When Sasame walked into the academy the next day wearing the outfit her mom bought her, along with her new weapons strapped to her sides, eyes were trained on her person. Most of the guys were blushing at the obvious curves the outfit showed off while most of the girls glared at her in jealousy.

Uchiha Sasuke, Akimichi Chouji, and Nara Shikamaru were the only ones who seemed to be only interested in the new weapons she had.

"Sasame, why are you wearing that outfit?" Sakura questioned. "Are you trying to get Sasuke-kun's attention?" she continued with a sneer on her face.

Sasame rolled her eyes. 'Fangirls,' she thought in irritation. "No Sakura," she said calmly. "These were a present from my mom for graduating."

"We won't let you tempt Sasuke-kun with your wiles!" she continued as if Sasame hadn't said anything, getting a roar of approval from almost all of the girls in the class.

Sasame rolled her eyes again and didn't bother to comment. She went and sat next to Shikamaru and Chouji, two of her closest friends. A moment later, while everyone was still mingling, the window next to them opened and, to her surprise, Naruto jumped through it.

He wore a blue-clothed hitai-ate tied around his forehead.

"Naruto?" Sasame said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Yeah," Shikamaru said in his lazy drawl. "The only people who should be here are people who graduated. Last I checked, you failed the exam."

Naruto scowled. "Ya see this?" he asked while gesturing towards his forehead with his thumb. "It means I'm a shinobi Shikamaru. I took some other test that let me graduate, dattebayo!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he said.

Naruto smiled at Sasame. "Hiya Sasame!" he said cheerfully.

She smiled. "Hi Naruto," she said with a smile. "I guess you're a ninja now huh?"

He nodded energetically. "Yep! One step closer to becoming Hokage!" he cheered.

He was a little too loud. Now, most of the class was staring at him.

Ino scoffed. "Yeah right Naruto-no-Baka!" she exclaimed. "As if someone like you is going to become Hokage! If anyone's going to become the Hokage, it's going to be Sasuke-kun!"

"Yeah!" Sakura chimed in. "A loser like you can't beat someone like Sasuke-kun!"

"Tch," Naruto muttered. "What's so special about him anyway, dattebayo?"

He leaned over to look at Sasuke, who was sitting in the row in front of them, and stared him in the eye as if to see all of his secrets. Sasuke stared right back with a scowl on his face.

They didn't notice the guy about to bump into Naruto.

Sasame did though. "Naruto, watch out!" she called out, but it was too late. The guy bumped into him, causing Naruto to fall forward.

His lips to crash onto Sasuke's.

A cry of outrage sounded from all of Sasuke's fangirls while the others, including Sasame, either giggled or laughed at the scene.

They immediately leaped apart and started gagging, their hands wrapped around their throats; they even seemed to turn a little green.

Naruto, however, didn't notice the danger known as fangirl feminine fury creeping up behind him. By the time he did notice it was too late. They grabbed ahold of him and dragged him away to beat him senseless, his pain-filled cries echoing throughout the room.

Sasame watched all this with sympathy. "He will come back a changed boy," she said gravelly as she watched him get a beat down.

Shikamaru scoffed. "Of course he will," he said matter-of-factly. "All girls are troublesome, no matter the age, height, or size."

Sasame raised a brow at him. He coughed. "Most girls anyway," he corrected. She nodded as if to say 'that's right!'

Naruto had just gotten away from the girls and sat down next to Sasuke when Iruka-sensei walked into the room. Strangely, he had bandages on his cheek and looked slightly ruffled. 'I wonder what happened to him?' Sasame wondered to herself.

"Hello everyone," Iruka-sensei said as he glanced at all of them. "Congratulations, you are shinobi and kunoichi of Konoha!" he said with a smile. "From now on, you shall be responsible for your own actions and will protect the Leaf with your lives."

"Now," he said, "on to the teams."

He began to read off the clipboard in his hand. Everyone tried to stay focus to see when their name was called but it was tough to stay interested, even for Sasame.

"For Team 7," he said, "We have Uzumaki Naruto" - Naruto piped up at that - "Zanya Sasame" - Naruto grinned and Sasame gave a small smile - "and Uchiha Sasuke." - Naruto slammed his face into the desk he was sitting at - "Your sensei shall be Hatake Kakashi. Now, for Team -"

"Hold up, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted as he jumped up. "Why does an awesome shinobi like me have to be paired up with somebody like Sasuke?!"

