Hello once again! This is so on the wire and I am really sorry. I've had, once again, things to do and clingy friends to leave me alone but I did it! In this chapter we see Naruto's new team and what a treat his new Jounin sensei too! Hope you enjoy and thanks for the reviews!

"Speech"

'Thought'

"Kyuubi"

(Standard Disclaimer)

Chapter 19: Meeting the New Team

When the morning had finally had come Naruto was about as close to sleep as he had been when he fell onto the bed several hours ago. His blue and gold eyes stared up at the ceiling, a familiar splashing sound alerting him that it was indeed still raining. He sighed and sat up from his bed, knowing it had to be about four or five in the morning at the latest. "I blew it..." he muttered to himself, quiet enough to avoid waking his slumbering room mate.

His stomach roared and he began the long and probably soaking wet path to the kitchen. Even if the cook wasn't awake at those hours of the morning he knew how to cook ramen. He sighed as he opened the front door of the Branch House. Even if he used the Branch House entrance it could take him a good five minutes of running in the rain to make it. Better get going now...

Hinata lie awake on her bed, her eyes were blood shot from her own crying. She almost had him, then she let him slip away. Her eyes would have started their watering routine all over again, but they were dry. She had no more tears to cry. Hinata lie curled up in her bed until she felt her mouth had gone dry and she was in desperate need of a drink of water.

She sat up on her bed, trying to get her bearings in the dark room. To see better she quietly activated her blood line limit but she saw something that made her eyes cry the dry tears once again. She looked through the walls of the Main House to the grounds below her window and she saw what had to be Naruto, standing and looking at her window. He stood there for a few moments before hanging his head then disappearing in a golden blur.

Hinata retracted the telescopic vision of her Byakugan and rose from her bed. She had seen where the blur was headed. It was going right for the Main House kitchen.

Naruto was running as fast as he could on the slippery grass of the early morning. His clothes were near soaking wet and his bare feet were quickly losing traction on the wet ground. It didn't help that there was rain pouring into his eyes every second but he could get past that with his Sekkagan. Naruto looked up at the Main House mansion and found he was just below a very familiar window.

His running steps stopped and his Sekkagan faded leaving him standing in the rain, looking up at the window of Hinata's room. He stood there, his mind asking all sorts of questions. 'Should I go up there? Is she asleep? Is she awake like me? What should I do...' Naruto thought before hanging his head. He knew she was asleep, he knew he had messed up, he knew he had to leave. His Sekkagan activated and like that he disappeared into the early morning rain, sprinting for the Main House kitchen.

Naruto quickly and quietly opened the door to the kitchen, slipping inside before any of the Branch House guards saw him and suspect the worst. Naruto looked about the large kitchen and resolved that he was going to make himself something to get this growling from his stomach. He began to look all over the kitchen but no matter where he looked he didn't find a speck of food.

'Where the hell is all the food, all I found is cookware,' Naruto grumbled mentally. "N-Naruto-kun?" whispered a voice outside his little mental circle and from the volume and the slight stutter he knew who it was. "Hinata-chan?" he asked as he turned to have his fox eyes land upon the form of a girl. She was standing in the doorway that led from the kitchen into the hallway.

His sharpened eyes looked through the darkness and saw that she had deep circles under her eyes and her pale violet pearls had been tinted with a reddish tone. She had been crying, and it was his fault. "You m-might want to use t-the pantry Naruto-k-kun..." Hinata said softly and sadly. Naruto looked down for a moment in shame, he had made her cry and it tore his heart to pieces. He looked back up into Hinata's bloodshot eyes, feeling unworthy under their gaze and replied, "sure...where is it?"

Hinata led Naruto to the panty which luckily was right next door to the kitchen. "H-here it is Naruto-kun..." Hinata said opening the door to the variable mountain of food stored inside. Naruto on the other hand was thinking, 'she still calls me Naruto-kun.' "Thank you Hinata-chan," Naruto said before Hinata interrupted him. "Why are you up so early Naruto-kun?" she asked causing Naruto to think quick.

"I...woke up hungry," Naruto said softly. Hinata had been around Naruto enough to know when he was lying and right now her mind felt something was wrong. Her mind thought of the best way to help this situation less tense, she knew Naruto was as uncomfortable as she was at this moment. "Naruto-kun...w-what would you l-like for breakfast?" she asked as Naruto looked into the pantry.

"I was just thinking about ramen but...all this food kinda makes me more hungry," Naruto said honestly. Hinata couldn't help but smile at the obvious Naruto answer. "But what d-do you w-want Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked again. "Well Ramen obviously," Naruto said with a slight smile. Of all the foods he knew Ramen had to be at the top. "Ok...r-ramen it is," Hinata said as she grabbed the ingredients for ramen plus a few other things and walked from the pantry to the kitchen.

