9 Teams

The morning sun leaks through the windows of our classroom, as the chatter of adolescent kids drone on. Naruto is sitting next to Sasuke and smiling gleefully to himself, and with that, I have a sigh of relief and struggle to stop smiling. And you know that is serious because I can usually control it very well.

But how can I not be happy?

My plan worked, I secretly took dozens of pictures while canon was happening in the background. Oh it was truly heartwarming with all the tears and flashbacks.

But c'mon, these jutsus are forbidden with a big F, I almost couldn't sleep last night anxious and excited.

I had to step up my Z mode to relax, and even so I'm very happy. Man I might have gone and broke down crying down in tears of happiness.

I can do it, I can do my plans, I can really survive.

I'm a bit further in seating than Naruto, chatting with some of my "friends" about how awesome the headband is or how they got a new shiny toy. It was painfully bland but I have to keep up pretenses. But even their unobservant eyes can see how happy I am.

But my happiness is broken by Naruto as he gets up on the table and glares at his "love rival". Ahh, I remember this, one of the most iconic scenes in Naruto. On the outside, i keep chatting with friends but on the inside, i have a massive stupid grin. It should come any second now. I get up and get ready In position

"Ah sorry guys, I need to talk to Abure, I'll be back soon"

"Kay"

"Leave Sasuke alone Naruto!"

"Yeah man, my parents bought me a new premium kunai set because of my graduation, I'v been asking for months now haha" One of my "friends" says with pride.

The kid next to him exclaims in surprise and tries to get up. But what he didn't know was that he pushed a certain someone into another certain someone.

"Ah sorry about that"

The classroom shrieks with horror (the girls) and laughter (the boys) as Naruto ends up kissing Sasuke on the lips. Over beside Naruto sits Sakura in shock. This was picture perfect, literally.

Nobody could hear the click of a camera in the corner, with all the ruckus that was happening no one really noticed it.

Except maybe Hinata

Hey I spent some premium Ryo for this bad boy, need some great uses for it you know. Maybe I could take this up as a hobby, food for thought.

But besides the point, this is premium black mail material, imagine in the future, I whip this out in front of Avenger Emo Sasuke, hah imagining it makes me almost laugh out loud, oh wait even better maybe I can show it to Itachi before that somehow.

I'm gonna copy this picture and treat it as a family heirloom to troll Sasuke and to a lesser extent Naruto.

Man imagine showing this to Boruto and Sarada somehow haha.

Wait oops, Iruka sensei came in.

I got to stop getting lost in my own monologues. It's going to get me in deep trouble someday. Besides that glorious scene, nothing interesting happens as he gives us some speech about Konoha, Will of Fire and the importance of improving ourselves.

Though I kind of glaze over all of this, I have mastered the art of zoning out while looking like i'm paying attention through my 6 long years of education.

Finally, Iruka sensei gets to the juicy part, the teams.

"Now you will soon receive missions to help the village." He looks at us intently

"So today we will create the three-man teams and each of you will have a Jounin sensei" Iruka sensei places importance on the word Jounin sensei.

I look around the classmate to see everyone's expressions, most of them are excited and a little bit confused. Though it seems like the clan heir kids knew beforehand so they seem composed. Of course, Kiba is an exception, he's celebrating.

I keep zoning out until my name is called out with two other names.

" Team six is... Hiro, Kenji Nagashi, Mioko Kyoko"

Now that grabs my attention, Kenji and Mioko huh? I mean there could have been worse people to be paired with I guess?

I locked eyes with the other two and they seemed to be thinking the same. I smile politely back at them, Kenji looks back but the. relents as he looks away quickly, Mioko smiles back but i can see it's fake.

Kids, I swear.

It's going to be a long year it seems.

Iruka sensei dismissed us and told us to come back during the afternoon to meet our Jounin sensei. It seems like it's for us to meet our new teammates and acquaint ourselves.

While I was thinking of how to talk to those two, Mioko came to me with a polite smile, and behind her trailing along was Kenji. I can guess who's the head of the operation here.

"Hello there Hiro, do you want to eat lunch together? Nagashi has already agreed, so we can go somewhere and chat. It'll be my treat" said Mikio with still her polite smile.

It actually made me laugh a bit inside when I saw how serious she was and how she tried to act mature by buying me food. Guess she must have seen her parents do this, twelve are year olds are so easy to read.

But on the outside, I replied with, "Really? Well don't mind if I do, I know this great ramen place. We should go there then."

Mioko replied with a sure thing and followed me along as I got up out of my seat. An interesting fact was that Kenji hasn't said anything yet. Well it is in character for him, I haven't seen him talk to a lot of kids, guess he must be shy, besides his face is a little red, Mioko is quite cute so that must have gotten to him.

