AN: Wow so it's been over ten days since the last update. Really sorry about that school and all. I'm back home in St. Louis now so hopefully this will work out better. Thanks for all your reviews hope you continue to enjoy.
Night-Owl123, Alana-StarSugarCat,Ulitheal, starry096, hurrahhurrah, SolidAmerican, Queen Dopplepoppleous, glad you enjoyed it hope you like this one too.
Goingcommando I'm glad you still liked it. About the punctuation I'm not great with it when I'm awake so when I'm writing on so little sleep things tend to look odd and no matter how many times I go over it I won't find my mistakes. I'm working on it but don't expect it to be perfect.
Harukakanata, Only Secret, FireDragonBL I'm glad you liked TenTen so much.
Dagorwen of Ithilien well this isn't really soon but it is as soon as possible. I'm glad you liked it and I promise updates should be more frequent from here on out.
Wraith don't worry it shouldn't be overemphasized too much. It actually will probably only be mentioned once or twice more.
Vermillion Wolf yeah I'm trying to break out of the rut. Hope you enjoy this one as well.
Azamiko it was Naruto. Glad you liked it and hope you like this one.
Okay I know I said in Chapter 9 that this would probably be finished by now but obviously it won't. It should probably be done some time in June. I've got the rest pretty much written and completely planned so hopefully it won't be much longer. Regardless of when it's done I swear it won't be this long between updates again. Finals and moving home caught up with me so I was severely delayed. If you follow After the Dream as well it might be another week or so.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
B regular stuff
B internal thoughts and such.
Picture Day
It was now the fifth day since Tsunade assigned the Teams to their simple task. In fact it was so simple that all but one Team had already completed the mission and were now enjoying their week off. Of course several of these shinobi were spending what should have been luxurious down time chasing after two of their rambunctious young comrades. Unfortunately for them it was just after one in the afternoon and not a single member of the search party, which currently consisted of Kakashi, Sakura, Lee, Kiba, TenTen, Neji, and occasionally the Konohamaru Corps, had spotted neither hide nor hair of Sasuke and Naruto. In fact the two boys had been successfully hiding since the previous evening.
Sakura finally rounded up the troops for lunch; "Kakashi's paying," she whispered behind the oblivious Jounin's back.
"Hmmm…," Kakashi muttered as he kept his nose pasted in his book, "How do you think their managing so well today?"
Kiba glanced over to answer and was shocked to find the man's ramen bowl already empty. "I didn't even see him lift his chopsticks," he muttered, catching the others' attention. Sakura merely smiled and shook her head; she had been trying for years to see under his mask and it no longer shocked her how well the man had gotten at preserving his secret identity.
"Well he is our future Hokage," Konohamaru muttered gaining fierce nods of agreement from Moegi and Udon. "And he was trained by Jiraiya-sama; my grandpa said he never got caught," Konohamaru added, causing Kakashi to giggle and blush slightly.
Sakura reached over and smacked her ex-sensei over the head. "Well whatever the reason we really need to try and find them by tonight. We only have two days left and that really isn't enough time," she said.
"Seriously, all of our teams finished in one afternoon. What do you need to do with those two?" Kiba asked dumbly.
Sakura grinned mischievously and both Kakashi and TenTen got knowing looks in their eyes. As Kiba glanced around he noticed that even Moegi seemed to know what the two were in for; unfortunately it appeared that neither Lee nor Neji seemed to have a clue what was going on so neither would be able to tell him anything.
"Anyways," Neji said trying to relieve the situation a bit. "When was the last time anyone saw them?" he asked.
"Well yesterday morning I guess," Sakura said.
"I saw them at the Academy yesterday afternoon," Neji said, causing Sakura and Kakashi to swivel their attention to them.
"The Academy?" Sakura repeated questioningly before her eyes lit up. "Iruka-sensei of course, I'm surprised Naruto waited so long to get his help," she said turning to Kakashi.
"He must have been waiting until they were out of other options," Kakashi said. "Well now we know where to go after lunch so finish up," he added turning back to his book.
Half an hour later the group left the Ramen stand and made their way over to the Ninja Academy.
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That morning at the Academy poor Hinata's class was once more interrupted. "Excuse me Hinata-sensei," Iruka said, poking his head in the door.
"What can I do for you Iruka-sensei?" she asked politely when she realized the interruption was friendly.
