It would seem that the only time I am ever properly inspired for this story is when I am listening to the Halo soundtracks. Who knew video game soundtracks could be so awesome? Its an eargasm! I highly recommend them if you are a fan of symphony/trailer music. It's got everything from classical suites, electronic beats, to chanting monks, and battle hymns! Just so much fun to listen to for a music lover such as I.

Anyway, onwards! To Ino's POV!

The worst part about Augmentation – after the excruciating pain of the Augmentation itself, of course – was the feeling of wrongness that permeated her body. It felt like her body was no longer hers, but a foreign thing, a shell to which her soul had been forcefully shoved into.

Her skin itched, because it felt so wrong, so… not her. She wanted to claw at it, to peel away the layers of skin and flesh to try and glimpse her true body hidden beneath this strange shell. The Itch made her muscles twitch and crawl beneath the skin, and she could feel her body growing at a rate that was inhuman. At night, as she tried to catch some sleep, she thought she could hear her bones creak as they lengthened and hardened, pulling her muscles with them, stretching and pushing her flesh. It was painful, but the ache was so constant that she had learned to ignore it.

Ino grimaced as her hand wrapped around the spoon and carefully brought the bland soup to her lips. Her fingers twitched at the movement, again her skin tingling with the Itch.

After waking up from the procedure, Ino had been checked thoroughly inside and out, and then the scientists had her rest some more. When she had awoken for the second time, she had been moved to a more permanent room, instead of the procedure room. The scientist assigned to watch over her had gone to fetch her some food. Ino had not realized that she was starving until the smell of something warm and edible hit her nose.

The Augmentation procedure had taken almost 6 hours, the scientist had told her. And then she had slept for two days as her body shut down, struggling to resist the forceful rearrangement of her genetic coding. In the end, the Augmentation would overpower the body's defenses, and then her body would shut down and go into something of a 'hibernation' mode as it began to adjust to the Augmentations. After her initial awakening – which assured the researchers that she had survived, and was not just stuck in a coma – they had administered several antibiotics and regeneration steroids to help her body heal the damage done by the procedure. This had knocked her out for another 27 hours.

She had gone three whole days without any food or water.

Ino had hardly realized how much time had passed. To her, it felt like the Augmentation had been only yesterday! But it explained why the scientists did not want her getting up and moving about. Her body would likely collapse due to the combination of stress, damage, and lack of sustenance.

Still, Ino would do anything to get some real food. So far, the researchers had only allowed her to eat some bland soup that was mostly broth with a few small bits of vegetables. They had told her that her body was likely still too weak to digest solid food. Which sucked, because Ino had always had a fast metabolism, even before freaky-steroid procedures, and she really wanted a good hamburger at the moment.

She frowned as her hand trembled, holding the spoon with a limp grip that she desperately tried to strengthen. But no, she was still recovering, and so very weak. She became exhausted just getting up and walking to the bathroom.

Ino began to count.

One…

Two…

Three…

Four…

Five…

Six…

Seven…

"Fuck!"

Her hand spasmed and her control ceased altogether. Her fingers went limp, and the spoon clattered to the floor. Ino panted and grit her teeth as she watched her arm fall to her lap, the constant ache in her bones suddenly flaring to life in her forearm, making her wince and hiss another curse. A bead of sweat rolled down her temple, and she cursed that too.

Swoosh!

She looked up as the door opened, and her babysitter walked in.

"What did I say about pushing yourself?"

A short Asian woman with close-cropped, dark black hair walked in, her doctor's coat flapping softly, buttoned primly, her pants iron to the seams, with regulation trainers (flat shoes). Dr. Shizune bent down to pick up the spoon, which had skidded across the small room.

Ino glared down at her lap. "I can't even hold up a fucking spoon for ten seconds! What the fuck happened to Augmented strength?"

Shizune sighed and placed the spoon back on the food tray that sat in Ino's lap. She then picked up the tray and set it beside Ino on the small bed. She walked back to the doorway, where a small screen was embedded into the wall beside it. Pulling out her tablet, Shizune swiped Ino's file from the room onto her pad, scrolling through the measurements and readings that the room had taken from Ino in the last 24 hours.

"Believe it or not, you are improving." Shizune said as she read over the data, walking back to stand in front of the subject. She flapped a hand at Ino, who sighed and began undressing.

