AN: My first Naruto fan fic! Hope it goes well! Bear with me, I realize that this first chapter is kind of boring, but it sets the stage, O.K.? Oh, and just so you know who’s who, here is a character guide:

Hitake Misa – Daughter of Sakura and Kakashi, the main character for this story, friends with Hakira and Aki, hates Yuka, pink hair, big temper, oblivious to most non ninja-related things like why guys keep asking her out. I mean really, what’s a girl got to do to get some alone time? No crushes to report as of yet

Hyuuga Hakira – Daughter of Naruto and Hinata, best friend to Misa, yellow hair, has obtained Byakugan, but has definitely not mastered it. If it moves and it’s male, she flirts with it.

Uchiha Aki – Son of Sasuke and Temari’s son (WTF? He’s with Temari? What was I thinking?!? I don’t even like them together! Oh well…) friend to Misa and Hakira, black hair, hasn’t gotten the sharaingan yet, and is a total powerhouse. Refuses to admit it, but he has a big crush on Misa.

Nara Yuka – Daughter of Shikamaru and Ino, acquaintances with Hakira, indifferent to most others, thinks Misa is troublesome, true genius, but inherited her father’s laziness, blonde hair, seemingly no interest in the male gender.

Pochi – Adopted son of Gaara and Lee, friends with Yuka and acquaintances wit h Hakira and Misa, brown hair, good with chakra control, crush on Hakira. Up till now has spent half the year in the Sand Village with his other father, Garra.
This will be updated with each new installment.
Enjoy!

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Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto. Stop rubbing it in!

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“Misa!” A female voice penetrated the young pink-haired girl’s dreams, destroying a particularly good one she had been having. She rolled over and pulled her pillow atop her head.
“Go away, mom! It’s way too early to be up!” She complained, closing her eyes and refusing to leave her soft bed.
“You’re going to be late! And it’s your examination today! Get up, Misa!” Sakura, Misa’s mother ordered. At that, Misa shot up, flying out of her bed, and changing in a record thirty-six seconds.
“Oh no! You’re right! Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?” she asked, pulling on her sandal-shoes, and tying up her petal -pink hair up in a ponytail.
“I did. Three times.” Sakura responded, holding the door open for her daughter, who burst out it ten seconds later. “She’s heading your way!” Sakura warned her husband, who didn’t even look up from his book as he held out a piece of toast – already buttered – and a bento-box for the girl. Misa rushed out, stopping only to kiss her silver-haired father on the head, grabbing the food as she went and once at the door.
“Bye mom, dad!” She said with a wave, then tore out the door, leaving it open in her haste, muttering “Late! Late! Late! I’m going to be late!” as she ran.
“Good luck!” Sakura called, appearing at the door, looking nervous for her little girl. Her husband appeared at her side, Icha Icha book away for the time, and watched his daughter race towards the academy.
“She’ll be fine. Don’t worry. You know she’ll pass” Kakashi said, placing a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Oh, Hinata agreed to take care of her, Hakira, and Aki while we’re gone, so come-on, or we’ll be late” he told her, which got a laugh out of the pinkette.
“Since when do you care about being punctual?” She asked with a teasing smile, but she went to get ready anyway.

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“Aki!” Hyuuga Hakira exclaimed, launching her small florescent-yellow-haired self at a boy her age.
“Ack! Kira! Get off me!” Uchiha Aki – a black haired youth with pale skin and dark eyes – ordered, swatting at the girl. “I don’t hit girls, but if you don’t let go…” he threatened, but it wasn’t working. Hakira continued to glomp him. “And I won’t give you anything at lunch!” he added. That did the trick. The heir to the Hyuuga clan let go and took a step back.
“Fine, be that way!” she said, but she smiled at him to show that she wasn’t actually mad.
“Aki! Kira!” Misa called, running over to them.
“MISA! YOU’RE…” they began in unison, then blinked “uh… on time. For once” they said, looking confused.
“What’s up with that? You’re always late!” Hakira exclaimed, skipping foreword to hug her friend.
“That is known to happen from time to time,” Misa said with a smile. “Hey! Are you guys nervous? I know I am!” she said, looking very much on edge. Misa had a tendency to freak out when it came to tests and things, and this… this was the biggest test of her life so far. It would tell her if she was going to be a ninja or not.
“Totally” Hakira said, looking just as on edge.
“I’m sure you’ll to great, Misa” Aki said, not making eye-contact.
“Hey, Kira, what’s up with Aki today?” Misa asked.
“Dunno. He wasn’t like this earlier… Maybe he’s sick” she said with a smirk. Misa and Aki might have been completely oblivious of the boy’s feelings, but they were the only two. Hakira had a creeping suspicion that Aki was starting to figure out that he liked Misa at last, and she couldn’t help but smile to herself as she watched the two of them. Aki caught the teasing tone in Hakira’s voice and sent her what had widely been labeled the ‘Uchiha Death Glare’ by the rest of the academy when his other brothers had attended two years ago.
“Well come on, or we really will be late!” Misa said, and started in, Aki was right behind her, and Hakira followed, snickering a bit as she did so. The three talked through most of the beginning speech, so Misa was startled when she heard Aki’s name called.
“Wha?” he asked, getting some snickers from other students.
“Go up there and transform to look like the hogake!” Misa informed him. Aki nodded gratefully and Misa flashed him a smile that made the poor boy turn red before walking up to the front of the class. He closed her eyes for a second, concentrated, made the seal, and…
“Transform!”
He looked down at herself to find that she looked like a pretty accurate version of Tsunade. He breathed a sigh of relief and dropped the guise to go receive his forehead protector. Then he sauntered back to his friends, beaming as he proudly tied his forehead protector around his head. He slapped a high five with Misa and accepted a ‘congratulations Aki!’ plus a giant, suffocating hug, from Hakira. Then he sat down to watch the next kid go.
“Go Pochi!” Hakira cheered as the adopted son of Lee and that creepy sand-guy went forward. He looked up and Misa nearly cracked up as he turned a bit red and gave Hakira a wobbly smile. Her friend shot him the thumbs up and he took a determined look and stepped forward, making the seal.
Yuka was next, and the girl yawned, muttering something about this being troublesome before heading up to the front. She was perfect, of course. Yuka was always perfect. If only she would get up off her ass more often she would probably be a great Ninja. As it was… she didn’t care much for anything (As far as Misa could tell) but she was super smart when she put her mind to it. People said that her dad was some sort of genius too, but so far, Misa had only noticed that he was a lazy bum of a man. Yuka walked by Misa’s seat, and the pinkette glared daggers at the girl, sticking out her tongue, which caused her to look like a bloated pig, sending Hakira into a fit of giggles. That is, until her name was called, then she went silent and walked to the front of the room, looking like she had just eaten an ashtray. When she did the transformation jutsu it… didn’t exactly look right… The ‘Tsunade’ that stood before the class was somewhat square shaped, and her nose was bigger than the rest of her face. The class – excluding the teacher that is – burst out laughing, and Hakira turned bright red trying the jutsu again and providing a slimmer, more accurate Tsunade. With green hair. Not just green either, it was bright, freaking green. Like neon lights or Halloween-goo green.
Hakira quickly reverted to her own form and ran out the door, trying hard not to burst into tears. Aki looked up at the teacher, who nodded, then ran after his friend. Misa desperately wanted to go too, but she still had her exam to go, so she was forced to wait behind, fidgeting and miserable, while her two closest friends dealt with the problem on their own.

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“Kira”
“Go away!”
“Kira!”
“I said leave, Aki!”
“But…”
“Go the fuck away!”
Aki walked up to Kira and sat next to her, wrapping his arm around his friends shoulders. Hakira gave a last attempt to shrug him off, then gave up, and started to sob. Aki just tightened his grip and let her get it all out. Finally, once his shirt had been thoroughly soaked, the water-works came to an end.
“Dad’ll be so disappointed in me” She sniffed “Mom won’t say anything, but she’ll be upset as well, I know she will be. Not only did I fail, but a made a fool of myself!”
“We don’t know that you failed, Kira. Look Pochi’s dad, he couldn’t even do any jutsu, and he passed” Aki comforted her, but it did little to help.
“I’m a failure, Aki! A fucking failure!”
“NO YOU’RE NOT, KIRA!” Aki snapped suddenly, making her shut up and stare at him. “Don’t you ever let me hear you say that again! No matter what, you are not a failure! You’re amazing, Kira, You gained the Byakugan already, and you’re great at all other sorts of things! You just aren’t good at that particular one yet. You’ll get it eventually” Aki encouraged, and Hakira gave him a weak smile.
“If you say so...” she said, leaning into Aki, much to the boys discomfort.
“Hey! Love birds! Get a room, would ya?” Misa asked, coming up to the other two who immediately jumped apart. Misa was wearing her protector around her neck, so it was safe to assume she had passed. “You left so fast that they couldn’t give you this, Kira you baka” Misa said with a smile to show that she didn’t mean the insult. She held foreword another forehead protector, only to be tackled by Hakira. The two girls hit the ground with a thunk.
“Misa! I’m so happy I could kiss you!” Hakira exclaimed.
“Erm… please don’t! It’s bad enough that you always get to be on top” Misa joked. “Seriously though, could you let me up? This is kind of awkward” she said, referring to the fact that Hakira was laying on her, face inches from her own.
“Oh, yeah, erm… sure” Hakira said, jumping up and offering Misa a hand.

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So? What'd ya think? Please R&R

AN: They finally get sorted into teams! Sorry for the wait… and for misspelling both sharingan and Hatake last chapter! I wrote it at midnight, and I had more misspellings than those, but I caught most of them. Please don’t hate me for it! Hope you like this next chapter!


OC Character guide:
Hatake Misa – Daughter of Sakura and Kakashi. No crushes to report at this time.

Hyuuga Hakira – Daughter of Naruto and Hinata. Flirts with any male that walks. Has byakugan.

Uchiha Aki – Son of Sasuke and Temari’s, brother to Kima. Still won‘t admit he likes Misa.

Nara Yuka – Daughter of Shikamaru and Ino. No interest in male gender.

Pochi – Adopted son of Garra and Lee. Crush on Hakira

Inuzuka Sagi – Son of Kiba and Tenten, friends with
Yuka and Pochi, black hair, works with Ika, a shiba inu pup. Likes Misa.


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“Catch me if you can, Aki!” Misa sang, skipping away down the street and giggling playfully as she did so. Her waist-length pink hair was free for once, forehead protector around her neck as she headed toward the academy to find out what team she was to be on. Aki rolled his eyes and tried to act like he didn’t want to play, working hard to look serious.

“Aki, you slowpoke! You’ll never catch me by walking!” She teased “Then again, I don’t think you could catch me if you tried, so maybe it’s better to give up, you biki biki you!” she added, climbing up onto a sign and sitting down with an exaggerated yawn. That did the trick, and Aki’s eyes flashed at the challenge.

“Oh? Is that right? Just watch me!” he said, then started running at the girl. Misa squealed and she jumped from the sign, hitting the ground running. Aki almost had her when she turned quickly and danced out of his grip.

“Can’t catch me!” she laughed, jumping away from him then waiting for his next attempt. Suddenly her foot caught a stone – what was a stone doing in the street anyway? – and she started to fall backwards, Aki had lunged at the same time, and they went down in a heap, Aki on top with his face just inches from hers.

Click

“That’s one for the books!” Hakira said with a laugh and a teasing smile as she looked down at the two of them.

“Aki, get off me you baka!” Misa ordered and Aki hastily complied, face crimson. Misa jumped up as well, glaring at Hakira.

“Oh… did I interrupt something? Please, continue, I want to get a good pic of you two kissing so I can show it to everyone!” she added, smiling sweetly and motioning them to get to it. “Really, it’s about time, you two!”

“Kira” Misa said in a threateningly low tone.

“What?”

“You are so dead!”

“I’d start running if I were you” Aki said, looking equally ready to murder his friend.

“Eep!” Hakira said, and took off at a sprint.

“I’ll go for her, you get the camera?” Misa questioned.

“Works for me”

They tore after her.


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Due to their early-morning antics the three were the first to show up, breathless and full of laughter. Misa had sprung a tickle attack on Hakira when she finally caught up to her, and Hakira had responded in turn. In moments it had turned into an all-out tickle war, and both were clutching their sides and cracking up in the classroom as a result. Aki had managed to avoid the insane girl’s tickling, and was sitting behind them, a bemused expression on his face. He had definitely enjoyed the show. Of course when the girls noticed the appreciative look on his face they had turned their devilish energy on him.

“Were you watching us have a tickle war?” Misa demanded to know.

“What’s with the look?” Hakira joined in. They looked at each other, then at him.

“Pervert!” They yelled in unison. Aki took a step backwards, preparing to run for it…

…and was tackled by two slightly offended but laughing girls. By the time their classmates arrived he was tied up on the table and Misa was sitting on him. Hakira – who had the idea to get a picture of Misa tying him up – was hanging from the ceiling, completely immobilized.

