2 Chapter 2: Friends and Teamwork

Once the teams were formed, each one got grouped together. Naruto was sitting on one side while Sakura was in the middle and Sasuke was on the other end. After some time had passed, the only team remaining inside the classroom was team 7. Sakura was fuming about how their sensei was late, while Sasuke was being his usual brooding self. Meanwhile, Naruto was thinking to himself.

He didn't think too much about Kakashi being late, afterall, that's just how Kakashi was when he first met him. Naruto thought about what was about to happen, amd wondered if he should still act how he used to so as not to draw too much attention to himself. But while that might be beneficial in some ways, he felt it would be too limiting. If he were to showcase his real abilities, then while he may draw some unwanted attention, he'd end up with more trust in performing higher end missions, early on.

Then he remembered one very important thing, was the Kurama inside him the past one, or the future one he knew. Naruto was sure regardless, he'd get Kurama to come around to be his friend. But things would be a hell of a lot easier if the Kurama from his time came back with him. Naruto looked up at the clock and saw that it'd still be some time before Kakashi would show up. So he decided to enter his mindscape and have a chat with the old fox.

Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated. When he opened them, he was inside his mindscape. He was standing inside a hallway with water reaching up to his ankles, the walls looked old. He then turned towards a direction and started walking, he walked until he came upon a set of large cage doors. A large paper with the word seal was placed upon the lock on the door. He walked right up amd stared inside, there he saw Kurama sleeping.

"Hey, time to wake up!" Naruto yelled.

Kurama slowly opened his eyes and glared at Naruto before slowly getting up. He then got close to the doors before grinning.

"Hello, brat, why don't you come closer." Kurama growled.

Naruto knew at this point that the only thing that went back in time was his own mind. So as far as we was aware, no one else had any knowledge of what would transpire in the coming years. He looked down in thought, while folding his arms. This was going to be tough, he knew he could eventually get Kurama on his side, and the sooner, the better. But he also knew that he'd have to deal with his inner darkness first. So while it was unfortunate, he wouldn't be able to access any of Kurama's chakra for the time being.

The more Naruto thought about it, the more he realised how much he lacked. But, on the brightside, at least he had the knowledge of the techniques he needed to learn as well as knowledge of the future. With this, he could increase the efficiency and effectiveness of his training.

Suddenly, Naruto was brought out of his thoughts when Kurama yelled at him. "Oi, brat, how dare you ignore me!?" Kurama slammed his claws against the cage as he glared at Naruto. Naruto looked back at Kurama and grinned, confusing the fox.

"Sorry, my bad, I just wanted to confirm something real quick, you can go back to sleep now." He said while scratching his head.

Kurama growled at Naruto while staring him down. "What is it that you wanted to confirm?" He asked. While he didn't really care about Naruto, he was surprised when he sensed no fear emenating from the boy.

"Just how much hatred you had in you." Naruto responded.

Kurama narrowed his eyes at this response.

"Hey, I may not be able to do anything now, but someday, I'm going to take care of all the hatred you have inside you. So wait for me until then. Okay?" Naruto continued while grinning. He then began walking away from the cage. Leaving Kurama alone with his own thoughts.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes and checked the time. Kakashi still hadn't shown up yet, so he looked over at Sakura who was fawning over Sasuke who was doing one hell of a job ignoring her. Naruto knew that Sakura always loved Sasuke, but now that he looked at them again. He realised just how annoying Sakura could get with her act. Hmm, he thought, maybe I should get them to talk about their skills, and so we can plan our coordination better. Even if I know what they're capable of, they don't know about each other or myself. Naruto then nodded his head in satisfaction of his plan.

"Hey guys, why don't we get to know each other and our skills." Naruto asked.

Sakura and Sasuke looked at Naruto, Sasuke ignored him while Sakura began to go on a rant.

"Geez Naruto, what are you saying, why do we need to do that, besides, everyone already knows that you can't do anything right. So why don't you just stay quiet and stay out of Sasuke's and my way."

