"What's that?"

Hisato tugged his blonde bangs further down his face. "Nothing." He told Biwako as she slid into the seat next to him. "I tripped. Are you excited for team assignments?" He grinned at her as she pulled a face of utter dread.

"I couldn't eat breakfast this morning!" She confessed, rocking back in her chair. "What if I don't know my team mates? It's possible, considering that only seven out of our class were promoted."

Hisato just waved a hand at her. "Don't worry about it." He said firmly. "Try to be optimistic: we might end up on the same team!"

Biwako raised an eyebrow at him. "Ew. How is that being optimistic?" She said, nose scrunching up in disgust.

"Hey!"

"Just kidding."

Biwako laughed as she leaned over the desk, resting her chin on her hands to stare at the front of the room, watching out for whatever teacher was supposed to be coming to give them their team assignments. Hisato tried not to look at her, determined not to let her see how much it worried him that it was likely that they would be separated for this next step in their ninja careers. Biwako was a top student, he was average at best really: his father had reminded him of that fact last night.

I bet she's assigned to the same team as Danzo. He thought to himself. Or Kagami. Those two were the best in class.

Not counting Hiruzen.

Danzo still got an exceedingly sour look on his face every time someone brought up the Sarutobi heir and his talents. It was plain to everyone with eyes in their heads that Danzo was bitter that he never once beat Hiruzen for top spot before he graduated early. Even though Hisato was sure that Danzo would probably be grouped with Biwako and he did want to stay with her, he found himself hoping to avoid having the dour Shimura on his own team. Danzo was far too competitive for his liking. No doubt he would make everything a contest just so that he could rub the fact that he was better in his face over and over. Hisato already knew that Danzo was better, and he got his inadequacies rubbed in his face enough at home, he didn't want to have to deal with it at training too.

Kagami is a decent sort though... Hisato mused. He didn't really know much about the Uchiha other than the fact that he was just as talented a ninja as the rest of his clan, but he didn't look uptight or snooty like Danzo did.

Hazel eyes roamed the classroom, casually observing those that had already arrived. The older kids and the little Hyuuga boy from the year below them were of almost no interest to him. It was possible that he might end up on a team with any of them, but there was no sense in speculating now; he knew next to nothing about any of them. He did, however, know a thing or too about the kids from his own class. Torifu Akimichi was sitting in the corner with a bag of rice crackers, eyes darting around the room a little wildly. His best friend was Yuu Yamanaka, but the smaller boy hadn't passed the exam yesterday and was back in normal classes today. Hisato felt sorry for them both, being separated like that. As unlikely as it was that he would be in the same team as Biwako, at least they were both genin and would still see each other now and then. Of their class, two out of the nine given the chance to graduate early had failed, Yuu and a rather brash civilian born girl called Junko.

Hisato looked around the room, searching for the other two graduates from his class he hadn't seen yet today. His eyes caught Keichi Namiashi's for a few seconds, and the solemn looking boy blinked his narrow eyes in acknowledgement, giving an affirming nod of camaraderie to Hisato before he looked away again. He looked happy talking to his cousin from the year above in the seat next to him.

A flash of silver finally pinpointed the last of his graduating classmates. Daiki Hatake was sitting at the back of the class, very much absorbed in trying to build some sort of deadly looking structure out of a couple of shuriken on the desktop in front of him. He was another boy that Hisato hoped wasn't on the same team as him. Daiki was a bit crazy, when all was said and done. He liked playing with sharp and pointy things too much even for a ninja in training, and he always wore long sleeves and trousers, even in the middle of summer.

"Alright, shut up midgets so that I can give out the team assignments and get back to my real job."

Hisato blinked in surprise and turned his attention back to the teacher's podium at the front of the room which Junpei Yuhi was leaning against, looking a little pissed off that he'd had to commit to even more time 'babysitting' after yesterday's exam.

"Teams one to seven are still active, as well as team eleven." Junpei explained. "So the new team eight is..."

Hisato's whole body locked up as he listened to Junpei rattled off the names. The first names going into teams eight and nine meant nothing to him, as they were all older students, and the only thing interesting about team ten was that Keichi was assigned to it, along with the little Hyuuga boy.

"...Team Twelve, Danzo Shimura, Torifu Akimichi and Kagami Uchiha..."

All of the breath came out of Hisato in one surprised gasp and he stared at Biwako, a little puzzled. He was so sure that she'd be paired with both or either of Kagami or Danzo, but they'd been teamed up with Torifu of all people.

"...Team Fifteen, Biwako Nara, Hisato Namikaze, Daiki Hatake..."

Biwako jammed her elbow into his side excitedly. "We're on the same team!" She squealed as quietly as she could into his ear.

Hisato just felt a little numb. There was no way that he could be so lucky as to land on the same team as his budding medical genius best friend, right? He felt like he'd used up all his luck for at least the next couple of years all at once. A little too shocked to actually reply verbally to Biwako's excited hissing in the seat next to him, he just smiled at her and then twisted around in his seat to take another look at Daiki Hatake, his other team mate.

Daiki was already looking down from the back of the classroom at the two of them. He raised his hand in a jaunty wave when he caught Hisato looking, then turned his attention back to his precarious stack of shuriken, still engrossed in his task.

"He's weird." Biwako had noticed who he was looking at.

"He's our team mate." Hisato reminded her. Biwako was blunt. It was one of the things that he liked about her, but sometimes she forgot that not everyone else wanted to know her honest opinion about things. Biwako seemed to have no functional system of tact available to her yet. Hisato was faintly hoping she'd grow out of it so he could stop having to apologise on her behalf all the time.

"I know." Biwako said tartly. "I didn't say that I didn't like him. I just said he was weird."

Hisato just stared at her. "You're doing it again; saying mean things without noticing."

Biwako shook her head. "I meant it as a compliment." She said. "He'll fit in with us. We're weird too."

Hisato choked back a laugh. "Yeah. Okay. Whatever." Should he be insulted or flattered? As was always the case with his best friend, Hisato had no freaking clue.


A/N:

This chapter is a bit longer (I think), and I'm pretty sure that this is where chapter lengths are going to start picking up a bit. Think of the chapters up until now being a sort of prologue to introduce you to Hisato, his family and Biwako, as well as a few of the familiar faces from the manga. Unfortunately, because of how far back in the timeline we are right now there will be quite a lot of OCs in this fic (why do I keep doing this to myself?), but rest assured that I will be doing my best to slot in as many canon characters as possible. Look forward to the next chapter: Hisato's jonin-sensei will be making his entrance :)