Yo amigos!

Sasuke: Hey Akemi, how did you know that the duster would fall on Kakashi's head?

Akemi: Ahahahaha! *superior laugh* Wouldn't you like to know?

Sasuke:...Now that I think of it, not really...

Akemi: -_-* Oy! M-matte! You really don't want to know?!

Sasuke: No.

Neji: You're acting kiddish again *rolls his eyes*

Akemi: The heck? Where did you come from?

Neji: *deadpans* Magic...Blu called me.

Akemi: Ooh...I see...hey Blu! *looks above* Has this got to do anything with some poll you set up?

(Heavenly voice from above): Yes mortal, it is my doing! *thunder*

All three of them: You're not God. (Akemi: Or Pein for that matter)

Blu: But I'm the author! Now shut up and accept it or else I'll pair you up with Rock Lee! Neji and Sasuke will be paired up with Ino and Sakura!

*All three pale and run away*

Blu: Hah! Challenge me again and see what happens! Anyways, back to the story.

I don't own Naruto.

LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED

I was simply lying on my back on the roof of the building Naruto and I lived in, enjoying the sunrise. I don't know what got into my body to wake me up just before the crack of dawn, but the view is appreciated.

So, leaving a snoring whisker-face in his room, I headed to the roof and enjoyed the crisp, cold morning air. I was mainly reminiscing my past. Totally messed up life I had, my mom always on business trips and my dad doing the same, except in another corner of the world. Me? I had to get a part time job to stick up for myself. But dropping into the Naruto world was definitely the best thing that happened to me.

However, a few things still troubled me. The mission in the Land of Waves was coming near and I wondered if I could somehow reduce the damage done to our team? Maybe even save Zabuza and Haku from dying? They didn't deserve to die. To hell with keeping the story line intact.

Hearing a humongous yawn and a few grumbles from the window below me, I smiled and headed back to the house.

The past few days had been fun for me. I spent a lot of time with the other teams and found Hinata the best among them. There's something so sweet about her that automatically makes you want to protect her. Naruto's is truly an idiot for not noticing; hence I shall do something about it.

Tenten is like a firecracker. Always adventurous and quirky, something which I found extremely compatible with myself. Ino and Sakura I couldn't stand because of the fact that they were at each other's throats all the time and stalking Sasuke in the time remaining. Neji…was confusing. I had caught him staring at me a couple of times with a frustrated expression, like something about me annoyed him or something.

Lee and Gai always managed to creep me out. I had this nervous, fake grin on my face when I was around them that clearly said 'Please. Kill me now.' I always wondered how they said 'YOSH!' so many times in my sentence. The only word used more than that was 'youth' and its alternative forms.

Kiba was a lot like Naruto, only more brash and rough. A little crude, but he had a good heart. It was especially funny to see him trying to act the leader of their team and Shino would merely respond with a blank look. Kiba was too dense notice that Hinata gave him a smile that was meant to be sympathizing. Apparently with his lack of grey matter.

To say that Shino was quiet, is an understatement. I don't even feel like rambling in his presence. Sometimes, he starts to speak the weirdest things, like the time I choked on a piece of food. He immediately said "Good, you're quiet. Now listen to some things about me. My favorite foods are wild grass salad and winter melon. I dislike Tofu balls and any strong smelling food."

Finally I had recovered from my choking fit and stared hard at him, making him stop talking. Kiba stared at him weirdly, punched him and dragged me away.

"Naruto." I started poking the asleep ramen-smelling mass. That guy has so much ramen that he even smells of it all the time.

"Mmssphh." He swatted my hand away and buried his face into his pillow.

Sighing, I decided to use my practiced trick. "Naruto's asleep!" I called out in a loud voice. "That means I can steal all his ramen!" I gave an evil laugh at the end, to make it sound convincing and ran away with loud steps.

Sure enough, moments later he tackled me, yelling "Don't lay a finger in my ramen!"

"At least that got you up." I huffed under his weight and pushed him off. Leaving him to search for ramen, I headed outside and located Kakashi sensei.

I stopped as I thought about something. What if he's still sleeping? Maybe I can catch him with his mask off! Rejoicing at the thought, I sped in the direction of my sensei's house and crept in through the window.

