A/n:- Hello again, my faithful readers (those who haven't unfollowed me or my story, at least. If you have, I can hardly blame you.) Anyway, I am back after a long struggle with exams and studies and more exams. There is another one coming up, but I have gotten confident enough in my preparations to start writing fanfiction again. Sorry for this delay. This chapter was originally meant to be published to celebrate the end of Naruto manga, but it got a little delayed. Please enjoy.

Chapter 5

Naruto woke up exactly at 5 am, when the alarm clock beside his bed started blaring out its daily morning cacophony. He promptly punched the snooze button, and then grimaced as the clock was sent crashing to the floor. Any other day, he would have proceeded to roll over and go back to sleep, but today he could not. An unfamiliar sense of happy excitement and anticipation was coursing through him, and he lay awake for a moment, trying to figure out the reason. Then suddenly the jumbled memories of yesterday returned with complete clarity, lifting the disorienting fog from his mind, and Naruto grinned.

For a while, he lay there, eyes screwed tightly shut and mouth stretching in a grin that threatened to dislocate his jaws. Then he slowly reached for the bedside table. His fingers scrabbled along the rough and splintered surface, until they closed on the forehead protector, engraved with Konoha's symbol. With fingers made clumsy by sleep and clumsier by the darkness and lack of muscle memory pertaining to this function, Naruto slowly fastened the hitai-ate in place. When it was done, he lay in the dark for a while longer, enjoying the weight of the metal against his forehead through the cloth. Then he quietly fished out a flashlight and started to hunt around on the floor until he found the clock.

5:15 am.

Time to get up, and get his sister out of bed, too.

Aiko had been having a dream.

It was quite a pleasant dream, too. A little odd, certainly, but funny. It involved several of her classmates running up to the top of the main stairs in the Academy building, and then sliding back down the railing. Everyone was laughing and cheering, and even Aiko, standing well back from the crowd was fighting a smile. Until, that is, somebody came flying off the end of the railing and careened into her. Both of them immediately toppled over, and before she could recover from her shock she was surrounded by people. Her brother was pulling her up, and her teammates were asking if she was injured (which Aiko would decide was the oddest part of the whole thing later on, when she was more capable of thinking lucidly. Since when did The Great Uchiha ask after anybody's well-being?). Even her tardy sensei was there, looking decidedly concerned.

For a change, being the center of attention felt quite nice.

Then she realized that Naruto had not stopped calling her. And somebody was shaking her too. Now what on earth…?

As soon as Naruto saw his sister's eyes open, he dropped her and jumped back. Aiko rubbed her eyes with her knuckles, and after a few ineffective attempts, managed to sit up in bed. Since there was little urgency, or, heaven forbid, terror, in Naruto's voice, or in his manner of waking her, she felt safe in assuming that masked men armed with pitchforks and kitchen knives were not beating on their battered door. It would not have been the first time either.

"What's the matter, nii-san?"

Even as she asked that, her eyes were taking in Naruto's general appearance, and way too energetic for this ridiculously early hour of the morning demeanor. Then they took in the hitai-ate on his forehead, and the weapon pouches on his belt and thigh, and they widened.

Oh no. Oh no. No, no, no, no.

Naruto, meanwhile, was looking mildly scandalized.

"What do you mean, what's the matter? It's our first official day as ninjas. Come on, show some spirit. How long are you planning to sleep in, anyway?"

Aiko groaned loudly and dived back under the ripped and badly patched up comforter, this time making sure to pull it all the way up over her head. Then, realizing her brother would certainly try something ridiculous, like pull it off her, she tightened her hold on it. However, she could not hold on very well with her legs, and after a brief and one sided struggle, Naruto yanked the comforter off her from that end. Aiko groaned again and opened one eye to stare groggily at Naruto.

"Mind telling me what bit you?"

Naruto gave no sign that he had heard the question, or taken any notice of her marked reluctance to get out of bed. Instead, he just grinned wider.

"Now come on, 'Ko. You can't sleep late on the very first day. Why don't you get up and wash? I can prepare breakfast."

"Nii-san, with due respect and all, but didn't you ever manage to get the difference between 5 am and 8 am through that thick skull? I would be happy to beat it in for you if such is the case, just as soon as I manage to wake up fully, that is."

Naruto pouted. "I know perfectly well the difference between 5 am and 8 am, thank you. But ninjas have to be ready for deployment at all times, don't they? I mean, if you have to be awake at 5 am on a mission, it's not like you could ask for everything to be rescheduled to 8 am, just so you could get your beauty nap. So, I figure we had best start practicing."

