The day came, an orientation day, the day they would be assigned to their ninja teams. Katsumi was currently at the main house, that's where Lady Talia was located. 

"I'm going to be late," Katsumi complained as Lady Talia did last-minute things. Great-Gran was fixing Katsumi's hair. 

"Oh hush, the Mino name is on the line," Lady Talia said.

"Don't you say that to everyone?" Katsumi asked

"No," Lady Talia denied. "My child, you are like me...out of my kin and my kin's kin, your abilities are unique unlike the rest of the clan that just relies on their ice abilities, you have your mother's hellfire Jutsu." Katsumi opened her mouth. "Kat...take your training seriously...maybe with you, we will be allowed to actually live in the village...now go on."

"Yes, Great-gran," Katsumi said. She walked out the front door, Katsumi did a few hand signs, then held put her hands on the edge, and a giant ice slide appeared. Katsumi sat down and slid all the way down. On her way to the academy, Katsumi skidded to a stop at the entrance slamming into Naruto. The two fell over. 

"Come on Kat!"Naruto cried out. "Why are you always in such a hurry?!"

"I didn't want to be late," Katsumi answered helping him up. "Sorry about that."

"You know maybe try leaving the house a little early," Naruto suggested as they walked into the building.

"That's not easy," Katsumi denied. "Live in my district for a week." They walked into the classroom, Naruto took his seat, and she took a seat next to Sasuke.

"So they let you graduate?" Sasuke asked.

Katsumi glared at him. "Well Sas-dork, they can't let only the perfect students graduate, the trouble kids get to as well." She pointed to herself with her thumb. 

"Hn," Sasuke sounded.

"I'm going to be a better ninja than you one day," Katsumi proposed.

"Will that be before or after your burn the village down?" Sasuke asked. Katsumi held up a finger and opened her mouth figuring out what to say. "Hn." He smirked. She heard a thud, she looked over to see Sakura standing and Naruto on the ground. 

"Good morning Sasuke," Sakura greeted. Katsumi sat back; Sasuke looked over at Sakura. "Mind if I sit next to you?"

"Back off, Forehead," Ino demanded, marching up, and grabbing Sakura's arm. "I'm sitting next to Sasuke."

"I was here first," Sakura growled. 

"I walked into the classroom before you did," Ino argued. "Everybody saw it."

"Dream on," a girl argued walking up. "Actually, I got here before either of you. 

"So did I," another girl said waking up. "I'm sitting next to Sasuke."

"They're so annoying," Sasuke mumbled so only Kastumi would hear. 

"Hard being the most liked student in the class, isn't it?" Katsumi asked. "Sasuke...Sasuke."

"Shut it," Sasuke groaned, turning away. There was a thud, suddenly Naruto was on the desk, staring down at Sasuke angrily. 

"Naruto!" Sakura growled. "Hey, stop glaring at Sasuke!" Naruto looked at Sakura, then back at Sasuke. Lightning struck between their forehead, as the girls all yelled at Naruto. 

"Woah, heh, this is great!" the guy in front cheered, nudging Naruto on accident. Katsumi's eyes went wide. He looked back. "Sorry, did I bump you?"

"What the--" Sakura breathed as the whole class grew silent. 

"I, uh--" Ino breathed. Naruto and Sasuke were kissing. 

"You two are polar opposites," Katsumi said. "Opposites do attract sometimes," Sakura screamed as the two boys pulled apart. 

"This is not what you think it is!" Naruto gagged.

"There is zero attraction to this loser!" Sasuke gagged. "I will get you, Naruto."

"Huh, they are vicious," the guy in front said. 

"No kidding," Katsumi agreed.

"Ah," Naruto breathed. "Hm, danger." He looked over at all the girls.

"Naruto, you are so dead," Sakura threatened. 

"Hey, whoa," Naruto protested. "It was an accident." Sakura cracked her knuckles. 

"You're finished!" Sakura declared.

"Hold on," Katsumi protested, she stood up with one hand out and the other on her rod. A fight erupted in the classroom, as the girls tried to attack Naruto, Katsumi whacked them away with her rod. 

"If we want to get past this loser, we need to team up on her," a girl suggested.

"Bring it on diaper butt," Katsumi said getting into a stance. The girls teamed up on her, some managed to get to Naruto and Katsumi managed to freeze all of them into place at some point.

"Good morning class," Iruka-sensei said walking in, he stopped to see the chaos happening. "KATSUMI! UNFREEZE YOUR CLASSMATES!"

