A/N: This chapter is to celebrate the end of those grueling midterms! And for those who have them next week, you have my sincerest good wishes! Anyway, I was kind of nervous about this chapter because so much goes on... be prepared! On the bright side, I can finally reallyget this story going now. So yay! Enjoy =]

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. Yosh.

Chapter 7 - Mission No. 1: Surviving Team Seven!

Knock! Knock! Knock!

I twisted over irritably and kicked my legs, feebly succeeding in burying my face in the crook of the couch. I silently took a precious moment to curse my sore body and the terrible annoying onomatopoeia's of life. There was a long silence and I almost fell asleep again, but soon enough, another noise made it's way from the balcony, the slightest bit more persistent.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

"Go away..." I grumbled, tangling my limbs into the sheets. I swear to God that bird is going to suffer...

Tap! Tap! Tap!

I lifted my head off the armrest, cringing from the soreness in my neck. My eyes were glued shut as I addressed the window.

"I'm sorry Tweetie, maybe you didn't hear me. I believe I told you to GET THE FUCK OFF MY HOUSE." My head dropped gracelessly with a thud.

...

"...So my name is Tweetie, now? I imagined you could be more creative-"

"Holy-!" I jumped about five feet into the air, tumbling in a heap and crashing to the floor in front of two sandalled feet.

"Dude!" I kicked the sheets off, quickly jumping back to glare up at him. "How do you keep getting in here?! I locked that window!"

"I am an ANBU operative," his voice sounded low and bored, his Teddy Bear mask tilting forward quizzically. "A locked window will not keep me at bay."

I pouted and aimed for a particularly nasty kick to his head. I sucked, so he caught it easily and let it drop to the floor, really seeming uncharacteristically at ease.

"Tch." I tore my leg away, flinching again at the ugly ache. "I see someone's in a good mood today..."

I imagined his lips twitching up sarcastically behind that stupid shield, "And I see someone's not."

"Ugh." I immediately gave up on the angry bitch tirade and plopped down on my back, letting my eyes droop shut. "You got that right. Youweren't chased around by Dumbledore's malformed-bowl-cut-offspring." I rolled my head to face him, "Why are you here again?"

To my utmost shock, Teddy slouched down and leaned on the back of the couch, nudging me in the side with his foot casually. "The Hokage wants you to come meet your new team. Hurry up and get dressed so I can go; it's my day off."

I blinked up at him blearily as he continued to nudge me half-heartedly, tilting his head back like he didn't have a care in the world. Was this the same guy as yesterday or was I on a bad acid trip?

"Are you feeling okay?" I asked, curling away from the offending shoe. "You're acting like, dare I say it, a normal human being."

He laughed, causing me to dazedly register more shock, "I don't have the Council breathing down my neck today. Don't have a mission either. These days are rare so I want to go home. Which means," he nudged at me harder when he saw I was drifting off, "-that you need to get dressed so I can leave."

I grumbled childishly and kicked at his foot, writhing a little before finally crawling to my knees.

"You know, I'm not entirely sure what it's like in Teddy world, but from what I gather, you're a weird guy," I rubbed my eyes and stifled a yawn, trying to keep myself from falling over. "I don't think I've ever met a guy with mood swings like this... maybe you're bipolar..." He ignored me as he grabbed my hand, pulling me up easily and causing me to wince as my legs absorbed the ground's impact. He then threw an outfit at me that I was sure hadn't been anywhere in the room before. I was barely conscious as he steered me by the shoulders to the bathroom. "You should see a doctor. They do have pills for that... you know..."

"Mhmm," he nodded along with my half-awake conversation like you would an incoherent two year old. "I'm sure. Bathroom. Clothes. Now."

The door shut behind me with a thud, leaving me wobbling uncertainly to myself. 'Strange guy...'

"Hey Teddy," I called lazily, pulling one leg through a pair of pants and hopping a little to dodge the toilet, "What's an ANBU, anyway? Is that why you wear a Jason mask?"

"It's not a -" he paused and sighed, seemingly giving up on my tendency to give everything a nickname, "ANBU is a special league of Jounin ninja. We take the highest ranked missions, I suppose. Secret work." I could hear him tap his foot to some inaudible tune. It was so weird having him act so... normal. "The mask is standard uniform."

I blinked, tugging a comb through my bedhead thoughtfully. "How old did you say you were?"

"That is confidential information," he yawned. I rolled my eyes and pulled on a white tank-top.

