They arrived at the academy at ten til nine. Most of the other students had already arrived by then. The only two who seemed to be missing were Sakura and Ino. The two girls look around and spot four open seats. Two are right next to each other while the others are separated. They go for the two seats next to each other, they always tried to sit together (Normally they arrived earlier so it wasn't an issue). The only thing is the seats are also next to Sasuke and it's going to be annoying in a few minutes. Haruka takes the seat next to the Uchiha while Hina-chan takes the edge seat.
The two girls are proven right as their last two class mates come storming into the classroom. "Ha I was first! Take that Ino pig!" Haruka never could understand why Sakura called Ino a pig, the girl looked fairly normal, and Haruka had never heard her oink.
"Yeah right Forehead my foot was 1 centimeter ahead of yours so I was first!" Likewise Haruka never got the whole business about Sakura's forehead, it really did look pretty normal. She still thought it was a shame the two girls threw away their friendship. But maybe it was never really a friendship if it was thrown away so easily.
Haruka zones out for a bit only to be brought back to see Sakura standing beside her. "Move Haruka-baka! You're in my seat!" The pink haired girl moves to throw the redhead out of her seat but before her hand can even reach Haruka it's caught in a vice grip by Hina-chan.
"You wouldn't be trying to throw my girlfriend out of her seat, next to me, when we got here first would you? Sakura-san." Sakura gulps and shakes her head no. She may be the rank two kunoichi in class but she knew how scary Hinata can be when people were insulting or harming Haruka, outside of spars. Hinata smiles and said, "Good then I hope you don't mind taking one of the empty seats." Sakura nods her head and retreats.
Sasuke may not care about the girls, but the fact that they just shielded him from the fan girls is enough to earn his silent thanks. Oh how he despises the fan girls. He would have had no problem if they truly liked him. But he wasn't stupid and the fact that they all seemed to take an interest when he became a vulnerable orphan, and received a large inheritance, had been sending alarm bells through his head for years. If he had to guess the only one that might really have an interest in him, that doesn't stem from his heritage, is Ino. And he's fairly certain that is more of a game to her then anything else. The girl may be weak but she was deceptively smart, and painfully good at gathering info and dispersing false info.
Iruka walks into the room with a clipboard in hand. Most of the students quiet down seeing him. He nods glad to see the kids are taking things seriously. "There's not much in the way of formalities. We have thirty students and ten teams. You'll be paired in teams of three genin and one jonin. But you all already know that. I'll be starting with team one and working up…" He starts to call names and Haruka only really listens for her name or Hina-chan's. She perks up when he gets to the seventh team. "Team 7 will be Hyuuga Hinata…" He pauses and Haruka crosses her fingers. "Uchiha Sasuke…" Haruka is crossing her fingers tighter praying she'll be on Hina-chan's team, "And Uzumaki Haruka." Three things happen all at once. Haruka and Hinata cheer and give each other quick hugs. Sasuke lets out a sigh of relief at both not being paired with a fan girl and having the two strongest girls in class. He knows Haruka may be ranked at the bottom but he had fought her enough times to know as a ninja she is far more capable then her scores let on. She easily takes the third spot for strongest in the class behind Hinata and himself.
The last thing to happen is the cries of outrage from the fan girls at not getting the Uchiha and for him to be paired with Haruka of all people. They were worried his sheer amazingness might turn her straight and make her a rival. They were delusional but no one saw the need to correct them, it's kind of fun to let them convince themselves the impossible is going to happen.
Iruka continues ignoring the outrage. "Team 8 will be Inuzuka Kiba, Haruno Sakura, and Aburame Shino." Sakura cries out.
"You take me away from Sasuke-kun and stick me with dog boy and the creep?!" Haruka winces for Shino. He may not talk but he was really very nice, and Haruka was coming from a perspective where he actively avoids her. If she thought he was nice then there is no reason everyone else can't.
