Hinata Hyuuga's heart pounded in her chest as she pulled on her coat. Today was the day. Today Hinata would be assigned to her team and they would begin their lives as Konoha shinobi.

Who was going to be in her team? Who would be their sensei? Dozens of questions raced through her mind before they were all trumped by one single, powerful question.

'What if Naruto's in my team?'

Hinata's face turned cherry red, an unconscious reaction that persisted ever since she saw him the first day at the academy.

Would he finally notice her? Would she faint like she did that one time she thought he was giving her flowers? She turned even redder at the memory, though it was more from embarrassment than her usual shyness. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts, Hinata didn't even notice the creak of wheels rolling up to her room.

"Hey there Lady Hinata."

The sudden voice nearly caused the pale lavender-eyed girl to jump out of her skin. Spinning around, Hinata found herself looking at Konoha's "Blind Hyuuga" and the Hyuuga Clan's "Cripple," Hokori. She sat in her wheelchair, wearing a white kimono and a blindfold around her eyes. Her dark hair hung past her shoulders, framing her pale face. Hokori's face was tilted up towards Hinata's as she smiled.

The Hyuuga heiress marveled at how the blinded woman was able to smile everyday despite what happened to her. After she was crippled by Itachi Uchiha, the Hyuuga Clan elders were split on what they should do. Because of her disability, many of them were afraid it'd be child's play for an enemy of Konoha or the clan to steal her Byakugan. To that end she was forbidden to leave the Hyuuga compound.

Most thought the best solution would be to place the curse seal on her so her Byakugan would seal itself if stolen, while some of the elders felt it would be better to simply euthanize and be done with it.

Hokori, however, took matters into her own hands and used a kunai to cut out her eyes to destroy them. It wasn't long until word spread to the other villages about Konoha's "Blind Hyuuga."

Now she was forbidden to leave to hide the Hyuuga's shame. Despite it all, Hokori managed to maintain a cheerful attitude; at least around Hinata.

"So Lady Hinata," Hokori started, "are you excited about meeting your team?"

"Actually I'm a bit nervous." Hinata answered, sitting on her bed.

Hokori nodded, "Understandable. I was nervous too when I became a genin. But then I was teamed with Ayame and Arashi and we became very good friends."

The mention of Naruto's brother brought all of her earlier thoughts rushing back, and she barely stopped herself from blurting out, "But what if I'm teamed up with Naruto and he doesn't like me?"

Instead what came out was, "But what if I just drag my team down?"

Hinata could've swore she heard Hokori mutter, 'Damn you Hiashi,' before saying out loud. "That's what you're worried about? Hinata, trust me: you'll grow into a wonderful kunoichi. Even I can see that."

Hinata started to protest as Hokori fumbled in the bag she carried on her chair.

"But I'm…"

"What you are is a kind, caring young lady, who's going to make whoever she's teamed with very lucky." Hokori interrupted as she produced her old headband, tying it around Hinata's neck. "Now hurry up or you're going to be late."


Naruto woke with a smile on his face.

After getting dressed and eating his breakfast he leapt from the window with excitement only a child could exude. His smile stayed with him as he walked to the academy, occasionally touching the Konoha headband tied to his forehead, as if to make sure it was still there. It was his first day as a genin and there was absolutely nothing that could ruin his day.

The optimistic attitude stuck with him when Naruto sat down in the classroom where he suffered endless hours upon hours of boring lectures. A room he would never have to sit in again.

Two seats down from him sat Sasuke. Behind him were Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara. At the entrance Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka were arguing over who got there first, and by extension who would get to sit next to Sasuke. Kiba Inuzuka and his dog Aka… something or other were at the front. Hinata Hyuuga was positioned on the other side of the room next to some guy in a big coat and black sunglasses Naruto didn't quite recognize. Looking at them and all of the other new genin in the room, the blond wondered which of them would be on his team.

"Hey Sasuke," he called, looking at his friend two seats over. "who do you think is going to be on your team?"

Sasuke turned to answer when IT happened. Later on in their lives if one were to ask either of the boys what the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to them was, both would only respond with IT. IT wasn't really anybody's fault. Just a domino effect leading to IT. In their argument Ino accidently shoved Sakura into another student. Said student fell off her chair and bumped against her twin, who dropped his pencil.

