DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe. This is my Mito, though.
Thinking (+ flashbacks, "Mito speaking to Kurama in her mindscape," etc.)
Emphasis
Bijuu, etc. speaking
Bijuu, etc. thinking
"I'm sorry I punted you down the gorge."
Jiraiya crossed his arms over his broad chest, knowing he deserved it after what he pulled on Naruto but still sore at his goddaughter who had surprised him by manhandling him out of nowhere that day. "Hmm. I guess we can move forward."
"Move forward?" Mito asked, her voice going high. "I should totally drop-kick your ass down there again. Accept my apology and you apologize, too!"
"Fine," Jiraiya groaned like a child. "I apologize for kicking Naruto into gear - which he needed if he was ever going to summon anything but tadpoles."
"He summoned a little messaging frog once!"
"Yeah, but that was it."
"So what? He's 12."
"Nearly 13," Jiraiya interrupted. "You were summoning much larger segments of Katsuya when you were his age. So does Sora."
"NO, I'd already lost my slug summons by then and you know it. And don't compare the boys: that could lead to bad feelings! Anyway, Katsuya's a whole other thing than the toads. She's… honorable and giving. She wants to help." Unless she's spitting acid at you.
"Sorry, Mito." Jiraiya knew reminding Mito of her lost summons was painful. He couldn't imagine himself without the toads. Mito had once (only once) talked about becoming a sage of the slugs like Senju Hashirama.
"It's alright," Mito sighed, pulling him away from the small crowd that was gathering to say goodbye to her brother. Her father had read Jiraiya the riot act about not turning Naruto or Sora into perverts or doing anything "weird" around them and Mito knew she didn't have to threaten him about that again. Namikaze Minato really did promise to murder his own sensei if he didn't discipline himself. Plus, Naruto and Sora were only going to be at the Southern Base where there was not a sinful outlet within miles. Probably. "Just promise to encourage Naruto to ask the fox for chakra rather than ever forcing it? Or don't mess with it at all! How are they ever going to get along if Naruto's demanding 'rent' or anything from him? Messing with the fox is too dangerous with Sora there, anyway."
"We'll see." Seeing Mito's eyes deepen into a violet-purple as she narrowed them on him, he held up his hands. "Your concern is noted. However, you have to agree that Naruto and you are two very different people. His relationship with the fox is bound to be different than your relationship with him. And of course, I'll be careful with my grandson."
Mito could understand and agree with all that. "I think the main problem is that Naru's half of the fox was in stasis for so long. At least I've had a chance to get to know my half over time."
Jiraiya thought about her words, knowing how Mito used to refer to Naruto's part of the fox. "You say 'half?'"
"Since the uh–thing, Naru's got half of him now." She pushed the big man away when he crowded her for answers. "Seems like exactly half."
"Let me see your seals."
"No way. –Pervert. And I already checked Naru's."
"Mito-chan. Are your seals stable? Did something happen?"
"Yes. And what do I look like, a newbie?"
Lying brat. Jiraiya took the special kunai she handed him anyway, knowing that it had a slightly different formula on it than her father's did. "I already have Minato's."
"I know but if… any of you need medical attention," she said uncomfortably, not wanting to imagine that at all, "I'll be there. Naruto and Sora have a kunai, too, in case you get yourself into trouble."
Jiraiya laughed, finding that quite funny. "Puh-lease! I am the Great Toad Sage, you brat! I'll be fine!"
Mito wondered if he'd forgotten that she was the one who went out to retrieve his downed ass not all that long ago. "You promise to take care of them, right? And take care of yourself! No more leaving Naruto so that Hoshigake or Itachi," she huffed with sarcasm lacing her tone, "can try to take him?"
"Of course. I wasn't expecting it before but now… Well. It's not going to happen again. I'll die first."
Mito nodded her head at him and knew that he was absolutely serious. "Thank you. But please don't die."
"Ha! Listen, Mito, stay away for at least a month or more so Naruto can grow up a little, hm? I told your father the same thing."
Mito glared at him with a pout, grumbling curses and promises involving ramen and birthdays as she walked off to talk to her little brother. "Now, Sora and Naruto: are you sure you have everything packed? –Your toothbrushes and toothpaste…"
"You worry too much, nee-chan-sensei," Sora grinned, being cheeky.