“What happened here?” Pochi asked, looking over
the strange scene with wide eyes.

“I don’t think we want to know” Inuzuka Sagi responded, coming up behind the adopted boy. A bark came for his hood. “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, Ika” he responded to the small dog’s question.

“Hey, what are those on the table?” Nara Yuka asked from her position in one of the back tables. It seemed that no-one had noticed blonde sleeping in the back corner when they came in.

“Don’t touch those!” Misa shouted “I was going to” Pochi picked them up “incinerate” his eyes widened and he quickly showed them to Sagi “them…”

“To late for that now” Yuka put in, and Misa scowled at the girl “Hey, Pochi, Dog bogy! Bring those over here!” she ordered, and Sagi, currently in possession of the photos, brought them over and gave them to the girl. Yuka arched her eye-brow and looked at Misa, who wished the floor would open up and swallow her. Yuka might be lazier than dirt, but when it came to gossip she easily took the gold medal. If the whole of Konoha knew by the end of the day Misa wouldn’t be surprised.

“Hey, Misa, you have your protector on in this. How long ago was this taken?” Sagi asked, eyeing the girl then looking back to the picture. “And why would you choose to do that there?”

“Do what where?” Misa asked, her face redder than it had ever been before as she imagined which of the photos Sagi was looking at. “Nothing happened! I swear! I fell over! He tripped and fell on me! Then Kira came by and took a picture! That’s all!”

“Then what are you doing now?” Pochi asked her while Sagi gave Aki a ‘Nice! I can’t believe you got that!’ look, which made the poor boy turn crimson. Misa looked down to realize that she was still sitting on Aki and she immediately jumped away.

“Nothing! I didn’t tie him up! Hakira did! Honest!” At this Kira snorted.

“Not according to this” Yuka said, holding up an incriminating photo.

Misa was saved trying to defend herself and Yuka was saved a severe beating when the door opened and they were called to order. The person giving them their team assignments was Iruka, and Hakira twisted around in her stuck state to look over at him before going back to attempting to free herself via wriggling a lot. It wasn’t working. Thankfully, Aki, who had managed to untie himself, came to her rescue. She fell down into his arms and would’ve kissed him and gone for a kill had he not been so totally off limits to her. Aki was Misa’s, whether Misa knew that or not, and Hakira would not be the one to take him from her.

“Thanks Aki!” she whispered, and quickly seated herself between him and Misa. All three turned forward to face their sensei who was starting to speak.

“From this day forward you are no longer mere students of ninjutsu, you are full fledged shinobi!”

The class let out a collective cheer, cutting off Iruka-sensei’s next comment. He stared at the young ninja until they grew quiet and looked back at him, ready to hear what came next.

“As I was saying” Iruka continued “you are only novices, the lowest of the low, in the shinobi ranks. Your greatest challenges have yet to come. The next step is the assignment of official duties to you all that will benefit our village. To start, I have put you in three man cells that will be led by a jonin, or a more senior ninja. This jonin will coach and teach you as you start out on your new assignments. I have organized the cells according to your strengths and weaknesses, so the teams should be a well balanced mix. There will be no switching cells, so learn to like your teammates” he finished.
Hakira, Aki, and Misa all linked hands, silently praying that they would be put together. They sat through the first few cells, grateful that so far they had not been separated as of yet.

“Cell four will consist of Hatake Misa”

Their hands tightened around each others as the first of the three’s names was called.

“Uchiha Aki”

Aki breathed a sigh of relief and Misa smiled at him before looking back to Iruka and willing the last name to be Hakira’s.

“And”

They all held their breath.

“Inuzuka Sagi”

“WHAT?” Hakira, Aki, and Misa demanded at practically the same time.

“YES! I get to be with hot chick and genius boy!” Sagi exclaimed simultaneously with their outburst.

Iruka, used to complaints about teams by now, ignored the outburst and continued to read off his sheet. While he did this, Misa and Aki tried to console Hakira while keeping half an ear out for their friends name.

“It doesn’t matter, Hakira, we’ll still hang out all the time. It’s not like this will change anything really” Misa assured her.

“Yeah, but now I’m probably going to get stuck with some idiot and a perv!” Hakira complained “You two I can deal with. I’m used to your stupidity, Misa” she managed to joke, getting a punch in the shoulder for her efforts. It was light though, obviously friendly.

“And Hyuuga Hakira” Iruka finished.

“WHAT?” The three chorused again.

“You’re with me and Pochi, dobe” Yuka informed them, sounding sour but looking quite pleased with her team.

“Oh, well I guess my teams not so bad” Hakira said at the same time that Misa exclaimed

“You poor thing! You got stuck with that pig? Well, at least you have Pochi, he’s decent…”

“What’s so wrong with Yuka? She’s smart. Why do you two hate each other anyway, Misa-chan?” Hakira asked.

“Yeah. What’s up with that, Yuka?” Pochi asked the lazy blonde.

“It’s a… family matter…” they both said at the same time, then glared at each other for doing so.

“Ahem!” Iruka coughed.

“Sorry Sensei!” they all said.

“Your senior ninjutsu instructors will be introduced to you this afternoon. Till then… you are free to go!” He told them.

“Hey, I’m starving, let’s go eat!” Hakira exclaimed. “My treat” she added when Misa and Aki started digging in their pockets, looking for spare change. “What do you guys want?”

Misa and Aki looked at each other, then looked at Hakira.

“RAMEN! RAMEN! RAMEN!” They chanted in unison.

“Do you eat anything other than ramen?” Hakira asked with a groan.

“Why would you need to?” Aki asked her, looking at his friend like she was stupid or something.

“Yeah, Kira, your own dad even says that ‘Ramen is close to godliness’ doesn’t he? It’s truly tragic that you’re allergic” Misa put in, and Aki nodded solemnly.

“Whatever” Hakira said, rolling her eyes “We’ll go to the Ramen shop, but we have to stop somewhere so that I can pick up something to eat too” she decided. The others nodded, and they headed off for their last meal before they met their new teachers.


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AN: Well, that was chapter two. Did you like it? Hate it? Please let me know in a review. Even if it’s just an ‘it was awesome!’ or an ‘I hated it!’ I’d still like to get a review. If you do have criticism – which I know you do – I’d love to hear it, because I’m always trying to improve my writing. I’m hoping to get at least two reviews before I post the next chapter, but even if I don’t get any I’ll probably upload it by Saturday morning because I’m too nice to withhold anything from you people.

AN: Chapter three! The last two chapters were pretty short, so I tried to compensate by nearly doubling the last chapter. Sorry it took so long to get up! I've been hecka buisy right now... Keep reading and please, please review!

Enjoy!

OC Character guide:

Cell Four:

Jonin in charge: Konohamaru

Hatake Misa – Daughter of Sakura and Kakashi. No crushes to report at this time.

Uchiha Aki – Son of Sasuke and Temari’s, brother to Kima. Still won‘t admit he likes Misa.

Inuzuka Sagi – Son of Kiba and Tenten. Works with Ika, a shiba inu pup. Likes Misa.

Cell Twelve:

Jonin in charge: Uchiha Kima

Uchiha Kima: Daughter of Sasuke and Temari, blonde hair with ends dyed black, has Sharaingan.

Hyuuga Hakira – Daughter of Naruto and Hinata. Flirts with any male that walks. Has byakugan.

Nara Yuka – Daughter of Shikamaru and Ino. No interest in male gender.

Pochi – Adopted son of Gaara and Lee. Crush on Hakira

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“It’s afternoon! Where’s Iruka-sensei and the jonin?”Misa asked, hopping from foot to foot in anticipation.

“Calm down. I’m sure they’re coming, in the mean time… could you shut up? I’m trying to sleep” Yuka responded with a yawn.

“Oh. Am I bothering you?” Misa asked, walking over and sitting on the girls desk. “How about now?” she sang, banging her feet into the table as she did so. “Is this better?” she sang the last part to, forcing her voice freakishly high on the ‘ter’ part of the sentence.

“What is wrong with you, dobe? LEAVE ME ALONE!”Yuka demanded.

“Aww, let her be, Misa” Hakira said from across the room. Yuka smiled at the girl in thanks, then dropped her head back onto her arms. Misa nodded, kicking the table one last time for good measure.

“See ya Yuka” she said too-sweetly. Yuka looked up, glared at Misa, then returned to her would-be-nap.

She just wasn’t going to get the nap though, it seemed. Just as she lay her head down a second time the door flew open and Sagi and Ika burst in.

“Are we late?” Sagi demanded to know, then was knocked over as Pochi barreled into the room.

“Sorry Sensei! It was all Sagi’s fault! I swe- oh. No one’s here. We’re good, Sagi” Pochi said, looking around with relief.

“I give up. There’s no way I’m going to catch any z’s with you people around” Yuka said, looking darkly at everyone.

“Sorry, Yuka,” Hakira put in

“I’m not” Misa interrupted her

Hakira ignored the interruption “but you shouldn’t be sleeping anyway”

“It’s true, you should get your lazy ass up and do something from time to time. Otherwise you’ll sleep through something important. One of these days I’ll be forced to take advantage of you and tattoo something on your face.” Misa told her matter of factly as she returned to her seat with Aki and Hakira.

“Whatever, dobe” Yuka said with a roll of her eyes. She returned to napping position.

“Someone should get her a do not disturb sign that she can hang on her neck when she’s sleeping” Sagi suggested with a quirky smile. He looked at Misa to see if he had gotten a reaction, but the girl had gone completely stiff.

“Aw, come on, my jokes aren’t that bad!” He exclaimed.

Ika barked.

“What? You little traitor! You’re supposed to agree with me!”

Hakira stifled a snort of laughter at that.

“No offense, Sagi, but your jokes really are bad…” she put in.

“They are not!” Sagi argued.

Ika barked in disagreement, and Hakira just shook her head sadly.

“Hey… what’s up with Misa?” Pochi asked, repeatedly poking the girl in the side of the head.

“Don’t poke her!” Aki growled at the adoptee.

“Hey, Aki! I was just asking a question!” Pochi said, raising his hands defensively.

“I’m not supposed to fight with family, so I won’t hurt you” Aki said, still glaring at the boy. ‘That and I don’t want Uncle Gaara mad at me’ he added mentally.

Misa, who had been standing as still as stone all this time except for the rise and fall of her chest from breathing, suddenly shuddered, and slid down to the floor, gasping. Across the room Yuka sat up suddenly, gasping herself, a thin layer of sweat visible on her forehead.

“You idiot!” Misa yelled, apparently at Yuka. “What were you doing? You can’t use that jutsu properly yet and you go on using it on me of all people? Idiot! You should know that you mother couldn’t hold mine with that and you won’t be able to hold me, baka! You could’ve got us both killed! Bitch!“ Misa’s hand flicked out and Yuka cried out as a line of blood appeared on her cheek, dripping down her face. A needle vibrated in the wall behind the girl who slowly raised one hand to her check, staining her fingers with her blood.

“Girls! Stop this! Now!” Iruka’s voice snapped from the doorway. All of the young ninja looked up to see their old Sensei and a few others in the doorway. “I’m sorry. They… are usually more behaved than this. ” He glared at his students and Misa flushed with embarrassment. Yuka just shrugged it off and yawned.

“So, are we going to be introduced to our cell leaders now?” she asked, obviously not very interested. She looked like she just wanted to get in her nap, which wasn’t looking likely right about now, so she looked generally grumpy.

Misa was back to fidgeting excitedly as she looked over the people – obviously the jonin that were going to train them – behind Iruka-sensei. Hakira had managed to worm her way on Aburame Taro’s lap and was murmuring something to the helpless boy while tracing circles on his chest. Taro himself looked generally shocked and pleased at gaining the attention of the Hyuuga girl. Pochi was watching the two jealously, and it was probably a safe bet to think that Taro would be getting a black eye in the week to come. Sagi, who had previously been arguing with Ika, was now looking at the new arrivals with awe and a bit of fear. Aki was calmly watching them, studying each of their movements, trying to judge strengths and weaknesses. That is… until he saw his sister among them. And that she was holding a small bag. He blinked in surprise and wondered what she was doing here. Surely she was not one of the jonin teachers!

“These are your jonin teachers. I’ll leave them to it and I hope to see you in the future!” Iruka told his students, then headed out the door, leaving the two groups to work things out by themselves.

