Stumble [Rewrite]

Mist

When Ibiki and Genma opened the door to the inn room they hadn't been in for the past two weeks, they were greeted by the sight of a floor completely covered in sand, a small potted cacti sitting on the table where the light of the window would shine, a jar holding a suspicious substance right beside that, and Sakura—caked in mud—tearing scraps of paper into unrecoverable pieces. She looked up and waved.

"Hey! How was the job?"

Genma looked like he was he was going to ask a question, struggling to make sense on what the hell was going on, but then shook his head. "You know what? I'm not even going to try to understand," he said. He tossed his pack on one of the beds and fell beside it. "You do you, kid. No matter how crazy you are."

Ibiki eyed the room as he too stepped inside and set his things on the bed, approaching the suspicious jar and lifting it in front of his face. There were five spiders crawling in the secluded space as they glared angrily at their circumstance.

"... What are these?"

"Wandering spiders. Did you know their venom is twenty times more potent than a black widow's if it gets into the bloodstream? People affected can lose control of their muscles, have breathing problems, get respiratory paralysis that can lead to suffocation—"

Ibiki slowly placed the jar down and took a step back.

"—not to mention it's incredibly painful. I was lucky enough to find these sneaky bastards on the other side of the Wind bor—I mean, around. Finding them around."

He would chastise her on leaving the town, not at all surprised that she'd do so in the first place, but they did say if she was back before their return they wouldn't ask any questions. And fair was fair.

"I don't know what it is with you and your fascination with poisons, but at least it keeps you from doing anything illegal," he admitted as he sat down on the chair next to the table. Genma flopped onto his stomach to get a good look at the offending arachnids and scrunched up his nose.

"Gross. So what's with the plant?"

Sakura took the pieces of paper and slid them into the trash. "A gift from a friend. His hobby's cultivating cacti," she smiled. Her sensei exchanged looks, knowing fully well that they should question the so-called 'friend' she'd made outside country boundaries. But they also knew she wouldn't let a word out if she didn't want to, so they'd be pressing on for nothing.

They decided to trust her on it. Until there ever came a chance it blew up in her face.

"Cacti, huh? Seems like something boring people would do," Genma said.

"And all you do in your spare time is hit on women who are way out of your league. Who's the real loser here?" Sakura hummed. Ibiki snorted at the pouty disgruntled expression on the other Jounin's face.

"You two can argue about hobbies later. We'll be heading towards Kiri tonight so get as much rest as you can," he said. He glanced as his ward. "And you can rest after you take a damn shower. What made you go swimming in mud?"

She grinned and put up a finger. "Ah, ah, ah, you said if I'm in town when you get back you wouldn't ask any questions."

Ibiki's eye twitched, but he sighed and reclined in his seat. Irritatingly annoying or not, she was doing better. And that's all he hoped to take from the mission.

::

The Clans of Konoha meeting was called to session, first order of business: deciding whether Haruno Sakura should or shouldn't be sought out by ROOT. Dan turned to the first seat to his left.