Hiruzen took a deep inhale of his pipe before blowing out the smoke. It was a habit he needed to kick in his old age however it was his one form of stress relief from the strenuous work that came with being the Hokage. He had just finished the task of assigning the squads that the current graduating class of academy students would be drafted. He also decided to call the Jonin that would lead the squads. He decided to take a break which was interrupted by the Jonin Kakashi, the Tokubetsu Jonin Anko, and two other Jonin among them. He immediately recognized them as his son Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yuhi respectively. He was surprised to see Kakashi among the other Jonin as he was usually one to be late.

"Thank you all for showing up, as you all know the graduating class of the academy is being assigned to squads," Hiruzen said before taking another puff of his smoking pipe. He was about to continue until he was abruptly interrupted

"That's good and all but why am I here old man?" Anko responded irritated that she had been called from the interrogation department

She had her fair share of work cut out for her as she had to deal with the fallout of investigating a murder of a popular scroll designer who was unknowingly a part of a plot to rob the Third Hokage.

"I was getting to that before you interrupted me so rudely" Hiruzen retorted with a glare

Anko got the message to keep quiet and Hiruzen continued his speech.

"As I was saying, there are 13 students who are graduating from the academy along with one exchange student from the ROOT division. Among them will be four Jonin instructors"

Silence plagued the room and one by one the words of Hiruzen pierced their mind. Anko appeared confused until the final words clicked in her head.

"Oh shit, am I being promoted?!" Anko said excitedly

"We need an extra Jonin who has a particular skill set and can manage training students. Anko Mitarashi, I appoint you to the rank of Jonin" Hiruzen said with a hint of nervousness.

"FUCK YEAH! It's about time I get some appreciation and a raise for all the hard work I've put in torturing innocent souls" Anko responded with a playful yet sarcastic tone.

Anko's state of excitement turned into a state of worry as she realized that she had a lot of other duties to also perform.

"What about leading the torture and interrogation department and what about that little case you wanted me to look into"?

"I've already taken the liberty of delegating your duties to Ibiki Morino and other members in that department. You no longer need to worry about either for the time being" Hiruzen explained

Hiruzen cleared his throat before continuing.

"The students have been paired on their scores, their current skills, analysis on the best chemistry among peers and some consideration was given towards special requests however that was least prioritized" Hiruzen explained

"Sorry to interrupt but why is one of the children from the ROOT division being placed with the academy students" Kakashi questioned curiously at the circumstances that could have led to ROOT taking an interest in the academy students.

Kakashi was all too familiar with the ROOT division from his ANBU days and was no stranger to the tricks, deception, and malicious activities that ROOT participated in to defend the Leaf Village. He did not like the idea of one of his potential students interacting with the ROOT exchange student knowing they could be a spy for a certain division head.

"Danzo was very insistent on placing him within a genin team in order to continue his training" Hiruzen explained.

He also didn't believe the justification either, but he decided it was not best to cause any hasty confrontations. Deciding to conclude the meeting, Hiruzen decided to get to the point.

"These are the following squads and their team leaders"

"Is it true that you broke into the Hokage's Mansion to steal the scroll of sealing?" Naruto asked in a brash voice

Kenji just groaned and dropped his face to his desk. He had to deal with questioning and concerns from everyone from teachers to students. He figured the news would spread fast, but he didn't expect everyone to know. The worst part was that the story had grown into multiple different variations none of which were the truth.

"You're the 10th person to ask me that and I just want people to stop," Kenji said head still in his desk

Stories included being a spy who tried to steal the scroll back to the Village Hidden in the Waterfall, being a hero who stopped traitors from stealing the scroll, trying to steal a maiden in the night from the Hokage's evil grasps. He particularly wondered who made up the last one and he had a good idea who could have spread it, but it wasn't something that bothered him enough to bring it up.

"You have to admit. It's a great story to tell" Ino said with a smirk with her face in her palms.

"Great story to tell, very stressful to actually go through" Sarada explained.

Sarada also was annoyed by the stories but not because of how ridiculous the variations were but because none of them included her and all of them painted Kenji as the only person involved other than the weird story saying that Kenji was trying to steal Karin from the Hokage.

Chatter among the classroom continued until Iruka sensei appeared in the classroom.

"Settle down!" Iruka said loudly and smiled once he was greeted by silence and attention. He began passing ninja headbands out. Many of them were blue with one of them being black.