Aiko had been trying to inch closer to the comforter in Naruto's arms while he talked, and lunged for it as soon as he stopped to take a breath. Unfortunately, her reflexes were dulled by drowsiness, and her brother's were not, so all she got for her troubles was a rap on the top of her head. Naruto stared at her for a moment, considering, while she flopped back onto the bed with a frustrated grimace. Then he put the comforter down, took hold of the cot, and proceeded to tip her right out of the bed and onto the floor. As Aiko sputtered indignantly, Naruto stepped back and gave her a smug look.

"There, you have your comforter. Now can we get started?"

Half an hour later, both of them were sitting on the logs at the training ground. Aiko was trying to think of the best way to get back at Naruto after abandoning her unsuccessful attempts to get back to sleep. Naruto, as per usual, was fidgeting. Finally, he stood up.

"'Ko?"

"What?"

Naruto flinched at her tone, and Aiko immediately regretted snapping at him. But before she could say or do anything, he had turned away.

"Nothing."

Aiko stared at Naruto's back as he sat down on his log. Damn it. Now she was the one feeling guilty, although she was one hundred percent certain things were supposed to be the other way around. For a moment, she fidgeted, wondering what to do next. Then, just as she had decided that it would be best to apologize now instead of letting things drag on, Naruto muttered something, so low that she could not hear it.

"Huh?"

"I said," Naruto was now partially turned towards her, "I am sorry. I should not have woken you up like that. I just… I was too excited and I got carried away, I guess."

Aiko blinked. Then she got up and sat down next to him.

"That's all right, nii-san. I mean, I am a little grumpy about that, but I am really excited too, you know. And you are right, anyway. We are ninjas now, the real thing. This is not child's play any more, and would help us to remember that. So you are right about oversleeping and all, even if I don't like it."

Naruto gave her a small, hesitant smile. "Apology accepted, then?"

"Of course." Aiko hesitated for a moment before taking one of her brother's hands in her own. "I am sorry for snapping at you too. I should not have done that. Forgive me?"

Naruto's smile morphed into a full blown grin. "Of course. I wasn't going to be angry for that, silly."

Aiko smiled back. Oh, she would still be getting back at her brother for this, and for making her admit that he was right, as well. But there was no point that she could see in snapping at each other and keeping up a hostile atmosphere.

"So what were you going to talk about before, 'To?"

"Uh, I was wondering, actually. Seeing as the others wouldn't be here for quite some time yet, how about we get some training done?"

"Training?" Aiko looked unsure. "But, it's not like we actually know anything beyond the Academy basics."

"Yeah, so I figure we could just do some warm up and then practice the katas. Maybe we could spar with each other. And oh, you can practice the shadow clone technique, too. You haven't really explored the possibilities of that technique, have you?"

Aiko's face lit up at that. "I didn't know you could use so many multi-syllable words together in the same sentence, nii-san." She grinned. "All right, let's start then, shall we?"

It was almost 7:30 by the time anybody else showed up on the training ground. Both Aiko and Naruto were thoroughly tired out, and were lying on the ground for a while to catch their breathe. Yet when Hinata walked (or perhaps stumbled would be a better word) into the clearing and slumped down at the foot of a training log, Naruto managed to get off the ground and at her side in record time. While he was helping her to slide into a more comfortable position, Aiko looked over Hinata, for once at a loss for words.

The last time either of them had seen Hinata was when they parted after their "celebratory" feast (as Naruto insisted on calling it.) Then, she had looked tired, but in high spirits, at least as high as it was possible for Hinata's spirits to go. But now…

While Hinata had never exactly dressed to stand out, Aiko could not ever remember seeing her dressed sloppily. Her jacket and pants were always clean and immaculate and her hair, short as it was, was always neatly arranged. Now her hair was uncombed, sticking up every which way and falling into her eyes. Both her jacket and her pants were crumpled and dirty, as if she had been fighting a war in them. Her hitai-ate, which she kept tied around her neck, had come nearly undone. More than her appearance, though, it was her demeanor that Aiko found troubling. There was a defeated, despairing air around her. Her eyes were dull, and she was staring straight into her lap, not even noticing what was happening around her. Naruto was fluttering around and bombarding her with questions, unwilling to leave her alone and uncertain of what to do. Any other day, Hinata would already have been stretched out on the ground. Today, Naruto might as well not have existed.

