Kaze's green eyes popped open and she sat up in bed, rubbing her impossible hair and raising an eyebrow at her big brother. "What is it, niichan?" She asked solemnly, stifling a yawn as she stretched. Her brother rarely came to her with a problem, unless it was something both important to him, and likely to get them both in trouble with their parents and grandparents. She generally showed him the same courtesy. No sense in adding more variables into a problem than were strictly necessary. So she was wide awake at the very idea that he needed her help with something. She glanced at her clock ruefully, she would have had to get up to feed the deer in less than an hour anyway.

Konohamaru scowled at Lexi, "What was that, Lexi? You want to walk backwards around the village on your hands for training?" He'd actually done that once when he was a genin, on a challenge from Rock Lee. He smiled a very predatory smile at the disrespectful genin, "Or were you just saying how eager you were to get started on what I ordered you to do?"

Shikaharu smirked a little, but let it fade from his face to match hers as he saw how solemn she looked. "I'm at a loss with this whole new team member and everything. You remember how Dad described Mrs. Hyuga's behavior when she was in his squad? Well this girl seems just as dangerous without the psychoactive temper, I mean she doesn't talk much and she has a troublesome jutsu." His mind flashed as he thought about the attack she performed on Lexi and shuddered at what she could do if he pissed her off. "I just hope they don't pull anything funny when it comes to the chunin exams, but hey if you want I'll go out with you when you feed the deer." He smiled once again, knowing what she may have been thinking at that point in time.

Lexi's eyes bulged out of her head, metaphorically of course, at the punishment Konohamaru threatened her with. "No, no I'm good with the chakra practice," she said quickly. She dragged her feet to the tree nearest her and began to focus her chakra to her feet and climbed the tree disdainfully. Muttering under her breath, she walked a couple of inches up the tree, but slid down just as fast as she'd gone up. "Man, this is hard Konohamaru-sensei. I'll never be late for practice again. Too bad Haru isn't punished with us, we could have came up with some plans to prank some of those Academy students." With a heavy sigh, Lexi went back at climbing the tree.

Konohamaru nodded in satisfaction as both his (to borrow the Nara favorite word) troublesome students began doing the exercises as ordered.

Kaze tilted her head to the side thoughtfully as she looked at her brother. "A new squad member? Who?" She asked, having not heard the news before that moment.

Shikaharu looked around as if someone would eavesdrop on the conversation between the two genin, but he finally spoke up, "Well, yesterday some girl came up to the Hokage and asked him if she could join a squad. And by all crude incidences, my squad was in the room when she asked." He hung his head and paused for a brief moment and started up again. "So now she's stuck in my group and I'm outnumbered even with Konohamaru-sensei. That was the bad news, but the worst part ... I'll probably tell you later. You're too young to know about these things." Haru smirked at Kaze peacefully that reeked with the smugness of his implication between their age difference.

Lexi had ran up and down the tree several times, reaching slightly new heights with each try. "Yay, I'm getting better at this. Glad I have this moment to get a headstart over the new girl and Haru-kun." As she talked to herself about how fortunate her punishment/training was, she didn't realize that she was slipping halfway down. "No, no, no, NO!!!," Lexi exclaimed as she attempted to scramble back up the nature structure, but to no avail. The young lady fell onto the ground with a light thud. Out of frustration and fatigue, she pounded the ground, leaving dents with each strike, and wailed loudly. "This is so unfair," she huffed.

Kaze rolled her eyes at the typical older brother comment. "You're only a little bit older than me." She drawled, as if she didn't care a bit whether he told her or not. "I don't see how I can be much help if you don't tell me what the problem is." She stood and stretched, yawning hugely as she did so. "So far it just sounds like you're afraid of women." She smirked, "What about this one is so bad?"

Konohamaru shook his head but stayed silent for a minute as Lexi worked her frustration out on the helpless dirt around her. Once she seemed to pause for breath, he spoke up calmly. "No, what is unfair is waiting for hours for someone to show up for training and then having to go look for them." His tone grew more stern as he continued, "What is unfair is that I have to stand here, when I would rather be sleeping, listening to a selfish child complain about a punishment that she could have avoided if she'd just been a little more responsible. What is unfair is watching a friend die because you weren't where you were supposed to be, when you were supposed to be there." He stopped, somewhat overcome with emotion. It was scene that played over and over in his mind, could he have prevented Udon's death if he'd been quicker to get to his position for the surprise attack? He shook off the unpleasant haze of memory. "Get back to work Lexi." He said flatly.

Shinji exited the Aburame compound and headed for the Nara estate outside of the village. He was hoping to spar with Kaze a little before they had to meet their sensei. Kaze fed the deer in the mornings but he figured she'd finish faster if he helped and then they could practice. He knew she would complain about the extra work but he thought he could talk her into it.

