AN: I'm back from vacation! Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and that nobody got hurt on Black Friday! Thank you again, kani-leek-lover, for the kind review! Thanks for all the follows, reviews and views! I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 6

Today was different. Today, I would be placed on a genin team selected by the Hokage. The Hokage.

At first, I thought the way that it was set up was strange. You go to graduate from the Academy and are placed onto teams that you don't get to choose? That's a lot different than volleyball. In volleyball, you show off your skills, and whoever wants you, gives you a call. I didn't dawdle on the difference, seeing as how I could earn money from completing missions.

I left the orphanage with a spring in my step. Usually, we were placed into teams of three, but 10 of us had passed. I'm guessing the Hokage was probably going to make 2 two-man teams and 2 three-man teams, or 2 three-man teams and 1 four-man team.

I had on my forehead protecter as a headband, my weapons pouch around my right leg, and my storage scroll on my back. Given that it was half the size of my arm, it wasn't very hard to carry around.

When I arrived at the Academy, I took my usual seat by Hinata.

"Good m-morning, Kabucha-san," she greeted, nicely.

"Morning, Hinata," I said, smiling a bit, "Are you excited about the team selections?"

"Y-yes." After saying I was equally thrilled, we left each other to the other's thoughts. Looking around, I saw that Kiba, Sasuke, Sakura, Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru had also passed. No Naruto, much to Hinata's dismay.

"Sorry I'm late!" Naruto shouted, waltzing in the room. What? Yesterday, he said he had failed. But the counter-evidence that had replaced his goggles had changed that. A forehead protecter.

"You're supposed to come today if you passed," Kiba stated. Looking besides me, to gouge Hinata's reaction, I was amused. Her face had gone red and she was smiling a little, while muttering Naruto's name.

"Look at the forehead protecter, genius. I did pass." Naruto pointed to said object on his forehead. Kiba grumbled and laid his head down, muttering about 'mix-ups.' Naruto sat on the other side of me, talking non-stop.

I was halfway through the Star Wars theme song, when Iruka walked into the room, carrying a scroll.

"Alright, I have the team selections." At this, everyone sat up a little bit straighter, minus Shikamaru, who was probably going to have back problems later in his life, because of him slouching a lot. I didn't pay any mind to the other teams; I only cared about my own.

"... Team Ten: Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Choji, and Ono Kabucha. The jounin sensei is Sarutobi Asuma. That concludes the teams. Your jounin sensei's should be by to pick their teams up."

With that, Iruka left, leaving 10 genin in the room. Everyone had mixed reactions about the teams they were placed on. Sasuke and Naruto were both looking pissed. Sakura was ecstatic, while Ino wasn't as thrilled. Shikamaru and Choji didn't seem to care. Shino, as usual, didn't show any emotion. Hinata was calm about the whole ordeal. Kiba was yelling about being on a team with 'bug boy,' or Shino.

"Team Ten?" Someone said form the doorway. Getting up, all four of us made our way out to the hall.

"That's us," I answered. The first thing I noticed about the guy who spoke, was the burning cigarette in his mouth. He wore a standard jounin outfit, with the green vest and everything. His hair was short and brown and his forehead protecter was around his forehead, like Naruto's.

"Ah. I am your sensei, Sarutobi Asuma. Let's go eat. Standing in the Hokage's office for 2 hours can really drain you." Without saying anything else, he led us to a barbecue restraunt. We just went with it. When we sat at the table, he placed four files on it, no doubt that they were our's.

"Now. Let's get on with introductions. Even though I've read all of your files, I want a proper read of who you all are. Name, likes, dislikes, goals, hobbies, stuff like that. Any volunteers?" He said, drawing out his 'o's and 'i's. It wasn't exactly lazy, like Shikamaru, but it was more... Tired.

"I'll go," Ino said. "I'm Yamanaka Ino. I like Sasuke-kun, flowers, and family. I dislike anyone else who like Sasuke-kun and dango. My hobbies are flower arrangement, doing my nails, and hanging out with friends. My goal is for Sasuke-kun to notice me." Asuma nodded, acting like he cared. Who cares if you like someone? He asked us to introduce ourselves to get a feel for who we are.

"How about you, quiet girl?" I knew he knew my name. I guess he was trying to not appear creepy that he already knew our names.

"Ono Kabucha. I like volleyball, sandwiches, and the weapons shopkeeper named Temou. I dislike people who don't pull their weight and winter. My hobbies are training and playing volleyball. My goal is to," Go to the Olympics with volleyball, "get stronger."

"What's volleyball?" Shikamaru asked. I knew someone would ask. In fact, I would have found it weird if someone didn't ask.

