Kaishi made to get up off the bed when her hand, trying to lever her up, landed on the paper the Hokage had given her.

210.

She should say goodbye.

Mind made up, Kaishi stood her, slightly taller than before, body up. She felt a brief rush of dizziness, but didn't black out this time, thankfully. She was actually feeling better than she had since this whole situation started; sometimes a good cry could give your head the good clean up it needs. Sure, it wasn't a perfect situation that she found herself in, but it was a step forward, whether that was the right direction was debatable.

She stepped out into the hospital corridor. It looked remarkably similar to the civilian hospital; she wasn't really sure what she'd been expecting, but it was a lot more normal than she'd thought it would be. A few nurses strolled up the hallways, a patient was making his slow way down the other way, a hand pulling a portable IV stand along behind him. There was a chair or two set up outside each door, which presumably led different hospital rooms.

Kaishi glanced down at the number on the card and set off, squaring her shoulders.

Two sets of stairs and a brief wrong stop off in room 120 later, she stood outside a remarkably unremarkable door. 210, the silver plate read. Her hand shook as it hovered over the door-handle, but she steeled her mind. This would probably be the easiest thing she would have to do in her immediate future, so she was going to have to buck up and deal with whatever shit came her way.

She turned the handle and opened the door, stepping into the room.

The first thing she noticed was how quiet it was. She thought her own hospital room had been quiet, but this was silent.

Like a grave, an unhelpful voice noted from the back of her mind.

You shut up, she grumbled irritably at herself. She took in the sight of the hospital room, monitors and wires and tubes and right in the middle-

That's not me.

It struck her like a punch in the gut. She thought it had sunk in, but obviously she really had to be aware and seeing it to believe it. But truly, there was her body, Kaishi's body, dressed in hospital whites, lying still and pale in the bed. No flicker under the eyelids like a sleeping person showed. If it weren't for the rise and fall of her chest, Kaishi might have thought this a wake, not a hospital room.

"Who are you?"

She wasn't prepared for the voice that spoke. She wasn't prepared for the sight that she had subconsciously glossed over, of the other presence in the room. She wasn't prepared for the sight of her teary-eyed mum staring up at her from where she sat in the chair next to the bed.

She looked terrible. She looked almost as pale as Kaishi's body did, and deep bags had already formed under her bloodshot eyes. Her hands grasped her bag convulsively where it sat on her lap.

"I-" Kaishi didn't know what to say or how to say it, and to her frustration, felt tears well up in her eyes again. Her breath hitched in agitation. She wanted to go hug her mum, to tell her the truth, to tell her it wasn't really her in that hospital bed.

But she reminded herself of all the reasons not to speak up she's tallied up before. She'd only hurt her mum more at this point, if Uchiha Sasuke flung himself into her arms claiming to be her comatose daughter.

"Uchiha." She finally croaked out, jerking out a painful bow. She saw recognition dawn in her mum's eyes and braced herself for the sharp words that were about to follow.

To her surprise, her mother simply let out a shaky sob-sigh.

"So you're the boy Kaishi was with when…I want you to know- I, we don't blame you. I know you ninja think kids are adults if they've got a shiny headband, but to us, you're still a kid. It was an accident." Her mum dragged a hand over her damp eyes, giving her, Uchiha Sasuke, a wobbly smile.

"I told her- I told her not to go out to that training ground. I told her ninja do dangerous tricks when they train. She never was very good at listening. I just, I wish she'd listened to us this once." Her voice shook as she started getting teary in earnest.

Kaishi couldn't stand it. She turned and left, blocking out the sounds of her crying mother behind the door. As she spotted the lanky shape of one of her brothers approaching, no doubt to bring their mum home at the end of the hospital visiting hours, she ducked into an empty room, heart beating fast until he was past. He didn't even glance back – she could tell by the hair length, it was Sei, not Aihan.

It didn't matter, not anymore. She had to focus now. She had to play the part of the Uchiha ninja. If she would end up in this body for the rest of her life, then she'd deal with that too. But for now…

Kaishi made her way towards the hospital entrance.

