Author's Note: And we're back with chapter twelve! Thanks to all of you who have stuck with the story and are still reading, I greatly appreciate it. First I'd like to apologize for how chapter eleven was a filler. There's no other word for it; it was a filler. I just couldn't in all honesty drag out those four years at the academy as real chapters because it would have been boring as fuck and I was itching to get a move on into the canon storyline.

Canon thankfully starts with this chapter.

It's gonna be rather obvious, but I'll say it now, I don't like Sakura. Even the post time skip Sakura is annoying and just detestable in my opinion. There's very little to like about her, and while the potential for character growth is huge with her, she's still a USDA approved, Grade A, asshole. So my apologies to her fans but there will be some Sakura bashing though I'll be trying not to go out of my way about it as Noriko just views her as a problem to fixed so that the future doesn't get fucked up, she's doesn't outright hate her like she hates say...most of the Uchiha or the Council or Danzo.

Lastly I would also like to say that I'm overwhelmed with the response to my first ever Omake. I honestly hadn't thought it was THAT funny, but apparently a number of you did so I'm happy to see about more of them in the future.

Final note, there are two polls up on my profile that deal with the wave mission, go vote now!

Now on with the show!

"...Team Seven will consist of Uzumaki Noriko, Sasuke Uchiha, and Haruno Sakura, with Hatake Kakashi as sensei."

With Iruka's declaration I let my forehead hit the desk before me as an annoyed groan made its way out of my throat. To my right, Sasuke gave a 'Hn' that somehow managed to convey sympathy while to my left Hinata gently rubbed my shoulder with a small giggle.

"C-Cheer up Noriko-chan, at least Sasuke's on the team with you, rather than Kiba or someone worse like Ami," she offered.

I simply answered with another groan.

Perhaps I shouldn't have told Jiji about team assignments, maybe I would have gotten Hinata on my team instead of Crazy-Pyscho-Bitch-Banshee. Though it's possible this would have happened anyways, still it made me sigh in annoyance as the jounin sensei came and claimed the rest of the teams.

Sitting up and waving a goodbye to Hinata, I looked briefly to Sasuke as I said, "We've got about three hours to burn before Kashi-nii gets here, want to go get some lunch, Sasuke?"

Sakura instantly snapped out of whatever daydream she was in as Sasuke 'Hn'd' am affirmative, making me shake my head with a rueful smile as we both stood and headed for the door. She cried out, though whether it was in anger, indignation, or abandonment as she asked -read demanded- "Where are you two going?!"

"We're getting lunch Haruno-san, you can join us if you can behave." I replied, waving over my shoulder back at her as I turned and lead the way out of the school and towards Ichiraku's Ramen.

Sighing happily on my stool as I patted my slightly swollen belly -eating two dozen bowels of ramen could do that to a person- I smiled before my expression soured as I looked to see Sakura picking lamely at her small, vegetable ramen. Shaking my head, I met Sasuke's eyes and he shrugged before looking back to his second bowl of beef ramen.

"Haruno-san." I began.

Immediately the pinked haired girl looked up at me, near loathing burning in her eyes as I almost regretted my course of action. "What is it?"

"You need to eat more if you don't want to hold Sasuke-kun back and be a useless teammate."

There was an annoyed look shot in my direction by Sasuke but he kept quiet thankfully as Sakura seemed to work through the mental course of realizing that I, the dead last of the academy, had both given her advice and told her off. The pinkette's reaction eventually settled on sputtering, red-faced indignation that I was quick to cut off.

"Haruno-san, if you really want to be a ninja and not just play at being one then take this seriously. Ninja burn something between three and four thousand calories a day. I personally burn closer to six thousand and Sasuke likely burns around three. I doubt you even take in more than fifteen hundred a day."

"Well of course I don't eat like a pig, baka! I'm on a diet!"

I smothered a heavy sigh as I replied, "Sakura, have you ever seen a kunoichi on a diet? Have you ever seen a fat ninja even other than an Akimichi? We don't need diets you dunce. If you're a real ninja then you'll be exercising so much that it won't matter how much or what all you're eating."

"She's right you know," Ayame cut in, earning a grateful smile from me, "If you're going to be a ninja than that means you have to act like it and eat like it. At the moment Haruno-san, you'd likely collapse from exhaustion on a mission since you eat so little."