“Well, I guess I might as well start” one male said, stepping forward. He had black-brown hair that leaned slightly to the right and a dark-blue scarf around his neck. “I’m Konohamaru, and I’ll be leading cell four. “ He looked down at a clipboard he was holding “Hatake Misa, Uchiha Aki, and Inuzuka Sagi, come with me”

Misa jumped up the second ‘cell four’ was out of his mouth, and she was instantly by her new sensei’s side. Aki was a bit slower, still watching his sister as he got up and went to stand by Misa’s side. Sagi was over in an instant, standing close enough to Misa to earn himself a dose of the Uchiha death glare, and for Misa to step away slightly, scootching closer to Aki. Sagi, in turn, stepped in closer to the girl, close enough to feel the heat coming off her. She gave a small ‘Eep!’ and went to Aki’s other side, clinging to his arm. She wasn’t all that comfortable around guys other than her friend, a far cry from the flirtatious Hakira who would go after nearly anyone. Aki’s eyes narrowed as he watched Sagi. He didn’t want anyone coming near his Misa.

“If he does that again do I have permission to hit him?” Aki asked under his breath, not taking his eyes off Sagi. Misa looked at him, a bit shocked, then realized that he couldn’t see her expression.

“No!” Misa snapped, still clinging to his arm. “He’s in our cell, we can’t fight with each other! Besides, I won’t have you getting in a fight on my behalf, Aki!” she told him. Aki nodded, but his eyes displayed a hard glint that contradicted his statement. Misa, totally oblivious to this, let go of Aki’s arm and looked up to Konohamaru.

“Sensei? Are we going to go?” she asked. Konohamaru nodded and started out. Misa slipped in behind him, and Sagi tried to follow suit but was cut off by Aki. Ika growled and Sagi glared at the Uchiha as he did this.

“Oh! Aki! Before you go!” A female voice came from the door. Uchiha Kima stepped from the group of jonin at the door and held forth a small bag, which Aki stared at. “Mom told me to give this to you” she explained, and Aki took the bag silently with a shallow nod. Hakira, her byakugan activated, stared at the bag, then cracked up. Aki took a look inside it and reddened. Sagi’s eyes widened. He had to see what was in that bag.

“Good luck!”Kima ruffled her little brother’s hair, causing Aki to glower “Don’t let him walk over you, Konohamaru” she added with a smile then stepped forward to face the entire class. “Well, I guess I’ll go next” she decided. “I’m Uchiha Kima, and I’ll be leading cell twelve”

“Whoa… Aki’s sister is my new sensei? Sweet!” Hakira said, letting her eyes go back to normal as her laughter died down.

“We got a nice sensei! Awesome!” Pochi added onto the Hyuuga’s comment.

“Shaddup!” Kima snapped. “I was talking! Now, I want Nara Yuka, Pochi, and Hyuuga Hakira to meet me on the head of the third Hokage in seven minutes. Don’t be late.” She ordered, glaring briefly at the two who had interrupted her before turning and exiting the room. Pochi and Hakira looked at each other with wide eyes, and then took off running, Hakira not sparing Taro a second glance. Yuka yawned before standing up and following her new teammates out.



---



Cell four was sitting on the posts of training ground eight, and their sensei was perched up in a tree. They each held a takeout bowl of ramen, courtesy of their Konohamaru. Well, Sagi and Konohamaru both had bowls of ramen, Misa and Aki had finished theirs shortly after receiving it.

“Why don’t we start by getting to know each other?” Konohamaru suggested. “We’ll go around and you can each tell us your name, your likes and dislikes, and your dreams” he pointed to Misa “You go first”

“Erm… Okay” Misa said with a shrug. “I’m Hatake Misa, and I like learning new jutsu, and ramen. I dislike… Oh! I know! I dislike when boys stare at me! It’s annoying! Why do people do that? Don’t they know staring is rude? As for my dreams… hmm… I guess I want to be the best konoichi I can be, even better than my mother.”

Konohamaru nodded, then looked to Aki, next in line.

“I’m Uchiha Aki, I like ramen and training with my father, Sasuke. I hate it when people mess with my friends” he sent a glare in Sagi’s direction “and my dream… is none of your business”

Konohamaru looked with interest at the boy, then turned to Sagi.

“Kay, I’m Inuzuka Sagi, and this is Ika.”

Ika barked twice

“Ika likes rawhide and long walks. I like Misa. Please, Misa, will you go out wi-” he wasn’t able to finish due to a fist connecting with his jaw. His half-full bowl of ramen flew from his hands, landing on Konohamaru’s head as Aki kicked him in the gut. Hard. He went flying off the post and into a tree.

“YOU LEAVE MISA ALONE!” he snarled. Ika, at her master’s side in an instant, leaped at Aki, latching onto his left arm and refusing to loosen her grip. Aki winced in pain, swinging his arm so that the dog bashed into a post. Ika yelped and let go, whining in pain. Sagi growled and leapt at Aki, and the two grappled for a second, then broke apart and began to circle one another.

“AKI! SAGI! Stop it!” Misa screeched at the two of them, jumping between the two boys at the same time that Konohamaru moved to stop them. Aki ignored his friend and rushed at Sagi, but was caught as Misa grabbed his arm, skidding a bit in her effort to hold him.

“Aki! Stop this now!” she ordered, re-adjusting her hold so that she held him securely around the waist. Sagi had ran at Aki at the same time that Aki tried to make a move, and now was held back my Konohamaru. Both boys struggled and growled, but it was no use, they were secured, and there was no way in all seven hells Misa and Konohamaru would let them go until they had cooled off a bit. Now they just had to hold the two back while they blew off some steam.

“Misa, why don’t we just tie them up and let them work things out. I don’t want to be here all night. Then I can de-brief you on tomorrows mission, and you can tell them when it’s time to untie them. Work for you?” Konohamaru suggested, starting to carry Sagi over to one of the posts.

“Yup” Misa said with a nod, pulling Aki over to his own post as she did so. “Sorry, Aki. I’ll come back for you in an hour or three.” she promised, tying him to the post with ease. To make it a bit harder to get free she stuffed a few needles in the rope, pinning it to the post. Aki didn’t even notice, he was too busy yelling at Sagi, who was too busy ogling Misa to care. For once, Misa noticed, and she quietly stood up, and walked over to Sagi, who was still staring at her shamelessly. She gave him a small smile and smacked him upside the head before turning and walking back to Konohamaru.

“Well, Sensei, shall we go?’ she asked.

“Yeah, it’ll take these two a while to finish up” Konohamaru told the girl, and the both walked off, leaving Aki and Sagi to shout it out.

---

“Huff huff huff” Pochi and Hakira were both panting hard as they laboriously pulled themselves up the third Hokage’s face. Five minuets in and they were only just above his nose! Yuka was a bit behind, not putting out nearly as much effort. She was directly below Hakira, looking up and watching the girls every move. The result of this was that she didn’t have to look for handholds or food holds, she could just follow the Hyuuga’s moves on her way up.

Hakira looked up to see her new sensei sitting atop the head, looking at her stopwatch then back at her new students. Her grey-booted legs were swinging over open space and her blonde-black hair was blown about with a sudden gust of wind as she looked down at the struggling genin.

“Hurry up, guys, times almost up” she informed them with a cruel smile.

“Ugh” Pochi groaned and pushed himself harder.

“Ow!” Hakira exclaimed as her palm got sliced open on the rock. “Damn it!” she cursed, wiping the blood off on her pants and scrambling up the head with increased speed, determination in her eyes.

“How troublesome” Yuka said with a sigh, stealing her father’s line as she continued up the rock at her original pace.



Two Minutes Later



“Made it!” Hakira exclaimed, finding a flat spot and falling onto her back, panting.

“Just in time too” Pochi agreed, coming to sit next to the Hyuuga girl. After a moment Hakira sat up again, reaching into the bag strapped to her leg and pulling out some bandages.

“Geez, I thought I wouldn’t need this at least until our first mission!” she exclaimed as she wiped the blood off on her pants once again then began to wrap her palm up.

“Here, let me do that, you won’t get it tight enough” Yuka said, coming up behind the two to sit with them and lean against one of the spikes of hair.

“Thanks Yuka” Hakira said with a smile, putting her hand forward so the girl could help her out with it.

“It’s no trouble” Yuka assured her, returning the smile. Just then, their sensei poofed in front of them with some smoke, which was either for effect or was just part of the jutsu.

“You made it. I’m surprised” Kima informed them, placing her hands on her hips as she looked over the three. “Hmm… you know what sounds good right about now? Ramen” she informed them. Hakira grimaced, what was with people and ramen? She just didn’t get it! Yuka could care less and just continued to wrap up Hakira’s hand. Pochi, however, smiled and nodded.

“Yes, ramen sounds excellent!” he agreed.

“It certainly does. I think I’ll get some” Kima told the boy, then looked over at her two other students, one who looked annoyed and one who just didn’t seem to care. ”Well, I’m going to go get some lunch. Wait here” she told them, then formed a seal and poofed away again, leaving behind nothing but some smoke.

“…”

The three looked at each other.

“Did she just leave us to eat lunch?” Hakira asked, looking dumbfounded.

“Looks like it” Pochi said. Yuka nodded.

“Damn it! I’m hungry too! She can’t do this to us!” Hakira growled, looking extremely pissed. “What are we going to do while she gets to eat? This is so not fair!” she ranted.

“Um… I have food, if you’d like some, Hakira” Pochi offered at the same time that Yuka held forward a bag.

“Here, Hakira” the girl said “I have too much anyway.”

“Thanks guys, I’m really not that hungry though. I’m just mad at her for ditching us like that. I can’t stand when people do that kind of thing.” Hakira explained. “It’s like she’s trying to make us hate her or something! Oh, and you can call me Kira, most everyone else does. I’m really starting to think that they named me Hakira just to keep with the naming tradition. Only Neji’s really broken it. Everyone else in the Hyuuga family has a name that starts with ‘Hi’ or ‘Ha’ it seems…”

---

Misa shook her head in annoyance as she started at the two boys. She had left them there an hour ago, and they were still going at it!

“YOU PERVERTED FREAK!” Aki was in the middle of shouting “IF YOU EVER SO MUCH AS LOOK AT MY MISA, I’LL MAKE IT SO YOU WON’T SEE ANYTHING EVER AGAIN!”

“OH, I’M THE PERVERTED ONE, AM I?” Sagi yelled over him “YOU’RE THE ONE TALKING ABOUT HER LIKE SHE’S PROPERTY ‘MY MISA’ THIS AND ‘MY MISA’ THAT”

“YOU MAKE ME SICK!” They declared in unison, then stopped to take gasping breath. During this time they noticed the subject of their shouting match had come back.

“Oh, hey Misa!” They said in unison, then looked at each other and growled. Misa gave one of those ‘I really don’t have the time or the patience to deal with this right now’ sigh as she looked at the two boys.

“I’m supposed to untie you now, but if you start fighting again I have permission to tie you up, gag you, strip you, and leave you here till tomorrow” she threatened as she went untie Sagi, quickly undoing the not. “Konohamaru-sensei wants you, he’s in the next training ground over” she informed him, then went to sit next to Aki.

Sagi nodded, though he looked reluctant to go. Aki was glaring daggers at him, and Misa was watching him, waiting for him to leave, so he grabbed the brown paper-bag that was slumped next to one of the posts, whistled to Ika, and started off, the pup trotting after him.

“Hey, aren’t you going to untie me too?!” Aki asked, feeling stupid for being attached to the post.

“Sorry, Aki, sensei’s orders. I can’t let you go till Sagi comes back. You’ll understand when you go to talk to him” Misa explained, then she pulled out a bag of something good smelling and held it out to Aki. “Want some?” she asked “I dropped by your house to let your parents know you’d be coming back late, and they gave me free food. Your dad’s a really good cook! I’m envious, both of my parents are terrible in the kitchen!”

---

After two and a half hours of waiting on top of the one-time Hokage’s head, cell twelve was starting to wonder where in hell their new teacher was. Hakira, hand now wrapped up, was practically steaming she was so angry. She had been pissed to start with, and now that their teacher had been gone for way longer than a lunch break should take, so her anger level had risen quite a bit. Not to mention now she actually was hungry, but she didn’t want to take her – entirely willing – teammate’s food, they would be hungry too, after all. Thing was, Hakira was on a new binge diet, and so she hadn’t exactly eaten a lot in the last few days, and missing a meal was taking its toll on her. More importantly, when Hakira got hungry she got irritable and the hungrier she was the worse her attitude got, so two and a half hours past her usual lunchtime she was about ready to blow.

“Kira, please, just eat something!” Pochi insisted, pushing some of his food toward her. Hakira shook her head, though her stomach growled a bit. She was starving, but she couldn’t take his food.

“Stop waving that in front me, Pochi!” Hakira snapped at the boy. If he had been a dog he would have his ears down and tail between his legs. “I don’t want your food!” she insisted, though her stomach said something else entirely.

“Kira, take it” Yuka said, shoving something in a green container in her face. “Its naruto(1), you like those, don’t you?” In fact, naruto was Hakira’s favorite food, as Yuka had discovered one day when she had been… passing by Hakira’s house… for about three hours. “Go on, take it. I won’t eat it, and it’d be a shame for it to go to waste.” Yuka added. Hakira’s eyes followed the naruto, trying to hold back.