"First off, I want to congratulate all of you for graduating from the academy. I know how difficult it is to become a ninja and I am proud that all of you are making the first steps to being remarkable shinobi. When you take your steps out of the academy, you will be genin"

Iruka walked to Kenji and gave him the black one

"Sorry Kenji, your graduation was a last-minute thing, so this is the one we have for you. We'll be sure to switch it to a blue headband after" Iruka said giving a sad smile as he was briefed with the situation prior to coming to class.

"Are you kidding? Black's more my color anyway" Kenji retorted excitedly that he got to get the black headband

"Aww what? I want the black one" Kiba said angrily before silencing himself when Iruka gave his angry teacher look. Kiba angrily glared at Kenji with his arms crossed which only amused Kenji

"Now I will be going over the genin teams you will be placed in. This year we have 14 graduating students, so in addition to our 3-man squadrons; we will have a squad of four members for two teams" Iruka explained.

"A four-man squad? Has that ever happened before?" Shikamaru commented

Kenji only knew of Shikamaru in passing since he was good friends with Naruto, but they hardly ever spoke. He however brought up a good point as he thought that the ideal for a genin team would be 3 members along with their jonin leader.

"Typically that has always been the formation however Lord Hiruzen wishes to test the efficiency of a four-man squadron along with a leader" Iruka explained

Iruka also thought it was strange however they did not pay him enough nor was he at a high enough rank to give his concerns about this change. He decided to steer the conversation back to the team formations.

"The first team is Team Six and that will consist of Kenji Takahashi, Fu, Sarada Uchiha and Karin Uzumaki. Your assigned Jonin will be Anko Mitarashi" Iruka said although he nearly choked saying the name of the Jonin

Kenji could not help but grin as he was placed in a team with the closest people, he had in the village currently. Almost immediately after, he lost his grin as he remembered the name Anko from the crazy snake lady he met at the hospital.

'Fuck, I'm going to die' Kenji thought while shoving his head into his desk again much to the confusion of Fu and Karin who were sitting beside him

"Next is Team Seven which will consist of Naruto Namikaze, Ino Yamanaka, Hinata Hyuga and Sasuke Uchiha. Your assigned Jonin is Kakashi Hatake"

"Team Eight will be led by Kurenai Yuhi and will consist of Sakura Haruno, Shikamaru Nara and Kiba Inuzuka"

"Finally we have Team Ten which will be led by Asuma Sarutobi and will consist of Chōji Akimichi, Shino Aburame, and Sai who is an exchange student."

Iruka was in the process of explaining what happens next when the window suddenly shattered and on the desk of Iruka was Anko standing proudly"

"INTRODUCING THE NEWLY APPOINTED JONIN, ANKO MITARASHI!" Anko proudly proclaimed

"Is she drunk?" Kiba questioned loudly

The class was silent before bursting into laughter while Iruka sensei was fuming to which Kenji thought he could see smoke coming out of his ears. Kenji, Fu, and Karin were the only ones who weren't laughing because they knew how crazy Anko seemed to be.

"Why can't you use the door like a normal person? I wasn't even done with class!" Iruka yelled angrily

"You were talking too long and more importantly, my students have more important places to be," Anko said dismissively while shrugging.

"Come along now, my soldiers of war!" Anko squealed before hopping out the window.

"I'm so embarrassed right now," Sarada said softly to her new teammates while facepalming.

The newly formed Team Anko followed their sensei until they stopped at a clearing. The group was amazed at the beauty of the clearing surrounded by a deep forest that had mountains in the landscape and a large, deep river. They were all taken from their thoughts when Anko turned away from the river to face them.

"Here's how it's going to go you little shits, we're going to go through a little test to make sure you guys are worthy enough to be my sla…. I mean genin" Anko explained

"What the hell?! What do you mean by test? We already graduated from the academy" Karin responded

Karin's retort was only met with cackling.

"The ninja world is cruel and unfair, what you've learned in books means nothing compared to what you will experience once you step out of these gates"

"Plus I am not going to be babysitting a bunch of weak brats who can't defend themselves so if all four of you don't pass, all of you will be sent back to the academy for another year"

"WHAT!?" all four recently appointed genin screamed in unison

Anko gave a smirk at the apparent misery that sunk in her students' eyes but put that aside to continue explaining.

"Glad we're on the same page, now here's the test. All you brats have to do is successfully get one hit on me. Sounds simple enough right? I'll even only use like 20% of my skill"

"That's all we have to do?" Sarada inquired

"Yep, I'll even give you until sunset" Anko arrogantly boasted

Fu who had been silent during the exchange had been lost in thought. she had no idea how strong the torture specialist could be but surely it would be hard for her not to be touched once when she was rushed by all four.

Kenji had similar thoughts on the matter and decided to chime in

"This'll be a piece of cake, It's four of us against you"

"If that's what you think kid, why don't you come and try it" Anko declared confidently.

