4.

Junko was not embarrassed to admit she may have shed a tear or two the first moment the real, fresh Ichiraku ramen was set in front of her. In fact, her sniffling seemed to have convinced Teuchi's daughter that she was suffering from some sort of heartbreak judging by the way the girl kept throwing her pitying looks. Junko decided not to correct her. Instead she happily ate her first bowl in the twelve years. And she relished it.

It was the perfect amount of salty and Teuchi, bless him, had somehow remembered she liked pickled plums in hers. Truly a great man.

When she'd first entered the restaurant she'd been more than a little nervous, jumping at shadows. But slowly Junko relaxed reminding herself that it was too late for nerves and besides she'd made sure to time her trip to the restaurant with when the children were getting teams announced to them. She'd be out by the lunch rush with plenty of time to reach the Academy. By the time she had ordered her second bowl she'd relaxed completely, remaining the only customer and enjoying a long withheld treat.

Even before she had banned herself to avoid Naruto, ramen had been rare and only when Junko could guarantee she wouldn't run into someone important. Which had led to a lot of scheduling and timing her arrival with Kushina's departure as the woman had been a fan of the restaurant.

Junko once made a chart in an attempt to find the best times to go to avoid the woman, but it had exploded in her face in a truly extraordinary manner. Her team had found it and spent the next month reassuring her that nothing was wrong with having a crush on a fellow kunoichi and they loved her no matter what in between teasing her on her supposed crush on the red head. It had been easier to take the ribbing than explain, but Junko had quietly destroyed the chart.

Kushina's behavior had proved to be without rhyme or reason anyway so it had been next to useless.

The ability to enjoy her ramen, free of risks of interruptions was almost as nice as the salty broth. Junko closed her eyes to enjoy her momentary peace after such a long stressful week.

"Kakashi-san!" Teuchi said, sounding surprised and pleased. Much like he had when Junko entered. "It's been too long."

Junko's eyes opened instantly and she turned to find the grey haired Jounin slouching his way to the bar with an eye crinkle to the chef. Apparently it had been decided she didn't need peace. She looked back down at her bowl. It was still mostly full. No excuse to slip away quickly.

"I think I'll have miso today." Kakashi said lightly in lieu of greeting and sat on the stool beside Junko making her hand twitch a little. He didn't lean into her personal space or do anything to acknowledge her, but his presence was very there and she straightened despite herself.

Oh, he was definitely here to make a point. But what about she didn't know. Junko settled on ignoring him and eating. It allowed him to make to first move, but also did not offer anything for him to act on.

"Koizumi-san," Kakashi greeted voice smooth and not-quite friendly.

Junko didn't look up right away finishing her bite and carefully sitting down her chopsticks before turning to greet him with a polite smile.

"Hatake-san," she said meeting his gaze straight on.

"You decided against observation." It wasn't really a statement or a question. Almost a judgement.

It wasn't unusual for Jounin to go and quietly observe the new Genin as they were told of their assignments and went through the time alone. It allowed them to get a feel for how the group interacted without their authority around and how they felt about each other. For first time Jounin it was almost an expectation for them to be watching. To not either spoke of irresponsibility or confidence. Sometimes over-confidence for a new sensei.

Junko decided to treat it as a question.

"I left a clone to watch. It will dispel when it is time for me to go back."

Kakashi gave a little hum and didn't say anything else as his ramen was set in front of him. Junko turned her face away to give him some privacy as he ate.

She'd long gotten over her curiosity of his face, having seen the big reveal in the manga before her death and not finding the reality to be much more interesting. Kakashi was a handsome man, but Junko had the opportunity to know a lot of handsome men by this point in her life. Besides trying to look at his face when he clearly put a lot of effort into hiding it struck her as just plain rude and a violation of his privacy. Privacy was a hard fought for currency in the life of a shinobi and Kakashi, she knew from both her lives, was a very private person.

They ate in silence for a few moments, Junko's gaze never straying to the side. It was not a comfortable one. She was too tense in the presence of someone she'd long avoid to gain back the relaxation from earlier. As she picked up the bowl to finish slurping the last of the broth she realized, disheartened, that she hadn't really tasted the ramen. Sitting the now empty bowl back down she gave it a sad look and stood up with a sigh.

It was best to leave now before Kakashi remembered how to be annoying.

"Thank you for the meal Teuchi-san," Junko called, leaving her money on the counter. His daughter took it with a small smile.