‘Remember your diet! Remember your diet!’ she told herself mentally, but the temptation proved too great.

“Yes… that would be a shame,” she said taking the food and smiling at Yuka. “and naruto is my favorite. Thanks Yuka” Hakira said, diving into the fishy cakes. Yuka smiled and shrugged, happy to have been of use to the Hyuuga girl. Pochi, on the other hand, looked a bit left out. He had been the one that wanted to give Hakira food! Oh well, he would have other chances to please the girl.

“Well, I see you three have made yourselves comfortable. Stuffing our face, are we?” Kima asked, perched atop one large spike of hair as she looked down at the three genin. Hakira looked at her food, of which she had only taken a bite. She dropped the green dish instantly and began stumbling out excuses, but Kima raised her hand for silence. She didn’t want to hear it.

“Look, I’m supposed to ask all of you your likes, dislikes, and dreams,” Kima explained, jumping down to land silently among them. “So let’s get it over with. Name, what you like, what you hate, what your dream is. Pig” she looked at Hakira “You go first. Then the sloth,” her gaze turned on Yuka before sliding over to Pochi. “And we’ll end it with lover-boy here.” She turned back to the Hyuuga. “Go”

“Oh… okay. I’m Hyuuga Hakira. I like boys. Hot ones, of course. I like Aki, but he’s taken, so… yeah. I also like byakugan training with my uncle Neji. He’s not really my uncle, but I call him that…” she would’ve gone on except that Kima gave her a hard stare that sent shivers down her spine. “Dislikes, right. I hate it when people get in my way, and I won’t let anyone upstage me. As for my dreams…” she reddened, looked off into space, and giggled.

“… Right” was all Kima had to say. “Well… sloth, you’re next”

“I’m Nara Yuka, and this is all troublesome” Yuka responded with a yawn. Kima almost agreed with her, but turned to Pochi instead.

“I’m Pochi, I like…” he looked at Hakira, reddened “stuff. I dislike Taro, he’s way to close to those stupid bugs for it to be normal… and as for my dreams… Well… I don’t know. I’ll see where life takes me I guess” he finished off. Kima nodded.

“Great, now…”

“Kima-sensei, what about you?” Hakira asked.

“Right. Me. I’m Uchiha Kima, I dislike people who ask questions” Kima snapped. “Now. Meet me tomorrow at training ground six. Five am. Don’t be late, or… let’s just say I won’t be pleased.” She started to walk down the stone Hokage’s face, then turned back to look at them once more. “Oh, and no breakfast 4 joo!!!”(2) she snapped. “If you puke, you have to clean it up. And you won’t be allowed to use your hands” she told them, then walked down the face and off toward her home, leaving the three genin to stare after her, and then at each other.

---

1 – ‘naruto’ – a fish paste cake

2 – ‘no breakfast 4 joo!!!’ and actual quote from the actual Uchiha Kima

---

A billion thanks to my editor, Kima, whithout whom this story would be to crappy to read. Check out her story, its great and I loved it, so you should too. She's the one and only Uchiha_Kima who was nice enough to let me use her in this story. Thanks a million, Keems!

---

Next chapter: The sensei’s give the cell’s their first test! They act like they’re ready, but Hakira’s dressed more for clubbing than for training, and Aki and Sagi are too busy trying to kill each other over who gets Misa to work together. Also, why is Misa sneaking out of the house at four in the morning? Why does she keep getting stuck with a guy on top of her? And will she ever get a jacket that fits?

A/N: Chapter fours finally up! Sorry it took so dang long! I was dealing with finals... then x-mas... then x-mas with my other family... then new-years... then I finally finished this and sent if off to be edited. Then I spent a week trying to go through and fix all the stuff my editor pointed out, and wasted three days trying ot find the exact wording of something from the chunin exams. So, yeah. Gomen! I'll try and keep posting chapters at a regular rate, but I don't think I can stick to the one-a-week plan I originally had. You can probably count on one every two weeks though
OC Character guide:
Cell Four:
Jonin in charge: Sarutobi Konohamaru
Hatake Misa – Daughter of Sakura and Kakashi. No crushes to report at this time.
Uchiha Aki – Son of Sasuke and Temari’s, brother to Kima. Still won‘t admit he likes Misa.
Inuzuka Sagi – Son of Kiba and Tenten. Works with Ika, a shiba inu pup. Likes Misa.
Cell Twelve:
Jonin in charge: Uchiha Kima
Uchiha Kima: Daughter of Sasuke and Temari, blonde hair with ends dyed black, has Sharingan.
Hyuuga Hakira – Daughter of Naruto and Hinata. Flirts with any male that walks. Has Byakugan.
Nara Yuka – Daughter of Shikamaru and Ino. No interest in the male gender.
Pochi – Adopted son of Gaara and Lee. Has a crush on Hakira.

---

“Why are we up at four in the morning again?” Hakira complained, yawning as she looked over at a seemingly fully awake Misa.
“I’m up at four because I want to get a jump start on today’s mission. It’s my first, after all, and I want it to go perfectly.” Misa responded, using her fingers to comb her long silvery-pink hair up into a ponytail. That done, she bent down, adjusting her weapons pouch on her leg. She wore an orange-red t-shirt with a white circle on the chest. In place of sleeves it had loose straps that hung around Misa’s arms and did, more or less, nothing to hold the shirt up. The top of her purple tank-top could barely be seen underneath, and her fore-head protector was around her neck. She wore baggy-ish pants that started low on the waist and cut off just under her knee, and had opted for sandals rather than boots today.
“Alright. That explains you. Now why am I up?” Hakira demanded, her yellow hair a chaotic halo around her face.
“Because you have to meet your sensei at five, and you’ll forget if I don’t wake you up.” Misa responded, slipping her needles into their holder on her right arm.
“Right. I wish you could’ve waited a while to wake me up though…” Hakira yawned.
“Kira, you know as well as I do that you take at least an hour to get up in the morning. Besides, I hafta go.” Misa responded. “Do me a favor; wake up Aki when you leave, but not before then. I think he’d freak if he found out what I have in mind. Tell him to meet me in front of the academy.” she added before opening up Hakira’s window and slipping out into the street.
“Right. Wake up Aki. Academy. Got it” Hakira slurred, about to fall back to sleep when a thought suddenly struck her. “Wait! Why are you sneaking out? What do you mean Aki’d ‘freak’? Are you going to meet a boy?” she demanded to know.
“Kira! Shut up! I’m just going to borrow a friend’s nose.” Misa replied. “Aki doesn’t get along well with him, though, so I figure I shouldn’t bring them together until I absolutely have to.” She added and took off down the street, the tak tak tak of her footsteps fading into the distance, leaving Hakira alone with her thoughts of what Misa was really doing.

---

Directly above Hakira’s bedroom, unbeknownst to the two girls below, someone stood at the window, watching Misa sneak out. He strained to catch her conversation with Hakira below, and two coal black eyes widened with surprise, then narrowed with anger. When he was sure Misa wouldn’t be coming back any time soon, he turned from the window and pulled out his clothes and gear for the day. There was no way he would leave his Misa alone with that ill-bread chikan(1). Dressed and with his weapons pouch filled, he slipped out of the upper story window, jumping on top of a lamppost. From there he turned and leapt over to the rooftop, which he ran along swiftly and as silently as he could, eyes scanning the ground for a sign of Misa.

---

Knock knock
Misa stood out in front of the Inuzuka home front door, wishing that the early morning fog would clear out because she was freezing! She did an awkward dance-like thing, hopping from foot to foot and shivering a bit, trying to keep warm. She nearly screamed when a loud growling came from her right, but it was only Akamaru, and she just had to stick her hand out for him to sniff and he recognized her. She could hear footsteps coming from inside, and let out a sigh of relief. Her breath came out in a puff of steam as she waited, rubbing her arms with her hands in an attempt to create heat-making friction.
“Four in the morning! Who the he- Misa? Is everything all right?” Inuzuka Kiba stood in front of her, looking like he had just been woken up from a particularly good dream.
“N-nothing’s wrong,” Misa managed through chattering teeth “I n-n-n-need to t-talk to S-Sagi and Ika, about our m-m-mission t-t-today.” she told him. Kiba nodded, stifling a yawn.
“Right. I’ll go wake him up, then.” Kiba said, stepping aside to make room for Misa “Come inside, Misa. What the hell were you thinking, wearing that? You’ll freeze.”
“Arigato, Inuzuka-dono(2).” Misa said, offering him a small bow before stepping inside.
“Call me Kiba. Inuzuka-dono makes me sound old.” Kiba returned, closing the door behind her and then heading off, presumably to go get Sagi. Misa waited in the doorway, getting warm and hoping that Sagi wouldn’t be that mad at her for waking him up so early.
“MISA-CHAN!” Sagi sang, and Misa was knocked into the ground as he tackled her with a hug. Apparently he wasn’t upset at her early arrival.
“Why do I keep ending up in this position?” Misa asked herself. “First Aki in the alleyway, now you!” she tried to get up, but Sagi was still on top of her, and showing no signs of letting her up anytime soon “Uh… Sagi? Could you, like, get off me? This is really not the most comfortable position in the world…”
“Oh! Right! Gomen!” Sagi said, not looking sorry in the least and staying there for a moment longer than necessary before hopping up and offering Misa his hand, which she took, letting him pull her up. Sagi didn’t stop there though, he pulled her into a hug as well.
“You can let go of me now” Misa said, and Sagi let go, blushing.
“Misa? I brought you a coat you can borrow when you leave.” Kiba’s voice came from the other room as he came to join them. “I don’t want you freezing out there. You’re staying with Hinata, right? She can give it back to me next time we get a mission”
“Arigato, Inuzu-er…Kiba-san!” Misa said, taking the coat gratefully. “But I won’t be going home for a while. That’s why I came here. We need to go; we have our first mission today! You don’t mind me borrowing this for that, do you?” she asked.
“Not at all. You’re going on a mission at four in the morning? That’s early…” he commented. “Well, you’d better get that thing on and go.” He added. Misa nodded and slipped the coat on over her head. It was huge. The sleeves went well past her hands, her head was nearly lost in the neck and hood of the thing, and the body of it ended somewhere past her knees.
“Somehow, I don’t think this is going to work…” Misa’s voice came from inside the hood. “I’ll warm up if I move enough.” She added, slipping the coat off. “Thanks for the offer though.” She handed the coat back. “Well, we really should get going, before sensei’s trail gets cold and Ika can’t track him. Let’s go, Sagi! Bye Inuzuka-dono! …I mean Kiba-san!” she grabbed Sagi’s wrist and led him out the door, Ika following behind. They were about half way down the street when Misa started shivering again.
“Misa, your cold!” Sagi observed. “Here, take my coat.”
“N-no. I’m f-fine! I swear!” Misa insisted, the chattering of her teeth contradicting her statement.
“No, you’re freezing!” Sagi exclaimed “I’m not having you get cold, Misa. We’re a team now, I can’t have my teammate getting cold, can I? You can use my jacket, it’ll fit well enough, and I don’t really need it, anyways.” He took off the coat and held it out to her.
“Sagi, I c-couldn’t! You’ll –” Misa began to protest.
“I’ll be fine,” Sagi cut her off, dumping the coat on her shoulders. “Take it, you need it more.”
“O-okay” she managed, her stuttering no longer because of the cold. She slipped her arms through the sleeves, which came up to Sagi’s elbows, but fell half way to her wrists, the body of the jacket fell down to her mid thigh. She smiled at Sagi, slipping the hood on so that it fell almost over her eyes, but leaving it un-zipped. Sagi returned her smile, taking a chance and slipping his arm around her shoulders.
“Arigato, Sagi. I’m warmer already!” Misa said, ducking under his arm and taking a few steps away from him. “Now come on! We need to find the trail and where it leads to before we meet up with Aki.”
“Aki’s not coming with us?” Sagi asked, surprise and pleasure in his voice.
“Nope. You two don’t seem to get along to well, so I figured I’d go with you to find the trail, and maybe if you found it he’d stop being so mean to you…and maybe you’d try and be nicer to him as well. I don’t like it when you fight, we’re supposed to be on the same team, and we’ll never be as good as we can be if you two are always arguing. We need to work together. Also, I know he’s been working himself so hard, trying to get his sharingan and training enough for all three of us. He could use some rest, even if he’ll never admit it. I have to look out for him…God knows he won’t.” Misa finished.
“You really care about Aki, dontcha?” Sagi asked, looking a little downtrodden at this.
“Of course. He’s my best friend, how could I not?” Misa asked. “I love Aki.” Sagi stiffened, and on the rooftop above the two genin, so did Aki. “He’s like my brother.” she continued. Sagi looked quite relieved at this, though Aki’s face took on a pained look.
“Your brother, hun?” Sagi asked, much more relaxed now as he followed Ika. “That’s… nice. Sweet.” He said with a small smile. Suddenly, Ika barked. “Looks like we found the trail!”