Naruto followed curious as to what she was doing until he saw her begin to cook the items. "Wait, Hinata-chan, you don't have to..." Naruto began but Hinata interrupted with a soft, "it's n-no problem Naruto-kun. B-besides, I'm hungry too." As Hinata began to cook Naruto couldn't help but remember what he had said so long ago.

'Hinata, this is awesome! You know you'd make a good wife someday.' Naruto remembered saying that and hell he had meant it. Those riceballs were excellent, even if they did look kind of weird. All the food Hinata made tasted especially excellent to him. He never understood why but as he watched her cook the Ramen and at the same time prepare a few riceballs he began to understand. She put her heart into her work. It wasn't a job, it wasn't a chore, it was something she wanted to do.

Naruto smiled faintly as she quickly finished her work and set out two bowls of Ramen and a couple of riceballs between them. She swiftly cleaned the small mess she had made then took a seat at the counter on the opposite side of Naruto. "Enjoy," Hinata said softly as she began to eat her meager portion of Ramen. "Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked causing Hinata to look up at him with questioning eyes.

"Why did you do this?" he asked in confusion. Hinata's lips turned up in a soft smile and said, "because I wanted to Naruto-kun." Naruto produced his own smile and said, "Thank you..." Like the many times before, they ate in silence the feeling of tension gone in their minds as they just enjoyed each others presence.

The whole morning it had rained and thunder stormed but that didn't mean Hiashi allowed Naruto to take a day off. He had spent the day 'training' by using his chakra in a mix of short bursts and even waves to keep the water from his body, when the rain had ended Hiashi deemed the training for the day through.

By the end of it all Naruto was pretty spent but he was damned if he was going to waste another day without finding his team. He bid Hinata a farewell and rushed into the cloudy weather to find his new team.

Naruto had read both of their profiles and decided that this was his best bet at a functional and powerful team. In his mind he was still gonna be the top dog, er fox of the group but he wanted the best team available. He ran for the training fields knowing that since the rains had stopped their sensei would have them training.

"Hey Zaiaku," said a girl, her clothes and figure giving any perverted male able to see a good bloody nose and bad thoughts. She wore deep red and white pants with one leg cropped short and white sandals on her feet with fishnet leggings covering the open space between her pants and sandals. On her pant loop was a scroll but if a skilled ninja looked carefully one could see it was just a very well done Henge.

She wore a white short sleeve jacket with a dark red tank top shirt beneath. Her hands danced over the 'scroll' on her pant loop like she was just itching to reveal its true purpose. Her eyes were a bright green that complimented her orangish red hair perfectly. On her forehead she wore the symbol of Konohagakure and despite the fact that her hair was not as long as most Kunoichi of her age it still covered a good deal of the head band. "You hear about that guy that's supposed to join our team for the Chuunin exams?" she asked as she turned to her partner.

He was leaning against a tree and on his back was a large object wrapped in black bandages. He wore a high collared black shirt with silver clasps and baggy dark grey pants. Around his waist was an old and partially shredded black warriors skirt, on the front flap was symbols for Shichi embroidered in silver.

On his arms and legs were bandages covering every inch of open skin except his hands which were a pair of black leather steel plate gloves. He wore black sandals on his feet and around his neck, just below his high collar, was a scarf of dark silver coloration and the Konohagakure engraved plate.

His long hair was silver at its base but toward the end it grew dark and blackened. It was all pulled back into a fine tail except for a few clumps that shadowed his eyes. If one were to look past the shadows they would be able to see his oddly colored eyes, both of them a spotless sea of gold.

"Yeah I did," the genin named Zaiaku replied with a smirk, "anything's better then the last one Itami." Itami nodded in agreement with Zaiaku then placed the 'scroll' she had at her waist to her lips and looked like she took a drink. "I am not lugging you home again," Zaiaku said which earned a scowl from Itami.

"I'm fine you idiot..." she growled as she turned and was met with the sight of a golden fox boy standing before her. "Ok...maybe I AM a little tipsy..." she said shaking her head and blinking her eyes. Zaiaku's eyes went a little wider, "...I think those fumes of yours are getting to me."

"Hey, are you guys the team I'm supposed to join?" Naruto asked as he approached the team but apparently they didn't hear them. Hell they were still quite a ways away. As he walked towards them he sized them up in his mind. 'Well the girl looks like something Ero-sannin would like...but I can smell something really bad from here and I can tell it's coming from her. If I didn't know better I could swear it was Sake!' Naruto thought as he shivered, he hated the stuff. It always messed with his mind.

'The other guy, he looks kind dark. He reminds me a lot of like a cross between Shino and Sasuke. That thing on his back...brings back memories,' Naruto thought as he smirked and remembered the Kazekage of the Sand, Gaara and he scowled thinking of Kisame of the Mist. Just as he entered speaking distance the girl turned to face him then muttered something he didn't get in the least. "Are you the team that's missing one person for the Chuunin exams?" Naruto asked again, he hated doing that but they looked like statues.

