It was well known that the Hidden Leaf Village treated its Shinki the best of any God Village; unlike the forbidding Mist and Cloud, the ninja of Leaf prided themselves on unique matches between Shinki and Kami, strong partnerships that used what would be viewed as weaknesses in other, more militant villages as strengths.

That being said, Umino Iruka, part-time Shinki of Kakashi Hatake and full-time teacher of aspiring young Kami and their potential partners, had never seen such a uniquely imbalanced team. The typical team was two Shinki and a Kami; one Shinki was usually combat-oriented while the other was usually support- or defense-oriented. (If a Kami joined ANBU, they would bring their Shinki with them to form a larger team with whoever else they got assigned to.)

However, this wasn't always a guarantee; since teams were assigned before Shinki were named and therefore based purely on guesswork, sometimes combinations like this happened.

Naruto Uzumaki, radiating waves of energy and excitement, stood excitedly in front of Iruka, holding in one hand a massive metal battle hammer with pink and green wrappings around the grip – the head of the hammer was probably heavier than Naruto's entire body mass, Iruka was sure – and in the other, a wickedly dangerous-looking black sword that crackled with electricity and in general gave off a very strong air of dramatic brooding.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted again, as if he did not very much have Iruka's full attention. "I got to name my team, and they're awesome, and Kaka-sensei's a jerk, and I have my own Shinki now!" Each statement was punctuated by a swing of both weapons that made Iruka wince. "Don't you agree, 'ttebayo?" The last sentence was addressed towards the Shinki in his hands.

He gulped, rubbing the scar on the bridge of nose nervously. "That's very nice, Naruto. Why don't you let them go now, though? If they're stuck in weapon form, they won't be able to tell me about their special Shinki training, will they?"

Naruto pouted for a second, but released them both – in a matter of seconds, two very rumpled looking genin-Shinki were standing in front of him.

Haruno Sakura rounded on Naruto the moment she was released, hair ruffled and clothes wrinkled. "Your hands are sweaty!" she cried, shivering.

"Hn," agreed Sasuke, who looked equally messy but seemed to be pulling it off better.

Pouting, Naruto looked between both their annoyed faces and promptly burst into tears.

Iruka sighed. Some days, he wondered why he had agreed to become a teacher.

A second later, a gray head of hair poked in through the window, followed by a lurid orange book and finally the spindly but dangerous form of Kakashi Hatake. Iruka took one long look at the expression on his mostly-hidden face and suddenly remembered exactly why he had taken up this job.

As Naruto somehow managed to grab both his Shinkis' hands as well as Iruka's and began to drag the trio towards his wayward sensei, babbling delightedly all the way, Iruka reflected that the payoff of teaching was still more than having a chance to avoid Kakashi for a legitimate reason.

And it certainly wasn't the salary for teaching beginning genin.