Chapter 1

The sun shines through the windows of the Hokage tower as Lady Tsunade sips her tea. Reveling in the bitter taste of the unsweetened drink, she takes the time to breathe and look over the Leaf Village she calls home. The morning sun barely shines over the roofs of the houses and businesses of the village. It's so peaceful and quiet at this time of day. Though Lady Tsunade doesn't like to wake early, she makes it a point to do so everyday; not to get a head start on her work, but to relax before the day truly begins. That was her plan before she heard a rather obnoxious boy down the hall.

"BASTARD!" Lady Tsunade jumps at the sudden noise and her tea sloshes onto her clothes. Her brows scrunch together as a deep glare forms onto her face when the door to her office is slammed open.

Naruto stumbles in, followed by Gaara and Sasuke, who purposely knocks into Naruto's shoulder causing him to trip some more. She counts the three ninjas and sighs deeply, already anticipating the headache that is about to come from this morning's report from the three stooges.

"Where are the rest?" she says curt and straight forward. 'These damn fools. Couldn't this have waited another 5 minutes?' she thinks to herself.

"Shikamaru and Choji were stopped by Ino on our way over. We figured we could give you the report without them, Grandma Tsunade." Naruto chuckles and Gaara glances at his goofy smile.

"Temari and Kankuro are also with Shikamaru and Choji." Gaara tuned in, his voice stoic and his eyes tired.

Sasuke stood away from the two, arms crossed around his chest as he looked away in a nonchalant manner. Tsunade took a look at the three and could tell something was off.

'When wasn't there anything off with these two.' Tsunade thinks as she rolls her eyes at herself.

Naruto wasn't shouting his head off about how successful the mission to the sand village was.

Sasuke wasn't giving his detailed reports she'd come to love from him. Given that she actually gets the details she needs rather than what Naruto gives her. Tsunade also could see the deep seeded glare Sasuke was giving Naruto, much different then his regular glare because this one packed a punch.

'Geez...If this boy could shoot kunai with his eyes, Naruto would surely be dead.' She gives a deep sigh, already annoyed and begins to speak to the ninjas. "So since this was a simple escort mission both villages were hired for, how did it go?"

Sasuke was the first to speak up, interrupting Naruto which caused the blonde to glare at him.

"Everything would've been fine if the idiot didn't get distracted so easily." Sasuke states. Naruto starts to get angry. His nostrils flare and he breathes deeply. "Oh, wait, that can be said about any mission Naruto is a part of." Sasuke spits.

"Bastard! That's not true!" Naryto stomps like a child, his face turning red from both embarrassment and rage. Tsunade could tell the words cut deep. Anything Sasuke did to Naruto cut the blonde down so quickly.

Tsunade glances at Gaara noticing how tense he was. 'They must have been like this the entire trip.' she gathers from the uncomfortable ora Gaara is giving off. "What happened?" She looks at the red head for some semblance of an idea, hoping he would answer her instead of the hot headed brats.

"The mission was successful, nothing in particular went wrong." Gaara says in a cool tone. "We escorted the king and had little to no conflict."

Tsunade nods and then looks over at the pouting Naruto and sulking Sasuke. They look childish with their forced frowning, huffing and puffing like a couple of school girls fighting over a boy.

"So what's got these two all pissy?" She points her thumb at them as she sits at the edge of her desk. Gaara glances at Naruto and Sasuke causing him to shrug.

"That I have no Idea." His voice was tired and annoyed in any way that Gaara could show emotion. Naruto and Sasuke scoff, as if it wasn't obvious to anyone but them.

'Oh save it for the elders, drama kings!'

"Thanks, Gaara. You should go get rest before you head back to the hidden sand." Tsunade says, motioning him to take his leave. Gaara nods and goes to head out.

"Wait! Gaara!" Naruto yells, suddenly out of his funk and leaping towards Gaara as he touches the door. "Go see Sakura first!" Tsunade watches the interaction.

"I'm fine." Gaara gives a wave, but Naruto grabs his shoulder. Tsunade sees Sasuke turn his head quickly. His face managing to get more pissed off at the physical contact between the two.

Tsunade raises an eyebrow trying to hide the smile threatening to appear on her face.

'Jealous much, Sasuke?'

"I'm serious! Your side was bleeding pretty bad. Just have her check you out first ok?" Naruto sounded so serious and concerned.

Gaara placed his hand on top of Naruto's and gave it a pat. "If you insist."