X-X-X

As she was about to leave, she caught sight of a dark-skinned man wearing a hitai-ate hovering around the hospital desk. When he caught sight of her, the man hurried over.

"Sasuke-kun, I'm glad I caught you. I was worried you'd already left." He gave her a gentle smile. Kaishi tried to hide her confusion, but it must have shown somehow in her face, because the man bashfully scratched the scar that stretched across his face, one hand shoved deep into his trouser pocket.

"I didn't want you to have to walk home on your own. It's always nice to know there's someone waiting for you to come out of the hospital." To know there's someone that cares that you're not dead, went unspoken. This time, Kaishi managed to supress the urge to cry. Gods, she was getting emotional. She really needed to cut this shit out if she was going to at least be pretending to be a ninja.

"Shall we?" The man asked, stepping aside and indicating the hospital doors. Kaishi, for lack of anything else to say, simply shrugged. This seemed the right thing to do, as the man just gave her another smile, and was about to fall into step with her when he was hailed from the front desk.

"Iruka-sensei!" One of the nurses called, holding up a card, "You left your ID card on the desk!"

Iruka blushed and quickly turned back to take the card, tucking it away with a quick thank-you to the desk nurse.

"Sensei?" Kaishi said before she could stop herself. Iruka blinked down at her.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?" He asked, face open, ready for any question.

Kaishi floundered. There was so much she wanted to ask, but so little she could without exposing herself for a fraud. She stuck her hands deep into the pockets of her shorts.

"Are you worried about the ceremony tomorrow?" Iruka asked, when no question was forthcoming.

Kaishi grunted, shrugging again. Iruka gave her a gentle nudge against her shoulder.

"C'mon, cheer up. It's a happy occasion; you earned it. I know how hard you trained for your skills. Don't worry – there won't be any surprise tests or anything. Just, make sure to wear your hitai-ate tomorrow, 'k, else they won't let you in. The rest of the classes have been cancelled for the ceremony." Iruka rambled on.

"You've already taken your registration photo, right? Good. So just come to the classroom, and I'll sort you into your team and-"

"Team?" Kaishi repeated, taken by surprise. She thought she'd be working alone, maybe training with a teacher and she'd have plenty of time to research on her own. Iruka gave her a slightly disapproving look.

"Look, Sasuke-kun, I know you talked to the Hokage about getting an individual teacher, but it's not going to happen. Konoha prides itself on the teamwork between its ninja. I get that you haven't exactly made friends, but you're going to get a team whether you like it or not. Oh…is this about Sakura and Ino?"

"Sakura." Kaishi didn't know who that was, but it seemed safe to just restrict her answers to one word. Iruka seemed to like to talk anyway – she wasn't sure whether she wanted to meet this 'Sakura' or 'Ino' though, considering the way the teacher had said their names.

Iruka chuckled.

"I bet it's weird to have a fanclub at such a young age, right? Still, it might be a bit annoying, but they don't mean any harm. You know, by ignoring them you're only- oh, we're here."

Indeed they were. The tall posts marked the edge of the Uchiha compound. She'd thought it was farther away from the hospital than it actually was. Maybe they'd walked faster talking –or, well, Iruka-sensei talking. She could see the main street of the compound stretch out in front of her, rows and rows of silent houses, windows dark and doors barred.

She hesitated, and Iruka nudged her again.

"'You okay?" He asked, trying not to seem concerned.

She was tempted to say no, to ask him to spend the night. But no, she had to pull herself together. She was Uchiha Sasuke now, and she had to live like he did. He seemed pretty moody though, if the responses she'd given so far seemed the norm.

Trying to channel 'moody' she pulled away from his hand and kicked her sandal in the dirt, throwing a casual 'yeah' over her shoulder as she stepped towards the compound. She didn't turn around, even as Iruka-sensei said his goodbyes.

"Well, I'll see you at the graduation ceremony tomorrow then, Sasuke-kun – remember, 9am on the dot! Get a good night's sleep." Kaishi grunted, and a quick swish indicated Iruka having left her at the gate.