"An activity where you pass a ball with your hands." I really couldn't explain it any better.

"Oh, okay. I guess I'll go," Skikamaru replied, "I'm Nara Shikamaru. I like watching the clouds and hanging out with friends. I dislike having to actually work. My hobbies are watching the clouds. My goal is to live to at least 30." If Asuma found any of that strange, he didn't show it. He nodded at Choji.

"I'm Akimichi Choji. I like to eat food and hang out with friends. I dislike it when people call me fat and when I have to train. My hobbies are eating and watching the clouds with Shikamaru. My goal is to be a great shinobi, like my dad."

"Great introductions. How abo-"

"What about you?" Shikamaru inturrupted.

"What about me?" Asuma replied back, taking a long puff of his cigarette.

"May you introduce yourself, Asuma-sensei?" I answered. The other three nodded, agreeing. I had been careful not to say, 'Can you introduce yourself?' because he probably would've said, 'I don't know, can I?'

"I'm Sarutobi Asuma. I like cigars. I dislike enemies of Konoha. My hobbies include sleeping and smoking. My goal is to be the best teacher to you four," he finished. When he talked, the cigarette in his mouth went up and down, in a funny way.

"I've got a question," Shikamaru started. Asuma nodded at him to continue. "Why is Kabucha-san here? No offense or anyth-"

"None taken," I said sarcastically.

"But," he continued, "isn't there usually an Ino-Shika-Cho team? My father and his father had the same team."

"Ah. About that," Asuma explained, "first off, there was an even number of teams. One team had to have four people on it and it just so happened to be this team. Now, since you're a Nara, I know you're going to want me to go further into detail. Kabucha here, is ranked very high in taijutsu, for a genin. Something you three lack in. She was put on this team to balance out the skill. While you three are good at jutsus, Kabucha knows only the basic ones."

"Wow, you're that good in taijutsu?" Choji commented, finishing off a bag of chips. Ino was looking at her nails and Shikamaru was staring at Asuma's head, as is he'd get more details about why I was placed on this team.

"Yeah..." I trailed off. I'd never really received praise, only by Iruka, Mizuki or Guy.

"What's in the scroll?" Asuma asked, lazily. We had all just finished eating chicken and were just sitting around.

"Bombs," I answered, bored. This interested everyone.

"Can we see one?" Ino asked, curiously. Instead of saying, 'I don't know, can you?' I reached behind me and poured a little bit of chakra into the seal. Luckily, my chakra cooperated. A spiky volleyball popped into my hand.

"That's a little strange," Asuma commented. "So you're a nuke-nin?"

"Um... I guess. I've never really considered it that way."

"Where did you get this?" Shikamaru asked. "And why is it shaped like that?" Smirking, I started explaining.

"I got it from a weapon shop. It's shaped like that because the spikes are actually kunai. Do you guys know what gunpowder is?" Asuma nodded, while the others shook their heads.

"It's a very explosive powder. It fills the inside of this bomb. When it gets lit, the bomb explodes, sending kunai everywhere, very, very fast."

"That's awesome," Choji said. Ino nodded. I sealed it back in the scroll safely, proudly. Someone just called something that I own 'awesome.'

"Well... I've got to be somewhere. Meet at training ground ten tomorrow at 8." With that, he disappeared.

"Do you guys wanna hang out today?" Choji asked.

"Where should we go?" Shikamaru replied. Did they all hang out often?

"We went to your house yesterday," Choji said, "And my mom would probably want to meet you, Kabucha-san."

"My parents want to meet her too," Ino added. Did everyone know everyone within their families? They acted like cousins.

"Mine too," Shikamaru commented. This was weird; I wasn't used to this much attention.

"Alright. Why don't we just stop by all three of our houses, today?" Ino concluded. I was glad nobody was ignorant enough to think I had parents. That would've been awkward if they asked. So throughout the day, we went to the three's houses and I was introduced to their parents.

When Ino's mom, found out that she the last one to be introduced to me, she insisted that we stay. And stay we did. Ino's dad was at T&I (torture and interrogation) and was due home soon, according to Mrs. Yamanaka.

"So, Kabucha-san, who are your parents?" Mrs. Yamanaka asked. My three other teammates froze and looked at me. I brushed their looks off and smiled softly at Mrs. Yamanaka.

"Mo-" Ino started.

"I don't have parents, ma'am." She frowned.

"Then you're an orphan?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'm sorry, Kabucha-san, I didn't know. Ino, why didn't you tell me?" She scolded, frowning at her only daughter.

"Mom, it wasn't a common topic," Ino replied. Choji piped up, from the couch. We were all eating cookies in Ino's living room.

