Naruto fidgeted in his seat. Today was the day, and he couldn't wait! His excitement was obvious—he wasn't even trying to hide it—and Sakura-chan sighed loudly beside him.

"Will you calm down, Naruto?" She asked angrily. "You're being distracting!"

"Sorry, Sakura-chan! I'm just so excited!" He clenched his fists as he smiled. "Today's the day!"

"The day for what?" She asked, slender brows scrunching in confusion. "What's happening today?"

Naruto held a finger over his lips. "It's a secret!"

"You better not be planning some juvenile prank!" She yelled. "Some of us are trying to learn, here!"

He folded his hand behind his head, leaning back in his seat. "I guess you'll just have to wait and see, huh?"

She growled his name under her breath, clearly about to launch into another tirade, when Iruka-sensei cleared his throat.

"If I could have your attention class, today we're going to be doing something a little different for you taijutsu segment. One of the older classes will be joining us, so I expect you to be on your best behavior, got it?"

The class began to buzz with excitement.

"GOT IT?"

Everyone nodded their heads meekly.

"Ahem," Iruka-sensei picked up a clip board and opened the door to the hall. "Go on then, get to the practice field."

Naruto launched himself from his seat, rushing through the door and down the hall. Iruka-sensei's voice followed him, but he ignored it.

Today was the day!

He burst out onto the practice field with a yell, catching the attention of the other kids already out there. None of them mattered, though. There was only one person he was looking for.

"Hana-chan!" He cried, wrapping his arms around the smaller child's neck and rubbing his face against her curly brown hair. "I missed you!"

She swatted at him with a laugh. "Naruto, what are you talking about? You saw me yesterday."

He loosened his grip enough to lean back and smile down at her. "Yesterday was forever ago!"

She smiled back up at him, her expression partially hidden by her mask. "You're silly."

Naruto's own smile widened, but before he could speak—

"Naruto! What did I say?"

He was pulled off of Hanako by the back of his neck, Iruka-sensei glaring down at him angrily.

"You can't just go racing off like that! You could have hurt someone!"

Naruto wiggled in his sensei's grasp. "Let me go! It's just Hana, jeez!"

Iruka-sensei looked like he might explode, but Hana intervened. "It's alright, sensei. I don't mind."

With a huff, Iruka-sensei set Naruto down and went to speak to the other chunin sensei. Naruto grinned at his friend. His friend. He never thought he'd have one of those. Sure, there were people who didn't treat him like dirt—he was lucky some of them were in his class—but that didn't mean they went out of their way to be kind to him. Not like Hanako. He'd never seen her look at him with hatred or disgust. Exasperation, maybe, but never anything worse. She was the best!

"Hey, Naruto, who's the girlfriend?"

He turned to see Kiba Inuzuka heading their way, the rest of the 'Naruto's not that bad' group trailing behind him.

"Oi, Kiba," he exclaimed with a wide smile. "Hana has a ninken, too! You should be friends!"

The lazy smirk on Kiba's face fell into open mouthed surprise. On his head, Akamaru mewled.

Hana laughed, raising a hand over her mouth despite the mask. "Oh, how cute! Momiji, come say hi." The fluffy white dog trotted out from behind her human, the long fur on her ears swishing like a human girl's hair.

Hana smiled up at Kiba, totally aware of the flush on his tattooed face and ignoring it. Ha! "My name is Hanako Hatake, it's nice to meet some of Naruto's friends."

They weren't his friends, though, and they knew that, if their uncomfortable expressions were anything to go by. Kiba stammered nervously.

"I-I'm Kiba I-Inuzuka, and this is A-Akamaru!" The puppy yipped.

Hanako smiled. "Eh, my grandmother was an Inuzuka! Maybe we're related?"

Kiba looked away. "Y-yeah, maybe."

Hana looked past the blushing fool and her eyes brightened. "Ah, Aburame-san! Hello! How are your kikaichu?"

The quiet Shino stepped past Kiba with a hum. "They are well and thank you for asking."

"It'd be kind of rude not to, since they can understand me, right?"

Shino nodded.

Naruto cocked his head, eyes squinting in the way Hana assured him looked like those fox masks at festivals. "Eh, you guys know each other?"

Hana nodded eagerly. "Yep! His dad helped me out with something when daddy was away on a mission." Her black eyes were bright with excitement. "Remind me to show you after school, ok?"

Naruto held out his thumb. "You got it!"

"Who are the rest of your friends?" She asked, turning her gaze on the other boys. "I don't think I've had a chance to meet them on my own."

Shikamaru and Chouji introduced themselves, and Hana's face lit up in recognition. "Ah! I know you! Your dad was my Uncle Guy's jounin sensei! Team Chouza!"

Chouji actually paused in eating his chips—salt and vinegar, yuck! "Might Guy is your uncle?"

"Well, not by blood." Hana shrugged. "He's my dad's best friend, though, so he might as well be, you know?"

Chouji nodded. "That makes sense. Guy-nii-san's never mentioned a niece."

Hana laughed. "That is the kind of thing he'd shout from the rooftops, huh?"

"Hey, guys, what's going on?"

Everyone turned to see Ino and some of the other girls approaching. Sasuke-teme was off to one side, lurking on the edge of the group, as always.

"Hey, Ino-chan," Hana said happily. "How have you been?"

