a/n okay, so here it is: Chapter Two. sorry it took so long to update! other things goign on, you know!!! I decided to give this an update, though, before I continued with the rest of my updating cycle! Hope you appreciate it. lol. and I hope you enjoy! be sure to tell me what you think!


S M i L E

Chapter Two--Attack
+++

"Let me get this straight..." Asuma said slowly, placing his shot glass on the coffee table. "You want us to attack your pupils?"

"I don't get it," Genma added. "I always thought you liked them. Why do you want them killed?"

Mutsuko frowned. "You underestimate them. My team is excellent. Maybe they wouldn't win against you if it was going to be a battle where everyone tried their hardest, but they sure would come close."

"I know, I know. I was just fooling with you," Genma said. He smirked and gave his friend a hair tousle; Mutsuko grinned.

"Good," she said.

Genma smiled lightly at her and then turned to Asuma. "Should we do it?"

The blue-haired man nodded and took another swig of sake. "We'll do it-" he began, only to be interrupted by Mutsuko.

"Oh, I wasn't really giving you an option, but alright. It's good to know you're willing."

Asuma continued as if she had never spoken. "We--or I--would like to know how we're going to go about doing this though. I mean, surely they'd recognize us. You've said so yourself--they're smart kids. They're seen you hanging around us and around town."

"You think I haven't thought this through?" Mutsuko inquired, tapping Asuma on the nose and laughing.

Kotori smirked at the blush on the cigarette-smoker's face and the slight frown on Genma's. What she found even funnier than those two things, though, was the fact that Mutsuko didn't notice. It really was a wonder she was still alive; she was so oblivious sometimes!

"I have that all planned out, don't worry. We should probably be going now, though, so you have time to change and then head over to where they are no-doubt fighting."

"We have to change?" Genma groaned.

Mutsuko raised her eyebrows. "Is that a problem?"

"Of course not," Asuma interjected, placing a gloved-hand over the other male's mouth before he could say another word. "When should we leave?"

"Mutsuko glanced down at her watch, forgetting that it was, as it had been for the past 9 years, broken. She frowned at it, her eyes going hazy as she stared at the perfectly smooth glass that covered the beautiful background.

Sighing, she shook her head and looked over her shoulder at the clock on the wall. "We should go now," she said quietly; her mind was on other things, such as the fact that she really needed to get a new watch.

I can't though, she said to herself, biting her lower lip. I just couldn't get rid of it.

"Come along Genma; Asuma! Thanks for the tea Kotori! I'll see you soon!" The young woman shot up out of her seat, winked at her violet-haired friend, and headed for the door. The two Jounin males followed after her after politely thanking the other woman and saying good-bye.

"I hope what I have will fit," Mutsuko said after a few minutes of silence as they walked down the long hallway. "We'll just have to see though, won't we? If worst comes to worst...well, I don't think you want to know the alternative." She giggled into her hands.

Asuma and Genma exchanged a slightly-frightened glance with one another.

"Um," Asuma began, clearing his throat. He glared at Genma for leaving this to him and continued, "What is the alternative...if what you have doesnt fit?"

"You really want to know?" Mutsuko cackled. She looked over her shoulder at them, her fair brown hair falling into her brown eyes.

"Yes," Genma said firmly.

"Well, I have a box of costumes under my bed. Costumes that would definitely fit you guys. Costumes like...big baggy rainbow pants and long skirts and...should I continue?"

"No, no!" Asuma and Genma assured her. Both had wide eyes as they stared at her. She broke into a grin, chuckled, and carried onward.

"It's odd to think about how scared you got at that, yet, as ninja, we have to carry out daunting, gruesome, dangerous tasks, and you don't seem to care in the least."

"That's because we're big, strong, tough men," Genma replied in all seriousness as he replaced his senbon in his mouth.

Mutsuko laughed. "I agree with the men part..." she said, allowing her voice to trail off.

Asuma cocked an eyebrow. "You really doubt the rest?" he asked skeptically, showing her his arms. She didn't say anything, so Asuma grabbed her hand and placed it on his muscle.

