OMFG, it's been so long... too long... and...

No, I'm not dead…

I'm really sorry for not updating for so long… the reasons are a few, of which I'll just enumerate the most important:

ONE- After writing the previous chapter, I had no idea what to write, I loath lack of ideas to continue, it drives me crazy to not know how to continue something.

TWO- I decided that I'd finish 'The longest year ever' before New Years and so I dedicated my vacation to writing the final chapter.

Well, at least now I'm updating and I have a few more ideas to continue!!

I bow before all of you and ask for forgiveness for this huge delay…

Since it's been so long, I decided to make a recap for those who don't want to go and re-read previous chapters to remember!

Oh, I also took down the author's note on between chapter 8 and 9, and I'll dedicate this chapter to my most faithful reviewer: Black Shadow Fox Shaman who has beenthere ever since chapter 6 and whose comments always make me happy!! Thanks for the support!! Can't wait to know what you think of this chapter, I hope you like it!!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters, the honor goes to Masashi Kishimoto-sama, I simply own the plot.

Memo:

- Hana: shoulder blade long light brown hair, brown eyes. Akatsuki's medic.

- Kai: spiky orange hair, green eyes. Puppeter, can use super strength when he gets really serious or is in a pinch.

- Ryo: black bluish short messy hair, dark purple/grey eyes. Can use water jutsus, and when needed can use snow and ice jutsus without having a kekkai genkai.

- Ruki: shoulder length long golden blond hair, golden eyes. Can use earth based jutsus. Has a very calculative mind. (think of Ed from FMA)

- Kaorin: long raven black hair, deep blue eyes. Can use Fire and Wind jutsus.

- Jin: blond hair in spikes at the back of his head, deep blue eyes. Can use Fire and Lightning jutsus. (his hair is kinda like Sasuke's, but for a better image, check Jin from 666 satan)

- Ryuuki: short spiky raven black hair, dark emerald green eyes with tints of onyx.

- Kyuuki: long raven coloured hair with some dark pink, almost red, highlights, and onyx eyes with a tint of dark emerald green in it.

Previously on The Secret Behind:

Sasuke goes down memory lane and reminisces about the many changes in Akatsuki and the people he gathered to make part of it, remembering why, when and how he got everyone there, now having Aktsuki as their home. As he walks back to his room, after pondering on how his assistant, Yukizora, will be someone great since he was part of the village, he wishes, stupidly in his opinion, that the twins would someday consider Akatsuki their home as well.

Sakura has a very enjoyable dream, whose main characters are herself and Sasuke, and decides that she will do something, things cannot stay the way they are. Later on Fay joins in on the conspiracy and, after learning why Sakura came to the village, asks what the plan is, only to discover there isn't one. After this revelation, Ryo comes into play and says he has a plan.

As for Jin, Kaorin, Kai and Hana, they head out of the village to go get the 'guests', namely Ino, Shikamaru, Naruto, Neji, Tenten and Gaara. To begin it all, Jin had rather not be there, Hana and Kai wanting to almost kill him and Kaorin trying to avoid him after their confrontation on the balcony.

Upon reaching the clearing where the 6 guest are camping at, Kai and Jin get in a quarrel and Hana just laughs, causing Kaorin to be immensely embarrassed. Naruto, not liking that, sends them all for a walk until they calmed down.

Finally, Ruki is assigned to take care of the twins, who seem to hate him, but he wins their hearts when he tells them they can have ramen for lunch when Sasuke had told them they couldn't. When the twins tell them this, he says Sasuke doesn't have to know and gets on their good side.

Chapter 23

The afternoon sky was a clear blue, only a few white cotton-like clouds floating by with the gentle breeze.

After all the ruckus when the Ame-nins had gotten to the clearing and been ordered to go for a walk by the Hokage, said blond had proceeded to introduce everyone to the raven haired girl, who, as light chit-chats were made with every member of the Konoha and Suna-nins, seemed to become more cheerful.

As she looked around the small camp they had made while talking to the Hokage (he insisted she call him Naruto, something about not liking formalities), she noticed that the atmosphere around all of them seemed very inviting, kindness and friendship shared with all 6 of them.

"Ne, ne." the Hokage was, apparently, very much very energetic and somehow boyish, even in his speech, he wasn't one bit too serious or formal in any way. "So only a few of the original Akatsuki are still there?" she nodded and smiled lightly.

