The following story is brought to you by Jill's strange and slightly demented mind. The ideas within are all her own, though the characters are owned by Masashi Kishimoto.

Note: 'Dramatic Haircut Moment' is the term Sarah1281 used to describe Sakura's haircut in the Forest of Death, and Ino's haircut during their match in the Preliminaries—except now, I think it means any time someone randomly cuts off their hair.

This story is so much fun to write. I don't want to spoil anything, but I feel kind of bad for Neji. He's taking a lot of abuse.

The First Signs of Change

Iruka stood at the front of the class, looking over his students to determine who was there, who looked ready, who looked nervous, and which students had not shown, and most likely would not be coming any time soon.

He was more than a little surprised to see that none of the year's best female students were present. Perhaps they were on their way?

Iruka glanced at the clock. They still had half an hour, but it was unlike them to be late. Hinata, for sure, should have been here by now. Sakura and Ino would typically arrive in about ten minutes or so.

Iruka forced himself to calm down. He sat at his desk and looked at the exam papers once more.

The classroom door open, and he quickly looked up. "Oh, hi, Naruto," he said with a smile.

"Hi, Iruka-sensei!" the blonde said back.

"You nervous?" Iruka asked.

"…No," Naruto said stubbornly. He crossed his arms. "I'm going to pass this thing for sure!"

"Of course," Iruka smiled at him.

The door opened again, and this time it really was one of the girls.

"Good morning, Hinata," Iruka said to her.

"Hai," she replied, bowing slightly. "Naruto-kun, I made you some brownies."

Naruto turned toward her. "Eh? Brownies, Hinata-chan? For me?"

She nodded, holding the box in her arms out towards him.

"Thanks!" he said, happily taking the box.

Hinata smiled at him as he opened the container and stuffed a brownie in his mouth.

"Wan' one, Iruka-sensei?" he asked their teacher.

"No, thank you," Iruka replied, put off food thanks to Naruto's eating display.

The blonde shrugged. "Hinata-chan, you look different." He frowned, trying to figure out what was unusual about her appearance.

Iruka also glanced at her. Then he did a double-take.

Hinata was wearing… a blue and orange jumpsuit, the reverse of Naruto's outfit. A black t-shirt could be seen beneath the jacket, and her black sandals complimented the outfit nicely.

A small blush appeared on Hinata's face at the double-appraisal, but she kept it under control.

"Hinata-chan, you look so cool! Where did you get the color-scheme from?" Naruto asked obliviously.

Iruka rolled his eyes, but Hinata merely smiled happily, taking Naruto's arm and leading him over to a desk to sit down. As he munched on brownies, she talked about her new outfit. Iruka was shocked to see her being so…talkative and confident.

The door opened again, and Sasuke walked coolly in. He paused in the doorway, checking for fan-girls, and was surprised when no one jumped him. Shrugging, he walked over to a desk in the back and sat down, arms on the desk and hands under his chin in his typical Sasuke Pose.

Ino came charging in a few seconds later, and Iruka sighed, bracing himself for the typical "fan-girls attack Sasuke-kun because he's sooooo cute" events of the morning. Sasuke also tensed, but Ino ignored him completely, and, oddly enough, ran up to Chouji and Shikamaru's desk.

"Move over, Cloud-boy! I'm sitting next to Chouji-kun!" she shouted.

Shikamaru's eyebrows rose into his hairline.

"'Kun'?" he asked.

"Yes, 'kun', you moron, now move!"

Shikamaru obligingly slid out of the seat, allowing Ino to quickly scuttle in and take his place. Chouji sat in shock, wondering what, exactly, had just occurred.

Shikamaru sat back down, muttering something about how troublesome it would be if he had to find another desk, so the trio was smooshed together at one desk. Ino smiled broadly, resisting the urge to wrap her arms around Chouji, and instead chattered away about how nice he looked, how nice the weather was, how excited she was about whatever it was they were doing today, and how annoying Shikamaru's habit of saying 'troublesome' was.

Chouji just sat in shock, not even bothering to eat his potato chips any more. Big-boned people must really be in, he thought.

