33. Expectations

Summary: Keitaro meets his first genin team and finds his expectations shattered.

Words: 722

Characters: MaleKurenai (Keitaro), FemKiba (Kira), FemShino (Satomi), MaleHinata (Hansuke)

Warnings: None

Pairings: None

Disclaimer/Claimer: While the original Naruto characters do not belong to me, these GenderBender creations are mine. Do not steal them... EVER.

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The scarlet-eyed jounin glanced over his new and first trio of genin. He'd partly known what to expect. After all, no reasonable shinobi would take on a team without at least doing some research on his subordinates. The idea that anyone wouldn't was laughable really, but still... Despite him having looking into the three before him, he was still uncertain and a little surprised.

The first, female and a member of the Inuzuka, was much like one would expect of one born in that clan. Loud voice, cocky attitude, slitted pupils, and the small white puppy in her arms indicated that this girl was indeed an Inuzuka, and yet, she was not as... fierce as he'd have expected her to be. The girl seemed too calm, even with her brash demeanor and feral grin.

Whenever he'd worked with an Inuzuka or been assigned a mission with one, their ferocity had seemed almost tangible and nearly physical, given their appearance. Even the women had seemed more animal than human, but this girl? Her hair was almost... neat. Her nails were clean, her clothes were straight, her dog brushed...

Of course, by the standards of the average person, she was still a little scruffy, but compared to other Inuzuka, her appearance seemed almost a little soft... And the two pink bows tied to the puppy's ears did nothing to alter that image.

Then, there was the second: a child from the Aburame clan and a female he only knew because he recalled seeing the word by Sex when he'd glanced over her file. Had he not read that, he might have thought her to be male. The large jacket showed little of her form and even in the shadows of her hood, he could see that the girl's hair was cropped short. Add on the dark sunglasses that concealed whatever femininity her eyes may have held and Keitaro's reasoning was understandable.

His personal idea of girls at this age was that of chatty, boy-obsessed preteens, who were fussy about their looks. Obviously, the Aburame were anything but either of those three, yet even the females at least wore capris and jackets that fit their form.

This girl, however... He wondered how many times she'd suffered from gender confusion.

Finally came the third, a Hyuuga and the sole male to their team other than himself.

Now, he'd already met the boy once before when he'd gone to question the Hyuuga head, who was also the boy's mother, whether she was certain of her decision to leave her son in his care. After she had coldly, but politely, informed him of her indifference, he had stepped outside only to see the boy in question leaning against the wall silently, eyes locked on the ground and expression unreadable. Keitaro had not known him well enough to decide for sure what the emotion was at first glance, but before he'd gotten a better look, the boy had quietly pushed off from the surface and walked off without a word.

At the time, Keitaro had thought he'd seemed impassive and had wondered if he weren't just like any other Hyuuga, despite his mother's words, but seeing the young genin now, he was, perhaps pleasantly, surprised to note that he was neither cold nor impassive and was, in fact, quite shy. The jounin had been startled when he'd first heard the boy speak. The Hyuuga child had a terrible stutter and his cheeks bloomed with red with each stunted syllable that emitted from his mouth.

As far as the jounin knew, this was not typical of Hyuuga. Yes, they were regularly silent, but it was out of dignity and pride, not timidness; and while the Hyuuga were hard and frigid, this boy had a rather prominent softness to him, made obvious by his almost-delicate features, his unscarred hands and wide, half-panicked eyes.

This boy had unknowingly taken his expectations and shattered them without a thought. Frankly, they all had...

Keitaro shook his head lightly and sighed. From the looks of it, he had his work cut out for him; the thought made him both excited and weary. Then, with a smile and a tilt of his head, he greeted the slightly confused, but curious eyes of his new pupils.

"Hello, I'm Yuuhi Keitaro, and I'm going to be your jounin-sensei."

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Some expectations were simply meant to be broken.

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