"Only Kisame-sempai, Deidara-sempai and Tobi-sempai are part of the original group." He nodded, his legs crossed, hands over his feet and a thoughtful look on his face.

"But there are still 10 guys in the group, right?" she nodded again, noticing how the blond haired beautiful woman sitting on the other side of the extinguished fire rolled her eyes.

"Oh, Konan-san and Pein-san are still somehow part of the group, but not officially, Sasuke-sama only gives them missions to try to track down Zetsu-san." The Hokage nodded again and since he seemed so interested, she continued.

"The official members of Akatsuki, thought, are, from the original members, Kisame-sempai, Tobi-sempai, Deidara-sempai and Sasuke-sama." The Hokage suddenly grinned and crossed his arms behind his head.

"That's just like Sasuke-teme." His grin turned into a frown when the nice brown haired lady spoke from her spot on a tree branch.

"Though he could have taken over the throne before Pein blew up the village and he himself finished destroying what was there." She scoffed. "If it weren't for all the nins Suna sent over to help, the Jounins using the Kage Bushin to work faster and everyone helping somehow, there wouldn't be a village." The blue eyed girl looked down, fidgeting with her shirt.

"I didn't know about that." She murmured, and Naruto threw a dirty look at Tenten before turning back to the girl.

"Don't worry 'bout it Kaorin-chan, it's all in the past." He put his hands on her shoulders and made her face him, his grin somehow soothed her.

"We worked hard and we made the village all better, so don't worry!!" she nodded shyly, a smile making its way to her lips. "Besides." He grinned wider, almost making him look like a fox, and his eyes took a mischievous glint. "As soon as it's all dealt with I'll personally kick the temes' ass so bad he'll need crutches to walk!!" Kaorin giggled while Ino, Tenten and Neji rolled their eyes, Gaara was taking a nap and Shikamaru was cloud gazing.

Entering the clearing, Hana and Kai hesitated as they saw Kaorin giggle and laugh as the blond Hokage kept humoring her, always with a good-natured and kind attitude.

They slowly walked closer to them, and once they were close enough, Hana was the first to speak.

"Ne, Kaorin, we're really sorry." Kaorin turned to them and smiled, shaking her head lightly.

"It's alright!" Hana smiled in relief and was about to sit down when a blur of orange, green and black flashed past her and lunged at Kaorin.

"Kao-chan!" Kai wailed as he pulled her up in a bearhug, anime-like tears on his eyes. "I'm really, really, really, really sorry." He sniffed, and Kaorin started trying to break free.

"K-Kai… can't… breathe…" her words were whispered, but Kai still heard her and pulled back, still anime-style teary-eyed.

"When we get back I'll do whatever you want to make it up to you." The black haired girl giggled and patted his head.

"It's alright, you don't have to." He was about to protest, but she beat him at it. "And you're both forgiven!" Kai's face broke into a grin and he hugged her again, this time twirling her around. This time she laughed.

"Wow Naruto, looks like you have a clone too." Ino snickered and Naruto put his tongue out at her.

"Shouldn't we get going?" Neji, who had been quiet for most of the time, spoke. Kai put Kaorin down but kept an arm around her shoulders. The blue eyed girl seemed to be more cheerful.

"Yeah, well, we have to wait for the teme to get here so we can leave." Kai rolled his eyes. "He's more of an ass than Ruki and Sasuke-sama together when they're in a bad mood." Hana snickered and Kaorin giggled.

Tenten had a thoughtful face as she walked up to them, having come down from her tree, twirling a kunai between her fingers.

"Ne, Neji, don't they remind you of someone?" the Hyuuga raised a brow and shrugged while Tenten looked back at the trio, who were now eyeing her curiously and suspiciously.

"I mean, that blond guy, Jin was it, has the jackass attitude and similar looks to Sasuke." She paused and then resumed. "Kai over there is loud and obnoxious like Naruto." She paused again and Kai narrowed his eyes at her. "Kaorin is like Sakura, all we have to see now is the feisty attitude and it's a perfect match." Her eyes turned to Hana, who was now eyeing her very suspiciously. "Turn her into a guy and put a porn book in her hands and it's Kakashis' replica." Hana gasped while laughter echoed over the camp.