"You're the one who keeps sneaking into my apartment." I picked up a toothbrush and started brushing, forming my words around the stick thickly, "I think your age is the least you could tell me. How do I know your not a sick pedophile after my virtue?" Spit. Brush some more. "I don't see what harm it could do. You can't possibly be that old."

I heard footsteps as he approached the door, feet shifting strangely. "No can do."

"Teddyyyyy!" I whined, "Honestly, how much danger could you possibly be in if you told me your age? If you're such a fantastically amazing ninja and stuff then why should it matter?" I leaned in closer to the mirror, pausing in my hygiene rade. It took me a minute to realize that even though I was sore all over, my skin was completely free of scratches and bruises. Huh, weird.

There was a long pause in which I took the advantage to swish some rinse in my mouth. I figured Teddy must be really smart or something to have to go on missions that were so dangerous you couldn't show your face, even in your own village. I could picture him stealthily creeping through air vents to the MIP theme song, his Teddy mask shrouded in theatrical shadows as the evil villains below planned their detailed heist of the Pink Panther diamond! (cough) Or something. Besides, he couldn't really be that old - at least he certainly didn't sound it. In fact, when he wasn't being so stiff and 'I am to formally escort you, blah blah blah,' he actually sounded sort of-

"immistien..."

Spit. "Sorry!" I refilled the little cup to rinse again because I'm anal like that and my breath did NOT smell."Didn't catch that!"

He sighed reluctantly, "I said..." Pause. "I'm sixteen."

...

Silence. Then -

"PFFWWT!" Water spewed from my mouth and I was out the door, tackling him to the ground with wide eyes.

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

"Show me your face!" I straddled him, wrestling to grab a hold of the mask.

"No!" he grabbed my arms with a vice grip and tried to flip me off (haha... play on words) but I wouldn't give. I tried to hold him down but it was really no match. "I just told you! I need the mask!"

"YOU'RE A TEENAGE BOY!" I shouted, my eyes growing even larger at the revelation. I automatically leaped off him and flew to the other side of the room, pointing at him in a panic. "You're a hormone crazed, bipolar teenager! YOU WATCHED ME SLEEP YOU FREAK!"

He sighed to himself while I continued my angry rant in the background. "I knew this was a bad idea..."

"- and in my roomtoo! It's like Jiraiya all over again! I cannot believe-"

"Kaya- san." I froze, letting my hands fall and peeping up at him suspiciously. "Please calm down. We really need to go and I want to report home." He reached his hand toward me impatiently, once again stiff as a board. "Do not make me use force."

I eyed him. There really wasn't a whole lot I could do about this, I supposed. I could asked to be moved into a new apartment... but I didn't want to bother anyone and piss them off. I was already kind of starting to like this one. Besides, he wasn't such a bad guy as far as I could tell, and he certainly didn't actsixteen. Hell, he talked like an old man! Most sixteen-year-olds I saw back home were cocky and stupid-

"I didn't realize you had blond hair," I made to poke at his head.

"I'm growing it out," he grabbed my hand an inch from his face, and before I could say 'Damn it Teddy, I wasn't ready!' we were gone in a puff of smoke.

'Poof'

I fell to my knees in what I assumed to be grass, digging my nails into the dirt in despair. The world spun around me and I groaned, muttering grimly about dumb blonds and surprise attacks. Teddy chuckled from somewhere above me

"She's all yours." 'Poof'

My fingers dug deeper. Damn you... Teddy...

"Hey! Who's that?!"

I cringed. Holy hellthat was some microphone. Did no one in this world understand the concept of the "inside voice"? Even if we were outside (which from what I could tell, we were) Loud One over there could really tune down the decibels.

"Surprise everyone," said a lazy voice. "We have a new squad member."

There was a really long (shocked, I supposed) silence where I took the cue to look up. At first the evil demon I call the Sun rendered me blind, but through the blotches I could just make out four humanly figures. Two were bright, two were dark, and there was a whole hell of a lot of orange -

"YOU!" we shouted in unison, me flying backward and him flying forward.

I covered my mouth in awe, "You- you're alive! I thought for sure you had come to a tragic and untimely demise!"

"I don't know what you just said but I was almost killed!" Large streams of dramatic tears flowed down his (whiskered?) face and he jabbed and accusing finger at me, "Konohamaru stepped on my head!"

I crawled onto my knees and bowed formally - my good impressions really seemed to fly out the window here, huh? "I'm really, really sorry Weird Orange Kid! Small children don't like me so I figured your abnormally abstract palette of color might save me!"

He grabbed two fistfuls of blond hair and shook his head, scrunching up his boyish face, "Kakashi- senseiiii! I don't know what she's saying!"

