"I'm sick of all these D ranks! When are we gonna get a real ninja mission?" Naruto yelled from his position on the floor of the Hokage's office. He was sitting cross legged, and had a huge pout on his face. Sasuke was sitting beside him, but Kakashi thought it was more because he was too lazy to stand than anything else. His one normal student, Sakura, was standing beside him, a disappointed look on her face. He bet she was regretting her years of fangirlism right now.

"He's right, you know. Babysitting's all fun and good, but I'm really feelin' a C rank right about now." Broody said, standing up and stretching. Kakashi couldn't even look ashamed of his students anymore, even in front of his boss. All the energy he had left in him was being devoted to survival. And nowhere on a survival list were the words C rank.

"Lord Hokage," Kakashi said in a respectful tone, bowing a little. He was laying it on a bit thick, but in his sleep deprived state, he didn't notice. "I don't think this team is ready for a C rank mission." That wasn't quite true. The genin were all ready for the mission, since C ranks usually weren't that hard anyway. Sasuke and Naruto has been doing some training in the time they'd been teammates, and both were now at a high genin to low chuunin level. Not only that, but their banter had become much more friendly, and their teamwork had grown exponentially.

He was more worried about his ability to take on the mission. He knew about the C rank curse, and he and his fellow jounin had all experienced it first hand. He couldn't imagine what kind of things his monstrous little genin would do to his sanity. He also wasn't suffering alone; Sakura was just as targeted as he was.

"You don't believe your team ready Kakashi?" The Hokage asked, a bit surprised. "You are the last team that graduated this year to take on a C rank. Teams 8 and 10 have already been given their C ranks, completed them, and returned." Naruto groaned and fell back to lay on the floor.

"I'm still dead last!" He cried, a distressed look on his face. "No matter how hard I try, no matter how much Sasuke helps me, I'm still no good!" Kakashi looked around at the other people in the room, but none of them helped him much. Sakura was just as confused as he was, and the Hikage was looking at Narito with a mixture of regret and guilt. He didn't even have to look at the Uchiha, he could feel the anger from the glare he was being given.

"Dobe, do you think it really matters how many missions you complete?" Sasuke asked, looking down at Narito with an expression that said "I can't believe we're having this conversation right now".

"Well, yea. Isn't that how you get stronger?" Sasuke rolled his eyes at the little blonde junchuuriki.

"In the time we've been a genin team, your strength has increased exponentially. Do you know why?" Sasuke asked him.

"Because you helped me." Naruto replied.

"Are you sure it wasn't because of all the missions we did?"

"How could doing a bunch of chores help me get stronger!?" Narito asked, incredulous.

"How could completing a C rank help you get stronger?" Sasuke asked rhetorically.

"..."

"..."

"... I still don't get it."

"And that's why your the Dobe, and I'm an awesome, all seeing Guru." Sasuke said, the most serious look Kakashi had ever seen on his face.

"Now," Sasuke said, turning back to the other people in the room. "Give us the mission to Wave! I want to go kick some Kiri nuke-nun butt!" He exclaimed, pointing at the Hokage.

The Third just wordlessly handed over the mission scroll, and Kakashi couldn't help but feel the disappointment and despair that was creeping through his mind. The crazy Uchiha has probably set traps up for him along the entire path. And what was he mentioning missing nin for? Kakashi couldn't even imagine, not that he really wanted to. Why hadn't Hiruzen refused, he thought disparagingly.

"Well, then." Kakashi said, accepting his fate. "Where is our client?"

The Third motioned for one of the chunin in the room to go get the man that had petitioned for the mission, while Naruto and Sasuke read over the scroll. The door behind them opened to reveal a drunk old man with a bottle half full of sake in his hand.

"What!?" The man exclaimed. "I'm being protected by a bunch of kids?"

"And their pesky dog named Scooby-Doo too!" Sasuke said, smiling.

Sakura was waiting for her team with their client at the village gate. She knew Kakashi would be late, so she wasn't all that worried when he didn't show up on time. She was more concerned about the two other genin on her team.

