruto say something brought something out of Ino, "Yeah, even Shikamaru wouldn't be lazy enough to do something like that!"

"Tough." Asuma said, shutting them both down, "I'm a jounin, an elite. I've earned my spot ten times over and I'd much rather not have to spend the next five years wiping noses and powdering bottoms." Even Shikamaru was fully attentive by this point.

The normally lazy pineapple-haired boy sat up and stared Asuma down, "So you're going to just drop us? You led us all the way out here just to tell us you're failing us like that? Just getting rid of all of us."

"No." Asuma said to him, "I never said I was going to just get rid of you. I said I never wanted a team, not that I never wanted to train anyone. I'm willing to take only one of you as an apprentice. The others are out of luck."