1. Team Seven

Sakura

When Sakura arrived at the classroom the day of team assignments she was tentatively hopeful for her team assignment. She knew she wouldn't be on the same team as Ino, the Ino-Shika-Cho heirs were an obvious pair. Sakura liked Ino though. She'd never picked on her like the other girls and hadn't minded her eccentricities. Hinata wouldn't be too bad. She was quiet, but Sakura knew the girl was smart.

(And a Hyuuga, the Byakugan is powerful thing to have on your side even with a timid wielder, Inner pointed out shrewdly.

Sakura rolled her eyes at the suggestion. Inner had a bad habit of viewing others purely as tools for Sakura's future rather than as other people.)

But like Ino, Sakura doubted the clan heiress would be placed with her. Despite her timid nature Hinata was the heiress to an important clan and would likely be placed with other clan children.

(She'd do well on a tracking based team.

Sakura agreed with the assessment. Tracking didn't necessarily lead to engagement, but would allow Hinata to use her skills.)

Sakura's parents may have been shinobi, but as much as Sakura love them Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno were not the sort of legends that would make her stand out. Not that they were incompetent, Sakura thought protectively. Her parents were loyal and good shinobi of Konoha. Her father though had barely made Chunin and never looked beyond it. Her mother had mainly worked the missions desk until her early retirement to raise Sakura. The Harunos were good people but their name didn't have the same clout as a Hyuuga or an Uchiha or even a Nara.

Sakura supposed she'd be placed with other no-name genin.

That was okay though. Sakura wasn't a kunoichi like Ino. She'd accepted that.

(We are not average.)

Even if her Inner hadn't. Average would suit her fine.

. . .

Sasuke

Sasuke doubted Naruto even noticed the Haruno girl when he dropped down beside her. The girl was always a quiet and seemed to fade into the background even more than Hyuuga Hinata. Which Sasuke supposed was an accomplishment considering her hair color. She was one of their more bearable classmates. Definitely one of the more bearable kunoichi.

"Are you listening to me teme?" the aforementioned blonde growled next to him apparently having finally noticed his friend's inattention.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but continued to stare at the pink haired girl an odd feeling of deja vu settling in his stomach. The girl seemed to realize she was being watched or at least hear Naruto's loud voice. Light green eyes met his and Sasuke saw a flash of surprise in them before the girl ducked hiding behind her long bangs. Sasuke felt cheated of something. Understanding?

"No." Sasuke answered completely uncaring and turned to Naruto feeling oddly reluctant to turn from the girl to find his friend's face close and spluttering in offense. Sasuke smirked at the obvious fury. Naruto was so easy to rile up.

Sure enough an argument erupted as it always did between the two friends and Sasuke was quickly absorbed in making the blonde haired boy as angry as possible. Not exactly the most dignified pastime for an Uchiha, but everyone needed hobbies and tormenting Naruto was a fun one.

If Sasuke had been a little less absorbed in tormenting his friend and a little more aware of his surroundings he would have noticed the movement in front of him.

If he'd been a little faster at reacting he wouldn't have sat there confused by why his friend's eyes suddenly widened as he was pitched forward.

As it was Sasuke was neither and found himself kissing his best friend in front of their entire graduating class.

He doesn't taste like ramen. Sasuke thought startled feeling softness pressed firmly against his mouth. Then his mind caught up with the situation and he felt a rush of horror as he jerked back from his friend.

Naruto instantly began gagging, muttering some nonsense about his mouth being poisoned and Sasuke just stared shocked and felt a cold chill go through him. Turning the Uchiha found a plethora evil glares from the girls in the class. Sasuke paled.

His parents would be horrified if was murdered for taking his best friend's first kiss against his will. Itachi would probably avenge him and comfort Naruto for his part in Sasuke's untimely death. Shisui would just laugh, the bastard.

Speaking of bastards, Sasuke turned to glare down the boy who'd hit Naruto. The boy looked sick. Sasuke smirked viciously. Sometimes being part of a feared clan came in handy. Like having an ANBU big brother willing to help him plot revenge and a prankster cousin and friend to carry out the plots.

. . .

Naruto

Naruto was firmly not looking at his best friend. Sasuke thankfully didn't notice the blush he was determined to hide too busy glaring into the boy who'd pushed Naruto. Naruto was not thinking of the Incident. He was listening to Iruka-sensei's boring speech about being a shinobi, but was sure Sasuke was plotting revenge. Sasuke had this thing with revenge.