"Fine," Katsumi sighed. She had the blue hellfire got to her fingertips, she melted her classmates free.

"I will get you," a girl taunted as they went to their seats. Katsumi sat in between Sakura and a slightly beaten-up Naruto.

"Thanks for defending me," Naruto grumbled.

"As of today, you are all ninjas," Iruka-sensei announced to everyone. "To get here, you faced difficult trials and hardships. But that's nothing. What comes next will be far more difficult. Now you're only genin, first-level ninjas. All the genin will be grouped into three-man or four-man squads. Each squad will be led by a Jonin, an elite ninja." Naruto gasped.

"Well, someone's got to be in Sasuke's group," Ino stated. "I wonder who."

"I don't know," Sakura stated as she glanced back.  

' I hope to be on a good team, my whole clan's name is depending on me' Katsumi stated. 

"We want each squad to have a balance of strengths and abilities, so that's how we set them up," Iruka stated. " I will now announce the squads beginning with one and only four man-squad. Squad Seven...Naruto Uzumaki...Katsumi Mino..." They two looked up at each other with smiles. "Sakura Haruno." 

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered even louder.

"Good grief," Katsumi groaned as she put her head on the table. 

"I'm doomed," Sakura groaned as she lowered her head. 

"And Sasuke Uchiha," Iruka stated. 

"Ah!" Sakura cheered.

"I'm doomed," Naruto groaned.

"Good grief," Katsumi groaned. 

"Next Squad Eight. Hinata Hyuga," Iruka announced.

"Yes, sir," Hinata responded.

"Kiba Inuzuka," Iruka said. Kiba smirked. "Shino Aburame." He pushed up his glasses.

"How did you get in his group?" Ino demanded angrily. "Ugh!"

"I don't get it, what do you see in a guy like that?" Shikamaru asked. "He's not so special."

"You are so beyond clueless, Shikamaru," Ino stated. "Don't you get it?"

"No, I don't get it, because I'm not a girl," Shikamaru answered.

"Ugh, you're so full of yourself," Ino stated. "Jealousy's a terrible thing. I'd hate to be on your squad."

"Now, squad ten," Iruka announced. "Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara..."

"Ugh!" Ino gasped.

"Heh!" Shikamaru laughed. "Did you say something about hating to be on my squad?" Ino glared at him.

"And Choji Akimichi," Iruka announced, Choji kept eating his chips. "Those are all the squads."

"Iruka-sensei," Naruto began, he pointed at Sasuke. "Why does a great ninja like me have to be in the same group with a slug-like Sasuke?" 

"Sasuke had the best scores of all the graduating students and the best control of his Jutsu," Iruka stated. "Naruto, you had the worst scores and Katsumi has the worst control of her Jutsu." The other kids all started to laugh.

'Why am I getting dragged into this?' Katsumi asked herself.

"To create a balanced group, we put the best student with the two worst students," Iruka explained. 

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

"Ugh. Hey, what did you say?" Naruto demanded. 

"Hard of hearing?" Sasuke asked

"Knock it off, Naruto," Sakura demanded. "Sit down."

"Ahem," Iruka sounded to get everyone to stop laughing. "After lunch, you will be meeting your new teachers until then class dismissed." Everyone left the classroom. She ended up sitting on a roof with Naruto.

"What a pain," Naruto complained. "I get into the same group as Sakura and he's gotta be in it too. There's got to be a way to deal with this."

"We are only 12 Naruto," Katsumi stated.

"Look," Naruto nudged her, she looked down to see Sasuke in the window. 

"You are going to talk to our team member about Sakura?" Katsumi asked.

"Sure," Naruto smiled with a plan. "Just watch." Katsumi stayed where she was eating her rice ball as she watched Naruto creep on Sasuke. He stuck to the wall as Sasuke had his back to the window. 

"I'm guessing this will be more than a talk," Katsumi stated. She watched Naruto jump into the room, he started to fight with Sasuke. 

"Naruto!" Sasuke grunted,

"Pipe down," Naruto ordered. The window opened and Sasuke hopped out without a scratch. Sasuke then left the room, Katsumi hopped down and into the room; she got she saw that Sasuke was tied up.

" Sasuke?" Katsumi asked in surprise, he looked up at her. She held out a kunai, she threw it cutting Sasuke loose from the ropes. "What happened?"

"I let my guard down," Sasuke grunted once he took off the tape. "Where's Naruto?"