"Toto-sensei is out sick for the day and I was wondering if you would be willing to let two of his students sit in your class for the day to make up an assignment," the mild mannered Chuunin asked politely.
"Of course," Hinata replied. "There are several seats in the back," she said pointing to the seats Neji, Kiba, and TenTen had occupied the previous day.
Iruka nodded in thanks and ushered in two young students most likely only first years at the Academy. Hinata smiled at them as Iruka showed them their seats in the back. "Mikkousha-kun and Intokusha-kun just sit here to finish it. If you finish before the end of the day, tell Hinata-sensei and then come tell me," he said as the two boys seated themselves.
"Yes Iruka-sensei," the smaller of the two boys muttered with a small bow. Iruka smiled down at the two and quickly ruffled the smaller boy's hair before turning to Hinata and bowing slightly as he walked out.
The rest of the afternoon was relatively quiet for Hinata. Her own class had a test and since it took nearly two hours for them to complete she had nothing to do but watch. After about an hour she scanned the back row and found both little boys watching her. Did that boy just wink at me? She thought as her eyes passed over the two.
Half an hour later she looked up to see the taller of the two giggling quietly as he watched the smaller one scribble furiously. She watched them for several minutes before sighing and turning back to her own class; it isn't really my fault if they don't finish their assignment in time, she thought.
As she walked around the class collecting her students' papers she chanced a glimpse of their paper and noticed it was full of doodles. Apparently they knew they would be in trouble because the entire page was covered with small sketches of various angry reactions from what she supposed was their teacher. Is that a mask on his face or do they just not draw mouths? She wondered as she walked back to the front of the class.
Three hours later as she let her class out for lunch she walked back to the two little boys to see how they were doing. "Did you want to go outside for lunch or stay and work?" she asked.
"Umm… we'll stay here," the taller boy answered bashfully.
"Okay," Hinata said, walking out the door down to the teachers lounge.
She was halfway through lunch period when the door to the teacher's lounge slid open to reveal none other than the supposedly ill Toto-sensei. Hinata's forehead furrowed in confusion and she looked around for Iruka-sensei. She finally found him hiding behind a book and peering at cautiously over the top of it. "You said he was sick," she said, catching the attention of most of the staff.
"What do you mean?" Toto-sensei asked.
"I have two of your students sitting in the back of my class because he said you were sick," Hinata said looking between the two in confusion.
"All of my students have been with me all day," Toto-sensei said in confusion.
"Then who is currently sitting in the back of my classroom?" she asked, turning to Iruka-sensei in bewilderment.
"Let's just say they're two miscreants who needed a quiet place to sit for the day," Iruka replied scratching the back of his head nervously.
The rest of the room looked at him in confusion before shrugging and turning back to their lunches. They didn't manage to remain quiet for very long as Hinata's eyes suddenly widened and she turned to Iruka in horror. "No," she said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I have to go make sure they haven't blown up the classroom," she responded, turning to hurry out the door.
"Oh come on, they're not that bad…anymore," Iruka said, causing Hinata to turn around and look at him as if he was insane.
"During their match in the Chuunin Exam they managed to destroy two of the walls in the arena," she said exasperatedly. "Whenever they are within ten feet of each other, one or the other starts a fight that ends up destroying the area, and I've left them unsupervised in the classroom," she said, turning to run out of the room.
"Who exactly is she watching?" Toto-sensei asked in confusion.
"Just some old students of mine," Iruka answered shrugging.
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Hinata barged into the room panting slightly and quickly glanced around searching for the two missing Jounin. She found them seated safely in the same spots she had left them in watching her nervously.
"You figured it out," the smaller one stated.
"Yes," Hinata said miserable as she walked up to the front of the classroom and sat down at her desk. "What am I supposed to do when they come looking for you?" she asked.
"Don't worry will skip out the window if we sense them within the school," the taller one said reassuringly.
"I already had Kiba in here yesterday telling my class all about his little escapades out the window; the last thing I need is for the two of you to actually leave during class," Hinata said, looking up at the two who were now standing beside her desk.
"Sorry," the smaller one said pitifully.
She looked over to him to find that both boys were giving her puppy dog eyes. She blinked once before giggling slightly causing both to frown adorably. "You two must have been adorable as little kids even if this isn't what you looked like," she said.
"It isn't," the taller one said, she was fairly certain it was Sasuke.
"Yeah we tried that but Iruka-sensei said we needed to blend in more," the smaller one piped up grinning. Definitely Naruto, she thought, only he could be that chipper in this situation.
