The night had concluded and Naruto could be seen in the middle of his soon-to-be former classroom, bleary-eyed and swaying. It was clear he had been up all night and was doing his best to not doze off to Mikoto's right. Similarly, on Mikoto's left was Hinata, looking sleepy with dark circles under her eyes. Hinata began speaking.

 

"Hey, Mikoto…"

 

Before she could continue, she looked to her right and saw Mikoto, actually sleeping. Seeing the girl was there, peacefully sleeping, Hinata decided to not say anything. Unfortunately, she ended up catching Naruto's attention.

 

"Hey! How come Mikoto gets to sleep in class but I'm here forcing myself to stay awake?" His outburst caused Mikoto to open her eyes. She looked over to Naruto with a gaze that threatened to freeze the poor boy's soul. Noticing his reaction, Mikoto's gaze softened.

 

"Ah, sorry. I don't really like being woken up. I'm not actually mad at you, don't worry." Mikoto gave Naruto an apologetic smile.

 

"You coulda fooled me…" Naruto adjusted his forehead protector after wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Well, at least I'm awake now."

 

"Glad to hear I was helpful!" Mikoto's reply elicited a giggle from Hinata and a sigh from Naruto.

 

"Hey, Mikoto, do you think we'll be on the same team?" Hinata asked before anything else could interrupt her question.

 

"I'm not sure," Mikoto answered honestly, "it would be nice if we were, but they'll probably divide teams by strength. The academy has seen that we're both fairly equal but still well above average. The chances of us being together aren't too great."

 

"That makes sense…" Hinata looked down but didn't complain.

 

"Yeah! Maybe I'll get to be in a team with Mikoto and you won't!" Naruto's joke earned him a harsh glare from Hinata.

 

I almost feel bad for the kid, signing his own death warrant like that.

 

He'll learn eventually.

 

"Come on, Naruto. Don't tease Hinata too much. If that joke turns into reality, what do you think she'll do to you?" A shiver ran up Naruto's spine.

 

"I'm sorry, Hinata. I was just making a joke."

 

"Hmph!" Hinata only turned her head away from Naruto, causing him to sway more than when he was on the verge of falling asleep.

 

Before either of them could manage to reconcile or make things worse, Iruka entered the room with a smile on his face. Nothing about him betrayed the injuries he suffered the previous night.

 

"Alright everyone! Congratulations on graduating! It will be my last day as your sensei, so I'd just like to thank everyone for bearing with me for all these years. It was truly wonderful getting to teach all of you. Of course, I'm sure nobody wants to hear an old guy like me ramble on. I'll go ahead and announce the team compositions!"

 

The tension in the room immediately increased for some while others were content to just wait and see. Some children were from clans that almost always teamed up with each other while others were left worried about who their teammates may be. In particular, Hinata was on the verge of biting her nails off. Juxtaposed to her, Mikoto was the epitome of serenity, radiating a calming aura. Naruto was simply excited to finally be a genin, especially after all the stress his exam caused him. Iruka called out teams one through six. Hinata was disappointed to be on a different team from Mikoto but was happy that she didn't have any grievances with Shino nor Kiba. Finally, the time for Team 7's composition to be announced came.

 

"Now, this team has some special circumstances. There was exactly one extra graduate this year and no teams had any available spots, so this team will have four members." Iruka could only pretend to ignore Hinata's glares as he continued to speak. "The original composition was decided to be Sasuke Uchiha, our strongest student in the class, Sakura Haruno, a solid middle, and Naruto Uzumaki, who unfortunately came last in the class due to testing issues."

 

Naruto turned his head to the left, looking like a bobblehead toy the entire time. He pleaded for Hinata to forgive him, but she only smiled. The smile never once reached her eyes.

 

"After analyzing all of the teams and receiving special permission from Hokage-sama, Mikoto Hyuga will be joining Team 7."

 

At this point Naruto's forehead was firmly planted to the ground, begging Hinata for forgiveness. In response to this display, Hinata placed her foot on the back of Naruto's head and began grinding.

 

You should step in.

 

Way ahead of you. The last thing we need is her getting into this at such a young age.

 

That definitely was not what I was referring to! I just think that it's bad for them to argue this publicly.

 

Well, that too. Wouldn't you say that twelve is a bit too young for this, though?

 

How should I know? I'm not even human.

 

Fair.

