Sorry for the long wait! I hope there's still someone out there willing to read this fic. Enjoy!

Mitarashi Anko knew almost nothing about her teammates.

Oh, everyone knew of the two Uchiha prodigies, but nobody in the class really knew them, so she was unfortunately rather short on potential sources of information – and she hated every moment of it too. Being both an orphan and of civilian descent already put her at disadvantage when compared to two clan kids and she did not like it when lack of info made it so that she had to go in blind.

Uchiha Shisui was the elder of the two of them, she was aware, but he was still two years younger than Anko and that made her nervous. Anko had no need for jealousy – if she had, she wouldn't have survived long in the orphanage before bitterness consumed her – but she couldn't look at him and not worry about his reactions in the field. He was a prodigy and a genius and seemed decent sort, but he was still more of a kid than Anko was and she couldn't quite bring herself to trust him.

Uchiha Meika was even worse. She was tiny, that was the problem. Young and small and slight and if Anko hadn't seen her in the sparring ring she would've dismissed her completely. As it was, she knew that they were all just about evenly matched, but the clump of wariness in her stomach wouldn't go away.

She had to approach them. She had to – they had only their lunch break before their sensei came to pick them up, and they shouldn't be complete strangers – but she didn't want to. It was clear that those two were friends – best friends probably – and they mostly kept to themselves, and Anko hated nothing more than making a fool of herself by bumbling through social interactions as was her habit.

But she had to.

So she straightened her shoulders, lifted her chin and shut off the memory of other orphans jeering at her whenever she said something creepy and wrong, before determinedly marching off towards the two brats that were about to become her closest comrades.

Gods, she hoped that they weren't as stuck up as most clan kids she'd met.

They looked up as she approached and Anko stubbornly met their eyes. Well, they didn't seem angry, at least. "Hi," she said, and dropped down to seat herself on the other side of the table before she remembered that it was bad manners to do so without permission. Oops. "I'm Mitarashi Anko. Call me Anko." There. That was direct, to the point and not as rude as she could be when she forgets herself.

Shisui grinned, and it looked delighted. He offered her a tiny wave. "Hi, Anko-chan! Nice to meet you. I'm Shisui and this," he said, pointing at the girl at his side, "is Meika. She's glad to meet you too."

Meika rolled her eyes – almost unnaturally green against her pale face – and smiled at Anko politely before pointedly elbowing the older Uchiha in the ribs. "Thank you, Shisui, for speaking in my name when I'm sitting right beside you." The look she aimed at Anko had a familiar cadence of boys, right? that had never before been directed at the purple-haired girl and something in her chest loosened. Maybe this wouldn't be a disaster after all. "Don't pay attention to the idiot, he just likes to hear himself talk. But it is nice to meet you."

Shisui pouted, one hand rising to his chest, mock-offended. "Idiot? Meika-hime, I can match you in a spar without any problems."

"That just means that you're more brawn than brain, Shisui," Meika retorted without pause, and ignored the boy's indignant expression with the ease of practice. "Anko-chan? Is it okay if we talk about our skills? I think that we should know what each of us is capable before we meet our sensei."

Practical. More practical than talking about favourite food or colour as most of the kids around them seemed to be doing in an effort to better know their teammates. Anko decided that she approved.

"Just Anko is fine," she said. "And I like taijutsu and genjutsu – I'm decent at ninjutsu and I know the Academy basics but I'm better with the other two." She hesitated for a moment, before deciding to plough on, aware that it was better to know now than later and get disappointed if they didn't like her. "And I want to learn about medicine. Poison. And… interrogation."

Shisui nodded, a startlingly grim expression on his face. It reminded Anko that clans were just as affected by the war as the orphans were – maybe even more because, for all that they sometimes suffered shortages of supplies thanks to the lack of trade, they didn't have family fighting on the front lines.

"Fair enough," Meika acknowledged, curiosity burning bright in her eyes. She refrained from asking why a new genin might want to get in T&I, though, and Anko was grateful for that. "I'm better at genjutsu and ninjutsu then at taijutsu though I'm capable with tessen." It did not escape Anko that Shisui winced at this one. "I also have some basic knowledge of fuuinjutsu so that should be useful."

"Fuuinjutsu?" Anko echoed, surprised. There were not many seal masters in Konoha and most of them were out there, fighting the war. Where did Meika learn it?

Meika ducked her head, embarrassed for the first time. "Uzumaki Kushina is my godmother."

"Red Hot-blooded Habanero?!" Anko, to her eternal shame, squeaked. Uzumaki Kushina was everything Anko had ever wanted to be – strong and dangerous and capable of demanding respect from the Hokage himself. She was even better than Senju Tsunade, because Tsunade had left, but Kushina was fighting at the frontlines even now, protecting the village.

"Yes. You'll probably meet her sometime."

"I will?" Anko's voice somehow reached even higher. She cleared her throat and glared at Shisui as he snickered. "That's great," she said, and this time her composure was almost perfect. Nevertheless, she though that a change of subject would be for the best. She concentrated on the only boy on their team. "And what are you good at?"

Shisui never seemed too stop grinning when he was not surrounded by mindless sycophants. Anko had known he was cheerful, but not that cheerful. "I'm best at genjutsu, but I'm good at taijutsu and ninjutsu too. I want to learn kenjutsu though."

