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Who: Masanori and YOU
Where: Any public restroom in Konoha
When: February 10th to the 12th
Notes: WIDE OPEN! The kid's been doing this for years and has yet to be caught. Maybe he'll slip up today?

If the sting of clinging, cold air was a concern of Masanori's as he stepped across the threshold and into another of the village's esteemed restrooms, he showed no sign of it. The door was closed swiftly, silently behind him by a cautious hand as he tuned in to his new surroundings. The silence, the stillness told him enough. A good whiff told him more. There was no one present. There hadn't been for some time and that, that was good enough to make this particular, high traffic location his next mark.

That it was a high traffic location meant he had to act quickly, so act quickly he did. His steps fell silent against the hard floor as nimble fingers caught the door to the last stall and opened it quickly, quietly, onyx-colored eyes finding their target. Ah, she was perfect. So big, so plush, so perfectly absorbant! People wouldn't think much of her until there wasn't much of her left. Then, she would be all they'd think about, but it would be too little, too late for them. Even the most resourceful shinobi found themselves tried by this particular trap in the making, after all.

He was quick to grasp the roll of toilet paper and poise her to wrap her sheets snug around his wrist. One quick, well maintained spin later and the first of his objectives was complete. Another stall, another roll whittled mercilessly down to a single sheet with her contents carefully secured in his pockets, and with a wide smile that sincerely spoke of his enjoyment of the task. Just a few more stalls now and he would withdraw the victor of his eighth year to put the spoils of his victory to use and hear about his work at a later date.

The only question was whether or not he'd be so merciful as to leave the soap to mitigate failure's shame.

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He'd heard and seen this particular set of results in action before, but he'd never actively looked for the person who was the cause of it. Instead, he'd just taken precautions to make sure he wouldn't get caught himself and sat back to observe the situation.

However, catching a kid at it?

That was just sloppy.

He was standing right outside the stall when the boy came out, blocking his path. "Having fun?"

And that was exactly why he wasn't supposed to let himself get carried away. He froze in his tracks, still as can be, only to slowly blink widened, onyx-colored eyes up at the shinobi blocking his path. There was no sense in hiding the evidence. He was good and caught and he knew it, but there was no pouting. Rather, he smiled wider.

"Un! I am," he replied, as though he'd been asked a question far more benevolent in nature. "I mean I was. You aren't going to make me put it back, are you?"

Because, really, his fort was nowhere near complete and even the most modest addition would be helpful.

"No." He reached out, catching the child by the scruff of his shirt and reeling him in. He maintained eye contact, then started to pull the child along in his wake.

"I don't think that would teach you anything."

It was the physical contact that spurred Masanori to attempt to loose himself. There was only so many places he could go, but going along quietly wasn't in the books as far as he was concerned. The problem lay with his lack of physical strength compared to a fully grown man. He could slip out of his shirt no problem, but Mi-chan was sleeping soundly in his hood and while his partner was far from defenseless, the accidental poisoning of a fellow villager by a surprised spider wasn't a good headline to make by his own standards.

Thus, he was left with two options, both of which relied upon the high traffic of the location and any shame or empathy the older man might have.

"O-ow!" he cried, his voice rising to from an even three to a quivering ten in seconds. "You're hurting me! Let go!"

"Really? In that case..." He pulled the kid up, then caught him around the waist with his other arm, tucking him firmly under his arm so the boy was dangling. "That should fix that."

He then headed for the door, clearly unphased by the bid for a proper reaction.

He was a teacher, students tried all kinds of tricks on him.

Well, that hadn't gone as planned. Nothing was today, it seemed. Masanori had only himself to blame in this case, of course. He hadn't exactly been taking the operation as seriously as he normally did, not that thinking over 'should have, would have, could have,' was going to help him at this particular moment. The man's solution earned a huff and several more wriggling attempts to break free. Being dropped would be preferable to this; though, really, if he was seen in such a state he'd never hear the end of it when he got back to the manor.

On second thought, perhaps he wasn't trying hard enough.

"Oi, let go!" And ten went to twelve with much more adamant attempts at making this look worse to make it better, teary eyes and all. "Lemme go!"

"Hmmmm." He ducked through the door, not even remotely worried about being seen in public with a fretting child. It wouldn't be the first time, and most definitely wouldn't be the last.

"No, I think I have a point to make before I do that. Don't worry, it's actually a rather nice day."

There was something about that statement that struck a chord in Masanori that saw his expression lilt with both curiosity. He stopped struggling long enough to attempt a look at the shinobi holding him.

"Oi. Jiisan, you're enjoying this too much," he said, a question following. "Are you an S?"

"If by S you mean sensei, yes." He headed out into the village, aware that they were drawing attention as they went, but the people who knew him looked more curious than concerned, and he paid them no mind.

No, he was headed to one of the more heavily populated areas of town.

"No, I was talking about the other 'S,'" Masanori replied, wondering exactly where this was going. "I guess that works, too, though. Are you gonna teach me a lesson?"