The pencil rolled down the aisle until yet another student stepped on it and slipped. The falling student inadvertently crashed into Naruto, knocking him forward. Naruto, toppling over, found himself tumbling on top of Sasuke, and for the briefest moment, barely long enough to count, their lips touched. For what it's worth it should be noted that if Sasuke activated his Sharingan, he would've been able to avoid IT, but hey, if normal hindsight is 20/20, then hindsight with Sharingan is 20/15.

Almost instantly the class went silent, with the exception of the two boys gagging in disgust. In mid-gag however, Naruto caught an overwhelming scent of bloodlust. And so the young blond turned to discover about every girl in the room, with the notable exception of Hinata who looked too shocked for words, stood glaring at him murderously.

"You're dead, Naruto." Sakura muttered gravely, cracking her knuckles.


About fifteen minutes and dozens of bruised knuckles later, Iruka walked in to find Naruto's beaten form lying on the floor with just about every girl in the room surrounding him. At the sight of their old instructor the girls all stopped their brutalization of the blond and returned to their seats, with Naruto barely dragging his sorry carcass back to his own.

Deciding not to question whatever the hell happened, Iruka sat behind his desk and spoke to his class.

"Let me just start by saying how proud I am for all of you graduating and becoming genin today. Today you will be placed into teams of three and will be assigned a Jonin instructor who will see to your training from here on out. Before I do, I would just like to say this: Don't think of your teammates as only teammates. They are your family now and they will be there to look out for you. Treat them well and they will do the same for you. Now then, let's get this underway. Team 1 will consist of…"

Iruka listed off the names of the teams. With each new team, Sasuke saw his list of potential team members dwindle. He knew he was this year's #1 rookie, which meant he would most likely be paired off with this year's dead last student, Naruto Uzumaki. How that guy managed to keep pace with Sasuke when they trained together, but completely fall behind the minute they were in the classroom, he'd never know.

With one slot firmly taken by Naruto, Sasuke wondered who would fill the third slot in his team. It was pretty much an unwritten rule that each team have at least one of both genders, so that meant their third member would be a girl. But which one? He hoped it wasn't one of his stalkers; they'd only get in the way of his training. To that end, Sasuke actually found himself wanting Hinata Hyuuga for their third team member, if for no other reason than she never once acted like she was remotely interested in him. That was when Iruka reached Team 7.

"Team 7 will consist of Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki, and will be led by their jounin instructor, Kakashi Hatake."

'Sakura?' Sasuke thought as the pink haired girl turned around and stuck her tongue out at Ino.

In truth Sasuke didn't know how to take it. Even after four years Sasuke was still a little upset at Sakura's careless words about Naruto. If Itachi taught him anything it was how to hold a grudge. However, after he told her off she'd been trying to treat Naruto better, recent ass whooping notwithstanding. Maybe she wouldn't get in the way.


Once Iruka finished listing off the teams, he dismissed them for an hour lunch break so they could get to know their teams better. To that end, Naruto did the only sensible thing one could do in this situation: he offered to take them to Ichiraku Ramen. If they couldn't bond over a bowl of Teuchi's ramen then they were quite frankly doomed. Hell, Naruto even offered to cover the tab just to break the ice.

To the blonde's endless surprise Sasuke blew him off saying, "I prefer to eat alone."

Sakura simply stated she was on a diet and planned on skipping lunch today. When Naruto told her skipping meals was unhealthy and she wasn't large enough to justify a diet, she responded by punching him straight in the nose while calling him an insensitive moron. And with that, Sakura stormed out of the room, leaving a dazed Naruto and a confused Sasuke.

"Why don't you ever get beaten up like I do?" Naruto asked from his position on the floor.

Sasuke shrugged before saying, "A switch in my brain that tells me when to keep my mouth shut."

"Wish you would've used that earlier, then." Naruto groaned as he sat upright.

A vein in Sasuke's neck pulsed as he kicked the blonde square in the face, right where Sakura punched him.

"That's exactly what I was talking about you idiot." Sasuke muttered as he too stormed out of the room.

Naruto lied on his back as some of the other genin started laughing at his misfortune.

"This is the beginning of beautiful tragedy."

The blond heard one of them whisper to their teammates. He couldn't help but agree as he plotted his revenge.


