Legal Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. There would be much much more sex in it if I did.

Fan Disclaimer: Slight AU (Explained in a second) and DRIPPING with original characters. Pairings I like: Naru/Hina, Shika/Ino. Sasuke is a bastard, and Sakura is useless and whiny. You have been warned.

Author's Notes:

Slight adjustments to the universe: Itachi didn't kill the ENTIRE Uchiha clan, just most of it. I think that the odds that the whole clan was in the compound at the SAME night is pretty silly, so Itachi just murdered his parents and everyone else nearby cept Sasuke.

This fic starts out about 6 months after the 3 years starts. So Naruto leaves with Jiraiya and 6 months later, this stuff starts. Don't worry, I don't really think Naruto is capable of being away from Ichiraku for 3 years straight. He'll pop in. :D

Thanks to Alphacat, who owns Yowamushi (Last I checked, he wasn't sexoring him, alas) and is my awesome Assistant Author and Beta Reader.

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"Yama-kun! Where are we going?", the young boy asked with eager eyes.

Yamato, still looking and walking ahead, responded, "We're going to go find Iruka. He does the registration."

Yowa's eyes widened, "Registration... so they're letting me in?"

Yamato nodded. "Of course. I just had to... bend... certain details of our time in your village." Like how I thought you were a girl at first glance.

Yowa smiled. "You didn't mention that you thought I was a girl."

Deciding to ignore that, Yamato walked on. Hmph. Perceptive brat.

They walked in silence for a bit, and eventually, Yowa's small black cat emitted a low, yet piercing, "Merowwwrrr!" One could almost hear the thought bubble pop.

And then if I followed up with - What? Yamato blinked for a moment, then said, "Hmm? Oh, wait. Why are we over here? Registration is... right there." Upon saying this, Yamato whirled around and pointed towards a door they had just passed. Amusingly enough, the cat had stopped right at the door. Yowa decided it was probably... better not to comment. Yamato walked up to the door, labeled "Registration". Not deigning to knock, he opened the door and walked in. "Hey, Iruka! You in here?"

Iruka looked up from his paperwork, not sure whether to be relieved or annoyed at the distraction. Upon seeing both the adorable small child and equally adorable cat, he decided the former. "Well, who might this be?"

Yamato, slightly miffed at being ignored for the kid, responded, "This would be Yowa. Hokage-sama says to enter him in as a genin, along with all the other graduates. No, you don't get to ask why."

Yowa, looking toward the young man that apparently was Iruka, smiled and gave a timid wave. "Hi..."

Iruka looked the boy over. Pretty long hair for his age, a dark blue. Dyed, apparently, and in need of a redo, because Iruka could see the blonde roots peeking in. He looked a couple inches short of five feet tall. Under weight for his age, but not terribly so. Pretty close, though. His eyes were a bright, crystal blue... strikingly similar to Naruto's, Iruka thought. He was pretty... pretty thin! Yes, thin. Bad Iruka. Bad thoughts. "Hi there, Yowa. Ok, you can sit right there and we'll get started. I'll need your full name."

Yowa hopped onto the small stool near Iruka's desk, and said, "Masshiroke Yowamushi. Her name is Genki." He pointed towards his cat, which had demonstrated the amazing feline ability to sleep anywhere instantly. The surprising thing was that it had managed to get onto Yamato's head. Even more surprising was that he seemed to not have noticed until Yowa pointed.

"Gah!" With a shout, Yamato attempted to pull the cat off of his head. It was obvious that he had no prior experience with cats, as the disturbed feline instantly latched its claws into his scalp. "Ow! Baka neko! If you weren't on my head, I'd torch you SO fast!"

Looking concerned, Yowa decided to intervene. He meowed toward the now frightened cat, which quickly relaxed, somehow managed to slip out of Yamato's grip, and calmly hopped down from his head. Everyone could tell the cat was trying to say, 'Feh. Didn't want to sleep there anyway.'

Yamato, throughly furious from the feline invasion of his hair, quickly formed a hand seal. Yowa turned his big, sad eyes to Yamato, pouting, "Yama-kun..."

Victim to the kitty eyes, Yamato melted. "Fah. I'm gonna go take a nap. Come fetch me when you're done with the forms." And with that, he left the room. Grrr. Stupid cat. If it wasn't Yowa's, I'd torch it. Wait... why do I care if it's his? It's only going to be a handicap in a fight anyway, better to get rid of the stupid thing now... there is NO way I can be getting attached to this little brat... Great. Teaching kids makes you go all soft. Finding one of the various padded benches strewn throughout the Hokage's Tower, he laid down on one and napped. Or tried. ...Perfect. Wonderful time for family memories to come back... On the surface, Yamato appeared to be mostly asleep. However, his dreams were troubled by disturbing flashbacks of his youth. One flashback from an entire childhood's worth. What felt like a few long moments later, he opened his eyes. ...No. I'm not going to turn out like that. No way I will make my team suffer through the shit I had to. But... at the same time, I need to make sure they can defend themselves... Looks like it's life as usual. Walk the middle path. With a deep breath, he attempted to calm himself, Ok, Yamato. You can do this. You've got three highly talented kids anyway, they should be able to handle themselves... hopefully.