X-X-X

The compound gave her the creeps; there were so many different buildings, from shops to onsen to one-man houses and family affairs. They looked like they should be bustling with movement and energy, but the whole compound was silent, the air heavy with some old grief. In the settling twilight, the houses were cast in darkness, and long shadows stretched across the ground.

Kaishi hunched her shoulders as she hurried through the memorial city, trying to find the path that looked the most used. After turning into only a few dead ends, she found the one house that looked lived in; it looked a decent size for a small family.

She hesitantly pushed at the front door; it opened easily, no key needed. It seemed not even thieves ventured into this part of Konoha. The silence just seemed to get deeper, colder, as she stepped into the genkan, shucking off and turning her shoes before stepping barefoot into the corridor. She began by exploring the house – only a few rooms seemed to still be used. She slid open the paper door to what looked to have been the parents' bedroom; it was covered with a thick layer of dust and even the few clothes on the floor, likely discarded after a long hard day's work, looked like they hadn't been touched or moved for years.

The same repeated with other rooms, likely places where Sasuke had sat and lived with the family. The cleanest – although even that term had to be applied lightly – places seemed to be the kitchen, living room and what looked to be Sasuke's own room. It was mostly bare, with clothes tossed haphazardly onto the floor. A futon that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a while was pushed to one side of the room, while the usual assortment of cabinets and shelves and such took up some of the rest of the wallspace. Upon further inspection, Kaishi spotted a target stuck to the ceiling just over the futon, a shuriken stuck to it dead-centre, pinning a scrap of paper to it. She couldn't make out what was on the paper only that it looked like it was an old photo, the vague silhouette of a man or boy barely holding together under the amounts of cuts and rips through it.

The room that truly gave her the creeps was the only room that didn't look like it belonged in a museum. Quite the opposite – it looked like someone had unleashed a feral cat in it. The remnants of a destroyed futon showed it used to be bedroom, but little else was recognisable – perhaps those wood chips were once a shelf, those shards a mirror. Books and scrolls looked like they'd been burned up and tossed to the ground; indeed, black charcoal ran up the walls and the ceiling, as though someone had set the room on fire, only extinguishing it at the last second before it consumed the rest of the house. Kaishi felt like an intruder in this room in particular, and she quickly left, shutting the door firmly, determined never to look in there again.

Having explored the house she would now be living in, Kaishi wasn't sure what to do next. Her stomach solved the problem by complaining loudly.

After rifling through the kitchen cupboards, Kaishi threw together something resembling a meal, resolving to learn how to cook in the future. Who knew how long she'd have to be self-sufficient. She already missed her dad's creative cooking which, while not bad per se, always contained a huge amount of fatty meats, which she wasn't a fan of. Apparently it was a Water Country thing.

She didn't even realise how much she missed the sounds of family until it was gone – her father always talked at a volume you could hear from upstairs, her mother liked to play music while she worked, and her brothers – well, she wasn't sure what they did in their spare time, but it certainly wasn't quiet. Plus, so far nobody had pushed open the door of her room without knocking, which normally drover her mad, but she was now belatedly missing.

Well, no use in getting sappy about it now. Think of it more as a long-term sleepover, not that Kaishi had ever had many of them.

As she finished eating, she noticed the gleaming metal forehead protector that sat, tossed absently, on the low living room table. She set her plate aside and picked it up, running her thumb over the recessed lines forming the leaf. She'd always thought the shinobi uniform looked damn cool, but never in a million years had she thought she'd be a ninja herself. I suppose, technically she wasn't a ninja herself now either.

Although, talking about ninja, there was some kind of graduation ceremony tomorrow, right? She'd be put on a team. They'd expect an Uchiha – what the hell did she know about the Uchiha, past 'almost all of them are dead, truly dreadful'?

"Right, first thing first – research!" She said to herself, and the words echoed emptily in the old house.

X-X-X

Kaishi woke up to the painful glare of sunlight in her eyes, and she blinked irritably, putting her hands over her face, in the process knocking an open book off her stomach.