The blonde muttered grumpily under her breath as she pulled the coarse, unflattering patient uniform over her head. The shirt reminded her of hospital scrubs, square-cut and unflattering, not exactly soft yet not wholly uncomfortable. The pants were made from the same material, with an elastic sewn into the waist for minimal effort dressing, considering how clumsy Spartan subject were right after Augmentation (because keeling over while attempting to pull up your pants would be downright embarrassing for a Spartan).

Shizune had Ino stand up as she walked in a full circle around the subject, studying her body while idly scribbling notes onto her tablet with a stylus. Ino shivered as the scientist's cold fingers touch her skin, tracing the scars left behind by the procedure and gently pressing.

"Does this hurt?" Shizune asked in a detached voice.

"It aches all the time." Ino replied, "But no sharp pains, no."

The doctor nodded and scribbled something else down.

"Any internal troubles since the last check-up?" Shizune continued. "Particularly in the torso area. Heart, lungs, digestion?"

"All go." Ino said absently, clenching her hands into fists as the Itch returned. A draft from the vents hit her bare back, and suddenly it felt like ants were crawling up and down her spine, spreading out across her shoulder blades, and curling around front to her stomach.

Dr. Shizune's gaze sharpened as she noticed Ino suddenly tense up, her fingers digging into her palms until red seeped under the nail.

"The itching still a problem?" She did not so much as ask but stated with a frown.

Ino nodded jerkily, flinching as Shizune placed her palm on the expanse of skin between her shoulder blades. The doctor kept her hand there for a while, closing her eyes and paying attention to the way Ino's muscles twitched and spasmed beneath her hand.

"You can't scratch at it, okay?" Shizune told the blonde for the umpteenth time.

"I know." Ino growled through clenched teeth. "Please, let me put the shirt back on."

Shizune nodded and stepped away from the subject, who darted towards the bed and snatched up her shirt, practically shoving herself back into the protective cover of the fabric. Ino pulled the shirt tight against her back and wrapped her arms around herself, hissing under her breath as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"It's just your body adjust to the Augmentation." The doctor reminded her.

Ino nodded, biting her lip. She knew that. This was not the first time that they had had this conversation. On the second night since awakening, the researchers had been alerted by the lab's AI system that a subject was injured, and had burst into Ino's bathroom to find her body riddled with claw marks, bloody and raw, as she sat on the floor of the shower and rubbed her skin until it bled. When the scrubber wasn't enough, Ino had used her long nails, clawing through her skin, mumbling about the Itch and the wrong body. It had taken three men to pull her out of the shower and wrestle her to the ground, her enhanced strength making it difficult for them to subdue her. Eventually someone had injected a knockout drug, and Ino woke up to find herself covered in bandages and strapped down her bed, her nails filed down to the base of her fingers.

They had kept her manacled to her bed for over a week, not that she blamed them. The Itch had been the worst in those first few weeks after the Augmentation, and while it still haunted her, it was not nearly as bad now as it had been then. She had felt ashamed at her senseless behavior, but Dr. Shizune had assured her that she was not the only subject to experience such side-effects.

"Believe it or not," Shizune's voice interrupted Ino's musings, "You are recovering much faster than most of the other subjects. I think we will be able to start you on physical training soon."

Oh thank god. Ino thought with a sigh. The most physical activity she had been allowed to do in the past few weeks was going for a walk around the labs, which were never very long or exciting, and always made her out of breath due to her weakened state. Despite her body's limitations, her mind had not forgotten the thrill of physical activity, and she was dreaming of stretching her legs and sweating out her frustrations.

"We should have you back up to your previous strength in the next month." Shizune stated as she tapped and clicked various things on her tablet. "And after that, we'll start training your body with its increased abilities. It won't be easy – we might have strengthened your body on a microscopic level, but those enhancements have not actually been exercised yet. You will need to re-learn all of your limitations, and then push them further."

"Anything to get out of this damn room." Ino muttered.

Dr. Shizune gave her an amused smirk. "I'll go discuss these to Dr. Senju, then." She tucked her tablet under her arm and picked up the food tray off of the bed, turning to walk out of the room.

Ino huffed as she leaned her elbow onto her knees and rubbed her temples. If the Itch did not drive her mad, this tiny little room definitely would.

White walls. White ceiling. White bed sheets. The only interruption was the grey nightstand that sat beside her bed, which held a tablet for some idle videogames and reading to keep her 'entertained'. Oh, and the mint color of her hospital scrubs – I mean, patient uniform. Other than that, the room was about as impersonal as a room could be.