Iruka sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sasuke had the best scores among the boys while you, Naruto, had the worst. You guys were placed together to even the other out."

There were some chuckles at that as Naruto sat down with a scowl and a glare aimed at Sasuke, which the boy ignored.

"Wait a minute Sensei!" Sakura said before Iruka could continue speaking as she too stood up. "How come I'm not on a team with Sasuke-kun?"

"Or me?" Ino added haughtily as she flipped her hair.

Iruka sighed again. 'Kami-sama, please give me strength,' he thought to himself before answering. "Sasame has the best scores out of all the girls in the class. Because of this, she was placed with Sasuke and Naruto."

"But I thought I had the best-written scores Sensei," Sakura persisted.

"That may be so Sakura, but you also had one of the worst physical scores," Iruka said bluntly, to Sakura's embarrassment. "Sasame had one of the best physical scores, a great written score, and also did well on the kunai and shuriken test. Since she accomplished all of that, she is named Kunoichi of the Year and is paired with Sasuke and Naruto."

Sakura shot Sasame a nasty look as people laughed at her, which she ignored.

Iruka kept listing of names, stating that Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Hyuuga Hinata became Team 8 under Yuuhei Kurenai and Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Yamanaka Ino became Team 10 under Sarutobi, to Ino's frustration.

"Ugh! So not only am I not on a team with Sasuke-kun, I get paired with the laziest guy in class and his sidekick?" Ino complained before slamming her head onto the desk.

"Good luck with her," Sasame murmured to Shikamaru and Chouji under her breath.

Choji smiled while Shikamaru groaned in frustration as he too slammed his head on the desk.

"Your senseis should arrive after lunch to pick you up," Iruka-sensei said as he finished up calling out names. "I suggest you use the lunch hour to get to know your new teammates."

Ino stood up and looked to Shikamaru and Chouji. "If I'm going to be stuck with you two then I'm whipping you into shape," she snapped. "Meet me on the roof." She then stomped away.

"Kami-sama help me," Shikamaru said pitifully.

Sasame patted his back in sympathy. "Good luck with that," she said. She then looked to Chouji. "Come find me sometime and we can go have some barbecue. My treat."

Choji beamed and handed her a chip. "Thanks, Sasame," he said.

She grinned and popped the chip into her mouth. "Well," she said around her mouthful as she stood up. "I guess I should go find my teammates."

"An idiot and emo," Shikamaru said with a grin. "It seems you need the luck more than I do."

Sasame shot him a glare and walked away. Seeing that neither Naruto or Sasuke were in the room, she left to go search for them.

She started checking the classrooms to see if they went into one of them. She was about to give up hope of ever finding them inside the school when she opened another door and found, to her astonishment, Sasuke tied up.

He didn't notice her open the door since he was too busy trying to untie himself.

Sasame entered the room. "Sasuke-san?"

He looked up at the sound of her voice. "Get me out of here," he demanded.

"O-Okay," she said as she bent next to him. "How'd this happen?"

He scoffed. "Naruto."

"Naruto?" Sasame said in shock as she got the ropes off. "How'd he get the drop on you of all people?"

He scowled as he got up, rubbing his wrists. "He ambushed me with Bunshins (Clones)," he said waspishly. "They turned out to be solid."

"Solid Bunshins (Clones)?" she asked.

"Hn," he answered as he left the room.

Sasame followed after him. "Where are you going?"

"To find the idiot," he said shortly. "What else."

"Well, I'll come with you," Sasame said as she walked next to him. "We are supposed to be having lunch together after all."

Sasuke didn't say anything.

"Wait," Sasame said haltingly after a moment of silence. "You said Naruto used solid Bunshins (Clones)?"

"Yes," he said irritably. "Why?"

"Well, solid Bunshins (Clones) require a lot more chakra than the ones taught at the academy," she said as she thought.

"Right," he replied, his tone of one of disbelief as he checked another room. "And how do you know this?"

"My mom told me about them when we started learning the Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu)," Sasame answered. "She had said the one we were learning is basically an illusion and that other clones can actually help you in a fight."

"Hn," Sasuke replied. "What other Bunshins (Clones) are there?"

"Um, there's the Tsuchi Bunshin (Earth Clone) made from the earth and mud," Sasame said ponderously as they walked along. "I think there might be a lightning clone but I can't be too sure. And then there's a Mizu Bunshin (Water Clone) made from water. My mom can do that one since she has a water affinity."

"Hn," Sasuke said again, slightly impressed by her knowledge. "The ones the idiot got me with appeared and disappeared in puffs of smoke."

