… I live… and I weep… over the crap I have written… but there's no turning back… (Currently high off of minty toothpaste.)

"We're what?" Shino asked an excessively hyper Kurenai. She was extremely happy about something, something that was rare, which meant trouble for the team…

"We're going to a pottery class! It helps with planning strategies, and… hand-to-hand combat!" Kurenai lamely supplied. The plan wasn't to make pottery class seem appealing to the three, it was just to make them go. The true scheme behind this was actually that Kurenai had actually gotten into a fair amount of trouble accidentally sending three of the owner's works kissing the ground. Since the place was located in a rather unpopulous area near the edge of the city, the owner promised her that if she could draw three customers for a three week program to replace the three broken vases, he would let her off the hook else it meant big debt for the black-haired woman. Just so happens that there were three eligible and readily accessible people in her cell.

The place the three frolicked off to and one slightly lagging behind to was not someplace to put in a brochure of the amazing attractions Konoha had to offer. It was run down, leaking, broken, leaking, old, leaking, rotting, and of course, once more, leaking. It makes you wonder why Kurenai was even passing through this place, but that shall be a story for another day.

"So I see you're brought customers." The man that spoke was a rather portly fellow with a malicious grin and eyes that sparked $cha-ching$. Shino was rather ticked off by the guy's unkempt appearance with clay in his hair and threadbare clothes. No doubt both his place and himself needed a complete renovation.

"…I'm-"

"Not leaving!" Kurenai cut through before Shino could finish his sentence. Short one person and she would be royally doomed.

"…"

"Well then, I'll be leaving," Kurenai said as she started off.

"Isn't that being a hypocrite?"

Kurenai decided that it was only the wind, and not actually Shino's deadpan voice. There was no way she was sticking around this place, no matter how much she loved them.

"Anyhow, come in! Come in!" the owner said with a wide grin. Such a grin sent shivers down all three's backs. Oh, they were not going the enjoy this.

"How old is this place anyhow? Are you sure the rood won't cave in?" Kiba demanded as they crossed the threshold. As if to answer his question, the wooden plank that was previously covering the left-hand side of the entrance came crashing down with an unpleasant bang. Hinata gave a terrified yelp. The owner paid no head.

"Alright then, class, let's begin! First, put your wad of clay onto the thingy-thingy."

The spiny-thingy? That's the thing we're sitting in front of, Hikari. Yes, I know you hate this place. …Yes, I know you want food… Yes I know you want to date that bug but I'm not in the mood to discuss it now!

"Hey! You! Get a move on it!" the pottery guy screamed at Shino, causing the boy to bounce back from his previous daze. Shino was ticked off by the guy's rudeness, but he knew that he'd be in even more trouble with Kurenai if he just suddenly left, and dealing with a woman who was going to pound you verbally was harder than dealing with a guy who was going to attempt to pound you physically.

"Now, switch on the blue button on the side of the spiny-thingy," the pottery guy instructed.

"You mean this one?" Kiba asked as he pressed a button on the side of the spiny-thingy. The machine proceeded to blow up in his face sparking red smoke. "Hey! What's the deal with this junk! It just ruined my face!"

"I said the blue button! Not the red button!"

"It's this one, Kiba," Hinata supplied as she flicked the button on her machine. The machine proceeded to blow up in her face as well, but sparking green smoke.

"Blue! Not green!"

Shino didn't even bother sparing the others a word before clicking his own button. The machine blew up in his face too in a cloud of yellow smoke.

"Are you guys blind?"

"I'm color-blind (I don't he is though)."

"I have near three-hundred and sixty degrees eye-sight."

"I have shades."

"… Oh… never mind then…"

After some hassle, new machines were discovered, more clay was supplied, and only blue buttons were pushed this time. What the other buttons were doing there in the first place was some redundant thing only the guy who built it would know about.

"Alright, next step it to dip your hands into the water."

No one did anything at his instructions though.

"Hey, I said-"

"Akamaru and I don't like the water," Kiba said curtly.

"I don't do water," Shino replied monotonously.

"Um… I really don't want to get my coat wet."

"…Fine…" Already he knew that this was not going to be a nice class of students.

So after the pottery guy finally gave up convincing them to dip their hands into the water, he just decided to dump the whole barrel of it onto the wads of clay. The three seemed to like it this way better.

"Alright," he began, rather exasperated, "now that you have your wheels spiny and your clay on the spiny-thingy, it's now time to shape your pot. Simply stick your finger and make a hole in the clay…" He stopped and was relieved to see the three of them cooperating. "…and then proceed to shape your pottery."

That didn't go well with the three of them. Since a real lack of instructions were due, and the three never having taken a pottery lesson much less see how pots were made, it could only mean a sure sign of disaster.

"Hey, is this suppose to go here or here?" Kiba's piece, for a lack of a better word, was dead. Well, clay was never alive in the first place, but in this case, it was truly dead. Kiba had thought of pottery as a jigsaw puzzle, so after poking in his hole, he proceeded to pick apart his wad, twist them into interesting shapes, and stick them back again. Well, how else would they get all those pretty designs onto the pots and vases?

"No! Leave the pieces alone and-"

As the pottery guy was rushing over to help a confused Kiba, he realized that Hinata was having problems of her own. Instead of shaping it into a nice little vase like she should have, Hinata had obviously thought that the point of this whole thing was to make it as big as possible, and yes it was big. In fact, it was tilting awfully low towards the left.

"Hey! You there! Stop-"

But as that was happening, he also noticed that Shino's clay had disappeared entirely, and a mass of black critters had surrounded it. It was simply too much for this fraud, and he now cursed ever to have asked that darn woman for bringing in guests.

"Hey! My thing had holes! What kind of teacher are you?"

"Ah! It fell on the ground! Can I reuse this clay? Eh… well, can I get a new piece? This one's dirty."

"…"

And meanwhile somewhere far, but not too far away, Kurenai sighed a sigh of relief, knowing that she wasn't to be the subject of debt.