Me: Welcome to my story!

Kasumi:...get on with it.

Me: *sulks but quickly recovers* Naruto does not belong to me!

Kasumi: And if you like One Piece, take a look at author-chan's other stories. Ja ne!

Me: Enjoy!

Teams

"Next, Team 7..." Iruka read off the list blandly. "Uzumaki Naruto..."

"..." Naruto opened his eyes, his entire body language shouting defeat as his 'Sakura-chan' had already been pronounced to be on Team 3.

Sasuke rested his chin on his interlaced fingers, face perfectly stoic.

Kasumi watched calmly.

"... Uchiha Sasuke..."

"Damn..." Naruto cursed, hanging his head in despair.

Sasuke continued to rest his chin on his interlaced fingers, face perfectly stoic.

Kasumi blinked in mild surprise. Those two together?!

"And Kasumi."

Naruto's mouth snapped shut in surprise, his indignant train of thought breaking off.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

In unison, the two shot a look at the quiet girl sitting in the back corner of the room.

Kasumi looked back at them calmly, her hair up in a bun woven with green ribbons with stray pieces falling around her heart shaped face. She wore her forehead protector around her neck, a layered green blouse over black pants, a long black trench coat that fell to her knees, and shinobi boots. Her brown eyes were steady.

Introduction

The girl was a mystery. To most of the class, the adults, and even Iruka-sensei.

She had been introduced to the class when they were all eight.

Iruka-sensei had come into the classroom, leading her gently with his hand on her back. Surprised and curious, the students had stopped their insistent chattering for once and stared in silence at the newcomer.

In front of the class, he had stopped and turned her to face her towards her new classmates.

The academy students had seen a girl about their age turn to look at them. She had long hair the color of cream and platinum in a bun at her nape and large brown eyes flecked with dark amber. Her features were delicate and she wore a simple black shirt and black pants.

Despite the anxiety and nervousness that inevitably came with facing dozens of other children, her face was flawlessly blank.

"Class, this is Kasumi, your new classmate." Iruka-sensei had announced, giving them all a stern look. "I expect you all to welcome her warmly."

Later, the students came to know her as the quiet, polite but distant girl who sat in the darkest corner of the classroom.

Fangirls or the SUFA

Kasumi's first experience with her new classmates did not go well.

The Uchiha massacre hadn't occurred yet, and Sasuke had quite the fanbase of rabid, screeching banshees. Who knew when they were being threatened, even unknowingly.

"Hey, you!" Ami, the leader of the Sasuke Uchiha Fangirls Association or the SUFA, screeched at Kasumi as soon as Iruka left for lunch break, storming up to the new girl.

Kasumi blinked slowly and turned to face the horde of SUFA, the movement unconsciously graceful. Ami and her mob bristled at her poise. This was unacceptable!

"Yes?" She questioned softly, her voice distantly warm.

Ami scowled and pointed a finger rudely at her. "Stay away from Sasuke-kun, you hear! You're not worthy of him! He's ours!"

Kasumi looked at the rather loud and obnoxious girl blankly. "Who?"

Ami's scowl deepened and she narrowed her eyes, before swinging around to point at the dark-haired boy who was pointedly ignoring them. "Sasuke Uchiha!" She declared, hearts appearing briefly in her eyes that turned to daggers as soon as she turned back to Kasumi "He's ours! So don't go near him!"

Sasuke groaned and buried his face in his arms, face flushing with embarrassment.

Kasumi glanced at the boy questioningly. "Is there something wrong with him?" He seemed fine... but maybe he was sick?

A collective gasp swept through the room. Ami looked like she was about to spontaneously combust, her face turning purple. The girls of the SUFA behind her looked horrified.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"

That encounter ended with the SUFA hating Kasumi, the boys in the class in awe and half in love with the one girl who did not worship Sasuke (Hinata didn't count, she worshiped Naruto and that was worse), Sasuke sighing in pure relief at the knowledge that he had one less fangirl to worry about, and Kasumi wondering if her new classmates were insane.

