"Contacts?" a tall and rather imposing Hyuuga asked a small girl who was having her hair pinned up in red bands by a member of the Branch House.

"Contacts." the girl grumbled.

A few feet away there was the buzz of a hair clipper as a young boy who'd had skin darkening make-up slathered all over him was getting his head shaved.

Eventually the two children were released.

"I look hideous." the dark tan boy moaned as soon as the two children were out of the Hyuuga compound. "As soon as this is over, I'm never cutting my hair again."

"I don't see why you're complaining." the girl who had her hair held out of her face with a red band and the ponytail which was clipped to the top of her head held together with another red band said. "I have to be the girl, all because well...you know."

"This wouldn't have happened if our dad hadn't gone and pulled that stupid stunt in Kumo when he was a Chunin and pissed off the entire village." the darkish skinned boy said, practicing his squint so his eyes were nearly invisible.

All too soon, the two of them were at the Academy, not that they were happy to be there, looking as they did.

"Who the hell are you?!" a certain girl that the two of them still secretly called "Tomato" behind her back bellowed the instant they came through the door.

"We're uh, graduates from Class B." the girl said, sounding somewhat embarrassed.

She had reason to be embarrassed. Class B was for the brats who should never have applied to the Academy in the first place, the washouts. Every once in a while however, someone from Class B would get lucky and graduate. Thanks to the arrangement their father had made with the Hokage who happened to have a soft spot for children, they had been listed down as the lucky ones who'd barely scraped a pass this year.

"Okay then." the loud redhead said, sitting down and ignoring them.

The boy and the girl took spots at the back of the room, well away from the redhead. They'd learned from experience that the girl could be extremely volatile and unpredictable, and that if something set her off, you most definitely did not want to get caught in the crossfire. If you happened to be the one that set her off...Well, her low Taijutsu scores and her crappy aim weren't indicative of her true abilities. The word "shredded" generally came to mind.

Poor, poor, Asuko.

As they sat waiting for this farce to be over, their teacher who should've retired years ago but had remained due to the war hobbled into the room with the clipboard that contained the team assignments. After a speech on what it meant to be shinobi, the man got down to what all of them were waiting for.

"As you can see, Hyuuga Hiashi and Hyuuga Hizashi are not here." the man said. "This is because they have been apprenticed to a member of their clan for more specialized training."

There was a collective groan from the Hyuuga fangirls who outnumbered the Uchiha fangirls 2-1 this year, mainly because that year's Uchiha was rather mediocre, and the Hyuuga had outperformed him in every area of skill.

"Now that that announcement is over with, Team 1 will be..." the Instructor said, getting down to the nitty gritty.

"...And, Team 7 will be Shinamori Kei, Hanamori Keiko, and Namikaze Minato. Your sensei will be Jiraiya the, er, Super, I'm not finishing this. I honestly can't believe he got his name legally changed to that..."

Eventually, when everyone went out to lunch more to kill time until their senseis arrived than anything since at least half the class looked too nervous to eat, the two of them were joined by that blond girly looking boy that Tomato had declared to be her rival.

"So, you're my new teammates then." the blond boy said almost shyly.

"Yeah, that's right." Kei said.

"So, can I eat with you?" the flaky looking boy who was surprisingly amazingly skilled despite his appearance asked.

Kei and Keiko looked at each-other and sighed.

"Fine." they said in unison.

They usually kept themselves to themselves, but alienating their teammate on the first day probably wasn't advisable.

Jiraiya found them sitting together in somewhat awkward silence nearly an hour later.

"There's usually supposed to be some sort of big test." Jiraiya who looked to be slightly hung-over said after looking them over for about a minute. "But, I think I'll keep you since I like you. So, let's just get our team photo and call it a day."

The next thing the two of them knew, they were in a rather picturesque field and there was a man with a camera.

"This is going to suck." Kei grumbled.

"Tell me about it." Keiko mumbled to the boy just as there was a click.

"Was that our..." Keiko asked.

"I think so." Kei said.

After they were dismissed for the day by their new sensei, Hiashi and Hizashi went and picked up their team photos.

"If anyone asks us about this..." Hiashi said as he looked at the picture where Jiraiya and Minato were practically mugging the camera and he and his brother were hanging back looking just about anywhere but.

"...We were never Genin." Hizashi said, finishing his sentence as he often did.