There was a large thud and a crash in which an angry girl's voice accompanied an unhealthy amount of sleep. "That's because you're an idiot!"

I winced and kept my head down as some whining and bickering ensued. Why was this all so painfully familiar?I don't know what God was in charge of this place, but something told me he was having a whole plethora of fun up there. Or maybe he was lazy so he let everyone go completely insane. You know, same thing.

"Guys," the lazy one called again, causing me to look up from my musings, "Focus. Teammate. Introductions. Now."

Blondie recovered from the Pink One's blow with a frightening speed that made me jump and struck a pose.

"I'M UZUMAKI NARUTO AND I'M GOING TO BE THE NEXT HOKAGE! BELIEVE IT!"

"You- you're-" my eyes widened in sheer horror, "You'reNaruto?"

He grinned so wide it should have stretched off the sides of his face. "It's no surprise you've heard of me," he dusted some imaginary dirt off his collar, "I am famous for my great ninja skills and - OW! Sakura... chaaaan...."

The girl, whom I realized had long, pinkhair, stepped forward leaving Naruto crumpled on the floor in her wake.

"I'm Sakura!" she leaned down and reached out a hand to me. I resisted the urge to tug on her hair. "What's your name?"

"Uh - hey," I took her hand and shook it, keeping my seat on the ground for fear I might be shorter than these guys too. If I was, it would certainly take a huge blow to my ego. Again. "I'm Kaya. It's nice to meet you, I guess."

She smiled kindly and turned around, pointing to the tall guy, "That's our sensei, Hatake Kakashi. We just met him a couple of days ago, so don't worry, you're not behind or anything. He's also reallyscary when he wants to be," she whispered that last part, making me take a furtive glance toward him. He had relatively young features (from what I could see of it, at least) and his hair was silver. Not grey, silver. He certainly didn't look scary... except for the whole one-eye-showing thing, which admittedly freaked me out a little. I looked back and forth between them as he smiled and waved at us, causing the Sakura girl to chuckle nervously. The oddness of it all nearly made me forget than my one and only hope of going home was an orange jumpsuit-wearing, moronic -

Oh, yeah.

My shoulder slumped and I buried my face in my hands. This was oh, so very bad.

"And that over there -" she pointed off to the side somewhere and giggled giddily, causing me to look up in surprise. That giggle was really familiar, "- is theSasuke Uchiha! But he's mine so you can't have him!"

I rolled my eyes and looked over to where she'd pointed, taking in the boy's appearance. He was undoubtedly good looking of course, but the kid looked like he hadn't cracked a smile in years. His hands were stuffed in his pockets as he glared down at me. Jeez, I thought,this was the kid my sister was crazy for? I internally sighed. When I got home me and her were going to have a serious -

I looked over at Naruto again, who was just blinking open his unnaturally cerulean eyes and rubbing the ugly bump on his head. That's right, I thought miserably.

"Fantastic," I muttered to myself, preparing to stand off and introduce myself to the others when I had a small, terrible revelation. Why was this team so familiar...?

I lifted my arm stiffly and pointed at Naruto, causing everyone to give me quizzical looks.

"Freakishly loud, obsessive student in a vibrant jumpsuit."

Sasuke. "Scary emo kid that resonates angst and glares at everything that does or does not move."

Sakura. "Sweet girl who's secretly homicidal."

Everyone looked confused (and most a little pissed) as I nodded to myself in affirmation.

Team Seven equals Team Gai.

Only shorter and less mature.

Joy to Kaya.

"Hey! What are you doing!" Naruto shouted to the world as I crouched down by a tree and clawed at the soil.

"Digging my grave," I answered casually, "Why do you ask?"

The Kakashi guy laughed in the background while the other two gave me strange looks. Naruto, however, just looked confused again.

"Haha! Why would you do that? That's stupid- "

"Alright, alright I think that's enough." Sensei closed the little book he'd been reading that spontaneously appeared out of nowhere (a lot of things seemed to be doing that lately) and strolled over to us, turning all attention to him.

"Your name is Kaya, correct?" I nodded and stood as he addressed me, earning a generally uncomfortable sizing-up when they all saw how short I was. Damn it all...

After a moment, he closed his eye a nodded. "Okay, then. I suppose you haven't missed much. Just a survival exercise and a little ritual bonding." There was a collective cringe in the group. A question mark popped up over my head, but he continued cheerfully, "We'll resume our training sessions tomorrow. As for now, I have a little announcement."