Naruto had thought to be friendly, but he had completely forgotten how everyone had treated him back then. Which kind of ticked him off, especially since he wasn't saying anything even wrong in this situation. So he couldn't help it but to retort.

"I'm sorry, then what are your skills then Sakura-chan? What can you do that will aid the team? What's going to be your role in the formation? Are you a combat specialist? Will you be support? Are you good at ninjutsu? taijutsu? or genjutsu? How exactly are you going to be helpful on a real mission?" He said sternly with veins slightly bulging on his head.

Both of them were taken aback by the sudden change in Naruto, and before Sakura could say anything else, he continued on.

"What about you Sasuke? What can you do?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke looked at him for a moment before replying. "If you're going to ask that, how about you start with yourself."

"Yeah, that's right, why don't you tell us what you can do Naruto!" Sakura agreed.

Naruto looked at Sakura as if she were an idiot, she basically just agrees with Sasuke on everything. he thought.

"Alright, fine, I'm a combat specialist, my specialty right now is the shadow clone technique, I can also perform the henge jutsu and substitution jutsu. I can create about 20 clones right now." Naruto spoke. Then when he saw the look of doubt on their faces, he figured it was best tl show them.

"Multi shadow clone jutsu!" He said as he crossed his fingers together. 20 Naruto clones appeared in a puff of smoke and filled the classroom. Needless to say, both Sasuke and Sakura were surprised. Especially when they saw that Naruto's clones were solid clones that could interact with their surroundings.

Naruto then began to continue talking. "This technique is pretty useful, I could use this to create distractions, gather information, and to out number my opponents. So, am I useless?"

He then released the clones, and stared at the two. He waited for them to collect themselves, and get over their surprise. Once they were calmed down, Sasuke began talking. "I have the clone technique, henge jutsu, and substitution jutsu, I can also use the fireball jutsu as well."

Kyaa, oh my god, Sasuke is so cool! Sakura screamed in her mind. She smiled to herself, as she knew Sasuke would be strong. But that was when Naruto looked at her and asked her again. "What can you do Sakura?"

She looked at him, and said shyly, "I can do the clome technique, henge jutsu, and substitution jutsu."

Naruto looked at her and waited for her to say more. He knew she wouldn't, but he still gave her a chance. When he thought about it, she really was pretty weak, it was always him or Sasuke getting the team out of trouble, or Kakashi-sensei rescuing them. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that Sakura was a burden on the team until she met Lady Tsunade.

He looked down and sighed, the next chance he got, he'd have to try and get the old granny to come back to the village so Sakura could learn from her. He then looked up at her again. "So is that it? You're pretty useless." He hated saying it, but he had tl get Sakura facing reality as soon as possible. It was for her own good, and it would help the team in the long run as well.

Sakura was utterly shocked when she heard Naruto say thay to her. So was Sasuke, not that he didn't agree after what he heard, but he still never expected him of all people to say that. Sakura then looked down towards the ground. She couldn't argue back, because she'd just seen Naruto create 20 shadow clones like it was nothing. Needless to say about Sasuke, compared to them, what could she offer to the team.

Just then, Kakashi walked in the classroom, when he looked inside, he saw a serious looking Naruto with his arms crossed, an almost crying Sakura, and a surprised Sasuke. Kakashi couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the situation he walked in on.

"Hmm, my first impression of you guys..." Before he could finish, Naruto interrupted him.

"We're idiots...right?" He looked over grinning at Kakashi.

Kakashi looked over at Naruto surprised before recovering himself again.

"Hmm. meet me on the rooftop in 10 minutes." Then Kakashi body flickered to the rooftop, vanishing from their view.

I need to learn that, Naruto thought to himself. He then started walking out of the classroom towardsthe rooftop. He knew they were just going to do self introductions and that the survival training was happening tomorrow, so he didn't feel rushed. Once he got to the rooftop, he saw Kakashi sitting on the railings. reading a book. Naruto knew it was from the makeout paradise series, which reminded him of Jiraiya and his book, Tales of a Gutsy Ninja. He smiled slightly at the thought of his master. He would absolutely make sure he didn't die in this life. He then sat himself down on the steps and waited for Sasuke and Sakura to show up a minute later.

