A/N:- When I posted this yesterday, I was pretty rushed, So that I completely forgot to put in the customary disclaimer I wanted to be at the beginning of each chapter. I also figure that I owe everyone who took the time out to read my story and like it and put it on their alert list for not updating in nearly five months and not putting any kind of notification up either. If I were in your place, I would be... annoyed, at the least. It's just that a little, nasty, irritating problem called mid-sem exams got in my way. After they were over, I hit a block and lost all motivation to write for sometime. So just thought, I would post this little A/N cum disclaimer up, and re-post this chapter. And to the unknown guest reviewer, Thank You :)

Disclaimer:- All that does not belong to Masashi Kishimoto, belongs to me.

CHAPTER 3

Naruto looked out over the classroom. His current position on the last and therefore the highest bench of the class allowed him to observe his classmates easily without being stared at in return. For the moment, he preferred it that way. He still had not been able to completely come to terms with the revelations of two nights ago. He still felt...dirty. Contaminated. Naruto closed his eyes and shivered. The Sandaime had assured them repeatedly that the seal made by the Yondaime was infallible and the Fox couldn't come out. But the thought of what could happen if it ever did become free was enough to keep Naruto awake at night, as it had been for the past two nights. Aiko had been having the same nightmares, apparently. More than once she had woken up pleading with someone to stop, to not hurt them anymore. Morbidly, Naruto wondered if the nightmares were just a manifestation of their fears, or if the Fox really could influence their minds. If that was the case, then….

A hand slipped into his and squeezed gently; breaking his thoughts out of the downward spiral they had started on. Naruto raised his head and looked at Aiko, sitting beside him. Aiko gave him a small smile and squeezed his hand again, before withdrawing her own, and resuming her previous occupation of staring fixedly at the wall opposite. Naruto smiled back in gratitude, slipped his hand into one of Aiko's, and tried to occupy his mind by observing his classmates.

It seemed to him that quite a lot of his erstwhile classmates had graduated. The Rookie of the Year Sasuke Uchiha, known, in Naruto's dictionary, as the emo-bastard-with-huge-stick-up-his-ass was occupying a seat by a window, right at the front of the class. Kiba was there, along with his ever-present puppy Akamaru (Naruto never could figure out why the puppy was named 'Red Fur', when it was blindingly obvious that the dog's fur was, in fact, white). Choji was present as well, occupying a seat two rows behind Kiba, shoving chips into his mouth. Naruto smiled that two of his 'sort of' friends had made it. Even though their acquaintance didn't stretch beyond the occasional prank planning and cloud watching sessions; that was more than he could claim for the rest of the class. Naruto wondered if perhaps they cold be put onto the same team. He could introduce them to Aiko. She would love to make some friends her own age. Though Naruto wasn't sure how much she would like it if she ever got dragged to one of Shikamaru and Choji's cloud watching sessions. He himself never managed to sit through one for more than five minutes. It simply escaped him, how on earth could one sit (lie down, whatever) still at one place for that long.

The sudden sound of the classroom back door opening made him look up. Shikamaru sauntered in lazily, closing the door behind him. Then he turned, and his eyebrows crawled up towards his hairline as he saw Naruto.

"What are you doing here, Naruto? Only the graduates are supposed to be here."

Naruto flinched slightly at that, but before he could reply, Aiko spoke up.

"With observational skills like that, I wonder how you managed to pass, Shikamaru san. Or did your obvious prejudice against my brother somehow block the goddamned forehead protector he is wearing in plain view from your sight?"

Shikamaru was startled by the venom in Aiko's voice.

"I-I d-didn't mean to insult Naruto, Aiko san. Not at all. I just…you know he failed the graduation test, so I was wondering how he could have passed, that is all."

"Then you could have asked that directly, couldn't you, Shikamru san?"

Naruto decided to step in, before things got too out of hand.

"Yeah, I passed, and we are gonna be ninja's together, Shika. Awesome, huh? What do you think?"

Looking decidedly relieved for Naruto's intervention, Shikamaru turned away with a muttered "troublesome". Once he had walked away, Naruto turned towards his sister.

"Thank you for defending me, nee chan. But I would really like it if you could not snap at one of the few friends I have around here."