Sakura seemed torn on how to respond, especially since the speaker was a rather fit and attractive young woman. Before she could stick her foot in it, I polished off my last bowl, Sasuke already having finished his, before I took out the appropriate money and paid for our meals as I said, "You can think on it later Haruno-san, Kashi-nii will likely be at the academy soon."

I hopped down from my stool, waving goodbye as I started to walk away calling out, "Thanks Ayame-nee, Teuchi-ji, lunch was great!"

"It was no problem, Noriko-chan, come back when you have the chance."

We were left waiting for twenty minutes before the door to the classroom slid open, admitting a tall ninja with gravity defying gray hair and an extremely bored expression on the visible quarter of his face.

"My first impression is...I don't like you."

Instantly I rolled my eyes and snorted in return, earning a mild glare from Kakashi before he kept speaking.

"Meet me on the roof in five minutes."

With that our sensei vanished in a shunshin which I quickly mimicked, disappearing in a swirl of light blue fire before reappearing on the roof top, leaning against the railing as Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow at me before Sasuke appeared a scant second later in a swirl of leaves.

It was nearly the full five minutes later when Sakura stumbled up onto the roof, panting heavily and prompting a sweatdrop from all three of us.

"Good now that we're all here let's do some introductions."

"What do you want to know?" Sakura asked.

"How about your likes, dislikes...your dreams for the future, and things like that." Kakashi replied.

"Why don't you go first then sensei?" the pinkette asked.

I very nearly facepalmed at just how close this was following the manga, even if Sasuke and I weren't even speaking yet, still I turned my attention back to Kakashi as he answered.

"Oh me? Well my name is Hatake Kakashi...I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes...dreams for the future...hmmm and I have lots of hobbies…"

'Really Kashi-nii? Come on, you can do better than that, I know you can.'

"Now it's your turn, you go first Pinky."

Sakura flushed a little as both Sasuke, Kakashi, and I all turned our attention to her as she answered, "My name is Haruno Sakura. The thing I like is…*blushes*...Well the person I like is…*blushes*...And uhm, my dream of the future…*blushes*...uhm…? Oh yeah! I really hate Noriko."

'By Kami kit, if that girl doesn't man the fuck up or get killed soon I'm gonna have to ask you to kill her so I don't have listen to her. Future usefulness be damned.'

'I won't fight you on it, Tou-san.'

"...And my hobby is…*blushes*..."

I didn't even fight the sweatdrop this time as Sakura finished her introduction, leaving me feeling nothing but despair at the team setup that Jiji had given me.

Kakashi seemed to feel the same way if his sigh was anything to go by, but he moved on as he said, "Alright, you next Broody."

I very nearly rolled my eyes while Sasuke actually did before starting his introduction as he said, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are a lot of things i don't like. I do like my mother, Kagami-sama, and Noriko-san. I train and my dream is to resurrect my clan and learn the truth about why my brother killed them."

'A lot better than I was expecting to be honest,' I admitted to myself, just a bit surprised that Uchiha Sasuke, brooder extraordinaire, had named me as one of the few people he liked. It was enough of one that I actually felt a touch of heat rise to my cheeks. I had no interest in Sasuke as anything other than a good friend, at least right now, but the attention that was now focused on me from the rest of my team, especially the fiery glare from Sakura.

"Alright, you're next Tomato."

I arched an eyebrow at Kakashi's nickname for me before sighing with mild irritation as I said, "My name is Uzumaki Noriko. I hate stupid people, bigots, and fangirls. If I want any of you to know anything more about me I'll tell you myself in private."

It was nice for sure to finally be shedding that damn mask that I had worn for the last six years in public. Now that I was out of the Academy and in my team, I was well set to start instituting my plans for the future and I could finally start being honest in my interactions with people.

Or at least more honest if Kakashi's questioning look was anything to go by compared to Sasuke's knowing look.

"...Alright then, tomorrow we start our duties as shinobi. First we'll do something with just the four of us."

"What will we be doing sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Survival training."

Sasuke and I both kept to ourselves at the explanation, but Sakura couldn't seem to as she stated, "We've had enough of that at the Academy."

"This isn't normal training," Kakashi replied, shooting Sakura a look, "This time I'm your opponent."