"Here, I brought you some Potato Chips!" Ino said happily, pulling three bags out of her schoolbag.

"Oh. Thanks?" Chouji said.

"Of course!"

"Ino, what are you doing?" Shikamaru asked.

"I'm sitting with my teammates, what does it look like?"

"How do you know we're your teammates?" Shikamaru said.

Ino rolled her eyes. "Why wouldn't we be teammates? We're the Second Generation Ino-Shika-Chou trio!"

"…That was really cheesy," Shikamaru stated.

"Yeah, well, I don't have time to come up with a better explanation. I'm trying to get Chouji to date me!" Ino said huffily.

"…Date you?" Chouji repeated after a long minute of silence.

Ino nodded vigorously. "Yeah, we have to date!"

"Why aren't you obsessing over Sasuke?" Shikamaru asked.

"Sasuke?" she repeated, as if she really had no clue who he was talking about. Ino glanced around the room, and spotted the raven-haired boy. "Oh, Sasuke. Right. I remember now." She gave him a little wave, but then turned back to Chouji and Shikamaru.

The two exchanged a glance. "What happened to the fan-girl squeals?" Shikamaru asked. "And the glomping?"

"You were in love with him yesterday," Chouji pointed out.

"Oh, well, that was yesterday. This is now. Besides," she continued at their disbelieving stares, "I had a long think about it last night and I realized Sasuke is not the one for me." She winked at Chouji. "I need someone strong and manly, who doesn't attract pedophiles." She shuddered.

"Aren't you meant to be worrying about the exam?" Shikamaru pointed out.

"Pft. Please, this will be a piece of cake. Or barb-e-q," she stated, going back to trying to get Chouji to ask her out. "Besides, worrying is troublesome."

Shikamaru smiled as Chouji began drooling at the thought of meat wrapped in a tangy-sweet sauce. "I like you," Shikamaru said to Ino. "I really hope we are on a team together."

"Don't worry; we will be. But you can't like me like that because Temari would kill me."

"…Who's Temari?" Chouji and Shikamaru asked at the same time.

"Never mind."


Temari sneezed violently.

"Ew, don't get snot on my breakfast!" Kankurou said.

She glared at him.

"Uh-he. Sorry," he said sheepishly.

Gaara walked into the kitchen and sat coolly down at the table, without making a sound. It was easy to tell he was in the room, however, because the Killing Intent oozing off of him was immense, and stifled the breath out of the other three people in the room.

Temari turned around. "GAARA!" she screamed happily, launching herself at him for a big hug. She stepped on Kankurou's foot and knocked Baki to the ground, but she'd be damned if she let that stop her.

Unfortunately for her, however, Gaara's Automatic Defense Shield kicked in and Temari landed at full speed on a wall of sand.

"Ow," she said, sitting up and rubbing her elbow. "I forgot about that."

Gaara raised an eyebrow.

"How could you forget about that?" Kankurou hissed.

Temari looked at him. "Well, it's not something I feel the need to think about every second of the day." She stood from the floor and dusted her skirt off. Turning to Gaara, she said, "I just wanted to give my little brother a hug!"

Gaara's eyes narrowed.

Baki's eyes widened.

Kankurou closed his eyes and tried to think of his happy place. Puppets and face paint, puppets and face paint, puppets and face paint.

"What?" Temari demanded.

"Why…would you want to hug Kankurou?" Baki asked, glancing at Gaara and hoping he would not realize that Temari actually wanted to hug him.

Temari glared at her sensei. "I don't want to hug Kankurou. I want to hug Gaara. Kankurou needs help, yes, but I am not going to be the one to give it to him. Now Gaara, come here and let me hug you!"

Kankurou's eyes flew open, and he stepped quickly away. "Puppets and face paint!" he yelled.

The three stared at him. "What the heck?" Temari said.

"Um…yeah. Oops." He chuckled nervously, then turned and fled.

"Okay. Totally just proved my point. But anyway," Temari said, "I really want to hug you, Gaara, and I am getting impatient. You should know that it isn't nice to make your older sister wait."

"I have never thought of either of you two as siblings," Gaara told her.

