Sorry, failure for not updating… Hope it's worth the wait

OOOOOOOOOOOO

The Sandaime pressed both fingers to his temples, hoping vaguely that the pressure would keep the headache at bay. The woman across his desk was screaming at a level that was almost high enough to be supersonic, but he could still hear it. And could feel the vibrations rattling the floor around him. He slowly raised his gaze from the mission assignments in front of him and met the wide, innocent gaze that was staring back at him from the other side of the room. He was starting to wonder if his decision on putting the members of team 12 together had not been entirely well-thought out.

"This is outrageous!" The woman seemed to finally put words together in her scattered brain. "I absolutely refuse to pay for this."

"What?!" Kotetsu managed to shout right before Ibiki's hand closed over his mouth. The muffled ranting left little to be imagined about Kotetsu's choice of words. Sarutobi had to wonder where the 11-year-old had learned that vocabulary.

"Excuse me." Iruka offered in a soft voice that forced the lady to stop screaming at them if she wanted to hear him. "The mission was to retrieve the cat, ma'am. And he is back home, safe and sound."

The Sandaime raised an eyebrow, but had to fight down a smile as Izumo's eyes widened, and the young boy looked back and forth rapidly between Iruka and the cat dangling from between the woman's large hands.

The cat was completely drenched. And covered in the sticky, syrup goo that Izumo could produce with his Suiton Mizuame Nabara.

Granted, the front of Kotetsu's outfit was also covered in the same stuff, since he'd been the one to pounce on the stuck cat, but the lady seemed much more concerned with the well-being of her precious feline.

"Iruka." The Sandaime warned in a low voice, and he could have sworn that Iruka forced his expression to be that much more guiltless.

"Safe and sound?!" The poor cat was pushed forwards into Iruka's face and then snatched back, as if the woman thought Iruka might do something worse to it. "You call this..." She spluttered at him, and drew back her free hand, as if to slap him.

"Ma'am," Sarutobi rose to his feet in an effort to stop the inevitable physical violence.

"You approve of this insolence?" She whirled on him.

Sarutobi groaned inwardly, while implementing on of the 500 super-secret techniques learned by all shinobi who have become hokage: ass-kissing. "Please, you'll have to forgive our youth; they are impetuous and sometimes make poor choices. We are, as always honored to have your patronage here, and I promise that your cat will be put back into its rightful state before you return tomorrow morning." The general irritation brought on by uttering such overly flattering statements was easily overridden by the amusement from watching the dark expressions form on the three genin's faces.

OOOOOOOO

"This is bullshit." Kotetsu grumbled, eyeing the dark shape in the corner of the room. He already sported several injuries from previous attempts to control it, before Iruka had pulled him and Izumo into a huddle and concocted this plan.

"Alright, on three." Iruka spread his hands against wall to brace himself. "One." Izumo rose to his feet. "Two." Kotetsu took a step forward, "Three!" The three genin leapt forward, Izumo from the right, Kotetsu from the left, and Iruka over the pool. A resounding crash from the crate's door falling shut echoed through the enclosed room, followed by Izumo's cheers.

"Yatta!" Izumo pumped a hand into the air, trailing after the other two as they lugged the crate towards the edge of the pool.

Both Kotetsu and Iruka traded a serious look before both leaning down to peer into the crate. Kotetsu pushed his sleeves up over his elbows.

"Well?" Izumo asked, inching closer to them.

One of Kotetsu's eyes twitched dangerously. "We can do this."

"Yeah." Iruka nodded. After a few minutes of staring at each other, Iruka pulled the front trap of the crate off, and Kotetsu shoved his arms in.

Spitting, hissing and yowling filled the small room. Kotetsu cursed under his breath as the cat's claws tried to gain purchase on his forearms. Iruka and Izumo struggled for a minute to remove the cat from where it had firmly affixed itself, before Kotetsu just shoved his hand – cat, sleeve and all – into the water.

All hell broke lose.

When it was all said and done, all three genin were thoroughly soaked and a very miffed cat was cleaning off its soggy fur in the corner of the room.

OOOOOOOO

Ibiki leaned against the door, listening to the shrieks, shouts and cries of pain coming from the small bathing room beyond. He chuckled, wondering vaguely if they'd managed to learn the lesson: that sometimes you have to read between the lines on the mission to interpret what the customer wants. Safe and sound does not necessarily mean just uninjured and alive.