"You brought changes of clothes and pajamas and underwear," she went on, ticking what she could think of off of her fingers. Kiba laughed rowdily and she pulled him into a headlock. "I don't want you going commando like some people."
Kiba slapped his cheeks, his face turning red. "Awww! That was one time, sensei!"
"It was a surprise." Sparring, Mito had grabbed her student around the legs, and when he wiggled away from her, she got an embarrassing eyeful of Inuzuka butt. Now Sora and Naruto were laughing at him. "Sorry again, Kiba."
"Nah, that's fine. I don't care! I got two pairs of boxers on now just in case!"
"You've got laundry soap and proper rations and…"
"Why do I need two kinds of soap?" Naruto asked.
"I've got it, nee-chan," Sora said, shaking his head at his friend.
"Mito, stop," Jiraiya begged when she wanted to go through each boy's medical kit. "Here." The big man patted his pockets before pulling out a thick slip of paper. "Take this and go. You'll have to move fast before it starts."
"A movie ticket?"
Mito was still sniffling and sad about Naruto and Sora leaving when she walked into the concession stand at the theater. She bought enough junk food for probably everyone at the early Icha-Icha Paradise showing. Holding multiple boxes of candy, an extra-large popcorn and soda, bouquets of fried squid on a stick and dango, plus some Icha-Icha promotional merch for buying so much stuff, Mito made her way down the dark theater aisle.
"Is anyone sitting here?" she asked Kakashi who looked like he was trying to hide while sipping a soda. "I'm gonna kick your ass."
"Good morning to you, too, hime-sama. Fancy seeing you here." Mito sat down next to him (after telling him to stop calling her that) with blown-out cheeks, sending bits of popcorn flying as she withdrew a squid from a cup and waved it at him menacingly.
"You weren't there to see off Naruto! That kid loves you! You're his sensei, for fuck's sake!"
"Maa, I saw him this morning and last night. I did NOT need to see him try to molest his kunoichi teammate."
Mito gawked at him. "He wouldn't do that!" Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her and Mito made her fried squid stand down. "Well. He did try to hug Sakura-chan."
"And?"
"He got punched."
"Good girl," Kakashi grinned about Sakura, internally laughing over his student/little brother's pain. "I don't suppose either of the boys hugged the Hyuuga heiress?"
Mito tossed her hair back and groaned. "Hinata-chan was too nervous to get close. You know her very cells would've probably destabilized had Naruto tried to hug her."
"Poor Sora-kun." Their little Genins confusing wanna-be lover's triangle (or some other, less-defined shape when one added Sakura) had proven to be very entertaining to Kakashi.
"How were my three kittens? Did the tracking go well?" Kakashi had taken her team out on a tracking excursion.
"Meh." The boys repeatedly told me to stay away from you until I ditched them in the woods and stuck them in an S-class genjutsu.
"You know… I've never been to the movies before," Mito grinned. "I've SEEN movies, of course, but I've never been to a theater!"
"So sheltered."
"You're sheltered," Mito lied snarkily. She offered him some popcorn anyway and Kakashi took a big half-gloved handful. They both looked up when someone else sat down. "Hey, Genma!"
"Maa, Genma-kun," Kakashi drawled. "Can't you see that hime-sama and I are on a hot date?"
"Stop calling me that!" Mito shook her head, wondering why Kakashi had to be such a troll.
"As if," Genma said, throwing a glare at the younger man anyway.
"Oh well, the more the merrier, huh?" Mito sighed congenially, not understanding why the shinobis both leaned forward and looked at each other weirdly. "You want some candy? I bought too much so I could get a free t-shirt."
"You're going to wear an Icha-Icha tee?" Genma asked incredulously. As if it wasn't crazy enough that she just invited another man to join her date!
"Hey man," Mito shrugged, "if it's free, it's for me!" Kakashi opened up his flak jacket and revealed his own skin-tight Icha-Icha shirt. "Yes! You look nice in a tee, Kakashi. Gai will definitely approve!" She gave him a big thumbs up as Genma began cackling.
Kakashi didn't get it. Why would Gai care and more importantly, why would he care if Gai approved? He lived for Gai's disapproval! "Eh?"
Mito's attention, however, had turned toward a couple of "men" in hoodies that were trying to hide their presence. "I don't get them." Shizune and Tsunade were hiding out but obviously there to see the movie, too. Surprisingly, they joined another shinobi who was actually a kunoichi. "What a bunch of bull." Kurenai was also hiding from inside a hoodie but must've had a genjutsu around her that she dropped upon seeing Shizune. "I should've invited Anko-chan. Jiraiya only gave me one ticket and it was so last minute… OH well. It's starting!"