"Todd." Ino said aloud.

"Subject 427, recognized." A robotic male voice chimed from the ceiling.

Ino fell backwards onto her bed and swung her long legs up onto it, crossing her arms under her head like one of her old classmates used to do.

"Would you please put on that Indie playist from my personal files?" She asked the lab AI.

"Of course." Todd answered just as the beginning guitar solo for a song began to play softly. "Thank you for saying 'please', Subject 427. The other Subjects lack such manners."

Ino giggled at the indignant tone of the AI. Humming along and tapping her foot to the beat, the blonde pulled out her tablet and began to read.

After three months, Ino felt stronger than she ever had in her entire life. She could run for miles without getting out of breath, jump nearly five feet high in a single leap, and punch through a solid brick wall (with a running start, of course).

She now weighed in at 43 kilograms – all solid muscle – and stood at 1.8 meters (roughly 6'7 ft). Her trainers could barely keep pace with her, now that her body had fully accepted and merged with the Augmentation. She was stronger and faster than any normal human, even those on steroids, and even her neural activity had increased, her brain transmitting thoughts faster than the average human in order to keep up with her physical speed.

That was not to say that she was anywhere near Spartan strength, as that would take another year to fully develop, but she was already stronger than most humans.

In that time, she had seen a few of the other subjects during training, but none of them had been Kiba, Naruto, or Sasuke. She was worried, though she tried not to dwell on it. Had they survived the Augmentation? Surely if anyone could, it would be those three trouble makers?

Ino frowned into the mirror as she readjusted her new uniform. It was a black body suit, the latest neuro-lace fabric inlaid with thin ceramic armor plating across her chest, back, and joints. It would have been too heavy for any normal human to wear as everyday clothing, but with her enhancements, she hardly noticed the weight.

They had shaved her head at the beginning of the Augmentation, but now after three months, it had grown out just long enough for her to pull it back into a stubby ponytail. That was only one of the things that had changed about her since the procedure. Her face had sharpened, her cheeks losing any remnants of baby-fat, her cheekbones sharp, her eyes sharper still, shining a brighter blue than before the Augmentation (Ino assumed it had to do with the genetic rearranging). She could see farther and more clearly than normal humans, the bright lights nearly blinding to her pupils, since they had been modified to see in the dark. All of her senses had increased.

She grinned at her reflection – she loved how sleek and dangerous the suit made her look. Although she hated the gloves built into the sleeves, preventing skin-to-skin contact with anything. Although it made sense if she was going to be exploring the galaxy and dealing with alien shit all the time. No one wanted to risk contact with whatever bacteria those aliens might be carrying. It had a potential smallpox-situation written all over it. Their blood glowed in the dark for goodness sake. There was no way that was normal.

The ONI pyramid-like logo was sewn in grey onto her left shoulder, small but still noticeable against the completely black uniform.

"Subject 427." Todd's voice sounded overhead. "Please report to the training room now. Dr. Shizune will take you and the rest of her subjects to the meeting point."

"Acknowledged and confirmed." Ino replied back, spinning on her heel and exiting her bathroom.

The door to her room slid open. Exiting her room for the last time, Ino took note that the other rooms in the hallway were now open, with their subjects emerging from them in the same uniform as she. Ino made eye contact with a few of them and nodded solemnly in greeting, scanning for her friends, but not seeing anyone remotely similar. She frowned in disappointment and pushed away the depressing thoughts that crept into her head, falling in line with the other subjects as they walked en masse towards the training room.

They navigated the corridors of the labs with familiar ease, soon entering a large, cavernous room that had rows upon rows of workout facilities and several obstacle courses.

Dr. Shizune was waiting for them just inside their entrance.

"Subjects 400 through 450." She greeted them. "I want two parallel lines. Follow me."

They all fell in behind each other, finding a partner to stand beside. Shizune's heels clacked softly against the floor of the training room, although Ino's enhanced hearing could hear it as clearly as if she were walking beside the doctor.

They were led to the end of the training area, where she noticed other groups of subject lined up behind their assigned researcher. A small podium was set up in front of all of them, where beside the microphone was the infamous Dr. Tsunade Senju and General Danzo Shimura. They were talking lowly with their heads bent towards each other.