Choji Akimichi

The second direct encounter that Kasumi had with her classmates was when she stood up for a kid she didn't know.

Choji was pale, rapidly munching on a bag of chips a few weeks after Kasumi's introduction. Shikamaru wasn't here today - he was sick - and he was really nervous. Shikamaru was his only friend and he was scared someone would start to pick on him.

"Hey, fatty!" A taunting voice called out. Choji flinched and turned to see a group of boys smirking at him meanly. "Keep on eating and you won't be able to walk anymore! Rolling on the floor would be more like it!" The leader said snidely and the other boys started to laugh mockingly.

Choji bit his lip, shrinking back hesitantly. He hated the teasing and the name calling. He had to deal with the bullies all the time and Shikamaru had defended him when they had become friends, but he wasn't here today. Choji missed Shikamaru.

"Aww... is the fatty upset?" The boy cooed, invoking yet more laughter from the group of kids. "Fatty, fatty, fatty!"

Choji tried to hold back the tears that sprang to his eyes. 'Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry...' He wouldn't give them the satisfaction!

"Hey," A new voice cut in, distinctly feminine. The boys turned to see Kasumi standing a few feet away from them, holding her books to her chest, and frowning at them in clear disapproval.

"Hi, Kasumi-chan!" The leader of the group grinned, trying to be charming. He had liked the pretty new girl for a while now, but when he tried to talk to her, she always left in a hurry. It was almost as if she didn't like him back! Which was, of course, impossible. But today, she had talked to him on her own! This proved she did fancy him!

Her brown eyes were cold, something he didn't bother noticing. "What exactly are you guys doing?"

The idiotic boy's grin widened and he gestured to Choji who grimaced. "Oh, we were dealing with this fattso here. Nothing to worry about. He's nothing."

Kasumi's eyes focused on Choji, and he breathed in deeply to steady himself. Choji looked up, knowing that he would see contempt, but needing, needing to show at least some resistance. He wasn't nothing and he knew it, even if they didn't!

To his surprise, there was only quiet kindness in her brown eyes. They were pretty, Choji thought absentmindedly through his shock. Her eyes were really pretty with all those amber flecks.

She smiled gently at him and Choji's eyes widened in confusion. Then she turned to the confused group of boys and her eyes turned cold again. "Really? Because in my opinion, this 'nothing' is worth more than all of you combined."

The lead boy gaped, eyes bugging out. "Kasumi-chan..?" No girl had ever spoken to him like that!

Kasumi carried on relentlessly. "You're a bully who picks on others because of insecurity. The rest of you are sheep, without individuality and thought. You'll never receive the respect you desire with this behavior. It would be plain distasteful to compare you boys to Choji-san."

Silence reigned in the room. The boys, including Choji, had their jaws on the floor, utterly shocked. Who knew the quiet bookworm had it in her?! Firmly, she pointed at the door, voice low and firm. "Leave."

Still speechless, the group of bullies began to trickle out. Having no other choice the lead boy went, too, but not before yelling back, "Yeah, well, you're just a bitch!"

The door closed with a loud bang, the sound echoing through the now almost empty classroom.

Satisfied with her work, Kasumi turned to look at Choji and he did the same. She studied his shocked face thoughtfully for a moment before starting to walk towards the door.

As she passed him, she lightly pressed her hand on his arm. "It'll be okay." She whispered comfortingly and continued, her stride never breaking.

The door opened and closed and she was gone, leaving Choji to stare after her.

The next day, Kasumi looked up from her book to see a shyly smiling Choji in front of her desk. The boy called Shikamaru stood behind him, face bored, but black eyes firmly focused on her.

What were they doing? She was glad to see that Choji was alright, but the kids mostly ignored her. It was what she preferred; she had chosen her seat purely for that reason.

"Kasumi-chan, I, uhh, want to thank you for yesterday. No one other than Shikamaru has ever stood up for me before." Choji stuttered.

