Chapter 36: Troublemaker

Asuma stood on top of the rock-hewn representation of his father’s face. He lit another cigarrette, this time only shooting fire ten feet into the air and incinerating only half of it. After a couple drags he felt his pulse relaxing a bit, and he practiced the jutsu a few more times, finding chakra control much easier now that he’d calmed down a bit. 

How strange to be reminded of Sasuke Sarutobi on this of all weeks. By my son? “Huh…” Asuma said out loud. “Well, duty calls.” He launched himself towards the area he’d been assigned to check whenever emergency procedure 4B was enacted. Using bursts of futon he blew bushes and branches aside, revealing the hiding spots they might have otherwise created. He darted through the forest until he found a mark on a tree indicating someone else had swept up to that point. He made his own “end sweep” mark before beginning a slow circle back towards the village, eventually culminating at the school. He had checked the time and knew that everyone would still be in classes, so after doing a quick circuit of the grounds he made his way inside. 

Unbidden, memories began to trigger as he walked the hallways. He chuckled as he walked past the location where Kurenai had first rejected him, which had led to him crying about the whole ordeal to his dad, ruining an ongoing council meeting in the process and making him the subject of shinobi gossip for a month. Those were good years.

Just as he was about to cross an intersection he heard footsteps and ducked into an alcove. A moment later he saw a blond haired girl walking down the hall with the same intensity of focus that a group of police officers would have on their way to capturing a criminal. She was walking towards him, staring at the floor ten feet in front of her, lost completely in her own world, which considering her age probably included various schemes for tricking her parents into getting her a puppy, becoming popular at school, and making all the other kids jealous over being the teacher’s star pupil. Or am I remembering my own ambitions at that age…

He smiled and wove a low-level concealment genjutsu that he’d half-learned from Kurenai and waited for her to walk past, but when she got to the intersection she froze and her gaze snapped up and to the right, almost like she’d just remembered something she’d forgotten to do. She looked like she was trying to decide something before making an annoyed sound and running down the hallway to the right, which was definitely not the fastest way out of the school. Interesting…

Following of course, Asuma began doing what he could to make sure she was what she seemed to be, and as far as he could tell there was no trickery going on. He watched as she reached the next intersection, looking towards the teacher’s locker rooms and the teaching materials room. And “that” room too. The girl checked over her shoulder, staring right through him before running down the hallway. I’ll have to thank Kurenai later, although an academy student is about the limit of who this would work on. 

The little girl, who Asuma would have judged to be no older than five if she hadn’t been at the school wearing a backpack, had reached the dead end, with the two doors she was not supposed to open. He observed her reading the sign, a little impressed she could do so, before summoning up her courage and trying to open the door to the locker rooms. It was locked, as it should have been. Then she went over to the other door. Which is also going to be locked. What is going on? 

Except it wasn’t locked. And the little girl didn’t look surprised, just determined, once more intriguing Asuma. Again she checked over her shoulder before she pulled the door open slowly, always a bad move when trying to be sneaky for exactly the reason that occurred. The slow movement of the hinges let out a loud whine and he smiled as he watched the girl cringe at the noise. So. We have a young thief! Now we just have to decide whether to punish her or reward her; thievery being a useful skill in this world of ours…

Then the alarm bells went off. Sound was coming from the room. Her accomplice? Asuma almost knocked the girl over as he attempted to get into the room, but before he even got close the fresh breeze that greeted him told him all he needed to know. If he’d been the one to open the door, the chase would be on, but as it was he would have to trample the child and weave through the obstacle course of junk in the room to even get to the window, which purposefully had a thick wall of foliage outside it, and if the room’s occupant was even genin-level Asuma would have a hard time catching them. Still, he ought to alert ANBU and sent a clone running. He looked down curiously at the little girl in front of him, who was staring at the room with the intense curiosity that bright children always seemed to possess. 

“Huh...” Came a high pitched voice, as the girl took one last look before turning and slamming right into his knees. 

