In two years, despite comparatively subpar instruction, Kazami Haruto had returned himself to a respectable level of skill in hand to hand combat. And by that, he meant a level in which he could handily defeat the grand majority of his peers and also more than match the top students in the year. Satsuki was still a nightmare to deal with, as she had no superb strength or speed and as such relied almost entirely on her skill and her particular style advantages to make up for superior opponents. Something Haruto had learned first hand long ago was quite painful.
Still, his own recovery in terms of skill had allowed Haruto to actually give her a challenge and even defeat her if he cut somewhat loose and risked giving her lasting injuries by bringing out most of his strength.
Proving his mother's prediction right, Haruto had noticed that he'd had an immense amount of trouble getting Naruko to respect him even the slightest bit. Even if he defeated her in combat, which he had, she seemed to regard him as little more than an overgrown worm. It hadn't helped that her attitude had definitely worsened as time went by.
At least he'd formed friendships with his other classmates. Chouji was a very fun guy to be around, and had been the first to make a friendly approach to Haruto, despite the girly hair. The fact that they both shared a love of food certainly greased their relationship quite a bit, as they would often talk about that if there wasn't anything else to talk about. Chouji's friend Shikamaru soon started tagging along, providing his own insight in whichever ways he could, and while he didn't share their passion for the art of stuffing yourself until you explode, he was still a very friendly guy once you got passed his lazy attitude.
Inuzuka Kiba was just plain friendly when you weren't an animal hater. Given that Haruto wasn't, and he in fact liked all sorts of animals, including dogs, they got along fairly well and sometimes Kiba even used Haruto as an accessory to his troublemaking. Unwillingly, of course, but it was always in good fun, and Kiba hadn't intentionally gotten him in trouble. Actually, Kiba had used him to get out of trouble, more than anything else, but they still collaborated from time to time.
The girls were a lost cause, however. Besides Yamanaka Ino, most of them simply avoided him for some reason, and he couldn't understand why. It seemed there was a recurrent problem with fever striking the classroom, probably a bug that just refused to go away, because the girls were almost always flushed when he could manage to interact with them.
Yamanaka Ino, meanwhile, seemed to like him well enough to compliment him at random, often about his hair, which, much like his mother, she seemed to really like. Maybe it was a blonde thing? The guys often did make 'dumb blonde' jokes regarding Ino, but that was just an unfair stereotype.
Being fifteen years old was supposed to come with a whole slew of trouble, but Haruto wasn't really seeing what his teachers had been talking about when they were talking about all of their bodily functions. Intellectually, he understood the reproductive system and its purpose, and he understood hormones and their effect on a teenager's body, but he'd never found himself acting like Kiba sometimes did, never found himself looking at the girls when they were doing their stretches the way he could see the grand majority of his classmates doing.
While others had their eyes glued to the curvature of Uchiha Satsuki's barely covered posterior or Naruko's sizable mammaries, Haruto himself was doing his own stretches without a care in the world. Despite the fact that the both of them held some level of contempt for him, as they seemed to do for all males, he also happened to be the one most often chosen by either whenever they needed a male partner for anything. In a ninja academy, that came up more often than you'd think. The reason why he was usually chosen came down to the fact that when they told him to shut up about something that'd happened, he would.
He was just that nice.
It also helped that he was, of the class, the only one to actively disregard their special circumstances.
But mostly it was the fact that he'd never revealed to anyone the fact that Naruko couldn't sleep without some stuffed toy to keep her company or that Satsuki was a nasty bitch underneath the cold, calm and collected façade she presented to everyone.
Still, sometimes he wondered if he was just 'there' for them, because it felt like they barely noticed his existence, taking him for granted. Admittedly, both of them had lives that were exciting on their own, with political intrigue and even a rival to call their own, while the most interesting parts of his days were mostly his interaction with the people around him.
