Pushing his crimson coloured hitai-ate up like a headband, Meisai brushed any stray salmon coloured hairs away from his eyes so he could look over the letter he'd just been delivered a minute ago. The delivery hawk had already flown off after the young man had given it a treat for its hard work. With a smile across his sunkissed skin, he sat down at the table of his run-down house.

It had been a long time since he had guests of any sorts, so cleaning up was still on his to-do list. However, he had to admit that it had partially been bugging him. When the Hokage used to visit so often, Meisai kept the apartment spotless. He couldn't do anything less than impress. But now? He had fallen into a rut. Nobody was around, and he might not have been helping himself. He couldn't even remember the last time he had been outside.

Sighing to himself, he shook his head to clear his thoughts of solitude. Besides, he was never alone. That was a proven fact.

Nonetheless, he took a quick sip of an impossibly teal coloured drink, and began to tear open the seal on the letter as to see what was being requested of him. The contents, however, were surprising to say the least. He would've never expected that he would get chosen to lead a team of anyone. He was nineteen, could he possibly classify for something like that? Sure, he was a jounin, and sure, he was…

No, no, he had been working on better himself with this. No overthinking it. Lord Seventh needed this of him, and it was the least he could do for him. Drinking the entirety of his beverage in an instant, Meisai's mulberry eyes snapped open at the burst of energy that went through him. "Alright, let's start today off right!" Lightly slapping his face, Meisai jumped up and down and allowed his limbs to flop freely. The meeting ordered in the letter would be in about two hours, so he had time to clean up, just in case. Forming a seal, two clones quickly formed beside him.

Looking to the clone on his left, he pointed to his bedroom. "Go clean up in there." Turning to the clone on his right, he pointed to the sink. "Do the dishes, we can't have people knowing we live like this!" As the two went to perform their needed tasks, Meisai began to clean up in the main room. Clothes strewn about on the floor were tossed in a basket, and any plates he came upon were quickly passed to the clone manning the dishes. Looking for any scraps he might've forgotten about, he found a bowl with a perfectly untouched serving of ramen.

"Anyone remember how long ago this was..?" Holding up the bowl, the two clones looked at it with the same curious look he had on his face. "Well, if only there was someone else who could give me an answer." Rolling his eyes, his fingers absentmindedly grazed his back. "I guess it is still early for everyone."

Placing the bowl of mystery ramen in the fridge, Meisai thought of it as a fun surprise for later. On one hand, it could be a tasty meal to where he didn't have to spend more money. On the other? He could get sick.

'And Lord Seventh really wants me to be the leader of a squad?' The strangely tall man couldn't help but laugh to himself. Even if it was a strange idea, it could be an interesting one in the end. Stripping down, he tossed his pajamas into a clothes basket as he entrusted the rest of the cleaning to his shadow clones.

Quick to turn on the water in his shower, he still stood outside of it for a few minutes, waiting until a great deal of steam had accumulated in the small bathroom and the water had easily been scalding. Climbing in, the heat barely seemed to effect him. As he began to clean himself up, he had to review his plans aloud.

"Leave here, go to the Hokage's office, and get information on my team." Taking a second to think, he hummed momentarily. "I wonder what kind of test I should give them? Not something too harsh, that's for sure. I wish he'd told me what kind of kids they were…"

Slowly, but surely, his plans devolved into rehearsals of different kinds of conversations he could have when he met Lord Seventh later, and then steadily progressed into dreams of the future, cheering on one of his kids. However, as the scalding water drastically changed to become frigid, he realized he had been in far too long.

Hopping out, he wrapped himself in his towel and moved to his bedroom, which surprisingly, had been cleaned quite well. Looking through his closet, he chose his typical outfit he went on most missions in. It was simple, but it was enough. Mesh shirt with a vibrant green shirt over it, grey pants, standard sandals, and a teal kimono. It had been what carried him through his childhood, albeit with some minor modifications over time.

Donning his outfit, he looked over himself in the mirror with a wide smile on his face. 'It's good to be getting back into the swing of things…' Letting out a sigh of relief, Meisai moved to the door of his apartment. Taking a long look at the place, he was glad to see it clean again after so long. As his door clicked to a close behind him, a smile formed on Meisai's face, and it wasn't going anywhere any time soon.


