I Think I

Chapter 10:Tests

I Think I

by TooDarnLazy

Chapter 10 - Tests

Naruto grinned to herself as she pulled on her favourite orange and black jacket over her Konoha flak vest. Underneath that, she was wearing a snug, short-sleeved orange t-shirt that had the Uchiha-Uzumaki symbol on the sleeves and back over a mesh shirt that went halfway up her neck and halfway to her wrists. She was wearing black long pants that had an orange stripe down the sides of each leg.

Tsunade-obaachan had warned her against too much orange yesterday when she went to confirm her team. She had sulked about it, but obaachan had said that she was now the role model for her team, and orange was not a colour a shinobi should be wearing. She had agreed to tone down the orange only after Tsunade-obaachan threatened to burn all her pants and stick her in skirts.

So here she was wearing her flak vest (a women's vest with the scroll pouches across the abdomen instead of across the chest like the men's, which she hadn't worn before) over her orange t-shirt so that not too much orange would be obvious, and she'd traded her orange pants for black-with-orange-stripes pants. She nodded in satisfaction. That would have to do – no way was she getting rid of all the orange.

Black fingerless gloves were slipped over each hand, and Gaara's bracelet was safely tucked under the material. She affixed her weapons pouch to her rear, and strapped her shuriken holster and double kunai pouch to her thigh. She had loaded the second holster with the tri-pronged kunai to the max, i.e. 6 kunai. The rest, another 94 kunai, were sealed into batches of ten in two sealing scrolls that she put in her flak vest. She hadn't perfected the jutsu yet, but she was definitely getting there. It wouldn't be too long before the legend of the Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou would be reborn. For you, otousan, okaasan.

Her father's original kunai she kept rolled up in a piece of velvet cloth in her cupboard. Satisfied, she bounced excitedly out of her room and out of the house with a cheerful 'ohayou!' and 'ittekimasu!' to Sasuke, who was in the kitchen.

She bounced happily all the way to the Academy, and saw Kiba and Temari waiting in the teacher's lounge. Kurenai and a few other jounin she had seen around but didn't know personally were also sitting around.

"Yo Naruto!" greeted Kiba, and Akamaru woofed cheerfully beside him. Temari waved her fan in greeting.

"Hey guys," greeted Naruto as she dropped into the sofa next to Temari and stretched.

"Who've you got on you team?" Temari asked. Naruto blinked at her.

"Me? I've got two Hyuuga and one girl… Tanake, I think. You?"

"I've got this year's Yamanaka-Nara-Akimichi combination. Tsunade-sama has a huge sense of humour," Temari said dryly as Naruto laughed. "Just because I'm married to the lazy bum doesn't mean I want to be leading lazy bum, junior."

"Heheh! I've got a cousin of mine on my team, another Hyuuga, and one of Shino's cousins, I think. Hokage-sama must have wanted to revive the old team eight, seeing as how good we were," Kiba puffed out his chest proudly, and both Naruto and Temari snorted. Temari was about to retort when a teacher's aide announced that they could go get their teams.

The younger jounin waited for the others to leave with their teams before moving to the classroom. Temari went in first, and came out with a blonde boy, a plump boy and a bored-looking brown-haired girl. Kiba announced himself noisily, as did Akamaru, and Naruto heard a corresponding noisy human and doggy greeting, before Kiba herded his team out and gave Naruto a thumbs-up and a grin, which she returned. She had her hand on the doorframe when she heard a boy speak.