Yamato was scared. It was his first time ever, being a gennin squad leader. He was quite frankly scared shitless. First all he would be their sensei a person of guidance. What if he guided them the wrong way? What if they ended up like Orochimaru's, or dead? Even worse, they were pre-teens. What if they were like the original team 7? He had heard horror stories from Kakashi, about borderline obsessions and unending appetites. What if the kids didn't like him? Hopefully he would be able to send them back to the academy.

The first to arrive was the boy on his team. He had dark purple hair, golden eyes and a chin so square his head looked like a rectangle. Yamato only stood to about the boys shoulder. The boy stopped in front of him and bowed respectfully. "Hello, my name is keitaru Keiji" Yamato nodded in reply and introduced himself. The boy was huge for anybody let alone a boy of only 15. They stood there in silence and waited for the others to arrive.

A little girl came strolling along. She was small looked to be about 6 maybe 7. In her arms was a teddy bear, proportionally it was about half the size of the girl holding it. She was as small as the Keiji was large. The little girl had big blue eyes, very similar to Naruto's in tone and sincerity. At first glanced they looked to be filled with fear; at second glance he could tell it was an act. The little girl looked up at him. "Are you Yamato-sensei? I'm supposed to be meeting a man by that name, for the formation of gennin team 9."

Yamato couldn't hide his disbelief; this girl should be entering the academy not a gennin team. Yet it said in her transcript she had been home school and scored the highest on all the exams. Yamato remembered that he had forgotten to check the age of girl. "My name is Yamato, are you little Kaida?"

The girl's nose flared, "I'm NOT LITTLE!" She corrected. Her mouth was set in a deep pouty frown. "Yes that's me . . . it doesn't say little in my file does it?" She asked genuinely concerned. Yamato shook his head. The girl seemed to realize how immature she was being and looked over at the huge boy. "What's your name?"

The boy seemed surprised she even noticed him. "K-k-keitaru Keiji." He seemed to have to make an effort to finish those two words.

"You stutter. That's all right when I was 4 I had a really bad lisp and stuttered sometimes too. It's hard to meet new people, that's why I bring Yo, he helps me not stutter, and nobody really minds if he stutters at all so we help each other out. I can help you not stutter don't worry!" The girl was delighted saying the whole sentence without catching a breath. She beamed up at the shy Keiji. The little girl kept on talking as the boy listened. Yamato wasn't listening he was looking at his watch. It was officially 7 o clock; all of his students should be here by now.

After a while he saw something out of the corner of his eye, a girl around 13ish with long waist length grey hair. Her eyes were a disturbingly hazel brown. She was wearing baggy black pants and a baggy black t shirt. She was hiding behind a tree as if still deciding whether to show up or not. Their eyes met. She started walking towards them, as if Yamato hadn't caught her at all. She hunched her shoulders forward, and swung the skateboard around her leg. "Is this team 9?" He voice sounded bored.

"Nariko Zakuro, I presume" He said trying to sound dismissive. He remembers reading that this girl had set a record high for truancy days at the academy. "You are 5 minutes late." She shrugged; his tone didn't seem to faze her.

"You caught me. By the way call me Zaki." She looked him up and down, not nearly as skittish as the other two in meeting his eyes. She tightened her lips.

Yamato could feel his stomach sink into his legs. This was not going to go well. He had a 1. Dimwit, 2. A little girl, and 3 a disrespectful skater chick. How the hell would he be able to teach these kids anything?

The girl had fallen in line with the other three. Keiji stared at her, as though he didn't quite remember ever seeing the girl before. He seemed to have to concentrate on each one of her features, one at a time. It was unsettling to Yamato. He looked at Kaida who was sucking her thumb adamantly as she hugged her bear. "We are just introducing ourselves today." He breathed, "I'll start. My name is Tenzou Yamato; I am a former Anbu member and a Jounin. I love bathhouses and hate jellybeans"

"I HATE jelly beans too!" red headed girl eagerly interrupted. "Yo loves them though, yet he can't have them cause they get stuck in his fur, and mommy doesn't like that cause then she has to wash him. She doesn't' realize that Yo hates getting washed too, and so mommy, Yo and I, have decided that he needed to stop eating them. Yo is still sad about it though because he really like jelly beans. Why did you stop being Anbu? Was it because you were too old?"

