Naruto stood on the desk glaring at Kushina. That strange girl who smelled like a boy, like that woman up the street who'd explained to him that you could smell like a boy but still be a girl anyway, had been ignoring him again. One of these days, he was going to defeat Kushina and make her acknowledge that he was more than a failure, and she wasn't going to alternate between ignoring him like she'd been doing this morning and giving him those weird looks that creeped him out before going back to dismissing him as if he were beneath her notice.

Rather than acknowledge that Naruto was squatting on the desk right in front of her, glaring at her less than six inches away from her face, Kushina continued to pretend that he wasn't there. Much as she had when he'd discovered that he was sitting next to her when a bunch of the girls in the class had giggled like they always did whenever he got within three feet of Kushina. He didn't know why they did that, but girls were just weird like that. Kushina, who never giggled and wouldn't be caught dead giggling like the other girls, continued to just sit there with her hands folded in front of her face, not once acknowledging his presence.

Next thing Naruto knew, something bumped into him, he overbalanced, and he found himself falling on Kushina. That probably would've been bad enough, but it wasn't the worst of it. The way he'd landed on Kushina had ended with their lips locked in a parody of a kiss. Considering what had happened to the boy who'd tried to kiss Kushina on a dare, he knew that he was Dead Meat.

"Yes! True love prevails!" one of the girls in the class yelled. "Take that Forehead! Didn't I tell you that they'd be kissing before they were out of the Academy? Didn't I?"

"We're graduated, so it doesn't count Ino-Pig!" Sakura, whom Naruto had a crush on and considered his One True Love, if such a thing existed, yelled.

As Naruto moved away from Kushina as quickly as he possibly could before she reached out and strangled him, he could see his beloved pink-haired crush launch herself at the Yamanaka. He didn't get much time to watch the fight that would've been very interesting to the boys had the boys in the class been a few years older though, as that was the moment that Kushina, who had become a punching and kicking fury, had launched herself at him and Naruto found himself hard-pressed to survive, much less defend himself.

It was as he was ducking under a kick that he was sure would take his head off that Iruka-sensei entered the room.


Iruka sighed as he took in what was going on. Why couldn't they save it for outside where the destroyed property didn't end up coming out of his pay check? Oh well, after today, they wouldn't be his problem anymore. Next cycle, he would be given a class of First Year students rather than the washouts from this one.

"Settle down!" Iruka said in his outdoor lecture voice, not that he was heard over the din that was the pair of pitched battles between the biggest rivalries in this class. Unlike most classes that had one pair that were considered "Eternal Rivals" or more likely none, he was stuck with two. The rivalry between the Haruno and the Yamanaka was near legendary in the Academy.

As the pair of battles progressed, Naruto did a somewhat admirable job of trying to survive a full-on assault from the Rookie of the Year who'd much rather be considered the Year's Top Kunoichi. The Rookie of the Year, despite being dressed in slightly encumbering clothes and high-heeled sandals - likely in anticipation of the Team Photo - was putting in an excellent showing that even some Chunin would be hard pressed to match, and Naruto was dodging a good deal of it. While the two fought around the room, the Year's Top Kunoichi, who was in a pitched battle with the year's runner up who'd only been half a point behind, neatly wove in and out of the running battle between the Uzumaki and the Uchiha, neither her nor her opponent running into either of the two. Both girls were almost perfectly evenly matched.

The fighting couldn't continue much longer however, or there wouldn't be a classroom left for the four to fight in.

"SETTLE DOWN!" Iruka yelled, doing his best to ignore the pain of his aggrivated injuries. Injuries that would've killed someone who A) Wasn't a shinobi and B) Didn't have access to some of the best Shinobi medkits anywhere and top flight Iryo-nin like those in Konoha. Some of his injuries had looked worse than they had been though, and it had mostly been the blood loss that had put his life in danger. Fortunately, he was able to laugh at how the bleeding from his mouth, which had been caused when he'd accidentally bitten the inside of his cheek that hard, had really freaked out the medics who'd been absolutely stunned to discover that Mizuki's giant shuriken had just barely missed his lung.

After his yell, the fighting paused long enough for him to yell "Stop wrecking this place like a bunch of hooligans and get back to your seats!". Fortunately, the students just barely minded him enough to do so, though the Uchiha brat made it clear that it was being done under extreme protest, and that the fight with Naruto would continue at a later time when he wasn't there to interfere.

"Alright, now that everyone's here, I'm going to go over your team assignments." he said as he pulled out a clipboard and started reading, swiftly going through the first six teams.