Oh yeah. Despite Iruka-sensei's advice to get a good night's sleep, Kaishi had spent the evening and night collecting all the books in the house and speed-reading through them to try and glean at least a rough overview of who she was pretending to be. Thankfully, she had great reading skills and a good memory on her side – yeah she wouldn't be perfect, but she wasn't expecting to be quizzed on Uchiha genealogy tomorrow; besides, she'd be able to blame any small blips on her accident.

Sasuke had a lot of Uchiha books at the house, which, upon reflection, shouldn't have surprised her; he had nobody around to teach him anymore. The red stamp in the front of the books showed that a lot of them had been borrowed quite recently from the ninja archives.

Altogether, the research had been quite enlightening, together from an old edition of the Konoha Leaf, from the week after the attack on the Uchiha clan, which she'd found stuffed under a seat cushion of the sofa. She'd figured out that the trashed room must have been Uchiha Itachi's – to be honest, if Sei or Aihan went batshit on the family, she'd probably trash their rooms too.

Kaishi groaned at the migraine that pounded at her temple – getting little sleep on top of all that happened the previous few days were obviously doing a number on her. She wondered if Sasuke had any medicine for that.

A more pressing matter made itself known as she got up though, and she spent a frantic minute trying to find the bathroom.

After that strange, and scarring, experience, she'd caught sight of herself in the mirror, getting the first good look at her new-self.

Uchiha Sasuke was pale as a ghost, although she wasn't sure if that was her doing or his natural pallor. It made the heavy bruise down his jaw stand out in shades of dark blue and purple – she couldn't resist gingerly prodding it and then hissed at the pain. His dark eyes had sleepless bags under them, and his hair –she couldn't help but laugh – sat flat on one side and stood up on the other, where she'd slept on her side on the sofa. She gave a half-hearted attempt at evening the sides out with dampening the hair to try and get it to lie flat. She groaned with exasperation as the hair refused to co-operate. This was why she got a buzzcut! What you went to bed with you got up with, no need to fuss about looking like an utter plonker in the mornings.

Thankfully the shower was easily figured out, and, although the Uchiha hair refused to lay flat and neat, it at least didn't look quite as lopsided after she'd towel dried it. How much of a catastrophe it looked when it was dry, well, she'd just have to deal with it – it didn't look like Sasuke had any kind of hair-products (or they were well-hidden).

That dealt with, she served herself a quick breakfast of the left-over rice from dinner, and some cucumber and carrots she'd found in the fridge.

That's when she noticed the time.

Damn, 9 am on the dot he said.

She wasn't really sure how long it would take to get to the academy, but she thought she roughly knew where it was. What she did know was that it wouldn't be a good start to 'blending in' when she turned up late at her own graduation ceremony.

Stuffing down the last of her breakfast, she quickly brushed her teeth – and yes, she realises the irony of grimacing at using Sasuke's toothbrush…for Sasuke's mouth – and grabbed her hitai-ate before almost dashing out of the room-

Wait.

Ninja carried that leg-pounch thing, right? She remembered taking it off the night before and spent the next five minutes looking for where she'd dropped it. Finally Kaishi snagged the pouch and then spent more time trying to figure out how to wind the bandages underneath so they didn't come undone. She kept one tense eye on the clock – thankfully she'd left herself plenty of time and so left the house, this time with everything she needed, and could search for the academy without rushing.

The academy was hard to miss, and she found it on her first try – it was the sort of building that, unless you went there regularly, you didn't tend to notice, but when racking your brains could pull it up with little trouble. Once there, she just followed the signs saying 'CONGRATULATIONS!' with arrows directing the students through the academy and to the rooms where they'd have the ceremony.

…Actually it didn't look like much of a place for a ceremony. Perhaps the name was more a title than anything else, because the classroom she entered looked like any other, almost civilian, with the exception of big-print signs lecturing students on keeping kunai clean and sharp, and class-work on three-man strategy pinned up on the walls.

Everyone looked up as she entered, and Kaishi did her best to look unaffected and, most important of all, bored. Initially she was worried that she'd have to fake Sasuke to his friends, but from what Iruka had said the previous day, it sounded like she wouldn't have to do much work at all; just look standoffish and communicate in grunts.

Students were milling across the rows without direction, so she just picked a seat out of the way and sat down, ignoring the giggles of girls on the other side of the room.

