hey everyone!

sorry this took so long, i've had a lot going on...

this chap is a little short, but i hope that you guys still like it!

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Chapter 5: Impatience

All man's troubles come from not knowing how to sit still in one room. ~Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 1670

Kushina put her head in her hands, leaning back against the chair with a groan of exasperation. Naruto and Kazuki were absent from the table, leaving their half-eaten breakfasts, as they both had to meet up with their squads. Kushina tried to ask what the missions consisted of, but instead got a stream of complaints from both of her children about how boring and pointless the missions were, and how they wanted something more exciting. The mother expected that kind of behavior from Naruto, but seeing if from Kazuki as well made her head pound. Maybe Kazuki wasn't exactly like her father after all…

Kushina felt Minato come up behind her, and she peeked up at his smiling face. She scowled, and covered her face again.

"Why are you always so damn peaceful, Minato?"

"Maybe because I learned my lesson."

"What lesson?"

Minato leaned down to rest his chin on the top of her head. "The lesson in not asking them about their missions. All you're going to hear now is how unhappy they are with the D-ranked missions they've been assigned. You see, with genin, I wait until they stop complaining every time I give them a lower ranked mission…and then I know that they're ready for more challenging assignments."

"Ugh, just give them a C-ranked mission already…I'll go crazy if I'm forced to listen to their ranting day after day after day!"

"Just don't ask about it, Kushina. Let them come to you."

"Yeah, yeah…whatever." Kushina mumbled, and watched out of the corner of her eye as Minato scooped up the dishes on the table and quickly moved to place them in the sink. Kushina watched him as he pushed up his sleeves, scraping the food off the first plate into the trash, and then dousing it in soap.

Her violet-blue eyes traced over the way that the muscles in his hands flexed gracefully as he washed, and the way his brow furrowed slightly in concentration. He really had aged well; being a ninja had its perks in terms of physique. One would think that because Minato was Hokage, he didn't have to train as much…but as a matter of fact…Minato had to keep up his fitness more than anyone, because if a crisis struck, he would be the first one called. And on top of that, he had mountains of paperwork and other busy work to keep track of. Being Hokage was in no way easy…Kushina knew, because some nights he came home so frazzled that it was hard to convince him to sit down.

But it was something he loved, and it was plain that Minato wouldn't trade being Hokage for anything in the world.

Kushina let her eyes graze over the way the fabric of his Hokage robe fit nicely over his muscled shoulders, and her mind began traveling down a less appropriate path. The man seemed to sense her gaze, and he turned with a cheeky smile.

"Like what you see?" Minato joked, and the smile faded somewhat at the look in Kushina's eyes.

Kushina poured chakra into her legs, and suddenly was in between Minato and the sink. Minato blinked in surprise, and Kushina looped her arms around Minato's neck, lazily smiling up at her husband.

"Oh, am I in the way?"

Minato sighed, setting down the dish and kissing his wife on the forehead. "Kushina, we can't, I have to supervise the–"

Kushina put a finger against the Hokage's lips, a feral smile crossing her face as she leaned in. "I'm sure that they'll understand. You could just say that you got…held up."

Minato blushed as Kushina let her tongue flick out to draw a slow path up his neck, his Adam's apple bobbing unsteadily as his wife's hands slid under his shirt. The man tried to reason with her.

"It's really crucial that I'm there on time, I have to approve of the missions handed out to–"

Kushina reached up on tip-toe, her lips ghosting over Minato's as she whispered. "They'll live without you for a while."

"Kushina–"

But before he could say another word, Kushina kissed the man full on the mouth, fingers making slow patterns against his bare back and going lower, fingers teasing the elastic waistband of his pants. Minato groaned, and pulled his mouth away to lift her up so her legs were wrapped around his waist.

"Fuck it." Minato growled, kissing her neck frantically as Kushina laughed.

"That's more like it…"

Naruto scowled to himself as Team Seven made their way to the Hokage tower, where they would receive their next mission. Sasuke was staring up at the sky, listening to Sakura prattle on and on about the vegetable garden that her mother was planting in the backyard. Naruto wanted to tell them to shut it, but this was the one of the few moments of their time together that Sakura wasn't complaining about how she should be on Kenji-kun's squad instead of Naruto's sister, so Naruto reluctantly let her continue.

Well goody for her…Sasuke actually liked gardening.

Damn them and their stupid hobbies.

Naruto hated when his two other teammates got like this…delving into a subject that left Naruto all alone and in the dark in terms of knowing what the hell they were talking about.

But one shouldn't think that just because of the brief irritation Naruto felt, he in any way disliked his team. On the contrary, Naruto was surprised that his team meshed together as well as it did. They all got along fairly well, and their teamwork was steadily improving.