"Alright, alright. You bulge! You have muscle! I get it! Jeez, can't a woman make a joke anymore..." She began mumbling to herself as she fumbled with her set of keys. She could never really remember which was to get into her apartment. She never really needed it anyway. It was a rare occasion that she could be found there. Usually she spent the night at Kotori's, if she wasnt out on a mission, and she spent her days out training with her subordinates. Sometimes she would go days without going to her apartment, which was the main reason it stayed so neat.

"Aha! Here it is!" Mutsuko exclaimed with gusto, only to find the door already open, the lights on, and Genma and Asuma inside, sprawled out at the table.

"How did you guys get in?" Mutsuko asked; there was a frown on her face as she shoved her keys back into her bag.

"I have a spare key," said Asuma. He spun the silver ring around his finger, a taunting smile on his tan face. "Remember?"

"No," Mutsuko grumbled. She kicked her apartment door closed and looked around. It was a fairly simple apartment. The kitchen was fairly large with a table for four in the center. It went right into the Living room, where Genma lay stretched out across the couch, with no separation. Then there was the bedroom and the bathroom. Mutsuko used to hate the cramped quarters--or she considered it cramped, anyway. She did, after all, grow up in a very large house--but now she saw it as practical. Why would she need a tremendous amount of space? She lived there by herself, and she was never around, anyway. And forget about having company! She was too busy for that!

"Come on, you lazy bums," Mutsuko said, disappearing into her dark bedroom. "The clothes are in here!"

The two followed their fellow Jounin into her bedroom where, when they walked in, she was filing through her closet.

Genma stood silently behind her, watching, while Asuma sat on her bed, staring around at the pictures she had displayed. There was one of her parents, her brother and sister--twins--and her team. Then there was one of Kotori and her, Kotori alone, and...one of Genma. He frowned to himself and unconsciously took out a cigarette and lit it.

"Hey!" Mutsuko exclaimed, smelling smoke in the air. "No smoking in my apartment, please! I don't want that foul smell spoiling my air!"

Asuma didn't seem to hear her, however, or he was just choosing to ignore her, because he didn't put out the cigarette. Mutsuko actually had to storm over, rip it from his mouth, and take it to the bathroom to put it out. By the time she returned, she was coughing.

"Such a foul habit. You really should--STOP STARING AT MY PICTURES!" she screeched, running forward and flinging herself in front of the Jounin's vision.

Asuma moved his eyes up to her face and smirked. "Embarrassed about something?" he asked slowly, the smirk growing. In reality he used the smirk to hide what would otherwise be on his face, but Mutsuko needn't know that.

"By what?" she in turn asked.

"That picture right behind you, perhaps?"

Mutsuko looked around, and there was the photo of Genma. He was, as usual, wearing his fore-head-protector hat backwards, and a senbon was coming out of his mouth. But for once, there seemed to be a smile in his eyes, something that was very rare. Genma wasn't exactly a smiling sort of guy. That's not to say he never did, and it isn't to say he frowned all the time, but usually his face bore a rather neutral expression, like he was bored or something.

"The clothes are hanging on the door. You two should go try them on," she said somewhat coolly, her light brown eyes never leaving his.

Asuma stood silently and took one of the black costumes off the door, not even checking the size. Genma cast Mutsuko a curious look--to which she replied with a controlled smile--and went off to change elsewhere.

Mutsuko sighed and fell onto her back. She used to have a picture of Asuma in that spot. A picture of Asuma, aged twenty-two, with a smile on his face and no cigarette in sight. Mutsuko thought back on those days, six years ago, when she was eighteen, with the faint trace of a smile.

But those days were over; finished. She had to move on. Asuma was...well, he was...Mutsuko wasn't exactly sure what he was, but she knew what he wasn't: hers.

A couple minutes later, there was a knock on the door frame. Mutsuko sat up and looked over. Genma stood there in the all-black outfit. It fit his slight frame perfectly, Mutsuko noticed, and he looked good. She had to look away.

"So it fits?" she asked, picking up a random photo and inspecting it.

"Yup," Genma replied, stepping forward into the room.