"No, no, no no no no!" A voice as smooth as silk quickly grew distressed as clothes were thrown aside in a panic. An androgynous individual quickly emerged from the mountainous pile, holding different jackets in either hand. "None of these work!" Muko tossed the green flak jacket in their left hand into the wall nearby, breaking the wood and sending splinters flying. "I can't meet the Hokage today wearing green on grey!"

Looking at the partially crumpled letter that had been delivered on the floor, they began to chew the inside of their cheek. 'The Hokage had asked me to get there before the others...is there something he needs from me specifically?' Groaning, Muko threw their hands to the ground. "Why do decisions have to be so difficult?!"

As they rummaged through the pile, they finally came upon their black flak jacket. Quickly tossing it around their lithe frame, Muko left the house in a blur, heading for the office of the Hokage.

Arriving at the door to the office, Muko lightly knocked. Waiting for a few moments, there was finally an answer. "Come in." Entering quietly, Muko bowed upon entrance before looking up to see Shikamaru and Naruto.

"You requested I come before the others, Lord Hokage?" Muko's smooth voice carried softly to the ears of the two adults.

Naruto remembered when they had been found, not long after the war had ended. They had seemed fairly normal, but as they had grown up in Konoha, Naruto had quickly realized how wrong that was. Their ability...it was all too similar to the abilities noted in the data that Sasuke had gathered. But they had proved themselves to be faithful to the village on far too many occasions.

"Muko, we have something that we need from you." Naruto spoke clearly as he nodded to Shikamaru. Pulling out a stack of papers, Shikamaru set them in front of Muko, who had now moved to the front of the desk that Naruto sat at.

Shikamaru nodded slowly as Muko picked them up. "About a week ago, a group of kids were found with Konoha hitai-ates. We had no record of them anywhere." Gesturing to the papers, he continued. "Ibiki interrogated them and we came to realize something."

Muko's round eyebrows raised ever so slightly. "What did you find out?"

"They aren't from our universe." Naruto and Shikamaru spoke in decisive unison. Taking a deep breath, Shikamaru continued. "They are from a universe parallel to ours, and are all from an alternate Konoha. Things seem to be fairly different, but there are also quite a few similarities."

Muko interjected. "Where are you keeping them?"

"I had Yamato create a remote containment facility." Naruto answered this time. "They have ANBU guards on patrol, but their chakra doesn't seem to be coming back any time soon. It was disrupted when they came to this world, it seems."

Muko hummed lightly. "So what did you need from me then?" They continued to read over the interrogation reports of the children, as well as their files.

"Well, to put it simply, we wanted to know what your insight on this may be?" Naruto began to lean back in his chair as he waited for an answer.

'What my insight may be?' Muko was...confused to say the least. "Why would you ask me of all people?"

"You have always been rather good with kids." Naruto spoke quickly, remembering their genin years being filled with them taking on plenty of jobs at orphanages and any other jobs that really dealt with kids. As a chuunin, they took on even more responsibilities and jumped on every opportunity they had been given to help coach a group of genin. "So, I felt that you would have some kind of idea to what we should do."

"Well," Sucking in air, their cheeks puffed as they comically blew it out. "They seem to be scared kids. From what these reports are saying, they were getting ready to go to war, and then being transported to an entirely new universe doesn't help much either. I imagine that isolating them with only each other to really keep them company doesn't help much either."

Shikamaru's eyebrows raised. "What do you suggest we do about that?"

"I could work as a counselor for them in the meantime before you know exactly what is going to be done with them. I could go every other day, at least, and attempt to talk to them? See if they will open up to me?" Muko shrugged. "It's worth a shot if you ask me. As I said, they are probably just as scared and confused with this situation as we are."

"And you would be okay with doing this? There's nothing you're worried about?" Naruto gave a questioning glance. However, he already knew what the answer would be. Muko had always been rather...daring, to put it lightly. He seemed to throw caution to the wind when making most decisions. Always adjusting and changing depending on what happened, never having a real set plan. There were a few things, however, that he had learned that the jounin was rather adamant on having just right.

