The bar was crammed full of shinobi, as per usual. The atmosphere was loud and vibrant, but there were still plenty of corners where a quiet conversation could be had if you were so inclined. The alcohol was cheap and a haze of smoke hung overhead, coupled with faint music from speakers. It was the ideal place to go if you wanted to celebrate a successful mission or if you wanted a quiet drink or eight to drown the memory of a bad one.

The new jonin instructors had taken over a cluster of tables in the back corner and pushed them together, bottles and glasses scattered across the surface as they milled around and shouted down the table to others questions about their new team.

"So, the new Ino-Shika-Cho," Kurenai said, nodding to Asuma. "That's a reputation to live up to."

Asuma sighed, pulling his cigarette from his lips for a moment and tapping it against an ashtray. "I've got a girl more worried about fashion that fighting, a guy who'd rather spend his time cloud-gazing than training, and another guy who takes snack breaks when he's supposed to be doing strength training."

"It's better than Kakashi," one jonin said, giving a small grin and nodding to the copy-nin, who was sitting at the end of the table with his nose buried into an orange book they all knew well. "He got the Uchiha, sure, but he also got Naruto. He got the lowest scores in the class."

"Haha!" Gai cheered. Technically, he wasn't a new teacher, but he'd graduated from the Academy with a lot of the jonin sitting around the table with him, and he frequently joined them when they went out. "It seems that I've beaten you once again! My team is undoubtedly better than yours, Kakashi, my eternal rival!" he said, brandishing his glass of water triumphantly before taking a hearty swig.

Kakashi remained silent for a second, and then looked up at Gai blankly. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

Gai slumped into his chair, a dark cloud forming over his head. He glared at Kakashi and pouted childishly. "So cool…"

Kakashi raised one hand in greeting and his visible eye closed, his mask twitching as the corners of his mouth turned up. "Hi Asuka!" he called over Gai's shoulder. Gai crossed his arms and huffed irritably.

"I'm not falling for that again, Kakashi."

The empty chair next to Gai scraped against the floor as it was pulled back. A purple-clad figure coiled into the seat, crossing her ankles daintily.

"Asuka!" Gai cried. He attempted to envelop Asuka in what would have undoubtedly been a bone-breaking hug. She responded by raising the nails decorated with silver nail covers and directing the points towards Gai's throat. Gai, who knew that at any given time the pointed tips were coated in at least three different deadly poisons, recoiled and kept his hands to himself, asking instead, "Are you finally taking me up on my offer for a drink?"

Asuka huffed irritably, her mask ballooning over her mouth a little. "No, Gai. You've asked me at least a thousand times, and a thousand times, I've said no."

Gai sighed, pressing one hand over his heart and throwing the other up into the air dramatically. "That's fine, Asuka. I vow on my youth that I will win your heart one day!"

Asuka raised an eyebrow at him. "Sure, Gai. You do that." She turned to face Kakashi, eyes narrowing. "I came here to get something from Kakashi."

Kakashi's visible eye blinked innocently, and asked, "What might that be?"

That earned him a scowl from his fellow jonin. Asuka held out her hand and beckoned for him to hand it over. "My pipe, Hatake, you know what I'm after."

"How strange," Kakashi said, producing the pipe from under the table. "I seem to recall finding it on the ground outside the Academy. I thought it looked familiar, but I just couldn't seem to recall who it belonged to."

Asuka snatched the pipe away from him and thrust it inside her shirt, still glaring furiously. "You damn well knew it was mine, Kakashi. This was just a ploy to get me to come out and we both know it, so stop playing innocent."

"Asuka!" Kurenai said in surprise, finally realizing that she had joined their table. "I didn't know you were coming out. I haven't seen you in a while."

Asuka's eyes widened slightly as she realized she was about to get sucked into a conversation and trapped in the bar with the rest of the jonin. She held up her hands.

"No, I-"

"Asuka, hey!" Asuma greeted. "How's your team?"

Asuka's mouth opened and closed wordlessly, but she couldn't think of a way to worm her way out of this. Instead she glared at Kakashi and slumped in her seat, defeated.

"About as good as I could hope for," she grumbled. She glanced to the side and saw Kakashi's mask twitch in a way that made her sure he was grinning in triumph. She glared at him some more and snatched his glass from in front of him, tossing back the sake.

"Hey," Kakashi protested.

"You're the reason I'm here," Asuka said, gesturing to him with the glass. "So you're buying my drinks."