"Come back anytime Junko-chan!" Teuchi called out with a smile, Junko found her lips returning it without a thought.

She turned back to Kakashi after a moment of hesitation. He was still her senior for all her strong desire to never speak to him and she had always been nothing if not polite to everyone. She dipped her head respectfully at the masked Jounin, who was watching her carefully with his one grey eye.

"Hatake-san," Junko mummered and turned to leave.

"If you would like to ask questions about the Sharingan I'm free tomorrow." Kakashi informed her with complete nonchalance.

Junko froze and turned to find him watching her posture lax, but gaze sharp. Her expression went polite and distant as she hid how much the comment startled and unnerved her. Being in close quarters and talking to Kakashi had literally been one of her nightmares for years. Unfortunately, it now needed to be a reality.

"I will be sure to find you after the team passes." she answered neutrally.

"So certain they'll pass Koizumi-sensei?" His tone was almost teasing and it put Junko even more on guard. She kept her face calm though despite how hard her heart was pounding. She'd slipped. She never slipped. She didn't know for sure if Team 7 would pass. She just knew for certain that they were supposed to.

Instead of correcting herself, she said, "Well you certainly seem confident Hatake-san. The only reason I would be speaking to you would be because of Uchiha Sasuke. If my senior believes in them so much, surely I must also."

Junko took a quiet breath as memories began to trickle into her mind suddenly. She was more than a little relieved at the excuse it gave her

"You must excuse me Hatake-san. My bushin dispelled and it is time for me to meet my students."

He gave her an eye smile and a nod.

She used the Shunshin for a quick escape to the Academy. Hopefully, meeting the children was less unnerving than meeting their sensei.

Haruno Sakura

Sakura had been waiting for this day almost as long as she could remember. The day she was official a kunoichi of Konohagakure. The day she took her first step to adulthood and her eventual life as Uchiha Sakura. The day fate allowed her to overcome her too large for head and be sent to serve on missions with Sasuke. The beginning of their love story.

Sakura sighed happily and looked at the dark haired boy beside her. Nothing could ruin this day.

"I'm so sorry Sakura-chan it was a mixup! I swear!" a loud obnoxious voice pleaded from beside her making Sakura turned to glower at the blonde boy.

Nothing that is except for Naruto. He had ruined it after the admittedly terrible turn in what had began as a promising conversation with Sasuke. To think she had considered being nicer and more understanding to him just for him to shout in her face and run away. And now he'd been spending the walk back to the classroom apologizing and saying he had been mixed up. Mixed up how exactly she wanted to demand. Did he know any other pink haired girls he had crushes on for four years?

"Naruto," Sakura growled out lowly, fist raising. For once the boy caught on quickly and went silent his blue eyes wide and watching her fist warily.

Satisfied, Sakura turned back to Sasuke trying to gain back her good mood and optimism. But it was too late. Talking to Naruto had reminded Sakura of the disastrous ending to what had been one of the most thrilling conversations of her young life. She couldn't figure out what she'd done wrong either. They had connected. Sasuke had smiled at her. It had been perfect. They had been about to kiss.

Sasuke had seemed a little off when he had returned. A little angrier, but he hadn't gotten really angry until she started talking about Naruto not having parents. Sakura's eyes darted quickly to the side to look at Naruto's pouting expression remembering Sasuke's words. She looked away feeling a little discomfort squirming inside her. True, her parents did scold her and they were embarrassing with that routine of there's, but she supposed Sasuke had a pretty good point. Being without her parents, all alone in the house, that would be pretty lonely.

Sakura looked down at her hands sadly. But she was lonely now. Having parents didn't solve that. Her only real friend had been Ino and after they'd declared themselves rivals they hadn't exactly been able to spend time with each other.

You declared us rivals, Inner Sakura corrected.

Sakura ignored that. Usually Inner was good for pointing out truths that she couldn't express, but sometimes she also liked to point out ones she didn't like to acknowledge. The idea of her loneliness being self-imposed was not something Sakura liked to dwell on or consider, even if her mind logically broke down the situation and pointed loudly to that answer. She was perfectly capable of packaging the thought up neatly and passing it off to Inner to hide away.

No, however lonely Sakura felt if she could get Sasuke to fall in love with her it would work out. Her parents loved each other and they were best friends. Supporting and making each other happy, never far from each others side. Sakura wanted that. She wanted that closeness and happiness. She wanted it with Sasuke. It would be different than her friendship with Ino. If she got Sasuke she would know she was beautiful and skilled, because Sasuke would only be with the best. It wouldn't make her feel small and less like being compared to Ino sometimes had.

