I don't own Inu Yasha or Naruto.

Beta: Blood Cherry

Thank you dear for cleaning this up!

Prologue

She…she was the cat. She had been since she could last remember—much like the Hatake boy, save he was the dog.

At five she'd been a Genin, at eight she was Chunin, at ten she completed the Jounin exam, and she was just as quickly sent to Anbu. Her abilities seemed to stun and shock many.

Being in Anbu was much like being a lightning bolt, one could assume; speed, pressure, destruction. They all eventually compiled on a person until they began to burn, burn completely up like a raging, unknown fire. And if she was honest with herself, she might admit in the farthest reaches of her mind that she was tired. That it was time to quit, time to return to being a specialist Jounin, because the weight of an assassin and hunter was becoming too much for her already broken psyche.

Shuddering at the thought, she blinked before moving at a speed few could ever see let alone hope to achieve. She was in the shadows. It was the only place for a person like her.

"Cat, the Hokage wants you." The man who'd stepped forward was a strange one, with a large scar cutting from just outside of his eye and across his bottom lip to touch just above his chin.

"Ah, he's reviewing my mental evaluation, ne? It's time for me to stop, I think…" she replied as a sad smile ran across her face. It really was time; she was more a broken doll than anything.

The older boy simply stared—it wasn't often that someone recognized their own mental instabilities. Cat, on the other hand, happened to be one of his favorites out of all the other Anbu members. She was honest to a fault, blunt if one could call it that. "Let's face it, Cat. You're completely burned out; you've no desire to be here anymore, perhaps in a few years?"

The younger girl simply shook her head; that wasn't going to happen. "I don't think I'm going to come back after this. Unless it's to bother you, of course." The smile that was generally hidden from view flashed quickly before a whirl of blue petals swirled about and the girl was gone.

The older boy sighed in frustration wondering what exactly the Hokage could want with the girl. It wasn't that she was mentally unsound; she was just starting to lose her purpose to live. He only hoped that they could find something to, at least, partially bring back the smiling girl who'd give her best at any mission or prank the other Anbu members into smiling.

He was a Genin. He'd become one a year after the destruction and death that the Kyuubi caused, but the hitai-ate that was wrapped around his head felt hollow and without worth. The whole reason he'd wanted to be a ninja was to be like his parents; to follow them in their need to nurture and protect those closest to them!

Like everyone else, he'd been sent to the evacuation shelters when the attack occurred. But at some point, some of the children had been overlooked and his younger sister had been killed while his parents had died defending what they loved most; their children, their home, and all those precious to Konoha.

Closing his eyes he could still feel it, hear it with everything that he was. Maybe it was because he wasn't as over it as some of his classmate were. Some of them had lost a parent or sibling that night. He had lost everything. Both his parents had been orphans before him, and it seemed he was following far too painfully in their path.

Nimble fingers traced over the names. It wasn't fair, at least not for his sister; she'd never had a chance to go to the Academy let alone be remembered. Chouko had never stood a chance… Huffing lightly, brown eyes continued to stare but not see what was in front of him. He was lost in the different images of the past.

Suddenly he sneezed, and it seemed overly large in this quiet place that had no room for such frivolous actions as sneezing. Huffing lightly he wandered away, heading toward where his team was going to meet; training ground 3. He wasn't entirely sure why they were meeting up there.

Staring, he couldn't help but frown. Was it wrong of him to dislike his team? "Hideaki-sensei, why am I the only one here?"

The older man sighed as his spine seemed to straighten quickly. "Ahh, the Hokage would like to see you soon, Iruka. He said something about a specific mission."

Iruka's head tilted to the side slightly with a surprised and slightly curious expression on his face before turning about quickly. "I'll see you later then, Hideaki-sensei."

The older man frowned. The boy in front of him had once held a warm and enthusiastic personality, and it seemed the longer he was a ninja the more he seemed to die inside. But he was young…it could be reversed, right? The little prankster wanted so badly to be accepted, and maybe he would be on this new team. Hideaki just didn't have it in him to tell the boy that he'd been removed from his Genin team as well.

