See? New chapter, just like I said. I don't know what you all were so worried for! We're starting a new arc this time around- Chuunin Exams! Lots of fun stuff. Except we don't actually get into it, first we have to do some missions.

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Enough stalling, I own Suten and her family and some crazy ideas and that's it.

Hitai-ate- on my head. Weapons holster- strapped to my thigh. Sandals- waiting at the door for me to put them on. I checked myself over in the mirror one last time, before nodding in approval. There were a couple bruises still fading from the impromptu spars Sasuke had been challenging me too, but I didn't mind those too much. Not that I felt I owed him for it, but he had successfully snuck me out of the hospital. Lying on a thin mattress in a white room all day, with nothing to do but 'rest' and nurses checking to make sure you didn't accidentally hurt yourself- it was a torture in and of itself, having so much free time and unable to do anything with it.

"I'm leaving, Kaa-san," I announced as I made my way downstairs, but it turned out to be unnecessary since my mother turned out to be already waiting for me.

"I noticed," she replied jokingly, seated calmly at the table with a steaming cup of tea in hand. "But just a minute: I made something to take with you."

On the table lay a bento box wrapped neatly in navy cloth. Seeing it brought back memories of my not-so-distant Academy days, when she would pack lunch for me before I headed off to school. "What's in it?" I asked curiously, reaching forward to take it by the makeshift handle.

My mom took a sip of tea, then beamed. "They're sweet buns, and some onigiri as well. I thought since you've been working so hard at the shinobi business, I might as well make you a treat every now and then. I made enough for if you'd like to share with your teammates, too."

I couldn't help smiling back at her. This set my day off to a pretty good start. Maybe I didn't have a dad, but my mother was doing a pretty good job by herself.

"I also made some not-as-sweet-buns for that Sasuke, since apparently he doesn't like sweets, but you can always just give him the onigiri."

Moment ruined. My cheeks flushed scarlet at the knowing look she was now giving me. "K-Kaa-san!"

"Now, Suten-chan, the way to any man's heart is through the stomach. So in that case I should start teaching you some recipes-"

Highly embarrassed, I snatched the bento and headed out the door with her laughter ringing in my ears.

When I was out of sight, she sobered almost immediately, her gaze drifting regretfully to that picture of my father once more.

"Ryuichi…she's growing up so quickly…"

-_-.-_-.-_-.-_-

"Isn't Hime-sama a little old to be carrying bento boxes?" was Sasuke's greeting to me as I joined him on the bridge. Sakura would probably be coming any minute, and as usual, it looked like Naruto would be the last genin to arrive. Kakashi-sensei would probably take a few more hours to even realize he had somewhere to be today.

I had a feeling that instead of trying to cut me down, this was Sasuke's way of asking what was in it without sounding like he cared. "Or 'good morning', Kishi-san," I patronized. "That works too."

Just as he had snuck us into the habit of training together, Kakashi-sensei had also somehow snuck us into the habit of calling each other Hime and Kishi- but only when we were basically alone. The problems that would arise from Naruto- or worse, Sakura- finding out what we called each other made that a necessity. Don't get any ridiculous ideas about the implications behind us having 'secret pet names' for each other. If anything they were just leftover codenames from a mission that had stuck with us. Because I was no princess, and Sasuke sure wasn't a knight.

"My kaa-san made me- all of us- snacks for later," I explained in a considerably more subdued tone, trying to tread lightly on the Sasuke-sensitive topic of family. "Sweet buns, with different fillings."

As expected, the Uchiha's face darkened. "I hate sweets."

So it really was true, then. "She made non-sweet filled ones, too. And just onigiri." I didn't know why I was trying to convince him to eat my mother's food. More for me if he didn't want any, right?

His gaze flickered toward me momentarily, surprise flashing through onyx eyes before they became unreadable. "Hn."

I sighed. Well, I'd find out if he wanted any later. We weren't alone anymore.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun!" called Sakura cheerily, waving to the stoic male as she headed onto the bridge. The subject of her greeting didn't really reply, and though the pinkette looked disappointed as usual, I couldn't help noticing she didn't seem all too surprised either.

For some reason this made me feel a twinge of pity for her. Maybe even fangirls had their limits. "Sakura," I acknowledged with a nod, seeing as she obviously didn't plan to greet me. She only shot a sharp emerald glare in my direction, before decidedly turning away with arms folded.

