Chapter 70

Naruto

Naruto felt himself relax deeper into his chair when Haku came out of the room not looking any worse than when he had entered with that older blonde shinobi.

"You okay Haku?" he couldn't help but ask, his legs bouncing nervously.

The spar that morning with Sasuke hadn't been enough to get rid of all of his energy but at least he wasn't bouncing from one wall to the other and he could focus on the things going on around him.

"Yes Naruto-kun. Yamanaka-san was very kind." Haku assured him before he sat down demurely beside Sakura.

Said pink haired kunoichi petted him reassuringly on the arm, "Don't worry Haku-kun that was Ino's dad. He is really good at mind reading, you will be cleared in no time and then we will know more."

That was Ino's dad? Huh, okay he kind of did look like her.

"Sakura-chan, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun." Someone suddenly said from his right.

It was a girl, a kunoichi around their age considering the forehead protector and weapon pouches. She had dark hair and eyes and her face was familiar. Naruto knew her from somewhere but from where?

"Tsukiko-chan! Hello! It has been a while since we have seen each other." Sakura said with a warm, bright smile.

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a glance but by the way the Teme looked at him, he too had no idea who that was.

"Yes, since the Genin exams… a lot has changed since then." There was something strange in her voice before her smile became more genuine.

Naruto felt his eyes widen at that, oh… well that was embarrassing apparently that was one of his former class mates. At least Sasuke didn't look any better, they exchanged another quick glance before they resolutely stared in other directions. The blonde felt disproportionally satisfied that he wasn't the only one that forgot boring people quickly. Though if Sakura-chan was friends with … Tsukiko-chan wasn't it? Then he probably would have to pay more attention to the other girl.

"So you passed your test? Who is your sensei?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Not the initial one but I had the luck to be taken on as a student by Anko-sensei." Tsukiko said with a smile, "I have another teammate now, Sai."

"Huh, congratulations. Sai, Sai… I'm sorry but I can't actually remember a Sai from our graduation class."

"He is a year and a half older than us." Tsukiko explained and then the two girls started talking about their training and ninja fashion… boring.

"… we are going to specialize in infiltration and intelligence retrieval. Anko-sensei is pretty involved in the T&I division and both Sai and me are more suited to support roles than open combat."

Sakura nodded at that, "I'm glad that you are so happy with your team. We should meet up again soon!"

Tsukiko nodded at that with a smile, "Yes. I would like that I haven't seen anybody from our class since before the Genin test and… oh. Right Sakura, do you see the purple haired kunoichi over there? That's Anko-sensei."

"It's the Snake Lady." Naruto blurted out when he recognized who Tsukiko was pointing out.

"Snake Lady? Yes Anko-sensei summons snakes but…" the other kunoichi said confused.

"She was the one that got hurt that time at Kakashi-sensei's house." He continued absentmindedly to his teammates while watching the kunoichi purposefully walk over to his sensei, beside him Sasuke now too sat up a bit straighter to get a better look.

Naruto knew that she and Kakashi-sensei were friends, their sensei wouldn't have been so worried and determined to help her if they weren't. And didn't Tsukiko just say that she only had one other teammate.

Hhm… maybe this could work.

Sakura Interlude

Naruto was planning something… no, he was plotting.

His sky blue eyes were fixated on Tsukiko's Jounin sensei and the smirk that slowly grew on his face was decidedly fox like, she knew that expression all too well. During the academy this expression normally indicated that he was about to set off a prank the size of the Hokage Mountain which was immediately followed by one of Iruka-sensei's loud lectures that could be heard through half Konoha.

Oh Kami, please no.

Sakura's eyes wandered over to Sasuke who was watching the blonde just as wary as she was feeling. And here she had thought they had cured the blonde of his pranking urge with copious amounts of training and missions.

"Tsukiko." Another voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

Sakura's eyes wandered over to the speaker and she had to hold back from openly gaping at the shinobi in front of her. He was maybe two or three years older than them, well muscled and he was just as much of a pretty boy as Sasuke, though not quite on Haku's level. The unknown shinobi was all black hair and eyes and pale skin, his skin tone was nearly white while Sasuke had more of a gentler peach color… and his smile was somewhat creepy.

"Sai." Tsukiko said with a small smile of her own, "Finished?"

Oh, so he was Tsukiko's teammate.

"Yes. Once Anko-sensei has sated her curiosity we can get takeout." He said in a bland voice with no inflection whatsoever.

"Oh… I could cook for us, Sai-kun." Tsukiko offered with a kind smile.

Sakura had to bite her lip to keep from smirking, she hadn't expected such an offer from silent and quiet Tsukiko. Was she asking him out on a date or was it more like her own relationship with Naruto?

"No thank you Tsukiko, your cooking hasn't improved enough yet for it to be completely edible." The bastard said with a completely straight face.

Wow. And she had thought a Naruto directly out of the Academy was bad.

Sakura was just about to give this Sai a piece of her mind concerning insulting his teammate and humiliating her in a public setting when Naruto jumped off his chair, seemingly having made up his mind and determinedly walked in the direction of the three adults.

Oh dear.

Anko Interlude

"Hey Snake Lady."

"Brat, what do you want." Anko answered impatiently.

She was a bit annoyed that he had intercepted her only steps away from Inoichi and Kakashi. She had gotten the news about Team 7's souvenir while she gave her own brats a short practical lesson on subtle interrogation techniques on civilians and was now curious about the results of Inoichi's mind reading.

"You are missing a fourth member on your team, can't you take Haku?" the blonde asked bluntly.