Mito grabbed Genma's and Kakashi's arms and shook them excitedly (accidentally launching more popcorn and nearly them) as the movie started to roll.
After the movie, Genma invited Mito to come to his family's compound for some testing. Kakashi tagged along (like a tick, Genma thought) and Mito swore that if the silver-haired Jonin fanboyed over Yukie Fujikaze's performance as Paradise's heroine anymore, she was going to punch him. "I can agree that she was certainly better in Paradise than she was in those awful Princess Gale flicks."
"Maa, those are good movies for kiddies. The real Yukie or Koyuki-san is so glamorous. I hope she comes back for the next installment of the series."
Mito groaned. "If the studio makes Violence properly, then she won't have a chance of being a protagonist. There is WAY too much action for someone so old to keep up."
"They could make it into a horror movie," Genma said, thinking about the possibilities of a very violent Icha-Icha Violence being made into a film. Perhaps he should send a proposal to Jiraiya. "And how old is she anyway?"
"Too old to be kissing Naruto," Kakashi said. She should've kissed me!
"What do you mean?" Mito asked
Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow at Mito, enjoying riling her up as he leaned into her personal space. "Wee-eell, Koyuki-san kissed Naruto. She was grateful for Naruto's help on our mission, so she kissed him!" She could've shown me a little gratitude; I wouldn't have minded.
Mito gasped, and gasped, and gasped again. "That old pedo-bitch! I'm gonna kick her ass!"
"What is it with your family and overprotectiveness?" Genma asked with a snort. "I'm sure Yukie-san didn't use tongue or anything." Mito yelled and put her hands over her ears, making the men grin at her. Still in that position, she looked for an answer from Kakashi.
Kakashi shrugged. "I only know what Naruto told me. They were alone in his tent."
"Oh my God: my poor little brother's lost innocence!"
"Maa, Naruto also kissed Sasuke at least a couple of times before that. I wouldn't worry about it."
Oh no, talking about Sasuke had just made him sad. Kakashi perked up when Mito noticed (aww) and she rubbed his back.
He glared at Genma when he pulled her away.
"Anko told me about one of their little makeout sessions a long time ago. Naruto's all crazy about Sakura-chan, though. He could be too young to know which way he swings but surely he HAS to know that old ladies are no good." She rubbed her chin as she walked along. "Maybe I should go have a talk with him right now."
Genma gave her a challenging look. "No. You heard Jiraiya-sama this morning: he will stab you and anyway, Naruto was scarred for life the last time you gave him The Talk."
"I don't see what his problem was," Mito said.
"Those STD pics were disturbing!"
"They were all over the Jonin lounge," Kakashi snickered. They really were horrible.
"I only put one up there," Mito claimed. How AND WHY that poster was replicated and hung up as wallpaper on ALL the walls and ceiling was beyond her. "People need to be careful and get tested regularly."
"Speaking of testing, here we are," Genma said, pulling a screen door open on an old brick house toward the back of his family's small compound. "This is where I analyze and develop my poisons."
"Oh my God, Genma," Mito breathed, her eyes going wide. "This lab is fantastic!" It had almost everything the hospitals did on a much smaller scale plus some other stuff!
"Thanks. It's a family thing. Now give me some blood." Mito snorted but did as he asked, pulling her sleeve up and plopping down in a chair so that Genma could begin his work. She also handed him some butterscotch candies that her henged clones had swiped from Homura and Koharu's residence.
"It's cold in here," Kakashi commented, rubbing his arms.
"No shit, Genius: it's a lab." Genma prepped Mito's arm before pulling out several vials and narrowed his eyes at Kakashi who was watching them as he pierced her skin between two seals. Kakashi was standing awfully close to Mito and studying her as he did so often. "Since when are you two so close?" He huffed when Mito blushed; Kakashi just stood there like the scarecrow he was.
"We've gotten to know each other as Jonin-senseis, I guess," Mito explained as best she could. Not that she would call them "close." She liked Kakashi a lot, though, which: once upon a time, would've been unimaginable.