"I promise you, Lord Hokage, I am completely fine with doing this. I will take pride in it, and enjoy the time I spend with them." Muko bowed in front of Naruto, before slowly raising. "Please, tell me more before the others arrive. I would love to be as informed as possible for the task at hand, especially if I will be mentoring a group of them." Pausing, they questioned the yellow-haired man. "Why are they getting mentors, anyways?"

Part of him wanted to talk about how he felt bad for the kids. They were about to go through possibly one of the most gruelling wars their world may ever see. He wanted them to be prepared, ready to protect their village, as well as the Shinobi World. However, that wouldn't make as much sense to everyone. So instead, Naruto settled on a different answer. "Well…"


The soothing scent of coffee wafted through the small home as steaming water was added directly to the grounds. Stepping away, the lean male quickly flipped the eggs that were beginning to pop on the stove. "Why couldn't I have a third arm?!" Exasperatedly, Nibui quickly shifted the eggs from the pan to the two plates beside the sink.

Using a clone would've made things incredibly easy, however, it wouldn't feel anywhere near as personal in such a case. Turning back to the stove, Nibui grabbed the crackling bacon and sausages from the pan and began to evenly divide it up between the plates. 'It looks like he isn't going to be up just yet.' Stifling a laugh at the risk of waking up his sleeping guest, Nibui took his plate and mug of coffee to the small island in the middle of the kitchen as the steam from the freshly soaked pan began to waft through the window.

Shovelling the eggs into his mouth like there was no tomorrow, Nibui quickly found himself quickly trying to cool it off with his rapid breaths. Clenching his mouth shut, he muffled his coughs as the eggs then lodged themselves in his throat. The entire process could've easily been prevented, and he had known this as he had repeated this process for years.

That was simply the kind of guy Nibui was at heart. He settled into a process for something, and he tended to become mundane in that process, never truly stepping outside of it. He had been called many things over time. Boring. Ordinary. Standard. And for the most part, the people who had called him that were right.

Sure, he hadn't been born into a clan. He didn't have any bloodlines, any hiden techniques. He was from a civilian family, so at least he had been unique among his own family in that aspect. However, in the shinobi world? He faded into the background.

But, nonetheless, he had come to accept this and was at peace with it. Everyone had to have descended from civilians at some point, that was the matter of the world. Anyone who denied that was simply some form of clan elitist...or one of the four clans that descended from the Otsutsuki.

Finishing the few pieces of sausage and bacon that remained on his plate, Nibui gently set the fork down. While a lot of the sound he was preventing was to make sure he didn't wake his guest, they were also for him. He had done a fair amount of drinking the night before, and because of that, a migraine began to throb behind his eyes. He would've been asleep longer, if not for the delivery hawk that had began to loudly hit the window after it had been waiting for who knows how long.

'Hold on a minute…' Looking at the stamp on the letters, he quickly recognized it as the Hokage's seal. 'Shit! This could be important, why did I hold off on it!?' Practically tearing off the envelope, Nibui flipped open the neatly folded paper inside.

"Han, get up! We're going to be late!" Realizing how close they were cutting the time, Nibui slammed open the door that connected to the kitchen, his deep green eyes growing frantic as he tossed open the closet doors, searching for his outfit he typically wore. Finding it, he pulled it from the hangar and moved to leave, slapping the occupied bed loudly three times on his way.

A groggy voice emerged from underneath the blankets as he was almost out of the room. "What? Why?" Slurring his words lightly, the man named Han tossed aside the blankets as he revealed his muscular frame. Sweat was forming on his chest, and the pupil in his right eye was almost invisible due to the pounding in his head. "We don't have any missions scheduled, do we?"

Nibui turned, throwing a spare outfit he had for Han at him. "Worse! We have a meeting with the Hokage, we can't be late!" Han had been staying over so much recently that Nibui had just opted to keep a spare change of his outfit at his house. The reasons weren't always the same, sometimes they were drinking together, other times they had been exhausted from a mission, the reasons were definitely varied.