Any lingering pity I had for her situation quickly evaporated. I could feel Sasuke giving me an odd look, silently questioning why I had even bothered.

I was spared from having to consider answering by the arrival of the last genin member of our team. "Good morning, Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled, in his usual ridiculously energetic mood. "Suten, you too!" he added, upon noticing my presence as well.

I blinked, not expecting him to greet me so energetically. 'He must be really excited today,' I decided, somewhat amused, and waved in returned greeting. At least he, I knew, wouldn't spurn my efforts to be nice for once. Of course, that could have been just because he was too stupid to do otherwise.

Naturally, Sasuke didn't get quite so warm a greeting, and he didn't bother to give one either. The two boys glowered darkly at each other before hmphing and directing their gazes elsewhere. I shook my head at their behavior. Ever since we'd gotten back from Wave Country, they'd been acting like less like shinobi with a respectable rivalry and more like Academy students having a fight. And considering our team's concept of working together was already basically nonexistent…

All I could do was hope the situation wouldn't get any worse- I had more pressing things to worry about. For instance, what to do with the 2 to 4 hours that probably remained before Kakashi's arrival? There wasn't anyone here I could strike up a conversation with- at least, not with the others within earshot- and with the current hostile mood I wasn't about to ask anyone to spar, either. Resigning myself to spending an unknown amount of time completely bored(and noticing my teammates seemed to have reached similar conclusions) I started picking out a spot on the fence. I didn't really feel like being antisocial and heading across or to the ends of the bridge, so that meant I'd have to stand next to someone. So far Naruto was on the left and Sasuke on the right, with Sakura between as an unwilling divider. Let's see… If I tried to wait anywhere next to Sasuke, I knew Sakura would get upset, and if I tried to squeeze in between Naruto and Sakura, Naruto would get upset too. With a sigh, I walked over and perched myself on the railing, seated to the blonde's left. He looked considerably surprised that I'd chosen to sit next to him, but grinned at me and settled down to wait. Everyone was happy.

No, everyone was not happy, which became clear as I quickly noticed a certain Uchiha outright glaring in my general direction. What did I do now? When I realized his wrath was directed mainly at Naruto, my confusion deepened. I knew they were pretty hostile towards each other now, but the team idiot hadn't done anything yet today- why was Sasuke so angry with him?

Hmm. Maybe he was just in an overall bad mood today.

-_-.-_-.-_-.-_-

A ridiculous amount of time later found the four of us nodding off against the wooden railing of the bridge- with myself especially in serious danger of falling off altogether, considering I was still sitting on the railing. Would it kill our sensei to come on time for once? For that matter, why did he bother setting a time for us to meet him if he never planned on showing up at said time?

"Good morning, everyone."

At the sudden sound of Kakashi's voice I snapped fully awake, immediately flailing my arms to keep from toppling backwards into the river. Unfortunately, it looked like I would have a long, cold, and humiliated swim to the riverbank, when I felt myself being pulled roughly back onto the bridge and into something else. Once my brain processed that I was not, in fact, going to fall, it recognized the young avenger who I had unceremoniously smashed into.

He was fairly quick to push me away upon realizing that I was alright, jamming fists into the pockets of his white shorts and not looking at me. "Be more careful," he warned. "It's not my job to save you anymore, baka."

'So why did you?' came to mind almost immediately. Why hadn't he just let me fall? Doubtless he would have enjoyed it. The idea of actually asking him crossed my mind, but I quickly decided against it, only in part because I knew I wouldn't get an answer.

"Hey, hey, Kakashi-sensei!"

Naruto looked overeager as usual. "We've only been doing easy missions, right? Isn't there a mission where I can play a more active role, something that's more…exciting?" As he kept talking, he pumped himself up more and more until it almost looked like he was in flames. "Something that makes my 'nindo'… you know, and my heart like this?!"

Kakashi took a step back from him, holding his hands up in an attempt to calm the blonde down. "Okay, okay, okay. I see what you're trying to get at," he confirmed, although it really sounded more like he was just trying to get Naruto to shut up.

From the look on his face, I at first thought Naruto had gotten this impression as well, but then he turned to glower at his Uchiha rival. It almost looked like he was getting ready to challenge him to a fight. Seriously, what was his problem?

"I want to say something like that!" the blonde burst out suddenly, clenching his fists and looking ridiculously determined again. Had he been daydreaming again? He seemed to do that a lot.

Our sensei barely raised an eyebrow at his antics. "Naruto, what are you doing? We have a mission."

This only seemed to excite him more. "Roger!"

"You're noisy!"

-_-.-_-.-_-.-_-

Mission One: Weeding Ms. Suzuki's Front Lawn

This first 'mission' only cemented my belief that most D rank mission were nothing short of chores- specifically because weeding was one of the chores my mother asked me to do every now and then. An upside to this was that I had plenty of experience and knew how to weed properly, and therefore I could let my thoughts wander while my body went on autopilot. I hadn't had breakfast today, something I found myself regretting as my stomach whined in protest. Maybe I should have some of the onigri from the bento box. It would have been a pain to keep carrying the bento around all day(it had nothing to do with Sasuke saying I was too old to do so), so I sealed it into a spare scroll that I had on hand and stowed the scroll in my weapons pouch. I was getting sort of proficient with sealing scrolls, at least with little things like bento boxes.

And then a weed hit me in the shoulder.

It was only a slight sting, so I barely registered anything had happened, but eventually it occurred to me that I really had been hit with a weed. Not a dandelion, either, when I looked down- it looked like a strand of crabgrass. With a small shrug, I just returned to my own patch of weeds. Someone had probably just gotten overzealous with the gardening and tossed it at me by accident, because I really didn't want to think anyone would be stupid enough to try throwing weeds. I was in a pretty okay mood today, after all, and-

My uncaring outlook dissolved when another weed smacked me in the face.

So someone was aiming for me after all. Automatically I looked over my shoulder at Naruto, since obviously he would be the first I would suspect to do something this immature, but he seemed to be busy sizing up his own large patch of vegetation near our client's house. Besides, I realized, he didn't have anything against me, but against Sasuke- so unless his aim sucked that badly, he would be hitting Sasuke, not me. The avenger himself wouldn't resort to something this petty, and we seemed to have some sort of mutual understanding going on at the moment. So that left…

I looked at Sakura. Sakura looked at me. I raised an eyebrow at her. She shot me a glare, then went back to weeding with an almost pretentious air. Frowning, I opened my mouth to ask what her issue was, but Ms Suzuki came out of the house to see how we were doing, so I decided to let it go.

Our client, Ms Suzuki was a very large, no-nonsense looking woman wearing a clean white apron, with dull brown hair tied out of her face. I couldn't help feeling sorry for her husband- if she had one, which I doubted. "Hey, you!" she shouted, storming over to where Naruto stood proudly in front of a pile of greenage as tall as he was.

Naruto, unfortunately, didn't notice just how menacing she looked, particularly at that moment. "Oh, miss, I finished pulling out all the weeds!" he announced- then paused upon noticing the look on her face. "Eh? What's wrong?"

"Those aren't weeds," Ms Suzuki told him darkly. Her voice increased in volume as she informed the blonde of his very costly mistake. "Those are special herbs I've been cultivating, and you destroyed them!"

None of us watching dared interfere with the following colossal beat down Naruto received. Ms Suzuki was only a civilian, but from the looks of it she could take down a couple skinny twelve and thirteen year olds with no problem. Naruto could take this one for the team…again…

Mission Two: Clearing Trash from the River

This wasn't so bad, I thought to myself, enjoying the sensation of cool sparkling water rushing past my knees. For this all we had to do was pluck aluminum cans and plastic wrappers from the riverbed. On the bank, Kakashi lazed in the shade with his favorite literature in hand. This mission could almost be considered relaxing and enjoyable, if only because of the scenery and general ambiance. I stopped picking trash for a moment, turning my face to the bright sun to feel its warmth on my skin.

"I didn't figure you for a slacker, Takashi."

Sasuke stared at me with one dark brow raised. Again I was able to decipher the actual meaning behind his casual insults. Maybe I was learning to understand Sasukese, or whatever you would call his unique language. "I'm taking a break," I informed him. "It's nice out today, if you hadn't noticed."

He didn't look entirely convinced, but I thought his disapproving look diminished somewhat as a soft breeze hit us. "Hn."

Was that his way of…agreeing with me? Or did he just think I was an idiot? Sasuke's grunting tended to be near impossible to translate. He seemed to be able to make non-words mean anything and everything.

"I just hope Naruto doesn't mess up again," I muttered to myself, bending over to pick up more trash. I didn't notice Sasuke silently fume when he heard my comment, and even if I had, I wouldn't know why.