"I do!" Naruto smiles his big goofy smile. Gaara gives whatever his version of a smile is and walks out of Lady Tsunades office.

Naruto stood in the middle of the room, head hanging not daring to make contact with Lady Tsunade or Sasuke. The air in the room began to chill, causing goose bumps to form on Tsunade's arm and a chill down her spine.

She interrupts the cold silence. "Boys, are we going to talk about this?" She gestures to the two of them.

"Rather not." Sasuke's voice icey and venomous.

"Ochiha, fix the attitude!" Tsunade gives a death stare to the black haired demon. He scoffs, looking out the window all melancholy.

'Maybe he is jealous…' It was a quick thought but she had a hunch about it. A woman's intuition you could say. 'Jiriah use to act like this at his age whenever I hung out with another boy.' She gives a quick chuckle at the memories of how horribly jealous the pervy sage would get.

Thinking of Jiriah, she looks at Naruto, seeing the mix of confusion and anger in his blue eyes. "Glad you're in one piece, kid. Especially with Sasuke glaring daggers at you." Naruto looks up at her. "What'd you do this time?"

"That's the thing, Grandma Tsunade! I didn't do anything!" She looks into the eyes of the young man and sees nothing but hurt.

"Tell me about how Gaara got hurt so I can put it in the report." Tsunade says.

"We got ambushed on our way back from the king's place. One of the attackers managed to sneak up on both Sasuke and Gaara, which I didn't know was possible." Tsunade nods urging the young man to continue. "They were fairly easy to handle but they did get the jump on Gaara and managed to get through his defenses with a Kunai."

"Anyone else get hurt?"

"Not any injuries worth noting." Sasuke mutters. Tsunade sees his bangs falling in front of his eyes, covering them so that no one could see.

"Wait, what!" Naruto turns to Sasuke. "There were more injuries? Who got hurt?!"

"I didn't say there were more injuries, dumbass!" He states. His words were laced with poison. Tsunade winces on behalf of Naruto.

"You implied it!"

He looks over at Sasuke, seeing no marks on the man. Naruto shakes his head in disapproval, "As if I even care. You're being a particularly bigger bastard than normal, Sasuke. So even if you were injured-" He stops short of the words falling out of his mouth when he sees the glare lady Tsunade gives him.

"Trust me, I know!" Sasuke's words were loud. His fist hit the wall near him, knocking over a poster.

"What's that supposed to mean!" Naruto's voice cracks in frustration.

Sasuke's mouth snaps shut as Naruto watches the walls build up around Sasuke once more. He looks out the window he is standing by, his shoulders tensing and fists bawling, turning his knuckles white from the force of it.

"Bastard, answer me!"

"Okay that's enough!" Tsunade shouts over Naruto, slamming her own fist on her desk so hard it threatens to snap in half. Both young men look at her in shock and she takes a deep breath. "Aren't you two supposed to be best friends?"

The both look at each other for a millisecond before snapping their heads in the opposite direction of one another. "Alrighty then! If you're going to act like children, I'm going to treat you like children! Don't settle down yet, you have a mission." They both look up.

"Grandma Tsunade-"

"No! You two are one of the best teams in the Hidden Leaf and you are bickering like an old married couple!" She pulls out some paperwork. "This town has had trouble with a band of thugs. They've asked for our help in stopping them. This is a team mission but I'm sure the two of you can handle this on your own." She flops the papers and takes a seat in her chair.

Naruto and Sasuke glance at each other before scowling. They bump into each other as they go for papers, growling at one another like dogs and fighting over the packet. It was a B ranked mission and Naruto sighs heavily at it.

"Why are you sending a team for a B mission, Grandma?" Naruto whines.

"I'm not sending a team, I'm sending you two. Besides, I'd never make anyone spend two weeks with you both when you're both so pissy!" She shoves the rest of the papers into Sasuke's hands and ushers them out of her office.

"Now get ready! You're leaving in an hour!" Slamming the door into their faces with a sigh.

Tsunade slumps into her chair, rubbing her temples. 'What a nightmare they are!' She glooms, as she grabs her forgotten tea. It was cold. Tsundae growls, brooding in her chair, not hearing Shizune and Tonton come in.

"Good morni-"

Tsunade throws her cold cup of tea towards her. "Get me a new cup NOW!"

Shizune screams, ducking and covering her head as the cup shatters, "AHHHHH YES, MY LADY!" She quickly closes the door. "Today is going to be a long one isn't it, Tonton?"

TonTon shivers and nods in agreement "Oiiiiiiink..."