Chapter 59
Beta'd by Black Sparrow
Kakashi Interlude
He wasn't sure how to feel at the moment but exasperation was probably the closest thing. His three brats had somehow completed the Tora mission without any bigger mishaps only for Naruto's patience to snap in the Hokage's office. Kakashi should have really seen that one coming; his blonde student had been bored, frustrated, and riled up by Sasuke for the last few days and today nearly lost against a cat. So when he had shouted at their Hokage the silver haired Jounin could only wallow in his mortification and give the Hokage a glance that begged for lenience and mercy. The Sandaime had thankfully looked amused by Naruto's outburst and before Kakashi had even realized what had happened his team had a C-Rank mission… why was he suddenly feeling so doomed?
When he had arrived back home his exasperation had changed into amused resignation when he thought of the old and drunk bridge builder they would escort for the better part of a month starting tomorrow.
"Do I want to know what your kids did this time?" Shiori asked with a mix of amusement and worry while she watched him massage his temples as he walked in.
His wife had observed the change in the team with worry and while she had acted as a buffer between Naruto and Sasuke as often as possible the underlining tension between the teammates was undeniable. Kakashi and Shiori had sat nearly daily on the couch or the kitchen table and discussed possible ways of re-establishing the teamwork between Team Seven but in the end they concluded that only time would tell if the three could become a unit again.
After a quick stretch that let Kakashi's eyes wander to Shiori's bust line, his wife surrendered her seat in the memory game she had been playing with Hinako to him.
Said former ANBU captain sat down across from their daughter before he continued to speak, "Naruto wangled a C-Rank mission out of the Hokage. We are accompanying a bridge builder to Wave Country starting tomorrow."
Shiori Interlude
"Wave? Anata please be careful, my suppliers informed me that they are having problems reaching their contacts at the coastline there," Shiori exclaimed worried while she thought about what she knew about the Wave mission.
So this event hadn't changed, hopefully everything would be fine.
Luckily for Shiori the frustrated and more than a bit worried Hedaki-san had given the civilian a perfect excuse to warn her husband. Said merchant had already lost a few clients because goods weren't arriving on time and was complaining to anyone who listened.
"Hhm, really now? I will be careful don't worry but Naruto is right. They need harder missions to test themselves and maybe this will help them work out some of the tension. This responsibility will do them good and I think that a distraction is just what Sasuke needs right now… if he doesn't snap out of this mood soon I will have to bring him to a ninja psychiatrist… which is never pleasant," Kakashi answered before he returned his attention to the memory game.
Shiori just nodded her head in agreement and wandered back into her workroom, with Kakashi there she could finally devote her concentration fully to the recipe she tried to recreate. For the last few days she had a strange craving for cinnamon rolls and she knew that finding the right dough was going to be tedious.
When she returned to the living room some hours later she found the cute scene of Kakashi coaxing Hinako through some light stretches. Their daughter's face was scrunched up in concentration while she followed her father's instructions. Quickly Shiori grabbed the camera and took a photo of the cute scene.
"Say Kakashi, do the kids know how to pack for this mission?" Shiori then asked concerned something had been niggling in the back of her head.
"… shi… shoot. Right, I have no idea if they learned it, this should have been covered sometime during the second year… oh well… Sasuke and Sakura can probably figure out the basics somehow but Naruto? I better go and check up on them," Kakashi said with a sigh while he straightened up.
Shiori bit her lip before she tentatively said, "Naruto is not stupid but…"
Kakashi Interlude
"He lacks more than a few basics… no one ever told him." Kakashi sighed again this time in frustration.
He too was just as much at fault as the people that purposefully ignored him. After all Naruto was his sensei's son, he should have checked up on him more no matter how much it hurt to see that familiar blonde hair. The magnitude of how big he had screwed up was now driven home every time Naruto needed something basic explained to him. Kakashi's felt even guiltier when he looked at Hinako in the evening and a small voice asked him what would happen to her should Shiori and he suddenly die, would she be abandoned to fend for herself just like Naruto and he had been?
A shudder ran through his body. He stepped even closer to the toddler, bent down and kissed her cheek and forehead, "Be good for mummy while I visit my students?"
"Yes, daddy!" came the solemn answer from the nearly sixteen month old girl.
With a fond smile at his little genius he righted himself up and then gave Shiori a kiss too before he walked through the front door, he had some students to hunt down.
"Anata, invite them for dinner today. You guys will be gone longer than a week won't you?" Shiori called before he could shunshin away.
Kakashi stopped in his movements before he sent an acknowledging wave in her direction and then vanished from her sight.
Shiori Interlude
The moment her husband was gone Shiori put her work aside and concentrated on their daughter and the dinner she would cook for the three brats that had wormed themselves pretty fast in her heart. Hinako was placed in her high chair beside the kitchen counter and was 'helping' her preparing the various dishes, the little girl couldn't cut vegetables or meat yet but she was capable of pouring in the measured out spices.
An hour and a half later loud chatter at the front gate alerted Shiori to visitors. A glance out of the window showed Kakashi and his Genin team as well as a tired looking Genma. The poor Elite Bodyguard was assaulted by questions from all three curious looking Genin while Kakashi stayed in the back, Shiori noted that her husband was decidedly amused about his students' behavior.
Shiori's lips twitched and a happy sigh escaped her lips as a result Hinako-chan sent her a curious glance to which Shiori just laughed and then said, "Looks like Genma-ji-chan is joining us. The evening is going to be pretty lively."