Ino had only spoken to Dr. Senju twice, once when she had awakened from the Augmentation, and once when the woman had come to study Dr. Shizune's subjects during training. General Danzo was more of a myth than a man to Ino. He was a virtually unknown general of the Federation, never appearing in public and whose work was entirely classified. She had only heard about him once she had joined the program. He was a terrifying person. Despite his disfigured body – a missing eye, a missing arm, and a constant limp – his cold aura and ruthless command more than made up for it. Ino suspected that Tsunade only worked with Danzo because no other general would be crazy or cruel enough to authorize the type of experiments needed to perfect the Spartan Augmentation. She tried not to dwell on those implications, because everything would have been highly illegal – although with the desperation that the Bijuu invasion was inciting, she could see why the Federation would deem it a necessary evil. But if it weren't for the war, she knew that both of them would have been charged with war crimes a hundred times over.

"Now that you're all here…"

Dr. Senju's voice rang out across the gathering, silencing the whispers of the subjects.

"Let us get down to business."

Excitement thrummed in the air as the subjects stood up straighter, snapping into parade rest and staring up ahead with their heads high.

"Today you have all completed the basic training of our Spartan recruitment." Tsunade stated. "Congratulations. But remember, your bodies might have accepted the Augmentation, but they are still adjusting. You will not be up to full strength for another year or so. There is still much that you all have to learn and train for. But from this day forward, you may call yourselves Spartans."

Shizune walked onto the makeshift stage and to her side, handing Dr. Senju a small stack of papers. Tsunade thanked her, and then turned back to the microphone. "Now you will all be assigned to your fireteams, based on individual skill and collective specializations. When I call your name, walk up here and stand before the podium. After I have finished calling all the members of your team, you will walk over to Sergeant Izumo, who will inform you of your designated positions. Then Sergeant Kotetsu will lead you all out of the labs and to the upper levels, where you will be introduced to the Spartan Team that will be your mentors."

Ino grimaced. Ugh, congratulations on graduating Spartan academy, here's your prize: more student training! Bollocks.

"Team Jupiter…"

Ino tuned out as name after name was called, men and woman lining up in rows of six before the podium, and then being led out of the room. It was like that time before Augmentation all over again.

"Team Foxtrot." Dr. Senju's voice changed in pitch for some reason, and made Ino pay closer attention. "Yamanaka Ino."

Her eyes widened, her heart leaping in her chest and thundering in her ears. She kept her face calm despite her nerves going haywire, striding confidently past the rows of soldiers and towards the podium. Reaching the front of the crowd, she fell into parade rest before her superiors, saluting General Danzo and then clasping her hands behind her back, squaring her shoulders.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

She stifled a gasp at the familiar name, pressing her lips together to conceal her elation. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a huge figure stand beside her. Oh wow... Hinata would faint if she saw him now. Naruto was well over seven feet tall, all bulked up with muscle, and had a cocky grin slanting across his lips.

He winked back at her.

Prat. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Inuzuka Kiba."

Both she and Naruto widened their eyes, resisting the urge to turn around and look for their friend. On the other side of Naruto, a taller version of her old classmate join their line, not as buff as Naruto, but definitely packing on the lean muscle.

Two accounted for. She thought, relieved to know that they had survive the procedure.

"Suna Gaara."

She glanced over to see a rather dark haired redhead come to stand beside Kiba, with beautiful pale green eyes and an intense aura. Though shorter than both Kiba and Naruto, he was still taller than Ino, and had the same lean musculature as Kiba. He also had the whole 'tall-dark-and-handsome' thing going for him, that's for sure.

"Aburame Shino." Another man appeared at the end of the line, lean but muscular. Strangely enough, he had some sort of circlet device that covered his eyes and encircled his head.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

Ino nearly choked at that. All three of her boys! They had all survived!

The blonde glanced up to stare intently at Dr. Senju. What luck for all of them to be assigned to the same team! It was too coincidental. How did she know?

She risked glancing back down the row, noticing that Sasuke was also way taller and buffer than before. All three of her boys were now over seven feet tall, and she was not much shorter. Although, Ino swore that the Augmentation had enhanced Sasuke's looks as well, because he was so beautiful now that it should be made illegal.

His codename will be Pretty Boy. She thought with sadistic humor, knowing that Naruto and Kiba would whole-heartedly support the decision. She pitied the rest of the female race. As far back as she could remember, only she, Hinata, and Sakura had ever been able to ignore Sasuke's charms.

