Note: Retyped to get the disastrous formatting out of it, and change some of the most abysmal grammar I've put out in a while. Blame 4am. That's what I'm doing.

DISCLAIMER: Genma doesn't belong to me, he belongs to Kishimoto-sensei. I wish I could change his mind on this.

Rookie Mistake

Genma grinned in the darkness, long experience keeping the senbon clenched in his teeth rather than falling out and making an unnecessary noise. It probably wouldn't make the slightest difference but tonight he wasn't leaving things to chance. He liked missions like these, he was away from Konoha and that meant away from the ever-increasing amount of paperwork that threatened to overflow from his desk and swamp the others'. Going from that he was also away from the evil glares of the others in the office because they didn't want their desks swamped. He slipped forward, avoiding patches of brightness coming from the full moon. If anyone looked all they'd see would be nothing, Shiranui Genma wasn't about to make a rookie mistake like letting someone see him when he didn't want them to.

It took a few minutes to reach the corner of the silent building. He stood in place for a minute, glancing around to make sure that there were no guards skulking around. He'd checked the pattern of their patrols and at this time they were usually comfortable in their room drinking tea; but there was always a chance that tonight would be the night they didn't. Looking up he grinned again. His target was a window on the second storey. A window that someone had been careless enough to leave open, and they'd regret that in the morning. He put his hand on the wall, carefully increasing the chakra focused there up to the point where his hand would stick. It was an odd ritual, but one he always did after one wall was booby-trapped to explode when someone ran over it and he almost lost his leg. Nothing happened so he raced up the wall and quickly vaulted in through the window. He paused to allow his eyes to adjust to the gloom and looked around again. The lack of security in this place was almost criminal, and he made his way easily along, slipping past closed vaults like a shadow.

Finally, a challenge came up. There was a slight change in the air, a quiet humming of a switched on system. There must be some sort of protection system, probably involving lasers. He took a bag from his belt, it was his most unorthodox piece of kit but it worked. Holding it above his head he slashed the bag open with a kunai and flour exploded out. As the dust drifted down he saw his suspicion was right. Carefully he began picking his way through the trap, looking almost like he was dancing as he dodged through.

Making it out he drifted his way down he came to another vault door. Bingo. His usual tricks of picking the locks with a senbon or blowing the thing open really wouldn't work here. He had to be sneaky. It was going to be hard but it had been so easy up to here he wanted the challenge. A quick check proved the door wasn't trapped or alarmed, so this would be fun. He ran his fingers over the door, it was smooth and unforgiving until finally he found what he was looking for. Almost invisible, there was a small catch. His lithe fingers gripped it and pulled, opening a little hatch with a pad. Now what was the code? He grinned and started to put it in.

But, he'd gotten overconfident. A rookie mistake. His finger slipped and pressed the wrong button. Suddenly an alarm went and a cage slipped down over his wrist, trapping his hand. Lights came up and an alarm sounded, the sound of shouting and running feet rang out. Damn. It was time to think fast and start hoping like hell he could fight one handed. Well, he'd got the excitement he'd been looking for.