"The demons were scary, but girls - Well, girls are really terrifying"
― Darren Shan, Lord Loss

Snapshot Age 10

If there was one thing Naruto and Sasuke would always agree on, it was that they didn't understand girls. When they had started the academy, their female classmates had been worried about ribbons and flowers. However this year, their behavior had taken a very drastic turn. They were literally cooing over Sasuke. The only one that didn't was Hinata, and they had grown up with her so that didn't count.

At first the two had tried to ignore them. Sasuke just found it irritating and while it had been funny at first, even Naruto agreed that it was too much. But they didn't take the hint and go away. In fact it got worse. Which was how the two boys had ended up where they were now.

"Are they gone yet?" Sasuke whispered. Naruto peered out of the alley they were hiding in but quickly ducked back.

"They're looking in the shops. How did we pick the one alley that was a dead end?"

"Bad luck," Sasuke grunted in response. "Hopefully they'll leave soon."

"We could always ask the ANBU for help," Naruto said. "Kashi-nii will give us crap but it might be worth it."

"I do not need ANBU to help me get away from pre-genin fangirls," Sasuke retorted.

"Well duh, but it would make it easier. And we still have homework to do."

"Baka."

"Aho."

They both just sighed and resigned themselves to waiting for the girls to give up. This strategy lasted all of ten minutes before a different sort of crazy decided to intervene.

"Hey brats, what are you doing?"

Both boys jumped and looked around, only to see Anko standing on the roof peering down into the alley.

"We're hiding from Sasuke's fangirls," Naruto said. He eyed the woman warily, memories of snakes at night still pretty fresh in his mind.

Anko sighed and slipped into the alley. "Have you tried just telling them what you think?"

"Are you kidding? They're crazy!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke nodded his head in agreement.

"You both interact with ANBU on a daily basis and yet here you are running from little girls. You do see the irony in that right? Just tell them to leave you alone and be done with it," Anko said.

"But they're violent, especially Ino. And we're not supposed to pick on the girls or Iruka-sensei yells at us since we're stronger than them," Naruto said.

"Brat, what have we taught you?"

"There will always be people both weaker and strong than us," Sasuke said. "And on a mission, it doesn't matter which they are or if they're a boy or girl. We still have to fight them."

"Well at least one of you were listening," Anko groused. "Now come on. Are you going to run away on missions just because there are girls in it?"

"No." "No way!"

"Then walk out there and take care of things."

In retrospect, both Naruto and Sasuke would wonder about the wisdom in taking advice from Anko of all people.

Oooooo

Naruto still checked the street first, and was relieved to see none of the girls were nearby. He nodded to Sasuke and they both walked out casually. For a moment Naruto thought they might even get away cleanly, but then one of the girls saw them and squealed. Both boys flinched at the high pitched noise, but they didn't run away. Instead they turned to face the girl.

"Sasuke-kun, there you are," the girl said. "We were looking everywhere for you." And she spoke the other girls drifted closer, as if summoned by her squeal.

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked tersely.

"We figured that since you're so strong in class, maybe you could help us practice after class," the girl said.

"Train yourselves. I'm not interested."

"But Sasuke-kun, we could learn so much from you," a different one said. Naruto rolled his eyes as they batted their lashes at his friend.

"He already said not interested, so leave him alone. And stop following us. It's weird," Naruto said. He stood next to Sasuke with his arms crossed and his best 'don't mess with us expression.'

"No one asked you Naruto-baka. You should be greatful Sasuke-kun even lets you near him."

"Don't talk to him like that," Sasuke growled. Naruto glanced at his friend only to gulp at the angry look on Sasuke's face. He was about to say something when there was a poof of smoke between the two boys and the fangirls.

"Now now Sasuke-chan, don't burn the little girlies," Anko said with a grin. "Itachi would be very disappointed if you did." Sasuke just huffed and turned away, while Naruto watch Anko turn to the girls. "And as for you pipsqueaks, I think we need to have a little chat on behavior befitting a kunoichi. Because they damn well don't act like you twits."