Sakura… Oh wow, it had been a long time since she had thought about her. Her friends had gone into a bit of a state of shock after their pink-haired friend had just disappeared. They had waited for her to come back that night, and then the days following after… but she never returned. They had checked her room, but it remained untouched. A month after the pinkette's disappearance, Hinata checked on Sakura's old room, like she did once a week, and found that someone had removed all of Sakura's things. After that Shikamaru had hacked into the school systems only to find… nothing. It was like Sakura had never existed. No records, no accounts, not even a government licensure.

Sometimes Ino wondered if they had all imagined her. They had only known her for little more than half a year.

"Congratulations, Team Foxtrot."

At the sound of Dr. Senju's voice, Ino snapped back to attention, nodding towards the scientist, and then saluting General Danzo once more, before striding away and leading those behind her towards Sergeant Izumo.

"Hello kids." Izumo drawled as they approached him. He fixed his gaze on Ino. "Congrats blondie, you've been awarded the position of team officer."

Ino stared at him in surprise. She was team officer? Really? She had not expected such a thing. She had never thought of herself as leader material, neither particularly special nor inspiring.

"Senju assigned it herself." Izumo told her when he saw the look on her face. He tapped the notes scribbled down onto his clipboard. "Apparently she read the report about your defense of Konoha City." Then he gestured to her old classmates. "You and your friends here."

Naruto, Kiba, and Sasuke looked stunned, for once.

"Now then," Izumo cleared his throat. "Onto the next position. Suna Gaara, you're the beta, second in command. Inuzuka, Uzumaki, and… Uchiha Sasuke." Izumo's brows went up at the mention of his last name. "Mighty powerful name around here, kid. But don't expect anyone to hand you anything."

Sasuke frowned. He had always hated when people assumed that he used his family name to get what he wanted. "With all due respect, sir, I cannot qualify for the Spartan program by my name alone."

Izumo studied the young man for a moment, before chuckling to himself. "Yeah, you're right. And your stats prove it, too." The sergeant said as he glanced down at his notes.

"Anyway, you three are the big guns here. You get to get all personal with those Bijuu bastards."

Kiba and Naruto grinned at each other and fist-bumped.

"You'll be team sniper, Aburame."

The mysterious man just hummed in response.

The sergeant then flipped his notes some more, waving them away as the next team approached him.

"Team Omni, your officer is Hyuuga Neji. Your beta will be Macha Tenten, and you're…"

They paused, Naruto's eyes widening as he froze in place. Kiba, Sasuke, and Ino all glanced at each other in surprise, and then looked back at the team that had been after them.

And there he was – Hinata's cousin. He had the classic Hyuuga features, there was no way it could be anyone else.

"You know him?" Ino asked Naruto.

"Yeah." The other blonde nodded, still in shock. "I met him a couple times when I've visited her family. I knew he was in the military… but I never realized… well…"

Ino nodded. "Yeah, I get what you're saying."

"Oi, what's the hold up?" One of their new teammates interrupted them. Ino turned to face him, craning her neck to look up at him.

Gaara, right? She tried to remember correctly.

"Um, nothing." Ino tugged on Naruto, breaking their gaze away from the Hyuuga. She trotted forward to walk in front of her new team, leading them towards the next man they needed to meet.

Sergeant Kotetsu met them by the doors leading to the main corridor. "Team Foxtrot?"

"Here, sir." Ino answered for them.

He nodded at her. "Follow me, please."

They escorted toward lift, and then for the first time in months, left the underground levels of the base.

"Careful about looking out of the windows." Sgt. Kotetsu told them as the lift began to slow. "Your eyes have not seen the sun for a while. It might hurt if you don't avert your gaze."

Huh. I hadn't thought about that. Ino thought as she followed the man out of the lift, her boys right behind her. Just as the sergeant had said, she had to squint her eyes as they entered the halls which were lined with windows.

Ino glanced out, keeping her eyes down and staring at the ground below. She was surprised when she could make out the leaves of the bushes two stories below. She knew that the Augmentation had enhanced her eyesight but… wow.

"You kids got assigned to Team Alpha Blue, of all things." Sgt. Kotetsu told them. "You should count yourselves lucky – or unlucky. Take your pick."

He chuckled darkly, which only made Ino more nervous. Alpha team?! They were paired with the best? Oh no. Oh no, no, no. They were so dead.

"You'll be reporting to Nightingale." The sergeant told them.