Good, Anko thought. Great, actually. They were more rounded than she'd expected and that lifted some weight from her shoulders – she wouldn't have to lug around two clan kids promoted only because of their names or the demands of war. They actually seemed competent.

"Well, brats," she said and watched as Shisui swelled in outrage. Meika's lips twitched, her eyes alight with private amusement. "You're not too bad. This might work out after all."

Nara Shikaku was… actually not disappointed by his team.

He'd observed them during the recess, of course – most of the jounin-sensei did that to get a sense of the kids before they were forced to deal with them directly. The three that were assigned to him seemed surprisingly well-prepared – sensible clothing, appropriate amount of weapons for in-village missions (though the little one seemed to be packing a small armoury in her battle kimono and Shikaku was impressed despite himself) and a practical approach to introductions that suggested they actually had sense, which was a rare and valuable trait seldom found in freshly-graduated genin.

Even now, when they were sitting cross-legged in front of him on the soft grass of the training ground, they were observing him carefully. The purple-haired one was at least obvious about it, but the two Uchiha brats actually had some subtlety in them – the boy was grinning cheerfully and evaluating him with knife-sharp eyes, while the girl was hiding herself behind a placid façade, even though Shikaku was sure she'd managed to notice most of his concealed weapons.

Again, impressive.

"Well, team," Shikaku said lazily, watching them from behind half-lidded eyes. "Let's get the introductions out of the way first. I'm Nara Shikaku, but you can call me Shikaku-sensei. I like napping, cloud watching and shogi and dislike anything that takes effort. My dream is to live long enough to retire and then spend all my time napping and cloud watching." Their eyes were wide. Predictable, but reasonable. No one could make a jounin by being lazy, and they were probably connecting the dots. And if they didn't realize that he was deliberately misleading them – not lying, because you didn't lie to your comrades if you didn't have to – then Shikaku had misjudged them. He pointed at the older girl first. "Now you."

She was glaring at him. Her pupil-less eyes were good at that, but Shikaku had spent most of his life being glared at by Yamanaka Inoichi – the girl had a few years yet before she would reach that level of menace. "My name is Mitarashi Anko," she said pointedly. "I like dango, tea ceremonies and training. I dislike judgmental people and traitors. And I'm going to join the T&I once I reach tokubetsu-jounin." Good. She stood up for herself, said nothing about her capabilities and managed to sound half-way polite while doing so. She did give away her goal in life and opened herself to manipulation from that angle, but she was young. She will learn.

"Oh, me next! Me next!" the boy said, grinning. "I'm Uchiha Shisui and I like Meika-hime, pranks and training. I don't like tomatoes. My dream is to become a strong jounin and protect the village." All acceptable – almost expected – answers. All giving away barely anything important. Shikaku made a mental note to keep an eye on this one – this was almost Inoichi-level of bullshit.

"Now you," he waved lazily at the last genin.

"Of course, Shikaku-sensei," she said politely. "My name is Uchiha Meika. I like training, my friends and reading books. I dislike traitors. My dream is to become a jounin and make my clan and village proud." Nothing. She gave away absolutely nothing that Shikaku didn't already know about her.

All three of them were… promising. Oh, he was going to gloat – Chouza had had to deal with Ebisu, Genma and Gai for years and in the whole team only Genma had a subtle bone in his body, but managed to cause headaches in multitude of other ways. (Shikaku had no doubt that these three would cause just as much headaches but… subtlety. Common sense. This was basically winning a lottery in getting a genin team.)

"Well, you three seem alright," he said and watched as they all lit up, even the slightly creepy, doll-like one. "Usually, as a jounin-sensei I would announce that you have to pass an additional exam to become my genin –"

He was interrupted by twin outraged shouts as both Anko and Shisui opened their mouths simultaneously to protest. He watched in amusement as they glared at each other, trying to decide who should speak first.

"…Usually?" Meika called him out on his hint, her eyes twinkling as she observed her teammates with great enjoyment.

Gloat. He was going to gloat so much, and not even Inoichi's disapproval was going to stop him.

He smiled in appreciation at the youngest genin. "Yes. Usually," he said, and the other two immediately quieted. "Since we're at war –" Meika and Shisui both winced at this one, while Anko frowned and hunched over. "– we can't afford to waste any manpower, all genin who pass Academy exam get to learn from a jounin-sensei." If they were going to advance further or even survive, was another matter entirely. One he didn't feel like bringing up right now.

Shisui fidgeted in his seat. "So we're a team, right? And that's final?"

Shikaku felt his smile going softer at the hopeful looks aimed his way. "Yeah, we're a team either way." He allowed them a moment of happiness, before proceeding to crush their spirits. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to go easy on you," he said, and straightened abruptly. "There is a war out there, and no genin of mine is going to die because they're too lazy to learn." He eyed them sternly, ignoring the hypocrisy of his statement with ease. His survival had been mostly due to luck and Inoichi and Chouza's combined efforts – until the wake-up call that had nearly killed them all and left Shikaku permanently scarred and painfully aware of his shortcomings.

He was going to avoid such situation with this kids, though. He knew better now.

"We'll meet here tomorrow, at 9 AM sharp and I'm going to assess your abilities before training you until you can't walk anymore." He slumped back into his usual lazy hunch even as he stood up. The kids looked at him, wide-eyed.

"See you then. Don't be late," he said, and wandered off.

He had a meeting with Inoichi and Chouza, and for once he was not going to be late.