"If it makes you feel better, Mrs. Yamanaka, my mother made the same mistake." My ears burned red.

"Thank you, Choji-chan," Mrs. Yamanaka said with a sad smile.

"So what do y'all do for free time?" I asked. So far, we had just talked.

"Choji and I watch the clouds. Ino does her own thing," Shikamaru answered.

"Boring. We should play a game," I replied. Watching clouds? Ugh, how boring.

"What kind of game?" Ino asked. Her mom had left the room, saying a team needed privacy.

"Rock-Paper-Scissors, Ninja, BS, anything besides watching the clouds."

"What's BS?" Choji asked at the same time as Shikamaru. I explained the game, and Ino got a deck of cards out. I shuffled them and gave everyone an equal amount of cards.

In the long run, Ino always won BS.

"Nuh-uh! You looked at my cards!" I said loudly. Ino smirked.

"How can I do that? I don't have a Sharingan or Byakugan." This left me at a loss of words for a couple moments. Shikamaru and Choji were just watching the dispute, quietly.

"Mind tricks. You used Mind Transfer." Shikamaru jumped in.

"It would've been obvious if she had used Mind Transfer. For someone as young as Ino, that takes handseals. Did you see her form any?" He asked. I mumbled something under my breath.

"What was that?" Ino asked, smirking again.

"Nothing." I was ready to say 'Red Card!' and flip the table. I didn't though, because I didn't want to pay for a broken table.

"Hey. I actually have to go talk to someone," I said, getting up. Surprisingly, they got up too.

"Can we come?" Ino asked. Scratching my head, I nodded.

"Don't know why... I'm just going to the weapons shop."

"We've got nothing to do and we should spend the day as a team," Choji added. After saying goodbye to Ino's mom, all four of us left her house. I lead them to Temou's shop.

"Hello, Kabucha. Are these your friends?" Temou asked, from behind the counter.

"Yep! They're on my team. Temou, meet Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimishi Choji." He nodded, looking at each one as I said their names and pointed them out. They each greeted him.

"Hello, Temou-sama. Are you the one who made Kabucha-san's bombs?" Choji asked, politely. Ino and Shikamaru were looking at the weapons, while Choji and I hung out with Temou.

"Yes sir, Akimichi-san. Why? Do you want some?" Temou asked the genin.

"No, sir. The bombs are awesome though," Chouji replied.

"Thank you. That means a lot coming from a clan member," Temou remarked. Chouji's face went a little pink. "Kabucha, don't tell me you've already used a bomb?" He asked. I shook my head.

"No, Temou. I haven't. I just have an idea for another one." He nodded at me to go on. My teammates looked at me from where they were in the shop, curiously. "You know how ninjas typically have lots of metal on them?"

"Yes. Why?" Temou asked.

"Well... Would it be possible to magnetize a volleyball? Like, make a metal one with weight seals on it to make it light?" Temou brought a hand to his chin in thought.

"You know... Thats a lot of money for materials, Kabucha. Just one magnetized volleyball could cost 20,000 ryo.($2,000) Also, I'm not even sure if that'll work. Multiple seals might have to be added to increase the magnetism of the ball, and even then, I've never really worked with magnets, so it might take a while for me to study about them. I can make the metal ball; no problem. It's the magnet thing that I'm unsure about."

"Well... What if I get you the things needed to magnetize the ball? Would that work?" I replied. A magnetized volleyball was by far, my best idea yet. Temou nodded.

"If you get me the things I need to magnetize the volleyball, I'll do it for you." After thanking him, we hung out in his shop for a little bit and then left.

"That Temou guy is nice," Ino remarked. "How long have you known him? I noticed you two didn't use honorifics."

"I've known him for 4 years now," I replied.

"Way to be dedicated to one weapon-maker," Choji said, digging in to his fourth bag of chips. "My family skips around with where we buy our weapons." That never occurred to me. It wouldn't hurt to see if there were any other weapon shops that could magnetize something, would it? Well... Temou was the one who made he volleyballs, and I didn't want to have to describe a volleyball again.

"Thanks. He's kind of like family, you know?" I added.

"Yeah... Hey, I've got to get home. I'll see you guys at 8 tomorrow," Choji said, leaving with a bag of chips in his hand. Ino and Shikamaru waved bye and they left too.

I sighed. Having friends was fun. Back in high school, nobody wanted to do anything. They were a bunch of duds. But here, here people could do anything. Literally. The village was so packed together, that everyone knew where everyone lived.

