__Sara Pov__

I got up quite early the next day, because I had to get the three little kids ready. Today would be their first day of the academy, and  I was going to walk them there before meeting up with my team.

"Hey! Daiki, Junichi, and Ayaka! are you guys up yet? You have school today!"

Daiki came running up to me. "Sara-nee! Will you help us get ready? I can't decide on what clothes look more ninja-like!"

"Yeah, sure lead the way." I smiled smally, they were such kids, and very easily excited.

I walked in their room to help them get their outfits. Daiki ended up wearing dark blue shorts and a light yellow top, he also had a blue bandana on his forhead, because 'its where my headband will go!'. Junichi had on black loose fit jeans and a white top, he was more of a solemn kid, so it suited him. Ayaka insisted on the rainbow polka dot dress I had made her, it was cap sleeved and was a little puffy at the bottom, it had a slit on the right though and she wore bright pink leggings with it.

They all had their kunai pouches on, but Jun's was on the left side. They really did look sorta like mini ninjas. I had trusted all three with some kunai and five shuriken, and they stood there proudly.

"How do we look Sara-nee?" Ayaka asked. Her bubbly personality would get her a lot more friends.

"You guys look like the great ninja I know you'll grow up to be." They all beamed at eachother from my praise.

"Will you teach us how to use weapons Sara-nee?" Junichi sounded really excited, and it made me happy.

"I will help you guys when I have the time, but I'm starting my missions today." Their crestfallen faces almost broke my heart. "I know you guys will do awesome, whenever you want me to, and I'm around I'll look over your training, it's a promise."

"Yaaay!" They all three cheered.

"Well then, we should be off to the academy." I turned in to the kitchen. "Kakashi, I'll meet you guys in front of the mission booths, I'm taking the three kids to the academy."

"All right, see you soon, mask girl."

"Whatever, ojiisan."

With that the four of us left in a line holding hands all the way to the academy, they actually had Iruka for a teacher.

"Hello Iruka-sensei. I have your three new students!"

He looked at me and then noticed the three kids. "Well look at that, I didn't expect you to be bringing three of the new kids to class today. Are you staying for their orientation?"

"No, unfortunately I have missions. It would be the perfect time to prank you too."

He laughed, "You are joking, right?"

"Who knows?" I turned to the three kids. "Be nice to Iruka-sensei, alright? It's ok to pull a prank every once in a while, but pay attention to the lessons."

"Alright Sara-nee!" Daiki answered

"Will you pick us up from school today?"

"I'll try my best Ayaka. I'll definately see you three tonight though. Study hard and watch out for eachother." I then turned after hugging each of them and waved to Iruka, walking out the door.

I rushed over to meet up with my team then to start the missions. I didn't expect them to be too hard, and was actually pretty excited to start them.

"Hey Sara, glad you made it in time!" Sakura greeted.

"Hi Sakura, hey guys are you ready for some missions?"

"I'm super ready, believe it!"

"Good to hear Naruto, but I want no complaints from the four of you today, got it?" Kakashi warned

"Alright." we all chorused. Together the five of us walked into the mission office.

The only reason that Kakashi would say not to complain is if we would have a reason to. That means we have a reason, and that reason would most likely be the misson. That means the mission would be something like...

"You're mission today as team seven is gaurding a nobles son. He is seven years old today and wants to be shown around the village for his birthday. You have to play games and keep him entertained." The hokage told us.

"Isn't that just babysitting?" I voiced.

The hokage sweatdropped, "Well... pretty much."

"Alright, lets go you four." Kakashi started to herd us out the door.

"But Kaka-" Naruto was cut off by a hand over his mouth.

"Didn't you say that you wouldn't complain today?"

"Let's just go and get this over with. We're new genin anyways, we all have to start somewhere." I spoke up, the voice of reason in the group. However, the way Kakashi cut Naruto off made me think up a new name for Kakashi.

"Thank you Sara, lets go now."

"No problem, I have a feeling that today will be somewhat fun... Kaka-baka." I'm surprised I hadn't thought that up sooner.

"Is that going to be your new name for me now Sara? I finally thought I had gotten through to you yesterday when you called me Kakashi-sensei."

"Well it's much funner with nicknames, especially if they annoy the person! If you want me to I could call the other three by nicknames."

"Out of curioustiy, what would our nicknames be?" Sasuke questioned.

"Whoa! Who made you happy today? You spoke a full sentance, out of curiousity!"

