A/N: Hello everyone!

I know I probably shouldn't have started another multi-chaptered fic when I haven't gotten around to posting new chapters of 'The Pack', but I simply couldn't help myself with this one. After all, Team Yellow Flash needs more love, especially in the light of the latest Naruto-chapters. I am planning on writing five chapters of this ridiculous story, and sincerely hope you'll enjoy this little side-project of mine. Have a nice day~!

Prologue - Small oddities

When Kakashi arrived at the arranged meeting place, his teacher was already there.

Sitting on one of the wooden training-posts in the middle of the field, Minato-sensei was swinging his legs in an almost childish manner and continuously kicked the metal plate that was nailed to the training post in order to protect the sturdy wood from overzealous practisers of Tai-jutsu.

For a minute, Kakashi just stared. It was one thing that Minato-sensei had arrived before him, but it was another thing entirely that Minato-sensei looked seriously spaced-out.

Though it wasn't that odd for the blonde man to be a little flaky at times, Kakashi couldn't help but think something was a bit off about him.
He couldn't exactly pinpoint what would be wrong about Minato-sensei kicking his legs though; the man was prone to behaving child-like, so this was nothing out of the ordinary. Yet, Kakashi felt slightly uncomfortable.

With a shake of his head, he squashed his uneasy feeling, slightly exasperated with himself for feeling it in the first place.

Suddenly, Minato turned his head and looked at him, having sensed his arrival: "Kakashi!"
The blonde man was late noticing him, Kakashi realized – he should've picked up on Kakashi's chakra signature minutes ago, when he first arrived at the training grounds. The young shinobi's suspiciousness rose slightly.

Minato smiled brightly and waved at him in greeting, looking as cheerful as ever. The grey-haired chuunin just sighed and stepped out of the shadows to join his teacher in the middle of the training field. "Minato-sensei," he said gravely, "you're early."

His monotone comment did nothing to dim the sparkling of Minato's blue eyes, "You're early, too. You're always early, and that's why I decided to keep you company today! After all, what kind of teacher would I be if I let my precious students wait for me?"

Kakashi leaned against the wooden post his teacher was sitting on and looked up at the older man, his eyebrows raised in some kind of sardonic expression, "Ah. So you do have an ulterior motive."

Somewhere in the trees, a crow cawed.

Minato smiled down at him, "Not everybody has ulterior motives for everything, Kakashi. Sometimes, a little kindness can be given without being expected to be returned." He grinned brightly.

"That's what they all say." Kakashi replied with a shrug.

Before Kakashi could start lecturing the man about the One Hundred Shinobi Rules of Code and Conduct, Minato had started kicking the metal plate again, silently dismissing his student.
The observant child noted that the plate was already dented and was forced to conclude that Minato's feet had been swinging around for a while, most likely with excessive force. The steel had been replaced just last week, Kakashi knew, and the dent in the metal perfectly fit the outline of Minato's still moving heels.

For a moment, Kakashi wondered if Minato-sensei felt agitated about something. He furrowed his eyebrows into a familiar scowl, trying to figure out the mystery that was Minato Namikaze and his swinging legs.

So far, Minato seemed pretty normal. The man's exterior appearance seemed fine: hair messy and fair (as always), face clean and shaven (as always), some dirt underneath both fingernails and toes (as always), an additional but roughed up bandage around his knuckles (from early training, Kakashi figured), old jounin-vest with extra pockets (which was Minato's usual attire), the metal plate of the headband slightly rusted at the edges but still rather shiny (as always), Kakashi did not discern anything out of the ordinary.

He focussed on behavioural tics – Minato swinging his legs (small oddity), smiling (as always), faraway look on his face (small oddity), tapping fingers rhythmlessly (odd), not talking to him (odd), blinking too rapidly (odd), meditative breathing (small oddity).

Though some things didn't add up, Kakashi couldn't figure out just what was wrong with the man through observation.

After a few minutes, the kid inwardly shrugged, and started mentally assessing his surroundings, mapping out different strategies to trap the area in such a way it would be likely for Obito to fall for one.