Kasumi blinked slowly and then, she smiled. Her smile lit up her face, turning her eyes into pools of melted chocolate. "You're welcome, Choji-san."

And so, Kasumi became a friend of Choji and by extension, Shikamaru.

The young Akimichi never forgot that day of simple, pure kindness. Kasumi was a good friend. Shikamaru was still his best friend, but she came in a close second. Kasumi was quiet - not because she was a snob, which was what the other kids thought - but because she preferred to observe rather than talk.

Kasumi was also a bit strange, not that he minded. She loved to read and isolated herself from the world more often than not, but at the same time, she would spend hours watching the busy streets. She didn't talk to the people, oh no, she simply watched them.

Most of the time they hanged out, Shikamaru would look at the clouds, Choji would eat his potato chips, and Kasumi would read her books.

It was a quiet, peaceful time.

Choji didn't mind the silence. She never made fun of him being big-boned, nor did she attempt to force a diet on him like Ino did. She let him be himself and that was the greatest gift of all.

Yes, she did have a tendency to hoard information to herself like a dragon with gold and she could be remarkably introverted, but he didn't care.

No matter how distant or moody she became, he could always see that strange, true kindness that had led her to defend a boy she had never before talked to.

Shikamaru

Shikamaru was surprised by very few things in his life, even as an eight year old child. But Kasumi... well, she seemed to have the horrid habit of doing exactly that.

When she had first shown up, he had opened one eye, stared at her, and promptly closed that eye, falling back to sleep. She would be another normal classmate, he assumed. Nothing to get excited about.

When she had completely dismissed Sasuke, he had opened both eyes to look at her in astonishment. Huh, he had thought. A sane girl. A not-quite-as-troublesome girl. Huh. And then he had closed his eyes and went back to sleep. Another ice queen.

When everyone else pegged her as a snob, arrogant girl who thought she was too good for their company and she didn't say anything to prove them wrong, he had listened quietly, eyes at half-mast, and wondered at them. Yeah, she was unfriendly and somewhat cold, but she wasn't arrogant. And then he had decided it was all too troublesome and dozed off.

When Choji had barged into his room with some fruit and a story about how she had defended him against some bullies that day, his eyes had flown open, and, despite his reducing-fever and laziness, he had snapped upright in his bed. What was going on here?

Kasumi was simply a normal student that had ice queen tendencies and was incredibly introverted. And yet, she had chosen to defend Choji, a boy she had never talked to, and even Shikamaru's genius mind couldn't find a deciding advantage for her to do so.

Why had she done it?

The next morning, he had watched, eyes fully open and mind fully awake, as Choji thanked her. And he had realized all his assumptions were wrong.

Kasumi wasn't merely another classmate at the Academy. She wasn't an ice queen and she wasn't unfriendly and she wasn't cold. She was troublesome, because she was a puzzle, a mystery, a troublesome challenge that he wanted to decipher, but knew would be a pain.

She wanted to be left alone, but she didn't mind company. She didn't like unnecessary actions and words, but she went out of her way to comfort people who needed it. She was a pretty girl, but she didn't obsess over her looks. She was a hardworker, but never worked herself to the ground. It was all so confusing.

When Choji invited her to hang out with them, he hadn't objected. She was reserved and really, the first female he had met that didn't scream at him at the drop of a pin; Hinata didn't really count, that girl couldn't talk without some stuttering.

To some extent, she understood his goal of having an average life, and while it was troublesome, some of the debates she had lured him into were somewhat interesting. She didn't badger him, didn't nag him, and he found her presence undemanding, another first from the female gender.

Still, friend or not, Shikamaru was intelligent and observant. So, he knew full well that Kasumi had more than a few secrets.

Once on a warm summer day, when Choji was away working at his clan's restaurant, he had turned to her and asked, "Why don't you have a last name?"

It was an off-hand question, asked solely because he was curious and lazy and had nothing else to do. But Kasumi flinched back as if he struck her and shadows crept into her eyes like a deadly plague. Startled and worried, he had touched her thigh, muttering, "Kasumi?"

