I walked into the class room, walked up to my desk. Today was the day where the class finally splits apart into teams. It was something required to become a shinobi. I sat down releasing a big sigh. I was exhausted, sleep was something that came very easy to people except for myself, it was a battle. I laid my head on the desk top and closed my eyes until I heard Hinata's voice. "No sleep again?" She said softly. I raised my head, a smirk on my face. "When do I ever sleep?" She lightly sighed as she sat down next to me. "I can't believe the day has finally come. We passed our finals and now this." Hinata sighed once again. "Minori, we better be on the same team." I nodded. I watched as everyone came into the class room and sat down into their usual seats. I saw Shikamaru walk in, his hair as usual pulled tightly back into a pony tail. He glanced at me with a smile starting form. He walked to the seat behind me. "Minori." He said sweetly. I loved the way he said my name, it came out so sweet and happy, things that would actually not be described as me. I felt a faint blush come over my cheeks. Shikamaru has been that "childhood crush" since I met him almost a decade ago. "I can't believe the day has came Minori, we are all going our separate ways." Shikamaru yawned. "What a drag, I hope we all are on a team." I sighed, I was trying to come to the fact that most likely we were not all going to be together in a group. Maybe it was the best though, going into this kind of thing means it risks death. I could never be able to forgive myself if one of these guys died. I've seen to many people die and these two were the closest I had to family. I couldn't bare to think that there was a possibility I could lose them. I glanced over at Hinata who was watching Naruto walk into the class and sit next to Sasuke. "Maybe you two will be in a group together." I whispered. Hinata's cheeks turned bright pink by the thought. "That would be nice. Then you and Shikamaru get in a team together." I smiled at the thought, it was bitter sweet. I couldn't help but face the fact that if I was in a team with him I was bound to see him get injured and I couldn't do that. I couldn't watch him get hurt.

Iruka Sensei walked into the class room, clearing his throat to get everyone's attention. I saw Shikamaru move to the table on my left, his attention on me. "What's going on with you? I thought you would be more excited for this." He softly said. I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. I'm just tired this morning." He patted the back of my shoulder; he knew what I was trying to say. I overheard Sakura and Ino saying how they wanted to be in the same group as Sasuke. Some way, somehow it turned into a little argument between them. Shikamaru groaned. "Shut up." I groaned loud enough for them to hear. They turned their heads towards me. "What'd you say?" Sakura growled. I sighed, shaking my head. "It's annoying. You two bickering over some guy who doesn't even notice you're alive. It's just annoying and pathetic." I said calmly. The both of them shot me a couple glares as I rolled my eyes in return. "I'm going to kill you Essaro." Sakura grumbled. "Whatever you say princess." I glanced over at Sasuke, whose eyes were locked onto me. He looked annoyed as well with the whole thing. He had a right to be annoyed though, this constant bullshit went on every single day, and it wasn't just these two bimbos it was plenty of other girls too. I luckily was not one of these "Uchiha fangirls" I was never one of these girls and never will be. It was ridiculous how so many girls where hung up on some asshole who didn't even know they existed. It was pathetic, desperate, and once again I say annoying.

Iruka Sensei sighed from the small confrontation and shook his head. He was becoming fed up with the two girls as I was. "Okay so I am going to read you guys the list of teams." He began quickly naming each team by number and announcing the names of our classmates who'd join that specific team. I looked over at Hinata who was still admiring Naruto from afar. "I can't believe after today I'll see Naruto less." She sighed sadly. "Maybe you two will be in a group together." Hinata sighed, "Yeah." She sighed. I finally heard my name being called for 'Team 7', "This team will be the only team of four since there is an odd number in the class. Minori, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura." I groaned. This was the team I didn't want. I talked to plenty of people but those three; I never spoke a word to in my life. I avoided Sasuke, I thought he was a narcissistic fuck, Naruto never really paid any attention to me, it was always to Hinata when I was around him, and then I completely hated Mrs. Princess with all of my strength. She was a stuck up spoiled brat. I glanced at Hinata who seemed somewhat down. "I mean, if anyone was going to be in a group with him I'm glad it's you." She said softly. She bumped my elbow "Throw in a good word for me." I smiled at her "I will make you sound amazing." She quickly smiled and hugged me.

