One Too Many On This Job…

By: Tsuki Doriimaa

Started… Kami-sama only knows when… and yet it was finished on the Sixth day of April, 2011… Case in point that miracles Do happen.. just not often! LOL =^_^=

Disclaimer: I own none of the Naruto characters (since I'm only using Naruto, that covers that!), everything else, idea, and OC's – those are mine! But they have their own freelancer licenses, so if you have ideas and are in need of characters – they have the talent!

. - * ~ - . - ~ * ~ - . - ~ * ~ - .

In the early morning pre-dawn of a beautifully coming Wednesday morning, with the early birds chirping up a preverbal storm and bringing smiles to several of the tired and haggard people getting off the late night shifts at work or just coming off of patrolling the Village they loved, and aiming to report into their superior officers before retiring for the day. Others still were trying to force their eyes open enough to even attempt getting out of bed, let alone trying to walk around half blind with eyes that decided it was indeed too damn early to get up, refusing to open and let enough light in for the human eyes to see by. However some were able to triumph in this area, while others still, decided that a stubbed toe here or a bleeding shin there was worth the pain of stumbling to a nearby source of water to splash upon their faces, to help them wake up quicker.

No, you'd never guess that some of the fumbling, hating having to get up this early in the morning people, were in fact some of the topnotch ninja's of Konoha… nope, not at all. Thank Kami-sama the Village ran on job rotations and there were always people awake and watching everyone else's moves, even when they couldn't be seen.

A small portion of the people stumbling and cursing about getting up weren't big ranking ninja of anything; they were simple civilians awakening to begin the day once more, in a never ending cycle of life. One of the mentioned early risers was a lady in her early forties with sandy brown hair, kind hazel eyes and rosy cheeks that always appeared as if she were blushing (and didn't her co-workers tease her endlessly about it too!), she wasn't too tall, couldn't really be considered short; she saw herself as 'just the perfect height'.

She was the local Dispatcher for the electric company that serviced the western half of Konohanogakure. Being the mighty large Village that it was, they had several companies handling the transferring and maintaining of electricity around them all, you needed several with as large as Konoha was and with the high demand needed to run it! They could really do everything without it… but why? They were so used to it now; she knew that while the older generation wouldn't mind missing it, the youngest of the lot would go insane, when training and doing missions outside of the Village lost their appeal.

Or perhaps she was simply imagining things… what did she know of real Shinobi? Her family wasn't of the sort, just simple common folk; at least she could honestly say that the civilian kids would go nuts of they couldn't play their games and watch movies on the telley's. She did get the chance to work with a few Shinobi, however in her line of work so she's met some, but couldn't rightly say how they'd feel if the power went out. She shrugged and crawled into the blessed warmth of her shower.

Her job was to get in early to work, get things booted up and running, coffee going (for herself, of course! All for one and one for all, Did Not, apply to making others coffee… you fended for yourself there!) and then she began to organize the day's orders, seeing which tech would need to go where, and if they'd need a partner or not for them. Some jobs needed more than one person, of course, especially depending on where the call was coming in from. It might only need one for the wiring configuration needing to be done, and another for back up, or even, on occasion, a ninja to tag along as support in the more dangerous neighborhoods. They could get testy down there and some of her people refused to go down to fix anything without a little butt-kicking back up! Not that she blamed them; it was simply taxing to pair some people together.

There was one darling boy she loved to pair people up with, especially if they've managed to cross her in some way that strained her ever-loving hard-won patience, or cause her to lose the loving, kind persona she was known for. The few sorry suckers that have managed to tee-her off enough to be in this vindictive state… made sure it never, ever, happened again. Even if in the long run, her revenge caused more havoc then the original call was issued for.