"Well, just promise not to cause trouble with the class. I didn't finish yesterday's lecture because of Kiba and the others," she finally said as the bell rang and the class began to file in. The two boys nodded and walked back to their seats.
Just as they were about to sit down there was a knock on the door. "Excuse me Hinata," Kiba said grinning up at her.
Hinata glanced at him nervously. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Naruto and Sasuke inching towards the window that they must have opened some time during lunch. "Yes, Kiba-kun," she said as nicely as possible.
"You haven't by any chance seen Naruto or Sasuke all day have you?" he asked grinning.
"No," she responded. Well technically I haven't, she thought grinning inside, they said so themselves that isn't even what they looked like when they were younger.
"Hmmm…," Kiba said nodding. "Iruka-sensei didn't by any chance give you any new students today did he?" he asked smiling.
"He brought them in this morning," one of the little boys said pointing to Naruto and Sasuke's now frozen forms. A moment later the two took off slipping through the window. Kiba attempted to follow and just barely managed to squeeze through the window. Akamaru wasn't so fortunate. Since the pup couldn't get out that way Kiba took pity on him. "Go get the others," he shouted to his dog as he took off after Naruto and Sasuke who were now back in their normal forms.
When Hinata finally managed to calm down her class she was faced with twenty-four severely confused Academy students. "What just happened?" Kana-chan asked finally voicing the class's thoughts.
"Two Jounin were playing a little joke on their friends and hiding from them here," Hinata said not wanting to explain the whole situation to the class.
"Who were they?" the little boy who had ratted them out asked.
"Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke," she responded, turning back to her desk and looking for that afternoon's lecture. She knew she had said something wrong when the entire class gasped in surprise. Sure enough when she turned around Kana had politely raised her hand.
"Umm… isn't he the one is going to be the next Hokage?" she asked nervously.
"Yes," Hinata said.
"He's weird," Kana whispered to the girl next her.
Hinata smiled at her class and was about to respond when a voice from the door responded, "You have no idea."
"Sakura," Hinata said with a slight smile. Sakura grinned back to Hinata and the class as she happily munched on an apple.
"Is he really going to become Hokage?" one of the little boys asked.
"Are you joking?" Sakura said startling the class, "Tsunade-sama is practically begging him to take over at this very moment."
"How is someone so weird going to become Hokage?" Kana-chan asked, frowning up at Sakura.
"Have you met Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked. "The past Hokage's have a tendency to be very odd. Naruto will fit right in," she assured the class.
"What do you mean?" Kana-chan asked.
"Well I'm not too sure about the Nidaime and Shodaime but I'm sure Tsunade could tell some pretty funny stories about her grandfather if she wanted. One thing I've learned from my team is that in order to teach three very weird students you have to be weird. Therefore Sandaime had to be weird; plus he was a pervert. Yondaime I don't know much about either but from what Jiraiya-sama and Kakashi-sensei have hinted at he was almost as weird as Naruto," Sakura said, waving away their disbelief.
"What about Tsunade-sama?" Kana asked.
Sakura nearly choked on her laughter. "Drinking, gambling, and fighting. She and Naruto can't be in a room for more than thirty seconds before they start yelling at each other; unless they're yelling at someone else," she said.
"Well now that you've listed all of the faults of our past heroes my class and I need to discuss what they actually did for the village," Hinata said, grinning tightly at Sakura.
"Oops," Sakura replied weakly. "I'm going to go now; enjoy the lecture," she said to the class as she disappeared out the door.
Hinata grinned at her class before walking to the back and locking the window Naruto and Sasuke had left open. "Let's get started shall we?" she said as she walked back to the front of the class.
AN: I'm going to take this time to apologize for this chapter. I was a bit tired and I wrote this three days after finals ended and yeah it's a bit weird but I hope you enjoyed it.
I hope you all liked the small glimpse of the Konohamaru corps. They're three of my favorite characters and I had to bring them in for at least a small glimpse.
I'm not quite sure I liked Hinata in this one; she's not easy for me to write so hope it wasn't too bad.
I promise the next update should be no later than Friday. It's been a while since I've written so I'm trying to get back in the groove once I do updates will come two three times a week. The way I see it there are probably ten more chapters give or take a few; it really shouldn't take more than a month probably only two or three weeks if I can just write the damn thing without interruption.