"So it went to hell, then," Hiruzen said. "I'd heard of it. The other leaf Jounin on the mission, Kimura—"
"How is that man a jounin? I don't think I even saw him, once," Kakashi said, frowning slightly.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage, rested his elbows on his desk and looked at Kakashi flatly. "If you interrupt me again, I will reassign your team to someone else."
"Anything but that!" Kakashi pleaded.
"Then shut up. Like I said, the other jounin already gave me a complete report, so you don't need to give an official report. Go get a D Rank and get to work!"
Kakashi ran out of the Hokage's office.
"I wonder what happened to make him so attached to his team…" the only remaining visible person in the office asked, mostly to himself.
***
"Hinata-chaaaaan!" Naruko yelled, as she crashed Team 8's party, tackling one Hyuuga Hinata to the ground, causing her face to be colored red. "I haven't seen you in a while!" yelled the hyperactive blond. "Hey, have your boobs grown in the time I was gone? They seem bigger!" she continued, and only then did anyone notice that Naruko's hands had snaked under Hinata's bulky jacket.
"The hell," Team 8's sensei reacted, looking around the clearing Team 8 had chosen as a training ground for the day. It was a clear, open space that was lacking in training facilities, so Naruko thought they'd just been resting.
"N-N-N-Naruko!" Hinata nearly shrieked.
"Oh, right," Naruko said, withdrawing sheepishly. "It's just, I've been so busy with all the training I've been doing to catch up with Satchan that I haven't been able to see you for a while!" she explained, grinning widely. "Plus, I went on a mission, and it was really boring, except for these guys who attacked this really big boat we were on, and then I met B-niichan and-"
Hinata was still redfaced. "P-Please, Naruko-chan! Breathe!" she nearly yelled. "Take a moment!"
"Hinata, can you explain to me just what the hell is going on?!" the only adult of the group asked, clearly annoyed.
"Ah, I—"
"What's there to explain?" Naruko asked, clearly confused. "And… who is the pretty lady, Hinata-chan?"
"T-That's my teacher, Yuuhi Kurenai! Y-You know my t-teammates, right?" Hinata asked, turning to look at her teammates.
"Yep! Kiba, me, Shika and Chouji used to cut class together. He could always tell when the teachers were coming close to us!" she said, looking at Kiba, before leaping from Hinata and glomping him instead. "It's been a while since we've cut class, hasn't it?"
"A year," Kiba dryly said.
"But I don't think I've ever talked to you much. Aburame Shino, right?" Naruko asked, turning to the tallest of the genins, pouting up at him.
"That would be correct, yes. Uzumaki Naruko, correct?" Shino asked.
Naruko nodded enthusiastically. "Yep! Anyway, what are you guys doing?" she asked.
"Training," Kurenai stated, looking somewhat perplexed. "Like you should be doing right now," she added.
"Oh, that, well… Kakashi-sensei's busy, so he can't train me now, and since the person who's supposed to teach me how to use a Naginata is busy today too, he gave me the day free!" she answered the unspoken query, turning to Hinata. "I missed Hinata-chan's boobs! They're so soft and squishy!"
Kiba coughed and pointedly looked aside.
Kurenai flushed. "Naruko, you shouldn't grope Hinata's breasts! That's not-"
"But… I like it…" Hinata muttered, poking her index fingers together.
Kurenai looked deadpan. "I don't care. It's still not proper conduct of a kunoichi, much less so one of your status, Hinata," she explained.
Kiba rolled his eyes. "So says the woman who smells of a different man every week," he stated.
"Kiba, I do believe I have told you, more than once, that you should keep such things to yourself," Kurenai said, with a sickly sweet smile, before she went through a short series of handsigns.
In response to this, Kiba snorted, before he blinked and grabbed at his crotch. "Wait, it's gone!?"
Hinata smiled and almost giggled.
Naruko exploded into loud laughter. "Well, at least it's not just Kakashi-sensei that is proms… piromis… how's that word go?"
"Promiscuous, Naruko-chan," Hinata informed.
"Yeah, that!" Naruko replied. "Kakashi-sensei's a total pervert!"
"…Naruko-chan, has your teacher done… anything untoward to you?" Kurenai suddenly asked.
"Uhm… like what?" Naruko asked, ignoring Kiba as he began running around, clutching at his crotch.
"Like… ordering you to get naked, and things like that…"
"Well, there was that time he made me, Satchan and Sakura—"
"Sakura, Satsuki and me," Hinata automatically corrected.
"Us," Naruko said, rolling her eyes, "swim naked using my Oiroke no Jutsu. It got really hard after a while!"
Kiba stoped for a second to snort at the choice of words. "That's what she said! Literally!"
"God I hate that joke," Kurenai said, before going through another series of handsigns.
"NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES! THEY'RE IN MY EYES, MY EYES!" Kiba shrieked, as he dropped down to the ground and began to scream random nonsense.
