Both mine.

"Aw, you're a sweetie," he tells Inazuma. (Do they want belly rubs? Naruto is an excellent supplier of belly rubs.)

They roll over in response.

I'm the sweetest. Pet me.

Very sweet wolf-dog now receiving many belly rubs!

Raizume gives him a hand, and tries to forget about the disaster that was and could have been. She really needs to develop some social skills one of these days.

Hindsight tells her that telling Naruto everyone in one go was a bad idea. Obviously. She's glad she did it and it's over with, but...

Tact. She needs it.

Luckily Naruto's not particularly sensitive!

The next two days go well, though there's only so much they can polish even with a renewed zeal - they have been practicing together for years.

Naruto's practically vibrating out of his skin when team assignment day rolls around, grinning so wide his smile looks liable to float off his face into the sun.

Raizume is excited too. She's been waiting for this day or her whole life. She manages to keep her outward calm, but inside she is jumping off the walls.

Bouncing excitedly at everyone who won't outright stab him - which is everyone, they're well-socialized little future killers - seems to be Naruto's go-to method.

Eventually he vibrates into one of the only two adjacent open seats - next to Sasuke, who usually keeps a broad swath of 'don't even fucking try it' around him that basically only Naruto's impervious to.

Sasuke, on the other hand, simply very subtly rolls his eyes, glances at Raizume, sizes her (and her small stature, plus obvious Inuzuka status, plus shiny new headband), and nods seriously, which seems to be his version of small talk because he promptly goes back to ignoring them.

(He's actually ridiculously nervous but if he looks broody no one will notice.)

Raizume lets Sasuke ignore her. Which she has pretty much done for years. Her weird silly pre-this-life-fiction-crush and the fact that she knew about the massacre of his entire family before the fact left her in this weird space of "aaaa" and 'do not engage' that she's been practicing at for a while.

Instead she nudges Naruto and let's Inazuma jump onto their laps. They're too big at this point for just the one lap.

"Fingers crossed for Ino and Sakura?" she whispers to Naruto.

"Fingers crossed!" he whispers back. "And for each other!"

Raizume laughs softly.

"There is only three to a team, Naruto."

"I have a lot of fingers to cross!"

She rolls her eyes, pets her puppy and waits for the announcements.

"Sakura wouldn't be so bad, I suppose. She's is also really pretty."

There's a groan and a quiet "Please no," from a few rows behind them.

Raizume pretends she didn't hear that and continues to pet her puppy innocently.

Iruka walks in shortly thereafter, and calls the class to attention. It takes him a while to get down the list, but -

"And Team Seven will be Uzumaki Naruto, Inuzuka Raizume, and Uchiha Sasuke."

Naruto cheers and hugs Rai.

Well.

She really should have expected that.

Iruka yells at Naruto to settle down, then continues - Teams Eight and Ten are as last time, and then -

"And Haruno Sakura will be placed on Team Sesshi alongside Nara Shikaiten and Korona Rian."

(At Sakura's mutter of who, Iruka volunteers "A team from a prior year.")

They're given the instruction to disperse for lunch, then gather to meet their jounin-sensei in a given room one hour from now, to wait separately from the other teams.

"I made up a lot of food for us," she says to Naruto, and then pauses and looks to Sasuke. "Enough for all of us. If you want."

He looks iffy about this 'other humans' thing. "I have my own food," is all he says.

"Fair enough. The offer persists though, if you change your mind."

Slow nod. "Alright."

Naruto squints at him, then, to Rai, "Your food's the best! Wanna find Kiba?"