"I think he headed off towards Sakura," Katsumi stated. "But disguised as you."

"What?!" Sasuke stated before pushing past in a hurry.

"A thanks would have been nice," Katsumi sighed. After lunch Katsumi sat in the classroom with everyone else, slowly she watched their Jonin leaders come in and take them, soon it was just her team. Katsumi sat on the window sill, Sakura leaned on a desk, Sasuke sat at a desk and Naruto stood by the door. 

"He's late," Katsumi frowned as Naruto looked down the hall. 

"Naruto! Just sit down!" Sakura ordered.

"I don't want to!" Naruto denied. "How come our teacher's the only one that's late? I'm ready to roll! Believe!"

"The other group's already met their new teachers," Katsumi added. 

"They took off on some new adventure or something and Iruka-sensei's gone, too," Naruto added. 

"We know, okay?" Sakura sighed, they heard thumping. They looked over to see Naruto putting an eraser in between the door and the wall. "Hey! What are you doing?" Naruto laughed maniacally as Sakura marched over. "Naruto!"

"That's what he gets for coming late!" Naruto stated. "Surprise!" He jumped off the stool.

"You think our Jonin leader will really fall for that?" Katsumi asked.

"And you're asking for trouble," Sakura added. "You know you shouldn't do that."

"I'm with Kat," Sasuke stated. "Our teacher's a Jonin--an elite ninja. You think he'd fall for that?"

"Yeah, the two of them are right," Sakura agreed. "You're so clueless, Naruto." A hand landed on the door, and everyone's attention averted to what was about to unfold. They all watched the eraser fall on top of a ninja with a mask, spiked silver hair, and his forehead protector over his eye. 

" I got him!" Naruto laughed. "He totally fell for it!" 

"Nice work, Naruto," Katsumi complimented in surprise.

"I'm sorry, Sensei," Sakura apologized. "I told him not to do it, but he wouldn't listen. I'd never do anything like that." They watched the man pick up the eraser, he looked at it.

"How can I put this?" the man asked. "My first impression of this group. You're a bunch of idiots." A big wall of doom fell on all four of the new genin. Their Jonin leader took them to the rooftop of the school to talk to them. " All right. Why don't you introduce yourselves one at a time?"

"Introduce ourselves?" Sakura asked. "Well, what are we supposed to say?"

"Things you like. Things you hate. Dreams for the Future. Hobbies," Kakashi listed. "Things like that."

"You go first, sensei," Katsumi stated.

"Hm?" Kakashi asked looking over at her.

"Yeah, why don't you tell us stuff first?" Naruto asked. "I mean, before we talk, tell us about you, so we can see how it's supposed to work."

"Me?" Kakashi asked pointing to himself. "I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate-- I don't feel like telling you that."

"Huh?" Sakura, Naruto, and Katsumi asked. 

"My dreams for the future? Never really thought about it," Kakashi continued. "As for my hobbies--I have lots of hobbies."

"That was totally useless," Sakura commented. "All he really told us was his name."

"So lame," Katsumi added.

"Uh-huh," Naruto nodded in agreement.

"Okay, your turn," Kakashi stated. "You on the right--you first."

"Believe it," Naruto smiled. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka Sensei got me at the Ichiraku Noodle Shop. But I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water into the ramen cup. My hobbies is eating different kinds of ramen and comparing 'em. And my future is to be the greatest Hokage. Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody--somebody important."

"All right, next," Kakashi ordered. "One of the girls."

"You go first Kat," Sakura stated.

"Oh, okay," Katsumi breathed sitting up. "My name is Katsumi Mino, but everyone calls me Kat. I like to drink tea with my great-gran, I don't like when people disrespect my mom for being from a different village. I also don't like the security checkpoint I have to go through just to enter the main part of the village. My hobbies are drinking tea and making ice sculptures. My dream is breaking that wall down to have my clan officially be a part of the village instead of a random addition on the edge of it, along with being able to control my Jutsu better." Kakashi stared at her before moving his eyes to Sakura.

"Next," Kakashi ordered.

"I'm Sakura Haruno," Sakura introduced herself. "What I like--uh--I mean, the person I like is--" She blushed looking at Sasuke. "Uh, my hobby is--uh--" She giggled even more.  "My dream for the future is--" She squealed.

"And? What do you hate?" Kakashi asked. 

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed harshly. Naruto let out a scream with tears in his eyes. 

"Last one," Kakashi ordered. 

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha," Sasuke began. " I hate a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything." Sakura gasped. 

