On the podium, Iruka held a list in his hand, reading from it word by word. "Team 7 will be: Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno… and Sasuke Uchiha."
Naruto rubbed his forehead, looking at the cheering, pink-haired girl and the unmoving Sasuke beside him. It felt more and more strange. Why did this arrangement feel so… inevitable? He thought he was supposed to like Sakura, but a subconscious part of his brain was telling him not to.
The Jonin instructor for Team 7 was especially late.
His name was Kakashi Hatake—another familiar name. The white-haired ninja always wore a mask, and his Konoha headband was tilted crookedly. He didn't look at all like a qualified Konoha ninja.
Naruto continued to rub his temples. In his memory, he shouldn't have had any contact with Kakashi, right? So why this feeling of familiarity… as if he had somehow seen Kakashi even before he was born?
-----
Later, on the rooftop, Kakashi looked at the unusually quiet Naruto and Sasuke, then glanced at Sakura, who was staring intently at Sasuke. Because of a certain someone's request to be on Team 7, he knew he had to be the one to start the introductions. "My name is Kakashi Hatake. As for things I like…"
"Icha Icha Paradise…"
Something stirred in Naruto's mind, and he couldn't stop himself from blurting out the name.
The name instantly put Kakashi on high alert. "Hey… how do you know about that?" he asked, jumping in surprise.
"Actually, I don't know what that is…" Naruto touched his cheeks, and tears began to flow uncontrollably from his eyes. "Why… am I crying? I honestly don't know… what that thing is…"
Icha Icha Paradise. The name felt like it was linked to an extremely important person. That person's name, like Rasengan, carried a sense of sadness… but it wasn't just sadness. There was warmth there, too.
"..."
Kakashi looked speechlessly at the crying boy before him. He couldn't help but tug at his mask and close his eyes. "Naruto Uzumaki," he said in a low voice, "I've always underestimated you. To think that at your age, you already know about Lord Jiraiya's famous masterpiece…"
I really never expected this! Kakashi thought. My preferences were exposed on the very first day! How can I be a role model in the future? They'll definitely laugh at me, right? Or maybe I should just fail these kids in tomorrow's survival exercise!
"Is Icha Icha Paradise a book?" Sakura's curiosity was clearly piqued. She looked at Kakashi, then at Naruto, who was still wiping his tears. "Have you both read it? It sounds like a very moving book…"
"Extremely moving! It's full of tragic stories about couples separating…" Kakashi opened his eyes and gave Sakura a sinister look. "That book actually hides a curse… Once you read it, the person you like will fall for someone else!"
"Aaaah! I don't want to read it!" Sakura shot to her feet, waving her arms and legs frantically. "Don't ever mention that book's name in front of me again!"
Naruto looked at Sakura, then glanced at Sasuke, his mood sinking once more. "…It's true. The curse of that book has already taken effect on me. It seems the author must be a wounded man, too."
Although he didn't remember ever reading the book, the Sakura he thought he liked had, indeed, always liked Sasuke.
"..."
Kakashi covered his forehead and casually pointed at Naruto. "Alright, alright, it's your turn to introduce yourselves… Let's start with you."
"But I haven't even finished introducing myself…" Naruto rubbed his face with both hands to try and look more energetic. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I guess I've always liked Ichiraku Ramen? As for my dream…"
As Naruto said this, he felt a strong will surge within him. Sweat began to bead on his forehead as he spoke, word by word, "I will become Hokage, surpass all the previous Hokage, become the strongest ninja in the world, and I will uni—"
"Alright, alright, it's always the same thing!" Sakura pouted, thinking Naruto had finished, and interrupted him. "Every time Naruto talks about his dream, it's always that… You boys' dreams are always about becoming Hokage or something!"
Among the boys in the ninja academy, except for a few with different ambitions and one who knew his own limits, they all dreamed of becoming the respected Hokage.
A small smile touched the corner of Naruto's mouth. He didn't argue, but instead sat cross-legged on the ground, showing a surprising amount of tolerance for his new teammate.
"My name is Sakura Haruno… What I like is… hehehe…" She giggled, looking over at Sasuke from time to time. "As for my dream… hehehe… you know…"
Sakura spoke intermittently, and her attitude was very obvious. But it seemed all her flirtatious glances were being thrown at a blind man.
Sasuke Uchiha clasped his hands in front of his chest and said in a deep voice, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. My dream… no, it's an ambition. I will revive the Uchiha clan, and I will kill a certain man with my own hands."
When he was eight, the Uchiha clan experienced the night of their massacre. The clan, once known as Konoha's most powerful, was left with only one survivor: Sasuke. All the others had been killed by his older brother, Itachi Uchiha.
When Sasuke mentioned "that man," the hatred radiating from him was almost enough to send a chill down his teammates' spines.
Kakashi grew thoughtful. After a moment, he looked at the three genin of Team 7 and said, "Alright, let's end the introductions here. Tomorrow, I'll prepare a survival exercise for the four of us to test whether you can pass my assessment… Remember, the rule is not to eat breakfast!"
"..."
After Kakashi left, the three members of Team 7 were about to go their separate ways for lunch. Sasuke turned his head and looked at Naruto, who was patting the dust off his pants. "Naruto Uzumaki," he said with some confusion, "I don't know why, but you seem a bit strange today."
"Huh? Maybe it's because I've gotten stronger!" Naruto tugged at his headband and flashed a confident smile.
"My intuition tells me…" Sasuke stood up, hands in his pockets, and looked directly into Naruto's eyes. "You have indeed gotten a lot stronger."
He couldn't discern Naruto's actual strength, but his personality was clearly calmer than before. During their six years as classmates, Naruto had been the class troublemaker. Today, however, he had been very well-behaved in front of Kakashi. It didn't fit his personality at all.
"Wanna try me? I also want to see how much stronger I've gotten…" Naruto raised his hand to adjust his headband and said with a smile, "Defeating my strongest rival of all time would be a pretty good graduation gift for myself."
In the academy, his sparring opponent was almost always Sasuke, but he had never won. Now, things were different. On graduation day, he had stolen the Scroll of Seals and learned the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu. In the time since, something extra had appeared in his mind, from which he learned a strange jutsu called Sealing Jutsu: Devour. And in the past few days, he had even 'developed' two new offensive ninjutsu: the Rasengan and the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken.
Sasuke glanced at him, using his slight height advantage to look down on Naruto. "What… looking to be humiliated again?"
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Bonus:
Naruto Uzumaki: "Pervy Sage, did you get your heart broken too?"
Jiraiya: "What nonsense are you spouting?!"
Naruto Uzumaki: "The person you like… doesn't like you back, huh?"
Jiraiya: "…How did you figure that out?"
Naruto Uzumaki: "Because you're the author of Icha Icha Paradise, of course!"
Jiraiya: "Wait—so you're saying Tsunade ignores me because I wrote that book?"
Naruto Uzumaki: "Well… maybe it's also because of your face."