"Aww, you forgot Sai and Yamato, who would they be Ten?" Ino drawled, and the 2 girls laughed again.

"That's a pretty accurate comparison to Team 7, though they're not exactly the same." Shikamaru mumbled and then yawned. "Shouldn't we be going?" he asked while looking lazily over the camp.

"Am I really like Sakura-san?" Kai looked down at Kaorin and raised a brow.

"You know the legendary Haruno Sakura?" he asked, and Kaorin blushed and waved her arms around.

"Damn it, it's supposed to be a secret." She internally kicked herself.

"No, no, no, no, I don't—I mean—no… hm, really, no." she flushed and right when Kai was about to question her further, Jin decided to make an appearance, and for once, Kaorin was grateful to his timing.

"Stop being and idiot, Dobe." He was walking casually to the camp, hands shoved in his pockets and Kai turned to glare at him while Naruto snickered, remembering that he didn't like it when Sasuke called him Dobe either.

"Oh, fuck you teme." Though Kai had more colorful replies than he had back then. Jin raised a brow and stopped a few feet away from them. Naruto watched as his eyes flickered to Kaorin and then back to Kai, never showing emotion. Now that was amusing, in Sasuke language, a flicker of the eyes towards someone he had embarrassed/hurt unnecessarily meant he was feeling guilty. And since they were so much alike so far, maybe it applied to the blond kid too. Interesting indeed.

"Why should I lower myself to your level?" was Jin's comeback, to which Kai glared harder.

"Bastart." He muttered and turned away, and he remembered it went somehow like that with Team 7 too. The blond Hokage (who wasn't as dumb and unobservant as everyone thought) noticed Kaorin sighing and Hana rolling her eyes… like Sakura and Kakashi… Tenten was right, in a way.

He also noticed Jin's eyes flickering towards Kaorin again. He seemed to scoff silently at himself and with an annoyed expression reached into his back pouch.

"Kaorin." He called blankly, and as the girl looked at him, something like hurt in her eyes, the blond teen threw her the thing he had reached for in his pouch.

Naruto smirked in amusement and leaned forward on his hands (he was still sitting cross legged, his elbows propped in his knees while his face was in his hands) as Kaorin caught what Jin had thrown at her.

The blond turned away to go lean against a tree, probably waiting for the departure to Amegakure, and Kaorin looked down, only to smile brightly at the yellow apple in her hands.

By her smile, Naruto figured that that was Jin's way to apologize to her, though there still seemed to be hurt in her eyes. The girl was nice, so he'd figure out something to get those 2 in good terms again… pretending to be an idiot of course.

"Oi, Naruto, you're spacing out again." Ino hit the back of his head and he grinned, mentally scoffing to himself.

"Sorry, sorry." He got up and dusted his pants, then looking around the camp. "Yosh." He murmured and then crossed his arms behind his head.

"Ok, how 'bout you guys guide us to the village??"

Ruki let out an 'oof' as he was knocked backwards by the small boy throwing himself at him. The girl giggled and he wondered how they managed to get him to act like this—when he hadn't acted this way in years.

"That was unnecessary." He muttered and sat back up on the floor, taking Ryuuki under the arms and holding the grinning, giggling boy in the air. As he was about to speak (he wasn't sure what he was going to say, but that didn't matter) Kyuuki threw herself at him, this time almost knocking him down forward.

He held his balance, the grinning and giggling boy still being held in the air, while the girl perched herself over his back, her tiny arms around his neck, giggling merely.

"Daisuki, nii-chan!!" the small girl cheered and hugged his neck tighter between her small arms. The small boy nodded vigorously, his words giving depth to his twins' previous statement.

"Daisuki!! Daisuki!!" he rolled his eyes and smiled (Damn it, why was he smiling?? He shouldn't be smiling… he was supposed to be the organizations' jackass bastard…).

"I thought you two hated me." He said slyly. The twins pouted.

"Datte, nii-chan, you acted like a meanie before today." He rolled his eyes again and got up, Ryuuki still being held in the air and Kyuuki still clinging to his neck.

"How about a treat? It's around 4 p.m. already." The twins shared a look and then innocently looked at him.

"Can we ask anything?" he raised a brow and maneuvered Kyuuki so he held the twins under his arms, one under each.