He heard Minato sigh again. When he looked up, the blond was frowning at him, "Kakashi, leave Obito be. We can't have you guys fighting all the time, and it would be great if you would stop provoking him."

Oh, right.

Kakashi had totally forgotten about Minato's ability to see right through him. The man really did always know it when he was having even slightly sadistic thoughts.

Unlike Jiraiya-sama, Minato never had literally tried to beat his cruel (but practical!) tendencies out of him, so Kakashi plainly remarked, "If Obito would keep his temper in check and would be on time for once, I probably wouldn't feel the need to teach him a lesson concerning the consequences of being a late cry-baby idiot."

Minato's stern expression did cause Kakashi to bow his head; in hindsight Minato's disappointment was worse than being thrown off a cliff. The boy averted his eyes, a little ashamed, "He just needs to learn to control his emotions, you know that. It would benefit the team, and this way I get to practice installing different kind of traps, so we all get something out of it." Kakashi refused to admit he was being harsh on his often-obnoxious teammate.

Minato, knowing this was the best he was going to get from Kakashi, pinched the bridge of his nose. Being a teacher was tiresome, even on good days.

After a minute Kakashi spoke up again, "What will our mission be today, Minato-sensei?"

"I'll brief you when the others arrive, Kakashi."

"Okay."

They were silent. Kakashi looked at his nails, pondering. Minutes passed and he asked: "If Obito still hasn't arrived within fifteen minutes or so, can I trap the path near those two oaks?" Never mind that Rin still wasn't here either, Kakashi just wanted to do something already and Minato-sensei's leg-swinging was getting on his nerves.

Minato didn't answer, instead sporting an empty-minded look on his face, and Kakashi wasn't sure whether he'd been heard or not. After a while, the young shinobi considered waving a hand in front of Minato's eyes to see if his teacher was still with him.

Before Kakashi could ask Minato which fascinating universe he was visiting inside his head, Rin arrived. Kakashi decided to keep his mouth shut, opting for suspiciously narrowing his eyes and glancing at his teacher instead.

"Good morning, Minato-sensei, Kakashi." The brown-haired medic said.

Kakashi nodded at her and mumbled something that sounded a lot like: 'Goodtoseeyou.'

Rin's entire face seemed to light up, and Kakashi wondered just why she would smile at him like that; it always freaked him out a little and Obito would often glare at him for no obvious reason afterwards.
At first, he'd thought Rin smiled at him in that cheerful way of hers because she was making fun of him, but after a while, he found out that that certainly wasn't the case, and now he was a little at loss. He guessed she was just happy to see him, but she was happy to see Obito too, though she never smiled at Obito the same way she seemed to smile at him.

Stopping this particular confusing train of thoughts, Kakashi snapped his fingers to get Minato's attention. The man was still staring off into space – which was seriously something out of the ordinary, because the blond was the most perceptive man Kakashi had ever known in his short existence, and he'd basically grown up among legendary ninja.

The teacher blinked sheepishly when Kakashi literally snapped him out of his reverie. It took Minato a considerable amount of time before he acknowledged Team Yellow Flash's only female member, "Oh, good morning, Rin! I take it you've been resting well the last few days?"

Kakashi almost huffed at this; had Minato-sensei rested well was the bigger question at the moment. And he was still obnoxiously swinging his legs. 'Why is he doing that, geez?'

Rin nodded in reply and went to sit down in the grass next to Kakashi. She made a short-lived attempt at small talk to which the grey-haired boy replied with monotone single-syllabled words such as 'No.' and 'Hn.'

When Minato's foot hit the post with a sickening 'thud' – which caused the metal underneath his heels to actually crack - Rin raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. She looked at Kakashi with questioning eyes, realizing Minato-sensei was not being his usual bubbly self, and Kakashi subtly shrugged as he shook his head.

If sensei didn't share, they weren't to pry in his business.