The noise of the nearby sliding door opening cause Yamato to jerk upwards. He looked over to see Iruka. "Umm, sorry to startle you."

Yamato waved it off, "Nah. Just an unpleasant dream."

Iruka shrugged, "Well, we've got one little issue, and then he's all set." Motioning for Yamato to follow, Iruka walked back into the room.

Yamato wondered aloud as he walked back into the room, "Don't you think it's kind of a sick joke that the 'Registration Office' is just a glorified closet where they make you do paperwork? Anyway, what's this issue?"

Yowa perked up, hearing his new sensei's voice, "They want to know my address, but..."

Yamato blinked, "Oh. Crap. We didn't even think that far ahead, did we? You certainly can't afford an apartment on early genin pay... Eh. Toss my address on there, Iruka."

Iruka did a double-take. "Ok. Wait, what? He's staying with you?" It was common knowledge to the jounin and socially in-touch chuunin that Yamato was a stickler for his privacy. Few even knew where he lived, and apparently no one had yet to be invited into his house.

Yamato nodded. "Well, he doesn't have anywhere else to go." Dammit. I do care about this kid. Oh, shit. I have to put up with that blasted CAT now. "On a totally different note, it seems that with Yowa, you have a proper number of graduates now. Seems that Yowa and the two former leftovers are under me on team 5."

Iruka's jaw dropped. First Yamato allowed someone to live with him, and now he was teaching a team of genin! This was utterly impossible. Iruka began to suspect that Genma had slipped something into his water bottle again. "You... are a jounin-sensei?" To Iruka's credit, his voice only cracked from disbelief once.

Yamato fixed Iruka with a glare that read quite clearly, 'Do not fucking ask.' Yowa then turned towards Yamato, "Eh? I'm on a team!" The boy was completely taken by surprise.

Yamato looked at Yowa, puzzled. "Well, yea. All genin are assigned to a team of three, under a jounin-sensei. Me, in your case. Speaking of. Iruka, can I get names for our other teammates?"

Yowa appeared even more surprised at the announcement that not only were there teams, but he was on one. Iruka managed to shake himself from his state of shock to look up the other two unassigned genin. "Hmm. Uchiha Hikari, and Hyuuga Sokotto. Team 5, led by... Shitaki Yamato." The last pause being the small break it took Iruka to re-convince himself that he was not dreaming. Drugged, maybe. But not dreaming.

Yamato winced upon hearing the names of his new students. "Ahh... a Hyuuga and an Uchiha... Aggh... She sticks me with spoiled little bloodline clan brats?" Yamato's voice exhibited a remarkable ability to go from resigned frustration to anger. Boy. I must really like this brat. I'm going to put up with spoiled little genius babies from the big clans for him. Oh well. At least no one will ever know WHY I'm doing it. My reputation is taking enough damage from this as it is. Yamato sighed. "Oh well. Guess I'll pick them up on Monday, after the big honking speech. Speaking of, Yowa, you have to go to that. Iruka here is going to talk about how important being a Konoha shinobi is. Then I suppose I'll get to ramble to our new team. Oh well. I'm tired, and it's late. See ya tomorrow, Iruka-san." With that, Yamato turned and walked out.

Yowa, used to this by now, hopped from the stool, and chased after his new sensei and host. "Bye, Iruka-san!"

Iruka sat there for a moment, after watching them leave. This was completely contradictory to everything he had seen and heard about Yamato. The man was almost as mysterious as Hatake Kakashi, though without the same legion of fangirls. Yet. But a mystery was something that the gossiping Konoha nins loved to investigate, and so Yamato was the topic of much discussion. He was a loner, by most people's reckoning. He took on A-rank missions solo with regularity matched only by Kakashi. The two were an unusual pair. Alike in some ways, opposites in others. Somehow the two had become friends. But apparently even Kakashi had yet to see the inside of Yamato's home. The interior of his house had become almost as popular a mystery as the state of Kakashi's face and neck. Several had tried to enter the enigma of a house; few had escaped uninjured, and none had so much as glimpsed an inside wall. Yamato was apparently quite skilled at trap setting. All in all, Yamato was a person that favored his solitude and privacy, and had some terrible objection to teaching a team. Yet instantly, with the appearance of this boy, he seemed to have reversed entirely. Iruka's mouth opened in shock. It couldn't be that... Yamato was a pedophile! Shaking such ludicrous thoughts from his head, Iruka settled back into his paperwork. He still had a good hour to go, and this needed to be done before the ceremonies tomorrow morning. He loved teaching, certainly, even though the kids could get... aggravating. He just wished there weren't so damned much paperwork.