An elderly man sat behind a large desk simply waiting. While it wasn't an intensive wait, the fall out after this decision could be earth-shattering, depending on how this mission would be received.

There were only certain people that Sarutobi trusted in keeping a young, bright-eyed blonde safe, let alone happy and healthy. It had come to his attention recently that the boy was fast becoming feral; avoiding people at all costs, snarling, running on all fours. Not only that, but from what Dog had said, he was painfully thin to the point of possible emaciation.

When Dog was sent on three long-term missions in secession, no one had thought anything about it. When he returned to actively watching the Yondaime's son, Dog had been horrified at what he had seen. Apparently the four man cell that was watching over the youngster not only ignored the abuse, they had sat back and watched like it was a form of cheap entertainment.

In the year Dog had been away the boy had been poisoned, beaten, and run out of his home at the orphanage. And, at the age of three, one his age shouldn't be so scarred or scared of the "humans" that he lived near. According to the newest report the child was basically feral, and Sarutobi wasn't sure how to deal with the situation.

Sarutobi sighed as he eyed Dog; the young man had finally taken his Anbu mask off. His hair was gravity-defying silver, while that dark black eye seemed to be taking in everything around him. "Ne, Hokage-sama, what are you going to do about Naruto?"

The younger man wasn't sure why, but he was honestly worried about the young boy. He seemed so weak and broken, it wasn't right. He understood what the villagers thought, but he was only a little boy—a little boy that was slowly breaking.

A slow smile ran across Sarutobi's face. "You'll have to wait to find out when the others get here, Kakashi."

A thin shapely brow rose. Others? Who else had the Hokage called for this?

The sound of a light wind and the whirl of blue petals showed a young woman about his age. Her hair was up in a high ponytail of the deepest black with a blue sheen, while her blue eyes seemed lazy and tired. She was extremely tiny, standing maybe at five-foot-four. "Hokage-sama, what can I do for you?"

'That voice was lovely,' Kakashi thought to himself; a soft soprano that held a trembling of depth inside it. Was this going to be his new teammate?

A knock at the door had both Jounin eyeing the door with curiosity as a younger boy walked in, his hair up in a lose ponytail. It was strange; he was extremely tan with chocolate colored hair and eyes, but the most defining feature about the younger boy happened to be the long scar that ran across the bridge of his nose.

"Now that all the players are here, I want you all to introduce yourselves." Sarutobi knew there was a long shot of this working but he had to at least try, didn't he?

The three youngsters simply stared at the others; one near the door, one seemingly trying to edge even closer to the window, and one seemed slightly amused by the whole ordeal.

"I suppose I'll go first then. I'm Higurashi Kagome, Anbu Captain. It's a pleasure to meet you both." She bowed, thick black-blue hair falling around her shoulders and neck.

Iruka could feel his scar beginning to heat up, she was extremely pretty. "Ah….I-I'm Umino Iruka, Genin. It's nice to meet you, too." 'Why did I have to stutter?'

One black eye studied the two of them before glancing at the sly expression on the Hokage's face. Something was going to happen and he wasn't going to like it. "Hatake Kakashi, Anbu Captain."

"Now that introductions are out of the way, I'll tell you a bit about your knew mission. The three of you will be working as a team from this day forward, to watch over, protect, and teach one of Konoha's greatest treasures. But, before you get to the easier part of this mission, you have to overcome many obstacles. Now I can tell by your expressions that you're wondering exactly what I'm talking about, correct? Well, to put it bluntly, your new mission is to tame one Uzumaki Naruto and give him a reason to trust humans once more." Sarutobi almost giggled at the faces before him. Oh yes, this was going to cause a stir. But if it helped three of his favorite shinobi, what was the problem?

Kay have a few question for you guys, should I continue this? Was the writing okay? What are your general thoughts and ideas? Any suggestions for future pranks for Iruka or Naruto to play, and do you want anyone else to join the team?

-Scribe