“My thoughts exactly.” Asuma said, amused, although he didn’t let his face show it. After all, spies were in the village, and this was exactly the kind of behavior that he was looking for. He could see the wheels turning in her eyes as she started to realize her situation. Now comes the panicking and crying and “I didn’t know” and “I’m just a little kid.” Taking a deep breath Asuma prepared for the outpouring of emotion and began looking “underneath the underneath.” 

Instead what happened was the girl leapt to her feet, jabbed a finger directly into his face and yelled at the top of her lungs, “NO SMOKING IN THE SCHOOL! You should be ashamed of yourself! Put it out now!” 

Asuma was so shocked that a full second passed before he burst out laughing, harder than he had in as long as he could remember. He wasn’t sure how long he had been at it for when other teachers started showing up and asking questions. His fit was only redoubled as the little girl immediately tattled on him, just as imperiously, and he was finding it hard to stand, breathe, and stop crying all at once. Finally, after his abdominal muscles produced enough pain to combat the giggles, he was able to dry his eyes and grasp the hand Iruka had extended to help him to his feet. He hadn’t felt so good in years. 

“Did she hit you with a kage-level genjutsu Sarutobi-san?” Iruka asked, unable to keep a grin off his own face. 

“Worse I think.” Asuma gasped between deep breaths. He looked around and saw almost a full hallway of onlookers. “Sorry to cause such a commotion.” 

“No worries there, although I did have to put out your cigarrette.” Iruka responded apologetically. Some of the other teachers began ushering the crowd away. 

“As you should!” Asuma announced with mock severity. “And you,” he turned to the little blond girl who was still frowning at him mightily, arms crossed, “should be praised for standing up to an adult who was breaking the rules!” 

The little girl “hmph’d” at him and nodded as if she had expected nothing less. 

“On the other hand,” Asuma said slowly, “I wasn’t the only one breaking the rules was I…” 

“Oh really? Do you have something to say Ino-kun?” Iruka said equally slowly, turning towards the student. And there was the crack in the facade of righteousness. 

“It’s—it’s not what is looks like!” The girl named Ino stammered. “I saw someone suspicious! And they went this way!” 

“And you thought to just go into a forbidden area alone looking for them?” Iruka admonished steadily. 

“Well… Well what was I supposed to do! Burst into a random teacher’s classroom and interrupt them?” 

“Yes. That’s exactly what you should do Ino-kun.” Iruka said, trying to not sound to harsh. But the girl was already shaking her head. 

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“You don’t remember what it’s like being a kid then, and you don’t know how girls get treated either.” Ino’s voice was starting to edge towards either yelling or crying. “I would have gotten scolded for interrupting an adult and given detention!” 

“You don’t know that.” Iruka said immediately; perhaps a little too quickly Asuma thought. He’d been carefully observing the girl ever since he’d become a real human again, and frankly he believed her. Unless he missed his guess, deep down Iruka believed her too. Asuma recalled that Iruka had been quite the troublemaker in his academy years, just like Asuma had been before him, and the truth was that teachers tended to lay down the law on students who stepped out of line, even if those students had good reasons or doing so. 

It’s pride, Asuma-kun. He remembered his dad telling him. Sometimes people lose sight of what’s important because they are too worried about themselves, and a student interrupting them makes them feel insecure about the respect they feel they deserve. It’s one of the most difficult emotions to recognize and temper within ourselves, and sadly it only grows as you get older. 

Iruka was still attempting to get Ino to understand why she needed to follow the rules, and she was refusing to budge. Asuma suddenly felt his temper flare as he looked around and saw all the other teachers nodding along with Iruka pretentiously. 

“This is an active crime scene!” Asuma suddenly barked at them, completely destroying the atmosphere of judgement, and shocking a few of the teachers out of their punishment-hungry trances. “Everyone except Iruka, Ino, and ranking officials are forbidden from this area! No locker access through this door for the next 24 hours. You and you!” He jabbed fingers at two of them. “Find and alert the nearest ANBU agents that there has been suspicious activity in the area.” Asuma paused for a second. “What the hell are you waiting for?! Did you not just hear one of your students report suspicious activity? Get the hell out of here before I write you all up!” 

