Kakashi-Sensei was late, as usual.

Every since that mission to Waves, they had started meeting for lunch after every training session & mission. For 'team bonding', as Kakashi-Sensei would say. Even though where they ate from was supposed to differ depending on who's turn it was choose their eating venue, more often than not they would find themselves at Ichiraku Ramen. That's because 2 of the members of Team Kakashi tended to favor this place more than any other. There was Naruto, who's borderline terrifying obsession with ramen was highly renown throughout Konoha. Of course, him chosing to eat there was no surprise to anyone.

However, it was the other team member who's selection would raise questions.

It wasn't even that Kakashi would favor ramen was such a big deal. But the thing was, he didn't. He would often just sit next to his team, order miso flavored ramen and not eat any of it. He'd just watch his students bicker with an unreadable expression in his eye. Whenever they'd ask him if he was hungry, he'd just give them an eye smile, pet their heads and take out his beloved 'Icha Icha', which would lead to his aggravated students calling him a pervert and Naruto grabbing his ramen for himself ("Perverts don't deserve to eat something as great as ramen, ttebayo!") and effectively end their line of questioning until Kakashi randomly dissappears in a shunshin of leaves, leaving his students to deal with the bill. With Naruto's appetite, that was never a pleasant experience.

This time around, it was Kakashi's turn to choose where they were going to eat after their successful C-Rank, which of course led to him telling his students to meet at Ichiraku's in an hour while he gave the Sandaime their report. Naruto convinced his teammates to come 2 hours later, seeing as Kakashi-Sensei would probably just come late again, and his teammates couldn't deny his logic. However, it had already been an hour since their late arrival and there still wasn't any sign of their ever tardy instructor.

"Bah! Where's that pervert? I'm hungry, ttebayo!"

"Stop shouting Naruto Baka!" Sakura growled, in a bad mood because of Kakashi even though her inner self agreed with Naruto.

'Cha! Damned old man always making us wait for him!'

"But Sakura-chan! I'm hungry! And I'm tired of waiting for sensei. We should just order already!"

"Naruto, you know we can't start eating without everyone here, it's rude."

"Bastard doesn't even respect us, ttebayo! Serves him right, we should just start eating!"

"I don't know Naruto-" she began, until her stomach started growling.

Naruto jumped and pointed at her in a dramatic pose. "HA! See? You're also hungry! Let's just eat now and leave him, let him find us gone! That'll teach him to always keep us waiting for-OOMPH!"

Naruto was cut off mid rant by a fist to the back of his head, knocking him clear off the seat he was standing on. Sakura hovered over him, fuming.

"Baka! Don't draw attention to me like that!" she screeched with an embarrassed flush on her face, discreetly turning to Sasuke to gauge his reaction to her.

Naruto, obvious as ever, rubbed the back of his head in pain. "So mean, Sakura-chan! You know I'm right, I bet even the teme agrees with me, ttebayo!"

Sasuke, who for the most part had been ignoring his teammates, simply nodded in agreement to Sakura's surprise. "He's right. Kakashi never comes on time, and he always wastes ours. We may ad well eat quickly and be on our way, the sooner I get this over with the sooner I can go train."

Sakura felt slightly disappointed at Sasuke's lack of interest in spending time with them (her) outside of missions or training. But she was slowly becoming used to his aloofness. Naruto however, let out a satisfied shout.

"Yosh! That settles it! Time to eat! Yo, Teuchi-jiisan! Give us our regulars, ttebayo!"

Teuchi, came out from the kitchen, wiping a recently washed bowl with a cloth in his hand. "Finally ready to eat then? Good, I'll just tell Ayame to-hey, where's your sensei? I thought you kids always wait for him before you order?"

"Bah! We decided to eat without him. He's taking too long."

Teuchi chuckled. "Ah, I see. In that case, Ayame! Kakashi san's kids are here, give them the usual!"

"Hai, tou-chan!" came the reply from the kitchen.

Teuchi set the bowl down and eyed the three genin. "You kids look a little scruffy. Get back from a mission, did you?"

"HAI! We were AWESOME Teuchi-jiisan!. Of course I was the reason we succeeded, I had to save the teme's but, y'know! And-"

"Stop lying, usuratonkachi."

"Naruto Baka, you nearly cost us the mission."

"-the old man even told I did a great job, ttebayo!" Naruto continued rambling as if he never heard his teammates. Although, Teuchi thought in amusement, with his loud talking voice I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't.

