Chapter 26 – Special Team

Sango began to suspect that the situation wasn’t right when Iruka called the names of the members of Naruto’s team. When Iruka said Naruto’s name, Sango believed Sakura to be next in his team, but that didn’t happen.

Sango had chosen Hinata and Ino as his teammates, not because he disliked Sakura but because he wanted Naruto’s team to become a smokescreen for him. While Naruto became the focus of everyone, he could just do his own things in peace without worry. Sango knew that it was too late to try and fade into the background, he had already influenced the world to a high degree, leaving Sakura in Naruto’s team had a low chance of doing anything in his favour, but since he had to choose two from the three girls for his team he may as well leave Sakura in Naruto’s team for the low chance that it would serve some purpose.

Sango didn’t expect such outcome. When Iruka called Naruto, next should have been Sakura, yet it wasn’t her.

“Naruto Uzumaki!” Called Iruka.

“Sasuke Uchiha!”

“And Shino Aburame!” Was the last name Iruka called for Naruto’s team.

“What?” Sango almost shouted out loud, unbecoming of his character. He could hardly be blamed, the classrooms were made so there was one girl and two boys per team, not that he didn’t take such a possibility into consideration, but he thought that at least the fact that Sakura would be with Naruto and Sasuke in a team was sure.

The students were also taken by surprise by such unexpected event and their whispers could be heard everywhere in the classroom.

The surprises weren’t over, Asuma’s team, which in the anime was formed by Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka, was also changed into an boys-only team. With Ino in Sango’s team, he wasn’t as surprised as with Naruto’s team. The new member of Team 10 was Kiba Inuzuka.

“It seems that Hinata’s team in the anime was used to fill the gaps that my arrival created.” Sango understood that, it made sense, but what it didn’t make sense was the fact that Naruto’s team, Team 7, didn’t have a vacancy and yet Shiano was added to the team in place of Sakura who now had no team.

As time passed, only Sango, Hinata, Ino and Sakura were left without a team, by this point Sango was sure that the Hokage had something else in mind for them, the question was what.

“That’s it, everyone waits here for your team leaders to come fetch you.” Iruka declared, but there were questions on everyone’s minds, they were all waiting for Iruka to explain why there were boys-only teams and why there were four without a team.

“Sango, Hinata, Ino and Sakura follow me.” Calling them in turn, Iruka waited by the door for them to follow him. The girls looked at Sango, not sure what to do, but since the one speaking was the teacher, they didn’t have much choice anyway.

Sango stood up first, he walked to Iruka’s side and the girls followed him soon. Under their classmates watching gazes, they left the room.

Iruka led them to the headmaster’s office. As they entered the room, Sango and his group were welcomed by the Hokage himself.

“Hokage-sama!” The girls, caught by surprise, exclaimed. It was no wonder, meeting the Hokage there was the same as normal Americans citizens meeting the president.

“Haha, forgive me for calling you here without warning.” The Hokage, smiling like always, said.

The girls were frozen and didn’t know what to say, Sango on the other hand was questioning the Hokage with his gaze, not even hiding it at all.

“Ahem, I’m sure you are wondering why I called you here.” The Hokage switched the topic seeing as they were all uncomfortable with the situation. “I will tell you everything but first take a seat.” He gestured towards the four seats in front of the desk, Iruka stood silent by the door.

After looking at each other, they sat together, Sango finding himself between Ino and Hinata, to Sakura’s displeasure.

“Let’s begin.” Seeing as they took their seats, the Hokage began to speak. “After checking with Kurenai about your progress, I was happy to hear about your outstanding improvement. As such, after much considerations, I decided to make a special team.”

That was enough to Sango to understand most of what the Hokage was planning, his real intentions were yet to be confirmed but once Sango begins to investigate, he will know.

“What makes it special?” Asked Sango.

The Hokage looked at Sango still maintaining his smile, “You will undertake special missions requiring a certain level of ability. For now, yours is an experimental team, we will see how well it will work out.”

Sango wasn’t satisfied with his answer, the Hokage may as well have said nothing.

“But we are four here?” Asked Ino whom was the more daring of the girls.

“Yes, you four will form a team.” Answered the Hokage.

His answer was something the girls didn’t expect, a fact clearly visible on their faces.

“I know it may seem strange, but I gave it much thought before calling you here. For now, you will behave like a normal team until you gather enough experience, your team leader is also someone you know well.” Having said so, the Hokage stood up from his seat. “Wait here, your team leader will be here shortly.” Leave those words behind, he left the room with Iruka following him.

Sango wondered why he came in person to say just that, it wasn’t like there was a need for the Hokage the tell them that. Anyway, this was a rather fortunate event. In the end the Hokage fulfilled his promise of putting Sango, Ino and Hinata into the same team, even if the way he achieved that was rather unique, so he didn’t really care. Now he understood that trying to keep history from deviating from the original story was not possible, the degree of change his presence brought was too huge for him to block. He may as well let history develop as it may, in the end that was also the most interesting path.

As the Hokage left, he was already feeling a headache coming. This action of his was sure to bring many people complaining to him, some of them were sure to be the parents of Ino, Choji and Shikamaru for breaking the tradition of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, but that was easy to deal with, the biggest trouble would come from the Daimyo and Danzo whom won’t let the opportunity to pressure the Hokage go. Another headache was his own son, Asuma, whom team tradition he broke, not that he cared much, in the past few years he became a rather big disappointment, he wasn’t sure if Asuma should even become the leader of a team.

He understood all the trouble was sure to come his way, but he was determined. All that because he saw the possibility of greatness in those children, he wanted to bet on them, on Sango most of all, the girls were also a way to tie him down to Konoha.