"Hn"

"There's the old Sasuke! As for the nicknames..." I trailed off thinking. "I would say pinkette, duckbutt, and spi-wah?" I cut off in surprise as Shikamaru trapped me in his Kagemane no Jutsu.

"Well don't I get an insulting nickname as well Sara?" Shikamaru asked walking towards me, making me do the same.

"Shouldn't you be off on missions pinapple?"

"I'm actually a tad hurt at that... what a drag, yeah, we have to clean up this river."

"Well, don't waste your energy on me pinapple, you'll need however much you can muster."

"Whatever, troublesome woman." he released the jutsu however.

"Hey Shika, wanna come over after missions today for a game of shogi?"

"Yeah, sounds good, maybe I'll bring Choji along." With that he walked off over to his team.

I turned back to my team to see grins on their faces.

"What's with you guys? Oh, right, I didn't finish Naruto's nickname... Swirly! or was it spikes... now I can't remember what I was going to say..." They all anime fell. "What?"

"Soo... when are you and Shikamaru going to start dating?" Sakura asked.

"WHA? Me and Shika are just friends pinkette."

"Whatever, deny it while you can Sara."

"Let's just get the mission over with, alright?"

"Yeah! We're gonna get this done with no problem, believe it!"

Thank god I was wearing a mask so they couldn't see my furious blushing.

_You thought it would end there didn't you?_

At 2:30 I made my team follow me to pick up Ayaka and the other two from the academy. The whole way back was filled with their excited chatter about what they learned and who was in their class. The kid we were watching, Hibiko, asked them questions about it. He was acting very interested right now, opposed to other times throughout the day. They were all fast friends. I had started to think that Hibiko wasn't that bad a kid.

We dropped of the three kids at the house, and I told them I would be back at about 7:00 or so since thats when I thought Shika would be done as well.

_-_

So yeah, that kid? I was wrong, for once. Total brat, he made us run everywhere with him, and he totally thought that we would do anything for money. Yeah, think again. We actually did have to protect him now though, because currently, he was being attacked by some ninja from another village. Turns out they wanted him as a hostage or whatever because the kids parents were loaded. They didn't have headbands though, so we couldn't identify the village. Either way we were in the middle of a battle, and I had left my sword behind because I thought this would just be babysitting.

The five of us made a circle around the brat protecting him from the ninja's who, in turn, surrounded us, sorta like an eyeball.

"What a pain in the butt."

"We can handle it Sara, just work as a team. Speaking of, I'm curious as to your suggestion for the teams." Kakashi never missed a chance to test my intelect.

"Right then... I think me and spikes team up while pinkette and duckbett go together. What's your call Kaka-baka?"

"Haah... stop calling us those ridiculous names, but I agree, I think that will be the best formation right now for the team. Sara and Naruto, stay near Hibiko and protect him, I'll go with Sasuke and Sakura and attack the opponents head on."

"Right."

The fight was short, Kakashi helped everyone out in reality, because we still weren't used to being ninja and so weren't the greatest fighters. The hired ninja weren't that strong though, like it seemed they were poorly trained. The fight didn't last long but it was a little taxing.

Sasuke and Sakura made a good team out there, covering eachother, even though Sasuke says he would have done fine by himself. Though they were a good team though doesn't mean that no one got through to us.

I fought them off with a kunai for quite a while, throwing shuriken with threads to detain and cut others.  Naruto fought at my back with shadow clones, the way he distracted the enemies made it easier for me to jump in and beat them. Eventually I threw my last kunai and turned to a Naruto.

"Yo! Spikes! Can you have a clone use Henge no Jutsu to turn into a sword?"

A clone jumped up and transformed and while I waited for it to come down I fought people off with my bare hands. Let's just say stopping a kunai with your bare hand leads to a fairly good cut. Eventually the sword came down and I caught it, immediately going for the tendon in the back of the leg of the attackers. Kakashi had said not to kill anyone when we first ran into them.

The battle ended with our victory, the kid had this amazing look of awe in his eyes at what we had done. However we didn't get out of it without injury. After detaining all the ninja in a way we knew they couldn't escape we walked off.

"I'm going to inform the hokage of this, I don't think they will attack again, so take Hibiko with you to the hospital to have them look at your injuries." He of course, was uninjured. "Oh! and good job all of you, you did well for your first fight."

