AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I don't have time to answer every individual review this week but I really do appreciate them.
This story is AU (Sasuke's still there) starting after about chapter 177 of the manga that means there will be spoilers if you haven't gotten that far. Information about the past five years will be told throughout the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
B regular stuff
B internal thoughts and such.
Picture Day
Seventeen year-old Hyuuga Hinata sat silently beside her teammate, Aburame Shino, as the two watched Kiba and Akamaru play several feet away. She and her teammates always enjoyed the quiet days they spent catching up with Kurenai-sensei. It was always enjoyable to hear about the missions Kurenai, Kiba, and Shino had been on, and she loved telling stories about the students at the Academy.
Shino had been promoted to Chuunin six months after their initial try along with Neji, Sasuke, and Naruto much to everyone's surprise. He had been promoted to Jounin a year and half later along with Lee, Neji, and Sakura (she and Lee had become Chuunin at the same time as TenTen). Kiba, along with Chouji, had achieved Chuunin rank a year after Shino, and she had passed the test along with Ino two years previous (a year and a half after Kiba). Kiba was currently trying for Jounin status and hoped to achieve it within the next year or so.
She was perfectly happy where she was. She had been working at the academy for the past two years only going on missions occasionally. She had no intention of moving onto Jounin any time soon. That fact only served to make the clan furious with her, but with the support of Neji and her father she hadn't been bullied into moving through the ranks quicker than she was comfortable. It was very likely that she would back Hanabi as future head of the Clan and just stick with what she enjoyed.
Shino watched his teammates and was pleased to notice that they both looked happy. He had been on Shikamaru's ANBU team for almost a year now and it wasn't odd to hear the normally lazy Jounin voice concern over his teammates. Unlike Chouji and Ino, Kiba and Hinata seemed genuinely happy with their progress. He was pleased that both of his teammates were succeeding so well. He knew Kiba enjoyed complaining about his rank – especially when Naruto was brought up – but the other boy was doing quite well as he was.
He was also pleased that Hinata had finally come out of her shell. With the encouragement of her father, cousin, and even her younger sister the now Chuunin had gotten over her fears (and her crush on Naruto). She was now one of the students' favorite teachers at the academy. Her classes excelled under the girl's care and attention to detail.
They had been waiting for nearly half an hour when Kurenai strolled up apologizing. "I'm sorry I'm late," she said when she stopped next to Hinata. Kiba and Akamaru paused to wave in greeting, causing the others to grin – no matter that it wasn't visible on Shino. "Come over here for a moment," Kurenai shouted, motioning for Kiba to join the group.
Kiba and a now full sized and ferocious looking Akamaru trotted over to join their old team. Contrary to his fierce appearance, Akamaru yipped a greeting and licked Kurenai's hand. She smiled at the dog and reached down to scratch behind the ears. "Eh Kurenai-sensei you're late, I was starting to understand why Team 7 used to complain about Kakashi all the time," Kiba joked in greeting.
Kurenai blushed a bit before rolling her eyes and grinning back at him. "Yes but my excuse will be real," she said, "The Hokage called a meeting this morning to discuss a slight problem she's been having recently.
"What kind of problem?" Hinata asked concerned for her Hokage.
"Nothing severe," Kurenai assured the young girl. "You see it turns out that in the past several years the administration office has fallen behind in updating their files. Unfortunately due to the higher paying clients that all of you work for this tends to cause a bit of a problem because parts of your files haven't been updated so these clients are receiving out of date information," she explained.
"What do we need to do?" Kiba asked looking at Kurenai curiously.
"She needs us all to retake photos and she decided it would be fun if we got team photos at the same time, for old time's sake," Kurenai answered. She watched her team cautiously for a moment but they just smiled and nodded. "Well then we don't really need to do anything concerning that today, so what do we want to do?" she asked smiling at her team. The four walked off chatting about recent work and such things.
Far away in the Hokage Tower Tsunade mumbled, "How boring," before switching to watch the other teams hoping for excitement and trouble. I wonder if Naruto would still want the job if he learned how boring it is, she thought briefly before reaching for another Sake bottle.
AN: Okay this chapter was just like its name. I considered not posting it but decided it helped me get out some more specific background information. We'll see Team 7 next chapter and the pace and excitement should pick up after that.
I know this is a bit boring but please put up with me. Once again thanks for the reviews, I'm sorry I couldn't answer them this week but school is starting to hit hard with only a month left in the semester. If anyone had any questions that I missed you should probably resubmit them because I probably won't remember to respond to them next time. Sorry I'm a bit absentminded at times.
Everyone have a good week, bye!