---

“Aki?” Hakira called, knocking on his door before peeking her head in. The Uchiha boy was nowhere to be seen. “Must’ve left already…” Hakira said a dismissive shrug. “Less work for me.” she said with a shrug, then turned and left, heading for the front door. She had already left a note for her parents on the kitchen table, even though they knew she was leaving early for her first mission anyway, and so she felt as if she had pretty much everything taken care of as she stepped out into the cold morning air. Hakira yawned and wrapped her arms around herself, stifling a shiver. Who knew it was so cold out at five AM? She headed down toward the end of the street where two silhouettes, one male and one distinctively female. Hakira picked up the pace until she was running towards the two.
“Hey, thanks for waiting up for me.” she smiled at Yuka and Pochi, slowing to a walk.
“No problem, Kira.” Pochi said, returning the smile. “We were starting to get worried though, if you had taken a bit longer we would’ve had to come get you. Can’t be late for our first mission!”
Yuka yawned. “Yeah, well, let’s get going, or we will be late.” she said, turning onto the main street.
“Right.” Hakira said with a nod, heading after the lazy girl. The three walked in silence for a while, enjoying the morning stillness and each other’s company.
“It’s so quiet in the morning!” Hakira observed “Like we’re the only ones in the world. It’s… nice, actually.”
“Yup, sure is. Almost as relaxing as cloud watching…” Yuka commented.
“I wonder if all mornings are quiet like this… It’d be nice if they were, but I don’t think I want to get up early enough to find out…” Hakira stated. Pochi laughed.
“Yeah, me neither. I don’t know how my dad stays up all the time. I can barely wake up early.” he informed them. The conversation faded out into nothing once more, and the three of them walked on in companionable silence, the occasional yawn interrupting the morning stillness. Yuka looked down at Hakira’s feet and raised an eyebrow questioningly.
“Uh… Kira?” she asked.
“Yeah?” Hakira asked, turning to look at the perplexed Yuka.
“How the heck are you going to do anything wearing those?” she looked pointedly at Hakira’s knee-high stiletto-heeled boots.
“I’ll be fine, I wear heels all the time, how hard could it be to go on a mission in them?” Hakira asked with a confident smile. “Besides, they’re brand new, I had to wear them! I’m sure they’ll be useful when it’s time to kick someone in the face, too.” She added, as a heel to the face would definitely be quite painful and could possibly take out an eye. That alone made it all right for her to wear the stylish, yet completely impractical, boots on her first mission. By this time, they had reached the specified training ground and so they stopped and looked around.
“Hey, where is she?” Pochi asked.
“It’s still four to five…” Hakira informed him, climbing up into a tree, shoving her heels into the bark for leverage, and sitting on a lower branch. “So she still has time.”
“She’s going to be late again…” Yuka predicted. “She’s probably trying to unify us by getting us to hate her or something. Wake me up when she shows, ‘kay?” the girl asked, laying out under the tree and putting her arms behind her head. With a yawn and a relaxed sigh she closed her eyes, the image of Hakira above her in the tree the last thing she saw for a couple hours.

---

Bark! Bark! Grrr… Ika was flipping out over something she had sniffed. Misa and Sagi had been following the dog at a pretty leisurely pace when the pup started barking her head off.
“Wait, slow down, what?” Sagi asked, crouching next to the small pup and the dog repeated her barking more slowly.
“What is it, Sagi?” Misa asked, bending down over him to look at Ika inquisitively.
“Says she found some new scent.” Sagi explained.
“So? Somebody crossed Konohamaru-sensei’s path. No big deal.” Misa said with a shrug.
“She says it’s like nothing she’s ever smelled before. She can smell Konohamaru-sensei, then a bit of his blood, like he cut himself or something, then this new scent. It’s…not human.” Sagi elaborated.
“Oh! That’s strange… I wonder what it was… is…?” Misa pondered aloud.
“It’s obviously his summon.” came a voice from up above them. “What are you two doing up, all alone, at four forty-five in the morning, anyway?” the voice continued, its owner jumping from the light he had been on to land in between Misa and Sagi. Sagi glared at him, and looked about ready to take a swing at the guy for coming between him and Misa when he had been so close to working up the guts to ask her out.
“Aki!” Misa sang, smiling as she hugged the boy tightly before stepping back again. “What are you doing up? I asked Hakira to tell you to meet us at the academy at five!”
“I must’ve slipped out before she came to wake me.” Aki said with a shrug, reddening a bit at the hug. “Anyways, I noticed you were gone, so I went to find you.” Aki lied, face completely straight. “You forgot your coat.” he added, holding up Misa’s favorite coat – the light lavender one with a white rose on the back that she liked to wear during winter.
“Aww! Thanks Aki, that’s so sweet of you to think of me!” Misa said, grabbing the coat and giving him a quick peck on the check. Aki turned from pink to beet red at that, but Misa didn’t notice, she was slipping out of Sagi’s over large jacket and into the one Aki had provided for her.
“Here, Sagi” Misa said, holding forth his coat and causing the Inuzuka boy to stop glaring at the Uchiha long enough to look at her, smile, and take the jacket. “Thanks for the loan, I have to admit… I was freezing, and you saved me back there. You must be freezing now.” she added, looking a bit worried – he had been wearing a t-shirt under that thing, he must be cold!
“It’s no big.” Sagi assured her, but he was quick to shrug the jacket back on.
“Well, let’s follow that summon” Aki suggested, stepping between Sagi and Misa once again.
“Right!” Misa said, looking expectantly at Ika.
“… yeah…sure…” Sagi said after a moment, glowering at the Uchiha. He nodded to Ika, who took off, stopping every once in a while, to sniff the ground.

---

Uchiha Kima walked up to look at her group. She sighed when she saw what her team was doing. The yellow-haired one – ‘pig’ she believed she had dubbed her yesterday – was sitting in a tree, painting her nails. ‘Sloth’ – the lazy blonde one – was asleep in the shade of the tree, directly under Hakira. Lastly, Pochi – the one she had dubbed ‘lover boy’ – was wearing himself out doing one-handed, one-legged push-ups.
“Yo…” She said, and the two conscious ones looked up.
“YOU’RE LATE!” Hakira shouted, having a lot of practice with the stuff from yelling at Misa for her tardiness.
“Well, you see, I…uh…” Hakira looked at her and rolled her eyes, she already didn’t believe her excuse. “I…just didn’t feel like getting up at four thirty to get here on time, so I slept in, ate breakfast, then came here. How was your foodless morning?” Kima finished.
Hakira glared at her, her stomach rumbling slightly, but not terribly. She was used to feeling hungry; she had a tendency to starve herself when going on a diet. She jumped down – somehow managing not to kill herself or destroy her new boots – and stepped over to Yuka, who she promptly began to shake awake.
“Sensei’s here.” Hakira informed the girl when she was awake. Yuka blinked and looked up at the sky, trying to judge the time.
“Hmm…earlier than I expected…” She yawned, “How troublesome, I was having a good nap, too…”
“Kima-sensei? What are we doing today?” Pochi asked excitedly, eager to start . Kima’s only response was to chuck a small box about the size of a brick at his face. Pochi fumbled the object then caught it. Hakira skipped over to look at the box.
“What is it?” She asked, looking up at the Uchiha girl questioningly.
“Your mission.” Kima responded. The two gave her blank looks. Kima sighed. “You have to-”
“Defend the box and whatever’s inside…” Yuka finished for her. She looked to Kima, who nodded and waited for her to go on. “Well, a large majority of missions are going to be defending something or someone. This is obviously a simulation of that, where it’s our job to defend the box, and Kima-sensei will be trying to take it from us. We’ll probably have some time constraint too. Like we have to keep it till…” she paused and looked at Kima.
“Noon.” Kima informed them.
“Great! So when do we start?” Hakira asked.
“Right about…now!” Kima declared, lunging at Pochi, kunai in hand. He yelped and leapt back.
“Scatter!” Yuka ordered, suddenly much more energetic than usual. Pochi a Hakira nodded, both shooting into the trees. Yuka watched their directions and then shot back herself, immediately moving around as silently as possible to where Pochi had leapt to. It didn’t take long, as she had memorized where the other two had headed, she soon was in sight of Pochi, and he almost called out her name. She shot forward, covering his mouth with her hand and rolling her eyes. When she felt he would stay quiet she removed her hand then signaled him to follow her. He nodded, and they started sneaking through the trees to get Hakira.
It didn’t take them long to find her either, Yuka had spent long enough following the girl that it was no longer a challenge. When they were close enough for her to see them, they both raised a finger to their lips for silence. Misa hurried over to the two of them so that she was close enough to catch the exaggerated movement of Yuka’s lips.
‘We have to go find a good place for defense. Somewhere we can get our backs protected…’ Yuka mouthed, the other two both nodded, then thought for a second or so. Suddenly Hakira looked up, smiling.
‘Follow me, I know a good place!’ she informed them. They both looked to Yuka for approval, it seemed that the lazy genius – or not so lazy, it seemed, when it came to important matters – had taken on the role of team leader for the three of them without even really asking for it. It just seemed natural. She was the best at strategy after all.

---

“It’s almost dawn! Damn it!” Misa cursed. “Can’t we pick up the pace? We have to find Konohamaru-sensei by dawn!” she told the other two who, by the looks on their faces, had no idea about this little fact.
“When were you planning on telling us this?” Aki asked her.
“Oh… Sensei didn’t tell you? I thought he had…” Misa said with an innocent shrug. “He told me that we had to find him by dawn, and that we had to get three things from him by noon, though he didn’t tell me what we had to get. What did he tell you guys?”
“He told me what his summon looked like, and he gave me this.” Aki said, holding up a small patch of red fur. “I figured it would be useful, so I brought it along.”
“He showed me three scrolls and which one belongs to each one of us. He also told me some random facts about monkeys…” Sagi said with a shrug “He also told me to try and get along with Aki…” he added. Aki nodded.
“Yeah, he told me to try and get along with you as well.” He told Sagi.
“Oh, he just told me not to let you kill each other.” Misa put in with a smile. Then she looked at the sky and her expression became anxious. “We should hurry up.” she added and the other two broke off another glaring match they had apparently gotten into to nod at her. “Aki, why don’t you give that fur to Ika to smell, I think that’s the scent were supposed to follow. Sagi, do you think Ika can track it from inside your jacket? We’ll cover more ground quicker that way.” Misa said. Aki held out the clump of fur for Ika to sniff and Sagi looked to Misa and nodded.
“Yes,” he told her “She should be able to.”
“Good. Then let’s get going!” Misa ordered, taking charge before the boys could begin to argue. Sagi picked up Ika and she hopped into his coat, peeking her head out and sniffing the air. “Everybody ready?” Misa asked. Aki nodded, Sagi smiled, and Ika barked. Then they shot off, flying through the streets as fast as their legs – and chakra – could take them.

---

“This is an ideal spot. Good work, Kira.” Yuka whispered, surveying the area with satisfaction. They stood in a clearing boxed in by trees on three sides and a cliff on the fourth. The cliff was pretty un-climbable, so Yuka was pretty sure they could count on being safe. She wasn’t one-hundred percent sure, though so she continued to look up there from time to time, just in case.
“Thanks, Yuka. I come here all the time. There’s this one hole like thing in the cliff, and it’s real cozy, just big enough for two if you don’t mind getting close. It’s where I go when I want to be left alone.” Hakira informed them. “It’s pretty easy to defend, I’d suspect, so I thought we might give it a try.” She added. Yuka nodded.
“Yes, I think we shall use it” Yuka said, taking the box from Aki and stuffing it as far in the small oddly spiral hole in the cliff as it would go. “Pochi, you’ve probably got the most stamina of any of us. You’ll be our front line defense. I want you in the trees, and I don’t want sensei getting as far as this clearing. If she does manage to get past you, howl to warn us. It’ll travel faster than a shout.” Pochi nodded in understanding and ran off to his new post. “Misa, you’re our powerhouse, and you’ve got the byakugan. You’ve got the best chance of holding out against Kima-sensei for a long amount of time, so you’ll be our last resort. I want you right in front of that hole. No. I want you in the hole, but be ready to jump out at any time. I’m best at detaining people, so I’ll try and slow Kima-sensei down if she gets past Pochi. Kira, as soon as you hear me fighting I want you to take the box and run. Remember, we have to keep it safe, no matter what happens to us, the mission comes first. That’s how things work.” Yuka informed her with a hard stare. Hakira nodded and started off to the hole and the box. “Oh, and Kira?” Yuka asked as an afterthought. “Take off those boots, there’s no way you’ll be able to fight in them.”
“B-but -” Hakira began to protest, but she cut herself off with a small scream as there was a crack from the vicinity of her left foot and she fell to the floor. “Damn it! These things were new!” she complained, looking at her broken heel.
“So why’d you wear them on a mission?” Yuka asked, arching an eyebrow.
“Why? ’Cuz they’re cute!” Kira responded, un-zipping the boots and stuffing them with the box in the hole. “And they hurt like heck when you get kicked with ‘em!” She smiled at Yuka and took up her position. Yuka returned Hakira’s smile with one of her own, it was thing, sad, almost longing as she looked at the girl. Then she turned away and started for the trees, going halfway between where Pochi had headed and the other end of the clearing.
“As soon as you hear Pochi’s howl I want you to run. I’ll slow Kima-sensei down and buy you as much time as I can, but I don’t want you to waste a second. Get as far as you can, keep your byakugan activated so you can see if she’s pursuing you.” She ordered, then disappeared into the trees, hopping up into one, just out of view.
Hakira sat down, holding the box and examining it. It seemed lighter than before for some reason, but she just shrugged it off. She hadn’t really gotten to hold it for that long, so she was probably just imagining things. She put the box back and took out her kunai, just in case.

