Disclamer: I do not own any of the original Naruto characters.

CHAPTER 4:

The alarm clock went off at exactly 6 am. Yuri cracked one dark eye open to stare at it. She turned over on her back and counted to ten, expecting the alarm to stop for itself.

1, 2, 3…

After that ridiculous déjà vu type dream/nightmare, she couldn't sleep properly for the rest of the night without picturing Moriko or her blood splattered hands after many of kills she took part in.

4, 5, 6…

She was tired as hell and she still had to meet Lady Tsunade at 7:30 am sharp and then go to Training ground 14 for 8 am and besides, being late was not her style. But why was she still feeling so lazy this morning? Did a change of scenery induce this? She would get up in a sec.

7, 8, 9…

Hold on though. Is that damn alarm still going off?

10!

Yuri grabbed the device and pelted to the opposite end of the room close to the door. The clock hit the wall and it ricocheted of it and fell to the ground with a satisfying crash. Yuri fell back onto the bed and pressed her pillow onto her face when she heard someone knocking on her front door.

"If I stay as quiet as possible they might just go away," she mumbled through the pillow.

The knocking finally ceased and she breathed a sigh of relief. She smiled in satisfaction as she removed the pillow from her face, and was about to turn over and return to dreamland when she heard the creaking of the staircase. Her eyes flew back open.

Someone was coming upstairs. To her room!

Her natural killer instinct caused her to reach for the kunai hidden under the pillow below her head. She spun over as the bedroom door opened and she immediately flung the kunai at the intruder.

The intruder ducked and swore. The door flew open to reveal a disgruntled Konohamaru looking back at the kunai sticking out of the wall behind him. Konohamaru looked at Yuri and yelped, "Yuri what the hell!"

"I was going to ask you the same question. What the hell are you doing at my house so damn early, kid?"

Konohamaru dropped his knapsack on the ground and jumped on the bed next to his sister, while she scowled at him. "Well I have school in about an hour and I know that you have a meeting with the Hokage early this morning, so I was wondering whether or not you wanted to have breakfast with me. And there are some people I want you to meet at the Academy."

"Like?"

"Well there're my friends, Udon and Moegi. And my teacher, Iruka-sensei," he added after some thought. "And when Naruto comes back, I really want you to meet him."

"Oh yeah?" Yuri grunted, as she swung herself of the mattress to brush her teeth and get ready. "What's so great about him?"

"What's great about the boss? He is such an awesome ninja! Before he left, he was the only genin who can do the Shadow Clone jutsu."

Yuri, who was searching through her linen drawer, turned her head to frown at her brother. "I thought that jutsu was a jonin level jutsu?"

"Yeah it is but, the boss learned it nevertheless," said Konohamaru with a shrug.

Yuri returned to the task at hand but kept her brother talking. This Naruto kid intrigues me. "What else can you tell me about your friend, otouto-san?"

"Well he did make it to the final round of the Chunin exams two years ago."

"Oh, so he's a Chunin, now," said Yuri, remembering Tsunade saying that one of the rookies were a Chunin.

"Actually no. He's still a genin. He was supposed to advance to the next stage of round three but the exams were cancelled."

"Oh, why was that?" asked Yuri, absentmindedly, as she examined her freshly laundered ninja attire in her wardrobe.

"Because that was when Orochimaru attacked the village and …. um…." Konohamaru's voice had died out at the end and Yuri turned around, with her clothes hanging over her shoulder.

The boy's eyes were filled with tears and were threatening to spill over his cheeks. It was then Yuri understood and asked in a hushed voice, "He killed him didn't he, otouto-san? Orochimaru was the one who killed the old man, wasn't it?"

Konohamaru's tear glazed eyes met his sister's dark ones that reminded him so much of their grandfather's. This was the only way he could answer her without bursting into tears that should have been dried up years ago. But lately these emotions had returned. Maybe it was because the sudden reappearance of his sister that had caused old wounds in his heart to suddenly reopen and bleed once again. But he was a shinobi and one of the most important rules shinobi learnt at the academy is to never let your personal emotions get the better of you. When your friends and family members die on a mission or facing whatever enemy, you should be able to stand at the memorial and not succumb to your feelings, for their memory's sake. But Konohamaru could not help it. His grandfather's death hit him harder than any other tragedy.

Yuri stooped in front of him and put her hands on his shoulders. She was going to hug him but the memories of her past life as a kunoichi assassin was still fresh in her mind and her hard demeanor caused by it, prevented that. She was at a loss of what to say so she just muttered to him, "Trust me little brother; the pain will ease with age and it will get easier for you to move on."

She stood up and headed for the bathroom. She stopped outside her room staring at the kunai still lodged in the wall. She smirked and pulled it out and placed it in her kunai pouch. She glanced back at the young adolescent still sitting on her bed, staring at the floor while scuffing his shoes on the said floor.

"Hey kid, I'm going to get dressed as fast as I could. Wait downstairs for me will ya?"