There was little spark of something in his eye that caught me off guard right before he turned around and addressed us all as a group, sending me into a faint state of shock. It was so strange because just a moment ago, he was lazy and relaxed - laughing at me even - but just for a moment, there was something cold there; something that made me feel increasingly like he had just slapped me in the face.

Kakashi -sensei didn't like me. He didn't trust me.

"We have our first mission today," he announced with an eye-crinkle, acting like nothing was cruel in the world, "And it's an exciting one too!"

"Oooh! What is it, Kakashi -sensei?! Are we saving a village from a group of terrorists? Are we fighting a band of thieves? Are we escorting a princess to the land of-"

"No." He threw us each a rusty gardening shovel. I caught mine with fumbling hands and glanced up warily. He miled under his mask.

"We're weeding a leek garden."

My new team scowled simultaneously and Naruto began to throw a fit, but I only looked on and stroked the rough metal, frowning to myself. No one had ever genuinely disliked me like that before. Sure they'd made fun of my me when I was little for being slow in school - it's why I worked so hard to be intelligent - but even then they were at least laughing. Even Neji didn't feel so coldly toward me as far as I could tell; he was just bothered by my chakra. (And my breath, which did NOT smell, by the way). This guy... he really thought I was a threat. I couldn't blame him though - a strange girl with strange chakra from some obscure, nonexistent village should make him suspicious if he were a good ninja - but (even if I felt completely immature to say so) it still made me feel incredibly lonely. All my life I'd worked so hard to be able to keep up with everyone and meet standards that I'd reached the point when I'd even surpassed them all. In a way, it was no better then how I'd started.

My grip on the shovel tightened. I would earn the respect of my sensei. I would show him I could protect his village just as well as anyone else could. I held my head up high. I would prove myself - to Kakashi-sensei, to the Hokage, to Jiraiya, and even to that stupid Neji - I would prove myself to them all.

"Hey! New Girl!" My head whirled around to where Team Seven were walking down the path ahead of me. Naruto waved an arm with unnecessary enthusiasm, "You coming or what?!"

I smiled and jogged to catch up with them, falling in step with the strangely familiar Sakura as she launched into a barricade of questions. Dear God I was really starting to loathe meeting new people -

Wait a second. That little book...

I stopped walking and blanched, staring wide-eyed at sensei's back.

You have got to be kidding me.

I scraped the dirt out from under my fingernails absently, trying to hide my grimace. Leeks smelled terrible.

"So Kaya, why did you leave your village? Didn't you say you had a sister?" Sakura dug her shovel in deeper, trying to balance in a squat so no dirt would get on her dress thing. She seemed relatively nice, but I'd realized after a while that she was incredibly vain. She refused to tie back her hair even in the unmerciful sunlight and constantly checked her reflection in the window. Every so often she would put my interrogation on pause to send "inconspicuous" glances towards Tall, Dark and Angsty, fanning herself and flipping her hair flirtatiously. The poor girl was persistent, even when it was almost painfully obvious the boy wasn't interested. In fact, he was currently involved in a mad-weeding-dash contest with the Naruto kid. Apparently they weren't so friendly with each other either.

I, on the other hand, was just trying to get as much work done as possible. I hadn't really spent any time with the two boys, who were content to be at each others throats all day, but Sakura was keeping me more than occupied. Kakashi-sensei sat under a tree by the porch of the Old Lady whose garden we were weeding's house. I had to resist the urge to beg him to read that stupid book to me (or at least tell me what it was about) under the argument that the author was my sort-of-ex-guardian and focus on shovelling and scooping. As far as I could tell, his eyes weren't moving along the page anyway. There was an odd tenseness in him that lead me to assume he was listening very carefully to every word I said. I sighed quietly. This would take some work.

"Yes, a little sister." I replied, pulling out another weed and glaring at it distastefully, "I wasn't really too successful in my old village, and after my dad's business went under there really wasn't really any point in staying," I paused, choosing my words carefully, "My sister is too young to work and my grandmother is too old, so I figured if I became a ninja, it would take care of our finances." Great. Now I sounded like an illegal immigrant.

"Oooh..." she said, tapping her lip thoughtfully, "But why come all the way to Konoha if your village is so far away?"

I cringed. Why are you so God damn curious?

"The weather's nicer," I muttered, wiping the sweat from my face. Sweet Jesus how many questions could one person shoot? I rubbed my eyes. There was something weird about this girl - like I'd known her somewhere - but all this work was wearing on me and it was really hard to focus. I could just feel my attention starting to loosen...