Moments passed where there was nothing but silence and glaring between the genin and Anko sensei. Kenji frustrated by the silence decided that he would take initiative and make the first move.

Kenji pulled out a kunai and sprinted towards Anko sensei dead set on punishing her for underestimating him much to the dismay of Fu

"Kenji wait!" Fu screamed

Kenji threw the kunai towards Anko and stretched his fist back. He'd know that Anko would have the sense to dodge the kunai and in the time, it took her to dodge it, he'd be ready to unleash an uppercut.

He was shocked when Anko caught the kunai with the tip of her fingers and immediately flung it back towards him with blinding speed. He was barely able to dodge the Kunai by turning his body but that proved to be a fatal mistake when he was caught by Anko's slender leg kicking him with enough force to leave him out of breath and had him flying into the river.

The others were shocked at the quickness of Anko but had to shake it off when she immediately turned towards them with a crazed smile

"Shit, she's coming for us next!" Fu said putting her stance up.

"We have to work together," Sarada said looking at Karin who also gave an affirmative nod

Anko wasted no time speeding towards the graduated academy students. Fu pushed forward throwing multiple punches towards Anko who easily ducked and weaved through all of them. Karin ran to join the skirmish and jumped to deliver an axe kick towards her skull. Anko grabbed the heel of Karin and flung her towards Fu who caught her but due to the force, they both still fell to the ground.

"And then there was one. What will you do little girl" Anko delivered in a pretentious tone

"Don't underestimate me!" Sarada screamed running towards Anko

Sarada pushed some chakra to her legs to boost her speed and lunged with a punch towards Anko who simply dodged the punches. Sarada released combinations of punches and kicks that kept missing much to her frustration. Anko nonchalantly grabbed the wrist of Sarada and twisted it behind her back

"Is this all you guys really have? At this rate, I might have to send you guys back to the beginning stages of the academy. You might have to spend two years in the academy instead of one"

Much to the displeasure of the students, Anko felt completely underwhelmed. She was wondering how one of the last remaining Uchiha and the Waterfall brat survived Mizuki. To her, Mizuki was just as powerless as these kids but to them, he should have been able to sweep them easily. She was taken from her thoughts when she had to duck a kunai from behind her. She immediately kicked Sarada away from her and turned to see both Fu and the currently drenched Kenji running towards her.

They both gave each other a glance and nod before Kenji started weaving hand signs. Fu also weaved through hand signs and poured chakra into her stomach while inhaling a deep breath

"Water Style: Bubbles Jutsu!"

"Wind Style: Gale Palm!"

Fu exhaled and dozens of bubbles blew from her mouth while compressed wind formed around Kenji's hands. Kenji pushed the winds towards the bubbles which projected them towards Anko at a furious rate.

Anko began evading the bubbles, but they proved to be too much, and she was surrounded by floating bubbles around her.

Fu smirked realizing that Anko got caught in the trap and clapped her hand in the tiger seal position detonating all the bubbles. The bubbles shined greatly before all exploding which caused a storm of dust to fly over where Anko was standing.

"We got her!" Fu said excitedly

Kenji was about to celebrate with her until he noticed that when the dust cleared, all that remained in the clearing was a charred oak log.

"Shit, she used the substitution jutsu," Kenji said fuming that Anko figured out a way to dodge their efforts

Suddenly his instincts rang at him to duck and doing so proved to be the right choice as a sweeping roundhouse kick flew over his head. He was unable to dodge Anko's adjustment to her kick which hit him in the chest and sent him flying again. Anko turned to Fu trying to punch her and she delivered a knee to Fu right in the stomach which had her fall to her knees.

"Impressive for a bunch of academy brats but not good enough" Anko praised

Truth be told, Anko was a bit angry that she was almost caught off guard and decided to teach the kids a little lesson in humility. Anko was about to deliver another punch before having to jump back due to Karin throwing multiple Kunai to create distance between the two.

"Don't you think you're being a little too excessive Sensei!" Karin screamed angry that they were all getting their ass kicked on the first day of being introduced to their teacher.

"You should be happy that I'm even indulging you, you're easily the worst out of the four"

Karin clenched her fist before relaxing, she knew better than to fall for her teacher's taunts but she was livid that her sensei would say that. She turned to see Sarada who also shared her angry glare jumping next to her, but something was different about her. Her eyes which were usually black now bore an intense red with one tomoe in the corner of her pupils.