Deciding not to listen to his mind games about how two thirds of us were going to fail, I sighed and tuned back in just as Kakashi was giving us the instructions on when and where to meet. I took my information paper when he handed them to us before I pre-empted Kakashi's attempt to flee as I said, "If you know what's good for your books kashi-nii, you'll be on time for all team get togethers."

The jounin immediately looked to me, and at the foxy grin I let slide across my face, I noticed a tiny glimmer of fear in Kakashi's eyes as I vanished in a swirl of blue white fire, on my way to his apartment to pick up his books before he could try to hide them.

Morning came all too soon, and given the warning I had offered Kakashi and the books I had appropriated from his apartment, I decided to edge on the side of caution and show up a few minutes early, having already eaten a hearty breakfast beforehand. I took a seat on one of the three stumps and settled in to finger comb my unruly, spiky hair as I offered a nod to Sasuke as he greeted me while I pulled my fiery locks into a low ponytail that hung down to my waist in a manner very similar to Jiraiya's hair style.

I vaguely missed my slightly curly hair from my last life as I could actually put it into different styles where all the choice I had with my current hair was whether or not to cut it.

Right at five Kakashi appeared on time to my pleasant surprise, though the dark glare he shot my way told me he was not happy at all with my actions.

I settled for a cheeky grin and sticking the tip of my tongue out at him in return before hopping from my seat to form a small arc in front of Kakashi with Sasuke and Sakura.

"Alright you three. You already know that two of you are going to fail so here's the exercise," Kakashi began, withdrawing a clock from a storage seal before setting it on one of the logs as he continued, "This clock is set for noon, you have until then to secure one of these two bells." -he held them up for us to see before attaching them to his belt- "Whichever one of you doesn't get a bell is going back to the Academy. Now if you seriously expect to succeed, come at me with the intent to kill."

A pair of kunai poofed into existence in my hands as Sasuke drew his own one before we looked to Kakashi for the signal to start.

"Now begin."

Instantly, Sasuke and I leapt backwards into the tree line dodging around a bit before we met up on a large tree branch in relative silence as we both watched Sakura disappear from the clearing and immediately start looking for us.

"So you figure out the purpose of the test yet Sasuke or am I gonna need to explain it to you?" I teased lightly, earning a scowl and a derisive 'Hn' from my teammate.

"Good, now since she's your fangirl, I'll let you go bring Sakura in on this while I occupy sensei."

He nodded in reply before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

On my own, I let my grin become positively malicious as my giddiness bubbled up. This wasn't my first opportunity to test myself against someone with Kakashi's skill level, but it was my first time doing it as myself and not Ryuukoe. Now I wasn't limited in my techniques as I usually would have been as my alter ego, anything I knew was available, and I started out by letting chakra flow to my eyes, my muscles, my bones, my nerves. and every other bit of my body as I enhanced myself, albeit unnecessarily, for the upcoming fight right before I disappeared in a swirl of blue fire to reappear opposite Kakashi in the clearing as I cracked my neck asking, "You ready to play, Kakashi-sensei?"

He didn't reply verbally, but his one visible eye narrowed and I allowed myself a small chuckle as I launched forwards to engage him, my speed well into high chunin territory even though I was significantly holding back, and that was to say nothing of my resistance and gravity seals.

I caught sight of his one eye widening in surprise before he awkwardly shifted to block a swift kick aimed for his head, grabbing my shin as he did so. I used his hold to launch my next attack, twisting as I brought up my other foot to catch his wrist and force him to release me as we both backed off a touch before attacking each other.

Rapid fire kicks and punches shot between us, more than a few grazing me thanks to my self limiting while a few solid blows managed to hit Kakashi as the minutes dragged on, my chakra senses keeping track of Sasuke and Sakura while I shrouded their presences by flooding the area with my chakra.

At one point close to five minutes in, Kakashi made a grab for my ponytail, seemingly intent on teaching me a lesson about long hair in combat only for my spiky mane to lash out at him, several needles of hair driving into his fingers and palm before he could pull away and remove them.

I made a show of panting a little more than necessary as I grinned and said, "Looks like first blood goes to me sensei."