Silence fell over them once again. Kakashi didn't voluntary use words, Minato-sensei was off in his own little world for whatever reason, and Rin was wondering just what was going on. It was uneasy. They waited for Obito to arrive.

In the end, Kakashi did put up some traps in the area surrounding the oak trees; Kakashi got Rin to help him string some wires (under the guise of having to practice individual skills together). She seemed happy at his offer and had watched in awe as he explained how to properly hide metal wires in the grass. As the grey-haired shinobi discreetly peered over at the blonde man atop a training post, he noted that Minato hadn't noticed his attempt at cleverly disguised disobedience at all.

The young student sighed quietly.

After an hour Obito finally arrived, tumbling straight over the wires Kakashi and Rin had strung to trip him.

Like a shark smelling blood, Kakashi was onto him. Insults, and the One Hundred Shinobi Rules of Code and Conduct left his his mouth easily. Usually the grey-haired boy had trouble voicing his thoughts, but when it came down to giving Obito a verbal smack down, there was no end to the possibilities. Kakashi planted down his foot on Obito's shoulder blades and shifted most of his weight onto his heel, which was conveniently positioned on the spine, to keep the other boy from getting up.
From this vantage point, he could give Obito the perfect condescending glare. He could see Obito's blood start boiling as the boy's face reddened, felt his teammate tense and coil underneath his foot, and he was sure the waterworks would start soon.

He felt slightly disgusted by the so-called elite Uchiha – riling the older boy up was just too easy. He'd really have to work on that. At telling Obito as much, the dark-haired kid really did start crying. All Kakashi could do was roll his eyes and comment on that too, "Twenty-Five, Obito. Don't forget Shinobi Rule number Twenty-five. Do you have tears for brains or something?"

Kakashi risked one glance at Rin and Minato-sensei. The medic was tense and thoroughly uncomfortable, wordlessly asking Kakashi to stop before Obito snapped. It was most likely she felt rather conflicted about having helped him setting up the traps that caused Obito's literal downfall, Kakashi concluded from Rin's near-constant fidgeting.

Obito needed to be less emotional and Rin less indecisive, Kakashi decided, and he made a mental not to work on that too.

Minato-sensei didn't even seem to have noticed the building tension.

After a while, the grey-haired boy slowly removed his foot from Obito's back, feeling slightly less peeved after having taken out his frustration on his older teammate. The Uchiha scrawled upright immediately, angry, embarrassed, shouting, "What the hell is wrong with you, you bastard!"

"Nothing is wrong with me, wimp. It's your temper that's off-balance. I'm helping you practice keeping it in check, even though you don't seem to be getting the point of Shinobi Rule number Twenty-five."

Obito wiped his eyes furiously in reply; "I can't help getting angry when you degrade me like this!" Kakashi raised an eyebrow. Obito continued heatedly, "And seriously – this was a low blow, even for you! And you're not helping at all! You're just being an arrogant jerk and you're not my teacher and not my superior and you're not helping at all-!"

"You said that already."

"- You're never of any help! And I don't want your help anyways! You're stupid, too – jerkface!" As Obito raged on, Kakashi's attention was diverted elsewhere. Minato-sensei hadn't called them out yet, nor shot them icy or hopeless looks for their un-teammately behaviour.

Kakashi glowered.

In Minato-sensei's stead, Rin had come over to stop the dispute between her teammates. Kakashi couldn't care any less until Rin tried to hold his hand, catching him off guard with the sudden physical contact. Kakashi glared at her and retracted his hand as if burnt by her touch.

"What has gotten into you?" The young medic asked him, "You're very prickly today." She seemed properly worried and met his glare head on. Her mouth curved disapprovingly – or was it worriedly? – and she grasped his hand again, not letting go this time. Kakashi looked away, the trees in the distance much more fascinating than brown eyes staring him down.

As if Rin's concern was a cue, Obito became worried too, "Is something wrong, Bakakashi?" The Uchiha was blinking way too rapidly, probably blinking away fresh tears; the dark-haired boy readjusted his goggles to cover it up. It didn't matter, Kakashi had noticed the liquid anyways, but for once he did not say anything about it. "I told you I'm fine." Kakashi grumbled, "But I know for sure that Minato-sensei isn't, now."

