Cap6:)

"But the whole Sharingan thing…Arrrgh!" Iruka threw down his pen in frustration.

"Look, Sasuke doesn't have a Sharingan yet. When he finally develops it, we'll just make Hatake tutor him in private, if need be. That way there's no accusations of favoritism within a team," Aoba said. "Problem solved. Anyway, most Uchihas didn't really need someone to teach them to use their eyes. They all just kind of figured it out themselves, right? I think Sasuke will be fine, regardless of if he has someone to teach him how to use his eyes or not. Right now his biggest problem is teamwork, and Asuma's supposed to be good with that, yes?"

Iruka rubbed his head. "Fine. Team Ten goes to Asuma, and Team Seven goes to Kakashi. Anything else? Because I swear to god – "

"Good thing that worked out," Genma grinned, "because I actually overheard Hatake telling the Hokage – well, demanding, more like – that he wanted the Uzumaki kid on his team."

"What? That Uzumaki?" Suzume gasped.

"There's only one," Genma shrugged.

"Whoa. Stop right there. You said he wanted Naruto Uzumaki on his team?"

"Why him of all people, though?" Suzume asked. "You'd think he'd be begging for someone else closer to his level…like, Shikamaru or Sasuke. Naruto, really? Why?"

"Beats me," Genma shrugged. "This is just hearsay. I don't know the whole context. Apparently everything anyone knows about that guy is solely between him and Sandaime-sama. All I know is that for some reason he wants to have a chance to test Naruto, and he won't stand for it otherwise. And you know what? The Hokage actually gave in! Well, not really, since he said it was up to the Academy teachers to assign teams and teachers, but he also implied that he'd turn a blind eye to whatever other strings he might pull in order to get, you know, the kid on his team. And Hatake has his hands wrapped around a lotof strings; believe me."

"AND YOU NEVER SAW FIT TO TELL ME THAT WE MIGHT HAVE TO START OVER JUST TO APPEASE THIS JERKASS UNTIL AFTER WE ASSIGNED THESE TEAMS?" Iruka exploded.

"Can he really do something like that? You know, demand certain students?"

"Formally, I don't think so, but this is Kakashi Hatake we're talking about. That guy can passive-aggressive bitch his way out of anything."

"You don't think it's because of the you-know-what…?"

"That would be a good reason to run away, not get even closer."

"Remember, though, this is Kakashi Hatake. He's messed up enough as it is. Isn't that what weirdoes like him do? Go running after danger? 'Sides, the kid's not that dangerous, really, barring the whole pranking people thing."

"All right, all right, already! Enough!" Iruka yelled over the din, picking up the pen and rewriting the final draft of the team list. "Here's the last edition, and no more edits, or I swear to god I will find you andmurder you in your sleep!…ahem. Anyway…Team One will be…"

"…Team Seven: Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Naruto Uzumaki, under Kakashi Hatake. Team Eight: Shino Aburame, Sakura Haruno, and Kiba Inuzaka. Your sensei will be Kurenai Yuuhi. Team Ten: Sasuke Uchiha, Hinata Hyuga, and Choji Akimichi, and you will be working with Asuma Sarutobi." Iruka threw down the clipboard in finality, completely ignoring the outraged gasps of all the girls who didn't get to be with their precious Sasuke-kun. He had wasted too many hours of sleep trying to make these team assignments perfect, dammit, and he was not going to go back and fix any of it just to placate some whiny preteens.

"Iruka-sensei, why can't I be with Sasuke-kuuun~"

"BECAUSE I ALREADY WASTED TOO MANY HOURS OF SLEEP TRYING TO MAKE THESE TEAM ASSIGNMENTS PERFECT, DAMMIT, AND I AM NOT GOING TO GO BACK AND FIX ANY OF IT JUST TO PLACATE SOME WHINY PRETEENS!" he yelled.

Stunned silence.

Hah. For once they finally all shut up. He cleared his throat.

"That's it for today, folks. Your new teachers will meet with you after the lunch break. I'll have a rooms list posted on the doors by then."

He neglected to tell them that two-thirds of them would probably be destined for cannon fodder oblivion instead of actually training to be an elite team underneath some famed Jonin, but oh well. Some things in the shinobi world had to be learned the hard way, and this was just the beginning.

Kakashi Hatake was having a good day. A very good day. He was about to meet three new cute little genin, as Sandaime-sama made him do every year, nice and impressionable and perfect for terrorizing. As Ibiki always made clear, words were as much of a weapon as any steel blade, and it was amazing what a few words here or there could do to supposedly "trained" ninja.

Then he remembered that this year, of the three kids he was stuck with (or rather, they were stuck with him – if they passed), the first was a certified genius, the second was the sole heir to a clan of mind-readers, and the third was the jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox and his dead sensei's son to boot.

On second thought, maybe this lot might be more difficult to fool than the others.

A shame he hadn't gotten Obito's (fourth? fifth? eighth?) cousin, too, but maybe that was for the best. From Sasuke's psych evaluation, the boy would have been a massive pain in the posterior to deal with. It was scarily similar to his own, when he had been at the same age, actually. (Now, he was still just as messed up, but at least he knew how to deal with it better – with smiles both real and false at the few people he dared to let into his sadly limited friendship circle.)

Perhaps that was why it was a bad idea – they were too similar, and that definitely wouldn't work out. The boy could learn a thing or two from a mellow guy like Asuma. Kakashi shuddered to think at how he might have turned out, if he had landed a sensei as cold-hearted as he was – say, Orochimaru – instead of bright-and-smiley-never-angry Minato Namikaze.

Oh, well. No time to think depressing thoughts right now. He was about to meet some rather sensitive youngsters, and apparently you weren't supposed to scare them with stories of death or PTSD until after it was already too late for them to quit.

He wondered how they would deal, when the time finally came.

"YOU'RE LATE!"

Oh, was he? Hmmm…he was supposed to meet them at…when did they say he was supposed to meet them? He actually didn't remember.

The girl – Yamanaka's daughter, Ino – was the one yelling. Shikamaru Nara was just giving him a quiet, vaguely disappointed look, the same one Shikaku Nara often gave to the desk Chunin when he thought that they were being particularly exasperating or stupid. And Naruto was unusually quiet…ah, he was trapped in Shikamaru's shadow. That explained things.

"He was just about to prank you for being late," Shikamaru somehow managed to explain calmly while clearly demonstrating just exactly how pissed off he was. Ah, good. Kakashi was very fond of pissing people off. "Something with the eraser."

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