"So… how did it go?", His mother asked him as he came back home.
"It was… intense to say the least but we passed. We are officially genin!" Chiko grinned, walking into the living room.
"Oh my baby!" She hugged him, "It feels like yesterday that I still changed your diapers, and now you are a genin, how time flies… we have to celebrate!"
And celebrate they did. Chiko's father was still out on a mission, so it was just the two of them. They went to eat some BBQ and -when they were stuffed and happy- they went on a shopping spree, getting him new ninja tools. High quality kunai and shuriken, ninja thread, soldier pills, sealing scrolls, explosive seals and even some new super durable clothing. They returned to home late that evening and Chiko went to sleep, excited for what was about to happen that next day.
Naruto, Sasuke and Chiko were standing in front of the hokage building, waiting for their sensei, "Is this going to be a trend?", Chiko complained, looking up at the sun. They had met there at six, now it was almost eight.
"Yeah, I could've gone to eat ramen and returned twice over", Naruto tapped his foot impatiently.
"Sorry that I was so late", Kakashi sensei body flickered in front of them, "I crossed path with a black cat, so I had to take the long way around"
"I call bullshit", Chiko glared at their tardy sensei, "Both my parents are shinobi and a Jonin like you shouldn't be two hours late just because you crossed a black cat. You literally used the body flicker jutsu right now"
"Well, let's get going", he completely ignored his complaints, leading them into the building, up into the Hokage's office. There was another team, leaving the premises. Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga and Kiba Inuzuka were walking out.
"Hello Naruto", Hinata blushed as she waved at the blond, who simply waved back, completely unaware of the girl's crush. Chiko thought the two of them would be a nice couple, though he was a little jealous. He thought Hinata was a cute girl. Those eyes, they were so enchanting.
"Looking good, Hinata, I like the outfit", he nodded, before turning to Kiba, "As wild as ever" and to Shino, "nice sunglasses"
The three man team nodded politely, letting them enter. The third Hokage, old but definitely not feeble sat behind his desk. Even in his old age, he radiated power. What else could you expect from one of the kage, the strongest shinobi in the known world. Lord first, Hashirama created the village, lord second tobirama created the Ninja Academy and developed many forbidden jutsu, lord fourth Minato defeated the nine tailed fox. That was to say, no Hokage would be weak. That was what Naruto wanted to be, to overcome. A warrior that could change the tides of battle, a leader who commands the entirety of Konoha.
Chiko was sure that Naruto didn't quite realise what he was aiming for. Sure, he learned the shadow clone jutsu and could create a great many clones but the Hokage couldn't be a one trick pony. Shadow clones, whilst impressive for someone his age, didn't make him a genius like Lord first, nor did it make him a man who knew every jutsu in konoha, like Lord third.
He had a lot of catching up to do.
Lord third looked at them, "it is good to see you young shinobi out to prove yourselves, you are like the dancing leaves feeding the will of fire. I expect great things from you three. I have the perfect mission for you"
He pulled out a form and handed it to Kakashi sensei. They were excited until Kakashi spoke, "weeding a civilians overgrown garden"
"What?! Why do we have to do that? I want to fight!" Naruto was annoyed.
"Fresh genin are only given D rank missions", Chiko explained, though he didn't like it either, "something about helping the village and building teamwork"
"Not quite as poetic as I would've put it but yes, in general, those are the reasons", Kakashi sensei nodded, "now let's go, the garden won't weed itself"
Naruto and Chiko groaned, whilst Sasuke was just scowling lightly.
They walked through the streets of Konoha, chatting lightly, "Teuchi sama's ramen is the best, he has a knack for good food"
"Really? I never heard about it before… I'll have to visit it sometime soon. I prefer BBQ though, what about you, Sasuke, what do you like to eat?"
Sasuke didn't respond.
"Aw come on, you haven't said anything for the entire walk, what, you don't know how to speak, idiot?" Naruto barked.
Sasuke didn't seem to mind, until he said, barely above a whisper, "I like tomatoes"
"Oh? Finally speaking up? Good, we need to be able to communicate if we want to be an effective team" Chiko chuckled, "ah- I think we are here"
The house was in pristine condition but the garden was a mess, weeds everywhere, choking out the flowers. This would take them hours… or it would if they didn't have the cheat corporeal clones. Chiko created a bunch of blood clones, which inspired Naruto to create shadow clones. Only Sasuke couldn't join in, working with one pair of hands.
"We will need to teach you an advanced clone technique soon", Chiko said as they were halfway through the weeding.
"Yeah, after we are done here, we will go to the training ground and I will teach you the wind clone technique, Sasuke. Wind clones are inferior to shadow clones but a normal genin wouldn't be able to create multiple shadow clones for more than a minute. Naruto has abnormally high chakra, way beyond even what most Jonin have" Kakashi sensei told him as they worked. He didn't bother helping them, reading his smut book instead. Chiko clicked his tongue, what a lazy teacher they had.
The work was done in under an hour and a half, leaving the garden in pristine condition.
"Thank you so much", the elderly man who had hired them croaked out, "I can't do much garden work anymore with these stiff joints of mine"
"No problem"