Evelyn felt a giddy, grinning-smirk begin to pull at her lips as she walk-skipped down the street to where she worked, the people around her either grinned back in response, or winced in sympathy for whoever was going to be on her list of pay backs. For Evelyn, a better warmhearted person couldn't be found, possessed a pranksters streak a mile wide that was accompanied by a revenge ribbon a quarter of the length of her pranking one, and braided right through it skillfully. Of course, it being what it was, not as long as the other, or as used… she needed slight assistance to carrying out her retribution… thus her secret weapon…

Sipping at her piping hot cup of joe, Evelyn's grin only seemed to widen as she picked up her special navy blue phone (her phone! bought and paid for, no one else's to use! Yes, she has in fact been with the company that long) and dialed the number that would have some poor sap apologizing profusely to her by the end of the day and begging never to do what she was about to do, again…

Her laughter echoed out of the opened windows causing the people nearby to skitter past them a tad bit quicker.

. - * ~ - . - ~ * ~ - . - ~ * ~ - .

It was nearing high noon when Dave (5'6", brown haired, black eyed and of even temperament unless tested) and his partner for the day skidded up to the wire box in question. Though the size of it made his assistant call it a shed or shack… If that's what he wanted to think Dave wasn't going to dissuade him of it.

He could not for the life of him ponder out why he was paired with this young man though, the job didn't really need it, the neighborhood wasn't one possessing a high level of crime that he'd need any help in that area, and there was simply no room for two people in the small shed with its heavily wired walls. Let alone the fact the young man had not an electrical knowing bone in his young body.

He wasn't sure… one could never really be when dealing with the people he worked with… but he was pretty damn sure he was just shy of the bull's-eye, that this was payback for something. He just knew it. And as soon as he remembered what he might have done, or who could've blamed whatever onto him… There was going to be hell to pay…

This kid Did Not shut up. Constantly from the moment they left the office, 'til reaching the wiring shed, he was a constant chatter of this and that, how his friends did this to him, and how some brat named Sasuke thought he was the hottest thing since Ramen noodles and that the kid beside him was going to show him one day! Rear up and hand his ass to him he would!

Dave had simply rolled his eyes and tried his damnest to keep his even temper in a tight hold. This young man wasn't a nuisance per say, he just never shut up about things Dave had no idea about and didn't care to know anything about, honest. Thankfully, this job shouldn't take too long, and with the rising heat wave taking over the Village, he was looking forward to heading back to the office to get out of it.

And if that kid didn't stop twitching to touch some of the wires Dave was going to take his wire striping pliers and relieve him of a few itching fingers. It was driving him nuts! They'd been out here for twenty minutes already and the kid had just managed to pull his hand back from actually touching any of them, more than a dozen times. Dave's much larger hands had twitched and jerked away from the wires he was working on as his reflex to knock the hands away from the important energy giving cords had kicked in.

If the brat did it one more time… or didn't -

"Geez this is a boring job Dave..." - shut up…

"Yeah, well shut up already, it's hot enough in this god forsaken shack trying to fix the wiring, without having to listen to your whining as well" frustrated sigh "Go entertain yourself with something would'ja?"

Pouty stare (as much as a guy can pull off anyway) "Al~lrighty then..." gazes around, realizes that, yes, in a windowless, metal, four foot high, three foot wide wire housing 'shack', it is hotter then hell below... and no, there is absolutely nothing around to keep him entertained. Staring at another man's butt crack peeping out of a poorly tucked in shirt only revoltingly fascinated someone for so long...

And anyway, wiring wasn't that much more entertaining... Multicolored wires surrounded them from all sides... they never moved, never spoke... no, no entertainment here of any kind. Just telephone wiring as far as his eyes could see... Well... much as he knew it was all telephone wiring anyhow... maybe someone screwed up and put power wires in here too huh? Could happen. After all, John screwed up last week and attached an air connection valve to a water heater, so who knew? He gives a silent laugh, I mean, who was going to try filling up a bike tire off they're water heater? John'd never live that one down.

Suddenly a bright yellow wire twinkled blindingly at him from the corner of his eye... he'd been trying to ignore it for the nice shinning blue one in front of him, he loved the color blue, always had, sometimes it dives him nuts how he wants everything in hues of blues, but that was his favorite color... But this yellow one... it just keeps flashing him... he'd ignore it, get flashed, glare forward hard, ignoring it... it'd give off another blinding calling to him, and his hand would twitch again...

