She gently tapped her paw against the bug that was tickling her claw. She gave a despondent sigh when she learned that she was going to have to be even more gentle with the bugs that were now approaching if she didn't want to squish them the way she'd already squished this one. There was also the slight issue of her tails. Now, in a large open space she'd normally just let them hang behind her, but this was a large open space full of trees that were just tall enough to tickle the ends of her tails if she did that, and she hated having the tips of her tails tickled. This meant that she was waving them over her back and around her sides, constantly, because 'up' wasn't a comfortable way to her to keep her tails. Only slowly of course, she knew the power of her tails and wasn't interested in destroying all the pretty trees. Even if they did tickle annoyingly.

She tried again to touch one of the bugs without squishing it, and failed again, but now they were starting to jump onto her. Having been trying to achieve this approximate happening, she was most displeased to find that the little bugs made her fur itch, and so with a sigh shook them off. A quick hop – oops, smashed the tails into ground and ripped up a few trees. Oh well – and she'd managed to remove herself from where all the tickling, itching little bugs had been lined up in front of her. She was suddenly faced with a badly dressed toad though.

She wasn't overly fond of toads. Frogs made a good meal now and then, provided they weren't poisonous, but toads were always stringy and left a bad taste in her mouth. Frogs were only a little slimy at worst. This toad though was wearing clothes, as already mentioned, carried a short sword and a pipe and showed off multiple piercings along the length of its tongue as it licked one of its eyes. Another reason she wasn't all that fond of toads – their weird habits. This particular toad, as well as being badly dressed and strangely accessorised, was also carrying a very brightly coloured bug on top of its head.

She opened her mouth to breathe in the smell of this small, but bright bug. Oh, most of the smelling was in the nose, but there were a few things in the air that were easier understood when tasted. That was when she understood why the little bugs had been scampering about so frantically. They were frightened of her. Of course they were. She'd already squished two of them accidentally, and may have left a few more than a bit battered when she'd shaken the ones out of her fur. But this one, this one that was standing on top of a fashion faux-pas of an amphibian, this brightly coloured bug smelled of determination. Grim determination, she realised as he summoned a deal breaker.

Deal breaker. The bugs probably gave them a different name, but to her they were the deal breakers. The were the only ones who could officiate arrangements on the scale she now understood the colourful bug was making. It would be his life in exchange for the deal, whatever deal he was making. It was always your own life for trade with the deal breakers. The only thing she had left to learn was her part in the deal the colourful bug was making.

She did not resist when she felt herself being dragged out, stretched, squished, forced into a smaller space than she had known even existed, and then barred there. She knew that there was no bargaining with the deal breakers for better terms. She knew this like she knew what was and wasn't good to eat, like she knew when her kindred were trapped away as she had just – and finally – been, and knew where they were. Like she knew that she had just been sealed into an infant bug, as colourful as the bug that had just sacrificed himself to the deal breaker, and that this infant bug was a boy, and that he was now her responsibility.

~oOo~

The first time the nightmare came, she snapped at it and wrapped up the child's mind in as much of a comforting tail as she could fit through the bars of her cage. He was only two. She'd essentially slept through his first year, letting everything adjust and settle down while he was still totally dependant on other people. While they still cared for him as a helpless dependant. Upon reaching the ripe old age of two however, since the child was walking on his own and beginning to talk, he was essentially left to take care of himself.

She taught him to scavenge and hunt so that he did not starve when the orphanage carers didn't give him anything. She taught him about which plants and animals carried poison in them so that he would not eat them by mistake and make himself sick. She taught him the best ways to keep warm when he was shut out at night. She taught him how to dig a burrow and keep it clean so that he had shelter from unkind elements, or people, as needed. She taught him how to run and how to hide when other people in the village caught sight of him, and their faces began to twist in anger and hate. She taught him how to climb trees and she taught him how to float, and then swim, because the only way for him to bathe was to sneak into the bath houses after hours and the pools were quite deep.

Then came the day the boy was enrolled in the Academy, and they both learned that there were things she couldn't teach him. How to read was one of these things. Oh, she could have told him what every symbol in a seal array meant, but the written language of humans was not something she had ever concerned herself with. It also highlighted things that she could teach him that she hadn't thought to. Like how to use chakra, and how to control said chakra – which was much harder, especially since the boy had rather a lot more than his peers. Both his own, and hers. Still, he learned fast enough, but it brought up another 'something' that she couldn't teach him.

How to make friends.

After all, he'd never had one before, so he had no experience. As for her, she had the other demons, but while they were aware of each other, they didn't necessarily always get along. Her boy barely had any positive human interaction at all. The adults were hateful and violent at worst and coldly indifferent at best. The children learned from the example of their parents and mimicked their behaviour. Oh certainly he'd always had her companionship, and he knew it too. She'd been very clear in explaining the full and total circumstances of how she came to reside in him – slowly and over time of course, as there was only so much a child's mind could take in.

Still, the friends issue...

~oOo~

The Aburame clan was one that prided itself on its use of logic in all situations. They weren't considered one of Konoha's 'great' clans like the Uchiha or the Hyuuga – theirs was not an obvious ocular bloodline after all. Those particular clans would even argue that the Aburame clan didn't have a bloodline, claiming that the child was not born with his bugs, but rather had to be planted in the child immediately after birth.

This was actually untrue. Since all members of the family had at least one colony, the kikai burrowed into the embryo as soon as it was large and stable enough to support them. The only Aburame family members who were not born with the beginnings of their first colony already in them were the ones who married into the family from outside, and inserting their colonies was a very delicate procedure done over the course of several weeks, beginning during the Aburame wedding ceremony.

The children of the Aburame clan, however, had a fair share of problems interacting with other children. Because they were raised to be coolly logical, even at five when they entered the Academy they thought their peers to be at least somewhat childish. There was also the problems generated simply by the connection that the Aburames had with their kikai – and other bugs less directly. The way some of the children would scream at bugs, and others carelessly or maliciously squish them, set Aburame children subtly at odds against their peers. Their logic told them however that their peers would grow out of these poor behaviours and they did need to work as part of a team some day.