Kaishi didn't look up as she sensed another student sit down, keeping her gaze fixed on the front, waiting for Iruka to show up. It was only a loud "NARUTO! MOVE YOUR ASS! I WANT TO SIT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF YOU!" that jerked her out of her imitation of a statue. She reflexively looked around at the noise, only to make eye-contact with a blond boy – Naruto – who was glaring daggers at her.

"What?" She asked, before she could stop-herself. Naruto looked like he was about to pop his top.

What do you mean, what-" He was unceremoniously shoved into his desk by a pink-haired girl, who put on a blinding smile and a high, grating voice.

"Sasuke-kuuuun~ can I sit next to you?!"

Bewildered, Kaishi gave a noncommittal shrug, trying not to look as uncomfortable as she felt as the girl plonked herself in her personal space. She tried to get back into her mushin zone, when suddenly-

"The hell?" She cursed, as the Naruto kid suddenly jumped on her desk, crouching in front of her and doing his best to boil her eyes in their sockets with his glare. Look, she wasn't trying to draw attention to herself, but if this pipsqueak was going to challenge her, she wasn't about to back down, ninja or no. Suddenly she glared back, putting as much venom into her own attack as she could give back.

"-out of Sasuke-kun's face! Move!" The pink girl was yelling something at them, joined by the clamouring of other feminine voices, but Kaishi was already about a second away from just shoving Naruto off the desk as hard as she could.

Naruto snorted derisively, eyeing her bruises.

"Oi teme, who beat you up?"

That does it.

"I'm going to beat you up if you don't get out of my face right n-"

Suddenly some guy yelled in excitement and kickstarted one of the worst experiences in Kaishi's life. I'd like to say it happened in slow-motion, but really it happened quickly, too quickly for her to avoid – the idiot in the row in front wildly waved his arm, knocking into Naruto who, in turn-

"YARGH!" Kaishi pulled away from the lip-lock she and Naruto had shared for a hot second, yelling loudly. She grimaced and tried to clean her mouth on her arm bandages, like a cat furiously trying to lick the taste of dog hair out of its mouth. Naruto was putting on a similar performance next to her, and their small audience made varying sounds of disappointment, rage and banter. Everyone that is, except for Sakura, who had a slightly different reaction.

Kaishi couldn't say she didn't enjoy what happened next.

X-X-X

Kaishi was distracted from Naruto's violent dilemma by the entrance of Iruka-sensei, who couldn't hide his own small smile when he spotted Naruto, groaning as he pressed his own set of bruises to the cool desk-top. He cleared his throat once, twice and then a third time, loudly and with emphasis as the raucous masses, masquerading as a classroom of ninja children, refused to quieten.

Finally, Iruka-sensei puffed out his chest, his face turning a deep red, before unleashing a bellow that rattled the ceiling tiles.

"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! YOUR DISRESPECT IS UNBECOMNG OF A NINJA! RIGHT NOW I AM STILL YOUR COMMANDING OFFICER AND IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR ASSES BACK TO YOUR CHAIRS RIGHT THIS INSTANT I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND NAIL YOU TO THEM WITH MY KUNAI, HAVE I MADE MYSELF CLEAR?!" He yelled.

Kaishi almost cowered in the face of his anger, but the rest of the class seemed used to it. Not immune though, it seemed, as they all promptly settled themselves back into their seats, with a collective 'YES, SIR!'.

In the quiet that followed, Iruka sighed, chuckling a little.

"Man, you kids are going to make me old beyond my years, I swear. Ahem. Beginning today you are all real ninjas. But you are still merely rookie genin; the hard part has just started. Now, you will soon be assigned duties by the village. So today we will be creating the 'three-man team's, and each team will have a jounin sensei. You will follow that sensei's instructions as you complete your assigned duties.

Like you're supposed to do with me." Iruka mumbled the last part, covering it up with the rustle of him brandishing a sheet of paper.

"We've tried to balance each team's strength, so your companions might be of the unexpected kind."