'Listening to Ino complain endlessly about how unfair life is, is seriously becoming such a drag.' Shikamaru thought as he watched the clouds float by.

Next to him, Choji was practically attacking a bag of potato chips like a ravenous beast. Ino on the other hand was pacing back and forth in front of them complaining about how Sakura-or as Ino had been calling her for the past fifteen minutes, "Billboard Brow"- got to be in a team with Sasuke while she was stuck him and Choji in Team 8.

Shikamaru honestly didn't know why she was surprised. Their fathers were all teamed together, as were their grandparents, and so on and so forth. Quite frankly it was ignorant of her to think they wouldn't be teamed together when their clans had basically been teamed up since the founding of Konoha.

The lazy Nara let out a sigh when a blur of orange caught his eye. Sitting up, he caught a glimpse of Naruto sneaking up to the window where Sasuke was eating his lunch.

"What's he up to?" Shikamaru whispered, apparently loud enough for Ino and Choji to hear because they turned to watch as well.

At that moment Naruto leapt through the window and crashed into Sasuke. The two quickly rolled out of sight and Ino practically shattered Shikamaru's eardrum with her screech of rage. There was about ten seconds of sounds of struggle before Sasuke emerged from the window and left.

"Looks like Sasuke won." Choji commented before returning to his chips.

"Of course he did," Ino boasted proudly, "there's no way that idiot Naruto could stand a chance against my Sasuke."

"Then why did he leave through the window?" Shikamaru asked.

His two teammates looked at him inquisitively.

"If Sasuke won, why didn't he leave through the door? Or why would he leave at all instead of just tossing Naruto out?"

"Are you suggesting Naruto managed to beat Sasuke?" Ino laughed.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes at her biased opinion of Naruto and Sasuke's abilities. He considered arguing the point with her…but that would be too much of a drag. Had any of them investigated the room, they would've found Sasuke bound and gagged on the floor, working to get free of his bindings.


Sakura sat on a bench doing her best to ignore her growling stomach.

'Stupid Naruto and his stupid mouth.'

Why couldn't the moron just keep his damned opinions to himself? Though looking back, he had a rough day. First with the…incident and the subsequent beating, then her rather impressive right hook into his nose.

'I should probably apologize for making him my punching bag for the day.'

She was about to stand up and go find him when she saw Sasuke staring at her from under a tree. She couldn't help but blush as several…hazy thoughts made their way through her mind. Each one getting an approving 'Hell Yeah!' by Inner Sakura.

"Hey Sakura," Sasuke said, making his way over. "mind if I sit with you?"

"Of course not, Sasuke." Sakura smiled, while Inner Sakura cheered victoriously, 'Oh Yeah! Score 1 For The Big Noble Brow! 0 For The Tiny Ass Waist'

When Sasuke took his seat, Sakura restrained herself from trying to kiss him right there.

"So, looks like we're on the same team." She started weakly.

'The Hell Was That? He Already Knows We're On The Same Team Dumbass!'

"Looks like it." Sasuke replied. "You, me, and Naruto."

There was a bit of an awkward pause.

"So what do you think of him?"

Sakura paused. "Of Naruto?"

Was he testing her? She remembered that day four years ago. Considering the question for a few moments, she made sure she answered with her thoughts, not something regurgitated from her parents.

"He's a loud, obnoxious moron who spends way too much time coming up with ways to torture people than is healthy,"

Sakura didn't notice the slightly dejected look Sasuke got with each addition to her opinion of Naruto.

"But he's also pretty nice when he's quiet, and between you and me, I think he has a crush on me." Sasuke perked up at that. "What makes you say that?"

"Earlier when he told me that skipping meals wasn't healthy, there was a bit of a twinkle in his eyes. It's too bad I'm not really that interested in him. He's got beautiful eyes."

"I wouldn't know anything about that." Sasuke chuckled nervously. "Who are you interested in, then?" Sakura looked at him shyly as she leaned in closer.

"The boy I'm interested in is…" the pinkette closed her eyes, puckering her lips slightly, "…you."

It was at that moment that Sasuke's stomach roared in protest of something and his face dropped. Beads of sweat trickled down his face as his eyes went white.

"Crap." He moaned, while thinking, 'Literally. Crap.'

Holding his stomach, Sasuke shot up from the bench and sprinted to the nearest restroom.

"Aw, he's shy." Sakura whispered.