Speaking of friends, I wonder what my other friends are doing right now? Maybe they've assumed I'm dead and go to an empty grave every year to mourn. I know I've been taken off the volleyball team roster for club. What should I do now? I've been wanting to speak Spanish to someone for quite some time now. Sure, I appeared here when I was in the middle of my Spanish 2 PAP class, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten everything.

Taking out a piece of paper and ink, I started drawing. I was bored and I still had some time before I needed to be back at the orphanage. First, I drew the moon. A round shape it was, but on it, there was a rocket. A flag with America's design on it was also standing proudly on the moon. Below the moon, I drew skyscrapers. Tiny windows were drawn in and I threw in a McDonalds for good measure. Next, I drew a plane. It didn't actually look like a plane, thanks to my amazing art skills, but I knew what it was.

"What's this?" Asuma asked. I gave him a confused expression.

"I thought you had stuff to do?" He scratched his chin.

"I'm finished. Now what's this drawing depict?" He asked again. Shrugging, I answered his question.

"You know the moon right?"

"Who doesn't?" He answered with an amused grin.

"Well... What if we could walk on it? We could send a thing up there and land on the moon." I pointed to the sky.

"That's a big 'what if.' What gave you that idea?" He sat down across next to me. I was sitting on the porch of Temou's shop.

"I don't know. It'd be cool to go somewhere where no one's gone before, don't you think?"

"Yeah... That'd be real neat. What's this?" Asuma pointed to the rocket and flag.

"That's the thing we would go to the moon in. And that," I pointed at the flag, "that's what we would put down to prove we were there first. We wouldn't want Suna or Kumo to say they got there first, so we have to prove it, you know?" Asuma didn't say anything for a while, he only stared at the drawing.

"You know," he started, puffing out smoke, "You've got quite the imagination, Kabucha. You wanna know something?"

"What?" I replied.

"The Hokage actually didn't know where to put you. Like Shikamaru, you were average in everything, except for taijutsu. Since you were average, we did something we'd never done before: added to the Ino-Shika-Cho team. It wouldn't have made sense to put you with Shino, Kiba, and Hinata, because they were formed specifically for tracking. Kakashi was given a team with Uchiha Sasuke on it to help him out with the Sharingan. So that left you on my team."

"So the teams are actually formed for a specific purpose?" That made sense.

"Mhm. My team is meant to be a diversion team. We're supposed to stall the enemy to allow other teams time to catch up," Asuma finished. "Also, what're these?" He pointed to the skyscrapers and plane.

"Do you see this building, Asuma-sensei? The one we're sitting on?" He nodded, telling me to continue. "Well, what if there were buildings that could cut the sky? They could be so tall, that you'd have to look way up to see the top."

"And the other thing?" I paused, thinking of an explanation for the plane.

"You know how we have to run everywhere, to get to our destinations? What if we had giant iron birds that could take us places? Maybe they could be so big, that 100 people could travel from village to village in an hour, instead of 3 or 4 days? Wouldn't that be awesome?" Asuma started laughing.

"Kabucha, think about it. Buildings that could reach the sky? Iron birds carrying 100 people from village to village? People on the moon?" I gave a half-assed chuckle.

"Asuma-sensei, I don't know what I was thinking. All those things are impossible." He got up and Ruffles my head.

"It's only impossible if you think it is, Kabucha. Training ground 10, tomorrow at 8." He said, walking away. I picked up the drawing and stared at it.

None of that was impossible. Back in the old world, we had accomplished these things, and we weren't even ninjas! I'm just glad I didn't draw cars. But, hey! Now he would probably underestimate me as a dreamer, not a fighter.

"Hey, Kabucha, what were you guys talking about? I could hear that guy laughing from inside," Temou asked, opening the door to his shop. He stepped outside and peaked at the drawing.

"Nothing. I just drew a couple of ideas that came to mind and he thought they were silly," I answered. Temou then asked what everything was on the drawing, and I gave him the same answers I had given to Asuma. Instead of cracking up, Temou was just looking at it in thought.

"Temou? What is it?" I asked, standing up. He blinked a couple of times and sighed.

"I bet it'd be peaceful living on the moon. No wars, no worry, just peace. I could look down on Konoha and laugh at the silly wars and battles that I would see, because you know what? I'd be living the dream. Why'd that guy think any of that was silly? You've got better ideas than that idiotic Council. Hey, Kabucha."

"Yeah, Temou?" I answered, grinning from ear to ear. Temou knew what he wanted, and so did I.

"First chance we get. Me and you, we're going to the moon."

"Sounds like a plan, Temou," I replied, chuckling.

AN: Sorry to keep you guys waiting with the chapter. I had tough calls to make with character development issues. It's here now! Sorry about any mistakes and Happy Holidays!