AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey guys! I'm back! So school's tomorrow after Thanksgiving break and I'm beyond belief sad—especially with Naruto ending and all. BUT! Naruto: The Last is going to air next month! Who's exited? Anyways, enjoy!

It was the third month mark when Hiruzen decided that he needed Naruto to sub for an academy teacher who left for their maternity leave.

"What?!" Naruto widened her eyes when Hiruzen stated his proposition. The aging Hokage sighed; he knew that this was coming and was fully prepared for it.

"Okay, Naruto-san. I want you to sub for a teacher who is leaving for her maternity leave," he said slowly, treating Naruto like she was a mere toddler.

Naruto almost exchanged a glare to her Hokage, but abruptly stopped herself from doing so—the current Hokage wasn't her past Jiji. "Sorry for my sudden outburst, Hokage-sama. I didn't mean to-"

"No, no, it's fine, Naruto-san. It's only expected when, I assume, you have no credibility in teaching." Hiruzen folded his hands together and looked straight into the blond's eyes.

The blond kunoichi nodded her head rapidly, as if telling Hiruzen that hiring her for the job was not a good idea.

The Sarutobi clan head knew fully well that assigning the job to Naruto was not the best, but, as the war was still going on, many of Hiruzen's shinobi were required and drafted to war with the exception of Academy teachers, genins, and the pregnant.

Even though some of the Hokage's ANBU was still present in Konoha, Hiruzen could not make them teach children in the Academy because he would only waste his manpower in the war by making his ANBU teach the children instead of doing important missions that could benefit to Konoha.

Hiruzen shook his head in worry while twiddling the brush on his right hand. He had no choice in this matter, as Naruto was still a subject of suspicion, therefore she could not partake in the war. Although these negatives, the blond-haired kunoichi was the only shinobi available, in which possessed all the standards an average Academy instructor needed.

Naruto retorted back with carefulness,"Hokage-sama. I've never had a mission like this one before. I'll be useless to the students like this."

Without bruising his power, Hiruzen commanded sternly from behind his desk,"As Hokage of Konohagakure, I say that you have to do this mission." He then added, as if trying to bribe her,"And if you do accept, Naruto-san, then your paycheck each month would be equivalent to a low-ranked mission."

Hearing this, Naruto's eyes bugged out,"Seriously!?"

A sage-like nod came from the Hokage's side,"In Konoha, our children are precious as they are the new generation—the kings—of the coming future." He sighed,"And children of this age are extremely hard to handle."

Hiruzen puffed out the herby scent of smoke before putting his pipe down and informing Naruto,"Even though your debt is fulfilled, Naruto-san, you still have the three children to take care of..." He left his sentence unfinished, leaving Naruto time to think.

After a short pause, Naruto questioned. "Bu-but, aren't I someone who shouldn't be trusted with kids!?"

Hiruzen frowned with a serious facade enveloping on his face, "So you yourself is telling me that you can't be trusted?"

Naruto widened her blue eyes and denied what Hiruzen said almost instantly. Hiruzen could not keep the smirk on his face at bay.

"Class starts tomorrow at 8:45 AM in room 24A. Be there thirty minuets early to prepare." The aging Sarutobi had a triumphant look on his face, causing Naruto to stare at him with a sour look on her face.

Then, Naruto frowned, 24A sounded a bit familiar.

By then, Naruto could not argue with the Hokage. With the frown still placed on her face, she bowed down and dismissed out to the front door.

When the blond left the office, a small satisfied smile was etched on Hiruzen's face. He wouldn't tell anyone, but he was just starting to warm up to Naruto.

Trudging up the pathway to where her apartment was at, Naruto sighed to herself, making it blatantly obvious to everyone that she was not in a very pleasant mood.

Naruto just knew that something bizarre was going to happen tomorrow.

When Naruto entered her home, she had mixed feelings. Confused as to why she got a mission to teach, worried because she wondered how teaching would be a new experiment, anxious because she had always thought about how it was like to be a teacher like Iruka-sensei, and lastly, ticked off on how messy the living room was.