Anko sputtered "What? Why me brat?"

What was that brat talking about; she hadn't even seen the ice user's profile yet. Or hell even talked to the kid.

"Because you helped Kakashi-sensei that one time and he worried about you. You can't be that bad if sensei likes you, so what do you say?"

"I…" Anko stared flabbergasted at the blonde knucklehead in front of her, what kind of reasoning was that?

Out of the corner of her eyes she could see the Yamanaka and Kakashi exchange thoughtful glances, crap! It never did bode well for her if Inoichi had this amused 'It's for your own good.' expression on his face.

"You also work here don't you? You know about the mind and stuff, you could help Haku when we aren't around." Naruto continued with full conviction.

Slowly Kakashi, the damn traitor started to grin before saying deceptively mild, "You know Naruto, just before we left for Wave Anko asked me how she could repay you for helping with unsealing her…"

Anko turned around to look incredulous at the smug looking Kakashi and the amused Yamanaka that watched the whole thing with interest. What the hell was Kakashi thinking? Yes she had training in psychology, but that was to BREAK people and get information out of them, not to fucking put them back together… oh hell that was about Sai and Tsukiko wasn't it? Great she should have known that attempting to socialize the brats a bit would bite her in the ass someday.

"Really? Well can you take Haku then? He is really nice you know, and good with all the ninja stuff… he just gets really sad sometimes, so will you?" the blonde Jinchuuriki asked with big puppy eyes, and damn it what was Kakashi teaching those kids?

Her eyes drifted over to the ice user in question and Anko eyed him for a moment than sighed. Oh what the hell, it really didn't matter if she had two or three brats with problems. Speaking of her brats, her eyes glided to Tsukiko and Sai that had followed Kakashi's Genin and Haku and now watched the whole conversation with more or less obvious interest.

"Brats what do you think?" she asked directly, no sense of beating around the bush after all.

Tsukiko was the first to answer after giving Haku a quick glance "He seems nice."

"Sai?"

"No objections." The deceptively passive looking boy said.

"Alright, fine." she said with a deep sigh.

Her eyes became a bit softer when she stared at the flabbergasted ice user, "Haku was it? Well come here, I'm Mitarashi Anko and apparently your sensei from now on."

Naruto's face started to shine with pure happiness while he punched into the air "Yatta. That's awesome Haku. The Snake Lady is a friend of Kakashi-sensei so maybe we can even train together!"

Haku looked overwhelmed while he continued to stare at Naruto's sunny expression, Kakashi's pink haired kunoichi sighed at that and ambled up to the elder ninja.

With a quick shoulder nudge she said "Don't worry everything will be fine." before pushing him in direction of Anko and Tsukiko.

Anko watched how her newest duckling hovered uncertain on the edge of her team. The snake user felt the urge to grab the brat and give him a tight squeeze to get rid of the lost gaze in his eyes but held back, she would probably only scare him away like that.

"Well then, let's go. We have to get you some standard Konoha gear and your headband and then I will have to talk my landlord into giving you the last apartment on our floor. Though that shouldn't be so difficult." Anko said more for Haku's benefit than anyone else.

"Wait Anko, you will have to file the needed paperwork." Yamanaka interjected.

"That's true but you see I have a new duckling I have to take care of first." Anko quickly answered, like hell she would also do the paperwork.

"It really needs to be done as fast as possible." He kept insisting.

Well who was she to turn down such an offer?

"Why Yamanaka-sama thank you for volunteering!" Anko said before she grabbed Haku by the shoulder and made a quick escape, trusting in the fact that the other two would follow. A stray thought let her turn her head and shout "Oi, Kakashi bring your brats tomorrow around twelve to Ichiraku's."

Kakashi Interlude

Kakashi watched highly amused as Anko made her quick escape with Haku and her other two brats.

"Did she just ditch me? ...and left me with the paperwork for HER new Genin?" came the incredulous question beside him.

Kakashi chuckled, "Why it looks like it."

"Great." The mind reader groaned before he turned hopefully to Kakashi.

"We will be leaving too." Kakashi said and quickly turned around with his Genin in tow.

Still laughing inwardly Kakashi only slowed down a block away from the T&I building, a quick glance showed him that his Genin were just as amused as he was.

"You are pretty good at dodging unwanted work, aren't you sensei?" Sakura stated deceptively mild, a tiny smirk curled around her lips.

"Maa, it's a skill that I'm certain you will pick up very fast… it's imperative for anyone who wants to lead a reasonably stress free life, especially for Jounin."

A snort from Sasuke and an outright laugh from Naruto were his answers.

"Do you want to come have dinner with us?" Kakashi then asked his Genin.

He had the sudden urge to bring them home with him; it felt wrong to send them back to their respective homes.

"I'm sorry sensei but I have to go home, I haven't been there for such a long time… I have to at least check in with my parents and see if everything is okay." Sakura declined.

Kakashi could see the tiny grimace when she thought about home, which didn't help his protective instincts but in the end he nodded at that excuse. He could accept her urge to check up on her family, no matter how strained Sakura's relationship with her mother was.

"Maybe tomorrow Kakashi-sensei, I want to meet up with Iruka-sensei and tell him about this mission, hey Teme want to come along?" Naruto said after a moment of thought.

The Uchiha beside him sighed before giving a half shrug, half nod in Naruto's direction.

"Ma, I see. Have a good night, I will see tomorrow at breakfast."

Team Seven nodded before they jumped up on the rooftops of the building they weren't standing in front of.