Hello, this is my first story, so I'm very excited to be posting it! Thank you for reading, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Chapter 1: The First Meeting

Naruto leaned against the bridge and sighed, his team nowhere in sight. Today was Team 7's first day of missions. One word: D-ranks… After a mission where Kakashi-sensei did nothing but giggle perversely while reading his book, Sakura-chan ignored him the whole time, and Sasuke pretended that his team didn't exist, it was no wonder Naruto felt down. He stood alone on the bridge after the mission watching the water ripple. Kakashi shunshined away the minute the mission finished and both Sakura and Sasuke refused to go out for lunch together. "Well, it could've been worse," he muttered.

Meanwhile, Team 10 walked down the path leading into the village.

"And there was so much mud! I think I got some in my hair. It's going to take days for it to wash out and-Shika! Are you listening to me?" Ino ranted.

"Troublesome" Shikamaru groaned, tired of listening to Ino's ranting. Stretching his hands above his head, he searched for a distraction. There! In the corner of his eye he saw Naruto on the bridge. "Naruto! Why don't you join us for lunch? We're going to Ichiraku's, my treat!" Shikamaru practically shouted, hoping to throw Ino off his back.

"Huh, wha- Shikamaru?" Naruto asked confused.

"We'll talk while we eat, come on!" Shikamaru nearly dragged Naruto away from the bridge with Choji to avoid Ino's complaints.

"Great idea, Shikamaru! Nauto-baka, next time you should bring your team. Actually, just bring Sasuke. No one needs Forehead anyways!" Ino's eyes fired up, making the three boys look away with sweat-drops. Wow that's new, they all agreed.

"So, Ichiraku's?" Naruto wondered while trying to tug his hand away from Shikamaru's surprisingly iron tight grip.

"Ya, we're meeting up with Team 8 there to talk about the genin exams and our first mission," Choji said between munching his chips.

"Sounds fun!" Naruto replied while rubbing the wrist Shikamaru had finally let go of.

"We were going to invite your team too, but we never could find you guys. We're thinking of making it a weekly thing to hang out," Choji explained as he held the door to Ichiraku's open for Ino.

They were walking into the restaurant when they heard someone behind them say, "It is indeed beneficial to get to know each other as our three teams were the only ones to pass. As we are the same age, we will most likely be working together." The hooded figure then nodded towards Shikamaru and announced, "We are here, Shikamaru."

"Woah!" Naruto jumped and turned around to see Shino standing right next to him. "Don't do that!" He squeaked while standing with his hand over his rapidly fluttering heart.

"Yo! Naruto you're here too? We couldn't find any of your teammates on our way here, but that's probably a good thing. Sakura's loud and no one likes Sasuke anyways" Kiba smirked at Naruto's misfortune of being placed on that team.

"Hey take that back dog-face!" Ino swelled up in defense of her precious Sasuke.

Naruto ignored Ino's rebuttal and replied, "Yeah, they left right after the mission was done. I'll ask them if they want to come next week." He sat in the middle of the table with Choji and Shikamaru on his right, Kiba and Shino on his left, leaving Ino and Hinata to be across from him. "Where's Akamaru?" He asked absently while playing with the menu.

"He's getting a checkup so I couldn't bring him on the mission today." Kiba muttered over the top of his menu. Naruto nodded at him while looking around the table. He wanted to ask the others how their tests went, but was interrupted by Ayame's arrival.

"So…" He started after everyone ordered. "How were your guys' genin exams? Kakashi-sensei was 3 hours late and said he hated us. Then he made us introduce ourselves and told us that almost everyone fails a super hard survival test and to not eat breakfast or else we'd throw up! But he came super late so we were starving! Did you guys do the bell test too?" Naruto asked while taking the bowls of ramen from the counter and passing them around the table. No one could make ramen as fast as Teuchi could at Ichiraku's. He hummed as he savored his first bowl of ramen.

"Ano… Kurenai-sensei had lunch with us and we got to know each other." Hinata shyly twirled her fingers together and stared at her bowl of Miso Ramen.

"Mmmhmmm!" Kiba agreed with his mouth full. He swallowed and spoke, "The next day we met up and she made us track her through the village which was our test. Shino already put a bug on her and Akamaru followed her perfume so it wasn't too hard. Hinata was great! She used her Byakugan to find Kurenai-sensei in the hedges!"

"Yes. Hinata contributed greatly to our efforts of spotting Kurenai-sensei. Her skill-set complimented ours to make a tracking-and-sensing team." Shino added as he cracked apart his chopsticks.

"Baka-kugan? What's that?" Naruto paused between inhaling a bowl of ramen to ask.

"Naruto-baka! How can you not know what that is! It's one of the top eye-bloodlines in Konoha! Hinata is part of the Hyuuga Clan which uses the Byakugan! It can see through everything and in all directions." Ino sniffed at Naruto and used a napkin to dab at her face.

"Woah Hinata! That's so cool! You have x-ray vision! Can you see through clothes?" Naruto looked at Hinata with stars in his eyes imagining all the new Sexy Jutsus he could make.

"Eeep!" Hinata blushed bright red and dropped her chopsticks.

