A/N: Gah! Everyone, I am SO SORRY this took so long to update! But I have an excuse - I just bought my first house (-squeals excitedly-) and I've been painting and moving in. And I won't have internet until tomorrow - I'm actually posting this from a relative's house. But it's up now. A little rushed, but up. And I promise it won't take so long for the next one. Anyway, I still don't own Naruto and all that other legal stuff.

And thanks again to my faithful reviewers elvesdragon and WhyMustIWrite, as well as welcome and thank you to my new one beyondthecrystalsea.

The Recruiter lightly rested a cheek against the arm of the oldest of the three partners. "He doesn't like me" came the quiet statement.

The eldest glanced down at the youngest. "Who, the shopkeeper?" A slow nod was his answer. "So? I'm learning Konoha's streets quickly, and you're learning the people, so it's not like we'll need him for much longer. Before long, we'll be fine on our own."

Bright eyes glanced up at the man, a mischievous little smile flitting at the edges of the younger's lips. "Once we are, may I kill him? I want to do it myself. I know I won't be much use in the main battle, so may I please kill him at least?"

The man laughed, reaching out to pat the other's shoulder. "Of course. I know you don't like him. And with all the work you're putting in, you really should get to kill at least one of these damn Konohans." The honest happiness in the younger shinobi's face at that statement made him grin.

The Recruiter pushed off of his shoulder and nearly bounced out of the room, humming cheerfully all the while. 'Such a good comrade' he thought affectionately. 'I may have to find a shinobi or two for that one to kill. The kid is definitely earning it.'

-

The man sighed, one scarred hand coming up to cradle an equally scarred face as grey eyes closed momentarily. After that moment, Shigeru forced his eyes open and back onto the pages in front of him. The ANBU division leader glanced one more time at the reports that the three squad captains under him had submitted – again, nothing worth reporting on the case that was at the front of all their thoughts – and put them aside, making himself pick up the first of the two reports that he really didn't want to read.

Beyond the first page of the neat, bulleted script common to ANBU lay eight pages of swift, sloppy writing. 'Medics' he thought with a familiar exhaustion. 'Do they take a course in bad handwriting? I thought all reports had to be legible…' But he shook off the irrelevant tangent, focusing instead on the contents of the writing.

'A broken arm, a dislocated shoulder, three cracked ribs and one abdominal wound. Overall… not too bad. Heron will be out of commission for a few weeks, and she'll have a new scar, but…considering the circumstances…' After memorizing the first file, he put it away, turning with reluctance to the last file.

Opening the folder, he found smooth cursive writing that looked innocently neat. Until he began to read. 'Psychological analysis: subject, ANBU operative Mouse. Patient admitted for initial psych evaluation due to increasing paranoia culminating in an unprovoked assault against a fellow ANBU operative…'

-

Iruka clenched his jaw, one hand coming up the cover his eyes in a habitual gesture that any of his former students would have recognized and heeded. His current students, unfortunately, had not yet known him long enough to be properly afraid of their sensei's temper. So when Iruka exploded, a shocked silence instantly fell over the entire training ground. "THAT'S ENOUGH!"

All movement stilled, all eyes turned towards the teacher as he strode with terrifyingly smooth steps towards the troublemakers who had set him off. The small knot of boys gathered around the pair melted away as Iruka approached, and though he did not stop, he sent the group a Look that assured them all that they had been noted and would not escape punishment.

The two boys that he stopped over were frozen in place, one of the young fighters in mid-punch as they both stared at their usually easy-going teacher. He glared at them both. "This is a training exercise." he nearly snarled. "You are supposed to be doing the drills I showed you. Not fighting!" One of the pair opened his mouth, but Iruka cut him off. "Eiji-kun," he bit out. "I will be speaking to your parents about this." The Inuzuka boy turned pale and whimpered.

Iruka turned his attention to the other little fighter. "Takeshi-kun, how many times have I told you to watch your temper? We have been through this before, you two. You are both going to be Konoha shinobi – hopefully – and Konoha shinobi must have control of themselves before they can hope to control the outcomes of their missions. They especially can NOT fight each other! You each owe me one hundred lines of "I will not fight my teammates" before you leave, you will be staying after school every day for the next week to clean the bathrooms, and your parents will be called in for a conference."