"Each team was carefully considered for maximum efficiency and I assure your team is as it should be." He continues naming three of the weirdly bland kids who seriously never managed to stop being bland for team 9. "Team 10 will be Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Choji, and Nara Shikamaru." He pauses for a moment before continuing, "Your jounin-sensei will be here in an hour to pick you up. I encourage you in the meantime to use this opportunity to bond with your new teammates. You'll be together for most of your career, so you might as well get along."
Iruka-sensei walks out of the room and Haruka stands along with Hina-chan. She turned to Sasuke and said, "Well, do you want to come eat lunch with us?" Sasuke is about to reject but Hinata cuts in.
"If nothing else eating with us will protect you from your fans." That's enough for the boy and he nods. The three walk out of the room even as Sakura claims they are stealing her Sasuke-kun.
Hinata had to resist pouting. She had helped Haru-chan convince Sasuke because that's what her girlfriend wanted, but the white eyed girl would have preferred to have lunch with just Haru-chan. It's not like she dislike Sasuke, not since he lost his crush on her girl, but she wants to act lovey-dovey with her girlfriend and he kind of interrupts that. They move outside and sit around a large tree.
"So Sasuke, are you mad Hina-chan stole Rookie of the Year from you?"
"Haru-chan that's rude!" Hinata said in a scolding tone.
Sasuke didn't really care about the title, the girl had been putting in just as much work as him so it's not like she stole it over night, they had been almost exactly tied at the time of the exam. "Hn."
"You know I think that's the only thing I've heard you say in years."
"Haruka!" Uh-oh looks like she actually made Hina-chan mad.
"It's alright, it's kind of refreshing." He meant it too, everyone else in the class would be trying to suck up to him right now. Or boldly claiming they'd kick his ass. Most couldn't backup that claim making the fights boring and wortheless. These two were treating him normally. It felt kind of nice.
"See Hina-chan it's fine."
"Haru-chan it's fine to be blunt, it's part of what I love about you, but there is no reason to bring up painful memories." Haruka nods conceding the point.
"Sorry Sasuke didn't think about that." These two are really different when they are not with the rest of the class, they're much more expressive and open. And talkative. Hinata sees the look on his face and laughs.
"What did you think we only spend our time together plotting how to give Kiba a beating in the sparring ring?" Sasuke had to acknowledge that, it would make sense that the girls would normally just well act, well, normal.
"So do you still like tomatoes? Cause it looks like my gardens going to get a big harvest this year and I'll probably have more than I can eat." That's not true if Haruka really put her mind to it she could eat enough to clean out her whole apartment, but that's not the goal.
"I didn't know you garden. And yeah I still like tomatoes."
"Yeah I've turned my whole balcony into a garden," And most of the apartment complex now that she thinks about it, no one else was using it so why not? She saves a ton of money on food every year thanks to that. It's part of the reason she was able to buy Hina-chan the arm guards and plated gloves. "So if you want any just stop by sometime and I'll give you some." Sasuke nods, not really planning on it, having more important things to do, like training, or thinking up ways to kill Itachi, but he might stop by for fresh tomatoes sometimes if he gets in the mood and doesn't want to go shopping.
"Haru-chan are you inviting a boy to your apartment when I, your girlfriend, am right here?" Hinata's tone is one of mock hurt.
Haruka doesn't pick up on it. "I'm sorry Hina-chan I hadn't thought about that, you know I only have eyes for you. Sorry Sasuke deals off."
Wow she's whipped, at least that's what Sasuke thought. Hinata laughs and said, "It's alright Haru-chan I was only kidding. Guess we still need to work on your ability to recognize what different tones of voice mean."
"Hey I can pick up on most of them, like anger, sadness or happiness. Oh and the one where you want to kiss me more! I'm just not to good with sarcasm, that's what that was right? Some form of sarcasm?" Hinata nods, blushing a bit at the mention of the kissing one. When had Haru-chan learned what she sounded like when she was… Getting into it.
"So does that mean the offer for the tomatoes still stands?" The two girls look at each other and laugh at his question.