This was the environment that Aburame Shino expected to enter based on examples given to him by his family. The Academy was, more or less, exactly as his family had told him. There were different students in his class of course, and as with all people, their attitudes were approximately unique to them. There was, however, one child who Shino found himself particularly curious about: Uzumaki Naruto.

It was strange to Shino that someone other than himself was being given such a wide berth by their peers, and even more peculiar was the treatment he received from their teachers. The teachers gave Naruto little attention except to criticise him for imagined faults or to blame him for a misbehaviour perpetrated by someone else. He saw Naruto struggling with anything written down, not an uncommon thing as they were only beginning their official schooling, but it was as though the boy had never been exposed to the written word before – something Shino had thought impossible. He saw the teachers sabotage Naruto's taijutsu training, give him next to no help at all with his ninjutsu, and completely ignore his struggle with genjutsu.

Having spent a month observing all of his classmates, and having discussed the matter with his parents – and he was surprised to see them so reticent about a matter as they had been when he asked them about Naruto – Shino decided that he would approach the other boy and try making a friend.

He waited until lunch, and approached him while he was on his own behind the school, ripping the meat off a side of rabbit with his teeth. It looked like it had been cooked over a fire, rather than in a kitchen. Shino steeled his nerve and sent one of his bugs to land on Naruto's nose.

Naruto stopped eating and went cross-eyed before laughing.

"She says you'll give yourself tummy-ache if you try getting a meal from me, little bug," Naruto said with a smile. "I don't know what she means by that, but you don't look like you eat much, so you can share my rabbit if you like."

"My kikai eat chakra," Shino said, calling the insect back to him.

Naruto blinked as the black little crawly left him and went to land on Shino's extended finger.

"Well then yeah," Naruto said, nodding to himself. "She's right. Your bug friend would get a tummy-ache." Naruto shuffled over on the bench he'd been sitting on, silently inviting Shino to sit with him, though his bright blue eyes said that he didn't expect any positive response.

Shino accepted the offered place just as silently as it had been offered. "Why would my kikai get a tummy-ache from eating your chakra?"

Naruto chuckled, and Shino could see that he was both relieved to not be rejected and guarding against being hurt.

"Have you ever eaten a lot of something, because it was really yummy, and then noticed when you'd eaten it all that you've forced your tummy to stretch out to fit it all in? A tummy-ache from eating too much?" Naruto asked.

Shino shook his head. "I always eat slowly and conscientiously, aiming only to put into my body what I need to take out from it," Shino answered.

Naruto shrugged. "Well, that's the sort of tummy-ache your bugs would get from me," Naruto explained. "According to her, your whole colony could gorge themselves and I'd still be just fine."

Shino blinked behind his dark glasses. "This is a most irregular assertion," he said. "And who is this 'her'? We are the only two people present here."

Naruto frowned and shifted on the bench. "Like you have your bugs, I have her," Naruto answered. "I can't let her out though, and it's best I don't talk about her if I can help it, since the grown-ups don't like her."

Shino frowned behind his high collar at this cryptic comment, but decided that he had learned that he and Naruto had something in common – they had passengers, allies. "Would you tell me if we were somewhere that the adults would not hear?" Shino asked.

"Oh sure," Naruto answered brightly. "She likes bugs, you know? Especially the brightly coloured ones. She sometimes complains that she has to let them come to her though, cause she accidentally squishes them if she tries to pick them up or stroke them or anything," Naruto added, a sad smile creeping onto his face. "She used to not be very good at judging how resilient things are, but she's been learning since she's been taking care of me! We learned how to be gentle enough together."

Shino had tensed at hearing that Naruto's ally squished bugs accidentally like that, but hearing that it was a thing of the past was very reassuring.

"Perhaps after classes we can go somewhere with no adults and you can tell me about her," Shino suggested.

Naruto smiled. "Sure!" he agreed, nodding once firmly. "Until then, will you tell me about your bugs?" Naruto asked, holding out his hand to accept any that wished to land on him.

"You don't mind them?" Shino checked.

Naruto shook his head. "And I don't mind them eating my chakra either," he added. "I just don't want them to get tummy-aches."

Shino nodded his understanding, and began to explain about how his colony had been with him since he was born, the habits of the kikai that made them so helpful to his family's ninja style, and had been about to begin expounding upon the other sorts of bugs his family kept when the end of lunch was called.

Upon returning to class Shino and Naruto sat together, rather than on their own in different parts of the classroom as they had before.

~oOo~

Naruto didn't have a home, not as such. He had a tree he slept in regularly. One that he'd dug a burrow under the roots of and that had a big hollow in it that was just high enough up that regular animals couldn't get in. Birds weren't a problem to him – they were a meal. So was any other small, tree-dwelling creature for that matter. Any wee beastie that decided to inspect his chosen tree while he was there and in need of meat soon became food for the growing boy.

Shino was treated to a tour of berry bushes, wild fruit trees, mushroom spots, and animal traps before they reached Naruto's tree.

"It's not fancy," Naruto said as he put some of the leaves he'd picked into a dented black kettle that sloshed a little as he hung it from a branch over a fire. "But it's filling. Help yourself while I skin the squirrel."

Shino nodded and sat down on the leaf-covered area before reaching out to try one of the red berries. "So, your ally?"

Naruto's smile was small. "The story Iruka-sensei told us today isn't exactly true," Naruto said. "The kyuubi didn't attack the village, the Yondaime didn't kill it."

Shino's eyebrows pulled down and together as he considered what Naruto was saying.

"She was just trying to pick up a bug that had been tickling her paw, and squished it by mistake. Then she tried again, more carefully, with another that had come running. Same result. Others had jumped onto her, but they itched so she shook them off," Naruto said, recalling the fox's version of events.

"What about the Yondaime not killing the kyuubi?" Shino asked.

