Author Note: Inspired by a fanart on Tumblr of a young Ino-Shika-Chou throwing snowballs at Asuma-sensei. Unfortunately, there's no proper credit for the fanart, so any knowledge as to the artist would be appreciated.

Imagine Asuma growing up, knowing he'd have to teach a team of genin one day just because of some old tradition.

And maybe when he was chuunin he didn't think much of it, but when he left Konoha he thought he was done with all of that; let his father find some other old rusty Sarutobi to babysit some snot-nosed genin for a few years.

But when he comes back, he remembers his place as a Sarutobi nin from Konoha, and he sees the newest brats from the Ino-Shika-Chou line, and he can't help but grimace. The girl is loud-mouthed and demanding, the Nara kid can't seem to pay attention for more than five minutes, and the last boy looks like he's about to cry. Asuma takes a particularly long drag of his cigarette.

They sneak up on him one day, because the girl thinks the flowers he pulled out of his neighbor's yard as a makeshift bouquet for Kurenai are actually very pretty; she demands to know the names of the flowers, and Asuma can only stutter and try to walk away before the girl explodes in anger and latches herself onto his leg. She commands the boys to help her, but the dark-haired kid only sighs and the chubby one looks too scared to even touch Asuma. He tries to shake her off, but in the process he bumps into the Akimichi kid who lands roughly on his bottom in the dirt and begins to wail.

Panicking, Asuma looks around for help, but Gai (who's actually good with kids) is nowhere to be found, and Kakashi (leaning against a nearby fence) is undoubtedly laughing behind his book as he pretends to not notice a thing. Akimichi begins to cry even louder while spikey-haired boy tries to console him and the girl accuses Asuma of bullying her friend.

He spots a restaurant—a barbecue place—and his mind whirls. Akimichis like food, right? He offers to pay for their lunch if they'll stop crying, and the Yamanaka immediately puffs up in anger and shouts that she's not crying, Chouji is, and it's all your fault, mister! Nara blinks apologetically at him and helps the other boy up, who wipes his nose and says lunch sounds good. Asuma sighs in relief as Kakashi laughs audibly in the background.

Lunch is an interesting affair. Akimichi eats too much, Yamanaka talks too much, and Nara stares at him too much. By the end of it, Asuma is ready to throw the kids out onto the street and make a beeline for Kurenai's house, but Akimichi thanks him with a genuine smile and Nara follows suit. Yamanaka unties her hair ribbon and wraps it around the stem of his makeshift bouquet and tells him that her daddy sells flowers if he wants to buy his girlfriend some real ones.

And they're off before Asuma can say a word, Yamanaka in the front, directing her boys where to go. He smiles around his limp cigarette and wonders what Kurenai would think of them.

Years later, after a thoroughly taxing first day as a genin team, Asuma tells them they passed his test and sends them home. All three share glances and turn expectantly towards him.

"Can we go out for barbecue?" they ask.