That had to be where this was going, right? No questions had been asked regarding exactly who he belonged to, so it was unlikely he was being toted to Shisui and mistakenly to the Uchiha compound. Most people in their right mind wouldn't have taken him to the Shizuoka's den either.

"That's the idea. Really, a prankster should never get caught. That's just terrible shinobi work." He shook his head, clearly disappointed in the boy for this failing, and he started up some steps.

The man had a point. It was a sharp point that Masanori was very familiar with and it had him pondering a bit.

"Aa. I can't argue about that. You shouldn't do anything halfheartedly," he agreed, pausing as a long digit found his nose. Mi-chan was chittering in his ear, inquiring about the situation. "But what if you do get caught, S-san?"

Like now. How about now?

"You deal with the consequences and hope the mod doesn't kill you, of course." He smiled at the boy, then abruptly shifted his hold as he came to a halt, holding the boy out in front of him to a rather large number of people looking curiously his way.

More than a few were shinobi, then again, he had just made his way to one of the armor and weapon stores in the village and was standing where everyone let out, just above.

He raised his voice so it would carry, a truly excellent trait in a teacher, and projected so everyone in line of sight could hear. "I found the toilet paper bandit everyone. It's this boy here."

He held the child securely until realization started to dawn on some faces, and his voice lowered back to a conversational tone that only Masanori could hear. "Usually by runing very fast. Come see see me sometime. Name's Umino Iruka."

Then he put the boy on the roof beside him on his feet.

Perhaps it said something about Masanori that he was less concerned about the mob and slightly concerned about what sort of punishment the clan would attempt to effect upon his person for this grievous exposure, but especially how severe the nagging. Perhaps it said more that he was glad for it, that he was grateful to the man throwing him to the figurative dogs for the exposure. A blow like this hadn't been in his plans for today; and yet, it would most assuredly be delivered to the clan thanks in no small part to Iruka's machinations. Appreciative? Quite.

Glancing from the cloud over his shoulder to Iruka, he flashed the man a mischievous half grin, half smile.

"Aa. I will, S-san," was his reply as he held up a finger and, turning his head back to the approaching mob, yelled an urgent, "Wait a minute!"

The surprising part was that many listened, halting in their steps. Those expecting an apology would be disappointed to find the boy instead producing clones that looked one another over, then played a quick game of shuffle that terminated in stuck out tongues and a rapid dart in opposite directions with toilet paper flung in just as many to provide a helpful distraction. Would he be caught? More than likely, but he could at least work to decrease the number of shinobi that got their hands on him for his own benefit.

Iruka cast a stern eye over the crowd, picking out a few former students. "You should know better than to expect anything. If you don't catch him, it's your own fault now." He ran his gaze over them all, then turned and made his way down to get out of the path of the crowd as a few of the more hot-headed members of the forming mob caught the implications.

One particularly incensed girl even let out an indignant shout.

That, it seemed, seemed to resume movement, and Iruka meandered away, laughing quietly to himself. Once he got distance, he'd keep an eye out in case he had to rescue the child... but he wasn't worried.

The boy seemed resourceful enough.

Ami pushed the door open and took three steps into the restroom, noticing Masa immediately. As the door swung shut behind her, a heavy sort of silence crept over the tiled room, stretching on as she simply looked at him for a long moment. It was worth noting that her perspective was thus: her male teammate, in a girl's bathroom, beaming brilliantly with pockets bulging with tissue paper.

When she spoke, her voice was all but dripping with scorn, and her eyes were flat with disgust.

"An idiot is one thing, but why do I have to be on a team with a deviant?"

"You shouldn't talk about Itsuki-kun like that," Masanori replied, smiling no less as he caught the end sheets of one of his toilet paper bracelets and began to rewrap it. "A man has to have pride in his work, you know. Do you want me to be a prideless person? A person like me can't do that."

He was prideful enough to take the majority of the spoils and leave a couple of thinned rolls balanced precariously atop the wall separating each stall, a kindness he paid only to women and only on occasion, but that wasn't something Ami needed to know. It was a questionable kindness in any case considering he left only one soap dispenser with any soap in it and that was left half full and one of the faucets may very well have suffered some unfortunate pressure tampering. The rest of the soap had been poured into the toilet, specifically into the back end for more giggles.

Somehow, he doubted Ami would laugh, but the face she was making at that moment was good enough.

"Itsuki-kun is not the problem," she said. Still, she made no move to stop him or take back his purloined paper spoils. There was little point; she hardly had any interest in rewinding the rolls or refilling the soap, and he would probably dart around like a greased pig and make stupid comments if she tried.

Her face smoothed out into an expressionless mask and her eyes slipped shut as she sighed. "Is there even any point to this exercise in stupidity, or do you just enjoy inconveniencing people on a yearly basis?" She had heard enough customers drift through her family's shop, complaining about the inexplicable 'Bathroom Bandit' that periodically hit the village.

She wished she could say she was surprised about the identity of the culprit.

Masanori's smile fell with that question, onyx-colored eyes darting left, then right, then left again. Turning them over his shoulders warily for good measure, he looked back at Ami, his expression smoothing into something more serious. He cleared his throat.