Aiko huffed and turned back to the front. After staying silent a few moments, she spoke coolly. "If he really was that good a friend, nii san, he would not have been trying to insult you first thing in the morning."

Naruto sighed. He had always hated the way Aiko clammed into herself to deal with her pain, hated how, in the end, it hurt his little sister (for twins or not, he couldn't think of Aiko as anything except his "little" sister) more.

"I don't thin Shikamaru meant it that way. In fact, I am sure he didn't even think it would real be insulting."

Aiko said nothing in response, for a while. Then, "Making friends isn't that easy, nii san, no matter what you believe." She shifted, and with a sad smile, added, "I rather prefer my shell to your mask. At the very worst, the shell doesn't need to be replaced every time it takes a little bit of damage."

Naruto's retort was lost as the door to the classroom banged open, two girls standing on the threshold. Both of them threw up their hands, screamed, "I'm first!", and then began to pant, as if they had just finished running a marathon. Seconds later, they had both began to argue as to who got the right to sit next to "dear Sasuke kun", their argument quickly escalating into a free for all as the other girls joined in and staked their claims. "Sasuke kun" continued to ignore them as he had been ignoring everything else until then, continuing to stare out of the window. Aiko stared incredulously at the shrieking, screeching mass below for a moment or two, and then went back to her previous posture of staring rigidly at the blackboard. Naruto tuned out the girls and began, out of the corner of his eyes, to examine the last occupant of the bench, who seemed to be the only girl in the entire class apart from Aiko that had not rushed to stake her claim for the right to sit beside Sasuke. In fact, the girl in question seemed to be trying her level best to merge into the wall next to her, and stay there. Naruto hadn't thought it was possible for anybody to be that inconspicuous. He racked his memory for a name that fit the face. For a long, frustrating moment, he kept drawing a blank, until he saw her eyes. Those white, pupil less eyes screamed "Hyuga" to any Konoha resident. A little more memory searching and Naruto had finally found a name that seemed to him to go with the face. Now quite certain that the girl who had caught his attention answered to the name of "Hinata Hyuga", Naruto returned to discreetly studying her out of the corner of his eye. She had dark hair cut short, a sharp nose, and round cheeks which were tinged red, for some reason. Her hitai ate was tied around her neck. Of the rest of her, Naruto could see very little, because she was wearing a full sleeved jacket with a hood, with some kind of weird emblem on one arm, and dark pants.

His brain, which had been working in the background in the meanwhile, suddenly furnished a few more scraps of information. Naruto now remembered that Hinata always seemed to perform on an average level in the academy tests. In fact, that seemed to be the one ambition in her life, to lose herself in the anonymous crowd of mediocrity. However, the simple fact that she wasn't rushing for a membership in the Sasuke Uchiha FanclubTM marked her higher than most other kunoichi in his book. Also - and this Naruto found particularly intriguing - she was one of the few kids in his class who hadn't bullied him or Aiko in some manner or other. In fact, he had one memory from earlier on, during the beginning of their Academy days, of Aiko telling him that there was a girl named Hinata Hyuga in their class, who was pretty damn nice to talk to. And later on, Aiko had created a shell to hide into and he had never asked about her again. Was this the same girl who was once willing to befriend his sister? Naruto sat up straighter, wondering.

And Hinata Hyuga turned, and their eyes met.

For a long moment, they looked at each other, as her face got redder and redder, and he got progressively more and more worried.

Finally, Naruto, finding the awkwardness unbearable, tried to break it. He gave her a large grin.

"Hello, Hinata chan."

The reaction from the girl was immediate. She "eep" ed, turned a deeper shade of red than before, and turned to stare determinedly out the window instead. In the process, she left Naruto completely confused. This was certainly not the reaction he had expected. With the way she was getting red in the face, he had thought that she must have been angry with him for staring at her, or something. He was expecting her to blow up at him, and was preparing to apologize. And the way his sister's lips kept twitching every time he looked at her wasn't reassuring him in the least.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the bench, Hinata was trying, unsuccessfully, to bring down the blush that was currently making her face feel like a ripe tomato. The fact that Inner Hinata was cursing her out pretty thoroughly didn't help either. Her lifelong crush had just spoken to her of his own volition, had just greeted her (and he added"-chan" to her name, no less!), and all she could do was go red in the face and look away? God alone knew what he would think of her after that. And this was probably the last time she was going to see her, too. If he was assigned to a different team (and all of Hinata's hopes and prayers, at present, were centered on getting in the same team as him), she would probably never even get to talk to him. Especially seeing as she wasn't a particularly close friend or anything. She should have returned his greeting, at least smiled or done something. Instead she had just gone red in the face and turned away, like some shy little school girl, instead of the confident, self respecting kunoichi she should have been.

