A/N: Next chapter! ~falls down panting~ And we're back to the crack! Don't ask what Iruka did, please! Only know that it was Eeeeeeeviiiil.... and leave it at that!

Title: Violent Fright
Prompt: Holiday Specials
Author: kita_the_spaz
Rating: PG-13
Thanks to DarkAuroran and Micah_n10 for all that support and email tag! I needed it! Thanks everybody for the reviews. I love them so much!

After dinner, Iruka grinned at Kakashi. "Meet me at the academy tomorrow at seven. And be on time. You wander down the road of life and I'll let the students use you for kunai practice."

Kakashi snorted.

"Don't make me have to come get you, Kakashi. You won't like what will happen if I have to fetch you." There was a malicious sparkle in Iruka's eyes. "If you won't take my word for it, just ask Genma what happened. He might not want to talk about it, but you're bound to get an interesting reaction if you mention Holiday specials to him."

Iruka flashed him a grin and was gone with admirable speed, springing across the street to a staircase and from there to the roof of one of the buildings. Kakashi pulled out his book and wandered back toward the mission room, his thoughts more on the chuunin and his words than those printed on the page in front of him.

Even if he really had no business being there, the mission room was always an interesting place, and maybe Genma would be on shift tonight. Iruka's taunt was like a niggling itch and he found himself wanting to know what it was all about.

It was slow in the mission room, only a few Genin teams turning in reports and the odd jounin amusing themselves by trying to peg one of the desk workers with wadded up bits of paper without waking Tsunade, who was drowsing in her seat. Kotetsu was managing to ward off or catch the projectiles, but the female chuunin next to him wasn't able to manage to keep all of them away. Idly, Kakashi snagged one out of the air right before it hit her face and pegged Genma in the head with it.

The special jounin swiveled his head around, senbon clenched between his teeth. He spotted Kakashi and his frown transformed into his trademark smirk. "Yo. No use throwing things at me. Tsunade-sama's given strict orders not to give you a mission until after the New Year. Besides, aren't you babysitting brats at the academy? D-rank?"

Kakashi scowled behind his mask. "It's classified as a B-rank. But it should be a S-class. Those kids are worse than some of the names in the Bingo Book."

Genma smirked. "Aw… Issums big bad copy-nin afwaid of the mean widdle kiddies?"

Kakashi resisted the urge to shove that senbon through Genma's airway. "Actually, I hear tell it's their teacher who is the one I really have to watch out for. Maybe you know him… Iruka-sensei. Bout so tall, brown hair, scar across his nose."

Kakashi watched in interest as Genma paled. He could almost hear the thin metal needle creaking as the special jounin clenched his teeth. "Y-yeah. I know him."

"What can you tell me about him?"

"Iruka-sensei's a really nice guy. Mean hand with anything you can throw though, which is how he can keep the lines in the mission room moving. Nailed Ibiki with a rubber stamp once. For three day's Ibiki had the word 'incomplete' on one of his cheeks." Genma's jovial tone was strained. "And he's the one who had Gai doing that ridiculous little stunt where he tried to swim the lake last winter, after it had iced over."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. He'd been away on a mission during the event in question and had always wondered who had beaten the green-clad jounin at his own game.

He glanced down at Genma, noticing the senbon-chewing jounin had developed a distinct twitch.

"Anything else?"

"Nope." It was said too fast and Genma's twitch worsened.

"I heard the oddest little rumor from one of his kids."

"Oh…?" Genma's voice had gone up a register.

"He said something about the holiday special that was on a while back…"

Kakashi had never seen a ninja move so fast. "Oh, fuck no!" Genma ricocheted off of Ibiki, rebounded off the wall, dodged left to avoid Shino and made it down the stairs before his senbon had even managed to hit the ground.

Awake now, Tsunade raised an eyebrow as Kakashi bent to pick up the fallen needle. "While I confess that was very entertaining, brat, what the hell was that all about?"

Kakashi stuck the needle through a pile of paper work awaiting approval on the now abandoned desk, as mystified as she was. "Damned if I know. All I did was mention a holiday special."

"Shit. You didn't?!" Raidou had just entered the room with a stack of blank scrolls. He dumped them on the desk and glared daggers at Kakashi. "Dammit, it's gonna take me a week to talk him down now!"

Kakashi shrugged. "What?"

Raidou's look was pitying. "You don't want to know. Trust me, you really don't. Never piss Iruka-sensei off." He turned and Headed down the stairs after the vanished Genma.

For a long moment, there was silence in the mission's room. Finally Ibiki broke it, clearing his throat and shuffling forward to hand a sheaf of papers to the Hokage. He glanced at Kakashi. "Iruka-sensei is a good man, but it's wise not to run afoul of his temper. He can give my people night sweats."

If just the mere mention of a crappy show could do that to Genma…

Kakashi resolved that he would be on time the next morning. Hell, he might even be early.