Konohamaru nodded and he grabbed his school bag and headed down the stairs as Yuri shut the bathroom door.

"You must be kidding me!"

Ten minutes later, they were standing in front of none other that Ichiraku's Ramen stand.

Yuri, in her Leaf village jonin clothes, (i.e. blue shirt, blue trousers and green vest), turned to look at brother. "Kid I think you've finally cracked. Ramen for breakfast!"

"What? It's really good," he countered. "Come on Yuri, my ramen's getting cold." And with that he entered the booth.

Yuri had no choice but to follow. She sighed and rolled her eyes as she entered. They ordered a bowl of pork ramen each and settled down to eat. It actually tasted good, but it was still weird that someone, like her brother, to be eating something as heavy as ramen, which is usually eaten for lunch, at this time of the day. She played with her noodles while watching Konohamaru slurp down his bowl in two minutes flat.

"What's wrong sis?" he asked licking some of the remnants of his face.

"When did you start eating like this kid?"

"Well since I had started hanging out with the boss, I kinda got addicted to it."

"You mean Naruto?"

"Yup!"

I seriously need to meet this kid, Yuri thought as she stared at the wall behind Ayame, who was serving another customer she did not recognize. She dipped her chopsticks into the bowl before, only to realize that it was empty and Konohamaru was busy wiping his mouth with a napkin, while chatting away with the stranger sitting next to him.

She was about to clobber Konohamaru for eating her entire bowl, when she noticed the man he was talking to. The man looked as though he was a couple of years younger than Asuma, but he certainly looked wiser than him. He had his dark hair in a ponytail with a distinctive scar on his face, stretching across his nose bridge. He was laughing at some ridiculous comment Konohamaru had made when he saw Yuri looking at him. His laughing fit ceased immediately as he looked into Yuri's dark eyes. Yuri raised an eyebrow and a blush came onto his face.

Konohamaru was now waving his hand in front of his face. "Earth to sensei, earth to sensei. Come in Iruka-sensei."

"What?" Iruka stuttered. He was still watching Yuri intently. Yuri sniggered to herself. She turned her head away from her brother's companion and lifted her glass of water to her lips while she brushed back a strand of her hair from her face.

Konohamaru finally caught on. "Hey Iruka-sensei, whatcha looking at?" he said as he followed his teacher's line of sight which rested on his sister. Yuri was looking at him from the corner of her eye; clearly not a good sign.

"Oh I'm sorry Iruka-sensei. I almost forgot! This is my older sister, Yuri. Yuri this is my teacher at the Academy, Iruka Umino."

Oh, so this is his teacher, she thought. Out loud she said, "It's nice to meet you, Iruka Umino." She held out a hand.

"Uh, it's um n-n-nice to me-et y-you, Miss Sarutobi," Iruka stuttered, his eyes downcast. So this is the new head of the Sarutobi clan lady Tsunade was speaking of, he thought while he shook Yuri's hand. Wait a sec, why am I stuttering like a love sick teenager? Iruka took a deep breath and chanced a look at her face. She certainly doesn't look like Konohamaru or Asuma or her grandfather, but her eyes definitely show that she is a Sarutobi.

Konohamaru saw the blush across his sensei's face and cleared his throat. When he didn't get a reaction from either adult, he shouted, "Iruka-sensei your flies are down!"

Ayame, who was handling the dirty ramen bowls, dropped them when she heard that comment, and hid behind the counter, embarrassed. Passers-by outside the ramen stand stood staring at Iruka, who had immediately dropped Yuri's hand to check his clothing.

Yuri's face had also turned red and she turned on her brother. She hit him on his head and chastised him for being an idiot as he yelped in pain. By this time Iruka had calmed down and the chortling crowd had finally dispersed. Yuri checked her watch it was twenty-five minutes past seven. Yuri bowed towards Iruka and ordered Konohamaru to pay for the meal as she disappeared in a shower of white lily petals, but not before she had heard Konohamaru ask Iruka, "Hey sensei, why the heck were you looking at my sister like that?"

Shizune was the one who opened the door to the Hokage's office and led Yuri inside. Tsunade had a cup of sake in one hand and was using the other hand to riffle through some files on her desk.

"Good morning Lady Hokage," Yuri said with a bow to her superior.

Without looking up from the papers she was going through, she motioned me to sit in the seat in front of her desk while took another sip from her cup. Shizune was now standing next to the Hokage, awaiting her next instructions.

Tsunade closed the files and passed them to me. "These," she started, "are the stats of all four genin teams under the care of Kakashi Hatake, Might Guy, Kurenai Yuhi and Asuma Sarutobi."

"May I?" Yuri asked, gesturing to the thick file in front of her.

"Oh sure be my guest," responded Tsunade and she sat back in her chair, refilling her cup while Yuri opened the file.

