The team meets for its first mission, with Hinata getting there first. She doesn’t feel comfortable being at home, and feels ashamed for her lack of pride in her family. For as much as Hiashi is demonized in this fic, Hinata seems surprisingly obsessed with what he thinks of her. Hinata makes another vague allusion to her late mother, whose fate has not been revealed.
Kurenai and Naruto arrive, with Naruto almost unrecognizable to Hinata, which is understandable; take a look at the illustration of Naruto on the front page, and you may have the same reaction. She also notices a change in Naruto’s demeanor, with him being significantly more grim than usual. Part of Naruto’s boisterousness may be a façade, but his determination and desire to improve himself are not.
Naruto finds himself in awe of Kurenai as a teacher, which seems slightly implausible, even considering that she treats him with basic deceny. Canonically, he respects his mentors, even if he mocks them from time to time, but he doesn’t seem to be worshipping the ground they walk on.
Kurenai gives the team some things they want to work on, and tries to help them understand the way their teammates fight. It seems like a fairly involved approach to training, but most training happened off screen in canon.
Naruto and Hinata begin sparring, and Kurenai notes their strengths and weaknesses. Kurenai spars with Shino, and notices that he’s more skilled than he lets on, which doesn’t seem entirely accurate for someone who canonically uses hand-to-hand combat as a last resort, or as a ploy (see his fight with Kankuro). Kurenai attributes this to extra training with his family (which, I suspect, is where most of the ninja get their jutsus), and tells him that while she’s impressed with his performance, he will have to stop holding back if he wants to stay on the team, an unusually dire warning from a jonin sensei.
Kurenai then turns her attention to Hinata, hoping to help her learn taijutsu techniques well-suited to females, and thinking about her old team in the process.
After training ends, the team returns to the village, with varying reactions from the villagers, and Naruto has difficulty suppressing his anger toward the villagers.
The Third Hokage greets Kurenai, inexplicably calling her “jonin Kurenai”- while jonin is a ninja rank, it’s never officially used as a title of address, the same way John Doe might be addressed as "Private" or "Private Doe". He gives the team a mission to help an herbalist with a broken leg do some chores.
The team gets to the chores, and Naruto manages to assign his clones to independent tasks, even having one have a conversation with Kurenai, without knowing that this shouldn’t be possible. This seems to be a relic of previous canon about clones, but even then, Naruto’s clones got into an argument with each other when one got substituted for Kakashi during the bell test.
Naruto then tries to compliment Hinata by saying she’s not like Sakura and Ino, but this, while true, doesn’t go over well with her, and he wonders if she likes the other two rookie kunoichis. Interestingly enough, in Naruto fanfiction, Sakura and Hinata seem to be good friends in fics when neither are subject to Die for Our Ship, and while this is fanon, it’s not entirely unreasonable, especially since they seem to get along reasonably well, and Sakura saved Hinata’s life in the Pain arc.
As Naruto does some deliveries, he wonders where he went wrong with Hinata, and ponders his trouble with girls. Canonically, Naruto doesn’t seem to dwell much on his trouble with the opposite sex, and if anything, he believes he has a problem dealing with people in general.
Kurenai is impressed with how well they’ve done, and suggests that they could clear two missions per day at this rate. Naturally, the nature of the mission would affect how quickly it could get done, since the Land of Waves mission took quite a while.
Kurenai gives her students coupons for Ichiraku ramen and notices that Naruto is unusually hesitant to eat with his teammates, and he comments that he worries that he offended Hinata with his compliment, something she’s not accustomed to hearing. In canon, Hinata seems more receptive to being complimented, pleased at being told that Naruto likes people like her.
Naruto learns that things are often less than simple when dealing with a team, especially when the teammates have their own issues, and he shouldn’t take it personally or unduly pry. He rejoins his teammates, claiming that the talk with Kurenai is about his training.
Naruto rejoins his teammates, and after reaching Ichiraku Ramen, they discuss the last mission, with Shino impressed by Naruto’s use of clones. After some introspection, the two grow closer.
The mood is interrupted by the arrival of Team 7, which has Kiba in place of Naruto.
Kiba boasts that having been the only ones who passed Kakashi’s bell test (although it isn’t elaborated as to how they passed) puts them above Team 8, whereas Shino says that their teacher is confident in their skills. This somewhat misses the point of the Genin Exam; it’s possible that other tests of one’s skill besides the bell test exist, but in the end, only three teams get approved. It’s thus possible that being the first ones to pass the bell test was a strong endorsement in the Hokage’s eyes, but that Kurenai and Asuma also tested their students in their own ways, and Teams 8 and 10 passed. Whether the other teams failed their tests, or passed and failed to suitably impress those judging them is unclear.
Kiba, while denigrating Kurenai, places emphasis on her gender, which seems more than a little out of character, since in canon, he’s one of her students. This doesn’t sit well with Sakura, who reminds him that his sister and his mother would not want to hear that. It’s a good point, but it’s all the more out of character for him to be sexist in light of how the women of his family are strong ninjas, and he seems to regard his mother with respect and a hint of fear.
Sakura’s disagreement, among other things, is evidence that Team 7 is clearly not as stable as in canon, which is clearly saying something.
Hinata tries to defuse the situation, and Sakura agrees, but insults Naruto in the process (using “-baka” as a suffix yet again). That last comment sets Naruto off, and Hinata doesn’t take it much better, fiercely warning Sakura not to talk that way about Naruto. Shino then intervenes, and points out that Naruto did not, in any way, provoke the rest of Team 7.
With that, the group leaves, and Hinata thanks Shino for stepping in. The group goes back to their homes, ready to meet again the next day.
What I liked
- Hinata standing up for Naruto.
- Some development of Shino and Naruto’s friendship, showing that he won’t be a background character.
- Team 7 being portrayed quite negatively, almost as though they’re meant to come off as worse than Team 8.
- The possibility of Naruto’s personality diverging from canon and him becoming more bitter and cynical.
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