"That's nice, Naruto." He simply responded. Naruto beamed at his perceived praise of his skills.

"Arigatou! I'm gonna be Hokage after all, I need to be the best!"

Teuchi smiled at Naruto's confidence in his dream. "Then I guess it's a good thing you have Kakashi-san as a teacher then"

All three students gave him what could only be described as cartoonish disbelief. Naruto, naturally, was the first to respond.

"What could a pervert like Kakashi-Sensei know about being Hokage?!"

Sasuke, surprisingly, was the next to respond. "The dobe is right. Kakashi's strong, but he's not even remotely Hokage material. He's always late, he's lazy and he's a serious pervert."

Teuchi shook his heads at the three kids. "All those things, he may be. But he's also the most intelligent and dangerous shinobi currently in the village, besides the Hokage. Plus, he was taught by the Fourth Hokage after all. He definitely knows a thing or two about the position."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Kakashi-Sensei was taught by the Fourth Hokage?"

"He was his favourite student, everyone knew that." Ayame said, popping up from behind the kitchen with 5 bowls of ramen (3 for Naruto) and setting the dishes in front of the three genin.

"Itadakimasu!" All three said in unison, before digging into their food.

"So, Ayame-nee." Naruto began, mouth full of noodles. "Was Kakashi-Sensei really the Fourth Hokage's favorite student?"

"Hai. They used to eat here all the time. Minato-san always used to get the miso flavored ramen. Kakashi-san never ate much, but Minato-san would always order different flavors for him as well." Ayame recalled, a nostalgic expression appearing on her face.

"But if Kakashi was so close to the Yondaime, why didn't he ever tell us about him? Or at least that he was trained by him."

"I'd imagine because they were so close, Sasuke-kun. After Yondaime died, Kakashi-san stopped coming here completely. He only started coming back after you three became his students, even started ordering the exact same meal Yondaime-Sama used to order. I suppose it's his way of remembering him."

The three members of Team Kakashi silently pondered on Ayame's words as they ate. It was hard to imagine their sensei as anything but a powerful, albeit lazy jonin. It never really occurred to then that he had once been their age, learning jutsu under a teacher of his own. And not just any teacher...THE legendary Yondaime! It was hard to imagine someone with Kakashi-Sensei's disposition learning under the greatest hero Konoha had produced, a man strong enough to defeat the strongest bijuu, let alone be his favourite student. But then again, it explained why Kakashi-Sensei was so powerful, and knew so many cool jutsus.

"Plus," Teuchi added. "the Yondaime was the favorite student of the Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya-Sama, who was a student of the Sandaime. Although his favourite was the traitor, Orochimaru." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, all the Hokage's came from that sensei-student line. The Nidaime & Shodaime did train the Sandaime after all. Heh, guess your Hokage dream is more realistic than you think, Naruto-kun"

"Hah! I knew it! Jiji knew I was the best, and made sure I'd be in the same line as all the Hokage, ttebayo!"

Naruto suddenly stopped rambling about him being the next Hokage. He scratched his chin, then spoke to his teammates

"So Jiji's favorite student was Orochi-whatever, and the Yondaime's favorite was Kakashi-Sensei..."

"What of it?" Sakura asked, not looking at him. Naruto whispered in a conspiratorly manner

"I wonder if Kakashi-Sensei has a favourite student."

The other two turned to look at him (How did he eat all that ramen so quickly?) as he smirked self-righteously. "I bet it's me, ttebayo! After all, I'm gonna be Hokage like his sensei was! I bet he knows I'm gonna be just as great as he was!"

"Idiot, who cares if he has one? Even if he does, it's definitely not you."

"Why not?!"

"You've never been anyone's favorite, ever. Plus you're the complete opposite of Kakashi. You're loud, energetic, weak and stupid. Why would someone like him favor you over me?"

"Bastard! Take that back! Of course sensei would prefer me to you, ttebayo! After all, I actually have a personality!"

"A completely detestable one, that's why none of the Academy teaching liked you."

"Iruka-Sensei likes me! Besides, who cares about those Baka teachers, none of them were taught by a Hokage! Hey! I thought you didn't care about Kakashi-Sensei's favorite student, why are you even arguing about it?!"

"I don't care," Sasuke huffed indignantly, "but I just think it's fairly obvious that a jonin of Kakashi's caliber would prefer his best student to the other deadwood."