"Why wouldn't you?" they both looked down and he deposited them in his bed (hey, he wasn't about to let anyone, especially not Deidara, see that he wasn't an ass like they thought he was, hence why they were in his room and not anywhere else).

They scrambled to sit properly, Kyuuki to his left and Ryuuki to his right, both close together tilting their heads towards each other slightly, and then looked up at him in wonder.

"Sasu-nii-chan said we can't eat sweets." Kyuuki started in a low voice. Ryuuki nodded.

"And he doesn't let Dei-nii-chan, Kai-nii-chan or Ryo-nii-chan give us any either." Ryuuki finished.

Ruki smirked and bent down to their level.

"Who said Sasuke-sama has to know? If he asks, at lunch you ate onigiri and soba, and now you're gonna eat apples." The twins bent forward, crawling closer to him on their knees.

"Honto?" he nodded. "So we can ask anything?" he chuckled at their chorused lines and nodded.

"Anything."

"Then we want ice cream!!" he chuckled, once again, but this time at their excitement.

"It seems Sasuke-sama has been acting like a strict father these days." He paused in his quest to take the twins and observed them, face now blank.

They quieted down as well and observed him.

"Ne, nii-chan, are you ok?" Ruki blinked twice before nodding, and before he knew it, the question that had suddenly popped in his head was blurted out.

"Who's your real father?" not much of a question, since they probably didn't even had the conscience to know if the man raising them was their real father or not.

The twins shared a look and suddenly looked like little angels that were always quiet.

"Hm… it's a secret." Ryuuki murmured, peeking at him through his lashes, face still facing downwards as well as his sister.

"Mama said we can't tell anyone." Kyuuki continued, and the blond adult found himself leaning over the bed, arms crossed. So the famous Haruno Sakura kept secrets from everyone except from her kids.

"It'll be our secret that you told." He whispered in a conspiracy tone. The twins looked up and then at each other. A few seconds passed, and when the twins nodded, he knew they'd reached an agreement.

"But you can't tell anyone." He raised his hand.

"I won't tell." He said vehemently. They nodded, shared another look, a nod, and then reached forward to whisper in his ears, one in each side.

"Our real daddy... is Sasu-nii-chan." They whispered quietly. "But it's a secret!" they leaned back and put their right index in front of their lips. "Shh!!"

He mimicked their pose and put his index in front of his lips. "Shh!!"

So it was true. He knew that the resemblances couldn't be a mere coincidence.

There was a moment of silence in which the male occupants of the room went very quiet, pondering on what they had just heard, and the sole female present did not know what to say.

Silence stretched on…

Until Sakura decided to speak.

"Um… can I ask you something?" Ryo, who was now leaning against the window/door frame, nodded, calm demeanor in place, as usual.

"How do you know so much about… well, everything?" she gestured with her hands, and the purple/grey eyed man smiled.

"Sasuke-sama sent me to Konoha gather information, coincidently, I arrived there just a few days after you had left for Suna." He paused while she nodded, looking like a confused and helpless child. "Also, it's not very difficult to gather information about someone as reputed as you Sakura-san." The pinkete nodded again.

Snapping out of his daze, Deidara was the first male to speak.

"Not that I don't like the plan or anything… but are you sure it'll work?? I mean… sure, it could, but we'd still have to convince Ruki-teme and Jin-teme to play along." As Deidara finished, Suigetsu piped in.

"I'm sure Jugo would go along with it, but what about Pein and Konan, they're bound to get back sooner or later." Ryo rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Ruki won't be a problem…" his face turned thoughtful. "When I got home with the groceries he seemed to be getting along with them…" he paused and scoffed. "He was acting really ooc too, if you ask me." He looked at Deidara with a pointed look. "Kinda like you 'cept for the dumbass attitude."

"HEY!" the blond glared and would have risen from his seat… had he not know that the pink haired lady would later on grant him one of her insane punches.

On the other end of the couch they were sharing, Sakura giggled lightly, to which the blond threw her a dirty look and huffed.

"Well then, the only problem left is Jin." Fay stated, since no one else seemed to want to think about it. Suigetsu grinned.