"Can you kill chakra?" Naruto countered. "She is chakra. She has form and mind, but she isn't a flesh-and-blood fox. Even if all of Konoha's ninja had a swarm like yours, they could gorge themselves on her and she would still stand."

Shino blinked behind his glasses as he began to understand. "So what really happened?"

"She says that the colourful bug – that's the Yondaime – made a pact with a being she calls the deal breaker, and now she is trapped within me. That's why the adults don't like me, because they see what they imagine her to be every time they look at me. They see a demon bent on their destruction, rather than a child, or even a curious fox who didn't know how delicate people were because she so rarely encountered us," Naruto explained, then speared the skinned and gutted squirrel on a sharpened and smoothed stick and set it over the fire to cook.

"They are illogical," Shino said firmly. "You are no more the kyuubi than I am my kikai."

Naruto smiled in gratitude over the sentiment. "She is, however, the reason why your kikai can't knock me out by eating my chakra," Naruto put in.

Shino nodded in understanding. "In the interest of sharing a friendship based on the similar experience of housing an other which causes peers and elders to view us in an unflattering way, will you tell me more about yourself Naruto?"

Naruto blinked once, then smiled broadly before he launched into a dissertation of his life and the things he'd learned from his prisoner since the first time he'd been kicked out of the orphanage. How he'd met the Sandaime and now collected his orphan stipend personally and in cash since the banks all refused to give him an account, how he had needed to steal his clothes from the donations bin near the orphanage so that he had something to wear at all, and that learning henge would make his life easier because if people didn't recognise him then they wouldn't chase him off or try to beat him up. Naruto talked about learning to hunt and scavenge, learning to make a fire so he would be warm in winter and be able to cook his food. He even talked about how he'd gotten the kettle as he poured out the tea he'd made into a pair of husks that took the place of cups, and how the kyuubi explained that tea had certain health benefits, which was why he drank it. The kyuubi could heal any injury and banish any sickness, but it was important for a ninja to take care of his body.

Of course, Naruto never said 'kyuubi'. He always said 'she' or 'her'. When Shino questioned this, and he asked a great many pertinent questions as Naruto told his story, Naruto explained that her name wasn't 'Kyuubi', that 'Kyuubi no Yoko' was a name given to her by people and she wasn't entirely fond of it. It was like calling Naruto 'fox carrier boy' or calling Shino 'bug colony boy'. Her name just wasn't 'fox with nine tails'. She didn't actually have a name at all really, and wasn't inclined to believe she needed one.

Shino nodded in acceptance of this, but said that 'Yoko' might work as a quasi-name. "Because there will be times when 'she' is simply too broad, and having a designated title is useful," he explained.

Naruto was silent for a moment. "She agrees," he said at last. "But only because she likes 'Yoko' better than 'Kyuubi'."

They shared the squirrel – and Shino was mildly surprised at how good it tasted, even without any seasoning – and then Shino had to go home.

Naruto and Shino paired up after that. During lunch Shino talked about bugs at great length – a topic Naruto was happy to listen to – and after school they trained together, sometimes out near Naruto's tree, and other times under the supervision of Shino's father Shibi. The man was coolly indifferent to Naruto's presence generally, but Naruto got the idea that people in the Aburame clan were like that with most everybody, though with varying degrees of indifference. All that logic meant they didn't emote much, but that was fine with him.

The two friends – and they were friends – occupied the exact middle spot in the class ranking, and did so very carefully and deliberately. Naruto knew first hand the perks of being forgettable, and if the teachers ignored him as mediocre then they would leave him alone about most other things. Shino accepted that their profession as ninja was one where being unknown was desirable, however much both of them wanted to hear themselves being praised the way that the Uchiha boy in their class was praised.

~oOo~

Iruka handed over the headband with a small smile on his face – the same vaguely proud but extremely automatic smile that had been on his face all day as he ran the students through the genin exam.

"Congratulations Uzumaki," he said. "Be back in a week for team assignments."

"Thank you Iruka-sensei," Naruto answered, bowing slightly as he accepted the cloth and metal. "I would like to make a request about my team assignment if I may?"

Iruka chuckled. "You can ask, but I make no promises," he answered.

"I'd like to be on a team with Shino," Naruto said. "And I really, really don't want to be on a team with Sasuke."

Iruka blinked in surprise. He'd expected Naruto to ask to be on the same team as his friend, and actually had no intention of splitting them up – teamwork was important to Konoha after all, and those two were already working as a team – but the vehement request to be away from the Uchiha boy was a surprise.

"Would having this years number one rookie on your team be so bad?" Iruka asked. "I'd have thought having a strong team mate like Sasuke would be a good thing."

Naruto frowned. "He's a self-absorbed angst-muffin," he countered. "He wouldn't work as part of a team unless it was to save his own life, and even then he'd grumble about it. Plus, because of the way I get treated by the grown-ups in town – and everybody has seen that Iruka-sensei – he'd think it's alright to walk all over me too."

Iruka sighed. He knew that Sasuke was proud, but what he was hearing from Naruto sounded like more than that. He was sure that the boy would grow out of it soon enough, whatever it was. Iruka waved a hand to dismiss Naruto and got to sorting out his papers once the boy had left.

Actually, Iruka had thought of putting Sasuke on a team with Naruto and Shino, certain that they would be able to balance the other boy's more dramatic attitude. It would have broken the tradition of putting the number one rookie with the class's dead last though, but since that was Nara Shikamaru – who was destined for this new generation's Nara-Akimichi-Yamanaka combo, and who only held that position because he just didn't do his tests – that was going to be broken anyway.

When the students returned at the end of the week for team assignment, Iruka smiled to see that some of the students were already sitting near their team mates.

"Team one: Honda Bumi, Ichida Yoroi, Kintaro Gumi. Team two: Minamoto Jin, Sensui Ken, Uotani Taka. Team three: Hanajima Takai, Kuro Yuki, Noboue Yomi. Team four: Aoyaki Chu, Ishiguro Yuu, Kubo Yuiko. Team five: Hatawari Umi, Watsuki Natsume, Yoshida Kara. Team six: Kuchiki Tatsuki, Shinonome Rukia, Suzaka Kyo. Team seven: Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, Uzumaki Naruto. Team eight: Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba, Uchiha Sasuke. Team nine: Isayama Usui, Shibata Asano, Takumi Misaki. Team ten: Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino. That is all," Iruka read from his paper before looking up at the assembled new genin.

