Naruto was, very honestly, quite fed up with being a genin. If they could just hurry up and promote her to Hokage, that would be great.

"Maa, Naruto-chan, are you slacking off?"

Sticking her tongue out at Kakashi-sensei – who wasn't even looking, the pervy bastard – Naruto went back to her sweeping, silently vowing to herself that she was going to burn that stupid Icha Icha book if it was the last thing she ever did. Maybe if Sensei didn't have such a perverted distraction all the time, he would actually see how boring these D-ranks were and decide to train them properly. Or, at least, give them a proper mission.

"I can see the plans brewing in that little blonde head of yours, Naruto-chan. I really wish you wouldn't try, it makes it hard to read."

"YOU AREN'T EVEN LOOKING AT ME, HENTAI-SENSEI."

The jōnin lifted his head, eye-smiling at her (fake) jovially. "I don't need to be looking to know what you're thinking, Naruto-chan. Your thoughts are very loud."

Naruto snarled wordlessly at him, attacking the floor with a vengeance (and damaging her broom irreparably in the process). This was stupid! She was a ninja, why was she cleaning some random old lady's attic?

Her thoughts continued in that vein right up until the three genin had finished their 'mission' and were on their way to the training ground where, for the last week, Kakashi-sensei'd been having them do lame shit like run laps and practise their kunai and shuriken throwing. It was the same old academy stuff and Naruto was over it. She wanted to do something fun.

Training that day ended with the three genin in a foul mood, courtesy of Naruto's constant complaining, and Kakashi deciding to invest in a pair of earplugs.

The next day, the Hokage happened to be manning the mission desk when Team Seven made their appearance. Naruto, upon seeing him, immediately squared her shoulders. "Jiji! Give us a real mission, dattebayo! I'm sick of doing chores!"

"Stupid! Don't talk to Hokage-sama like that!" Sakura jabbed her in the ribs.

"What?" Naruto raised an eyebrow, meeting the pinkette's gaze head-on. "You agree right? I know both of you hate them just as much as I do."

Sakura spluttered out something about 'respect' or whatever, but Naruto had already stopped listening. Sarutobi-jiji was smiling at her, eyes twinkling in that maddening way of his. "I'm afraid that's not up to me, Naruto-chan," he told her. "It's your jōnin-sensei's choice. If he feels that you're ready to start taking C-ranks, I would be more than happy to give you one."

"Maa, Hokage-sama, why would you tell her that?" Kakashi peered mournfully over the top of his book. "Now she's never going to stop."

Naruto, sensing that she was close to getting what she wanted, grinned like a shark (or a fox). "Come on, Sensei," she cooed, sidling right up to him and batting her eyelashes. "It'll be fun."

The jōnin eyed her dubiously. "I don't think we share the same definition of 'fun', Naruto-chan."

Well. That was probably true.

"I'll tell you what," Kakashi-sensei went on, tucking his orange book away. "It's still too early to be going on C-ranks, but-" he spoke up, to be heard over Naruto's wail of despair. "I suppose I could step your training up, if the three of you think you're ready for it."

Naruto wouldn't ever admit it, but the 'duh' looks that she and Sasuke-snowflake gave their sensei were identical.

Two weeks after that, Naruto didn't think she had ever been so tired. Or satisfied.

Kakashi-sensei had been as good as his word. Every afternoon, once Team Seven was done with their daily shitty D-rank, they would all troop back to Training Ground Three, where Kakashi-sensei would summon two shadow clones, and put the genin through their individual paces.

Sakura, Naruto was sure, hated her more than ever for being the cause of this. The jinchūriki didn't know the specifics of what their sensei was doing with the pinkette, but Sakura stumbled home every day sweating and exhausted, and glaring death at Naruto.

On the upside, Sakura barely had time to squeal at Sasuke much anymore. Naruto figured the Uchiha appreciated that.

"Looks like we're done for the day, Naruto-chan."

Naruto, flat on her back and heaving for breath, forced her body to roll so that she could glare at her sensei. "I'm- not- done- with- you- yet-" she wheezed. "Just- you- wait."

She rolled back.

It had been a particularly brutal taijutsu lesson today. Kakashi-sensei seemed to take great pleasure from kicking the shit out of her, occasionally throwing in the odd helpful comment.

(Naruto refused to accept the fact that it was the best way to help her learn. Kakashi-sensei was just a perverted sadist, damnit!).

"Give it up, dobe." Sasuke stumbled out from the treeline, dripping sweat. "You look dead. Get him tomorrow."

Naruto growled. Much as she hated to say it, Sasuke was right. Her body ached abominably, and even her seemingly endless well of energy was depleted. Kakashi-sensei really knew how to make the most of their training time. Even Naruto could tell that her taijutsu had improved by leaps and bounds since the Academy.

"Maa, what's this?" Kakashi-sensei, infuriatingly enough, didn't look anything like tired or sore. "My own little genin are plotting against me? Together? How cute~"

"I'll show you cute." Naruto muttered, her breath finally coming easy again.

Sakura made an appearance then (if being dumped unceremoniously on top of Naruto by their asshole jōnin-sensei's clone because she'd lost the ability to walk could be called such), gasping weakly. She reeked of sweat – although Naruto probably wasn't much better – and Naruto could feel her rabbiting heartbeat against her stomach, where Kakashi-sensei had dropped her.

Several bottles of water and what looked like energy bars also fell out of the sky, landing right in front of Naruto's face. There were three of each, which meant Sasuke would have to ditch the tree he was using to prop his body (ego) up if he wanted one.