Gai laughed loudly, pointing at Kakashi's disgruntled face. "She has neatly trapped you, Kakashi! I believe that means Asuka gets a point."

"Keep me out of your weird rivalry," Asuka grunted, reaching for Kakashi's bottle and pouring herself another glass.

The Hokage looked up from his work as Kasumi stepped into his office, greeting him with the usual, "What've you got for me today old man?"

The Hokage blinked, surprised. "Well… nothing?"

Kasumi blinked back, just as surprised. "Nothing? What, did the council suddenly stop needing to monitor everything?"

"No…" he replied slowly. "But I had someone else take the messages for you."

Kasumi groaned aloud, demanding, "Well why'd you do that? I could've done it, you know!"

"Kasumi," the Hokage began, frowning at her. "I assumed you'd no longer be working here."

Kasumi's jaw dropped. No longer be working for the Hokage? "What have you been smoking old man?" she demanded incredulously.

"You're a genin now," the Hokage tried to explain. "Your time will be spent training and going on missions. You will be in no shape to be carrying messages all over Konoha by the end of the day. If you're really working hard, and I know you will, you'll be toppling into bed at the end of the day and passing out immediately. I know I did," he recalled.

Kasumi threw up her hands. "You think I don't know that? I don't exactly have a lot of options though, do it?" she pointed out. "If I don't work, I don't get paid, and if I don't get paid, I lose my crappy apartment. And how am I supposed to feed myself if I can't afford to buy food? Old man-"

"Kasumi!" the Hokage cut her off, raising a hand. Kasumi's mouth shut with a click, but she was panting slightly from going so long without breathing. "You'll be making money going on D-rank missions as a genin. There's no need to wear yourself out-"

"Yes there is!" Kasumi insisted. The Hokage was surprised by how frantic she seemed. Kasumi was usually lackadaisical about everything, but now she was actually trembling with passion. "D-rank missions pay peanuts! You know it and I know it! I'm not stupid, I did the math. Even if I go on missions every day of the month – and we both know that won't happen – then I'd barely have enough to pay for my apartment, food, and equipment."

The Hokage blinked. "I see," he said slowly. "I have to say, I'm impressed that you're taking this so seriously, especially since you're so young."

"Well I don't exactly have a choice, do I?" Kasumi snarled. She'd crossed the line from joking to outright disrespectful. The Hokage raised an eyebrow and Kasumi was instantly contrite. "Sorry old man," she said sheepishly. "I just… I gotta keep working for you or I'm on the streets again, you know?"

The Hokage sighed. "I understand. But Kasumi, this will be a lot of work on top of your training. I just don't want you to wear yourself out."

"I won't, I won't!" Kasumi assured him hastily. "I promise! You'll see old man, I'll train, deliver your messages, and I'll still go for a jog afterwards."

The Hokage smiled slightly. "I'd say that's a little excessive, but I see your point. Alright, Kasumi, I'll let you keep working."

"Yes!"

"But-"

"Why is there always a but?" Kasumi groaned.

"But if I let you keep doing this, I reserve the right to tell you to go home if I see you're not taking care of yourself, alright?" the Hokage said sternly.

Kasumi looked at him pointedly. "Do I have a choice?"

"No."

"Then I guess that's fine."

"Good. I'll tell the council that you're back on the job. I'm sure they'll have tons of scrolls for you to deliver tomorrow."

Kasumi sighed in relief. "Good."

"Now, go on home. I'm sure Asuka has plans for you tomorrow," the Hokage said kindly.

"Okay," Kasumi said, nodding as she turned to leave the office. "Thanks, Lord Hokage."

"You're welcome Kasu- Hey, you used my title!"

"How was your first day?" Hotaru asked, not looking up from the book she was pouring over as she lounged on her bed on her stomach, the text propped up against her pillow.

"It was really interesting!" Harumi smiled from her perch on the window seat of Hotaru's bedroom. She crossed her legs, her smile fading slightly when Hotaru just nodded and hummed in response. "Do you want to hear about it?"

"…"

"Hotaru?"

"Mm? Good, good."

"Hotaru!" Harumi called, frowning in hurt when her sister ignored her in favor of the book she was reading. Hotaru flinched and looked up. She blushed and sighed, looking at her sister apologetically.

"Sorry, Haru," Hotaru apologized, marking her page in the book and setting it aside. She sat up on the edge of her bed and looked at her sister with renewed interest. "I want to hear all about it," she promised.

"You sure?" Harumi asked pointedly, still a little hurt.

"Of course!" Hotaru insisted. She gestured to the book and explained, "I've just been working on this all day, it's hard to pull myself out."