The new genin who may or may not actually get their full genin rank.

"Your team leaders will come to this room to collect you some time during the day. They will call the team they have been assigned. I cannot tell you who your assigned jounin sensei will be, as I do not know. That is a matter between the Hokage and the jounin until you have started going on missions. Please remember to be respectful of whoever your jounin sensei may be," Iruka finished, and with a nod, left the classroom, allowing for the new genin to mingle and arrange themselves to sit with their new assigned teams more cohesively.

Team seven happened to all be sitting along the same bench, so they didn't have any shuffling or shifting that they really needed to do. Other teams had members nearby on a different bench or further away. All the same, team seven did some shifting.

Naruto, who had been between Shino and Hinata, stood up and turned to face the girl on their team.

"Trade seats with me Hyuuga-san?" Naruto asked.

"W-why?" Hinata questioned nervously, even as she complied, a blush on her face.

"Because Naruto and I already know each other very well, and as we are now a team, it would do well for us to get to know you as well. You can also ask both of us questions and get to know us better if you are between us, rather than having to lean around Naruto to be able to talk with me," Shino answered. "We can also help each other better if we know where our team mates will need more help and when they will need less."

Naruto nodded in agreement from Hinata's other side as he slid into what had been Hinata's seat.

Hinata smiled shyly, but hopefully, at the two boys now on either side of her.

"For example," Naruto said, intending to lead the conversation when it became clear that the girl really was very shy. "I'm really good at sneaking in and out of places, and I understand what a seal will do, but when we started I needed a lot of help from Shino to understand the things Iruka-sensei would write on the board, because I couldn't read."

"I have a solid attack, but I avoid rather than defend," Shino supplied.

Hinata pushed the tips of her pointer fingers together and looked down. "I'm weak," she said. "I'm not very good at the family style, and my byakugan isn't as powerful as Neji-nii-san's."

Shino and Naruto frowned at this, having both seen Hinata in the sparring ring during taijutsu training. She wiped the floor with the girls she sparred against – when she got serious anyway. Though not previously friends with the girl, they were aware that she was generally on the outskirts of social interactions, as they had been themselves.

"All strength is worked for, Hyuuga-san," Naruto pointed out. "I'm sure we can help make you stronger."

Shino let out a small 'ha' – just one, and it was very quiet so that his team mates might have missed it. "Naruto enjoys being beaten in the name of making his friends stronger," Shino said.

Naruto grinned. "You do the same for me," he pointed out, then looked back to Hinata. "But yeah, I heal really fast, so I don't mind it when Shino's dad says he needs to practice against an opponent rather than a log. Don't you think about being weak any more Hyuuga-san!" Naruto said in a slightly forceful, if still moderate tone. "We'll help make you the strongest Hyuuga in Konohagakure."

Hinata blinked in wide-eyed wonder at this proclamation. "I-is that e-even p-possible?" she asked quietly.

"Of course it is," Shino said bluntly. "It will take time, hard work, and determination to succeed, but it is possible." Normally, he would have added a bug reference to reinforce what he was saying, but Naruto had taught him that such things weren't needed. The blonde found them interesting, certainly, but it was just extra words sometimes.

The conversation continued for some time, discussing possible training plans and learning all about the Hyuuga bloodline and fighting style – and the boys eventually calling Hinata by her first name, as well as her returning the gesture. The classroom slowly cleared of all the other teams until it was just the three of them. Shino explained to Hinata about his bugs and his family's fighting style, information that Naruto already knew but was always happy to hear again.

They talked about the experiments that Naruto had been conducting with the basic three Academy techniques – ever since the first time he'd over-loaded the henge by mistake and made it solid rather than just an illusion, he'd been trying to make a solid bunshin that would deceive an enemy, and do the replacement technique without the smoke and further distances or to a location that he couldn't necessarily see, or to someone rather than somewhere, or switching with a person rather than a thing.

The kawarimi practice was coming along, but the bunshin was a bit harder. He could make the bunshin more solid by using something to make it from, but a solid bunshin out of just chakra... well, his first attempt had just been to over-load the technique as with the henge, but that just made the bunshin useless and it didn't even look right. On the quiet, Naruto was planning to sneak into the Hokage's library of scrolls and see if there was anything he could use. After all, a lot of techniques got labelled 'forbidden' because they used so much chakra that it killed the person trying to do it. A problem Naruto wasn't going to have any time soon.

"Naruto, there's something else you should tell Hinata while it's just the three of us," Shino said. It had been two hours since the last team had left, and it didn't look like their jounin sensei would be arriving any time soon.

Naruto steeled himself, but nodded.

"What?" Hinata asked, curious.

"Shino and I have something in common," Naruto began, laying a hand over his olive-green jacket – over where the seal on his stomach was hidden. "Only, Shino's got bugs and I've got something else."

Hinata cocked her head curiously. She hadn't twitched when Shino called out a few bugs. She was sure she wasn't going to have a problem with whatever Naruto had inside him.

"Do you remember the history lesson about the Yondaime?" Naruto asked suddenly, apparently changing the topic.

Hinata blinked, but nodded. "He was a great seal master, believed in never leaving a comrade behind, and he killed the kyuubi no yoko."

Naruto chuckled dryly and humourlessly. "Two out of three," he said. "After all, the famed fox was made of pure chakra, and you can't kill chakra."

Hinata's eyes went wide. "Then what happened?" she asked. "And how do you know?"

"I know, because the Yondaime sealed her in me," Naruto answered. "The Sandaime made it a law that no one can talk about it except for me, since it really is only my business I suppose, but you can keep the secret, can't you Hinata?"

