Team 10!

"Troublesome..."

In the far back of the class, Shikamaru grumbled; he covered his eyes with an eye mask while Chouji leaned his body on the wall beside him.

In front of them, their classmates were all talking and speculating; their sounds were all loud. In a particular spot was a specifically crowded place where almost all of the girls were staring. In there, a blonde-haired boy was squatting in front of a certain black-haired Uchiha heir. They were staring at each other provocatively; a spark almost could be seen between them; their stare was so intense before they were... Kissing?!

"Pffft?!"

Chouji, in his shocked state, almost choked himself to death with his favorite potato chips; his eyes were literally bulging, and his jaw was now almost touching the table surface in front of him.

"Naruto bast*rd! I'll kill you!"

"Kyaaa! Sasuke-sama, his kiss..."

"NOOO! My Sasuke-sama..."

Various high-pitched screams from various girls in the class could be heard; their sheer shrill screams could even put a banshee to shame. Meanwhile, the culprit was spitting his saliva around, hoping to forget that ever happened before he became the punching bag of every girl in the class.

"SILENCE!!!"

Iruka barked out loud even before he stepped into the class; in his hand, he was holding a stack of paper with myriad things written on it.

"Now, you all will soon be assigned duties by the village. And today, we will be creating the three-man teams, with each team will have a Jounin as their Sensei..." Iruka said, his eyes sweeping the students from left to right, staring deep at each and every soon-to-be genin in front of him.

"...You will follow Sensei's instructions as you complete the assigned duties. Do you understand?"

"YES, IRUKA-SENSEI!!!"

"Good, now..." With that, Iruka began to read everyone's names and assigned them to their designated teams.

"Team 10! Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, Yamanaka Ino..."

When the three of them were called, almost none of the students present felt surprised by Team 10 formation.

'As expected...'

'The Ino-Shika-Cho.'

'I wonder if their formation is any different from their predecessor...'

In response, Chouji unwrapped a sandwich and took a bit nonchalantly, Shikamaru closed his eyes to sleep for a while, and Ino was busy glaring at the smug Sakura.

"... The three of you will be headed by Asuma Sarutobi..." After that, Iruka continued to assign a few more students to their teams before he excused himself and let the jounins take over.

"Team one, come here!"

"Team two, meet me at..."

"..team three..."

A few jounins were calling their team members, and except for team seven, each team had already met their jounin.

---

A few moments later, team ten was assembled at the edge of the village near a waterfall.

"Well, good afternoon; for the starter, let's introduce ourselves. My name is Asuma Sarutobi, and you can call me Asuma-sensei. Ah, make your introduction short."

Asuma was a tall man with brown eyes, olive skin, short black spiky hair, and a beard. His clothing consisted of the standard Konoha ninja uniform with the sleeves rolled up halfway, a flak jacket, regular shinobi sandals, and a forehead protector. He also wore a sash with the kanji for "Fire" marked on it around his waist, a pair of black bangles, and bandages wrapped around the arms of his sleeves.

'So he is the Hokage's son.' The trio thought while observing their Sensei as he observed them. 'He is the one that will be our sensei, huh?'

Currently, Asuma holds a cigarette in his right hand and observes the three new team members.

"My name is Shikamaru Nara."

"Mine is Chouji Akimichi."

"I am Ino Yamanaka."

Albeit Shikamaru was lazy to the bone, Chouji was a bit playful, and Ino was impatient to see 'her' Sasuke. The three of them knew when to get serious and tacitly understood each other's intentions.

"Good, the classic Ino-Shika-Cho combo. To be honest, I was tasked by my old man, the Hokage himself, to lead this team. But, if you three are not up to my standard, then I'll apologize in Advance. I will talk personally with the Hokage to make the three of you quit as Ninja; you all are the precious heirs of our village's prestigious clans after all..."

Asuma talked while observing their reactions, and to his satisfaction, they were all still level-headed.

"Now, tell me what you three are best at. As for me, I am a former member of the twelve guardians of the fire country, so escorting and direct combat are my specialty. I'm best at Buki Jutsu." Asuma then gestured for Shikamaru to start his part, puffing smoke from his nostrils.

"With my current capabilities, what I am good at is strategizing and intelligence gathering," Shikamaru said his part. Then, after he finished, Shikamaru nodded to Chouji, signaling for him to continue from his part.

"As for me, I'm best at direct confrontation," Chouji said beamingly, looking at Asuma. "My taijutsu is rather good."

"And me, like Shikamaru, I'm rather good at the intelligence-gathering also; although a newbie, I'm a sensor-nin too." Ino continued immediately after Chouji finished his part.

Seeing that everyone had finished their explanation, Asuma nodded and smiled. "Then meet me near the Nara forest entrance tomorrow morning at eight o'clock. You're all Dismissed."

---

The next day, a few minutes before eight a.m., Nara forest entrance.

"So, where do you think our sensei is?" Ino, with her puffed cheek, was annoyed. It was almost the promised time, and the supposed-to-be Sensei was still nowhere to be seen.

"Be patient..." Shikamaru sighed; he leaned on a tree and stared at the fleeting clouds, hoping to end the test as soon as possible so he could lie down and relax. 'Troublesome...'

"Maybe he ate bad food and had to fulfill nature's call," Chouji said while munching a beef jerky.

"Disgusting; I wonder how you can say something like that while eating." Ino scrunched her brows and showed a disgusted face to Chouji, while Chouji just shrugged his shoulder in response.

Suddenly, four kunais were launched against them out of nowhere, with one aimed at them and the other somewhere between them. Shikamaru and Chouji could barely deflect the incoming Kunai, while Ino threw herself to the side to dodge the incoming Kunai.

The fourth Kunai was stabbed at the tree bark beside Shikamaru; a small scroll was attached to its handle.

Carefully, Shikamaru took the Kunai and unfurled the scroll. For a few seconds, he read the content inside it before handing it to Chouji and Ino to see.

[Currently, there are three different scrolls inside the forest. They're placed not far from what you are and hidden within your specialty. Find One of the three; then we're cool. The time limit is before the sunset. Good luck. -Your awesome Sensei]