"Sure Sasuke I don't mind and Haru-chan doesn't mind." She said that with a certain look in her eye. One that said "If you make moves on my girlfriend I will end you." He nods his head and she smiles. Yep Hinata didn't just scare his fan girls, she deserved that rank one spot.
"Hinata, why did you become a ninja?" He had been thinking about Iruka's speech yesterday.
"To lead the clan and to protect Haruka. She is the main source of my strength and my drive." Her tone was surprisingly serious
"And what about you Haruka?"
"Originally it was just because Hina-chan was going to be a ninja. Then it was because I wanted to protect myself and Hina-chan. What about you Sasuke? Why did you become a ninja?"
"Originally it was to be like that man." Both girls know he's talking about his older brother. "Now it's so I can get my revenge."
"Then we'll help you with it." The redhead said smiling at him.
"What?"
Hinata speaks this time. "We're teammates now, Haru-chan and I have gotten revenge in many forms against those who hurt her, so I don't see a problem with helping you do the same." Haru-chan nods agreeing with the younger girl.
Sasuke doesn't respond, he had never considered help. If nothing else Hinata had gotten stronger than him with the aid of a friend and a drive for revenge (and protection, but that's less important to him), at least that what it seemed like to him. So maybe it has some merit. Well he has something to think on now.
The three eat their lunches in relative silence, with the occasional chatter between the two girls. They soon finish and head back inside to wait out the last five minutes for their new sensei to arrive. The three sit together again, not seeing a point in separating, not that Haruka and Hinata would have anyways.
Five minutes later 7 jonin walk into the room and call for teams 1-6 and team 9. Haruka finds it amusing that all the bland kids got taken out first. It's about 10 minutes after that another three jonin walk in. The first is a bearded man with a cigarette in his mouth. He seems to have a lazy attitude about him and had somewhat of a resemblance to the Hokage, though his skin was more olive than the old man. He wore the standard jonin vest and had two trench knives strapped to each leg. He wore the black variant of the ninja uniform underneath. He also had a sash with the kanji for fire around his hips.
Just behind him was a stern looking man with one eye. He had his forehead protector covering the other. He had gravity defying silver hair and pale skin, from what little he showed. He also wore the standard jonin vest but had the Navy blue variant of the ninja uniform. Lastly he wore a mask that when combined with his forehead protector covered about 75% of his face. Haruka realizes he's the man who had been giving her a clock on her birthday every year since she was five. Haruka wondered just why he bothered to give her presents, he never did anything else in her life and the only conversation she ever had with the man was about how it's important to always try and be on time or early if possible.
Lastly a woman with long black hair and crimson red eyes walked in. They almost reminded Hinata of Haru-chan's nature transformation, that's what she calls it for lack of a better name. But they weren't quite the same. The woman had pale skin and didn't seem to be carrying any weapons, but she likely had some hidden on her. She wore an odd dress that looked to be made of bandages with thorny vines patterned on them, but upon closer inspection the bandages were something different. Underneath she could see a small amount of mesh and cloth that seemed to also work as added clothes, acting as a sleeve for the dress, much like Haru-chan's kimono, the other name for Haru-chan's dress, now that she thinks about it.
"You three are the lucky ones." It was the tan man who spoke up.
"Or the unlucky ones depending on how you look at it." It was the woman who spoke this time.
"We're the three elite jonin who signed up to be sensei this year." This time it was the one eyed man.
The tan man speaks again, "Which means you nine, as the only ones left, get us as your sensei. And all the benefits that come with." Of course he wouldn't mention that they also are going to test them and it would be harder than a regular jonin would give. "Now then Team 10 you're with me." He walks out of the room, they would have to follow on their own. The trio of childhood friends quickly exit the room in a hurry after him. Well Ino does while dragging Shikamaru who doesn't seem to care.
The man with a spike of silver hair speaks next, "Team 8 you're with me, you have five minutes to get to the roof, if you're late by a single second you'll all be punished." The man disappears in a poof of smoke. The team scrambles after the man not eager to find out their punishment for being late.