Her eyes had snapped back to his and in the instant before her barriers came down once more, he saw nightmares covered in gore and corpses sprayed with blood. And then she blinked and was back to normal. Kasumi had smiled at him and while it wasn't fake, it wasn't particularly real either.

"Bad memories." She said to him and he hadn't pushed, because that one instant had reminded him of some of the seasoned Anbu who were war veterans and for her to have it at age eight...

He didn't want to think or know what caused it.

Now, as a full-fledged nine year old, he stared at his shogi board in shock, mouth open. Kasumi had beaten him at shogi.

Beaten. Him. At. Shogi.

Yes, it had been one move before he would have checkmated her and yes, it was the first time in the ten times they had played, but she had beaten him at shogi. The only one of his entire class to do so.

"Again." He demanded, looking up to meet her ever so slightly satisfied eyes.

She smiled.

Five hours later, Shikamaru's father found them still playing shogi. Shikarmaru was winning, but Kasumi was putting up quite the fight, 7 to 3.

Shino

Shino would be hard-pressed to say whether he was friends with Kasumi at age ten. He sat next to her at times and she sat next to him at times during lunch, but they didn't talk much. Most of the time, they would simply enjoy the silence and their meals. Neither of them liked clouding the air with meaningless words like most of their other classmates.

One day changed their relationship, if you could call it that.

"Ugh, he's so disgusting."

"Do you know he has bugs in his body?"

"Why does he wear sunglasses all the time? I bet his eyes are really ugly."

Shino never reacted to the insidious whispers, but that didn't mean he didn't hear them. He stiffened, his kikachu bugs running around nervously. He didn't desire their approval, but that didn't mean he was unaffected. In the end, Shino was still just a child, too.

"Shino-san." A familiar voice interrupted. He turned his head to see Kasumi settle down beside him, forgoing her usual spot at the back with Shikamaru and Choji, much to his surprise. She looked at him, eyes quietly intense. "Never be ashamed of who you are."

His eyes widened, but Kasumi swiftly turned back to her textbook as if nothing was out of the ordinary and said nothing more. Shino thought he might have heard... something in her voice that day, something old and deep and aged, but he was never quite sure and so, he let it go silently.

The next day, neither Shikamaru nor Choji seemed very surprised when Shino chose to sit with them during lunch.

From that day on, the two were close friends and could generally be counted on to be the restful oasis in the desert of pure noise and chaos that was the classroom. God knows, that place truly needed it.

Hinata

Hinata's one and only life-changing moment with Kasumi happened when they were eleven.

It was after a training session with her father and Hanabi, and she had lost track of how many bruises she had. She stumbled into the classroom stiffly, biting her lip, and hoping no one noticed how hurt she was.

To her relief, no one did. It wasn't very difficult; everyone else were still only children after all. They had better things to do than pay attention to the subtle inconsistencies of the shy, timid girl who sat in the back. No one noticed... at least not until after class.

Hinata was packing up her bags when a pale, elegant hand placed a tub of healing cream on her desk.

Startled, she looked up to see her quiet, unobtrusive classmate, Kasumi.

"K-K-Kasumi-chan?" Hinata stuttered in confusion.

Kasumi gazed at her with deep brown eyes. "You should take better care of yourself, Hinata-san."

And with that, she turned around and walked away. Hinata stared after her.

Kasumi never did anything like that again, but sometimes when Hinata was absent, she would bring Hinata her homework. Pick up her books for her if she dropped them. Acts of kindness. Small acts of kindness, yes, but no less insignificant.

They became friends of a sort, though Kasumi never did spend as much time with Hinata as she did with Shikamaru and Choji. And she didn't tell Hinata her secrets; they never shared information on boys and clothes and fashion like the other girls did.

It didn't matter to the Hyuuga Heiress. Kasumi was Kasumi and if she could accept Hinata's painfully low self-confidence and stuttering, then Hinata could accept her secrecy and the sometimes too distant look in her eyes.