Kakashi was walking alongside them, his nose deep in that weird orange book of his. His unusual irritation faded as he grinned evilly, sidling up to Kakashi and reaching out quickly to try and snag the book.

Kakashi easily moved it out of his reach, still reading, and Naruto growled, leaping up and onto the silver haired man's shoulders to try and get the book. Kakashi didn't seem unnerved by the fact that Naruto was crawling all over his shoulders, just shifting so that the book was constantly out of reach.

Sasuke smirked at the sight, and Sakura rolled her eyes. "Jeez…"

Every day was like this…as it had been for the past two months that they had spent as Team Seven. Naruto would try and get Kakashi's book, while Sasuke and Sakura stood in the background, shaking their heads in exasperation as Kakashi easily avoided the blonde.

Sasuke glanced over at the pink haired girl beside him, and asked quietly. "Hey, Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"My brother Itachi is going to help me train after this mission…he said that he'd teach me a few things. Naruto's coming…do you want to come?"

Sakura frowned as she thought about it, and Naruto peered around at the sound of Sasuke's question, grinning.

"You should definitely come, Sakura-chan! Itachi's awesome!"

Kakashi took advantage of the few seconds that Naruto was distracted to pry the blonde off of him and set him on the ground. The blonde yelled angrily, and Kakashi ignored the hyperactive boy as he buried his nose in his book once more.

Sakura shrugged. "I guess I could come...it's not like I have anything better to do…"

Naruto beamed at her despite her bored tone, and Sasuke rolled his eyes at his energetic grin that seemed permanently plastered onto his face. The team continued onward in silence, and after a few more minutes they arrived at the Hokage Tower.

Sasuke peered up at the building, seeing a familiar ninja running up the side.

"Hey…isn't that your dad, Naruto?"

"Huh?" Naruto stopped as well, and his eyes widened as he recognized his father. "It is!"

And without further ado, the blonde screamed. "DAD!"

Minato staggered to a stop, and, still parallel to the ground, yelled back. "YES?"

"WHY ARE YOU LATE?"

"ASK YOUR MOTHER, SHE'LL EXPLAIN IT! OR BETTER YET, HAVE KAKASHI GIVE YOU THE FULL RUN DOWN ON HOW WOMEN CAN EFFECTIVELY DISTRACT THEIR HUSBANDS!"

And with a wave, Minato continued running up the walls, and after a moment reached the window, which he effectively slid open. With a sheepish smile, the Hokage slipped into the room, and closed the window behind him. Sakura was frowning, Naruto was blinking in confusion, and Sasuke looked expectantly at Kakashi, who was pointedly ignoring the three curious genin.

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "So…Kakashi-sensei…"

Kakashi didn't answer, responding only by speeding up. The three genin chased after him, and Sakura whined.

"C'mon, Kakashi-sensei, I want to know what the Hokage meant!"

"Yeah, my dad said I could ask, so–"

"This is not happening, this is not happening, this is not happening…" Kakashi groaned softly to himself, burying his face in his book so deeply that his entire face disappeared from view.

Sakura and Naruto huffed in annoyance, and Sasuke tilted his head back to stare up at the clear blue sky, trying without much success to tune out the pleading and whining of his teammates.

Kazuki sighed as her father's bright eyes scanned down the scroll for available missions, and she cringed as she saw the large and terrifyingly boring D printed at the top. She wanted to yank her hair out at the prospect of yet another mission involving weeding or finding some lost cat. The teachers at the Academy had called her a genius…no genius should be stuck doing these stupid missions!

Kenji was silent at her side, and she hissed under her breath as her father continued to slowly scan through the missions. What was taking so long, anyway? The girl scoffed at the stern glare the Hyuuga gave her, and glanced over at Ryuu, who was fidgeting anxiously. Ryuu wasn't one to stay still for long, and he reminded her of Naruto in the fact that he was always the first to rush into anything and everything. A small smile crossed her lips at the memory of their most recent mission, how he had weeded the entire field of crop singlehandedly, not once even considering slowing down so that Kenji and Kazuki could do their portion.

"Man, my hands are killing me. Glad that's over with…hey, why aren't you and Kenji doing anything?"

"Because you worked too fast for us to keep up, stupid…" Kenji muttered, and Kazuki laughed at the horrified look on Ryuu's face.

"Wait, so our mission was to do just this field?"

Kazuki frowned. "What did you think the mission was?"

Ryuu gaped at her. "I thought that…uh…argh, never mind!"

Kenji smirked at the sight of an embarrassed Ryuu blowing on his red and irritated hands, and reached over into her bag. Kenji sighed, and pressed his finger to the radio in his ear to alert Hoshiko. The girl heard him softly informing their sensei that their mission was complete, and turned back to Ryuu.

