Naruto began his fifth bowl of ramen. The shop owner's daughter, Ayame, stared wide-eyed at the blonde as he finished. Her nose turned up as he belched loudly. Iruka shook his head and chuckled. Hearing people laugh again was nice. His closest sensei was one of the people he missed most while he was training. When he saw him this morning, they made it a must to have ramen later.

Iruka was just about to pay and return to the academy when Kiba and Shino caught his eye. Naruto waved them over to hear Kiba's complaining about wasting time. "Are you guys going to train or something?"

Shino's lips were invisible behind his coat collar. "No, he just wants to perversely eye the new girl."

"That's not true. I just wanted to see the new girl everyone's talking about. She went on a mission with Lee and his gang, and they said she was awesome at fighting. Lee's taken a real liking to her. Neji told Hinata that this girl wasn't half-bad in the looks either. A -"

Iruka was a bit surprised, "Neji?! Hyuuga Neji? Wow, he's never impressed by girls. She must be a real looker."

"You're a little old to be judging teenagers aren't you," Shino asked.

Iruka hung his head, "Shino, you're so cruel."

Naruto sat wondering what she looked like or how she fought. There must be something special about her if Neji agreed to attractiveness. And strength. It would be nice to have someone new in the village.

I wonder if it would be okay to go with them, Naruto thought to himself.

But what would he do once he got there? He couldn't think of anything to start a conversation with. Then again, he was always up for a little improvising.


"An orange cat," Hana mumbled to herself.

Captain Yamato threw her a sideways glance. She takes the mission seriously, he noted. He would need to know a lot about her if he were to be her sensei. Supposedly, if Hana stayed, Yamato was to be her sensei. It's not like he didn't like the girl, but it also wasn't a party with her either. Too serious.

"At least we know it's somewhere in the village."

"There it is," he pointed.

An orange glob had been spotted by a shop's open door. Be too easy to just grab it, she decided.

Instead, however, she crouched down then clucked her tongue. "Hey, there." While holding her hand out, the cat slowly made its way towards the two. At the last minute, it changed its mind and ran off into the other direction.

Time and time again it was so close yet so far away. The cat would stay in it's spot until she was about to wrap her arms around it.

"Come here!" She ran faster, but the cat outsmarted her and she bumped into someone, landing on top of them. Her hand immediately went to her forehead. "Ouch!" She looked down to see a brunette young man underneath her. "Sorry. I wasn't paying atten -"

Kiba blushed slightly at her closeness, "No, it's alright."

Hana got up then helped him up and looked around for Captain Yamato. "Where did he go?" Yamato simply pointed straight ahead then she was off again.

He shook his head at Kiba, who grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "Hinata wouldn't be too happy to see that," he took off yelling over his shoulder.

What felt like hours passed and Yamato caught up to find Hana sitting under a tree. Her eyes were closed long enough for him to disregard them and notice something he hadn't before.

She resembled Him a lot more than everyone was blabbering about. There were many people saying she did but the personality didn't baffle him at all.

They were just alike.

"You left me; not suppose to let me wonder off alone." He decided to let her continue to play the emotionless robot facade for now.

"Oh, look."

The orange glob of fur had found its way to an exhausted flower. He sniffed her hair but she didn't budge. He rubbed his side against her thigh then hopped into her lap. Careful not to move to quickly, she began petting him. She heard purring then thought about the nice bed she would occupy later in Kakashi's guest room.

They returned to the Hokage office with the orange fur ball. Tsunade asked if the clawed hand needed to be healed and Hana declined, healing it herself.

She then explained that after her family's death she became a medic and that's another reason why Akatsuki sought her out. Having a thoughtful look was easier said than done. Tsunade was exhausted with the Elders' opinion about Naruto returning, and his pranks, and Danzou pulling Sai back into ANBU Root for some unknown reason. She had also already made her decision from the first day she met Hana Tani.

But only answering easily could be a bit hasty. That's when a better idea hit her.

"I have not fully made the decision just yet. But Yamato, you will still become her sensei and help teach her. There's a bit of a condition though." Oh, how she smirked to know Hana may just flip for once. "Because he doesn't know which level to train you at, Hana, you'll be studying at The Academy as a student. Iruka will be your sensei as well as Yamato."

"Considering I was part of Akatsuki, do you really think I need to be tested with children," Hana asked.

"There you'll learn the meaning of a true team - other than only having a partner. You can also brush up on things you may have to, and you may just not know about them. This will be a good experience. And you can not find a way out of it either."

Much to Hana's dismay she was forced to attend the academy starting tomorrow. After being teased by a cat, falling onto a strange guy, and being disapproved of by Shizune, she now had to attend a school that was crawling with Genin.