Left on her own, Hinata could have continued in this self destructive vein for quite a long while, berating herself over and over for her shyness and perceived weaknesses. Fortunately for her, Iruka came in then, and was immediately greeted with the sight of nearly every girl in the classroom shrieking at each other, standing in a knot around Sasuke Uchiha's seat. Said boy was still stoically ignoring everybody and everything, in favor of the wonderfully mundane view of the street outside that could be enjoyed from the window. Iruka's jaw tightened. A vein pulsed on his forehead. This needed to stop, and stop at once. After deliberating for a few moments on the best way to interfere, he gritted his teeth and released a minute amount of Killing Intent into the air. That was enough to break up the quarrel and get him the attention of the entire class. It also broke Hinata out of her reverie. She shivered and quickly looked up. At the front of the room, Iruka gave everybody a tight smile.

"Break it up there, ladies, and please return to your own seats."

Once the class had settled down, he gave everybody another smile, friendlier this time.

"Alright, class. Congratulations, once again, to all of you, on graduating. Now you are genin, the lowest rank of ninjas. From now on, you are all soldiers of the village, and you must always be ready to sacrifice everything to protect the village. Whenever necessary. However necessary. Remember, it is from here on that the true life of a ninja begins. It is only going to get tougher. You must face all obstacles that come your way with courage and determination. You must not give up, no matter what odds you face. Remember, it is on us that the safety and prestige of our village depends. I have faith in you. I know that you will all become great ninjas someday. Now, I will read out your teams and your respective jounin senseis. Please listen carefully."

Iruka pulled out a scroll from a pouch on his flak jacket and cleared his throat.

"Team 1 will be…"

It was all Hinata could do to not start biting her fingernails off. Instead, as Iruka called off team after team, she began to poke her index fingers into each other, and worrying her lower lip.

"Please, oh God, please, let me be on Naruto-kun's team…"

On the other end of the bench, Naruto was sitting straight up, every muscle in his body taut. Aiko was gripping one of his hands hard enough to make it go numb, yet he hardly felt it. A thousand different scenarios ran through his mind. What if him and Aiko were put on different teams? What was he going to do if they were split up? Could he possibly ask for a team transfer?

"Team 7 will consist of Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto…"

Naruto jerked up, as if shot with electricity. His fingers emitted ominous cracks as Aiko's grip tightened even more.

"….Uzumaki Aiko…"

Naruto slumped forward, gritting his teeth to prevent himself from cursing, as all the tension drained out of his body, and the pain in his hand began to register. Aiko turned to smile at him.

"….and Hyuga Hinata. Your jounin sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."

Hinata stopped trying to chew her own lower lip off, and sat there, stunned. Did that really happen? Did she somehow, somehow, really get onto the same team as Naruto-kun? Part of her wanted to scream "impossible". There was no way she could have gotten onto the same team as her idol and lifelong crush. The failures of this world did not get that lucky. And yet, there was Naruto, looking over at her and smiling. He was even giving her thumbs up! That must mean she had heard correctly. Right? Why else would he take any interest in a loser like her? And even Aiko was giving her a small smile, and as far as Hinata knew, Aiko never smiled at anybody. Or talked to anybody, for that matter. And to her own considerable surprise, Hinata, stunned and still unable to wholeheartedly believe or rejoice in her good fortune, pushed away her doubts and self loathing, and managed to get an answering smile on her lips.

