Sakura Hatake

Age: Almost 13

"Team Seven!"

"…To happily grow old with my daughter by my side." Kakashi finishes with an eye-smile. Naruto and Sasuke both started gagging in place, muttering under their breaths about old geezers and how it must be hard on Sakura. Kakashi merely sent them a side glance, as if to say their opinion's value was less than that of a cockroach to him. The two boys weren't affected, they've had that kind of gaze directed at them one too many times.

"…To become the head of the Koniha Police Task Force." Sasuke finished promptly. He felt a bit exposed saying his dream out loud; he had only ever talked about his seemingly impossible- what with Itachi being heir after all- private dream to a select few.

"...and someday I'll be Hokage and I'll marry Sakura-chan!" Kakashi twitched and the blonde tried, but ultimately failed, to suppress his smug smirk. The smirk, however, was quickly swiped off his face as Sasuke laughs at him.

"As if a dobe like you can be worthy of marrying Sakura. If anything, isn't she closer to becoming Hokage than you are?" Smirked the young Uchiha arrogantly. After all, his clan took pride in their hand at raising Sakura to be a fine ninja, no matter how much Hatake denied it. So in the end, Sakura was most likely going to marry into the clan; the dobe had no chance.

After the two boys bicker at each other for a couple more minutes, Kakashi sighs, having had enough of their antics and slams his beloved erotic literature's spine down on both of their heads.

After a few more protests, three males then turned to the lone female of the team.

"I-i—My n-name is Hinata Hyuuga. I l-like….. I dislike…um…and my dream….." she pauses, as if to steal herself, "my dream is to be the Hyuuga Clan Head s-someday…."Finished the young Hyuuga heiress, looking at anywhere but her teammates while twiddling her fingers together, her introduction barely audible.

Naruto Namikaze has by no means, any problem with the Hyuuga heir, she was mild mannered, if not a bit too shy but ultimately a nice girl. What he had a slight problem with, however, was the fact that she was occupying a position that was not hers.

In all the thirteen years that Naruto has been alive, he was certain of only three things; One, Ramen is the best tasting food out there, Two, he will become Hokage and Three, his gennin team was going to consist of himself, the Teme, and Sakura-chan.

So to him, this picture—him sitting on the right, Sasuke to the left, with the Hyuuga heir sitting in between them—was incomprehensible.

Sasuke shares the same sentiment, somewhat. He'd always assumed that Sakura would complete their trio because the logic behind such an action is flawless. Sasuke was the male rookie of the year, Naruto not far behind if it weren't for his abysmal written test scores—so wouldn't it be logical to place Sakura in their team? She got a nearly perfect score in the written test, beating the record by five points, and was fairly adept at Genjutsu. She would balance out the team's skill set. Not to mention the team dynamic, a buffer to his and Naruto's raucous relationship.

Kakashi can clearly see the confusion in the team member's faces at the odd team placement, even the Hyuuga heir, seeing as even during the academy days, the troublemaking trio had excellent teamwork—they had to, in order to unleash their terrible pranks perfectly—with their early skills complimenting each other well. However what they most likely did not take into account was the fact that he was going to be their sensei. Which threw a wedge into their perfectly nice expectations.

The Hokage knew not to place a father and daughter into the same gennin team assignment.

Kakashi eye-smiles, the kind that means he's highly annoyed, recalling how the Yondaime swiftly rejected his request.

"Kakashi, I assure you, these team assignments are carefully reviewed and made in order to help all gennin to grow mentally, spiritually and physically as Ninja." The Hokage said, smiling, but inwardly sighing, knowing that his son will be pestering him later for the team assignments.

Kakashi, himself thinks that the Yondaime's, and most likely the council's, decision in placement is utter bullsh—Horse poo, as Sakura might put it.

He narrowed his eye, his sharingan spinning behind his forehead protector; there is definitely something fishy going on behind the scenes.

"My name is Kurenai Yuuhi, A jounin of Konoha, a genjutsu specialist, and now your sensei. Now introduce yourselves." Kurenai, smiled, surveying her new gennin team.

At first there was no forthcoming response, until the lone female of the team, Sakura—Kurenai smiles, she didn't expect Sakura to be on her team—elbowed the Inuzuka to her right. The boy yelped, before scratching his head and starting his introduction with an annoyed voice. Sakura took this as her cue to look up and introduce herself as well.