He turned then to the children who had been encouraging the little fight. "You each owe me forty lines of "I will not egg on fights in my class" due in the morning. Now" and he turned his attention to the rest of the class. "Class dismissed." A slow movement behind him had him turning to glare again at Takeshi. "Except for you two. You owe me lines."

As the rest of the class took the chance to dart away, Iruka marched the fighters back to his classroom, fully prepared to spend the rest of the night watching two six-year-olds write lines if necessary.

-

She made vaguely affirmative sounds, nodding once in a while but not really paying any attention to her companion as the other chattered. Until one particular sentence caught her ear. Her eyes widened, and she leaned towards the other to ask in an almost breathless voice. "Really? You mean it?"

Her companion nodded, eyes serious and voice just as low. "Oh, yes." the other murmured. "We can show them all. Come with me, there are some others that I think you should meet."

For a brief moment, she felt a twinge of guilt, but then she reminded herself that she didn't care about the people who clearly didn't care about her. She shrugged off the unease, and the pair slipped off unnoticed through the busy streets of Konoha.

-

Chisa read the paper carefully, and then read it again just to make sure that she had gotten it right the first time. She very calmly folded the note, set it gently on the kitchen table, and walked out of the room. The Inuzuka woman ran a hand lightly along the fur of her nin-dog as she passed him, nodded to her cousin… and shouted at the top of her lungs. "EIJI! AOMARU! GET YOUR TAILS DOWN HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT!!"

Two yelps, a few crashes and many hurried footsteps later, a small boy and an even smaller puppy tumbled down the stairs. "Yes, ma'am?" the boy asked hesitantly.

Chisa folded her arms across her chest and stared down at the pair, ignoring the snickers from her cousin in the doorway. "Would you like to explain why, exactly, your Academy teacher feels the need to call me to a parent-teacher meeting?" When the boy hesitated, her eyes narrowed. "Eiji, what. Did. You. DO?"

The child ducked his head and mumbled, but the Inuzuka clan's nose wasn't the only finely tuned sense they had. Chisa closed her eyes, silently counted to ten, and opened her eyes again to pin her son with a very calculating look. "Fighting… with Takeshi-kun? Again?"

The boy just nodded. A moment of silence, punctuated only by the drumming of Chisa's fingers against her arm, and then she dealt out the boy's punishment. "You're grounded. I don't care who threw the first punch, I know you two pick at each other. So you're grounded for a week. No going anywhere but school, no TV, no phone calls, nothing. And Aomaru stays with your uncle until you're ungrounded."

Eiji had been hanging his head, nodding glumly throughout the little speech, but when Chisa said that last line, the boy gasped and jerked his eyes up to his mother's. Even the puppy yelped. "But, mom…!"

"No buts, Eiji. I told you the last time that this happened – if you can't watch yourself, how can you expect to watch a puppy? After the week is over, we'll go get Aomaru. But I'm starting to think that you don't understand what a big responsibility a nin-dog is. Now, go bring Aomaru over to your uncle. Be sure you tell him exactly what is going on, and then come straight back here."

The boy went, but he dragged his feet and walked slowly out of the door, tears filling his eyes as he scooped his puppy up into his arms. The two women waited until the boy was out of earshot, and then the cousin looked over at Chisa. "I understand that you have to punish him – mom's had to ground Kiba often enough – but isn't sending Aomaru away, even for just a week, is a little harsh?" Hana waited, a little confused but knowing that her older cousin must have a good reason for such cruelty.

Chisa nodded, explaining her reasoning. "It is harsh, but you have to understand… Most of what Kiba got in trouble for was cutting class or pulling fairly harmless pranks, right?" Chisa waited until the younger woman agreed before she continued. "Well, Eiji is getting in trouble for fighting. Aomaru hasn't been involved yet, but if he is… If Aomaru bites one of the children – especially one of the little ones like Eiji's classmates – the other parents could very well protest. If enough of them got together, they could even petition the Academy to ban the dogs. They wouldn't keep them off of the training grounds because they know that our dogs are as much one of our weapons as our kunai, but they could get them kept out of the classrooms."

By the end of the explanation, Hana was nodding thoughtfully, running a hand distractedly through her own dogs' fur as she thought about the possible consequences of separating a nin-dog and its' handler for such long stretches of time five days a week. "You're right." the veterinarian finally conceded. "Better to separate them for a little while than get all of the dogs banned permanently."