But the two had been impossibly close, so it wasn't much of a problem to either one of them. Although, they did have to share a bed due to the limited space. As he thought about it, a blush lightly formed across his face. "Come on, hurry up!" Pushing his foot through one of his sandals, he had to prop himself against a wall to stop himself from falling.

"You don't need to rush so much. Haven't you heard of being fashionably late?" The sharp voice came from behind him, merciless and laced with venom. Turning around, Nibui was greeted with the slightly taller man.

"This is a meeting with the Hokage, you don't arrive late to it!" Despite his slight frustration with him, it quickly devolved. Nibui could rarely stay mad at Han. Pulling a tie from his wrist, the raven haired man pulled back Han's curly brown locks, pulling them into a bun. "Would it kill you to fix up your looks some?" Looking into the dual eyes of the man, one a light hazel while the other was a featureless white. His dark skin only made his eyes even more prominent.

Scoffing, Han lightly pushed away Nibui's hands, being especially careful on his tightly bandaged left hand. "Why should I fix them when I know for a fact that you'll fix them better than I could?" Leaning closer for a moment, the tension grew thick.

Clearing his throat, Nibui's face grew hot as he turned around. "Right, right, well! How about we head on to the central office? I bet the others are already there, they probably aren't as late as us." His words gradually changed to rapid, incoherent mumbling as his eyes darted from side to side, his ears losing their crimson colouring.

Smirking to himself, Han nodded. The two promptly left the house, and began their rather quick journey. "You know, you really shouldn't have been worrying in the first place. In case you forgot, we don't exactly walk around on the streets, we don't have to worry about road traffic." Han chimed to Nibui, but the man seemed to be too absorbed in worry to listen.

As the two arrived, they quickly noticed Meisai and Muko chatting with each other, as well as occasionally commenting to Shikamaru and Naruto. "Lord Hokage, we are here!" Slamming his hands to his sides rather loudly, Nibui bowed in a swift movement before standing upright. Han, on the other hand, bowed at a much more leisurely pace.

"Come on in, Nibui, Han." Giving a wide smile, Naruto beckoned the two in from the doorway.

"It's an honor that you would consider us all to be the mentor to a squad!" Nibui continued to speak enthusiastically. So far, as a jounin, he had performed fairly standard tasks. Simple missions, never the leader. So the thought of being the leader of a squad excited him, quite obviously so.

Han remained fairly stoic, however, he turned to talk to the others that had been in the room already. Turning to Muko, he raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I haven't seen you in a while, Alienspawn." Eyeing Meisai, he hummed lightly. "Or you, Meisai."

"Why do you give those names to everyone but Nibui and Meisai?" Muko's flushed pale face contorted with annoyance. "It's rude to point out someone's insecurities…"

Han tutted. "I think it's actually pretty helpful. If it's something you can improve your view of yourself on, then I call it out. Every little thing that burns you inside, I'll call it out until you no longer feel any way about it. That way, you can improve on personal inhibitors." Looking at the bouncing, smiling Meisai, he couldn't help but shiver. "That one radiates too much positivity...I can't find anything wrong with him. As for Nibui…." Clearing his throat, he turned his attention to Shikamaru.

"Is everyone here? Are we going to start soon?" Han looked around at the other three. Nibui, Meisai, Muko, and him. Four teams. If they were leading genin, he was curious as to the kinds he would be taking care of. He hoped he wouldn't crush their spirits, but he would train them just as he had been trained, knowing it would make them better.

Shikamaru shook his head slowly. "No, we're waiting for Kuroka. She seems like she will be late." Mumbling a comment to himself, he sighed slowly.

"We've got Spot here too?" Humming softly, Han looked back to Nibui who had been excitedly chatting with Naruto. "This is definitely going to be an interesting meeting then..."


The screaming of the persistent alarm clock broke through the azure-haired woman's dreams who slept among a mass of clothes and blankets. Slamming her hand down on the source of her morning torment, Kuroka slowly rose from her cocoon, her hair a matted mess and her eyes bloodshot.