"Naruto! You pervert! You can't ask girls those questions!" Ino reproached and smacked the back of Naruto's head.

"Ow! Ok, sheesh…" He muttered and rubbed the back of his head. "Anyways, so your test was about teamwork too? Kakashi-sensei told us that the genin test was about working as a team but he tried to trick us by using only two bells! Yours sounds way easier!" Naruto pouted.

"Yes, all the genin tests are about teamwork in some way. This is Konoha after all, and we are known for having three-man teams," Shikamaru yawned and lazily looked at Naruto. "Our test wasn't too hard either."

"Speak for yourself, Shikamaru! Asuma-sensei is just as lazy as you! He gave us the names of a villagers and we had to find out everything we could about them in an hour, while he sat there and watched us. We had to follow them around the village and listen to them buy groceries and talk about their lives. They didn't even have any good gossip. It was so boring! But we got Asuma-sensei back for the test! We made him pay for our lunch and you know how much Choji can eat." Ino smirked wickedly remembering how pale Asuma was when he had to pay for their meal.

Naruto winced, "Ouch! His paycheck down the drain…"

Choji grinned conspiratorially at him, "Yes, well, he did offer to pay."

"Still…"

"Anyways," Shikamaru interrupted. "It makes sense in a way. Team 8 is a tracking team so they had to find their sensei. We're a capture-and-interrogate team, so we had to investigate people. Team 7 is a combat team, so I'm guessing you had to fight someone?" He raised an eyebrow at Naruto questioningly.

"Sort of. We fought Kakashi-sensei to get the two bells he had. But Kakashi-sensei was too good. I tried to hit him with my clones but he popped them all while he read his perverted book! Then he sent me flying with his Thousand-Years-of-Death and left." Naruto winced feeling phantom pains pulsing in his backside.

"Wait, since when can you make a clone?" Kiba groused as he tried eating a slippery meat piece.

"Since I got my headband dog-breath!" Naruto scowled and threw a napkin at him.

"How'd you get a headband anyways? Didn't you fail the test?" Ino asked suspicious.

"I just did," Naruto answered hurriedly, reluctant to bring up what happened with Mizuki. "Anyways, Sakura-chan was trapped in a genjutsu and when I woke her up she screamed about Sasuke and ran away. I was going to follow her but I got stuck in a trap. Sasuke fought with Kakashi-sensei and was buried in the ground to his head," Naruto grinned, remembering how Sasuke looked when trapped in the ground. He continued, "Then the timer went off and it was too late to get any bells."

"You guys failed your test?" Shikamaru asked as he blocked Choji's wandering chopsticks from his plate.

"Nah, it wasn't the real test. Kakashi-sensei then tied me to the pole and told everyone that we should go back to the academy and not to feed me. But Sasuke and Sakura-chan fed me anyways so we passed! Kakashi-sensei then told us that if we don't follow the rules we're trash, but if we leave a teammate behind we're worse than trash!" He finished proudly with his chest puffed up.

There was silence for some time and then Kiba grinned at Naruto. "So… How long were you tied to that pole for?" he snickered.

Naruto sweated a little. "Well… Kakashi-sensei is a jounin even though he's a pervert. And, he can tie ropes really tightly…"

"Wait," Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. "Did they just leave you there?"

Naruto shifted and looked away, "I think they forgot I was still tied to the pole. I mean we were all so happy we passed the test…" Kiba inhaled sharply. What kind of team leaves one of their own behind? Hinata and Choji were just staring at Naruto while Shino's bugs were buzzing agitatedly. Even Ino had some pity in her eyes. Poor Naruto. "I mean, I got down eventually. The villagers…helped me down after some time." He shrugged his shoulders as if saying, what can you do?

"And when exactly, did the villagers help you down?" Shikamaru asked trying to keep his temper down. How could they just leave him there?

Naruto scrunched up his face trying to remember, "I don't know exactly how long it was, but I remember seeing Kiba later that day so it couldn't have been too long."

Kiba looked stricken, "Naruto, that was three days after we met our senseis. You were there for two whole days!" His eyes widened in recognition, "And I remember that day, you were limping and bleeding! You said it was from training too hard!"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and muttered, "It didn't feel that long." He felt weird that everyone was watching him with a strange look in their eyes. Is that…concern? Strange, I thought only Iruka-sensei or Jiji get worried like that. "I must've remembered the day wrong or something…" He said trying and failing to look convincing, but no one fell for it. "So, how did you guys spend the week? Any training? How was your first mission?" He tried changing the topic.

Ino opened her mouth to call him out on it, when she saw Naruto's pleading eyes. She closed it and switched topics, "Asuma-sensei tested our chakra affinities so we'd be ready for them later on."

"Catra affinities? What are those?" Naruto asked while shooting a small smile at Ino.

"Arghh! Naruto, it's chakra! How did you even pass the test if you don't even know that?" Ino ranted ruining the tense atmosphere. "They're Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, Lightning, and a few other uncommon ones. Choji and Shika have Earth and Fire, while I have Earth and Water."

"Kurenai-sensei says we'll check our next week," Hinata shyly said.

