Isa Yamanaka's eyes fluttered open, staring blearily at the ceiling. Her toes curled into the blankets as she stretched, the sun hanging lazily in the early morning sky. Slowly, she rolled out of bed, reluctantly leaving behind its warmth and shuffling to the shower.

Compared to her twin, she was much more of a morning person, and she was already dragging a comb through her wet hair when Ino emerged from her room, rubbing her eyes and making her way to the shower. Isa went through the daily motions without thinking, tossing on her clothes and pulling her waist-length blonde hair into a high ponytail.

Padding silently down the stairs, she took the glass of orange juice her mother offered her. Hanako Yamanaka was an effortlessly regal woman; Isa couldn't recall a time when she hadn't looked perfectly composed and graceful.

She sat down at the dining table, helping herself to the breakfast already waiting for her. Her father, Inoichi, joined her, planting a kiss on her forehead as he sat down. They settled into a comfortable silence while they ate until Ino finally clattered down the stairs, smiling brightly at her family.

"Sorry I'm late!" She said, sitting down and trying to inhale her food as quickly as possible.

Hanako watched her over the rim of her coffee cup with a critical eye. "Ino, slow down. You'll get a stomach ache."

Ino rolled her eyes. "Mom, I don't have time to eat slow. We're getting our squad assignments today, remember? I want to be on time." She said around a mouthful of food.

"You two excited?" Inoichi asked, looking between his daughters with a smile.

Isa glanced at Ino and grinned. "Ino's just hoping she ends up on a squad with Sasuke Uchiha." She teased, giggling as Ino blushed, trying to kick her under the table.

"I am not!" She exclaimed, sticking her tongue out at Isa, who mirrored the expression.

Inoichi shook his head with a fond smile. "I wouldn't get your hopes up, Ino. Chances are, you'll be paired up with Shikamaru and Choji."

Ino sighed, flipping her hair out of her face with a flick of her wrist. "I know, I know. Every generation has to have an Ino-Shika-Cho, right? Isa's probably gonna end up with a cool team."

Isa shrugged. "Maybe. Shikamaru and Choji aren't that bad, though. At least you're already friends with them, it won't be awkward or anything."

"Yeah, but all Shikamaru does is complain, and Choji just eats everything. It's gonna be so boring."

Isa and her father exchanged a glance and burst out laughing, Ino grinning cheekily until even their mother cracked a smile, shaking her head. "Well, regardless of who you end up with, you need to finish eating or you'll be late." Hanako said, glancing at a nearby clock.

"I had to wait for the water to heat up again because Isa used it all!" Ino whined, but she stood up and grabbed the bentos sitting on the kitchen counter, handing one to Isa as she joined her at the front door.

"You could have just used chakra to warm it up." Isa pointed out, waving goodbye to their parents.

The walk to the Academy wasn't a long one, but Ino set a brisk pace, chattering on about something- probably Sasuke- while they walked. Isa nodded along until she spotted a head of pink hair bobbing toward them.

"Sakura!" She raised a hand, waving to their classmate, who smiled upon seeing them.

The pink-haired kunoichi fell into step beside them easily. "Good morning, Isa." She said. "Hi, Ino."

"Oh. Hey, Sakura." Ino affected indifference at the arrival of their long-time friend, and her part-time rival. "I was just telling Isa about seeing Sasuke yesterday when he walked past the flower shop. Have you seen him lately?"

Sakura frowned a little. "Um, no, I haven't seen him. I don't really see him around that often." She looked disappointed.

Their feet carried them along the familiar path to the Academy, passing other students as they walked. Many of them paused to greet them, waving from their respective groups. Ino, a social butterfly, would have stopped to talk to all of them, but with a gentle tug on her hand, she allowed Isa to drag her along.

Finally, without too many social stops, they reached the classroom, settling into their customary seats near the back. Shikamaru Nara was already in his seat. He was a lanky boy with spiky black hair and a perpetually bored expression, but he lifted a hand when Isa waved at him, though that was likely the most acknowledgment she was going to get out of him. Anything else would take too much effort, something he famously avoided at all costs.

"Sasuke's not here yet," Ino said, pouting at the empty seat where Sasuke Uchiha usually sat. Her unfortunate infatuation with their classmate had started a few years ago, and had sparked the rivalry between her and Sakura. As far as Isa could tell, though, the introverted boy gave no sign that he returned their affections, or even knew they existed beyond an occasional irritated grumble when they crowded too close.

"He doesn't usually show up until the last minute," Sakura said.

"It's pretty late already, though." Ino whined, shaking her head so that her long ponytail whipped around her face. Shikamaru sighed from behind them and put his head down on the desk, apparently already too exhausted with the day to bother staying awake.