"My name is Kiba Inuzuka, I come from the Inuzuka Clan, and that traitor over there, is my ninken, Akamaru, I specialize in tracking, I guess." he said, pointing at the pup resting on Sakura's lap, enjoying a belly rub from the pinkette.

"My name is Sakura Hatake, I don't really specialize in anything but you can say that I'm good at subterfuge and the teachers back in the Academy determined me as a genjutsu type. I greatly dislike it when others try to bully my friends." Finished Sakura, while sending a playful glare at Kiba, sticking her tongue out at him before going back to cooing at Akamaru.

The third member doesn't speak until Kurenai prods him to.

"My name is Shino Aburame, I hail from the Aburame Clan. I have thousands upon thousands of insects inhabiting my body, as is tradition within my clan. The insects come in handy for tracking others and at times draining chakra from enemy nin." Stated the boy, without pause, pushing up his dark glasses after finishing his introduction. He felt that it was unnecessary. His two teammates already knew of him and he was sure that their Jounin-sensei already knew their skill set from their records.

"Good. Now that the introduction is finished, you have three hours to find and retrieve 3 items, each. I shall be providing you with their scents and a part of each item. Failure will get you a one way ticket back to the academy." Dismissed Kurenai, leaving them with nine parts of different items scattered around Konoha.

"Team 8, you are now officially gennin of Konohagakure no Sato. Congratulations." Kurenia beamed, feeling happy for his gennin team and satisfied with their abilities and skill.

Kiba and Sakura sputter while Shino raises an eyebrow in astonishment.

"But I, I didn't retrieve my third ite—" "You mean I didn't get my third item, right Sakura?" Kiba said, interrupting the confused and ashamed sounding pinkette. During the course of the mission, after Kiba and Shino had already retrieved their three items, they joined the pinkette in her hunt for the her final item. They spent the whole hour left over looking for it. But in the end, with only three minutes left in the clock, they still haven't found it. Kiba decided that if Sakura were to pass, he didn't mind going back to the academy, so he gave her one of his items; proudly stating that an Inuzuka took pride in being loyal to friends and loved ones, just as much as their ninken counterparts were.

Sakura's eyes had watered, ready to protest that it was her failure; it wasn't his punishment to accept. But Shino stopped her, telling her how it would be rude to not accept a great offering from a friend, stating that he understood if she was hesitant if it was coming from Kiba, would she like one of his items instead?

Sakura's reaction was that of disbelief and gratefulness, she hugged them both tightly, each in one arm, thanking them profusely. She decided to humor Kiba and took his item but planned to confess her failure to Kurenai anyway. But they were interrupted by the raven haired Jounin, who just now, announced their official genin status.

Suffice to say, Sakura curled her arms around each of her teammate's necks in an even tighter hug, nearly choking them. They ended the day laughing and having fun while eating out at Sakura's favorite tea shop, the one that served the best dango in Konoha (according to Sakura), but the same could not be said about Team 7….

Kakashi was annoyed. You couldn't tell from the eye-smile he was currently sporting but he was. He regrets talking about teamwork and implementing team exercises when Sakura was younger and stuck to Sasuke and Naruto like glue. The two dolts had told the shy Hyuuga of the real objective of the test as soon as he whipped out the two bells.

Kakashi could have been cruel and told them, that yes that was the objective but they would still fail if they failed to get the two bells of off him. But sadly, he couldn't do that. Not with this team at least. The Uchiha and Hyuuga clan weren't going to stand for it and he shudders to think of what the Yondaime Hokage would do to his precious Icha Icha collection were he to fail his son on a whim; the scary blonde even had one of his Hiraishin Seals inside his apartment. The three's combined wrath would put him in the streets, they'd probably take his Sakura away from him! Kami knew that the elders had tried that enough times for him to be wary.

So in the end, Team Seven passed without getting a bell by proving their ability to work together, though Kakashi doubted they would have if they had not known the objective beforehand.

After passing, each member of Team Seven went their different ways, not sparing a second glance at each other, save for Hinata who fidgeted in place, looking at each of their backs; she looked like she wanted to say something but gave up after they've gone far enough that they wouldn't hear her call out to them.

It was a lonely start for Team Seven.