I hummed lightly as I finished making breakfast two days later. The day before, I had taken my photo for my registration card and went back home to train. Nothing special happened. "Kakashi! Come eat your breakfast! I'm going on ahead to the academy!" I call out, quickly grabbing some toast and running out the door. I pulled my head band out of my pouch, and tied it securely around my arm. I started running towards the academy, wanting to get there early.

As fate would have it, everyone else wanted to get there early as well. The only spot open to any of my friends was between Naruto and Sasuke. I stood by their row and grasping my hands together timidly. "Mind if I sit here?" I ask, hoping Sasuke was in a good enough mood today to let me sit by him.

"Oh! Sure Ren! Go right ahead!" Naruto chimed, grinning from ear to ear. I smile as I gaze at his headband, glad that he was able to graduate. I looked over at Sasuke and he just nodded his head. I took a seat and settled, sighing happily.

"Huh? What are you doing here, Naruto? This meeting isn't for dropouts." I hear Shikamaru say. I turn and look at him. He catches my eye as I smile at him. He flushes brightly before looking away.

"Oh yeah? Do you see this? Huh? Open your eyes Shikamaru, it's a regulation headband!" Naruto said proudly, adjusting the headband slightly. "We're going to be training together! How to you like that?!" Naruto asked excitedly. I rolled my eyes and leaned on my fist. "Let me put it this way! I look great in this head gear, like it was made for me! Believe it!"

"I'M FIRST!" I hear two familiar voices shout. I look over and groan. Sakura and Ino were at it again. And then I realize, I'm in the line of fire. As I try to get up, Sasuke reaches out, grabs my wrist and makes me sit.

I look over at him curiously. "Don't. I can't stand either of them." He hums.

I sigh gently and nod, planting my butt firmly on the ground.

"I won again, Sakura!" I hear Ino pant.

"Give me a break. I had to look back at you. My toe was a tenth of an inch ahead!" Sakura stated proudly.

I groaned again and prepared for the worst when she came over. "MOVE IT NARUTO!" She shrieks. I turn to her as she glares at me. "Move Ren! I want to sit next to Sasuke!" She said in her demon voice.

"Sorry, but unfortunately, Sasuke asked me to sit here." I hum, smirking coyly when she sees red. "Isn't that right, Sasuke?" I add salt to the wound. To my amusement, Sasuke nods and reaches over, grasping my free hand. Sakura turns to stone, her eyes blazing with fury. I start a riot as the other girls in the class approached, ready to break some knuckles. Then, their fury is directed at Naruto. "Naruto! Quit glaring at Sasuke!" I turn around, shrieking, but not with anger, but laughter. I hold my stomach as tears erupt from my eyes. Naruto had been bumped by the guy in front of him and sent him straight onto Sasuke's lips. They shared their first kiss together.

I fell to the floor, kicking my legs around as I tried to contain myself. Both boys started gagging and coughing. The girls attacked poor Naruto. After the dust settled from the girls beating up Naruto for stealing Sasuke's first kiss, it was decided that I remain in my spot so Naruto doesn't try and kiss him again. I tried to keep a straight face as Sasuke sent me glare every time I would recall the kiss and start covering my lips in an attempt to stop the laughter.

"As of today, you are all officially ninja! To get here, you have faced difficult trials and hardships! But that's nothing. What comes next is far more difficult. Now you're only genin, the first level ninja's. All the genin will be broken down into three man squads. But due to the odd number of graduates, there will be one squad with four members. Each team will be lead by a Jonin, an elite ninja." Iruka explained. "We want each squad to have a balance of strengths and abilities. So, that's how we'll set them up. I will now announce the squads." Iruka started calling out the squads.

I drew circles on my desk with my pointer finger, waiting for my name to be called. "Squad 7! Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno!" Naruto cheered and Sakura hung her head low, despaired. "Sasuke Uchiha." Naruto fell into despair as Sakura cheered. "And Ren Yukimura." My head perked up as I heard my name being called. Naruto cheered and Sakura hung her head again, this time muttering out illegible curses. I sighed out gently and leaned back against my chair.

"Squad 8! Hinata Hyuga!" Hinata stuttered out her response. "Kiba Inuzuka!" Kiba just chuckled, patting his canine partner. Kiba Inuzuka. He's apart of the only canine clan in the Leaf Village. They're excellent trackers and show more dog like characteristics than they do human. And Akamaru is just adorable! But I still prefer cats over the slobbery cuties.

"And Shino Aburame!" He finished. Shino came from the Aburame clan. They specialized in insects. A shiver ran up my spin as I just thought about it. Shino was a relatively quiet person, but I remember one time asking him out of pure curiosity where the insects resided and I didn't sleep for a week.

I zoned out once again as he called out Squad 9. I didn't socialize with a lot of people rather than the regular nine I'm familiar with. "Squad 10! Ino Yamanaka!" I looked back at my blonde friend as she muttered about how she would hate to be on a squad with Shikamaru and Choji. "Shikamaru Nara! And Choji Akimichi!" I snorted out a giggle as Ino cried out in shock. Choji just munched at his chips, giving her a side eye'd glare as she called him fat.

Choji Akimichi. He came form a clan that specialized in jutsus that grew the body, expanding to cause collateral damage. When we were younger, we used to share chips while Shikamaru just napped. I did make the mistake of calling him fat one time when he ate all of my favorite chips at my house. Let's just say, I never dared to say it again.