"Shikamaru." Isa prodded him on the arm gently. He grunted. "Shika, you shouldn't sleep. Iruka-sensei caught you sleeping yesterday and he was really mad, I don't think he'd like it if he caught you again today before class has even started."

"If class hasn't started, then I'm not technically breaking any rules." He pointed out. She laughed, smiling at Hinata Hyuuga when she sat down by Shikamaru. The tiny girl flushed when Isa caught her eye, lips barely quirking in a smile before she was staring at the desk, hands fiddling nervously.

Isa poked Shikamaru once more before turning around, just in time to see Iruka-sensei walk into the room, accompanied by the usual last-minute arrivals, including Kiba, who grinned widely at Isa, and Sasuke, who entered the room to a chorus of sighs from most of the female students.

"He is so cute," Ino whispered, looking up at the ceiling as if praying. Sakura was staring at the dark-haired boy with wide eyes, cheeks pink enough to match her hair. Isa watched him sit down, noting the annoyed look already on his face. She understood why he got so much attention; he was cute, and he was always brooding and distant, which she supposed was cute, too, as long as you didn't actually try to talk to him. But Ino had, quite loudly, staked her claim over him, and Isa had learned long ago that it was better to let Ino get what she wanted.

Just as the bell for class was about to ring, Naruto Uzumaki came barreling into the room. Over the years, everyone had gotten used to Naruto's grand entrances. Most days, he arrived in a whirlwind of orange, shouting about something fantastic that had happened to him on the way to the Academy, which was almost always why he was late. Isa had seen him in the Ichiraku Ramen shop before class more than one time, and she suspected that most of his stories were fabricated, and he was simply distracted by food or had overslept.

"What's he doing here?" Ino whispered, frowning at the energetic blond boy. At Isa's questioning look, she clarified. "I thought he failed the genin exams, like, three times."

Isa's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Really? I didn't think he was that bad." She glanced at Naruto, who was in the middle of a long-winded story. "He must have passed somehow, or he wouldn't be here."

Ino didn't look satisfied, but let it drop, mindlessly doodling a heart on the surface of the desk. Isa looked at Naruto closely, chewing on her bottom lip in thought.

He was entertaining, at least for the most part. And some of his jokes were genuinely funny, even if they were mostly at the expense of himself. Isa hadn't interacted with him very often, since she mostly stuck to Ino and the group of socialites who constantly surrounded her. But they'd played ninja together before, and she knew he wasn't as terrible a shinobi as everyone made him out to be, even though he was exceptionally awful at the simple clone jutsu they'd learned in class.

His antics were enough to wake up Shikamaru, who mumbled something about "troublesome" before covering his ears and putting his head down again. Ino was expanding on her drawing, adding an "S+I" to the inside of the heart. If she hadn't known they were getting their squad assignments today, it would have felt just like any other day of class.

"Alright, well, if Naruto is done telling his story, I have an announcement." Iruka said, clapping his hands together in an attempt to regain the attention of the class. Ino's pencil immediately stilled, and she even reached back to jab it into Shikamaru's arm to make sure he was awake. There was an air of anticipation in the room, and everyone was still, focused intently on their teacher.

Iruka smiled once all eyes were trained on him. "I assume you all know why you're here today. I have the paper right here with your squad assignments. Now, before you all get too excited, I wanted to congratulate you for coming so far. You guys have done great, I'm proud of everyone in this room."

Kiba, who was sitting near the front of the class, groaned. "Come on, sensei! Tell us our squads!" There were scattered mumbles of agreement, and Iruka laughed. He produced a piece of paper and cleared his throat, waiting for the noise to die down.

He started reading off the list, most of the names only vaguely familiar to Isa. She listened, impatient fingers tapping out a steady beat on the desk. Finally, there was a name she recognized.

"Haruno, Sakura," Iruka said. The pink-haired girl shot upright in her seat, eyes very wide. "Ueda, Itsuki, and Oshiro, Kouta will be with jonin Hayama Shirakumo." Sakura blinked, nonplussed. Isa knew Itsuki and Kouta, both boys were the first in their family to join the Academy, like Sakura, but beyond that she knew little of their abilities.

Ino nudged Sakura gently with an elbow, for once their rivalry forgotten. "Hey, that's good, right? They're cool guys."

Sakura nodded slowly. "I guess so. I don't really know what I was expecting." She said, frowning at her friends.

Isa leaned toward her and squeezed her hand comfortingly. "Don't worry, it'll be fine. Just give them a chance, I bet you'll all be friends in no time."

