Hinata Hyuuga sighed as she stared up at the cloud covered sky. Kiba scowled and ran a clawed hand through his disheveled locks of brown hair. Akamaru whined between the two teammates from where he sat on the ground. Shino, though unseen from behind the cover of his glasses, closed his eyes in dismay.

Yuuhi Kurenai looked at her students and let a caring and amused- if not evil -smile rest on her lips. She then turned her head up to the sky, looked at her students, and then proceeded to repeat the movement a few times. It was drawing out a torturous fate all four of Team Eight's members knew their teacher had in mind.

"Just get it over with already," Kiba growled at his teacher in annoyance. Kurenai raised her eyebrows and waved her finger in Kiba's face. She winked to add good measure, but all Kiba did in response was something similiar to a dog hackling its fur.

"Now, now, Kiba, mind your manners. And what ever do you mean by, 'Get it over with already', might I ask?"

Shino's brows creased and behind the cover of his collar, a frown rested on his lips. The habits of his teacher on such days as these really annoyed him. Perhaps almost as much, if not more, as Kiba's continues attempts to catch him off of his guard.

Kurenai continued, teasing smile still in place as she turned her attention to the prodigy of her team. "Shino, is there something the matter? There seems to be a dark cloud hovering over you at the moment, and it's not your bugs." She barely stopped herself from snickering as she caught the slightest twitch in Shino's normally stoic frame.

Hinata's lavender-tinted pupilless eyes seemed a bit clouded with her teacher's remarks. Kurenai was a woman that Hinata grately respected and loved, like a mother. She hated when her mentor got like this, dragging out the truth of the matter on such a day...and really, teasing Shino and Kiba like that?

"Aw, come on Hinata," Kurenai grinned at her only female student, "don't be such a spoil sport!" Hinata guessed that it was woman's intuition that Kurenai had known what she was thinking. The short haired girl hung her head to try and hide her blush. Kurenai simply continued to smile.

As for Akamaru, the dog had stopped wagging his tail upon seeing the sky. He knew what days like this would mean for he and his best friends. He knew what his master's teacher would make them do. He hated it, he hated it a lot, but Kiba would always make him do it too.

Kurenai just sort of looked at Akamaru and winked. She didn't know what exactly he was thinking, after all, he was a dog. However, judging by his less than thrilled seeming attitude, she could hazord a guess.

The Jounin Konouchi smiled teasingly at her students, knowing full well that they knew she knew why they were annoyed. They did have a plausible cause to be, she had to admit. After all, this always happened on days like this.

Days when she would schedule them for training, and they would arrived more or less pumped. Days when they'd look up to the sky and any and all enthusiasm would vanish. Days like this...

Days when the sun would be blocked by smokey gray clouds. Days when the wind was cold and the streets, though not bare, were less populated than usual. Days when it seemed that a huge storm was liable to hit; ironically, one of the team's favourite training conditions. With howling wind and splashing rain echoing within the forest they would train in, testing their skills of concentration.

However, for some reason, Kurenai had stopped letting them train under such conditions if she had scheduled them for it. She used to be just fine with it, but she had suddenly seemed to disaprove of the mere idea; or so it seemed to Kiba. Hinata didn't understand it, Akamaru didn't care all that much, and as for Shino, he thought he had a vague idea of Kurenai's reasoning. That didn't stop him from being throughly annoyed over it though.

Kiba litterally heard the first drop of rain splash against the surface of a leaf. This was followed by quite a few more drops, until there was a rapid if not gentle succesion of pattering rain. The three Genins and one puppy all stared at their teacher.

Kurenai shrugged and shook her head. "You know what guys, forget it. There is no D-rank mission, nore is it C-ranked. As a matter of fact, there is no mission."

Kiba blinked; this was different. For the past, at least four months now, Kurenai had always been handing out D and C-ranked missions. On rainy days like the way it was right now, it was a matter of fact that this would happen. It sucked a lot, and normally he'd of whooped for joy at such news; however, he had grown used to the new routine.