"Well, ya know." He drawled, getting everyone's attention. "Ruki was supposed to go get the 'guests' instead of Jin." He stated, to which the 2 other Akatsuki looked surprised. Suigetsu grinned wider while Sakura looked puzzled, not knowing about the guests. Fay seemed intent on finding out, because he didn't let the water-nin finish.

"What guests? And I want the facts or else you're all plotting elsewhere." 4 pair of eyes were rolled.

"Sure, sure, whatever." The light-blue haired nin turned to Deidara. "Why don't you tell them about the 'guests'."

"Hehe." He laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. Sakura raised a brow in suspicion. "Well, you see…" he trailed off and got up, inching more and more towards Ryo near the window.

"Someofyourfriendsarecoming." His words were rushed, and the moment they seemed to sink in and Sakura glared at him accusingly, he hid behind Ryo, who raised an amused brow.

"What? She's really scary when she's mad." The blond defended while the pinkete kept glaring daggers at him.

"Deidara-kun." She drawled sweetly while inching closer to him, the other occupants of the room looked curiously. "Please do tell me why, oh why, didn't you tell me this itsy-bitsy information?" Ryo moved aside, not wanting to be in the middle, and watched amusedly as Deidara fell back on his bottom and desperately tried to get away from the furious woman.

"Well, it's a funny story actually…" she came closer, stopping when he hit the railing of the balcony.

"I'm sorry." He whispered desperately. The look she gave him made him gulp, that frigid icy-cold death glare that made his skin crawl. He raised his arms over his face, sinking against the cold stone. Now he understood her blond dumbass-bestfriend/Hokage a little.

"Be merciful." He mumbled under his breath as he felt her murderous aura come closer, eyes shut tightly. He started counting in his head.

1…

2…

3…

4…

5…

6…

And when he reached 7 he opened his right eye hesitantly, peeking between his arms that blocked his view. What he saw, he wasn't expecting it.

Sakura was kneeling in front of him, eyes soft but looking dejected.

"Am I really that scary?" she whispered. His arms lowered slightly. "Am I really that ruthless?" she seemed to sink and he suddenly didn't know what was happening too well, but she seemed defeated… at breaking-point.

Letting his gaze linger to the others, he saw all of them observing the scene with worried eyes. She suddenly laughed bitterly, softly, but he could almost feel the tears that were coming to her eyes.

"What a great a mother I am, alw-" he didn't let her finish as he straightened and pulled her towards him in a tight embrace, his eyes trained on a random spot on the floor.

"Don't." he mumbled, she had no right to say such things, not when she had her whole life to prove herself a good mother. She had no right to say that in front of him or any of the ones present because… they had all lost their parents young.

"Dei…?" her mumble was muffled by his shirt as he held her tightly against him. At the moment he didn't care if he was hurting her or not.

"Don't ever say that." He tightened his embrace even more. "You have your whole life to prove yourself." He felt her tremble against him. "You're proving yourself just by coming so far for them." He paused, his blue eyes lifting to meet Fay's momentarily, before going back to a random spot on the floor.

"Those kids… they're some of the luckiest kids I've ever seen." He paused and swallowed. "So don't ever say that, got it?" She slowly nodded, and he held her tightly until she stopped trembling.

"Thank you." And even though he knew he could take her on in a fight, he just didn't want war and enemies anymore.

"You're welcome." He said awkwardly and let her go, looking back up to the other males, wanting them to break the awkwardness that was bopund to ensue.

Suigetsu seemed to take the hint and, for once in his life, didn't throw any unwanted comments. The water-nin coughed, getting everyone's attention and leaned forward on the couch.

"Let's not get distracted here, we still have planning to do." Ryo took the hint and sat down on one of the couches, followed by Fay (who had gotten up… he did not want his living room, or balcony for the matter, trashed like last time those 2 got in a fight). Sakura came back to the living room, and Deidara lingered near the balcony window.

"As I was saying." Suigetsu continued. "Ruki was supposed to be the one to go get the guests with Hana, Kai and Kaorin-" before he could continue, Ryo interrupted.

"So why did Jin go? I mean, we all know that at the chance those 2 would kill each other." He paused and leaned back on the couch. "And then there's Kaorin."

"Ryo's got a point." Deidara butted in, the awkward aura from before gone… they were getting down to business now. "And Hana, at this point, would kill him if she could too."

Suigetsu sighed and leaned back on the couch while shaking his head.