'No shocker there,' Katsumi thought to herself as she looked over.

"What I have is not a dream because I will make it a reality," Sasuke declared darkly. "I'm going to restore my clan and destroy a certain someone." Everyone stared at him. 

'Sasuke hates everyone here, he is going to have to rethink that clan part,' Katsumi thought to herself.

"Good," Kakashi stated. "You're each unique and have your own ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow."

"Uh, what kind of mission are we going to have?" Naruto asked happily. "It's a task the five of us will do together."

"What kind of task?" Katsumi asked in between Naruto's multiple what questions. 

" A survival exercise," Kakashi answered. 

"Huh? Survival exercise?" Naruto repeated as Katsumi tilted her head. 

"I thought we were supposed to have a real mission, not more practice," Sakura stated. 

"Sakura has a point," Katsumi stated. "We already did this stuff at the academy. That's how we got here."

"This is not like your previous training," Kakashi assured. 

"So, uh--So, uh, what kind of training is it then?" Naruto asked. Kakashi started laughing.

"Hey, hold on. That's a normal question, " Sakura said as she came to Naruto's defense. "What's so funny?"

"Heh, well, if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it," Kakashi warned. 

"Give it to us," Katsumi urged.

"Out of the 28 graduates who just came here, only ten will actually be accepted as Genin," Kakashi answered. "The other 18 will be weeded out and sent back to the academy. In other words, this is a make-it-or-break-it, pass-fail test, and the chance that you'll fail is at least 66%." Naruto went into shock; Sakura and Katsumi weren't too happy. "See? Didn't I tell you wouldn't like it?"

"That's crazy!" Naruto shouted. " We worked hard to get here. Believe it! What was that graduation test for anyway?"

"Oh, that. That was just to select candidates who might become Genin--or not," Kakashi answered. 

"What? Naruto and Katsumi asked in surprise. 

"That's how it is," Kakashi confirmed. " I decide whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at 5:oo a.m., and bring your ninja gear."

'If I fail so much for my clan's big chance of becoming one with the village. I can't fail, not when I have gotten this far.' Katsumi thought to herself.

"That's it," Kakashi stated. "You're dismissed. Oh, tomorrow you better skip breakfast, or else you'll puke." He then looked directly at Katsumi. "Make sure to control your ice."

'Sorry sensei, if I skip breakfast my Great-Gran will demolish me,' Katsumi thought to herself. After the meeting, Katsumi went to the tea shop, she walked in to find Team Gai sitting at the counter.

"Kat dear, why the ugly face?" her mom asked.

"We met our jonin leaders today," Katsumi sighed as she took a seat next to Lee.

"Is that so?" Gai Sensei laughed. "Who is your leader?"

"More importantly who is on your team?" Lee asked.

"My team members are Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha," Katsumi answered, they all gasped at Sasuke's name. 

"And your Jonin leader?" Neji asked.

"Kakashi Hatake," Katsumi answered.

" The Copy Ninja Kakashi?" a voice asked. Katsumi looked up to see her dad walking out of the kitchen with a cup of tea, he put it in front of her.

"Thanks, Daddy," Katsumi smiled.

"You don't seem happy," Lee pointed out.

"Everything was fine and dandy till Kakashi-sensei said there's a 66% chance of us failing on some mission he has for us tomorrow, and if we fail we will get sent back to the academy," Katsumi explained. "If we eat breakfast we will puke and he directly told me I need to have control of my ice by tomorrow."

"Nonsense," Gai-sensei laughed. "Breakfast helps pump that hot blood of yours in the morning." Katsumi looked over at him. "With a little teamwork, I promise on my youth that your team will pass."

"No matter how weird that sounded, Gai-sensei is right," Tenten agreed. "All graduates go through this test."

"Thank you for the advice," Katsumi stated. "I just need to be able to control my ice."

"300 laps around the village will help with that!" Lee stated. 

"I'm not sure about that Lee," Neji denied. Katsumi furrowed her eyebrows.

"Where's Great-Gran and Gran-Gran?" Katsumi asked as she looked forward.

"Great-Gran and Gran-Gran are going to the Hokage to discuss a water issue," Mr. Mino answered. "All these issues will change once you make a good name for the Mino Clan." Katsumi gently sighed as she sipped her tea.

"How was your mission?" Katsumi asked as she turned to Team Gai, the four burst out happily into a conversation. Ms. Mino glared at her husband as he mindlessly dries a plate.