AN: Blame InsanityUnleashed and Avilo1993 for getting me stuck on this one. I keep TRYING to write for my other stories! Also apologies if I ever confuse anyone dropping parent terms. I don't think in Japanese and it's not always stressing the feeling I want to get.
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Kaa-san put her foot down about the green jumpsuit.
While the reaction my father had upon seeing it was shaking his head and laughing but entirely supportive of Gai as Lee's teacher since contrary to most people's belief if you could get the turtle summoner to focus on paperwork right after an event he filled it out flawlessly. Father as a desk bound paper pushing ninja who liked his job adored that Gai perhaps broke a few pencils in his enthusiasm but did the work correctly. Indeed I don't doubt that if anything our beloved parent was considering how to ensure Gai passed on the methods of proper paperwork to his team. Mama?
Hoo boy.
Well she was a Yue before she was a Lee and that meant stubborn with some very strict ideas on how things should be. While she had embraced the Lee clan with every bit of her being she had never ceased adoring the fabric and styles from her homeland and if the spandex was an insult to most, it was almost a serious offense to our mother. When our grandparents saw it they were going to be impossible. Whether or not grandpa would start finding things to stick on it like he did me with chakra was just a matter of time.
"You may of course wear it when going to train, even if just out with no plans for the day instead of your leisure wear. However, I firmly draw the line at for any formal events, helping out at the warehouse, or in the house. You will be in charge of learning how to properly care for it and pass along such instructions to me and your Obaa-san and we shall teach you how to work with that...material..but if I ever tell you no you are not to complain." Let it be noted through this entire speech our beautiful Kaa-san was calmly washing the rice for dinner, not even looking over the two of us standing by the kitchen door. I was still dripping wet if at least now mud free, and Lee was as well. We had given up on laps after a while and instead taken to splashing the other. It had been glorious. By the way wet spandex? Not pretty. And the weird noises it made were cringe worthy. Of course next to me in my soaking traditional wear it wasn't really much better.
"Yes, I understand." Lee responded very softly and respectfully, looking up with his large eyes through those silly long lashes and frankly if not for what he was wearing I probably would have hugged him. His hair was still a bit unruly and fluttering from his own recent cutting ceremony and would need to be shortened to let his eyebrows be more evident. Not that I thought they were that bushy, he was a guy they tended to have thicker ones than many girls. Considering his long lashes it was truly no surprise. "May I wear it in and out of the house if coming and going?"
Our mother mind you was of my coloring in hair and eyes, but Lee definitely had her steel gaze of determined focus. Sideways she glanced up and fixed him, and then myself, with that utterly ruthless judging expression. The fact I was only wearing my normal attire and soaking wet was hardly that unusual in our family so I could only wonder if she thought I was going to join the realm of spandex? Frankly I'm pretty certain should I try that Anko-sensei would aim a lot more seriously at me.
"Yes. Any further wardrobe changes your sensei can explain to your father. Both of you." The slight twitch at her lips had Lee and I snickering. Because if Gai had to bellow at father about apparel just imagine what my sensei may do? Well come now, no one forgot that trolling ran rampant in the family. Not when it had been grandpa making me resemble a flower bush that had sent me scampering off to the Hyuuga years ago to begin with. Which he still takes credit for by the way.
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Oddly enough, as much of a riot as Anko sensei was, it really didn't feel like my days changed that much. Just that now I had an Aburame and Inuzuka and the two fluffy pups that always presented bellies for a good rub down at my side instead of some of my cousins. D-ranks were not really that boring. I mean, honestly, when taking out trash or scrubbing floors or the like is considered part of family duties in a big clan warehouse that makes Plum wine and other products you just get immune to chores after a while. Quite unintentionally I not only understood where Lee was coming from and probably irritating his teammates -Ten-ten being further away in relation didn't have to help out and come to think of that we completely needed to remedy that- because I was doing it too.
"Come on guys!" I yelled as I hoisted another bag of mulch we were taking through a yard to be deposited. Admittedly at the top of a very large hill. Chakra in my muscles helped me hold two which meant my Inuzuka buddy Dai just had to copy me even if he didn't know my trick, and the Aburame looked resigned as Sei held their own single bag. "Only two hundred and twelve to go!"
"That's the spirit brats!" Our current temporary 'minder' for Anko was another forgettable instructor who had simply told us to call him 'boss'. I knew he was only a Jounin but seeing as the one day Anko had full out thrown a fit about needing a day at the spa and no one to train us pain in her rump little upstarts my mouth of course opened up all on it's own...well her little comment that second testing day where she'd said she'd foist us off on someone else hadn't happened until I sort of reminded her of it.
"Uh, Anko-sensei?.."
Anko was still pacing around, arms waving as she rambled. "..should just tie you all up and leave you in the forest of death. Maybe then you little maggots will be food for the tigers. Or the giant centipedes. I bet I could claim it as an unauthorized training lesson and they may just believe it..especially if I poisoned you with a hallucinogen first.."
It was truly saying a lot that none of us interrupted our mandatory log punching while she ranted to be perturbed by this. She'd been our instructor for a few weeks now and we sort of..adapted..fast. Honestly if she wasn't threatening to kill or maim us she was plotting something or a clone. Nor did I think she was just hot air as my teammates did. I knew she not only was legitimately plotting out in her head ways she could be rid of us but that it was probably a coping mechanism. Besides, anything she said out loud could be used against her and not likely the thing to worry about.