The woman speaks to the three remaining kids. "Well I guess we can stay right here, I'm going to be the sensei of Team 7. So why don't you introduce yourselves to me. Just state what you like and dislike, along with your hopes for the future. I don't need a report on your skills, I'll be testing that later. Oh and I guess you should state your name, just because I feel like it." She also had already read the report on the three of them so she wasn't ignorant, it's why she campaigned for them to begin with. She gestured to Sasuke to begin, figuring she'd start from left to right.
"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I like tomatoes, and I dislike most other things, I will kill a certain man and restore my clan." It was simple, that's about it. He had something he will do, and he couldn't rest until he did so. The woman gestures to the redhead sitting in the middle.
"I'm Uzumaki Haruka and I love Hina-chan and ramen, I also like gardening and rabbits." She had never understood the fondness for rabbits but she just couldn't help it. "I don't like people who hurt me, or mock my relationship with Hina-chan. I want to be able to protect Hina-chan and one day make her my wife!" Hinata speaks up after that.
"I'm not going to be your wife, you're going to be mine."
"What's the difference?"
"You'll marry into my family and not the other way around."
"But what if I want to restart the Uzumaki clan?"
"We're both girls, we can't have kids together. I know you know that, and do you really care about restarting the clan?"
"Not really, but I still don't get why you can't be my wife while I'm yours."
"Think about it this way, when we get married someday I'm going to fill the role a husband would traditionally fulfill."
"Do you want me to be a housewife? Or is this a subtle way to try and tell me you wish you were born a man?"
"You're cooking is great and while I think I would love to always have you around the house, you would go stir crazy if you had to be in the house most the day. I'm going to make you my wife and I'll fulfill the role expected of a husband but you're already weird so you can be my weird wife. And no I'm perfectly happy being a woman." Haruka nods accepting that answer.
"You do realize you're just as weird as me if not more so, so I think we'd have a weird marriage too."
The other two members of the team are just silently watching the two girls go back and fourth and the red eyed woman begins to understand how their relationship works. She coughs politely to get the girls to stop.
"Oh right, well I'm Hyuuga Hinata and I like my family, flower pressing and flower arrangement, along cinnamon buns. I love Haru-chan the most. I don't like people who mock Haru-chan or our relationship, nor do I like my families caged bird seal. I'm going to be head of the Hyuuga clan and as stated earlier I'm going to take Haru-chan as my wife."
The jonin speaks up, "I don't really mind but aren't you two a little young to be thinking about marriage?"
"Not really, according to Kaa-chan she had thought about marrying Otou-sama only a month into dating, even if it actually took them five years to get married. Just because we're thinking about it and talk to each other about it doesn't mean we're going to go turn in the form right this instant." Haruka nods and adds.
"Not to mention we are legally adults now and could get married if we so chose, and we love each other. So is it really that weird to think about it?"
The older woman speaks up. "No I guess not when you put it like that, I was really more curious to see how you'd defend yourselves. Most young couples in love simply say they will never break up and that it's meant to be."
Sasuke finally speaks again, bored by the conversation about his teammates's relationship, and said, "Sensei, you never introduced yourself to us."
"Oh I'm aware I was just waiting to see if any of you would ask. I'm Yuuhi Kurenai, I'm an elite jonin. I enjoy spending time with my friends and practicing Genjutsu." Haruka's eyes light up hearing that. Good that's the kind of reaction she wanted to see, she wouldn't have bothered to mentioning her skill in the art otherwise. "I dislike shinobi who look down on women and homophobes."
"Oh Sensei, are you gay too?" It was Hinata who spoke up here.
"No but one my closest friends is dating my best friend and both are women. Fortunately it's not an issue in most shinobi villages and in some capitals, but outside the village you two will find a lot more resistance to your relationship, as do most shinobi and gay people unfortunately." Having answered the question she continues. "I've already accomplished my goal in becoming an elite jonin so my current hope for the future is to turn you three into formidable ninja and an unstoppable team."