"Good." Mutsuko replaced the picture on the wall and walked over to the twenty-nine-year-old man. "Here's a mask," she said, handing him a white, ski mask type of thing. "Put this on when we get there. And," Mutsuko paused, grabbing elastic from her dresser, "put your hair back." She quickly tied his short hair into a loose ponytail, smiled, and turned away.

"Once Asuma is ready, we'll go. I know where we can find the twins."

"Hai," Genma said. He lingered for a moment and then disappeared in the living room to wait.

+++

"Jeez, would you two stop fidgeting?" Mutsuko hissed at the two Jounin as they hurried along. Asuma and Genma kept picking at the tight black clothes they were forced into wearing.

"Why did we agree to this again?" Genma muttered.

"Because you love me," Mutsuko replied, a charming grin on her face. Genma and Asuma stared silently at her, unable to come up with a suitable reply, and then looked quickly away.

Mutsuko frowned. "Mah. You two are mean! You don't say anything!" she cried.

Asuma and Genma grinned wickedly, but remained silent as they continued leaping through the threes. As the threesome continued onward, they saw someone seemingly following underneath them. Mutsuko came to a halt and held her arm out to stop the other two, causing Genma's balance to be lost. Asuma grabbed him by the arm and steadied him though, as Mutsuko looked down below, her heart pounding wildly in her chest from, not only the run, but the thrill of being followed.

However her heart rate returned to normal when she realized that the person trailing them from underneath was Hato, going to join in on the training Seiko and Sakai were doing.

"Hato! " She called, causing the leaves in the trees to quiver. The blonde boy looked up, spotted his sensei and two others, and grinned.

"Konichiwa!" he called back, waving energetically.

"Come here!" Mutsuko ordered. The white-clad boy was quick to obey. Bending at the knees, he jumped from branch to branch until he stood with the three Jounin.

"Where are you going Sensei?"

"I, along with Asuma and Genma, am going to...help with the training."

"How?"

Mutsuko and the other two exchanged looks. While the two men looked a tad uneasy, Mutsuko just smiled slyly. "You'll see. Come along!"

With that, the four hurried off again to the training area.

+++

"So, you guys know what to do, right?" Mutsuko whispered, her brown eyes never leaving the still figures of her subordinates.

"Hai," the two men said in unison.

"Good! Now go!" she commanded, giving one of them a shove. The two jumped up and disappeared into a different tree. Mutsuko beckoned Hato closer.

A kunai was thrown, slicing through the silence. Sakai shot up and started shaking his twin sister, who had almost been hit in the head by said kunai.

Hato's dark gray eyes were wide as he stared. "What are they doing?" he whispered, readjusting his hat.

"Helping them train," Mutsuko answered simply.

"By trying to kill them?!"

The brunette sighed. "Everyone keeps saying that. They will not kill them."

Hato frowned and seemed to give up on talking, so Mutsuko went on to continue observing. Sakai's back was blood stained and he and Seiko were looking around to see where the weapons had been thrown from.

"Why don't I ever get special training? Or training at all, really! All you let me do is go off to spy!"

Mutsuko bit her lip to keep from speaking harshly to him. "Don't you get it Hato?! What you are doing is training!"

The blonde stared blankly at her, and Mutsuko slapped her hand to her forehead.

"Hato..." she said, as patiently as she could. Then she stopped. It would be easier just to promise him he'd get some 'real training' for now. She'd explain later. "Never mind. I promise you, though, that once we get back from the mission, you'll get some real training, too, alright?"

Hato seemed to brighten at that. A grin spread over his young face, and, with that, he turned his attention back to the training grounds.

By this point Seiko and Sakai were both fighting individually against the two Jounin. Mutsuko watched their attacks carefully. There didn't seem to be a single flaw in either. Except for the fact that Sakai got dizzy and crashed against a tree and slid to the ground.

And with Seiko, the only thing wrong was...well, that she was being really hard on Genma.

"HEY! THAT'S ENOUGH!" Mutsuko shouted, hoping that would keep Seiko from murdering Genma. She hopped down from the tree and started walking towards the battlers, Hato following behind.

