Hi guys! XDD sorry, this chapter's kinda boring... XD genin D ranked missions and all. crappy title too XD

Anyways... um... yeah! I was having currency issues with this one XD "Naurto" Uses Ryou, right? ( at least the games do, I think XD) so like... five hundred ryou would be like five dollars, right? that's what I assumed XD

Um... so yeah! thank you, sorry It's so lame, please enjoy, and please review n.n :3

Another big hug to Nobukane, ( who's stories you should go read:3) for reading over this for me!

disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto

For some, graduation proved to be a truly liberating experience. Those from shinobi families,( or simply families poor enough to resort to selling their children to the ninja academy) were finally permitted to return to their homes.

The orphaned genin, however, were still confined to the academy dorms until they could buy a place of their own. This proved to be the vast majority of the graduates, as the sleeping quarters proved to be as crowded as they ever were.

The genin's missions were in a disarray, as the administration tried to restore order to their disrupted system. Missions were carried out in groups of four, or two sets of pairs, under whichever jonin sensei was available. They had tried three, only to come to the conclusion that the third child's work suffered immensely without their training partner.

Hachidaime Mizukage had never looked angrier.

The same could not really be said for Momochi Zabuza. He was angry, yes, but more irked than anything else, as he and his companion made their way through the village's now-crowded streets, for what felt like the millionth time that year, as they approached their new teammates's house.

"Why did it have to be that idiot?" The boy huffed, crossing his arms angrily. His partner frowned, her mouth set in a firm line.

"Why do you hate Hiraku kun so much?"

"Because he's an idiot?" the slightly shorter of the two offered maliciously.

Kotone huffed indignantly, looking away from her partner, as she plodded along, stopping to squeeze between two between townspeople. "He was nice to me while you were gone." She received nothing but a noncommittal grunt, as a reply. "And Shinju's nice too. We've been doing this for months now, lighten up, would you?"

"I cannot freaking wait to be a chunin." He muttered, jamming his hand in his pocket.

She beamed. Since the genin exam had always been the trainee's major test, no real chunin exam had been set in place, as other village's had. In the mist village, jonin and chunin were simply promotions, once a person's superiors felt they were ready to advance, and serve the village at a higher level. "Anytime now, Zabuza kun. But why so eager?"

"Because I want to get out of the god damn dorms!" He whispered harshly, suddenly seeming more aware of the villagers milling about. "There's no way we can afford a place to stay on dog walking, or fish gutting money."

Kotone nodded, shuddering slightly at the mention of fish guts.

They had, a while back, noticed a small dilapidated shack, that may at some point have been a nice little house, roughly halfway between their training ground, and Kirigakure. A small bit of poking around had assured them that, if properly cleaned up, it would be inhabitable. Also, it was for sale, which had ruined Zabuza's plan, of simply taking it, as the owner would doubtlessly check on it, and report them to Mizukage sama. And that, ultimately, could lead to their eviction, and, or arrest.

It was cheap, though. Very. But very little could be considered 'cheap' on a genin's salary, even if they pooled their resources. A promotion was in order, if they were to have any hope of getting out of the academy's mouldy, cold, and profoundly unpleasant living space. And they were all ready for a promotion to chunin, their instructor had told them after a training session not long after.

"Everything will be better once we're chunin," Zabuza said nodding, as they approached the Kasumi family's home. It was a fairly nice house. Nothing too fancy, but definitely comfortable, and well-kept.

The closest thing Kirigakure had to a noble clan was the Nezumi family, a fairly large group of ninja who worked in conjunction with summoned rats ( Kotone knew only one, the boy with the curly brown hair, who's partner she had angered on the night of the graduation massacre.) The villagers tended to get anxious whenever a group of ninja seemed to be organizing separately from the Kage's orders, a fear that had stemmed from their hatred of advanced bloodline traits, and those who carried them.

"Just...Be nice, for once, will you?" Kotone implored, as they reached their teammates's door. Zabuza scoffed audibly.