Of course, the culprit was Yahiko. Maybe Konan and Nagato as well, but she wasn't sure.

A stressful sigh escaped Naruto's lips. Even though Naruto had been a messy child when she was growing, this was unexpected. There were snack crumbs on the floor, dango sticks presented on the cracks of the couch cushions, and fresh milk stains on the walls just to name a few.

The blond guardian shook her head slightly and pinched the bridge of her nose. She hollered, adding a hinted tone of disappointment, "Okay guys! Over here now!"

Naruto heard three wooden chairs simultaneously screech backwards from the kitchen's tiled floor. The trio came running towards her, completely ignoring the mess they made, and even making more of a mess by knocking things over as the ran.

After a minuet of standing in front of Naruto, the blond gave out another stressful sigh in which finally got the kids to notice the mess around them. They all bowed their heads down in shame.

"You guys know what to do, right?" Naruto said softly, but effectively.

She shook her head as the children cleaned up the apartment. Naruto decided to take advantage of the small free time.

'Ne, Kurama?' Naruto made her way through the abyss of darkness, finally closing in when she saw a red-glowing glob of fur.

'Hm? Whaddya want?' The nine tails rumbled out of his drowsiness.

'Did you hear what Jiji said?' Naruto scratched the inside of her left ear.

'Fill me in with the details, Naruto.'

Naruto shrugged her shoulders, 'He told me to be a sub temporarily for a teacher who's on her maternity leave.'

'Is he out of his mind?' Kurama was now fully awake. 'Does he know how reckless you are?'

Naruto rolled her eyes and contorted lamely, 'Shut up, you but- rude fox.'

Kurama frowned, marring his facial details, 'What's gotten into you?'

'Work with me, Fox! I'm trying to keep my temper in check cause, like, what if I accidentally "name call" a student and they tell their parents? And then, parents are gonna complain to Jiji, and Jiji's gonna make me go back!'

'Go back to what?'

'To the D-ranks!' Naruto flailed her arms wide as if telling Kurama that he was blind not to notice her conflict with D-ranks.

'What's so bad about D-ranks?' Kurama questioned with an honest to goodness confused expression on his face.

Naruto looked as if she was about to explode, and all she could reply back was, 'Get with the program, Fox.'

Kurama shifted his position and sat on his hind legs while swaying his tails. 'Okay, yeah, whatever, D-ranks are so bad that even you, a season—very seasoned—shinobi cannot do with ease.'

Naruto sighed, 'Okay, yeah, depending on what the D-ranked is, D-ranks are easy, but wouldn't any grown and 'seasoned' shinobi be embarrassed to have to catch a devil of a cat?'

Kurama rolled his eyes and sarcastically said, 'Okay?'

'And the pay is low!' She crossed her arms over her chest.

'And the pay is low!' He mocked, even going as far as to cross his arms over his chest. Naruto narrowed her eyes dangerously low, whilst tapping her foot on the flooded floor. Kurama got the hint and stopped teasing her, 'Fine, but still, why do you think it's a punishment?' He paused , then continued, 'And if I'm correct, isn't that old monkey doing you a huge favor?'

Naruto's eyes softened as she suddenly remembered that her Jiji was actually helping her. She bowed her head down in shame and hooded her eyes, 'Actually, yeah you're right, Kurama.'

'It's only natural I'm right-' he paused and told her, 'They're done cleaning, Naruto. You better head back now.'

Naruto nodded with a smile, 'Thanks, Kurama.'

Nagato threw away the last piece of trash and sighed. Cleaning up took longer than expected. He headed back with the others when Naruto called for them.

"Good job!" Naruto praised while nodding moderately at the same time..

Yahiko gave her the stink eye and protested, "Hump, betcha you were even more worse then us when you were growing up."

Konan expressed his name with caution,"Yahiko."

However what all three didn't expect was Naruto agreeing with Yahiko,"Yeah, you're actually right, Yahiko."

