"Naruto," the Fire Shadow spoke up.
"Yes oldie," Naruto, or Hare replied.
"How would you like to be on a genin team? We currently have an open spot." Sarutobi asked.
Naruto stared from his place on the ceiling. Not that anyone could tell. "Why would I want to be demoted. Being able to command Jonin is awesome. I would be going from the upper food chain to the meat grinder."
The old man chuckled in response before saying, "You could make friends closer to your age."
Naruto replied with annoyance, "They would be two years older than me. I have Crow, Dog, Bear, Fox, and Monkey as friends, and I know several Jonin."
"You just don't want to do D-rank missions," Hiruzen accused. Naruto didn't deny it. "If you want, I could make Crow your sensei."
At this, a voice from the corner spoke up, "Sir, I would fail the team no matter how good they are. Then I could come back to ANBU, do fun missions, and still pester Naruto."
"Fine fine, no genin teams for you two. Crow, you're the only person in all of ANBU that considers S-class missions fun. I ought to assign you a C-class as punishment. Or even better, make you and Naruto do a D-rank mission," Sarutobi said with a huff.
"If you were to do that," Crow started, " I would figure out some way to make the mission more fun like I did with the riot mission. Start a revolution instead."
Sarutobi groaned in response. "Crow, that mission caused a political nightmare. You do that again, and I will make you do C and D rank missions for a year."
Crow retorted, "You wouldn't do that for the fear of me doing something even worse in retaliation. Plus, it would be a waste of valuable resources."
Sarutobi was apt to respond, but then he was forced to be silent. Seconds later, the door opened. "Team 4 reporting for a D-rank mission." Crow discreetly signed to the Fire Shadow that he should give them the dog walking mission. Sarutobi did so.
Unfortunately for Team 4, being specialized as a reconnaissance team, they were relatively weaker in stature compared to their peers. This caused all the genin on the team to groan loudly. "Why did you decide us such a horrible mission sir?" one asked.
Sarutobi simply smiled at them, and said, "I assign missions to those I think are best for them," lying through his teeth.
As the team left, and the door was closed, Naruto spoke up, "Really, you assign D-rank missions on the basis of what will bring us the most amusement. It's too bad we can't laugh at them while they're here."
The Hiruzen simply nodded in ascent. "It helps relieve the stress of paperwork. Which reminds me, I have some mission reports that need to be gone through. Let's have monkey and boar do them today."
The two ANBU in question groaned, and appeared from opposite walls out of nowhere. Hare and Crow didn't keep their joy silent, laughing out loud at the poor souls.