At the other end of the bench, Naruto could not quite work himself into the same ecstatically happy frame of mind as Hinata. While it was an immeasurably huge relief that he and Aiko had not been split, and he hoped that Hinata would make a loyal and capable teammate and friend, he was not vey happy with the allotment of Uchiha Sasuke to their team. He spotted Hinata looking at him, and grinned at her. Relieved to see her smile back, he also gave her a "thumbs up" gesture and turned his attention to his hand. His other hand, to be precise. The one that Aiko had almost shattered in an attempt to stave off an impending panic attack. Although the damage she had inflicted was mostly healing already. Then he turned his attention to Aiko herself, who was regarding him with a confused look on her face.

"What is the matter, nii-san? You don't look anywhere near as happy as I feel."

"Oh, I am happy alright. But was it really necessary to squeeze that hard? I think you might have actually cracked my bones…"

Aiko blanched.

"Umm…sorry?"

And then there's Sasuke-teme. I just wish he wasn't on our team.

Both of them looked at Sasuke, who was now staring at the blackboard. As if he could sense he was being watched, he turned to look at them, and then turned away dismissively. Aiko hissed.

"He is unnatural. There is something seriously wrong with him, I am telling you. He triggers all the wrong alarms in my head."

Naruto looked at his sister, surprised. She was still trying to stare a hole in the back of the Uchiha's head. Then he noticed Iruka sensei rolling up his scroll.

"All right, class. Now that you have been told your teams, you are free to go out to lunch. You should utilize this time to interact with your teams and get to know them better. Your respective jounin senseis will pick you up after lunch. Once again, good luck to you all. Dismissed."

As soon as Iruka walked out, Sasuke stood up, and, without a backward glance at his would-be teammates, walked out the door.

Naruto sighed, and turned to Aiko.

"Well, as the bastard doesn't seem to have any interest in his team. Let us take Hinata-chan and go have lunch somewhere, shall we?"

Aiko suddenly gave a feral grin that completely unnerved Naruto and made him wary.

"Of course, nii-san. Lead the way."

In the meanwhile, Hinata was still sitting staring at her desk. There was a blush on her cheeks and a grin on her face. Inner Hinata was busy doing a victory dance (she had planned it for the moment - which had suddenly moved a few steps from the realm of fantasy to reality – when Naruto asked her out). Hence when Iruka sensei finished his assignment, and her classmates started to file out with their new teams, she was startled for a moment. Then she scrambled to her feet. Sasuke had already walked out, and Hinata paid him no mind either. Her heart had again started beating rather furiously in her chest. She had to go ask Naruto –kun to have lunch with her! That would almost be like…like…being on a date with him! Blood rushed to her face at the thought. Clamping her lower lip firmly between her teeth to ground herself and prevent another mortifying fainting episode, she turned…. Only to realize both Naruto and Aiko had, in the meanwhile, walked right up to her, and were standing next to her. Naruto was grinning at her, although he seemed a little unsure of himself. Aiko0 was standing behind him, and Hinata was treated to the extremely rare sight of the redhead smiling, even if her smile was a little more… sinister than Hinata would have liked.

Not that she was in a condition to analyze it. The moment Naruto's presence had registered, her mind had short circuited. Not passing out, at the moment, was requiring her to master all her willpower. She kept her mouth shut, because she was pretty sure that, had she opened it, she would not have been able to get one complete syllable out. And her face, which was strenuously attempting to invent new shades of red, did not help matters any. So, by way of dealing with it, she shrank as far back into her jacket as it would allow, clasped her hands together and stared at the floor.

Naruto, standing in front of Hinata, saw all of this. Of course, the real reason for Hinata's blushing, or extraordinarily heightened shyness never occurred to him (and why should it, he was the orphan everybody hated, and the idea that anybody except for the Hokage or Iruka or the Ichirakus or his sister could even tolerate his presence, let alone like to spend time with him, as far as he was concerned, was simply ridiculous.) So, he decided on the next best explanation.

"Ah, Hinata-chan, do you have a fever? You don't look well."

Eep.

"N-N-No, I a-am a-a-al-alright, Naruto-kun."

Naruto withdrew the hand he had extended to check Hinata for fever.

"Oh, alright then. I was just wondering if you would like to go out and have lunch with us."

Hinata nodded meekly, still staring at the floor.

