A/N: As always I own nothing except Reyna. Credit goes to Masashi Kishimoto. I had to have a bit of fun at Kakashi's expense again…hehe enjoy
PUNISHMENT
Team Kakashi spent the next several days working on D-Rank missions, much to the dismay of Naruto but even he didn't want to risk angering Tsunade anymore than she already was. After the third day of having to track down Toro the cat even Kakashi was getting fed up with the four legged critter. In that time, Kakashi had sent word to Jiraiya explaining about Kayha's curse mark and that he was going to attempt to seal it himself, but he would like it if Jiraiya was there as well, just in case it didn't work out the way he was hoping that it would. As they entered the Hokage's office to find out what their next mission was, Kakashi sighed, hoping the blasted feline hadn't escaped again. Having a wolf on the team made it downright difficult to capture a cat.
"Team Kakashi, I have your next mission for you. You will be babysitting the three children of Crystal so that she can get out of the house for a change of pace. Good luck and I will see you all back here at four when your mission is complete," Tsunade informed them before sending them out the door.
"Great, now we're babysitting?" Naruto whined as they headed into the street.
"I know those kids, they are little hellions," Sakura supplied with a groan.
"A mission is a mission and eventually Tsunade will let us take on missions that send us outside the village. Right now though, she's still pissed about the events in the Sand," Kakashi tried to smooth things over with his team even as he inwardly groaned at the thought of spending the entire day entertaining children.
Reyna just shot him a dirty look, but remained silent for the time being. She was pretty sure if she had to she could scare the kids enough that they would behave and listen. She thought about that plan for a few seconds before she shook it off. If she scared the kids and their mother found out, Tsunade would hear about it and they would be stuck on these D-ranks even longer. She sighed, glad she had convinced Kakashi to leave early enough that she had coffee before they had to meet Tsunade. The team knew that Kakashi was trying to get back on Tsunade's good side just because he hadn't been more than five minutes late for any meeting they had had with her; and even with those times, he had actually had a legitimate excuse.
Reyna cringed when they arrived at the house of Crystal and the young woman showed them inside where her children were just finishing up breakfast. With a quick introduction and an assurance that she would be back by three thirty, Crystal bolted out the front door, leaving the four ninja and the three kids staring at each other.
"Is that a kunai pouch?" the oldest, Emily asked Sakura pointing at her hip pouch.
Sakura nodded, "Yes it is."
"Can I hold one?" the child asked innocently and Sakura shook her head.
Emily sighed but nodded before hopping off her chair and heading into the living room. The first half of the day went by alright with the kids watching a movie while the four ninja relaxed on the floor. Reyna got up around elven thirty and started to make lunch, which ended up being ramen since Naruto convinced all three kids that it would be a good lunch. The problems started when they sat down to eat. The youngest, and only boy, Peyton climbed onto Kakashi's lap and proceeded to attempt to pull his mask off. Kakashi quickly picked the boy up and deposited him in Reyna's lap where she managed to convince him to eat.
The middle child, Erinn, decided that rather than eating her lunch, it would be more fun to try to start a food fight with Naruto which prompted Naruto to start yelling at her for wasting perfectly good ramen. Somehow they managed to get the kids to eat and they all headed into the back yard, hoping that letting the kids play for a while might tire them out some. The only one who didn't give them any issues was Emily.
"Emily, you can pretty much do whatever you want, as long as we can see you and you don't get yourself into any kind of trouble. Deal?" Sakura asked.
Emily nodded and dropped onto the back steps with a handheld game system in her hands. The four ninja contemplated how to deal with the other two until Kakashi came up with a plan to split into two teams. Both teams would keep an eye on Emily who seemed quite content to play her game, as well as one of the other two. Naruto and Sakura ended up chasing after Erinn who had decided it would be great fun to get a hold of a couple of Naruto's shuriken. Kakashi and Reyna ended up chasing Peyton into a mud pile when he decided that it would be more fun to play there than in the grass.
"That's it!" Reyna snarled, drawing everyone's attention to the mud covered ninja.
"Reyna, I really hope you aren't going to do what I think you're going to do," Kakashi muttered.
Reyna shook her head, "Everyone in the house. Erinn, Peyton you two are having a bath! Emily you can watch a movie if you want or play or whatever."
Kakashi had managed to avoid getting as muddy as Reyna simply because he had sent her into the pile after Peyton.
"I'll watch a movie," Emily said with a smile before heading inside to pick out what she wanted to watch.
While Erinn was distracted by Reyna, Naruto and Sakura managed to get the shuriken away from her and secured back on Naruto's person. Kakashi, not paying much attention to Peyton since he had been beside Reyna, nearly fell over when something collided with the back of his knees. A quick glance down revealed the mud covered Peyton trying to climb up his legs. Reyna walked over, picked the boy up and handed him to Kakashi. Peyton quickly latched onto the ninja's neck as Reyna walked away and into the house, leaving her mud caked shoes outside on the steps as she followed Erinn and her two teammates inside.