"Of course Naruto-kun," Hinata answered solemnly. "You're my team mate, and I will do my best for you and Shino-kun, that means keeping your secrets too."

Naruto and Shino smiled at the timid girl. A few solid hours of talking with her about all sorts of plans to make her stronger, and then telling her all about themselves in exchange for learning about her, had really brought her out of her shell. Around them at least.

Conversation moved on to preferred lunches – and Hinata got a bit of a shock when Naruto mentioned how tasty squirrel was, particularly when Shino agreed – and all thoughts of the fox were dropped on the assurance that most of Naruto's non-Academy skills had been taught to him by Yoko (the name was also explained), as well as a bunch of his regular Academy skills being properly refined thanks to help from Yoko and Shino rather than the teachers. Passed through hopes for the future, dreams, and passions – Hinata apparently was much more interested in healing than harming, which was why her family thought her weak. They were just discussing options for ranged fighting, since none of them specifically were long-range fighters, when the man who was most likely their jounin-sensei arrived.

"Are you team seven?" the man asked.

"We are," Naruto confirmed. "Are you our jounin-sensei?" he asked, making sure.

The man nodded and pulled up a seat. "Well, since we have the room all to ourselves, let's have our meeting here."

Naruto smiled. "You're behind the times sensei. We've been having a team meeting since we were assigned together."

The man nodded appreciatively. "This will be brief," he said. "My name is Hatake Kakashi, I'm your assigned jounin-sensei. For now. Tomorrow you will have a test with me to see if you are truly worthy of those headbands that the Academy awarded you with."

"W-what s-s-sort of t-test, Hatake-sensei?" Hinata asked.

The silver-haired man's single visible eye softened slightly for the nervous girl. He was a hard man, not a needlessly cruel one. "You can call me Kakashi-sensei," he told her. "And it's a survival test. All the genin teams have a test like this, and usually these tests are passed down from jounin to genin. For example, the test given to the Hokage when he was a genin is the same test he later gave his own genin team. Understand?"

Hinata nodded. "Thank you Kakashi-sensei."

"I warn you all though, my team mates threw up after our genin test. The only reason I didn't is because I didn't eat breakfast," Kakashi cautioned. "Other ninja have similar stories of their genin tests."

Team seven nodded in understanding.

"One more thing," Kakashi said. "I was only told 'team seven', I don't know your names but you all know mine. From left -" he pointed to Shino, "- to right?" he suggested, waving his hand across Hinata and Naruto.

"Aburame Shino."

"Hyuuga Hinata."

"Uzumaki Naruto."

Kakashi chuckled behind his cloth mask. "And alphabetical order as well," he noted. "Right. I will see you all tomorrow at training ground seven, please assemble at five am with all of your ninja gear. Dismissed," he declared with a nod, then turned for the door.

"Five in the morning?" Hinata questioned. "That's too early for breakfast anyway."

Naruto chuckled and shook his head. "If it's so bad that we're going to throw up, I'd rather have something to throw up than dry heave," he countered. "I've had that feeling, and it's not nice. You can wash out the bad flavour with water, but if you don't actually throw up you just feel bad for longer. Besides, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it kick-starts your metabolism."

Shino nodded. "This is logical. For now however, it is late in the afternoon. Our best course of action would be to ready our equipment now and get to sleep early. Whatever we must do, being properly rested can only aid us."

Hinata and Naruto both nodded, and all three of them rose from their seats and headed for the door.

"I'll come and fetch you Naruto, since you have no clock to wake you so early," Shino offered once they'd already said goodbye to Hinata.

"Thanks Shino," Naruto answered with a grin. "I appreciate that. The sun just isn't up that early this time of year."

Shino nodded and they parted ways as well.

~oOo~

Naruto collected mushrooms and berries along the way to the training ground, and ate them as he walked. It wasn't the best for his digestion, he knew that, but he figured he'd sit for a little while when they got to the training ground.

Hinata arrived at the same time as he and Shino, and Naruto offered the extra berries he had been carrying to the girl (Shino had eaten some along the way as well) before sitting down.

"Alright," Naruto proclaimed. "Step one of the 'Make Hinata Awesome' plan will commence now."

Hinata blinked in surprise. "But..."

Shino shook his head, cutting her off. "Step one is: train in every available moment. We have an available moment now. Naruto must digest his breakfast, so he will watch at first. You can move on to hitting him later, and healing after you have learned to hurt more confidently. The fight must be finished before aid can be given."

Naruto nodded, not taking any offence at the idea that he would be Hinata's target.

"Show us your basic forms," Shino instructed.

Hinata did as instructed, taking the first stance in the line of her family's style, and thrusting her palm out in a strike.

Shino asked her to repeat the movement, but this time with her hand closed in a fist.

"Huh?" Hinata asked. "But the Jyuuken style is always palm-strikes or finger jabs so that we can send our chakra into the opponent to close their tenketsu or damage their internal organs."

"I see no logical reason for you to not cause external damage at the same time as internal damage," Shino countered firmly. "You can still channel your chakra through your hands this way, can't you?"

Hinata nodded, a little hesitatingly, but it was a confirmation all the same. "And I know Neji-nii-san can channel his chakra through any part of his body."

"That's something to work towards," Naruto quipped from the sidelines.

Shino nodded his agreement. "But for now," he said. "Punch."

Team seven spent the five hours following combining the Academy basic style with the Hyuuga forms, and trading blows among the three of them. Hinata had always been able to land a punch on her opponent in class after all, and it always hurt – whether she was channelling chakra into it or not. They also practised making traps around the training ground when they needed a break from the more physical activity of pounding each other. So when Kakashi finally arrived – very, very late – team seven felt that they'd had a productive morning, even if they were all slightly miffed with the man.

None of them made comment, but all were quite glad they'd eaten breakfast. Particularly once Kakashi had explained his test, and that anyone failing would not get lunch while he ate in front of them.

Their first course of action was to split up, disappear, and regroup further away – they had to form a plan after all. All the practice traps were about to come in useful.

