"Congratulations, Julia Rose. From this day forth you are an official Genin of Konohagakure, may the will of fire burn strong within you. Your Sensei shall be here momentarily. Good luck."

The middle-aged man left after he finished his parting words. She didn't really pay attention to his speech and only tuned back in at the end. Frankly, the man was dull and boring and didn't make much of an impression, she couldn't even remember his name, and within a few weeks, she doubted she could recall his face.

Still, she wondered how her team was going to be. She didn't know much about them besides the fact that Team 5 had been together for 3 years now and was led by an experienced Jounin. Their third member had unfortunately died in the Chunin Exam hosted in Iwa recently which was why she was being sent to fill in the empty spot. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to wait too long-

"You must be Julia," She jumped in surprise and tossed her desk at the voice that appeared behind her. The man gave a whistle at the shocking show of strength even as he casually ducked his head. "Impressive arms you got there, girlie. Name's Ito Aizawa, call me whatever you prefer. Anyways, daylight is burning so let's get going and meet up with the other two."

A large man rested on her shoulders for a brief moment, a blink of an eye later and she found herself sitting down in a BBQ joint, the grill was on high and there was already plates of meat laying on the table. On her right-hand side of the table was a boy wearing sunglasses and a dull green hoodie, and a brown turtleneck that covered the bottom half of his face. He was also wearing a black bandana with his Shinobi headband sewed on top. She couldn't see his eyes but she felt as if his stare was drilling a hole on the side of her head, he was obviously an Aburame just judging by his fashion sense.

On her left was a young Akimichi boy, his brown hair was long and pulled into a messy ponytail, on either side of his cheeks were a blue stripe that ran from his cheeks down to his chin, and just like the rest of his clan, he was rather tall and large. He obviously didn't bother to wait for Aizawa-sensei or their new member to join because his plate was already piled high with all kinds of different cuts of meat.

"..."

"..."

The silence would've been absolute if it wasn't for the constant hiss of sizzling meat and chewing by the resident's competitive eater, too engrossed in the food to pay attention to anything else. She didn't expect much from Shino's family, they were always a quiet and creep lot, but at least her new Sensei could've said something to break the ice, right?!

But nope, the old man with greying sideburns was content to just observe.

Julia was saved from the crushing awkwardness when she heard some barking. She turned her head and suddenly she felt her heart seize. There were two dogs sitting next to her Sensei, one an incredibly large and fluffy Malamute, and the other a small Terrier sitting on the other's head like a little hat.

She stared at them for a small eternity before glancing at her Sensei. Turning her head to the dogs. To the Sensei. To the Dogs. To the Sensei. Rapidly flickering her eyes and practically willing him to agree to her unspoke request. Evidently any student of Gai would not lack will power or sheer presence and the man soon complied.

Soon as she saw his nod she promptly ignored her weird team and went straight towards her target. Ninken were specially trained and bred dogs that had an assortment of abilities, one of them being increased intelligence to a human level. She slowly approached and raised her hand letting them sniff her. The Terrier didn't seem to care too much and went to sleep, while the Malamute seemed excited and licked her small hand.

It was wonderful because she soon found herself buried in a sea of softness and fluff. Quite literally you couldn't see hide nor hair of the little girl after she went to glomp the canine. She turned her face into his white coat, some fur tickling her nose, as she whispered against him.

"Not to be dramatic or anything, but you're so precious and I want you to know that. I would die for you."

"Shiromaru. The lazy one is Haru," Evidently she wasn't quite soft enough. "By the way, I'm glad you're so fond of my two friends, but we're in a restaurant, mind getting off the floor?"

She sat there for another minute or two before deciding to compile. It was just so soft and warm! Alas, the moment was over and now she had to deal with people. Being an adult was such a chore sometimes.

"Sorry about that. My name is Julia Rose, it's very nice to meet you, I hope to get along well with everyone."

"There is no need to apologize, Rose-san. While your display was quite rude and bizarre, it is to be expected from a child your age, so do not worry. My name is Muta Aburame, and I too hope to get along with you."