When Mito was very small, she had not reacted well to her absent father taking on an apprentice who was only a few years older than her. Back then, she only knew of Kakashi from her mother but once Minato showed his face again, Mito (who had been a toddler) had supposedly screamed at him. Busy with missions, her father had flashed off miserably, her mother later recalled.
Mito's attitude became even worse when Minato was assigned the rest of a team, considering that she'd just become a Genin, too.
"Why can't I be on your team?!"
"Mito," Minato tried to soothe, "there's a war…"
"I don't care! First, you don't let me go to school like Asuma and everyone else, and then you won't let me be on your team." She wiped away tears. "I'm never going to have friends!"
And didn't he understand that she'd worked so hard so that she could help him?! So that she could finally be with him?
No, he didn't care, she thought then. He didn't want her with him.
Upon realizing it, Mito decided that it would be HIS loss, not hers.
Mito had her mom and her mom was amazing.
She had Tsunade and Shizune and they were the best.
She had Asuma and his family and even Jiraiya, the Great Toad Sage.
AND Orochimaru.
It probably took her at least a year before she realized and settled it into her heart that all of it wasn't essentially Hatake Kakashi's fault. –None of it was. Fortunately, by then she was off with either Tsunade or Jiraiya; it was hard to remember when Jiraiya handed her back to Tsunade somewhere in the middle of Fire Country. Mito was so young and threw herself into focusing on her studies.
She also may have pretended that she had zero beef with her father so well that she led herself to believe it.
"I've gotta go," Mito said in a quiet voice. Thoughts about those really old times were often a little disturbing and she'd gone down the rabbit hole in her mind way farther than she had in years and years just now.
"I thought your team was off today," Genma challenged.
"Yeah but they're around and I need to talk to Kurenai now that she's back. I don't know exactly what she wants me to do with Torune and Sai since Sora-kun's gone. I had planned some teamwork and ninjutsu stuff…" She tilted her head as she thought more about the kids. "Hey Gen. I've gotta rope my kids into some new weapons but I think Hinata-chan would work better with senbons than anything. Torune probably would, too - although he knows his way around a tanto."
"You want me to help?" he asked cockily, giving Kakashi a saucy look.
"I can assist Kiba when I have time," Kakashi said uncharacteristically although he still had a couple of weeks to go training Mito's team - so he wouldn't have to do much more. He wondered what had gotten into him but he did like Kiba and his very reasonable puppy a little more than Shino, although he appreciated how quiet and willing to listen the Hyuuga heiress and Aburame heir normally were.
As long as he stops giving me shit about Mito.
"I was thinking Kiba would be good with an ax and I'd planned to talk to Gai about it, but thank you."
Both men looked at her - and then at each other - as if she was insane.
One day in the not-so-distant future, however, it would be Inuzuka Kiba that would save his sister, mother, and more by plowing a sea of axes through a horde of Zetsus.
"Anko! How's it hangin'?"
"Plushy and tight. How you doin' Mito-chaaan –and what are you doin' here with a whole mess of brats?" Mito had just come waltzing into Higurashi's weapons store with her kids and some others who were following her like ducklings. "NAI-chan? You're here, too?! How's it hanging?" Weirdly enough, Kurenai-chan had a black hoodie and jeans on that made her look tough. "Huh."
Kurenai gave her fellow Jonin kunoichis an unimpressed look, glancing at the kids meaningfully as Mito explained that she was hanging "softly, down to her knees." Honestly, these two! The kids spread out, looking at weapons and whispering to each other. "There are children here, Mitarashi, Namikaze."
"Well, yeah," Mito agreed, obviously. She tilted her head as Tenten was behind the counter, alternatively doing jumping jacks or jogging in place. "Let me guess: Anko has you doing something weird."
"I'm increasing my stamina and reserves while I work," Tenten panted. "Can I help you guys?"
"Kiba needs an ax." Akamaru barked at Mito disapprovingly. "Watch it, doggy; I know what I'm doing. Probably."
"Yeah, Akamaru! I can't wait to swing an ax," Kiba said excitedly.
"I'm thinking they'd be good for throwing weapons."
"You don't know shit for weapons," Anko said truthfully. Unhelpfully, Mito thought.
"I still manage to knock heads just fine."
"S-sensei is a big believer in using her fists and ninjutsu," Hinata chirped, moving away from an iron maiden that looked like it would spring at any moment.