The dark glare I got in return told me what Kakashi thought of that but any rebuttals was put on hold as Sasuke shot from the ground and into a roundhouse kick, beginning his own martial exchange with our ex-ANBU teacher. The blows were as clean and quick as my own, though they lacked a bit in the power department, as Sasuke pushed at our sensei. His eyes were still black for the time being, a sign that Sasuke hadn't activated his Sharingan yet to try and match Kakashi.

Wouldn't that be a surprise once Sasuke finally used it. All he had needed was exposure to a sufficient level of killing intent to unlock and mature them and I had been all too willing to provide such killing intent during a one on one training session between us.

Helping him with that had been one of the few things that I could do to help him grow up as the way in my help had provided meant he listened to me a bit more and from there I had been able to help change his opinion and mindset. The fact that he assuredly counted me as his friend still worried me as it meant that I was his most absolute target for gaining the Mangekyou Sharingan, but I had I plan in place for that, one drawn from my days of reading fanfics.

Either it would work or I would have to seriously consider putting down my teammate.

My mental musings were cut off when Sasuke was tossed away from Kakashi, hurling a fireball at the gray haired man as I dashed in and followed up behind it, attacking our sensei as I drove him towards the edge of the clearing with Sasuke quickly leaping back in to join the assault as we pressed our teacher.

Right as he reached the edge of the clearing, I backed off, dropping to all fours as I let a blow push me away so I could get the needed distance for my technique. I pushed chakra into my hands and let it take shape before lancing down into the ground and then racing through the soil to erupt at Kakashi's feet, wrapping him up past his knees in golden chakra chains as Sasuke made a go for the bells, grabbing one of Kakashi's wrists for leverage while Kashi grabbed his other hand to stop him.

And then a small, pale hand left the bushes directly to Kakashi's right and pulled the pulls away.

-break-

As we settled back into the clearing, Kakashi watched the three of us group up again before asking, "Very good. Now that you have the bells though Sakura, who are you going to share them with?"

The pinkette was frozen in indecision for a moment and seemed about to toss one to Sasuke when I cut in and said, "Give it up sensei. We worked as a team and we got the bells as a team. Dividing up the prize is just an attempt to make us in fight, correct?" I finished my question with a raised eyebrow, baiting Kakashi to deny it before he sighed and replied.

"Very well, good job you three. I'm honestly impressed that you figured it out and managed a working strategy to succeed. Noriko, Sasuke, both of you already have excellent skills, far above what I was expecting gennin to have fresh out of the Academy."

"The Academy is a crapshoot sensei," Sasuke put out in a cool tone, "Noriko and I had to practice outside classes constantly to get anywhere near where we are now."

Kakashi 'hmmed' to himself as he withdrew the one orange book I had left him with yesterday and began reading, "Than perhaps the two of you can help bring Sakura up to speed in between missions."

I immediately scowled in response to Kakashi's suggestion as I asked, "Isn't that supposed to be your job, Kashi-nii? Or do I need to introduce one of your signed copies to a Katon?"

The look Kakashi shot me was positively gloomy as he frowned beneath his mask. "Mah, mah, there's no need for that Noriko-chan," he said in an attempt to placate me, "For now let's get some lunch to celebrate your success as gennin."

Lunch was quiet after that until I pulled Sakura away as our group broke up for the day and created a shadow clone. I told the raving lunatic that was Sakura that she could either man up and go with my clone to train properly or she can keep being useless and never be noticed by her 'Sasuke-kun'. She certainly blew up in my face at my words, but by the end of it, she at least seemed to calm down after a few minutes of being verbally berated on my part.

It was probably a bit cruel of me to use her affections for Sasuke to motivate her, but really, what else could I do with the useless wench?

Not much that's what.

Though Kurama did suggest eating her since I'm not a human anymore.

I'm holding out on that one.

The next morning saw us gathered at the Hokage's Tower for a mission, and just wouldn't you know it, our very first mission was catching Tora. Now I didn't necessarily hate that demonic cat, but several encounters during my time on the streets had taught me to respect it. That the vile creature had survived the clutches of its owner -Madam Shijimi- and had been alive for at least twenty years was enough for me to have a healthy wariness. That wariness seemed to go both ways as ever since a particularly nasty fight over some stolen food, Tora had made sure to keep her distance from me as well.

