Shizuka wiped the sweat from her brow as she dipped her paint roller into a can of crisp white paint. It was sweltering hot today and even more so in the cramped attic she was currently repainting with her two teammates by her side as her sensei casually leaned against the door, book in hand with his eyes occasionally flitting up to check on their progress.
The radio in the corner droned a variety of the latest pop songs that she didn't really know but tapped along to regardless as she painted around the window sill, careful not to paint the wooden frame. The shinobi life wasn't all that exciting so far.
That's right. After Kakashi had deemed them all utterly unfit of ever becoming shinobi, he had given them a second chance and eventually passed them when Sasuke had force fed Naruto some rice, primarily to shut the boy up but that was a minor detail really.
Today was the official start of their genin career and the team had started the morning off with some basic sparring so Kakashi could see what he was working with before announcing they had their first mission lined up. Hence the painting.
It was blissfully silent in the room, bar the radio playing, as all three genin focused on their job. Shizuka had strategically chosen the wall directly opposite the door, leaving the the two adjacent walls to her teammates so they would have their backs turned to each other in the hopes of deterring any arguments from starting up. So far it had worked but like all good things, this moment of peace didn't last forever.
"My wall is done." Sasuke spoke from her right with a hint of smugness in his voice.
She glanced over and saw that his wall was painted evenly in a glistening pristine white coat.
"Why don't you go over and help Naruto. He still has a way to go." Kakashi drawled lazily.
Shizuka shot him an incredulous look at that. Surely the man knew that riling Naruto, who was already glaring at Sasuke, up like that was a bad idea.
Sending a silent prayer to whatever god that would listen, she traded her roller for a smaller brush and stepped up the small ladder to paint around the window frame more precisely.
"You're in my way."
"You're in my way, bastard!"
She sighed despondently as she glanced over at her teammates. Both of them were pushing against each other, shoulder to shoulder, to reach the last section of the wall that was still bare.
A fuming Naruto rammed his elbow into an unfazed Sasuke's side, who retaliated by roughly knocking his own arm into the boy's side, sending him careening to the side so hard that he knocked into the ladder.
She let out a small yelp as the impact caused her to teeter precariously, needing to put a hand up against the still wet wall to stop herself from slamming face first into it. Shizuka frowned in disgust as she peeled her hand off the wall, showing the hand print left on the wall. She would have to paint over it again.
Her eyes glared daggers at the two boys who, by the way, hadn't even apologized for nearly knocking her off of a ladder.
The sun was beating down on Shizuka's head in full force as she took a desperate gulp of the lukewarm water from her flask. She used her underarm to wipe away beads of sweat, moving back down to the small garden path that she was removing weeds from.
If people thought it was too hot for them outside to do it themselves, why would they force children to do it?
She shot a badly concealed glare towards where their client was lounging in the shade as she quietly conversed with their sensei, who looked mildly uncomfortable to be put in a social situation.
That's what he gets for being late again this morning.
Her hands were uncomfortably sweaty in the gardening gloves as she used them to pull out the longer weeds between the cobble stones, a veritable distance away from the boys who were both deweeding the flower patches in some sort of competition to see who could do it quicker.
"Hey! What have you done?!"
Shizuka turned around at the shrill voice to see their client standing over a hunched down Naruto and a gloating Sasuke.
"You've pulled out all my flowers!"
Her eyebrows twitched in annoyance as she stared at her teammates.
"Let go of the flour. I need it."
"I needed it first."
A headache formed in her right temple as she tried her best to ignore the boys as she separated the egg white from the yolk according to the recipe.
A ripping sound made her turn around just in time to see the bag of flour rip in half and send a cloud of white powder into the air, right where she was standing. Her eyebrow twitched violently.
"Look what you've done now, idiot."
"It's your fault this happened, you bastard!"
"ENOUGH!"
Her breathing came out in shallow puffs as she thundered over to her dumb ass mandatory teammates, who looked at her with wide eyes due to her uncharacteristic outburst. A trail of flour followed in her wake.
"I'm sick and tired of dealing with your childish antics." Her voice was dangerously low as she glared at the two boys. "Your constant need to assert your 'dominance' over each other is quite frankly ridiculous seeing as neither of you seem to be competent enough to do even the simplest of missions."
Naruto swallowed thickly as he slowly put the half of the flour bag in his hands down on the kitchen counter. Besides him, Sasuke averted his eyes as a faint splotch of color tinted his cheeks.
"Here is what's going to happen next: I am going to go home to take a shower and when I'm back there will be three finished cakes on this counter. Is that understood?"
Wordlessly both boys nodded their heads in affirmation, refusing to make eye contact.
"I said is that understood?"
"Yes ma'am" Naruto squeaked nervously.
Her fiery gaze slit over to her cousin, who was now looking down at the floor like a scolded toddler.
"...Yes."