While I was monologing inside, I was talking to my new teammates. Well Mioko specifically, Kenji didn't say much except when you directly asked him a question. And even then when he was talking to Mioko, he kept stumbling and was beet red.

I would bet my entire savings, which is not that much after the camera, that Mioko knows exactly what she's doing, guess I need to do some research after all.

We got to Ichirakis pretty fast, I was having my meal in full while Kenji and Mioko was more reserved. After a while, I started asking the real questions.

"So...why do you guys wanna be Shinobis? " I ask out of nowhere. Kenji chokes on his ramen while Mioko just stares at me in surprise. I had to break the ice, so far the only things we talked about were civilian related, not once did these two talk about shinobi related stuff.

We were just dancing around it. Well, Mioko and I were anyway, Kenji kept to himself but I can notice the way his eyes moved which indicated his clear thoughts, so he must have known deep down too.

Man, why did I get the smarter ones? People like Naruto would have been so much better. But alas I keep my smile up in silence.

Mioko replies first, "Well does that really matter Hiro? We all have our own reasons, don't we not?" with that polite smile on her face.

Ohohoh, playing the mystery game now are we? It seems like I can't underestimate these kids after all. Even Kenji seems to agree as he looks at me in silence. It seems like my two teammates aren't normal kids. But then again, who is.

"Well, we are going to be teammates, after all, I think it's important to know our comrades"

"While that is true, I think the question is a little bit abrupt and rude, at least to me that is"

And to my surprise, Kenji adds his own two-cent too.

"I don't think it really matters, what does matter is that we respect our boundaries" with a calm face. Earlier he was just blushing and being shy, but look at him now.

Now I'm really certain these two aren't normal, kids don't talk like that. I guess I must act as the glue in this team.

Then with a large smile, I say in a loud voice "Well we just have to get to know each other better right?" I wag my fingers at the two and point to myself "In that case, I'll start then."

"Hello, my name is Hiro, no last name,(though probably Uchiha) I'm 12 years old and I live in the orphanage, though I'm planning to move out soon. My interests are taijutsu and eating" I say with a dumb smile befitting a generic shounen protagonist like the orange idiot.

"What I don't like is studying, I just can't stand reading a book, it's just too boring, hehe," I say with another smile, that's a lie, I actually enjoy reading but I'm going deep undercover. The other two are looking at me as if I'm an idiot, that's what I'm going for. They did vaguely know me so this shouldnt be too out of character.

Since I didn't pay much attention to school due to excessive boredom, I realized being a brawn over brains guy would benefit me. Being a meathead would mean that people would underestimate me more, I mean who cares about that idiot in class right? It's not like he'll understand anything.

"Hiro, you don't have to do that. While Nagashi and I have different circumstances, we are glad to know each other in the future"

But these two are smart, not Shikimaru levels of smart, but smart enough to notice when things didn't fit. So I have to be honest, at least partially. So I would say my real goal, one which I haven't even muttered to myself in paranoia. But with the Hokage knowing my absurd thing I call training, I need to drop this bomb.

I dropped my smile and looked sharply, it seems like these two noticed cause they went quiet and looked at me seriously.

"And there is only one goal in my life...and that is to survive," I say with a seriousness that didn't match my previous aura. These two looked confused about what I meant. I explained further.

"I know I'm not that smart nor sharp. I can't read a book for the life of me, and I don't study much. But there is one thing I know, and that is that this world is harsh." These two look quite uncomfortable. Time for the final attack.

While these two were still confused, I said my ultimate attack, guilt.

"I know this world isn't nice, I know there are bad people out there, The-" Mioko interrupts me with her own reason.

"Hiro… I didn't mean to-"

"As I was saying, I know this world has terrible things in it, my parents were taken away by that nine-tailed demon," I say with as much malice as possible. From the two pale faces, it seems like it worked well.

"So it is my only plan to survive in this world because I have seen that people are insignificant as ants to these monsters and demons. So I ask you two, will you two lend me your strength so that we can survive in this cruel world?"

I look at them with the most sincere gaze I can muster. It will be fate if they don't accept it after my heartfelt speech that I just made up. If this doesn't work, I'll have to resort to Plan B, though I don't really want to...

'So...what will you do'

It seems like these two are still shocked at my bold declaration, it's natural after all. We were just strangers in our class, we knew each other existed but nothing too deep. I hope they can make the right choice in the end.

"I..." It seems like Mioko is still hesitating here.

"I'll help you, Hiro. I know how you feel," Kenji said, short and simple.

It was Mioko and my turn to look at him in confusion, Well I was hiding it under a warm smile but it still stands. He was a straightforward guy, no-nonsense, I like that.

Mioko sighed in exasperation as she gave a defeated smile and nodded slightly.

Great, now I only have the exam to worry about. Maybe we should plan for tomorrow right now.

But at least I'm one step closer to my goal.

Which is world dominance, mwahahaha...I need a hobby.