If it didn't knock that off, his curiosity was going to get the better of him and that never played out well... He'd already caught eye of Dave's big hands spasming like he was holding himself back from doing some harm… most likely bonking those pliers over his loving head for even thinking of touching the wires… But man! They're all twinkling at him, and there's nothing for him to do! Why was he here again? Darn Evelyn and her sweet self for conning him into this… The lovely shimmering golden-yellow wire winked at him again.

'Oh alright that's it!' the man thought with a frustrated growl... "Hey Dave..." his voice came across the other's ears in a wavering chuckle, "what do you think this wire does? What'll happen if I unplug it?"

Dave very carefully kept a straight face, silently cursing his boss and asking Kami-sama why she had seen fit to partner him up with the company goofball and annoyance. Carefully, he didn't answer that question; if you answered, or told the other not to do it... they usually did it anyway, so why bother telling the boy not to touch it?

"I don't know.." close enough to an unassuming answer, not giving any hints, not necessarily saying he wanted to find out what it did either, and definitely not telling him to try and see just what it did. It was a safe answer.

Sadly for him, Naruto was never one to not sate his curiosity, usually why he was always in trouble. Slowly his hand inched towards the wire, keeping an eye on his fellow tech. . . this one was usually of a short temper when something went wrong... Slower he realized he was up to something, the faster he could maybe, make it out of the shack before he was beaten to hell and back..

"Well let's find out, shall we?" and with that he pulled the plug (so to speak). Nothing happened. Still nothing for a full minute more, then, like a dog that's had it's tail stepped on, several peoples voices could be heard from their side of the street shouting phrases such as "WHAT THE HELL?" and "S.O.B MY COMPUTER CRASHED? I DIDN'T SAVE? SHIT!" and so fourth... and usual mayhem created when power is lost.

Dave slowly sat up to his full height, face emotionless. "Naruto..."

The whisker cheeked young man could only grin a grin of a man who already knew what was coming... "Opps?"

"...Run..."

No one could ever say that Naruto ignored every order he was given… One look at his partner for the day, his feet already at the shack's threshold, and hearing that deep growled, one word promise of death that Kyuubi would've been proud of… was all the whiskered young man needed to behold before he was gone like a shot down the street and up the next one before Dave even made it to the door.

Sighing and hanging his head, Dave easily leaned over, plugged the wire back into its socket, and prayed to every Deity he knew of and that would hopefully hear his pleas, to never, ever, be paired with that youngster again… Ever… The whiskered boy wasn't stupid (though he acted it at times), he was just short of attention span when there wasn't anything enough to keep him busy. This job was really the wrong one to put him on – you don't need two people on a one person job! What was Dispatch thinking?

Another sigh passed his chapped lips as he got back to work on the original problem the call was for. Though a minute or three later a small grin crept across his face when he realized however upset he was personally at the humorous blonde… Tsunade was going to rip him a new one when he got back to the village!

A low, pleased, chuckle escaped the wire housing shack, effectively fending off those that were creeping upon it to find out just what the hell had happened… Maybe they really didn't need to know that badly… right? Right… and they slowly backed away, warily keeping an eye on the small metal box of wires incase whoever was in there decided to come out and get them…

…and thus… it was just another day in Konohagakure…

. - * ~ - . - ~ * ~ - . - ~ * ~ - .

Well, what do y'all think? Not too overly bad for not having written (near anything) in four years, ne? I'm trying to force myself back into working on my stories and not reading others' so much. ::chuckles:: Its very hard to do, but I'm slowly getting small ideas come creeping around the door jams and staring at me with longing eyes, wanting to use put to some use. =^_^=

Please Review! I'm one of those authors who wish to know what y'all honestly think of my stories. If I don't get feed back on them (ahem! Reviews!), I tend to begin loosing interest in writing them. It's simple Cause and Effect... So please Review! Arigatou! Ja matte!