After about a year, it was time for graduation and the entire class was buzzing for the chance to become real shinobi. "Finally! I'm itching for action!" *Barks!* Hinata and Shino simply enjoyed Kiba and Akamaru's energy. Iruka was calling his students in order, some getting the headbands while others failed, the latter were mostly civilians. Shino was the first to get the band, followed by Hinata then Kiba. "Now we're definitively getting on the same team!" Their parents had 'convinced' the Hokage to put them together, only needing to choose the correct jōnin. "I'm happy for that."

Kiba pulled his more introverted friends to the ramen place, Ichiraku. He had eaten there by chance and the food was great! "Come on, stop dragging your feet!" Shino glared at him. "We would appreciate your gesture if you weren't about to tear our arms off." The Inuzuka recoiled from the look and apologized. "Sorry."

Hitomi saw a mouse-sparrow roost by her. "Report." It swiveled its head to look at her. "Mizuki was followed as per your orders. He met with men of dubious affiliations, striking a deal with them over the Scroll of Seals." The bird scratched its chin. "Apparently, he plans to steal it after the graduation of the students." The woman had her eyes shadowed. "He's revealing his true colors, go notify Tsume and Shibi." The sparrow took away, flying to the Inuzukas and Aburames.

Shibi saw as the brown passerine scratched itself all over. "Get your $#!₮¥ bugs off me!" The man just sighed, for some reason, certain breeds of kikaichū were fond of chakra exuded solely by summons. "Pardon my kikaichū, you are an exotic treat for them." The feathers were heckled, which meant grave annoyance. "I was tasked to spy on Mizuki. He plans to steal the Scroll of Seals and master wants to know if you wish to join her in thwarting his efforts." The man adjusted his sunglasses, pondering over the matter. "I will help, it's my duty to defend this land from traitors."

Hana held the fussy bird on her hands as she rushed to her mother, the most naughty ninken almost gobbled up the poor creature. Tsume was surprised at the sight of her frantic daughter. "Ah? Oh, it's from Hitomi." The clan head watched the featherball as it recomposed itself. "You better train those ӺƱ₡%$ better, I was almost eaten!" It jumped in anger before sighing, settling on her hand to talk. "As you know, Mizuki will make his move, what will you do?" Tsume clenched her hand, grinning. "Of course, I will!" Sadly it was the same one she held the bird with. *Gurgling...* "Oops, sorry."

The trio was deliberating over how to deal with the future rogue chūnin. "I shall prepare a kikai to keep tabs on him." Shibi was selecting the best breeds for this mission. "If he does succeed to take the item, I'll track him with Kuromaru." Tsume had sharpened every bladed weapon in her arsenal. "I will stay at the walls in case his contact tries to meet him." Hitomi had a set of photos of Mizuki with his contact. "Let's be careful to not alert him." They nodded to each other, agreeing with the plan. "Let's keep at the 101.07 frequency." "Understood." "Yosh, I'm tingling for a good pummeling."

Hinata fingered the metal fixed to the cloth as Kiba cheered along with Akamaru, Shino was mostly quiet. "Hey, boys." They stared at her. "I know that this is our symbol, but do we really have to showcase it?" They frowned, not following her logic. " If shinobi value stealth and trickery, using these things on our foreheads defeat the purpose, right?" They never thought about it, used to the custom of wearing it proudly through relatives. "Now that I think about it, mom and some in my family stopped using these on their heads or neck, now it's more used under coats or jackets." Shino nodded, indicating that he had seen similar things. "Pride is for samurais, we hide in the shadows." The trio decided to tie it around their waists, under their coats.

Now they just had to go to class one last time to see who would be their jōnin instructor. "I hope we get a strong instructor." Kiba was anxious for the next day, not wanting to wait for too long. "I will be content with one that cares about the duties." Shino was adjusting his glasses. "Well, we can only wait for the Hokage decide." Hinata gave her farewell to the boys, ready to meet her little sister.

"Big sis!" Hanabi had tackled Hinata once she entered the gates, not caring about the looks of disapproval. "Let's play?" Hinata messed her hair. "Did you finish up training?" Hanabi nodded eagerly, already tugging on her jacket towards the garden.

Tsume was playing with Kuromaru using Mizuki as a ragdoll. "Fetch!" The man gave a pitiful fight, not even being able to match a real chūnin, much less a jōnin. 'Feh, how did he even manage to steal this old roll?' Honestly, it might be a time of peace, but there were people against that hard-earned prize. 'I wonder how Hitomi's doing.' A roar made her drop the knocked out man and rush to the location. 'Why did you let it out this close to the village?!'

Shibi was watching as Hitomi fought the outsider, keeping a perimeter so to not let her secret be leaked. 'Be careful.' Then he felt the presence of Tsume. "Is she going to do that?" The man merely nodded.

Hands turned tiger paws and a murderous aura... She really wanted to kill this sneaky male. 'Little shit keeps healing my strikes...' Silver hair had been revealed when she shredded the cloak. Kabuto cursed under his breath, this woman had somehow figured his location without her bloodline! "Hehehe..." The woman began laughing like crazy. 'What is she planning?' Hitomi was thrilled, she finally found prey that could fight back! She sported a hungry smirk, licking some of the blood on her claws. "Yakushi Kabuto... servant of Sennin Orochimaru..." He ground his teeth, how did she know?