The first team stats she went through, was Guy's team. Guy's team comprised of the oldest of the ten genin and one chunin. The first ninja's name popped out at her. "Neji Hyuga," she read out loud, "experienced in short ranged and defensive attacks. Excellent in taijutsu and ninjutsu; a bit weak in genjutsu…"

"Well he is one of the best to come out of the Hyuga clan, don't you think?"

"What do you mean?"

"According to Lord Hiashi Hyuga, head of the Hyuga clan, their kekkai genkkai has found its purest form in Neji, even though he is a member of the branched household. And there is a mistake in my files as you can see. I was trying to correct it before you came in."

"What do you mean Lady Tsunade?"

"Neji is a chunin, but since he is so talented he was recommended to be promoted to jonin a couple of months after he became a chunin. And since the jonin exams are in two months I didn't even bother to class him as a chunin, usually because of all this damn paperwork," she explained, gesturing to the stacks of papers on and around her desk.

"That's alright. So now I have two chunins and 9 genins, then."

Tsunade nodded and Yuri continued through team Guy's portfolio. She glanced at the size of the files she was holding and sighed. This is going to take a while!

Yuri's POV

The other two members of Guy's team were also very peculiar and powerful. The girl, Tenten, was the youngest weaponry mistress in the entire damn village, maybe even the country! Her ninjutsu and taijutsu was evenly balanced, but it would seem that she, just like Neji, lacked in genjutsu because of her chakra type. The peculiar part of this team was its next constituent, Rock Lee, who looked like a mini-Guy, down to his bushy eyebrows and ridiculous bowl hair cut. But he was certainly interesting though; giving that he can only use taijutsu. Well I will certainly have fun making this kid sweat!

The other chunin, Shikamaru Nara wasn't really a shocker since I was informed that his father is the jonin commander and he was the only kid that was made a chunin when the Third Hokage had gotten killed. His sensei was, just my luck, Asuma and his other team members, Ino Yamanaka and Chouji Akimichi are the children of his father's friends, making them the second generation Ino-Shika-Cho.

Kurenai's squad consisted of an Inuzuka, and Aburame and another Hyuga. Kiba Inuzuka, by the looks of his records, was not as great as the other members of his family, but his long range ninjutsu, like Fang over Fang, had certainly improved over time. Shino was clearly the most powerful of the three and the mastery of the Aburame clan's special bug techniques was certainly something I couldn't analyse or help him develop. Hinata Hyuga, Ah another Hyuga, was not as great as her older cousin Neji (which was weird seeing as that she is a Hyuga main family member), but she was definitely the most improved of her squad by perfecting her own version of some family jutsu called Eight Trigrams Sixty-four Palms.

Kakashi's team had the person I was very much looking forward to meeting. "Naruto Uzumaki," I read aloud to get the Hokage's attention, "taijutsu – average, ninjutsu – ok with the exception that he knows a couple of jonin level jutsu, like multiple Shadow Clones and Rasengan. My question is how the heck did he learn those jutsus?"

"I'm not entirely sure how Naruto learnt to do Shadow Clone jutsu, but from what I heard, someone within our ranks tricked Naruto into stealing a sacred scroll for him, and naturally the boy read the scroll thus enabling him to perfect his Shadow clones. As for the Rasengan, Jiraya taught him," she concluded simply and took another sip from her sake.

"What business does Jiraya have with this kid?" I asked skeptically.

"I think I'll let Jiraya explain that to you when he and Naruto return next month," she responded.

I continued looking through Team seven's statistical report. My eyes skated over the pink haired kunoichi, Sakura Haruno. "Ah finally someone who could use genjutsu!" I exclaimed.

"Sakura?" Tsunade enquired.

"Yeah, I was kind of worried that no one in this year group would have the affinity to genjutsu."

"Well Sakura's a natural when it comes to genjutsu. I should know," she said smugly.

"Why's that?"

"Both Sakura and Ino Yamanaka have been training under me for the past two years. Medical ninjutsu, Yuri," she added when she saw my confused look.

"Oh well I guess you have both Sakura and Ino covered, then."

"Mostly, but I still want you to help them improve their taijutsu. It seriously needs work."

I nodded my consent and turned the page. The next person's name popped out at me. "Sasuke Uchiha," I muttered as I ran my finger across his name in kanji.

"He left," Tsunade said shortly. Evidently she heard me.

"Why did he leave?"

"Orochimaru offered him power to kill his brother and avenge his clan and abruptly after he attacked the village, he left. Every attempt to capture him was a failure. He is now a rouge ninja."

"Okay, then well I'm done with this," I said, handing Tsunade back the files. "So what now?"

Four 'poofs' were heard behind me I sensed that all four senseis were behind me. Without turning around, I stood up from my chair.

"Well Yuri, guess it's time for you to meet the squads."

Author's note: I hope you all aren't bored with this chapter, since it contains info we all know. But most importantly, Yuri isn't aware of what's going on so this is like a learning experience for her. Hope you like my story so far. Please comment! Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks!