"Nngh. It's so hooooot," Naruto whined, head dropped against the wall and his arms hanging, a sponge dripping water on the ground in one of his hands.
Sakura only sighed and kept scrubbing the wall, occasionally dipping her own sponge back into a bucket of soapy water next to her. They each had their buckets at their feet, and had spent most of the morning scrubbing while Kakashi leaned against a tree and read his book (for what Naruto suspected was the fourth time in two days). Sasuke ignored Naruto's whinning, checking instead for more stains on his part of the wall. He was already nearly done, while Naruto had only done a small corner of it, and Sakura was catching up with him. It was true that the sun was scorching that morning, and Kakashi had even bothered rolling up his sleeves, despite being protected by the shadow of the tree. Tsunade had found nothing better for them than this simple job, and the four of them all thought it was rather stupid to hire a team of ninjas to clean a, albeit dirty, wall.
"Naruto. Keep scrubbing." Kakashi's voice made Naruto yelp and he jumped away from the wall.
"I forgot you were there, Kakashi-sensei," he said, laughing nervously and scratching the back of his head. Sasuke huffed amusedly, and Sakura splashed her hands around in her bucket to wipe her face. She shook the last droplets off, glancing at Naruto, unimpressed.
"Just unzip your jacket, Naruto, you look like it's the middle of winter with that thing," she said, as she took off her headband to retie it in a way that her hair would be away from her face completely. Naruto looked down at his jacket, looking as if the idea had never occured to him. Kakashi glanced at Sasuke and rolled his eyes, getting a smirk in return.
"Ah! Good idea Sakura-chan!" He grinned at her and unzipped his jacket, but seemed to consider something for a minute or two before just shrugging it off and throwing it aside. She shook her head, whispering under her breath that he was a lost cause.
Sasuke stopped scrubbing and stood, observing his wall with a hand on his hip, looking satisified of his job. Sakura glanced at his wall and frowned. He shouldn't have done better than her at cleaning a wall - she did chores often at home. She felt a little guilty thinking this, remembering that Sasuke had had to do his own chores since he was 8. Naruto, on the other hand, had probably never touched a sponge, despite having been in a similar situation. She smiled as Sasuke walked over to stand behind Naruto, where he had moved to crouch and start to scrub lower at the wall. She knew that walk of his.
"Missed a spot, moron."
"Huh? Where?" Naruto looked up at the wall, trying to angle himself to see what spot Sasuke had been talking about. He turned towards Sasuke to glower at him. "There's no spot."
"Here." And with that, he threw his soggy, dirty sponge in Naruto's face. Sakura opened her mouth to scowl at the both of them, but Naruto had blindly been flailing and randomly thrown his sponge, which consequently ended hitting her in the chest. She screeched, made sure her sponge was properly wet to be just the right kind of unpleasant, and ran towards Naruto to shove it down his shirt. He yelped and threw Sasuke's back at him, making a run for the nearest bushes. Sasuke had already fled to dodge behind the corner of the wall, and Sakura stood in between them, challenging them to even dare throw a sponge at her. She didn't think it was enough to stop them, and it wasn't. She threw her own at Naruto, while Sasuke picked his up and flung it at the other boy. Sakura caught it and sent it back his way, dodging Naruto's in the process.
"Bastard! What was that for?"
"Narutoooo, come back here!"
"You need to practice your aim, idiot!"
"No I don't!"
"Ahh, my hair!"
"OW that one hurt!"
Kakashi thought that maybe he should tell them to stop, but he was getting to the good part of the book. He glanced at them quickly and almost smiled. They were moving in circles, without even realising it. Sakura would run to the bushes and Naruto to the wall, Sasuke going to grab an abandoned sponge in the middle, the three of them stopping occasionally for a second or two, just the time to wet their sponges again.They would switch every few seconds, never showing their backs to one another, sometimes making temporary alliances with each other at a glance, agreeing that this time Naruto would be their victim, or that the really wet sponge just had to be thrown at Sakura. They were all grinning in their own way; Sasuke more like a smirk, still calm and composed, Naruto wildly and brightly, almost dazzling, Sakura with a sweetness and maybe even motherly softness to it.
Kakashi thought it was the way they worked. The three of them were different, and you wouldn't expect them to get along. And to some, even, it may look like they didn't at all, were always fighting and arguing and hitting each other on the head, but Kakashi knew. It was the way they worked. And, judging by their laughter, by their yells and screams to stop sakura-chan, only if you leave sasuke alone, that moron can't even reach me anyways, they had fun.
He thought that, this way, they built a way to work with each other not matter what happened, and in any situation. And that was what it took to build a solid team.
Just as Kakashi looked back down to his book, a sponge smacked him in the face and flopped down at his feet. Slowly, without moving his gaze from the fallen sponge, he closed his book and stored it back in one of his multiple pockets. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke all stood frozen, gaping.
"Who threw that?"
Kakashi gave them his best glare as they all pointed at each other. He looked at each of them for a few seconds before deciding he felt like torturing Naruto today. He had bothered Sasuke about his love of tomatoes all last afternoon, and had told Sakura to show up two hours early that morning for no reason other than his amusement. It was the brat's turn now.
"Naruto. It was you." He took a few steps forwards and towered over them. They all hunched and leaned back a little, Naruto looking terrified.
"W-What? It wasn't me it was Sasuke – ow, bastard, what was that kick for, IT REALLY WAS YOU - I swear I didn't even have a sponge in my hands Sakura-chan had mine – you pinch so hard Sakura-chan, whyyy –"
Kakashi decided to cut Naruto's rambling and excuses short before he forgot to breath and passed out, knocking his own teacher into sleep with boredom in the process.
"Pin him down." He jerked his head at Naruto, picking up a particularly wet sponge as Sakura and Sasuke both snickered and happily complied. Naruto yelped, squirmed, kicked and struggled as best as he could, but he still ended up on the ground with a cackling Kakashi shoving a sponge in his face and rubbing it in nicely.
"Go get another one, Sakura, I've got him," Kakashi said, ignoring Naruto's mumbled protests and trashing around. She stood to do so, and found herself face to face with the landlady.
"Uh. Hello!" She smiled as brightly and politely as she could, moving to hide the boys from the woman; who crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.
A few minutes later, Team 7 found itself in front of Tsunade's desk looking sheepish (except for Sasuke, who was just looking rather annoyed as he always did) as she scolded them. But it wasn't without the hint of a smile.
After all, it was the way they worked.