Hinata had been playing with Hanabi when both felt a strong pressure close by the walls of the village. "I'm scared!" The younger one held onto her big sister. "Calm down, Hanabi. It's our mother." She looked up, curious. "How do you know?" Hinata just smiled to her sister. "I sparred against her, I felt her chakra many times." After a certain time, the pressure faded only to be replaced by angry shouting and attacks making dust clouds. "Big sis, what's mom doing?" The elder one just had an awkward smile. "She must have picked a fight with Kiba's mother."

Kabuto sensed her pushing chakra all over her body, to the point that it became visible. 'This feels like Lord Orochimaru!' "I won't play around anymore..." She pulled the last stop, activating her Byakugan. Even though she should be weighted down by her enlarged hands, she still moved like a mirage, striking Kabuto with the Jyūken and not giving him time to react. The male saw something chilling as he fell limp. In exchange for losing the clawed paws, the woman's face morphed into the one of a horned blue tiger, one that was hungry and faced a tasty deer.

She put one foot on his chest and bit hard on his right arm, breaking the bone by the shoulder. "This is the proper way to deal with traitors in my motherland." She repeated the gesture on the left leg, ripping it off the socket. The two clan heads helped her to stop the bleeding. "And I almost forgot your suicide pill." Hitomi had become fully human again and struck Kabuto on the windpipe, making him open his mouth. "Here." She pulled a hollowed tooth, taking his one shot at not revealing secrets. "Wipe that blood, girl." Shibi and Tsume were used to her grisly ways, having seen her in elimination missions where there would be no survivors, and helped her clean up herself as well.

They merely waited for the ANBU to arrive, playing a brief session of blackjack. "You have to tell me your secret to transforming that much!" Tsume was pouting at Hitomi, annoyed that she could take the traits of a beast while she only grew slightly sharper canines and nails. "I already told you that it's my secondary bloodline!" The feral woman was still pouting. "Then you must present me to one of those Jūrui, I'm a widow after all." Shibi shuffled the cards in silence, already used to these mock pissing contests. "You're more like a bitch than I thought." Hitomi got headbutted by Tsume, which led to a fight like the Nara deer when they rutted, while Shibi just watched the mess quietly until one landed a slap on the other. "A~n? Wanna fight?!" The females had gritted teeth and got up, starting a bar brawl and slinging insults around.

"Tsūga!" "Hakke Kuushō!" *BOOM!* "..." The ANBU stared at the scene. Tsume and Hitomi were beating the crap out of each other as Shibi was sitting in the middle, without a single scratch and making a card castle. "I think that we should bow to him..." To be able to interact with two loose cannons was no easy feat, and those two were the strongest females currently in the village. "How can he walk with those balls?" Then the bickering duo did a double knockout, getting carried away by the Aburame after that. "I shall leave the Yakushi in your care."

Hiruzen stared at the trio in front of him. "So you managed to get Mizuki and his contact with Orochimaru..." Tsume and Hitomi weren't paying attention, focused in glaring at each other. "Hai, it's all thanks to Hitomi's espionage." Then the Hokage groaned. "But the contact was a long time genin..." To think that a pawn of the snake had been right under his nose for so long... "I shall inform the central about the payment allotted to you." The scroll had been retrieved by a person that barely had nothing with the village from someone supposed to be loyal to it. 'How has the village decayed this much under my watch?' Then he turned to the dysfunctional group. They had no reason to come together, yet did so and were comparable to the Ino-Shika-Chō in basic teamwork, with a different dynamic. 'It will be interesting to see their children grow.'

Backstory - Uchiha Sasuke

Right before the alarm clock rang, the young man was already awake and ready for the Academy. As he walked through the halls of his clan compound, he greeted every elder and child that passed by him. As the heir of the clan, he had a duty to protect the remains of his family, to not let a new massacre happen again. 'If I manage to get the Hyūga, there will be no questions towards our might!' Hinata, the first half-blood within her clan, had more potential than any of the other females, so were they to have offsprings together, the Uchiha would recover their power. He headed off after eating breakfast.

But there was a wall in his path, namely Hitomi. The woman had a fierce grudge towards the Uchiha and consistently broke every attempt by Mikoto, his mother, to make him befriend the girl as children. "As if I would let you taint her!" Instead of letting her daughter interact with someone of their level, she pushed her to interact with the orphan Uzumaki. "If you valued her friendship, you would do the same, Mikoto." When they were at the Academy, it was his chance, as Hitomi couldn't meddle and the orphan was long gone, but the girl had contracted the same dislike for Uchihas as her mother by now.

Every time he tried to talk with Hinata, she would get up and walk away. Then she befriended those boys, who acted as her bodyguards whenever he was in sight. And finally, these damn birds that popped from nowhere only to kick the crap outta him. ''When I find out the culprit..." He would use these fowl to make the wedding banquet. "When you do what?" Sasuke froze and glanced back.

There was an ostrich with the hind legs of a zebra watching him with a leg poised to strike. It was enough to send him running away like a chicken chased by a fox.

I'll give cookies to anyone who got the hidden word.