Aiko walked over to where Hinata was sitting. For a moment, she stood, worrying her lip, before she carefully knelt down in front of her. Hinata continued to stare at her lap, unaware and, apparently, uncaring. In fact, she looked…

She looks shell-shocked, Aiko thought. She hadn't actually seen war veterans before, but the word she had read, and the word fitted Hinata like an old, well-worn glove.

Very slowly, Aiko reached out and grabbed Hinata by the shoulder. Naruto had stopped firing random questions at Hinata and was watching her intently. Aiko shook Hinata gently.

No response.

"Try that again, nee-chan."

So Aiko shook her again, harder this time. For a moment, she thought that there wasn't going to be any reaction this time either. Then she peered closer at Hinata's face, and snatched her hands back, as quickly as she could.

Hinata's eyes were brimming with tears, and they were beginning to fall. Slowly, she lifted a hand and tried to wipe them away, but more came in their place.

"Hinata?" Aiko asked gently.

Hinata gave a small gasp and looked up. For a moment, she looked confused. Then her face reddened, and she started to furiously wipe her tears away. Aiko fumbled in the pockets of her own pants, and found a handkerchief. This she held out to Hinata, who took it with a murmured "arigatou." For a moment, there was silence as Hinata finished dabbing at her eyes and Aiko took her handkerchief back. Then Hinata returned to staring at her lap. Her ears, however, were burning a bright pink, and Aiko suspected that at present she was more embarrassed than anything, thanks to her breakdown. She thought for a moment about what she was supposed to do now. Pretending that the whole thing had never happened looked quite tempting, to be honest. But in the end, she could not just the let matter drop without at least asking once. She was pretty sure that it was supposed to be her duty as a friend. So, against what she was also pretty sure was her better judgment, she opened her mouth.

"What happened, Hinata-san?"

"No-nothing, Aiko-san. Please do not worry about me, I will be alright."

That sounded about as convincing to Aiko as Naruto's reassurances to Iruka-sensei that he was in no way a part of this latest prank involving setting all the Academy's clocks to different times, and she pointed this out to Hinata. Hinata blushed even more brightly.

"It's n-nothing, really. My father just gave me some extra t-tr-training, that's all. I am just a bit tired."

This left Aiko even more mystified. What did training have to do with, well, any of Hinata's appearance and behavior, really? A glance at Naruto showed her that he was feeling just as bewildered. And Hinata, apparently, had no intention of being more forthcoming than that. Finally, Naruto gently put his arms around Hinata's shoulders.

"Are you really sure you are okay, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata had apparently not noticed Naruto up until now. Now she did, and her face immediately bypassed pink and light red for a dark tomato red color, while beads of perspiration stood out on her forehead. Aiko quietly snickered as she watched Hinata try valiantly to not pass out. But even as she laughed, a small cloud of uneasiness slithered into her mind, and settled there. And all of the disquiet came, whether she wanted to acknowledge it or not, from what Hinata had done, and what she had not said.

After all, cuts and bruises were a common occurrence, but what kind of training regime leaves old, finger-shaped discolorations on your cheeks?

Kakashi Hatake, as per usual, was an hour and a half late. By the time he arrived on the training ground, all four members of Team 7 were there, Sasuke having arrived on the dot at 8. Once again, he was standing apart from the rest of the team, staring of into middle distance, and thinking God alone knew what. What Kakashi found even more concerning, however, was that none of the others were paying him much attention either. Naruto was glaring at his back form time to time, but that was it. Aiko was stretched out on the ground at full length, apparently asleep, even though her breathing told Kakashi that such was clearly not the case; and Hinata was sitting with her back to a training post. She really was asleep. Kakashi observed all these from the branch of the great tree on which he was sitting, and sighed. There was little team cohesion to speak of. Not that much of that could be expected this soon after a team was formed. But after all the determination they had shown to go against him last night, he was rather hoping that they would at least be talking to each other.

Perhaps Kurenai was more on the money than I thought, when she suggested that I start with team-bonding exercises, mused Kakashi. He jumped down from the tree. Oh well…

Sasuke, Naruto and Aiko turned around (or stood up, In Aiko's case), to face Kakashi as he entered the grounds. Hinata, however, went right on sleeping. Kakashi frowned. None of the reports on the girl had ever mentioned laziness as a possible problem. What could be the matter with her?

Before he could think farther on the matter, Aiko had walked across to the Hyuga, and was gently shaking her awake. Kakashi shook his head and filed the problem away for later consideration, even as he waved away a stuttering apology from Hinata. For now, he had a genin team to train.