Shit. Does that mean the rest of my team is going to be losers? Uchiha is supposed to be some kind of prodigy, right? She panicked, barely listening as the teams were called out. Okay, don't panic. If they're really shit at ninja…stuff, they won't notice that you're not amazing. Maybe we'll even get a bum sensei, like that ninja that was drooling all over the library desk. I wonder if ninja volunteer to teach or if it's like a draft… Her thoughts meandered, and she only tuned back in when she heard the last team be called out. This must be hers.

"Next, Team 7 – Haruno Sakura," Kaishi looked up to see the pink haired girl nod at her name. Oh no, that's Sakura? If she's on my team I'm gonna be in hell, "Uzumaki Naruto," Fantastic, this just gets better and better. Please, Iruka-sensei, pull a miracle outta your arse and don't put me with- "and Uchiha Sasuke."

Brilliant.

Kaishi groaned as her new teammates alternatively cursed and whooped at their assignment.

"Iruka-sensei, why does an outstanding ninja like me have to be on the same team as that bum!" Naruto yelled, pointing a finger at Kaishi.

"Oi, don't call me a bum after you fling yourself at me!" Kaishi snapped back, aiming to embarrass. And it worked, as Naruto started turning red.

"Why you-"

"Naruto! Sasuke's grades were first among all 27 graduates." Cool, no pressure then, Kaishi thought despondently. There was no way she was going to be able to pull this off.

"-do this to balance the teams, understand?" Iruka was explaining. Suddenly Naruto looked so downtrodden, Kaishi felt a pang of sympathy.

"…it won't be so bad. We're a team now, right? We work together to cover each other's asses." She said, trying to ease the tension a bit.

What she got in return were confused and blank stares from both Sakura and Naruto. She fidgeted uncomfortably.

"What're you looking at?" Uh oh, I have a feeling that wasn't very Sasuke-like. Dang it, why can't impersonation come with a user manual?

Iruka cleared his throat.

"Okay; this afternoon we'll introduce the jounin sensei. 'Til then, you're dismissed."

X-X-X

The class filed out, the new teams leaving in clumps. Naruto dashed out as quick as he could, throwing a last glare at Kaishi over his shoulder.

Suddenly, Kaishi felt a tap on her shoulder. She glanced over at Sakura.

"Neh, Sasuke-kun. Do you wanna spend lunch with me, maybe?"

Kaishi blinked at the earnest, hopeful look in Sakura's eyes. She'd been hoping to sneak away and check what material the academy taught so she could try and see what she'd need to brush up on (and hopefully they'd have instructions on how to start using jutsus because Kaishi? Not a clue). But she couldn't resist Sakura's plea.

"Yeah okay. As teammates." She tacked on at the end, not wanting to lead her on. Fanclub, indeed.

Sakura's eyes grew wide in disbelief and she nodded her head vigorously.

They both stood and Kaishi shoved her hands back into the pockets of her shorts, quickly realising that, uh, she hadn't actually brought any lunch. A quick perusal of Sakura showed that she wasn't carrying any food either.

"Where's your lunch?" She asked. Sakura blushed and fidgeted.

"Oh, I don't usually eat lunch – I'm on a diet."

Kaishi's brow's furrowed as the two meandered down the academy corridor and then along the path outside.

"That can't be healthy. You need food for energy, no?" It wasn't really a question – her mum always told her off if she didn't take a lunch to school, and she'd be distracted with hunger pangs through the day.

Sakura didn't seem to take it as a criticism though, and just giggled.

"Sasuke, are you concerned about me?"

"We're going to be on a team together. We should all do our best. Including eating." She replied uncomfortably. Again she felt like she was leading the girl on, but then, they were going to be working together for a long time in the future, so she was trying to establish a friendly, or Sasuke-level friendly, rapport. But not too friendly. Damn, it felt like doing a tightrope act on a scimitar.

"Oh. We could…buy something?" Sakura hesitantly suggested. She reached under her dress to pull out a secreted away purse she'd tucked into the waistband of her trousers. It jingled as she shook it.

"I don't have-" Kaishi started to say, but Sakura waved it off.

"My treat!" She giggled. Kaishi sent her back a tentative smile.