We walked off together towards the hospital. Naruto had a cut on his leg and upper arm, while Sasuke had cuts on both arms, Sakura had a pretty deep cut on her upper thigh and we had bandaged it earlier. Sasuke, even with the cuts on his arm, was well enough to carry her and did, much to her enjoyment I imagine. I however wasn't heavily injured except a scrap by my eye and that gash from enemy kunai. I ran around with Hibiko talking and playing.

Eventually we all made it to the hospital, and the nurses looked after the other three while I sat with Hibiko.

"I can't believe how cool you guys were! That was awesome! I wish I could do that too!"

"Well Hibiko, since you're a noble's son I don't know about becoming a ninja, but you could learn how to defend yourself."

"I don't want to just defend myself! Being a ninja and going on missions must be awesome, I really want to do that."

"You could always ask your dad to let you. I'm sure that if he said yes you could go to the academy here. Then you could be a ninja."

"Do you really think so?"

"Anything is possible Hibiko, but you have to ask your dad. Also you need to remember that there are no short cuts when it comes to being a great ninja."

"That's so cool, maybe I'll ask my dad when I get home." He started to nod off though, he must be exahusted. I picked him up and placed him on my lap. He soon fell asleep.

"Would you like to be checked for injuries as well?" a nurse came up and asked.

"No, I'm good I just have this cut here and the gash on my hand. If it isn't to much trouble though could you bandage them for me? My hands are somewhat full." I nodded at Hibiko, asleep in my lap.

She smiled sweetly, "Not a problem at all. Your teammates are all alright. They should be fully healed after a good nights sleep."

"That's good, it amazes me what medical jutsu can do."

She left then and my comrades came out not too long later. Sakura a little dejected since she was no longer having to be carried by Sasuke.

"Well, we should get Hibiko back to his dad, I'll carry him there, you can come if you want or go and get some sleep. We have more missions tomorrow though, so I might choose the latter."

They all nodded. "Thanks Sara, thats a great help."

"Not a problem, pinkette." She got an irk mark at the nickname, but couldn't do anything since Hibiko was asleep in my arms. "Well, see you all later, you guys fought well."

"You did too Sara." Sasuke said.

"What? Was that a compliment duckbutt?"

"Hn."

"Of course you go back to that."

"Well we're off Sara, see you tomorrow!"

I walked off carrying Hibiko towards his dads hotel. Halfway there Kakashi came up and joined me.

"Where did the other three go?"

"After they got healed at the hospital they went home, as I told them to. They will all be fine after a good nights sleep and can do missions tomorrow as well." I filled him in on what happend as we walked. "What happened to the enemy ninja?"

"They were taken to see the Hokage, they were from a little village to the west of here. The village is made up by members of a ninja clan. It is a poor village so they were looking to get money from this." He informed me.

"What will happen to them? We won't kill them right?"

"No, that's unlikely to happen, we'll probably let them go."

"That's unfortunate. We should keep them here as hostage to force a talk with their leader. We could have them join the leaf. Though we beat them we were getting pressured. I'm sure that if you weren't there we would have lost. Even then, if we had messed up at all with our teamwork... who knows."

"That is... actually very true, maybe you and I could talk to the Hokage after this about that."

I looked at the sky, it was about 5:30, I assumed that Shikamaru's mission would last until about 7:00 so I had some time. "Alright, after I drop off Hibiko I'll head over with you."

We walked in silence the rest of the way to the hotel to drop off Hibiko. When we got there his dad came up and took him, we told what had happened and assured that he wasn't injured in any way.

"Although you may have a problem when he wakes up." I stated after calming the worried parent.

"What do you mean by that?" His worried tone was creeping back.

"Haha, nothing bad, don't worry. However, when he wakes up I'm pretty sure he'll ask to become a ninja."

His dad was silent for a while. "I had a feeling that one day he would. He's an adventurous kid and after living through that, well it was a matter of time."

"In my opinion, with his attitude, he could probably become a great one, it's up to you though, he is your son."

With that Kakashi and I went off to the hokage's office.

"Do you really think that kid would be a great ninja?"

"I do, and he will. His attitude, even if his dad says no at first, Hibiko will wear him down by asking over and over, not that he will have to. His dad will say yes. After seeing us in action he decided to become a ninja. He seeks adventure and is very determined, in fact he makes me think of a little Naruto. He has the same attributes in many ways. I'm sure that they will both become amazing ninja."

"What about Sasuke and Sakura? How do you take them?"