"You can all stop fighting here. The sun's about to set and I want to go home and rest, and I can't do so while there are two Jounin ninjas playing around with me subordinates!"

"But Mutsuko--" Asuma, the man who was fighting Sakai before, began to protest, but the woman held up her hand and he was silenced.

"Asuma, help Sakai up and keep him up since you obviously did that to him. Seiko--drop all weapons and call the hamsters off of Genma."

Seiko looked reluctant as she did what was commanded of her. Mutsuko stared at her, smiling amusedly to herself as she read the blonde girl's expression. She wanted to know why she was so friendly with their attackers...

"I was watching the entire fight," Mutsuko-sensei began to explain as she approached the man she called Genma, "and I have to say--"

Hato humorously interrupted, "That I saw two Academy students fight better than you." Mutsuko saw Seiko fume and grimaced. Not the best thing to say...

Yes, Hato was watching as well, but that wasn't what I was going to say," Mutsuko said with a smile as she began to wipe dirt from Genma's black clothing absently.

" I was going, to say that, even though the fight didn't really last long, you two fought well," Mutsuko finished up, ignoring the pair of eyes she felt boring into her and Genma.

She took in Seiko and Sakai's satisfaction before going onto say to Asuma and Genma, smiling playfully, "And you two!" She placed placing both hands on her hips and looked back and forth between the attackers. "You guys are grown men--Jounins. I send you guys to--"

Seiko interrupted, "Wait, wait, wait a minute! You sent them?!"

Annoyed by the interruption--again--Mutsuko irritably and indifferently replied, "Yes, yes, I sent them. Now let me finish, okay? So I send you guys to surprise attack my subordinates so that they get some really good practice and you guys totally get beat up! Genma--did you even hit Seiko?!"

"It's against my nature to hit an innocent girl--especially a Genin--even a cheeky one like her. But I did get Sakai in the back with a kunai." Genma shrugged.

"Yeah that was a good shot. But poor Sakai got beat up--I guess it's payback for getting Asuma so much, hm?" Mutsuko-sensei winked at Asuma.

The man blushed and grumbled something inaudibly as he pulled his face mask down and grabbed a cigarette, quickly lighting it and putting it to his lips. Mutsuko scowled. There he was, smoking again!

"Anyway! Thanks again Asuma, Genma! You showed the two a nice surprise attack--something they've been needing."

"Not a problem," Asuma replied and let a puff of smoke escape his mouth.

"I guess we should be going now?" Genma suggested, looking over at the slightly younger smoking man, who nodded.

"Okay. I'll see you two around...are you sure you don't want me to pay you?" Mutsuko put one slender hand into her pocket as an act to pull out money, but Genma grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand back out before she could.

"That won't be necessary. It was...fun. I don't think I've ever been attacked by hamsters before." And the light-haired man winked at Seiko.

"Yeah. And it certainly was an experience being mauled by gerbils," Asuma added with a chuckle. "But you guys were good, no doubt about it. You certainly live up to the title as the best Genin team..."

"But you didnt see me fight!" Hato protested.

As Asuma spoke to Hato, Genma leaned towards Mutsuko and whispered in her ear, "And you call us lazy," then snorted. His lips touched her ear, sending shivers up her spine and forming goose bumps on her orange-covered arms.

And then, he and Asuma were gone. Mutsuko smiled faintly at where they had stood and then turned to the subordinates. She spoke and listened to them, but she wasn't really paying attention. Then Seiko and Sakai were gone, leaving her, once again, with Hato.

After several minutes of more chatter, she decided it was time to leave.

"When will you pay me though?" Hato asked, referring to the bet they had made, as they walked along.

"How about tomorrow?" Mutsuko suggested; she knew she wouldn't.

"So I can expect it next month?" Hato said with a grin.

"You bet!"


a/n okay, so the referrign to the bet is from Sunrises, Chapter two. and has any one else noticed that I make a lot of blodne in my stories and that people wear a lot of orange? totally not on purpose. anyway! tell me what you think!