She had no words to reply to that. While she knew that blatantly ignoring someone to play with their dogs wasn't polite... Did he really have to call her out on it if he thought it was ok since she was a kid?! Speaking of being rude, the brunet was still busy scarfing down food, chewing loudly and with his mouth open so as to be able to constantly shovel down more.

A kick to the shin by Aizawa and a yelp of pain fixed that.

"The name's Bao, Akimichi Bao. It's nice to meet you too or whatever."

Well, if that wasn't off-putting. She would've thought being in a team with 15-year-olds would've meant they were more socially adjusted, but nope so far it seemed to suck just as bad as the academy.

"Now now, don't be like that. Sorry squirt, the kid's just being a grumpy pants. You know what they say about getting in between an Akimichi and their meal and all. Come on, order whatever you want, it's my treat today to celebrate the reformation of Team 5!"

The man didn't have a chance to take back his offer before two voices simultaneously shouted for more food, the orders came in rapid-fire. The poor fool should've known better than to offer an all you can eat when there was an Akimichi presence. It didn't help that Julia could eat with the best of them after going through Gai's rigorous training and strict diet. She so rarely had the chance to eat whatever she wanted and she was going to milk this for as much as she could, which was quite a lot even after her 23rd plate of ribs.

Honestly, food was such a good way to bond, since she quickly became friends with the boy after an eating contest. Muta was going to take some more time.

"Seriously? I can believe you're making us do this. And so many too!"

"Well, I can't believe you two knuckleheads ate 600$ of food, each! Besides, Julia is still a fresh Genin, remember? Take this time to get to know each other and teamwork, or something."

"You were the one who offered, old man! Besides, if you're so poor, then let's do some low C rank missions. A simple escort! Low danger, easy experience, and a hell of a lot more pay. What could go wrong?"

The bickering Akimichi said in self-assurance with his genius idea. Memories about another certain knuckleheaded ninja flashed through her mind, and she didn't know whether to laugh or cry because chances are, tempting fate would just end up with her being hospitalized.

It'd be just her luck that the moment she walked outside those walls they'd get jumped by a gang of missing-nins or Obito would swoop down and kidnap her, or some mad scientist would cut her open.

Incredibly unlikely? Yes. Implausible? Also yes. Impossible? Hell no.

She wasn't going to risk her life just because this was the fourth garden she had to weed today for pocket change. At least she was actually getting paid unlike what she was already doing at the Uchiha District.

"Huh? Oh hey, what's up Julia? Whatcha doing down here?"

Anko had seen her friend while roof hopping and decided to pop by and say hi. She gave a slight wave to the other members of the team before squatting down next to the little girl covered in grass and dirt.

"What's it look like? I'm pulling out weeds for my mission."

Deadpan looks were exchanged.

"No shit, Sherlock, I meant why the hell you were doing it yourself? Doesn't your lazy ass normally use Shadow clones for this kind of crap?"

Julia felt her lips twitch in a slight smile at hearing her friend using her slang. Poor Anko didn't even know who the hell Sherlock was. Unfortunately, her brief amusement shattered and her face turned blank at hearing the second part.

"..."

"..."

The mid-summer sun was blazing down upon the 5 of them, yet it felt as if a sudden cold breeze had passed by.

"Wait, what the fuck? You can use Shadow Clones!? How?! Why?!"

"...Impressive."

"Holy shit kid, why didn't you say something sooner? We could've been done ages ago!"

"...First of all, fuck you. Secondly, I love ya Anko, and last... I forgot, ok?"

She felt like she almost got a concussion from how hard she had face palmed after remembering that she could, in fact, make clones of herself and didn't have to be sweating like a pig doing cheap manual labor. A series of groans and some questions later and her team had officially completed 11 D rank missions.

Being able to be literally at 6 places at the same time was pretty damn helpfully, and apparently you didn't need to have your team with you to accept most D ranks since they were so easy. Oh yeah, she was ringing in the big bucks now, painting one fence at a time.

Time to buy some gifts for a certain clan of antisocial pyromaniacs.