Ninja. So weird. Tobirama seriously put something in the water and now it's infused in our chakra forever.
"...there's always the thugs off in the town nearby that think we don't know about them.." she kept going and so I took in a deep breath. Sei looked over at me amused. They seem to always just tilt their head just so and I choose to decide it is amusement not like I can see them under the hoody and glasses and scarf enough to figure out.
"ANKO-SENSEI!"
"What maggot!?" Her hand went flying with a kunai as she whirls and as expected of me, I dodge. It isn't like she was really trying to hit me. Dai flings himself out of the way with a sort of bleating bark thing coming out of him. Judging from the snorts of his ninken it's not a normal noise.
"Aren't there some injured shinobi not cleared for work but bored yet you could force to watch us so you can run off and they'd owe you a favor?" I wiggled my hand side to side knowing she could figure out, easily, the woman's a T&I specialist after all, how to make that scheme work for her.
All of a sudden Anko's gaze was sharp and analyzing the three of us. You had the loud Inuzuka, the quiet and stoic Aburame and the smart alec civilian. Crap. Do all us teams fit into this profile? Or at least close enough plenty of them weren't civilian brats and I guess technically I wasn't but I was and ..okay. Focus. Teacher's tensing so she's going to talk again.
"You three..would behave?" Ever so faintly her voice sounds hopeful and so before either of my teammates can blow this I respond.
Come on I have been around the Hyuuga how long? I know something of negotiating. I just usually choose not to employ it. "What's in it for us if we're the perfect little team that freaks the said babysitter out that you of all people have?" There. Up the bet, and the stakes. Anko's grin turns wickedly approving even as Sei nods and Dai humms in agreement.
"I concur. A service for a service would be most logical." Yes, they've ceased using the why tick understanding we're all smart enough to follow along. Of course that means if Sei does start utilizing it, that's a pretty nasty insult and the equivalent of extreme sarcasm.
Dai is bobbing his head with that usual fanged grin on his face. "Works for me!" "Yap!" "Yip!"
Anko crosses her arms slowly, tapping a kunai against her lips before her grin turns absolutely feral. "Look at my little baby maggots..why I'm proud of you. Just for that, you seriously make them panic because you're too well behaved and I'll teach each of you a new jutsu."
"Genjutsu." Tobirama stop making me open my mouth before I think!
"Fine. Purple maggot can have a genjutsu."
Okay I take that back, thanks ancient trolling hokage!
After only a moment my two other teammates nod, knowing that they are better off sticking with whatever Jutsu Anko is actually willing to pass on. She cackles wickedly and vanishes, the other two just looking at me.
Dai is the one who finally breaks the silence. "You just got our crazy sensei to agree to teach us new jutsu's if we play nice with someone taking us on the D-ranks we already have to do anyways?" A snicker and then I find myself pulled into a head lock that I have learned is just best to let the tactile Inuzuka have his way with as he barks a laugh. "Oh man that's epic! I bet if we keep this up we can have normal sensei's half the time and keep bargaining!"
"Agreed. Most logical. I support this decision though perhaps we should specify types or ranks next time as our sensei is most..disturbingly creative." Sei intones from behind their high collar of the poncho thingy they wear. What we really should have done is specify when we learned the jutsu.
So that's the story of why we have a different 'Boss' every day. They've gotten used to us calling them boss and so I don't know any of them by actual name and when there's a new one they just wave and say to call them boss. This has been our deal for about a month now and while we haven't actually learned our new techniques yet Anko has told us she knows precisely how many we are owed but we can't handle them yet. So in the mean time we do D-ranks, train, and because we have a rotation of lots of bored somehow injured jounin we are getting some varied skills. Like the one who had a broken leg and was getting by on a crutch demonstrating how to tree walk for us because Sei asked how he didn't need a second to balance him. It was slow going for my teammates but by this time they knew not to call me out on the fact I was a chakra control freak and so if I 'faked' falling and the like after they did they stayed quiet. Okay Sei stayed quiet, Dai tended to laugh his head off but at least he'd help me up as well.
All it had taken was one very quiet talk waiting for Anko about how I was told to downplay it by the Hyuuga and in respect of the bigger and older clan they backed off on asking and easily helped me hide in plain sight.
The first time we had a neat jounin who liked to chew on mint leaves to help with a cough and offered to teach us to wield swords though I think even Sei squeaked in excitement. Turned out he was something of an expert on blades and walked us through several types. Ten-ten may have developed a crush if she was there, as it was I recognized a weapons master when I saw one, even if he had only devoted himself to a single type.
He had been the one to explain to us that while he preferred the Katana, often viewed as a pinnacle of artistry, it wasn't for everyone. I found myself much more fond of the tanto or similar short swords and of course, he taught me a few tricks with the blade Ten-Ten had made me to cut my hair. I carried it at all times. It was a pity though, as while I liked using them, when not grabbing and redirecting blows with my hands as I was accustomed too, I still felt like something was missing.
I needed a better weapon than common shuriken and kunai for a distance of course. Something that wouldn't be so easily grabbed and turned against me.
We got stuck with Tsume once too. The Inuzuka clan head was a fearsome and amazing woman and had us all hired to clean out the kennels!
"If I'm goin to watch you brats I'm at least going to make you help me out in the process!" She'd barked.
Can I just say how much I dread finding out if she knows my mother?
...Oh screw that if not I'm introducing them. I want a puppy.