So as a matter of course I ended up being the one who had to carry Tora back once we had run her to ground. The fact I was the only member of the team to come out without injuries wasn't very well received, especially by Sakura who couldn't seem to decide whether she wanted to glare at me or the cat that had slashed up her face more.

That first encounter with Tora seemed to set the tone for our future D-rank missions. We never had an easy job, all of them were physically demanding, and, more often then not, something tended to go stupid during the course of the mission.

Like when Sakura ended up with beehive on her head when trying to chase Tora through a tree.

Or when Sasuke was attacked by a family of angry badgers during a pest control mission.

Or like when that crate of cheese wheels broke open and rolled over me, regardless of my prodigious skills.

It was a curse I decided, and Kurama supported my assumption. It absolutely had to be something like the C-rank curse or the way the team number seven was cursed.

The following months were just like they were implied to be in canon other than the more physical jobs and the stupid that kept cropping up. One of the biggest, but least drastic, changes I could pick up was that we were often fast enough with our work that we got multiple D-ranks done in a day. By the end of our first three months out of the academy, team seven had racked up more than double the D-ranks of any of the other rookie teams.

The most dramatic change had been our team dynamic. Without Sasuke being a complete dick and just a minor one instead, things moved easier between us and our ability to cooperate was far and above anything from the manga except when team seven had been under fire. The fact that Sasuke was willing to step in and curb Sakura's idiocy to a degree was an enormous help, I honestly don't think I could have made it those three months if he hadn't been willing to either shut her up or force her to work with me.

And that brings up Sakura again...honestly I was still on the fence about hating the girl, she was making some effort to improve herself -minor though it was- and she was still a waste of space, but the seeds of change had already started to grow there. It was small but Sakura's physical state had improved noticeably under mine and Sasuke's attention though she was still physically weaker than all the rookies except Ino and maybe Shikamaru.

It was enough to stave off killing her though, to my constant regret whenever she bitched.

My own, more personal, activities were turning dividends. With Ryuukoe out and patrolling the land of fire, bandits and nuke-nin numbers had been significantly lowered. Enough that my alter ego was now an unofficial part of ANBU. Years of hard effort hazard seen her gradually welcomed into the ranks of Konoha and even brought in as one of Jiraiya's agents. That provided a gold mine of information, as for all the efforts my clones had made spreading out and spying across the Elemental Nations, there were still far too many holes for me to be comfortable with.

I could quite literally see the coming war in the numbers that were laid out by the information I acquired. Things were going to start coming to a head soon enough.

My experiments had tapered off after four years of work. With the ability to perform dozens, if not hundreds of such experiments at once thanks to my clones, and information gained through a raid on one of Orochimaru's many labs, I had finished nearly all of my gene-therapy work. I hadn't applied all of it to myself yet, but I had done enough that I was confident in my ability to trump most any opponent. There were few traits left to collect, such as the ability to gather nature chakra that one of Orochimaru's subordinates had.

Those would come with time though, I would make sure of it. In this land of monsters, I would stand atop them all and thrive against all odds, even if it meant doing horrible things to horrible people.

The ends justify the means.

Indeed they do, at least for me.

The fact that it doesn't bother me as much as I feel it should still scares me, but after nearly seven years I'm finally starting to understand and adapt to the changes that becoming a hanyou has made in my thought processes. It's still damn disturbing though.

After those three months though, I took a bit of time to visit the Hokage, informing him of my latest 'vision' of when team seven was sent on the Wave mission. Jiji certainly didn't like that we were going to end up against Zabuza Momochi and his sidekick, but after stressing just how important the mission seemed to the team as a group he relented and agreed to assign us the job when Tazuna came calling.

That was good for a number of reasons, it meant that we were starting to close on the Chunin exams. Those were certainly going to be quite the circus, especially now that I had finished up a number of my traps and experiments. It also meant that for the time being, canon was still holding true, more now at the very least. Still I needed to be cautious, there was honestly no telling what Orochimaru and Tobi would pull if and when I cornered them.

Author's Note: And there's chapter twelve, I hope you all enjoyed it. Next up is the Wave mission and by the time you've finished reading this author's note, a few polls will be posted on my profile where all of you can go and vote on the outcome of the mission and what actions Noriko will take there. Now go vote and review, and thank you all for reading my fic.

Ja ne!