"Think of it as training, Ryuu. Now you know not to rush into things next time…"

Ryuu rolled his eyes, but allowed her to carefully roll some bandages on his sore hands. "Everything's a training exercise to you, Kazuki."

"You know what would be really good for your hands?" Kazuki smirked, fingers running over the open scrapes and cuts on his hands. Ryuu gulped at the pleasant smile on her face. "Some alcohol. I have some right here, let's just–"

"Ah, no! Forget I said anything!" Ryuu tried to yank his hands away at the thought of the painful cleaning liquid, but Kazuki only smiled and continued to bandage his hands, hearing him sigh in relief when the bottle of alcohol didn't make an appearance.

Kazuki's attention was pulled back to the present as Minato peered down at the scroll.

"Team Six, your next mission is…babysitting for the Misaki family. Huh. That should be considered a C mission at least…"

Iruka, who was sitting next to him, cringed. "Definitely. Have you seen the teeth on some of those kids? Yikes…"

Kazuki tried hard to control herself, but even she couldn't help but growl softly under her breath. Minato's eyes narrowed sternly, and he set down the scroll

"Is there a problem, Kazuki?"

Hoshiko stepped in quickly. "Of course not, Lord Hokage. We'll take the mission."

Kazuki crossed her arms over her chest irritably, sarcasm dripping from every word. "Of course we'll take it. Good thing too…all this training for using weapons and performing jutsus is going to be put to good use while babysitting."

Minato sighed, rubbing his temples. "Kazuki, we've gone over this…"

"I know, Dad, but–"

"Then there shouldn't be a problem." Minato folded his fingers together and gazed over them at his daughter. Kazuki flicked her long red hair over her shoulder, eyes pleading.

"How long are we going to keep doing these stupid missions for? We've been doing them day after day, week after week! I know that doing missions like this is a good start to being a genin, but I know that I'm past that stage! How are we going to get any better if we don't take on a tiny bit more than we can chew?"

Minato sighed, a deep and heavy sound. "Kazuki, honey, you don't understand what–"

"I understand more than you think, Dad! I know that we're ready for higher ranked missions, I heard Hoshiko-sensei talking about it to Iruka-sensei the other day!" Hoshiko flushed as Minato shot her an exasperated look. "Just give us one chance, we won't let you down!"

Minato stared long and hard at his daughter, whose hands were clasped together in a pleading motion, her eyes burning and pleading with him. Kazuki knew that her father was thinking about it, because his eyes took on that serious, shadowed look that he always got when he was thinking hard about something. Hoshiko was glaring daggers at the girl, who ignored the glares as usual.

The Hokage was silent for a few more seconds, and then noiselessly pulled out a scroll labeled with a large C. Kazuki nearly crowed in excitement when Minato looked down to read.

"We have a C mission open; a bridge builder named Tazuna needs to be escorted back to his home in the Land of Waves. There might be a possible risk of bandits and thugs, but other than that it is pretty simple. You will remain there until Tazuna completes the bridge, which should be around two weeks. Is this acceptable?"

Kazuki was nodding before their jounin leader had time to respond, and Minato handed the scroll to Hoshiko with a curt nod. Kenji sighed as Kazuki slapped high fives with Ryuu, and the team exited the room to meet with their client.

Kazuki inwardly cheered.

Finally! A chance to show everyone that I'm not just some scrawny little girl…time to show them why I graduated the Academy early!

Kazuki knew that she was a genius, and knew that she wouldn't let her father down. Even if her teammates weren't up to her level, she would do anything to prove that she was skilled enough to take on more challenging tasks.

Because in the ninja world, being strong was all that mattered, when Kazuki really sat down to think about it.

Minato waited until Kazuki's glossy red hair disappeared around the edge of the door before letting his head drop into his hands. The room was filled with murmurs as clients gave their money to the administrators sitting at the far end of the table. The Hokage sighed, running a hand through his hair as he sat up.

One of the chuunin – Tsuko Uchiha – sitting on the other side of Iruka muttered. "That kid…she's becoming more of a nuisance every day."

Minato gritted his teeth. "Yes…but she's also incredibly young and full of energy, so it's only natural that she'd want a chance to prove herself."

The Uchiha huffed. "I see your point, Lord Hokage, but I seem to recall that you were the same age as Kazuki when you graduated, and you were much more humble."

Minato waved a hand to end the conversation. "Kazuki is my daughter, Tsuko…not my double."

Tsuko flushed, and sat back as the next team came in. Minato wanted to bang his head against the wood below his hands when he saw those mischievous blue eyes. Oh dear…not another one.

