I know I said no authors note but I thought it would be good for me to. Stupid Fanfiction won't let me delete the last 'chapter' so I'll just make this number 15 but chapter 14! Look! I'm putting it up right when the '07 end and '08 starts! Well, enjoy! I'll see you next year! (I love saying that)

Chapter 14

Naruto slowly blinked his eyes open. "It was a dream, right?" Kakashi was hovering in front of him. He was sitting on the couch. "It wasn't a dream, was it?"

Kakashi did his eye-smile. "Nope."

Naruto groaned. "How can you say that so casually?!" He heard Anko laugh.

"That's just Kakashi, that's why I like him," She leaned against Kakashi's side.

"If you're going to kiss him, do it when I'm not around," Naruto said a pouted with his arms crossed. Anko blushed slightly.

"I can kiss him wherever, brat!" Anko retorted.

"Not in front of me you can't!" Kakashi swore he saw sparks fly between them.

"Was there something you need, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, gaining Naruto's attention.

"Oh, right!" Naruto said as if Anko wasn't there. "There's going to be a mission that they're going to allow a few academy students to go on! It's going to be lead by chunins, can I go if they pick me?!" Naruto asked in a pleading voice.

"Sure, but you'll have to past a test by me, first," Kakashi said. "Oh, and you have to master the bushin jutsu."

Naruto pouted. "That's hard, though! It's so complicated and I always get it wrong!" Anko smirked.

"Oh, so little Naru-chan can't do a simple bushin yet?" She teased as Naruto's cheeks turned slightly red.

"Don't call me that!" Naruto protested in embarrassment.

"Oh, but it fits so well, Naru-chan," Anko continued to tease him. "You're such a kid," She ruffled Naruto's hair.

Naruto flinched at the gesture and pushed her hand away. "I may be a kid but I'm also a ninja!"

Anko tapped his nose and said. "Not yet, you aren't. You're still in training," She smirked; it was too easy and too much fun to tease the kid.

"At least I don't smell like snakes!" There was silence. "Eh…did I say something wrong?" Naruto asked, innocently.

"You have a very good nose, don't you?" Anko asked as she got out of her slight shock. "I use some snake jutsus so that would explain it."

"Really?!" Naruto was officially interested. "So…you can make snakes do what you want then to?" He cocked his head with wide blue eyes staring interest.

"Yep!" Anko smiled proudly. "You wanna see?" She said slyly.

"Yeah!" Naruto saw Anko smirk for the umpteenth time and started to regret agreeing. He felt something weird around his feet and looked down to see tons of snakes slithering across the floor. "Ah! I didn't mean like this!" He started shaking snakes off his bare feet and screaming something about "Too many Snakes! They feel really weird!"

Anko's smirk was still plastered on her face as she watched the scene in front of her. She turned to look at Kakashi and gave him fact concern look. "Should I take him out of this misery?" Then she noticed he wasn't even paying attention, but reading his book, the infamous Ichi Ichi Paradise. Her eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

She dispelled the snakes, which Naruto was very grateful for, and went in front of Kakashi. She put on a fake seductive look on her face and pushed the book down with one finger to look straight into Kakashi's eyes. "Kakashi, darling, what have I said about reading that in front of me?"

Inside, Kakashi's mind was racing a mile an hour while he kept his posture. "I can read it as long as it doesn't distract me from you," He said calmly.

"That's right; now tell me, why would I let you read it at all?" Anko asked.

Kakashi had a hard time with this one. "'Cause you didn't know what it was?" He guessed.

Anko sighed. "Wrong!" She said and made a huge snake come from her sleeve and it barely missed Kakashi's hand but it got it's target.

"MY ICHI ICHI PARADISE!" Kakashi cried dramatically as their audience just shook his head.

"That's my 'Tou-san for ya…" Naruto said. "I burned another one yesterday but they keep coming back." Anko went over to him and whispered something in his ear. Naruto nodded and said. "Fine, as long as you don't call me Naru-chan anymore!"