"Just think with me for a sec, and I'm sure pinky over there's curious about this too. From the reports on the borders, 6 people are coming." He stopped when he noticed 2 disbelieving stares from Deidara and Ryo.

"Just a question, how do you know so much?" the blue haired nin rolled his eyes. And then looked up at the ceiling at the next comment.

"It's not like Sasuke-sama to share so much." There was a scoff followed by words.

"Two words for you 2: sneaking around." Fay snorted, covering it with a cough and receiving a dirty look from Suigetsu.

"But that's beside the point-" sensing Ryo about to say something, he continued. "And would you people shut up and let me finish?" there was a group sigh followed by reluctant silence.

"Good. Now, from the reports from the border, 6 people are coming, and from the description and past knowledge-" glare towards Deidara. "It's easy to figure out who they are." He paused and Sakura was looking expectant and curious.

"First we have the dumbass Hokage and the Kazekage, as everyone knows." At the comment of the Hokage, Sakura refrained from reaching out and punching the water-nin. "Then there's 2 guys and 2 chicks, all from Konoha. There's the lazyass Nara and the fate-idiot Hyuuga."

"Once this is over, he's getting a beating." were Sakura's only thoughts as Suigetsu continued.

"Then you have that crazy chick with the weapons fetish and the loudmouth blond who never shuts up." Sakura clenched her fists, glaring daggers at the (fucking idiotic bastard) water-nin.

"Before anything else." Her voice was overly sweet, and Deidara gulped, inching away from her, Ryo and Fay following his example. "Naruto isn't a dumbass he's just boyish, Shikamaru isn't that much of a lazyass anymore he just likes cloud gazing a lot, Neji isn't a fate-idiot he just has his beliefs, Tenten doesn't have a weapons' fetish she just likes being prepared, and-" she paused and Suigetsu was starting to sweat as she raised from her seat and started walking towards him purposely slowly. "Ino isn't a loudmouth who can't shut up, she's just chatty." The water-nin sunk further in his couch. "Got it?" she smiled sweetly, and the water-nin gulped.

"Crystal clear ma'am."

"Good." She paused and straightened. "And you're lucky I don't want to trash Fay-san's living room or you'd be downstairs by now." She smiled again and turned away, sitting on her couch like nothing had happened.

There was a minute… or two… of silence, until Fay cleared his throat and went to sit down again.

"So, um, why did Jin go instead of Ruki?" Suigetsu composed himself (while Ryo and Deidara sat down again) and resumed his speech, this time watching his words.

"Well, the Hokage will but in on their business and eventually make Jin apologize to Kaorin and all will be good again. At least, that's the expectation, since Uzumaki always did it before… meddle in other people's business I mean."

The pile of paperwork seemed to increase every day, and even if he had an assistant, he still had to read every single piece of paper, decide if he approved or not, manage everything in the village and then start all over again.

But doing paperwork wasn't what pissed him off, what did was the fact that all the papers he had to read, more than half of it were destined to go straight to recycling after he read them, and all those documents were oh-so-boring and pointless. At time like these, where his desk was covered in paperwork and whoever entered his office wouldn't even see him behind the piles of papers, folders and scrolls, he wished he could just dump the damn task of reading the damned papers on someone else.

But he couldn't (wouldn't) because he wasn't a slacker.

Seriously, why did the Dobe even want to be Hokage? All they ever did was do paperwork, and he knew from experience that the idiot wasn't one to stay stuck in an office reading papers all day.

He snapped the folder in his hands closed, ultimately bored, and stamped it with his favorite stamp: DENIED.

Well, at least now he had someone to go get the paperwork, organize it and deliver the paperwork where it was due, whether the file-record room or the recycling one.

"Why did I even bother taking this job?" he paused while reaching for another file. "Oh, right, because I didn't like the way Madara was handling things." He scoffed to himself and took the stupid file, probably about something boring again.

There was a knock on the door, childish muffled voices being shushed outside.

"But sensei-"

"Be quiet."

"He better give us some excit-"

"One more word and I'll ask the lowest."

"But sensei-"

"No buts, now be quiet."

The man behind the desk let out a chuckle, put the file down in front of him and spoke. "Come in."

There was a second of silence before the door opened, probably the sensei making sure everyone was quiet.

