A new beginning

"All right!"

Naruto leaped out of his seat with a loud cheer, then grinned so broadly his eyes narrowed to slits. He waved excitedly at Hinata and Sasuke. "Looking forward to working with you! Looking forward to it!"

"Yeah!"

"Hmph..."

Once the full list had been announced, the students had little to complain about regarding their teams. The village had clearly thought things through, assigning each of the newly graduated Genin teammates they were compatible with.

"...All right, those are your team assignments. You're free to leave until this afternoon. After that, gather with your teammates at the designated locations and wait for your Team Jonin to contact you."

"Congratulations again on taking your first steps as shinobi!"

As Iruka finished speaking, several students, led by Rock Lee, burst into tears of gratitude and crowded around him as they left.

The others gradually filed out of the classroom as well, looking forward to gathering with their teammates that afternoon and setting out on their first mission.

"Hey." Watching Rock Lee run out of the classroom, Neji rose from his seat and suddenly remembered something. He called out to Sasuke with an inscrutable smile.

"What?"

"You're on Naruto's team, and I'm not. Do you know what that means?"

"Get to the point." Sasuke frowned, sensing an unusual edge to Neji's words.

"Naruto is the Top New Graduate. To balance the teams' strength, they obviously wouldn't put him with the Second New Graduate." Neji's smile suddenly turned mocking. "That means the village thinks I'm second between the two of us. You're just Third Place."

"Heh." Sasuke gave a couple of cold chuckles, his gaze icy. "If this is your idea of a cheap provocation, I accept. We can have a match later and see who really is the Second New Graduate."

"Fine.