CCNote: Hey y'all! Here with another update. I'm feeling very frustrated with this fandom and others because I'm trying to find good stories to read but I'm coming up empty. Anything good I've either a) already read or b) has been abandoned by authors which I myself have been guilty of doing. I tried getting into some NaruSaku fics but really good stuff is few and far between. IDK I'm picky. If anyone has story suggestions for me to read, whether they are your own or ones you admire, send them my way!

Anywho, this chapter is short but it's necessary for the pivot. Don't forget to leave a review! Enjoy!

Water, Water, Everywhere!

"Enough!" Shikaku shouted over the mad dash of concerned parents attempting to claw their way to the conference room door.

Everyone turned to stare at the usually even-keeled man as he finally sat up straight in his chair. Shikaku didn't like being locked in this room as much as the next person but they had to figure out what their children were up to. Yelling insults were not conducive to doing that.

"We might not have any visual on them but they are still mic'd." He growled as Hiashi and Fugaku glared daggers at him. "Sit down. Shut up. I'm sure we will figure out what they're up to soon but we can't do that with you screaming at each other."

"How dare-" Fugaku and Hiashi started to snap back simultaneously but realized that they were about to say the same thing. Petulantly, they crossed their arms over their chests and looked away from each other.

There was a loud banging sound of a heavy metal door slamming against a wall and the sound of their children breathing heavily subsided. Tsunade and Shizune, who had been ignoring the parents' fruitless squabble up to this point, were furiously trying to sync up the conference room laptop to find a security camera that might give them a visual of the children. Unfortunately, there were no buildings on Konoha's sprawling campus that were high enough to catch the top of whatever building they were on...

"Where's that lazy bum?" Naruto huffed. "Lunch is going to be over soon."

"I bet he's getting his dick sucked by that upperclassman girl again." Kiba snickered accompanied by Akamaru's high pitched yapping.

"Ha, ha." Came the apathetic droll of Shikamaru. "You are just frustrated because your girlfriend is a hand."

"What does that mean-"

"Guys!" Ino hissed. "Shut the fuck up. Lunch will be over soon so we don't have much time. Shika, go."

There was some minor grumbling but eventually, Shikamaru cleared his throat to explain whatever plot he had cooked up for them that afternoon. Tsunade frowned. They couldn't really hear what the teens were saying since their voices were so low and the sound of rustling cloth was interfering with their mics. Soon there was no audio at all which meant that they had shed their school uniforms in favor of civilian clothing. No wonder Nara had been so quiet all day. He knew.

A sense of paranoia crept up her spine. Was her office bugged? Had he hacked into her email or listened in on her phone calls to the other parents? Somehow the other students hadn't figured out anything but Shikamaru knew. Why he hadn't informed his friends, she didn't quite understand but she was sure he had his reasons. The bum was too smart for his own good.

'Dammit.' Tsunade mentally cursed.

She looked to Shizune who only shook her head in defeat, she'd tried to get into all of the outdoor security cameras but each one came up empty. This wasn't good. It was likely they were planning to ditch...again. Their ditching efforts were always the worst because in order to take attention off their disappearance they staged a bigger distraction to occupy the staff. It was never until they got the school back into some semblance of order that anyone noticed that they were missing. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in Tsunade's head. If they were on a building too tall for the other buildings to see the top of that meant...

"They're in here!" Tsunade laughed manically as she slammed her fist down hard on the conference room table.

The other parents looked at her with varying degrees of confusion, surely she appeared to have lost her mind. Perhaps she had. This was her chance to finally catch those little shits in the act. Shikamaru might have caught on but she was onto his game. She was the dean of this school and she would regain her control. She would not be outsmarted again by a bunch of spoiled delinquents. Shizune squeaked as the dean almost closed the laptop on her fingers and snatched the electronic device away.

"They're here!" The blonde mumbled emphatically under her breath as she scurried out of the conference room. "They're here!"

"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune called worriedly, following her boss out into the main office.

"I thought she said we can't leave?" Kushina grumbled as she milled out of the conference room with the rest of the parents. Tsunade glared at her, dropping her laptop on her desk and placing her hands on her hips.

"That was before I knew what they were planning." Tsunade quipped but her response still seemed lost on the parents. "They're ditching. When they ditch they always throw this school into chaos but not this time. This time I can actually catch them."

"We don't even know where they are though." Tsume said causing Tsunade to shake her head at how thick the woman was.

"I already told you, they're here." She replied, shrugging out of her black blazer and tossing it onto her chair.

Shikaku's furrowed brow eased as he caught onto what Tsunade was trying to say. The tallest building on their campus was the main one. That was why they couldn't get a visual on them, none of the other outside cameras could see the roof of this building. Shikaku wasn't quite sure what to think of his son's cunning, clearly, it was going to waste in that lazy head of his. Why couldn't he do more productive things like his homework? His wife was going to murder him when he told her what Shikamaru had gotten himself into.

Tsunade opened the top drawer of her desk and pulled out the bottle of liquor that had been teasing her all morning. Much to the abject horror of her guests, she downed half of the bottle of burning brown liquid before wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She slammed the bottle down on her desk and grabbed her cell phone.

"Everyone has my number saved right?" She said hurriedly as she started hustling towards her office door.

"Where do you think you're going?" Hiashi asked. "You haven't explained anything?"

"I'm going to stop your damn brats before they ruin yet another school day."

Hiashi stared at her, mouth gaping open like a fish. He was used to the Uchiha's rudeness but Tsunade's was unexpected. The blonde woman couldn't give less of a fuck about how the man felt about her statement. She only had a small window of time to catch the students before they caused any disruptions or damage. With that in mind, she yanked opened the door to her office with confidence that this was her chance. Absently she noticed how oddly the door felt as she pulled on it to open. She didn't have much time to contemplate the oddity before cold liquid fell onto her head and she screamed at the sensation.

"Naruto!" She yelled loud enough that the pictures of previous founders rattled inside of their frames.

"Well, that answers what all of that rushing water was for." Minato mused and Kushina nodded her head, both parents slightly impressed at the trap Naruto and Ino had set.

Even though the dean was soaked from head to toe, Minato couldn't help but feel relieved. He knew his son's talents laid elsewhere!

To be continued...