No vacancy

Our batch of students will graduate as Genin in a few months and be split into teams.

Most of our class wasn't mentioned at all in the manga. They remained in obscurity, not accomplishing anything and probably dying in some random mission or during the war.

I recall the main cast of this generation being referred to as the Konoha 11.

Team 7 - Kakashi's team

Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke

Team 8 - Kurenai's team

Hinata, Kiba, Shino

Team 10 - Asuma's team

Ino, Shikamaru, Choji

Team ? - Guy's team

Rock Lee, Tenten and Neji

Sasuke had abandoned Konoha at that time so wasn't counted in this group formed to rescue him.

From these teams…

Right, Neji's team already graduated last year, so only 3 important teams graduate this year.

There is only room for 9 genin in those 3 teams if I hope to be grouped with the main cast.

They haven't told us future genin about being split into teams but when that happened in the story and Naruto complained about being placed with Sasuke, Iruka-sensei mentioned the teams being balanced out according to our final grades.

In hindsight, that's not entirely true….

Thirty genin, 10 teams, and if we count the main cast's team we have an outrageous ratio of 8 out of 9 genin being important members of their clan. Only Sakura seems out of place but I don't know of anyone else in our class with clan backing that could have taken that final spot on a team.

Naruto and Sasuke were placed under Kakashi for their protection. The Kyuubi and one of the last living Uchiha could never be left outside the village without the most powerful and loyal Jounin's protection.

Maybe Sakura was just put in as a way to keep them in control or as a honeypot to tie them down to the village and get some Uzumaki or Uchiha babies in the future, seems at least part of that plan worked out.

For team 8 they clearly assembled a scouting-focused team. Was the only goal just to give the little princess Hinata some experience with little risk? A specialized team sounds useful but it also means every other team has no scouting ability at all.

As a direct consequence Team 7 relied too heavily on Kakashi's dog and the lack of proper scouting caused Team 10 to almost get party-wiped when they face-checked Akatsuki while out on the field before being able to form a plan or investigate their opponents.

It was also the most obviously not random team, the third generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho combo. Did they coordinate conceptions in their clans to make it possible for all main descendants to be conceived at the same time???

They even have a tradition of a Sarutobi sensei giving the team members earing once they became chunnin.

Their combat ability as a team is there but as a lone 3-man cell, it has a lot of weaknesses.

Looking at these members it seems the easiest member to replace would be Sakura but I definitely wouldn't want to end up in a full wiener team with edgy, stupid and broody.

Being with a girl on my team would be the best opportunity to get close to them. It means years spent together training and going on missions, growing stronger together and relying on each other.

I fail to see any safe and legitimate method of achieving this ideal outcome.

Then it would seem I am forced to resort to some unsavory methods to secure a spot for myself in the Konoha 11…

But first, there is something more important.

Personal power. I wouldn't want to get caught in the dangerous life of the main cast without the confidence to protect myself and others.

For now, I need to think about this minor hormonal control ability.

Hormones are a strange thing, they are a way in which our organs communicate with each other. It's how our stomach tells our brain it's full, how our eyes tell our brain it's dark and we should be getting sleepy and how having a pair of balls makes us a man, filling us with muscle and desire to mate.

There are nearly a hundred known hormones in the knowledge of the human body which I obtained, but there is little use in controlling most of them, for a lot of them my knowledge says messing has little use or unknown results.

But some are crucially important.

I start with a simple test.

Melatonin, the sleep hormone, high during the night, low during the day. It's how our body regulates our sleep cycle.

Reducing it should help me fight back this voice in the back of my head trying to send me back to dreamland.

When I focus on that particular hormone I can feel the current amount, almost like a slider in my mind's eye, it's currently around 60%, expected since it's currently early morning and my alarm isn't due for another 20 minutes.

I focus my will on reducing it.

I feel some of my chakra flow away into my bloodstream, in 10 seconds the bar falls to 50% and then retains its natural slow downward trend after I stop.

My head feels slightly less foggy, the difference is hard to notice but I can call this test a success.

Hormones are tricky things, a lot of recreational drugs work by stimulating them, but their use has two problems. The first is dependency and the 2nd is loss of effect.

This is because our body gets used to abnormal amounts of hormones and starts working in ignoring their affect.

The body also reduces the natural production of that hormone.

This is why testosterone junkies at the gym end up with small balls, their testicles stop producing testosterone and shrink from lack of use.

It would seem I won't have that problem. My power can also control those affects.

Tolerance and production, the higher the tolerance, the less effect a hormone has on a body. The reverse is also true, lowering tolerance will make lower amounts of hormones have a greater effect.

For most hormones, tolerance is already at its lowest possible rate.

As for production, that's the amount my body naturally produces over time, so it seems I have the option to either inject myself with a larger amount of hormones which eventually wear out, or slowly change my body to do it on its own.

For science, I try to lower the production and tolerance of melanin but stop as I sense my chakra being drained in a large amount.

But this is already very good.

I freshen up before heading to school.

My body is nearly 1.45m with little but compact muscles from taijutsu training but with the power of hormones, I can enhance this.

My features are fairly very unremarkable, black eyes and black hair cut too short for my taste. I'm no Sasuke in the looks department but I can be considered at least somewhat handsome.

I don't know why I suddenly think long hair just looks cooler but it made me decide to start letting it grow out.