Once they were all gathered, Kakashi cleared his throat and began speaking. "Now that we're all here, why don't we introduce ourselves, our names, things we like, things we hate, dreams for the future. and our hobbies."

Everyone was quiet for a minute before Naruto raised his hand. "Hey Kakashi-sensei, how about you go first and give us an example." Naruto suggested.

Kakashi looked at them, "Me? Hmm, I'm Hatake Kakashi, things I like, and things I hate. I don't feel like telling you guys. Dreams for the future? I haven't thought about it. My hobbies, I have lots of hobbies." He concluded.

Naruto grinned inwardly as he knew this was coming while Sakura grumbled about only learning his name.

"Now then, you blondie, you go." Kakashi said pointing at Naruto.

Naruto looked up and grinned, " I'm Uzumaki Naruto, I like Ichiraku's ramen, I hate snakes. My dream is to become Hokage, and earn everyone's respect, and my hobbies include training!"

Kakashi smiled as he thought to himself. Looks like your son has the same dream as you sensei. Then he looked over at Sakura. "Alright Pink hair, your turn."

Sakura then began to go into her fan girl mode as she looked at Sasuke. "I'm Haruno Sakura, My likes are.... My dreams are.... My hobbies are..... and my dislikes? Naruto!" She yelled at the end.

Both Naruto and Kakashi looked at her with a half hearted smile. Then Kakashi looked towards Sasuke. "Now it's your turn."

Sasuke looked up. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke, I don't have likes, and I dislike many things, I don't have a dream, but I have an ambition, to kill a certain someone and avenge my clan."

Naruto was deep in thought as he remembered his last conversation with Itachi in his previous life. He knew Sasuke didn't know about it, and he wasn't sure if it was the right decision to tell him or not. But as things stood now, there wasn't anything he could do about it right now. On the other hand, Sakura just looked confused as she stared at Sasuke. Kakashi was quiet for a moment before he started talking again.

"Well, now that we've all introduced ourselves, let's get down to business. Tomorrow will be our first mission as a team, we will be conducting a survival training."

Sakura looked confused as she raised her hand. "But sensei, we've already done survival training when we were in the academy, why are we doing this?"

Kakashi smiled at her. "You see, the academy is designed to weed out the week from the strong, of the 27 graduates, only 9 will actually make it to genin, this is a pass fail exercise with a fail rate of 66%. You either succeed or you don't."

"But that's not fair, we worked really hard already, and now you're saying all that hard work might not mean a thing now?" She cried out.

Kakashi then got serious for a moment as he responded. "Do you think the enemy will care whether or not the situation is fair? Grow up, you became a shinobi, this isn't a game."

Sakura instantly closed her mouth afterwards as she sat back down. Naruto could only nod in agreement with Kakashi and Sasuke was still his usual brooding self. Kakashi then stood up and got ready to leave.

"Right, we will be starting at 6 in the morning, don't be late. Oh, and make sure you guys don't eat in the morning. You don't want to puke." Kakashi warned before vanishing from his spot, using the body flicker technique.

Naruto then stood up and stretched, and started walking away as well. "I'd recommend thinking hard about what happened today and about how we want to proceed tomorrow, that way we all pass and become genin." He then left them alone to their thoughts as he walked towards the woods instead of going home. He knew he needed time to train, and there was no way he could go the traditional method either. He had to get as strong as possible within the quickest amount of time.

He then came upon where he had his clones training by trying to climb trees with just chakra on their feet. Their was only one left from the original 4 clones, but what had taken him several days before, he'd turned it into a few hours. He used the clones experience gain as well as the knowledge from his past life to improve the rate lf his training explosively. But he wasn't stopping here. Naruto then create 20 clones after dispersing the last one from the previous 4. He was now going to practice walking on water. Once he mastered that, he'd start training to do Rasengan, and he had a night to complete all of it. Time to use guts to complete this training from hell he thought. He grinned as he charged up his chakra.