"Yeah we are," Zaiaku said as he pushed himself off the tree, shaking off the initial shock from Naruto's appearance. After all many would say that his eyes were unnatural but that was what clan inheritance is. "What's your name?" asked the girl this time. Naruto knew it, the smell WAS coming from her, and it was Sake! That's why she was having such an easy time with this, she was probably half drunk! Before he could comment there was a puff of smoke and out of the smoke stepped a Jounin.

He wore the Jounin flak jacket with traditional black ninja pants on his legs with bandages around the exposed part of his legs. However under his vest it looked like he wore nothing and from the looks of it he payed, his arms and his legs were scarred to hell. There were burn marks, slicing scars, friction scars, everything. On his feet he wore blue sandals and on his waist he wore a leather wine skin.

His longer dark hair was slicked back under his cap like headband and his face looked almost friendly. He had a large scar going from the bottom of his right eye stretching over his face to his chin. His deep brown eyes were scrunched up in a smile and he said, "Hey! I see you guys met...HIS replacement."

Zaiaku and Itami nodded while Naruto just stared, he hadn't seen this Jounin in the village... EVER. Well he never saw Zaiaku or Itami but still, he would have noticed this guy, he looked pretty memorable. "Sorry, I never got your name," the Jounin said with a smile.

Apparently this guy didn't mind that Naruto looked like a fox. "Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto replied to which the Jounin continued to smile. "Nice to have you aboard Naruto. Since we have a new member how about we introduce ourselves!" The Jounin said with an excited attitude.

"I'll begin, my name is Taishou, I like the rush and excitement you get from a mission especially B and A class. I don't like the down time from mission to mission. Yeah that's me. Let's have Zaiaku next," Taishou said with a smile and a snap of his fingers.

Zaiaku rolled his eyes, "fine. My name is Onigiri Zaiaku, I like money among other things. I don't like wasting money, among other things...and drunks." At that comment Zaiaku smirked while Itami sneered at him. "I'm done," Zaiaku said with a bored tone.

"Coin lover...my name is Izumo Itami. I like...things..." Itami said as her eyes shifted left and right. Zaiaku and Taishou both rolled their eyes but Naruto was clueless to this happening. "I don't like...things in the aftermath of other things...and idiots who can't keep their smart ass comments to their self," Itami finished with a glare to Zaiaku.

Naruto smirked and said loud and proud, "my name is Uzumaki Naruto and I like Ramen, pranks, and...I don't like the three minute wait for ramen, people who judge other people unfairly, people who beat themselves up over nothing, and people who spread rumors of other people." Naruto skipped a certain person in the speech of what he liked. He'd rather keep his love interests to himself.

"Well it seems that you are all ready for the exam, but first..." Taishou said as he held up his hand and snapped his fingers with such a crack that Naruto flinched. He had never heard such a loud snap from someone, hell he had never heard something like it anywhere. "Let's have our own little test right here and now," Taishou said with a hearty laugh.

"Oh great..." Itami said with a roll of her eyes. "Oh come on it can't be that bad," Naruto said remembering the bells test with Kakashi. "Oh but it can Naruto," Taishi said with a great smile. "Oh? I had to deal with Kakashi-sensei's stupid bell test, I can beat this no problem," Naruto said confidently.

"Naruto, Taishi-sensei isn't from Konoha. He defected," Zaiaku said as he put his hands in his pockets. "So that's why I've never seen you before? Where are you from?" Naruto asked not the least bit scared of the grinning Jounin. Taishi laughed his hearty laugh again then grinned and said, "I'm from the Sound..."

End Chapter

Oh! Weren't expecting that twist huh! Well I'm sure you have TONS of Q's about this and before I get them I'll try and adress them all plus old Q's.

Q: What do the names mean?

A: Taishi: Hearty laughter.
Itami: Pain.
Zaiaku: Sin.

Q: Are they...evil?

A: No they are not, I will explain their history as the story progresses.

Q:A defected Sound Jounin?

A: Later you'll understand

Q:Exactly what happened at four in the morning between Hinata and Naruto.

A: A sort of mending of souls the only way they could with what had happened. A quiet breakfast together, splashing rain outside, no one around, twilight hours of the morning.

Q: Who was...HE?

A: Later

Q: Hamburgers?

A: I swear to god they were in an episode!

Q: Fan girl?

A: ...no...you see it already...Kitsune Seduction dosen't work on a drunk...

Q: Not many Q and A?

A:...apparently that's fixed. Just keep asking more Q's.

Alright then...Sorry no preview but it IS thursday which means...WEEKEND! Well I'll see you guys later.