Landing with a soft thump, I padded softly towards his bed where I could see a shape beneath the blankets and a head of silver poking out. Slowly, I reached towards the blanket, not realizing that his breathing had changed.

That was all I remembered before everything went fuzzy.

"Hey." Something poked me. I frowned and waved my arms. "Get up." I was poked again, this time in my ticklish spot. I giggled and turned over.

SASUKE

To see Akemi lying on a stone bench early in the morning surprised me, to say the very least. I poked her side to receive a giggle in return. Oh? She's ticklish? That gives me an idea. Think of all the possibilities.

I looked at her face and turned thoughtful. No one knew where she came from or what her origins are, but she still became a part of Konoha in no time. Her presence always soothes me, no matter how noisy she is. She always gives me a sense of reassurance.

Well, time to commence my plan. I took a deep breath and began tickling her mercilessly. Her eyes shot open and she laughed out helplessly, weakly trying to swat my hand away. "Stop…it! Uchiha!" she gasped between laughs and kicked out.

Ouch, that caught me in the stomach.

AKEMI

I was rudely awoken on being tickled out of the blue. Trying to avoid the culprit hand, I caught the sight of a smirking Uchiha and tried to yell out, but come out as a pathetic "Stop…it! Uchiha!"

I thrust out my leg and slugged him in the stomach. I grinned when I saw him wince and back away. "So, what are you doing here?" he asked, rubbing his stomach.

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. No, I haven't gone mute. It's just that I don't know how I got here. Speaking of which, "Erm, how did I get here?" I spoke sheepishly and he rolled his eyes.

"That's what I asked you…idiot." Sasuke smirked.

"Shut up. The last thing I remember was going to Kakashi sensei's house and creeping up on him and…" I trailed off as my eyes widened. Why that guy! Kakashi knocked me out with his Sharingan!

Sasuke was still looking at me expectantly when I stood up with my fists clenched, promising violence to a silver haired teacher. "C'mon Sasuke, I've got a sensei to kill." Cracking my knuckles, I stomped off menacingly towards Team 7's meeting place, not seeing the amused smirk on the Uchiha's face.

"SURPRISE ATTACK!" I yelled and launched myself at Kakashi, whose back was towards me. However, I scowled heavily when I found myself hugging a log.

"Ne Akemi-chan, why are you hugging a log? Have you turned into a tree-lover?" Naruto asked curiously.

"No idiot, she's trying to attack Kakashi sensei." Sasuke replied monotonously.

Naruto gave an 'ooohh' and nodded to himself. Sakura sniffed disdainfully "As if you could attack Kakashi sensei! You even yelled out your arrival!"

"That's my style, got a problem, pinky?" I growled menacingly at her and she subsided, hiding behind Sasuke.

Ok, now I can put my skills to action. I grinned and closed my eyes, feeling my chakra fan out in the area and search for the Jounin. Swiftly making the seals for the teleportation jutsu, I appeared behind him with a flying kick that he caught obviously.

He gave me a lazy look, the book poised in his hands (that infuriating book!). I flipped out of his grip and yelled "Why did you have to knock me out?!"

"Why did you have to sneak up on me?" he retorted and turned to his book when I stayed silent. "Anyways" he turned to the rest of the team. "We're reporting to the Hokage tower for another mission." Sasuke then turned to me and asked "So…why did you sneak up on him?"

I gave him a mischievous grin "Whatcha think?" and raised my left eyebrow. A tinge of red spread over his cheeks as his imagination ran wild and patted his back, laughing, with Sakura throwing me dirty looks all the way.

Ah yes, in case you're wondering about that lost pet search mission of the fire country lord's wife's cat, 'Tora', it was pretty interesting because our team never got the mission. How? Well, because of someone's divine intervention of course…Whose? Yours truly. (Jeez, I'm sounding like Shino now…)

A hooded figure carefully scaled the building, hiding her chakra well. She got past the guards easily by posing as one of the guards. Shaking her head, she muttered to herself "All that takes is a Henge to fool them? Pathetic…"

"Mission room, mission room, ah this must be it." The soft voice whispered against the window pane as it slid open noiselessly. The figure went over to the D-ranked mission scrolls and began to scan through all of them. "Ah, hello Tora." She laughed quietly on reading a particular scroll. Fishing out a pen of her own, she carefully wrote in the details of the mission.