The orange-head dropped his chin slowly. Naruto grinned and motioned for all of them to sit down. "Story time!" Naruto yelled out excitedly.

Yahiko rolled his eyes after being recovered from his shocked stature. "So," Naruto rolled the single syllable with her tongue, "I won't be here as much as usual."

Nagato raised an eyebrow and stared at Naruto with his now-blue eyes, "Why not?"

"I was getting to that," she started to play with her hair. "Anyway, the Sandaime told me to become a sensei for the Academy kids tomorrow 'til on for a kunoichi who left on her maternity leave." The blond knitted her eyebrows together and cracked her knuckles unconsciously, "I honestly don't know if I should tell you this, dattebayo, but..."

"You can tell us, Nee-chan!" Konan exclaimed With an encouraging smile on her face.

Yahiko sneered and mocked with a high-pitched voice, "Now, don't be nosy Konan-chan!"

Konan shot him an icy glare, but resumed to stare at Naruto. Yahiko sighed and grumbled, "What a hypocrite," in a silent whisper.

"Okay, okay, I'll spill!" Naruto laughed, "You guys suck!" She said childishly. "Continuing on, I feel like I can't become a teacher."

Yahiko looked up, "It's okay, Nee-chan. It'll be easy for you."

"How?" Naruto expressed with a frown tilting the muscles on her face.

Yahiko shrugged, "I dunno," he paused for a minute, as if thinking for an explanation, "I guess just... Be yourself?"

"I can't just barge in there and wreck havoc!" From the Iwa and Supermarket incident, Naruro didn't trust herself to do anything too darastic.

"That's true." Nagato agreed with an amused smile on his face. Naruto bore her eyes into Nagato's skull and gave him a dirty look.

Then, Naruto's face glowed as she quickly said, "Wait a sec, guys."

The blond ran into the kitchen and hauled out three chairs, making screeching sounds in the process. Then, after setting the three chairs down into a horizontal row out looking the apartment view, Naruto ran back to her room and grabbed a massive picture frame.

The picture frame was blank and didn't have a picture present inside it's glass interior. What was seen through the glass, though, was a blank canvas of white.

Naruto twirled a black marker on her thumb and bit her lip. "Okay, Konan, sit here," Naruto pointer to the chair on the far right,"Nagato, here," then, Naruto pointed to the middle chair, "and last, Yahiko, here." She pointed to the last chair on the far left.

"What are we even doing, Nee-chan?" Nagato inquired as the chair under him croaked from his weight.

Naruto shook her head and positioned the large picture frame horizontally, leaning on the couch. With a welcoming smile on her face, she pleasantly said, "Good morning, boys and girls! My name is Naruto-sensei," she wrote down her name on the glass surface, "and I am here as a substitute for your other teacher."

Yahiko smirked to his fellow "classmates" and replied with a raised hand and pestered, "Your name's kinda weird, Naruto-sensei."

Naruto suppressed a quiver and smiled as she ever so gently said, "Well, everyone has his or her own opinions."

Konan sighed and positioned her elbows on her thighs and rested her face on her hands. Nagato looked confused and Yahiko looked with boredom outside of the window.

The blond soon-to-be-teacher sighed and asked, "I'm doing something wrong, aren't I?"

Yahiko, as always, was first to speak up, "Well, to put it simply, Nee-chan, you just seem... Hmmmm, the word to fit it simply is- fake."

"I mean, you're nice and all, Nee-chan, but it seems like you're reading everything out in a script." Konan also suggested, "Well, it is good how you endured Yahiko's insult, but, I guess, try to remember how you're sensei used to teach you in your Academy."

Naruto remembered Iruka and smiled reminiscently, "I guess you guys are right."

Nagato pondered, "Anyway, how was your sensei like?"

"My sensei?" Naruto restated while looking at Nagato,"Well, my Academy sensei was family to me." She sighed sadly, "He- actually let's start from the beginning."

Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko were sucked in tow the subject of learning more about their sister figure's past. It wasn't everyday that she spoke about it.