Harumi nodded in understanding. Hotaru always did get caught up in things, after all. The easiest way to go about this was to get whatever Hotaru was so caught up in out in the open before she actually started talking about her day. She sidled over from the window seat to the bed and laid down net to Hotaru, pulling the book to her and opening it up.

"What're you looking at?" she asked curiously, scanning the pages. She frowned slightly at the diagram on the page. "Is this-?"

"Healing Resuscitation Regeneration Technique," Hotaru nodded, smiling happily. "You know the big storage room?"

Harumi nodded, still not quite understanding. The large storage room was where they kept extra bed linens, old medical textbooks they didn't need cluttering up the main portions of the house, and the files of some of their old patients – most of whom were now deceased. Strictly speaking, the room was really too large for storage – it was intended to be another surgery originally, but their mother didn't really see the point, considering they didn't have the staff to man a second surgery.

"Right," Hotaru continued. "Well, I was thinking we could move the linens to the preparation rooms, send the files to the hospital – they should technically have them anyway – and do something with the books, I haven't figured them out. The rest we can just sell, I don't think there's anything too important in there. But then I thought we could convert the room for using that jutsu."

"But you'd need more people than just us for that technique!" Harumi reminded her. "And I'm not strong enough to help you with it anyway," she added glumly.

"You will be soon," Hotaru said confidently. "And I was thinking of hiring some assistants. There are always med-nin looking for opportunities to practice or trainees looking for hours. We could get a few more people involved out here."

Harumi frowned. "But… why? We're not a hospital, we're more of a long-term recovery center."

"Yeah, but we could be more," Hotaru countered. "Mom started this place out of the goodness of her heart, and that's nice and all, but we could be doing more with her ideas. The village is larger than it was back in her day, we've got more ninjas who'd like someplace less public to recover – ruins their badass image. I mean, uh," Hotaru blushed, casting a sheepish look at her little sister. "Sorry."

Harumi scowled. "I've heard people say ass before Hotaru, I'm not five anymore," she said a little tartly.

"I know," Hotaru said, a mischievous smile spreading across her face. "But you're still my baby sister and as your big sister it's my job to keep you innocent for as long as possible."

"I'm a ninja," Harumi pointed out.

"That's only part of my job," Hotaru shrugged. Harumi frowned.

"What's the other part?"

"Merciless torture!"

Hotaru cackled as she lunged, pinning Harumi to the bed and dancing her fingers up and down her sister's ribs. "Mwahaha! Face it kunoichi, you are at my mercy!" she said smugly.

Harumi deftly hooked her leg around her older sister's and flipped them, sliding off the bed and placing her hands on her hips proudly. "Nuh uh! I will never submit."

Hotaru chuckled, rubbing the back of her head. "Should've seen that coming, huh? Ah well, had to happen some time. So tell me about your day."

Harumi smiled. She knew her sister well. All she had to do was let Hotaru vent whatever was on her mind for a minute, and then she'd be ready to listen.

"Well I got my team today, and they seem…"

Dinner was as silent as usual at the Fukui house. Akio was already seated at the table, tea service in the middle. He had a cup sitting in front of him, holding it in his remaining hand. He raised it to his lips and took a sip. He picked up his chopstick and wrinkled his nose at the meal in front of him.

"Rice and vegetables again," he sneered. "That makes the third night this week. And it's Tuesday."

Toshiro stared a his own place, jaw clenching slightly. "I'm very sorry father," he said submissively. "It's the only thing I can cook that you will eat."

Akio's eyes snapped up and pinned his son with a glare. Toshiro restrained the urge to wince. "So it's my fault we eat the same thing every night, is it?" he demanded. "Perhaps you could put in the effort to learn some new recipes?"

Toshiro nodded, sucking in his cheeks slightly. "Yes father, I will buy a cook book on the way home from training tomorrow and prepare something different for tomorrow's meal."

Akio sat back, pleased. "Good." He gave his meal another dismissive look and proceeded to nearly drown it is wasabi and soy sauce. "Only way it has any flavor," he muttered irritably.

They two Fukuis ate in silence for several more minutes, one of them occasionally sipping tea. Toshiro put bite after bite of rice into his mouth. Even he had to admit that their meals were bland. But he hated spicy foods, so wasabi wasn't an option for him, and his father insisted too much salt was bad for his health, so he wasn't allowed soy either.

If it were up to him, he would have started trying new recipes ages ago. He actually didn't mind cooking. It was one thing his father couldn't correct his technique on, because Akio Fukui didn't know the first thing about cooking. In this one area, he was his father's superior.