Kiba

Kiba and Kasumi never particularly interacted with each other. Sure, Kiba was friends with Shino and Hinata and Kasumi was friends with Shino and Hinata, but they weren't friends with each other.

Kasumi considered Kiba too loud and obnoxious, and Kiba considered Kasumi too quiet and secretive. She couldn't bring herself to like the Inuzuka's dog, and he was able to pick up on that, if only subconsciously. He didn't like her bookworm tendencies, and she didn't like his specialized skills.

But they both cared about their friends and as such, had a truce of sorts. They would tolerate each other. And they did.

Ino

Like Kiba, Ino and Kasumi were more acquaintances than anything. Very reluctant acquaintances.

Unlike Ami, Ino was confident enough in her own looks to not be jealous of her classmate's delicate but elegant looks. Her being Shikamaru and Choji's constant companion didn't bother Ino either. Yes, her Sasuke-kun did sit next to her at times, but Ino was the daughter of a master interrogator and she knew it was completely platonic. So, Ino didn't blame Kasumi for that either. Ino was neutral on the topic of Kasumi, something quite rare for the exuberant blonde.

Kasumi simply did not care. Ino was Shikamaru and Choji's childhood friend and while she was sometimes annoyed by her loud proclamations to 'her Sasuke-kun', Kasumi did not like or dislike Ino. So long as the Yamanaka made no attempt to go poking around in Kasumi's head, Ino was merely another classmate. The blonde girl was there and that was really the extent of Kasumi's interest in her.

So, at times, they met and talked through their mutual friends, but it was always a quick, polite conversation. And then, they parted ways.

Sakura

Sakura did not know what to make of Kasumi. Even after being the other girl's classmate for four years, she knew next to nothing about the brown-eyed girl.

Sakura knew that Kasumi was friends with Choji, Shikamaru, and Shino. She knew that Kasumi was sorta friends with Hinata and was extremely quiet most of the time. Sakura knew that Kasumi was not interested in Sasuke-kun and that was about all she knew about her longtime classmate.

In contrast, Kasumi knew significantly more information on the pink-haired girl. She knew that Sakura's biggest advantage was her mind and her biggest weakness were her actual shinobi skills. Well, that and her obsession with Sasuke. She knew Sakura's family were civilians and that Sakura and Ino were once the best of friends. Kasumi knew a lot about Sakura, but then again, her strongest advantage was observation.

Kasumi despaired of ever getting along with Sakura and actually keeping her alive on missions if they were ever put in the same group.

Naruto

Naruto's first memory of Kasumi - he was asleep when she was introduced to the class - was at the market. He was eight and he had just been tripped purposefully by a cruel merchant.

He slammed into the ground. Hard. His food - all payed at triple the price they should have been - splattered all over the ground, mixing in with the dirt.

In the distance, he could hear that snide old merchant laughing. The young boy grit his teeth and tried to get up, fighting against the tears.

A small, feminine hand offered itself to him. Stunned, he looked up to see a young girl around his age with warm brown eyes and long, almost white hair. She looked back at him steadily, her hand never wavering.

Naruto hesitated. What if this was a trap? But the small spark of hope in his heart couldn't be extinguished, and he found himself grabbing that small hand.

To his surprise and growing hope, the little girl didn't snatch her hand back or do some other mean thing. She gently pulled him to his feet and started to gather his food back into his bag.

Naruto watched with wide eyes, rubbing away his tears with one childish fist. Done, the little girl handing him his bag and looked thoughtfully into his eyes.

"What's your name?" She asked, her voice soft and warm.

He stared at her, unable to think of doing anything else. "U-Uzumaki Naruto."

She smiled, warm and sweet. "My name is Kasumi. Take care of yourself, Naruto-san."

And then she was moving through the crowd of people in the market and disappeared entirely, her little body swallowed up by the horde.

Little Naruto stared after her, still rubbing the tears from his eyes. 'So nice...' Was his only thought.

