A/N: Hi! Sorry it's late, had ot get home, then get presents, then get over being sick. I'm all good now, though!

Okay, I seem to have confused a few people so: the memorial in this is for the invasion, not the Kyuubi attack, the council and Hokage just put them on the same day to save post-invasion-money, which mostly needs to go into fixing things and staying secure. As for any other questions: see endnote! Have fun!

.o.o.o.

Chapter 34: Memorable

.o.o.o.

"Are you sure this is okay?" Naruto asked. "I mean I don't want to offend your parents or anything and I can totally have my birthday tomorrow instead of tonight-"

"You won't offend anyone, Naruto," Iruka said, patting him on the head. "Come on, we're almost there."

"Then you can see mine," Mizuki said. "Not too far off."

"Here we go," Iruka said, stopping in front of two grave markers. "Mom, Dad, I…this is Naruto. He's my little brother. I know I probably should have brought him and Mizuki around sooner—oh, Mizuki's the big brother, even though I'm way more mature-"

"He likes to tell himself that," Mizuki informed the graves. "Don't worry, I'll keep your little Iruka and our little Naruto safe and sound!"

"Mizuki!" Iruka huffed. "Mom, Dad, please don't listen to him. Anyway, you'll never guess some of what we've been though lately…"

.o.o.o.

"Hi Uncle," Sasuke said. "I hope you don't mind me calling you that, but all I know is you were some kind of cousin to my mom and Kakashi's age, so I'm going with Uncle."

He took a deep breath, "I guess we're a lot alike…odd Uchiha. You made chunin without the Sharingan. I almost did, but then it activated right before the preliminaries—really weird story there, Naruto had chakra suppression seals in the area and my eyes went nuts and I'm still not totally used to using them… Anyway, Kakashi said he and you were in the last Konoha exam that had preliminaries. I guess it's every dozen years or so, right Uncle Obito?"

.o.o.o.

Tobi frowned. He usually broke into the village this time of year to see Rin and tell her how the plan was coming. Most people were too busy privately mourning the Fourth or celebrating the Kyuubi's defeat to come here today.

This October tenth, the cemetery was full.

"-right, Uncle Obito?"

Tobi started, but thankfully remained hidden. He saw a small Uchiha with stuck-up hair sitting by a gravestone…his gravestone.

"I like being a medic though, so I guess I'm happy being weird," the boy continued. "My brother—he's also my sensei—thinks I'm doing really well. I even get to intern at the hospital now, and the doctors are really nice! Dr. Bato thinks I'll be able to handle shattered bones soon. I can already do broken and bruised ones—Sakura hurts her knuckles a lot, especially when she gets into it with Lee or Kiba, and well, they've gotten a few broken ones along the way when we have accidents…"

Tobi watched, even the most nihilist parts of him intrigued by the idea of a medic Uchiha. He'd have to keep this one the same in the dream world…

"So…I know you died when you were my age and all…can you watch over me and my team?" the boy asked the grave marker. "I mean, Itachi's a great sensei, and he's probably one of the nicest people alive and one of the strongest, but with those creepy red-cloud guys running around, Naruto and the rest of us need all the people looking out that we can get, you know?"

Naruto? Sensei's so—the jinchurikki? How interesting…

"Oh, and if you if you know any subtle fire techniques, can you give me some kind of dream epiphany? A lot of people are thinking about hiring my team to get rid of Kakashi's dirty books."

Tobi almost fell out of the tree at that.

.o.o.o.

"It's been quite a year, Hizashi," Hiashi said. "I'm pretty sure once the extra deliberations are over Neji will make chunin, but you should be proud of him either way."

Neji ducked his head in embarrassment. "I…I'm glad I now know the truth of your sacrifice, Father."

"We're going to unite the family, somehow," Hiashi continued. "As it turns out, while I was working on it on my own, Hinata and Neji were bouncing ideas about the Caged Bird seal off their friend Naruto. He's unorthodox, but that may be what we need—oh, and he and Hinata might start dating soon, should she confess her feelings."

"Breathe, neesama," Hanabi instructed a beet-red Hinata.