"Okay then. Well, you choose where."

Maybe this whole team thing wouldn't be so bad.

X-X-X

"Oi, Sakura-chan!" Someone called out as they stepped under the shop-front of a small restaurant. Kaishi scanned the restaurant and spotted a boy with shaggy hair waving enthusiastically from where he and another couple of kids were seated at a table.

"Kiba!" Sakura greeted. She soon as she got within an arm's length of him, a white blur launched at her – Kaishi's first instinct was to pull Sakura away, but she didn't seem panicked. In fact, when the spot reached her, it turned out to be a small white dog, which Sakura seemed accustomed to jumping into her arms. She laughed as the dog wagged its tail and lapped at her chin.

"Sasuke," Kiba nodded at him with a flat smile, before turning back to Sakura, "Here, come sit with us. Team 8 is getting to know each other."

Sakura laughed.

"You've known each other for years, Kiba, this is just you and your friends hanging out. Man, you're luuuucky. We're stuck with Naruto." She whined as she sat down next to a white-eyed Hyuuga girl, who took one tentative glance at Kaishi before ducking her head. Kiba sat on Sakura's other side, leaving Kaishi to sit next to the boy in the huge jacket. He obligingly scooted over a bit.

"Good morning, Sasuke." He said, in a surprisingly deep voice. Kaishi wasn't sure how to respond – was he her friend? She just grunted back, looking around at the 1 and 2/3 of a team.

"Maybe we should have invited Naruto…" She mused out loud, and was again taken aback by the confused looks sent her way by Sakura and the others, before Sakura waved the suggestion off.

"No way! He'd eat me out of house and home – besides, he ran off before we could invite him, so it's his fault really."

Kaishi wasn't sure that sounded quite right; they should probably get used to working together as a team – this Kiba guy was getting cosy with his new teammates. Shouldn't they do the same? She just settled on the ever-safe silence, as Sakura and Kiba started up conversation again.

"So do you know who your jounin sensei is going to be?"

"Nah, but I bet he's gonna be some famous super powerful ninja, and he's gonna teach us all the coolest jutsus. Ain't that right, Akamaru?" The little white dog, who had returned to his perch on Kiba's head, gave an affirmative yip. Beside her, the covered boy adjusted his glasses.

"She might be a woman. Why? Because professional jounin come in all gen-"

"Yeah and he's gonna have an awesome beard and, and- ah! What if we get Asuma-san? That'd be super-cool." Kiba talked over his teammate. So far, the girl had said nothing, just sat quietly in her seat, occasionally taking a sip of her green tea.

Kaishi nudged the covered boy as Kiba babbled on.

"Sorry, what did you say?" She asked, wanting to hear more about the woman jounin sensei. Although his eyes and mouth were obscured, she could tell he was surprised by the quirk of his eyebrow.

"I merely meant that there is a chance that our teacher will be a woman, because Konohagakure encourages diversity in its shinobi forces."

"Huh. Maybe we'll get a female sensei too." Kaishi proposed.

"While I did mention encouraging diversity, there is still a large discrepancy between the number of male and female shinobi who are promoted. Why? Nobody can know precisely. Regardless, the phenomenon has resulted in the low probability that there will be an equal number of male and female teachers. Besides," he paused as if for dramatic effect, "there is a rumour that, regardless of the number of genin to pass the academy exam, only three teams will pass the tests set by their teachers."

"EHHHH!?" At the boy's declaration, all the kids around the table exclaimed their dismay. Even the quiet girl gave a disappointed gasp, seeming to shrink further in on herself.

"No way, Shino; where'd you hear that?"

The boy called Shino lifted his hand and stretched out a finger – almost immediately a small black dot landed on his fingernail.

"My kikaichu hear many things. Not all are important, but many are interesting." He pointed out.

"Damn. Don't suppose your bugs heard what tests the teachers have in store?"

"K-Kiba-kun! That would be cheating." The quiet girl piped up, a tone of disapproval in her voice.

"C'mon, Hinata, we're ninja now! Information collection will be one of our jobs – so will be uh, what's that thinking that's like-" He made a snaking motion right with his arm. There was a moment of silence.