Later, Naruto found out she was in his class. He was overjoyed, of course.

Kasumi and Naruto became friends quickly. It was only that they weren't that close. Naruto had his pranks and his rivalry with Sasuke and his crush on Sakura, and Kasumi simply didn't consider those two friends. Kasumi had her work and Shikamaru and Choji and Shino, and Naruto liked them all, but he got along with Kiba better.

They were friends. But they weren't best friends.

That would change very, very soon.

Sasuke

Sasuke and Kasumi had a complicated relationship. If you could call it that.

His first impression of her was another fangirl. Practically every girl in his class was a fangirl; why would she be different? He had not been happy. Didn't he have enough? They were all useless, giggling girls.

When she had been confronted by his vicious mob of fangirls and declared to the entire class that she had absolutely no interest in Uchiha Sasuke, he had been confounded. A girl who didn't want to chase after him with shrieks that hurt his ears? His confusion had quickly been followed by relief. Finally! Someone sane that happened to belong in the female gender. He would have counted Hinata as sane, but she liked Naruto. Enough said.

Sasuke would have been a bit interested in who the new girl was, but then, that Man had struck. Had killed off their entire clan and destroyed the very foundations of Sasuke's life. Kasumi had been utterly wiped from his mind. Who cared about her? He had to get vengeance for his clan!

The next time he had thought about her was when he had almost bumped into her. It was five months after the Uchiha Massacre and the SUFA apparently thought he wanted a wife. He didn't.

He had been running onto the roof and had rounded a corner when the small brown-eyed girl appeared. Her eyes widened upon seeing him and so did his. At the last second, he served left and she served right and they managed to avoid colliding head-on.

With the cries of the fangirls right behind him as motivation, Sasuke rapidly righted himself and sprinted onwards, not sparing a second to apologize to the clearly startled girl. Spotting a tree, he hurriedly climbed it and hid himself in the branches. Settling down at least, he turned to see the girl he had almost bumped into slowly join Shikamaru and Choji. The Nara heir was cloud-watching and the Akimichi heir was eating. Again.

He scoffed inwardly. Those two would obviously never amount to anything. He trained when he had free time. And then he abruptly abandoned that train of thought as a dozen shrieking fangirls stormed onto the previously quiet rooftop.

Sasuke saw Choji wince and heard Shikamaru groan and mutter something that sounded suspiciously like, "Troublesome."

The girl sighed and this, at least, he could relate to. Fangirls would have been the stuff of his nightmares, if he didn't dream about blood and spinning Mangekyo eyes.

Frowning, Ino marched up to the trio. "Where's Sasuke-kun?!" She demanded, hands on hips.

Shikamaru blew out a breath and opened his eyes. His eyes briefly flickered to Sasuke's hiding spot and Sasuke tensed, cursing the lazy guy with every curse word he knew. Shikamaru was too lazy not to give up Sasuke's hiding spot.

Before Shikamaru could answer, the girl with the green ribbons spoke up to everyone's surprise. "He went that way," She said, pointing to her right. The opposite direction of where Sasuke currently was.

Sasuke blinked. She was defending him? When he had almost knocked her down and didn't even apologize afterwards? What was she planning?

Ino was confused by Kasumi's answer too. It seemed too fake to be true, but why would Kasumi lie? She plainly didn't like Sasuke. "That way, Kasumi?" She repeated, gesturing to the direction the other girl was pointing to.

Oh. Right. Sasuke finally remembered who the girl was. She was that girl that had showed up a few months ago. She was also, he realized to his relief, that girl who had not shown an interest in him. Not once.

Kasumi nodded calmly. Ino frowned and glanced at Choji and Shikamaru for confirmation.

Choji grimaced, but said, "Yeah, he went that way."

Shikamaru closed his eyes, but didn't bother refuting Kasumi's lie. He wanted the girls gone from their rooftop, too.

