Team 7 Takes Shape

By the time Naruto woke up, it was already four in the afternoon.

Once a person was awake, they got hungry.

Naruto had not eaten lunch to begin with. He had gone home and immediately fallen asleep.

He bought a box of red bean dumplings from a food stall and slowly made his way toward the Ninja Academy as he ate.

When he entered the classroom, Hatake Kakashi still had not arrived, just as Naruto had expected.

The other graduates had long since been taken away by their respective Jōnin instructors. Only Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha remained in the once-lively classroom.

Hearing the door open, Sakura and Sasuke both looked over.

"...Naruto."

"Hmph."

The one who opened the door was not the Jōnin teacher they had expected, and Sakura and Sasuke's reactions were quite interesting.

Sakura greeted him softly. Perhaps because Naruto had rejected her at noon, she lowered her head after greeting him, not daring to meet his eyes.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was his usual self, giving a cool "hmph."

"Yo, good afternoon!"

Naruto returned the greeting.

There happened to be two dumplings left in the box, so he offered it to Sasuke first.

Sasuke glanced at the dumplings, then at Naruto. "I don't eat sweets."

Naruto seemed to recall that being the case.

He shrugged and held the box out to Sakura. "Want one, Sakura?"

"Sakura?"

Sakura Haruno was surprised by the way Naruto addressed her.

"You don't like me calling you that? Then I'll call you Haruno."

"No, it's not that. I was just surprised that you'd call me that, Naruto."

Sakura hurriedly stopped Naruto from changing how he addressed her and reached out to take a dumpling.

She had thought her relationship with Naruto was not very good.

That was just how young girls were.

Earlier, Naruto had rejected her invitation to get to know each other as teammates, and she had immediately begun overthinking everything, worrying over every little thing.

Then again, among the three members of Team 7, Sakura was the only one who actually matched his age.

There was no need to mention Naruto himself.

Sasuke might have been a little chuunibyou at this point, but the tragedy he had suffered was very real.

Naruto stuffed the last dumpling into his mouth.

Next time, half a box will be enough—

—when Sasuke questioned him.

"Why are you late?"

Sasuke stared straight at Naruto.

Naruto leisurely swallowed the dumpling in his mouth, his tone slightly flippant. "The Jōnin teacher in charge of us hasn't even arrived yet."

"You sound certain the Jōnin teacher will be late. What if he isn't? What would you do then?"

"Y-you two, don't fight..."

Sakura nervously stood up, doing her best to mediate the strange tension between Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other. After a moment of silence, Naruto spoke. "Sorry. It won't happen again."

He was not going to argue with a kid.

He had slept soundly from noon until the afternoon.

So what did it matter if he apologized? Apologies were cheap, anyway.

Both Sakura and Sasuke froze upon hearing Naruto's apology.

When had that gloomy, vicious Naruto, who always kept everyone at arm's length, suddenly disappeared?

Probably two years ago...

"You really have changed a lot, Naruto."

Sasuke could not help voicing what was on his mind.

Sakura, beside him, felt the same way.

Naruto merely smiled and said nothing.

For Sasuke to act like this now meant that although he hid pain and hatred in his heart, he was still moving forward with hope and expectations for the future.

He called the other two members of a three-man ninja team dead weight, but he would never lack the concern he ought to have.

Sasuke changed later, during the Chunin Ninja Exams.

He encountered a group of powerful opponents his own age and realized he was not the one-of-a-kind genius he had believed himself to be.

Naruto's rapid growth also made Sasuke question the pace of his own progress for the first time.

Then Itachi Uchiha appeared in Konoha.

That only worsened Sasuke's awareness of the brutal reality he lived in.

And so he left Konoha.

If Naruto started now and kept guiding him down a path toward the light—

Then kind-hearted Sasuke probably would not be provoked by seeing Itachi and so easily deceived into leaving with Orochimaru.

After all, in the original story, Kakashi had nearly talked Sasuke out of revenge with just a few words, leaving him to ponder it in a tree for an entire day.

However...

Naruto had no intention of doing that.

After the Chunin Ninja Exams, the Sound Four would take Sasuke out of the village.

That was the best possible opportunity for Naruto to defect, according to his own plans.

What was the point of leaving Sasuke in the village before dealing with Danzo? So Danzo could dig out his eyes?

It was better to let Sasuke follow the same path as in the original story. When the time came, Naruto might not even need to deal with Danzo himself.

Naruto had already witnessed Shisui Uchiha's Sharingan two years ago.

For now, Naruto had no means of dealing with it.

He might as well leave it to Sasuke. After all, the best way to counter the Sharingan was with another Sharingan.

"I'm terribly sorry. On my way here, I ran into a pregnant cat and helped deliver her kittens."

The silence among the three was broken by a fourth voice.

A ninja in his twenties entered the classroom, wearing Konoha's green ninja flak jacket, with long silver hair, a black mask, and his left eye hidden beneath his forehead protector.

Hatake Kakashi, an elite even among Konoha's Jōnin.

Naruto had already met him on the night of the Scroll of Seals incident.

Yet Kakashi's opening line received no response from Naruto, Sakura, or Sasuke.

"Hmm—"

Kakashi rubbed his chin and gave his first impression of the three. "You're all pretty unlikeable!"

"..."

Coming from someone who had been hours late, it really felt like taking a loss without being able to say anything back.

The Ninja Academy rooftop.

Kakashi sat on the rooftop railing and began the meeting that was several hours late with the rest of Team 7.

"Give me a simple introduction so I can get to know you."

Kakashi said, "Things you like, things you dislike, hobbies, and dreams."

"I'll demonstrate first."

Kakashi looked at the three seated side by side before him and spread his hands. "My name is Hatake Kakashi."

After that, Kakashi said nothing more.

After waiting for a while, Sakura asked, "Um... Kakashi-sensei, what about the rest of your introduction?"

"I don't want to tell you."

"..."

"Alright, your turn to introduce yourselves!"

"I'll go first."

Naruto spoke:

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. There's nothing I dislike, so I like most things. I have lots of hobbies, too many to list right now, but my dream—"

Naruto raised his head and met Kakashi's gaze. "Is to become a Hokage greater than every Hokage before me!"

Naruto had been telling that lie for two years already. Even facing Kakashi, he felt no pressure about lying.

Sakura and Sasuke's answers afterward were not much different from what Naruto remembered from his previous life.

The only notable difference was Sakura's answer about what she disliked.

Instead of disliking "Naruto," she now disliked "being treated like a child by her parents."