Making it to the restroom with a photo finish, Naruto dropped the Sasuke disguise, along with his pants, and sat on the toilet.

"Man that was too close."

Both in terms of making it to the toilet and in the case of his "little prank" on his teammates. If he went through with it and they found out...well, they might have to argue over who gets to do the deed, but Naruto would be as good as dead.

"Now how do I fix this?"


Sasuke, surprising even himself, wasn't really upset after he escaped Naruto's ropes. After the kick he gave the blond earlier, he was willing to call it even. However, their lunch hour was nearly up, so he went to find his two teammates before returning to the classroom.

As he walked down the hallway, he passed Team 10 consisting of Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and…and…Shino…the bug guy.

"Hey mister Uchiha," Kiba said as he passed, "how's it feel to be teamed up with a complete loser?" Hinata looked like she was about to object, but stopped herself. Kiba didn't notice.

"Beats me. Why don't you ask your teammates?"

Hinata looked mortified that Sasuke had dragged her into this, while Shino remained silent. Kiba on the other hand turned beat red.

"What was that Uchiha?" he barked, his little puppy joining him.

Sasuke was perfectly willing and able to trade banter with Kiba all day, hanging around Naruto prepared him well for that, but as it was he really had to find his teammates.

Turning to Hinata and Shino he asked, "Have you seen my teammates?"

"Uhm. Sakura's outside on a bench," Hinata said pressing her index fingers together, "but we haven't seen Naruto."

"Thank you."

Completely ignoring Kiba's protests, Sasuke proceeded to collect his pink haired teammate.

Sure enough, Sakura was right where Hinata said she'd be. When the pink-haired girl saw him approach, she shot to her feet, waving him over.

"Hey Sasuke! Finally work up your courage?"

The Uchiha had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, or why she was leaning forward with her lips puckered out.

"Where's Naruto?"

Confusion bloomed across Sakura's face. "Huh? I don't know. Probably pranking somebody. Why? Did he do something to you? That moron, just wait till I get my hands on him."

"No he didn't do anything; it's almost time to get back to class." Sasuke replied, wasting little time. "You should get back. I'll find Naruto."

Having concluded his conversation with her, Sasuke departed to hunt down the troublesome blond.

He could've sworn he heard Sakura whisper, "But what about our kiss?"


Naruto heaved a sigh of relief as he flushed the toilet. After washing his hands, he opened the door only to crash his head against Sasuke's, their lips centimeters apart before they fell away from one another. 'Whew, that was close.' Was the shared thought between them.

Naruto looked at Sasuke incredulously and pointed a finger. "How'd you escape?!"

Sasuke, for his part, gave Naruto one of his most condescending looks. "Every ninja should be an escape artist."

Naruto readied himself for Sasuke's retribution. Only it never came.

"Come on we gotta get back."

"Aren't you mad?" Naruto asked, regarding him with suspicion.

"I'll consider us even for that kick I gave earlier. Now come on."

Naruto shrugged and started to follow Sasuke…until his stomach roared in protest.

"Oh no not again," he groaned before running back to the stall. "Why is this happening to me?!"

Sasuke just stared at the now occupied stall and shrugged. "He'll be out eventually."


Meanwhile back at Naruto's apartment, Hiruzen Sarutobi and a silver-haired jonin with his headband covering his left eye examined Naruto's living quarters. They eyed the several traps Naruto placed with veiled interest.

"Well he doesn't lack for creativity," The jonin commented, picking up a milk carton. "but his milk is expired. If he had this he would be running to the bathroom all day."

What kind of person sets up this many traps, but doesn't check his dairy products?


Omake

"And this is where Naruto lives." Hiruzen said guiding Kakashi to a plain and unassuming door. Kakashi had already visited the homes of Sakura and Sasuke. They tried the door knob and to their surprise it was unlocked. They slowly opened the door and heard the sound of ropes being pulled through pulleys. When the door was completely open they heard something snap and before either of them could react a water balloon shot through the air and slammed into Kakashi's face. Hiruzen stopped himself from chuckling at the jonin's misfortune until a foul smell reached his nostrils.

"This isn't water." Kakashi muttered, white eyed. Hiruzen burst out laughing.


And so Team 7 is formed. But what will experience with their new sensei be? Next time Kakashi Hatake: A Tale of Two Bells.