It dawned on both Tsunade and Orochimaru at that moment that both their sensei and teammate saw something in Naruto that they hadn't. A part of them became curious, the other worried and perhaps also a bit jealous. It was clear that their attention now fell on to someone else, but still, they both mused, getting jealous was petty. It was just a boy after all.
Hiruzen jumped down from the broad branch and begun walking over to the kid who wiped his forehead with the back of his arm. "Good job Naruto-kun." he praised.
Naruto grinned, "Thanks!"
"Next up is a written test but from what I hear you're a more practical type of shinobi." the man mused as Naruto grimaced and nodded.
"I have troubling understanding a lot of the written stuff. Unfortunately."
The man waved it off, "Not everyone learns the same. However, you'll still need to do the test. It's more for formality's sake than anything at this point. You've already earned your chunin title."
Naruto beamed, "Awesome, thanks, old man!" with that he skipped over to Jiraiya and high-fived him, completely ignoring the dark cloud of depression that suddenly hovered over the Hokage who wasn't more than in the middle of his forties. Needless to say.. his prime.
Jiraiya couldn't contain his laughter when Naruto left the room where he'd just finished writing his test. The boy was positively seething, "I hate written tests!"
"I still don't get why you're having so much trouble with these things."
Naruto growled, "Of course I knew all the bloody answers, but I still hate the freaking thing!"
The older of the two rolled his eyes and sent the boy a smirk, "So you're pissy over something you aced by sheer principle?"
The boy glared but remained silent for a long moment until he let out a sigh, "Yes."
"You have serious issues kid."
"I don't want to hear that coming from you Ero-sennin." he sniffed.
"Say that to my face you runt!" Naruto took off with Jiraiya close behind, the boy taunting the other as the man resorted to throwing kunai and shuriken at the kid whilst ignoring the Hokage and two Sannin who'd come to check on the two of them. Needless to say it didn't actually surprise them at that point. Orochimaru had to fight the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, Tsunade sighed loudly and said something incoherent under her breathe while Hiruzen was more curious about the result of the test than the actual antics the two of them got off to.
"Ah, Retsu-san, how does it look?" He asked when a chunin approached him with a paper in hand.
The woman with short chestnut coloured hair smiled and turned the paper over, the score written at the top of the page, "Full scores, Hokage-sama. The boy is brilliant."
He wrapped his fingers around the paper and scanned the written answers, he then flipped the page and continued to go through them all while he hummed in thought and approval at several points, "Brilliant indeed. The boy is practically a jounin in everything but the title."
"I agree, sir." the woman nodded, "But he could use some experience I believe."
Hiruzen nodded in agreement, "That he could. Thank you Retsu-san, I'll be keeping this."
"Of course."
"Do I have to?" Naruto grimaced at the chunin vest in his hands. The colour clashed horribly with his orange.
"Yes." was the collective reply from everyone in the room.
Naruto groaned but slipped the vest on and was rewarded with utter silence. Jiraiya broke it with laughing, a loud and amused laugh that caused a tick-mark to twitch violently on the boy's forehead. "Shut up!"
The laughter grew louder while the rest of them couldn't quite keep the amusement from showing on their faces. Seeing Orochimaru smile was also the creepiest thing Naruto had ever seen, and he decided at that moment that he didn't want to make Orochimaru smile again. Urgh.
"Maybe you should get rid of the orange kid," Tsunade advised.
He frowned, "What's wrong with orange?"
"It's not exactly stealthy." Orochimaru mused. "At least not in that amount that you're wearing."
Naruto hated that. Hated admitting that Orochimaru was right. He peered down at his clothes and let out a small pathetic whimper, "But it's orange!"
"I'm sure if you go to a tailor they can make something more suitable for you Naruto-kun." Hiruzen smiled and felt his heart warm a little each time he interacted with the boy. It was true what Jiraiya said previously; there was something special about the boy and after every encounter he had with Naruto he was growing more and more convinced that its was nothing but the truth.
"Fine," he grumbled and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Can I have my headband?" he then asked, just remembering that he didn't have one anymore.
"Ah," Hiruzen's eyebrows shot up, he'd completely forgotten about that. "Of course."
The man stood up from his desk and walked over to one of the shelves where he pulled out a box. It was a relatively large box in wood.
Naruto didn't recognize it and allowed his curiosity to remain genuine. It was placed in front of him on the desk and then the Hokage opened it up, revealing several different types of hitai-ate. Some of then looked like the standard model but with various colors for the actual band. Red, blue, grey, black, green and even brown. There was also several other types of headbands like bandannas, armbands, leg-bands, waist-bands and even neck-bands.
Still, Naruto already knew which one he wanted. "One of those." he pointed to the standard forehead protector with a black band. But then he frowned thoughtfully, "Is it possible to get two? One for the arm and then one for the forehead. Not sure which one I'll prefer."
The older man merely nodded, "Of course."
"How long can you make the band? I think I'd like it much longer than these."
"You want tails?" Hiruzen asked curiously. That was one of the things shinobi usually didn't want because people could grab hold of them and use it against them much like long hair. At the mere nod of the boys head, he couldn't help but feel a little surprised. But it wasn't like the kid was the only one with unusual tastes in these kinds of things, so he didn't comment.
It didn't take more than a few minutes for an ANBU to appear in the room with two hitai-ate, one forehead protector with long black bands and another for the upper part of his arm in short black bands.
"Sweet."
Jiraiya only shook his head in amusement. But there was a fondness in his eyes, and it didn't go unnoticed by either of his teammates or his mentor.
"Alright kid, let's get you to a tailor. The sooner you get out of that horrible thing, the better."
"Oi, don't disrespect the orange old man!" the two of them gave a quick bow to the group inside of the office before leaving through the door.
"I'm your father; you'll do what I tell you to."
"Bite me, dumb-ass."
"GET BACK HERE!"
"MAKE ME!"
Well, the Hokage chuckled, at least it wouldn't get boring around the here.