However, the last time he tried to mix things up with their meals he'd forgotten that his father didn't like fish. The night ended with Toshiro picking fish bones out of his long silver hair and nursing a cut under his eye from a chopstick thrown with alarming accuracy. It had effectively killed his culinary creativity.

"Speaking of training," Akio spoke up suddenly. "Tell me about your team."

Toshiro lowered his chopsticks. He knew that if he made the mistake of chewing with his mouth open or tried to stop explaining long enough to sneak a bite it would trigger a whole new rant.

"My teacher's name is Asuka," he began. "She is apparently very proficient with poisons, from what understand."

"Ah, Asuka Mizuna," Akio nodded. His lip curled slightly. "Yes, she developed most of Konoha's most dangerous poisons. But she hadn't taught in three years, not since… Never mind. She will be an effective teacher. Your teammates?"

Toshiro would have dearly loved to ask what his father had started to say, but he didn't dare change the subject.

"Two girls," he began. His father's eyes sharpened.

"You will not be distracted by them," he said shortly. Toshiro couldn't retrain a snort.

"I won't be," he replied confidently. What he thought was that Kasumi was entirely too rough for him to ever develop any kind of romantic feelings for, and Harumi was too meek. What he said was, "Neither of them are suitable for a Fukui."

"Their names?"

"Harumi Oshiro is the first."

"Oshiro, that's the family that runs that clinic in Nara Forest," Akio nodded thoughtfully. "Useless waste of time if you ask me. If a shinobi can't make it the rest of the way to the village, then they deserve what happens to them."

Toshiro bit his tongue to keep from protesting.

"But it's never bad to have someone with a medical background on a team," his father continued. "You will be far less likely to die on a mission, which is good. You must carry on the Fukui name. It is your duty."

"Yes father," Toshiro replied, unable to keep a hint of weariness from his voice. He had heard the speech so often by now that he could probably recite it word for word if asked, mimicking his father's tone and gestures exactly.

"And the last?" his father pressed impatiently.

"Kasumi," Toshiro said, his nose wrinkling. Harumi he didn't mind so much. She was much weaker than he was, but she could catch up with training. Kasumi on the other hand… she had all kinds of raw ability and the talent to use it, but absolutely no discipline.

There was a moment of pregnant silence before Akio snapped, "Well? Her last name?"

Toshiro shook his head, knowing that the conversation was about to break down. "She doesn't have one."

"Doesn't have one," his father repeated slowly. "And why's that?"

"She was found after a group of chunin routed some bandits. Kasumi is the name she gave, no surname."

Akio sniffed. "No background, but does she at least have some kind of skill?"

"She has a kekkei genkai that allows her to sense movement through the earth and manipulate it with ease."

Akio nodded, looking approving for once. "So no family, but the talent to make up for it. I suppose she'll do."

Toshiro winced, tilting his head to hide it behind his hair. "But…" It was better his father find out now than later.

Akio's eyes turned to daggers. "But what?"

"She's blind." Toshiro let it out in a rush of air and then stiffened in his seat, waiting for his father's rage to wash over him. He wasn't disappointed.

"Blind?!" Akio swept a hand across the table, sweeping his plate and cup from it. The food spilled across the floor and the dishes shattered against the wall. Tea and food soaked into the wall and floor and Toshiro restrained a groan, knowing he would be up late cleaning the stains out.

"To pair someone like us with an invalid? What do they think they're doing? This must be a joke… I won't have it! My heir deserves the most proficient team at his back! You have to survive or our line will end! What use will a blind girl be? How will she watch your back when she can't even wash herself brush her own teeth? If she even does, raised by bandits, probably a filthy girl, no manners…"

Toshiro didn't disagree with his father on that last part, but at the same time, Kasumi was his teammate. They had to stick together or their team would never function properly. So he steeled himself and said, "She functions as if her sight were perfect, she shouldn't be a hindrance."

"Silence!"

Toshiro's head jerked to the side as his father's hand cracked across his cheek. He winced as blood filled his mouth – his teeth had cut his cheek.

"You're only a genin, no idea what it's like in a real battle, on a real mission," his father ranted at him. "It's only you and your team and you must rely on them to cover you when you can't defend yourself! You stupid boy, do you want to die?! Do you want to get yourself killed like the rest of our clan?!"

Toshiro sighed and picked up his chopsticks, taking another bite of his dinner, and waited for his father's anger to ebb.