"I don't know about Sasuke, he'll definately be strong, but I have a feeling he'll get there for the wrong reason. Just like his introduction, he is seeking revenge, but even I know that will get him nowhere. Sakura... She has amazing strength and determination in her, it just isn't quite developed yet. I'm sure that she will be a good ninja with the right push, but I see her as more of... a helper? That's what makes her partnership with both Sasuke and Naruto good. I'm sure that she would fit in the role of either a genjutsu fighter or medical ninja... but the way she hits Naruto when she's mad..." Kakashi and I both shuddered. "She's strong."

"That's a very good analysis of your teammates, it makes me wonder what you think of me..." He trailed off.

"I never tell people what I think of them... except Iruka, he was an exception, it usually freaks people out if I know too much about their personality. Either way, we're here. Oh, and if you didn't catch on, Shikamaru is coming over tonight for shogi, and if you don't want him knowing we live together... make yourself scarce." There was also an underlying threat in my words when I said that.

We walked up to the Hokage's office and I told him about my idea for the clan's village. After thinking about it and me explaining my thoughts he agreed. I'm sure that we will have another clan here soon, and that it will liven things up considerably for a while.

We then left, with Kakashi going on ahead to eat and hole up in his room.

I sharpened my senses and searched for Shikamaru's chakra, it was headed in to the mission office. He was most likely turning in a report with his team, after searching chakras I indeed saw that Ino and Choji were with him, as well as Asuma. I headed over there as well. Kakashi had given me the report to turn in anyways. Sometimes he was even lazier than me.

I ran into them as they were walking out.

"Hey pinapple, smokey, fan girl 2, and underwear head!" I greeted the entire team with nicknames, just to see who would be annoyed. Turns out... all of them. The complaints were too much to keep up with. "HEY! Alright, it was a joke... I may keep some of those nicknames though..." A devious note creeping into my voice.

"Anyways, what are you doing here Sara?" Their sensei, Asuma asked.

"Nothing much, I came to turn in the report for our mission and to steal Shikamaru and Choji for cloud watching and Shogi."

"We were headed for barbeque, would you like to join us?" Asuma offered.

"Yeah, just give me a second, sometimes Kakashi can be even lazier than me, maybe not pinapple head over there, no one could beat him in lazyness, but definately me."

His whole team smiled at the gentle jab I sent Shikamaru's way. "This is why girls are so troublesome." At that we all burst out laughing, even Shika smiled.

I went to turn the report in, and saw Iruka at the desk.

"Here Iruka, Kakashi said to turn this in for him."

"I was wondering why he hadn't turned it in yet."

"Well you know him... at least longer than I have, but I may just know him better."

"Now why would I not be surprised at that?" He smiled and we said our goodbyes.

I walked back out to join Shika's team for food. We left together and had a lot of fun. In the end we left and parted ways. Choji and Shika came with me to my house. We got there at about 7:15 and as soon as I walked though the gate I was tackled by three figures running out the door.

The three kids all started talking at once. "Whoa! Slow down! I don't have enough ears for you all."

"Hey, Sara-nee, who is he?" Jun asked me.

I remebered Shika and Choji then and looked to them, I remembered that Choji had never met the three.

"Right! Introduction time. Choji these three are the kids I look after, they came to the village with me. Their names are Junichi, Daiki, and Ayaka. Jun, Dai and Ayaka, this is Choji, a friend of both me and Shika."

Choji knelt down. "It's very nice to meet you, Jun, Dai, and Aya."

"Uh, oh..." I could see the anger growing around Ayaka.

Shikamaru came over to me. "So should I ask 'why the uh oh?' or just leave it be?"

"Let's just say that calling Ayaka 'Aya' is like calling Choji 'fatso' and leave it at that." I whispered quietly in his ear.

"Who are you calling Aya you fatso?" With that one sentence from Ayaka things were close to the breaking point and an all out war.

I stepped in between them, being brave. "Now Ayaka, you shouldn't call people fatso, especially Choji" I whispered in her ear. She looked down, knowing she had done something wrong and impolite. I turned to Choji next, "Choji, I should have explained, Ayaka gets very angry when you call her Aya, it's like calling you that one word." I whispered quietly. He nodded, forgiving Ayaka.

"Well then, who wants to go out back?" Shikamaru asked, diffusing the situation completely.

"Sounds good, then I can watch you three and you can tell me and Choji and Shika about your first day at the academy." I turned to Shika, "And you pinapple, are in for a game of Shogi."

"How 'bout a deal then, you troublesome woman? If I win you stop calling me pinapple?" Shika just made this ten times more interesting... but what do I get if I win...