---

Yuka was climbing higher in her tree, trying to get a wider view, when she saw Kima walking through the forest below her. ‘She must’ve already gotten past Pochi. But why didn’t he warn us?’ Yuka wondered. But it didn’t matter. There were plenty of ways to keep him from warning her. More important was stalling Kima and warning Hakira, she knew. The question was how to do it without losing the element of surprise? Suddenly a kunai whizzed through the air, striking her sensei in the back. Yuka gasped as Kima poofed into nothingness, the kunai falling to the ground. Pochi ran up, grabbing the Kunai, Yuka jumped down to join him.
“Yuka!” He said, surprised but seemingly relieved. “She’s using doppelgangers. I got stuck with three of them. That one got away so I tracked it down.” He explained.
“Doppelgangers, hun? Well if that’s the case she must already know where we are, and she sent them to distract us so that she could get to the box. That means she should be…” Yuka gasped. “KIRA!” she screamed, cupping her hands around her mouth. “RUN FOR IT!” she ordered, turning and pelting back to the clearing. By the time she and Pochi got there the two were already facing off. Hakira was bruised a bit, and bleeding from a cut on her forehead and a few on her arms. Her weapons were stuck in trees and the ground around Kima, and after a quick count Yuka realized that she would be all out. That’s when she realized that Hakira was holding onto something, and that something was slightly red, as if it had blood on it. It was the heel of her boot. Further examination revealed that the right boot – the one that had still been intact – was now lying on the ground, heel-less, and Kima’s face was bleeding slightly from a thin scratch along her cheek.
“Just hand over the box, Hakira” Kima told her, “You’re tired, hurt, and you’re nearly out of chakra. You can’t fight anymore, even if you want to. Give it up. So you fail, you can always try again next year. You don’t have any hope defeating me, so you might as well quit.”
“NO!” Hakira snarled, “I will not give up. I will not give in. If I fail, we all fail. I’ll fight till I have nothing left, and even then I’ll keep going! I don’t care what happens to me, I will not let them down. I won’t fail them!” She gripped her heel a bit tighter, then charged at Kima. It was hopeless, they all knew it, but Hakira just didn’t have it in her to give up. It kinda ran in the family.
Kima calmly intercepted the attack, grabbing the hand with the heel in one of her own and twisting the wrist until the make-shift weapon fell from Hakira’s grasp. That done, she yanked the arm down, forced the girl to spin around, and pinned Hakira’s arms to her back one-handed. She held a kunai to the girl’s neck.
“Yuka, Pochi, this is over. Don’t even think of attacking me. I want you to hand me the box, then I’ll let her go.” she said, without turning around. Pochi moved to attack her anyway, but Yuka held out a hand to stop him, then went to the hole and pulled out the box. She carried it over to Kima and held it out.
“I want the real box, Sloth.” Kima said plainly and Yuka scowled at her, but turned and walked off several yards. There, Yuka bent down and pulled up some of the grass. It came up like it a trap door would, a bit of dirt falling into the hole. Yuka pulled the box out and gave it to Kima, giving her a glare that could rival Aki’s.
“Here, sensei.” she said, holding out the box. “Now let Kira go.” She did and Hakira spun out and away from her, looking incredibly angry.
“Why’d you do that? You should’ve kept the box! The mission comes first, you said it yourself!” Hakira snapped, glaring at the blonde and looking incredibly pissed.
“Circumstances change. Before, we wouldn’t have failed, just defeated. We could’ve caught up with you; it wasn’t a life or death. If this were a real mission, that’s what that hostage situation would’ve been. I refuse to lose a team-mate.” Yuka informed her. Kima, standing a few feet off, watched the interaction with approval in her eyes. She couldn’t help but feel that there was hope for these kids yet.

---

The three genin members of cell four stopped dead in their tracks as they came face to face with what had been at the end of the trail. Misa gasped. Ika whimpered and ducked into Sagi’s shirt for protection. Sagi looked at the giant thing and really wished he had paid more attention to what Konohamaru-sensei had told him earlier. Aki just blinked; surprised, yes, but not nearly as much as the others had been.
It was huge. The monkey was about as tall as a grown man, heavily muscled, and his face was marked with scars that showed he had been in a few fierce battles. His fur was a deep burgundy, his eyes were coal black, and his leathery hands gripped the handle of a large, vicious-looking scythe. The summon ‘smiled’ at them, displaying yellowing teeth that looked painfully sharp.
“Sagi?” Misa asked.
“Yes, Misa-chan?”
“You said Konohamaru-sensei told you something about monkeys, right?”
“Yeah…”
She looked up at the giant red primate holding the un-friendly looking scythe, and staring at the three of them with dark humor in its eyes. She had to suppress a shiver.
“What exactly did he say?” she asked.
“I… don’t exactly remember…” Sagi admitted, really wishing he had paid attention now.
“RRRRAGH!” the monkey charged at the three of them, scythe in hand. Misa screamed as Aki shoved her out of the way, leaving Sagi to dodge or get crushed and sliced by the summon.
“Thanks, Aki, but I can take care of myself.” Misa said, jumping away from him and leaping up again as a giant paw slapped down where she was just a second before. Aki looked excessively worried for her, but was forced to take stop worrying about others and more about his situation as a tail flew in his direction.
“Sagi! Remember anything now?!” Misa screeched, jumping away and throwing a shrunken as she did so.
“I don’t know! It was something about pressure points and humans!” Sagi cried back while trying to get Ika away from under the summons feet.
“It’d be really nice if you could hurry up!” She told him.
The monkey swatted at Aki, who just barely managed to jump out of the way, forcing him to quit the jutsu he was about to try. “You’ll never defeat me if you continue to fight with one another!” he told them.
“Oh great. It talks too. What can’t it do?” Misa asked dryly, leaping and twirling away from the monkey’s blows and looking more like she was dancing than dodging. “Sagi! Think! What did he tell you? It’s the only way were going to get past this thing!” the monkey snorted in disapproval. “Er… him… sorry!” she said, then cursed herself for apologizing to the enemy.
“I’m trying! I swear, I’m trying to remember!” Sagi insisted.
“Try harder!” Misa yelled back, jumping up and landing on the monkeys head. He howled in rage and started trying to beat her off his head, managing to hit himself in the process. “Take that!” she growled, focusing her chakra in her fist and punching the monkey hard before leaping back.
“I got it! I remember now!” Sagi told her, “The pressure points… there the same as humans!” he told her, then chucked a food pill to Ika, who caught it with He started going through hand signals.
Misa’s eyes lit up at the new information and she pulled out three needles from her arm guard. Aki watched her do this and smirked. Sagi wasn’t paying as much attention, he was rather busy trying to put a dent or three in their enemy’s skull.
“Jujin Bunshin! Man-Beast Doppelgangers!” Sagi shouted and Ika was enshrouded with smoke long enough for her to transform into a fairly accurate copy of her master, save for the lack of chakra, bestial eyes, and fang-like teeth. Both growled at the large monkey before Sagi uttered something more. “Man-Beast Ultimate Taijutsu! Gatsuuga! Fang Over Fang!” he cried and both boy and dog-turned-bestial-human shot at the primate, two whirling black, grey and white streaks. The monkey howled in pain, openly bleeding from two wounds inflicted by the duo. Ika poofed back into her doggy self and fell into Sagi’s arms, panting. Both looked rather tiered, that was a new technique for them after all. The Inuzuka boy looked up to Misa, a goofy smile upon his face as he tried to see if he had impressed the pinkette.
Misa smirked. “My turn” she said, tightening her grip on the three needles in her left hand. “Aki! I’m gonna need a clear shot! Sagi, you might want to get out of the way” She told the two boys. The Uchiha nodded and got started on the hand signals. Sagi looked up, seeing Aki take in a deep breath, grabbed Ika and ran. Everyone knew of the Uchiha families skill with fire jutsu, and Sagi didn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of those attacks.
“Fire style! Fireball Jutsu!” Aki cried and suddenly flame erupted all around them, destroying the trees around them for some distance.
“Sagi, try an’ get it… er… him a bit closer!” Misa ordered, the boy complied, him and Ika darting around beneath the summons feet, just missing the swipes of the scythe, leading it closer to Misa. She adjusted her grip on her needles, then she chucked the first three. They flew straight and true, but the monkey turned at the last second and they struck him in the chest. She cursed and pulled out another two and threw them. They hit their mark, landing on either side of his cervical vertebrae. Misa then took a flying leap onto the monkeys back. Once there she stomped the needles further in and suddenly the over-grown primate wobbled, then fell to the forest floor. Misa rolled off his back, managing to land under a slow-falling paw. Sagi and Aki were both quick to help her up, but she was faster yet, standing and giving them a look that said ‘I’m fine’ though she winced a bit when she put weight on her left leg.
“Well,” she panted, looking at their handiwork with a pleased expression. “It – or rather, he – is down.”

---

Chikan – pervert/perverted

-dono – a suffix meaning Mr./Sir

Next Chapter: The members of cell twelve have failed their test, but things aren’t over yet! They need to have the box by noon or they’ll be sent back to the academy! Cell twelve have been at it for an hour, and already their test has taken a turn for the worst, but cell four have barely begun! They may have taken down Konohamaru’s summon, but they still have to find and solve the riddle of the scrolls, and that’s not all! Misa and Ika are both hurt from the fight with Konohamaru’s summon, and it’s starting to take its toll on the whole team. Can Aki and Sagi get over their differences enough to pull the three – well, four – through?

Editor’s note: A few mistakes when I was going through it, but it’s a good story so far! I wonder what’ll happen with Team 12? And whose that monkey, you ask? Hopefully Frosty will tell you soon. I’m tired of seeing him referred to as “the monkey” or “it”.

Next Chapter:

A/N: Gomensai! I didn't mean to make you wait that long! First I couldn't find the riddles, then then I couldn't find my insperation, then I couldn't find my editor! I need to get more organized... Well, here it is (unedited - I can't e-mail it to Kima for some reason...) at last. I hope you like! Sorry for the wait!

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters from Naruto. Stop rubbing it in Damnit! I also don’t own Kima, the person or the character. I do, however, own Misa, Aki, Sagi, Hakira, Yuka, Pochi, and the random characters like Taro that show up maybe once or twice during the story. Steal them and you die.

OC Character guide:

Cell Four:

Jonin in charge: Konohamaru

Hatake Misa – Daughter of Sakura and Kakashi. No crushes to report at this time.

Uchiha Aki – Son of Sasuke and Temari, brother to Kima. Still won‘t admit he likes Misa.

Inuzuka Sagi – Son of Kiba and Tenten. Works with Ika, a shiba inu pup. Likes Misa.


Cell Twelve:

Jonin in charge: Uchiha Kima

Uchiha Kima: Daughter of Sasuke and Temari, blonde hair with ends dyed black, has Sharaingan.

Hyuuga Hakira – Daughter of Naruto and Hinata. Flirts with nearly anything male. Has byakugan.

Nara Yuka – Daughter of Shikamaru and Ino. No interest in male gender.

Pochi – GaaLee adoptee. Crush on Hakira

---

“I bet he has the scrolls we’re looking for” Misa said, crouching down beside the giant monkey and reaching for a bag conveniently located on its shoulder. “Probably in here” she added, starting to reach inside the bag. Ika snarled and bit at her hand, causing Misa to yelp and jerk back.

“Sagi! Keep your stupid dog away from Misa!” Aki snapped at the boy, who was looking at Ika with confusion.

“Aki? Shut up” Misa ordered, picking up a stick that had miraculously survived the flames provided by Aki earlier and stuffing it into the mouth of the bag. Nothing happened and Ika started to look as embarrassed as a dog can look. She whined something to Sagi.

“Ika says she’s sorry.” Sagi translated for those of the cell who couldn’t understand the pup. “She thought she smelled something weird with the bag, but she was just freaked out.”