"Well, like you guys, I was also an orphan."

"My genin sensei always used this stupid mask and it irked the heck out of me and my teammates. So, one day, I guess I got curious, and eventually persuaded my teammates to trail down our sensei so we can find out how he looked like."

Nagato blinked, "Why does he always use a mask?"

Naruto answered, "I don't know, sanitary reasons?" She looked at her nails, "Getting off topic, but," the blond Jinchuriki heard the roof cackle from outside, "that's a story for another time."

Yahiko frowned, "But... What?!"

Naruto shook her head and smiled, "Patience is a virtue." She held the thick transcript in her hands and slightly lifted up its yellow, thin folder for a sneak peak. Rolling her eyes at the massive amount of reading she had to do before tomorrow, Naruto ignored her fellow roommates and sat on the couch after putting everything back to where it belonged.

Yahiko wasn't having any of this, but decided to let the blonde be. He motioned for the others to settle down by zipping his mouth with his hand.

The blond Jinchuuriki widened her blue eyes and smiled. "I'm impressed."

Even though they only spent a short amount of time with each other, Naruto loved them like siblings.

It was rare to see Yahiko cooperating with Naruto, but when he did, he acted like the leader he would become in the mere future. Although having the knowledge of all three Ame orphan's future, Naruto couldn't help but say, "I raised them right, dattebayo."

"Freak! I'm late!" Naruto, after rubbing her eyes, looked at the clock with fear. She rushed to her bathroom and contemplated whether or not she should brush her teeth. "Oh, what am I, 12?!" She groaned before she quickly brushed her teeth and washed her face.

Running back to her closet, Naruto took out her new uniform. It consisted with an average shinobi uniform and a Chunin vest. Naruto couldn't help but stare at the vest with stars in her eyes. She told to no one in particular, "I've always wanted to wear one of these."

Running out of apartment after leaving a note for the kids, Naruto sprinted all the way to the Academy. It was a good thing that the Academy was only a couple blocks away.

Looking from ahead, she saw the building and cursed. Class had already started.

Running into the school building's office, Naruto finally printed her name and signature stating that she was sent by the Hokage and was a "safe" subject, trusted for children. Running in front of the classroom door, Naruto came into a screeching halt and took exactly three deep breaths. "C'mon Naruto, you can do this."

Looking straight at the door, Naruto recognized it as 24A. She smiled in recognition. That's why it sounded so familiar. 24A was when Iruka first started to teach for her and her classmates. Even though she hated Iruka at first, he eventually became one of her most precious people.

Naruto laughed, the first time she met Iruka was also the first time he became a teacher. Naruto remembered that her brother-figure also came late on the first day of school. After all those years, though, every one of Naruto's classmates—especially Naruto—learned to respect Iruka.

Now feeling a bit more confident, Naruto opened the classroom door and said,"Mornin' everybody!"

All became silent, taking Naruto back to square one. However a familiar voice was first to speak, "Sensei, you look youthful!"

Naruto's eyes brightened at the familiar verbal tick. She frowned slightly with a small smile forming on her lips. It was unbelievable. Looking across the room, Naruto spotted Kurenai, Asuma, and Kakashi.

"How ironic," Naruto said softly to herself.

"What was that, Sensei?" The student known as Daichi called out. The transcript she had read all night (the reason why she was late) held information about the students like their names, which Naruto memorized, and their work ethics.

Naruto shook her head and stood up with confidence. "No, it's nothing." She walked to the chalkboard behind her and wrote down her name. "The name's Naruto-sensei!" She put the chalk back down and stated, "Let's start with the daily routine."

The new teacher looked at a pair of student talking, "Oh, Ruka and Haru, stop talking there in the back. I can hear your whole conversation from down here." The students looked in disbelief at the substitute. Naruto continued, "And while you're at it, Ruka, will you please read the first paragraph in your history book?"

Naruto breathed in and sat back in her chair. Teaching was actually quite easy.