Kakashi considered his four students as they were lined up before him. Naruto was fidgeting, and the look of impatience on his face clearly said that he was raring to go. Kakashi smirked silently at his impatience. Next to him, Aiko was trying to keep her face blank, but was failing miserably at controlling her body language, which gave her impatience away for all to see. Hinata, who was standing next to Aiko still was had her head down and was staring at her own feet. Kakashi frowned. Her reports had mentioned that the girl might have confidence issues, but this was ridiculous. He was going to have to do something about that, although currently he had no idea exactly what. Kakashi filed the problem away in his mind and moved on to the last person in the group.

Ah, and we come to the big one, he thought to himself.

Sasuke Uchiha was quite successfully maintaining the blank face that was his staple expression when dealing with most people. He stood ramrod straight, nothing moving on his body, which was rising and falling with every breath. Kakashi could find little clue to what was going on in the boy's head. Even his eyes held no expression apart from a slight trace of impatience. They were as empty as the glass eyes on a doll, and this Kakashi found most disturbing of all. His brow furrowed as he scrutinized the Uchiha one more time, then smoothed out as he turned back to the group. He clapped his hands, bringing the genin to attention.

"Right," he said, "first things first. Hinata-san, would you please be so good as to hold yourself straight and look at me when I am talking?" Hinata blushed furiously and immediately drew herself up straighter and raised her head. Evidently, however, her natural instincts to keep herself out of sight were too strong. As soon as she thought he wasn't looking at her, her head returned to its previous position. Kakashi sighed, but let it pass for now.

"All right then. Let's start with the basics, shall we?" Here he gave a short pause while the genin waited anxiously, then grinning sadistically under his mask, added, "Give me fifty laps around the ground. Starting now. Get moving."

Like he expected, the genin have each other, and him, dismayed looks. Even Sasuke, Kakashi was pleased to note, looked uncertain, at least.

"F-fifty laps?" Hinata stuttered.

"Well," Kakashi said. "If you really don't want to start with running, you can start with pushups and pull-ups, 100 each, mind you. But running also acts as a good warm up, so unless you really want to pull something you should not have, you should quit complaining and start running. Now, I suggest."

As the four kids started to run towards the perimeter of the ground, which was a good two kilometers long, he called cheerily after them, "Do be quick, won't you? We have got lots of other things to do as well."

Naruto looked around the training ground. His teammates were scattered around in various poses. Hinata was sitting with her back to one of the training posts, almost certainly asleep. Aiko was mirroring Hinata's pose some distance away, against a tree. Her eyes were closed too, but Naruto didn't think she was actually sleeping. Sasuke was sitting on a rock a little further away, his face set in the brooding expression he always wore. Kakashi was nowhere to be seen, but Naruto had a feeling in his gut that the one eyed jounin was somewhere nearby, keeping his eye on them. The thought was more disturbing them he cared to admit. He sighed and stood up.

And immediately sat back down as every muscle in his body screamed in protest against the sudden movement. Naruto clenched his teeth and sat back down, waiting for the pain to pass. When he was finally able to unclench them without screaming in pain, he began to slowly stretch and massage his muscles, trying to work out the cramps.

Their sensei had, all through the morning, run them ragged with one grueling exercise routine after another, with little rest between two consecutive ones. By the end of it, even Naruto was shaking like a leaf in a storm. When Kakashi announced (sounding unreasonably gleeful, he thought) that from tomorrow, they were going to add sparring sessions to this, Hinata looked almost ready to burst into tears. Naruto wasn't far behind her. Anyway, they had been allowed 15 minutes of rest then. After that, they had gone to the Hokage's office to get their first mission as a team. Only a D-rank, of course, which amounted to little more than chores, but it was their first mission, and there was a general air of excitement.

That excitement had all but vanished four hours later, by which time they had finally managed to corner the cat they were supposed to be capturing. And by the time the mission was finished, another half an hour later, no trace of it remained. Naruto and Sasuke were both nursing dozens of scratches apiece, on their faces and arms. Neither of the girls were in much better condition. And Naruto was quite sure that their sadistic sensei was enjoying all of this immensely. Somehow, that did not make things any better.