"I guess you're okay since you never run out of chakra," Anko commented, thinking more about it. Most Jonins used a variety of weapons but Mito liked to root out trees or pick up other heavy things like tractors and launch them at people. That worked.
Kurenai cleared her throat but didn't laugh when Sai tried to pick up a meteor hammer that nearly fell on his toes. "Be careful, Sai."
"Hai, sensei."
"You should come over to my apartment and help decorate," Mito said, smiling, to her best friend. "I keep telling people! Kurenai and I went shopping again after she gave up on crossdressing for the day."
"Hush, Namikaze! The children don't know you're joking." And Kurenai wasn't cross-dressing; she just wasn't prepared for people to see her watching that schmaltzy film voluntarily. As bad as the film was, Kurenai looked forward to teasing Asuma that she saw it before he did. She even got a t-shirt!
Hopefully, he'll want to act out that one part, she thought like a pervert.
Look what happened to me, "The Ice Princess," when I gained friends like these, she realized.
.
Mito was absently trying to twirl the incredibly heavy meteor hammer, almost hitting herself in the face with it repeatedly while Anko was discussing swords with the Aburame boys. Tenten was going over the specifics of several axes with Kiba while the boy's sensei half-listened. Genma and Kakashi sauntered into the store and Kurenai was grateful that someone could get that weapon away from Mito-chan before she took off her own head.
"Hinata-chan, c'mere. This is Special Jonin Shirunai Genma. He's the leader of my father's guard platoon and a renowned expert in senbon and poisons. Genma-san, this is Hyuuga Hinata, the young kunoichi I told you about." Hinata squeaked, straightening up cutely. Kakashi cleared his throat and crossed his arms over his chest.
Mito sighed and got Kiba's attention. "Yo, Kiba: you know Kakashi-sensei. He wants to help you with the ax or whatever." Genma began snickering.
"Mito-sensei says Gai-sensei's the weapon's expert," Kiba said knowingly. Hatake Kakashi liked dogs so he should be okay but it was pretty obvious that he also liked his sensei or sensei's butt, so he wasn't.
Kakashi bristled and Genma laughed out loud.
"BE NICE KIBA," Mito scolded with a red face. "Sorry, Kakashi! When I saw them this morning I told the kids that I was hoping to wrangle Gai into some weapon training for them."
"You're sensei's eternal rival," Tenten panted from behind the display case. The silver-haired Jonin groaned so she knew she was right. Gai-sensei made her groan, too. The chime to the door dinged again and Tenten did groan.
Her father returned, freaking out that his store was full now. He took one look at the Green Beast who'd just come in and Hatake: two of his best customers that were NEVER allowed in the store at the same time.
Never again!
"No fighting, you two! –I don't care what you call it! No weapons unless you behave yourselves!"
Mito threw her head back, laughing as Gai jumped around Kakashi like a puppy. She grinned at Neji as she calmed down. He looked surprised but still a little pompous as he slowly approached his cousin who was talking to Genma.
Team 10 came in with Lee and she groaned. "Oh man, I miss Asuma." She pouted as the three lazy kids approached Kurenai, (Lee vaulting toward Tenten,) feeling like she had nothing to do. Except work at the hospital, and trace Gato's crap, and be an ambassador, and train Kurenai's two remaining kids for a couple of weeks before I take my own back, and find who's poisoning me…
Maybe she was busy enough. She raised her red eyebrows at Ino-chan who approached her shyly. Ino was never shy; she had to want something. Mito guessed that Ino probably wanted to ask her to stop sicking her cats on her again.
"Sensei… Since we're looking into expanding our weapons kit, I thought you might be able to help me with something new."
"Me?" Mito asked, surprised. "I'm good with a kunai but my tanto work is quite average – and that's about all I've got aside from senbons and stuff. That's why I've been trying to get your reserves and stamina up; so you can do more with nin and taijutsu."
Ino placed her hands together. "Daddy said that you might be able to help me with a whip."
"Oh. …OHHHHH!" Mito never thought about using a whip but she sure whipped her chains around like a pro, didn't she? "What's your elemental affinity?" She didn't remember although she'd been training Asuma's brats while he and Kurenai were gone. Those three kids of his were so difficult; she was eager to pass them on to Kurenai.
"Water."
Mito hummed. "Okay, kid. As long as you agree not to use your freaky mind powers on or against me, you've got yourself a deal."
Ino huffed. "That is so unprofessional," she said under her breath before smiling up at the tall kunoichi sweetly. "Of course!"