Mission Rank: D

Assigned Team:

Her pen hovered over the blank, pondering about the number she should write. "I kinda like Hinata and Kiba. Tenten's been nice to me even if Neji hasn't. Hm…oh well…sorry Shikamaru, Chouji and Asuma. I won't feel bad for Ino, though. I hope Tora gets a good swipe at her." The hooded figure chuckled and neatly penned the words 'TEAM 10' in the blank. Placing the scroll in the 'assigned' pile, the figure disappeared into the night, to return to her shared abode that smelt of ramen.

I grinned to myself, remembering my daring act. So yeah, at this moment Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji and Asuma are chasing Tora. I wonder what's taking them so long, though…

And so, we went to the familiar old tower, and stood behind the familiar door that had serious voices coming out from the other side.

"Now Team 7, your next duty is digging potatoes, shopping in the neighboring village, babysitting the elder's grandson and-" The Hokage was interrupted by our favorite whisker face, yelling "NO, NO, NO! NO THANK YOU!" and made the cross symbol with his arms, as if concluding a wrong answer in a quiz show.

"Denied, Hokage-sama." I spoke in a monotone and saw the rest of them fighting smiles. Naruto snorted with laughter, trying to muffle it with his hands.

"Yeah!" he burst out then. "We're tired of these D-ranked missions!"

"Idiot!" Iruka burst out. "Genin teams always start out with D-ranked missions!"

Cue long explanation about ninja ranks and what missions they do. Admitted that Naruto shouldn't have ignored it, but I can. So, I joined Naruto in choosing what ramen he should have.

"So, yesterday I had Miso ramen. What should I have today?" he stared at the ground thoughtfully.

"I'd like to try some beef ramen, frankly. I've been eating mostly chicken since I came here." I replied as thoughtfully.

Kakashi sweat dropped at us while Sasuke shook his head, muttering how he was surrounded by idiots. Sakura was torn between glaring disapprovingly at us and swooning at Sasuke's brooding face. I can almost hear her inner's thoughts 'Cha! He looks good in any pose!'

"Hey! Are you even listening?!" the Hokage yelled and Iruka bonked Naruto on the head, as well as me for good measure.

"Oy!" I exclaimed and held my head while Naruto stood up and yelled "I'm a ninja now! I'm not a prankster anymore! I can handle these missions!"

The Hokage and Iruka sensei shared a smile between them while Kakashi was exasperated by thinking how he would be in trouble for this later. One thing I always find entertaining are Kakashi's expression. It's astonishing how a single eye can be capable of showing such a variety of emotions.

"So, you're not a prankster, but a former one." The Hokage mused and gave an indulgent smile. "Very well. I'll give you a C-ranked mission that involves the protection of an individual."

Naruto brightened "Alright! Who is it? A feudal lord? A princess?"

"An old drunkard?" I muttered low enough only for Sasuke and Kakashi to hear. The former gave me a weird look while the latter sighed at me.

"Calm down, I'm about to introduce him." The Hokage spoke and turned to the door "Hey, will you come in now?"

"Ta da!" I said loudly as Tazuna, the bridge builder staggered in and started to speak.

"What's this? They're all a bunch of brats. Especially the shortest one with the super stupid face. Hey, are you really a ninja?" Tazuna drawled, leaning against the door.

I kept a patronizing face as imaginary lines appeared, measuring our heights. I stood at an equal height with Sasuke and shook my head when Naruto looked around "Who's the shortest one with the stupid face?" When realization dawned upon him, his face went a curious shade of red. "I'LL KILL YOU!" Naruto tried to leap at Tazuna only to be held back by Kakashi.

"Oh great, we're supposed to protect this guy?" I drawled and found Tazuna frowning at me. "I mean, this guy thinks of us as brats when he's nothing but an old drunk geezer." I stared challengingly at the self-proclaimed super bridge builder. He glared at me for a moment, then laughed "You're a little spitfire, aren't you?"

I merely gave my answer "Whatcha think?"

After the introductions were over and done with, we packed and set off outside the village. Naruto bounded out of the gates, yelling "LET'S GO!"

I merely smiled to myself. This is where the real story begins.

Thanks to all those who reviewed and followed and favorited me! I'm a happy cookie!

Blu out~!