She tried to speak, however, she quickly found that her throat was drier than the deserts surounding Sunagakure. Tossing her bedding off of her, she began to stumble to her kitchen. Her bare legs stiffened at the cool air inside the home as all of the hair on her stood on end. Hearing the satisfying click of her refrigerator opening, she instinctually shielded her eyes as she threw the door open. Reaching in for the pitcher of water, she began to drink directly from it, feeling moisture within her throat once again.

"Shit...how late is it?" Inside the house was an eternal night, the combination of an absence of any lights turned on and all of the blinds being closed. Quickly opening the curtain to the large sliding door at the back of the house, she recoiled as blinding sunlight hit her. Stifling what felt like a hiss rising in her throat, her ultramarine eyes caught hold of a letter on the ground, along with cracked glass. 'I must've slept through a delivery…' Picking up the letter, she hastily removed the seal as she opened it. Picking up the pitcher of water again, she began to drink while reading the letter

'You have been selected to blah blah blah...team mumbo jumbo...signed...The Hokage?!' Spitting out the water in her mouth on the letter, she quickly rushed to fix her mistake. Patting the paper with her shirt that reached to her thighs, she actually read through the details. "I slept too late, I'm late for it!" Throwing off her shirt, she ran to her room to grab clothes. As she rushed to put on her mission outfit, she attempted to multitask by brushing her teeth and hair.

However, she quickly realized the mistake in this as she began to brush through her hair with her wet toothbrush and scraped her tongue with her hair brush. Sticking her tongue out in disgust, she finished getting her clothes on before completing the two aforementioned tasks without mistake this time around.

Managing to throw together a half-assed braid, she figured it was good enough. "If the meeting is over quickly, then I can get back and reset my sleep schedule."

Grabbing her tachi from her room, she positioned it behind her as she always had before, making sure that it wouldn't slide from place. Nodding to herself, she quickly exited her house, attempting to get to the office of the Hokage as fast as possible.

Arriving in the door of the office, Kuroka slammed it open and loudly announced her presence. "I apologize for being late, Lord Hokage!"

"It's been an hour since the time requested on your letter, what could've been holding you up?" Shikamaru quickly responded, his brown eyes boring into her soul.

Kuroka felt a rock form in her throat as she struggled for the words. "I….I overslept."

Shikamaru's eyes were still sharp for a moment, before finally softening as he let out a sigh. "What a drag…"

Naruto waited until the woman had sat down beside Nibui to start what he had to say. "Right. I guess you're all wondering why I asked you all to meet with me today?"

"Well, for the teams, right?" Kuroka stated the obvious, still waking up as her mind was still foggy.

"Yes, but, there's further reason for choosing you all to be the leaders of these teams." Taking a deep breath, he picked up the files of the shinobi they had found a week earlier. "Last week, we discovered a group of about fifteen shinobi in the village. They all had signs of allegience to Konoha, but we had no record of them."

"Were they spies? Sleeper agents?" Han was the first to respond, years of experience in situations such as these instantly coming to mind.

Shikamaru shook his head. "They were loyal to Konoha...just not our Konoha."

"When I was growing up, Sakura and I were sent to another world that was just like ours, but there were a bunch of differences from here." Allowing his teenage side to shine through, Naruto began to lose the formal speech and allow a smile to form on his face as he remembered the time he had spent in the alternate world. "At the time, I thought it was only a genjutsu placed on us. But these kids...It seems that it wasn't one at all. It looks like there truly is another universe parallel to our own.."

The five jounin looked among each other, waiting for what this meant. However, Meisai was quick to prompt the discussion further. "So...I take it we won't be leading a standard squad of genin?"

Taking over the conversation as Naruto gestured to him, Shikamaru began to open up files and hand papers out. "No, you will not. These shinobi seem to all be chuunin at the least, with a select few being jounin. During their interrogation, we sent falcons to Sasuke and Orochimaru. Sasuke sent us a letter back on a number of temporal chakra anomalies that had appeared."