After Kakashi had taken them to the infirmary to get first aid, he let them of to have lunch, with instructions to gather at the training ground afterwards. Sasuke had immediately left, not even bothering to exchange a greeting with any of them. He and Aiko had decided to go back to the training ground (as neither of them could afford lunch if they wanted to keep the electricity in their run down apartment), when Hinata called out to them. Pleasant surprise would not be sufficiently adequate to describe Naruto's feelings when she handed both of them a lunchbox, accompanied by her usual blushing and stuttering. She had made extras, she had said, "in case" someone needed them. Aiko had ran forward and given Hinata a tight hug, then broken away, blushing furiously. Both of which were completely out of character for her. Hinata, however, had only smiled happily at her and suggested that they go back to the training ground to have their lunch.

Naruto finished stretching and stood again, gingerly. This time, none of his muscles mutinied against him, and he heaved a sighed a sigh of relief. He gave another look around the training ground. Still no sign of their sensei, although that gut feeling of being watched didn't go away. He walked across and sat down next to Aiko, who opened one eye and smiled at him. Naruto smiled back.

"I wonder," Aiko suddenly spoke, "how did our sensei lose his eye?"

"Must be on some battle or other," Naruto said. "Why, what does it matter?"

"Nothing," Aiko stretched lazily. "But I think that it might make for an interesting story."

"You can always ask sometime."

"Someday, I intend to. Not now." Aiko smiled at Naruto. "By the way, nii-san, it was really nice of Hinata-san to bring us lunches, don't you think?"

"Yeah." Naruto grinned. "If she hadn't, we would have to go hungry to day. But it makes me think, why on earth was she carrying around two extra lunches? I mean, apart from Choji, I don't think I have ever seen any one do that."

Aiko looked sideways at her brother. "Maybe she was hoping that if we accepted her lunches, she would be able to spend more time with us?"

"But why?" Naruto looked genuinely confused at that. "You would think she is going to be spending enough time around us as it is. Why would she want more time?"

Aiko just sighed and shook her head. Evidently, unless Hinata could shake off her shyness and do something herself, her one sided crush was going to remain exactly that. Though even she didn't understand why she suddenly felt motivated to market Hinata to Naruto. Maybe it was the fact that she had packed lunches for the both of them. Maybe it was that, in spite of knowing Hinata for only a few days, she felt a kinship with her, an odd feeling that, out of all her classmates, Hinata was one person who would know how isolation felt.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted, as their sensei landed into the clearing. Everybody immediately jumped to full alert, including Hinata, although she was extremely disoriented for a moment.

Kakashi surveyed them for a moment, before clearing his throat. "All right. Initially, I had thought of a few more exercises, but since this is your first day, and you appear really tired, I think I will give you a break. Please gather here tomorrow, same time. Remember, we will be working longer tomorrow, so be prepared. Also, bring your shuriken and kunai. I would like to see you do some target practice."

The tired genin nodded and split for the day, with an energetic "see you tomorrow!" from Naruto while Aiko nodded (did that girl ever smile, unless she was talking with her brother?), shy "good night" form Hinata and a noncommittal grunt from Sasuke. As they left the field Kakashi stood there looking after them. There was a very good reason why he had let them off so early. He had had his team for less than a day and already there were problems, for lack of a better word, with no answers. He had no idea why Hinata had turned up for training looking like she had just returned from a war. He didn't understand how he could get Sasuke to bond closer with his team, for so far the boy had stayed as far apart as he could and still be functional. And he could not understand why, in the lunch break, Naruto and his sister had been headed for the field instead of going to get a snack when Hinata offered to share food with them. All orphans were paid a monthly allowance for food, clothing and lodging until they became adults. In the case of orphans who became ninjas, the allowance continued until they became chuunin, or their jounin sensei decided that the allowance was no longer necessary. And Kakashi knew that the Sandaime personally saw to it that in Naruto or Aiko's case, the payments were made properly, and on time. Indeed, there were way too many questions that he could not figure out.

So he had decided to let them out early, and for the rest of the day, follow them around. He wanted to watch them, how they interacted with others, how others interacted with them, and what they did when they weren't being forced to behave in certain ways by virtue of what they were doing. Now it was just a question of deciding whom to go after first.

Kakashi stood alone on the field for a moment, undecided. His brain was telling him to go after the Uchiha, telling him that that was where the biggest problem lay. But Kakashi had learned long ago that it does not always pay to listen to you brain and smother your heart. After a moment, he jumped into the trees, and began to follow silently, in the same direction that his sensei's children had gone.

A/n:- Chapter 6 is in the works. should be out in a few days. Until then, please enjoy this chapter and review. They motivate me to write more and better. Sayonara.