Yamato silently hoped that this was a pretend team. That they were all actors hired by Kakashi to fuck around with him. Somebody he pleaded to the sky, please jump out and yell surprise. He took a deep breath; he hated kids . . . "I'm here so I can train you to be the best Ninja's you can be."

"Wow, that's original did you come up with that all by yourself?" The other girl, Zaki said her voice dripping with sarcasm. She slumped cross legged on the ground, the boy and the little girl followed her. They all stared up at him expecting him to do something. "So introduce yourself, say a like a dislike and why you're here, let's start with." Before he finished Kaida had her hand in the air. "Kaida"

"I'm Mitsu Kaida, and I like the color orange and hate mean people. I want to be a great ninja, and represent my clan!" Yamato pursed his lips, he had never heard of the Mitsu clan before, that was strange. "Somebody else's turn now." The girl looked around expecting the same enthusiasm from her team mates. The large boy gulped.

"My, -name is K-keitaru Keiji. I l-l-like making jewelry, a-a-and hate reading," he looked down at the ground hanging his head in shamed. "I'm not very good at it." He said as an explanation. "I w-w-w-want to –to-to be able to c-c-control myself, when I get mad."

Yamato furrowed his brow; the kids file had said nothing about control issues. It took him a moment of silence to realize that the huge boy was shrinking before his stare. His face was flush with shame. "That's a noble goal of yours Keiji," He reassured the boy. "A ninja who can't control himself is a danger to himself and his allies." Just knowing the boy for the short time, Yamato had a hard time picturing him out of control.

"You're next Zakuro." He stated trying to shift the focus to the girl who was pulling up grass.

"Zaki" She corrected. "My name is Naruko Zakuro, but call me Zaki. I like my skateboard, and hate . . ." She looked around up at the tree's as if searching for something, her eyes met Yamato's. "Authority figures," Her eyes lit up with a challenging fire, Yamato decided not to take the bait, "and I don't have a goal, I enjoy skating by in life." She stretched her arm out to demonstrate a fluid straight line. Her eyes caught site of something. The monument, "How many heads do you think will fit on that rock?" she wondered out loud, "I wonder will the sculptors make all the heads smaller or will they start sculpting faces on top of each other. Like when we get a 10th Hokage that his face will be like a zit and the first's cheek or something."

"I don't think that will be a problem," replied Yamato dismissively, he wanted to have time to think . . . and to go yell at Tsunada and Iruka for sticking him with these three.

"You don't think we will get to ten Hokages? How unpatriotic of you." The girl smiled, she was trying to bait him again.

"Let's get going. You all need rest for tomorrow. Be here at 1 oclock sharp."

-s-

Kaida zipped off to her house. She started skipping halfway there. This was going to be awesome! She was so excited to finally be a shinobi. She wanted to tell mama everything. Keiji was super awesome; he actually listened to her when they talked, unlike most people who dismiss her because of her age. She worried that she would get a neck cramp looking up at him all the time though. Zaki was a little stranger, Kaida wasn't sure how she liked how the girl talked back. But there was such an air of mystery about her though. Kaida envied the girls hair, it was so youthful and yet so old at the same time.

She could tell that her sensei was disappointed in them. He obviously not happy when listening to them, and he wanted to leave as soon as possible. Everything about his body language had told her that, his stance that leaned away from the, his eyes only focusing to scrutinize and criticize. She looked at her teddy bear; a part of her told her that it was because she brought it.

