Naruto grinned cheerily with his family and team members as they made their way home. It was late into the evening, and the full moon was out, brightly lit the walkway so anyone on the streets could see Naruto and his Chuunin vest.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at Naruto's demeanour, clearly jealous but saying nothing. Inwardly, he blamed Kakashi. If Kakashi hadn't kept him from his match to be so-called 'fashionably' late, he might have kicked Gaara's ass too and become a Chuunin!

Speaking of Gaara, he showed up at the party not long after the Uzumaki happy tears fest with his siblings and jounin sensei in tow.

Gaara seemed the same, but he smiled at Naruto and shook his hand in greeting, and the blonde responded heartily. Naruto had been 'penpals' with Gaara since the Chuunin exams. He could not fathom how the two got along swimmingly for some reason.

He turns his head and looks over at Karin, who was talking excitedly with Rina; the Uzumaki were carrying many presents in paper bags that Ino had thoughtfully kept aside.

Sasuke did not realize that the Uzumaki family had so many connections; the prominent clan heirs and the current heads were all present to show their support for the family. Granted, Naruto had explained that his ancestor was married to Hashirama, and the Uzumaki once had a whole country of their own, which meant that the clan was once tremendous and formidable. Still, they had significantly dwindled to Naruto and Karin due to tragedy.

Sasuke visibly twitched; he couldn't deny that he empathized. He knew Naruto had never had a family of his own since birth, and Karin only had her mother before she died, so really, the two probably had almost as much sadness and grief as he did.

Sakura, meanwhile, was quiet, much to Kakashi's curiosity; he prodded her gently, wondering what was wrong. She responded softly, her voice seething.

"The kunoichi, except Hinata, didn't pay me any attention; Ino ignored me as much as she could!"

"Do you know why?" he asks gently.

"Hmph! I don't know!"

Kakashi frowned beneath his mask and said nothing; he had known Sakura's fangirl tendencies made her isolated, but he didn't realize the camaraderie she once had with the Yamanaka girl had shrivelled up this much.

"Maybe you should approach Ino-chan and ask her?"

"Maybe..." the pinkette frowns.

"Too bad you and Hinata didn't get any time alone tonight", Rina commented audibly, snapping Sasuke out of his reverie, who immediately turned to Sakura to see if she was paying any attention. Thankfully, she was lost in her thoughts.

"Hn, her teammates are protective of her..."

Karin smirks knowingly before whispering to him, "I bet the real reason was you were too shy to approach her!"

"W-what? Of course not!"

Karin continued to tease him, much to Rina's amusement.

Sasuke is too cute!

The Next Morning

Sasuke stared blankly and frowned, realizing Naruto had come to the training ground alone.

"Where's Mitsukai and Four-Eyes?"

"Mitsukai-sensei is running the ER Department today. That was a mission gone bad and a lot of severe injuries. Karin-chan starts her hospital rotation with Hinata-chan today too."

Sakura, who was standing beside Sasuke, frowned, confused. "How come Hinata-chan and Karin get to start on hospital rotations so soon? Don't they have more training to do?"

Naruto tilted his head at Sakura, looking at her carefully, "Karin is in the advanced medic-nin class with Hinata under Shizune-nee-chan because both of them had prior practice with medical training and healing before Baa-chan started the mandatory medic-nin program."

Sakura felt her ears turn red; she then remembered that Karin had mentioned that to the team and was slightly annoyed at Naruto's condescending tone.

However, Sasuke and Kakashi were baffled by Naruto's choice of words. It was completely different from what he usually used - it was apparent that his new family significantly influenced him.

"Kakashi-sensei! Could you teach us something today?"

The jounin was surprised that Sakura was asking but obliged. She was only doing it to make up for her earlier embarrassment.

"Well, Mistukai and I have discussed it, and we both agree that you should start doing the 'Catch the Eyesore' exercise."

Naruto grinned, confusing his teammates more.

"What is this exercise?" asks Sakura, wary of the glint in the blonde's eye.

