Groaning, Naruto made his way out of the large academy doors and into the sunlit lawn. Iruka-sensei's advice hadn't been helpful. Not in the least. How was he supposed to know if is friends cared or not? What if he told them and they hated him? What if they never spoke to him again, or teased in and hut him just like all the other kid? Would he be able to stand it? Could he ever keep his walls up under that kind of pressure? He knew that eventually, it would hurt him so much that his walls would crumble and completely change. They would clam up tightly, forever binding him to a faceless, happy facade, and forever keeping other people away from him. Was it worth it? To risk the friendship that grew over the years, forming a giant web, to be torn down by him in just a few seconds? Did he want that? Tearing his eves from the ground, Naruto lifted his head to look at his friends. They still ate in the same corner the always did, next to the tall tree, and right around the swing. He thought that although all of them had been trained to be killers, to murder, to lie, they looked to be, at that moment, the perfect picture of serenity, naivety, innocence, happiness. If they looked like that already, without him, did they really need him to be a part of their group? He tried to imagine himself there, just barely hidden by Sumire's light blue top, arguing with Kiba, their faces set in friendly growls. He tried to see Sasuke's scowling face as he looked on, and Sai's black eyes sparkling with glee as he talked with Shino. He tried to create the picture of Ino, Sakura, and Hinata, eating lunch in a semi circle laughing and talking, half listening to the sounds around them. He tried to recreate the picture of Shikamaru and Chouji eating chips and watching the sky with Sumire, who smiled her smile, the one that looked like she truly enjoyed something. He tried to see them all together, like a group of duckling, eyes bright, and smiles shining. It didn't look right, he thought sadly. So instead of joining his lively group of friends, Naruto stood at the very edge of the academy, face hidden by shadows, and watched the group from afar.

"Naruto! Hurry up, or the game will start without you!" Sumire called, her voice tinkling like little bells. Her eyes shined a warm honey gold as she flashed her pearly white teeth towards Naruto. Naruto decided that it would be alright, that he could hide for a little longer, inside his perfect world of deceit.

"Coming! Wait a little, jeez!" he replied, the cheery smile forever pasted on his face.

From the top of the school, a set of four figures watched. Their features were quite distinctive. A set of crimson eyes, a shock of bright silver hair, a beard accompanied by a smoking cigarette, and a sly grin.

"Say, these kids will be quite the handful, won't they?"

"You know, they'll pass. It's practically guaranteed, seeing as most of them will be important political figures."

"Ah, the joys of politics."

"The Hokage is in for a surprise this year. I don't think he realizes just how tightly these kids are bound."

"Literally or figuratively? As you can see, they've gotten themselves in quite a mess."

"The fun of ninja wire."

"Is that even possible?! How'd they all get stuck in that?"

"That boy with the paintbrush seems to be rather indifferent to everything happening."

The figures watched as the eleven kids tried unsuccessfully to untangle themselves from the large ball of wire they had currently constructed around themselves.

"Naruto! What did you do?!" Sasuke asked, his hair steadfastly tangled in the silver cage around them.

"It's not my fault! Ino pushed my arm!" He whined, soundly suspiciously like a whimpering puppy.

"Oh, so now it's my fault?! I never tried to set up the prank in the first place!" Ino defended herself.

"Yeah, don't pick on Ino, Naruto!" Sakura seconded. The girls were very close and almost always defended each other.

"It's not all N-Naruto's fault..." Hinata whispered, trying and failing to stay neutral.

"Troublesome."

"You guys are all idiots! Shikamaru, get off my foot, you're crushing my toes." Sumire deadpanned.

Sai sighed, how did he end up with such an idiotic group of friends. When they acted like this, he truly questioned his skills of choosing the right allies. Rolling his eyes as a sign of defeat, he gently jabbed Chouji in the side as he reached into his kunai pouch. Sai pulled out a kunai and jabbed it into the string. With a screech, metal meet metal, and the kunai sliced through the wire. Unfortunately, Sai had conveniently forgotten to warn his friends. As the wire snapped, they fell apart, each of them stumbling onto the ground.

"Honestly, you're all idiots." Sai commented.

He was greeted with red-faced glares and angry eyes. Lots of them.

Later, Naruto, Sumire, Hinata, and Sasuke waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. It had been two hours. Two hours since their friends had taken off with their respective teachers. Sai, Sakura, Kiba, and Shino, had gone with a nice looking teacher. The jounin had intriguing red eyes, and layered black hair. Of course, she had been immediately recognized by Sakura. Sakura was planning to go into the field of genjutsu. With her precise chakra control and average reserves, she would make an excellent genjutsu master. Genjutsu took a lot of concentration, but not as much chakra. Instead of creating things using chakra, like ninjutsu did, genjutsu could be performed be simply removing some of your chakra and projecting it into another's mind. Being a medic nin was far harder, as it took a large amount of chakra to heal larger, shallow injuries or small deep injuries. Sakura simply couldn't afford to use up that much chakra. Especially because she needed to keep some in reserve in case she ever got into a taijutsu fight. Sakura, who had already read up on types of genjutsu and notable genjutsu shinobis, had immediately recognized Konoha's genjutsu mistress, Yuuhi Kurenai. Kiba, by a stroke of intellectual genius also recognized her from his old shinobi lessons, although it had been years since he had last seen her.

Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji had been led away by a rather average looking shinobi. The man was tall with tanned skin and kind looking brown eyes. Ino had immediately complained about being stuck on a team with three lazy men and a guy who smoked. She claimed the smoke would taint her beauty. The jounin only rolled his eyes tiredly as he walked out of the classroom.

Even after all the other kids had been taken by jounin sensei, Naruto's team was still waiting. It had already been an hour. And that was very long to wait for someone like Naruto.

"Hey, guys, wanna prank the sensei?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Sure, the sensei deserves it anyway. He's making us wait way too long." Sasuke agreed.

"Um, guys, shouldn't-" Hinata's argument was cut off by Sumire who was also very, very bored.

"We should make it really elaborate! With traps, and paint, and lots of dust!" Sumire cheered, a hint of a childlike personality shining through.

"Let's see, I've got ten paint bombs in three neon colors and that spool of wire from before!" Naruto said, turning out the many pockets of his pants. (With much persuasion, the girls had convinced Naruto not to but the 'ninja' jumpsuit and instead by a pair of black pants with numerous pockets and a gray t-shirt with a orange swirl on it.)

"I've got some tags I made last week. Lots of dust!" Sumire smiled. She had been learning all about seals, and trying to convince Naruto to learn as well. Sumire had learnt barriers and space time seals throughout her childhood at the academy. One particular instance had left the school room in ashes. It had only been a simple explosion test in a third year, except Sumire had slightly modified the tag. Only a little, she claimed.

"N-Naruto, I-"

"I've got some soldier pills and a dumpling." Sasuke said, looking into his lunchbox.

"How's that gonna be any help?!" Naruto shouted. "How am I supposed to make any thing with a dumpling?!"

" You're such an idiot, Naruto! Use it as a trap or something! " Sasuke huffed in annoyance.

" Just put a motion sensor tag under the dumpling, so if someone moves it, the traps will be activated." Sumire concluded, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's a really good idea! Hey Hinata, what do you think?" Naruto asked.

"N-Naruto-kun, should we really be doing this? If otou-sama finds out, he won't be happy." Hinata murmured.

"Well, then we can say Naruto forced you to do it!" Sasuke smirked.
"Yeah, that's righ... ehh?! strongI/strong forced her to? What about you? Duck-butt!"
"Idiot!"
"Suck-upper!"
"That's not even a word!"
"Yes, it is!"

Sumire sighed as she watched the boys. Even though they were older than her physically, she swore they were younger than her mentally. Humming a tune, she set to work on the trap. Oh, the new sensei was going to regret ever being late. A malicious aura manifested itself into her chakra and all the inhabitants of the room shivered. Naruto and Sasuke stopped fighting, each immediately feeling very sorry for the new sensei. Hinata, on the other hand, looked at sumire. Her hair was still in pigtails tied with blue ribbon, her light blue shirt with long wide sleeves, resembling a a very short yukata that went to an inch above her knees hung loosely on a her thin frame. Her shorts that were tight and black, could barely be seen under the yukata-like shirt. Shinobi sandals that were almost knee length adorned her feet. Her honey brown eyes glowed like the sun against her cream colored, slightly tanned skin. All in all, she looked rather like a doll. Hinata truly wondered how someone as innocent looking as Sumire could be so cunning. Looking back at the two boys, she saw Naruto's bright cerulean blue eyes and whiskered cheeks. She wondered how the villagers could mistake him for the kyuubi. Him, with his tanned skin and earnest heart, in Hinata's eyes was nearly perfect. Sasuke's white skin contrasted brightly against Naruto's skin. His black eyes and hair complimented the snowy skin, making him look almost delicate, if not for the twitch of a smirk that always lingered on his lips. His dark blue shirt and black pants were complimented by a pair of standard shinobi sandals. Just like the shoes she and Naruto wore. The uchiha clan was proudly displayed on his back. A white and black vest with an uchiha clan symbol embroidered on it, hung over his shoulders. If only she looked as confidant as them. Hinata thought of her own clothes. A purple jacket (just a tidbit baggy), unzipped, with the hyuuga symbol imprinted on the shoulder was put over a white shirt and a pair of tan mid length pants covered her legs. Her stance was crouched, her head just barely lifted, like a cowering turtle. She wished that she could stand up straight and be just as proud as the rest of her team. The killing aura slowly faded as Sumire was drawn deeper and deeper into constructing the trap. Hinata sighed, they really shouldn't do this to their poor jounin senseis.

There, now it's back to normal. Sorry for the crazy formatting earlier.