Punishment

mission: Avoid Akward

"What is Iruka sensei doing here, Genma?"
~~~~~
The forest was quite for most of the part. there were sounds of leaves rustling in the cool breeze that blew from south east direction.

The group of five men moved with agility. Small creak of the old bulky branch, a little whisper of branches being moved out of the way.

One man in the front, three flanking him and a last man tailing behind them. The men were quietly moving towards their destination. There was a tension present in the group.

The tension was so thick that it was suffocating the men. The silence was filled with frustration, anger, anxiety, guilt on kakashi's side and of course heart ache on Iruka's side.

The events that followed Iruka's arrival were terse if not cold. Thier leader had made it clear that Iruka's presence was not only a burden but also unwanted, that to only with a few choice of words.

In the silence, Iruka took the opportunity to drag himself out of the tense atmosphere. He mused about the happenings after the harsh greeting.

Iruka would have been impressed by Kakashi's insult, had it not being directed towards him. His reaction to it was simple, he ignored the leader's glare all together.

Mind you, it is not easy to ignore such a powerful glare, coming from a man who is infamous for being calm and composed in any given situation.

Iruka almost gave himself a pat on the back, for standing up against Kakashi as if he were not glowering down on him. Speaking with the same confidence was different. He had stammered out an answer, supporting his argument by blaming thier hokage.

Kakashi turned around abruptly and was out of sight, leaving Iruka with Genma and others for briefing. It was infuriating that he thought of himself better than others. He didn't even thank Iruka for dropping everything and coming to thier aid.

With no regards towards him, Iruka felt insulted. Then for a full shameful minute he thought of going back to village, leaving those helpless children. That was a minute of weakness, he had to remember that he was not here for acceptance of an ignorant shinobi but for those inocent children.

The mission is actually quite simple. They had a team of four, tring to infiltrate a small clan.and bringing back the hostages. That being said, the clan had a population of a small village. To protect this sort of a population, they have set up a very tight security systems.

It may seem childish to make traps for security but they pull it off quite effortlessly. It has effectively blocked the team from reaching the inside the clan walls.

"The traps" Genma had explained "range from being simple trip-and-hang-from-a-tree-upside down to multilayed and complex genjutsu. They obviously know what they are doing. A proof of that would be the fact that we are yet to even have a glimpse of the clan wall."

That was shocking. How was it possible? The team consisted of elite shinobi. Come to think about it, they had four jounin. One of them had been in ANBU and is a fierce fighter. It almost made him laugh that they needed his help.

Genma had realised how Iruka was viewing this situation, and quickly added "It is not funny. Each night they come out of the clan walls and change the pattern of the traps. Not only that, they also remove any sort of markings made. We tried to ambush them, but some how they managed to escape our notice. In our team Kakashi is the only one who is able to see through these genjutsus easily. The rest get tired or can't focus properly. Thus, we are majorly unable to achieve our goal."

"So you guys want me to dislodged the traps and help you navigate through them?" He had verified.

"Yes, that would be correct." Raidou had replied.