"Well then... if I win you have to... be my servant for a week! It won't be the week after I win either, it will be any week of my choosing from that point on. You'll have to do anything I say and you can't run away either, unless it's for a mission. If you do get a mission though, the time you're gone for is added on the end."

"Hmm... It's a deal you troublesome woman."

"Great, you five head out back, I'll make snacks and be out in a minute." With that they went out back and I went inside.

I made some rice balls, since they were quick and easy and I could make a lot of them, since Choji was here. I carried a huge tray with a huge pile out with me to the back setting them on the porch. I then went and grabbed my Shogi set.

I set it up and me and Shika began playing... in our heads. Shika had the first move. Finally he moved his piece forward and I thought of the next few moves I could get out of that. We both thought we were gonna win, but I knew I would, and he would only respond to my moves.

The three kids played with Choji and ate the rice balls. Eventually they moved on to throwing practice with their weapons. Me and Shika took a break from shogi to watch them, I was actually sorta instructing them. The total moves we had made in that time was five. Him three and me two, it was my move.

Halfway though a set with the kids I called out, "Choji, move the pawn on B2 up to C2!"

"Alright Sara."

"It's your move now pinapple."

I then went back to the three kids. I had to say that Daiki had the best accuracy, but Junichi had the best form, while Ayaka... she definately had the best determination. Ayaka had ok form and not great accuracy, but she never gave up. Dai would get frustrated when I pointed out a flaw in his form, and Junichi kept challenging himself with getting better with self bets. Eventually I left them to their practice.

I went back to see that Shika had made his move. Just what I had expected. I moved my piece then and we went back and forth for a while. Eventually it reached 8:30 and we took a break, we had gotten a total of 18 moves in and it was still going somewhat to plan, I had to admit Shika was good and he would surprise me with his moves sometimes, making me rethink my strategy.

"Alright you three. It's time for you to go to bed."

"But Sara-nee!"

"Nope! Don't want to hear it! You three have school tomorrow and you can practice more then as well, right now it's bed time!" They all put the weapons down and started to march inside as I looked over at Shika. "I'll be back in 15 pinapple, try not to let Choji eat too many rice balls." I was surprised that there were still 5 left, probably 2 for both me and Shika and Choji, of course, would have the last one.

I got the kids to bed and returned back to my friends. Shika had made his move so I took a rice ball and ate for a second planning, then made my move. Me and him ate our rice balls leaving the last one for Choji.

When it reached 9:00 Choji sat up. "Well guys, I have to go otherwise I'll hear it from my mom."

"Hey Choji, on your way back let my parents know I'll be back around 10 or so."

"You think it'll end in just an hour pinapple?"

"Yeah and with my victory."

"Oh, we'll just see about that."

We didn't even notice when Choji left.

The game dragged on, but it did eventually end. The end was no surprise to either of us. We both planned our moves. But one of us cornered the other mentally and the other just flipped their king over, signaling defeat.

"Well that was fun." I said with sincerity.

"It was definately over before I thought though."

"Yeah, it's only 9:45..."

"What do you want to do for 15 minutes?"

"Meh, lets go to the roof and watch the stars."

"Sounds good to me."

We sat in silence just enjoying the relaxation.

"So I didn't ask earlier, but where did you get the cuts from Sara? I thought your mission was just babysitting today?"

I related the tale to him, and he listened with interest, even if no one else could tell.

"You really went through that?"

"Yeah, but without my team I wouldn't have won. As it is Kakashi-sensei did most of it, but without him we might have handled it, and that's a very big might, with perfect teamwork, which ours sure wasn't, it was good, but not perfect."

"Yeah, I can tell. It sounds like it was rough, I'm surprised you left with only that scratch and gash though, you're saying none of you used jutsu except for Naruto's Kagebunshin?"

"Pretty much, I'm a close range fighter, and am good at using a sword, at the same time though, almost my whole team is pretty much made of close range fighters. I could do long or mid range, as could Kaka-baka and maybe duckbutt, but it would be a little more lethal in my case." I had been working on some jutsus for a long range battle. I would have to get some for detainment cases now.

"I'm not looking forward to fighting you at all."

"The only time we would fight is during the Chunin exams... which I hope we both get into, and even if we fought, I'm sure we would bore the audience in the final exam by just standing in mental battle and eventually one of us would surrender."

"That's pretty true. Well, it's late, and I better get home or my mom will lecture my head off, troublesome mom..."

He got up and jumped of the roof leaving out the front gate.

"See you later, pinapple."