"Ah…" Naruto was now beginning to find the floor extremely interesting as well. He stared at it, trying to figure out what to say next. Should he suggest where they could go for lunch? Should he let Hinata suggest it? (And there was another problem with that, what if she chose someplace that would not allow him or his sister in, what then?). And the sight of his sister standing behind him with a wide, uncharacteristic, unsettling, Cheshire cat like grin on his face wasn't helping matters along.

After a few more minutes of uncomfortable silence and stuttering fro both parties, Aiko intervened.

"Come on brother; let's go to Ichiraku's. Unless you two want to spend the lunch break standing here and trying to decide what to say next."

As Naruto led the way out of the classroom, followed by a very relieved Hinata, he made a face at Aiko. Aiko, walking sedately behind them, paid no mind to it, as she felt the grin return to her face. Her facial muscles, unaccustomed to the motion, were starting to ache. She paid that no mind either.

Oh yes, this was going to be even more fun than she thought.

By the time they had reached Ichiraku's Ramen Stand, Hinata had become pretty sure of one thing. If she ever wanted to gift Naruto something – on any occasion – she needn't search too far. A couple of coupons for free ramen would make him very, very happy.

It started when she ( wishing to make small talk to keep her mind off the fact that she was walking in close proximity to Naruto, Naruto of all people, and if she didn't do something to keep her mind off that, she will start hyperventilating ) asked Aiko why she chose a ramen stand to have lunch in. Ramen might be good and all, but surely it didn't qualify as something you should be eating for lunch? Aiko, by way of an answer, simply grinned (and she had been doing a lot of that lately, hadn't she?) and told her to ask her brother.

For Hinata, that might have been the end of the conversation. There was no way she could actually talk to Naruto, teammates or not, without getting tongue-tied and wishing she could disappear. Not yet, anyway.

However, Naruto heard her. And, of course, he was suitably amazed, dumbfounded even, that under god's blue sky there was someone who did not know about the divine providence that was Ramen. Even if he was not in a state of mind to think about it in so many words.

Preposterous.

And so Naruto proceeded to enlighten Hinata on the goodness that was Ramen.

When they had finally sat down on the stools at the roadside eatery, Hinata's head was spinning. So much so, that she never noticed that she was sitting down on a stool right next to Naruto. Indeed, for the time being, all the usual feelings of physical discomfort and nervous agitation that she generally felt whenever in the vicinity of Naruto were, for the time being, absent. She hadn't thought that it could be possible for one person to talk for so long, without stopping (seemingly), to take a breath. More importantly, she had no idea that there could be so much to learn about a topic seemingly as mundane as ramen. It left her stunned, how many varieties of ramen there apparently were. Form different toppings to differing styles of cooking. Indeed, throughout the long, Naruto-delivered monologue on ramen, Hinata had only been able to get one word in - Aiko not having bothered with trying to join in the completely one-sided conversation – which was when Naruto asked her about which flavor of ramen she liked best. Trying to stop thinking about ramen, she lifted her head to take note of her surroundings. Then she noticed that she was sitting right next to Naruto. Immediately, sweat started beading her forehead again, as her heart rate increased. Blood was rushing to her face and she was pretty sure that she was going to faint soon. Either that, or somehow get all the attention drawn to her, which would be just as bad.

"Hey, relax."

Hinata looked to her left. Aiko had occupied that stool, and she was now looking at her, with a puzzled expression on her face.

"You look like you are about to suffocate."

Hinata blushed even deeper at that. Now even Aiko had noticed that there was something wrong with her. And how the hell was she going to explain this?

"Listen, I know how you feel about my brother…"

Hinata brought her hands up to cover her mouth. Was she that transparent?

"Oh, come on. Did you really suppose you managed to keep your crush hidden? I should think everybody in our class except for my brother knows. And no, it has nothing to do with you. It's just my brother's problem. So stop looking down like that."

Hinata looked curiously at Aiko when she said that. Aiko, seeing her look, turned away and sighed.

"It's…it's not something we like to talk about, really. I suppose, if you get to know Naruto, you could ask him. But, I promise, the reason he does not understand that you might feel some sort of attraction towards him has nothing to do with any of your real or imaginary faults. It's…."