And then she marched out of the door, making brief eye contact with Kakashi who had stopped reading at some point during her outburst, daring him to disagree with her.
Shizuka let out a frustrated groan as she unceremoniously dropped down on her ass, earning her a raised eyebrow from her laziest of friends.
"The universe is taking revenge on me for that one time I spilled hot tea on my aunt on purpose."
The grass tickled her back as she stretched out and lifted her gaze towards the clouds. She wiggled around a bit to get more comfortable before finally accepting that this was the most comfy she would get.
A small smirk pulled up the edges of her mouth as she recalled the shrill and decidedly unladylike sound her least favorite aunt had let out when the hot water had spilled down her kimono. The woman had a tendency to nag and make small digs towards Shizuka about her more brazen characteristics.
A proper young lady was to be seen and not heard if she were to attract an acceptable suitor. Or so her aunt always said.
"That bad?" Shikamaru drawled from beside her, head resting on his folded arms.
"They're always trying to show each other up and I'm usually the one stuck with the consequences." Her voice had a hard edge as she recalled the past few days. "The worst thing is that Kakashi-sensei doesn't even do anything about it. In fact, he barely does anything with us."
The man would usually show up at least two hours late to their scheduled training session before telling them to do some warm ups and then spar with each other while he read his stupid book. He didn't ever give them advice or attempt to teach them something new. Hell, the man barely even looked at them.
Judging from Sasuke's increasingly sour moods and punches that hit harder each time during their early morning spars, Shizuka wasn't the only one bothered by their sensei's (not that he deserved that title) overall lack of dedication.
Just thinking about it all made her blood pressure rise as she felt a small pit of bitter resentment in her stomach towards her team. A pit that only grew as she had listened to Shikamaru recount their team's first week. Apparently, the three of them were getting on relatively well (though Shikamaru called Ino a troublesome woman every other sentence) and they were actually getting one-on-one sessions with their sensei.
"I don't envy you." He replied eventually.
Unable to lie still any longer, Shizuka sat up with a huff, glancing over to see her favorite ninken and his owner approaching the pair.
She shot up on her feet swiftly as her eyes started to twinkle with mischief. Her hands clasped each other behind her back as she plastered on a sugary sweet smile.
"How lovely to see you two here."
She could see Kiba's eyes narrow with suspicion at her unusual saccharine tone.
Yes, this was exactly what she needed right now.
"Uh you too?" He replied hesitantly as he put Akamaru down on the ground gingerly, shooting a questioning glance towards Shikamaru who merely shrugged before closing his eyes.
As soon as Akamaru traipsed over to their lazy friend to receive some belly rubs, Shizuka took her chance and tackled an unsuspecting Kiba to the ground. Immediately, she used her forward momentum to right herself again.
The boy let out an audible oomph as he landed heavily on his back. His training soon kicked in and he bounced back up on his feet with an unamused frown on his face.
"What was that for?" His voice sounded almost petulant.
"Payback for when you caused me to drop my ice cream two weeks ago."
"I already paid you back for that by buying you a new one!" He retorted as he brushed the dirt off his pants.
"Well, I've decided that that wasn't enough payback." She said smugly, raising her fists in a fighting stance.
"That's not how it works."
"Pay me back by tackling me in return then. I bet you can't do it." She goaded.
"You little shit."
Kiba lunged towards her with a speed that was slightly faster than she had anticipated, only able to sidestep his hands by a hair's width.
Seemed like yet another team was making good progress under their sensei.
Shizuka shot out a foot in an attempt to trip the boy up but his reflexes were fast and he easily jumped over her leg, using the moment to land an open palmed hit on her sternum. Her breath left her in loud woosh as she was forced to take several steps backwards to compensate.
It was so on.
She swiftly sprung sideways to dodge a lazy kick aimed at her side and sent her right fist flying towards his stomach. A slightly feral looking grin pulled up Kiba's lips as he deflected the hit and made an attempt to tackle her into the ground. Shizuka barely managed to dodge out of the way by letting herself drop to the ground in a move that stretched her back muscles to their max before popping back upright.
She nimbly ducked under another grab at her, latching onto his wrist and using his momentum to pull him down on the floor. A self satisfied grin settled on her face for a split second before Kiba got a hold of her ankle and tripped her up, sending her careening down towards the ground with him.
She landed right on top of him in an awkward heap of limbs, letting out a groan as his elbow dug into her ribs painfully. With a show of impressive strength the boy easily flipped them over, his hands pinning her wrists down on the prickly grass as he looked down at her smugly.
Shizuka wriggled around like a demented worm for several moments trying to get out of the hold before letting her body relax in the hold.
"Do you yield?" Kiba demanded with a cheeky grin.
"...Yes."
Releasing the hold, the boy let himself roll off onto his back next to her sprawled out form.
"Feel better now?"
"Yeah."