If Naruto wasn't so busy trying to repress the past ten minutes of his life he'd be tempted to look at his friend's face to judge just how screwed their classmate was.

Considering the terror he'd seen on the boy's face though Naruto was betting Sasuke was going to unleash Shisui and Itachi.

Thankfully Iruka-sensei started reading off the team's which was a bit more interesting and gave Naruto something to focus one. The first few were classmates Naruto didn't know very well. Naruto knew a lot of thinking went into the team assignments to balance them out, but he already had a good idea of which of his classmates would pass.

Or at least Itachi had when he attempted to explain the politics that also went into the selection of genin teams to Naruto. All he'd really cared about was finding out that Itachi was certain that Sasuke and he would be on the same team. Which had made Naruto more than a little happy.

He didn't wanted to be separated from his best and first friend.

"Now, next is Team Seven. Namikaze Naruto!"

Naruto instantly perked up.

"Haruno Sakura!"

And froze. What? The Ghost Girl? The one who never talked to anybody? Naruto hadn't even seen her when he came in. He wasn't even sure she graduated so how could she be one his team? There was a small squeak to his looked and nearly screamed.

It was the Ghost Girl. She was looking at Iruka-sensei with her rarely seen green eyes visibly shocked and her mouth barely open. Naruto knew she wasn't really a ghost, though Sasuke had once convinced him she was when they were little, but the name had stuck. Especially since she always wore her bangs long and in her face, never spoke up, and seemed to pop out of nowhere around him.

"And Uchiha Sasuke!"

Naruto sighed in relief. At least he had Sasuke to balance out the pink haired girl's weirdness. There was another squeak from the girl beside him. Naruto looked at her warily. It was more noise than he'd ever heard come from the silent girl. She was looking at Iruka-sensei like he'd suddenly informed them that the sky was green or that Ichiraku's was closing down.

Naruto shivered horrified at the thought.

"What?" the girl said almost to quiet to hear. "What? How? No!"

Everyone turned at the last word spoken at a volume that was completely foreign to the girl. Naruto stared with them. The girl was actually standing now and looking at Iruka mildly horrified.

"Why am I with them Iruka-sensei?" the girl demanded, pointing a trembling hand towards Naruto and Sasuke's general direction.

Naruto suddenly wondered if he should feel insulted that the pink haired girl didn't want to be on his team. Honestly it wasn't something that had happened to him in years. Being the Yondaime's son had pretty much erased any potential negativity that had been associated with his being a jinchuuriki.

"Sakura-chan?" Iruka-sensei questioned in a voice that was more than a little confused. The girl just stood there pointing to them, cheeks puffing like an angry toad and green eyes almost angry.

Okay, Naruto decided. He was offended. What the hell was wrong with this girl? He settled on a glare that was a poor imitation of his father's, but the best he could manage.

"What's your problem?" he snarled.

The girl spun on him with a hiss. Naruto barely resisted the urge to jump behind Sasuke. The girl looked startlingly like Tsunade-baa-chan when she was angry at Jiraiya. Behind him he felt Sasuke move to stare at the girl with him.

"I want to know why I'm with the Dead Last? I know I didn't score that bad on exams and you did horribly!" The girl yelled right back. Naruto was on his feet before he could stop himself. Sasuke was the only one who could get away with that.

"Shut up Ghost Girl!"

"Naruto! Sakura!" Iruka-sensei's voice cut sharply through the room ending the argument before it could fully begin.

Reluctantly the two teammates turned towards the Chunin.

"Now Sakura you shouldn't attack a teammate." Naruto snorted and threw the girl a grin that she returned with murder in her eyes.

"And you shouldn't make it worse Naruto." Iruka-sensei scolded and Naruto turned back to the man with a pout ignoring the smirk from the pink haired girl.

"But to answer your question, the point of these assignments is to create a balanced team. Naruto may have flunked the written exams, but he still did exceptionally better than you in the taijutsu arts. He is in the bottom rung, Sasuke is the top of the class, and you Sakura-chan balance them out by being in the dead center."

The girl looked floored when Naruto looked back at her.

"I'm on their team because I'm average?" she breathed incredulous.

Iruka-sensei looked at her thoughtfully for a few minutes and nodded. "Yes that's the sum of it."

After that the pink haired girl sat down into her customary silence and Naruto also settled, but felt faintly unnerved by the quiet now. In a different way than before. If the girl could be so loud why was she so quiet? Naruto shook the thoughts off though. He didn't care what the girl's problems were. The girl, Sakura, was a jerk.