Yet, she couldn't just not bring Yo, she needed him. It was probably because Yo liked jelly beans and Sensei didn't. She soon rounded on her home. It was a small 1 bedroom house that was smack at the end of some abandoned factories at the edge of town. The porch to her front door were broken and the roof was crumbling a little. She felt her heart soar. Her mother was at the screen door looking at, waving at her frantically. Kaida couldn't help running the rest of the distance.

-s-

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Keiji was concentrating on his steps. This was his 28th time counting, so that made 280 steps. He should be home soon. Keiji counted so his mind wouldn't wonder, yet the purple hair boy couldn't keep his mind from wandering.

He didn't know what to think of his team mates. He was too terrified thinking about how much he could screw up on a mission. He knew that if he saw blood . . . he would never be a great ninja like his grandfather. He was a liability. He needed to stay a gennin; he could do C or D rank missions. He could be helpful that way. He could control himself then . . . maybe.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

His thoughts went to the girl Zaki. He pictured her hair spread out like a sunset. A contrast of her evening grey and blood red would look . . . STOP IT

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

He liked Kaida a lot more. He couldn't imagine getting any enjoyment out of killing her. UN like the other 2. He didn't like killing. He liked fighting; he liked the peacefulness of his mind when he shed blood. It was beautiful STOP IT. He screamed again at himself

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

He was finally at his house. His grandparents and him lived on the outside of the big gate, close to the roughest part of Konoha, known as the dregs. It was far enough away from the neighborhood that they were completely surrounded by the big oaks the fire country was known for. He looked at the small cottage. It was cozy and covered in flowers. His grandparents loved gardening more than they liked most people.

His grandmother was weeding the flower bed of violets to the right of the porch stairs. She hadn't noticed him come up. His grandfather had though, for he was rocking on his rocking chair, smoking his pipe, like he did everyday around this time. He nodded to him and went through the front door.

-s-

Zakuro slammed the door behind her. She was greeted with a yell, "DON'T SLAM THE FUCKING DOOR!" She ignored the voice and started ripping through the cabinets.

"Thanks for the tip, where are the fags?"

"We are down to a fucking pack; you smoke more than a chimney. It's fucking industrial at this point." The girl gave up her search and headed towards the brown couch on the other side of the room. In the cramped studio apartment it didn't take long for her to reach the man that was talking to her.

He was about 16-17 long blond hair and staggeringly blue eyes. His face was angular in a boy's sense and he ha clock shadow that seemed to be permanently there. His eyes were smiling at her as he smirked. Anybody could see that this boy was extremely attractive.

Zaki tightened her lips at the boy, "Max, you are a fucktard" She snatched the cigarette that was resting between her lips and waited for him to lift his legs from the couch so she could sit down. He legs ran across her lap. They sat there in silence as Zaki finished the cigarette.

"How was your first day?" He asked nonchalantly

"Well my sensei hates me already. It's disgusting how apparent it is how much he doesn't like us. Then there is a guy who can't read and a little girl who carries around a teddy bear." She finished off the last drag. "I have no fucking clue what I'm doing their max. I should give up now, it's not like I'm going to get anywhere."

The man breathed and shrugged at her, "well it's a fucking steady pay check, and prolly a better job than you can get here in the dregs. You would make a good shinobi." He stopped and took the last cigarette from the pack, "but do what you want, I don't give a crap."

The girl lifted his legs off her as she went to the door. "I'm going skating see ya later."

"You're not staying the night?"

"Nah Milton will be wondering where I've been going, I've been staying here too often." Zaki admitted as she picked up her skateboard at the door.

"Zaki?" Max whispered his voice grave and soft.

"What?"

"Why do you go back there?" this made the grey haired girl stop and sigh. A pained expression coming over her eyes.

"I've told you Max, Sara needs me. Milton's a perv, I can't just leave her alone with him," It was obviously more of an excuse to convince herself.

"Sara's your mother, and a grown woman. She can throw her own life away. You have a choice not to go back to that shitbag." The boy's denim blue eyes were begging her to stay.

"We've had this conversation before. As long as Sara is there, I can't and won't leave." Before he could say anything more she was out the door. It slammed behind her.