Sasuke speaks next. "It never really got explained in the academy. What exactly are the requirements to becoming an elite jonin?"
"An elite jonin must have at least jonin level proficiency in six ninja arts, three of which must be the three core ninja arts. Beyond all that they must also have an S-rank mastery in at least one ninja art of their choosing. Generally an elite jonin ranges in strength from high A-rank to anywhere in the S-ranks."
A certain redhead speaks next. "So what are you S-ranked in? And what about your other three ninja arts?"
Kurenai chuckles and said, "That's something I'm not going to tell you yet. Because you three, are not really genin yet."
"So there is some kind of extra test then?"
"Exactly right Hinata, I'm going to test you three tomorrow to see if you are worthy of being trained by me. If you fail you three will be sent to the reserves and will be forever locked out of becoming jounin, and will only be allowed to reach the rank of chuunin through field promotion. And if you really fail I might just kick you out of the program." She wouldn't, the kids were way too strong to be set loose, no at worst they'd be sent to the reserves. Looking at their faces she can see her scare tactic isn't really working.
"When will we be meeting tomorrow?" The raven haired boy asks.
"Be at training ground 14 at 8am if any of you are late by even a minute you will all fail. Konoha does not need ninja who are incapable of arriving on time. I'd recommend you don't eat tomorrow, wouldn't want you to throw up." And with that the woman was gone.
"We're eating right?" Hinata didn't really need to ask but she would anyways, if only for her males teammates sake
"Oh yeah for sure." Haruka had starved once and she never wanted to do anything resembling it again. It's part of the reason she learned to cook. Not because she's apparently going to become Hinata's wife (she still doesn't see why the way they say it matters), but because after having had to eat trash at one point just to survive and going days without food as well, she would go out of her way to make sure she eats things that taste better regularly.
"Didn't Kurenai-sensei just tell us not to eat?"
"No she recommended it, she had intentionally been dropping hints that entire conversation about what to expect. Iruka did too." The white eyed girl had picked up on a few things.
"Like what?"
"She already told us her S-rank specialty is Genjutsu, by saying she likes practicing it in particular. Iruka had told us genin teams are always made of three genin and one jounin, and when Kurenai said we would all fail if one of us is late she reaffirmed that. Whatever it is we either all pass or all fail. She also stated her goal is to make us formidable ninja which implies she wants us to pass so she can train us."
"She also gave us ammo to distract her with."
"What do you mean Haru-chan?"
"She said she dislikes homophobes and sexists right? Well what if we have Sasuke just act like he's both. If we all pass or fail together then the test will require teamwork right? Not to mention she said she wants to make us stronger as a team than we would be individually." That's why she said unstoppable as a team and formidable alone. "So we'll likely be fighting her to some effect, she had intentionally left out most her skills so she can surprise us with them. So I figure if we have Sasuke bait out a negative reaction we could sneak attack her while she's distracted."
Sasuke speaks up now, understanding how they're thinking things through. "She also told us the training ground and then left before it's even noon. We could likely have tested today, it's not like we did anything strenuous so it's likely a chance for us to set up traps in the training ground." The two girls nod at his logic. Then they all smile, a plans coming together.
Kurenai was impressed, she hadn't moved from her spot, merely casting an invisibility Genjutsu to make it seem like she left quickly. The kids easily worked out a lot of what the conversation had hidden within. Of course she'd have to teach them to scan their surroundings first before talking about their plans, they have a Byakugan user right there and didn't even think to check, but that can be forgiven. They are still inexperienced genin, and haven't had time to learn that lesson yet. Hopefully she can drill it into their heads before they have to learn it the hard way.
If their showing tomorrow is even half as good as this though she's confident they'll pass with flying colors. She smiles as the three kids leave to go set their traps. She'd let them set them up without her spying. If only to positively reinforce the good thinking. If she knew where all of them were, it might send the message that traps and preparation aren't useful.
Yes she was looking forward to this team, She definitely lucked out that the Hokage chose her over Kakashi.