Sakura flipped her long pink hair for the tenth time, completely prepared to keep talking.

"The weather? But how will you get money to them? Where are you living? Does that mean the weather in your village is bad? Are you from Rain Country? Is there-"

"I think Sasuke is looking at you."

"What? Where?!" her head whipped around, searching for the object of her unhealthy obsession. She immediately deflated when she saw he was still weeding plants like there was no tomorrow.

"Oh. Well, I'm sure he's just - uh - shy?" I sympathized, happy the topic of conversation was away from me. Out of the corner of my eye, Kakashi's pupil began scrolling the book again. Phew.

"Yeah!" she immediately perked up, brandishing her fist at me. "He's just shy! I can totally see beyond his cold demeanor! He's really a small child, begging for warmth and love!"

Typically something like that would have had me smothering myself to keep from cracking up (especially the appalled look said small child sent us between declarations) but something about this girl made my heart hurt. I just couldn't put my finger on it.

"I mean, don't you think he's amazing?!"

I looked over at Sasuke apathetically. As I said earlier, he was undeniably good looking, but the whole dark-haired, emo, freezing cold personality type really wasn't my type. I'd never really taken an interest in guys before (excluding my little momentary crush on Kotetsu, that is), but I'd decided a while ago that if I ever did, he'd have to be able to make me laugh. Sasuke glared heatedly toward Naruto, who promptly fell over with the weight of his weed basket. I decided to avoid the question.

"Well," I said thoughtfully, resuming my crouch and weeding away, "Guys aren't really my thing."

A small distance away, Naruto picked himself up and began laughing obnoxiously about something that made Sakura's face turn red and caused her to charge and send him flying into oblivion before she could reply. Maybe I pitied her for her cruel fascination with the mysterious boy; although she was taller than me, she was still younger, and it made me sad that she was stuck in such a pointless infatuation, even if it was completely shallow. I wasn't entirely sure why I cared, considering she had to be probably one of the most annoying little girls on the face of the planet-

It hit me, just then as she recovered from her rebound and brushed herself off, smiling flirtatiously in Sasuke's direction. Maybe it was the way the sun hit the edges of her hair, making it look a light blond, or maybe it was the way she giggled when she was nervous, but for just one fleeting moment,

Sakura reminded me of my sister.

Flashback

My hands moved frantically across the keyboard, typing up my research paper with lightning speed. If I could finish it tonight, I'd promised myself, then I would allow myself to poke around my grandma's wig closet when I got home from school the next day. It sounded ridiculous, but trust me when I tell you, it was a freaking amazing experience.

The door to my bedroom suddenly swung open, revealing a head of curly blond hair and a small, bouncy frame.

"Kaya! Kaya! guess what color wig Ama just bought?!"

I didn't look up. Idea stealer..."Mhmm..."

"Heeey, look at me!" she whined, hopping behind my chair and peeking over my shoulder. "'Chhaaa-looor-iedde?' Chloride? You would rather write about chemicals than your dear, lovely sister?!"

"Taashi!" I whined back at her, eyes glued to the screen, "If I don't finish this now I won't be able to focus later! What do you need?"

She suddenly broke into a grin and backed up, climbing up onto my bed and striking a pose. A fiery pink wig that hadn't been there before was sitting on top of her head. I sweat-dropped as I looked at it. Ama....

"Guess who I am!" she froze in a crouch, holding out a peace sign and winking at me. I stared at her blankly.

"A hippie on acid?" She rolled her eyes.

"Nooo!" She quickly stood and turned her back to me, looking over her shoulder like a model and pouting at me. "How about now - hey! Kaya, pay attention!"

I swivelled back around in my chair sheepishly, having been distracted by a piece of jacket-lint. "Tashi, I have absolutely no Earthly idea who you're trying to impersonate."

"I'm Sakura! Duh!" She jumped down, deflated as I resumed my work.

"I thought you didn't like her," I said absently, moving onto a new page.

"I don't," she huffed, crossing her arms. "She's always hitting on my Sasuke-kun!"

"You dorealize he's a cartoon character, don't you?" I asked patiently, used to her insensible obsessions.

"Anime character," she corrected. "And no, he is not." She giggled to herself as I dodged a pillow she threw, letting it fall uselessly onto my desk. I sighed.

"Tash, please. I want to get this done." I nudged open the door with my foot, queuing her to go. "I'll see you at dinner, okay?"

She sighed a little and nodded, removing the wig and creeping out the door as I turned back to the screen.

"You're so lame," she complained, just as the door clicked shut.