"Lateral thinking?" Kaishi suggested, and Kiba snapped his fingers.

"Yeah, that. Lateral thinking's encouraged, Iruka-sensei said so. So? Do ya know the tests?"

All the genin leaned towards Shino with an air of expectation, as he drew himself up to his full height, adjusting his glasses so they glinted in the light.

"I…do not."

They gave a collective 'AWWWWW' and slumped – perhaps Kaishi most of all. She could have really done with some tips on how to prepare. As it was, she wasn't sure whether she would be able to survive a test put to her by an elite shinobi. If (when) she failed, she'd be able to blame it on the concussion from her accident or something, sure, but it still wasn't the ideal start to her subterfuge she'd been hoping for.

Sakura tapped the table absently.

"What are you guys' speciality, anyway. I have no idea how we go stuck with Naruto, but I know the teachers usually have like a theme or something for putting the teams together."

"Awesomeness." "Tracking."

Kiba and Hinata said simultaneously. Kiba looked confused for a moment before perking up.

"Okay, yeah, tracking sounds more likely."

Hinata blushed.

"'S gonna be me an' Akamaru's noses, 'Nata's eyes and Shino's bugs. I dunno what the point with you guys is though."

"…Maybe we're the leftovers." Kaishi suggested.

"Nah, they wouldn't put the Uchiha prodigy on a team with leftovers."

Wrong thing to say – next to Kiba, Sakura's eye started twitching.

"Are you suggesting…you think I'm…a leftover…" She said slowly. By the draining of colour in Kiba's face, he obviously realised the hole he'd dug for himself.

"N-no, just you and Naruto-"

"Naruto and I what?"

"Shite."

X-X-X

Kiba was still whimpering, holding a shivering Akamaru in his arms when the bell tolled – they were still close enough to the Academy to hear the signal to collect back at the classroom. Sakura put down the money for her and Kaishi's meal, but Shino pushed it away, pulling his money out instead.

"You should keep your money for more important things. Why? Because as a non-clan ninja you have less access to money than we have. I will pay." He said, brooking no argument. Sakura gave him a tentative smile before nodding her head for Kaishi to follow her. They split with Kiba's team at the restaurant entrance, watching them lope away after the excited puppy, while they took a more meandering path towards the Academy. Kaishi just followed Sakura's lead.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you…okay?" Sakura asked, sounding a bit uncomfortable. Kaishi lifted an eyebrow – she hadn't expected Sakura to notice, too caught up in fangirling over 'Sasuke-kun' or, if she had, Kaishi didn't think Sakura would push her luck by questioning Sasuke's more temperate personality.

"Why do you ask?" She tried to deflect, watching Sakura scuff the ground with the toe of her sandal out of the corner of her eye.

"It's just…you're not acting like yourself. You don't…well, you don't pay attention to me, usually." That sounded like it hurt to admit. Kaishi shifted uncomfortably, trying to figure out how to not put her down while also not making it seem like she suddenly wanted to date her.

"Look, Sakura. I…I don't like it when you fawn over me. It's weird." She said, as bluntly as she could. She saw Sakura jerk back as though struck and she felt a sorry pang in her heart.

"But, we'll be working together. It would be annoying to have to work with a…uh, fangirl. Can't we just…start again?" Kaishi tried to soften the blow. The way Sakura had acted around Kiba, Kaishi had enjoyed herself. It surely wouldn't be so bad if they could just be friends. She didn't know how Sasuke felt about the whole situation with Sakura, or whether he felt anything at all, but she'd be piloting the Sasuke-bot for the foreseeable future, and she could do with not fending off over-enthusiastic girls at every corner. It would be a distraction she couldn't afford – besides, she needed teammates to back up her non-existent ninja-skills. Naruto seemed to have some kind of feud going on with Sasuke, so no help would be coming from that direction, which just left the pink haired girl.

Who was biting her lip and shifting from side to side as she contemplated something.

"Sakura?" Kaishi prodded.

"Uh, I- I-" Her shoulders slumped, and her voice was small, "I'll do my best." She still sounded despondent.

Kaishi sighed.