"What!" Sasame shouted out in shocked and stopped walking.

Sasuke stopped too and looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"S-Sorry," Sasame said as she got over her shock. "I'm just...surprised that he's able to use that one."

"What's so special about the one he used?" Sasuke asked her, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"It's a technique created by the Nidaime Hokage," Sasame explained as Sasuke's eyes widened. "But it requires so much chakra that it's mostly Jounins who use it."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. 'So the idiot managed to learn a Jounin-level skill,' he thought angrily. 'I'll have to beat him then. If I can't even beat him, how am I supposed to beat that man?'

Sasame noticed Sasuke's change in personality and gazed at him in concern. "Hey Sasuke-san," she said softly. He looked at her, snapped out of his thoughts. "Are you okay?"

He looked at her. "I'm fine," he said shortly.

Sasame frowned, not believing his answer. She opened her mouth to contradict his statement but another voice called out before she could.

"Hey! Sasuke-kun!"

They both turned their heads towards the voice and saw Sakura hurrying towards them. "Sasuke-kun," she said breathlessly as she stopped in front of them. "I came to see if you wanted to have lunch together," she added as she held up a bento.

Sasame chose this moment to intervene. "We're supposed to have lunch with our teammates Sakura," she said carefully.

Sakura shot her a glare full of venom. She turned back to Sasuke with a sweet smile on her face. "I just feel bad for you Sasuke-kun," she said sorrowfully as she gazed at him with stars in her eyes. "You're not only stuck with Sasame" - she shot the girl another glare - "but also with Naruto-no-Baka. You know, he acts the way he does because he doesn't have any parents."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her but Sakura didn't notice as she continued speaking. "I mean, if I acted the way Naruto does, my parents would get mad and I'd be in so much trouble. Naruto's lucky that he doesn't have any parents that scold him every time he does something bad. I mean -"

Sasuke was getting angrier and angrier the longer she talked. He was about to cut in to get her to shut up but Sasame beat him to it.

"Excuse me?" she said quietly as she glared at Sakura. Both she and Sasuke looked over at her in shock. Well, Sakura did. Sasuke just stared at her with a slight widening of his eyes.

"What?" Sakura said haughtily but faltered slightly at Sasame's glare.

"Did you really just say you're jealous of Naruto because he doesn't have any parents?" she seethed.

Sakura, her bravado melting away in the face of Sasame's anger, merely nodded.

Sasame scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You stupid, naive, little girl," she snapped. Sakura flinched and unconsciously took a step back. "You don't know how good you have it. You have parents to go home to. They were there for you whenever you fell down or had a nightmare. They were there to wish you Happy Birthday and to tell you they loved you. Not everyone gets to have that!"

Sasame spun on her heel and marched down the hall, anger filling her entire being. When she rounded a corner, she paused and gave herself a moment to regulate her breathing. The conversation reminded her of her father, who she would've killed to get to know. Just thinking about what Sakura had said made Sasame want to go back and punch her dead in her face

She covered her eyes with her hand as she felt them begin to burn with unshed tears and continued to take deep breaths. She was so emersed with controlling her breathing that she didn't hear the footsteps coming towards her.

"Sasame-san."

She looked up and saw Sasuke looking at her, a glint of something she couldn't discern in his eyes. "Sasuke-san," she said, blinking her eyes rapidly to disperse the tears of an old sadness. She took another deep breath. "Sorry, I didn't mean to blow up like that."

He simply stared at her a moment. When Sasame was about to break the slightly awkward silence, he spoke up. "It was well warranted."

Sasame let out a laugh as she felt her breathing finally steady. "Yeah," she said. "She's so sheltered she doesn't know what it's like to live like a ninja."

"Hn." He glanced at her before saying carefully, "You told Haruno that she doesn't know how good she has it. What did you mean?"

Sasame frowned slightly at his question but answered nonetheless. "Even though I still have a mother, my father died when I was little and I barely have any memories of him," she admitted, averting her eyes. "I only know what he looks like because of pictures."

Sasuke looked at her for a moment before he walked down the hall. "C'mon," he called without looking back. "We have an idiot to find. We're supposed to eat together, right?"

Sasame jerked and lifted her head to eye his retreating back. 'Did he really just say that?' she thought in disbelief.

Sasuke looked over his shoulder. "So?" he said archly. "Are you coming or not?"

"I'm coming!" Sasame called out as she jogged to catch up with him.