Sakura smiled uncertainly, but she looked slightly mollified, waving shyly at her teammates, who waved in response.

After that, their friends were called in quick succession. Kiba, Hinata, and Shino were put on a team with a jonin named Kurenai, and, to no one's surprise, Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino were assigned to a team with Asuma Sarutobi.

Finally, Isa's name was called.

"Yamanaka, Isa, Uzumaki, Naruto, and Uchiha, Sasuke will be with Kakashi Hatake."

Isa's stared at her sister in shock. Ino's face flickered between surprise and jealousy, but she settled on hugging Isa warmly.

"It's okay," She whispered in Isa's ear, smiling at her. "If anyone had to end up with him, I'm glad it's you."

Isa smiled weakly, ignoring Naruto's shouts of complaint.

"Why do I have to be on a team with Sasuke?" He whined, glaring at the other boy. They glowered at each other darkly. Isa watched them, reluctant to have to play peacemaker so soon, but feeling like she should at least do something to pacify them.

"What, like I want to be on a team with Dead-Last?" Sasuke smirked at Naruto, clearly trying to provoke him.

Isa stood up and put a hand on Naruto's arm, trying to direct his attention anywhere other than Sasuke. "Naruto, he's baiting you. Just ignore him, okay?" She said. "I don't want us to start fighting already."

Sasuke made a dismissive noise, and he turned to the window. Naruto made a rude gesture at the back of his head, but sat down, still fuming, but, for the moment, placated.

Isa went back to her seat and Iruka finished reading off the squads, then released them for lunch. Isa wandered over to where Naruto was sitting alone, feeling almost awkward as she approached him. She'd never known him very well, and she'd never had to interact with him all by herself. It was strangely intimidating to have to make new friends, since hers had always come naturally by way of Ino's friendliness.

"Hey, Naruto," She said. He looked up at her in surprise, then grinned.

"Oh, hey, Isa. What's up?"

She hesitated, unsure of herself. "I just thought maybe you'd like to eat lunch together? Since we're on a team and all."

He stared at her. "You want to eat lunch with me? Alright! Yeah!" He jumped up, pumping his fist in the air excitedly.

"And I was thinking we could find Sasuke, too. I know you guys don't like each other, but we're gonna have to work together, so we should at least try to get along, right?" She said, watching him carefully. His grin faded and he groaned, but shrugged after a moment.

"Fine, whatever, let's go find him." He walked beside her, hands folded behind his head. "I don't know why he's gotta be on our team. I mean, you're cool and all, so why couldn't they find another cool person? Why'd they have to pick him?"

She smiled. "I'm cool?"

He looked at her as if it was a strange question. "Well, yeah. You're really smart and you've always been nice to me. Your sister's kind of bossy sometimes, but she's cool too."

Isa absorbed that information as they walked. She knew very little about Naruto beyond his hyperactive behavior, but she'd seen villagers treating him rudely before, though she'd never understood why.

She didn't have time to figure out how to respond before he was yelling again, "Hey, you!" He shouted at Sasuke, who was walking ahead of them, hands in his pockets. Isa was surprised that he actually stopped, fixing them with a scowl that she chose to ignore.

Naruto was already glaring at him, but Isa quickly stepped in front of him before he could start another fight. "Um, hi, Sasuke," She said, trying to smile at him. His generally unfriendly air made it difficult. "I was wondering if you wanted to eat lunch together. You know, as a team?"

"You want to eat lunch together?" He repeated dully.

She held up her bento and nodded. "I have enough to share. I just thought that maybe we should get to know each other a little bit, since we're going to be teammates."

He stared at her for a long, uncomfortable minute. She shuffled her feet awkwardly, but he finally nodded, and she grinned triumphantly.

They found a bench nearby and sat down, Isa placing herself firmly between the two boys before they could start bickering. She opened the bento and handed out its contents as equally as she could. Her mother hadn't meant for it to be shared between three people, but neither Sasuke nor Naruto seemed to have brought food of their own.

They ate without speaking for a while, and as the silence edged toward oppressive, Isa cast around for something to talk about.

"So, we meet our sensei after this, right?" She asked conversationally.

Naruto nodded vigorously. "I bet he's gonna be awesome!"

Sasuke didn't speak, but it was clear from the way he was deliberately sitting as far away from them as possible that he wasn't really interested in talking.

"He's a jonin, so he's probably got a lot of experience. I bet he knows lots of powerful jutsus and stuff." Isa said, offering a rice ball to Sasuke, who shook his head.

Naruto's eyes grew huge. "You think so? Do you think he'll teach us secret, super strong jutsus?"

"Well, most secret jutsus are clan bloodlines, or they're really dangerous. I don't think he'll teach us anything really big for a while."

