After the teams were assigned, many jonin arrived one after another and took their teams away.
Although Sakura had been replaced by Hinata, Naruto was sure Kakashi's team wouldn't change. There weren't many jonin from the Hokage's faction, and most of the teams they needed to lead this time belonged to that faction. Other than Kakashi, Naruto couldn't think of anyone else who could lead them.
Whether it was Naruto Uzumaki's identity, Sasuke's, or Hinata's, all of them were important. If they weren't assigned a powerful ninja, not only would the Third Hokage refuse to agree, but Hyuga Hiashi wouldn't either.
Other teams were led away by their jonin instructors one after another. Before long, only Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata remained in the classroom.
Sasuke looked impatient.
Naruto chatted excitedly with Hinata.
"Naruto, who do you think our jonin instructor will be?"
"Doesn't matter who it is." He said it casually, though he already knew the answer.
After a while, Naruto began to grow impatient too. It was almost noon, and he was planning to celebrate with Hinata.
But when he thought about Kakashi's habit, he grew annoyed.
He vanished with the Body Flicker Technique and reappeared by the door.
"So fast. I still can't see him." Sasuke frowned. Though he'd seen it before, he still couldn't make out Naruto's movements.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" Hinata asked, puzzled.
"Giving the latecomer a little welcome gift." Naruto pulled out a bottle of ink and set a small trap by the door.
"He's a jonin. Do you really think he'll fall for a silly trick like that?" Sasuke looked at Naruto with disdain.
He was already annoyed with their jonin instructor, but he didn't think Naruto's little trick could fool a jonin. If he fell for it, he'd be a pretty pathetic jonin.
"We'll find out. It's not like it'll hurt anything." Naruto didn't care in the slightest.
"Naruto, I don't think this is a good idea." Hinata looked embarrassed.
"Don't worry."
The three of them sat there, watching the doorway expectantly.
After who knew how long, just as the three of them were getting impatient, the door opened. Kakashi had barely stepped inside when the bottle of ink hit him on the head, instantly dyeing his white hair black.
"How could this happen? A jonin fell for such a stupid trick? You've got to be kidding!" Sasuke was stunned.
Naruto smiled.
Hinata looked embarrassed.
Kakashi's fish-like eyes showed no emotion. He glanced at their faces and immediately figured out that Naruto had done it.
So this was the well-behaved kid the Third Hokage had told him about. He certainly didn't seem like it.
"Well, my impression of you just got a lot worse," Kakashi said.
"Let's go to the rooftop." With that, he vanished.
"Is he angry?" Hinata asked quietly.
"Don't worry. It'll be fine. Let's go!" Naruto said, heading for the rooftop.
The other two followed.
When they got up there, they saw Kakashi leaning casually against the railing. The ink on his head had disappeared, and he looked just as he had when he first came in.
"Let's introduce ourselves. I'll start. My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no hobbies, and there's nothing I like. Next." Kakashi spoke unhurriedly.
Naruto rolled his eyes. He'd known it would be something like that.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like training. My dream is to become Hokage. The thing I hate most is..." As he spoke, he couldn't help glancing at Sasuke.
Sasuke glared at Naruto.
"My name is Hinata Hyuga. I like training. There's nothing I hate. My dream is to keep up with Naruto." Hinata's face flushed red as she murmured softly. If the three of them hadn't been standing so close, they might not have heard her at all.
Hinata had wanted to say that she liked Naruto, but she just couldn't bring herself to. Her dream, both in the original story and now, was to keep up with Naruto. In the original story, she had even made Naruto's ninja way her own, and followed through on her words.
Naruto wasn't stupid. He knew Hinata didn't actually like training; she liked it because of him. But he didn't say anything. He only wanted her to train so she could protect herself, and he didn't want to put too much pressure on her.
The three of them couldn't help looking at Sasuke.
Sasuke's mouth twitched.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There's nothing I particularly like, and there are plenty of things I hate. Dreams don't matter. I have my own ambition: to restore the Uchiha Clan—and to kill that man." As he spoke of his ambition, a hint of killing intent flashed in his gloomy eyes.
Hinata looked confused. This was the first time she'd heard that Sasuke had such an ambition.
Kakashi and Naruto both knew who Sasuke meant, so neither asked.
"Ah, that's a fine ambition. All right, I've gotten to know you. You can go home now and get ready for tomorrow's first mission."
"Sensei, what kind of mission is it?"
Naruto was curious. Would this change too?
"Wilderness survival exercise."
"A wilderness survival exercise? We do those all the time at school. We've graduated, so is there any need to do another one?"
"This time is different. I'll be your opponent. I'll use the exercise to judge whether you're fit to be ninjas. If you fail, you'll be sent back to the Ninja Academy."
...The three of them were speechless.
"All right, the details are on this paper. Meet me at the training ground tomorrow. Also, don't eat breakfast tomorrow. You'll throw it up. See you then."
Kakashi finished speaking and vanished with the Body Flicker Technique.
The three of them looked at each other, frowning.
Hinata was the most worried. Now that she was finally on a team with Naruto, she didn't want to be sent back to school.
"You don't need to worry with me here."
Naruto noticed Hinata was worried and reassured her.
"We graduated today. Let's go celebrate." Naruto looked at the two of them. He was really inviting Sasuke.
"Okay." Sasuke thought it over and agreed. They'd known each other for so long but had never eaten together. Now that they were going to be teammates, they should work on getting along.
The three happily decided to go eat barbecue, but as soon as they entered the restaurant, their friends spotted them.
"Naruto, you're here for a team celebration too? Why don't you join us?" a cheerful voice called.
Naruto turned to look. They were all people he knew: Team 8, Team 9—in other words, Ino-Shika-Cho—and Kiba's team were all there.
When he saw Sakura there too, Naruto felt helpless. Hinata joining Team 8 had put Sakura in Team 8 instead. At least their jonin instructor was Kurenai Yuhi, a reliable jonin. And since she was Asuma's girlfriend, it was easy to imagine how well they were being treated. They'd only just met, and Asuma had already brought them along to eat together.
The one who'd spoken was Choji. The restaurant belonged to his family, and since he and Naruto were friends, Naruto smiled.
When Sakura heard Choji invite Naruto, her face brightened. Her gaze stayed fixed on Sasuke. Asuma and Kurenai exchanged a glance. They'd both been through it before and knew exactly what was going on.
"No thanks. We need to work on our team spirit, so we won't bother you." Naruto declined.