"Team Seven is Haruno Sakura, Uchiha...Kushina, and Uzumaki Naruto" he read out, ignoring the "Woo-hoo!" from Naruto who was over the moon about being on a team with Haruno Sakura and the screech of "Why!" from the Haruno who wasn't the least bit happy with her team assignment since she wasn't at all fond of either of her teammates.

Team Eight, which consisted of the class' Aburame, Inuzuka, and Hyuuga looked like a top flight tracking team, which was probably why it was the first to be put together behind the Ino-Shika-Cho trio which was always a given when there was a class with a Nara, a Yamanaka, and an Akimichi in it. The sensei insisted on taking that number because it was a lucky one. Since Gai hadn't run his team through the most recent Chunin Exams, leading to the number being dropped from the team's name as it was reformed into Team Gai, there was no Team 9 this time around, since there couldn't be two untested Team 9s. Team 10 was the now ubiquitous Ino-Shika-Cho trio that was now the norm after it had been discovered exactly how good a combo the first such trio had been.

With the lists read, his part in his students' lives was officially done. At least in his capacity as an Academy Instructor. Odds were that he'd encounter each of his students at least once during his second job as an administrative Desk Chunin. Releasing his students for lunch, he went to get his own midday meal which he'd be washing down with a bunch of painkillers which did nothing to dull the pain of discovering his best friend since childhood was a traitor. Out of all the injuries he'd received a week earlier, that had been the absolute worst.


Kakashi sighed as the eraser bounced off his head. He'd give his students that one, and only that one, since he'd turned up later than usual and obviously nobody had told the kiddies what to expect. That was their only free shot though.

"I'm sorry! I told him not to, but..." Haruno Sakura said, putting on a meek act that was completely unbecoming of the girl who'd damn near defeated her ex-Chunin mother in her attempts to take the Graduation Exam last year. The word "told" was also noted. Had the Haruno actually wanted to stop the Uzumaki who was currently rolling around on the floor laughing like a hyena, she would've done so. The girl's figure was one of lean muscle which spoke of years of conditioning.

The Uchiha, who looked a bit like a mini-Madara in perfectly accessorized girls' clothing, sat on the far end of the room saying nothing and pretending to ignore the situation. There was a slightly amused glint in the child's eyes though.

Amusement at the Uzumaki's prank was pretty much the only sign of team cohesion amongst the three. Whether it would be enough though remained to be seen.

"My first impression is..." he said as he gave each student a glare to show the prank wasn't all that appreciated. "I hate you all. Meet me on the roof in five minutes."

The kids were extremely punctual when it came to following orders. Which would make tomorrow very interesting, considering he - following in Obito's footsteps - was not.

Introductions were very...interesting. He'd given his usual introduction which was carefully calculated to frustrate the Genin receiving it after he was predictably asked for a sample introduction. It had worked as expected.

Naruto's introduction was as brash and loud as he was, and contained several shades of Obito. If Naruto weren't blond, he'd be almost convinced that it was Obito sitting there in front of him back from the dead. The only clue that the Uzumaki child had anything approaching a quiet side was the almost offhand mention that one of his hobbies was gardening.

Kushina's introduction was a rather broody one that was similar to what he would've given at that age. The Uchiha had finished up with "I don't have a dream, I have an ambition...I will kill a certain man and restore my clan on my own terms.". The "or not at all" was so heavily laced throughout the "on my own terms" that it didn't need to be spoken at all. Considering the impossibility of the Uchiha's terms for restoring the Uchiha clan, those who were interested in having the child breed a new clan of more malleable Uchiha would not be happy with this. Not at all.

When it came to the Haruno girl's introduction. He honestly couldn't see how the girl's false modesty and giggly fangirliness meshed with the kunoichi who had seriously trained day in and day out so she'd be ready to not only take the Graduation Exam a year early, but also take the top spot for that year so she'd be on the team with that year's Rookie of the Year, Hyuuga Neji. Considering how much Gai valued such perseverence and dedication to a goal, she would've been an excellent fit for that team. She was on his however, and he'd been the one that had to sit there through her little giggle fits as she fantasized about being Mrs. Hyuuga. After her ladylike performance which had been broken up by those dreamy sighs and gigglefits, her vehement "I hate Naruto and Kushina!" came completely out of left field.

After the introductions were made, he gave his usual spiel to set up for his test which no team had yet passed. The kids were predictably horrifed by the test's roughly 66% attrition rate. Whether they would follow his orders and recommendations was yet to be seen however, considering he'd gotten the three most stubborn and pigheaded brats the Academy had to offer this year.

Yes, tomorrow was going to be very interesting.