Include like CMS?

Hey everyone. I have used wordpress in the past to just blog for fun, but this time around I am looking to use it as a news system for my website. I have seen it used on dozens of sites. What I am trying to do is include the 5 (or any number) latest posts in my “news” category on my main page ( not mysite.com/wordpress ). I wont be using the actual wordpress page itself at all, just using the behind-the-scenes features to publish my news. Is there a walkthrough for setting up something like this?