Ino felt her brows raise and glanced at her teammates.

"Er… Nightingale?" Naruto asked. "No rank, sir?"

"The older Spartans aren't like you kids. They don't come with ranks." The sergeant chuckled. "They are not really a part of traditional military ranks. They have their own hierarchy."

"So Nightingale is her name?" Sasuke finally spoke up.

Sgt. Kotetsu continued to chuckle. "It's a codename, of course. These Spartans don't have names."

What? The recruits glanced at each other and shrugged.

"Well, here is where I leave you." The sergeant led then through a pair of automatic sliding doors into a room that seemed to be a lounge of some sort. It was nothing luxurious, just two couches sitting in front of a screen, with a table in the middle and a soda machine off to the side.

"Time to go grab Team Omni." He grinned. "Poor sods have it worse than you kids do – they've been assigned to Alpha Red. Ha! We'll see how long they last with those crazy fuckers."

Ino suddenly pitied the Hyuuga and his team. Team Alpha Red, huh? If her team was assigned Alpha Blue, then that made Neji's team their counterparts. Two teams that made up one larger team in the event of a large-scale battle, so that members could be swapped out in rotations to maximize efficiency.

As Sergeant Kotetsu walked away, Ino turned to address her men. She made eye contact with Kiba, Naruto, and Sasuke, and grinned.

"I thought you idiots were dead!" She laughed as the four of them embraced in a group hug.

"Me too." Kiba admitted.

"Not me!" Naruto said, ever optimistic. "Not to mention I was stuck with Teme over here in my training group. No god could be cruel enough to stick me with just him for the rest of my life."

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Ahem."

The four of them broke apart to look over at the other two members of their team. Ino gave them the brightest smile she could muster and held out her hand to the redhead, who had been the one to clear his throat.

"Hi!" She greeted him, and he seemed a little shocked at her enthusiasm. "My name is Yamanaka Ino. Just call me Ino – er, well, I guess that's Officer Ino, now."

Gaara shook her hand, his grip strong and confident, although his eyes conveyed that he was still a little unsure about her. Cautious, this one.

Naruto chuckled as he approached the redhead and clapped him on the back in that friendly-manly way, earning himself a dirty glare from Gaara. "Don't be alarmed, Ino has always been like that. Cheerleader and all that jazz."

Gaara reached up to Naruto's arm and plucked it off of his person. "Don't touch me." He growled.

Ino tried not to giggle at the hurt look on Naruto's face. He looked like a kicked puppy. She turned to the other member of their team. "Hello, Shino."

To her utter amusement, he blushed, his cheeks turning rosy as she addressed him. Aw, how cute. Despite the fact that he's got that weird thing over his eyes.

"Ma'am." Shino held out his hand for her to shake, which she did.

"Officer Yamanaka." Kiba pondered aloud, and then trapped her in a bear hug. "They grow up so fast!" He cried dramatically, stealing her ponytail and messing up her hair. "I remember when you were just a baby cheerleader, so young and innocent!"

"Gerroff ya bastard!" Ino's muffled voice cried as she yanked herself out of his hold.

Sasuke smirked as he pulled Kiba off of the irate blonde. "Technically, she's out superior now, Inuzuka."

"That's right!" Ino huffed as she patted down her uniform, not that there was much that could wrinkle the armored skinsuit. "And that's the only time I'll let you get away with that, cadet."

Inuzuka just grinned, the cocky bastard, and handed her ponytail back to her. Their new captain swiped it from his hands and quickly tied her hair back up.

Kiba turned to Shino after that. "So what's with the get up?"

"You mean this?" Shino tapped the circlet around his head. "I was born with extreme hyperopia – which means I am very farsighted. It helps with sniper training, over course, but I can't see anything closer than ten feet in front of me. The Augmentation only increased my hyperopia, so I need to wear an optimitus to protect my eyes from damaging themselves just to see the stuff in front of me. Otherwise I'd be walking into walls."

"So you have supervision?!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly.

Sasuke sighed and smacked the blonde over the head. "Forgive his idiocy. They have yet to find a cure."

Shino chuckled as Naruto rounded on his friend and began to yell at the Uchiha.

Gaara just made a 'hmph' sound and walked over to the sofa's, leaning against the back of one and crossing his arms and then his legs at the ankles. He looked bored. Shino went to stand next to him, the two of them silent while Naruto and Sasuke bantered, Kiba watching the show with glee.