"Sasuke-sama." The man bowed politely, and Sasuke nodded in response, his face partially hidden by the large piles of paper work.

"Kanzaki." He looked past the adult to see 3 children, around 12, 2 boys and a one. "Makoto, Midori, Natsuki." At the mention of their names, the kids looked at him, the girl being the most polite and bowing lightly. As for the boys, one of them was indifferent while the other looked away huffing.

"A mission I suppose?" Kanzaki, a man of around 27, nodded, dark brown eyes glancing back at his students while his unruly black hair fell in disarray around his head.

"That's manageable." He eyed the kids, one in particular, while he turned to his drawers to fish out the clipboard with the low ranked missions.

"You better give us something good." He rolled his eyes at Natsuki's muttered comment. The boy was feisty and a trouble-maker, always too full of energy. To sum it in one word, he was obnoxious with bright orange/blond hair and clear azure eyes. As for his 2 team mates, Makoto was a quiet boy, almost always keeping to himself with a somehow aloof personality, medium brown hair always in spikes to match forest green eyes, and Midori was a moderate girl, shy or feisty, depending on the situation having redish brown hair and purple/blue eyes.

And their team relationship went somehow like this: Natsuki liked Midori and was Makoto's rival/best-frien. Midori considered Natsuki as an annoying friend and liked Makoto, who didn't really care about it and considered Natsuki an annoyance and his rival/best-friend.

Hm… now that he thought about it…

"Let's see what we got." He brought the clipboard up and looked through it, noticing Natsuki barely containing his excitement. "D-rank, on village." He stated, which was followed by a loud:

"WHAT???" he eyed amusedly as Makoto 'tsk'ed and Midori sighed while Natsuki stomped to his desk, slamming his hands on the wood.

"That is so not fair, we've been going on crappy D-ranked mission ever since we became Genin." The kid huffed and the raven haired man leaned back on his chair raising a brow.

"And that is a problem because…?" the obnoxious orange haired huffed.

"I'm sick of cleaning the river, walking dogs and chasing that crazy cat." He all but yelled, and Makoto rolled his eyes.

"Rephrase that to falling in to the river, being dragged by dogs and get scratches from the cat." Almost light fast, Natsuki turned, accusing finger pointed towards the nonchalant boy.

"TEME. Take that back."

"As if, Dobe."

And hence, bickering ensued, which made Midori sink back towards the wall and Kanzaki sigh in frustration and annoyance. And this was the daily routine (well, everytime they came to get missions) with Amegakure's Genin Team 4.

Sasuke chuckled quietly, observing as Natsuki and Makoto bickered and Midori leaned against the wall, blushing in embarrassment.

Now that he thought about it, when Team 7 went to get missions from the Sandaime Naruto always caused a ruckus, which caused the blond and himself to bicker, Kakashi to become annoyed and frustrated and Sakura to become embarrassed.

"Here." He handed Kanzaki a sheet of paper containing details of the mission (D-ranked, on village – objective: to clean up the training grounds and the river, because it was getting full of autumn leaves) and cleared his throat.

"Natsuki, stop calling Makoto a Teme, Makoto stop calling Natsuki a Dobe and Midori-" The girl looked up while the other 2 boys glared at each other, arms crossed and huffing. "Make sure they don't kill each other." She smiled and nodded.

"What? That crap again?" insert Sasuke rolling his eyes as Natsuki almost shrieked once he laid eyes on the paper. "Man, you're the worst jii-chan."

"Be quiet Natsuki."

"Tsk, Dobe."

"Don't be so obnoxious." Were the comments that followed after, while behind his desk, Sasuke's eye twitched and a scowl started settling on his features.

"I'm… 23 and he's implying I'm old…" he glared towards the kids retreating back while Makoto had already left and Kanzaki and Midori apologized before leaving. "I swear to Kami I'm only giving him the lowest mission from now on… he'll see…"

I hope you all enjoyed, and I'll try to get a chapter up as soon as I can, I promise I won't make you guys wait like this again, the next chapter, tops, will come out in 2 weeks, but I'll see if I can get it up sooner!!

REVIEWS ARE APRECIATED AND MOTIVATE ME!!

So please review and tell me what you think, what you liked most and disliked most about the chapter, and things like that, it helps me improve!!

Love you all very much,

(please review)

Kimi-chan!!