"No way, midget!" Anko said hugged him from behind. "You'll always be Naru-chan!"

Naruto's face flushed. "I'm not a midget! I just haven't had my growth spurt yet!" He protested. "'Tou-san! Why did you choose to date her?!" Naruto asked and looked over at his adopted father. Kakashi was now trying to make the poor snake throw up his book.

"Give me my book back you infernal hebi!"(1) Kakashi yelled as he strangled the snake. Anko dispelled the snake and, much to Kakashi's dismay, the book went with it.

Anko and Naruto smirked as Kakashi started at the spot where the snake was dumbly.

---

Naruto got to his classroom early the next day to see only a few people there.

"Naruto, you're early?" Sakura asked from her seat. "You're never early."

Naruto shrugged. "I wanted to get out of that house," He said and went to sit in his seat.

"Why would you want to get out of your house?" Sasuke asked as Naruto sat next to him.

"Eh…well…for two reasons…" Naruto said with slight hesitation. "The first is my dad's dating someone-"

"Kakashi's dating someone? Who?" Sakura asked, curiosity taking over. Who wouldn't want the latest gossip?

Naruto blushed slightly and put on a stubborn face. "I won't tell!" Before Sakura questioned him further he went on. "The second reason is because my dad's really mad at me…er…us," He finished.

"Why?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto smiled sheepishly "We burnt his book collection." Naruto swore he saw a smile appear on Sasuke's face before it vanished. Sakura, on the other hand, looked confused. "His…er…bad books," Sakura got a look of understanding.

"Good!" She said with a small laugh.

"Sorta…now he's really mad at me, though!" Naruto said with a whimper.

"Is it really that bad?" Sasuke asked and Naruto nodded.

"I will never again burn his books. That's a promise," Naruto said in an awkward promise.

"Did you tell him about the mission?" Kiba asked as he walked into the classroom.

"Kiba?! It's unusual for Naruto to get here early but it's even weirder for you to get here early!" Sakura said, surprised.

"Hey! I can be early!" Kiba protested.

"What's your reason?" Naruto asked.

"I wanted to get out of my house…" Kiba admitted.

"Just like me. Why's that for you?" Naruto asked and Kiba blushed slightly.

"Wrath of my sister. She doesn't like some of the missions she's doing and taking it out on me!" Kiba whined.

"That's worse than mine! Girls are scary when they're mad…" Naruto felt a shiver run up his spine and turned towards Sakura.

"Oh, you think girls are scary, do you?" Sakura asked in a too-sweet tone. She cracked her knuckles.

"N-n-n-o!" Naruto stammered. "We just don't like getting hit-itai!" He held his head as a bruise formed where Sakura hit him. "Why'd you do that?!" He yelled.

"That's what you get." Sakura said plainly and sat back in her seat.

'O-okkanai…'(2) Naruto thought as he rubbed his sore head.

"So, Naruto, did you?" Kiba asked.

"Did I…?" Naruto said, letting Kiba finish the sentence.

"Tell your dad about the mission!" Kiba said excitingly.

:Oh! Right, I kinda told him…" Naruto said, offering a smile.

"'Kinda'?"

"Yeah…with all the stuff happening and him being all mad…I don't know if he was paying attention to when I said it…I kinda just slipped it to him when I went to bed…while he was reading a newly bought book from my money…" Naruto explained with a slightly annoyed look.

"That's what father do," Kiba said with a smirk. "They take your money whenever they can. They find any reason to and they will."

"He never has good reasons!" Naruto said with a pout. The class got started as Mizuki started writing on the bored. 'Review' was printed on the top of the chalk bored. "'Review?' I thought we only had reviews the day before tests!" Naruto questioned, turning towards Sasuke.

Sasuke shrugged "I think that's because we have a test tomorrow, idiot."

Naruto's mouth formed an 'o'. "Eh?! We have a test tomorrow?!-Ow," He felt something hit his head and looked at his desk to see a piece of chalk. He looked up to see Mizuki standing over him.