Naruto sighed, momentarily deflated, but quickly perking up again. "But he'll definitely teach us how to get stronger, right?"

She nodded. "That's his job. He gets to teach us and take us on missions." She glanced at her teammates, feeling a bit sorry for her new sensei. She hoped he could handle it.

"He's going to teach us how to be powerful?" Sasuke asked, his voice, so different than Naruto's, almost making her jump.

"That's... one way of putting it, I guess." She said. "Isn't it a little early to be thinking about power, though? We haven't even gone on a single mission yet. We don't really know anything about being a ninja."

Sasuke snorted in disdain. "Maybe you don't."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "We were in all of the same classes, you really think you're a better ninja than we are?"

He stood up and looked at them, derision in his dark eyes. "I know I'm a better ninja than you. You're a waste of my time."

A retort was on the tip of her tongue, but he was spared her barbed rebuttal because when she blinked, he was gone, walking away from them without so much as a goodbye. She watched him go with a withering glare.

"What a jerk," Naruto said, mouth full of what was left of her bento. "Hey, your mom is a really good cook, by the way!"

She summoned a smile, shoving Sasuke's attitude problems out of her mind. "I'll tell her you said so, she'll appreciate it."

"She will?" Naruto swallowed noisily. "Do you think she'll make more food if I say it's the best bento I've ever had?"

Isa laughed, picking up the remains of their lunch and tossing them in a nearby garbage can. "I'm sure she'll make you one if you ask."

He hopped up and walked alongside her as they wandered back to the Academy, in no hurry to get there. "I'm not really good at talking to parents, though. Could you do it for me?"

"My mom's not scary, she won't yell at you or anything." She had a hard time imagining her mother as anything other than gracious and kind. The thought of her shouting at someone was both hilarious and terrifying. "But I'll ask her anyway, if you don't want to, it's no big deal."

He grinned. "See, I told you you were cool!"

She laughed and they returned to the Academy in a considerably lighter mood. When they got there, nearly everyone had returned, as well. Isa left Naruto and sat down next to Ino, who looked bored.

"How was lunch?" She asked.

Ino jerked a thumb at Shikamaru, who was actually awake for once. "He slept the whole time, and Choji ate half my bento. We didn't get to do any team bonding at all."

"You said I could have it!" Choji appeared, sitting down next to Shikamaru, his hand buried in a bag of chips.

"I said you could have some of it, not the whole thing!"

"I didn't eat the whole thing, I only ate part of it."

Ino rolled her eyes, but didn't look really upset. "Whatever, I'm on a diet anyway."

"Then why are you complaining about it?" Choji asked, frowning at her.

"It's the principle of the thing, that's all." She shook her head, turning to Isa. "Please tell me your lunch went better than mine."

"How do you define 'better'?"

"I don't know, not completely terrible and boring?"

Isa glanced at Sasuke, who was, as usual, brooding. "It went okay. I shared my food with them, and I thought it was going good until Sasuke started talking about power and marched off."

"Sounds like a drag," Shikamaru said.

Ino scoffed. "I'll trade places with you, I swear. You can have these guys, I'll listen to Sasuke talk about power all day."

Choji shook his head at her. "Isn't there a word for that sort of thing?"

"Megalomania," Isa replied.

Shikamaru snorted. "Have fun with that on your team."

"You guys, he's not a megalomaniac. He's just... complicated." Ino said, looking at Sasuke with adoring eyes. Shikamaru and Choji rolled their eyes simultaneously.

Just then, Sakura walked into the room with her teammates. She quickly slid into the seat next to Ino.

"Hey, Sakura, how was lunch?" Isa asked, leaning around her sister to smile at their friend.

"It was actually pretty good," Sakura said, smiling more confidently than she had earlier.

"That makes one of us," Shikamaru mumbled. Ino shot him a nasty look, but grinned at Sakura.

"I told you it'd be fine!" She said.

Sakura shrugged. "I've never really talked to either of them before. They're pretty nice, Kouta's really funny."

"That's great," Isa said, glad her friend had found a good team.

"What about you?" Sakura asked, looking from Isa to Sasuke. "What'd you guys talk about?"

"Sasuke's a psychopath," Shikamaru said drily. Isa frowned at him.

"He's not a psychopath, be nice." She turned back to Sakura. "He was quiet most of the time, and he left early. He and Naruto don't really get along."

"Yeah, why'd they put them on a team together, anyway? They're so different." Ino said.

"They're probably trying to balance their personalities or something," Isa said.