He knew the graduation exam was coming soon, and he hoped he wouldn't get put on a team with those two. Fortunately, it was unlikely to happen. He was the son of a civilian, even if that civilian was a retired shinobi, and those two wore big names behind their backs, which meant they'd get put in a team destined to be fast forwarded to elite.
If Haruto was going to follow in his father's footsteps, which was the most likely thing, then he'd probably become part of the demolition corps, which meant joining ANBU, which meant joining the Regular Forces. Elites were rarely ever sent into ANBU. After all, you want them to be the face of your ninja forces, not the invisible stage hands that build the scenario they'd perform on. The Hokage had been clear when he'd explained what he wanted out of Haruto's participation in the shinobi program in that regard, so it was a moot point to dwell on it.
With this in mind, Haruto had actively done his best in the graduation exam. To his utmost surprise, despite doing his absolute hardest, he had actually not managed to take the Rookie of the Year spot. In fact, he was still third.
It seemed that both of his 'rivals' for the position had themselves been underperforming. Either that, or the fact that they were rivals themselves had spurred them on to perform even better than usual in an effort to beat the other. If so, Naruko had won, as she was the Rookie of the Year and Top Kunoichi at once. Haruto, third place overall, had taken the spot of Top Shinobi, which would normally be a shoe-in for an Elite, but the Hokage had final say in the teams the academy graduated, so he didn't think that he'd be put on an elite team.
It was the day of the teams's assignment, when the class had gathered one last time and the students who knew they wouldn't be meeting each other regularly anymore said their goodbyes and gave their promises to keep in touch, that Haruto found out that being wrong sucks.
"Team 13 shall be Namikaze Naruko, Uchiha Satsuki and Kazami Haruto, under—"
The temperature in the room descended several degrees, and the teacher stopped for a second as everyone in class turned to look at the glare that Naruko and Satsuki were shooting at each other.
Haruto sighed, already knowing this was just a terrible disaster in the making.
The teacher cleared his throat. "Like I was saying, Team 13's teacher shall be—"
"Team Ten," called a gruff, rough voice, interrupting the teacher. A bearded man that looked laid back and relaxed poked his head into the room. "Oh. Hey. Am I early?"
"Not really," the teacher said, frowning, "I'm just announcing the last team."
"Oh. Great. Anyway, Team Ten, there's a change of plans. Tobirama Park was occupied and I forgot to tell Iruka here that I'd be changing the meeting place, so I came to pick you guys up," he said, leaning back slightly. "Now, come with me."
Team Ten did exactly as ordered.
"Again, like I was saying, Team 13's teacher shall be—"
There was a loud crash as a woman in a trenchcoat came rushing through the still open door to the classroom, rushed to the window, opened it and jumped out. "What the hell?" someone asked.
Iruka cleared his throat. "Team 13's teacher—"
"ANKO IF I FIND YOU I'LL KILL YOU Y'HEAR!? I'LL KILL YOU!" yelled a rather shrill voice, as a woman wearing what looked like a dress made of bandages, but were clearly not, walked into the room. "Team 8! I've got your first mission! Trail the woman that just jumped out the window! And yes, I'm your assigned teacher, now GO!"
The three she had just ordered, even if she hadn't even looked at them, quickly leapt into motion, clearly frightened by the obviously violent woman they'd gotten as a teacher. The woman jumped after them.
"That just happened," Iruka mentioned, blinking, as he clearly tried to calm himself down. "I swear, I'm going to end up murdering someone if I get interrupted again. Anyway, Team 13's teacher is—"
"Yo Iruka, I'm real happy for you, and I'mma let you finish but—"
Iruka just turned around and slugged the newcomer right in the face.
Mizuki never saw it coming, and he was knocked flat on his ass.
"Oh-oh crap—I'm sorry!"
Haruto sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as Iruka began to fuss over his assistant.
It was only ten minutes later that Iruka revived Mizuki and sent him off to the school's infirmary to get the medic nin there to look at the ugly bruise forming on his face.
"Okay, now there should be no more interruptions. Like I've been trying to say for a while, Team 13's teacher shall be—"