By the time Kakashi got Peyton in the house, up the stairs and into the bathtub, the senior Jounin had a coating of mud over his legs and torso. He happened to glance in the mirror as Reyna aided the two kids in getting clean and cringed. His normally platinum hair was a combination of silver and brown with clumps of mud threatening to fall into his eyes.
"Damn, I didn't bring my hair gel. Reyna how the hell are we going to get clean?"
Reyna glanced up at him and snickered at the look on his face before shaking her head, "I don't think we're going to be able to manage it, but Crystal should be home in about twenty minutes so let's just get the bathroom cleaned up and keep these two out of trouble."
While Kakashi took the two downstairs where they immediately joined their sister in watching the movie, Reyna cleaned up the mud in the bathroom, trying not to make matters worse due to her own muddy state. She had just made it downstairs when Crystal walked into the house and started to laugh at the two Jounin who were covered in mud while their two students only had a couple of grass stains on their clothes.
"It looks like they didn't listen any better to ninja than they do to me. I suddenly don't feel so bad!" she laughed as Reyna collected her shoes from the back step.
Kakashi muttered something about if he never had to watch kids again he'd be a happy man as they headed out the front door and towards the Hokage's tower. Reyna didn't bother putting her shoes back on her feet while Kakashi attempted to pick clumps of now drying mud out of his hair and their two students laughed. Reyna looked over at Naruto with narrowed eyes.
"Something funny, Baka?" she asked with a light growl.
"The two of you!" Naruto chuckled.
His laughter suddenly died as Reyna tackled him to the ground wiping mud across his cheek and ensuring he had a decent coating of dirt over him before she regained her feet and continued walking beside Kakashi.
"Hey, Reyna-Sensei that was low!" Naruto accused as he too got to his feet.
"Maybe next time you won't laugh at a Jounin then," Reyna responded, noting that Sakura was at least trying to hide her amusement now.
Kakashi shook his head with a sigh, "More and more like Naruto every day," he muttered under his breath.
"You're lucky you're already covered in mud or I'd get you good for that comment," Reyna nudged Kakashi.
As they entered the Hokage's office, Tsunade stifled a laugh at the sight of the team. The only one who seemed to have survived relatively clean was Sakura. She shook her head at the other three and swallowed her amusement.
"Well, it looks like you two saw the worst of the battle," she finally spoke, directing her comment to Reyna and Kakashi.
Reyna glared and nodded, "But the mission was completed."
"Good, then you four can go home and get cleaned up. I'm going to give you all a few days off after that. Just keep yourselves out of trouble," Tsunade warned before dismissing them.
The four of them headed out of the tower and separated for their own homes, although Reyna ended up heading to Kakashi's since he still wouldn't let her out of his sight for more than a couple of minutes. As soon as they reached the apartment, Reyna ducked into the bathroom, claiming the first shower for her, since she was still a lot muddier than Kakashi was. She realized, as she wrapped a towel around her body and another on her hair that she didn't have any clean clothes with her.
"Kakashi?" she called out through the closed door.
"What is it?" was the reply.
"I kind of forgot to grab some clean clothes before I showered. Could you grab me some and hand them to me?"
She heard him mutter something to himself, but couldn't quite catch it when he answered her, "Sorry, Reyna. I can't do that for you. Consider it payback for getting my mask off at Gaara's party!"
Reyna growled to herself before double checking to make sure her towel was secure before she pulled the door open and nearly walked into Kakashi. He grinned at her before she shifted to squeeze past him and disappeared into the bedroom, slamming the door closed behind her. Kakashi laughed to himself before he slipped into the bathroom, clean clothes in hand, for his own shower.
Reyna was stretched out on the couch reading when he emerged, clean once again. She sat up enough to look over the back of the couch at him before dropping back into her previous position. His hair was still wet and hung over his eyes; he had his left eye closed, revealing most of the scar that ran over his eyelid and was dressed in his usual sleeveless shirt, black pants and mask.
"You know, I've already seen you mask less…" she started but he cut her off.
"That does not mean that I'm going to stop wearing it," he snapped at her and she lifted her head again to meet his eye.
"I didn't mean that, Kashi," she said quietly, not sure why he had reacted in that way to her light teasing.
"I know that," he sighed heading for the couch and when she didn't move, he lifted her legs and sat down, letting her lay her legs across his lap.
"Why do you wear it anyway? I've always been curious about that," she tried but he shook his head.
"It doesn't matter, I just always will," he muttered and she let the subject drop as she returned to reading her book.
Kakashi sighed and laid his head back, closing his eyes and draping his arms over her calves. They stayed like that for a while until Kakashi grabbed his own book off the table beside him and started to read. They headed for bed not long after full dark set in.
A/N: Another chapter of uselessness complete…Maybe I should focus on progressing the plot line now. Anyway hope you liked and as always review so I can continue to torment fictitious characters!