"Good morning," The door opened before they reached it, as Shinju stepped out, her brother hopping behind a second later, trying to cram an extra couple of shuriken into the holster at his leg.

"Good morning, Kotone chan!" He chirped brightly, righting himself. Zabuza frowned, slightly, preparing himself for today's edition of Hiraku's gushing. Perhaps he simply spoke to Shinju for the rest of the day, and was uncomfortable talking with the other boy, but Kotone seemed to be his main conversation-buddy. At first, Zabuza had been happy to be left alone, but after a while, his constantly bothering Kotone to talk had become incredibly annoying in itself, to listen too.

There was, however, one very important aspect of being partnered with Hiraku that amused him greatly...

"Kotone chan?" The green haired boy whispered to the girl weeding the garden they'd been assigned to tend to, next to him. "He's glaring at me again." There was a notable tremor in the other boy's voice. Zabuza smiled, being sure to expose one clearly pointed eye tooth.

Hiraku was terrified of him.

"Oh," She nodded happily, pigtails swinging as she did. "He just does that. You get used to it, I promise."

"You've been saying that for months..." But he stopped, and forced a nervous smile, before returning to his patch of tomatoes. "And he doesn't look at you, that way."

"Hm," The girl shrugged, humming happily as she returned to caring for the radishes in front of her.

Hiraku sighed, before slowly relaxing into the weeding again, resisting the impulse to check over his shoulder. He got the strange feeling that the other boy was still eying him disapprovingly. He shifted closer to Kotone, so that he was resting against her slightly, and a mouldy pea pod immediately smacked him in the side of the head.

"She did it." Zabuza grunted, eyes still narrowed, when Hiraku's head snapped back to see who had just attacked him with a slimy vegetable. Had Zabuza not been the one tending to peas, this may actually have been plausible. Kotone did tend to throw things when provoked.

"Now he's throwing things at me," He heard Hiraku whimper to the little Kunoichi.

"Zabu kun, be nice, please."

"I'm bored." Was his justification, as he sat back on his heels, always glowering at Hiraku.

"Then weed more." Shinju interjected from a bed of flowers, getting impatient with the other genin's disruptions.

"Well sorry-" he rolled his eyes.

"-You should be." She interrupted.

"-But this isn't exactly important, now is it?"

"But sensei said..."Hiraku looked at him perplexed. "He said to." His eyes flitted to the stranger in the jonin's vest who had met them here this morning.

"Sensei says we're helping!" Kotone answered brightly.

"Yeah, and it's pointless."

Shinju's face was more stern than Kotone's. "We're helping someone, Momochi. That might not be an idea with which you are familiar? I'll help you out then. Morally speaking, it's good."

"Good is boring, then." He challenged.

Shinju sighed, turning away, and returning to work. "You're hopeless, Momochi. Hopeless."

He shrugged, before returning to his own work, recognizing the end of the conversation.

They finished fairly quickly, before reporting back to the jonin, who handed them their pay indifferently, barely bothering to look at any of them.

Kotone poked at the coins in her hand happily, as Shinju and Hiraku said goodbye, and left for home. "Five hundred ryou...?"

"That's nothing." The other boy frowned, pocketing the change.

"It's enough for lunch!"

"What?"

"Let's get some dango!" The little genin suggested hopefully.

"Kotone, we shouldn't be buying junk food-"

"Please?"

"We should go train-"

"Pretty please?"

"It's a waste of-"

"What about takoyaki? I think I saw a stall on the way over! You like that, right?"

Zabuza paused, biting his lip slightly. "Kotone," But whatever argument he had been about to use was suddenly diminished, and his stomach grumbled traitorously. "We shouldn't."

"Aw come on! Pleeeeease?"

Many years later, Momochi Zabuza would kick himself for not learning to say 'no' to a cute little face while he still had the chance.

"Alright fine. Where was the stupid stall?"

I'm sure you all know what that second last line's alluding too XDDD

Anyways, thanks for putting up with the boring chapter n.n;; Hope you enjoyed it! and have an awesome day!