“Right” Misa said, chucking the stick over her shoulder then reaching one hand out to scratch Ika on the head. “It’s no trouble. I know you were just trying to help” she told the dog who barked and licked Misa’s hand before turning back to the large primate and growling. The three genin looked back at it… him… just as one large paws started to move.

“That’s… not good” Misa said, and grabbed the bag, deciding that she didn’t have time to search him. “Let’s move people!” she ordered, darting over the monkey and into the cover of semi-charred tree’s beyond him. The other two – well three – were there before her, probably because neither Aki or Sagi had been hurt in the fight and Ika was being carried.

“Misa? You O.K.?” Aki asked when she had caught up to the other two, putting a hand on Misa’s shoulder and looking at her with a worried expression.

“Hey, Misa, you’re limping! Everything all right?” Sagi asked at the same time, equally concerned. The two boys glared at each other briefly before looking back to their teammate.

“I’m fine. I can walk it off” Misa insisted. Neither looked convinced, but they were forced to stop fretting when she dumped the bag in front of them. “Look, we don’t have time to worry about things like that. I’ll be fine.” She said while digging around in the bag. “Now, Sagi,” she asked, coming up with three scrolls. “Were these the scrolls Konohamaru-sensei showed you last night?” she asked, thrusting them into the dog-boy’s face.

“Uh…” Sagi took the scrolls from Misa and looking them over. Ika sniffed them and barked. “Yeah, they are” he said, chucking one at Aki “Think fast!” he snapped, but didn’t get the pleasure of seeing the scroll smack into the Uchiha’s face, for Aki caught it with ease. After all, he was a ninja. He had to expect the unexpected (1). Aki scowled at Sagi, and Sagi scowled right back before turning and handing one to Misa.

“Why are you giving it back to me? You’re the one he told about the scrolls, didn’t he tell you what to do with them?” she asked, looking at the one he had placed in her hands but not opening it.

“Nope” Sagi said with a shrug. “He just showed me them and told me which belonged to each of us. That one’s yours” he explained, then looked over his once more. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m gonna open mine!” He decided, then started to pull the scroll open. Ika growled low in her throat.

“Sagi no!” Misa exclaimed, but it was too late, he had
already pretty much opened it. Ika, having a bit of trouble believing her masters stupidity but not about to let him get hit with whatever that bad smell on the scroll was, managed to jump out of Sagi’s jacket and rip the scroll from his hands. Unfortunately, that meant that Ika was hit with the full force of the scroll. The little dog yelped then flopped over suddenly, unconscious.

“Ika!” Sagi cried out, sounding pained as he dashed foreword to grab up his dog.

“Stop! Don’t you dare move, Sagi! Everyone, close your eyes!” Misa ordered, shutting her own tightly. Sagi froze, closing his eyes and looking like he’d rather take on the monkey again alone than leave Ika lying there a moment longer. Aki clenched his eyes shut and froze, listening as Misa reached foreword and flipped the scroll over. “Clear!” she declared, opening her eyes and looking down at the harmless back of the scroll. Instantly Sagi was up and by Ika’s side, picking up the small dog and cradling her in his arms.

“She’s out cold.” He said, still looking worriedly at the shiba inu. “What was that thing?”

“The scroll is spelled. My mother told me about them once.” Misa explained. “She had to transport one and steal another during her first time in the Chunin exams. Ika will be fine, but it looks like our tracker is down for the count. Aki, open your scroll facing down. Keep your eyes shut. I want to see what happens.” Misa ordered. Aki complied, closing his eyes and opening the scroll so that whatever was written on it was facing the ground. Nothing happened.

“Great! These could make good weapons. Someone comes up on us and we just open a scroll in their face and knock them out” Misa said, happy about this new development. Sagi looked a bit disappointed that Aki hadn’t been knocked out by the scroll, but he smiled at Misa words anyway.

“That’s a good idea, Misa-chan! I never would’ve thought of that!” He told her.

“Hey, look at this!” Aki said, examining his scroll and being careful not to turn it over. “There’s something written here…” he added.

“Yeah, there’s something written on mine as well!” Misa said, examining the ends of her scroll as Aki was, but a bit more carelessly because hers was still rolled-up. “Weird letters… can’t read ‘em at all. Sagi, roll yours up, see if yours has writing as well.” She ordered and the Inuzuka complied. “Well?”

“Yeah… there is something here… Man! We should’ve checked these out before…” he stated.

“I was about to tell you I had seen the writing before you opened yours up like a bone-headed idiot!” Aki told him. “Now shut up. I’m translating…”


---


“Now we have to assume that she’s anticipating our attack,” Yuka said in a lowered voice. The three were crouched in the brush around the clearing, just out of ear-shot. “The enemy is always more powerful unless proven otherwise. Now, Kira, you are going to be attacking from the right at the same time that I come from the left. We have to distract her and hold her off long enough for Pochi to get the box from her. Once I tell you, I want you to run to his side and we’ll all surround the box. It’s ten minutes till noon, so we only have a little bit of time, but that’s both good and bad. We have less time than I’d like to get that box, but we have to defend it for less time as well.
Ready?” Both nodded and started moving silently to their positions. “Oh, and Kira?” Yuka asked, placing a hand on the girls shoulder to stop her. “It I collapse suddenly out there… just make sure nothing touches my body. I want to try something…” Hakira nodded, then headed off to her position, trailing the thread Yuka had given her over the ground.

It wasn’t long before Yuka felt the first tug. From her left, so Pochi must be ready. A few seconds later she got Hakira’s ‘I’m ready’ tug. Silently counting to three Yuka yanked on both strings hard then charged foreword. She could see Hakira doing the same from the corner of her eye, but Pochi was nowhere in sight. Good, she thought This might actually work… Then she had to focus because she was out of the trees and bearing down on her sensei with no more cover. It was time to win that box back.

Kima didn’t even look surprised as Hakira and Yuka flew at her. Instead she started inconspicuously making hand signs that neither girl was inclined to notice, seeing as they were too busy emptying their weapons arsenal at her. Or, rather, at the log that was in place of where she had been, moments ago. Yuka cursed and Hakira just looked confused. Pochi had been coming out of the trees directly behind their sensei, but now found that Kima was directly behind him.

“Watch out!” Hakira called when she realized the position of Kima, but it was too late for the adopted boy. He spun around, ready to at least go down swinging, when he found himself immobilized, arms pinned behind his back. Hakira gasped and silently cursed their ineptness, admitting defeat as they definitely didn’t have the time to make another attempt at this. Yuka, however, had other things on her mind.

“You should just give up no-” Kima was saying.

“Shintenshin no Jutsu!” Yuka shouted, her sensei’s ‘give up’ speech giving her the perfect opening. Kima had just enough time to mutter ‘crap’ before Yuka’s possession jutsu took effect. Yuka, in control of her sensei for as long as she could hold her, quickly dropped Kima’s arms, and Pochi slipped free, looking confused. Both he and Hakira looked at Yuka’s body, which had collapsed the second she finished saying ‘jutsu.’ Pochi moved to shake her, but Hakira stepped in his way, shaking her head.

“Yuka warned me this might happen, she told me not to touch her” she informed Pochi. “Remember that jutsu she used on Misa yesterday? I think that might be what she’s using. We should grab that box now that Yuka’s holding Kima-sensei”

“Already found it” Kima’s voice came from behind them, causing both to jump and spin around. “It’s me, Yuka” Kima explained. “Pochi, take the box and run as far and fast as you can. Kira, I want you to grab my body. I’m getting tired, not used to this jutsu, can’t hold it much longer. I’m going to let her go, so I want you to grab me and run the second I blink awake, got it?” she asked. Both nodded and Pochi walked foreword and grabbed the box. Nodding to Hakira he darted off into the trees. Hakira ran to Yuka’s body and picked it up. A second or so later Yuka was blinking and looking super worn out, and Kima was looking really pissed and yet pleased at the same time. Hakira didn’t waste any time after that, she lifted Yuka with a grunt at the new weight, threw the exhausted blonde over her shoulder, and ran like hell.

“Four minutes” Yuka murmured.

“What?” Hakira asked, confused by the random comment.

“Four minutes. That’s how long we have.” Yuka explained. “We should go help Pochi. Just one of us has no chance against sensei, we’ve learned that already. He’ll need us. Rather, he’ll need you. I’m not much of a use right about now…” She smiled a bit. “Come on, Kira, let’s go”

“Right” Hakira said, nodding once before changing course slightly and heading the same direction Pochi had been going in.


---


“Adoring hordes attend at lords/The moon has come and gone/The law is laid/A whole year has been seen/in rings/Description of a missing floor/a game is played/A bakes order on the tray/a chase that ends/A child becomes a teen/the group surrounding kings?(2) What the hell? This is nonsense! Aki, you baka, you translated it wrong!” Sagi declared, pointing an accusing finger at the Uchiha boy.

“I’d like to see you try, dobe! Go on, translate that, what does it me?” Aki demanded, shoving a scroll in the dog-boy’s face. Aki shoved the scroll back at Aki.

“Why would I do that? You’re supposed to be the smart one. Why can’t you get it right?”

“I DID GET IT RIGHT!” Both boys glared at each other, growling, hands forming fists.

“NO, YOU DIDN’T! YOU WOULDN’T KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER IF IT BIT YOU!” Sagi returned.
“YEAH? WELL YOU -” Aki was in the middle of a scathing reply when a small voice interrupted him.

“Aki? Sagi?” Misa said, her voice soft and quiet and her face adorably innocent as she looked at the two.

“Yes, Misa?” They asked at the same time. Both boys stopped glaring at each other to look at their female team-mate, smiling at how utterly cute she was when she looked at them like that.

“I know we’re all kind of stressed right now, and that you don’t really like each other, but…” she was still all smiles and cuteness as she started off “Would you kindly SHUT UP?” the adorable innocence was replaced by anger and exasperation, thunder boomed and lightning crackled despite the growing warmth of the day. “You’re fighting is starting to get on my nerves. We’re supposed to be a team, but all you two do is fight! I don’t know why you hate each other, but it’s bringing us down so you need to SUCK IT UP and get along, all right?” The boys looked at the fuming Misa, a little frightened by her blow-up, and blinked for lack of anything better to do. “Thank you” she said, her voice sugar-sweet again as she smiled warmly at them. “Now, you’re sure you got that translation right, Aki?” the Uchiha nodded. “O.K., then, I believe you. Let’s un-scramble these.”

“Un-scramble?” Sagi asked

“Yeah. Un-scramble. Like you said, Sagi, it’s nonsense, so now we’ve got to make sense out of it.” Misa explained. “Like… like with ‘in rings’ it doesn’t fit where it is. Aki, you said there was a line break there, right? And one right after that? Yeah, so ‘in rings’ doesn’t go there. So now we find where it fits. What else doesn’t seem to fit?”

“Dunno” Sagi responded.

“Argh! You’re no help! Look, add ‘in rings’ to the end of every line until it fits. If it doesn’t fit at the end, try putting it in front. Tell me when you get it.” Misa ordered. Sagi nodded and started muttering to himself. “Aki, see if you can get anything from the other lines.” Misa added. That done, she pulled a small scroll from her bag and unrolled it, positioning a writing brush in her left hand and writing Aki’s translation down, being sure to get the breaks in the right places. Then she sat, a brooding expression on her face as she bit down on the first knuckle of her left pointer finger, glaring down at the paper. She sat like that for about three minutes before sitting back, releasing her hold on her finger, smiling, and taking her brush back up. Still smiling, she wrote four lines down in two sets, looking pleased with herself.

“Hey, Misa! I think I figured out the rings thing!” Sagi announced, coming over.

“Lay it on me” Miss said.

“’A chase that ends in rings,’ smart, right? It fits!” Sagi said, smiling and looking to Misa for approval. She looked over at what she had written then back at Sagi.

“Yeah, I think it fits, but what the heck does it mean?”

“Whaddaya mean? We’ve unscrambled it, right, so shouldn’t we know what it means?” Sagi asked, disappointed that she didn’t praise his genius realization.

“No. I think it’s a riddle. Listen to this: A game is played/the law is laid/a chase that ends in rings/adoring hoards attend at lords/ the group surrounding kings(2)” Misa read out from her scroll.
“Courts” Aki’s voice came from above them and slightly to the right. Both genin looked up to see their companion in the tree above them, looking down at the paper.

“What?” Sagi asked. Not getting it.

“The answer’s court. Or rather, courts” Aki explained.

“That… fits with most of them… ” Misa thought aloud. “A game court, a court of law, a king’s court. But what about the chase that ends in rings? How does that work out?”

“A courtship.” Aki informed her “It’s a term they used to use for dating. A guy chases or ‘courts’ a girl, and then -”

“They get married! With wedding bands, those are the rings!” Misa exclaimed. “Awesome, Aki! You got that really fast!”

