House of Cards

R. Winters

Disclaimer: I don't own Asuma, the Sandaime, or any intellectual property of Naruto.

Thank you for all of your wonderful reviews, I'm glad my joke came across okay in the last chapter... not much in the way of joking here, although I still think it's amusing. Anyway, I look forward to hearing what you think.

Chapter 3 – Older

"Dad!" Asuma's face, still rounded with baby fat at six, was red with anger when he burst into his father's office.

Sarutobi bit back a curse as his brush jerked in surprise, drawing a black line across the document he'd been composing. He frowned, looking up to meet his son's eyes.

"Asuma," he started sternly, anger leaking into his voice—the boy knew better than to burst in like that!

Asuma interrupted recklessly, his dark eyes boring into his father's as he slammed small hands onto the man's desk, fingers splayed. His entire face only barely stood over the edge of the desk. "I'm a good shinobi, aren't I?!"

Sarutobi's frown twitched a little deeper. "Of course you are, Asuma," he forced himself to grind out, "But you can't—"

"I'm the son of the Hokage!" Asuma added irately, "I'm probably the best damn shinobi in my class!"

"Asuma, language," the Sandaime admonished disapprovingly. It was impossible to shield his son from language like that considering that he was constantly surrounded by the coarse men and women who fought to protect their village, but the boy didn't have to run around repeating every inappropriate word he heard. "And I think that—"

"How come I didn't get promoted to Genin, dad?" The boy demanded, interrupting yet again.

Sarutobi blinked, then frowned again. "Asuma—you're six-years-old."

"So?" The boy demanded, "I'm big for my age. Besides, I'm older than him and he gets to be a Genin!"

"Him?" The Sandaime repeated with confusion. He shuffled through the papers on his desk as he waited for his son's reply—his report on the new graduates had to be around somewhere, but he hadn't had the chance to read it yet.

"Kakashi," Asuma supplied, growling the name, his face turning even redder. "Why did you make him a Genin and not me?! I'm way cooler than him! Besides, he's a jerk! He barely talks to anyone and even sensei doesn't like him 'cause he corrects him in front of the class!"

Kakashi—the name was immediately familiar to the Hokage and he knew he'd heard it before, but he didn't recall where, exactly. Whatever the case, he didn't envy the young Genin-hopeful for having incurred the wrath of his son.

"Asuma," he started tiredly, "I don't know what you're talking about. Who is Kakashi?"

The boy looked at him incredulously, "You made him a Genin and you don't even know who he is!"

The old man smiled a little. "I don't decide on the Academy graduates, Asuma... Students who pass a series of tests are graduated to Genin—as Hokage, I don't have much say on the issue. Not until the candidates come before me for a final review, at least."

Asuma did not appear appeased. He folded his arms across his chest and glared at his father. "Then tell him he can't be a Genin!" He demanded irritably, "When he has his final review. You can't let him be a ninja before me!"

"Son," Sarutobi started carefully, "I think you're a little confused... students don't graduate until they're at least nine years old—you still have a few years to go before you'll be ready for that."

"So he doesn't get to graduate," Asuma surmised, his shoulders relaxing a little.

"Who?" His father asked again in exasperation.

"Kakashi!" Asuma said again, scowling, "Hatake Kakashi! He's in my class, remember? He's the tiny one!"

Understanding finally dawned on the Hokage and he leaned back in his chair. Sakumo had petitioned him the preceding year to have his son, only four at the time, entered early. Sarutobi had been reluctant, but the prodigy could already throw a kunai and write more legibly than his own son, so he hadn't found reason to refuse. Still, the boy was very young—how could Asuma possibly think Kakashi was graduating?

Turning his attention back to his son, he repeated his question out loud.

Asuma tapped once on his desk, frowning thoughtfully for a moment before answering. "This morning sensei said we would all have a few days off from classes because the new Genin were going to be using the Academy for some special training. Except he said Kakashi would have to go, because he scored really high on the test we took last week."

The six-year-old scowled again, "I bet he cheated—I took the same test, and it was really hard. Sensei hasn't even taught us most of that stuff."

"He passed the test?" Sarutobi repeated with disbelief, returning to search for the file he'd received from the Academy two days ago and had been meaning to review ever since. "Asuma, are you sure that's what your sensei said?"

The boy nodded, frowning suspiciously. "He isn't really going to be a Genin, is he, dad? Not before me—right? I'm older!"

"Asuma, Genin aren't graduated based on their ages," the Sandaime said mildly, "They graduate students when they've learned everything the Academy has to offer them, which may be sooner for some children then others."

"But that's not fair!" Asuma exclaimed, "He can't have learned everything! He's only been in the Academy a year—same as me!"

"Yes," the man muttered distractedly, finally locating the off-white folder near the bottom of a stack of papers. Frowning in concentration, he gave the edge of the folder a sharp jerk. The stack fell neatly down on the empty space that presented itself and Sarutobi allowed a small smile of satisfaction before opening the folder.

The paper he was looking for was conveniently placed at the very top of the small stack he uncovered. Test results for one Hatake Kakashi, class 1-A, age five. Sarutobi had to read it three times to be sure he wasn't imagining things.

He looked up—Asuma was no longer standing across his desk, instead the young boy was at his elbow, hands gripping his armrest and a small frown creasing his forehead as he peered over his arm at the report.

"What's that?" The boy asked.

"The test results," Sarutobi supplied. "It seems Kakashi has passed the initial examinations."

Asuma scowled, "So he is going to be a Genin! Dad—you promised—"

"I didn't promise anything," Sarutobi cut in sharply, frowning, "Whether Kakashi becomes a Genin this year or not will depend entirely on his performance. I'm not going to hold him back just because you're embarrassed that someone younger than you graduated before you. If that's the case, you can just work harder next year."

"But I'll never be able to graduate if sensei doesn't teach us the answers to the test!" Asuma exclaimed indignantly, "How'd he get to know them, anyway? He's in the same class as me and I'm sure sensei didn't say half of that stuff!"

The Sandaime was sure, as well, but he wasn't going to tell his son. "Kakashi probably studies a lot outside of classes."

The look on the six-year-old's face was one of complete shock—as though the very idea was so completely foreign it had never crossed his young brain.

Sarutobi smiled fondly at the boy and reached out to ruffle his hair. The action broke the boy out of his daze, and he scowled, flattening down his mussed spikes.

"Why don't you go play?" The man suggested gently, "You'll have plenty of time to become a Genin later. Once you become a shinobi, you'll never be able to be a little boy anymore. You should take advantage of it while you can."

Asuma frowned seriously at him for a long moment before turning to leave. "I'm going to find Jiraiya," he announced, "I bet he'll tell me the answers to the test if I tell him where Tsunade moved her underwear to."

Sarutobi sighed and wondered why little boys always wanted to be older than they really were.