20 Chapter no.20 Plan

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All three of them looked at each other before Ino spoke up, "Which one of us?"

Asuma smirked, "That's up to all of you. I don't know the first thing about either one of you so how would I know? All I know is that I don't want any weak little tag-along. I want the best."

Ino smirked back at him and flipped her ponytail back, "Well I can tell you that I am the best. My Academy grades were twice as good as both of theirs were, probably combined."

"Yeah…" Asuma said dryly, "That doesn't really mean a damn thing to me. You could pass with flying colors and still be shit for a shinobi, just like you could have barely graduated by the skin of your teeth and wind up being the best there ever was. What happened there doesn't mean anything to me now."

Ino shirked back at that. Naruto spoke next, "So… what happens now?"

Asuma started walking away, "Meet me back here in three hours. In that time I'll come up with a way to determine which out of all of you is worth being a genin." With that he vanished from the training field in a whirlwind of leaves, leaving three bewildered youngsters on their own.

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[Meanwhile – Konohagakure Ninja Academy]

The only team still remaining in the room was the group of Team 7, who were getting increasingly agitated by the wait for their sensei. Sasuke and Sakura were absurdly bored and could have actually been doing stuff with their time, and Chouji was running out of food to munch on this guy was taking so long.

The door finally slid open, "Sorry I'm late, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around to get here." A man with gravity defying silver hair in regular jounin garb and a facemask with his headband covering one eye stuck his head in the door with an expression that appeared to be him smiling. He opened his one eye and looked at the three with a bored expression on his face, "Hmm, my first impression of this group: You all are not quite what I was expecting. Meet me on the roof in five minutes." With that he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The faces upon hearing his lame excuse twisted in confusion once they processed his later words. Sakura looked at both of her teammates, "What did he mean we're not what he expected?"

Chouji simply shrugged before Sasuke stood up, "Hm." Sasuke said before putting his hands in his pockets, "Let's just go." Chouji nodded and put up his snacks before following Sasuke out while Sakura sat there, still puzzled at her new sensei's first words to the team.

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"What the hell?" Naruto wondered as he walked the streets by himself to wait out Asuma's timeframe, "Did this kind of thing happen to Shiho-chan? Did her jounin sensei not want to do this either and just got rid of the whole team because they could? I can't let it end like this! I can't just go back to the Academy because of this!'

Naruto clinched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white, 'Maybe… Maybe he'll take me as his apprentice. Maybe if I show I'm more awesome than the others he'll take me as a student? He has to! It's my only chance! But how am I supposed to prove it?'

Naruto kept walking for a moment before he steeled his eyes and headed back towards the training field they had met with Asuma on.

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Naruto returned to the field to find Ino and Shikamaru already there, the former glaring at the latter as he sat against a tree with his eyes closed, "Naruto." Shikamaru said before yawning, "We've been waiting on you to show up."

Naruto gulped before he began walking towards the tree, "Yeah. I'm here." He looked from Shikamaru to Ino who was splitting her time from glaring at Shikamaru to glaring at Naruto, "I thought I'd get here early and get some time to think before everyone else showed up… I guess that plan was good enough for everybody to use too huh?"

Shikamaru shrugged, "Well I never really left. I just waited until you guys all did and then I came back. This is a good spot. Ino stomped back here a few minutes before you did actually."

"So how are we going to do this?" Naruto asked more to himself than to anyone else as he made his way under the tree with the others, but Ino heard and picked up on it.

"There's no way I'm going back to the Academy now. Not after all I've done to get out of there. If this is how it's got to be, then I'm not just letting this pass me by." Ino said, voice full of determination, "So if I have to prove it, I will."

"No you're not." Shikamaru said, his voice having lost the disinterested tone from before to take on a more hardened one that showed he was actually serious, "Neither of you are actually." He said, directing his gaze to Naruto to make sure he got the message.

Ino smirked, "So what are you going to do? Beat us both and take it for yourself Shikamaru? That seems like too much work for someone like you."

Naruto tensed up his muscles and spoke animatedly, "I'm not going to fail, I can't. Not now, not after all of this, dattebayo! I won't go back! If I have to fight you guys I will!"