Ino smiled in greeting. "Oh, hey Hanako-chan, it's been a while."

Naruto watched the friendly conversation with a mixture of awe and horror. Ino Yamanako was being nice to another girl? A quick glance at Shikamaru confirmed he was just as surprised. Not a genjutsu, then.

"How do you know so many of my classmates, Hana?"

She gave him a quizzical look. "I only know two of them, Naruto. Just Aburame-san and Ino-chan. Although," she gave the gathered kids a smile. "I guess I know more of them, now, huh?"

"Hey, um," Kiba's blush had never really faded, but it was back in full force. "How'd you get a ninken? Is because of your grandma?"

Hanako reached down and picked up Momiji, cradling the fancy dog against her chest. "Nope. My clan has a summoning contract with dogs. Momiji's the first dog I summoned on my own."

Momiji looked at Kiba for a long moment, then at Akamaru, then stuck her pointed nose in the air with a snooty huff. Her human looked at her with wide eyed surprise before bursting into laughter.

"I guess there's some rivalry, there, huh?"

Kiba didn't say anything, his face practically a tomato.

"What is this? My friend is making more friends? How joyous!"

Naruto barely managed to dodge as Rock Lee jumped into the group. The others weren't so lucky, catching the brunt of Lee's exuberant personality—and his feet.

"I am Rock Lee!" He shouted. "It is good to make your acquaintance!"

Naruto took the opportunity to hang back from the crowd, dragging Hana with him. She shot him a grateful glance, letting Momiji down onto the grass.

"Thanks, Naruto. Things were getting a little crowded in there."

The chunin senseis stepped in, then, and managed to wrangle everyone into four person groups, with two students from each class. Naruto was in a group with Hana! But also Sasuke-teme. The Hyuuga standing with Hana sighed.

"I feel the need to apologize in advance," he said to the only girl in their group. "They will not be kind."

Hana waved away his concerns, whatever they were. "Don't worry about it, Neji-san. I know it's not your fault."

"Hn."

What?

Iruka-sensei started talking before he could ask. "Ok, kids, we're going to do a team fighting exercise. Fighting as a ninja won't always be one-on-one, so you have to get used to fighting with someone by your side, and against multiple opponents. Now, don't get discouraged if you lose, this is a team building exercise, not a contest."

Like anyone would listen to that. Naruto glared at Sasuke-teme.

"What do you want, dobe?"

"Hey, now," Hanako scolded gently. "That's no way to talk to your friends."

"He's not my friend." Naruto and Sasuke-teme glared at each other, bristling at their perfectly timed jinx.

Hana sighed. "You don't have to be. In fact, rivals tend to do better at these kinds of exercises. You spend so much time fighting that your understanding of each other's body language becomes second to none."

"You're saying they have an advantage," the Hyuuga didn't sound happy.

"No, I'm saying they could have an advantage if they set aside their mutual dislike for more than five seconds." She shrugged. "It doesn't look like they will, though."

Oh, she was on!

Sasuke-teme and Naruto shared a glance, clearly thinking along the same lines. As soon as the senseis gave the go ahead, they leapt forward and—

Missed.

"What?" Naruto watched as his friend literally span away from him, standing on her toes with her feet at odd angles. Her hands were clasped behind her back, leaving her entire upper body open to attack. Once out of range, she stopped, knees bent, spine stretched elegantly. Her partner, on the other hand, wasted no time retaliating against Sasuke-teme, pressing against him with open palms.

"You're not going to fight?" He asked Hanako as he wound up for another go.

She shook her head. "Violence should never be a first resort."

Sasuke-teme snorted as he dodged. "You sound like my brother."

Naruto tried to take advantage of her distraction, but she still managed to twirl away. How was she doing that?

"Don't you want to know how to fight, just in case you have to use your last resort?" He kept after her, lunging wildly in a way he knew would make Iruka-sensei sigh.

"Not really," she said with an evenness that pissed him off, just a little. "I don't really need to, anyway."

"What do you—oof!"

She'd ducked under another of his punches, spinning on the balls of her feet so she was standing behind her Hyuuga partner. Naruto dove after her and took a palm to the face. He stumbled back, tripping over Sasuke-teme who was trying to land a kick on Hana now that she stood between him and his target.

They fell to the ground in a heap of tangled limbs.

The Hyuuga huffed. "Pathetic."

"Neji-san! That was rude!" Hanako held out her hands to them with a smile. "Are you guys ok?"

Sasuke-teme growled and swat away her hand, leaping to her feet. "Back off, we're not done, yet!"

Naruto scrambled up, too. "Yeah!"

Hanako withdrew her hands, meeting her partner's pale gaze. He scoffed.

"Why should we waste our time on failures like you? You can't even land a hit."

"Neji-san!"

"Tch."

Hanako offered Naruto and Sasuke-teme a small smile. "Don't worry about him, just come at us again, ok?"

They did. This time Naruto tried to predict which way she would spin. Turns out, knowing something and being able to act on it are two different things. He overreached trying to stop her from dodging, rolling his ankle and falling onto his face.

"Naruto! Are you alright?"

Just as her knees hit the ground, he whipped an arm out and pressed her back into the grass, his forearm against her throat. Her black eyes were wide and her mask was starting to slip.

"Gotcha."

Her laughter rang out across the practice field, and Naruto felt lighter than he ever had before.