Temari dropped her arms, and went quiet. She forgot about that completely. Her eyes were inexplicably wet, but she refused to acknowledge that and turned to Gaara. "You'll change your mind. And I know just how we can do that," she said confidently.

Gaara merely stared at her.

Baki looked between the two, wondering what was going on. Temari was normally scared of Gaara, yet here she was, acting like the older sister she always wanted to be, but was too frightened to show. "What will you do?" he found himself asking.

Temari smiled. "We will go see Naruto."


Sakura left her house, and took to the rooftops to get to her destination faster. She was worried she would be late; it had taken her a little while longer to prepare than she thought it would.

After dressing, she had gathered up her weapons and medical equipment, just in case. Then she had eaten breakfast. Then she changed her outfit. Three times.

Hey, could she help it that she wanted to look absolutely perfect for today? She wanted everything to go well, and she definitely did not want to miss out on this opportunity to fix everything.

At least she had decided to forgo the Dramatic Haircut Moment for now.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts before she fell off a roof, Sakura turned right and began running towards the building few people knew of.

It was located in an unassuming corner of the village, and there were only three ways to get in.

Sakura took the second option, which involved walking up the outer wall using chakra, and then climbing through a window.

Not very complicated, which, of course, made Sakura nervous, but she had been in here twice before, and she knew that was as complicated as it got on any of the entrances.

It was further along in the building that the real trouble came.


"All right, youthful students! We are going to begin our training with fifteen laps around Konoha!"

Tenten took off running, easily keeping pace with Lee.

Neji trailed behind the two, looking positively slow. This was not his fault, however; it would be a great feat for anyone to look quick when running with Gai and Lee, and, now, Tenten.

Gai-sensei was ahead of the three, waving at them as he ran backwards.

"Tenten, you are running most youthfully today," Gai-sensei commented on their tenth lap, which was normally the point when Tenten began to feel fatigued.

"Thanks, Gai-sensei!" she said, still running next to Lee.

Lee beamed at her, obviously pleased that she had finally found her youth.

Neji groaned and fell to the ground in a heap from exhaustion.

The other three kept running.

"Come on, Neji! You will never become youthful if you lie in the dirt!"

Tenten looked back at him, and felt a tinge of pity. "Perhaps we could work on our weapons training instead?" she suggested kindly.

"Great idea, Tenten!" Gai-sensei shouted.

Tenten smiled broadly, and pulled out her two scrolls. She opened them, and mentally cursed herself for not checking her weapons before. These weapons sucked. They were so small.

"Tenten will spar with Neji, and I will show Lee some more taijutsu moves," Gai said.

"Okay," Tenten agreed readily.

Neji looked worried as he got into his defensive Hyuuga stance.

Lee looked excited as he charged at his teacher.

Tenten looked… evil as she started throwing her weapons at Neji.


"GET OUT OF BED, YOU LAZY BUM!" a voice shouted, loudly, into Kakashi's ear.

He sprang out of bed and crashed into the roof. Then he fell back down onto his bed.

"I'm warning you," the previously-loud voice said in a dangerous tone.

Kakashi quickly hopped out of his bed, frightened, and went to cower against the wall.

"Excellent."

"Anko-san?" Kakashi said, staring at the purple-haired menace that had somehow gotten into his home, and then yelled into his ear. "What are you doing here?"

"Making sure you show up to work on time!" she replied.

"But—but that's tomorrow. I don't have to meet my team until tomorrow!" he said in a voice that was almost pleading.

"Yes, but we all know how long it takes you to get ready," she said.

"But, that's not fair!" Kakashi protested. "I barely even know you! I still call you 'Anko-san!'"

Anko sighed. "While that's true, I know you, and everything about you," she said creepily.

Kakashi gulped.

"So, today, you are going to get dressed and ready for the day ON TIME. Then, we will visit the Memorial Stone. Depending on how well you perform these duties, I may or may not decide to try to kill you with my snake summons."

Kakashi gulped again.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go on, go get dressed!" she commanded, waving him away with her hands.

Kakashi hurriedly complied. He definitely did not want this woman angry at him.

She was insane.