The 'survival test' had begun at twenty minutes past eleven. At five minutes to twelve – the cut-off time for the test – the game had changed from 'retrieve the bells' to 'keep away', with the three genin passing both bells between all three of them while Kakashi tried to get them back. Naruto was the one who'd announced this change to their sensei between catching the bells from Shino and tossing them high for Hinata to catch.

When the alarm sounded, Kakashi was actually laughing as he congratulated them on being the first genin team he had ever passed, and more importantly congratulated them on their excellent team work and mentality, as well as their clever planning and use of traps. Lunches were handed around and all four of them sat down to eat and learn just a little bit about the man who was tasked with supervising them.

Meals eaten, Kakashi collected back his bento boxes from his students – even Naruto had eaten from one, since he had some practice with normal people's eating habits thanks to Shino – stood, and dusted the grass off his trousers.

"Well, I think that's enough for the day," he said. "So if you will all excuse me now -"

"No," Naruto interrupted quite firmly. "We won't."

Kakashi's single visible eye closed and opened a couple of times, as though surprised.

"You are our sensei, currently your only duty is to see to our training and advancement. The Hokage wouldn't have given you any other assignments, and helping us train shouldn't hamper your own training," Shino supplied. "Therefore, you can have no legitimate excuse to leave us on our own after a forty-minute test in the middle of the day after requesting us to be here at five in the morning and not showing up on time yourself."

"Also," Naruto continued. "Though we made excellent use of the approximate five hours we were waiting for you this morning, we do not appreciate such a level of un-professionalism as you have so far displayed to us. We are the future of Konoha's fighting force, and by not giving us the training we deserve as your students, you are hampering not only our personal growth but also potentially weakening Konoha as a whole."

Kakashi was beginning to look nervous – if his one visible eye was anything to go by – from this rather severe talking-to his was getting from his new genin.

"Not to mention," Hinata said softly, "if we are not given training we will continue to be weak, continue to be seen as weak, and that would reflect back on you, Kakashi-sensei. It would be like a smear on your reputation."

Kakashi sagged where he stood and slumped to the ground. "Alright, you win," he said tiredly. "Training it is, but," he added firmly. "Since you argued your case so well, I will be driving you into the ground with all the training you'll be getting. Is that clear?"

"Yes Sensei!" was the resolute answer chorused back to him by all three of the genin.

~oOo~

Kakashi started his students on chakra control. He had them walking up trees, walking on water, and even air – it couldn't actually be walked on, but speed and extreme chakra control could give the appearance of bouncing off of nothingness. Once he was satisfied with their chakra control – something that took the better part of three weeks – the physical training kicked in.

'Kicked' being somewhat literal in fact.

Hinata's family style was combined with the style taught to Kakashi and his self-proclaimed rival, Maito Gai, back when they were young and both enjoyed trying to beat the other up. It was initially less elegant, but it was much more damaging. A month of training and Hinata was adding in original moves which, combined with the other two styles, made it look like she was dancing rather than training in a deadly art. At least, while she was practising on an imagined opponent. When she had a real one, it was blatantly painful every time she landed a hit – and only Kakashi managed to avoid these hits completely, though by the time she had become properly confident in her new style of fighting he needed his sharingan to continue in this feat.

Shino had already been something of a master of the Academy basic forms. He was solid, he was precise, he was efficient. Kakashi's training made him powerful and potentially deadly. Then there was the variations of the regular forms that Shino used when employing his bugs in an offensive or defensive manoeuvre. Since he used his bugs more from a distance than in close combat, Kakashi focused on making sure that Shino was able to maintain a secure and stable footing while dodging other ranged attacks – of many and various types, some of which were even designed specifically to disable a bug user or a group of ninja, which is effectively what Shino was.

Naruto was the heavy hitter, officially. He could be in the thick of the fight and continue to stand up again, pounding after arse-whooping after potentially-fatal close-encounter. Naruto was also the member of the team that Kakashi trained most heavily in weapons. How to use them up close, how to use them from a distance, how to manipulate them after throwing them, and how to know which weapon was the best one for a given situation. Of course, Hinata and Shino were both trained in mid- to long-range weapons as well, since they needed these areas covered as well as their regular up-close fighting if they didn't want to have too many exploitable weaknesses. Naruto was the one who could potentially clank when he moved though. Thankfully, sealing scrolls took care of that problem. Kakashi also, quietly, helped Naruto with his bunshin experiment by teaching him the kage bunshin. Ultimately, this technique meant that Kakashi could drill Naruto mercilessly in the use of lots of different weapons at the same time, since the knowledge of a kage bunshin returned to its maker upon being dispersed.

The kage bunshin was the first ninjutsu that Kakashi taught since being assigned team seven. After that, he moved through each and every element, teaching all three of his genin the most basic ninjutsu associated with all of the elements. Once they'd mastered those, he moved up to the next level – but not before every basic ninjutsu had been mastered by all three of them. Working together to help each other improve was good teamwork. They were kids still after all, even if they were legally adults from the moment they accepted their forehead protectors. They wanted to learn the cool ninjutsu.

Missions were conducted once a day. D-rank of course, but they were ninja that were paid by the mission; unlike the nin who taught at the Academy, worked the mission desk, the med-nin in the hospital, or those who rotated on permanent guard duty, no, those nin were paid by the hour. It evened out, sort of. A single high ranking mission could comfortably set up a good ninja for a few months, while D-rank mission-pay lasted a week or two depending on how much of a penny-pincher the nin was. They were plentiful though, so that wasn't a problem. The chuunin who got paid a flat rate by the hour, on the other hand, didn't have to worry about high-risk situations and got a steady mid- to low-C-rank pay every two weeks. Not opulence, and of course the jounin and special-jounin who worked in the more... shaded areas of Konoha's security got a slightly higher pay than the regular chunin in their much lower-risk jobs.

So the missions that team seven took were over quickly in order to return to training sooner, and – apart from catching Tora – barely used any of their ninja skills. Pulling weeds made the muscles burn a little, but not much by comparison to their extensive physical training.