Sasuke has changed. Ever since he'd become a genin, he'd started acting different. He was more cheerful, but also more crazy. He no longer glared at everyone he passed, instead, he smiled dangerously, and in less than a second that person had walked into a new prank he had devised.

He was also a lot stronger than before. Maybe she had just never really noticed in the academy, but she thought that Sasuke had somehow gotten a whole lot stronger with his personality switch. He was able to perform jutsu far above any level she'd seen him do, and that was including his Fire Ball Jutsu. He'd also been training Naruto to get stronger as well.

And there her thoughts came to the oddest part of all of this. Sasuke And Naruto's friendship. Just a couple weeks before, they had the biggest rivalry she'd ever seen between anyone. Then, when they got on a team, they'd somehow become best friends. She didn't even recognize her crush anymore.

The worst part of all this? She was getting left behind. The two boys were off to a running start, and she was just choking on the dust they kicked up. Her Sensei hadn't been any help, not that it was his fault. Naruto And Sasuke had made him their prime target, and he was stuck watching his back every second of the day, and quite possibly the night too. His one visible eye had dark rings under it.

Suddenly, wind started blowing in a tiny tornado off to her right, signifying a teleportation jutsu. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear, she thought to herself.

"Sorry Sensei, but Naruto and Sasuke aren't here yet," She said cheerfully. Her inner voice of hatred wanted to pound her for pretending she wasn't mad he was late, and had left her to awkwardly stand beside the stupid old drunk.

"Am I a sensei now?" She heard Sasuke's voice ask. That was when she realized that it was Sasuke and Naruto who had teleported over, instead of Kakashi.

"Sorry Sasuke!" She said hurriedly, wincing at her mistake. "I didn't know you could do a teleportation jutsu. That's really cool!" She said, her voice automatically complimenting him. She just couldn't get over him, even though he was a completely different person. She'd been trying to change ever since their date, since it was obvious that he wasn't really interested in her, but six years were not easily forgotten.

"It's fine!" He said, grinning at her. "I like the idea of being a sensei. I should teach you guys how to beat Bakashi Sensei up. Bet we'd make jounin if we did!" Sakura blinked a bit. Sasuke would teach her? He must have been joking again.

"You really think we'd be jounin if we beat sensei?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

"That's what you two did in the future." Sasuke replied. Sakura blinked again. Sasuke had been talking about the future a lot, and making a bunch of odd premonitions. Only thing was, they kept coming true. Would she actually get strong enough to one day beat Sensei?

"Awesome!" Naruto shouted, jumping up and down. Beside them, their client, Tazuna, scoffed.

"You're really going to believe what that idiot says? What on earth made you think he could see the future?" Sasuke smirked up at him, and Sakura knew something bad was about to happen to the bridge builder.

"I can see the future." He said, his tone daring the old man to object. Tazuna grinned a little, and Sakura got the feeling he thought he was helping Sasuke make a fool of himself.

"Prove it." He said, taking another swing of sake. Sasuke looked like he was on the verge of laughing at the drunk.

"You're going to Wave to build your bridge, and you need us to protect you."

Tazuna scoffed again, "I already told you that." Sasuke nodded.

"You did. But what you didn't tell us is that you're entire village is dirt poor, could only scrape enough money together to pay for a C rank, instead of the A, possibly S rank mission this would be." Tazuna flinched, but in his sake-influenced state, he focused on the wrong facts.

"That just proves you know about the condition my home is in. It doesn't mean you can read the future."

"You didn't let me finish. Zabuza Momochi, and his apprentice, Haku, are going to attack us on the way to Wave, because Gato, a billionaire, black market businessman, doesn't want your bridge to be built. He hired them to kill you.

"Before that though, we've got to survive the two Demon Brothers attacking us. They won't be much of a challenge, since they're hardly even chunin. Zabuza is a different story." Sakura couldn't believe it. That was far beyond his typical premonitions, that was a full day of what they were going to do. She was sincerely hoping Sasuke would be wrong, though deep down she felt something that said it was true.

Apparently, Tazuna had felt the same thing, since he was standing stock-still. Looking at Sasuke with a mixture of awe and horror.