Snakes started slithering out of Anko's sleeves and the girls began to back up at the older woman's sharp grin. If they hadn't been so annoying for the past few weeks, Naruto would have felt sorry for them.

"You see, a real kunoichi doesn't rely on men to save them. If you can't get by on your own strength, then you might as well quit now. Otherwise you'll be nothing but a corpse your sorry ass team mates will have to drag back to the village. Not that you'll likely ever make it to genin at this rate, but if you do and I see such pathetic behavior again, then we'll have a little refresher course." By this time the snakes had lengthened until there was one in the face of every girl in front of her. They stood terrified until Anko finally nodded and pulled her snakes back. "Now scram pipsqueaks."

The girls all darted away as fast as their legs could carry them. Naruto looked on in awe, and even Sasuke was openly impressed.

"Man Anko-nee-san, you can be really scary," Naruto said.

"We're ninja kid. What do you expect?" Anko asked dryly.

"You're a torture specialist aren't you?" Sasuke asked, a strange look in his eyes.

"Yeah, what of it."

"I think that's what I want to do when I get older."

Anko looked at him for a minute before she snorted and started laughing. The boys just watched until she finally stopped and wiped her eyes.

"If you still feel that way when you graduate, then come find me once you're chunin."

With that she disappeared with another puff of smoke.

"Really Sasuke? Why would you want to torture people?" Naruto turned to ask.

"Did you see how fast they ran away and she didn't even touch them. I bet a torture specialist can make anyone leave them alone."

"You want to be a torture specialist just so you can be grouchy all the time?" Naruto asked. "That's stupid, aho."

"Like you're one to talk baka. You don't even know what you want to do."

"So? We're not even genin yet. I have time." Naruto stuck his tongue out which caused Sasuke to roll his eyes.

"Let's go baka. We have homework to do. Not to mention we have to make genin first."

AN: Ok since I've officially started copy nin and pup 2 I figured I needed to get a few more of these done and posted, especially because I referenced two of them in the first two chapters lol. This didn't quite go how I wanted, but it still turned out interesting in the end. Wanted Anko to really put them in their place but she's not one for talking about responsibility so maybe a bad choice lol. However Kurenai isn't really around to be the mature female figure I would have needed. Ah well.

And I had no idea my Sasuke was such a sadist at heart, though I think Naruto is just a little as well. Also, you guys have spoiled me so much. I posted a new chapter of Copy Nin 2 and got sad because I only got 4 reviews. All of you always were so kind to keep in touch that my first thought was "did they hate it?" when I didn't hear back. Then I laughed at myself for being so spoiled.

Prescripto- Yeah it's been awhile, and then life got in the way again. I hate it because I wish writing were my life but sadly it's not. Hope you find this amusing.

Sailor GaOn- thanks

S&K- yeah I know kun is pretty multipurpose just how chan can be derogative towards boys.

NoName00- hope you've had a chance to check out the first two chapters of the sequel.

Sorasdream- thanks for all of the reviews. I love Kakashi and Naruto together lol. And yep, they figure something out at least right As for the Obito thing, he was actively using genjutsu the entire time practically. I didn't clarify I guess, but the Sharingan is really strong for it, so if they thought he was incapacitated, then they would be vulnerable to getting caught in it. There has also been speculation that the Sharingan can make you forget something or implant a different memory/idea instead, like what Itachi does to Sasuke in Canon, so I kinda cheated and used that as how he managed to get out despite the fact that he was supposed to be locked down.

EclipseKuran- thanks

Ru-kun09- thanks! Hope you liked the rest of it.

Longlivemarshmellows- the note taking is actually going to make a comeback I promise!

Dreamlea-sorry it's so open, but it does have a direct sequel, which is why. More of the sequel is part two, but because of the time skip I decided to split them (each one is about the same length in word count and it's easier for me to handle this way while also leaving the option for more one shots along the way)

Fluffpenguin- thank you!