The Goddess of Hunter

One year later…

"Team 10 under Sarutobi Asuma will consist of Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Choji." Iruka called from the front of the class as the rest of the class listened raptly, with the exception of Haruka, who was reading as usual, and Shikamaru who seemed to be asleep.

"Team 8 under Yuhi Kurenai will consist of Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba," Mizuki called this time from his set of lists.

It had been a year since the Uchiha incident, and things had been… different… since then. Both Sasuke and Naruko had taken their training up by a notch as they no longer had much to do with the absence of residents in the Uchiha district. In fact, the only two residents were Sasuke and herself, and to say it was lonely was a huge understatement.

After the incident, she had officially moved into the Uchiha manor to keep Sasuke company and to stop him from damaging himself through extensive training that he couldn't handle. He was hell-bent on revenge against Itachi, but at least he would listen to Naruko most of the time, most likely because he was in a similar situation to her, where she was one of the important people left to him.

Though she knew the real reason behind Itachi's actions, she didn't speak about it like she (or Kurama to be exact) had promised Itachi. If Sasuke wanted his vengeance, then she would play along for both Itachi and Sasuke's sake. She spent most of her spare time sparring with Sasuke, hunting or reading through the Uchiha library which she got permission from Sasuke to use.

Speaking of the library, shortly after the incident, her father had contacted Sasuke and expressed his condolences along with providing aid, including funds necessary to keep the more important functions of the Uchiha districts functional.

Though he had been hesitant on accepting an offer from the man who had forgotten their own child and left her to survive on her own, she had managed to convince Sasuke to not let grudges interfere with needs.

Danzo's death was publically announced, but not his actions. As much as Naruko wanted the man revealed for the monster he was, he simply had too much support within the village, and such an announcement would most certainly cause unrest within Konoha, something she agreed was not needed, which was why it was said that he had simply been killed by Itachi whilst he was visiting the clan head.

Root, a division of the ANBU headed by Danzo, was merged with the general ANBU unit, whilst his personal assets were seized to be used to fund Sasuke and the rebuilding of certain parts of the Uchiha district. Only Sasuke knew the truth behind the man's death, and when he had learnt of why she had done so, he swiftly wrapped the girl in a hug and thanked her for preventing the desecration of his clansmen, much to the embarrassment of Naruko.

She had also forbidden him from using his Mangekyou, and it was one of the few problems they both agreed upon rather swiftly. After some light reading in the deeper parts of the clan library, the disadvantages of its use heavily outweighed the advantages in the long run, and losing his vision was not something Sasuke wanted before he even met Itachi.

And here they were now, a year later after passing the Genin exam and finally being assigned into teams with a jounin sensei.

Team 10 was the Ino-Shika-Cho trio of this generation, and if anything they seemed slightly dysfunctional even if the three members were close friends. Their abilities synergize well together but for now they were simply a ragtag group of people with abilities that could potentially work well.

Shikamaru was the quiet and observant type, much like Haruka, but added with it he also was the laziest person she knew. She had no idea how the man could fall asleep in the middle of PRACTICAL exams, but somehow he proceeded to prove her wrong at every instance. Despite this, he was capable during the few times he was serious.

Choji was an… odd-ball, to say the least. One look at him, and the last thing that comes to mind would be a Shinobi, Seriously. His physical stamina was not high, and his refusal to hurt his targets was also another issue, but despite his size and quarks he was indeed very well-versed with the Akimichi clan techniques, and could use his size to his advantage.

Ino was probably the weakest link of the three. The main problem was that for some reason she considered Naruko as a love rival in her pursuit of Sasuke's attention along with 3/4 of the female class population. For one, she was incredibly jealous that Naruko was the only one that Sasuke would allow near him, not to mention the fact that he was more comfortable when she was, but she was also incompetent due to the fact that she spent most of her time visually stripping said boy instead of training.

Though the Yamanaka clan poison techniques could be extremely dangerous when used correctly, Ino did not give off the vibe of reaching such a level anytime soon. The team wouldn't work well if their only ranged support was incompetent.

That said however, the team probably had the most synergy out of all teams mentioned so far.

Naruko's results were somewhere in the upper middle, mostly because of her refusal to use kunais and shurikens, or should she say her complete inability to use them, as in Shiro would literally NOT LET HER USE THEM AT ALL EVEN IF SHE WANTED TO, much like Kuro with swords. This resulted in her failing most practical exams they set up, though she was given a satisfactory score in all cases since she had proven that she was faster and far more skilled with the bow than most students were with their shurikens and kunais.

In fact, it would be blasphemy if they failed her simply because she didn't follow norms, if her accuracy and power with the weapon was any indication of her becoming a splendid kunoichi, her skills with the sword was another, though the school didn't know of course as there wasn't a test for kenjutsu.

This however, meant that she was given only a satisfactory grade, and was not marked like the rest of the students were.

Her taijutsu was at genin standards at the very least, and she couldn't find a reason to train herself in it except to the required level as there wouldn't be a situation where she couldn't access Kuro and Shiro.

Whilst she didn't have the Top Kunoichi nor Rookie of the Year titles of the graduates (instead taken by Haruka and Sasuke respectively) due to this, the class and instructors commonly agreed on the fact that she had the most combat potential of the graduates, even more so than Sasuke.

Of course, it wouldn't be a surprise when team 7 was called.

"Team 7 under Hatake Kakashi will consist of Hyuuga Hikaru, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka called.

…

Well this would be a pain.

Though she had beaten most of the arrogance out of Sasuke, he still had an unnecessary amount of pride in his skills at his age, and no one in that team was near his level in terms of skill. Whilst the Hyuuga girl is of a branch house, her abilities were at least near the top of the class, but not enough to stop Sasuke if he were to do something stupid

Though Naruko didn't know how that would work out, it was good to know that Kakashi would be with them to teach Sasuke on the effective usage of the Sharingan. Since the massacre a year ago, the lack of Sharingan wielders meant that he had to improvise on his learning of his clan dojutsu, which also meant that his progress was slowed down quite considerably in that field.

She could hear Sasuke banging his head on the desk from behind her, more so when he heard the Haruno girl's name than when he heard the Hyuuga's. At the very least Hikaru could keep up with him during missions.

"Team 12 under Namikaze Kushina will consist of Naruko, and Namikaze Haruka and Namikaze Naruto."

…

Naruko looked up and stared at Haruka with an unreadable expression, who stared back with the same. Naruto was at the front of the class celebrating the team he had been put in. Despite how calm she looked on the outside, her thoughts were in turmoil.

The siblings said nothing, but the two could hold a mental conversation through gestures and eye movements.

"Does she know?" Naruko asked using the universal hand language of the Elemental Nations. Whilst the team members and sensei could be a coincidence, it was nonetheless unbelievable that the entire team could consist of one family, despite the fact she was not formally known or registered as an Uzumaki-Namikaze.

"No, she doesn't know yet, most likely coincidence." Haruka signaled back, earning a sigh from Naruko, both from disappointment and a slight hint of loneliness.

Despite the fact that it was only a coincidence, at least it meant that she could spend some time with her family even if half of them weren't aware of her identity. The last time she had seen her mother was a number of years ago, before she left to live in the forest.

"Please wait here until your jounin sensei arrives to pick you up, and most importantly, Congratulations to you all!" Iruka exclaimed before exiting the room with Mizuki in tow.