I heard a disappointing sigh come from Shikamaru. "I can't believe it. I wanted to be with you." He groaned. I gave him a sad look. I realized I was not going to be seeing a lot of him anymore. It hurt, because he was my rock. When everything went to hell, he would always find a way to keep me above the clouds. "What a drag." I said, stealing his 'signature line'. He looked over to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I faintly blushed. I leaned my head on his shoulder, just appreciating this small moment.

Hinata ended up into to a group with Shino and Kiba. Kiba was excited to have her with him. Shikamaru ended up with Ino and Choji. He wasn't so pleased with his results just like myself. He leaned his head on top of mine. "I am going to kill myself Mini." He grumbled. I smiled, "I will join you on that." Shikamaru chuckled and kissed me on the top of my head. Everyone was leaving to go meet there new sensei. "I have to go, I'll meet up with you later maybe." He said a smile forming at the corners of his mouth. I shrugged my shoulders, giving him a small smile "Maybe." Shikamaru kissed me on top of my head again and walked out of the class room. I sighed, adrenalin started to flow a little. I was moving forward with this dream I had. I was getting closer and closer every day now. I looked where Hinata use to be sitting before Kiba dragged her away. I realized someone was approaching me, I glanced up to see it was Naruto. "Hey! So apparently this Sensei guy is meeting us here. So I guess we all just sit here and wait." I nodded awkwardly. I wasn't any good at interacting with new people. I came off somewhat shy and awkward, at least that's what Shikamaru and Hinata told me. Moved somewhat closer to the window on the left. I watched as dark heavy clouds rolled into the village, threatening to release its power. I sighed and took out my head phones from my bag and started to listen to some music. I was a good twenty feet away from everyone else, keeping distant. Something I was good at. I watched as Sakura would try to attempt making small talk with Sasuke while Naruto tried to get her attention. Sasuke wasn't interested in Sakura, Sakura wasn't interested in Naruto. None of them were interested in me, as the same went with them. It was hard to swallow the fact that I would be spending then next how many years with them. It was kind of depressing to exact, these were people I had no interest in being around and I bet they felt the same way about me.

I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes trying to accept all of this. I opened my eyes letting out a heavy sigh. I saw Naruto approaching me again. I pulled out my headphones and glanced at him. "You should sit with the three of us." I raised my eyebrow at him, I gave him the 'What the fuck are you talking about. Me? You Three? No.' He scratched his head awkwardly. I glanced at the other two, Sasuke was watching us but Sakura paid no attention to me. "You have no choice but to get use to us. Why not now than later." Sasuke said. He had a point. I gave a heavy sigh and got up from my seat. I walked with Naruto to the little group and sat somewhat far from them. "Better?" I said raising an eyebrow at Sasuke. He shrugged his shoulders and leaned back in his chair. Sakura glared at me and rolled her eyes. "Get use to it. I'm in this team. You can't get rid of me." I said with a smirk somewhat forming. "It doesn't mean I'm going to like it." She replied. "I'm not asking you to like it." I said leaning back. I watched the rain hit the window. I didn't know what to say to the three of them. I felt awkward. I checked my phone to see the time. It was already noon, this guy should have been here several hours ago.

Another hour passed and the village was being overtaken by the force of the storm. I didn't try to make conversation with the others. I didn't know what to even say. I watched as Naruto came up with this 'brilliant idea" to fill a old bucket with water and place it on top of the door. It was childish. He was going to make a bad impression on this guy. He was making a bad impression on all of this. Naruto jumped down from the chair and walked back towards us giggling. I checked my phone for what seemed like the 100th time. I realized I got a text message from Shikamaru.

'Are you waiting for your Sensei still?'

I couldn't help but smile, it wasn't a text that said anything special, but it was from him. I quickly sent back a response

'No, I'm still here waiting for this guy. How was your first team meeting?'

'It was a drag. Do you want to go get food after you meet this guy?'

I heard footsteps approaching the door; I quickly put my phone away. Everyone shot up anticipating this was the guy. The door slowly opened and the man all of a sudden became drenched in water. He glared at us four. "I told you Sakura it would work!" Naruto shouted. The man glared right at Naruto. I shook my head at how childish this was. I got up and walked towards the cabinet. "I'll get you a towel Kakashi." I softly spoke as I passed him. He looked at me confused, he didn't recognize me at all. It has been 10 years since the incident, he probably had better things to remember than that. Though who on earth could forget that day. It still haunted Shikamaru's Dad. It surly haunted me. I grabbed a couple towels that was stowed in a closet in the back of the class room. I handed them to him as I went to go sit back down. Kakashi tried as much as he could to dry himself. He tossed the towels aside to an empty desk and cleared his throat. "You thought that was funny?" He calmly said. I glanced at Naruto, hoping he would keep his mouth shut. Naruto shrugged his shoulders while smiling. The rest of us shook our heads .