"Outside, Uzumaki," Mizuki said. "I'll be right there to tell you what I need you to do."

Naruto had a confused look as he glances at Kiba to see him with a pity look. He gulped as he walked out the door. He stood outside the door for about five minutes before Mizuki come out with three buckets of water.

"What are those for? You want me to take them some…where…? Eh?" Mizuki put one on Naruto's head and the other two in his hands.

"Stand like this and don't let then spill. If they do you'll get a worse punishment. This is me being nice," Naruto believed what Mizuki was saying and tried to get comfortable under the weight of the buckets with no luck.

"Mizuki-sensei, how long do I have to do this?" Naruto asked with a grunt as the bucket on his head almost fell off.

"Until I come out and tell you that you can stop," Mizuki said and Naruto swore he saw a glint in his eye.

"Evil sensei…" Naruto said under his breath after Mizuki had gone back into the room. "I shouldn't have to do this! It's heavy…" He groaned as he, yet again, had to try and keep the bucket from falling off his head. "Just think of this as training…"

One hour later

"It's training…training…" Naruto said with a pained voice as his arms started to shake. "Evil teacher…evil Mizuki-sensei…" He heard the bell ring and a flood of kinds ran by him. One of the kids bumped him and the bucket almost fell but caught it with the other buckets in his hands and sighed. "That would have been bad!"

"Naruto. The bucket fell off your head," Naruto flinched as he turned around.

"Mizuki-sensei! It was…I mean, the kids…I didn't mean to it-" He was cut off as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked behind him to see Kakashi's eye smile. "'Tou-san!"

"Mizuki-sensei, I need to take my son home now. If you will please excuse us," Kakashi took the buckets away from Naruto and handed them to Mizuki.

"Yes sir!" Mizuki said formally with a bow. "Please have a nice day."

Kakashi led Naruto out of the school and Naruto just started up at him, his ears flat against his head. "'Tou-san? I really didn't mean to do anything! I just found out that we had a test tomorrow I didn't know about and then he made me go in the hall with the buckets, which were really heavy, and then all those kids ran and made the bucket fall, but I caught it, but it wasn't on my head!" He took a deep breath. "Don't hurt me!"

"Naruto," Kakashi said and squatted so they were eye level. "Don't worry about that, I understand. I don't know why they made him your teacher. There are many that are better suited for a classroom than him."

"Then you're not mad?" Naruto asked with a confused expression. Kakashi nodded. "Why did you take me out of school? Wasn't that the lunch bell?" Naruto asked as his stomach growled.

"Yes. I felt like you could use half a day off," Kakashi said like it was normal for their dad to pick them up in the middle of the day.

"But 'Tou-san, I'll miss a lot of work!" Naruto protested.

"You want to go back to holding the buckets?" Naruto gulped at Kakashi's question and shook his head. "Then it's settled. Anko is making lunch at our home so we should head over there."

They started walking home and Naruto looked up to his adopted father. "You never did say why you picked me up early…"

"I didn't, did I?" Kakashi said in a carefree voice but he did say anything else.

---

In a dimly lit walkway a man held the front of his clock close to him, his face covered by the hood. "Someone knew," His voice was deep as he spoke.

"A pity, really. This foolish town will have to live with that demon for a while longer," A gruff voice replied. "We'll get our chance. I heard they're sending a few of the kids on a mission and the brat hasn't told Kakashi yet," Another cloaked figure, though shorter than the first, stepped from around a corner. "I say we…persuade the teacher into picking the brat to go and rid this town of him there."

"Very good idea, though they will be more on guard," The first one spoke.

"Do you think we can't take a bunch of kids and a few chunin?" The second questioned the first.

"We can take them on easily, but-"

"Just go along with the plan. However it turns out he'll be dead soon."

(1) Hebi means snake

(2)Okkanai- Literally "Frightening" but it can mean "big"…as in something that's scary because it's big…I used this because the only other word I could think of for something close to 'scary' (Kowai) meant frightening as in eerie…Sakura's not gory