Naruto was happy to be back in his village.

After years of traveling with the perverted old sage, who he now considered as a sort of grandfatherly figure, it was refreshing to be back. Just the day before yesterday, he had planned to dump his meager belongings at his apartment and catch up with everyone.

Sakura-chan, Kakashi, Tsunade, Shizune, Iruka, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Rock Lee, Neji and the others.

Yet, despite being back in the village for almost two whole days already, he hadn't caught a single glimpse of anyone, excluding the first four above mentioned names.

"Naruto, look out." Kakashi warned in a bored, monotone voice.

Before Naruto could react, the bucket of paint which he had been using to paint the fences fell over, causing Kakashi to sigh.

"No wonder you're still a gennin."

Naruto sent Kakashi an annoyed look. "You're not exactly helping Kakashi-sensei."

"I should be annoyed, all things considered."

"Why?" Naruto decided to ask, confused.

"I'm stuck babysitting a gennin when I could be taking on more difficult missions with Sakura, who by the way isn't a gennin." Kakashi explained, withholding the fact that Sakura was a Jonin, just like him.

"Agh! It's not my fault! Besides it doesn't matter if I'm a gennin or not, I'll still become Hokage!"

"I know, I know," Kakashi placidly assured, continuing to read his book. "It's just, gennin are given more missions inside the village than outside the village, so at this rate we won't be able to go looking for Sasuke anytime soon. Such a shame." Kakashi sighed.

Naruto turned to him faster than he could turn his page.

"When's the next Chunin exams?"

'Hook, line and sinker.'

"Funny you should mention that," Kakashi started, a smile curving up on his features, "There's an upcoming Chunin exams being held in Sunagakure soon." he finished off by pulling out some papers.

Naruto immediately took them from him, an excited grin on his features. "This means I can see Gaara soon too, man if only he's still a gennin like me." Naruto wistfully said before giving Kakashi a curious look. "Which rank is he now?"

"Gaara?" A feminine voice asked.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned, "Where have you been all day?" he curiously asked.

Sakura gave him a smile, "Filling out adoption papers." she truthfully answered.

'Though I've been stuck all morning dealing with all the shit that comes with it.'

"Adoption papers?" Naruto repeated, honestly confused.

"Yeah, I'm going to adopt this cute f-"

"Kazekage." Kakashi cut his girlfriend off, deciding to put off on telling Naruto about the adoption, thus putting off on telling Naruto about their relationship.

Sakura rolled her eyes, knowing full well what Kakashi was doing. So she dropped it, instead focusing on Naruto. "Yeah, Gaara became the Kazekage. Looks like he got there before you did." Sakura teased.

Naruto's jaws dropped, "Gaara...Kazekage...?"

"Yep." Kakashi and Sakura confirmed in unison.

"Maybe we broke him?" Sakura sheepishly questioned, seeing Naruto not reacting.

Kakashi nodded in agreement, poking Naruto's cheeks.

"That's great!"

Kakashi and Sakura jumped in surprise, both inwardly feeling ashamed for their reaction considering they were shinobi. Though, despite that, they both couldn't help but smile as Naruto rambled on about how happy he was for Gaara.

'You've really drown Naruto.' Kakashi thought.

'Scratch that.' Kakashi sweat dropped the next day, feeling a migraine coming up as Naruto continued arguing with Tsunade.

"Some things never change, huh?" Sakura giggled.

"It's a bit endearing." Shizune said with a smile.

"One more word out of you and I swear you'll be off chasing after that damned Tora!" Tsunade finally snapped, slamming her hands on her desk.

Naruto shrunk back, shivering as he remembered about the demon cat.

Tsunade smirked, "Which will it be then? Cleaning up the hot springs or chasing after Tora?" she asked.

"Cleaning duties, m'am!" Naruto saluted.

"Good, now Team Seven? Get outta my sight."

All three disappeared.

Tsunade sighed, relaxing in her seat. "Honestly, those three have been causing me non-stop headaches lately."

"Well, at least the adoption got through."

"After dealing with Danzo and his goons." Tsunade grumbled, "I need a vacation, I swear." she stated.

Shizune sheepishly smiled, "You still have paperworks Tsunade-sama." she informed, doing her job as the assistant, or as everyone else likes to call her, the bearer of bad news.

Tsunade cursed, "I'm too sober for this shit!" she yelled.

Well, she didn't think anything could make her day worse.

"What's a six lettered word for stupid?" Sakura asked out loud, puzzling over the crossword puzzle she was busy with as Naruto obediently continued cleaning the hot spring, having taken Tsunade's threat very seriously.

"Idiot?" Kakashi asked.

"That's five letters, idiot."

"Obtuse?"

"Doesn't fit."

"Vacuous."

"That's seven letters."

Naruto finally groaned. "Why aren't you two helping?!"

"Should you explain or me?" Kakashi calmly asked his girlfriend.

"Kinda busy at the moment, darling." Her sarcasm covered up the term of endearment nicely. Well, at least Kakashi thought she was using sarcasm as a means to call him by a pet name.

Then again, he's never really understood women much.

"It's just tests," Kakashi shrugged, "D-ranks are usually used on newbies to see if they can keep being shinobi, well aside from being used to help with internal tasks to keep the village going."

"I'm not a newbie, ttebayo." Naruto pointed out.

"No, you're not." Kakashi easily agreed, "But we're still testing you."

"I don't get it."

"That's the point Naruto."

"Ack! This is such a waste of time, 'ttebayo!"

Kakashi was about to point out to Naruto that he wasn't exactly helping his case, before Sakura clapped her hands together, catching both the Hatake and the Uzumaki's attention.

"That's it, a six lettered word for stupid is N-a-r-u-t-o!" Sakura exclaimed in delight, spelling the name out as she wrote it down.

"Sakura-chan~!" Naruto whined.

"Well, she's not wrong." Kakashi chuckled.

In response Naruto splashed some water towards Kakashi, who immediately dodged.

The water ended up hitting Sakura.

She was not happy about that.

Somehow, the whole thing turned into a water fight between Team Seven.

At least they ended up completing the mission.

Maybe thinking that things couldn't get worse was basically like daring the whole world to do something much worse than the previous worse thing they did.

It sounded weird.

But basically, Tsunade regretted thinking her day couldn't get worse.

The world was an asshole like that.

"Shizune!" Tsunade yelled, hastily scribbling something on a scroll.

"Yes?"

"Give this to Team Gai!"

"B-but, Tsunade-sama, they don't have a medic, wouldn't it be wiser to send Team Kakashi? They have Sakura."

Tsunade shook her head no, "They already have Gaara. You think I'm going to hand Naruto to them on a silver plate? Think about it Shizune. Gaara gets kidnapped on the day Naruto returns? I'm not risking it being more than a coincidence. If things get worse, Kakashi and Naruto are backup."

"What about Sakura?"

"Team Gai needs a medic, right? Send her with them."

"Right."

"Now, hurry!"

Chapter End.

Author's Note: Short chapter, I know. Sorry about that.

Questions:

1. Will Kakashi ever tell Naruto that he's dating his crush?

2. Will Naruto ever become Chunin at this rate?

3. What's the "test" Naruto is being put through?