"Will the bridge get built?" He asked Sasuke, his voice trembling. "Will my daughter and grandson survive?"

Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at him. "So now you believe me?" He asked, and was greeted by Tazuna's slow nod.

"You'll be fine. You're entire village should be okay, if not better. Though you may lose a couple men while they work on the bridge." May? Sakura thought. They may have a couple people die under their protection? That wasn't very reassuring.

"We need to tell sensei. If that's true, this mission will be too much for us." She said. They were just genin, going on their first C rank ever. If even one of the things Sasuke said was true, than this was too much for them.

"Tell me what?" Kakashi asked calmly behind them. She flinched, having not heard him show up. She looked around and realized how much time had passed. Either he'd been there for a while, or he was even later than usual.

"Well, Sasuke said that-"

"That this old man is a stupid drunk, and we should just hurry and get the mission over with as soon as possible." She turned to look at him in surprise. If he knew what was going to happen, then why was he lying about it? Didn't he realize how dangerous this was going to be?

She looked over to Naruto, hoping he would know what Sasuke was up to. He looked just as in the dark as she was, but he made no move to tell their sensei. Apparently, he was just going to let Sasuke do what he wanted.

Kakashi shrugged at them, probably not wanting to have anything to do with any of them at the moment. Tazuna made a move to walk over to him, but one look from Sasuke made him keep quiet.

"Sasuke, why aren't we telling sensei?" She asked, wondering what the heck he was going to do. Naruto quickly nodded beside her, wondering what he had planned.

"We aren't telling sensei anything because he's not telling us anything. Didn't you notice how late he was? He must have been doing something, and he won't tell us what. We're going to go on this mission, you two are going to beat some Momochi butt, and I'm going to sit around and watch Bakashi make you train like crazy." He said.

Did he really just say Naruto and I were going to beat Zabuza? She wondered. Naruto must have been thinking the same thing, since he burst out cheering.

"Take that!" He yelled at the sky. "I'm an awesome ninja and I'm going to be Hokage before this village even knows it!"

There was one last thing Sakura was caught up on. How come Sasuke would be tot just sit by and watch while she and Naruto trained?

She turned to ask him, but stopped when she saw team 10 walking up to them. She just about marched up there to ask Ino-pig what she was doing here, but instead glared at her.

Ino didn't glare back. Instead she walked up to Sasuke, and handed him some flowers. Choji looked completely taken aback, while Shikamaru just mumbled "troublesome". Sakura herself couldn't believe it. Not the part that Ino had given Sasuke flowers, but the fact that she hadn't flirted with him, wished him luck, or hugged him. In fact, Sasuke was paying for the flowers, so they weren't a gift.

After she was done with Sasuke, Ino walked up to her.

"Hey forehead," she said, and Sakura glared at her. Before Sakura could say something in response, she was wrapped in a hug.

"Sorry for being such a pig." She said, before walking off. Sakura was too shocked to react. She just watched as team 10 left. She was about to go ask what the heck that had been about, but then she realized that she was supposed to be on a mission. She looked back and saw that her team had already started walking out the gates and left her.

—

Omake:

Ino looked around at her flower shop, where she had spent years growing up. The flowers were all thriving, and her father smiled at her as he walked out the door. As soon as he left, she ran over to the calendar.

The day and month were right. The only thing was the year. It was 8 years off. Another thing wrong was her age. She was pretty sure she was supposed to be twenty. Her last memory was of a fight with a couple Iwa nin. They hadn't forgiven Konoha since the Fourth Shinobi War, and had been starting border fights whenever they could. She remembered being hit, and seeing Sai trying to help her, and that was as far as her memory went.

She heard the bell ring, meaning someone had just walked into the store. She straightened up, and put on a calm smiling face, hoping the person wouldn't be able to see her inner turmoil.

She nearly fainted when she saw who had walked in though. Naruto had come back one day, after another attempt to bring him back to the village, a blank look on his face. He'd said two words.

"You're dead." She told Sasuke, who was now standing in front of her.

"And I suppose that means you are too." He said, smirking.

I can't believe I haven't updated this story in two months... sorry guys, I'll try to be a better person in the future.