There was a yell and a loud splash. Startled, I looked back to see- big surprise- Naruto screaming as he was carried away by the current. I ran to help him, but Sasuke ran faster, pulling a long spool of wire out of his weapons pocket although he didn't look particularly happy to be saving the blonde. Before I reached either of them, both boys were sent plummeting off the edge of the waterfall. A jolt of something akin to fear shot through me and I forced myself to run faster, but breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Sasuke dangling only a few feet below, clinging to his wire with one hand and Naruto's foot with the other. "Usuratonkachi," he muttered, just barely loud enough to be heard over the rushing water.

I breathed a sigh of relief, shaking my head in exasperation now that the danger was past. "Jeez, was it really that much to hope for?"

Mission Three: Walking the Pet Shelter's Dogs

Dogs were in no way my favorite animal: in fact, I considered myself more of a cat person, or a no-pets-at-all person. But I did have to admit that the fluffy golden-haired retriever puppy I had decided to walk was pretty cute, with his floppy ears and his high-pitched bark. He did have an annoying habit of trying to rush off and explore the forest, running after squirrels and rolling in the grass. I had even caught him chewing on a leaf once.

He reminded me a lot of Naruto.

Mine was the only puppy, and Sasuke's wiener dog and Sakura's white terrier behaved a lot better. As a matter of fact, they almost seemed to look at my puppy with disdain, batting him away when he ran up to play with them. As for Naruto…well, Naruto had picked this large and brutish looking hound that honestly looked like he didn't care about anything, or even think about anything. The dog was as tall as Naruto, if not taller, and I already knew from a look at the unlikely pair that this mission would also go wrong somehow.

I felt a sharp tug at the leash and looked down, sighing as I found the pup straining to get to Sasuke. When he wasn't charging at harmless forest creatures or barking up random trees, he was bothering my teammate. He seemed determined to get the avenger's attention for some reason, which would have been funny if I didn't have to keep constant watch on him so I didn't hear "Takashi, come get your stupid dog" or "I swear you trained him to do this".

"Agh! Stupid mutt!"

Or that. I couldn't help biting back a snicker as the puppy sank his teeth into Sasuke's sandal and stubbornly hung on despite the boy's attempts to shake him off. Eventually he reached down and pulled the dog off his shoe, holding him out at arm's length and fixing him with a glare. Clearly glad to be getting the attention he craved, the golden retriever pup just barked happily, wagging his tail. Sasuke's glare intensified. If looks could kill, my furry charge would have been canine barbecue. "Tch."

"If he likes you that much, maybe we should switch," I couldn't resist suggesting in a teasing manner. "Or better yet, you can go ahead and adopt him from the shelter."

Seeing that his glare had no effect, the ravenette scoffed and dropped the puppy, allowing him to scurry back to me. "They can keep that stupid dog," he grumbled, checking his sandal for tiny tooth marks or drool and glaring as he found both.

"H-hey, don't go that way!" came the other stupid blonde's panicked voice. "No, come on!" Apparently his big, dull looking dog had noticed a nearby mine field and decided there was as good as any to go for a walk. I could tell Naruto was quickly regretting his decision to pick the biggest dog as he tried desperately and fruitlessly to pull the hound in another direction. Of course, instead of trying to bail him out, Sakura, Sasuke and I stood and watched.

"I knew he would mess this up somehow," I commented.

"Baka," Sasuke added.

"That's what happens for choosing the big dog," Sakura sighed.

If Naruto was smart, he would have just let go of the leash while there was still time. But if he was smart, he wouldn't be Naruto, and whether he was afraid of failing the mission or he just really wanted to show up Sasuke, he ended up being dragged through a large hole in the metal fence and straight into the mine field.

When the dust from the numerous explosions cleared, I couldn't figure out how the dog had remained unscathed, but the boy ended up burnt, smoking, and sooty from head to toe.

Maybe the blonde was just overall unlucky.

I meant to add the rest of the episode, but with all the extra tidbits I put in, this is already past 3000 words. Well, would you look at that: Sasuke and Suten both prefer cats over dogs, although if either of them had been born an Inuzuka, that might not be the case. Also Sasuke seems to enjoy playing the hero- but we all knew that.

But why does Sasuke seem to be so agitated with Naruto? I mean more than normal. Now that might be a question that could only be answered via Sasuke's POV. Maybe I'll try to write the whole next chapter that way- what do you think?

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Please review!