Shino's brows forrowed in confusion, and Hinata herself looked at her teacher with vague surprise. None of the students had thought that they wouldn't be doing a mission today. There was no special holiday or occasion to prepare for or celebrate; the exam was already done with for the rest of the year; and none of them were hurting in any way. So, what gives?

"K-kurenai-Sensei," Hinata blinked, reverting back to her old habit of stuttering. Though she was still shy around others, she had grown far too close to her team and trusted them so much that she didn't feel the need to stutter. They didn't judge her, after all, like the rest of the world did.

"Yes, Hinata?"

The Hyuuga heiress paused slightly before she spoke. "There's no mission? We should forget about it? Does that mean...that you want us to return home for the day?" Hinata didn't really feel like being home at the time being. It didn't really feel like a home anymore...

Kurenai blinked at her student and shook her head. "Goodness no, Hinata! We're just going to be spending the day training."

Kiba, though initially stunned, grinned. "Yahoo! Did ya' hear that, boy?" he asked Akamaru enthusiasticly. Akamaru yipped excitedly in return, his tail wagging joyfully.

Shino outwardly appeared unaffected by the news, simply shifting his weight to his right foot and raising his eyebrows. Though nobody really saw it, a small smile had graced his lips and his shoulders relaxed a little.

Hinata let a small smile rest on her own lips, a faint blush staining her cheeks as well. Kurenai winked at her students once again and motioned for them to follow her before leaping into the trees. They all clambered after her, seeming like nothing more than blurs of shifting air. Twenty-four leaves danced down to the ground as the team made it's way through the trees and the dropping rain.

Team Eight's members may never know why Kurenai had suddenly stopped allowing them to train under such conditions, only to suddenly change her mind about the matter once again a few months later.

Shino had thought that maybe it was because she was a little worried about Hinata's condition for training after she had slipped on a branch and almost broken her wrist. Indeed, if he himself hadn't been there to catch her, she very well might have. However, Kurenai had more faith in her students than that to put an end to their favourite training because of a simple accident.

Yuuhi Kurenai...her reasoning was simple. She wanted to see how her students worked OUTSIDE of training exercises. She knew that you could train as much as you want, with or without your teammates. But when you get out into the field, not everything requires massive Genjutsu, Jinjutsu or Taijutsu abilities. Simple missions that required a different set of abilities, some that only her students could build between themselves.

Kurenai would have gladly pointed out to her team that they had managed to learn a lot more about each other, and thus became closer, in the four months of low-level missions.

She would have enjoyed asking Kiba whether or not he had managed to learn that Hinata personally liked vanilla ice-cream, and Shino rather liked mint-chip, even though she knew he had.

She would have thoroughly enjoyed asking Shino whether or not he had learned that Kiba's favourite insect were Shino's own Destruction Bugs, because they were, "Kick-ass!", while Hinata personally liked Fireflies, despite the fact that she knew he did.

She would have adored asking Hinata is she had or had not learned that Kiba thought of the new Hokage, Tsunade, as a "hot babe who can kick ass," while Shino thought of her as, "A respectable woman with admirable skills"; Kurenai knew that Hinata knew that though.

She would have loved to tell them all that those missions had, in fact, been a training mission. She would have enjoyed seeing their reactions and would have treasured them to no end. The thing was, though, she didn't want to.

Why spoil the fun for the next time it would happen?

End

Disclaimer: I'm not good enough to own the series "Naruto", nor am I able to claim any of the plots or characters used within this anime/manga. I'm simply a fan of Team 8 and it's members, and provide...FANFICS! ;

Footnote: Twenty-four leaves danced down to the ground as the team made it's way through the trees and the dropping rain.

Yeah, this was supposed to be Eight leaves at first (because it is Team Eight after all)...but then I thought that there should be more. I thought; well, there's 3 Genins in the team, and they had supposed to have grown, like, 3x closer as a team and as friends in this fic. So what's 8x3? 24...

Yeah, I have wierd logic, okay?

-VDG-