So this is meant to be a buffer between the last generation and Kakashi's, so next chapter will be Kakashi! Hello Third Hokage~

Beta: KumorikoKumoriko

Sarutobi Hiruzen was intelligent. He didn't say such as if he thought he was superior in anyway, it was a fact. Some surpassed him in force, others did not. He had devoted his life to books and knowledge along with the shinobi arts. He had studied tactics and strategy, great ninja from every generation. But privatley he figured that if there was a book on the most baffling of ninja, she would deserve her own chapter. Her own book, actually. A trilogy, perhaps, if you went really in depth ].

He digressed.

Hiruzen always kept a careful eye on the students at the Academy. They were the future, of course, they were the ranks of people who would continue the Will of Fire's legacy. But he had always tried to keep a bit of a closer eye on Uchiha Machiko, or as much as a time-pressed hokage could. His own student had taken an interest in the girl, and he could see why, because she was the type of person who just grabbed attention. She was loud, she demanded to be heard.

Emphasis on the loud. Ninja were subtle and silent, they ghosted through and didn't leave footprints behind. She raced through like a streak of lightning, blazing and obvious. With her wild laughs and dust she kicked up behind her, she was someone you remembered.

Which he supposed was the general idea.

Hiruzen had chosen Academy teams carefully. He had been debating putting the twins together-they were after all closely related, but he decided that since Machiko was more powerhouse and Mikoto was more fine control, the team would be a bit of a jumble. As well as that, they didn't have any special attacks they needed to do together, so he had Mikoto and Kushina to provide a balance. As well as that, there was a civilian boy who was reported to have good control, so he just placed those three together.

Machiko, on the other hand, needed to be reeled in. She was strong, true, but her impulsive nature could get her into trouble. She seemed to assume she had all the information she needed, and that was dangerously arrogant.

It was funny, Hiruzen thought reflectivley. Even such a strange Uchiha who broke the mold was arrogant in a way-thinking she was prepared for anything. To prepare for the worst and then some was an important quality that Machiko lacked. Optimism was all well and good, but it was a dangerous world.

Indeed, Machiko was arrogant. From his bimonthly reports, she joked, she slacked, she still got resonable physical grades, blew everyone out of the water with mental. She could be a Nara, except it didn't seem to be raw intelligence, it was more an adultlike maturity, which she hid under jokes and pranks and the like. It was hard to see, because nobody looked for it in such a brash girl, but he wasn't Hokage for nothing.

And he knew he could still detect a smidgeon of arrogance, because she was clearly smart and thought she always knew exactly what to do.

Namikaze Minato, who Hiruzen kept an even closer eye on. He was intelligent, not the maturity of Machiko, but the raw talent that could be refined to a deadly point. He was more cautious, which Hiruzen found exceedingly helpful. The boy was a rising prodigy, and he hoped to be able to take full advantage. Aburame Shibi, more calculating then either of them, powerful and deadly. It was a fairly good team, and he was catiously hopeful that they could do good things.

Anyone notice how Hiruzen didn't refer to Hiro by name :P

So that was short, so have a omake/

Omake: Fury.

So it has come to my attention that Mikoto would have Itachi at around sixteen, which while really young, is how I'm going to do it. (I messed up canon, Mikoto is older then Kushina and the others but still).

And you know Machiko wouldn't react well.

Jiraya silently strolled down the streets of Konoha, his feet sounding unusally loud in the night. Everyone had turned in for the night, shinobi or civilian, and if it hadn't been for a meeting with Sensei dragging for a while, he would be to.

Turning a corner, he tensed slightly as the flicker of chakra came into his radar. The familiarity of it still didn't soothe him.

It was Machiko's chakra, pulsing and throbbing, but what was she doing in the middle of the night?

He frowned, concentrating slightly.

And on the training grounds? Was she having insomnia?

Frowning more, he picked up his pace, silently ghosting his way through the silent streets until he reached Training Ground 2, which did indeed have his student. His brow furrowed as he watched her spar with the training dummy.

Machiko was angry. True, her chakra had pulsed and frothed, and she was slicing the dummy with a intense fever, but he still almost didn't understand. He had never once seen Machiko truly get angry. Of course, she could get upset, but even then it was almost joking.

Watching the girl, he decided to step in. He was her teacher, he didn't want her to be angry and have no good outlet for it.

