All right, here we go. Mission time! Oh, and X Ninja, I'm afraid I don't speak Japanese, and I recently lost the link to my online translator. Sorry! Now onward!

"Alright, team, we have to report to the Hokage in about an hour for missions, but that gives us enough time to eat breakfast." Himaru started walking back toward the house, but-

"Sensei, um, why did you put us through a giant washing machine?" Sakura asked.

"Like I said, we're in a bit of a hurry. Besides, It's not like you brought clean clothes with you, so this killed two birds with one stone."

"You're weird, Himaru-sensei." The jounin shrugged it off.

"Better than being normal." Himaru unsheathed a key from one of his many pockets. "Now come on, I'm hungry." His team rushed in after him. "Close the door behind you, Naruto, I don't want anything escaping.

"Uh…sorry, Himaru-sensei." The half-god stuffed the key back into his pants and hurried across the sea of junk.

"Just take a seat on anything solid looking. I'll be right back with food."

"Do you need any help, Himaru-sensei?" Sakura offered, but their teacher had already disappeared down the hall.

"Awesome!" The floor of trinkets rumbled as Naruto unearthed an old, dusty recliner. He flopped down into it, forcing a cloud of dust into the air.

"Naruto (cough) no baka!" Sakura wheezed. The blond grinned sheepishly.

"Heh, sorry Sakura-chan."

"Tch, Dobe." Naruto blew Sasuke a big, fat raspberry before grinning again.

"Now all I need is a big fluffy cat and a desk!" He paused. "Do you think Himaru-sensei has a cat?"

"He has just about everything else," Sasuke replied. He bent down and forced his way into the junk. "Whoa-agh!" Sasuke disappeared down into the sea of knick-knacks.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura scrambled to the spot Sasuke had fallen through. "Sasuke-kun!" she called again. Ten feet over, Naruto's chair began to shake violently.

"What the-!" What appeared to be a tower of dust erupted from underneath the chair. The recliner tipped over and rolled until Naruto was trapped underneath. "Help, the chair's trying to eat me!" The seat flew through the air and slammed into the ceiling. "I'm safe!" Naruto shouted, but the fox-boy forgot a little thing called gravity, and two seconds later he was trapped again.

Meanwhile, the tower of dust shook itself clean and revealed a very disgruntled avenger. "I hate this house."

"I'm still being attacked here!" Sakura giggled at both of them.

"Naruto, it's just a normal chair. Sasuke-kun tipped it over on you." The 'demon-chair' stopped shaking and Naruto quickly pushed it off of him.

"I totally knew that." Neither of the blond's teammates were looking at him. "I did! I was just testing you!"

"Breakfast's rea-" Himaru paused in mid-step. "Why are you all so dusty?"

After a simple breakfast of cereal and eggs, Team 7 found its way to the Hokage's office. "The jounin instructors are on missions because of our current manpower situation, so Team 7 is going to be broken up temporarily to join the other genin squads."

"Didn't you receive my notice about Orochi, Hokage-sama? I don't think-" Tsunade held up a hand to silence the jounin.

"I assure you the situation is under control, Himaru-san. Now as I was saying, Naruto, you will be joining Team 8 on a C-rank mission. Meet them at the gate in one hour for a debriefing."

"That's Hinata-chan and Dog-boy's team, right? Awesome!" Tsunade completely ignored the younger blond's outburst.

"Sasuke, you will be joining Team 10 on a C-rank mission. Meet them at the gate in one hour for a debriefing." Sasuke eyes turned into saucers.

"That's Ino and Shikamaru's team…"

"Yes, Shikamaru specifically requested you for this mission."

"He requested Sasuke, so… that means Shikamaru got promoted to chuunin! That's not fair!" Naruto pouted and crossed his arms over his chest in indignation.

"That bastard…" Sasuke mumbled.

"Eh? That's a bit severe, don't you think? Sasuke? Sasuke?" The Uchiha gave no response.

'I should have seen this coming,' he cursed in his head. 'Shikamaru said he'd get revenge and now who knows how long I'll be stuck with Ino!' Meanwhile, Sakura wasn't too thrilled either.

'Sasuke-kun's going to be stuck with Ino-pig on a mission!'

'What are you worried about? Sasuke-kun would never touch that pig!'

"Ahem!" The genin shot their attention back to Tsunade. "As I was saying… Sakura, today you begin your training under Shizune and myself, since there are no current missions in need of a junior medic."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!"

"Right then, dismissed! Except you, Himaru." Naruto opened his mouth to tease their sensei, but Sakura covered his mouth and forcefully dragged the blond out the door.

"What is it, Hokage-sama?" Himaru asked, his facial expression straining to grow more innocent looking as Tsunade leveled a forceful stare on him.

"There have been a couple complains logged against you by some other jounin. Apparently you were 'rude to your peers' and 'broke three of Ginzumaru's toes'."

"Who's Ginzumaru?"

"Some jounin. Now care to explain yourself?" Himaru shrugged, his faked innocent expression long gone.

"They thought they could get away with treating me like they do my student. I showed them otherwise. If they continued to bug you, I can always making it look like an 'accident'."

"I don't want to know whether or not you're kidding, do I?"

"Probably not." Tsunade sighed.

"I'm afraid I have to give you some punishment." Himaru brushed the hair out of his eyes.

"Fine. What is it?"

"I'm assigning you an A-rank mission with some of the other jounin, with docked pay of course."

"That's all?" Himaru was honestly surprised. He'd expected community service, or some sort of formal apology.

"You're teammates are Maito Gai, Hatake Kakashi, and Mitarashi Anko."