"Ha! Didn't you say something about hating to be on my squad?" Shikamaru teased. I giggled again and his cheeks turned red, his hand coming up to cover his mouth. Ino leaned near him and jeered slightly. He took a swing at her as I turned back around.

"Those are all the squads." Iruka hummed, tossing the clip board onto the table.

"Iruka Sensei! Why does a great ninja like me have to be in the same group with a slug like Sasuke?!" Naruto screamed out, making me push my finger into my ear to stop the ringing.

"Sasuke and Ren had the best scores in the class. You're at the bottom, Naruto. To balance the groups, we put the best with the worst." Iruka explained. I snorted a little and ducked as Naruto took a swing at me.

"Just make sure you don't get in my way, loser." Sasuke added coolly.

"Hey! What'd you say?!" Naruto shouted, making me lean towards Sasuke in an attempt to save my hearing.

"Hard of hearing?"

Naruto started yelling again and I got up, slamming a karate chop onto his cranium, sending him to the ground. "KNOCK IT OFF! I'M RIGHT HERE YA MORON!" I shouted. Everyone was silent as Naruto lay on the ground, twitching in pain.

"After lunch, you'll meet your new Jonin teacher. Until then, class dismissed!" Iruka called, letting us leave.

I pull out my little froggy purse and go to pull out some money to get something to eat as I hear Ino call for me. "Ren! Wanna come eat with us?" I turn to her, smiling gratefully.

"Only if you feed me!" She rolls her eyes at me and holds up her lunch box.

"You know I only eat the rice ball mom packs." She hummed, looping her arm through mine. Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, and I were all sitting atop the school roof, listening to Ino go on and on about Sasuke. "So, Ren! Are you crushing on Sasuke now?!" She asked excitedly.

I roll my eyes and pop another clump of rice into my mouth. "What does that even mean? I don't get why every one is saying they like Sasuke. I think he's rude to be honest. Who would even want to be his friend?" Ino deflates as Shikamaru laughs at her.

"Ha!"

"Oh shut up! You're just happy she doesn't like him! I saw that earlier in the classroom!" She jeered at the now flustered Nara.

"I am not!"

Choji and I watch in amusement, sharing chips and enjoying the fight. Ino huffed in annoyance and turned her attention towards me. "Ino, I'll just start telling Sasuke how cool you are. Anything to make Sakura mad."

"Wow, you can really hold a grudge, huh?" Ino deadpanned.

"She put green hair dye in my shampoo! How was I supposed to react?! I didn't even do anything to her!" I cry, closing up the bento Ino gave me.

Ino went on and on about how pretty I was and Sakura was just jealous of it because she thought I'd steal Sasuke away from her. I look over at Shikamaru to see him gazing down at something. I switch seats and gaze over the edge with him. "What's Naruto doing?" He hums, laying his head on his arm. Naruto leaps into the window Sasuke was at, and surprise attacked him.

"Man, you have to be kidding me. Let me go save that idiot." I sigh as 'Sasuke' jumps out of the window. I leap through the window, gazing down at 'Naruto'. "Took you by surprise, huh?" I giggle, kneeling down as 'Naruto' disappeared in a puff of smoke and Sasuke lay on the ground, tied up and duct taped.

"What'd you see?" He grunted. "Which was did he go?"

"I don't know, he just left like 5 minutes ago. Here, let me get you untied." I start fiddling with the ropes. After Sasuke is freed, he grasps my wrist and tugs me along. "H-Hey! Hold on a second!"

We searched all around the school, and we stumbled upon Sakura sitting alone on a stone bench. She looked extremely excited about Sasuke appearing. "Sasuke! You're back! Don't be so shy, you bad boy!" Sakura exclaimed, a heavy blush on her cheeks. Her face paled as I came into her field of vision, her eyes narrowing in rage. "What's she doing here?!"

"Where's Naruto?" Sasuke snapped.

"Oh, see. There you go. Changing the subject again! Anyway, Naruto just picks fights with you. You know why he's so annoying? Because he wasn't raised right! He doesn't have a mother or father, no one to teach him what's right or wrong." My heart skipped a beat as she spoke. Tears built up behind my eyes and I wanted nothing more than to make her stop. "Think about it! He just does whatever comes into his head!" I grasped at the fabric above my heart, lowering my gaze. "If I did things like Naruto, forget it! I mean, my parents would get mad and I'd get in trouble, so of course I don't do it! But if you don't have to have parents to tell you, how do you know? He's selfish, bratty. He's all alone!" Sakura finished.

"This is why Naruto is ten times the person you are." I snap, looking up at her as tears clouded my vision. She looked ready to retort. "Shut up! You have no idea what it means to be alone, Sakura! You have your parents. We don't." I seethe, pushing passed her.

"Sakura. You're annoying." Sasuke added emotionless. I looked back at him, waiting for him to follow. He grasped my wrist again and we kept up the search for Naruto. Sasuke managed to track him at bathrooms.

"I-I'll see you later...." I stutter, keeping my head down so he didn't see me crying.

"Hold on." I stop, confused at the urgency in his tone. I held in my breath as Sasuke wrapped his arms around my body, hugging me from behind before leaving to find Naruto. My heart starts to beat against my rib cage aggressively and it felt as if someone lit a match in my stomach. I wiped at my eyes and hurried into the building.