"Burning the midnight oil, Machiko?" He questioned, pitching his voice loudly.

Machiko turned, and Jiraya swore internally as he saw red bleed into black. What exactly was she so upset about that she used the Sharingan to try to relieve it?

She straightened, and Jiraya saw the anger bleeding out, leaving her looking apparently relaxed.

"Sensei." She offered, and there was a light note of teasing.
Oh no, she wasn't getting away with this.

"Cut the bull, Machiko." He told her bluntly. She opened her mouth.

"If you don't tell me what's the matter I'll make Mikoto find out." He said bluntly, and to his surprise, a flicker of fury reignited in her eyes.

Shit, she was having family problems. What the hell was he supposed to do?

"Did you and Mikoto have a fight?" He asked Machiko.

She scoffed. "You could call it that."

"About what?"

Machiko didn't reply.

"Machiko, I'm your Sensei." Jiraya said gently. Well technically since she was a chunin, almost a jonin, he wasn't her teacher anymore, but still.

"Sensei, Mikoto is getting married!" The words burst out of Machiko, harsh and laced with more venom then Jiraya had every heard heard, but he reeled from this information.

"She's getting married?" He demanded incredulously, wondering why the hell he hadn't heard anything about this. Sakumo would have told him, if not Machiko.

"The elders arranged a marrige contract with the son of the clan head Fugaku and I didn't realize they had an arranged marrige, and those senile bats want her to have at least one son within the next year and we're sixteen!" Machiko's voice rose higher and higher, fury burning as she turned back to the training dummy and punched it. The wood splintered around her palm.

Jiraya paused.

That…made sense. Well, it made sense why Machiko was so pissed.

"I don't want to be rude, but why weren't you contracted?" He questioned. Machiko was the older twin he was pretty sure, and that meant she would probably be the one.

"I told the elders that they were senile old bats who…" She trailed off.

"Go on."
"I told them they were senile old bats who wanted a sixteen year old girl to marry and pop out babies." She finished, and Jiraya snorted.

Machiko sighed, pulling back a lock of hair.

"They got really mad, and said that as long as I lived in the Uchiha compound, I was under their command, so I told them to go take a long walk off a short harbor and I wouldn't live near them anymore."
"What?" Jiraya demanded. "Did you just disown yourself?"

"Well, not technically, just I'm moving out of the Compound." Machiko told him bluntly. "I was staying in a hotel tonight, but tomorrow I'm going to look around. I have a fair amount of money saved up, so nothing especially fancy, but I could still-"

"What about Mikoto?" Jiraya asked.

Machiko closed her eyes.

"She accepted it. I was really mad, and she was too..we had a big fight. Screaming, and stuff. I think it was the first real fight we had."

"I'm sorry, Machiko." Jiraya said gently
"It's fine, it's just-Mikoto believes a lot in the Uchiha clan and cares about it, I don't. "

Jiraya frowned. Did Machiko just say she didn't believe or care in her family?

"Don't get me wrong, I love my parents and there are good people. Actually, I like Fugaku, he's nice." Machiko added. "But, we're children soldiers already, do we never get a chance to be children? We fight and we kill and all we're supposed to do is fight and kill until we die."

Jiraya almost gaped at her. Where was this all coming from?

"Did you know I didn't want to be a ninja?" She asked abruptly, but almost conversationally, sheathing her kunai and looking up.

"You didn't?"
"No. I didn't want to fight, didn't want to kill, but it's not like I had a choice. I'm an Uchiha, daughter of two ninja, what was I supposed to do? My parents didn't force me, but the elders were insisting. " She said bitterly. "I had either the choice of being disowned-at five- or becoming a child solider, a killer. And now that I have a Sharingan, it's worse. They're rare enough that they won't let me retire, not until I die or get hurt so bad I can't do anything-" Her voice rose higher and higher.
"You're panicking." Jiraya cut in, the sharp sympathy he felt being drowned by her erratic pulses of chakra. "Breathe, Machiko."

Machiko closed her eyes and took deep, shuddering breaths, until the tension seeped out of her frame, and she opened her eyes.

"I need to go, Sensei, see you around."
"Wait, Machiko-"

She vanished in a swirl of leaves.

I taught her that. Jiraya internally griped.

So how you feeling friends? Next time is Kakashi, yay. Don't you all feel warm and fuzzy?