"Neji, on the other hand, well, he might like his teammate Tenten-"

"Uncle, you're trying to make up for lost time, aren't you?" Neji muttered, embarrassed.

"Yes, yes I am. And Hizashi, you should hear about Sarutobi Konohamaru and Hanabi-"

Hanabi rolled her eyes, "You mean Konohamaru and Moegi, father."

.o.o.o.

Having finally got his balance back, Tobi watched as the very, very strange young Uchiha was joined by a pink haired girl and sensei's…the jinchurikki.

"Sasuke, you talking to Obito?" the jinchurikki asked.

"Yeah. Can't ever do it at the memorial stone, because Kakashi hogs it," the Uchiha said. "Itachi told me to start listing people I know who've died in combat at him, but…well, that's just Obito."

"…Well, we know Naruto's mom died in combat, right?" the girl said. "That's what Shikamaru found."

"And Ruki-nii and Mizu-nii's parents, too," the jinchurikki said. "Don't forget them."

"…I think that might be stretching it," the Uchiha said. "So, Anko confirm if she'd give us the mission or not?"

"She's trying to get some more money. Burning Kakashi's books would be an A-rank," the girl said.

"Oh, no, Sakura. S-rank, definitely."

Tobi's eye narrowed at Kakashi's appearance.

"Hi, not-a-sensei," the jinchurikki said. "You ever going to get a team?"

"If they do, I might have to put them on book guarding duty," Kakashi said. "So, you all making your rounds?"

"Well…I came over here looking for you, actually," the jinchurikki said. "We can't find my mom's grave."

"…She's not buried here. Use the memorial stone," Kakashi said.

"Oh, okay," the jinchurikki said. "Hey, Kakashi, did you know my mom?"

"A little," Kakashi said. "Friend of a friend kind of thing."

Tobi rolled his eye. More liked 'married-to-my-sensei'…

"Huh," Naruto said. "Well, you're coming to my party, right? It's at eight tonight! The old man told me Neji and I can get our chunin vests, finally!"

"I heard party!"

"Idiot, we found out yesterday!"

"Kankuro, Temari, don't argue."

Tobi watched as the Ichibi jinchurikki and his siblings approached the four. The girl with the pigtails looked at Kakashi. "Kisame got a mission, says you have to watch us for a week."

"Hey, now you have a team!" the pink haired girl said.

"If I could please be left alone with my best friend's grave, that would be wonderful," Kakashi said dryly.

Tobi ran.

.o.o.o.

"Fine, fine," Naruto said. "You can pick your team up at my party, okay?"

"Sure. You accept unwrapped gifts, right?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah. What is it with some ninjas and wrapping?" Naruto asked Sasuke as the six kids headed off.

"All I know is one time Dad tried to wrap something for Mom, and I came in to find Itachi laughing at him because there were bits of ribbon and paper everywhere—and none on the gift right," Sasuke said.

"Baki gave me a wrapped present once," Kankuro said. "…He wrapped it in a really long roll of gauze."

"Huh," Naruto said. "Kay, so we know it's not just limited to Konoha…"

.o.o.o.

Sarutobi smiled as he entered the house. This was definitely Uzumaki Naruto's birthday party.

Naruto was sitting on a table with Kankuro and Crow, working on a large scroll to presumably seal the puppet in, with Konohamaru watching, fascinated. Iruka was being glared at by Kakashi—oh, he'd stolen Kakashi's book and was giving him the riot act about smut at children's parties. Gai and Kisame were leading several of the kids in party games.

And then there was Mizuki, who passed out party-poppers to anyone who asked from an absurdly large box. As a result, his entrance was unnoticed due to the noise.

"Check this out!" Kiba cheered, holding up a paper-mache crown he'd gotten out of a popper.

Akamaru barked and jingled a mini-tambourine he'd gotten.

"Oh, Hokage-sama!" It was Tsubaki. "You're just in time for sweet buns!"

Noriko called over everyone, "Hokage-sama is here!"

Neji and Naruto were instantly alert.

"Well, it's very nice to be here," Sarutobi said.