Then Kakashi sprung something new on his team: a survival exam. This was run very much like the original bell test he had given them, but he didn't just order them to try and capture or kill him. He told them that he was going to attempt to kill them as well.

"What?" Naruto yelped.

Kakashi laughed. "Kidding," he said. "I will be attacking you with paint and a genjutsu that will simulate the feeling of pain without causing the physical damage to your bodies." Genjutsu was something that Kakashi hadn't started in on really teaching them yet, so the genjutsu would remain and hamper them appropriately during the test. "This is going to be a test to see how far you have come in the past couple of months. Now, begin!"

When the survival exam was declared over, Hinata only had paint in her hair and on the edges of her clothes, Shino had splatters of paint that had landed on him after he dodged a paint-bomb and a much more colourful swarm, and Naruto had some paint on his cheeks, knuckles, and weapons, but was generally more covered with grass-stains. Kakashi was wrapped up like a spider's dinner.

"Congratulations!" he said, his visible eye upturned happily. "I now declare you ready for a C-rank mission!"

Naruto cheered, Hinata clapped happily, beaming, and Shino smiled (just a little smugly) in satisfaction.

The mission was escorting a man by the name of Tazuna to Wave Country, where he was building a bridge. It was outside of the village walls, which was nice. The man, however, was a drunk. Not so nice.

"Hey a puddle!" Naruto said, grinning as he pointed ahead of them. "I haven't jumped in a puddle since making genin. Permission to splash, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi managed to express scepticism at the need to grant the request simply by tilting his head and raising his one half-visible eyebrow.

"Aw, come on Kakashi-sensei, it's a perfect day. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the puddle is all smooth and blue and perfect. It's not going to slow down the mission if I jump in it when we reach it."

The observations that Naruto made of the puddle registered with his team as 'the puddle is suspicious' and 'if it's a trap then Naruto really is the best one to trigger it'.

Kakashi sighed in a put-upon way. "Alright Naruto," he allowed. "But no slowing down just to splash more."

Tazuna grumbled about being protected by little kids again. He'd made the complaint when team seven had been assigned to him, but Kakashi had assured the man that he wouldn't permit his 'cute little genin' to take a C-rank mission if he didn't think they were ready for it. A comment which had reassured Iruka as well, who had been about to object to giving his ex-students anything more strenuous than catching Tora again. Kakashi did have a reputation after all, and it was whispered on the rumour mill that, not only was this team of genin the first he had ever passed, but that he trained them all relentlessly.

For his part, Naruto cheered and when they were closer to the suspicious puddle, ran a couple of steps before jumping and landing with both feet in the water. This created a bit of a splash, but more importantly it caused two groans to sound.

Naruto dashed away from the puddle in time to be ready for an attack launched by the two rogue ninja who had been somehow hiding in the half-inch-deep puddle. That the two ninja appeared from the puddle clutching at their groins rather than in attack formation raised a few eyebrows.

"Naruto, tell me you didn't do that on purpose," Kakashi said.

"Of course I did Kakashi-sensei! I know every man's weakness, same as you, and they're clearly up to no good or they wouldn't be hiding in a puddle. I figured it would be easier to incapacitate first, and ask questions later," the boy answered, smiling just a little bit.

Hinata blushed and Shino snorted in amusement before sending a few of his kikai to start eating at the two nin's chakra and wrapping wires around them. Hinata caught on quickly and was tapping pressure points before either of the nin began to properly begin resisting their restraints.

"You fight dirty," Kakashi observed.

"Ninja," Naruto answered, pointing to himself. "Not samurai."

Kakashi chuckled and sighed, shaking his head in amusement at the very valid point, then went to slap their captives about a little bit and get some answers. Having gotten those answers, he turned a very blatantly unhappy eye on their client – who babbled terrified excuses and apologies and even told them about how they were all losing hope since a man called Kaiza was killed by Gato as an example of what happened to all who resisted him.

"Verdict?" Kakashi asked, turning to his team.

"We already accepted the mission Kakashi-sensei, and knew that we would be escorting and defending the client," Hinata pointed out.

Naruto nodded with a shrug. "So our information was wrong about what to expect in the way of what he needed defending against. Wouldn't be the first time a mistake like that got made. Konoha isn't the kind of village to just abandon a mission because something unexpected came up. We've got a reputation to protect after all."

Kakashi chuckled slightly. Again, Naruto had a point. "Shino? What do you think?"

"The mission has moved from C-rank to at least B. This is irregular but not something that we cannot compensate for -"

"Double-negative," Naruto quipped.

"Deliberate," Shino countered. "The only issue was that Tazuna-san claims he cannot pay the difference. Perhaps this could be made up by him offering to do an architectural project for Konoha at a slightly reduced price at some later date. Also, we should store our captives in a scroll so that they cannot escape and cause trouble later. This will also allow us to collect bounties later if they have them."

Kakashi nodded and straightened his back. "Alright my cute genin, you make a good case. Now, come and stand around these two and I'll give you a quick lesson on how to write prisoner-capture seals. They're different to regular storage seals, since you also have to make sure that whoever you are sealing up will still be alive when you get them out again."

A fun-filled five minute lesson later, and they were on the move again, Hinata and Naruto on point, Shino walking beside Tazuna, and Kakashi occupying the rear-guard. All of them attentively vigilant. Hinata's byakugan was active, a fact hidden by a genjutsu that Kakashi had placed, scanning the world around her for any threats. Naruto was employing a trick taught to him by his passenger – pumping a little extra chakra to his nose and ears, sharpening his sense of smell and hearing, on the alert for something out of place. Shino's bugs were on patrol and reporting back to him regularly. Kakashi pretended to read his book as he walked.

None of them looked like they were any more on the look out for danger than they had been prior to capturing the two nin who had been hiding in the puddle, well, not much anyway. It would have been suspicious of them to be totally unaffected by the minor altercation after all.

They weren't long off the boat on the other side of the stretch of water that Tazuna was attempting to bridge when Naruto threw a kunai into a bush that had shifted in a way that suggested occupation by a living creature.