OOOOOOOO

Ibiki ducked his head as he leapt back and forth through the overhanging branches. His team had been together for slightly over 4 months and had completed over 60 C and D-rank missions, with a little more success than their first, cat-rescuing assignment.

On the previous morning, he'd stood in front of the Sandaime's desk with a look a somewhat consternated look. "You're serious?"

Sarutobi had nodded slowly, "From what you've told me, and what I've seen your team, they've come along exceptionally well. Their own talents seem to mesh well with each other, and I think it's about time for them to take some more challenging missions. Either high-C or B." He paused, "However, you are still their instructor, and you have the final word."

Ibiki had simply asked for more time. He wanted a chance to evaluate his students under harsher conditions. Through their training, he had pushed them, but not much beyond the missions that they were being assigned.

Which lead to why he was sprinting through the forest now, waiting for his students to try and capture him. He hadn't seen them for over an hour now, and wasn't entirely sure where they were hiding, and why they hadn't tried to attack him at least once by now.

A strange bird-call caught his attention, and he dropped to one of the lower branches, looking up and back for the source. In the second of distraction, something snagged across his ankle. What the… Ibiki shoved his hand down against the branch, shooting himself up upwards and just barely avoiding the bent sapling that whipped through the air where he had just been. He also very narrowly avoided doing a face plant thanks to the strange trip wire that he should have noticed.

He stretched out a hand to catch a passing limb and turned his head sharply when the wood squished up between his fingers. "Che…" He snorted, throwing chakra into his hand to free himself from Izumo's jutsu. But even as he freed his last finger, two large blades crashed upwards through the overgrowth. He kicked one out of the way, but the other went through his vest and shirt and pinned them both to the tree.

As he hit, he was already working to free himself, but shifting ropes of water wrapped up and firmly held him in place. Good. He thought, but not good enough. What will you do if your target escapes? He stretched out his chakra to the immediate area and activated a genjutsu that would catch all of them. He grinned evilly as three muffled whumps reached his ears as his team collapsed under the power of his illusion.

The ropes started to loosen, and then shook his head slowly. And if this was real, you'd all be de…. A soft splash signaled the release of Iruka's jutsu, the water loosing form and crashing to the ground, but the bounds around his waist and torso remained tight. He looked up at a strange whooshing sound and only had time for one last thought. Water balloons?

OOOOOOOOO

Ibiki glared down at the three genin who were sitting cross-legged on the tree limb in front of him. The water balloon had distracted him long enough to drop the jutsu – after all, it wasn't every day that a shinobi got nailed by something so childish, and he certainly wasn't expecting the minor explosion of blue powder that filled the air after impact – and his students had moved far enough away in that moment to no get caught again.

"This powder…" Ibiki drawled out. "Can someone explain why, exactly, you saw the need to use this."

"It was a mark, you know, in case the target escaped." Izumo offered, shaking his head to get the extra lock of hair away from his eye.

"…"

"Yeah, it's almost impossible to get off and it leaves a visible trail on whatever the person touches!" Kotetsu grinned broadly and then swallowed the smile when Ibiki glared at him.

"And how do I go about getting this off?" Ibiki wiped his hand across his face, hoping against all hope that the dye might start coming off his skin. Because, so help him, if he had to go back to the village with blue skin, he was not going to be held responsible for killing his team.

Both Kotetsu and Izumo swiveled their heads around to look at their teammate, who was sitting in between the two of them. Iruka tucked a stray piece of hair behind his ear, and slowly met Ibiki's eyes. "Ano…it just wears off."

Izumo snorted, and then averted his eyes when Ibiki's gaze transferred to him.

"Iruka…" Ibiki drawled the name out. "You planned this?" Even down to back-up plans in case the target can escape. Interesting. "We're done for the day. Meet at 0500 tomorrow" He disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

OOOOOOOO

Izumo burst out laughing as soon as Ibiki vanished. "H-how long does it take for that stuff to come off?"

The corners of Iruka's lips hooked upwards in a devilish grin, "'Bout two weeks."

OOOOOOOO

god, I fucking hate this chapter...next one will be better

oh, and sorry it's so short