It was well past noon and the day couldn't have been calmer with the birds chirping, the sound of children laughing and overall, no sight of any trouble in the Village. The sky was a tranquil blue and no cloud could be seen. A day like this was what could be considered a blessing for any ninja working in the ANBU division- especially if they recently got back from yet another mission in which they shouldn't have survived.
For two ANBU nin however, this day was a blessing for a completely different reason. It being that their angry squad captain would not be in the mood to completely sully their day with the usual punishment they received when they annoyed him too much.
Now, Genma and Raidou couldn't help themselves. They had just heard from Obito that their beloved captain gained full custody of a certain blond chibi that they were already extremely fond of, despite knowing him for little more than a month.
They had visited early in the morning to a) visit Pup, their nickname for the child, and b) to tease the hell out of Kakashi. What they did not expect was that their captain would be exhausted. They knew from experience that Naruto was a handful but for Kakashi to be that tired?
If they knew they wouldn't have gone within a fifty-mile radius of him for one simple fact that everyone on Team Rou knew; pissing of Taicho was one thing but pissing off a tired Taicho was another.
The two now laid side by side on the grass in Konoha Park. They were dressed in the usual chuunin get-up instead of their ANBU wear so that none of the parents in the park would be alarmed. Genma, with a newly injured arm covering half of his face, was on the verge of falling asleep when Raidou cried hysterically and sat up.
"Aaah! I can't take this, this day's too dull!"
Genma, not making any movements, replied, "That's what you said this morning before you got man-hunted by Taicho."
"Oi! You agreed to come too."
"I was in the mood to see Pup, not get beaten to a pulp by Taicho."
Raidou groaned, "Taicho's been on edge a lot, probably cause we've got that mission coming up and the Uchiha police force coming back."
"What do you expect? Obito's been pestering Taicho a lot lately with that 'grand plan' of his and with the issue of Itachi being taken off Team Rou too, Naruto just adds to the list of problems…"
Genma sighed and sat up, he wouldn't be getting sleep anytime soon. Taking a senbon out from the pouch that adorned his pants, he stuck it in his mouth and turned to look at Raidou.
"What? Don't tell me you didn't know."
Raidou's mouth hung slightly open, his brow furrowed as well. "Itachi's leaving?"
"Guess you don't then. Rumour has it that Itachi's going to be promoted soon, probably become a captain himself. Most of us are against it, some claiming he's only ten so he wouldn't know what to do but others… they all for it. They're saying things like he's the Uchiha prodigy so he should know how things work. They just want him to get promoted so he can go further down the line and end up like Taicho, except he won't be able to handle it and end up mad or something."
"And Hokage-sama agrees with it?" It didn't make sense to him. Sure, Raidou had like one conversation with the hokage so he wouldn't know what to expect but surely he wouldn't consider it.
Genma shrugged. "That's all I heard before Taicho and Tenzou changed the topic. But one thing I do know is that Hokage-sama's being pressured by more than one side."
Now it clicked. "The Uchiha themselves," Raidou answered.
"Yep, along with Danzo. You know how he hates Team Rou since Tenzou was ROOT and Taicho ruined that for him and he considers the rest of us useless bastards, but he hates the Uchiha more and Itachi's stuck in the middle."
"Taicho's got a plan then. He has, I'm sure of it."
"Of course. Itachi's one of us. A hell of a lot better in skill and smarter too, but he's a reject like us. We stick together."
Raidou smirked, "Wow, couldn't have said it better myself Genma."
"Piss off. Let's go bother Tenzou, I've had enough of this park.
Tenzou was having a bad morning. He had woken up with a terrible headache, fallen over when he attempted to get out of his bed, tripped over his ANBU mask on his short trip to his small kitchen and when he finally made it, he discovered that there were no painkillers at all and he didn't even have coffee to start his day off.
Tenzou without coffee was as good as a remote without batteries; useless.
He grunted and just in that moment, the doorbell rang. He reluctantly made his way to the door, carefully avoiding any objects that were lying around on the floor.
He considered himself a hypocrite as he would often yell at Team Rou to clean up behind themselves when he himself was a slob. Tenzou was about to answer the door when he heard two familiar voices. He looked through the peephole and almost screamed.
Absolutely not, he thought to himself. The only thing worse than this duo is that annoying Pup.
"Tenzou, open up! We know you're standing by the door. We can practically hear your thoughts from here with all your grunting," Raidou shouted from outside.
I've been grunting the whole time? Voices could be heard from the hallway, particularly Anko Mitarashi shouting at Raidou to shup up, interrupting his thoughts.
"What do you want? It's still morning." He attempted to shout, he discovered that he now had a sore throat as well.
"It's past noon, Tenzou," Genma replied.
He opened the door slightly and peeked out. "It's what time now?"
"Man, you look like shit," Raidou. He stuck his foot by the door and pushed Tenzou out of the way. Genma followed him into the apartment.
"Tenzou," Genma began, "You really need to clean up after yourself."
Tenzou, perplexed, stood by the entrance before a red tick mark appeared on his forehead. Raidou made his way to the fridge while Genma sat down on the couch that adorned the small living area.
"You-you two! What are you doing here!?"
Raidou came back from the kitchen with a sandwich half in his mouth half in his hands. "Mhmn?"
"That was my lunch!"
From the couch Genma spoke, "Tenzou, do you have anything else to eat. I'm starving."
"Nah, he only had this sandwich. It's really good, want a piece?" Raidou replied.
"Yeah thanks, Raidou." He caught the other half of the sandwich when Raidou threw it at him. He was about to bite into it when Tenzou slammed the door.
"Listen to me, damn it! What are you two doing here? This is my house, my couch and my sandwich. I woke up with a fucking headache and there's no painkillers or any coffee in shithole of an apartment. So really, I am NOT in the mood for either of you. Got that?!"
Both Genma and Raidou stared at him. What was it with them and bothering people when they are more likely to kill them than usual? Raidou swallowed the last part of the sandwich and cleared his throats.
"Right. Sorry about that, guess we went a bit too far. Umm… actually we came here to talk about Itachi."
"I overheard you and Taicho talking about him leaving Team Rou so we came here to confirm it. We got distracted and started acting like how we normally do. Sorry about that," Genma said and took a bite from the sandwich.
Tenzou sighed, "If you're going to apologise at least stop eating my food. About Itachi, it's better if we wait for Taicho. He wanted to think it through before jumping into anything and besides, Hayate's not here either."
They both nodded. Raidou detached his pouch from his pants. He took a small medicine ball out from it and threw it to Tenzou.
"I take these when I get headaches out on missions. They weren't cheap either, got it straight from the Akimichi."
"Thanks, Raidou."
"No problem, Tree Boy."
Genma slapped his forehead. Leave it to Raidou to make things worse, he put the sandwich down on the couch, not caring if it left a mark.
They needed to start running again before Tenzou used his Mokudon Technique. Being beaten up by the captain was already enough, he didn't want to experience it from Kakashi's vice too.
"I'm giving you five seconds to get out of here before I murder you."
A/N: Small chapter about what happened to Genma and Raidou after Kakashi got annoyed. Not exactly the best but I wanted to add some humor as well as some hints as to what's going on with Itachi after the previous chapter's note about him. Also I'm putting it out there that a "team member's death" is NOT about Itachi at all but someone else. Note that this will also be the last chapter of light-hearted humor and that chapters after this will be darker until it reaches the point in the story where Uchiha Massacre takes place.