"It's OK", Hinata said. She did not understand what Aiko was talking about, but she wasn't stupid. And she could see, whatever it was, it was making Aiko really uncomfortable. "You don't have to talk about it."

Aiko gave her a small, thankful smile.

For sometime the two newly minted teammates sat side by side in silence, as Naruto continued chattering away to two people who seemed like the owner and (from how Naruto addressed them), his daughter. Then Hinata turned to Aiko.

"Um, Aiko-san, I was wondering…"

"Yes?"

"Well, now that you know that I have, um, I mean, uh…."

Aiko kept looking at her patiently.

"Well, I just…wantedtoaskhowyoufeltaboutit, that's all."

"Um, Hinata, can you say that slowly, please?"

Hinata's blush, which had began to subside, returned in full force. "I wanted to ask how you felt about me having a crush on your brother," she whispered.

Aiko considered the question for sometime.

"I don't know, really. See, Hinata, my brother…well, for the longest time my brother was the only one I could completely rely on. You know that we are orphans. Well, we never had any friends when we were younger. At least, no one who stayed friends with us for longer than a day or two." Aiko's mouth curved in a bitter smile. "Except, of course, each other. We are really close, you see, and I never thought that someday, there might be someone with whom I would have to share my brother's attention. An idea like that never even crossed my mind." Aiko was silent for sometime. "Besides, we don't even properly know each other yet, right? I mean, we are not really close friends or anything. I mean, I would really love to ask how you developed a crush on my brother," Hinata squeaked causing Aiko to smile," but I can't. That's not the kind of thing you would ask someone you are barely acquainted with. Maybe, if we were good friends, I would not feel so confused, but as it is, I don't know."

Hinata smiled and held out her hand. "Then, I hope we become good friends."

Aiko stared at her for so long; she lost her new found confidence once again. Had she said something wrong? Maybe Aiko hadn't wanted to be friends with a stupid, weird-looking girl like her. That's what she must have meant when she said all that about her brother earlier. She didn't want a weirdo like her to be close to her brother. How stupid of her…

But then Aiko smiled and held out her own hand. "If you want to make friends with a girl like me…"

"Hey, what are you two whispering about? Lunch is served."

Hinata quickly turned around at that. She had completely forgotten to order! But when she looked in front of her, she was stunned to find a steaming bowl of her favorite flavor of ramen. Naruto smiled at her, a bit nervously. "You said that was your favorite…"

Hinata's heart soared. He had remembered! Just one word she had spoken during that long monologue, and he had remembered it! A smile on her face, she turned to Naruto. "Thank you, Naruto-kun."

Naruto's grin widened. "Well then," he broke his chopsticks apart, "Itadakimasu."

Kakashi Hatake, despite all outward appearances to the contrary, was a very reserved man. He had friends, for sure, quite a few good friends among the jounin and tokubetsu jounin of the village. Especially those that belonged to his own generation (Asuma, Kurenai, and, not the least, Might Gai, even though he would be happy to strangle people who would suggest that he looked upon the green spandex wearing taijutsu specialist as anything other than a particularly annoying colleague). He also maintained good relationships with his teammates from the days when he used to be an ANBU captain. However, none of those people were close enough to him (except, maybe, yet again, with the exception of Gai) to be able to tell what he might be thinking or feeling at any point in time. And Kakashi preferred it that way. He never did particularly well on dealing with emotions anyway. He just kept them all locked away in some part of himself, so that they could not interfere with his job. And so long as he was on the job, he could function perfectly normally. Well, as normally as most ninja of his stature could function, anyway. That was what stopped his friends and well-wishers from dragging his behind to therapy. Well, that and the fact that he was, legally speaking, an adult who had complete rights to make his own decision about his life and take responsibility for them. And when he was on a job, it worked perfectly. But when he was not working… Well, there was a limit to how long he could keep all the stress and mental trauma cooped up. Eventually, it all came up. And then he had no idea how to deal with any of it.

