Naruto grinned as he watched Sasuke collapse on the couch tiredly, stretching his hand out for the remote. Sasuke groaned when he couldn't find it and closed his eyes, sighing heavily. He was not going to get up, no matter how much he wanted to watch TV.
Naruto stepped closer to the couch and stopped in front of his brother. This was payback for all the times Sasuke had insulted his height!
"Sasuke-kun!" Naruto screamed in front of Sasuke's face, and the raven lurched upward, cursing.
"What do you want, Naruto?" Sasuke exclaimed, reaching out for his brother. The blonde easily stepped aside and smirked.
"Payback."
"For what?"
"All the insults!"
"Oh my God, Naruto! I am going to kill you!"
Sasuke jumped up and ran at his brother, who yelped and sprinted outside. They ran past Kakashi, who blinked before shrugging and going inside. They would solve it themselves.
/\/\
"Kakashi," Tsume said hours later. Kakashi hummed, staring down at his book. "Where are Sasuke and Naruto?"
Kakashi froze, slowly glancing up at Tsume, who frowned at the guilt on his face.
"Uhh…" Kakashi stood up abruptly. "I'll go find them!"
He found them panting on the ground ten feet from the front door, bruised and dirty. But just because they were nearly unconscious did not mean that they couldn't still fight. With words.
"You idiot! How are you even passing?"
"How are you not teacher's pet?"
"Sakura is!"
"So what?"
"Boys!" Kakashi shouted, and the two kids looked up at him guiltily. "What is going on here?"
"Sasuke insulted my height, so I scared him and he attacked me!" Naruto exclaimed. Kakashi sighed and bent down, grabbing an arm from both of them.
"You are both grounded for the rest of the month," he decided. Naruto whined and Sasuke snarled.
"I'm already grounded, though!" he argued. "I still have like, half a week left!"
"So you can add half a week to your new two weeks."
"But that's not fair! Dad, it wasn't my fault! It was Naruto's!"
"It doesn't matter. You're both grounded."
Itachi wandered past them in the hallway and shook his head. He didn't even want to know.
/\/\
"I have made a decision." Hana said at dinner from her place next to Itachi. Tsume looked at her.
"What is your decision, Hana?" she asked.
"I am not a vegetarian anymore."
Kiba laughed. "I knew it! I knew you couldn't do it!"
"Shut up, Kiba." Hana growled.
"What changed your mind, neesan?" Naruto asked, and Kakashi sighed. Naruto was kind of weird like that, almost never saying Hana's name—it was always neesan.
Hana shrugged, smiling at her little brother—who never acted like Kiba. "I don't really know. I just…decided that I couldn't do it."
"Works for me!" Kiba said, grabbing the plate of chicken. He shoveled some onto his plate.
Sakura rolled her eyes and turned to her parents. "Mom, Dad, Ino's birthday is coming up. She invited me to her party. Can I go?"
"Yeah, sure." Kakashi said at the same time that Tsume said, "We'll think about it."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow and turned to his girlfriend. "What?"
She shrugged. "It depends on what we're doing that weekend. How do you know we won't have anything going on that she can't miss?"
"I don't, but that doesn't mean she can't cancel if she has to."
"When is the party?" Tsume asked her daughter. Sakura thought for a moment, glancing over to the calendar on the wall.
"Uhh…September 22nd."
"See?" Tsume said, looking at Kakashi. "I almost told my cousin that we would be there for her son's birthday. But then I realized that Sasuke and Kiba were still grounded and they wouldn't be able to go, so I declined. She wouldn't have been able to go."
"But she can." Kakashi pointed out. "Thank your brothers, Sakura."
"Thank you, morons." Sakura said, rolling her eyes.
"That's not nice, Sakura." Tsume said, frowning. "Even if it is true."
Naruto sat upright and pouted. "Hey!"
"Anyways, you can go, Sakura." Tsume finally relented. Sakura smiled.
"Thanks, Mom, Dad!"
"Any time, kiddo," Kakashi said.
Naruto was still frowning from being called a moron by his own mother, but then he brightened. "Oh, hey, Mom, Dad, I forget to tell you something."
Tsume stiffened. Anything Naruto said usually involved her having to go down to the Academy to talk with Iruka Umino.
"What is it, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, oblivious to his girlfriend's inner fear.
"Iruka-sensei said he wanted to talk to you."
"About what?"
"I don't know. Something about me and Kiba, I think."
Tsume relaxed. If it had to do with Kiba, then it wasn't that bad. Kiba usually kept his brother in line.
"When?" she asked, picking up her fork again.
"Tomorrow after school."
Tsume choked on the sip of water she had just taken, and Kakashi patted her back until her coughs subsided. "Tomorrow?" she repeated hoarsely. Naruto nodded.
"Yeah."
"I can't go." Tsume said. "I have a mission, and I'm leaving at one."
Kakashi thought a moment. "Maybe we can talk to him when we drop the kids off, then. Or at his lunch break."
"Okay, I guess. I just hope it isn't important." Tsume muttered. She glared suspiciously at Naruto and Kiba, trying to figure out what they had done.
/\/\
The next morning Tsume and Kakashi left the kids in the yard with their friends and found Iruka in his classroom. He jumped when they knocked on the door.
"Sorry," Tsume said, stepping into the room. "I have a mission and wouldn't have been able to make the meeting after school. I hope this is okay."
"Oh, yes, this is fine. I really didn't care about the time, I just had a few things to talk to you about, and I felt that it would be best if we got it over with quickly." Iruka said, gesturing for them to sit down at a couple of desks in front of the board.
Once they had sat down, Iruka frowned out window. "You both know that the graduation exams are coming up," he started. Kakashi nodded, while Tsume glared down at the desk she was sitting at. God, she had hated her years at the Academy.
"We have been situating the Genin teams, and we realized that it would be nearly impossible for your children to not be on some team together."
"Okay," Kakashi said slowly. "What's the problem there?"
"Well, you, Kakashi-san, are also a Jonin sensei. That means that you would have your own children on your team." Iruka said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"So?"
"Kakashi, usually Jonin senseis don't have relatives on their Genin teams." Tsume explained. "Some think that they show favoritism towards their kin than the other students."
"So?"
"Don't you understand? You would be harassed because people would think that you were showing favoritism towards your kids if you pass them."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "You know who I am, right? Trust me, even if my kids are on my team if they don't meet my expectations they're going straight back to the Academy."
Tsume blinked. That's right. Kakashi had come home several times over the years complaining about how the Genin he was assigned to test didn't understand what he was trying to say and that they didn't understand what it meant to be a shinobi.
He had failed every single one of them.
"You would fail your own kids?" Iruka repeated blankly.
"Of course. If they don't show that they understand what it means to be a shinobi I'm not passing them. And I wouldn't be showing favoritism."
"Wouldn't they hate you afterwards, though?" Iruka wondered.
Kakashi shrugged. "Naruto would forgive me if I took him out for ramen. Sasuke wouldn't really care, I don't think, and Sakura would forgive me as long as I take her shopping with Ino."
"What about Kiba?" Tsume asked.
"If I help him train with Akamaru he'll forgive me almost as easily as Naruto."
"Okay, then. That was all." Iruka said. Kakashi smiled and stood up.
"Bye, Iruka-sensei!" he said, walking out the door. Tsume hurried to follow, waving over her shoulder at the shocked Chuunin.
A/N: Okay, so I forget to mention this a while back, but the kids are now ten. Which is a pretty big leap, but it sort of slipped my mind. So when Tsume got sick they were ten.