And just as she ended her sentence the shinobi group entered through the front door.
"Shiori-neechan, we are here!" Naruto called happily through the house, he had kept his promise and controlled his voice in the vicinity of Hinako.
Just as she had predicted the evening turned out to be pretty lively with this group of loudmouths quipping at each other. As it turned out Kakashi had seen Genma after he had collected all three of his Genin for dinner and had promptly invited the still injured shinobi for dinner.
Anko Interlude
She sighed again as she leafed through the stack of papers in front of her. Where the hell had she put that rooster? Oh there it was. Triumphal Anko lifted it up in the air before putting a stamp and her signature under it.
Then she called through the side door of her new office, "Tsu-chan get your little ass over here, I have something that needs to be delivered!"
Her younger apprentice scrambled out of her chair and into Anko's office. At least now she didn't jump at every noise anymore. The first three days had Anko inwardly shaking her head every time Tsukiko had squeaked like a frightened mouse or stared at her with big round eyes. She was a kunoichi, not a damsel in distress! Anko was still not completely sure why Inoichi had thought that she of all people would be a good influence on Tsukiko. But oh well, she was her student now and like hell she would fuck her up like Orochimaru had done to her. Tsu and Sai would learn how to at least partially function in normal society and how to kill a man in every imaginable way possible. Those kids wouldn't get themselves killed because they weren't prepared enough, not on her watch.
"Where does that go, sensei?" Tsukiko asked surprisingly calmly.
"The Hokage," Anko answered distractedly, Tsu-chan's pulse didn't spike as much anymore as in the beginning, good.
"Oh and bring me some sake!" and after some consideration she added, "and one of those gay adult magazines!"
In front of her Tsukiko sputtered and turned bright red, "B-but I'm underage."
"You are a fucking kunoichi of the Leaf that makes you an adult! If they deny you just put a kunai on their counter that should work."
The girl in front of her nodded stiffly before taking the sheet with her, Anko was now very interested what she would be doing.
After Tsukiko was out of the door she turned her chair around and said, "Let's go, I want to see how she reacts."
Sai, who had been studying some Fuinjutsu blinked at her blankly before tilting his head.
"See it as a test; I want to see how Tsukiko solves the tasks I gave her."
And it was, it was a common practice of T&I members to get a feel for new Genins or apprentices. Well they were only send on mildly difficult or embarrassing missions, not potentially mortifying ones but well Anko thought that she deserved a bit fun after all that paperwork she had been working herself through and she wanted to see how far she could push the passive looking girl.
Sai nodded and got up from his seiza seat. The two ninja made their way up to the roof and then discreetly followed Tsukiko, first to the Hokage tower and then to the closest liquor store.
Anko watched amused as the still unsure Tsukiko voiced her request. "I… I would like to have three bottles of sake."
"Now, now little girl, I don't think…" the old man behind the counter said patronizing.
"Sir, I really need three bottles of sake."
"Young lady, I can't sell with good conscience to someone your age…" the shopkeeper tried once again when Tsukiko's face turned into an annoyed grimace.
Fascinated the snake user watched as her little mouse's hand slammed down on the counter and she calmly said, "Listen up! I have no time for this bullshit, I'm a Konoha kunoichi, an adult and I need the sake and I need it NOW!"
Anko giggled behind her hand while her eyes twinkled with joy, well, well it looked like Tsu-chan had a hidden temper. Or at least could channel Anko well enough to get what she wanted. And now came the interesting part, how would Tsukiko deal with ordering porn?
The twelve year old Genin seemed to disappear for a moment before she took a deep breath and henged herself into Anko. Across from her on the roof Anko gaped before she buried her head into her hand, her lips twitched into an involuntary grin as she saw herself waltzing up to the counter and buying one of those magazines. Tsukiko had her down to her cackle and hip swerve.
Now threatening a civilian wasn't that hard but for the mouse-like Genin kunoichi it was a step into the right direction. But that impersonation just now was spot on, granted Tsukiko had spent a lot of time with her but for a Genin this was a solid impersonation of a fellow ninja. Tsukiko would have to learn how to mimic a chakra network before she could fool ninja but she was already on the way to become an outstanding infiltrator… and the sheer balls she had just shown with that impersonation made her nearly crow in delight, Tsukiko was turning out to be more interesting than Anko first thought.
Feeling oddly satisfied the purple haired kunoichi grabbed Sai who watched the whole thing with his strangely detached curiosity and returned to the dreaded paperwork. Today she had finally finished the rest of the more urgent paperwork that Root command had passed on to her, so she could probably afford to take a bit longer with the rest. Anko stretched catlike while she thought about a way to get rid of the monotony and also do something to subtly reward Tsukiko's behavior. By accident her eyes landed on the simple Intelligence gathering mission that she had planned to hand off to a Chunin. It would be on the level of an easy C-Rank mission and it was in the vicinity of Konoha which meant that she could be called back any moment, there was also the relative low risk of her running into missing nin while she wasn't completely recovered yet.
The more she thought about it the better it sounded, it had been a long time since she had been out of the walls and this mission would not only give Tsukiko a chance to stretch her wings but would without a doubt supply Anko with endless amusement or blackmail. It was their first mission together after all, from what she heard from her colleagues those never went off without a hitch. Additionally a slightly insane T&I kunoichi, an infiltrator in the making and an exRoot ANBU operative that had troubles with understanding emotions was probably the recipe for some very funny shit. And hey, didn't Iruka-sensei say that team bonding was important for fresh Genin teams?