Presently, he was sitting in front of the memorial stone in front of the training field seven, tracing his fingers repeatedly over the names of his erstwhile teammates, looking over the fields where he used to train with his team. Most people who had lost a friend or loved one in service to the village visited the memorial stones regularly. Kakashi, however, took it to extreme levels. Much of his free time was spent sitting in front of the memorial stone, holding one-sided conversation with teammates that were long gone, telling them of everything that was going on around the village. Even the small, apparently insignificant details. Things that, in his view, they should have lived to see, and laugh at, and be indignant about. Today, he was telling them about the team he would soon have to take on, and test, yet again. He was quite convinced that they would not pass. None of the ten teams before this one had even caught on to what the test was about, even when he told them.

"You would have called them idiots, Obito. Just like you called me once. And you would have been right. Still, I wonder how my new students are going to fare. Did I tell you that this new team has both of sensei's kids in it? I wonder how they turned out to be. "

Kakashi looked at his watch. He was already three hours late to meeting his students. He didn't particularly want to leave the memorial stone just yet. He had so much more to tell Obito and Rin. But being anymore late would be bad. Not the least because if word of this got into the Sandaime's ears, he would be getting another reprimand. He wasn't particularly eager for that. So he got up.

"I will be back tomorrow to tell you guys how the test went. I don't think they will pass, but it will still be interesting. I hope, at least as interesting as our own. "Kakashi chuckled sadly. "Well, goodbye for now, Obito, Rin." And he turned and shunshinned away, leaving behind a few leaves floating in the air, and a soft breeze blowing across an empty field.

As he approached the classroom where his students were supposed to be waiting, he was wondering what kind of first impression to make on them. Generally, he put on face like this was way too bothersome for him, that he could not care less about them and he would love to find some excuse to find the whole lot of them. Maybe he could try something different this time? No, he decided. Too bothersome.

And then he raised his head and saw the duster pinned between the doorframe and the door, in the classroom where his children were supposed to be waiting.

He smiled.

If that was how they were going to play it, then…

Kakashi wasn't exactly an expert at genjutsus, but he knew enough to get by. So now, he quietly wove one in and around the room, a genjutsu that would ever so slightly alter the victims' perception of the world. Then he caught the door and shoved it aside as hard as he could.

Inside the room, the four kids quickly jumped up and sprang to attention. Sasuke took out a kunai and held it in a standard grip, as he scanned for the threat. The rest of them were also looking around, though Aiko and Naruto had drawn closer, as if trying to guard each other's backs. Hinata was standing a little apart from them. Kakashi, completely invisible, was standing in front of the room, was analyzing them.

'Preparedness for dealing with unexpected situations, unsatisfactory', he thought to himself. All it would take for them to catch the intruder would be for the Hyuga girl to activate her doujutsu, yet none of them had thought of it yet. Aiko and Naruto had instinctively drawn closer to each other, yet their other two teammates were left completely open. Didn't they teach kids how to respond to this sort of situation in the academy? Well, let's see how long it would take them to catch on…

Kakashi maneuvered quietly right behind Sasuke. The teenager seemed to notice something was wrong, even though he could not pinpoint the threat. He glanced around nervously. Kakashi quietly pulled out a kunai, and held it right against Sasuke's jugular. Sasuke stiffened, and then tried to slowly shift his weight to one foot, in an attempt to drop and roll away from the knife. A brief increase in pressure against his throat convinced him to drop the idea. Wincing he tried to think, what to do next. His teammates had, apparently, not even noticed that something was wrong.

"What was that?" Naruto asked.

Aiko looked uncertain. "Maybe just a gust of wind, but…"

Suddenly she whipped around. Then she shouted," Hey."

Naruto and Hinata quickly turned around too. When they saw Sasuke frozen in a stiff posture, they instantly realized something was seriously wrong. But what…?

Hinata quickly formed the handseals needed to activate her doujutsu. Then she gasped.

"Well," Kakashi deadpanned as he released the genjutsu and became fully visible, "that certainly took you long enough. If I were an enemy, you would all be dead. Meet me on the Academy roof." And he vanished in a shunshin.

The four genin in the room stared at one another, before slowly following the man, who was apparently their sensei, up the stairs.

A/N:- The next chapter will be the bell test, of course. And a bit more interaction between characters. I have already started typing it, but my endsems are looming, so, uh, no guarantees. Anyway, enjoy this latest chapter, and let me know what you think.