"Well," Kakashi-sensei clapped his hands together, eye-smiling at them. Bastard. "That's all for today, kids. I'll see you bright and early at the mission desk again tomorrow. Ja ne."

And he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto cursed, flinging an arm up to grab a bottle and a bar. "Get up, Fairy Floss," she said, patting Sakura with the other hand. "I need to sit up."

Sakura… wiggled. It seemed like a sincere attempt at moving, but the girl was just too drained. She was too tired to even be embarrassed, although that might've been because she couldn't see Sasuke trying to become one with a tree. Naruto, who had decided in the last two weeks that she was going to be the nice one in this team of weirdos, sighed. She awkwardly shuffled so that the pinkette was draped across her thighs instead of her stomach, and sat up.

Now Sakura was in her lap.

Naruto, feeling very magnanimous, replaced the food and drink on the ground next to her, and then curled her hands securely around her teammate. She managed to flip the other girl with minimal hassle, and grinned broadly down at her.

"Drink?"

The other girl made a hoarse noise that sounded enough like 'please' that Naruto carefully held her head up and pressed a bottle to her lips. It honestly made her feel kinda warm inside; this was the most they'd ever gotten along since graduation. Sakura wasn't half as annoying when she was too tired to talk.

Sasuke chose then to slowly make his way over to them. He settled tentatively at Naruto's back, not touching but close enough that she could feel his warmth. It was an improvement. Usually he grabbed his share of the food and water and then consumed it on the way home. Naruto wasn't sure what made him stay behind today (probably Kakashi-sensei had been an extra hard-ass and worn the bastard out), but it made her feel some kinda comradery with her two weirdos, to be sitting here recovering with them.

A stalker, a snowflake, and a demon. It was like a bad punchline.

She took a sip from her own bottle, thoughts wheeling in lazy circles. One moment she was basking in the strange comfort that came from sitting in silence with people she'd never actually liked, and the next she remembered that she had a sensei who needed a little payback. Although he'd kept his promise about training, he was still a smug, perverted asshole about it. Various pranks and tricks flitted through her mind, but Naruto didn't feel right about any of them. Kakashi-sensei was a jōnin, so most of her usual catalogue would be a mild annoyance at best. Besides, they wouldn't have the same satisfaction as giving him a taste of his own medicine would.

"Guys?"

"Hn."

"Mm?"

Naruto leaned back until she was in contact with Sasuke. He jerked, but didn't move away. Naruto took it as a win, and smiled, glad he couldn't see. "D'ya think the three of us together would be enough to make Sensei actually sweat for once?"

Sasuke growled.

Sakura opened her eyes, staring up at Naruto like 'what do you think?'.

Naruto sighed. "I didn't think so. Guess I'll just have to figure something else out, dattebayo."

It came to her later that night, when she was in bed, drifting in that half-way point between wake and sleep. A random stream of memories flowed through her mind, small moments from her life that made her smile. It was her favourite way to fall asleep; there was nothing that worked better at fighting off the nightmares.

Anyway, as she was starting to doze off, a specific memory came to her that had her eyes flying open with a gasp. It was from last year, one time when she was sitting alone on the Yondaime's head, up on the Hokage Monument. Some crazy guy had climbed up the mountain using only his hands and they'd scared the shit out of each other with their respective presences. He'd jabbered away at her for a while and Naruto had been so impressed by what he'd done that she'd actually listened. Naruto thought furiously, trying to remember the whole conversation – if she was right, she had the perfect way to get back at Kakashi-sensei.

When it finally came to her, the resulting grin was unholy. Naruto went to sleep that night holding tight to the image of Kakashi's stupid masked face stark with horror.

Her dreams had never been sweeter.

The next day was what Kakashi-sensei liked to call a 'rest' day. Naruto liked to say that he was full of shit. Just because they weren't sweating literal waterfalls did not mean they were resting.

"I hope you're happy with yourself, Banana Brain," Sakura snarled at her over her shoulder. "You're the one who encouraged this."

The three genin were standing in a loose circle, facing outward, while Kakashi sent hoards of clones at them. They were supposed to take the clones out with kunai or shuriken before they could get too close, otherwise the low-grade exploding tags the jōnin had attached to them would go off. It only counted, however, if their weapons hit the varyingly sized paper targets that Kakashi had also attached to the clones.

It'd been a long afternoon.

Naruto didn't respond to Sakura, too busy trying to hit the tiny target on one clone's kneecap. If she was honest though, Naruto was extremely pleased with herself. She'd managed to harass their sensei into actual (hellish) training. She could feel how much stronger she'd gotten in only a couple of weeks. It wouldn't be too much longer before she'd be able to steal the hat right off the Sandaime's wrinkly old head!

Also, she'd figured out the ultimate revenge on Kakashi.

"Alright kids, I think that's enough for today!" Kakashi-sensei called out, right as Naruto managed to hit her kneecap target, making the clone crumble into dirt. She beamed at him, wide enough that he backed away looking suspicious.

"What's with that look, Naruto-chan?" He asked cautiously.

Naruto shrugged, still beaming. She followed Sasuke and Sakura over to the treeline where Kakashi-sensei had already dropped their post-training snacks and snatched hers up. "I'm off, team! See you tomorrow!"

And she bounced away, leaving the rest of Team Seven to stare after her in utter bemusement. She had a plan that needed to be put into action.