"Wow! How do you check what you have? Kakashi-sensei hasn't even mentioned anything about that yet!" Naruto's eyes sparkled imagining himself shooting lightning out of his eyes like laser beams.

"Do you want to check yours?" Ino asked gently, still feeling some pity towards Naruto. "I think I still have a sheet of chakra paper leftover and Team 8 is going to find out next week anyways." She shifted few things around in her pouch and took out a small square of white paper.

"Yeah thanks Ino!" Naruto chirped in joy. "So, how do you do this?" He fingered the square of paper.

"Just channel some chakra into the paper and it'll show you what you have," Ino explained patiently.

"How do you channel catra-I mean chakra?" Naruto tilted his head to the side clueless.

Shikamaru groaned and put his head on the table, "Just put some chakra on the paper."

"Ok! Why didn't you just say that?" Naruto mumbled.

Ino facepalmed and muttered, "I'm surrounded by idiots!" Naruto focused his chakra on the paper and it split down the middle.

"That's rare," Shikamaru remarked. He noticed everyone looking at him confused. "To have Wind Release, I mean. Asuma-sensei and I think the fourth Hokage had it too." He clarified.

"Yatta! I'm going to become Hokage with my cool new Wind Release! I'll blow everyone away," Naruto bellowed and struck a good-guy pose.

"Idiot! You have to first learn chakra control if you want to even use your Wind Release!" Ino admonished Naruto who sat back down with a pout.

"How do I do that?"

"You could do the leaf sticking exercise or climb trees. I think it's too soon for water walking for you," Shikamaru drawled.

"But leaf sticking doesn't work, all the leaves just blow up, and why would climbing a tree help?" Naruto whined while looking at Shikamaru.

He huffed and said, "Then use more leaves all over your body and slowly use less until you can make five leaves stick to all your fingertips. Tree walking is when you use chakra on your feet to stick to the tree."

"Kurenai-sensei never mentioned tree walking to us!" Kiba pouted too.

"Probably because neither of you are ready for it yet," Shikamaru dryly responded.

"Yeah? Well I'm going to go train now and make the leaves stick to my fingers by next week! You'll see!" Naruto yelled and jumped out of his seat. "I'm going to go train now! See you guys next week here after missions for lunch! Thanks for the ramen, Shikamaru! Bye!" Naruto waved and rushed out of the restaurant heading for the training grounds.

"Wait, Naruto-" Shikamaru began only to be cut off by Kiba.

"Ya, see you later Shika, Choji…Ino. I'm going to go train too! I can't let Naruto beat me!" Kiba threw his money on the table and rushed out too.

"Wait, Kiba…Urghhh, never mind," Shikamaru groaned and sank further into his seat.

"Sorry Shikamaru, but we better go and keep track of our teammate. Here is my share of the bill. Thank you for the invitation. Come on, Hinata. I've already bugged Kiba so we can easily find him." Shino too rose and left the restaurant.

Hinata got up and bowed to Team 10 and said softly, "Thank you for inviting my team and I. We shall be here next week, until then." She left her money on the table and briskly left the restaurant too.

"What were you about to say to Naruto and Kiba?" Choji asked watching Shikamaru.

"Nothing much, just that it would take several months of practice before they'll be able to spin leaves on their fingertips and that tree walking would probably take a year for them. Especially for Naruto because he couldn't even make a Bunshin. But it's too late for that for that now. I'll just tell them next week when they're disappointed." Ino started snickering. "What's with you?" He stared at her wondering if she had finally cracked.

"Oh nothing… Did you check the bill yet to see how much Naruto ate?" She crowed at him and gestured towards the table.

"No, let me see" he asked and Ino handed the bill over. Shikamaru paled as read under his breath, "12 bowls. How is that even possible? Even Choji only ate 6!" He slammed his head on the table groaning while Ino and Choji laughed at him. "I'm never treating him ever again. Never again!" He muttered viciously while his teammates only laughed harder.

All the way across the village, Naruto sneezed. "Someone must be talking about me…" he muttered. "Doesn't matter! I'll show them all I can do this in a week! I just have to work harder!" A lightbulb flickered in his head for a brief instant of time before dying out. "I know, I'll use shadow clones! Then I'll be training a million times!" Naruto exclaimed and started training again.

Normally, this wouldn't work, but this is Naruto, and he's anything but normal. He also has the healing powers of the Kyuubi, so it doesn't destroy his brain when absorbs hundreds of clones' memories. Instead, with each clone his brain slowly acclimates and becomes better able to assimilate larger amounts of data and forge faster connections. Naruto's memory, associations, and chakra control all improve with each clone. Within a week (and five hundred clones) Naruto spends about 20,000 hours alone on mastering the leaf-sticking chakra control exercise. This, considering Naruto's large amount of chakra, is just enough for him to move on to tree walking. Kiba, on the other hand, doesn't have this luxury, and can only wallow in despair as he tries and fails to stick more leaves to his fingertips.

Kiba sneezes and swears when his leaves fall off, "Damnit! I just got two leaves to stick, which isn't much better than the academy but still… Curse you, whoever's talking about me!"