Hearing Konohamaru made her think about being a ninja in the future. Sano thought about having to lose a friend to an enemy. Every ninja loses at least one friend to the enemy and she wondered if that time came, how she would have to handle it. 'Man, Sensei has a lot of things on his mind doesn't he....'she thought. Sano shook her head trying to erase the thought so she could go back to training. She continued to focus the chakra into her feet again and ran up the tree. 'I'm gonna get it this time for sure!' she thought determined. Sano slowed down a bit wanting to take her time as she went closer and closer to the branch. Before she could take a step onto the tree branch, she saw a squirrel wondering around with a nut which frightened her. Apparently it was unexpected. She fell off the tree and landed on her feet. "Ugh! So close!" she said. Sano sighed and leaned against the tree taking a drink from her water bottle. "This is tiring..." she said. Sano then looked over at Konohamaru. 'Maybe I should finally ask him that question I've been wondering about...' she thought. "Konohamaru-sensei, what were you like when you were a Genin?" she finally asked him. She heard from a few people that Konohamaru had a special friendship with the Hokage but she wondered how they would bond together in such a way.

[[ I wish this would bump....]]

Konohamaru blinked, pulled out of his thoughts by the nonsequitor. "When I was a genin?" He repeated thoughtfully. He certainly couldn't tell them the truth. He was mischievous and cocky and utterly obsessed with becoming Hokage someday, which he still might do once Naruto had tired of the job. The idea of the yellow haired ninja dying never even crossed Konohamaru's mind. He also didn't want to lie to his students. Time for some middle ground. "I was naive," He admitted slowly, "but I worked hard and I was determined to become a great ninja." There, he doubted that would be enough to satisfy the girl's curiosity but he could hope, right?

Naruto sat in his office eagerly awaiting the arrival of his first appointment. Souji, Satoshi, and Kakashi should be able to handle the reconnaissance and hopefully they wouldn't run into the sort of trouble the last team did. Naruto hated to send Satoshi away, the guy was nearly indispensable to the smooth running of the office, but he was also one of the few higher ranking ninja available at the moment. Kakashi was getting on in years but he was as powerful as he ever was. Officially the white haired ninja had retired, following in the footsteps of Jiraiya and becoming a writer of dirty books. However, Naruto had sent for the copy ninja the afternoon before and he knew he would show up. The Hokage smirked, he had even thought to tell the perpetually late ninja that the meeting was three hours earlier than it actually was, so Kakashi might arrive on time for a change.

OOC: Faiyth, Satoshi is yours right?

Konohamaru crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Sano, "And I know when people are stalling. Shouldn't you be climbing a tree about now?" He reminded her with just a hint of warning in his tone.

Naruto waved a hand at Satoshi, dismissing the apologies. "Don't worry about it. We're still waiting on one more anyway. Have a seat over there. Do you two know each other?" He asked distractedly. 'Dog walking...no.' Alex would probably try to kill him in his sleep if he assigned her squad such an easy mission right off the bat.

Elsewhere in town, a group of cloaked and hooded figures slipped over the wall. The time to strike out at the haughty leaf ninjas had come. It didn't matter what the boss said. They needed to press the advantage before the Hokage got suspicious and locked the village down. "Remember, just take out whoever you think you can get without being noticed and meet back in the forest. We just need to send a message and the randomness will confuse them." One figure spoke up in a harsh whisper, obviously the leader of the small raiding party.

OOC: Leave these guys alone, okay. I need to take out the characters that are no longer being played. T_T Speak up if you would like to claim any of them and I'm going to PM the ones that haven't gotten in touch one more time before the action starts.

Sano widened her eyes as she was slightly intimidated. She knew that he was taking the advantage of being a sensei. She took it and decided to not push his patience. Sano crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "Man, I should have known you'd be the one to change the subject." she sighed. "Fine, but I'll find out one day. One way or another...ya know, I was only trying to get to know you better - personally. Maybe we would have something in common." she said with a smile. She thought maybe warming up the moment will make him spit out the truth, or what's left of it. Sano turned around to the nearest tree and continued to practice. 'It's not over Konohamaru-sensei!' she thought determined to learn about her sensei.

((OOC: Yes Konohamaru, Sexy no Jutsu xD ))

Kazuhiko woke up as average as always, "i'm gonna start today different" he thought to himself as he looked out of the window. Getting out of the bed he was noticed his headband sitting on the table next to a picture of he took with his sister, Buyouhana, and his parents. "One day i will be so strong that i will protect them and wont be in the one who has to sit back" Kazuhiko's eyes began to water, but before a tear could drop he jumped out of the bed and got dressed. Once fully dressed Hiko ran out to the training field to practice his moves. Standing infront of the log Hiko got into his stands and took a deep breath in. "okay here i go" after thinking to himself he ran towards the log and used the Gentle Fist technique. For a while he had at the log but after one wrong footing the entire technique fell apart causing Hiko to fall on his face.