Ino took a step back and stared at her new team. Shino was a sniper, she was well aware that Kiba and Naruto were brawlers, Sasuke was good with hand-to-hand as well, although he fought with more finesse than the other two. She herself was also pretty handy with a rifle, as well as a medium-ranged fighter. She supposed that made Gaara medium-range as well, completing the standard positions for a six-manned team: one sniper, two in the middle-range, three for the front line (there were variations of this, of course, but it was uncommon).

Where is Team Alpha? Ino wondered.

As if summoned by her thoughts, the doors opposite of where they had come in hissed and slid open.

"Fireteam Foxtrot, to attention!" Ino barked, her team quickly falling in line and saluting their superiors as they walked in.

The first to enter was a very tall, slim male with long black hair neatly pulled into a short ponytail like Ino wore. It was against regulation for men to have their hair longer than an inch in the UNSC, but Ino supposed that there were plenty of exceptions within the Spartans. His face was entirely expressionless, his dark eyes studying them with detached interest. She noticed that his eyes lingered on Sasuke, but otherwise he made no other gesture of note.

"At ease, Spartans." His voice was soft, but there was an underlying edge to it that seemed to enhance the lethal aura that he unconsciously exuded.

The rest of Alpha Blue filed in behind him, lining up across from Foxtrot to stare at their new trainees. A redhead walked in after the raven-haired male, shorter than the average Spartan, but exuding the same quiet lethality as the first Spartan. Ino idly wondered if he was related to Gaara somehow – such a dark shade of red was very rare, as far as she knew.

Next a taller blonde walked in, more muscular than the others, but still on the lean side. He had some sort of eyepatch over his right eye, his hair shaggy and also worn longer than regulation usually allowed, and an arrogant smirk plastered onto his face. There was a crazed light to his eyes that set her on edge, and she wondered if maybe the Augmentation had been as safe for the previous Spartan generation as it had been for her own (probably not).

"Call me Crow." The man who seemed to be in charge continued to speak, standing tall with a hand perched lazily on his hips. "I am the captain of Alpha squad."

More team members appeared next to the first three. Ino forced herself not to stare as an eight foot tall giant walked in and stood just behind the blonde man. He had blue skin and sharpened teeth.

"Whoa." She heard Kiba mutter under his breath.

"This is Scorpion." Crow introduced the redhead, who glanced at them lazily with lidded eyes, but then seemed to find the wall more interesting.

"Pyro." The dark blonde grinned maniacally at them and waved with almost too much enthusiasm.

"Shark." The tall blue guy grinned just as crazily as the blonde beside him, and all Ino could think was, How appropriate.

"The ladies are coming." Shark spoke in a gravelly voice. "They had to stop and grab a file or something, I dunno." He shrugged.

Crow hummed, turning his attention from Shark to Team Foxtrot. "Despite being assigned to my team, you will not be answering to me directly. As I am far too busy to be your director, my beta – Nightingale – will be overseeing your training. You will also be joining your sister team, Omni, for many of your training programs. They are overseen by Scythe, from Alpha Red."

"Poor souls." Scorpion chuckled darkly. "They are better off dead."

Crow gave Scorpion a bland look, to which the redhead just sighed and shut his mouth.

Whoosh!

The doors behind Alpha Blue opened again, and two more of the team's members walked in. Ino glimpsed a head of dark blackish-blue hair and a head of… pink hair?! She felt her heart rate speed up.

No way…

Crow turned to glance at the last two members of Alpha Blue. "Crane, Nightingale. It's about time."

Crane, a tall, rather muscular woman, gave Crow the faintest smile in the history of the world, and handed him a tablet, murmuring lowly to him about something.

Meanwhile, the shorter woman stared back at them, the only sign of her surprise being her slightly-widened eyes.

Green eyes.

Pink hair.

"Foxtrot," Crow addressed them again, "Allow me to introduce my beta, and your new director, Night –"

"SAKURA?!"

You'd be surprised at the amount of research I have to do when writing this story. I need to double-check my Halo lore, learn the UNSC ranking system so I don't put a petty officer above a lieutenant colonel or some shit like that, and even read over the 'data reports' for the Spartan programs provided by HaloWiki to make sure I'm including the right amount of [insert program here] in the training stuff.

Dedication man.

The things I do for you guys, haha.

Please leave a review!

~Lilithia