"Hi granddad! Don't worry, Naruto made me promise not to use sealing scrolls to fake cleaning my room!" Konohamaru called.

About half the room dissolved into snickers.

"Good to see you sir," Itachi said.

"And you as well," Sarutobi said, taking a free chair. "My my, what a shogi game we have here. I don't think I've ever seen so few pieces on the board."

"Because Shikamaru is a bastard," Temari said, considering her next move.

"A bastard who has you beaten, even though you don't know it," Shikamaru replied.

"All right, settle down," Noriko said, squeezing next to Itachi on the couch. "You should have seen the last round, Hokage-sama."

"Or those balance games Gai brought over," Mizuki snickered. "Gaara and Lee ended up in a Twister death match."

"And then I almost passed out from being upside down too long," Gaara said from an armchair.

"You all might need to plan the entertainment next time the daimyo comes by," Sarutobi mused. "Anyway, you know why I'm here. First off, Happy Birthday Naruto!"

"Thanks, Old Man," Naruto said, grinning.

"Second," Sarutobi said as Naruto and Neji looked very, very eager. "…Intelligence reports indicate that the Fourth Kazekage will most likely be removed from power in a couple of weeks."

"YES!" Kankuro cheered, rushing over and hugging Gaara.

"And thirdly, let us congratulate our two new chunin, Naruto and Neji," Sarutobi said, pulling out two vests. "As with the other new promotions, you will not only be taking missions with your teams, but with chunin selected for specific assignments. Serve Konoha well, boys."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Neji said. Naruto didn't say anything, he just grinned widely.

"Now then, there is one final matter," Sarutobi said. "Naruto, from here out you are assigned to meet with me one afternoon a week to learn about the running of this village."

"What?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, he's saying you get to learn about being Hokage!" Sasuke said excitedly. Sakura cheered and hugged them both.

"R-really?" Naruto asked.

Sarutobi ruffled his hair, "Well, we have to find out if you're really up to wearing this hat one day, aren't we? And you seemed to have things well in hand with this lot during the invasion…"

"Chouji, I think your 108 Ramen Recipies cookbook just got blown out of the water," Ino said.

"Guess he really is the Future Hokage now!" Tenten said happily as Temari whistled loudly.

The party ran late into the night, with everyone agreeing one thing: Sarutobi had chosen well.

.o.o.o.

"So, Team 7 is to help with your early days at this?" Itachi asked Iruka a few days later.

"Just the first few," Iruka confirmed. "Mostly to assess stability and because we want more than one medic on hand."

"So, these ROOT kids are…like Haku?" Sakura asked, going by Itahci's explanation.

"Yes, but more so," Itachi said. "So, we are going to help Iruka and Mizuki at their new jobs for a little bit before we go back to missions and our extra training."

"Okay, here we go," Iruka said, entering the "classroom" that had been Homura's den. There were about thirty kids and teens inside, most of whom were fidgety.

Homura cleared his throat, "Everyone, these are Mizuki and Iruka. They are going to be your teachers. With them are Team 7, a four man cell ."

The ROOT group mostly just looked a bit nervous. Homura motioned Mizuki and Iruka over. "I've done some observation—they're more comfortable with with direct orders and tasks than vagueness, and one of them mildly panicked when my daughter-in-law hugged her."

"Oh boy," Mizuki said.

"Well, here we go," Iruka said. "Hello, my name is Iruka and I'll be your sensei along with Mizuki. I look forward to getting to know all of you and helping you become productive ninja for Konoha."

"Isn't that the Academy intro speech?" Sasuke asked quietly.

"Yep," Sakura said.

"All right," Iruka said. "Let's see if we can get a roll call…"

.o.o.o.

A/N: Yes, Tobi is in the mix now! And while the Roots are deprogrammed and Suna gets its act together, we shall soon see that losing two major members to the invasion has made them accelerate hings a wee bit.

Yes, Naruto is now getting to train a bit to see if he can handle the day-to-day Hokage stuff. And as for everyone wondering about who Iruka likes...well, you'll find out next time, from the most unlikely person to notice!

Next time: Deprogramming Roots (And a Brief Explanation of Tsundere by Mizuki)