The paper test was hard, but Naruto and Ginjiro had studied endlessly together, so they passed, Ginjiro with higher marks as was usual.

On the taijutsu spar, Ginjiro was called forward with the girls by Mizuki-sensei. He had restrained both himself and Naruto from attacking their sensei. They both passed, although Gin did so with more difficulty. He just wasn't as good a fighter as Naruto. But he aced the next exam.

Shuriken jutsu was always a competition between him and the lone Uchiha. Sasuke had been trained from an incredibly young age and his skill showed it. He always attempted trick throws with several kunai hitting each other, something Gin found unnecessary.

Gin, on the other hand, excelled in throwing knives naturally. His precision was to the point where he had begun to practice with senbon needles. And he far outmatched the Uchiha in this exam, earning the ire of his fangirls and the admiration of his little brother.

He also breezed through the Ninjutsu exam, completing the required jutsus to an acceptable level. Naruto on the other hand barely made it through the clone part of the exam, yet aced the other jutsus as well. So as Naruto cheered and celebrated Ginjiro couldn't help but notice that Mizuki-sensei was scowling at them more than usual. He would ask Hokage-sama about that later.

Iruka-sensei gathered them all together once they had gotten their hitai-ate and spoke.

"I will now announce the teams. Team one will be Hagiwara Toshiro, Hagiwara Hana, and Akiba Ginjiro. Your sensei will be Yamanaka Inoichi. Team two will be-" Ginjiro zoned out. Hana and Toshiro were some of the kids that used to bully him and Naruto when they were younger. So he was glad Naruto could stay away from them, even if that meant he was stuck with them.

"Team seven will be Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. Your sensei will be Hatake Kaka-" Iruka was suddenly cut off while Ginjiro facepalmed at his little brother's impulsiveness.

"Now wait for a second Sensei! Why is a ninja like me stuck with Sasuke of all people?" Naruto pointed at the dark haired prodigy with a glare.

"Well, Naruto that's actually very complicated. We usually pair the dead last with the rookie of the year but the dead last didn't pass the graduation test. So this year we paired everyone according to strengths and weaknesses.” Iruka smiled slightly. “You and Sasuke both have the potential to be great front line fighters with Sakura as support.”

“Oh, I guess that's fine...but why does Gin-chan have to be paired with those idiots?” Iruka and Ginjiro both winced slightly. Both in embarrassment at his new perch atop his desk and because he had gone up in volume.

“That was a new experiment. We thought we could pair up a group for a certain cause with two who showed interest and one who could very well be a prodigy in that field. Squad one is a torture and interrogation unit.”

Toshiro grinned. “I'm the prodigy, of course, my parents knew it from the day I was born!”

Iruka sighed, rubbing his brow. “No, the one on your team with the most potential in T&I is Ginjiro.” He looked down at his clipboard missing the glares Toshiro and Hana sent at Ginjiro.

The two were cousins and Hana always sided with Toshiro seeing as they practically grew up together. It didn't help that they seemed to hate Gin for separate reasons.

-----

At lunch, Naruto tried to get his teammates to eat with him and his brother but they blew him off, Ginjiro simply wanted to avoid his teammates altogether. There was no way he was going to willingly spend time with those buzzards.