The Third pulled a long drag from his pipe. He had been Hokage of the Fire Country for a great number of years. In fact, he had served one of the longest tenures in international history. As part of his duties, the man had witnessed practically everything; epic wars, broken families, true love, deceit, inspiration, poverty, inhumanity, and in certain flitting moments; peace. He, and many others for that matter, felt that he was capable of dealing with almost anything anyone could throw at him.

However, what he was not ready for, was a twelve year old questioning the organization of genin groups.

Ever since, he was a genin, heck, ever since his own father was a genin, the teams had always been as such; two boys, one girl one jonin or chunin. Granted, in those days, the number of women who exhibited, or rather, were allowed to exhibit chakra-harnessing capabilities, was substantially lower. However, as the years rolled along, and female ninja were deemed to be just as tactful and powerful as their male counterparts, nobody had thought to change the genin ratio, and accept more girls in to the graduating classes.

The idea was so unimaginably simple, that it is was revolutionary...

Taking another long, silent drag, the Hokage shifted his weight onto his other leg.

The council of elders hated revolutionary.

"Yamanaka Ino, you are absolutely right. You female ninja have been treated unfairly. Your journey to become ninjas, thus far, must have been far more difficult that I, or any of the boys here understand. However, we shall rectify this and move forward. Iruka, round up Kakashi and the other teaching jonin and meet me in my office in an hour."

And he hated the council:)

Iruka shuddered about having to interact with a dancing Kakashi. Although he had never outwardly showed it, the silver haired guy really scared him. Obviously, he had heard about his infamously horrid childhood and empathized with him about being alone, but the way Kakashi was always so cheerful reminded him of those sociopaths, just on the verge of maiming everyone in sight. Iruka nodded to the Hokage and began to inch towards the door.

The genin began to mumble and whisper among themselves. Most of the kids looked mildly happy or sad about the group changes, too young to grasp the magnitude of what their valedictorian had actually been arguing about.

Hinata Hyuuga stayed seated where she was, but beneath her blue bangs, her eyes were intense and focused.

She had completely understood Ino's issue and had even been wondering the same thing... But she had been too timid to voice her opinions.

She sighed and slumped forward in her seat, wrapping her arms around her short legs.

All her life, Hinata had been told that she was not good enough; too delicate, too kind-hearted, too shy, too feminine, and too forgiving, but maybe, if more girls were introduced into the grad class, then the one-dimensional idea of what a good ninja entailed (brutality, efficiency, narrow-mindedness and a kill-before-question attitude) would change. Hinata knew that being nice was not necessarily a bad thing, but being a pushover was. She just had to prove that she could be kind, humane, and her own person but still be a good ninja.

Then maybe her father would begin to respect her.

Then maybe Naruto would begin to respect her.

Then maybe (and this was the biggest maybe of them all) she would begin to respect herself.

With those determined thoughts, she stood up, walked over to a group of kids and said, as strongly as she could, to the tall girl in the center, "Hello, m-my name is Hinata H-Hyuuga. I just wanted t-to c-compliment you for standing u-up for us."

She mentally patted herself on the back.

Only five stutters!

The Yamanaka girl paused for a moment. Giving the dark-haired girl an inconspicuous once-over, Ino could not help thinking that she resembled Sakura, from when before she became her friend.

Internally, Ino struggled with herself on what to think of Hinata.

As everyone knew, after she gained a sliver of confidence, the green-eyed girl had completely destroyed their friendship as soon as she found out that the boy she was attracted to, was the same one Ino was after.

One boy.

When the shorter girl had called Ino to the big Sakura tree in the park, Ino had thought that the two could just put that boy behind them and move forward with their lives, but the pink-haired girl had insisted that now they were competitors. Hair falling into her eyes, she had even handed Ino back the ribbon she had gifted her five years ago. Sakura had not even asked to clarify if Ino really even liked him or not, she just went off the rumors!

Even if they had been true, what kind of friend believes in rumors about their best friends?!

It took one boy.

It was particularly frustrating for Ino, because upon further reflection, the blonde had realized that she and Sakura both had crushed on him and felt some childish version of lust, but neither of them loved the boy. Even now, Ino appreciated how good looking Sasuke was, but the only reason she fawned over him, was to piss Sakura off.

And to remember that the friendship she thought they shared was not reciprocated.

It took one mother-fucking boy to kill the love she thought they shared for five. whole. years.

Ino had come to terms with the fact that not all girls would back stab the only friend who had been there for them when nobody else was, but it still hurt her to think of Sakura...

So, unbeknownst to Hinata (who was sweating bullets during the tense silence), Ino needed to gather her own courage optimism, and hope. Finally, she held out one manicured hand and smiled brightly. "You have the cu-yoo-test voice ever! I'm Ino, as you probably already know. And thank you, it was just kind of bugging me, you know? Someone needed to say something," she said in her normal, more casual voice.

"O-Of course. Actually, I was just w-wondering the s-same thing. Nobody ever seems to take us girls s-seriously, especially as ninjas," replied Hinata, finally relieved as she firmly grasped Ino's hand.

Four stutters, the Hyuuga thought excitedly, as Ino continued her train of thought, gesturing animatedly with her hands. The genin shuffle was helping her already. Yes!

As the blonde girl continues to share her opinion, Hinata could not help but admire her and be inspired by her. She was beautiful, and took great care of herself but she also managed to be the best ninja that she could. Hinata blushed a little; she really wanted to be Ino's friend. Maybe they would end up on the same team? Hopefully, she slid onto the chair beside the blonde and nodded along to the points she was making.

On the other side of the room, some girls were not reacting so well to the news of re-organization.

Sakura Haruno had her hands pressed into tight fists trembling atop of her desk. She had moved up from gritting, to grinding her teeth. She knew that the whole reason Ino had even brought up the 2:1 ratio was because she just wanted another chance to end up with Sasuke. Her eyes lit on fire as her rather violent Inner-self began to formulate highly imaginative ways to kill Ino. She grinned maniacally.

Sasuke scowled and pressed the base of his palms into his eyes.

Now it was even more likely that he would end up with more of those annoying, ridiculous, fangirls who would only further get in the way of his goal. Although, how much more obsessed could they be compared to the weird pink-haired girl beside him? Once, when Sasuke was called up to write on the board, he had seen that on the back on of one of her binders, she had written, 'Ms. Sakura Uchiha,' in pink ink.

And that, is the story of how he learned her name.

Sasuke shuddered. He had been all of seven years old when that happened.

For all the legitimacy of Ino's point, sometimes girls were absolutely pathetic. Sasuke glanced over to Sakura and frowned. Now, if only she spent half as much time studying her ninjutsu scroll and enhancing her chakra stamina, as she did obsessing over him and her hairstyle, then maybe she would not be such a second-rate ninja.

Sasuke looked around him, trying to find the third-rate ninja in their pathetic group. At least that one tried.

Sasuke spotted an obnoxious flash of orange running atop the student desks, over to the Hokage. Was it just him, or were his big blue eyes glistening as if he was crying? Sasuke knew he had no business in Naruto's emotions but he could not help but feel a bit weird as he saw the blonde loose his footing several times on the desks, shoulders shaking with... dry sobs? He craned his neck forward to see what was going on.