Shikamaru stood up from his spot on the tree, "Well you see, no one's going to be fighting anyone at all." He made a gesture of antlers on the top of his head and let a smile cross his face when he saw Naruto and Ino mimic his action, "Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Possession Jutsu) complete."

Ino's eyes had panic in them, "What is this Shikamaru?" She said frantically.

Naruto struggled but couldn't move an inch, "I… can't move."

Shikamaru put his hands down, "This is my jutsu, now listen up. We're not going to be fighting. None of us are. Why would they give that guy a team if he could just fail us for something stupid like 'he didn't want a team?' Just because he has tenure or something doesn't mean he can just ruin someone's career before they even start."

"But what if he can?" Ino said, "I can't fail. My entire family would be totally ashamed of me."

Naruto's eyes widened, "He never said he would flat out fail us though! He said he would give us an exam we couldn't pass, but he didn't say anything about failing anyone just like that!"

"Exactly." Shikamaru said, smiling at Naruto for pulling that answer out, "So, as troublesome as it is, all we have to do is pass his exam and that should be that."

Ino wasn't convinced, "But what if we can't? He said that a jounin would have trouble with what he was going to end up making us do. How can you be so sure we'll get through it?"

Shikamaru let go of his jutsu, "Because there are three of us. A single jounin might have trouble with whatever he makes us do, but three of us can more than likely handle anything he'll make us do." He kept looking between them in case anyone planned on attacking anyway, but calmed down when no one did after a minute.

"Okay." Naruto finally said, "We're Team 10 aren't we?" Naruto said with a slight laugh, "We're not supposed to be fighting anyway, and Shikamaru's right, we can take whatever that chain smoking teme has planned for us."

Ino sighed in resignation, "Alright sure… we'll work together, but if we end up all being sent back to the Academy for this I'm going to spend the next year making your lives a living hell. Got that?" Her tough façade dropped as she slinked down against the tree that Shikamaru had been sitting against for the longest time, "So what are we going to do?"

Shikamaru kneeled down in the shade of the tree in a weird position with his hands forming a circle with his fingers with his eyes closed. Naruto and Ino looked at him strangely before looking at each other. Naruto whispered to his fellow blonde loudly, "What is he doing?"

Ino shook her head, "I don't have a clue. Just wait."

Naruto's whispers grew harsher, "We don't have time to wait! That Asuma guy is going to be here in ten minutes, he's a jounin, and he's Hokage-jiji's son. That has to mean he's strong as hell!"

"Well what do you want me to do?" Ino whispered back just as harshly, still trying to whisper though so as not to disturb whatever Shikamaru was doing, "I don't know the first thing about the guy! Or any of you for that matter!"

"Oh man!" Naruto continued to whisper as he moved around in place nervously, "We're going to get our asses killed by this guy and then we're going to go back to the Academy, and I'm going to have to sit through those boring lectures for another year! I don't think I can do it!"

Ino started crying anime tears, "I don't either! I can't be the only one of my friends this year to go back to the Academy, that's a popularity killer for sure! I'll be a social untouchable Naruto, just like you! …No offense."

"No, I don't blame you!" Naruto said, crying just as equally as Ino was, "I wouldn't want that either, and if that would happen to you what would happen to me? I don't think I can sink much lower Ino and I don't feel like finding out if I can either!"

"What are we going to do Naruto?" Ino grabbed the collar of his jacket tightly.

"I don't know!" Naruto replied just as desperately. Both of them hugged the other and started sobbing loudly.

Shikamaru's eyes opened up, "Alright I have a plan." He almost had his eyes bug out of his head when he noticed Ino and Naruto holding each other and crying inconsolably, "Guys." Shikamaru said, not getting a single response from them, "Guys." He said a bit louder before muttering troublesome and trying again, "Guys!"

Naruto and Ino noticed he was finally back to paying attention and proceeded to let go of each other nonchalantly as if nothing had happened. Shikamaru stood up, "Alright, if we're going to do this then we need to know what the others are good at, so I'll go first. I'm not really much for fighting, I'd rather sleep or play shogi than do something so troublesome but if I had to I would say that my best thing is-."