She took that back, teaching was not easy. Who knew that subbing for five-year-olds was a struggle? Goodness, and now she had to deal with it for the next who-knows-what.

Naruto knew that Kakashi got into fights with Obito, but this was way out of hand. Kakashi had had given Obito a black eye and a broken nose. Obito, on the other hand, gave Kakashi a broken finger and a small patch of hair missing.

Naruto drifted her eyes, almost closing them completly. For the first time, she was put into Iruka's shoes and did not like it one bit. Iruka would always be the one to pull either her or Sasuke out of their fights, and now, Naruto was the one pulling either Kakashi or Obito out of their stupid fights.

For goodness sake, Kakashi and Obito were fighting over the stupidest things like who could clean their eraser shavings the fastest, and like Sasuke would with Naruto, Kakashi would always win, resulting to a fight started by Obito.

And then, there she was, sitting on her desk, contemplating on how she was going to deal with the elder Hatake.

It was a law (in the Academy) that all teachers had to call up students' parents if the students got into serious trouble.

Playing with the brush on her hand, Naruto bit her lip, and slouched back into her swiveling recliner chair. Then, all of a sudden, a knock came from the door.

"Maika-sensei?" Sakumo's voice sounded. However, when he saw who was parched on the chair, his eyes grew wide. "You're not Maika-sensei."

Naruto's mouth opened and closed several times before she decided to just shut her mouth. Closing her eyes gently then sighing, she opened them again. Even though Naruto was expecting Sakumo, she couldn't help but feel surprised.

"Maika-sensei is out for her maternity leave. She's not going to be back until the end of the school year." Naruto said as nicely as she could with a smile straining her face.

Sakumo nodded, "I've heard the same too. When I heard that Kashi-chan had a new teacher, I wouldn't have expected it to be you." He sighed almost melancholically when he was reminded of his late wife. "She looked like she was about to pop."

Naruto raise a brow at his latter behavior. "You seem to know Maika-sensei quite well." She then added, "You must've been called here a lot due to Kakashi's fighting."

Hearing that, Sakumo suddenly became depressed. "Tell me about it. I hope this is just a phase, though. Kashi can't keep going on like this. Even if he was strong physically, Kashi still isn't strong enough mentally."

Naruto gave him a tight lipped smile, "Hey," she hesitantly patted him on the back, "from what I've seen, Kakashi's been winning at all these fights. Sooo..." She even added,"And Kakashi is good at enduring pain. I didn't even see him shed a single tear when his finger broke. Now that's a feat!" Naruro had a sunny smile on her face while nodding in a moderate pace.

"Was that supposed to cheer me up?" Sakumo said with narrowed eyes, staring at her incredulously.

Naruto shrugged, "Never been the best to comfort people anyway, so why start now?" Her smile grew deeper into a foxy grin, "But look at it on the bright side. Kakashi and Obito are rivals."

"Rivals?" Sakumo sat up straight and twisted his body to crack his spine.

A frown etched on Sakumo's face. Naruto widened her eyes, "Don't tell me you've never had a rival." The blank look on Sakumo's face told Naruto everything. "Like people competing for an objective of sorts. Rivals...?"

"I guess I've never had a rival 'cause I was better than most-" Sakumo was cut off.

"We're not talking about you, we're talking 'bout Kakashi!" She expressed loudly, "And don't 'unintentionally' flaunt."

A smile appeared on Sakumo's lips as he leaned forward, causing the chair beneath him to creak. "Wow, and here, I thought that we both could get along just for once." A smirk was drawn on his face.

Naruto rolled her and swivelled her brush into her hand. She chuckled lightly and said, "But seriously, there's nothing wrong with Kakashi or even Obito for that matter." She took the brush and started to clean off the paint from it's bristle with a wet cloth,"They're both still very immature and growing boys. They'll learn through their mistakes one way or another—it's inevitable."

Sakumo, in turn, also started to help clean the brushes with Naruto, asking,"Why are there," he counted the brushes in his mind,"teenty-four dirty brushes you need to clean?"