Now, all she needed to do was figure out what had upset Sasuke about the conversation and never do it again. She knew very well it wasn't her talking badly about Naruto. The two boys hated each other. Their rivalry was much worse than hers and Ino's, though with theirs a clear loser was obvious.

A horrible thought started to become obvious to Sakura as she broke apart the interaction carefully. Sasuke was usually all cool and mysterious not showing much emotion beyond an occasional smirk and annoyance at Naruto's behavior. That was part of his charm. But when Sasuke had talked about the pain of not having parents he'd shown more emotion than he ever had in front of her. It sounded like he knew what that was like.

Was Sasuke-kun an orphan?

No, Inner argued. We would have heard. We would know. We always listen when someone talks about Sasuke-kun.

Sakura wasn't so sure though. Have we ever seen his parents? Have they ever picked him up from the Academy? Has anyone ever mentioned them to us?

Inner didn't have any answers for that.

Sakura went back through her memories. Tracing them back to her early years in the Academy. The only real mention of family she could think of was their first year in the Academy and a bit of their second. She'd started to pay attention in their second year because she had started to have her crush on him so she definitely remembered it.

He talked about a brother? Sakura asked Inner for confirmation knowing she was better with the early memories.

Inner cycled through them humming thoughtfully before answering. Definitely a brother. Sasuke-kun mentions him a few times. He bragged about him. Claimed he was strong and the best brother ever. He was arguing with Kiba about who had the better older sibling.

Sakura raised a mental eyebrow at that the memory slowly trickling in with Inner's help and she placed around when it was and it made sense.

Oh, Sakura thought sadly. It was before the Incident.

Sakura felt Inner give a sad sort of agreement. When he still smiled sometimes.

It had been halfway through their second year when the Incident as Inner and Sakura had dubbed it had occurred. Sakura had firmly been entrenched in her crush and recovering from the sting of declaring herself Ino's rival when Sasuke had disappeared the last month of school. Iruka-sensei had been vague in his answers saying Sasuke was in the hospital and he would be back when he was better. Sakura had panicked and wanted to visit him, but her parents had gotten those pinched looks and told her Sasuke couldn't have visitors. Sakura had looked up why someone wouldn't be allowed visitation and found that it only happened when someone had to be quarantined.

She'd spent the next few weeks going back and forth between depression and terror at the thought of Sasuke having caught one of the terrible diseases she read about before her mother confiscated the book.

It hadn't helped that at the same time she'd had to attend a funeral of one of her other classmates. One of the Uchiha girls in the school, Minaka had been nice for an Uchiha and Uchiha pretty. She was one of the few girls who still spent time with Sakura after her breaking off with Ino. It had been both sad and scary. Her parents had been vague about what exactly happened to Minaka but Sakura had figured out from the conversations at the funeral that she'd been murdered. A girl Sakura's age murdered.

She'd started to have nightmares about it. They were terrible images of Minaka's pale face and Sasuke dying in the hospital all alone. Then had Sakura started switching places back and forth with both of them. And she was the pale one at a funeral or the one in the hospital. The worst ones were when they buried Minaka and Sakura dreamed her almost-friend reached through the ground and dragged her down with her.

She hadn't slept well and couldn't stomach the smell of cut flowers for ages afterwards. She'd stopped telling her parents about them after the said they would take her to see Ino's dad if they kept up. Sakura had always like Inoichi, but seeing him so soon after stopping being friends with Ino would have been awful.

Thankfully, Sasuke had returned and the nightmares had faded away with Inner's help before her parents could make good on that threat.

But it had been a very different Sasuke. He didn't smile like he used to anymore. Not like he used to sometimes. He'd started training during every recess no longer occasionally playing games with everyone. He and Naruto had started fighting more and harder then to. He drew into himself even more than before and remained firmly out of reach and untouchable. It had been a little unnerving at first. Sakura hadn't been able to explain the difference until she'd been older.

Before Sasuke had been way above Sakura, but he had seemed warmer, something that could maybe one day be touched and when he looked around he saw people. When he returned though it was as if there was some invisible wall around him and he'd seemed cold. He became perfect as time passed. The perfect scoring ninjutsu student. The best at spars. The top of the class. But less of the Sasuke she'd started her crush on in a way.