"It's necessary," he stated, as though he were some sort of morally ambiguous villain about to make some plot relevant revelation. He leaned slightly forward then, eyes fixed on her. "The real question is whether or not I can trust you with the sensitive information I'm considering disclosing."

She continued to stare at him, deadpan, unmoved by his attempt to create ambiance and suspense. He was stealing toilet paper and had been for years. No amount of acting or gravitas could quite get her past that stubborn fact. She was utterly unmoved, unimpressed, and unsure if she truly cared about his explanation.

She didn't, she decided. "Either tell me or don't. I don't plan to spend the rest of my afternoon skulking in a girl's restroom with you, after all."

"So mean!"

That was Masanori's counter, his facade tossed to the wayside with less care than he might have given a sack of rice. His expression was made to betray some seemingly real degree of hurt. Whether it was sincere or not was left to Ami decide, but he pushed past it quickly, heaving an exasperated sigh that terminates with a rather abrupt and simple disclosure.

"It's for the fort," he said.

"The..." Ami was, by practice, generally less expressive than the average brick. However, sometimes—very rarely—something managed to slide past a chink in the proverbial armor and elicit an actual, honest response. In this case, it was innocent, persistent curiosity. She let her eyes drift to the toilet paper, trying to assess some way for it to become a building material worth the effort of his thievery. A fort implied an outdoor location and Konoha had a decent rainfall each season.

"What fort?" She asked, unaware of the way her eyes were shining with interest.

Ami may have been unaware, but Masanori? Oh, he saw it and in that instant, he perceived something unexpected, something that almost looked like a kindred spirit. Rather than stand with his toilet paper bracelets and be unsure of it, he moved right in verbally, excitement getting the better of him.

"My fort! I've been working on it for years," he said, pausing at the chitter in his ear. "Ah, well, I mean we've been working on it for years! You're familiar with Shizuoka silk, right?"

"Yes," she agreed. "My aunt and uncle's shop has a contract with them. Some of our higher-quality products are made exclusively with it." It was of unparalleled quality, both in sheen and durability. The downside was that, depending on the spider producing it, water-treatment caused the silk to contract excessively. She was fairly certain that had only been an issue years before, however, and steps had since been taken to correct the oversight.

"Do you use the tissue-paper as a building material alongside that silk? that would require a lot of base materials..." Explaining his periodic robberies. One hand came up, hovering in front of her mouth thoughtfully. "But that alone wouldn't be enough, though... you must have pre-existing pillars of some sort for support, right?"

"Aa. Do you wanna see it?"

He was oozing with pride about his fort and pleasure in having stirred some interest in Ami. It had been unexpected, but he wasn't about to pass up the opportunity now that it had been presented him. Curiosity was a powerful thing and he intended to milk it for all it was worth in this case. An opportunist? Him? Who would have guessed.

Ami bit her lip, thinking furiously and doing her utmost to maintain a stony facade as she did so. But her eyes betrayed her again, practically shimmering at this point. I want to see it. I really, really want to see it! they seemed to insist.

"...I suppose so." Ami said, at length. "If only to determine whether the construction was worth years of robbery and vandalism." There. That was a totally logical argument; shinobi had to make cost-benefit analyses on the fly all the time when in the field. This was practically a training exercise, she reasoned.

"That works for me!"

And both hands were thrown into the air in celebration. toilet paper bracelets dangling. No matter what reason Ami gave, Masanori was victorious. She was interested, interested! Truly, there was some form of connection and he wasn't about to argue semantics. What he was about to do was make a grab for her hand so that he could lead her to the Shizuoka compound with greater care than he had taken in sabotaging the restroom.

This was a sensitive mission, after all.

Edited 2015-03-05 09:27 (UTC)

He's had his fair share of turbulent teacher-student time with Ami in the past, and just when he'd thought things had already settled between him and his team, he finds he's landed himself a little deviant on the team. The only 'normal' one seemed to be Itsuki by a long shot, and Masanori--

Sometimes Masanori tried a little too hard.

He's had his eye on his genin for a while now, and finding him in the act merely confirms every suspicion.

And so he ends up leaning against the doorway, arms crossed in front of him and blocking Masanori's exit.

"I was under the impression that children grew out of their toilet phase at around age three."

His mouth settles into a thin line, clearly unimpressed, absolutely disappointed in his student.

After being caught so many times in the act over the course of the past three days, Masanori isn't surprised when he's caught yet again. He hasn't been trying particularly hard to avoid getting caught, after all. If he had, his execution would be different, not that it matters too terribly much at the moment. What matters is the adult blocking his path. That said adult is his very much unamused looking sensei doesn't do much to dim his smile if anything.

"Un, but paper is different," Masanori replies sagely, his wrists given a slight turn in explanation. "No one outgrows toilet paper. It's more of a basic than kunai. It's absence is more challenging to adapt to, too!"

As though that explained everything in any sort of adequate manner. Partially, perhaps, but certainly not completely.

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11th

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February 10th

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12th

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