Anko stared at Sarada noting the appearance of her Sharingan. She was still unconcerned that she would be able to do anything with it, but it was interesting that she was able to unlock it so early. Despite being in the village during the time the Uchiha were still prevalent in the Leaf, it was her first time seeing one in person, so she was intrigued at the potential.

"Got any ideas?" Karin asked quietly to Sarada

"Just one but we need Kenji, where is he?" Sarada responded

As she finished her question, Kenji and Fu appeared right next to her.

"I got an idea, but we need your help," Sarada said before bringing the group closer to whisper her plan. Suddenly smirks grew on the face of each of the students.

Wasting no time, Fu and Karin rushed towards Anko who gave a smirk before ducking the punch that Karin threw towards her. Fu threw numerous punch combinations hoping to hit Anko however, she evaded all of them to no one's surprise. Anko was in the process of throwing an elbow to counterattack before she had to pull back when multiple shurikens flew towards her direction from Karin. Karin had been hoping to annoy Anko into attacking her first which succeeded when Anko judo flipped Fu in the opposite direction before speeding towards Karin.

Karin weaved through hand signs and focused her chakra.

"Earth Style: Oil Bullet"

Karin opened her mouth to release out a stream of sticky oil which shot in Anko's direction. Anko stopped and jumped back in order to evade the oil but she immediately focused her attention on Sarada and Kenji who was on each side of Karin also utilizing multiple hand signs

"Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu"

"Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet"

Sarada expelled a stream of fire while Kenji released a medium-sized compressed ball of wind from his mouth. The stream of fire ignited the oil stream which began to become amplified by the compressed wind ball. The result was an eruption of wildfire which spread towards Anko at high speed. Anko quickly weaved through hand signs faster than any of the students could process and suddenly the water from the pond started shaking

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" Anko screamed as a dragon made from water erupted out of the lake and collided with the stream of amplified fire. A huge hiss and steam encompassed the entire training ground.

Sarada could see through the steam slightly due to her Sharingan and she could also vaguely see the chakra of her soon-to-be teammates as slight aura projections, but Anko was nowhere to be found and she couldn't see her chakra anywhere.

Suddenly Anko's chakra appeared where Fu was standing, and Fu immediately hunched over and fell which sent Sarada into a panic.

"She's picking us off in the smoke!" Sarada screamed trying to warn her teammates, but it was already too late

Anko silently threaded through the steam and managed to quickly knock down Fu and Karin and before Sarada could react, Anko delivered a smashing kick which she could see coming due to her Sharingan however could not block because of how quick Anko was compared to her. The kick connected with her ribcage and slammed her down to the ground. She tried to get up however the amount of chakra poured from her last jutsu along with the damage from the last kick had her exhausted and hurt to the point where she could not stand any further.

Anko then turned towards Kenji and sped towards him hoping to blitz him like the other three kunoichis. Anko quickly clenched her fist and threw a quick-paced power shot that the boy could not avoid.

Kenji put his hands up ready to defend the blow and poured chakra from his body hoping the extra chakra would be able to soften the blow but what had happened was unexpected.

Kenji's chakra manifested into a dense shroud that circled around him and seemed to compress into spikes which shocked Anko. She stopped herself enough to prevent herself from being impaled by the chakra spikes however she ran into a few of the spikes enough to give her a few cuts on her skin.

Anko blankly stared at the boy shocked as the chakra spikes receded back into the cloak before fading away. Kenji also stared at Anko who seemed to be paralyzed by the shock and within an instant lightly punched her in the abdomen.

Anko continued to stare in almost a trance-like demeanor before bursting out in laughter.

"Wow, you kids aren't half bad. You actually got me to use ninjutsu to prevent you, morons, from causing a firestorm, and look at you kid, you actually got a hit on me although it was kinda soft" Anko said gleefully

Kenji gave a smile at the backhanded compliment before falling forward into Anko's chest. He was sure that she was annoyed but her embrace felt amazing, plus his legs ached and he felt like he felt heavy to the point where he could not get up. Unknown to him, Anko had a small blush on her face at the boy laying on her. She quickly regained focus and focused her attention on her other students.

"Does this mean we pass?" Karin said walking up from behind with Fu's arm over her shoulder which helped her walked.

"Eh, you did good enough, but you guys need a lot of training before you're even worthwhile"

Sarada who finally was able to stand and join the group frowned at her assessment but decided to stay silent.

"You guys are off the hook for the rest of the day but be ready early tomorrow cause your training from hell begins at sunrise!" Anko said with a sadistic smile which gave the newly appointed genin the feeling of fear.

A/N: Thanks to all who are following/like the story and thanks to those who have reviewed so far. As always, leave your constructive criticisms, questions, concerns, issues and anything else as I enjoy reading them.