Mokuton no Naruto

Chapter 6: Genin Teams

Naruto, along with all of the Genin that have recently passed the Genin Exams are sitting in a classroom, waiting for their previous Sensei, Iruka to enter said classroom, and tell them what, or better yet whose team they are on. As practically every girl wanted to be on Sasuke Uchiha's team, and everyone of the boys don't want to be on Sasuke's team.

Iruka then enters the classroom. After detailing who'd be on Team 1-6, he says, "Team 7 consists of Naruto Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi. Your Jounin-sensei is Asuma Sarutobi."

Shikamaru is naturally a lazy person and his inclination is to do as little work as possible. As an Academy student, Shikamaru is able to get away with this, spending his days sleeping, watching the clouds, or playing games of shōgi and Go. His goal is to live unremarkably, free of anything of noticeably good or bad, and then to die just as unremarkably as he lived. When he is faced with the potential for conflict or commitment, he responds first by saying, "how troublesome," and then by trying to find some way out of it, either by pretending to be indisposed or even outright saying that he doesn't want to do whatever it is.

Although Shikamaru describes himself as "the number one coward", he has a strong moral compass and dedication to his friends. It is these qualities that earned Chōji Akimichi's friendship, as Shikamaru was one of the first people to look past his weight and find value in who he naturally was. It is also these qualities that force Shikamaru to move away from his lazy pursuits, as he finds himself volunteering to do work or to sacrifice himself if it will in some way benefit his allies.

Shikamaru has narrow brown eyes and a typical expression suggesting he is either bored or irritated. He has shoulder length black hair tied in a spiky ponytail. he wears a short-sleeved grey jacket with green-edged sleeves and the rudimentary Nara clan symbol on the back, under which is a green-lined mesh armour T-shirt. He also wears brown pants, a pair of his clan's traditional silver hoop earrings, and wears his blue Konoha hitai-ate around his left arm.

Chōji is a very kind, polite, and caring person. These characteristics are said to be his greatest strength, while his greatest weakness was his lack of self-confidence. He is easily motivated by the prospect of food, and becomes highly agitated when somebody calls him "fat" (he refers to himself as "big-boned", "chubby").

Like other Akimichi, Chōji has a rotund build and markings on his cheeks in the form of swirls. He has spiky, brown hair that sticks upward. Chōji donned a green, short-sleeved haori with a long, white scarf over a white in the anime, with the kanji for "food" (食) on it. He also wore black shorts, hoop earrings, and bandages around his legs and forearms. His blue Konoha hitai-ate is styled in a manner that allowed two tufts of hair to poke out at each side.

Iruka says, "Team 8 consists of Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuga, and Shino Aburame. Your Jounin-sensei is Kurenai Yuhi."

Kiba is often short-tempered and impulsive (in stark contrast to his teammates Shino and Hinata), and can be prone to making mistakes when he becomes agitated in battle. He also enjoys combat even when facing particularly strong opponents. He cares deeply for Akamaru, and is willing to do whatever is necessary to protect him. And, despite his rather gruff attitude, many of Kiba's actions reveal that he is very close to his older sister, Hana, and remains fiercely loyal to his clan and has great pride in it.

Kiba's personality and fighting style is further complemented by his wild appearance as, while clearly human, he has several physical traits more akin to animals. Like most of his clan, he has messy brown hair, sharp black eyes with vertical slit-like pupils, pronounced canine teeth, and nails that he can change into claws. He also has the distinctive red fang markings of the Inuzuka clan on his cheeks.