 

"Hinata, please stop. It hurts me to see you two like this. Can't we just get along like always? It's not like we'll always be separated, Hinata. When we aren't doing missions I can still see you every day in and out of the clan compound. Let's just calm down for now." Mikoto grabbed Hinata's hands, causing her to jolt. Hinata quickly removed her foot from Naruto's head and apologized. Naruto stood and thanked Mikoto before returning to his seat. His figure was vaguely reminiscent of a subordinate thanking a mob boss, with his expressionless face and waist bent at a ninety-degree angle; the only part that didn't fit the image were the tears at the corner of his eyes, no doubt borne of gratitude. To preserve his sanity, Iruka just allowed the situation to happen.

 

"As I was saying, this will be the composition of Team 7. Does anyone have any questions?" Iruka tried to smoothly depart from the tense situation the class found itself in.

 

"Why do I have to be in a team with these three? I would rather be alone, they'll only drag me down," the gloomy boy, Sasuke, raised his hand and asked a question with an arrogant tone.

 

"Well, Sasuke, that's because it's required that every team has at least three members. There's no way we can let you out on your own. Besides, I seriously doubt that this team will drag you down. Sakura is competent when she applies herself and Naruto if capable of pulling through when it really matters. As for Mikoto, I have the feeling she's never really tried. Nobody at the academy has ever been able to gauge her full strength. In fact, the only reason she ranked below you in the academy is because she received seventy-two percent on every single exam, erring to the lower end should the points not line up. At first we believed it to be a coincidence- but once it happened repeatedly, most of the instructors believe it was on purpose. There's not much we can say about Mikoto, but I can assure you that she will be a great teammate."

"As if. If she refuses to apply herself here then I bet she'll just end up dead once we're on a battlefield." Sasuke glared at Mikoto.

 

"Hey! You take that back! There's nobody more trustworthy than Mikoto!" Naruto finally lost it once Mikoto had been insulted. Hinata barely managed to hold herself back thanks to Mikoto holding her hands again.

 

I really need to have a talk with this girl about controlling herself when I'm not around.

 

It might be that she's like this only because you're around.

 

That could be true.

 

"Naruto, shut up! You're ranked last in the class, you can't be mean to Sasuke!" Sakura decided to jump in and defend Sasuke.

 

"What's my ranking got to do with anything, huh? I bet I could beat Sasuke up right here!"

 

"Really? Do you really want to try?" Sasuke was now squatting like a delinquent on the table in front of Naruto. His arms were laid across his knees while he balanced only on his toes. Sasuke smirked at Naruto while challenging him. Naruto reached out and grabbed Sasuke's shirt, catching him by surprised and knocking him off balance.

 

You don't think…

 

If it happens I'm going to stop using your eyes for a week. I'd rather watch the sewers.

 

I think it would be funny.

 

Sasuke teetered and tottered, looking for anything to grab. Unfortunately all he could find was the back of Naruto's head. Even worse, he held on for dear life, dragging Naruto's face right towards his.

 

No!

 

Hah! Yes!

 

Just like that, Naruto and Sasuke shared a passionate first kiss. It was jam-packed with emotion, even if that emotion was disgust and disdain. What shocked the class is that it looked like Sasuke initiated it, with him pulling Naruto's face right to his. In fact, not even Naruto realized it was unintentional.

 

"Ahh! What the hell, Sasuke? Why did you do that? Ew!" Naruto was on the floor gagging.

 

"You dumbass! Why did you knock me off-balance?" Sasuke was trying to spit every bit of saliva out of his mouth.

 

"Sasuke, aren't you the number one in the class? How did you even get knocked off-balance when all Naruto did was grab your shirt?" Mikoto swooped into the conversation and dealt a deadly blow, effectively setting the classroom ablaze.

 

"Sasuke, no!" Sakura was on the verge of a mental breakdown, as were many of the girls in the class.

 

The chaos continued for another thirty minutes before Iruka was able to calm the class down. Naruto and Sasuke had both run out of the room in order to search for water to wash their mouths out with.

 

"Okay, now that… that incident is over, you can wait here to meet your new jonin leader. They'll come to the classroom to pick you up," Iruka told all of the teams and dismissed them.

 

The other teams left the classroom with their new leaders, leaving Team 7 behind. The four waited, and waited, and waited some more. Mikoto and Naruto decided to work on their chakra control while waiting. Sasuke sat, looking at the two. Sakura was positioned against a wall and had been looking at Sasuke, but even that had its limits.

 

"Where in the world is our new sensei? Nobody should be this late!" Sakura shouted to no one in particular.

 

"You rang?" A white haired man with a mask covering his face and his forehead protector slanted to cover one of his eyes appeared behind Sakura. She quickly retreated to where the other three were. Naruto and Mikoto had stopped training and looked at the new man who appeared.

 

"Well, you seem like a lively bunch. I'd rather not deal with you at all, though."