Ino hesitated, but went along with it. She couldn't exactly accuse all three of them of lying. Within three minutes, all of the fangirls were gone. A wry smile quirked Kasumi's lips and she looked up at Sasuke's tree. "You can come down now, Sasuke-san."

Sasuke hesitated, but the tree was really uncomfortable and what was the harm? He jumped down, making a note that he should practice his landings more when the impact hurt his legs. Out of pure curiosity, he walked over to Kasumi. "Why did you lie for me?"

She tilted her head to the side, both of them well aware Choji and Shikamaru were closely watching their exchange. "Would you prefer me not lying next time?"

Sasuke shuddered despite himself. "No. But I want to know why."

Kasumi considered. Decided, "I wouldn't wish that many fangirls on my worst enemy."

"Oh." Sasuke faltered, not sure what to do now. If he left, his fangirls would catch him, no doubt. He wasn't sure he would survive an encounter like that. But if he stayed...

"Tomato?" Kasumi offered, holding off the juicy, red fruit that just so happened to be Sasuke's favorite.

Sasuke ended up staying. For years afterward, he would wonder suspiciously if the girl had known his favorite food was tomato. At that time, he had thought there had been no way. As time had passed and he became more familiar with her, that likelihood increased steadily, to his discomfort.

That encounter did, by no means, make them friends. But sometimes, when the fangirls grew too loud and obnoxious and terrifying, Sasuke found himself sitting next to the quiet girl. Each time, she would glance up from whatever book she happened to be reading at the time - and she was always reading - accept his presence easily, and give him a greeting nod or a small smile.

They spent those days in silence and it was a wonderful, relaxing retreat from the shrill voices of the SUFA. The fangirls were always too wary of the girl to try and intrude on her space, especially since Shino normally sat on her other side. Sasuke didn't mind the Aburame boy; he was quiet enough that Sasuke could forget that he existed.

At twelve years old, Sasuke normally focused on his training, but when he did ponder the strange girl, he couldn't make up his mind about her. Kasumi was tranquil and collected, but she was no pushover. She was one of the kindest people he knew, yet her eyes were the most like his in their innocent classroom. Maybe even harder and colder.

Sasuke didn't ask because it wasn't his business, but he wasn't stupid: Kasumi hide secrets behind her placid exterior.

Now, she was his new teammate. Inwardly, he was jumping up and down in celebration. He didn't get a damn fangirl!

Out of all of his classmates, Sasuke thought that she was the one he probably would be able to tolerate the most.

Naruto... was Naruto.

She wasn't as strong as Sasuke was, naturally, but she wasn't weak like the rest of the girls in his class. She wasn't a dobe and a fangirl moreover and that was really all he could ask.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder if her secrets would remain secrets for long.

Decisions

The silence was broken by Naruto, as usual, who jumped up and pumped both fists into the air. "Yatta! Kasumi-chan is going to be on my team!"

Sasuke scoffed contemptuously and turned back to face the front.

"But, wait!" Naruto scowled and suddenly pointed a finger at Sasuke. "Iruka-sensei! Why does an outstanding ninja like me have to be on the same team as that bum?!"

Iruka's eye twitched and he put his hands on his hips. "Sasuke's grades were first among all 27 graduates.. Naruto, you were deadlast. We have to do this to balance the teams, understand?"

"Bah." Sasuke said. "Just don't get in my way... deadlast..."

Naruto gritted his teeth, starting to shake in anger. "What did you call me?!"

"Give it a rest, Naruto!" Sakura, who had been sulking at not being on the same team with her Sasuke-kun, blew up.

Iruka sighed. 'Well... this should work out... Even with Naruto...' He thought to himself as he watched Sakura launch a painful-looking attack on Naruto.

In the back, Kasumi sighed. "Shikamaru-san?"

He cracked open an eye. "What?"

"This is so troublesome." She stated, closing her eyes in despair.

Shikamaru and Choji chuckled.

Review! Please, please review! Oh and notice: my other chapter probably won't be this long...

Thnxs to my betas!