The rest of his team was calm except for the pink haired girl, whose cheeks were aflame. Sasuke rolled his eyes as the girl whispered.

"He's so amazing! Did you see the way he nodded?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth in annoyance at the way she twirled happily in a circle, and if Minato had been in a better mood, he would've smiled.

Naruto pouted as he sat himself down onto the cool wooden floor. "Dad, our missions are so–"

"Young man, if you so much as mention 'boring missions' I will throw away every box of ramen in the house."

Naruto clapped his hands over his mouth furiously, his blue eyes terrified at the thought of no ramen. Minato frowned to himself as he scanned through the available D ranked missions.

Sakura muttered, her sea-foam flickering towards the irritated Hokage as she tucked a strand of her long pink hair behind her ear. "That's hitting it a bit below the belt, wouldn't you say?"

Sasuke shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Not really. It'd actually be good for him. All that salt can't be healthy…"

Kakashi cleared his throat, and asked politely. "What's our mission this time, Lord Hokage?" The silver haired jounin sensed that his former teacher was stretched thin, and the Hokage nodded gratefully to the man before quickly reading.

"Team Seven will be…helping the Uchiha Police Force by delivering scrolls to various civilians. The scrolls are for citizens who have disobeyed some law or another, and they are required to go to the police station to report to the officials who issued the scroll. It's your job to make sure that they come to the station peacefully. No physical violence is allowed in getting them to the station. Understood?"

The team nodded, and Minato handed the scroll to Kakashi, who scanned it quickly before stowing it away in his pocket. The Hokage dismissed them with a small smile, and the three genin bowed slightly before exiting the office.

Sasuke sighed as Kakashi lifted six scrolls out of the small bag given to him by one of the Uchiha patrolling the outside of the station. Sasuke didn't like the smirk he got from the teen, and wondered what was so funny about them delivering a few scrolls.

Naruto was bouncing up and down impatiently as Kakashi handed each genin two scrolls, which had the address of the person on the outside. Sasuke put the spare scroll in his pocket, and memorized the address of the first one as Kakashi told them where to meet after they finished.

Sasuke turned to start walking towards his first house, and found that Naruto was headed in the same direction. The house was only a block or so away, and Sasuke frowned when he found that Naruto was still walking in the same direction. When Sasuke reached the house, he looked up to see that Naruto was walking up to the house directly beside Sasuke's.

Sasuke took a deep breath, and knocked sharply on the door, glancing at the name written on the scroll as the door swung open.

There stood a beautiful young woman with long brown hair and sparkling green eyes, with a smile that made Sasuke's chest clench unsteadily. Sasuke cleared his throat, and asked.

"Miss Yuri Roshi?"

"That's me, what can I do for you?"

Sasuke struggled to keep the blush from his cheeks as he unfurled the scroll to read. "Um…Kyoto Uchiha has issued for you to report to him at the station for…wait…what?" Sasuke stared at the words before him, his eyebrows flying upwards in surprise. Yuri frowned.

"For what?"

Sasuke closed his eyes in horror as he mumbled. "…for being the prettiest girl in the village, and to propose…that…you and Kyoto go out for lunch this afternoon."

Yuri flushed in surprise, and her smile broadened at the embarrassed pink that dusted the Uchiha boy's cheeks. The young woman nodded, trying to retain some seriousness to her expression. Sasuke was past being embarrassed, he wished that the ground would reach up and swallow him whole.

"I understand. Let me go and get changed, and I'll be down in five minutes."

The girl ran back up the stairs, and Sasuke kicked the wood of the porch in irritation.

Those bastards…they used genin to get to know the girls and guys of the village without having to ask them directly. Those cowards…they're probably laughing their asses off right now, imagining those poor genin muttering mushy gibberish to complete strangers.

Naruto was blushing madly over at his spot, and Sasuke nearly lost it when he caught a bit of Naruto's words to the young man standing at the door.

"…the hottest guy in town…with eyes so blue that they make the sky jealous…"

Naruto gave up after a moment, practically forcing the scroll into the man's hands. The young man scanned the scroll, and a pleased grin spread across his face as he said something to Naruto, and then grabbed his jacket. Naruto marched down the street, and Sasuke started laughing at the expression on his friend's face. The blonde said nothing, but instead made a rude gesture in Sasuke's general direction.

He saw a familiar flash of pink walking down the street with a young woman walking beside her. The two girls were chatting excitedly, and he saw Sakura giggling at the blush that covered the older girl's face. Sakura seemed perfectly calm and natural, even though she had probably had to read out the same embarrassing crap that the two boys had.

Girls.

They had absolutely no shame when it came to anything remotely romantic.

In that moment, Sasuke both despised and envied them.