"The exercise is used weekly by the other genin teams organized by the jounin to hone the tracking skills of the genin. Naruto is the main target of this exercise. He gets a head start of half an hour, and the genin must catch him within 3 hours in a specific space. So far, nobody has been successful."

Sasuke looked sceptical, but Naruto was too proud to be bluffing it all.

Sakura raises her hand, "Does the genin team also include Team 8?"

Kakashi nods and confirms that Team 8 has not had much luck either.

"Hn, well, I'll track down the dobe."

Naruto smirks, "I'd like to see you try, teme."

Ino and Tenten stared at each other in surprise when Ino entered the room.

"You're in my seduction class? But you're younger than me!"

"She has merit to be in the advance class."

Tenten turns and cringes as Anko comes into the room with a vicious grin: "Back in Ino's graduation year, Hokage-sama ordered me to observe her class to see the potential stand-outs. She struck out; her eyes watched everything about everyone, yet she acted obliviously, and her hands were quick and precise with the uncanny ability to copy anyone's handwriting perfectly."

Ino's eye twitched, slightly annoyed. She had never sensed that anyone had her watched, "My father is the head of TI and a spymaster. Was it that surprising?"

Anko shrugs, "Either way, I have Asuma's permission to move you into my class with Tenten. I wanted the Hyuuga, too, since she is developing faster than the rest of you, and she would be such fun to tease, but Kurenei rejected my request. A damn shame it is."

Tenten wrinkled her nose, "Developing? You mean her skillset?"

"No, she's talking about Hinata-chan's boobs."

Tenten reddened immediately, her mouth like a gaping fish at Ino's forwardness, causing Anko to howl in laughter.

"Looks like we're going to have fun together!"

Kakashi halted the exercise after half an hour as he explained that he was thoroughly disappointed with Sasuke and Sakura's performance.

Part of the 'Catch the Eyesore' exercise included Naruto and the team jounin to set up elaborate traps, and the kids failed miserably.

First, Sasuke had to help Sakura out of a two-meter-deep hole she fell into, which any trained genin could get out of on their own. Then, Sakura got hit in the face with a balloon filled with honey which then caused a whole swarm of bees to chase her away from Sasuke.

Sasuke was initially able to evade the traps, but the sheer number of machinations and unconventional nature got him entangled in some. The ongoing onslaught irritated Sasuke, making it even more difficult for him to avoid the traps because he couldn't focus.

But what disgruntled Kakashi the most was how evident it was that Sasuke and Sakura had no clue how to track Naruto, Naruto's skill in evasion notwithstanding in the first place.

He sighs heavily before giving both genin a stern look, then calls out his blonde student to appear, "NARUTO!"

In a second, the blonde lands next to Kakashi, and his teammates look at him in disbelief. Sakura was the first to speak.

"We didn't even sense you! How did you do that?"

Naruto shrugs, "I have practised over the years. How else could I outrun the ANBU, jounin, chunin and the Uchiha police after all the pranks I've done?"

Sasuke rubbed at his temples, a migraine coming on. How could he not have thought about that more? It was true Naruto had an uncanny ability to get away with his pranks that only the Sandaime Hokage could catch him.

Kakashi coughed, getting their attention.

"Naruto, Mistukai had mentioned that you were interested in adding tracking to your skillset?"

"Yes!"

Kakashi grins and ruffles the boy's hair, "I look forward to passing my tracking expertise onto you and the others. I will also instil special training with you; there's some untapped potential there."

Naruto grins widely at the compliment while Sasuke seethes in annoyance; how could the dobe be better at something than him?

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura raises her hand, "May we cut the session short? I have honey all over me, and it's all sticky!"

"Nope. You can go wash up in the river, though."

Sakura makes a noise of frustration before stomping off as her teammates watch.

"So what do we do until she gets back?" Naruto asks softly.

Kakashi eye-smiles, affectionately ruffling both teens' hair, "We can get started on you two showing me the elemental jutsu you need help with."