Alex bounced along the village streets, on her way to see if she could talk either of her teammates into an early sparring match. 'Or maybe Kaze can help me practice my chakra comtrol. She seems to be good at that.' The young ninja was so lost in thought, she didn't notice the genjutsu that led her off the main path and into an alley. She barely had time to feel the blade that slid between her ribs and pierced her heart and lung. Alex coughed up blood and stared down at the blade protruding from her chest in shock. Arms caught her as she began to slip towards the ground and then she knew nothing more. The enemy ninja smiled and let the lifeless body slide to the ground without a sound. He retrieved his blade and wiped it clean on the girl's blonde hair, admiring the look of shock frozen on her face. He vanished from the alley in a blur.

Haruto was on her way to the training field when she felt something was amiss. She activated her byakugan and scanned the area carefully. She spotted a volley of projectiles coming her way and hurried to deflect them but a few slipped through her guard. Bleeding from a few minor wounds, she began the jutsu to summon her ice mirrors but was interrupted as a fine wire dropped from above her and slipped down around her neck. With a sharp jerk, she was pulled up off the ground as the wire pulled tight enough to cut into her throat. She struggled for a minute or two before the lack of oxygen finally stopped her efforts to get free. Her last thought as the blackness closed in on her vision was, 'I'm sorry, Mother. I failed you.' The enemy slipped away, leaving her hanging there. It wouldn't send much of a message if no one found the bodies, after all.

Hana was taking a walk in the Hyuuga family garden. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, savoring the scents of the flowers and plants surrounding her. She heard a thud and opened her eyes just in time to let out a small shout before a kunai sank into one of her wide eyes and pierced her brain, ending her life almost instantly.

Shineji woke up when a dart hit him in the arm. He sat up and pulled the feathered thing out of his bicep and looked around for a source. He spotted a shadow on a rooftop nearby and forced himself to his feet, ready to go out the window in pursuit as the figure started to move away. However, as soon as he stood he felt a strange weakness sweep over him and he fell to the floor. 'Poison.' he realized grimly. The poison was fast acting, in a under a minute Neji was dead. The leader of the enemy ninjas smiled as he went to rendezvous with the rest of his team. That one had escaped them once, this time he wasn't so lucky.

The small group of assassins met in the forest just outside the village and slipped away, having only been seen by those who would never speak again.

Kaori's hazel eyes flickered open as the sudden formation of goosebumps down both her arms woke her from her nap. The jounin rose to her feet and glanced around uneasily. She had a distinct, bad feeling which was only magnified by the rising hair on the back of her neck. "Am I so tired that I'm hallucinating?" She questioned of herself softly, torn between leaving to seek out the source of her anxiety and staying to wait for her team. Mentally she felt as though a bond had just been cut, but why and what bond? Why was she suddenly feeling this way?

.::.

Satoshi smiled brightly as he took the seat next to Souji. He'd never really been given the opportunity to work with Kaori's younger brother before, let alone hold a conversation with him. "Souji-kun, how've you been?" He asked, his grin still ear-to-ear. To be honest, he didn't know a whole lot about Souji. What little he did know came from the few times that Kaori talked about her brother. However, what she did mention were only petty things like inside jokes between the siblings. His right leg shook slightly in subconscious impatience as he waited for the third nin to arrive. He was Rock Lee's son after all and sitting still was not one of his strong points.

Nagi entered the Hokage's office via the open door. He was surprised to see his brother waiting there, along with Kaori's little brother, Souji. He frowned. When he'd been summoned to this morning meeting, he had hoped it would involve a mission but seeing his brother there dampened his enthusiasm. As much as he loved Satoshi, the thought of going on a mission with him was a little daunting. Satoshi's enthusiasm could be a bit overwhelming. He bowed politely to Naruto. "You wanted to see me, Naruto-sama?"

Shinji was nearing the edge of town when his insects sensed it, death. The body released all it's chakra when it died and the area was saturated with it. Shinji followed his kikaichu's directions to a side alley. He froze for a moment as he registered the identity of the body lying lifeless on the ground. Forcefully locking his emotions deep inside, he was outwardly calm as he approached his teammate's corpse. He was stoic as he gently checked for the source of the small puddle of blood. Alex had been stabbed in the back with a blade long enough to pierce through her completely. He calmly sent some of his insects to alert his father of the situation. He didn't dare leave Alex's body, in case whoever had killed her returned to attempt to hide the body. He couldn't protect the hyperactive girl from this, he would at least ensure that her family had a body to mourn her properly.