Sakura had learned to appreciate the new Sasuke though. She'd given up her first friend she wouldn't give up her first crush. And she saw tiny glimpses that reminded her of him enough to make herself sure once more. Sasuke was definitely someone fighting for. If anything his new distance and the way he looked through people made it more significant to be the person he actually looked at. The one he would pick.

Sakura had never learned what had caused the change or what the illness had been though. Her parents had just shushed her with the same sad look they'd had when her grandparents had died and sent her on her way. Sakura had always been a good girl so she'd let it go and decided to find out herself later. Only she never had. The only person she could think to ask was Ino, who always knew everything, and that was completely impossible now.

There were also no more mentions of his brother. Inner pointed out, considering the idea and feeling troubled by it.

But if Sasuke really was an orphan. If that was why he'd changed. If that was why he'd been so upset.

Sakura had talked about how great it was to not have parents in front of her crush who'd maybe, possibly lost his. It was a horrifying possibility.

Fuuuuuuuuuck. Inner summed up, groaning with a mixture of guilt and embarrassment.

He must hate us! Sakura despaired looking at Sasuke quickly only to find him looking outside the window.

Inner's reply was another wordless groan.

We don't know for sure. Sakura reasoned grasping for straws. We have to find out what happened though. We can access the more private records from that period now that we are Genin. If they died on a mission or illness it would be in mission reports or at the very least an obituary entry to say they are no longer active duty.

We need names for that. Inner pointed out.

Sakura considered. Sasuke's registration was too new to have been processed and in the system so his parents wouldn't be listed. But his brother would be.

What was the name? Sakura demanded.

Inner went through the memories carefully as Sakura held her breath and prayed she would find something useful.

No "nii-san", nope, not this one-Here it is! Itachi! Uchiha Itachi-san! Inner crowed in triumph.

Sakura released her breath. Okay, as soon as we finish today head to records as long as we are looking at just their entry cards not mission reports necessarily we won't have to fill out request paperwork.

Inner funneled her agreement and quieted suddenly, nudging Sakura to look up. Sakura did in time to see a women entering the room and coming to stand in front of them. She and Iruka-sensei greeted each other politely, but then she was in the middle and standing straight and professional.

She was pretty Sakura decided. Not like Ino was, a more average good looking like Iruka-sensei was. A small face, green-brown hazel eyes, and cinnamon brown hair in a gently curling bob. Her uniform was precise, dressed in the regulation blacks, with her Chunin vest and head band neat and in order. She didn't have any of the additional accessories or special changes that Sakura had seen on the rare Jounin from a distance. Her parents said Jounin were eccentric and all of them had at least one quirk. This woman though looked young and startlingly normal. Almost harmless looking with her smile and softness.

Sakura wondered if she really was one of the Jounin. Sakura had her doubts the more she looked at the woman. The woman really did look young. Maybe twenty. She could even be a teenager. Sakura frowned, wondering if maybe she was a Chunin with a message from the Jounin. She knew sometimes Jounin would send lower ranks with messages. The certainly sent her father on errands and deliveries enough to attest to that fact.

"Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto jumped to his feet with a cheer and headed towards their sensei, who was giving him a slightly tense but still polite smile. She looked up to Sakura and Sakura hurried to follow after Naruto, Sasuke close behind her. When they'd all lined up the woman spoke again.

"I'm your team leader, Koizumi Junko. We will be having a meeting and going over what you need to know. Follow me."

Without she turned and left the room. Sakura hurried afterwards with Naruto and Sasuke on both sides as they went after their average looking sensei.

AUTHOR's NOTE: So, yeah it's been a long time.

Don't kill me. This semester kicked my ass, but it's summer now so hurray!

Sakura basically took over this chapter, but the next two will be mainly the kids PoVs, so prepare for Sasuke and Naruto as well.

Plus, you guys got your first glimpse of Junko and Kakashi interacting! Despite having barely a quarter of a page being mentioned them interacting has been surprisingly popular. Also quite a few people seem interested in what exactly occurred with Shisui. Origianlly it was gonig to be pretty small, just a throw away line, but now I'm tempted to make it a thing. And Junko finally got her ramen! Glad to be back and hope you enjoy.

P.S. I went back through and edited the early chapters to ensure consistent spellings, word order, and some clarity. Ironically this new one has less editing done to it.

P.P.S. For those of you who don't know there's a poll about whether or not Junko should have any romance in her life. The poll doesn't decide on any pairings and if I do decided to give her someone it won't suddenly turn this into a romance focused story. Junko will be focused on her team, her life, and the upcoming Apocalypse.