Rin bit her lip and Obito seemed confused, "Huh? What are ya saying exactly? This is a very lame excuse for being very cranky, and I know a lot about lame excuses… Though I've never made up excuses for being cranky… Hmmm…"

"Listen, something has been off about Minato-sensei this morning. I'm not sure what's up though, so I decided to stage this fight to draw him out: usually he would have broken up our fight before I would've gotten the very chance to dig one of my heels into your back, Obito. Minato-sensei didn't react – still hasn't reacted, actually – and therefore, something must be wrong. Very wrong." Kakashi finally said.

Rin nodded thoughtfully, "He does seem a little spaced out…"

Obito laughed and Kakashi glared at him. This wasn't a laughing matter. The young Uchiha grinned brightly, tightening the knot of his hitai-ate as he said, "For a moment, I thought you were truly out to humiliate me, Kakashi!"

"I am always out to humiliate you. Today, I just exaggerated a little, for the sake of our team." Kakashi considered laying a hand over his heart in a mock-gesture of kindness, but Rin was still holding it like a vice.

"Hey, that's- you mean-? You-!" Obito growled, realizing just what Kakashi'd said. He shook his fist menacingly. Rin grabbed his wrist, "Guys, stop it." and her words were final, though Kakashi did roll his eyes in exasperation. The medic changed her grip to hold Obito's hand and she stood in-between them like a referee.

They lapsed into a tense silence. Much to Kakashi's dismay, Obito started pouting. "So," The goggle-wearing kid said, "What are we going to do now?"

"I don't know." Kakashi plainly stated, "Now that we've confirmed that Minato-sensei's more flaky than usual, we'll probably just get our mission and never find out what's keeping him occupied. Unless we can come up with a plan to coax answers out of him, of course."

Obito hummed in thought, closing his eyes in concentration, trying to formulate a plan, "I can't think of anything though…" He purposely ignored Kakashi's judgemental sigh.

"Maybe we should just ask him?" Rin suggested as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Which it probably was.

Even so, Kakashi shook his head, "He won't answer. I mean, I haven't tried that yet, but it's not like he'll just tell us what's going on. He's a ninja, he's not supposed to do things straight-forwardly."

"We can try, Kakashi." Rin said with a slight smile, "After all, not everyone avoids answering questions like they are, uhm, supposed to do according to the Rules."

The grey-haired student sighed deeply, again, growing tired of his teammates' ignorance and apparent lack of common knowledge, "I happen to know that Minato-sensei has made an art of sidestepping unwanted questions – But by all means, go ahead and try. I'm sure he'll tell you all about his personal problems." Kakashi wrenched his hand from Rin's grip and crossed his arms in defiance.

Rin seemed a bit taken aback at his sarcastic remark, but Obito wasn't even listening anymore; halfway through Kakashi's story, he'd stopped paying attention to them and had started staring at their teacher, wondering what could be going on. He narrowed his eyes speculatively and carefully watched their teacher, much like Rin and Kakashi had attempted before him. And then he'd run off.

The goggle-wearing kid was already on the move. "Hey, sensei! What's wrong with you? You're spacey! What's wrong? What's wrong?"

Kakashi hung his head in defeat. Now, he would never get his answers. Rin sighed sympathetically, "At least he's trying…"
"Trying and failing miserably you mean." Never again would Kakashi reveal his thoughts to Obito. The guy was bound to screw up, seriously. (Far away, that crow was cawing – laughing! – at them).

Kakashi mentally prepared himself for the mission; it was going to be awful, he was sure of it. Rin laid a careful hand on his shoulder as he stoically rearranged his thoughts, and together they joined Obito, who was still violently questioning their teacher, who was – just as Kakashi predicted – dodging every single question aimed at him with the ease of a professional liar.

He still looked dazed though.

Kakashi didn't like it at all.