"TEME! I'm gonna kick your ass! Then Kakashi-Sensei will see that I'm better than you, and-"

"BOTH OF YOU, SHUT UP!" the unnaturally high pitched sounds silenced the two rivals as the slowly turned to its source, a very irate Sakura. Both boys were shocked at the uncharacteristic scolding of them (usually, she just scolded Naruto) but Sakura was already irritated by Kakashi tardiness, coupled with Sasuke's callous dismissal of her abilities and their incessant arguing and she had reached her boiling point.

"You want to know the truth, neither of you could ever be his favourite student! And this whole moment," she gestured around at the two of them wildly, "is exactly why! You're both so competitive and immature! Naruto, all you do is yell at everything and everyone about how you're gonna be Hokage, but at the rate you're going you're never gonna become one! Ever since the Academy days, you never listened to anyone in authority, you always think with your fists instead of your head, and never do any reading at all! Being Hokage is more than just being strong. You have to be wise, intelligent and well learned! No one would ever vote for a Hokage who acts like an idiot and tries to fight with anyone who crosses him even remotely." She ignored Naruto's scandalized squak and turned on Sasuke. "And YOU! Why would ANYONE like some stuck-up, self-centered asshole who thinks he's better than everyone and has the personality of a cardboard! Just because you're the best in our year, doesn't make you a god!"

Sakura was breathing heavily after her rant, and took great satisfaction in the surprised express on the boys' face and the look of approval on Ayame's face as she walked back to the kitchen. It felt good to finally calls those two out on their crap. She was busy patting herself on the back, until she noticed the twin glares the two were sending at her.

"You're a fine one to criticize, Sakura."

"Yeah! What the bastard said, ttebayo!"

Sakura sweatdropped at how the one time these two got along was to gang up on her.

"All you ever do is rag on Naruto and act annoying around me. You never bother doing extra training, and you're deadwood on most missions. At least the dobe has his shadow clones, you're this team's biggest liability.

"EXACTLY, TTEBAYO! You're always so mean, Sakura-chan! All you care about is the bastard!"

Sakura's face blanched at the criticism, then she sighed.

I suppose they do have a point.

She was about to acknowledge the truth in their words before Sasuke's words stopped her.

"There's no way you'd be Kakashi's favourite."

"Asshole! I could be Kakashi's favourite! Even if I wasn't, this is a pointless argument."

"Bastard, she's right. It's pointless to argue."

"Thank you, Naruto. It's nice to see you finally use your-"

"Because I'm his favourite!"

Eventually, all three descended into a threeway argument about why they'd be Kakashi's favourite, until they were interrupted by a puff of smoke.

After their ensuing coughing fit passed, they noticed the familiar lazy slouch of the person in the middle of it. He waved one hand lazily, the other holding a brightly covered orange novel.

"Yo."

A beat of silence passed. Then, a unified screech was heard throughout Konoha.

"YOU'RE LATE!"

Kakashi had the decency to look embarrassed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Ah, well you see: I was delivering my verbal report to Sandaime-Sama, but then he blew a puff of smoke that was headed straight for the playground so I needed to save the children from the harmful fumes. But then, there were many more puffs that came from his office going to different people's houses so I had to protect them from-"

"LIAR!"

"Mah mah, no need to be so mean to your heroic sensei..."

"Baka sensei! We even came 2 hours late for you, and you still kept us waiting!"

All of a sudden, Kakashi's countenance turned serious. "You mean to tell me you three purposefully came 2 hours late to a designated meeting with your sensei?"

All three gaped at him disbelievingly. "WHAT!"

Kakashi tsked. "Insubordination. That's grounds for immediate expulsion." He pretended not to hear the indignanted yelps. "Fortunately for you, I'm a benevolent sensei. So let's just make tomorrow's training session one hour earlier than usual, hmm?"

"WHAT! No way! You're always late, why should we have to-"

"Usuratonkachi, he's right. Kakashi's our sensei, what he says goes. Stop complaining."

Naruto stared at Sasuke like he'd grown two heads, but Sakura gave him a knowing glare. Kakashi just gave him an eye smile and ruffled his hair.

"Nicely put, Sasuke-kun. Now since you were all so rude as to eat without me, I'm gonna have my meal now."

He sat down and found his usual order already in front of him. Suddenly, a few ryo notes were placed on the counter. He turned to find a contrite looking Sakura

"Sorry for coming late today sensei, and for not being as much help on the mission as I could have. Lunch is on me today."

Sasuke gave Sakura a side eye as Naruto finally caught on. All three gave each other competitive glares, knowing the race was on.

One way or another, they'd figure put once and for all who Kakashi's favorite was.