“Eh… I coulda figured it out” Sagi muttered, looking dejectedly at the ground.

“-next one has to be a number” Misa was saying when Sagi finally started paying attention again.

“Wait… what? Why?” He asked.

“The next answer has to be a number. This one’s court, so that’s where we have to go, to the game courts, and the next answer should tell us which one to go to.” Misa reiterated.

“Oh. So what’s the answer?” Sagi asked her.

“We don’t know yet, dobe” Aki put in, receiving a harsh glance from Misa. “What?” he asked “He is a dobe, I’m only stating fact” he told her, but Misa just continued to glare at him, so he dropped it. Sagi was about to retort when Misa’s icy gaze fell upon him.

“I choose life!” He declared, then shut his mouth.

Misa nodded in approval “Good choice” she told him, then turned back to her scroll while mechanically wrapping up her ankle to give it a little extra support.. “Now, Aki, you’re the hot-shot riddle solver. What’s this one mean?


---


“Times up. We better hope Pochi kept his hands on the box” Yuka said, and Hakira skidded to a halt.

“What? Already? Test’s over?” She questioned.

“Yup.”

“Now what?”

“Now we should head back to the clearing. That’s where Sensei will head, and she’ll probably take Pochi with her, whether she’s caught him or not.” Yuka ordered.

“Right” Hakira said with a nod. “Can you walk yet?”

“… no?” Yuka said, her voice wavering a bit.
Hakira looked at her skeptically, but she didn’t put her down. “ O.K., then, lets head back” she said, and took off running back the way they had come. When they got to the clearing Hakira said something her parents definitely wouldn’t approve of and Yuka sighed.

“How troublesome. Looks like we didn’t’ pass after all” she said in a bored tone.

“Sorry Kira, Yuka!” Pochi said, his face red with shame. Kima stood in the middle of the clearing, the box in one hand, Pochi’s ear in the other. “I wasn’t quite fast enough”

“Eh, you tried, Pochi. There’s always next year” Yuka sad with a yawn. “It’s troublesome though, I don’t want to go back to the academy. It’ll be boring.”
Hakira was not nearly so calm. “What? We get sent back! No way! We totally had that! I want a do over! That was totally unfair!” she ranted, joggling Yuka as she shook with anger. “You can’t expect us to take on a jonin on our first day! We haven’t even trained together before this! You should be MMMPFH!” she was cut off as Yuka slid a hand over her mouth, though she continued to attempt to shout through the Nara’s hand for a few moments more before giving up.

“Sorry, Sensei. She’s related to Naruto, impulsiveness is in her blood.” Yuka said, as if that explained everything. In a way, it did.

Kima laughed. “Quite a fiery one, aren’tcha, pig?” she asked with a smirk. “Go on, Yuka, let Hakira go. I’ll give her something to really yell about.” Yuka cautiously let go of the Hyuuga girls mouth, and two her relief the blonde stayed silent. Kima let Pochi free and he quickly headed over to his team, placing himself a bit in front of Hakira, as if that would protect her from their Sensei’s wrath. Approval flashed in Kima’s eyes for a second.

These three… they could work out. She looked them over slowly, taking in Hakira haughty, challenging eyes as she stared at Kima, ready to take whatever was thrown at her. She watched Pochi, slightly crouched in front of the two girls, completely loyal to his new team, ready to do whatever he had to make sure they got through all right. Then there was Yuka, still attached to Hakira’s back, calm and ready stop the girl if she let her blood boil over, but content to watch for now. She was a strange girl, that one. The way she watched Kima… assessing her, reading her, like she could see Kima’s moves before Kima herself did. It was unnerving. Kima stared at the three for a bit more, causing the tension in the air to thicken and grow till it was stifling. Hakira was starting to fidget, and Pochi didn’t seem to comfortable either. Only Yuka and Kima seemed content to let this continue on. Pochi shifted for about the fifteenth time, and Hakira bit her lip to keep from talking and getting herself in even deeper trouble than she surely already was. Seeing the concentration on her face, Kima couldn’t help but laugh.

“Hun? What’s going on?” Hakira asked. Pochi shrugged, looking at his Sensei as if he wondered if she was O.K. or not.

“Go on, Yuka. Why don’t you tell them. You already figured it out, right?” Kima asked, causing Hakira and Pochi to look at Yuka with confusion and interest all over their faces.

“Well…” Yuka smiled a bit. “We passed, right Kima-sensei?”

Kima nodded once…

..and all hell broke loose.

“We… passed?” Pochi asked, disbelieving. Kima nodded again.

“Yes, Pochi, we pa-AHHHH!” Yuka was in the middle
of answering when Hakira jumped up as high as she possibly could (which was pretty high, she is a ninja), punching the air and shouting in triumph, causing Yuka to cling to her for dear life. She was still a bit out of it though, either from her jutsu or from being so close to Hakira for so very long, and her grip slipped, and she plummeted to the ground.

“OW!” She screeched when she landed on top of Pochi, who had been positioning himself to catch her.

“OHMYGOSH! YUKA! Are you O.K.? I’m so sorry!” Hakira said, landing a few seconds later, an oh-shit-I-just-seriously-injured-and/or-killed-my-teammates look on her face. “I totally forgot you were on my back… I thought you could hold on… oh gosh! Are you two all right?”

“Fine!” Pochi declared, picking himself up as Yuka rolled off him and sitting up, not seeing the point of standing.

“It’s not your fault, Kira, I should’ve been able to hold on.” Yuka responded.

“No, you’re still worn out from that possession jutsu you did on Sensei. I should’ve been more careful. I’m so sorry!” Hakira said, looking at Yuka in a worried way.

“Actually, I’m fine now” Yuka admitted, blushing ashamedly. “I’m been okay for a little while now…”

“What?” Hakira demanded.

“Uh… Yeah.” Yuka started to explain. “I’ve been okay since the two minute mark, but I was being lazy, so… ”

“So you made Kira do all the work for you!” Pochi accused.

“Yeah. Pretty much. Uh… I’m… sorry?” Yuka offered up, looking pleadingly at Hakira. Apparently the Hyuuga wasn’t talking to Yuka for the time being.

“Well, it looks like we’re done here, so I’m going home” She announced, looking at Pochi and Kima but refusing to make eye-contact with the Nara girl.

“Home? If you go home how’ll you get to enjoy what’s in the box?” Kima asked, head tilted to one side.

“What’s… inside it, Sensei?” Hakira asked, interest piqued.

“Yes, but if you’re going home, I guess you’ll never get to see what’s inside of it…” Kima pointed out.

“I’ll stay!” said almost instantly.

“That’s good, but… I won’t open the box if the whole teams not getting along” Kima said, giving Hakira a pointed glance, then letting her gaze slide over to Yuka.

“Oh, all right. Yuka, I forgive you” Hakira said, then turned back to her teacher. “So… what’s in the box?”

“Well… before he left for his mission, I asked my father to make a little something…” Kima began, only to be interrupted by a happy cry from Hakira.
“Uncle Sasuke’s cooking?(3) YES! His food is, like, the best in Konoha!” She practically sang with joy. “And I’m starving!”

“Well then, let’s eat!” Kima responded.


---


“Thirteen” Aki decided. It had been quite some time (at least fifteen minutes) since any of the three had last spoken, so it was no surprise that Sagi and Misa’s simultaneous response was

“What?”

“Thirteen” Aki repeated.

“That’s the answer?” Misa questioned. He
nodded. “Great. So the thirteenth games court… let’s go!” she said and all three sprang up, darting forward toward their destination.

It wasn’t long before Misa had fallen behind the boys, her left leg giving her trouble yet again. A ways ahead she could see that Aki and Sagi had stopped to wait for her, and when she got there she saw that both of them wore over-protective and concerned expressions.

“Misa…”Aki began.

“I’m fine” she insisted. “We just need to slow the pace up a bit.” She added.

“No, you’re not fine.” Aki told her, his voice firm. “You’re hurt.”

“It’s just a sprained ankle!” she lied “I can totally handle it, you guys!”

“Hold still” Sagi ordered.

“W-why? What are you doing?” she asked as Sagi bent down and forced her leg up, Aki calmly sliding behind her and supporting her as the dog-boy did this.

“Ow! Stop it, Sagi!” Misa yelped as he rolled her ankle and prodded it a bit. She glared at her two team-mates. This was so not fair! They were supposed to be fighting with eachother all the time. The one time the get along was to team up agains her? So wrong!

“Misa! You liar!” Sagi exclaimed suddenly. “This isn’t sprained! It’s fractured! Only a little, not enough to stop you from walking on it, but enough to cause you a lot of pain! If you keep pushing yourself like this it’ll end up really breaking!” he told her, looking angry and worried at the same time.

“You’re wrong! You can’t know that just from feeling my ankle! You need an x-ray!” Misa insisted.

“My aunt, Hana, is a vet. She taught me how to recognize stuff like this for when I was out with Ika” Sagi informed them.

“I’m not a dog! Our anatomy’s different! You could be totally off-target!” Misa insisted.

“But I’m not” Sagi replied.

“Yes you – hey! What do you think you’re doing? Aki! Put me down!” Misa interrupted herself and started squirming as her friend picked her up and refused to let go.

“No, Misa” Aki told her. “I won’t put you down. Just let me do this, O.K.? It’s only a little ways to the courts” he told her. She continued to protest, but neither he nor Sagi paid her any mind. Instead they set off.


***


Konohamaru raised an eye-brow as he saw the three genin that made up his new team heading towards him. Sagi was cradling Ika in his arms, and for some reason Misa was being carried – much to her annoyance, it seemed – over Aki’s shoulder.

“Oops. Guess I hit her harder than I thought…” a deep, growling, gravely sort of a voice said. Konohamaru looked over and met his summons’s eye, which was at face level because Konohamaru was sitting on the primate’s shoulder.

“I thought you said you went easy on them, Daiku. Now two of the four have to be carried home!” Konohamaru exclaimed, though it was clear he wasn’t angry at his companion.

“I did go easy on them. The dog wasn’t my fault. You want to give blame, that one falls on you. My bet is that it got hit by one of your scrolls” Daiku responded, chuckling a bit.

“And Misa? She wasn’t hit by a spell scroll, that’s for sure. Look at her kick! You’d think Aki had done something unspeakable to her!” Konohamaru argued.

“Well, I can’t control where I fall when I’m temporarily paralyzed. Don’t get mad at me!” Daiku defended himself. Konohamaru laughed.

“Only joking, old friend. Only joking.” He said. Then it was time to greet his students, as they had finally shown up.

“You can put me down now, Aki!” Misa was saying, still trying to wriggle free of the Uchiha’s grip. It wasn’t working.

“Nope. I’m not letting you down till we get that ankle looked at” he informed her. Misa responded with some colorful language that Konohamaru was sure she had never said in front of her parents. He laughed as he started walking over to them.

“Konohamaru-sensei!” Misa said, smiling “We made it! Would you tell him,” she jerked her thumb in Aki’s direction “to let me go, please?” she pleaded. Konohamaru was about to respond – probably saying no, the way Misa’s luck had run lately – when he was interrupted by Sagi.

“You!” the Inuzuka exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Daiku. “You’re the monkey who hurt Misa!”

“Not my fault she couldn’t dodge” Daiku responded with a shrug, earning another laugh from their sensei. Apparently he was in a good mood.

“Allow me to introduce you” he said, “Sagi, Aki, Misa, this is Daiku, a friend of mine. Daiku, these are my new students, Hatake Misa, Inuzuka Sagi, and Uchiha Aki.” He pointed to each in turn.

“Hello, runts” Daiku said, his throaty voice carrying a laughing tone. “Welcome to the family.”


---


(1) ‘I tend to expect the unexpected’ Read the Green Arrow trade paperback ‘Quiver.’ You’ll understand.

(2) I take no credit for those riddles. The first (as yet un-named) was written by my father and the second (Moon) was written by a friend and both have been (in moons case) or will be (in the others case) published in the Cloud Kingdom Games riddle books. Here they are in full glory, complete with explanations:
Moon
The moon has come and gone;
A whole year has been seen. 13 cycles of the moon during one year
Description of a missing floor, most buildings don’t have a 13th floor
A coven is convened, 13 witches form a coven
A baker’s order on the tray, a bakers dozen
A child becomes a teen. Teen years begin at age 13
Court
A game is played a game court
the law is laid court of law
a chase that ends in rings courtship
adoring hoards attend at lords
the group surrounding kings A kings court

(3) Yes, she calls him ‘Uncle Sasuke’ because he and Naruto are so close. She also calls Sakura ‘Aunt Sakura’ and Kakashi ‘Uncle Kashi’



A/N: Well, I hope ya liked it! I'm gonna start requesting reveiws now though. I won't update till I get, say, three reveiws. Kay? That seem fair? Aw, hell, make it two. Just two reviews. It's not that hard!