Iruka returned shortly, along with the first of the new team leaders. Students started filtering out, collected by their new jonin instructors. Before long, almost everyone was gone, leaving Isa, Naruto, and Sasuke the last team in the room, waiting for their sensei.

The minutes ticked by, agonizingly slow. If the silence during lunch had been awkward, this one was stifling. No one spoke until, after a good three hours of waiting, Naruto decided to wedge a chalkboard eraser in the doorframe.

"That'll teach him to be late!" He exclaimed, stepping back to admire his trap.

"A jonin isn't going to fall for a stupid trick like that," Sasuke said scornfully.

Isa had pulled her hair out of its ponytail, resorting to braiding it over and over for entertainment. She sighed, certain that the two were going to start sniping at each other again, when she heard something in the hallway.

Well, 'heard' wasn't the right word for it. It was more like she felt it, a rush of something, a quick pulse, and then she could hear someone in the hallway, their footsteps drawing toward the room.

Her fingers stilled in her hair as the door was opened, a silver-haired head appeared in the doorway, right in the path of Naruto's chalkboard eraser. She watched as it fell, almost in slow motion, landing on the man's head and bouncing off, rolling across the floor. For a split second, everything was completely silent, and then Naruto erupted in a fit of laughter.

"I can't believe you fell for it! I got you so good!" He was doubled over, grin so wide Isa almost thought his face would split in two.

Eventually, Naruto calmed down, his laughter receding to hiccups and giggles. The man was still standing in the doorway, face expressionless. Or at least what she could see of his face. Most of it was covered by a mask, his nose and mouth completely obscured, and his forehead protector was pulled down over his left eye. What little she could see of him, mainly his right eye, looked vaguely unimpressed.

"I don't think I like you guys," He said. Naruto froze mid-chuckle, even Sasuke blinked, taken aback. "Let's go, then." He gestured for them to follow him, and after trading a confused look with Sasuke, Isa followed him, her teammates following suit.

He ended up leading them to a rooftop veranda, leaning against the railing and indicating that they should sit down on the steps in front of him.

"So, introductions?"

Naruto looked completely lost, Sasuke appeared as taciturn as he always did, so Isa spoke up. "Like, just our names?" She asked.

Their sensei looked at her, gaze evaluating. "Sure, that works. Your names, your likes, dislikes, hobbies, ambitions, that kind of thing."

She took a deep breath and nodded, squaring her shoulders. "My name is Isa Yamanaka, I like flowers and goldfish, I don't like mean people, my hobby is reading, and my ambition is to be strong so I can protect people."

"Good, who next?"

"Why do we have to introduce ourselves if you haven't even introduced yourself?" Naruto asked.

Their teacher looked at him and sighed. "Fine. Let's see, my name is Kakashi Hatake, I don't think you need to know what I like and dislike, my dreams for the future, hmm... I have a lot of hobbies." He smiled at them. "Now, your turn."

Naruto huffed, clearly not satisfied with his evasive answer. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I like ramen, I don't like waiting for ramen to cook, my hobby is pulling pranks, and my dream is to become the greatest Hokage ever!"

Kakashi nodded after a moment, then looked at Sasuke expectantly.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I don't like anything, I dislike a lot of things, I don't have any hobbies, and I don't have a dream, but my ambition is to seek vengeance for my clan and to kill a certain man."

Isa stared at him, mouth open. His life goal was to kill someone? Suddenly she wondered if Shikamaru was right, maybe Sasuke really was a psychopath.

"Okay, that's great." Kakashi stood up, working out the kinks in his back. "We start training tomorrow."

"What are we going to be doing?" Naruto asked, curiosity blazing across his face.

"Survival training."

Isa frowned at him. "Sensei, I thought we finished training when we graduated from the Academy."

"This isn't like your normal training," He said.

"Why not?" She asked.

His smile this time wasn't real, his eye curled up in strangely menacing cheer. "It's just that only nine of the twenty-seven graduates will be going on to become genin. Everyone else will be sent back to the Academy. This survival training has a sixty-six percent fail rate."

They stared at him, caught between disbelief and horror.

"Are you serious?" Isa asked him, incredulous.

His smile was still in place, even as he turned to leave. "Better get some rest before then. And you should skip breakfast tomorrow, otherwise you'll throw up."

Then he was gone, leaving his three dumbfounded students behind. Isa's brain was scrambling to process this information. A pass or fail survival test with a sixty-six percent failure rate? It was insane. It didn't make sense.

"This is stupid," Sasuke muttered, standing up.

"Seriously! We already passed the Academy exam, no one told us anything about a survival test!" Naruto agreed, arms crossed across his chest. Isa almost laughed. Of all the things to bring them together, it was a crazy test given to them by their weird new teacher. It figured.