"I love that jutsu," Kurenai said, smiling widely.
Shino sighed. "I am surrounded by idiots," he muttered to himself.
After things had managed to settle down, and the mood calmed…
"Naruko, what's up with your clothes? You going for the pirate look?" asked Kiba, crossing his arms. He'd recovered remarkably quick from the genjutsu torture his teacher had inflicted upon him. Apparently, he had a habit of blurting out things better left unsaid, and Kurenai was in the process of correcting it through negative reinforcement. It was a slow process.
"Well, these belonged to a missing nin I helped Sensei beat. And since I didn't have anything else to wear at the time, I took this coat," she said. "And since I had it, I thought I might as well take the hat, too," she added, gesturing towards her hat. "I've been thinking of getting earrings like he had, but Sakura-chan said that they're a weakness, since anyone could grab them and rip them off my ears…"
"Unless you're like me, and intentionally making people look at your… assets… so that they don't look at your hands, then I'd suggest against it," Kurenai said, in a sagely tone of voice. "At least until you get to jounin and are powerful enough to make up for the self imposed handicap they'd be."
"Sensei's right. E-Even f-father said that," Hinata agreed.
"I agree with my teammates," Shino said.
Kiba shrugged. "I think they'd look good on you," he said.
"Of course they would!" Naruko said, grinning widely.
"Anyway, you said your team's busy…" Hinata began.
"Oh, yeah… Well, since Satchan and Sakura-chan got ambushed in that C rank mission we went on," and here she ignored Kiba's protest to his teacher, as Team 8 had not been allowed a C rank mission, "they've been all gung ho about training so that doesn't happen again. And since Sensei didn't know how to give Satchan the training she wanted, he asked one of his friends to help him. I don't know his name, but he wore all green and he was all muscly!" Naruko explained.
"Maito Gai," Kurenai said, almost shivering. "Probably a good choice for the Uchiha girl. If anyone can help her work out her anger issues, it's definitely him," she said.
"Oh, you talk from experience," Kiba taunted.
"Of course I do," Kurenai said, rolling her eyes. "Working with a student like Satsuki is a nightmare. You're always afraid that the slightest wrong move is gonna set her off in the wrong path," she continued, looking at the sky for a second.
"I didn't know you'd taught anyone before, Sensei…" Shino admitted.
"I had an apprentice when I was a chunin, and a brief stint in the academy," Kurenai replied.
"Anyway, then, Sakura-chan asked Kakashi-sensei what she could be good for, and then he said that she could use her chakra control and that big brain of hers to take up his own arts. He didn't say what they were, though," Naruko admitted. "So now he's training Sakura personally."
"He's probably training her in assassination techniques. That girl, I considered her when I was making up the team I'd present to the Hokage. She could have great talent in Genjutsu if she was a bit more imaginative, but she'd probably be better off as a medic. I guess that the same skills that would make her a good medic would make her a good assassin, if she learns to sneak around and how to be subtle…" Kurenai diagnosed, nodding to herself. "Out of the three of you, she's probably the best choice for an assassin. But still, he didn't arrange someone to train you for the day, Naruko?"
"Well, I'm supposed to meet up with Tenten-chan so she can give me the basics of how to wield a Naginata," Naruko said, "but she said something else came up and she couldn't make it today. Something about her two teammates and youth, but I can't remember the details," the blonde admitted, cracking her neck. "Anyway, I don't need her lessons anymore! I can wield my Naginata already! And I got kind of bored of practicing alone, so…"
"Well, I do have some minimal training in polearm usage," Kurenai stated, "back when I was looking for something to make up for the fact that my sole talent has always been genjutsu," she admitted, "I tried different things."
Kiba frowned. "But your taijutsu rocks, sensei…" he said.
"Only compared to yours, Kiba. Of course you can't beat me in a straight up fight yet, I have years of training on you, I'm stronger, faster and better than you, but by the time you're sixteen, you should be able to easily beat me in a taijutsu battle. It's not my forte. Of course, from there to actually beating me in a fight," she said, smiling at her students, the message clear.
Kiba nodded, surprisingly serious for a moment.
"Anyway, you three know the drill. I've hidden an item in the forest, and you'll have to find it. Meanwhile, I'll see if I can help Naruko, at least a little. You brought your Naginata with you?" she asked, turning to Naruko.
"Yeah!" Naruko answered, digging into one of her coat's pockets to fish out a sealing scroll.
"Then let's get to it!" Kurenai said.
As the three members of team 8 stood up, Naruko gave Hinata one last hug before merrily skipping over to where Kurenai had walked, to the middle of the clearing.
As Team 8 entered the woods, following Kiba's nose and prepared to deal with the traps Kurenai had no doubt emplaced all over them, Hinata turned around and shot Naruko one last look.
"Naruko-chan… be safe…" Hinata muttered to herself, before sprinting a little to catch up with her teammates.