Kakashi sat on top of an empty desk, observing the four of us. He pointed to Sasuke. "Name?" he asked. Sasuke calmly said his name and then Kakashi pointed to Sakura who did the same and then Naruto. He finally got to me and I said my name, of course though after hearing my name he realized who I was. His face became somewhat stern. I felt uncomfterable, I expected it going like "Oh Minori! How are you doing? How's Jo treating you?" and I'd lie and say I'm doing great and Jo is an amazing adopted dad. Though that was not how it went, it was tense and awkward. I could tell he wasn't expecting running into me again but then again neither was I. Kakashi quickly gave us a heads up on tomorrow and what we should expect our training to be like. After that he let us leave and head home. I slowly got up, stretching my arms. I flung my bag over my shoulder and was about to walk out until I heard Kakashi say my name. I looked back at him, he was watching me, his stare was intense. I walked up to him, avoiding eye contact. "I didn't expect you to be in my group." I shrugged my shoulders "Neither did I." Kakashi sighed, watching me. He looked like he was in pain just by looking at me. "Do they know?" He said quietly nodding to the other three who were watching us. I shook my head. "Everyone knows." I quietly said ashamed. Kakashi sighed and placed his hand on my shoulder. "The whole village knew the minute the news of my village spread." I said. Kakashi shook his head. "I know that, but the other thing." He said somewhat hesitant. I swallowed the large lump in my throat. "Only Shikamaru knows the whole story. Hinata Hyuuga only knows bits and pieces." I said as we walked down the long hallway, we were a good ten feet behind the other three. I saw Sasuke look of his shoulder, his eyebrow shot up. Kakashi kept his attention down towards me. "I can't believe it's been ten years. It feels like Shikaku and I just rescued you yesterday." I nodded, it did feel like they found me yesterday. We walked out of the school building into the pouring rain. We started to walk in our different directions. I quickly turned around to Kakashi. I shouted his name, he turned towards me. I stood there for a couple seconds, frozen. "Thank you." I said somewhat hesitantly. I saw a smile appear under his mask. "You're welcome Minori." He said as he walked away. I watched him disappear then started to walk towards town. I texted Shikamaru the place where I'll meet him and told him I'd be heading over now.

I saw Shikamaru waiting outside under his bright yellow umbrella. I ran up to him, "Shikamaru." His eyes lit up as I approached him. "You're soaking wet, get under the umbrella." I hurried under the umbrella and stood somewhat close to Shikamaru. He wrapped his free arm around my shoulders, a grin appearing. "You're going to catch a cold if you keep forgetting an umbrella." Shikamaru nagged. I dug my head into his chest. "Hey now don't get me wet!" he laughed. "If I go down Shikamaru, you should know you go down too." I winked at him. His face turned bright pink. "That can be taken in many ways." He mumbled. I nodded, once again giving him a wink. Shikamaru shook his head embaressed. We walked into the ramen shop and sat down and ordered. "So whose your sensei?" Shikamaru asked. I let out a sigh, he was going to get a kick out of this. "Hatake. Kakashi Hatake." I whispered softly. Shikamaru who was taking a sip of his tea started to choke. He coughed several times until he got himself under control. "You're lying." I shook my head. "That's crazy." He said.

"It's crazy because he didn't recognize me."

"Not many people do anymore. Sometimes I'm shocked by how much you've changed."

"You know why I do it right?"

"So just in case he comes back, he wont recognize you?"

I nodded. "I don't ever want to see that man again." Shikamaru placed his hand on top of mine. "I will make sure he never comes back into your life." I leaned my head on Shikamaru's shoulder. "Thank you Shika." I whispered softly He kissed the top of my head. "So tell me more, are you getting along with everyone?" I groaned. "They are trying to make me socialize. It's somewhat painful." Shikamaru laughed and patted me on the back. "What awful people." He smiled. "Seriuosly, if I wanted to get to know them I would of already." I laughed. "Well in all seriousness you have no choice now. At least try to make the best of this." I nodded. Shikamaru was right. He always was. With that said, our food came and we ate quickly.