"I'll get you for this, Hokage-sama." Tsunade brushed off the minor killing intent with a flick of her hand.

"Whatever. Just go meet them down in the jounin lobby for a debriefing." Himaru nodded slightly, before vanishing in a poof of smoke. "Finally," Tsunade moaned and reached under her desk, to grasp only air. "MY SAKE!" The whole tower reverberated with Tsunade's rage.

Himaru reappeared by the lobby door, just missing the shockwave that ran through the entire building. Ignoring the screams of confusion from downstairs, he mentally prepped himself. 'I shouldn't worry. Even she wouldn't try to jump me on a mission, right? Right?' A solid lump formed in the bottom of his gut. 'Time to find out.' Himaru gripped the knob and twisted it.

"HELLO, MOST YOUTHFUL HIMARU-SAN!" The black-haired jounin nearly sighed in relief. He couldn't even think of a bigger turn-off then Gai without traumatizing himself, no offense to the cheerful taijutu specialist.

"Greetings, Gai-san, Kakashi-san…A-Anko-san." Kakashi shrugged in response, but Anko just smirked. The slightest of shivers shot down Himaru's back. "O-okay then, so what IS our mission, exactly?"

"A sizeable band of C-rank and low B-rank missing ninja has been located near the northern border," Kakashi explained, his eye never leaving his book. "We've been hired by the nearby villages to break them up.

"Do we know anything about their exact numbers?" Himaru asked, his tone borderline…something. For the life of him Kakashi couldn't quite identify it.

"There are approximately twenty C-rank shinobi, and probably only about three or four B-rank shinobi." Himaru smiled, and on the outside it looked like one of mere contentment, but on the inside it was sheer excitement.

'I suppose there's nothing wrong with a little…recruiting.' He briefly wondered if Tsunade had given him this mission as a purposeful favor, but decided that it was unlikely. "That doesn't sound too hard. If I may inquire, you are the leader of this mission, Kakashi-san?"

"Is that a problem?" the Copy-nin replied lazily, but with an edge of hostility tipping his words. Himaru held up his hands in a submissive gesture.

"No, of course not, just curious." 'If it was a problem you'd be dead.' He paused. 'Damn, these urges are getting worse.'

"Can we go, already?" Anko asked suddenly, reminding them all of her presence.

"YES! WE MUST LEAVE WHILE OUR FLAMES BURN BRIGHTEST! ARE YOU PACKED, HIMARU-SAN?"

"Probably," he answered. All three of the other jounin gave him funny looks. "I seal a lot of stuff in my pockets. I'm almost sure I'll have a sleeping bag somewhere."

"You can always share mine," Anko purred, but the moment was ruined.

"YOSH, HOW YOUTHFUL OF YOU TO OFFER HIM YOUR EXTRA SLEEPING BAG!"

"That's not what I-"

"Let's not shatter his illusions right now," Kakashi cut in. "Now let's just go." Kakashi was the first on the move, and the others quickly chased after. Their speed carried them out of the village, and in moments they were riding across the treetops.

"YOSH! IF I CANNOT REACH THE BORDER IN A SINGLE DAY I WILL RUN 100 LAPS AROUND THE VILLAGE!"

"Is he always like this?" Gai's form was already shrinking into a tiny dot.

"You get used to it," Kakashi replied, but he stepped up his own speed. Lest he be left behind with Anko, Himaru also raced ahead. He did his best to pretend Anko wasn't checking him out from behind.

"I have to admit I'm impressed, Himaru-san," Kakashi said. "Not a lot of shinobi can go at this pace without at least sweating a little." Himaru forced a smile.

"I ran a lot when I was a kid." Kakashi's one visible eyebrow quirked up.

"Hey guys!" Naruto practically skipped to meet Team 8. "So what's the big mission!?" His whole face was split by a wide, toothy grin.

"We are to deliver a set of scrolls to a series of nearby villages," Shino answered. Naruto's face sagged at the information.

"This sounds a lot more like D-ranked mission to me."

"Nuh-uh," Kiba shot. "There's been a big increase in reports of vicious animal attacks. Something's got the beasties real riled up." Akamaru barked in agreement.

"N-N-Naruto-kun, K-Kiba-kun?"

"What's up, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked. The Hyuuga heiress raised one slender finger and pointed outside the gate.

"Sh-Shino-kun's already left."

"WHAT?!"

"Hi, Sasuke-kun!" The Uchiha felt his eye twitch. Ino had cut her hair short, like Sakura. Damn she was persistent.

"Hn," he muttered, his already crimson eyes boring holes into the back of Shikamaru's head.

"This is so troublesome," he yawned. Sasuke could sense an underlying humor to his voice. "But we've got to go chase off some bandits in a town a couple miles off. What a pain…" Chouji's constant munches seemed to accent every one of Shikamaru's words.

'This is going to suck, SO badly,' Sasuke groaned on the inside, outwardly keeping a cool, apathetic expression. The sword at his side pulsed with chakra, sending a message up to his brain. 'At least I'll have something to vent my anger out on.' Those poor bandits would have no idea what hit them.

"All right, Sakura, are you ready?" Shizune asked. Sakura nodded and was led into a large classroom. "Here you'll undergo some tests to see if Tsunade-sama judges you worth her time," Shizune stated, a light of pity in her eyes and voice.

"I'm ready, Shizune-sensei."

"Good. First, there's a paper test." She pulled a paper and pen from inside her robe.

'PEACE OF CAKE, CHA!'

Again, I apologize for my short chapters, I'm just not having much inspiration for this fic right now, whereas I'm having to stave of ideas for another fic and a book I'm currently writing in the real world. Not to mention school's not so far away anymore. Well, please read and review. Sigh