Naruto sighed,"I was teaching the kids how to write." She then stared at him with a frown,"But, we're getting off topic," she continued to disscuss about Kakashi and Obito,"Don't tell Kakashi to stop fighting. Trust me, I know from experience. If you tell a growing child what to do, they'll just get motivated to do it even more, knowing that you get irked by it."

She looked at him with an amused smile, "And I assume that you told Kakashi."

Sakumo refrained from from cleaning his fifth brush and brushed his hair with both his hands,"But, I don't get it. Why would he want to irk me?"

"There's most likely no reason most of the time, though. It's just a child's mentality—how they work and process things." Naruto gave him a reassured look.

"You really think so?" Sakumo's eyes were filled with hope.

"Yup," Naruto smiled and nodded. She added, "Like I said, boy are boys. Let them be. And in all honesty, I actually support their 'early spars.' " Naruto gave him a thoughtful look whlist placing her hand below her chin to pinch it,"Maybe the most you could do for Kakashi is to encourage him."

"You're not a really good teacher, are you?" He gave her a look of disbelief.

She laughed and shook her head,"No, I don't mean to encourage him in fighting. I mean to encourage him in his dreams." She remembered the first time Kakashi introduced himself and "accidentally" forgot to fill in the blanks. Naruto could tell that Kakashi didn't really have an honest to goodness real dream he would like to persue.

Sakumo looked as if he took her words to heart. The blond smiled, pausing from cleaning the bamboo brushes,"By the way, what if Kakashi and Obito were reaching out to eachother as a sign of wanting to become friends?"

Sakumo's eyes sparkled as he remembered when he tried to tell Kakashi to become Gai's friend—this didn't end too well, resulting in Kakashi just insulting the boy because of his disability.

If Kakashi was actually trying to become friends with Obito, then this would become a dream come true to Sakumo.

"How are you so knowledgeable, Sensei?" Sakumo had a questioning frown set on his face.

Naruto shrugged,"Well, let's just say I had past experience." Sakumo shown her his curious face, causing Naruto to giggle,"But that's a story for another time, Hatake."

Sakumo sighed,"So I should just stop pestering Kashi to stop fighting?"

Naruto finished off, "Well, I do me and you do you—but I recommend you do stop." She sniffled, recognizing it to be a stuffy nose, "And by the way, when I was younger, I always fought. Look how I turned out." She presented a smile on her face.

Sakumo snorted and joked, "Yeah, cause I'm the one who just destroyed Iwa's foundation on accident. Oh, and who could forget that supermarket incident-"

"Okay, okay whatever. I have my flaws here and there, but that's what makes me, me."

Sakumo's smile was still on his face, "Maybe." After taking a deep sigh, Sakumo got out of his seat and stretched. "Thanks Naruto-sensei." He gave her a little smirk,"And, I can honestly say that was the best advice anyone's ever told me of how to deal with Kakashi." However, before leaving out of the door, he said,"Try to avoid going to the Hokage's office too often." He gave her one last wave and headed out of the door.

With Sakimo's absence, Naruto could finally relax for a moment. She sighed and laid her head on the redwood desk whilst muttering, "How rude. He's implying that I'm a trouble-maker." Even if it wasn't completly untrue, Sakumo was still being rude in Naruto's book.

The blond Jinchuuriki sniffled again and stacked her papers accordingly. Naruto sighed again and gasped with wide eyes, "Did I just tell Sakumo that I supported Kakashi fighting?"

Naruto's eyes widened as she looked at her desk. She drew out a long sigh. That meant that she was going to see Sakumo more than she wanted to from now on.

She cursed as one of the rules she had to follow was to call the parent(s) when children caused a fight other than a spar.

"I freaking hate the rules." She cursed and stared at the stacks of paper on her desk. Now, all she had to do was find out how to deal with Obito's parents.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you guys hadn't notice yet, I've been starting to make my chapters a bit more longer. Hope you guys had an awesome Thanksgiving and maybe Black Friday? 'Til next time.