"The only time I've got for the next two weeks is when I'm set to train Team 11 - but of course, Sora's gone. We'll still be taking missions. You can fill in for Sora, I guess. I can assure you that we'll train while we do whatever it is we do."
Ino wrinkled her nose. That meant she'd be with Sai and Torune but it couldn't be any worse than being with Lazy Shikamaru and Choji. Sai was weird but he was handsome and Torune at the very least could be counted on. "Thank you, sensei."
"Alrighty then," Mito grinned, clapping her hands together. "Let's look at some whips!"
.
For the next week, Ino joined the rest of Team 11 on a variety of missions that seemed to have been picked out because of their sheer boringness, Ino thought. Ino couldn't decide if the worst or best of those missions was to repeatedly babysit some chibi wannabe-ninja brats but Ino appreciated Mito-sensei allowing her to control the children with Yamanaka techniques.
She wasn't sure whether Asuma-sensei would've let her do that or not. Meh, he probably would. If only he would let me control my teammates.
The kids they babysat liked to watch their weapons practice, but Ino was beginning to find it a little disturbing how more and more full-grown shinobis (and a couple of kunoichis) were showing up at nights when she and Mito-sensei would practice with their whips.
Who knew just how many perverts with a whip fetish Konoha had?
Mito-sensei used a whip as if it were an extension of herself, and considering that it was a new weapon for her as well, Ino couldn't help but be a little jealous. But then she thought about how Torune and Sai nearly destroyed Mito-sensei earlier with their swordwork and she felt much better. Mito-sensei had been forced to bring out her chains to defend herself - and it became very apparent how the red and blonde-haired kunoichi was so fearsome with a whip.
Her chains were very whiplike when Mito-sensei wanted them to be.
"Adamantine chains beat a whip, hands down," Mito said to her temporary (and potentially mind-melting) student - but mostly to herself. Ino had grown on her over the past several days. The girl was smart and cunning, and willing to follow her at the hospital most days, trying to get a one-up on Sakura in addition to everything else. Ino was especially on-the-ball when Sai wasn't around.
Poor Sai didn't seem to know what was happening when they were together: that Ino seemed to have begun favoring him instead of Sasuke now. Maybe.
Not that anyone mentions Sasuke.
"I mean, I can make barriers and suck the chakra out of anyone or almost anything."
"Uh-huuuuuuh," Ino vocalized as she concentrated on catching a tree. "YES!" She'd managed to wrap up that tree well, just as she'd intended to: right on the target!
"Good job, Ino. Do you think you're ready to move on to a moving target?"
Ino's eyes widened for a second. "I don't know." She gestured to the tree: her whip had dug through the bark and well into the flesh and it was only a leather whip for now. "I don't want to hurt anyone."
"You won't hurt me," Mito said not unkindly, frowning at the shinobis who had shown up to watch them. Again. After word got around about them practicing in Training Ground 32, Kakashi and Gai - they were sometimes such a cute couple, Mito thought: she couldn't believe she thought she had kissed Kakashi - and her team had been running the majority of them off but Kakashi had left on an ANBU mission and Gai was away with his students today. Kiba and his ax were nowhere to be found either. "Maybe we should hang it up for the night, though."
A few guys began clapping - as if she and Ino had been putting on a show. Mito contemplated throttling them.
"Is it too late to grab a mission?" Ino asked, winding her whip up.
"Nah. Let's take a break. We'll meet in the morning!"
.
"Team 10/11 Combo Style reporting for a mission: B or C rank, pleeeeease."
"Morning, Mito," her father greeted. Normally he'd never send a Genin team out on a B-rank but Torune and Sai were Genins in name only. They would certainly be promoted to Chunin (probably) no matter what happened in the next Chunin Exams. He sat back in his chair and observed the Yamanaka heiress carefully, knowing that Inoichi would have his brain if anything happened to her. "Do you think you're ready for a B-rank, Genin?"
"Hai," the boys affirmed together. Ino echoed them a split-second later. –That was far enough behind for Minato to disallow a B-rank.
"Alright. How about a patrol?" Mito groaned and he gave her a look. "Or Madam Shijimi should be in the village by…" He grinned as Mito grabbed the mission out of his hands.
"We'll take it!"
Mito didn't know it - but she had just finally taken her very own misclassified C-rank from hell.