Asuma’s face had gotten increasingly angry and red as his tirade continued and at the last the teachers snapped out of it and scattered like rabbits. Iruka too was looking up at him with a look of concern, whereas Ino seemed to be watching him like he had been watching her for a while. Emotionally detached, and observant. When she saw him staring at her, still quivering with anger, she too snapped out of it and looked suitably terrified, reminding Asuma to take a few deep breaths and crouch down to her eye level. 

“I’m not mad at you.” He started with what kids usually were most worried about. “In fact I am immensely proud of you—No Iruka no. Ino right?” She nodded hesitantly, not quite knowing what to make of the man who had silently crept up behind her, rolled around in an insane fit of laughter, and then yelled at all the teachers and sent them running. “You broke a rule today. But you did the right thing.” He deliberately looked at Iruka as if challenging him to say something contradictory. Ino’s eyes were now shining at him. 

“You see, Iruka-sensei and I were troublemakers in our day,” Iruka deflated beside him, “and so we know that sometimes adults get mad just because they want to order people around and feel good about themselves. Today you did the right thing, to try to investigate, and I absolutely agree with what you said about getting detention if you’d gone to see another teacher.” Iruka deflated even more, but he was now nodding along, looking resigned to what Asuma was saying. This did not escape Ino’s notice it seemed, and more and more Asuma felt himself becoming curious about this child and her piercing blue gaze. He could see tears welling up in her eyes and could almost feel himself in her shoes, wanting desperately for someone to believe in him as a child. 

A noise indicated that an ANBU agent was nearby, and Asuma asked the girl, “What did the suspicious person look like?” 

After a couple sniffs and a clearing of her throat Ino responded, “She had brown hair, and was older than me but not as old as the teachers.” She paused for a second. “She had dark grey pants and a brown shirt. She seemed like she didn’t want anyone to see her which I thought was suspicious, so I tried to follow her but she was fast. I’m sorry I only caught a glimpse of her.” 

Asuma nodded to her encouragingly, before announcing to thin air, “search the perimeter, look for anyone covertly trying to observe the school.” 

“Am I still gonna get in trouble?” Ino was saying quietly. 

Asuma gave Iruka a “don’t you dare” look but Iruka was already shaking his head. “No Ino-kun. Asuma-san is right. I was doing exactly what I used to hate teachers for doing to me: scolding me for not following the letter of the law instead of the spirit.”

Asuma added, “And we are going to tell your parents about how brave you are. I might even tell the Hokage about our village’s bravest little investigator!” 

Again Asuma was surprised, as instead of joy, a grim look fell onto her face. “But I didn’t catch her.” She said, eyes far away. Geez, even the children can’t relax these days. What kind of kid is thinking about that kind of thing?

“Ah, but you also made them run away, and now we know to guard this room!” Iruka pointed out, voice encouraging. 

“I tell you what Ino-chan.” Asuma said cheerfully, no longer needing to fake it after his laughing fit earlier, and getting rid of some childhood demons at the staff’s expense. “Who’re your parents?” 

“Yamanaka Inoichi and Fuyumi.” Ino responded proudly. Asuma chuckled. 

“No wonder you’re so brave! With such amazing parents you must be the star pupil of your class!” 

“Actually,” Iruka broke in, “she is!” Asuma could tell Ino knew they were trying to cheer her up, but was blushing and smiling anyways. “She’s has never once gotten a question wrong on a test!” Iruka exclaimed. 

“Really?” Asuma asked, not needing to fake his surprise. “Well how about this! As a reward for your hard work and service to the village I will treat you and your parents to one dinner of your choice!” He announced it with the same tone of voice someone would use when giving out a gold medal. 

“Ok!” Ino was now giggling, like a child her age should, and without hesitation exclaimed, “Dango Land!” 

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