"These anomalies seem to be the same as the anomaly that was present here, in the academy and in the office, which seems to have switched with the academy from the alternate world." Shikamaru motioned to the various pictures of Sakura and Sasuke around the room. "We also have a number of reports from-" As he was about to say Itachi, he caught himself. He was already dropping tons of information on the heads of these jounin, he couldn't lay it on too strong. "Various ANBU agents in the alternate world that detail strange events happening at other regions and villages. Your jobs will be to take a standard squad of these kids to the anomalies and see if there are any other shinobi who were brought over to this world from theirs, as well as investigate the other villages to see if the strange happenings in their world lines up with ours."

"Most importantly though, is also finding a way for them to get home." Naruto cut in on the briefing. "Who knows what trouble could come from them being out of their own universe."

As the five soon-to-be squad leaders sat in silence, Muko mostly faking theirs as to not disturb the others, Naruto nodded slowly. "We will continue to have meetings for the next month on your assigned locations and missions. Then...you'll be off with your squad."

Shikamaru cleared his throat as he then began to pass out the files of the kids to their respective squad leaders. "Any questions?"


Stats-

Kaimen Meisai (19 years old)

Rank: Jounin

Team Meisai/Team 4

Danger: F

Skill: S

Mystery:S

Charisma:A

Kimono:A+

- Meisai grew up in a rather neglectful household in Kirigakure, and grew up rather poor. Having only been four at the time of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kirigakure was facing rather rough times as he was growing up. Despite this, because of various circumstances, he eventually settled into Konohagakure where he has made quite the life for himself, and is happier than he has ever been!

XXXXX

Muko (21 years old)

Rank: Jounin

Team Muko/Team 5

Bukijutsu: S+

Speed: A+

Origins: F

Relatability: D

Attempts to cling to Youth: A

- Muko has a very foggy past that not many can seem to pinpoint, however, there are a few that have learned about where he is descended from. It's not known where exactly he was as a kid, however, he seems to have randomly popped up in Konoha not long after the Fourth Shinobi World War, and with seemingly no where else to stay, he was allowed to live in Konoha.

XXXXX

Hito Nibui (27 years old)

Rank: Jounin

Team Nibui/Team 6

Intelligence:A

Genjutsu:A

Interesting Qualities:F

Charisma:F

Hard Work:A

- Nibui has always been a fairly normal shinobi. He never had outstanding, unique abilities growing up, so he thought that he would only be able to become a chuunin at best. However, he learned that he truly could become more than that if he truly applied himself. The fruit of his years of hard labor culminated in being promoted to a Jounin about two years ago!

XXXXX

Hyuuga Han (27 years old)

Rank: Jounin

Team Han/Team 7

Taijutsu:S+

Vision:S

Condescension: A

Tension: S+++

First Impressions: F

- Having been distantly related to a Hyuuga, he was born with a Byakugan in his right eye! Han grew up rather hated by most kids in his class due to his ways of calling out personal insecurities of theirs, however, the one kid he could never seem to do it to was his closest friend, Nibui. After graduating from the academy, his skills and talents were recognized rather quickly, and he was enlisted into the ANBU. Recently, though, he left the organization, preferring to be in ranks with standard Jounin once again.

XXXXX

Nasu Kuroka (27 years old)

Rank: Jounin

Team Kuroka/Team 8

Kenjutsu:S++

Alcoholism: B

Fashion: D

Disinterest: A

Cleanliness: F

- Having come from Kirigakure to Konohagakure at the age of 12 after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kuroka quickly displayed immense skill in Kenjutsu that Kirigakure was known for. Having lost the entirety of her family, it was amazing to most around that she was functional. Most expected her to be distraught, but instead, she seemed to channel the spirit of her family into improving her skills further and further, managing to integrate into Konoha society quite nicely!


And that was the secondary chapter to the prologue, giving small little insights to the leaders that your characters will be under! I hope you all enjoyed it! As for this little section at the end, from now on, I will be doing small stat blurbs(Which will not all draw from their actual stats, as you can see here. Some will draw from personality and simple things about them) and small notes on significant characters in a chapter! Now, obviously if I slam y'all with ten new characters in a single chapter(which is unlikely, I'm not a fan of hitting readers with too many characters at once) , I'm not going to do ten stat blurbs. At most, I will do five like this chapter!

Anyways, I look forward to your submissions, and I can't wait for any reviews y'all may have!