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked, wondering why he was throwing weapons around. He hadn't sensed a chakra signature.

Naruto went to the bush and returned with a rabbit. His kunai was through its side, bloodying its white fur. Its unseasonally white fur.

"Dinner," the boy announced, pleased and perfectly aware that it had to be somebody's pet.

Hinata looked around at Shino and Kakashi, dispelling the genjutsu over her eyes before releasing her byakugan. The signal that someone had been spotted, not just the rabbit. It was extra warning, since they both knew that Naruto could skewer a rabbit through the poor little creature's tiny little brain with a senbon as long as the animal was in sight.

Someone had switched with the rabbit to avoid the kunai hit.

Shino pushed Tazuna to the ground while the rest of team seven ducked – just in time to avoid being cleaved through by the giant sword that came spinning dangerously through. It was at such a level as to remove genin heads from shoulders and gut grown men. This would have been very bad, since Hinata hadn't been taught much healing yet. Only what she read about the medicinal properties of certain plants before going to bed each night. That wouldn't re-attach heads or mend torsos.

When they were up again, Naruto made a comment that may have gotten him killed if their opponent had heard it.

"Okay, it may be the kind of sword that just screams 'I am compensating for something', but it's still cool and I want it."

Hinata and Kakashi chuckled, and Shino snorted in amusement.

"Well if you can get it off him Naruto," Kakashi said. "But that's a rogue jounin from Mist, famous for slaughtering one-hundred of his classmates for his genin exam." Secondary message: you guys won't be fighting him unless you can see a perfect opening or I'm in trouble.

"Glad I'm not a Mist nin then," Naruto answered, absently gutting the rabbit he was still holding. He'd deal with removing the fur later. "That doesn't sound like a fun exam."

~oOo~

When Inari – Tazuna's grandson – started to scream at them about trying to be heroes and getting themselves killed, Shino poked the child's forehead, a little bit sharply, but it got the boy to stop.

"Everybody dies Inari-kun," Hinata said gently.

"Training to get stronger, to better protect people, to stop the bad-guys, is how you put off your own death," Naruto added, disguising what ninja really did in a silk-and-velvet mask so as to inspire the child to not be so scared all the time.

"Gato isn't one of the Biju," Shino added. "He can be killed easily enough."

"That isn't part of our contract," Kakashi reminded his team softly. He didn't want to discourage the boy either, but neither could he just let his genin do as they pleased on their first mission outside of the village walls. "Assassinations are more expensive than this town can afford right now."

"And if Konoha took over Gato's legitimate businesses?" Shino suggested, just as quietly.

Naruto snorted, and said at his usual volume: "I bet Gato would even try to get out of paying his mercenaries if he could, and if they found that out, he really wouldn't live long."

Hinata smiled. "That's right," she said. "Gato doesn't actually kill people himself after all. He orders others to do it. Economically, he's powerful. Physically, he is very weak."

In the following week, Naruto became a one-man labour-force working to complete the bridge (based on the logic of 'the sooner the bridge is finished, the sooner we go home again'), Shino sent his bugs after Zabuza and his cohort who had escaped them and found Gato's residence full of mercenaries, and Hinata learned more about medicinal practices and healing. Oh, and all three of them trained hard under Kakashi's supervision. Naruto in particular trained so that he would be able to use Zabuza's sword as easily as the man himself had, since he had managed to snatch it during their little confrontation.

Zabuza and his... assistant? Apprentice? Accomplice?... well, the two Mist nin showed up at the end of that week, just as Naruto dispelled his last clone, the bridge finally finished.

It was Naruto trapped in a dome of ice mirrors while Hinata and Shino attacked it from the outside, Shino also standing guard over Tazuna, while Kakashi fought against Zabuza – a task much easier since the man was without his giant cleaver.

"You know, this fight is getting boring," Naruto declared loudly from where he was in the middle of the ice-mirror-dome-thing, then brought his hands together in a seal. A large poof of chakra later, and there were fifty Naruto's standing there.

Haku started throwing senbon at all of them, dispersing the chakra constructs rapidly.

Surprisingly though, when there was only one Naruto left, he also dispersed when Haku sent a barrage of senbon at him.

Naruto was no longer inside the ice prison.

The boy released his henge a few feet away from where Hinata was disabling the chakra in one of the mirrors.

"You can stop now Hinata," Naruto said with an easy smile. "Thanks for all the help though, you too Shino. I think we really wore the guy out."

"Not to mention kept him occupied while Zabuza was dealt with," Shino added, nodding in acceptance of the gratitude from his friend.

"How did you get out?" Tazuna asked, wide-eyed. "Didn't those guys say it was an inescapable prison?"

All three of the genin snorted in derision.

"There is no prison that cannot be escaped," Shino said firmly.

Naruto smirked. "It's just a matter of figuring out how."

Hinata nodded, but her byakugan was still activated and here eyes were still on the mirrors. Suddenly, she jabbed with her left fist and shattered the mirror in front of her. Haku sailed out of it and into the middle of his own jutsu. Of course, since it was his, he wouldn't have any problems getting out. On the other hand, thanks to Hinata's punch, he would probably have a few problems getting up for a while.

Or he would have, if Gato hadn't shown up and started bad-mouthing the recently deceased Zabuza. Haku moved with the speed of furious adrenaline to behead the odious man. Behind him, the genin applauded politely for an attack excellently performed, and Naruto carried the exhausted older boy back to Tazuna's house, despite his protesting that he no longer had a purpose in life since Zabuza was dead.

It was suggested that Haku could find a purpose in protecting the people of Wave, in taking care of Inari, or in returning to Konoha and becoming a ninja there – since he wasn't an official Mist ninja, that wouldn't be the political problem it could have been.

Haku decided to stay in Wave and be a guard against bandits, particularly guarding on the bridge where Zabuza's ashes had been installed in a stone jar. He had died on the bridge, now he was part of it, and Haku would guard it for the rest of his life.